Table of Contents

The Present Truth, Vol. 19 (1903)

January 1, 1903

"A Happy New Year!" The Present Truth 19, 1.

"The Editor's Private Corner. The Unpardonable Sin" The Present Truth 19, 1.

"The Class. The Son Exalted Above the Angels" The Present Truth 19, 1.

TOPICS SUGGESTED BY THE TEXT

"Nature Studies for the Little Ones" The Present Truth 19, 1.

"Crystals" The Present Truth 19, 1.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 1.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 1.

"Man's Thought and God's Thought" The Present Truth 19, 1.

"'Much More'" The Present Truth 19, 1.

"The Power to Become Sons" The Present Truth 19, 1.

January 8, 1903

"The Editor's Private Corner. Infant Baptism" The Present Truth 19, 2.

"The Editor's Private Corner. Eating for Strength" The Present Truth 19, 2.

"The Class. The Kingdom and the Dominion. Heb. i. 8-12" The Present Truth 19, 2.

"Little Folks. The Passover" The Present Truth 19, 2.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 2.

"'Making the Most of Life'" The Present Truth 19, 2.

"The Rod of God" The Present Truth 19, 2.

"Falling to Rise Again" The Present Truth 19, 2.

January 15, 1903

"Walking in the Light" The Present Truth 19, 3.

"'He Hath Blinded Their Eyes'" The Present Truth 19, 3.

"The Editor's Private Corner. The Substance and the Sign" The Present Truth 19, 3.

"The Class. Man's Noble Servants" The Present Truth 19, 3.

TOPICS SUGGESTED BY THE TEXT

"'Ministering Spirits'" The Present Truth 19, 3.

"Little Folks. The Pillar of Cloud and Fire" The Present Truth 19, 3.

"A Cup of Cold Water" The Present Truth 19, 3.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 3.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 3.

"God's Faithfulness at Night" The Present Truth 19, 3.

"'The Just for the Unjust'" The Present Truth 19, 3.

January 22, 1903

"The Editor's Private Corner. 'Christians and Theatre-going'" The Present Truth 19, 4.

"The Editor's Private Corner. A Multitude of Captives" The Present Truth 19, 4.

"The Class. The Word of Salvation. Heb. ii. 1-7" The Present Truth 19, 4.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

TOPICS SUGGESTED BY THE TEXT

THE AUTHORITY FOR PREACHING THE WORD

WHY THE WORD OF SALVATION WAS NOT GIVEN TO THE ANGELS

"Little Folks. The Red Sea Divided" The Present Truth 19, 4.

"Little Folks" The Present Truth 19, 4.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 4.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 4.

"God's Name Glorified" The Present Truth 19, 4.

"Pensioners on God's Bounty" The Present Truth 19, 4.

"The Comfort of God's Face" The Present Truth 19, 4.

"The Healing Touch" The Present Truth 19, 4.

January 29, 1903

"Some of God's Faithful Servants" The Present Truth 19, 5.

"The Editor's Private Corner. Some Views of the 'Labour' Problem" The Present Truth 19, 5.

"The Class. Man's True Dominion. Heb. ii. 5-9" The Present Truth 19, 5.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

"Little Folks. The Manna" The Present Truth 19, 5.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 5.

"God's Judgments" The Present Truth 19, 5.

"'What is Truth?'" The Present Truth 19, 5.

February 5, 1903

"'Waters in the Wilderness'" The Present Truth 19, 6.

"The Editor's Private Corner. Christ the Sin Bearer" The Present Truth 19, 6.

"The Editor's Private Corner. Compassed with Infirmity" The Present Truth 19, 6.

"The Class. Man's True Dominion (Concluded)" The Present Truth 19, 6.

"Little Folks. Water from the Rock" The Present Truth 19, 6.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 6.

"Deep Things and Hard to Be Understood" The Present Truth 19, 6.

"Bread and Wine" The Present Truth 19, 6.

"The Christian's Strength" The Present Truth 19, 6.

February 12, 1903

"The Return from the Enemy's Land" The Present Truth 19, 7.

"'To Live Is Christ'" The Present Truth 19, 7.

"Seeking for Truth" The Present Truth 19, 7.

"The Editor's Private Corner. 'Take Heed'" The Present Truth 19, 7.

"The Editor's Private Corner. Death and Judgment" The Present Truth 19, 7.

"The Class. 'One God and Father of All.' Heb. ii. 10-13" The Present Truth 19, 7.

TOPICS FOR STUDY

"Our Little Ones. The Victory over Amalek" The Present Truth 19, 7.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 7.

"Trying to Believe" The Present Truth 19, 7.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 7.

"Foolishness of Unbelief" The Present Truth 19, 7.

February 19, 1903

"The Editor's Private Corner. Not Compulsion; but Persuasion" The Present Truth 19, 8.

RECLAMATION, NOT DENUNCIATION

"The Editor's Private Corner. The Earth's Future" The Present Truth 19, 8.

PROMISE OF RESTORATION

RESURRECTION AND TRANSLATION OF THE RIGHTEOUS

THE WICKED DESTROYED

THE BRIGHTNESS OF HIS COMING

THE BINDING OF SATAN

THE BOTTOMLESS PIT

EFFECTS OF SATAN'S RULE

THE LOOSING OF SATAN

PLOTTING OF THE WICKED AGAINST THE JUST

A STRONG CITY

"The Class. Deliverance from Sin and Death" The Present Truth 19, 8.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

TOPICS FOR STUDY

"Little Folks. The Giving of the Law" The Present Truth 19, 8.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 8.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 8.

"'The Baptism of John, and the Baptism of Jesus'" The Present Truth 19, 8.

February 26, 1903

"'The Power that Worketh in Us'" The Present Truth 19, 9.

"The Editor's Private Corner. What to Do with Offenders" The Present Truth 19, 9.

"BEARING ONE ANOTHER'S BURDENS"

WHAT IS THE CHURCH?

THE CHURCH NOT A LAW-MAKING BODY

THE CHURCH'S AUTHORITY

"The Class. The House of the Lord" The Present Truth 19, 9.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY

"Our Little Ones. Worshipping the Golden Calf" The Present Truth 19, 9.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 9.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 9.

"The Power of the Name of Jesus" The Present Truth 19, 9.

March 5, 1903

"The Editor's Private Corner. The Dispensation of Grace" The Present Truth 19, 10.

"The Class. Temple, Priest, and Preacher. Heb. iii. 1-6" The Present Truth 19, 10.

THE PREACHER

THE PRIEST

THE TEMPLE

ALL THREE COMBINED IN ONE

"Little Folks. The Tabernacle" The Present Truth 19, 10.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 10.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 10.

"A Trade Union Mob" The Present Truth 19, 10.

March 12, 1903

"Faith and Hope Are Not Uncertainty" The Present Truth 19, 11.

"The Class. God's Work and Ways. Heb. iii. 7-12" The Present Truth 19, 11.

QUESTIONS TO EMPHASISE THE TEXT

SUGGESTIVE TOPICS FOR STUDY

"The Editor's Private Corner. 'Risen with Christ'" The Present Truth 19, 11.

"The Editor's Private Corner. Who Changed the Sabbath?" The Present Truth 19, 11.

"Our Little Ones. The Tabernacle" The Present Truth 19, 11.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 11.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 11.

"'The Exceeding Riches of His Grace'" The Present Truth 19, 11.

March 19, 1903

"The Editor's Private Corner. 'What Shall the End Be'" The Present Truth 19, 12.

DIVINE LOVE

JUST JUDGMENT

JUDGMENT COMMITTED TO MAN

EVERLASTING DESTRUCTION

THE EFFECT OF EVERLASTING FIRE

THE CONSUMING FIRE

THE PHILOSOPHY OF PUNISHMENT

RIGHTEOUSNESS ESSENTIAL TO LIFE

THE SCIENCE OF SALVATION

THE FATE OF THE WICKED

A CLEAN UNIVERSE

"The Bible Class. 'Saved by Hope'" The Present Truth 19, 12.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 12.

"Blind Watchmen" The Present Truth 19, 12.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 12.

March 26, 1903

"The Flock of God" The Present Truth 19, 13.

"The Editor's Private Corner. One Book" The Present Truth 19, 13.

LESSONS FROM THE FLOOD

"The Bible Class. Lost through Unbelief" The Present Truth 19, 13.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

"Illiteracy" The Present Truth 19, 13.

"Is Jesus Real" The Present Truth 19, 13.

"For Little Ones. The Twelve Spies" The Present Truth 19, 13.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 13.

"Fading Glory" The Present Truth 19, 13.

"'Doctrines of Devils'" The Present Truth 19, 13.

"Our Daily Bread" The Present Truth 19, 13.

"Meat that Ye Know Not Of" The Present Truth 19, 13.

"They Are Bread for Us" The Present Truth 19, 13.

"Meat from the Eater" The Present Truth 19, 13.

April 2, 1903

"The Resurrection. (1 Cor. xv. 20, 21, 50-58)" The Present Truth 19, 14.

"The Sabbath Unchanged" The Present Truth 19, 14.

"The Bible Class. The Promise Left Us. Heb. iv. 1, 2" The Present Truth 19, 14.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY

THE GOSPEL FOR THE LABOURING MAN

"The Editor's Private Corner. 'The Age of Miracles'" The Present Truth 19, 14.

WHAT IS A MIRACLE?

THE PERFECT RULE OF LAW

"For Little Ones. Healing the Serpent's Bite" The Present Truth 19, 14.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 14.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 14.

"God's Repentance" The Present Truth 19, 14.

"The Editor's Private Corner. 'How Can I Tell?'" The Present Truth 19, 14.

THE SOURCE OF AUTHORITY

IN THE BEGINNING

IN THE WILDERNESS

AT SINAI

A DEFINITE DAY

THE SABBATH UNCHANGED

THE DAY NOT LOST

THE EXAMPLE OF CHRIST

THE TESTIMONY OF THE SPIRIT

A NEW CREATION

April 9, 1903

"The Bible Class. The Promise Left Us. Heb. iv. 1, 2" The Present Truth 19, 15.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY

"For Little Ones. The Death of Moses" The Present Truth 19, 15.

"The Law of Love. Rom. xiii. 7-14" The Present Truth 19, 15.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 15.

"Easter" The Present Truth 19, 15.

"'The Curse of Central Africa'" The Present Truth 19, 15.

April 16, 1903

"Paul's Journey to Jerusalem. Acts xxi. 3-12" The Present Truth 19, 16.

THE GIFT OF PROPHECY

"The Editor's Private Corner. The Prayer of Faith to Save the Sick" The Present Truth 19, 16.

POWER THAT HEALS

THE WILL OF GOD

LAW AND PRAYER

"The Bible Class. Man's Inheritance Restored. Heb. iv. 3-5" The Present Truth 19, 16.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY

"Children's Page. The Name of God" The Present Truth 19, 16.

"A Destructive Army" The Present Truth 19, 16.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 16.

"Ancient Counterfeits" The Present Truth 19, 16.

"'Be of Good Cheer'" The Present Truth 19, 16.

"The Habits of Our Forefathers" The Present Truth 19, 16.

"The Rulers of the Darkness" The Present Truth 19, 16.

April 23, 1903

"The Editor's Private Corner. How to Keep the Sabbath" The Present Truth 19, 17.

"The Editor's Private Corner. Baptized for the Dead" The Present Truth 19, 17.

"The Bible Class. God's Rest. Heb. iv. 3-5" The Present Truth 19, 17.

"For the Children. Raining Flowers" The Present Truth 19, 17.

"Easy Steps for Little Feet" The Present Truth 19, 17.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 17.

"An Angry Mob Quelled. Acts xxi. 30-39" The Present Truth 19, 17.

April 30, 1903

"The Plot Against Paul. Acts xxiii. 12-22" The Present Truth 19, 18.

DIVIDED AGAINST THEMSELVES

A RASH VOW AND ITS RESULT

SWEARING TO THEIR OWN DESTRUCTION

A HARVEST OF BLOODSHED

GOD'S SERVANTS INVULNERABLE

"The Editor's Private Corner. Familiar Spirits and Modern Spiritualism" The Present Truth 19, 18.

WHAT IS A FAMILIAR SPIRIT?

THE SIN OF WITCHCRAFT

THE ROOT OF THE MATTER

"A Wise Man" The Present Truth 19, 18.

"The Bible Class. The Accepted Time. Heb. iv. 6-11" The Present Truth 19, 18.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY

"Easy Steps for Little Feet" The Present Truth 19, 18.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 18.

"Cured Through Exercise" The Present Truth 19, 18.

"Fulness of Joy" The Present Truth 19, 18.

"'The Morning Cometh, and also the Night'" The Present Truth 19, 18.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 18.

May 7, 1903

"Paul Before Felix. Acts xxiv. 10-16, 24-26" The Present Truth 19, 19.

THE SPIRIT'S TESTIMONY

PAUL'S "HERESY"

ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE LAW

THE SURE WORD OF PROPHECY

DENYING THE RESURRECTION

THE TERRORS OF THE GOSPEL

THE CAUSE OF ROME'S FALL

"The Editor's Private Corner. 'As He walked'" The Present Truth 19, 19.

"NOT UNDER THE LAW"

FULFILLING THE LAW

CHRIST'S LIFE IN US

"The Bible Class. The Rest that Remains. Heb. iv. 6-11" The Present Truth 19, 19.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY

"Easy Steps for Little Feet" The Present Truth 19, 19.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 19.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 19.

"Strikes" The Present Truth 19, 19.

"The Wisdom of the Lord" The Present Truth 19, 19.

May 14, 1903

"An Ambassador in Bonds. Acts xxvi. 19-29" The Present Truth 19, 20.

"The Editor's Private Corner. Letter and Spirit" The Present Truth 19, 20.

A NEW MAN

THE LAW IS NOT DEAD

UNLIKE HUMAN LAW

"THE LAW IS LIFE"

"Please Harmonise" The Present Truth 19, 20.

"The Bible Class. The Life of the Word. Heb. iv. 12, 13" The Present Truth 19, 20.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY

"For the Children. About Birds" The Present Truth 19, 20.

"Easy Steps for Little Feet" The Present Truth 19, 20.

"Science and Religion" The Present Truth 19, 20.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 20.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 20.

"Prayers for the Dead and Sunday Observance" The Present Truth 19, 20.

May 21, 1903

"The Life-giving Spirit. Rom. viii. 1-14" The Present Truth 19, 21.

"Planted by the Waters" The Present Truth 19, 21.

"The Editor's Private Corner. The Kingdom of Christ" The Present Truth 19, 21.

"COMING IN HIS KINGDOM"

CHRIST'S AMBASSADORS

"The Bible Class. Our Confession of Faith. Heb. iv. 14-16" The Present Truth 19, 21.

"Easy Steps for Little Feet" The Present Truth 19, 21.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 21.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 21.

"One Voice" The Present Truth 19, 21.

"'Things to Come'" The Present Truth 19, 21.

"Thy Strength" The Present Truth 19, 21.

May 28, 1903

"The Editor's Private Corner. 'A Gloomy Doctrine'" The Present Truth 19, 22.

"The Bible Class. A Compassionate Priest. Heb. v. 1-6" The Present Truth 19, 22.

QUESTIONS TO EMPHASISE THE TEXT

"Easy Steps for Little Feet" The Present Truth 19, 22.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 22.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 22.

"They Wanted to Be Sure" The Present Truth 19, 22.

June 4, 1903

"The Editor's Private Corner. Authority for the Sabbath" The Present Truth 19, 23.

THE DEFINITE SABBATH DAY

CUSTOM

"The Bible Class. The Call to the Priesthood. Heb. v. 1-6" The Present Truth 19, 23.

"A Lesson from a Mushroom" The Present Truth 19, 23.

"The Morning Plunge" The Present Truth 19, 23.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 23.

June 11, 1903

"Sight Restored" The Present Truth 19, 24.

"The Editor's Private Corner. The Best Life Insurance" The Present Truth 19, 24.

"The Bible Class. Called of God. Heb. v. 4-6" The Present Truth 19, 24.

"Easy Steps for Little Feet" The Present Truth 19, 24.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 24.

"The Living Word. 2 Tim. iii. 14; iv. 8" The Present Truth 19, 24.

June 18, 1903

"What Is the Papacy?" The Present Truth 19, 25.

"The Editor's Private Corner. The Sabbath of the Lord" The Present Truth 19, 25.

CHRISTIANITY AND HEATHENISM

DEATH DOES NOT END ALL

"The Bible Class. Christ's Prayers and Tears. Heb. v. 7" The Present Truth 19, 25.

CHRIST PRAYED ON EARTH

WHY DID HE PRAY?

HEARD AND DELIVERED

DELIVERED FROM SIN AND DEATH

BRUISED FOR OUR INIQUITIES

MAKING INTERCESSION FOR THE SAINTS

WHY WAS JESUS HEARD?

"The Home. Moral Manhood" The Present Truth 19, 25.

"Easy Steps for Little Feet" The Present Truth 19, 25.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 25.

"An Important Event" The Present Truth 19, 25.

June 25, 1903

"'At the Feet of Jesus'" The Present Truth 19, 26.

"The Editor's Private Corner. The One Thing Needful" The Present Truth 19, 26.

"The Editor's Private Corner. An Incorruptible Sacrifice" The Present Truth 19, 26.

"The Bible Class. Learning Obedience Through Suffering. Heb. v. 8-14" The Present Truth 19, 26.

"The Sacredness of Service" The Present Truth 19, 26.

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 26.

"How Does the Chicken Know?" The Present Truth 19, 26.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 26.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 26.

"The Word that Watches and Teaches" The Present Truth 19, 26.

"Christian Warfare" The Present Truth 19, 26.

"'Hold Ye Your Peace'" The Present Truth 19, 26.

"Editor's Private Corner" The Present Truth 19, 26.

July 2, 1903

"The Editor's Private Corner. Anarchy Against Christianity" The Present Truth 19, 27.

"The Editor's Private Corner. 'Three Days' and 'The Third Day'" The Present Truth 19, 27.

"The Bible Class. Going on to Perfection. Heb. vi. 1-3" The Present Truth 19, 27.

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 27.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 27.

"The Resurrection and the Life. John xi. 32-46" The Present Truth 19, 27.

July 9, 1903

"The God of the Waters" The Present Truth 19, 28.

"The Editor's Private Corner. Souls Calling for Vengeance" The Present Truth 19, 28.

"The Bible Class. An Irretrievable Fall. Heb. vi. 4-8" The Present Truth 19, 28.

QUESTIONS CALLING SPECIAL ATTENTION TO THE TEXT

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 28.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 28.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 28.

"'Come; for All Things Are Now Ready.' Luke xiv. 15-24" The Present Truth 19, 28.

July 16, 1903

"The Editor's Private Corner. The Lord's Day" The Present Truth 19, 29.

"The Bible Class. God Striving for Man. Heb. vi. 4-8" The Present Truth 19, 29.

"Easy Steps for Little Feet" The Present Truth 19, 29.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 29.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 29.

"Eternal Life Given to All" The Present Truth 19, 29.

"A Preparatory Course" The Present Truth 19, 29.

"Sin and suffering Momentary; Righteousness and Glory Eternal" The Present Truth 19, 29.

July 23, 1903

"The Editor's Private Corner. 'What Do You Believe?'" The Present Truth 19, 30.

"The Bible Class. Our Strong Consolation" The Present Truth 19, 30.

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 30.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 30.

"Undeveloped Teachers" The Present Truth 19, 30.

"'He Obtained the Promise'" The Present Truth 19, 30.

"Only a Voice" The Present Truth 19, 30.

July 30, 1903

"The Editor's Private Corner. Do You Believe? (Continued.)" The Present Truth 19, 31.

THE TRINITY

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

THE BIBLE GOD'S WORD

EVOLUTION

SALVATION FROM SIN AND DEATH

"The Bible Class. The Order of Melchisedek" The Present Truth 19, 31.

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 31.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 31.

"In the Secret Place" The Present Truth 19, 31.

"Reading and Running" The Present Truth 19, 31.

"Grace Abounding" The Present Truth 19, 31.

August 6, 1903

"The Editor's Private Corner. What Shall Be the End of the Ungodly?" The Present Truth 19, 32.

"The Bible Class. A Greater than Abraham. Heb. vii. 5-16" The Present Truth 19, 32.

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 32.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 32.

"The Place of Force in Government" The Present Truth 19, 32.

"God's Way Versus Man's Way" The Present Truth 19, 32.

"Gospel Finance" The Present Truth 19, 32.

August 13, 1903

"Bruised and Healed" The Present Truth 19, 33.

"The Editor's Private Corner. Some Phases of the Sabbath Question" The Present Truth 19, 33.

THE "DISPENSATION" AND THE REIGN OF GRACE

"The Bible Class. Strength Out of Weakness. Heb. vii. 14-19" The Present Truth 19, 33.

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 33.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 33.

"Kings and Priests of Righteousness" The Present Truth 19, 33.

"The Light of Life" The Present Truth 19, 33.

"Papal Progress" The Present Truth 19, 33.

August 20, 1903

"Adam's First Lesson" The Present Truth 19, 34.

"The Editor's Private Corner. 'For Ever and Ever'" The Present Truth 19, 34.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 34.

"How We Live" The Present Truth 19, 34.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 34.

August 27, 1903

"Rejoicing in the Lord" The Present Truth 19, 35.

"Signs of the Times" The Present Truth 19, 35.

"True Greatness" The Present Truth 19, 35.

"Noah Preaching the Gospel" The Present Truth 19, 35.

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 35.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 35.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 35.

September 3, 1903

"Heavenly Fire" The Present Truth 19, 36.

"Alpha and Omega" The Present Truth 19, 36.

"The Object of the Church" The Present Truth 19, 36.

"A Witness to All Nations. The Everlasting Gospel" The Present Truth 19, 36.

PERSONAL TESTIMONY

ANGEL WORKERS

A PURE GOSPEL

GOD OR MAN?

WHAT GOD CLAIMS

CALLED BY NAME

A MEANS OF BLESSING

CREATION IN THE GOSPEL

THE STANDARD UPLIFTED

THE GOSPEL SABBATH

"The Religion of Christ" The Present Truth 19, 36.

"Children's Corner. The First Boys" The Present Truth 19, 36.

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 36.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 36.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 36.

September 10, 1903

"Nonconformists" The Present Truth 19, 37.

"The Editor's Private Corner. Predestination" The Present Truth 19, 37.

"ONCE IN GRACE, ALWAYS IN GRACE"

"'Broken Cisterns'" The Present Truth 19, 37.

"A Witness to All Nations. The Hour of Judgment" The Present Truth 19, 37.

NO SECRET FROM MEN

THE JUDGE A MAN

THE DIVINE STANDARD

THE JUDGMENT IS GLAD TIDINGS

DENIED BY CHRIST

THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL

CHRIST JUDGED BY MEN

VINDICATING THE SAVIOUR

"The Children. The Two Ways" The Present Truth 19, 37.

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 37.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 37.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 37.

"A Way of Escape for Sinners" The Present Truth 19, 37.

September 17, 1903

"The Time of Reaping" The Present Truth 19, 38.

"The Editor's Private Corner. Learning Righteousness" The Present Truth 19, 38.

"A Witness to All Nations. The Judgment of the Wicked" The Present Truth 19, 38.

JUDGING ANGELS

MERCIFUL JUDGES

NO JUDGING NOW

A PERSONAL INTERVIEW

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 38.

"More than a Hundred Times" The Present Truth 19, 38.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 38.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 38.

September 24, 1903

"The Little Child" The Present Truth 19, 39.

"The Great Deception" The Present Truth 19, 39.

"A Witness to All Nations. Babylon Is Fallen" The Present Truth 19, 39.

"The Editor's Private Corner. Christ and Vegetarianism" The Present Truth 19, 39.

"The Children. The Child of Promise" The Present Truth 19, 39.

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 39.

"Jottings" The Present Truth 19, 39.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 39.

October 1, 1903

"Light for the Blind. John xii. 37-50" The Present Truth 19, 40.

"A Witness to All Nations. The Beast and His Mark" The Present Truth 19, 40.

"The Editor's Private Corner. The Last Generation" The Present Truth 19, 40.

"Children's Corner. A Selfish Brother" The Present Truth 19, 40.

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 40.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 40.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 40.

October 8, 1903

"Christ's Prayer for His Disciples. John xvii. 9-3" The Present Truth 19, 41.

"The Editor's Private Corner. The Seventh of Romans" The Present Truth 19, 41.

"A Witness to All Nations. Worshipping the Beast" The Present Truth 19, 41.

A DESOLATE EARTH

LYING SPIRITS

STRONG DELUSION

"Children's Page. A Ladder Up to Heaven" The Present Truth 19, 41.

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 41.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 41.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 41.

Footnotes

The Present Truth, Vol. 19 (1903)

January 1, 1903

"A Happy New Year!" The Present Truth 19, 1.

E. J. Waggoner

This wish will to-day be uttered by hundreds of thousands of voices; and though the well-known words often come to the lips as a matter of mere custom, without any thought, it is from the heart that we here wish the thousands of PRESENT TRUTH readers a Happy New Year. We have seen the faces of but few of them, but our unseen congregation seems very near to no each week as we write. With some of them we have had most precious personal correspondence, and for all we feel a personal interest, and we would that they might be happy indeed.

There is no reason why this wish may not be fulfilled for every reader. It is the knowledge of the fact that we have a message for the people which brings joy wherever it is received, that makes us confident that it is no vain wish that we express. "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life; (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you that your joy may be full."

The Bible is emphatically the book of happiness. It should be known by every reader that the word "blessed," so often found in the Scriptures, means "happy." The Bible is the blessed Book which presents the way of happiness. It shall be our purpose throughout the year to keep this way of true and everlasting happiness constantly before the readers, and even then we can by no means exhaust the theme. In order that our wish for a Happy New Year may be practical, we shall begin now to present a few items that go to make up the "fulness of joy" that is the portion of those who live in God's presence.

We begin with Prov. iii. 13-18; "Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies; and all the things that thou canst desire are not to be compared with her. Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold on her; and happy is every one that retaineth her."

A long life full of everything that the heart can desire sums up almost everybody's idea of perfect happiness; and here we find it, and more. Life that has no end, and pleasures and riches far beyond all that the heart can desire, are the portion of those who get and retain wisdom from God. And what is this wisdom?-"Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding." Job xxviii. 28.

Remembering that Blessed is happy, we read further. "Happy is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night." Ps. i. 1, 2. Yes, happy is the man whose meditation shows him something of the magnitude of God's holy law. Such an one will never work against his own interest by seeking to depreciate that on which his eternal happiness depends.

Again, "Happy is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Happy is the man unto whom the Lord will not impute sin." Ps. xxxii. 1, 2. This happiness is as free for all as God's air. His name is forgiveness, and His wondrous works declare that His name is near. They that know His name will trust in Him, and we read: "Happy are all they that put their trust in Him." Ps. ii. 12. "Happy is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is." Jer. xvii. 7.

The world is full of weary and worn-out men and women, who think that life has no pleasure; many of them foolishly think to find happiness, or at least rest from unhappiness, in death. Our message is full of assurance for all such. Life, not death is happiness. The Lord gives rest to all who come, to Him; for His presence is rest. Ex. xxxiii. 14. As the token of this blessed rest, He gives us His Sabbath day, which is His memorial, revealing Him, He says: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable, and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor speaking thine own words; than shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." lsa. Iviii. 13, 14. Here is happiness without limit.

Lastly, for the present, this same Lord, whose presence gives rest, and who fills believers with "all joy and peace,"-"joy unspeakable and full of glory," even when unseen, is coming again very soon, that His believing, trusting ones may be with Him, and see His face. This is the glad message which will make a happy year, and every day of it new, for all who receive it. Therefore "Sing unto the Lord a new song; sing unto the Lord all the earth; sing unto the Lord, bless His name; show forth His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the heathen, His wonders among all people. . . . Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein; then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord; FOR HE COMETH, for He cometh to judge the earth; He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His truth." w.

"The Editor's Private Corner. The Unpardonable Sin" The Present Truth 19, 1.

E. J. Waggoner

"As a constant reader of four splendid paper, PRESENT TRUTH, I find in the issue of Nov. 20, reference made to sin against the Holy Spirit. You have thrown light through your columns on many different passages in the Word of God; and as this question of sin against the Holy Spirit has caused me great anxiety, as I am sure it has thousands of others, I shall feel most grateful if, as soon as your space will permit, you will give this subject a careful explanation, as far as the Spirit has shown you the truth. This subject seems wrapped in mystery. I have heard people swear by the Holy Ghost; would this be the sin to which are attached such awful consequences? An early reply through your 'Private Corner' will bring light and comfort to thousands of hearts."

It is not at all to be wondered at that the question, What is the sin against the Holy Spirit? has caused many people much anxiety; for Jesus said: "All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come." Matt. xii. 31, 32. I well remember how I trembled when I read this passage as a boy and young man, fearing lest I had unconsciously committed the sin that never could be pardoned; and during my ministry of the Gospel I have met very many people who were firmly convinced that they had sinned beyond the hope of pardon, and who could scarcely be persuaded to the contrary. One of my most precious treasures is the knowledge, conveyed to me some time after the event, that a man who was in despair over the thought that he had committed the unpardonable sin, and was about to commit suicide, was turned from his fearful purpose, and restored to a joyful faith in Christ, through what the world would call a "chance" reading of an article that I had written on the subject. So I know that it is a most practical question for consideration.

People often get the idea that the unpardonable sin is simply an exceedingly great sin, that is, that it differs from ordinary sins only in degree, or that it is a vast accumulation of sins. It is no uncommon thing to a hear person say, "I am so groat a sinner that the Lord can never pardon me." Now that this is not so, is made ery plain in the same text that tells us about the unpardonable sin. "All manner, of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men." And it matters not that the sin is great; for "the law entereth that the offence might abound; but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." Rom. v. 20. "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Isa. i. 18. There is no such thing as great and small, difficult and easy, with the infinite God. He creates by His Word, and it is just as easy for Him to speak a universe into existence as to create a single blade of grass, or a single grain of sand. It is by the same Word of life that He forgives; and it is just as easy for Him, since He is love itself, to speak pardon to the hardened sinner of fourscore as to forgive the child who has taken his first step in the broad way.

Since the sin against the Holy Spirit is the only one that has no pardon, wherever we find mention of any sin from which there is no salvation, we shall know that it is the same one. Now there are a few other texts besides the one already quoted, which speak of such a thing, and they help to a better understanding of the subject.

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These texts are all in Hebrews, and we will read them together. The first is this:-

"It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame." Heb. vi. 4-6.

This should be compared with some verses in chapter 10. After speaking of the "new and living way" which Christ has consecrated for us through the veil as a reason why we should "draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith," the Apostle continues:-

"Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; . . . for if we sin wilfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and of fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses; of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall ye be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Spirit of God, and ha0h counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite to the Spirit of grace?" Verses 23-29.

If you lay all these texts side by aide, and consider them carefully, you will see that the one thing which they all mention in common,-the sum, indeed, of them all,-is the wilful, deliberate rejection of the means of salvation. Turn back to Matthew, and read the verses in the twelfth chapter, which immediately precede the statement concerning the sin against the Holy Spirit. We see that they contain an account of the attitude of the Pharisees toward the work of Jesus. They said that His miracles were wrought by the aid of the prince of the devils; but we know that they were by the power of the Spirit, as He Himself said. Luke iv. 18. This leads to the thought that the unpardonable sin is the utter rejection of Christ's work, and the placing of the Holy Spirit on the same plane as the devil. That is to say, All manner of sin may be pardoned, except the sin of rejecting and treating with contempt the only means of pardon and salvation.

This is corroborated by the statement in Heb. ix. 14, that Christ "through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God" to "purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God." The eternal Spirit is that which fills the universe, upholding all things, and filling all with life. Now if this universal Spirit is treated contemptuously, there can be no hope of pardon, seeing that the source of all power is rejected. Thus we are exhorted, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." Eph. iv. 30.

In short, all sin may be pardoned, except the rejection of pardon. And this rejection must be with purpose. Nobody does it unconsciously. It is impossible for a man to commit the sin against the Holy Spirit, and still to be in doubt about it. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean that the one who has committed the unpardonable sin will necessarily know that he has done so; on the contrary, he will most likely be utterly indifferent, hardened, and having no conscience of sin. He will have lost the power to distinguish between good and evil; for he has virtually said, with Satan,

"Evil, be thou my good,"

and will very often not fear hell any more than he longs for heaven. But it may be set down as a certainty that whoever is in doubt whether he has committed the unpardonable sin or not, and is troubled over his sins, has not sinned beyond the hope of pardon. There is hope as long as one is willing to be saved.

What a wonderful salvation! How long-suffering and patient and kind and forgiving God is! Though one sin against Him seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again, saying, "I repent," He freely forgives. Though our sins are more in number than the hairs of our head, He will forgive them all. "Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger for ever, because He delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." Micah vii. 18, 19.

"The Class. The Son Exalted Above the Angels" The Present Truth 19, 1.

E. J. Waggoner

"Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, being made so much better than the angels, as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels said He at any time. Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee? And again, I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son? And again, when He bringeth in the First-begotten into the world, He saith, And let all the angels of God worship Him. And of the angels He saith, Who maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire." Heb. i. 3-7.

1. What has God done in Christ? Heb. i. 2, 3.

2. What place does Christ occupy?

3. Above whom is He placed? Heb. i. 4; Eph. i. 20-22; 1 Peter iii. 22.

4. Why has the Son become so much better than the angels? Heb. i. 4.

5. What has God said to the Son, that He has not said to any of the angels?

6. What has God again said of the relationship between Christ and Himself?

7. What did He say in bringing the First-begotten into the world?

8. What does God say of the angels?

9. But what greater thing does He say to the Son?

10. By what title to the Son addressed by God?

11. How long is His a dominion to endure?

12. What is the sceptre of His kingdom?

13. What has the Son loved? and what has He hated?

14. What has God therefore done to Him?

15. With what has God anointed Him?

16. Why has He received this anointing?

17. Since the sceptre of Christ's kingdom is righteousness, and He is anointed with the oil of gladness, what must be the nature of His kingdom? See Rom. xiv. 17.

18. What then must be the characteristics of the subjects of His kingdom?

TOPICS SUGGESTED BY THE TEXT

1. By Himself, by His own life, Christ has purged sins,-"made purification for sins,"-not of ours only, but also of the sins of the whole world. See 1 John ii. 2. The power that made the worlds, and that still upholds them, is the power that takes away sin; and the continued existence of the heaven and the earth is the assurance that in the life of Christ we have redemption. He has loosed us, and all mankind, from sin, by His own life (Rev. i. 5, R.V.), and has come in the fulness of the Spirit of God, proclaiming liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Isa. lxi 1. On the cross He proclaimed to heaven and earth, "It is finished." John xx. 30. To

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each soul He cries: "Shake thyself from the dust; arise and sit down; loose thyself from the bands of thy neck." Isa. Iii. 2. He has loosed our bonds (Ps. cxvi 16), and opened our prison doors, so that we have only to shake ourselves loose, and walk forth free. No one need be a captive, a bondservant of sin, for a minute, unless he chooses to. God says; "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins; return unto Me; for I have redeemed thee." Isa. xliv. 22.

2. Christ is made as much better than the angels as His name by inheritance is more excellent than theirs. Therefore it is true that He has His exalted place because of His more excellent, inherited name. He is exalted, not arbitrarily, but naturally, to the place which is His by birthright, He is there because He belongs there.

3. This is made evident in verse 5, where the question is asked, "For unto which of the angels said He at any time, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee? And again, I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son?" This question is the strongest affirmation that such things have never been said to any angel; and the equally strong implication is that these things have been said to the Son. It is this that makes the contrast, introduced by the word "for." We find also these words elsewhere in the Bible with direct reference to Christ.

4. The first statement, "Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten thee," is a quotation from Ps. ii. 7. The fact that this psalm speaks directly of the Messiah, using that title, is probably not recognised in the translation; but so it is. The word "Messiah" is the Hebrew equivalent of the word "Christ," from the Greek, and both mean "anointed." See John i. 41, and margin. In the New Testament we always have the word "Christ" (christos) untranslated; if it were translated, we should have Jesus the Anointed, instead of Jesus Christ; and this would convey a much more definite idea to the ordinary reader; for, as must be evident, "Christ" is not a proper name, but a descriptive title. So in Ps. ii. 2, if the Hebrew word were not translated, but transferred, as in the New Testament, we should have: "The rulers take council together gainst the Lord [Jehovah], and against His Messiah."

5. The other quotation is from 2 Sam. 7, 14: "I will be his Father and he shall be My son." This is the only place where the words are found, and the reference is unmistakably to Solomon. David had determined to build a house for God, but God told him that he should not, but added: "I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his Father and he shall be My son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men; but My mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee; thy throne shall be established for ever."

The words, "If he commit iniquity," Show plainly that God was not at that time speaking of Christ personally, but of Solomon; yet the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, writing under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, uses the promise to Solomon as though it had been spoken directly of Christ, and of no one else. What does this show us? Just this, that it was only in Christ that God was Solomon's Father, and Solomon God's son, and that, in Christ, the promise, "I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to Me a son," applies to men who have committed iniquity, just as much as to Christ. "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the Sons of God."

What a wonderful truth! So wonderful that we should not have believed it, if the mouth of the Lord had not spoken it. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God!" 1 John iii. 1. Nevertheless, "such we are" (Same verse, Revised Version.) "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ." Rom. viii 16, 17. But Christ, as Son of God, is "heir of all things;" therefore we, as joint-heirs with Him, are also heirs of all things. God says: "He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son." Rev. xxi. 7. So here we find, from God's own mouth, that every position and honour that Christ has, we have in equal measure with Him.

6. But we have not yet exhausted the wonder of God's grace to us in Christ, as revealed in this chapter. Take the truths just learned, and then read verses 3, 4, and 5 again. Christ is "at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty, on high; being made so much better than the angels." Then it follows that we also, in Him, "are made better than the angels," that is, made to occupy a higher and more glorious position. God has "quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Eph. i. 5, 6. This is here and now, and so we see that our rightful position is at the right hand of God "far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion." Eph. i. 20, 21. Knowing this, how can we ever stoop to anything petty, base, or ignoble? If we appreciate the "high calling of God in Christ Jesus," we shall be in possession of a power and dignity greater than that of all earthly kings. "I will make Him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth." Ps. lxxxix. 27. What shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

7. "And again, When He bringeth in the first-begotten into the world, He saith, And let all the angels of God worship Him." The nearest statement that we find similar to this, in our version of the Bible, from which it might be quoted, is Ps. xcvii. 7: "Worship Him, all ye gods." In the Septuagint, however, the very same words, "Let all the angels of God worship Him," occur in Deut. xxxii. 43. It would make no difference, however, if we could not find any trace of them elsewhere than in our text: that is the word of God, just the same as any other scripture, and its statement is sufficient.

But the mind is struck with amazement, and cannot grasp the wondrous thought revealed in those words. They are spoken of Christ when He was brought into the world,-that is, of Christ as Man; and since He is "the Firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. viii. 29), it follows that God makes man in Christ worthy of the homage of the angels! There is no room for pride; on the contrary, humiliation and shame must seize us as we see "what things God hath prepared for them that love Him," and how very far we have came from realising them.

8. In all this there is nothing derogatory to the angels. They "excel in strength." Ps. ciii. 20. He "maketh His angels winds, and His ministers a flame of fire." We read that the chariots of God are "twenty ttousand, even thousands of angels" (Ps. lxviii. 17), and, "He rode upon a cherub, and did fly; yea, He did fly upon the wings of the wind." Ps. xviii. 10 Therefore no winds that blow can do any injury to those round about whom the angel of the Lord encampeth. They control the winds of earthly strife. Rev. vii. 1.

9. Let us now take a brief glance at the subject as a whole. The general thought is Christ as Son exalted above the angels. He is as much higher than they as the throne of God is above them; and He is there because He has by inheritance a more excellent name than they. Remember that He took the place "when He had by Himself purged our sins," so that it is as "the Man Christ Jesus "thah He occupies the high position. Now how did He inherit it? The words, "Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee," contain the answer. In Acts iv. 24-28 we learn that the first part of the second Psalm was especially fulfilled in the crucifixion

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of Christ. Now read Acts xiii. 32, 33: "We declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled unto us their children, in that He hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second Psalm, "Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee." The resurrection from the dead was that by which Jesus was "declared to be the Son of God;" and He was Son of God by the power by which He was raised from the dead. Therefore we know that all men who are raised with Him have by inheritance the same name and position that He has. All men are dead through sin, and so it is only by the resurrection power that any can become really sons of God. They who are "children of God" are "children of the resurrection." Luke xx. 16. If we have been crucified with Christ, "planted together in the likeness of His death," and are risen with Him, we are sons of God, with all the rights and privileges of Jesus Christ Himself; "joint heirs with Jesus Christ." The resurrection of the dead, at the coming of Christ, will be the declaration of our sonship to all the worlds. What we shall be doth not yet appear, but it will be manifest when the glory in us is revealed, when "the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."

It is well to stop here and meditate. The mind cannot at once take in the fulness of the inheritance that Christ has won for us; but the theme is so vast and so lofty that meditation in it will expand and elevate our minds, and make us more worthy of the position. The more we think of it, the greater will the wonder be to all eternity.

"Nature Studies for the Little Ones" The Present Truth 19, 1.

E. J. Waggoner

Perhaps you do not like snails well enough to watch them. Yet there are many wonderful things about them that show us how wise and skilful is their Maker.

The first thing you see is the snail's little house. No wonder he does not go very fast, for he carries his house on his back. Do you think this would be tiresome? The snail is very glad of its shelter from his enemies the birds, and other creatures that would like to eat him. Touch one, and see how quickly he draws himself into his house and shuts the door.

Did you ever wonder how the snail's house grows? for some have large and some small houses. It is not always the largest ones that are the oldest. Those that have plenty of good food grow larger than those that are not well fed.

The snail has a loose skin covering that is called the Mantle. You can sometimes see it spread out round the opening of the shell, like a short skirt. This is always wet and slimy, and from it comes the sticky matter that gets hard and makes the shell. So the snail builds his own house, and shapes it very beautifully into a spiral in which he coils up his soft body.

The snail does not grow or feed in the winter . He closes up his house with one, two, or sometimes three doors, leaving a little hole to let in the air. Then he goes to sleep, and does not wake up until the warm Spring.

"Crystals" The Present Truth 19, 1.

E. J. Waggoner

"Snow Crystals!" everybody exclaims at the first eight of the two rows of figures on this page; for the various forms that snow bakes have been pictured so often that they have become familiar. "Clear as crystal" has become a proverb; and it seems most natural that the beautiful, delicate, feathery, white flakes of snow, that sparkle so brightly in sunlight and moonlight, should be composed of starlike forms; "but why present two sets of the crystals?" some will ask. Ah, the second set of forms are as far removed from snow crystals as can be imagined. They are representations of the crystals that compose the jet black ink. Who would think that the black lines that you trace on paper, and even the letters that form the words that you are now reading, are formed of innumerable crystals, like those of snowflakes? Yet so it is, indicating the working of one thought in all creation.

Anyone who has a microscope of fairly high power can see these ink crystals for himself. Put a drop of ink on a glass slide, warm it slightly, and allow it to dry, and then place it under the microscope. You will not see them in rows, as here illustrated, anymore than you would find snowflakes arranged in regular order; but you would find, huddled into heaps, and scattered about, forms more varied and beautiful even than these. "He hath made everything beautiful in His time." Even the mud of the street teems with life and beauty; and a single drop of stagnant water may reveal sights surpassing the brilliancy of the starry heavens. And is it not a pleasant thought, that the printed or written words that convey instruction to man, are themselves formed by beaming crystals?

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 1.

E. J. Waggoner

It is estimated that no fewer than 400,000 people in Finland are suffering terrible privations owing to the failure of the crops. This failure is stated to be much worse than that of 1867, when about 100,000 persons died of starvation.

The present trouble in Venezuela has brought the "Monroe Doctrine" sharply to the front again, and has stirred up the United States to the fact that if they intend to maintain it they must have a first-class navy. In his recent message President Roosevelt said: "As a people we have played a large part in the world, and we are bent on making our future part even larger. The events of the past four years have definitely decided for weal or woe that our place must be great among the nations." It is significant that none question the idea that a nation cannot occupy a large place in the world without many ships of war, and the greatness of a nation is in proportion to its fighting capacity. This is in itself a prophecy of what may yet be expected.

In view of the many cases of typhoid fever, and the recent deaths from eating oysters, the medical officer of health for Portsmouth has suggested that Public notices should be issued, warning the people not to eat oysters from Emsworth until they have been cooked. And this, too, in immediate connection with the statement that the sewers of that town discharge directly in the neighbourhood of the oyster beds! The fatuity of otherwise sensible people, when it comes to matters of eating and drinking, is astounding. The doctor is in reality only advising the people to take care that the sewage which they eat is boiled instead of raw. But why eat it at all? There is plenty of good food growing from the earth, and men are not driven to the necessity of eating the products of the gutter.

Examples of the folly of trying to settle difficulties, or of trying to recover debts, by going to law, are continually recurring, to serve as warnings to those to whom the plain Word of the Lord is not sufficient deterrent. One instance is that of a suit for divorce in "high life," which has just closed after exciting the Society gossips for fourteen days. The result was that both charges and counter-charges were declared by the jury to be unproved; and the parties, involved in costs to the amount of ?15,000, find themselves just where they were when the suit began. Even more absurd is a case reported from Antwerp where "an aged lawyer," who certainly ought to know better, entered suit to recover three halfpence, the price of a tramway ticket. The summons alone cost 14s. The old saying that the man who is his own lawyer has a fool for his client, would seem to be fully justified in the case; with some modification it might be made to include those who employ lawyers other than themselves.

Just before leaving for America last month, Sir Hiram Maxim, the eminent inventor, declared it to be his opinion that "we are coming very near the era of successful flying machines."

Four hundred pounds damages are claimed by some French distillers against the printer of a bill denouncing alcohol as a poison. If they should prosecute all who have made that statement, they would have thousands of cages on hand. However, they would never win a single suit, unless it should be decided that it is unlawful to give utterance to a well-known truth.

It is thought worthy of being telegraphed all the way from New York that at "a beef-eating tournament" held there last week, the winner devoured seven pounds of steak at a short sitting. It is stated that his antagonist "was not in good condition," and that at a former contest he had consumed fourteen pounds. No one seems, however, to have seen any connection between this and the fact that he was not in good condition. The fact is interesting as showing how much below the level of brutes human beings may fall, since there is no other animal that would make so disgusting and debasing an exhibition of itself. There are greedy beasts, but none of them eat except to satisfy hunger. It is left for man to stuff himself with food with the sola object of proclaiming himself a glutton.

The following note of warning that recently appeared in the Journal de la Grotte des Lourdes, which, as its name indicates, is the Roman Catholic organ devoted to the exploitation of the Grotto of Lourdes, shows how Rome regards the Bible: "Every year the efIoxt Is made to spread amongst the pilgrims, either by sale or by gift, certain books of Protestant origin, and in particular the New Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is our duty to warn the 'faithful' that it is definitely forbidden to Catholics to read or even to keep in their houses books of this kind." Yet there are very many professed Christian ministers, even among those calling themselves Protestant, who regard the Roman Catholic Church as a part of the church of Christ. If it were of Christ, it would gladly receive His Word.

A new "Nativity Play," entitled "Bethlehem," is soon to be produced in thin country, and the author, in the Daily Mail of December 16, makes his apology for it. He says:-

"I wish to show that it is possible for the drama to come near, without irreverence, to the central truths of Christianity, and by symbolic action to quicken the imagination of the beholders so as to make the beauty of holiness more evident to them than it was before, so as to make time seem a very little thing where the great spiritual ideas which have moulded the world's history are concerned, so as, if I may, to startle men's minds to a realisation of whether for them Christianity is a curious relic of the past, or a truth still living and central."

It is evident that however correct his play may be technically, he has not yet learned what Christianity is. There is a way, and only one way, of startling men's minds, and making them know that Christianity is a living thing of the present, and not a curious relic of the past, and that is to live it. Christ and His disciples are for signs and wonders in the world, and in His followers He is to "startle many nations;" but it can never be done by any "play." Christianity is not play; neither can it be represented in a few hours. Nothing less than an entire lifetime will suffice to give a correct presentation of it.

In a speech on the Education Bill Lord Rosebery said recently that it is a thing for reflection and meditation that "nineteen centuries after the birth of Christ the Reformed Churches of this country should not be able to agree on a form of religious education which may be taught to children under fourteen years of age." It is indeed a thing for serious reflection, that there should be be much lack of harmony between the various churches calling themselves Christian; but it ought to be understood that even if they should all agree on "a form of religious education" to be taught to children, it could not by any possibility be Christianity that would be thus taught; for Christianity cannot be put into a form of words. It is a life, and that only, and instruction in it can come only directly from the living Word in all its infinity of forms.

Another prominent figure in the religious world has passed away in the person of the Archbishop of Canterbury. That a man should continue hard at work until within less than three weeks of his death at the age of eighty-one, in an object lesson as to the value of temperate habits. He died practically at work. What a contrast between the manner of his death and that of the Dean of Winchester! The one dropped in the midst of an earnest speech on the Education Bill; the other died from the effects of an oyster supper. It will be said that the death of the Dean was caused by an accident that might happen to anybody; but the fact is that such an accident could not happen to one who ate only such food as God appointed for man. How incongruous that men should die through eating, when that is given as the means of preserving life.

A statement has appeared in the Times that the anti-plague inoculations in the Punjab have been suspended in consequence of many deaths having resulted from them. It will be well if this produces a sentiment against the rapidly-growing practice of inoculation for every disease. It is well known by real scientists that healthy flesh and blood is fatal to microbes, and it is equally well known that pure food and drink in proper quantities and combination, pure air, cleanliness, and exercise produce healthy flesh and blood. Nothing else can. The lesson is obvious, that the only way to protect the system against the plague is to keep it full of pure life. This to the only safeguard. We read that "compensation is to be granted to the families of the twenty-three natives who died in the Punjab after being inoculated." The idea that "compensation can be given for a life is in keeping with the recklessness with which men experiment with it."

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 1.

E. J. Waggoner

Without a knowledge of the Bible, all other knowledge is useless. It is like an ivory knife handle, set with jewels, but with no blade. Indeed, it is not even to be compared with that; for such a handle alone is of some value; but the wisdom of the world, apart from the wisdom of the cross, is foolishness. Only the Lord gives true wisdom; only out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.

God spoke His word in time past "in many portions" and "by many turnings," for thus the first words of the Epistle to the Hebrews read when literally rendered. God's Word is one; for "the word was God," and "the Lord our God is one Lord." One word embraces the embraces the universe and contains all truth. But our minds are too small and too weak to comprehend the whole of this word at once, and so God has broken it up into a multitude of fragments, and He turns each one of these truth crystals round and round, that we may see the light flashing from every side. New light shines from every one of its innumerable faces, yet it is all the same light. All the different hues combined make up the gloriously white light of truth.

"Man's Thought and God's Thought" The Present Truth 19, 1.

E. J. Waggoner

Man's Thought and God's Thought .-The patriarchs moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt; but God was with him, and delivered him out of all his afflictions."-Acts viii. 9, 10. Joseph saw the hand of God in the matter, and said to his brethren, "Ye thought evil against me, but God meant it for good." Gen. I. 20. The full force of the Hebrew is not given in the translation, for both clauses have the same verb in the Hebrew; and the verse really reads thus; "Ye thought evil against me, but God thought good." The contrast, it will be seen, is very striking: Joseph's brethren thought evil against him, even planning his death; but God thought good, even purposing "to save much people alive;" and God's thought prevailed. So much more powerful was God's good thought than Joseph's brethren's evil thought that their evil design was made to work out God's good purpose. How vividly this illustrates the truth that God "worketh all things after the counsel of His own will," making even "the wrath of man to praise Him." So we need not fear or worry even though a wicked man seems to succeed in his evil way, and "bringeth wicked devices to pass," or, literally, "does his thoughts." It makes no difference how much evil a man may think against us, nor how fully he may accomplish his designs; if God thinks good, all the evil will come to nothing, and only good will result. How calmly confident, then, we ought to be, since God says: "I know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of peace, and not of evil."

Aggrieved Love .-As soon as Jacob was buried, his sons said to one another, "Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him." So little did they appreciate Joseph's character and understand real forgiveness, that they thought that Joseph had for years been cherishing hatred against them, and had been dissembling out of deference to his father. So they came begging Joseph to forgive them, and pleading, as though it were necessary, that their father had left word that he should do so. "And Joseph wept when they spake unto him." The severest blow that can be given is to discredit one's expressions of love. We can easily picture to ourselves how Joseph's tender heart was grieved at the thought that his brethren had so little perception and understanding of the genuineness of his kindness toward them; but how often are we guilty of the same lack of appreciation of God's kindness and love. How often God must be grieved as He sees His children doubting Him. Let us not dishonour Him any more by our doubts, but trust Him at all times.

"'Much More'" The Present Truth 19, 1.

E. J. Waggoner

"Much More." -Many people who profess to love the Lord, and to follow Him, and who are really sincere in their purpose, are so misguided in their searching of the Scriptures that they are always endeavouring to minimise their force. They seem always to be afraid that they may believe more than God has promised. They limit God, and take care to keep well within bounds. Instead of seeking to find as much as possible in every text, they are ever trying to prove that the Scriptures do not mean very much. That is not the way to get acquainted with God; for He is greater than man's thought. "Much more" is the motto for the Christian. However much we see in any portion of Scripture, we may be sure that there is much more in it for us. We can never exhaust the promises of God; therefore our endeavour should always be to find more and more for our faith to rest upon. Remember that we cannot believe any good thing, however great, that is not true. God's mercy is upon us according as we hope in Him. Do you feel that you want more?-Then believe that you receive it, and you shall have it. Mark xi. 24.

"Have you on the Lord believed?

Still there's more to follow."

"The Power to Become Sons" The Present Truth 19, 1.

E. J. Waggoner

The Power to Become Sons .-"As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the Sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." What power is it, that He gives those who receive Him, in order that they may become sons?-Evidently the power by which He Himself is the Son of God. The power of sonship is "the power of the resurrection;" for He was "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." "We declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that He hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, "Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee." Adam was the son of God (Luke iii. 38); but in Adam all died, and therefore the only way in which man can become sons of God again is by being born again-by a new life, by rising from the dead. This new, resurrection life Jesus gives to all who receive Him. The exceeding greatness of God's power in us who believe is "according to the working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places." Think what this means to us: nothing less than that to us as we now live in the flesh is given a power the same as that which brings the dead to life. This power is "very present" and real. It is for use, and not for show. Since we have it, why not make the most of it?

We are glad again to acknowledge the receipt of twenty shillings to be used in the way that will best advance the cause of our dear Lord and Master, from the "friend" who has so often made similar contributions.

January 8, 1903

"The Editor's Private Corner. Infant Baptism" The Present Truth 19, 2.

E. J. Waggoner

"Would you kindly inform me through your valuable paper PRESENT TRUTH, if in the Bible there is any reference made to infant baptism? I should like to hear your opinion."

This is not a case for the expression of an opinion, but only for the statement of a truth. It is not a case admitting of argument; for the Bible either mentions the matter or it does not; and all there is to be done is to say whether it does or not. So I say, without the slightest fear of successful contradiction, that nowhere in the Bible is there any mention whatever of such a thing as infant baptism. The thing is wholly foreign to Scripture.

You ask me to prove this statement. Well, there is only one way to prove it; and that rests with you; you must read the Bible through, with reference to this subject; then you will know that it is not there. If you were asking for something that is in the Bible, the thing to do would of course be to cite the texts; but where there are no texts to cite, all that can be done is to say so.

But I will not leave the matter here. I cannot read the Bible through to you in this "corner," so as to show you that it does not mention infant baptism; but I can set before you the nature and object of baptism, so that you can see that it is plainly a thing with which infants cannot have anything whatever to do; or, rather, which cannot have anything to do with them. So let us study the subject briefly. We cannot do better than start with the words of Peter filled with the Holy Spirit: "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins." Acts ii. 38. Here we see that baptism is connected with repentance; but it is obvious that young infants cannot repent, and have nothing to repent of, having never committed sin. We find, in this instance, that "they that gladly received his word were baptized." Verse 41.

Again, while Philip was preaching Jesus to the Ethiopian eunuch, as they journeyed, the chariot passed by a pool or stream of water, and the eunuch proclaimed, "See, here is water: what doth hinder me to be baptized?" Philip replied, "If thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest." Here we see that belief is a prerequisite to baptism. But an, infant can neither believe nor disbelieve; therefore it cannot be baptized.

Again, referring to the text first quoted, we find that baptism, preceded by belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, is "for the remission of sins;" but a tender infant has no sins to be remitted, and so again there is no occasion for it to be baptized.

It may be objected that the child is born in sin,-that it has a sinful nature,-and that therefore it should be baptized for the remission of sins. But since the babe cannot exercise faith, and has no will in the matter, not even knowing what is being done if the ceremony is performed, it is evident that if baptism were necessary for an infant, it would prove that there is some magic virtue either to the water of baptism, or to the formula, or both; but if this were so, it would exclude faith on the part of adults; and it would follow that a man baptized even against his will would be saved, just as truly as that physic or poison will operate on a man who takes it even unwillingly, and without believing that it will have any effect. But the Gospel is not magic.

This brings us to what baptism really is, which we read in Gal. iii. 27: "For

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as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." It is the conscious putting on of Christ by intelligent faith. Read Col. ii. 10-12. "Ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power: in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead." Here we see that baptism means the recognition and acknowledgement of the fact that one's sins have brought the sentence of death, and the giving up of the life that has been stained by sin so that one actually dies with Christ, and then, through faith in the working of God in raising Jesus from the dead, rises to live a new life in Christ. But all this is impossible for a babe.

"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things, on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." Col. i. 1-3. This exhortation would evidently be meaningless if addressed to a babe.

Now read Rom. vi. 1-7, following the chapter which shows that death has passed upon all men, "for that all have sinned," and that the obedience of Christ gives righteousness and life:-

"What shall we say, then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many of you as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life, For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin."

There you have the whole subject of baptism. All the way through, it shows a concious, deliberate acceptance of Christ-the turning from and putting off of an old life, and the resurrection to a new life. There is crucifixion preceding the burial, "that henceforth we should not serve sin;" but an infant has never served sin, having, on the contrary, just begun a new life. All that is required of us is to become as little children.

The death of the Son of God-the gift of His life-has reconciled all men to God. Rom. v. 8-10. Every sinner who accepts the reconciling word, becomes a new creature, just such as the little babe is. The birth of the tiny babe, as innocent as the opening flower, is a manifestation of the life that is given for all mankind; for without that life there could be no existence; "in Him we live, and move, and have our being;" the child is redeemed by the life that gave it existence, and until it commits sin; there is no need for it to be baptized. The free gift has come upon all men unto justification of life; so the child is made accepted in the Beloved. May our faith bring us into the same state of innocence.

"The Editor's Private Corner. Eating for Strength" The Present Truth 19, 2.

E. J. Waggoner

One who sends several questions makes special request that the following one be answered at once:-

"Does Eccl. x. 17 prove that an early morning meal is injurious?"

We can tell better if we read it, and find out what it says. Here it is, together with verse 16, from which it cannot be separated:-

"Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning!

"Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king Is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!"

Now let us read it slowly and carefully, noting what it says. We see at a glance that there is a contrast-the state of the land under two sets of conditions is contrasted. If the king is a child, or a servant, as in the margin of the Revision,-that is, if he is inexperienced, and himself in need of tutors and governors-the land will suffer. If, on the contrary, the king is the son of nobles, free born, disciplined in mind and body, and trained to govern, the land will be prosperous. So much for the king, and all is plain enough thus far.

There is yet another adverse condition and its contrasted blessing. If the princes eat in the morning, it will be disastrous to the country; but, on the other hand, if they eat in due season, it will be greatly to the advantage of the land. Nothing else can be made of the language than that the morning is not "due season" for eating. I have nothing to say as to what anybody shall do; my business is simply to set forth the Scriptures just as they read. Custom, convenience, habit, the opinions of men, our own appetites or preferences,-none of these have any place whatever in considering the meaning of any portion of Scripture. What does it say? is all that need concern us.

Read the text again, and it will appear that to eat in the morning is not to eat for strength. The land suffers when princes eat in the morning; it rejoices when they eat in due season, that is, not in the morning, for strength, and not for drunkenness. Eating in the morning, therefore, tends to drunkenness, rather than to strength. It does not say that drunkenness necessarily ensues, but that the result of morning eating is the opposite of strength, and that it tends to produce the condition of dulness and heaviness that accompanies intoxication.

Of course the average reader will at once begin to argue or make excuses. Please don't. Disbelieve the text, if you will; ignore it entirely in your practice, if you choose; but don't try to twist it out of its plain, self-evident meaning.

"At any rate," says someone who is anxious to feel clearly justified in ignoring the instruction of the text, "it applies only to princes." Yes; it applies only to princes, that is, to those who have to do with affairs of State, so far as the country at large is concerned. Bear in mind that it says "Woe to the land," when its princes eat in the morning. But it can be bad for the land, only because it unfits the princes for the highest service. Muddle-headed princes or men with overtaxed digestive organs and nerves, cannot rule the land well.

Remember, however, that princes are but men, and that whatsoever affects them injuriously has the same effect on common people. Transgression of physical law on our part may not have as far-reaching effects as when committed by princes-it may make no difference to the country,-but it will certainly make a difference to us personally. If we feel that our proper place is among the princes of the Lord's people, then we shall give diligence to keep our bodies in at least as good condition as should the princes who wear only an earthly crown.

"But everybody eats in the morning; how absurd to try to start a new custom; I don't believe in fads," I hear someone

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say. I beg your pardon, I am not trying to introduce any new custom; I am simply setting forth the obvious meaning of a simple text, in answer to a question. And what if "everybody" does eat in the morning; what does that prove? Isn't it possible that there is a chance for great improvement in the people of the land generally?

Look at the case in its physiological aspect. Doesn't it seem strange that after a night's rest, by which the whole system is refreshed, and in the best condition for work, people should at once begin to spend that energy in digesting food, instead of in work? It is true that there is ordinarily a feeling of hunger soon after rising, but that is solely because the stomach has become accustomed to receiving food at that time; but that feeling is not true hunger,-the cry of the system for nourishment,-for all the organs and tissues of the body have been restored by sleep. This is not the time or place to enter fully into a consideration of the subject of hunger; but it may be stated as a truth that very much of what people suppose to be hunger is not due to lack of food, but to other causes, when the system does not actually require food, then every particle that is eaten is just so much for drunkenness-the effect is the same as that produced by alcohol, though differing in degree. Anybody can see that it is at least a tax on the system.

"Well then, would you advise me to try going without my early morning meal, and break my fast later in the day?" you ask. No; most decidedly not.

"Why not? If the Bible says that it is a good thing."

Because I can never advise anybody to try experiments. "The just shall live by faith," and faith knows before it acts. Trying experiments belongs to doubt, and not to faith. You are never to try some mode of living, to see how it will agree with you, you are to find out from some reliable source (and there is none better than the Bible), whether the proposed thing is right or not. If you do not know that some other course is better than the one you are following, do not change; but if you know that a thing is right, then take hold of it with a resolution that will realise the good that is in it, in spite of some possible inconveniences in making the change. You must know that whatever you do is good for you, not because of how you may sometimes feel, but because God's word says so. Otherwise one is manifestly not living by faith.

Someone asks: "Do you not think that there are other errors in diet which call far more loudly for reform than does this one of eating in the morning?" Undoubtedly there are many reforms far more necessary than this. If one make all other reforms in diet, that are obviously necessary, one might do very well, as thousands do, while continuing to eat in the morning. Perhaps it maybe said that the reform here discussed is a luxury, rather than an absolute necessity. It is a privilege, for those who wish to live like princes, rather than a duty, and as it is not enjoined on any, it may be ignored by these who are content to live only a common life, and have only ordinary strength.

Perhaps a few words of personal experience may be allowable, inasmuch as the subject has been broached. Some time ago, when I had an unusual amount of work on hand, I was considering how it would be possible to get through it. Suddenly the text in question flashed into my mind. I had, of course, often read it, but without having my attention fixed upon it. Now it stood out vividly, and I could not help seeing that here was a neglected avenue of strength. Since it came from God's Word, it was not necessary to confer with flesh and blood; I knew that what the Bible pronounces blessed is blessed, and the decision was instantly made. There was no thought of "trying the plan;" it was entered upon for life, and although a slight inconvenience was experienced for two or three days, no change was ever more easily made, and nothing could persuade me to return to the old habit of eating in the morning. There was not the slightest doubt to begin with; but experience has demonstrated that both mental and physical labour can be far better performed without an early morning meal than with it.

Nevertheless, I repeat with emphasis, Let nobody adopt this mode of living who does not know absolutely, better even than he knows his own name, that it is the very best thing for him. "Let every one be fully persuaded in his own mind;" for "whatsoever is not of faith is sin."

"The Class. The Kingdom and the Dominion. Heb. i. 8-12" The Present Truth 19, 2.

E. J. Waggoner

"But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands; they shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail." Heb. i. 8-12.

1. In what language has God addressed the Son?

2. What high position is recognised as His?

3. What is said of His throne?

4. What is the sceptre of His kingdom?

5. Then what is the nature of His kingdom?

6. Why was the Son given that dominion?

7. With what is He anointed?

8. What does this "oil of gladness" indicate further as to the nature of Christ's kingdom?

9. Whet else has God said to the Son?

10. Who laid the foundation of the earth? When?

11. What is said of the heavens?

12. What will become of them?

13. But what of the Son?

14. What happens to the heavens and earth with the lapse of time?

15. When they have waxed old like a worn-out garment, what will become of them?

16. Who will hold them up and change them?

17. What is said of the One who does this?

18. What contrast is there, then, between the present heavens and earth and the Son?

19. What about His years?

1. "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." These are the words of the Father to the Son. We learn from them that the "more excellent name" that Christ has "by inheritance" is God. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God." John i. 1. When God the Father Himself addresses the Son as God, men need have no hesitancy in doing so. The Father "hath given all judgment unto the Son; that all may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father which hath sent Him." John v. 22, 23.

2. "A sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom." A sceptre, or rod, indicates power, authority. Recall the rod of Moses, with which he went before Pharaoh, and also Aaron's rod. A rod is always the shepherd's badge, and a good shepherd is God's type of s king. The Governor that comes out of Bethlehem is to feed God's people Israel. See Matt.

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ii. 6, margin. Jehovah is the Good Shepherd. So His rod and His staff comfort His people. His rule is mild and beneficent. It is also worthy of note that the same word in Hebrew signifies both rod and "tribe," Christ's sceptre is righteousness that is, the power of His kingdom is the power of goodness. His name is "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." "He shall judge the world with righteousness." Now read Ps. cxxv. 3, R.V: "The sceptre of wickedness shall not rest on the lot of the righteous; that the righteous put not forth their hands unto iniquity." This is the same as the assurance: "Sin shall not have dominion over you." Rom. vi. 14. Over those who are indeed "children of God by faith in Christ Jesus," sin has no power. Righteousness alone rules them, as it is written: "Righteousness shall go before Him, and shall set us in the way of His steps." Ps. lxxxv. 13.

3. Christ is anointed with the oil of gladness. The anointing, as well as the sceptre, shows the nature of the kingdom. It is a kingdom of righteousness and joy. Sadness and sorrow have no place in the kingdom of Christ. "The redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head; they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away." Isa. li. 11. This is not confined to the future; for even now God "hath delivered us out of the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love" (Col. i. 13), and the command is, "Rejoice in the Lord always." Even in tribulation, while "in heaviness through manifold temptations," believing, we "rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." 1 Peter i. 6, 8. It is not merely a duty to be joyful; it is all that, because the commandment is as explicit as any in the Bible; but it is much more; joyfulness is inseparably connected with Christ's kingdom, and its subjects must be glad. Believing and knowing the Lord, they can no more help being glad than the birds can keep from singing, or the stars from shining. So "the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost." Rom. xv. 18.

4. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Gen. i. 1. Christ is "the beginning" (Col. i. 18)-"the beginning of the creation of God" (Rev. iii. 14)-even "the firstborn of all creation; for in Him were all things created, in the heavens, and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through Him and unto Him; and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist." Col. i. 15-17. He is "the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Cor. i. 24), and "He hath made the earth by His power, He hath established the world by His wisdom." Jer. x. 12. The Father Himself bears testimony that the Son is the Creator of all things.

5. The words in Heb. i. 10-12 are taken directly from Ps. cii. 25-27. In this the thoughtful student cannot fail to see evidence that the words of the Old Testament (and so of course of the whole Bible) no matter by whom written, are to be considered as the words of God alone. God spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. It is His Word, through men, but without any human alloy in it. Some one in deep affliction, whether David or some other person, wrote the one hundred and second psalm, which begins with a statement of his miserable condition, and ends with a statement of the Lord's power and endless dominion; and the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews quotes from it as though no man had had any agency in the matter, but it was all the direct utterance of God's voice. This shows us how we are to read the words of the Bible. It is emphatically the word of God.

6. The heavens and the earth shall perish, yet not absolutely. They are already getting old, and the soil is in many places "worn out." It is waxing old like a garment-very thin and threadbare in spots; in other places almost as good as new, yet old as a whole, because of the wornout places. Therefore it is to be changed "as a vesture." When an old garment is worn out it is changed for a new one; and this will be the case with the present one. "Heaven and earth shall pass away," but Christ's word,-the Word that created them,-"shall not pass away;" so "they shall be changed," and from the same unchangeable Word will spring forth "new heavens and a new earth."

7. This will take place because He is the same, and His years shall not fail. Because "in Him all things consist," and He cannot fail, the earth will not utterly perish, although for a season it will have ceased to exist as this earth, because it shall be "clean dissolved" (Isa. xxiv. 19), and "the elements shall melt with fervent heat" (2 Peter iii. 12); but it will come forth from the fires of the last day, changed, renovated, renewed, brought back to its original freshness, never again to grow old, but to remain the new earth to all eternity. All this because Christ is unchangeable.

"Change and decay in all around I see;

O Thou who changest not, abide with me."

8. "Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail." What confident assurance there is for us in these words! When everything seems untrustworthy, and we know ourselves to be weak, vacillating, and utterly unreliable, what comfort to know that there is something that is not fluctuating-One Being who continues always the same, from everlasting to everlasting? The Psalmist, with his days "consumed like smoke," his bones "burned as an hearth," and his heart smitten, and "withered like grace;" with his enemies reproaching him all the day, and his days "like a shadow that declineth," could rejoice in "the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," confident that He who abides for ever "will regard the prayer of the destitute, and will not despise their prayer."

"I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days" is the prayer of the afflicted one, and immediately comes the answer, "Thy years are throughout all generations." Ps. cii. 24. It is spoken to Christ, and is true of every soul in Christ. In Him we live, for He is our life. His life is our life; therefore frail and corruptible as our flesh is, our life is of right as long as His. Death is swallowed up in His life. He "hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel." 2 Tim. i. 10. Remember that it is the Son sitting on the throne of David, and reigning over the house of Jacob, who is to continue for ever, and whose kingdom is to have no end. Luke i. 32, 33. These words in Hebrews (quoted from Ps. cii.) are addressed to God as "the Son of man;" therefore no matter how weak and frail and helpless the sons of men may be, even though they be "afflicted and ready to die" from their youth (Ps. lxxxviii.), they can find new life in the words addressed to their Elder Brother: "Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail." Because He lives, we shall live also. John xiv. 19.

"Little Folks. The Passover" The Present Truth 19, 2.

E. J. Waggoner

As the time drew near that God had sworn to Abraham, that He would bring up his children out of Egypt, it seemed less and less likely that Pharaoh would ever let them go. He ordered Moses and Aaron to go out of his sight and never to come back.

God had said that they should not go out empty-handed, but "with great substance." For many years they had worked for their oppressors without any pay, and now they were to ask from them jewels of gold and silver, and God gave them favour with the Egyptians, so that they gave them whatever they asked for.

When God was about to smite all the first-born of Egypt, He told His people to slay a lamb and sprinkle the blood on the posts of their houses; and He said to His people, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you." All who believed did as God told them, and sprinkled the blood of a lamb on their doorposts. No doubt the Egyptians wondered what they were doing, and were warned of the awful judgment that was coming upon Egypt. If any of them believed, they could put the same token upon their own houses, and save their first-born from the destroyer. God did not look to see if the people Israelites or Egyptians. He looked for the blood-"When I see the blood I will pass over you." No doubt some of the Egyptians believed, and were among the "mixed multitude" that followed Israel out of Egypt.

Why did God's people have to put this sign on their houses? Was it because God did not know where they lived? No; for "the eyes of the Lord are in every place; beholding the evil and the good." It was an object lesson to teach them the way of salvation through "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world."

What did the blood of the lamb upon the doorposts mean? "The blood is the life"-God's word tells us. So the lesson that God was teaching the Israelites, and that He is teaching us by this story, is that we can be saved only by the life of Jesus. "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us." The blood of Jesus has been shed; His life is given for all. And because Jesus has died for all, He gives His life freely to all. But unless we believe in Him, and take hold by faith upon His life, the time will come when it will be taken from us. This was the great lesson of the Passover.

In slaying the lamb, the people were taught that their sins had slain the Lamb of God. In eating its flesh, they were taught that they must feed upon Jesus by faith, so that they might receive the life that He had given for them.

The sprinkled blood upon the door-posts, which protected them from all evil (for God said that not even a dog should move its tongue against them so long as it was there) showed that the blood, the life, of Jesus, blots out the sin that would destroy us, and keeps us from all harm.

In the judgment, God will pass over everyone who has taken hold by faith of the life of Jesus, to cleanse him from sin. He does not cover up our sins, for He says, that He "will by no means clear the guilty." But the life-blood of Jesus washes away the sin, and makes us pure and spotless like Himself.

The Israelites were told to keep the Passover every year, so that they might have its blessed teachings brought fresh to their minds. They were to eat the slain lamb with their loins girded, their shoes on, their staves in their hands, as though just ready to start on a journey.

And when their children should ask them, "What mean ye by this service?" they were to tell them the story of their deliverance from Egypt, and how the Lord passed by the houses of His people, when He slew all the first-born of Egypt.

The last true Passover service was the one that Jesus kept with His disciples on the night He was betrayed, just before He suffered on the cross. Since that time what we call "the Lord's Supper," has taken its place. This service keeps us in mind of just the same lessons about the Lamb of God that were taught by the Passover-that we have life by feeding upon Jesus, taking by faith the life that He has poured out for us, to cleanse us from sin.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 2.

E. J. Waggoner

The Guardian makes the following admission: "The church of England has, unfortunately, to confess, in common with every religious body, that the great mass of the population-a majority of woman and an overwhelming majority of man-no longer respond sufficiently to religious influences to attend public worship, except, perhaps, on such special occasions as weddings or funerals, harvest festivals, or watch-night services."

There were 500 applicants in answer to an advertisement for a shop porter at 18s. per week, recently, 300 being Reservists, to which close it was said that preference would be given. Of course only one man could get the position, the successful candidate being a man who had vainly answered 150 advertisements since his return from the from three months ago. No more striking testimony as to the existing state of things could be given.

Human nature shows itself very plainly in the announcement of the German Ambassador to the United States in an interview with Mr. Hay. He said that while Great Britain might be satisfied with a money indemnity, Germany must have an abject apology from Venezuela. That is human nature-a desire to humble an adversary; but it is the farthest possible from the Spirit of God, who never seeks to humiliate, but always to lift up the erring one. It is best to fall into the hands of God, "for great are His mercies."

It may possibly have been the case, as is sometimes asserted, that the carpenters that helped to build the ark were ungodly men, who perished in the flood, though there is no proof of the assertion, and it is not at all probable. The fact that the ark was one hundred and twenty years in building points to the conclusion that the work was performed by Noah and his sons. God says, "Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord," and it is not likely that He would countenance unclean hands in the construction of His own ship. At any rate, the inconsistency of employing godless men to do even the rough work in connection with any part of the Lord's cause was strikingly manifested the other day, and commented on by a Chronicle reporter, who saw a covered van with the words in conspicuous letters, "Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge," recklessly emerge from a side street and collide with a cab, and then heard the driver pour forth a torrent of profanity that quite overwhelmed the cabman as well as the spectators. The Chronicle remarked that "Christian knowledge and proficiency in cursing are not promoted simultaneously." The sooner it is learned that every act necessary in connection with the work of the Lord is sacred, the better will it be, and the sooner will the world be evangelised.

It is reported from New York that, the rector of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in that city, who was once an actor, and who is Secretary of the Actors' Church Alliance, is about to have a completely-equipped theatre under his church, in which "plays of a religious character" will be produced by a local dramatic company, occasionally assisted by professionals. We can well believe the statement that "this remarkable innovation has attracted widespread interest, and is likely to prove a great success." Undoubtedly; and when the "religious plays" prove to be too dull, plays of a more pronounced worldly cast can be introduced. The modern "up-to-date church" has many ways by which to "draw" the people.

Some idea of the extent to which patent medicines are used may be gained from the fact that the recipe for a certain pill was recently sold at public auction in London for ?5,000. Think what an enormous sale the pills must have, to make it profitable to manufacture and advertise them after paying so large a sum merely for the formula. And that is only one of many! When we remember that these are all taken in "self-medication," and that there are hundreds of physicians making a living out of prescribing medicines, we see what a vast quantity of medicine is swallowed by the people. And yet disease increases! Is it not strange that some of the people do not begin to question the utility of this constant taking of drugs? We are glad to be able to assure our readers that there to a better way, or, rather, that there is a way to health, for it is evident that drugs do not give health. Health comes from life, not from poison.

A country vicar confessed lately to the habit of freely preaching other men's sermons, on the ground that a singer is not expected to compose his own songs, nor an actor to write his plays. This would be good ground for the habit, if a preacher were to be only a singer or an actor; but the true Christian minister is a man with a message direct from the Lord, and it is his office to minister life to men. Life cannot be borrowed, nor carried in one's packet, but must be carried within the body, and must be given forth fresh from the heart. The true preacher's message can never be given at second hand. "The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come." That is, let him that heareth the Spirit, not some man, say, Come. "I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal My words every one from his neighbour." Jer. xxiii. 30. No matter though one take the very words of the Lord, unless he receives them from the Lord Himself, he is sure to give a distorted message. Why should a man wish to preach, when he has no message from the Lord?

The Chronicle, referring to the new scheme for the personnel of the Navy, and to the fact that it was published on Christmas day, says that the day chosen is not so inappropriate as it might seem; for, it says, "the British Navy, though it is, as we hope, one of the most efficient engines of war and destruction that the world ever has seen, is, nevertheless, as we believe, a great engine of peace." This is the old story with which men persuade themselves that the world is becoming permeated with the principles of Christianity. But it will not hold. No fountain can at the same time yield both salt water and fresh. An engine of war and destruction cannot be an instrument of peace. The man of peace never carries a weapon of war. The fact that engines of destruction are increasing is evidence that the war spirit is growing. When peace can be maintained only through exhibition of superiour force, it is plain that war is always present.

In the Church Family Newspaper a clergyman tells, in a prize essay, "how to make a young men's Bible class attractive and successful." One of the means which he adopted was a monthly lecture, "not necessarily confined to the Bible." He says: "Obviously, this entailed additional labour, which, however, would not have weighed with me for a moment had the idea been a success: but it was not, the class, as I soon remarked, distinctly preferring the simple, practical address on some Scriptural topic to the most elaborate lecture on any subject whatever. Taking the hint, therefore, I dropped the formal lecture, and thenceforth adhered to my original practice of a plain Bible exposition, which, if brief and direct, experimental and conversational, enlivened now and then with a striking anecdote, will never fail either to attract or to hold young men." This is interesting; but it is only what ought to be expected. The one way to make a Bible class interesting and attractive is to teach the Bible. There is no other book on earth so attractive as the Bible when its truths are opened to the mind. And no other book can so effectually open the mind.

"Some interesting figures regarding the progress of the total abstinence movement among ministers and theological students of various denominations have recently been issued by the United Kingdom Alliance. Out of a total of 2,887 Congregational ministers 2,551 are abstainers, and of 320 students for that ministry all but nineteen are abstainers. Presbyterians show only 247 teetotallers out of 325 ministers, but twenty-two of their twenty-five students are on the side of temperance. No figures are given in reference to the Wesleyans, but out of 6,638 ministers and local preachers among the Bible Christians, the Free Methodists, and the Methodist New Connection 5,602 are abstainers, and so are all the students in training for the ministry of these three denominations. The Society of Friends, with 360 ministers, returns 350 as abstainers." These are indeed interesting figures, and most people would call the summary a good showing; but really the most noteworthy thing is that there should be any ground for such a census. It ought to be so that all would know that every minister of the Gospel, as well, indeed, as every Christian, was a total abstainer by the very fact that he is a Christian. It is truly a sad showing, when any ministers of the Gospel can be published as users of the spirit which drives out the Spirit.

"'Making the Most of Life'" The Present Truth 19, 2.

E. J. Waggoner

"Making the Most of Life . " -It is a common saying of people who live chiefly for pleasure, that they believe in making the most of life. So they think, by their actions show that they are grossly deceived. As a matter of fact they are making the least of life-spending it and getting rid of it as fast as possible. God has given us this little span of life, in order that we may decide from it if we should like to have it continued throughout eternity; and yet most people are as reckless of it as though it were of no consequence. If we always remembered that our present life is but a section of the eternity which may be ours if we wish it so, we shall constantly study how literally to make the most of it,-how to make it last the longest, and to be the richest in blessing to others.

"The Rod of God" The Present Truth 19, 2.

E. J. Waggoner

"And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt; and Moses took the rod of God in his hand." Ex. iv. 20.

What was this "rod of God," which Moses took in his hand as he journeyed back to Egypt? It was none other than the rod that he had carried with him when he led the flocks of his father-in-law. Moses was keeping the flocks in the wilderness, when God appeared to him in the bush, and told him to return to Egypt. "And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod." That was all it was-a branch from a tree. At the command of God, Moses cast it down and it became a serpent, and at the same word he took it up, and it became a rod again. This was done also before Pharaoh. The same rod was lifted up over the Red Sea, to make a way for the children of Israel; and with it Moses smote the rock in Horeb, and water gushed forth for the people to drink. It was this rod also, still called "the rod of God," that Moses took in his hand when he stood on the top of the hill, and lifted up his hands to God for the deliverance of Israel from their enemies the Amalekites. When Moses lifted up his hand Israel prevailed, and when he let it down, Amalek prevailed. Ex. xvii. 9-11.

That rod had a wonderful history; one would almost say a wonderful experience, so full of power did the rod seem; yet it was never anything more than a plain stick. But we see why it was called the rod of God; it was because the Lord used it in so wonderful a manner. Some of the greatest wonders that have ever been done on earth were performed through the agency of that simple rod.

But what power was there in the rod?-None at all. It had absolutely no virtue whatever. It could not even lift itself up, much less perform any work. It never did anything, but was merely the visible instrument through which God exhibited His marvellous power. But it never had any more ability to do anything than it had when Moses carried it as his shepherd's staff in the land of Midian.

Then why did it figure so largely in the history of the deliverance of Israel? There can be no other answer than that it was because it so evidently had no power in itself. When so insignificant and helpless a thing as a stick was used in the performance of the mighty miracles, everybody could see that it was God alone, without any human aid, that did the work.

This is the lesson that is taught us in 2 Cor. iv. 6, 7: "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."

By the deliverance from Egypt God would show us that there is no more power in man than there is in a stick, and that whenever any man will yield himself to God; to be as passive in His hands as the rod of God was in the hand of Moses, all the power of God can be exerted and manifested in him. It is thus that we become instruments of righteousness unto God.

This is the lesson that is taught in all the sacrifices and in all the ceremonies that God ever gave the people. There was never any efficacy in them, and their obvious futility was designed to show that salvation is of God alone. Thus, anybody with any sense whatever, who gave a moment's thought to the matter, would know that all the sheep and calves and bullocks in the world could not bring a single dead man to life, and so could not atone for a single sin. Thus men who used the mind that God gave them would be constrained to say, "In the Lord is all righteousness and strength."

But let us not forget the primary lesson. "What is that in thine hand?-A rod." Then with that rod will God work deliverance. God takes us as we are, and with just the ability that we have, to work out His own vast designs. The first instrument that is ready to hand, He will take. Though one may say that he is of no more value than a stick, let him not forget that if it be but the rod of God it may accomplish wonders. "Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye few men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth; thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills chaff."

Yet one thing more: "Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me." Here is comfort not merely in weakness, but through it: for the veritable rod of God is Jesus of Nazareth-Israel-born in weakness, yet the power of God. Out of weakness God ordains strength. What a marvellously blessed hope we have in God, when even our weaknesses and temptations are a cause for rejoicing! "If God be for us, who can be against us?"

"Falling to Rise Again" The Present Truth 19, 2.

E. J. Waggoner

Falling to Rise Again .-Although in our struggle against sin we have God Himself with all His armour to help us, it sometimes happens that through vain self-confidence or failure to take heed to our ways we get a fall. What then? Shall we lie still and mourn over our defeat? Not by any means. "A man's goings are established of the Lord, and He delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand." Ps. xxxvii. 23, 24. So we should always say, "Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me." This boldness, this quietness and confidence, will be our strength, our victory. Christ "is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel." Luke ii. 34.

January 15, 1903

"Walking in the Light" The Present Truth 19, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

What is meant by walking in the light? The first thing is to ascertain what the light is. Having settled this, it will be an easy matter to determine what it is to walk in it.

What is the light? We have an explicit answer to this question in these words: "This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." 1 John i. 5. Jesus, who is the brightness, the outshining, of the Father's glory, said, "I am the light of the world; he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." John viii. 12. And as evidence that this is literally true,-that Jesus is the light that makes our day, the light by which we see to walk and work or read,-on another occasion immediately after saying, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world" (John ix. 5) He made a blind man see. By the word which He spoke, the light of day, the light of the sun, shone into that poor man's eyes. So we see that the word which Jesus speaks, that Jesus Himself, is real, visible light.

That it is no figure of speech when it is said that God is light, and that Christ is the light of the world, is evident from the description of the New Jerusalem. We read: "And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." Rev. xxi. 23. And the next verse gives us a very liberal and direct answer to the question what it is to walk in the light: "The nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it."

With this let us place 1 John i. 7: "If we walk in the light as He is in the light we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." If we recognise the presence of God as we do the light; if we know that He is as really present with us as the light is; if we know that He is the light; if we recognise the fact that the healing power of light, which can penetrate deep into the tissues of the body, destroying disease germs, is the personal power of the ever-present, living God;-if in every ray of sunlight or starlight that cheers and strengthens us, we see and acknowledge God, He will direct our paths, and make our way perfect. Thus we see something of what it is to walk in the light.

God is "the living God;" He is life itself. It is the life that is the light. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . In Him was life; and the life was the light of men." John i. 1-4. So to walk in the light is to have the life of God for our life,-to be wholly controlled and guided by His life in us. This is to walk in the light as He is in the light.

Note that "that which was from the beginning" is "the Word of life." 1 John i. 1. But as "the life was the light of men," it follows that the Word of God is light. Of course, because "the Word was God," and "God is light." Accordingly we read; "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Ps. cxix. 105. "For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life." Prov. vi. 20. "The law is light." To walk in the light is, therefore, to be like Zacharias

34

and Elisabeth, "righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." Luke i. 5, 6. So the one who walks in the light is described in these verses:-

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shalI be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringelh forth big fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." Ps. i. 1-3.

It is the light of the sun that causes trees to grow. The fruit that they bear is the fruit of the light. God's people are "trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified" (Isa. lxi. 3), because "the Sun of righteousness" (Mal. iv. 2) shines upon them (Isa. lx. 1, 2); and they are "filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God" (Phil. i. 11), "for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth." Eph. v. 9, R.V.

So, in short, to walk in the light is to keep the commandments of God,-to have the character of God by the life of Christ in us. If we have the word dwelling in us, then, since it is light, when Christ comes we shall "shine forth as the sun" in the kingdom of God.

"I heard the voice of Jesus say

'I am this dark world's light;

Look unto Me, thy morn shall rise,

And all thy day be bright;'

I looked to Jesus, and I found

In Him my star, my sun;

And in that light of life I'll walk

Till travelling days are done."

"'He Hath Blinded Their Eyes'" The Present Truth 19, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

"Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them." John xii. 39, 40.

Many people are more inclined to find doubt and despair in the Bible, than to find hope and comfort, although the Bible contains none of the former, and is full of the latter; so when they read the words of the prophet Isaiah, they at once begin to complain against God, and to say that He is unjust and partial, and they will feel sure that they cannot believe, because God has made it impossible.

Now the Bible claims to be the Word of God. It exists for the sole purpose of revealing God to men, that they may see in Him the One altogether worthy of worship and affection. Everybody knows that this is the object of the Bible, whether they believe what it says or not. That being the case, how can it be supposed that anything can be found in the Bible that would tend to depreciate God in the estimation of men? Considered from a human standpoint, and as a merely human production, no one would be so foolish as to write things derogatory to his hero, in a book published for the sole purpose of honouring him. We may therefore be sure that none of the men who had to do with the production of the Bible saw in such statements as the one first quoted anything except such goodness and mercy as is consistent with the character of an all-merciful God, a God who not only loves, but who is love.

That there is comfort in even such texts as that quoted from Isaiah, and that they were written for the sole purpose of producing hope and comfort, is proved by Rom. xv. 4: "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." And that the words of the prophet Isaiah do not teach that there are some who cannot be saved even though they wish to, is shown by the inspired words of Peter, concerning Christ: "To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins." Acts x. 43.

When we read that God has hardened the heart of any person, then we should read the story of Pharaoh. God hardened his heart; but everyone who reads the account carefully, will see that it was only by the manifestation of kindness and mercy that He did it. When God sent judgments upon Pharaoh and his land, he humbled himself, and confessed his sin, promising repentance; but as soon as God showed him favour, and prosperity came again, then his heart was hardened. It was because Pharaoh hated truth and righteousness, that as soon as special mercy was manifested toward him he took advantage of it to sin yet more. "Let favour be shown to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly; and will not behold the majesty of the Lord." Isa. xxvi. 10.

Read the verses in connection with John xii. 39, 40, together with the eleventh chapter, and you will see that the way the Lord blinded the eyes of the people was by sending great light to them, which was not according to their previous experience. Jesus declared Himself to be the Light, and His mighty works had showed how great was the Light. But the greater the work that He did, the more the people hated Him and His teaching. Everybody knows the effect that great light has upon the eyes of those who are not accustomed to it; it blinds them, or causes them to close their eyes. The more they have accustomed themselves to live in the darkness, the more does the light blind them.

The Jews, like the rest of the world, sat in darkness; but their blindness was even greater than that of the rest of mankind, because they had had great light; and everybody knows that the darkness is much more intense to one who goes out of the light into it, than to one who has always been in the dark. But while others came to the light that shone in the darkness when Jesus came, the Pharisees and the principal part of the Jews rejected Him. "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." John i. 11. "For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." John iii. 20, 21. The Jews had loved darkness, and in walking in darkness so long light was much more blinding than the darkness itself.

The very same statement by the prophet Isaiah we find thus quoted in Matt. xiii. 13-15: "They seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shalt not perceive: for this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them." The same Spirit of truth prompted Matthew to make this quotation from Isaiah, that moved Isaiah to write the words in the first place; therefore we know that what we read in Matthew is the exact meaning of what we read in

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Isaiah. God blinded the eyes of men, only by sending them wonderful light.

Is it therefore God's fault that they cannot see?-Not by any means. How can it be? If men complain because God shows mercy, what would they say if He manifested wrath? If they reject the love and mercy of God, what can He do for them? Shall we complain of God for sending light that caused man to close their eyes? Shall we say that if He had not sent light, they would not have closed their eyes? Well, what then? is it better to have one's eyes open in the pitchy darkness, where there is not a ray of light, than to have them shut in the sunshine? The last condition of the man is just the same as the first, and his possibilities are infinitely greater; for nobody can possibly see in the darkness, but all can see in the light if they will accustom their eyes to it. Let us open our eyes, and praise the Lord for bringing us "out of darkness into His marvellous light.

"The Editor's Private Corner. The Substance and the Sign" The Present Truth 19, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

"Having recently lost my situation on account of keeping the Sabbath I have been sorely tempted. I have been told that if we are wholly the Lord's, and sanctified to His service, we are no longer doing our own work, whatever we do, and that when we do everything to the glory of God,-when we do only the work of the Lord,-then anything that is proper to do any day is legitimate Sabbath work; in short, that there can be no difference in days to the Christian, but that he is to find rest in Christ, and not in a day. Can you help me to a clear understanding of the matter? for I wish to do only the Lord's will."

I think I can help you; or, rather, I can direct you to the Word of the Lord, which can help you.

In the first place, let me emphasise the fact that the Christian finds rest only in the Lord. There is no rest for any soul anywhere else. Jesus calls: "Come unto Me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden; and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Matt. xi. 28, 29.

This rest in Christ is not something new that was introduced at the time of the first advent of Jesus; for many hundred years before, when the children of Israel were in the wilderness, God said to Moses, "My presence shall go with thee; and I will give thee rest." Ex. xxxiii. 14. It is worth while to remember that this was said but a few days after the ten commandments were spoken from Sinai, and while Moses was still in the mount with the Lord.

"We which have believed do enter into rest." Heb. iv. 3 The rest that the Lord gives, which is the only real rest there is, can be obtained only by faith, faith in the finished work of Christ. "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." John vi. 29. But God's work is finished and perfect; therefore whoever accepts His work must have rest.

The cross of Christ contains and reveals the completed work of Christ; for on the cross He exclaimed, "It is finished." "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature [or, "there is a new creation"]; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new, and all things are of God." 2 Cor. v. 17, 18. All the real rest that any soul on earth can ever enjoy is in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Resting in the Lord is Sabbath-keeping; and it is only the righteous who rest in the Lord. "The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt." Isa. lvii. 20. Therefore a wicked man does not, and cannot, keep the Sabbath. It is only the righteous, who are righteous because they are resting in the Lord, that keep the Sabbath.

"Well, ought not a person to rest in the Lord all the time?"

Certainly he ought.

"Is there any day when a man should not be righteous? Can a man be a Christian if he does not rest in the Lord every day?"

Most certainly not; we are to believe all the time, and so to rest in Christ-in His finished work-all the time, every day in the week, and every hour in the day.

"Then is not every day the Sabbath day?"

Not by any means. "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." That is, "the day of the Sabbath." We are always to rest in the Lord; but the seventh day, the Sabbath day, is the sign of that rest. It is the sign that we know God; and the knowledge of God is rest.

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Now while it is a deplorable fact that there are many people who have the sign without the substance, that is no reason why those who have the substance should throw away the sign. Indeed, the idea that sanctified people are above and beyond the keeping of a definite rest day, is most illogical. As a matter of fact, nobody but a sanctified person does, or can, or ever did, keep the Sabbath of the Lord; it is the person who does not trust the Lord who ought not to exhibit the sign of rest in the Lord. The seventh-day rest by a man who does not know the Lord, is meaningless; if he does not intend to give himself wholly to the Lord, to rest wholly in Him, he ought not to take in the sign; but the better way to do would be to make his practice conform to his profession; to secure the substance and to keep the sign. We are to keep the Sabbath, not in order to be righteous, but as the sign that we trust in God for righteousness.

What about the statement that we ought to be doing the Lord's work all the time, and that therefore there can be no difference in days; that one day is no more a rest day than any other?

The answer to this is found in the example of God Himself. "In six days God made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it." It is self-evident that God was doing nothing but the Lord's work in the six days of creation; nevertheless He rested on the seventh day. Then it is plain that resting on the Sabbath day is for those who, even in doing their own work on the six working days, are doing only the Lord's work, since they are the Lord's.

Just a few words to call attention to the relation between the Sabbath and the cross. Note the following plain statements of truth.

1. The Sabbath is the sign of work finished and perfect. It is the sign of a new creation; for it was when the heavens and the earth were finished, and "God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good," that God rested on the seventh day. He rested because His work, which was perfect, was finished.

2. It is in the cross that we find the new creation-God's finished and perfect work. "If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new; and all things are of God." The cross brings us back to the beginning,-into Christ, who is the beginning.

3. Therefore the Sabbath,-the seventh day, in which God rested from all His works,-is the sign of the cross.

Not how little, but how much, is to be the Christian's enquiry. "Much more" is the motto. He is always to be seeking to deveIop and expand, not to contract. But new lessons in the school of Christ do not necessitate the unlearning of what we have already passed over in the same school. Growth in grace does not imply the rejection of that which has already been gained. The greater includes the less, and cannot be had without it. So while "the law is spiritual," and no form is of any value without the Spirit, it is impossible to keep the spirit of the law and to repudiate the letter of it. Thus, "Love is the fulfilling of the law," for "he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law;" but it is impossible for a man to love his neighbour, and at the same time to rob and murder him.

Jesus said, "Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." Matt. v. 20. To exceed means to go as far, and farther; to have as much, and more. The scribes and Pharisees were very scrupulous about observing the outward form of the law, but had not the Spirit of Christ, which is the living law. Therefore if our righteousness exceeds theirs, it must include both the form and the spirit of knowledge and truth.

And now I may, before closing, call your attention to how really the Sabbath is connected with the cross. You find it actually so in your case. You are out of work; you could easily get employment if you would give up the Sabbath; and your friends and acquaintances doubtless think you are foolish and fanatical. You have found that religion does actually involve the cross; it separates you wholly from the world. Well, why should it not? Why should the native of India or China alone suffer hardship for the sake of Christ, and the Englishman expect to undergo no inconvenience on becoming a Christian? Is not this the Christian's motto, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world"?

Do you not now see that you are being tested as to whether you do really trust the Lord or not? we agree that there is no Christianity without resting in the Lord; and that means absolute trust in Him for support; but if you never have any trial, how will it appear that you do really trust Him? How can it ever be known that there is any meaning to you in the petition, "Give us this day our daily bread," if you always have supplies enough on hand for a week or a month? You say that you trust the Lord to save you, soul and body, and to keep you safe to all eternity; surely, then, you can trust Him to keep your body alive in this present time, while you are strictly conforming to His Word. The Sabbath test has demonstrated in the case of thousands of professed Christians that they dared not trust the Lord where they could see no prospect of life. It has shown that they were not really children of Abraham, "who against hope believed in hope." I trust that in your case it may prove that you are "strong in faith, giving glory to God."

"None of us liveth to himself." We sing,

"What is my being but for Thee?"

and yet are apt to act as though we lived only for ourselves. We have our being because of God's good pleasure, and He "hath pleasure in the prosperity of His servants." Ps. xxxv. 27. We may be sure that, however sorely we may be tried, if we are serving the Lord He will not allow us to die because of our faithfulness to Him, our death would be to His glory in the salvation of souls; and to die in God's service is better than to live in rejection of it.

Do not get the idea that the seventh day rest is simply a sign, apart from the substance, and that the complete substance may be had without this sign. In God's house nothing is for mere show, but every word or sign carries with it the thing signified. "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord." It is the Lord's rest. We may not understand how it can be, but nevertheless it is a truth, that the seventh day itself carries with it a blessing that no other day can give; and the blessing can be realised only by faith. God spoke in one place of the seventh day on this wise, "and God did rest the seventh day from all His works;" and in another place, of those who did not believe, "They shall not enter into My rest." Heb. iv. 4, 5. This shows that God's rest is the seventh day; not that we are to rest in Him in that 24-hour period only, but that the understanding and acceptance of what it means includes the receiving of all that He is and has for us. God says "I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." Eze. xx. 12.

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Thus let this assurance be your confidence: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure; nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Isa. lviii. 13, 14.

"The Class. Man's Noble Servants" The Present Truth 19, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

"But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" Heb. i. 13, 14.

1. What has God not said to any of the angels?

2. Where do we find the words quoted in verse 13?-Ps. cx. 1.

3. To whom are they spoken?

4. What are they?

5. How many of the angels are ministering Spirits?

6. To whom are they sent to do service?

7. What is said of the angels and ministers of God?

TOPICS SUGGESTED BY THE TEXT

1. "To which of the angels said He at any time, Sit on My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool?" Yet the angels are not jealous because the Son, even as "the Son of man," is exalted above them. They recognise His authority over them, because He has authority. They see, what all can see, whose eyes are not blinded by selfishness and pride, that Jesus belongs where He is, and they have no desire to change the natural order of things, and produce confusion. What marvellous humility and loyalty to righteousness is that of the angels! What a wonderful test they have endured! Lucifer, now Satan, saw Christ "in the form of God," and aspired to be above Him; the loyal angels see Him in "the form of a Servant," and delight to serve Him. What a lesson there is in this for men in every station and in every circumstance of life!

2. "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" or, "to do service for the sake of them who shall inherit salvation." It seems to us a perfectly fitting and natural thing that "angels and authorities and powers" should be "made subject" to Christ, and we are even accustomed to take it as a matter of course that they should do service for us; yet if we give the matter a little thought we must see what a wonderful thing it is that angels that are "mighty in strength," swift as the winds, and bright as the light, should be sent on service in poor, weak, fallen mortals, and that, being detailed by the Lord for this service they should "do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His Word." When Christ came into the world a helpless infant, the command went forth, "Let all the angels of God worship Him," and they gladly obeyed; and the service that they willingly rendered to the Son of man, they still as freely give to every son of man. In the face of this, who can ever think of himself as being "above" any kind of service?

3. It is a great and glorious thought that God has appointed mankind, in Christ, to a seat at the right hand of the throne of His Majesty, and that in the world to come, angels will gladly do service at the bidding of the sons of men. But not less wonderful is the thought of the service which these celestial beings do for us here and now. "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them." Ps. xxxii. 7. His power to deliver was shown when the Assyrian host under Sennacherib threatened Jerusalem with destruction, and there was no human prospect of escape; "The angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred fourscore and five thousand." 2 Kings xix. 35.

4. When Jesus was surrounded by a band of armed men and officers, in the Garden of Gethsemane, He was not surprised and overpowered, but went with them a willing captive; for He said to one who would defend Him with the sword, "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He shall presently give Me more than twelve legions of angels?" Matt. xxv. 53. A legion was six thousand; twelve legions would therefore have been seventy-two thousnd. In a moment Christ could have had, at the very least, seventy-two thousand angels at His service:-more than enough, even though reckoned only as men, to deliver Judea from the Roman army of occupation, and to overawe the priestly mob;-and the band of soldiers that had come out against Him would have been swallowed up. But recalling the case of Sennacherib's army, we know that at the least calculation each angel sent by God would have been equivalent to one hundred and eighty-five thousand soldiers; and seventy-two thousand angels, at that calculation, would be equal to more than thirteen thousand million men,-more than eight times the entire population of the earth! Now remember that the same force would be sent, if necessary, to the aid of the humblest of Christ's followers, and the force of the oft repeated words, "Fear not," will be evident. What can we fear, when we know that we have such a bodyguard?

5. There are no accidents to the true child of God, nor are there any accidental escapes from danger. How many times a day an angel's hand is interposed between us and death, we cannot know; but we may be sure that such deliverances are not infrequent. But it is not alone from danger to our bodies, that the angels deliver us; they are "ministering spirits," doing for us every kind of service that is necessary for our welfare,-dispensing to us the rich

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gifts of God's grace. It is right royal service, for the angels are themselves princes and rulers; think then what ought to be the behaviour of those who are served by such beings. Surely they should be "partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." A constant knowledge of the fact that we are attended by heavenly visitors would in itself serve as a wonderful incentive to a high and holy life.

"'Ministering Spirits'" The Present Truth 19, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

"Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation?" is asked concerning the angels, the question being the strongest sort of affirmation that they are. But what are they? What is their nature? and whence came they?

The minds of many people, even Christians, are very hazy on these points. It is more often than not taken for granted that they are the spirits of people who have lived on this earth, and who are now dead; (as though people could be both dead and alive at the same time!) and it is quite frequently taken for granted that one's own departed friends naturally hover about, acting as his ministering spirits, so that each one is served by his own friends.

Now all these speculations are most unscriptural and contrary to fact, as a very superficial acquaintance with the Bible should be sufficient to show. One text alone settles this. When God would show Job how insignificant he was compared with the Creator, He said to him: "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or, who laid the corner stone thereof? when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" Job. xxviii. 4-7. The angels were witnesses of the creation of the earth, before there was a man in existence. That is sufficient proof that they are not the spirits of dead men, but that they are beings entirely distinct from men.

We need not here go into consideration of the nature of man, and of the condition of man in death, to show that "the dead know not anything," but that they sleep until the resurrection, and that they therefore cannot possibly have anything whatever to do with the affairs of this earth. The truth that only angels are "ministering spirits," and that angels are not men, and never were, is sufficient for our present purpose.

What difference does it make if people do think that their dead friends are hovering near them, ministering to them? Is it not at the most only a pleasing and comforting delusion? Pleasing it may be to many; but no one ought to find pleasure in a delusion; and it is certain gat no real comfort can be derived from a fancy, which has no foundation in truth. Surely all will agree that "solid comfort" cannot be manufactured out of emptiness.

And it does make a great deal of difference whether or not one believes the truth about this thing. If one believes that his departed friends are round about him, and that they come from heaven on errands of mercy to him, he is sure to be led astray; for when he gets communication from certain invisible beings, professing to be his friends, in whom he had the utmost confidence when they were on earth, because they were Christians, he will be quite likely to believe them, even though they say things at variance with the Bible. For if one believes that the dead are conscious, when the Bible says that they are not, what is to prevent him from believing anything also that is directly contrary to the Bible?

Now the devil has for his own purpose insidiously introduced the idea among men, that the ministering spirits are men who once lived on earth in the flesh; and he takes advantage of this belief to palm off his own deceptions upon people as the truth. Whoever believes his lie concerning dead men, is sure to be deceived by all that follows from the same source; but whoever holds to God's Word cannot be led astray. Such an one knows that there are fallen angels "that kept not their first estate" (Jude 6), and were cast out of heaven (Rev. xii. 7-9), and that there are angels who have remained loyal to God, and who "do His commandments, hearkening to the voice of His Word" (Ps. xiii. 20); and whenever a communication comes from an invisible spirit, or from a visible spirit in the form of some departed acquaintance, every Bible believer will know at once from what source it comes. "To the law, and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Isa. viii. 20. God's ministering spirits speak according to His word; "the rulers of the darkness of this world" being in "chains of darkness, contradict the words of truth, the Gospel of our salvation.

"Little Folks. The Pillar of Cloud and Fire" The Present Truth 19, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

God had told Abraham just how long his seed should be afflicted in Egypt; and although as the time drew near there seemed less and loss hope that Pharaoh would let them go, yet on the very day that the time was fulfilled, God brought them out with great riches.

God Himself led them forth and guided them in the way that they should go. At this time the Israelites did not know much about the Lord. They had begun to worship the false gods of Egypt, and we can see by what they said to Aaron a little while after, "Make us gods to go before us," that they expected to be led by something that they could see. The Word of God tells us that "the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made." "His eternal power and Godhead," are the "invisible things" that can be clearly seen in His works. Rom. i. 19-21.

God wanted first of all to teach His people to know Him, so that they might trust Him fully, and follow wherever He led them. They had not yet learned to see Him in His works, so He gave them object lessons to teach them. He did special works in their midst, to teach them to see Him doing the same works everywhere and all the time. Thus they would know that He was always present, to do for them whatever they needed. And the first thing that He showed them was His power and glory in the cloud.

The pillar of cloud and fire was not only to lead them and show them the right way. It was to open their eyes to see that "the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork," to teach them to "lift up their eyes on high, and behold who hath created these."

He who "stretcheth out the heavens as a custain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in," now "spread a cloud for a covering" over His people. In the hot, dry, sandy desert, the cool shade and moisture of the overshadowing cloud must have been very refreshing to the weary travellers.

And at night, when the sun had set and the air grew chilly, the glory of the Lord, appeared in the cloud, and lightened their darkness, and warmed and cheered and protected them from the dangers that were around them on every hand.

We are told that "there was the cloud and darkness, yet gave it light by night." He who commanded the light to shine out of darkness made the dark cloud a light to His people. Do you not see that He was teaching them just the lessons that we learned in the beginning from the first chapter of Genesis?

God was in the cloud that led the Israelites, and so His glory shone forth from it. But He "maketh the clouds His chariots," and His glory appeared in every one of them. Would you not like to see "the glory of the Lord" appearing in the cloud? Then lift up your eyes on high when the setting sun paints the clouds with rose and amber, and gilds them with glory. Or again when the drops of water that form the mist break up the sun's rays into the seven-hued rainbow. There you may see the same glory that the Israelites saw, for remember that "the heavens declare the glory of God," because He has put His glory upon them that in reflecting it they may give light and warmth and beauty and fruitfulness to this world.

Just as His appearing in the bush showed that He dwells in every plant that grows, so His coming to the Israelites and showing them His glory in the cloud, showed

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that He is dwelling also in the heavens, and it is His glory that shines forth from them.

When God is speaking of some who say, "My way is hid from the Lord," as though they thought He had forgotten and was not leading them, He says, "Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created those things." So long as we can look up and see the firmament over our heads and the glory of the Lord that it shows forth, we may be quite sure that God has not forgotten us, and that He will be our Guide and Saviour.

"A Cup of Cold Water" The Present Truth 19, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

A touching incident is related in connection with Martin Luther's appearance at the Diet of Worms when he reached his lodgings after his memorable speech before the Emperor, a servant entered, bearing a silver jug. Presenting it to the Doctor, the bearer said, "My master invites you to refresh yourself with this draught." "Who is the prince," asked Luther, "who so graciously remembers me?" It was the aged Duke Erie of Brunswick, one of the Papal members of the Diet. Luther raised the vessel to his lips, took a long draught and then putting it down, said, "As this day Duke Eric has remembered me, so may the Lord Jesus Christ remember him in the hour of his last struggle."

Not long after this, Duke Eric of Brunswick lay dying. Seeing a young page standing by his bedside, he said to him, "Take the Bible, and read in it to me." The page, opening the Bible, read out these words: "Whosoever shall give you a cup of cold water in My name, because ye belong to Me, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward." Duke Eric was refreshed in his turn. When his heart and strength were failing him a golden cup was put to his lips, and he drank therefrom a draught from the water of life.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

A very striking contrast, which nobody seemed to recognise, was presented in a London newspaper a few days ago. The same issue that gave an account of a dinner to celebrate a prominent minister's eightieth birthday, told of the death of a judge who died at the age of seventy-two, from "senile decay." Thus it appears that old age does not always depend on the number of years one has lived, but upon other things, chiefly on how one has lived.

The report of the Medical officer for the County of London, shows that deaths from cancer are largely on the increase. In the years 1851-1860, the death-rate from cancer was 42; in 1891 it was 78; while in 1901 it was 93; and this, too, it must be remembered, while the population is also steadily increasing. Surely it is high time for people to be enquiring, and finding out, what is the cause of this fearful disease. Let the doctors busy themselves hunting for the cancer microbe if they will; while they are doing that, ordinary people, with simple common sense, may, by careful observation and thought, ascertain the conditions and habits that cause the plague, and avoid them.

Speaking of the new Drink Act, one of the leading London magistrates recently said: "If the effect of the Act is to diminish drunkenness as much as is hoped, the Act will be abundantly justified-because once you get rid of drunkenness you might almost close the police courts. It is surprising how, on analysis, drink is found at the bottom of most of the offences which come before a metropolitan magistrate."

In holding an inquest at Lambeth on the body of a three-weeks-old infant that had died from exhaustion through inability to digest condensed milk, the coroner said that he thought it would be a good thing if each three jurymen would tell three of their friends that condensed milk is a bad thing for babies, and ask them to pass it on in like manner. He thought that by hammering away at the subject a change for the better might sooner or later be produced; and so, in this hope, we contribute our share towards the diffusion of information. The great trouble is that so many people will not act on knowledge that they have.

During the last thirty years Mr. Jonathan Hutchinson has carried out a series of protracted investigations as to the cause of leprosy, and should therefore be able to speak with some authority. In a paper recently read at the Polyclinic, Chenies Street, he stated his belief that leprosy is a food disease, that it spreads only to a very small extent by anything of the nature of personal contagion, and that the one article of food which is to be suspected is badly cured fish. He said that it would probably be very near the truth to say that over the whole world the prevalence of leprosy is in ratio with the use of cured fish as an article of diet.

The Pope, in a Brief appointing a commission composed of Cardinals to supervise and promote the action of the association formed two years ago for "the preservation of the faith," which was designed solely to prevent Protestant propaganda, bitterly complains of "the liberty granted in Rome to the propagation of heresy." He says that the existence of Protestant schools and churches in Rome is "a great danger to the Catholic Church." The Pope poses as "liberal," and many Protestants are wont to gush over his "broad-mindedness;" but if the Pope were master in Rome, as he once was, they would soon see how much more liberal he really is than any of his predecessors. "Rome never changes."

The Daily Chronicle is publishing a series of articles by its "Special Commissioner" on Canada, the first one of which contained the following statements; "My own impression is that Canadian loyalty is largely a question of tariff. A prominent Member of the Otawa Parliament said to me: "If the Americans were to give us a generous tariff most of us would be Americans tomorrow." Most of the cruellest wars of modern times have been caused by tariffs." That, it will be remembered was the sole cause of the American revolution; and the statement, or rather the truth stated, should have the effect of silencing the talk about "righteous wars," and shunning ecclesiastical encouragement of war. If the naked truth, that wars between nations are simply vast brawls over a difference in a question of accounts, were kept prominently before the people, it might to some extent diminish military enthusiasm.

It is stated that "among the various signs of waning religious observance is the general neglect of Sunday Services on board the ships of the mercantile marine. The holding of a service on such ships was at one time the rule, but has now become the exception; and the Missions to Seamen are trying to induce shipowners to help to restore the former state of things. The maritime laws of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark insist on the due observance of Sunday on board ship, and with a view to obtaining the same observance on British Ships, the Missions to Seamen are offering shipowners service-boxes, complete with Bible, prayerbooks, and hymn-books, at a purely nominal price. It will take something more than that, however, to revive the spirit of religion. Even though the gift of the books resulted in the holding of services on board ship, that would not necessarily mean a revival of religion. Life cannot be put into a decayed tree by tying green leaves to its branches.

A banquet was recently served to 600 guests representing the politics, art, literature, music, and high society of Berlin, at which the food was almost exclusively horse-flesh, prepared in various ways. The feast was for the express purpose of popularising the use of horse-flesh as food; and it reads almost like sarcasm, that it was provided by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Privy Councillor Von Sufold said that the dinner was "bound to give a tremendous impetus to the Society's object of inducing horse-owners to make the declining days of their animals be comfortable and healthful that they might safely aspire to end their existence on their masters' dinner tables." Of course there is no reason except prejudice, why people should not eat horses as freely as hogs and rabbits; for all are alike pronounced unclean by the Lord; but according to the Berlin Society's idea of kindness to animals, the cannibal who fattens his victim well before killing him for the feast may be called a philanthropist.

The race question is a very live one in America, and the strong feeling that exists really seems to need but little excitement to result in civil war. A negro postmistress whom the President had appointed at a village in Mississipii was compelled to resign the position, on account of the bitter persecution to which she was subjected. The Cabinet, after a consultation, closed the post office. There is also strong opposition to the proposed appointment of a coloured man as collector of customs at Norfolk, Virginia. A leading paper in the South has stated that if the President persisted in appointing negroes to office they would be killed, and a general uprising against negro office-holders is threatened. When ministers of the Gospel publicly defend the lynching of negroes, and the burning of them at the stake, it cannot be expected that the people of the South will acquiesce in negro appointments to office. It remains to be seen whether Mr. Roosevelt's well-known firmness will prevail in this matter, or whether, if he persists in maintaining the equality of all citizens before the law, the matter will be carried to the point of an uprising. Europe is not the only place where only a spark is needed to cause an explosion.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

Neglected opportunity is sin. "To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." James iv. 17.

"Who is a god like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity?" In all systems of false worship, there are penalties attached to those acts that are thought to be an offence to the gods. By sacrifices and gifts they must be appeased and propitiated. There is no conception of the forgiveness of transgression. God only is the God that pardoneth iniquity, the one with whom there is forgiveness, who requires not sacrifices from the sinner, but who sacrifices Himself in order to cleanse him from the sin.

Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates therein day and night, that he may know the way of God. Ps. i. 1. "The Lord knoweth the way" of such an one (verse 6); that is, the Lord knows the way of those who know His way, when one, through constant meditation therein, knows the way of God, and has learned the secret of the Lord, his own way is assured; God knows exactly what course he will take, and can trust him in any circumstances. Abraham knew God's way, and therefore God could say of him: "I know him, that he will command his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord." God knew Abraham's way, because Abraham knew His way. Our way is regulated entirely by our knowledge of God's way. It was because God "made known His ways unto Moses" that He could say of him, "I know thee." "Teach me Thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path."

"My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning, O Lord." This verse in the fifth psalm is more than a mere statement of the fact that in the morning I will pray. "My voice shalt Thou hear" is an assurance given by the Holy Spirit that God will hear us when we do lift up our voice to Him. He listens for our voice in the morning. Does He hear it? He also speaks to us His morning greeting. Are we listening for it? "He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear."

What is it that God is so desirous that we should hear in the morning? "Cause me to hear Thy loving-kindness in the morning." Read also Prov. vi. 20-23. Every morning bears to us a fresh message of God's loving-kindness, with which to begin the new day. "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto Thy name, O Most High! To show forth Thy loving-kindness in the morning, and Thy faithfulness every night." Evidently this is the theme for our morning meditation, and that which should inspire our praise and prayer,-"the loving-kindness of the Lord." His loving-kindness each morning assures us that we shall be led, protected, fed, and kept through the day.

"And Thy faithfulness every night." If we hear His loving-kindness in the morning, we shall assuredly declare His faithfulness at night; for all the events of the day will have proved it. When darkness falls, and the perils of the night come on, knowing that He makes us dwell in safety we shall lay us down in peace and sleep, committing "the keeping of our souls to Him as unto a faithful Creator."

"God's Faithfulness at Night" The Present Truth 19, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

God's Faithfulness at Night .-The Scriptures tell us that it is a good thing to show forth God's faithfulness every night. Every one who has had any experience in that line can testify that it is indeed a good thing to know God's faithfulness at night. It is good to know in the silent night, when unseen dangers are around, and the pestilence may be walking abroad, that God's faithfulness remains unchanged. And what is this faithfulness? God's faithfulness is shown in the forgiveness of sins; for we read: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive as our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." "He will not always chide, neither will He keep His anger for ever." He tells us not to let the sun go down upon our wrath; and so we may with confidence come to Him at evening time, expecting that all the sins of the day will be forgiven. It is this separation of our sins from us, by the faithfulness of God, that gives calm confidence in the darkest night. "I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep; for Thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety."

"'The Just for the Unjust'" The Present Truth 19, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

"The Just for the Unjust." -"It is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well-doing, than for evil-doing. For Christ also hath once suffered for Bins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." 1 Peter iii. 17, 18. "For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called; because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow in His steps; who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth; who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously." 1 Peter ii. 19-23.

How slow we are to learn the primary lessons of the Gospel! Even now, after all the years of Christian teaching, and the setting forth of the example of Christ, it is no uncommon thing to see professed Christians grieved and complaining because they have been accused of something of which they are not guilty. Worst of all does it seem to them if they are held responsible for another's fault. In such a case they feel that they are greatly abused, and that they are fully warranted in demanding that justice be done them. They even think that it is their duty to do so, "in the interest of truth." When we feel thus we forget that as Christians we are called to suffer unjustly without complaining. Christ suffered for sins-the Just for the unjust. We are called to suffer with Him; and this means that "the just for the unjust" is to be the ruling feature in our lives. To the rich oppressors it is said, "Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you." James v. 6. Our only concern is to see that we are just. "If ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye." "But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evil-doer, or as a busybody in other men's matters. But if any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed." 1 Peter iv. 15, 16.

January 22, 1903

"The Editor's Private Corner. 'Christians and Theatre-going'" The Present Truth 19, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

"I should be very thankful if you would assist me in the following questions:-Is there any harm in going to the theatre? Is it a suitable place for a Christian? The subject at our Sundayschool class meeting lately was theatre-going, and most of our scholars seem to think that there is no harm in the theatre, which I myself could not agree with. There was one who said that the theatre was established six hundred years before Christ. If you have any account of it, I should be very thankful for your statement."

I am very glad for the privilege of answering this question, for I know that it is one that exercises the minds of a great many people, both young and old.

I will note the last part of it first. There is no doubt that the theatre is much more ancient than six hundred years before Christ, as ancient history, especially Grecian history, abounds with references to plays and to the stage, and actors. In fact our word "hypocrite" is simply the Greek word meaning one who acts a part on the stage. Hypocrisy is the actor's art. However, the matter of time has nothing whatever to do with the question. Sin does not become righteousness with age. We have positive evidence of idolatry more than sixteen hundred years before Christ, but that does not make it right. Murder and lying date from four thousand years before Christ, but they are just as wrong as though they were introduced only yesterday.

The only thing that really concerns us is, What is the effect of the theatre both upon the actors and the attendants? Even the strongest apologists for the theatre, those who are the most intimately connected with it, admit that it is demoralising in its tendency, and that, too, without reference to the class of plays. We can pass by the depraved exhibitions, which, by the way, constitute by for the largest part of theatrical representation, and take into consideration only the better class of plays. Even these are demoralising, first of all to the actors themselves, who live in an unreal world. I am not making any charge against the morality of actors, I am only speaking of the inevitable tendency of the stage. It is the truth, admitted by those who know most about the matter, that it requires much more power of resistance, to live a moral life as an actor, than in almost any other calling; and that in general there is more laxness, to say the least, in the theatrical profession, than in any other.

This comes from the very nature of the case. The fact that our word "hypocrite" is the ancient Greek actor is significant. A solid character cannot be built out of nothing, out of untruth. The effect of the theatre on those who attend cannot be other than demoralising, because their minds are always wrought up to an unnatural pitch of excitement. The effect is precisely the same kind as that of drinking intoxicating liquors. It is self evident that if nothing were displayed on the stage except the events of ordinary, every-day life, it would have very few if any devotees. People go to the theatre to see something extraordinary.

Even if everything exhibited were possible, and had actually occurred in real life, yet the fact remains that the sum of it all is an exaggeration, since the striking incidents in a score of lives are made to appear as occurring in a single life. People go to a theatre to be excited and stimulated; and the effect of a mental stimulant is as bad as that of a physical one. It always results in a reaction. In time something stronger is required, and there is less and less relish for plain food either for mind or body. False views of life are presented, or if in any case there is an exact representation of real life, it is of its worst side. Therefore we may truly say that at the very best the theatre represents that vanity from which the Psalmist prayed the Lord to turn away his eyes; and we should do likewise.

It is right that the mind should be drawn out to view wonderful things, that the conception should be enlarged, but this can be done by truth far better than by falsehood. The truth as revealed in the Bible and in nature is far more wonderful than anything that the wildest flights of human imagination can conceive. There is not a faculty of the mind that cannot be developed and strengthened by the contemplation of truth. But falsehood tends only to narrowness and weakness.

"The Editor's Private Corner. A Multitude of Captives" The Present Truth 19, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

"Being a constant reader of your valuable paper, and having derived great help and blessing from its 'Private Corner,' I should be glad it you would give me some information on the following:-

"Matt. xxvii. 51-53 says, 'And behold the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent and the graves were opened: and many bodies of the saints which slept arose and came out of their graves after His resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.' Now, can you please tell me what became of them? Did they die, or did they take part in the ascension?"

The verses that you have quoted are all that the Bible contains directly on this subject. There is no other specific reference to those who were raised at the crucifixion of Christ. However, there is a very plain statement made in Eph. iv. 8, which enables us to come to a very clear understanding of the matter. The text reads that when Christ "ascended up on high He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men." The margin has it, "a multitude of captives." Thus we know that when Christ ascended to heaven, He took with Him a multitude of captives redeemed from the grave as proofs of His power over death and the grave. That multitude, brought up from the graves and made immortal, and taken to heaven, stands as a demonstration of the fact that Christ has the keys of death and the grave. They are evidences that He died and rose again, not for Himself, but for the world. In them is demonstrated the truth that the resurrection of Jesus means the resurrection and immortality of all the righteous.

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Now while the record in the Gospel says nothing more concerning those who came from the grave at the crucifixion of Jesus than the mere fact that they appeared unto many, the fact that when He ascended on high, He took a multitude of captives with Him, makes it very evident that those mentioned by Matthew must have been among the number, for it is not reasonable to suppose that those saints were left to go back into the graves, and some others taken.

The item is of more than passing interest. It was not recorded merely as a matter of curiosity. Everything in the Bible is for practical use in every-day life; and this shows us what is the lively hope to which we are begotten by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It shows us that even now, before the coming of the Lord, and before this mortal puts on immortality, and this corruptible incorruption, it is possible for human flesh to be delivered from the "bondage of corruption." The life of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh; for the Spirit that is given to dwell in us, is the Spirit which quickens our mortal bodies. Rom. viii. 10-11. Therefore "unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen."

"The Class. The Word of Salvation. Heb. ii. 1-7" The Present Truth 19, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

(Heb. ii. 1-7.)

"Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will? For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands."

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

1. What is the conclusion, drawn by the contrast in the first chapter between Christ and the angels?

2. What about the Word spoken by angels?

3. What did transgression of it bring?

4. But what has the Lord spoken?

5. By whom was it confirmed?

6. Who bore witness with them?

7. Why was the preaching of the Gospel committed to men rather than to angels?

8. What questions are asked about man?

9. What statements are made concerning him?

10. What has man received, that the angels have not?

TOPICS SUGGESTED BY THE TEXT

"Therefore." This word throws us back on what precedes, as the basis for what follows. It is a great mistake, especially in the Gospels and Epistles, to begin to read any chapter without reference to the preceding chapter. Any reading of the Bible is better than none at all; but whoever would get full value for his reading must watch the connection closely, and think. And, by the way, the only real way to think when one is reading the Bible is to keep still and let every detail of the text make its own impression on the mind. In this case we must bear in mind that we are just passing from a consideration of Christ's superiority to the angels, and of the Word which God has spoken to us by Him.

Very close attention must be given to the first three verses of this chapter, or the wonderful truth that they contain, and the connection of the idea with what precedes and follows, will not be perceived. There is a double contrast-first between the speakers, and second, between the things spoken. It is easy so see that the word spoken by the Lord must be of the highest significance, demanding greater attention than that spoken by angels; but what about the word spoken? We are plainly told that the Lord spoke "so great salvation." Of what the angels said, we are merely told that it was "steadfast," and that "every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward." Now the words "transgression and disobedience" imply a commandment given; and our minds instantly recur to Stephen's arraignment of the Council, as men "who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it." Acts vii. 53. So we see that not only are angels as speakers contrasted with the Lord, but the commandment is set over against the word of salvation from disobedience to that commandment. Thus, if every transgression and disobedience of the word spoken by angels received its full measure of punishment, what hope of escape is there if we neglect the word spoken by Christ, which, if heeded, would save us? That is to say, If when we are offered salvation, and that, too, by the Lord, we reject it, no hope is left; "for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Acts iv. 12.

This word of salvation was at the first spoken by the Lord. Recalling the first three verses of the first chapter, we are reminded that the word of salvation is the word of power that upholds all things. The salvation is as great as the universe. The promise of our salvation, if we believe, is exactly the same as the assurance that all the suns and worlds that God has created, will be preserved by Him. God has sworn by Himself, pledging His own existence for our salvation; but all things depend on Him; therefore if He were to allow a single trusting soul to perish, the whole universe would go to destruction. So we have the call, "Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it; shout, ye lower parts of the earth; break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein; for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorfied Himself in Israel." Isa. xliv. 23. Because not one of the stars escapes the care of Him who is great in might and strong in power, His people cannot say, "My way is hid from the Lord, and My judgment is passed over from My God." Isa. xl. 26, 27.

THE AUTHORITY FOR PREACHING THE WORD

The word of salvation which was first spoken by the Lord "was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him." No person needs any other commission for preaching salvation according to the ability that God

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has given him than this, that he has himself heard it. Whoever hears the word is authorised to pass it to his neighbour. "The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, come." Rev. xxii. 17. Peter and John said, "We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." Acts iv. 20.

God bears witness with all such. "For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of My Father which speaketh in you." Matt. x. 20. He "confirmeth the word of His servant." Isa. xliv. 26. When His people speak His Word,-and "he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God," (John iii. 34), and nobody has any right to speak otherwise than as God Himself (1 Peter iv. 11),-whatsoever they bind on earth is bound in heaven. That word is for ever settled in heaven, and cannot fail.

WHY THE WORD OF SALVATION WAS NOT GIVEN TO THE ANGELS

"For unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak." This reveals the fact that "the world to come" is the subject of discourse. The casual reader may ask, "where has it been mentioned?" The answer is, In the first chapter, verses 10-12: "Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of Thine hands; they shall perish; but Thou remaineth; and they shall all wax old, as cloth a garment; and as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up, and they shall be changed." When a garment becomes old, and is folded up and changed, it is obvious that a new garment follows. So when the old earth is changed like a garment, we know that it means the new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

But what about this "world to come, whereof we speak"? The plain statement is that it has not been put in subjection to angels, and the equally plain statement follows that it was put in subjection to man. The proof of this is found in the declaration that when man was made, and crowned with glory and honour, he was set over the works of God's hands. He was made to have dominion, he was given "dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." Gen. i. 26. Someone may say, "That says nothing about the world to come, but only the world that was in the beginning." Well, the world that was in the beginning was the new earth, and it is the new earth for which, according to God's promise, we look. So the world to come is the world that was. "Whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever." God never takes back a gift; therefore the fact that the new earth was in the beginning made subject to man's dominion is positive proof that "the world to come, whereof we speak" has been put in subjection to him.

Now for the final point in this week's study. What is the force of the declaration that the world to come has not been put in subjection to angels? If we note the connection carefully, we shall see. We have just been told that the word of salvation that at the first began to be spoken by the Lord has been committed to men. "He has committed unto us the word of reconciliation; we are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ, as though God were intreating by us." 2 Cor. v. 20. Not to angels has this word been committed, because the world to come has not been made subject to them. "The earth hath He given to the children of men," and therefore to man is committed the work that will result in its restoration. And this leaves this thought with us, to be meditated on for a week, that the power of the Gospel message is identical with the power that created and upholds the world, and which will renew it. Here is comfort for both speaker and hearer. The one who hears the word may know that His power to renew him is the same power that made and upholds the worlds; and when he passes it on he is assured that if he speaks God's word faithfully, he is made a fellow-worker with God in creation and redemption.

"Little Folks. The Red Sea Divided" The Present Truth 19, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

God knew the best way for the Children of Israel to go, and "He led them forth by the right way." But when they got into difficulties, they forgot who was leading them, and thought they had come the wrong way; and they were angry with Moses for bringing them into trouble.

Before them was the deep sea; behind them Pharaoh and his chariots and horsemen; at the side the mountains shut them in. But there was one place where they forgot to took, the place that they should have looked to first and only. If they had only turned their eyes in the right direction, they would have seen the way of escape. It was Jesus. He, the Way, was with them, and if they had believed this, they could not have come to any place where they could say, "There is no way;" for He is "the new and living way." So where there is no way at all, He can make a new way. What need they have feared with such a Guide, who could make a new way of life, when there was nothing but death before them?

God had a special reason for leading the Israelites just the way that He did. He wanted to give them another object lesson, to show them that He who made the firmament and the light, also made the seas and the dry land, that they might see Him there also. He also wanted to show His power to deliver them in such a wonderful way that they would never doubt Him again, and at the same time destroy all their enemies so that they would never be any more trouble to them.

It was God, not Moses, who divided the waters, but He honoured Moses by working through him. When Moses raised the rod, God divided the waters.

This was the Egyptians' last opportunity to yield to God when they saw Him holding back the surging waters by His mighty power, they had the answer to Pharaoh's proud question, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice?" But instead of worshipping Him, they rushed madly to their doom. Of their own accord they went down into the depth. And when God's people were all safe, and the waters rushed together again, there was no way of escape for them.

You would like to have marched with the hosts of Israel through the midst of the sea on dry land, to have stood on the shore and seen the meeting of the divided waters sweep away the proud legions of Pharaoh. Yet God is now doing for you just what He did for the Israelites dividing the waters and holding them back by His power that you may have a place in which to live on the dry land.

If that path through the waters had remained, and the Israelites had walked through it day after day for many years, in time it would have become a common thing to many of them, and they would not have thought of the power constantly working for their salvation. And so it is with us to-day in all

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the mighty wonders of God's great creation. In the beginning God breathed between the waters, and they were divided, and a space spread out for us filled with His life-giving breath that we call the air.

Now let us read how God divided the waters of the sea before Israel. "And the Lord caised the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and the waters were divided." The wind is simply the air in motion, and the more quickly it moves, the stronger is the wind. But we have learned that the air is the breath of the Lord; so He divided the Red Sea just as He divided the waters in the beginning. He breathed between them, and thus made a space for His people to pass through.

This is just what Moses sang in the song of victory after they had reached the shore. "With the blast of Thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap." So in this God was not doing a new thing, but showing what He had been doing from the beginning, and is still doing for us to-day.

"Little Folks" The Present Truth 19, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

How can an egg turn into a chicken? You have eaten many eggs, but you never saw anything in them that looked like a chicken. And you have seen a raw egg broken open, but found nothing inside but white and yellow liquid.

Yet if that egg had been left for the hen to sit on, in a few days you might have heard a little "peep," and a faint, tap. Soon after, out would have come a little fluffy ball of yellow down, with legs and a beak, and a pair of bright, beady eyes,-a perfect little chick. A miracle! Yes, surely.

This whole world was once "without form." It was a watery mass, and no dry land could be seen. But the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and brooded over them as a bird hovers and broods over her nest.

Then forth came this beautiful earth. The dry land was covered with grass and flowers, where ants, bees, butterflies, and a countless host of other insects live and work and play. There were blossoming fruit trees with birds singing among the branches. In the woods and meadows were all kinds of animals, from the huge elephant to the tiny field mouse. The seas swarmed with Iiving creatures, fish and water animals. That which did all these wonders was the Spirit of the living God.

Nothing but the power that made the world out of that shapeless mass, can make a chicken out of an egg. It can be done only by the Spirit of God. He has never left the world, but is still working, forming and keeping all the things that are made.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

The Daily Chronicle says that "before he is duly enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Randall Davidson will have to pay out nearly a thousand pounds in the way of fees." That settles the question as to whether Peter was ever Pope. The man who said, "Silver and gold have I none" could not have attained the rank even of Archbishop. A bishop he was, however, for the Holy Ghost made him one.

The mania for going to law probably never had a more striking illustration than last week at a London Police Court, where a man charged his nine-year-old son with stealing a penny from him, and actually wished the judge to send him to prison. Comment upon so unnatural an act is useless; and one can quite agree with the magistrate, who, in discharging the boy, said that it was a pity to send him back to such a father. Yet that man is only one of thousands who have no sense whatever of what is due to the children who are unfortunately born to them.

It is reported that recently in New York, a Presbyterian minister "baptized a dead baby at a funeral." Of course, he did not really baptize the baby, but only sprinkled it. It Is said that two other cases have occurred, and the editor of a Baptist paper takes occasion to make the following true statements, which are startling enough to set some people to thinking:-

"There are as many commands to baptize dead infants as there are to baptize living ones. There are in the Bible as many examples of the baptism of dead infants as there are of the baptism of live ones. Both are utterly foreign to Scripture thought and teaching so far as any effect on the infant is concerned, there is no difference. The live baby knows no more of what is being done to it when it is 'baptized' than does the dead one."

The eminent theologian and Assyriologist Professor Delitzsch, delivered a lecture last week in Berlin, on "Babylon and the Bible," to an audience which included the Emperor and Empress, the Imperial Chancellor, the Minister of Religion, several court chaplains, and the elite of Berlin society. He characterised the story of Nebuahadnezzar as "an ancient Chaddean myth, which the writer of the Book of Daniel "clearly misunderstood." He declared that there could be "no greater error of the human mind than to regard the Bible as a personal revelation of God," and practically set it aside as unworthy of any consideration except as "a book in the chain of the development of religion." The fact that the Kaiser, who has been considered as strongly orthodox, should be an attentive and apparently appreciative hearer of such a lecture, and should afterwards warmly greet the lecturer, introduce him to the Empress, and chat with him for some time, is regarded as a victory for the "liberal theologians." Undoubtedly it will give a marked impulse to infidelity; but it will not shake any who have real faith, based on their personal acquaintance with the Author of the Bible.

Last year the sum of ?2,031,058 was paid as tobacco duty by local manufacturers at Bristol. What a vast amount of tobacco that represents; and then it must be remembered that when the manufacturers pay such a sum as duty, the consumers pay that sum many times over for the product. And all this money, together with the time and energy of thousands of people, is spent on that which at best is but a worthless weed, imparting no strength or virtue to the body, and which is actually a deadly poison, sapping the life and energy of the user. The greater portion of the money spent in the kingdom is for "that which is not bread," and the labour is mostly for "that which satisfieth not."

Statistics show that one child in every six born in this country dies in the first year of its life. It has been well said that this high death-rate will continue as long as "more care is taken over the supply of beer than of milk." The health officer for Essex declares that 8,000 children die every year in that county alone from the use of uncooked milk; and the vital statistics of Berlin show that the death-rate is thirty times as high in children fed on cows' milk as in those breast-fed. Herod's "slaughter of the innocents" strikes people with horror; but it pales in significance beside that which is continually being perpetrated by modern mothers. There is this difference, that the ancient slaughter was prompted by diabolical malice, while the modern one is the result of ignorance and carelessness.

There has been great rejoicing over the result of the recent Parliamentary election at Newmarket, It being counted a victory for Nonconformists as well as for the Liberals. The Church papers, however, take occasion to chaff the Nonconformists a bit over their candidate, In view of what was said about the "Nonconformist conscience" being outraged by Lord Rosebery's connection with the turf. The "Newmarket victory" sends a man to Parliament, who is a prominent racing man, and who owns several race horses. The Christian World feels the inconsistency of the Nonconformist position, and admits that the new member is not an ideal representative, but says that "he has a combination of qualities which, as things go, make him a valuable electioneering asset." It adds:-

"We know also that politics are a practical concern, and that if constituencies are to be won, men who can unite all sections must be secured. But, when all that is allowed for, the last remains that, unless they are content to see the great question of religious equality indefinitely played with, Nonconformist must pay far more attention to the choice of candidates than they have hitherto done, especially in constituencies where the Nonconformist vote is very strong. Our explanation is, of course, that, under the present conditions of electoral contests, success generally depends more on a long purse than on any higher qualification, and until this is altered it is useless to expect much improvement."

That single admission is sufficient to show that however much politics may help the Free Church Federation, it cannot possibly advance the cause of Christ. The Gospel knows nothing about compromise, and cannot be helped by "victories" won by the power of "long purses." One such statement as the foregoing is ample justification for any Christian in keeping wholly aloof from political contests.

It is announced that several members of the Legislature of Utah (U.S.A.) have requested a. Mr. Smoot of Salt Lake City to "resign his apostleship" in the Mormon Church, in order to remove the objection to his candidature for the United States Senate. The talk of resigning apostleship as one would the office of Town Clerk seems strange; yet a man may certainly resign any position to which he has been elected by the people. But real apostles and prophets are made by the Lord, and they cannot divest themselves of their office as a man would take off his coat. They do not assume their position, but actually are the thing which they are called; and only a change in their character can make them anything else.

A writer recently gave, through the Daily Mail, his experience in "self-cure for consumption." The open-air treatment was recommended, but he had not the means to pay for treatment at an institution; so he took it on his own account. A physician, referring to the case, writes: "There is no mystery to the open-air treatment of consumption. Many men pay heavy fees for months before they make this discovery. The treatment consists of nothing but a supply of 'clean' air and good food." Most people, unless they live in a big city, can get the first of these for nothing; and the second would not in general be so difficult a matter to negotiate if the money spent for unnecessary and harmful food were expended for that which is good.

Referring to the firm stand taken by President Roosevelt, to give coloured citizens of the United States the rights and privileges granted them by the Constitution, the same as though they were white, and the opposition that has been stirred up against him, the Glasgow Evening News says:-

"The outcome of this struggle will be either to make or break the future career of the President as President. . . . Judging by all we know of the United States, they are not prepared to give the negro his full political rights, just as they are most determined that he shall not enjoy social equality. In such a struggle, therefore, is the President in the least likely to prove the victor? Will he have a second term of office?"

We notice that it seems to be taken for granted that if Mr. Roosevelt is not re-elected next year, it will prove that he is defeated in the struggle. Defeat for him would be to yield a principle of right to the element of wicked prejudice. The man who holds to his principles is victor, even though he be put to death.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

He who neglects doing what he ought to do, will surely make up for it by doing something that he ought not to do.

Nothing is true because it is written in a book. That is to say that no book is ever to be cited as authority for any truth, except it be some statement of a matter of observation. Whoever would teach a thing must teach it because it is so, and must be able to demonstrate that it is so, and not say that a book says so.

Of course the Bible is an exception, for it is of God. Even then truths do not derive their truthfulness from the Bible, but are in the Bible because they are true. However, the Bible reveals the Source of truth, and therefore is always of final authority in any matter.

"There is a spirit in men, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." There can be no understanding apart from the inspiration of the Almighty. This reveals the necessity of studying the Bible, because "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." "The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." Then study God's Word, for in it is to be found wisdom greater than that of either the ancients or the moderns.

"God's Name Glorified" The Present Truth 19, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

God's Name Glorified .-When Jesus, standing in the shadow of Gethsemane and the cross, would not say, "Father, save Me from this hour," but would offer only the petition, "Father, glorify Thy name," there came immediately a voice from heaven, saying, "I have both glorified it, and I will glorify it again." John xii. 27, 28. Here we have an illustration of the truth that whoever will lose his life for the Lord's sake shall find it. Christ would not ask that His life be spared, but only that God's name might be glorified, which was at once assured. But God's name is glorified in salvation. "The Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified Him self in Israel." Isa. xliv. 23. He gives to the mourners "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified." Isa. Ixi. 3. They are made righteous, and have an everlasting inheritance, that He may be glorified. Isa. Ix. 31. He gives grace according to the riches of His glory, and it is by forgiving those who confess their iniquity, that He saves the throne of His glory from disgrace. Jer. xiv. 21. So our confidence in approaching the throne of grace and glory, for salvation and help, is that God has more at stake than we have. "I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake." Isa. xliii. 25.

"Pensioners on God's Bounty" The Present Truth 19, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

Pensioners on God's Bounty .-What a wonderful householder God is! how vast is His estate, and what an infinite number of tenants He has! But, unlike the tenants of most landlords, instead of contributing to His support, they subsist wholly on His bounty, paying no rent whatever. Thus, we read, "O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! In wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth is full of Thy creatures. Yonder is the sea, great and wide, wherein are creeping things innumerable, both small and great beasts. . . . These wait all upon Thee, that Thou mayest give them their meat in due season. That Thou givest them they gather; Thou openest Thine hand, they are satisfied with good." They are all looking to the Lord for their food, and expecting that He will provide it. When the wild beasts roar, they are asking God for their portion. And He has already for them; He keeps them merely for the pleasure of seeing them enjoy themselves. What a source of encouragement this is for man made in His image to be a companion for Him, to trust Him for support.

"The Comfort of God's Face" The Present Truth 19, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

The Comfort of God's Face .-Some men, yes, very many people, wish, like Jonah, to flee from the presence of the Lord; many, like Adam and Eve, would hide themselves because of a feeling of guilt; but none such know the Lord, or the joy of His presence. Of all the creatures that fill the earth and sea, we read, "Thou hideest Thy face, they are troubled." The Hebrew word signifies, "terrified," or put in distress. It is the same word that is rendered, "vex," in Ps. ii. 5, and "confounded," in Ps. lxxxiii. 17. Thus we see that the beasts and creeping things and fishes, find their happiness solely in the shining of God's face upon them, although they are not able, like man, to understand the source of their well-being.

When Moses was troubled at the prospect before him as the leader of a murmuring and rebellious host, God said, "My presence [literally, My face] shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." Es. xxxiii. 14. So we read that "they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them; but Thy right hand, and Thine arm, and the light of Thy countenance, because Thou hadst a favour unto them." Ps. xliv. 3. His face brings salvation. "Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts; cause Thy face to shine; and we shall be saved." Ps. lxxx. 19. "Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance. In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day; and in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted." Ps. lxxxix. 15, 16. So, at last, the supreme joy, the sum of the reward of the redeemed, will be this, that "they shall see His face." Rev. xxii. 4. Surely, then, we ought in this time to respond heartily to the words of the psalmist: "When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek."

"The Healing Touch" The Present Truth 19, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

The Healing Touch .-Jesus said to the leper, "Be thou clean," and reached out His hand and touched him, and immediately his leprosy was cleansed. In like manner the woman, and multitudes of others, touched Him, and were healed.

Does this teach us that we must all expect instantaneous healing, and must utterly reject all "means"? By no means, any more than the turning of water into wine, and the feeding of the 5,000 teach us that we are to expect our wine to be provided for us from the tap, and bread to grow out of the cupboard; and that we are not to cultivate fruit trees or till the earth and raise corn. They show us that in the growth of grapes and in the ripened grain we are to recognise the Lord; so the miracles of healing are to teach us that it is by coming into touch with the Lord's life that we get healing, and that we are to use whatever means will bring us into communion with that life.

January 29, 1903

"Some of God's Faithful Servants" The Present Truth 19, 5.

E. J. Waggoner

"For ever, O Lord,

Thy word is settled in heaven.

Thy faithfulness is unto

all generations:

Thou hast established

the earth, and it abideth.

They abide this day according to Thine ordinances.

For all things are Thy servants." Ps. cxix. 89-91.

Everything that God has made is His servant, and does His will. Every created thing, except fallen man, shows forth the praise of God. "All Thy works shall praise Thee, O Lord; and Thy saints shall bless Thee." Ps. xxlv. 10. It is from the inanimate creation that God's saints are to learn how the truest service of praise is given to Him. They are to be, like the heavens, the rain, the hail, and the snow, the bearers of God's word, allowing it to have perfect freedom of action in them, to use them as it will. Thus they praise Him; for we read again:-

"Praise ye the Lord.

Praise ye the Lord from the heavens

Praise Him in the heights.

Praise ye Him, all His angels:

Praise ye Him all his host?

Praise ye Him, sun and moon:

Praise Him all ye stars of light.

Praise Him ye heavens of heavens,

And ye waters that be above the heavens.

Let them praise the name of the Lord:

For He commands, and they were created.

He hath also made a decree which for ever and ever:

He hath made a decree which none shall transgress.

Praise the Lord from the earth,

Ye dragons, and all deeps:

Fire and hail, snow and vapour;

Stormy wind, fulfilling His word:

Mountains and all hills;

Fruitful trees and all cedars;

Beasts and all cattle;

Creeping things and flying fowl;

Kings of the earth and all peoples;

Princes and all judges of the earth;

Both young men and maidens;

Old men and children;

Let them praise the name of the Lord;

For His name alone is exalted;

His glory is above the earth and heaven."

Ps. cxlviii. 1-14.

From these passages, together with the familiar one in the nineteenth Psalm, which says that "the heavens declare the glory of God," and that "their line is gone out throughout all the earth, and their words to the end of the world," we learn that true praise to God consists in being just what He has made us to be; and that when the Word which made us, and which dwells in us to uphold us, is not in any way transgressed,

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that Word is proclaimed. We learn also that God's servants, whether animate or inanimate, abide only as they conform to His Word. "The Word of our God shall stand for ever;" and therefore it is that "he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." If there were a star in the heavens that insisted, like man, in having its own way, and that should start off in a path of its own, different from that which God has appointed for it, all can readily see that its perverseness would lead to its speedy destruction; and its ruin would involve others as well. So rebellious men, who at the last come to nothing, so that they "be as though they had not been," are destroyed by their own way,-by their refusal to be guided and controlled by the Word of the Lord.

