Table of Contents

The Present Truth, Vol. 9 (1893)

January 12, 1893

"As Occasion Serves" The Present Truth 9, 1.

January 26, 1893

February 9, 1893

February 23, 1893

GOD THE SOURCE OF ALL THINGS

NECESSITY OF AGREEMENT WITH GOD

THE JUSTICE OF MERCY

GIVING MEN THEIR OWN WAY

THE FATE OF THE WICKED

EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT

UNQUENCHABLE FIRE

ETERNAL FIRE

GOD TO BE ALL IN ALL

March 9, 1893

NOT A TEMPERANCE MEASURE

A QUESTION OF RELIGION ONLY

THE INQUISITION

CIVIL GOVERNMENT AND RELIGION

OPPOSED TO THE GOSPEL

March 23, 1893

THE SOURCE OF THE COMMUNICATIONS

A NEW CHAMPION

THE OBJECT OF THE MANIFESTATIONS

LIFE PROMISED IN THE BIBLE

THE CERTAINTY OF ANOTHER LIFE

DENYING THE GOSPEL

April 6, 1893

April 20, 1893

May 4, 1893

IMPORTANCE OF THE RESURRECTION

THE POWER OF THE RESURRECTION

WITNESSES OF THE RESURRECTION

May 18, 1893

NO CONNECTION WITH TEMPERANCE

NOT A PHYSICAL NECESSITY

June 1, 1893

June 15, 1893

NO OTHER HOPE

A SURE HOPE

THE HOPE OF THE AGES

THE SACRIFICES AND THE HOPE

SENSITIVE CONSCIENCES

"CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOUR"

PAGANISM AGAINST CHRISTIANITY

June 29, 1893

AUTHORITATIVE STATEMENTS OF EVOLUTION

WHAT IS MAN?

THE ORIGIN OF EVIL

THE CHARGE AGAINST EVOLUTION

GOD'S ANSWER TO MAN'S FOOLISH BOASTING

RELIGIOUS BOYCOTTS

AN IMAGE OF THE PAPACY

July 6, 1893

PEACE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS

THE FREEDOM OF PEACE

PEACE IS REST

LESSONS FROM THE FLOOD

July 13, 1893

HOW PLANTS GROW

THE FULNESS OF GOD

FLESH AND SPIRIT

July 20, 1893

HE WILL COME FOR US

THE POWER OF GOD

THE POWER OF THE LIFE

July 27, 1893

CHRISTIANS AND EARTHLY OFFICE

CHRISTIAN INFLUENCE ON POLITICS

August 3, 1893

WAITING ON SCIENCE

TOO BUSY

APPROVAL

STRAIGHT TESTIMONY

HOW TO INVESTIGATE

THE IMPENDING DANGER

August 10, 1893

THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST

SEEKING NOT HIS OWN

THE SPIRIT OF ANTICHRIST

THE CHILDREN OF DISOBEDIENCE

THE COURSE OF THIS WORLD

August 17, 1893

THE DEFINITE SABBATH DAY

CUSTOM

August 24, 1893

August 31, 1893

OFFICES IN THE CHURCH

MEMBERS ONE OF ANOTHER

A CASE IN POINT

A REAL REVIVAL

THE LONGSUFFERING OF CHRIST

GROVER CLEVELAND

September 7, 1893

THE SABBATH DAY DEFINITE

SABBATH IN THE NEW DISPENSATION

THE "TWO DISPENSATIONS"

OBJECT OF THE SABBATH

September 14, 1893

September 21, 1893

RECONCILIATION

REMISSION

September 28, 1893

THE STATE CANNOT HELP THE CHURCH

A STRIKING ILLUSTRATON

THE POWER OF THE CHURCH

THE HEAVENLY SANCTUARY

October 5, 1893

October 12, 1893

October 19, 1893

October 26, 1893

November 2, 1893

November 9, 1893

PURSUED BY THE ENEMY

CALL FOR JUDGMENT

CERTAINTY OF THE JUDGMENT

SELF-DESTROYED

November 16, 1893

November 23, 1893

November 30, 1893

GRACE AND TRUTH

GRACE AND TRUTH FROM THE BEGINNING

THE ENTERING OF THE LAW

MINISTRATION OF DEATH AND LIFE

December 7, 1893

December 14, 1893

UNSELFISHNESS AND HUMILITY

THE BEGINNING OF APOSTASY

THE CAUSE OF APOSTASY

THROWING THE BIBLE AWAY

TRUE PASTORS, OR BISHOPS

EXALTATION OF THE BISHOPS

COUNCILS

THE CHURCH PAGANISED

TAKING THE PLACE OF GOD

MAKING POPES

December 21, 1893

WRESTLING AGAINST GOD

December 28, 1893

The Present Truth, Vol. 9 (1893)

January 12, 1893

"As Occasion Serves" The Present Truth 9, 1.

E. J. Waggoner

As Occasion Serves .-One of the most notable things in connection with working for the salvation of souls is the fear of departing from precedent. People hear of some man who has been used by the Lord for the accomplishment of a great work, and straightway they want to find out from him how he did it. They want to know what he said, how he laboured, and just the methods he employed. Then they will do as nearly as they can the same as he did, and wonder why they do not have the same success. They forget the one thing that is needful, and try to substitute method for the power and instruction of the Holy Spirit. Such should take a lesson from Samuel's instruction to Saul. "And the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shall be turned into another man. And let it be, when these things are come unto thee, that thou do as the occasion serve thee; for God is with thee." 1 Sam. x. 6, 7. When one learns from the Spirit of the Lord, he will not need to ask somebody how he shall present the Gospel, and what he shall say on different occasions. The same condition never occurs twice, and therefore however closely he may study another's method of working, it will not give him success. The work of saving men is the Lord's work, and no one can engage in it successfully except the one who has learned of Jesus.

"A Slight Mistake" The Present Truth 9, 1.

E. J. Waggoner

A Slight Mistake .-Some time ago Mr. Herbert Spencer charge the apostle Paul with lying, basing his accusation on the words of the apostle, in the third chapter of the Book of Romans, "If the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto His glory, while yet am I also judged as a sinner?" At the time we made a mental comment to the effect that the philosopher did not know what he was talking about. He himself has since admitted the same thing. He confesses that he had not verified the quotation, but depended upon some assistance for accuracy in the statement, and that he had not read the context, and therefore did not perceive the meaning of the apostle. On examining the passage for himself he sees that he was mistaken, and frankly acknowledges it. That is to his credit. But, at the same time, it should for ever discredit him as an opponent of Christianity and the Bible. It places his opposition on the same level with that of the carpenter, who announced that he was glad to find that he need not believe all that the Bible says, because many of its statements could be demonstrated to be impossible. Being pressed for an example, he cited the statements concerning the ark. He said that it was understood to be 450 feet long, 75 feet broad, and 40 feet high, and filled with live animals; and he was sure that had it been that large the Israelites could not have carried it around with them for forty years! Opposers of the Bible are never found among those who are best acquainted with it.

"'Reasoning Together'" The Present Truth 9, 1.

E. J. Waggoner

"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; 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. What a wonderful promise! It seems too much to be true, but it is truth. Think of it! A man that is thoroughly defiled by sin, made as pure as the snow fresh from heaven. That is the wonder of the universe.

How is it accomplished? Well, it is in a way that no man would ever have thought of. "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." 1 Tim. i. 15. "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law; for sin is the transgression of the law. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin." 1 John iii. 4, 5. "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." 1 John i. 7. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Verse 9. "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God." Rom. iii. 23-25. "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Rom. iv. 5.

The sum of all this is that the sinner is saved from sin by receiving the righteousness of God in Christ. He is redeemed, cleansed by the blood of Christ. But the blood of Christ is the life of Christ. See Lev. xvii. 11. When Christ shed His blood for man, He poured out His life for sinful man. Whoever acknowledges that he has sinned, and takes Christ by faith, receives His life into his soul. Then he is a new creature, and the life that he lives he lives by the faith of the Son of God, who loved him and gave Himself for him. Gal. ii. 20. That man has simply exchanged lives with the Son of God. Being crucified with Christ, he gives his old life to Christ, and thus it, with its sins, is nailed to the cross. But since he is crucified with Christ, he must also be made alive with Christ; for "if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him." Rom. vi. 5. But only Christ has the power to live after giving up His life; therefore the new life that the redeemed ones live is the life of Christ. Thus he has exchanged lives with Christ.

All this is contrary to human reason. "The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness." 1 Cor. i. 18. "We preach Christ crucified, and to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are

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called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." Verses 23, 24. Man would say, "Do right, and then you will be right." That seems to the human mind to be the only reasonable way. But God says, "Let Me make you right, and then you will do right."

"And 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 eternal life." John iii. 14, 15. The children of Israel had sinned in the wilderness, "And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died." Then the people confessed their sins and begged that the serpents might be removed from them. "And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived." Num. xxi. 6-9.

It would be strange if there were not some among the people who refused to look. They would "reason" in this way: "It is all nonsense to think that looking at that brazen serpent can heal a snake bite. If we would climb the poll, and rub the wounded against a serpent, there might be some virtue in that; but just looking can never be of any use, and I am not going to make a fool of myself." That is just the way that men reason about the Lord. It seems to them foolishness that a man can be made perfectly righteous by simply looking at Christ. No; if they are ever to be made righteous they are confident that it must be by some more promising means than that. They will not risk their salvation upon a look. They can trust their own efforts, but to lie passively and look seems to them too presumptuous.

The truth is that the facts of the Gospel cannot be reasoned out by man. They are altogether above and beyond the reach of human reason. Man left to his own reason will reason himself into hedonism every time. See Rom. i. 20-25. "But doesn't God tell us to reason together?" some will ask. Yes; and here is where so many pervert the text with which we started. They use their reason as a basis for faith, forgetting that faith must be the instructor of reason. God does not tell us to apply our reason to the task of figuring out a way of salvation but says, "Come now, and let us reason together." Who does the "us" include? Why, ourselves and the Lord, of course. The trouble is that so many read that call, and then they proceed forthwith to begin to reason alone, leaving the Lord out altogether. Then they come to fatal conclusions.

We are to reason together with the Lord. Well, it is only reasonable that in reasoning with the Lord we should defer to Him, and let His reason direct. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isa. lv. 8, 9. Even "the foolishness of God is wiser than men." So it is not with our mind that we are to reason about the things of God, but with the mind of the Lord. First we are to submit to the Lord, that He may put in us the mind that was in Christ, and then we shall see clearly, for we shall be walking in the light as He is in the light. Then it is that the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. That which seems foolishness when looked at from a human point of view, is very reasonable when seen with the mind of God; for as "God is love," and as He "delighteth in mercy," it is the most natural thing for God to save sinners. But it is none the less wonderful, for the smallest of God's ways affords matter for the never-ending wonder of man.

"Is It Not Spiritualism?" The Present Truth 9, 1.

E. J. Waggoner

Nothing is more pitiful than to see people running into danger of which they are unconscious. And the fact that they might have known of the danger ought not to prevent people from sympathizing with them and trying to help them. We do not refuse to help a drowning man, although his own carelessness has precipitated him into the water. But nothing calls for more sympathetic help than that of men who are running into the snares of the devil when they think that they are in the way of life. True, the word of God is so plain that there is no need of anybody's mistaking the way, but that should not cause us to censure. Men pity the blind, even though their blindness is due to their own fault.

It is therefore only for the purpose of helping those who may be in danger, that we call attention to the following paragraph; for we are sure that very many are in the same condition, who do not know their danger. On December 4, Dr. Talmage preached a sermon about "Rizpah on the Rock" watching the dead bodies of her relatives. After drawing many parallels, he said near the close:-

I wonder if now there is an after-death watching. I think there is. There are Rizpahs who have passed death and who are still watching. They look down from their supernal and glorified state upon us, and is not that an after-death watching? I cannot believe that those who before their death were interested in us have since their death become indifferent as to what happens to us. Not one hour of the six months during which Rizpah watched seated upon the rocks was she more alert, or diligent, or armed for them than our mother if glorified is alert and diligent and armed for us. It is not now Rizpah on a rock, but Rizpah on a throne. How long has your mother been dead? Do you think she has been dead long enough to forget you? My mother has been dead twenty-nine years. I believe she knows more about me now than she did when I stood in her presence, and I am no Spiritualist either. The Bible says, "are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them that shall be heirs of salvation?" Young man, better look out what you do and where you go, for your glorified mother is looking at you. You sometimes say to yourself, "What would mother say if she knew this?" She does know. You might cheat her once, but you cannot cheat her now. Does it embarrass us to think she knows all about us now? If she had to put up with so much when she was here, surely she will not be the less patient or excusatory now.

Oh, this tremendous thought of my text, this after-death watching! What an uplifting consideration! And what a comforting thought! Young mother, you who have just lost your babe, and who feel the need of a nearer solace than that which come from ordinary sympathy, your mother knows all about it. You cannot run in and talk it all over with her as you would if she were still a terrestrial resident, but it will comfort you some, I think, yes, it will comfort you a good deal, to know that she understands it all. You see that the victories of the heavenly conditions are so great that it would not take her half a second to come to your heart. Oh, these mothers in heaven! They can do more for us now than before they went away. The bridge between this world and the next is not broken down. They approach the bridge from both ways, departing spirits, and coming spirits, disimprisoned spirits, and sympathizing spirits. And so let us walk as to be worthy of the supernal companionships.

Dr. Talmage says that he is no Spiritualist. We can however, leave him entirely out of the question while we consider for the benefit of others, whether or not that to which he has given utterance is Spiritualism. The question is: Does a belief in the conscious existence of the dead, and that they are interested in human affairs, and can even communicate with the living, constitute Spiritualism? Surely none can answer this better than those who acknowledge themselves to be Spiritualists. In order to learn what Methodism is, we go to Methodists themselves; to learn about Presbyterianism, we apply to Presbyterians, and so for a definition of Spiritualism, we must ask Spiritualists. From the standing motto of the Spiritual Magazine, for many years the leading Spiritualist publication

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in England, we take the following statement:-

"Spiritualism is based on the cardinal fact of open communion and influx."

Also from a leading Spiritualist journal of America, we take the two following definitions:-

"The central idea of modern Spiritualism is the keystone of the religious arch. That is, a continued existence."

"The very central truth of Spiritualism is the power and possibility of spirit return, under certain conditions, to communicate with those in the material form."

The idea that the spirits of the dead have a conscious existence, and that they can, under certain conditions, return and communicate with the living, is the sum and substance of Spiritualism. Therefore all who believe that the dead are conscious, and that they can return to earth to communicate with those with whom they were associated in life, are Spiritualists, whatever name they may bear. And it is a fact that there are thousands who would be shocked at the intimation that they could ever by any possibility become Spiritualists, who hold exactly these ideas. Why is it that they have such a dread of the name? It is because they think that Spiritualism is nothing but jugglery and trickery. They have associated it with table tipping, immorality, etc. It is true that such things have been connected with Spiritualism, but they are but manifestations of Spiritualism. Spiritualism itself is, as we have seen, nothing but a belief in the return and communion of the dead. Whatever is connected with Spiritualism is an outgrowth of that idea.

Having learned in brief what Spiritualism is we now consider the question of whether or not it is wrong in itself, and if so, wherein the evil consists.

"Spiritualism and the Bible" The Present Truth 9, 1.

E. J. Waggoner

In the preceding article we have found out what Spiritualism is. We have learned from the word of Spiritualists themselves that Spiritualism is nothing more or less than a belief in the doctrine that the dead do not really die, but that after the change which men call death they continue to exist, with keener perceptions and larger knowledge than they had while on the earth, and that they can under certain conditions communicate with people still on the earth. The question now before us is, Is this true? The Bible must furnish us with the answer to this question.

"The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness: I said, In the noontide of my days I shall go into the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years. I said, I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord in the land of the living; I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world. Mine age is removed, and is carried away from me as a shepherd's tent; I have rolled up like a weaver my life; he will cut me off from the loom; from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. . . . But Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back. For the grave cannot praise Thee, death cannot celebrate Thee; they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise Thee, as I do this day." Isa. xxxiv. 6-9, R.V.

"For to him that is joined with all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead man. For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. And their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun." Eccl. ix. 4-6.

"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." Verse 10.

"While I live will I praise the Lord; I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." Ps. cxlvi. 2-4.

Still further, the patriarch Job asked the question, "If a man die, shall he live again?" and immediately answered it thus, "All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee; Thou wilt have a desire to the work of Thine hands." Job xiv. 14, 15. What this "change" is we learn from the word of the Lord by the apostle Paul:-

"Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but 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.

Once more: "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. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished." Rev. xx. 4, 5.

Note carefully all these scriptures. The first four plainly state that the dead have no consciousness whatever. Therefore to claim that the dead are conscious is to contradict the Bible. Spiritualism does make that claim. Therefore Spiritualism is a direct contradiction of the Bible. The last three texts speak of "living again," and of a change that takes place in order that men once dead may "live again." A man cannot go to Paris "again" if he has never been there once and gone away. If he was born in Paris, and has never left the city, it is impossible to speak of him, and speak correctly, as being in Paris "again." So with living. The man who has never ceased to live cannot be spoken of as being alive "again." In order for that to be truly said of him, he must have ceased to live, and then have been made alive once more. So the scriptures last quoted teach us that when man dies he ceases to live, and that in order to live "again," so that he may praise the Lord, and receive a reward, a change must take place in him. This change takes place at the coming of the Lord. But Spiritualism teaches that men never cease to live; that at the change which people call death, they are more alive than ever before, therefore, again we find that Spiritualism is in positive contradiction to the Bible. But the Bible is the truth of God. Therefore Spiritualism is a lie of the devil.

And so we find it. In the form of a serpent the devil deceived Eve, and thus caused the loss of Eden. God had told our first parents not to eat of the tree in the midst of the garden, saying that if they did so they should surely die. But the devil said to the woman, "Ye shall not surely die." That is just what Spiritualism says. It is because Spiritualism is only a deception of Satan that we feel so sorrowful to see men embracing the teaching of Spiritualism, while they think that they are opposed to that system. And now that we have given the matter this much attention, we wish in the following articles to show how directly the doctrine that the dead do not really die is subversive of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the natural source of all immortality and vice.

"Spiritualism Against the Gospel" The Present Truth 9, 1.

E. J. Waggoner

Let it not be forgotten that Spiritualism is simply the belief that the dead are conscious, that they are interested in the affairs of men on the earth, and that they may communicate with them. That it

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is against the Gospel is sufficiently shown in the fact that it contradicts the Bible. But we wish to trace a little more minutely its natural working. Take, for instance, the paragraphs quoted from Dr. Talmage in the first article. Read them carefully again, and see what is set forth as the motive for right doing. Is it the approval of the Lord Jesus?-Not at all, it is the approval of dead friends. The words are, "Young man! Better look out what you do and where you go, for your glorified mother is looking at you." But that is not the motive to set before any man, in order to get him to do right. Even if his mother were alive, something higher than the fact that she is looking at him ought to be the motive of his actions. But the idea that people are alive after they are dead, and that they are watching the living, puts them in the place of the Lord Jesus Christ and the angels.

Here is a fragment of an editorial in a religious paper that has a circulation of many thousands among all denominations of Christians:-

"Some of the saintly faces of fathers and mothers, which are a benediction to all who look at them, could never have shone as now with the reflected light of heaven, unless they had been summoned to frequent upward lookings through the clouds in loving communion with their children in heaven. There are manly and womanly children, who are more serious and earnest and devoted in their young life struggles, because of their constant sense of the overwatching presence of their dead parents.

That is the Spiritualist way of being glorified. But now read the Bible way: "But we all, with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory." "For 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." 2 Cor. 3:18; 4:6. That which can in reality be done only by the Lord Jesus Christ, Spiritualism thinks to have done by the spirits of the departed. Thus the Lord is robbed of the honour due Him.

But further. Life and righteousness are inseparable. "To be spiritually minded is life and peace." Rom. viii. 6. This is so because God alone is good. See Rom. iii. 9-12 and Mark x. 17. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, and therefore the life of Christ was the life of God. His life is the only perfectly sinless life that was ever manifested on this earth. Therefore no one can be righteous unless he has the righteousness which is by the faith of Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God by faith. It is by the righteousness of one that many are to be made righteous. Rom. v. 19. That one is Christ.

But as the life of God in Christ is the only righteous life, and righteousness is inseparable from the life of Christ, it follows that all who are made righteous by His obedience, are made so by having His life in them. It is in Him that we are made the righteousness of God. So we read, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless 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.

Now since righteousness is inseparable from the life of God, it follows that both eternal life and righteousness are attributes of Divinity. For one to claim that he has life in himself regardless of his faith, is to claim that he has also righteousness in himself, and that he has no need for the Saviour. For nothing is more certain than that Christ came to this earth for the sole purpose of giving life to men. See John 3:16; Col. 3:3, 4; John 10:10. Therefore Spiritualism is opposed to the very fundamental truth of the Gospel.

In a previous number of the PRESENT TRUTH we have seen that Christ gives righteousness by giving His own life. But that teaching that would make out that man has life in himself, frustrates the grace of God, and makes out that Christ died in vain. The apostle Paul, after showing the necessity of faith in Christ as the only means of righteousness, says, "I do not frustrate the grace of God; for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." Gal. ii. 21. And in the next chapter he says, "If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law." Wherever life is, there is righteousness. Therefore the man who thinks that he has life in himself, unconsciously denies that Christ is the source of righteousness for men.

The tendency of this teaching is to throw man upon himself for righteousness. Thus the Pharisees who would not come to Christ that they might have life, "trusted in themselves that they were righteous." But this tends most directly to vice and immorality, for man is by nature corrupt, and out of evil only evil can come.

Again, take the temptation by which Eve was made to fall. Satan said, "Ye shall not surely die." Being deceived, she ate, and gave to her husband, and he ate. This disobedience "brought death into the world and all our woe." All the iniquity in the world has resulted from a belief of the words, "Ye shall not surely die." Nothing but evil can come from that belief.

For this reason we lift up our voice in warning against any approach to the doctrine of Spiritualism. Shun as a pestilence any teaching that makes Christ and His sacrifice of none effect; accept nothing but the teaching of the word of God; and remember that man has life only by that same word.

"The Result of Spiritualism" The Present Truth 9, 1.

E. J. Waggoner

The statements made in the last paragraphs of the preceding article may seem too strong by some who have not given the matter much consideration, and therefore a few words further are in place. It is not charged that all who have held the doctrine that man does not in reality die are immoral. That would be a gross perversion of facts. Among the adherents of that doctrine have been some excellent men, and so there are still. Yet that does not disprove the charges made against the doctrine. An error is not made truth, nor is its error lessened in the least, because it is held by good men. The fact that Luther believed in the Real Presence did not make that theory true, nor diminish the evil which must result from it.

While it is true that many good Christians have held the doctrine that the dead are conscious, let it not be forgotten that they held that doctrine in common with all the heathen. Moreover, that doctrine was at the very bottom of the heathenism. There has been this difference, however, namely, that comparatively few of the Christians who have believed it have in time just carried it to its logical conclusion, and held that the dead could return and communicate with the living. But it is an alarming fact that of late years a belief in spirit return and communication has greatly increased among professed Christians. It is in this feature that the greatest danger lies; but whatever results from this must be charged to the belief of consciousness in death, from which is springs.

The way has been prepared for the prevalence of vice in the last days, even as great as it was in the days of Noah. In connection with what has preceded. A few quotations will suffice to show how it will be brought about. A few years ago Dr. Curry, a leading Methodist divine, in a conversation with a visitor, as he lay on his death bed, said, "I have perfect confidence in the truth of Christianity, although I expect my conceptions to be changed when I get over there."

Most people would doubtless consider that a very natural thing. It only serves to show that they are expecting to have their conceptions of Christianity changed after death. And that indicates a doubt as to the perfect truth of that which they now hold. But what we are concerned with is the effect that such ideas may have on the living. As a matter of fact, those who die have no consciousness of truth or error; for there is no work, nor

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device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave. When a man dies, he returneth to his earth, and in that very day his thoughts perish. But it is a fact that many people have seen the appearance of their departed friends, and have talked with them. How was this? Why, simply that Satan, who originated the doctrine that the dead are alive, and who is able to transform himself into the appearance of even an angel of life (2 Cor. xi. 14), is working to propagate the false doctrine which he started in Eden. All the appearances of the dead, and the communications from them, are in reality from the spirits of devils.

Now for another point. A few years ago a popular Baptist preacher in California became an avowed Spiritualist. He had, however, for a long time before he gave up his Baptist pulpit, been holding communications with spirits, whom he supposed to be the spirits of his dead friends. These spirits were familiar visitors to his family. Speaking of some of his experiences, he said: "Nearly half a score of old Baptist preachers, with whom I have been associated in the past, have already come to our home, and explained wherein their former teaching was erroneous. The whole system of biblical interpretation is far away from the truth, as everyone will find when he enters the spiritual world."

At a great religious gathering held in London less than two years ago, at which there were leading Protestant ministers from all parts of the world, one of the most applauded remarks was by a member who said: "We speak of holding fast to the faith of the fathers; how do we know what the faith of the fathers is now?" The idea was that the fathers may have made great changes in their faith since their departure from this life. Well, the spirits of devils will take care that all who are willing to be deceived in that way shall know what the faith of the "fathers" is now. These spirits will come with every appearance of those departed ministers, and will tell them, as they did the Baptist minister before referred to, that the Bible means a great deal differently from what it says. And those who believe that it does not mean what it says in regard to the condition of man in death, will be prepared to believe anything that these spirits tell them as to what it does mean.

This is an exact fulfillment of the words of inspiration by the apostle Paul: "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; speaking lies in hypocrisy." 1 Tim. iv. 1, 2.

When men have thus cut themselves loose from the Bible, what is going to hold them?-Manifestly nothing. The Bible is the only safeguard against sin. "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee." Ps. cxix. 11. "The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide." Ps. xxxvii. 31. "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." John xv. 3. Man can live only by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. So when men come to trust themselves into the hands of the devil, for an understanding of the Bible, what can follow except that he will lead them into the sins of which he is the author? And this he will do while he is flattering them with the belief that they are making advancement in truth and righteousness. Thus it was when he deceived Eve, and the apostle says to the members of the church of Christ, "But 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.

It was even thus that the flood of error and superstition and immorality came into the church in the first centuries after Christ, resulting in the Dark Ages. As the result mainly of the influence of Origen, the mass of professed Christians came to believe that the Bible does not mean what it says. His teaching was that it means often directly contrary to what it reads, and can be understood only by a certain few. Of course the practical result of this was to take the Bible out of the hands of the people. For they would soon cease to read a book which they were told they could not understand, and which would be more apt to mislead them than to lead them right. Consequently they had nothing by which to test the truth of that which was given to them by their teachers, and so imbibed the grossest errors.

More than this, the teachers themselves soon ceased to read the word of God. For since when they did read the Bible, they put their own interpretation upon it, making it mean whatever they pleased, it naturally came to pass that they soon fell into the practice of manufacturing scripture without the formality of reading the Bible before giving it to the people. Since it was only their own ideas that they taught the people, it made no difference whether they read the Bible, and then gave out their opinions, or gave out their opinions without reading the Bible. And so the whole world was open to the reception of the grossest errors. The result was seen in the frightful immorality that prevailed everywhere, and nowhere more than among those who professed to be Christians.

When Moses went to Pharaoh to demand the release of the children of Israel, the magicians withstood him with their enchantments. These magicians were Spiritualist mediums, and their enchantments were by the power of their master, the devil. Now read the apostle's description of how it will be in the last days, even among those who profess godliness:-

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth; men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith." 2 Tim. iii. 1-8.

There are many good people who do not believe that they could ever be thus deceived. They cannot if they hold fast to the truth of God. But as long as they hold to error, they have no safeguard. It is the first step that contains all the rest. There are many who believe that the dead are conscious, who do not believe in Spirit return and communication. But when they see the exact images of their departed friends, and receive communications from them, they will believe errors in spite of themselves. Only those who are settled beforehand in the truth that the dead know not anything, that life comes from Christ alone, and that immortality is bestowed only at his coming, and that all spiritual manifestations are from the devil, will be able to stand. May the Lord help all the readers of this to cleave to Christ and His word.

"A Plea for Help" The Present Truth 9, 1.

E. J. Waggoner

The Sunday Closing Reporter gives the following copy of the letter recently received from the manager of a public-house:-

"Gentlemen, I have the greatest possible pleasure in signing your petition for the closing of all public-houses on Sundays. Though a manager of licensed premises, I am in thorough sympathy with your movement, not only from a personal view, but because I consider it would be much more beneficial to the working classes of this country to be without drink on Sabbath than to have it. Sunday opening, I am convinced, is the cause of much evil both to the soul and to the body. Moreover, gentlemen, why should we be deprived of our one day in seven? Publicans, like all men, need spiritual nourishment, and would be glad, indeed, if an Act was passed in forcing the closing of public-houses on Sundays."

Then why does he not close? Nobody compels him to keep open on Sundays, or on any other day. He is convinced

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that Sunday opening is the cause of much evil both to soul and body, and therefore he wants an Act of Parliament passed, so that he will be compelled to stop doing that which he knows is wrong! It may be that those who are blinded by the glamour of Sunday closing think that this man's confession is an evidence of his sincere desire to do what is right; but to one who looks at it with clear vision, it can be nothing but a pitiable confession of weakness, and a deliberate wrong doing.

This confession accurately gauges the status of all "morality" that is a result of legal enactment. Many people think that if the Government would only enforce all the institutions of religion, there would be the dawn of the blessed millennium. There would actually be the beginning of the reign of hypocrisy. The man who wrote that letter doubtless thinks that when he stops selling liquor at the decree of Parliament he will be doing a Christian act. And this only demonstrates the fact that the enforcement of religion by law inevitably tends to the degrading of the standard of religion. For even supposing that Sunday was the Sabbath of the Lord, there would be no virtue in compulsory closing. If there were, then all that would be necessary to make Christians of all the thieves in England would be to lock them up in gaol. Then they could not steal. But they would not be any better unless there thievish disposition were changed, and that cannot be done by Government. It is necessary for the safety of society, that thieves be punished, but no one is so foolish as to suppose that forcibly detaining a man where he cannot steal effects that change in his heart. It may make him in the future refrain from stealing through fear of the law, but there is no virtue in that.

So with the enforced observance of the Sabbath, supposing that any people were in favour of enforcing the observance of the real Sabbath of the Lord. Religion enforced by law is always at the expense of real godliness. It is the greatest device of Satan to hold men in sin while they fondly imagine that they are Christians.

How any one can read the publican's pathetic plea for an opportunity to rest and receive spiritual refreshment, without laughing, we cannot tell. "Moreover, gentlemen, why should we be deprived of our one day in seven? Publicans, like all men, need spiritual nourishment." There is not the slightest doubt in regard to this last statement. Certainly those who are engaged in the work of dealing out to their fellows spirituous destruction, have great need of Spiritual nourishment for themselves.

But there is more than an amusing side to this matter. It exhibits the artful turn that is everywhere taken in the plea for Sunday laws. Those who are deliberately working on Sunday, because they want to, because they have no regard for the day, are paraded before the people as being sorely oppressed. There must be a law passed to compel them to rest on Sunday, because they are not able to rest without such a law! The absurdity of the thing cannot be fitly put into words. But it is not simply absurd, it is wicked. The idea that men cannot do right without the compelling power of the civil law, is an insult to the Spirit of God. It puts at a discount all righteousness which is the fruit of the Spirit, and declares that there can be no righteousness by the power of the Spirit, but only by the power of the law of man. It is not strange that men in the darkness of heathendom should make such a plea, but that men in lands where the Gospel has free course, and who themselves have the Bible, and profess faith in Christ should make such a plea is indeed a marvel. It is, in fact, the working of the mystery of iniquity.

"Look and Live!" The Present Truth 9, 1.

E. J. Waggoner

Have you ever taken a ride on a railway train? How the trees and houses seem to whirl past, how fast you go, and how soon you reach the place for which you started! Long ago people could not travel so fast and so comfortably, for there were no steam engines and no railway trains. They had to ride on horses, donkeys, or camels, or else they had to walk. Sometimes they would take long journeys on foot.

The Israelites once took such a journey. They had been living in Egypt for a long time, but finally were treated so cruelly by the Egyptian king and his people that the Lord pitied them and sent Moses to lead them out into a better land, where they would not need to work so hard, and where they could have time to serve God. They therefore took their little ones, and all their neighbours who were willing to put away their idols and worshipped the true God, and started on their long journey. What a procession it must have been!-"six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside the children, and a mixed multitude that went with them; and flocks and herds, even very much cattle!"

They had to pass over miles and miles of sandy desert and rocky plains, where there was no food and but few springs of water, and where there were no living creatures but wild beasts, poisonous insects, and fiery serpents.

But they were not alone. Jesus Himself went before and took care of them. When they hungered and could find nothing to eat, He pitied them and rained bread (manna) from heaven for them; when they thirsted and became faint because there was no water to drink, He caused clear, cool waters to gush out of the solid Rock and run down like rivers. He kept them from being ill, and although they walked day after day over the burning sands and sharp stones, He kept their feet from swelling, and their clothes from wearing out! And He kept the wild beasts and poisonous serpents from hurting them.

How many things they had to thank God for! How much He had done to make them happy! But they were not happy. They did just as we often do now. They did not look to Jesus and think of Him and count up the many blessings that He had showered upon them, but they thought of themselves, and looked at themselves, and thought about the disagreeable things that they feared might come, until they could see and think of nothing else. They forgot that Jesus was caring for them and protecting them from danger every day. Because they could not have everything just as they did at home they complained, and found fault with Moses, and murmured against God again and again.

It grieved the Lord very much to see how little they cared for Him, and how they were afraid to trust Him after all His tender love and care. He knew that they never could have a home in the promised land unless they learned to trust Him at all times and in all places, and His love for them was so great that He could not bear to think of their all being lost. He therefore sought to make them see what they were doing. He knew of no better way than to remove His protecting hand for a short time. Then they would see how faithfully He had been caring for them.

As soon as the Lord stopped driving back the fiery serpents, they of course came into the camp of the Israelites, wriggling through the tents, and stinging the people with their fiery tongues. Many of the people died, and those that did not die were sore afraid that they also would be killed by the poisonous creatures that swarmed on every side of them.

They then saw how good the Lord had been to them, and how wicked they had been. They came to Moses, and with sorrow confessed their sins and asked him to pray to God to take away the

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serpents. Although God hates sin, He loves the sinner, and He is always willing and glad to forgive those who really feel sorry for their sins. Therefore He immediately told Moses to make a large serpent of brass and put it upon a pole where it could be seen from all parts of the camp. And He said that if those who were bitten would look at the brazen serpent, they should be healed.

Moses did as he was told. A man was sent through all the camp to tell the good news to the people. Many believed God, and finally turned their weary eyes toward the serpent on the pole. What a change took place! Suddenly the stinging pain ceased, the burning fever cooled off, the swelling went down, the dazed eyes brightened, and trembling limbs put on new strength,-the fainting, dying souls spring up as well and strong as ever! One look at the brazen serpent, and the poison was all gone! Did the serpent of brass heal them? Oh, no: it was Jesus in whom they had believed. But some would not look. They did not believe that Jesus would heal them for just looking at the brazen serpent,-and they died! How sad! when they too might have been saved if they had only believed and looked.

I have never been bitten by serpents, as the Israelites were, have you? But let me tell you something: You and I and everyone else have been stung by sin; and that is worse than any serpent in the world, for if we do not get healed from it, if we do not have its poison taken out of our hearts, we shall die by and by never to live again. A man may die of a serpent bite, and yet live again when Jesus comes, and never die anymore. But if he does not get rid of the poison of sin he will be destroyed for ever.

One could tell by the looks and actions of the Israelites that they had been poisoned by the serpents. And even little children show by their looks and actions that have been poisoned by sin. We saw them look cross, and we see them quarrel, and strike, and say bad words, and disobey their parents, and hate, and envy, and lie, and do many other sinful things.

God says that if any one of these poisonous stings is left in your heart they will cause you to die, and surely as the poison of the serpents cause the Israelites to die. And you cannot heal yourself any more than they could. No doctor in this world can take the poison of sin out of your heart. Your father cannot do it, nor your mother. No one in the world can take it away. God knew this. He saw how you were going to be lost for ever unless someone could save you. He saw that no one but His only Son Jesus could ever do it; and He could not do it without suffering and dying. Think of it! God loved you so that He gave His only Son to die that you might live, that you might have the poison of sin taken out of your heart. Jesus was nailed to the cruel cross and lifted up, as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness. God says that He was lifted up you, and that if you will look to Him believing that He will heal you from sin, He will do it, just as surely as He healed the Israelites when they looked at the brazen serpent.

Jesus will know if you look up to Him and say in your hearts, "Lord, I do believe," for He is not dead now, He is alive and again and in heaven. If you are really sorry for your naughty sins that caused Him to die, and tell Him so, and ask Him to forgive you as the Israelites did, He will take the sins all away, and will put His own gentle Spirit in your heart in place of them. Then if you let Him, He will use your tongue to say kind words, your hands to do loving acts, your feet to run on willing errands.

Oh, will you look to Jesus and live? I beg of you do not disbelieve and wait, as some of the Israelites did, until it is too late. Do not wait and say, "I don't see how it can be," "I don't understand how He can do it just by my believing and looking." You do not need to understand, but you do need to believe and look. Just believe and do as it He says, and you will find this new year the happiest year of your life; and best of all, when Jesus comes, you will be ready to go with Him and be happy for ever and ever.

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 1.

E. J. Waggoner

-The Pope has mapped out a systematic plan of warfare against the Freemasons.

-Very severe weather has of late prevailed on the Atlantic, and accidents have been numerous.

-Two thousand extra men were required by the London post-office to handle the Christmas mail.

-The Turkish Government will shortly ask contractors to tender for the construction of a bridge 400 metres long across the Euphrates.

-A dynamite outrage was perpetrated in Dublin on Christmas Eve. An attempt was made to blow up the Castle, and one detective was killed.

-The Limerick magistrates have decided to grant no new public-house licences, and to gradually reduce the number to one-third of the present figures.

-Cholera has again appeared in Hamburg and in Russia. The fact that it appears in midwinter occasions the greatest fears for the approach of warm weather.

-The 247th anniversary of Nonconformity in the city of Canterbury has just been celebrated at the local Congregational Church, which was formed in 1645 with nine members.

-Bishop Potter, of the Episcopal Church, has just laid the corner-stone of the Cathedral in New York, which is to cost between £1,000,000 and £2,000,000, and is to have chapels for simultaneous service in seven different languages.

-The trial of those charged with participation in the serious cholera riots, and resistance to the enforcement of the sanitary regulations, last July, has just been concluded at Tashken, Russia. Eight of the accused have been sentenced to death by strangulation. Others have been sentenced to exile and imprisonment.

-The construction of new railways last year in the United States amounted to 4,100 miles, making the total mileage 174,000.

-The French Government has just issued the population returns for 1891, which show an excess of deaths over births of 10,000; but for an excess of births among foreigners, the number would have been 19,000. It is worthy of note that in the five preceding years the total population of France had shown a small increase of 25,000; the increase of 5,000 a year is now converted into a decrease of 10,000.

-The Chronicle says: "According to private information from Finland a large proportion of the inhabitants of the country are perilously near starvation. Out of a population of 2,000,000 inhabitants more than 200,000, are entirely destitute, and before the winter comes to an end it is expected that one-fourth of the total population will be in the same pitiable plight. In many districts in the north the people have commenced to live on bread either wholly or partially composed of birch-bark."

-Russia is again threatened with famine. Crops have failed in consequence of drouth, and the people, already impoverished, have little hope. Count Bobrinskey, Marshal of the Russian nobility, says, "We ourselves find ourselves face to face with the consequences of a bad harvest under much worse circumstances than last year. And to crown all he says, typhus and epidemics among children are appearing. Cold, damp huts, with mouldy walls, the snow falling through the apertures of the roof, the thatch having been used as fuel, the flooring coated with mud, while on the top of the spacious stove lie huddled together five or six individuals in the paroxysms of typhus fever, unattended, and without even bread and milk."

-Some time ago an Act was passed in the United States, known as the Geary Act, which provided that all the Chinese should register their names, addresses, description, etc., or else be expelled from the country. Only a very small number have registered, and as the time limit expires on May 1st, it will require a great deal of expense on the part of the Government to carry out the provisions of the Act and expel them from the country. Steps are being taken to test the constitutionality of the Act in the courts, and then to use diplomatic means, and, finally, to resort to retaliation, if necessary, by withholding protection to Americans in China. When the expense of sending back to their own country over a hundred thousand Chinese is considered, it will be seen that it is sometimes much easier to enact oppressive laws than it is to enforce them.