"For that they hated knowledge,

And did not choose the fear of the Lord;

They would none of My counsel,

They despised all My reproof:

Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way,

And be filled with their own devices.

For the backsliding [turning back] of the

simple shall slay them,

And the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.

But whoso hearkeneth unto Me shall dwell securely,

And shall be quiet without fear of evil."

Prov. i. 29-33.

People often tell us that they are sure they could not live if they did exactly what the Bible says. The Judgment will reveal the fact that they cannot live if they do not do as it says. "How can you afford to close your place of business on the seventh day?" a merchant was asked, on his beginning to keep the Sabbath of the Lord when the light came to him. "I cannot afford not to," was the simple reply. What a blessed thing it would be if all men would see that since they have life only by God's Word, their only hope of continued existence is conformity to that Word.

Read again the extract from Psalm cxlviii, and note that it is not alone the "stormy wind" that fulfils God's Word, but the "fire and hail, snow and vapours." "He sendeth forth His commandment upon earth; His Word runneth very swiftly. He giveth snow like wool; He scattereth the hoar frost like ashes." Pa. cxlvii. 15, 16. The snow and rain and hail on the earth do but bring the word of God to the earth. They come laden with God's blessing,-His word of truth,-and when they return they carry back the earth's response,-the fruits of the Word. "For," says the Lord, "As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but [except it] watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater; so shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." Isa. Iv. 10, 11. The budding flowers at springtime and the ripened fruit of autumn are but new forms of the Word which the snow of winter brought to the earth. They are some of "the treasures of the snow."

But God's mercy, that endures for ever, is manifested sometimes in wrath, in the destruction of the haters of His law; and the limitless treasures of snow and hail in His storehouses are to be drawn upon in the execution of judgment. Among the plagues by which He convinced Pharaoh and the people in Egypt that He was God, were "hail, and fire mingled with the hail." Compare Ex. Ix. 23-25 with Ps. cxlviii. 8. The fire and hail and stormy wind fulfilled His word then, and so they will at the last day. He has reserved them "against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war." Job xxxviii. 22, 23. So we see that the same word and the same agents that make the earthg fruitful like Eden, can also, if not received, accomplish its overthrow. We have the choice either of bearing the precious fruits of the word, or of being consumed by it. Which shall it be?

"The Editor's Private Corner. Some Views of the 'Labour' Problem" The Present Truth 19, 5.

E. J. Waggoner

One who takes exception to an article in this "Corner" on Trades Unionism, writes enumerating the advantages of unions, and says:-

"When each of us, seeking his own well-being in the well-being of all, shall identify his life with the life of all, and his interest with the interest of all; when each shall be ever ready to sacrifice himself for others, who are equally ready to sacrifice themselves for him,-then will most of the evils of society disappear, and the will of God will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. Then only one union would be necessary, namely, the Brotherhood of Man. This is the great reform that Trade Unionism is trying to bring about. Can we not truly say that this is a Christian work? And are we to be denounced as slaves, and told that we cannot be Christians while we are members of such unions?"

I have retained the last clause in your question solely as a demonstration of how zeal for a party interferes with one's view of the broad principles of truth and justice, and presents to the mind a distorted image of whatever is said that does not favour that party. If you will again read more carefully the article referred to, you will find that labouring men were not denounced, neither was it said that nobody could be a Christian and belong to trade unions. It was stated, and is here re-affirmed, that Christians ought not to belong to them; but that is far different from saying that if they do belong they are not Christians. Sincere and earnest Christians often do pursue a course or follow a custom that is essentially inconsistent with their Christian profession, without thereby ceasing to be Christians. The fact that they remain Christians does not lessen the inconsistency, nor justify the course pursued; it simply shows that Christianity is still greater than Christians,-that professors of the glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ have not yet comprehended the fulness of it.

Now please read your own statement again, which I have quoted in the paragraph above. Can you not see that it is in itself sufficient justification of my statement, that Christians should not join trade unions. They can have no use for them, and do not need them. You have simply out lined the perfection of the work of the Gospel of Christ, as set forth in the Scriptures. Its mission is to put the love of God in the hearts of men, so that they will be unselfish; to cause each in honour to prefer another; to lead each man to labour for another's welfare rather than for his own; to bring each, like the Master, to identify his life with the life of all; in short, to cause the will of God to be done on earth as it is done in heaven. When that time comes, then not only most, but all, of the evils of society will have disappeared. Yes; and "society" itself will also have disappeared; for "the former things" will have passed away, and all things have become new. The arrival at that state will usher in the coming of the Lord in glory, and His everlasting reign of righteousness in the new earth.

Your language implies that trade unionism exists for the purpose of bringing about the glorious state that you have depicted; but what can it aspire to, that the Gospel does not provide for? The highest hopes of the most unselfish philanthropist cannot embrace so much for mankind as is offered in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which it is the mission of His church to proclaim. There is therefore no need for any such organisation as a trade union, to bring men to love their neighbours as themselves. I can quite understand the call for something of the kind,

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by well-disposed men who do not know the Gospel; but when Christians enter into such organisations, for the reasons set forth in your statement, they thereby bring a charge of inefficiency against the Gospel which they profess.

Moreover, however zealously men labour to spread the spirit of brotherly love, they can never accomplish it except through the preaching of Christ, in whom the love of God is revealed; for the first and great commandment is, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; "and the commandment," Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself is secondary to this, and grows out of it. "We love, because He first loved us." It is only as the love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit, that any man can love his neighbour as himself.

You speak of the Brotherhood of Man. Very good; but that can exist only when God is recognised and honoured as the Father. Men are born brothers, not made so by contract or agreement. It needs no argument to show that there is not a state of brotherhood now existing among men; therefore it is self-evident that this desirable state can be reached only through the new birth. The only solution of the labour problem, and of the unrighteous strife between Capital and Labour is found in the re-creating, regenerating cross of Him who cries, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Matt. xi. 28, 29.

I am aware that thus far I have only shown that trade unionism cannot do the work of the church, and that I have not yet made it fully apparent why a Christian ought not to be entangled in such an organisation. Another communication in the same line as yours, from another person, opens up that phase of the subject; and to this newcomer, and his objections, I will now address myself.

"Trades unionism is a method adopted by the workers, to enable them to fight against injustice and tyranny. Is not this the duty of Christians?"

Certainly not; for the Scripture says: "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves but rather give place unto wrath; for it is written, Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." Rom. xii. 19.

If that is not sufficient testimony, read this: "I say unto you, That ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also." "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven; for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." Matt. v. 39, 40, 44, 45.

Still farther: In the Epistle of James we have the sternest denunciation of those who have by fraud kept back the hire of the labourers that have reaped their fields. To them the word of Inspiration comes: "Ye have condemned and killed the just, and he doth not resist you." Chap. v. 6. This shows that the just do not resist oppression and tyranny. The obvious conclusion is that those who do resist are not just.

Together with the foregoing, read the following: "For the needy shall not be forgotten; the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever." Ps. ix. 18. "For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him." Ps. xii. 5, Now in the face of this, for any poor man to undertake to mete out justice to the oppressor, with his own hands, can be nothing else but a manifestation of unbelief in God.

Here is a word addressed directly to the poor and oppressed themselves:-

"Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and lather rain. Be ye also patient; stabish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." James v. 7, 8. Cannot the lover of the Lord have enough confidence in Him to believe that He sees the oppression, that He is deeply moved by it, that He is able to punish the tyrant, and deliver his victim, and that He certainly will? Can you not wait the little while until He comes? Do you not know that he who begins to smite his follow-servant thereby says in his heart, "My Lord delayeth His coming"? And can you reconcile that with the character of a Christian?

"Loving your neighbour as yourself abolishes competing with each other for an existence, substituting a union in which each should work for all, and all for each. To-day Christianity does not prevail: the people are divided into classes, end a warfare constantly going on between the rich and the poor."

That shows that even if "Love your neighbour as yourself" is the motto of trade unionism, it is not the rule by which it works. Why limit the term "neighhour" to the man who works at the same trade that you do? or to the man who is in the same rank as yourself, according to this world's standard? Does the possession of a little property take a man out of that category? and is it any part of Christianity to hate the man who has more money than we have? You cannot help seeing that no Christian can consistently belong to any organisation that in any way encourages force or violence. "The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." James i. 20. No matter how much division and warfare there maybe in the world, the Christian can be no party to it; for "hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife and seditions" are ranked with "adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness," "murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like," as "the works of the flesh," which are in opposition to the Spirit of God. Gal. v. 17-32. Fighting is no part of Christianity. "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal." Whatever fight there is between capital and labour, is of Satan, and not of the Lord. "The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men." 2 Tim. ii. 24.

You may say that such precepts are not adapted to this age; but with that I have nothing to do. I know of no Christianity but that set forth by the Word, and exemplified in the character of the Living word, "who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously." 1 Peter ii. 23. To be sure, Christ uttered His precepts a long time ago, and they are commonly voted out of date now; but remember that He was not in harmony with the "spirit of the age even when He was on earth. So we must choose whether we will follow Him or the world. We cannot have both. Which shall it be?

"The Class. Man's True Dominion. Heb. ii. 5-9" The Present Truth 19, 5.

E. J. Waggoner

"For unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little [or, 'for a little while'] lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of Thy hands. Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that He put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little [or, 'for a little while'] lower than the angels for [because of] the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man." Heb. ii. 5-9.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

1. What has God not put in subjection to the angeIs?

2. In contrast to this, what testimony is given?

3. Where is this testimony found?

4. What is it that has been said of man?

5. What did God do for him in creating him?

6. With what was he crowned?

7. What, then, was the nature of his dominion?

8. What was its extent?

9. What was there that was not put under him?

10. Yet what do we not now see?

11. What, however, do we see?

12. In what condition and position do we see Jesus?

13. Why is He crowncd with glory and honour?

14. For whom did He suffer death?

These questions are given for the purpose of aiding the reader to study the text more closely, if he wishes to do real class work. A little time spent with the questions will help the student to see exactly what the text says, and so to fix it his mind mind. It is only when the Word not only is grasped by the mind, but actually itself takes hold of the mind, that we see real light in it for ourselves.

"The world to come, whereof we speak," is the new earth that was in the beginning. Read Gen. i. 26-28, and compare it with Ps. viii. 3-8, which is quoted in our lesson, to see how extensive and complete was man's original dominion. "In that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him." Everything was under man's feet when he was crowned with glory and honour.

But we do not see it so now; and for this reason some do not believe that it was ever so. Why does man not have this absolute dominion now, if it was so in the beginning?-Because "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Rom. iii. 23. Inasmuch as the crown, the sign and proof of man's dominion, was glory and honour, it is evident that the loss of the crown was the Ioss of the dominion. All things are not now under man; but we see man vainly struggling to gain absolute dominion. Why are his struggles in vain, if it was God's design that he should have dominion over the earth and over all living creatures?-Simply because man is striving against God's plan, and so against God Himself. Man wishes to have everything subject to him, and yet himself to be independent of God; and this is impossible. We say that God gave man absolute dominion in the beginning; but this does not mean that God Himself abdicated in man's favour. Man, even when crowned with glory and honour, was but dust of the earth, with no more power in himself than the dust on which he trod. It was God's presence and power unhindered and yielded to by the man, that constituted his authority, and gave him dominion. When all the beasts and the birds and the fishes yielded willing service to man, they were doing homage to God in him, to whom he was subject, and by whom he was controlled. "Power belongeth unto God" (Ps. lxii. 11); and "there is no power but of God." Rom. xiii. 1.

Consider how man tries to get dominion. It is always by destroying. Look at the portions of the earth which he claims to have "brought into subjection," and where he flatters himself that he has absolute dominion. Where are the animals, the birds, the beasts, and even the fishes, that God made to dwell there? They are exterminated. Of very many species there is not a single specimen left. Within the memory of even young men, certain creatures have become practically extinct; and the bones that are occasionally discovered are the only evidence of many other species that once existed. Someone will here interpose that many of the beasts are wild and fierce, and that man is obliged to exterminate them in order to keep them from destroying him. That only emphasises the fact that man has lost his God-given dominion over the beasts. Their rightful ruler has lost control of himself, and so he can no longer control them. Man's rule is destructive, and it is established, in so far as it seems to be established, only by the use of weapons of warfare and destruction; but God is "the very God of peace;" therefore the dominion which man acquires by his own arms is not the dominion which God gave him, and which He still purposes that the right man shall have.

The end of anything determines the nature of it. In striving against God's plan, man is the agent of Satan. He is "the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience," still carrying on his original rebellion against God. Now take a look ahead, and see what the end will be. When Satan has full control of all except the "little flock" who "keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus," the Lord will come, the wicked will be destroyed by the brightness of His coming, the righteous will be taken to be with Him and the earth will be left desolate, without cities and without men, for a thousand years. That is what Satan's rule leads to-chaos. It shows what would become of the universe, if he could succeed in his desire to take God's place. It shows what is the inevitable result of all endeavour to rule that is not in harmony with God. When man casts off allegiance to God, and seeks dominion on his own account, he turns Eden into a wilderness. God, on the contrary, turns the wilderness into Eden.

Thus we come back again to the statement that we do not now see all things in subjection to man. No; "but we see Jesus!" What do we see?-We see Him "crowned with glory and honour," as man was in the beginning. He "the last Adam" has the dominion which the first Adam lost. Where is He?-"On the right hand of the Majesty on high," in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, "with all things under His feet." Eph. i. 20-22. Jesus the Son of man, born of a woman, as feeble as the feeblest, and poorer than the poorest, has the dominion that God gave to man in the beginning; and thus it is demonstrated that "whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever." For what Jesus has, He has for all, since He gained it because of the suffering of death, and He tasted death for every man.

We may well stop here to contemplate this wonder. It is impossible in one lesson fully to survey the wonderful field opened up to us by the verses before us; so we shall continue our study of them next week.

"Little Folks. The Manna" The Present Truth 19, 5.

E. J. Waggoner

When the Children of Israel left Egypt on the night of the Passover, they carried some food with them to eat on their journey. You will remember that they had unleavened bread in their kneading-troughs, But when they had been journeying some time, their food supply got very low, and they wondered how they were going to get anything to eat; for they were now in the wilderness.

They forgot all about the path God had made for them through the sea, and they murmured against Moses for bringing them out to die of hunger in the wilderness. God knew just how He was going to feed them, but because they could not see an abundance of food right before their eyes, they were afraid they were going to be left to starve.

When people have "much goods laid up for many years," they often forget who is the Giver, and where it all comes from so their great store becomes a curse instead of a blessing, and makes them forget God instead of constantly reminding them of Him. They trust in what they can see, instead of in Him they cannot see, from whom comes everything that they can see. Sometimes God lets people come to the place where they have nothing that they can see, in order that they may be led to think of the Source of all things, the great Heavenly Father who provides bread for all His children.

The Children of Israel were travelling over wild, rocky country, and it would have been very inconvenient for them to have much to carry with them. God wanted to save them this trouble by daily spreading a table of fresh bread for them in the wilderness, that they might be as free from care as the birds and animals that He feeds every day.

God's word creates all the food in the world, and it was by this that the Israelites had all their lives been fed. Now God was going to give them an object lesson to teach them this, so He said: "Behold I will rain bread from heaven for you." This was not a strange thing. You have often eaten bread from heaven; indeed, you have never eaten any thab was not rained down from heaven. "For the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater." God rained down the bread direct, ready-made, instead of working in the usual way, and causing the earth to bring it forth through the rain and snow that cometh down from heaven.

When the Israelites awoke one morning, and found the ground covered with a tiny, round, white, seed-like thing, they said, "Man-hu,"-What is it? Moses answered, "This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat." But their question gave the name to this bread from heaven, and they went on calling it manna-what is it? The Bible answers this question for us. Jesus said, "I am the Bread that came down from heaven." So the Children of Israel were feeding upon Christ, as we also are, when we bake the food He gives. We are told that they "did all eat the same spiritual meat," which was Christ. 1 Cor. x. 4.

In our lessons on the creation we learned that Christ is the Fountain of all life, and everything in this and all the worlds comes from Him. All that God made for man's food comes from seeds, but these seeds all come from one seed,-the divine Word which went forth in the beginning, to cause all things to grow. And that Word without whom was not anything made is Jesus.

But Jesus, the Bread of life, the heavenly Manna, is not only to feed our bodies, and give us a short life-time in this world, but also to feed our souls with His life-giving Word, that we may have everlasting life. He says, "This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die." But the people had to gather what God gave and so must we gather from His precious

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Word our daily portion of spiritual food, if we want to have a strong and healthy spiritual life.

In giving the manna on six days, and withholding it on the seventh, God was teaching the people a lesson in Sabbath-keeping. He was showing them clearly which is the Sabbath day, and that He wanted them to cease from their work on that day; and if they would obey His law and trust in Him, He would provide for all their needs.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 5.

E. J. Waggoner

An illustration of how lightly human life its coming to be regarded, and on what slight provocation the taking of it is excused, is afforded by the comment on the murder of an editor at Columbia, South Carolina, by Mr. Tilman, the Lieutenant-Governor. It is said that the murdered man "gave Mr. Tilman great provocation by severely attacking and ridiculing him, thus helping to prevent his election as Governor," and it is the general opinion that Mr. Tilman's prosecution or conviction is very unlikely.

Support to the new idea of drinking intoxicating liquors only at meals was given by Dr. Robert Jones, in a paper on "Dipsomania," read the other day before the Royal British Nurses' Association. The Doctor, who is styled "that staunch advocate of temperance," said: "While alcohol is a potent poison, it is also of inestimable benefit to mankind. The reasonable demands of reasonable people should be met, but reasonableness ceases when drink is taken outside meals." Just what reasonableness there is in mingling "a potent poison" with one's daily food passes all comprehension.

When Dr. Lorenz, the famous Austrian surgeon, went to Chicago specially to perform an operation which no surgeon in America could perform, he was obliged to pass an examination before he was allowed to practice. Having thus "satisfied the law" which they had made, or, in other words, satisfied their professional dignity, Dr. Lorenz had all his examiners as eager students of his methods. But although he was compelled to pass an examination in surgery in which he was competent to instruct his examiners, he was given the degree of Doctor of Laws, of which he did not profess to know anything, without any examination at all. Those are some of the mysteries of modern professional education which the ordinary mind cannot fathom.

It is estimated that 40,000 larks come into the London market every day, for table purposes. "Quite as many are sacrificed for the sake of their feathers, and for sale in the bird shops." In a recent County Court case one of the parties stated that he generally bought 100 dozen skylarks and other British song-birds every week. A witness before a Parliamentary Committee averred that a boy could catch forty dozen goldfinches of a morning on the Downs between Kemp Town and Rottingdean. As many as 600 dozen linnets are caught in one week. All this to gratify, not satisfy, depraved appetite. Think of the beauty and music that are thus sacrificed to gluttony and greed. When one thinks of the "notes almost Divine" that came from the lark and the linnet it is not difficult to think of the one who will wantonly destroy such heavenly singers as ready, at the prompting of any passion, just as remorselessly to slaughter his follow-men. The earth is indeed being "filled with violence" as before the flood.

The newest "temperance" movement to the one started by the rector of All-Souls', Langhamplace, who has devised a pledge by which the signer binds himself to abstain from all intoxicating drinks as beverages except at his midday and evening meals. This movement has received the approval of some of the most prominent clergy, and very many people are signing the pledge. The Daily Mail applauds the movement, and "the broad-minded view of things" taken by its promoter, on the ground that "the pledge contains no element of religion." That fact is self-evident, for true religion knows nothing about compromise with men's appetites. It may be granted that it is a good thing to induce people to diminish the amount of liquor that they drink, even though it be but to a slight degree; but the true minister of Christ will not be content with healing the hurt of His people but slightly. In Christ it is just as easy to make a complete reformation as a partial one; and it is much to be doubted if this movement means even a partial reformation: for topers who sign the pledge will make up for the infrequency in drinks by swallowing an additional quantity at meals.

It is a sad sign of the times, that the Nonconformist bodies, while still declaiming against the Establishment, and depreciating State-supported religion, are becoming more and more political. The Christian World of Jan. 15 says:-

"There is a deep sense in which Nonconformity is and must always be political. It exists as a protest against a political anachronism which can only be destroyed by political means, and the Nonconformist who declines to use these means is as good as acquiescing in the permanence of the Establishment. As practical people we have to face the fact that, broadly speaking, one of the great parties of the State is entirely opposed to us, and that our only hope of success is by working through the other party. . . . We have lately more than once taken occasion to insist that, considering its numerical strength and influence, Nonconformity has allowed itself to become far too negligible politically. We stand for a great spiritual conception, but that conception can only be translated into reality by votes."

If that be true, it is a confession that the "spiritual conceptions" of Nonconformity are not those of the Spirit of Christ. When the church of Christ fights with the weapons of Satan, its victory is its overthrow. The only hope of Christ's "little flock" on earth, in the midst of devouring wolves, is that they have weapons of warfare infinitely superior to those of the enemy. Christ found, not only one great party of the State against Him, but all parties in both State and church; yet He won by the invisible power of the Spirit. "Herod, and Pontius Pitate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together" against Him; and He overcame without votes, because God was with Him. It is pitiful to see churches professing His name and adopting the tactics of His enemies.

In view of a recent judicial decision, considerable attention is being given, in both secular and religious journals, to the question of strikes. All seem to feel much perturbed over the fact that the way of the striker is being made hard; for with strange inconsistency the average citizen of this free country is shocked at the thought of "free labour." The following from the Daily Chronicle of Jan. 21, is a fair illustration of how difficult it is for people in general to reason logically when selfish interests are involved:-

"It is an indisputable grievance that the courts have given their decisions in such a way that it is impossible to say how a strike can be conducted in a lawful manner. It is, too, a serious legal anomaly that it has been declared unlawful for a union or combination to do what is perfectly lawful for one man. If one man can legally say with whom he will or will not work, then it should be legal for the secretary of a thousand men to go to an employer and say the same thing."

But the cases are not at all parallel. There is a vast difference between a thousand men acting independently, each on his own initiative, and one man acting for a thousand. When "the secretary of a thousand men" goes to an employer to declare that the men have "decided not to work," it is, of course, after a vote has been taken. Now it is safe to say that in very few strikes that are declared, all the men have a personal grievance to be adjusted, or, that even if all feel aggrieved, all wish to risk the uncertainty of a strike; but, as members of the union, they must yield to the majority. So the secretary is said to represent the union, when as a matter of fact he represents only a portion of it, In reality, no man can represent anybody but himself: and this is a truth that needs to be learned in religious as well as in political circles. It is evident that in an average case, such as has just been sketched, there are some, at least, whose action is not free; they begin labour and cease labour according to the decree of somebody else, and not from their own choice; and inasmuch as slavery is the antithesis of freedom, it is a fact that trade unionism does foster slavery.

But this is not the worst. A strike in one section would be futile if the employers could secure labourers from another section; so whenever a strike is declared, it almost invariably follows that workmen who have no connection whatever with the dispute are obliged to strike out of sympathy: and then to make the strike "Effective" it necessarily follows that any men who are willing to take the places of the strikers must be kept away by force; and this is often the cause of violence and bloodshed. And yet men who claim to order their lives by "the sermon on the mount," will say that Christians can engage in that sort of thing.

Selfishness is never so dangerous as when it masquerades in the guise of philanthropy; and what deceives thousands of well-meaning persons is the talk about "the brotherhood of man," and helping to bear the burdens of their fellow labourers. By this sophistry men are blinded to the fact that they may be working untold misery to thousands of others. It is a good sign if it "is impossible to say how a strike can be conducted in a lawful manner." It shows that the law is, for once at least, in harmony with justice; for it is certain that nobody can say how a strike can be conducted in a Christian manner.

"God's Judgments" The Present Truth 19, 5.

E. J. Waggoner

God's Judgments .-We are so accustomed to associate the word "judgment" with the idea of condemnation and punishment, that we lose thereby the beauty and force and comfort of some Scripture passages. For instance, the expression, "His judgments are in all the earth," conveys to some minds only the idea that the earth is full of calamities because of man's transgression. As an offset to this extremely limited idea of God's judgments, read Ps. xix. 9, 10:

"The judgments of the Lord are true, and right-

eous altogether;

More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than

much fine gold;

Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb."

The Lord's judgments are sweet, and greatly to be desired; and "His judgments are in all the earth." Indeed it is by His judgments that the earth exists, and that all things continue. God's judgment means perfection for everything that He has made that will submit to it, He has made all things, and provided for all things that He has made, in the way which, according to His perfect judgment, is the very best. The evidences of this are seen in all the earth.

When God created the world, He comprehended its dust in a measure, and determined the necessary sum of it (see Prov. viii. 26, R.V. margin), He weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in the balances of His justice, and proportioned them all according to His judgment. He measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven with a spin. In this connection we read: "With whom took He counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of judgment?" (Isa. sl.) So in the waters, in the heavens, in the mountains and hills, and even in every grain of dust, we may see His judgments. Much more are they manifest in the perfectly organised animate creation.

We stand "between two infinities,"

"Boundless inward, in the atom,

Boundless outward, in the whole."

The infinitely minute perfection of His judgment is revealed by the microscope, and something of the infinite length, and breadth, and depth, and height of it, by the telescope.

God's laws are spoken of as His judgments, because in them He prescribes for our guidance that way of life, which infinite wisdom sees to be the right, the best, and the only way of prosperity for man. Let us then, with the Psalmist, regard them as more to be desired than gold, and sweeter than the honeycomb.

"'What is Truth?'" The Present Truth 19, 5.

E. J. Waggoner

"What is Truth?" -This question, which Pilate apparently deemed unanswerable, is definitely and directly answered for us in the Scriptures of truth, in three statements which agree in one. "Thy Word is truth;" "Thy law is the truth;" "I am the Truth." Christ is the Word which was in the beginning, without whom nothing was made; and therefore His life is the law for all created things, which have their being only in Him. The Scriptures are the truth, because they testify of Him. He came into the world-the Word was made flesh-for the purpose of bearing witness unto the truth. So the answer to Pilate's question was right before him unrecognised, in the person of Christ, who is the embodiment and sum of all truth.

We see, therefore, that it is possible to have the truth with us, and yet not know what is truth. Christ, the Word, "is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart," and to most of us the Bible is the most common book, yet comparatively few know and yield to the truth. In the days of His flesh, when He walked and talked with men, but few recognised in the Man of Nazareth, the Divine Word, the Son of the living God. To Peter, who acknowledged Him, Jesus said, "Flesh and bIood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven." Truth, therefore, can be known only by revelation.

The Apostle Paul had been almost from his birth a diligent student of the Scriptures and the traditions of his people; yet he did not know the truth until, as he said, "it pleased God to reveal His Son in me." Then he did not need to confer with flesh and blood, not even with those who were apostles before him; but immediately he preached the truth with confidence and authority. So he prayed for the churches called out by his ministry, that they might receive "the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God."

"When He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth." This is the anointing without which it is impossible to perceive and know for ourselves what is truth, but with which we "need not that any man teach us. So the truth which comes to us through the word must be revealed by the Spirit of truth. The law of truth must be written in the fleshy tables of our hearts by the Spirit of the living God. Christ must be revealed by the Spirit which, He says, "shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto you." Thus shall we know the truth, and experience the freedom which it brings.

February 5, 1903

"'Waters in the Wilderness'" The Present Truth 19, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

A well in the desert! No one can appreciate what that means, except one who has travelled for hours underneath a burning sun, with his tongue cleaving to the roof of his mouth through thirst, and with every breath of the dry, hot air only adding to his torture. At such a time, how the spirits of both man and beast revives at even the words, "A well of water!" They rush to it, and the traveller, after attending to the wants of his faithful beasts, slakes his own thirst. How great a difference it makes whether one under such circumstances remembers the Giver of water or not, only the one who sees God in His gifts can tell.

When one hears mention of water in the wilderness, one's mind involuntarily turns to Israel of old, for whose special benefit water was brought from the flinty rock. "When Israel went out of Egypt," the God of Jacob "turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters." Ps. cxlv. The people "did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ." 1 Cor. x. 4. It was water of life from the being of Christ, with power to transform the believing recipient into a fountain of living water; but the people did not know the day of their visitation; they did not recognise and consciously receive Christ in His gift; and so they died in the desert, with the living stream before their eyes.

Can God actually give people refreshing drink from His own being? That was the question that the Israelites of old asked. They said, "Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?" Still worse than this, they tempted God, saying, "Is the Lord among us or not?" Ex. xvii. 7. The miraculous provision of water was for the purpose of proving His presence with them.

Can He do it again? Most assuredly; for He is ever the same. In the last day of the feast of tabernacles, the great day, "Jesus stood, and cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink." John vii. 37. Suppose

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some belated traveller, just arrived at the feast, after a long and weary journey, had gone up to Jesus, and said, "Sir, I am very thirsty; please give me a drink;" do you think that Jesus would have failed him? Would He have said, "Oh my good man, you have made a mistake; you must not take Me literally; I meant it only figuratively?" Would not any man have been justified in taking Him literally? Whoever knows the Lord, knows that Jesus would not have disappointed the man's confidence in Him; and to those who do not know Him, we have this to say: Never be afraid of believing the Lord implicitly, or of taking more than He offers. His riches are unsearchable. Our minds cannot conceive the depth of richness that there is in Him for those who trust Him. We need have no fear that God will be displeased with us for having so much confidence in Him as to believe that He means just what He says; or that He can disappoint one who has had such trust in Him.

God has definitely promised to do again for His people the very thing that He did for them in the days of Moses. He says, "Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. The beast of the field shall honour Me, the dragons and the owls; because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen." Isa. xliii. 19, 20. "When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water." Isa. xli. 17, 18.

There is coming upon this earth "a time of trouble such as never was," when the fire will devour the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame will burn all the trees of the field, and the rivers of water will be dried up. Joel i. 19, 20. Then the poor and needy who cry to the Lord will not be forgotten nor forsaken. Then the promise of God to give drink to His people will be fulfilled. Happy will it be at that time for those who have learned to take God literally, and who know that He is among them, "the fountain of living waters," from which all may drink.

Does anybody think that this is fancy? Is it claimed that "the age of miracles is past?" It is not passed as long as God lives. There are men living who can bear testimony to the reality of just such a miracle. In the Civil war in America, forty years ago, some thousands of prisoners were confined in an open prison-pen, made of logs standing upright, and guarded by armed soldiers. Through this stockade a little brook ran, which supplied the prisoners with all the water that they had to use, for cooking and drinking and washing. In the course of months this stream became frightfully filthy and corrupt, so that to drink of it was but to invite disease; yet there was no other. Just at the time when it seemed as if the whole company of prisoners cooped up in the narrow space must perish either of thirst or pestilence, they were overjoyed one morning to find that a spring of perfectly pure water had burst forth in the night, from the hard, dry bank, a little way back from the brook. It did not need a minister of the Gospel to tell those men that that water was the direct gift of God, and they named it "Providence Spring." There are men who owe their lives to-day to that token of God's presence with man, and His care for the poor and needy.

But this is not half the lesson that we have to learn. To believe that God can do wonderful things is important and necessary; but we can know this only by recognising Him as One who continually does great and marvellous things. Did you ever think that it is possible that you have been drinking water that was miraculously provided,-even brought from the rock,-without regarding it as anything worthy of note? You think that if you had been with Israel in the desert you would never have tired of thinking upon the miracle of water brought from the rock, and of gazing upon the wonderful sight. Do not be so sure of it. A spring gushing forth from a rock is always a refreshing sight, but it is not very uncommon. There are few people who have not seen something of the kind; yet we seldom hear people tell about having drank water fresh from the hand or throne of God.

Here we are reminded that it was "spiritual drink" that the people of Israel received from the Rock. True, but it supplied the wants of their bodies, and of their cattle as well. It was all they had to drink all the years they were in the desert. Do you not know what we are to learn from this record?-Just this, that spiritual things are the life of physical beings; that the Spirit of God alone supports and keeps alive mortal flesh. God is among us, supplying our daily needs from His own life. Never a spring of water gushes sparkling from mountainside or valley, that does not have its source in God Himself, "In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind." He is as near to us as He was to ancient Israel; for "in Him we live, and move, and have our being." Recognise this as a reality, "in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct Thy paths."

"The Editor's Private Corner. Christ the Sin Bearer" The Present Truth 19, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

"At our men's Bible class recently, the subject being 'the place of refuge,' the leader made the remark that the high priest was the sin bearer and that 'when he died, he died without forgiveness.' He said also that 'Jesus Christ, our sin-bearer, died without forgiveness.' I asked him if he would kindly say a few words more on the subject so as to help our minds; but he said he would leave it for us to think of. So having received so much valuable information from your valuable paper, I ask, will you kindly help me?"

The statement in question is a very fair sample of the loose manner in which people deal with matters of religion. Such statements would do no harm, if all hearers would make it an invariable rule to accept nothing without proof. But the trouble is, that whenever a person occupying the place of a leader makes an assertion, somebody is sure to accept it as Gospel truth, without asking any questions. This is the reason why, whenever the real truth is presented from the Scripture, we are sure to be met by an objection from some person, beginning thus: "But I have been told,"-and so forth; and although the truth may be plainly read from the Scripture, the unsupported assertion that somebody made holds its place against it.

There is not the slightest reason for saying that the high priest died without forgiveness. On the contrary, the high priest was directed to offer a sin-offering, and make atonement for his own sin, before he offered for the people. Lev. xvi. 3-9. A thorough knowledge of the Bible is essential for a Bible class teacher.

The statement that the high priest was a sin-bearer is also a misapprehension. This is evident from the fact that he had to make an offering for sin. Read the whole of Lev. xvi. In this, as well as in other Scriptures, we see that sin was confessed upon the victim, the idea of the sin-offering being that it bore the sin. The death of the sin-offering represents the death of the sinner himself. Now if the high priest had indeed himself borne the sin of the people, then he would have been obliged to offer himself. The misapprehension doubtless arose from the fact that Jesus our High Priest bears our sins; but here it must be remembered that Christ is not only the High Priest, but He is also the sin-offering, "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world."

If any earthly high priest ever died unforgiven, it was because he had failed to confess and repent of his own sin, and not because he bore other people's sins. As a matter of fact no mere man ever did or ever can bear another's sins. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him." Ez. xviii. 20. Jesus Christ was the sin-offering for the whole world, because He "through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God" (Heb. iv. 14); and, by that same Spirit He dwells in the hearts of men (John xiv. 16-18), and thus actually takes the place of all who believe in Him. Gal. ii. 20. The death of any number of men, whether forgiven or unforgiven, would not atone for a single sin that they themselves, or any other person, had committed.

As to saying that Christ died unforgiven, that is both absurd and wicked. It is absurd from the fact that Jesus had no sin for which to be forgiven; and it is wicked, because of the implication that He was a sinner needing forgiveness. And to say that, is to deny that He is the Saviour of sinners. I cannot think how anyone

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professing to be a Christian could have made such an assertion. Christ could be our sin-bearer only because He Himself was sinless. He "did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." 1 Peter ii. 22. He "knew no sin." 2 Cor. v. 21. A single sin that any person has committed is more than he can bear, and will suffice to crush him; but He who knew no sin can bear the sin of the world, and find His burden light.

"The Editor's Private Corner. Compassed with Infirmity" The Present Truth 19, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

"As a student of the Lord's word, and very desirous to ascertain the truth upon all essential points of Christian faith, I should be glad of your reasons for applying Heb. v. 2 to our Saviour. I have always understood the text to teach that the Jewish priest, while called of God to offer an offering for sins on behalf of the worshippers, had likewise to offer for himself a similar offering; and the words in verse 3, 'by reason hereof he ought' are based upon the fact stated in verse 2, that like the ones he ministers for, he himself is compassed with infirmity (imperfection). Our High Priest did not in any way partake of the fallen human nature, like the Jewish priests. He came in the likeness of sinful flesh, but not in sinful flesh, or flesh full of sins. My real thought is, 'that the Word (Logos) was made flesh' before sin entered, or otherwise how could He have been a ransom price for Adam, and the race condemned in him?"

Your question opens up the heart of the Gospel; but although many pages would not suffice to give an exhaustive statement, a very little consideration of the word will make it plain.

If we take up the last part of your question first, we shall get at it in the most logical manner. Your "real thought" that the Word was made flesh before sin entered, is correct; for even as it was by the Word of the Lord that the heavens were made, so it was by that same Word, that man was brought into being. The Word that was made flesh, is the word that was in the beginning with God, and was God, without which not one thing was made. The perfect man is the man who shares the fulness which is bestowed freely upon all without God man is incomplete; it takes God in man to make a whole man. Everybody will see this who recognises the identity of the words, wholeness, and holiness. A holy man is simply a whole man, a man who is made complete in Christ. Adam was a complete, perfect man; because, in him the Word of life that was from the beginning, was fully manifested.

But Adam fell, he deliberately cast off his allegiance to God; yet God did not forsake him, the Word still dwelt among men, although not in its fulness of grace and truth, because held down in unrighteousness. Thus it is that the word of truth is the Gospel of our salvation. You ask how the Word could have been a ransom price for Adam and the race condemned in him, if is were not made flesh before sin entered? I ask how it could have been a ransom for the race if it had not remained among men after sin entered? The love of God toward men is shown in that He has not forsaken us in our fallen condition. If it were not so, we should not be alive to tell the tale. He is our life. He who would raise fallen man, must come where he is. He is made what we are, in order that we may be made what He is. He comes into us, suffering the death which He did not deserve, in order that we may enjoy the life that we did not deserve. And this He does, not arbitrarily, but because from the very fact of our existence He is one with us.

Your statement that our High Priest did not in any way partake of the fallen human nature, like the Jewish priest, is an unsupported assertion, and contrary to the Scripture. Read the words of the Lord to Moses: "I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren like unto thee, and will put My words in His mouth; and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command him." Deut. xviii. 18. So we read the words of the Lord in Ps. lxxxix. 19; "I have laid help upon One that is mighty; I have exalted One chosen out of the people." Now mark well, this does not say that Jesus was sinful. His everlasting glory is, that from the height of heaven He stooped and came down and took upon Himself man's sinfulness, and yet remained sinless.

Read the testimony in Isa. liii. 4, 6: "He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows:" or, as quoted in Matt. viii. 17, "Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses." "The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all," or, as given in the margin, "has made the iniquity of us all to meet on Him." This is not a mere figure of speech; it is a statement of an actual fact, a reality. He is the Lamb of God who bears the sin of the world. John i. 29 (margin). The sin of the world is the sin that is common in the world. He had it all on Him in fullest measure, yet never once did He yield to it in the slightest degree. This is our hope, our victory; it is our only hope, and the only basis on which we can have any hope. For if there were a gulf between Him and us, if He were at a distance from us, if He occupied the "I-am-holier-than-thou" position, standing off in faith that knows nothing of our weakness, and the conflicts; that we have to wage, there would be no hope for us. We should have laid upon us the impossible task of lifting ourselves up to His level, before we could be united in Him, but it is not so. He that ascended up far above all heavens, is the One who first descended into the lower parts of the earth. He went down to the depths to which man had fallen, in order that man may be raised to the height of His glorious righteousness. And because this marvel of righteousness was manifested in Jesus of Nazareth, a man born of woman, born of the seed of Abraham according to the flesh, every man born of woman may, if he believes, have that same perfect righteousness, perfect deliverance from sin.

I know the play that is commonly made upon the word "likeness," in the text which says that, "Christ was made in the likeness of sinful flesh." I do not mean to indicate by the word play, that there is any intentional trifling with the Scripture. But a reference to the same word in Rom. v. 14 will help us to see that it does not mean something like, yet not like. Thus in the text just referred to we read that "death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned after the similitude [likeness] of Adam's transgression." This, it is evident, is not intended to convey the idea, that the sin of Adam is different from the sin of the rest of mankind, for we all are sharers in his sin. Still more evident is this in the sixth of Romans, where we read "If we have been planted together in the likeness of His death; we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection." Comparing this with the third verse, which says that "we are baptized into His death," with the sixth verse, which says that "our old man is crucified with Him," and with the eighth verse which says that "we are dead with Christ," we see that this expression "in the likeness of His death," means identity. We share His death, that we may share His life.

Still more plainly does this appear from the second chapter of Hebrews, verses eleven and fourteen. "Both He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren." "Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood He also Himself likewise took part of the same." Nothing could be more emphatic than this: He partakes of the same flesh and blood that the children have, whom He came to save. He took upon Him the seed of Abraham. He is

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the Seed of the woman, and in order to make this central truth of the Gospel emphatic, and to keep it ever before the minds of mankind, He always spoke of Himself as the Son of man.

If there were a difference between the nature of Christ, and that of man, that which we read in Heb. v. 7, would be but a farce. "In the days of His flesh, He offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death." He did not do this for nothing: He did not do this merely as an example to show us what we ought to do. But He did it through the eternal Spirit, that by that same Spirit He might be the Author of eternal salvation to all that trust Him. And how about Him at the present time? He is our High Priest in the heavenly places at the right hand of God, yet He is on earth in our flesh, even in our sinful flesh. "For the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, say not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven? (that is to bring up Christ again from the dead). But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is, the Word of faith which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Rom. x. 6-9. If He were not still on earth (by the Spirit of course) among us, dwelling in us, there would be no hope of salvation to any human being; but our hope, our only hops, our all sufficiency hope, is this, that every weakness which would cause us to stumble and fall is upon Him, and if we but see and confess this continually, allowing Him to do that for which He is in the flesh, He is abundantly able to keep us from falling. Although in the heavens, He is still compassed with infirmity, even with our infirmity. Our great High Priest that is passed into the heavens is still touched with the feeling of our infirmity. This is why we can come with boldness to the throne of grace, assured that we shall find mercy and grace to help in time of need.

There seems to be the idea that it is derogatory to Christ's character, to say that He has come in sinful flesh. I have heard a professed Christian express the same thing to me, saying that the idea that Christ was born of woman was repugnant to him; he felt that it was debasing to Christ. What a false conception! It is in the highest degree honourable to Him that He can be compassed with infirmity, yet not fall, that He can have all the sin of the world upon Him, yet not be defiled. It is this that makes Him the gloriously complete Saviour; this will be His glory to all eternity.

Aside from all this, my reason for applying Heb. v. 2 to Christ, is that He is the subject of the discourse. That which is stated in that verse is said to apply to every high priest taken from among men, who is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, and this to emphatically true of Christ. All this, however, will receive fuller consideration, as we proceed in our study of Hebrews in the Bible class.

"The Class. Man's True Dominion (Concluded)" The Present Truth 19, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

"For unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? or the Son of man, that Thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little [or, 'for a little while'] lower than the angels; Thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little [or, 'for a little while'] lower than the angels, for [because of] the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man." Heb. ii. 5-9.

We left off our study last week with the words, "we see Jesus," before us. Where and how do we see Him?-The first chapter has already told us,-"on the right hand of the Majesty on high" (verse 3), "angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him." 1 Peter iii. 22. He is "far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come," having "all things under His feet." Thus, "crowned with glory and honour," He has in His own right the dominion which the first Adam had and lost.

How did He gain that position?-Here is the whole story in few words: "Being in the form of God," He "counted it not a thing to be grasped to be on an equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross. Wherefore also God highly exalted Him, and gave unto Him the name which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow." Phil. ii. 6-10, R.V., margin.

"Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?" Eph. iv. 8. So "we see Jesus" in a two-fold capacity: we see Him crowned with glory and honour; but first we see Him down in the lowest depths. Let us go back, and look at the picture presented to us from the beginning. It is a living panorama. First we see the earth complete and perfect, with man in Eden, crowned with glory and honour, the lord of all. Everything was "very good," and everything was in subjection to man,

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who was also very good. But as we look, the scene changes; man falls, and from being over the world, he lies bruised and crushed, with the whole world upon him. Yet stay, Who is it that we see as we still keep our eyes on the place where man fell?-"We see Jesus," who by the grace of God tasted death for every man. And thus we may know that wherever we find fallen humanity,-wherever we see the curse,-there we see Jesus. He has identified Himself with fallen man, even as He was the glory of man in his innocence. He did not forsake the work of His hands. Not for a moment did He let go of him. One with man, He goes with him to the depths, in order that He may lift him to the eternal heights where He sits enthroned by right of His own tried and approved righteousness.

What are we to learn from the statement that we see Jesus "crowned with glory and honour; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man"?-We are to learn that in Him humanity is by the power of Divinity triumphant; that in Him any man and all men may obtain to the "glory and virtue" to which God has called us. His "exceeding great and precious promises" make us "partakers of the Divine nature," since "His Divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness." 2 Peter i. 3, 4.

Man was once above all things; now he is beneath all, obliged to struggle for existence, even with the beasts over whom he once had absolute dominion. But Jesus has taken all the burden on Himself, taking the place of "every man." "As many of you as have been baptized into Jesus Christ, have put on Christ" (Gal. iii. 27), and thus there is "one new Man." "Ye are complete in Him, which is the Head of all principality and power." Col. ii. 10. Therefore whoever is in Christ is "a new creature," Iifted up "far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion," and sharing the power of the world to come. "This is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith." 1 John v. 4, R.V. Victory over "this present evil world,"-over "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,"-is the present portion of every one who is in Christ; for "old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." So, although the rod of iron is not yet to be used in ruling, and the time for breaking in pieces has not yet come, it is nevertheless a fact that he who is in Christ, an overcomer, has given him "power over the nations" (Rev. ii. 26); for Jesus Christ, with whom he is joint heir, is made God's "Firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth." Ps. lxxxix. 27. The humblest child of God, who is faithful to his calling, need have no fear of what man can do to him, for he is in possession of a power greater than that of all the kings and nations of earth.

See how "whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever," and how opposition to His purpose only makes it stand the stronger. God speaks; Satan contradicts; and God rerffirms. When God speaks, His Word works. "His work is honourable and glorious, and His righteousness endureth for ever." Ps. cxi. 3. It was with "glory and honour" that man was crowned; but Satan stole his dominion from him. "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Satan contradicts God's working Word, by defacing that which it has made. Then straightway God reaffirms, and causes His work to shine forth more brightly than at the first. "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." Man at the first was given dominion only over this earth and what pertains to it; the fall deprived him of that; but "the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" elevates him to a place "far above all heavens." And this is the dominion and power that is given every child of God in the conflict with sin and Satan. "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift."

"Little Folks. Water from the Rock" The Present Truth 19, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

Very fresh difficulty that the Children of Israel met in their journey was an opportunity for God to show them more of His mighty works. But although they saw His works, they did not learn His ways, and they grieved Him by murmuring every time that trouble came. Because of their unbelief they mourned that there was no water, when Jesus, the living Rock, the "Fountain of living waters," was with them; for "they drank of that spiritual rock that went with them, and that Rock was Christ." Notice that they drank not from the Rock only, but of the Rock; for God "turned the rock into a pool of water. The flint into a fountain of waters."

You do not see much likeness between rock and water, do you? And if you were thirsty, you would not think you could quench your thirst with a piece of rock. But all things are alike to God, for all are made by His Word. All things that we see are only different forms of the same thing-the word of God.

That word which formed everything can change everything. The word which caused light to shine out of darkness can turn rock to water and water to rock, and stones into bread. Indeed God is doing this all the time; He is taking up in the plants the minerals that form the rocks and stones, and changing them into bread for us.

Many like wonders God is constantly doing for us by His Word. Remember that man lives "by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," and study the working of that Almighty word in all creation.

They drank of the Rock, and "that Rock was Christ;" therefore they drank of Christ. Water is life; without it they would soon all have died. They were saved by the life of Christ flowing to them in the water from the smitten Rock.

Here was a wonderful object lesson for them, and it was written for us. Why had the rock to be smitten before its life-giving streams flowed forth, and "ran in the dry places like a river"? When Moses smote the rock with the rod of God, it was an object lesson to the people of Him who "was smitten of God and afflicted" because "the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." It was to show them that their life, and therefore everything that sustained their life, came from Jesus, who died that they might have it.

Jesus the spiritual Rock had to be smitten, so that His life might flow out to all the world, to give life to all things. "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;" and "with His stripes we are healed."

If Jesus had not died for us, so that we can be washed from our sins and live for ever, we should never have had even the short earthly life that we how have. So as you see the life-giving water falling from the skies, or flowing through the land to carry life to all, remember that it comes from the smitten Rock, and carries to us His life poured out for us.

Then every drink of water, all the food that you take, and even every breath you draw, will keep you ever in mind of the Cross of Jesus Christ; for you could have had none of these things, you could never even have been born into this world at all, if it Jesus had not given His own life so that you might have life.

God "burned the rock into water" to teach us by this that in giving us His life He is giving us Himself. It was to show us that by partaking of the Rock Christ Jesus, we may be made partakers of His own nature and become like the Rock of Ages-living stones that shall abide for ever.

May you so drink by faith of the smitten Rock that you will become like Him, steadfast find unmoveable, and abide for

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ever in His kingdom when all things that can be shaken shall have passed away.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

It appears that Mr. W. K. Vanderbilt is "the foolish man that built his house on the sand." His mansion, which by the way, is named "Idle Hour," is in danger of destruction because its foundations were built on the sand, which is giving way, and allowing them to settle. The whole world will take note of that, if it falls; yet there are thousands of living temples of more value going to destruction every day, because they are not founded on the Rock; and no one gives heed.

The great rage now among society people is "semi-teetotalism." They have found a way by which they can be virtuous, and still gratify their appetite for liquor. The best characterisation of the movement yet given was that by Canon Barker, of All Souls' Church, who said that the pledge not to drink liquor except at meal times is "something like a man promising to be honest to the extent of not stealing anything more than three-penny bits." It is true that in this case the man would not be likely to take so much money as though he stole without reference to the amount; but he would be a thief nevertheless.

It is stated that Dr. Torrey has felt a certain amount of difficulty in his meetings at Mildmay Park, arising from the aloofness of the platform. He feels that he would like to get nearer his congregation. This is the experience of everybody who wants to talk to his audience rather than preach at them. The true preacher of the Gospel as the power of God to salvation to every one that believeth, is the man who considers his congregation as simply a multitude of individuals, to each one of whom he is talking personally. The measure of his ability to preach is his ability to sit down by the side of one man, and talk to him quietly. All the difference in talking to the crowd should be that he must necessarily speak louder, in order to be heard by them all.

Some time ago certain "cures for drunkenness" were quite the rage in America, and it appears that they are about to have a run in this country as well. Any quack remedy can easily get names of some man in high position as an endorsement; and the general desire of the public to "take something" enables the patent medicine proprietor to reap a rich harvest. What the people need to know is that the only cure for drunkenness is to leave off taking, not only alcohol itself, but some other things as well. A correspondent of the Chronicle reveals the secret, by giving his own experience. His testimony which here follows, is worth remembering:-

It may suit the purposes of some correspondents to recommend a certain specific against the drink crave; but why not go to the bottom cause and cure by natural means? Physical craving for intoxicants dies out entirely on persistence in a properly-regulated non-flesh diet, and gives place to a loathing (I can speak for myself) for malt and spirituous liquors. Getting on for eight years ago I effected a self-cure of the opium habit, to which I had been addicted-with a short break-for fifteen years. I succeeded in delivering myself from my treacherous friend, and since have lost all physical craving as well as longing for opium. I was powerless to work this good for myself while a flesheater.

I am convinced, therefore, that the only reliable permanent method of dealing with these artificial props or spurs is the non-flesh regimen; because, assuming that an ordinary person is weaned from them by a specific, under supervision or of his own efforts, it is highly probable that such a person will return to the old courses.

At the annual meeting of the London Vegetarian Society, last week, the president, Mr. A. F. Hills, said that during the past year 28,000 vegetarian meals had been given to poor children in the metropolis. The noteworthy thing is that in districts where other agencies gave meat dinners as well, the children flocked to the vegetarian dinners in preference. This is a testimony to the fact that the eating of flesh is an unnatural habit; children, whose instincts are more nearly natural, prefer a non-flesh diet until they are compelled to adopt the carnivorous.

We heartily commend the following from a correspondent of the Baptist Times and Freeman, in the issue of that paper for Jan. 16: "That 'sprinkling' is accepted as 'an alternative mode of baptism' by the vast majority of Christians, counts for nothing. If the 'majority is to be our guide, then we had all better become Roman Catholics or Mohammedans." "Or heathen," he might have added. And yet we fear that if that same correspondent were pressed for his reason for keeping Sunday instead of the Sabbath, his first response would be that Christians generally do so. Sunday as a substitute for the Sabbath, and sprinkling as a substitute for baptism, stand on the same foundation, or, rather, on the absence of the true foundation-on nothing but custom and tradition.

The population of Germany is more than double what it was in 1830, but the number of young men studying for the ministry, in the various Protestant theological seminaries, is scarcely more than half what it was then. Thus there are proportionately only one-fourth as many men preparing for the ministry in Germany as there were seventy years ago. This falling off has been most marked within the last three years, and "the Fathers of the Church" are becoming somewhat alarmed about it. The causes of this state of things are said to be two-fold. First, the pay of German pastors is so small, that, "few young men of brains, who do not feel themselves inwardly called to the ministry, will go to the Church for a living, when openings in commerce or in technical callings are so numerous;" and, second, "those young men who feel that they have a call to the ministry often dread the ordeals which will beset their faith in attending classes presided over by men whose faith is either dead or dying."

If these are the causes of the falling off in the number of theological students, there is reason for rejoicing, rather than for being alarmed. For men who "do not feel themselves inwardly called to the ministry," but who would nevertheless enter it if the money payment were sufficient to make it an inducement, ought not to have any encouragement to do so; and the young men who are really called of God to preach the Gospel will get a far better training for it by themselves with the Bible, than they possibly could in a theological school presided over by infidel professors.

In no other part of the world is the Roman Catholic Church gaining ground as rapidly as in the United States of America. This is due largely to emigration, which weakens "the church" in other countries to the same extent that it strengthens it in America. For example, out of 243,000 emigrants that Ieft German ports last year for America only 15 000 were Protestants. Fully as many Catholic emigrants leave from the south of Europe as from the north, and thus the Catholic population of the United States is swelled by immigration by not Iess than 400,000 each year. The United States has laws prohibiting the entrance of almost all sorts of "undesirable" people; but those whose presence threatens the liberties of the country more than any other are received without question. In saying that the presence of Catholics threatens the liberties of the country, it is not meant that they are in themselves worse than other people; the danger lies in the fact that they are not a free people, but are bound in slavish obedience to the priests, who are themselves the puppets of the Pope.

The following concerning the devastating influence of fallen man's rule over the earth, from Dr. Andrew Wilson, in the Daily Chronicle of January 29, may be read as a corroboration of what appeared in our article on "Man's Doiminion," in the PRESENT TRUTH two weeks ago:-

"No doubt the struggle for existence waged between animals themselves is responsible for the extinction of some forms of life, as it accounts for the vigour and spread of other species. The weaker go to the wall, and are wiped off the record of living things. A new factor enters into the field when man's influence comes to be considered. He hunts animals for food, for clothing, and for decorative purposes, and his raids on lower life often result disastrously to the species he values, for on the killing the goose principle his unwise demands may end in the total disappearance of the hunted forms. Once killed off, I need hardly add, a species never reappears on the stage of time. A big Arctic sea cow allied to the manatees, called the rhytina, was exterminated by Bering's sailors. The dodo, that big bird with feeble wings, was slain out of existence in its native island. The solitaire, another bird of similar build, became extinct through mans raiding it, and possibly the moa, of New Zealand, disappeared through native forays made upon it. The zebra is gradually disappearing, and everybody knows that the giraffe is now a very rare mammal. Certain kinds of humming-birds have vanished from ornithological lists, the fur seals have barely escaped falling out through legislation, the case of the great auk is familiar to everybody, and now we are told the African elephant is threatened with the universal fate of man-hunted creatures. It would almost seem as if the human instinct to slay, and spare not, overruled all other feelings where wild nature is concerned."

"Deep Things and Hard to Be Understood" The Present Truth 19, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

Deep Things and Hard to Be Understood .-In His talk to His disciples, just before His betrayal and crucifixion, Jesus said to them: "A little while, and ye shall not see Me; and again, a little while, and ye shall see Me, because I go to the Father." John xvi. 16.

To us those words seem simple and plain enough; but the disciples said among themselves: "What is this that He saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see Me; and again, a little while, and ye shall see Me; and because I go to the Father? They said therefore, What is this that He saith, A little while? we cannot tell what He saith."

What was there difficult about what Jesus said to them?-Nothing whatever; He meant just what He said, that He would be with them but a little while longer, and would then go to the Father, and that it would be but a little while till He returned. It is all very simple and easy of comprehension.

Why then could not the disciples understand?-Just because it was so simple and straightforward. Jesus told them in plain language, in short words and simple sentences, just as one would talk to a child, exactly what would take place; and the disciples could not understand, because they did not believe that it could be so. It was out of their line of thought, and they could not readily adjust their minds to anything new.

It is the same way still. People will listen to men who use the most high-flown language about what they have been accustomed to hear, and what they already believe, and will call it beautiful. They will even listen with delight to flights of imagination, and will profess to "understand" it, although there is nothing in it to understand, But let one come down to simple realities,-to the reason of things,-and though these be set forth in the clearest and simplest terms, they will shake their heads, and say, "Such things are too deep; we cannot understand them." It ought to be the easiest thing in the world to believe things that are so; but it is the easiest things that people stumble over most. Is there not great need for us to become as little children?

"Bread and Wine" The Present Truth 19, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

Bread and Wine .-These two elements, which form the perfect diet for men, are repeatedly spoken of in the Scriptures as that which God has given him for food. Melchisedec, Priest of the Most High God, representing Christ, "brought forth bread and wine" for the refreshment of the patriarch Abraham. In Ps. civ. we read that God has given for the service of man "wine that maketh glad the heart of man," "and bread which strengtheneth man's heart." On the night of His betrayal, Jesus took bread and wine to represent His broken body and shed blood, upon which we may feed by faith, and so have His life in us.

At different times both bread and wine were given in their perfection by Christ to His people. In the ordinary course of nature, the bread which strengtheneth man's heart, having passed through the earth, has been more or less affected by the curse under which the whole creation labours. It does not therefore convey a perfectly pure life, nor can it impart perfect strength. But when Jesus fed the Israelites with bread from heaven, untouched by the curse, they ate "the bread of the mighty." Again, when at the marriage feast He manifested forth His glory in the giving of wine direct from His personal presence, instead of through the usual channel, the people recognised that it was "good wine," and different from that to which they were accustomed. It was, in fact, such wine as had not been tasted on earth, since Adam was driven out of Paradise, and forced to till the ground which should not henceforth yield unto him her strength.

Or both the bread and the wine we are told that we shall partake in the heavenly kingdom, the restored Eden. The bread that came from heaven is called "angel's food," and Christ has promised to the overcomer that He will give him to eat of "the hidden manna." He said also to His disciples when they drank wine at His table on the eve of His crucifixion, "I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new, with you in My Father's kingdom." So as we come periodically to "the Lord's table" on earth, and take of the unfermented bread and wine by which He has chosen to reveal Himself to us, we look forward to "that day" when through partaking of Him on earth, we shall feast with Him eternally in Paradise, where "there shall be no more curse."

"The Christian's Strength" The Present Truth 19, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

The Christian's Strength .-"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might." The margin of the Revised Version gives "be made powerful," as the literal rendering of the Greek; and this is made more clear by the knowledge that the same word occurs in Heb. xi. 34, where we read that the men of faith "out of weakness were made strong." Thus we see that it is not only possible, but a necessity, a Divine command, for us to have God's own strength. "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." What could one not accomplish with such strength-the strength of Him who "weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance," and "who taketh up the isles as a very little thing"?

How can we get this strength? Very easily. "For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength." Isa. xxx. 15. Jesus Christ is "the power of God," and He is "God with us." All power in heaven and on earth is His, and He is ours.

How long may we have this strength? Just as long as we quietly trust. The exhortation is, "Trust ye in the Lord for ever; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." With such infinite and everlasting strength at our command, why are we not all strong? Partly because we do not trust, do not wait on the Lord, partly because we desire strength for selfish purposes, and partly because we do not recognise the strength when we see it, and do not know how to lay hold of it. It should be our constant study to become acquainted with God, and all the ways in which He reveals Himself. Then by confessing it, may we have His strength unto salvation.

February 12, 1903

"The Return from the Enemy's Land" The Present Truth 19, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

"A little child

That lightly draws its breath,

And feels its life in every

limb,

What should it know

of death?"

In the early ages of earth's history, infant mortality, now so common, was a thing unknown. It is thought worthy of special mention, even after the flood, that "Haran died before his father." Death is an enemy, an unnatural and abnormal condition, and it was no part of God's plan that the race whom He made to have dominion should pass under its sway, and be confined in the land of the enemy-the grave.

But while there can in reality be no such thing as a "natural death," yet those who have passed the meridian,-whose lives have had opportunity fully to develop and ripen and bear fruit, who have served their own generation by the will of God, can fall asleep, sometimes even with relief, and their friends can with resignation bear the loss which they have been expecting.

But the death of a child is another matter. The nipping of the half opened bud in the early springtime, the unfulfilled promise of the expanding nature, brings a wail of anguish from the bereaved parents, and awakens the most painful feelings in the breasts of all who contemplate it. Some of the saddest scenes recorded in Scripture are in connection with the death of the young. The smiting of the firstborn of Egypt; David's mourning and agonizing for the life of Bathsheba's son; Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted; the sorrowing household of Jairus at the death of his daughter, how different these accounts from the simple records of the deaths of the patriarchs; from the Lord's words to Abraham, "Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age;" and to Daniel, "Go thy way, for thou shalt rest."

The comforting message given by God to weeping Rachel was: "Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears, for thy work shall be rewarded: and they shall come again from the land of the enemy." Jer. xxxi. 16. The infants torn from the arms which had only just clasped them, for the sake of the Babe of Bethlehem, should by Him be brought back from the enemy's land and restored to their mother's bosoms; but not yet. Some tokens, some pledges of His power to empty the grave, and rob the monster

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Death of his spoils, were given during His life on earth. It is noticeable that all the recorded instances of resurrection were of those in childhood or youth.

"The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening [life giving] spirit." A Man among men, over whom death reigned,-the second Adam,-He yet defied and challenged death and forced it to yield up its prey. "A quickening Spirit," He was able to vitalise the dead, to breathe anew the breath of life into the form of clay from which it had departed. He was the Resurrection, because He was the Life.

But in this experience Christ is not unique; He stands not alone among men, the only One through whom the dead were raised. He was "made in all things like unto His brethren," that they might become in all things like unto Him. So in immediate connection with the statement that "the last Adam," who is "the Lord from heaven," is "a quickening Spirit," we read: "As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly." That is, all the children of the Second Adam,-all the partakers of Christ,-become like Him life-giving spirits, whom God uses as channels to communicate life to others. This is evident from Christ's own words: "He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water; and this spake He of the Spirit." So the disciples, believing on Him, wrought the works that He wrought, even to the raising and quickening of the dead.

But faith in Christ, with its full results, was not confined to any age. The miracles wrought by Christ had all, through faith in Him, been performed by the prophets and apostles of former ages: the cleansing of lepers; the multiplying of bread; controlling the waters; and even the raising of the dead. Christ said to the Jews, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day; and he saw it, and was glad." That they understood that this statement was to be taken literally was shown by their derisive reply: "Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?" The Lord's answer emphasised His former statement: "Before Abraham was, I AM." So the day of Christ, which by faith Abraham saw, extends from the fall to the restoration; it is any day which could at any time be called "to-day."

The prophets, all of whom witnessed of Christ (see Acts x. 43), saw something of His day, and rejoiced in it. Through the faith of both Elijah and Elisha in Christ's power over death, "women received their dead by a resurrection." In the case of Elijah, the woman in whose house he was living having lost her son by a sickness so sore "that there was no breath left in him," appealed to the man of God. He laid the child on his own bed, and three times stretched himself upon the corpse, praying meanwhile that God would restore the child's soul, even as Jesus prayed on behalf of Lazarus. And by the vitalising power of the Spirit working through Elijah, the breath of life was restored to the lifeless frame, and the joyful mother received the child again in the radiant beauty of fully restored health.

The result is interesting. During his sojourn with the widow, Elijah had doubtless often spoken to her of Israel's God by whom he had been sent to her dwelling, and by whom the cruise of oil was replenished, and the barrel of meal kept from wasting,-He by whose creative power they were daily fed and sustained. And she had listened, but had not been convinced. Something was lacking in the testimony, and this God supplied in the restoration of her son through His servant. When she saw that by contact with Elijah, by the breath of his mouth and the word of his lips the dead boy received life, she said: "Now I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth;" and her soul was satisfied.

The words of Christ recorded in Luke iv. 25, 26, "There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah; . . . and unto none of them was Elijah sent; but unto Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow," imply that this heathen woman was a sincere soul who was seeking the light of truth. With all such God communicates; and He did so in this instance through Elijah. He works with His servants, "confirming the Word with signs following." The death of the woman's son, which wrung her heart with anguish, was but the preparation for the crowning and convincing sign, which caused her to rest in the God of Israel.

"'To Live Is Christ'" The Present Truth 19, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

"To Live Is Christ." -"For to me to live is Christ," said the Apostle Paul. What a wonderful thing to say. Who that has read it has ever grasped the fulness of its meaning? and who is there that can truthfully say it of himself? Think of it! "To me to live is Christ." It is a more emphatic statement of Gal. ii. 20, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." If Paul lived, it was not he that lived, but Christ. In form and appearance it was Paul; in reality it was Christ. It was a bold declaration that the Apostle made; and, while the experience ought to be and may be that of every person, the bold statement of it comes with much better grace from a tried and proved and scarred old veteran like Paul, than from a novice in the Christian life.

"Seeking for Truth" The Present Truth 19, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

It is one thing to believe a truth all one's arguments and objections been exhausted and shown to be groundless, and quite another thing to have the spirit of faith, which promptly perceives truth, and eagerly seize upon it. The former condition is characteristic of a slave; the latter, of a free man. One who accepts truth as it were by compulsion, never knows the joy of it; such an one never makes progress, because he never believes more than he feels obliged to; and if at any time he finds a door of escape from it, he is in danger of taking advantage of it. But the person who is seeking for truth, and who has eyes to see, and ears to hear, will ever have new fields of delight opened up to him, and will be kept steadfast by the joy and peace he finds in believing. "Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart."

"The Editor's Private Corner. 'Take Heed'" The Present Truth 19, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

"Is it possible for a child of God to be lost, after having the gift of eternal life?"

The last part of the question can be omitted without affecting it, for a person cannot be a child of God without having the gift of eternal life. The whole question, therefore, is this, Is it possible for a child of God to be lost? and the Scripture plainly teaches that it is. Judas was an apostle, and with the rest of the twelve was sent out with "power and authority over all devils, "to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick." Yet he became "the Son of perdition." Paul, who was God's chosen vessel to carry His name before kings, and who received the most wonderful revelations, was obliged to practise rigid self-discipline, lest after he had preached to others, he himself should be a cast-away. 1 Cor. ix. 27. The exhortations in Heb: iv. 1-11; vi. 1-9, are evidence of the possibility for those to fall who have been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and the powers of the world to come.

However, it must be understood that there is no necessity for any child of God to fall. Jesus said of those to whom He gave eternal life, "No one shall snatch them out of My hand. My Father, which hath given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." John x. 28, 29. We may cease to trust, and thereby take ourselves out of the hand of the Lord; but as long as we by faith abide in Him, no power can prevail against us. The promise is, "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." 1 Cor. x. 13. God is "able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" (Eph. iii. 20),-able even "to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy." Jude 24. The statement by Christ, that "he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved" (Matt. xxilv. 13), shows that there is a possibility that some may not endure, yet no reason why they need not. Therefore, "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest be fall." 1 Cor. x. 12.

"The Editor's Private Corner. Death and Judgment" The Present Truth 19, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

"A friend having shown me a number of your paper, I am very much taken up with it, and like the way in which you explain the Scriptures. My friend still and I have long talks on the state of the dead, and we have got to your way of thinking. I may say that there has been some trouble between my friend and her parents over this subject, for they believe we are judged as soon as we die. Of course, the church teaches that belief, and in the Confession of Faith they explain it, by referring to Eccl. xi. 7, and Luke xxiii. 43. My friend's father is an elder in the Congregational Church, and he says we are judged as soon as we die, and points out to us Matthew xvii. 3, "And behold there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with Him," also in Luke xvi., about the rich man and Lazarus. Now I am taking the liberty of asking you, if you will be so kind as to explain those verses, as I am not able to do so."

You have laid out a good deal of work for one small "corner," for it obviously takes much more space to give a clear exposition of a text than merely to refer to it, and say that it proves a certain thing; and here I have several texts to deal with. Moreover, the consideration of them must be to a certain extent negative, which is never so satisfactory as to deal with a subject from the foundation. However, we shall see what can be done in brief.

Both Scripture and our own observation teach us that the dead are unconscious. Nobody ever saw a dead man make a single voluntary movement, and nobody ever heard one utter a sound, no matter how earnestly he was addressed. The Bible also says that "the dead know not anything," and that "there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave." Eccl. ix. 5, 10. It is plain, therefore, that, in the face of this evidence, whoever claims that the dead are actually alive and conscious, is bound in reason to offer positive proof of the fact. But that would be a thankless task; for if one could produce such evidence, it would prove the Bible untrue, which is impossible.

Let us first deal with the account of the transfiguration, as given in Matt. xvii. Jesus was in the mount with His disciples, "and there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with Him." This, you say, is offered you as proof that men are judged as soon as they die; but it is no proof at all. For in the first place, Elijah or Elias never died, but was taken to heaven without dying. See 2 Kings ii. It is strange, but I have noticed that most people seem never to have observed this fact.

Now as to Moses in the mount with Jesus. We know that Moses died, and that the Lord buried him. Deut. xxxiv. What shall we then conclude? why, knowing that the Bible is the Word of God, we will show our confidence in it by believing it; and since it says that Moses died; that the dead know not anything; and yet that Moses was seen fifteen hundred years afterwards talking with the Lord, we shall draw the obvious conclusion that he had been raised from the dead.

That this is the case, is corroborated by two portions of Scripture. One is Jude 9, which says that Michael the Archangel, the one whose voice will call the dead to life at the last day (See 1 Thess. iv. 16; John v. 26-29), "when contending with the devil, He disputed about the body of Moses." Now the devil is the one "that had the power of death" (Heb ii. 14), and Christ is the one who has broken his power, and who has the keys of death and the grave. Rev. i. 18. The only thing which they could dispute about over the body of Moses, would be the right of Christ to take him from the grave, the devil's prison; for if Jesus did not intend to raise him, He would have no occasion of dispute with the devil; but since they did dispute, we may be sure that Christ gained His point. Thus we have one

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further evidence that Moses was raised from the dead.

Again, the Apostle Peter refers to the transfiguration scene as an illustration of "the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Peter i. 16, 17. Jesus also, just six days before the transfiguration, said, "Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in His kingdom." Matt. xvi. 28. Now when Christ comes "with power and great glory," "the dead in Christ shall rise first," and then the living saints will be changed to immortality, and caught up with the others, thus ever to be with the Lord. 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17. Therefore, in order for the transfiguration to be a perfect representation of the coming of the Lord, there must have been present a representative of those who are raised from the dead, and also of those who are taken to be with Christ without dying. This last we have in the person of Elijah, and is it plain that Moses must have represented the other class. So much for that.

Eccl. xii. 7 is the conclusion of a series of figures indicating death, and if says, "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." That is a simple description of the unmaking of man, just as Gen. ii. 7 is of the making of man; but it affords not the remotest intimation that man is judged at death, or is conscious in death. Indeed, it teaches exactly the opposite, for it shows that in death, man's condition is the same as it was before he was created.

Luke xxiii. 43 may be disposed of as easily as the case of Moses and Elias. Jesus was on the cross, on which He died. He did not go to heaven that day, but, on the contrary, went into the grave. On the third day afterward angels came from heaven, and rolled away the shone, and He "rose from the dead." Mark well, He "rose," and appeared unto His disciples. He did not come down from heaven and appear to them. Moreover He said to Mary, who would have embraced Him, "Touch Me not, for I am not yet ascended to My Father" (John xx. 17); yet later the same day He allowed the disciples to touch Him, showing that immediately after appearing to Mary, on the morning of His resurrection, Jesus ascended to heaven, to the Father, and returned.

Thus we see that Jesus did not go to Paradise three days before; for Paradise is in the highest heaven. Therefore the thief could not possibly have been with Him in Paradise that day. The thief did not ask or expect to be in Paradise with Jesus on the day of the crucifixion, nor did Jesus say that he would be. What the thief asked was that Jesus should remember him when He came in His kingdom, and we know that He will; for He assured him even that day, although He was nailed to a cross, and mocked and derided; although all men had forsaken Him; although most thought He was a deceiver, and even His own disciples thought that He was deceived; although all appearances seemed to be against Him,-yet even that day, in that darkest hour, Jesus declared with all confidence that the thief should be with Him in Paradise. One knows not which to wonder at most-the faith of Jesus, or that of the thief.

As to the comma before the word "to-day," instead of after it, it need only be said that the punctuation of the Bible is not a matter of inspiration. There were no marks of punctuation when the Bible was written. When punctuation marks were invented, and men punctuated the Bible, they naturally made it read according to their understanding of the text. All that is necessary is to think of the text without any punctuation, and then read it in the light of its surroundings and the rest of Scripture. 1 Thess. iv. 13-18 and 1 Cor. xv. 51-54 show when and how those who believe in Christ, and die in faith in Him, will be with Him.

It might also be mentioned in this connection, that Jesus has not yet come in His kingdom. He has gone to heaven to receive it, and when it is given to Him He will return, sitting on the throne of His glory. Matt. xxi. 31.

We have only the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke xvi) remaining, out of your list of texts; and inasmuch as that is a parable, we need not tarry long over it. It is not that we should treat parables slightingly; but unless a parable is explained by the One who gave it, as with most of those in Matt. xxii., it is plain that no doctrine can be based on it; and this one has no explanation. However, the context plainly indicates that it was spoken for the special benefit of the Pharisees who were covetous, and who thought that riches were a sign of God's favour, and poverty of His displeasure; and by it Jesus teaches that a man's wealth or social position in this world does not indicate his position in the world to come. If it be claimed that the parable must nevertheless teach what is true about the state of death, note that Abraham is represented as telling the rich man what took place in his lifetime. Note, also, that Lazarus is said to have been carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. That shows that it is but a figure, unless one would have us believe that all good men are actually reposing in Abraham's bosom! Judges ix. 7-15 is another instance of things personified in a parable. In the one in Luke we have dead men represented as speaking, just as in Judges the trees are holding a conversation.

And now I must leave you with the Bible, to meditate upon the great truth that life comes only through our Lord Jesus Christ, even as righteousness does, and that justification by faith is inseparably bound up with life only for the righteous.

"The Class. 'One God and Father of All.' Heb. ii. 10-13" The Present Truth 19, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

"For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of One: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare Thy name unto My brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto Thee. And again, I will put My trust in Him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given Me." Heb. ii. 10-13.

1. To what are many sons being brought?

2. What is it that is bringing them to glory?

3. Who is He "for whom are all things, and by whom are all things?"

4. What was fitting that He should do, in bringing many sons unto glory?

5. How is the Ciptain of their salvation made perfect?

6. What is true of both sanctifier and sanctified?

7. What follows from this?

8. Who is it that are called brethren?

9. Who is it that is not ashamed to call them brethren?

10. Then who is He that sanctifieth?

11. And who is the One whence they both are?

12. What is the proof that He who sanctifieth is not ashamed to call them brethren?

TOPICS FOR STUDY

"Perfect Through Suffering." -No time need be lost in speculating as to who He is "for whom are all things," since His relation to the Captain of the

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salvation of the many sons who are brought to glory showw that it is God the Father. It became God, the Source of all, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make Jesus Christ, the Captain of their salvation, perfect through suffering. The first question that confronts us is, What is meant by being made perfect through suffering?

If we have in mind the text already studied, we shall connect this with the statement that Jesus was crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death. Verse 9. The suffering, therefore, through which He was made perfect, was evidently death. This will be still further apparent when we consider what is meant by being made perfect. That it has any reference to the personal character of Jesus, or that it is in any sense synonymous with being made righteous, is not to be thought of for a moment. He "did no sin," and "knew no sin." He was the complete revelation of God; "for it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell." "In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Col. i. 19; ii. 9. This He had from the beginning; for He is the Beginning. He was always as good as He could be and so was no better or holier at the close of His earthly ministry than at the beginning.

Read the last verses of Heb. xi. in this connection. That chapter recounts the lives of the patriarchs and says that "they died, not having received the promise; "God having reserved some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." Now those men had "received a good report through faith;" they "wrought righteousness." Moreover, their life-work is ended, and their characters fully tested. Only one thing is lacking for their perfection, and that is the resurrection. There can be but one more change for them, and that will be their resurrection in immortal glory. That will be their-and our-perfection. Now note that it is this that the chapter before us is speaking about. God is bringing many sons unto glory-unto the perfect state; we see Jesus already in that state crowned with glory and honour; but He got there through the suffering of death. It was fitting, necessary, that He should reach that perfect state through the suffering of death, because all the sons whom He would bring to glory were in a state of death. He had to go where they were. In bringing them to glory, He became inglorious; He decended into the pit of corruption, the grave, where they were, that He might bring them out.

Note that the stress is not on the being made perfect, but on the being made perfect through suffering. The Son of God, having taken upon Himself the form and nature of man, and having allied Himself with humanity, could, however holy He was, get back to glory in no other way than through death. Thus He gives light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, opening to them the gates of eternal glory. Where He goes, all mankind may go.

For They Are All of One .-This is the reason why it was fitting that Jesus should be made perfect through suffering: both He and they whom He would save were all of One, that is, He was One with them, and therefore He must necessarily share their sufferings.

Who is the One of whom are "He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified?"-Evidently it is God the Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in all." Adan was the son of God (Luke iii. 38); and Jesus, the Son of man, traces His genealogy back to God through a long line of Adam's fallen race; therefore all the fallen sons of Adam are sons of God, although they have strayed far from the Father's house. Prodigal sons, covered with shame and disgrace, it is the Elder Brother's glad privilege to bring them to glory if they will come.

Christ and His Brethren .-Jesus Christ is not ashamed of His poor relations. "He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of One; for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren." Someone says, "Ah, but He doesn't call any people brethren, except those who are sanctified." Stop and consider the text. The proof that He is not ashamed to call them brethren is found in His declaration: "I will declare Thy name unto My brethren." Now it is evident that there would be no need to declare the name of God to those who knew it; but those who do not know it are heathen. Thus the heathen are regarded by Christ as His brethren. Again, think of the time when the Son must first have made this declaration. It must have been when He was yet "in the form of God;" for He came to earth for no other purpose than to declare God to men. So Jesus in heaven, the brightness of the Father's glory, and receiving the adoration of the angels, looked down to earth and saw the children of men doomed to death in their ignorance of God, and said to the Father, "I will declare Thy name unto My brethren." Thus He set the pattern for all missionary work. "Not to any class is Christ's love restricted. He identifies Himself with every child of humanity. That we might become members of the heavenly family, He became a member of the earthly family. He is the Son of man, and thus a Brother to every son and daughter of Adam. His followers are not to feel themselves detached from the perishing world around them. They are a part of the great web of humanity, and heaven looks upon them as brothers to sinners as well as to saints." The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the One "of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named." Eph. iii. 14, 15.

"I Will Put My Trust in Him." -These words are quoted from Christ, as part of the proof that He is not ashamed to call us brethren. How do they show it?-By revealing the fact that He acknowledged Himself to be, like us, dependent on God. In a passage which is unmistakably the language of Jesus in His humiliation and affliction (Isa. l. 5-9), we have these words: "The Lord God will help Me; therefore shall I not be confounded; therefore have I set My face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth Me; who will contend with Me? let us stand together, who is Mine adversary? let him come near to Me. Behold, the Lord God will help Me; who is he that will condemn Me?" Thus we see that His entire hope of salvation, when once He had taken upon Him the form of a servant, lay in God. He said, "I can of Mine own self do nothing" (John v. 30); yet He says: "The Lord God will help Me; therefore . . . I know that I shall not be ashamed."

Now remember that He and we "are all of One," and that He tasted death for every man; remember also how sure He was that, though helpless, God was near to justify Him; and read that He who was "manifest in the flesh" was "justified in the Spirit," and "received up into glory" (1 Tim. iii. 16), and you will have a more vivid sense of what it means to be "justified by the faith of Christ." What He has done, all may do in Him. "This is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith."

I and My Brethren .-This is really the force of the words, "Behold, I and the children which Thou hast given Me." A hasty reading often leads people to think that by this language Christ refers to His own children; but though it is true that He is "the everlasting Father," the context here plainly shows that the "children" here referred to are God's children, His brethren, whom God has given Him as the reward of His sacrifice. God is "bringing many sons unto glory," and has appointed Christ "the Captain of their salvation," Christ, who sanctifies them, as one with them, and is not ashamed to own His relationship to them; and one of the proofs of that is His exclamation, "Behold I and the children whom Thou hast given Me." Thus He presents us to the Father as trophies won on the battlefield of earth, saying, "Here are your lost children, My brethren, whom I have found." What a view of Divine love is offered by the evident joy of the Lord over the fact that a few poor, weak, insignificant, disgraced and degraded mortals, are through His sacrifice brought back to eternal glory! This was the joy that was set before Him, which upheld Him in the terrible conflict through which He passed here on earth.

"Our Little Ones. The Victory over Amalek" The Present Truth 19, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

In the place where the Israelites had the water from the rock given to them, their enemies the Amalekites came and fought against them. Moses sent Joshua at the head of the army of Israel to fight against Amalek, but he himself went upon the hill and held up the rod of God over the fighting host. So long as he held up the rod, Israel conquered, but he had to let it fall at last because his arms were so tired that he could not hold them up any longer. Then the Amalekites began to get the victory over Israel. So two of Moses' brethren, Aaron and Hur, held up Moses' hands until the victory was completely won, and the Amalekites driven away.

The rod is the symbol of power and authority. The sceptre in the hands of kings and queens is the sign of their right and power to rule. When Moses held over the children of Israel "the rod of God," it was the sign that God was their king and captain, that He was ruling over them and fighting for them.

The Bible tells us that Christ is "the power of God," and the rod was the symbol of power. So this was another object lesson, to teach them, like all the rest, of Christ and His power to save.

What was it that gained the victory over the Amalekites? Was it the hard and valiant fighting of Joshua, and the hosts of Israel? They might have thought so, if Moses' hands had not become so weary that he had to let them drop. Then they saw what it wsa, for, "Amalek prevailed" until the rod was raised again. This showed them that it was all by the power of God, and not at all by their own might or skill.

The Lord could have destroyed their enemies just as well if they had never taken the sword at all, and no doubt they needed this lesson, so that they might put no trust in themselves, and in what they could do, but lean altogether on the mighty arm of the living God.

It may be that God wanted to teach them then, what He said years afterwards to His people when they had been a long time settled in Canaan, and a great host came against them: "The battle is not yours, but God's: . . . ye shall not need to fight in this battle. Set yourselves; stand ye still; and see the salvation of the Lord with you."

In the history of the children of Israel, we learn that when they were true to God, and did not cherish any sin in their hearts, they had the victory over all their enemies. Jesus must first cast the enemies out of our own hearts, before we can have continual victory over all our outward difficulties, trials, and temptations.

When Moses held up "the rod of God" His people had the victory. God the Father says of Christ the Son: "The Lord shall send the rod of Thy strength out of Zion; rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies." And again: "A sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom."

So we see that the "rod of His strength" by which He rules over His enemies, is His righteousness, His pure and holy character. And His righteousness is the only thing that can make us conquerors.

Shall we not invite Jesus into our hearts, to rule in the midst of His enemies who have taken His rightful place there? If we do, He will lift up His sceptre, the rod of His righteousness and strength, in our hearts, and all His enemies will fall down before Him and be cast out.

Then we can sing:

"Yea,-though I walk through the valley of the

shadow of death,

I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me:

Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me."

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

Although there are many thousands of unemployed men in London at the present time, a farmer points out that there is a great scarcity of labourers in Wiltshire. Recently when he required additional men, they could not be obtained on any terms. The trouble arises largely from the fact that people have left the country, and flocked to the city. It is a sad fact that many would rather parade among the "unemployed" in London, than have regular employment in the country. One of the greatest evils of the present day is the growth of cities at the expense of the country.

In an interview with a Daily Mail representative last week, Mr. C. T. Yerkes, the American street-railway magnate touched, among other things, on Trade Unions, and said: "I see little to fear from the increasing power at trade unions in America. The trade unions have, after all, only done what the capitalists did before them. They see a number of capitalists forming themselves into a union (for what is a trust but a union) and reaping their millions. The workman say they will unite and try to get their share, too." That is just the point; labouring men declaim against the greed of capitalists, and the essential wickedness of trusts, and then proceed to copy the very things that they denounce. A monopoly of labour is just as wicked as a monopoly of money, and is likely to do far more harm; for the capitalists, having the money already, are inclined to be conservative, desiring that things shall continue in the present order; while labour monopolies are desirous of a revolution, and the fight against capitalists always attracts a class of men who have nothing to lose, and the possibility of gaining something, by any sort of change, and who are reckless as to the means by which it is effected.

One who claims to have done some good on two occasions by persuading young men who were much given to drink to promise that they would not drink except when they ate, admits that he afterwards found one of them ordering two very small biscuits, and having a very large brandy and soda with each. Thus he saved his pledge, and at the same time indulged his propensity to drink. Even though men abide by the spirit of the new pledge, and drink only at meal times, it is a doubtful good that they receive; for there are few habits more pernicious, from the health point of view, than drinking at meals. What men need to learn is that there is but one way to reform from a bad habit, and that it is to leave it off. There is always "excess" in wine. See Eph. v. 18.

Any reference in the daily papers to some infidel theological professor's depreciation of the Bible is sure to bring a crop of letters in which the ignorance of unbelief is prominently displayed. One of the letters to the Chronicle, drawn out by the reference to Dr. Delitzsch's recent statements concerning the Bible, was signed "Madicus," and in it the writer asked why the Lord had to wait twelve hundred years after the days of Moses, to give the command, "Thou shalt love thy neighbonr as thyself." Of course the man did not know that the commandment, as it appears in the New Testament, is but a quotation from the books of Moses. Indeed, very few people who speak slightingly of the writings of Moses, and the Old Testament in general, know that if they are discredited, the New Testament must go as well. There are not two Bibles, nor two marked divisions in the Bible, but from Genesis to Revelation it is all one book.

The national danger attaching to Great Britain's almost complete dependence upon foreign countries for her food supplies is at present the subject of agitation. In view of the gravity of the situation, an association has been formed to "promote an official inquiry into the security of our food supply in time of war." The Duke of Sutherland has been chosen as president, and Lord Strathoona as chairman of a committee which represents almost every national interest, including no less than forty leading admirals. In a circular setting forth the objects of the association, it is stated that for more than three-fourths of their supplies, the forty-one million inhabitants of these islands are "dependent upon food which is imported from abroad, and liable of capture on its way to our shores in the event of war. Unless the Navy is sufficient to protect the ships which bring these vast supplies across the ocean, the position in any such contingency may become grave in the extreme. Is the fleet which we possess adequate and sufficient for the purpose? That is a question which can be answered by Navy experts only. The best reply will probably be found in the list of forty distinguished admirals who have joined the association."

"It is contended that if Great Britain were involved in a European war the cost of food would reach famine prices." This is undoubtedly true; but the reason we have referred to the matter is its significance as showing the utter absence of confidence that the peoples of earth have in one another. Nobody expects peace; every preparation is for war; and each nation proceeds on the supposition that if it is not well prepared for self-defence it will be swallowed up by the others; and with good reason, too, for each nation thus reveals its own disposition. Some light-minded people would set this down as a proof of the failure of Christianity, and others would thoughtlessly take it as evidence that Christianity countenances war: but the sad truth is, that it only demonstrates that Christianity is almost wholly rejected.

The Daily Chronicle says that "Holy Writ promises soon to be little more than the object of a cult, if one may believe contemporary evidence," and cites some illustrations that would be decidedly amusing if the ignorance were not of so serious a matter. One is the case of a reviewer who began a notice thus: "As George Eliot has beautifully said, 'The kingdom of God is within you.'" Another is that of a shilling monthly magazine, that credits the words, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee" to Matthew Arnold. Lastly, it quotes from an evening journal of the meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society, at which the Lord Mayor, who is a Jew, presided. The paper referred to "the presence in the chair of a member of the race which gave us the Old Testament" as interesting. On this the Chronicle asks the pertinent question: "Where does the writer imagine the New Testament came from? one wonders: Paternoster-row?" This is a delicate point that too many need to be enlightened upon; for there are few who appreciate the fact that the New Testament, as well as the Old, was written almost wholly by Jews. What is more, Jesus said, "Salvation is of the Jews."

The world has recently been treated to Professor Delitzsch's theory of the Bible and religion; and the newspapers have given due prominence to his assertion that the religion of the Bible is derived wholly from the legends of Egypt and Babylon. It would be no more than fair if they should let people know that all scholars are not infidels. There is no living man more competent to express an opinion upon Babylonian and Egyptian matters than Prof. A. H. Sayce, D.D., Professor of Assyriology, Oxford. In his book on "The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia," just published, he says that "an impassable gulf" separates the coarse polytheism of Babylon from Judaism, and the old Egyptian belief from Christianity, notwithstanding the seeming coincidence. He adds: "For the existence of this gulf I can find only one explanation, unfashionable and antiquated though it be. In the language of a former generation, it marks the dividing line between revelation and unrevealed religion." The truth does not by any means depend on such statements as these; it is its own evidence to all who have eyes with which to see, and ears with which to hear; but such a statement may serve to calm the minds of those who were disturbed by the assertions of Professor Delitzsch.

"Trying to Believe" The Present Truth 19, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

Trying to Believe .-"Can we make ourselves believe?" someone asks. Yes; most certainly; we can make ourselves believe anything we want to; but it is a very bad and foolish thing to do. Cases are not lacking, where a man told a story that he knew was false, and repeated it so often that at last he believed it. Nothing is easier than to make ourselves believe.

But God does not require anything of the kind. Only the devil demands that of people. Thus, God speaks the truth, He speaks things that are right,-things that are so. Now one does not have to "make himself believe" that which is true; for it carries its own credentials; it is its own proof. The person who does not believe what is true, is either blind or obstinate. In either case he need not try to make himself believe. His obvious course is to get his eyes open, or to get another mind, a mind that is normal, one that naturally accepts that which is reasonable.

It is evident that one ought not to try to believe a thing that is not true, and that is the only thing that one really has to try to believe. So never try to make yourself believe anything. Devote your energies to finding out what is truth, and you cannot help believing it.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

A great deal of the false and flimsy doctrine that is afloat comes not from wilful perverseness, but from impatience. People are in too great a hurry to have "a fixed opinion" concerning every text of Scripture. They hear or read a text, interpret it by the sound of the words, and having once formed a theory, it is more convenient to rest upon it than to examine the foundation. This will always be the case with those to whom an appearance of knowledge is more important than actual knowledge. But there is a better way. We cannot be in too great haste to understand every portion of the Bible; but patient plodding gets one along much faster than reckless jumping. The Bible may be likened to a vast collection of sweets (see Ps. cxix. 103), some of which are enclosed in a strong capsule, and require to be held in the mouth a long time before the outer portion dissolves so that one can enjoy the taste. Others yield sweetness as soon as they touch the tongue; yet there is none that is not richer to the taste the longer it is retained. So do not jump to a conclusion concerning that hard text, and do not skip it; but store it up in your mind, and by and by it will dissolve and delight you beyond measure with refreshing sweetness.

At one of Dr. Torrey's recent revival meetings in London, he related the following, which he heard from Mr. Charles Inglis. The latter was once asked by a stranger, "Have you peace with God?" "Oh," replied Mr. Inglis, "I have something better than that." "Indeed!" said his questioner, "what could be better than peace with God"? "The Peace of God," said Mr. Inglis; and the other agreed that the peace of God was even better than peace with God. "But," continued Mr. Inglis, "I have something better even than that. I have the God of peace." If you have Him you have everything; and if you "let the peace of God rule in your heart," the "God of love and peace shall be with you."

"Foolishness of Unbelief" The Present Truth 19, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

Foolishness of Unbelief .-Many people have the idea that a general attitude of unbelief is a sign of strength of judgment, and of the possession of superior reasoning faculties; that such a person will not easily be imposed upon. As a matter of fact, it is just the opposite. The person who continually or frequently interposes with, "I don't believe it," thereby proclaims himself deficient in reasoning ability, and content to hold his narrow creed on no evidence whatever.

To illustrate: If a man tells me that the moon is made of cheese, it is evident that for me to say, "I don't believe it," would be the weakest answer I could give, and extremely silly. It would indicate that, although I professed unbelief of the statement, I was not in possession of any proof to the contrary. If I thought it worth while to notice so absurd a remark, the part of dignified wisdom would be to give the plain evidence of its absurdity.

Suppose, however, someone states a more serious proposition, and proceeds to offer what he considers proof to support it, yet which I consider unsound. Here, again, it can readily be seen that for me to say, "I don't believe it," is no argument, and cannot in the least degree shake my friend's belief. On the contrary, it will naturally tend to confirm him in it; for he will say that if I had any proof to the contrary I would produce it. Certainly it is an evidence of childish weakness to oppose a thing without reasons, and if I have reason to believe that my friend's proposition is unsound, I must, in justice both to him and to myself, state my reason plainly.

But what if I am not able to controvert my friend's proposition? This may be from one of two causes: First, it may be incontrovertible; or, second, my knowledge of the subject may be too limited to enable me to express an opinion. If it be the former, then it is evident that I ought to believe it; for it is certainly very foolish to disbelieve a thing for which proof can be adduced, and against which nothing can be urged. But if I am too ignorant of the subject to be able to judge whether it is true or not, then it is evident that it is very foolish of me to express any opinion at all even to the extent of saying that I do not believe it. In that case it is evident that I speak without reason; and that is certainly foolishness.

From all this it appears that one of the most foolish things a person can say is, "I do not believe," and that infidelity is a sign of deficiency of intellect, and not of strength. The most that a person can do, who is in doubt, is to keep still and listen attentively. Only he who believes, and can give the reason for his belief, has a right to talk. "I believed, therefore have I spoken."

February 19, 1903

"The Editor's Private Corner. Not Compulsion; but Persuasion" The Present Truth 19, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

"I am a member of the Good Templars, a religious temperance society. We are great at fighting publicans, brewers, and so forth; in fact, we go for anything connected with the liquor traffic. Now somehow from reading PRESENT TRUTH, I begin to think we are spending our energy in a wrong way, and that our business is not to fight brewers, but to persuade man and women by our lives. Will you kindly enlighten me?"

I am sure you have come to a right conclusion. And this I say not of myself but from the word of God. "For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places." Eph. vi. 12. Therefore "though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds); casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." 2 Cor. x. 3-5.

RECLAMATION, NOT DENUNCIATION

Our mission to sinners is not denunciation, but reclamation. "God sent not Him Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved." John iii. 17. "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world." Verse 19. Therefore the only way that we can condemn the world is to let the light shine. Noah condemned the world by being a preacher of righteousness. Heb. xi. 7; 2 Peter ii. 5. Jesus said, "I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on Me should not abide in darkness. And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world." John xii. 46, 47. Read 2 Cor. v. 18-20. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." Therefore, we are ambassadors on the behalf of Christ, as though God were beseeching by us in Christ's stead. Whenever we lose sight of this fundamental truth, and seek to advance the cause of truth by denunciation, we are sure to fail. "The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." James i. 20. "The servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth." 2 Tim. ii. 24, 25.

I know that the idea is becoming almost universally prevalent in the Church, that Christians must deal with existing evils, in what is termed "a practical manner," namely through the machinery of the State. Modern reformers have not the patience to wait the result of preaching the Word, they want to see people converted in a body. This shows that they have not learned either the Scripture or the lesson of history. The heathen Saxons were baptized in a mass, as a token of submission to Charlemagne, but that baptism did not constitute them Christians. Nothing but the Spirit of God working on the heart of man can effect true reformation; and therefore every use of any other means, is but a hindrance to the progress of the Gospel.

"The Editor's Private Corner. The Earth's Future" The Present Truth 19, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

"Allow me to thank you for the help PRESENT TRUTH is to me. Will you kindly make more plain, with God's help, the following passage from 'Man's True Dominion'? 'When Satan has full control of all except the little flock who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, the Lord will come, the wicked will be destroyed by the brightness of His coming. The righteous will be taken to be with Him, and the earth will be left desolate, without cities and without men, for a thousand years.' In Rev. xx. 3, 4 we read that Satan is to be bound a thousand years, and when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle,' etc.

"You also stated, a few weeks ago, that this earth would be purified by fire. We read in Rev. xx. 11, 'I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them;' and in chapter xxi., 'And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,' etc., and the description of the New Jerusalem, verse 4, and onward, shows a city for God's people, entirely new.

"Thanking you in anticipation, if you have the time to explain what may not appear difficult to you, but is to me as I now read God's word, believe me, yours sincerely."

Your difficulty arises very naturally from the fact that in the articles you refer to, the events of the last days were only incidentally mentioned, and the Scripture authority for the statements made was not given, although it has often been presented at length in PRESENT TRUTH. A presentation of some of the principal portions of Scripture treating upon the coming of the Lord and the circumstances attending it will, I think, make the subject clear to your mind, and will certainly be profitable to all.

PROMISE OF RESTORATION

In the first place we must remember that the earth is much changed from what it was when it was created, and that a restoration to its original condition has been promised by the Lord through His prophets throughout all the ages; and further that this restoration is connected with the second coming of Christ. See Acts iii. 20, 21. If you read the third chapter of 2 Peter, you will find the entire history of the world summarised in very small compass, and this will serve excellently as an outline.

There we find that the earth is spoken of at three different stages of its existence, as though it were three different worlds. Notice this carefully, and you will have the solution of a large part of your difficulty. First, we have the earth at creation,

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a watery mass. Verse 5. Then we are brought to the flood, which destroyed the earth that then was, leaving "the heaven and the earth which are now," and which are reserved to be destroyed by fire by at the last day. Verses 6-13. "Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." Verse 13. Now, just "as the heavens and the earth which are now" since the flood, are but "the world that then was," but greatly modified in appearance, so the new heavens and new earth are but this present heaven and earth restored to their original condition. "He that that upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new." Rev. xxi. 5. The earth when first created was new, and so, when restored to its first condition, it will of course be new.

Having the subject before us in outline, we may now fill in the details.

The Scriptures mention in different places, many things that take place at the second advent of our Lord. What often leads to confusion concerning the order of these events is the failure to keep in mind that the second advent of Christ, like the first, is not an affair of but a moment, but covers a period of time.

RESURRECTION AND TRANSLATION OF THE RIGHTEOUS

In the sixteenth chapter of Revelation we have a description of "the seven last plagues" which will immediately precede the second coming of Christ. The circumstances attending the appearance of Christ in the clouds of heaven, will be the most awful and terrible that the earth has ever experienced. See Matt. xxiv. 29, 30; Rev. i. 7. Read also the second chapter of Isaiah, and the third chapter of Habakkuk.

To come more definitely to particulars, we may read what will happen to the righteous when Christ comes: "The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord." 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17. You might also read 1 Cor. xv. 51-54 in this connection.

THE WICKED DESTROYED

But what about the wicked? The twentieth chapter of Revelation, to which you have referred, is sufficient authority for the statement that the wicked will not receive their final doom at the moment of Christ's appearance in the clouds of heaven, to gather His saints. That chapter indeed, together with the one following, gives a very complete summary of the events from the coming of Christ and the resurrection to the final destruction of the wicked and the restoration of the earth.

In reading that chapter, note that there is a period of a thousand years between the resurrection of the just, and that of the unjust. Now we may go back to trace the story of the wicked and of the sin-cursed earth up to the close of the thousand years, when the second resurrection, the resurrection of the wicked, takes place.

THE BRIGHTNESS OF HIS COMING

In 2 Thess. ii. 8 we read of "that wicked," "whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of His mouth, and destroy by the brightness of His coming." The coming of the Lord will be with such dazzling glory as the world has never known. Compare Ps. xcvii. 3-6; Luke ix. 26; Hab. iii. 3, 4; Matt. xxiv. 27. Therefore we can well understand that the wicked that are left after the plagues will be instantly destroyed by it. The righteous will be able to endure it, because of what is stated in 2 Cor. iii. 18: "We all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." Having been accustomed to behold the glory of the Lord, the full revelation of it will but complete the change that has been taking place in them while they beheld, making their bodies immortal. Thus they are taken to be for ever with the Lord, and the earth will lie desolate, stripped of all its inhabihants for a thousand years, until the second resurrection.

THE BINDING OF SATAN

This desolation of the earth to which Satan will be confined, will constitute his binding. With none of the wicked left to work through, and none of the righteous to tempt or torture, his occupation will be gone. His hands will be bound. He will be left to his own meditations for a thousand years, to contemplate the ruin which he has wrought. Then the results of rebellion against God's government will be apparent.

THE BOTTOMLESS PIT

But what about the condition of the earth during this time? It is described as "the bottomless pit," and it is interesting to know that the Greek word abussos, "abyss," corresponds to the Hebrew word rendered "deep" in Gen. i. 2, and is identical with the word in the Septuagine. This gives us an idea of the situation. The earth in the beginning was a liquid mass, "without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." Compare this with Jer. iv. 20-28:-

"Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled; suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains as in a moment. How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of a trumpet? . . . I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I behold the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down by the presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger. For thus hath the Lord said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end. For thus shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it."

EFFECTS OF SATAN'S RULE

Thus it will be made plain to the universe that Satan's rule of the earth is the complete undoing of God's work. Where God builds up, Satan pulls down and destroys.

With the foregoing description of the earth "without form, and void" and covered with darkness, as it was before the Spirit of God brooded over the face of the waters, compare the Scriptures that speak about the melting of the earth. For example, Ps. xcvii. 5; xlvi. 6; 2 Peter iii. 10. This corroborates the statement that the earth will be reduced to a liquid state again, and will thus constitute the bottomless pit, or "the deep." Isaiah, chapters xxxiv. and xxxv. may well be read in this connection. These are but a few of the many Scripture references to the events of the last days; but they sufficiently serve our purpose, which is to give only a connected outline.

THE LOOSING OF SATAN

And now for the closing scene. It is given in Rev. xx. and xxi. "When the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth." The question in your mind is, How will Satan be loosed from his prison, and how will he find any nations to deceive, if the earth has been stripped of all its inhabitants? The answer to this question is given in the preceding verses, and has perhaps already suggested

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itself to you. It will evidently be by the resurrection of the wicked, at the close of the thousand years. That the New Jerusalem will come down from God out of heaven, and will rest upon the earth before it is renewed, is plainly indicated in Zech. xiv. 1-9, and other scriptures. lsa. xxxiii. 14-24; liv. 11-17, combined with Rev. xx. 9, 10, show that the New Jerusalem, with the saints in it, will be on the earth when the fire melts it and consumes the wicked, and that it will ride in safety upon the lake of fire, even as the ark was safely borne by the waters of the flood that once destroyed the earth. This is further indicated in Mal. iv. 1, 3: "Behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." "And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I do this, saith the Lord of hosts."

PLOTTING OF THE WICKED AGAINST THE JUST

A moment's thought will enable us to see what the deception is by which Satan gathers the nations of earth to battle after the second resurrection. The holy city having descended to earth, he will make the nations believe that they can take it, and thus possess the land for ever. This will be an easy task, because they have been accustomed to follow his lead, and many of them will have been in the act of slaughtering, or attempting to slaughter, the righteous, when death overtook them. They will begin the work of persecution where they left off a thousand years before.

A STRONG CITY

But inside the New Jerusalem the saints of God will rest as securely as did Noah in the ark tossed by the billows. No weapon that is formed against their citadel will prosper. "In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks." lsa. xxvi. 1. Its walls will be Salvation, and its gates Praise. Isa. Ix. 18. And here is the practical point of the whole story for us. It will be a terrible, awe-inspiring sight when the mighty host, "the number of whom is as the sand of the sea," consisting of all the wicked who have ever lived on earth, in well-drilled and armed battalions, with Satan at their head, march up "on the breadth of the earth" and surround the city. By all human calculation, the city, whose inhabitants they will out-number a hundred times, would fall an easy prey to Satan's army. But "God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God shall help her, and that right early." Ps. xlvi. 5. The power that has kept the saints hitherto,-the power that has made them saints, will keep them still. No one in his senses can have the faintest shadow of doubt as to the outcome. But know that every person who trusts God is just as safe from the power of Satan now as the saints in the holy city will be then. The salvation which is ours now in Christ will be all that we can have then to depend on; and it will be ample, because it is all-powerful now. Therefore in anticipation of that day, we may each one apply to ourselves now the glorious exhortation: "Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion; for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee."

"The Class. Deliverance from Sin and Death" The Present Truth 19, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

"Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted." Heb. ii. 14-15.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

1. Of what have the preceding verses told us that Christ is not ashamed?

2. Of what are the children, His brethren, partakers?

3. What does He also share?

4. In what measure?

5. Why did He become partaker of flesh and blood?

6. What does He effect by that means?

7. Whose nature only did He take?

8. Inasmuch as He became flesh and blood, like His brethren, what was fitting?

9. How nearly was He made like them?

10. Why was this?

11. In what respect is He high priest?

12. For what purpose?

19. What has He undergone?

14. How has He suffered?

15. Whet is He therefore able to do?

TOPICS FOR STUDY

This portion of Scripture should for ever set at rest any doubt as to the identification of the only begotten Son of God with humanity. His task was to save men, and this could be done only by coming where they were. The Roman Catholic Church has tried to fix a great gulf between fallen men and their Saviour. It has presented Him as inaccessible, has taught the people that they cannot hope for any share in what His sacrifice has won, except as the intercession of "saints" and Mary obtains it for them. How different is the truth! He is one of us, and one with us. To show that He is not ashamed to call us brethren, even in our low estate,-He was born in the deepest poverty, in a stable, and lived the most of His life in a town, the very name of which was a synonymn for evil. And moreover He was always distinguished by the name of that town. "The Son of man" is His favourite designation of Himself. We see Him attracting the multitudes to Himself, and we are drawn to Him, and encouraged to recline on His bosom, and to pour the tale of our trouble into His willing ear. Yea, not only can we come to Him freely, but through Him we have access with boldness unto the Father.

"He also Himself likewise took part of the same" flesh and blood that the children had whom He came to redeem. This settles the meaning of His being made "in the likeness of sinful flesh." He was "in all things" "made like unto His brethren,"- "born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem them that were under the law." "What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us." Rom. viii 3, 4. Men make themselves of no reputation, because they love sin; Christ "made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant," even of a servant of sin, because He loved the sinner, and would deliver him from the hateful sin in which he was bound.

Through death Jesus has the power to destroy not only death, but the one having the power of death. But why was death necessary to do this? Why, it is often asked, could not God destroy Satan at a stroke, and with a word forgive those who had fallen into his snare, and gave "the suffering of death?" The question is very natural, but it indicates ignorance of the nature of sin, and the hold it had on God's creation. Sin is in the blood; the flesh is wholly corrupt; and there can be no freedom from it except by the giving of life, the life of God, who, having laid down His life could take it again. This alone is sufficient

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answer to the question. But there is a deeper reason, which we can only touch upon. God must be just, and at the same time the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. Lucifer had aspired to make himself like God; and from his insinuations to Eve we know that he charged God with selfishly desiring power for His own aggrandisement at the expense of His creatures. If God had summarily cut Satan off, the injustice of the charge would not have been apparent. Some of the angels, or the inhabitants of unfallen worlds, would certainly have had an unspoken thought that God had acted arbitrarily; that He ought to have given Lucifer another chance. But God forever disproved Satan's slander by giving up His own life in the Son. When the creature aspired to God's place, the Son of God came down so the creature's place. It was not, however, merely for the sake of proving Lucifer to be a liar, that this was done. It was because it was God's nature to give Himself. SeIf-sacrifice is the law by which the universe is created and sustained. In the death of the Son of God is the power by which sin and its author are destroyed, and the trusting ones delivered from the bondage of corruption.

The work of high priest is "to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." This Jesus does in being in all things made like them. All human frailty and sin is upon Him, and He swallows it up in His unconquerable life, even as He swallows up death, When He had by Himself made purification of sin, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. We have only to enter into the possession of that which has been won for us. "It is finished,"! Jesus cried on the cross, and as the cross reveals the perfect, finished work of Jesus Christ, it effects rest to all who believe. In the cross of Christ, and there only, can there be true Sabbath-keeping.

Verses 17 and 18 are sometimes misunderstood to teach that the Son of God was-made like His brethren, in order that He might know the nature of men, and might learn how to help them. This is a reversal of the order. Christ did not come to reveal man to God, but to reveal God to man. He "needed not that any should testify of man; for He knew what was in man." John ii. 25. It was not necessary to teach God about man; but it was necessary to let man see just what God was doing, and had always been doing for the human race. "The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee." Jer. xxxi. 3. We hear Him pleading with His people, and saying, "Thou hast made Me so serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied Me with thine iniquities. I even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgression for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." Isa. xliii. 24, 25. So God revealed Himself to the world in Jesus of Nazareth, that mankind might forever know His love and power; that they might know the power by which He is able to succour them that are tempted. He is able to succour them by the power by which He bears all the sin of the world, without suffering the slightest taint of it,-he power by which He died and rose again.

"Little Folks. The Giving of the Law" The Present Truth 19, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

Our lesson this week is on "the giving of the law." The law is God's gift to us; He says.

"I will put [give] My laws into their hearts." And in 2 Cor. iii. 3 we learn how this is done: "Not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart." So the real giving of the law is God sending His Holy Spirit into our hearts to write it there. We are often told to keep God's commandments and His laws. But we must get them before we can keep them; and we do not get them by having them in a book or on tables of stone. The children of Israel had them so, and they promised to keep them, when they had never received the Holy Spirit of God to write them in their hearts.

Do you remember the young man's answer to the Lord's question: "What is written in the law? How readeth thou?" He said: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself." And Jesus said that he had answered well, for all the law is summed up in the one word Love And "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." This again shows that "the giving of the law" is the giving to us of God's Holy Spirit of love and life.

God has a law for everything He has made. We speak of the laws of nature, and the laws of plant and animal life. The plant is keeping the commandments of God when it grows into just the form and colour that He planned for "The bee is keeping His commandments when it makes its perfect honeycomb. The bird is keeping His law when it soars in the air, or builds its nest. None of these creatures has a law written out for it. God's life in it writes His law for it in the thing itself, and this is just what He wants to do for us.

God's life in all things works out in each one what He wants it to do. So when we give our hearts to Him and choose His way, and yield ourselves to let His Holy Spirit guide us, we shall do His will on earth as it is done in heaven.

Notice that God did not say, You are not to do this, or that, but "Thou shalt not." He is telling us what He will do for us; as He afterward said to His people: "If Thou wilt hearken unto Me, there shall no strange god be in thee, neither shalt thou worship any strange god."

"His voice then shook the earth," as He spoke the words of His law; showing the power of His word. We have learned how God's word is at work in all the earth, how it brought the light out of darkness, divided the waters, and made the earth bring forth grass, trees, and animals. And the words of His law that He speaks to us have just the same power as His word that He spoke in the beginning when He said, "Let there be light;" and there was light. So if we hearken and receive that word into our hearts it will keep us from every evil way.

In the ten commandments He tells us what He will do for us. He says we shall

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not worship any false god; nor set up any idol; nor take His name in vain; nor break His holy Sabbath; nor dishonour our parents; nor kill, nor steal, nor commit adultery, nor covet:-we shall do no evil, but He will keep us pure and holy. The ten commandments are His "exceeding great and precious promises" and "He is faithful that promised!" Let us trust Him, and He will write His laws in our hearts and minds, so that we shall not sin against Him in thought, word, or deed.

God has told us that once again He will speak from heaven, and His voice shall shake the heavens and the earth, and all things that are shaken shall pass away. In our lesson on the Rock and the Water we learned how we may become so steadfast and unmoveable that not even God's voice speaking from heaven can shake us. It is by drinking of the Rock of Ages, daily receiving a fresh stream of life from Christ our Saviour, which comes to us in His living word. Believing and receiving these words that He has already spoken from heaven, will keep us firm and steadfast and save us from perishing when He speaks again.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

In view of the rapid increase of consumption, the public cannot be too often or too strongly impressed with the truth stated by Dr. Andrew Wilson, in the Daily Chronicle, in commenting on the idea of inoculation with tuberculosis serum: "Happily, in the open-air treatment of the ailment, and by means of judicious feeding, we possess adequate means for fighting the 'white plague.'"

The recent terrible fire at Colney Hatch, by which fifty one lunatics lost their lives, has given occasion for considerable comment on "the steady growth of insanity, due to the wear and tear of modern life." The number of pauper lunatics in the metropolis has increased much faster than the proportionate increase in population. Physicians have now to deal with nervous disorders that were unknown a few years ago; and the worst feature of the case is that much of this disease is directly traceable, not to the ordinary or even extraordinary "wear and tear" of modern life, but to vice, much of which is unnameable. All this is, to those who have eyes to see, a proof that the end of all things is approaching. The coming of the Lord, to put an end to wickedness and the wicked, will but anticipate by a very short time the inevitable catastrophe.

The question of the food supply of Great Britain, in the event of a European war, is seriously occupying the minds of leading man in the country. Four-fifths of the wheat consumed in this country is imported; and in addition to the fact that "the corn trade on both sides of the Atlantic would expect to make war profits an a scale commensurate with war risks," the capture of a feww food ships, even though the relative strength of the Navy remained the same, would still further send prices up. Therefore a circular issued by the most prominent people in the corn trade, taking all the factors into consideration, says: "We feel that the country ought to know that, in the opinion of corn merchants, it must, in the event of war, prepare to see wheat, and consequently bread, at what would be to the poor famine prices." When we consider the fact that a general European war might be precipitated at any time at a day's notice, we realise that this country might pass in a few weeks from prosperity to famine. This is sure to come sooner or later.

The constantly-brewing trouble in Macedonia threatens more seriously than ever to come to a speedy issue. "Turkey has been making enormous purchases of arms and ammunition, and now, it is reported, the 2nd and 3rd Army Corps are to be mobilised at Adrianople and Monastir in Macedonia, and a reserve of 250,000 men is to be called out. This is regarded as a threat to Bulgaria, where a war feeling is rapidly growing. A counter mobilisation movement on the part of Bulgaria is expected. The recruits for the year, who are usually called up in April, have been summoned immediately to the contres, and an order for forty-five million cartridges was recently given out abroad. Austria has mobilised a fleet for emergencies, and Russia is reported to be preparing both troops and ships for action, if necessary." The Christian can view impending calamities with an unruffled spirit; yet even though he knows what the final outcome will be, he cannot think of the millions who will be plunged into ruin without feelings of sadness. What a blessed thing to know that "he that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."

"An arrangement has been arrived at between the Taff Vale Railway Company and the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, by which the company agree to accept the sum of ?23,000 in full settlement of all claims and costs against the society and its officials." This is the result of the verdict which placed the responsibility for the strike and the consequent damages to property, upon the society. The Chronicle, in commenting on the case, says that one point which Trade Unions will have to keep constantly in view in the future is, that "It is absolutely essential that the benefit funds of a union must be separated from the fund for fighting purposes, so that members of a union cannot be deprived of the provision they have made for illness or old age, by the results of the action of the union officials." Two things are suggested by these statements. One is, that by belonging to a trade union, labourers put themselves largely at the mercy of the officials, losing their independence, and the other is that when a Trade Union can pay ?23,000 out of its treasury, in settlement of damages caused by a strike, the members, if they remained "free," might each have a tidy sum laid by to dispose of themselves as they saw fit.

"The general uneasiness of the earth's crust," and the reminder of our Saviour's words about "the sea and the waves roaring," are vividly pictured in the following very plain statements of some of the events of the past week:-

"From at home and from abroad comes news of accident by flood. The outburst of the Clyde whereby enormous damage to property has been done is explained by the heavy rainfall and the adverse wind that beat against the outgoing tide. The escape of the hundreds of workmen from the flood which came 'like a mighty wave,' was nothing short of marvellous. But though nearer home, and thus more closely concerning us, the Clyde flood is but as a ripple on a pond compared with the tidal wave which has swept across the Southern Pacific, and devastated eighty of the islands which lie between the Cape of Good Hope and Australia. So far we have but scant details, but they are suggestive enough with their bare account of men taking refuge in trees from the oncoming wave and swimming for miles to the safety of a passing ship. Of the loss of life we can make no estimate. A thousand was the original tale of deaths; but the captain of the Mariposa multiplies this by five or ten, and we shall probably never know to a thousand or two how many were drowned by this oceanic onslaught. Nor at present is there any evidence of the cause of this tidal wave, beyond the general uneasiness of the earth's crust which has produced so many disasters of late. It is probable that what happened in the island of Martinique has happened to some submarine volcano. And in face of these hidden forces of nature we are as yet absolutely helpless."

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

There is no compromise between good and evil. They have nothing in common, and never come to terms with each other. Right is always right, and wrong is always wrong.

Moreover there is no half-way ground between them. Good and evil, truth and error, lie side by side. Where one leaves off, the other begins. If a person is not good, he is bad. He may not be so bad as others; but he is certainly bad if he is not good. There is no such thing as "perfection to a certain degree." Perfection is absolute, or else there is imperfection. This need not discourage anybody, for it is connected with and grows out of the truth that God is absolutely good; and goodness comes only from Him. There can be no half-way perfection, even as there is no half God. There is one God, and besides Him nothing. "I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside Me." Isa. xlv. 5. And He is our God; ours in the fullest sense of the word. He is our portion, our inheritance, our reward. He lives for His people, and all His perfectdions are for every one who will receive them. What reproof, and at the same time encouragement, this truth contains!

"'The Baptism of John, and the Baptism of Jesus'" The Present Truth 19, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

There is a wide-spread idea that there was an essential difference between the baptism taught and administered by John the Baptist, and that by the disciples of Jesus. (It will be remembered, of course, that Jesus did not personally baptize anybody.) This idea has come, partly at least, from a misapprehension of the passage in Acts, concerning Apollos and the twelve men whom Paul found at Ephesus. This is not a trivial matter, for the misapprehension contributes to the notion that at some point in the first advent of Jesus there was a change of "dispensations," the former "the Jewish," and its successor "the Christian dispensation." And this notion is particularly pernicious, in that it presupposes that God is changeable, sometimes having one way of salvation, and at other times another way.

The best, and, indeed, the only way to correct an erroneous opinion is to note exactly what the Word of God says. In the case of Apollos, we read that he "was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue; whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly."

Now read what is said of the twelve disciples whom Paul met at Ephesus, and asked, "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" Their reply was, "We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost." Paul then asked in surprise, "Unto what then were ye baptized?" and they said, "Unto John's baptism." Then Paul said, "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;" and when they heard, this "they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus."

Whoever has read the record of John's work ought to be able to perceive at once that these men had not been baptized by him, and that they had never heard John preach. If they had, they would have known about the Holy Ghost; for John proclaimed the baptism of the Spirit. There is in the Scriptures no disparagement of the teaching of John, or of the baptism which he administered. By a comparison of Matt. iii. 2 and Mark. i. 14, 15, it will be seen that Jesus preached exactly the same thing that John did, namely, repentance and the Gospel of the Kingdom. Paul's words, "John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance," were not a criticism of John's teaching and baptism, but an explanation of what it really was; for they were evidently ignorant of it. It is plain that these men had been baptized, not by John, but by some person who might or might not have heard John, and that they had been baptized in the name of John. This is confirmed by the words that follow those last quoted. "Saying unto the people that they should believe on Him that should come after him." That is, John had not preached that people should believe on him, but on the One who should come after him; and this is what is to be preached unto this day. As soon as the men heard the truth concerning John's baptism, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. They had not really been baptized before; for baptism that is not in the name of the Lord Jesus is of no more value than an ordinary bath, if it be as much as that. If John had taught and baptized the man, they would not have needed a second baptism.

The same thing is indicated in the record concerning Apollos. He was instructed in the way of the Lord, but imperfectly. He knew the Scriptures, but only as an unenlightened Jew,-one upon whose heart the veil still lay. He had heard of John, but He evidently did not know of Jesus. This can be gathered from what is said of his teaching after he had been instructed by Aquila and Priscilla: "He mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus is Christ." Before that, He had not heard of Jesus, or at least did not know that He is Christ.

That there was no "change of dispensation" at the time of the first advent of Jesus is evident from the fact that Jesus and His disciples taught exactly the same thing that John the Baptist did; and, moreover, both John and the disciples of Jesus taught the same things that the Jews had been taught for hundreds of years; for they used the writings of the prophets. It is true that there was a great revival; but a revival is not a new dispensation. The Word was proclaimed with greater power by John and Jesus than the people had been accustomed to hear it; and in that respect it was "a new doctrine." So the preaching of Luther and Wesley revealed new truth and made the Bible a new book to thousands; yet the reformations, in which those men were leaders, were not new dispensations of God's grace. They were simply the awakening of the people to the grace and truth that God had from the beginning freely offered to all who would accept them.

February 26, 1903

"'The Power that Worketh in Us'" The Present Truth 19, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

Looking upon a leafless tree in midwinter, and thinking upon the mysterious change soon to take place in it,-that in a little while the leaves would shoot forth, and the flowers and fruit appear,-the humble monk known as "Brother Lawrence" gained a sense of the presence, providence, and power of God, such as he never before experienced, and never afterwards lost. The few letters that he left behind him, in which he told his experiences, have awakened a deep interest. He said that "this view perfectly set him loose from the world, and kindled in him such a love for God, that he could not tell whether it had increased during the more than forty years he had lived since."

In the sanctifying power of the holy presence thus revealed to him, he lived henceforth, until the convent kitchen where he performed the humble duties of a cook, "became as another garden of Eden, and every day as one of the days of heaven upon earth."

Thus does the voice of God speak to the soul of man, if he will but give ear, revealing His eternal power and Godhead in "the things that are made." All things, even in the inanimate creation, show His power and His wisdom; but that which in nature most reveals "the real presence," is the constant variation of its phenomena according to the seasons. The bursting forth of the spring life in al its fresh beauty; the rich glory of the summer fulness; the perfection and fruitfulness of autumn; even the apparent inactivity and sleep of winter, declare Him near, for "by the breath of the Lord frost is given," and it is His voice that "strippeth the forests bare."

The rolling year

Is full of Thee. Forth in the pleasing spring

Thy beauty walks, Thy tenderness and love; . . .

Then comes Thy glory in the summer months,

With light and heat refulgent; then Thy sun

Shoots full perfection through the swelling year; ...

Thy bounty smiles in autumn unconfined,

And spreads a common feast for all that lives."

The Word which brought forth the trees of Eden, and developed them into perfect beauty, has never ceased to sound through the earth, and there is no speech nor language where this voice is not heard. Every sprouting seed and swelling bud is a vibration; every leaf a whisper; every blossom an echo; and every seed-pod a prophecy as well as a fulfilment of the Almighty Word which in the beginning clothed the earth with verdure, and filled it with life.

After the rest of winter, the life seems to burst forth with renewed vigour, and a choir of living, growing things make His voice to be heard through the earth. After the silence of night, the morning song of the birds, faint at first, but swelling to a full chorus, proclaims the dawn. So after the silence and sleep of nature through winter's night, the dawn of the new year is heralded and ushered in with a multitude of voices all proclaiming the one word of creation-the Gospel of the power of God to renew and give by His life.

The first note in this psalm of nature comes from the brave little snowdrop. Awaking early, while the ground is still hard and bare. The trees leafless and apparently dead, and the winds chill, it smiles upon the dull world, and calls forth answering smiles of hope from the beholders. Emblem of courage, its fairy bells seem to ring up its sleeping sisters to arise and by the power of the Word within them bring the spring for which they are waiting. And soon the cracus and the daffodil respond and join the strain, the violet adds its shy, sweet mote, followed by the anemone and others in their turn, and the spring chorus resounds through the renewed earth.

That the plants influence and encourage each other by their growth, is shown to be an actual fact in the following paragraph from "Flashlights on Nature":-

In early spring, when the ground just teems with sprouting seeds and swelling buds, with growing bulbs or shooting tubers, the temperature of the soil is sensibly raised; and this very heat, evolved by germination, becomes itself in time a cause of more germination; each seed and root and bulb and sucker helps to warm and start all the others. Spring largely depends upon the warmth thus produced. The earth during this orgy of growth, is warmer by a good deal than the air about it; warmer even than it is in summer weather-indeed were it not for the number of plants that thus start growing at once,

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growth would be almost impossible in very cold countries. Like roosting fowls, they warm one another."

Let the spring message of hope, courage, and good cheer strengthen our hearts for quiet and confident waiting upon God, which will result in His doing for us "exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." We may learn from the plants to "warm one another" by the growth of grace in our hearts through the power working in us. Then shall we be His witnesses, "signs and wonders," an encouragement and strength to others to submit to the working of the same almighty Word, which is able to make us "perfect in every good work to do His will, working in us that which is well pleasing in His sight."

"The Editor's Private Corner. What to Do with Offenders" The Present Truth 19, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

"What course should be pursued when persons in the Church have done wrong, or are thought to have done wrong?"

Let us study the matter from the Bible, and we shall learn some principles that ought to be universally understood, but unfortunately are not; for the Scriptures are very definite and explicit upon this subject.

In the first place, it may well be asked, Who is to deal with the wrong-doer, when it is known what ought to be done? That is to say, Who will be left, when all the wrong-doers are found? Who is there that has not done wrong? for "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." This is an item of serious importance, which is too often overlooked, and its neglect leads to much opinion, and usually to an aggravation of the wrong.

However, we are not taught that nothing is to be done for anybody, since all have done wrong, but are only put on our guard, lest we assume the position of the self-righteous Pharisee and judge. Here is one of the plainest directions:-

"Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." Gal. vi. 1, 2.

The work of Christ for sinners, and His manner of dealing with the erring, is the example for all His followers. The work, it will be seen, is restoration, not condemnation. "For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost." Matt. xviii. 11. "For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." John iii. 17. The following Scripture also should always be kept in mind:-

"If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath given to us the word of reconciliation." 2 Cor. v. 17-19.

"BEARING ONE ANOTHER'S BURDENS"

Reconciliation, restoration, is the work allotted to Christ's followers. They are to fulfil the law of Christ, by bearing the burdens of others. How this is done is indicated in the text just quoted: "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their treppasses unto them." Christ took the sin of the world on Himself, that we might he delivered from it, we bear one another's burdens, by putting ourselves in each other's place. It is astonishing what a difference this makes in one's view of things. Often the supposed wrong disappears as soon as this has been done.

"Ye which are spiritual," restore the erring. Nobody else can. It is evident, therefore, that if we hold ourselves to rigid obedience to the Scriptures, the first sight of evil in another will set us to asking whether or not we ourselves are wholly in Christ. If we are not spiritual, we have no warrant whatever to deal with an offender; for the only thing to be done is to "restore such an one;" and the only ones who can restore him are those who are spiritual; and if we are not spiritual, our first duty is to become so.

Having become assured that we are in Christ, so that we shall not do more harm than good, we proceed to restore the wrongdoer,

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according to the following directions:-

"If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone; and if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother." Matt. xviii. 15. Some ancient versions omit the words "against thee," making the text general in its application. This is more in accord with the rest of Scripture.

"Go and tell him his fault." How?-In a way calculated to restore him, and not to drive him further away; for the business at hand is not to charge him with a fault; not to try him and condemn him; but to save him. And note well, that this is in case he has really committed a fault. You are not to go on suspicion. Moreover, there is to be no charging with guilt in any case. You are to be his restorer, not his judge.

Note again: "Go and tell him his fault, between thee and him alone." Do not tell somebody else. "Thou shalt not go up and down as a tale bearer among thy people" (Lev. xix. 16) is just as much a part of the ten commandments as "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy," or "Thou shalt not kill." For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets." Your brother's reputation must be just as dear to you as your own. Besides, you endanger your own soul when you repeat a story that you have heard; for if it be not true you are guilty of lying, just as surely as though you knew it was false. Whoever repeats a story that he does not absolutely know is true, shows that he is willing to risk telling a lie, rather than miss spreading a bit of gossip. And even though you know the story to be true, you are not to repeat it to another's discredit; for that is not calculated to gain him. How do you feel when people talk about your real or imagined faults? Put yourself in the other one's place, and you will know what to do for him. "Bear ye one another's burdens."

"But if he will not hear thee, take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. That is, do not give him up at the first trial. What you have failed to do, others may succeed in doing. Still you are to seek to restore him, in the spirit of meekness.

Lastly, "if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church; but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican." What does that mean?-Just what it says: You have exhausted every means to restore him, and he will not be restored; now you can do nothing more, and must let him be as any other obdurate heathen. Do not rail against him; do not publish his fault abroad, but rather seek to conceal it; for who knows but that he, as well as any other, may be reclaimed.

This, in short, is an answer to your question as to what to do with those that are out of the way. Like our High Priest, we are to "have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way." Heb. v. 2. But in order that certain very common, almost universal, misconceptions may be cleared from our minds, it is necessary that we should give some study to the church-what it is, and what it is for, its duties and its privileges.

WHAT IS THE CHURCH?

Not to multiply words, we find from Eph. i. 22, 23, that the church is the body of Christ. This body is composed of all who are Christ's. The church is also called the house of God (1 Tim. iii. 15), "whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing in the hope firm unto the end." Heb. iii. 6. The church is not composed of "the clergy," so called, that is, of the ministry; for we read: "Ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. And God had set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues." 1 Cor. xii. 27, 28. "For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office; so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another." Rom. xii. 4, 5.

The Greek word which is rendered "church," is a compound word meaning "called out." We have the word in the adjective "ecclesiastical." God called Israel of old out of Egypt, and they formed "the church in the wilderness." Acts vii. 38. All who are in Christ have been called out of Egypt; for it is written, and fulfiled in Christ, "Out of Egypt have I called My Son." Matt. ii. 14, 15. Christ is "that great Shepherd of the sheep" (Heb. xiii. 20), and He stands and calls His sheep and as they hear His voice they come to Him. As they thus assemble about Him, they form His flock or congregation, and this is the word that really ought always to be used, instead of "church." The names of "the general assembly and church [congregation] of the Firstborn" are "written in heaven" (Heb. xii. 23); but whenever on earth there are two or three, or more, of "like precious faith" in the same neighbourhood, they naturally come together for mutual edification; and each one of these fragments of "the general assembly" is called a church, or congregation, since the life of the whole is in each part. "Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ." Eph. iv. 7.

THE CHURCH NOT A LAW-MAKING BODY

From this little view of what the church of Christ is, it is evident that the church is not a law-making body, nor is it charged with the duty of executing laws. The judicial office does not pertain to it. Its only function is to follow the directions of its Head. It is to obey law, not to make or execute laws. Such expressions, therefore, as the church being "our mother," are nonsense; for we ourselves, if we are in Christ, are part of the church.

I know that you are waiting the opportunity to put this question to me: "Are we not told to 'hear the church'? and does not Christ say that 'whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven'?"

Read the whole passage for yourself (Matt. xviii. 10-20), and if you read thoughtfully you will have the answer to your question. It is true that the words quoted occur; but it is not true that there is any commandment to "hear the church," as though it were a law-making or an executive body. There is just the same commandment given to hear the church that there is to hear any individual member of the church, and no more. When one errs, anyone who is spiritual is to seek, "in the spirit of meekness" to "restore" him; and "if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother." In the same way two or three more are to seek to gain and restore him, in case he does not hear the one. And then if he is still obdurate, the entire membership, provided all are spiritual, are to unite in labouring for his restoration. But if he will not listen to their united pleading, there is nothing more that can be done for him, but to "let him be."

THE CHURCH'S AUTHORITY

Just at this point comes the statement concerning binding and loosing. That is,

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whenever the preceding directions are followed, all that is done stands in heaven as well as on earth: because it has been the word from heaven that has been followed. Those who have spoken have spoken "as the oracles of God." But it will be remembered that "if anyone," not merely the whole church, speaks, it is to be as the oracles of God. And this thought that the authority rests as much in one or two as in the entire church, is maintained in the verses immediately following those that we have quoted from Matt. xviii. Thus: "If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them."

The only authority there is on earth is the Word of the Lord. Jesus spoke "as one that had authority," because He spoke only the word from heaven, and was the embodiment of the Word. That word is the law of the church as a whole, and of each individual member. And that Word in the mouth of one man has just as much authority as it has if spoken by a thousand men; and one man speaking that word has infinitely more authority than any number of men, whether they be called the church or not, who have not that Word. There is no such thing as determination of the truth by majority. Moreover, there is no more antecedent probability that a hundred or a thousand men are right, than that a single man is right. Numbers have nothing whatever to do with the matter; the only question is, What does the Word of God say?

But while the Word of God spoken by a score or more of men has no more authority than when spoken by only one, the Lord does teach us that its effectiveness is augmented if a number are united in it. "One shall chase a thousand, and two shall put ten thousand to flight." But all must "speak the same thing," and that thing must be God's Word as found in the Scriptures, and not the Word of man. And now you know what to do, not only in the case of a man that is at fault, but in every case. It is simply to take the Holy Scriptures as the sole authority and guide at all times and under all circumstances.

"The Class. The House of the Lord" The Present Truth 19, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

"Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, even Jesus; who was faithful to Him that appointed Him, as also was Moses in all His house. For He hath been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by so much as He that built the house hath more honour than the house. For every house is built by some one; but He that built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken; but Christ as a Son over His house; whose house are we, if we hoId fast our boldness and the glorying of our hope firm unto the end." Heb. iii. 1-6, R.V.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

1. How are the readers of the Epistle addressed in this chapter?

2. Of what are they partakers?

3. What are we exhorted to do?

4. What are we to consider to regard to Christ?

5. To whom was He faithful?

6. How faithful was He?

7. Where was Moses faithful?

8. How does Christ stand, as related to Moses?

9. Of how much more glory is Christ worthy than Moses?

10. What is said of every house?

11. Who built all things?

12. In whose house was Moses faithful?

13. In what capacity was he faithful?

14. Where and in what capacity was Christ faithful?

15. Who constitute that house?

16. Under what conditions do we constitute the house?

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY

"Partakers of the heavenly calling." It is interesting to know that the word here rendered "partakers" is the same that in chapter i. 9 is rendered "fellows." Christ is anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows, or partakers. The "heavenly calling" is "unto the fellowship" of the Son. 1 Cor. i. 9. "And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." 1 John i. 3.

Jesus Christ has many offices. Indeed, there is no position that He does not fill. He "ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things." Eph. iv. 10. He is the Apostle and High Priest of our profession; and it is only by the virtue that is in Him that anybody ever was an apostle or priest indeed. He is King and Lord of all, yet He is Servant of all. Whatever place we are called upon to fill, whether high or low, the power by which we can do the work and endure either the honour or the shame is the power of Christ.

"Our profession" is the way it is in the Common Version; but in the Revision it is our "confession," and that is strictly literal, we are to confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus. Rom. x. 9. He is not only the One whom we confess, but He Himself "before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession" for us. 1 Tim. vi. 13. The word rendered "confession" in this instance is the same that is rendered "profession" in our lesson. The one true confession of faith is the confession of the Lord Jesus.

Faithful as Moses was. What a wonderful recommendation that is for Moses! If it had been stated that Moses was as faithful as Christ, we should feel inclined to say, Impossible; but we can find no fault when it is stated that Christ was as faithful as Moses. It is manifestly true, and, wonderful to say, it is not derogatory to Christ. Neither is it flattery of Moses. God said to Aaron and Miriam: "Hear now My words: If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make Myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all Mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold; wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?" Num. xii. 6-5 Yet very many people, even professed Christians, are not afraid to speak slightingly of Moses, the grandest man in all history. When we consider the work Moses had to do,-that for forty years he had the care of a nation upon him, and that in all that time only one impatient exclamation escaped him, in spite of the almost continual murmuring, and often insult and violence, of the people,-it must be admitted that his equal has never appeared among mortal men. And so, when the Holy Spirit would honour the One like unto Moses, raised up from the people, no higher praise could be given than to say that He was faithful as Moses was.

The Folly of Infidelity .-"Every house is built by some one." In this simple statement, the truth of which is self-evident, we have an unanswerable argument against that form of infidelity called "evolution," or "natural selection." There is no more common question, on seeing a grand and beautiful, or even a very ugly, structure, than, "Who built it?" The wisest philosopher would ask it as naturally as a child. If the answer should be, "Nobody built the house; it simply came; it was evolved; "everybody would recognise it as a joke, or else as evidence that the man was insane. No one supposes that houses build themselves; everybody knows that there must be a builder for every houses-some one greater than the house. Yet many who would be impatient with

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such trifling as the statement that a house built itself, will gravely affirm that the builder of the house had no Creator. That is far worse trlfling. There is One who built all things, and that One is the "God and Father of all."

Fellowship with Moses .-Moses was faithful as a servant; Christ as a Son; but both in the same house. Note that it is God's house that is under consideration. God said, "My servant Moses. . . is faithful in all Mine house." "But Christ as a Son over His house." Not "His own house," as in the Common Version. The word "own" is added without authority, and is rightly omitted in the Revision. Both Moses and Christ were in the same house-the house of God.

This shows us that if we are in the same house with Christ,-if we belong to the same family,-we must be in the same house as Moses. If we are members of Christ's body, we must be in fellowship with Moses; we must be in the same church with him; and those who were in "the church in the wilderness," with Moses, were in the church of Christ. For they "did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed [went with] them; and that Rock was Christ." 1 Cor. x. 3, 4.

Moses shared "the reproach of Christ." Heb. xi. 25, 26. He left Egypt to be joined to Christ. He was one of the "called out," and hence a part of the church. And it is no grudged membership, no insignificant place, that Moses holds. He does not come in among us by sufferance. On the contrary, we are honoured by being permitted to have fellowship with Moses; and we cannot be in fellowship with Christ-Christ will not own us,-if we reject Moses. He says: "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me; for He wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My words." John v. 46, 47.

The Construction of the House .-Christ is counted worthy of more glory than Moses, because the builder of the house has more honour than the house. Whatever honour or glory the house has, is only secondary,-derived from the builder; and God created all things in Jesus Christ. That Christ is the One through whom the house is built up, is evident by comparing verses 6 and 14. "Whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. And "We are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end." That is, holding fast our confidence makes us "partakers of Christ." And also constitutes us His house. So we are the house only as we are "rooted and built up in Him." Col. ii . 7. God is the owner and builder of the house; Christ is the Son over the house; and we are the house.

Christ the House .-A house is made to live in; God's house is of course His dwelling-place; and of Christ it is said: "In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Col. ii. 9. We, being partakers of Him, form His body, and so are also the house. Thus we read that the church is "His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." Eph. i. 22, 23. We, build on Him, grow "unto an holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." Eph. ii. 21, 22. The house of God is "the church of the living God." 1 Tim. iii. 15.

The most prominent feature of the Epistle to the Ephesians is the house-the idea of the household. In verses 9, 10 of the first chapter, we see that the mystery of God's will, which He has purposed in Himself, and made known to us, is "That in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth." The word rendered "dispensation" is our word "economy," pertaining to the house; so that the passage is correctly rendered in the Danish: "To establish a household in the fulness of times," etc. This is done by gathering together in one all things in Christ,-things on earth and in heaven. Now those "far off" are "made nigh by the blood of Christ, and are "no more strangers and foreigners," but "of the household of God" "builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit."

A house is built by bringing sons into it. So God's house is built up in Christ by "bringing many sons unto glory." "As many as received Him,"-became partakers of Him,-"to them gave He power to become the sons of God." John i. 11.

Christ's body is primarily the temple of God. See John ii. 19-23 He said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." He was standing in the magnificent temple in Jerusalem at the time He said this, yet He made no explanation when He said "this temple," referring to His own body. The body was so intrinsically and obviously greater, and more worthy tobe called the temple, than that house of stone and cedar was, that no explanation was necessary. When He was risen from the dead, His disciples remembered His words, and understood the truthfulness of them.

Now He is made "Head over all things to the church, which is His body" (Eph. i. 22), "for in Him were all things created, in the heavens, and upon the earth." Col. i. 16. Thus it is that all things in heaven and on earth are gathered together in one in Him, and "the whole family in heaven and earth is named" from Him.

We have now definitely before us that which occupies so important a place in the Epistle to the Hebrews,-the house of God,-and yet we have by no means yet seen the whole of it. Rather we have but just had a glimpse of the glorious dwelling-place of the Most High, who "dwelleth not in temples made with hands." May the sight, as we proceed in our study, increase our confidence, thus making us more and more partakers of Christ, until at last we realise the fulness of the promise, "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and He shall go no more out."

"Our Little Ones. Worshipping the Golden Calf" The Present Truth 19, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

When God led the Israelites out of Egypt, and made Himself known to them, He said, "Defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the Lord your God." Ezek. xx. 7. This shows that in Egypt they had fallen into idolatry, and were accustomed to worship gods that they could see. So when Moses was gone from them they said to Aaron, "Make us gods to go before us."

If only Aaron, who knew the true God, had stood firm and reasoned with the people, he might have saved them from that terrible sin that cost many of them their lives. But he fell because he was weak and feared the people. He thought the only way to save his life, was to do as they wished; so he made a golden calf. He sought to gain their favour by arranging for a heathen festival, thus leading them still further into sin. It is far better to lose our lives for doing right than to save them by doing wrong.

But a few days before, God had said to the people, "Ye have seen . . . how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto Myself." And again, we are told that "He bare them and carried them all the days of old." But now they turned from the God who carried them, to a god that they had to carry before them.

It seems strange to us that they should have made a god in the form of a calf, and bowed down before it, and said, "These be thy gods, O Israel;" but in Egypt they had often seen such things, for the Egyptians worshipped animals, especially the sacred bull that they called Apis.

It was but a very little while since they had promised to serve God and keep His law, which told them not to make any graven images. This sad story shows how little power there is in our own promises and resolutions. This should not discourage us; it should teach us to put all our trust in God, and His faithful promises of what He will do for us.

While Moses was in the mountain, God had given him two tables of stone, on which He had written the ten commandments with His own finger. When Moses saw how they had broken their covenant, he cast the tables of the broken law out of his hand, and they were broken to pieces.

All those who were faithful to God had to take a very firm stand for the right, even though it cut them off from their dearest friends. They had to smite the sin of idolatry wherever they found it, even though it were in the heart of the one they most loved. Thus they shared with God in executing judgment upon the unrepentant sinners.

Terrible as this seems to us, it was, as are all the acts of God, the most merciful thing that could be done. Sin can bring only misery and death; and when one clings to his sin and will not repent, the kindest thing that God can do is to cut him off, and so keep him from having an evil influence over others, and leading them astray. By being God's instruments in doing this work, God's faithful servants showed that they saw in it the justice and mercy of God.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

In the King's Speech at the opening of Parliament, the statement that "the condition of the European provinces of Turkey gives cause for serious anxiety" shows that the Eastern Question is still unsettled, and is a warning that the European Continent, and so the whole world, may at a day's notice be involved in a war.

Speaking of international jealousies and criticisms, which are so common, and which often find forcible expression, Mr. Balfour in his recent speech before the Conservative Club at Liverpool, said: "In regard to the future I am filled with disquietude when I think how easy it is to fan these international jealousies, and how difficult it seems to be to allay them."

It is indeed worthy of note that Leo XIII. celebrated on February 20 the twenty-fifth anniversary of his pontificate. When he was elected, he was sixty-seven years old, and in very delicate health, and it was prophesied both by himself and others, that he had but a short time to live; yet of all the Cardinals who assisted in his election, only one survives, while the Pope has seemingly as good prospect of years of life before him as he has had at any time.

The Isaak Cathedral at St. Petersburg was broken into one night last week, and three diamonds, worth 100,000 roubles, about ?10,570, were taken from the frame of a picture of the Saviour. This is more then ten thousand times as much as ever could have been taken from the Saviour Himself. If the jewels had been sent about doing good, like Him whom they were supposed to honour, they could not have been stolen. See Matt. vi. 19-21.

One of the Leeds magistrates has calculated that ?1,335,000 was spent last year in the city for drinks. Add to that the expense indirectly caused by the drink, and it will easily be seen that if the money spent on liquors were devoted to the upbuilding of the people, there need be no poverty. And the money expended is the smallest part of the loss. Yet in the face of this persistent indulgence in that which degrades and destroys, people wonder "why God allows so much suffering."

The feeling of people in the South of the United States towards the coloured people is indicated by some of the statements concerning President Roosevelt. He has appointed some cultured negroes to office, although not more than other presidents have appointed, and he had Booker T. Washington, one of the leading educators of America, to dinner, and for this the New Orleans Times-Democrat says that "he has placed himself outside the pale of gentlemanly behaviour," whatever that may mean.

One of the most alarming signs of the times is the increase of drunkenness, which of course means an increase in all forms of sensuality, among young people, and especially girls. Official figures show that of 566 girls and women charged in Manchester in 1901 with drunkenness and molestation, fourteen were but fifteen years of age, twelve were between sixteen and eighteen, and eighty-nine between forty and seventy years. There was a time when drunkenness was a vice of the male sex only: but that time has long since passed.

The Missionary Review of the World gives the aggregate income of all the various missionary societies as ?3,262,086, Compare this with the fact that in a single city, that of Leeds, the amount spent for intoxicating liquor last year is calculated by a magistrate to have been ?1,335,000, and there will be no room for question as to whether the world is growing better or worse. Two-fifths as much spent for poisonous drink in a single town as is given in all the world for the conversion of the heathen. Suppose this were indeed a Christian nation, and this fearful and wicked waste were stopped in every place, as it would he in that case, how quickly the whole world might be evangelised.

A daily paper tells of a Welsh collier who, after having been a teetotaller all his life, "took a drop," on the advice of a friend, because he was ill. The result was, he nearly went mad, and straightway assaulted a policeman, for which he was fined ?4. An important lesson is here illustrated. Many people think that a single sin ought not to be counted against a man who has lived a virtuous life; but we see that a long life of temperance did not enable that man to drink intoxicating liquor with impunity. No amount of piety can avail to prevent a sin that is committed from blackening the soul. Incidentally, it may be noted as a strange bit of human inconsistency, that men in trouble will have recourse to their greatest enemy. Abstinence from liquor is too often a mere sentiment, instead of intelligent obedience to a settled principle.

A very interesting and amusing state of things concerning religion has just been brought to light in Austria. The marriage agreement of a Jew with an English woman, by which it was provided that the children should be brought up in the Anglican religion, has been declared invalid by the authorities, on the ground that the Church of England is not officially recognised as one of the religions of Austria. So the curious condition exists that, while the Vienna district court has just given a decision recognising Baptists as Christians, members of the Church of England are not regarded as Christians in Austria. That, however, does not hinder them from being Christians; nor does the Government recognition of the Baptists add anything to their real standing as Christians.

It is not at all reassuring as to the future prosperity of the country, to learn that the gambling mania is infecting all classes of people, and is greatly on the increase. G. W. E. Russell, LL.D., who is said to have "studied most phases of gambling in an official capacity," has spoken recently with special reference to the game of "Bridge," which he says "is transforming the social life of society. It has carried the gambling spirit into the drawing rooms of country homes, and has destroyed the health-giving games formerly indulged in, such as golfing and cycling." He adds: "The game has taken as firm a hold upon women as upon men; perhaps a firmer hold. There is, indeed, plenty of evidence that gambling is vastly on the increase among the women in our best society."

Out-door sports, that give physical exercise, filling the lungs, and strengthening muscles and nerves, serve a good purpose, although often carried to excess; but for a company of people who have come together in the name of society, to spend hours in playing games, and that too often, the veriest children's games, argues a deplorable dearth of ideas. Social intercourse is by no means to be neglected or despised; but unless it tends to mutual help and upbuilding, it is a curse, whether the game is but for gain, or simply for the purpose of amusement.

The recent strife between the great tobacco trusts seeking to capture and control the British trade, has incidentally drawn attention to the increase in the use of the poisonous weed, and the effects of it. A note in the Daily Chronicle of February 6, after stating that "the juvenile smoker is recognised as an enemy not only to himself but to his country," and that "his fancy runs entirely to cheap cigarettes, which enervate his system and spoil his chances of physical development," says that "no one recognises this more readily than the retail tobacconist." Then followed this most suggestive paragraph:-

Retail dealers who were consulted yesterday by one of our representatives admitted that the practice of smoking by boys was much more extensive than was perhaps supposed. "Little nippers," said one, "come in whose heads reach no higher than the top of the counter and ask for a penny packet of cigarettes. Do we sell them? Of course we do. There is no help. The manager of a shop is put in it to make as much money as possible, and he would be foolish to refuse trade even with boys. We recognise the evil; cigarette smoking never did anyone any good, least of all boys, but we simply have to sell. Someone would if we did not. When a boy begins to smoke at ten years of age, as thousands do, it is impossible to cure them of the habit."

There we have the cold-blooded calculation of commercialism. Boys are determined to commit suicide, and therefore these virtuous dealers make a profit out of it, justifying themselves by the statement that if they do not, somebody else will. The strangest part of the whole matter is, however, that the Chronicle, in common with most other papers, will uphold the use of tobacco as necessary to men, although they acknowledge that it kills boys. When we consider that almost all boys learn to smoke nowadays, the question involuntarily arises, where are the men to come from?

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

The "difficulties in the Bible" are chiefly in the minds of those who read. They have certain notions, which they are persuaded are correct, and they read the Bible for corroboration of those notions. Then comes the difficulty: for they do not find in the Bible what they have in their own heads. So they say that the language is "obscure"; for it never enters their minds that the theories they have imbibed can be erroneous, and they are sure that the Bible must substantiate them. So they proceed to "interpret" it, to make it seem to agree with them; and it must be admitted that the difficulties in the process are very great. But to one who has no thought but to find what the Bible says, the difficulties are comparatively few.

"Knowledge puffeth up, but love buildeth up." But the knowledge that puffs up is not the knowledge of God; for "God is love," and "he that loveth not knoweth not God." Moreover the one object that is supremely worthy of study is God, since He is the source of wisdom. In Him "are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Consequently it is evident that the more real wisdom and knowledge one possesses, the greater will be one's humility. This follows because the one who sets himself to know God always has his eyes directed forward and upward, toward the infinite realms yet unexplored, and not downward and backward, toward the little portion already passed over. The better acquainted one becomes with God, the more does one see there is yet to know, and the smaller do his own attainments appear in comparison.

"The Power of the Name of Jesus" The Present Truth 19, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

The Apostle Paul had been preaching the Word with power in Ephesus, and God had wrought special miracles by his hand; "so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them."

"Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered, and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? And the man in whom the evil Spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded! And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord was magnified."

If it were not for that last statement, a hasty reader would be inclined to say that this time the power of the name was not apparent; that the name did not prevail against the evil spirit; but the text says the name of the Lord was magnified by this occurrence. How was it?

The truth is, that the name of the Lord was not really used on that occasion. The name of the Lord is not a mere word; it is a living thing; it is life itself an illustration of the power of the name as seen in the healing of the lame man at the Beautiful gate of the temple. Peter said to him, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk," and he walked and leaped. Then Peter said to the wondering crowd: "The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers hath glorified His Son Jesus; . . . and His name through faith in His name hath made this man strong; yea, the faith which is by Him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all." And the next day, when questioned concerning the miracle, Peter said: "Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even in Him doth this man stand here before you whole. . . . And in none other is there salvation; for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, whereby we must be saved." Acts iii. 1-16; iv. 10-12.

Read the tenth verse carefully, and note that the name of Jesus is Jesus Himself. Peter said that the lame man stood "in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth," "even in Him." "Jesus" means Saviour, and that is just what He is. He saves by His life, by Himself. And take notice also that there is real power in the name. That lame man who in all the forty years of his life had never stood on his feet, was made to walk in that name, and he stood in that name the next day. So the power of the name is just such real power as moves the muscles of our legs and arms, and our entire body.

This is given as an illustration of the reality of the salvation that is in the name of Jesus. It is no mere sentiment, no fancy; it can actually transform a man, body and soul. It is all powerful. It is the "name that is above every name." It is the key that unlocks the treasure house of heaven; for Jesus said: "Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it." John xiv. 13, 14.

And yet those seven sons of Sceva failed. Why?-Not through any defeat in the name, but because they were not in the name. They were in a city famous for the practice of magic, and they themselves were exorcists; and they attempted to use the name of Jesus as a charm. But it doesn't work that way. You cannot carry the name of Jesus in any way except as your life; for it is life. The evil spirit recognised Jesus and Paul as its masters; but it proved that it was master of the exorcists; and that was proof that they had no connection whatever with the name of Jesus; for the promise is sure, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain;" and Jesus Christ is God. Therefore.

"Take the name of Jesus with you,

Child of sorrow and of woe;

It will joy and comfort give you;

Take it, then, where'er you go.

"Take the name of Jesus ever

As a shield from every snare;

When temptations round you gather,

Breathe that holy name in prayer."

March 5, 1903

"The Editor's Private Corner. The Dispensation of Grace" The Present Truth 19, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

"Is this dispensation under the law? and are the ten commandments the law of sin and death?"

The first thing to be done in studying any subject is to come to an understanding of the terms used. A great many words float about in common use, and are used without any thought of their meaning, and the word "dispensation" is one of them. The verb "dispense" is the Latin word to weigh out. All are familiar with such expressions as "dispensing favours," that is, the dealing out of gifts. That is dispensation. "Dispensation" is the act of giving out anything whatever. In the common version of the Bible it is used as the rendering of the word meaning "stewardship." It is evident, therefore, that to use the word as synonymous with a period of time, as is most frequently done, is nonsense. The first of these two questions really means nothing, for what it virtually amounts to is, "Is this dealing out under the law?" But if we ascertain what God has to dispense, and how He gives it out, we shall arrive at the answer to the question that is intended.

God deals in grace. He is "the God of all grace." 1 Peter v. 10. "He deligheth in mercy," and "the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting." He is continually dispensing it, and we can therefore "come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." Heb. iv. 16. How freely this grace is dispensed is thus stated: "Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ." Eph. iv. 7. Moreover, God associates the recipients of His grace with Himself in dealing it out; for He "hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation," and "hath given unto us the ministry of reconciliation" (2 Cor. v. 18, 19); so "as every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." 1 Peter iv. 10.

People who talk about the "dispensation of law," and the "dispensation of grace," as though the word "dispensation" meant a certain period of time, intimating that at one time God deals, or dealt, out law, and at another grace, do not think what a charge they are bringing against God. They are virtually saying that there was a time when God was not gracious, and when men could not be saved, or, if saved, must do the work themselves, without any help from God. That is to charge God with being changeable and partial. Yet the people who use these terms actually profess to worship and adore such a God. Truly, they know not what they say. Such language is most dishonouring to God, and is directly contradictory to Scripture, which declares that God's ways are equal, and that He changes not. There has never been a time when the grace of God has not been freely given.

What is the purpose of the grace of God?-It is to save men. "The grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world." Titus ii. 11, 12. "By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."

From what does it save us?

We are saved from sin by God's grace. And what is sin?

"Sin is the transgression of the law." 1 John iii. 4.

Then is the object of grace to save us from obedience to the law?

Not by any means; but from the transgression of it, and so from its condemnation. "Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." Rom. v. 20.

"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin [in transgression of the law], that grace may abound?"

"God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" Rom. vi. 1, 2. "Sin shall not have dominion over you." That is, you shall not be subject to transgression of the law; "for ye are not under the law, but under grace."

"What then? shall we sin [transgress the law], because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid." Rom. vi. 14, 15.

The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth chapters of Romans tell the story in plain terms to everybody who can read. There was law in the days of Abraham, as well as in the days of Moses, because, God says, "Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws." Gen. xxvi. 5. He kept them by faith; for "he believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness." Gen. xv . 6.

Then when the descendants of Abraham forgot the lesson of his life, and became self-confident and self-righteous, the law was spoken from Sinai, "that the offence might abound." The offence, the sin, already existed, which shows the existence of the law before Sinai; for "sin is not imputed when there is no law" (Rom. v. 13); but the law was spoken in order "that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful." Rom. vii. 13. Nevertheless, "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound."

There was dispensation of law, if you please, but there was "more grace." The dispensation then was exactly the same that it is now. Moreover the "Christian dispensation" was at Mount Sinai, because grace abounded there, and "grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." John i. 17. The law was "in the hand of a Mediator" (Gal. iii. 19), and "there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus." 1 Tim. ii. 6.

Suppose you let all the time between us and Abraham drop out of sight for a moment; it will simplify matters very much. Now read: "We desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end; that ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the

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promises. For when God made promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater, He aware by Himself; . . . wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two immutable things; in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which endureth into that within the vail, whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus." Heb. vi. 11-20.

Thus we see that we are in the same "dispensation" with Abraham; but God is not fitful, fickle, and vacillating, now giving, and now withholding; so we know that there is no break in the bridge of grace that spans the ages between Abraham and us. Where there is always law, there is always abundant air, and there is always superabundant grace.

Christ is High Priest for the purpose of making reconciliation for the sins of the people (Heb. ii. 17), and His priesthood is "after the power of an endless life." Heb. vii. 16. We are "saved by His life." Rom. v. 10. Now it is evident that that life was reconciling and saving men even before the days of Abraham, for Enoch, who "walked with God" three hundred years, and was then taken to heaven without dying, and is still living, is a demonstration of it. God does not change. There has been no intermission in His grace, but it has been flowing a steady stream from that time to this. The dispensation of law and grace is coincident, for by the grace of God in Christ the law is written in the hearts of all who believe. Those who sin are "under the law," while "the undefiled in the way" "walk in the law of the Lord."

The second question is already answered in the foregoing. Indeed, one has but to read the ten commandments, to know that they are not "the law of sin and death." "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." "Thou shali not kill." "Thou shalt not steal." "Thou shalt not commit adultery." "Honour thy father and thy mother." Do you know what it means to say that those commandments are sin? It means that it is sin not to kill, steal, swear, commit adultery, dishonour parents, and dishonour God. Is there any doubt in your mind on the subject? Do you think that it is sin not to do those things? Of course you do not. Then you have the answer to your question. "My tongue shall speak of Thy word; for all Thy commandments are righteousness." Ps. cxix. 172.

What is "the law of sin and death?" It is the carnal mind, our natural disposition, which is "enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be," and "to be carnally minded is death." Rom. viii. 6, 7. "The prince of the power of the air," is "the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience," who are "dead in trespasses and sins;" but there is "no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus," "for the law of the spirit of life in Christ, hath made me free from the law of sin and death." The law of God is in the heart of Christ. Ps. xl. 8. Indeed, His life is the law, for "His commandment is life everlasting" (John xii. 50); and therefore when Christ dwells in our hearts by faith "the righteousness of the law" is fulfilled in us.

"The Class. Temple, Priest, and Preacher. Heb. iii. 1-6" The Present Truth 19, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

(Heb. iii. 1-6.)

We have once passed over these verses, and obtained a general view of their relation and connection; now we will give closer attention to some of the particulars.

"Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus." We must give Him more than a hasty glance and a passing thought. These verses present Him in a three-fold capacity, in which we are to consider Him.

THE PREACHER

An apostle is one sent. The very title "apostle," therefore; signifies that the one to whom it is given has a message-something to do or say; for men are not sent for nothing. Christ is sent for a specific purpose; He has a mission, and He knows what He has to do.

The word "mission" suggests another familiar term, "missionary," and serves to establish the "apostolic succession." Few stop to think that "missionary," from the Latin, corresponds exactly to "apostle," from the Greek. One is from the verb "mitto," and the other from "apostello," which are respectively the Latin and Greek words meaning "to send." The twelve apostles were the pioneer missionaries after the days of Jesus Christ. Paul was the greatest apostle of all, for he made more extended missionary journeys, and did more missionary work than they. And the reason why he was so successful is that he had a definite message, and he knew what it was. "I believed, therefore have I spoken."

In these days people travel far more extensively than Paul did; yet there is not so much missionary work done; and the reason is that there is getting to be more and more haziness as to what the message is. Men and women travel to distant lands as missionaries, without having received for themselves individually a clearly defined message straight from the Lord, as Isaiah did. But travel, or an impulse to travel, does not constitute one a missionary; there must be a message to deliver; and if a man has a message he is a missionary, even though he never leaves his native town.

The condition just described is well illustrated in the case of Cushi and Ahimaaz, in the days of David. After the defeat and death of Absalom, Ahimaaz wanted to run and carry a message to the king. Joab would not permit him to go, but sent Cushi instead. "Then said Ahimaaz the son of Zadok again to Joab, But howsoever, let me, I pray thee, also run after Cushi. And Joab said, Wherefore wilt thou run, my son, seeing that thou hast no tidings ready? But howsoever, said he, let me run. And he said unto him, Run. Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the plain, and overran Cushi." 2 Sam xviii. 19-23. But although Abimaaz was the faster runner, his zeal could not make up for his lack of a message. He reached the king first, but when he was asked for news, he could only say, "I saw a great tumult, but I knew not what it was;" and the king said to him, "Turn aside, and, stand here. And he turned aside, and stood skill." He might as well have saved his strength. Let us consider Christ, the Great Missionary, in order that we may not run in vain.

But God "sent forth" His Son, and He came not in vain. He came in pursuance of God's "eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." His "goings forth have been from of old, from the days of eternity." Micah v. 2. That which God kept steadily in mind "through times eternal,"-He will not lightly lose sight of.

"He whom God hath sent, speaketh the words of God." John iii. 34. Why? Because "God giveth not the Spirit by measure." It is the Spirit that makes known the words of God, as we read: "Turn you at My reproof; behold, I will pour out My Spirit upon you; I will make known My words unto you." Prov. i. 33. The word of the Lord came unto John,-a man sent from God,-and be came preaching. The word came to him, because He

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had received "the Spirit of revelation."

The words of God are spirit and life. We must feel them. We must find in them, as we read, far more than their mere form indicates,-what no "natural man" can perceive. The one sent from God will preach that which the Spirit reveals through the Word, yet which nobody can see in the words, no matter how familiar he is with them, except by the Spirit. He is not to read into the text something that is not there, but to see into the depths, and to read out of it that which the Spirit reveals there; "for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." The preaching of the man who speaks what no eye hath seen, and no ear hath heard, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, will seem foolishness to the "natural man;" but it is "by the foolishness of preaching" that God saves those that believe;-by preaching that lays hold of the infinite, and enlarges their minds;-not by that which is what they have "always believed."

The man who thus preaches the Word, will be called "visionary" by the world. Even so it should be; the man sent from God must be a seer; he must have his eyes anointed with eyesalve, that he may see; and when he once sees, and continues beholding, he will never be at a loss for a message.

THE PRIEST

But the Apostle of our confession is also High Priest. This naturally follows; for a priest is a preacher; he is one in whose mouth the law is to be sought. Christ, the Son, is Priest by virtue of being Son. When He has by Himself made purification of sins, He "sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Heb. i. 3); and it is to the One sitting on His right hand that God says, "Thou art a Priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek." Ps. cx. It is "a royal priesthood."

God's kingdom is His own house, no more, no less. He rules over His own household. All His subjects are His own sons. Therefore all His subjects are kings. He is King of kings.

THE TEMPLE

But this household is established in Christ, "whose house are we" if "we are made partakers" of Him. The purpose of God is to "gather together in one all things in Christ;" and when we are "made nigh by the blood of Christ," we are "no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God; and are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone; in whom the whole building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit."

We see that Christ is essentially the house of God, for "the whole family in heaven and earth is named" in Him. Thus He is the Temple, the Priest, and the Sacrifice. He is the type, that is, the model or pattern, of the house of God.

The house "groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord," indicating that it is alive. It is built upon a Living Stone, upon whom believers "as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable unto God by Jesus Christ." 1 Peter ii. 4, 5.

ALL THREE COMBINED IN ONE

Is it not wonderful? The house, "an holy priesthood," to offer up sacrifices; and these "acceptable sacrifices" are set forth in Rom. xii. 1: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." The house is composed of priests,-it is a royal priesthood,-for it offers up sacrifices; and the sacrifice which it offers is itself! A house, a priesthood, and a sacrificial offering all in one!

The characteristics of the whole house are seen in each part; for "the head of every man is Christ." 1 Cor. xi. 3. All that is true of the whole, is true of each member. The church, which is the body of Christ, is "the fulness of Him that filleth all in all" (Eph. i. 22, 23), only because Christ dwells in each member by faith, filling him with "all the fulness of God," Eph. iii. 17-19. Every individual member of the house of God is also a temple, a priest, and an offering; for Christ is all these in their simplest yet most comprehensive terms; and each member is to be a reproduction of Him.

Therefore, "consider Him;" for everything that He is we must be; and it is by beholding that we are changed into the same image.

"Little Folks. The Tabernacle" The Present Truth 19, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

The tabernacle was a large tent set up in the midst of the camp, with the family tents of the people round about. Although God told them to build this sanctuary, it was not His desire to dwell in a tent separate from the people. He tells us plainly what is the house that He had chosen: "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" But the children of Israel were so slow to learn this, that God had the tabernacle built to be an object lesson to teach them of His presence with them.

The prophets who have had visions of things in heaven have seen there the living temple of God, every part of which is moved and guided by the Holy Spirit. The tabernacle built on earth was a shadow of the heavenly temple. It was made like the pattern that God showed to Moses, and everything in it had precious lessons for us.

The Holy and the Most Holy Place .-God did not dwell in the tabernacle because it was a holy place; but it was a holy place because He dwelt there. The Most Holy place was where the Shekinah, the cloud of glory showing the presence of God, rested over the mercy seat. This hallowed the outer apartment, making it also a holy place, and a space for some distance round the tabernacle was railed off from the people, and this outer court was also holy. We do not have to be holy before God can come and dwell with us, but He comes to dwell with us to make us holy. The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."

The Ark .-This represented the throne of God. In it were the tables of stone on which the ten commandments were written. This holy law written in the fleshy tables of our hearts will make them the living throne of God from which He will rule over our whole bodies. When Moses brought the tables of stone down from the mountain, his face shone so that the people could not look upon it; and when the Ark containing them was put in the tabernacle, the cloud of glory rested over it.

But God says that if the law written and engraven in stones was glorious, the law written on the living tables of the heart shall "exceed in glory." For then the word is made flesh, as it was in Jesus of Nazareth: "We behold His glory. . . . full of grace and truth." The grace and truth that come into our hearts when the Spirit of Jesus writes His law there, will be more glorious than the cloud that rested over the Ark, or the glory of Moses' face.

The Golden Candlestick .-Jesus told John what the candlestick represented. In a vision he saw Jesus standing in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, and he was told: "The seven candlestick which thou sawest are the seven churches." The number seven stands for completeness. God's candlestick on this earth is His whole church, and Jesus the Light of the world is in the midst of His people. But the church is made up of many members, and so each member is to be a candlestick in God's house, with Jesus in the midst in the heart. A candlestick is for the purpose of holding up the light that it may be seen by all around. What is the light that God's candlesticks are to hold up? It is Christ, the Light of the world. Oil had to be poured into the candlestick for the light. John saw seven lamps of fire burning before the throne of God and he was told that they were "the seven Spirits of God." We must have oil if we are to be burning and shining lights, and this oil is the Holy Spirit.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

The Saturday Review says: "To-day we look upon the troubles of the Turkish Empire with philosophic calm-it is the business of Russia and Austria, not England. This is because British interests have shifted farthereast and farther South."

A possible combination in the great battle of the future is thus indicated by Die Woche (Vienna); "Should the United States continue her ambiguous China policy, which, by the way, is only furthering Russian interests, she may yet be confronted by a coalition of the European powers."

A reader, or as he terms himself, a "taster," for one of the most successful fiction publishing firms, says that "of aspirants whose works come before a taster, quite seven out of every ten are women, chiefly woman who cannot spell correctly." We have no experience with writers of fiction; but we do know, what every editor doubtless knows, that about nine out of every ten people who have a desire to write, think that they can write poetry, and have never grasped the idea that a knowledge of grammar and spelling are a necessary part of a writer's equipment.

This is the sentiment of the Methodist Times, expressed editorially, on Great Britain's attitude to the Eastern Question:-

"But British interests are not in question! Perhaps not, but British honour is. Our crimes are staring us in the face. It is the duty of England, probably in concert with France, to stiffen the demands of Austria and Russia, to back them up by a naval demonstration at Silonica or Constantinople, or by seizing the custom-house of Smyrna, as Mr. Gladstone once proposed to do; to force the Sultan to his knees and take another slice off the Turkish Empire."

Such sentiments help to hasten the coming of the Lord; but they do not help to prepare souls for it.

The difficulty that besets many preachers, even if they desire to keep to their proper calling, and preach the Word, is indicated by the following from a letter to the Methodist Times. The letter, which is headed, "We Want to Be Led," says:-

"Those who take an interest in the great questions that affect our citizenship cannot have failed to notice that, with one or two brilliant exceptions, our ministerial leaders have failed to lead, and, consequently, we have had to look to the ministers of other churches to voice our ideas. And this does not apply to our leaders alone, but to the rank and file of our ministry. Party politics as such they are supposed to eschew, and rightly so. But, sir, there are great national questions with which we are continually confronted, and when these are being discussed and dealt with in public halls as distinct from our own church premises, we, the rank and file of Methodism, have a right to expect that our ministers shall give us the lead, and by voice and pen show that they are not indifferent to the great moral and social questions of the day. This letter is not written in any carping critical spirit. We Methodists love our ministers, and when rightly led would do almost anything for them. But we do desire to be led, and we have a right to expect that the voice of our church should be quite as emphatic as the voices of other Nonconformist churches."

Thus we see the trend of the Nonconformist churches; they are determined that, as Churches, their voices shall be heard in national politics. And while they are clamouring for a "hearing," the great masses will be starving for the Word. It is true enough that the church of Christ ought to have an influence on public affairs; but Christians should learn a lesson, so far as politics are concerned, from God's model preachers-the sun, moon, and stars:-

"There is no speech nor language;

Their voice cannot be heard.

Their line is gone out through all the earth,

And their words to the end of the world."

The Bishop of London declared in a speech last week that seven persons out of every eight was not reached by the Church, in that case it is evident that the church is the Church of England only in name, and that though there are many Nonconformist bodies, there must be a vast amount of heathenism in this country.

The value of the presents which the Pope received on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his pontificate is estimated at a million pounds. "In the presence of the members of the Sacred College, nearly all of whom were present, the Pope received a magnificent tiara, the gift of the Catholics of the world. The offering, which consists of three crowns of pure gold on a silver base, and took over a year to execute, is said to be worth the enormous sum of ?80,000." The Pope professes to be the successor of Peter; but he certainly cannot say, as Peter did, "Silver and gold have I none" neither can he say to an impotent man, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk" and have his command obeyed. There are several other characteristics of Peter that he lacks.

A comparison between the Baltic provinces, which are largely inhabited by Germans, and the rest of Russia shows that in the former, one school exists for every 671 inhabitants, and in the latter, one for every 1,676. In some of the provinces, for example Kovno, there is only one school for every 4,427 inhabitants, and in Ferghana, in Central Asia, one for 97,596. This would not make any difference if there were proper instruction in the family, which is the natural school for children; but it is to be feared that parents in the East are not much better fitted for their duties than are those in the West. The world over, the human animal is the one creature that does not know how to bring up its own young.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

When we have criticised the use of the word "dispensation" in the sense of "age," or period of time, we have been told that "use is the law of language," and that since the word is used in that sense, we must accept it. It is indeed true that "use is the law of language" as to its form; but custom or use can never change the truth; and when words are used in a way to pervert the truth, and to convey false impressions, that use must be protested against as an abuse of language.

It is the province of the Bible teacher and preacher of the Gospel to teach people "right words," which alone are forcible. It is the common custom to call sprinkling baptism, but no amount of use can make it so, any more than black could be made white by calling it so. Sunday is very frequently called the Sabbath and the Lord's day; but inasmuch as it is not the Sabbath nor the Lord's day, to countenance such use is to encourage transgression of God's law, we are to teach the things of God, "not as the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual."

"A Trade Union Mob" The Present Truth 19, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

For two years the Apostle Paul had been preaching the Gospel at Ephesus "in demonstration of the Spirit and power;" "so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus." Such a work as this could not pass unnoticed, and at last "there arose no small stir concerning the way." The cause of the stir was this: One, Demetrius, a silversmith, made silver shrines for the goddess Diana, which were sold to the devotees who flocked to the wonderful temple at Ephesus. But Paul's preaching had resulted in many conversions to the true God, and the trade in shrines had considerably fallen off. So Demetrius called together the craftsmen, "together with the workmen of like occupation," and said:-

"Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth. Moreover ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods, which are made with hands; so that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at naught; but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.

"And when they heard these sayings they were full of wrath, and cried out saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians."

Immediately "the whole city was filled with confusion; and having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel, they rushed with one accord into the theatre." "Some therefore cried one thing, and some another; for the assembly was confused; and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together."

Could there be a more perfect description of a labour riot?-A great multitude of people moved to a frenzy for what cause they know not, manipulated by a few designing men who have ends of their own to serve. The greater portion of the mob knew not why they had assembled; but they believed that their rights were in danger, and as they trusted in Diana, whose magnificent temple was one of "the seven wonders of the world," they vigorously asserted their rights by shouting at the top of their voice for two hours, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians."

"In the last days perilous times will come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves." 2 Tim. 1, 2. The rich man will heap up treasure at the expense of the poor (James v. 1-6); but the poor will not all be guiltless. While on one side a monopoly of capital is formed, it will be met on the other side by a monopoly of labour; and between the two millstones the unresisting righteous man will be condemned and killed. The prophet John foresaw a time when a decree would go forth "that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." Rev. xiii. 17. Here we see that just as in the days of old, trade will be arrayed in the interest of false religion, against the worshippers of the true God.

Satan works in the most insidious ways to accomplish his purposes. He is "the god of this world," and as such is naturally interested in its trade. Indeed the whole world is but one vast "Vanity Fair," open the year round, in which is carried on merchandise in "gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner of vessels of ivory; and all manner of vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men." Rev. xviii. 12, 13. This being the case, it will be, as it already has been, the easiest and most natural thing in the world for Satan to induce people, in the interest of "labour reform," to enact and execute laws condemning the just, when they would be shocked at the thought of countenancing anything opposed to "religious liberty." That which has been done will still be done in tenfold greater measure.

But the people of God have no cause for fear. Indeed, it is rather those who boast in the pride of their power, that should tremble; for as not only the temple of Diana, but the proud city of Ephesus, has become a ruin so complete that the term "heap," so commonly nsed, cannot be applied to it; even so it will be with "great Babylon."

The chief end of man in this world is not to "make a living." "For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty, and upon everyone that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low; . . . and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. And the idols He shall utterly abolish . . . In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth." Isa. ii. 12-21. The complete levelling of the temple of Diana is but a sign of the fulfilment of this prophecy. Therefore "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of?"

March 12, 1903

"Faith and Hope Are Not Uncertainty" The Present Truth 19, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

"But now abideth faith, hope and love, these three; and the greatest of these is love."

How is it that love is the greatest of these? It is the greatest, in that it contains the other two. Love "believeth all things, hopeth all things." Love is the sum of everything; for "God is love."

The reality of love is unquestioned, and cannot be doubted. It is as real as God Himself. Love is not a mere sentiment, but a vital force, even the ever-present, ever-active life of God. Therefore faith and hope, being constituent parts of love, must likewise be real, and not mere abstract speculations.

This, strange to say, is contrary to the popular opinion; for Christians who freely admit the substantial nature of love, are wont to regard faith and hope as mere conceptions, or, rather, as the working of vivid imagination. But then they overlook the connection between faith, hope, and love. Most people have a notion, which they think they get from the Bible, that some time faith and hope will cease to be, and only love will remain. We are told that "faith will be lost in sight; hope in fruition," and that love alone will abide. But this is contrary to the Bible, which tells us that all three abide: "Now abideth faith, hope, and love." Faith and hope must abide as long as love does, because love believes and hopes. Love without faith and hope, would not be love. Love cannot exist without believing. Surely it ought not to need any argument to convince one that we shall have, at the very least, as much faith in God in the world to come as we have in this. The reason people do not believe Him now is because they do not know Him. "They that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee; for Thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek Thee." Ps. ix. 10.

The common idea of faith is set forth in the following paragraphs taken from the editorial notes of a prominent religious journal:-

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"No more striking example could be afforded of the absolute blindness of faith when untempered by reason than the story which is given in The Spectator of December 13, in a letter signed 'H.C.' A semi-savage race called Murats, living in North Borneo, who were apparently given over to barbarity, drinking and laziness, were suddenly visited by a prophet of their own race, naked like themselves, who professed, by a long course of initiation, to confer upon them the power to fly. It is suggested that flying to them would mean reaching some mountain top and thus gaining heaven. Such a motive alone could produce such sacrifices. The initiation consisted in absolute surrender of all their property to the prophet-wives, children, cattle, and everything else must be handed over to him before he would even begin his incantations and work the magic. When all the preliminaries were accomplished a number of devotees climbed to the top of the highest trees in the confident expectation that they would fly away into the sky. Needless to say, they fell and broke their necks.

"So far from this ghastly result telling against the prophet, it was enlarged upon as the consequence of a failure in true devoutness, and others were induced to follow in the footsteps and win the invisible wings of the first set. The prophet passed from village to village preaching his good tidings, and he might have been plundering and killing his converts still had not the North Borneo Chartered Company arrested him, and put him under lock and key."

The editor of the journal comments on the narrative as follows:-

"What magnificent faith, and what a deplorable waste of it! Surely the Eastern mind is more ready to believe, the more obviously reason goes against his beliefs. If the wind would bring over such a spirit of faith into our more materialistic quarter of the globe we should have a living fire of zeal in our churches for which we would gladly exchange a touch of our critical faculty. There is no mention of a missionary working amongst these poor misguided savages. Surely some one will go."

But there was not the faintest trace of faith in the blind credulity of those savages. It was pure gullibility, and wholly unworthy to be named in the same category as faith. The natives were superstitious, and therefore easily duped; but that does not prove that they would readily accept the truth. Indeed, those who are most ready to believe a lie, are the slowest to believe the truth. The first missionaries who visit them will stand a good chance of losing their lives.

The fact that faith and hope are to be exercised in their perfection in the world to come, tells us much as to their nature in the present. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence [proving] of things not seen." Heb. xi. 1. Faith cometh by hearing the Word of God; and therefore there can be no element of doubt in it. Faith is not imagination, and it is not blind. It knows; it is the faculty by which we see invisible realities. Hope likewise has no element of uncertainty in it. Hope is often confounded with desire, or longing, and consequently it is supposed to refer to things wholly uncertain; but that is not at all true of Christian hope. It embraces desire, but it has the assurance that the thing desired will be obtained. It is living, and as real as the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which inspires it in us.

The tilling of the soil by the farmer affords an excellent illustration of faith and hope. God has said that "while the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease" (Gen. ix. 22), and this is why "he that plougheth should plough in hope." "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall be also reap." If a man sows barley, he hopes for barley, and does not think that he may possibly get beans. God gives to every seed its own body; and the harvest is sure. Therefore the farmer ploughs in confidence as soon as spring comes, casts his seed into the ground, and leaves the rest to God.

Faith banishes timidity and vacillation. It produces decision of character. It does not try experiments, but it gives experience. The man who acts in faith knows what the result will be when he begins, and the way to attain the result. Hence he makes no false motions, and loses no time. The man who walks by faith knows just where he is going, and how to got there. He walks firmly, regardless of the things that can be seen by the way; for his eye is fixed on the end, which he is sure of in the beginning. To say, as is often heard, "I have no evidence and no certainty; I am proceeding wholly by faith," shows that the person is ignorant of faith; for faith rests on the most positive evidence.

Faith cannot be manufactured. People who have not grasped the reality of faith often try to make up for the lack by strongly asserting that they believe. They think that if they repeat it often enough they will at last secure the peace of faith; but the peace so gained is a deception. It is not the peace of God. "I believed, therefore have I spoken" said the psalmist. He did not make himself believe by speaking. He believed because God had spoken. Moreover it is "the faith of Jesus" that His faithful followers have; we are "justified by the faith of Christ;" and that shows at the same time its reality, and the uselessness of trying to manufacture it. "This is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith." The victory is sure.

"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and having an High Priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; for He is faithful that promised."

"The Class. God's Work and Ways. Heb. iii. 7-12" The Present Truth 19, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

(Heb. iii. 7-12.)

"Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness; when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known My ways. So I sware in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest.) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God."

QUESTIONS TO EMPHASISE THE TEXT

What is the exhortation in this portion of Scripture?

What does the Holy Ghost say, as a basis for this exhortation?

What time is referred to as a warning?

What are we to avoid doing, as in the provocation?

In what did the provocation consist?

What did the Fathers do to the Lord?

How did they prove Him?

What did they see?

For how long did they see His works?

Yet what did they not learn?

What did the Lord therefore do?

What did He swear in His wrath?

Against what, therefore, are we to take heed?

How is the "evil heart of unbelief" manifested?

SUGGESTIVE TOPICS FOR STUDY

The student will notice that there is a suspension of the thought from the first word of the seventh verse until the twelfth, and that all that intervenes is parenthetical. In the preceding verses Christ's faithfulness is set forth, as a Son over God's house, and we are told the conditions under which we constitute that house. Then comes the exhortation: "Wherefore take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God;" for in that case we should not enter into the rest that is to be found in His house.

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The Holy Ghost Speaketh .-"The Holy Ghost saith, To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts." These words are found in the ninety-fifth Psalm, which was written by a man; yet the man is ignored altogether, and they are credited solely to the Holy Ghost. This shows how the Scriptures are to be regarded: "Not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God." 1 Thess. ii. 13. When a man is wholly passive in the hands of God, as an instrument of righteousness, it is no longer he that speaks, but the Spirit of his Father that is in him. When the will of God is fully done in a man, even as it is done in heaven, the word that he speaks is not "by the will of man," but he speaks as he is "moved by the Holy Ghost." He is then but the voice of God, like John in the wilderness. So, though God speaks through many mouths, there is but one voice. Thus we read of the promise of restoration; "which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began." Acts iii. 21.

Tempting God .-"The provocation" was "the day of temptation in the wilderness." In the seventeenth chapter of Exodus we read of one of these occasions of temptation. The people had no water to drink, and charged Moses with bringing them out of Egypt to kill them with thirst and we are told that "they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not?" Thus it appears that a denial, or even a doubt, of God's presence, is temptation and provocation of Him; and by murmuring and complaining about our lot we are denying, or at least questioning, God's presence among us. Take notice, also, of what God did to prove that He was among the people in the wilderness. He provided water for them to drink. But that is just what He is doing for us everyday. "They did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ." 1 Cor. x. 4. The water that they drank, however, was just the same kind of water that we have to drink; although it was spiritual drink, it supplied the wants of their cattle; and its flowing from the rock was just as much a "natural phenomenon" as is the flowing water from any spring, and no more. Every spring of water is an evidence of the personal presence of the Lord; for He is "the fountain of living waters" (Jer. ii. 13), and the earth is watered from the river of life that flows from His throne. Ps. Ixv. 9.

Seeing God's Works .-For forty years the children of Israel saw God's works in the wilderness; that which grieved God was that they did not learn His ways. This shows that they were not merely seeing some works which He had long since performed,-some dead works, so to speak,-but that they had the privilege of seeing God at work. To cite only one instance, the giving of water from the rock was proof that God was actively at work among them. And bear in mind, too, that God's presence was as necessary for the continued flow of the water as it was for its first issue from the rock. As long as the water flowed, it was proof that God was there; and even when it ceased to flow, the people had ample evidence of God's presence, in the food and drink which He still provided for them. But those people are not the only ones who have been permitted to see God's manner of working. Ever since the creation of the world the invisible things of God; even His everlasting power and Divinity, are clearly to be seen in the things that are made. Rom. i. 20. The stars retain their places, and move in their proper course, in the heavens, because of the great power put forth by God (Isa. xl. 26), who is "excellent in working." lsa. xxviii. 29. Jesus said to the unbelieving, murmuring Jews: "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." John v. 17. There are many people living to-day who have seen God's works forty years, and even twice forty years, without learning His ways; therefore they are tempting and grieving God just as much as did the Israelites in the wilderness. Never was there greater need of the Holy Spirit's warning to take heed, than there is now.

Apprentices in God's Workshop .-Why did God allow the children of Israel to see His works?-In order that they might learn His ways. This is evident from the fact that He was grieved and angry because they did not learn. It is a very dull apprentice, who cannot learn something of the ways of an artisan after watching his methods for forty years; yet that was the case with the Israelites of old, and with most of the people of to-day. There was at least one, however, who learned God's ways; and that was Moses. "He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel." Ps. ciii. 7. What Moses learned, all might have learned.

But how were they to learn?-By closely observing, and meditating on what they saw. The Son, through whom the Father speaks to us, and who said, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work," said also: "The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do; for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him all things that Himself doeth; and He will show Him greater works than these." John v. 19, 20. God is not partial, and He does not treat one of His children better than He does the rest. Although Christ is "the firstborn among many brethren," God makes us all joint-heirs with Him. Jesus was manifested, not as an exhibition of favouritism, but that all might know that God loves them even as He loves Him. John xvii. 24. Accordingly He says: "Verily, verily. I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father." John xiv. 12. God worked in Him, and He said: "All things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you." John xv. 15.

A Proof of Sonship. -"The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do; for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise." Only the Son can learn the ways of the Father. God has a characteristic way of working, and this way is transmitted to those who are His children in Christ. It is, so to speak, a family secret,-a secret known only to those who dwell in the secret place of the Most High, "to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple." "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and He will show them His covenant." Ps. xxv. 14. Only those who are partakers of the Divine nature can show forth God's peculiar characteristics in their work. They cannot be put on; they must be inherited. But even though we be born of the Spirit, we learn to work only by watching the Father. Consequently we have the exhortation: "Be ye therefore imitators of God, as dear children." Eph. v. 1, R.V.

Called to Work and Rest in God's House .-"When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called My son out of Egypt." Hoxea xi. 1. "Thus saith the Lord, Israel is My son, even My firstborn; and I say unto thee, Let My son go, that he may serve Me." Ex. iv. 22, 23. God called Israel out of Egypt, solely that they might see His works, and learn His ways, and thus labour acceptably for Him. It is true that they could see God's works in Egypt; but they had before them so much of the works of men's hands that God's works were obscured, and they became confused. In order to become a good workman, one must see only a perfect model. All inferior work must be put out of sight. The psalmist prayed, "Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity." So God brought Israel out of Egypt into the wilderness, in order that they might have only His works before their eyes. It was in this school that Moses and John the Baptist learned, and they were apt students. The body of the people, however, even as now, did not learn God's way of working, and therefore they could not enter into His rest. But of this relation between labour and rest, we will speak at another time.

"The Editor's Private Corner. 'Risen with Christ'" The Present Truth 19, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

"As a constant reader of PRESENT TRUTH, I should be obliged if you would enlighten me on 2 Kings ii. 11, the latter clause of the verse; and also John iii. 13."

The texts in question read respectively thus: "Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven." And no man hath ascended into heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which to in heaven."

Here is what would seem to be a contradiction, if one did not know the Bible; but knowing the Bible to be the Word of God, we know that it cannot be contradictory. If a man has never deceived us; if we have been well acquainted with him, for years, and we have found that all his sayings, no matter how apparently incredible, were always strictly true, and that he never speaks without a definite purpose, we should never think of doubting him, whatever he said. Even so it should be with our relation to the Bible. We have proved its truth so constantly, that whenever we find an apparent contradiction we at once set about discovering what deep truth is revealed in it. I say this by way of introduction, not because I think the question indicates doubt, but in order that all may have their attention called to the manner in which we should approach the Bible.

Now to come to the point. Jesus plainly stated to Nicodemus that no man except Himself had ascended into heaven; yet we know that both Enoch and Elijah were taken to heaven without death, and that Moses was raised from the dead, and taken to heaven, because he appeared with Elijah in glory on the mount of transfiguration, talking with Jesus about His approaching death. What then, since Jesus came into the world to bear witness to the truth, and is the Truth, is the only conclusion?-Manifestly this, that those men did not ascend to heaven independently, but in Christ. The two seemingly contradictory texts are an illustration of the truths slated in the following Scriptures:-

"In Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, the law of commandments in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace." Eph. ii. 13-15.

"If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold all things are become new." 2 Cor. v. 17.

"For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Gal. iii. 27, 28.

"Lie not one to another, seeing ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him; where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; but Christ is all, and in all." Col. iii. 9-11.

"For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous." Rom v. 19.

"God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sing, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace are ye saved); and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Eph. ii. 4-6.

"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." Col. iii. 1-3. The truth set forth in all these is that Christ is the One man in whom salvation is found. In Him are hid, "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," even the deep things of God; for "in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Consequently no man out of Christ can know the things of the Spirit. Nicodemus, like the other Jewish rulers, and so many others, was endeavouring to solve spiritual mysteries by his own carnal mind; and Jesus showed him that it was impossible. No man can know heavenly things unless he is born from above; and the Son of man, "the Word made flesh" is the One through whom this new birth is effected. But the Son of man on earth is also "In heaven." Whoever is in Christ, no more living his own life, but "Christ living in him," has ascended with Him into the heavenly places, to see and experience the deep mysteries of God, even though he is yet upon this earth. So Elijah and Enoch and Moses, when they ascended into heaven, ascended in Christ, continuing under the perfect conditions of heaven the same experiences that they had here on earth when risen with Christ. May this also be our experience.

"The Editor's Private Corner. Who Changed the Sabbath?" The Present Truth 19, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

This is a question that is often asked, and it is answered in various ways, according to the various ideas that men have as to the way that the first day of the week came to be so generally substituted for the seventh. But the true answer to the question is that nobody ever changed the Sabbath, because such a thing is impossible. The Sabbath is enjoined by the fourth commandment, which is a part of the law that is the righteousness of God; and of the commandments we read that "they stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness." Ps. cxii. 8. The Saviour said, "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." Luke xvi. 17. So the Sabbath has never been changed.

But the Bible tells of a power,-the papacy,-symbolised by the little horn of the seventh of Daniel, which should "think

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to change times and laws or, as most versions, including the Revised, have it, "he shall think to change the times and the law." This power thinks itself able to do it, because it exalts itself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, and sets itself forth to be God. But what it thinks to do it is as unable to do as it is to make itself God. It is true that it has made a great many people believe that the Sabbath has been changed, but that does not make it so. Those who recognise the Lord as the sole Ruler and Creator of the universe, without any vicegerent, know that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is as unchangeable as the throne of the eternal God.

"Our Little Ones. The Tabernacle" The Present Truth 19, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

The Table of Shewbread .-Our lessons on the manna have taught us who is the living bread that the shewbread represented. Bethlehem, the town where Jesus was born, means "the House of Bread." The tabernacle was a House of Bread, for in it the Lord's table was always spread with cakes of shewbread. Every house of God (and remember that you are His house) should be a house of bread, a place where hungry souls may come and feed upon the Bread of Life. If we feed upon the living words of Jesus, the heavenly bread, then wherever we go we shall carry Jesus with us, to make us a blessing to feed and give life to others.

"We being many are one Bread." This was the meaning of the twelve separate cakes of bread. It was all one bread, representing Jesus the true Bread; but it was in twelve cakes, one for each tribe, to show the children of Israel that they were meant by God to be bearers of that Bread to the world. The bread had to be changed every Sabbath in order to be kept fresh. If we would be ever ready to feed others with the bread of life, we must have constantly a fresh supply for ourselves. And the Sabbath is especially the day when we may receive life and blessing, that shall make us a blessing to others through the week.

The Altar of Incense .-John saw in a vision heavenly beings "having golden vials full of odours (incense) which are the prayers of the saints." He also saw an angel "having agolden censer, and there was given to him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of the saints upon the golden altar that was before the throne." You will remember that when Noah, after the flood, offered a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to God, "the Lord smelled a sweet savour." The incense represented the true worship of God which comes up before Him as "an odour of a sweet smell." We cannot offer anything to God except what He first gives to us. He must supply the incense, and this He has done in giving us Jesus. "We are unto God a sweet savour of Christ," who "hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour." He is the true incense, and it is only when we have Him in the heart that we can offer any acceptable worship to God.

The fragrance of the incense spread out for miles around the tabernacle so that anyone in the neighbourhood would be attracted to find out what it was, and learn about God. And so in every little earthly tabernacle where Jesus dwells, His sweet presence will shed its perfume all around to draw others to Him.

The Services .-None but the priests were allowed in the tabernacle. Every morning and evening a lamb was offered on the altar outside, and its blood brought within and sprinkled before the mercy-seat. When anyone sinned he brought a sheep or a goat for an offering, and laying his hand on its head confessed his sin, and then took its life because of that sin. Thus the people were taught of "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." Besides the daily service there was the yearly service, which taught the people by figures that all the sins they had thus confessed and put away would through the blood of Christ be blotted out, and remembered no more for ever.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

The Allan liner Parisian left Liverpool last week for Canadian ports, with over 2,000 emigrants on board. It is stated that the emigration bookings in Liverpool are greater than they have been for forty years back, when the emigration returns were the highest on record. It is anticipated that the coming season will be an unprecedented one in the number of emigrants to Canada.

Two new Cunard liners are to be built at a cost of ?125,000 each. They are to be 760 feet in length, with 80 feet beam, and will have engines of 60,000 horse-power, and are expected to develop a speed of 25 knots an hour, on a consumption of 46 tons of coal an hour. They are to be subsidised by the Government, and will thus be available for use in case of war. No one can venture to predict what will be the end of this strife to build the largest boat that sails the sea.

The report at the annual meeting of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, held last week at the Royal United Service Institution, Whitehall, the Duke of Sutherland presiding, showed that during the year twenty-three new boats have been added to the fleet, which now consists of 288 vessels. The total number of lives for the saving of which the Institution granted rewards was 455. In speaking to the report, Lord Charles Beresford emphasised the necessity of having all the lightships and lighthouses fitted with the wireless system of telegraphy, and it was said that this would soon be done. There is no class of men more deserving of all honour and consideration than those who make it their business to risk their lives for the saving of others.

The first express train from Port Arthur on the great Siberian railway, dispatched a few days ago, marks the completion of a great engineering feat, and the beginning of "an industrial and political enterprise fraught with tremendous possibilities." What these possibilities are a daily journal thus sets forth:-

"For nearly five thousand miles the iron road of commerce and strategy stretches eastward from Europe to the shores of the Pacific. It forms the steel link which connects the teeming civilisations of Europe with the four hundred millions of Chinese and the forty millions of Japanese, and at three points-Vladivostock, Port Dalny, and Port Arthur-it drops into the greatest ocean in the world. While it has already brought to Siberia, a country a hundred times the size of England, the substantial first fruits of commerce, it is also holding out to the mercantile world one of the keys of the East."

"Yet another feature of this great railway is that it places Russia in such a position as to promise her in a very short time predominance in Central and Eastern Asia.

Therein lie the possibilities-and the probabilities-of Eastern politics in the near future. Completely embracing China on the west and north; already projecting branch lines to make a short out to Pekin from Central Siberia; penetrating Manchuria, and keeping watch at the door of the Mongolian capital, Russia holds a position in Eastern Asia the strategic and commercial importance of which the Siberian railway now renders obvious, one would think, even to the meanest intelligence among European statesman."

To the student of prophecy all this is of special interest, since it is preparing the way for "the kings of the East" to gather to "the battle of that great day of God Almighty."

The United Stakes Congress, just adjourned, has passed the Naval Appropriation Bill, which involves an expenditure of 81,877,000 dollars (?16,000,000), the greatest sum ever appropriated for the navy. It also embraces the greatest programme for new ships ever placed on one measure. Thus the ball rolls on, and none who so merrily push it along have any conception of what they are preparing for.

Dispatches from Fiji regarding the uprising against Methodist missionaries, establish the fact that Catholic priests burnt Bibles which were supplied by the Methodists to a tribe which has since been converted to Catholicism. The priests themselves admit the fact, which goes to show that now, as in former days, the destruction of the Bible to Rome's surest means of furthering her own interests.

The selection of a pastor to fill the place at the City Temple, made vacant by the death of Dr. Parker, must inevitably be an event of national importance; and therefore the attention of people not only in England, but more or less throughout the world, is for the moment called to the Rev. R. J, Campbell, of Brighton, who has been called to the pastorate. Mr. Campbell who is thirty-six years of age, three years younger than Dr. Parker when he began his ministry in London, has for some time been occupying the City Temple pulpit, and attracting large congregations.

The pastor-elect of the City Temple, Mr. R. J. Campbell, is much more inclined to Anglicanism than was Dr. Parker, and it is expected that "the City Temple will in the future lead the way in certain graceful modifications of puritan sternness and simplicity." It is encouraging, however, to note that he does not favour ecclesiasticism. He is reported as having said: "I would like, as far as possible, to do away with all distinctions between the layman and the minister. I would have the layman live the same life as the minister and realise that the same type of Christianity is possible for both." That is the Bible type of Christianity.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

The following letter, addressed to the editor of PRESENT TRUTH, "from a Friend," speaks for itself:-

"I have read it with great delight, and send you postal order for five shillings for the Lord's work. It seems so rich and soul-satisfying when it comes direct from the mine. Go down deep, and bring it up, for the Lord will bless you."

And so will He bless those who, as they have received the gift, minister the same to others, "as good stewards of the manifold grace of God."

An unknown friend has sent us twenty shillings, with the request that one copy of PRESENT TRUTH should be sent by post to every number in four different roads mentioned, the numbers aggregating one hundred and sixty. Thus, through the interest of one person, one hundred and sixty others will have the privilege of reading at least one copy of the paper, by which some at least may be led to continue. No doubt there are many who would be glad to bring to others some of the good things which they are enjoying.

"'The Exceeding Riches of His Grace'" The Present Truth 19, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

The keynote of the Epistle to the Ephesians is "the riches of His grace." The Epistle abounds in "riches." We have redemption through Christ's blood, the forgiveness of sins, "according to the riches of His grace." Ch. i. 7. We have also "the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints." And we have "the exceeding riches of His grace" shown throughout the ages to come "in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." It is this "exceeding riches of grace" that will occupy our minds for a few moments of study, that it may serve as a basis for many hours of meditation.

We must go back into the first chapter, and view Christ raised from the dead, and made to sit at the right hand of God the Father in the heavenly places, "far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name than is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come." What an unspeakably glorious position!

But that is not by any means the whole story. The inspired prayer of the Apostle is that we may know the exceeding greatness of God's power in us, "according to the working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ" when He did this. Now it is evident that nobody can know the exact measure of any power except by experiencing it in his own body; and this is just what the Lord has planned for us. "And you hath He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience; among whom we all had our conversation [manner of life] in times past, fulfilling the desires of our flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath even as others."

Not even here is the matter left. If it were, we might well infer that inasmuch as our quickening (making alive) is referred to immediately after the mention of the resurrection of Christ, we are to know that we share His experience; but nothing is left to inference. We see plainly told that God, who is rich in mercy, has, because of the great love wherewith He loved us, made us alive "together with Christ (by grace are ye saved); and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus."

Surely nothing should be plainer than this; yet so great is the gift by grace, and so little is the human mind accustomed to expecting great things of God, that it is necessary to have our attention very sharply drawn to the case, in order that we may see what wondrous honour God bestows on us. We are plainly told that Jesus, in being raised from the dead, is lifted up "far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come." Then since we are raised with Him, and made to sit together with Christ in the heavenly places, it is very evident that our position, provided we "abide in Him," is "far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion." We are made even now joint-heirs with the Firstborn, who is "higher than the kings of the earth." What more could anybody ask or think? yet as though even these exceeding riches were not enough, we are told that God is "able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." Eph. iii. 20, 21.

"Beloved, now are we the sons of God." Then be assured that God, who is "no respecter of persons" is not partial among His children, and that the fact that Jesus has passed bodily into the heavens, while we are still on the earth in the flesh, does not prove that He has one particle of advantage over us. He is "one flesh" with us, and though in the heavens, He is still on the earth. It is our own flesh that is there, and we are content, even though "it doth not yet appear what we shall be."

When and how is it that we are "risen with Christ"? Colossians ii. and iii. show us that it is by baptism. We are baptized into His death, buried with Him, and risen with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. This is no figure of speech, but very real. The actual change from death takes place in us if we truly believe, so that it is no more we, but new men. It is with us as with Saul, who, when the Spirit came upon him, was "turned into another man." Living after the Spirit, which seals us children of God, that Spirit even now quickens our mortal bodies, so that the life also of Jesus is made manifest in our mortal flesh. Rom. viii. 11; 2 Cor. iv. 11.

So we see that the riches of His grace is riches of life. Let your mind contemplate the greatness of the power that can bring a dead man to life, and then grasp the fact that the gift by grace, received in faith, must and does effect the same change in us. Then think how much more power we should have than we now have, if we had as much additional power as it takes to make a dead man live. That is just what God has provided for us; for we are a royal priesthood, that we should show forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvellous light." Be not faithless, but believing, that it may with you be a reality, as with Paul, "I can do all things in Him that strengtheneth me."

March 19, 1903

"The Editor's Private Corner. 'What Shall the End Be'" The Present Truth 19, 12.

E. J. Waggoner

The popular theory respecting the fate of the wicked has always troubled me. I should be glad if you would show me from the Bible whether there is any foundation for supposing that they ere to be everlastingly tormented. I cannot think that a God of love would create beings to condemn them to suffering throughout eternity."

DIVINE LOVE

Neither would He. God is not a cruel tyrant, delighting in human suffering; and the Scriptures give not the slightest warrant for thinking that He is. "God is love." He is not simply loving, but He is love itself. "Love is of God," and "every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God." "He that loveth not knoweth not God." The highest human conceptions of love fall far short of Divine love. Whatever sense of tenderness and compassion and love there is in the world, is but a fragment, a breath, of the boundless, eternal love of God. Hence it is plain that God will never outrage the sense of justice which He Himself has planted in the human breast.

JUST JUDGMENT

This is made plain by those words of God: "I have sworn by Myself, the word is gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear." Isa. xlv. 23. That this has reference to the time of general judgment, is evident from Romans xiv. 10-12: "Why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at naught thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of Himself to God." So we see that no man will be punished until he subscribes to his own judgment, and bears witness that God is just.

JUDGMENT COMMITTED TO MAN

Still further: So careful is God to insure that no man can have any cause of complaint against Him, and that all shall be satisfied that no advantage is being taken of them, that He has put the destiny of the world into the hands of men themselves. "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." John v. 22. This is no subterfuge, no device to seem to put judgment out of His own hands, while still holding it; for we read: "For as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself; and hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, Because He is the Son of Man." John v. 26, 27. In the beginning God gave man dominion over the earth, and He has never taken it from him. "Whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever." Eccl. iii. 14. Therefore Jesus, the second Adam, who as "the Son of man" stands for all mankind, says: "He that overcometh, and keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers; even as I received of My Father." Rev. ii. 26, 27. Compare Ps ii. 7-9. Read also Ps. cxlix. 5-9:-

"Let the saints be joyful in glory; let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two edged sword in their hand; to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute upon them the judgment written; this honour have all His saints."

What possible chance is there to think that God has created beings for the purpose of torturing them eternally, when He turns the whole care over to them? Now since, according to God's word, even those who will finally be punished will confess that God is good, and their punishment just, let us examine that same Word, to see if we cannot discern both justice and mercy in the punishment of the wicked.

EVERLASTING DESTRUCTION

For the wicked will be punished. The testimony of all the Scriptures is to this effect. And there is no ambiguity; for the same passages that tell the fact of the punishment, also tell what it will be. Take, for instance, this:-

"Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power." 2 Thess. i. 6-9.

"They shall be punished with everlasting destruction." It is true that "these shall go away into everlasting punishment" (Matt. xxv. 46), but the punishment will be death,-cessation of existence,-not existence in torture. "They shall be as though they had not been." Obadiah 16. "The wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs; they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away." Ps. xxxvii. 20. The language is not ambiguous; it is as plain as it can be.

THE EFFECT OF EVERLASTING FIRE

But what about the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, into which the wicked are to be told to depart? That gives no hint of eternity of suffering, but quite the contrary. If the fire "never can be quenched," it will certainly in time consume whatever of a combustible nature is put into it. Thus we read of Christ, that His fan is in His hand, "and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather the wheat into the garner, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Matt. iii. 12. "For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly

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shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. . . . And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts." Mal. iv. 1-3.

THE CONSUMING FIRE

Surely there is no room here for eternal conscious existence in torment. But it will be asked how the fire can be everlasting, unless the wicked remain in existence for it to feed on. That is easily answered. It is the fire of God's own glory. "Our God is a consuming fire." Heb. xii. 29. By the fire of His Spirit He consumes sin out of the earth; and it remains with each person to choose how he will have his sin removed-whether from him, or with him. If the man desires to be for ever separated from his sins, the Spirit of God will consume them, completely freeing him from them, and purifying him; and this work will be performed now. But if the man loves his sins, and clings to them; if he prefers them to God, and would rather live in them than to abide in God;-then when the sin is consumed (as it must be; for God will have a clean universe), the man who has identified himself with the sin will necessarily be consumed with it; but the fire of God's glory will abide for ever, after the wicked have all been blotted from existence.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF PUNISHMENT

This brings us to the root of the matter-the explanation, the reason, the necessity, the philosophy, so to speak, of the punishment of the wicked. It is very simple when one once knows the simple science of salvation. We begin with the Scripture proposition that "God is," and He is a rewarder of them that seek after Him, rewarding them with Himself. Gen. xv. 1. There is "one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all." Eph. iv. 6. There can be no existence apart from Him; for He is our life. Deut. xxx. 20. "He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things." Acts. xvii. 25. In His hand is "the soul [or life] of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind." Job xii. 10. "In Him we live, and move, and have our being;" "for we are also His offspring." Acts xvii. 28.

Let us make this very clear, so that there can be no mistake about it. It is necessary, in order that we may see that righteousness is essential to our existence; for there are very many people who do not acknowledge the right of God to command them, and to expect obedience from them. A little experiment will settle this matter much more positively than a long argument. Here is a man who does not acknowledge that God has any claim on him, nor that he owes anything to God. Of course, then, he will not think of that he owes anything at God's hands; he will not be under obligation to Him for anything. But he is breathing air, which he certainly did not make, and which he does not pay for; no man on earth supplies it to him; it comes from above-the breath of heaven. It is God's air, God's breath, and as the man intends to be absolutely independent of God, he will of course no longer breathe God's air, but will provide his own supply.

But how shall he proceed, since the air is everywhere?-It is evident that he must secure an air-right room, and go inside and remain there, sealing up the entrance, so that not a breath of air can come in. There will be some air inside, which, in strict honesty, he ought to have pumped out; but since finding an air-pump large enough to exhaust the air will be attended with some difficulty, he can venture to trespass to the extent of the one or two thousand cubic feet that the room contains. Or, if he is very scrupulous, he can burn a little charcoal in the room, and the air will soon be exhausted. Now he can carry out his plan of living absolutely independent of God. Unfortunately, he will not live long enough to tell anybody how he enjoys it. His attempt to live by his own power, and his existence, will come to a very speedy end.

Will anybody charge God with injustice or unkindness for allowing that man to die? Will anybody wonder how a God of love could create a being to condemn him to such suffering as choking to death? You will say, "The man could have lived if he had not been so foolishly and stubbornly independent. There, is abundance of air, if he had been willing to be dependent on God; he died self-condemned and self-executed; and while we pity his folly, we must absolve God from any responsibility for the result."

You see the point, do you not? It is utterly impossible for any being to exist on this earth independent of God. The man is dependent on God even for a place in which to attempt to carry out his purpose to live wholly on his own resources; and as soon as he makes the attempt, he dies. But he need not die; he may live, if he is but willing to be dependent upon the one Source of life, and to abide in the Life that upholds the universe.

RIGHTEOUSNESS ESSENTIAL TO LIFE

We are not yet quite ready for the final application, although you doubtless have already made it. We must take our man as he stands at the door of the room that is to be his absolute and independent dominion and, foreseeing what the result of his experiment will be, turns back. He will breathe God's air; he will acknowledge his dependence. But that means that he will acknowledge God a right to command him, and to expect implicit obedience. Indeed, it is not fair to put it in that way, as though God were receiving something by the man's obedience. The truth is that the acceptance of God's life is man's only hope of life, and if man will not come into harmony with it, he must cease to be. But God's life is righteousness, and the man who comes fully into harmony with it is righteous, and has eternal life; for "His commandment is life everlasting." John xii. 50.

THE SCIENCE OF SALVATION

Here, then, is the science of salvation. God created all things for eternal life and happiness. He never created a single soul for destruction, much less for torture. But the inhabitants of this world have rebelled against His loving rule, and have chosen gods of their own. But God is "long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." 2 Peter iii. 9. "Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saiith the Lord God; and not that he should return from his ways and live?" "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his wicked way and live." Eze. xviii. 23; xxxiii. 11. So He has sent forth His Son, in whom is the fulness of His own life, to show the world that He cherishes no ill-will, but that He is anxious for them to be saved. He knows that they do not know what it means to cast off allegiance to Him, and set up their own rule, so He bears long with them, taking their guilt all on Himself, so that they may be wholly freed from it. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." 2 Cor. v. 19. By the ease with which God keeps us alive, renewing our life moment by moment, He shows how easily He can save us; He

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shows that He is the Saviour, in that He is the Preserver.

THE FATE OF THE WICKED

With such provision for man's salvation from the sin into which he has plunged himself, it is evident that there is no excuse for him to remain in it. There is therefore no reason for allowing sin to mar God's creation eternally; and so it must finally be brought to an end. That end will come only when it can be made apparent that nothing would be gained by further delay: all who can be inclined to righteousness will have accepted God's free and abundant provision, and only the defiantly depraved will remain. It is clear that then it will be perfectly just to cut off the sinners, and blot out sin. But even then there is nothing arbitrary in God's action. The Judgment fully demonstrates to all that "he that is unjust" will be "unjust still;" and then God finally leaves them to that which they have persistently chosen, contrary to all His entreaties. He takes all creatures absolutely at their word: those who have professed to love life, and to love and accept Him as the Fountain of life, He takes to Himself, to dwell for ever in Him; and those who have hated Him, and have said that they would not have Him to rule over them, He allows to go away by themselves, away from Him.

A CLEAN UNIVERSE

But where can they go where He is not? "Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord." Jer. xxiii. 24. Not in heaven, or earth, or sea, or in all space, can they find a place where they can live outside of God's hand. Ps. cxxxix. 1-12. Therefore there is nothing for them but to go out of existence; and this they do. In the process some suffering is involved, as in the case of the man in our experiment; but even though this seem in some cases to be drawn out to eternity, it will be comparatively but a moment (compare 2 Peter ii. 6; Jude 7; and Lam. iv. 6), and then the universe will once more be clean, "the restoration of all things" will be completed, and "every created thing which is in the heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and on the sea, and all things that are in them," will with one accord unite in proclaiming: "Unto Him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb, be the blessing, and the honour, and the glory, and the dominion, for ever and ever."

"The Bible Class. 'Saved by Hope'" The Present Truth 19, 12.

E. J. Waggoner

(Heb. iii. 12-16.)

"Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To-day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end; while it is said, To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard did provoke; howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses."

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

1. Against what are we exhorted to take heed?

2. How will the evil heart of unbelief manifest itself?

3. What should we do, to guard against this evil heart of unbelief?

4. When and how continuously are we to exhort one another?

5. What is likely to be the result if we do not?

6. Under what conditions are we made partakers of Christ?

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY

Our last lesson embraced the parenthesis; this one begins with the exhortation in which the parenthesis occurs. We are God's house, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope steadfast unto the end; "wherefore take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God," etc.

Our Only Time. -The only time that is given us is to-day. Yesterday and tomorrow have no existence, we have not even the whole of to-day, but only "while it is called To-day,"-only the present moment. "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." We live "moment by moment."

"Time was, 'tis past: thou canal not it recall;

Time is, thou hast: employ the portion small;

Time future is not, and may never be;

Time present is the only time for thee."

This is at the same time solemn warning and glad news. It is solemn warning, in that we are admonished that we have no assurance of any time in which to retrieve the mistakes of the present moment; if we do not accept Christ and become partakers of Him now, we have no promise of any future time in which to do so. But it is glad news, in that we have not the future to provide for. There is no occasion to fear lest we shall not hold fast to the end. All the strength we need is just for the present moment; and we have the assurance that as our day, that is, as long as it is called "To-day," our strength shall continue.

Hold Fast to the End. -It is the end that determines the battle. "He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." Matt. xxiv. 13. Here again we have admonition and encouragement. We must not become vainglorious, and flatter ourselves that because we have run well hitherto, therefore we are sure of the result. We must not imagine that, having once believed, and been born again, we cannot fall away. As long as we are in this world, subject to temptation, there is not only a possibility, but danger, of falling. "Patient continuance in well-doing," steady holding fast unto the end, is what demonstrates that we are "partakers of Christ," and so the house of God. "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go no more out." Rev. iii. 12. Therefore "let him that thinketh he, standeth, take heed lest he fall." But there is no need of falling; and even if we do fall, we need not become discouraged, for

"A man's goings are established of the Lord;

And He delighteth in his way.

Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down;

For the Lord upholdeth him with His hand."

So we can say, "Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me." Micah vii. 8. Better still, we can say, with Christ: "The Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded; therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth me." Isa. l. 7, 8.

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Confidence and Rejoicing of the Hope. -We are made partakers of Christ, "if we hold the beginning of our cofidence steadfast unto the end;" "if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." Doubt is of the devil. Despondency and gloom have no fellowship with Christ. "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." He has anointed Christ "with the oil of gladness." Therefore "the joy of the Lord is your strength."

Note also that "hope maketh not ashamed." There is no doubt, no element of uncertainty, in hope, but "full assurance." There is confidence and rejoicing in hope. It is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, that begets us unto a lively hope; and therefore whatever thing we hope for in Him is just as sure as is His resurrection. "God hath given to us eternal life;" we receive the end of our faith, even the salvation of our souls; all we have to do is to "hold fast," and keep holding on.

Faith Our Common Inheritance. -The one thing in respect to which all men are created absolutely equal, is faith. Faith is common to all men; it is born in them. "God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." No person on earth is or ever was "so constituted by nature that he cannot believe." Every person can demonstrate the truth of this for himself, if he will but closely observe little children. There is no child that ever doubts anything that is told to it, until after it learns that people deceive it. The first things that are told to a child, it invariably believes without a thought of questioning them. On this account it is easy to teach children; and the one who first has control of a child, that is, from its birth, can teach it anything he pleases. There is absolutely no exception to this. It is as true of the child of infidel parents as of Christian parents. Parents can transmit the tendency to sin, the seeds of vice, to their children; but no parent ever transmits the spirit of unbelief to his child. Doubt cannot be transmitted. The little infant of the most confirmed infidel will look up into its mother's face as confidingly as will the Christian clergyman's infant. This shows how free the gift of God is by grace. "By grace are ye saved through faith;" and since all men are born absolutely equal in the matter of faith, it is equally easy for all to be saved.

But when a child is deceived, as most children are very early, and that, too, by their parents, their faith receives a shock, and soon they begin to doubt. Then, too, the indulgence of sinful practices blunts one's sensibilities. That is why we are told to exhort one another daily: "lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." Sin is wonderfully deceitful. All infidelity has its root in sin. Whoever is not only willing, but really anxious, to be freed from every sin, and will make abundantly no reserve, will find it very easy to believe, even though he has previously been hardened in unbelief.

It should not be overlooked, in this connection, that people may acquire the habit of deceiving themselves, and thus strengthen their unbelief. This emphasises the danger of trifling with any faculty, or with truth. Many people will profess to disbelieve a thing which they really believe, "merely for the sake of argument." This is a wicked and dangerous practice. It is dishonest; and no one can knowingly be dishonest, even in jest, without weakening his own power to believe, to say nothing of his influence on others. Our words have a reflex action, and we in time come to believe the thing that we repeatedly say. Words of unbelief tend to produce unbelief. Therefore-

"This above all:

To thine own self be true,

And it must follow as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man."

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 12.

E. J. Waggoner

A firm in the West-end of London was recently fined for selling as cocoa what the magistrate described as "horrible stuff," a powder that contained forty per cent. of sugar, and twenty-seven per cent. of starch, coloured with red oxide of iron. When such stuff is sold in the West-end, what must be dealt out to people who patronise the cheaper shops? The safest, and by far the healthiest drink, is water; and if one wishes an addition to it, the various fruits afford an abundant supply of wholesome juice.

Statistics show that the mortality among American citizens of Russian and Polish parentage, who are almost always Jews, is far below that of the ordinary American population, although their physical development is generally considered inferior. Moreover, in Budapest, where in 1891 the Jews made up one-fifth of the population, the death rate of Jews up to the age of nine was less than half that of the Christians, while at all ages the Jew's tenacity of life was remarkable. This leads the Daily Chronicle to remark that "the laws of Moses were ahead of anything in the world at their promulgation, and they still seem to maintain their supremacy." Then it would be wisdom for people to give heed to some of those laws, instead of angering at everything that they think is "Jewish." Jesus Himself, it must be remembered, was a Jew.

One of the leading journalists, when asked recently, "What do you consider the greatest disadvantage we suffer from at the present day?" replied: "The fact that the human organism is so constituted that men and women can eat much more than is good for them, without any such obviously deterrent effects as result from drinking too much alcohol. Very nearly all of us eat far too much." But the human organism is constituted at the present day just as it has always been; so that we suffer no disadvantage but such as has always been common to man. And the fact that one can overeat is no reason why one should. Indeed, while it is true that most people do eat too much, and that most physical ills arise from that fact, it is by no means a disadvantage to be able to eat too much; for the ability to overeat gives the opportunity to abstain, and in self-denial and abstinence consists the dignity of manhood.

In a review of a work on "Agonosticism," just published, we find this statement: "Agnosticism has already appeared in many forms, and may yet appear in many more." This is very true, but the truth of it may not be obvious to all who read it. The statement really amounts to this: "Ignorance has already appeared in many forms, and may yet appear in many more;" for agnosticism is but the Anglicised Greek word for ignorance. The man who boldly proclaims himself an agnostic is simply unblushingly confessing that he is an ignoramus; for that is the meaning of agnostic. Now if a man be ignorant, it is a good thing to know it, and to be willing to confess it; but the trouble with those who confess their ignorance by the Greek term is that they boast of it; and ignorance is never a valid cause for boasting, although it is generally only the ignorant who do boast. And the reason why the ignorant man,-the agnostic,-boasts of his ignorance, is that he imagines that his ignorance is wisdom; and that is the worst feature in the case. The man who really knows that he is ignorant, and modestly acknowledges it, will learn; but the man who boasts of his ignorance because he thinks that it is better than real wisdom, will never learn anything. There to no need for anybody to be an agnostic, since "the Lord giveth wisdom; out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding;" and He "giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth not," if they but ask Him in humble faith.

Vesuvius is in a state of unwonted activity. The crater is pouring out black smoke of extraordinary density, and great masses of lava are being ejected. The people of the neighbourhood are terror-stricken, and have repaired in a body to the churches, calling upon God and the saints to stop the eruption. It is easy for men to be indifferent to God when no danger threatens, but when they see a little of His power, their hearts soon tremble. It has always been so, and it always will be. At the coming of the Saviour in flaming fire, the hardiest will call on the rocks to fall on them and hide them from His face. Now, many ridicule even the idea that He exists, and order their lives careless of His will. But their seeming bravery is a very thin veneer for the depths of abject terror that Christ's appearing will reveal in them.

The "Planchette Suit" that occupied the time of one court for several days, has deservedly attracted a great deal of attention, because of its peculiar nature. A gentleman who had once possessed considerable wealth, and who is now in quite reduced circumstanace, brought suit to have a voluntary settlement made by him set aside, on the ground that undue influence had been brought to bear by the defendant. The evidence showed that the plaintiff had been the dupe of professed spirits, who, whether real spirits or only flesh and blood, were so plainly evidently lying spirits that any man in his senses ought to have been put on his guard. The "planchette," it is probably well known, is an instrument that has long been in use as a means of securing written communications from spirits. In this case there were hosts of pretended communications from angels and even the Lord Himself; but the leading ones seemed to be those purporting to come from the victim's mother, advising him as to investments in stocks. These directions were always followed implicitly, and of course the victim always lost.

This case affords a practical answer to the question what difference it makes what one believes about the state of the dead. To be sure it is only a money matter, but that makes it so much the more evidently "practical" to the majority of people. A man who believes what the Bible says, that "the dead know not anything," and cannot possibly take any interest whatever in affairs, could never be duped in such a manner. Godliness is indeed profitable, even me regards affairs of this life.

It is worthy of note, however, that people have not been warned, but as the result of the publication of this case, there has been a great demand for planchettee. The principal makers of the instrument say that its sale has risen to an extraordinary extent in consequence of the lawsuit. Thousands are now sold where hundreds were disposed of a few weeks ago. It is astonishing how many people there are who love a lie.

The Rev. R. J. Campbell, who has taken the place of the late Dr. Parker at the City Temple, in his first sermon, stated that he did not intend to make merchandise of his ministry by publishing his sermons for sale. Others might do it if they wished, but he would have nothing to do with the sales.

The question is now being agitated, of devoting a portion of Sunday to the training of volunteers in order to have a force prepared for home defence in case of attack. A "commanding officer" writing to the Daily Mail, advocating the proposition, says: "I suggest as a beginning that a short parade for battalion drill or skirmishing instruction might be held on Sunday afternoons, preceded by a service, conducted by the chaplain of the corps, the band being in attendance." When Sunday drills are made a part of religious service, under the charge of the chaplain, war will be elevated to the rank of Christian duty; and the man who does not believe in violating the sixth commandment, and so does not care to learn how, will be looked upon as a heretic.

It is claimed that the No-Drinks-Between-Meals' Association has a membership of 10,000. Now still another society is proposed, namely, one pledging its members not to drink at meal time. The proposition is much more suitable than the other, in as much as it is pointed out, drinking anything at all at meal time is most ruinous to the digestion, and alcoholic liquors especially so, because they greatly retard it. It is hardly probable that this society will meet with so great favour as the other, and it should be noted that it is not expected that those who sign the pledge not to drink between meals will sign the one not to drink at meals as well. So on the whole it makes very little difference whether one society or the other succeeds, as in any case the result will be continued consumption of alcohol, which, by the way, is conducive to consumption of the body.

In an interview published in the "New York World" "General" Booth expresses a strong desire for the establishment of an international university for the study of social science, with main establishments in London and New York, and branches in Melbourne, Toronto, Berlin, Paris, and elsewhere, from which thousands of Salvation Army workers could be sent out every year, skilled in every method of rescuing human beings from destitution and crime. The "General" says: "Our officers must be as skilled in the science of saving men as the officers of regular armies are in destroying man. For this reason I advocate my plan of an international university to develop and train rescuers of humanity."

He will find, however, that a school to train men to save life will not meet with one-hundredth part the support that would be given to a school for the purpose of training men in the art of killing.

"Blind Watchmen" The Present Truth 19, 12.

E. J. Waggoner

Blind Watchmen. -"Go, set a watchman," said the Lord to Isaiah, "Let him declare what he seeth." A watchman is one who is continually on the look-out, and his business is to declare faithfully what he sees. Of what use would a blind watchman be? The very phrase is a contradiction. Yet this is what the Lord says of His people in the days just preceeding His coming, when "His salvation is near to come and His righteousness to be revealed." "Thy watchmen are blind." How like an echo of this ancient prophecy read the words Mr. Campbell recently addressed to his ministerial brethren, "not as censor, but as brother." They had not, he said, "many stewards of the deeper things. They had practical, men, public servants, leaders of thought, champions of the faith, but not many with the vision of things unseen." He accounted for Dr. Clifford's statement that "priestcraft was abroad in the land," by the fact that "there were no prophets. Before the prophets the priest would disappear."

The Eye-salve. -The old Hebrew name for prophet was seer. The prophet is the one who sees, and who therefore knows, and speaks with authority. "The note of authority and spiritual certainty" which Mr. Campbell asserts to be missing in most modern pulpits can be supplied only by the opening of the eyes of the understanding, through the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God. To those who are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, the message comes, "Anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou mayest see." Their lukewarmness is the result of their blindness. Isaiah's burning and powerful words were the effect of the vision of God's glory recorded in the sixth chapter, in connection with which his lips were touched with the live coal from off the altar. It was because he "saw His glory" that "he spake of Him." "We cannot," said the Apostles, "we cannot but speak the things that we have seen and heard." And they did so with such effect that Jerusalem was filled with their doctrine, the blood of Christ was brought upon those who had shed it, and multitudes were obedient to the faith which they preached.

God-Appointed Watchmen .-To the very people of whom He says, "Thy watchmen are blind," God also says, "I have set watchman upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night." So filled will they be with the visions of God; that, like the Apostles of old, they cannot but speak the things they see. This striking contrast implies that the blind watchmen are self-constituted. They are not of God's appointment. His watchmen see, and declare what they see. The minister who has not "understanding in the seeing of God" corresponds to the blind watchmen-both are impossibilities. A blind man cannot watch, neither can one who has not himself "the anointing that teacheth all things" dispense to others the hidden mysteries of the Gospel.

Full of Eyes. -There is a suggestion which it would be well for us to heed contained in the description given by Ezekiel and John of the living creatures in the midst of and round about the throne of God-they were "full of eyes before and behind," "round about and within." Of the seven eyes of the Lamb we are told that they are the "seven Spirits of God." It is repeatedly said of these "living creatures" that "the Spirit of life was in them;" and this fulness of the Spirit is represented by their perfect and comprehensive vision. This indicates what will be a special characteristic of one who is filled with the spirit. His perceptive faculties will be so developed, alert; and sensitive, that he will seem to be all eyes, to concentrate all the powers of the being in the act of seeing. He will see with the inmost mind, with the whole body, soul, and spirit, and the object of his vision will be God.

The Hidden Wisdom. -The presence of the Spirit in a man, not only quickens the senses he has in common with all men, but develops new faculties, and reveals to him that which "eye hath not seen nor ear heard"-things which cannot be seen by the natural eye, nor heard by the natural ear. Such things are foolishness to the natural man, for they cannot be known by him. Yet they are to be preached by the ministers of God, as Paul declared: "We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory. . . . As it is written,

Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not,

And which entered not into the heart of man,

Whatsoever things God prepared for them that

love Him.

But unto us God revealed them through the Spirit. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual." 2 Cor. ii. 7-13.

Perfect Vision and Harmonious Testimony. -The one who thus sees can speak with the authority of an eye-witness. He does not give the people his own opinions, speculations, or conjectures, but simply declares what he sees. Thus it is evident that were all professed ministers of the Gospel God-appointed and anointed watchmen on the walls of Zion, there would be a perfectly harmonious testimony from all pulpits, instead of the conflicting voices which to-day make a Babel of the religious world. When each one declares what he thinks or imagines, or what he has heard, or what he hopes, instead of what he actually sees, the result is confusion. But of His true watchmen God says, "Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice, with the voice together shall they sing, for they shall see eye to eye." Perfect harmony comes only from perfect vision.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 12.

E. J. Waggoner

The new Archbishop of Canterbury has spoken out already on the subject of ritualistic extremes for the church, He intends to act, and that sternly, against, those of his clergy who persist in illegal practices. Meanwhile it is sincerely to be hoped that, by the blessing of God, the churches may experience rather a revival of apostolic Christianity than a return to ancient ceremonies, that the righteousness thereof, going forth "as a lamp that burneth," may reduce to its proper importance the matter of burning incense; and that candles, costumes, and similar details may find their proper place in the putting off of the old man with his works, and the putting on of the new man, created in righteousness and true holiness. But if the church shall leave these high privileges to wrangle over vestments and decorations, it must yield its work and its crown to others.

March 26, 1903

"The Flock of God" The Present Truth 19, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

Acts xx. 28-38.

"Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God which He hath purchased with His own blood."

The use of the word "flock" to designate the church in this connection shows what is the position and work of the overseer that of a shepherd. Perhaps the modern idea of a shepherd is rather suggestive of a driver, especially to townspeople. But for God's idea we must turn to Christ a beautiful parable of the Good Shepherd, and to the inspired "Shepherd Psalm" of him whom God took "from the sheep-folds, from following the ewes great with young," "to feed Jacob His people and Israel His inheritance." "I shall not want;" "He maketh me to lie down;" "He leadeth me;" such is the confidence of the flock in the Good Shepherd-assurance that all its wants will be supplied, a safe resting-place provided, and sure guidance given.

Compare with this passage Peter's exhortation to the elders, "Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock." 1 Peter v. 2, 3. Peter had well learnt the lesson of Christ, that to be truly great is to serve, and that the real ruler is the one who has the ability to feed and provide for those who are under his care.

Note the words of both Paul and Peter in referring to the church; it is "the flock of God," "God's heritage," and Jesus Christ Himself is the "Chief Shepherd." "The Lord," sang David, "is my Shepherd." And again, "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock." The very intimate and tender relation between Christ and His flock is shown in the words, "which He hath purchased with His own blood." His own life is the price paid for the flock; He would rather die than lose one of His sheep.

No one can be hired to take charge of this, the Lord's Most precious possession: "Taking the oversight thereof, not for filthy lucre," but because "the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers." He that is an hireling, whose own the sheep are not, fleeth as soon as any danger menaces the flock. But he to whom the Holy Spirit imparts some of Christ's own solicitude for the flock, takes the oversight thereof not of constraint but willingly, and giveth his life to protect and defend the sheep. No man can appoint another a shepherd of God's flock, neither can any man take on himself its oversight, for the sake of the power, prestige, or money to be gained thereby. The Good Shepherd alone, who knoweth the hearts of all men, can "set a man over the congregation." (Num. xxvii. 16 ) And He does it by imparting to the man of His choice His own self-sacrificing spirit of love and watchful tenderness, to feed the flock; to strengthen that which is diseased; to heal that which is sick; to bind up that which is broken; to bring again that which is driven away; to seek that which is lost. (See Ex. xxxiv. 4)

Such a shepherd was Moses, faithful in all God's house, when God "led His people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron." He bore Israel as "a nursing

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father beareth the sucking child." And when he found that he was not to be allowed to lead them safely into the fold of the promised land, he prayed, "Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation, which may go out before them, and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in; that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd."

This same solicitude for the sheep of whom the Holy Ghost had made him overseer was felt by the Apostle Paul when he was about to leave them. It was for this reason that he had gathered the elders together that he might warn and exhort them. "For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them." The second statement explains the first. If the shepherds were what they should be, no grievous wolves would gain admittance to the flock; hence Paul says: "Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the flock." But when the professing shepherds are seeking their own advantage and aggrandisement, and using the flock merely as a means of self-advancement, the sheep are left to become the prey of ravening wolves. "With force and with rigour have ye ruled over them, and they were scattered because there was no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field." This is what the Lord says to those false shepherds who feed themselves from the flock, and fleece the flock to clothe themselves with the wool, instead of feeding the sheep, and considering only their welfare.

The culmination of this apostasy of the shepherds, and the drawing away of disciples after them, is shown in the article on the "Papal Jubilee," on another page of this paper. It was against this "mystery of iniquity," which he declared to the Thessalonians was already working (2 Thess. ii.), that Paul warned the Ephesian elders. In contrast with this he set forth his own experience as an example to them: "I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel. Yea, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessity, and to those that were with me. I have showed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive." The reward of such faithful service on behalf of His sheep can be given only by God Himself. "And when the Chief Shepherd shall appear," all faithful under shepherds who have willingly taken the oversight of His flock, "shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." 1 Peter v. 4.

"The Editor's Private Corner. One Book" The Present Truth 19, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

"Can one believe the Gospel, and disbelieve the Old Testament?"

Let us see. The Apostle Peter speaks about the salvation of our souls, and says, "Of which salvation the prophets inquired and searched diligently who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you; searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us, they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them which have preached the Gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." 1 Peter i. 10-12.

Read the text carefully, and you will see that it states that the prophets of old ministered the very same things that are announced by those who preach the Gospel. Then the prophets must have written the Gospel. When Peter was preaching Christ in the house of Cornelius, he said, "To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins." Acts x. 43. And the Apostle Paul said, "Having therefore obtained the help that is from God, I stand unto this day testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses did say should come; how that Christ must suffer, and how that He first by the resurrection of the dead should proclaim light both to the people and to the Gentiles." Acts xxii. 22, 23, R.V. Therefore whoever says that the Old Testament does not contain the Gospel, says that the Apostle Paul did not preach the Gospel.

A great many people who would be shocked at the suggestion that they are infidels, imagine that faith is entirely consistent with a disbelief of many of the records of the Bible, especially of the Old Testament. They think that they believe the Gospel, yet they make no scruple of pulling the Old Testament record of that Gospel to pieces. There are many portions of the Bible that they are very doubtful about; and as for the story of Jonah, and the account of the flood, they can scarcely have patience with anyone who professes to believe them. The Bible account of the creation of the earth, they regard as at the best only a beautiful fable.

Suppose the position be taken that the story of the creation, and of the fall of man, is only a fable. If that were so, then there would be no Gospel at all. For if there were no fall of man, there need be no redemption. So that if the account of the fall be imaginary, then we have the entire Gospel built on a fable, which would make it also a fable. And besides, if the story of creation and the fall of man be a fable, how can we know that the whole Bible is not the same? We must either accept the whole Bible, or, reject it all. We cannot pull it to pieces.

Take the account of the prophet Jonah. Many people would feel almost insulted if it were intimated that they were so simple as to believe it. They say that it never really happened: that the great fish never swallowed Jonah, and that it would have been impossible for him to live three days in its belly. But Christ said, "As Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Matt. xii. 40. Now if Jonah were never in the whale's belly, and could not have been, then we have the Saviour likening His death and resurrection to an impossibility. Therefore to deny the story of Jonah, is to deny the foundation of the Gospel.

It will not do in this case to say as too many of the "higher critics" do, that the Saviour spoke of the things that were currently reported among the Jews, as illustrations, taking the people on their own grounds, without stopping to explain that those things were really fables. If the story were not true, the Lord knew it; yet He said that just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale, so He should be in the heart of the earth. If the story of Jonah were not true, then we have Christ saying that He would not be in the heart of the earth at all. Is it not better to believe a thing that we cannot understand, than to throw away the entire Gospel? Who dare say that it is of no importance whether or not we believe all the records of the Old Testament?

The saddest part of this matter is that the people have not been led into this loose way of regarding the Bible by professed infidels, but by professed ministers of the Gospel. It is they who are responsible for the current of unbelief that is carrying so many away. Indeed, one can scarcely pick up a religious journal without seeing more or less about the controversy that is now going on over the Bible. There is a controversy, for there are many ministers who stand for the truth of the Bible; yet there are so many ministers of high standing and influence, who seem to be actuated by intense fear that the people will really believe too much of the Bible, that it is necessary to raise a voice of warning. We need not pass sentence of condemnation upon those ministers, but simply warn the people to beware of them as false teachers.

LESSONS FROM THE FLOOD

One preacher says: "No student of science is able to believe that any such flood as that recorded in the early chapters of Genesis ever took place in the history of the human race." "We are not to take the account of the deluge for history infallibly inspired and rigidly accurate in all its details." That view he tells us, "is no longer held by persons of ordinary education." How easy it is to brush aside a proposition with the statement that no one of ordinary education believes it. A base fear of being called ignorant is at the bottom of a large part of the infidelity of these days.

But what about the flood? May we throw it aside as a myth, and still hold fast our faith in the Gospel, and in the

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Bible in general? Let us see. Christ used the flood and its time as an illustration of the last days." As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all." Luke xvii. 26, 27. In the book of Hebrews we are informed who the "all" were who were destroyed by the flood. "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith." Heb. xi. 7. It was the world that was condemned by the preaching of Noah, because they did not believe it; and it was the world that was destroyed by the flood. Christ in person, and also through His chosen apostle, bears witness to this.

Again, the flood is put in the same list as the creation of the world, and the general judgment. The Apostle Peter says that they who scoff at the promise of the coming of the Lord, are willingly ignorant of the fact that "by the word of the Lord the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water; whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water, perished; but the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." 2 Peter iii. 5-7. Whoever discounts the story of the flood thereby discounts the story of creation, and also the promise of the coming of the Lord to judge the world. The same word that brought the flood upon the earth, created the earth, and will make it new again. The Scriptures, from Moses onward, testify of Christ, and they cannot be rejected without rejecting Christ.

Still further, if the story of the flood is a myth, then there is no comfort in the Gospel. It is upon that fact, and the things connected with it, that the Lord gives us the assurance that He will not forget us. Speaking to Jerusalem which is above, and is the mother of us all, which is now desolate, mourning the absence of her children, God says, "For this is as the waters of Noah unto Me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee." Isa. liv. 9. Her joy and glory will be the restoration of her children, by the salvation of the righteous; therefore the assurance that God will save His people is no greater than the assurance that there was a flood in the days of Noah. "As I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not, be wroth with thee." But if there were no flood, then the Lord did not swear that the waters of the flood should no more go over the earth; and so in that case we have no assurance that He will remember to save His people.

Again, we read the words of inspiration through the Apostle Peter: "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished." 2 Peter ii. 4-9. If the Lord did that, He knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations; but if He did not do that, what then? the only conclusion is that He does not know how to deliver the godly out of temptations. And so those who deny the story of the flood throw away all the consolations of the Gospel.

More might be said in the same line, but this is sufficient to show that no one can lightly deny any part of the Sacred Record. It all stands or falls together. No, that is not correct: it all stands together; it does not fall, notwithstanding the assaults of men. "For ever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven." Ps. cxix. 89. "Thy word is true from the beginning; and every one of Thy righteous judgments endureth for ever." Verse 160. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is provitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17. It is all profitable, and all necessary.

"The Bible Class. Lost through Unbelief" The Present Truth 19, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

(Heb. iii. 17-19.)

"But with whom was He grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief."

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

1. With whom was God grieved forty years?

2. What did He swear?

3. To whom did He swear that they should not enter into His rest?

4. Then why could they not enter in?

Displeasing God by Failure. -With whom was He displeased forty years? was it not with them that sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?" This is the same as we read in 1 Cor. x. 4, 5: "They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. But with many [the most] of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness." Do not make the mistake of supposing that they were overthrown because God was displeased with them. God does not act like a petulant man. He does not destroy people in a fit of passion, because they have displeased Him. Quite the contrary. He was displeased because they were overthrown. He provided means in abundance, so that they might stand. He laid a solid Rock foundation for them to stand on, and in which to take root. (We are to be "rooted and built up" in Christ.) He even gave them Rock to drink, in order that they might be steadfast and unmovable. He sent His Word among them, and into them, that they might do it, and abide for ever. Ps. cvii. 20; Deut. xxx. 11-14. Therefore when they were overthrown, He had a right to be displeased.

The Unbeliever Condemned. -People will persist in misunderstanding God, and in thinking the worst of Him. They think that He is unjust to condemn people when they are, as they say, "doing the best they can." The truth is, that "God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned; but He that believeth not is condemned already." John iii. 17, 18. God does not condemn people to failure, nor for failure. They condemn themselves. God provides an abundance of the breath of life for all mankind. Now if a person deliberately shut himself up in a tight room, and destroys the little air that is there, he will die; but he cannot charge his death upon God. He has condemned himself to death. Neither is God condemning men to death when He says that if they do not breathe His pure air they must die. He is simply stating a fact. So when He swore in His wrath that the unbelieving Israelites should not enter into His rest, He was merely stating the inevitable consequence of unbelief.

Faith, Works, and Rest. -"So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief." What was it that they could not enter into?-They could not enter into God's rest. God was displeased with them because they did not enter into His rest; and we have learned that He was displeased because, seeing His works, they did not learn His ways. It is evident that there is a direct and intimate relation between works and rest. There may be works without rest; but rest always implies work. Men and women may wear themselves out with work, and never have a moment of perfect rest; and so true is this that many people have given up even so much as dreaming of rest. But when we hear of rest, sweet rest, we know that work has been done. A person who has never done any work does not and cannot know what rest is. But no man can ever find rest in or from his own work, because his work is always incomplete and imperfect. Labour with what zeal and energy he will, failure always stares him in the face; he cannot rest, because his work is never done. Now the failure of the Israelites, as of most others, consisted in not learning God's ways, as they saw Him working, so as to enter into His rest. For God has the secret of working without becoming tired. "Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of His understanding." Isa. xl. 28. "He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength." Therefore "they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint."

The Jews could not enter into God's rest, because they did not believe. God did not condemn them for unbelief; it could not have been, otherwise, since God's rest can be entered into only after God's work; and God's works are wrought only by faith. No man can do God's works; they are too great. Only God can do the works of God. So when the Jews asked, "What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?" Jesus replied: "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." John vi. 28, 29. So we see why they could not enter in because of unbelief. They did not accept God to work in them. They trusted their own works. They worshipped the works of their own hands, which could not profit. Wherefore, "Remember that thou magnify His work, which men behold."

All Things Possible to Faith. -People usually do whatever they think they can do, and fail in that which they doubt. The children of Israel who fell in the wilderness were those who said that they were not able to possess the promised land. The two men, Caleb and Joshua, who said that they were "well able to overcome it," entered in and possessed it. The only thing that hindered the others was unbelief.

When in a certain war an admiral failed to pass a line of forts defending a city, and reported that it could not be done, another one said to him: "Do you know why you could not do it? It was because you thought you could not;" and then the other one, who thought that he could do it, did it, and captured the city.

When a father brought his afflicted child to Jesus, and said, "If Thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us," Jesus exclaimed: "If thou canst! All things are possible to him that believeth." Mark ix. 23, 24, R.V. Read the whole of the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, and especially verses 32-38, to learn what faith can accomplish. The faith that is centred in God can never be disappointed. "He is faithful that promised," and He has promised all things. We cannot ask more than He can perform, for He is "able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think," and that, too, "according to the power that worketh in us." God's Divine power has given to every person born into the world "all things that pertain unto life and godliness." 2 Peter. i. 3.

"Illiteracy" The Present Truth 19, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

At the medical congress held some time ago, it was stated that the rate of infant mortality is in direct relation to the illiteracy of the mothers. It is humiliating to think that mankind know so much less relatively than beasts; for there is no other animal than man, that does not know how to bring up its young in the way that is best for it; and ignorance concerning the care and training of children is not by any means confined to illiterate mothers; for education, for the most part, covers almost everything except the most important matter of all,-how to live.

"Is Jesus Real" The Present Truth 19, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

A little child who had been made the innocent victim of the popular stories of Santa Claus, fairy tales, myths and legends, as she grew older, learned of the deception. A little later when she was very ill and knew that she must die, she asked her mother the pitiful question, "Is Jesus real?"

"For Little Ones. The Twelve Spies" The Present Truth 19, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

The journey of the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan was very much longer than it need have been if they had trusted in God. They might have been only a few days on the way, but because of unbelief and discontent and sin they were kept in the wilderness.

When at last they reached the borders of Canaan, God told them to go up and take possession of it, because He had given it to them. Then they came to Moses and asked him to send some men before them to spy the land, and see what sort of country it was-whether the people were strong or weak (Deut. i. 21, 22). So God told Moses that he might do this.

Now God had already told them that He went before them to prepare the way, and that the land to which He was leading them was a goodly land flowing with milk and honey. So when they wanted men to go and "spy the land," they showed that they did not believe God's word.

Besides this, God told them not to be afraid of the people of the land for He had given all their enemies into their hands. They had seen what He did to the Egyptians, and so they ought to have trusted in Him to overthrow all their enemies. But they sent spies to see if the people were stronger or weaker than themselves, and this opened the way for all the trouble that followed.

The men who were chosen found a most beautiful and fruitful land, just as God had promised. But there was one great drawback-there were giants in the land. But what of that, when God had given them all into their hands? They might have gone against them in the name of the Lord, as David afterwards went against Goliath, and gained an easy victory over them all. The spies brought back to the camp "an evil report" because they magnified the difficulties,-the strong cities walled up to heaven, and the giants they had seen, so great that they themselves had seemed like grasshoppers beside them. But they forgot the great God, who was on their side, before whom all the inhabitants of the earth are as grasshoppers. (Isa. xl. 22.)

There were only two men who remembered this, Caleb and Joshua, and they brought a good report of the land, and tried to encourage the people to go up and take it, because God had given it to them. But the people wanted to stone them for their good advice.

It was not the will of God that His people should wander about in the wilderness for forty years. He wanted them to go right into the goodly land; but "we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief." It was only by believing God's promise that they could go up and take the land, and as they did not believe they could not go in. How this must have grieved the Lord, after all He had done for them to bring them to Canaan.

While seeking to escape from the giants in Canaan, the children of Israel fell into the clutches of a much worse giant than any of those of whom they were so much afraid. We read about him in "Pilgrim's Progress," and how he shut up all his prisoners in Doubting Castle. The name of this cruel giant was Giant Despair. In the castle-yard were the bones and skulls of them that he had made an end of.

This was the giant who laid hold of those poor pilgrims just as they were about to enter the Promised Land. He got them into Doubting Castle, and they did not use the only key that could get them out,-the Key of Promise. So they could not enter the Land of Promise, and their carcasses fell in the wilderness.

God has promised to give to all who believe and will let Him lead them, a goodly land, a heavenly country, far better than any that there is now upon this earth. But there are giants in the way who will try to keep us out of that happy land and make an end of us. Giant Pride, Giant Anger, Giant Selfishness, and many others. But we need not fear any of these, for in the strength of the Lord we can overcome them every one, and go in and possess the land.

"Many giants great and tall,

Stalking through the land;

Headlong to the earth they fall

When met by Daniel's band,"

the band of those who fear and trust the Lord only.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

At a recent meeting of the Holborn Licensing Bench it transpired that there are 400 licenses in the district, or one to every 257 persons.

The Czar of Russia has announced his determination to grant a larger measure of religious freedom to his subjects who do not profess the orthodox faith. This is welcome news. In so vast an empire is it no small matter that the door is to be opened a little wider for the Gospel. This to Russia's greatest need, for although she has plenty of the "orthodox," it is hard for a State church to keep a pure faith.

In a letter referring to the questions arising from the appointment of coloured persons to federal posts in the South, Mr. Roosevelt declares that he cannot treat mere colour as a bar to office-holding any more than creed or birth-place. The President adds that the attitude of many Southerners has surprised him, but that it will not cause him to swerve a hair's breadth from the policy he as marked out. It is always an inspiration to find a man who will hold to right and justice regardless of the consequences to himself and his position.

Afghanistan is not a favourable country for trusts and "corners." The Amir has proclaimed that whoever possesses grain in excess of what is absolutely necessary for the subsistence of his family for four months shall sell it. If this is not done, the whole amount will be taken by force. This seems like arbitrary exercise of authority, but all human government is more or less arbitrary; and when we come to consider the matter we can see that this is really no more arbitrary than the legislation favouring trusts and "Corners," which is so common in more "civilised" countries; and it is infinitely more humane.

One of the signs of the last days, mentioned more than once in the Scriptures, is to be the conflict between capital and labour. This strife is becoming so imminent, even in prosperous America, that a New York firm has stated: "The most unsettling factor in the business situation to-day to the threatening and often unreasonable demands of labour. There are signs that these demands have been pushed to the breaking point." While the Lord makes it plain that He hates the oppression of the poor, and will avenge their cause, He cannot countenance those who fight sin with its own weapons.

Some very fine points are sometimes developed in the course of the consideration of different phases of the Sunday question. It is curious to see how the law is brought into requisition to determine what is a violation of the day, and what is not and to see how close one can sometimes come to it without hitting it, or how hard one can hit it without breaking it. For example, a newsagent in the country lately refused to pay for certain Sunday papers which he had ordered and received from London, and in Court he made the plea that the proprietor of the paper had contravened the Lord's Day Observance Act. The statute referred to says that "no tradesman, artificer, workman or labourer" can enter into a contract on Sunday. The judge held, however, that the newsagent would not escape payment by pleading that Act, as the proprietors of the paper were not tradesmen, but manufacturers. That was a decision worthy of Constantine, the father of Sunday laws, whose law in 321 A.D., requiring all judges and townspeople and tradesmen to rest on "the venerable day of the sun," by giving agriculturists full liberty to sow and plant and reap, was the first law ever enacted by any god or man, enjoining Sunday observance.

A member of the Ontario Parliament accuses a minister of attempting to bribe him with ?800 in return for an agreement to support the Government. Charges of a similar nature have lately been made in other legislative assemblies. Although the Christian will submit himself to the powers that be, as ordained of God, yet if any conflict shall come, as it haa in the past, and will again, between the laws of men and the law of God, it ought to be remembered whence human enactments spring. Every reader of the papers knows that many of these laws might be described by Lowell's words, "patched-up broils of Congress, venal, full of meat and wine." Who can set such decrees against the law of God, as an excuse for disobedience, and expect the excuse to stand good at the judgment seat of Christ?

The British and Foreign Bible Society, in the first of its "Centennial Pamphlets," just issued, states that it is spending ?700 every day and issuing 2,000 copies of the Scriptures every working hour from January to December. It has issued 180,000 copies- complete or in parts-in 367 different languages and dialects, and is to-day promoting translation or revision in over 100 languages. "New doors are opening in all corners of the world, and now hands are stretching out to receive God's Book," which is; as stated by Sir Andrew Wingate at the inaugural celebration of the centennial year, "the prince of pioneers, casting up a highway for the ambassadors of peace, and preparing the way for the coming of the King." The society is asking for a centennial fund of a quarter of a million guineas to take the Bible where it has never yet been sent. Thus the world is being sown with the seed of the Word, and the way prepared for the speedy evangelisation of all the nations. "Then shall the end come," and earth's harvest be gathered by angel reapers at the coming of Christ in glory.

"Society has to drag a terrible load in its laborious march to the millennium," says the Daily Chronicle, and some portion of that load was weighed in a paper read at the Poor Law Conference, March 11th. The lunacy commissioners have under their control 110,000 cases,-90,000 lunatics, and 20,000 idiots. Besides those, there are at least 100,000 "border-land cases," that is, the feeble-minded, whose condition would hardly justify compulsory detention, though in some cases this would be an advantage. It is this "vast army of the feeble-minded" that presents the most difficult problem, and that is the greatest menace to the future well-being of the community, since there is nothing to prevent their weakness of intellect from being handed down to posterity. In the face of this appalling evidence of the degeneracy and weakness of the human race, he must be an optimist indeed who can think that the race is developing and ascending, and that a millennium of peace and prosperity is about to dawn upon the earth. The fact is, that at the present rate of degeneracy,-which would, however, be accelerated with each generation,-a few more generations would close the history of the human race. Even the earth itself, under the transgression which is heavy upon it (see Isa. xxiv), quakes with age and staggers to and fro like a drunken man. The only hope of humanity is the coming of Christ, which all the signs mentioned in the Scriptures show to be near at hand.

What is well termed a "startling innovation" has been introduced into a Congregational church at Bradford. It is nothing less than the practically unanimous decision to dispense with "the cup" henceforth, and to celebrate the communion with bread alone. It is worthy of note that it was this very thing, namely, keeping the cup from the laity, that was denounced by the first reformers, and the first victory of the Reformation was the securing of the communion "in both kinds" to every believer. And now "an advanced Protestant Nonconformist church" voluntarily reverts to the practice. But why retain the name Protestant? Or why have the communion at all? Why make any pretence of following the Bible, if its teaching is to be changed and ignored at pleasure?

In the address which Dr. Parker had previously prepared to be read at the Free Church Council which was held this month, he showed his contempt for the anxiety shown by some Free Churchmen that their "orders" should be recognised by the Anglican Church, as the Anglican Church is, in turn, anxious to have its orders recognised by Papal Rome. The willingness of some men in the Anglican Church to recognise the "orders" of Free Churchmen was characterised as "a place of wholly gratuitous magnanimity." His own independence of all human ordination was thus strongly expressed:-

"Speaking for myself alone, lest I should seem to involve others, I say, I stand or fall by my work done at the bidding, and done in the strength, of God. . . 'called' to be an apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God, for the willing service of the cross, an apostle not of man, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead. Brethren, if we are true ministers we are not licensed by a community, we are commissioned and anointed by God, and therefore the true minister is like a tree planted by the rivers of water, and the blessing of heaven, continual and unstinted, guarantees its amaranth and its fruitfulness. Let us so pray and serve and suffer that for official men, whose 'orders' are written with pen and onk, to deny our orders is to discredit and forfeit their own."

Ministers are not made by the orders of man, but "our efficiency is of God, who also hath made us able to be ministers of the new covenant," even of "the Spirit which giveth life." And one who has "received this ministry," will not be withheld from the exercise of it by any lack of recognition on the part of men, but will make "full proof" of it by manifestation of the truth, commending himself to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

"Fading Glory" The Present Truth 19, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

Fading Glory. -When Satan showed to Christ the kingdoms of this world, and the glory of them, he did it in a moment of time. Doubtless he realised that the picture would not bear inspection. England has been covered with that same glory by her army in the recent war, but the shouting is dying away, and in its place there comes a rising murmur of discontent. The War Office attacked and ridiculed from all quarters, the generals who have been shelved for their incompetency, the reservists "fretting over deferred pay," and unable to find employment, the "ragging" of the young officers, and other features, do not combine to produce a very glorious spectacle. Even in this life, the glory that God gives, is preferable to the glory of the world. God presents to us the cross of Christ, but whoever bears it finds glory in it. The world allures with the promise of its glory, but it means a pathway of mortification and final disappointment.

"'Doctrines of Devils'" The Present Truth 19, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

"Doctrines of Devils." -In a work of nearly 1,400 pages, Mr. Frederic Myers attempts to prove that the human personality survives bodily death. He has spent thirty years in investigating the subject, beginning by studying the details of postmortem apparitions, but he found that abundant information was offered by Spiritualism. He concluded that if the spirits of the dead were "ready to hear and answer questions, and to tell us frankly of the fate of souls," it was unnecessary to go elsewhere. He thinks that the Scriptures are superceded by this greater revelation; that the resurrection of Christ showed that His Spirit was immortal, that Buddhism presents the truest and most inspiring faith, that there is not one Saviour, but every man is a saviour, and that prayers should be addressed to the dead. From such "doctrines of devils" men can be saved only by believing the Word of God, against all the philosophic speculations of the heathen world, and also against the almost universal belief in the natural immortality of the soul. From that first lie in Eden, "Ye shall not surely die," diligently fostered by its author, have sprung hosts of delusions. The worship of the dead among the heathen, the false doctrines of purgatory, saint worship and idolatry of the Virgin Mary, grow out of this error. Their fruit has always been Anti-Christian, and the growing influence of Spiritualism, with its wicked teaching, allows that Satan is now preparing for men another deep-laid snare in which multitudes may perish. The significance of Mr. Myer's book is not that it presents any new point of the teaching of the "spirits," but that it shows that science and critical investigation, which claims to have overthrown the Scriptures, will not deliver any from this powerful delusion, but is being rather used to assist its development. "And when they shall say unto you, seek unto them that have familiar spirits . . . should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?" Isa. viii. 19. "They are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." Rev. xvi. 14.

"Our Daily Bread" The Present Truth 19, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

Our Daily Bread. -We are accustomed to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," and to include in this petition not only the physical bread which nourishes our bodies, but that spiritual food which will supply the needs of our soul, making us strong to do the will of God. But the blessings of God often come to us in such disguise that we fail to recognise the answer to our prayer. The "bread" that the Lord sends us may take the form of trials to be borne, taxing labour to be performed, or temptations and difficulties to be overcome.

"Meat that Ye Know Not Of" The Present Truth 19, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

Meat that Ye Know Not Of. -Jesus, weary and hungry, sat alone by the well; His disciples were gone away to buy bread. Then came an ignorant woman needing instruction, a sinner needing salvation, and He devoted Himself to the task of supplying her needs. He gave her to eat of the Bread of Life, and to drink of the water of salvation. When she ran to call her neighbours to join the feast, He gladly supplied the needs of all who came. By and by His disciples came and besought Him, saying, "Master, eat." But He had ceased to hunger, and to their surprise replied, "I have meat to eat that ye know not of." Then they questioned one with another, "Hath any man brought Him ought to eat?" Jesus saih unto them, "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me." In ministering to the wants of others He received His own daily bread.

"They Are Bread for Us" The Present Truth 19, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

They Are Bread for Us. -When the spies returned to the camp of Israel with their evil report of the giants and the fenced cities walled up to heaven, the people wept in dismay. Two only of all the host had the faith to perceive the real situation: "Fear not the people of the land," said Caleb and Joshua, "for they are bread for us." All that they have is ours, for God has given them into our hands; so the more and the stronger they are, the better will it be for us. Threatening enemies, barriers apparently insurmountable, our own utter weakness and inability, all are bread for us-God's means of supplying us with strength and life.

"Meat from the Eater" The Present Truth 19, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

Meat from the Eater .-Have we yet read the hidden meaning of Samson's riddle, "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness"? we know the story: A young lion came forth and roared against Samson. The Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent it as though it had been a kid. Some time afterwards passing the spot, he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion, and found in it a swarm of bees and a honey-comb, with which he refreshed himself and his parents. The lion that roared against him was the means of providing him with a sweet repast.

"Your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." But if we meet him in the strength of the Lord, we shall be more than conquerors, and get blessing and help from all his attacks. From the eater comes meat, from the strong, sweetness. "My brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations," even though ye be in heaviness through them, for "though no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous, nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby."

Not only are we ourselves fed and strengthened by our temptations, our tribulations, our difficulties, and our labours, but we thus receive a supply from which we can minister to the needs of others. "Blessed be God, who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them that are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." Thus may our tribulation be to us as a passport by which we may in some degree enter into the joy of our Lord, "by whose stripes we are healed."

April 2, 1903

"The Resurrection. (1 Cor. xv. 20, 21, 50-58)" The Present Truth 19, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

(1 Cor. xv. 20, 21, 50-58)

No one can afford to be without a clear understanding of the resurrection. Paul, in the beginning of this chapter (1 Cor. xv.), states that he is making known to his brethren the Gospel by which they are saved, if they will hold it fast, and then goes on to speak at length of the resurrection. Evidently, with Paul, the resurrection was the Gospel. This is seen again in the seventeenth verse, where he says that if Christ has not been raised, their faith is vain, and they are yet in their sins.

"But now is Christ risen from the dead." The word "but" in this sentence disposes of several "ifs" which the apostle allows for a moment, to show how wretched would be the condition of men if there were no resurrection. In that case, Christ was dead and done with, the apostles were liars, the disciples were deceived, they were yet in their sins, and were of all men most miserable, while the holy men of all ages had perished for ever. The world would be a vast cemetery, from which there was no outlet, and the people in it might as well live like the brutes, caring only to eat and drink, till they too were swept into oblivion.

"But now is Christ risen from the dead." Not only that, He "is become the first-fruits of them that slept." The first-fruits show the nature of the harvest. Both are alike in quality. The resurrection of Christ is a specimen and a pledge of what every individual resurrection shall be of those who sleep in Him. "For if the first-fruits be holy, the lump is also holy." The eternal future took its shape from Jesus Christ. He was not only showing a pattern for all time to come, but in Himself was building a perfect man into whose stature and fulness the great army of believers should grow up, as members of one body. The harvest was to be determined by the Firstfruit. It will be perfect because His life was flawless.

Christ did not have to wait until after His death for His resurrection. In His lifetime He declared: "I am the Resurrection, and the Life." John xi. 25. He could not possibly be held by death, for it was the Resurrection in person that went down into the grave. Christ made death a sleep, and spoke of it as such. The resurrection is simply God calling to awake out of sleep, and Jesus was awakened by His Father every morning of His life Isa. l. 4. It was not a strange thing for Him to say, as He went to sleep, "Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit." Luke xxiii. 46. We know too that it was not a surprise to Him that God should awake Him from His long sleep, for when the disciples came into the sepulchre, they found evidence of His calm and orderly rising in "the napkin that was about His head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself." John xx. 7.

When we recognise that it is God who wakens us daily, and rise to walk with Christ in newness of life, we are learning the power of His resurrection. Some day, when our work is finished, He will let us sleep on a little longer; but we shall not be disturbed about it. We shall know with certainty that when next we wake, it will be to see the King in His beauty, and

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to be made, with all the redeemed, perfectly like our glorious Firstfruits. Thus, faith will bring up, even in this life, the power and assurance of the resurrection, just as it made power over death a present experience with Jesus. So much so, that He could deliver from death whomsoever He would. When He ascended, He led captivity captive.

"For the sting of death is sin." Here comes in the Gospel of the resurrection. Death had no sting for Christ because sin had no dominion over Him, and whoever, in baptism, enters into this same experience, and dies with Christ, will be also in "the likeness of His resurrection." "For he that is dead is freed from sin." Rom. vi. 2-10. Whoever gets the victory over sin, in Christ, can ask, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" He can say now in all confidence, and it will surely come to pass, "Death is swallowed up in victory." Then "thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

"For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead." Here is the glorious triumph of the resurrection, which demonstrates the exceeding greatness of God's power to usward who believe. Eph. i. 19, 20. We would naturally think that since by man came death, the Lord would no more think of using such a broken reed. But no; because by man came death, therefore by man shall come also the resurrection. Why, surely, if from a state of sinlessness man fell, he cannot be expected to rise out of the depths and overthrow death, and take captive the enemy who conquered him. What power is sufficient for this? The power of the resurrection; for by that power, that which is sown in corruption shall be raised in incorruption, what is sown in dishonour shall be raised in glory, and what is sown in weakness shall be raised in power. Because Christ died for our sins and rose again for our justification, and did this in our own weak and helpless flesh that He might bring the experience into our own lives, the weak become strong, and "the lame take the prey."

It will be a wonderful moment when the trumpet shall sound, the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and the living saints shall be changed, but it is not more wonderful than the power by which men who have been dead in trespasses and sins awake to righteousness and live a life of victory over sin. And it is only those who get the victory now over the sting of death, which is sin, who will have a part in the first resurrection. "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power." Rev. xx. 6.

"The Sabbath Unchanged" The Present Truth 19, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

In a passage in his "Elements of Rhetoric," in which Archbishop Whately deals with "the superior force of negative probabilities," he deduces the following strong argument in favour of the original seventh-day Sabbath:-

"It is to be observed that, in many cases, silence, omission, absence of certain statements, etc., will have even greater weight than much that we do find stated. For Instance: Suppose we meet with something in a passage of one of Paul's Epistles, which indicates with a certain degree of probability the existence of such and such a custom, institution, etc., and suppose there is just the same degree of probability that such and such another custom, institution, or event, which he does not mention anywhere, would have been mentioned by him in the same place, supposing it to have really existed, or occurred; this omission, and the negative argument resulting, has incomparably the more weight than the other, if we also find that same omission in all the other Epistles, and in every one of the books of the New Testament. For example: The universal omission of all notice of the office of Hiereus (a sacerdotal priest) among the Christian ministers-of all reference to one supreme church bearing rule over all the rest-of all mention of any transfer of the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first-are instances of decisive negative arguments of this kind."

To put the matter simply, we find in the Gospels, the Acts, and the Epistles, occasional mention of the first day of the week, which to some would seem to indicate with a certain degree of probability that there had been a change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day. But if such a change had actually occurred, the apostles would certainly have mentioned it in referring to the first day. There is no mention or hint in any of the books of the New Testament of any such change having been made. And this omission has, as the Archbishop says, "incomparably more weight," as an argument against the change, than a more mention of the first day without any reference to the change can possibly have in favour of it.

Again, in "Bishop Pepy's Charge," this statement is made:-

"Although we do not admit the positive authority of antiquity in favour of any doctrine or practice which we do not find sanctioned by Scripture, we may yet, without inconsistency, appeal to it negatively, in refutation of many errors. . . . It is no argument in favour of the millennium, that it was a notion entertained by Justin Martyr, since we do not believe him to have been inspired, and he may therefore have drawn erroneous inferences from certain texts of Scripture: but it is an argument against the doctrine of Transubstantiation, that we find no traces of it for above six centuries; and against the adoration of the Virgin Mary, that in like manner it does not appear to have been inculcated till the sixth century. It is very credible that the first Christian writers, who were but men, should have made mistakes to which all men are liable, in their interpretation of Scripture: but it is not credible that such important doctrines as Transubstantiation and the adoration of the Virgin Mary should have been transmitted from the apostles, if we find no trace of them for five or six centuries after the birth of our Saviour."

In like manner, it is no argument in favour of the Sunday Sabbath that some of the early Christian fathers speak of the first day as "the Lord's day," since we do not find that practice sanctioned by Scripture. But it is a convincing argument against the Sunday Sabbath, that "Centuries of the Christian era passed away before the Sunday was observed as a Sabbath." (Sir W. Domville) For while it is very credible that the early fathers, being but men, should have erred, it is not credible that such an important doctrine as the change of the Sabbath should have been inculcated by the Lord, and transmitted by the apostles, and yet no trace of it be found for several centuries after the resurrection of Christ.

Since, in addition to these negative arguments against any change in the Sabbath having been made by the Lord, we have the most positive authority for the observance of the day He instituted, we do not see how anyone desirous of doing His will in this matter can have any difficulty in understanding what that will is.

"The Bible Class. The Promise Left Us. Heb. iv. 1, 2" The Present Truth 19, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

(Heb. iv. 1, 2)

"Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the Gospel preached as well as unto them; but the Word preached did not profit them; not being mixed with faith in them that heard it."

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

1. What are the closing words of the third chapter?

2. What exhortation to us is based upon the sad experience of the Israelites of old?

3. What has been left us?

4. What promise has been left us?

5. What has been preached to us?

6. Who had this Gospel before we did?

7. Why then were they not saved?

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY

In studying these verses it is well to have in mind the rendering of the Revised Version as well, with the marginal reading: "For indeed we have had good tidings preached unto us, even as also they; but the word of hearing did not profit them, because it was not united by faith with them that heard."

A Promise Left. -That which is left is that which has been before. The promise being left us, indicates that the promise was before our time. It was given to those who preceded us, and has not been withdrawn. It still remains. It is nothing new, as regards time, yet since it is God's eternal promise, it is ever new.

Left Us. -The promise is left us. It was not first given to us, but it has come down to us. We are heirs with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of the same promise that was made to them. Mark this, that the promise given to the Israelites is left us.

Promise of Rest. -The promise left us is "of entering into His rest." We have the privilege which the Israelites in the wilderness despised. "They despised the pleasant land, they believed not His word; but murmured in their tents, and hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord. Therefore He lifted up His hand against them, to overthrow them in the wilderness." Ps. cvi 24-26. "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples; and are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." 1Cor. x. 11, 12. "Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it." That which is promised us is rest. Here is

THE GOSPEL FOR THE LABOURING MAN

Give ear, all ye poor, who labour and are heavy laden I there is good news for you. God has left us a promise of rest, His own rest, perfect rest, eternal rest. It was because Jesus had this rest to bestow, that He was anointed with the Holy Ghost "to preach the Gospel to the poor." Let no one say, when this Gospel of rest is preached, that it is hard for a poor man to accept it, when he has his living to make. No; it is to the poor man that this Gospel specially appeals, and is specially adapted. He has no need to worry about "making a living," because God gives him his living. "Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, what shall we drink? or, wherewithal shall we he clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first His kingdom, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." Matt. vi . 31-33. Why bother about "shorter hours," when God, who creates and upholds the earth, yet never is weary, and who "giveth power to the faint," gives the promise of absolute rest, and shows us how, if we will but learn from His works, to find rest in labour? No wonder the poor people flocked to the Saviour. The marvel is that any poor man who has ever heard this Gospel should ever hesitate a moment about accepting it.

The Inheritance is the Rest. -God represents Himself as married to His people of Israel, He said, "I was a husband unto them." Jer. xxxi. 32. When Naomi was about to return to her own country, and begged her daughters-in-law to leave her, she said, "The Lord grant that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband." So those who through faith are "made partakers of Christ," and so of God, and come to dwell in His house, find rest. There is plenty of work in God's house, but abundance of rest, as well. God says: "The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. And My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places." Isa. xxxii. 17, 18.

This is in the promised land, the kingdom of God. Thus we read God's words: "The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness, even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest." Jer. xxxi. 2. When the two and a half tribes had conquered the land on the east side of Jordan, Moses said to them, "The Lord your God hath given you this land to possess it: ye shall pass over armed before your brethren, . . . but your wives, and your little ones, and your cattle shall abide in your cities which I have given you, until the Lord give rest unto your brethren, as unto you, and they also possess the land which the Lord your God giveth them beyond Jordan." Deut. iii. 15-20.

So afterward Joshua said to them: "Now the Lord your God hath given rest unto your brethren, as He hath promised them; therefore return ye, and get you unto your tents, and unto the land of your possession." Joshua xxii. 4. There is therefore no question but that the rest and the inheritance are synonymous; but even those who entered upon it did not retain it, and so did not really have it, since, as we have already learned, it is the holding fast to the end, that determines whether or not we are really partakers of Christ. Recounting, in his prayer, the mercies of God to Israel; and how "the children went in and possessed the land, and Thou subduedst before them the inhabitants of the land," Nehemiah said: "But after they had rest, they did evil again before Thee." Then he rehearsed their captivity, and said: "Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble [margin, weariness] seem little before Thee, that hath come upon us." Neh. ix. 24-32?

Much more might be added, to the same intent; but this is sufficient to show that the rest and the inheritance are identical. Indeed, the same thing is very apparent from the Scripture we are studying; for we know that it was their falling in the wilderness that kept the Israelites out of the promised land; it was that land that they could not enter, because of unbelief; yet the thing of which they came short was God's rest.

"The Editor's Private Corner. 'The Age of Miracles'" The Present Truth 19, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

"Miracles being opposed to all experience, can we accept them? Can there be a religion without miracles?"

That is the same as questioning if there is or can be any such thing as religion. But this is not all that is implied in the question; the first part implies that nothing can exist that we have not known or experienced, and also that we can never learn anything new. That form of unbelief which denies everything that it does not know, may be very gratifying to one's pride,-in that it assumes that one knows all that is worth knowing; but, on the other hand, it is at the same time the very humiliating confession that one is too dense to learn; for it is evident that the one who refuses to accept anything that he has not previously known, can never learn anything new.

The fallacy contained in these questions which, by the way, are not at all uncommon, may be exposed in various ways. First of all, some plain workingman may rudely throw the whole sophistical fabric down by declaring that he knows there is such a thing as religion, because he has experienced it, and that to the saving of his soul. Of what use is it to bring subtle arguments against religion, when thousands of men and women are living proofs of its existence. Such arguments are on a par with the statement of the lawyer who visited his client in gaol, and, after hearing his account of the case, said, "They cannot put you in prison for that." "But," protested the other, "they have done it." It is folly, and a waste of time, to argue that men and animals cannot swim, when the fact is that they do swim.

But the great, underlying fallacy consists in the assumption that miracles are opposed to all experience. The truth is that miracles are not opposed to any experience; and the one who is not conscious of seeing miracles daily, has his faculties very feebly developed.

There is another fallacy implied in this one, or, rather, this fallacy is virtually the statement of another one, namely, that the existence of God is opposed to all experience; for to say that there are no miracles is the same as saying that there is no God. To deny miracles, is to deny God; for if God did not from the very nature of His being, do things that men cannot understand, He would be no greater than they, and would not be God. The fact that "God is," carries with it the doing of things that are utterly incomprehensible to mere human beings. God must do miracles, for they are His nature; they are His ordinary way of working. In very truth, God does nothing that is not miraculous to the thinking mind.

Many have the idea that it is only crude, undeveloped, inexperienced minds that believe in miracles, and that the more cultivated one's mind becomes, the less does one see to wonder at. This is directly contrary to the facts in the case. It is the close observer and student of nature, the astronomer and the microscopist, before whom the field of wonders is constantly expanding, and who is daily seeing things that pass all understanding. The person who does not know that miracles are continually occurring, has not yet had his mind awakened to appreciate what is going on in the world around him, and even in him.

Scientists tell what they see,-they describe phenomena, but no scientist professes to be able to explain the origin of anything. More than this, they are generally agreed that the ultimate cause of all phenomena, the origin of all things visible and invisible, is unknowable. Only the Bible reveals the truth that God is the Great Cause. This gives solid ground to rest and build upon, but it does not clear away the mystery. God's own existence, God Himself, is the one, great miracle of the universe.

The simplest, every-day operations of nature around us and in us are miracles. The germination of a seed, the growth of a plant, the ascent of the vapour, and the clouds, the flight and migration of birds, the digestion and assimilation of food, the growth of bodies, and the repair of waste, are all miracles of the most marvellous kind. Whoever has his eyes open must not only continually find new things to admire, but be constantly lost in wonder at the miracles with which he is most, familiar.

WHAT IS A MIRACLE?

Most people have a wrong idea of what constitutes a miracle. They seem to think that constant repetition of an act deprives it of its miraculous nature. A thing that has never before come within the range of their experience or knowledge, they regard as a miracle; but if it is done constantly before their eyes, their interest soon ceases, and if it should be referred to as miraculous, they would reply, "Ah, that is nothing strange; I see that every day." Thus the bringing of water from the rock for the Israelites in the wilderness, is universally regarded as a miracle, that is, so far as the record is believed, because people suppose that it was a unique case. But when they traverse the mountains and the plains, and see springs gushing forth from the rocks, they think that it is "the most natural thing in the world." Yet it is the very same miracle, and nobody can explain it. The miracle is just as wonderful to-day as it was the day that Moses smote the rock in Horeb. The water comes from the earth, and the earth gets it from the sky, and gives it back to the sky, to receive it from the sky again; and so the endless round goes on, and still the question remains unanswered, "Where does it come from?" Yet people might know, if they would but recognise the presence of the Lord among them, and acknowledge that "they drank from that Spiritual Rock," "and that Rock was Christ."

Not only as great miracles, but the very same miracles, are now being performed as are recorded in the Bible; for those miracles were wrought, and the record of them has been preserved, in

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order that men might have their attention called to God's manner of working, and become acquainted with it. The result of each thoughtful consideration will not be contemptuous thought of the miracles recorded in the Bible, but awe in the presence of God's works, and reverence and adoration of the Creator. "Remember that thou magnify His work, which men behold." Job xxxvi. 24.

Take the miracle of the turning of water into wine, recorded in the second chapter of John. "This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory." But ever since the creation the same miracle has been repeated every year; for Christ is the True Vine, the Father is the Husbandman, and "the whole earth is full of His glory." "In Him all things consist," and every year the vines of earth, in Him, the true Vine, have changed water into wine; and men have seen it, and have not believed on Him. Like the unbelieving Jews, who had just been filled with the loaves so miraculously produced by His hand, they have said, even while looking at His wondrous works, "What sign showest Thou, then, that we may see, and believe Thee? What dost Thou work?"

The thoughtful reader will have observed that the question as to whether or not God can "suspend the laws of nature" in order to perform miracles, is already answered. The "laws of nature" are simply what men have observed and noted of God's ways of working; and at the best they have seen "but parts of His ways." Every "operation of nature" is itself a miracle, performed, not by the suspension of law, but by the execution of it. The age of miracles is not past, and cannot be as long as God lives.

THE PERFECT RULE OF LAW

I have intimated that the performance of miracles does not imply the suspension of any "law of nature." It must be plain that it cannot be, if one but remember that God "cannot deny Himself." But I would go farther, and maintain that the greatest miracles are not contrary to the laws that govern the universe, but are only the more perfect and unhindered working of those laws. Take, for example, the raising of the dead to life. No miracle can surpass this, and no other miracle so completely exhibits the perfect working of the law by which God governs the universe. God is "the living God." His Spirit is life, and "His commandment is life everlasting." From His own life all things came, and by His life they are maintained. His life is the law that governs all creation. "Sin is the transgression of the law;" and death comes by sin. Death is therefore a temporary interference with the law, a hindering of its action; and the raising of the dead is the resumption of the perfect rule of law. It is not contrary to nature for God to raise the dead. It is death that is unnatural, and life that is natural; for it is spiritual law-"the law of the Spirit of life"-that rules in "the natural world" when everything moves without a jar. Death ensues only when this law of nature-"the Divine nature"-is transgressed.

This is demonstrated before our eyes and in our bodies every day. Because of the violation of law, death is in the world, and our bodies are undergoing a constant process of decay; yet we live. We are severely wounded, or are brought to the verge of the grave by illness, and our bodies are mysteriously and miraculously built up whole as before. Everywhere we see God at work to build up, to heal, and to restore, showing that His law is life. And since the greatest of miracles,-the restoring of life,-is but the full and free operation of His law, it is evident that no law is ever suspended by the performance of any miracle. The working of God's laws results in a constant succession of miracles, more than can be numbered.

And this mysterious, miraculous, yet most common power of God, is that by which man are saved. To yield implicitly to it constitutes the perfect religion. For the Gospel is "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;" and "His everlasting power and Divinity" are seen in the things that are made. Rom. i. 16, 20. Thus in order to be saved, one has only to have a perfect faith in miracles, not past, but present; and in order to believe in present miracles, one has but to have his eyes opened. There are many miracles that Jesus did, which are not written in the Book; "but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name." John xx. 30, 31.

"Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen."

"For Little Ones. Healing the Serpent's Bite" The Present Truth 19, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

If the Israelites had believed God they would soon have been happy in Canaan. But last week we learned how they shut themselves out of that beautiful country by their unbelief. Then because they had to stay in the wilderness, and the way was hard and rough, they spoke against Moses and against God. They forgot that they were keeping Moses out of the Promised Land, and that they had grieved the Lord by their failure to enter, after all that He had done for them. They spoke as though Moses had been the cause of all the trouble they had brought upon themselves and him.

God had not forsaken the people because of their sins. When they would not go into Canaan, He still cared for them and protected them. He fed them with manna from heaven, and gave them water from the rock to drink.

The land where they were travelling was full of deadly serpents, but God had kept them from biting His people. But when they murmured against Him and against Moses He withdrew His protecting hand for a moment, that the people might be brought to see how much they owed to His protecting care. Fiery serpents bit the people and much people of Israel died.

In the serpent of brass, by looking to which the Israelites were healed of their wounds, God gave them another object lesson, to teach them the Gospel. Jesus Himself explained it when He said: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The uplifted serpent was a type of Him who was lifted up on the cross so that we might look to Him and live.

It was a serpent, that thing which had bitten the people, that was lifted up. You know that the serpent is used in the Bible to represent Satan. It was through the serpent that he first tempted man and brought sin into the world, and he is spoken of as "that old serpent called the Devil and Satan."

Are you wondering then how this can be a type of Christ? It is because He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us. He took all sin upon Himself that He might destroy and make an end of it. As we look to the cross of Christ we see the end of sin and the destruction of Satan. We see that He has power to "put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself."

And as death comes only through sin, when sin is destroyed and made an end of, death also will be no more. So by looking to the cross of Jesus we see that we are wholly delivered from sin, and freed from the power of death.

It was believing and obeying the word of God that saved the people. There was no healing power in that serpent of brass made by Moses, yet all who obeyed God and looked to it, were saved. The poison of the serpent lost its power over their bodies. Those who doubted and would not look because they could not understand how it could do them any good, died. Not looking at their grievous wounds, nor mourning over their bad condition, but looking away from themselves to the uplifted serpent saved the people.

We have all been bitten by "that old serpent," and the poison of sin is working in us to bring everlasting death. But God has made a way of escape for every one of us. The Son of man has been lifted up, "that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." We must not waste time looking at ourselves

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and mourning over our sins. We must look away from ourselves to our Saviour, and sin will lose the power over us, and new life from Jesus will fill as with His own righteousness.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

Several of the leading Liberal Nonconformists are demanding that the first object of the Liberal party, if returned to power, shall not be Home Rule, but the repeal of the Educational Act, Dissenting ministers are well to the front in demanding the acceptance of this policy.

La Soufriere, the voloano in St. Vincent, has not yet quieted down. It has been discharging immense quantities of ejecta; and the population of the island are greatly excited. The entire island is sometimes in darkness. During one of its violent periods, severe earthquake shocks were felt in Germany and Piedmont.

At a London inquest it was stated in evidence that the deceased had for ten years made his living by going round to butter and bacon shops and collecting the waste pieces of bacon-fat and rind, butter, lard, and margarine. These he sold to confectioners for the making of pastry. The report proceeds, "Coroner: A more horrible trade I cannot imagine." Whether the Coroner was referring to the deceased or to the "confectioners does not appear from the report.

The Dean of Norwich has felt compelled to administer a stern rebuke to these who use the Cathedral as a place of assignation. Young men and women, to the number of over a hundred, leave the Cathedral together immediately prayers are finished, before the sermon. If there is much of this kind of church-going, the recent census of attendances at places of worship, low as it was, does not prove much.

According to some recent official statistics, the growth of the trust system in the United States has resulted in gathering into the hands of these combinations one-seventh of the entire wealth of the country, which is estimated at ?18,800,000,000. The Steel Trust heads the list, and tobacco comes next. If the progress made in the development of trusts during the last few years is maintained, it will not be long before the people are at their mercy. The heaping of treasure together is one of the marks of the last days (James v. iii).

Sir Francis Jeune of the Divorce Court has been commenting on the many cases, brought before him during the last few months by soldiers, whose wives had been unfaithful to them during the absence of their husbands in South Africa. He questioned whether such a state of things had existed in any other war. It is certainly a most lamentable thing, but is it to be so much wondered at, after all? If men sell themselves by thousands to break the sixth commandment, is it strange that so many women should show the same disregard for the seventh? Where the law of God is made of no effect by human passions, a door is opened for every other evil. The Scripture tells us that "whosoever offendeth in one point is guilty of all," and this is true in the nature of things. "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin," and when we sin for our own pleasure, we cannot stop at that, but must go on to fulfil the pleasure of sin, our master. The fact which Sir Francis Jeune deplores is one of the consequences of wrong doing. It is to be feared that it is not the only one.

The Midlands have had an unusual visitor in the form of an earthquake shock, which was felt in six different counties. No serious damage is reported, but great alarm was caused. Coming so soon after the destructive earthquakes in other parts of the world, this shock ought to be a reminder that earthquakes are not necessarily confined to the less civilised countries. The "cities of the nations" are yet to be the scene of the greatest earthquake in the world's history. Rev. xvi. 18, 19. Everything that can be shaken is to be shaken, but those things which cannot be shaken will remain. Heb. xii. 27-29. "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea." Ps. xIvi. 1, 2. The presence of the Lord which causes the mountains to flow down (Isa. Ixiv. 1) is fulness of joy to the believer. Ps. xvi. 11.

Mr. R. J. Campbell, successor to Dr. Parker, has not the physique that the latter had, but, it is said, as an offset to this, he "has a medical attendant who has exercised the utmost vigilance over him, and doubtless the same care will be extended him in London." But why should a minister need the constant attendance and watchfulness of a physician, to keep him in physical health, any more than a medical man should need the constant attendance and watchfulness of a minister to keep him spiritually in the way he ought to go? When will enlightened people understand that to be under the dominion of doctors is part of the same bondage as to be subject to priestcraft? God has, in the Gospel, provided means for every person to know the proper relation in every respect between himself and his Maker.

There is a great outcry at present in London over the growing immigration of pauper aliens from the Continent. These are coming in greater numbers than ever on account of the rumour that before long English ports will be closed against them. City life seems to draw the more degraded classes. It is a departure from God's plan, and leads to physical and moral deterioration. Never before have the people crowded into cities as they are doing now, but usually the bigger the city, the deeper is the wickedness that it breeds. In the Book of Revelation the cities are specially mentioned as suffering the wrath of God. In Isa. xiv. 21 we learn that one thing which is specially the work of Satan, the king of Babylon, is to "fill the face of the world with cities." If we seem compelled to live in some city, let us at least take care that its artificial life does not separate us from the life of God, and that in all our work and plans we count ourselves as strangers and pilgrims, looking for the city that God is building for His pilgrims. There will be no "alien immigration" then, for the Christian who has his citizenship in heaven will not count any man a stranger or foreigner. Jew and Greek and barbarian, become one in Christ.

In a recent; address on "Homeless London," statistics were cited, showing that "one-fifth of the population of London lives in such overcrowded conditions as to make it impossible to apply the word 'home' to their dwelling places. The lecturer affirmed that ten, fifteen, and even seventeen people of both sexes and all ages were frequently found living in one room. Of course "modesty and decency are impossible, and immorality is the natural outcome of such conditions." More stringent enforcement of existing laws is advocated as the remedy for this: but men simply deceive themselves by propositions of that kind; for it is a fact that the condition under existing laws is much worse than in the days when there was no legislation against overcrowding. That state of things is inseparable from the overgrowth of cities, which is the rule now everywhere. The truth is, that the last days are upon us, and the world is fast ripening for destruction. Legislation will prove ineffectual to remedy the evil; but the Gospel will glean a few grains from the mass.

A few years ago every effort was being made in Australia to exterminate the rabbits that were overrunning the country; now there is a prospect that their increase will rather be encouraged since they are becoming a source of revenue. The importation of rabbits into England has recently increased to an enormous extent, and it is estimated that fully twelve millions are now sent annually from Australia and New Zealand. About one-fourth of this number are consumed in London. It does not seem to be generally known, and if it were, it would probably make very little if any difference, that rabbits are unclean animals, as much so as cats, according to the Scriptures. Those who will accept warning should understand that rabbits are peculiarly liable to trichinae, and that those who eat them run great risk from that source, to say nothing about the danger from ptomaine poisoning from animals long dead.

A Continental scientist, Professor Grihant, has been intoxicating animals by administering alcohol with a view to studying its effects on them. It was found that some became intoxicated more quickly than others, but this is a discovery of doubtful value, which does not justify the degrading of the animals, although it is really the Professor who degraded himself, as the poor animals were not able to help themselves. It is well to remember that because a man is called a scientist, it does not follow that his words and acts are necessarily wise. He is greater who knows a little that is useful than he who knows a great deal that is useless. Professor Grihant has arrived at the conclusion that it does not hurt a man to drink nearly two pints of claret a day, but that would depend on what is meant by a man. No one can be a man in the true sense of the word, and have anything to do with alcohol.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

We thank the "friend" who last week sent us ?1 to be used for posting copies of PRESENT TRUTH to 170 houses, thus helping to make the paper known. We have also received 5s. for this purpose from another friend who wishes to help us in the work of exposing error and "leading God's sheep and lambs with His glorious truth." We are encouraged by these tokens of interest and appreciation as well as grateful for the financial help received.

There are a great many obstacles in the path of the Christian, and he is often tempted to think that if he had different people to deal with, he would get along much better. When the church lacks life, the members think they know what is the matter. The minister or leader is not the right man for the place. But Christ had more difficulties to meet, more disagreeable people to get along with, more unsatisfactory helpers, than any other that ever lived. The powers of darkness were using them all to discourage Him and stop His work. But He triumphed over them in Himself. Col. ii. 15, margin. That is where we have to meet the things that annoy us. When we have conquered them in ourselves they will not trouble us in anybody else. The man who sees the weaknesses and mistakes of his fellow-labourers can find them and triumph over them in himseIf. "Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of His knowledge by us in every place." 2 Cor. ii. 14.

We sometimes think that those who were living in the days when Jesus of Nazareth was on earth, and who came into personal contact with Him in the flesh, had aids to faith and advantages that are not granted to us. But the truth is that His flesh was a barrier rather than an inducement to faith. "Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee," said He to Peter who had just acknowledged His divinity, "but My Father which is in heaven." And again: "No man can come to Me except the Father which hath sent Me draw him." It is a remarkable fact that those with whom He had been the most familiar were the slowest to believe on Him. The men of His city were offended when He declared His mission, and sought to put Him to death. "Neither did His brethren believe on Him." Not "after the flesh," but only "after the spirit" is He known. And the Spirit of the Father is drawing the souls of men to Him to-day, and revealing the Christ to them just as surely as He did to the men of His generation.

"For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all man, instructing us, to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world: looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a people for His own possession." Titus ii. 11-14.

"God's Repentance" The Present Truth 19, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

It is noticeable how unbelief will take the very things that ought to draw us nearer to God, and make them an excuse for separation from Him. One of the "difficulties" most often brought up by sceptics, is the question, "How can God be all-wise, when it is said in Genesis vi. 6, "It repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth?"

There is something deeper here than an occasion for quibbling. We see how sorely the Lord grieved over His fallen children. "It grieved Him at His heart." Their conduct took away all pleasure in His creation. He could not be happy while so many of His creatures were suffering, for "the earth was filled with violence." Through Enoch and Noah, and whoever else would be His witness, God pleaded with men, but every imagination of the thoughts of their heart was only evil continually. Then the Lord declared that the days of men should be limited to another one hundred and twenty years, and after that He would destroy them with the earth. Even then an ark was provided, large enough for all who would enter it and be saved from the flood.

"It repented the Lord that He had made man." No human mind can conceive the depths of Divine anguish that lie beneath those words. God is not like a marble statue, an unapproachable, unimpressionable Being, who cannot be touched with our infirmities and pains. He joys over His people with singing, and in all their afflictions He is afflicted. When the Lord saw that there was no alternative but to destroy the sinful race, He repented that He had made them. But He persevered in His purpose. That generation perished in its sin, but through Noah and his sons, God again peopled the earth with men. He knew that the past would be repeated, but, although it was to bring Him suffering, He went forward, the God of all patience, to finish the work He had begun, and people a renewed earth with sinless inhabitants.

The Son of God came to the same crisis when He knelt in Gethsemane, and prayed that the cup might pass from Him, "Nevertheless, not My will, but Thine be done." "God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: hath He said, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?" Num. xxiii. 19. Even though His way leads through keenest suffering, neither the Father nor the Son will fail in their joint work, the counsel of peace which is between them both, until they have set judgment in the earth.

God has drawn aside the veil for us, that we may know how foreign to His nature was the destruction by the flood. The world is soon to be destroyed again, by fire, but not for God's pleasure. As it was before, the keenest suffering of all will be felt by the loving heart of the Father. All that an infinite God can do He does to save men. We see His spirit in the man after His own heart, when his own rebel son was slain. "Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son!" 2 Sam. xviii. 33. And we see it still further in the fact that He did die for the rebellious, and if they are lost it is because they have trampled under foot the Son of God who redeemed them.

"The Editor's Private Corner. 'How Can I Tell?'" The Present Truth 19, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

"I desire to do the will of the Lord. How can I tell which day I should keep? If I can be convinced that I am in the wrong, at any cost I'll adopt the other day."

We are sure that there are hundreds of other people who will see this paper, who are in the same condition, and therefore we write for the benefit of them all. There are very many who desire to do the will of the Lord in the matter of Sabbath observance as well as in other things, but who are yet in doubt as to what that will is. We ask such to take up with us a brief study of the subject.

THE SOURCE OF AUTHORITY

When we know where we may find an answer to a question, it is half answered. For our part, we accept the Bible as the final authority in all matters pertaining to our duty to God and to men. If our inquiring friends accept the same standard, we shall have little trouble in arriving at a solution of the difficulty. The Psalmist says, "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Psalm cxix. 105. Therefore we must expect it to shed light upon this question.

Again we read, "Through Thy precepts I get understanding." Verse 104. Therefore, if we study the precepts of the word of God, we shall understand this matter, as well as others. But in studying those precepts, we must be sure to listen to the voice of the Lord alone, and must avoid listening to the constructions of man, our own included.

Again we read the words of the same psalm, "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee." Verse 11. Then if we have that Word not simply in our minds, but in our very lives, we shall be kept from all sin. On the contrary, if that Word does not control our lives, we shall be sure to sin.

The Apostle Paul wrote, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17. Therefore if we follow the Scriptures, we shall do everything that is necessary to be accounted perfect before God. No human addition is needed. But no word of God must be neglected, for man cannot live except "by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Matt. iv. 4.

With these assurances as to the authority of the Word of God, let us begin our brief search.

IN THE BEGINNING

is the place where we ought to begin. We read that "in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Gen. i. 1. The remainder of the chapter gives the work of each day of creation, and at the close we are told that "God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." Verse 31. Then the record continues:-

"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made." Gen. ii. 1-3.

Here we have the record of the institution of the Sabbath. The first Sabbath was the seventh day of the first week of

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time. "The seventh day," not merely a seventh part of time, was blessed and sanctified, because it was the day of the Lord's rest. To sanctify a thing is to set apart that thing as sacred to a certain purpose. See the record concerning Mount Sinai and the cities of refuge, in Ex. xlx. 12, 23; Josh. xx. 7-9, and margin of verse 7. Therefore the sanctification of the seventh day of the week by the Lord in the beginning, was the appointment of it as the sacred rest day for all mankind. That it was for all mankind is shown by the fact that it was given to Adam, the head of the human race; and to this agree the words of the Lord Jesus, "The Sabbath was made for man." Mark ii. 27.

The record of creation gives the origin of the week. There are seven days in the week, and the Sabbath, the last of the seven, rules it. The measurement of time by weeks is as old as creation, and has continued ever since, and will continue to all eternity, for the Sabbath is to endure for ever. See Isa. lxvi. 22. We know also that "whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever." Eccl. iii. 14.

IN THE WILDERNESS

When the Lord brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt it was "that they might observe His statutes, and keep His laws." Ps. cv. 45. Accordingly, when they murmured on account of hunger in the wilderness, a few weeks after leaving Egypt, the Lord said to Moses, "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and, gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in My law, or no." Ex. xvi. 4.

Read the entire chapter, and you will find that the people were to go out each morning and gather manna for that day. They were to leave none of it until the next morning, for if they did it would breed worms, and be offensive. On the sixth day of the week, however, they were to gather twice as much as on other days, and the extra portion was to be kept over for the next day's use, since on the seventh day of the week none fell. And although it was ordinarily impossible to keep the manna overnight, without its utterly spoiling, no such trouble was experienced on the seventh day, for on that day they found that what remained over from the preceeding day was sweet and good for food.

"And it came to pass that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep My commandments and My laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore He giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days." Ex. xvi. 27-29.

From this it appears that the Sabbath is the test of whether or not men will keep the law of God. Whoever will keep the Sabbath in spirit and in truth will keep the whole law of God. Whoever refuses to keep the Sabbath of the Lord, thereby shows that his apparent obedience to any other requirement of the Lord is not out of reverence to God, but because of some selfish motive.

AT SINAI

Not many days after the first appearance of the manna, the children of Israel came to Sinai. There, after suitable preparation had been made, the Lord came down in awful majesty, and spoke His law "out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice" (Deut. v. 22) which shook the earth. Heb. xii. 26. On that occasion the Lord spoke the Ten Commandments, and nothing more, and He wrote them with His own finger on two tables of stone. See Deut. v. 22; x. 4. The fourth commandment reads thus:-

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, 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 manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gales; 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." Ex. xx. 8-11.

Here we find that the facts of creation are the foundation of the Sabbath. Therefore we know that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is identical with the Sabbath that was sanctified at the close of the first week of time.

A DEFINITE DAY

Moreover we know that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is a fixed definite day of the week. How do we know this? We know it first from the fact that the giving of the commandment followed very closely after the giving of the manna, by which the Sabbath was shown to be unalterably fixed to a certain day of the week,-the seventh day. By a series of miracles repeated every week for forty years, the Lord showed that His Sabbath was a definite day of the week, and that it was to be honoured above all the other days of the week. During that forty years it was impossible for anyone to be in the slightest doubt as to which day of the week was the Sabbath. It was the day of the week that was thus fixed and guarded on all sides, that God from Sinai declared to be His Sabbath.