Following are the persons to be prohibited from entering the United States according to the provisions of the Bill just introduced into the United States Senate: 1. All persons physically capable who are over twelve years of age, but who can neither read nor write their own language with reasonable facility, except that all aged persons who, although unable to read or write with facility, are the parents or grandparents of admissible immigrants, may accompany or be sent for by such immigrants.

2. All persons not provided, in addition to the means for reaching their final destination, with sufficient money for their comfortable support, or not being members of families able thus to support them for two months after their arrival. The amount thus required shall not exceed $100 for each single person or head of a family, and $25 for each member of a family accompanying or being sent for by the head of the family.

3. All persons who are blind, crippled, or otherwise physically so disabled as to wholly or partially unfit for manual labour, unless it is satisfactorily shown upon inquiry that such disabled persons are sure of support and not likely to become chargeable to the public.

4. All persons belonging to societies which savour or justify the unlawful or criminal destruction of life and property.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 1.

E. J. Waggoner

It is not alone upon the Atlantic that severe storms have been raging, and that disasters have occurred. Over thirty steamers are said to have gone down in a storm on the Black Sea. These things should serve to remind men of the insignificance of their works in comparison with those of God. The nations of earth put great confidence in their great navies; but they will be as nothing when the waters of the sea roar and are troubled, and even the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.

Last year the members of the American Congress were made to believe that the country was overwhelmingly in favour of Sunday closing of the World's Fair, that if they did not pass a measure to secure its being closed they would lose their seats. Accordingly they at once became very religious, and earnestly pleaded for the protection of the "fourth commandment." But since then it has transpired that the "public sentiment" was manufactured by a very few people, and so a bill providing for Sunday opening has been introduced at the present session.

Religious institutions that rest upon the will of human legislators are very uncertain things. There is only one certain thing about religious legislation, and that is that it will invariably be wrong. To test the history of the world affords no exception. Although Sunday as a religious institution has not the slightest authority from the Bible, and the American Congress did a wicked thing in voting for its observance at the World's Fair, it would do it an equally wicked thing in voting that the Fair shall be kept open on that day. Although the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, it would be just as wicked for Congress to vote that the Fair should be closed on Sabbath. The wickedness consists in the very fact of religious legislation itself. Congress should do nothing. The Directors should be left free to open or close the Fair on Sunday, as they see fit, and people should be left free to attend or stay away, as they please.

The facts in regard to civil legislation on religious matters may be briefly put thus: If there is in the law of God no warrant for any practice, then to pass laws enforcing that practice is to try to compel men to sin; for God's law requires all that He wants to do, and whatever His laws do not require, He does not want to have done. And if the law of God does require a certain thing, then any human law requiring its observance is unnecessary, and not only so, but presumptuous. If the Lord will, the relation of civil Government to the law of God will be considered more at length in the next number.

Acting on the instruction of the Methodist Conference, the Wesleyan Committee of Privileges has been in communication with the Committees of the Liberation Society, the Dissenting Deputies, the Congregational and Baptist Unions, the Presbyterians, and minor Methodists bodies, with the result that a "Joint Consultative Committee" has been formed, the chief object which is to consider all legislative proposals affecting the rights of English Nonconformists, and to take concerted action. Thereby they cut the sinew of all their opposition to the Establishment. In the face of such a combination for political purposes, it will be but too evident that the opposition to the Establishment is prompted by a desire to share in the emoluments, and not by conscientious convictions against the union of Church and State.

"Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" Heb. i. 14. This question is really an emphatic statement. It admits of only one answer, and that is, Yes. But who are they who are thus sent forth to minister? They are the angels, as the preceding verses show. The first chapter of Hebrews is devoted to showing that Christ is superior to the angels. He is the Creator and Saviour of men; they are simply His servants in that work. But angels are not men. The second chapter of Hebrews shows that Christ is greater than man, although He was made like man; but when He was made like man, He was made "a little lower than the angels," because man even in the beginning was made a little lower than the angels. The angels existed before man was created, for when the foundations of the earth were lay, "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Job xxxviii. 7. Men on earth may minister to one another, but they are not "ministering spirits." And the ministry of man in the Gospel is confined wholly to this present life, for when he dies there is no more work nor wisdom for him until the Lord comes to give him life again. And then they do not become angels, but remain redeemed men throughout eternity.

Tuesday, September 4, 1893, is the date fixed upon for the opening of the great Catholic Congress to be held in connection with the World's Fair in Chicago. By the way, there is no doubt but that the Columbus celebration will first and last do very much toward uniting professed Protestants and Catholics. The fact that Columbus was a Catholic, and that he was sent out by a Catholic queen, who had in view the advancement of the Roman Catholic Church, will be kept before the public. Mr. Justice Brewer has decided that the United States is a Christian nation, on the strength of the religious proclivities of those who made the first settlements. Consistency, therefore, would demand that the form of religion professed by the nation should be the Roman Catholic, since it had the first hold upon the country. It matters very little what the form of religion is that is professed by a State, for the very best would soon become as bad as the worst.

Lord Yarborough, the owner of the famous North Lincolnshire pack of hounds, has been gathering some interesting statistics in regard to fox hunting. He says that there are 330 packs of hounds in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and estimates their cost and keeping to amount to £44,850. Adding to this cost of keeping the 99,000 horses that are used in the sport, he gives a total annual expenditure for fox hunting of over four and a half millions. There are many conclusions that might be drawn from this, but we leave each reader to make his own application of the facts.

And rightminded people can sympathize with the forcible words used in the following item from the Echo:-

"We are threatened with two disastrous visitations this year-one from Hamburg, the other from Paris. We might leave Dr. Collingridge to grapple with the cholera, but who shall delvier us from crinoline? It is that mighty potentate M. Worth who threatens us with the latter plague. Here is a splendid opportunity for the champions of the rights of women. Perhaps their battle for the franchise is to be won after all through the petticoat itself. Should they be able to make a successful stand against such an odious, ugly, indecent revival, they will win a host of new converts. No woman with any sense of self-respect, who has any recollection of the comments of the other sex when crinoline was last in vogue, would suffer her daughters to wear it on any consideration."

January 26, 1893

"Nourishing Doubts" The Present Truth 9, 2.

E. J. Waggoner

Nourishing Doubts .-There is nothing in the world more prolific than doubt. A single doubt will multiply itself indefinitely, and it lives and propagates upon air. Let a person air his doubts upon every convenient occasion, and they will flourish. Doubts never diminish by being expressed in words. If you have doubts keep them to yourself, for the sake of others, if not for your own. But, better still, kill them. The antidote for the poisonous germ of doubt is belief. Settle it in your heart once for all that God's word is true, because He Himself is the truth. Then remember that as God is from everlasting to everlasting, so is His truth. It is unchangeable. That which was true yesterday is true to-day, and will be truth eternally. Doubt is simply the shadow of a lie, and no lie can overthrow truth. Doubts will come to every man, but the man in whose heart is the love of the truth and the knowledge of God, will let them affect him no more than straws on the ocean obstruct the course of the Majestic.

"Ministers of Grace" The Present Truth 9, 2.

E. J. Waggoner

Ministers of Grace .-It is possible that a good deal of the so-called work for the Lord that is done in these days, arises from a misconception of the work of the angels of God, the "ministers of His that do His pleasure." Their occupation is thus set forth: "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation?" Heb. i. 14, R.V. what is their work? To do service for the sake or benefit of the heirs of salvation. How many of them are engaged in this work? All of them. Then it seems that there are none left to engage in the work of spying out the evil and reporting it to the Lord, a thing which is commonly supposed to be a large part of their occupation. "But does not God take notice of the evil that goes on?" He certainly does know all about it, and will punish for it; but how He knows it does not concern us. Since He is God, knowledge of all things is a part of His existence. But we may be sure that God does not sit in heaven beholding the works of man as a spy, and that He does not send the angels out "slumming." His thoughts are thoughts of peace, and the angels are ministers of His grace. Let all who would be workers together with God and the angels remember this.

"The Commandments of God" The Present Truth 9, 2.

E. J. Waggoner

"And, behold, one came and said unto Him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And He said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God; but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." Matt. xix. 16, 17. The young man was astonished that he should be told to keep the commandments, for he himself was so sure that he had never failed in any particular, that he thought everybody must recognize the fact, and so he asked, "Which?" As much as to say, "Which once have I not kept?" Jesus said, Thou shalt not murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shall not steal, Thou shall not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother; and Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Verses 18, 19.

The young man's reply that he had kept all these, we may leave for the present, and simply consider the commandments themselves. Let us trace them from the giving of them on Mount Sinai.

"And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to Me into the mount, and be there; and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them." Ex. xxiv. 12. "And He gave unto Moses, when He had made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God." Ex. xxxi. 18.

"And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand; the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables." Ex. xxxii. 15, 16.

Afterwards Moses rehearsed the commandments before the people, as recorded in the fifth of Deuteronomy, verses 6-21, and at the close he said, "These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice; and He added no more. And He wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me." Deut. v. 22.

Still later we have the record of the apostasy of the children of Israel, when Moses broke the tables of stone, and then we read this account, "At that time the Lord said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto Me into the mount, and make thee an ark of wood. And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark. And I made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine hand. And He wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the Lord spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them unto me. And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they be, as the Lord commanded me." Deut. x. 1-5.

These ten commandments are recorded in Ex. xx. 2-17, just as the Lord spoke them from the mount. We have learned that they are all that He spoke, and that they are His law. It was from these that the Lord quoted when He told the young man that if he would enter into life He must keep the commandments. It is of them that the wise man speaks, when he says, "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter; Fear God, and

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keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." Eccl. xii. 13.

It is of these commandments that we read in the Psalms: "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." Ps. xix. 7-9. "The works of His hand are verity and judgment; all His commandments are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness." Ps. cxl. 7, 8. "The word is true from the beginning, and every one of Thy righteous judgments endureth for ever." "My tongue shall speak of Thy word; for all Thy commandments are righteousness." "Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Thy law is the truth." Ps. cxix. 160, 172, 142.

The violation of these commandments is sin, for "Whosoever committeth sin, transgresseth also the law; for sin is the transgression of the law." 1 John iii. 4. The apostle Paul said, "I had not known sin, but by the law; for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." Rom. vii. 7. "Where no law is, there is no transgression." Rom. iv. 15. "Sin is not imputed where there is no law." Rom. xv. 13.

There is no sin that is not condemned by them, and no goodness that they do not enjoin. The psalmist said, "I have seen an end of all perfection but Thy commandment is exceeding broad." Ps. cxix. 96. It is so broad that it takes notice of the very thoughts and intents of the heart. For when we are told that to fear God and keep His commandments is the whole duty of man, there immediately follow these words, "For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." Eccl. xii. 14. Every secret thing will be judged by the commandments of God. This shows something of their breadth.

The Saviour, in the sermon on the mount, illustrated the breadth of the commandments. Said He: "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 men 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. 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." Matt. v. 17-20.

The Pharisees were very scrupulous observers of the law. That is, they professed to be. But their observance of it was only outward. They did nothing that man could see that was wrong; but they did not hesitate to do any evil, provided nobody could find it out. The Saviour said of them, "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." Matt. xxiii. 27, 28.

Therefore when Christ said, "Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven," He meant that the righteousness which is only on the outside is worthless. They that do the commandments of God will have right to the tree of life, and shall enter in through the gates into the city of God, the New Jerusalem. Rev. xxii. 14. But they who only outwardly appear to be righteous, cannot in any case enter there. This shows that the keeping of the commandments is an affair of the heart and life, and not one of a mere form.

Then the Saviour proceeded to show how the commandments may be broken. He quoted the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," and showed that it may be broken by so seemingly small a thing as an angry word. He quoted the seventh commandment, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," and showed that a single evil glance of the eye was enough for the violation of it. And so on with others. See Matt. v. 21-47. All this shows that the ten commandments are the whole duty of man, the whole of the truth of God, they endure to all eternity, that they are that by which every man's case will be decided in the judgment, and that so broad are they in their requirements that a single word or look may suffice to break them. God desires truth in the inward parts.

"The Fulfilling of the Law" The Present Truth 9, 2.

E. J. Waggoner

The young man who came to Jesus thought that he had kept all the commandments, for when Jesus referred to them, he said, "All these have I kept from my youth up; what lack I yet?" Then Jesus answered, "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and follow Me." Matt. xix. 20, 21. This was a test that the young man could not endure, and he went away sorrowful.

Shall we learn from this that there was something necessary for the young man to do more than the keeping of the commandments? By no means: For the Saviour told him that if he would enter into the kingdom he should keep the commandments. We learn that the young man had not kept the commandments, although he thought that he had. "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Gal. v. 14. But this man did not love his neighbour as himself; therefore he had not kept the commandments.

"Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." Rom. xiii. 10. The Saviour said to the young man, "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor." In Col. iii. 14 we are told that love is the bond of perfectness. So the Saviour simply pointed out to the man that although he had outwardly kept all the commandments, he lacked the essential element of commandment keeping, which is love. Without love there is no keeping of the law.

True charity is not simply almsgiving, but it is love. Now, remembering that love is the fulfilling of law, and that without love there is nothing of any value, read the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, and we shall find out what constitutes the keeping of the commandments. "Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself; it is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil; rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." 1 Cor. xiii. 4-7, R.V.

When we understand that love, and that alone, is the fulfilling of the law, we can see in this chapter the statement that the keeping of the commandments means kindness, patience, unselfishness, thoughtfulness for others, forgetfulness of self, and labour to build up others, meekness, and gentleness, and true courtesy. In short, it means perfection. Without love in the heart, there is no keeping of the law of God. The law was given in love (Deut. xxxiii. 2, 3), and it is love.

"Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." 1 John iv. 7, 8. "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous." 1 John v. 3. "We love, because He first love us" (1 John i. 19), because love is of God. That is, there can be no real love that does not come from God. God is love, and all love springs from Him. So we

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are able to love one another only as "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us."

All this goes to show that the keeping of the commandments of God is simply a likeness to God Himself. It is more than mere likeness to God; it is assimilation to God; for love, which is the fulfilling of the law, comes from God. Therefore the keeping of the commandments by any man is nothing less than the manifestation of the life of God in that man. A few paragraphs may profitably be devoted directly to this point in the following article.

"The Law and the Life" The Present Truth 9, 2.

E. J. Waggoner

We have already seen that the keeping of the commandments of God is summed up in one word, namely, love. But love is of God, "For God is love." Notice that the text does not say that God has love, but that God is love. Love is the nature of God; it is His very life. Therefore it is plain that the keeping of the commandments of God is partaking of the nature of God. This is a point which cannot be too often repeated, and so although we have often presented it, we shall again set forth some Scriptures upon it.

When the young man came to Christ, saying, "Good Master," the Saviour said to him, "Why callest thou Me good? There is none good but one, that is, God." In this Christ was not rebuking him for calling Him good, because He was good. He "knew no sin." To the Jews He said, "Which of you convinceth Me of sin?" John viii. 46. And again He said, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me." John xiv. 30. He knew that He was good, and He could not deny that without denying Himself, and that He would not do it. But in putting that question, and making that statement to the young man, He showed that He Himself was God. He and the Father are one, and God alone is good.

As contrasted with God, man is only evil. "There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." Rom. iii. 10-12. "Out of the heart of men, 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." Mark vii. 21-23.

As is the heart, so is the man. "An evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil." Luke vii. 45. Therefore since the heart of man,-not of one man merely, nor of a certain class of men,-but the heart of all mankind, is evil, only evil can be done by any man when left to himself. "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." Gal. v. 17. And this is spoken especially of those who desire to do that which is right.

This evil in the heart of man is opposition to the law of God. Thus we read, "to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." Rom. viii. 6-8.

Nevertheless God tells men to keep His commandments. And since it is impossible for the nature of man to keep them, and goodness presides in God alone, it follows that in order to keep the commandments one must have the nature of God. Christ is the revelation of God. No man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him. Matt. xi. 27. In Christ's life there was perfect goodness, because His life was the life of God. God is good. His life is goodness itself. Goodness constitutes His life. Goodness is not an abstract thing, but it must always be manifested in action. But action is life. Therefore since there is none good but God, it follows that whosoever keeps the commandments of God must do so by having His life in them.

That this is the only way that the righteousness of the law can be manifested in man, is shown by the apostle Paul in his epistle to the Galatians. Said He: "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God; for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." Gal. ii. 20, 21. Righteousness comes only by the life of God in Christ. So it is that "by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." Rom. v. 19. In all the host of the redeemed in the kingdom of heaven, there will be the manifestation of the righteousness of Christ, and of His righteousness alone. It is not simply that Christ obeyed the law eighteen hundred years ago, when He was on earth, but that He obeys the law now, the same as He did then; for He is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever; and so when He comes to dwell in the hearts of men who believe in Him, He lives the same life of obedience in them that He did when He was here to die for man. To know this as a practical fact, is to acknowledge that Christ is come in the flesh.

It is because the law of God is the life of God, and that is love, that the Saviour gave this instruction: "I say unto you, 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. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans the same?" Matt. v. 44-47.

The greatest manifestation of merely human love is to do good to those who do us good. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Rom. v. 8. Man loves his friends, sometimes; but God loves His enemies. That is love itself, because it does not grow out of what He has received from the object of love. The Saviour knew that love such as that was not possible to a human nature, and so He added these words, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Matt. v. 48. That is, we are to have the perfection of God. Not that we are to become gods, but that we are to allow His life to be manifested in us, and so we shall have His perfection. The goodness will all be of God, but will be counted ours, because we yield ourselves to it, that He may live it in us.

This thought lifts the law of God above the level of mere force, and glorifies it. We "know that His commandment is life everlasting." John xii. 50. The ten commandments are not arbitrary rules laid down by the Almighty, for the government of mankind. They are not precepts that exist merely in writing, which the subjects are to read, and then do their best to keep; not like the laws of earthly governments, in the keeping of which the subject receives no help from the lawgivers. God has not given to man a law as hard as the stone on which it was traced at Sinai, and then left them to do the best that they can with it, His only concern being to punish them if they come short. Far different. The law written on tables of stone is but the statement in words of the living righteousness of the living God, which He in love gives to all who will receive it. It is the condition of life, simply because all life comes from God; and since all who live for ever must have His life, it is inevitable that they must have His righteousness. But God has not left them to secure this righteousness by themselves. He well knew that such a thing would be impossible.

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So He gave Himself, pouring out His own life on the cross, in order that man might have it. So the law of God is the life of God,-gracious, loving, and merciful.

Only one thought more need be noted here, and that is, that nothing less than the life of God will meet the demands of the law. Whoever comes short of the glory of God, which is His goodness, is a sinner,-a transgressors of the law. The righteousness of God, which is by the faith of Jesus Christ, is the only thing to which the law will witness that it is perfect. Anything less than that will be condemned by the law; for "whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Rom. xiv. 33. There is no injustice in God's maintaining this high standard for man, since He gives Himself, with all the righteousness of His life, to everyone who will take it. He gives His life freely. All man has to do is to submit himself to the righteousness of God.

A mere form of godliness will avail nothing. No amount of mere outward conformity to the law will be accepted as the keeping of the law. There is but one God, and so there is but one life of God. He will not acknowledge any rival gods, and He cannot be deceived by a righteousness which is only a counterfeit of His life. Any amount of professed conformity to the law of God, which does not come from the life of God in the soul, is nothing but sin. Let it not be forgotten, their righteousness,-the keeping of the commandments of God,-is only by the faith of Jesus Christ, and that whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

"Civil Government and the Law of God" The Present Truth 9, 2.

E. J. Waggoner

In the last number of the PRESENT TRUTH a statement was made in regard to civil legislation on religious matters, something to this effect: If there is in the law of God no warrant for any given practice, then for men to pass laws enforcing that practice, is to try to compel them to sin; for the law of God contains all that He wants men to do, and anything different from His law is sin. And if the law of God does enjoin any given thing, then for men to pass laws requiring the performance of that thing, is unnecessary and presumptuous, to say the least.

With what we have learned in our study of the law of God, in this number, we are prepared to go beyond that statement, and say that any human legislation whatever upon the law of God, or any part of it, is sin, and the only result of such legislation is to compel men to sin, and to confirm them in sin. This is not a rash, unconsidered statement, but is the only conclusion possible from the nature of the law, as revealed in the Bible. Remember this: The commandments of God are the righteousness of God. The perfect law is found only in the life of God, which is revealed to men in Christ. The keeping of the law of God is a thing utterly beyond the reach of human power. "The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Rom. viii. 7. "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Rom. iii. 20. Only by faith in Jesus Christ can the righteousness of the law be obtained. For the righteousness of the law is inseparable from the life of God, and that life is manifested only in Christ.

"The law is spiritual." Rom. viii. 14. Every portion of it is spiritual. That is, it is the nature of God, for "God is Spirit." John iv. 24, R.V., marginal reading. Now it needs no arguing to prove that no human power can put into the hearts of men the life and Spirit of God. No human law can put love into the heart of man. The law of God itself cannot do that, except as it is in the life of Christ. Only the Spirit of God can shed the love of God abroad in the heart. No man is able of himself so to keep even the law of God, that he will be righteous. God must dwell in him, living His own life in him. How much less, then, can any righteousness come by a law of man?

It is evident to everybody that the most that human law-givers and judges can take account of is the outward acts of men. Man judges after the outward appearances; the Lord alone looks upon the heart. But the keeping of the law of God, as we have seen, does not consist of mere outward acts. Mere outward righteousness is sin. Therefore the conclusion is inevitable, that whenever men pass and attempt to enforce laws that profess to be a part of the law of God, they are dishonouring the law of God, and compelling men to sin.

For (1) when men make a law, and say that in enforcing it they are enforcing the law of God, they thereby say that the law of God is no better than their law. They say that the law of God requires no greater degree of righteousness than they can enforce. That is the greatest possible dishonour to the law of God. And (2) when men make that claim, and lead people to think so, they are leaving them to sin. For the most that any human law can require and enforce is outward compliance, and that is the most that any man can of himself render to any law. Therefore when men profess that they are enforcing the law of God, they are educating the people to think that mere outward observance satisfies the law of God. And therefore just so far as such laws have any effect at all, their effect is to lead men to sin, and to cause them to rest satisfied in sin, thinking that they are keeping the law of God. No more wicked and presumptuous a thing can be done in this world than for men to attempt to enforce the law of God, and to cause men to think that such a thing is possible.

In the seventh chapter of the book of Daniel we find the Papacy represented under the form of a "little horn" coming up among the ten horns of the fourth beast, which symbolizes Rome. Before it three of the ten kingdoms of the Roman Empire were plucked up, to make room for it. Of this little horn,-the Papacy,-the angel that interpreted the vision of the prophet said, "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. The apostle Paul, writing by inspiration of God, sets forth the Papacy as "that man of sin" "that opposeth and exalteth himself against 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, R.V.

These characteristics are met in every case where men think that they can enforce the law of God. For to say that men can enforce the law of God, is to say that man has the power of God; and that is for those who make the laws to set themselves forth as God. So every nation that enforces religion by law puts itself in the place of God. But when a nation puts itself in the place of God, it turns the attention to just that degree away from God, since it is not indeed God, and has none of His attributes; therefore such enforcement of religion is nothing else than idolatry. Therefore we find that the professed enforcement of even the Christian religion is heathenism. The union of Church and State, or the union of religion and the State, which is the same thing, is the very essence of Paganism.

This will be plain enough to anyone who will think of it seriously. The promise of the everlasting covenant is that God will put His laws into the inward parts of men, and write them on their hearts, and that He will be their God, and they shall be His people. All this is what God alone can do. No man can write the law of God upon His own heart, much less upon the heart of anyone else. No man can make himself a child of God, any more than he could make himself the child of his natural father. As a child has nothing to do with making himself the child of his father, so the man has nothing to do with making himself the child of God. Only in this latter case, he gives his consent. But man becomes a child of God only by the will of God. See John xx. 1, 12, 13; James i. 18.

Neither can any man make God his

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God. God can make Himself the God of any man; but whenever man has attempted to make God his God, the result has been an idol. No man can make God. So the attempt to enforce the observance of the first commandment of the law of God, would result only in national idolatry. And a similar result must follow the attempt to enforce any other commandment. So we see that in religious legislation by human governments, the sin is not so much in the fact that men misinterpret the plain words of the law, as it is in the fact that they presume to enforce the law God at all.

"The Second Table of the Law" The Present Truth 9, 2.

E. J. Waggoner

There is a notion quite prevalent, derived by tradition from we do not know where, that, as the law of God is summed up in two parts, namely, love to God and love to man, the first four commandments relating solely to man's duty to God, and the last six relating to man's duty to his fellow-men, so it is within the province of human governments to legislate upon the last table of the law, even though they may not presume to meddle with the first tables. This we say is a tradition, having no foundation whatever in fact. The consideration that we have already given to the law of God is sufficient to show the fallacy of that idea.

To see clearly that the enforcement of the second table of the law as a whole, at least, is not within the province of human governments, one has only to read the tenth commandment, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour's." There is a commandment of which no earthly government can ever take any notice. A man may be almost eaten up with covetousness, and yet human laws cannot punish him, and the officers of the law cannot even tell that he is covetous. So it is evident that the second table of the law cannot be enforced by human government.

But no other commandment of the second table can be enforced by human power anymore than the tenth. For the law is spiritual. Every part of it is spiritual. The sixth commandment, and the seventh, and the eighth are spiritual, as well as the first. The keeping of the commandments does not consist of outward form. If there is no spiritual life in the soul, there is no commandment keeping. Moreover, the outward appearance is often deceiving if we should allow ourselves to judge a man's actions, we should often say that he is doing wrong when if we could read his heart and see his motives we should note that he is doing right. And very often men are praised for doing what seems to be right, but what is actually wrong.

It is a mistake to suppose that because the last six commandments define man's duty to man, they have no relation to God. They are the commandments of God, and of God alone. It is man's duty to God to love his fellow-man. Love to man can spring only from love to God. Love to God cannot exist without love to man. "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. And mark this: The two tables of law are not duty to God and duty to man, but they are love to God and love to man. Duty may be enforced, but love cannot be. The law is love, for love is the fulfilling of the law. But no human power can force a man to love another. Therefore no human power can enforce the law of God. God Himself cannot force men to keep His own law, because it is a law of love as He Himself is love. But He puts the keeping of it into those who are willing, by shedding His love abroad in their hearts by His Holy Spirit.

"But is it not right for the government to make and enforce laws against murder and theft?" Most certainly; but in punishing a man for killing another or for stealing, the government is in no sense enforcing the law of God. Murder and theft are punished in nations that know nothing of God. When the thief is put in goal, it is not because he has violated the law of God, but because he has interfered with the peace of another. So also when the murderer is hanged. The punishment which the State inflicts upon the murderer will in no wise diminish the punishment which he will receive from God at the Judgment. If in hanging the murderer the State were enforcing the law of God, then that would be all the punishment that the murderer would receive. But no one supposes that because a man suffers the penalty of law He will receive any less punishment at the hands of God than he would have received if he had escaped detection by man until he died a natural death.

Civil governments are ordained by God, but not to take the place of God. God has no vicegerent on this earth. No earthly power is deputed to enforce the law of God, nor to see that it is obeyed. The object of human government is to hold in check man who would make it impossible for others to live in peace. Civil governments are not for the purpose of making men religious, nor of helping them in any way to be religious, but only for the purpose of compelling certain men to act civilly, who will not do so unless they are forced to. It is true that there has never been a government on earth that has kept within its proper bounds, but the fact that governments have presumed to meddle with a great many things beyond their range, does not make it right. Precedent does not make a thing right.

The idea that men are deputed to see that God's law is obeyed is what led to the establishment of the Inquisition. Men recognized the fact that the law of God has to do with more than the outward acts. So as they felt themselves charged with the burden of seeing that it was obeyed, they began to inquire into people's private affairs, and into their secret lives. As nobody could know so much about any man's thoughts as the man himself, the inquisitors were not content with the testimony of spies, but interrogated the man himself. And as he would naturally be reluctant to lay bare his secret thoughts, the rack, the thumb-screw, the pulley, etc., were resorted to in order that human judges might know what God alone can know. The evil of the Inquisition is the evil of the union of Church and State. The former naturally and inevitably grows out of the latter. Just to the extent that the union is close and effective, will be the strictness of the Inquisition. No man can defend the union of Church and State without upholding the Inquisition.

"Enforced Rest" The Present Truth 9, 2.

E. J. Waggoner

One of the strange things in connection with Sunday legislation is the notion that people will not rest when they are tired unless they are compelled to. The plea so commonly made is that Sunday laws are necessary in order that the labouring men may take the rest that is so much needed. Now while it is true that there are some persons who were so industrious that they literally "worked themselves to death," spurring themselves up to work when nature demands rest, it is a fact that such persons are rare exceptions among mankind. It is natural for people to rest when they are tired. It is very unnatural for one to keep on working after he is very weary. It requires an extraordinary effort to do so; and very few put forth that effort.

Let one read the daily papers, and he will not get the idea that excess of work is killing off many people. We have never read of a case where a man was arraigned before the magistrate, charged with trying to commit suicide by overwork; but we can scarcely take up the paper without noticing a case in which an able-bodied man is charged with neglecting his family through his idleness. To rest when one is tired is as natural as to sleep when one is sleepy; and we have never heard any of the advocates of an enforced Sunday rest plead for a law compelling men to take seven hours' sleep in the twenty-four.

But the case becomes more absurd, when we see the argument applied to the keepers of public-houses. In the Memorial which was noticed at length a few weeks ago, we read that "the Sunday sale of intoxicating liquors is wrong in principle, unfair to other trades, and injurious to the publicans and their servants, whose hours on other days of the week are grossly excessive." Their hours of labour are indeed long, but they have the privilege of shortening them if they wish. But if their hours on other days are too long, why is it that there is no effort to give them rest on those days, when they need the rest? Why not equalize matters, by giving them the proper amount of rest every day, instead of putting the rest all into one day? Why? Because all Sunday legislation is in the interest of the day, and not at all in the interest of the people.

"A Present Help" The Present Truth 9, 2.

E. J. Waggoner

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." Ps. xivi. 1.

How much help and consolation we miss by unconsciously omitting the word "present" when reading the above text. We readily admit meant that God is a "refuge and strength" to others, and we may even go so far sometimes as to say that He is "our refuge and strength." That is, we believe He has helped us, and that He will help us, if we trust Him, but is it not quite another thing to believe that He is "a present help" in this trouble,-and not only a present help, but a "very present help?" How natural it is to look back on that long illness or that severe trial in the past and gratefully acknowledge God's care and help through it all, and yet at the same time fear to trust Him in the present emergency! It is so much easier to believe that He has heard us, and that He will hear us, then that He does hear us. We assent to the fact of a crucified and risen Saviour, and yet how feebly we laid hold upon it! How often we act as though we believed there was no one to pity and no one to save, as though our Saviour were yet buried in Joseph's new tomb! But praise God, "He is risen!" "The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear Him: He also will hear their cry, and will save them." Ps. cxlv. 18, 19.

A remarkable instance of the fulfilment of this promise is noted in the New York Observer of December 29, 1892. It is in connection with the story of the wrecking of the Spree, the Atlantic steamer on which Mr. D. L. Moody recently took passage for America. He says:-

"I embarked on the Spree, a vessel about four hundred and ninety feet long, with seven hundred passengers on board representing Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Russia, Hungary and other countries, besides our own.

"When about three days on our voyage, as I was lying on my couch I was startled by a terrible crash and shock, as if the vessel had been driven on a rock. I did not at first feel much anxiety-perhaps I was too ill to think much about it. But my son jumped from his berth and rushed on deck. He was back again in a few moments, explaining that the shaft was broken and the vessel sinking. I did not at first believe it could be so bad, but concluded to dress and go on deck. The report was only too true. The captain told the affrighted passengers, who had rushed on deck that there was no danger, and some of the second cabin passengers returned to their berths, only to be driven out again by the inrushing water, leaving everything behind them.

"The officers and crew did all they could to save the vessel. But it was soon found that the pumps were useless, for the water poured into the ship too rapidly to be controlled. There was nothing more in the power of man to do. We were utterly, absolutely helpless. We could only stand still on the poor, drifting, sinking ship, and look into our watery graves. All this time, unknown to the passengers, the officers were making preparations for the last resort. The life-boats were all put in readiness, provisions prepared, life-preservers in hand, the officers armed with revolvers to enforce their orders, and the question was evidently being debated in their minds whether to launch the boats at once, or wait. The sea was so heavy that the boats could hardly have lived in it. Two of the passengers had loaded revolvers ready to blow out their brains if the vessel should go down, preferring death by bullets to death by drowning. At noon the captain told us he thought he had the water under control, and was in hopes of drifting in the way of some passing vessel. The ships bow was now high in the air, while the stern seemed to settle more and more. The sea was very rough, and the ship rolled from side to side with fearful lurches. If she had pitched violently but once, though bulkheads must have burst, and the

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and come. The captain tried to keep up hope by telling us we should probably drift in the way of a ship by three o'clock that Saturday afternoon, but the night closed upon us without sign of a sail.

"That was an awful night, the darkest in all our lives. Seven hundred men, women, and children waiting for the doom that was settling upon us. No one dared to sleep. We were all together in the saloon of the first cabin-Jews, Protestants, Catholics, and sceptics-although I doubt if at that time there were any sceptics among us. The agony and suspense were too great for words. With blanched faces and trembling hearts the passengers looked at each other, as if trying to read what no one dared to speak. Rockets flamed into the sky, but there was no answer. We were drifting out of the track of the great steamers. Every hour seemed to increase the danger of our situation.

"Sunday morning dawned, without help or hope. Up to that time no suggestion of religious services had been made. To have done that would almost certainly have produced a panic. In the awful suspense and dread that prevailed, a word about religion would have suggested the most terrible things to the poor souls. It was necessary to divert their minds, if possible, or they would break under the strain. But as that second night came on, we held a prayer-meeting, with the concurrence of the captain. Everybody attended, and I think everybody prayed, sceptics and all. Surely the cries of the dear little children were heard in heaven. With one arm clasping a pillar to steady myself on the reeling vessel, I tried to read the ninety-first Psalm, and we prayed that God would still the raging of the sea and bring us to our desired heaven. It was a new psalm to me from that very hour. The eleventh verse touched me very deeply. It was like a voice of Divine assurance, and it seemed a very real thing, as I read: 'He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways.' Surely He did it. I read also from the one hundred and seventh Psalm, versus 20-31. One lady thought those words must have been written for the occasion, and afterwards asked to see the book for herself.

"I was passing through a new experience. I had thought myself superior to the fear of death. I have often preached on the subject and urged Christians to realize this victory of faith. During our civil war I had been under fire without fear. I was in Chicago during the Ggeat cholera epidemic and went around with the doctors, visiting the sick and dying. Where they could go to look after the bodies of men, I said I could go to look after their souls. I remember a case of small-pox where the flesh had literally dropped away from the backbone, yet I went to the bedside of that poor sufferer again and again with Bible and prayer for Jesus' sake. In all this I had no fear of death.

"But on the sinking ship it was different. There was no cloud between my soul and my Saviour. I know my sins had been put away. That was all settled long ago. But as my thoughts went out to my loved ones at home-my wife and children, anxiously waiting for my coming-my friends on both sides of the sea-the schools and all the interests so dear to me-and realized that perhaps the next hour would separate me for ever from all these, so far as this world was concerned, I confess it almost broke me down. It was the darkest hour of my life! I could not endure it. I must have relief, and relief came in prayer. God heard my cry and enabled me to say from the depths of my soul, "Thy will be done." It was all settled. Sweet peace came to my heart. I went to bed and almost immediately fell asleep, and never slept more soundly in all my life. Out of the depths I cried unto the Lord, and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears. I can no more doubt that God gave answer to my prayer for relief, then I can doubt my own existence.

"About three o'clock at night I was aroused from my sound sleep by the voice of my son. 'Come on deck, father,' he said. I followed him, and he pointed toward a far-off light, rising and sinking on the sea. It was a messenger of deliverance to us. It proved to be the light of the steamer Lake Huron, whose lookout had seen our flaming signals of distress, and supposed it was a vessel in flames. Oh, the joy of that moment when those seven hundred despairing passengers beheld the approaching ship! Who can ever forget it?

"But now the question is, can this small steamer tow the helpless Spree on a thousand miles to Queenstown? Every movement was watched with intensest anxiety and prayer. It was a brave and perilous undertaking. The two vessels were at last connected by two great cables. If a storm arose these would snap like a thread, and we must be left to our fate. But I had no fear. God would finish the work He had begun. The waves were calmed-the cables held-the steamer moved in the wake of the Huron. There were storms all around us, but they came not nigh our broken ship. Seven days after the accident, by the good hand of our God upon us, we were able to hold a joyous thanksgiving service in the harbour of Queenstown-just one week ago to-day, as I stand here among the friends and neighbours I love so well. The rescuing ship that God sent to us in our distress, had just sufficient power to tow our vessel, and just enough coal to take her into port! There was nothing to spare! Less would have been insufficient. Her captain also is a man of prayer, and besought God's help to enable them to accomplish their dangerous and difficult task. God answered the united prayers of the distressed voyagers and brought them to their desired heaven."

Shall we not learn a lesson from those ship-wrecked passengers? Is not our need of a life-boat as great as theirs? If we but realized that need as vividly as they did, and cry as earnestly for help, would we not experience more such deliverances, and join in more such thanksgivings?

Again, it is well to remember to give thanks to God for deliverance from peril; but it is better still to recognize His hand at all times. His care is over us no less in keeping us from accidents than it is in saving our lives when accidents occur.

Two preachers once met at a church, and one said that he had very much to thank God for, because although his carriage had been thrown down an embankment as he was coming, he had escaped injury; it was a miraculous deliverance. Said the other, "My brother I have more to be thankful for than you, because I came over the same road and no accident whatever happened to me or my carriage."

It is the direct personal care of God that keeps us at all times. But for His mercies we should be cut off. So instead of waiting until some great affair takes place, and we experience a remarkable deliverance from danger, let us thank the Lord that His presence keeps us from the presence of danger.

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 2.

E. J. Waggoner

-It is calculated that 10,000 individuals get their living in Paris as professional beggars.

-General Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts, died on the 11th instant, at the age of seventy-five.

-An acre of bananas is estimated to produce forty-four times more by weight than the potato, and 135 more than wheat.

-About 30,000 vehicles and 100,000 pedestrians daily pass the western end of Cheapside, between Newgate-street and St. Paul's Churchyard.

-Twelve of the strikers at the Carnegie Iron and Steel Works have been convicted-one of them of riot, and two of having taken part in an unlawful assembly.

-In the United Kingdom the number of applications for patents in 1892 was 24,166, a total far exceeding that of any previous year, and greater by 1,278 than that of 1891.

-The yield of gold in the colony of Victoria during the last year was 663,000 oz. This was 41,000 oz. in excess of that of the previous year, and the largest amount that has been obtained since 1886. Number of German women who take an active part in the Socialist movement is rapidly increasing. Several meetings are announced at Berlin and for the next few weeks, which will be mainly attended by female Social Democrats.

-Iceland has a population of 70,000, yet the only military force consists of two policemen stationed at the capital, Reykjavik; and the only two lawyers in the island are the State attorney, and another who is prepared to defend anyone who may be put on trial.

-The return of the Congregational churches to the official Year-book of the Congregational Union have just been made, showing that there are 4,684 churches and mission stations in England and Wales, providing sitting accommodation for over 1,547,000 persons.

-Mgr. Satolli, the Papal legate to the United States, has declared that it is lawful for Catholics to send their children to public schools, to acquire the elements of learning, providing the parents "do not neglect their most serious duties, and the pastors of souls put forth every effort to instruct the children."

-It is said that the Methodists of the United States have condemned football as a pastime that savours of sin, and that is unbecoming the Christian life. We do not believe in ecclesiastical condemnation; but it is very certain that football as engaged in by the professional teams, not only savours of sin, but is actual sin.

-"According to ancient custom a boar's head was served up at Queen's College, Oxford, on Christmas Day, in memory of the feat of a former member who, when attacked by a wild boar, is credited with causing its death by thrusting a volume of Aristotle down its throat." The cramming of Aristotle has been the death of many men, but if all the swine in the country could be served with a dose of him, with the same result as in the case of the boar referred to, the philosopher would not have lived.

-It is stated that Dr. Meyer, of Berlin, has discovered a process by means of which aluminum can be produced at two pence per pound. In 1828 the price was 1,000 per pound. The price to-day is four shillings per pound. Here we have vast possibilities open to us. There is said to be ten times more aluminum in the world than there is of iron, lead, copper, zinc, nickel, gold, and silver combined. It is stronger than iron, and more malleable than copper, as hard as silver and one-fourth the weight, as white as polished steel, and is unaffected by the atmosphere.-Amateur Photographer.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 2.

E. J. Waggoner

At the annual meeting of the Barrow branch of the United Kingdom Alliance, one cause of thankfulness that was noted was the fact that out of over 2,000 voters pledged to support Sunday Closing and the principle of the Direct Veto.

We would call attention to two new and very important books just issued, and advertised on the preceding page, namely, "Steps to Christ," and "The Gospel in Creation." Every Christian will find them helpful to him, and they are just the things to put into the hands of those who are not Christians, to show them the simplicity of the Gospel, and to direct them to the solid foundation for faith. A more extended notice will be given in the next number of the paper.

Two trials have just been brought to a close in the Presbyterian Church in the United States. Dr. Briggs of New York, and Dr. Smith of Cincinnati, both theological professors, have been tried on practically the same charge of heresy. The result is that Dr. Briggs has been acquitted, and Dr. Smith has been suspended from the ministry. And now people who believe that the church has authority to pronounce the judgments of God, are wondering which verdict is correct.

McGlynn, the New York priest who was excommunicated five years ago, for advocating Henry George's land theories, has been restored to the communion of the Roman Catholic Church, and celebrated Mass on Christmas Eve. Although he has been very severe on some of the ways of the church, he has always allowed himself to be a Catholic. He still retains the views for which he was excommunicated, and some people take his restoration to the church as an evidence that Rome is becoming liberal. We shall see.

An important convention of the temperance party of Scotland took place in Glasgow, January 17. Sir W. Wedderburn, who presided, said the Government were prepared to carry out a temperance measure. Mr. John Wilson, M.P., said that if the House of Commons passed a Local Veto Bill and the Lords threw it out, nothing would satisfy the Scotch people but Home Rule for Scotland. With Home Rule for Scotland and fifty-six out of seventy-two members favouring temperance legislation, the Veto Bill was as good as passed.

One of the speakers of the Liberal Federation at Liverpool said that he "would rather go into the poll under the influence of the Roman Catholic priesthood, than under the influence of liquor." For this he was roundly applauded; yet someone has thought to ask, "Why is it necessary to go under the influence of either one?" This is more to the point. But still more to the point is the question, Why is it worse for the Roman Catholic priesthood to influence politics than for the ministers of any other denomination? That which made the Roman Catholic Church was the ambition of ministers and of the church generally, to engage in politics. But for that, there would never have been a Roman Catholic Church.

"Archdeacon Farrar does not often dabble in politics, but he had a good deal to say last night at the Victoria Hall of what might be expected in the way of temperance reform from the present Government. He took courage from the fact that no fewer than four of the present Cabinet have on various occasions presided over meetings of the United Kingdom Alliance. He demands five things from the Liberal party. Local option, of course, stands in the forefront of his programme. Sunday closing, which he pointed out was possessed already by three other units of the United Kingdom; earlier closing on week-days came next in importance, and the two minor reforms which he advocates are a law to make it penal to sell drink to children under fifteen, and more stringent provisions as regards the sale of liquor to those who are intoxicated or who are known as habitual drunkards. The Government, he added, was pledged to temperance reform, and every effort should be made to force them to nail their colours to the mast."-Chronicle, Jan. 12.

At a recent meeting of the London Wesleyan Council the following resolution was adopted:-

"That this Council declares its conviction that immediate legislation for the control of the liquor traffic is necessary, and that no legislation will be satisfactory which does not exclude all direct monetary organization, and which does not provide for entire Sunday closing throughout the whole of the United Kingdom, and for giving the ratepayers the direct veto of all licenses."

This implies that legislation which provides for the "control" of the liquor traffic, and for "entire Sunday closing throughout the whole United Kingdom" will be satisfactory. That is, with complete Government control of the liquor traffic, the churches will be satisfied to have it continue, provided it is stopped on Sunday. And yet many good people think that such a resolution is in the interest of temperance. A compromise with sin is inevitable when churches attempt to influence legislation.

On Monday evening, the 9th instant, a monster meeting was held in Exeter Hall, for the purpose of extending formal welcome to Miss Frances R. Willard. Lady Henry Somerset presided, and among the speakers were Canon Wilberforce, Rev. Mark Guy Pearce, Rev. Mr. Horton, and Mr. W. T. Stead. Of course the greater part of the speaking was in praise of the guest of the evening, but it was most important as showing the wide-spread interest in securing legislation upon temperance, Sunday observance, and morals and religion generally, and also in woman suffrage. Forty-six different societies were represented. The meeting doubtless accomplished more for the combination of the various forces of "legalized reform" than any other meeting ever held in London. After the large hall was packed with people, an overflow meeting, at which a thousand were present, was held in the lower hall, and many were still turned away for lack of room.

The sentiment of the people as to the means by which reforms are to be accomplished may be noted from a remark made by Canon Wilberforce, at the recent meeting in honour of Miss Willard, which was most enthusiastically applauded. Said he, "The axe is laid to the root of the upas tree; but it is only lying there at present. It has to be grasped by the strong hand of one who has had exercise in cutting down oak trees at Hawarden Park, and you have got to give him the power to do it." The Gospel, which deals only with individuals, is becoming almost entirely superseded as a reform agency, by the law, which deals with men in the aggregate. But the best work is not that which makes the biggest show, and receives the most applause.

February 9, 1893

"Front Page" The Present Truth 9, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

We learn that "Protestants in Spain have been semi-officially informed that they must, as soon as possible, take away from their churches all outward signs, such as crosses and inscriptions, and that in future no authorization will be given for building Protestant places of worship if they affect the shape or any outward appearance of a church or chapel." This is a sample of the true need that necessarily arises when religion becomes a part of politics. But why should the Protestants complain? If they believe in the principle of State religion they should be willing to abide by it under all circumstances. Fortunately this particular order will work no real hardship, except to ecclesiastical pride. The greatest triumphs of Christianity were gained when it had no public edifices at all, and the people were obliged to meet in private houses, in the woods, and in the catacombs.

"Christian Badge" The Present Truth 9, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

A movement is now on foot to try to induce all Christians of every denomination to wear a common badge, so that they may know one another when they meet. A "Christian" who cannot be recognized except by a badge on his arm, is of little worth as a Christian. They remind us of the work of the man in the garden, who, when he went to dinner had to drive a stick in the ground, so that he might know when he came back where he had left off speaking.

There is a badge, divinely given, to distinguish Christians from the world, which cannot be successfully counterfeited. "And above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness." Col. iii. 14. "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." John xiii. 35. This love is "shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." Rom. v. 5. Thus it is that when we believe we are "sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession." Eph. i. 13, 14. "And because we our sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father." Gal. v. 6. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." 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. 14, 16, 17.

The trouble with all human inventions which are added to Christianity, is that they do not serve the purpose for which they are design, but only pervert the Gospel. Even supposing that all Christians should agree to use a badge, so that they might be known, it would do no good. A few pennies would enable anybody to procure the badge, and thousands without the knowledge of the first principles of Christ, would be proclaiming themselves Christians. And so the very name Christian would be brought into disrepute. Many men have tried their hands at improving on God's method for keeping the church separate from the world, but the artificial methods always fail. The Pharisees could not keep the world out by increasing the width of their phylacteries. They advertised themselves as children of God while they were actually children of the devil.

This idea of a badge by which to designate individual Christians is of the same piece as the idea that nations may be Christian by labelling them as such. In the United States there has been for a long time a party working to secure the insertion of the name of God in the National Constitution. With some the argument has been that by so doing the United States would become a Christian nation; but the most of the people have argued that since it is already a Christian nation, it ought to be properly labelled, so that other people may recognize the fact. Perhaps when the nation is thus formally declared to be Christian, the individual badge may be adopted, in order that those who do not thus label themselves may be singled out for missionary effort or punishment.

The fact is, that the wearing of such a badge would be a sure way of making known, to some extent at least, who are not Christians; for few real Christians would ever put one on. All such things as the blowing of a trumpet before one, or the putting on of a special dress to indicate the individual's standing in the church, are foreign to Christianity. By the law of faith boasting is excluded. Rom. iii. 27. The only distinctive dress to be worn by any Christian, whether a public teacher or not, is the "robe of righteousness" and "garments of salvation" (Isa. lxi. 10), and these will be put upon him by the Lord Himself."

"A New Creation" The Present Truth 9, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

Several weeks have passed since the article appeared, showing that true Sabbath keeping means rest in the Lord,-depending upon Him as the Creator, who is able to create a man a new creature in Christ Jesus. The thought is worthy of further consideration. Let us recall a few plain statements of Scripture.

God has made His wonderful works to be remembered. Ps. cxi. 4.

He wants men to remember His wonderful works, in order that they may know His power, because His power is known by His works. Rom. i. 20.

It is necessary for man to know the power of God, in order that they may be saved, because the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation unto every one that believeth. Rom. i. 16. It is by the power of God, through faith, that men are kept. 1 Peter i. 5.

The Sabbath is a memorial that God has given of His wonderful works. "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. 3. "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 they maidservant, nor thy

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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. 10, 11.

Since the Sabbath is the memorial of the wonderful works of God, and God is known by His works, it follows that the Sabbath gives the knowledge of God. And so He says: "And hallow My Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God." Eze. xx. 20.

But to know God indeed is to know Him as He is. It is to know that He is love (1 John iv. 16), that He is of great compassion (Lam. iii. 22), that He is merciful (Ps. ciii. 8, 11, 17), that He delights in mercy (Micah vii. 18), that He takes no pleasure in the death of any (Eze. xxxiii. 11), that He has interposed Himself for the salvation of men (Heb. vi. 13-20) and that He is able to do all that He has promised. Rom. iv. 21; Eph. iii. 20. In short, to know God is to know Jesus Christ, "for in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. ii. 9), and God is manifested only in Christ. John i. 18. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself." 2 Cor. v. 19.

Christ is the power of God. 1 Cor. i. 24. Therefore the works of God, by which the power of God is known, make Christ known to us. This is evident enough, because "by Him were all things created." Col. i. 16. "All things were made by Him." John i. 3. And since the Sabbath is the memorial of creation, it is the memorial of the power of Christ. But Christ is the Saviour of men. "He was manifested to take away our sins." 1 John iii. 5. Therefore the Sabbath is for the purpose of letting men know the power of Christ to save them from sin. This also we plainly read: "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.

When God had finished the six days of creation, He "saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good." Gen. i. 31. This look included man. "The Lord made man upright." Eccl. vii. 29. Therefore as the Sabbath is the memorial of creation, it is the memorial of a perfect creation. It shows the power of God to create a perfect earth, and perfect men to dwell upon it.

Now read Isaiah xlv. 16-19: "They shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols. But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation; ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end. For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it. He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited; I am the Lord; and there is none else. I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth; I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye Me in vain; I the Lord speak righteousness, I declare things that are right."

Notice carefully what this text says. The makers of idols shall be ashamed and confounded, but Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. And what is the proof of this? Why, the Lord made the earth to be inhabited; He made it not in vain. If it were not inhabited, it would have been made in vain. But He showed in the beginning what kind of people He designed to inhabit the earth. He made the earth to be inhabited by perfect beings. Now since He made it not in vain, it is going to be inhabited by just the kind of people that He made to inhabit it in the beginning. He is going to save people out of this earth, making them perfect, to inhabit the earth for ever, which He will also make new for their habitation. See Rev. xxi. 1, 5; xxii. 1-5; 2 Peter iii. 13.

The Sabbath therefore, is both a memorial and a pledge. It is a sign that God made everything perfect in the beginning, and it is a pledge that He will yet restore all things as in the beginning. He is to have a new earth. What does that mean? It means that the earth is to be restored to the condition that it was in when it was first created. It was then a new earth, and God is going to make it new again. But it is going to be inhabited, for the Lord made it not in vain. And it will be inhabited by perfect men, for such God made in the beginning. In the new earth only righteousness will dwell.

As the Sabbath reminds men of the fact that God by His power made the earth, and man upon it, so that all were very good, it also makes Him known to us as the One who will by the same power make the earth new, and create men new creatures in Christ to dwell on it. So the Sabbath is the seal of a perfect creation, both in the beginning, and at the last. The keeping of the Sabbath means perfect submission to the will of God, so that it may be done on the earth as it is done in heaven. It means to give the Lord His way with us, so that He can make us to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. Eph i. 5, 6.

The Sabbath is God's rest. It is the rest into which God entered when He ceased from His work, and left His word to uphold that which it had brought into existence. That rest He gave to man in Eden. That same rest He gives now to all who will accept Him. It is the rest in which we are to be saved, as the Lord says, "In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength." Isa. xxx. 15. It is rest upon the power which made the heavens and the earth, and which still upholds them. It is the rest which in the beginning was connected with the new earth, and so the possession of that rest is the assurance of rest in the earth when it is again made new. And so it is fitting that when the earth is made new, the Sabbath should be observed by all flesh. See Isa. lxvi. 22, 23.

If the Lord will, we shall in the next paper consider this matter further, under the heading of "The Rest that Remains."

"Promises" The Present Truth 9, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

The annual making of resolutions and promises of good conduct is now several weeks in the past, and we may venture to call attention to them. It is perhaps safe to say that without doubt all those who took New Year's day for a time of making new resolutions have broken them by this time. But that is not at all strange, for it is the peculiar characteristic of human resolutions, that they break very easily.

"You wouldn't have people stop making resolutions, would you?" some one asks. Certainly. The Lord does not ask us to make them. He has provided a better way. We do not say that promises are not good, but it makes a vast difference who makes them. If a man owes a certain sum of money, it is a good thing for him to promise to pay it, provided he has any means wherewith to pay; but if he is bankrupt his promise to pay is not worth much.

But the man who promises to live a better life is a great deal worse off than the man who promises to pay a certain sum of money, when he is bankrupt. In this case the man may earn money, and so discharge his obligation. But in man there "dwelleth no good thing." He has nothing wherewith to pay, and no power to perform the good that he has promised. So all human promises to lead a different life are worthless. They are worse than worthless, for they lead people to rest satisfied with their promises, whereas if those promises were not made they might the more readily see the necessity of taking the better thing that is offered.

It is impossible for a man to live a different life with the old life that he has been living. In order to live a different life, he must have a different life. "An evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil." Luke 6:45. So when a man promises to do good out of the evil that is within him.

What promises, then, are of any value? The promises of God, and those only. The apostle Peter says of Jesus our Lord,

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that "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; whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be made partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." 2 Peter 1:3, 4. Here are promises that amount to something. They are the promises of God, confirmed by an oath pledging His existence to their fulfilment.

Notice that it is the power of the Lord Jesus Christ that gives us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Then it is certain that men can add nothing to the sum. By His promises all these things become ours. When we have these promises, what is the need of making others of our own, when we have no power to make them good? Not only are our promises unnecessary, but they are harmful, because they shut out the promises of God. They imply that His promises are not sufficient. Surely no one who has any just sense of the exceeding value of the promises of God, will think of supplementing them by worthless promises of his own.

Human promises can be seen in their true light only when we think of them as made to the Lord. Think of a man making a promise to the Lord, and then coming to Him and asking for favours on the strength of the good promises that he has made! Now if a promise is good for anything, this is what he ought to be able to do. If a man makes a promise to pay another man a sum of money, that is, if he gives a note, something can be raised on that note if it is good for anything. But no man would dare to come to the Lord and plead any promise that he has made. We do not ask the Lord to bless us because we have made good promises, but because He has made promises. The Lord says, "I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake." Isa. xliii. 25.

The Christian life is indeed a life. And life means growth. "He shall grow as the lily" is the Lord's statement concerning the one who is His. Lilies do not grow by resolution, but by absorbing the elements which God gives for their growth. A resolution pertains to the future, but growth is not a thing of the future, but of the present. The Lord does not want us to tell Him what we are going to do in the future, about which we know nothing, but simply to take the growing power contained in His promises, and live by them day by day and hour by hour. The promises of God are the only hope of mankind. Why not depend on them, then, and not weaken their force by putting our own in their place?

"'Please Harmonize'" The Present Truth 9, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

One of the most common things to be found in religious papers is a request from some sound earnest correspondent that some text in the Bible be "harmonized" with some other text that is mentioned. Strangely enough in most cases the editors of the papers will proceed without any protest to "harmonize" the texts in question. We have no condemnation to pronounce upon those who do these things, but wish to call attention to the fact, that those who read it 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 master pieces of Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, or Handel, and after glancing it through two or three times, should ask his teacher to "harmonize" it for him, so that he could play it understandingly. The disgust of the teacher would probably almost prevent any reply for a while, but he would at last 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 cords, until finally the grand harmony is open to his understanding. Then he will 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 mean 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 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 it cannot understand; and nobody believes the Bible, when he comes 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 with 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. The Spirit is freely given to all who will sincerely ask for it.

One thing should never be lost sight of. That is, that the Bible itself is a light. The words of God are light. The Scriptures are not so difficult as people have been led to suppose. It is an insult to the Lord to teach that He is not able to make His revelation to men so plain that they could understand it. He has said just what He wanted to, and in just the way to convey the exact meaning that He wanted conveyed. The words themselves contain the meaning, and he

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who will consider them humbly and prayerfully, will understand them.

When the apostle Paul wrote the words of God to Timothy, he said, "Consider what I say; for the Lord shall give thee understanding in all things." 2 Tim. ii. 7. How can this be? Here is the answer: "For the Lord giveth wisdom; out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding." Prov. ii. 6. That is, the understanding of the words of the Bible is in those words. He who reads the words without any bias or prejudice or any selfish ends to serve, who asks the enlightenment of the Spirit, and who is careful to find out exactly what they do say, and does not put into them something which they do not say, will understand just what God wants him to understand by them. But the trouble with too many is, that they come to the study of the Bible with certain ideas already fixed which they of course think that the Bible teaches, and then because they cannot harmonize the Bible with those ideas, they think that the Bible is a very difficult book. One of the most common things in the world is for a man to read a text, and then almost unconsciously to assume that it means a certain thing, which is not stated in the text at all.

"Theology" is a human invention. We find nothing about it in the Bible. It is the attempt of men to make the Bible harmonize with human ideas, or rather, an attempt to get the semblance of Bible support for human notions. Men will make a statement of belief, and then will say that they can find Bible authority for it. A common form of expression is, "The Bible supports me in this." Thus the Bible is reduced to the level of a mere backer of man's ideas. Man is first, and the Bible is second. Instead of man's reading the words of God, and then agreeing with them, the man puts forth his own ideas, and then tries to show that God agrees with him. This is a reversal of the true order.

This method of dealing with the Bible originated with the heathen philosophers who came into the church in the second and third centuries, bringing their heathen notions with them. These men were learned, and so they were at once put into the place of teachers. But they knew nothing but the precepts of heathen philosophy, and therefore could not teach anything else. But it was necessary that as professed Christian teachers they should use the Bible, and so they brought in the Bible to "support their views." So the fear of God was taught by the precepts of men, instead of the words of the Lord.

Thus "theology" became a science, and the knowledge of the Bible was supposed to rest with a very few favoured ones. They doled this knowledge out to the common people as they pleased. As it was held that the words of the Bible do not mean just what they say, it was necessary for these men to "interpret" it. But this they could do only by putting themselves in the place of God, and their thoughts in the place of His thoughts. Thus it was the Papacy arose. Now there can be no Reformation that does not reverse this process. The true reformation must put the word of God above everything else, and men must step away from between it and the people. The common people, who heard the Lord, when He was on earth, must be allowed to come close to Him through His word, and must be taught that the word of God is addressed to them in language that they can understand, if they will receive it as the word of God. What men need is not the study of theology, but the study of the word of God.

"Christian Warfare" The Present Truth 9, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

Christian Warfare .-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

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of the law for their laxness in that respect, is eulogized as an earnest fighter of sin. But 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 host 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 the 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."

"Studying Error to Learn Truth" The Present Truth 9, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

We lately read a list of the qualifications of a minister of the Gospel, among which was this, that "he should be well abreast of the latest destructive Biblical criticism, so as to refute its arguments." The idea that in order to refute error men must study it, is altogether too common. It shows itself in the idea that in order to avoid evil, men must go where it is, and learn all about it.

If people reasoned the same way with regard to food, everybody would soon die. If they thought that in order to be able to detect poison, and guard their children from it, they must taste all the poisons that are known, the fallacy would soon be exposed. There are very few men, comparatively, who know all about poisons. What do the people do who are ignorant of poisons?-Why, they sensibly determine to taste nothing which they do not know to be wholesome, and thus they escape all danger.

Some parents make the mistake of warning their children against all sorts of evil, so that they may be able to avoid it. This is well illustrated by the following. A mother called out to her son, "Tom, are you teaching that parrot to swear?" The reply was, "No, I am just teaching it what words it must not say." Of course those would be the very words that the parrot would use. And so it is with children. If they are told all about the evil that is in the world, they will be sure to try it. Let their minds be filled with that which is good, and they will have less tendency to follow the evil. Then when they see or hear of evil practices or teachings, they will be able at once to detect the evil by its contrast with the truth and the good with which they are familiar.

The person who sets himself the task of studying all the forms of error, has an endless task before him. The result will be that he will never get to the study of truth. The minister who studies the works of infidels, and of the destructive critics of the Bible, will be apt to feed the flock on the driest kind of husks. The carpenter does not try to find all the crooked sticks in the world, so that he may recognize a crook when he sees it, but he simply learns the use of the square, and then he can in a moment tell whether or not a stick is straight.

The inspired advice of the apostle Paul should be heeded by all: "But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them." 2 Tim. iii. 14. Stick to the truth; with error we need have nothing to do.

"Two Principles" The Present Truth 9, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

All action is based on two fundamental principles. These principles are love and selfishness. Everyone good action is an expression of the principle of love; every evil action is an expression of some form of selfishness.

The principle of love leads the actor to forget self and labour for others. All the great work of creation is an expression of this principle. When God created the world, it was not for Himself, but for man. Every step in this creation is an expression of the same principle. The strength of the animal kingdom is devoted to nourish the vegetables; and, in turn, the vegetable kingdom does not toil for itself. The little seed cast into the earth expends all its energy to produce a beautiful foliage-covered tree, to be enjoyed by others; after years of patient toil, it is covered with blossoms of fragrance, which shed forth their sweet perfume to delight others; and finally its luscious fruit is produced, not for the tree itself to devour, but for the nourishment of others. In like manner, all the works of God in the earth are living illustrations of the principle of love. The apostle expressed a great truth when he said, "God is love." All His acts are acts of love.

The second principle is just the opposite of this. In the works of love another than the actor is always the object of the action; in the second principle, self is the great centre and ultimate object of every act. God is the personification of the first; Satan of the second. While all the works of God are an expression of love, all the acts of Satan are acts of selfishness. The cause of his fall was the desire to have self exalted,-to become "like the Most High." In leading man into sin, Satan use the same principle,-a desire on the part of man to be elevated, and become as gods.

The kingdom of God is the kingdom of love; that of Satan is the kingdom of selfishness. Man is born in the kingdom of the latter. By nature his heart is sinful and selfish. Originally he was greeted pure, and had he lived according to the plan of God, his life would have been a continual expression of love, and the result would have been perfect bliss. But in the fall man lost his innocence; he received in exchange selfishness. There is scarce a trace of the original purity in his nature. We say of some people that by nature they are unselfish; but this is true only when we compare them with man; compared with the standard of perfect love which we have in God, all are selfish. Man may have what we term human love, but if he has the perfect love of God, it is only because it has been shed abroad in his heart by the Spirit of God.

The plan of salvation was devised to redeem man from the state of selfishness. It has provisions for taking him wholly out of the kingdom of selfishness and transplanting him into the kingdom of love. This work is expressed in the term "conversion." It is a turning about from following the natural, selfish tendencies of the heart, to follow the principle of love; from calling the principle that leads down to sorrow and death, to the principle that leads to happiness and life.

The nature of a being is expressed by his works. The principles of the heart work themselves out through actions. When a man is converted, he adopts as his standard of action the principle of love. Before, he followed the impulses of the natural heart, which are only selfish. The adoption of this new standard simply as a resolution of the mind is not sufficient; that can only lead to failure; the principle of love must be planted in the heart; for nothing can come out in the actions but what is in the heart.

The love of God cannot be planted in the heart once for always. The doctrine of "once in grace, always in grace," is a fatal delusion. When God's love is received in the heart, it must be held there by faith; the moment faith lets go, it is gone; and without it, only the selfish, sinful elements of our nature can be manifested in our lives. We are now in the school of Christ. The great lesson to be learned is to keep in subjection the evil of our natures, and manifest only the Spirit of Christ. This can be done only with the help of God. His strength delegated to us in the Gospel is sufficient to bring us to the point where our acts will be an unadulterated expression of the principle of love. This is the work of sanctification; it is the state of perfection which all should reach and occupy. Left to himself, man could never reach this condition; but through Christ strengthening him, it is possible; and being possible for all, everyone that has not reached this state will be inexcusable.

"Sunday Saloons" The Present Truth 9, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

The City of Chicago is receiving much attention at present, the Advance states that its "Sunday saloons are a burning disgrace to the city." No doubt, but we have not learned that there are any more public-houses in Chicago on Sunday than on any other day of the week. And it is to be supposed that the quality of liquor sold is the same as on other days. Then wherein is the special disgrace of the "Sunday saloons"? Can anyone tell why it should be thought worse to sell liquor on Sunday than on any other day of the week?

We will anticipate one probable answer to the question raised in the preceding paragraph. It will be answered by many that the public-house open on Sunday is worse than the public-house open on other days, because so many more people are idle on Sunday. But why is it that they are idle? Is it out of respect for that day? Manifestly not, else they would not be found in the public-houses. So it is evident that to compel people who have no regard for Sunday, to cease from work on that day is to drive them to the public-house. Then the next step is to close the public-house. What then? Will that take the idle ones to church? Not by any means. If it were possible to hermetically seal the crater of Vesuvius, another one would immediately be made. So if those who now go to the public-house to spend the hours of their enforced idleness are deprived of that resort, they will find some other equally bad way of spending their time.

"But do you plead for the open public house?" No; shut them up every day, and then leave people free to work if they do not want to rest. The country that thoroughly commits itself to the policy of Sunday laws, and persists in it, will be forced to carry it to the logical result of compelling everybody to spend the day in church and in religious exercises, as was done in Scotland two hundred years ago. And that means the Inquisition.

"Tobacco" The Present Truth 9, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

Here is a point for tobacco-smokers to meditate upon: "In his report upon the result of the training under service conditions, carried out during the past year, Sir Evelyn Wood says that it was noticed that there was less smoking on the line of march than in 1891, and the advantage of such self-denial was apparent in the same number of men who fell out. Sir Evelyn thinks the smoking should be steadily discouraged, and no man who falls out should be allowed to smoke the next day till half thorugh the day's work. Also, it is desirable, if possible, to regulate the quality, as well as quantity, of tobacco smoked." This is good authority against tobacco. It is a practical proof that tobacco using is a curse.

"Your Brothers and Sisters" The Present Truth 9, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

Here are a few of the little brothers and sisters you would see if you should cross the wide, wide waters of the seas.

"Not my brothers and sisters," you say, "for my brothers and sisters have fair skins, and do not look and dress like these, at all! Besides, these do not live in our house, and my father never saw them."

There, there, not too fast; even that may be true, and yet they may be your brothers and sisters. If your brother should go far off to "Greenlands icy mountains" and have to dress in furs, or if your sister should go and live 'neath India's burning sun, until her face were brown, would that cause you to love her any less? Would they not still be your own dear brother and sister?

And when you say that your father never saw this dear little baby from far-off China, this pretty brown girl from India, and these boys in fur from Greenland, have you not forgotten about your Heavenly Father? The Bible says that "He looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heavens" every little boy and girl that lives. It matters not what the colour of their skin, or the style of their dress, or the language they speak. It matters not whether they live in houses of ice or huts of bamboo, whether they are in the tents of the desert or in the costly mansions of the city, God sees and loves and cares for them all, and calls Himself their Father. He has made them all of one blood, so that they are all brothers and sisters. He looks not on the outward appearance, for He is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that loves and obeys Him, is accepted with Him. He has given His only Son to die for the little brown girl, as well as for the little white girl, and for the boy with a cue, as well as for the boy without one.

So do you not see that whether white or black, red or brown, all the boys and girls on this great round earth are your own brothers and sisters? And if they are your brothers and sisters, have you any right to neglect them, and treat them as strangers?

If your brother and sister were starving and fainting for bread and water, would you not gladly give them some of your good things? Would you not go without sweets and costly toys, that you might save more pennies with which to send them food?

Many of these little brothers and sisters in the far-off lands of the earth, are hungering and thirsting and perishing without the Bread and Water of Life, without Jesus and His Holy Spirit. Many of them have never heard His precious name, or known of His love and power to help and save them. And yet hundreds and thousands are dying every day!

Do you know Jesus? Have you tasted of His forgiving love, and felt His sweet Spirit in your heart causing you to speak kind words and to do gentle acts? Have you looked forward with joy to the time when Jesus will come and take you to live with Him in His heavenly home? Oh, if you have, do not forget the thousands and thousands of your brothers and sisters in this land and in other lands, who know Him not, and who are reaching out their little helpless hands and cry, "Send us help, send us help, before we die; tell us about Jesus, that we too may be saved."

Can you think of any way in which you can help to send them the good news of a Saviour's love?

"Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life; he that cometh to Me shall never hunger." (John vi. 35.)

"What if your own were starving,

Fainting with famine pain,

And you should know

Where golden grow

Rich fruit and ripened grain;

Would you hear their wail

As a thrice told tale,

And turn to your feast again?"

"Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him, unto Me, and drink." "Whosoever shall drink of the water that I shall give Him shall never thirst." (John vi. 37; iv. 14.)

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"What if your own were thirsting,

And never a drop could gain,

And you could tell

Where a sparkling well

Poured forth melodious rain;

Would you turn aside

While they gasped and died,

And leave them to their pain?"

"Then Jesus spake again unto them, saying, 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.)

"What if your own were darkened

Without the one cheering day,

And you alone

Could show where alont

The pure, sweet light of day;

Would you leave them there

In their dark despair,

And sing on your sunlit way?"

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way. . . . No man cometh unto the Father but by Me." (John xiv. 6.)

"What if your own were wandering

Far in a trackless maze,

And you could show

Them where to go

Along your pleasant ways;

Would your heart be light

Till the pathway right

Was plain before their gaze?"

"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." "If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free and deed." (John viii. 32, 36.)

"What if your own were prisoned,

Far in a hostile land,

And the only boy

To set them free

Was held in your command;

Would you breathe free air

While they stifled there,

And wait, and hold your hand?

"Yet what else are we doing,

Dear ones, by Christ made free,

If we will not tell

What we know so well

To those across the sea,

Who have never heard

One tender word

Of the 'Lamb of Calvary?'"

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

-There are now 15,219 licenced cabdrivers and London.

-The Czar of Russia is about to assume another title-Emperor of Asia.

-The brain of General B. F. Butler was the heaviest recorded in the annals of scientific research. It weighed four ounces more than that of Daniel Webster.

-Ex-Secretary Blaine died at his home in Washington, January 27, aged 63. For twenty-five years he has been one of the most prominent figures in American politics.

-Spain has ordered 50,000 Mauser rifles, 5,000 carbines, and 18,000,000 cartridges from Germany. Special machinery is also to be added to the arsenals of Oviedo and Toledo.

-The son of the Czar has been visiting in Germany and has been received with the utmost cordiality by Emperor William. This fact has naturally caused some uneasiness in France.

-The Queen has just had bound in a book the congratulatory addresses on the occasion of her jubilee. The volume is declared to be the heaviest in the world-it weighs over sixty pounds.

-The influenza has broken out in Belgium, and is so serious at Ghent that the Minister of the Interior has authorized the closing of the Normal School. More than half the pupils have been attacked.

-In the new coinage just issued, all silver coins are to have their value plainly inscribed. For the first time, the title of Empress of India as well as Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, will appear on the new coins.

-About a million tons of steam shipping are now lying idle. The Tyne is so overcrowded that the harbour-masters have hard work to provide for the continual influx of unemployed vessels without impeding the traffic.

-A terrific explosion in a colliery in Tokoo, Hungary, January 27, resulted in the known deaths of nineteen men. There are still one hundred and thirty men and boys in the workings, of whom all hope of recovery has been abandoned.

-An association has been formed for the purpose of founding a British colony in Central Africa. A considerable amount of money is at the disposal of the promoters of the enterprise, and 3,000 persons have already given in their names as members of the infant colony.

-The papers all contain a lengthy dispatch from Berlin, to the effect that the long threatened attack on Germany by Russia is considered as about certain to be made in the spring. This is said to be based upon "accurate military information reaching the German military staff."

-A dispatch from Yokohama, Japan, says: A petition bearing eighty-eight signatures has been lodged in the House of Representatives, asking that all persons of British nationality shall be expelled from the country. The native papers are very bitter against the British, the collision between the P. and O. steamer Ravenna and the Japanese cruiser Chissima, by which the latter was sunk, having given rise to considerable ill-feeling, notwithstanding that the verdict in the naval inquiry which was held into the cause of the disaster exonerated the officers of the Ravenna from all blame. The Japanese pilot of the Ravenna is being tried for manslaughter.

-Sir John Lubbock says, "Europe now devotes 200,000,000 to her military and naval expenditure, and will have £23,000,000 men under arms. In face of these figures one cannot expect confidence and prosperity, nor wonder at--however much one might regret it-the growth of Socialistic and Anarchist feeling."

-Fifty-five years ago Mr. Laflin, who has just provided a building for the valuable collections of the Chicago Academy of Sciences, built the first brick house in that city. To his friends who jeered at him for his folly he declared his conviction that Chicago would someday have a population of ten thousand. It now has a million and a quarter.

-Statistics made up from 1873 to 1891 show that in that period the enormous sum of £20,531,402 was spent in England in building and restoring cathedrals and churches. The amount expended in restoration included £78,058 for repairs of the fabric at Westminster Abbey, and £7,138 for restoration work at St. George's Chapel, Windsor.

-A telegram from Paris, Texas, reports that a negro who had recently murdered a white girl four years of age, was seized by a crowd of citizens and conveyed to the scene of the crime, where he was burned to death at the stake. The burning was a deliberate act, as the people had two or three days previously announced their intention of so doing.

-Mr. Emery J. McLean, reads proof in 242 different languages, for the American Bible Society. He is not so great a prodigy as to be able to understand so many languages; but what is almost as wonderful under the circumstances, he understands only English. He reads by comparison, that is, he notes the form of the words and letters in the copy, and sees that the proof corresponds. It is most trying work to the nerves.

-A telegram from Honolulu announces that Queen Lilinokalam has been dethroned by the American party, and a provisional Government appointed. The change was affected without bloodshed, but not without violent opposition from the Queen. A deputation of Americans has arrived at San Francisco from Honolulu for the purpose of asking the United States to annex Hawaii. In the House of Representatives, however, a strong feeling was expressed by the Democrats against annexation.

-The young Khedive of Egypt, wishing to rule in his own name, and not be subject to British control, summarily dismissed his old ministers and appointed others who were unfavourable to British occupancy. The British Resident at once demanded the restoration of the dismissed ministers, but in order not to humiliate the Khedive too much, he finally consented to the appointment of others in the place of those newly appointed. Thus the difficulty was apparently settled, but nevertheless the British Army in Egypt has been increased by 2,000 men.

-On Wednesday, the 26th ult., a large and representative deputation waited on the Chancellor of the Exchequer, asking him to establish in this country the decimal system of weights, measures, and coinage. In reply, Sir William Harcourt said that theoretically he agreed with the deputation, that the question was one of the first importance, and everybody could see the advantage of the decimal system, but that the Government had to deal with the whole mass of the people, and that it would be a difficult thing to alter the standard of the pound or the penny, since that would alter the price of every commodity in which the people deal. He said that all great changes in the currency were coincident with great revolutions. Certainly it was so in the case of the decimal system in France, Germany, and America. Never had any such change taken place in quiet times. Therefore, while sympathizing with the plea, he was unable to hold out any hope that the Government would take action in the matter.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

The Mohammedans are now sending missionaries to the United States. A mission is about to be opened in New York.

Much concern if felt over the steamer City of Pekin, which left Yokohama, Japan, on January 10, for San Francisco, and had not arrived on February 5, being then eleven days overdue.

On Tuesday, January 31, Parliament opened. The Queen's speech promised legislation in regard to the agricultural distress, the government of Ireland, the ecclesiastical establishments in Scotland and Wales, and the control of the liquor traffic. Then followed a week of talk, preparatory, doubtless, to the beginning of legislative work.

The island of Zante, in the Grecian Archipelago, has been devastated by an earthquake, and 10,000 people are left homeless, and without shelter. All the ovens in the island have been destroyed, so that food cannot be prepared. A terrific thunderstorm, accompanied by rain and hail, followed the earthquake shocks, adding to the misery of the people. Both the Italian and the Greek Government have taken steps to assist the suffering, and King George has gone to visit the scene of the disaster.

We are told now of a Protestant pilgrimage to Jerusalem, in which Archdeacon Farrar and a number of bishops will take part. A sort of reunion of representatives of difference denominations is to be held in Jerusalem in the autumn, and Archdeacon Farrer is to deliver six lectures there. A picnic is a pleasant thing if the weather is fine, and a visit to the places where our Saviour walked when on earth must be interesting, but a "pilgrimage" is another matter. If any think to get any spiritual benefit by a visit to the tomb of the Saviour, it would be well if they could hear the voice of the angel saying, "He is not here; He is risen."

The New York Sun has collected and published some of the utterances of Dr. McGlynn during his contest with the Catholic prelates, and while he was excommunicated. Among them is the following:-

"Have no fear for me. I defy the malignancy of Rome. I give them warning now that if they attempt to hound me with the arts of which they are such masters I will expose them. I have only told things which politicians and well-informed people have known in the past, but I give them warning that I am full of knowledge of events the tale of which will make the country too hot to hold them. They had better let me alone."

Is it possible that this is the secret of Rome's "liberality" in his case, in receiving him back without penance?

Following is a portion of a letter published in the last number of the English Churchman:-

"By way of illustration of the way in which Auricular Confession is being forced upon the people by the Romanizing section of the Anglican clergy, I send you the following extract from a chapter headed 'A Self-Examination on Confession,' contained in the parish magazine of St. Andrew's Church, Worthing, of this month:-

"'Do we make our confession humbly, kneeling at the feet of the priest in the attitude and in the frame of mind of a culprit before his Judge?'"

It is shocking to contemplate, and we do not wonder that there are found some who protest against such Romish practices. But we do wonder that the only ground of the "protest" is that "this kind of teaching is disloyal to the Church of England." Romanism thrives on such arguments. It can be successfully met only by appeal to the word of God, and to nothing else.

The Christian Commonwealth says:-

"The people are not demanding Sunday closing as they should do, nor are the churches demanding it. Indeed, there is little real organized effort anywhere in favour of social and religious questions, and yet these lie at the foundation of all that we can hope for in the future. We have long since ceased to expect much from politicians. They are generally opportunist, and even in this respect they do not move except in political matters. Let the people show their strength in a great organized movement and the politicians will soon be found willing to do what the people require. In a free country public opinion is, after all, the real government."

How much good then, can be expected from any thing which depends upon politicians? Every human organization must necessarily contain many elements of humanity, which is not Christianity. Therefore that which may be run from time-serving politicians by a "organized movement," will not be Christianity. If pure Christianity were actually in the ascendancy in the country, there would be no organized movements to enforce religious institutions. Religion would then be the controlling element as a matter of course, because it would be the controlling factor in the lives of the majority of the people.

No one has anything in him out of which righteousness can be made. Then the righteousness of God is put, literally, into and upon all that believe. Then they are both clothed with righteousness, and filled with it, according to the Scripture. In fact, they then become "the righteousness of God" in Christ. And how is this accomplished? God declares His righteousness upon the one who believes. To declare is to speak. So God speaks to the sinner, who is nothing, and who has nothing, and says, "You are righteous," and immediately that believing sinner ceases to be a sinner, and is the righteousness of God. The word of God which speaks righteousness has the righteousness itself in it, and as soon as the sinner believes, and receives that word into his own heart by faith, that moment he has the righteousness of God in his heart; and since out of the heart are the issues of life, it follows that a new life is thus begun in him; and that life is a life of obedience to the commandments of God. Thus faith is indeed the substance of things hoped for; because faith appropriates the word of God, and the word of God is substance.-The Gospel in Creation.