Further, we know from the record of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, that the commandment requires the observance of a certain day of the week,-the seventh,-and not an indefinite seventh part of time. In the Gospel of Luke we are told that the day of the crucifixion "was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on. And the women also, which came with Him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how His body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment. Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared." Luke xxiii. 54-56; xxiv. 1. From the record in Mark (xvi. 1) we learn that the women came "when the Sabbath was past." But they came on "the first day of the week." Then it is evident that the Sabbath was the day before. But since there are but seven days in the week, it follows that the day before the first day of the week must necessarily be the seventh day of the week. Therefore the day on which they rested was the seventh day of the week. But they rested "the Sabbath day according to the commandment." Therefore it is as certain as inspired Scripture can make it that the Sabbath day according to the commandment is the seventh day of the week.

THE SABBATH UNCHANGED

The Scriptures that we have already studied sufficiently point out the true Sabbath of the Lord. There are therefore only two questions that can by any possibility cause any doubt in the minds of any, and they are, first, Has the Sabbath been changed? and second, Can we be certain which day is the seventh day of the week, and thus the Sabbath of the commandment? These questions are not at all difficult, and may be answered in a few words.

As to the first, we have the words of our Lord Jesus Christ as He sat upon the

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mountain teaching the people the great principles of His kingdom. "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach man so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Matt. v. 17-19.

This of itself should be sufficient to settle the question as to the possibility of any change in the Sabbath. But Christ continued-"For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." Verse 20. The scribes and Pharisees were very scrupulous in the outward observance of the Ten Commandments, but they cared nothing for having them in their hearts. Outwardly, however, they kept the Ten Commandments, just as they are written, very strictly. Jesus did not reprove them for their observance of the letter of the law, but for not keeping it in spirit and in truth. He did not warn His disciples against observing the law, but warned them that they must observe it a great deal better than the scribes and Pharisees did. Our righteousness must "exceed" theirs. That is, it must go beyond theirs. It must include not only the observance of the letter of the law, but also the keeping of the spirit and life of the law, as it is in Christ.

When the Lord has once spoken, a thousand repetitions would not make what He says any more sure. Therefore we can accept it as a settled fact that the law is in force to-day just the same as when it was spoken from Sinai and written by the finger of God. Not a letter has been changed.

THE DAY NOT LOST

The question, if we can be sure that the day commonly known as Saturday is indeed the real seventh day of the week, counting from the creation of the world, seems to trouble some. But it need not, since nothing is more impossible than that the reckonings of the days of the week should have been lost. Single individuals have been known to make a mistake in their reckoning, but they have soon been set right by their neighbours. But that an entire neighbourhood should on the very same day make a mistake as to the day of the week, and that all should make the same mistake, is a thing beyond the fancy of the wildest imagination. But if the present seventh day of the week is not the same as the seventh day of creation, then that mistake must at some time have been made not only by one neighbourhood, but by the whole world. If there were a disagreement in different parts of the world as to the days of the week, then there would be a certainty that the reckoning had been lost by some people, and there would be room for question as to which party was correct. But since there is no disagreement, the only ground on which it can be supposed that the reckoning of the day has been lost, is that on some Wednesday morning, for instance, all the inhabitants of the world awoke with the notion that it was Thursday. Of course the supposition is most absurd, but it is no more absurd than is the supposition that the true reckoning of the days of the week has been lost.

As we have seen, the seventh day at Sinai is identical with that of creation. God's own Word establishes that. Hundreds of years afterwards the children of Israel were given into the hands of the Babylonians because they had persistently violated the Sabbath, thus showing that it had not been lost; for God would not have punished them for a mistake made through ignorance. When the Lord lived on the earth He recognised as the Sabbath the day which the Jews were keeping; so we know that the count had been kept straight up to eighteen hundred years ago. Ever since the time of Christ the Jews and many Christians have kept the Sabbath day according to the commandment, while from within two or three hundred years of that time the majority of professed Christians have observed the first clay of the week. The Jews were soon dispersed, and have ever since been found in every part of the world, and observers of the first day are also as widely scattered; yet everywhere we find the Jews agreed as to which day is the Sabbath, and nowhere have observers of the first day of the week been found trying to enforce the observance of the seventh day under the supposition that it was Sunday. We may rest assured that the day has not been lost.

THE EXAMPLE OF CHRIST

"He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also to walk, even as He walked." 1 John ii. 6. No one has yet been found with the hardihood to assert, In the face of the Gospel record, that Jesus ever observed any other day than the seventh,-the same day that the Jews observed. It is true that the Pharisees did accuse the Lord of breaking the Sabbath day, because He did not heed their false notions; but He demonstrated His innocence, and in so doing incidentally showed that the seventh day is the true and only Lord's day.

When Jesus and His disciples were going through the fields on the Sabbath day, the Pharisees accused the disciples of breaking the Sabbath, because they plucked and ate the corn as they walked. That day was the seventh day of the week, for it was the day which the Jews regarded as the Sabbath. The seventh day of the week, and no other, was the day under consideration. And it was of that very day that Jesus said, "The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath." Mark ii. 28. It is most certain, therefore, that Jesus called the seventh day of the week the Sabbath, and Himself its Lord, thus demonstrating that the seventh day is the Lord's day.

It was the custom of Jesus to observe the Sabbath day, and to meet on that day for worship with those who observed it. Luke iv. 16. Here is an example for us to follow.

THE TESTIMONY OF THE SPIRIT

The use of the word "Sabbath" in the New Testament is incidentally one of the strongest evidences that there has been no change in the Sabbath, and that Christians shall observe no other day as the Sabbath than the seventh day of the week. The Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles were written many years after the events that they record took place. Yet not only is there no hint given that the Sabbath was to be different from what it had been from the beginning, but the seventh day is spoken of as "the Sabbath." There is no possibility for doubt that the day called "Sabbath" throughout the New Testament is the seventh day of the week. But it is never referred to as "the former Sabbath," or "the Jewish Sabbath," or anything of the kind. It is called the Sabbath just as though the writers had never heard of any change, as indeed they had not.

But the Holy Spirit is the Author and Inspirer of the New Testament. The language of the Gospels is the language of the Spirit of God. One great work of the Spirit of truth is to lead into all truth. Therefore we are bound to accept as truth whatever the Spirit says. Since the Spirit of God calls the seventh day the Sabbath, that isevidence that we are to do the same.

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In the Book of Revelation we are frequently exhorted, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." Shall we not demonstrate that we have ears?

A NEW CREATION

Some people object to the fact that so much is made of the particular day of the Sabbath. They say that the Sabbath is spiritual. So it is, and it should never be considered as anything else. But all must see that we must have a Sabbath day before we can consider its spirituality. "Spiritual" does not mean unreal or non existent. What use to talk about the spirituality of a thing that has to us no definite existence? If our friends did not raise the question as to the existence of the Sabbath, there would be no need to talk about it, but let no one think that in dwelling upon the definiteness of the Sabbath day we are unmindful of its spirituality. We may abstain from labour on the very day of the Sabbath, and yet not keep the Sabbath holy unto the Lord. But that does not warrant us in ignoring the day of the Sabbath. We may abstain from taking human life, and still not keep the sixth commandment; but that does not warrant us in killing men.

In the beginning God sanctified the Sabbath as a memorial of His creative power. He set it apart for the use of men, in order to remind them of His power to sanctify them. See Eze. xx. 12. The Sabbath, which calls attention to the creation, and thus shows God's eternal power (Rom. i. 20), makes known the sanctifying power of God, since sanctification is the exercise of creative power. "Create in me a clean heart." Ps. li. 10. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." 2 Cor. v. 17. Or, as the Revision as it, "there is a new creation." Christ is Creator and He created all things. Col. i. 16. The Sabbath comes to us from Eden, when the earth was new, to remind us of the power of God in Christ to make us new creatures, as perfect as man and all things were in the beginning. And this will be its office throughout eternity; for the Lord says of the time when He shall have made all things new, and shall have made men also new, that they may fittingly inherit His new creation: "As the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the Lord." Isa. lxvi. 22, 23.

April 9, 1903

"The Bible Class. The Promise Left Us. Heb. iv. 1, 2" The Present Truth 19, 15.

E. J. Waggoner

(Heb. iv. 1, 2.)

"Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it."

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

1. What are the closing words of the third chapter?

2. What exhortation to us is based upon the sad experience of the Israelites of old?

3. What has been left us?

4. What promise has been left us?

5. What has been preached to us?

6. Who had this Gospel before we did?

7. Why then were they not saved?

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY

We closed our last week's study of these verses with the truth before us that the rest and the inheritance that God promised to Israel are identical. The inheritance is the real, the place which God promised to appoint for Israel where they should be "moved no more, neither shalI the children of wickedness afflict them any more."

The Inheritance By Faith. -"By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise." Heb. xi. 8, 9. It was a real country that was promised, yet the nature of the inheritance is such that it can be possessed only by faith. "They got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them; but Thy right hand, and Thine arm, and the light of Thy countenance, because Thou hadst a favour unto them." Ps. xliv. 3. "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days." Heb xi. 30. It was when they became self-confident, and forgot that everything depended on God, that they were defeated, and at last wholly removed from the land. So let no one imagine that a portion of God's promise meant only a temporary inheritance of a bit of land, just as people reside in all the countries of the earth. When God promised the land of Canaan to Abraham and to his seed, it was as "an everlasting possession" (Gen. xvli. 8) and nothing less than eternity can fulfil the promise. But that means that the people actually possessing the land,-those whose confidence to the end shows them to be partakers of Christ,-must have eternity of life in which to possess it; and "the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." The promise to Abraham, and not one merely, but all the promises, could be realised only in Christ and His cross-Christ crucified. "For how many soever be the promises of God, in Him is the yea; wherefore also through Him is the Amen, unto the glory of God through us." 2 Cor. i. 20. The promise to Abraham was confirmed in Christ, for only "if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."

The Blessing of the Rest Promised. -When God, in pursuance of the promise to Abraham, was leading Israel from Egypt to Canaan, the land of the inheritance, He said: "My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest." Ex xxxiii. 14. This exactly coincides with the words of God to Abraham: "Fear not, Abram: I am . . . thy exceeding great reward." Gen. xv. 1. The promise is summed up in God. "The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance." Ps. xvi. 5. God never promised Abraham or his seed anything that could be had without possessing Him. But God is righteousness itself; and that is why, when Abraham believed God, it was accounted unto him for righteousness (Gen. xv. 6), for believing God is receiving Him. See John i. 12.

The inheritance, the rest, that was promised, was therefore, in essence, righteousness. God told Abraham why the land could not immediately be possessed, namely, "for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." Gen. xv. 1-6. He would not cast out the inhabitants of the land as long as there was any hope that they might repent. At the same time God told Abraham that he himself in the meantime should die and be buried. Abraham died without having received as much of the land for an inheritance as he could set his

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foot on; yet God expressly promised to give it all to him and to his seed. Acts vii. 5. What must we therefore conclude?-Just this, that the inheritance is to be gained through the resurrection. And Abraham so understood it, and that was why he died in faith. Thus we see that the Gospel was preached to Abraham in the promise which is left us.

This is still more plainly stated in Acts iii. 13-26. Peter, speaking to the people who gathered in astonishment to see the impotent man who was made to walk in the name of Jesus, said that it was because "the God of Abraham, and of Jacob, and of Isaac, the God of our fathers, hath glorified His Son Jesus," and raised Him from the dead. And then he added: "Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God; having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities."

This turning away from iniquities is the blessing of Abraham. It is described by David in Ps. xxxii., and especially applied to Abraham in Rom. iv. 6-8: "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." This blessing comes through Christ, who by the cross redeems us from the curse, "that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." Gal. iii. 13, 14.

This was what Israel of old forfeited by unbelief. It was this, first and foremost of all, that they failed to enter into. "Being justified [made righteous] by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Rom. v. 1. But they believed not, and so they did "alway err in Their hearts." They saw God's works, but did not learn His ways. They did not receive Christ, who is the way, and the beginning of God's way; and so they did not enter into the rest which He gives to all who labour and are heavy laden, if they will but learn of Him. "Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it."

"For Little Ones. The Death of Moses" The Present Truth 19, 15.

E. J. Waggoner

We have already learned about the way that God gave water so the Children of Israel from the smitten rock, to teach them of Jesus, the Rock of Ages, who was smitten to give life to all.

A long time after this the people were left for a time without water. The supply from the rock was stopped because God wanted to teach His people another beautiful lesson. But after all these years that He had oared for them, and fed them, they still "believed not in God, and trusted not in His salvation." They still grieved Him by their murmuring and worrying, instead of waiting patiently, knowing that lie would be sure to provide for them.

God told Moses to speak to the rock, and water should flow from it. Before, you will remember, he has told to smite the rock. God then wanted to show the people that Jesus was smitten and wounded and bruised that He might be for ever able to give the water of life to those athirst.

This time Moses was told only to speak to the rock. God wanted to show by this that to all who come and who ask him Jesus the Rock once smitten gives freely the living water.

Moses was the meekest man on the face of the earth, and, he had borne patiently all the murmurings of the Children of Israel against him, and many times had saved their lives by pleading with God for them. But this time, even he was so angry with the people, that instead of speaking to the rock as God bold him, he struck it twice with his rod. The water came from the rock in great abundance, but the people lost the lesson that God wanted to teach them, and He was dishonoured before them by Moses' anger and impatience.

Because of this Moses did not go with the people into the Promised Land. God told him that he must die. Moses was very sorry, and asked to be allowed to go into Canaan, but God told him it could not be. He was obliged to punish Moses, for the sake of all the people before whom he had sinned.

When the time came for Moses to die, he blessed the people and went up into Mount Pisgah. God let him see the Land of Promise that He was leading His people to. Then Moses died and the Lord buried him, but no one knew where his supulchre was. We know that he did not stay long in the grave, for when Jesus was transfigured upon the mountain, Moses came and talked with Him. In the book of Jude we are told that Satan strove with Michael (Christ) about the body of Moses. Satan had the power of death, but Jesus has conquered him, and He has the keys of death and the grave, so He can open Satan's prison house and bring out whom He will.

Before the death of Moses God had chosen Joshua, and told him that he was to lead the Children of Israel into Canaan. So when Moses was dead, Joshua took his place at the head of the host. When they first came out of Egypt, God had divided the Red Sea, and made a path for them through the mighty waters. All the nations round about had heard of this wonderful work, and how Pharaoh and his host had been swallowed up in the sea, and they were all afraid and trembled, for they knew that they could do nothing against the God of Israel.

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It would have been an easy matter for the Israelites to go right into Canaan at that time, for the nations would not have been able to fight against them. After they had safely crossed the sea, and the Egyptians had all been drowned, Moses sang a song in which were these words:-

"The peoples have heard, they trembled;

Terror and dread falleth upon them.

By the greatness of Thine arm, they are as

still as a stone,

Till Thy people pass over, O Lord;

Till the people pass over which Thou hast

purchased."

But the Israelites wandered so long in the wilderness because of their unbelief, that the nations had time to lose the fear they had, and to prepare to fight against Israel. Then God worked for His people again, as He did when they first left Egypt, dividing the waters of the Jordan, as He had divided the Red Sea. And when all the nations "heard how that the Lord had divided up the waters of Jordan, from before the Children of Israel, their hearts melted, neither was there spirit in them any more."

As soon as the Israelites began to eat the corn of the Promised Land, into which they had now come, the manna ceased. For forty years God had fed them with this corn of heaven, and now they did not need it any more, for they could gather what God had provided for them in the usual way.

And now the wilderness wandering, the weary pilgrimage of the Children of Israel was ended. God had brought them into the land that He promised them before they left Egypt. Their unbelief had kept them forty years in the wilderness, but as soon as they believed they entered in.

"The Law of Love. Rom. xiii. 7-14" The Present Truth 19, 15.

E. J. Waggoner

(Rom. xiii. 7-14.)

The church in Rome, when Paul wrote his epistle to it, was distinguished for its faith. This brought it into direct conflict with the established religion of Rome, and a portion of the epistle is devoted to instructing the believers as to the proper attitude to maintain towards the officers of the State, and towards their unbelieving neighbours. Paul exhorts the Christians to be scrupulous in rendering tribute, custom, fear and honour, wherever these are due. To all their neighbours they are to render a genuine love, such as will be a fulfilling of the law of God, working no ill to others.

This love is not to degenerate into a participation with unbelievers in unsanctified pleasures and worldly pursuits. In all the helpful friendliness of neighbourly intercourse, there is to be the remembrance that the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, and that "now it is high time to awake out of sleep;" for now their salvation is nearer than when they first believed. Therefore, instead of allowing their love and zeal to slacken, these must shine out brighter than ever. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. There must be no companionship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather a girding on of the armour of light, that they may do battle with the powers of darkness which are around them. The little band of Christians must walk as sons of light, a living rebuke to the rioting and drunkenness, the chambering and wantonness, the strife and envying which abound in Rome. In word and conduct the church is to reveal Jesus Christ, counting themselves dead, and in all their plans and work and ambitious seeking nothing for self, but only that Christ may be glorified in them, whether by life or by death.

All of these things are to have full weight in the matter of loving their neighbour, so it is quite clear that the love which Paul exhorts them to reveal towards others will, manifest itself in a genuine missionary interest in their neighbours, and faithful effort to make others partakers of their hope in the Gospel. Whatever was written to the church at Rome is for the present day, what was their work has come down to us, their obligations to their neighbours are identical with ours: hence it becomes an important question, How can we so love others as to fulfil the law?

Three times in those verses, Paul makes the statement that the law of God and love for others are the same thing. All the commandments are briefly comprehended in the saying, "Thou shalt love thy neighhour as thyself." Paul is not overlooking the first four commandments in this statement, for "everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God." 1 John iv. 8. The fact that love is the fulfilling of the law ought to teach us the only way by which we can fulfil the law. Men do not naturally love their neighbours. They sometimes think they love God, and they feel as if they could love the heathen in other lands, but there is generally some person with whom, when they come in close contact, they cannot get on very well. That is the point where their love is tested, and that is where they show that they have not love. "If a man say, I love God and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" 1 John iv. 20.

Men do not always reason that way. They think that they can love God, and other people, whom they have not seen, better than those close at hand, because they do not know so much that is bad of those who are far off. It is a common saying, "Friends are best apart," for very often if friends see much of each other they cease to be friends. This shows that there is no true friendship in their relation. True love does not ask whether one is good or bad, young or old, beautiful or ugly. Love always loves as long as it lives. "Love never faileth." It is not provoked, and it thinketh no evil. 1 Cor. xiii. 4-8. Where there is true love it is faithful when distance separates, and if intercourse reveals imperfections in the loved one, true love sees the need of help and gives itself gladly to supply the need.

Love such as this is not common. It is commanded by the law, but all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. The flesh is not capable of obeying the law in its own strength, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Rom. viii. 7. "God is love." Love is the fulfilling of the law. Therefore we may read it-God is the fulfilling of the law. The only way to love aright is to receive God. When we yield our hearts to God, He sheds His love abroad in them by the Holy Spirit. Rom. v. 5. Note the expression. The love of God is shed abroad. When this happens, the love will extend to others. It is shed abroad in our hearts, and this will broaden our hearts until they take in every creature.

While God sheds abroad His love in our hearts, we must co-operate with Him. The numerous instructions given in the Bible on the subject of loving and serving others are given to us that we may be intelligent on the subject, that we may know how the love will manifest itself, and so not get in the way of it. For God will never use our service without our intelligent consent. If we will place ourselves in the line of God's will, stand where He calls us to be, speak and act at His bidding, He Himself will use our faculties and will reveal Himself in us as the God of love, and thus our ways will be the fulfilling of the law. Sometimes we are called to engage in some Christian service, and hold back because we do not love the individuals that need our help. If then we will stand at the post of duty, and let God work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure, the love of God will come into our hearts, and the service that looked so distasteful will become a pure delight. This is because God is love. To let Him come into our lives and fill them is to be filled with love. Love lightens labour, makes the weary way short, glorifies the little things, and brings the atmosphere of heaven to earth. Love will do this for ourselves when it does it for our neighbours through us. The genuine love is always shed abroad. The counterfeit seeks its own.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 15.

E. J. Waggoner

An examination of 10,000 mouths carried out by the British Dental Association showed that over 85 per cent. of children of an average age of twelve years required special dental treatment. This is a cause of much of the disease from which people suffer.

The city of Berlin is engaging thirty-six medical man to examine children before they are allowed to attend school. The lungs, heart, teeth, eyes and spine will receive special attention. If not strong enough to attend school, the child will be sent back for a certain period, while backward and sickly children in the school will be under the continual supervision of the school doctor, who will advise the parents on their upbringing.

It is interesting to read the reports of the recent elections. Vital issues are supposed to be decided by the voting of the electors, but at Chertsey, according to a daily paper the chance of a ride in a motor car was often the influence that secured a vote. The rival candidates were alive to this, and consequently there were over sixty motor cars available on the polling day. Yet, when the election is over, the successful candidate will solemnly declare that the cause of right has triumphed, and will be supposed to represent the deeply-rooted convictions of his constituents on matters that affect the interests of the country.

The Army regulations which deal with the uniform of officers have lately been changed, with the result that a slim waist is now in fashion, and a daily paper asserts that corsets for men are now all the rage. An American writes to the press that "in the United States four out of every five men who pretend to be at all well dressed wear corsets." It is pitiful to think that any man, formed in the image of God, should so utterly forget what his body is for, and why his life is given to him, as to spoil both in this way. While a crusade against the dread disease of consumption is being urged forward in some quarters, these fashionable "men" are setting to work to produce the very conduct in their own bodies which favour consumption.

A woman who claimed to be a Spiritualist medium has been tried to Berlin for imposture, and sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment. It is thought by some that spiritualism is entirely a fraud. It is, in one sense, but there is clear evidence that spirits do communicate with the living through their mediums. Throughout the Scriptures we are warned against having anything to do with these spirits, which are in reality the fallen angels, professing to be the spirits of the dead. One revelation of the trial has been "the astonishingly large community of spiritualists in sober, enlightened Germany." Many would be surprised to know how thoroughly this evil has permeated England. The unscriptural belief in "departed spirits" and in consciousness after death, has opened the way for Spiritualism, and it is becoming rare to find a person who does not number Spiritualists among his acquaintances.

No sooner is the great Pennsylvania mining strike over than America is threatened with another internal conflict. The New York Journal of Commerce says, "The next crisis and panic in this country will be caused by the exorbitant and unreasonable demands of labour, and the arbitrary and tyrannical methods by which the leaders of labour organisations seek to enforce them." A daily paper, commenting on this, says, "Every week shows more clearly that a great labour war is becoming more and more probable in America. Minor strikes have become painfully common, and are being fought with violence. Even a strike of factory girls in New England, last mouth, required the presence of troops to keep peace." If it ever was believed that these strikes were in the interest of labour, it seems strange that any man could take such a view of them now. The only interest they serve is a Satanic one, and those who take part in them are Satan's dupes. It is terrible to see how ready the masses are to lend themselves to carry out his plans. And the evil is not seen only in the strikes. A man is not allowed to work for his living unless he will bind himself body and soul, to the unions. In New York City the bricklayers have threatened that the moment a "scab" lays a brick there, every workman in the city will put down his trowel. This is the very spirit of Satan, and is the means by which he will gain control over all the world in the near future. See Rev. xiii. 14-17.

The Buffalo (U.S.A.) Express contains the following:-

"The representative of a Korean firm has just arrived in the United States for the purpose of placing an order for a large stock of idols. This undoubtedly means that the Koreans believe that American-made idols can do more and better work than those of any other make."

A secular paper could scarcely be expected to treat such a matter in any other way than jestingly; but it Is by no means a trifling matter.

Those words are by no means out of date: "Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not; they have ears, but they hear not; noses have they, but they smell not; they have hands, but they handle not; feet have they, but they walk not; neither speak they through their throat." That is, they are nothing; for "an idol is nothing to the world; "therefore what follows is the more fearful indictment: "They that make them are like unto them; so is everyone that trusteth in them." Ps. cxv. 4-6. What can be expected, then, but that idols, worshippers, and makers shall together at the last day be demonstrated to be nothing, by being as though they had not been? In this case if the worshippers of idols are "without excuse," the makers are tenfold more so.

Thinking men, regardless of party affiliation, are beginning to view most seriously the enormous and continually increasing amounts that are being expended for war preparations. The Navy Estlimates, which have recently been issued, amount to ?34,457,000, an increase of ?3,202,000 over the amount for the financial year just drawing to a close. The Army Estimates for the year 1903-4 are ?34,500,000, making a total for Imperial Defence of almost ?69,000,000. This is nearly equal to the total expenditure of the country for all purposes twenty years ago, and the principal increase has been in the last ten years. Next year more will be spent on each of the two services than was spent ten years ago on both; yet the trade of the country has not increased much more than 25 per cent, in that time. The Daily Chronicle says editorially: "The business instinct and common sense of the community will surely say in presence of these figures that this kind of thing cannot go on for ever." In the debate in the House of Commons, one speaker, Mr. Edmund Robertson, of Dundee, said that "as a matter of fact" the country was "getting perilously near the limit of its resources." Another, Sir R. Reid, maintained that "the country could not stand this enormous expenditure on the Army." Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman said: "The estimates were much higher than the financial position of the country justified." The Westminster Gazette has the following: "Our expenditure on Army and Navy has all but doubled in the last nine years. We cannot go much further on this course without breaking up the foundations of national finance. 'Broadening the basis of taxation,' which is so often prescribed as the remedy, merely means hitting the same individual in a variety of new places."

But in the face of all this the Chronicle, which says that business instinct and common sense declare that this kind of thing cannot go on for ever, says: "Yet there is one thing which must go on, and that is, whatever expenditure is necessary to maintain the supremacy of the fleet, and the command of the sea; for these things are not so much insurance as Iife." Given those factors, it is not very difficult to work out the result. If the country cannot stand the present rate of expenditure, and yet they must go on in order that the nation may maintain its existence, the conclusion is obvious that before long the Government must break by its own weight. And what is true of this country is true of every other. The Chronicle continues, after saying that the Navy is "out all in all": "This country would be glad enough to rest upon the status quo, and to cry an international halt in armaments. The scheme floated into vision for a while at the time of the Czar's Rescript, but it has long since vanished like the abyss. If other Powers determine to force the pace, we cannot afford to fall behind, and we can afford better than most of them to keep it up."

Why will men deliberately shut their eyes to the fact that the nations of the earth are racing with all their might straight towards the bottomless pit? The fact is self-evident; but none of them will win; for they will all arrive at the same time; and whoever looks ahead with clear vision must see that the end cannot be long delayed. If there were no other evidence, the huge and increasing armaments of the nations are sufficient proof that the end of earthly governments is not far off. Then will the strain be relaxed, and all men will "delight themselves in the abundance of peace." Instead of groaning under war taxes.

"Easter" The Present Truth 19, 15.

E. J. Waggoner

The only Scripture reference to Easter is in Acts xii. 4, but the word should have been "passover," and it is so translated in the Revised Version. Neither Christ nor the apostles ever gave any instruction for the observance of Easter, and the festival is one of purely human authority. Where we find men instituting anything, as a part of Christianity, which has not been commanded by God, it is safe to conclude that there is no real worship in the observance (Mark vii. 7), and it is also safe to conclude that, while commanding that which God has not ordained, they are ignoring the very thing that He has appointed.

For the first few centuries Easter was a source of continual dispute and strife in the church, owing to the different days on which it was observed. This gave opportunity for the Bishop of Rome to arrogate the authority over other bishops, which finally developed into the despotism of the Papacy. The question was not settled until the church called in the aid of the Emperor Constantine at the Council of Nice in 325 A.D. Pagan customs have been grafted on to the festival, which owes its very name to the Saxon goddess of spring, Eostre, so that, even in professedly Christian lands, the pagan emblems, including hot cross buns and Easter eggs, eclipse the connection of the day with the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

The pagan emblems, however, matter little, except as they help to trace the festival to its real author. "We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one." The greatest mischief that Easter has done is to give millions of people the idea that the death and resurrection of Christ can be adequately commemorated by the observance of two or three days in a year. The day on which He rose matters nothing. The fact that He rose is everything. Because He lives, we live also, and living the life of Christ is the only way we can show our faith that He is risen. The resurrection was not the event of a day. It was eternal life, overcoming death, and doing it in our sinful flesh, to show the power of God in the Gospel to everyone that believeth.

The Lord's Supper is that by which we show forth His death till He come (1 Cor. xi. 26), and the only scriptural ordinance which commemorates the resurrection is baptism, immersion, which consists in being buried with Christ, and rising to walk with Him in newness of life. Rom. vi. 4. Baptism takes place but once, but the experience it represents is to be a life-long one. It is natural enough that the church which has thought to better God's plan, by appointing a day to commemorate the resurrection when He gave no such command, has also tried to rob the God-given ordinance of baptism of all its significance, by substituting for the burial in the water, the sprinkling of a few drops on the forehead.

"'The Curse of Central Africa'" The Present Truth 19, 15.

E. J. Waggoner

A book with this title has just been published, which is a vivid exposure of Congo State misrule and, oppression. Extracts from it in the Daily Chronicle's review are enough to make one cry, "How long, O Lord, how long?" because of the revelation of how missionaries connive at the wickedness of the State from which they receive a measure of support and "protection." The author writes of the Belgian agents:-

"Considering that the very duties of these men involve the perpetration of acts of cruelty, and that they are familiarised with deeds which are unspeakable and indescribable, it will be agreed that it is not the men but the system which is deserving of censure. . . . The agent who wrings the largest supply of rubber from the people of his district is, of course, the most highly esteemed."

The Chronicle itself adds this testimony: "That the system is infamously wicked, and that it exists only by the exercise of perpetual and devilish cruelty, unparalleled since the days of Pizarro, we have known for a long time past." This is bad, but it is by no means the worst part of the story. Writing of the "Commission for the Protection of the Natives," the author says:-

"It was impressed upon the Commissioners by the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Congo, the President, who was present to voice the Government's sentiments, that on no account were two questions to be touched upon in the dealings of the Commission. The one was the question of the methods employed by the State and the private companies in the collection of rubber and ivory; the other was the action of these worthies in relation to obtaining recruits. These being practically the two matters in which the lot of the natives needed improving, the Commission was at one stroke deprived of any value it might have possessed. It is only against the terrible cruelties inflicted on them by the State and the companies in gratification of their greed for rubber and ivory, that the natives stand in need of protection; otherwise they could take good care of themselves."

That is, all the protection the natives need is from their "protectors." What a fearful account the directors and agents of the State will have to settle in the Judgment; but what shall be said of the missionaries,-men sent out in the name of Christ to carry light to those that sit in darkness,-who are parties to the binding of chains on the poor natives? The author continues:-

"They-the missionaries-are fairly in the toils of a most immoral corporation, and they are obliged to frame their actions according to its dictates. They have no option in this matter. If they became in the least degree troublesome; if they denounced a single one of the crying evils that surround their daily lives; if they taught the native the iniquity of the conditions under which he is made to live and groan, they would soon cease to be missionaries in the Congo State."

Well, why not? What good do they do as missionaries? If they ceased to be missionaries even by their death because of their loyalty to the Gospel of Christ, their blood would preach after them. Well may the Chronicle exclaim, "How the ideal of the missionary has fallen, amid the foetid atmosphere of State cruelty and State repression!" When, if not now, do these burning words of God apply? "Woe be to the shepherds of Israel! should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed; but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them." Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: "Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require My flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver My flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them."

The frequent admonitions in the Bible, to "be of good courage," and to "fear not," show that God has no use for cowards. The man who will compromise principle for the sake of his bread and butter, can never feed the flock of God.

April 16, 1903

"Paul's Journey to Jerusalem. Acts xxi. 3-12" The Present Truth 19, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

(Acts xxi. 3-12)

For the fourth time since his conversion, Paul is on his way to Jerusalem. After leaving the elders of Ephesus, the voyage was continued to Patara, and at this point, the apostle, with his company, embarked on a larger vessel bound for Phoenicia. Cyprus, the first foreign field of Paul and Barnabas after the call at Antioch, is passed by on the left hand, and the ship pursues its course to the seaport of Tyre, where part of her cargo is to be discharged.

The ancient greatness and wealth of Tyre had departed, but in place of it had come something better. The message of the Gospel had been heard in her; and the ancient prophecy of the psalmist had been fulfilled. The daughter of Tyre had brought her gift to Christ (Ps. xlv. 12), and with Egypt and Ethiopia, Philistia and Babylon, was mentioned among those who knew the Lord. Ps. Ixxxvii. 1, R.V.

With the believers in Tyre, Paul tarried seven days, and here again he received the same message that had come to him in every city, since he set his face to go, bound in the Spirit, to Jerusalem. Acts xx. 23. The testimony in each place had been that bonds and imprisonment awaited him at Jerusalem. But Paul did not count his life dear to himself, if only he might finish his course, and fulfil the ministry entrusted to him by the Lord Jesus.

Paul was about to enter upon a new phase of his ministry. Hitherto he had been free to go to and fro in his missionary journeys, as the Spirit guided him, with nothing to hinder his throwing all his strength and energy into the work. Now his last missionary tour, as a free man, was drawing to a close. Henceforth, chains and imprisonment were to be his portion, long years in bondage waiting the pleasure of corrupt officials, and looking for the justice that never came.

Yet in those changed conditions, the Gospel was to shine with undimmed lustre. The man in chains was to reveal a power that triumphed over earthly fetters, the prisoner was to declare to his unjust judges the Word before which all the glory of man is as the flower of the grass, and see them tremble at the thoughts of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. From dungeon to citadel, from citadel to judgment hall, from judgment hall to palace, the Gospel was to go forward, until Caesar himself, in his imperial palace at Rome, should hear the word of God and meet a power greater than his own.

It had not been hidden from Paul at the beginning that he was called to suffering. Acts ix. 16. Now, again, to prepare him for the still greater trials before him, the Lord unveils the future to His faithful servant. He has borne the burden and heat of the day. The evening is not to bring him rest from these, but a still more trying experience, and the apostle accepts the call to fill up the sufferings of Christ, rejoicing that he is counted worthy.

In the history of the Church of Christ, the times of greatest success have been the times of persecution, when men loved not their lives to the death, but overcame by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony. The Scriptures foretell a repetition of this experience for the remnant church (Rev. xii. 17), and it will be in this extremity that the Lord will cut short His work in righteousness and send forth the loud cry which is to close the preaching of the Gospel. Rev. xviii. The Lord will then have faithful witnesses whom He can bring into the most trying situations before kings and rulers and know that they will not dishonour Him. Even if bonds, and torture, and death confront them, they will trust and not be afraid, but will at all times show strong faith in God, and open

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the way for Him to reveal His strength in their weakness. They will glory in infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon them. 2 Cor. xii. 9, 10.

But this experience will never come to those who neglect opportunities of extending the Gospel in times of comparative peace. Paul's arduous labours had been fitting him for the greater trials and greater victories to come. Whoever fails to endure the lighter burdens will not be trusted with the heavier responsibility.

Even in the suffering there was a present reward for Paul. He died to self that Christ might live in him, determined not to know anything but Christ crucified, and his reward was that men saw Christ in him. They received him as an angel of God, even as Christ Himself. Gal. iv. 14. To Paul was fulfilled the promise of Christ, mothers, fathers, brethren, friends, houses and lands, a hundredfold. Matt. xix. 29.

This appeared in the affectionate farewell scene with the brethren of Tyre. "They all, with wives and children, brought us on our way, till we were out of the city: and kneeling down on the beach, we prayed, and bade each other farewell; and we went on board the ship, but they returned home again." It was a scene to linger long in the memory, a recollection wherewith to soothe lonely hours in prison, when he should be cut off from those of like precious faith.

From Tyre the voyage was continued to Phoenicia, and from thence, after a brief stay, to C?sarea. In this beautiful city, adorned with costly buildings, and named by Herod after a Roman Emperor, Paul abode with Philip, one of the seven deacons, now an evangelist. He had four daughters, and each of them had the gift of prophecy. Doubtless they too repeated the testimony of the Spirit as to the reception Paul would meet in Jerusalem. Nor was this the only warning. Agabas, who had foretold the great famine many years before (Acts xi. 27, 28), came down from Jerusalem to C?sarea and declared to Paul that if he went to Jerusalem, he would be bound by the Jews and handed over to the Gentiles. "And when we heard these things, both we and they of that place besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, What do ye, weeping and breaking my heart? for I am ready, not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done."

THE GIFT OF PROPHECY

One of the most noticeable points in this lesson is the fact that in every city visited by Paul, the Spirit of God had its mouthpiece in the gift of prophecy. That gift was bestowed on the church for as long as it should need it, until we all come to the perfect man, the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. Eph. iv. 11-13. That perfection has not yet been reached; therefore the gifts of the Spirit are still needed. Why then are the gifts not manifested as they were in Paul's day? For the same reason that they were not given when Christ was on the earth. "The Holy Spirit was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified." John vii. 39. Christ was glorified at His resurrection. Acts ii. 32, 33; iii. 13; Rom. vi. 4.

Jesus did not rise from the grave without affecting mankind. All men rose with Him, "quickened together with Christ" (Eph. ii. 5). He did not rise and die again in His own behalf. "He rose for our justification." Rom. iv. 25. So that unless we are raised with Him, His resurrection is null and void, and He is not glorified. But when we are quickened together with Christ, and rise to walk with Him in newness of life, it is no longer we that live, but Christ that liveth in us. Gal. ii. 20.

When Christ is allowed free course in us, and self is reckoned dead, the Spirit, whose work it is to testify of Christ (John xvi. 14), will have something to testify of, for Christ will be glorified in us. Then the Spirit of prophecy, which is the testimony of Jesus (Rev. xix. 10), will do its work in the church, and will convince the world of sin, of righteousness and judgment (John xvi. 8-11). Apostolic; times will be repeated. "And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of, her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus." Rev. xii. 17.

"The Editor's Private Corner. The Prayer of Faith to Save the Sick" The Present Truth 19, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

"Is God still willing to give direct answers to prayer, as in the days of Christ's earthly ministry, when a specific demand was made for healing, and immediately the answer came, 'Thy faith hath saved thee'? There was no pain attached to the cure, and 'Thy will be done' was left out of the petition. How much may faith demand now?"

What is written in the Word? "How readest thou? Does God still live? And, being alive, has He changed His nature and disposition? or is He still the same as ever? Does He not say, "I am the Lord, I change not?" And is not His unchangeability the reason why we have live at all? Mal. iii. 6. "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not condemned, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness." Lam. iii. 22, 23. For "in Him we live, and move, and have our being." Acts xvli. 28. We are to follow those whose faith was, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." Heb. xiii. 8. Therefore just as Jesus was moved with compassion when He saw the afflicted, hungry multitude, even so He is to-day. "For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities;" therefore we are to "come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." Heb. iv. 15, 16.

Have you never thought why the Scriptures were written, with all their "exceeding great and precious promised," and the record of the "mighty works" done by the Lord? It was not for the sake of those on whom the miracles were wrought, but for our sakes. "And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that believing ye might have have through His name." John xx. 30, 31.

Remember that "whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scripture might have hope." Rom. xv. 4. The Bible is the Word of God, which "liveth and abideth for ever." It was written for all time, and is just as fresh and full of life and power to-day as it ever was. Its promises are just as sure now as the day they were made; for they are all in Christ; and "how many soever be the promises of God, in Him is the yea; wherefore also through Him is the Amen, unto the glory of God through us." 2 Cor. i. 20. And what does He say? "Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it." John xiv. 13, 14. "Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven." Matt. xviii. 19. There is no limit to what we may ask of God; for He is able to do exceeding abundantly, above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" (Eph. iii. 20, 21); and we may be sure that He will do all that He is able to do; for if He should do less than He is able to do, He would be denying Himself.

POWER THAT HEALS

The fifth chapter of James has special and unmistakable reference to the last days; for we read of judgments to come upon those who have gained wealth by fraud and oppression, and the downtrodden are exhorted to be patient, "for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." Then directly afterward we find this: "Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." James v. 13-15. Have we a right to expect the forgiveness of sin? Does the promise of the resurrection of the dead still hold good? You know full well that "He is able to save them evermore that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them." Heb. vii. 25. Well, the very same power that forgives sins is the power that heals disease. Jesus caused the paralytic to rise and take up his bed and go to his house, in order that the people might see and know that He has power on earth to forgive sins. Matt. ix. 2-7. He who forgiveth all iniquities is the One that healeth all diseases (Ps. ciii. 3); therefore as long as we may expect forgiveness of sins, we may likewise expect healing of disease, and as there is no sin too great to be forgiven, so there is no disease that we may not ask Him to heal, with confidence that He will do it. And why? Because "He ever liveth," and "in Him we live, and move, and have our being." It is by His life that we are saved, even by "that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us." It is His blood that cleanses us from all sin (1 John i. 7), even His life within and upon us. But "the Lord our God is one Lord," and He has but one life, perfect and infinite. He is not divided into many. Therefore in the forgiveness of our sins by the life which we lay hold of by faith, we have the healing of all our diseases, if we but grasp the fact. The Spirit that seals our adoption as sons of God, is the same Spirit that quickens our mortal bodies (Rom. viii. 11), and of this He gives us assurance, in that He gives us "life, and breath, and all things." Our daily bread, which nourishes our bodies, the life of the Lord renewing our bodies day by day, is God's message to us, telling us that He is our life, and that as the Father with Him freely gives us all things, we cannot make any demand on Him that is beyond His, power or willingness to supply. "My God shall supply all your need, according to His riches in glory." Phil. iv. 19.

THE WILL OF GOD

But what about His will? You say that in the days when Christ was manifest in the flesh, there was no "Thy will be done" in the petitions for help. What do you mean by this? Do you think that Jesus ever healed anybody contrary to the will of God? Do you think that it was ever against His will that He healed diseases? And do you mean that by leaving out the words, "Thy will be done," we are to expect or even compel Him to do something whether He wants to or not? Can you imagine that this ever was the case? Not by any means, He "worketh all things after the counsel of His own will." Eph. i. 11. His will is done on earth, whether we will or not; the only question is, shall it be done with our consent, or in spite of it? If our wills coincide with His will, it is well for us.

The words, "Thy will be done," do not mean that we ask Him to do some good thing for as provided He is willing to do it. If we think that, then we greatly misjudge Him. Will an earthly father supply all the needs of his children, as far as lies in his power? Does he not plan not only for their bare necessities, but to surprise them with things that they did not expect? Does he not live for them? Well, "if ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?" Matt. vii. 11. We wrong God grievously when we imagine that it is ever necessary for us to overcome His reluctance to do us good, or that it is ever not His will to do every good thing for us. Why, He has already blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ. Eph. i. 3. "Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." James 1. 17. Mind this, every good and perfect gift comes down. The text says not only that every good thing that we have comes from above, but that every good thing thah heaven has to bestow, has already come to us. In the gift of Christ not only all heaven, but the whole universe, is poured out to man. "For in Him were all things created, in heaven and on earth, things visible, and things invisble; . . . and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist." Col. i. 16, 17.

What then means the talk about asking according to His will? It means that we are willing to come into harmony with His will. It is a mistake to say that those who were healed in days of old did not ask for His will to be done. The leper said, "Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean;" and Jesus replied, "I will; be thou clean;" and every one that asked showed by the asking that he had confidence that it was the will of the Lord to heal him. The trouble with the most of us is that we want healing as a matter of course,-we want to be well,-but we want it not in God's way. We want God to deny Himself, in healing us by His life, when we are rejecting and trampling on that life-transgressing nearly every phase of it. Do you not see how unreasonable we are? We ask Him to send His Word and heal us, and yet we do not yield to that Word when He sends it. "The prayer of faith shall save the sick;" but "faith cometh by hearing . . . the Word of God." Rom. x. 17. Therefore if we do not give diligence to find out how the word of life acts, and come into harmony with it, our request for healing is but mockery. We must not deceive ourselves; God is not mocked.

All this is what the record of the miracles is meant to teach us. They were done to show God's desires for mankind. He can, it is true, snatch us instantaneously from the very jaws of death, and indeed, He often does, even though we deny Him, and go on ignoring His life; but which would you prefer: Instantaneous healing, and a relapse into the same disease, or slower healing that is permanent? Even though God brings us up from the gates of the grave, we cannot expect that He will hinder the same causes that produced the disease in the first place from having the same effect again, if they are continued. That would be to reverse "the laws of nature," that is, to act contrary to His own Being; and that is not what miracles are. Miracles are not acts contrary to God's laws, or a suspension of natural law, as is commonly supposed, but the natural, free, and full action of God's life, which is the law of nature.

God wants us to become acquainted with "that eternal life which was from the beginning, and was manifested unto us. Thus as we recognise it, and gladly hold ourselves subject to it, healing of all our diseases is as sure as His forgiveness of all our sins; and whether the healing be effected instantaneously or gradually, it will be permanent. Then do not think that the age of miracles is past, or that God's power or willingness is diminished in the heart. "This is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us; and if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petition that we desired of Him." 1 John v. 14, 15. "Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things that he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." Mark xi. 22-24.

LAW AND PRAYER

The following question also comes in very naturally for consideration in this connection:-

"Does law leave room for prayer?"

Most certainly it does. Law-unalterable law-is the only thing that gives positive assurance to prayer. If it were not for unchangeable law, no one could pray with any confidence. Suppose, for instance, that there were no fixed law; that is to say, that there were not a God "with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." If such a thing were possible, we should have a chance world; for even allowing that God ruled, but ruled capriciously, it would be the same to us as though the universe were governed by chance, which would be no government at all. In such case prayer would be utterly useless.

Of course there could be no such condition as we have supposed; for without law there could be no existence. If it were possible that law could cease, speedy or instant destruction would follow. And why?-Because law-the law of the universe-is the life of God that pervades and upholds all things; and if that were suspended, that is, if God ceased to be, instantly everything would cease to be. So you see that a chance world is an impossibility; and if there is any true prayer at all it must be in accordance with law.

Just here comes in an objection that is often put forward, namely, that inasmuch as there is fixed law, there is no necessity for prayer, because everything will come in its time whether we ask for it or not. This is, in reality, the question that we started wish. But this objection is based on a misapprehension of what prayer is. Prayer is not begging, but acceptance. It

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is either a statement of the fact that we are in harmony with God's will, or a bringing of our minds into harmony with it. We pray that God's will may be done in us, not in spite of us. His will is not something to be endured, but something to be enjoyed, God is the Saviour. His work is always to create, to build up, to uphold, and to restore. Destruction comes only when God's will is ignored or defied. It is this truth which enables us to "come boldly to the throne of grace," "in full assurance of faith."

One thing, however, must not be looked, and that is that Godss life-His law-is infinite, and thus capable of an infinite variety of expression. We must not fall into the error of supposing that natural law, which is in reality spiritual law, since it is God's life, is limited to the little range of our experience. We have heard only the faintest whisper of Him, and know only the smallest part of His ways; and this is why there may be phenomena and workings so varied that to our narrow and uninstructed vision they may seem to be even contradictory, and yet all be perfectly harmonious parts of His life,-phases of unchangeable law. Thus may we expect Him to do "exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think."

"The Bible Class. Man's Inheritance Restored. Heb. iv. 3-5" The Present Truth 19, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

(Heb. iv. 3-5.)

"For we which have believed do enter into rest; even as He hath said,

As I sware in My wrath,

They shall not enter into My rest,

although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He hath said somewhere of the seventh day on this wise, And God rested on the seventh day from all His works; and in this place again,

They shall not

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enter into My rest."

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

1. What has been left us?

2. Why did not those to whom the Gospel was first preached enter into rest?

3. Who do enter into rest?

4. In accordance with what word do those who have believe enter into rest?

5. What had been done, that all might have rest?

6. From what time were the works finished?

7. Then from what time does the rest date?

8. What is the proof that the works were finished?

9. What is said in another place of the seventh day?

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY

The student may be puzzled by the expression, "If they shall enter into My rest," which occurs in the Common Version. If he will but compare the third verse with the eleventh verse of the third chapter, and note the marginal reference as well, he will see that it is the same as "They shall not enter into My rest." The form, "If they shall" is the Hebrew idiom for a very emphatic negative; but it is well known that idiomatic forms of speech in one language mean nothing if translated word for word into another language. The expression of course is understood in the Hebrew to indicate that something, in this case the life of God, would be forfeited if unbelievers should enter into God's rest. Wherever it is found, it should be uniformly rendered, "They shall not enter into My rest;" and we shall thus use it in our study, without further explanation, even though we quote from the Common Version.

The Gospel Proclaims Rest. -This is apparent from the first two verses, studied last week. Read them again: "Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the Gospel preached, as well as unto them." That is to say, we have just as good a chance to enter the rest as the Israelites of old had, for we have the same Gospel that they had; but as they did not enter in because of unbelief, let us fear lest we also fail.

The Rest the Inheritance. -The third chapter has already made it plain to us that God's rest is the inheritance which He has promised His people. All know that that into which the Israelites could not enter because of unbelief was the promised land; they fell in the wilderness, and so did not enter in. But it is also stated that it was God's rest into which they could not enter in because of unbelief. So we know that the rest and the inheritance are the same thing.

The Two Sides of the Oath. -"For we which have believed do enter into rest, as He said, As I have sworn in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest." God's oath concerning the unbelievers, "They shall not enter into My rest," is cited as proof that "we which have believed do enter into rest." We who believe enter into rest in accordance with the oath that they who do not believe cannot enter in. As a matter of fact, the original oath is positive. It is the oath of God to Abraham, recorded in Gen. xxii. 16-18. "Thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies," means rest from all strife. But this oath was made to Abraham in view of his perfect faith. Therefore God's oath that the unbelievers should not enter into His rest was a necessary consequence of this original oath, and grew out of it. The oath that those who do believe shall enter into rest would mean nothing, if unbelievers could also enter in. So we which have believed do enter into rest, in accordance with God's oath.

Faith Not an Arbitrary Condition. -God has not put faith as a requirement. He has not, just to please Himself, made faith the condition of entering into rest. He has not sworn in His wrath, "Well, if you will not believe, I will not allow you to enter into My rest." No; "they could not enter in, because of unbelief." God's wrath does not shut the people out of rest; rather He is angry because they persist in shutting themselves out; and those who do not believe cannot possibly rest. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for." When we have perfect faith, we have the substance of the thing hoped for. Without faith one cannot know anything about rest; with faith he has it.

The Earth the Rest and the Inheritance. -The unbelievers could not and cannot enter into God's rest, "although the works were finished from the foundation of the world." It was not God's fault; the rest was prepared and waiting for them; but they would not believe. And now the question comes again, What was and is the rest? Well, we have already seen that the rest is the inheritance; the last part of the third verse makes it apparent that the rest, the inheritance, is the earth. The heavens and earth are the works that were finished from the foundation of the world. So we have another point fixed; and this is corroborated by the words of the Apostle Paul: "The promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." Rom. iv. 13.

"But," somebody will at once object, "it is absurd to say that the Israelites could not enter into the world, because of unbelief; for they were actually in it all the time." Very true; but there is one feature that we have not yet considered, which will clear away the seeming absurdity. Recall the expression, "The works were finished from the foundation of the world," Now remember that at the time of the foundation of the world it was not in its present condition. "God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good." Gen. i. 31. It was new. It was not "this present evil world," this sin-cursed earth, that was ready for the human race to rest in, but a new earth, as perfect as God could make it. And a perfect pair of human beings was in it, too, when it was thus completed. That world is the inheritance promised to Abraham and his seed through the righteousness of faith; and thus we, "according to His promise, look for new heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." 2 Peter iii. 13. Christ "gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world." Gal. i. 4. God's rest, therefore, to which Christ calls all who labour and are heavy laden, is nothing less than the perfect, new creation. "Wherefore if any man is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new."

The Blessing of Abraham. -The promise to Abraham is summed up in the one word, "blessing." The first knowledge we have of it is in the words, "I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing; and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." Gen. xii. 2, 3. Remember that a blessing is the opposite of a curse, and that the earth and all its inhabitants came under the curse through Adam's sin. It is evident, therefore, that the blessing of "all the families of the earth" in Abraham, contemplates nothing less than the removal of the curse-the complete reversal of that which came through Adam's sin. Even so we read: "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree; that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ." Gal. iii. 13, 14. Christ bare the sins of the world on the cross; He also bore the curse of the earth, in the crown of thorns. See Gen. iii. 17, 18. It is the thorns and thistles that make the tilling of the soil hard work. Labour itself is no part of the curse; but weariness with labour is; and this is what is to be wholly removed through the cross of Christ. Then the people of God will rest in a clean inheritance. God's oath that unbelievers should not enter into His rest, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world, shows that the earth as first founded is the rest. So when Christ comes in His kingdom, sitting upon the throne of His glory, to call the faithful ones from the east and west, to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God (Matt. viii. 11), He will say, "Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Matt. xxv. 34.

"Children's Page. The Name of God" The Present Truth 19, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

When God sent Moses with a message to His people in Egypt, He told them His name: I AM THAT I AM. In all their experiences when He led them through the wilderness, they were learning the meaning of this name, for they were finding out what He is.

In the Pillar of fire He shone forth as the One who is the Light of the world, and in the refreshing cloud, they saw Him as the One who gives the dew and rain to freshen and sustain the earth.

At the Red Sea when there was no way of escape that they could see, He revealed Himself as the Way-the right way, the only way of escape and salvation,-safe to tread even though unseen.

Then when they hungered, He spread a table for them in the wilderness, that they might learn to know Him as the Bread of Life,-the Word by which all things, are fed.

They thirsted not when He led them through the desert, because He was with them as the smitten rock, from which came "the fountain of living waters."

And when Amalek came against them, through the rod of God in Moses' hand, they learned of Him as their defence and victory, who, if they were faithful, would cause them always to triumph over all their enemies.

Even their rebellion, when the spies returned with their evil report, taught them more of His love and mercy; His everlasting patience, which "suffered their manners in the wilderness," and forty years long was grieved with them saying, "It is a nation which do err in their hearts, for they have not known My ways."

When through their sin they suffered the fiery serpent's bite, He was there to give life to all who would but look to Him for it . So they might have known Him as their Physician, their Healer, who eased their pain through His own sufferings, and gave them life by His death.

And when the dividing waters of the Jordan at last admitted them to the Land of Promise, they saw that "He is faithful that promised," "able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think."

Through these examples God has given us, have we not learned many precious lessons that will help us in our pilgrimage through the wilderness of this world, to the Promised Land to which He is now leading us? May we all by faith enter that heavenly country.

Man says: "All is lost!" God says: "Look to Me. All is saved!"

"A Destructive Army" The Present Truth 19, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

Dr. H. C. McCook, in an article in "Harper's Weekly," gives some startling statistics as to the amount of destruction committed annually in the United States by insects of various sorts. He states that the chinch bug in 1874 cause a loss of over one hundred million dollars, and in 1887 sixty millions. In 1874 the Rocky Mountain locust destroyed another hundred million dollars' worth of crops. In some years the loss caused by the cotton caterpillar reached thirty million. The fly weevil, so destructive to stored grain, inflicts an annual loss of forty million dollars, while every year a single moth destroys pear and apple crops to the amount of thirty or forty millions. As much again is lost in live stock, owing to the damage inflicted by the ox-bot, or ox-warble. These are said to be fair samples of the damage done in one country by a few of the insect hosts. In 1899 a careful calculation put the annual loss in the United States from insects at four hundred and nine million dollars, or over ?80,000,000. This was about the annual cost of the Boer War to England.

Even with this heavy annual loss, the produce of the United States is more than sufficient for all its inhabitants, which shows how bountifully God provides for all, so that we need not grudge His insect creation its share of the food He sends, even though they neither toil nor spin. At the same time these figures convey a striking lesson. If a time should come when God is minded to show men that their independence of Him is an empty boast, the means to furnish a severe lesson are all ready in the insect pigmies that are now kept within bounds. The plagues that humbled the pride of Egypt might quickly be repeated in our own days, if God should once more permit "the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, My great army which I sent among you."

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

The Holy Synod of the Russian Church has finally decided, after years of deliberation, to permit the Orthodox Eastern Churches to be lighted by electricity instead of candles. The change is to be effected at once in the principal cathedral at Moscow. It is to be hoped that this advance on medi?val methods will mark a period of considerably greater light in the Russian Church than has hitherto been permitted by its rulers.

The Roumanian Minister of Finance has hit upon a new idea in his search for revenue. He proposes to put a tax upon divorces. The suggestion ought to be worth considering in England, where it would materially relieve the present burden of taxation, judging by the number of people who figure in the Divorce Court. Most of them can afford to lose money, and if the tax were only heavy enough to reduce them to poverty, it would not only benefit the nation at large, but, by compelling them to work for a living, promote habits of sobriety and industry which would keep them in future out of the paths that lead to the Divorce Court.

"We little nations must beseech the Almighty to give us peace," said Prince Nicolas, of Montenegro, to an English traveller who was recently in his kingdom. True enough, but what a fearful charge against modern "civilisation." Of course only the Almighty can give peace in any case; but this means that the Almighty must protect the smaller nations from the larger ones, who, but for His restraining hand, would swallow them up. Christianity means that those who are strong should bear the infirmities of the weak. Under Christian rule the large nations would be the special protectors of the rights of the small ones, if there were any danger threatening them. Now the "Christian nations" of earth do indeed use the term "protection" to justify their seizure of the territory of weak peoples, but the protection consists solely in warding off the encroachments of some other great Power anxious to enlarge its possessions. Truly "modern civilization" is only ancient barbarism writ large.

"Junius" wrote: "The subject who is truly loyal to the chief magistrate will neither advise nor submit to arbitrary measures." In that he had an inkling of the truth, but not a clear view of it. Nabuchadnezzar had no more loyal men in his vast empire than the man who refused to bow down to the golden image, but who meekly submitted to the arbitrary and unjust punishment put on them. In all the world there was no superior to Daniel for loyalty to the king of Persia, and he bore without a single protest the arbitrary punishment of being cast into the den of lions because he would pray to his God. Rome had no more faithful subjects than the early disciples, who although they could not obey all the decrees without dishonouring God, endured without a murmur the worst abuse and indignity. "Junius" has expressed the idea common among those who would be reformers, that reformation is accomplished by protest, and by attempting to regulate other people's conduct. The really loyal and faithful subject of any Government is the one who first of all is mindful of his duty to God, and who will submit to anything, however arbitrary, that does not require him to be disloyal to the King of kings. By his meek submission to injustice he bears the strongest testimony to the truth that underlies all stable government. He shows that he has a just sense of proportion; for the first and great commandment is, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind," and after that comes the commandment, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."

The following from Paris showw what occupies the minds of statesmen in these days of "peace": "According to Captain Gilbert, Nancy is se closely surrounded by German concentration as if war were at hand. The captain, who is an authority on military man?uvres, and who is said to be inspired by General Zurlinden, formerly Minister of War and Military Governor of Paris, publishes a map with notes on the subject, from which it appears that the valley of the Meurthe and Nancy itself are at the mercy of rapid German mobilisation by means of twelve railway lines, over which 400 trains could pass in twenty-four hours, thus enabling the transport of seven corps, with two divisions each, in five days. These would be preceded by three corps from Strasburg, Metz, Rhenish Prussia, and Baden. The full concentration can be effected in less than nine days." The Captain strongly advocates the fortifying of the frontier city, being of the opinion that a fortified Nancy would be not only defensive, but capable of being the central point for a coup de main against the railways above mentioned. One really can scarcely restrain from asking whether the earth is peopled by human beings or by wild beasts, each having no thought except how to devour the others, or expecting to be devoured by them.

The Daily Mail of March 11 contained a lengthy account of a visit which the representative paid to the laboratory of the French savant, Professor Grehant, in Paris, to witness a practical demonstration of the effects of alcohol. The correspondent writes:-

"The benevolent old professor looks kindness itself, but he urges that experiments must be made if science is not to stand still. He prefers to make them on dogs and rabbits rather than on human beings." Then follows the description of how the animals are forced to swallow alcohol, and the various stages that they passed through on the way to complete intoxication. The correspondent continues: "The aim of the Professor's experiments was to prove that when alcohol is consumed by animals it has the same effect as on men: it is quickly distributed through the blood and tissues, and permeates the whole organism. 'I am convinced,' said the Professor, 'that if you examined the blood ten hours after taking alcohol you will find traces of it, and if you examined it ten hours later-i.e., twenty hours after it has reached the stomach a chemical analysis will still reveal the presence of alcohol. So that those who are given to the frequent consumption of spirituous liquors must necessarily accumulate a quantity of alcohol in the system, which may have the most disastrous consequences.'"

But of what use are all these experiments? As the Daily Mail well says editorially, "We have only to turn to our hospitals, our police courts, and asylums, if we would ascertain whether in excessive doses alcohol is an acute poison. All works on hygiene and dietetics teem with evidence which establishes this fact." "With a British drink bill which last year amounted to the stupendous sum of ?179,499,817, or no less than ?4 5s.6d. per head, there is only too ample ocular demonstration of the evils of alcoholism in the country. The tendency to crime and insanity, if not engendered by strong drink, is intensified by it, and who shall say what misery it causes in countless homes?" "What effect on the problem which confronts the family and the nation in this direction the professor's experiments can have, passes the understanding." And surely the experiments cannot be in the interests of the animals themselves. There is no need to demonstrate that alcohol, when consumed by animals, has the same effect on them as on men, since the animals would never touch it of their own accord. Yet just such cruel and wholly unnecessary and useless experiments as these are called science. Truly, in these degenerate days language is fast losing its original meaning.

A commission of experts in mental diseases, appointed by the German Ministry of Education to investigate the healing value of hypnotism, has reported that it is essentially worthless, although it can be used helpfully in some cases through suggestion. "The infleunce of hypnotic suggestion diminishes in proportion to popular knowledge of it. It is most powerful when regarded by a subject as marvellous and supernatural." Which means, in effect, that when a person is ill in imagination, he can be cured by imagination. Actual disorders are not effected by hypnotic suggestion. It is hardly to be expected, however, that this folly will die out. The last thing that a sick person seems to think of is to leave off the causes that made him ill. People want to violate the laws of health, and then escape the consequences by taking drugs, hypnotic suggestion, or something that will make them well without changing their wrong habits.

Lovers of Irish bacon have doubtless read with interest of the sudden death of seven pigs, fed in a Cork workhouse, and the allegation of one of the guardians that the pigs had been fed on linseed poultices from the fever hospital. This would, of course, mark the extreme of economy, but those who have lived in the country know that very little is wasted where a pig is kept. It is in the nature of things that the pig should discharge the functions of a scavenger, but that human beings in turn should render him the same service is contrary to the laws of health and the will of God, who forbade His people to eat swine's flesh. The next day after the news came from Cork, a Birmingham pork salesman was fined for exposing tuberculous pork for sale, one thousand pounds of it having been seized on his premises. In his appointed work and place the pig is all right, but forced into an unnatural existence, and then deprived of is to gratify an unnatural appetite, it is not unusual for those who bury his remains to find that the unnatural offence carries with it its own punishment.

"Ancient Counterfeits" The Present Truth 19, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

Ancient Counterfeits. -Following on the discovery that some of the art treasures in the Louvre are spurious, an expert states that hundreds of "the old masters" purchased at high prices by private collectors, are frauds. He says that the success of the imitations is due to the fact that collectors often attach as much value to the age as to the beauty of old paintings, and the appearance of great age is easily simulated. To the uninitiated it might seem that if two pictures are so alike that the ordinary man cannot distinguish between them, one is as good as another, but the art collector does not think so. He wants the genuine and nothing else is of value in his eyes. The Christian might often learn from the art collector in this respect. Counterfeits of the truth of God, however ancient, are worthless. The observance of Sunday, the belief in the immortality of the soul, the idea that man can be righteous in himself, and many other counterfeits, all are very ancient, but they lack genuineness. They do not bear the Divine stamp. Although they are thousands of years old, they are still worthless frauds, and if they should endure, for thousands more, they would still be the same. They may have cost a good deal, and may have given great satisfaction while they were believed to be genuine, but when found to be frauds, their possession would mark their owner as a victim of deception, and if continued, would make him a party to the fraud.

"'Be of Good Cheer'" The Present Truth 19, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

"Be of Good Cheer." -"And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of Me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome." Acts xxiii. 11. How had Paul borne witness in Jerusalem?-In chains; in the midst of a howling mob that thirsted for his blood; in the presence of men who were eager to tear him in pieces. Even so, in the same manner, as a prisoner charged with high crimes, was he to bear witness for the Lord in Rome. Most people would think that such a prospect was a cause for despondency; but the Lord set it before Paul as a reason for him to "be of good cheer."

This contains a lesson for us. The time to be cheerful is when trouble threatens. Jesus frequently said to His disciples, "Be of good cheer," and it was always when they were in trouble, or their lives were in danger. That is when cheerfulness, joyfulness in God, is most needed; for the joy of the Lord is our strength; and there is no more glorious thing in this world than to be permitted to witness for the Lord Jesus, even though in bonds. That is why the apostles, after they had been thrust into prison, and beaten, departed from the council "rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name." To suffer for Christ's sake is a badge of royalty. "Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets." Luke vi. 26. But "blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." Matt. v. 11, 12.

"The Habits of Our Forefathers" The Present Truth 19, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

A daily paper publishes an extract from the "Northumberland Household Book" commenced in 1512, in which an exhaustive account of the domestic economy of the great Percy family is given. It gives a good idea of the drinking habits of the best society four hundred years ago. At breakfast, which was served at seven in the morning, the earl and countess had a quart of beer and a quart of wine between them; two sons, "My Lorde Percy and Maister Percy," a pottle (two quarts) of beer; and two children in the nursery a quart of beer. For dinner, at ten o'clock, my lord and lady had a gallon of beer and a pottle of wine; the two boys a quart of beer, and the younger children a pottle of beer. At supper, at four o'clock, the earl and countess shared a pottle of beer, and a pottle of wine; and the children also had their allowance. For "livery," which was served in the bedroom between eight and nine in the evening, the parents were supplied with a gallon of beer and a quart of wine; and each pair of children had a pottle of beer.

We can readily believe that there was no necessity for a "semi-teetotal pledge" then, as there could have been no such thing as drinking "between meals." But when people point to the robust man and women of ten generations ago as proof that such living did not hurt them, we strongly demur. If you saw a tree with its branches withering and weakly, would you say that there was nothing the matter with the tree? Surely the branches are a part of the tree, but no more so than are the degenerate descendants of those people branches of the parent stock; and the weakness of this generation is a standing proof that the branches are withering as the result of the habits of their ancestors. There is not a soul now living whose teeth are not more or less set on edge by the sour grapes which the fathers ate.

"The Rulers of the Darkness" The Present Truth 19, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

The Rulers of the Darkness .-A lady missionary from China has stated that the planchette is used there by the Chinese to obtain communications from evil spirits. She has lived in the province known as "Demonland," where the native idolatry was bound up with spiritualism. She had found there was a real power in this idolatry and necromancy, and had known cases of healing worked by the natives who professed power over the spirits. "There," she said, "you stand face to face with the unveiled powers of hell." Her opinion about the planchette was that it only worked intelligibly with those who yielded to its influence and that its influence increased with repeated use. The missionary stated that the Boxer rising was prophesied by a planchette, and she believed the murderous Boxers were all possessed by devils. The testimony of this missionary agrees with the Scriptures, which state that fallen angels are the gods of the heathen. When Israel forsook the Lord, "they sacrificed unto devils, not to God." Deut. xxxii. 17. Paul also says: "The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God." 1 Cor. x. 20. Devils play a much larger part in the affairs of this world than most people suspect. And it is not only the missionary in heathen lands, but the Christian too in professedly Christian countries, who can say, with more truth than many realise, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits [margin] in high places." Eph. vi. 12.

April 23, 1903

"The Editor's Private Corner. How to Keep the Sabbath" The Present Truth 19, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

"I take PRESENT TRUTH every week, and I admire many of the truths and sentiments contained therein, and until last Saturday, through the teaching of PRESENT TRUTH and other reading matter, I had observed the seventh day as a rest day, and tried to keep the Sabbath, for something like nine months. Thinking the matter up recently, and through reading Farrar's 'Life of Christ,' I have been brought to face the teaching of Christ on the Sabbath in a light I had not seen before. Will you point out the truth as it appears to you in Matt. xii. 1-13? From this account, and also that given by Luke and also by Mark, I am led to believe that works of necessity and mercy, when in accordance with Christ's supreme authority 'to do good,' to save life, are lawful, and that by doing such we keep the Sabbath. What do you think?"

Is it only "many of the truths" contained in PRESENT TRUTH that you admire? Do you mean to say that there are some truths that you do not regard? Are you "partial in the law"? Do you not know that all truth is one, and that whoever deliberately rejects one truth, rejects all truth? For if any man thinks that his allegiance to some truth will warrant him in disregarding some other, let him know that, on the contrary, his disregard of even one truth shows that he cares only for his own way, and has no respect whatever for truth; that he accepts what he professes to accept, not because it is truth, but because it suits his convenience to do so. I do not think that it is so with you, but that you did not state exactly what you meant.

You have surely not been a very close reader of PRESENT TRUTH, if it has just dawned on you that works of necessity and mercy are lawful on the Sabbath day, and have not long since learned that they are an essential part of Sabbath keeping. There is no day in the week when the requirement to "love mercy" is suspended. And certainly everything that is in harmony with "Christ's supreme authority" is right and necessary.

If you read the Scriptures carefully, you will notice that many of Christ's most striking miracles were wrought on the Sabbath day. They were not all acute cases either, as when Peter's wife's mother had fever, and was healed on the Sabbath; the most of them were cases of long standing, and the healing could without doubt have been deferred till another day, without serious detriment to the afflicted one. Why then did Jesus perform the miracles on that day?-Plainly in order to teach the people who saw and heard, and us as well, what the Sabbath means.

God does not set people tasks just to show His authority over them, or to gratify His fancy. Whatever God commands men to do is for their benefit, and not for His. God does not have slaves working for Him, but He has children whose welfare constitutes His pleasure. Most people imagine that religion, Christianity, is a "system" that God has devised to try men,-a sort of exercise that He has invented because it pleased Him to make the way to heaven as hard as possible. So the Sabbath is too often regarded as a hardship to be endured if one would get enough good "marks" to entitle him to enter heaven. But "the Sabbath was made for man." It is a rest, not a work; a delight, not a hardship. It is the memorial of God's wonderful works, by which we triumph over our enemies.

"By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth." "For He spake, and it was." And "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." The Sabbath, therefore, is given us, to remind us of the power of God's Word,-"the word of life." Christ healed on the Sabbath day, to show that the Word which in the beginning created all things, is the Word by which we live,-that it is our life. As we rest from our own work on the seventh day, even though it threatens the loss of all our possessions, and even our friends, we signify our knowledge and acceptance of the Word that upholds the universe, and on which we can securely rest. It reminds us that

"That hand which bears creation up,

Shall guard His children well."

"God is love;" His life is love; so as we rest in His Word of life, His love is shed abroad in our hearts, and it must necessarily work the same in us as in Him; that is, in good works. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before prepared, that we should walk in them." Eph. ii. 10. You will see that this does not mean that we are saved by our good works, but that we are saved to good works-the works which God Himself has done. "By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not by works, lest any man should boast." Our faith saves us to the works which God Himself has done,-the works which were finished from the foundation of the world; and thus it is that "we which have believed do enter into rest"-into Sabbath keeping.

Do you not see that the healing of men's bodily infirmities on the Sabbath day is an exhibition of the working of the Word that creates, and that upholds all things? Well, that being accepted, the next thing that will naturally occur to the thinking mind is that the Word also cleanses from sin, since His works "are verity and judgment, and are done in truth and uprightness." The Word that gives life gives perfect life; the Word that heals diseases also forgives iniquities; and so the healing of disease on the Sabbath day should, more than on any other day, reveal the loving kindness of our God.

God works constantly, but by His Word-the Word by which He healed the sick. Such work pertains to the Sabbath day. But you will at once see that this work does not bring any personal gain to God. It is all gratuitous. It is done at great sacrifice, solely for the benefit of others. Thus we are guarded against deceiving ourselves with the thought that certain work which we very much desire to see accomplished, and from which we shall derive some direct or indirect gain, is a

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work of necessity. If any work can by any possibility benefit us-if we can possibly derive any gain from it,-it is not a work of necessity. It is not a work of mercy, but of selfishness, even though it be lawful in itself, if performed on some secular day. But any work that has in it no possible element of selfishness, and from which we cannot in the remotest manner, or to the least degree, derive any personal gain, but which is wholly for the benefit of others, is lawful on the Sabbath day. In doing such work with a glad, cheerful heart, we show ourselves true children of Him who bears the burdens of mankind because He cares for them, and loves them.

"The Editor's Private Corner. Baptized for the Dead" The Present Truth 19, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

"What do you make of the test which speaks about being baptized for the dead'? I am told that it means that anyone who believes can be baptized for some other person who died out of the faith, and thus the dead person can be saved just as though he had believed and been baptized himself in life. What do you think?"

I think it is altogether best to get so well acquainted with the meaning of baptism from the Scriptures, that loose, irresponsible guesses or assertions will not move us, and that we shall not feel inclined to take counsel of either our own or any other person's opinions. No prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation; for the Scripture came not by the will of man. Therefore it is not for any man or set of men on earth to read any text, and then say dogmatically, "This means so and so." Not thus are the Scriptures expounded. This "Private Corner," and, indeed, the entire PRESENT TRUTH, exists solely for the purpose of so setting forth, the truths of Scripture that all who read will see that these truths are self-evident, and will accept them, not because some person has said so, but because they themselves see plainly that they are so. Now let us see what we can learn from this text.

The fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians is the famous resurrection chapter. The apostle, in the portion in which the verse occurs, is answering the assertion of some, that there is no resurrection of the dead, and he asks, "Else what shall they do that are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not? Why are they then baptized for the dead?" His proof of the resurrection is the positive fact that Christ is risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept.

In reading this scripture we are reminded of the words of Peter, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Chist, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you." The resurrection of Jesus Chrixt, and that alone, is our hope. By it He was "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness" (Rom. i. 4), and by it we are begotten sons of God.

Therefore it is that we, as many as are baptized into Jesus Christ are baptized into His death. Rom. vi. 3. "Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection." Verses 4, 5. Our hope of the resurrection of the body at the coming of the Lord Jesus, is our resurrection with Him now, "to walk in newness of life." Every baptism, therefore, has reference to the resurrection-first of all of Christ, and afterwards of those who are Christ's at His coming. Every person who is intelligently, and thus really, baptized, thereby signifies that he yields his body, and his whole life, to Christ, accepting His death and resurrection. By it he signifies his belief that Jesus died and rose again, for him, and that his own resurrection is, through his faith in Christ, totally sure. Thus, and thus only, can anybody be baptized for the dead.

To say that a person who has not believed, and who has died in unbelief, can be saved through another's baptism for him, is most completely to misapprehend the Gospel of our salvation. God is not a vain, capricious person, to be pleased with mummeries. Everything that He requires in the Gospel, is for a definite purpose. Everything is for the purpose of affecting a radical change in the individual, and not to gratify some arbitrary wish of God. For one person to be baptized for another who is dead, could not possibly affect that other one's character; and it is change of life in the individual himself that God desires. When one is understandingly baptized for the dead and risen Christ, and for his own death and resurrection in Him, a complete change is wrought in him. He becomes thenceforth a new man. But if God, who knows the hearts of all, sees that some person who died unbaptized had real, even though undefined faith, He will save that man because of his own faith, and not because ten thousand men have had themselves baptized on his behalf.

Think what would be the result if the idea of the one you refer to, which, unfortunately has too many adherents, were true. It would mean that heaven would be peopled with a lot of people who never desired salvation. It means that unrepentant sinners by wholesale can be saved, if only they have friends to go through the ceremony of baptism for them. It virtually means universal salvation, and that not through the merits of Christ, nor even through the merit of a large part of the "saved," but through-not the merits, but-the ceremonies performed by a lot of human saviours. Merely to follow the idea out to its natural conclusion is to show the monstrosity of it.

But we do wrong even to speak of people being saved by such means. That would not be salvation, if it were possible. It would be the peopling of heaven with a lot of unsaved people; it would be in fact, the transference of "this present evil world" into the world to come. And that again shows that the idea is opposed to the Gospel, and a perversion of the Scriptures; for Christ gave Himself for our sins, "that He might deliver us from this present evil world" (Gal. i. 4), and His very name and existence depend on the fact that "He shall save His people from their sins." Salvation that does not cleanse the soul from sin is not salvation at all. Thanks be to God, "Jesus saves!"

"The Bible Class. God's Rest. Heb. iv. 3-5" The Present Truth 19, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

(Heb. iv. 3-5.)

"For we which have believed do enter into rest, as He said,

As I have sworn in My wrath,

They shall enter into My rest,

although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all His works: and in this place again,

They shall not enter into My rest."

The Seventh Day is God's Rest. -This is just what the commandment says, and we shall presently see that it is just what our text teaches. God's own voice from the top of Sinai declared in tones of thunder: "The seventh day is the rest of the Lord thy God; in It thou shalt not do any work." It must be borne in mind that the word "Sabbath" is the untranslated Hbrew word for rest; we are quoting the fourth commandment accurately, when we say, "The seventh day is the rest of the Lord thy God." Now please bear this simple fact in mind, and go back and read the third chapter of Hebrews. It will give you an entirely new view of the chapter; and not only so, but it will suggest some hitherto unknown truth.

Now for the evidence in our lesson text, that the seventh day is God's rest. Two things have been said of the seventh day: In one place God spoke of the seventh day on this wise, "And God did rest the seventh day from all His works," and in this place again, "They shall not enter into My rest." The seventh day is God's rest; and it was into this rest that the unbelieving Israelites could not enter. Neither can unbelievers enter into it now. Men can keep Sunday under compulsion; but God's rest is something into which men cannot be driven; they must come into it voluntarily, joyfully.

The Sabbath and the New Earth. -"The works were finished from the foundation of the world." What then?-Then rest. There could be nothing else. When work is done, and well done, rest must follow. So we read: "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended [ceased] His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made." Gen. ii. 1-3. As soon as the works were finished, God's rest began, and then it was the seventh day. So it is evident that the seventh day rest, the Sabbath of the Lord, God's rest, is new earth rest-rest in the new earth. Then whoever really and truly and understandingly keeps the Sabbath of the Lord, has just such rest, nay, the very same rest, as Adam had in the Garden of Eden, as the saints will enjoy in the earth made new, as God Himself enjoys in His Paradise. But of this more in our next lesson.

The Seal of Perfection. -Each day's work in the creation of the earth was "good;" but none of the days before the seventh could possibly have been the Sabbath, because the work was not complete; and rest can only follow perfect work finished. The Sabbath of the seventh day is the seal of perfection; it is the proof that the new creation is perfect and complete. Even so a man may have a Christian experience, good as far as it goes, yet imperfect because he does not yet know the fulness of the redemption that there is in Christ Jesus. This person has not yet kept the Sabbath, however much of the form he may have; for only those who fully and implicitly believe can keep God's Sabbath. Thus the seventh day is the seal of the perfect new creation, when the man is wholly partaker of Christ. And therefore it follows that it can and will be kept in the new earth in its perfection; for it is the pledge of the earth's restoration, even as it is the memorial of the fact that it was once made new; for "whatever God doeth it shall be for ever."

The Sabbath and the Cross. -We have learned in the third chapter that to be partakers of Christ is to be in God's house. But God's house is the place of His rest, as He says, "The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool; where is the house that ye build unto Me? and whose is the place of My rest?" Isa. Ixvl. 1. But how do we become partakers of Christ?-As many of you as were baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. Gal. iii. 27. Of course the enduring to the end is necessary to determine whether or not one is really a partaker. We put on Christ by baptism; and "so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death." Rom. vi. 3.

Now consider the last words of Jesus on the cross, before He committed His Spirit into the hands of the Father. They were, "It is finished!" What was finished? The perfect work of God in Him,-those works which God hath before, even from the foundation of the world, prepared, that we should walk in them. Eph. ii. 10. It was the announcement to the world that the new creation was complete in Christ. Therefore "if any man is in Christ, there it's a new creation." But our union with Christ is effected only at the point of death. It is in death that we are united to Him. That is, our union with Christ is effected just at the point when the works of God are completely finished in Him. That is why we are a new creation in Him. And then what follows? well, what must necessarily follow finished work? Rest must immediately follow. And so we ses that, uniting with Christ in His death on the cross at the very point where the work is complete, we necessarily immediately enter into the keeping of God's rest. The seventh-day Sabbath is the sign of the cross, the sign of crucifixion with Christ. Alas! how many there are who have the form of rest, and know nothing of the reality.

The Sabbath and Justification by Faith. -Only those who believe can keep the Sabbath of the Lord, as He says of those who murmur in unbelief, "They shall not enter into My rest." Thus there is no ground for the objection sometimes thoughtlessly brought against the presentation of the Sabbath truth, namely, that "we are not saved by works." Assuredly we are not; and that is why we set forth God's rest, pleading with people to cease from their works, and rest in Him. The Sabbath is rest; not work. It is the rest of faith; for perfect faith means absolute dependence on God dwelling in Him. This Sabbath truth, therefore, was contained in the preaching which was the keynote of the Reformation: "The just shall live by faith;" and it must be continued until the Reformation is completed by the willing acceptance of all that justification by faith involves, and the last vestige of the man of sin has been swept from the face of the earth. And then the preaching of it will cease, only because it will not be necessary to say, Know the Lord, for all will know Him from the least to the greatest. "Let us therefore fear lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it."

"For the Children. Raining Flowers" The Present Truth 19, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

The words above are not fancy, but it is really true that God rains down flowers upon the earth. This is what He is sending us in the rain that falls from the clouds. For the rain that comes from heaven to water the earth makes it "bring forth and bud."

In his beautiful Song of the Springtime, Solomon says, "The rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth." After the rain, and because of the rain, come the beautiful flowers.

The fair land of Palestine was described by the Lord as "a land flowing with milk and honey." Honey is gathered from the flowers; so it was a flowery land. And Moses told the people that it was such a beautiful, flowery, fruitful land because it "drank water of the rain of heaven." The Lord spread the flowers over it by sending the rain upon it. That is the way that He is spreading a flowery carpet for our feet to-day. So we should not mind when we see the dark clouds. Although they look black and angry, they are really full of hidden beauty. Each one might truly be called a basket of flowers.

"The clouds ye so much dread,

Are big with mercy, and will break

In blessings o'er your head."

At ancient festivals flowers were sometimes showered upon the guests, and in some lands this is done to this day. But men can only take the flowers that God has already sent down from heaven, to give to their friends.

God might send down these sweet gifts to us ready-made, but how much pleasure we should miss. We should not then be able to watch Him at work making the flowers, and even share in the work as He now lets us do. We should not see the sweet buds unfold and spread out their lovely coloured petals holding a rich feast of honey for bee and butterfly, as well as a feast of beauty and fragrance for our senses.

In some very hot countries the flowers come very quickly to perfection, and sometimes seem almost to have sprung up in one night. Very heavy dews fall during the night, and refresh the parched land. God says, "I will be as the dew unto Israel; he shall grow as the lily." He also promises to rain righteousness upon us, and in doing this, He is sending the flowers of grace into the hearts of His children. "As the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all nations."

"In our dear Lord's garden

Planted here below,

Many tiny flowerets

In sweet beauty grow.

"Christ, the loving Gardener,

Tends these blossoms small,

Loves the little lilies

As the cedars tall.

"Nothing is too little

For His gentle care,

Nothing is too lowly

In His love to share.

"Jesus calls the children,

Bids them come and stand

In His pleasant garden,

Watered by His hand."

"Easy Steps for Little Feet" The Present Truth 19, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

This little girl and boy do not like to see the rain. It stops their merry play. But if they were as wise as the little birds and animals seem to be, they would be glad.

Hear the little birds singing their thanks. Do they know that their heavenly Father is sending them food as well as drink in the pattering rain drops? The ducks know that their pond will now be full again. They seem to say in their loud "quack! quack!" "Nice soft mud and running water now we shall not lack."

See the flowers, how they lift, their bright faces, to be washed by the soft drops. Their thirsty little roots are taking a big drink of the pure water. The tall trees wave their branches in thanks for the rain which helps to clothe them in their new spring dress. They will now have plenty of sap to make their green buds swell and grow and burst out all over the brown boughs.

So let the little children, join with the birds and the flowers in giving thanks to their kind heavenly Father who makes His rain to fall upon all, even upon the unthankful. Let us not be among those.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

During the last fifty years the number of passengers carried annually in the United Kingdom has multiplied by fourteen. "Every man, woman and child in the country takes, on the average, thirty railway journeys a year."

London's indebtedness is growing steadily. Fourteen years ago it was under ?33,000,000 now it exceeds ?54,000,000, while a further Ioan of ?5,000,000 is about to be issued. It is expected that there will soon be another increase, equally large. Other municipal debts in the United Kingdom are enormously increasing, and now amount to over ?330,000,000. This is exclusive of the National Debt. A pact of the municipal outlay was to bring in returns, and reduce the rates, but these are steadily increasing also.

The tramp is now beginning to appear in a new character, as a disseminator of small-pox and similar diseases. Reports from ten different districts show that small-pox introduced by tramps, led to 763 cases of the disease followed by many deaths. Proposals have been made to enforce the vaccination of every tramp, but the difficulty in dealing with them is that some are genuine seekers for work. The man who is content to be dirty and idle is a danger not only to himself, but to everyone else.

The Bishop of Worcester exhorts his clergy not to talk so much about what the church teaches on this or that subject, but to say what the Bible teaches. This is excellent and much needed instruction, but it is likely to lead to some radical reforms in the church if It be adopted. To take only one instance, what would the Bishop reply to the question why the church did not observe the Sabbath of the fourth commandment? If he should attempt to answer from the Scriptures, these would only condemn the present practice of the church. The Church of Rome sees the difficulty, and, desiring to avoid the confession that she leads her people into sin, claims that it does not matter what the Bible teaches so long as one is in harmony with what the church teaches. So far the Church of England has largely followed the Church of Rome in this matter.

Another cure for cancer is being discussed in medical circles, and a pubic announcement on the subject is expected shortly. The cure, it is stated, will be in the direction of electric "high-frequency" treatment. One well-known surgeon, discussing the question, says: "Of this I am confident, that some day we shall find a cure, and I base my belief on the fact that Nature herself, without any assistance, has at various times cured the disease. We want to find out how Nature does it." This is a fair statement of the dependence of men upon nature; but it would be better if they would say "God" instead of "nature." All that men can do in scientific research is to watch God at work, but, unfortunately, when Rontgen or Marconi or some other student learns a little of the wonderful works of God, He is not mentioned in the matter, and the unthinking public imagines that the scientist has brought some new thing into existence instead of finding something which God has been using since the beginning. If they would acknowledge God, they would become much wiser, for "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."

The increasing evil of cigarette smoking among lads, which "has caused an enormous amount of physical and mental harm to children," has led to a campaign to check cigarette smoking among the young. It is stated that where one boy smoked occasionally ten years ago, 500 smoke regularly to-day. There is abundant proof of this in the streets. A Bill is shortly to be introduced into Parliament forbidding smoking by anyone under sixteen, and providing penalties for selling or giving tobacco to any under that age. It is not surprising that boys should be so addicted to smoking when adults almost universally set them the example. As a matter of fact the "physical and mental harm" is accomplished in adult smokers just as surely as in the children, although it may not become apparent so quickly. It is true that adult smokers will not admit this, but this is only another evidence of the mental harm they suffer, which is generally apparent enough to others. If the boys are to be saved from aping the hurtful indulgences of men, it must be by their elders setting them a more manly example.

There is great perturbation in the ranks of the brewers over the fact that some four hundred Licensing Benches have intimated that, unless a certain proportion of the licensing in their districts are voluntarily surrendered by the brewers, the magistrates themselves will see to it by refusing to renew licenses. This brings to the front once more the vexed question of compensation. One side argues that the drink and everything connected with it is a curse, and ought to be abolished with no compensation beyond the enormous profit it has made in the past. The other side replied that the Government has legalised the drink traffic, that millions have been invested in it, and that to destroy all this property without paying for it would be robbery. This brings about a deadlock, and there is only one way out of it. The people were responsible for the starting of the drink traffic and for its enormous growth. Now if all the people will become total abstainers from alcohol, they will stop the traffic, not only without paying any compensation, but will even save scientific millions in the process, and the brewers will not be able to say a word. Some may think that this would be a big undertaking. It would be, but not so big as to attempt to stop the drink traffic by settling the question of compensation. If temperance reformers had put into practical educational work the time and energy and money that has been expended on legislative attempts, they might have converted all the publicans by now as well as most of the people.

A curious and interesting case recently came before the Lancashire Chancery Court. A Liverpool policeman left certain property, half of which was to go to a Roman Catholic priest, part to pay for "prayers for the repose of my soul," and the rest for the poor of the parish. The Vice-Chancellor declared that it had been decided that money left for prayers for the repose of the soul of the testator was a superstitious use which the law would not recognise. Therefore he was bound to hold that this gift was bad, and there must be an inquiry for next of kin. The personal gift to the priest was allowed.

There is no question but that the idea of prayers for the dead is a superstition, yet it is based on a fundamental doctrine of most Protestant churches, as well as of the Roman Catholic, namely the conscious existence of the soul after death. This being allowed, prayers for them are the most natural thing imaginable; one is no more superstitious than the other. While we have no sympathy with the superstition, we cannot help agreeing with a correspondent of one of the daily papers, that "the decision savours of tyranny, and that it seems unjust and unequal that an eccentric old lady may leave a small fortune for the support of her favourite cat, but a hard-worked servant of the public may not dispose of his property according to the dictates of his conscience and religion." Still, Roman Catholics ought to be the last people in the world to complain of anything savouring of religious persecution.

Mr. Andrew Carnegie has written a book on how to succeed in business. He says that if a young man will keep free from strong drink, avoid speculation and never become security for others unless he is prepared to lose the money, there is only one secret which is needed to carry him to success. "It lies mainly in this: Instead of the question, 'What must I do for my employer?' substitute, 'What can I do?' The Scriptures give the advice in better form, and promise success even if it is never gained on earth: "Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart as unto Christ; not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men." Mr. Carnegie advised that where a man finds his master is not the right kind to appreciate his value, he should leave him as soon as possible, but this is cold comfort compared with the promise of the Scriptures, "Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free." Eph. vi. 5-8. The following of Mr. Carnegie's advice may make a few millionaires in the world, but the following of the Bible advice will make everlasting multi-millionaires even out of despised slaves, in the world to come.

"An Angry Mob Quelled. Acts xxi. 30-39" The Present Truth 19, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

Acts 21:30-39[1]1

In spite of the warnings received in every city, Paul had persevered in his journey to Jerusalem, and now he is within its gates. The brethren received him gladly, but the elders felt that it would be very desirable if Paul could give some evidence to the people that he respected the laws and customs of the Jews. Large numbers had been converted from Judaism to Christianity, and they were all "zealous of the law." These had been informed that Paul in his missionary work had been teaching the Jews among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, "saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs."

In order that these reports might be dispelled, the elders desired that Paul would connect himself with four believers who were under a vow, and join them in certain ceremonies. Paul consented, but before the ceremonies were completed, some Jews from Asia saw him in the temple, and stirred up all the people to lay hands on him. The cry was raised, "Men of Israel, help: This is the man that teacheth all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place." To this accusation, the Jews from Asia added the charge that Paul had desecrated the temple by bringing Greeks into it.

The charge was entirely false, but it served its purpose in inflaming the minds of the mob against the apostle. It had been waste of time for him to go out of his way to pacify those who had wrong ideas of his work. They did not wish to be disabused of their mistake. They hated Paul because of the truth he proclaimed, and were only too glad when the opportunity suddenly presented itself, to do him violence. "All the city was moved, and the people ran together: and they took Paul and drove him out of the temple; and forthwith the doors were shut."

The difference between Paul and the Jews was not one of external ceremony. They hated him because he preached a Gospel which cut at the root of all the self-righteous sophistries of Judaism. They went about to establish their own righteousness, and Paul had declared that in doing this, they showed themselves ignorant of the righteousness of God. Rom. x. 3. The gulf between the Jews and Paul was one that could not be bridged over by religious forms, for self-righteousness is the essence of the mystery of iniquity. Righteousness by faith is the Gospel of the mystery of God.

The true character of the religion of Judaism made itself manifest in an attempt to murder Paul as soon as it found an opportunity. But his testimony was not finished and nothing can kill God's servants till their work is done. "As they were about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. Who immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down unto them: and when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, they left beating of Paul."

Paul was snatched from the grasp of the people, and borne by the soldiers up the steps of the castle, but as he was being carried inside, he asked and obtained permission from the chief captain to address the people. Naturally, one would think that he had had quite enough of a Jewish crowd for one day. Raging like wild beasts robbed of their prey, shouting with one voice for the blood of the apostle, who bore the marks of their bloodthirsty violence, Paul might have been excused for feeling that these had no desire for the Gospel, and he had better reserve his strength for more profitable labour. But the Spirit that led Christ to pray for His murderers was in the heart of Paul, and perhaps, too, he remembered that he, the apostle of Christ, had once cried in like manner for the blood of the martyr Stephen. He turned to the people, and beckoned with his hand unto them. The power that had stilled the tumult of the sea was with him, and there came over the mob a great silence. In their own beloved language he told them of his early days, his persecution of the believers, his conversion, and the command given him to preach the Gospel of Christ.

The scene is one worthy of study. This was no hireling, whose interest in his work was measured by his wages. Instant in season and out of season, he was told to declare his message. Even when men would not receive it, but tried to take his life, he remembered his commission to give them the Gospel, and faithfully discharged his debt. No opportunity was slighted, nor was any danger able to silence him. Here was a true shepherd of the sheep, who did not flee when the wolf came, but was willing to give his life for the sheep. With such a ministry the work of the Gospel might even now be resumed in apostolic power, but there never will be such a ministry among those who are hired to preach the Gospel. "The hireling fleeth because he is an hireling." John x. 13.

In Paul's faithfulness, we have evidence that he uttered no idle boast when he spoke of the bonds and imprisonment which the Spirit had told him he would find at Jerusalem, and said, "None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself." Acts xx. 24. The violence of the mob, and its clamour for his life did not move him. To stand unmoved is the privilege of every Christian. "Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably." Heb. xii. 28. With apostolic faith and service there will come apostolic fearlessness. "Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed." "God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved." Ps. xlvi. 1-5.

In this experience of Paul's we can also see his unbounded faith in the power of the Gospel. He was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. He could face an angry multitude with the Gospel, knowing that it had power in itself to quiet them and win its own way. The Gospel was not given to him as a theory to be submitted to every people. It was the power of God, fit for the earnest inquiries of the humble seeker, deeper than the wisdom of the learned philosopher, able to hush the clamours of a mob, and to humble the pride of all the earth. It was committed to Paul "to make the Gentiles obedient," and "according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith." Rom. xv. 18; xvi. 26 Paul knew how to appreciate the honour of being an ambassador of Christ,-and as long as he could be this, he was willing to be counted as the offscouring of all things by the world that had crucified his Master; and he was all the more willing in that his own humiliation made it the more apparent that the excellency of the power was of God, and not of man. 2 Cor. iv. 7.

April 30, 1903

"The Plot Against Paul. Acts xxiii. 12-22" The Present Truth 19, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

(Acts xxiii. 12-22)

Paul's work at Jerusalem was finished. The night after his arrest the Lord stood by him, and bade him to of good cheer, "for as thou hast testified concerning Me at Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome." Verse 11. The testimony borne at Jerusalem had been very brief, but it was sufficient. Christ had been revealed again in the life of His apostle, with the same result as when He had borne witness to the truth in His own person. Again the murderous spirit of Satan had taken possession of the Jews, and they were determined to put Paul to death.

A spirit of intense zeal possessed both the servant of God and the instruments of Satan, and Paul had to be ready at any moment to bear his testimony, under any and all circumstances. Barely a week had passed since Paul had arrived in Jerusalem. After being in the city about five days, he was seized by the multitude, rescued from them by the chief captain, and allowed to make his defence from the steps of the castle. The crowd permitted him to speak until he told how God had commissioned him to carry the Gospel to the Gentiles, but at that hated word the rage of the people again broke out in a furious demand for the life

275

of the speaker. The chief captain interfered once more, and commanded that Paul be scourged until he should confess the crimes which so enraged the populace against him, but, on learning that the prisoner was a Roman citizen, he countermanded this order, and directed that Paul appear before the whole council of the Jews on the following day.

DIVIDED AGAINST THEMSELVES

The hearing began, but no sooner had Paul commenced to speak than the high priest commanded that He be smitten on the mouth. Evidently it was useless to look for a fair hearing from that tribunal. The apostle accurately gauged the character of those present, and, with one allusion to the doctrine of the resurrection, set the whole assembly by the ears. "And when there arose a great dissension, the chief captain, fearing lest Paul should have been pulled in pieces of them, commanded the soldiers to go down, and to take him by force from among them, and to bring him into the castle."

That night the Lord stood by Paul and told him that he must testify at Rome. The chosen people had rejected the Messiah, and His witnesses. The Refiner had come to them and separated the pure silver from the dross. Those who were left rejected the testimony of Paul, and thereby proclaimed themselves devoid of any love for truth or nobility of character. "They are all grievous revolters, going about with slanders: they are brass and iron: they all of them deal corruptly. The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed of the fire: in vain do they go on refining; for the wicked are not plucked away. Refuse silver shall man call them, because the Lord hath rejected them." Jer. vi. 28-30.

A RASH VOW AND ITS RESULT

The morning following Paul's appearance before the council, more than forty of the Jews banded themselves together under a curse that they would neither eat nor drink until they had slain Paul. They laid their plans in co-operation with the chief priests and the council. But Paul's nephew learned of the plot and communicated it to Paul, who sent him with the tidings to the chief captain. Claudius Lysius, the chief captain, immediately sent Paul to C?sarea unto Felix, the governor, under a strong escort of four hundred and seventy soldiers.

Thus the apostle set out on the first stage of his journey to Rome. He appeared weak and insignificant in comparison with the host that safeguarded him, and few would have thought that Rome had ought to fear from her prisoner. But, under the seeming weakness, was the power of God. Only as a prisoner, subject to her judgment, could Paul find a hearing, among the great men of Rome; but in that lowly guise the truth of God came before the rulers of the empire, and placed them on trial. Their judgment throne became the prisoner's dock, their fettered captive cited them to the law of the Most High, who ruleth over the kingdoms of men, and they saw themselves guilty and condemned before God. Wherever the truth came it triumphed. The fires of persecution could not burn it up. It gained new strength from martyrdom. The empire tottered and fell, but the truth went on. Men buried it under sophistries and traditions, but it awoke in the hearse of the reformers, and overthrew the strongholds of error. Again the world and a faithless religion are seeking to bury the truth, but it can only be hid to those that are lost, in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not. The time is near when God will sweep away every refuge of lies, and only then, when the saints sit on thrones of judgment (Rev. xx. 4), and all things are made plain, shall we know what a mighty work was done for this world when Paul bore witness of Jesus Christ in the city of Rome.

SWEARING TO THEIR OWN DESTRUCTION

And what of the forty hungry, disappointed murderers in Jerusalem? They furnish a striking example of the fate of those who dig a pit for others. In the blind fury of revenge which prompted their vow, they were pronouncing their own death sentence. Paul was delivered from their hands, and in his escape they, by their own oath, were doomed to death, for they had sworn that they would not eat nor drink until they had killed Paul.

If they violated their oath, as doubtless some of them, at least, would do, their lives would be an evidence, as long as they lasted, that Paul's work was of God, and man could not stop it. They themselves would become an exhibition of impotent malice, ridiculous in proportion to the greatness of their oath, a scorn and derision to all for their irresolute cowardice.

Sin always reacts on the sinner. The successful wrong-doer may be admired and envied, but he should rather be pitied. He has sinned against his own soul, and no one could wish for him any worse punishment than the sin itself is to him, "Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death." A man may seem to prosper in wrong-doing, but it is not so. He has only consulted shame to his own house. Hab. ii. 9, 10.

A HARVEST OF BLOODSHED

The sin of Judah in rejecting Christ and seeking to destroy His disciples worked their own destruction. Within ken years of Paul's leaving the city, Jerusalem was so full of fratricidal bloodshed that it was really the mercy of God which brought the Roman army against the Jews, and cut short the hideous carnage. The siege was terrible and the suffering unequalled, but it was better than the state of things before the Romans encamped against the city. The Jews had rejected the Spirit of love and gentleness, and had fully yielded to the rule of him who was a murderer from the beginning. From this terrible end Paul would have died to save his kinsman according to the flesh, but they would have murdered him, too, if God had not removed him out of their reach, and sent him to those who would hear his message.

GOD'S SERVANTS INVULNERABLE

The servant of God is immortal till his work is done. Paul could not be killed till he had finished his course. He passed safely through innumerable perils, and at one time he was a night and a day in the deep (2 Cor. xi. 25), long enough to drown a hundred times over, but there was not water enough in the ocean to drown Paul while his ministry was unfulfilled. The very safest place in this world is to be in the service of God. Neither fire nor water can endanger the man who is doing the work God has given him to do, and who has committed his keeping into the hands of a faithful Creator. Isa. xliii. 2. Paul's experiences are written for us that we may know how God will work in and through the life that is wholly yielded to Him, to minister to others the manifold riches of God.

"The Editor's Private Corner. Familiar Spirits and Modern Spiritualism" The Present Truth 19, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

"Do you think that there is any connection between the 'familiar spirits' mentioned in the Bible, and the Spiritualism of the present day? If so, is it not as sinful now to have any dealings with them as it was then? Will you tell us what is meant by 'the sin of witchcraft'?"

WHAT IS A FAMILIAR SPIRIT?

A familiar spirit, as the term as used in the Bible, is an evil spirit, supposed to attend at a call. In modern Spiritualism each Spiritualistic medium is generally supposed to have a spirit which comes whenever a "sitting" or "sÈance" is desired, and by which the medium is controlled, and under whose influence and inspiration the medium writes or performs. In other words, the medium has a familiar spirit. God gives His prophets revelations and dreams, not at their call or appointment, but when He desires and sees it would be best for them to have them; but the hosts of darkness, as a rule, come on demand. They are "familiar," too familiar and common altogether. They should never be called, but resisted always. He who trifles with them is treading on forbidden ground.

The Bible plainly reveals the fall of Satan as well as the fall of man. Eze. xxviii. 13-19; Luke x. 18; John viii. 44. It shows that many of the angels of heaven also transgressed and fell with him. "God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell." 2 Peter ii. 4. "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world; he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." Rev. xii. 9.

The last text shows to what place Satan and his angels were cast. It was to the earth. It also shows what has been his work since his banishment from heaven, deceiving the world: tempting man through the deceptions of lies, magic, witchery, cunning and craft, as he did Eve, to transgress against God, with whose law and government he is at war.

God, who knows his subtlety and cunning, and the thousands of ways by which he seeks to snare and enslave men, has ever sought to warn men against those deceptions. Thus, just before Israel entered into the land of Canaan, He gave them the following plain prohibition:-

"When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee." Deut. xviii. 9-12.

This is plain language, and is as much a command and prohibition against the practise of these things now as when first given. God does not change. Divination, witchery, and the consulting with familiar spirits are as much abominations to Him to-day as they were anciently. There is the same evil behind them now, and the same deception connected with them, as when the daughters of Moab called the people [of Israel] unto the sacrifice of their gods." Num. xxv. 1, 2. Fifteen hundred years later Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils." 1 Cor. x. 20. And the nature of these things has not changed in the eighteen hundred years which have elapsed since Paul wrote. They are still abominations and from an evil source. They are still Satan's means of deceiving the world.

THE SIN OF WITCHCRAFT

When the children of Israel were travelling from Egypt to Canaan, the Amalekites came out to oppose their progress by arms. This was nothing less than an act of armed rebellion against God, under whose guidance the Israelites were marching, and therefore God said, "Because the hand of Amalek is against the throne of the Lord, therefore the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation." Ex. xvii. 16, marginal reading.

The Amalekites filled up the measure of their iniquity, and the Lord chose the Israelites, in the days when Saul was king, to be the instruments by which He would execute judgment upon them. Accordingly the prophet Samuel came to Saul with the following command from the Lord:-

"Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." 1 Sam. xv. 3.

So Saul departed on his mission, and smote the Amalekites; "but Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the failings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them; but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly." Verse 9.

This, it will readily be seen, was in direct violation of the express command of the Lord; yet so deceived was Saul, that he thought that he had obeyed the Lord; for when Samuel came to seek him, Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the Lord; I have performed the commandment of the Lord." Verse 13.

Samuel, however, was not deceived. The evidences of Saul's disobedience were too numerous; the cattle themselves proclaimed the fact. And so, to Saul's protestation of obedience, the prophet said, "What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?"

To this pertinent question Saul replied, "They have brought them from the Amalakites; for the people, spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed."

It will be seen from this that Saul had so far recovered from his deception that he was willing to excuse himself from any

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connection with the disobedience, and to lay the entire blame upon the people. Yet he excused the act as a righteous one, inasmuch as they designed ultimately to kill all the cattle that they had taken. He seemed to think that so long as the cattle were finally destroyed, it would make no difference how or when it was done. Indeed, he seemed to think that offering them as a sacrifice to the Lord, would more than make up for the disobedience; for upon Samuel's reproving him for his arrogant disregard of the Lord's commandment, Saul again replied:-

"Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal."

Even this did not make any difference; the disobedience was too evident, and the prophet of the Lord said: "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry." 1 Sam. xv. 22, 23.

The reader will notice that the words "is as" in the verse Iast quoted, are in italics in the Bible, indicating that they have no equivalent in the Hebrew, but are supplied by the translators. The Hebrew language is brief, and a simple connective is often omitted when it would necessarily be understood. In reading "Rebellion, the sin of witchcraft; and stubbornness, iniquity and idolatry," it would be most natural to supply the copula "is," but there would be no necessity nor warrant for supplying "as." So that we may understand the prophet to say, as given in the Jewish rendering, that rebellion is indeed the sin of witchcraft, and that stubbornness is iniquity and image-worship. Wherever therefore we find rebellion, there we find the sin of witchcraft.

This idea is expressed by the Apostle Paul when writing to the Galatians, who were turning away from the purity of the Gospel, and were disobeying the truth of God. Gal. i. 6, 7. To them he exclaimed: "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you?" Gal. iii. 1.

THE ROOT OF THE MATTER

Having seen that plain violation of one of God's commandments is the sin of witchcraft, no matter how specious the excuse, let us now go to the root of the whole matter. Writing to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul said: "I fear; lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." 2 Cor. xi. 3.

It is evident that in every attempt to beguile men from the truth as it is in Jesus, the devil has used the same arts with which he succeeded in deceiving Eve. Let us, therefore, see by what means she was deceived. Read the account in Gen. iii. 1-6.

God had commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, saying: "In the day ye eat thereof ye shall surely die." The devil came with artful insinuations against God, intimating that God was unjust in giving such a commandment. "Is it so that God hath said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Can it be possible that He would be so arbitrary as that?" This prepared the way for a bolder strike in response to Eve's statement that God had said that they might eat of every tree but one, but that they should die if they ate of that. The serpent said:-

"Ye shall not surely die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods [literally, like God], knowing good and evil."

Then the record says that "when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat."

But the fact was that the tree was not one to be desired; neither, since God had prohibited it, was it good for food. It was poisonous for her, as has been amply demonstrated; for it was

-"the tree whose mortal taste

Brought death into the world, and all our woe."

How then did the woman see that the fruit of the tree was good for food, and to be desired?-She saw it through the representations of the tempter. He caused her to see it by means of his magic arts. She was bewitched. She saw that which did not exist, just as has been the case with many people since, when they have been under the spell of the conjurer. It was witchcraft and magic that caused the sin from which all other sins have sprung. And thus we see why it was that rebellion is the sin of witchcraft.

But what was the magic by which the tempter induced Eve to transgress the express commandments of the, Lord?-It is all summed up in one sentence, "Ye shall not surely die." It was the belief of this lie that caused the first sin and all the sins that have followed in its train. It is by the subtlety by which the serpent beguiled Eve that our minds are in danger of being corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. False prophets and teachers are threatened with punishment by the Lord, because, as He says:-

"With lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life." Eze. xiii. 22.

Saul's disobedience finally led him to actually consult with a witch before he died. Read the record in 1 Sam.xxviii. and 1 Chron. x. 13, 14.

"A Wise Man" The Present Truth 19, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

The reason why the person who has learned that he knows nothing, or next to nothing, is a wise man, is that he has come to that state of mind only because he has had a view of how much there is to be known. The one who feels that he knows much, shows thereby that he has no idea of how much more there is to be known, and therefore cannot be expected ever to attempt to learn much more. "Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him."

"The Bible Class. The Accepted Time. Heb. iv. 6-11" The Present Truth 19, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

(Heb. iv. 6-11.)

"Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief; again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To-day, after so long a time; as it is said, To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief."

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

1. What fact is fixed concerning the rest?

2. What follows from this, coupled with the fact that they to whom it was first preached entered not in?

3. What day is limited?

4. What exhortation is given concerning "To-day?"

5. Under whom did the Israelites fail to receive rest?

6. What would have happened if Joshua had given them rest?

7. What still remains for the people of God?

8. What is said of him that is entered into His rest?

9. To what ought we to give diligence?

10. For what purpose?

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY

"Some Must Enter In." -Into what must some enter?-Into God's rest, of course; for that is the subject under consideration.

Why must some enter into God's rest?-Because God has sworn it, pledging His own existence upon it. Recall what we had last week: "We which have believed do enter into rest, as He said, As I have sworn in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest." The oath that unbelievers shall not enter into rest, comes from the oath that those who believe shall enter into it.

And what is the rest into which some must enter?-It is God's rest, the rest of perfect works completed, the rest of peace and righteousness, the rest which was prepared for man to enjoy with God on that seventh day when God rested from all His work, and which is at once the memorial and the pledge of the new earth. It is complete freedom from the dominion of sin. It is the fulfillment of God's holy covenant, "the oath which He sware to our father Abraham, that He would grant unto us, 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." Luke i. 72-75.

This is what should give us boldness in coming to the Lord for salvation. There is no ground for the trembling question, "Will He receive me?" No, He must receive us; some must enter in, for God's honour, His very existence, is pledged to it. And this saying that "some" must enter in, does not imply that only a select few can come in. Far from it. The word is, "The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Rev. xxii. 17. "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." Isa. Iv. 1.

Some must enter in; the necessity is imperative; but unbelievers, workers of wickedness, cannot enter in. John the Baptist told the proud, hypocritical Pharisees that God was able to take the stones under their feel, and raise up children to Abraham. Matt. iii. 9. He will have His house filled, if He has to make them out of stones; that would be no more than He did in the beginning, when He made Adam. And that ought to be a source of constant comfort and courage to us; for what He is able to do with stones, He certainly can do with us, if we are willing.

Another Day-To-day. -The time of the promise which God had sworn to Abraham was drawing near when Moses was born. Acts vii. 17-20. If the children of Israel had hearkened and been obedient to the message that God sent them by Moses, He would soon have subdued all their enemies, and "their time should have endured for ever." Ps. lxxxi. 13-15. But "they could not enter in because of unbelief," and therefore since some must enter in, God set another time,-He limited another day,-and that time, that day, was "To-day." In the time of David, five hundred years after the passing of the time sworn to Abraham, "after so long a time," the Holy Spirit said, "To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts." Any day up to the time of the Babylonian captivity, the promise would have been fulfilled, and the earth might have been brought into subjection and renewed, if the children of Israel had only believed. Read, for example, Jer. xvii. 19-26.

Only One Day. -Note that the time was limited; only one day was promised, and that was, "To-day." When God made the promise to Abraham, He limited the time to four hundred years (Gen. xv. 13-16); but when the Holy Spirit spoke by David, the time was limited to one day. It was a very short time, you will say. Yes, it was; but it was time enough; and you will agree that the shorter the time the better, when you learn that the one day to which it was limited was.

"The Day of Salvation." -All are familiar with the words, "Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. vi. 2); but very few take in their full significance. In order to understand them, we must know the forty-ninth chapter of Isaiah, from which they are quoted. We cannot quote it all here, but we can note a few striking points, and the student can read the whole at leisure. Christ, representing all Israel, is the speaker at the beginning. He is called before His birth to be the Lord's servant, with a message. But He says, "I have laboured in vain, I have spent My strength for naught, and in vain;" and well He might say that, in view of Israel's unbellef. But His work is with the Lord who formed Him, and made Him His servant, "to bring Jacob again to Him," and He will surely be glorified in the bringing of many sons to glory; for the promise is, "I will also give Thee for a light to the Gentiles, that Thou mayest be My salvation unto the end of the earth;" and here is His authority:-

"Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and His Holy One, to Him whom man despiseth, to Him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers: Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the Lord that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and He shall choose Thee. Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard Thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped Thee; and I will preserve Thee, and give Thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages that Thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that

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are in darkness, Show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places. They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them; for He that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall He guide them." lsa. xlix 7-10. Compare with Rev. vii. 9-17.

From this we see that the acceptable time is not simply a time in which it is possible for us to be saved; that is altogether too meagre an idea of salvation; it is a time in which we are accepted as servants of God, to save others. The salvation referred to is the complete redemption in the kingdom of God, when the earth shall be renewed and established for an everlasting inheritance, and the Lamb shall lead the redeemed by the fountains of living water. All this might have been the lot of the children of Israel, if only they had been faithful, and willing to be God's salvation unto the ends of the earth. It is also what is immediately before us, if we will accept it. Do you not agree that the shorter the intervening time is, the better? Shall we not say of this day of salvation, This is the day that the Lord has made; we will be glad and rejoice in it"?

"Easy Steps for Little Feet" The Present Truth 19, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

In the spring time all the birds are very busy. First they choose their mates; then they build their nests and lay their eggs. After this the mother bird has to stay at home all the time to hatch the eggs. And when the young ones come out of the shell, both parents are busy getting them food.

Each kind of bird has a different kind of nest. Look at the beautiful little cradle in our picture. It is slung up just like a sailor's hammock. The bird that builds this nest is called the Honey Eater, because it feeds on the sweet juice of the flowers. Its home is in Australia.

The nest is hung high up on a thin twig at the top of a tall tree. It is very hard to find. If any animal should climb up to take the eggs or young when the parents are away, the thin twigs would not bear his weight, and he would be afraid to venture.

The soft wind rocks the nest gently to and fro, as a mother rocks her little one's cradle. The cool breeze keeps the nest from getting too warm and uncomfortable for the young birds.

God watches over all the little birds. Not one is forgotten by Him. He gives the parent birds skill and wisdom to care for and defend their young, and not even a little sparrow falls to the ground without His notice.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

Repairs to a small bridge have cost a certain Rural Council ?34 10s. Litigation to decide who should pay cost over ?500.

The London County Council recently called attention to the growing habit of using mineral acids to flavour cheap spirits. Sulphuric acid, which often contains arsenic, is employed as an "improver" of whisky and gin.

Following a recent earthquake in the Valley of the Jordan, the level of the Dead Sea has fallen considerably. It is thought that the bottom subsided during the earthquake. According to reports, the waters of the Jordan now fall into the Dead Sea from an elevation, whereas formerly they were nearly on the same level.

Cancer statistics for Ireland show that in the year 1901, there were 2,893 deaths from this disease. In many cases, cancer recurs in the same family, from generation to generation. Frequently, cancerous families are also afflicted with tuberculosis, lunacy, idiocy or epilepsy. Irritation of the lips from smoking is one cause of cancer, also unfavourable conditions of residence, and improper food.

Germany has been experiencing lately some of the fruits of militarism and is not well pleased with them. A young officer murdered a private deliberately for not treating him with the respect he considered due to his rank. It now transpires that "all the naval cadets and ensigns before leaving Kiel for their holidays made a solemn vow that they would not permit to pass unnoticed any neglect by privates to salute them properly." The nation that delights in militarism is sowing the wind, and sooner or later it will reap the whirlwind.

A Royal Commission has been appointed to investigate the matter of importing food and raw materials into the United Kingdom in time of war, and to advise what steps are necessary, in addition to a strong navy, to secure sufficient supplies and avoid violent fluctuations in price. It is always claimed that England would be within a few weeks of starvation, if her imports were suspended, so that in all probability the result of the Royal Commission will be to saddle the country with the enormous expense involved in provisioning England for a prolonged siege.

There is great enthusiasm at the present time over emigration to Canada, and large parties of emigrants are going west. It has been generally supposed that the movement was good, both for Canada and the emigrants, but Canadian labour organisations are beginning to show active disapproval of the inrush of immigration. They declare that the railway and steamship companies have engineered the movement for their own advantage, and that the working classes of Canada are being inspired by it. They do not object to agricultural immigrants, and propose to start a counter agitation in England to discourage working men from going to Canada.

Civilisation is making some progress at least in a sensible direction. The London County Council has passed a regulation which will make it an offence punishable by a fine up to forty shillings, to spit in or upon any of their tramway cars. The habit is dirty and dangerous, and public opinion ought to be educated to regard it as such. Perhaps in time it will also be recognised that it is selfish, dirty and injurious to health for men to poison the atmosphere for others by smoking tobacco in the streets and other public places. Unfortunately when a person is under the influence of nicotine he is not in a fit condition to recognise what a nuisance he often is to others.

At an inquest in Northumberland, evidence showed that it was customary in certain colliery districts for young women to eat uncooked rice, oatmeal and starch in order to induce a pale complexion, regarded in those parts as a mark of beauty. The proceeding is an entirely scientific one, as those who desire an anemic complexion can quickly secure it by this means. The time will vary according to the degree of cooking of the foods mentioned, but the general practice of cooking of cereals for ten or twenty minutes is a certain way to attain a pale complexion. It will also be helpful to avoid ventilated rooms and to refrain from exercise as much as possible. The means adopted to secure a pale complexion in the ease referred to was perfectly successful,-hence the inquest.

President Roosevelt is urging that the U.S. navy should be still further increased. He said lately, "We want a powerful and efficient navy, not for purposes of war, but as the surest guarantee of peace. If we have such a navy, if we keep an building it up, we may rest assured that there will be but the smallest chance of trouble ever coming to the nation." Men are saying, "Peace, peace," but all the time they are getting ready for war. The devil must laugh to see how all the statesmen of the world have adopted his suggestion that "the best way to ensure peace is to prepare for war," but while they are labouring so strangely in the interests of peace, the time of trouble "such as never was since there was a nation" is drawing nigh, and the nations are getting armed for the conflict.

It is reported from the United States that the violence of men on strike is beginning to provoke a response in kind from the employers. "Recently a well known labour organiser went down to the cigar factories in Tampa, Florida. He promptly received an anonymous letter, telling him to leave the city within twenty-four hours under pain of death. 'We are convinced you are a troublemaker,' the letter said. 'Leave or you die.' Nor was this an idle threat. Early last year fifteen members of the labour union in Tampa were kidnapped, landed on a deserted island, and left there to starve to death. Only two months ago another organiser of the men in the same city was forcibly taken to a lonely spot near by, and whipped to the point of death." Even while the nations are vieing with each other in a display of strength, and draining their resources for the maintenance of fleets and armies, their internal wealth is ebbing away in a suicidal strife between the employers and the workers. Not only between the nations, but in them, we are returning to the condition which led to the destruction of the ancient world, when "the earth was filled with violence." The violence does not gain its purpose. It proves that those who perpetrate it cannot be entrusted with the power they seek for, and they perish in their own violence, while those who love peace and are faithful to it, will enjoy it for ever. "Violence shall no more be heard in thy Iand; wasting nor destruction within thy borders."

A well-known author and journalist has lately died in poverty in one of the Rawton Houses. This has called attention to the fact that among those who have made shipwreck of life and found a refuge in these Houses, are one hundred and twenty doctors, dentists, lawyers, clergymen, authors and journalists. Not all owe their condition to drink, although to this is due the downfall of many. There must have been some serious lack in the education of these men when the things they learned have done so little for them. It needs something more than even a college training to make a success of life. Unfortunately the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom and therefore the starting point of all true education, is too often omitted, but no learning which lacks this will stand the tests of life. It will tend to poverty and loss, either during this present life or in the judgment which follows it.

Another cure for consumption is reported. It consists in breathing the vapour of oil of eucalyptus, mixed with sulphur and charcoal. In one trial, out of 100 cases of tuberculosis, sixty were pronounced entirely cured by this treatment. It is a question how much credit should be given to the eucalyptus oil for these cures, and how much to the deep breathing. Perhaps the patients would not have been willing to breathe so deeply if there had been no special aroma in the air. One physical benefit which comes from walking in the open air among sweet smelling flowers is that we naturally breathe more deeply to inhale their fragrance, and thus fill our systems with the life-giving oxygen. If one always breathes deeply he will never be troubled with lung complaints. These always attack the lungs that are weakened by insufficient supplies of air, due to lack of exercise or to compression of the lunge by tight clothing, corsets and injurious attitudes.

Dr. Parker's address, which was prepared before his last illness, and read at the Free Church Council by another, consisted largely of a protest against the latter-day criticism of the Bible, and a plea for the Bible to be kept in the place that it held in the days of our fathers,-as a real book, dealing in realities. Unfortunately this voice from the grave will have but little affect, for the critics and the "science falsely so called" have the ears of the clergy, most of whom are afraid that they will be thought uneducated if they are not fully in line with the latest deductions of science, or "the scholarship of the day." Just as though a book, a portion of which was written by Solomon, the wisest man of all times, and all of which was written by men who were directly enlightened by the Spirit that taught Solomon,-the Spirit that "teacheth all things, yea, the deep things of God,"-were not the book to lead and form the scholarship of all time.

"Cured Through Exercise" The Present Truth 19, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

Mr. John D. Rockefeller, the American multi-millionaire, who is said to have offered a million dollars to any doctor who would give him a new stomach, and relieve him from the tortures of dyspepsia, has stated that he is now feeling better than he has felt for years. He writes, "I think the improvement is due to golf. During my stay in California, I became an adept at the game, and now feel like a new man." From which there are some things to be learned: one is that it is more profitable to play golf than to amass millions of money, for the golf has done for Mr. Rockefeller what the millions could not. Another lesson is that the really valuable things cost the least. Any vigorous exercise with all the muscles of the body will do as well as golf, and can easily be made more useful. Let everyone remember that such exercise is worth a million, especially if taken before dyspepsia is contracted. Another lesson is that vigorous exercise is better than doctors for maintaining or restoring health. And another lesson is that no one should despair of recovering health, if only he will seek it where God has placed it, in His own unadulterated air and sunshine and water. Open the lungs and the skin to these, let them enter the body freely, increase the power of receiving them by proper exercise, and they will bring health and vitality into the system.

"Fulness of Joy" The Present Truth 19, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

Fulness of Joy. -"In Thy presence," says the psalmist, "there is fulness of joy." And again he asks, "Whither shall I flee from Thy presence?" No one can escape from the presence of the Lord. Therefore it is not simply in heaven, but in earth also that there is fulness of joy for every one who will believe it.

"'The Morning Cometh, and also the Night'" The Present Truth 19, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

The fall in the price of Consols is causing alarm in many circles. A few years ago it was 114, but it has now been reduced to 90. This means that the national credit has depreciated considerably, and, in case of any emergency, such as war, it would be proportionately difficult to get money on loan. Yet in the face of this, the expenditure for military purposes is to be increased. Mr. Chamberlain has said that the burden of empire is too heavy for this country to bear alone, and that England must have help from the colonies. But the colonies are also increasing their debts, and losing in credit. With individuals this kind of thing would soon lead to bankruptcy. In the case of nations, it must lead to a continually increasing burden of taxation, which would grow with frightful rapidity in the event of war. Even now statesmen are saying that the country is being bled to death in time of peace. What will it be when war comes? The signs of the times are easy to read, but while they tell of distress of nations with perplexity, they tell also that the coming of the Son of man is near, "even at the doors." A few years ago one might see every few weeks some sign that the end was drawing near. Now almost every daily newspaper is full of evidence that the final conflict is just upon us. The rivalry of the nations, the suicidal strife between capital and Iabour, the heaping up of great riches in the hands of a few, the growth of trusts, and unions, the development of Spiritualism, and many other features foretold in the Scriptures, all show that we are in the Iast days. But this is not the only side. While the powers of darkness are strengthening their hold on the world, the Gospel is shining brighter and brighter, the prophecies are being unfolded, and a people is being made ready to stand in the day of the Lord. Happy is the man who walks in the light of truth and looks for his coming King. While darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people, he will arise and shine because his light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon him.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

The flesh is carnal, and it will continue to be so until the coming of the Lord, "who shall change our vile body." Sin is always crouching at the door, and is upon us the instant we look away from the Lord. But the believer does not live in terror. "The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your hearts and you thoughts in Christ Jesus." Phil. iv. 7, R.V. God can guard even the thoughts from the enemy. But if He is to guard the heart and mind, they must be yielded to Him. If we hold to our own ways and thoughts He cannot guard them from evil; for they are evil. "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the righteous man his thoughts."

Selfishness is the beginning of all sin. As self-love was the cause of the first sin in the universe, and that of all that have followed, so unselfishness-love of others-is that by which sin will be banished. Christ loved us, and gave Himself for us. To love God with all our being, and our neighbours as ourselves, is righteousness. This means the complete effacement of self, even as Christ "emptied Himself." Phil. ii. 5-7. But no man can thus efface himself; it can be done only by the Spirit of God, with our consent. So the exhortation is, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus."

Abraham was the friend of God, therefore God told him when He was about to destroy Sodom. Note the words: "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?" Gen. xviii. 17. Abraham and the Lord were so intimate that the Lord could not think of doing anything without telling His friend Abraham. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and He will show them His covenant." Ps xxv. 14. "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets." Amos iii. 7. What a blessed privilege to be admitted into the confidence of the Lord, to share His secrets! "The meek will He guide in judgment; and the meek will He teach His way." Ps. xxv. 9. What wonderful possibilities for improvement this opens up to us! for, "as for God, His way is perfect." Ps. xviii. 30.

But friendship is a mutual affair. "A man that hath friends must show himself friendly." Prov. xviii. 24. If God reveals His secret affairs to us, and tells us all about Himself, because we are His friends, then we must unbosom ourselves to Him because He is our Friend. We must keep nothing back from Him, even as He keeps nothing of His back from us. It is easy for us thus to confide in Him, when we come to know the value of His friendship.

We naturally shrink from telling even the Lord some things about ourselves, because we are too much ashamed of them to speak of them. This would not be if we knew Him as we ought. He is a true and faithful Friend, and will never reveal what is told to Him in confidence. If we do not tell our sins to the Lord, then they will at the last be published to the whole world; but if we tell them to Him, He will cover them up, so that no other soul can ever see them or learn about them.

But, better than this, He will forget them Himself. He says of His people, that He "will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." Micah vii. 19. "Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." Heb. viii. 12. But God never forgets anything that exists; therefore when He forgets our sins they are for ever blotted out of existence. "The iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none." Jer. l. 20. Who would not have such a friend? Why should we seek to conceal anything from the Lord? or why should we show ourselves so unfriendly, and so unworthy of His friendship, as to substitute in any particular our will for His? "O taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man that trusteth in Him."

We have just received a donation from an interested reader, who is "anxious to let someone else that perhaps can't get one," have the benefit of the paper. The amount sent will enable us to distribute sixty copies to those who would not otherwise have received them. We heartily thank the donor, and trust that by the blessing of God on the papers sent out, this kind action will be made very fruitful.

May 7, 1903

"Paul Before Felix. Acts xxiv. 10-16, 24-26" The Present Truth 19, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

(Acts xxiv. 10-16, 24-26)

Paul's defence before Felix is an illustration of how the promise of the Saviour was fulfilled to His disciples, that when any of them should be brought before kings and rulers for His name's sake, He would give them a mouth and wisdom, which all their adversaries should not be able to gainsay nor resist. Luke xxi. 12-15. The Jews had brought down to C?sarea with them a hired orator, skilful to misrepresent and distort truth, and cunning in flattery and abuse, but his art shows very poorly against the clear honesty of the apostle's words. There was no sign in Paul's statement of a mind disturbed by fear or anxiety. In simple language, quiet, but embracing every point of the accusation, he briefly disposes of the falsehoods of Tertullus and his clients, and lays his finger calmly on the fatal weakness of their case. The Jews from Asia, on whose charge the whole accusation was founded, had not come forward to bear their testimony. Felix recognised that Paul was in the right, and adjourned the case until Lysius, the chief captain, should come down to Caesarea, and tell his tale.

THE SPIRIT'S TESTIMONY

The answer which the Spirit put into Paul's mouth at this time was simply the narration of his own deeds. His bringing of alms to Jerusalem, his avoidance of all tumult and dispute, the fact that he was purified when he stood in the temple, and his innocence of the charge of teaching contrary to the law, were in themselves a complete refutation of the attack now made upon him. In reality his answer had been given before he was brought to trial, for it consisted in his life and conduct. This is the kind of answer the Spirit inspires in Christ's witnesses. We are not to wait until we stand at some judgment seat to bear our testimony, before we let the Spirit be our mouth and our wisdom. Our lives must now be submitted entirely to its control, only Christ being heard in our voice, so that the Spirit can be making ready its own answer in us, for the time when it will be needed.

PAUL'S "HERESY"

Paul's speech was a defence, it was also a preaching of the Gospel, and laid special emphasis on the resurrection from the dead. Tertullus, in the most offensive language at his command, had described the apostle as "a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes." The word "sect" is the same word in the original as "heresy," and Paul confessed that after the way which the Jews described as "heresy," he worshipped the God of his fathers. He then proceeded to set forth the character of his heresy, but when he had stated it, all must have seen that he was the one who adhered to the faith, while the Jews who had pronounced his course "heresy" were thereby condemning themselves of departure from the faith of the fathers.

Unfortunately, the time is not yet past, when those who believe with Paul are accounted heretics. Men have so largely departed from the faith of Abraham that the believer who to-day says, "So worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets: and have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust," is almost universally accounted a heretic. With the majority there is a very misty idea of what is written in the law and the prophets, and also concerning the Bible teaching on the subject of the resurrection.

Let us briefly examine the statement of Paul's faith and see if he would be still accounted a heretic to-day for holding it.

ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE LAW

Believing "all things that are written in the law." How many see in the law any room for faith? With most it is but a letter that killeth, and God's "Thou shalt not," conveys no promise to them, but only the forbidding of a stern injunction. Yet to Christ, the Father's commandment was life everlasting. John xii. 50. Faith hears in God's law the promise of the righteousness it demands, and rejoices when the Father says, "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." Ps. lixxxi. 8-10.

Again, who believes the sixth commandment, that men shall not kill? Many preachers of the Gospel uphold war and help to train young minds for it by such organisations as Boys' Brigades. Very few see in it the murderous author of strife "that deceiveth the whole world," or realise that the sin of murder is just as great when a man is made a General for it, as when he is sentenced to be hanged by the neck till he is dead.

Then how many professing Christians keep the Sabbath, according to the commandment, God's own day, the seventh? Almost all trample on the Sabbath and follow the power which presumed to discard God's Sabbath and make a spurious one of its own on the first day.

THE SURE WORD OF PROPHECY

It is true that these ideas are rank heresy with most professed Christians, but happy is the man that can say with Paul, "So worship I the God of my fathers." The writings of the prophets are not popular. They never were. None of the writers escaped persecution (Acts vii. 52)

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and most of them suffered cruel deaths. The man who believes all that is written in the prophets, rather than what is written by way of interpretation of the prophets, will not escape the accusation of heresy. But he can well afford to endure the scorn of those who sit in darkness, when he has "a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place." 2 Peter i. 19.

DENYING THE RESURRECTION

An intelligent faith in the resurrection of the dead is another mark of the "heretic" who, Iike Paul, worships the God of his fathers. The Jews allowed the resurrection, and so do most people to-day, but they rob it of all its value by teaching that we could get along very well without one. They think that death brings a fuller life, that the immortal soul, relieved from its "tenement of clay," expands like an opening flower, and that man is better without his body. Consistently with this theory they postpone the second coming of Christ, which brings the resurrection, for thousands, perhaps millions of years, and some would not be surprised if our "advanced thought" should finally succeed in disposing of the doctrine altogether. Very different to this was Paul's idea of the resurrection. Until and unless Christ's return brought the resurrection of the body, then made immortal, those who slept in Christ had perished. 1 Cor. xv. 17, 18. On that truth, rightly understood, depended not only the future but the present, for the deliverance from sin was involved in the resurrection. That is one reason why the enemy of truth has sought to becloud it. The man who knows what the resurrection is, as Paul knew it, has learned how "to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men."

THE TERRORS OF THE GOSPEL

Though still a prisoner, Paul was granted a large measure of freedom in C?sarea, and had free access to his friends. The wife of Felix was a Jewess, and the two invited Paul to tell them more of the faith in Christ. But the Gospel, if not received by faith, has its terrors. If the Spirit that convinces of sin and righteousness, is not yielded to, it goes on to convince of judgment to come. John xvi. 8. Felix trembled at the faithful testimony of Paul, but put the Gospel from him for a more convenient season. His heart was gradually hardened, as he resisted the appeals of the Spirit. His natural covetousness conquered his awe of the truth. Perhaps, he thought, this man, who could raise arms to take to Jerusalem, might be ransomed by his fellow-believers, and the thought gradually became predominant in the mind of Felix whenever he thought of Paul. After two years, his wonderful opportunity passed away. Porcius Festus came in Felix's room, "and Felix, willing to show the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound."

THE CAUSE OF ROME'S FALL

The days of the New Testament were near the golden age of Rome, but for all her greatness and splendour, she was poor in true manhood. Her great men shrink woefully in the light of the Gospel, when they are brought in conflict with it. Pontius Pilate, Felix, Porcius Festus, and Nero, were but poor stuff to build up an enduring empire. Rome prided herself on her iron rule, but the iron bent and broke on the steadfast spirit of those who served the living God. From the New Testament record, we can understand why the empire of Rome was represented in the vision of Nebuchadnezzar by the legs and feet of iron (Daniel ii.), while Babylon was set forth as a head of gold. The iron kingdom may have been stronger in brute force, but in quality of character the golden one was more excellent. Babylon also was brought into conflict with the Gospel, in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, but the superiority of his character was seen in that, when he recognised that he had been fighting against truth, he acknowledged his error, and humbled himself before all the earth. All the power of his kingdom was turned to the proclamation of the true God. He laid his crown at the feet of "the King of heaven," and God added "excellent majesty" unto His kingly subject.

In Rome, no such change took place, though even greater opportunities were presented to her. Rome rejected the Divine and opened her gates to the Satanic. She sank lower and lower, dragging with her into the depths of iniquity the world that recognised her authority.

"The Editor's Private Corner. 'As He walked'" The Present Truth 19, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

"According to your contention Christians are still under the law, whereas it is evident to readers of the New Testament that they are under grace, Christ having fulfilled the law for them."

This is quoted from a letter that was written to us by one who expressed the utmost astonishment that we should keep, and teach others to keep, the Sabbath of the fourth commandment-the seventh day of the week. This expresses a very common idea. Perhaps nine out of every ten who object to keeping the Sabbath of the law of God, will give as their reason for not keeping it the fact that Christ kept the law.

"NOT UNDER THE LAW"

Before taking up this point, however, we must state again that we do not teach nor believe that Christians are under the law. Most emphatically they are not. And the reason why they are not is that they keep the law, even as Christ did. The psalmist wrote, "I will walk at liberty, for I seek Thy precepts." Ps. cxix. 45.

" Sin is the transgression of the law." 1 John iii. 4. Now the Apostle Paul writes, "Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law but under grace? God forbid." Rom. vi. 14, 15. There is no necessity for any misapprehension as to what it is to be under the law, for the apostle says that those who are not under the law do not sin; that sin has no dominion over them. That is to say, they do not transgress the law. The man, therefore, who is not under the law is the man who keeps the law. Christians are under grace, and the grace of God saves from the transgression of the law.

FULFILLING THE LAW

Come now to the thought that we do not need to keep the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, because Christ kept or fulfilled the law. This is an acknowledgement of two things, namely, that the seventh day of the week is the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and that Christ kept it. But let us see how it will work to say that we are absolved from the duty of keeping the Sabbath because Christ fulfilled the law.

"What is written in the law? how readest thou?" Remember that there is more in the law than the simple keeping of the Sabbath, and that it all stands together as a unit. The answer which the Lord Himself approved, and which He Himself gave on one occasion, is this: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself." Luke x. 26, 37. This is the whole law.

Now let us for a moment accept as true the statement that we need not keep the Seventh day, according to the law, because Christ fulfilled the law, and see to what it leads us. It is true that Christ fulfilled the law. It is also true that the principal part of the law is, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart," etc. Now it is certain that Christ fulfilled this commandment, What then must we conclude, according to the theory before us?-Why, simply this, that we do not need to love the Lord our God, since Christ did it for us.

The second great commandment of the law is, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." But Christ fulfilled the law for us; therefore we do not need to love our neighbours at all!

Or, to go into particulars, the commandment says, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." But Christ fulfilled the law for us, reverencing the name of the Father; therefore we may curse and swear! The commandment says, "Thou shalt not kill," and "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour." Christ fulfilled this part of the law also for us, and so Christians may murder and lie!

"No, no," says our friend, "that is no part of Christianity." And so say we. Our friend will say that Christians must reverence the name of God, must honour their parents, must not kill, steal, commit adultery, bear false witness, nor covet; and so say we, because the Bible says so. The fact that Jesus Christ loved the Father, was obedient to His earthly parents, did no violence to any person, and always witnessed to the truth, is no reason why Christians should not do the same, but is the strongest reason why they should obey those commandments. So the fact that Jesus kept the Sabbath,-the very day enjoined by the fourth commandment, the seventh day,-is the strongest reason why Christians should keep it also. There is no argument against the Sabbath that does not strike equally against every commandment of the law. The law is one, and he that offends in one point "is guilty of all."

CHRIST'S LIFE IN US

Christ fulfilled "all righteousness." What for? Was it in order that we might be free from righteousness? Far from it. We were already free from righteousness; He fulfilled all righteousness in order that we might be free from all sin. God sent His own Son, "that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us." Rom. viii. 3, 4.

"For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Rom. v. 10. But bear in mind that the life of Christ does us no good unless it is in us. "Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" 2 Cor. xiii. 5. So that if the life of Jesus is not "made manifest in our body" (2 Cor. iv. 10), we are not Christians at all. It is not the mere fact that Jesus kept the law eighteen hundred years ago that saves us, but it is the fact that He still lives, that His life now is the same as it was then, and that He lives in us, and fulfils the law in us, not outside of us.

"By the obedience of One shall many

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be made righteous." Rom. v. 19. Notice that it is not simply that by the obedience of One we are accounted righteous, but that it is by Christ's obedience that we are actually made righteous. His obedience is not a substitute for our disobedience, but it is actually our righteousness. Oneness with Christ is the Christian standard. We are "crucified with Christ," "buried with Him by baptism into death," "risen with Christ," in order that we might also "live with Him." He set the example when He was on earth, and now He comes to walk over the same road in us.

There is altogether too much failure to recognise what true Christianity is. Too many seem to think it is sufficient to acknowledge that Jesus Christ, once came in the flesh, was crucified, buried, and raised, forgetting that true Christianity is the present life of Christ in human flesh "Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God; and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God." 1 John iv. 2, 3. It is not enough to confess that Jesus Christ once came in the flesh; we must confess that He even now is come in the flesh, even ours, and that He is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever" (Heb. xiii. 8), and that therefore His life in us must be the same that it was in Him eighteen hundred years ago in Judea and Galilee.

Let us not therefore think that since Jesus fulfilled the law we may ignore any part of it, but rather remember that "he that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk even as He walked."

"The Bible Class. The Rest that Remains. Heb. iv. 6-11" The Present Truth 19, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

(Heb. iv. 6-11.)

"Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief; again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To-day, after so long a time; as it is said, To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would He not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief."

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

1. What fact is fixed concerning the rest?

2. What follows from this, coupled with the fact that they to whom it was first preached entered not in?

3. What day is limited?

4. What exhortation is given concerning "To-day?"

5. Under whom did the Israelites fail to receive rest?

6. What would have happened if Joshua had given them rest?

7. What still remains for the people of God?

8. What is said of him that is entered into His rest?

9. To what ought we to give diligence?

10. For what purpose?

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY

Joshua, Jesus, Saviour. -"If Joshua had given them rest." The personality of the One Man has so eclipsed that of all others, that the name "Jesus" is commonly supposed to belong to Him alone. But the fact ought to be known that Jesus was a common name among the Jews, as Joseph, James, or John. This is indicated by the fact that the name of Jesus is seldom used in the Bible without some distinguishing title or something characteristic, as, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ, Jesus who is called the Christ, etc. It ought also to be known and remembered that in our language we do not usually have the exact form of proper names as they are in other languages. This comes from differences in transliteration, that is, the indication of the sound of a letter in one language by a letter in another language. Thus we have Elijah and Elias, Elisha and Eliseus, Rachel and Rahel, Joshua and Jesus. These last two, which are entirely different names in English, are identical, the first being the Hebrew, and the second the Greek form of the word; and it is this that has led to the confusion in the use of "Jesus" in Heb. iv. 8, where the reference is not to Jesus of Nazareth, but to the man who led Israel over Jordan into the land of Canaan. The name of Joshua, or Jesus, or Hosea, which is the same thing, is from a Hebrew verb meaning to save, to deliver, and means Saviour or Deliverer. The life work of the Child born of the Virgin Mary is to save people, for He saves by His life, and therefore it was said that He should be called Jesus. The man who commanded Israel after the death of Moses, had the same name, and his work, as well as his name, made him a striking type of Jesus which is the Christ. But the striking difference is that Joshua could not give the people rest, and Jesus Christ of Nazareth can and does.

The Rest Remains. -But although only Jesus of Nazareth can give rest, the people might have entered into it in Joshua's day, even though he himself could not give it to them; for Christ was with them, "the Captain of the Lord's host." If they had accepted the work and the rest in the days of Joshua, God would not afterward have spoken of another day; but as they did not, and God's word cannot be broken, "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God." Note well, it remains; not it will come; it is here now, awaiting us, a remnant from the earliest times, when the earth was new. Jesus, who is able to make manifest His blameless life even in mortal flesh (2 Cor iv. 11), gives even this sin-cursed earth the rest of Eden to those who come to Him; and the seventh day is the sign of it; for the Sabbath is a bit of Eden, which is the portion of the earth that never was cursed. In keeping God's Sabbath indeed, we enter into rest with Him in Eden; for He says: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight; . . .

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then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father." Isa. Iviii. 13, 14. Eden means delight; and of those who put their trust in God, taking refuge under the shadow of His wings, it is said: "They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house; and Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures," or, of Thy Eden. Ps. xxxvl. 7, 8.

When to Cease from Work. -"He that is entered into His rest," that is, into God's rest, "he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His." We were "aforetime foolish disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another." Those were our works. "But when the kindness of God our Saviour, and His love toward man, appeared, not by works done in righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." Titus iii. 3-6. For by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His [God's] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained [prepared], that we should walk in them." Eph. ii. 8-10.

When did God rest from His works?-When they were perfect and complete. He did not rest from His work on the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, or sixth day, for His work was not finished on any of those days. He could not, indeed, have rested on the first day, for then He had not even begun. Therefore the one day of the week that even God Himself could not possibly have made a Sabbath is the first day, the day which the Papacy commands to be observed as the sign of its power, thereby proving itself to be "that man of sin,"-"who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped." 2 Thess. ii. 3, 4. But although God had work done on every subsequent day, and His work each day was perfect as far as He had gone, He could not rest then, because His work was not finished. When He did rest, on the seventh day, He had perfect rest, for His work was completed, and it was all "very good."

But our works can never be perfect, and therefore we never can find rest as the result of them. To rest in them would be sin. What then? We must cast them off, cease from them altogether, and exchange them for God's perfect works. "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." But when by faith we have the work of God, we have God's rest; and thus "we which have believed do enter into rest." Then the light makes our deeds manifest, that they are wrought in God; God's works are our works.

Labouring to Rest. -"Let as labour therefore to enter into His rest." How shall we labour, to enter into rest?-"Not by works done in righteousness which we did ourselves," but by faith, which makes God's works ours. The words, "lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief," show that this is the way we are to work. It is the "work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Thess. i. 3. "The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. His work is honourable and glorious; and His righteousness endureth for ever. He hath made His wonderful works to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and full of compassion. He hath given meat unto them that fear Him; He will ever be mindful of His covenant. He hath showed His people the power of His works, that He may give them the heritage of the heathen." It is a goodly heritage that the Lord gives us, even the power of His works. Believing Him, we have at our command all the power that made heaven and earth, and so dominion over all; and of this the Sabbath is the sign and substance.

"Easy Steps for Little Feet" The Present Truth 19, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

Here is another nest. It looks very different from the last one we saw. It is the home of one of the Weaver Birds. You can see the hole in the bottom where the mother goes in and out. She goes up a long tunnel to the place where the eggs or the young are hidden.

In Africa, where these birds live, there are monkeys and snakes. They like eggs and young birds for their breakfast, so the mother makes her nest very long, and hides the eggs where these creatures cannot easily get them.

The nest is hung near the end of a branch, and often over the water. So if a monkey burglar comes to rob the nest, his weight drags down the branch, and he finds himself in the water. Then all the Weaver Birds round about come and scold and peck at the thief.

Sometimes many Weaver Birds join their nests together so that they will be safer. As the young birds grow up and want new homes, more nests are joined on to the old ones. At last the nest city gets so large that it looks like a small thatched house hanging in the tree. When the rain comes and the nests are soaked with water, they get so heavy that the branch breaks off and comes crashing to the ground. But at that time there are no little ones inside. They are all able to fly before the rainy season comes. The next year they have to build new nests.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

The prospect before pedestrians in the streets of New York is not a very peaceful one. On account of the number of criminals who are using motor cars, and the many violations of speed ordinances, the police department contemplates building specially fast motor-cars for the pursuit of the law-breakers.

King Edward is visiting the monarchs of Europe amid brilliant displays of popular welcome. It is to be hoped that the friendly feelings between the nations, which the Royal tour is re-kindling, may long continue, but amid all the decoration and rejoicing the spectre of anarchy cannot be excluded. In Rome 400 anarchists were arrested that they might not mar the effect of the friendly reception by creating counter demonstrations in the streets.

A private member's Bill has been introduced into Parliament to provide compensation for liquor licenses which are suppressed for any other reason than the misconduct of the licensee. The compensation is to come partly from contributions by those in "the trade" whose licenses are not taken, and partly out of taxes on liquors. The Government supported the Bill, which is viewed favourably by license-holders. It remains to be seen whether the Bill will survive the committee stage.

The practice of slaughtering birds to provide trimmings for ladies' hats is being revived, and the birds in Russia are perishing in enormous quantities to gratify a cruel vanity. A German firm has ordered 80,000 magpies, vast quantities of black-throated divers are slaughtered for their beautiful necks, and one cargo alone of the wings of the willow grouse shipped from Archangel, weighed ten tons. The effect of this senseless extermination of the birds will be a rapid increase in the numbers of noxious insects which injure agricultural produce.

The Empress of Germany has decided not to accompany her husband on his visit to Rome, and the Protestant Press of the country states that while her decision is ostensibly taken on medical advice, it is really due to her unwillingness to visit the Pope. The fact that so many of the Protestant rulers are seeking interviews with the Pope, shows that with them it is not their Protestantism which holds the first place. It is many years since the Papacy received its deadly wound, but this is healing fast, and it does not require so much confidence in the prophecy now as it once did to know that the time is coming when all the world will again wonder after the Beast, whose deadly wound was healed. Rev. 13. The evil is not so much resident in the Pope himself as in the spread of the principles on which his kingdom is based, the union of the church and the State. Every Christian who becomes worldly-minded, or leans on the arm of flesh for success in Christian work, is helping forward the restoration of the Papacy. Some who even think they are fighting the Papacy are really building it up, because they have adopted its principles in their efforts, and instead of relying on the Word of God are asking help from the Government. But the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication with her, and on whom the fallen church relies for support, are but men, and will only be able to stand afar off and bewail her when they shall see the smoke of her burning. Rev. xviii. 7-10.

It is being almost daily repeated in the press that "America is apparently on the eve of the greatest labour struggle of modern times." There are 100,000 men on strike at present between New York and the Great Lakes, and in almost every direction fresh strikes dally occur. The Masters are organising to fight the Labour Unions. "In the building trades 800 around New York have agreed not only to refuse the men's demands, but also to refuse supplies to any builder who yields to them. The attitude of many great American employers of labour to-day is but the sooner the fight comes the better." Meanwhile the commercial rivals of the United States are quite willing that the strife should come, for they hope then to get back some of the trade they lost to America through their own labour wars. It is not so much for better wages that the men are striking, but for the recognition of the right of their Unions to lay down for the employers the conditions on which they may have work done for them.

Dr. Torrey's missions in the United Kingdom have revived the tale that followed Moody and Sankey in their work, that he is making a lot of money out of the sale of hymn-books used at the meetings. Dr. Torrey states that he has never received one penny from this source, and if there were any profit it would not go into the pocket of any individual. The people who are so ready to suggest that preachers of the Gospel are after their money are not usually in danger of losing any for a good cause, but are ready enough to bestow it on publicans, theatres, and other businesses which are after nothing else but their money. It is a pity that any Christian movement should leave the impression that it is desirous of getting money, irrespective of the motive that prompts the gift. The Gospel is independent of all but the unselfish giving which it inspires. God loves a cheerful giver, and all others, to avoid self-deception, ought to understand clearly that their gifts are not valued.

An American paper asserts that "most of our dyspepsia is due to the custom of baking instead of roasting meat." People seem to want their meat tender. There is no need to eat the flesh of animals, for nourishment of equal value can be obtained from many of the products of the vegetable kingdom, but if a man feels that he must have meat, the most wholesome flesh he can get will be the toughest. It is well known that when a man is in sound, healthy condition, his muscles are so hard as India-rubber and his sinews are like steel. It is only by lack of exercise and deterioration in health that he becomes soft and flabby. It is the same with flesh meat. Animals deprived of exercise, and placed under conditions which make it impossible for them to have sound, firm flesh, are always more or less diseased, and will develop dyspepsia in the man who eats their flesh. The only meat that can be eaten with safety is the firm, tough muscle of a hardy, active animal, not hung till it gets tender and rotten, but eaten fresh. It will be more digestible if eaten raw, for experiments have demonstrated that animal albumen digests more quickly if uncooked, while albumen of vegetable origin is better when cooked. One advantage of such a diet would be to remove from the mind the prevailing notion that the Creator intended man to live on flesh foods.

Many people think that it would be unbearable to return to God, according to His requirement, a tenth of their incomes, and so the world at large ignores the claim, and robs Him of tithes and offerings. Mal. iii. 8, 9. But this does not save their pockets. Mr. W. R. Lawson writes in the Daily Mail: "Even the arch-optimist, Sir Robert Giffen, does not venture to estimate the national income nowadays at more than 1,500 millions sterling. Less sanguine statisticians consider 1,200 millions nearer the mark. When the Imperial and the local authorities between them subtract from that 245 millions sterling of taxes they confiscate more than a fifth of the whole. Our rates and taxes are almost double the Moasic tithe." Not only do we pay heavily in cash for our turning from the Divine precepts, but we also suffer much in other respects. God's requirements are never a burden on men. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. It is the way of transgressors that is hard.

The press reports a medical lecture at Vienna on the dangers of smoking. In order to demonstrate the deleterious effects of the habit two dogs were treated with injections of concentrated solution of nicotine. The poor animals quickly died in convulsions, and after terminating his lecture, the professor left the hall, smooking a cigarette. It is difficult to see why the papers should report this very common occurrence, unless, perhaps, it happened to penetrate the editorial intelligence for once that the professor was indulging himself in a prolonged form of suicide. Unfortunately, very many teachers are content to point out the danger of some injurious habit to their pupils and then destroy the force of their teaching by indulging in it themselves. This is one reason why education does not accomplish more for the rising generation. Everywhere one hears the complaint that the children now are very different from what they have been in past generations, and education is blamed for the deterioration. It is likely enough to be true if the education has been like that of the Viennese professor, parents and teachers holding up one standard for the children and an entirely different one for themselves.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

This world is a terribly lonely place for the man who thinks he is the only righteous person in it. The only compensation he has, and a poor one it is, is that he is usually so absorbed in self-contemplation that he imagines that he is the whole world, and he is sufficient company for himself.

In a recently published volume of letters, written by Prince Bismarck to his wife, is one interesting passage which reveals the hollowness of earthly honour.

"I have not a single human soul here to speak to about either the future or the past. When one has been a Minister too long, and by the dispensation of God has achieved success, one clearly feels how the cold morass of ill-will and hate gradually rises higher and higher to one's heart; one wins no new friends, the old ones die or retire in dissatisfied discreetness, and the cold from above increases, as the natural history of princes, and even of the best of them, brings this in its train; all affections, however, have need of reciprocity if they are to be permanent.

"In short, I am becoming congealed, intellectually, and I long to be with you and to dwell in solitude in the country. No sound heart can endure the Court life in the long run."

Few men have wielded more power than Prince Bismarck, but few drank more deeply of the cup of mortification over services forgotten.

"O how wretched

Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favours!"

As we have not the address of the "One in Sympathy" in Ireland, from whom we have just received the sum of ?1 to aid the circulation of PRESENT TRUTH, we take this means of expressing our sincere thanks. We acknowledge also with thanks the kind letter and gift of 10/- from another interested reader for the purpose of "spreading the unadulterated truth of God's Word." This desire on the part of our readers to extend the circulation of the paper is the surest evidence that they themselves are receiving blessing from it.

"Strikes" The Present Truth 19, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

Strikes are not only becoming more frequent in the industrial world, but violence is more frequently resorted to in conducting them. Such contests, attended with violence, necessitating the calling out of troops, are constantly being reported from the Continent, England, and America. The inequalities of social life, with increase of both riches and wretchedness, are being more keenly felt, and men seem to have less patience to endure.

There are often two sides to these labour disputes, but the Scripture gives advice to the Christian labourer which is equally good whether it is the covetousness of the employer or of the employed, or both, which leads to bad feeling and a struggle on each side to overcome the other. The prophet warns the rich in these days who have "heaped treasure together for the last days" by keeping back the hire of the labourer. James v.

But anticipating the violence to which these things would lead, the prophet says to the Christian: "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the Husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until He receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh."

It is incompatible with the character of the Christian servant to fight even for that which may be rightfully due, and as injustice increases and is met by increasing violence on the part of the oppressed, the Christian is to stand apart from strife and wait patiently for the grand event which is to bring oppression to an end and right all wrong for ever.

"The Wisdom of the Lord" The Present Truth 19, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

"Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord."

Here we find that only one thing is to be gloried in. The Lord tells us here that the only thing any man should glory in is in the knowledge of Him. There are three things that men are most likely to boast of in this world,-wisdom, the wisdom of the world; power, or influence, and riches; but however wise a man may be in this world, however powerful he may be, however rich, only one thing is worth glorying in, and that is that he knows the Lord.

Now put with that this other text: "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Gal. vi . 14. That was dictated by the same Spirit. The Apostle Paul knew what Jeremiah had written, and he exercised himself continually to continue in all things that were written in the law and in the prophets, and he, moved by the Spirit, did not desire anything except what the Lord had indicated. The Lord said, Do not let anybody glory except in this, that he understandeth Me. Paul, by the same Spirit, said, Do not let me glory except in the cross of Christ. The conclusion from that is self-evidently this: that in the cross of Christ we find the revelation of God. It is in the cross that we know God. In the second chapter of Colossians we read that in God the Father and in Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Then he who knows the Lord has access to all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Take another text in the second chapter of Proverbs. We should read this wonderful passage many times: "My son, if thou wilt receive My words, and hide My commandments with thee; so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom; out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous; He is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of His saints. Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path."

But do not think that Solomon lay down to sleep one night, and dreamed, and woke up in the morning a wise man. Wisdom does not come that way. The verses in Proverbs that we just read tell us how he got it. He cried for it; he inclined his ear for it; he searched for it as men search for silver and gold. You know how men search for silver and gold. They dig for it; they lie awake at night to plan how to get it. That is the one thing they are after, and they get it. Now the Lord says, whosoever will search for wisdom in the same way, he shall know every right way; he will know the right thing and will not make mistakes.

May 14, 1903

"An Ambassador in Bonds. Acts xxvi. 19-29" The Present Truth 19, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

Acts xxvi. 19-29

For the last time Paul is to plead his cause in his own land, before he is sent in chains to Rome. King Agrippa has come down to C?sarea with Bernice, on a visit to Festus, and the governor has told the king of his remarkable prisoner, for whom the Jews have conceived so strong a hatred. Agrippa is something of an expert in Jewish questions. He would like to hear the prisoner for himself, and Festus has promised him that pleasure. It will furnish opportunity for a state ceremonial, to be followed perhaps by a gala performance at the amphitheatre, and the notables of C?sarea are invited to be present at the hearing.

The appointed hour has arrived. The chief captains and principal men of the city are there. Agrippa and Bernice enter with great pomp, and at the command of Festus, the prisoner is brought forth, as Samson was once brought from his prison, to make an hour's sport for the lords of the Philistines. It was not long before that sport changed to deadly earnest, and to-day, this gay assembly will not disperse before the captive apostle has laid their pomp and pride in ruins.

Festus introduces Paul to King Agrippa and the distinguished audience, confessing with lofty sarcasm that he has been unable to distinguish the offences which, in the eyes of Judaism, are so deserving of death. He relies upon King Agrippa's penetration to discover the crimes, and set them down in such terms as C?sar will comprehend. Agrippa appreciates the compliment, and turning graciously to Paul, tells him "Thou art permitted to speak for thyself."

The two years of bondage have not quenched the Spirit in Paul. His language is clear and energetic. To King Agrippa, who is conversant with the Scriptures and beliefs of the Jews, he makes a strong appeal, based on the promises made to the fathers, proving from them that the hope of Israel was the resurrection of the dead. He narrates his own persecution of the cause for which he now suffers in bonds, and then tells of his conversion, followed

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by the commission to preach the Gospel among the Gentiles. This commission he had faithfully discharged by God's help, ministering to small and great that which he himself had received.

What was it that converted Paul? To some people the New Testament is not as systematic as they would like it to be on the subject of conversion. Modern evangelists generally have well-defined methods, and there is a feeling with some that it would be more satisfactory if the Scriptures contained a definite set of questions, with the approved answers, a sort of examination paper or catechism, so that it could be ascertained definitely if a professed believer were sound in the faith or not, by his answers to the questions.

But there is only one Scripture test for the awakened sinner. Christ gave it: "That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." John iii. 15, 16. "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." John vi. 29. It was Paul's answer to the gaoler at Philippi: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Acts xvi. 31. But these texts are not definite enough for some. They say, What is it to believe on Jesus Christ? What shall we believe? What do Paul's words mean?

They mean just what they say. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe in HIM. That is the sum and substance of the Christian life. Have perfect confidence in Him. You will find that He has spoken in the Scriptures. Believe on Him. You will feel like asking something at His hands. Ask, believing on Him. You will learn more and more of His will and word. Always believe on Him. The Christian life will bring you trials. Believe on Him. Satan will hedge up your way and tempt you on every hand. Believe on the Lord. Your brethren will be unfaithful, and will give up the truth. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. As you have begun, so continue. Look away from everyone else; "put not your trust in princes, nor in any son of man, in whom there is no help," but "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." Introduce others to Him, and bid them "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." Never give anyone the idea that to become a Christian consists in joining any body of Christians. It is simply and solely to "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." Whatever He says to them in His Word concerning His church, they will receive from Him, but their faith will be in Him, and not in men, and Christ will reveal Himself in them. Let the first step and every step, now and always, be to "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ."

It was an interview with the Lord Jesus Christ that converted Paul. Not much was said on either side, but not many words are needed when Jesus speaks. It was the personal, heart to heart contact with Him that did the work. There is such a fulness of power in Him, who is "both Lord and Christ," that even to look to Him brings salvation to the beholder. Isa. xlv. 22. A look from Christ wrought a wonderful change in Peter. Luke xxii. 61, 62. But in coming to Christ, it must be with all the heart, ready to leave all for His sake.

Paul had been intensely in earnest in his persecution of the Christians. He thought he was doing God service. But there was something about the persecuted believers that convicted him of sin. In Stephen and in others he saw the Spirit of Christ, and realised that they had attained an experience which he had sought in vain by works of righteousness, which he had done. When Christ appeared to him, and said: "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest," and knew that the mysterious power of the disciples was Christ Himself, and that he had been ignorantly waging war on his long-looked-for Messiah, he ceased his rebellion at once, and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ with all his heart.

When Jesus Christ appeared to Paul, it was in a great light, brighter than the midday sun. The face of Christ shines "as the sun shineth in its strength," but out of even that dazzling brightness, His eyes shine forth as a flame of fire shines out of darkness. Rev. i. 14-16. From those eyes, nothing is hid, and in their light, we see things as they are. In His light, we shall see light. Ps. xxxvi. 9. Paul's hitherto darkened mind saw things aright when He looked upon the face of Jesus Christ. As the face of Moses continued to reflect the light of God's countenance, so the clear vision remained with Paul. He saw the things that were invisible, and henceforth he had no eyes for the visible things. "Who is blind but My servant?" Isa. xlii. 19. Paul died to the world and the world died to him. And it was given to him henceforth to do for others, as Christ should be revealed in him, what had been done for himself; "to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light." By God's help, the apostle had continued, "saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses did say should come; how that the Christ must suffer, and how that He first by the resurrection from the dead should proclaim light to the people, and to the Gentiles."

To understand wherein the power of Paul's witness consisted, we must remember that he was not only a witness but also a minister of the things that he had seen, and in which Christ had continued to appear unto him. Verse 16. His Gospel was not a mere verbal message, but a ministration of power. As Paul declared to Jews and Gentiles the things which he himself had seen, the power of the things spoken of came upon his hearers as it had come and remained upon himself, and his speech and his preaching, while not with persuasive words of human wisdom, was in demonstration of the Spirit and power.

So, as he preached before the brilliant assembly at C?sarea and told how Israel had persecuted their Divine Messiah, according to the prophets, how Jesus had risen from the dead to proclaim, by His resurrection in new creatures, light unto the Gentiles, that all peoples should forsake their sins, being turned from their darkness to the glorious light, and from the power of Satan unto God, it all came upon his hearers not as an idle tale, but with the same power and reality that it had for the apostle himself. His own consecration was the measure of his power to impress others. As the audience listened, the surrounding pomp and splendour waxed dim; they stood not in the presence of King Agrippa and a Roman governor, but before a slighted and forgotten King of kings. Earthly honours sank into insignificance beside the solemn fact that Jesus Christ was revealed before them, plainly set forth crucified in His manacled apostle, wearing fetters because he had proclaimed liberty to the captive. To each heart, the call of Jesus came afresh, "Leave all and follow Me." The power of God was on the assembly. It was present to heal, but we are not told that any yielded to its influence.

A message had reached Festus that startled him out of all official decorum, all supercilious contempt for provincial Jewish theories. He broke in harshly on the apostle's defence in a way that showed that he was greatly disturbed in mind. "Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art mad; thy much learning doth turn thee to madness." Paul replied quietly, "I am not mad, most excellent Festus; but speak forth words of truth and soberness."

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Turning again to King Agrippa, he pressed closely upon him the things of which he had spoken, and appealed, "King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest."

But if Agrippa's heart had been touched, it soon hardened again. The language of Paul had become too personal for his dignity, and he was not seeking deliverance from his sins. If history speaks truly, he was living in incest with his sister Bernice at that time, and he had no intention of endangering his popularity by accepting a faith that was obnoxious to the Jews. His calmly patronising air had disappeared. Agitated by the apostle's earnest appeal to his own faith, but anxious to hide his confusion from others, he stammered lamely, "With but little persuasion, thou wouldst make me a Christian." The sentence is enigmatic, and no one has been able to make out certainly what he meant to say. Probably he hardly knew himself what he was saying.

Paul turned from the disconcerted rulers, and addressed his appeal to the people. "I would to God that whether with little or much, not thou only, but also all that hear me this day, might become such as I am, except these bonds." The last word was with the apostle, and it was a victorious summing-up. Even with the chains, there was not one there but what, if he had the courage to declare his choice, might have felt glad to change places with Paul. But Agrippa had heard enough. He was not anxious now to air his knowledge of Jewish questions, at least not on the truths he had heard that day. He retired from the hall, but in private he and Festus resumed their attitude of superiority and admitted to each other that Paul was not deserving of death or imprisonment, while each in his heart knew that shame and vice had sat upon the throne, and righteousness in bonds had stood before them for trial, and condemned them both.

The hearing was over. The Gospel had been proclaimed in its own power. The light that had shone on Paul as he journeyed to Damascus had shone again in that judgment hall, but neither Festus nor Agrippa had become obedient to the heavenly vision. Yet to some troubled hearts in the audience there must have come a saving faith in the Messiah who cared for sinners of the Gentiles, and to all there had come the knowledge that remission of sins, and an inheritance among the sanctified were offered to them if they would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

"The Editor's Private Corner. Letter and Spirit" The Present Truth 19, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

"How does the following text harmonise with your statements in this week's PRESENT TRUTH about the law? 'But now we are delivered from the law, being dead to that wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.'" Rom. vii. 6, margin.

What is the thing in which we were held, and to which we are now dead? The seventh chapter of Romans is but an expansion of the sixth chapter, where we read that we are "dead to sin" (verse 2), and that "he that is dead is freed from sin." Verse 7. "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Verse 11.

We are dead unto the sin which held us, because sin also is dead by Chriet. "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." Rom. vi. 6. And so "we are delivered from the law." It had been transgressed, and therefore it demanded our death; "for the wages of sin is death." Rom. vi. 23. But now that we are dead, it pursues us no further; it has executed the penalty on us, in Christ. "The law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth." When he is dead, there is nothing more that it can do to him.

A NEW MAN

"I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." Gal. ii. 20. That is a "good reason why the vengeance of the law no longer pursues us. The man who committed the sin is dead, and the man who now lives is a "new man," walking in "newness of life." The old life was a life of sin; the "new man" is after God, "created in righteousness and true holiness." Eph. ii. 22-24. Since "the new man" has not transgressed the law, he is, as a matter of course, free. But

THE LAW IS NOT DEAD

It is as much alive as it ever was. The new man is free from it simply because he is walking in harmony with it. The new man is under as much obligation to keep the law as the old man was; the difference between them is that the new men does his duty, while the old man did not, and could not. The old man was "not subject to the law of God," being opposed to the Holy Spirit. The new man is alive through Christ, who died "that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Rom. viii. 4.

"If ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law." Gal. v. 18. But the verse last quoted tells us that "the righteousness of the law is fulfilled" in these who walk after the Spirit. Therefore we are taught most plainly that the only ones who are "not under the law" are those in whom the righteousness of the law is fulfilled. The transgressors of the law are the only ones who are "under The law." Those who are "delivered from the law" are the ones who are keeping it "in spirit and in truth."

This is shown in the statement that we are delivered from the law, in order "that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." We still serve, but as free men, and not as slaves. It is a spiritual service, that is, a real service; for only that which is spiritual is real.

"For we know that the law is spiritual." Rom. vii. 14. It follows, therefore, that when we were serving in the oldness of the holiness," of the

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letter, we were not really keeping the law; for since the law is spiritual, it necessarily requires spiritual service. So it is only when we are delivered from the law that we can keep it.

UNLIKE HUMAN LAW

The common opinion in regard to the letter and the spirit of the law, is most erroneous. The error arises from supposing that the law of God is similar to human laws. It is quite common to speak of the spirit of a law made by man, when all that is meant is the intent of the law. Thus: No human law is perfect; its framers cannot possibly foresee all the circumstances that may arise to be judged by it. Then, too, the language of the law may be obscure. So the judge often finds it necessary to decide what was the intent of the law-makers. A man might be technically or literally a violator of the law, while still acting fully in harmony with the intent of its framers. This is what is meant by the mistaken use of the term, "letter and spirit," as applied to human laws.

Now the great difference between the nature of human laws and the Divine law is that there is no spirit to the former, while the latter is wholly spiritual. Spirit is life; but there is no life in human laws. They cannot give life. No man can get anything more out of a human law than he puts into it. If men ignore any human law, then it is said to be "a dead letter." But it has no more life in itself when it is obeyed than when it is disregarded; the life is in the people, who make their acts conform to the words of the law.

The law of God is wholly different. It is alive, whether people regard it or not. It is alive because it is spiritual. The man who serves in "the oldness of the letter" does not really serve at all; because no matter how good his purpose, or how strong his endeavours, to keep the law, he is simply reproducing himself, and not the law. In trying to do what the law tells him to do, he is merely doing what his own nature allows him to do. While in a carnal state, he is "not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Rom. viii. 7.

"THE LAW IS LIFE"

But "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" (Rom. viii. 2) gives freedom from this bondage, so that "the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us." The real law is the life of God in Christ, and that gives life. What is termed "the letter" of the law of God is the verbal statement of the law. This is not the law itself, but only the form of it; as the apostle said, the Jews had "the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law." Rom. ii. 20. The verbal statement of the law has the same relation to the law itself, as the photograph of a man has to the man himself. It is but the shadow.

When we speak of the spirit of God's law, we mean the law itself, and not merely the intent of the law. The intent of the law may be learned from the words, since God is not subject to human limitations, but know what is needed, and can say just what He means. From the words of the law of God we may know exactly what we should do, for it is a perfect form. But it is only in Christ that we find the living substance. The law in Christ is not only living, but it gives life. It performs itself in those who submit to it, because it is God's own life. It is not less than the letter; it is not something different from the letter; but it is simply the living thing which the letter perfectly describes.

"Please Harmonise" The Present Truth 19, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

The request is frequently sent in from some earnest correspondent that some text in the Bible be "harmonised" with some other text that is mentioned. We wish to call attention to the fact, so that those who read may come to the study of the Bible better prepared to receive benefit from it.

Suppose some student of music should take one of the masterpiece of Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, or Handel, and after glancing it through two or three times, should ask his teacher to "harmonise" it for him, so that he could play it understandingly. The teacher would tell the student that the harmony was already there; that the master put it there when he wrote the piece; and that he must study it until he is able to see the harmony. To the student it might at first seem a hopeless task, but if he has patience, and a love for music, he will study away at the composition, working out difficult chords, until finally the grand harmony is open to his understanding. Then he can go on for years enjoying it, his appreciation of it ever increasing; and his enjoyment of it will be the greater because of his previous study. It does not need that one should be a musician to know that there is no other way than this for a person to appreciate the work of the great composers. Why should not the Bible be treated as fairly?

David prayed to the Lord, "Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law." Ps. cxix. 18. The same God to whom he prayed exists to-day, and is as ready to answer that prayer for any person who prays it, as He was to answer it in David's case. When the two disciples walked to Emmaus, and Jesus drew near and walked with them, their hearts burned within them, as He opened to them the Scriptures; and afterwards, in the upper chamber, where the twelve were gathered together, Jesus opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures. See Luke xxiv. 45. Although we cannot see Him with our eyes, He is just as near, and just as able to instruct those who ask Him to-day, as He was then.

When the Scriptures were written, the harmony was put in them by the great Master. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17. One Spirit inspired the whole of the Bible, and so there is the most perfect agreement between all its parts. This agreement may not be always apparent to the casual reader, any more than the harmony in the great musical compositions is apparent at a glance; but the right kind of study will always reveal it.

The greatest hindrance to the understanding of the Scriptures is the attitude which people assume towards it. They come at it in a spirit of challenge. They put it on the defensive. When a plain declaration is read in one text, they immediately refer to another text, and say, "I don't see how that can be, in view of what this text says." So they put the two texts in antagonism. Such a position shuts off the possibility of understanding the Bible.

"By faith we understand." The truths of God are revealed to faith, not to mere human intellect. There is no discount upon intellect, for it is a gift of God; but it is to be subject to faith, and to be instructed by it. That means simply that human reason is to be subject to God, for faith is the laying hold of God. Belief, implicit belief, of the Bible, is the necessary condition of understanding it. He who does not believe cannot understand; and nobody believes the Bible, when he comes

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to it in a spirit that will even in thought put one text in antagonism to another.

In order to understand the Bible we must come to it in the positive knowledge that it is inspired by God. We must know that in consequence of that inspiration it is perfectly harmonious throughout. Then when we come to a text that seems to be in contradiction to another, or to a line of other texts, we can say, "I know that there is perfect harmony between these texts, although I cannot see it now. I will therefore give them careful and prayerful consideration, that I may see it." The problem is half solved then. The Holy Spirit was given for the express purpose of leading people into the truth, and will still do it. That Spirit is freely given to all who will sincerely ask for it.

"The Bible Class. The Life of the Word. Heb. iv. 12, 13" The Present Truth 19, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

(Heb. iv. 12, 13.)

In order to keep the connection, review the preceding lessons, or at least read the first eleven verses of Heb. iv., before proceeding with this lesson. They are all about the rest that was prepared from the foundation of the world, and which still remains for the people of God. The closing exhortation is to give diligence to enter into that rest, Iest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight; but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do."

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

1. What encouragement have we to labour to enter into rest?

2. What is the nature of the Word on which we rest?

3. How active and sharp is it. What will it pierce and discern?

4. How do all things stand before Him?

5. Where is this Divine Word? and what is His office?

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY

The Living Word. -That which was from the beginning was the Word of life (1 John i. 1), and the word was God. John i. 1. Note that the word is not spoken of as "it," but the masculine pronoun is used. "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight; but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do."

The Word is "quick," that is, living, and "powerful," or energetic. The Greek word is energy, which means working in. It is force. The Word of God "effectually worketh in you that believe." 1 Thess. ii. 13.

It is sharper than any two-edged sword, in that it pierces between soul and spirit, and joints and marrow. Any two-edged sword ever made, no matter how sharp, would most cruelly crush the tissues of the body, in piercing it; but "the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God," penetrates every ultimate cell and fibre without injuring one. On the contrary, the word gives them life, for it is life.

The Real Presence. -Because the living and working Word pierces the innermost recesses of soul and body, there is no created thing, not an atom, that is not manifest in His sight; "but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." The Israelites in the desert "tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not?" Ex. xvii. 7. Then He gave them water, to demonstrate that He was among them. "They drank of that spiritual Rock that went with them, and that Rock was Christ." They were nourished by the life blood of Christ. Everything that has life, and everything that holds together, shows the presence of the Lord of the universe. "Can any hide himself in secret places, that I shall not see him? saiih the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord." Jer. xxiii. 24. "Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If ascend up into heaven, Thou art there; if I make my bed in hell ["the lower parts of the earth." Eph. iv. 9], behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me." "For Thou hast possessed my reins, Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. . . . My substance was not hid from Thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect; and in Thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God: how great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with Thee." Ps. cxxxix. 7-19.

"The righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The Word is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is the Word of faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Rom. x. 6-9. Here we have the Real Presence: Christ in every man-His life,-patiently waiting recognition. He is the Truth and the Life, that is "held down in unrighteousness" by the ungodliness of men. He says, "Thou hast made Me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied Me with thine iniquities." Isa. xliii. 24. "In Him we live, and move, and have our being." Every breath, every pulse beat, every movement of an involuntary muscle fibre; every sensation, every white blood corpuscle working its way through the capillary walls, that it may go the shortest way to help repair a wound, or remove a foreign substance, proclaims the presence of the living word. Truly "all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do."

The Basis of Rest. -What encouragement have we to labour to enter into God's rest?-This, that the Word of God is living and active. It is upon that Word of power that we rest,-that Word that upholds all things. And that Word is in us, so that we have but to sink down, to fall upon it, and we are at rest. Those to whom the Gospel was first preached would have entered into rest, if the Word preached had but been joined to them by faith; so all we need is to establish the connection with the word by faith; to let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom.

In Heaven and in Earth. -In Him were all things created, in the heavens, and upon the earth, things visible, and things invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things have been created through Him, and unto Him; and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist." Col. i. 16, 17. He upholds all things by the Word of His power, because He, the Word of God, is "the power of God," the "quickening Spirit" that is "ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things," Eph. iv. 10. He is the ladder reaching from earth to heaven (John i. 51), the link that holds all things in the universe in their appointed places. Sitting and talking with Nicodemus at night, He could speak of Himself as "the Son of man which is in heaven." John iii. 13. He is "on the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Heb. i. 3), "in the midst of the throne" (Rev. vii. 17), yet on earth in the secret chambers of our bodies. He has "passed into the heavens," the High Priest ministering in "the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man," and He is with men on earth; for His name is Emmanuel, "God with us." He has not left His people orphans on earth, while He performs ceremonies in the heavens; but He is present with them, working in them.

"For the Children. About Birds" The Present Truth 19, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

Nature is a book that the Heavenly Father has made for His earth born children. It is to teach us of His wisdom, His power, and His love. As we study this book we see how wonderfully each thing is fitted for the place God meant for it. The Bible says that the one who says there is no God is a fool, because all around him is God's workmanship, the signs of His eternal power and Godhead.

Here are some facts about birds and other creatures that help to show us this. They are taken from a little book called "What is a Bird?"

Birds occupy an important and distinct place in the world; but before we enter upon their particular histories, let us notice the formations of a few other animals, that we may the better understand the exquisite skill with which birds have been fitted for their place, and in what way their peculiar bodies have been linked, in their general characters, to the rest of the living creatures on earth. First then let us notice some of the varied forms to be seen in the mouths of animals.

Those creatures which possess but a small quantity of life, such as corals and star-fishes, have their mouths placed in the centre of their arms or moving powers, something as the yellow summit of a daisy is placed in the middle of its white florets.

The mouths of insects are refurnished with a variety of instruments, by which they are able to hew, cut, pierce, smooth down, and crunch. In other instances they are supplied with pliable sucker trunks, such as the fly possesses.

Higher animals have an opening in the bones of the head, protected by soft lips; and the two jaws within the mouth are furnished with hard enamelled teeth; but a bird's mouth is unlike any of these; it stands forward as a horny tube, more or loss ending in a point. This pointed beak acts for the bird like the front teeth in the higher orders of animals; it seizes hold of, and cracks the food; while the gizzard inside the bird's body, answers the purpose which double teeth serve in other animals, that of rubbing the food to a pulp.

When we consider the life a bird is intended to lead, that is, to be continually darting through the liquid air, often at the rate of fifty miles an hour, can you imagine any form of head better suited for the use of such a creature? When men prepare a wedge to drive into wood, they make the end thin, that it may glide easily between the opening sides: an awl is made fine at the point, that it may pierce quickly.

Now the bird's pointed beak opens for its body just such a passage in the air, and so sensible are birds of the benefit of a point in pushing forwards, that you may often observe that sea-gulls and other birds, when taking long flights, form themselves into the shape of a wedge; and because the one that first cuts the track has the hardest work, they often change places, the last coming up to take the foremost point, whilst the previous leader falls back.

The wings of a bird again are unlike those of any other flying creatures. One species of fish is said to fly, but it is only so long as the fins of those fishes are wet, that they can rise above the waters. Bats fly, and insects fly, but none of these creatures move with the powerful actions of the bird. The delicate thin wings of an insect are formed of air-tubes covered with skins so fine, that strong winds break them to pieces. The wings of birds, on the contrary, are thick and firm, and without injuring them, the bird can dash on through severe storms, flapping forcibly against the air, as the paddles of a steamship flap against water.

The bones in the wings of birds are remarkably strong. The muscles that move them are very tough, and the feathers that cover their wings are of the stiffest kind. The delicate wings of an insect are flat on the air; the firm wings of the bird bend over the air, something as the concave top of a watch-glass; by having this form, the air underneath assists in buoying them up.

Birds and insects both fly, but as you know, their bodies are by no means fashioned alike. Birds approach much nearer in form and in nature to four-footed beasts. They have flesh, blood, and bones,

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which flies and beetles have not. They have, like quadrupeds, four limbs for motion, while the lowest number amongst insects is six and eight. But on looking at a bird, you will see that in its body, the situation the quadruped's two front legs take, is changed in that of the bird; for, to enable the creature to glide through the air, its front limbs are made to strike out horizontally from the sides, while its two hind legs are left in a perpendicular position, to serve for pillars of support, whenever the winged creature alights on the ground.

Again, the feet of birds are unlike those of all other animals. Amongst the lowest animals, the hydra in our ditches, which looks like a piece of green stalk, walks by its sucker tail, drawing it up to its head, then stretching it forth, and again bringing the tail close up; and thus the hydra contrives to creep on at the rate of a few inches or feet in a day. Worms glide over the ground by shortening the muscles that lie between the rings in their bodies; and some have bunches of hair on the outside of each ring, to give them additional help in moving. Crabs sidle and scrape with their eight legs along the wet sands, whilst lobsters spring and crawl.

The legs of Insects are finished off at their tips with either pads, cushions, hairs, or suckers. The four legs of beasts end in fleshy feet, that are either covered with horny hoofs, or tipped with toes and sharp claws. Man, like the bird, is a biped, or two-legged animal; his legs are long, fleshy, muscular, and end in flat feet with ten toes. The feet of birds differ from all those we have named; they are simply composed of a few thin toes, formed of bones, muscles, and skin; the shapes of their toes are, however, much varied; and it is interesting to notice how admirably their wide-spreading feet are adapted to the habits of their owners, whether it be to enable them to stand, hop, walk, roost, climb, or swim.

Insects have no jointed neck; quadrupeds and birds have. Did you ever notice how closely the head of a sparrow appears to lie upon its shoulders, almost as if it had no neck? It is true that the sparrow has but a short one, but notwithstanding that, it has nine delicate little bones in its short length, which play and roll upon each other with such ease, that the bird can move its head with a rapidity our eyes cannot follow. The length of neck in birds, as you must have seen, greatly varies. In the arched neck of the stately swan, are twenty-three beautifully rolling joints. Most birds have not half that number; yet all their necks move with a quickness that shows that their Maker planned that birds should both require and enjoy rapidity of action in the movements of the head.

Wood-peckers tap upon wood for insects; and such birds as herons and bitterns, strike into water for fish, with quickness that prevents our counting the strokes. A bird is ever bobbing its head forwards, sideways, and backwards, railing it in every direction, looking up in the air, down on the ground, burying it under the wing, or laying it flat on its back.

The human finger performs a great variety of work, but its movements are few compared to those of a bird's bill, most of which depend upon the quick and changing actions of the neck.

"Easy Steps for Little Feet" The Present Truth 19, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

This is a nest of a very beautiful little bird of India. He is called the Tailor Bird, because he sews up his nest like a tailor sews cloth. He chooses a leaf, usually a large one growing from the end of a twig, but sometimes he sews several leaves together.

He uses his beak to pierce a row of holes along each. Then he finds his thread of grass. He pushes this through the holes with his beak and draws the leaves together. This makes a pretty leaf covering. In this hollow he fits his cosy nest, lined with soft white down. The green leaves hide the nest from the sharp eyes of his foes. Here the little Tailor Bird will be safe.

Is he not a wise, clever little worker? He has no needle, no scissors, no tools of any kind; only his little beak. Yet he makes for his family a better house than man with all his tools and skill could make for him.

God teaches him the best way to do what he has to do. He will teach you also, if you will let Him, just the way to do all that He wants you to do. He has promised to give His Holy Spirit to His children, to teach them and guide them in the right way. So if you want to learn God's way, you must ask Him for His Holy Spirit. He says that He will give this to all who ask.

"Science and Religion" The Present Truth 19, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

True science never conflicts with inspiration. These two fields in which God displays His power will only appear to yield contradictions to the superficial student, who jumps at conclusions, and is one-sided in his study.

Lord Kelvin, who is perhaps the greatest living scientist, has just written that in respect to living things, "scientific thought is compelled to accept the idea of Creative power."

"Forty years ago," writes Lord Kelvin, "I asked Liebig, walking somewhere in the country, if he believed that the grass and flowers which we saw around us grew by mere chemical forces. He answered, "No; no more than I could believe that a book of botany describing them could grow by more chemical forces."

Lord Kelvin states that science positively affirms the Creative power and makes every one feel a miracle in himself. With freedom of thought, Lord Kelvin adds, men are bound to come to a conclusion that "science is not antagonistic to but a help for religion."

In all its investigations, even in substances which seem devoid of life, science always comes to a point where motion of some kind is the only explanation it can devise of the infinitesimal phenomena that are revealed. Concerning this motion it can only propound theories. It is at this point that inspiration comes to the aid of science with the revelation of Him in whom we live and move and have our being, who fills all things. So we learn that the mysterious power which works in everything is the life of God. "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God." Heb. xi. 3.

While science, rightly pursued, is a help to religion, it is also true that a science worthy of the name is impossible without inspiration.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

The streets are the worst possible schools for children. The chief Constable of Birmingham states that out of 713 children under sixteen who were engaged in street selling in the city in July 1901, 458 had been prosecuted for various offences during the previous six months.

A great disaster is reported from Canada, due to a mountain slide. It is supposed that the melting of the snows on the summit caused large quantities of water to work into the limestone body of the mountain, and split it. The portion broken off fell on a mining town, destroying many lives. The avalanche conveys a striking lesson as to the irresistible force of the working of nature. Even mountains are rent before the water, which is so soft and yielding in itself, but which will sweep away everything that seeks to bind it.

On January 1 the pauper population of England and Wales reached the total of 847,480, and of these 101,665 were insane. This is a record figure, the number of insane paupers having doubled in the last thirty years. The statistics are soon forgotten, but if one could appreciate the depth of misery involved in one case only, and then realise that there are over a hundred thousand such cases, and that, too, in prosperous England, there would be more earnest effort to hasten the coming of the Lord, which will put an end to sin. No human measures will avail. Sin has so eaten into the heart of mankind, and the disease is making such steady progress in all ranks of society, that nothing short of the destruction of sin will purge the earth. In that destruction those who are responsible for the pauperism will not be able to deliver themselves by their riches.

Muscular development is all right within reasonable limits, but physical culture gone mad is no good to anybody, and is no part of health reform. There is danger that the attention lately given to "strong men" will develop a craze. One of the latest absurdities in this line is the exhibition given by a man who hangs himself with a long drop to show the enormous development of the muscles of his neck. At Rochdale he hanged himself, with a drop of fifteen feet, and was picked up suffering from concussion of the spine. An appeal is being made now for funds to support his family while he is under medical treatment. A sturdy young blacksmith in London, who was possessed with the ambition of become a "strong man," read of the "man they cannot hang," and experimented with himself to see how much of a strain his own neck would stand. He was found dead in his father's house, hanging from a hock in the ceiling. Useful work will furnish all the physical development a man needs, without the danger of developing a weak heart at the same time. It is evident from the two cases referred to that mental development is apt to suffer in the undue acquisition of muscle.

The Chemists' Exhibition in London suggests that we have reached a "tablet age." Numerous foods are compressed into tablets, and the medicine which is to counteract this misuse of the stomach is also administered in tablet form. Children's powders are disguised in chocolate tablets, while for those to whom Coca Wine is proscribed, a tablet containing the coca is provided, so that after swallowing this, a man may drink his port wine without any suggestion of medicine. Pills are turned out by the million, and one firm alone manufactures them at the rate of one ton per day. There is a bad future before the English stomach unless it quickly revolts against the treatment which modern chemistry is preparing for it.

The Church of Rome rejoices in the visit of King Edward to the Pope, and one of its organs says, "King Edward's visit to the Vatican is a great historical event for Catholics, for it is a sign of the cessation of the sectarian spirit in Great Britain against the Catholic Church. It crowns the good relations of Great Britain with the Holy See, and will remain in the annals of the Papacy as a page woxthy of being read and continued in the future." Even though King Edward may have had nothing in mind but international courtesy, the Papacy knows how to make the most of any circumstance that is in its favour, and the great majority who go with the stream in matters of religion may be expected to view the Church of Rome with greater friendliness than they have in the past. Without doubt this page will be continued in the future.

A new Bill has been introduced into Parliament, which contains drastic provisions against betting. It prohibits keeping any place for the purpose, and the publication or exhibition of any bookmaker's handbill, card or advertisement. No betting is to be allowed in any street or public place, under a penalty of from ?10 to ?50, and imprisonment up to six months. Bookmakers offending under the Act are to be treated as "rogues and vagabonds," and to be subject to arrest and search. It remains to be seen whether a Parliament including large numbers who bet themselves will pass this stringent Act against those who follow their example under less refined circumstances. If legislators were as willing to reform themselves as they are to reform others, it would be found that character was more influential than law.

Even the law of God is "weak through the flesh" (Rom. viii. 3), then how much weaker and more unreliable must the laws of men be as reformatory agents, even when perfectly framed. But the law-making body in England spends a great part of its time in revising old laws, and is at the same time itself making work for future revisers. The latest illustration of this is the "Black List" Act, which came into operation this year. The Act empowers magistrates either to send an offender to an inebriate's home, or to put him on the "black list," and it has now been decided that since the drunkard's own consent had to be obtained before he could be sent to a home, a magistrate must also obtain his consent before putting him on the "black list." Failing this he can only send the case to the sessions. It is hardly likely that drunkards will consent very freely to having theft names put on the "black list," so that unless the law is revised, the "Black List" Act will probably come to nothing. If it is revised, it will be an unusual thing if someone does not find another flaw in the revision before long.

Large numbers of Nonconformists who are strongly opposed to the new Education Act have determined not to pay the rates levied under the Act. Some have banded themselves together for this purpose. If they adhere to their determination there is likely to be a severe struggle over the question, as eminent counsel have stated that those who combine to resist payment of the rate render themselves liable to criminal proceedings for illegal conspiracy, as well as civil prosecution and seizure of goods for non-payment of the rate. The leaders of the resistance state that they are prepared to face all the consequences arising from their action. If the day-schools were limited to their proper sphere of giving secular instruction, there would be no sectarian difficulties. The idea that Christianity can be taught professionally does not advance Christianity at all. It must be taught by example rather than by precept, or the teaching will breed well-instructed hypocrisy.

The Vicar of St. Michael's, Shoreditch, is to be prosecuted by the Bishop of London for Romanist teaching and practices, which include devotions to the Virgin Mary, invocation of saints, the use of a rosary in the pulpit, the reserved sacrament, and the introduction of the modern Roman devotion to the Sacred Heart. Everyone can see that these extremes are repugnant to Protestant ideas of worship, but while the fruits are condemned, the root that bears them is approved. Devotions to the Virgin and the invocation of saints grow out of the idea that these are in heaven, instead of sleeping in death, according to the Scriptures, till the resurrection. The use of a rosary is on a par with the vain repetition of prayers written by others; for while some may devoutly take part in the same prayers year after year, with very many it becomes an empty form. It is wrong to mutilate the Lord's Supper, and give only the bread to participants, but it is no worse to do this than to give them an intoxicating liquor and call it the blood of Christ. Again, while it is evidence of disloyalty to Christ to use "Roman devotion," this arises naturally from the fact that there is so much criticism, to the pulpit itself, of the words of inspiration. If the Gospel in its purity were preached and followed there would be so wide a difference between the Church of Christ and the Church of Rome that no one would be deceived. Those who preferred false doctrines and vain ceremonies would know where to find them, and those who desired a pure faith would not become confused by finding Romish ways in a church that prosecuted Romanising clergy.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

It is not any more sentiment that you get in understanding the Bible, and taking its precepts; but it is such wisdom as the nations of the world will recognise as wisdom. The Lord said that if His people kept His precepts, the nations of the whole world would say, "This great nation is a wise and understanding people."

"The Lord giveth wisdom; out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding." We have the demonstration of that in the case of Solomon. He got his wisdom from the Lord, and kings sent ambassadors, and came themselves, from the ends of the earth, to hear the wisdom that Solomon got from the Lord.

"Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people." Deut. iv. 5, 6.

"Prayers for the Dead and Sunday Observance" The Present Truth 19, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

Prayers for the dead, associated with offerings for the dead, known in Catholic phraseology as masses for the dead, come from the ancient pagan custom of sacrificing for the dead and the worshipping of demons, against which the Scripture specifically warns all. But it is not of the doctrine itself that we shall speak, but of the argument by which those who urge it silence the objections of those in the Church of England, and Protestants generally who oppose it.

Protestants say that the practice is without Scripture warrant, founded merely on tradition which has always made void the word. It is so, and the objection is unanswerable. But those who favour prayers for the dead do not take the Scriptures as authority so much as ecclesiastical tradition. They adopt the Catholic position. But then they turn on their objectors and retort that Protestants, while pleading for the Word as the standard, themselves reject the Word and take tradition when it so pleases them. Some time ago, in a controversy over this subject, Dr. Lucock, Dean of Lichfield, replied to the Protestant controversalist as follows:-

"Just because there is no direct evidence in so many words in Holy Scripture enjoining prayers for the dead, he maintains that as members of the Reformed Church, believing Scripture and Scripture alone, we have no right to revive them. I want to point out to you what inconsistency is involved in this position. Take the case of Sunday as an illustration. There is not a single text in the whole Bible which teaches us in so many words that the seventh day was to be superseded by the first. It is perfectly true that in the New Testament we find religious associations connected with the first day. But if there was a single test directing the change, we should not have found in certain portions of the Church in the early centuries both the seventh and the first day observed. In justifying the change, we appeal to the primitive Church, being perfectly certain that the rulers and bishops of the Church would never have sanctioned such a revolution as that unless they had received by tradition such directions as they believed to have come from our blessed Lord Himself. What, then, is the rule of authority in the one case must be made the rule in the other."

The Church Times endorsed the Dean's argument editorially, saying, "No distinct direction is given in the Gospel for the observance of the first day of the week in lieu of the Sabbath." This, of course, is not a matter of argument. It is a matter of fact. The argument based upon the fact simply amounts to saying, "There is no Scripture for prayers for the dead, neither is there for Sunday keeping; but we do both according to the primitive tradition, which we follow instead of the Word." The answer silences the Protestant who finds himself keeping the Sunday and refusing prayers for the dead, which practice comes on the same authority as Sunday observance.

It is a fact, everywhere made prominent in ecclesiastical history, that what is called primitive tradition begins after the "falling away" of which the Apostle Paul warned the early church. The apostasy had already begun to work in his day, he told them, and immediately after the days of the apostles the errors which crowd the Roman Church came in as a flood. As Dr. Killen says in his preface to the "Ancient Church":-

"Rites and ceremonies, of which neither Paul nor Peter ever heard, crept silently into use, and then claimed the rank of Divine institutions. Officers, for whom the primitive disciples could have found no place, and titles which to them would have been altogether unintelligible, began to challenge attention, and to be named apostolic."

It is to these times that men appeal whenever they appeal to primitive tradition in support of doctrines and practices for which they find no warrant in the Scripture. And it is interesting, in this special connection, to note the fact that in the earliest times prayers for the dead, or offerings for the dead, and Sunday observance were associated together. In accounting for these practices, the manner of observing the Sunday offerings for the dead, and the sign of the cross, Tertullian, who wrote about the year 200, said:-

"If for these and other such rules, you insist upon having positive Scripture injunction, you will find none. Tradition will be held forth to you as the originator of them, custom as their strengthener, and faith as their observer. That reason will support tradition, and custom, and faith, you will either yourself perceive, or learn from someone who has."

That was all that could be said for these practices then, and it is all that can be said for them now. But the retort that silences those who cling to the one unscriptural practice and object to another, based on the same authority and associated with it in origin, will not silence the protest of those who take the Bible as God's word to men, and test all these perversions of the truth and adaptations of ancient pagan rites and observances by "the law and the testimony." By this test it is seen that "there is no light in them." Isa. viii. 20.

Notice how generally this question of the authority of Sunday is being made the test of the authority of the Church aside from the Word. It was on this point that the Council of Trent based its condemnation of the Reformers' appeal to the Bible alone, as against Church authority. It is just here that the Church of Rome is constantly charging the Protestant world with inconsistency in accepting Sunday observance by authority of the Church, while rejecting that authority in other matters where it pleases them to do so. And the Anglican Catholics are also learning the weak spot in the armour of popular Protestantism. This is why we cannot do otherwise than continually call attention to the Sabbath question. On the side of human authority the Sunday is being made the test and the mark of such authority. On the side of Divine authority and the Word of God the Sabbath is the sign or mark of allegiance to God. Ezek. xx. 12, 20. The issue is joined. Is is the Word of God against the word of man. On which side will you choose to stand?

May 21, 1903

"The Life-giving Spirit. Rom. viii. 1-14" The Present Truth 19, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

Rom. viii. 1-14

In the sixth chapter of Romans we learn that the believer is buried with Him by baptism into death, and rises to walk with Him in newness of life. The old life, called the "body of sin" and the "old man," is done away with, and the new man takes its place. This new man is the Spirit of God. "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you." Rom. viii. 9. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" 1 Cor. 3.16.

It is by the Spirit that the promise of Christ is fulfilled, that He would dwell with the believer. "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." John xiv. 18. "I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth." R.V. xvi. 17. "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things." John. xiv. 26. It is the Spirit that animates and controls the body of Christ, the church, and it is the Spirit that operates every member and every gift, dividing to every men severally as He will. 1 Cor. xii. 11. The Spirit was the life of Adam. "The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life: and man became a living soul." Gen. ii. 7. The Spirit of God was in the breath that He breathed into Adam. "If He set His heart upon Himself [margin], if He gather unto Himself His Spirit and His breath; all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust." Job xxxiv. 14, 15, R.V. "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the Spirit return unto God who gave it." Eccl. xii. 7. "Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled: Thou takes away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created." Ps. civ. 29, 30. In this passage, the words breath and spirit are the same in the Hebrew, so that man's breath is God's Spirit. Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" (Acts vii. 59), and then fall asleep.

It is plain from the record in Genesis that Adam was a union of the breath of God with the dust of the earth, and the result was a living soul. Adam was filled

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with the Spirit, and as long as the Spirit ruled the dust all was well, but the time came when the dust wanted to rule the Spirit, and disobey God for some supposed advantages. It saw something pleasant to the eyes and good for the taste, and disobeyed God in order to eat the forbidden fruit. This fall from righteousness is undone in Christ, and when we are again made new creatures, the Spirit rules in us, and once more our bodies are yielded as temples of the Spirit. God did not withdraw His Spirit and His breath from Adam till he had opportunity to repent and turn from his sin, but, in the majority of cases, instead of being acknowledged by men as their life, God's Spirit has to strive for any place at all in sinners. Gen. vi. 3.

There is wonderful power in the Spirit of God. In the beginning it moved upon the face of the waters. Gen. i. 2. It garnished the heavens. Job xxvi. 12. It is the life of every creature: "all in whose nostrils was the breath of the Spirit of life." Gen. vii. 22. The Spirit filIs the universe. "Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, Thou art there. If I take the winge of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me." Ps. cxxxix. 7-9. This is the power and fulness that the Spirit brings into the believer, when it is made welcome and given control of the life.

All that we can do is to reckon ourselves by faith dead unto sin, but alive unto God. We have never lived the life of the Spirit, and do not know how to live it. If we should try to do so, we could only live the carnal life. Neither can we die to sin. If we will allow the Spirit free course in us, it will live its own life, and mortify, or put to death, the old man. Rom. viii. 14. The law of the spiritual life in Christ is what makes us free from the law of sin and death. Verse 2. Where our own efforts are an utter failure, the Spirit of God fulfils the righteousness of the law in us as simply as it grows flowers on a rose bush, and fruit on an apple tree.

That which has hindered the righteousness being fulfilled in us, has been that we have pushed the Spirit to one side, ignoring it, and have ignorantly gone about to establish our own righteousness, and do God's work for Him. When we come to ourselves, and recognise that we are only the dust of the ground, and that God did not make us to live independently of His Spirit, and did not plan any other kind of existence for us than to be filled with His Spirit, we will cease to try to run our own lives, and will yield our members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

People speak of the "Spirit-filled life" as though it were a special experience, reserved for a comparative few. But the Spirit filled life is the normal life. The life that is not fully yielded to the Spirit, and experiencing the working of its mighty power, is an abnormal, mis-shapen life, perverted and abused. So that we need not question whether God will bestow His Spirit upon us in answer to prayer. We were created to be temples for the Holy Ghost, perfectly adapted to its powers and functions, and the only thing that hinders us from the fulness of the Spirit is the unwillingness to die to self, and let the Spirit control the dust of the earth as God appointed. When we are willing to accept God's plan for our lives, and yield to His Spirit, it will be our memory, our teacher, (John xiv. 26), it will make our prayers effectual (Rom. viii. 26, 27), it will make us obedient to the truth, unto unfeigned love of the brethren (1 Peter i. 22), it will do the world-wide work of the Gospel (John xvi. 8), and will fill us with joy in affliction. 1 Thess. i. 6.

"So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh: for if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God." Rom. viii. 12-14.

"Planted by the Waters" The Present Truth 19, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

The first Psalm tells us that the man who meditates on the law of God day and night, and who delights in it, shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. You can all go into the gardening business, even in your houses, where you can watch the plant growing, and see how it grows by the water. You will be surprised how much education you can get out of seeing a single plant grow. Take some beans, some peas, some wheat, or some Indian corn, and put it in a moist place where it is reasonably warm. In two or three days it will sprout. Then take a glass jar or a tumblerful of water and tie over the top if it a little thin cloth, like cheese-cloth, that is not too close in its meshes, and lay the seeds on that, and then keep it moist. Through the scent of water that is below it, it will grow. It will send its stock upward, and its roots downward. It is really wonderful to see the intelligence displayed, to see how methodically and how regularly that plant goes about its business of growing. You may find-you certainly will, if you have a lot of seeds together-that in some of the seeds the root end of the sprout will be uppermost, and the stalk end will be below, so that it must go down; and yet the root, that must supply the stalk with nourishment, and which can get it only in liquid form, will turn, and will invariably go downward to find the water; and the stalk will turn, and go upward.

Add then, if you should have it in soil, and let it be in dry soil, and the moisture is upon one side only, you will find that those rootlets will make no mistake. They do not make any experiments, either; but, just as true and as certain as the needle will point to the pole, they will go directly to where the water is, and they will not go over the other way.

With this in mind, read the first Psalm. He that meditates on the law of God day and night "shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." That is, he will not be making experiments, and he will not be making mistakes. There is instruction in the Bible that will direct the man in the right way all the time.

"The Editor's Private Corner. The Kingdom of Christ" The Present Truth 19, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

"Will the kingdom of Christ be established on this earth before His coming in glory? We sometimes hear it spoken of as though it could be advanced by civil power. Yet in Luke xix. 11-27, Christ likens Himself to one who goes to a far country to receive his kingdom."

When Christ was before Pilate He said, "My kingdom is not of this world; if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now is My Kingdom not from hence." John xviii. 36. Christ did not refrain from fighting because His following was too small to cope with the Roman Government; for each one of His loyal disciples, together with Himself, could have had a legion of angels at his back. Matt. xxvi. 53. But His kingdom was not of this world, and He could not use earthly power. The using of force would have been His ruin, for He Himself said, "They that take the sword, shall perish with the sword."

There was a time when the disciples and all the people were going to take Jesus by force to make Him King, and if He had consented, the whole Jewish nation would have flocked to His standard; but He would not listen to the proposition. Surely if the kingdom of Christ could be advanced by civil power, then was the time to make use of it. The fact that Christ would have nothing to do with it, shows what He expects of His followers. By allowing Himself to be betrayed into the hands of wicked men, and suffering the cruel death of the cross, Christ showed how only His kingdom can be gained and advanced. Because of the suffering of death, He was crowned with glory and honour. Let none of the professed servants of Christ think to gain the kingdom in a different manner. To make each an attempt is to deny Christ, and to make His sufferings of no account. Men have nothing to do with giving Christ His kingdom. All they are called upon to do is to yield themselves to the Holy Spirit, that they may be fashioned into fit subjects for the kingdom which the Lord God will give unto Him. True "the government shall be upon His shoulder," but it is "the zeal of the Lord of hosts" that is to give it to Him. Isa. ix. 6, 7. The Father has sworn to give unto Him the heathen for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession (Ps. ii. 7, 8); but when He receives them it is that He may dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. But He will do it in person, and not by deputy.

"COMING IN HIS KINGDOM"

Christ Himself showed how and when He was to receive His kingdom. He spoke a parable for the benefit of those who thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear. He likened Himself to a nobleman who "went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return." And it came to pass that when he was returned, having received the kingdom," etc. Luke xix 11-27. Christ has now gone to that far country to receive the kingdom. The receiving of it is described in Dan. vii. 13, 14. When He comes the second time, He will come in His kingdom. Then He will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance upon them that know not God. 2 Thess. i. 7-9. Then will those that would not have Him to rule over them be slain before Him,-"punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power." And when He shall have destreyed all the wicked, "then shall the righteous shine, forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." Matt. xiii. 43. "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." Christ is now sitting upon His Father's throne (Rev. iii. 21), reigning as a priest, and devising peace for His people. Zech. vi . 12, 13. He is the "one Mediator between God and men." 1 Tim. ii. 5. He is Mediator between God and men, not between God and nations. Moreover His authority as Mediator is not that of compulsion, but that of love and entreaty. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; it any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me." Rev iii. 20.

CHRIST'S AMBASSADORS

Christ's ministers are ambassadors, not judges nor officers in earthly kingdoms. The ambassador who should presume to interfere in the affairs of the country to which he is sent, or who should even express his opinion about the politics of that country, would at once lose his position. Christ's ministers are sent as ambassadors to the whole world. They are to know nothing of nations as nations, but only to deal with individuals. Whether those individuals be in a palace or a hovel, makes no difference. Princes and peasants are all the same to them, so far as their mission is concerned, only they acknowledge constituted authority wherever they are. Of the affairs of nations, they have no opinion to express, for they are not sent to judge the world, but to save the world.

The sum of the whole matter therefore is, that while Christ is supreme over everybody and everything, He is to be left to exercise His supremacy in His own way and time. No men, not even His own followers, are to presume to exercise authority in His stead. He is indeed "the Prince of the kings of the earth," but no man nor body of men is authorised to be His deputy in exercising dominion. Christ Himself uses no force, neither over men as individuals, nor over nations, and therefore none of His followers can do so, He judges no man now, although all judgment has been committed to Him; because there is a day appointed when all shall stand before His judgment seat. Therefore His followers are to "judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come." Until that time they are to be content to be in this world even as He was despised and rejected, pilgrims and strangers.

"The Bible Class. Our Confession of Faith. Heb. iv. 14-16" The Present Truth 19, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

(Heb. iv. 14-16.)

"Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."

1. What should we bold fast? Why?

2. What sort of High Priest have we?

3. With what is He touched.

4. What has He endured in common with us? With what result?

5. To what therefore, may we come? How may we come? For what purpose?

Our Confession. -"Let us hold fast our confession" (for the word rendered "profession," is properly confession, as in the Revision), for He is "the Apostle and High Priest of our confession." What is our confession? It is " that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh." 1 John iv. 2. This shows that we are of God. But suppose we do not confess it? Then we are not of God, but have made Him a liar, because we believe not His testimony. But is Christ in the wicked man, too?-Most assuredly, else there would be no possibility of that man's salvation. Nobody can confess a thing that is not so; and nobody can make a thing so by confessing it, if it is not so before he makes the confession. Christ does not come into the man through the man's confession; but He is there all the time, in order that the man may confess Him. Read again Rom. x. 6-10. "The Word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it." Deut. xxx. 14. He is there with the power of the cross, the power by which He laid down His life, in order that we may lay aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and evil speakings, and not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, but think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. He is there with the power of the resurrection, in order that we may rise from death in trespasses and sins,-in order that all our iniquities may be cleansed, and all our diseases healed. He is there in His ascension power, His royal power as He sits on the throne of the Majesty on high, in order that we may sit with Him in the heavenly places, and even in our mortal flesh have dominion over principalities and powers. He is there with all power in heaven and earth, in order that we may comprehend what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and be filled with all the fulness of God, who comprehends all space in Himself. Ah, let us hold fast our confession, that thus we may truly be "made partakers of Christ," the great High Priest who is passed into the heavens. There is a live confession of faith for every man in the world, and whoever makes it from the heart, and holds fast to it, is as sure of salvation as though he were now in heaven. And it is not difficult to learn; all that is necessary in order that a man may know it, is that he be conscious that he has life; yet an eternity spent in the kingdom of glory will not be sufficient to fathom all its infinite depths. Make the confession, and hold it fast, and you shall know the fulness of the power of the Divine nature in human flesh. This is the word of truth, the Gospel of our salvation; it is the wondrous redemption that is in Christ Jesus. "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?"

"Touched with the Feeling of Our Infirmities." -"For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities." Free this sentence from its negatives, and you have the positive statement that we have an High Priest who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He is in the heavens, yet He still bears the sins, the weaknesses of humanity. People have a morbid sensitiveness, which they mistakenly imagine is a sense of honour against confessing their sins on the Lord. Even a professed Christian is reported to have said, "It is immoral to ask another being to bear my sin." Let me tell you that you do not have to ask Christ to bear your sin; He bears it anyhow, whether you will or not. He bears the sin of the world. John i. 29, with margin. "Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows." "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Isa. liii. 4-6.

There is no injustice in this. It is so, because it could not be otherwise, as long as God is God. It is the manifestation of God's justice; it shows that He is true to Himself; and because "He abideth faithful," we are justified by faith. He bears our sins, because He upholds all things by the Word of His power. He bears our sins because there is nothing in the universe that He does not bear,-nothing that is not upon Him. "In Him all things consist." He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, because He is the living Word who penetrates every cell and fibre of our being, imparting life to our frame. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, because He is our life. It could not be otherwise, and we have any existence. Indeed, we ourselves feel our weaknesses only because He does. Nothing touches us that does not first touch Him. The cross is the revelation of God to the world, showing Him bearing all sin, all sickness, all sorrow, all grief and pain.

"Jesus knows our every weakness,"

because He constantly feels every one of them. He not only shares our afflictions, whatever the cause; He bears the whole of them; and the moment, and as long as we are willing to recognise His presence, and acknowledge it in all our ways, with every breath, and are willing to sink out of sight, to be swallowed up in Him, we have nothing of weakness and sin to bear. Why not confess Him, and do it at once? He bears it all anyhow; what profit is there for you to bear it as well? Your bearing it does not relieve Him of one atom of the load, but rather makes it heavier; for as long as you persist in bearing it, He must bear it, unless He casts you into perdition; but as soon as you confess His right to all, and yieId all to Him, He will bury the sins in the depths of the sea, and thus be free from them Himself. If we believe in Him with our whole heart, then "as far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us."

He is Touched-He was Tempted. -When Christ was on earth, He was "in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." "He Himself hath suffered, being tempted" (Heb. ii. 18), and all the crushing force of temptation culminated in Gethsemane and on the cross. It was not physical pain that brought groans to His lips, but fierce temptations, when He "resisted unto blood, striving against sin." But when He triumphantly cried, "It is finished," temptation had for Him for ever

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lost its power. Death itself was swallowed up in victory, and He went into the grave a Conqueror. The cross had lifted Him up far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and it was demonstrated for all eternity, and for all the universe, that at last One Perfect Man had been found, whom all the artful power of hell could not shake. Henceforth there was no more possibility that He might be tempted to His fall. Thank God for that. The joy of the Lord is our strength.

But He is still touched by everything that affects us, although He is in heaven. Thank God again for that. We are weak. If we be but touched, we fall. But Christ bore the shook of all the enemy's forces, and He stood. Here is One, not only by our side,-but in us, near at hand for all things that we call upon Him for, who will, if we allow Him to live in us instead of us, insure us against falling; for although touched by everything, He is tempted by nothing. Satan, the accuser of the brethren, "which accused them before our God day and night," is cast out, and has fallen as lightning from heaven. He cannot reach "the secret place of the Most High" with His temptations; and he that abideth under the shadow of the Almighty is safe from "the snare of the fowler."

Come Boldly. -Come with confidence, depending on His Word. Why should we not come? He has called us. The King's invitations are all commands, and all His commands are promises. It is not presumption to come boldly, expecting much of the Great King. It would be presumption to ignore His invitation. Out of the throne proceed lightnings and thunders and voices (Rev. iv. 5), but out of it also proceeds the pure river of water of life, clear as crystal. Rev. xxii. 1. We have sinned; but we can take with us words, God's own words, and return to Him in confidence; "for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities."

"Easy Steps for Little Feet" The Present Truth 19, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

Did you ever look into a little bird's nest when the baby birds were just out of the shell? What a surprise it was to see their little naked bodies! No soft down, no pretty feathers. How helpless these tiny creatures are. They cannot even stand, for there is no strength in their legs. All they can do is to cry for food, and swallow what the busy little Mother-bird brings. This is just how you were when you came into the world, a tiny, bald-headed, helpless baby. You lay all day in your little cradle nest, or in your Mother's arms. You could only cry for food and swallow what was given you by your loving Mother, without even saying "Thank-you."

Does the Mother-bird mind all her trouble? Would she rather be without all this care and hard work? Oh, no; she loves these ugly little fledglings, and thinks they are beautiful. All day long she thinks of them, and is never so happy as when they are cuddled under her warm, soft wings.

And did your mother think it was a trouble to work for you and care for you when you were a helpless little baby? No; all her work was sweet because she loved you so much. Do you not love her dearly for all her kind care? What can you now do to show your love? You can be a good, obedient, happy child.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

The Bible in whole or in part has been translated into fifty-nine different languages and dialects in India. Never was it more widely read in that country than at the present time.

A young gaikwar, or chief, of Baroda, a province in India, was educated in England. He has issued a special enactment which legalises the re-marriage of widows. Baroda, the state of which the gaikwar is chief, shows the largest relative increase of Christians in all India for the last ten years.

The authorities in China have issued an order requiring all students in Chinese universities to render worship to Confucius. This will debar many Christian students from attending Chinese universities, and result in the resignation of many Christian professors. The native Christian students in China need special prayer during this trying crisis.

A Chinese mandarin has begun the publication of a weekly journal. In its first issue he announces that a portion of its space will be reserved for contributions from Christian missionaries.

The Antarctic exploration ship Discovery was locked in the ice when the last tidings arrived, and will have to spend another winter there. New land has been discovered and charted in the far South, with peaks and mountain ranges 14,000 feet high.

A mysterious sickness has appeared among the miners of Westphalia, caused by an internal parasite. It is estimated that 20,000 workers are suffering from it. The disease is baffling the local doctors.

The Postmaster-General says that ten letters on the average, containing money, are posted every day, without any address, and that every year there are twenty-five million postal packets which cannot be delivered on account of mistakes in the address. He thinks that while the public often complains of the Post-office, the Post-office has a right to complain of the public.

During the King's visit to Paris, several madman attempted to see him. One of those taken into custody was a man who had covered his breast with ribbons of all colours and lids of blacking and pomade boxes. It seems a little strange that in Republican France this man should have been accounted mad, rather than an accomplished satirist; although he may have actually lost his reason over one of the "decoration scandals" of recent years.

From Odessa comes a report of serious anti-Jewish riots. On account of a rumour that a boy had been murdered by Jews, numbers of Russian peasants broke into Jewish houses, torturing and killing the inmates. The local police are said to have joined the rioters in their bloodshed and plunder, and some of the better classes drove about watching the savage conduct of the mob, as though it were an amusing spectacle. In two days nearly forty Jews were killed, and over 300 injured, many of them dangerously. The Russian Easter was the occasion of the massacre.

A secret Society has been discovered in St. Petersburg whose members are pledged to commit suicide on their thirtieth birthday. They contend that the average duration of life is thirty years; and that any man who lives longer does so at the cost of other individuals. It was while one of the members was being buried alive that the existence of the society was discovered. Numerous deaths have already taken place among the members, and the society has branches in other places. At the first glance, it would seem that people who could receive such a religion as this were unduly exaggerating their value to the community in supposing that they did any good by living up to the age fixed, but in reality their gloomy doctrine is the outgrowth of the idea that there is only room for just so many people in this world. Working-men limit their output to give others a chance, and nations pass immigration laws to preserve their countries against foreigners. Political economists uphold war because it thins the population. All these things show that mankind have got on the wrong track, with the result that the promise of fruitfulness, which God gave to Adam and Abraham as a blessing, would now be considered a curse. The earth is tottering to destruction because it has refused the guidance of God. Just as the individual life goes out in despair when it is without God, so the human family, as a whole, are losing heart and are ready to perish because the god of this world has blinded their minds with sin. Satan has "made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof. He has smitten the people in wrath with a continual stroke. He has destroyed his land and slain his people." Isa. xiv. 14-20.

It is more blessed to give than to receive, and it is certainly more helpful in the development of character. The Bishop of Stepney says that the present system of parochial almsgiving does harm to Christianity, for while it brings to meetings a few mothers who would do anything to get something for their families, it leads others to scorn the church. The Bishop thinks that more people would be won over if church-workers, instead of asking, "How can we help you?" would put it, "How can you help us?"

We hear a good deal about the superiority of civilsed warfare of the kind carried on by the uncivilised races, but the American army in the Philippines seems to have been guilty of a good deal of diabolical cruelty towards the natives. These have been whipped to death, tortured, and ill-treated in a very uncivilsed manner, and General Miles, who has been investigating a number of charges against officers and soldiers, says, "I have no reason to disbelieve some of these statements; in fact, they have been confirmed by other reports." When men Sell themselves to do the devil's work, it is the devil that controls, and not fine distinctions as to how far one man can injure another without doing it in an uncivilised way.

It is always easier to let loose the dogs of war than to chain them again. A strike of engineers on the Clyde has been cancelled by the Union officials, and the men have been peremptorily ordered to resume work, but the strikers have taken the matter into their own hands and refuse to go back until their demands are complied with. The difficulty may be got over, but the incident ought to be a warning that, although there are Union organisations to keep strikers under control, these are not always able to do so. Human passions once aroused are not so easily quieted. The Girondist party in France aroused the people against loyalty and caused the French Revolution; but the passions they stirred up were soon turned against themselves, and nearly all of them perished in the Reign of Terror. The Labour leaders who are so ready to organise strikes are dealing with inflammable material, and they may find too late that they have let loose a spirit which they would gladly chain up again if they could.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

The great question that has always confronted men is, How can I live a Christian life in the midst of the rush and bustle of the world? Too often it has been given up as unanswerable. Most people have thought, and still think, that it is impossible. So they have not attempted to be Christians, or have put it off until they could retire from the world and live a sort of hermit life. Still others have thought there must be a different standard for one living in the thick of the busy world, from that for those who live in comparative solitude.

Every such idea is a mistaken one. While the example of Christ with His disciples shows that it is right and necessary for one to have seasons of retirement, it is a fact that He made no provision for any such class as monks or hermits. To the Father, He said of His disciples: "I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil." John xvii. 15. His people are to be the light of the world; and the object of a light is to shine in the midst of the darkness. They are to be the salt of the earth, which means that they are to come in contact with those who need saving. Salt that has to be kept shut up in a box and carefully kept from coming in contact with any perishable substance, lest it lose its savour, might as well be thrown away at once. So the religion that has to be kept in a cell, in order that it be not lost, is not worth preserving.

In short, the Christian is not to live for self, but for others. He is to preserve his Christianity by putting it into active service. Thus it was with Joseph, with Daniel and his three fellows, with David and Hezekiah in the midst of the cares of a great people. What was the secret? They walked with God, and could be alone with Him even in the midst of a crowd. Nehemiah was cup-bearer to Artaxerxes, king of Persia. As he served the king his heart was heavy because of the condition of Jerusalem. The king learned the cause of his trouble, and asked him what he wanted; and while the cup was in his hand, before replying to the king, he "prayed to the God of heaven." Neh. ii.1-5. It is the presence of the Lord that makes every place sacred, for He Himself is a sanctuary for His people, and we need not lose Him in the crowd.

"The healing of the seamless dress

Is by our beds of pain;

We touch Him in life's throng and press,

And we are whole again."

"One Voice" The Present Truth 19, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

One Voice. -The Jews professed to believe the writings of Moses, but they did not. Christ said to them: "For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me: for he wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My words?" The man who rejects one word from God rejects the whole; for it is the same voice throughout. This is illustrated in the progress of so-called Bible criticism. The critics began with the Old Testament, and the writings of Moses. Then Isaiah and the other prophets and the Psalms were disposed of, higher criticism deciding what portion should be received. Now the critics deal with the words of Christ in the New Testament in the same manner. This is as Christ said, "If ye believed not his [Moses'] writings, how shall ye believe My words?" Christ spake by Moses and the prophets as verily as by His own lips. It is the same voice, the same tone, and the same Gospel,-Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever."

"'Things to Come'" The Present Truth 19, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

"Things to Come." -Many people who rejoice in the Lord now, because of the knowledge of His love, allow their joy to be clouded by the fear of what may come in the future. The trouble is that they do not know the perfect love of God, because "perfect love casteth out fear." "There is no fear in love." But God has given us positive assurance, so that we may learn what His love is. The Apostle Paul, full of the Holy Spirit, gave utterance to these words: "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Rom. viii. 38, 39. The present is all that we can ever have, for when the future comes to us it is present. And God has assured us that nothing can come that will turn His love away from us. "The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee." Jer. xxxi. 3.

"Thy Strength" The Present Truth 19, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

The pagan maxim, which too many quote as if it were Bible, is, "God helps him who helps himself." But the truth revealed in the Bible is that God helps the man who is not able to help himself. Read the account of a storm on the sea, and of deliverance from it, as recorded in Ps. cvii. 23-30. Of the men in the storm it is said: "Their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and He bringeth them out of their distresses." So it was when Jehoshaphat, in behalf of the people, said to the Lord, "For we have no might against this great company which cometh against us; neither know we what to do; but our eyes are upon Thee" (2 Chron. xx. 12), that the Lord sent deliverance.

All these things were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope." Rom. xv. 4. "For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are; yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." Heb. iv. 15, 17. Infirm means without strength; without strength implies being overcome by sin. So we learn that in the midst of defeat, when borne down under sin, we may come with boldness to Jesus, and find forgiveness and help.

Thy Strength. -Here is a word for those who fear that the strength which the Lord has given them may forsake them at some trying moment: "Thy God hath commanded thy strength." Ps. lxviii. 28. When God made the worlds, "He commanded, and it stood fast," and to-day they stand by the same word. Thou hast a little strength rejoice in that, and pray, "Strengthen, O God, that which Thou hast wrought for us." "As thy days so shall thy strength be,"-not a "little strength" merely, but thou shalt be "strengthened with all might;" "for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength."

May 28, 1903

"The Editor's Private Corner. 'A Gloomy Doctrine'" The Present Truth 19, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

"It seems to me that it is a far more comforting thought that our dear ones have gone to be with the Lord, than that they are sleeping, knowing nothing. Is not this a gloomy doctrine? I should be glad of any light that you can give me."

There is nothing gloomy about the Gospel. That is the "good news" of the "power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth." It is all brightness and glory. 2 Cor. iv. 4. "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." 1 John i. 5. Therefore nothing but light can emanate from Him. His word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Ps. cxix. 105. When any doctrine set forth in that word is said to be gloomy, it simply shows that there are some persons whose spiritual eyesight does not enable them to distinguish light from darkness. They do not stand where they can see God in the light that proceeds from Him.

The Bible declares that the dead "sleep;" that they are unconscious, and "know not anything" (Eccl. ix. 5); that their thoughts have perished (Ps. cxlvi. 3, 4). Theology, on the other hand, declares that they are conscious and exist in heaven as disembodied spirits, having greater power and knowledge than before death. The majority of people choose to believe the latter doctrine, as being a bright and cheerful one, and reject the former as something too gloomy and dark to be entertained by any mind but one that repudiates Christianity. But an examination of the two doctrines in the light of Scripture shows that such a view is entirely superficial.

The teaching of theology upon this point is expressed in these words of the poet Longfellow,-

"There is no death; what seems so in transition,

This life of mortal breath

Is but the suburb of the life Elysian,

Whose portal we call death."

and again in the lines of the familiar hymn,-

"Death is the gate to endless joy."

But Christ Himself said that He was the gate to endless joy, and the portals through which all men must enter into the life beyond. The record is found in the tenth chapter of John. "Then said Jesus unto them [the Pharisees], Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep." "I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." Verses 7, 9. To those who love the Lord, who see in Him the "One altogether lovely," the perfection of glory and beauty and majesty, the thought that He is the portal to the life beyond, is far brighter than the thought that that portal is death. Death is the "King of terrors;" but Jesus Christ is the Lord of life, the Prince of Peace, the eternal fountain of love and joy. He is the most glorious portal to everlasting life that could possibly be provided or imagined. And no one who loves Him would be glad to believe He had not told the truth.

Theology declares that men go to their reward at death. But while this idea would place some of amidst the joys of Heaven, it would consign the great majority who have died to a very different place; for we read that "wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; but strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Matt. vii. 13, 14. And certainly, between the thought that some of our dead relatives and friends are in torment, and the thought that they are

340

resting, quiet and unconscious, in their graves, there can be no hesitation in choosing.

The popular belief that "there is no death," but only a transition from one state of life to another, contains much that appeals to the natural desires and imaginations of mankind; but it is far surpassed in grandeur by the Bible doctrine of "the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel." 2 Tim. i. 10. This is no figure of speech, but a statement of actual fact. Our Saviour has abolished death, by passing through the grave Himself, and taking away with Him the keys of death. Rev. i. 18. So that to all those who believe in Him, the close of this earthly life is but the beginning of "a sleep," during which they "rest from their labours, and their works do follow them." Rev. xiv. 13.

Nor does the Bible use a figure of speech when it speaks of the death of the saints as a sleep. Sleep and death are two very different things. In the one case there is life, and the other there is no life. In sleep there is a quick awakening to a renewal of the activities of life, but in death there is no awakening.

So it is with those who "sleep in Jesus." 1 Thess. iv. 14. They have life, even that life which God has prepared for those that shall live and dwell with Him, and which has been brought to light in the Gospel. Those who believe on His name have not to wait until death before they can enter the portal of eternal life, as would be necessary were death the gate to that life, but enter in the moment they have faith in Jesus as Redeemer. Jesus said, "I am the resurrection, and the life." John xi. 25.

Christ dwells in the heart of the believer by faith (Eph. iii. 17), and wherever Christ is, there is the resurrection and the fountain of life. "He that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life." John iii. 33. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death until life." John v. 25. Such an one has already entered the portal to eternal life and happiness, and no power can draw him back, for there is nothing that is able to separate the soul from Him. Rom. vii. 38, 39.

In this doctrine there is no gloom, but the brightness of hope and comfort which sustains the soul in the hour of separation from those whom it loves. It is the doctrine of Jesus Christ as the Lifegiver, without which power He would not be the Saviour of sinners. It exalts Him, and in this all those who love Him will rejoice. It is no misfortune to any person to "sleep in Jesus," any more than to sleep at night during his natural life. On the contrary, we read that "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints" (Ps. cxvi. 15), and that, "blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." Rev. xiv. 13.

While theology may set forth our dead friends as teachers and comforters to us while we remain here, the word of God presents the far more glorious doctrine that our comfort is none other than "the God of all comfort;" that Jesus is Himself our Comforter (John xiv. 18), and that we have "another Comforter," which is the Spirit (v. 16, 17), and that the Spirit is our Teacher, who is able to guide us into all truth. John xvi. 13. Every true Christian must infinitely prefer this comfort and guidance to all others.

Thus the Bible doctrine of eternal life through Christ far outshines the man-made doctrine of life through the portals of the tomb. That, and that alone, is the gloomy doctrine which interposes the tomb between us and the life which we need, which Jesus Christ, through the Gospel, offers freely now to all, and bestows upon all them that believe on Him.

"The Bible Class. A Compassionate Priest. Heb. v. 1-6" The Present Truth 19, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

"For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins; who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with Infirmity. And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins. And no man taketh this honour to himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made an High Priest; but He that said, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee. As He saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedek."

QUESTIONS TO EMPHASISE THE TEXT

1. Why may we expect to find mercy at the throne of grace?

2. From whence to every high priest taken?

3. For what is every high priest taken from among men ordained?

4. What is he to do?

5. Why is he chosen from among men?

6. On whom must he have compassion?

7. Why can he have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way?

8. What follows from his being compassed with infirmity?

9. What can no man do with such an honourable position?

10. What did even Christ not do?

11. Who did glorify Him to be High Priest?

12. What words constituted Him Priest?

13. To what were the words "This day have I begotten Thee" equivalent?

Keep the Connection. -Bible students need always to be on their guard against assuming, without thought, that a new chapter. begins a new subject. The division of the books into chapters is comparatively modern, and very arbitrary. Sometimes a chapter is brought abruptly to an end in the middle of a sentence, as Acts xxi; and very frequently the connection and real meaning are entirely lost unless we "read right on," ignoring the break. Sometimes, indeed, there is a natural division of the subject, but never is it completed at a chapter ending, especially in the Epistles; and therefore whenever we begin a lesson with a chapter we must go back a little way in the preceding one, to get the connection, the same as though we were beginning in the middle of a chapter.

"Compassed with Infirmity." -This thought is kept prominently in the foreground in the second, fourth, and fifth chapters. It is the great source of our confidence and consolation. Jesus, like the children whom He came to deliver, was partaker of flesh and blood in equal, measure with them. He was made in all things like unto His brethren, and "hath suffered, being tempted;" and although, since He has passed into the heavens, He is no more subject to temptation, He is still "touched with the feeling of our infirmities," because He is still in us. It is, indeed, only because of the word dwelling in us, that we have any sensation, any consciousness of infirmity. We feel, only because He feels; and we are to know that whatever we suffer, whether physically or mentally, He suffers more keenly, and in far greater measure. Therefore we can come to Him with boldness, assured of finding perfect sympathy as well as full power to relieve. No such physician can be found among the medical faculty of earth.

Qualification for the Priesthood. -The priest must be a man "taken from among man," because he is "ordained for men." None but man stand in need of priestly service for sins. Being a man, "chosen out of the people," he can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; "for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity;" and therefore "by reason hereof he ought; as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins."

This is true of the Son of God, not because He is only a man like other men, for that is not so,-but because He voluntarily "took upon Him the form of a servant," identifying Himself wholly with His brethren. He is "separate from sinners," and yet one with them. For "Him who knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Cor. v. 21. So although He "did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." He came to John, whose baptism was for the "remission of sins," to be baptized, saying, "Thus it becometh us, to fulfil all righteousness." Matt. iii. 15.

Offering for Himself, and for the People. -"What!" someone exclaims; "do you mean to imply that Christ offered sacrifice for sins on His own behalf, as well as for the people?" I mean to imply nothing, but only to lead the student to the word, pointing out what stands there plainly stated. Jesus, the sinless One, as the representative of God on earth, did certainly offer a sacrifice for sins on His own behalf; for God says: "Thou hast made Me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied Me with thine iniquities. I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake." Isa. xliii. 24, 25. It is only as He gives His life as an atonement for sins, for His own sake, that we have forgiveness of sins.

Thus: If man had been left for a minute to bear his sin alone, death to the entire human race would immediately have resulted. If God had not been in Adam ruling the world in the beginning before the fall, even as He was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself after the fall, the sin in the garden of Eden would have brought instant death; because that sin was full-grown. It was deliberate, wilful sin; for "Adam was not deceived." 1 Tim. ii. 14. God bore the sin of the world from its first inception. He had to bear it, or else allow the race to perish. Christ has always been "upholding all things by the Word of His power." "All things" includes us; and in carrying us, Christ necessarily carries our sins. Now it is evident that He could readily ease Himself of the load of our sins, by casting us off into perdition; but this neither His love nor His justice will allow Him to do. Therefore the only way remaining is to cleanse us from sin by the imparting of new life-the resurrection life. To be sure, He will finally cast off those who deliberately and persistently choose not to be connected with Him, which will be the complete blotting out of sin; but even this is possible only because He has laid down His life, and it will be the consummation of the sacrifice. So we see that we get freedom from sin only through the laying down of God's own life, to free Himself from the burden of it. Our High Priest does indeed, "as for the people, so also for Himself, offer for sins;" and He offers for the people in offering for Himself. But He is not like the sons of Aaron; for He "needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for His own sins, and then for the people's; for this He did once, when He offered up Himself." Heb. vii. 27. They had to offer daily for their own sins, because they were sinners; but He was sinless and offered for His own sins only in offering for those of the people, because He made their sins His own.

Result of Divine Compassion. -"And Jesus went forth and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and healed their sick." Matt. xiv. 14. So when the people had nothing to eat, He had compassion on them, and fed them. Two blind men sitting by the wayside, cried out: "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Thou Son of David," and "Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes; and immediately their eyes received sight." Mark xx. 30-34. Nearing the gate of the city of Nain, He saw "a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; . . . and when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not;" and at once He restored the young man to life. Divine compassion for those who are in distress and need, leads to the removal of the ill, and the supply of the lack; so our High Priest's compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way, is our assurance of wisdom, and restoration to the right path. "Jesus, when He came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things." Mark vi. 34. Even so will He do to-day.

"Easy Steps for Little Feet" The Present Truth 19, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

Chickens are not like other little birds that have to stay in their nests and be fed by their parents for weeks after they come out of the shell. The little chick comes into the world with his round body covered with soft downy feathers. He looks like a little golden ball. He can run about and pick up his food at once, but he has learn many lessons to learn from his mother. She teaches him how to scratch for worms. She calls him when any danger is near-a big dog who might hurt him, or a naughty boy who might steal him or throw stones at him.

See what large wings she has. There is plenty of room underneath them for all her little ones. This is a safe place when there is danger and a warm shelter from the cold. The hen never thinks of herself and her own comfort, but thinks only of her chickens. She has so many babies to look after, that she is very busy.

God speaks of the care of the anther hen for her brood, to show how great is His loving care for us. He said that He would gather us to Himself, and hide us from all trouble, "even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings." How excellent is Thy lovingkindness, O God. Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings."

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

A leading physician of Lemberg, Galicia, has left behind him what is called a curious will. He bequeathed ?13,000 to a fund for assisting widows of doctors, and directed that not more than eight shillings should be spent on his funeral. His numerous orders and medals of distinction were given away the day before his death to an ostler and a postman. There is nothing in earthly honours or wealth to cheer a dying bed, and in the enlightenment which comes with the passing of life's opportunity, it might be difficult to discover a more profitable use for his money and medals.

The protesters against the payment of the Education rate are evidently not altogether planning to lay down their lives, if need be, in defence of their objection. The cost of refusal is being reckoned up, and it is not expected that the whole expense will involve more than ten or fifteen shillings. Some Nonconformists are adopting a plan used in the old anti-Church rate campaigns. They are having silver plates prepared. The bailiff will be requested to seize the plate, which will be bought in by friends of the ratepayer and presented to him again. The occasion will be engraved on the plate, which will then be added to the family heirlooms.

The Saturday Review says: "It is to the interests of every country to see the Roman question solved, and how can we make our influence felt at the Vatican if we have no accredited representative to the pope?" It is strange how little the lesson of history has been laid to heart. Everybody ought to know that "the Roman question" will never be solved except by the supremacy of the pope; for that is the question; and no pope will ever rest with it unattained. Further, a representative from any country to the Vatican is always and only for the benefit of the Papacy, and never to the advantage of the country sending him.

Two Berlin physicians have recently set forth before the Berlin Medical Society the value of eucalyptus in the treatment of tuberculosis. The process adopted by the two Berlin doctors is to apply heat to the powder which they obtain from eucalyptus leaves and then to place the tuberculous patient in a small room, the atmosphere of which is impregnated with eucalyptus fumes. They state that the first result of the treatment is that the patient feels a sense of general relief, the catarrhal symptoms, coughing and expectoration gradually abate, the fever disappears, and a good appetite is restored. Although the observations do not cover more than six months, the two physicians are convinced that the new remedy is the best hitherto applied. The usefulness of the eucalyptus tree in malarial districts is well known, and it seems very reasonable to suppose that it may be of value in destroying tubercle baccilli.

Mr. Henniker Heaton, M.P., who has just returned from visiting Italy, with Signor Marconi, stated to a Press representative that the most wonderful things he saw in that country were specimens at an observatory near Rome of a new system of electric photography, by which clear photographs can be taken of persons or scenes at least twenty miles distant. Though he knows nothing of the process, he thinks it quite conceivable that it may eventually develop so that we may take photographs of friends in distant lands over the sea, while we are conversing with them by means of wireless telegraphy.

The President of the United States, in his speeches while on his tour through the country, strenuously advocates the acquisition of more and better fighting ships. In a speech at San Francisco he repeated what he has often said before, that "the surest way for us to obtain peace is to show that we are not afraid of war." Leading men in all other countries say the same thing. No doubt it is true; but how many who hear it take into consideration what an indictment it is against all the nations and peoples of the earth? It means that they are all anxious to expand their own dominions at the expense of others. Unfortunately, the method proposed for peace will not avail, since experience has always demonstrated that the effect of putting weapons into the hands of men, as well as boys, is to beget a desire to use them.

"If it wasn't for the people in my district, who trust me to do things for them, I would shake the whole game, and live respectable." This is the language of a New York politician, who feels dissatisfied with the treatment he has received from his party. It is significant as giving the measure of politics in its own language. There is such a thing as statesmanship; and there is public business necessary to be done; but professional politics is about the least respectable business one can follow, as well as the least satisfactory; and this is the business which it is claimed Christian people ought to enter. Of course it is thought that they will purify it; but this is a great mistake. The baser element will always prevail, because of its unscrupulousness; and it will inevitably corrupt those who attempt to work with it.

Not a week, and scarcely a day, passes that we do not hear of some new attempt on the part of labourers to cripple the industry by which they get their daily bread. One of the last items was that the extensive municipal and private building operations in New York, involving investments of 500 million dollars (?100,000,000) capital, are at a standstill, and that over 100,000 workmen engaged on them are idle. The demands of the labour unions are becoming so unreasonable, and their dictation to employers and labourers so imperious, that it is next to impossible to carry forward any work to completion without much interruption and increased expense. It is, in reality, wrong to attribute this state of things to the labourers themselves; for the arbitrariness of the unions is as disastrous to them as to the employers. The whole trouble is caused by men who are consumed with a desire to exercise authority, and who will not only rule or ruin, but rule and ruin.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

Temptations are steps, by which we may go either down or up. The devil means that we shall go down by them, but God means that we shall go up. For "tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope." Rom. v. 3, 4. It lies with us to determine which it shall be.

Besetments .-"Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon me." Ps. cxxxix 5. We think much of "the sin which doth so easily beset us," of "besetting sins" in general, and of the enemies that beset our path; and it is well not to be unmindful of these dangers. But it is not well to be so unmindful as we too commonly are of the fact that God also besets us. The one thought tends to wariness, and the other to boldness, and thus an even balance is preserved. Enemies may surround us; but, as in the case of Elisha and his servant, God's host surrounds them; and they that be for us are more than they that be against us. Indeed, "If God be for us, who can be against us?"

"They Wanted to Be Sure" The Present Truth 19, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

Who did?-The Israelites in the wilderness. What was it that they wanted to be sure of?-They wanted to be sure that the promised land was worth possessing, and they wanted to know the way to get to it, and whether they could conquer it or not.

And did they find out what they wanted to know?-Yes; the spies came back and said it was a good land, fruitful, and flowing with milk and honey; but they also found out that they were not able to take possession of the land, and so they never did. After all their trouble and their long journey, what a pity to get nothing but disappointment!

Yet it is hardly correct to say that they got disappointment. They did not really believe that they ever could take the land, and so they had no reason to feel disappointed when the spies brought back word that it was impossible.

How do we know that they did not believe that they could take the land? Because if they had, they would never have sent the spies to explore it and bring them word. God had already told them all that they needed to know. He had said, before they left Egypt, that the land was a goodly land, flowing with milk and honey. Moreover He had very plainly indicated the way by going before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. "He led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation." Ps. cvi. 7. And He had also assured them that He would fight for them as He did against the Egyptians, even sending out an army of hornets, so that it made no manner of difference what sort of people inhabited the land. They had the word of God, but they did not feel sure until they had seen for themselves. They thought that they would make the word of God more sure, or at the least verify it, and the result was that they denied it utterly, and so lost all that it promised.

How much better it would have been for them if they had not tried to see with their own eyes, but had been content to see by the light of God's word. They did not need to know the way beforehand, and they would never have come face to face with the giants, and so they could always have been happy and at rest.

It is better to be ignorant of some things. It is better to be ignorant of difficulties that are beyond our power, and which God's power alone can remove. If we have the promise of being carried along a precipice or over a deep chasm by an Almighty arm, it is much better to rest in that arm, and keep our eyes shut, than to run the risk of becoming giddy and falling out, by peering over the edge to see how deep down it goes. When God has plainly spoken, it is the height of folly to "investigate" to see if possibly it is not wrong.

The everlasting arms are still outstretched, and "in returning and rest ye shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength."

June 4, 1903

"The Editor's Private Corner. Authority for the Sabbath" The Present Truth 19, 23.

E. J. Waggoner

"So long as a seventh day of rest is observed, it matters not a bit which of the seven days it is; but it is wise to conform to general custom, for the sake of convenience and order; every day is a seventh day."

This statement of the case is worthy of consideration, for it presents a very common idea of the Sabbath question. The only thing that should concern us is to know the exact truth, and not to mistake conjecture for positive evidence.

We are told that "a seventh day of rest ought to be observed, but that it makes no difference what day it is. Query: How does anybody know that a regular rest day ought to be observed? The idea is quite prevalent among certain nations, but what gave rise to by? Let us see if we can find out.

Someone will say that reason teaches it. But no one has exceeded the ancient Greeks and Romans in acuteness of intellect or power of reasoning, yet they never had the idea of a weekly rest day. They had innumerable holidays,-festival days,-when those who were able to do so gave themselves up to amusement and revelry, but there was no thought of cessation of labour. Those who went to the greatest length in the observance of the holidays, were the ones who did little or no work, while for the labouring class there was no respite.

Such a thing as a Sabbath day is not and never has been known among what are termed heathen nations. This disposes also of the supposition that physical reasons are sufficient to account for the weekly rest day. The Chinese are diligent toilers, yet they have never learned the necessity of a weekly rest day. It is the same with other heathen peoples. So then it is a fact that by far the greater number of people on earth not only do not observe a weekly rest day, but do not recognise the existence of such a thing.

Whence, then, comes the idea of the necessity for a weekly rest day? The only answer that can be given is that it comes from the Bible. Where the Bible has no place, the weekly rest day is unknown. The fourth commandment enjoins it, and gives its origin as well. Here it is:-

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, 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 manservant, nor thy maidservant, 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." Ex. xx. 8-11.

Here is the original authority for the observance of a rest day. Whatever ideas men may have about such a day, the idea that there should be a weekly rest day at all sprang from this source, and from this alone. Now the question must arise, Since it is to the Bible that we owe our knowledge of the fact that a weekly rest day ought to be observed, why should we not also depend solely on the Bible for our knowledge of all the particulars concerning it? Why should men learn from the Bible that a rest day ought to be observed, and then consult custom, or their own taste or convenience, as to how and when it shall be observed? Such a course is manifestly inconsistent in the highest degree.

THE DEFINITE SABBATH DAY

Note well that in the commandment there is nothing said about "a seventh day of rest." The language is very definite. "The seventh day is the Sabbath." "In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day." The idea of an indefinite Sabbath, reguIated by custom, is utterly foreign to the Scriptures.

Just before the commandments were proclaimed from Sinai, the children of Israel were given manna for their food. See Exodus xvi. Six days in the week it fell, but on the Sabbath none was to be found. On each of the first five days only enough for the day's supply was to be gathered, and if more was gathered, and it was kept till the next day, "it bred worms and stank;" but on the sixth day twice the usual amount was to be gathered, and a supply laid up for the Sabbath day, in which case it did not spoil, but kept sweet. By this series of miracles, which was kept up for forty years, the Lord showed His regard for the Sabbath day; and at the same time He effectually guarded against the idea that the day of the Sabbath is to be settled by the caprice or custom of men.

The reader can see at a glance how impossible it was for any of the Israelites to get the idea that the Sabbath is an indefinite day. They might rebel against it, and disregard it, but they knew very well that the Sabbath was fixed by the Lord Himself, and not left to man; custom has nothing to do with it.

After the Babylonian captivity the Jews became very strict in the outward observance of the Sabbath, even going far beyond the commandment. They often presumed to rebuke Jesus for what they termed His violation of the day. On one occasion He healed a man on the Sabbath day, and the Jews murmured. That day was the seventh day of the week. If the Sabbath is any day that man may choose, what an opportunity that was to enlighten the Jews. Did He tell them that it made no difference what day was observed, if only a seventh part of time were kept? Not at all. He simply said, "It is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days" (Matt. xii. 12), thus recognising the definite Sabbath day, but showing that He had not violated it.

Christ was crucified on the day before the Sabbath; "That day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on." Luke xxiii. 54. "And the women also which came with Him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how His body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment."

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Verses 55, 56. "Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared." Luke xxiv. 1. This first day of the week was the day immediately following the Sabbath day, on which they rested "according to the commandment," for the record in Mark says that "when the Sabbath was past, . . . very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre (Mark xvi. 1, 2); and the record by Matthew is still more definite, saying that it was "In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week." Matt. xxviii 1.

What do we learn from these texts? This: that the Sabbath day, "according to the commandment," is the day before "the first day of the week." The day before "the first day of the week" must be "the seventh day of the week," since there are but seven days in a week. Therefore we have the fact, stated by Inspiration, that the Sabbath day "according to the commandment" is the seventh day of the week. Moreover, to make the matter more sure, we are told that even "very early in the morning the first day of the week" the Sabbath is already "past." No matter how early one rises in the morning the first day of the week, he will be too late to find the Sabbath day; it passes before the first day begins.

If one regards the Bible as of no authority, that is another matter. We have no commission to prove the truth of the Bible, for it is its own evidence; but to those who regard the Bible as the Word of God, the evidence above given, although brief, must be conclusive. The Spirit of God expressly declares that the Sabbath "according to the commandment" is the day before the first day of the week, namely, the seventh day of the week; and the words of Christ are, "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one little of the law to fail." Luke xvi. 17.

CUSTOM

The Bible declares that "the customs of the people are vain." Jer. x. 3 The command is, "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil." Ex. xxiii 2. Again we read: "Ye have ploughed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies; because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men." Hosea x. 13.

The correctness of a course is not determined by the number who follow it. In the days of Noah the multitude were opposed to the truth. Noah was in what would be termed "a hopeless minority;" and if the truth of his preaching could have been settled by a popular vote, the flood would never have come. Nevertheless it did come, because the word of the Lord had said so.

When Christ was on earth, "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." John i. 11. He was rejected by the church. The question was, "Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in Him?" John vii. 48. They had not, with the exception of one or two who believed secretly, and the fact that they had not was considered sufficient evidence that He was an impostor; yet He was the Son of God, although "despised and rejected of men."

There to custom, however, that we are permitted to follow, and that is the custom of Christ; for "He that saith he abideth in Him, ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." 1 John ii. 6. He left us an example, that we should follow His steps. 1 Peter ii. 21. Of Him we read that after His baptism and temptation, "being fall of the Holy Ghost," "He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read." Luke iv. 16. Said He, "I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love." John xv. 10. Reader, whose custom will you follow? the vain custom of the world, or the righteous custom of the Lord Jesus Christ?

"The Bible Class. The Call to the Priesthood. Heb. v. 1-6" The Present Truth 19, 23.

E. J. Waggoner

Heb. v. 1-6.

"For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins; who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins. And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made an High Priest; but He that said unto Him, Thou art My Son, to-day have I begotten Thee. As He saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec."

Last week we had the same verses for our lesson, but covered only the first three of them. The questions, however, covered the whole, and we will therefore begin where we left off, with the call to the priesthood.

Priests and High Priests. -The discourse is especially concerning high priests; but the very term "high priest" indicates that there are lower priests. Aaron and his sons were priests, and Aaron was naturally the chief or high priest. All the other priests were of his own family, but he had greater responsibilities and greater authority. This was not an arbitrary arrangement, that is, one among equals was not exalted above the rest, to be made high priest; but the high priesthood was given to Aaron because both by age and experience he was better fitted for it. The same consecration, however, served for all; and "the holy garments of Aaron" were for "his sons after him, to be anointed therein, and to be consecrated in them." Ex. xxix. 29. So with Christ, our High Priest, and the under priests. He is High Priest by virtue of His eternal fitness for the place, as not only "the firstborn among many brethren," but also "the Everlasting Father." But He is "chosen out of the people," and the other priests, His brethren, derive their priesthood from His, and have the same consecration that He has, and wear also the same priestly garments. Hence all this that is said of His call to the priesthood applies equally to them.

Honour Only from Above. -A man may seek to take the honour of the priesthood to himself, but he cannot succeed. No man really taketh this honour to himself. "A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven."John iii. 27. Self-exaltation is always debasement. "Before honour is humility." Lucifer said in his heart, "I will exalt my throne above the stares of God;" "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High." (Isa. xiv. 13, 14), and he lands in the bottomless pit. Christ, on the other hand, sought nothing for Himself, and even gave up that which was His by right; and therefore He is exalted "far above all principality, and power, and might and dominion," with "all things under His feet." Man of himself is nothing; and he can therefore do nothing of himself. So it is impossible for any man to exalt himself to the priesthood. Only He can do it, who "calleth those things that be not as though they were," and who chooses "things which are not to bring to naught things that are."

This principle is of universal application. The man who seeks for a position of honour, thereby shows that he is unworthy of it. If he were really worthy of the place, he would not have to seek it; because if a man is, under God, adapted and fitted for a place, he really has that place, even though no man recognises it. That is to say, fitness and ability for a work are God's call to the work. For example, "God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues." 1 Cor. xii. 28. Now the church can, if it pleases, elect or appoint men to any or all of these places; but the naming of them as apostles, teachers, helps, or men to govern, does not make them such. God puts man in this or that position, by giving them the power to do the work; so if a man is simply what God has made him, and can truly say, "By the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain;"-if he has not perverted God's gift, but is passive in God's hands, neither holding back nor putting himself forward;-he can be sure that he is doing just what God would have him do.

And he who does the humblest work that God has set him at, is worthy of far more honour than the one who nominally fills a high position to which God has not called him. The lesson is, in short, that nobody ought to seek any place for himself, but be contented and happy with that which God provides for him. "Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not." Jer. xlv. 5.

Self-seeking Opposed to Faith. -"Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith." Hab. ii. 4. That is to say, the man who is selfishly ambitious shows thereby that he has not faith; for self-seeking is sin, and sin is that which is not of faith. Rom. xiv. 23. Christ showed His trust in the Father by committing Himself to Him that judgeth righteously. 1 Peter ii. 23. David showed himself to be a man after God's own heart, by not attempting to seize the throne of Israel, but waiting for God to bring him to it. Jesus said, "I receive not honour from men," and then, addressing the proud Pharisees, He said, "How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?" John v. 41, 44. By this He evidently referred to their love of titles of distinction. See Matt. xxiii. 2-12. It is worthy of note, although it seems to pass altogether without notice, that no title is ever given to any man in any reference made to him in the Bible Prophets, apostles, teachers, priests and kings are referred to by their own names. Paul had all the gifts and filled all the positions possible in the church; but the nearest approach to giving him a title is "our beloved brother Paul," In proportion as men, in the church or out, lose piety and power, do they multiply titles and degrees of honour.

A Priest Because a Son. -"Christ glorified not Himself to be made an High Priest; but He that said unto Him, Thou art My Son, to-day have I begotten Thee. As He saith also in another place, Thon art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedek." That is to say, the begetting of Christ as Son, constituted Him priest after the order of Melchisedek. He is both King and Priest, and the kingship and priesthood are co-existent. As the Son of God He must be King, and so His Priesthood is necessarily royal.

This applies to all who are priests under Christ the High Priest. "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood." 1 Peter ii. 9. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. . . beloved, now are we the sons of God." 1 John iii. 1, 2. "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name; which were borne not of

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blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." John i. 12, 13. Only God Himself can beget sons of God; no man can make himself a son; and this is why no man can take the honour of the priesthood to himself, In God's kingdom there is no position lower than king and priest combined, and nothing higher to be desired. No one who has any just sense of its value can ever be satisfied with anything less, or look with anything but disgust and contempt on honours conferred by men.

"When I survey the wondrous arose,

On which the Prince of Glory died;

My richest gain I count but lose,

And pour contempt on all my pride,"

because it is that cross that elevates us to the honour of kings and priests to God, by cleansing us from sin.

"A Lesson from a Mushroom" The Present Truth 19, 23.

E. J. Waggoner

The Evening News of May 18th contained the following interesting item:-

A curious instance of the wonderful force exerted by growing vegetation is related in this week's Gardeners' Magazine. A few weeks ago some half-hardy annuals were sown in a frame in a garden at Beckenham. Some days afterwards signs of cracking were observed in the brickwork, and gradually a block, weighing in the aggregate one and a half cwt., was pushed out of position. After cutting out several bricks a mass of mushrooms was found, three pounds three ounces in weight, growing in the centre of the wall.

Everybody knows the fragile nature of mushrooms. A very light touch is all that is needed to break a piece of the top, or to break the entire top off, and even the stalk seems to be composed of little particles set one upon another, with nothing whatever to bind them together. Yet this tender plant was bearing more than fifty-two times its own weight, and lifting it out of its place. Even this, however, does not express the full measure of strength exhibited; for it must be remembered that the one and a half hundred weight of brickwork was fast in the wall, so that if a man had wanted to dislodge it he would have had to strike it with a hammer or axe many times with great force. Yet the cluster of mushrooms accomplished the task with the greatest ease, and without a sound. How could it do it?

The answer is plain to all who have eyes to behold God in His works. Nothing has any force in itself. "Power pertaineth unto God." "There is no power but of God." The power by which everything grows is the power of "the Spirit of life." It is the power of the Word which in the beginning said, "Let the earth bring forth grass." In the case before us we have a striking illustration of the statement that God's word is "like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces." Jer. xxiii. 29. When God has said that a thing shall be, nothing can hinder it. And it makes no difference how frail the agent through whom the Word works. It is the Word and not the thing, that does the work; therefore the most wonderful things can be accomplished through the weakest things. The weaker the agent, the more striking the manifestation of God's power, and the more plainly can we see that it is God alone who does the work. These things are brought to our notice in order that we may learn to trust in God's power, without taking the weakness of our bodies into account.

A mushroom has not much likeness to a great building; yet in the growth of these mushrooms we have a picture of the building of Solomon's temple. No sound was heard in the moving of that weight of brickwork; in like manner the mighty structure that Solomon reared for the worship of God came together without sound of axe or hammer. And the likeness is carried still farther; for when the temple was to be rebuilt the people, who were poor and weak, were encouraged by these words: "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain; and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it." Zech. iv. 6. 7.

That is always the way with God's buildings. Our bodies are His temples, and they grow in the same way, by His Spirit that dwells in us. Thus we are built up for God's eternal habitation. The mushroom bearing its heavy load shows us how, when God works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure, we can do all things; and however severe the temptation or heavy the burden, He provides with it the way to escape, that we may be "able to bear it."

"The Morning Plunge" The Present Truth 19, 23.

E. J. Waggoner

Baby loves his morning bath. When he sees the water ready for him he crows with delight, and kicks and struggles to get into it. He is a wise baby. The cold morning bath is good for all children. The fresh water not only makes them clean, but it puts new life into them.

Baby is not the only one who loves his bath. See the frogs tumbling over one another in their hurry to get their morning dip in the pond.

The birds, too, love the water. They do not have a kind nurse or mother to sponge them and dry them with a soft towel. But they splash in the lake, and send the sparkling drops all over themselves. Then they dry their leathers in the sun, and powder themselves with dust instead of sweet smelling toilet powder.

Pussie gives her babies a bath. They do not have a nice tub full of fresh water as you do. She uses her own tongue for a sponge, and licks them all over their furry bodies. Is not this a strange bath? But pussy is very well pleased with it, and of course she knows what is best for her own babies.

Even the flowers have their morning bath. If you go out on the grass early in the morning, your shoes will get wet. You can see little dewdrops, like beads, spangled over the grass and flowers. The dew bathes and freshens the flowers, grass and trees.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 23.

E. J. Waggoner

"The growth of militarism and the preparation of the country for conscription is a serious danger which requires watching," is what Mr. Choate, the American Ambassador wrote to the annual meeting of the Peace Society. People are watching the growth of militarism, and that is the danger: they see it growing, and are powerless to check it. Watching does not stop it.

The Religious Tract Society's annual breakfast was presided over this year by Lord Chief Justice Alverstone, who declared that though he had never written a tract he had read a great many, and that he was a profound believer in tracts and their usefulness. Many offenders against the law, Lord Alverstone added, were to an appearances callous to religious influences during their incarceration, but after their release or death tracts were found folded up in their papers. He trusted that the society would not be influenced by ridicule to abandon this class of publication.

Some idea of the extent of the society's work may be gathered from the following statistics. Last year nearly 50,000,000 tracts and other publications were issued from the home and foreign depots, and during one hundred years of the society's existence the total circulation was 3,050,000,000.

The fact that the "recognition" of Rev. R. J. Campbell as pastor of City Temple as successor to Dr. Parker, was attended not only by representatives of all the "Free Churches," but of the Anglican Church as well, is most significant. Among the speakers were Canon Hensley Henson of Westminster, Canon Beeching, and Canon Fleming. Canon Hensley Henson, who was given priority in the programme, said that "he was not there merely as a private person. He was sure in the minds of all present he stood there as representing a great Christian Church, which, with all its faults, had the singular distinction of being the Mother Church of all English-speaking churches; and therefore enjoyed the right to be able to come forward and offer words of fellowship and kindness. Coming as he did from Westminster, he reminded them that there was no name cherished there in the Abbey more jealously than that of David Livingstone. Indeed, Westminster Abbey must always be fatal to all sectarian prejudice, and, he would venture to submit, was the shrine of reconciliation." Certainly the Established Church, in the person of some of its leading men, is setting the "Free churches" an example of liberal-mindedness and freedom from sectarian bigotry.

At a recent meeting where a deputation from the British and Foreign Bible Society was received, a prominent minister spoke of the debt of the missionary societies to the Bible Society, to the service of its versions in fixing a standard for the languages of the different peoples, and to the necessity of the Bible in order to maintain the results of mission work. He spoke highly of the work done by Roman Catholic Missions in the Far East in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but because those Missions did not give the Bible to their converts their work had died out. And so it will always be, even though the instruction given be the very best. Nothing but the word of God studied and hid in the heart can keep men from falling away. It is the Rock that will enable all who build upon it to stand firm. Aside from it there is nothing but shifting sand. Man's word, compared with it, is but as the chaff to the wheat.

It is painfully sad to find in a paper whose name is The Christian so irreverent a perversion of Scripture as the following:-

"Do we not sometimes begin at the wrong end, and in looking after the fractions neglect the whole? Mr. Elbert Hubbard has tendered what he terms a new test 'for Sabbatarians.' It is a somewhat obvious one, but it is often overlooked. 'Remember the week-day to keep it holy,' he says, and a critic dealing with the pronouncement has added: 'If thy week-days are holy, thy Sabbath will take care of itself.'"

People who presume to improve upon the Bible have entered upon very dangerous work. It is not Sabbatarians, but the Lord, who says, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy;" and it hardly becomes even a preacher to attempt to make up the deficiencies in the Ten Commandments. The fact that God's Word nowhere says, "Remember the week-day, to keep it holy" is prima-facie evidence that no such commandment is needed. If it had been needed, God, who knows the end from the beginning, would have given it; but He did not, for the very good reason that the week-days are not holy days, and are not to be kept holy. This is not saying that a man should not remember to keep himself holy every day in the week; but that is another matter. One day, and only one day, in the week is holy; and we are commanded to keep that day holy, to remind us of God's creative power, which is able to keep us holy all the rest of the week. Men ought to wait at least until they have done all that the Bible says, before they get about making a new one. In making a new version of the Bible care should be taken not to make it a perversion.

It is not too much to say that the whole civilised world has been shocked by the report of the anti-Semitic outrages at Kishineff, in the Bessarabian province of Russia. The report, which first appeared in the Times, is thoroughly authentic. Full details of the riots and massacre of Jews, which took place during the Russian Easter holidays, have been published. Fifteen streets were sacked, and forty-three Jews were killed, and 124 wounded, seventy-four being seriously wounded. The city of Kishineff, with 110,000 inhabitants, and a garrison of nearly 10,000 men, was surrendered to mob law for the two whole days, the only explanation of the fact being that it had official sanction. Of this there is not the slightest chance for doubt; for the following "Perfectly Secret" confidential despatch was sent "To the Governor of Bessarabia," from the Russian Ministry of the Interior shortly before the riots broke out:-

"It has come to my knowledge that in the region entrusted to you wide disturbances are being prepared against the Jews, who chiefly exploit the local population. In view of the general disquietude in the disposition of the town populations seeking a vent for itself, and also in view of the unquestionable undesirability of instilling, by too severe measures, anti-Governmental feelings into the population which is not yet affected by (revolutionary) propaganda, your Excellency will not fail to contribute to the immediate stopping of disorders which may arise, by means of admonitions, without at all having recourse, however, to the use of arms."

The Governor was forbidden to restrain the fury of the mob, except by "admonitions," and the Jews were forbidden to defend themselves. Moreover, police protection was altogether refused. For example, the police looked on with indifference while a Jewish merchant's strong room was being plundered, although there was ample opportunity to prevent it, since the mob were ten hours at work breaking it in. But pillage and plunder were but minor details, compared with murder and outrage which were perpetrated without restraint.

If that had been done in Turkey, to so-called Christians, no language would have been too emphatic for the religious and secular press to use against the Sultan's Government; but inasmuch as the barbarous outrage was committed on Jews, by a "Christian Power," it has been passed over with no more than a single notice. Nobody has thought of-calling the Czar "The Great Assassin." We do not say that he should be so styled, although his Government is directly implicated in the massacre, and the Turkish Government never has been in any Armenian trouble. It all goes to show that the term "Christian" has been debased to a mere name, a cloak to cover up any amount of wickedness. But God sees and will not forget the indignity.

June 11, 1903

"Sight Restored" The Present Truth 19, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

"Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face; now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."

These familiar words of the Apostle Paul are brought forcibly to mind and beautifully and strikingly illustrated by the account given in another part of this paper, of the man who was born blind and has just received his sight at the age of thirty years. For thirty years he has lived in the world, seeing only through other peoples' eyes, or through his other senses. The story is interesting enough as a mere item of news; but we certainly may learn some profitable lessons from it concerning our relation to the world into which we expect to be ushered at the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

One of the first is that, familiar as we are with trees and grass, fruits and flowers, mountains, plains and rivers, sun, moon, and stars, and all the forms of beauty that the face of nature exhibits, we have no just sense of the wondrous beauty of these things as they will appear when God shall have destroyed "the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations." Although the Scripture, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him," refers primarily to the spiritual blessings which God makes known to us now when we believe, it is undoubtedly true of the new creation which will be revealed when "the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them," and "we shall see Him as He is."

When asked what he thought of the earth, the man with new vision replied, "Oh, it is so much lovelier and grander than I had ever thought or imagined." What then will be the exclamation of those who first see the new earth? When the commonest plant even on this earth "would well repay the devotion of a lifetime," what language can be used to give utterance to the delight when, with sight inconceivably clearer and stronger than we now possess, we behold the garden of the Lord? Truly we shall need the new language that God will give us.

Another lesson we can learn is the advantage of walking by faith in this world. It will be noticed that the blind man's other senses were very acute, but that as soon as he began to see as other people his fine sensibility

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began to fade away. This is no disparagement of God's gift of sight, but it shows us that when we depend on our physical eyesight alone we are practically blind. Faith is not a substitute for sight, but is really an enlargement of it. Our natural eyes can see only the things that are visible; faith enables us to see the invisible. Faith means seeing with God's sight,-seeing light in His light,-so that we can walk in the dark as confidently as in the light. If we depend wholly on our physical sight our spiritual sense becomes dull; but we may thank God that spiritual sense,-seeing with the eyes of faith, quickens our bodily vision, and at last, when our bodies are made spiritual, the two will be merged into one.

How suggestive it is that the man wanted first of all to see the face of the surgeon who was instrumental in giving him his sight, and that he thought his mother's face the most beautiful of all. So when our eyes behold "the land that is very far off,"-the far-reaching land,-and see "the King in His beauty," we shall declare Him to be "the One altogether lovely," and shall be satisfied with His likeness. The crown of all the blessings upon the servants of God is that "they shall see His face." When we think that all the varied loveliness of earth and sky,-the green grass and yellow grain; the bud and flower and glorious fruit, the gorgeous sunset, delicately fringed pink and golden clouds, and the many-hued rainbow,-these and thousands of sights too beautiful for language to describe, are but reflections of "the beauty of the Lord," we know that when we

"shall see Him face to face,"

it will take all eternity to tell

"the wondrous story, Saved by grace."

One lesson more, the most important of all: and that is the miracle of healing that has been wrought. We should not, and need not, depreciate the miracle wrought by Christ for the man born blind, when we regard this giving of sight as like to that. The fact that God gave a man the knowledge and skill to perform the operation, does not make it any less the work of God. The miracle recorded in the ninth chapter of John was intended to teach us that Christ is the light of the world, and that only in Him can we have any sight at all. We are not to consider any of God's works common, but to recognise in the least of them, and those that are most familiar to us, "His everlasting power and Divinity."

"The Editor's Private Corner. The Best Life Insurance" The Present Truth 19, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

"Is it compatible with the faith, duty, and belief of a Christian man to insure his life, and to save a sufficiency for his old age? Also, How can a Christian justify himself in keeping a Sabbath not ordained by God, and thereby seemingly breaking His holy law?

"Why should it be wrong for a Christian to insure his life, and yet not be wrong to insure his property or business?"

You have asked three questions, but the two relating to insurance properly go together, and I will take them first. The answer to them involves practical, applied Christianity, and I expect that many will say, "This is a hard saying; who can hear it?" but if I give no opinion of my own, but simply set forth plain, Gospel principles, the controversy, if anybody has one, will have to be with principles and logic, and not with me. My business is only to declare the Word of God, regardless of custom or convenience; whether it shall be accepted or not rests wholly with the reader.

"Is it compatible with the faith of a Christian to insure his life?" That depends entirely on how much faith the Christian has. If he has faith as a grain of mustard seed, that is, faith that lives and grows, and that leads him to live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, he will not insure his life; for such texts as these will be to him reality, and not mere empty sound:-

"I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. He is ever merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is blessed. Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore." Ps. xxxvii. 25-27.

"Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass." Ps. xxxvii. 2-4.

"The Lord knoweth the days of the upright; and their inheritance shall be for ever. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time; and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied." Verses 18, 19.

"Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy; to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine." Ps. xxxiii. 18, 19.

"Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits; who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth [literally, thy age] with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." Ps. ciii. 1-5.

"The Lord preserveth the simple; I was brought low, and He helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. For Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living." Ps. cxvi. 6-9.

"It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. . . . Thou hast thrust sore at me, that I might fall; but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and song, and is become my salvation. The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous: the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord." Ps. cxviii. 8-17.

"Take no thought [be not anxious], saying, What shall we eat; or, What shall we drink? or, wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek); for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought [be not anxious] for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Matt. vi. 31-34.

But why should I quote farther? I might go on indefinitely with Scripture to the same import. Take the Book and read for yourself, and then say if those to whom it is said, "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Col. iii. 3), and, "Because I live, ye shall live also," can with faith in God's word insure their lives. Is not life insurance in reality saying that one cannot trust the promises of God?

You have asked if a man should not "save a sufficiency for his old age." I have never read anything in the Bible to that effect. Let the texts already quoted answer. "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Matt. vi. 19-21. "Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that fadeth not." Luke xii. 33.

I know what you are waiting to say, You would tell me that if I am using these texts against life insurance, consistency demands that I oppose one's working for one's daily bread. There you are mistaken. The same Book that tells us not to be worried over the future, and not to lay up money, also tells us to labour with our hands. But two things must be remembered, and one is that we do not work to earn something for the future, that is, to "earn a living," but we work because activity is the law of life, and as a token of thanksgiving for the living which God has already given us. God gives us a living long years before we could possibly do

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anything to earn it; therefore we do not have to work in order to live, but live in order to work.

The other thing that must be remembered is that work is not to be compared with gambling. "What!" you exclaim, "You would not class insurance with gambling, would you?" What else can you call it? Is it not a game of chance, especially property insurance? Only one thing is sure, and that is that the insurance company, like the faro bank, always gains. To be sure losses are sometimes paid, and so are all gambling debts paid; but who pays them? If insurance is paid on your property, whose money is it? Do the insurance men take it out of their own pockets? Not by any means, the money paid to you is a portion of that paid in by people who will never receive anything for it, just as in a lottery; and you are taking money which does not belong to you, because you have not given any equivalent for it. These are simple, plain facts; you can settle it for yourself.

Property insurance has even less justification than life insurance, inasmuch as the life is more than the meat, and the body than raiment. But life assurance is far better than life insurance; that is, life assured to one by God, the Author of it, is better than money paid by men after life is gone. "A living dog is better than a dead lion." A live man with nothing is infinitely better off than a dead man with thousands; and they who trust in the Lord have the promise of life not only for a time, but for evermore. Read again the texts already quoted, and tell me what use a man with that Word has for insurance by any earthly company. "Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not; for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord; but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest." Jer. xlv. 5.

There is one objection that I will anticipate, because I remember it was once put to me when I had written something on insurance. Someone thought to rebut the truth, and overwhelm me with confusion, by naming certain Christians with whom I was quite closely connected, who insured. Well, what of it? Truth does not depend on the actions of any man. If I myself practised insurance, that would not nullify the argument, although it would convict me of inconsistency. If every Christian engaged in it, that would not make it right, nor would it be any valid excuse for you and me to do the same. Our business is not to apologise for anybody, or to condemn anybody, but to set forth the truth, which needs no apology, and which cannot be condemned.

The other question is quickly disposed of. You ask how a Christian man can justify himself in keeping a Sabbath not ordained by God. All I can say is, You must ask those who keep a day that God has not appointed. I do not know.

"The Bible Class. Called of God. Heb. v. 4-6" The Present Truth 19, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

Heb. v. 4-6

In writing to Timothy the Apostle Paul said that God has "saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." 2 Tim. i. 9. He also said that he pressed toward "the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Phil. iii. 14. Our calling, therefore, is the same as that of Christ, since we are called in Him. This has already been indicated in our study of Hebrews; for we have learned that Christ has identified Himself with us, and is not ashamed to call us brethren, and then we are addressed as "holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling," and told to "consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus." Heb. iii. 1. So from whatever and to whatever Jesus Christ is called, we have the same calling.

Now, in order to get the connection, let us recall the fact established in last week's lesson, that Jesus was called to be High Priest in being called a Son, and that in like manner our birth as sons of God makes us priests under Christ. This being clear in our minds, we can easily take in another important thought, namely, the state from which God's sons are called to be made priests; and we learn this by considering Christ.

In the story of the circumstances attending Christ's birth and early life, we read that at the command of the Lord, Joseph "took the young Child and His mother by night, and departed into Egypt; and was there until the death of Herod; that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, out of Egypt have I called My Son." Matt. ii. 14, 15. That this includes all God's people, as well as Jesus, may be known from Hosea xi. 1, from which it is quoted: "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called My son out of Egypt." Israel is God's son; that is, all the sons of God are Israelites, overcomers, princes of God. See also Ex. iv. 22, 23: "Thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is My son, even My firstborn; and I say unto you, Let My son go, that he may serve Me."

It is plain that these words both in Hosea and in Exodus, refer primarily to the whole people of Israel; yet as we read the text in Matthew, and know that it is in Christ that all God's children are begotten, we are assured that Jesus was not called out of Egypt because ancient Israel was, but that they were called out in Him, and that Jesus went into Egypt, and came out again at the call of God, that we might know that everyone who is in Christ must have come out of Egypt.

Many are at once ready to exclaim: "But we were never in Egypt." It is a very natural exclamation; but the mere making of it ought to remind us of a similar statement made by the Jews, and of Christ's answer, "We be Abraham's children, and were never in bondage to any man." Jesus replied: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, every one that committeth sin is the bondservant of sin. And the bondservant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." John viii. 33-36. Egypt in the Scriptures is a symbol of pride and opposition to God. From Eze. xxix. 1, 2

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we see that is the same as "that man of sin," "who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God." 2 Thess. ii. 4. The term Rahab, applied to Egypt in Ps. lxxxix. 10, and Isa. li. 9 and xxx. 7 (see R.V.), means pride, boastfulness; and this means sin, for "his heart that is lifted up is not upright in him." The physical bondage which the children of Israel suffered in Egypt, was only a figure of the bondage of sin in which they were held; and God called them out, that they might serve Him. Ex. iv. 23; Ps. cv . 43-45. The darkness that came on Egypt, "darkness that could be felt,"-was a type of the darkness that covers the earth, and the gross darkness that covers the people, when the Lord's glory is seen upon His children.

When the children of Israel were called out of Egypt, it was that they should be "a kingdom of priests." Ex. xix. 6. So we come back to our starting point: The calling of people out of Egypt indicates that God regards them as sons; and in that they are sons of God, they are priests. Christ went into Egypt, because God's children had all wandered there, and had become lost in its darkness. He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He came out of Egypt, that all the sons of God might come out, and be priests to God in Him.

And this brings us to the term which is in common use, signifying, "called out," but which is scarcely ever thought of in that connection, namely, "church." The word thus rendered in the New Testament is from a compound Greek word, meaning, "called out," and corresponds to the word "congregation," in the Old Testament. It is derived from the idea of a flock of sheep called together by the sound of the shepherd's voice. See John x. 1-5, 16. As men respond to the call of God in Christ, they gather to Him,-"unto Him shall the gathering of the people be," and are united to Him as their Head. "He is the Head of the body, the church." Col. i. 18. But He is the Head of the church only because "the Head of every man is Christ." 1 Cor. xi. 3. The idea of the church as "an organisation" in the commonly accepted usage of the term,-a society formed by men, having laws and regulations, and making laws and rules for the government of its members,-requiring a sort of password, or a certificate of character, as a condition of admission,-is most foreign to the Scriptures. The Lord's church is nothing of the kind. It is simply the congregation, the assembly, a gathering of individuals united only by the bond of one common obedience to the voice of Christ, and love to Him. They have all been "made to drink into one Spirit," and this one Spirit is that which distinguishes them from all others. The presence of God, and that alone, is that which keeps them separate from the world. All are kings, yet all are subject one to another. "Speaking the truth in love," they all "grow up in all things into Him which is the Head, even Christ; from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each several part, maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love." Eph. iv. 15, 16.

Thus there is the spectacle of a body without any visible head, and all the members apparently disjointed, and yet all working in the utmost harmony, and unmistakably conveying the impression of a single governing power of definite design and of methodical action; a kingdom on earth with no visible kingly power, with no earthly centre of administration, and yet being in every part in perfect accord with one common law; a house with no visible foundation, and yet so stable and unmoveable that it does not need to proclaim the fact that it is built on the Rock. And as the stories of the house come together to the one living Foundation at the word of call, they become a living, holy temple, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. The sacrifice that they offer is themselves, and they offer it for the world, even as their Head and Foundation and royal High Priest offered Himself for the world. So we see that the church, a collection of individuals independent yet united, is called in Christ to do priestly service for the world, and is able to do it, because unto "every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ." Eph. iv. 7.

"Easy Steps for Little Feet" The Present Truth 19, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

It is love that makes us happy. Do you think these two little boys look happy? Johnnie has a nice rosy apple. Oh, how Jimmie would like a big juicy bite. "No," says Johnnie, "this is my apple, and I want it all for myself."

This is not the way love does. Love makes us think of others, and want to share our good things with those who have none. Look at Johnnie's face. It does not make him happy to be selfish. And he is making poor little Jimmie unhappy too.

Ah, this is better. A good angel has whispered a kinder thought into little Johnnie's ear. Or perhaps he heard God's voice saying in his heart, "Little children, love one another." So he is giving Jimmie the very first bite. Look now at his bright beaming face. How happy his kind little heart is making him. And he is making his little playmate happy too. Yes, it is love that makes us happy, so let us love one another.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

Recent investigations by the Health Committee have resulted in the discovery of over 2,500 underground bedrooms in St. Pancras. No wonder people are an easy prey to all sorts of disease, when they spend a third or more of their lives in apartments where day-light and ventilation are impossibilities.

"He is beyond control," was the humiliating confession made by a mother at Lambeth, concerning her eight-year-old son, who was charged with wandering. Inability to control an infant,-for the boy is even now really nothing more,-indicates such a degree of weakness, bordering on imbecility, that it is strange that any adult of intelligence should without shame acknowledge it.

A reform drinking-house, the managers of which are all to be teatotallers, is about to be opened in New York. The distinguishing feature of this tavern will be "no treating." Everybody is to pay his own drinks. One of the objects expected to be obtained by this project is to dissociate immorality from the drinking habit." This sounds decidedly comical. There is no doubt that much less liquor would be consumed if there were no drinking at another's expense; but immorality will be dissociated from the drinking habit, only when stealing, gambling, lying, and profanity cease to be sins.

The Church Economist makes the computation that between twelve and fifteen new churches are built and dedicated in the United States for every day in the year. Between thirty-five and forty million dollars (nearly ?8,000,000) are annually expended for this purpose. This is all very good; but it by no means warrants the conclusion of a contemporary, that "it is hard to argue that 'the world is waxing evil' in the face of such an expenditure for the worship of God and the service of man." Those who are acquainted with the Scriptures will recall that the Jewish nation was never more apostate than when it was making the greatest boasts about the temple and spending the greatest sums on it, and the whole land was dotted with synagogues. And some who are not Bible students may think to ask how many hundreds of millions of dollars are spent in the United States each year for intoxicating liquors, to convert men into demons. In comparison with the enormous sums spent for the purpose of debauching people, not to mention the sums spent in preparing instruments for killing them, the amount spent in building churches sinks into insignificance.

Herr Zeller, head of the bureau of international statistics at Stuttgart, places the aggregate number of human beings on the earth's surface at 1,541,516,000, of whom only about one-third, or 534,940,000 profess any form of Christianity. The adherents of Confucius, he estimates, number 300,000,000, of Brahma 173,290,000, and of Buddha 121,000,000. The number of Jews in the world is given as 10,860,000.

The returns of the Administration of the Ottoman Public Debt for the year ending March 13th last, have just been issued. The amount of the Turkish Consolidated Debt, which was ?T116,135,062 at the establishment of the Public Debt Administration twenty-one years ago, has now been reduced to ?T90,552,949. Series A, ?T7,831,869 nominal, has been paid off, and the outstanding bonds of the B, C and D Series, which it is now proposed to unity into a four per cent. stock, just exceed ?T77,000,000. "The Sick Man of the East" is still a favourite stock phrase of those who always take their ideas ready coined for them; but there is not a nation in the world that can present a better showing in finance. The Turk when attacked will show himself to be a very vigorous "sick man."

A few days ago 34,740 square feet of land in Tottenham Court Road was sold for ?82,250, or nearly ?2 8s. per foot. That is a high price for a lease; for it should be known that whatever human courts may determine, there is no such thing as absolute ownership of land. "The earth is the Lord's" in very deed, and that is why the children of Israel were forbidden to sell their possessions. Men, do not nowadays recognise God's claim; but the fact remains; and no title that anybody can give to land will be valid more than a few years. Then the Lord will come "whose right it is," and will take possession of His own, and will make a redistribution, when all who are counted worthy will receive an allotment-"without money and without price."

It is stated that feeling against the negro is spreading in the northern states of America. In some places white hands are refusing to work in factories where coloured people are employed. Of all prejudices, race prejudice is about the meanest and most unchristian.

"Eat little; drink less; walk dally," is the rule for preserving health recently given by a physician. If it were systematically followed it would almost wholly, if not quite, do away with doctors' bills, and enable people to do far more work with enjoyment. And the beauty of it is that it is so simple that anybody can apply it, and it costs nothing but determination.

Here is a hint that is just as valuable, and as worthy to be acted upon, as though it cost pounds: "Tuberculosis is the most preventable disease in the world; but its cure is difficult, and to be attained, if at all, by fresh air, abundant food; that is, by strengthening the patient, rather than by attempting to weaken the foe." A word to the wise is sullicient.

One effect of Trade Union organisations is to put power into the hands of men who are unfit to exercise it. Mr. Balfour, in the House of Commons, told of one case illustrating this. A butcher near Belfast employed both unionists and non-union men. The unionists were offended with one of the latter, and demanded his dismissal. The employer apologised to the Union for employing non-unionists, offered to pay the fines and employ only unionists in the future. The leader of the Union, however, refused to allow the offending workman to join the Union until he had purged his offence by "walking the streets for a year." The employer pleaded that the man was the father of a family, but the Union leader was pitiless, and the employer had to face the alternative of either being ruined himself or dismissing the unfortunate workman who had incurred the displeasure of the Union. The tyranny of labour is just as evil as the tyranny of capital, and just as destructive to the real interests of the workers.

"The Public Health Committee of the London County Council has been making some investigation concerning the conditions under which aerated water is produced, and incidentally has made some inquiries into the drinking habits of the people. Inquiry made among common lodging-house inmates indicates that, on an average, about four pints of beer are, consumed daily, in addition to some spirits and a considerable quantity of tea. Lodgers appear to eat comparatively little solid food, but many of them spend all that is left after paying for this and their bed, upon beer. A fish-porter who was questioned, fixed his previous day's expenditure upon beer at "five and a penny." He had passed a particular public-house sixty times, in going and coming on thirty separate journeys, and each time had "looked in." The sum of the statistics gathered is to the effect that "cold water as a drink is steadily falling out of favour, the Londoner of to-day drinking rather more wine, spirits, and beer, and five or six times as much tea as he did fifty years ago." This means steady physical degeneration, as any medical man can tell; and with physical degeneration mental and moral degeneration must follow, and that without saying a word as to the morality of the drinking habit in itself.

"The Living Word. 2 Tim. iii. 14; iv. 8" The Present Truth 19, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

Tim. iii. 14; iv. 8

The second epistle to Timothy contains the lasts words of the Apostle Paul that have come down to us. His life was drawing near its close, and perils were gathering thick and fast around the church. Many had failed to endure the test, and were giving up the Gospel. "This thou knoweth, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me." Chap. i. 15. Others had erred concerning the resurrection, and were overthrowing the faith of some. Chap. ii. 17, 18. "Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world." Chap. iv. 10. "Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil." Verse 1-4. "At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge." Verse 16.

While others were giving up the truth, "having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof," Timothy, who knew the Lord, was to continue in the things which he had learned and had been assured of, knowing of whom he had learned them. It makes a great difference of whom we learn. If we receive the truth from men, we shall learn it as it is in men. If we learn it from Christ, we "have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus." Eph. iv. 21. When God's word is received, "not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, it worketh effectually in those that believe." 1 Thess. ii. 13.

The Word of God is a living Word. "It is alive and powerful." Heb. iv. 12. The Word did not die when it was spoken through Isaiah, and David, and other holy men of old. Nor did it become separated from God when He had breathed it. "The Word was God," and it is still God. So when we read Isaiah's writings we do not receive the word from Isaiah, but from God. The Scripture is still given by inspiration of God. The word spoken to Isaiah was not spoken to him alone, or for him alone. "No prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation." 2 Peter i. 20. "Thus saith the Lord." "The word which came unto Jeremiah." The word of the Lord came unto me." "The word of the Lord that came to Joel." Whoever will hear the same Word to-day may hear it spoken by the Lord, and it will come to him as it came to the prophets. Whoever hath ears to hear, let him hear. If we only know the Scriptures as words that have been once written in a book, they will not be alive and powerful in us. The Scripture must come to us individually by inspiration of God, and then we shall have it as the prophets had it, and it will be alive in us as it was in them. Such hearing of the Word will not result in doubts and difficulties and questioning, or in theories as to how far the Bible is inspired. It will give us true faith. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." Rom. x. 17.

"I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom; PREACH THE WORD." This is the cure for doubt, for false doctrines, for faint heartedness, and for cowardice, in the hour of trial. This is the whole duty of the servant of Christ. He must receive the word by the in-breathing of God, himself feed on the sincere milk of the Word, and pass it on, "alive and powerful" to others. If he believes it himself, it will work effectually in him (1 Thess. ii. 13), and it will work effectually for others. It was by the Word that the heavens were made, and they are upheld by the Word of His power (Heb. i. 3), and this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached. 1 Peter i. 25. In the individual life, in the home circle, and in the church, the Word of God is the power which builds up character (Acts xx. 32), and furnishes the man of God unto all good works.

Paul foresaw a time of darkness before the church, when the word of God would be disregarded. Therefore he exhorted Timothy to be instant in season, and out of season, in preaching the Word. The more light and power there was in the Word, the more it would be disliked by those who loved darkness rather than light. Even in the church many would love rather to listen to fables, than to the living Word which rebuked their evil lives and exhorted them to better things.

As the people should turn from the truth and desire to hear fables, there would be those who would be willing to gratify them. Paul had said unto the elders of Ephesus, and the prediction had already been fulfilled in the apostasy in Asia: "After my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them." Acts xx. 29, 30. The people wanted to hear smooth things, and these false teachers, unlike Paul who did not use flattering words and never sought to please men, were willing to gratify the desire, that they might gain the ascendancy over the people and exalt themselves. Thus the Papacy was developed, by teachers who pleased the people and were chosen as their leaders. Men are ready enough to blame the ambitions elders who filled the church with a strife for supremacy, until one of them was acknowledged head of all the bishops, but it should be remembered that it takes two sides to make a papacy. There must be the self-exaltation of the "princes of the church," and their head, the pope, but there must also be the willingness of the people to acknowledge the infallibility of a man, the disposition to bring judgment and conscience into his control, and let him decide everything for them, and stand in the place of God. The people who desire to surrender their God-given rights and privileges to a man in exchange for fables, are quite as much to blame as the man who is glad to exalt himself at their expense. The people are as much a part of the Papacy as the pope.

It is not every man who can be a pope, but every man who wants to be one, and shows the spirit of a pope, belongs to the papacy. And there are people to whom the Pope of Rome is an abomination, but they have a pope of their own, some man, a minister perhaps, whom they put in the place of God, taking the Scriptures from him instead of from God, surrendering their judgment and conscience to him, and believing blindly whatever he may say, instead of coming to God for themselves. They also are a part of the papacy. They are the people who would make a man a pope in spite of himself. The temptation is one that besets all, and we need the exhortation which Paul gave to Timothy to be watchful.

June 18, 1903

"What Is the Papacy?" The Present Truth 19, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

The expression "the papacy" naturally brings to the mind the Pope of Rome, with his cardinals, bishops, and priests the Vatican, the Inquisition, and various other institutions connected with the machinery of the papal system. But the real papacy is not a set of men holding the titles of pope and cardinal and priest; it is not the institutions which those men and their supporters have planted in Italy and throughout the world; it is not the false doctrines of Catholicism; nor is it all three of these together. It is a system of principles,-of false principles,-carried out to the full limit of their evil capacity.

It is false worship developed to its most baleful degree of perfection. Before there were any popes or bishops or cardinals or before most, if not all, of the false doctrines which Rome teaches had arisen, "the mystery of iniquity" already worked. 2 Thess. ii. 7. Before papal institutions had been established, or the papal machinery had been put into operation, the principles were working which culminated in the revelation of the "man of sin," the "son of perdition."

What the real essence of this system is may be seen from the following words of the Apostle Paul, taken from his second letter to the Thessalonians: "Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day [the day of the Lord] shall not come except there come a falling away, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so That he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." 2 Thess. ii. 3, 4. The Revised Version reads, "Setting himself forth as God." It is the exaltation of self; it is putting self in the place of God. Develop this principle to the full limit, and the result will be the papacy every time. Indeed, it is the papacy even when not fully developed; for there are many phases and manifestations of it. The essence, the sum and substance of it is self in opposition to God; man's ways in opposition to God's ways.

And this principle is naturally inherent in every man. Every individual has within him a tendency to put self in the place of God. This tendency most naturally finds expression in efforts to supply the power to make himself do what is right. He makes vows, and resolves to live righteously; next he makes laws to compel himself to be righteous; and finally he inflicts penances upon himself as a last resort, to chain himself, as it were, in the pathway of obedience to the Divine will. This is the principle that works in paganism,-the principle that leads men to throw themselves under the wheels of Juggernaut, to crawl on hands and knees for scores of miles to the Ganges, or shrines of their gods, and to inflict upon themselves various other tortures. With this coupled the equally false idea that such things serve in some way to appease the wrath of God.

The papacy goes a step farther than this, and thereby reaches a far more baleful position. It extends the principle to the doctrine that a man should not only make laws and inflict penalties for the spiritual guidance of himself, but for other people as well; that he should not only exercise power to regulate his own conscience, but the consciences of his fellows! And thus we have the Pope of Rome, sitting as God in the temple of God, and assuming authority to command all men under sin; to shut up heaven to all, or to release from "purgatory," or to absolve souls from the penalties of all laws; to regulate, in short, the consciences and the worship of the whole world! This is the principle of putting self in the place of God, carried out to its full extent.

And what should be borne in mind in connection with all this is that this principle of self-exaltation is not confined in its operation to any certain kind or class of men, but is a principle which has a natural hold upon all, a hold which can only be loosed by the power of the Gospel of God. And hence it is just as possible to have popes among Protestants as among Catholics. Indeed it is certain that there are many popes in the Protestant world to-day,-not visibly and ostensibly such, but men which nevertheless put themselves, or allow others to put them, in the place of God, so that people seek to them instead of to God to learn what is right, The principle is the same in both, and the results are bound to be as evil in the one case as in the other. Let every man beware how he puts himself in a position, or allows himself to be put, where he stands in the place of God. "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God." If it be not God's voice that is heard, and God's power that is felt, through him,-if, in other words, he calls attention not to God but to himself, lifts up himself and not Christ before the multitude, then, although not a pope in name, he is actuated by the same principle that works in popery, and is bringing upon himself a share in its condemnation.

To counteract this growing tendency in men, and to save them from perdition, a special message is sent into the world in these last days. It is summed up in the words, "Behold your God!" "All flesh is grass," "but the Word of our God shall stand for ever." In short, man is nothing, and God is everything; and the only way man can be anything is to abide in God.

"The Editor's Private Corner. The Sabbath of the Lord" The Present Truth 19, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

"I am convinced that the seventh day is the only true Sabbath, and that I ought to keep it. Can you provide me with work that will enable me to do so, or tell me where I can obtain it?"

This is a sample of letters that we occasionally receive from our readers. The question shows that the questioner does not yet really know the Sabbath and its Lord.

The Sabbath of the Lord, the seventh day of the week, on which the Lord rested after having created the heavens and earth in six days, is the memorial of God's creative power. It is the sign of the power by which He makes men free. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. Rom. i. 16. The power of God is seen in the things that are made. Verse 20. So the Sabbath is the sign of God's power to save. Therefore he who knows the Sabbath as God has given it, has no need to ask for the way to be made easy for him to keep it, because in the keeping of it he finds the way. It marks the measure of the power of God, who can make a way through the midst of the sea.

CHRISTIANITY AND HEATHENISM

The difference between the two is that the first is trust in a God who cannot be seen, while the second must have a god which can be seen. The Christian who endures "as seeing Him who is invisible" (Heb. xi. 27), does not need to see the way before him; but the heathen, who cannot get along without a god that his natural eyes can see, must be able to see the end before he will begin, since he has to walk alone. The one who must "see his way" before he will begin to walk, is the same as the one who must see his god. If the Israelites had insisted on seeing their way before they proceeded to cross the Red Sea or the Jordan, they would never have reached the promised land.

The Saviour, after showing how God feeds the birds, and clothes the grass, and pointing out that He will much more clothe us, said: "Be not anxious, therefore, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Matt. vi. 31-38, R.V. In these words the Lord shows us that Christianity means trust, while distrust is heathenism.

DEATH DOES NOT END ALL

But someone will say that we do not touch the real point. They do not fear man, but it is a question of life or death. We know that there are many who see their duty to keep the Sabbath of the Lord, but who are deterred by the fact that the keeping of it would almost certainly mean the loss of their situation. One man wrote to us: "The thought of hearing my children cry for bread is a very great difficulty in my mind." We sincerely sympathise with such, and we know that there are many. But when such ones see the Sabbath not merely as a duty, but as a blessed privilege, as the introduction to the Lord Himself, who owns the earth and its fulness, such difficulties will vanish.

It is indeed a sad thing to hear children cry for bread; but He who "giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry" (Ps. cxlvii. 9), will not disregard the cry of children.

The Sabbath, which rests on God's word, carries with it all the promises of God's Word to support the man who embraces it. It is the great test of trust in God's word, and is thus the great seal of Christianity.

"But would you counsel a man with a large family depending on him, to begin to keep the Sabbath when it will mean the loss of his sole means of earning a living?" We would simply counsel a man to obey the word of the Lord, and to trust in the promises of the Lord of the Sabbath. God has said that He knows what we need, and that He cares more for us than earthly parents care for their children. The question is, Do we believe Him? A man must believe Him sufficiently to trust his life in His hands, or else his observance of the seventh day would not be true Sabbath-keeping. The man who says, "I will keep the Sabbath if you will provide me with employment whereby I can make a living," does not yet know what the Sabbath is, and therefore could not keep it. A man might as well not profess to keep the Sabbath, as to profess to keep it while trusting in man instead of in God. No one but God can ensure a man a living.

Everything comes from God. Even the wicked derive their support from Him. "He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things." Acts xvii. 25. Now since He provides even for those who blaspheme His name, is it not reasonable to suppose that He will care for His own? We may reason thus: "All these years I have been disobeying God, yet He has fed me; surely He will not cast me off now when I turn to Him to obey Him."

Let it be remembered, however, that the promises of God are not simply for this life. "Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is, to come." 1 Tim. iv. 8. But while God has promises for the present life, He has not promised that it shall continue for ever. In other words, He has not promised immortality before the coming of Christ. He has had faithful followers in all ages, but except in a few cases they are all dead. Let no one think therefore that it is an absolute necessity that this present life should be preserved at all hazards. Jesus said, "Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Matt. xvi. 25, 26.

God alone knows the life and times of

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men; and when He is willing that one of His servant's should cease from labour, it is well. So if by any possibility a man should starve to death as a consequence of serving the Lord, that would not be the worst thing that could befall him, although it would be the first time such a thing ever happened. "I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread."

Although God does not allow His servants to starve to death, He does suffer them to die for His sake. Thousands of men, with families depending on them, have died at the stake rather than disobey God. Their names and memories are honoured; yet many who honour them will refuse to serve the Lord if it means inconvenience. Men discourse eloquently of how their fathers died for the truth's sake; yet they themselves think that they cannot serve the Lord if it will cost them anything.

Now all this talk about people's not being able to serve God, because they are likely to lose their living if they do, is really an outgrowth of the heathen idea that death ends all. Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, because he felt that he was about to die, and he thought, "What good will this birthright do me?" He had no conception of any inheritance beyond the grave. But the promises of God are for this present life only to the end that men may "lay hold on eternal life." The man who dies in the service of God, gains his life in losing it. God is the living God, and He gives life. His servants know that the present life is of no profit whatever, except as it is the means of gaining the life to come; and if they lose this in gaining that, they have got full value out of it.

So to-day the Word of the Lord says to people as it did of old, "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve." Happy is the man who can say in the face of the greatest difficulties, and even of death itself, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!"

"The Bible Class. Christ's Prayers and Tears. Heb. v. 7" The Present Truth 19, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

(Heb. v. 7.)

We have already had three studies on the first seven verses of the fifth chapter of Hebrews; but one of the most important lessons is contained in the seventh verse, which we have not yet considered. In order to bring it directly before us, in its connection, we will read the two preceding verses with it.

"Christ glorified not Himself to be made High Priest; but He that said unto Him, Thou art My Son, to-day have I begotten Thee. As He saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec. Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared."

CHRIST PRAYED ON EARTH

The Gospel narrative abounds in references to the prayers of Jesus. The first thing He did after being baptized in Jordan, was to pray, and it was while He was praying that the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in visible form, and witnessed to His Sonship. Luke iii. 21, 22.

Immediately afterward He was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness, where He was tempted forty days and forty nights by the devil. We have only to read the twenty-second psalm, to know that both day and night He cried to God in prayer for deliverance.