February 23, 1893

"What to Talk About" The Present Truth 9, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

What to Talk About .-"I will speak of the glorious honour of Thy majesty, and of Thy wondrous works. And men shall speak of the might of Thy terrible acts; and I will declare Thy greatness. They shall abundantly utter the memory of Thy great goodness, and shall sing of Thy righteousness." "All Thy works shall praise Thee, O Lord; and Thy saints shall bless Thee. They shall speak of the glory of the kingdom, and talk of Thy power; to make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of His kingdom." Ps. cxlv. 5-7, 10, 11.

"Miracles" The Present Truth 9, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

Miracles .-Some men tell us that the age of miracles is passed. That is equivalent to saying that God is dead, or that, at least, He has nothing more to do with the affairs of this earth. Why so?-"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." Isa. lv. 8, 9. "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways pass finding out!" Rom. xi. 33. It is impossible for God to act in a way that is not far above the comprehension of man. The finite can never comprehend the infinite. The existence of God is a miracle. "In Him we live, and move, and have are being;" and our existence is a miracle. Every blade of grass that grows by His power is a miracle. A thing does not cease to become a miracle simply because it is common. If God should raise the dead every day before our eyes, it might cease to attract attention, but it would be none the less a miracle. But God is every day doing just as wonderful things as raising the dead. What we need is to learn to see God in all His works, and to cease to think of things as "happening," and then we see more miracles than could be recorded in the Bible if it were a thousand times larger than it is.

"Science" The Present Truth 9, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

Science .-There is a great misunderstanding in the world as to what science is. It has come to be regarded as simply the discovering and the recording of phenomena. That is a part of it, but not by any means the whole of it, or the most important part. "Science" means simply "knowledge,"-knowledge systematically arranged. But it is not enough merely to know that a thing exists. The knowledge of bare facts is but a step in advance of the knowledge of the dumb animals, who also observe phenomena. They have eyes, and many of them know things that man has not yet discovered. So the man whose only claim to be a scientist is that he has by the aid of the microscope or otherwise, discovered a great many of the phenomena of nature, has not a valid claim to the title. This is generally recognized, and so men set their wits to work to discover the causes of things. This is where "science falsely so called" plays so great a part. They leave God out of their calculations, and therefore miss the secret of the existence of all things. No one can be a true scientist, who denies the existence of God, or who does not recognize Him as the direct power upholding all things. But the love of God is revealed in the things that show His power, for it is by the power of God that men are saved. True science, therefore, leads to humble, reverent love and praise to God as the Creator and Saviour. So the contemplation of the love of God will be to all eternity not only the song but the science of the redeemed.

"In His Name" The Present Truth 9, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

"And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it." John xiv. 13, 14. A wonderful promise is this, and as sure as it is wonderful, for it is the word of the Lord. Yet there are many who think that they have asked for things in the name of Jesus, and have not received them. That they have asked for things and have not received them is certain. Then the trouble must be that they have not asked in the name of Jesus. And yet they have closed their petitions with the words, "in the name of Jesus." What is the trouble?

The answer will be found in a consideration of what it is to ask in the name of Jesus. The mistake that too many make is to suppose that Jesus meant, by the words which we have just read, to put Himself at the service of every man's selfish desires; that He meant that whatever their fancy might light upon, would be given to them if in their asking they would simply use His name. But that this is a mistake, we learn from the words by the apostle James: "Ye lust, and have not, ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." James iv. 2, 3. Selfishness is sin, and the root of all sin; and Christ is not the minister of sin. Therefore His promise does not mean that He will serve as the panderer of the lusts of all who may take His name upon their lips.

The name of a person stands for all that He is worth. In business a man's name represents himself, so the name of Jesus represents the Lord. Therefore asking anything in the name of Jesus means to ask for anything that is in Christ. Now we read that God hath "blessed us with all spiritual blessings" in Christ. Eph. i. 3. It is His Divine

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power that hath given to us "all things that pertain to life and godliness." 2 Peter i. 3. "No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly." Ps. lxxxiv. 11. Now we do not want anything except that which is good, but we are not able to tell what that is; so we must ask with a heart subject to the will and purpose of God. We must be assured that His way is perfect, and that He will give us every needful thing. "And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to hHs will, He heareth us; and 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. 14, 15.

He who asks for anything according to the will of God, is certain to have that request granted. This does not limit the range of our request, for God is "able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think." Eph. iii. 20. And His love that prompts Him to do is equal to His power. There are very many things that God has told us expressly to ask for. These we may name when we come to Him. But after we have asked for all that our sense of need prompts us to ask, we can still ask Him to give us as much more as He sees that we need, and it will be supplied. "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be 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.

To use the name of the Lord in a petition that is not according to His will, is to take the name of the Lord in vain: "And the Lord will not hold him guiltless, that taketh His name in vain." Why is it any better to use the name of the Lord in a meaningless petition, than to use it lightly in any other matter? This is a matter for serious thought.

No one need say that this is making it a dangerous matter to offer prayer. It is a serious matter but not a dangerous matter. It will be said that we cannot always know the will of the Lord, so as to know how to ask according to His will. If we do not know the will of the Lord in any given case, we have simply to ask that He will give us that which is best,-simply to ask that His will may be done. To ask that the will of the Lord may be done does not imply that there is any danger that He would not do His own will if we did not ask Him; but if it is a true prayer it means that we are perfectly content that His will should be done. It means that having prayed thus, we shall be content with the issue, accepting it as the will of the Lord.

But to ask things not according to the will of God, using His name, is not the only way of taking the name of the Lord in vain in prayer. If we ask for things that are according to His will, and then do not believe that we receive them, that is taking the name of the Lord in vain. For if we do not believe, we do not receive. And if we do not receive the things for which we ask, we ask in vain; and if we ask in vain, using the name of the Lord, it is evident that we have taken His name in vain. We have taken His name upon our lips simply because it is customary, without any definite object in so doing.

The name of Jesus is above every other name. It is a strong tower. It is the Father's name, for in Him are all the Father's purposes accomplished. And this is the name of the Lord, as proclaimed by Himself, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin." Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7. And this name contains all that any person can require, and it is a name that will never be dishonoured by failure.

"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." Heb. iv. 14-16.

"The Growing Power in Plants" The Present Truth 9, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

Matherbe saw an acacia tree that, languishing in sterile soil, had thrown one of its roots across a hollow sixty-six feet wide, in order to plunge into a neighboring well. M. Grimard mentions a plant which terminated in the bottom of a mine, and raised itself to a height of 120 feet in order to reach the light, though its usual height is but six inches. The luxuriant growth of trees and shrubs in the Bermudas is a surprise to tourists because of the scanty soil upon hard rocks. Upon examination they discover, however, that the roots have sufficient penetrating power to pierce a hard outer shell, thereby finding moisture and foothold in the porous strata beneath. The penetrating force of the roots of plants was strikingly Illustrated, some years ago, at one of our railway stations. The platform was laid down with a thick coat of asphalt. Nevertheless the roots of the coltsfoot forced their way through the hard material. The latter was pushed up into little hillocks, which gradually cracked; very soon the young leaves made their appearance, and then the whole plant. The common thistle penetrated in the same way. Let anyone take a cake of asphalt and try to push a stick through it and he will be able to realize how great must be the vital force exerted by the plant-roots in question, which, by adding particle after particle to their structure, are enabled to upheave and displace such a hard, compact material as asphalt.-Interior.

Those are the simple facts, which may be verified by anybody's observation. But how many of those who have seen the simple wonders stop to think of the lesson that they teach? What power is it that is manifested in the growth of plants? Where does it come from? Analysis will not reveal it. There is nothing in the structure of the plant that would indicate the possession of such marvelous power. Pick up that little stalk that has pushed its way through the pavement. It is a tender thing, hardly able to support its own weight. You can twist it into any shape, and it is passive in your hands. It is absolutely destitute of power.

There is only one answer that can be given to the question as to the source of the energy exhibited by growing plants, and that is that it is the power of God, who fills all things. In Jesus Christ "all things consist." His word said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth; and it was so." Gen. i. 11. That word is the life and power of everything that grows. We cannot see the word nor its power, but we can see the working of it. Thus the eternal power and Godhead of the Creator are seen in the things that have been made. See Rom. i. 20.

But the power manifested through the tender plant is the power that works righteousness in those who believe the Lord. The power of God is seen in the things that He has made; and the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Rom. i. 16. Plant growth illustrates Christian growth. "Those that be planted in the house of the Lord, shall flourish in the courts of our God." Ps. xcii. 13. God "shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root; Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit." Isa. xxvii. 6. The Lord says, "I will be as the dew unto Israel; He shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon." Hosea xiv. 5. "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 hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. For 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 the nations." Isa. lxi. 10, 11.

"The Rest that Remains" The Present Truth 9, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

A proper consideration of this subject involves a study of the fourth chapter of Hebrews, and we will therefore begin with reading the first eleven verses of that chapter according to the Revised Version:-

"Let us fear therefore lest haply, a promise being left of entering into His rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good tidings (margin, Gospel) preached unto us, even as also they; but the word of hearing did not profit them, because they were not united by faith with them that heard. For we which believe do enter into that 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 enter into My rest.

Seeing therefore that it remaineth that some should enter thereinto, and they to whom the good tidings was before preached failed to enter in because of disobedience, He again defineth a certain day, saying in David,

To-day if ye shall hear His voice,

Harden not your hearts.

For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken afterward of another day. There remaineth therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For he that is entered into His rest hath himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, that no man fall after the same example of disobedience."

As with every portion of Scripture, the meaning of the words is found in the words themselves. All therefore that is needed is to note carefully every statement and the references. In what follows, let the reader note that every statement is really only a repetition of the statements of the above text, or of some other text that is quoted.

In the first place, we find by reference to the third chapter, of which this is only a continuation, that ancient Israel is under discussion. God had promised them rest, and they failed to gain it because of their unbelief in His promise.

Second, we read that the same promise is made to us, and we are warned against coming short of gaining it through the same example of unbelief.

Third, we find that this promise of rest that was made to the people of Israel, was the preaching of the Gospel, the same which is now preached to us. In another place the apostle says, "For how many soever be the promises of God, in Him (that is, in Christ) is the yea; wherefore also through Him is the Amen, into the glory of God by us." 2 Cor. i. 20. Every promise of God to man is in Christ, and so the promise of rest which was given to the people in the old time, was the preaching of Christ. But Christ is of God made unto us "wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." Therefore the promise made to Israel, was the promise of redemption, with everything that pertains thereto.

In the next place, we learn that the rest which was promised to Israel, and which is now promised to us, is one that is obtained by faith. But since "faith is the substance of things hoped for," it follows that those who believe do actually enter into that rest. This is very easy to understand, when we remember that the promise of rest was through Christ, who says, "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 was prepared for men from the foundation of the world, for we read the words of the Lord concerning the Israelites, "They shall not enter into My rest; although the works were finished from the foundation of the world." And then follows the proof of this statement, in these words, "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 then follow the words, "They shall not enter into My rest." Thus we learn that the rest which God promised the people of Israel, and which they failed to receive, because they did not believe Him, was the rest which the Lord took when He had created the heavens and the earth.

"They shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols. But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation; ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end. For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain. He formed it to be inhabited; I am the Lord, and there is none else." Isa. xlv. 16-18. "For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength; and ye would not." Isa. xxx. 15. Salvation is rest; rest from sin and its curse. But salvation is only by the power of God (Rom. i. 16), and the power of God is the power that is displayed in the work of creation. See verse 20. So when God had made the earth for the habitation of man, and had placed man upon it, both the earth and man being "very good," His Divine power had then given unto man "all things that pertain to life and godliness."

Joshua, which in the Hebrew is the same as Jesus, meaning saviour, led the children of Israel into the land of Canaan, and they begun the possession of the land. "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days." Heb. xi. 30. God had then given to them the land of Canaan, and not only the small territory known as the land of Palestine, but the whole earth, for that is what was promised to Abraham in the promise of the land of Canaan. The children of Israel were told that every place on which the soles of their feet should tread was to be theirs. So that all they had to do was to possess the land. It was theirs, but their faith must make it a reality to them.

The children of Israel had rest when they entered the land of Canaan. They believed the Lord when they crossed the Jordan and took Jericho, and in faith there is rest. They had rest from their enemies, although they were in the midst of them, for "the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him and delivereth them." Ps. xxxiv. 7. But their faith was only for a moment, as it were, and so they lost the rest. If it had not been so, if they had held to the faith, and had received the permanent rest by Joshua, then the Lord would not "afterward have spoken of another day." That is, the restoration of the earth would have been established in it for ever.

But they failed, and therefore the same promise that was made to them is now made to us. And why? Because God had sworn that the earth should be inhabited, according to His original plan, by a race of perfect men,-men made perfect by the same power that made the earth. That oath of God assured the land to all who have faith in Him, and therefore the same oath just as surely shuts out all that disbelieve; therefore it is that God swore that the unbelieving Israelites should not have His rest. But the oath of God having been made, it cannot be broken, and then it is that "some must enter in." The honour of God is at stake in the Gospel promises. In the beginning He made the earth, and placed man upon it perfect. Man fell, and the earth became corrupt. If God should let the earth remain under the cruse, and leave man in his sinful condition, Satan would triumph, and would for ever taunt God with not being able to perform His purposes. Thus the Government of God would suffer. But that cannot be. Not only is God's honour at

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stake to show His ability to carry out His designs, but in addition He has pledged Himself with an oath to restore the earth to its original condition, and to have it inhabited with men made perfect through faith in Him, and so it must necessarily be that some must enter into His rest, which rest is the peaceful possession of the earth made new once more.

This is the rest that remains to the people of God. And what is the assurance to us that it will be given to them that believe? "For He spake in a certain place on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all His works." When the seventh day came the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them, and God rested on the seventh day from all His works. See Gen. ii. 1-3. Everything was then ready for man. The rest into which God entered at the close of creation, leaving His word to uphold that which He had made, was the rest which man was to enjoy for ever. Man was to rest upon the word of God, which had created the earth. And now that we see not all things put under man as in the beginning, the Sabbath is the pledge that that Eden state shall be restored. Gen. ii. 15, literally rendered, as by Dr. Young is, "And Jehovah God taketh the man and causeth him to rest in the garden of Eden, to serve it and to keep it." Although labour was allotted to him, his whole life would have been one eternal rest, if he had not distrusted the Lord. And so when Eden shall be restored to the faithful, they will have come into the possession of the rest that now remains for them.

"We which have believed do enter into rest." Perfect belief of God means resting completely upon His word,-taking Him for everything. It means the acknowledging that He alone is the Creator of all things, and that we are simply helpless dust. Yea, even less than nothing. It means the acknowledging that as God through Christ created all things from Himself, so He is able to take man, in all their worthlessness, and create them new creatures in Christ Jesus, so that they will be fitted for a home in the earth, which is also to be made new through the same power. But the seventh day is the memorial of God's creative power. It is that which He has given to be a sign between His people and Himself, that they may know that He is God that sanctifies them. Only in the acknowledging of the seventh day as the Sabbath of the Lord, and the perfect keeping of it in Christ is God recognized fully and completely as the one Creator. So that it is only in the perfect keeping of the seventh day as the Sabbath or rest of the Lord, that He is trusted as He should be. But the Sabbath rest is the rest of the new earth; therefore he who does perfectly trust the Lord as the One who by His creative power is able to do all things, and shows that trust by the keeping of His Sabbath, has really the beginning of that rest which the saints will enjoy in the eternal kingdom of God. Their assurance of at last sharing that rest is the assurance of actual possession.

"Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest." The Revision has, "Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest," but it is all the same; for we have seen that this labour which the Lord gives is itself rest. "This is the work of God that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." John vi. 29. The works which God requires of us are the works which are wrought in Him. See John iii. 21. The Divine command is, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." Phil. ii. 12, 13. Our work is to rest in Him, and He becomes responsible for the results. Thus in labour we find our rest, and heaven begins on earth to those who have God for their portion.

"Who Changed the Sabbath?" The Present Truth 9, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

Who Changed the Sabbath? -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 commandment 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,-symbolized by the little horn of the seventh of Daniel, which should "think 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. What is to be done by those who recognize the Lord as the sole ruler and Creator of the universe, without any viceregent, is to show the people that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is the badge of the Divinity of Christ, and as unchangeable as the throne of the eternal God.

"Justice and Mercy" The Present Truth 9, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

There is a strange idea prevalent in the world, and even in the professed Christian world, that justice and mercy are opposite qualities, and that they cannot be manifested in the same person at the same time. We remember a hymn long ago, in praise of "charity," one line of which said, "Justice hath in thee no part." This expresses the prevalent idea, that justice is harsh and cruel, and that in order to exercise mercy God has to lay aside His justice, and that when He exercises justice He lays aside mercy.

This is a most unfortunate idea. It represents God as changeable. But the fact is that He cannot deny Himself, and He changes not. "For I am the Lord, I change not." Mal. iii. 6. "Justice and judgment are the habitation [or foundation] of Thy throne; mercy and truth shall go before Thy face." Ps. lxxxix. 14. These are words of the man by whom the Holy Ghost spake. The psalm begins, "I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever; with my mouth will I make known Thy faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever; Thy faithfulness shalt Thou establish in the very heavens." And again, "O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good; for His mercy endureth for ever." Ps. cxxxvi. 1. God is from everlasting to everlasting; both justice and mercy are parts of His character; He cannot change; therefore both the justice and the mercy of the Lord must endure for ever, unchanged.

Justice no less than mercy is manifest in the plan of redemption. Thus we read: "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness; that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." Rom. iii. 23-26. Here we are told that God does not lay aside His justice in saving men, but in the very act of redemption He displays His justice.

In the tabernacle which the Lord told Moses to build, and the pattern of which He showed him in the mount, the chief article of furniture was the ark. In this ark the tables of the law were placed. The cover of the ark was called the mercy-seat, and upon this cover were the figures of two cherubim, one at each end, facing each other. See Ex. xxv. 10-21. Of this the Lord said, "And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony,

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of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel." Ex. xxv. 22. "And when Moses was gone into the tabernacle of the congregation to speak with Him, then he heard the voice of one speaking unto him from off the mercy seat that was upon the ark of testimony, from between the two cherubims; and He spake unto him." Num. vii. 89. From this we learn that as the tabernacle represented the dwelling place of God, corresponding to the temple of God in heaven (see Ex. xxv. 8; Heb. ix. 23, 24; Ps. xi. 4), so the ark represented the throne of God. Thus the law of God forms the foundation of His throne, yet the throne itself is the seat of mercy. In the throne of God "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other." Ps. lxxxv. 10. His throne is a throne of grace, where we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Heb. iv. 16.

But some reader doubtless thinks that we have not yet touched the real question at issue. The following texts are doubtless in his mind: "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto children's children; to such as keep His covenant, and to those that remember His commandments to do them." Ps. ciii. 17, 18. "For He shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment." James ii. 13. Doesn't this seem to indicate that God's mercy endures for ever only for those who fear Him, and that there will come a time when His mercy will cease, at least as far as the wicked are concerned? Let us see.

GOD THE SOURCE OF ALL THINGS

God is the Creator of all things. It is common to say that He created all things from nothing. That is true, in so far as it means that His word formed the worlds where there was nothing; but they really came from His word. His word is filled with His own life; so it is true that all creation came into existence through the very life of God. Everything sprang from Him, so that in the creation of the worlds there is the mystery of reproduction. This idea is given in the words of the Psalmist, "Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting Thou art of God." Ps. xc. 1, 2.

Read also the following familiar texts: "God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though He needed any thing, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; . . . for in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also His offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device." Acts xvii. 24-29. "For with Thee is the Fountain of Life." Ps. xxxvi. 9. "All things come of Thee." 1 Chron. xxix. 14. "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power; for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created." Rev. iv. 11.

Not only has God, through Christ, created all things, but their continued existence depends upon Him alone. We have redemption through the blood of Christ, "For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him, and for Him; and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist." Col. i. 16, 17. Christ, who is the fulness of the Godhead, is the life of everything; He is the force that is manifested in all matter.

NECESSITY OF AGREEMENT WITH GOD

This being the case, it is evident that the continued existence of all things depends upon their harmony with the will of God, and their submission to it. This is not a mere arbitrary demand on the part of God, He does not require that all things shall be subject to Him, simply to gratify His love of power, as would be the case with man, but because only as all things are dependent on Him can they exist. "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" Micah vi. 8. Two cannot walk together except they be agreed. Man cannot walk and dwell with God unless they are in union with Him; but their very existence depends upon their union with God. Apart from God there can be no life. It is only in Him that we live, and move, and have our being.

So far as the earth itself is concerned, there is no difficulty. The creation was made subject to vanity, "not willingly." Rom. viii. 20. It is passive in the hands of God, although it is marred with the sins of men. It has been cursed for the sake of man, and for a little season it groans and travails in pain, waiting for the deliverance which will surely come to it. For "the creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God." Rom. viii. 21. But man has allied himself with Satan and his angels in rebellion against the Almighty. His natural mind is now enmity against God; "for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Rom. viii. 7.

Yet through the mercy of God man has existence continued to him. "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness." Lam. iii. 22. This longsuffering of God is for the salvation of man. Although they have forfeited all claim upon Him, having rebelled against His love, and chosen death, He is loth to leave them, and so has provided means that "His banished be not expelled from Him." 2 Sam. xiv. 14. The great love of God is shown in this. He "gave Himself for us." "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." John xv. 13. "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Rom. v. 8. He did this while we were "dead in trespasses and sins," solely "For His great love wherewith He loved us," because He "is rich in mercy." Eph. ii. 4, 5. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." 2 Cor. v. 19. In giving Himself for rebellious men, that thus they might be reconciled to Himself, God shows how greatly He desired that all men should have everlasting life, for as we have seen, only in union with Him is there a life. And this love for men, and the desire that they may have everlasting life, is daily shown in the fact that as an act of grace He keeps rebellious men alive, in order that they may listen to His loving invitation, and be reconciled to Him. He says, "I am inquired of by them that asked not for Me; I am found of them that sought Me not; I said, Behold Me, behold Me, unto a nation that was not called by My name. I have stretched out My hands all the day unto a rebellious people, and walketh in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts." Isa. lxv. 1, 2.

THE JUSTICE OF MERCY

But in this mercy the justice of God appears. He has made man in His own image, with faculties capable of the highest enjoyment, for He has given him the freedom to choose his own way, and has set everything before him. The highest possible enjoyment is found in the most perfect freedom; and this God has given to man, in giving him the utmost liberty to choose whatever he will. In this choice there is absolutely no restriction put upon man by the Lord. His strict justice is shown in His not interfering with man's personal right of choice as to what he will have. God knows that only in Him can man find his highest good, and therefore He places Himself before man in the most attractive light, and pleads with him to accept Him; but He will

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not intrude His presence where it is not wanted. He will not coerce the will of man. He has in making man guaranteed to him perfect liberty, and He Himself respects the rights which He has bestowed on man. To attempt to compel men to accept His ways, perfect though they be, would be to deprive him of that liberty which is inseparable from God; and so it would be to defeat His own purpose.

"I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live; that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him; for He is thy life, and the length of thy days; that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them." Deut. xxx. 19, 20. Whoever chooses God will have life; for God Himself is life. When the man has yielded to the persuasion of the Lord, so far as to indicate his preference for Him, then the Lord Himself gladly comes in and supplies all his need. He gives him the power to do right, or rather, He Himself lives His own righteous will in the man. As long as the man continues to yield to God, so long will he have life, even to all eternity. God has promised that He will never forsake the man who puts his trust in Him and therefore that man must continue to live as long as God lives. That man will find that God's plan for him is the very best thing possible for him. In the presence of God there is fulness of joy.

GIVING MEN THEIR OWN WAY

But what of those who will not have Christ to reign over them? What of them who persist in their rebellion against the Lord? Here is the answer: "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 turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them." Prov. i. 29-32. They resist the Spirit of the Lord, refusing all its pleadings, until it is useless to strive longer with them. They utterly refuse to have anything to do with the Lord, and so He lets them have their own way, which is destruction. "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." Prov. xiv. 12.

Such ones are self-condemned. There condemnation to death is not merely the decision of a Judge, but is the natural result of their own course. They have hated the Lord, have resisted all His advances, and have shown their desire to have nothing to do with Him. Since they positively refuse to live with Him, He has no other alternative but to leave them to themselves; and as they have no means of self-existence, they necessarily suffer destruction. In addition to that text quoted in the preceding paragraph, which showed this to be the case, read the following:-

"Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest; for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his deeds." Rom. ii. 1-6.

The same love has been bestowed upon the wicked that has been bestowed upon the righteous. It is common for people to say that God has been very good to such and such a person. This is true, but it is not all the truth, and it may convey a wrong impression. The fact is that the Lord is good to everybody. "The Lord is good to all; and His tender mercies are over all His works." Ps. cxlv. 9. The Lord is goodness itself. He is love. He cannot at any time be any other than He is, and therefore He is just as good to one person as He is to another. He is equally good to everybody and just as good as He can be all the time. Therefore it is not because they have not been drawn by the love of God, that some are destroyed. It is because they have despised that love. Having hardened their hearts against God's love, the more He manifested His love to them, the harder they became. It is a trite saying that the same sun that melts the wax hardens the clay.

THE FATE OF THE WICKED

One question more ought to be considered in this connection, and that is, What is the fate of those who reject the Lord? It is clear enough that it is separation from Him, for that is what they have chosen. They were naturally separated from the Lord by their sins. God, however, would not let them go without an effort to induce them to accept His ways. But their refusal of His kind offers showed their determination to be for ever separated from Him, and He is at last compelled to give them up to their own choice.

Now the question is, Where can they exist separate from God? Read the words of the Psalmist: "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 hell, 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. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from Thee; but the night shineth as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to Thee." Ps. cxxxix. 7-12.

God is everywhere. It is His presence, and that only, that upholds the universe. It is evident, therefore, that those who are left to their own choice to be eternally separate from the Lord, have no place left them but utter extinction. There is no place in the universe where men can exist separate from the presence of the Lord. And this is just what the Lord says shall be their fate. "For the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen; as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee; thy reward shall return upon thine own head. For as ye have drunk upon My holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been." Obadiah 15, 16. This is reaping the fruit of their own way, namely, rejecting the presence of the Spirit of God.

EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT

"But," says some reader, "doesn't the Bible say that the wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment?" Yes, it does say that, Let us read the text. It is the close of our Saviour's great discourse to His disciples just before His crucifixion. Having described the wicked, He says, "And they shall go away into eternal punishment; but the righteous into life eternal." Matt. xxv. 46.

But does that mean that the wicked are to remain alive eternally? Not necessarily. It depends upon what their punishment will be. Now in Rom. vi. 23 we have a parallel text. "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Then since that is the punishment of the sinners, and they are to go into everlasting punishment, it follows that they go away into everlasting death. That is as plain as words can make it. And it is further corroborated by the inspired statement that the righteous shall have rest "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

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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.

UNQUENCHABLE FIRE

"But then we are told that the fire that burns the wicked shall not be quenched." Very true; and the reason why it shall not be quenched is that it is unquenchable. "He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Matt. iii. 12. Unquenchable indeed it must be, because it is the fire of the glory of the Lord. When the Lord comes the wicked will be consumed with the Spirit of His mouth, and destroyed with the brightness of His coming. See 2 Thess. ii. 8. That fire must exist as long as God exists; but while it is death to the enemies of the Lord, it is light and life to those that love Him. It is as in the case of ancient Israel; that which was light to the Israelites, was confusion and destruction to the Egyptians.

But the fact that the fire is unquenchable does not show that what is cast into it must exist for ever. Quite the contrary. If a fire breaks out in a building, and the firemen are not able to quench it, the inevitable result is that the building is utterly consumed. So it is with those who shall be cast into the unquenchable fires of the last day. The text says that they shall be "burned up" with unquenchable fire. The wicked are called chaff, indicating the case with which they may be consumed. "For, 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." Mal. iv. 1.

ETERNAL FIRE

What has been said about the unquenchable fire has cleared up the trouble that some would have had over the term "eternal fire," into which the wicked are to be sent. "Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Matt. xxv. 41. As we have already seen, the effect of such a fire must be to utterly consume and destroy every vestige of that which is thrown into it.

But we have given us an example of the effect of the eternal fire. The apostle Jude writes about the judgment reserved for the devil and his angels, together with those who have served him, and presents this likeness: "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." Jude 7. The fire that destroyed the cities is the same fire that will at the last day destroy all the wicked. It is eternal fire, yet notice its effect upon those cities:-

"For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of My people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her." Lam. iv. 6.

GOD TO BE ALL IN ALL

There are other texts that might occur to one, but these are sufficient to show what the Scripture teaches as to the destiny of the wicked. The statements are plain, and there can be no contradiction in the Bible. And now let us once more return to the original thought about the mercy of God in connection with His justice. His mercy endures even to the midst in the execution of His judgments. "O give thanks to the Lord; for ever. . . . To Him that smote Egypt in their firstborn; for His mercy endureth for ever; . . . to Him which divided the Red sea into parts, for His mercy endureth for ever; and made Israel to pass through the midst of it; for His mercy endurth for ever; but overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea; for His mercy endureth for ever." Ps. cxxxvi. 1, 10, 13-15.

God's mercies endure for ever, even though there are some who will have none of it. In His mercy He bears long with them, but God could not tolerate rebellion for ever in His dominions and be just to His loyal subjects. So in justice no less than mercy to those who willingly yield to His control, He must let the wicked suffer the punishment which they have worked for. Indeed, it would be doing the wicked an injustice not to give them that for which they have so long and diligently laboured. They have taken counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, "Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us." All their desire has been to be left to themselves and now God gives them their desire. But as there is no place in the universe where God is not, the only thing for them is extinction. So we read, "For evildoers 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.

Then will be fulfilled the purpose of God, "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." Eph. i. 10. Then will Christ have accomplished the purpose for which He ascended to heaven, namely, "that He might fill all things." Eph. iv. 10. "And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all." 1 Cor. xv. 28. And then from "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 be heard with one voice, "Unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, be the blessing, and the honour, and the glory, and the dominion, for ever and ever." Rev. v. 13.

"Evening Communions" The Present Truth 9, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

Among the members of the Church of England considerable controversy is going on concerning the lawfulness of evening communions. The Archbishop of York has positively denounced it, and declared his determination to do everything to resist such an "innovation." He says that such a custom is a novelty in the Church of England. Those who support the "novelty" quote Augustine and Tertullian to prove that evening communion was common in their days, and that it is therefore lawful. But the strange and pitiful part of it is that no one has thought that the matter could be settled without any controversy by simply citing the words of Scripture, which record the celebrating of the Lord's Supper by the Saviour. See Matt. xxvi. 20-28; 1 Cor. xi. 23-26. There are those in the Church of England who are opposed to ritualism; but their opposition amounts to nothing so long as the simple record of Scripture is neglected for the testimony of the "Fathers" and the customs of "the church."

"Wearing Plumage" The Present Truth 9, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

Much has justly been said against the barbarous custom of wearing plumage of birds, and the cruelty that the custom involves; but a writer to the Echo shows in the following paragraph that there is another side to the picture:

"The habit of flesh-eating is responsible for a thousand-fold more pigeons shot and larks netted than sport and fashion combined, while the love of sport and the compulsion of fashion are quite as powerful in the votaries of such as is the power of appetite to those who have been brought up among the flesh-pots. We are not tempted to shoot or wear feathers, and therefore we Pharisaically express the profoundest disapprobation of both. We are tempted to eat spitted larks and pigeon pie, and therefore we carefully hold our tongues about the horrors of the food market. Sport is unnecessary, plumage wearing is unnecessary, flesh eating is unnecessary. All equally entail barbaric cruelties and the breach of man's ethical relations to his fellow-creatures. All must disappear. Let us be willing, not only to point out the faults in others, but also to correct ourselves.

"Don't Forget to Eat" The Present Truth 9, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

"Don't forget to eat! why, I couldn't forget that if I should try," says Ernest, "for I like to do it too well. And then, another thing, my head begins to hurt, and I feel weak and faint if I have to miss but one meal. I can't work, I can't live at all without eating, so I don't think there's much danger of my forgetting to eat."

Yes, but listen a moment. Do you know that you become very much like the food that you eat? If you eat good, nourishing food, you will grow strong and healthy, but if you eat poor, perishing food, you become weak and sickly, and finally perish. Even the best bread and meat and fruit that you can find in the market cannot build you up and make you grow into a perfect man. It may for awhile enable you to live a poor sort of life, but it cannot make even such a life last but for a few short years at most. Then its power is all spent, and your life is all gone.

God says that man cannot live by earthly bread alone, but he must also have Heavenly Bread every day. Earthy bread, like all earthly things, has no life in itself, but soon passes away, and has no life to give us. But the Bread of Life from heaven is so full of life that it can give us life,-even eternal life. If we eat it every day, it will make us grow up perfect, like Jesus so that we shall want to do only pure, good things; and it will also give us strength to do them. You know that common bread cannot do that for us. We try again and again to do right, but cannot.

Well, will God every day rain this Bread down from heaven for us, as He did the manna for the Israelites?

No; for He has already sent it to us, and it is within the reach of every one of us, only we have not really known it.

God says that you will find all the Heavenly Bread that you can possibly need-in your Bible! Those words that you see in your Bible are not the same lifeless words that you read in men's books. Jesus says that they are full of life-of His life. And He says, "I am that bread of life that was sent down from heaven."

Then don't you see that if the life of Jesus is in those words, we can get Jesus, the Bread from heaven, by just feeding on those words? We can feed on them, and make them a part of ourselves, by every day reading them, and believing that it is our heavenly Father speaking to us; by loving them, and believing that Jesus comes with them into our hearts.

And if Jesus is in our hearts, as powerful as when He created the earth and all things, cannot He keep us from sin, strengthen us to say kind words and to do loving acts?

You say, "Why, how can Jesus come into our hearts with His Word? How can we feed on Him by feeding on His Word?"

That is a question that I cannot answer. I do not know how it can be. But we do not need to know how it is done. Jesus says that He will do it, and isn't that enough? We also know that He has done it, and is living every day with those who feed upon His words.

Oh prize your Bible. Love it and read it as no other book. Again I say, Don't forget to eat the Bread of Life every day. You need it much more than your earthly food. Feeding on it once a month will not keep you alive for heaven, any more than eating your earthly food once a month will keep you alive for earth. Then DON'T FORGET TO EAT!

"All Around India" The Present Truth 9, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

Ah, I see that you recognize that once your little Parsee sister to whom we introduced you in our last paper. You remember where she lives? Yes, she lives far across the sea, in a country called India. Let us go home with her, and see the strange country in which she lives.

"Almost the shape of a triangle!" You say.

Yes, that's true, but it is a much larger triangle than it seems to be from the small view that we can have of it.

If you should divide India into twenty-five parts, each part would be as large as England and Wales! We shall therefore need to make haste or we shall not see the half of it, for although all the principal cities are connected by railways, yet there are many places which cannot be reached without walking, or riding horses, or in different kinds of carts, drawn by horses, oxen, or buffaloes, in mourwheels (hammocks swung on strong bamboos and borne by six men), in small boats, or in a sort of box called a palanquin, which is borne upon the shoulders of the natives. The railways

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have been built by the British, as the greater part of this vast country belongs to the Queen of England. About one-third of India is still owned by native tribes that wander through the great forests free from all law and civilization.

At this time of the year, from October to March, we find the climate cool and pleasant. The days are bright and sunny, and the pleasant nights "just cool enough to demand the protection of the tent, and light covering for one's bed." Sometimes a light frost falls in December, but ice is never formed. Therefore instead of finding leafless trees and dead flowers, as we do at home during this season of the year, we find everything beautifully green: "The grass upon the river, the rushes by the shallow ponds, the springing fields and cheerful trees-all are full of life and beauty." The trees are never stripped of their leaves, and the flowers bloom all the year round!

But if we should try to travel during the months of June to September, we would be reminded of the time of Noah. The rain pours down in such torrents that in many places rivers cannot carry it off, and the country is flooded. For miles and miles around the mouths of the River Ganges, in the rainy season, nothing can be seen but villages, houses, trees, and vessels of every kind, all appearing to stand upon the water. It is said that along the western coast of India probably more rain falls in the year than in any other part of the earth.

From March to June we should, day after day, see cloudless skies and a burning sun, with never a drop of rain to moist or cool the dry, hot air. So hot it would be that we should not be able to do anything except very early in the morning and quite late in the evening. We should be glad, indeed, to escape up into the hills and mountains, away from the fevers and other diseases which often visit the people during the hot months. The small streams and brooks become dried up, and the fields have to be water from wells, tanks, and large rivers, or everything would die.

One strange thing in India is that the wind blows from the southwest for one half of the year, and from the north-east for the other half of the year. These strange winds are called monsoons.

But India is not all warm. If you notice carefully you will see that on the north-east it is separated from China by the lofty walls of mountains, known as the Himalaya mountains. Up, up they go, in mighty, glistening, snow-capped peaks, far, far above the clouds. Above them all towers Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world. Whatever the time of year, and however hot the lowlands and valleys beneath, here is snow always,-nothing but snow, while the higher valleys and gorges are filled with mighty glaciers of blue ice.

As we come down the mountainsides we find it growing warmer, and here and there from beneath the melting glaciers, come rushing torrents of icy water, cutting their way down into the valleys. Here they form two great rivers, the Indus and the Ganges. See if you can find them on the map.

The people of India say that the Ganges came from the sweat of one of their gods, named Siva. It causes things to grow so well in all the country around, that they look upon it, and all the towns along its banks, as holy.

"Fifty rivers find their way through the valleys and wilds of India into the ocean; mighty mountains divide its plains; forests of wondrous trees enwrap great tracts in savage gloom; white plains delight in rays of continual sunshine; vast jungles form the home of beasts and reptiles, and gentle brooks ripple through lovely green valleys. There are deserts of dry sands, where white men have never trod, high steppes broken into natural walled plateaus, great waterfalls, beautiful cascades, and natural mountain arches."

But the most interesting of all things in India are its people. We find men and women and little boys and girls from one end of this broad land to the other. It is true that all of them do not look like us, nor dress as we do, but they all are our brothers and sisters, for God says that He made us all of one blood.

There are about ten times as many people as in England and Wales, and if you should take all the people in the world, and divide them into six companies, one of those vast companies would not contain as many people as India!

And just think of it! thousands and thousands of these brothers and sisters do not love Jesus; and what is worse, they do not know about Him; they have never heard how He gave His life to save them.

"And don't the boys and girls know 'Our Father,' and 'Now I lay me'?" you ask.

No, and they know nothing about "Sweet by and by," "Jesus loves me," and "When He cometh." Even this dear little Parsee girl is taught to worship fire and water, and the sun and moon and stars!

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

-Since the first of February there have been over forty deaths from cholera in Marseilles.

-The damage caused by the floods in Queensland is estimated at between £9,000,000 and £3,000,000.

-The public schools of the State of Now York are outnumbered by the saloons of New York City and Brooklyn.

-It is calculated that an average of seventy-five million chickens are annually hatched in Egypt by artificial means.

-Archbishop Ireland recently dedicated a church for coloured Catholics in Minneapolis, Minn., which cost $78,000.

-A lunatic asylum at Dover, New Hampshire (U.S.A.) burned down on the 10th inst., and over fifty of the insane people were burned to death.

-Very serious floods are reported from Queensland. At Ipswich many people have been drowned, and much property has been destroyed.

-The American legation at Constantinople has received news that the American Girls' College, at Marsovan, has been burned by a Moslem mob.

-A terrible storm over the Lofoden islands, off the coast of Norway, resulted in the partial destruction of a fishing fleet and the loss of over 100 lives.

-Horses are, it is said, just now so plentiful in Buenos Ayres that everybody has at least one. It is claimed that even the beggars beg on horseback.

-Queen Lilinokaloni is stated to have telegraphed her readiness to agree to an American protectorate over Hawaii, on condition that adequate provision is made for her.

-Five hundred leading Protestants have issued a notice, summoning a meeting at Barmen on Feb. 20, to protest against the proposed readmission of Jesuits to Germany.

-The Australian labour unions are agitating for a law prohibiting the importation of contract labour, more particularly that of Polynesians, Asiatics, Russians, Poles, and Hebrews.

-Last year 462 mistakes were made in London by doctors in notifying cases of infectious disease for removal to public hospitals, with the result that 102 of the mistaken cases ended fatally.