Soon after His return from the wilderness of temptation, while by the power of the indwelling Spirit He was going about healing all manner of diseases, and casting out devils, we hear of Him "in the morning rising up a great while before day" and going out into a solitary place, and there praying. Mark 1. 35. In the height of His fame, when great multitudes came together to hear Him, and to be healed of their infirmities, "He withdrew Himself into the wilderness, and prayed." Luke v. 15, 16.

Still later when His marvellous powers had aroused the jealousy of the priests and scribes and Pharisees, so much so that "they were filled with madness, and communed one with another" concerning how to destroy Him, we read that "it came to pass in those days, that He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God." Luke vi. 11, 12.

When He had fed thousands of hungry people in the wilderness with bread that came directly from His own body before their eyes, and they were determined to make Him king, He sent them away; "and when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up into a mountain apart to pray." Matt. xiv. 23.

It was while He was alone with Peter and James and John in a mountain whither He had gone to pray, that "as He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered," and He was transfigured before them. Luke ix. 28, 29. And it was "as He was praying in a certain place," that at the request of one of His disciples, He taught them the prayer which has been the model for all generations since. Luke xi. 1, 2.

As He came down from the mount of transfiguration, a severe case of lunacy, epilepsy, and possession by the devil was brought to Him, which the disciples had vainly attempted to heal. After He had driven out the devil with a word, the disciples asked Him why they could not cast him out, and He replied: "This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting" (Matt. xvii. 21), showing plainly the secret of His own never-failing power. And lastly we have the story of His prayer in the garden, the night that He was betrayed, when in the agony of His supplication "His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." Luke xxii. 44.

WHY DID HE PRAY?

It ought not to be necessary to ask this question, because the reason is so apparent it is evident that Jesus prayed because He felt the need of prayer. In the story of Christ's prayers we have the most convincing evidence that He was "touched with the feeling of our infirmities," being made in all things like unto His brethren, and that He "was in all points tempted like as we are." Heb. ii. 17; iv. 15. No one dare hint that the prayers of Jesus were for show,-that they were only a form of words, and not wrung from His heart; and just as surely as His prayers were real, expressing the real longings of His soul, so surely were His temptations real. They pressed upon His flesh and spirit. Only through prayer could He find wisdom for teaching, power for healing, strength to remain humble amid the applause of the people, and courage and calmness and steadfastness of purpose in the face of the angry, threatening mob. In these words we find the reason why He did not fail, nor become discouraged:-

"The Lord God hath given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary; He wakeneth morning by morning; He wakeneth Mine ear to hear as the learned." "I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting. For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded; therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together; who is mine adversary? let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up." Isa. l. 4-9.

HEARD AND DELIVERED

He "was heard." Just as in the Bible hearing by men is the same as obeying, so hearing by the Lord means the answering of the petitions offered to Him. God does not hear for nothing. "If we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him." 1 John v. 15. No one could Imagine God turning away from the cries of His only-begotten Son, and refusing to help Him and supply His need. Christ's prayers were heard by the Father; His strong crying and tears were heeded; and He received the deliverance that He pleaded for.

DELIVERED FROM SIN AND DEATH

For what did Christ pray?-The answer is found in the statement that He cried "unto Him that was able to save Him from death." It was this cry that was heard. Evidently, then, He prayed to be saved from death.

"But He died, neverthess," someone will say. Yes, He died, but He was saved from death. He died, but He was not overcome. His life was not taken from Him, but He laid it down of His own free will. He went into the grave a conqueror, stronger than the "strong man armed" who kept his palace; and He overcame him, and took from him all his armour wherein he trusted. See Luke xi. 21, 22; Col. ii. 15; Heb. ii. 14, 15. He came from the grave by the power of His own word, the commandment given Him by the Father. John x. 18. God raised Him up, having loosed the pains of death; "because it was not possible that He should be holden of it." Acts ii. 24. His deliverance was complete, and thus He is the Deliverer.

Why was it not possible for Jesus to be held by death?-The answer is, Because He did not sin. "Ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins: and in Him is no sin." 1 John iii. 5. It is only by sin that death has power over men. "By one man sin came into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Rom. v. 12. "Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death." James i. 15. The only thing that can cause fear of death is sin. Now as Jesus "did no sin," and yet prayed in anguish to be delivered from death; it is evident that He prayed to be kept from sin, and that His prayers were the reason why He did no sin, He felt the burden of sin in His flesh, and prayed to be delivered from its mortal power, and was heard. Life was given Him, which swallowed up the sin; so that, though the sins of the whole world were upon Him, no man ever saw one of them revealed in His life and character.

BRUISED FOR OUR INIQUITIES

Not for Himself did Jesus suffer, and not for Himself was He delivered. "Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows." "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Isa. liii. 4-6. He who knew no sin was made to be sin on our behalf; "that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Cor. v. 21. Because of His prayers our iniquities are pardoned; through His struggles our warfare is accomplished.

How often do you stop to think that everything that Jesus passed through on this earth was wholly for our sakes? He had no need to come to earth and be tempted, in order to prove His own loyalty to the Father. It was our nature and our sins, our sinfulness, that the word which was in the beginning with God, and was God, took upon Himself when He "became flesh, and dwelt among us." It was our flesh-yours and mine-that the Spirit that filled Him strove against. Therefore, glorious thought! all our sins, even the worst and most obstinate, have been already overcome. Every temptation that is common to men his been met and successfully resisted. When we meet the enemy that lurks in our flesh, we have only to lay hold of the victory that has already been won over it, and claim it as ours. Then we shall demonstrate that "this is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith." 1 John v. 4.

It was through the eternal Spirit that Jesus offered Himself without spot to God. By that same Spirit He abides with us, dwelling in us, so that we may say, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in Me; and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Gal. ii. 20. So the temptation that we meet is His temptation. He, being "touched with the feeling of our infirmities," has the temptation to deal with; and as surely as He resisted it "in the days of His flesh," will He overcome it now in the days of our flesh. It is already overcome; and the knowledge of this turns our mourning into dancing. "His Divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue." 2 Peter i. 3.

MAKING INTERCESSION FOR THE SAINTS

Although Christ is not visibly present in he flesh, the Spirit as His representative is poured out upon all flesh; and thus it is really the same as though He had never left the earth, but had been multiplied indefinitely. Of the comforter who comes in

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His name, He says: "He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you." John xlv. 17, 18.

Now we may know more fully what it is to pray in the name of Jesus. It is to consider ourselves dead, and Christ living in our place, reanimating our body, and speaking with our mouth. So when we ask for deliverance, we are asking it not for ourselves, but for Him; we ask for His sake, on His account. Or, better still, it is Christ asking through us as for Himself. Then, remembering that when He cried He was always heard, we know that not one of our petitions offered in His name can be neglected.

"Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit ttself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot he uttered. And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit; because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." Rom. viii. 26, 27.

The Spirit that so successfully made supplication in Christ still lives and makes intercession for us. Jesus has gone into the heavens "there to appear in the presence of God for us;" but by His Spirit He is still on earth dwelling with men. So by the Spirit in us we ourselves have access to the heavens, in the person of Jesus we ourselves are in the holiest, close by the throne of grace, boldly making our requests to God. And He has called us there for the express purpose of supplying all our need according to His riches in glory. Surely if we know this we shall never more go empty.

WHY WAS JESUS HEARD?

He was heard "in that He feared." Not, as the margin has it, "for His piety," but, as in Heb. xii 28, where the same word occurs, for His "godly fear." The Greek word has the significance of caution, circumspection. He was heard, and delivered from sin, because He feared to sin, and thus displease God. He was saved from sin, because He wanted to be saved.

Here is our assurance. God gives to every man the desire of his heart. "The king shall joy in Thy strength, O Lord, and in Thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! Thou hast given Him His heart's desire, and hast not withholden the request of His lips." Ps. xxi. 1, 2. His mercy is upon us according as we hope in Him. Ps. xxxiii. 22. He grants us according to our own heart. Ps. xx. 4. "He will fulfil the desire of them that fear Him." Ps. cxlv. 19. Every unspoken longing, every aspiration of the heart, is an articulate voice in the ears of God, who hears the cry of the blood of the slain, and of the wages of which the poor are defrauded. Not one longing desire is overlooked by Him who is "able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Eph. iii. 19), "for He satisfieth the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness." Ps. xvii. 9 Therefore "thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift" of "victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

"The Home. Moral Manhood" The Present Truth 19, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

Moral manhood is built up, not by being shielded from temptation, but by resisting it," said Mr. Samuel Horton, preaching in Edinburgh a short time ago. He emphasised his statement by contrasting the following examples. Although in the second case Sunday is erroneously called the Sabbath, yet since the young man of whom the story is told sincerely believed it to be so, his adherence to principle is none the less commendable. Those who, believing Sunday to be the Sabbath, are determined to keep it at all costs, are the ones who will most readily accept and hallow the true Sabbath of the Lord when its claims are presented.

"Easy Steps for Little Feet" The Present Truth 19, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

Here are two little brothers out for their early morning run in the dew and the sunshine. They live and learn in the School of the Woods. Did you not know that little animals had to go to school? They have many lessons to learn, and their mothers are their teachers. Those poor little animals who have lost their mothers have no one to teach them. They are soon caught and killed by some larger animal or bird, because they have not learned the way to escape.

The first and chief lesson for Baby Bunnies to learn; as well as for little children, is to obey their mothers,-to do as they are told. Baby Bunny knows nothing. His wise Mamma knows all that a bunny needs to know. So if he does just what she tells him, he will be safe. But the naughty and disobedient little bunny will be sure to get into trouble.

Baby Bunny learns to lie quite still when a snake or hawk is near. Then most likely he will not be seen. He learns how to dodge the old fox and the dogs who chase him, and to lead them into the prickly thorn bushes that scratch them and shelter him.

He learns how to send telegraph messages to the other bunnies with his hind feet. One thump means "Keep still." Two slow thumps mean "Come." Two fast thumps mean "Danger." And three fast thumps mean "Run." These are a few of the lessons that Baby Bunny learns in the School of the Woods.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

Over a million people in China are on the verge of starvation owing to the terrible famine in that country.

On a recent Sunday a noted "priest" of the Church of England preached three sermons on the subject of Balaam's Age. The first was, "The Grandeur of Balaam's Ass," the second, "The Consolations of Balaam's Ass," and the third, "Balaam, the Fashionable Clergyman, and His Age." The preacher had at any rate a Bible subject for his discourses, and that is a step nearer the Gospel than many preachers come.

The census of Victoria gives a population of 1,205,513, a decrease of 3,192 in the year. Yet while the entire colony has diminished in population, its chief city, Melbourne, has increased by 4,092. Those are alarming figures. They show that even that comparatively new country is falling into decay. The increase of the population of cities at the expense of that of the country indicates that mankind is getting farther and farther from God's original command; when He placed man in the garden: "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

The Illustrated Scientific News states that Mr. Young, an American astronomer of note, has lately published what it terms "a startling and ingenious theory," which is nothing less than that not only the other planets, but "the sun itself may be a land like our own." We hope that no one will be deterred from reading the following statement of the theory, through fear that it is too scientific for him to understand. It is not difficult.

"The sun, according to this imaginative theorist, is a centre of electric force. Converging streams of electricity are ever flowing to this centre, but on meeting with the non-conducting atmosphere become changed into a brilliant discharge, which gives the appearance of a solid incandescent body. Away in the centre of this brilliant crust, and far separated from it by the non-conducting atmosphere, lies a beautiful planet having all the most desirable characteristics of our own earth. But it is only very rarely that we can obtain a glimpse of this abode of bliss, or its strange inhabitants, if they exist, set eyes on our little planet. Then it is through the aperture or rift in the luminous clouds which we call a sunspot."

Whether this is the case or not, nobody can tell; but it is certainly no more impossible that people should live on the sun, than that they should live in the immediate presence of God, from whom the brilliant sun gate its comparatively little light. We know that angels do now, and that men will by and by see the face of God, and that they themselves will shine as the sun. To such glorified beings the sun would not be an impossible or unnatural place of abode. We may be sure that God made the sun for some other purpose than solely to give a small fraction of its light to this little earth on which we live.

One cannot help wondering how many of the three thousand who paid a guinea each, and of the thousand who paid from two to ten guineas each, to attend the fancy ball at the Albert Hall, in aid of the London Hospital, would have given the money direct to the institution. Certain it is that if they had done so the hospital would have received far more benefit. Undoubtedly a handsome sum was secured; but what a sum must have gone for expenses! To be sure most of the food and liquors consumed were donated; but then the hospital fund was none the better off for that, because they were all consumed. It was an instance of the old case of ten guineas spent for personal gratification, in order that one guinea may be realised for "charity." It is too bad that the beautiful word "love" should be so prostituted. We are glad to see these words in the Daily Chronicle:-

"To many there may seem some little incongruity in this association of frivolous amusement with the relief of suffering; for one can hardly stretch the meaning of the word 'charity' to cover the disbursement of guineas by people who want to see a unique spectacle of the London season. It is a pity that the most deserving of causes should depend in a measure on such very indirect channels of contribution, since the sense of personal responsibility for the relief of human suffering must inevitably be dulled."

A department for the treatment of lupus by the Finsen light cure has just been opened at the London Hospital, at a cost of ?75,000. That department, which has just been opened by the King and Queen, who have contributed largely to it, is declared to be "the finest, the most complete, and the most important and necessary in the world." The Daily Chronicle gives a well-deserved tribute to Dr. Finesen of Copenhagen, and says: "His method of curing skin tuberculosis (or lupus) by concentrated and selected light, enters to-day on the assured and world-famous stage of a career which will run until the last tubercle bacillus on this planet is killed." The Chronicle little realises how true its words are. The last tuburcle bacillus on earth will surely soon be killed, and by light, too; but it will not be through any human mechanical contrivance, valuable as such methods are. God designs that by these discoveries we shall learn that He, who is light, even the light of the world, is the only healer of disease, and so may learn how to walk in the light as He is in the light; but man's persistent perversion of God's gift is such that tuberculosis in its various forms will keep on increasing until His unveiled glory shines from heaven, and the whole earth is filled with the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, as the waters cover the sea.

It seems as though people must soon for very shame cease to boast about the enlightenment and the advancement of the twentieth century; for some of the nations of Europe are doing their utmost to prove that the world is yet peopled chiefly by savages and barbarians. We had scarcely had time to think of the barbarous slaughter of Jews at Kisheneff, by the permission, if not by the direction, of the Russian Government, when news comes of the revolution in Servia, which reads like a page from the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." The very greatness of the crime lessens the shock to our sensibilities because the mind cannot grasp it as a possibility. It is inconceivable that the King and Queen of a civilised people should, together with many loyal followers, be murdered in a night by those people, and their bodies thrown into a pit, as though they were dogs. The crime was so unnecessary, too, even in a political sense, since the offending rulers could easily have been banished. It is only a demonstration of the depravity and cruelty of human nature; and we turn from the account of it, to read that "in the Iast days perilous times shall come," and "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse." The prospect would be too awful to contemplate, if it were not for the fact that the greater the lawlessness the sooner will be the end of it.

In addition to the reports of barbarity that come from Russia and Servia, we are informed of a diabolical scheme proposed by the Macedonian revolutionists. They have stated that they intend to try "a worse thing than dynamite," which is thus set forth by one of the revolutionists:-

"The plague bacillus will be our weapon if other weapons prove ineffectual; it will be our last resource. The time has come when we may make this purpose of ours public. It is long since we took out first steps to procure a quantity of microbe poison sufficient to infect Constantinople, Berlin, and the seaport of Salonika, and from them the entire Continent."

They claim to have cultivated the microbes in bacteriological laboratories, and that at a time agreed upon the people in the cities will be infected, while the revolutionists will escape contamination by fleeing to the mountains. Thus the scientific discoveries that ought to be used in combating disease, are to be employed in propagating it. Nothing is too horrible to be believed now, and we can only wonder what the next fiendish plot will be. But what bitter sarcasm it sounds like when, with reference to this proposed scheme the revolutionists say that "the resources of civilisation" are not yet exhausted.

A short time ago there was a religious gathering at the little town of Olney, at which about two hundred persons were present from various parts of Northamptonshire. The report states that "the members had risen and breakfasted early, and at midday they lunched heartily on cold meats, hams, tongues, sweets, cheese, etc.," and that "the repast was accompanied by libations of sparkling water drawn from an adjacent well." At night many of the members were exceedingly ill, and, of course, speculation was rife as to the cause of their pains. With remarkable unanimity they agreed that it was the water that they had drunk, for they could not think of anything else that could possibly have caused illness! So it is proposed to subject the water to a severe examination. Unfortunately, the cold meats, tongues, sweets, cheese, etc., are past examination, else they, severally or in combination, might have a story to tell that would explain the situation. The fact that a rabbit pie which was intended for consumption with the other things was so far gone in putrefaction that it was uneatable, and was not served, does not seem to have suggested anything to the people concerned. Evidently they need a good deal more religious instruction, in order that they may learn "the way of life" more perfectly.

"An Important Event" The Present Truth 19, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

On Thursday, May 28th, an event took place, which is destined to have a Iasting influence upon the lives of very many people in England. It did not attract much attention; but the prophet of God has taught us that "the day of small things" is not to be despised. In the economy of God nothing is really small. The least of the things that He has created is sufficient to reveal His almighty, and everlasting power; and the events of His providence that are seemingly most insignificant may be productive of the greatest and most far-reaching results.

The thing in question was only the opening of an institution for the treatment of disease at Caterham, to be known as the "Surrey Hills Hydro." It was a most delightful occasion for those who were present. The day was one of the most charming of the year, and the exercises were held on the lawn, with the sunny sky for a covering, the green trees and fields for a background, and the music of the birds for an accompaniment. The features of prime importance were the speech of the chairman, Morgan Thomas, Esq., chief magistrate of the county, and the address of Dr. David Paulson, of the American Medical Missionary College, Chicago, The institution, for which many have been anxiously longing, is now open for patients; and intending visitors should write to Dr. A. B. Olsen, at the address given above.

If we should stop with this summary notice of the opening we should be doing the institution, as well as our readers, an injustice; for we should be misrepresenting it, and, moreover, the mere fact that at a given time a certain little function was performed would not in itself be worth taking time and space to relate. It is not so much what has been done, as what has been set in motion, and what may be done, that makes the little event significant.

The institution is called the "Surrey Hills Hydro;" but it is more than that. It is not by any means only by water that patients are to be treated. Every form of rational treatment known to the most advanced medical science is to be employed: and those who go there for the recovery of their health may be sure that not one of the good gifts by means of which God conveys life to His creatures will be neglected; and skilful hands directed by instructed intellects and devoted hearts will administer them. Not by any means least of all, patients will have the advantage of a pleasant, Christian home in which to renew their youth.

But this is not all. We have spoken only of the treatment of disease. Important as this is, and occupying as it does the most prominent place in the minds of many, it is in reality a secondary item. The most important work that the institution will do will be to instruct, not only patients who come for treatment, but thousands of others, how to live so as to retain their health, and how to care for themselves and their friends if by any mischance they fall ill. So we say the opening of the institution was an important event; for who can ever tell what may result from the planting of a seed?

Next to the fact that disease is increasing, and that new forms of disease are multiplying at a rapid rate, the fact that people are beginning as never before to pay attention to health, and to study its laws, is a sign of the near approach of our Lord. The diseases will make His coming a necessity; and the demonstration of the power that His life when yielded to has over disease and death will be the best possible preparation for His revelation in glory.

After nineteen centuries of Christianity Christians are but just beginning to wake up to the full meaning of it. For ages people have associated goodness of soul with worthlessness of body. All the Sunday-school books of our early days made the good little boy or girl a pale-faced weakling who died very young. The "minister of the Gospel" has been considered as one whose sole concern was the "souls" of men and women, and whose one duty was to preach and to give "ghostly" counsel. And yet all the time they had before them the open Bible with the story of the Master, "who went about doing good," "and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people." His disciples, including the twelve apostles, who were pre-eminently ministers of the Gospel, were sent out "to preach the kingdom God, and to heal the sick," Like Christ Himself, they were "to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease." The disciple who entered most into the feelings and purpose of the Master, wrote to "the well-beloved Gaius," "I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." These words of inspiration show the Divine wish for all men, So it is evident that the real "minister of the Gospel" is one who ministers health to the bodies as well as to the souls of men, and who, like Christ, relieves the physical infirmities even of those who cannot appreciate spiritual instruction.

If it be objected that applying hot fomentations or electricity has no connection with the miracles of healing by Christ and His disciples, we have this to say: The gifts of the Spirit are bestowed on those who will profit by them; and those who do their best with the little skill they have, and who are striving for knowledge to be used in the service of their fellows, are the ones whom God is most likely to endow with the fulness of power. The Spirit is life and activity, and is not promised to encourage laziness. He who uses what he has may expect more. Just as speech is a gift of God, and he who studies with all diligence to acquire a knowledge of language may expect the gift of tongues, rather than the one who idly waits for it, so the one who eagerly seeks to learn the mysteries of life, and unselfishly to apply the remedies that God has provided ready to his hand, is most likely to be the first to receive the larger gift.

For these reasons we hail with joy this new enterprise, the object of which is to demonstrate that the Gospel includes the healing of disease as well as the forgiveness of sins; and we bid it and every kindred movement God-speed. May thousands in the days to come avail themselves of its blessings.

June 25, 1903

"'At the Feet of Jesus'" The Present Truth 19, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

What a sweet, peaceful picture is brought before the mind's eye, as we read the words, "Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." We see a quiet home in the little town of Bethany, the "house of dates," where Jesus was a welcome guest, and where with the brother and two sisters He could find rest from the things that daily beset Him. Love reigned in that household, and there Jesus had always a home. From various glimpses in the New Testament we are able to see Lazarus at his work. Martha "cumbered with much serving," and Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus, and looking intently up into His face as He talked, that she might not lose a single word. So great was Christ's affection for these three congenial souls, that when Lazarus fell ill,Martha did not think it necessary to ask Jesus to come to see him, but merely sent the message, "He whom Thon lovest is sick." One who had only a superficial acquaintance with Jesus would suppose that the members of this family must have been peculiarly good, since Jesus loved so much to be in their company. Such a thought shows forgetfulness of the fact that Jesus came "to seek that which was lost," to call, not the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. He went willingly to be the guest of sinners, and often sat at the tables of those whom "the better class" of Jewish scoiety, the leaders in the church, looked down upon with scorn, and from whom they would shrink back in disgust.

Moreover, we are plainly told what had been the character of one member of this family. The second verse of John xi. tells us that "it was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick." This incident is recorded in John xii. 1-8; Matt. xxvi. 6, 7; Mark xiv. 3, 4; and Luke vii. 36-50. The scripture last referred to tells us that she was "a woman in the city, which

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was a sinner." She was well known by reputation to the Pharisee in whose house the feast was held, and the fact that Jesus would allow her to touch Him, raised a doubt in his mind as to the standing of Jesus. To himself he said: "This Man, if He were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth Him; for she is a sinner." She was the sort of woman that Christian philanthropists in this generation will approach near enough to "rescue," and for whom they will provide a "home," otherwise an asylum; but whom they would by no means visit or receive into their own homes as guests on equal terms with others. Even though they were personally willing to do so, they could seldom endure the social ostracism that such a course would involve. But Jesus had a character of His own, so marked that He was not obliged to consider what people said or thought of His actions. However, though He associated with the outcasts as freely as with those highest in the social scale, none of the poor unfortunates ever thought that His character was in any wise like theirs. They loved Him, and felt at home with Him, because He did not upbraid them, did not assume to be above them, and yet brought to them the purity of heaven, and opened to them the door into the highest and holiest.

To the Pharisee's unspoken thought that Jesus was not what He professed to be, Jesus responded by a little story which revealed the cause of Mary's love. Her sins, which were many, were forgiven. She loved much, because she had been forgiven much. But it was not because of her changed life that Jesus loved her. "We love, because He first loved us." He had loved her in her fallen state, when she would not have dared to think of coming into His presence. Why did He love her? For two reasons. First, because she was "guilty, lost and helpless," and second, because He could see that she had a heart that could respond to love. This very capacity for loving had been the cause of her downfall, and by it she was lifted up again.

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise." This was what made David a man after God's own heart. It was not because He was sinless, but because he was loving (the name of David signifies love), and because he did not seek to justify himself but was willing to be forgiven. So Mary, the sinful one, whose heart was nevertheless tender, and longing for that which could indeed satisfy, was drawn by the love of Jesus to His feet, where she found that love covers the multitude of sins.

And then, having come to the feet of Jesus, sinful, yet a weeping penitent, she remained there, a cleansed and joyful learner. We may be sure that she was an apt pupil; for love is not blind; on the contrary it has keen vision and quick perception. Things that are deep, and involved and obscure to the cold reason of the man of science, unfold themselves, and reveal their treasures to the love of the simple-hearted child. The love of Jesus draws sinners to Him, and the love which His love begets is the best teacher of the deep and secret things of God.

"Jesus, I will trust Thee, trust Thee with my soul;

Guilty, lost, and helpless, Thou canst make me whole.

There is none in heaven nor on earth like Thee;

Thou hast died for sinners, therefore, Lord, for me.

"Jesus, I do trust Thee, trust Thy written Word,

Since Thy voice of mercy I have often heard;

When Thy Spirit teacheth, to my taste how sweet;

Only would I hearken, sitting at Thy feet."

"The Editor's Private Corner. The One Thing Needful" The Present Truth 19, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

"I have read with pleasure and much profit for two years now, the PRESENT TRUTH, especially the 'Editor's Private Corner.' I have a small Bible class every Tuesday in connection with a mission, and a week ago we were reading the second chapter of James. The twenty-fifth verse seemed rather difficult to some. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? Could you explain how Rahab was justified in telling an untruth in order to protect the spies, as recorded in Joshua ii. 4? We should be thankful for light on this subject."

A closer study of the text, and of the transaction to which it refers, and some knowledge of the condition of the people concerned, will clear away the difficulty. Note that the text does not say that Rahab was justified in telling an untruth. It says that she was justified by works. This may seem like a distinction without any difference, inasmuch as that which she did involved the telling of a lie; but there is a difference, nevertheless.

The topic under consideration in the second of James is, "Faith and Works." The Apostle is not depreciating faith, as some have supposed; but is showing the difference between real and pretended faith. Real faith works; pretended faith does nothing. It is by works that faith is shown to be perfect. The harlot Rahab had real faith, and she showed it by her action. Now men are justified by faith, and therefore she is considered to be justified by the works which demonstrated her faith.

It should be borne in mind that the harlot Rahab was a heathen. She had all her life lived in the midst of the very blackest heathenism. Now it is a well-known fact that among the heathen nations lying is not considered a sin.

Indeed, among some ancient people lying was cultivated as a fine art, the crime consisting only in being found out. Some of the wisest philosophers taught that it was virtuous to lie, if one's ends could be furthered by that means. Consequently, to the harlot Rahab, an uninstructed heathen, her lie was by no means incongruous with her faith in the God of Israel. She believed that God was leading Israel, and that He would destroy the Canaanites, and that only in Him was there salvation. She showed her faith in the only way that she knew, and it was accepted. It was perfect faith, but uninstructed. So far as her state of knowledge was concerned, it was the same to her as though she had shown her faith by the purest works.

The Apostle James confines himself closely to his topic, not thinking it necessary to distract the minds of the readers from the great point before him, by turning aside to note the obvious truth that it is wrong to us. He seized upon the instance of Rahab and the spies to illustrate the truth, and it was not necessary to deliver a homily on the ethics of the transaction.

The great lesson to be taught by the case of Rahab is that God accepts singleness of purpose, even though the person may be very ignorant and degraded. Rahab's faith saved her life, and brought her among the people of Israel, where she could receive perfect instruction in the law of God. Thus the faith of even the most ignorant and sinful heathen brings the soul into contact with God, into God's kingdom, where it can be better instructed. God does not measure people by the amount of their knowledge, but by their humble submission. As soon as a man is purged from the sin of rebellion, he can be admitted into heaven. The thief, an evil doer all his life, who surrendered himself wholly to the Lord while being executed, was a fit subject for His heavenly kingdom; because, being admitted to it, he would make not the slightest opposition to its laws, but would ever live in perfect harmony with them. The most degraded man in the street who gets a glimpse of God, and cries out with his whole flesh and soul for more, can be taken to heaven direct from the gutter; while the highlyinstructed, cultured man, making a great profession, but still bent on having his own way, would be shut out. Thus it was that Christ said to the self-righteous Pharisees: "The publicans and the harlots enter the kingdom of God before you."

This is not, by any means, intended as a defence of immorality, but to show that God looks upon the heart, upon the motive, and not upon the outward show as man judges. The church, His kingdom on earth, is not a collection of perfect people, a society out of which everybody is to be shut who cannot give a certificate of an absolutely perfect character, but a company of people who are striving for perfection, and have come to Christ to learn of Him.

"The Editor's Private Corner. An Incorruptible Sacrifice" The Present Truth 19, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

"Would you kindly explain Mark ix. 48, 19. In the Twentieth Century New Testament it reads, 'Their worm dieth not, and the fire is not put out. For it is by fire that everyone will be preserved, just as salt preserves.' I have seen in the PRESENT TRUTH that fire cannot burn without burning away; but that scripture that they are preserved by fire just as salt preserves, seems altogether contrary to your rendering."

This text is one that many stumble over. Yet a little thoughtful study of texts suggested by it will relieve all difficulty. Let us first read the verses in the Common Version. Christ is speaking of the time when the wicked shall be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched, "where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt." In the Revision the last clause is omitted, but it is stated in the margin that "many ancient authorities contain it." It, however, is immaterial to the present study.

There is no doubt but that the reference here is to the custom commanded in Lev. ii. 13: "And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt."

Note the expression "the salt of the

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covenant of thy God." God's covenant is "an everlasting covenant," confirmed in Christ. Every sacrifice and oblation offered to God by the Levitical priesthood symbolised Christ, who "through the eternal spirit, offered Himself without spot to God." He is "the lamb without blemish, and without spot." Therefore, it was most necessary that there should be no taint of corruption in any of the sacrifices. Now it is well known that the one characteristic of salt is that of a preservative. So, although the sacrifices were offered immediately on being killed, salt was added to them, in order that the slightest taint of corruption might be avoided. For it is a fact that flesh begins to decay the very instant the life leaves it; although the decay may not be perceptible to the senses. It was God's purpose and declaration that His Holy One should not see corruption; and this fact was evidently kept before the minds of the priests and people by the salting of the sacrifices which they offered.

Now come to the case under consideration. "Every one shall be salted with fire." It is commonly assumed that this refers to the destruction of the wicked; but a little thought will show that it is just the opposite. It is not the wicked, but the righteous, who are to be salted with fire. For, first, that which is already corrupt is never salted. No one ever wishes to preserve such matter, and it could not be done if one did wish to. Salt does not restore matter that is already corrupt, but preserves that which is sound and wholesome. But the wicked who suffer the judgment of God are corrupt. Secondly, it must not be forgotten that it was the sacrifice that was salted. Now the wicked are not offered as a sacrifice; but God's people offer their bodies "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God." It is, therefore, highly fitting to speak of them as being salted with fire; for the same power which destroys the wicked as refuse matter, not fit to be offered in sacrifice, does really preserve the righteous who "dwell with the devouring fire," "amid everlasting burnings." Isa. xxxiii. 14. The righteous are to be preserved as an everlasting sacrifice to God, holy and incorruptible; while the wicked are to be preyed upon by the worm of corruption, and consumed by the devouring fire, which always destroys that which is corruptible.

In this connection it may not be out of place to say a word about the "Twentieth Century New Testament," for I have frequently been asked about it. I can say that it is wholly unreliable as a translation, and not worth a place in anybody's library. Whoever depends upon it is leaning upon a broken stick. It is true that in the verse before us a correct idea is given; but it is a commentary, and not a translation. Nothing corresponding to the words, "For it is by fire that everyone will be preserved just as salt preserves," can be found in the Greek text There is no trace of anything like that sentence.

It is a marvel how any lover of the word of God can ever bring himself to read that twentieth century perversion of it. Its light, slangy, loose, and irreverent language presents in many cases but a caricature of the sacred text, and cannot be other than repulsive to one who has fed upon the dignified and majestic language of the Common Version.

For instance, who that has ever read the simple and refined words of command at the raising of the daughter of Jairus: "Damsel, I say unto thee, Arise," can ever read the coarse rendering of the "Twentieth Century New Testament," "Little girl, I am speaking to you, get up," without feeling that the one who penned those words was either desirous of bringing the sacred narrative into contempt; or else utterly lacking in the sense of beauty and dignify of language?

Students of the Bible, who do not read the languages in which it was originally written, cannot be too careful about following so-called "new translations." In many cases these seem to be only the product of a desire to get something different from the old accepted translation; and, in most instances, these differences are at the expense of the integrity of the text. The common version is not, by any means, an absolutely perfect translation; for an absolutely perfect translation by man is impossible; but it is far more correct than most of the versions which are put forth as improvements. If it be read in connection with the revision as a commentary on certain passages which modern scholarship and a better text has enabled the translators to make more clear, one will get, in the main, as correct an idea of the original language inspired by the Holy Ghost, as it is possible to get in English.

"The Bible Class. Learning Obedience Through Suffering. Heb. v. 8-14" The Present Truth 19, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

(Heb. v. 8-14.)

"Through He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; and being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation, unto all them that obey Him; called of God an High Priest after the order of Melchisedec. Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again what be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat [solid food]. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness; for he is a babe. But strong most [solid food] belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil."

Learning Obedience through Suffering. -"Though He were a Son." There is no doubt in the case, and the text is more accurately rendered in the Revision, "Though He was a Son."

Christ is a Son over God's house. See Heb. iii. 6. Moses was a servant in the house, and Christ was a Son over it,-the first-born,-yet He "took upon Him the form of a servant" (Phil. ii. 7), and was among His disciples as a servant. Luke xxii. 27. He came not to be served, but to serve. Matt. xx. 27, 28.

How did He serve?-"Being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." He served in suffering; suffering was set Him as a task, and He was submissive to it. "He Himself hath suffered being tempted." It was thus that He learned obedience; for suffering caused Him (as tt does everyone) to know His own weakness; and as He was continually conscious of having no power in Himself (John v. 30), He rested on the Father for support; and this trust is obedience. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." He suffered in temptation. All suffering is temptation to doubt God, and to murmur against Him; but rightly viewed it is a source of strength, because it makes us realise the strength of God. Thus the temptation itself is a means by which we find the way of escape that is provided, that we maybe able to bear it (1 Cor. x. 13); and thus it is that we can "count it all joy" when we fall into divers temptations. James i. 2. Christ, as a Son in all things "made like unto His brethren," learned through suffering that trust in God gives perfect victory. Read Isa. l. 6-10.

"Being Made Perfect." -Through what does perfection come?-Through suffering, "It became Him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." Heb, ii. 10. The "inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away," is reserved in heaven for those who are "kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations; that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ; whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory; receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." 1 Peter i. 4-9.

Suffering is inseparable from sin, since sin carries death with it. God carries the sins of the world, and is made to serve with them (Isa. xliii. 24), and therefore He suffers. Wherever there is sin, there must be death. There is no exception for high or low, great or small. Death is the sum, and the end, of all suffering; and thus it is that, sin having once made its appearance, there is no way to perfection except through suffering. Christ, being found in fashion as a man, humbled Himself, and "became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Phil. ii. 3.

"The Author of Eternal Salvation." -Christ, having assumed the sins of the world, could lay them off in no other way than by laying down His life. He lays it down, that He may take it again with no sin upon it; and it is this new resurrection life that He gives to all believers. This is indicated in those verses: "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so should we also walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection; knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed." Rom. vi . 8-6.

As long as the body is subject to death, it is imperfect; in the resurrection life there is no more death (Luke xx. 35, 36; Rom. vi. 9), and therefore they who are raised from the dead are "made perfect." So Christ, although He did no sin, was not "made perfect" until He had endured "the suffering of death," and the resurrection" by the glory of the Father" had demonstrated His Sonship. And then He became the author of eternal salvation; for, "being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear." If we suffer even to death with Him, we shall be glorified together (Rom. viii. 17), and shall reign with Him. 2 Tim. ii. 12.

He is the author of eternal salvation to those who believe and receive Him, which is obedience, because such receive the Spirit which cannot be tempted. Christ was tempted in all points like as we; He is still "touched with the feeling of our infirmities," but is above temptation. So if we drink with Him the full measure of His suffering, we are absolutely sure of being delivered from temptation.

Why have we again a repetition of the statement that Christ is "called of God an High Priest after the order of Melchisedec?"-Because that shows His power to save those who obey Him in faith. Thus: He is a Priest by virtue of being a Son (see verse 15); and being "the Son of the Highest," "He must reign." He is a reigning priest, as Melchisedec was,-reigning over sin, and over "every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowlledge

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of God. He is "the Prince of life," and thus the Author of eternal salvation.

Things Hard To Be Uttered. -Of this High Priest and His work Paul had many things to say that were hard to be set forth, because of the dulness of his readers. It is hard to speak to a deaf man. They are not difficult to those who have ears that are open; and therefore we have the exhortation, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."

Many people think that the things already passed over in the book of Hebrews are very hard, and above the comprehension of common people; but the Apostle Paul considered it but milk for babes, compared with that "hard food" that mature men can masticate and digest. "We have many things to say, and hard to be uttered," he says, implying that what he has already said about Christ uniting Divinity with humanity, not merely in His own person, but in all "partakers of flesh and blood," ought to be easily comprehended by the dullest. "Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?" may well be asked in astonishment of many professed ministers of the Gospel, who count "the mystery of the Gospel" an impossibility, and its utterance a heresy. The things already studied in this book, and, indeed, those yet to be studied in the remaining portion, are only the a b c, the first principles, the rudiments, of the Gospel, such as would naturally be taught to a little child. Peter says that "our beloved brother Paul" has written "some things hard to be understood"; but it is only "the unlearned and unstable" that wrest them to their own destruction.

"Solid Food." -The Greek words rendered "strong meat" in the common version are accurately rendered "solid food" in the Revision. The babe must have milk; the man has teeth so that he can take solid food. This indicates that the "great things" of the law of God are to be masticated in order that they may be understood; that is, they do not, like liquid food, yield their nourishment at once, so that they can be immediately assimilated; but they must be turned over and over, and pulled in pieces, by hard study and intense application. The difficult passages must be considered long and patiently, sentence by sentence, and word by word, until we see the relation of each one to every other. The Word must be inspired, breathed, into us, so that its life permeates our whole being as the oxygen of the air does our bodies.

"The Sacredness of Service" The Present Truth 19, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

"I am among you as He that serveth," said Christ, correcting the false idea more or less prevalent in all ages, that he is the great man who has many to serve him, rather than he who is the servant of all. Christ, the revelation of God, took upon Him the form of a servant, showing that the true greatness of the Godhead was in the constant service rendered to all creatures. The years spent in the carpenter's shop, were no less sacred service, than the after years of His ministry when "anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power" He "went about doing good." The sacredness of all good work done from a pure motive with a worthy purpose is shown in the following remarks by Mr. F. W. Atkin:-

Service itself is a sacred thing. While we call our meetings sacred services, and consider praying a sacred exercise, and call our music sacred songs, and, to some degree, consider mere church-going to have elements of sanctity in it, we must place service also in the list of things we call sacred. You see that I use the word service without adjectives and with few limitations. Not religious service, not church services, not even Christian service, but just "service." So long as it be done with a pure motive and for a good end, all service is sacred.

I take a homely illustration. If the caretaker of the church keeps the pulpit spotless, that the preacher may be comfortable in it, and the pews without dirt or dust, that a stranger may not be repelled and a worshipper have nothing to distract his thought, so that pulpit and pew together may make a worshipful and reverent congregation-that is holy service. The subtle element of motive lying behind the act in the worker's mind gives sanctity to the humble work.

"A servant with this clause

Makes drudgery divine;

Who sweeps a room as for thy laws

Makes that and the action fine."

That illustration is enough to indicate the gate that lets the element of sanctity in. Motive and aim are sufficient to sanctify service.

Sacred service is that done with a good motive for a high end. For instance, a man "in the know," an old gambler, may out of kindness of heart give tips to a youngster in betting. The motive appears to be good; but in that case the end is low and mischievous. The bad aim vitiates all the kindness of the motive. A preacher may strive to get a rough sinner to his church and succeed. The end is good. But if the preacher does it only to crowd his church and win popularity and applause, the motive robs the whole transaction of its sanctity.

Can an unreligious man (a man not religious along church lines) perform sacred service? Is there ever the element of sanctity in the work of an outsider from our churches and our form of religion? I am bound to say that the conditions I have set up compel me to answer "Yes." Goodwill is goodwill whether in the church or out. I am thankful to believe that pure motive is not confined to churches, nor are high and noble aims.

I have no desire to drag even the word sanctity through the streets, and say anybody can win it, and everybody ought to wear it. I am not, by an inch, lowering the standard of righteousness. Before that laurel is worn by any man he will have passed through the strait gates that keep out low motives and ignoble aims. But I do want to say that if any man will stoop to the gates, then he can serve our Lord, and it is not for me to beggar him of his crown.

Is there a merchant living who considers profit-making a secondary matter, or a workman living who thinks of wages as a secondary concern? Who thinks first of all of supplying people for their comfort with the best things he can obtain, and of doing the very best work for his employer that he can turn out? I am sure there are such! Then that merchant is one of God's distributors, and that workman is one of God's inspired-artificers, and their work is sacred.

We have been used to speak of a minister as "called of God." I may be a called minister, and you may be a called builder or tailor or schoolmaster. The end served excludes some employments from this description. There is no "called" brewer or distiller or publican. But a road-sweeper-part of the great sanitary machinery that keeps towns clean and preserves the public health-he may be a called workmen and do sacred service. I am saying and meaning these things about men who may not know religion at all as you know it.

I desire to name one feature of service found occasionally in our churches which I would describe as sacred. Some time ago I missed a young woman from a Sunday night service, and I remembered to ask her why she was not present. She said, "Did you notice 'so-and-so' there?" "Yes," I replied. "Well," she said, "I went to mind her children so that she could come." "Capital," I said, "I am glad you were away from chapel." Just recently a woman was ill and her husband had to be out preaching. A member of the church quietly went round and spent the evening at that house. Sometimes you can do a better thing than go to church. Such service is a sanctified thing.

I am persuaded that there is much service of the holiest kind being rendered in the quiet of our homes that we men, blunderingly, never see. Some women's children are never late and never absent from Sabbath-school. Many a woman sits at the gates all day that others may pass through in the house of God she rarely can attend herself.

A poem tells of the dying of a young girl who had been left motherless, to manage and mother a home and family in her early teens. She was worn out. All too early she came to die. Someone spoke of the Judge and Saviour, and what would be her plea for admittance to heaven. There seemed no plea. She had never gone to church or school. She had no time to read, and did not know how to be a Christian. Her poor hands were lined and knotted with the daily toil of children and home. It was a truly inspired thought that was put into her lips before she died, for she said, "When I see the Saviour I will just show Him my hands." There may be more sanctity and more meekness for heaven on such hands than on the sermons of a long ministry.

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." This is the story of the making of the first man. He was made of dust, taken from the ground, and made alive by the breath of God.

God saw that it was not good for the man to live alone in the beautiful Garden that He had made for his home. So He put him into a deep sleep, and while he was sleeping, God took a rib from his side. Of this rib He made a woman. God brought the woman to the man, and gave her to him to be his companion and help.

God called the name of the man and woman "Adam," because He made them from the ground. But the man called his wife's name "Eve," because she was to be the mother of mankind.

Adam is the family name given to the human family. It belongs to you. You, like the first man, are formed of the dust of the ground, and made alive by the breath of God. You could not live a moment, if God should take His breath away from you. You would go back to the dust out of which God made you.

The plants take up the dust of the ground, and God works in them to prepare it for your food. And then the Spirit of God works in your body, to form it out of the food you take, just as much as He formed the first man out of the dust of the ground. So God's wonderful work of creating man is going on day by day in your own body. "He is not far from any one of us; for in Him we live, and move, and have our being."

"How Does the Chicken Know?" The Present Truth 19, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

The recent recovery of sight by the young Scotchman whose eyes were operated upon, called attention to the fact that the perception of distance is not instinctive in the human being, but has to be acquired by observation and experience. Five months is the time given by a recent authority (Rachlmann) as the period commonly taken by an infant in learning the grasping movements. The consummation of the act of seizing an object involving a perception of distance, being observed by a father when his son was just six months old, was thus described by him:-

"I held an object in front of him two or three inches beyond his reach. The astute little fellow made no movement. I then gradually brought it closer, and when it came within his reach he held out his hand and grasped it. I repeated the experiment with slight variations, and satisfied myself that he could now distinguish with some degree of precision the near and the far, the attainable and the unattainable, that his eyes could now inform him, by what Bishop Berkely called 'visual language,' of the exact limit, the 'Ultima Thule' of his tangible world."

It is natural, says Dr. Sully, that the father should go off into a high flight. But being a psychologist he might have moderated his parental elation by reflecting that his wonderful boy had after all taken six months to learn what a chick seems to know as soon as it leaves the shell. It is doubtful, indeed, whether the child's hand could as yet aim with the precision of the beak of the newly-hatched chick.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

News comes of a terrible flood caused by a cloud-burst, by which the central portion of a village in Oregon, U.S.A., was swept away, and several hundred people drowned.

A syndicate with a capital of ?2,000,000 is being formed for the establishment in Madeira of open-air sanatoria for the treatment of consumption. The syndicate is to have a monopoly of open-air treatment of tuberculosis on the island. This is the first time that an attempt has been made to get a "corner" in air. "As free as air" will now have to go out of use.

The new premier of Servia telegraphed after the murder of the King and Queen and their adherents: "There is perfect order in Sevia." This reminds one of the "robber baron" who, on being asked if he forgave his enemies, replied: "I have no enemies; I have killed them all." The newly-elected king, Peter Karegeorgevios has accepted the offer of the throne with professions of great thankfulness and delight. He is certainly a brave man; for the modern "Praetorian Guards" who put him on the throne by murder will certainly remove him from it by the same means when he ceases to please them. But what a travesty it is to call a man king who must be in all things subject to the people.

A solemn thanksgiving service, with the Te Deum, was performed at Belgrade, on the 16th, at which the Metropolitan of Belgrade delivered a discourse, in which he praised the army for its behaviour, and thanked it for what it had done for the country. This certainly was adding farce to tragedy. But that is really what the whole world is coming to, in the exaltation of militarism; for when "the Church" blesses the army, and all unite in extolling the army as the bulwark of the nation, it may surely be expected that when the army has learned the lesson, and become fully assured of its own importance, it will assert its authority; and then those ministers of the Gospel who have fostered it may feel obliged to bless its misdeeds in order to keep their own heads.

A meeting of steamship officials has just been held in New York, to discuss the means of protecting passengers from the increasing number of professional gamblers and cardsharpers crossing on the Atlantic liners. It is reported that four of the leading companies are considering the advisability of employing experienced detectives on each of their ships, and waging a vigorous war against the gamblers. That a great amount of gambling is done on the Atlantic liners, is well-known; but each passenger has the power of self-protection in his own hands. All that is necessary is for him to refuse to play cards. The writer has crossed the ocean many times, and has never felt the need of any protection against gamblers. Indeed, the man who keeps out of the smoking-room will not even be asked to play. And the passage need not be monotonous, either, for there are many ways of beguiling the time, besides card-playing. The person who can find no other means of enjoyment than playing cards, is very destitute of resources.

A leading Dublin physician says that "people have more need to be afraid of tubercular disease than of small-pox." That is true, for tuberculosis slays thousands where small-pox causes the death of tens; and it is encouraging, too; for anybody with proper regard to hygienic conditions, and persistent exercise in fresh air may bid defiance to tubercle bacilli.

A heroic deed was performed by John Kearnan a telegraph clerk in the inundated town in Oregon. While the flood surged round the station, he kept at his post and telegraphed to the neighbouring villages that the flood was coming, thus enabling the inhabitants to escape. His own children were saved, but he and his wife were drowned. It is a small thing to call such a man a hero. He was more; he was a Christian. For "love is the fulfiling of the law," and "greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

The Church Times, in an editorial on the John Wesley bicentenary, says of his Oxford days, when he was gathering around him a company of young men to live by strict rule, that "unable to find in contemporary practice example and precedent for a regulated life, he betook himself to the study of primitive usage," and says that he derived thence, among other thing, "baptism by immersion"; and then it adds: "Methodism, therefore, was a revival of Old Catholic practices and beliefs," thus admitting that immersion is a primitive custom. Of course it is; the Bible settles that; for it speaks of baptism, and baptism is immersion. It has not, and cannot have, any other meaning. To speak of "baptism by immersion" is analogous to saying "dipping by submerging."

It is sad to find so prominent a religious leader as Dr. Robertson Nicoll stating of the resurrection of Jesus that "we cannot prove the fact in such a manner as to leave no room for doubt. It cannot be established as a mathematical argument or as an event in history, on which we may cross-examine the witnesses." This is giving everything away to infidelity; and it is directly opposite to the truth. God has not given us the great central truth of Christianity on weaker evidence than is required in a court of law. Everyone who bears testimony to the resurrection of Jesus may do so with a certainty of knowledge that would stand in any court. If necessary he can testify under oath as to what he knows. Such testimony as that is accepted in law, and it certainly ought to in the Gospel. It is affirmed that Jesus died, and denied that He rose again. Now when a man can state positively, "I know Him positively, and He lives with me," and can moreover give evidence of His presence, all infidelity must retire abashed. But the mystery is how there can ever be any question about the resurrection. We can understand people denying the entire Scripture record, foolish as such denial is; but for people on the sole authority of the Bible, to accept the fact that such a man as Jesus of Nazareth once lived, and then to deny what the same authority says of Him, is most absurd.

According to the latest figures, the annual expenditure of all the medical institutions in London exceeds ?1,000,000 sterling. The actual number of patients, including fever cases, treated in the hospitals of London in the last year for which figures are available was 2,098,905, of which 44 per cent. were surgical cases.

What is declared to be "the world's best watch" has just been tested at Kew. After an exhaustive six weeks' test at the place where ship chronometers are tested it is declared to be the finest watch ever made. Its mean variation of daily rate was only one-eighteenth of a second. Fractions of a second are not taken into account by the ordinary person; and we can get a better idea of the watch's accuracy if we take a minute, instead of a second, as the standard, when we find that the watch will vary in time only a minute in three years. The watch was made at Chaus-de-Fonds, Switzerland, and the maker has already refused ?200 for it.

The month of June this present year has broken the record for cold and rain. When at midnight on the 15yh, exactly the middle of the month, a rainstorm of sixty hours' duration ceased, the temperature having been just that of last Christmas. It was thought that summer was really about to begin; but after a few hours' intermission, rain began again to fall, fires and winter clothing have been a necessity. This unseasonable weather is not confined to England. The earth seems to be sadly out of balance. We have the Lord's promise that "while the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease;" and as this cannot fail, the present disarrangement of the seasons may well be taken as indicating that the world that is now is not to stand much longer.

The following little editorial from the Chronicle sets forth the case for degrees so well that it is worth being laid to heart, not only by those who have purchased to themselves a good "American degree," but by all who depend upon letters to their names to make up for the lack of knowledge in their heads:-

The use of "American degrees" by Nonconformist ministers has often been the subject of unfavourable comment; and the Christian World has been commenting upon it so severely that one Mr. Garnett, a Congregational minister, who proclaimed himself a doctor of divinity, fitted the cap upon his own head and sued the paper for damages. The evidence given not only convinced judge and jury of the correctness of the view taken by the Christian World, but will, if the lesson is laid to heart by other Nonconformist "doctors," help to clear Nonconformity from a long-standing reproach. Mr. Garnett's "degree" appears to come from a college which has evidently less right to confer a doctorate than a Board school, for its astronomy is taught by a dentist in his leisure time, and its theological course scarcely transcends the loyal of the Sunday-school. Four hundred American institutions dangle a doctorate before the ambitious minister; but it should be known that Harvard and Yale head the list of fourteen American universities whose diploma has any real value, and these degrees are not to be bought at four a penny. There are many Nonconformist ministers with London degrees who are tempted to buy an American doctorate at bottom prices. Dr. Wendell Holmes always associated a "Professor" with a hair-dresser. There is no reason for bringing down the pseudo-doctor of divinity to the same level.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

A friend sends a few lines which he hopes will help to inspire in God's people confidence in His Word. But that is a work of supererogation-wholly unnecessary; for God's people already have confidence in His Word. Nobody can say anything to inspire confidence in God's Word, for "faith [confidence] comes by hearing; and hearing by the word of God." Rom. x. 17. The Bible is its own testimony; it is inspired of God, and when received puts inspiration into men. Take it; read it; study it; keep it in your hearts; and it will feed you and fill you with all good things.

"The Word that Watches and Teaches" The Present Truth 19, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

The Word that Watches and Teaches. -"My son, keep the commandment of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother; bind them continually upon thine heart, tie them about thy neck. When thou walkest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall watch over thee; and when thou awakest, it shall walk with thee." Prov. vi. 20-22. So it is that God wakens us morning by morning; wakening our ear to hear as the learned, or "as they that are taught." Not only so, but if one meditates in the law day and night, instruction will come even while sleeping. The text so often quoted, "He gaveth His beloved sleep," is by good authority,-as indicated in the margin of the Revised Version, rendered: "Such things He giveth to His beloved in sleep." It is not necessarily in dreams or night visions that God instructs in sleep. Sleep itself imparts many needed things both to body and mind. We cannot understand it, but everybody must sometimes have experienced it in a special manner. How often we have fallen asleep with a perplexing problem on our mind, and waked to find it solved, not after thinking over it, but the very instant of waking. It shows that God is using our brain while we sleep, and should teach us the value and importance of leaving it wholly subject to His use even while we are awake. If we always did, we should think to more purpose. Thus would God's kingdom come, and His will be done on earth even as it is done in heaven; for the kingdom of God is within, and "it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." Unless the word of Christ dwells in us richly in all wisdom, we have no true wisdom.

"Christian Warfare" The Present Truth 19, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

There is a strange misconception quite prevalent in regard to the fighting which must be done by the Christian. It almost seems as though the idea of many professed Christians is that in order to fight sin they must wage war upon some person. So the minister who is the most active in denouncing the doings of men in public position, and who spends the most of his time in ferreting out crime, and in enforcing the law upon criminals, or in berating the officers of the law for their laxness in that respect, is eulogised as an earnest fighter of sin. All this is a mistaken idea of the Christian warfare. "For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." Eph. vi. 12, R.V. We are to "fight the good fight of faith," for the victory that overcomes the world is faith. Christ Himself has gained the victory over principalities and powers, and His victory becomes ours by faith. This is the only fighting that the Christian can engage in. The servant of Jesus Christ "must not strive, but be gentle to all men." He is not the minister of condemnation, but of righteousness; and "the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God."

"'Hold Ye Your Peace'" The Present Truth 19, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

"Hold Ye Your Peace." -It was the last day of the life of the prophet Elijah on this earth. He had finished the work that God gave him to do here; and God was about to take him away to another sphere of labour. On his way to the place where he was to meet the royal chariot, the prophet came to Bethel, accompanied by the faithful Elisha. "And the sons of the prophets that were at Bethel came forth to meet Elisha, and said unto him, knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy Master from thy head to-day? And he said, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace." 2 Kings ii. 3.

Who that has passed through deep trials has not had the same feeling that Elisha had? To the young men, the lions of the prophets, the translation of Elijah was a bit of news, a matter of wonder, and a eubject for harmless gossip; but to Elisha it was the most solemn, and perhaps the most sorrowful, experience of his life, too sacred to be talked about. It is only when one's soul has not been touched by some great manifestation of God's Spirit, or some wondrous revelation, that one can lightly talk about it. When the depths of a man's soul are moved, he does not chatter. So the deepest sympathy, the truest appreciation of the trial that one is passing through, is expressed by silence. Job's three friends never showed themselves more truly his friends than when they sat with him seven days and seven nights without speaking a word. But they were not equal to the situation; and began to weary Job with words, so that in desperation he cried out, "O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom." It takes a wise and true friend to be able to speak words that will comfort a sorrowing soul; but the truest and wisest is the one who knows how to offer the comfort of silence.

"Editor's Private Corner" The Present Truth 19, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

Editor's Private Corner. -From questions that have been asked, we know that many who have sent questions wonder why the answers to them do not immediately appear. Almost everyone who asks a question requests that it be answered in "the next issue of the paper." Our correspondents of course do not know how many such requests are received every week. Each one imagines himself to be the only questioner; but as a matter of fact, we receive one, and sometimes several questions every day. Now when it is remembered that the paper is printed but once a week, and that usually not more than one can be dealt with satisfactorily in one number, it is evident that some must be put off But they are all saved, and it is the intention to give every one due attention. So do not be discouraged, but keep on sending. It is but just to say that questions are not always answered in the order that they are received. In answering, the editor selects from the mass the one that appeals most to him at the moment, and which he thinks will best serve the interests of both paper, and people at that time. Please have patience; and if you do not see your own question answered at once, remember that some other person is being satisfied, even if you are not, and, with thousands of others, profit by what is said to that other one's question.

July 2, 1903

"The Editor's Private Corner. Anarchy Against Christianity" The Present Truth 19, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

"As a constant reader of PRESENT TRUTH, I shall be very much obliged if you will give me your answer to this question. Can an anarchist be a believer in Christ?"

An anarchist can certainly become a believer in Christ, just so anybody else can; but faith in Christ will put an end to his anarchistic sentiments. The word "anarchy" means without rule, and an anarchist is commonly understood to be one who is opposed to all government and law; but by faith in Christ we establish the law, instead of making it void.

It is true that this statement in Rom. iii. 31 refers specifically to the law of God; but that does not alter the fact that faith in Christ puts an end to all tendency to anarchy; because whoever is loyal to God, will seek the peace of the country where he dwells. The most law-abiding citizens in any country are those who are most faithful to God.

Reference has been made to anarchy in its completest form, as opposed to all order; but there are, of course, various grades of anarchists. There are some who are not opposed to government in itself, but to oppression, and to the arbitrary exercise of power, which in itself is in reality anarchy. And since some people know no other government than such absolutism, they think that in their opposition to it they are opposed to all government; and hence they style themselves "Anarchists."

The true Christian, however, will never raise insurrection against even such a government. He will not lift up the standard of rebellion on any account; he will not resist evil; but will, for conscience' sake, endure grief, suffering wrongfully, waiting for the coming of Christ to right all wrongs; for "the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God."

Take, for example, the thirteenth chapter of Romans, where we have the exhortation to "be subject to the powers that be;" and the statement that "whosoever resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation." The same apostle gave this instruction "Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates." And Peter wrote: "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by Him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well." These things are written for the guidance of believers in Christ; and so it is evident that whoever lifts up his hand against kings and rulers is not a follower of Christ. Christ's own example is the standard. He would not oppose the government, even to save His own life from being taken by injustice and oppression. "He that saith He abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." 1 John ii. 6. He who goes directly contrary to Christ's way is certainly not a follower of Christ.

It is not enough to say that the government is bad, and the rulers arbitrary end tyrannical, in order to justify anarchy. The Apostles Peter and Paul, who exhorted people to obey magistrates, and to honour the king, and to be subject to principalities and powers, lived in the days of Nero, one of the most despotic, wicked, and lawless ruler who ever lived. If subjection to such a ruler as that was necessary to the perfection of Christianity, it is absolutely certain that no place ever can be found where a Christian can raise the standard of rebellion and still be consistent with his profession.

"The Editor's Private Corner. 'Three Days' and 'The Third Day'" The Present Truth 19, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

"I had a conversation the other day with a friend of mine, who says that Christ was crucified on a Wednesday, and that He lay in the grave three days and three nights, rising from the grave on a Sabbath. Matt. xii. 40 was quoted as proof. I cannot agree with him, so I understand from God's Word that He died on a Friday, resting on the Sabbath day, and rising on the first day of the week. I would like your view. Please answer through PRESENT TRUTH, as I know there are others who are puzzled about the same question."

Your friend is unquestionably correct in saying that Christ lay in the grave "three days and three nights," for His words recorded in Matt. xii. 40, declare that He would. That text says, "As Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." The only point to be decided is the sense in which the Scripture uses the term "three days and three nights;" and this can easily be determined.

It is commonly assumed that the reference to Jonas in the whale's belly fixes the time. But the text simply says that Christ should be three days and three nights in the earth, just "as Jonas was three days and three nights in the fish's belly;" and we must go to other Scriptures than that to learn the use of the term.

On several occasions Jesus foretold His crucifixion and resurrection, and each time He specified the length of the period covered by those events. For instance, in Matt. xvi. 21 we read: "From that time forth began Jesus to show unto His disciples, how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders, and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day." Compare this verse with the one first quoted. Both verses refer to the same event, and therefore it is evident that the expression "three days and three nights" is exactly equivalent to "the third day." That is to say that, although it is said that He should be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, he was, nevertheless, to rise the third day.

Now read Luke xiii. 32. Jesus, when they said that Herod would kill Him, said: "Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to-day and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected." This is not an isolated instance. In Esther iv. 16, and v. 1, we read that the queen said to Mordecai: "Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shashan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law." "Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king's house," and so forth.

Suppose it had been Friday when Jesus sent His message to Herod, or when Esther spoke to Mordecai; then, "to-day and to-morrow, and the third day," would reach only to Sunday. And that would be just what we would mean by the expression "the third day." It includes one whole day, with parts of the first, and third. Yet in the Scripture, as plainly seen by the texts quoted, these parts of the two days, and the whole of the intervening day, are spoken of as "three days and three nights." It is plain, therefore, that the latter expression is simply a colloquial term, and not an exact definition of time.

Now read the last verse of the 23rd chapter of Luke, and the first verse of the 24th, and the case is clear. Speaking of the time of the crucifixion, Luke says: "And that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on. And the women also, which came with Him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how His body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment. Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared."

I know that some people claim that the Sabbath spoken of in verse 54 means the passover ceremonial Sabbath. But there is no evidence of this. There is but one day which in the Scriptures is known as the Sabbath, and that is the seventh day. If a temporary or a ceremonial Sabbath were referred to, that would be indicated. In the absence of any qualifying term, the word "the Sabbath" must be considered to refer to the seventh day. So we have Friday as the "to-day"; Sabbath as the "to-morrow;"-and the first day of the week as the "third day." And those three days, during parts of which Jesus lay in the grave, are in the Jewish idiom spoken of as "three days and three nights," just as in the case of Esther.

The case is not one of any vital importance as regards the Sabbath. The vital thing is that Jesus was raised from the dead; and the time in which He should lie in the grave is referred to only for the purpose of establishing the fact that He did rise at the specified time. If He had risen on the Sabbath day, as some claim, it would have added nothing to the sacredness of that day; and His rising on the first day does not impart any sacredness to it. Nowhere in the Bible is it intimated that any day is to be observed in memory of Christ's resurrection. But we do have a memorial of that event in baptism, as we read in Rom. vi . 3-5; Gal. ii. 12. Those who observe Sunday in memory of Christ's resurrection, have two memorials of that event, unless they substitute sprinkling, which signifies nothing, for the most striking and significant act of immersion; and they have no memorial of God's new creation, which, if it had ever been kept in mind, would have prevented the fall; and which is restored by the death and resurrection of Jesus.

"The Bible Class. Going on to Perfection. Heb. vi. 1-3" The Present Truth 19, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

(Heb. vi. 1-3.)

"Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do, if God permit."

In studying this chapter, do not fail to note the dependence upon what goes before, and that it is just as much a continuation of the fifth chapter as though there were no separate chapter heading. That we may get this connection, we will go back and pick up the thread in the fifth chapter.

The apostle, in the last verses of the preceding chapter, suddenly breaks off from his discourse concerning Christ's priesthood, to charge his readers with dulness. "Ye ought to be teachers, he says, yet "ye have need that one teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God." They are babes, unable to take solid food, choking on even the simplest diet. Such persons are to be found in abundance in the church to-day. They are always asking questions about what ought to be as well known as the alphabet. Of course it is perfectly correct that they should ask information on even the most obvious matter, when they are not acquainted with it; the complaint is that they do not know when they ought to. When a man cannot spell out a sign, the most natural thing in the world is for him to ask the meaning of some passer-by. We do not-chide him for asking; but we think that he has been very negligent of his privileges, that he has not learned to read, when schools are so numerous.

"Therefore leaving the principles [the elements, rudiments, literally, "the beginning,"] of the doctrine [the Word] of Christ, let us go on to perfection." Do you think that this means apostasy, or disloyalty to Christ in any degree? Far from it. Does it imply repudiation of any truth we have ever held? Not in the least. It means exactly the opposite. It means that we should go on using these principles, applying them constantly.

"But how is that leaving them?" you ask.

The question can best be answered by taking the alphabet of our language as an illustration. When the child first goes to school, he spends days in the study of the alphabet. To his mind it presents a task far more formidable than the deciphering of an ancient manuscript or a cuneiform inscription is to the savant in the British Museum or the Louvre. The study of those characters is the great event of his life. He puzzles over them, asks his parents many times over what each one is; and when he has mastered even a part of them he proclaims the fact with great joy, and his parents applaud, and rejoice with him. Do we laugh at the performance? Not at all. We recognise that while he is but at the threshold of knowledge, and the task he has accomplished is insignificant in itself, it contains the germ of all his future attainments and triumphs. Even now we say to him, "Well done."

What now?-Shall he rest content with what he has already gained? Shall he proudly repeat the alphabet over and over the rest of his days?-Indeed not. Shall he say, "I was taught these letters by one in whom I have great confidence, and I know that I have them correctly, and I do not propose to depart from them? If he does, we shall soon revise our estimate of him. We rejoiced at the progress he had made, and the intelligence he displayed, when he learned the alphabet; but if, years afterward, we find him prattling about the same things, we shall call him an idiot. The tree that ceases to grow, dies; the intellect that ceases to expand, becomes dwarfed.

Why should the child leave the rudiments of knowledge-the alphabet, and first principles of arithmetic?-For something better. But mark well that in leaving them he does not forget them, and does not throw them aside. No; he simply leaves off the study of them, as something well-known, and uses them in the study of something more advanced. He has got far past the alphabet now; yet he uses it every day. He never studies addition any more; yet there is not a problem in the most advanced mathematics in which he does not use it every day. He may teach them to other beginners, but he does not feel that he has anything to boast of in knowing them. Even so it must be with the Christian in relation to the rudiments of the doctrine of Christ.

And what are these rudiments, which we are supposed to know so well that we can leave them and go on to something else, not troubling our minds with them any more than we do over the alphabet?-The answer is before us. They are repentance, faith, baptism, laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. These are most important, and absolutely essential, to the Christian life. The Christian who lacked any one of them would be as incomplete as a book would be with a certain vowel rigidly excluded. They are necessary to all advancement in Christianity; yet they are but the rudiments of it. How many professed Christians there are, however, who have never learned these perfectly. Hence they go stumbling along the way of life,-spelling their way through God's book of love, when they ought to be active guides and proficient teachers of others. How many people there are in the church, who are not sure about the forgiveness of sins, who are utterly confused over the subject of baptism, who have their doubts about the resurrection, and who do not even profess to know anything about "eternal judgment"? Yet those things pertain to the infant class. Certainly it cannot be wondered at that they make no advancement. Nobody can get on in anything without a thorough knowledge of the rudiments; but whoever has this may know things that pass all understanding; for "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." 1 Cor. ii. 9.

Does nobody know them, then?-Yes; "God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God;" and the Spirit is freely given to us, that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God. They are revealed, and not "studied out." No man can by searching a whole lifetime find out God; yet a momentary glimpse will serve to reveal more than could be described in a lifetime. The trouble with God's people is that they cannot see, and, not having thoroughly learned the element of simple faith, they are afraid to launch out upon the deep. They learn only as they are told; and so they are either never sure of what they know, or else they are so sure of it that after a certain point nobody can teach them anything more. They regard advancement as contradiction of what has been left behind.

423

The soul, like the intellect, grows by meditating and feeding upon things far beyond its present attainment. We cannot climb unless we reach up above where we now are. The mind is never enlarged by receiving mere statements of truth. The man who always depends for his knowledge upon statements, has no use for his mind as a whole, but uses only memory. The rest of his mind withers away. We are first to have our eyes opened, so that we can see truth, and then to go on, or, literally, be carried on, to perfection. Perfection, being made perfect, means, as we have seen, the resurrection; but we are to have the experience of the power of the resurrection now, before the flesh knows anything about the fact. There are infinite heights and breadths for us to attain to in this life, before the coming of the Lord.

"And this will we do if God permit." Will He? Indeed He will. His word is, "Go forward." He desires His people to be "abundantly satisfied" with the fatness of His house, yet never satisfied with what they have. "Much more" is the cry by which He urges us on. Have you the truth?-Show your appreciation of it by making it the means of getting more. Christ calls all to come to Him and learn of Him, "in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,"-all fulness. Advance as fast and as far as we may, we shall never equal our Teacher. Let us then redeem the time, and go on.

"That man doth pray who presses with his might,

Out of his darkness into God's own light."

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. That man was Adam, the first man. He disobeyed God by taking the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which God had told him not to touch. Sin always brings death. Adam's sin brought death not only upon himself and his children, but upon the whole world. Then the leaves began to fall from the trees, the flowers to fade and die, and the whole face of the earth was changed. The animals and birds and everything in the earth suffered because of man's sin.

But "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Because the first Adam had fallen into sin and death, God sent the Second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to take away sin, to save man from death, and to bring back the earth to its first beauty and life.

By one man sin and death came into the world, and by one Man comes salvation. This Man is Jesus, the Son of God. "There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." When He came into the world, a little Babe, God sent an angel to earth with this message for the children of men: "Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people; for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

No wonder the angels sang, when the Saviour of mankind lay in the manger in the Bethlehem stable, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, good will toward men."

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

Typhus has appeared among the cattle of Egypt, and the "epidemic" threatens to become serious.

It becomes more and more evident that the massacre of the Jews at Kisheneff was not the result of a sudden impulse, but was a deliberately planned affair. A lithographed appeal to the citizens to finnish the work begun on Easter Sunday, by making the chief town of Bessarabia "too hot to hold a single Jew," is in circulation. The articles adds that "the warnings of the Governor and of the Government need not be taken too seriously, and if the prosecution of Jewish rascality be carried on with proper determination the other southern centres will ultimately follow suit, and the result will be a wholesale exodus of the detested and detestable Hebrews from South Russia." "Perilous times" have already come, when the idea is becoming more and more prevalent that people may "take the law into their own hands," that is, dethrone it, and vent their wrath on all who displease them.

It is estimated that the wheat acreage of Manitoba is twenty per cent, greater than last year, and that the crop will aggregate 65,000,000 bushels, as compared with 68,000,000 last year.

It is stated that bread made from pine-tree bark is being eaten in Finland, and is almost the only food that can be obtained by the poorer inhabitants. Between hunger and military oppression, the Czar may soon have a country destitute of people, over which to rule.

With a population of 80,000, Great Grimsby has church accommodation for only 6,000 persons; and this is not far from the proportion in most places. It is evident, therefore, that the "ministry" of the Gospel must be conducted by some other means than church services, if the people are to be reached at all. When this is recognised, we shall be nearer the practice of Christ, who ministered to all the needs of the people, wherever He found them, going to them, instead of expecting them all to come to Him.

The "authorities" find themselves powerless to take action against the leaders of the mob who murdered the negro murderer in Delaware, U.S.A. They would bring them to justice if they dared, but they fear the people, and public sentiment is opposed to any punishment being visited upon the perpetrators of the crime. Yet at the same time the United States Government is forwarding to Russia a protest against the massacre at Kisheneff, which differed from that in Delaware only in the number of people killed. Truly, the people of no particular portion of the world have a monopoly of lawlessness.

The chief sanitary inspector of the City of London, in applying for an order condemning as unfit for human food 1,600 oysters exposed for sale at a fish shop in the city, testified that of a dozen oysters that were recently taken from the same beds whence these came, seven contained poisonous bacilli. It was not until cases of trichina poisoning became known to be frequent, that people's attention was drawn to the unfitness of the filthy hog itself for food for man; and possibly the fear of bacilli in oysters may serve to cause people to think of the indelicacy of swallowing any animal whole, head, intestines, and all.

There is one thing that is being agitated at present which we hope will be carried to a successful issue, and that is the abolition of the tight-bearing rein on carriage horses. To ses a horse with his head forcibly held up in the air, making continual efforts to relieve his neck of the intolerable strain, ought to be enough to waken the sympathy of anybody who remembers how his muscles have often ached from being held in an unnatural position for even a little while, and who appreciates the fact that dumb animals have the same feelings as man has. Indeed, ill usage seems far worse for the poor beast, than to forced it suffer in silence, than for a man who can make his feelings known, and can plead his own cause. The tight rein is truly "cruel, wicked, and absolutely useless." A horse well fed and well cared for will hold his head as high as he ought to; and oven though it be a little lower than when reined up, the natural position is far more graceful than the unnatural one.

With acres of strawberries under water, at the time when they ought to be in market, the outlook for summer fruit is not at all promising.

Socialism is making great strides in Germany. The total Socialist vote polled in the first ballot of the recent Reichstag elections was 3,087,000, an increase of 900,000 over the vote of last year.

A correspondent of the Daily Chronicle asks, in view of the recent abnormal weather: "Has the earth's axis shifted? Are we in the beginning of an ice age? Has the Gulf Stream become diverted? Has the solar system, in its headlong flight across the stellar universe, plunged into some region of greater cold? Is the earth's orbit growing more concentric? or what?" While we should not fancy that every change in the weather betokens dire disaster, we must recognise that the earth-all that was originally placed under man's dominion is falling into decay for want of a master, and that all the foundations of the earth are indeed getting out of course. These increasing abnormalities point to the approach of the time when the heavens and the earth shall be folded up like an old garment, by their Maker, and changed. Then will appear new heavens and a new earth, which will have the stability of everlasting righteousness.

Another "sensational lynching," as it is called-(God pity the human race when lynchings become so common as not to be sensational)-has just taken place in the United States, this time in Delaware, a Northern State. The crime for which the negro was lynched was certainly atrocious; but no crime is atrocious enough to justify the commission of a worse one. The man was in gaol, awaiting legal trial, but the pastor of the Presbyterian Church of the place, a man who is a "Rev. Dr.," preached a fiery sermon on the Sunday, declaring that the prisoner should be lynched unless the law acted swiftly. With the crime thus absolved beforehand, and sanctioned by "God's representative," the result was to be expected, "Leading citizens" participated, as usual. Our statement that the latter crime was worse than the first may be questioned; but we are sure that it cannot be disproved. In each case a person was killed in a most cruel and barbarous manner; but in the first instance only one committed the crime, and in the second there were thousands. Although only one person was killed, there were, constructively, four thousand murders. Moreover the moral sense of the community was shocked by the negro's crime; people were not led astray by it; but the crime of the educated mob, condoned and applauded, cannot have any other effect than to blunt the sensibilities of the people at large. One lynching does far more to depreciate moral sentiment than scores of crimes for which the perpetrators are executed or lynched.

We refer to these things thus at length solely because they are a sign of the times. They show that the people are gradually being educated down to the point where they can burn people at the stake with no compunction whatever. It is well known that narrow-minded people feel far more outraged and indignant when others act in religious matters contrary to the way which they hold to be right, than they do over flagrant crimes, so the way is being prepared for religious persecution far worse and more wide-spread than in the darkest of the Dark Ages. Not till the Judgment day will the world learn that vengeance belongs to God alone.

"The Resurrection and the Life. John xi. 32-46" The Present Truth 19, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

John xi. 32-46[2]1

In a lesson from the eleventh chapter of John, on the raising of Lazarus, who could think of any other verse than the twenty-fifth as the Golden Text? More majestic words were never uttered on earth than these: "I am the resurrection, and the life; he that beleiveth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and he that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." Millions of times they have been repeated over the dead, to the unspeakable comfort of the living; yet so prodigal are we with the "exceeding great and precious promises" of the Lord, that we allow them for the most part to go to waste, unused by us in our daily life.

Something more than a glimmering of the fulness of the truth seems to have been in the mind of Martha, when she met Jesus with the words: "Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know, that even now, whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give it Thee." She recognised the fact that the presence of Jesus is a protection from death. This is what most of us have yet to learn. We still sing,

"Abide with me when night is nigh;

For without Thee I dare not die,"

forgetful of the fact that with Him there is no death; because He is "the life," and He "hath abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel." 2 Tim. i. 10. In Him, even the dead find life; much more, therefore, shall those who live in Him, and He in them, be preserved from death. Some such may, indeed, as Christ Himself, and Paul, and others, offer their lives as witnesses to the truth, but it will be in the joyful consciousness that they are victors over death, that the sting is withdrawn, and that it is impossible for them to be held by it.

Let us think of this golden truth, "I am the resurrection and the life," a little more closely, that we may know how to make it practical in our daily lives; and not merely on funeral occasions. Life is the most common thing in the world, yet it is the thing that, in general, is least understood. Christ is the resurrection, because He is the life; and He is the life, because He is the resurrection. Each one involves the other; for the resurrection means the accession, the springing up, of new life; and this we have day by day. If Christ as the resurrection were not in all men, even the wicked, not one of them could live a single day. As Christ was "slain from the foundation of the world," even so He was risen from that time; hence the words of the psalmist, nearly a thousand years before Christ's full revelation in the flesh, were true at the time. Ps. lxviii. 18, 19, R.V., reads thus:-

"Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led Thy

captivity captive;

Thou hast received gifts among men,

Yea, among the rebellious also, that the Lord

God might dwell with them.

Blessed be the Lord who daily beareth our burden,

Even the Lord God, who is our salvation."

Not alone the trusting ones, but even the unthankful and the unholy receive "moment by moment new life from above;" but too often this gift of God profits them not, because they do not by faith lay hold upon the eternal life so freely bestowed, and it passes from them.

Everyone can see for himself that this is not fancy, but plain, sober, simple truth. We know that all life comes from God, and that we have but one breath of it at a time. Now this life that comes to us fresh every moment is the power, the very essence, of the resurrection. Moment by moment God is making it easy for us to grasp the truth that He is the resurrection and the life, and that at the Iast day "this mortal shall put on immortality." We become weak and faint, and through God's gift in Christ we experience strength and refreshing. We are wounded and sick, and new life heals our wounds and restores our wasted frame. What is this but the visible working of the resurrection,-the swallowing up of death by life?

For all men, "yea, for the rebellious also," Christ has received this wondrous gift; and that all may know that it is for them, He gives them the use of it now. Their use or abuse of it now will determine whether or not they can have it to all eternity. If they are wholly unappreciative and unmindful of it, squandering it, even hating it, and, worst of all, hating the righteousness that he bestows with it, they will sooner or later lose it entirely. What use to continue gifts to those who care not for them, and do not use them? Those who recognise the Giver, and glorify Him by their thanksgiving, showing love for His righteousness, will have the life continued to them, so that with it they may practise righteousness throughout eternity, and enjoy an indescribably greater fulness of it. Those who in Paul's day said that the resurrection was already past, were guilty of a grave error; and their teaching tended to lead people from faith into sin; for without the resurrection as an ever present reality no one could walk with Christ "in newness of life." The resurrection is not past, but proceeding; and for those who come to the knowledge of the truth there will one day be a realisation of the fulness of it, when to life is added immortality.

But what about the statement that those who live and believe in Christ shall never die? It is true, even as Jesus said; and it has been demonstrated in the cases of Enoch and of Elijah, and possibly of others, whose names are not recorded. Believing in Christ means receiving Him (John i. 11); and absolutely perfect faith in Him must bring the fulness of His life as a present experience, in resisting the ravages of mortality. Faith enables one to please God; and we are told that Enoch was translated because through faith He pleased God. Heb. xi. 5. What, then, is to hinder anybody from being translated?-Nothing, except lack of that perfect faith which appropriates the fuIness of God in Christ as the resurrection and the life.

We can now appreciate better than ever before the force of our Saviour's question: "When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" For centuries the Lord has been waiting to see the development and manifestation of just this degree of faith; for He cannot come again until every nation, people and tribe has had at least one example of it among them. It is a blessed thing for us that the Lord saves even those who are of "little faith" (Matt. viii. 24-26; xiv. 29-31); but why not now enjoy the fulness of the blessing of the life that strengthens with all might according to the power of His glory that gives life to the dead?

July 9, 1903

"The God of the Waters" The Present Truth 19, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

"They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; these see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep." Ps. cvli. 23, 24.

God's everlasting power and Divinity are seen in all the things that He has made; but in no other part of creation is it so wondrously apparent to the senses of man as in the great waters and seas. Nothing can produce greater feelings of awe, or strike greater terror to the soul than the sea in a terrible storm. Before nothing else does man have such a sense of utter helplessness; and therefore it is that when in the Scriptures special comfort is to be given to the weak and disheartened, and it is desired to encourage them to trust in God, their attention is most frequently directed to His power as revealed in and over the waters. To the foolish and rebellious people, God says: "Fear ye not Me? will ye not tremble at My presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it; and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?" Jer. v. 23. Sand is as much an emblem of instability as water is; to build on the sand is to have no foundation at all; yet the shifting sand is that which God has set to curb the fierceness of the raging waves of the sea,-to show how His power is manifest through weakness.

God lays the beams of His chambers in the waters (Ps. civ. 3); and His pavilion round about Him is dark waters and clouds of the skies. Ps. xvii. 11. Thus it is that "the Lord sitteth upon the flood," and "the voice of the Lord is upon the waters." Ps. xxiv. 3, 10. God is at home on the sea, and the waters know Him and obey Him. When He led Israel out of Egypt, "the sea saw it and fled; Jordan was driven back;" or, as picturesquely put in the Danish, "Jordan turned, and ran back," as though frightened at the presence of the Lord.

In the ninety-third psalm there is presented to us the idea of a contest between the seas and the Lord. Thus, "The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea." No matter

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how loudly and madly the waves roar, God's voice is powerful enough to quell their fury. "Thou rulest the raging of the sea; when the waves thereof arise, Thou stillest them." He "stillest the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people." Ps. lxxxix. 9; lxv. 7. His power was seen at the Red Sea, when He "divided the sea, whose waves roared." Isa. li. 15. The primary meaning of the Hebrew word here rendered "divided," is "to terrify, to restrain by threatening."

All those statements of God's power over the mighty waters, and of how His voice can bring their voices to silence, are vividly illustrated, and shown to be real, and not figures of speech, by the incident of Christ on the sea of Galilee in a storm. "There arose agreat storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full." But Christ was the Son of Him who builds His house on the waters, so He lay "in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow," unmindful of the raging of the sea. Then the disciples came and awoke Him, and said reproachfully, "Master, carest Thou not that we perish? And He arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm." Mark iv. 37-39.

The word here rendered "Peace" is the word that one would use to children who were too boisterous in their play, namely, "Hush!" It may be very quietly spoken, yet if spoken by one who is known to have authority it carries with it a warning of punishment to follow if it is disregarded. So it is said that Jesus "rebuked" the winds and the waves, or as in Isaiah, He restrained them by a threat. They recognised the voice of their Master, and obeyed. Thus we see how the voice of the Lord is upon the waters.

All this is wonderful, but it ought not to be surprising, for it is but a continuation of the working of the Spirit that in the beginning brooded upon the face of the waters, and brought order out of chaos. To disbelieve the record in the first chapter of Genesis, and yet to profess to believe the Gospel narratives, is foolishness. In the beginning God gathered the waters together, marshalling them in groups, as a general does his troops, and said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." So what more natural now than that "when He uttereth His voice there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth." Jer. x. 13. Here we have warning to the rebellious and comfort for the timid. "The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest;" but though they rage against the righteous, God can with a word cause their strength to fail, and their fury to cease. "If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us, then had they swallowed us up alive, when their wrath was kindled against us; then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul; then the proud waters had gone over our soul." Ps. cxxiv. 2-5. But the floods of evil man, or of evil itself, cannot prevail against those who trust in the Lord; for when they pass through the waters He is with them. He is at home there, for the dark waters are His pavilion round about Him. So though war and persecution rise against us; though, worse still, the devil with his temptations comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against the billows, and we can abide quietly in the secret place of the Most High.

"The Editor's Private Corner. Souls Calling for Vengeance" The Present Truth 19, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

"Suppose we say the soul is not immortal till the resurrection, what can we say about Revelation vi. 9-11? I should like to hear further on this subject."

You say, "Suppose we say the soul is not immortal till the resurrection," but it is not left for us to say, or to suppose. The Scripture tells us that "we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." 1 Cor. xv. 51-54.

This is positive, and leaves no room for speculation. Now the fact being settled that immortality is obtained only at the coming of Christ, any text which seems to imply the contrary must be known to be exactly in harmony with this. That is to say, the Scriptures are never self-contradictory, and every portion of Scripture is true in itself; but some subjects are plainly and positively set forth in some portions, and are only incidentally referred to in others; or they are not referred to at all. It is evident that the passages that contain incidental reference must be in harmony with the positive statement. And, further, we are never warranted in drawing inferences from any text, in opposition to the plain statement of some other text.

Now knowing that immortality is not conferred until the resurrection, let us read Rev. vi. 9-11: "And when He had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them: and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled."

This is one of a series of seven views given to the prophet John. John was in the Spirit, and was looking into heaven, seeing and hearing things that were to come to pass. In this particular line he saw a book held in the hand of God, sealed with seven seals; and as each seal was broken a scene was presented to him. As we read the description of the opening of those seals, we find that all the events portrayed take place on the earth. This is most clearly stated in connection with the second, third, fourth, and sixth seals. See Rev. vi. 3-8, 12. The apostle, looking into heaven, was given a vision of things to come to pass on the earth. Now since the events of all the other seals pertain to the earth, it is certainly unwarranted to assume that the scenes of the fifth seal are in heaven. This assumption, which comes from the careless reading of the text, is the cause of all the misunderstanding concerning the "souls under the altar."

The altar spoken of is evidently the altar of sacrifice. The souls that cry out are represented as under the altar, just as they have fallen down slain; but nothing of that kind is in the heavens. It is only on earth that such things occur.

It is evident that the word "alta" here is used in the figurative sense that is so

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common even now; as when it is said that such and such an one was sacrificed on the altar of his country. No one thinks that the man referred to was laid on a literal altar, and consumed. But the souls here spoken of had in their lifetime offered their bodies a living sacrifice to God; and their death was but the consummation of the sacrifice by which they witnessed to the truth. This confirms the statement that an altar, such as that described in connection with the tabernacle of Moses, is not referred to. We are called upon to offer our bodies a living sacrifice. A sacrifice implies an altar. Paul said, in writing to the brethren: "If I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all." Phil. ii. 17. And just before his death he writes: "I am now ready to be offered." 2 Tim. iv. 6. The Apostle Paul was thus sacrificed, and he is one of the souls under the altar; yet his head was cut off by a Roman sword, and his blood and body fell upon the ground, as was the case with thousands of others.

The idea that the glorified saints occupy themselves continually with asking for vengeance is most repugnant; and it is strange that any Christian ever could have imagined such a thing. It is an illustration both of the careless way in which the Bible is read, and also of the desperate efforts to build up a theory that has once been accepted. The idea is handed down from generation to generation, and people exert themselves, not to investigate it, to see whether or not it is true, but to find something that will defend it. And so they impulsively and rashly seize upon any text of Scripture which sounds as though it might favour it, and press it into service. Christ's followers, even on earth, are commanded to pray for them that despitefully use them and persecute them (Matt. v. 44), and therefore it is most certain that they will not begin to call for vengeance upon them as soon as they get into heaven.

Nevertheless, it is true that the souls of the saints-the lives that have been poured out-do cry to God for vengeance. He says, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay." He marks every act of injustice, every deed of oppression, every persecution, every drop of blood shed for the truth's sake, and will certainly bring the perpetrators of such offences to justice.

When Cain killed Abel "because his own deeds were evil and his brother's were righteous," God said, "The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto Me from the ground." Gen. iv. 10. It is thus that the blood, in which is the life, the soul of every slaughtered saint cries to God for vengeance, which will be manifested "when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire." 2 Thess. i. 7, 8. And this vengeance will not now be long delayed.

"The Bible Class. An Irretrievable Fall. Heb. vi. 4-8" The Present Truth 19, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

(Heb. vi. 1-8.)

Before reading the verses that we are to study this week, do not fail to read the closing verses of the fifth chapter of Hebrews, and the opening verses of the sixth chapter. Observe that the key-note is progress, and pay particular attention to the connection. To see how the statement beginning with the fourth verse grows out of and depends on the preceding verses, puts one well in the way of understanding that much discussed statement. We are exhorted to leave the first principles of the doctrine of Christ, and go on unto perfection.

"For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted of the good Word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repantance; seeing [or while] they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame. For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth fresh herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God; but that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned."

QUESTIONS CALLING SPECIAL ATTENTION TO THE TEXT

1. What experience does the apostle say that those of whom he speaks have once had?

2. What have they tasted?

3. Of what has this made them partakers?

4. Having been made partakers of the Holy Ghost, of whAt also have they tasted?

5. Through the good Word of God, what do they taste?

6. If such fall away from all this, what is impossible?

7. Why is it impossible to renew them to repentance?

8. When does the earth receive blessing from God?

9. What does God do to the earth, that it may bring forth fruit?

10. What is the just fate of that which remains impervious to all those efforts to bring forth fruit from it?

Either Forward or Backward. -The point of the apostle's exhortation is obvious. It is practically this: Let us go on, or else we shall fall back into a condition of hopeless indifference, from which it will be impossible to rouse us. There is no such thing as standing still and holding the ground already gained. The battle is continually on, and we in ourselves are weaker than the enemy. As long so we advance in the name of the Lord Jesus, nothing can stand against us; but being in Christ means constant and everlasting growth, and standing still means letting go of Him; therefore it is that as soon as we rest content with any position we have gained, and think to hold it, we are beaten back by the enemy.

What is Impossible? -There is a great deal of carelessness in reading the Scriptures. One person takes a half glance as he runs past, and from his confused ideas of what he sees, he presumes to tell others what it means. Many who hear accept this faulty presentation as correct, without troubling themselves to verify it; and so error becomes established and perpetuated. Now let us note well that this text does not say that people who sin after having received the light cannot be forgiven if they repent. What it does say, and everybody can read it for himself, is that certain persons under certain conditions cannot be moved to repentance. This is quite different. It does not even say that they cannot repent if they would, but that it is impossible to renew them again to repentance. They will not repent, however much they are urged thereto. They are in the position of the Scribes and Pharisees to whom Jesus said: "Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life."

From Highest to Lowest. -Do not fail to note that these of whom these things are said have occupied the very highest position possible to man. They have not merely heard the Word of God, and felt the influence of the Holy Spirit, but they have actually fed upon the good Word, and received it into their very being; the heavenly gift-the Holy Spirit-of which they have been partakers, has unfolded the Word to them and in them, to the extent they have been lighted up with its glory, and have tasted, experienced, the powers of the world to come. In short, they have been raised with Christ, and made to sit with Him in the heavenly places. They have really "had the light," not in the

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sense in which this expression is commonly used, meaning that they have had light presented to them; but they have both seen it and been persuaded by it. They have had the heavenly gift-all that heaven had to bestow-in their possession, and have known it and rejoiced in it. And now they fall from this high state, and their fall is like that of Lucifer, to the lowest depths. The higher the place from which one falls, the greater the fall. One who falls, from the highest place, falls to the lowest. This is what is involved in the "falling away" spoken of in the text. Why can they not now be moved to repentance?-Because God has no greater light and power to bring to bear upon them, to move them to repentance, than that which they have had and rejected. The case is exactly the same as that presented in the second chapter. "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?"

Sinning Wilfully in the Knowledge of the Truth. -Hebrews x. 26 says that "if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins." This text will of course be taken up again when we come to it in our study of this Epistle, but the thought that it presents coincides so exactly with the one we are now studying that it should be noted here. These texts are often wrested to the destruction of the unlearned and unstable. It is assumed that if the truth has once been preached to a man, and he does not accept it, or, worse still, if he has accepted what he has heard, and afterward gives it up, he is thereby condemned to hopeless ruin. That is a terrible error. Even the brother in the church, who has trespassed, and, who repeatedly rejects admonition, is to be only "as a heathen man, and a publican" (Matt. xviii. 15-17); that is, his conversion is to be prayed and hoped for, the same as that of any other heathen man.

Moreover, not everyone who has heard preaching has heard the truth, much less the whole truth. All preachers do not, like Paul, declare "the whole counsel of God." Many, also, receive only the form of the truth, and not the spirit of it. They have truths, but not THE TRUTH. They have taken hold of certain obvious truths; but truth itself has not taken hold of them, and possessed them. They do not have the truth which holds them, and keeps them satisfied; but they for a time merely hold on to the truth. Accordingly, when they let go of it, not very much difference is seen in their lives, even as professing it did not make any marked change in their character. This is the condition of most "professors of religion." But it is far different with one who has entered into the secret place of the Most High, and seen its riches for himself. The Gospel that he holds he did not receive on the testimony of any man, but from the Lord Himself. He has seen the Lord face to face, and knows whom he has believed. His soul has been warmed and lighted by "the heavenly vision." For such an one there is no middle ground. He cannot give up this truth, and still be "a good, moral man." If, after such experience, he turns back, there is no stopping place for him escape among the mockers and blasphemers. The "sinning willfully" of the text, therefore, refers not to sin that a person commits knowing it to be sin; for everybody has done that, and if it were unpardonable, nobody could be saved; but it refers to the wilful abandonment of Christ Himself, even while, like Lucifer, occupying a place on the very throne of God. That is a glorious position, but a man's only safety is to abide there.

Crucifying the Son of God. -It is said of those in this hopeless condition that "they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh," and that they make a public exhibition of Him, even as, when He was crucified on Calvary, He was exposed to ridicule, and made to suffer every indignity. But could none of those men who crucified Christ be forgiven? Certainly they could; for Christ prayed for them, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." And they might have known. The third chapter of Acts informs us that many of those who had taken part in condemning and crucifying Christ were converted. But note this: they had to cease their work of crucifying Christ, and repent of it, in order to be converted. It does not outrage our sense of justice, nor is it difficult for us to see that repentance and conversion are incompatible with continued crucifixion of Christ. Who would believe it possible for a man to be in a state of repentance while he still proceeded to drive nails into the hands and feet of Jesus, and to mock Him? Now our text does not say that certain ones cannot be saved because they have crucified the Son of God, but while they do it. There is no word in the Greek of this text that corresponds to "seeing that;" but the word meaning crucify again is the principal form of the verb, indicating present action. The margin of the Revised Version has "while." These men cannot be renewed again to repentance, not because they have crucified the Lord, but because they persist in doing it.

There is not a man on earth, who has not had a share in crucifying the Lord. It was sin that nailed Him to the tree; and everyone who has ever sinned has helped to drive the spikes into His hands and feet. Every day Christ still suffers the agony of crucifixion. The cross is not a thing of a day, but of eternity; but it is sin alone that makes it a thing of torture and anguish. As long as there is sin in the universe, so long will the Lord suffer all the pain indicated by the cross of Calvary. Only when sin ceases, and is blotted out of the universe, will the shame and suffering of the cross cease, and the cross shine forth in all its glory, to be the song of all creation.

Showers of Blessing Received and Rejected. -The rain and the snow that come down from heaven and water the earth do not always cause it to bring forth and bud, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater. Isa. Iv. 10, strictly rendered, says that it returns not to heaven except it cause the earth to bring forth and bud. So with the word of life: it returns to heaven only in works of faith and love and deeds of righteousness. The Spirit of God is the water of life that falls in refreshing showers on the world of mankind. Isa. xliv. 3. Received and retained,-it will be manifested in "the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ." But if those upon whom it falls bring forth only thorns,-the product of the curse,-both they and their works will be consumed; for "the strong man shall be as tow, and his work as a spark; and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them." Isa. i. 31, R.V.

And this again shows how men "crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh." The free gift-"the heavenly gift"-has come upon all men to justification of life. Now although "all have sinned," and it is sin that crucifies Jesus, if we accept and confess His life in us, we are not counted as having crucified Him, since we give unmistakable evidence that "He liveth." It is we who have died, and He lives. But if we receive Him and yet do not reveal Him in our lives,-that is, if He is known to have entered our house, but is never afterward seen there alive, we are justly accounted to be His murderers, and "

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guilty of the body and blood of the Lord." Thank God, that "better things" may be our lot; "for the Lord will not cast off for ever" (Lam. iii. 31); but He loves us with "an everlasting love," and no matter how deeply we have sinned, He still stretches out His hands to us, saying, "Return unto Me, and I will heal all your backslidings."

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

"Can any hide himself in secret places, that I shall not see him, saith the Lord." God knows where each one of His children is. He is always watching lovingly over all.

When the first two brothers that ever lived in this earth had grown up to be young men, God came one day to the one named Cain, and asked him, "Where is Abel thy brother?" Cain knew very well where Abel was, but he did not want to tell, so he said, "Am I my brother's keeper?"

A little while before this, both Cain and Abel had brought an offering to God. Abel was a shepherd, and he brought a spotless little lamb. This showed his faith in Jesus, "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." Cain was a gardener, and he brought some fruit for his offering.

God was pleased with Abel's gift, but He did not take any notice of Cain's gift, because it was not offered in faith. Because of this, Cain was jealous, and hated Abel. One day he struck him and killed him. There was no one near, and Cain did not tell what he had done. But God saw, and that was why He asked Cain, "Where is Abel thy brother?"

Jesus said, "Whoso hateth his brother is a murderer." This is because the one who hates another has in him the same deadly seed that was in the heart of Cain. At any time it might lead him to the same terrible deed.

You think it is a dreadful thing to kill. So it is, but in the sight of God it is just as bad to hate. "Let us love one another, for love is of God."

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

There is always money enough for sport, however scarce it may be for bread. Sir Thomas Lipton said last week, that if he won the American cup this year it would represent an investment by him of over ?100,000, of which upwards of ?200,000 was this year's expense.

The chief constable of Chicago says that crime is falling off there as the result of the compulsory closing of drinking saloons at midnight. That is most natural, and it ought to lead the authorities to see that there would be a still greater diminution of crime if the saloons were closed at six o'clock; and almost a complete cessation if they were not opened at all.

A case of practical joking, which had a fatal result, is reported from Tilsit, a town in North-east Germany. Two girls were bathing, when a workman passed and began to tease them by throwing stones into the water, in order to splash them, and pretending to run into the water after them. In their fright, as the man came nearer, they suddenly got beyond their depth, and sank. The workman immediately went to their rescue; but the drowning girls pulled him down too, and all were drowned. It is said that "the man was married, and the father of a large family." We note the incident, only to call attention to the foolishness and wickedness of what is termed practical joking. It certainly is not manly, and it is a libel on well-trained boyhood to call it even "boyish." It ought not to be necessary to say that the slightest indulgence in it is inconsistent with a profession of Christianity; yet there are many who call themselves Christians, who sometimes play foolish pranks, or jestingly say things which they do not mean. "As a madman who casteth firebrands, arrows, and death, so is the man that deceiveth his neighbour, and saith, Am not I in sport?" Prov. xxvi. 18, 19.

The opposition to the Education Act is assuming a phase which only in the most ironical sense can be termed "passive resistance." Riotous demonstrations and violence against those charged with the execution of the Act, are reported from several places; and there does not seem to be any strong denunciation of such things by the leaders of the opposition. Condemnation of such resistance need not by any means be construed as justification of the law Itself. The Christians who are conducting this campaign certainly need Bible instruction to the extent of two texts of which they seem to be ignorant. The first is: "The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance; and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation;" and the other is, "The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness at God." We commend the following from the Daily Chronicle, which has been and is still one of the strongest opponents of the Act:-

"Four gentlemen were summoned at West Ham yesterday for refusing to pay a portion of their local rates, a sum amounting to about a couple of sovereigns between them, and orders for distress were issued. They were passively resisting the Education Act. We have never concealed our dislike of the Education Act. We desire as little to conceal our dislike for this method of resistance. There have been times and places in which reform meant neck or nothing to the reformer. In Japan two hundred years ago the man who handed a petition to his ruler gained his object if it was a worthy one, but lost his head. There was danger and dignity in such protest. We confess we can see neither in the superfluous martyrdom of the passive resister. We are living under a dispensation which expects the minority to help in paying for what the majority approves. At Hastings and at Stroud this two-edged method of protest has been adopted, and has led to scenes of violent disorder. The reasonable course is not to resist the law, but to alter it. And if the people really want to alter a law, they can. In fact, no one else can."

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

"A brother in Christ Jesus" sends us twenty shillings as an offering unto the Lord, to carry on the work of PRESENT TRUTH, the receipt of which we acknowledge with thanks in the name of Him to whom it is given. From "A friend" we have also received ten shillings for the same purpose.

Several persons have within the past few months sent questions to the "Private Corner," asking light on "the sin against the Holy Ghost," referring, of course, among other things, to Heb. vi. 4-6. These have been informed by letter that in due time the studies in the Epistle to the Hebrews would come to that text, when the subject would be considered in the "Bible Class." We have now come to that subject, and we wish to call the special attention of those who have been perplexed over it to the fact that it is taken up in this week's study, on page 436.

"'Come; for All Things Are Now Ready.' Luke xiv. 15-24" The Present Truth 19, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

(Luke xiv. 15-24.)[3]1

"And when one of them that sat at meat with Him heard these things, he said unto Him. Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. Then said He unto them, A certain man made a great Supper, and bade many; and sent his servant at supper-time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse."

Christ the Servant. -This is a parable, and at the same time more than a parable. It is the description of an actual occurrence. Substitute God for "a certain man," and you have the account of what has actually taken place. God has prepared a table for man, not merely that to which we daily sit down, but infinitely more glorious. The servant whom He has sent with the invitations is none less than His own Son, the faithful Servant of whom He says so much through the prophet Isaiah. This is shown even in the third chapter of Hebrews, which declares Christ's superiority to Moses, in that while Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, Christ was faithful in the same house as a Son; for it shows that He served faithfully as a Son.

Christ has always been a servant, although a Son. When He came to this earth in the flesh of man, He changed only His form, not His nature or character. He was in the form of God; He "took on Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men" Phil. ii. 7. It was only the form of a servant, that He needed to take; the character of servant He already had from eternity. He came to this earth in visible form, in order that He might make men know how He had always been occupied, and to invite them to the heavenly table that had been prepared for them. And He will retain this office of servant in His Father's house, after the saints have all been taken home to glory; for He says that "He shall gird Himself, and make them sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them." Luke xii. 37. What marvellous condescension! What unheard-of hospitality! a King to act in the capacity of waiter to His subjects! Christ, the King of glory, inviting His subjects to supper, and He Himself serving as table-waiter! Who can help loving the One who shows such simple, kindly, unaffected, yet boundless hospitality? and who, in view of it, can ever refuse to do any needed service to his fellow-men?

But this is not the special feature emphasised in this lesson. Our minds are directed to the call to supper. What is the call?-It is the call to salvation; the call to eat of the hidden manna, which is promised to overcomers (Rev. ii. 17), and to be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of God's house. Ps. xxxvi. 8. God prepares a table for us here, in the presence of our enemies (Ps. xxiii. 5); but He is calling many sons unto glory (Heb. ii. 10), that they may sit down to table without having their ears assailed by the clash of arms and the hoarse shouts of raging foes.

When the Preparation was Made. -And "all things are now ready." When were they prepared?-The answer is found in Heb. iv. 3: "We which have believed do enter into rest, as He said, As I have sworn in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest; although the works were finished from the foundation of the world." The works were finished from the foundation of the earth, and then, of course, the rest was prepared. When God had ended all His work in the creation of this world, and, beholding all, saw that it was "very good," He called man to enjoy His table, and spread before him everything that was pleasant to the sight, and good for food. The tree of life, with its varied products, is "in the midst of the Paradise of God;" and it is there that man is now called to eat from it. The table that is laid under its wide-spreading branches will never lack an abundant supply of the most delicious and wholesome food.

The Court Dress. -Whenever there is a court function, the king prescribes the manner of dress that those presented to him shall wear; and no one feels that the requirement is unjust. It would not be showing due respect to His Majesty, to enjoy His hospitality in unseemly, negligent attire; and those who are invited do not regard the outlay required as anything to be compared with the honour of being the king's guest. Far more fitting is it, then, that the King of kings should prescribe a court dress, the wearing of which is obligatory upon all who come before Him. This dress is holiness; and it is not for the King's sake, but for our sakes, that this is required; for without it, it would be impossible for us even to look upon God. Thus it is a necessity; for who wants to be a guest at the King's table, and never see his royal Host?

The Dress that God has Prepared. -But God, as becomes the King of kings, is more gracious than earthly monarchs. Many worthy people are barred by poverty from ever appearing at an earthly court; but God leaves no ground for complaint, because when He prepares the supper He also provides the dress necessary to be worn. This is also ready; "for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before prepared, that we should walk in them." God has not simply overseen the preparation of this clothing, but He has actually made it with His own hands. He Himself has woven the material, and stored it up, ready for use. "Oh, how great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee; which Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the sons of

(Concluded on page 445.)

(Concluded from page 448.)

men! Ps. xxxi. 19. All things are indeed ready, and no one may have the slightest reasonable excuse for declining His gracious invitation, since He Himself clothes His guests with the royal robe that He has Himself prepared. "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He bath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with jewels." Isa. lxi. 10.

What are the "All Things"? -"He that overcometh shall inherit all things;" for Christ Himself is the heavenly dress that we are to "put on" (Rom. xiii. 14), and "in Him all things consist." It cannot be otherwise than that "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all," shall "with Him also freely give us all things." Rom viii. 32. And "all things are now ready," all things in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, all things are ready and waiting for those who will heed the gracious call to supper. "All things are yours; whether . . . the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours, and ye are Christ's and Christ is God's."

Flimsy Excuses. -With all these riches included in the invitation, men begin "with one consent to make excuse." And such trivial excuses! "I have bought a piece of ground, and must needs go and see it." But he has no assurance that he will live even to see it; and if he does, he cannot take possession, and hold it, because the one from whom he has bought it cannot give a valid title. Every guest who sits down to God's table is a son, and as such is "heir of the world," yea, of "all things;" yet many who are invited will refuse the invitation, for the sake of a poor piece of land to which they have no real right!

The next one has a still weaker excuse: "I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them." But what are five yoke of oxen, compared with "the cattle upon a thousand hills," and "all the fowls of the mountains"?

And what of the other one's excuse? Truly, a wife is of more value than fields or flocks; nevertheless his excuse, "I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come," is the weakest of all. The others must needs leave their possessions; they have to give up something, even though they are to get something infinitely better; but this man has to give up nothing, since his wife is invited as well as he, He has no excuse whatever, and has not the grace even to ask to be excused, but bluntly refuses to come. Foolish and ungrateful man, to reject the only course which would ensure him the everlasting company of his loved ones.

Invitations and Commands. -It is not a light thing to slight the invitation of a king; for all the king's invitations are commands, and take precedence of all others. A man may make excuses to any body except the king. To reject his invitation is to show contempt for his dignity; and this is disloyalty. The king cannot beg a favour, or entreat a man's attendance on him; he bestows favours, and issues commands. Note that the invitation is imperative: "Come!" No excuse can be accepted, because there is no ground for any; and when the neglectful ones stand in the king's own presence, no one will have the face to offer an excuse, but every mouth will be stopped. All God's invitations are commands, but all His commands are promises, and, as already noted, He not only prepares the feast, but provides everything necessary for our appearance at table. He Himself will conduct us there, even carrying the young and the lame. Therefore "unto Him that is able to guard you from stumbling, and to set you before the presence of His glory without blemish in exceeding joy, to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and power, before all time, and now, and for evermore. Amen."

July 16, 1903

"The Editor's Private Corner. The Lord's Day" The Present Truth 19, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

"Do not the words of the beloved apostle recorded in Rev. i. 10, sanction the observance of the first day of the week as a day for rest and worship?"

The beloved disciple had been banished to the isle of Patmos "for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ." Just when this took place is not known with positive certainty, but it was certainly many years after the ascension of Christ. While there he had wonderful visions, and this is how he begins the account of them. "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice." Rev. i. 10.

From this we know that there was a certain day known at that time as the Lord's day, and that John, as a faithful follower of Christ, observed it. We also know that it the Lord had a special day for His own then, He must have it still. Let us see if we can find out what day it is. The only place where we can surely find it is the Bible.

In the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah we find the Lord's day mentioned in those words: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride on the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Verses 13, 14.

Here the day which the Lord Himself calls, "My holy day," is "the Sabbath!" Now what day is the Sabbath? The Lord Himself tells us this, also: "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, 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." Ex. xx. 8-10.

It is plain that the Sabbath-the seventh day-is the same day that in Isaiah is called by the Lord, "My holy day." With these two texts alone we have found that the Lord's day is the Sabbath-the seventh day of the week. Therefore the day on which John was in the Spirit, and received visions from God, was the seventh day, the Sabbath. Thus, to put the matter into compact form: The seventh day is the Sabbath; it is the Sabbath of the Lord; it is a holy day, and is to be kept holy; the Lord Himself calls it "My holy day." John was in the Spirit on the Lord's day; therefore John was in the Spirit on the Sabbath day.

We have further evidence. At one time Jesus and His disciples went on the Sabbath day through the corn; and His disciples being hungry began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. The Pharisees, who were ever on the watch to find something against Jesus, accused His disciples of breaking the Sabbath. There can be no question as to what day of the week this was, for the Pharisees observed the seventh day of the week strictly, that is, in outward form. So when they said, "Behold, Thy disciples do that which it is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day," they had reference only to the seventh day. This is of value, incidentally, as showing what day of the week it is that is called the Sabbath day in the New Testament.

But Jesus would not allow that His disciples had done wrong in plucking and eating corn on the Sabbath day. Still later, on that same day, when about to heal a man, He said, "It is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days." To the Pharisees He said, in defending His disciples from the false charge of Sabbath-breaking: "If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath day." Matt. xii. 7, 8.

Since it was the seventh day that the Pharisees professed to keep, and which they charged the disciples with breaking, it was of the seventh day that Jesus declared Himself to be the Lord. For "the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." How did Jesus come to be Lord of the seventh-day Sabbath?-By making it, and setting it apart for man's use. Thus, after the account of the six days of creation, we read:-

"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them, and on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made." Gen. ii. 1-3. The One who created was the One who rested on the seventh day. But the Lord Jesus Christ is the Creator of all things, as we read in John i. 1-3; Col. i. 12-17, and many other places.

Christ is the Lord of the seventh-day Sabbath, therefore, by virtue of His being Creator. He says of His people, "I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." Eze. xx. 12. So the Sabbath is a sign that in Christ as Creator we have "wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." Consequently the Sabbath must endure as long as the facts of creation endure; as long as it is a fact that Christ is Creator, and that He has power to redeem. Hear His words on this point:-

"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Matt. v. 17, 18.

"And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." Luke xvi. 17.

And though the present heaven and earth pass, they will be created new, and the promise is: "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the Lord." Isa. lxvi. 22, 23.

"The Bible Class. God Striving for Man. Heb. vi. 4-8" The Present Truth 19, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

Last week our study was on Hebrews vi. 4-8; but so full of suggestion, so rich in thought, is that portion of Scripture, that we cannot afford to leave it yet. It is the more necessary that we should devote more time to this portion than to some others, because it is so often perverted by the enemy of souls, and used to discourage the timid; whereas God desires that we should always find comfort in the Scriptures even when they announce coming judgment, and wrath against the ungodly. Let us refresh our memory by again reading verses 4-6:-

"It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame."

Associate with these words all the awful, terrible meaning that they will bear; and still there is comfort in them. They are indeed terrible words; they contain a most solemn warning. It is a fearful thing when Divine love and power and patience give up the struggle for and with a human soul; when Divine love can think of no new means of softening the hard heart; when Divine power acknowledges that it can accomplish nothing; when Divine patience becomes weary, and says: "It is useless to strive longer,-the ease is hopeless." God grant that such words may never be uttered concerning any who study these lessons; and they need not be.

For He who now has been raised up, "far above all heavens, that He might fill all things," is the One who "descended first into the lower parts of the earth," and therefore "out of the depths" we may cry unto Him, with the positive assurance that He will hear; there we may feel after Him, certain that we shall find Him. There is never a pit of despair so deep and black but that the soul who is even willing, not to say anxious, to be saved, can find the Lord, and can see Him; for "God is light," and "unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness."

What comfort can we find in these awful words of the Apostle Paul, which to so many have seemed to sound the death knell?-Why; that is easy to discover; we see that the Spirit of God is striving with men, and that He will not desist as long as a person is worth saving. And God never counts any soul worthless until that soul judges itself "unworthy of everlasting life." "Impossible" implies that the utmost effort has been made; that every possibility has been exhausted. And, remember this, God finds no difficulty in saving any person, except that person's own will. It is not because the sins are so many and so great, and the soul so blackened and defiled with guilt, that Divine power and patience turn away in despair; but because the sin is loved and cherished; because it is impossible to renew them again to repentance. "Whosoever shall call upon the Lord shall be saved." Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out," the Lord says; but His pitiful plaint is, "Ye will not come to Me that ye might have life."

"My Spirit shall not always strive with man," the Lord says; but the text before us shows that the striving is continued long enough to save him, or to demonstrate the impossibility of saving him, because he loves darkness rather than light, wickedness rather than righteousness, filth rather than cleanliness." Reprobate silver shall men call them." Not a soul, not even the condemned soul himself, can have a word to utter against God in the Judgment. Not one will be cut off, except those who, even with the glories of the world to come before their eyes, will deliberately decide that they would rather go to perdition, be blotted out of existence, than to dwell for ever in the presence of God. They would be glad to live, if they could live without God; His presence they cannot endure; and as existence apart from Him is an impossibility, they choose extinction. It is impossible to awaken in them even toleration of God. Oh, you that are desponding, and thinking that you cannot be saved! you long to find the Lord, but think that He has hidden from you; look up, and behold your God standing with arms out, stretched to receive you. You know that you have no repugnance toward Him; know even more surely that He has only infinite, everlasting love for you.

The remaining verses in our last week's lesson suggest a line of Scripture thought which corroborates what has been said about God's longsuffering, patient striving in behalf of the souls of men. Let us read them:-

"For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing of God; but that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned."

The rain is the blessing which the earth receives from God. It brings the fatness of heaven to earth. God's people are His vineyard. "Ye are God's tilled land." 1 Cor. 9, R.V., margin. He Himself gives us, by referring to that with which we are all familiar, an illustration of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, which leads to repentance: "Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain." James v. 7. He does not expect fruit the moment He has sown the seed. "He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." And since it is not the will of God that one should perish, He bestows the more abundant labour upon that which is least promising, hoping thereby to cause it to become productive. Who does not know something of the efforts that are continually being put forth by agriculturists to reclaim waste land? But "the God of patience" takes infinitely more pains with His possession; and will by no means relax His efforts until to His question, "What could have been done more to My vineyard, that I have not done to it?" the only answer is, Nothing more. He says of His vineyard, "I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day." Isa. xxvii. 3.

The rain that comes down from heaven, to water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, is but a symbol of the Holy Spirit that is poured out "upon all flesh." He says: "I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine off-spring?" Isa. xliv. 3. This is the blessing from God. Read Heb. vi. 7 again. The earth receives blessing from God, in the rain that cometh oft upon it. We must not make the mistake of thinking that it receives blessing from God only in case it brings forth fruit meet for them by whom it is dressed. The blessing comes upon it in the rain, in order that it may bring forth

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fruit. Even so "unto you first God having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities." Acts iii. 26. He has "blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ." Eph. i. 3. It is only when the repeated and long-continued blessing is rejected, the soil refusing to drink in the rain, that it is "nigh unto cursing." Even then God does not fulminate a special curse against it; the curse lies in the rejection of the blessing. A blessing rejected or perverted is a curse; and thus it is that the greatest curses come only to those who have received the greatest blessings. This is how it is that men suffer the wrath of God, and fall under the curse, even while His blessings are falling in showers, and mercy is flowing in a never-ending stream.

The God who upholds the heavens, bringing out their host by number, calling them all by name, guarding them moment by moment, night and day; keeping them by His great might, so that not one is lost, "fainteth not, neither is weary." This God is on our side whatever enemy rises up against us, so that with full confidence that our prayer will not be in vain we may call out"-

"Strive Thou, O Lord, with them that strive

with me;

Fight Thou against them that fight against

me.

Take hold of shield and buckler.

And stand up for mine help.

Draw out also the spear, and stop the way

against them that pursue me;

Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation." Ps.

xxxv. 1-3.

The Apostle Paul was most zealous for the salvation of sinners. The Epistle to Philemon shows how tenderly he dealt with the erring; and all his epistles show a fatherly care for those who were out of the way. Writing to the brethren at Colosse he said: "I would have you know how greatly I strive for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh," which includes us; but even this striving of his was but the working of God. God's desire is to present men faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy (Jude 24); and so Paul, as the faithful servant of God, laboured to the same end, "striving according to His working," which worked in him mightily. Col. i. 28, 29.

Even though the tree be barren, He will dig about it and nourish it, saying, "Fury is not in Me; who would set the briers and thorns against Me in battle? I would march against them, I would burn them up together," that the tree might, if possible, glorify Him that planted. So, trusting in His "plenteous redemption," we may shout the victory even in apparent defeat, saying,

"Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation."

"Easy Steps for Little Feet" The Present Truth 19, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

"Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone," you often sing. But the one who dares to be as true and brave as Daniel does not have to stand alone.

Daniel was cast into a den of lions because he would not stop worshipping God and praying to Him, when King Darius told him to. But if he had been alone with those hungry, roaring lions, he would never have come out of the den again. They would soon have eaten him up.

King Darius had not wanted Daniel to be thrown to the lions. He had tried to save him, but he could not, because the princes were all jealous of Daniel, and wanted him to be killed.

Early in the morning the king came to the den, and called to Daniel to find out if he was still alive. How glad he was when Daniel answered, and told him why the lions had not been able to eat him. My God hath sent His angel, and hath shut the lions mouths." No one who loves and serves God has to stand alone, for "the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them."

God might have saved Daniel from going into the lions' den. But He wanted to show the king and the people His power to save. They worshipped idols, and He wanted to turn them away from their false gods, to put their trust in Him.

And when King Darius saw how God had saved Daniel by sending an angel from heaven to take care of him, he sent a message to every nation on the earth. He told them all to worship the true and living God, who had saved Daniel from the power of the lions.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

The example of the European Powers: in connecting their colonies by cables which they can control in time of war has now been followed by the United States; which has just completed a cable to the Philippines. On the occasion of the opening of it, President Roosevelt sent a message, the reply to which, going round the world, reached him in nine and a half minutes.

The special commssion appointed by the German Imperial Office of Health, to investigate Dr. Koch's claim that human tuberculosis is not identical with cattle tuberculosis, and that neither cattle nor men are in danger of taking the disease from the other, has reported, stating that its experiments justify Dr. Koch's theory. The report, however, did not meet with much acceptance by the members of the Berlin Medical Society, before which it was made, Professor Orth, successor to Professor Virchow, in the chair of Pathological Anatomy, in the Berlin University, maintains that Dr. Koch is wrong in his assumption that human tuberculosis cannot be transmitted to cattle. Experiments conducted on animals show that the disease is transferable. He said that it need not appear in the memo form, because man is not an ox, a point very well taken. On the whole, the scientific position of the question is that human tuberculosis may be transmitted to animals, and alse versa; and people will do well to keep a close watch on all animal products that they use. The safest way, by far, is not to make use of animals, or any animal product, as food. Thus no risk whatever is taken.

Many times since Pops Leo XIII's accession to the Pontificate as an old man have there been rumours that he was at the point of death; but his marvellous vitality has enabled him to outlive almost all the cardinals who took part in his election. There can be no doubt, however, that he has now really come to the end, if he be not already dead when these lines are printed. Of such a man as Leo. XIII. it cannot be said that his work is done until he has ceased to breathe, for even while dying he cannot cease from activity, and his mind, despite the frailty of his body, is as clear as ever. A report from Rome say: "His wasted form is hardly distinguishable under the bedclothes, but his bright, piercing small eyes are always in motion, and always questioning, as though no catatrophe were imminent." And herein, together with his abstemious habits, we undoubtedly have the secret of the Pope's remarkable freshness at so advanced an age. Although bound to a creed that knows nothing of expansion, he has kept his mind constantly employed on something new. He has lived in the future, rather than in the past. Always inquiring with the eagerness of youth, he has kept his mind young; and time can with difficulty overcome a body that contains a mind that is youthful even in maturity.

In view of the case of murder by a boy of eight at Stockton, a letter by the Dowager Countess of Portsmouth, to the Daily Mail, on the evils of familiarising the minds of young children with deeds of "violence and blood," has attracted much attention, as, indeed, it ought to. Several instances are cited. One correspondent tells of a boy of six, who plays at mimic slaughtering, and who, when his butcher relative announces a "real event," can scarcely sleep the night before for excitement. That such a child should commit murder, not from malice or vindictiveness, but from love of blood, is almost inevitable. One of the cases cited is that of a little child who killed his baby sister after seeing his father slaughtering pigs. The moral that is drawn is that children should not be allowed to see such sights, which is well; but it ought to be remembered that, as long as animals are slaughtered, somebody must not only see them, but must actually shed the blood; and though they may have more control over themselves than little children have, the effect must be to blunt and even to destroy all their fine sensibilities. There are very few people who daily eat the flesh of animals, who could endure even to see one slaughtered, much less to do it themselves; do they never think of the inconsistency, not to say immorality, of a practice which demands that some fellow-man must do what they themselves consider disgusting and degrading?

In the House of Lords last week the Earl of Meath drew attention to the question of physical training and asked for a Royal Commission, to inquire if the poorer populations in the large towns were exposed to conditions which contribute to a low national standard of health and strength, time constituting a grave national peril. It must be that the noble lord has never visited the poorer quarters of any of our cities; for it is patent to everybody that the conditions of life of most of the poor are such as absolutely to preclude healthy physical development. But the menace to national growth and prosperity does not lie alone among the poor. The Bishop of Ripon said that the question was whether we were supplying a race calculated to hold this great Empire together; and, answering his own question, he said that there is evidence that the rate of increase is "so declining that we could not claim that we were putting forth in sufficient numbers men and women who could hold their own in the great days that were coming. Figures allowed that in the last twenty years the size of families had declined from 4.3 to 3.2; and if in another sixteen years a like decline took place, the natural source of increase would be dried up." Not only is there a vast shrinkage in the birth-rate in the United Kingdom, but in the Colonies also. As Lord Rosebery said: "It is east to have an Empire, but what is the use unless we have an Imperial race?" Another speaker quoted a letter from a medical man, stating that there was undoubtedly physical degeneration in the north, where, most of all, one expects to find hardy man.

This state of things is not peculiar to Great Britain. In every great country, except Russia, the birth-rate is diminishing. In the United States this is less noticed, because the population increases so fast through immigration; but it is the case there, nevertheless. Statesmen see in this a menace to the ability of States to hold their own in the struggle for supremacy; but there is another most important lesson, which few stop to read. The facts under discussion afford a most striking sign of the times. Nothing else could so clearly demonstrate that the end of the world must soon come. With disease increasing, new diseases springing up, and the birth-rate diminishing, the dullest mind ought to be able to work out the result. Even if there were no ware, the race must soon run out. But there is a bright spot in this outlook, and that is, that a people is being born from above, and although "there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land," "the holy seed shall be the substance thereof."

On the 28th ult. the Sydney correspondent of the Daily Mail reported that Dr. McCarthy, a prominent Melbourne practitioner, claimed the ability to produce rain forty-seven times in fifty-three attempts, and that he had left on a special train provided for him by the South Australian Government, for the Broken Hill silver fields, where a water famine prevails. That was on a Sunday, and the doctor promised heavy rain on the following Wednesday. On the 30th he started his process with six assistants and six tents ten miles apart, expecting heavy rain in about thirty-two hours, to continue twenty-six or twenty-eight hours. The local "rain-making committee" was reported as sanguine; and the Broken Hill Chamber of Commerce was confidently preparing a gauge to register the amount of the rainfall.

We saved these reports, awaiting with interest the report of the result, as to which we had not the slightest doubt. Now a despatch of the 10th inst. is to hand, announcing that Dr. McCarthy's second attempt to cause rain with his "rain-making" apparatus has failed, and the experiments have been abandoned. The report says that "this result has caused considerable disappointment, as confidence is Dr. McCarthy was general."

If the good people who put their trust in Dr. McCarthy had only been more familiar with their Bibles, and had believed them, they might have been spared this disappointment. Long ago God silenced Job with this question, which no man since has been able to answer in the affirmative "Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee?" Only God can do this, who knows "the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of Him who is perfect in knowledge." "When He uttereth His voice there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and He causes the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; He maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of His treasures." There are none among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain; "therefore we will wait upon Thee; for Thou hast made all these things."

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

The many readers of PRESENT TRUTH who have expressed their appreciation of the articles on the life of Luther, by Mrs. E. G. White, will be pleased to learn that for the next few weeks the articles dealing with the subjects of the International Sunday-school lessons will be by the same writer. The article entitled, "Lost and Found" in the present number should be read in connection with the lesson for July 26.

"Eternal Life Given to All" The Present Truth 19, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

Eternal Life Given to All. -"He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar: because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son." We could not make God a liar by disbelieving that He has given us eternal life, if He had not already actually done so. If God had not given eternal life to every man, and told us of it, no man could make God a liar by denying it. But the fact that whoever does not believe that God has given to him eternal life makes God a liar, shows that God has given it to all.

All the treasure of heaven, eternal life through Christ, is the portion, the birth-right, of every man in this world; and the message that is committed to us is to go and declare that truth to the people, in order that those who love life,-those who struggle, even though vainly, against their bonds,-may know that there is liberty for them. Read the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah, and there you will find Isaiah himself speaking. Not only Jesus of Nazareth, but Isaiah, said: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor: He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." This is the wondrous privilege committed to us.

One thing, however, must not be forgotten, and that is the obvious truth that nobody who charges God with lying can hope to enjoy life with Him eternally. Whoever charges God with being a liar, thereby proves himself a liar, and so shuts himself out of the Holy City. Therefore since denying that God has given to us eternal life makes Him a liar, it is plain that although God has given to us eternal life, without respect of persons, we lose it if we do not believe it.

"A Preparatory Course" The Present Truth 19, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

Nobody ought to study anything in this world that will not be of use to him in the next world. You can readily see that to do so is a waste of time. Many people think it is not practical to be thinking about the next world; but it is just as practical as it is for the boy at school to be thinking about his university course, and planning for it. He wants to do and to learn those things that will be of use by and by when he enters a higher course. He does not want to be studying something that will not help him in his later studies. That would be a waste of time. Even if he looks beyond his school career, and thinks of business, he ought not to spend his time in anything but what can in some way be of service to him in his after life. If he does, he has expended energy and lost time for that which is not worth while. "So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."

Now, we, knowing that these few short years that we spend here are only a trifle, a shadow, compared with the existence we have started upon, ought to be wise enough to endeavour to gather the information which will be of practical use to us when we continue our work in the world to come. Our subject is so vast that we are tempted to branch out into all the side paths; but this, after all, is not our place to work. This world is our place for learning how to work; and all the so-called work that we are engaged in here is simply a little practice. We are now in our apprenticeship. God has spread out His works before us, not simply His words. He shows us Himself at work; and, seeing His works, we are to learn His ways, and learn how to work that we may be indeed workers together with God.

We sing, or have sung to us, and told to us, about "resting by and by," as though if we worked hard now, we could spend the whole of eternity as a holiday, doing nothing. Such an eternity has certainly nothing very attractive to those who have learned the joy of working.

The Lord has chosen us for the high position of being workers with Him, of associating us with Himself in governing the universe. In the parables of the twenty-fifth of Matthew and the nineteenth of Luke, we find that the Lord says to those who have been faithful over a few things, that He will make them rulers over many things. "Have thou authority over ten cities?" "Be thou also over five cities." The reward for faithful service is larger service. Is it not so in any business? The master sees a man who is diligent and faithful; what does he do? If he wants a foreman for a department, that is the man he chooses. If there is a call for greater service, he is the one chosen. This is the way in the whole world; the reward for faithful service is larger service. It is not in getting more, but in the ability to do more. The getting is only incidental.

"Sin and suffering Momentary; Righteousness and Glory Eternal" The Present Truth 19, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

Sin and suffering Momentary; Righteousness and Glory Eternal. -Sin is but an incident in God's wondrous economy. When countless ages shall have passed, and we look back, not simply upon our own short lives in this world, but upon the whole six thousand years of sin's continuance, it will be but the faintest line on the spectrum, so little compared with eternity. Sin and its consequent suffering are only momentary: but "this light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." Out of the pit of corruption comes the blossom of life. In every temptation the way of escape is prepared. In the suffering is the means of life. What a wondrous Gospel this is, that the very Iowest place you can get into, is itself the means of lifting you up; that even where sin abounds, God makes His grace much more abound, and that out of death He brings life. Even as sin is but an incident in the economy of God, so suffering is but an incident. It was not in the beginning, neither will it be in the world to come; for there shall be no more nurse, neither sorrow, nor crying."

July 23, 1903

"The Editor's Private Corner. 'What Do You Believe?'" The Present Truth 19, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

A correspondent has sent us, with a few introductory words, a series of fourteen questions, prefacing each with the inquiry, "Do you believe?" Before answering them in detail, we wish to say that what we or anybody else may or may not believe is a matter of no consequence to anybody except the individual believer himself; for nobody's belief of a thing makes it more worthy of credence, and unbelief by anybody in the world does not make the thing disbelieved less worthy of belief. In short, it is a waste of time either to inquire or to tell what this one or that one believes; for our faith must not be based upon some other person's faith, nor be in any way affected by it; but solely on the Word of God. So in answering these questions we shall make no reference to what we believe, but tell simply what we know from God's Word. Of course it will be understood that we do not write anything that we do not firmly believe; but the fact that it is so, and not that we believe it, is the reason for setting it forth. We shall answer the questions in order as they come:-

"1. Do you believe that Christ was a God, and the Son of God, or that He was only a good man?"

What does the Bible say of Him? and what did He say of Himself? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us." John i. 1, 14. He was in the form of God, and equality with God was His by right. Phil. ii. 5, 6. He is "the Christ, the Son of the living God." Matt. xvi. 16, 17. He frequently declared that God was His Father, saying on one occasion, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?" John xiv. 9. The Jews charged Him with making Himself God, and He did not deny it, but defended the claim. John x. 30-38. Finally read what God the Father Himself has called Him: Of the angels He saith, "Who maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire." But unto the Son He saith, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom." And, "Thou Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of Thine hands; they shall perish; but Thou remainest ; and they shall all wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up, and they shall be changed; but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail." Heb. i. 7-12. These words God the Father addresses to Jesus Christ.

I believe all that; if anybody does not, I shall have to leave him to settle it with the Lord.

"2. Do you believe that God is a personality, who interferes in human affairs?"

A personality certainly; but He does not "interfere" in human affairs; for human affairs are God's own affairs, since we are His offspring." A father is not interfering when he provides for the wants of his children, and directs their actions.

How do we know that God is a personality?-From the fact that we know that we ourselves are personalities; and God is our Creator. The creature is not greater than the Creator. A mere sentiment, a conception, a nonentity, cannot create a personal being. The father is greater than the child. I know that there are some people who profess not to believe in what they cannot see; yet those same people talk about the air as though it were a real thing, and even take it for granted that they have brains, although they never saw either. There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in human philosophy. If God were not a personality, the language of the entire Bible would be meaningless. No language could possibly be more personal than that which is used concerning Him, and which He uses of Himself.

"3. Do you believe in direct answers to prayer?"

Here I am glad to make a confession of faith, and say that I do. Why do I believe in them?-Because I have had them. Not to believe that God gives direct, definite answers to prayer, is to disbelieve the Bible, which abounds in statements to that end, and in instances of such answers. Still, it is a thing which no one can prove to another. Whoever believes must believe for himself alone; and it is by faith that we know. Each one must "taste, and see that the Lord is good."

"4. Do you believe that Christ performed miracles?"

Certainly; I have seen Him at work, and have experienced the result of His miracles. One of the greatest mysteries in the world is how anybody can disbelieve in miracles, when they are the commonest things in life. Men speak of the miracle of the standing still of the sun and the moon in the days of Joshua, and the going back of the shadow on the dial ten degrees in the time of Hezekiah, as though they were impossible; but tell me how much greater a miracle either one of them was than that the heavenly bodies move at all, or that they hang in space? It is true it is most unusual for the shadow to go backwards on the dial; but the infrequency of the occurrence of a thing is not what makes it miraculous; neither does frequent repetition of an act make it less miraculous. The point lies in this; Can you or any other man do it? or do you know how it is done? An act which is beyond human power to perform is certainly miraculous. Do you believe that there are any such things?

"5. Do you believe in the resurrection of the body?"

All these questions really amount to one, namely, "Do you believe the Bible?" The entire Gospel-every promise of God-rests upon the one truth of the resurrection of the dead. For example: Those who are Christ's are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Gal. iii. 29. All that we can have in the world to come we get as heirs of Abraham. "For

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the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." Rom. iv. 13. God made this promise to Abraham, "I will establish My covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be aGod unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession." Gen. xvii. 7, 8. Yet "He gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on." Acts vii. 5. Therefore my reason for believing in the resurrection is that God must keep His promise; and Abraham and all the faithful must be raised from the dead, in order that God's word may not fail.

I believe in the resurrection of the body because I know it to be a fact. I have experienced the power of it. I know because if there were no resurrection Christ would not be risen; and I know Him too well as a living Saviour to be fooled by anybody's talk that there is no resurrection. It is no more a debatable question than is the shining of the sun. "Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead" when every day you have proof of it in the renewing of your own body?

"6. Do you believe in hell as a world or place of punishment, or only as a state of mind?"

What says the Scripture? "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." Ps. ix. 17. The word "hell" is only another form of the word "hole," and most commonly in the Bible refers to the grave, as the pit of corruption. To call it a state of mind is to play with the Scriptures, and make them of no effect: But there is another word also translated hell, and that is the name gehenna, from the valley of Hinnom (which is what the Hebrew word gehenna means) near Jerusalem, where all the refuse matter of the city was burned. There is no place of burning now, for all the wicked are in their graves unconsciously awaiting the resurrection of the dead and the Judgment. At "the day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly men," the wicked will be raised to condemnation (John v. 29; Acts xxiv. 14, 15), when they will be consumed by the fire that will melt the earth. After that new heavens and a new earth will appear, wherein righteousness shall dwell, and then the wicked will be "as though they had not been," and their place will not be found. 2 Peter iii. 7-13; Obadiah xvi.; Ps. xxxvii. 10, 20, 38.

[The remaining eight questions in this list will be answered next week.]

"The Bible Class. Our Strong Consolation" The Present Truth 19, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

The first part of the sixth chapter of Hebrews, which has occupied us for three or four studies, contains an exhortation to "go on unto perfection," based on the fact stated in the fifth chapter, that those whom the apostle addressed were dull of hearing, and had need to be taught first principles, when they ought to be teachers; and then follows a statement of the awful state of those who fall away after having been once enlightened. Our present lesson begins with an encouraging note, which rises higher and higher to the end of the chapter:-

"But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things which accompany salvation, though we thus speak. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have showed toward His name, in that ye have ministered to the saints and do minister. And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end; that ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. For when God made promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater, He sware by Himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater; and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us; which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the Forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedek." Heb. vi. 11-20.

Some Peculiar Idioms. -The words, "Surely blessing I will bless] thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee," are a literal translation of the Hebrew words of the promise, in Gen. xxii. 17. But everybody who has given any study to language knows that an idiom, that is, a characteristic expression, in one language, does not make good sense if translated word for word into another language. A word for word translation is not an exact rendering. In the Hebrew language, repetition whether of a sentence or phrase, or a word, or even of a single letter in a word, indicates emphasis, positiveness. For example, in Gen. ii. 16 we have the statement, "Thou mayest freely eat," which is as plain as anything can be; but the word for word rendering of the equally plain expression in the Hebrew, is given in the margin, "eating thou shalt eat," which in English means nothing. So also in the next verse, where we read, "Thou shalt surely die," we have in the margin, "dying thou shalt die." This latter expression, although meaningless, is the word for word rendering of the Hebrew words conveying the positive assurance, "Thou shalt surely die." In Ex. iii. 7 we have the words of God, "I have surely seen the affiction of My people," of which Stephen gave the Hebraic form, in the repetition, "I have seen, I have seen." Acts vii. 34. So the statement which we have as, "Blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee," is simply the positive assurance, "I will certainly bless thee, and I will surely multiply thee."

The Promise to Abraham. -The promise to Abraham was that which the Spirit of God brings in men through the Gospel. It was confirmed in Christ (Gal. iii. 17), in whom are all the promises of God; and it comes on the Gentiles-all nations-through Jesus Christ. Gal. iii. 13, 14. When God made it to Abraham, "He believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness." Gen. xv. 6. The promise is therefore that by which righteousness is obtained.

There is probably no other subject in the Bible, concerning which so great a web of speculative nonsense has been spun, as that of the promise to Israel, which is none other than to Abraham. All this confusion would be avoided, if men would but hold

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to the plain words of the Bible, letting them stand for just what they say.

Note this:-

"For how many soever be the promises of God, in Him [Christ] is the yea; wherefore also through Him is the Amen, unto the glory of God through us." 2 Cor. i. 20.

God makes no promise, except in Christ; the promise to Abraham, as already seen, was confirmed in Christ (Gal. iii. 17); therefore no promise of God is fulfilled except to Christians. Not that God does not keep faith with all; but that all His promises are such that whoever accepts them thereby becomes a Christian. Any talk about promises to be fulfilled to Jews, as distinct from Christians, comes from ignorance or rejection of the everlasting Gospel, which is the same in every age and to all people.

Two Immutable Things. -"God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation." The promise of God alone ought to be sufficient for anybody; but many men seem to have the idea that it needs their testimony to confirm it. There are also many people who hesitate to depend upon a promise, or to follow a precept, unless they first ask some man in whom they have confidence. Such should know that God receives not testimony from man; and His cause is never strengthened by quotations from eminent men in favour of the Bible. Any human attempt to strengthen God's Word is but a disparagement of it. Abraham was content with the simple promise of God; and his faith was demonstrated to be perfect in that alone; but for our sakes, that we might have a strong consolation, God confirmed His own promise by an oath. This is the oath given in Gen. xxii. 16-18, as a comparison of the two texts will show. And there is something more still, since our strong consolation centres in Christ as High Priest after the order of Melchisedek. Now in Heb. vii. 20, 21 we learn that Christ was made High Priest by an oath of God; therefore we have two oaths,-two immutable things, in addition to the promise. Of course both oaths really amount to the same thing, but then the oath is only a more emphatic statement of the promise. God has left no reasonable opportunity for anybody to doubt.

"Interposed Himself by an Oath." -Thus we have it in the margin of verse 17. God swore by Himself. Now when one swears by any object, that object is put up as a forfeit. It the thing sworn is not fulfilled, the object is forfeited. God set Himself apart as a forfeit, or, interposed Himself between those to whom the promise was made and the possibility of failure. The promise is as sure as the life of God. If the promise should fail of fulfilment, in a single particular, then God would cease to exist. So sure is it. But if God should cease to exist, then would the universe be annihilated, for He is its support. Now God has created all things in Jesus Christ, and in Him all things consist (Eph. iii. 9; Col. i. 16, 17), so that it is literally true that in Christ we have all things. Rom. viii. 32. All the promises of God are in Christ, so that the oath of God is in Christ; Christ is set forth as the very being and presence of God. Thus it is that the existence and stability of the whole universe depends on the fulfilment of God's promise to us. And what is the promise?- Righteousness; the forgiveness of sins. "Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." Acts xiii. 38. Forgiveness of sins comprises cleansing from all unrighteousness (1 John i. 9) and complete redemption. Eph. i. 7. That God will do this, that He is faithful to His promise, and that not a sinner can apply in vain to Him for pardon and cleansing, we have the assurance in every blade of grass, in the sun, moon, and stars, that still pursue their courses. The snow and vapours and stormy wind fulfil His Word. Ps. cxlviii. 8. "For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever; Thy faithfulness shalt Thou establish in the very heavens." Ps. lxxxi.

For Our Sakes. -Abraham's faith was counted to him for righteousness. "Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, it we believe on Him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for are justification." Rom. iv. 23-25. So the oath was sworn to Abraham, "that we might have a strong consolation." You and I have an interest in that oath to Abraham, and therefore in the promise to him. Every soul who comes to God, comes to Him by virtue of that which God promised to Abraham.

Christians Children of Abraham. -"Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." Gal. iii. 7-9. The oath of God to Abraham gives strong consolation to those who flee to Christ for refuge. On this is based the hymn beginning,

"How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,

Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word;

What more can He say than to you He hath

said,

Who unto the Saviour for refuge have fled?"

But it is sinners that flee for refuge to Christ, and it is sinners that have a firm foundation for their faith in fleeing to Him for refuge. It was for the benefit of us sinners that the oath was given, for God would not leave the shadow of a chance for a reasonable doubt in the mind of any sinner. To be sure the same consolation remains for those who have been made saints; "for if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Rom. v. 10. Let every soul come to the Lord with this assurance of pardon and acceptance, that God has more at stake than he has, even as God's life is worth more than any man's. Thus, if God should refuse to hear my prayer, and should not forgive my sins, I should be lost, but God would also be lost, and His loss would be greater than mine. If we believe God, and hold to His Word, our cases are as sure as His. Surely this is a strong consolation.

Christ the Forerunner. -This hope is as an anchor sure and steadfast, which entereth into that which is within the veil, that is in the secret dwelling-place of God, into which place Jesus the Forerunner is entered for us. A forerunner implies others following after. We have already seen that Christ is for ever identified with mankind as Brother. He is One with us. He is the Son of man, "the Man Christ Jesus." Then there is one Man-the representative Man-already in the presence of God in person. He is already seated "on the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens," a King on the Father's throne. But it is one of us, who has gone there; One who is made in all things like unto His brethren. He is indeed the firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. viii 29), but we are joint-heirs with Him. Verse 17. Therefore if we believe in Him, if we have "put on Christ" in baptism, and are become Abraham's seed, and children of God through faith in Christ Jesus (Gal. iii. 26-29), we have the same right to enter heaven and sit upon the throne that He has. He has simply gone before us to show us the way, and to prepare a place for us. John xiv. 1-3.

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

Ever since Adam disobeyed God, and brought sin and death into the world, God's children have been looking forward to one thing. That is, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

When Jesus comes, the trumpet will sound, and He will call forth the dead. All who loved Him will hear His voice, and wake up and come out of their graves.

The holy angels will come with Jesus. They will gather God's children together from all parts of the earth. Then they will be caught up to meet Jesus in the air. He will take them back with Him to the New Jerusalem, the beautiful city of God. This is what God's people have all been waiting for.

Enoch told the people of his day that the Lord was coming to save the good and to punish the wicked. Because he believed this, he lived a pure, holy life. He walked with God, and did always the things that pleased Him.

God did not let Enoch die and go into the grave. He took him to heaven without dying, just as He will take those who are watching for Him when He comes. By this the people were taught how God will reward the good.

Elijah, a prophet of God, did not die, but was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire. The chariots of God are "thousands of angels." The angels are so bright and glorious that they look like "a flaming fire." So Elijah was caught up just as all God's people will be when He comes.

"He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from one end of heaven to the other."

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

It is stated on the authority of vital statistics that "a tuberoulous patient dies about every seven minutes in this country."

The "Cornishman," by which the Prince and Princess of Wales travelled to Cornwall on Tuesday, made a world's record long-distance run to Plymouth (239 miles) without a stop in three hours fifty-four minutes-an average of over sixty miles an hour. The whole journey to Truro (297? miles) was made, with only one stop, in 304 minutes.

The Danish Government has appointed a commission, including members of Parliament, surgeons, criminologists, and clergymen, to discuss what measures may be taken to prevent the increasing drunkenness. This is a live question in other countries; but we do not apprehend that it will be settled by commissions. Something, indeed, might be done by Government, if alcohol were only recognised as the poison that it is, and were subjected to the same restrictions as other poisons; but the only real hope of diminishing drunkenness lies in the education of the children, training them to hygienic living.

The annual excursion of the employÈs of Messrs. Baas and their families from Burton to Blackpool, which took place last Friday, is said to be the largest in the world, organised by a firm. The party was numbered by tens of thousands, and trains left Burton every ten minutes till all were off. The firm bought up all of Blackpool's amusements and boats for the day, gave each man a sum of money for refreshments, and insured every one's life for ?100 or ?200. This is certainly very generous treatment of employÈs; but the chief thought impressed upon us is that the ability to do this was derived from the profits on beer manufactured and sold by that firm, and that this beer was consumed by the people of Great Britain, and largely by the poor. Surely everybody ought to be able to see that there is something radically wrong when the pleasures of some are made possible only by the sorrow and degradation of others.

A small piece was taken from a woman's skirt, which had been trailed through a London street, and after being washed in distilled water the sweepings have been examined under a microscope by bacteriologists. In one hundred and fifty drops of this water more than twenty-five thousand germs of consumption, diphtheria, and typhoid fever were found. Calamities certainly follow in such a woman's train. But a woman must surely have lost the native refinement which one instinctively associates with women, before she could lend her garments for street sweeping, and carry the sweepings home with her. A trailing dress may be very graceful in a drawing-room, but people who aspire to gentility ought to know that no lady ever wears a trailing garment on the street.

It is certainly refreshing to read in a High Church paper like The Church Times,-the following words at the close of an article describing a church service which the writer attended:-

"It turns out, therefore,-incredible as it may sound to modern ears,-to be perfectly possible to worship God without an organist, without an organ, and without a choir. This should surely be good news to those who for years past have groaned under the tyranny of either, or all, of these three modern substitutes for worship."

These are brave words, and necessary, too, although a little knowledge of Scripture should suffice to convince anybody that time and place or surroundings have nothing whatever to do with true worship. The true worshippers worship God in Spirit. Paul and Silas bound in prison, and Jonah in the fish's belly, had neither organ nor choir; yet they offered acceptable worship. An organ may be a great assistance in a public meeting; but it is very often, especially in prayer-meetings, and always unless skilfully played, a hindrance rather then a help.

According to Major General Sir Frederick Maurice, the bad physique of every rejected recruit, when the case had been investigated, had been proved to be due to improper feeding in infancy. It is almost incredible, but it is stated as a fact, that there are parents so ignorant as to give a week-old child a diet consisting of new bread, and cabbage, and tea! If a child could survive such treatment it would be a wonderful miracle, and nothing could be expected of it in the way of physique. It is not at all to the credit of the human being, that it alone of all animals, does not know enough to take proper care of its young. Man has fallen a long way from his original position as lord of creation.

The Daily Chronicle's correspondent, on the eve of his deportation from Bulgaria on account of his exploring proclivities, has written a letter describing the condition of things in that country. He reports continual murders of Greeks by Bulgarians. After a particularly brutal murder of Orthodox notables, he found the Metropolitan of Kastoria weeping, because only four days before he had advised the headman, who was murdered, to remain quiet and trust in God, and he had yielded to his advice, although he wanted to attack the Bulgarian Committee. To the quotation, "Have no measures been taken to protect the Orthodox, peasants?" the Metropolitan replied, "What sort of measures do you want us to take?-Can I sanction crime as these murderers do? Our race and Church have never suffered at the hands of the conqueror what they are now suffering at the hands of the Bulgarians. Are the Powers blind? Cannot they see that this is not a movement of liberation from the Turkish yoke, but a movement of extermination of the Greeks?" The correspondent's letter closes thus:-

"The conclusion forced upon me after ten days investigation is that this district, at all events, probably is on the eve of a campaign of retaliation on the part of the Orthodox peasantry, and the result will be a state of things compared with which the present condition is heavenly."

When that time of revulsion and slaughter comes, and the Powers are compelled to interfere, we shall no doubt hear on every side that it has been made necessary by the barbarity of the Turks, so closely do people cling to a prejudice which they have once conceived.

It is interesting as a sign of the times to note the comments made on Ford Kelvin's recent utterance, that "science positively affirms creative power, and makes everyone feel a miracle in himself."

This is nothing new; Lord Kelvin's well-known statement is only what every student of God's Word must know as a primary truth; but it is significant, coming as it does from the foremost man of science in Great Britain, as showing that, even according to the highest earthly authority, the Bible may confidently be claimed as the leading "scientific book. But the fact that Lord Kelvin's utterance has created such a stir in the scientific world, indicates how far that world as a whole has departed from the truth. A popular journal hastens to assure the people that his statement must not be taken as indicating belief in the Bible. It says:-

"As it stands, this utterance by one who is, in many respects, the greatest living scientist, will attract wide attention. It will be claimed, though of course it is not, as a reversion to the crudest form of creationist theory before Darwin. We shall doubtless see a certain class of apologists hailing Lord Kelvin as believer in the fixity of species, in special design, and the Mosaic cosmology and chronology. Obviously, he is nothing of that. All that he has really done is to admit, along with all the other great scientists who were correspondingly modest, that life's bases rest beyond the probe of chemic test, and that the mystery of its ultimate beginnings is inexplicable to him. Science but pushes the mystery farther back. It does not alter its essential nature."

Strange, isn't it, that otherwise sensible men should be so fearful of admitting "special design" in the creation of this wondrous universe? And because of this fear they throw the Mosaic records on the rubbish heap. The reason is given in the first chapter of Romans. They do not like to retain God in their knowledge. They do not like to admit that there is One above them, who knows more than they ever can know, and who is able to instruct them. They do not like to humble themselves, even before the Creator of the universe, to the extent of coming to inquire of Him concerning the works of His own hands. They want to find it all out by themselves, and their wild speculation about what is infinitely beyond them demonstrates the truth of the inspired utterance that, professing themselves wise, they become fools.

"Undeveloped Teachers" The Present Truth 19, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

Undeveloped Teachers. -To whom is the apostle speaking when he says, "Ye ought to be teachers"?-To every one who is, or professes to be, a child of God. For every son is a priest, as we have learned; and "the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth." Mal. ii. 7. While the church is "the flock of God," and the elders in it,-those of most experience and most richly endowed by the Spirit-are, as under-shepherds, to feed the others, all are to be teachers to the unconverted. But the mere fact that one professes to be a Christian does not constitute him a teacher. Only as he obeys the injunction, "Sanctify the Lord God in your heart" (1 Peter iii. 15), can he teach others. He must let the word of Christ dwell in him richly in all wisdom. No one need be ignorant, for "the Lord giveth wisdom; out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding." The entrance of His Word gives light and understanding; for it is light; and it quickens the dullest ear, since it wakes even the dead.

"'He Obtained the Promise'" The Present Truth 19, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

"He Obtained the Promise." -In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews it is said of Abraham and all his posterity, "These all died in faith, not having received the promises" (verve 13), and still later, "These all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise." Verse 39. Yet in Heb. vi. 15, it is said of Abraham, "And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise." How is this?-It is easily reconciled when we consider that "in Isaac shall thy seed be called." Isaac was the child of promise, born of the Spirit. His birth was life from the dead. See Rom. iv. 19. So when Abraham was tried he offered up Isaac; "and he that received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called; accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure." Heb. xi. 17-19. Christ is the Seed, and He could come only through Isaac's line; yet so firmly did Abraham's faith grasp Christ as the One "who is, and who was, and who is to come," that he calmly proceeded to offer up Isaac, assured that the Christ who was to come from him was already alive from the dead, with power to raise Isaac from the dead, so that the promise that He should be born of his line might be fulfilled. Truly Abraham had the promise, even as he who for a surety knows the promise of God that he shall be "heir of the world," already has tasted "the power of the world to come."

"Only a Voice" The Present Truth 19, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

Only a Voice. -When God uttered His law from Mount Sinai He introduced it with these words: "I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." Ex. xx. 1-3. By comparing these words with the same words given in a different order in Ps. lxxxi. 8-10, we see that they are a glorious promise of righteousness. Studying more closely, we see that the statement, "I am the Lord thy God," thundered forth from Sinai, was but the repetition of the everlasting covenant made with Abraham more than four hundred years before. Thus: "I will establish My covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee." Gen. xvii. 7. Look at every statement of the new, the everlasting covenant, and you will find that its essential part is this, "I will be a God to thee." So the giving of the law upon Mount Sinai in such awful majesty was not to frighten the people with its terrors, as Moses assured them, but was a proclamation of the Gospel of peace in tones that should reach to the ends of the earth, so that all might hear and accept it.

Some time afterward, Moses, speaking of this occasion, and exhorting the children of Israel against departing from the Lord, said: "Take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life; but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons; specially the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me, Gather Me the people together, and I will make them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they shall teach their children. And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness. And 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." Deut. iv. 9-13.

Come down now fifteen hundred years to the days of John the Baptist, and listen to his words when the scribes and Pharisees sent messengers from Jerusalem, to ask him who he was. To all their queries he had but the one reply, that he was "only a voice." He was indeed, according to Christ's own testimony, "Elias, which was for to come;" yet when asked if he was Elias, he still replied that he was a voice. He was nobody; the only thing of importance was the voice. That was everything, because that voice in the wilderness of Judea was the same voice that had sounded in the wilderness of Sinai so many centuries before.

This is the example for those who would proclaim the Gospel message. The human is to be kept out of sight, that only the voice of God may be heard. In harmony with this, Paul wrote, "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord:" and John said, "He must increase, but I must decrease." Not the man, but the message, must be made prominent. Human plans, human organisations, human agents, must all be hidden from view, that the Word of God alone may be heard and seen and felt, and may have all the glory. All who proclaim the message, "Behold your God! Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him; behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him," have a most comforting assurance of Divine support and protection in so doing; for God says: "I am the Lord thy God, that divided the sea," whose waves roared; the Lord of hosts is His name. And I have put My words in thy mouth, and have covered thee with the shadow of My hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art My people."

July 30, 1903

"The Editor's Private Corner. Do You Believe? (Continued.)" The Present Truth 19, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

THE TRINITY

"7. Do you believe in the Trinity?"

If I knew what you meant by the term, I might tell you; but from the days of Athanasius until now all discussion about the Trinity has been an attempt to define the indefinable and the incomprehensible. Thousands have been put to death for not professing belief in a formula which even its professors could not comprehend, nor state in terms that anybody else could comprehend. The Scriptures reveal "One God and Father of all," our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the brightness of the Father's glory, and "the eternal Spirit" through whom Christ offered Himself and was raised from the dead; but we do not profess any knowledge of them beyond what the Scriptures give us. In teaching and preaching the Gospel we always confine ourselves strictly to Scripture terms and language; those who manufacture terms must be looked to for definitions of them. It is attest not to presume to define what the Bible has not defined, nor to attempt to explain infinity.

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

"8. Do you believe in the Immaculate conception?"

Let me ask you, Do you know what that term means? Very many people who use it think that it applies to the birth of Christ; but the fact is, that the Roman Catholics, who invented it, use it with reference to Mary. Their argument is that the mother of Christ, the Sinless One, must have been conceived and born without sin. But if that were so, it would be equally necessary for her mother to be begotten sinless, and her mother, and so on back to the beginning: for a child inherits the flesh of its great, great, great grandmother as surely as that of its own mother.

No; I do not believe in the "immaculate conception" of Mary, the mother of Christ, because the Scriptures give us the genealogy of Christ, stating that He "was born of the seed of David according to the flesh." Rom. i. 3. Christ, "the Holy One and the Just" was both of sinful flesh as an assurance to all mankind that, although sinful, God can bring forth from them "the fruits of righteousness." Christ may be found in every one of us as really as He was in the virgin Mary (Gal. iv. 19); "For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given." Isa. ix. 6.

"9. Do you believe in a devil?"

This is the same old question, "Do you believe the Bible?" Read the first and second chapters of Job; the fourth chapter of Matthew; 1 Peter v. 8; Jude 9; and dozens of other texts. I believe "all things which are written in the law and in the prophets." Why should I not? Besides, I have had too painful, personal evidence of the existence of a devil to doubt the fact.

THE BIBLE GOD'S WORD

"10. Do you believe that the Bible contains the actual words of God, and nothing else?"

This is what everybody ought to believe, whether I do or not; but I do: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 2 Tim. iii. 16. But nobody can prove to another that the Bible is the Word of God. "If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the teaching." John vii. 17. "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself." 1 John v. 10.

EVOLUTION

"11. Do you believe that man has been slowly evolved from the lower forms of life? or that he was created by God in the likeness of His own image?"

"And the Lord God formed man of the duet of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Gen. ii. 7. "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him, male and female crested He them." Gen. i. 27. "The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life." Job xxxiii. 4.

Here is the plain and the only sensible, creditable account of the origin of man. The normal human mind is so constituted by God that it cannot believe a thing without some evidence; for God always gives the most positive evidence for everything that He asks man to believe. To believe a thing without evidence is folly; and no man has ever yet brought forward the smallest particle of evidence in support of the theory of evolution. Nobody has ever seen the slightest change of any animal toward a higher state; nor does history record any trams of such a change. The theory is pure fancy, a fabrication spun out of an idle mind, in spite of the clearest evidence to the contrary. In the beginning God said: "Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and creeping thing and beast of the earth after his kind; and it was so." Gen. i. 24. And so it has ever been. Not only has no animal shown any tendency toward development into a higher species, but none ever changes its kind to the slightest degree. In the forest, where animals roam wild, each kind is as distinct as at the creation. Animals as closely related as the hare and the rabbit retain their distinctive characteristics. So among birds: the robin does not mate with the sparrow, nor the sparrow with the wren. Fishes swarm in the sea in untold millions, yet the cod, the salmon, the mackerel are as distinct as though they were in different seas. To believe that man has evolved from lower orders of creation, requires a degree of simple credulity that is not found among those who believe the Bible.

"12. Do you believe in the fall of man, as related in the Bible?"

Yes; I believe the whole Bible. If it

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were not for that, the PRESENT TRUTH would have no reason for existence, and would cease to be published. This involves the next question, which will be given and answered with it.

SALVATION FROM SIN AND DEATH

"13. Do you believe that Christ died to save man from hell? or do you believe that He died to save man from sin?"

Both. "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." 1 Tim. i. 15. He "gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father." Gal. i. 4. In saving us from sin, He saves us from death and hell, since death came by sin, and "the wicked shall be cast into hell." And herein we have a proof that man has fallen, and is not rising by evolution from a lower state; for if man were not fallen, there would have been no need for Christ to come. If we had evolved from a monad to manhood, we would in time by the same process of evolution attain to the highest state. Because we believe the Gospel, we do not believe in evolution; and we believe the Gospel, because we find ourselves helpless,-unable to do the good thing that we would, and in need of the Saviour whom the Gospel reveals.

"14. Do you believe that only by a belief in Christ as Son of God can any man escape hell? or do you believe that only by faith in Christ can man be good?"

This is answered in the preceding paragraph. Salvation is from sin; the man who is convicted of sin does not think of the fact that he is in danger of destruction, but that he has grieved the Lord; and the Christian believes and obeys the Lord, not that he may be saved from wrath, but that he may glorify God. God sent forth His Son "in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin," "that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Rom. viii. 3, 4. We need Christ, in order that we may be proper men, real men; for only as we come to "the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ," do we reach the state of "a perfect man."

"The Bible Class. The Order of Melchisedek" The Present Truth 19, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

The seventh chapter of Hebrews is so closely connected with what precedes, that one cannot read it understandingly without having the last portion of the sixth chapter at least as well in mind as though it had just been read. Accordingly we note in beginning that the oath of God gives us a strong consolation in fleeing for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us; and that we have this hope "as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast," and "which entereth into that within the veil; whither the Forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an High Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek." Then follows a description of Melchisedek and his priesthood, that we may better understand what is the hope of our calling; and the beginning of this forms our lesson for the week.

"For this Melchisedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is King of peace; without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually. Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils."

Who Was Melchisedek? -This is a question often asked, and seldom answered for the reason that people for the most part indulge in speculation instead of being content with the plain; simple record in the Bible. The whole of the recorded history of Melchisedek is found in the fourteenth chapter of Genesis; and the substance of that record is given in the verses just quoted from the seventh of Hebrews. There we are told who he was, just as plainly as we are introduced to any other character of history. He was king of Salem, and priest of the Most High God. What could one ask for more definite than that? Someone not very well up with the times asks, "Who is this M. Loubet, whose name I see so much of late?" and when the answer is given, "He is President of France," the questioner is fully satisfied. To be sure we can give more particulars concerning the birth and family of M. Loubet; but though we might like to have our curiosity satisfied with regard to Melchisedek's relatives, it is nevertheless universally recognised that a man is amply distinguished by his office or profession or business. Jones, the draper; Brown, the miller; Robinson, the lawyer, are sufficiently designated by the statement of their employment. So to the question, "Who was Melchisedek?" It is enough to say that he was king of Salem, and priest of the Most High God.

A Type of Christ. -Both by name and by office Melchisedek was a type of Christ. His name is composed of the two Hebrew words meaning "king" and "righteousness," so that by interpretation, as stated in the text, he is "king of righteousness." Christ's kingdom is a kingdom of righteousness, for it is written, "A sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom."

His position also, no less than his name, makes him a representative of Christ. "King of Salem." There can be no doubt but that Salem is the same as Jerusalem. It is the Hebrew word for "peace," and marks him as king of peace, as well as king of righteousness; and the kingdom of God is peace no less than righteousness. This is indicated in Ps. lxxvi. 1-3: "In Judah is God known; His name is great in Israel. In Salem also is His tabernacle, and His dwelling-place in Zion. There brake He the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle." Salem is Zion, and it is the end of war. So we have God's words concerning Christ: "Yet have I set My King upon My holy hill of Zion." Ps. ii. 6. Salem and Zion are inseparably connected; and it is there that Jesus has been "by the right hand of God exalted." "Jerusalem which is above," "which is the mother of us all,"

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(Gal. iv. 26), is to come down and occupy the site of Jerusalem "which now is, and is in bondage with her children." Zech. xiv. 1-8; Rev. xxi. 3; xxii. 1. Then will be fulfilled these words: "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King." Ps. xlviii. 1, 2. It is there that Christ is now as our Forerunner, to hold the place, as it were, for us.

No Respect of Persons with God. -That which arouses the most curiosity concerning Melchisedek, and seems so impenetrable a mystery, is just that which is calculated to give the broadest assurance and the deepest consolation. "Without father, without mother, without descent [genealogy], having neither beginning of days nor end of life." This is the type of the true priesthood-of all who shall be kings of righteousness and peace throughout eternity. God does not question concerning their race or parentage. "In every nation He that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him." If it were known of what nationality this representative of the priesthood of Christ was, then that nation would boast of itself as the people specially favoured of heaven. But the fact that no tribe nor family is named, shows that the kings and priests of God will be composed "of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues." Melchisedek stands as one out of every tribe and nation, indicating that whosoever will may come.

A Priesthood Before Aaron. -"Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils." The giving of tithes is an act of homage. To take tithes of people is to claim authority over them. Thus, when Samuel was telling Israel what would be their lot if they persisted in having a king, he said, among other things, "He will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants." 1 Sam. viii. 15. The tithe of the land belongs to the Lord, that with it He may sustain His servants, who are precluded from tilling the land for their own living. The whole nation of Israel, including the king; and the priests, sprung from Abraham, and looked up to him as their head; yet even he recognised Melchisedek as his superior, and signified it by paying tithes to him. Consequently the Levitical priesthood stands related to the Melchisedek priesthood only as the shadow to the sun; and, as in the figure, the sun is both before and after the shadow. The shadow passes; the sun abides. If the Jews had only known the Scriptures, which were read in their synagogues every Sabbath day, they would have known that their priests were not real priests, and thereby that the temple was not the real sanctuary of the Lord.

All Sons Kings and Priests. -"As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." John i. 12, 13. God's children have no descent; they cannot trace their genealogy. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou heareth the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth; so is everyone that is born of the Spirit." John iii. 8. In "the new man" there is "neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; but Christ is all and in all." Col iii. 11. This was indicated by Melchisedek, who flashed for a moment as a meteor across the sky, and then disappeared. One can say of him no more than, "There he is!" and thus he represents that chief of all the sons of God, in whom all live, because He is, and that sums up all that can be said of Him. His origin is in eternity, "of His kingdom there shall be no end." As we have already seen (Heb. v. 5, 6), Christ was Priest by virtue of being the Son of God. So when Israel was called out of Egypt, they were declared to be God's Son, even His firstborn (Ex. iv. 22, 23); and the promise was to them: "Ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation." Ex xix 6. Thus we see that they were to be kings of righteousness; and we see that Melchisedek was the type of the true Israel of God, comprising not a part of one nation, nor the whole of any nation on earth, but all who believe out of every people under heaven. "When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up;" and so Melchisedek, "without father, without mother," has God for his Father, and thus stands as the representative of all the sons of God.

But this Melchisedek is not before Christ. It is true that Christ is "an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek;" but we must not forget that this is solely because He is the Son of God. When God said to Him, "Thou art My Son, to-day have I begotten Thee," it was equivalent to saying, "Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedek." Heb. v. 5, 6. And Melchisedek "abideth a priest continually" because he is "made like unto the Son of God." The servant abideth not in the house for ever, "but the Son abideth ever;" and the Son is "before all things, and in Him all things consist." Melchisedek derived his priesthood from Christ, because only from Christ could he derive power to become a son of God. The Melchisedek priesthood is the order of the sons of God. The Son, by whom God in these last days has spoken unto us, is "the brightness of His glory." We have all "sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. iii. 23); but God is, through Christ, bringing many sons unto glory (Heb. ii. 10), that they may sing praise "unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father."

There are no limitations in God's gifts. He gives to all alike freely; what He has for one He has for all; but men, in the blindness and narrowness of unbelief, take His gifts for only a fraction of what they are. As ancient Israel, not rising to the height of faith that could claim the right to be the sons of God, were content with but the shadow of the priesthood for a single tribe. And when people take but little of God's free gift for themselves, they are unwilling to allow that there can be any for anybody else. If they had seen in the fact that Melchisedek was without nationality the evidence that God claims all men as His children, and that they are such indeed if they will but acknowledge the claim, they would not have boasted so much over other people, nor been content with so little from God. Let us learn a lesson from their mistake.

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

For one hundred and twenty years Noah warned the people that God was going to send a flood of waters upon the earth, because the people were so wicked. All this time he was building an ark, so that he and his three sons and their families might be saved when the flood should come. God showed him just how to build the ark.

If any of the people had believed Noah's words, they might have been saved with him in the ark. For one hundred and twenty years God waited for them to repent. All this time the Holy Spirit was working on their hearts to turn them to God. But the people would not listen; they went on in their wicked ways. Noah was the only good man in all the land.

When the ark was finished God sent some of every kind of animal and bird to Noah, and they were put into the ark. So some of each kind were saved alive to multiply in the earth after the flood.

When everything was ready, God told Noah and his sons and their wives to come into the ark. When they were safe inside He shut the door.

Seven days passed after Noah was in the ark before the rain began to fall. Then the rain poured down from above, and the water that was under the earth gushed forth. The water rose to the tops of the highest mountains, and every living thing was swept off the earth. None but Noah and those with him in the ark were saved.

God said that while the earth remains He will never send another flood of waters upon it. He put the rainbow in the cloud as a sign of His promise.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

It is stated by the Decimal Association that about one-half of the members of the House of Commons have expressed themselves ready to support a Bill for the adoption in Britain of the metric weights and measures.

At the thirty-seventh annual meeting of the National Waifs' Association, it was stated that since Dr. Barnardo started his work thirty-six years ago, 49,800 slum children have been rationed. Altogether the sum of ?2,752,396 has been raised by him. The amount of good that has been accomplished by the work is simply incalculable. The whole life work of such a man as Dr. Barnardo is a Gospel sermon.

At the International Chemical Congress held in Berlin a few weeks ago, Dr. A. Haarman, of Omabruck, made a statement, that, if true, is a forcible illustration of the greatness that there is in little things. He stated that about two hundred and forty-seven thousand tons of steel fly away in dust from the railways of the world every year. Of this amount he says nineteen thousand tons is lost through friction on the German railways alone.

The Daily Chronicle, calling attention to a communication from a correspondent, concerning the relative degree of physical degeneration in the two sexes, has noted in few words the real state of the case, which is well worth serious consideration: "As regards the school children of towns, the deterioration is observable in both sexes, there being very little, indeed, to choose between them. At a later age there are not exact data in the case of women, but the facts in general apply to both sexes. Their causes, which, despite official ignorance, are perfectly well known, are unaffected by the question of sex. The women-the mothers-of this country consume about three times as much alcohol now as they did a quarter of a century ago. Their children of both sexes pay the penalty of inherited weakness and of the mother's inability or neglect to feed them properly."

In the Church Times of July 17, "Victor" has an interesting article on "the English Sunday," as compared with "the Continental Sunday," with the odds not at all in favour of the home product. After describing the manner in which the most of the people idle away the day, eating and drinking, he says: "If this manner of keeping the Holy Day, sinking under proper conditions into sheer swinishness, was the ordinary characteristic of the English Sunday, then, I say, there have been gradations. When idleness becomes the substitute for holiness, the sanction of the observance cannot be very strong. I do not wonder that Sunday Observance Societies fight fanatically against the most harmless relaxation. A nail that is fastened in so unsure a place will not stand any jerking. Whether you leave the burden or remove it, there is equal danger."

Here is an item that, if it be true, is of more than passing interest, in that it helps us to see how different races develop under different environment, and to understand better how all nations of men come of one blood:-

Professor Starr, of Chicago University, asserts that the American people are fast developing into Indians. During his investigations, the professor examined the descendants of a small colony of Germans who settled in Pennsylvania over a hundred years ago. He found that the fourth and fifth generations had developed Indian characteristics, such as black hair and eyes and darker coloured skin. Professor Starr says: "These variations in physical appearance effect persons of other nationalities who have settled in the United States. They are due to climatic influences and environment."

A French doctor complains that most modern education is unpractical. Nurses, he says, get diplomas on oral work merely, bachelors of arts often cannot spell correctly, and medical students in their first year have to relearn the simplest rules of arithmetic. The French doctor is not the only one who has been made painfully aware of this defect in much that is called education. The effort is too much directed to passing examinations, so as to get a position, or else to be able to make a show, or to sport a degree. But the men who really succeed are the men who build a solid foundation.

In 1859 there was one insane person to every 536 sane individuals. The average has risen until now one person in every 299 is mentally afflicted. Among the causes of this increase in lunacy, Professor H. W. White, in delivering his presidential address to the members of the Medico-Psychological Association last Thursday, named the fact that we were rapidly becoming a nation of town-dwellers, unnatural excitement, over education, late hours, badly-selected and badly-cooked food, and the abuse of alcohol. Any of these things may contribute to weakness of mind as well as to weakness of body; and all of them are easily avoidable.

The following news item appeared in some of the papers the other day, which certainly deserved more attention that it received:-

An interesting prisoner left the gaol of Szegedin, Hungary, the other day. He is the twenty-nine years old Nazarene, Sava Maletity. Six years ago he was enrolled for military service, but being a devout believer in the doctrines of the Nazarene faith, which prohibits the shedding of blood, he steadfastly refused to shoulder a rifle, and was sentenced to two years in gaol. After having served his time he was again enrolled, with the same result, and was again sentenced to three years in prison, which have recently expired. When leaving the prison he declared he would not swerve from his determination not to touch a rifle, even if he had to undero life imprisonment.

True, that is only one man, and one man is not reckoned anything by a great military power; but a principle can be demonstrated by one man as well as by a thousand. It shows that there are people willing actually to endure for conscience sake, and that without having a "league" to back them, and their action applauded in the papers. There are many who shout for "passive resistance," who would not have a word in favour of this real instance of it. This man, however, is not resisting a human law, but suffering for obedience to God's law.

"In the Secret Place" The Present Truth 19, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

In the Secret Place. -The Almighty dwells "in the secret place," and He "seeth in secret;" hence "He revealeth the deep and secret things; He knoweth what is in the darkness;" "and the light dwelleth with Him," because "God is light." "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight; but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." This would be a terrible bit of knowledge to us, fearful to contemplate, if it were not for the knowledge that God looks with kindlier eyes than man. He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and evil shall not dwell with Him; so if we only choose the light of His countenance it will cleanse us from secret faults, so that none will remain to be seen. And then we have on the other hand the wonderful assurance that "the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and He will show them His covenant." He that dwells in secret, and sees in secret, and works in secret, is able to make known deep and secret things. So with gladness we may ever remember that "Thou, God, seest me."

"Reading and Running" The Present Truth 19, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

Reading and Running. -The prophet Habakkuk was instructed by the Lord, when a revelation was given him, to "write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it." Habakkuk prophesied of coming judgments, from which men were warned to flee. Therefore the message was to be written out very plainly, in order that men might read it and flee from the wrath to come. But most people have misread this text, and we hear it quoted as though it read, "that he who runs may read;" and they seem to act upon this false rendering, for they for the most part content themselves with only a running glance at the Scriptures. It as though the book were opened, and men in running by took a hasty glance at its contents. They see some words, but the order of them is confused in their minds, and, indeed, they cannot be sure as to the words themselves. Then, as they pass on, some of these hasty readers give to others their imperfect ideas, and thus many things are taken for Bible truth, which are utterly foreign to the Bible. Shall we not rather stop long enough over the Book to find out exactly what the message is? The greater and the more imminent the danger that threatens, the greater the necessity for an accurate knowledge of the warning.

"Grace Abounding" The Present Truth 19, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

Grace Abounding. -"The law entered that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. v. 20, 21.

Going back to verses 13 and 14, we find that what is specifically referred to is the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. The speaking of the law there, in a voice that shook the earth, made sin abound; that is, sin was made to appear more sinful, and was discovered where it was not before supposed to exist. The awful majesty attending the giving of the law caused all to feel their helplessness and guilt. Never did the sin of the world seem greater than when the broken law at Sinai filled the earth with the terrors of the Judgment.

But God never does anything calculated to discourage men. He caused sin to loom up before them, in order that they might see grace towering high above it. Never was the grace of God in Christ more exalted than in the giving of the law, because the flowing water from the rock demonstrated the presence of Christ smitten to sustain the life of His people. Even while the law was given by Moses, grace and truth came by Jeans Christ.

"Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves; which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another." At Mount Sinai God was displaying the experience of every individual. In each heart stands the quaking mount with the fiery law. The law works wrath here as everywhere, as is shown by the accusations and excuses. Both excuses and accusations reveal the consciousness of guilt, which is, to a greater or less extent, universal. The work of the law written in every heart is to cause a some of unfitness to stand in the presence of God.

We are all "born under the law." "There is none that doeth good, no, not one." Sin is a part of our birthright inheritance. It even seems to be our entire heritage, since our blood is tainted; and our flesh itself is corrupt, and cannot inherit the kingdom of God. "For from within, out of the heart of man, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness; all these evil things come from within, and defile the man." And while sin is strong, we ourselves are without strength, so that, uninstructed in the truth of God, we are led to say that it is useless for us to think of overcoming sin, since we have to fight against ourselves and all our ancestors.

But wherever sin abounds, there does grace much more abound. Nowhere does God leave Himself without witness. We too often think that it is useless to fight against heredity, forgetting or not knowing that there is heredity prior to that of the power of which child-trainers speak. We are all sons of Adam; but Adam was the Son of God. The heritage of grace goes back of the heritage of the flesh, and is as much more powerful as God is mightier than man. And it is, moreover, everywhere present, to work "that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." The "one God and Father of all" "is above all, and through all, and in all." Wherever there is sinful flesh, there is the sinless Spirit; so that not only is all flesh without excuse, but for all flesh there is lively hope.

"No legacy of sin annuls

Heredity from God."

With the temptation God provides the way to escape. "The Word is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart;" so when we sink down in discouragement we are simply saying that our earthly parentage is stronger than our heavenly. He who fills all things is the one in whom all things are, and who is "greater than sall." So in Christ who strengthens us, we can do all things. "For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ."

August 6, 1903

"The Editor's Private Corner. What Shall Be the End of the Ungodly?" The Present Truth 19, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

"A few weeks ago the Christian published a criticism of Mr. R. J. Campbell, on account of his unscriptural teaching that all men will ultimately be saved. The writer of the criticism, however, acknowledges that the doctrine that he himself is upholding,-everlasting torment,-is a 'terrible one,' if there no escape from universalism on the one hand or eternal torment on the other? Must one of these doctrines necessarily be the truth? Or have we any scriptural ground for believing in the annihilation of those who will not receive salvation through the atonement?"

The best answer that can be given to this question is to give a plain, straightforward, although necessarily brief exposition of the Scripture teaching concerning the atonement. It is not by any means as complicated as theologians have made it, but is so simple that a child can understand it; and when we once understand it, all difficulty as to universalism and eternal torment will vanish.

"The redemption that is in Christ Jesus," is comprehensive enough to include the whole human race, as will presently be made plain; but God, who sees the end from the beginning, has made known to us the sad fact that many souls will go to destruction because they will not walk the way of life. Christ says: "Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Matt. vii. 13, 14. These words occur in Christ's "sermon on the mount," which even infidels often profess to accept as a perfect standard; they require no explanation, for nobody can misunderstand their meaning; they are only to be believed or disbelieved; but whoever believes them cannot believe in universal salvation; and, on the other hand, whoever believes in universalism thereby shows that he does not accept the teaching of Christ.

Shall we have a few more texts before we take up the principles of the atonement? In the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth chapters of Matthew we have one of the last talks that Christ had with His disciples before His crucifixion. It was but the week before He was betrayed. It is wholly concerning His second coming, and at the close He describes the two classes that will be on earth when He shall come: those who have served Him, and those who have not. "And these," He says, speaking of those who have not followed Him, "shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal." Matt. xxv. 46.

Now we want to know what this everlasting punishment will be, and we read the words of the Apostle Paul, with reference to the second coming of Christ. He says that "the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power." 2 Thess. i. 7-9. The punishment is to be everlasting, it is true, but it will be destruction; and this is emphasised in Rom. vi. 23, where we read: "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Eze. xviii. 4. Thus we see that the punishment is death; and since the punishment is to be everlasting, it will be everlasting death-death from which there will be no resurrection.

Bear in mind that this death, which is the wages of sin, is the direct opposite of life. It is not eternal life in torment, for life, no matter what its conditions, is not death in any sense. The righteous, who have the gift of life, often suffer grievous affliction; but they are alive, and not dead. Death means cessayion of existence, even as God said through His prophet: "All the heathen . . . shall be as though they had not been." Obadiah 16.

So we read again: "The wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs; they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away." "For evil doers shall be cut off; but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be; yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace." "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace. But the transgressors shall be destroyed together; the end [future] of the wicked shall be cut off." Ps. xxxvii. 9, 10, 20, 37, 38.

We cannot suppose that men who stand as preachers are ignorant of these statements of Scripture, and many more like them; therefore we are obliged to suppose that they ignore them. But if one is to follow one's own mind, regardless of what the Bible says, one should announce that fact, and not preface one's sermons with texts of Scripture. The texts that we have quoted make it very plain that there is a middle ground between universalism on the one hand, and eternal torment on the other. We will now turn our attention to the foundation principles which make all these statements plain.

It should not be overlooked, that the root of all this difficulty is the unscriptural idea that man is by nature deathless,-that God, having once given him life, cannot withdraw it. Many sincere Christians hold this idea, seemingly wholly unconscious of the fact that it was the serpent who said to Eve, "Ye shall not surely die," in direct contradiction of God's declaration that they should surely die if they disregarded His commandment. To say that man cannot die, is to say that God spoke falsely, and that the devil told the truth. It is this grave error that has led to all others. Believing it, one is forced to accept either universalism or eternal torment. Believing the Word of God, one is not involved in any difficulty whatever.

An expression that occurs several times in the thirty-seventh psalm will give us a

500

starting point. Evildoers shall be cut off;" "they that be cursed of Him shall be out off;" "the end of the wicked shall be cut off." The question is, "From what shall they be out off?" It is evident that they will be out off from that with which they have been connected; and one needs only to use the faculties that God has given him, to know that all men, whether good or bad, exist solely because of their connection with the life of God, given them in Christ. "For in Him we live, and move, and have our being;" "for we are also His offspring." Acts xvii. 28. No one can keep himself alive for a single minute. If God thought only of Himself, "if He gather unto Himself His Spirit and His breath, all flesh shall' perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust." Job xxxiv. 14, 15.

In the beginning "the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living, soul." Gen. ii. 7. "The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life." Job xxxiii. 4. The Spirit of God in our nostrils (Job xxvii. 3) is what alone keeps us from returning to the condition of non-existence; that is, to the condition that was when we were not. Recall the statement in Obadiah, that those who know not God "shall be as though they had not been."

Jesus Christ is the living bread that came down from heaven, to give life to the world. John. vi. 51. He is "the way the truth, and the life." John xiv. 6: There is no life in the universe except the life of God in Christ. God is our dwelling place, as He has been in all generations. Ps. xc. 1. "In His hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind." Job xii. 10. God is; that is His name, His distinctive title; He is the only one of whom it can be absolutely said that He is; all others have existence only by being in Him. Although God gave man dominion over the earth, he had that dominion only as he acknowledged his absolute dependence on God. Assuming himself able to live and reign alone, he fell, and lost the dominion. God is "above all, and through all, and in all" (Eph. iv. 6); but in the fall man cast off his allegiance to God, asserting his right and power to live independently. This is what constituted the fall.

If God had at once taken man at his word, and had allowed him to go his own way from the beginning of the rebellion on earth, man would at once have ceased to be. But God "is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." 2 Peter iii. 9. He is liberally long-suffering: He is love, and love suffers long, and is kind. God bears the earth, and all its inhabitants, with all their sins and sicknesses. Thus He actually suffers in the sins and sorrows of mankind. Isa. xliii. 24; liii. 4, 5. The cross on Calvary is a demonstration of this; it shows what God has suffered ever since sin entered into the world.

Although men believe not, yet God abides faithful; He cannot deny Himself. 2 Tim. ii. 13. So although men have cast off allegiance to Him, denying that they live by Him, or owe Him anything; some even denying that there is a God; He patiently waits and supplies them with His own life, in order that they may repent of their rebellion, and return to their allegiance to Him. He forces none to come into subjection to Him, but gently and quietly draws all by the power of His love.

But there comes a time at last when it is useless to wait longer. Christ comes the second time to earth, not as before in humiliation, but in power and great glory. "Every eye shall see Him," and nobody will need any proof that He is Lord of all. Every knee will bow to Him, and every tongue will confess that God is, and that Jesus Christ is Lord. Rom xiv. 2; Phil. ii. 10, 11. But even then the wicked will continue to do wickedly. Still they will say, "We will not have this man to reign over us." They acknowledge that God is just; but they hate justice. They still desire to have nothing to do with Him, and insist that they are competent to manage their own affairs. So presumptuous are they,-so blinded by the Deceiver,-that they will undertake even to cast God down from His throne, and to seize upon His place. Ps. ii. 1-6; Rev. xx. 7-9. Then at Iast God will take them at their own word, and will allow them to try their idea of existing wholly separate from Him. There can be but one result, namely, extinction; for in the first place it is impossible for any creature to live a moment without God's sustaining power, and in the second place, there is no place where men can go away from God. God fills all space, so that the wicked must go into nothingness, where there is no place, in order to set up their independent kingdom. Literally, their place shall not be.

Now it must be apparent to all that there is no injustice in this, and that it is also perfectly consistent with everlasting love; because it is only giving to men what they have worked for, and what they have persisted in having. It certainly would be no kindness to rebellious haters of God, to compel them to live with Him. If there were a place in the universe where God is not, the wicked, who hate His presence, might be sent there to live if they could; but there is no such place, and they can have their hearts' desire only by going out of existence. God's mercy endures for ever, even in the complete destruction of the wicked.

Thus it appears that the extinction of the incorrigibly wicked is a necessary part of the atonement. For the atonement contemplates the extermination, the blotting out of sin; and when sin is completely blotted from God's universe, those who have so fully identified themselves with sin that they are nothing but sin, must be blotted out with it.

Nor does this fact that there will be incorrigibly wicked men at the last, indicate the least defect in the atonement; it does not show any weakness on God's part. On the contrary, it shows how firmly God has maintained His original purpose of having an earth filled with righteousness, and ruled over by absolutely free men. Man has his choice, either to reign with God in life, or to ally himself with Satan in death; and in the Judgment every lost sinner will acknowledge that God is clear of his blood, since He has made ample provision for the salvation of all. The wicked will fall by their own counsel; they will be self-condemned and self-destroyed. The strong shall be as tow, and his work a spark, and they shall burn together (Isa. ii. 31); "for the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them." Prov. i. 32. And then when sin and sinners shall have been blotted from God's creation, from every part of it only one song will be heard, of blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, unto Him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the lamb for ever and ever.

"The Bible Class. A Greater than Abraham. Heb. vii. 5-16" The Present Truth 19, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

Heb. vii. 5-16.

"And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham; but he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises. And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better. And here men that die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth. And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham. For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him. If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. For He of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedek there ariseth another priest, who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life."

It might seem to a casual reader that the main thing in the first half of this chapter is the payment of tithes; but it is not so. The case of the payment of tithe by Abraham to Melchisedek is brought in only incidentally, as an illustration of the inferiority of the Levitical priesthood to the Melchisedek priesthood. It is true that it does show that the paying of tithes is Christian, and not Jewish, since Christ is priest after the order of Melchisedek, and tithe was paid to Melchisedek before there was a Jew in the world, and that, too, by the ancestor of the Jewish people. This shows that all men, whether Jews or Gentiles, ought to pay tithe, not to man, but to the Lord.

Two things show the superiority of the Melchisedek priesthood to that of Levi. The one who receives tithe is superior to the one who pays it, just as one who receives tribute is greater than the one who pays tribute. But Levi, from whose tribe Aaron came, paid tithe to Melchisedek in the person of his grandfather Abraham. Then, again, "without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better," and Abraham was blessed by Melchisedek. Now Abraham was unquestionably greater than any of the children of Israel, and was so regarded by them all, since, he was the progenitor of the race; therefore inasmuch as Abraham was less than Melchisedek, it follows that Melchisedek was far greater than Levi. By these two things, paying tithes to Melchisedek, and receiving blessing from him, the Levitical priesthood is demonstrated to be inferior to that of Melchisedek.

But this is not all. These two things show that the Levitical priesthood was wholly unnecessary, because inefficient, since all those priests were themselves in need of priestly ministration. They were tributary to the Melchisedek priesthood, and were saved only through it. The whole Old Testament history shows this. When God brought Israel out of Egypt, it was that they, as His firstborn, should be a kingdom of priests (Ex. xix. 3-6), that is, priests after the order of Melchisedek; but through their unbelief they did not realise this blessing; only one family of one tribe became priests, and they were not kings. The case of Melchisedek, on the contrary, indicated that every real priest of God is also a king, and that these priests are chosen without regard to descent or nationality. Christ, by whose virtue Melchisedek himself was priest, redeems men "out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation," and makes them kings and priests unto God. Rev. v. 9, 10.

We are not left, however, to draw conclusions even from the most obvious premises. In the eleventh verse we find it plainly indicated that perfection was not by the Levitical priesthood, and that that was the reason for the Melchisedek priesthood. But the attainment of perfection is the only object of a priest. If a priesthood does not work perfection, it is of no use at all; it falls short of the only object of its existence. Then it might just as well never have come into being. Some one may thoughtlessly say that it was necessary for the Levitical priesthood to be established as a makeshift, the best thing that could be done, pending the establishment of the better and perfect priesthood; but to this there are two answers. In the first place, imperfection cannot help imperfection. The people were already imperfect, and needed to be made perfect; an imperfect priesthood, that "made nothing perfect," was really no better than nothing. And, more than this, the Melchisedek priesthood was not after, but before, the Levitical, as is evident from the fact that Abraham, the progenitor of Levi, recognised Melchisedek as priest of the Most High God. So it ought to have been apparent to the children of Israel throughout their entire history after the Exode, that they were not realising God's purpose for them; that their priesthood, as well as their kingdom, was contrary, because inferior, to God's plan. It and everything connected with it, and pertaining to it, was the fruit of their own unbelief.

The Law of the Priesthood. -In the expression, "under it the people received the law," referring to the Levitical priesthood, the translators evidently allowed their hazy ideas of Jewish affairs to govern their rendering, for it s contrary to fact. It is not true in any sense that the people received the law under the Levitical priesthood; for it is self-evident that the law establishing that priesthood could not have been given under it, but must have preceded it; and the most superficial reading of the book of Exodus will show anybody that the ten commandments were given from Sinai before there was any hint of the Levitical priesthood. The statement, "under it the people received the law," is an impossible one. It is evident, therefore, that we have a faulty rendering. Verse eleven would be better thus: "If therefore perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for the people were joined to it by law) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedek?" And now the statement concerning the change of the law is clear. "For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law." It is not that the change of the priesthood made a change of the law necessary, but that the change of the priesthood was evidence that there was a change of the law. Of what law?-of the law of the priesthood. And why was it changed?-Look ahead of our lesson, to the eighteenth verse, and you have the answer: "For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof." A strong law, a perfect law, can never change; this law of the priesthood changed because it had not in itself any vitality. And this shows again that there was never any power to that priesthood; for a thing can never have more virtue than the law establishing it. Christ's priesthood, the Melchisedek priest-

(Concluded on page 509.)

(Concluded from page 501.)

hood, on the contrary, is unchangeable. It is "after the power of an endless life."

The Flesh vs. the Spirit. -Summing up the lesson in this portion of the chapter, we can say that it contrasts the priesthood of Aaron with that of Christ. The contrast is carried farther in the verses that follow; but up to this point we have the fact that, the true priesthood is without regard to tribe or descent, while the Levitical priests had to be able to trace their descent clearly from Aaron. Even the Jews themselves could not deny the Apostle's argument, for all knew the history of Abraham. They knew that he recognised Melchisedek as priest, and therefore they could not avoid acknowledging the fact; and that being acknowledged, they could not deny that a man's descent had nothing whatever to do with his being a priest of God. The apostle does not argue backward. He does not prove that there is another priesthood than that of Aaron, because Christ sprang out of Judah, "of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood;" but he shows from the case of Melchisedek that Christ is true priest.

The other contrast, still more striking, is that the Jewish priests were made according to "the law of a carnal commandment," while Christ is priest according to "the power of an endless life." This fact shows the absolute necessity of another priesthood than that of Levi; for "the flesh profiteth nothing," and therefore a fleshly commandment, or a priesthood formed according to it, can profit nothing. Moreover, it shows that Christ's priesthood, after the order of Melchisedek, must have antedated that of Aaron, otherwise there would be no salvation for anybody who lived at the time of the Aaronic priesthood. And this is further shown by the fact that the Melchisedek priesthood has neither beginning nor end. See verse 3. The Son of God "abideth a priest continually," because He is from everlasting to everlasting.

The practical value of all this to us lies in the sixteenth verse, that Christ is priest "after the power of an endless life." Remember that the work of priest is "to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." Christ does this by His endless life. A life that cannot end, that even death itself cannot cause to cease, can evidently swallow up all sin and all its results. Not a sin but can be washed away by that life. There is not a soul so weak that that infinite, eternal life cannot strengthen it with "all might." Moreover since Christ offered Himself "through the eternal Spirit," and has a priesthood without beginning, as it will be without end, He swallows up all the sins of the past as well as the present, for all count on His life. What an "unspeakable gift!" Truly, "if, when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we hall be saved by His life."

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

Goliath of Gath was a Philistine giant. He was nearly ten feet tall. When the Philistines fought against the Israelites, Goliath was their champion. He told the Israelites to send a man to fight with him. If the Israelite should kill him, all the Philistines would be servants to the Israelites. But if he should kill the Israelite, then all the Israelites would have to serve the Philistines.

For forty days there was not found an Israelite who dared to fight with Goliath. At last David, a young shepherd, came to the camp. As soon as he saw Goliath, and heard his proud words, he told King Saul that he would go and fight with the giant.

David took his shepherd's staff and his sling, and chose five smooth stones out of the brook. With these he went against Goliath. The giant had a heavy suit of armour, a great sword in his hand, and a man carrying a strong shield before him. David had no armour and no spear. He trusted in God to deliver him.

When Goliath saw the shepherd boy coming he mocked him, and said that he would slay him and give his flesh to the fowls of the air. But David answered: "Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel."

Then David took a stone and slung it, and it sank into the giant's forehead. Goliath fell upon his face to the earth. David ran and took Goliath's own sword, and cut off his head. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

A Reuter's dispatch from St. Petersburg states that a new law has just been promulgated by which the administration of the estates belonging to the Armenian and Gregorian Churches, which were formerly independently managed, passes into the hands of the Russian Government, and the property and funds of these churches, which provided schooling for the members of the respective creeds, are transferred to the Ministry of Public Instruction.

Considerable interest has been aroused in scientific circles over the finding of a skull and some other bones of what is supposed to have been a rhinoceros, under the foundations of the Daily Chronicle building in Fleet Street. Speculation is rife as to how long ago this animal frequented "the jungles along the Thames," the most conservative placing it at 100,000 years, while Prof. Ray Lankester, of the Natural History Museum, states confidently that it could not have been less than 150,000 years ago. If they should divide by 1,000, and could trace the history of some menagerie of a century or so ago, the truth of the matter would doubtless be known. True, it might be the skull of an elephant used by the Romans 2,000 years ago; but even if it should really be the remains of an extinct species, the flood, with the upheaval that it caused, is sufficient to account for its presence here.

Much that is true has been written of late on the physical degeneration of the race, and its causes; and the subject is not yet exhausted. The following on "The Decay of the Mother," by a physician of high standing in the Daily Chronicle of July 29 is worthy of thoughtful consideration:-

"Woman's labour in the potteries and factories, with the unsavoury and insanitary accompaniments, tends very much to shorten woman's life. The house is comfortless. Of the offspring, though many arrive, there are few fit to survive and arrive at maturity. Infantile death-rate runs high throughout the land, more particularly in those districts where greed and ignorance are paramount. For this is the age of syndicates and limited consideration for the workers; the real masters, the shareholders, and the industrial never meet. The system hardens the heart, but weakens the body. The same benumbing influence pervades all classes of society, haste and gain are the rule, soft foods needing little mastication permitting quick bolting, chemical aids to digestion ignoring nature's processes. Folks live to eat, whereas formerly they ate to live, the palate is tickled, and diseases are multiplied; truly it is an age chemical and mechanical-a substitution of the wisdom of the nostrum vendor for nature's processes.

The Commissioners in Lunacy, in their report issued last week state that one person in every 293 of the population was insane on January 31st last. Of the total number of lunatics, 51,983 were males and 61,981 females, and the total was 3,261 in excess of the previous year. Male criminal lunatics outnumbered the females by 643 to 204. Alcoholic excess was the assigned cause of insanity in 23.1 per cent. of the male cases, and 9.6 per cent. of the female cases.

The death of Leo XIII. has revived all the old stories concerning the ceremonies connected with that event, prominent among which is that about the tapping of a dead pope's forehead three times with a silver hammer by the Camerlengo, and calling him by name, to make sure that he is really dead. There is probably no ceremony that is accepted as more thoroughly substantiated than this. Histories of the Papacy tell it as though it were a matter of common knowledge, and the story is perpetuated even by Roman Catholic authors of repute. Some newspaper correspondents, whose reports of the pope's death and its attendant ceremonies were written while Leo XIII. was yet alive, so as to be sure to be in season, told about the striking with the silver hammer. Yet no living man has ever seen the act performed, or the silver hammer; and the most searching investigation has placed it beyond question that the story is wholly mythical. The official liturgical works of the Church, which specify every detail of the ceremonial of the Papal Court, make no mention of any such thing; and it is now positively established that nothing of the kind was done either to Pius IX. or to Leo XIII.

The thing is of no consequence in itself, but the exploding of the fiction is important as a warning to be very careful what we repeat. There are multitudes of incidents, supposed to be well-authenticated historical facts, which have no foundation but rumour which started nobody can tell how. Let each once recall the newspaper reports of some affair of which he was an eye-witness, and say how nearly they accorded with the facts; then let him remember that the same inaccuracy no doubt attends the most of the reports that he hears. This is not necessarily because of wilful misrepresentation, but because of the difficulty in always seeing things just as they are, and of accurately describing what one sees. Listen to the report of any given thing, by a dozen men, and see how widely they will differ. The sum of the matter is, "Take heed how ye hear." Many have the idea that if a man or a party be opposed to the truth, it is of little consequence if his faults be somewhat exaggerated. But the Lord will not do injustice even to antichrist, and we ought to be no less particular not to misrepresent Him.

"The Place of Force in Government" The Present Truth 19, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

"Joy in labour makes a serf a king; and unwillingness to serve makes a king a churl."

The Place of Force in Government. -In a conversation with a representative of the Peace Society, a prominent man in public affairs recently said: "I believe in arbitration; but when you peace people talk about ending war, I cannot follow you. I think that you will have to wait until the millennium; for so long as there is sin in the world there must needs be force."

In this he touched the foundation principle of the governments of this world. It is not that sin cannot be dealt with by kindness and love; for love is the only means by which sin can be overcome and eradicated. But there are people who regard love as weakness, and who, when favour is shown to them, take occasion to sin the more. It is for such, and such only, that civil government, which is the embodiment of force, is necessary. "The law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient." Human government is necessary for those who will not submit themselves to the government of God. Its symbol is the sword, and its sole object is to be "a terror to evil-doers."

The symbol of God's Government, on the other hand, is the shepherd's staff. The king after God's heart is a shepherd, for God, the King of kings is a shepherd. The subjects of His kingdom are subjects indeed,-voluntarily subject to Him in thought as well as in action. God is of right King over all; but He will not by force compel anybody to be subject to Him; He cannot, because it would be subversive of His own Government, which is peace and love. He wins back rebellious men by love; but when men despise and resist love, He delivers them up to the sword, as those who will not that He shall reign over them; and pending their final destruction, He allows even ungodly men to be His ministers to execute wrath. But it must be understood that this exercise of force against evil-doers is no part of the Government of God, and has no connection with it. It is simply the only possible means of dealing with those who by their own choice stand outside of the kingdom of God. When His kingdom comes, and His will is done on earth as it is done in heaven, "He maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth; He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; He burneth the chariot in the fire." God will use His saints as agents in the last Judgment, "to execute vengeance upon the heathen; but there will be none destroyed who could by any possibility be saved, just as He did not allow the Israelites to cut off the heathen in the land of Canaan until the iniquity of the Amorites was full. So the true followers of God will never be partners in any act of force that cuts short the probation of sinners.

"God's Way Versus Man's Way" The Present Truth 19, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

Here is the expression of God's love: "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John iii. 16. "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Rom. v. 6-8.

The Scriptures tell us that God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and that evil shall not dwell with Him. He hates sin, because sin is utterly foreign to His nature. In the foregoing texts we see how God manifests His hatred of sin; for the measure of God's hatred of sin is His love for sinners: He gave Himself to save them from it.

In this we see the difference between God's way and man's way, and note how infinitely higher is His way than man's. When men wish to show their abhorrence of sin, and to emphasise their non-complicity in it, they sacrifice the sinner; but God shows His abhorrence of sin, and emphasises His perfect freedom from it, by sacrificing Himself. "Teach me Thy way, O Lord."

It is a dangerous thing to pin faith to man, or to follow even the best of men; for there is no man that is absolutely perfect; and such is the perversity of human nature that we naturally tend to follow the poorest instead of the best. Indeed, this is inevitable, for when we follow men, we use only our own strength, and so we cannot lift ourselves above the faults and errors of those whom we follow. Jesus says, "Follow Me," and this we may safely do, for "there is no unrighteousnees in Him." There is in Him no error to lead us astray; He is the Highest, and He gives us His own life to lift us to His own level. Thus we can indeed follow Him. When we follow men, our sin increases; but when we follow Christ, it is removed; "for we know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin."

"Gospel Finance" The Present Truth 19, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

Gospel Finance. -The Daily Chronicle's Rome correspondent reports that at a large private gathering consisting mostly of ecclesiastical dignitaries belonging to the Papal Court, at which, since the Conclave was pending, the absorbing topic of discussion was, "Who will be the next Pope?" one of them said, "God only knows; let us hope it will be a Pope who will devote his energies to the subject of religion."

That was a pious wish, indeed; but imagine anybody expressing such a wish concerning Peter, whose successor the Pope is claimed to be, or of Christ, whose vicar he claims to be. Their work was wholly religious, and nobody can think of anything else in connection with them. But the remark quoted shows, what is too well known, that religion is usually the last thing considered by a Pope. Polities first, finances second, and religion last, is the rule. Nor is the Pope so much different in this respect from the elected heads of other ecclesiastical organisations, as might be supposed. Too often the question of ways and means takes precedence of the preaching of the Word. It may be said that in all ages of the church it has been necessary to have men whose special duty it was to care for the funds. That is true; but two points of difference should not be overlooked: in the early church the matter of finances was wholly aside from and inferior to the preaching of the Word; and the duty of the men who were appointed over the business was not to collect money, but to distribute that which accumulated spontaneously as the result of hearts being touched by the Spirit of the Word preached.

August 13, 1903

"Bruised and Healed" The Present Truth 19, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

Our little child has fallen and bruised herself badly. The flesh is black and blue and swollen. Her eyes fill with tears, her lips quiver, and her whole body is trembling with the pain and the fright. Her countenance and her very attitude are a pitiful appeal for help and sympathy.

What is to be done in such a case? Every parent knows what is the first impulse, and what brings the most speedy relief. Soothing remedies may be applied, but the greatest relief comes from the folding in the mother's arms, and the loving kisses of sympathy that are bestowed. The little one settles down quietly, the strain is relaxed, the trembling ceases, and soon the pain is forgotten.

What a common occurrence this is, and yet how slow we are to learn the lesson it suggests. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust." Ps. ciii. 13 14. We are but children. Compared with God, we are far more helpless than our children are compared with us. God deals with us as sons, for we are His children; and His love and pity for us are as much greater than ours for our children as God is greater than we are.

Think of that statement, "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him." He pities them in just the came way, only infinitely more. That is to say, He takes us up in His arms, if we will but come to Him, knowing that He is our Father, and He soothes the pain and heals the bruise. For "He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds." Px. cxlvii. 3. Christ says, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." The Spirit of the Lord is upon Him "to heal the broken-hearted," "to set at liberty them that are bruised," "to comfort all that mourn."

That is just what we need. We have fallen and are sorely bruised. We are "laden with iniquity," "the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores." Isa. i. 5, 6. Our need is desperate.

Believing that the Lord is indeed our Father, we come to Him, and find that His arms are stretched out to receive us. He says, "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you." Isa. lxvi. 13. What does this mean but that He will take us up in His arms? How else does a mother comfort her babes? When Jesus was on earth, He took up the little ones in His arms, and in so doing He was but manifesting the love and tenderness of the Father.

We are sadly battered and bruised by sin. But "He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows." "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed." Isa. liii. 4, 5. How blessed is the assurance that

"There is mercy with the Saviour;

There is healing in His blood."

"For the love of God is broader

Than the measure of man's mind;

And the heart of the Eternal

Is most wonderfully kind."

These things are real. They are not figures of speech. They are as real as God Himself. To doubt the reality of God's comfort, to doubt that "underneath are the everlasting arms," and that God does as really fold us in His embrace as the earthly father does his child, is to doubt the reality of the existence of God. We cannot know anything of God except as He reveals Himself to us. To doubt that He is just what He declares Himself to be, is to doubt that He exists at all. But in all His Word He has revealed Himself as the tender, pitying, loving Parent.

Let us then come to Him believing that He is, and that He delights in mercy. Then, having tasted that the Lord is precious, we shall say, "Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth; for Thy love is better than wine." Why not allow the Lord to be as real to us as He actually is?

"The Editor's Private Corner. Some Phases of the Sabbath Question" The Present Truth 19, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

THE "DISPENSATION" AND THE REIGN OF GRACE

"Is it not, according to the New Testament Scriptures, a fact that our Lord was in the tomb all the Jewish Sabbath? He had fulfilled every jot and tittle of the law, and by this He closed the old dispensation; and by rising on the first day of the week introduces a new dispensation, namely a reign of grace, and not law. 'Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.'" Rom. x. 4.

This question contains several common misapprehensions, which need to be considered in detail. We first note the reference to

"The Jewish Sabbath." -This is a term found not once in the entire Bible. The seventh day of the week, nowadays commonly called Saturday, which the Jews kept, and to some extent still keep, is declared to be "the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Ex. xx. 10. In the days when the Easter controversy was raging, the Emperor Constantine, who was a famous theological tinker, said: "Let us have nothing in common with the contemptible Jewish rabble," and so the festival was transferred from the time of the Passover, which might be any day of the weak, to Sunday. From that time, and even before, there has everywhere been a bitter prejudice against the Jews, which has extended to everything that they have had to do with-except money. So the Sabbath of the Lord came to be called in contempt "the Jewish Sabbath," the enemies of the truth well knowing that a contemptuous epithet will have more effect against a man or an institution than will a statement of fact.

If Christians would strictly confine themselves to Bible terms for Bible things, and would call the seventh day by its right name, "the Sabbath of the Lord," or "the Lord's day," it would not be as easy for them to pass it by. Many who never give a second thought to what they have called "the Jewish Sabbath," would feel very serious over trampling upon the Lord's "holy day." Isa. lviii. 13. The fact, however, that the Sabbath was kept by the Jews before any of the so called "Christian nations" were in existence, is nothing against it. Jesus Himself said, "Salvation is of the Jews." John iv. 22. Jesus was a Jew, brought up after the manner of the Jews. The news of His birth was first made known to Jewish shepherds, and it was Jewish fishermen whom He first sent out to preach. The whole Bible, with the exception of two books of the New Testament (if it be a fact that Luke was a Greek), and possibly one of the Old, was written by Jews. Shall we call it "the Jewish Gospel," "Jewish salvation," "the Jewish Bible," etc., and reject the whole thing?

"Jesus Fulfilled the Law." -The statement is that Jesus "had fulfilled every jot and tittle of the law." Good. We believe it, because He "did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." 1 Peter ii. 22. He said, "I delight to do Thy will, O My God, Yea, Thy law is within My heart." Ps. xl. 8. The common conclusion is that therefore we have nothing to do with the law. Let us see what that means: Jesus did a certain thing; therefore we must not do that thing. Jesus was baptized to "fulfil all righteousness" (Matt. iii. 15); therefore we must not be baptized, and must be on our guard against doing any righteousness. The argument, in short, is, "Avoid following the example of Jesus, as you would the pestilence." We wish everybody to see just what is involved in the argument that because Jesus kept the Sabbath and fulfilled every jot of the law, therefore we need not. All that it means is that we must not do as Jesus did. It may seem "absurd" to keep the Sabbath that Jesus kept; but this argument against it is a good deal worse than absurd. He left us an example, that we "should follow His steps." 1 Peter ii. 21. "He that saith He abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk even as He walked." 1 John ii. 6. Christ fulfilled the law, "that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Rom. viii. 4. What propriety is there in people calling themselves Christians, and repudiating the ways of Christ? "Why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" Luke vi. 46.

"A New Dispensation." -The statement is that Christ by rising on the first day of the week "introduces a new dispensation-namely, a reign of grace." We call attention, in passing, to the fact that our correspondent makes this statement as confidently as though it were a Scripture truth, as he no doubt thinks it is, without stopping to hunt for or quote the authority for it. It ought to be understood that in a matter of this kind every statement that is made should have the fullest warrant of Scripture, and that warrant should be given; for a man's assertions count for nothing. But now as to the matter of "dispensations." It would be well here, also, if people would confine themselves to Scripture terms. If they did, no such words as "old dispensation," or "new dispensation" would ever be seen or heard. The Greek word where we have "dispensation" occurs but seven times in the Bible, three of these being Luke xvi. 2, 3, 4, where it is rendered, as it should always be, "stewardship." The Apostle Paul says, "A dispensation of the Gospel is committed unto me." 1 Cor. ix. 17. The words "of the Gospel" are added by the translators, so that we have the exact rendering in the Revision, "I have a stewardship entrusted to me." So has every man who has received the grace of God. 1 Peter iv. 10.

But the common idea that there are various "dispensations," in the sense that God deals with men differently during one period of time from what He does during another period, is utterly unscriptural, and most dishonouring to God. The terms, "patriarchal dispensation," "Levitical dispensation," "Christian dispensation," are absolutely destitute of meaning. "I am the Lord, I change not," says God. Mal.

516

iii. 6. Jesus Christ is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." Heb. xiii. 8. With God "is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." James i. 17. All the people that have ever lived on the earth shall at the last day stand together before the Judgment seat; what a spectacle it would then be, if God should divide the multitude into sections, according to the age in which they lived, and judge one by one standard and another by another, so that one man would be condemned in a course that another would be justified in pursuing! Think you that every mouth would be stopped in such a case? Would there not be many complaints of unfairness and partiality? But this matter of dispensations will appear in still clearer light as we consider the statement that the "new dispensation," supposed to have begun at the resurrection of Christ, is

"A Reign of Grace-and Not Law." -If this means anything, it means that before the resurrection of Christ there was no grace for mankind; but God lived before that time, and if there were no grace it was only because He was not gracious. Who dare say it in that way? Who dare bring each a charge against God? When people lightly use terms coined by men, without thinking of their meaning, they often say things that they would not if they gave heed to their words. It is well to have these statements analysed. We repeat: The statement that at the resurrection of Christ "a new dispensation-namely, a reign of grace," began, is the same as saying that before that time there was no grace-that God was not gracious. Now let us see the facts in the case.

Hundreds of years before the resurrection, the psalmist wrote: "The Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give-grace and glory." Ps. lxxxiv. 11. And again: "For Thou, Lord, art good and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon Thee." Ps. lxxxvi. 5. Solomon wrote that God "giveth grace unto the lowly." Prov. iii. 34. Again: "The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion." Ps. cxi. 4.

Nehemiah prayed to God, saying: "Thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness." Neh. ix. 17. For this he had the warrant of God Himself, who revealed Himself to Moses by name as "The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, and forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin." Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7.

Take particular notice that this was at the very time of the giving of the law. So the reign of grace was in progress then. Indeed, the case is even stronger, for we read that "the law entered that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: that as sin had reigned unto death even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. v. 20, 21. If there were any such thing as the beginning of the reign of God's grace, one might from the hasty reading of this text conclude that it began at the giving of the law on Sinai. But although grace reigned there, it did not begin even there; the giving of the law simply made the already existing grace to abound. "Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid." Gal. iii. 21.

Moreover the grace was not limited. God said by Isaiah, "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else." Isa. xlv. 22. God preached the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, "In thee shall all nations be blessed." Gal, iii. 8. And this Gospel which was preached to Abraham was identical with the Gospel that Paul preached; for there is but one. Gal. i. 6-8. The "blessing of Abraham" comes on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ (Gal. iii. 13, 14); and that blessing was the blessing of cleansing from sin. Rom. iv. 6-9. We see, therefore, that the reign of grace is not only compatible with Sabbath-keeping, but that the proclaiming of the law of the Sabbath even made grace to abound. God was just as good and kind and merciful in the days of Moses as He is to-day.

A Counter Charge. -Now we wish especial attention to be given to this charge which we bring against the Sunday. Everybody knows that the statement that we are not under the law, but under grace, and that a change from law to grace began at the resurrection of Christ, is the great argument for Sunday observance. Nobody ever seeks to uphold Sunday observance without repeating it. Without this, Sunday-keeping would have no excuse for existence, for nobody is so foolish as to believe that it dates from before Christ. But we have already shown that the statement that grace began at the resurrection of Christ, and effected a change in the law, is the same as to say that God was not gracious before that time, and that therefore there was no salvation, which is contrary to the Bible, and a libel on God's character. So then, the Sunday can exist as a supposedly "Christian institution" only by directly denying the unchangeability of God's righteousness, and the grace of Christ the eternal Son of God; in short, by denying the Gospel. We do not by any means say that Sunday observers intend to do this; far from it; but by the use of unscriptural terms which have no meaning, and of scriptural expressions without thinking of their meaning, they unconsciously deny the very first principles of the Gospel. Sunday is anti-Christian, and just to the extent that it is defended is the everlasting Gospel of God's grace denied.

"The Bible Class. Strength Out of Weakness. Heb. vii. 14-19" The Present Truth 19, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

(Heb. vii. 14-19.)

"It is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedek there ariseth another priest, who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek. For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God."

One of the most comforting and encouraging expressions in the Bible is this, spoken of those who had received a good report through faith: "out of weakness were made strong." A similar one is found in Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians, "My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in weakness." This thought is really the keynote of the seventh chapter of Hebrews. It is true that on the surface the chapter seems to be almost devoted to different orders of priests, or to what is commonly known as differences in dispensations; but a deeper study reveals the fact that all this is for the purpose of emphasising the fact that God deals with individuals, and not with "the masses." If we read the chapter merely to get argument concerning the "Mosaic dispensation" and the "Christian dispensation," we shall get little good; but if we read it to learn the way of personal holiness, we shall find abundant instruction.

Our Lord sprang out of Judah; of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood. This does not indicate that the priesthood now pertains to the tribe of Judah, as it formerly pertained to Levi. Quite the contrary. The fact that Christ came from a tribe of which nothing had been said concerning priesthood, shows that one tribe has just as much claim on the priesthood as another; that the true priesthood takes no account of tribal relations.

The seventeenth verse reveals to us the secret of the difference between the two kinds of priests. One was "after the law of a carnal commandment;" the other was "after the power of an endless life." But "the flesh profiteth nothing;" therefore the law of the Levitical priesthood, and consequently the priesthood itself, profited nothing. It, as well as the law that made was weak and unprofitable. Perfection cannot be wrought by that which is itself imperfect. Now perfection is the sole object to be attained in the Christian life, and therefore a priesthood that falls short of perfection fails utterly of its object.

In the eleventh verse we have read: "If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedek?" That is to say, Perfection was not by the Levitical priesthood, and therefore there was need for another priest, and there is perfection by Christ. Now let us frame the complement of the question asked in verse eleven: "Since perfection was by the Melchisedek priesthood, there was no need for another priesthood after the order of Aaron." This becomes the more evident when we remember that the Levitical priesthood was later than the Melchisedek priesthood, and was imperfect. Surely, when there was a perfect priest, there was no need of an imperfect priesthood.

Why, then was the Levitical priesthood established, and that under God's direction?-It was an object lesson, teaching by contraries. That arrangement was simply a limb on which the people caught when they fell from the place that God designed that they should stand on. He would have them all priests through keeping His covenant,-the covenant which He made with Abraham,-the covenant of faith; but they did not believe. They trusted in themselves for righteousness, instead of in God; and God gave them a priesthood corresponding to the promises in which they trusted for salvation.

It is God alone that can work in men that which is good; and He does it through Jesus Christ, the one Mediator between God and men. Christ is the means of bringing God's righteousness to us, and working it in us; and since we have all sinned, it becomos necessary, to the establishment of this righteousness, for sin to be removed. So His work as royal priest of righteousness consists for a time in the propitiation for sin. That is, as sin is removed by the putting of righteousness in its place, it follows that the work of making reconciliation for the sins of the people is in reality the same as the ministering of righteousness to people who have not sinned, or who have been saved from sin. In a word sin must be removed by the same power that works righteousness. Now since the children of Israel, unmindful of Abraham's experience, trusted in the flesh for the keeping of the law, it was wholly in keeping that they should have a priesthood after the law of a carnal commandment. They had the task before them of lifting themselves up by the same means that caused their fall, and it was a hopeless one; but the very hopelessness of it was calculated to lead them to turn to the perfect way.

This way was Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, tasted death for every man. Through the Spirit He is given to every man, that all may be delivered from sin and death. He is a merciful and faithful high priest, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people; but every man's sin is in his own body. Each individual has the plague in his own heart, and consequently it is there that the cleansing and the reconciliation must be accomplished. So Christ, who is made a "quickening Spirit," ministers in every heart that will accept His ministration. "The Word [Christ] is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it." Deut. xxx. 14. Compare Rom. x. 6-8. God is "able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" (Eph. iii. 20), and that power that worketh in us is "the power of an endless life." We are weak, even weakness itself; but eternal life is able to perfect strength out of this weakness. This is done, not by our using the means of strength, but by the means using us.

Every man has by nature a law working sin in his members, and, if he does not know the Lord, this law brings him into captivity to sin, and holds him there. Rom vii. 23. It was with this "carnal commandment" that the Jews thought to make themselves righteous, and not they only, but everybody who has a mind to do right, but does not know and trust in the Divine power. Of course it is a dismal failure. But those who are in Christ Jesus are made "free from the law of sin and death." That the righteousness of the law of God may be fulfilled in them. In other words, "There is a disannulling of a foregoing commandment, because of its weakness and unprofitableness, and the bringing in [even into our flesh] thereupon of a better hope, through which we draw nigh unto God." The blood, the life, of Christ makes us nigh to God, because it gives to us His own nature. And we know that this Divine power can bring strength out of our weakness, because it made a perfect man in the beginning out of the dust of the earth.

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

Hannah was a woman of Israel who was very sad because she had no little children. Many times she asked God to give her a son. She promised that she would give him back to God to be His servant.

One day when Hannah stood at the door of the tabernacle weeping and praying, Eli, the high priest, saw her. He did not know she was praying, but thought she had been drinking too much wine. So he spoke sharply to her.

Hannah told Eli that she was not drunken, but that she was telling God of her trouble. Then Eli was sorry for his mistake. He told Hannah to go in peace, and God would give her what she had asked for. Hannah believed his words and she went away very happy.

The little son that God gave Hannah she named Samuel, which means, Asked of God. As soon as the child was old enough to leave her, she took him to the house of God. She told Eli that God had given her the child she had prayed for, and she had brought him to give, him to the Lord.

Samuel was left at the tabernacle with Eli and he had work to do in God's house. Once a year his mother came to see him, and brought him a little linen robe to wear in the tabernacle.

Samuel waited on Eli, who was a very old man. He was obedient and attentive to Eli, and did his work faithfully. One night God called him by his name and spoke to him, and gave him a message for Eli.

Samuel grew up to be a great and good man. He was a prophet of God, and judge of Israel.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

A new rifle with which the United States Army is to be shortly equipped is said to have an effective range of five miles and to be the lightest rifle ever devised.

Recent returns show that of the eighteen and a half million inhabitants of Spain, nearly twelve millions cannot read. It will be remembered in this connection that Spain has always been most devotedly Roman Catholic.

On the seventh ballot in the Conclave, Cardinal Sarto, Archbishop of Venice, was chosen Pope. The new Pontiff is said to be "a really religious Pope," and has taken the title of Plus X.

At the half-yearly meeting of the Metropolitan Railway Company, the chairman stated that from the opening of the railway in 1863 until June 30 last, 2,602,000,000 passengers had been carried, without the loss of a single life through causes for which the company was responsible. This is an average of 65,050,000 passengers a year; but the number carried last year was over 90,000,000.

It has long been held that eucalyptus trees are a specific against malaria, and that they will make a malarious locality healthy. The Director of Kew Gardens, Sir W. T. Thiestelton Dyer, says that this is altogether a fallacy, and that "experience has shown that it rather increased than diminished the malaria by, as is now understood, affording shelter to the Anopheles [a species of mosquito] which carries it."

A telegram from Port Arthur says that reports have been received there from Chifu of serious floods due to heavy rain. The town was inundated by the masses of water pouring down from the mountains, and many houses were destroyed and bridges swept away. Many persons were carried away by the flood and drowned. Altogether over 700 persons perished, and more than 2,000 are without means of subsistence.

The Daily Chronicle says that although Cardinal Serto's sermons have been a notable feature of his work in Venice, "as Supreme Pontiff, Plus X. is traditionally debarred from occupying the pulpit. In the last four centuries only one sermon has been preached by a Pope, and then merely as a stop-gap." Thus we have another proof that the Pope is not a representative of Christ, who "preached righteousness in the great congregation."

According to official statistics recently published, insanity is on the increase in Berlin. The popuation of the city has increased two per cent. in the past year, while insanity has increased six per cent. The German Association for the Investigation of Mental Diseases recently reported that intemperance was the most prolific cause of insanity in Germany. It is stated that seventy-three per cent, of all cases of mental disorder under treatment in the State Institutions are due to drink.

"The spirit of the truest science," said a scientist recently, "is humility." Very good, and very true; and that shows that the truest science is true religion; for "God giveth grace unto the humble." The truest science is evidently to know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge;" and this is obtained only through humility, because God dwells with the man that is humble and of a contrite spirit.

A steady increase has recently been noted in the consumption of snuff, showing that the filthy habit is again coming into fashion. It is said that the snuff-taking habit is cultivated by all classes of society, high and low alike. This news is by no means reassuring, for snuff is probably the most injurious form in which tobacco can be taken, since the fine particles of poison quickly destroy the sensitiveness of the mucous membrane, with which they come directly in contact. As to the uncleanness of the habit, that is proverbial.

The Director-General of the Army Medical Service has prepared a memorandum on the physical unfitness of men offering themselves for the army, which shows that of 679,703 recruits medically examined during the ten years 1893-1902, more than thirty-four per cent., or 234,914 were rejected as unfit for service, 5,849 broke down within three months, and 14,259 were discharged as invalids under two years' service. That is certainly not a flattering report, nor a promising outlook for the health of the nation.

The accounts that are given of the various tastes of the cardinals assembled for the Conclave, are called "amusing," but it must be a thoughtless mind that can see anything amusing in the fact that "princes of the church," met together to select a head, cannot get along without full provision for the indulgence of depraved appetite. We are told that "the Spanish prelates were dismayed because no room was provided for their incessant cigarette smoking," and so decided to smoke wherever they pleased. "A tun of old French wine has been laid in for the French cardinals; the Austrians have brought their own favourite Tokay; and Cardinal Gibbons remains faithful to his whisky and soda." It is plain that the spirit that is active in the selection of the Pope is quite different from the Holy Spirit.

Some time ago a London magistrate told a litigant who pleaded for justice, that people came to courts to get the law, and not justice. That the law as well as justice is in danger of being dispensed with is evident from the following paragraph from the Law Magazine:-

"That with our present police system, and our present system of Crown counsel and solicitors, the chances of detection and conviction are greatly increased is evident. Indeed, so much State aid is now given to the prosecution, while little or none is given to the defence, that the evil to be guarded against is rather the conviction of the innocent than the escape of the guilty."

This agrees exactly with the inspired description of the time just before the Lord arises to judgment: "Judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off; for truth is fallen in the streets, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey."

There are 175,000 persons employed in making cigars in Germany.

Over forty-one million pictorial postcards were delivered by the Swedish postoffice last year.

It is now admitted that the drug habit in the United States is almost as widely spread as the habit of taking alcohol in various forms. Indeed, almost all of the patent medicines that are so largely advertised as cures for indigestion and dyspepsia contain a large proportion of alcohol. No less than 50 per cent. of the crime in the smaller towns of America is credited to the use of drugs, such as cocaine. The Medical Press sounds a warning in regard to the prevalence of this habit in this country, and calls upon Parliament to insist upon the detailed statements of the ingredients of these patent medicines being set forth on the labels. This would certainly prevent temperance people from taking alcohol unwittingly; but it would have no dint on others. The evil will go on as long as people depend for health on poisonous drugs, instead of on right habits of living.

We have previously noted the fact, reported by Dr. T. W. Blake, of Bournemouth, that a chemically-manufactured substitute for suger, imported from Germany, is being sold for real sugar. Dr. Blake was led to the discovery of the fraud by his bees. He states that the morning after feeding a swarm of bees with the supposed sugar he found 300 dead and dying bees near the entrance to the hive, and a second feeding resulted in further deaths. He thinks that this throws light on the problem of the increased infant mortality from disarrhoea and enteritis. This metallic-dressed sugar, he has no doubt, has killed more babies than bees. And this, in turn, has an important bearing on the question of physical degeneracy, that is now so much discussed. If the mothers had sufficient vitality to feed their babies naturally, as was done almost universally thirty or forty years ago, this infant mortality would almost wholly be avoided.

When Pius IX. died in 1878, the Church Times declared that the death of a Pope had ceased to be a matter of much concern to the world at large, for the Papacy had worn itself out. On the morning of the day on which the recent Conclave opened, however, the same paper said: "The Pope who will be raised to the throne of Peter by the suffrages of the aged Prelates shut up within the walls of the Vatican Palace to-day, will exercise a spiritual dominion wider and to all appearances not less assured than that wielded by Hildebrand or Innocent III." This may be taken as showing growth in the Roman Catholic Church; but more than this, it indicates a wondrous change in the sentiments of non-Catholics towards Rome. The Catholic Times refers to the highly eulogistic notices of Leo XIII. that have appeared in Protestant journals, and says: "It may, we think, be confidently asserted that his policy has smoothed the way to the open acceptance of the Catholic Church by the whole world as the moral standard for humanity. Such she has been in fact at all periods during her history, but non-Catholics have never been so ready to avow this as they are at the present moment." These professed Protestants do not know what they are doing in exalting the Papacy as they have been; but the Roman Catholic Church knows full well, and will use its knowledge to the utmost advantage for itself.

"Kings and Priests of Righteousness" The Present Truth 19, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

Kings and Priests of Righteousness. -The Apostle John's ascription of praise is "unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God." That is, every soul that has been cleansed from sin by the precious blood of Christ, is by the power of the redemption which is in Christ Jesus made a king and a priest.

With this agree the words of the Apostle Peter. He says that coming to Christ, we "are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." Thus we become "a royal priesthood, an holy nation" to show forth the praises of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvellous light. 1 Peter ii. 5, 9.

This is the true Christian priesthood, the priesthood "after the order of Melchisedek;" for he was king of righteousness and priest of the Most High God. He was a royal priest. He was priest with the power of his authority as king. Christ, our High Priest, is a priest upon the throne of God (compare Zech. vi. 12, 13, and Heb. viii. 1), the power of His priesthood being that of the throne of grace on which He sits. It is a living throne, God is a living God, from everlasting to everlasting, and His kingdom ruleth over all. So Christ is priest "according to the power of an endless life." It is by His righteous life that we are saved.

From this we learn what a high position God calls His people to; for God is only first among many brethren. He was made in all things like unto His brethren, in order that His brethren might be made in all things like Him; and He, the man Christ Jesus, has gone into the heavens for us, as a sample of the general harvest, a pledge that all His brethren will be worthy to reign in light.

The duty of a priest is to procure righteousness for those for whom he ministers. We are made in Christ "a royal priesthood," and the kingdom in which we reign is "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." So we are made kings of righteousness; that is, we are given power through faith to work righteousness; and the positive assurance that we may have power to do righteousness is the fact that God has chosen us to be His ministers, priests, to impart it to others.

"The Light of Life" The Present Truth 19, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

These are indeed most literally the days of light in the department of medicine. More and more physicians are discovering that for whatever disease the ignorance and perverseness of man may introduce, God has beforehand provided the remedy. Even with the present fearful spread of disease of all kinds, and the degeneracy of the human system, if all men would but turn from their diseaes-producing habits, and would make use of God's remedies, disease might be overcome in the earth. The following from the Daily Chronicle of July 6 is interesting, not only as showing the possibility of curing cancer, but as a new revelation of the wondrous power of light, and a suggestion that infinitely more power still lies hidden, ready to serve those who can appreciate it:-

"Only a few weeks after the prediction in these columns that accessible cancers might be caused to yield to tedium, comes our Vienna Correspondent's message of the cure of twenty-two cases of this terrible disease. Cancer is definitely and rapidly on the increase in all civilised countries. Its causation is still absolutely unknown, and though proof of its infectiousness-and therefore presumption that it is due to a germ-is steadily accumulating, the morbific agent is as yet unfound. The first epoch in the cure of canoer-however it be caused-was marked when the Rontgen rays, some years ago, cured a rodent ulcer. That cure is now a commonplace. The characteristic of the rodent ulcer is that it is the most superficial form of cancer, and hopes that Rontgen rays might be caused to penetrate to other forms, unfortunately far more common, have been utterly falsified. Electricity, also, so cruelly boomed of late, has conspicuously failed, and until Saturday's message matters seemed at a standstill.

"Some months ago we observed that there must be a form of "gap" radiation somewhere between ordinary light and the Rontgen rays, and we suggested that might be found to possess the necessary penetrative power. Radium-already surpassing all other known substances in theoretical interest-has now been found to give off these rays. The case of blank or melanotic sarcoma cured by radium in Vienna belongs to the most deadly of all malignant growths. Hitherto no case of melanotic sarcoma has ever been cured, either by the knife or any other means. We have now entered a second epoch, wherein a cure may be expected of any form of accessible cancer. The third will arrive when internal cancers can be attacked. The theory of cure is simplicity itself. Cancer cells, differing from healthy cells in their life history, must necessarily differ in chemistry. It only remained to find an agent which so disturbed their chemistry as to kill them, whilst leaving normal cells untouched. Radium rays exert this selective action, long sought in drugs, in formaline, in cancer-serums, and so forth."

It is certainly significant, and worthy of thought, that it is from "the Father of lights "that every good and perfect gift comes. Who can estimate the wondrous things that would be enjoyed by men if they only all and always walked in the light? God has given us the Spirit of light to turn us from darkness to light; shall we not allow His light and His truth to lead us, and guide us to His holy habitation?

"Papal Progress" The Present Truth 19, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

Considerable prominence is given in all the dispatches from Rome, and in all the descriptions of the new Pope, to the fact that he is non-political, that he is not given to pomp and ceremony, and that he is "a simple man of God," devoted to the cause of religion; that as Archbishop of Venice he has been affable, easy of access, and has insisted on instruction in the Gospel being given to the people, in language that they can understand. All this is good, and we can believe that he is personally a pious man; but there is one thing that overtops all these things, and that is that he is Pope. The better man he is, the more it is to be regretted that he takes a position that is itself a denial of Christ. For example, take the following sentence in one of the dispatches of Rome: "At ten o'clock this morning the third Adoration by the members of the Sacred College was held in the Sistine Chapel," where the Cardinals assembled to do the new Pope homage. He who is highest in Christ's church is servant of all, and none are to be lords. The Papal system is wholly wrong, wholly opposed to the teaching of Christ; and it is absolutely impossible for even the best of men to do right by wrong methods. If an angel from heaven were to come to earth and were to teach or practise anything contrary to the Scriptures, he would thereby bring himself under the curse. Gal. i. 8.

In this connection it is worth while to note further how Roman Catholics regard the present position of Protestants. The Catholic Times, in an editorial article, Aug 7, says:-

"Amongst the Protestants of the West the voice of press and people has unmistakably designated the pope as the Father of the Faithful, Catholic and Protestant alike. That is a wonderful step in advance, especially when we consider the bickering, grudging, or directly hostile expressions previously used by Protestants towards Roman Pontiffs as critical moments ever since the sixteenth century. We have but to turn to the English and American newspapers, and in them we find admissions by Protestants as to the power of the Church and the unequalled influence of the Holy See, and eulogies of the work of the lets Pontiff as frank and as glowing as any Catholic could write."

Can we not see in this a long stride towards the fulfilment of Rev. xiii. 8?

August 20, 1903

"Adam's First Lesson" The Present Truth 19, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

The work of the six days was ended. Adam had been brought into existence on the sixth day. He had gazed with wonder and reverence on the wonderful works of God. He had been introduced to the members of the animal creation. A help-meet for himself had been provided. Then the dominion over all was given to Adam. "Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet." Ps. viii. 5, 6.

It was an enormous responsibility that was laid upon Adam, but he was not expected to bear it in himself. He was not to worry about the future, or to feel anxious or perplexed as to his success. The very first thing the Lord called upon him to do was to rest. Although he was not yet twenty-four hours old, Adam was to spend the whole of the next day in rest. The Lord "rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it." Gen. ii. 2, 3. God could not have sanctified, or set apart, the seventh day without making it known to Adam.

What a Sabbath that must have been for Adam! To look upon the earth in its perfect beauty, fresh from the hand of God, to behold His works, and hold communion with God Himself and heavenly angels, was a privilege such as our minds cannot grasp. Although Adam had received dominion over all, he was doing nothing to contribute to the perfect work, beyond being what God had made him. Not a single flower, or animal, or creeping thing owed anything to his care. The world was absolutely perfect, so perfect that there was no room for improvement, and its Maker delighted in His work. The fact that Adam was now called to spend his first entire day in rest was to teach him that he was not expected to carry the burden, that all things could be beautiful and perfect without his moving a finger, and that he was to cast the whole burden of his position on the Lord.

Adam was also to learn for himself on that Sabbath day that the God who had made him "very good" was able to keep him so, without Adam's contributing anything to the goodness. Adam's part was to rest in the Lord and allow full and free play to the power which had done its perfect work. As long as he should "remember the Sabbath day," Adam would understand his true relation to God, and would continue to rest in Him. But Adam and Eve forgot that Sabbath day and its lesson. Satan tempted them to think that by taking the course he advised, they would do better for themselves than God had done for them, and that they would become as gods. They believed the lie. They forgot that God's work was perfect, and that they could not improve on it. They thought to better their position, an

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they fell. If they had remembered the Sabbath day, they would not have fallen.

Now, if we are to reverse their fall, in our own experience, we must not repeat their mistake. We must "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Then we shall understand that we can do nothing for ourselves, and that it is God alone who can make us holy, as He made Adam in the beginning, and only He who can keep us holy. "Moreover also I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." Eze. xx. 12.

Satan tempted Adam and Eve to forget the Sabbath, and in order that he might obliterate the knowledge of the Sabbath and so ensure that men should not remember it, he has caused the church of which he gained control, to transfer the weekly rest day from the seventh to the first that Satan desires in this way to break the connection between us and the power that was revealed in making a perfect man, at the beginning. But God has caused light to shine upon Satan's work, and He is calling men back to worship Him in spirit and truth, and to enter into His rest. The observance of the first day, in its very nature, represents the error of substituting man's work for God's. The observance of the seventh day, in spirit and truth, stands for faith in God's finished work, in His creating and redeeming power, and for the ceasing from our own works. Heb. iv. 3, 4, 10. Therefore "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy."

"The Editor's Private Corner. 'For Ever and Ever'" The Present Truth 19, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

"I believe that the wages of sin is death, but certain texts of Scripture have confused me for a long time; and I should be thankful if you would take the trouble to enlighten me. They are Rev. xiv. 11; Rev. xx. 10; Rev. xix. 3; and Isa. xxxiv. 10."

The Scriptures themselves contain the enlightenment that you desire, and it is a pleasure and not a trouble to me to bring it to you. First, however, we must have the words of the texts themselves before us. Here they are in the order given above:-

"And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever; and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name."

"And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone for ever and ever."

The next one refers to the great harlot, Babylon, saying, "And her smoke rose up for ever and ever."

The fourth is concerning "a great slaughter in the land of Idumea." In "the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion," when "the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever; from generation to generation it shall be waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever."

You cannot fail to notice that all of these texts have reference to the same event-the punishment of the wicked; and before paying any attention to the use of the term for ever, or for ever and ever the proper thing to do is to have clearIy in mind some of the explicit Scripture statements as to the fate of the wicked. Here are a few:-

"The wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs; they shall consume, into smoke shall they consume away." Ps. xxxvii 20.

"The day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." "And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts." Mal. iv. 1, 3.

"He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to hear; He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire; whose fan is in His hand, and He will throughly purge His floor, and gather the wheat into His garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Matt. iii. 11, 12.

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"And they shall be as though they had not been." Obadiah 16.

"For evil-doers shall be cut off; but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be; yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be." Ps. xxxvii. 9, 10.

Many more of the same nature might be added, but these are sufficient, especially since you already believe that the end of the wicked is death. The question then resolves itself into this: Since the wicked are to be out off, and be as though they had not been, how can it be said that they shall be tormented for ever and ever, and that the smoke of their torment shall ascend for ever and ever?

Of one thing we are sure, and that is that the Bible does not contradict itself. Every word is sure. This being fixed, goes a long way toward settling the question. Then we are shut up to the conclusion that for ever and ever must sometimes mean less than endless; and this we shall find to be the case.

In the twenty-first chapter of Exodus we find certain regulations for the children of Israel in the land of Canaan, and the first is concerning servants. The rule was that an Hebrew servant should serve six years, and in the seventh year he should go out free, for nothing. But if the servant had been given a wife by his master, he could not take her with him when he received his freedom, but must go out by himself. If, however, the servant should say, "I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free," then the rule was this: "His master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through wills an aul; and he shall serve him for ever." Ex. xxi. 1-6.

Here we have the same term applied to the time of service by a servant. Under certain conditions the servant was to serve his master for ever; yet we know that he could not serve him longer than the term of his natural life. Nobody who began to serve in the days of Moses is still in service. So we see that while "for ever" may, and commonly does, mean without end, it often is limited, meaning only as long as the person or thing spoken of could naturally exist.

We have but to note the context of Isa. xxxiv. 10, to see that this is the case in the judgment upon the wicked. Read the first portion of the chapter, and you will see that the judgment spoken of is upon the whole earth. Idumea is used to represent the earth. It is the judgment of the last day. Now we have to read no further than the next chapter, to find that there will come a time when the land will be inhabited again: "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God." "Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing; for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water." We also read of the new earth, when God says, "Behold, I make all things new." Rev. xxi. 1-5.

The wicked are to be cast into "unquenchable fire," into fire "that never shall be quenched." Now what's the natural, inevitable result to any person or thing when cast into the fire, if left there, and the fire is not put out? You have no hesitation in saying, "to be burned up-utterly consumed." That is just what the Bible says of the wicked. The fire into which they will be cast will not be quenched, and since they are but chaff and stubble, they "burn up," and are as though they had not been. Then when there is nothing more for the devouring flames to feed on, they will go out of themselves. This often happens in the case of houses that take fire, and the flames cannot be quenched by the firemen. When the firemen see that they cannot save the building, they turn their attention to saving surrounding buildings, knowing full well that the fire will go out when the house is consumed. So though the destruction of the wicked will undoubtedly cover a long period, the time will at last certainly come when the last sinner, and finally even the devil himself, will be consumed, and then the fire will give place to the reviving, healing beams of "the Sun of righteousness."

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

The drop of apples, plums and pears in Kent is much below a quarter of the average. The oldest growers cannot recall a season so bad as the present.

Martinique has been visited by a violent cyclons lasting five hours. Thousands have been rendered homeless, but no loss of life is reported. There has also been a cyclone at Dover, which has done much damage. Violent shocks of earthquake are reported from Italy.

Russia is consolidating her position in Korea in spite of Japanese protests. She has obtained a concession of three hundred acres, and this has been officially confirmed. In China a Russian Viceroy has been appointed over the Amur and Kwantung Districts. It becomes more and more evident that Russia has not the least idea of relaxing her hold on the Far East.

A terrible disaster has occurred on a tube railway in Paris. An electric train caught fire in a tunnel, and the thick smoke suffocated eighty-four persons, many of whom must have perished under most agonising conditions. One sad feature of the catastrophe is that if the people had made their way out of the station at once, very few lives would have been lost, but numbers of the passengers were so intent on getting back the three-half-pence they had paid for their fares that they did not realise their awful danger till it was too late, and they were enveloped in the suffocating smoke.

Macedonia is plunged into misery. The insurgent bands are destroying villages and crops, hoping to compel the populace to join them. The Turkish troops are unable to bring the insurgents to battle, but to show their zeal, they are destroying peaceful villages under the pretence that they are combating the uprising. The irregular troops rob and murder without discrimination wherever they find a chance. The insurgents are making the situation as bad as possible in the hope that the Great Powers will be forced to intervene and release the country from Turkish rule.

There is a possibility that the "Great Closed Land" of Thibet will shortly be opened for the entrance of the Gospel. The Indian Government has sent a Mission to negotiate for the opening up of trade relations between the two countries, and the expedition is already on the border. The Gospel of the Kingdom is to go into all the world for a witness to all nations before the end comes (Matt. xxiv. 14), and because this is so even the long-standing and seemingly impenetrable exclusiveness of Thibet must give way to admit the Word of God. Back of earthly schemes for extending trade and territory is God's purpose to make the Gospel known in all the earth. The last barriers between the nations are being broken down that the final fall may be given quickly to every nation and kindred and tongue and people. Rev. xlv. 6, 7.

Australia is passing a Defence Bill which makes military service compulsory, but exempts those who have "conscientious scruples against war in the abstract."

Jamaica has been swept by a terrific cyclone which has destroyed property to the amount of two millions, and caused many deaths. Thousands of homes have been laid waste. The banana crop in the eastern part of the island has been entirely destroyed, and it will be several months before Jamaica can recover from the catastrophe.

There is a prospect that the great railways will not leave the motor-car to their rivals, but will themselves undertake to run cars in sparsely populated districts. The Great Northern Railway is building cars to hold about forty passengers, and expects to run these in country districts at less cost than by ordinary train.

There has been serious rioting in Russia in connection with labour troubles. In the town of Nikolaieff the soldiers fired several volleys into a body of ten thousand strikers, killing twenty and wounding several hundreds. The strikers are vowing vengeance on the troops, and the outlook is dark. "The central administrations in the large industrial towns over a large area are completely at a loss how to deal effectively with the present labour rising, which is undoubtedly the best organised and most dangerous that Russian bureaucracy has hitherto had to deal with." The same thing is reported from Odessa, where a strike, "probably the largest over known in Russia, and the first legally recognised," has just been terminated by the appointment of a commission to consider the complaints. This is the first time the Unions have triumphed In Russia, and it is expected that it will begin a new era in the history of the country. The masses of Russia are learning their strength, and it is not likely that they will be as submissive in the future as they have been.

The Royal Commission on Alien Immigration has furnished its report and makes some very drastic recommendations for the treatment of pauper foreigners landing in England. If these are carried out a Department of Immigration will be charged with the supervision of the Immigrants, and where the alien is of bad character he can be prevented from landing and be sent back to his own country at the expense of the shipping company which has brought him. Any alien who is proved to be living in crime, or who becomes a charge on the public funds, or who has no visible means of support, within two years of his arrival, will be liable to expulsion at the cost of the shipping company which brought him over. Those chargeable on the community for ill-health are excepted. A serious attempt is to be made to grapple with the problem of overcrowding caused by the influx of aliens. If an area is already congested, power is to be given to prohibit altogether the entrance of an alien in this country if the proposals of the report are carried out, he will have to be registered, when he must give his intended place of residence, and thereafter for two years notify any change of residence. Should he enter one of the prohibited areas he will be removed, and will be liable to punishment for a criminal offence. Power is to be given to our criminal courts when an alien is convincted of any serious criminal offence to order his withdrawal from the country as part of the sentence. If he remains in defiance of this order he will be liable to treatment as a rogue and a vagabond.

Fashionable society in Halifax, Nova Scotia, has been disturbed by the charge made by a clergyman in its most fashionable church, that "ladies who come to church and approach Holy Communion with the appearance of sincerity and humiliation, went on the golf links next day and swore like trooper's." But what else is to be expected from "fashionable society"? Doubtless it was consistent enough, and went to church on Sunday and more on Monday because both were fashionable. To be in the fashion is the one rule of life for many people, and a "fashionable church" is the greatest possible aid in the stifling of conscience.

The Methodist Times, writing of the impression that their colleges were more anxious to make scholars than preachers, says that "any notion that too much is made of the education of the candidates cannot outlive the plain statement that what is required in fact (and even that subject to the consideration of special cases) is a degree of general knowledge equal to getting half the marks in such a paper as would be set to Board School children in the seventh standard plus a fair acquaintance with the English Bible. We believe that failure in this examination is most common in the knowledge of the Bible. Now, if a young man, who has for some time been an accepted local preacher, has contemplated entering the ministry, and has been preparing himself for it to the best of his ability is ignorant of his Bible, the defect is not a merely intellectual one; it must usually arise from a want of the moral sense of the responsibility of the vocation to which he looks. Culture may, if he have gifts and character, be acquired afterwards; but to fail in an ordinary text in the knowledge of Scripture is a failure which no mere exhorting power can excuse in an aspirant to the Christian ministry."

It cannot be expected that local preachers, who contemplate entering the ministry, will give themselves very much to the study of the Bible until the ministers themselves show it greater honour. As long as they teach that human scholarship and wisdom are competent to set aside portions of the Word, men will naturally pay more attention to the criticism than to the discredited Scriptures. There is so much to read that students cannot afford time for a book that is out of date. Many of the very men commissioned to preach the Word have betrayed their trust, and the result is seen in young men proposing to enter the ministry who are comparatively ignorant of the Word of God. They have been trained into an entirely wrong conception of Christian ministry.

"How We Live" The Present Truth 19, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

It is time there was a decided change in the usual method of treating disease. People almost invariably fly to drugs for relief from their complaints, but this resource is not only useless, it is actually dangerous. A writer in the Church Family Newspaper says:-

It has long been admitted in the United States that the drug habit is almost as widely spread as the habit of taking alcohol in various forms. No less than 50 per cent. of the crime in the smaller towns of America is credited to the use of drugs such as cocaine. The Medical Press has been sounding a warning about the prevalence of the same demoralising habit in this country. The so-called patent medicines are too often heavily charged with drugs, and once the habit of taking them is formed it is exceedingly difficult to break it.

This may explain why there is such a large consumption of patent medicines in England, and it is certainly a strong cautionj against ever beginning to use them. Natural remedies, such as the proper use of air, light and water, will quickly relieve all common ailments, but they can do little where the system has been broken down by the use of drugs.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

The special message of present truth to which this paper is devoted, is winning its way into the darker regions of the earth. We have received this week an Egyptian magazine, printed in Arabic, which reprints in full some of our literature dealing with the Lord's second coming. We also learn with much pleasure that the work, "The Great Controversy between Christ and Satan," of which Mrs. M. G. White is the author, has been published in the Fijian language. We would strongly recommend all of our readers who have not read the English edition of this book to write to the International Tract Society, Ltd. for particulars of it. The "Great Controversy" shows better than any book with which we are acquainted, the place of this generation in the world's history, and the tremendous events that are soon to transpire. The book is a most valuable aid in the study of prophecy, and, presents the subject in a very attractive way.

The Methodist Times, writing on "Methodism, New and Old," speaks of various changes that have come in their movement, and says:-

"Our views of the doctrine of inspiration are certainly not what they were two generations ago, though we still hold in Wesley's words that 'the Bible is the whole and sole rule of Christian faith and practice.' Our modern position leaves room for the sound results of Biblical criticism, and our salvation does not depend on the authorship of particular Psalms or the historical value of the book of Jonah."

To which might be added that their views of the doctrine of inspiration are also certainly not what the views of Jesus Christ were many generations ago, for He had no hesitation whatever in accepting the book of Jonah as historically true. More than once He quoted it, and placed its truth on the same plane of certainty as His own death and resurrection. Matt. xii. 40. And since Jesus Christ is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever," it follows that "the new Methodism" has parted company with Him on the subject of inspiration.

The religious world has wondered at the election of Cardinal Sarto to the Papacy, but if the statements made by the Rev. Alex. Robertson, D.D., in the Christian are well-founded, the mystery is over.

"Leo XIII. and he (Sarto) are one in this, that both have a master, and that is the Jesuit General. Only there is this difference, Leo XIII., when elected, rebelled against the Jesuit, until, as they said in Rome, he was tamed, and that was soon after his elevation. Sarto, Pope Pius X., will not need to be tamed, for he is a born Jesuit; his confessor is Father Ignazio Salgari, a well-known Jesuit, and a professor here in Venice. His courteous manner with friend and foe, his quiet, persevering method of working, his not too scrupulous use of means to procure his objects, have made him a very successful propagandist of the Papal Church. . . . He will be a dangerous pope, just because of his conciliatory Jesuitical ways, and because he will prove himself a fitting instrument in the hands of the Black Pope, who is the real pope."

If these things be true, Pius X. may be trusted to make the most of the favourable situation created by his predecessor, on whose death nearly all the Protestant world broke out in glowing eulogy. The deadly wound of the beast is healing fast, and it may be the fortune of Plus X. to realise the ambition of the Papacy and the fulfilment of the prophecy. At his coronation, these words were spoken:-

"Receive the tiara adorned with three crowns, and take knowledge that thou art the father of kings and princes, the ruler of the whole world, and vicar upon earth of our Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen."

And the Scripture says:-

"All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Rev. xiii. 8.

While the Papacy ascribes honour and glory to Jesus Christ, the pope claims it all as His vicar. But whether the vicar owes his election to the Black Pope or not, he certainly does not receive his appointment as vicar from Jesus Christ.

A stir is being made in the Church of England over the destructive growth of the Higher Criticism. Some who have been silent, feel that they can be so no longer. The Church Family Newspaper says:-

"Every vital doctrine of Christianity, every fact that is embodied and enshrined in the creeds, every incident on which the believer founds his comfort in temptation, his consolation in sorrows, and his confidence in death-the incarnation, the temptation, the resurrection, the ascension of Jesus-all are swept aside as mythical under the irresistible solvent supplied by the Higher Criticism. Had such conclusions been put forward by men who were avowedly sceptical of the truth of Christianity, it would have been a different thing from the point we are insisting on. There have always been champions of unbelief, some of coarser, others of more refined, mental fibre, with whom the defenders of the faith have had to deal. But it is the exceptional and burning shame and scandal of the present onslaught that it is marshalled and directed by a Canon of Rochester and a professor at Oxford of the interpretation of Holy Scripture."

Another writer in the same paper, says:

"Missionaries in India are finding in that criticism a most serious hindrance to their work. The heathen are exalting their own religious books at the expense of the Bible. They, at least, so say the advocates of heathenism, contain none of the inaccuracies, the ineptitudes, the misrepresentations, the downright falsifications of history, which Christian clergymen have discovered in that strangely overrated book, the Christian Bible."

The Holy Spirit foretold this very state of things, and it gives the remedy. Paul wrote, "The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having, itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." 2 Tim. iv. 3, 4. What, then, shall the servant of God do? Shall he form leagues for the defence of the Scriptures, or talk of raising funds for the prosecution of those who have been false to their commission and their vow? The apostle's remedy was, "I charge thee therefore, before God, . . . PREACH THE WORD. That Word, believed and preached in simple faith, has cast down the strongholds of error before, and it will do it again. If men reject the Word, the loss is their own. The Word will do its work, for it is able to build men up and give them an inheritance. Acts xx. 32. "All flesh is grass, [even the flesh of the Higher Critic] and the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: . . . but the Word of our God shall stand for ever." Isa. xl. 6-8.

August 27, 1903

"Rejoicing in the Lord" The Present Truth 19, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

The Lord desires that we should praise Him, not only for our own sakes, but that others may learn from us how good it is to trust in Him. As we honour Him, He honours as, and we find that the joy of the Lord is our strength. Neh. viii. 15.

Everything that hath breath is called upon to praise God, and if men would only stop for a little while to consider why they should praise God, they would see abundant reason. If any human being had been as good to us for a short time as God has been all our lives long, we should not have to try very hard to get up a feeling of gratitude. We would not allow a word to be spoken against such a friend, and we should always be ready to speak words in his praise.

How differently men treat the Lord! He has poured out His life, and everything that was precious in His sight, to redeem His fallen creatures. He places at their command the riches of His grace, not in an indifferent way, but with the earnest solicitude of a loving Father. What is the response that comes from His children?

"Ye have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied Him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delighteth in them; or Where is the God of judgment?" Mal. ii. 17.

Again the Lord says, "Your words have been stout against Me; yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against Thee? Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the proud happy; yea, they bitterness, and thus bring pain to the heart that work wickedness are set up; yea, they of their Father in heaven that tempt God are even delivered."

How it must grieve the heart of the good Lord, as well as the holy angels, to hear so much murmuring and complaining where there is so much cause for praise and thanksgiving. Let none who read these lines have any part in such a chorus of bitterness, and thus bring pain to the heart of their Father in heaven.

But these are not the only strains that come up to God. "They that feared the Lord spake often one to another; and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name." Mal. iii. 16.

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Every expression of thanksgiving is heard with joy in heaven, every word of praise to God is gladly written down. The Lord listens carefully to every word. As we confess Him before men, He confesses us before His angels; "They shall be Mine, earth the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels." While the murmuring words of complaint and distrust and rebellion are being poured into God's ears, let us be among those who give Him pleasure with words of loving trust and grateful appreciation.

The book of remembrance is written for them that fear the Lord. The Lord does not need it for Himself, to remind Him of those who honour Him. It will be one of the pleasures of eternity to read in that book how our words of praise brought joy to the heart of God, and to know how they were valued in heaven.

"Signs of the Times" The Present Truth 19, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

The Scriptures deal very fully with the last days, and speak of the conditions that will then exist. We are to know when the things foretold come to pass that the end of all things is at hand, for God does not desire that anyone shall be taken unawares by the sudden cloning of earthly history. He is not willing that any shall perish. The signs of which He has spoken are plain enough for all to understand.

The daily papers have been printing an interview with Professor Goldwin Smith on his eightieth birthday. In this interview he spoke of the changes wrought during his lifetime, and in almost everything that he mentions, we see a fulfilment of prophecy, and it sign of the last days.

First he says,

"Perhaps the most momentous is that science and criticism combined appear to be undermining the foundation of religious belief, by which in the mass of men conscience has hitherto been so largely supported."

This is just what the Scriptures predict. "But know this, that in the last days grievous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, haughty, railers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, implacable, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, no lovers of good, traitors, headstrong, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God." 2 Tim. iii. 1-5. Can we look for conscience in such people as are here described? But the most discouraging feature yet remains to be told. These are the religious people of the last days, the church-goers, "Holding a form of godliness, but having denied the power thereof." Men have belittled the Word and Spirit of God. They have rejected the power that would have saved them from such a condition, and the criticism, which has been so deadly owes its success to the fact that its most diligent advocates have been the religious leaders of the people.

Again, the Professor says, speaking especially of America, although the conditions to which he refers are general,

"War seems to have begun between capital and labour, which threatens serious disturbances."

The fifth chapter of James speaks of the oppressions of capital, but it also bids the rich weep and howl for the miseries that are coming on them, and warns them that they have nourished their hearts in a day of slaughter. The Lord's people are urged not to join in murmuring and violence at this time, but to be patient because retribution is at hand. "The judge standeth before the doors." Verse 9.

"All efforts to restrain the growth of multi-millionaires will probably prove ineffectual. If the domination of multi-millionaires were to last for ever, humanity would have to come a long way over a rugged road to a poor end, but what legislation cannot check social insurrection of some kind may, and if the evil proves excessive an overthrow will follow."

Here is another sign of the times: "Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures." But "in that day a man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made for him to worship, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the caverns of the rocks, and into the clefts of the ragged rocks, from before the terror of the Lord, and from the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake mightily the earth." Isa. ii. 7-22.

From this it will be seen that the domination of multi-millionaires will not last for ever. "Ye have laid up your treasure in the Iast days." The very existence of the multi-millionaires, unknown until this last generation, is one of the signs that humanity is nearing the end of its rugged road. For a little while they will make the lot of the poor a bitter one, but they will not profit themselves. "They shall met their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be as an unclean thing; their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord." "It hath been the stumbling block of their iniquity." Eze. vii. 19.

One more development has been noted by the Professor.

"In the United States the Government has fallen under the control of a group of log-rolling monopolise, which has complete control of the Senate, and legislates in its own commercial interest; without regard to the general welfare, or, as in the Cuban sugar case, even to the honour of the nation."

In England, also, we read accusations from all sides that the Government has fallen under the control of the church, of the landlords, of the publicans, of every party that has something to gain and political support to offer. And on this the prophet says, "The godly man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net. Their hands are upon that which is evil to do it diligently; the prince asketh, and the judge is ready for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth the mischief of his soul thus they weave it together. The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is worse than a thorn hedge." Micah vii. 2-4.

But there is a brighter side. The Redeemer will come to Zion and to them that turn from ungodliness in Jacob. As Satan is working with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, God's truth is shining more brightly than ever, and He is urging His servants forward throughout the earth to carry the Gospel of the Kingdom for a witness before the end come. That Gospel is gathering out a people for His name, and when the apostasy reaches its height, and the world worships the beast that makes war against God, He can say, "Here is the patience of the saints, they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." Rev. xiv. 12.

"True Greatness" The Present Truth 19, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

"When the disciples asked the Lord who should be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, He set a little child before them and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Matt. xviii. 4.

Judged by this standard, John the Baptist, by the Saviour's own award, was the humblest man that had lived until that time. "Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist." Matt. xi. 11. John was willing to be only a voice in the wilderness, and to spend his

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life in preparing the way of another. God could trust him to be the forerunner of Jesus Christ, to do a wonderful work which would move the nation, without taking any glory to himself. He was willing to decrease that another might increase, and could rejoice in seeing it. John iii. 26-30.

John was little in his own eyes. Therefore he was "great in the sight of the Lord." Luke i. 15. But the Lord is no respecter of persons. John had no monopoly of greatness. Christ said, after He had spoken of John: "Yet he that is lesser in the kingdom of heaven to greater than he." Matt. xi. 11, R.V. If a man is willing to go lower than John in humility, he can be counted greater in the kingdom of heaven. The position of the greatest is not reserved for any man. It is for him who will excel all others in humility And because of this, there will be no soreness or jealousy in the striving, for those who come the nearest to the greatest will be most like him in humility.

This is why there never can be any division in the church of Christ over the desire for greatness. The Spirit that animates the members of Christ's body is one of humble, loving service, which seeks nothing for itself. 1 Cor. xiii. 5. Greatness is not measured there by titles or offices, but by child-like humility, and he who serves most rules most. No member will ever envy another his position in the church, because only those who are free from envy will seek positions of humility, and those who love to serve will serve as much without a position as with one.

"Noah Preaching the Gospel" The Present Truth 19, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

When the Scripture teaching concerning the nature of man is presented, one of the texts which is usually brought forward as an argument for consciousness after death is the passage contained in 1 Peter iii. 18-20. "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God; being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: by which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water."

This passage has been dealt with before in the paper, for instance, in No. 41 of the last volume, to which we would refer enquirers. We take it up again at this time because questions are continually arising out of this passage, and because it is worthy of repeated study.

Notice carefully what it was that was put to death in the flesh but quickened by the Spirit. It was Christ, but Christ in human flesh, for He suffered, the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God. When He died, we died also, "because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead." 2 Cor. v. 14. And when Christ was raised, we were quickened together with Him. Eph. ii. 5, 6. Therefore, when Christ was put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, all the members of His body were represented in His experience.

Peter states this same thing again in his epistle. "Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness." 1 Peter ii. 24. Again in 1 Peter iv. 6. "For this clause was the Gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit."

Now we can see that that by which Christ went and preached to the spirits in prison, which were disobedient in the dais of Noah, was the Spirit that quickened those who were dead to sins and alive unto righteousness. And we find that Noah had just such an experience as this. "Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God." Gen vi. 9.

We put the record in Genesis and the statement in Peter's epistle together, and we see that Noah got his righteousness in just the same way, the only way, that we get ours. And we also see that Christ was revealed in power to the world before the flood. We cannot think that God would destroy the world until every possible effort had been made to save it. We read that He was so sorely grieved over His rebellious children that it repented Him that He had made man. Gen. vi. 6. And we may learn from Peter's epistle that Christ bore a full witness to the antediluvian world of His power to save from sin, and the Spirit of God, that strove with men, was fully available for personal sanctification, because the life of Noah was an irrefutable demonstration of both. The preaching of Nosh was so powerful that it is spoken of as the preaching of Christ Himself.

The truth makes men free, and Noah had this freedom. This was so clearly demonstrated that it was made to appear that the disobedient were in prison. Those who are the servants of corruption are brought into bondage. 2 Peter ii. 19. The same condition will be repeated in the last days. The last offer of mercy that is given to the world makes known (see Rev. xviii. 1-4) that "Babylon the great is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." The words here rendered "hold" and "cage" are the same as the word translated prison. Just as the demons and men who make Babylon what it is, only succeed in making a prison for themselves, so the antediluvian world that had cast off all restraint and pleased themselves, thereby bound themselves in prison. To them Noah revealed a Saviour and a power that was able to "preach deliverance to the captives," "the opening of the prison to them that are bound."

Death was the penalty of their transgression, and death was also the way of escape. Eight souls were saved by water,

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while the rest of the world perished by water. The difference was that Noah and his family went into the water willingly. They built the ark in preparation for the water. The others were not willing, and the water that bore the ark in safety overwhelmed the ungodly. "The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." When we are willing to die to sin, with Christ we escape the death which is the wages of sin, and we are raised with Christ to walk in newness of life.

Because baptism means dying and being buried with Christ, and rising again with Him, it means to us the experience that Noah had, "not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God." In turning from the divine ordinance of immersion, the church has deprived itself of a striking and needed testimony concerning the death to sin and rising again to righteousness which by faith we share with Jesus Christ.

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

Isaac was the Son of Abraham. He is called the child of promise because God had promised him many years before he was born. If we believe God's Word we shall be children of promise too.

One day God said to Abraham, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering." It was very hard for Abraham to do this, but when he thought of the goodness of God in giving Isaac to him, he said, "I will trust God. He gave Isaac to me, and He is able to raise him even from the dead."

So early one morning he and Isaac, with two servants, started on their journey. It took them three days to reach the place of which God had told them. Abraham and Isaac went up the mountain alone. Isaac asked, "Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"

When the altar was built, and the wood laid upon it, Isaac learned that he was to be the lamb, and he was willing to lay down his life to please God.

Just as Abraham was lifting his knife to slay his son, God called to him, and said, "Lay not thine hand upon the lad, for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from Me." Then Abraham looked behind him, and saw a ram which he took and offered in the place of Isaac.

This lesson is to teach us how much God loved the world when He gave His only Son, whom He loved, to die in our place.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

It has been a remarkable sign of progress in the Far East that in the last five years Japan was receiving so many students from India, China, Siam, and Korea. Ten years ago there was not a single foreign student in the Government schools in Tokyo, but now there are over two hundred in her various educational institutions. While Japan was sending her own young men and women to Europe and America to acquire the Western civilisation, she has made herself now to be the "schoolmaster of Asia." The number of these foreign students is increasing rapidly every year, not only male but female students from China as well.

The Baptist Times says that on January 1, in the present year there were 114,964 registered lunatics in public institutions, of whom 36,465 were certified as having lost their reason through intemperance. In 1900 the increase in the number of lunatics on the previous year was 1,333, in 1901 it was 2,769, and last year it was 3,251. No doubt the feverish conditions of modern life are to some extent responsible, but the chief cause is to be found in drink. Our industrial supremacy is threatened by the same foe. Mr. Moseley's deputation of Trade Unionists to the United States last year came back convinced that if the American artisan is a better workman than his English rival it is simply because he is more sober. In a word, to quote Lord Rosebery's striking phrase, the Drink Traffic has its fingers on the nation's throat. If we do not master it now, it will speedily throttle us.

There must be an appalling amount of carelessness in the United Kingdom, if the figures published by the General Post Office may be taken as a specimen of how people attend to business. More than 25,500,000 undelivered packets were dealt with during the year, and as many as 324,403 of these were registered or contained property, including ?18,862 in coin and bank notes and ?714,200 in cheques, money orders, etc. There were 367,519 postal packets without any address at all. Mainly through being sent in flimsy envelopes, or with insecurely fastened labels, ?21,184 in coin, ?24,000 in cheques, etc., and 93,232 other articles were found loose in the post, a large increase on the previous year.

There is discontent among the heads of Nonconformist churches in Australia because they are ignored in the new table of precedence at Commonwealth functions, recently sanctioned by the King. Only the Roman Catholic Cardinal and the Anglican Primate are officially recognised in the table. The disquieting circumstance is not in the fact that the Nonconformist leaders are ignored, but that they are troubled over the matter. Their Master's kingdom was not of this world, and He certainly did not expect that His representatives would ever be welcome at State functions when He said, "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." John xv. 19. From the Saviour's standpoint, it is an honour to the Nonconformists that they are not reckoned with the Cardinal and the Primate, and it is to be hoped that they will recognise this, and not continue to hanker for a part in State ceremonies.

It is officially stated in Germany that owing to the depression in industry and the diminished earnings of the working class, the number of horses and dogs slaughtered for human consumption largely increased. In consequence of the increased demand for horse-flesh, the Berlin slaughterers were obliged to send out agents to purchase horses in the provinces. This is referred to as a startling fact, which it certainly is, but it is no worse than the large consumption in England of beasts and fishes which are scavengers by nature. While the poor are turning to all kinds of flesh food, there is abundance of nutriment to grains and legumes, such as peas and beans, at a much lower cost than the cheapest kinds of meat. It is true that many deride the idea of living on non-flesh foods, but thousands are proving that fruits, grains, legumes and nuts offer an almost boundless variety of pure, easily-cooked food, at prices that suit all classes. The man who draws his supplies from there sources does not fear high prices of meat, or diseases among cattle. He reads without any personal anxiety of ptomaine poisoning, and if fruit, or some other of his supplies should be scarce, he has so many sources of supply that the failure of one or two does not cause serious embarrassment.

President Roosevelt has spoken out strongly on the imminent danger to American civilisation that is involved in the frequent lynchings. He declares that mob violence is anarchy, and that anarchy is always "the handmaiden and fore-runner of tyranny." The President emphasises the degradation that must come to everyone who takes any part in lynchings. In spite of the evident truth of these statements, lynching finds advocates in high planes. A Senator Tillman commends recent lynchings as the "only practicable way until the amendment to the Constitution granting suffrage to the negroes has been repealed. We have shot them and hanged them and burned them in South Carolina, until they almost know their proper place now. And now, although the black race was never a subject race in the North, the Northern people go out and settle the matter in the good old way that the Southerners have used in settling it, and the only way that has proved efficacious."

The Saviour said that "as the days of Noah were so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be"; and we read of those days that "the earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence." Gen. vi. 11. If the most enlightened nations of earth are drifting into this condition, what can we expect from the dark places? Statesmen can see the evil that is coming, but as God put a stop to the violence in the days of Noah, so He will again in these days.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

We acknowledge, with thankfulness, another gift of ?1, which the Lord sends us through "An Appreciative Reader" to help the expense of publishing the paper.

New books are continually being issued, in which the Scripture records are criticised, and condemned as inaccurate, and very rarely is there a word of protest on the part of the religious papers that review them. The Methodist Times remarks on one book that "the need for such a revised edition of Old Testament history is unquestionable." Another learned writer, a doctor of philosophy, who is described by The Christian World as "qualified to take an important part in the inevitable reconstruction of theology," has just produced a book on "Miracles," in which, "as a matter of course he refuses to regard belief in the Virgin birth as essential to the Christian faith." The raising of the dead to life he explains to be "resuscitation of the apparently dead." He tries to explain the raising of Lazarus on the trance theory, but omits to deal with the words of Martha: "Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days."

This is a fair specimen of the value of the Higher Criticism. It is only by ignoring facts that it is able to spin its flimsy webs. These are pure conjecture. All the facts that come to light support the Scripture records. The monuments of ancient history that have been unearthed, and the literal fulfilments of prophecy, establish the authenticity of the Scriptures. Hundreds and thousands of humble Christians, believing the Word of God, have proved it true in wonderful personal deliverances from sin, from disease, and from distresses of all kinds. Every worker for God at home and in foreign lands, learns that He is a God at hand, that His promises are true, and that nothing is too hard for Him.

God is vindicating His Word. It is being attacked in buildings that were erected for His glory, and in papers that profess to serve Him, but while these are going over to the enemy, testimony is coming forth from ancient rains and appearing in the movements of the nations. Ii is even borne by those who attack the Word, for they too are fulfilling the Scriptures, like the Jaws of old, who, "because they knew Him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning Him." Acts xiii. 27.

And God will continue to maintain His Word. When, in the progress of apostasy, the bulk of the religious world has decided that miracles are fictitious and cannot happen, God will pour out His Spirit upon the faithful, and signs and wonder! will again be wrought in the name of Jesus. "According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I show unto him marvellous things. The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might." Micah vii. 15, 16.

England is certainly the object of very marked attention on the part of the Papal See. The St. James's Gazette has stated that whereas in 1870 there were 67 monasteries and 232 convents belonging to the Roman Catholic Church in this country, in the present year there are 305 monasteries and 685 convents. Nor is this the end. Several other establishments are now on the way over. With the arrival of these reinforcements there has been a great increase in activity among the Roman Catholic congregations. Many of these have doubled and trebled in the Iast five years.

A fortnight ago the Roman Catholic Bishop of Southwark extended an unlimited invitation to the heads of the expelled Congregations in France to come over and take up missionary work in his diocese. So general has been the response that he has been able to open up thirty-one new missions in South London, and to send a surplus of workers to Plumstead, where a new Roman Catholic mission will shortly be started. All along the south coast, from Botchy Head to Land's End, the same process of settlement is taking place.

The question is coming up, How shall we protect, ourselves, as Protestants, against this invasion? It is useless to talk of agitating for their expulsion. We must meet them with the Scriptures and leave the issue with the Head of the church, who is also Head over all things. Eph. i. 22.

But Roman Catholics have been studying the Protestant position and have found its weak point. While the Protestant cry is, "The Bible and the Bible only," the Roman Catholics retort that the Protestants are inconsistent, that they reject the Bible Sabbath, the seventh day, and keep the first day, a change which rests upon no other authority than that of the Cathode Church. This argument is presented in nearly all their catechisms and controversial books, and they have offered large rewards to any Protestant who will furnish any Scriptural authority for keeping Sunday. In one of their books, "Plain Talk about Protestantism," they say, "The observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage which they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the Church."

This is not pleasant for Protestants to hear, but there is no gainsaying it. The only way is to be honest, admit the charge, and then be true to Protestantism, and Christ, by obeying the commandment of God and not the commandment of men. No one who will do this need be afraid of the efforts of Rome. He has an impregnable defence to its false doctrines in a consistent, thorough belief in the Word of God, and by that Word he may deliver others from the bondage of error.

A curious circumstance is reported in connection with the coronation of the pope. In the High Mass, the wafer of which he partakes is divided into three portions, of which the pope takes one, and two officials eat the remainder. This is a precaution against poisoning. Here is a striking evidence of the fact that the Spirit of God has nothing to do with the appointment of a pope. Men at their worst are the agents in his election, and if any superhuman power is at hand, it is clearly the spirit of him who is "a murderer from the beginning." Mutual distrust, envy, hatred and the spirit of murder can alone explain the precaution against poisoning.

There is an increasing tendency in many quarters to lay old men on one side, and to put younger men in their places, but Dr. Haitcox pleads the value of old men. He says:-

At seventy-five, Abraham was called of God to go into a strange land. At eighty, Moses was called to deliver a nation from bondage. At seventy-eight, Joshua became the successor of Moses, and led Israel into the promised land. Isaiah prophesied until he was eighty-eight years old. Simeon and Anna worshipped regularly in the Temple after they were eighty, saw Christ there and sing songs that we yet sing; and John at more than ninety had visions of the King in His glory, and wrote for the learning of all nations.

The believer in whom Christ dwells is valuable as long as he is alive. "They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; to show that the Lord is upright: He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him." Ps. xcii. 14, 15.

September 3, 1903

"Heavenly Fire" The Present Truth 19, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

When God, in answer to Elijah's prayer, sent fire from heaven, which "consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench," it was not the first time that such a thing had been seen. When the first offerings were laid on God's altar in the tabernacle, "there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat." Lev. ix. 24.

"Our God is a consuming fire." Heb. xii. 29 For forty years He had gone with Israel through the wilderness in a pillar of fire. That glorious Presence had been a Guide and a Stronghold to Israel, but it had also flashed forth at times in swift and terrible judgment. At the rebellion of Korah and the princes, "there came out a fire from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense." Num. xvi. 35. "And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord: and the Lord heard it; and His anger was kindled; and the fire of the Lord burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp." Num. xi. 1.

The presence of the Lord in the pillar of by heavenly fire; but when, under the fire was a wonderful privilege for Israel, influence of strong drink, Nadab and but the privilege brought with it the Abihu disregarded God's commands, and responsibility of walking with God, and used strange fire, it was sudden destruction for them. "There went out; fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord." Lev. x. 1, 2, 9. Again when Solomon dedicated the temple to God, the fire from heaven came down and consumed the sacrifice (2 Chron. vii. 1), as it had done when David consecrated the spot where the temple was built, the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 1 Chron. xxi. 26.

Again in Elijah's day, after God had honoured His prophet, and declared Himself, by sending fire from heaven, it was a perilous thing to slight the revelation that had been given. When Ahab's captains came to seize God's servant with violence, to hand him over to the king, "there came down fire from heaven" again, and the captains and their soldiers were destroyed. 2 Kings i. Yet the fire of God had no peril for Elijah. It was in a chariot of fire, drawn by horses of fire, that Elijah ascended into heaven being separate from the unclean thing. 2 Kings ii. 11. He was prepared for the experience of which the prophet Isaiah speaks: "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall

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dwell with everlasting burnings?" And the answer shows that it is the man who has allowed God to consume his sins. It is "He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly." Isa. xxxiii. 14, 15.

The Spirit of God is represented as fire. "There were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God." Rev. iv. 5. The mighty river of life, proceeding from the throne, is "as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire," and in that devouring fire the righteous dwell, for the victors "stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God." Rev. xv. 2. Daniel says, "A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him." Dan. vii, 10. That stream of fire comes from the throne now to cleanse from sin. "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire." Matt. iii. 11. "The Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the filth thereof by the Spirit of judgment, and by the Spirit of burning." Isa. iv. 4.

When the infant church of Christ had confessed its sins and received the righteousness of God, by faith in its risen Lord, being all together in one mind, the fire of God came, upon them, not for destruction, but in cloven tongues resting upon them, to make of each one "a burning and a shining light." When we allow the "spirit of burning" to consume our iniquities, it will remain with us. The lamps of fire before the throne of God will be in us, our righteousness will be as brightness, and our salvation will go forth as a lamp that burneth. Isa. lxii. 1.

But for those who refuse to let the Spirit do its cleansing work, there remains the cleansing that will be effected in their destruction. "Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him." Ps. l. 3. A fire goeth before Him, and burneth up His enemies round about." Ps. xcvii. 3. "Behold, the name of the Lord cometh from far, burning with His anger . . . His tongue as a devouring fire." "For Tophet is ordained of old; yes, for the king it is prepared; He hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it." Isa. xxx. 27-33. "He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Matt. iii. 12. "The Lord Jesus shall he revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel." 2 Thess. i. 7, 8.

"Alpha and Omega" The Present Truth 19, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." Rev. xxii. 13. Four times in the Revelation, Christ speaks of Himself in these words. It must be that they contain a lesson of deep importance for His church.

Like sheep among wolves, Christ was sending forth His disciples. When these words were written, the time was close at hand when learned philosophers, partly converted from heathenism, would join the church in large numbers and corrupt it with their worldly wisdom. At such a time these words would be a bulwark to the believer testing the teachings of philosophy, and making known whether they were of God, or of anti Christ.

Jesus Christ comprises all truth, all wisdom, all power, for His disciples. Whatever is not of Him is not for them, He is the beginning and the end. There is no possibility of outgrowing Him, or His Word, and remaining Christian. Human wisdom is very anxious to advance, and in this anxiety, it is not always careful to make progress in the right direction. It sometimes departs from the beginning, but when it does this, it loses all hope of ever reaching the end, for He who is the end is also the beginning.

Paul was very emphatic on this point in his epistles. "I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." 2 Cor. xi. 3. The believer must continue steadfastly in the beginning. "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. . . . Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. . . . Ye are complete in Him." Col. ii. 6-10.

The danger is very great still. In these last days when the end is at hand, Satan is doing his utmost to obscure the beginning, that men may not understand the end. This is why the Scriptures have been the object of his fierce attacks. On the other hand, God is calling the minds of men back to the beginning. He is calling for a return to the Sabbath of the Lord, which a church, spoiled through philosophy and vain deceit, thought to do away with and replace by a day of its own appointment. The true Sabbath takes us back to the beginning, and when we get to the beginning, we find there the ending of God's work, and the Sabbath, which means rest, given to man as a reminder that God's works were finished, that there remaineth a rest for the people of God. Read Gen. ii. 1-3; Heb. iv. 3, 4. Man cannot complete what God has begun. He finishes His own work, and our part is to rest "complete in Him."

There is great comfort in this truth to the believer. God has not given us a

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partial or incomplete salvation. He has given us the end as well as the beginning. In Christ we have the final victory, just as surely as we have the first awakening of repentance. All that is required is that we abide in Him. "We are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end." Heb. iii. 14.

When we were created in Christ Jesus, preparation was made for our entire future, from beginning to end. Good works were prepared for us to walk in. Eph. ii. 15. These were the life of Christ, who is the Way. If the good works that meet us seem too hard for us, we only need to inquire if they are a part of the life of Christ. If they are, we may walk in them confidently, for Christ is the end as well as the beginning, and we are partakers of Him as long as we hold the beginning steadfastly. "All things are yours; whether. . . the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. . . and ye are Christ's." 1 Cor. iii. 21-23.

We shall never rightly appreciate how much is given to us in the beginning until we get to the end. But we may be "confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ." Phil. i. 6.

"The Object of the Church" The Present Truth 19, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

In a book dealing with Africa and its Missions, Dr. James Stewart puts the question, "What does the Church exist for?"

Its own conservation, or a self-regarding religious culture, can hardly be the complete answer, or the chief object of its existence.

Jesus Christ, the Founder of Christianity and of the Church, when He was on earth, said little about such conservation. Yet His public life was hardly begun when He sent out twelve men, and later on seventy, with a certain message; and His last act consisted of directions to His Church to carry that message all over the world, and "make Christians of all nations."

Twenty centuries have passed away, and the work is still undone-in reality is now being begun.

In the early days of the church when it took up the work committed to it by Christ, it was a power in the earth, and its missionary work was that which most effectually conserved its own life. "Power from on high," the casting out of devils, the signs and wonders that should follow the believers, were all linked with the commission to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. It was while they should be teaching all nations that the promise would be theirs, Lo, I am with you always." When the church takes up its work, it will know its wonderful privileges. As long as it neglects the commission, so long it must be willing to incur the contempt of the world for its weakness and inefficiency.

"A Witness to All Nations. The Everlasting Gospel" The Present Truth 19, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. Rev. xiv. 6, 7.

In these words a special, world-wide proclamation of the Gospel is brought to view. It is the same work of which Christ spoke when He said, "This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." Matt. xxiv. 14. This appears from the fact that the next event in the prophecy is the coming of Christ. "And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel name out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in Thy sickle, and reap; for the time is come for Thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And He that sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped." Rev. xiv. 14-16.

PERSONAL TESTIMONY

The Gospel as a witness is preached to all the earth, and accomplishes its work. It is appropriate that a "witness" should be borne when the hour of judgment is come. The character of this last proclamation of the everlasting Gospel is essentially in the nature of personal testimony. It is no professional preaching, but the telling of a living experience. It arouses the wrath of the dragon, but it does its work. "The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Rev. xii. 17.

When Jesus Christ preached the Gospel, He did not speak as the scribes, quoting precedents and handing down echoes of the doctrines of the fathers. He drew His wisdom and understanding from God, the Fountain-Head, and lived by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Matt. iv. 4. Thus the Word of God was His life, and He was the Word made flesh. John i. 14. The Gospel was Himself, and whether He was speaking or not, in every action of His life He was revealing the character of God, and thus declaring the glad tidings. It is "this Gospel," the Gospel as it was made known by Christ, which is to be preached in all the world for a witness before the end comes.

ANGEL WORKERS

John saw an angel flying in the midst of heaven, having this everlasting Gospel to proclaim to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people. This shows that angelic power will be connected with the work, and that the preaching occupies a central place among the angels, receiving the attention and co-operation of every one of them; but it does not mean that men are excluded from the work. There are evil angels spoken of in the twelfth chapter of Revelation, and these are called the dragon. So far as human history knows, the powers there spoken of are composed entirely of men. The Scripture shows, however, that Satanist agencies were

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directing and controlling in all that was done. So in the preaching of the everlasting Gospel, men seem to be doing the work, but John saw the part acted by the angels. It is encouraging to remember that those who work for God are not left to toil alone. Sometimes it seems so, and hearts grow faint at the opposition of the enemy; but angels of God are with His servants, and superhuman power is at their call. "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them." Ps. xxxlv. 7. "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" Heb. i. 14.

A PURE GOSPEL

Although this call is the final one, the going out into the highways and hedges to compel men to come in, it is no more than the "everlasting Gospel." It has no new features; rather it goes back and revives the forgotten truths of the Gospel. It is the message that Christ and His apostles preached. It is not found somewhere outside of the Scriptures, but it does include every truth that is given in the Bible. Hence it will be a work of reform, a call to walk in the old paths, a restoration of the practice and teaching of the apostolic church.

The message is given with a loud voice, which shows that it will command attention everywhere, and its burden is, Fear God; give glory to Him; the hour of His judgment is come; worship the Creator. At first sight we might not see what justification there was for describing such a message as the everlasting Gospel, because Gospel means "glad tidings"; but the more we study it, and live it, the more gladness we shall find in it.

GOD OR MAN?

Fear God, and give glory to Him. At the outset we are called upon to abandon the tendency of the age, which is to give glory to men, and forget God. Give glory where it belongs. How much glory is due to men? "All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field; . . . the grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the Word of our God shall stand for ever." Isa. xl. 6, 7. But what of the great nations of the earth? "All nations before Him are as nothing; and they are counted to Him less than nothing and vanity." Isa. xl. 17.

Suppose we agree to what the Lord says about our being less than nothing, and give Him all the glory, how much better off are we? "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint." Isa. xl. 31. So that it makes all the difference to us, whether we fear God and give glory to Him or not. If we take glory to ourselves when we are as frail and as helpless as the grass, we are deluding ourselves, and in the hour of need will find that we have trusted in a broken staff. If we put our trust in God, and give Him all the glory, we shall find that "the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him." Ps. ciii.

WHAT GOD CLAIMS

Let us see what God claims for Himself, that we may give Him the glory that is due unto His name. He claims to be the Creator. "But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob." Good. We will give Him the credit. He created us.

"And He that formed thee, O Israel." Is that so? God formed me? What for? "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?" 1 Cor. iii. 16. How wonderful! But since I am going to give glory to God, I must allow that He speaks the truth, and give Him the credit for all He says He has done. So I know, then, that my body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. That means that the Spirit of God dwells in me. That means a good deal for me, and I am glad of it.

What next? "Fear not; for I have redeemed thee." I wish I could be personally sure, that that was true. But stop, that is doubting God,-not giving Him credit for speaking truth. God says He has redeemed me. So I am really redeemed. Praise the Lord!

CALLED BY NAME

"I have called thee by thy name." I am so glad to know that God calls me individually, not merely as one in the mass, but He calls me personally by my name. He has established a close relation between Himself and me, and we call each other by name. I am on the roll-call of heaven, the Lamb's book of life. My name is written there, and it will stay there as long as I go on giving glory to Him, for He says of the stars: "He calleth them all by name; by the greatness of His might, and for that He is strong in power, not one is lacking." Isa. xl. 26, R.V.

"Thou art Mine." God says it, and I believe it, for I am honouring Him now and believe His statements. I am not seeking glory for myself, for His is "the kingdom and the power and the glory," and I am His, and in Him I have it all. So that when I keep the glory from Him, I wither like the grass, but when I give all glory to Him, He crowns me with glory and honour.

A MEANS OF BLESSING

Surely, it is a blessed Gospel, glad tidings indeed, that calls me to fear God, and give glory to Him. What riches I find then in His Word! for all the statements I have taken for true are contained in one verse. Isa. xliii. 1. "But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not; for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine." Whatever else I find in the Bible I will take by faith, for I am going to honour God by believing Him and obeying Him.

From this we can see that those who obey the Word, "Fear God, and give glory to Him," will be believers in every word that God has spoken; they will not follow Him with a divided heart, but will have the fulness of His power, by faith, in their lives. They will be a Gospel church, full of the fruits of righteousness, and instead of being a reproach upon the name of the Lord, and an occasion for the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, they will be an honour to Him, because they will let His power alone be seen in their lives. He will be proud of them, and will-send them to every nation and kindred and tongue and people as His ambassadors and witnesses.

"The hour of His judgment is come." This is a large subject, and will be taken up by itself next week.

CREATION IN THE GOSPEL

"Worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." These words take our minds back to the creation. They call us away from the theories of self-glorifying scientists to the Bible record of creation, and bid us worship the Creator. If we are going to have a part in the everlasting Gospel, we must give the honour and the glory to God, and so we inquire how God would have us worship Him as the Creator. We turn back to the record, and we read that as soon as the work of the Creator was finished, "He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it He had

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rested from all His work which God created and made." Gen. ii. 2, 3.

THE STANDARD UPLIFTED

Adam and Eve were the only human beings alive. They were unfallen and they rested with God from all His works, worshipping and adoring Him who had made them and delighting in communion with Him. The seventh day was blessed and sanctified, or set apart, to be observed by all God's children for ever, in the worship of Him who made heaven and earth. The Sabbath was not for any particular portion of Adam's descendants. It was for all. "The Sabbath was made for man." Mark ii. 27. Those who did not desire to retain the knowledge of God might refuse to honour Him, by keeping holy the day He had set apart for worship, but the household of faith was to keep it for ever. "Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." It was to be, a perpetual covenant." "It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel for ever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed." Ex. xxxi. 13-17.

We find that in the new earth, where the righteous will dwell in the ages to come, the perpetual covenant of the Sabbath will be regarded. "And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the Lord." lsa. lxvi. 23.

THE GOSPEL SABBATH

God is now gathering out a people, to be prepared for the Lord's coming, to carry His Gospel throughout the earth, and be a glory to His name. His Word will be the standard for each one, and He is now revealing defects and errors wherever they exist in order that those who love and honour Him may forsake their own ways, and come "in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." Eph. v. 13.

Many have seen that the seventh day, and not the first, is the Sabbath of the Lord, and that in keeping the Sunday they are not worshipping their Creator and Redeemer, but showing honour to men. Yet they hesitate to obey God because of the fear that they will lose situations or business or friends. They put these before the Lord. But the call is to "Fear God, and give glory to Him." How can we say we are giving glory to God, as the Creator of the universe and the One who supplies the wants of every living thing, when we are afraid to obey His voice for fear we may lose our living? Whom are we giving glory to, then? Plainly to some man, either ourselves or our employers. If we will really give to God the glory due to Him, we shall know that He keeps us now and supplies our needs, and we will not be so faithless as to think that the man who does not fear God is more sure of a living than the man who obeys Him.

It is only when such a test comes to us that we realise how little we know of the true God, and how much He has been to us but an empty name. But now God calls to a higher experience, that His servants may be sealed with the seal of the living God. Rev. vii. 1-3.

"The Religion of Christ" The Present Truth 19, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

The religion of Christ can go through the den of lions; it will pass unharmed through the fire, but it cannot endure contamination with the world. When love for Christ is mixed with love for the world, it loses its power and becomes worthless.

"Children's Corner. The First Boys" The Present Truth 19, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

There was great joy in the home of Adam and Eve, when God gave them their first little son. Eve hoped he was the one who would fulfil the promise made to her that "the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." So she called him Cain, for she said, "I have gotten a man child from the Lord."

A little while after another baby was born. He was called Abel. Just like every little boy who has been born since, Cain and Abel wanted to know all about the things they saw. And their parents taught them. They learned about the trees, the flowers, and the grass, the animals, the birds and insects, the sun, moon, and stars, and that everything had come from God's word.

Adam and Eve told them of the beautiful Eden home which God had given them, with the wonderful tree of life in it. And the boys grew sad as their parents told how they had lost it through listening to Satan and believing him, instead of believing God. But they were all glad that God had promised that one day if they trusted Him, they should have their beautiful home back again, in the new earth where Satan can never come.

When they were old enough Cain and Abel began to work. It is a good thing to have work to do, for

"Satan finds some mischief still

For idle hands to do,"

Cain was a gardener, and Abel a shepherd. But Cain made one great mistake. When the sweet flowers, the juicy fruits, and the golden grain came, he felt that he had made them grow, and forgot the power of God. He was very pleased with himself, and did not thank God. Satan was busy with Cain. He knew it would be easy to make Cain disobey God if he could lead him to forget God. And that is just what happened.

God had taught them that when they sinned, they should bring a lamb and offer it as a sacrifice to Him. This was to remind them that sin brings death, but that Jesus, the Lamb of God, saves from sin. One day Cain and Abel brought an offering to the Lord. Abel obeyed God and brought a lamb. But Cain brought some of the fruits of the ground. He did not feel he was a sinner needing to be forgiven. He thought his own works would save him.

"And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: but unto Cain and his offering He had not respect."

When Cain saw that his offering was not accepted, he was angry, and he showed it in his face. He did not like to think that God was better pleased with Abel than with himself.

The Lord was sorry for Cain, and said to him, "Why are you angry? If you did well, you would be accepted too. Satan is trying to destroy you by leading you into sin, but I will give you power over him if you will trust in Me."

But Cain was too proud to say he was wrong. And one day when Abel and he were in the field talking together, and Abel was telling his brother of the love of God, "Cain rose up against his brother and slew him." Even then the Lord tried to save him. He came to Cain and said, "Where is Abel thy brother?" If only Cain had told the truth, God would have forgiven him. But he would not. He said, "I know not. Am I my brother's keeper?"

Then God told Cain that He had seen what he had done to his brother, and that the earth was cursed again for his sin. Because of it, the ground would not yield him fruit as it had done before. Cain was afraid to go home to his parents after this. He became a wanderer in the earth.

How sad that the little child who had been given to Adam and Eve by God should grow up to be a murderer instead of a joy and blessing in the home. Adam and Eve shed many tears when they saw how their own sin of disobedience was bearing such bitter fruit.

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

Jacob was the younger son of Isaac and Rebekah. His brother's name was Esau. Jacob was selfish and bought his "brother's birthright for a little food. But Esau would not have sold it if he had prized God's gifts. Jacob wanted the blessing too, and got it by making his father think he was Esau. Esau was angry and wanted to kill Jacob. Rebekah sent him to his uncle's till Esau's anger was over. So Jacob went. It was a long journey. Night came and he was tired. He made a pillow of stones, and lay down to sleep. He dreamed that he saw a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. Angels were walking up and down on it. The Lord stood at the top and told Jacob that He would care for him wherever he went.

When Jacob awoke he said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not." He had forgotten that "the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good." That is why he had done wrong. But God loved him and was teaching him how ready He is to forgive sin. For the ladder is Jesus who has opened up a way from earth to heaven that we may come boldly to His throne of grace for all the help we need.

That is why we say "for Jesus Christ's sake" when we pray. The angels are our helpers. We shall never do wrong if we remember that Jesus and His angels are always with us to keep us in the right way. Jacob called the name of that place "Bethel," which means "the house of God."

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

The medical officer for Essex reports that several cases of typhoid fever have been trailed to polluted shell fish on mud flats round the coast.

An eight months old child died suddenly in East London last week after eating some cheap coloured sweets. The mother noticed that the child's mouth seemed "full of dye."

The Tax Commissioners at Hoboken, after being the guests of the North German-Lloyd Company at a banquet, found it in their hearts to reduce the assessment on the Company's piers from ?520,000 to ?320,000. The Mayor and Council are indignant. There is doubtless a deep philosophy in the common practice of inviting a man to have something to drink, when it is desired to get something out of him.

The Irrigation Commission in India has issued its long-looked for report. This advises a very extensive scheme for watering the desert lands of India. If carried out, it will tend to greatly relieve the present condition, and go a long way to avert the famines which are so frequent in India. Six million acres are to be watered, and this will involve an outlay of ?29,000,000.

England is to take another step in advance in the construction of battleships. The Admiralty designer is drawing up plans for 18,000-ton ships which will be the largest afloat, the most heavily armed, will be provided with the most powerful engines, and will cost by far the largest amounts yet spent on men-of-war. Until other nations follow suit, these ships will be invulnerable, but as other nations certainly will follow suit, the only result will be to increase the expense to the country.

The question of importing Chinese labour is still agitating the Transvaal. The mine owners are arranging to ship a batch of Chinese by the close of the year, taking their chance of a favourable decision when the Legislative Council meets in November. This resolve is expected to greatly increase the heat of the discussion. The Dutch and a large portion of the English are opposed to the idea of bringing in Chinese labour. The mining portion of the community are anxious to increase their working forces and extract all the gold as quickly as possible, regardless of how the interests of the remainder of the population will be affected by the addition of the Chinese element. One writer says:-

It means millions of pounds paid at once to the investors of Johannesburg, and two out of every three people are investors on the Rand. What matters if for the needs of the moment we mortgage the morrow, if to meet our obligations of to-day we draw a draft on posterity, which posterity shall honour in bitterness?

Liquid air is at last on sale. Customers in Berlin can have it delivered to them at the price of three shillings per gallon.

The Russian censors have suppressed one item of information, in connection with the great strike at Kieff, when the people were dispersed by the military, which shows that the revolutionary spirit is making converts even in the Russian army.

Upon the troops marching up, the governor called out "Flee," whereupon one of the captains stepped before his company and forbade the soldiers to fire upon "their poor, starving brothers." The soldiers obeyed this counter-order, and the young officer made a flaming revolutionary speech to the men. Of course, he was immediately arrested and brought to St. Petersburg, where he was sentenced to death by a court-martial.

It is declared that since the institution of inoculation for rabies in Italy, the deaths from hydra-phobia have been more frequent than ever. A number of Italian doctors have come to the conclusion that the Pasteur system is a public danger, and they praise the muzzling order in England which has stamped out hydrophobia. The English method is undoubtedly the right one, to keep the disease outside and to deal with it in the dog rather than in the human body. The principle is worth extending, for it will be better to deal with causes of disease while they are in the drains, the water, the house, the clothing, and the food, and thus keep them outside.

A Select Committee on National Expenditure has just submitted its report. There is a large increase during the last ten years, as shown by the following figures:-

In 1893-4 the national expenditure was, by votes, ?68,993,000, and from capital account, ?2,496,000. In 1903-4 it was, exclusive of special South African expenditure and the votes for Somaliland and China, by votes ?109,539,000, and from capital account ?9,370,000. From 1892-3 to 1902-3 the cost of the Army has increased (exclusive of war charges) by ?12,123,000, and of the Navy by ?16,953,000.

There is no prospect that the ratio of increase will be any less during the next ten years.

A New York fireman is in hospital, dying at the age of twenty-one from the effects of cigarette smoking. He has made repeated attempts to commit suicide, and is now begging that he may be killed. He has been in the habit of smoking as many as 400 cigarettes a day, and began smoking when he was a boy. The physicians say there is no hope. There is a horrible fate before many of the boys who are now surrendering themselves to the fascination of the tobacco habit. For many years the evils of tobacco using have been pointed out, but smokers have replied that the prastise did not harm them, and that there was no fear of injurious excess in their cases. But the injurious effects are being seen in their children, who are surrendering themselves with a fatal and inherited facility to the craving for tobacco.

South Russian ports enjoy the not very honourable distinction of adulterating their grain exports with more foreign matter than any other shipping centres. A case has just been discovered, at Taganrog, where a Jewish grain exporter sent out a cargo which consisted of sixteen per cent. sand, seven per cent. of husk refuse, and four per cent. of filth.

King Peter of Servia has not been able to free himself from the military party which brought him to the throne, but seems to be making an effort to break its power. Three army colonels and two captains have been sentenced to death for participation in a plot against the king, which was fortunately discovered in time.

Radium and the X-rays are edged tools to play with. They sometimes inflict injuries which it is impossible to heal. It was hoped that they would be useful in the treatment of cancer, but one of Mr. Edison's assistants, who received severe burns while experimenting with the rays, has developed cancer in both arms, which necessitated amputation.

It is hardly to be wondered at that the natives are not inclined to work in the mines on the Rand, when it is officially stated that the death-rate among the natives employed there is very high, forty-two per cent. being due to pulmonary disease. The dust in the atmosphere is very unhealthful, and the carelessness and ignorance of the natives contribute largely to the high death-rate.