-Great Britain is amongst the lowest of civilized countries in regard to the tender age at which it allows child labour in factories. Seventy-six thousand children of ten years of age are now at work.

-For the first time in the history of the province of Quebec the Montgomery Falls have been frozen into a solid mass of ice. The weather is the severest experienced by the oldest inhabitants.

-In Great Britain there are, according to the latest statistics, 50,000 destitute children in workhouses, 177,000 receive outdoor relief, and 5,000 are provided for as orphans, under the boarding-out system.

-At a recent meeting of the London City Mission, it was showed that the 498 missionaries had made over 3,000,000 visits during the past year. Their work is among the most wretched and debased people in the city.

-Recently in India certain regiments, containing over 6,000 soldiers, were placed tinder medical observation, from which it was shown that the mortality of the free drinkers was 44 per 1,000; moderate drinkers, 23 per 1,000; and teetotallers, 11 per 1,000.

-It is reported that the Russian Government intends transferring the Finnish battalions to the interior of Russia with a view to "Russifying" them and teaching them the Russian language. In their stead Russian soldiers are to be sent to Finland.

-Some citizens of Alaska are agitating for the establishment of a Territorial Government.

-The value of the honey produced last year in the United States is estimated at £3,000,000 and that of the wax at £300,000.

-Dr. McGlynn asserts that no retraction was required of him by the Pope's representative as a condition of his restoration to the church and to the priesthood.

-Scores of women work in the brickyards in Springwell, Mich., digging in the pits and carrying bricks, and some of them carry their babies on their backs while at work.

-Roadway authorities in some parts of Australia and Germany, who have for months past experimented with indiarubber for paving, declare that in every respect it excels wood and asphalts, both for horses and pedestrian traffic.

-The Anchor Line steamer Trinacrice, bound from Glasgow to Gibraltar, was wrecked Feb. 9, near Cape Villano. She had a general cargo, a crew of thirty-seven, and four passengers, who were going to Gibraltar to labour in connexion with the mission to the soldiers. All were drowned except six of the crew.

-The household of the Vatican will profit largely by the impending creation of new Cardinals, as the fees payable by each recipient of the red hat amount altogether to £600-a large sum, considering that the stipend of a Cardinal is only £900 a year. A new bishop has to pay some £400 to the "corporations of the Vatican."

-The whole of the February number of Darkest Russia is devoted to showing that Russia is hopelessly insolvent, and yet is steadily borrowing from credulous foreign capitalists, and is lavishing the money in wasteful military and naval expenditure. While a large part of the Empire is exhausted by famine, new taxes are being recklessly imposed on a starving people.

-The stupendous nature of the philanthropic work carried on at Dr. Barnardo's Homes for Boys and Girls may be seen from the fact that last year no fewer than 8,947 separate applications were made for admission, all of which were carefully sifted, with the result that 2,071 children were permanently and 659 temporarily admitted, the total of 2,730 being more than 1,000 in advance of 1691.

-The breaking up of the ice on the Danube, owing to the sudden thaw, has given rise to feelings of great anxiety. An ice block, some 600 miles long, extends from Vienna to the Roumanian frontier. The Danube is also rising rapidly, and the towns and villages above Vienna are threatened. Some, indeed, are already inundated, while some of the villages along the banks have been destroyed by the great ice-blocks that have been dashed along by the current.

-A well-known Russian statistician has just published a report showing that Russia, in matters of popular education, is the most backward country in the world. Even Turkey is ahead of her in this respect. According to this authority, only 6,500,000 roubles are expended annually on the education of the masses, although the revenue of the State is over 900,000,000 roubles. But while the mass of the Russian people are most ignorant, the upper classes are in some respects the best educated of any in Europe.

-Sentence has been passed upon the defendants in the Panama trial, in Paris. M. Ferdinand and M. Charles de Lesseps were condemned to five years' imprisonment, and Baron Cottu, M. Eiffel, and M. Fontane were each sentenced to two years' imprisonment. In addition M. Eiffel is condemned to pay a fine of 20,000f., and the other four defendants one of 8,000f. each. M. Ferdinand de Lesseps, who is very old and feeble, is not yet even so much as aware that a trial has taken place, and probably will never be informed of it. The whole affair is considered by many as a mere political drama.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

On Monday night, the 13th, an enthusiastic meeting of the Association for Stopping the Sale of Liquor on Sunday, was held in Exeter Hall. The Lord Bishop of London presided, and many prominent clergymen and Members of Parliament took part. There were many suggestive and interesting things said, which will be noticed at length in the next number.

We have received an encouraging report from Brethren Farnsworth and Hope as to their meetings in Belfast. The meetings are held at Central Hall, Rosemary Street (off Royal Avenue), every Sunday at 3 and 7 P.M. The Book of Revelation is the subject of study at the present, and the interest is reported to be good and increasing. A hearty invitation is extended to all.

President Harrison has sent a message to Congress, recommending that the United States speedily annex the Hawaiian Islands. He says that no Government has protested against the proposed annexation, and that it is necessary that no other great Power annex them, as that would be inconsistent with the safety of the United States, and the peace of the world.

It is thought that Russia's recently assumed friendly attitude towards Germany is due to the fact that the new rifles made in the Government factories have been rejected by the Commissioners of the War Department, on account of various imperfections in construction. Nearly the whole of the year's output has been found to be worthless. So Russia wants to cultivate peace until she can manufacture some better weapons of war.

Several negroes have late been lynched in the Southern part of the United States; and in Laredo, Texas, one case was particularly atrocious. Consequently, the people were aroused to vindicate their good name, and a meeting was called, which was attended by nearly all the citizens. The speeches were made by the leading ministers and lawyers of the district. It was unanimously decided that lynch-law was a relic of barbarism, and a standing disgrace to the nation. And then, in order to emphasize their abhorrence of lynch law, a resolution was passed with the wildest enthusiasm, pledging every man present to assist in capturing and lynching the leaders of the next lynching party.

Not less than 1,200 English pilgrims have gone to Rome for the purpose of attending the Pope's jubilee. All the European sovereigns who have no permanently accredited representatives at the Vatican will send special envoys to represent them at the jubilee celebration. These include Queen Victoria, the Sultan, the King of Saxony, and the Queen of the Netherlands. Queen Victoria is represented by the Duke of Norfolk. This attention to the Pope not only materially aids his political ambition, but shows that he already possesses immense political influence. If the Pope were simply a minister of the Gospel, his fiftieth year of service would not receive a moment's thought from a single European sovereign.

"A Jewish Rabbi in Brooklyn has been accused of eating pork. The defense set up was that he did it at the opening of a bar-room, and was 'too drunk to know pork from veal.' The influx of Jews from countries where they are in low estate has brought some strange practices. The members of his synagogue did not consider the defence adequate to cover such a sin, and cast him off from his position."

What a defence! One might look at it as being to the credit of the congregation that they did not accept the drunkenness as a valid defence; but on the other hand we may wonder at the fine distinction that will ignore a man's drunkenness and condemn the eating of pork while he was drunk. Such inconsistencies are not peculiar to the Jews. They are sure to be found wherever creeds and forms are depended on rather than the living Spirit in the word.

The Missionary Committee of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States has forwarded to the two Houses of Congress a document praying that the World's Fair be not opened on Sundays. In this document it is stated that the plea comes from the entire body, and the number of communicants and adherents are given, together with their standing and influence. But what does all that have to do with the question of whether or not Congress should legislate upon the opening or closing of the Fair on Sundays? If a thing is wrong, numbers do not make it right, and if it is right, it is none the less right because only a few stand for it. Truth can stand alone, and needs not the support of numbers. Whenever numbers and influence are urged in favour of anything, that alone is good ground for suspecting the righteousness of the cause.

In the appeal which the leaders of the Methodist denomination in the United States have made to Congress, begging that the World's Fair be closed on Sundays, they say: "In loyalty to the free institutions inherited from our fathers, our people are second to none. They ask nothing for themselves, nor for their religious establishment, and would contend for the same freedom to Jew and Catholic that they enjoy." We doubt. If the Jews should plead for the Fair to be closed on the Sabbath, in order that the institution might not be trampled underfoot, the same people would call such a plea absurd, and not worthy of a moment's consideration. The plea for Sunday closing is nothing but a plea for discrimination in favour of a certain form of religion.

The zealous workers for compulsory Sunday observance seem in England, as well as in America, to be given to wholesale generalizations from a very small basis of fact. The gentleman, a Member of Parliament, who headed a recent deputation to Mr. Acland, to protest against the opening of the museums on Sundays, said that the Sunday opening of museums would lead to the opening of shops and other places, and that the workingmen of England did not desire the opening of these places on Sundays. In reply to this sweeping assertion, Mr. Acland referred them to the fact that but a short time ago he had received a deputation which represented a vast number of workingmen all over the country, pleading for Sunday opening. One of the peculiar features of the Sunday legislation business is that those who are so fearful lest the workingman should be deprived of his rest if there is no law compelling him to rest, are not found in the ranks of workingmen.

March 9, 1893

"Front Page" The Present Truth 9, 5.

E. J. Waggoner

It is refreshing and encouraging to find in the Church of England an occasional voice raised against some of the pagan forms that Romanism has made to be associated with the name of Christianity. In a recent lecture on Savonarola, the Dean of Worcester referred to brotherhoods and sisterhoods, and said that "when it was advocated that they should leave the world and take upon themselves irrevocable vows, such a course had really neither the sanction of Scripture nor the endorsement of common-sense. It was the act of a coward who fled from the battle, instead of the man who bravely went forward to bear the brunt."

The apostle Paul was in a Roman prison for preaching the Gospel. A Jewish mob had seized him, and Roman soldiers were guarding him. Yet in an epistle to his brethren he refers to himself as "Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ." Eph. iii. 1. And so he was. The Roman Emperor thought that he had Paul in his power, and Roman soldiers thought that they were keeping him. But he was in the power of the Lord, and the angels of God were his keepers. He was in the hands of the Lord, who could lead him out of prison in an instant, if He wished, just as He did Peter. And so Paul was content. Happy is the man, even though he is in a dungeon, who knows that he is "the prisoner of the Lord."

There is almost as much antipathy to the name "Spiritualist" as there ever was, but the fact is becoming more and more popular. The editor of the New York Observer, an old-time Presbyterian journal, in a highly appreciative article upon the late Phillips Brooks, quotes the following from a letter just received from a friend: "We were to have them twice at the Old South Church this spring, on Good Friday evening, and on the Sunday evening before, to deliver the last lecture in a course. When Dr. Gordon asked him a year since, he replied, 'Yes, but it is a year ahead, and if I am not here, I shall have to send you a message from the other world.'" The editor of the Observer sees nothing out of the way in this, but adds, "The message will come at the time appointed." And yet all the parties would be highly offended if they were called Spiritualists.

The Interior, a Presbyterian paper of Chicago, in noticing a book entitled, "A Plea for the Sabbath and for Man," makes the following statements:-

"The transition from the observance of the seventh to the observance of the first day of the week is slurred over in a sentence. At this point the modern Sabbath has always been open to attack, and there is just now an especial need of a vigorous defence of this incomplete bastion. The need of a seventh day of rest is a well-nigh unassailable fact, but that the day to be observed as the first day of the week, is not so well established."

The man is not to be blamed for "slurring over" the change from the seventh to the first day of the week with a single sentence. It is a point on which nothing can be said without exposing the fraudulent claims of the first day of the week. Innumerable efforts have been made to build up that "incomplete bastion," but the builders had nothing to use except stubble and untempered mortar. The Sabbath of the Bible has "no incomplete bastion" to defend. It is itself a defence.

"Making a Bargain with God" The Present Truth 9, 5.

E. J. Waggoner

Making a Bargain with God .-"If God will forgive me for this, I will never do it again," is an expression often heard. No doubt those who say so have a feeling of pity for the poor, benighted souls who do penance, and offer money in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins, totally unconscious that they themselves are doing the same thing; for to say that we will not do a certain thing again if God will forgive us for this offence, is to try to bribe God,-to buy His favour.

God says: "I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." Isa. xliii. 25. God is rich in mercy, and He forgives us because of "His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins." Eph. ii. 4, 5. But to try to make a bargain with God, that we shall receive His forgiveness in return for some good that we shall do, is to try to deprive the coveted forgiveness of all the quality of mercy. If God should agree to such a bargain, there would be no gratitude on the part of the man. He would feel that God had simply given him what he deserved, and had blessed him because he was so good that He could not consistently do otherwise. Thus the man would be confirmed in sin. Since God has provided so full and free a salvation, how much better to receive forgiveness upon His own terms, and trust Him to keep us from repetitions of it.

"The Christian Life" The Present Truth 9, 5.

E. J. Waggoner

Someone says:-

"The little boy or girl, at school, looks at the copy in the writing-book, and imitates it, trying to write each following line better. That is the Christian life, and that is all of it."

Not by any means. If it were all of it, there would be no hope for anybody; for the pattern is Jesus Christ, in whom dwelleth "all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and no human being could ever successfully copy that life. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." Isa. lv. 8, 9. He who would copy the life of Christ as the schoolboy copies his lesson, and do it successfully, must have power equal to that of God.

If the boy whose hand the master holds and guides in imitating the copy, were used as an illustration of the Christian life, it would be a step nearer the truth; but even that would not be the truth.

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That is mechanical. The boy may yield his hand willingly to the master, that it may be guided, but the writing is after all not his own. God does not use men as dead instruments to be operated upon, although men are to yield themselves as instruments of righteousness unto Him.

The Christian life is simply the life of Christ. If the master who sets the copy for the schoolboy, could put all his own skill and power into that boy, so that what he writes will not be merely an imitation of the master's copy, but the master's own writing, and still the free act of the boy, we should have an illustration of the Christian life. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." Phil. ii. 12, 13. "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. "He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk even as He walked." 1 John ii. 6. And how was it that He walked? Christ Himself said, "The Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works." John xiv. 10. Christ has set us the copy, but instead of standing off and watching us try to imitate Him, He gladly comes in to our hearts, becoming one with us, so that His life is our life, and His act is ours. This is life-the Christian life.

"Praying to One's Self" The Present Truth 9, 5.

E. J. Waggoner

"Surely nobody does such a thing as that!" Well, they used to, and since human nature has not changed, it must be that some do still.

The parable of the Pharisee and the publican was spoken for the benefit of a class. It was for those who "trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others." The Pharisee, having this trust in himself, "stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank Thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican." Luke xviii. 9-11. And then followed a list of his own virtues.

The Saviour said that he prayed "with himself." Notice carefully. He expressed thanks that he was not like other men, but he trusted himself that he was righteous. He thought that goodness sprung from himself,-that he was justified by his own works. This is why he despised others, whom he thought were not so good as he was. If he had trusted in God for righteousness, knowing and acknowledging that there is no righteousness except that which God gives freely by His own grace, he would not have despised others; for he would then have realised that he himself was entitled to no credit over others, even though he had more righteousness than they.

The fact then that he trusted in himself that he was righteous, shows that he did not think that his righteousness came from God. Therefore it is evident that whatever thankfulness he felt for the righteousness which he thought he had, was directed to himself. So that really he himself was the god to whom he returned thanks. If his righteousness came from himself, why should he not thank himself? So although he was in God's temple, and seemed to pray to God, he was really praying with himself.

Such is the prayer of the self-righteous man. He is his own god, and his prayers are directed to himself, as the one from whom all his goodness flows. But let us beware lest in our consideration of the parable we fall into the same pit as the Pharisee. If we begin to congratulate ourselves that we are not like him, we thereby show that we are exactly like him. Who has not found himself doing that very thing? Moreover, this making a god of self is not confined to those who profess justification by works. While expressing full belief in justification by faith only, we may be in the same condition as the Pharisee; and while thinking that we have the righteousness of Christ; we may be trusting in our own righteousness.

How can this be? Remember that the Pharisee's manifestation of self-righteousness was by the fact that he "despised others." So whenever we find ourselves indulging a critical disposition, marking this one's faults, and secretly congratulating ourselves that we do not make such mistakes, we are showing the possession of the Pharisaic spirit. It is an exhibition of self-righteousness, and shows that we are worshipping ourselves, and not God.

The possession of the righteousness of God, which comes by the faith of Jesus Christ, is not characterized by criticism and fault-finding. There is in it nothing of self-exaltation, or self-congratulation. There is no despising of others in it. "If ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace, of them that make peace." James iii. 14-18.

There is one other condition closely allied to the above. It is when a person prays to the Lord for forgiveness, and then looks to himself, to his own feelings,-for evidence of forgiveness. That is simply praying to God, and then looking to ourselves for the answer to our prayers. But if we are going to look to ourselves for the answer to our prayers, why not pray directly to ourselves in the first place? Why go through the form of praying to God, taking His name in vain, when we expect the answer from ourselves?

Is it not plain that in such a case we are really praying to ourselves? That we are in the condition of the Pharisee, who trusted in himself that he was righteous? If after we have prayed to God for righteousness, we look to ourselves, to our feelings, for evidence that we have it, are we not to some degree, at least, trusting in ourselves that we are righteous? Let us rather direct our prayer only to God, and look up, expecting to receive the answer from Him. "Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens." Lam. iii. 41.

"Justification by Works" The Present Truth 9, 5.

E. J. Waggoner

This heading is not designed to indicate that there actually is any such thing as justification by works, but to call attention to an evil that is alarmingly prevalent among professed Christians, and is on the increase. The danger is all the greater because the people think that they are believing and practicing the Gospel. Let us first read a few plain declarations of Scripture on the subject.

"For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident; for, The just shall live by faith." Gal. iii. 10, 11.

"Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Rom. iii. 20.

"For whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Rom. xiv. 20.

Does faith exclude works? And does the preaching of justification by faith ignore the necessity for good works? Never. "Do we then make void [that is, transgress] the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law." Rom. iii. 31.

Jesus told the people to work. Said He, "labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you; for Him hath God the Father sealed." Then the Jews asked Him how they should do the work, saying, "What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?" Here is the reply: "Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." John vi. 27-29.

Thus we see that the works which God

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requires are all in faith; faith itself works. Gal. v. 6. But someone will say, "I know people who make a great deal of faith, and yet their works do not correspond; therefore I don't believe that faith alone will justify a man; in fact, the apostle James plainly says that Abraham was justified by works."

It is a very presumptuous thing for one to say that he does not believe that faith justifies, when the Bible so plainly declares that it does, and that he who is justified by faith has peace with God. Rom. v. 1. But let us look for a moment at what James says.

"What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him?" James ii. 14.

"There," says our friend, "that's just what I said; faith is not sufficient for justification."

Not quite so fast, please. What is the trouble with that man who says he has faith, and has not works? Simply this, that he has no faith. If he had faith, he would have works, for faith works. The question that the apostle asks is simply this: "Can faith save a man who says that he has it, but who really has it not?" In other words, what doth it profit, though a man say he hath a thousand pounds, and has not a farthing? Will a thousand pounds do him any good? Certainly not. Why not? Is it because money is not good for anything? Not at all, but because in order for a man to get any benefit from money, he must actually have it, and not merely say that he has it.

"But the devils have faith, and they are not justified." Not quite so fast again, please. It is true that the devils believe that there is one God, but that is not faith with them. They have seen God. More than that, they have felt His power. Their belief in the existence of one God is the belief of actual experience. Their belief causes them to tremble, and faith does not do that. Faith works by love, and "there is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear." Gal. v. 6 and 1 John iv. 18. The devils have no faith.

"Wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?" James ii. 20. That which is dead does not exist; therefore faith that has not works is not real faith at all. It is only a form; it is a sham. "But," says our friend, "what will you do with the next verse?" I shall do nothing with it except believe it. Let us read it.

"Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?" James ii. 21. The question admits but one answer, and we are obliged to answer Yes. But we would remind the reader that the apostle did not make the division into the verses as they are numbered, and we must not assume that the subject ends with that verse. The writer has heard very many people refer to Abraham as proof that men are justified by works, quoting the twenty-first verse, as above, but he has never heard one of them go any further, and quote the next two verses, which complete the reference to Abraham. So we will quote them.

"Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God." James ii. 22, 23.

So when Abraham worked, it was his faith that was working; and those works by which he was justified were simply the fulfilment of the scripture, "Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness." The works were the product of his faith, and showed that he had it in perfection. Faith includes everything that a man can do to please God; for "without faith it is impossible to please Him." Heb. xi. 6.

"Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only." Verse 24. That is, as just illustrated, a man is justified by the works of faith, and not by a dead faith, which does not work. And thus we see that the apostle James does not, as Luther thought, contradict the apostle Paul, neither does he present the "other side" of the question which Paul preached so zealously; but he teaches the identical thing that is taught in the epistles of Paul.

What is the source of the idea that men may be justified by works? The secret of it is seen in the words which the Jews asked Jesus: "What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?" John vi. 28. Mark it, "What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?" They were fully convinced that they could do the works of God, and of course a man must be able to do the works of God, if he is justified by works, for the righteousness of God is the only righteousness that is of any worth.

But in order to be able to do the works of God, one must have to begin with power and goodness equal to the power and goodness of God. So the idea of justification by works is simply the exaltation of self against God. And that is the very spirit of the papacy,-"that man of sin,"-"who opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God, or that is worshipped." 2 Thess. ii. 7.

In the beginning our first parents, deceived by the serpent, who told them that by eating of the forbidden fruit they should be as God, sought justification by their own works. That is, they sought to be like God through their own works. The result is seen in the fall, when they still continued to try to justify themselves before God.

We have just seen that justification by works is the characteristic of the Papacy. But the characteristic of the Papacy is union of Church and State. That is, the civil power is used to compel men to do what the Church says is right. The whole thing springs from the idea that men are justified by the works of the law. When men attempt to enforce religious duties by law, they virtually say, "The people have the goodness in them, and they can do what is right, if they want to. But some of them are too obstinate to do the good that is in them, and some are too lazy, or else they are afraid to do differently from their neighbours. Therefore they must be forced to act out the goodness that is in them."

It must be evident that the principle of religious legislation, of making laws to encourage or to compel men to do what is said to be right, is the principle of justification by works. And as such it is directly opposed to the Gospel. Therefore everyone who loves the Gospel of Jesus Christ ought with a loud voice to warn men against having anything whatever to do with religion enforced by civil law.

"Going to Rome" The Present Truth 9, 5.

E. J. Waggoner

Last week we called attention to the fact that several hundred "pilgrims" had gone from England to Rome, to congratulate the Pope upon his episcopal jubilee, and to receive his blessing; also that all the sovereigns of Europe had sent special representatives. The matter is worth more than a passing notice. It is getting more than that, too, from the press; and the very notice that it is receiving makes it still more noteworthy.

Perhaps nothing can better exhibit the general feeling than the following from the Chronicle's correspondent, concerning the installation of Cardinal Vaughan at St. George's, the place whence Pope Gregory sent Augustine to England. This, by the way, is significant, inasmuch as Cardinal Vaughan feels himself charged with the task of bringing England back to the Catholic fold. But here are the comments of the Chronicle correspondent:-

"The ceremony cannot fail to be far grander than that which accompanied the installation of Cardinal Manning. Thousands of English-speaking pilgrims are in the Eternal City, and the sacred fane will re-cho the fine old hymns of Faber, Caswell, and Stanfield, intermingled with liturgical chants that may well be called on this occasion Gregorian. There are, however, memories which cannot fail to make British Catholics more hopeful to-day. Even when Cardinal Manning was solemnly installed,

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the tone of the second Archbishop of Westminster was not at all jubilant. Pius IX, had scarcely recovered from the shock of the Italian invader. Manning, staunch and valiant, spoke of the powers of darkness and forlorn hopes as far as Rome was concerned. And even in England he had not gained that national and brotherly confidence which came as a great and loving tribute from poor and rich alike as his emaciated body lay like a saint of old in the austere building which does duty as the "palace" of the Archbishops of Westminster, or under the dome of the Oratory. It took the nation a long time to find out that the earnest and illustrious "vert" was a Britisher to his finger tips. But his compassionate philanthropy, his well-bred democracy, and above all his colossal common-sense at length made 'the Cardinal' a guide and august counsellor quite apart from his office and far beyond the bounds of his own church.

"To-day Cardinal Vaughan finds the barriers of sectarian bigotry broken down, and it is not too much to say that British Catholics see little difference, except in kind, between their devotion to the faith or the country of their forefathers. Even as a party cry no second-rate statesman would care to chalk up 'No Popery' on the walls of London. Non-conformist, Anglican, and Catholic ecclesiastical dignitaries meet on the same platform for every good and perfect work, and the exclusive fervour of each only takes the shape of competition.

"On his return from Rome, it is probable that the new English wearer of the purple will be received by the Queen at Florence. Whether as the bearer of an autograph letter from the Pope, or as the Primate of English Catholics, there is nothing incongruous in such an audience. Foreign Catholics like the Count de Mun are lost in amazement when they hear the tone of almost frantic jubilation adopted by British Papists when on the subject of the religious liberty they enjoy. Nor is this feeling ever likely to lessen or undergo any change. It is hourly extending over our colonies, just as it has given a robust and prosperous turn to Catholicism in the United States, and in an undefined way to that of certain continental nations.

"The question is being asked just now whether the time may not be approaching when the British Empire, home and colonial, may see fit to open up more official relations with a power which nominates 125 bishops in her dominions. Queen Victoria and Leo XIII. are the only potentates who can say-the one territorially and the other hierarchically-that the sun never sets upon their dependencies.

"A few more English-speaking Cardinals in the Sacred College would dilute the present thick Italian and Curialist mixture. The next conclave or two will not leave the beaten paths, but the foreign Pope is looming upon the horizon of Christendom."

Editorially, the same paper has the following:-

"The successor of Cardinal Manning in Westminster was yesterday also installed in the 'parish church' in Rome, which was the titular one of his great English predecessor. The third Archbishop of Westminster, however, is installed in Rome, just as he entered upon the duties of his responsible office in England, at a time full for him of good omens and friendly wishes. The Eternal City is thronged with British pilgrims, who filled the ancient church of St. Gregory's with its new priest's fellow-countrymen; while in London the untiring labours, the widespread sympathies, and the marvellous tact of Manning have made the way at once very easy and very difficult for anyone who succeeds him. Easy, because all London is accustomed to think of the Cardinal of Westminster with respect and affection; and difficult because to follow in Manning's steps it is necessary to be as great and as good a man as Manning. Cardinal Vaughan, however, shows that he is a successor in spirit as well as in fact, and his first discourse at St. Gregory's was devoted to that part of the titular saint's life which bears the closest relation to the life and the problems of to-day. Fair wages, hours of labour, unskilled labour, pensions for aged workmen, and standards of weight and measure-these would have been queer subjects a quarter of a century ago for a wearer of the Roman Catholic purple, yet they are those of Cardinal Vaughan's address to his English audience at St. Gregory's yesterday."

In England, as in America, the Pope is winning the favour of almost all people, by posing as a labour reformer. As one reads the above extracts, does it not look very much as though the time is near when his claim to be the only one who can sit as an arbitrator in labour troubles, will be generally acknowledged?

Among the dispatches we also find the following:-

"Mgr. Azarian, the Armenian Patriarch, who is the bearer of a letter and present sent by the Sultan on the occasion of the Pope's episcopal jubilee, was received by his Holiness this morning with all the honours due to an envoy Extraordinary."

And, still further, we have the following as the text of the telegram received by the Pope from Queen Victoria:-

"I congratulate your Holiness on the completion of fifty years' episcopate. Sincerely wishing you health and happiness."

To all the above might be added the statement that at the recent meeting of the Sunday Closing Association, in Exeter Hall, the name of Cardinal Manning headed the list of valuable vice-presidents whom the Association had lost by death.

What does all this mean? To the mass of people it means simply that the world is growing more enlightened, and people are losing their bigotry, and becoming more generous and broad-minded. Men, not only of the world, but of the Church, congratulate themselves and the people that we have outgrown the narrow childishness of the days of Luther and Wyckliffe, when the encroachments of the Papacy were thought to be a matter for alarm and for vigorous opposition.

Actually, it means that the time is almost upon us when the following prophetic words descriptive of the latter part of the career of the Papacy will be completely fulfilled:-

"And his deadly wound was healed; and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon, which gave power unto the beast; and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?" Rev. xiii. 3, 4.

We are well aware that it is not at all popular now to apply this scripture to the Papacy. That makes no difference. So much the more need of speaking plainly, and calling the attention of people to the danger that threatens. For there is a real danger threatening. Here is the statement of it:-

"And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man 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; and 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 night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name." Rev. xiv. 9-11.

The Papacy is the result of the great apostasy spoken of in the second chapter of 2 Thessalonians. However pleasing its exterior may appear, it is still "that man of sin, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God, or that is worshipped;" and its end is that it shall be consumed at the coming of the Lord, with all who are deceived by it, as set forth in the preceding paragraph.

For a long time the Popes have had to bewail the sad and desolate condition of "the Church." Mourning for its widowhood has been the topic of many encyclicals. But now a more jubilant tone is being uttered. In the general obsequiousness of politicians to the Roman Catholic power, Leo XIII, and his agents see the speedy approach of the time long ago foretold in the prophecy, when the Roman Babylon should say, "I sit a queen and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow." Rev. xviii. 7. See also Isa. xlvii. 7, 8. They forget that which immediately follows: "Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire; for strong is the Lord who judgeth her."

But this is enough for the present. It is a live question, and fearfully important, and we shall have much more to say in the way of warning against connection

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with the Papacy, such connection is more nearly universal than many people think. Five hundred Englishmen are in Rome to-day, doing honour to the Pope, but many hundred times that number of Englishmen and Americans are practically in Rome, and the pity of it is that they are almost unconscious of it.

"More About Sunday Closing" The Present Truth 9, 5.

E. J. Waggoner

According to the appointment, the annual meeting of the Sunday Closing Association was held in Exeter Hall, the 13th ult. a crowded hall indicated the interest in the movement; and to say that the zeal and enthusiasm characterized both speakers and hearers, is to put it mildly.

Among the things worthy of note was the statement in the Secretary's summary of work for the year, that the attempts to influence elections by deputations to candidates had been very satisfactory. A gain of not less than thirty Members of the House of Commons had, he said, been made during the year, in favour of Sunday closing.

Another thing very significant, was the reading of the list of valuable Vice-presidents whose help had been lost to the Association by their death. First on the list was the name of Cardinal Manning, and further on was that of Mr. Spurgeon. It emphasizes what is said by the correspondent of the Chronicle, as quoted in another column, that "Nonconformist, Anglican, and Catholic ecclesiastical dignitaries meet on the same platform for every good and perfect work, and exclusive fervour of each only takes the shape of competition." There were no Catholics among the platform that evening, or, at least, upon the programme, but Anglican and Nonconformist ecclesiastics met together in the most hearty union.

Whatever the present Parliament may or may not do in the matter of Sunday closing in England, it is certain that those who spoke at that meeting have no doubt of the speedy adoption of their plans. The Lord Bishop of London, in his opening address, said, "We must compel the legislators. Make them understand that we mean what we say. We intend to win our cause." The Rev. Hugh Price Hughes said, "WE WILL NOT HAVE a Local Option Sunday Closing Bill. We DEMAND a National Act, and we demand it this year." The Hon. W. S. Caine, M.P., said, "What we want we'll have; and if there's one thing that English Democracy demands, it is a day of rest." "We are strong enough to get what we want." There was more to the same effect; but words in print do not convey the idea of the determination to win, that characterized the speakers. As Canon Leigh expressed it, there is a purpose to "look after" those Members of Parliament who may vote against the measure.

NOT A TEMPERANCE MEASURE

To a mere surface observer it might seem that one who should not lend full sympathy to the scheme for Sunday closing of the public houses, was not in favour of temperance. But such is by no means the fact. As a matter of fact, one may be most enthusiastically in favour of Sunday closing, and still have not the slightest degree of sympathy with the temperance cause. This statement is fully justified by the words of the speakers at the annual meeting. W. S. Caine, M.P., said that this question "is altogether apart from the temperance question." The December number of the Sunday Closing Reporter, which contained the call for the meeting, said, "It must be remembered that Sunday closing is quite distinct from prohibition. In such a case the election would turn on prohibition, and Sunday closing might be lost to the district, because its inhabitants were not prepared to vote for closing public-houses seven days a week."

It is also stated that in quite a number of instances publicans themselves are in favour of Sunday closing; but no one can pretend that the publicans are at all in favour of temperance.

But even without the statements, it would be very easy to show that the movement for Sunday closing is in the interests of the liquor traffic, rather than against it. It gives the traffic the Government sanction, and clothes it with respectability. It puts it exactly on a level with "other trades." The Rev. J. Travis said that Sunday closing of public-houses is asked for "in common fairness to other trades." The simple fact is that when the Government, at the demand of the church, closes the public-houses on Sundays, it makes a bargain with liquor business, whereby liquor may be sold freely six days in the week if only Sunday be kept. Sunday closing is made to offset six days of unrestricted sale.

A QUESTION OF RELIGION ONLY

Sunday closing is not at all a question of temperance, but is wholly a religious question; and legislation, upon it is not temperance legislation. This will appear very plainly from the statements made by its advocates. The Secretary of the Association said that in the Isle of Man attempts had been made to change or repeal the Sunday closing law, but that there had been vigorous resistance to this attempt to violate the sobriety and good order of Sunday.

The Lord Bishop of London said that not only was there more mischief in the public-houses being open on Sundays and on other days, because men are then free from their ordinary labour, and are "more easily tempted to forget what they owe to their families, and also what they owe to God and their own souls," "but there is a special ground on which we stand for Sunday closing. We desire to prevent the desecration of the Lord's day; to prevent men from keeping that day from being a special season of spiritual refreshing. On these accounts we have a right to press the matter of Sunday observance. We ask Parliament for legislation in the name of morality and religion. We have a right to demand that one single trade shall not be allowed to thrust itself between the message of God and the souls of the people."

The Rev. Hugh Price Hughes said, "Sunday closing rests upon the peculiar character of that day as a day of rest and worship; and it is unfair to mix up this question with ordinary temperance."

Mr. Roberts, M.P., said that Sunday closing will be a great advantage "in a social, a moral, aye, more than that, in a religious sense."

The Rev. J. Travis, said, "The Sabbath is a necessity of nature. Many are engaged in Sunday liquor against their will." He said that in common with other workmen they should have their hours of labour shortened, and have only six days in the week for labour, thus elevating the liquor traffic to the same level as other business. Then he added, "We want Sunday closing in the interest of religion. There has been a great deal of discussion as to whether or not Christianity is played out; give us fair play one day in the week, and we shall see." The same speaker said, "I wish that we had an Oliver Cromwell back for this purpose. In his day there was a law prohibiting any tavern keeper from receiving a traveller from Saturday night till Monday morning, under a penalty of five pounds."

The Rev. J. Mackennal said that what had been said about the sanctity of the Sabbath came home to the hearts of the people. He said that he belonged to a society that is opposed to offending conscience, or to restricting personal liberty; but as nearly all men are agreed as to the value of the first day of the week, and to the necessity of retaining the halo of sanctity around it, "it would be an act of superstition if we should refuse this legislation because some fanciful person might object to distinguishing one day above another."

More was said to the same effect, but this is sufficient to show clearly that the matter of Sunday closing is not in the least a question of temperance, but that it is religious legislation purely and simply.

One speaker said that he would be the last person in the world to plead for a law that would compel people to go to church on Sunday, if they did not wish to; but in reality nothing less than that

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is in the plea for universal Sunday observance. When the Bishop of London says, "We have a right to demand that one single trade shall not be allowed to thrust itself between the message of God and the souls of the people," and the Rev. Mr. Travis pleads for "fair play one day in the week," so that they can demonstrate that Christianity is not "played out," what does that mean but that they think that the open public-house is keeping people away from church, and that they want the public-houses closed so that the people will come to church? What does it mean but that the whole movement is one to help the churches?

THE INQUISITION

But will it help the churches without something else following it? Not at all. The people who visit public-houses on Sunday are not the people who care for church. With few exceptions, they would not go to church if the public-houses were closed. They would frequent some other place of amusement, if any were provided. If there were no other place of amusement open, then they would stay at home, and find amusement there. So that the only way by which the clergy could have what they call "fair play one day in the week" would be to have a law compelling people to attend church. Then there would be a state of things such as existed in Scotland two hundred years ago.

"The clergy interfered with every man's private concerns, ordered how he should govern his family, and often took upon themselves the personal control of his household. Their minions, the elders, were everywhere; for each parish was divided into several quarters, and to each quarter one of these officials was allotted, in order that he might take special notice of what was done in his own district. Besides this, spies were appointed, so that nothing could escape their supervision. Not only the streets, but even private houses were searched, and ransacked, to see if anyone was absent from church while the minister was preaching."-Buckle's History of Civilization in England, vol. 1, chap. 5.

This was simply the Inquisition, the only difference between it and that in Spain being that it was professedly Protestant, while that in Spain was Catholic, and that the one in Scotland did not go to such great lengths as the one in Spain, because it did not have so much power. Let no one think that the Inquisition is necessarily confined to any particular system of doctrine. It goes with any profession or creed whose adherents have power in their hands or can wield political influence. These are the factors necessary for the setting up of an inquisition: 1. A people who believe that they have the truth in matters of religion. 2. A belief that the truth, as they hold it, is necessary to salvation. 3. The idea that religion is an affair of the State, and not a matter that concerns only an individual and his Maker; that a man's practice in matters pertaining to religion is properly a matter for State interference. 4. The possession of civil power, or a controlling influence in civil affairs. With these factors, you have the Inquisition. The extent of its application will depend upon the zeal of the religious leaders and the power that they can exert. For if they are zealous, and believe that governments are for the purpose of "making it as hard as possible for one to do wrong, and as easy as possible for him to do right," they will leave no stone unturned to see that everyone goes in the way that he should, or, what is all the same to them, in the way that they think he should go.

It does not need that all these factors should be so fully present, in order to have a well-developed inquisition. Let a religious body have the power, and the natural inclination of human nature to rule,-for one in power to make other people do as he does,-the natural impatience of contradiction, will supply all the rest. So then it will be seen that with power in the hands of any body of people professing any religion whatsoever, or any form of religion, persecution is sure to follow. If the professors are insincere in their profession, then they will endeavour to bring other people to their practice, as the only way that they know of for showing their religion, or to silence protest, or through the mere love of exercising power; and if they are really sincere in their profession, then they will use all the power they have to bring other people to their practice, out of a mistaken love for the souls of the dissenters.

CIVIL GOVERNMENT AND RELIGION

We will not at this point discuss the question as to whether or not Sunday is the Lord's day, and whether or not there is any reason why anybody should regard it at all, any more than Monday or Tuesday. It is a fact that it is regarded as a sacred day, and a matter which first demands consideration is this, Has the State any right to legislate either for or against religion? If it be claimed that the Government has a right to make religious laws, then it must follow that it is right to use force in matters of religion; for laws are nothing unless enforced. And when this is admitted, then religious persecution is justified; for in every age persecution has been nothing but the enforcement of the law upon those who dissented from the form of religion which the Government recognized. We will let the Scriptures settle this matter.

"Jesus cried, and 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. He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My words, hath one that judgeth him; the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." John xii. 44-48.

"Speak not against one another, brethren. He that speaketh against a brother, or judgeth his brother, speaketh against the law, and judgeth the law; but if thou judgest the law, thou art not a doer of the law but a judge. One only is the lawgiver and judge, who is able to save and to destroy it; who art thou that judgest thy neighbour?" James iv. 11, 12, R.V.

"For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; He but will save us." Isa. xxxiii. 22.

Note those three texts. If there was ever anybody on earth who had a right to judge men for their beliefs, it was the Lord Jesus Christ. But He said, "I judge no man." Although He was the truth, and came as the light of the world, to bear witness to the truth, He declared that men might disbelieve Him if they wished. He would not condemn them, but they would have to meet His words in the judgment of the last day. Surely, then, there is no man in this earth who has the right to sit in judgment upon another for a matter of religion. Even though we should allow the claim of the Pope to be the Vicar of Christ, that would not give him the right to judge men for their faith, for Christ did not do that when He was on earth in person. "The servant is not greater than his Lord; neither he that is sent greater than He that sent him."

So the apostle Paul writes, "Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up, for God is able to make him stand." "But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought 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. Let us not therefore judge one another any more; but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way." Rom. xiv. 4, 10-13.

"Therefore 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' and then shall every man have praise of God." 1 Cor. iv. 5.

Whoever, therefore, sits as a judge concerning matters of religion, is usurping

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the place of the Lord, he is moreover, doing that which the Lord does not do; for God does not use force to compel any man either to believe the truth or to practice it. It is the goodness of God that leads men to repentance. Rom. ii. 4. Those who think by the use of force to any degree to lead men to do right, thereby show that they are ignorant of the goodness of God, and of its power. Christ said that if He were lifted up He would draw all unto Him. John xii. 30. It is drawing power, not driving power, that makes men Christians.

OPPOSED TO THE GOSPEL

When there is legislation in regard to matters of religion, there must of necessity be the use of force, for a law without a penalty is no law at all. At the Sunday law meeting it was given as the reason why an Imperial Act was demanded instead of Local Option, that there are localities where Sunday closing is not wanted. Therefore a National Law must be passed, so that force may be brought to bear upon all. Now Legislation upon matters of religion is sinful, not only because force is utterly foreign to the spirit of the Gospel, but because it tends directly to lower the standard of religion.

Thus: When men are brought to think that the State has a right to legislate upon matters of religion, to enforce its observance, and to punish for acts of disobedience, then religion is brought down to a merely human level. The State then teaches that there is nothing more to religion than it can enforce. But it cannot read a man's heart, and therefore the idea is spread that religion consists merely in a outward forms. "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Rom. xiv. 23. Now there is no power either on earth or in heaven that can compel a man to believe. Faith works by love; but that which is of force is not of love; therefore that which is not of love is sin. And therefore that service which is forced is sin. So then, when Government enacts and enforces laws pertaining to matters of religion it is simply using its power to compel people to sin. Religious legislation is therefore directly opposed to the Gospel.

The apostle Paul writes of those in the last days who have "a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof." 2 Tim. iii. 5. The Gospel is the power of God. But when professed Christians appeal to the Government to enforce certain things that are wholly religious; when ministers plead for Sunday laws, so that they can have "fair play one day in the week," they thereby admit that the Gospel which they preach has not the power of God. The form is there, but by their appeal to human power they deny the power of God; for no one who is conscious of the power of God to back his message, and who knows in his own person what that power is, would insult God by asking for human power to supplement the power of God.

Again; we have read that there is one lawgiver and one judge, namely, God, and that whosoever judges another is really sitting in judgment on the law, and judging the law. But religious legislation calls for human judgment upon law of God. For men to incorporate the laws of God in the human codes, is to usurp the place of God as lawgiver, and therefore His place as judge. But this is the characteristic of "the man of sin." It is the acme of apostasy, for the apostle said that the apostasy that was working in his day would culminate in the man of sin, "the son of perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth himself against 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, 5. This man of sin is the same as the "little horn" of the fourth beast of Daniel's prophecy, which is thus described: "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.

The Roman Catholic Church is the result of the attempt to build up Christianity by means of the State. Religious legislation asked for and received by the church, made the Papacy. Therefore whenever any man, professed Protestants though they be, ask for legislation in behalf of religion, no matter to what degree, they are simply following the steps of the Papacy.

Nay, they are doing more than simply following in the steps of the Papacy; they are joining it, and becoming a part of it; because religious legislation is the very essence of the Papacy. And this is still further emphasized by the fact that it was legislation upon the Sunday that made the Roman Catholic Church. It is that which is the Catholic Church's boast, and showing its power. In "Plain Talk about the Protestantism of To-day," from the French of Mgr. Segur, we find the following:-

"It is worth its while to remember that this observance of the Sabbath,-in which, after all, the only Protestant worship consists-not only has no foundation in the Bible, but it is in flagrant contradiction with its letter, which commands rest on the Sabbath, which is Saturday. It was the Catholic Church which, by the authority of Jesus Christ, has transferred this rest to the Sunday in remembrance of the resurrection of our Lord. Thus the observance of Sunday by the Protestants, is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves to the authority of the church."

Any amount of history might be quoted, if we had space, to show that the adoption of Sunday instead of the seventh day, as the Sabbath is the distinguishing mark of the Roman Catholic Church. Therefore when professed Protestants not only follow the practice personally, but fall into line and enforce its observance by law, they are identifying themselves with the Papacy.

And now read the warning against doing such a thing, and against in any way recognizing such laws when they are made. He who will read the whole of the fourteenth chapter of Revelation will see that it deals with the time reaching down to the coming of the Lord. It presents the last proclamation of the Gospel, in these words:-

"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. And 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. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man 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; and 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 night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. xiv. 6-12.

This warning against the worship of the beast, or of his image, which is the union of any professed Protestants with the civil power, is the proclamation of the Gospel, because as we have shown, religious legislation is the deadly enemy of the Gospel. It is the denial of Christ as the power of God. It is the denial of God as the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and as the Creator, by that same power, of men in Christ to do His will. Therefore wherever there is any movement towards getting the State to help the church along in its work, the voices of all who would have the Gospel of Christ preserved in its purity must be raised in protest and warning. This is the message for these days. It is to present Christ as the power of God, and the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ as the only righteousness which will cover men from the wrath of God. Who will heed it, and say, "In the Lord have I righteousness and strength." "In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory."

"The Riches of India" The Present Truth 9, 5.

E. J. Waggoner

India is a land of blooming flowers, beautiful trees, and costly gems.

In vegetable productions, India is said to surpass all other lands. "Groves of different kinds of palms spread their beautiful foliage over the regions along the coast, offering the native and traveller delicious fruits and nuts of great variety; and over the inland plains and highlands the shady mango shelters the soil, while the sacred fig, and the bread fruit tree combine beauty with luxury. Great forests of caoutchouo (India rubber trees) grow throughout the low and marshy bracts, and millions of bamboos cub from the great northern regions, are yearly floated down the Ganges, whence they are sent to the different markets of the world." Teak forests (the wood of which is used in making ships) are found in Central India, and the deodar tree in the northwest provinces. Besides these, there are the mulberry trees, the acacia, filled with rich, yellow blossoms, the fine-leaved tamarind, the graceful neem, the willowy shecsham, and the cotton tree, covered with bright red flowers as large as roses, flashing like a great mass of fire in the morning light. There is also the coral tree, filled with lovely blood-red flowers, shaped like coral, and the kachnar, whose long branches are loaded with fragrant, lilac-coloured blossoms.

Of grains, rice is the principal one grown on the plains. Here also is grown cotton, sugar cane, indigo, jute, and poppies. For miles and miles along the river Ganges, as far as the eye can reach, great fields of white and violet-coloured poppies may be seen at a certain time every year. They are not raised, however, for their bright flowers, but for the vile poison called opium, which is made from them, and yearly sold for millions of pounds. Although it brings so much money, it is a great curse, for it poisons and destroys those who get into the habit of eating and smoking it.

Maize, millet, peas, beans, wheat, barley, and other grains, grow on the higher grounds; tea in Assam, the Punjaub, and the Neilgheries; pepper in Malabar; and coffee among the hills of Southern India.

The fruit of temperate countries grow in the higher regions, and the fruits of hot countries grow in the lower portions of India.

Fine silks, shawls, and tapestries of beautiful make, and cotton fabrics, wool, oil, seeds, leather, hides, and ivory, are sent from India in large quantities.

The streams of India swarm with fish and crocodiles; the forests and plains teem with animals; and the air is alive with insects and the brightest coloured birds. But we shall tell you more about these at another time.

Coal, iron, and salt, are found more than any other mineral products. The greatest coal fields are found north-west of Calcutta, in the Dammooda Valley. Many thousands of tons are annually mined from this district alone; other places produce vast quantities, and new fields are all the time opening up. Iron is found in many places, and has been produced there for hundreds and hundreds of years. Salt is found in great quantity and purity in the salt range of the Punjaub. Lead is found in the ranges of the Himalayas, and copper in the high plateaus of Northern Bengal.

Besides all of these riches, gold is found in the gravel of the streams of many parts of the country. Diamonds are picked up in the Southern and Central regions, and rubies, the topaz, beryl, emeralds, came-Hans, garnets, pearls, and other precious gems, are freely found, and are sold for large sums of money.

Surely India is a rich country; but the best gem of all, the treasure of more value than all other treasures, is little known there, and by many has never yet been found. It is there in all its beauty and purity, an inexhaustible mine, free to all who earnestly search for it; but alas, thousands and thousands do not search, because they do not even know that it is there. Can you tell the name of that priceless gem?

"Hidden Treasures" The Present Truth 9, 5.

E. J. Waggoner

Did you ever see a pearl? It is a yellowish or blueish white, hard, smooth, roundish, shining little thing, found inside the shells of pearl oysters and other mollusks.

Pearls are of different sizes. Those which are about the size of a pea, and of good colour and form, are thought the most of, except large ones; but large ones are not often found. There was one found, however, in America, that measured over an inch through. As even little ones are considered very precious, you may be sure that this large one was much prized. It was sold in Paris for more than four hundred pounds. The pearls in the earrings of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, were worth about eighty thousand pounds, and it is said that as much as eight thousand pounds have been paid for a single string of pearls. So you see, pearls are considered very, very precious.

If you will look at your map of India, you will see an island called Ceylon, about fifty or sixty miles from the Southern coast of India. You will also notice that the Eastern coast of India, just north of Ceylon, is called the Coromandel Coast. These two places, Ceylon and Coromandel, which are governed by the Queen of England, are said to be the greatest pearl fisheries in the world.

There are natives who spend their whole time in diving down in the ocean after the shells which contain these precious pearls. They take down a bag in which they place the oysters as they bear them from the rocks. It is very hard work; as they can remain in the water only a minute or a minute and a half at a time, they have to dive down very often. They generally go down forty or fifty times in one day.

The pearl merchant often comes to the men who own these pearls, to buy of them. When he has found a very fine one, one of great price, he will sometimes go and sell all that he has, that he may have money enough to pay for it, and then he will come and buy it. Do you not think he must want it very much?

It makes me think of the men who used to travel long distances to search for hidden treasures. It was supposed that rich treasures were buried in certain places where great cities had once stood. Men were so anxious to get rich that they were willing to leave their business and travel far and work long, if they thought they could get only a part of those wonderful treasures. If they found a little they would be almost beside themselves for joy, and would quickly hide it and go and sell all that they had, and buy that piece of land, so that they might own its hidden treasures. And when sometimes they were bitterly disappointed, and found that the mine which had promised such wonderful wealth, was soon empty and had been worth next to nothing.

But the worst of it was that they were like so many of the poor people of India,-although there was a mine of the most wonderful hidden riches right near them, they knew it not. The mine was so full, so overflowing of the most priceless treasures, that all the men in the world might have taken of them, and yet the mine would have been as rich as ever. Some of them were even told about it, and the way to reach it was pointed out to them, but very few believed it enough to search for it. Those who did, found more than their vessels could hold; more than they had ever hoped for or dreamed of. They had not only enough to carry them through this life, but enough to last them to all eternity. How glad they were that they had believed the good news. They saw that their newly-found treasures were more precious than rubies, or coral, or pearls; of more worth than the precious onyx or the sapphire stone, and that gold, and silver, and crystals could not equal them, and that all the things that they had ever desired were not to be compared with them. The things which they had loved so much before they gladly gave up, and counted them as nothing, that they might win these priceless treasures. Would you like to have been there to find some of those precious things for yourself? Then listen while I whisper something in your ear: You-may-find-them-now! They-are-hid-in-Jesus. Your Bible says so. Seek Jesus with all your heart; search for Him as earnestly as does the merchant for the pearl, and the man for hidden treasure, and you will surely find Him. And when you have found Him, you have found the pearl of great price, and treasures that gold cannot buy, thief cannot steal, and

77

moth and rust cannot destroy. He is worth more to you than all the rubies and pearls of India, and all the gold and silver in the world. You cannot afford to let anything keep you away from Him. In Him you will find true wisdom, goodness, salvation, eternal life, and all things that you can ever need. Without Him you are poor, wretched, and lost, without any hope in this life or in the one to come. Then do not wait one moment, but "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,"-seek JESUS.

"Is Drunkenness Curable?" The Present Truth 9, 5.

E. J. Waggoner

In the New York Christian Advocate, James Stewart, F.R.C.P.E., addresses the above question to the editor, and answers it in the folk sing manner, which we commend to all. They are the words of a physician, who evidently knows that there are some things that cannot be reached by human remedies:-

"Would you permit me to emphasize Mr. Bunting's admirable article in your issue, by adding that drunkenness cannot in any way be regarded as a disease, inasmuch as it is an entirely voluntary act. In Galatians (chapter 5, verse 21) we find enumerated, 'Envyings, murders, drunkeness;' 'they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.' The little word 'do' settles the whole matter in my opinion, for to do implies volition; before we do anything we must will to do it. Drunkenness everywhere in God's word is coupled with sins of the most heinous and degrading character, and never with disease. A man could hardly be said to 'do' a disease, but he can 'do' a sin. Every civilized nation treats drunkenness as a sin, and not as a disease, and punishes drunkards for their offences. It would be simply monstrous to maintain that God's edict was promulgated against disease and not sin, or that the lawmakers of the world should punish disease as if it were a crime. I am tired of the temporizing quibbles and refinements of some who dub the drunkard a 'dipsomaniac,' the petty thief as a 'kleptomaniac,' etc., and, who not always from purely unselfish and philanthropic motives, proclaim some infallible cure for the poor besotted, degraded drunkard. Material means have failed, and will always fail, to permanently cure the drunkard. Man can never supersede God, and the only infallible cure for drunkenness, as for all other sins, is the grace of God, Christ's wondrous love. The filling of the soul of man with the Spirit of God, so regenerates the whole man that the whole tenor of his life is altered, his appetites and habits are changed entirely, and he that was a drunkard, under this benign influence, stands erect in the image of his Maker, a freeman, free from, not only drunkenness, but all the other debasing and degrading sins that follow in its train.

"I speak of what I know when I say that I am personally acquainted with many professional as well as mercantile men, who, from being most inveterate drunkards, and who had tried every way and every method under the sun to cure themselves without avail, became transformed at once when God's gracious Holy Spirit filled their hearts. God's arm is not shortened; He can save the drunkard as easily as the thief or murderer, and whosoever will may come. My daily prayer to God is that the poor drunkard may trust no longer to human means for salvation from his besetting sin, but that he will at once be led to the great Physician who is mighty and able to save."

"Hebrew a Living Language" The Present Truth 9, 5.

E. J. Waggoner

Perhaps many of our readers may be aware that the New Testament translated into Hebrew by Dr. Delitsch has had a circulation of tens of thousands, but they may be surprised to learn that the Hebrew is used to the extent indicated in the following extract from an article in the New York Independent, by Henry Gersoni, a Russian Hebrew:-

"In works of art, in romance and poetry, whether original or true elated from modern languages, the Hebrew diction is used in its original purity. Leasing, Goethe and Schiller; Shakespeare, Milton, Tennyson, Longfellow, Whittier, and other English poets; the poets of Italy, France and Russia, would have no reason to be displeased if they knew how their poetical creations appear in the Hebrew garb. Nor could the scientists of the age complain, such as Agassiz, Darwin, Huxley, Tyndall, Spencer, and others, if they knew how their works circulate in Hebrew among the Jewish youth, not only of Europe but even of Asia and the borders of Africa.

There is not a department of science, history, or belles-lettres, in which the writers of modern Hebrew are not active. Even the atheistic and pessimistic views of the modern thinkers are discussed in Hebrew in periodical publications as well as in special books. The great centres of publication for Hebrew works are Vilna, Warsaw, and Odessa in Russia; Vienna and Brody in Austria; Leipzig, Berlin, and Posen in Germany; and Jerusalem in Asia. Periodicals and books of modern Hebrew are printed in such large editions every year as would astonish the non-Hebrew and those who consider the ancient tongue as a dead language."

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 5.

E. J. Waggoner

-Fifteen thousand drunkards were last year arrested in Dublin; of this number 5,000 were women.

-Much loss of life and damage to property has been caused by the sudden rise of the Danube.

-More earthquakes have occurred at Zante, doing further damage, and creating a panic among the people.

-From 1851 to 1890 the population of England and Wales Morehead sixty per cent. In the same period the increase of Catholic priests was 800 per cent.

-Only 14 per cent. of the cultivated area of Great Britain is in the occupation of its owners. The other 86 per cent. is farmed by tenants.

-The death of King George, of Tonga, is announced. It is thought that an effort will be made to bring the islands under the government of Fiji.

-The Czar of Russia has pardoned the prisoners condemned to death for taking part in the riots which occurred in Astrakhan during the cholera epidemic last year.

-A Reuter's telegram from New York, dated Feb. 18, states:-The car in which the mail from Chicago for Europe was being conveyed to New York, has been burned in Pennsylvania.

-It is estimated that 80,000 persons, including 80,000 pilgrims, were at St. Peter's, Rome, in attendance upon the ceremony in connection with the Pope's episcopal jubilee, Sunday, Feb. 19.

-About 12,000 men at the various docks in London at the present are not earning more than 12s. a week each, while a very large number of dock frequenters are unable to obtain work at all, in consequence of trade depression.

-The proposal of the German Government to limit the term of military service to two years, in consideration of leave to increase the strength of the army in time of peace, was rejected by the Military Bill Committee, only four members voting in favour of it.

-The Legislative Assembly of Jersey has refused to allow the optional use of English in that Assembly, rejecting by a large majority a Bill to that effect, and affirming the principle, for the first time in the history of the island, that French is the official language.

-The waste from the City of London (the sweepings of the streets and the clearings of the dustbins) last year realized over £1,100. Old corks fetched 480, old bottles over £100, bits of string, 413, pieces of paper 4400. A cheque for a large amount war, discovered amongst the rubbish.

-Over 50,000 Parisians earn a living by picking up and making use of what other people throw away-rags, bones, and refuse.

-The largest hotel in the world will be the one now in course of construction near Jackson Park, Chicago. It is to have 6,400 rooms, and will cover ten acres of ground.

-Dr. Caccarelli, the Pope's physician, has just died at the age of 63. For years be has devoted his time exclusively to the care of the Pope's health. Pius IX. died in his arms.

-Great suffering has been caused by the severe cold weather in Russia. But a few days ago twelve boys were frozen to death, in the government of Kalouga, while on their way home from school.

-In Chicago, recently a party of gentlemen sat in the office of the Long Distance Telephone Co. and listened to a concert given in New York City, 1,000 miles distant. It is said that "even the finer shades of tone of both the vocal and instrumental music were transmitted with full effect."

-A telegram from Salonica says that the severe weather is causing the wolves to commit great depredations in the villages in the neighbourhood, and even to attack human beings. A few nights ago, four Turkish gendarmes were attacked by the animals and torn to pieces at a place called Katchanik, not far from Salonica.

-The papers say that the entire coast between Christiania and Christiansund is covered with think ice, extending from the shore as far as the eye can reach. Only the biggest steamers can force their way through the ice up to Christiania, and even these have to keep a sharp lookout to escape collision with the larger floes.

-The total cultivated area of Great Britain, excluding plots of less than one acre, is 82,685,000 acres, and exactly half of this is pasture land. There are 157,000 acres less arable land now than there were twelve months ago. Taking the three decades of 1872, 1882, 1892, land has passed from under the plough at the rate of 1,000,000 acres every ten years.

-The Harrison International Telephone Company, which has been incorporated in Chicago, proposes to do away with the ordinary telegraph and telephone system. In its stead it is proposed to introduce a system worked like an ordinary typewriter, producing a facsimile in letters at the desired destination. It is promised that the cost of messages will be greatly reduced by this simplified method.

-The Sultan of Turley dines in solemn state in a room overlooking the Bosphorus. He sits on a divan, and uses neither table, plates, knife, nor fork, but only a spoon and his fingers, with which implements he fishes out his food from a series of little saucepans. He generally has a large retinue in attendance, but he always eats and drinks alone, not even a few of his favourite wives breaking broad with him.

-An elephant fell a victim to the cold in Hungary. A bucketful of tea, containing a bottle of brandy and two bottles of rum, was poured down its throat. The benumbed animal became intoxicated and died. Such treatment alone was sufficient to kill any animal not made of cast iron. It would seem as though it was enough for the poor beast to be benumbed with cold, without having its nerves still further paralyzed with the poisonous liquor.

-The Mayor of Cork went to Rome on the occasion of the Pope's Episcopal Jubilee with the intention of congratulating his holiness on the event. The question as to who was to pay the expenses of the trip recently came up in the City Council, and it was decided that a sum of money should be set aside out of the rates for that purpose. The question of the legality of taxing the Protestant minority in this matter has been referred to the Chief Secretary.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 5.

E. J. Waggoner

The Pope has shown his good will to England by canonizing some ancient English martyrs. Just how England is to be benefited by this, we are not informed.

In quite a number of large towns in England, Nonconformist Councils, embracing all the dissenting bodies, have been formed, both for the purpose of making a house-to-house visitation of the people who do not habitually attend a place of worship, and also for the purpose of more effectually influencing elections.

The Echo of February 24 has this item:

"Several East-end publicans, who had diluted their beer with water, were yesterday, fined at the Worship Street police court in amounts ranging from £10 to £20."

That was a sad offence, indeed; if any would have been imposed if the publicans had been asked for water, and they had adulterated the water with beer.

The South Wales Echo, commenting upon the formation at Cardiff of a so-called "Labour Church," which is in reality only a sort of socialistic labour union, well says, "It is dangerous to confuse politics and religion; it is dangerous to confuse worship with efforts at self-improvement; it will in the end open the labourer to the charge that the deity so vaguely expressed is himself, and that his worship is nothing more than a vehement effort to secure better wages and less hours."

A bill for the control of the liquor traffic was introduced on the 27th ult. In spite of the earnest demonstrations at Exeter Hall and elsewhere, national Sunday-closing is not provided for. Sunday-closing is to be referred to the people. If a bare majority in any district wish it, the public-houses will be closed at once. Since this is the best that can be expected, the Sunday-closing advocates are disposed to accept it. If, as they have claimed, the people everywhere want it, then it will at once become universal.

In certain quarters much is made of the supposed fact that the clergy have received their warrant by unbroken succession from the apostles. But even if that claim were true, what a wonderfully long and slender thread that is upon which to hang one's ministry. Christ is still alive, and to the end of the world He will be present upon earth to commission labourers. It is the privilege and the duty of every minister of the Gospel to be sent forth by Jesus Christ Himself. Who would stop to trace his calling back through the centuries to the apostles, when he could go forth as the direct representative of Christ. "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us."

In a recent sketch of the life and work of Charles G. Finney, of Oberlin, Ohio, we find the following statement, which is worth emphasizing, as it concerns a point that it now almost lost sight of in these days of "reform":-

"It is not a little surprising that, so far as I can learn, President Finney attended almost no reform conventions, and delivered no lectures or addresses exclusively devoted to moral reform. Let no one infer from this, however, that his influence was not potent in all such reforms. If all Christian ministers preached as he did, there would be but little need of special organizations for the promotion of reform. He was not a temperance or anti-slavery lecturer in the ordinary sense, yet the world knew him as one of the most pronounced and powerful advocates of these causes. His life illustrates the fact that a man can be a good reformer by simply preaching the Gospel."

Not only is it true that "a man can be a good reformer by simply preaching the Gospel," but it is a fact that he can be a good reformer only by preaching the Gospel. In the statement that "if all Christian ministers preached as he did, there would be but little need of special organizations for the promotion of reform," we have an admission that these different societies for the promotion of reform are due to lack of power in the church. But they cannot take the place of the church. A revival in the church is the only source of true reform.

The Government of Germany has found unexpected aid for its Military Bill, in a recent work by Captain Moland, of the French General Staff. The book is on the military power of the State of Europe, and contains the following passage, which, considering the high position which the author holds in the French army, may be taken as the general sentiment of France:-

"The Rhine is not a German river, as German writers make out, but a frontier stream. In point of fact it divides Western Europe into two great tracts-French territory from Atlantic to the Rhine, and the German region from the Rhine to the Elbe. On both sides of the frontier dwell Gauls and Germans who have been adversaries for 2,000, years as the French and Germans now are. Hereditary foes we were, are, and will remain until the great day of final reckoning. This is not a figure of speech, but the simple statement of an historical truth. . . . . We shall only devote our enthusiasm and erect our triumphal arches to those who will one day yet anew plant the tricolour on the line which was, is, and ever will be our goal-the Rhine."

That certainly means anything but peace.

And now look at the other side. In the German Parliament Dr. Barth asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the Federal Governments would associate themselves with the efforts of Great Britain and the United States to settle international disputes by means of arbitration.

Baron Marschall von Bieberstein replied that the Governments had not hitherto approached the matter closely, but were prepared in future, as they had already been in the past more than once, to agree to the settlement of differences by arbitration in special cases. The Federal Governments, however, could not commit themselves to a general pledge in advance.

Count Caprivi, however, said he was convinced that "if a court of arbitration were to meet and decide that Germany should give up Alsace-Lorraine, then the whole German nation would with one voice refuse to acquiesce in such a decision, preferring rather to shed the last drop of its blood."

This statement was greeted with loud cheers. People may indulge in all the dreams they please about arbitration, and the prospect of universal peace, but it will be found, until the end of time, that however much nations assent to the principle of arbitration, every matter which the consider of vital importance will be submitted to the arbitration of war.

Following are the objects of the Roman Catholic pilgrimage to Rome, on the occasion of the Pope's Episcopal jubilee, as set forth in the "manual of prayers," furnished to the pilgrims:-

"1. To profess and proclaim our unalterable fidelity to St. Peter, and to the Vicar of Christ. 2. To obtain the return of England to her ancient faith, and to the fold of Blessed Peter, her ancient patron and much-loved shepherd and teacher. 3. To obtain of St. Peter an increasing personal love of Jesus Christ, great love and zeal for the holy Catholic Faith, and great hatred of sin. 4. To honour our most holy father, Pope Leo XIII.; to congratulate him on the jubilee of his episcopate; to stand by him in his maintenance of the rights of holy church, and to obtain his blessing for ourselves, and for our country."

March 23, 1893

"Front Page" The Present Truth 9, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

Before Jesus went back from earth to heaven He promised to to send the Comforter-the Holy Spirit-to abide with His people for ever, as His representative. Since it was by the anointing of the Spirit that He accomplished all His work here on earth (See Isa. lxi. 1-3), it is evident that the presence of the Spirit is the same as the presence of the Lord. The same instruction, counsel, and works of love that came from Christ, are continued by the Spirit.

In promising the Comforter, Jesus said, "And when He is come, He will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." John xvi. 8. "By law is the knowledge of sin." Rom. iii. 20. But "the law is spiritual." Rom. vii. 14. It is the nature of the Spirit, for the righteousness of the law is the fruit of the Spirit. Therefore there is no conviction of sin in any soul on earth, that is not the working of the Spirit of God.

But while the Spirit convicts of sin it is always a Comforter. It is as a Comforter that it convicts. Few people stop to think of that. Remember that nowhere is it said that the Spirit condemns for sin. There is a difference between conviction and condemnation. Conviction is the revealing of sin. But it depends on the person's course after he has been convinced of sin, whether or not he will be condemned. For "this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." John iii. 19. The mere pointing out to a person that he is a sinner is not condemnation; the condemnation comes from holding to the sin after it is made known.

Let the mind grasp the thought that the same Spirit that convinces of sin also convinces of righteousness. It is always a Comforter. The Spirit does not lay aside one office while it performs another. It does not leave aside the revealing of righteousness when it convinces of sin, nor does it cease to be a convincer of sin when it reveals righteousness. It does both at the same time, and herein is the comfort to all those who will take it. It convinces of sin because it convinces of righteousness. But let us consider this matter a little, and then meditate upon it.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God-the Spirit of the Father and of the Son. Therefore the righteousness revealed by it is the righteousness of God. Now it is only by looking at righteousness that we can know sin and its sinfulness. The law, by which is the knowledge of sin, is not sin, but is the expression of God's righteousness. A man may look at sin, and if he has never seen anything else he will think it is all right. Even one who knows the right, may lose the knowledge of it by looking at sin, so great is the deceitfulness of sin. So the Spirit must reveal the righteousness of God in His law, before the sinner can know sin as sin. The apostle says, "I had not known sin but by the law." Rom. vii. 7. So it is as the revealer of the perfect righteousness of God that the Spirit convinces of sin.

It is evident, therefore, that the closer one comes to God, thus getting a more perfect view of Him, the greater will be his sense of his own imperfections. He gets this knowledge of sin, not by studying himself, but by beholding God. As an illustration, take man in relation to the works of God. When does one ever feel his insignificance so much as when in mid-ocean, or by its side? Its vastness makes him feel his littleness. So when one stands amid the lofty mountains. On such an occasion one does not have to look at himself to realise how small he is. It is while looking up,-beholding the mighty works of God,-that he realises that in comparison he is nothing. The psalmist says, "When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained; what is man that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?" Ps. viii. 3, 4.

If this is a result of contact with and beholding the works of God, what must be the result when considering the character of God Himself. "The Lord God is a sun." Ps. lxxxiv. 11. He is greater than all the heavens. "Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; Thy judgments are a great deep." Ps. xxxvi. 6. As while beholding the visible works of God's hands one feels his own physical insignificance, so in contemplating the righteousness of God, one is made conscious of his own spiritual lack. Now the message of comfort which God sends to His people, especially for the days immediately preceding His coming is this, "Behold your God! See Isa. xi. 1-9. That means that as a necessary preparation for His coming, He wants us to know our own lack of righteousness by beholding His righteousness.

Thus far we have been speaking of the knowledge of sin by the righteousness of God. Now mark the comfort that there is in that same conviction of sin. Remember that the sensibility of a lack of righteousness is caused by the revelation of God's righteousness. Also remember that the Spirit, that convinces of both sin and righteousness, is given to men. Christ said, "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; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him; but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." John xiv. 16, 17.

What necessarily follows from this? Just this, that whoever accepts the Spirit, which, by its revelation of the righteousness of God, convicts the soul of sin, and allows it to abide with him, thereby gets the righteousness which it brings. The sense of need in itself the promise of supply. It is God who produces a sense of a lack of righteousness, which is conviction for sin. But He does not do this

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in order to taunt the sinner, and cause him to despair. He does it for the purpose of letting the sinner know that He has that which will abundantly supply all that he lacks. In fact, it is by the very bringing of the supply of righteousness, that the soul knows itself to be simple. Therefore, whoever will take God exactly at His word need not be under condemnation for a single minute, although always, and ever anew, conscious of his own imperfections. As every new defect is pointed out, he may cry, "O Lord, I thank Thee that Thou hast this new thing to give me, and I take it as freely as Thou dost give it." This is true rejoicing in the Lord.

This is the truth that God was trying to teach ancient Israel, when He spoke His law from Sinai, and is what He has been anxious for us to learn all these years. The law was ordained "in the hands of a Mediator." Gal. iii. 19. That is, in the hands of Christ, for He is the "one Mediator between God and man." 1 Tim. ii. 5. He is Mediator because He reconciles us to God. Since the enmity consists in the fact that we are not subject to the law of God, the reconciliation consists in the putting of that law in the heart and mind. So Christ is Mediator because He is the medium through which the righteousness of God is conveyed to us.

This was most forcibly illustrated at the giving of the law from Sinai. Some time before the people had been perishing with thirst, and God said to Moses, "Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink." Ex. xvi. 5, 6. This was done, and the people drank and were revived. But the water which they drank was miraculously given by Christ. In fact it came directly from Him. The apostle Paul says that "they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ." 1 Cor. x. 4. The Rock which the people saw, and which Moses smote, was a symbol of Christ.

But Horeb is another name for Sinai. So that the law of God was spoken from the very same mountain from which God had caused the water to flow, which was even then quenching their thirst. When God came down upon the mount, it was the very personification of Him and His law. No man could touch it without dying. Yet from it at that same time the water which gave life was flowing. This water, which, as we have seen, came from Christ, is a symbol of the Spirit which is given to all who believe. See John iv. 10, 13, 14; vii. 37-39. In that event God has given us a great object lesson. Although the law gives the knowledge of sin, and sin is death, the law comes to us in the hands of a Mediator, ministered to us by the Spirit; and "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus," makes us free from the law of sin and death. It is thus that the commandment of God is life everlasting.

Is there not the very essence of comfort in this? At the same moment that the knowledge of sin comes to us, righteousness to cover and take away all the sin is revealed. "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." Rom. v. 20. The law, which convicts is spiritual, and the Spirit is the water of life, which is given freely to all who will take it. Could anything surpass the wonderful provisions of the grace of "the God of all comfort, the Father of mercies"? Who will not drink and drink again, and thus continually be filled.

"I HEARD the voice of Jesus say,

Behold, I freely give

The living water; thirsty one

Stoop down, and drink, and live.

I came to Jesus, and I drank

Of that life-giving stream;

My thirst was quenched, my soul revived,

And now I live in Him."

"Abolishing the Sabbath" The Present Truth 9, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

A New York daily speaks thus of the controversy over the opening of the World's Fair on Sunday:-

"Another attempt to abolish the Sabbath is about to be made by the Chicago World's fair managers. . . . Setting aside the observance of Sunday, Chicago doesn't stumble at, but it is yet to be seen how Congress will view the question. The abolition of the Sabbath has virtually been accomplished in Chicago and certain other parts of the country, but as yet there has been no law of Congress enacted to that effect. This is what it is proposed to do, and it will not be long before the struggle will be on."

The idea that the Sunday-sabbath may be abolished by an Act of Congress is very natural, when we remember that Sunday observance is solely of human origin. That most people really think so is shown by their fear lest it should lose the support of human laws. There is no such fear concerning the Sabbath of the Lord. The acts of men, or the decrees of kings, cannot affect it. "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord," and those who recognize it as such have no desire that human legislators should tamper with it. Its authority is the word of God, and men cannot abolish it. "Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven." Ps. cxix. 89. Although disregarded by the most of mankind, it remains the same.

"Studying the Bible" The Present Truth 9, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

Few people know how to really study the Bible. And this is not always because they do not know how to study at all, for very often those who are good students otherwise, are poor students of the Bible, even though they want to understand it. In Prov. ii. 1-5 we are told how to study the Bible so as to understand it. Let us read the passage:-

"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."

When a man is convinced that there is rich silver or gold ore in a certain place, what does he do? He goes right there and digs in that very place. But how do people generally do with the Bible? Why as soon as they light upon a portion where there is special treasure,-and that means a place where there is special difficulty,-they immediately go off to some other place to dig. If they went to some other part of the Bible it would not be so bad, for there is treasure everywhere in the Bible, and whoever finds it in one place will be better able to find it in another; but they generally go to a library and begin to dig among the commentators, or they ask their pastor or some friend what he thinks it means. It is as though a man should find indications of gold in a certain place, and should straightway go off a hundred miles and begin digging. People are not so foolish as that in temporal matters.

Another point: When a man is digging for silver or gold, he carefully examines every portion of the soil where he is digging. Whoever has seen men washing out gold knows that every particle of the soil is carefully examined. No matter what the style of mining, everything is in some way closely scrutinized.

Here then we have the simple directions for studying the Bible. First go to the Bible itself, and to the particular passage which you wish to understand, and then give the most careful and patient attention to every sentence and every word. Let your mind dwell upon every word and every clause, noting its relation to what precedes and what follows, until you know for a certainty just what it says. Do not sit down to commit the passage to memory so that you can repeat it parrotlike. That is not study. But question the text, asking a question and letting the words of the text give the answer, until you cannot possibly think of it without thinking the very words.

Many people who read the Bible a greal deal do not know what it says, because

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they read it carelessly, and do not let the Bible itself form their ideas. No one can hope to understand any portion of the Bible when he does not know for a certainty just what it says. This is self-evident, for it applies to everything.

When the student knows what the text says, then what? Here is the instruction, "Consider what I say; for the Lord shall give thee understanding in all things." 2 Tim. ii. 7, R.V. How will He give us the understanding? By our considering what He says. That is, while we are diligently considering the text, the understanding of the text will come from the text itself. From what other place should we expect it to come? "For the Lord giveth wisdom; out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding." Prov. ii. 6. The meaning of what the Lord says is in just the very words that He says.

How long must one consider the words before he can understand it? That depends upon several things. We must be prepared to consider them for ten years, if need be, without getting impatient. We must have such confidence that wisdom and knowledge do come from the very words of the Lord that we shall be assured that they are really there, and that they are nowhere else. But much depends on the spirit in which we approach the study. The Spirit of God is the source whence the Bible comes; the Spirit is the life and power and wisdom of the word. When we come with hearts submissive to the Spirit, we shall not have to wait so long as we otherwise would.

Remember that the righteousness of God is revealed to faith, and not to intellect. That does not put any discount upon intellect, but it simply exalts faith. God has given man talents of intellect, and expects him to use them, but not without faith. A very feeble intellect with faith will understand the Bible far more readily and more perfectly, than a giant intellect without faith.

At the same time that one particular passage is being thus studied, do not neglect the reading and studying of other parts of the Bible. The Bible is a unit; one Spirit and one truth is in it all; and every part is thus directly connected with every other part. If the particular passage under special consideration is in the middle of a chapter, the student will find it necessary to extend his careful study back to the beginning of the chapter, and even to the beginning of the book; for no book in the Bible, unless it be Proverbs and Psalms, is made up of detached thoughts. A line of thought runs through each, and every text should be considered in its full connection. Then when it is used in the study of any special subject, it will not be misapplied.

When the mind thus gets accustomed to dwelling upon the Scriptures, it is wonderful how light will come. Almost anything may serve to cause the light to shine forth from the word. While reading some other portion of the Bible, while listening to a discourse, in conversation even upon some other subject,-in short, in a thousand different ways,-the mind may be directed to the text that has been studied, and the light will shine forth. No one can tell in what way the Spirit will work, and what means it will use to lead the soul into the truth; only let it be remembered that in any case it is the Spirit that guides, and that the knowledge gained comes from the word itself, and not from any other source.

"For the Lord giveth wisdom; out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding."

"A Revival of Spiritualism" The Present Truth 9, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

Within the past few weeks there have been several things that show that Spiritualism is by no means dead, and that it is exerting an influence in the world greater than ever before. This growing influence is seen no less in the comments of those who are sceptical upon the subject than in the words of those who make no difficulty in accepting everything.

First in order are the experiences of Mr. W. T. Stead, editor of the Review of Reviews. These experiences are related at length in the Christian Commonwealth of February 2 and 9, wherein two lengthy interviews with Mr. Stead are reported. We will state the leading features as briefly as possible, but it will be necessary to quote quite largely from Mr. Stead's own words. The interviewer began by asking Mr. Stead if he is a Spiritualist, to which he replied:-

"I never call myself a Spiritualist. I am simply an investigator of phenomena which as a rule are ignored by the majority of busy people. Certain facts have come before me, the only explanation of which seems to lie in a certain direction, but I am quite open to be convinced that the truth may lie in any other direction. If anyone can bring me a better working hypothesis than that of spirit return, I am perfectly willing to receive it. But at present it seems to me no other explanation fits the facts, and until a better explanation is forthcoming, I hold to my working hypothesis."

To the question, "Are you sure of your facts?" Mr. Stead replied: "Yes, I think I may say that I am absolutely certain of my facts. But pray discriminate between facts which I know to be facts, and statements which may be true or may be false, but which are not yet absolutely verified." And when asked what facts he is sure of, he said:-

"To begin at the beginning, I may say I am absolutely certain, having verified it over and over again; that it is possible for some of my friends to use my hands as their own, they being at a distance from me. That is to say, a friend of mine at Newcastle is quite capable of using my hand here in London, and writing a message long or short, by the mere action of his mind upon my hand, without any telegraph or connecting wire."

Mr. Stead then gave several instances of this, and also of his using the hands of his friends. Said he, "Some of my friends have written at distances of 300 miles, long narratives of journeys which they have taken, mentioning the trains by which they went and came, the money they paid for their tickets, the cost of their dinner at the hotel: in short, giving a multitude of minute details, which it was absolutely impossible for me to have divined." Following are the details of one of the instances, which Mr. Stead gave at the request of the interviewer:-

"Some months ago I was at Redcar, in the north of England. A foreign lady who does some work for the Review, had to meet me at Redcar railway station about three o'clock. I was staying with my brother, who lives about ten minutes' walk from the station. At twenty minutes to three it occurred to me that 'about three,' the phrase used in her letter might mean some time before three, and as I could not lay my hand upon a time-table, I simply asked her to use my hand and tell me what time the train was due; this, I may say, was without any previous communication with her upon the subject. She immediately wrote her name and said the train was due at Redcar station at ten minutes to three. I saw that I should have to leave at once, but before starting I asked her where she was at that moment. My hand wrote, 'I am in the train at Middlesborough railway station, on my way from Hartlepool to Redcar.' I then went off to the station. On arriving there I went up to the time-table to see what time the train was due. It was timed to arrive at 2:52. The train, however, was late; three o'clock came, and it had not arrived. At five minutes past three, getting rather anxious, I took a slip of paper from my pocket, and taking a pencil in my hand asked her where she was. At that moment she wrote her name (they always write their names at the beginning and end of each communication), and said, 'I am in the train, rounding the curve before you come to Redcar station; I will be with you in a minute.' 'Why the mischief have you been so late?' I mentally asked. My hand wrote, 'We were detained at Middlesborough for so long; I do not know why.' I put the paper in my pocket, walked to the end of the platform, and there was the train! The moment it stopped, I went up to my friend, and said to her, 'How late you are; what on earth has been the matter?' 'I do not know,' she said: 'the train stopped so long at Middleborough, it seemed as if we never would start.' I then showed her what my hand had written."