England is experiencing the worst harvest weather it has known for fifty years. Crops are being ruined in all directions, both root and cereal, and large quantities of hay have been lost. On the other hand, London doctors are saying that they have never had so little work before in summer time. The drains are well flushed with water, and milk and other foods have not been spoiled by hot weather.

At the sixth Zionist Congress held in Basel, Dr. Herzl announced that the British Government had offered to assist them in selecting a large tract of land in British East Africa, where the Jews might govern themselves under the protection of the English flag. The Zionists were resolved not to give up the idea of returning to Jerusalem, but the thought of a settlement under the British flag appealed to many, and it was agreed, by a large majority, to accept the offer. It is hoped that this will afford a refuge for Jews who are persecuted in other lands.

An offertory box in a Devonshire church has been rifled. Owing to the key being lost it had not been opened for six years, and it is believed that there was a substantial sum inside. Seeing that a person who was in earnest could get at the money so quickly, it seems a pity that the trustees of the money should have been willing to let it lie idle so long for so little reason. There seems to be quite a parallel here with those persons who put off doing good with their means until they feel able to do a lot. They may pass by small opportunities for years, but often in such cases, their opportunities cease before they are ready to carry out their good intentions.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

A very sad incident is reported from America. The minister of a church was charged with "the excessive use of intoxicants," and when announcing his resignation from the pulpit, told his congregation that "he had learned to drink in their homes. The first time he ever tasted wine, he said, was at the home of a member of the congregation, who was now one of his accusers." No man, whatever his position, can afford to play with evil. Ministers, in themselves, are as weak as other men, and those who tempt them, never dreaming that they can come to any harm, may find too late that Satan has used them to destroy a soul. "It must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!" Matt. xviii. 7.

There is a vague belief abroad in "a good time coming," but it does not seem to get any nearer. General Garibaldi, son of the famous Italian patriot, says:-

I am a firm believer in the desire for "peace on earth," but I am also sincerely convinced that that happy state of affairs will become permanent on this globe only when the human race has disappeared from its surface.

Since the word of the Lord remains true that the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace (Ps. xxxvii. 11), it is clear that there will be members of the human race who will enjoy "peace on earth." It is evident, however, to General Garibaldi, and to all observers, that things are not tending that way at present. There will have to be an overturning first. In that day a large portion of the human race will have disappeared, for we read: "Evil doers shall be cut off." "Yet a little while and the wicked shall not be." Px. xxxvii. 9, 10. Then peace on earth will become permanent.

The President of a Theological College writes in the Independent about "a young minister of the type that is wanted," who was successful in getting more young men into his church within a few weeks than his predecessor had won in twenty years.

These young men were normal, healthy, vigorous, athletic fellows, fond of all outdoor sports and all phases of youthful social life. It is doubtful if any one of them had ever been in a prayer-meeting; certain that no one of them had ever "taken part" in a religious meeting of any kind. They are not perfect yet, and no one of them has been moved to testify to what has (or has not) taken place in his soul. Indeed, it is doubtful if they have gone to a dance the less or a prayer-meeting the more in consequence of having united with the church.

"The type that is wanted" does not seem to be modelled on the apostles, who, if a man confessed his sins and believed in Jesus Christ with all his heart, baptized him into the name of the Father, and Son and the Holy Ghost, that he might reckon himself dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ. At the same time, it is not to be wondered at that a change is desired from the condition described by the President.

Morbid, narrow and inadequate tests and conceptions of what it means to be a Christian in thousands of our churches are keeping out youth and manliness, and letting only effeminacy and sentimentalism in.

The lack consists evidently in a departure from Bible religion, and in losing the life and power of the Holy Spirit. This is why the young are not drawn to the churches, for Christ draws wherever He is uplifted on the cross. John xii. 32. The remedy will come in returning to the source of apostolic power, not in divesting the church of its sacred character, and reducing it to the level of a social organisation, which young men can join without any change of heart and life. It would be fatal to spiritual growth to give young men, or anyone else, the idea that all that Christ asks of them, and all that He died for, is that they should join a kind of social club.

One sad feature of the last days, according to the Apostle Paul, will be the selfish, unloving character of the closest earthly relations. There will be disobedience to parents, even among those who have a form of godliness, and this is easily explained by the statement that such men will be "without natural affection." 2 Tim. iii. 1-5. Both parents and children are to blame in this, for the Lord speaks of a special work to be done, before the second advent, in turning the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers. Mal. iv. 5, 6.

The times are changed in this respect since the Lord said through Isaiah, "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?" The annual report of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children throws a ghastly light on present conceptions of maternal duty. No less than 2,883 parents and others were prosecuted, and that this was not mere officious meddling is shown by the fact that of this number, there were 2,800 convictions. But this is a small part of the work of the Society. In 34,946 cases it felt obliged to interfere in behalf of suffering children.

Men hear that the Lord is coming in His glory to make an end of sin, and they say, "We do not believe that God will come and put a sudden stop to all the wonderful advancements that science and art are making in the world." But God is a Father, and no father's heart would weigh the wealth and progress of selfish men with such a mass of helpless, childish misery as is involved in these 34,946 cases. And everyone knows that the Society does not encounter all the cruelty and neglect that is making bitter the lives of little children. There is a cry going up to God's heart, and there is an answer coming soon. If the hearts of the fathers are not turned to the children, God will smite the earth with a curse. Matt. iv. 6.

The drink is, in this case, as in others, a potent means of destroying natural affection.

Many children are the victims of drunken mothers. In the last year or two the Society has got 120 mothers placed to retreats. While there, every effort is made to appeal to the maternal instinct. One effective method is o show them photographs of their children, skeleton-like, unkempt and altogether miserable, when they were taken charge of by the Society, and as those children have been transformed under the influence of good feeding and tender care. When snob mothers leave the retreats, the "children's men" keep an eye on them, and see that they return to the retreats if there is a relapse into the old habits.

Let everyone who loves the children do what they can to turn the parents from the use of alcohol.

September 10, 1903

"Nonconformists" The Present Truth 19, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

There is a great movement among Non-conformists to secure that Free Church laymen, who will work for the abolition of the Education Act, shall put up as candidates everywhere at the next General Election. It seems as though religious bodies are more and more getting mixed up with politics, and resting their hopes on Parliamentary action. In its best days, the church leaned only on its Divine Head. It asked nothing of earthly

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governments, and sought only to declare the Gospel to rulers. Have politics become so pure and Christ-like that the church can fitly use them for its noble aims? Hear what a politician says:-

I am utterly unable to see how ten millions of years of organising men into hostile bands for the purpose of making warfare on each other with the end to be sought the capture of the offices of government, in order that they may be run for the benefit of the "party in power," is to give us anything but a continuance of the failure to secure those conditions of political peace and social justice for which all patriots are earnestly striving and all partisans, as such, are seeking to make impossible.

"The Editor's Private Corner. Predestination" The Present Truth 19, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

I should be pleased to receive some help on the doctrine of "final perseverance," or "once in grace always in grace," also concerning predestination.

We will consider predestination first. The Scriptures are clear on this subject, and there is great comfort to be gleaned from them for every one. God has "chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jeans Christ to Himself." "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will." Eph. i. 4, 5, 11.

So you see, if you have given your heart to Jesus Christ, you have connected yourself with something that goes back to a time before Adam fell, or the earth was created. You must not look at yourself, and think, Now I have just given myself to the Lord, I wonder if I can stand the trial of my faith, and whether I shall be holding on still six months from now. When you fall on the Rock, coming to Him as unto a living stone, you are built into the living foundation, which is Christ being, and partake of its solidity and strength. That foundation has stood the fiercest storms that can come, and for thousands of years it has been steadfast and unmovable. In Christ you have the same standing, you have a life that has not wavered since the days of eternity.

It was not you that chose Christ, He chose you. John xv. 16. It was not because of your will that you were born again. It was because of God's will. John i. 13, James i. 18. When you knew that God had chosen you, you were willing to be His. You surrendered to His will, that He might work in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. When you are tempted to think that you are too frail and vacillating to endure to the end, remember that that which has made you a Christian has not wavered once, in all the past, that the life you receive by faith is an everlasting life, and that He who has began the good work is able to carry it forward to the glorious end.

Although God has willed our salvation

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and predestinated us to eternal life, there its perfect freedom with Him, and no one is compelled to take what God provides. We have a will of our own, but the best use we can make of it is to will that we will accept God's will. Our little will, like the little switch, has power to connect us with God or break the connection. We may have very little will power, but it only takes a very small switch to make the connection. When our life is thus willingly connected with God, the current flows through us, and we have the everlasting life, and learn that the Gospel is the power of God.

God has made known our predestination to us, because He is willing "to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel." We partake of the root as well as of the fatness of the olive tree. Rom. xi. 17.

But this assurance is not for a few only. Those of whom Paul speaks in the Epistle to the Ephesians were not specially deserving of being predestinated to sonship and inheritance. It was when they were "dead in sins" that they were quickened together with Christ. Eph. ii. 1, 5. Who then can be counted out of God's predestination? Not one.

"For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son." Rom.viii. 30. Some hold an entirely erroneous view of predestination, which is opposed to the Scripture. They believe that God foreordained some to be lost, and some to be saved. Now God could not predestinate some to be lost without knowing which they were, but the text we have just read states emphatically that everyone whom God knew of beforehand was predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. This proves that God had no thought whatever of condemning any to be lost. Such a thing did not enter His mind.

If you will look through the passages that speak of election, you will find that every one of them speaks of election to salvation. "He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." Rom. ix. 15. Notice that it is mercy and compassion that God is determined on, not mercy on some and wrath on others.

Even Pharaoh is quoted as an instance of this. God raised him up to make him a witness, and that the name of God might be declared through him in all the earth. Pharaoh resisted God's gracious purpose, but it was carried out nevertheless. It might have been done through Pharaoh as a willing instrument, but since he would not yield, it was done through him against his will His very effort to defeat God's plan was the means by which the plan was carried out.

In Pharaoh's case, we see how it is that some will be lost, although God has predestined them to life. They resist the gracious purpose of God, and in so doing they harden themselves. They will not be pliable in God's hands, as the clay is in the hands of the potter. They become stiff, so that while God in mercy is dealing with them, seeking to mould them aright, they break in His hands, as Pharaoh did. Their lives are spoiled and wasted, and they fail of the design that God planned for them.

If they had been passive in God's hands, His eternal purpose would have been fulfilled in them. God does all that He can do to make His predestination effective "Whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified." God does all that He can for every man. "O house of Israel, are not My ways equal?" Ezek. xviii. 29.

The question may be asked, "Why are not all saved?" God asks that question, too. There is no reason that any man will dare to offer when he stands before the great white throne. No deficiency will be alleged there so far as God is concerned.

"ONCE IN GRACE, ALWAYS IN GRACE"

On this point, little needs to be said. There is no reason why men should not always be in grace. "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." Rom. v. 20. The great difficulty usually is to get men to believe at all in the grace of God, and we would not say a word to lessen anyone's courage in the Lord's power to take care of their past, present, and future.

Here is the best by which we may know if we are in grace or not. "Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace." Rom. vi. 14 This is the work that grace does. I have met men who have perverted this truth, and say, "I have once been in grace, therefore I cannot be lost." That is wrong. As long as sin does not have dominion over them they will not be lost.

Sometimes a man will learn that the seventh day is the Sabbath, and he sees that he ought to keep it, but he is afraid to face the consequences. He will say, It does not make any difference to my salvation whether I obey God in this matter or not. I have been in grace once, and so I am sure of being saved at last, even if I do not keep the Sabbath. Such a man shows that he does no know what grace is. He is no Christian at all. Jesus saves His people from their sins, and the man who makes Christ's work a reason for his remaining in sin, is putting a cruel dishonour upon the Saviour.

As long as a man abides in Christ he is saved from sin and is under grace. When he walks in sin he is not abiding. In Christ, "for he that saith he abideth in Him, ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." 1 John ii. 6.

"'Broken Cisterns'" The Present Truth 19, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

One charge which God brings against His children is that they have forsaken Him, the Fountain of living waters, and have hewn out for themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water. They have turned from the joy of the Holy Spirit, and seek to fill the void with the hollow laughter of human folly. And under that semblance of mirth lie the dark depths of despairing tragedy.

A few weeks ago a chorus girl in one of the liveliest and most popular of summer operas committed suicide at her lodgings because she had been discharged the night before by the manager on the ground that she was "not sprightly enough."

It is still a question among professing Christians whether it is right to go to the theatre. The very question condemns the one who asks it, because it thinks only of personal safety and pleasure. It takes no account of the lives that go to waste behind the scenes, of the souls for whom Christ died given over to madness and folly, who must simulate for them the joyousness of life, because of the fear of death.

"A Witness to All Nations. The Hour of Judgment" The Present Truth 19, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

In the final proclamation of the everlasting Gospel to all the earth, there is one new feature. It is not a new truth, which is then revealed for the first time, but it is the re-statement of an old truth, with the added emphasis that the time has come when it is to be fulfilled. "Fear God, and give glory to Him: for the hour of His judgment is come." Rev. xiv. 6 The whole earth is concerned in this solemn event, and it is to be made known to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people. This is to be a leading thought in the last message. A work of judgment begins in heaven at the same time that a special preaching of the Gospel begins on earth, and the work on earth derives a special significance from the work of judgment that is carried on in heaven.

NO SECRET FROM MEN

"Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets." Amos iii. 7. God does not hide His work from men. He dwells in the light, and it is not His fault if men are found in darkness, so that God's dealings take them by surprise. When the time is at hand for the hour of His judgment, God takes care that everyone shall know about it. He sends a special message to everybody concerned, and in the message He gives full and clear information as to the judgment, the standard, the witnesses, the Judge, and every other point in which the subjects of the judgment are interested. He states clearly what is expected of men, and how they may be prepared for the test.

The standard of holiness is the law of God. If a man fails to meet this standard in his life, he is a sinner, but "the doers of the law shall be justified." Every transgression is condemned by the law of God. "I had not known sin but by the law." Rom. vii. 7. Whomever committeth sin transgresseth also the law." 1 John iii. 4. This law is the test in the judgment. If a man's life record reveals obedience to God's law, and a love of its principles, he will not be condemned. "For as many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law; in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ." Rom. ii. 12, 16.

THE JUDGE A MAN

Jesus Christ is the Judge. It is a Man who judges men. God does not sit in judgment on men, but leaves it to One who has Himself met the temptations that beset men, and knows what it is to be human. The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." "And hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, became He is the Sin of man." John. v. 22, 27. It is the law as revealed in the life of the Man Christ Jesus that is the standard of the judgment.

THE DIVINE STANDARD

It is for this reason that God is now calling attention to the fact that, although His law is unchangeable, a human ordinance has been substituted for the fourth commandment, teaching men to honour a day which God has not set apart, and leading them to dishonour the rest day divinely appointed. Sabbath, keeping was a prominent feature in the life of Christ, and now that men are to be judged by that life, the true standard is to be lifted up that none may be deceived by human alterations. Some are receiving God's correction; others are fighting against it. They hate the human instruments through whom God has brought before them the reform for which He is calling. If they could only realise that the hour of God's judgment is come, and that their lives are being tested by the law of God, they would value the light that comes, and turn from every commandment of men to be fashioned after the Divine Pattern.

THE JUDGMENT IS GLAD TIDINGS

Notice that the declaration of the judgment is a part of the everlasting glad tidings. Men tremble at the thought of judgment to come, but it is a necessary part of the Gospel. Paul says that "God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel." Rom. ii. 16. Peter, when preaching the Gospel to Cornelius, said: "He commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is He which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead." Acts x. 42, "Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord: for He cometh, for He cometh to judge the earth: He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His truth." Ps. xcvi 11-13.

That the judgment is a necessary part of the Gospel is seen when we consider that, without the judgment, there would be no second coming of the Lord, or resurrection from the dead. The judgment is the separating of the wheat from the tares, the sheep from the goats, it is the making up of God's treasure, and the conclusion of Christ's work in behalf of His people. It is the time when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. The time when the dead are judged is the time "that Thou shouldest give reward unto Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear Thy name, small and great, and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth." Rev. xi. 15-18. If it were not for the judgment, the present state of things would go on for ever. Wrong would always trample down the right, the rich would oppress the poor, Satan would continue to be the god of this world, and God's people would never enter into their inheritance. For it is only those that are "accounted worthy" who obtain the world to come, and the resurrection from the dead. Luke xx. 35. It is in the judgment that men are "accounted worthy." When the hour of God's judgment has come, the solemn moment has arrived when the books are opened (Dan. iii. 9-14), and the dead are judged according

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to the things that are written in the books.

Judgment begins at the house of God. 1 Peter iv. 17. The closed up records of lives that have long been forgotten among men are brought forth. They have not been forgotten in heaven. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints;" and He does not forget any that have committed the keeping of their souls to Him. Loving memories stir afresh in angel hearts as familiar names are called from the book of life. The record of their lives is read: it is seen that on earth they endured the cross, despising the shame, and they are accounted worthy of a peril in the glory. Name after name is called, and for every one that Christ acknowledges, called and chosen and faithful, there is joy among the angels over a soul snatched from Satan's power, and saved for the Redeemer's kingdom.

DENIED BY CHRIST

But what of those who heard the call, and girded on the armour, who fought the good fight a while, and then made peace with the enemy, and returned to his yoke? "Whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven." Matt. x. 33. "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angel." Rev. iii. 5.

The list of names of the overcomers is a long one, glory to God, "a great multitude that no man could number," but there comes a time when the last of the sleeping saints is passed, and none are left but those who are alive on the earth. These will not know it, but as they go about their daily work, an hour will come when their name is called above, their record is read, and their destiny sealed for ever. This is the moment of which we read in Rev. xxii. 11. "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still." The following verse (v. 12), shows that these words, so fraught with life or death to every soul, are spoken before the coming of the Lord. Death arrests the development of character, and fixes man's destiny. As the tree falls so it Iies. The same stop comes then to living men, but they do not know that the fateful word has been spoken, the division has been made, the choice has gone for ever. "Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth." Luke xxi. 34, 85.

THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL

Great as will be the need of those who serve God in such a time, the grace will be even greater. As Christ calls men to such an experience as Enoch and Elijah had, His Gospel furnishes the power and salvation that will fulfil the same work in every believer. The everlasting Gospel is no empty form. It is the living power of God. It consumes sin as fire consumes stubble. It fills the believer with spiritual power, "according to the measure of the gift of Christ." Its first fruit is an all-absorbing love that forgets self in service for others, and knows no fear in the hour of judgment. 1 John iv. 17, 18. As the message of the everlasting Gospel is received, it does its work. Once more the days of the apostles will be seen, the church of Christ, revived by the latter rain, will take up its long neglected work, and carry a pure Gospel to earth's remotest bound, while the sentence that comes from heaven, where the judgment sits, is, "Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. xiv. 12.

CHRIST JUDGED BY MEN

As God's people take up this work, they reveal what spirit they are of. It is seen that the effect of the Gospel is to put into men the spirit that was in Christ, "who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him." Christ will be admired in all them that believe. Men can find nothing then to say against Him, for His life is only good. The Lord has been judged by His people. Their unfaithfulness has brought dishonour upon Him. Now He is vindicated. The hour of His judgment is come, and His faithful witnesses bear true testimony to His wonderful love and great salvation. Henceforth none but His enemies, who hate Him simply because He is good, can speak a word against Him. As the church of Christ comes into harmony with His own life, He is free to work with power. In the past, he has been bound because His people have been unlike Him, and He could not work mightily through them without seeming to countenance their evil ways. Now there is nothing to hinder His full co-operation with His church, and the full tide of divine life flows with mighty power through His people. They go forth upon their work conquering and to conquer.

VINDICATING THE SAVIOUR

It is in this clearing of Christ from the misjudgment of men, and setting Him before the world in His true light, that Christians will meet the issues of the hour of judgment. They cannot be present in the courts above, except as they commit themselves to Christ, the Advocate. He cannot be present on the earth, where He is being judged, except as He can find ambassadors here who will represent Him. If we will confess His name here, and bring honour to His name among men, He undertakes to speak for us in heaven, and procure glory for us there. Matt. x. 32. So that it is here, and not in heaven, that we have to meet the test of the judgment. The decision is in our own hands. We are not to be in fear and trembling, waiting for the moment when the judgment may pass from the dead to the living. If we do not know yet that our interests are secure in heaven, we can make them so at once, and put the matter beyond question, by becoming whole-hearted, blood-bought witnesses for Jesus Christ, who follow Him fully. Whatever others may say or do, we can take our stand boldly in the place where the angelic verdict of the judgment approvingly descends: "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."

"The Children. The Two Ways" The Present Truth 19, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

Abel was the first in the world to lose his life for Christ's sake. Cain killed Abel because "his own works were evil and his brother's righteous." Satan hates the followers of Jesus and seeks to destroy them. And when he saw that Abel chose to follow the Lord, he stirred up Cain's anger against his brother. When Adam and Eve saw this they began to understand what God meant when He said, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed."

In his work as a shepherd boy, Abel learned day by day of God's love. In the beginning all the animals were as gentle as lambs. But when sin came many of them changed and became fierce and wild. And Abel, as he watched his flocks to guard them from danger, thought of God's care for His children, how He watches night and day that Satan, the roaring lion, may not hurt them. He knew he was safe in God's keeping, but that he could do nothing to save himself.

He loved the sheep and lambs of his flock very tenderly. The more he did for them the more he loved them. Every time he took a little lamb to offer as a sin offering he felt how terrible a thing sin is; and he thought how great the love of God must be that He should be willing to give His only Son to die like a lamb for the sins of the world.

So Abel believed God's word, and let it rule his life. He listened to every word that God spoke. That was why he was able to offer a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. He did what God told him to do. We please God too when we do what He says. It is good to know that little children can make God and the angels rejoice. How glad Abel must have felt when he knew that he pleased God, and how sorry he was for Cain.

Perhaps you think it strange that God did not protect Abel, so that Cain could not kill him.

But just as Abel's life was a lesson for you and me, so is his death too. God asks that "he being dead yet speaketh." That is, his death helps us to see the truth more than his living would have done.

If God had not let us see what terrible things sin leads to, we should think it did not matter whether we sinned or not.

So we have Cain's life, which shows us that the first sin leads on to worse and worse, till the heart is filled with hatred. Abel was full of love because he let the Spirit of God rule his heart. He loved his brother so much that rather than quarrel and fight with him, he let Cain kill him.

But when Jesus comes God will raise him from the dead, and give him a crown of live.

Boys and girls which way are you choosing? The way of life as Abel did, or the way of death as did Cain?

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

Many of the children of Israel had pride in their hearts. Korah thought he ought to be the leader of Israel instead of Moses. He forgot that God had given each of them his work, and that without God's help he could not even do his own work right.

Satan had put the evil thought into Korah's heart, and instead of asking God to take it away, Korah allowed it to grow. So he thought more and more of himself. Soon he was saying evil things about Moses and Aaron to the rest of the people, and many of them listened and believed.

Moses felt very sad when he found out what was going on. He asked the Lord to help him, and God promised to let everybody know whom. He had chosen.

The next day Korah and his friends were to burn incense before the Lord. God had said that only his fire was to be used for burning incense. Any other was called "Strange fire," so that if Korah's company really loved God, they would have said "We cannot burn incense unless God gives us fire."

But they thought their fire was as good as God's, and they came with their censers and the incense burning upon them.

Then the Lord caused the earth to open and Korah and his chief friends were swallowed up. Do not let us be like Korah, full of pride and unwilling to do the little things. If we let Him, Jesus will make us meek, and lowly like Himself. Then by-and-by He will say to us, "Well done."

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

It is anticipated that the coming harvest in New South Wales will be the heaviest ever experienced.

A mysterious plague has broken out in Cuba, beginning among some iron miners. It resembles bubonic plague, but is swifter and even more deadly. The bodies of the victims turn yellow.

A witness in a Newcastle County Court produced a Testament from his pocket and was sworn on his own book. The judge commended his caution, and said that he himself would not kiss one of the Testaments used in the court for ?1,000.

Mahuta, who recently renounced his nominal sovereignty as Maori King, has taken the pledge. He has publicly promised to carry his card of teetotalism on all occasions in his coat pocket, and whenever any friend invites him to come and have a drink, he will take it out and display it as his only reply. His example has been followed by several of his chiefs.

The Colombian Senate has rejected the Panama Canal treaty, because the members think that the United States was trying to drive too hard a bargain with them. The portion of Colombia which adjoins the Canal route is rising in revolution against the Senate, being very desirous that the Treaty shall go through. The Government forces at Panama are reported to be friendly to the Revolution, being very badly paid.

The biggest Bible class in the world is connected with a Sheffield church. It has a membership of over 2,000. But the success of a Bible class cannot be gauged by its numbers, and where the numbers are so unwieldy it is impossible to make a Bible class what it ought to be. If the Sheffield class could be converted into 200 classes, it would be possible to deal personally with each, and make sure, by questions and answers, that the lesson was made plain to every one.

One of the latest developments in tourist circles is a "Missionary Tour Round the World." The idea is for those forming the party to get into "living touch with missionary work," so that "when the travellers have returned home they would become centres of missionary zeal and information, and be able to lecture and give addresses upon missionary subjects." The secretaries of the principal missionary societies have rendered assistance in compiling the programme, which includes visits to the chief mission centres of all denominations. The tour is planned to start on October 8, and take till April 16 next. It seems a pity, however, that people who have means and time enough for such a tour, and are so much interested in missionary work, should not be themselves engaged in motive missionary work among the heathen.

The annual railway report shows that 1,188,219,000 people went by train last year, exclusive of an immense number of season-ticket holders. This is an increase of 16,000,000 on the year before. The total net earnings of the railways were ?41,629,000.

Macedonia ought naturally to be one of the richest corners of Europe, but the villagers are sunk in hopeless poverty. The average peasant household produces about ?25 per annum. Of this ?3 10s. goes to the tax-collector, ?1 10s. to the resident brigand or village policeman, and ?10 with an unspecified amount of unpaid labour to the Turkish landowner, leaving ?10 for the wretched peasant's subsistence.

Sanguinary conflicts have occurred in Persia between the Nestorians and the Kurds. The Nestorians have been supplied with arms by the Persian authorities, but they are much in the minority. There is a demand that the Russian Consul shall exert himself in favour of the Christian population threatened by the Mohammedan mountaineers. Thousands of discontented Turkoman families in Tabriz, Astrabad, and the surrounding districts are petitioning to be permitted to become Russian subjects.

A remarkable illustration of how difficulties may be overcome is reported from Berlin, where for the first time in the history of German universities a deaf mute has succeeded in obtaining a doctor's degree. The thesis which gained him the degree is regarded as one of the best in recent years. If a man who can neither hear nor speak can accomplish so much, it is an indication of how much more, in one direction or another, a man ought to attain to who possesses both hearing and speech.

A syndicate exists for the purpose of utilising the Victoria Falls, on the Zambesi, for the generation of electric current. The height of the Falls is 400 feet-more than twice as high as the Niagara Falls. The amount of horse power running to waste at Niagara is reckoned to be 7,000,000, while at the Victoria Falls it is about 35,000,000. The syndicate hopes to find large markets for power among the manufacturing and mining industries which will spring up in the vicinity, and also expects to find a large customer in the Rhodesian railway. The district round the Falls is more richly endowed than any place in the world with gold, copper, iron, coal and other minerals. A belt of copper, about fifty miles wide, has been traded for a distance of 100 miles, some 250 miles north of the Falls, and this is likely to constitute one of the foremost copperfields of the world. In America, current is being conveyed a distance of 270 miles.

In spite of the expulsion of religions orders from France, the pope is not likely to quarrel with the French Government. If the State should withhold its financial support, the Church would have to find some thirty-seven million francs for the maintenance of the parish priests.

Although Mr. Spurgeon has been dead more than ten years, the demand for the weekly issue of his sermons keeps up to the average of past years. The clergy are amongst the largest purchasers. The publishers have still sufficient sermons in hand to provide for the weekly publication for another seven years.

The Medical Missionary Association, which was established twenty-five years ago, to raise the spiritual tone of the profession, and promote medical missions, is growing in strength and usefulness. Of the nearly 37,000 English-trained medical practitioners at home and abroad, 328 are now labouring as missionaries in foreign fields. The Association is not run on denominational lines, but it has been utilised principally by the Church Missionary Society. The medical missionary can do far more than one who lacks such qualifications. Doors soon open to him everywhere. Christ was a healer as well as a preacher, and He left with His church power to heel the sick.

In the presence of a great gathering of Catholic dignitaries, Cardinal Ferrari has restored to Milan what it has been deprived of for 700 years. Now that it has been restored, the clerical journals predict prosperity for Milan. The treasure consists of a portion of the remains of the three Magi, the kings who came from the East to Bethlehem at the birth of Christ. There is a thigh-bone of Melchior, a piece of Balthasar's shin-bone, and one of Gaspar's teeth. It must be a marvel to the angels that men to whom the quickening Spirit of God is offered freely should prefer to honour a few old bones.

An extraordinary scene has been enacted at a Brighton church. A petition had been laid before the Chancellor of the diocese to order the removal of certain images, pictures, and crucifixes. The petition was granted, and the petitioner was authorised to see to it if the vicar did not remove them. The vicar, having refused to remove anything, the petitioner appeared in the church last Sunday with forty men, who lost no time in carrying out their task. They broke down three confessional boxes with axes and hammers, the force employed being so great that pieces of wood flew as far as the centre of the aisle of the church. They tore down the crucifix from the chancel screen, making a great rent in the screen, and took down the statues of the Saviour and the Virgin Mary from their pedestals, thrust them into sacks, and carried them out into the street, where a large covered van was waiting. The affair has awakened greet excitement in Brighton, and it is extremely likely that the effect will be to cause sympathy with the vicar and strengthen the cause of Ritualism and the use of images and confessionals. Wrong as such use may be, God's truth is never helped by violence. It will yet be seen that those who adopt such unscriptural methods are only playing into the hands of the evil they are trying to suppress. "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal."

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

There is a great field for Christian effort in getting Bible truth before the people. Infidel writings are being pushed everywhere at low prices. The Methodist Times says, To-day the railway book-stall, and the small paper shop are flooded with work, antagonistic to Jesus Christ." Plans are being laid to issue cheap publications, which shall defend the Scriptures. But the Scriptures are their own defence. When they are allowed to speak for themselves, they are invincible. The Bible student knows that the sure Word of prophecy has been too often fulfilled, to leave any room for doubt as to the inspiration of the Scriptures. At this office we publish a number of books and pamphlets, setting forth fulfilled prophecy and Bible teaching on various points. Any of our agents can supply a price list. No one who will read such literature, in which the Bible is made its own interpreter, can help realising that the Scriptures are indeed given by inspiration of God. Infidel and rationalistic conjectures will not shake the faith of one who knows the Bible as a living Word.

It is hardly to be expected that missionaries among the heathen will make very rapid progress in converting them to Christianity, while they spend their time in pointing out the excellencies of native heathen writings. Dr. Oldfield has been criticising missionaries in India because they are often ignorant of the religion they seek to displace, and Professor Armitage answers the charge. He declares that the missionaries do study the Sacred Books of Buddhism in a thoroughly sympathetic spirit, and India is to-day receiving from Christian students, rather than giving to them, a critical knowledge of the texts and the tenets of its own saints and philosophers. The revived interest which the Hindus themselves are to-day taking in the Sacred Books is largely a reflection of the interest which European and Christian scholars take in them.

This may promote the study of literature, but it is difficult to see how such missionary work is going to advance the cause of Christ in India. Missionaries who simply create among the Hindus a revived interest in their own "Sacred Books" had better stay at home.

The man who gets victory over temptation, and is not continually falling into sin, is the one who allows God to keep him. We cannot, by our own precautions and efforts, preserve ourselves. In the very effort our minds are fixed on ourselves. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee." Isa. xxvi. 3. "Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling." Ps. cxvi. 8. "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips." Ps. cxli. 3. "O Lord open Thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise." Ps. li. 15. "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." Eph. iv. 30.

We often hear it said that God's law has been abolished. But when men say that divine law does not exist, that moment they deny the existence of sin. Paul says, "I had not known sin but by the law." Rom. vii. 7.

That some are beginning to deny the existence of sin is shown by Professor George A. Coe, of Northwestern University, U.S.A., in his book entitled, "The Religion of a Mature Mind." He says"-

From the days of Paul until now the Christian conception of life has been to a remarkable extent dominated by the thought of deliverance from sin.... A reaction has already set in against formerly prevalent views. The sense of sin has declined because it came from conceptions of human depravity which no longer exist.

But if our conceptions do not recognise the sense of sin, the next step must be the rejection of Christ as a Saviour. He was to be called Jesus, "for He shall save His people from their sins." Matt. i. 21. The logical outcome of teaching that God's law is abolished is to do away with feeling the need of a Saviour, and Professor Coe's book is evidence that professing Christianity is well on the road to this end.

The Methodist Times sounds a note of caution in view of theagitation for a Non-conformist political campaign and the election of members of the Free Churches to Parliament. Speaking of the kind of man that is wanted, it says:-

It is more than everything necessary that he should exemplify the spiritual life in his private and public conduct. Many a man is all on fire for religions equality and vary cool on religion. We want godly men, otherwise we may carry our measures and lose our power, gain the world and lose our soul.

This is worth remembering. Even if the Free Churches attain political power, there is danger that they will only get it by the sacrifice of spirituality, which is infinitely more valuable. The same writer says:-

We believe that the greatest influence for good which the Free Churches can exercise over the nation will be achieved by confining their action as churches as carefully as possible to the direst nourishment of the spiritual life of men and of the nation.

A Christian church where the Saviour is not preached is a woeful anomaly, but it is a sad fact that there are such. A minister of the Gospel writes in the Christian:-

The majority of us no doubt profess to preach Christ; but do we? During these holidays I have been longing to know more of Him, not as a theme for speculation, but as a saving power in my life and in the life of others; but so far I have hardly heard a reference to Him in the pulpits of the churches I have attended.

What will the ministers of such churches say when they stand at the judgment seat of Christ to give account of themselves? If they have adopted the ministry simply as a respectable profession, by which to earn a living, and not that they might be witnesses to the Saviour, they will realise then that it would have been better for them to starve to death, than have been blind leaders of the blind. The fate of the unfaithful watchmen will be a terrible one.

"A Way of Escape for Sinners" The Present Truth 19, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

The Lord is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." When Moses came down from the mount, and found Israel worshipping the golden calf as the god that brought them out of Egypt, he stood in the gate of the camp, and said, "Who is on the Lord's side? let him come unto me." Ex. xxxii. 26.

If only Israel had been swift to hear, they would have recognised in this call an opportunity to discard their sin and renounce it. The call was not, "Whoever has not worshipped this golden calf, come to me." Whosoever would might come. If Israel had only risen as one men and said: "We have sinned, but we want to be on the Lord's side. Just as we are, we come:" how differently that day would have ended. There would have been no need for the sons of Levi to draw the sword and smite their brethren.

God's call is still to sinners, "Who is on the Lord's side? let him come unto Me." Naked, as Israel was then, caught red-handed in sin, with death overhanging their guilty heads, they may come to God and find immediate acceptance and full salvation.

September 17, 1903

"The Time of Reaping" The Present Truth 19, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

"Thou vistest the earth, and waterest it,

Thou greatly enrichest it;

The river of food is full of water:

Thou provided them corn, when Thou hast so prepared the earth.

Thou waterest her furrows abundantly;

Thou settled the ridges thereof:

Thou makest it soft with showers;

Thou blessest the springing thereof.

Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness;

And Thy paths drop fatness.

They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness:

And the hills are girded with joy.

The pastures are clothed with flocks;

The valleys also are covered over with corn;

They shout for joy, they also sing."

The harvest is the crown of the year. If that should fail, the ploughing and sowing the seed, and caring for the rising grain, would all be labour lost. The harvest is the work of God, and every year, when the reaping time comes round, we ought to let our minds rest on the great harvest that is soon coming: "the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels." Matt: xiii. 39. If that did not come, all the labour that the heavenly Husbandman has bestowed on His field would be lost. But the harvest will surely come. The tares will be burned in the fire, and the wheat will be gathered home.

While they were growing together, especially in their first stages, it was very difficult to distinguish between the wheat and the tares. To the ordinary eye, both were the same. But the difference was made manifest in the harvest. While the wheat was bending with its weight of grain, the tares bore nothing. They had taken up as much space in the ground had absorbed the sunshine and the dew, but they gave nothing in return for the blessings received. They cumbered the ground that might have been filled to better advantage. The lesson is that when the angel reapers gather in God's harvest, it is only those who bear fruit that will be garnered. The rest are bound in bundles for the fire.

The present year has not been a favourable one, in many places, for a rich harvest. This fact should lead all to consider if God is withholding His blessings for some good reason. It is God who sends the sunshine and the rain, which are so essential, in proper measure, for a good harvest.

By the breath of God ice is given:

And the breadth of the waters is congealed.

Yea, He ladeth the thick cloud with moisture;

He spreadeth abroad the cloud of His lightning:

And it is turned round about by His guidance,

That they may do whatsoever He commandeth

them

Upon the face of the habitable world:

Whether it be for correction, or for His land,

Or for mercy, that He causeth it to come.

Job xxxii. 10-13.

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In the days of Israel, God gave them prosperity and abundance, but they did not recognise Him. "She said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink." "For she did not know that I gave her the corn, and the wine, and the oil, and multiplied unto her silver and gold, which they used for Baal. Therefore will I take back My corn in the time thereof, and My wine in the season thereof, and will pluck away My wool and My flax which should have covered her nakedness." Hosea ii. 5-9.

But God did not desire to withdraw His gifts any longer than was needed to teach Israel the lesson that their blessings name from Him, and not from their lovers, that led them into sin, and then enslaved them. Although Israel had to go into the wilderness again for a time, to learn the lesson, God would speak comfort to her in the wilderness. "And I will give her her vineyards from thence." Hosea ii. 15.

There is a great controversy in the land at present over the causes to which England owes her prosperity, and how she may retain it. Men are striving over preferential tariffs and free trade as though in these were the secret of prosperity, while God, who gives the fruits of the earth, is not mentioned. When Israel forgot God, He withdrew His gifts for a time, and if we now fail to recognise that our prosperity is due to Him, He may leave us to find out how much, or how little, the policies of statesmen can do for a country.

Let those who know God give Him the glory due unto His name. We can most truly serve our country, and secure its prosperity, not by political measures, but by personal obedience to God. "If ye walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments, and do them, then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the fall, and dwell in your land safely." Lev. xxvi. 3-5.

"The Editor's Private Corner. Learning Righteousness" The Present Truth 19, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

"Will you tell me what is the meaning of the nineth to eleventh verses of the twenty-sixth chapter of Isaiah?"

Let us read the words first from the Revised Version.

"With my soul have I desired Thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek Thee early; for when Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. Let favour be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness will he deal wrongfully, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord. Lord, Thy hand is lifted up, yet they see not; but they shall see Thy zeal for the people, and be seemed; yea, fire shall devour Thine adversaries."

The judgments of God are a means of instruction to those who will learn. In them we see His ways, and by watching them in the light of His Word we may understand God's thoughts. God's judgments do not consist only of plagues and famines and sudden destruction. "All His works are truth, and His ways judgment." Dan. iv. 37. We may see His judgments in everything that He does, and learn righteousness from them.

The wicked do not recognise God's judgments unless they come in afflictions and punishments. They have no desire to learn His gentler lessons, and do not heed them. Hence God has to speak to them in some way that will arrest their attention. We read of the wicked, "All his thoughts are, There is no God. His ways are grievous at all times; Thy judgments are far above out of his sight." Ps. x. 4, 5. It is not so with the righteous. "I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all His judgments were before me." Ps. xviii. 21, 22.

So the one who speaks in Isa. xxvi., says in verse 8: "Yea, in the way of Thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for Thee." He had observed the judgments of God, found His way, and waited for God in that way, with the result that, "the way of the just is uprightness: Thou that art upright doth direct the path of the just." Verse 7.

It is not so with the wicked. He is not teachable, and he is not seeking instruction. Favour is thrown away on him, and simply confirms him in his wrong-doing. "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of

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men is emboldened to do evil." Eccles. viii. 11. Even if a wicked man were admitted to heaven, he would still sin. The beauty of character there would not affect him. He would still do wrongfully, and not regard the excellence of Jehovah.

That this is so, was seen from Christ's experience. He was on earth what God is in heaven, but those who loved wickedness saw no beauty that they should desire Him. They hated Him without a cause.

"The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men;" but the wicked see not that God's hand is lifted up. Yet they will see God's zeal for His people, and if they still remain untouched and impenitent, they will at last see the judgment of God in the fire which devours them.

"A Witness to All Nations. The Judgment of the Wicked" The Present Truth 19, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

The hour of God's judgment begins, as we saw last week, before the second coming of Christ, but it does not close then. All who are "accounted worthy" of a part in the first resurrection have passed the test, and the Saviour comes for them, His reward with Him, "to give every man according as his work shall be." Rev. xxii. 12. The duties of each one have been appointed in the investigative judgment, and Christ brings them the fitness for their future work. Those who have been faithful on earth over a few things are now made rulers over many things, and enter into the joy of their Lord in doing the Father's will.

JUDGING ANGELS

The cases of those whose names have been blotted out of the Lamb's book of life yet remain to be dealt with, and among these come the fallen angels. "The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." Jude 6. These have sought in every way to overthrow the people of God. Their power and influence have been unsparingly used to make the pathway to heaven a bitter and dangerous one, but through the grace of God their efforts have been defeated, and now the saints who have so often felt their wrath are to sit in judgment upon them, and upon all those who have joined with them in rebellion. "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?" "Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" 1 Cor. vi. 2, 3.

"And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the Word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. . . . This is the first resurrection." Rev. xx. 4, 5. Before that tribunal of glorified martyrs and overcomers are laid the life records of every sinner. Among them come the cases of their own persecutors, the very men who caused them to be beheaded for the witness of Jesus. Will they take full advantage of the change in the situation, and mete out a rich retribution to their tormentors, and everyone connected with their past sufferings?

There will be no vindictive feeling in that judgment. Those who sit there are men who gave their lives for others. When persecuted on earth, the Spirit of Christ enabled them to pray for those who despitefully used them and to love their enemies. Now, when the whole life history of the agents of Satan is unfolded before them, the saints can realise, as they could not before, that the man who wrongs another wrongs himself more deeply, that sin is death, and that the pleasures of sin mean but the torments of despair. They see that those who sell themselves to Satan thereby procure to themselves a harder fate than their worst enemies could wish them. From their own bright heavenly home, rejoicing in the love of the Saviour, and the perfect bliss of, the re-united family of God, the saints have no thought for the wicked but one of unutterable pity that the Iost children should have forfeited so much, and have been so woefully deceived by the common enemy, Satan.

MERCIFUL JUDGES

None sit in that judgment but those who have sacrificed everything to save the sinner from his fate. "Saviours shall come up on Mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau." Obad. 21. None will rule except those who have been faithful. The professing followers of Christ, who

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have not shared His Spirit, and sought like Him to seek and to save that which was lost, will not be saved by their profession. They may have said, "Lord, Lord," they may have eaten and drunk in His presence, and have listened to His Word, and yet be unknown to Him who reads the heart. Luke xiii. 24-27. While every possible plea for mercy will be urged at that merciful court, what plea can be hide for those who knew their Lord's will and did it not? Their punishment will be the heaviest of all. They will be beaten with many stripes. Luke xii. 47, 48. It is more tolerable in that day for Sodom and Gomorrah than for them.

NO JUDGING NOW

The servants of Christ are not to judge now, but to leave all judgment till the time that God has appointed for it. "Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts." 1 Cor. iv. 5. "For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." Eccles. xii. 14. The judgment is not conducted according to human powers of forming decisions. It is written of Christ, that the Spirit of God "should be His understanding and knowledge," and He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears. But with righteousness shall He judge the poor." Isa. xi. 3, 4. This word shows that judging after the sight of the eyes and the hearing of the ears is not righteousness. If it is unrighteous, and not put away by confession and repentance, such judging will bring him who does it before the tribunal which awards punishment to unrighteousness. It is evident, therefore, that if we would sit with the saints in judgment, we must not judge any now. Christ states, this truth. "Judge not that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged." Matt. vii. 1, 2. "For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy." James ii. 13.

At the end of the thousand years the wicked are raised from the graves. "The rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished." Rev. xx. 5. They that have done evil come forth "unto the resurrection of damnation." John v. 29. They have no bright future before them, only "a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation." "And I saw a great white throne and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and the grave delivered up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man according to their works." Rev. xx. 11-13. "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." 2 Cor. v. 10.

The day is coming when every one will have to stand face to face with Jesus Christ to answer for himself. He will not be able to take comfort in being one among many. He will see no other. There will be no place to hide. Earth and heaven flee before the face of Him that sitteth on the throne. Seeing nothing but Him, the sinner has to stand in the light, naked and alone, to talk with his Redeemer. He may urge his excuses then, and plead his cause if he will, but he will be speechless. He has slighted divine love, and he is without excuse. He hears his sentence, and he feels that God is just.

A PERSONAL INTERVIEW

Men turn from Christ to-day and seek to forget Him. But every day that passes brings them nearer to that terrible interview with the King they will not serve. Then, if they could do it, how gladly would they recall the past. But their choice has been made, they have judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life, and they see, in that bright light where falsehood cannot come, that the blame is all their own. They confess that God has done all that an infinite God could do for them, but their stubborn hearts have thwarted His purposes of love.

Then will be seen the fulfilment of the words spoken by Paul of the Saviour: "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Phil. ii. 9-11.

Satan with all his angels, the nations of the lost, and the nations of them that are saved, unite then in acknowledging Christ. If only the wicked would do it now, instead of waiting till it is too late it they would let the love of God save them instead of resisting Him until the kindest thing He can do is to take from them the life which has become a curse to themselves and to others, how bright and glorious would be that day which, through their own stubbornness, must now end in the lake of fire.

For whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." "This is the second death."

The judgment is finished. "And there shall be no more curse." "The former things are passed away." "And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new."

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha, were the friends of Jesus. They loved Him very much, and He often stayed at their house. When Lazarus was ill, his sisters sent to tell Jesus, but He did not go to them till He knew Lazarus was dead. When she knew He was coming, Martha went to meet Jesus, and said to Him, "Lord, if Thou hadst been here my brother had not died." Jesus said, "Thy brother shall rise again." Martha said, "I know he will rise again at the last day." Jesus said, "I am the rising again and the life."

When Jesus saw Mary and the people weeping. He was sad, and said, "Where have ye laid him?" They said, "Lord, come and see." "Jesus wept," and the Jews said, "Behold, how He loved him."

The grave as a cave and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, "Take ye away the stone." Martha said, "Lord, he has been dead four days," but Jesus replied. "If you will believe you shall see the glory of God."

Then they took away the stone. Jesus prayed, and cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth."

"And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes." Jesus said, "Loose him, and let him go."

How glad Mary and Martha were to have their dear brother again. They knew now that Jesus had waited till their brother was dead in order that He might show forth the glory of His Father, which could raise men from the dead.

Would you not like to be the friend of Jesus? You can be if you love and obey Him. And one day, if you die as Lazarus did, Jesus will say to you. "Come forth," and you will rise again, to die no more.

"More than a Hundred Times" The Present Truth 19, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

The late Mr. George M¸ller made it a rule to read his Bible through from beginning to end no less than four times annually. Altogether, according to a letter written by him to the British and Foreign Bible Society sometime ago, he had read the great Book more than a hundred times. Besides his constant preaching in English, German, and French, he distributed over a quarter of a million of copies of the Bible, in addition to over 100,000,000 religious books and tracts. The orphan homes at Bristol cost ?115,000 to build, while the yearly maintenance required a sum of ?26,000. From year to year this wonderful man kept 2,000 orphan children without knowing how he was to get the money to do it. One of his rules was never to ask a man for a penny, but he always got the money, in answer, he insisted, to his prayers. During his career, Mr. M¸ller fed, clothed, and educated some 125,000 orphans, at a cost of about ?1,395,800.

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

The Emperor of Russia is to pay a visit shortly to Rome, and while there will call upon the pope.

An American firm, which undertakes to supply preachers with two original sermons a week for 8s., offers a special inducement: If a man Bends a sample of his handwriting, the manuscripts of the sermons will be so like it that no one can detect the difference!

A prominent scientist at San Francisco announces that he personally saw the fresh tracks of a mammoth on Unimake Island, in the Arctic regions, in his last journey. He gives minute details of the tracks, which sank four inches into the frozen earth. He hopes some time to search for the animal.

Some doctors in Germany have formed an association for the suppression of piano-playing by children under the age of sixteen, which they consider most harmful. Children doing so before that age are subject, they say, to all kinds of nervous ills. Women who practise overmuch become hysterical, and men sensitive, odd, and impatient.

An action has been commenced in America in which a young girl, through her guardian, is suing saloon-keepers and claiming ?3,000 damages for the death of her father who was killed while under the influence of drink alleged to have been served by the defendants. A statute of the State provides that relatives of any person killed while in a state of intoxication shall have cause for action against the parties selling the liquor, and also the owners of the property on which the saloon is located.

An enterprising American railway company has lately instituted a system of carriages reserved for children. The "nursery oar" consists of dining, dressing, bath, and sleeping compartments, in the last named of which six beds are arranged. The floors are thickly carpeted and the walls padded, so that the children cannot injure themselves by falling. A nurse is provided at the company's expense to watch over the youthful passengers.

A recent writer on the fakirs of India says that while some of them are animated by their devotion to an erroneous religion, "the free and somewhat easy life in which many of them indulge is the chief attraction, that pure indolence, pecuniary gain, the opportunities for the use of intoxicating drugs, and even for indulgences of a yet more reprehensible character, are in a very great many cases the chief attractions to what should presumably be an ascetic life." He says that almost one-twentieth part of the whole population of India abandon their proper employments and live as religious mendicants.

Sir Robert Giffen estimates the aggregate income of the people of the United Kingdom at ?1,750,000,000, and their aggregate wealth at about ?15,000,000,000. France and Germany have each probably not more than a third or half of these figures. The waste in drink expenditure would go far to relieve the distress caused by famines in India. The forty-two millions of the United Kingdom consume, in food and drink alone, an amount equal to the whole income of the three hundred millions in India.

A Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry has been appointed to investigate the causes for the deterioration in the national physique. Of course, the principal motive is to provide for a sufficient supply of healthy young men for the Army, and so the Military Service is to be well represented on the Committee. It is to be hoped that this fact will drive home to some minds the conviction that there is some reason for paying attention to considerations of health. When Parliament recognises that there is a serious deterioration, it is evident that something more is necessary than to label those who call for reforms as pessimists and faddists. No one should be content without studying the matter for himself, and doing what is required to arrest any deterioration in his own family.

The President of the British Association, in his opening address, dealt with the subject of education as it affected the prosperity of the nation. He held that our mental resource, were being greatly neglected. "So little did the bulk of our statesmen know of the part science was playing in the modern world, and of the real basis of the nation's activities, that they imagined political and fiscal problems to be the only matters of importance. In the important discussions recently raised by Mr. Chamberlain, next to nothing had been said of the effect of the progress of science on prices. The whole course of the modern world was attributed to the presence or absence of taxes on certain commodities in certain countries. The vast increase in the world's wealth, in Free Trade and Protected countries alike, came merely, according to them, in response to some political shibboleth.

"We had fallen behind other nations in properly applying science to industry. What was wanted was a complete organisation of the resources of the nation, so as to enable it best to face all the new problems which the progress of science, combined with the ebb and flow of population, and other factors in international competition, were ever bringing before us. We were suffering because trade no longer followed the flag as in the old days, but because trade followed brains, and our manufacturers were too apt to be careless in securing them."

A fresh attempt is to be made to reach the North Pole. Commander Perry will be in charge of the expedition, which is expected to take three years. The distinctive features of the plan are the use of sledges, with comparatively light loads, drawn by dogs, the adoption of Eskimo methods and customs, and the tallest possible utilisation of the Eskimos themselves.

There is a grave crisis in Hungary, owing to the conflict between the Emperor and Parliament. No political leader will undertake the formation of a Cabinet until the Emperor makes certain concessions, placing the army under Parliamentary control. The Emperor refuses to do this. For four months the country has been in an illegal state, the administration going on without a Budget. No taxes are being paid.

Here are some of the incomes of the larger missionary societies: Church M.S., ?341,265; United Free Church of Scotland, ?200,000; London M.S., 5170,623; Wesleyan M.S., ?156,273; S.P.G., ?152,000; Baptist M.S., 586,600; China Inland, ?72,066; Church of England Zanana, ?42,549. To these might be added the British and Foreign Bible Society, ?233,138; Religious Trect Society, ?102,275; and the Scottish National Bible Society, ?57,000.

At the Trade Union Congress in Leicester, the President said, in his opening address: "To me force is not a remedy, whether applied by employers or by labour itself. The day has gone by (or should have gone by ere this) for brutal torte to be applied in the settlement of disputes. It may be that in this I am somewhat idealistic, but, like many others in this Congress, I have seen something of the misery attending lock-outs and strikes, and are desirous of that kind of warfare ceasing."

The Congress of Hygiene, meeting at Brussels, has been vigorously debating the theory of Dr. Koch that tuberculosis in animals is not transmissible to human beings. It was proved that the human disease could be communicated to cattle, and that the baccili of both bovine and human tuberculosis were identical in their effects. The Congress declared that, although the controversy started by Dr. Koch was not yet settled, it was necessary to take all possible steps to remove the possibility of communicating animal tuberculosis to human beings. This means, at least, that all milk should be thoroughly sterilised before using.

An extraordinary tribe has been discovered in British New Guinea. Owing to the marshy character of the section of the country in which they live, walking is almost impracticable. The land is too swampy, and the entangled tropical under-growth in the wide stretches of shallow water renders canoeing almost impossible. The native dwellings are built in the trees above the water level. As the result of these conditions the natives are gradually losing the use of their lower limbs. They are unable to walk on hard ground without suffering from bleeding feet. Their bodies have developed enormously in the trunk, but the thighs, legs, and feet are diminutive. In figure and carriage they are ape-like. A scientific investigation into the habits and physical characteristics of the tribe to promised by the Government.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

"A friend" sends us ?2, half of it to be used for mission work abroad, and the other half to advance "the dear Master's work at home." We know of many channels in which this gift will be a blessing, and we pray that this may be richly shared by the giver.

The means by which we obtain the gifts of God are the simplest possible. There are no hard secrets to be mastered. God has blessed us not only with every good and perfect gift that pertains to this life, but also with every spiritual blessing that pertains to heaven. Eph. i. 3. Our part is to receive. Jesus was born into the world a helpless babe. "And the Child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon Him." Luke ii. 40. He learned of God and received His gifts as freely as they were given. It was His life work to reveal the Father, and when He began His public ministry, He declared to all the conditions on which God bestowed His precious gifts. "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it than be opened unto you: for everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." Matt. vii. 7, 8.

Some, when they heard, grasped the splendid simplicity of God's way; and so we read of men like the Leper who came with the brief appeal, "Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean." To these simple requests, there was but one answer: "I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed." It did not matter what calls were made. Everyone that asked received.

But it was not everyone that asked. While Jesus was scattering far and near the wonderful gifts of healing and life and righteousness, some held aloof. Their position in religions life had been bought at much cost of time and labour and money. They had striven to elevate themselves above the crowd, and they had no love for a God who gave simply became men asked. It was not their way. That which they had paid dearly for themselves, they doled out sparingly. The world was little the richer for them. Such men could not bring themselves to ask and receive. While others were getting blessing, these stood aside, and with envious spirit enquired, "How knoweth this Man letters?" "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" "How opened He thine eyes?" They might have had the joy of knowing the personal experience, but this was hid from the wise and prudent and revealed unto babes.

The kingdom of God was opened and every man could press in. The violent were taking it by storm. Never before had men received so clear a call to ask of God what they needed, and get it. Many rejoiced in the opportunity. They received healing for themselves. Then they asked for their neighbours. They brought out their sick. If Jesus was in the house, and the people thronged the doors, off came the roof that the palsied man might be let down at the feet of Jeans. Everyone that asked received.

Notice that there was no qualification. It was not "Ask anything in reason and it shall be granted." God left out all limitations, and it is not for men to insert them. And it was not God's design that that glorious reign of grace should end when Jesus left the earth. His word to His disciples was, "Freely ye have received, freely give." If we would only receive more freely, we would give more freely.

Again there is great need of faithful witnesses to reveal the Father. The evils that were present in Christ's day are here again. A professional ministry, and the traditions of the elders, have obscured the ways of God, and discouraged the hearts of men. But even if there is little pressing in at the doors of the kingdom of heaven, they are still open wide and the secret of power and forgiveness and healing is the same that Christ left with as, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

Every blessing that God gives is turned by sinful man into a curse. That which is given for life is perverted into a means of death. This is illustrated in the speech of the President of the British Association last week.

Every scientific advance was now, and would in the future be more and more, applied to war. Already it was not looking too far ahead to see that in a perfect State there would be a double use of each citizen-a peace use and a war use; and the more science advanced the more the old difference between the peaceful citizen and the man-at-arms would disappear.

If this is true it means that the greater the interest in scientific research, and the more God opens up to human understanding the treasures of His universe, the more will His gifts be devoted to slaying His creatures. A race that uses its increased knowledge to develop its destructiveness is not fit to be entrusted with knowledge. It seems only too likely, however, that Sir Norman Lockyer's prediction will be fulfilled, and that it will not be long before the peaceful citizen will disappear in the man-at-arms. Under such conditions, the citizen who wishes to remain peaceful will probably disappear also. Military rule cares little for conscientious scruples.

A great deal has been written lately about the necessity of meeting the Rationalistic attacks on religion, and it has been stated in several of the religious papers that this work calls for men who are "up-to-date" in their views on the Bible. This has suggested a question to one of the laymen who asks:-

"Bookman" says, the man who is to answer Haeckel must be "an up-to-date theologian." Are we to present an up-to-date theology to Haeckel and an out-of-date theology to our people?

There is a very significant expression in Christ's summary of the things that were written in the prophets concerning the Son of man: "He shall be delivered unto the Gentiles. The work which God had entrusted to Israel was to make Christ known to the Gentiles. But they would not receive Him themselves, so they could not make Him known to others. They rejected Christ and handed Him over to the Gentiles to be destroyed. In putting away Christ, they put away the hope of their nation and destroyed themselves. They made Him a present to the Gentiles. It was done in hatred, but the Gentiles received the gift, and stepped into the place which Israel thus vacated. Men cannot fight against God. Out of their hatred and rejection He makes a path for Himself. There is courage in this for God's servants. When they are rejected and thrust forth, their enemies are but opening up new doors before them, which shall more than make up for their own rejection of the message.

September 24, 1903

"The Little Child" The Present Truth 19, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

"The wolf also shalt dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together: and a little child shall lead them." Isa. xi. 6.

Here is a picture of life in the new earth. The Spirit of God unites the elements that are now most discordant, so that they dwell together there as brethren. Ferocity and cunning disappear, and love and sympathy take their place.

The central figure of the new creation is the little child. He is the type of a redeemed humanity, the leader of the world to come. "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."

The condition of entrance is also the secret of achievement there, and the measure of success. "Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." He shall lead by virtue of his childhood. It is upon the shoulder of the Child who is born unto us that the government is laid. Isa. ix. 6.

If a man would learn he must become a child. No others can enter God's school. "Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." Matt xi. 25. Whom shall He teach knowledge? and whom shall He make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts." Isa. xxviii 9.

In their self-sufficiency and ignorance, men grow away from God's plan for them. As the years come and go, instead of deepening in them the trustful love, and earnest simplicity of little children, they banish these from the life. Cold, calculating selfishness takes their place, an unlovely, grasping spirit is developed, and every effort is made to glorify self. But the effect is to impoverish the life, to dwarf the noble powers of the mind, to take away the capacity for learning and leading.

God calls for a reform. The hearts of the fathers are to be turned to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers. Mal. iv. 5, 6. We must cease to grow away from the little ones, of whom the Saviour said that they were to teach us of the kingdom of heaven. They ought not to learn anything of us that will rob them of their purity and innocence. As we seek to guide their little feet in right paths, we ourselves are to renew our youth in association with them, and learn deeper lessons of childlike trust in God. If God should grow away from us as we have grown away from our children, He would have been out of all touch with us many generations ago, He delights in the little ones, and He bids us learn of them His ways. So shall we be prepared for the home where only the children come, and the little children lead.

The world is poor to-day, and the work of the Gospel halts, because there is so little of the childlike spirit in the church. To be converted is to become as a little child, and to continue in that spirit. At the end of the pilgrimage, when the gates of heaven are opened wide for the ransomed throng, the welcome is not for those who were once as little children, but for those who remain such.

If the early church had not lost the spirit of little children, there would have been no development of the papacy. The very beginning of this was the growth of self, the attempt to draw away disciples after human leaders who desired the pre-eminence. Now, when the fruit of this spirit of self-exaltation is with us, and has permeated the professing

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followers of Christ, so that the church is filled with the strife for position, the only way to fight the evil is to be converted and become as little children.

When the Lord contrasts His way with the way of Babylon, He declares that His people never cease to be His little children. "Hearken unto Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are borne by Me from the belly, which are carried from the womb: and even to your old age I am He; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you." Isa. xlvi. 3, 4.

God wants His children, young and old, to walk hand in hand, one in spirit, alike tender hearted and unworldly. "And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children."

"The Great Deception" The Present Truth 19, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

The harvest of this earth will be fully ripe when Christ comes to thrust in His sickle and reap. Rev. xiv. 14-16. Affairs will have reached a crisis that will demand His intervention. The crisis is not apparent now, but an element is at work which will produce it before long.

A superhuman agency is seeking to influence men, and when that shall gain possession of human minds, they will soon be involved in Satan's warfare against God. The prophet saw "the spirits of devils, working miracles, go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." Rev. xvi. 14.

We read of that same time that Satan will work "with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish." 2 Thess. ii. 9, 10. These need not have been victimised by the delusion; for the love of the truth would have saved them, but they took pleasure in unrighteousness. Verses 10-12.

How will Satan get such sway over the minds of men? We do not have far to look for an answer. Men and women are even now eagerly abandoning their minds to the control of spirits in the hope of receiving communications from the dead.

The unscriptural belief that the spirits of the dead have a separate existence, and can talk with living men, has blossomed into modern Spiritualism, and will yet bear deadly fruit. Rejecting the light thrown by God's Word on man's condition in death, careful investigators have studied the phenomena of Spiritualism and have concluded that it is possible to hold communion with departed spirits, and receive from them information on matters beyond burden. As one writer says, "Such a discovery opens the door to revelation."

In this lies the peril. Satan has conducted a skilful attack on the Scriptures, and has succeeded very largely in discrediting them, not only in the world but in the church. Now he comes forward with another revelation, and this men are receiving. Under the belief that they are conversing with the spirits of good men, who are now in heaven and able to speak with authority, the inquirers place implicit confidence in that which is told them by the spirits.

In the last issue of a monthly magazine, its editor gives an account of communications he has received from the spirits. These have convinced him that it is possible to converse with the departed. We do not give the name of the paper or the editor, because we do not take up the matter as a personal one at all, but simply to show the progress that is being made in this work of deception. We give only a few extracts from the article.

I have been permitted to hold prolonged conversation with human souls who are now discarnate, and to receive from them each communications, such evidences of their personal identity, each utterances concerning mundane and spiritual facts, as prove conclusively to me the reality of their post-mortem existence and the retention of their individual mentality. . . . . . .

During several long interviews (one of which lasted for more than an hour, and took place in the presence of a reliable eye-witness) I presented to this friend many searching questions. They could only have been answered in the manner in which he answered them, by one who not only knew all about his earthly life, his work, and his ideals, but who also possessed his own distinctly defined personality and manner of speech, and his unique comprehensive understanding of spiritual law and the highest forms of esoteric truth. Yet I did not all to receive an immediate and perfectly relevant, masterly and satisfactory response to every one of them.

Many of these responses revealed the most profound knowledge concerning transcendental phenomena, and spiritual illumination of a high degree.

The medium through whom he spoke (a woman aged seventy-four) was altogether Ignorant concerning him; she possessed no knowledge of the subjects about which we conversed, or of my own identity.

But she is so constituted as to be able to surrender her physical organism and her consciousness so completely, whilst in a state of trance, that she can be used with great facility as a medium for spiritual communication.

He said to me at the time: I can control the body of this medium with almost as much ease as I could my own when I was in the flesh.

Other spirits came to him, one of them professing to be his mother, and another claimed to be the spirit of one who had been burned at the stake as a martyr in this life.

They told me many things that I wanted to know, an said much that was calculated to help and encourage me in my life work. They also gave me certain valuable advice, which revealed intimate knowledge concerning my personal ideals.

And they promised me their aid in the future, and assured me that I and my co-workers were being used as instruments for the accomplishment of the divine purpose.

The writer of this article is a gentleman who is highly respected by a large circle of friends as an earnest worker for humanity. He states that he has long been studying the subject of communion with spirits, and now rejoices in the clear evidence he has received. He feels that it opens up vast possibilities before the human race.

Set side by side with such an experience as this the Scriptures that speak of the dead. "The dead know not anything." "Their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished." Eccles. ix. 5, 6. "His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thought's perish." Ps. cxivi. 4. The word breath in this passage is the same word in the original that is translated "spirit" about 240 times. "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit [breath] shall return unto God who gave it." Eccles. xii. 7. The time when God gave the spirit, or breath, was at man's creation, of which we read, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Gen. ii. 7.

At the resurrection God will breathe again into the dead and they will live. See Ps. civ. 29, 30; Ezek. xxxvii. 9, 10. But for this resurrection, death would be an unbroken sleep, and even those who have fallen asleep in Christ would have perished. 1 Cor. xv. 16-18.

It is quite clear then that when communications are received, purporting to come from the spirits of the dead, they come from lying spirits, personating the dead for some evil purpose. These evil spirits have always sought to gain control of men. The results have been terrible when they have succeeded, and if we would know what Spiritualism finally results in, we have only to read the Gospels. There we see what it means to be possessed by a demon. The history of modern Spiritualism bears witness that the results are still the same.

At present Satan is working as much as possible under the semblance of an angel of light, and by doing this, he is enlisting the co-operation of many who have high

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motives. The writer whom we have quoted was assured by the spirits that his work was regarded with approval in the place from which they come. The more he can persuade men of influence to resort to the spirits, the better pleased will be the great deceiver, and the more quickly will come the time when he can carry out his schemes. The Scriptures are the only safeguard against the deception. Scientific minds that have rejected the Word of God cannot escape the delusion when it appeals to their own senses, but the Christian will be instructed as to the character of these manifestations. He expects that there will "arise false Christs and false prophets, that will show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if 't were possible, they should deceive the very elect." Matt. xxiv. 24.

The Word of God gives decided instruction to those who will hear: "And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To THE LAW AND TO THE TESTIMONY: if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them." Isa viii. 19, 20.

"A Witness to All Nations. Babylon Is Fallen" The Present Truth 19, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

"Aso there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication."

This message follows the message of the first angel, so that this will also go to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people. It is a part of the everlasting Gospel, but it has a special significance in view of the fact that the time has come for the closing work of the Gospel.

What is Babylon? It is spoken of several times in the Book of Revelation as a great city. "And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cap of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath." Rev. xvi. 19. The original Babylon was a great city, so that it would be fitting to represent a city by that name.

Again in the seventeenth chapter, we ead of a woman arrayed in purple and scarlet, on whose forehead was a name written, "MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." This woman is said by the angel to be "that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth." Verse 18.

No one earthly city can be said to be the mother of the abominations of the earth. Some have been eminent in iniquity, but it would not be possible to trace all abominations beak to any one of them. When Babylon the Great is destroyed, in her is found every evil, and every deed of blood. "In her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth." Rev. xviii. 24. All the pities of the nations are more or less the offspring of Babylon the Great, and when she comes in remembrance before God, the cities of the nations fall with her, but they are only subjects.

We read in the Book of Isaiah of the king of Babylon, and find that he is Satan. Once he was Lucifer, son of the morning, now he is king of Babylon, prince of darkness. Isa. xiv. From what we know of the king, we may judge of the kingdom. Babylon the Great is the kingdom of Satan.

The spirit of Satan is the spirit of the kingdom. Self-exaltation was his ruin. "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will second into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation on the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit." Isa xiv. 12-15.

The very attempt to raise self cast Lucifer down from where God had placed him. In seeking to rise, he fell. If he had sought to humble himself he would have risen. Christ, whom Lucifer envied, thought it not a thing to be tenaciously grasped, that He should be equal with God. He gave up all and humbled Himself to the death of the cross; wherefore He is highly exalted. Phil. ii. 5-11.

This spirit of Satan has always been the characteristic, and the destruction, of Babylon. In the very beginning of the kingdom it was await. The builders of Babel said, "Let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest ye be scattered abroad." Gen. xi. 4. It was while their ambitious hearts were planning thus for their own greatness that the Lord came down and frustrated their purpose by confounding their language. "So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth; and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel." Verses 8, 9.

On that very site Babylon was built. The same spirit was strong in her, but again it brought a fall. It was while Nebuchadnezzar was glorifying himself, and boasting, "Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty," even while the words were in his mouth, that a voice fell, from heaven, "O King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken: The kingdom is departed from thee." Dan. iv. 30, 31.

Nebuchadnezzar humbled himself and his kingdom was restored; but Belshazzar forgot the lesson, and while he feasted and glorified himself, his kingdom was divided and given to the Medes and Persians.

Once more, when Babylon the Great is drunk with power and earthly glory, when her sinful ambitions are all realised, when all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, then in her hour of triumph falls once again a voice from heaven, "Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partaken of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have

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reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double." Rev. xviii. 2-8.

In the message of the second angel we learn that, to all outward appearance, Babylon is prospering greatly. All nations are serving her. Her triumph seems assured. Opposition seems hopeless. Yet God's servants are to declare aloud, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen." It is when Babylon triumphs that she falls.

We should never be discouraged when evil seems to be victorious. "When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever." Ps. scii. 7. So God's servants are to declare boldly, notwithstanding all, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen."

It was when Babylon fell that Israel went free. Babylon is fallen: therefore it has no power to hold its captives. The message, "Babylon is fallen," is a strong, emphatic call to the prisoners of Satan, to go forth and stand in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free. It means to proclaim deliverance to the captives, the opening of the prison to them that are bound, and to those who join in the message, it means the experience that belongs to such a cry,-"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek." Isa. Ixi. 1.

That there are prisoners still in Babylon is clear from Rev. xviii. 4, where the Lord calls upon His people to come out of her and escape her fate. Satan has no power over them. It is Christ who holds the keys of death and the grave. The power of Satan is his power to deceive, the power of blinding the eyes, the power of darkness, but the man who walks in the light will not be in darkness, and Satan will not have power over him. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." James iv. 7.

The message of the second angel goes with the everlasting Gospel, to eat men perfectly free from Satan's power. It means entire deliverance from every yoke of bondage. It means having power over all the power of the enemy. Satan has bound many, as he bound the woman who was bowed down by a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years (Luke xiii. 16), but this message will give deliverance from all such bondage to all who will take it by faith.

While Satan appears to be triumphing in the earth, while the churches unite with the world in rejecting the law of God and denying the faith of Christ, believers will with gladness and confidence declare the glad tidings that Babylon is fallen. Many a captive will hear the message and go free.

"The Editor's Private Corner. Christ and Vegetarianism" The Present Truth 19, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

I have been exceedingly blessed by reading the Editor's Corner. I should like you to enlighten me in your Corner about vegetarianism from the Bible. I should like to be a non-flesh eater, but I am confused about 1 Tim. iv. 3, also, John xxi. 13, Luke xxiv. 41-43, Matt. xv. 38, and 1 Cor. vi. 13.

The texts quoted from the Gospels refer to Christ's eating fish and feeding others with the same. The passages in Paul's epistles do not necessarily refer to flesh food at all. The word "meat" simply means food. It is translated "victuals" in Matt. xiv. 15, and means manna in 1 Cor. x. 3. We know that there was no flesh food in the "spiritual meat" that Israel ate in the wilderness. The old use survives in the word "sweetmeat," which has no connection with flesh food.

If you will read carefully Paul's words to Timothy, you will see that the seducing spirits will command men to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving. He goes on to say that every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer.

Whatever false doctrine is referred to here, either past or future, the words certainly cannot apply to those who practise and teach a return to the diet which was provided for man at his creation, the fruits of the earth. If anything was created to be received with thanksgiving, it was this class of food, which is distinctly sanctified or set apart by the word of God. Gen. i. 29. You will notice also that these fruits are spoken of at the beginning as man's meat.

On the other hand, it is equally clear that Christ partook of fish and fed others with it.

This is no reason why we should turn from a diet of fruits, grains and nuts and live on fish. Christ came to this earth in our flesh. He was made in all things like unto His brethren. He came as near to men as possible. He made Himself one with them in eating and drinking and social relations, so far as He could, and yet do His work. He came to save from sin, and He did not permit this work of reform to be obscured by minor questions. He might perhaps have opened up more of the treasures of knowledge if men had been more ready to receive His message of deliverance from sin. When they stumbled at that, it was no time to talk of minor matters. Christ would not raise any question concerning His own way of living that could draw the mind from thinking of Him as the Saviour from sin.

Here is a lesson for us. If we see that a natural diet is the will of God for man, and adopt each ourselves, we are to take care that our advocacy of such a diet does not in any way hinder the more important work of revealing Christ as a Saviour from sin. If we lack His Spirit, even the reforms we urge will destroy souls. God has given men permission to eat flesh, without the blood. Gen. ix. 3, 4. Christ ate it, and whoever says that flesh eating is a sin condemns Christ.

The Spirit of God has given us this instruction: "Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him." Rom. xiv. 3.

Unfortunately for a good cause, many who embrace vegetarianism condemn those that eat flesh food, and thus separate themselves from the Spirit of Christ. Any work of reform that has lost the spirit of love for others is an unprofitable parade of human vanity. "Let us not therefore judge one another any more; but judge

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this rather, that no man put a stumbling-block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way." "It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak." Verses 13, 21.

If we realise that the associations of the slaughterhouse and other features connected with the traffic, in flesh food, are detrimental to those engaged in them; that men are suffering in body and mind as the result of ignorance of proper and natural food; that many diseases, like cancer and rheumatism, are largely due to the use of flesh foods; that the use of stimulating flesh foods is a natural cause of the craving for strong drink which is destroying thousands; and that the food provided for Adam is available now in sufficient quantity and quality to make animal products almost or altogether unnecessary; then it will be right to throw our own influence and example into the work of diet reform, not in condemning others for what they eat, but in a humble, loving, self-sacrificing effort to remove every stumbling-block from our brother's way.

"The Children. The Child of Promise" The Present Truth 19, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

Abraham and Sarah had been looking for the little son God had promised them, and when at last he was born, their hearts were filled with joy. They called him Isaac, which meant "laughter," for Sarah said, "God hath made me to laugh, and all that hear will laugh with me." The parents knew that the gladness which, had come into their lives with the birth of their little son was to reach to the ends of the earth, for God had said to Abraham, "I will bless thee, and make thee a blessing, and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." We belong to the families of the earth, so we know that the blessing of Abraham is for us through Jesus Christ. For He is the promised Seed. Isaac was the one through whom the Seed should come.

As he grew up, Isaac was taught of the wonderful promises God had made, and the part he was to have in them. He prayed that God would make him a blessing as He had promised.

Isaac had grown to be a big boy, when one day, God spoke to Abraham, saying, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou loved, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him for a burnt-offering." It was a strange command. What could it mean? Abraham did not know, but he had learned to trust God. Though his heart was full of grief at the thought of killing his son, he "rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and went to the plane of which God had told him."

They arrived there after a journey of three days, and Abraham said to his young men, "Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder, and worship, and come again to you." Abraham expected to bring Isaac back with him. He remembered the promise, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called," and knew that the same power of God by which Isaac had been born could raise him even from the dead. Isaac might die, but God's word was stronger than death.

Isaac did not know at first that he was to be the sacrifice. He said to his father, "'Behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?' And Abraham said, 'My son, God will provide Himself a lamb.' So they went both of them together."

They came to the place of which God had spoken. The altar was built the wood laid in order upon it, and then Isaac learned that he was the lamb.

Without a murmur, he allowed himself to be bound and laid upon the altar; for he loved and honoured his father and had faith in God. He knew of the promises God had spoken concerning him, and was willing to lay down his life if by that means the blessing would come. He had given himself to Jesus, and in his heart was the Spirit of Jesus "who gave Himself for our sins" that we might be saved.

As Abraham stretched forth his hand to slay his son, the angel of the Lord called to him and said, "Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me." And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns, and Abraham took the ram and offered him for a burnt-offering in the stead of his son."

With what glad hearts Abraham and Isaac went home together. They loved each other even better than they had done before, because they had learned more of the goodness of God. For after this, Abraham understood better what it cost God to give His only begotten Son to do for sinners, and Isaac knew more of what it meant to lay down his life for others as Jesus did.

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

In the days before the flood men lived to be very much older than they do now. The man who lived longest of all was Methuselah. His father was Enoch, the man who walked with God, and was taken by God to heaven.

Methuselah was grandfather to Noah, and helped him to build the ark. Methuselah did not live to see the flood, for he had become a very old man. He died the year the flood came, having lived for nine hundred and sixty-nine years.

God does not want His children to die. Sin brought death, but Jesus came to the world and died for us that we might live for ever. Methuselah's life seems to as a very long one because sin has so shortened the lives of men. Seventy years seems a long time to live now.

The life that Jesus gives to those who love Him, will never end. That life will not be lived in a world of sin and suffering as was Methuselah's, but in the earth made new. There we shall see the wonderful tree of life on which grows a different kind of fruit every month, and whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.

There no one will ever say "I am sick." "And God shall wipe all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away."

Methuselah lived in a time of great wickedness. All the people were corrupt, and the earth was filled with violence. But in the new earth there will be peace. "The meek shall inherit the earth."

"Jottings" The Present Truth 19, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

The medical officer of health for Aberdeen directs attention to the growing use of methylated spirit as an intoxicant.

The Cape to Cairo railway is now making rapid progress. The line has been carried 200 miles north of Bulawayo, and some seventy miles south of the Victoria Falls.

There is a movement on foot to relieve the congestion in towns by establishing "garden cities" in rural districts. It is hoped that sufficient manufacturers will move their factories to such places to provide employment for the residents. A Limited Company has been formed and the shares have been well taken up, so that the idea will at least have a trial.

Terrific thunder-storms all over Italy have wrought immense damage to crops. Deaths from falling meteorites are reported. The daughter of a leading lawyer at Treviso was killed by a meteorite which burnt through the roof of the family dwelling. The Ferrara railway station had its roof blown clean off, and the leaden cupola of the town hall was carried by the wind a distance beyond the city.

A saloon-keeper in Arizona, who has just died, had adopted no fewer than ninety barmaids as his daughters, a law having come into force forbidding the employment of women "other than the landlord's family" in retailing drink. This is an illustration of how human laws may be evaded, and of what little value they are to temperance reform. Probably a great deal of energy was put into the securing of the law by devoted temperance workers, who might have done permanent good by other methods.

Interesting experiments have been made at Windsor for the purpose of minimising the dust occasioned by motor-car and other traffic. The agent employed is the invention of a German chemist. The section which had been treated was absolutely free from dust, though cabs, carts, and motor-cars raced over it. It is estimated that roads require to be treated from five to eight times a year, the cost being half a farthing per square yard.

The German Oriental Society publishes an interesting report of Egyptian excavations, principally among the ruined graves of Greeks who settled in Egypt, previous to the time of Alexander the Great. Numerous vessels of alabaster were found, containing ointments, each vessel being marked with the name of its particular unguent. In some graves incredible quantities of food were found, almonds, raisins, dates, pomegranates, and entire loaves of bread, eggs, planes of flesh stewed in pots, etc. In almost every were the dead were supplied with ample provision for their journey into the unknown. A pair of strong shoes and a walking-stick were also found in nearly every grave. The belief in the immortality of the soul, and existence after death, had its home in Egypt so far as it can be traced.

Nine novels recently published in America had a total sale of 1,600,000 copies. It is estimated that to produce the necessary paper 4,000 trees had to be out down. What a shocking waste of good material.

A Sunday-School Convention is to be held in Jerusalem next April. The Sunday-School Union will take a party there and back at an individual cost of thirty guineas. The meetings will be held in large tents erected outside the city walls near Calvary.

In Finland the percentage of young Finns who have presented themselves this year for conscription is much larger than last year, owing to the rigorous action taken by the Russian military authorities to ensure their appearance. The land is swarming with spies and informers, encouraged by money and other rewards to give their services. The Russian censor has been at work on the public libraries of Finland revising the catalogues.

So much has been written lately about American degrees, conferred on English clergymen, and the refusal of Mr. F. B. Meyer to use a degree conferred on him, that clergymen are beginning to relinquish their American honours. Two Congregational ministers were notified that their names would not appear in the Year Book unless they dropped the degrees, which they decided to do. How can ministers teach others to despise the glory of this world when they themselves set such store by honours received from men?

Dr. Lorenz, the eminent Austrian physician, at a banquet given in his honour in New York, declined to drink wine. This caused someone to ask him if he were a total abstainer, and he replied: "I cannot say that I am a Temperance agitator, but I am a surgeon. My success depends upon my brain being clear, my muscles firm, and my nerves steady. No one can take alcoholic liquors without blunting these physical powers which I must always keep on edge. As a surgeon I most not drink."

The prevalent idea that agriculture will not support a large population was shown at the British Association's meeting to be without foundation. One speaker said that the rents obtainable for agricultural land on the Continent were far larger than in England, and this was due to the fact that on the Continent technical education had made so marked an impression on agricultural methods that land in some cases was yielding a hundredfold of what might be called the normal output of the soil, and thus products of the suburbs of Paris were actually sold in Covent Garden.

The "Causes of Failure in Spiritual Work" were discussed by the recent Ministerial Conference at Oxford. The Rev R. J. Campbell summed up the causes as vanity, interested motives, idleness, the false pulpit-dialect, and the craving to be great preachers rather than soul-winners and soul-builders. Mr. W. R. Lane pointed out that if spiritual work fails it is because spiritual life has failed first. Rev. Joseph Hocking spoke of going round the pulpits of London searching for hints and inspiration and finding great disappointment from two reasons-preachers evidently aimed at the "good sermon" instead of the message to the needs of the people; and their words too often seemed to be backed up by no earnest conviction.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

A lady writes asking for the united prayers of our readers on behalf of a commercial traveller who has been out of employment for two years, that he may find work. He has a wife and three children, and is losing faith and heart. Let us pray for him that his faith fail not, and that God will supply all his need.

"If a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God?" At a recent Ministerial Conference held at Oxford, a lady principal of a college gave a deeply interesting speech on "the Religious Training of Children of the Free Churches," declaring, from her own experience, how little the children of ministers know of the Bible.

A girl of ten, the daughter of a minister, knew nothing whatever of Joseph, Samuel, or David. A girl of sixteen the grand-daughter of a minister, was asked what Jesus did in Nazareth (on the occasion of the Book being handed to Him and His expounding from Isaiah). Her answer was, "Jesus visited Nazareth to see the Virgin Mary, to tell her she should have a son, whose name should be John the Baptist." Some laughter followed, but Miss Condor said it was rather subject for tears. "Talk to your father," she said to another girl about some spiritual difficulty. "I should never dream of speaking to my father on such subjects," was the reply.

The speaker called on the ministers present not to neglect their own homes in teaching others. When such a change as this can be brought against the ministry, there is tillle cause for wonder at the advancement of infidel teaching.

A missionary in Japan writes to The Christian that experience in that country his shown that "so-called liberal Christianity" with its "destructive teaching," has been found incompatible with spiritual and helpful missionary work.

Theories that are being tolerated in the homeland are ruinous to an alarming extent when introduced into a land where Christianity is only beginning to be established.

But these unbelieving theories are just as ruinous in England as they are anywhere else, and that they are not so regarded is the most alarming feature of all. Such theories may take longer in doing their work here, and thus avoid giving alarm, but the ruinous results are just as sore.

Christ taught us to pray to "our Father," and not to pray in order to be heard of men. This applies as much to public prayer as to private. In a paper on "The Preacher in Prayer," Dr. P. T. Forsyth declared public prayer to be the most difficult portion of a preacher's work, and he always advised others to use pulpit notes for prayer, not surreptitiously, but letting their congregations know what they were doing. He warned them, however, from one danger accruing therefrom-a too literary phraseology.

If a man desires anything, he will know what to ask for, and the more earnestly he desires it, the clearer will be his petition. We are not heard in heaven for our much speaking. Imagine a child coming to its parent, when it wants something to eat, with a slip of paper on which it has made notes of its requirements, or with a printed form of request. Any parent would conclude that the child was not very hungry, but only "pretending," especially if its appeal for food was couched in high-flown language long drawn out. How then will the Heavenly Father feel when His children pray, if they are more concerned about the language they employ than filled with an intense desire for the gifts He has to bestow on them?

The article on Spiritualism in this issue speaks of the fact that with many it is supplanting the Word of God. Here is a proof of this. A writer for young men in the current number of the Methodist Times, advising them how to meet the agnostic Haeckel, says:-

The best, and it seems to me unanswerable, modern argument to such mere materialists as Haeckel is, "Human Personality and Its Survival of Death" (F. W. H. Myers). In these works actual experiment reveals facts for which no materialistic explanation is discoverable, and to which a spiritual faith gives an explanation.

When it is borne in mind that Mr. Myers' book proves the survival of the human personality in death by the receiving of communications from the supposed spirits of the dead, we can see how religious teachers are welcoming Spiritualism. This book helped to convince the gentleman from whose writings we quote in the article. When men, who ought to be exposing its errors, recommend Mr. Myers' book as the best answer to infidelity, how long will it be before their pupils are swallowed up in the deception of Spiritualism?

A letter received this week, from one who has been reading the PRESENT TRUTH, expresses approval of our calling attention to the Sabbath, but goes on to speak of "desecrating Sunday, thus breaking the Fourth Commandment." We endeavour to make as clear as possible the teaching of God's Word with regard to the Sabbath, but we find nothing whatever in that Word that connects the Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment with Sunday.

The Sabbath is the rest of the Lord. It was shared by God with Adam at the close of the creation week, and was kept by the people of God as a memorial of His Creative power, and a sign of the rest that God provided for them. Ezek. xx. 19. When God proclaimed the everlasting principles of His righteousness from Mount Sinai, spoken with His own voice, and written by His own hand, the Sabbath was among them. While Israel honoured God's Sabbath, they prospered, but when they neglected it, evil overtook them. If they had kept the Sabbath as they should, Jerusalem would have stood for ever. Jer. xvii. 24, 25.

When Christ came He honoured the Sabbath, said that He was the Lord of it, and, so far from hinting at any change in the Sabbath, He instructed His disciples to pray that their flight from Jerusalem, which would not come for another forty years, should not be on the Sabbath. Matt. xxiv. 20. In the Acts of the Apostles we read over and over again of the Sabbath. The Holy Spirit has always applied this term to the seventh day of the week, usually called Saturday, and that is why we use the word "Sabbath" in the Bible sense. The only sacred day mentioned in the Scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation, is the seventh day.

Sunday has no commotion whatever with any of the circumstances which make the seventh day holy. God has never spoken of it as a sacred day. Men have tried to exalt themselves above God, and have appointed a sabbath of their own, rejecting the day sanctified by God; but those who do honest work on Sunday are not violating any commandment of God. They may be violating the traditions of men, but there is no sin in doing this. The sin is in violating the commandment of God by working on His rest day, the seventh day of the week, and of this sin nearly the whole world is guilty. God does not condemn those who sin in ignorance, but He is causing the truth to shine forth, and He does expect His people, when they learn the truth, to walk in the light, and cease to honour the traditions of men before His own command. It is true that obedience to the commandment tests the faith severely, but what good is a faith that cannot be tested?

October 1, 1903

"Light for the Blind. John xii. 37-50" The Present Truth 19, 40.

E. J. Waggoner

Jesus had finished His public preaching. His lash message was: "While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light." After this He departed, "and did hide Himself from them." The few hours that remained to Him were spent in instructing His disciples.

"But though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on Him." The words of Isaiah were now His own, "Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?"

What was the matter with Israel? They had men the glory of God as it had never been revealed before. Sickness and death and evil spirits had recognised the Lord of all and obeyed His voice, but His own children received Him not. He had spoken as never man spake, but His words fell on ears that did not hear: His life had revealed the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, but Israel saw no beauty that they should desire Him. His words and deeds of love should have appealed to their hearts, but their hearts were gross and they understood Him not. The light had shone, and the night came on apace, but still His people were not healed.

Some believed on Him, but their very belief made their case more hopeless, for there was no life in their faith. "Among the chief rulers also many believed on Him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God." One glimpse of Him as He was would have set them free, but they only saw through selfish eyes. The murmur of human praise and blame was sounding in their ears, and it deadened the call of their Saviour. Their hearts were fall of pride and ambition, and these kept out the influence of the meek and lowly One.

Even if Israel had received the Lord, and acknowledged Him, they were in no condition to appreciate His work. They had been willing to receive Him at first, and tried by force to make Him a king, but as it began to dawn upon them that His kingdom was not of this world, they drew back. They hated the light, and would not come to it because it laid open their sinful hearts. As they rejected light, they went farther into the darkness.

There was only one way to save Israel and God took that way. He blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts so that they could not believe. Their confidence had been in the arm of flesh, and God handed them over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. 1 Cor, v. 5. They were led captive by Satan at his will, and, under his control, they crucified the Lord of life, and desired a murderer to be granted unto them. It was the hour of the power of darkness. Luke xxii. 53. Satan was entering into men. John xiii. 37. Under Satanic influence men became demons and thirsted for the blood of the Holy One. They heaped upon Him every insult and inflicted on Him every species of torture, until they killed Him.

Then they could see what spirit they were of. They were convicted of their sin on the day of Pentecost, and the hearts that had been gross and heavy were prinked with an intolerable sense of guilty shame. They cried out in agony for forgiveness, and, humbled to the dust, crept for shelter to the cross their sin had

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uplifted. When Israel lost all confidence in themselves, God's Spirit gave them sight and hearing that they never could have had with their own eyes and ears. These had deceived them, and every man who, like them; judges Christ and His work by his human eyes and ears and heart will be deceived as they were, and, like them, will crucify the Lord of glory.

"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." Most people apply these words to the future world, but they are just as true in this life. Paul says that this is why the princes of this world crucified the Lord of glory, and declares that even now, although human senses are powerless to apprehend divine things, "God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit."

"For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him; even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." 1 Cor. ii. 8-12. In order that men may not place a mistaken confidence in human power to make known God, He has not chosen the wise after the flesh, the mighty and the noble, for His messengers, but He has chosen the foolish things of the world, the base, and the things which are despised among men, that there might be no room for any glorying in flesh. 1 Cor. i. 25-29.

The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. It was when Christ was rejected and slain that He triumphed. As long as men were following Him, applauding His sayings, and His mighty works, desiring Him for their king, He seemed powerless to help them. They misunderstood all His teaching. When they had murdered Him, He had a new hold on them. He showed them at once both the greatness of His unconquerable love and the blackness of their own hearts. They saw with new eyes. At last they understood Him and they understood themselves.

It has been the same in the history of the church. What Christians have not been able to do by their toil and effort, they have accomplished by laying down their lives. The blood of the martyrs has been the seed of the church.

The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. By the cross Christ overcame, and the carnal indifference of men can only be conquered by spiritual lives, revealing afresh the dying of the Lord Jesuit. It is natural to crave for the outward tokens of success in Christian work, but God works in ways that are despised by men. The cross, which is the power of God to faith, is foolishness and a stumblingblock to the wise of this world.

We need not be deceived as Israel was. If we set Jesus Christ continually before us and seek for spiritual anointing, our eyes will be opened. While we receive His Word as a quickening power, our ears will not be heavy. But God'sservant must be blind and deaf toward earth if his eyes and ears are to be open toward heaven. He must either be of the earth earthy, or of heaven, heavenly.

God is still seeding forth His Word, His commandment, which is life everlasting, but it is falling again upon deaf men and blinded eyes. Many see that God's Word rebukes their lives, that they are not keeping His spiritual Sabbath which teaches them to trust only in God, but honouring the works of the flesh in obeying rather the commandment of men. Many believe the Word in their hearts, but their eyes are on the synagogue out of which they will be thrust if they venture to differ from others, on the situation they fear to lose if they do not work on the seventh day. They have heard the commandment of God, but they are listening rather to the myriad human voices, the traditions of the elders, the theories of ministers, the counsels of worldly wisdom. They are treading again the path that Israel trod. Their feet are wandering from the way of life and drawing near the darkness where Satan has control of men. "Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have the light believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light."

"The flesh profiteth nothing." Jesus said, "He that believeth on Me, believeth not on Me, but on Him that sent Me. And He that seeth Me, seeth Him that sent Me." God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. Christ knew the Father, and His one ambition was to be God's messenger, to give to others the word which God commanded Him to speak. That word was His own life, for He lived by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God, and He gave it to others, as life everlasting.

The Word would save everyone who received it, and those who rejected it must answer to it at the last day. Christ was sent with the Word to save, not to judge, only to give light that men should not abide in the darkness. The man who rejects light has condemned himself to be in darkness.

When the rejecters of God's Word come to the judgment of the great day, it is the Word they have heard and despised that condemns them. They have forfeited eternal life, and when they long for it exceedingly, they see that it was they who cut themselves off from it by not receiving the Word that brought it to them as a free gift. The service of Christ, the joy of the redeemed, a home in heaven, the companionship of the angels, all appeal to them as they never thought they could, but all these they deliberately rejected when they turned from the Word of Christ. Now their portion is in the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

"A Witness to All Nations. The Beast and His Mark" The Present Truth 19, 40.

E. J. Waggoner

"And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any mau worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation." Rev. xiv. 9, 10.

The message of the third angel follows that of the first and of the second, to all parts of the earth, and closes up the preaching of the everlasting Gospel. The next event in the prophecy is the coming of the Lord. Verse 14.

The message of the second angel shows that Babylon has reached a high pinnacle of power, and the message following shows that there is a direct conflict at this time between Babylon and God.

Every man will be called on to decide whom he will serve. If he elects to obey God, he must be prepared to face the wrath of the dragon: if he decides to worship the beast, he must drink of the unmixed wrath of God.

Who is the beast, and what is his mark? Without going into the prophecy in detail, we can ascertain sufficient to answer these questions.

In the twelfth chapter of Revelation, we read of the great dragon, and learn that he is Satan. Verse 9. In the thirteenth chapter we find a beast with great power and authority, which he receives from the dragon. In the eleventh verse we read of another power, lamb-like in appearance, but betraying his connection with the dragon as soon as he opens his mouth. This power so deceives the people of the earth that they are beguiled into doing again, themselves, what Satan had before done in making the first beast. They make an image to the beast.

Thus we have three powers closely connected. The dragon is the origin and father of the beast, and the image of the beast is, of course, exactly like the beast. As soon as the image receives life it reveals the characteristics of the beast. All work together in perfect unison.

Notice that while the dragon is the father of the beast, both work together during a long period of time. A certain number of years is mentioned as a time

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when they especially oppress the church of God. In Rev. xii. 6, it is 1260 days; in verse 14, "a time and times and half a time"; in Rev. xiii. 5, "forty and two months." In the Jewish reckoning a time is a year. See Dan. xi. 13, margin; "at the end of times, even years." A time and times and half a time would be three and a half times, or years. This period is equal to forty-two months, or one thousand two hundred and sixty days, by the Jewish reckoning of thirty days to the month.

Now look at the seventh chapter of Daniel, and you will find the same power spoken of, doing the same work, and for the same length of time. This prophecy has been fulfilled most strikingly in the history of the Papacy.

But the prophecy shows that while the Papacy should at some time receive a deadly wound, this would be healed. The deadly wound has been inflicted, but to-day it is healing fast. Nor is this all. Not only will the beast recover from its wound, another beast of like nature will be formed, the very image of the first, and this will demand worship for itself upon pain of death.

We are living in solemn times. This last generation is to witness the final conflict, and those who would serve God and obey Him, must be prepared to look death in the face as our fathers have done many time in the ages past.

What is the mark of the beast? At the very time that this mark is to be enforced, God is marking His own. The winds of strife are held until the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads with the seal of the living God. Rev. vii. 2, 3.

The conflict between the beast and the servants of God is no metaphysical hair-splitting. The issue is clear and definite. It is over the commandments of God. Commandment-keeping is the characteristic of God's servants. "The dragon was wroth, . . . and went to make war with the remnant . . . which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jeans Christ." Rev. xii. 17. Again, "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. xiv. 12. On the other hand, the characteristic of the beast is an attack on the commandments of God. "He opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle." Rev. xiii. 6. "And He shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time." Dan. vii. 25.

But where is there any chance of a conflict over the law of God? Remember that the beast is professedly Christian. The conflict comes over the fourth commandment. God commands us to keep the seventh day holy. The beast has thought to change the law of God, and to make the first day sacred. The world has obeyed the beast, but the time has come to return to God, and obey Him only.

What does God say about His seal?-"Verily My Sabbath ye shall keep: for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that cloth sanctify you." Ex. xxxi. 13.

What does the beast claim as its mark?-"The observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage which they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the [Roman Catholic] Church."

Sunday stands for the beast. It is a commandment of men, by which they think to make the commandment of God of none effect.

The Sabbath stands for the memorial of God's creative work, as manifested in making new creatures. More than that it stands for God's rest, into which only the believer can enter, when he ceases from his own works as God did from His. Heb. iv. 3, 4, 9, 10.

The Sunday is the mark of the Papacy, which puts man's work for God's. The Papacy gives us a woman as our chief intercessor in the place of Christ, traditions of the fathers instead of the Word of God, salvation from sin and purgatory by works and money and penance, a priest in the place of the Holy Spirit, and a rest-day appointed by men instead of the one appointed by God.

The Sabbath is the seal of God. True Sabbath-keeping means that man gives up his own way, and allows God to work in him; it means confidence in the power of God and not trusting in the flesh, obeying God's voice at any sacrifice, and following Him even if no one else does so.

When we see that Sunday stands so fitly and completely for the principles of the Papacy, we can understand the effort made by the image of the Papacy to compel everyone to receive the mark. He decrees "that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark."

Sunday-keeping does not become sinful until it is known to be the mark of the beast. Then it is treason to God to allow it longer to supersede His own commandment.

Even now, men who have no faith in God fear starvation if they should obey Him and keep His Sabbath. But the conditions will soon be harder still. Nevertheless there are many promises for the obedient, and God can care for His children, even in a desert.

While the conflict may centre around the Sabbath and the Sunday, it will embrace every principle represented by these. The Sabbath is the essence of a pure Gospel, justification by faith, and the righteousness of Christ revealed in human flesh: the Sunday is the essence of human perversion of the Word of God, the exaltation of the human above the Divine, and the labelling of hypocrisy and guilt with the titles of holiness and truth.

The strife will soon be here; the beast will seek to enforce its conditions upon us. Happy those who have made their choice, whose feet are treading the pathway of obedience to God, and who have learned that through trials and tests God's Word holds true. They will not quail before the threats of men. They will gain the victory over the beast and his image, and stand at length on the sea of glass, singing the song of Moses and the Lamb. Rev. xv. 2, 3.

"Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." Rev. xxii. 14.

"The Editor's Private Corner. The Last Generation" The Present Truth 19, 40.

E. J. Waggoner

"What is to be understood by the word "generation," as it is now nearly seventy years since the last of the signs mentioned in Matt. xxiv., the falling of the stars, occurred?"

The word generation in this chapter has the same meaning that is ordinarily attached to it. We speak sometimes of the average length of a generation, and this is about thirty years at the present time, but Christ was speaking of the generation itself, not of its average length.

There were to be signs in the sun and moon and stars. The first two were given in 1780, in New England, where they abundantly fulfilled their purpose. Men were convinced that the sign promised by Christ had been given, and believed that the judgment day was at hand. Scientific writers acknowledged that they could not account for the darkness by natural causes.

A great fall of stars was the third sign, and this was given in 1833. It was seen over a large part of the earth's surface. Concerning this sign, it is not necessary to say much. In November, 1899, scientists predicted that there would be another great fall. They stated that the stars fell in vast numbers every thirty-three years, and based the statement on the fact that most wonderful falls had been seen in 1833 and 1866. All will remember that for a few days in November, 1899, the newspapers had a great deal to say on the subject of falling stars, and large numbers sat up all night when the fall was due. It will also be in the memory of all that the stars did not fall that night, and thus it was made clear that the explanation of science was wrong, that the great fall of 1833 was not a regular occurrence, but was the sign promised by Christ. It had been so accepted in 1833, and the experience of 1899 confirmed it.

The next thing to take place will be the shaking of the powers of the heavens, and the appearance of the sign of the Son of man in heaven. Matt. xxiv. 30. These phenomena, however, will not be in the nature of signs. They belong to the event of which the signs give warning. Hence we may conclude that the tokens in the heavens promised by Christ, to serve as signs, were finished in 1833.

Now is the time to learn a parable of the fig tree. When its leaves are put forth, it is a sign that summer is at hand.

So when we have seen all these things, we may know that the coming of the Lord is near, even at the doors.

The people who are thus in a position to know that the end is near may be assured of one thing more, and that is that they have reached the generation which will not pails away until all things are fulfilled. That means that people who were alive in 1833 will be alive when the Lord comes.

In your question you call attention to the fact that it is seventy years since the last sign was given, and this fact shows that the end must now be very near. The last generation is seventy years old. When a man reaches that age, we say that he has not long to live. This is true of the world. Every year that passes brings nearer the end that cannot long be delayed.

People who read this chapter Matt xxiv. carelessly, will sometimes say: We cannot know anything about the end. Christ believed it was at hand in His day, for He said, "This generation shall not pass until all things are fulfilled." But Christ was not speaking of the generation then living. He spoke of the generation that should have seen the signs.

Some say that Christ's coming cannot be near, or He would have come before this, it we had entered on the last generation seventy years ago. He does not come because His people are not ready for Him, He is at the door, but He tarries there in mercy. Those who profess His name would be destroyed it He came upon these and found them unready. His coming is death to those who obey not the Gospel. 2 Thess. i. 8.

By lives of obedience and loving service we may be hasten the coming of the Lord. 2 Peter ii. 11, 12. But if His people delay, He will not tarry always. His word has been pledged that He will come to the generation that was alive seventy years ago.

The world is laying its plans on the basis that all things will continue as they are. But it is time for all Christians to awake and watch, with their lamps trimmed and burning. There is a great work to be done. The Gospel of the kingdom must be preached in all the world for a witness. When Christ's people give themselves to Him to do His will and follow Him fully; when their means are withdrawn from selfish gratification and invested in the work of the Gospel, and their lives are devoted to His service, it will not be long before the glad message of the kingdom does its work and Christ appears to crown His saints with everlasting life.

"Children's Corner. A Selfish Brother" The Present Truth 19, 40.

E. J. Waggoner

Jacob were the two sons of Isaac. Esau was the elder son, and because of this the birthright belonged to him. This meant that he was the chief of his father's sons, and would receive a double portion of his father's property. Beside this, just before his death, the father gave to his eldest son a special blessing.

When the boys grew up Esau become a hunter. He was his father's favourite son. Jacob stayed at home and looked after the flocks. He was the favourite son of his mother.

One day Esau had been out hunting. He name home weary and taint with hunger. Jacob had been cooking a savoury stew made with lentils. It made Esau feel more hungry still to smell it, and he asked Jacob to give him some to eat.

Now Jacob at that time was a very selfish man. His name means "Supplanter," or one who pushed others out of the way to get all he could for himself. So he told Esau he would give him some of his stew if Esau would sell him the birthright in exchange. It was unkind of Jacob to act in this way. Jesus says, "If thine enemy hunger feed him," but Jacob refused to feed his brother unless he was paid for it. Esau was thoughtless, and did not value his birthright. He forgot it was God's gift, and much to be prized. He only remembered how hungry he felt. So he said, "Behold I am going to die, and what good shall this birthright be to me?" So Esau despised his birthright.

Poor Esau wandered farther and farther from God, and when he was forty years old took for his wives two women who worshipped idols. This was a great grief to his father and mother.

Years passed, and Isaac had become an old man. His eyes were so dim that he could not see. He did not know how much longer he might have to live, and before he died he wished to give Esau the blessing which belonged to him.

So he sent for Esau and said, "I am very old, I shall soon die. Now therefore take thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field and take me some venison; and make me savoury meat such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, that my soul may bless thee before I die." And Esau went.

Now Rebekah heard all that Isaac said to Esau. She wanted Jacob to have the blessing because he was her favourite son. She also remembered that God had said, "The elder shall serve the younger." She told Jacob he must pretend to be Esau. She sent him into the field to fetch two young goats, and said she would make with them savoury meat such as Isaac loved, and that Jacob must take it to his father as though he were Esau come back from his hunt.

Jacob wanted the blessing, but was afraid to do as his mother wished. He said, "Behold Esau my brother is a hairy man and I am a smooth man; my father will perhaps feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver, and I shall bring curse upon me and not a blessing." Rebekah answered, "Upon me be thy curse my son."

So Jacob fetched the goats, and his mother made savoury meat. Then she put the skins of the goats upon Jacob's hands, and upon the smooth part of his neck, made him dress in some of Esau's clothes, gave him the food she had prepared, and sent him in to his father. Jacob said, "I am Esau thy firstborn. Arise and eat of my venison that I have brought thee." Isaac felt sure it was the voice of Jacob, but when he felt the hairy skin of the goats on Jacob's hands and neck he said, "The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau." And he blessed Jacob.

Scarcely had Jacob gone out from his father when Esau came in, and Isaac found he had been deceived. He was greatly distressed, but he had given Jacob the blessing, and he could not take it back.

Esau was very angry. He said that as soon as his father was dead he would kill Jacob, and Rebekah heard him say it. She was alarmed, and made plans at once for Jacob to leave home. She had led her son into sin, now she must reap the fruits of what she had sown. She never saw Jacob again. Sin always brings trouble. If Rebekah had trusted God Jacob would have had the blessing, and there would have been no sorrow afterwards, for "the blessing of the Lord it maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow with it." It is always best to do right.

Next week we will see how Jacob got on after he left home.

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 40.

E. J. Waggoner

Nazareth was the city where Jesus lived when He was young. He lived there for many years till He had grown to be a man. All the people knew Him, but they did not know He was the Son of God.

Nazareth was a wicked place. It had a bad name, and one man said, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" That is why God chose it for the home of His Son. He wanted everybody to know that no one is too bad for Jesus to save them and dwell in them.

When Jesus was a man, He left Nazareth for a time. On His return, He went to church as usual on the Sabbath. There were many people present. When He stood up to read, all eyes were turned on Him. He told the people that God had sent Him to teach and help them. But they said, "Is not this Joseph's son?" They would not believe He was the Son of God.

As they listened and doubted, Satan put an evil thought in their hearts, and soon they grew so angry that they pushed Him out of the church and drove Him out of the city. They led Him to the top of a steep place, to throw Him down the hill and kill Him. But they could not for God took care of Him and saved His life.

With a heavy heart Jesus left them to go to another city. He could not teach them for they would not believe. How sad that they should send away their best friend! Do not let us send Jesus away as did the people of Nazareth, but let us say to Him,

"Come into my heart, Lord Jesus,

There is room in my heart for Thee."

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 40.

E. J. Waggoner

Aborigines have been discovered on a little-known island off the coast of Queensland who do not even make rude huts; but shelter themselves behind heaps of grass; they wear no clothes, and, though they live by the sea, they cannot make canoes, but go fishing on rafts made of a couple of logs tied together with grass.

A new revolving electric flash light is to replace the present half-a-million candle-power light at the Cornish signalling station known as the Lizard Light. The present light sheds rays visible twenty-five miles at sea. The new light will have a million candle-power, and the rays will cover a distance of between forty and fifty miles.

One of the largest concerns in the world has failed. Mr. Clergue has built up in Ontario, in connection with great water power works, pulp mills, the operation of nickel and iron ore mines, the building of docks, railways, and cities, also electro chemical works. He has been one of the giants in business enterprise and success. The investment of eight million pounds is lost, and 8,500 men are thrown out of employment.

In a discourse on Christian preaching, Canon Henson said that it was a very solemn thing, both for preachers and hearers. Sermons, of course, might be solemn for neither, but sermons had no necessary connection with Christian preaching, and unless common report were more than commonly untrustworthy, most modern sermons were no more than speeches well or ill uttered in pulpits: there was nothing religious in their motive, nothing religious in their effect. Men were amused, instructed, annoyed, bored by them as the case might be, but they carried no message of God, and the issues were not made manifest in any consciences. When preachers themselves are confessing that preaching is so often an empty, unprofitable form, surely it is time that people began to study the Word for themselves, to learn the mind of God. Fortunately God's message is there written by Himself, and suited to the understanding of children, so that men need not walk in darkness even when the pulpit gives them no help.

The pope has been guilty of "highly incorrect" conduct, so derogatory of the high-minded traditions of the Papacy that the Head Chamberlain, finding his entreaties and remonstrances in vain, "broke into loud sobbing and retired to his apartment, whilst a cardinal of noble extraction who happened to be calling at the Vatican drove off in a state of great irritation." The new pope, "defying all tradition, had invited his three sisters to dine at his own table." If only these cardinals, with such wonderful capacity for straining at gnats, would study the unclean records of the Pontificate in like spirit, they would find some occasion to break into "loud sobbing."

A sergeant in the German army has been sentenced to eight years' imprisonment and degradation to the ranks for cruelty to recruits extending over some years. It was proved that the number of separate cases of maltreatment exceeded 1,200. Of these fifteen were cases of shocking barbarity. In one case a recruit named Hill was driven to commit suicide, and in another ease a recruit attempted suicide. At the trial a deep impression was made by the unwillingness of witnesses to give evidence against their superiors, their terror being painful to observe. Such are the materials out of which the glory of this world is constructed.

The Medical Press calls attention to the common evil of giving little children an excess of sweets, and to a special danger connected with the cheap sugar which enters into their composition. It says, "The need of carbohydrates which exists in the human organism at an early period of life has been fully provided for by Nature, and yet fewer practices are more commonly seen, especially among the poor, than that of supplementing the natural supply by the entirely haphazard administration to infants of almost any sweet thing that can be obtained. . . . It is disquieting, therefore, to learn that there is a considerable quantity of chemically-manufactured and metallically-dressed suger upon the market, some of which is contaminated with chloride of tin, and that this is consumed by large numbers of infants. . . . To those who have studied the human organism and its requirements, it is a poor omen for the health of the people that sweet shops are multiplying so fast. There is probably nothing that makes so much fermentation in the stomach, and consequent dyspepsia, as the free use of sugar. The system needs sugar, but it can manufacture this for itself out of any starchy food that is thoroughly chewed. The sugar of commerce will not take the place of this, but interferes with the digestive processes.

Last week the Great Assembly Hall, Mile End Road, celebrated a unique occasion-namely, the completion of ten thousand consecutive nights of Gospel work. During this time about 70,000 pledges had been taken, and a recent development of this department is the purchase of a temperance island, not far from London, where, as one of the speakers put it, "If a man wants a drink, he will have to swim four miles to get it." Great hopes are entertained of this scheme.

Ian Maclaren (Dr. John Watson), addressing the students of Bristol Baptist College, said that unless God should send some great revival, the outlook was a dark one.

"No serious person, whether he be religious or non-religious, could look out upon society in our day without being depressed and alarmed. There was a general unsettlement both of belief and institutions; a weariness of the present and an uncertainty about the future-a lowering of ideals and a slackening of energy; an exhausted atmosphere in which it was difficult to breathe."

Dr. Campbell Morgan thinks that the free air of the United States is not suited to the growth of Roman Catholicism. He has said that "the spirit of freedom has so permeated Roman Catholicism that he would not be surprised to see a complete rupture between the Roman Catholics of America and the great mother church. He had himself met a priest returning after a visit to Europe, and found the man broken-hearted at what he had seen, especially in Rome-wishing with all his heart that he had never come into contact with the actualities, and that Rome had remained to him an ideal." But the evil of the Papacy does not consist in the nominal subjection to Rome. It is in the principles of the Papacy, and if these shall culminate among American Catholics in a refusal to acknowledge any but an American pope, nothing of worth will be gained by such a step.

At the feast of St. Januarius in Naples, the customary miracle of liquefying the clotted blood of the saint was worked by the priests. There was some delay beyond the usual hour, "and a strong guard of city firemen and gendarmes had to be summoned into the sacred edifies to prevent St. Januarius from being maltreated by an impatient mob of fanatical devotees. When at length the matter inside the crystal vase began to bubble and foam to the neck of the vessel, hysterical shrieks of satisfaction broke forth from the bystanders."

The "miracle" and the mob were well matched. There is a day of reckoning coming for the priests who by such tricks gain control of superstitious minds. Then it will be they who will be in danger of being maltreated by an impatient mob. In France the Church of Rome sowed the wind, and in the days of the Revolution the clergy reaped the whirlwind.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 40.

E. J. Waggoner

In the message that will prepare a people for the coming of the Lord, the glad tidings of full forgiveness must have a prominent place. The call is: "Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she bath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins." Isa. xl. 2.

When John the Baptist was raised up to do such a work, to prepare the way of the Lord, it was said of him: "And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest; for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways; to give knowledge of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God." Luke i. 76-78.

It is evident from these passages that preparation to meet the Lord consists in becoming acquainted with Him. It is because men do not know His salvation and His tender mercy that they do not love Him and long for His personal presence. If they knew Him, they would respond, like John, to the word, "Surely, I come quickly," by saying, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." It is sin that separates man from God, and blinds the mind to His glory. But although men have set themselves against God, He has only "tender mercy" for them, and He charges His ambassadors to declare salvation to all and say that the iniquity is pardoned.

"God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." 2 Cor. v. 19. The world does not know that tt is reconciled unto God, and that its trespasses are not imputed unto it. But this is the message God sends to men by His witnesses. It is to be declared far and near, that all flesh may see the salvation of God. Luke iii. 6.

When God forgives sin He puts His own righteousness in its place. The man who accepts the forgiveness gets the righteousness which displaces the sin, and is at one with God. We cannot fulfil God's righteousness or deliver ourselves from our sin, but we can accept the forgiveness that is freely offered, and thus allow God to reveal His salvation in us. "For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Cor. v. 21.

A letter received from a PRESENT TRUTH reader at Singapore tells of discouragements placed in the way of mission workers by Europeans. While missionaries are teaching the true God, other Europeans are exalting the native religions, The Straits Times, of Aug. 8, says :-

The sacred hocks of the Sikhs have been translated into English by Mr. Macauliffe, who is going to Europe to see the work through the press. Before leaving India he delivered lectures on the Sikhs and their religion at Simla, and took the ground that the Government should encourage the Sikh religion because of the warlike spirit it imparts to its adherents.

Such expressions are eagerly seized by the natives as acknowledgments of the superiority of heathenism, but a Christian worker ought not to be discouraged when a false religion is recommended as suitable for strife and murder, either private or official.

Dr. Campbell Morgan is a strong advocate for the personal study of the Word of God. He places this second to nothing in importance to the Christian. Speaking recently on "How to Study the Bible," he said:-

No man can study the Word of God until he has learned that he needs for every part of it the guidance of the great Author; while the law of advance in the study of Scripture is the law of obedience to all light already received. There must be willingness to learn and readiness to work. We can never know the Word of God save as we are prepared to put it into practice.

We must (1) read the Bible, (2) examine it, and (3) meditate upon it-not only think but being the life into the light of the thing discovered. Let the student take a single book, read it again and again until he has got a clear idea of the argument, analyse and examine. Then each section should be taken more minutely in the same fashion; and lastly, the book must be taken word for word until the structure and purpose of each has been appreciated. Then there ought to follow prayerful meditation.

If this excellent instruction were heeded by Christians, it would vastly change the condition of the churches. Very little would be heard then of the "Higher Criticism," for the "Highest" would have taken its place. A "critic" is one who is skilled in judging of merit, and such Bible study as this would reveal beauties in the Word that are little suspected now.

A great superstructure of speculation has been built upon the theory of evolution, but it remains a theory still. Critics of the Bible have talked as though evolution were one of the foundation pillars of science, a solid fact which only the illiterate or the hopelessly bigoted could ignore. To retain faith in the Scripture record of man's creation, rather than swallow the theory of his gradual development from lower forms of life, was to confess oneself out of date. A large body of the ministry, to their disgrace both as thinking men and Christians, went hastily over to the side of the new "science."

While the evolutionary theory was rich in conjecture, facts were lacking. In historic times no change of type had been noticed. Mummies of Egyptian animate, such as the dog, the cat and the ox, rather indicated permanence of species, when compared with such animals at the present day. French zoologists have been carefully investigating the mummies of ancient Egyptian animals, and a review of their work is quoted in the Literary Digest:-

The occasion and the circumstance are both unique; we shall not find them elsewhere. Nowhere else have we the authentic dated remains that Egypt furnishes us. Nowhere have we collections of animals that lived five or six thousand years ago, which we can compare with the same species living in the same region. The problem is to see whether the ancient fauna and the modern are the same; whether the species have altered or not in the course of five or six thousand years.

The conclusion that has been reached from this comparison is that there has been no transformation, whether we have to do with birds, fishes, mammals, or reptiles, we shall have no doubt, after reading the fine works of Messre. Lortst and Gaillard, regarding the proper conclusion to adopt, it is that in the Egyptian environment, very uniform, very constant, very stable, animals have not varied for several thousand years.

The figures mentioned are incorrect, as they would go back before the flood, but, part from this question, the evidence is clear that there has been no evolution in Egypt during the longest period covered by profane history.

The Bible stands every test. The works of God will never reveal any conflict with that Word of God. The Christian may know, and rest confidently in the knowledge, that when human theories conflict with the Bible, it is not the Bible that needs revision. When the clear facts come to light they agree with the Word.

October 8, 1903

"Christ's Prayer for His Disciples. John xvii. 9-3" The Present Truth 19, 41.

E. J. Waggoner

John xvii. 9-23.

It must have been a wonderful privilege to bow in prayer with Jesus. No wonder that the men who had this privilege should come to Him with the request, "Lord, teach us to pray." Heaven must have seemed very near to them when the Son of God brought His petitions to the throne of grace, and they heard Him speak, "strong in faith," to His Father in heaven.

The prayer that is recorded in this chapter is a mine of wealth, from which believers have never ceased to draw hope and courage and inspiration. It must have revealed to the Saviour's listening disciples new heights and depths of His

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thoughts for them, although they could not then take it in. In after years the words of the prayer would be treasured and studied with an ever-growing appreciation of its depth of meaning.

If we would study it, we must remember that it is a prayer, and should be studied in the spirit of prayer. Its secrets are revealed, not to the cold inquiry of the critic, but to the heart that is melted with the love that inspires it.

"I pray for them." This prayer was not for the world. Christ pleads for the world, and His life is freely given for the sinner, but this prayer deals with things that the world can never know until it takes the place of the disciple. Every one of us who has accepted Christ as our Saviour is included in the prayer, for He says: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word."

We too may draw near and listen to this prayer, as the disciples did, knowing that it is made in our behalf. We were present to the mind of Christ on that night, as well as the eleven disciples.

Christ was always praying for His disciples. In the night watches, while they slept, He was pleading on their behalf for the gifts they valued then so lightly. He said to Peter, "I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not." Luke xxii. 32. And still it is Christ "who also maketh intercession for us." Rom. viii. 34. "We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." 1 John ii. 1.

In this Christ is our example. We are to take a responsibility for others, even if they fail to feel it for themselves, "praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints." Eph. vi. 18.

"Keep through Thine own name." It was in the name of the Father that Christ came. It was God who showed Him what to do, and what to say, and the name of the Father was His defence. "The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe." Prov. xviii. 10. Into that name the believer is baptized, so that henceforth it is his own. He goes in the name of the Lord, and that name, through faith, makes men whole. The man who takes the name of the Lord as his protection will not take His name in vain, for God always honours His own name.

"I have given them Thy Word." Here is the report of one who did God's will. Happy the servant who can thus give account of his work to God. Many ministers are not following Christ in this respect. Instead of giving the people the Word they are giving them the chaff of human speculations. Their work is not leading men to Pentecost. God was able to pour out His Spirit upon the church within a few weeks, because Christ had done a great work in the hearts and minds of the disciples by giving them the Word of God. That Word makes the man of God perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. 2 Tim. iii. 17. Paul followed the example of Christ and shunned not to declare all the counsel of God. Acts xx. 27.

The equipment of the disciples was a complete one. As soon as the Spirit should come upon them, they were to go throughout the earth, preaching the Gospel. As Christ Himself had been sent, so He was sending the disciples. As He Himself had been equipped for His work, so He had equipped them.

Jesus Christ connects every believer with Himself in His great mission. Not one is left out from the work. The idea that the work of Christ's church is to be done by a certain section, known as ministers, has no countenance in the Scriptures. Every man has his work. Every one is sent into the world as Christ was sent into the world.

Perhaps your lot is cast in unpleasant surroundings, and you have thought it difficult to be a Christian where you are. You wish that you could be as favourably situated as others are, and not be obliged to associate with those who delight in sinful pleasures. Remember that Jesus has sent you into the world, as He was sent Himself. You are safer where you are, if you serve Him, than you would be in an easier place. He has prayed for you that the Father would keep you through His own name. He does not pray that you might be taken out of the world, but that you might be kept from the evil. The life of Christ is a missionary life, and therefore it is safest where the need is greatest. He left heaven for the dark corners of this world, but He had more of heaven here in seeking the lost than He could have had in staying with those who had not gone astray.

"Sanctify them through Thy truth?" It is truth that sanctifies. Error will not do it, hence the need of knowing and loving the truth. Just as men may be always growing in the knowledge of the truth, so sanctification is to be a progressive, life-long work.

Jesus sanctified Himself that we might be sanctified. It was not for His own gain but for ours that He submitted to all the experiences which sanctified Him. We are to show the same spirit, and not to seek sanctification for our own sakes, but because of the increased power it will give us wherewith to help others. We are to become ever more and more helpful, as we learn more and more of the sanctifying truth of God. Christ made Himself one with us. "Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same." Heb. ii. 14. It is in becoming one with others that we can help them.

"That they all may be one." It was a wonderful unity for which Christ prayed. Nothing less than the perfect oneness existing between His Father and Himself is the measure of the unity that Christ will work in His church.

There seems now to be discord and strife in the church, but because Satan has sown tares among the wheat, that does not make the wheat worthless. Both will grow together until the harvest, and then Christ's work will appear free from counterfeits. Where there is a spirit of love and unity, there are members of Christ's church. Where self is lifted up, and strife and divisions appear, we may know that Satan has been at work and has sown tares. Sectarian divisions are not of Christ, and they will not long exist among those who are sanctified through the truth, and are separate from the world as Christ was. The world may hate them as it did Him, but notwithstanding this, they will serve others, as He did.

Some hold the opinion that sectarian divisions are necessary. If they are, it is the flesh that makes them so, for they are entirely opposite to that for which Christ prayed. There is only one body and one Spirit, one faith, one baptism, and one God, who is in all (Eph. iv. 1-6): how then can His body be divided into several parts? Division is a work of the flesh, not a fruit of the Spirit.

"The glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them." It takes something more than pertains to our fallen nature to bring about the oneness for which Christ prayed. Only the glory which Jesus had with the Father is sufficient for it. When the oneness is seen, the glory will be revealed. The glory of heaven is the spirit of self-surrender that prevails there. Self-denial is the test of discipleship and the sign of true greatness. The spirit that took Christ to Calvary was the glory of heaven. Heaven delights in self-sacrifice, and when this rules, there can be perfect unity.

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"That the world may know." The world derides the idea of self-sacrifice, but to every man and woman there come times when the glory of this world reveals its hollowness, and their hearts cry out for the living God. At such times a man in whom the Saviour's prayer is fulfilled can be to them as cold water in a thirsty land. His unworldliness is the very thing that appeals to them then, for they long for a like deliverance.

Christ is praying still. Now it is we for whom He asks that we may be sanctified through His truth; it is we to whom He has given His Word, it is for us He asks that we may be one as He and His Father are one, that in this day of educated doubt and spiritual dearth, the hungry world may once more be compelled to believe the love that He has for them, because they see it fully manifested in His disciples.

"The Editor's Private Corner. The Seventh of Romans" The Present Truth 19, 41.

E. J. Waggoner

A reader of the paper sends a request that we will take up the seventh chapter of Romans in the "Corner," as he does not understand it.

It is impossible to deal with the chapter fully in one paper, but we will try to point out the lessons that it teaches.

Every Christian ought to be familiar with the epistle to the Romans. It deals comprehensively with the righteousness of God, and shows how He justifies sinners. The way to study the epistle is to read it all through, at one time, over and over again until you see the meaning in it, and at the same time believe and apply to yourself every statement that you find in it. Nothing clears up the more difficult passages of Scripture like believing them. The Word is alive and it gives life. When you receive the life of the Word, you have the Word in yourself, and your eyes are opened to understand what God has written, for you are in harmony with it.

The seventh chapter of Romans must be read with the chapters that precede and follow it. If you will do this carefully, and often enough to become familiar with the terms used, so that you appreciate their force and meaning the chapter will be plain.

The sixth chapter deals with dying to sin and being raised up to walk in newness of life. This experience is the one represented in baptism, by immersion. We are baptized into Christ's death, and arise to the life which He received at His resurrection. This death delivers us from our sins. "He that hath died is justified from sin." Rom. vi. 7.

This point is amplified in the first part of the seventh chapter. The law has dominion over a man "for so long time as he liveth." Verse 1. The sinner has broken the law, and is condemned to death. Death would satisfy the claim of the law, but as long as a man lives he cannot get away from its condemnation. But when the law is satisfied by the death of the sinner, the sinner is no more. He has paid the penalty with his life. God has made a way of escape, so that the sinner can die, and yet live again, freed from the condemnation. The sinner must die, however, to attain the freedom.

Paul illustrates the situation by a marriage. A man and a woman are married. Both are bound by the law to each other as long as both are alive. The union may be an irksome one, but the law demands that it continue until one of the parties die. For one to leave the union and marry another would be adultery. "But if the husband die, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be joined to another man."

The union is between the law and the flesh. "When we were in the flesh, the passions of sins, which were through the law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto death." That is, even when the flesh tries its hardest to bring forth that which shall be according to the law, the result is only sin. The marriage of the law and the flesh is hopeless bondage. It brings forth nothing but sin, and the harder the flesh tries to obey the law the more it receives condemnation, for its efforts only multiply its sinfulness. There is only one way to dissolve the partnership. One of the parties must die.

Some think to solve the difficulty by saying that the law has died. But God's law cannot die. The man who thinks it is dead is deceived, and will continue in bondage, because he will not realise that it is he who must die to terminate the union. He will find at last that the law is alive and condemns him to death, if he does not accept God's way of escape, which is that he shall die.

Now we see the advantage of being baptized into the death of Christ. "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ; that ye should be joined to another, even to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto God."

In baptism into Christ's death, we die to the law, and that terminates the old marriage, all the offspring of which were sins, and we are free to contract another marriage, this time with Jesus Christ. Then we bring forth fruit unto God. "Now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were holden: so that we serve in newness of the Spirit, and not in oldness of the letter."

The life of Christ is not less righteous than the law was. In fact, both are in perfect harmony. How is it that now we bring forth good, whereas under the former union we could only give birth to evil?

The change is here. Two utterly discordant principles were joined together in the union of the spiritual law and the flesh. The law was something apart from the flesh. The flesh in itself is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Rom. viii. 7. The conditions were perfect for an unhappy marriage. When we are joined to Christ, it is an actual union. He makes us one with Himself in everything, so that it is He in us and we in Him.

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Thus the same righteousness which characterises Him is also revealed in us. Because it is His life, it is ours also. So our goodness is not a striving to obey an external command, but a manifestation of life. We serve in the spirit.

The question may arise, and Paul anticipated it, Is the law bad, if its effect is to bring forth sin? God forbid. We had not known anything about sin but for the law. We were alive apart from the law once. Then came the commandment, and as soon as it entered it revealed sin. I, who was alive, apart from the law, died, and sin took my place. It used to be myself. Now there is a change, and myself has become two, the law and sin, the same as in the first marriage. The law of God is in my mind, and I consent to it that it is good. The law of sin is in my members, and whenever I try to do good, it is sin that appears and overcomes. Sin is so hateful that it even uses the law of God to mock me. It holds up a vision of goodness, and when I strive to attain to it, sin defeats me: "for sin, finding occasion, through the commandment beguiled me, and through it slew me."

"Did then that which is good become death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by working death to me through that which is good;-that through the commandment sin might become exceeding sinful."

Then follows the description of the hopeless struggle on the part of the flesh to do what it sees by the law to be right. Everyone knows that it is truly told. The law is spiritual. I am carnal. What I hate that I do. What I want to do, I cannot. It is no longer my old careless self. The awakening has brought to me the bitter conviction that I am sin. Sin is in me, it is my nature. I cannot be what I want to be, and the more I try to, the more hopelessly I am sunk in failure. The more l see of that which is right and true, the deeper is my condemnation. "O wretched man that I am I who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?"

Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift! Because Christ has died in my flesh, I can die with Him by faith, being baptized into His death. This includes also being raised with Him, and what this means can only be understood by experience. It brings into my life the righteousness and power of God. Thus I am set free from my lawful marriage, and am closely united in marriage to Him who is raised from the dead.

Then there is no condemnation for me. "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death." Rom. viii. 2. I am not terrified now by the law, for the life in which I have hid my life reveals the righteousness of the law." Now apart from the law a righteousness of God hath been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets." Rom. iii. 21.

Henceforth I do not walk in the flesh, which is enmity against God, and wholly sin, for "ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you." Rom. viii. 9.

Are you struggling in the miry clay depicted in the seventh chapter? If you are, you need not flounder there any longer. God's plan is simple. The labour and the failure and the bondage are for those who reject God's way. Simple faith in His word sets our feet on the rock and puts the new song in our mouths. If you will reckon yourself to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus (Rom. vi. 11), you will find His own freedom from sin.

"A Witness to All Nations. Worshipping the Beast" The Present Truth 19, 41.

E. J. Waggoner

"If any man worship the beast and his image and receive his mark . . . he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor right, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name." Rev. xiv. 9-11.

This is another part of the message of the Third Angel, which we studied last week. It brings to view a terrible fate for those who receive the mark of the beast, and fall warning is given that none may blindly follow the path that has such an ending. The second coming of the Lord is unto salvation. Heb. ix. 28. It is the "blessed hope of believers." It brings the resurrection from the dead, and the reward of the righteous. But to the disobedient, the presence of the Lamb and of the holy angels brings destroying fire.

"Our God is a consuming fire." When Daniel beheld Him on His throne, "a fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him." Dan. vii. 10. The beset of Daniel's vision was destroyed in this burning flame. (Verse 11.) So we read in the Revelation that, at the coming of Christ in His glory, the beast and the false prophet, that wrought deceiving miracles before him, were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. Rev. xix. 20.

There is a fire prepared for the devil and

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his angels. Matt. xxv. 41. "For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; He hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it." Isa. xxx. 33. It was this stream of brimstone that kindled the cities of the plain when God rained fire and brimstone from heaven upon them, and again, when Christ comes, He will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel." 2 Thess. i. 7, 8.

A DESOLATE EARTH

When the Son of God comes to bring home His redeemed, and the angels are sent to gather together His elect from the four winds, the worshippers of the beast are destroyed. That which is glory to the saints is torment to them. They have cast in their lot with the rebel powers and they share their fate.

While the saints are taken to heaven and reign with Christ a thousand years, sitting on thrones of judgment, and entering into the joy of their Lord, a very different scene is to be witnessed on the earth.

The beast and the false prophet have been destroyed in the lake of fire, and the remnant are slain with the sword of Him that sat on the horse. Rev. xix 20, 21. Evil men have not been content until they have exalted themselves to supreme control of the earth. They have refused to buy from or sell to those who would not yield to them a sinful obedience, and finally, they decree that no one shall live unless he will receive their mark. Rev. xiii. 15-17.

But in their momentary triumph, they have destroyed themselves and the earth. "Thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people." Isa. xiv. 20. "The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth." Isa. xxiv. 5, 6.

As the prophet looks upon the earth, smitten with fire and brimstone from heaven, he sees thick volumes of smoke rising from its surface, blotting out the light of the sun, and enveloping the scene in dense darkness. He sees that God's enemies were tormented with fire and brimstone at His presence, "and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever." Throughout the thousand years the smoke continues to ascend, although the wicked quickly perished in the flame.

Isaiah saw the same sight. "For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and His fury upon all their armies: He hath utterly destroyed them, He hath delivered them to the slaughter." "And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever." Isa. xxxiv. 2, 9, 10. Yet, although the land will lie waste for ages, it will not be eternally waste, for we read: The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose." Isa. xxxv. 1.

The message of the Third Angel warns men against the course which will consign them to so dismal a fate, when they might, by choosing God's side, enjoy the inheritance of the saints in light. But there is one more warning yet: "they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name."

LYING SPIRITS

In Rev. xix. 20, we read of a false prophet who wrought miracles with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast. In Rev. xiii. 13, 14, we read of the same power that "he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do." Paul says that the coming of Christ will follow "the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness." 2 Thess. ii. 9, 10. We read also of the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Rev. xvi. 13, 14. This reference to the spirits of devils connects the Satanic wonders with the work of modern Spiritualism. "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils." 1 Tim. iv. 1.

From the Scriptures we have read, it is evident that the doctrines of devils, communicated to mankind under the guise of messages from departed friends, will yet lead the whole world captive, and will be the main instrument in creating an image to the beset. The spirits will deceive mankind into thinking that such a course is right. This delusion will culminate in false prophets and false Christs, who will profess to be Jesus come the second time, and will receive the worship of the world. All but the elect will be deceived. "Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before." Matt. xxiv. 23-25.

When Satan has such complete control of the minds of men that they receive him as Christ, the mystery of iniquity will be fully revealed. All who are deceived will yield themselves entirely to his control.

On the other hand, Christ's people will yield themselves fully to Him, and there will be a complete manifestation on both sides of the two spirits. Both harvests will be fully ripe. Christ dwells in His people, and Satan dwells in his subjects. One produces only the works of the flesh; the other bears only the fruits of the Spirit.

The people of God will rest in Him. They will have learned the truth which is taught by God's holy Sabbath. They cease from their own works, and God has a free field in their lives. They are wholly His workmanship and He stamps His name upon them. Rev. vii. 2-4; xiv. 1. "And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God." Rev. xiv. 5. It is written of them: "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. xii. 12.

STRONG DELUSION

On the other hand those who, through fear of men or indifference, in their foreheads or in their hands, receive the mark of the beast, by observing the day which he commands and trampling on the Sabbath of Jehovah, thereby take their place among the enemies of God, and withdraw themselves from the provisions of the Gospel. Instead of receiving Christ in their hearts by faith, they receive strong delusion that they should believe a lie, because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. 2 Thess. ii 10-12.

They become the dwelling place of evil spirits, and are fully yielded to Satanic control. They have rejected the rest which God offered them: now, they have no rest day nor night."

(Continued on page 652.)

(Continued from page 647.)

To understand the terrible significance of these words, it is only necessary to glance at the experience of those who have been subject to the control of evil spirits. One of the multitude that came to Christ said: "Master, I have brought unto Thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit; and wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him and he foameth and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away, . . . and they brought him unto Him: and when he saw Him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed, foaming. And He asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child, And oftimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if Thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us." Mark ix. 17-22.

What a terrible existence it must have been for the child! Again we read, "When He was come out of the ship, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. . . And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones." Mark v. 1-9.

Such scenes as this will be witnessed on every hand among those who receive the mark of the beast: "they have no rest day nor night." God has forewarned us of this terrible evil, that none may experience it. Even now in its present mild form, spiritualism shows what manner of fruit it will bear when it is fully developed.

The Rev. E. W. Moore, MA., says:-

Spiritualism is to be avoided because of the disastrous consequences it often entails even in this life on these who indulge in it. The danger both to health and to morality is of the most alarming character. There is much that might be said on this point, but I will only say that I know, on the very best authority, of a recent victim of this system. A young person, only twenty-four years of age, surrendered herself to the teachings of Spiritualism, and coming completely under the control of a demoniacal influence became convinced that it was the will of God that she should commit suicide, which she accordingly did, dying a short time ago in Kimberly, South Africa. I know that experts in medical science will tell you that many-I will not say half, though in one case it was so said-of the cases in lunatic asylums could be traced to this source. Immorality, insanity, lose of health, and premature death, follow in the wake of the Spiritualist.

No doubt it suits the policy of Spiritualists to deny such statements, but they are too capable of proof. "Mediumship," writes the Edinburgh Review, July, 1868, "has supplied American asylums with thousands of lunatics."

Mr. G. H. Pember, M. A., says: "In the course of an interesting conversation which the writer had with the late Dr. Forbes Window, the latter expressed his conviction that a large proportion of the patients in our lunatic asylums are cases of possession, and not of madness."

"Five of my friends," writes a medium of eight years' standing, "destroyed themselves and I attempted it, by direct spiritual influence."-Grant's Spiritualism Unveiled, p. 40.

"For a long time," writes Dr. B. F. Hatch (quoted by Miles Grant, Spiritualism Unveiled, p. 38), "I was swallowed up in the whirlpool of excitement and comparatively paid but little attention to its evils, believing that much good might result from the opening up of the avenues of spiritual intercourse. But during the past eight months I have devoted my attention to a critical investigation of its moral, social and religious hearings, and I stand appalled before the revelations of its awful and damning realities, and would flee from its influence as I would from the miasma which would destroy both soul and body."

"For seven years," writes a spiritualist, "I held daily intercourse with what purported to be my mother's spirit. I am now firmly persuaded that it was nothing but an evil spirit, an infernal demon, who in that guise gained my soul's confidence, and led me to the very brink of ruin."

The Apostle Paul writes that the second coming of Christ will be preceded by a great apostasy, "and that man of sin will be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalieth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God siiteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." 2 These. ii. 3, 4.

This prophecy has already met a partial fulfilment in the history of the Papacy, but it will be yet more terribly fulfilled when Satan takes complete possession of the bodies of men, which are the temples of the Holy Ghost, and sets himself forth as God and is worshipped. The kingdom of darkness and of sin will have a short career, for sin when it is finished bringeth forth death, but while it lasts it will be a veritable hell on earth, even though its king appear as an angel of light.

From such a fate, God would save His creatures, and He sends forth His everlasting Gospel into all the earth with great power, to save unto the uttermost all that will look unto Him and be saved.

"Children's Page. A Ladder Up to Heaven" The Present Truth 19, 41.

E. J. Waggoner

After receiving another blessing from Isaac his father, Jacob started on his journey. He expected to go and visit his uncle Laban for a short time, then return home. He travelled on till night time, then, being weary; he took a stone, and using it for a pillow, lay down on the ground to rest.

"And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it." God stood at the top of the ladder and spoke to Jacob. Great promises were made to him. God said that the land upon which Jacob was lying should one day belong to him and his children. That his seed should be like the dust of the earth for number, and would be found in every part of the earth; and in him and his seed all the families of the earth were to be blessed.

"And God said, Behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of."

What a wonderful dream! How good God was to give it to Jacob! For Jacob had sinned against God. But God loved Jacob and wanted him to know how freely and fully his sins were forgiven. The ladder, resting upon the earth and reaching to heaven is Jesus, through whom we come to God; for Jesus gave Himself to us, that He might bring us to God. And He gives His angels charge over us to keep us in all our ways. They are our servants, sent by God to preserve us and keep us from danger. If we would always remember how near God's angels are, we would not be afraid of Satan. "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them." Ps. xxxiv. 7.

"And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place I this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."

Jacob had run away from his brother, but he ran into the arms of God. Although he had done wrong God would not leave him, but met him in the way and made known His care and love for him.

When those whom we know do wrong, even if they say and do things to us that are wicked, we are to be like God who was kind to Jacob. In this way we can help sinners to see that God cares for them, and some of them will say, like Jacob, "Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not."

Jacob never forgot the ladder that he saw in his dream, and step by step, all through his life, Jesus drew him nearer and nearer to his Father in heaven, until Jacob loved and trusted God with all his heart.

"Gospel Primer" The Present Truth 19, 41.

E. J. Waggoner

When Jesus was doing His work in this world He often had not where to lay His head. Many times when weary with His labours, and needing rest. He would go to the Mount of Olives. Often He spent the whole night there praying for the people, learning the will of God and receiving strength for His work. Sometimes His disciples followed Him. One day they came to Him when He was on the mountain and asked Him to tell them about the signs of His coming and the end of the world. He told them that Satan would work with great power to turn people from God, but that all who stand firm to the end shall be saved. He promised to send the good news of His coming, and of His power to save to alI the world, so that none need be lost. He said that when the last days should come He would put signs in the heavens to remind the people that He was coming. Already these have been seen. More than one hundred years ago there was a wonderful dark day. No light came from the sun, and when night came the moon looked like blood, and gave no light. Some years after the stars fell from heaven just as Jesus said they would.

On the same night that He was taken to be crucified, Jesus sang a hymn with His disciples on the Mount of Olives, and after He had risen from the dead He met them there again. As He talked with them "He was taken up and a cloud received them Him out of their sight." As they watched Him go up to heaven, two angels stood by them, and said: "This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven."

"Editorial Chat" The Present Truth 19, 41.

E. J. Waggoner

Twelve snake's eggs were discovered in a cucumber frame in a garden near Newbury. A live snake about four inches long was found curled up in each egg.

Great interest has been aroused in Rome over promises which the pope is said to have made of visiting different places outside of Rome. If Plus X. carries these out, it will terminate the fiction by which the pope is styled, "The Prisoner of the Vatican."

The Code of Amraphel, the contemporary of Abraham, shows that a very advanced method was adopted in fixing the remuneration of physicians. According to Professor Sayce, the doctors had a recognised fee when they were successful in their work, but the unskilful practitioner had to submit to punishment!

Sir Andrew Fraser the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, speaking at a recent meeting of the work done by missions, said: "I rejoice in these agencies for enabling us to live a Christian life in this land where there are so many temptations and difficulties. There is nothing that England can give to India, notwithstanding the many blessings she has given, to compare with the Gospel of Christ."

An encouragement to the use of singing as a means of Christian work, is afforded by the Christian's report of the Torrey-Alexander Mission in Liverpool:-

Again and again, during the mission, the singing has been definitely blessed to the conversion of souls. Returning from one of the meetings, some young people were singing one of the songs, and as they passed a public-house, the publican said, "It is only a passing excitement." "Well," said one of his customers, "that may be, but I can't stand here drinking while my children are out there singing.' Never lose sight of Jesus.'" He left his drink, went home, and next night was one of the first to come forward in the meeting to declare his acceptance of Christ; a non-church-goer brought to Christ by the Gospel in song.

In our "Editorial Chat," No. 37, of the present volume, we mentioned the violent removal of confessional boxes and images from a Brighton church. The account was taken from the daily press, but a gentleman who took part in the proceedings writes us that several of the statements are inaccurate, and we are glad to present his version of the matter to our readers. He writes: "It was not on a Sunday but on Tuesday, September 1st. The men did not break down the confessional boxes but, being expert carpenters, took them carefully apart with screwdrivers and, there being no axes used, no splinters flew. I saw the crucifix taken down, not torn down; the idols misrepresenting the Saviour, the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, were not thrust into sacks but wrapped carefully. There was no violence used." Inasmuch as there was no unseemly violence employed, our remarks concerning the unscriptural character of violent proceedings do not apply in this cases.

President Roosevelt has accepted a Jewish national flag from the Zionists of Baltimore. This is said to be the first time that any ruler in the world has officially accepted the Jewish flag, and it implies the highest recognition of Zionism ever accorded by any Government.

Leading Russian journals are drawing attention to the fact that for some time there has been in the hospital at Tomsk a man who has lived for more than 200 years. Knowing that the public would not believe the story unless ample evidence of its truth were forthcoming, they state that they have carefully examined his birth and marriage certificates, and can testify that his married life lasted forty-seven years, and that he has been a widower 125 years. He has been bedridden for some time, but his brain is as clear as ever, and he likes to tell visitors how he once had the good fortune to see Peter the Great and Queen Catherine.

The latest annual report of the British and Foreign Bible Society shows a greatly increased output of Bibles, Testaments, and Scripture portions. The issues included 997,720 Bibles, 1,491,387 New Testaments, and 3,454,168 portions, making a total of 5,943,775 issues, as against 5,067,421 in 1901-2. It is an encouraging thing to see the Word of God going more and more into all parts of the earth. God has raised up and prospered this work. The time has come when the Gospel of the Kingdom is to be preached in all the world for a witness, and it is necessary that the Word should go before it that every nation may study the message in its own tongue.

A writer in the Methodist Times, writing on "Failure," speaks of the drawbacks to spirituality in these days of publicity and advertisement.

We know, most of us, why we fail; we have our eye where it ought not to be. The chief end of men is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever. To-day when a man is willing to do this, the newspapers of the Church immediately draw attention to the fact. We are invited to peep through the keyhole and watch him at his prayers. The good saint is distracted by whisperings on the other side of the door, and we stand in admiring ranks as he goes forth. It is hard enough, in all conscience, to battle down the devils within us, but the kindly tempters without are a harder matter to fight. When there was less publicity there were more saints. The world leaves the failures alone, and they have a chance, but when a great light arises and it begins to shine, is there not a possibility among us that it may be quenched by too much incense!

It is bad to trust in men for what God gives, bad for ourselves and bad for the men.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 19, 41.

E. J. Waggoner

Our next issue will appear in a somewhat different form. New type will be used throughout, and the size of the page will be changed. We need not speak particularly of this, however, as our readers will see the changes for themselves next week. We will deal more fully with the matter in our next issue.

A friend in Liverpool, who has received much blessing through the ministry of the Gospel by PRESENT TRUTH, sends ?1 to help in increasing its circulation. We are grateful for this help, and believe that it will return in increased blessing to the giver. If the Lord puts it into the heart of any of our readers to help the PRESENT TRUTH to do its work, they can assist effectually by taking an extra copy to give away, or introducing it to their friends. The harvest is great, but the labourers are few.

The example of Christ and the words of Scripture emphasise the necessity and power of prayer. When Christians become too busy to pray, their work will deteriorate, and when chruches let their prayer-meetings die down, their spiritual life and usefulness will suffer. Mr. W. T. Sated, commenting on the figures of the recent Church Census points out that "the one notable result of the census is the discovery that prayer-meetings, which were once regarded as the vital breath of the Church, have almost ceased to exist. In the populous borough of Chelsea only thirty persons were found to be in attendance at prayer-meetings-thirty persons out of 70,000! Week-night services have also fallen into disuse." A church could better afford to drop a good many things, which are now regular features of church life, than its prayer-meeting. Prayer-meetings seem to be out of the spirit of the age, but for this reason they are all the more essential.

All weakness in the Christian shows a lack of appreciation of what is given to him in Christ. "Be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might." When one man bids another, "Be strong," it means, Be as strong as you can, and so it means nothing. When the Lord says, "Be strong," faith will receive the strength according to His Word; and when He adds, "in the strength of His might," it means that He actually imparts the fulness of His own mighty strength. The Gospel brings the power of God to men. "All things are possible to him that believeth."

The following paragraph appears in the Manchester Guardian:-

Dr. Maclaren, in a letter to Rev. Dr. Cayler, which has just been published in the American paper, says: "We are greatly secularised in this country, and need the winnowing-fan in all our churches. I fear it is not much better with you. Many a time I am ready to thank God, when I see the deadness in the churches and the awful problems to be faced, that I am nearer the end than the beginning of my course."

"We pass this way but once.

Live nobly while you may;

Then rise above

Earth's groveling love,

Seek realms of endless day.

"We pass this way but once.

Wage well thy warfare now;

Beyond the strife

Bright crowns of life

Await the victor's brow."

[1] International Sunday-school Lesson for May 3.

[2] International Sunday-school Lesson for July 12.

[3] International Sunday-school Lesson for July 10.