The following, in reply to the question if the lady was conscious of having communicated with him in that mysterious manner, is worthy of careful note:-

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"No, she had no knowledge whatever that she was writing with my hand, and she was considerably amazed at finding that she had done so. I had only seen her once before in my life. I give that instance because it is very simple and compact, and can be verified by reference to the lady in question, whose address I can give you if you like."

It seems that Mr. Stead had been a writing medium for some time before he learned of this new phenomenon. It was through the spirit that controlled his hand that he learned that he could receive communications from the living. He says:-

"I had no idea, nor, so far as I know, had anyone, either in the Psychical Research Society, or among the regular Spiritualists, that the mind of a living person could use the hand of another person at a distance, and write a message. But the Intelligence that controls my hand, while writing one day suddenly wrote, 'Why do you think it strange that I should be able to write with your hand? Anyone can write with your hand.' 'What,' said I, 'do you mean that living people on this earth can do so?' 'Try it; you will find that any of your friends can use your hand to write messages which they wish to communicate to you.' This seemed strange, almost incredible, but I promptly put it to the test, and found that the fact was exactly as she had said."

In the interview Mr. Stead gave several instances of communications from his familiar spirit, which professes to be the spirit of a young lady who died about two years ago. At one time the spirit gave him notice of the breaking of a printing machine which he was going to see tested, and thus saved him a useless journey.

In all this, with the exception of the supposed communications from the living, there is nothing new. We have referred to the matter thus at length, in order that we might call attention to the new phase of Spiritualism, and especially that we might show how this thing is regarded by the religious press generally. Before going further, let us see what is the object of these communications.

THE SOURCE OF THE COMMUNICATIONS

In the first place, it is useless to attempt to impeach Mr. Stead's word. There can be no doubt but that everything has taken place just as he says it has. The question is, Whence do the communications come? To answer this is a very easy matter for one who depends wholly on the testimony of the Bible. They do not come in any instance from the spirits of the dead. That is certain, because "the dead know not anything." Eccl. ix. 5. Of man it is said that "his breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." Ps. cxlvi. 4. To every man it is said, "There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest." Eccl. ix. 10.

More than this, the Scriptures everywhere speak of the resurrection of the dead. To the question, "If a man die, shall he live again?" the reply comes, "All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer Thee; Thou wilt have a desire to the work of Thine hands." Job. xiv. 14, 15. The "change" mentioned by Job is thus described by the Apostle Paul: "We shall not all sleep, but 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." 1 Cor. xv. 51-58.

Notice that this change does not take place until the coming of the Lord, and that at that time the dead are raised. That is the time when Christ calls, and the dead answer. Then they "live again." And the apostle John, in prophetic vision, saw the result of this first resurrection, when the souls of them that had been slain for the word of God, "lived, and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished." Rev. xx. 4, 5. Here is a living again; but that is impossible unless they once ceased living. And herein Spiritualism is directly in conflict with the Bible, because it teaches that there is no such thing as death; that those who are called dead do not cease to live; and therefore it teaches that there is no such thing as living again. Whoever, therefore, gives any heed to Spiritualism in any of its phases, must first part company with the Bible.

The answer, then, to the inquiry whence these communications come, must be that they come from the spirits of devils. These devils are not the spirits of wicked men, but are "the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation," and who are "reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." Jude 6. This loss of their first estate was when "there was war in heaven; Michael and His angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, which is 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. 7-9.

The Devil, as also his angels, are able to transform themselves into angels of light. 2 Cor. xi. 14, 15. Their work is to deceive, and this they are doing by making people believe that messages which come from them are from the spirits of departed friends. This is in full accord with the deception practiced upon Eve in the beginning. The serpent said to her, "Ye shall not surely die." This was the way in which he compassed her fall; and the apostle says, "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.

Mark how craftily he is working in this new development. For a long time the Devil has been at work sending messages by means of raps, writing, etc., purporting to come from the dead. These were for the purpose of getting people to believe more firmly the lie with which he deceived Eve, that there is no such thing as death. Now he gives similar messages, purporting to come from people who are still alive, so as to still more surely break down the idea that there is any difference between the living and the dead. The receipt of these messages, supposed to come from the living, will, more than anything that has ever been done before, serve to bring people to believe in the possibility of communicating with the dead. This is what they are for.

This is the only possible explanation of the messages which Mr. Stead has been receiving from his living friends, as he supposes. Indeed, it should be suggested to anyone who reads the account, for he says, as has been noted above, that these communications are received when the friends themselves are often entirely unconscious that Mr. Stead is receiving any communication purporting to come from them. Of course the Devil could use their names without informing them of the fact. . . .ed it is quite unusual for a man to know when his name is being forged.

A NEW CHAMPION

But when Mr. Stead has been pursuing his investigations, the cause of Spiritualism has received aid from another quarter. A book first published by T. Fisher Unwin, entitled, "Do the Dead Return?" gives the result of a Church of England clergyman's dealings with the spirits. The clergyman states that until three years ago he shared the generally received opinions respecting the phenomena of Spiritualism, and had ascribed them "partly to self-delusions and subjective impressions of particular minds, partly to fraud and trickery." A book fell into his hands, from which he learned that several well-known and eminent men of science had, after long and patient investigation, become converts, and he concluded that the subject was one of great importance, and with "reverent and thoughtful examination."

His first difficulty was with the fact

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that the Bible forbids seeking to the spirits of the dead; but this difficulty was removed when he "came in contact with a family in whose house the phenomena came spontaneously-unbidden and unasked for. Departed members of the family manifested their presence in an unmistakable manner. They gave clear proof of their identity, of the beneficent purpose of their return and communications." Therefore he gave himself to the study of the subject, convinced that there was no longer any cause for hesitation on the ground of moral danger. He didn't seek the spirits, he simply let them come to him. The little book which he has written gives in a clear, straightforward manner his experiences in spirit communication. These experiences he classifies under four heads, namely, spirit knocks, spirit writing, spirit voices, and spirit forms. That indicates the growth of his experience. First he heard the rappings; then he got more satisfactory communications through writing; then he developed sufficiently to be able to converse with the spirits; and lastly they appeared to him.

It is unnecessary to quote his experiences, as it would require too much space. Suffice it to say that they are told with a candour and minuteness of detail that cannot fail to convince the reader that he is telling the exact truth as to what he heard and saw. The following, which is the closing paragraph of a full column notice of the book in the Daily Chronicle, shows the effect of the book upon the general reader:-

"The Psychical Research people seem to think that they have disposed of the 'miracles' of Spiritualism when they have found a conjurer who can imitate them. That, of course, is nonsense. The fact that a conjurer can do certain things by trickery is no proof that Spiritualists can not do them by other means. Hocus-pocus by a conjurer with a locked slate and a wisp of muslin has really not a great deal to do with the question whether Spiritualists can or cannot raise the dead. As well refuse to believe in a thunderstorm because they can produce first-rate lightning at the Lyceum."

The clergyman himself says:-

"That the so-called dead return, and are able, under certain conditions, to hold intercourse with the living, I regard as a fact as well established and as undeniable as any fact in science."

In another place he says of his experience in spirit writing, "If I were to doubt it, I cannot well see on what grounds I could reasonably credit the evidence of my senses respecting any other matter in life." For our part, we cannot have the slightest doubt that he saw and heard all that he says he did. Those who think to combat Spiritualism by scouting the reality of its phenomena, are the very ones who will in the end be the most terribly deceived by it. There is a reality to them-the reality of the power of Satan.

THE OBJECT OF THE MANIFESTATIONS

So much for the statement of the case. Now the question arises, What is the object of these manifestations? The Christian Commonwealth, in which the interviews with Mr. Stead appears, says:-

"But even allowing that Mr. Stead and all other mediums are not self-deceived, not victims of a delusion or deception, but are really dealing with occult forces or phenomena which cannot be explained by any known laws, it is still true that we may properly enough ask the question, cui bono?"

To this Mr. Stead replied in his second interview as follows:-

"I am surprised to see in the editorial of the Christian Commonwealth the inquiry, 'cui bono?' I cannot understand how anyone could ask what good it is to know that your loved ones are living after death, and that they are still able to take an affectionate interest in your welfare. Those who can ask that are capable of asking 'cui bono?' of the existence of love itself. But apart from human affection and the enormous boon that it would be to poor suffering human beings who are mourning the dead who seem to return no more, the fact of spirit-return is of theological value, to which I should have thought the editor of the Christian Commonweath would have been keenly alive. In the passage from the correspondence in the Daily Chronicle, which you quoted at the end of the interview last week, Robert Buchanan puts the thing in a nutshell: 'When all is said and done, the question between Christ, or Christianity, and the world is this,-Is there, or is there not, another life beyond this life we live? Everything hangs or falls by that?' Now, clearly, if the spirit of one who has died can come back and communicate, as the Intelligence that guides my hand claims to have done, that question is solved, and solved once for all in the Christian sense."

Thus when it is asked, What is the good of these phenomena? the answer is, that they demonstrate that there is another life. This sort of demonstration is taken in all seriousness by another religious paper, the Christian World. In its issue of February 9, there was a leading editorial of some length, with the heading, "A Bridge to the Unseen World." It calls attention to the conflict between infidelity or agnosticism and Christianity, and quotes from two prominent sceptics, who claim that Christianity has up to date furnished no evidence that there is a future life. The article then proceeds thus:-

"The challenge to Christianity then is, if it would bring the world back to genuine belief in its supernatural histories, to produce corroborative evidence from contemporary phenomena. Mr. Stephen, in the essays just alluded to, declares that theology is unable to scientifically prove one single point of its connection about the supernatural. The remarkable feature of the present position is that exactly upon this crucial point a large and constantly increasing body of witnesses, whom it would be very difficult to convict either of fraud or of imbecility, are coming forward to declare impossible of production, is actually accessible. Our readers may remember a book by Florence Marryatt, to which we a short time ago drew attention, entitled, 'There is no Death,' in which the well-known authoress relates her experience of intercourse with departed friends, her dead daughter amongst them, on evidence which she declares as good as any which Stanley could produce of the truth of his assertions about his Central African forest."

Then follow references to Mr. Stead's revelations, and an enthusiastic notice of the book, "Do the Dead Return," to which we have already referred; and the article closes thus:-

"We must leave these statements and the others of which this remarkable book is full, to make their own impression on the minds of our readers. Whatever theory may be formed of them, it is evident that the materialism and agnosticism which of late have so loudly claimed to represent the really cultured and sane mind of the age, and which flatly deny to man any knowledge of the unseen, are now being squarely challenged on their own ground. The agnostics must either explain these phenomena, or abate their own pretensions. The theme is ripe for a thoroughly scientific investigation and for a scientific verdict. The gainsayers and deniers of the age have a plainly-defined issue put before them. The New Testament is a record of spiritual phenomena and revelation. We are told that these things are incredible because nothing answering to them is produced now. It is time for materialistic agnosticism, in the light of what is declared to be actually going on in our midst, to prove that statement."

We have quoted what others think is the object of these phenomena, and now we will point out their actual object. They are given for no other purpose than to throw discredit upon the Bible, and to lessen the dependence of people upon its testimony. Indeed, they are for the purpose of leading professed Christians to let the Bible go entirely, and to depend on something else. Do you ask how this can be? The answer is plain. The Bible is given for the sole object of revealing to men the fact that there is another life for them, and of showing them how to attain to it. "Well then," says one, "I should think that these things are exactly in harmony with the Bible." Not by any means, because they exactly coincide with the infidel objection that the Bible does not reveal a future life. And the lamentable fact is that professed believers in the Bible unconsciously agree with the doubters of the Bible, by admitting

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that communication with the spirits is necessary in order to prove that there is another life. Thus they virtually admit the charge of the sceptics, that the Bible does not teach the certainty of another life. This point alone should convince the thoughtful and reverent that the whole business of spirit communication is of the devil.

The Bible teaches that there is another life for men, if they will have it. It also teaches that the dead know not anything, and that there is no possibility of communicating with them. Spiritualism, and this embraces as we have seen many who are not called Spiritualists, says that the dead do return and communicate, and that this is the only sure evidence of another life. Here is a direct conflict. Both cannot be true. Whoever accepts Spiritualism must throw away the Bible; and he who does that throws away all the morality of the Bible. This seems like a severe charge to make; but it is not a charge, it is a simple statement of fact.

LIFE PROMISED IN THE BIBLE

That the Scriptures do promise a life altogether different from the natural life of men, must be plain to the ordinary reader. Speaking by the command of God to men alive in the flesh, Moses said: "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that thou and thy seed may live." Deut. xxx. 19.

David, inspired by the Spirit of the Lord, said: "I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth; my flesh also shall rest in hope. For Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell [the grave]; neither wilt Thou suffer Thine holy one to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life; in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." Ps. xvi. 8-11.

At the beginning of His earthly ministry, Jesus said: "And 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 eternal life. For 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. 14-16.

To the people He said: "I am the door; by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy; I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John x. 9, 10.

To the young men who came to Jesus saying, "What good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" Jesus said, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments."

The apostle Paul declares himself to be "an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus." Titus i. 1.

All these promises of life are spoken to living men. They are promises of a life that they are not in possession of; they are promises of another life, even of an endless life. They are promises of a life that is not natural to man, and which cannot be found except in the Gospel of Christ, for life and immortality are brought to light in the Gospel. 2 Tim. i. 10.

THE CERTAINTY OF ANOTHER LIFE

Now the question comes, "Can we know positively that there is another life?" Here is what the Christian Commonwealth has to say upon the subject:-

"When Spiritualists can show to us that their new revelations have made them more active in doing the things which Christianity enjoins, we shall then be more inclined to look seriously at the claims they make."

"But we do not see that there is anything in these messages which is of any importance, except what Christians believed before on the testimony of the Scriptures. And this is precisely our difficulty with the question which Mr. Stead has raised. He talks about Mr. Robert Buchanan's desire to know that there is a future life. But this is precisely what Mr. Buchanan cannot know, neither can Mr. Stead know it. The doctrine of a future life is necessarily an appeal to faith, and not to knowledge."

Herein the Christian Commonwealth is opening the way for the full acceptance of Spiritualism, when it shall have become a little more pronounced, and popular. It claims that from the Bible man cannot positively know that there is another life. But Spiritualism claims to demonstrate the fact. Now when the writer of those words sees the exact representations of his dead friends, and grasps their hands, and talks with them, receiving messages from them, and reminders of events that happened long ago, he will be ready to say that he knows. Such a test is sure to come sooner or later.

The truth is that God wants us to know that there is another life. The apostle John writes: "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. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life." 1 John v. 10-13.

Christianity is not conjecture, nor a blind dependence upon uncertainty. It is positive knowledge. But how is it possible for men to know that there is another life? The answer is, By faith. We know it by faith. As shown in the text just quoted, those who believe know that they have eternal life. Faith enables us to lay hold of that life, and know of it by actual experience. The apostle Paul exhorts us to lay hold of that life, and know of it by actual experience. The apostle Paul exhorts us to "lay hold on eternal life." 1 Tim. vi. 12. A man is to know the fact of another life, because he lives it; for the Scriptures say that "the just shall live by faith."

The apostle John also says: "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 also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." 1 John i. 1-3.

Eternal life, even the life of God, dwelt in Christ. The disciples who were with Christ on earth, saw the manifestation of that life. They have declared it to us, that we may have the same fellowship that they had. And how can this be? Jesus says: "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if 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. And again: "If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." John xiv. 23.

This is how we may know the certainty of eternal life. Christ, in whom is that life, is to dwell, not simply in our houses, and to walk and talk with us, but to dwell within us. Our knowledge does not depend upon communications from spirits which contradict the Bible, but on the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, according to His word.

Here is the experience of the Christian: "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which 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. If anyone asks the real believer about another life, he can reply with positiveness that he knows that there is such a thing. If asked how he knows, he can point to the word of God, and can say that by believing he is now in actual possession of another life, even the life of Christ, and that is a "

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future life" too, continuing to all eternity, because Christ is alive for evermore.

In what does this life consist? In righteousness. It is received through the Spirit, because "to be spiritually minded is life and peace." And the apostle says: "And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness." Rom. viii. 10. Righteousness and life are identical. "If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law." Gal. iii. 21. But as righteousness cannot come by man's own acts, since it is entirely foreign to his natural life, there must be another life given, in order that he may have righteousness, and that life of righteousness is in Christ. He who has Christ has the life. The knowledge of another life, therefore, is simply the knowledge of righteousness through Christ. To say that a man cannot know that there is another life, is only to say that there is no such thing as actual, absolute righteousness. Or else it is to say that a man has righteousness in himself.

DENYING THE GOSPEL

When in the settlement of any question the Bible has less authority with people than something else has, they have virtually repudiated it as a whole. The evidence of the possibility of life after death is furnished in the Bible in the numerous cases of the raising of the dead, and by the resurrection of Christ Himself, by means of which all other cases of resurrection were accomplished. Now when people require spirit communications in order that they may know that there is another life than this, it shows that they do not believe the Bible record concerning the miracles of Christ and of His own resurrection.

What then? Simply this, that as they have taken the communications of the spirits as better evidence of a future life than the statements of the Bible, they will most naturally take what the spirits say about any point of doctrine and practice, in preference to what the Scriptures say on the same point.

The apostle John says: "He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." Therefore whenever people claim that it is necessary to receive communications from spirits in order that they may be sure that there is another life for man, they show their disbelief of the record which God has given, and thus charge Him with lying. And when God has been thus charged with lying, the authority of His word is forever at an end with those people. Thus professed Christians are putting themselves on the same ground with professed infidels, in relation to the Bible.

Thus Spiritualism is from first to last against the Gospel. It is against it, in denying the plain statements of the Bible, and it is still further against it in claiming that man has life, and therefore righteousness in himself. It leads to trust in man instead of in Christ, since it exalts man to the place which God alone occupies. More and more people are resting their knowledge and hope of heaven upon their dead friends, and not upon Christ. Mr. Stead and also the Church of England clergyman speak of the comfort which these communications give to those who have lost friends. But when men depend upon such things for comfort, where is their dependence upon "the God of all comfort, the Father of mercies"?

Such comfort as that is the comfort of the heathen. Comfort without Christ is perdition. This is why so much space is given to this matter. It is a vital one. Satan is preparing a snare for all the people on the earth, and unconsciously many are falling into it. There is only one way of escape, and that is the acceptance of Christ through His word. Christ dwells in the word, and thus it is that man is to live "by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." He who allows himself to depart in the slightest degree from the straight reading of the Scriptures, has no safeguard. Just to the extent that one does not take the Scriptures, does he not take Christ.

Now mark the inevitable result. The Inspired Word says that just before Christ's coming Satan will work "with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." 2 Thess. ii. 9-12.

When one rejects the truth there is nothing left for him but to believe a lie. And so the men who are fondly hoping that in Spirit communication they will be able to find that evidence which Christ alone can give, are unconsciously inviting every delusion that Satan can invent. "No lie is of the truth." Satan is the father of lies, and is therefore the author of spirit communications, which deny the truth of the Bible.

Fortunately there is no need for anybody to be deceived. "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him." Isa. lix. 19. God's word is the standard; it is the only safeguard. By it, and by it alone, man can live, not only now but eternally, for the word of the Lord endureth for ever.

"Preparing for an Inquisition" The Present Truth 9, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

Under the supervision of Dr. Parkhurst, New York has a vigilance league, which aims at having at least one capable man in each of the 1137 electoral divisions of the city, with the following work outlined for each:-

"The duty of each of those men will be to make himself thoroughly conversant with all that concerns the district under his charge. It is recommended, in order to ensure thoroughness, that each supervisor should prepare a chart of his own district, with the names of residents so fast as he may come to know their names, nationality, etc. Buildings used for other than purposes of residence should be considered in detail, and their character noted so far as such memoranda can be of any use in securing the results already specified. This will include schools and saloons, a full account of which latter will embrace such particulars as the brewer under whose auspices the saloon is run, the general tone of the place, the relations subsisting between it and the policemen on the beat for the captain of the precinct; whether it is kept open in unlawful hours, the age and character of its customers, whether it is licensed, and if so whether its existence is necessitated by the paucity of saloons in the neighbourhood, or whether people living in proximity are enduring its presence under protest. The survey and tabulation must, of course, include a statement as to all houses of prostitution, pool-rooms, policy-shops, and gambling-houses in the district."

The reader will readily see that every preparation has been made for a first-class inquisition, when a rigid Sunday law comes to be enforced. For all that machinery will be brought to bear upon the artisan or the day labourer who obeys God rather than man in the matter of Sabbath observance. In fact, they will suffer by it far more than anybody else, because they will not use bribes, and others will. There are trying times ahead for those in the United States who will persist in clinging to the liberty of the Gospel.

"Wealth a Burden" The Present Truth 9, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

Someone has been interviewing Mr. Vanderbilt on the subject of wealth, a subject upon which he ought to be able to speak with some assurance. He is reported to have said:-

"Such wealth as mine to too heavy a burden for any man is bear. The weight of it is crushing me and killing me. I have no pleasure in it and no one for it. in what respect am I really better off than my neighbour who has only half a million dollars? He commands more readily than I do the real happiness of life; his house is as comfortable as mine; he is healthier than I, because he has less an; he will probably live longer than I shall; and, above all, he can trust his friends."

He is truly to be pitied. Think of carrying a burden for which one has no use, and in which he takes no pleasure, and which is crushing the life out of him. And this is the exact situation of the possessor of so much wealth. Perhaps the most pitiable part of the matter is that he does not seem to know that he is not obliged to carry the heavy burden. He could very quickly unload it if he would.

Which do you choose, the fleeting riches and pleasure of this world, or the everlasting joys and treasures hid in Jesus? Remember you cannot have both.

"The People of India" The Present Truth 9, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

We have already learned that there are about ten times as many people in India as in England and Wales, and about one-sixth as many as in the whole world. If you could put all of the people of India in one long line, and make them march past you, day and night, at the rate of one every second, it would bake more than nine years for them all to pass by!

And what a sight it would be! There would be Europeans with white skins like yours, rich natives with skins that are almost white, and then a great many with yellowish skins, others nearly brown, and still others perfectly black!

You would find that all of the Indian people have black hair and black eyes. What an army of dear little black-eyed children! some with just such roguish, dancing bright eyes as yours, but many with a sad wistful look that would make your very heart ache.

You would probably see the Viceroy (the man appointed by the Queen to govern India) riding in his silver howdah on the back of a large elephant, with a golden umbrella over his head; the government officers in great state; and the rajahs (native princes) also on elephants and dressed in costly garments. Following these you would see priests from the temples, soldiers from the army, merchants from their shops, and servants from their various places of labour. High and low, rich and poor, people from the hot lowlands, the cool hills, and the snow-covered mountains; people from the cities, with all the knowledge and refinement and fine clothes that civilisation and wealth can give; and people from the wild jungles with no education, no refinement, and no clothes.

I imagine I see you hold your breath and shut your eyes when the opium smokers and their families pass by. No wonder, for they are almost like walking skeletons clothed in a few filthy rags. Poor people! what can we do for them?

"What are in those strange long boxes carried on the shoulders of the natives?" Why, don't you know? Those contain the high caste ladies who are not allowed to be seen by men outside of their own families. It would never do for them to be seen in such a motley crowd, so of how few have laid hold of the only they are shut up tightly in their palanquins.

It is indeed a motley crowd,-fifty different races of people, and two hundred wild tribes, and all talking away in ninety-eight different languages, and a much larger number of dialects! You could not understand them if you should try. Even if you had a Bible in their own language and should give it to one of the Indian ladies, it would do her no good unless you should learn her language and then teach her how to read it; for even queens in India have not been taught to read or write!

You could not help noticing how religious they all are. There are the Hindu, Mohammedan, Parsee, Jain, Silk, Jewish, Roman Catholic, Christian, and many other forms of religion. I suppose the Mohammedan children pray oftener than you do, and besides learning the words of their prayers, they have to learn a great deal about how they are to stand when they pray, how to clasp their hands, and throw themselves on the ground, and count beads, etc.

But isn't it sad? Although all of this vast army of dying souls are reaching out in every direction for a god who can save them, very, very few indeed have really laid hold of the right one!

What shall we do, allow them to sink in utter despair, and die without hope and without help? Though you are but a little child, God will show you some way in which you can help these poor people, if you ask Him.

"Only One" The Present Truth 9, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

Speaking of the people of India, and of how few have laid hold of the only One who can save them, makes me think of something I heard Dr. Pentecost tell a short time ago.

Two men have fallen overboard and are in great danger of drowning. The people on the steamer are much excited of course, and in their efforts to save the men, one gentleman, scarcely knowing what he does, throws his walking-stick out to one of the men in the water. Another gentleman, not so much excited, runs and gets a life-preserver and throws that to the other man in the water.

As drowning men always catch at anything within their reach, so these men, when they come up, stretch out both hands, one laying hold of the walking-stick, and the other laying hold of the life-preserver-the only things within their reach.

Although both take hold in just the same way, there is a great difference in the results: One man is held up above the water and is saved, while the other man sinks beneath the water and is lost.

Why is it? Why is the man with the walking-stick lost, when he lays hold of it just as earnestly and in just the same way as the other man lays hold of the life-preserver? Why, it is because he has laid hold of the wrong thing! A walking-stick has no power to keep a drowning man from sinking, no matter how he takes hold of it. But the life-preserver cannot sink, therefore a man cannot sink as long as he keeps his hold on it.

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Now that is the way with so many of those poor people in India. They have laid hold of something, but alas, they have not laid hold of the right thing; and therefore they are sinking lower and lower in destruction and perdition. They have felt the need of a Saviour, and have reached out and laid hold of gods many and lords many; but no matter how earnestly they have laid hold of one of them, no matter how much they have believed in him, he has not been able to save them, for they have laid hold of the wrong one. Those idols have no more power to save them than the walking-stick has power to save the drowning man, for, do you not remember? there is only one name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved; and that name is Jesus! Acts iv. 12.

You may trust that your father or your mother can save you; you may believe that a certain church can save you; you may think that your good works will save you, or money, or some great idol; but no matter how earnestly you believe in them, just as surely as you lay hold of any of these things and trust in them to save you, just so surely you will be lost for ever. Jesus is the only one that can save you.

Dear young friend, have you laid hold of the right one? Have you laid hold on Jesus? Do you believe in Him? Have you given yourself to Him? He is the only one who can save you from sin, the only one who can save you from eternal death.

"No other name has e'er been giv'n

To souls by sin depraved;

No other name in earth or heav'n

By which we can be saved."

"Alcohol and Tobacco Against Hard Work" The Present Truth 9, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

When Dr. Nansen, the Norwegian Arctic explorer, was in Greenland, neither he nor his comrades allowed a single drop of alcohol to pass their lips, and, to remove all source of temptation, the alcohol which they were compelled to carry with them for boiling their kettle, was previously rendered nauseous by being mixed with wood naptha. When asked if he did not regard alcohol necessary in case of sudden emergency, Dr. Nansen replied, "It is often supposed that, even though spirits are not intended for daily use, they ought to be taken upon an expedition for medicinal purposes. I would readily acknowledge this if anyone could show me a single case in which such a remedy is necessary; out till this is done I shall maintain that this pretext is not sufficient, and that the best course is to banish alcoholic drinks from the line of necessaries for an Arctic expedition," and he added, "Though tobacco is less destructive, it is extremely harmful when smoked or chewed in cases of severe physical exertion, and not least so when the supply of feed is not abundant, for it injures the digestion and reduces the nervous power and capacity for endurance as well as tenacity of purpose."

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

-The watch industry of Switzerland is to be made a Government monopoly.

-The United Kingdom last year imported oranges and lemons valued at no less a figure than £2,062,661.

-Ninety ladies and gentlemen met a few days ago in Edinburgh, and publicly prayed for the defeat of the Home Rule Bill.

-A disastrous cyclone has visited the States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, destroying whole villages and killing many people.

-In the past ten years the consumption of beer in the United Kingdom has increased by 1,273,864 barrels. Excise duty was paid last year on no fewer than 32,201,167 barrels.

-The new general of the Jesuits has given orders to his brethren in the United States not to discuss the school question any more.

-A room in the House of Commons will soon have to be set apart to store the numerous monster petitions against the Home Rule Bill.

-At the final football tie for the Scottish Cup at Glasgow, last week, one of the players named Connor, who had just scored, dropped down dead from excitement and exhaustion.

-A French Deputy, in the hope of reducing drunkenness, suggests that the manufacture of intoxicating drinks should be a Government monopoly, which would yield £40,000,000 a year.

-Up to the end of last year the trustees of the Peabody Donation Fund had provided for the labouring poor of London 11,273 rooms, with washhouses and laundries, occupied by 20,114 persons.

-The stone lion at Lucerne, erected in memory of the bravery of the Swiss Guards killed at the Tuilleries in 1792, is so decayed by the effect of the weather that restoration is declared impossible.

-The "safest place in the world" is declared to be the cabin of an ocean steamer. In 1892 there were 650 million passengers by steamships, of whom 240 people were lost, of one in every 2,708,338.

-According to official returns, the revenue of the Russian Empire from January 10, to December 1st of last year amounted to 1,011,934,000 roubles, against 817,888,000 roubles as compared with the year 1891.

-One of the latest discoveries of Roman Fetishism is the supposed house where; the Blessed Virgin lived along with the apostle John in Ephesus. The ground enclosing the dwelling is to be purchased, and pilgrimages have already been organized.

-Juvenile smoking in Canada is now prohibited. The Legislative Assembly of Quebec has forbidden the sale of tobacco to persons under eighteen years of age, while boys under fifteen years found smoking are to be punished by fine or imprisonment.

-A missionary from India recently stated that "if the people of India were so divided among all the missionaries of all societies, so that each missionary had 50,000 people depending upon him for the Gospel, there would still be 200 millions who had not heard the Gospel."

-By the steamer Britannia 1000 bags of American mail were landed at Queenstown on March 9. The same day the out-going steamer, the Majestic, took on board 664, bags, making 1620 bags in all, the largest amount of American mail that ever passed through, Queenstown in one day.

-On Saturday night, March 4; the town of Sandgate was the scene of a serious suite-dance of land. The damage done extends for about a mile east and west, and about 600 yards inwards from the sea-line. About 200 houses have been wrecked. The land has sunk in some places seven, eight, nine, and ten feet.

-The yearly consumption of imported eggs in the United Kingdom is put at a value of something like £4,000,000. France and Germany furnish more than half of the supply, Belgium, Russia, and Denmark coming next in order as egg exporters to England. The Canadian instalment has increased to 33,000,000 eggs in a single year.

-It is reported that cholera is steadily increasing its ravages in Russia. It is especially virulent at Ecatherinoslaff. The number of cases recorded in the Government of Podolek alone, according to the official reports, from December 26 to January 16, were 536, and the death 196. In most of the southern Governments, where the warm weather is already commencing, the mortality from the terrible scourge is very high considering the time of the year. The Governments of Bessarabia, Ecatherinoslaff, and Penza seem to be the most affected.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

Over 200 summonses have been issued against Sunday traders in Birmingham. At last accounts thirty-five small tradesmen, chiefly tobacconists and sweet-sellers, had been fined a reduced penalty of one shilling, without cost. The prosecutions are carried on under the old Act of Charles II. The prosecutors are a "Watch Committee," whose self-appointed duty is to spy out who are doing work on Sunday, which the law does not sanction, even though such watching of others obliges themselves to do that which would be a violation of the Sabbath if Sunday were the Sabbath.

The Birmingham Sunday agitation presents some of the absurdities of Sunday legislation. That tobacconists admit that the law does not sanction their trading operations on Sunday, but they claim that they have as good right to sell tobacco on Sunday as the publicans have. And here is where the beauty of the law comes in. It seems that the publicans' licence admits of their selling only liquor in the prescribed hours on Sunday, and not tobacco. They have assumed that, being legally open, they might as well sell the latter as the former; but the Watch Committee proposes to test the matter. If the point can be established, then the publicans will be prosecuted for selling cigars on Sunday. The non-legal mind may have some difficulty in seeing the fine point of prosecuting a man for selling cigars, while he may sell beer unmolested, but such it seems is the necessary thing in order to establish justice and morality, and vindicate the sacredness of "the venerable day of the sun."

In the House of Lords, Thursday, the 16th, the Bishop of Salisbury introduced a Bill "to provide for better freedom for religious introduction in Board Schools." He said that there are ninety-one Boards which allow no religious instruction whatever; but if you allow the Bible to be read without notice or comment, and some allow hymns without any Bible reading. What the Bishop means by "freedom for religious instruction," therefore, is doubtless compulsory instruction.

If anybody can tell us the difference between this and compulsory attendance at church, we should be glad to learn. The children must of necessity attend school, and religious instruction in the schools is to be not merely optional, but compulsory. But the only object of the church is to give religious instruction, and so the schools are really churches, in a way. Many people who would exclaim against compulsory church attendance on Sunday, see no inconsistency in the same thing every day of the week.

The clergy are up in arms against the "Welsh Suspensory Bill," which means that no new interest shall be created in the established church in Wales, which is a part of the English Establishment. Referring to this Bill, the Bishop of Manchester said:-

"It seems a poor and cowardly thing to attempt to destroy the entire English Church by a piecemeal surgery. This Bill means war-and a religious war-with all its painful consequences."

There can be no war if the church people do not fight; and Christ forbade His followers to fight even in defence of His own life. And is it not a humiliating confession for a Bishop to make, that "the church" will be destroyed if deprived of Government support? Jesus Christ is a much better foundation; the church that is built on Him cannot be destroyed even though bitterly persecuted by all the Governments of earth.

The Catholic Times and Catholic Opinion in summing up the results of the Pope's Jubilee, says: "Rulers, such as the Emperor of Germany, who have to contend against the forces of socialism, and who fear lest their own authority and the welfare of the State may be imperiled by revolutionary movements, look to the Supreme Pontiff for such moral aid as will safeguard them from the danger by which they are threatened. . . . The democracy of America, too, struggling for progress under new and trying conditions, welcome with cordiality the guiding influences of the Holy See. Thus it is that the necessity of the Papacy is felt more and more."

The above is not merely the outburst of Catholic enthusiasm, but is a calm statement of the hold that the Papacy is gaining upon the nations. As if to emphasize the last part of the paragraph, the New York Independent says: "We can join heartily with our Catholic fellow-citizens in congratulations to Pope Leo XIII. on the occasion of his Golden Jubilee, celebrated this week. He has proved one of the wisest and best men that have ever occupied St. Peter's chair. It was a wise remark which he made the other day, that Gladstone and he were the oldest rulers of Europe and the two youngest in their ideas. His sympathy with Republican governments and free institutions, and with the spirit of the age, endears him to Americans."

"And 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. If any man have an ear to hear let him hear." Rev. xiii. 8, 9.

The passage of the Home Rule Bill is the one great thing before the present Parliament, and although there has been some bloodshed because such a bill has been passed, there is prospect of much more being shed if it should pass. A correspondent of the English Churchman and St. James' Chronicle, speaking of the possibility of its passage says: "Nothing is more certain than that it will prove a fearfully dark day to England, for she will then be handed over to the tender mercies of the Irish priesthood and the professional agitators, who will become the virtual rulers, and utter ruin and misery must ensue. If ever in the history of our beloved country there was a call for prayer it is at the present crisis." To which the editor adds: "In the presence of a great national disaster impending over us there is urgent necessity for united and constant prayer that this danger may be averted."

Immediately following the above in another letter, which reads, in part, thus:-

"Our Protestant brethren in Ireland are up and doing. They acknowledge that no time should be lost in preparing themselves for resistance, should the Home Rule Bill become law, and a Parliament be established in Dublin. They do not mince matters; but, weighing the consequences, openly advocate the laying in of stores, the collection of arms, and the training of men willing to serve should civil war become a necessity.

"Is it not then a fitting time for us Protestants of Great Britain to be striving also, to let our co-religionists in Ireland know that from us they shall receive more than sympathy? That we, too, can give them armed and trained men and officers, that our wealth, our lives, our future are at their disposal, and that, God helping us, we will not stand by looking on, leaving them alone to face the terrible ordeal, but both in prayer and power, help them to win a victory, and be free for ever from a sacerdotal yoke, which knows no pity, feels no compunction, and is, and ever has been, a curse to the land over which it has sway."

We offer no comments upon the merits of the case; but we wish merely to call attention to the incongruity of training men, collecting arms, and shedding blood in the cause of what professes to be the religion of the Prince of Peace. Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world, else would my servants fight." Therefore when men fight, it is certain that they are not labouring in the interest of Christ's kingdom.

April 6, 1893

"Front Page" The Present Truth 9, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

Says one, "I know in whom I have believed." That is well; but it is much better to be able to say with the apostle Paul, "I know who I have believed." There is a great deal of difference. One may know who it is to whom he commits a thing, without being personally acquainted with him; but Paul knew the Lord as a personal friend, as did Abraham, and therefore he could safely trust all in His keeping. This acquaintance it is the privilege of every one to have.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God; but much that is quoted for Scripture is not inspired. Nine persons out of ten will speak of wishing to know the Lord, "whom to know aright is life eternal," and will think that they are quoting Scripture. Christ said: "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." John xvii. 4. The other is not found in the Bible. The Scriptures, just as they are written, without any human addition, are sufficient. Additions only weaken them.

If you are going to preach to me, or try to teach me, tell me only what you know, not what you think. Neither waste time telling me what you believe. That is to say, Don't give me your belief that a thing is so as authority for it. I will take it for granted that you yourself believe what you say, and so you need not take time to assure me of the fact. It will not help me to believe in it, if you do. I don't care about what you may believe; you may believe the thing that is not so, and whether it is true or not, your believing it is no reason why I should. But if you know it; then tell me the facts, so that I can know it too. The man who teaches as truth that which he does not know to be the truth is guilty of a grievous sin. And if he knows a thing, it is just as easy, though perhaps not so gratifying to his pride, to tell the grounds of his knowledge, as it is to play the pope, and try to get others to accept it on his authority.

"The Light of His Countenance" The Present Truth 9, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

"Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee, our secret sins in the light of Thy countenance." Ps. xc. 8. Is this a matter for joy, or for sorrow? for gladness, or for despondency? Doubtless the most of those who read it do so with a feeling of fear and dread. The thought that all their sins are open before God, makes them tremble, and they wish to forget it. They cannot get over the idea that God is a stern, implacable tyrant, ever watching to find some sin to charge up against His creatures. And so in their minds they picture God as keeping a stern eye on those sins, in order that He may exact penance for every one of them. This is judging God by man; it is making Him altogether such an one as themselves.

But we are assured that "whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." Rom. xv. 4. Therefore it must be that there is hope and comfort in the text first quoted. Let us see what is the result of God's setting our secret sins in the light of His countenance, for the Scriptures have much to tell us about it.

First let us take that wonderful blessing that God commanded Aaron and his sons to pronounce upon the children of Israel: "The Lord bless thee, and keep thee; the Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." Num. vi. 24-26. So there is grace in the shining of the face of the Lord. And what does grace do? The grace of God bringeth salvation. Titus ii. 11. "By grace are ye saved." Eph. ii. 9. "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace." Eph. i. 7. "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. So in the shining of the Lord's face there is forgiveness and salvation-eternal life.

Further, there is peace in the lifting up of the countenance upon us. Peace is the opposite of enmity and strife. Sin is enmity. "The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Rom. viii. 7. Therefore the giving of peace is the taking away of sin, and the bestowing of righteousness. "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight." Col. i. 21, 22. "For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition, . . . that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby." Eph. ii. 14-15. So in the lifting up of God's countenance upon us there is the taking away of sin, and the giving of righteousness.

The Psalmist said, "There be many that say, Who will show us any good?" and immediately furnished the reply, by saying, "Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us." Ps. iv. 6. The light of the Lord's countenance brings good. Therefore when our secret sins are set in the light of His countenance, His goodness comes to take their place. And so, when sin was oppressing the Psalmist's soul, he said, "Why art thou cast down O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance." Ps. lii. 5.

The practical help afforded by the light of the Lord's countenance is thus set forth: "We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what

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work Thou didst in their days, in the times of old. How Thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how Thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. For 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. 1-3.

Read again of the blessings that come with the light of God's countenance: "Justice and judgment are the habitation of Thy throne; mercy and truth shall go before Thy face. 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. For Thou art the glory of their strength." Ps. lxxxix. 14-17. So we see that when the Lord makes His face to shine upon us, mercy and truth are in the glance. His mercy puts His truth in the inward parts of those who walk in the light of His countenance.

When the chosen people were captives in Babylon, and their city and temple were in ruins, the prophet Daniel set his face to seek the Lord by prayer and supplications, confessing his sin and the sin of his people, and said, "O Lord, according to all Thy righteousness, I beseech Thee, let Thine anger and Thy fury be turned away from Thy city Jerusalem, Thy holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us. Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of Thy servant, and his supplications, and cause Thy face to shine upon Thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake. O my God, incline Thine ear, and hear; open Thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by Thy name; for we do not present our supplications before Thee for our righteousnesses, but for Thy great mercies." Dan. ix. 16-18. The shining of the Lord's face upon His sanctuary, would be its restoration; His looking upon His people's desolations, would be their deliverance; so when God sets our iniquities before Him, it means forgiveness; and the light of His countenance upon our secret sins will take them all away.

"Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; Thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth. Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up Thy strength, and come and save us. Turn us again, O God, and cause Thy face to shine; and we shall be saved." Ps. lxxx. 1-3. And the promise is, "Unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings." Mal. iv. 2. "For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly." Ps. lxxxiv. 11.

The Lord is a God of glory; but His glory is His goodness. "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Rom. iii. 23. But for their sin, they would not have come short of His glory; so that the perfect righteousness of God is His glory. And therefore when He gives His Spirit to strengthen His people against sin, and to lead them in the paths of righteousness, it is "according to the riches of His glory." Eph. iii. 16. His grace brings salvation; but when that has been accomplished, and the saints shine with the glory of God, through the ages to come, the glory with which they shine will simply reveal "the exceeding riches of His grace." Eph. ii. 6-8.

And this is how it is done: "For 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." 2 Cor. iv. 6. "God is a sun." His light and glory are seen in Christ, who is "the Sun of righteousness." As the sun shines upon the earth, and causes it to bring forth fruit, and brings life and health and gladness, so the light of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ, shines in the hearts of men to cause righteousness and praise to spring forth. "For the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth." Eph. v. 9, R.V.

But God is not partial in His favours. He is no respecter of persons. When we are exhorted to love our enemies, to bless them that curse us, to do good to them that hate us, and to pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us, the reason given is "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. 44, 45. The sun shines as brightly upon the fields of the infidel as upon those of the Christian. "There is nothing hid from the heat thereof."

Thus it is with God. "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." Titus ii. 11. Or, as in the Revision, "The grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men." There is not a soul on earth upon whom the sunlight of God's grace does not shine. "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." Rom. v. 20. "God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." Rom. v. 8. And "He died for all." By the grace of God He "tasted death for every man." Heb. ii. 9. In the judgment it will appear that upon every man has the glory of God's grace shone, more than sufficient to take away all sin.

The question will be asked, "Then why will not all be saved, if the Sun of righteousness shines upon all, and there is salvation in the light of His countenance?" The answer is at hand. Read the words of the Apostle Paul: "Having therefore such a hope, we use great plainness of speech, and are not as Moses, who put a veil upon his face, that the children of Israel should not look steadfastly on the end of that which was passing away; but their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remaineth unlifted; which veil is done away in Christ. But unto this day, whensoever Moses is read, a veil lieth upon their heart. But whensoever it or man shall turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit." 2 Cor. iii. 12-18. R.V.

After the Lord had spoken the law to the people, He called Moses up into the mount to receive it. Moses was with the Lord forty days and forty nights. When he came down to talk with the people, they were afraid to come near him, because his face shone so brightly, although he himself did not know it. So he had to put a veil on while he talked with them; but when he returned to talk with God he took it off, and talked with the Lord with unveiled face. See Ex. xxxiv. 29-35. It is from this circumstance that the apostle draws the lesson. Note the following points.

The mount upon which the Lord descended could not be approached by the people; to touch it was death. Yet Moses ascended it in safety. The people could not look upon the face of Moses, because of the glory of God which it reflected, yet Moses talked with the Lord with unveiled face. Why this difference? It was not any difference in constitution, nor because God was partial to Moses, but because Moses had faith, and they had not. "By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible." Heb. xi. 27. But their minds were blinded; and blindness of mind is unbelief. If they had taken the veil of unbelief off from their hearts, they could have beheld the reflected glory of God in the face of Moses, as well as he could behold the glory more directly. Indeed, they could have beheld the same glory that he did, and their faces would have

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shone also. So we see that while the face of the Lord is shedding glorious beams of grace upon all the people of the earth, many receive none of its life-giving warmth, because they cover themselves with a veil of unbelief.

Still further; unbelief is self-exaltation, but faith is humility. "Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith." Hab. ii. 4. Humility acknowledges Him as all-wise, all-powerful, and all-righteous. It acknowledges that He alone is good. It says with the prophet, "O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto Thee, but unto us confusion of face, . . . because we have sinned against Thee." Dan. ix. 7, 8. Faith always means humility of heart, and confession of sin. Unbelief always exalts self, and refuses to acknowledge sin. So unbelief is a veil that covers up sin. "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." Prov. xxviii. 13. Unbelief covers them, but faith in the mercy of God acknowledges them, and lets the light of His countenance shine upon them to take them away.

The glory of the Lord will always consume sin. It is true that for a time men may seem to conceal it, but when the Lord comes He "will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the heart." 1 Cor. iv. 5. Then all the wicked, who have exalted themselves against God, shall be consumed with the Spirit of His mouth, and destroyed with the brightness of His coming. 2 Thess. ii. 8. The glory of the Lord will utterly consume all sin, and those who have kept it covered in their own hearts until that time, and have held it as a part of themselves, will be consumed with it. But those who by acknowledging it, have disavowed it, and have laid it open to the light of His countenance, find salvation in the glory of the Lord. The wicked will call for the rocks and mountains to fall on them, to hide them from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne (Rev. vi. 16); while the righteous, when His glory shall be revealed, will "be glad with exceeding joy."

Therefore let us heed the exhortation: "Seek the Lord, and His strength; seek His face ever more." Ps. cv. 4. "When Thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek." Ps. xxvii. 8. "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me; He shall set me up upon a rock."

"Hear and Live" The Present Truth 9, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

With the exception of the fourth and fifth commandments, all of them begin with the words, "Thou shalt not." They are not merely negative, however, for they are all summed up in the two great positive commandments, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind," and, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."

Too often these are regarded as mere arbitrary commands, but they are much more than that. There is a power in them that does not pertain to ordinary words. It is the power of the word of God, which is life itself. Christ said, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." John vi. 63. Being the very Spirit of life, they give life to all who hear them.

Of the life-giving power of the word of the Lord, we have instances in the resurrection of Lazarus and the ruler's daughter. Christ said: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live." John v. 25. And then follows the statement that as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself, so that when the hour comes all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth.

"Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Rom. x. 17. "With the heart man believeth." So that the hearing of faith puts the words of God in the heart. But Christ dwells in the heart by faith (Eph. iii. 17), because His Spirit is in His word; so that the hearing of faith brings the life of Christ into the heart, and that is righteousness.

But this is the putting of the law in the heart; for when Moses exhorted the people to keep the commandments he said, "For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it." Deut. xxx. 11-14.

In the tenth of Romans, just before the apostle's conclusion that faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, this passage from Deuteronomy is quoted, and it is shown that the "commandment" refers to Christ, who is the soul and substance of the law. And that this is what Moses meant by the words is shown from Paul's statement that the words of Moses are the language of "the righteousness which is of faith." And further, by the words of Moses himself: "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live; that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him; for He is thy life, and the length of thy days." Deut. xxx. 19, 20.

Life comes through keeping the commandments (Matt. xix. 17; Rev. xxii. 14); but Christ is the life of the law, and He dwells in the heart by faith in His word. Thus the law as the real righteousness of God, and not the mere form, is life, and has power to give life. David said, "This is my comfort in my affliction; for Thy word hath quickened me." Ps. cxix. 50.

"Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart." Deut. vi. 4-6. How in the heart? By faith. And how does faith come? by hearing. The idea is that, just as at the last day those who hear the voice of God will be raised to life, out of their graves, so now those who really hearken to His commandments will receive the life of them.

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Accordingly the Lord testified as follows: "Hear, O My people and I will testify unto thee; O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto Me, there shall no strange God be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god." Ps. lxxxi. 8, 9.

If the children of Israel had only listened to the Lord continually, He would have assured their salvation. While they were listening to Him, He would have taken upon Himself the responsibility of keeping them free from idolatry and all sin. So when in the law, He says "Thou shalt not," He means not simply to forbid our doing the things spoken of, but also to assure us that we shall not do them if we but hear in faith, recognizing Him in them.

So through the prophet he says, "O that thou hadst hearkened unto My commandments; then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea." Isa. xlviii. 18. And again He exhorts, "Incline your ear, and come unto Me, hear, and your soul shall live." Isa. lv. iii.

This is a comforting assurance. But one thing should not be lost sight of, and that is that the righteousness which comes by the hearing of faith is not a mere passive righteousness. It is the active righteousness of God. And, moreover, it is just that righteousness which is demanded in the ten commandments, without any variation. He who hears must hear the very words of God, and the ten commandments are the words that God spoke with His own voice. He did not say, "The first day is the Sabbath of the Lord," but He did say, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Since God never commanded the observance of the first day of the week, no one can hear those words at His mouth; consequently there can be neither life nor righteousness in such observance.

"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God;" "He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear." But "take heed how ye hear."

"God without Christ" The Present Truth 9, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

God without Christ .-We very often hear of some man who believes in God, but not in Christ. Such an one is called a deist, in distinction from one who does not profess to believe in God at all, who is called an atheist. It seems to be generally considered that a man is pretty well along on the way of truth if he professes to believe in God, although he rejects Christ. As a matter of fact such belief is simple paganism. Christ said, "No man knoweth the Son but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." Matt. xi. 27. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." John i. 18. God is revealed only in Christ. Therefore the man who says that he believes in God but does not believe in Christ, thereby proclaims that he does not believe in the true God, the God of the Bible, but in a god of his own imagination. Men make many fine distinctions between different grades of unbelief, but in the judgment there will be but two classes: Christians and heathen,-those who know God, and those who know Him not.

"'Christian Nations'" The Present Truth 9, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

At the recent public meeting of the Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade, the Hon. W. S. Caine, M.P., said that nothing in the world could exceed "the villainy of the excise statutes of the Christian Government of India."

We were reminded of a remark said to have been made by a Rhode Island Baptist, in the colonial days of America. Riding through the country, in the border of Connecticut, he drew up by the side of a group of men in a village, who were officially engaged in whipping a Quaker for nonconformity. After looking on for a few moments, he said to the men. "You serve the Lord as though you had the devil in you;" and then he prudently put spurs to his horse, and road over the border into Rhode Island, where deviltry was not legally dignified with the name of Christianity.

It is strange how strong a hold the idea of "Christian nations" and "Christian Governments" has obtained upon the minds of people. So wedded have they become to the idea that certain Governments are Christian, that they can speak of the most villainous acts, deliberately and persistently perpetrated, as the acts of a "Christian Government." The English Government engages in the production and sale of opium, having made a market for it by the use of cannon and bayonets; the United States for nearly a century kept millions of men, women, and children in cruel slavery, and coolly disregards its treaty with China, and yet both are called Christian nations. When once a nation has been by some mystical means baptised "Christian," nothing that it afterwards does can ever deprive it of its "Christianity."

The simple truth is, that people mistake a certain grade of civilisation for Christianity. China and Japan have been very exclusive, not wishing any intercourse with foreigners. That is set down to their benighted condition. The United States excludes the Chinese, and proceeds to prohibit all immigration for a year, and that is wise statesmanship. Where is the difference?

This idea that certain nations are Christian has been and must ever be a serious hindrance to missionary effort. In the first place, if the missionary goes to a foreign country imbued with the thought that his country is a Christian nation, then it naturally follows that the standard of his missionary effort will be to a certain degree his own country, and not the simple truths of the Bible. He will try to Anglicise or Americanise the natives of that country, rather than actually Christianise them, because he will labour under the mistaken idea that to do so is to Christianise them. And when that foreign country can be brought to establish its laws somewhat after the English or American model, or, better still, can be brought under the "protectorate" of one of those nations, then it is a "Christian nation." The only result of all this is to lower the standard of Christianity, and to call every act of those nations a Christian act, no matter how "villainous" it is. Still further, it lowers the standard of Christianity, by fostering the idea that every man who obeys the laws of the land is a Christian, and that Christianity goes no further than the outward profession of morality.

Again, the idea that certain nations are Christian is a hindrance to missionary work, because it forces missionaries to make apologies when they ought to be proclaiming the truth with authority. American missionaries to Africa complain that when the heathen ask them why their "Christian Government" sends out rum to poison people by the same ships that bring the missionaries, they are put to shame, and cannot reply. This, they say hinders their work.

Miss Soonderbai Powar, in her plea for justice for her people at the hands of the English Government, in the matter of its opium traffic in India, says: "When your missionaries go to preach to my country people, they often reply, 'Go and convert your Christian Government first, and then come and tell us about your Christ.'"

Now there can be no apology for the opium and the liquor traffic. The effect is to destroy both soul and body. But the missionaries ought not to be troubled by it in India and Africa any more than they would be if laboring in England or America. What should they say when the natives of those countries tax them with the inconsistency of their "Christian" Government? Simply that the Governments are not Christian in any sense of the word, and that it is an utter impossibility that there should ever be on this earth such a thing as a Christian nation.

Then if the missionaries are asked why they have left their own land to convert the heathen in India or Africa, while there are heathen at home, they can say that they have left many missionaries at home, labouring for the heathen there, and that they came to where the need is greater. They should teach them from the very beginning that Christianity is an individual

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and not a national matter; that "God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him." Acts x. 34, 35. They should teach them that Governments as such have nothing to do with religion, and that every man is answerable to God alone for himself alone. When this is done, a higher type of Christianity may be seen. It may be galling to one's feelings of "patriotism" to acknowledge that the country from which he comes is not a Christian nation, but that it is, so far as the Government is concerned, essentially heathen; but "patriotism" should not take the place of loyalty to God and to His truth.

But some suppose that the recognition of God in the laws of the nation, and the supporting of religion, makes it a Christian nation. On the contrary that is a mark of a heathen nation. In the very beginning of earthly Government, the people incorporated into their laws the recognition of God, and required all to worship him. But it was only their conception of God that was recognized, and their interpretation of His laws that was enforced; and man's conception of God is an idol. Whoever thinks to make God his God, simply makes a caricature of God, and worships that. We are to let God be our God, as He says He will be. In that case we take Him for all that He is, in all His inconceivable greatness, without attempting to define Him. But when we propose to make Him our God, we immediately limit Him, and enthrone that which our minds conceive. Thus all the abominable idols of the nations have been formed.

Moreover, since God is Spirit, and His law is spiritual, it is absolutely impossible that His worship can be enforced by civil Government; for human Governments cannot make the man spiritual. They cannot define spirituality. Therefore the laws which are passed in favor of religion are altogether different from Christianity. It is spiritual, but they are carnal, springing from the mind of man. But whatever is different from Christianity is heathenism. Therefore, as stated before, the characteristic of a heathen nation is its presuming to interfere in matters of religion, and dictating how men shall serve God.

There will yet be a Christian nation on this earth, but not in its present state. It will be when Christ shall have gathered His people out of all the nations of earth, and when, the wicked having been destroyed, He Himself will reign over the earth made new. Then the will of God will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. It will not be a forced service, but it will be a service of love. It will be a Christian nation, not because compulsion will be exercised to make men conform to righteous laws, but because the law of God will be in the heart of every man, as his very life. For that blessed state the Lord is now preparing men by the preaching of His word and the power of the Holy Spirit.

"Some Contrasts" The Present Truth 9, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

There is a general idea that people who want to rest on Sunday cannot do so unless others who do not want to rest on that day are compelled to. The President of the Wholesale Newsagents' Association thinks that Sunday newspapers ought to cease, so that his men can rest on Sunday. In reply to the question, "Do you object to their being published at all, then?" Mr. Moseley replied:-"Certainly I do. The publican and the shopkeeper are compelled to rest on the Sunday; I think the newspaper-producers-printers, publishers, and everybody else-should be made to rest too. It sounds somewhat 'large,' perhaps, but I think an act of Parliament ought to be passed to prohibit the publication of newspapers on Sunday."

Another man makes the same plea. He wants to close his news stands, but he says that he "must open in self-defence." How is that? Oh, if he doesn't, somebody else will make a little more money than he does.

But there was never yet a plea for the necessity of Sunday laws that was not offset by somebody else in the same business as those making the plea. Mr. White, manager for W. H. Smith & Sons, the great news-dealers, on being approached regarding Sunday newspapers, said that he could not tell about their sale because that firm did not handle them. And being asked if this was from principle, he replied:-

"Yes. We have never asked our employÈs to work on Sunday, and we certainly see no reason for making a new departure now. We have always refused to supply any Sunday papers whatever."

Thus the fallacy of the notion that men cannot abstain from work on Sunday without a law compelling them and everybody else to do so, is once more exposed.

The fact that there are thousands of people in all parts of the world who keep the seventh day of the week,-the Sabbath of the Lord,-not only without there being any civil recognition of the day, but with the laws and the customs of the people generally against it, is sufficient proof that there is no necessity for a civil law in order that men may rest. Although these people are numbered by thousands, they are nevertheless an exceedingly small minority of the people in any community. They are found in nearly every large city of Europe and America, where business is most thriving on the seventh day, yet they keep the day, worshipping in peace and quiet. The fact that other people ignore the commandment of the Lord, does not hinder them from obeying it. They do not ask for the passage of civil laws to enable them to rest on the Sabbath day, and would most earnestly protest against any proposal to pass such laws, even if they were in a majority in any community, and Local Option were in vogue on the Sabbath question. The Law of God is sufficient warrant for them to keep the Sabbath, and the power of the Creator-the maker of the Sabbath-is sufficient for their support in so doing.

RELIGION-that is the religion of Jesus Christ-is wholly a matter of love. Its power is wholly the power of love. God's law is a law of love. People have a wrong idea of the Government and the Law of God. His Government is not one of force. His law is not for the purpose of enforcing men to do right. "His commandment is life everlasting." John xii. 50. Its power is that of the sunshine and the rain upon the earth. It is gently shed abroad in the heart of the one who will yield to the influence of the Spirit of God, and brings forth its own fruit in the life.

But there can be nothing of this kind in the religion enforced by civil law. That is a religion of force, and not of love, for the power of the civil law is simply the power of the State, and that is represented by its officers, and the number of men that can bear arms. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. That religion which does not depend wholly on the power of God for its propagation, is not the Gospel. And right here it is worthy of note, that in all history there is no instance of the civil power ever having been invoked to enforce the observance of any precept of the Lord. In fact, such a thing would be impossible. Whenever human law has been called into requisition in connection with professed Christianity, it has been for the purpose of compelling the observance of some purely human dogma, or of some ordinance that has been perverted. The pure religion of Jesus Christ does not lend itself to the actions of Parliaments and Courts.

In this may be found the secret of the case with which Sabbath-keepers can keep the seventh day, without the aid of any civil law, as contrasted with the difficulty which Sunday-keepers find in keeping the first day, even with a civil law back of it. Sabbath-keeping rests on the living law of the living God. It is a recognition of the power of God to uphold all things, and carries with it the assurance of support from the Creator.

With Sunday it is different. There

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being no Divine sanction for it, there is no life in it. Thus men who have been taught to think that they ought to rest on Sunday, and who profess that they want to, do not do so because others do not. They are afraid that somebody else will get some of their business if they close on Sunday. So they plead for a law that will enable them to close their business on Sunday without any fear of loss. They virtually say to Parliament, "I will do what I think I ought to do, if you will pay me for it." That is the religion of Sunday legislation. It is strange that professed ministers of the Gospel have so low a view of what real Christianity is, that they can take pleasure in such service as that, and can think that those who keep Sunday on such a basis as that are any gain to Christianity. Do not these things show that there is great need of the preaching of the true Gospel, and even in so-called Christian lands? Men need to be directed to the power that made the heavens and the earth in six days, and rested the seventh day, so that they may say, "Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth." Ps. cxxiv. 8.

"Paternalism in Government" The Present Truth 9, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

There seems to be quite general agreement with the statement in Mr. Cleveland's inaugural address, that the function of government does not include support of the people. Commenting on his attack on "paternalism" in government, the Christian Commonwealth says:

"Just here he touched a most vital point, and it needs emphasis in this country as well as in America. The people are in constant danger of acting upon the principle that it is the duty of the Government to support them instead of it being their duty to support the Government. Nothing is more common than to suppose that a Government is capable of helping all those who are in difficulty or need, and in order to meet the expectation of the people many members of Parliament are constantly attempting to do the impossible. Hence the evils of class legislation and legislation in the interests of them who think the Government should exercise a paternal care over them."

"At present very many hold the Government in authority for the time being responsible for all the ills that come upon the people. But nothing could be more absurd than this. The prosperity of the people must depend very largely upon themselves. Government has its proper function, and when faithfully exercising that function is entitled to the fullest support of all loyal citizens. But when Government assumes the function of paternalism it at once becomes an evil instead of a good. Let us not make a mistake at this point. Most of the evils of society can be cured only by making each individual what we would wish the whole to be."

All this is good, but unfortunately it will not be carried into practice. None of those who applaud such sentiments seem to imagine that Sunday legislation and other religious legislation is the very worst form of paternalism in Government. If it is wrong for Government to support the people pecuniarily, how much worse it must be for it to carry them religiously. Nothing can be more demoralising to the people. The Comnonwealth might well have said that not only "most" but all "the evils of society can be cured only by making each individual what we would wish the whole to be." If it is desired that all the people should be religious, or should adhere to some special form of religion, it is lawful to labour with them individually to that end; but when the Government undertakes to become responsible for the religion of all the people, we have an exhibition of paternalism that is the worst sort of despotism.

"Theosophy" The Present Truth 9, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

Mrs. Besant has returned to England after a three months' tour in the United States, where she has been delivering lectures on Theosophy, which is a sort of sugar-coated Spiritualism. She states that the Theosophical movement has made great progress in America, and everywhere great audiences were eager to hear her. In New York she lectured to audiences of 4,000 to 5,000 persons, and in Yale College she had a large audience. The report says that "Mrs. Besant considers that there is a great future before the Theosophist movement in America, as it fills a widely expressed want amongst thoughtful Americans-the need for some certainty as to the problems of life beyond the grave." People are anxious for certainty but they ignore the Bible, the only place where the certainty of the future life may be found.

"Charts and Guide-Books" The Present Truth 9, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

Have you ever travelled on the ocean? Have you ever been tossed about by the great waves for days and days with never a sight of land? And have you finally danced for joy as you safely neared the long-looked for harbour, where you could once more see the faces of loved ones, and walk the shores of your native land?

Have you ever watched the captain, and wondered how he knew which way to go, when there was not a tree or a house or even a bit of land to be seen? Why does he not get lost and go to some far-off country instead of the one he wishes to go to? When it gets dark why does he not run upon an island, or dash the ship to pieces on some great rock?

Ah, it is because he has a chart and a compass and the sun and stars to guide him. Without something to guide him he could not find the way any better than you could.

Upon the chart is pictured out the whole ocean,-its safe waters and its unsafe waters, its islands and dangerous rocks, its countries and harbours along its shores. The compass shows him which way is north and south and east and west, and the sun and stars show him in what part of the ocean he is.

What a dreadful thing it would be if a captain should start out with a false chart and a false compass! What if the chart should say there were safe places, where there were no safe places, and the compass should point to the east or west when it ought to point to the north! Would you like to go on that voyage? He might land you among bloodthirsty savages, or take you where you would be dashed to pieces on the cruel rocks, or be frozen to death among the icebergs, or come to some other frightful end. When you go on an ocean voyage, then, you need a good chart, and a good compass, yes, and a good captain too, for you could not guide your ship right, even if you had the chart and compass.

Again: Would you like to journey through the Alps, with a false guide-book, where one wrong step might hurl you hundreds and hundreds of feet down a steep precipice? No, indeed! and if you carefully followed a good guide-book you would also secure a trustworthy guide before you started up the mountain, for though you should see the right way, you could not go over that dangerous road without help. You would need to have a good strong guide to take hold of your hand,-one who had been over the road before and knew all about it.

But stop and think a moment. Do you not need a good chart and compass and a good captain on your journey to heaven, as much as you possibly could in your journey on the ocean? Do you not need a good guide-book and a trusty guide, as much as you ever could in the Alps?

I do not mean that you must cross oceans and climb mountains to get to heaven, but I do mean that you will pass over places that are just as difficult and just as dangerous. If you should get into wrong ways or habits, and fall into sin, it would be far more dangerous than for you to get into a wrong road on the mountains and fall into the ice crevasses. If you did not get out of the sin and back into the right way, you would be lost not only for this life but for the one to come.

Satan and the other evil angels who were cast out of heaven because they sinned, hate God and hate you. They are all the time trying to lead you into wicked paths where you will be destroyed. They have placed public-houses, gambling dens, and many other traps and snares along your path, thinking that if they do not catch you in one, they surely will in another. If they can get you into the habit of disobeying your parents, they feel sure that it will not be long until you will fall into some other of their nets. If you could only once see the many dangerous and slippery pitfalls of sin that Satan has placed on every side of you, you would see how very much you need a good guide-book and a trusty guide. Just as surely as you try to go to heaven without a strong and a trusty guide,-one who knows the right way because he has been over it, one who knows how to overcome Satan and keep out of his snares,-just so surely you will be entangled in some of his nets and be overcome; for Satan is stronger than you.

Above all things be sure that you get the right guide-book and the right guide.

"False Guide-Books in India" The Present Truth 9, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

Satan has engaged many false guides and has caused many false guide-books to be written, which claim to show the way to heaven. You will need to be careful, for he has made his false guide-books and charts appear as much like the good ones as he can, so that people will not be apt to notice the difference until it is too late.

Thousands and thousands of the people of India have taken these false guide-books as their guides to heaven, and that is the reason we find them to-day in such a helpless, hopeless condition. They have been guided here and there through the broad and crooked by-paths of sin and death, but never once into the straight and narrow path of righteousness and life. We find them no nearer heaven to-day than they were before.

The guide-books used by millions of Hindus in India are called the Vedas. One is a sort of hymn-book, another a chant or tune book, one a prayer-book, and still another, partly verse and partly prose, tells them what to do under all sorts of circumstances. Then they have other books with long names, one telling specially the duties of the priests, another the duties of the hermits, etc.

As all of these guide-books are said to come from heaven, the Hindus follow them very closely. But you can see for yourself whether they are true guide-books to heaven, or false guide-books, whether they are leading the Hindus nearer to God, or farther away from God.

The hymns and prayers in these books are not as you would suppose, to be sung and prayed to the God who created heaven and earth and all things. But they are all to false gods who can neither hear nor help them. Many of them are to the god of rain, and the god of fire; others are to the storm gods, and many, many other gods. In one of the Vedas there are a hundred and fourteen hymns, all in one part, addressed to Soma, the juice of the "moon-plant"!

The Hindus are led not only to worship millions of false gods, but the Vedas say that it is only when people have been drinking a great deal of strong drink that they are able to worship properly. So at the feasts which they give to their gods their houses are filled with drunken men and women.

Their worship consists mostly in gifts of different animals. Thousands are sometimes killed in one day around one idol, until the blood runs in streams. They even offered human beings to their gods until the British Government would not allow them to do it any more. But they do not worship their gods because they love them, but because they are afraid of them. They are led to believe

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that they will cause some dreadful thing to come upon them unless they offer them plenty of blood. They live in fear and dread all the time.

Their religion also leads them to treat their widows with the greatest cruelty, and they even burned them alive until the Government stopped it. But we shall speak more of some of these things at another time.

Another large class of people in India are called Mohammedans because they are following a guide by the name of Mohammed. He told them that his guide-book, the Koran, was given him from heaven. They therefore follow it very strictly. They can plainly see that the Vedas are false gods, but they cannot so readily see that the Koran and Traditions of Mohammed are false, because they teach the true God and some other things that are taught by the true guide-book. Satan has tried to get them to appear as nearly like the good guide-book as he can, but by noticing them carefully we who have seen the true guide-book can see that the most important directions in the whole journey are left out. No wonder, then, that the poor people who follow them the most faithfully become disappointed and are often in utter despair, for they find neither God nor heaven.

We know that there is only one Way and one Door to God and heaven. But the Koran says to the poor Mohammedan, "There is no door there, there is no door there!" and leads them around by another way. So although some of them have spent their whole lives wandering around trying to find the door to happiness and God, they have never found it. If they do not learn of the true way soon, they will be led into the lake of fire instead of into heaven. That is where every one of Satan's false ways lead to. What a cunning old liar Satan is! He has caused this false guide-book to appear so nearly like the true that many millions of people have been deceived by it. And it is said to-day that more people follow the Koran than follow the true guide-book.

The Koran says, "There is no God but one, and Mohammed is His prophet," that God has no Son, and that Jesus was never crucified, but was just a prophet like other prophets. Mohammed is said to be a greater prophet than Jesus.

Mohammedans must pray five times a day, at sunrise, noon, afternoon sunset, and late evening. But on Friday their prayers must be said in the mosque, that is, the prayers of the men; the women are never allowed to enter a mosque. When they pray they must always turn their faces toward Mecca, the place where Mohammed was born and where their sacred temple is. All their prayers are in Arabic, a language which very few of them can understand.

They therefore do not know what they are praying about! Do you think such prayers can do them much good? They must always wash before they pray, if not with water, then with clean sand. "Besides learning the words of their prayers, the children have to learn a great deal about how they are to stand when they pray, how to clasp their hands, and throw themselves down on the ground, and count beads, etc."

The Mohammedans are led to treat the women "even more cruelly than the Hindus, and keep the ladies more closely shut up." The Koran tells them to fight for their religion, and Mohammed taught that it was right to kill those who did not believe as they did. They may each have four wives, while Mohammed had fourteen or fifteen. The Koran also says that everybody should make at least one pilgrimage to Mecca.

One Mohammedan named Imaduddin learned the whole Koran and all the Mohammedan laws and traditions, so anxious was he to find God and happiness. But it did him no good. Then he became a fakir "living apart from men, talking but little, eating little, afflicting his body and keeping awake nights. He sat on the graves of holy men, said his five prayers every day, also a prayer in the night, in the very early morning, and at dawn, and was always repeating the Mohammedan confession of faith. He often spent half the night in silence at a tomb," and finally he left the rest of the world and went into the lonely jungles. Step by step he traveled 2,588 miles "in search only of God." But the false guide-book was leading him in the wrong way and he could not find Him, and Mohammed had said that he must not look into the true guide-book. He washed in a stream, sat in a particular manner on one knee for twelve days, and repeated aloud a certain prayer thirty times every day. He ate nothing but unsalted barley bread made with his own hands, and fasted entirely during the day. He remained barefooted, and did not touch any man, nor-except at an appointed time-speak to anyone. During those twelve days he wrote the name of God upon paper 125,000 times, cut out each word separately with scissors, wrapped it in a little ball of flour and fed the fishes with it, in the way his books said. Half of the night he kept

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awake and in his thoughts wrote the name of God upon his heart. Poor man! he had gone everywhere the Mohammedan guide-books had told him to go, and had done everything that they had told him to do, and he was no nearer God or happiness than when he began, and was so ill and weak that he "could not hold himself up against the wind." But, thank God, he finally got hold of a true Guide-Book, and it was not long till he had found God. He is now full of peace and comfort and joy!

The Parsees, or fire-worshippers, follow a false guide-book called the Avesta. The Jains have false guide-books called Yogas and Puranas, the Sikhs follow the Granth, and other classes still other guide-books which we have not time even to mention.

No wonder that the people of India are not in the right way, and are in the "gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity." It is because they are following false guides and false guide-books.

"The True Guide-Book and Guide" The Present Truth 9, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

My DEAR YOUNG FRIEND, there is no need of your wandering round all your life, like the Hindu or Mohammedan, in a hopeless search for God and happiness. You may find Him now, and you may also find happiness such as this world cannot take away,-if you follow the Holy Bible, the true Guide-Book.

"How do you know it is the true Guide-Book?" you say.

I know it just the same way that you know when you have a good apple:-I have tasted and seen that it is good; I have tried it, and it is just what it professes to be; I have followed it, and it leads me just where it says it will; I have tried Jesus, the true Guide whom it recommends, and I find Him all that heart can wish; I find that He fully satisfies; I find that He knows every step of the way, has been over it before, and knows exactly how I feel and just what help I need. He is so gentle, so good, so loving, and so kind. He not only knows how to help me, but He has power to help me, for He made the heavens and earth out of nothing, and by His word stilled the stormy waters of Galilee, and He resisted Satan until he fled from Him.

I first tried to follow the Guide-Book without the Guide, but I found that that was impossible. Although it seemed to tell so plainly where to go and just what to do to find God and heaven, I found no power in myself to follow it, and no power in it to lead me. As long as I refused to follow its advice about the Guide, I found the Guide-Book of no help to me at all. But as soon as I acknowledged that I could not do it myself and accepted Jesus as my Guide, the Bible became like a lamp to my feet and a light to my path, because it is always light where Jesus is.

I just told Him that I was tired of sin and following Satan, and wanted Him to lead me. Then I studied the Guide-Book, and His life and power came into my heart with the words, until I was able to do what it said; and yet not I, but Jesus, my Guide, that lived in me. And I find that just as long as I carefully study my Guide-Book and allow Jesus to be my Guide, I do not lose my way, but each day brings me nearer and nearer to heaven.

Do you see why it is so necessary to come to Jesus? He Himself says that it is because He is the only Way and the only Door to God and heaven. So of course we cannot get there unless we come to Him any more than we could get into a room unless we went to the door. That is the reason the Mohammedan cannot find God. He is following a guide-book that does not tell him where the true Door is. You remember the Koran says that Jesus is only a man and was not crucified to open a way from us to His Father.

Although we have the true Guide-Book, it is just as necessary for us to go to the Door as it is for the children of India. When we have found the right Door as it is for the children of India. When we have found the right Door then God can use us to show others the right way. But how can we show others what we do not know ourselves?

Your Bible is worth more to you than all the other books in the world, for it is the only true Guide-Book to righteousness, happiness, and heaven.

But remember that you can have a Bible on your table, another in your bookshelves, and still another in your pocket, and it never can lead you a step towards heaven until you love it, and study it, and do as it says. And you cannot do one thing that it says without Jesus the Captain, the powerful and loving Guide. He is no respecter of persons. He is just as willing to help you as He is to help me.

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

Sea fowls' eggs have one remarkable peculiarity-they are nearly conical in form, broad at the base, and sharp at the point, so that they will roll only in a circle. They are sometimes laid on the bare edges of high rocks, from which they would almost surely roll off save for this happy provision of nature.

-The average supply of fish at Billingsgate Market is 10,000 tone a month.

-London has 189 breweries, and London brewers use yearly some 11,000,000 bushels of grain in the manufacture of beer.

-Union Chapel, Islington, has one of the largest Sunday schools in London. There are over 3,000 children, with 304 teachers.

-Tremont Temple, the famous Baptist Church in Boston, Mass., U.S.A., was totally destroyed by fire on Sunday morning, March 19.

-Bomb throwing is becoming quite a regular thing in Rome, one being exploded in some public place every few days. Much uneasiness is naturally resulting therefrom/

-Love cannot live without action, and every act increases, strengthens, and extends it.

-Mr. Carlisle, Secretary of the Treasury at Washington, has announced his intention to enforce the Chinese Exclusion Act, forbidding the entrance of Chinese immigrants into United States territory.

-Japan is becoming a formidable rival to England in the matter of cotton-spinning. The Japanese cotton-spinners are exporting largely to China, their nearness to which gives them an enormous advantage.

-Another severe tornado has visited the Mississippi Valley. Eighteen deaths are known to have been caused by it, and hundreds of persons were injured. The damage to property is estimated at 2,000,000 doolars.

-The term "tabby cat" is derived from Atab, a famous street in Bagdad, inhabited by the manufacturers of silken stuff called "atibi," or "taffety." This stuff is woven with waved markings of watered silk resembling a "tabby" cat's coat.

-According to the latest report of the Russian Central Statistical Society, the total population of European Russia, including Finland, Russian Poland, and Cis-Cancasia, now reaches 102,000,000. Of these only 12,000,000 live in towns. Only eleven towns possess a population exceeding 100,000.

-The Austrian War Office has received a telegram to the effect that trials have been made at Mannheim of a bullet-proof uniform cloth, the invention of an inhabitant of the town. The trials are said to have been entirely satisfactory. Bullets fired at a very short range failed to penetrate the cloth.

-A man made a mild attack upon King Humbert, of Italy, March 25. The missile thrown proved to be nothing but a ball of earth wrapped in paper. The man declared that he intended to insult the King because he declined to effect a reconciliation with the Pope. The aggressor was declared insane,

-Some time ago the Waldenses who inhabit the Italian side of the Cottian Alps sent a delegate to the United States to inquire into the prospects for settlers in North Carolina. Their report was favourable, and it is announced that 2,000 Waldenses will leave their historic valleys, and settle in America.

-In Russian Ministerial circles plans for the partial abolition of the passport system are being discussed. It is proposed to begin with the abolition of passports to village women who may be living in towns. As women do not pay taxes, their whereabouts is not a matter of importance to the village authorities.

-A disastrous hurricane passed over the New Hebrides Islands and New Caledonia on March 6. The storm was the worst ever known in those latitudes. It raged without intermission for three entire days, and the rainfall was extraordinary. Villages and plantations were destroyed, and a number of ships were driven ashore. There was considerable loss of life, and immense loss of property.

-The China Mail of February 7 gives particulars of intense and extraordinary cold weather in the Southern part of the Chinese Empire. Great numbers of the poor people froze to death. The charitable institutions found their stocks of coffins held in readiness to assist the poor speedily exhausted, and carpenters had to work extra hours to supply the demand, so great was the mortality because of the cold.

-Mr. John Branson, of Philadelphia, has informed the agent of the White Star Company in New York that he has had a spirit message revealing to him the fact that ten of the crew of the steamer Naronic have been lost, and that the vessel has stranded on the rocks 100 miles north of where one of the boats was passed by the steamer Coventry. The Naronic, he added, would be found to be a total wreck, but her cargo, machinery, and engines would be saved.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

The high position which the Pope of Rome assumes for himself may be seen in the fact that it is a question whether or not he will consent to receive Emperor William, of Germany, on his proposed visit to Rome. He will not receive the Emperor unless a certain ceremonial is observed. The Pope regards himself as greater than any king or emperor, and the worst of it is that most of them tamely acknowledge his arrogant pretensions.

At the town of Northwich, on the 28th ult., a number of tobacconists, sweet sellers, newspaper venders, and others, were summoned by the Chief Constable of Cheshire, at the instance of the Northwich Local Board, for offences under the Lord's Day Act. After a lengthy hearing, one of the number, a tobacconist, was fined 2s. 6d. "as a warning," and the others were dismissed. Two men arrested for selling newspapers got off on a technicality. It was stated, however, that they would "probably be summoned again for hawking or crying newspapers on the Sabbath."

From the Echo of March 29th we clip the following:-

"The legislators of the Isle of Man are very much averse to Sunday trading. At yesterday's meeting of the House of Keys a clause was introduced into the Local Government Bill prohibiting the sale or exposure of sale of merchandise, food, or newspapers on Sundays, under a penalty of 40s. for each offence. Milk dealers, and chemists selling medicines are excluded. The proposer said that the clause was specially aimed at the sale of newspapers and oysters in the streets and shops on Sundays. A member suggested that travelling by boat, railway, or car on Sundays should be prohibited. After a long discussion, the clause was passed by a large majority."

A meeting was recently held in Exeter Hall for the purpose of censuring the Indian missionaries, because in the Decennial Conference they did not pass a vote of condemnation on the Government. The Christian Commonwealth says that the only speaker who aroused any enthusiasm was Hugh Price Hughes, and that "the applause was prolonged and vociferous" when he declared that "the House of Commons will lie in the hollow of Christian hands when we give up quarrelling with one another, and unanimously quarrel with the devil."

This statement, together with the applause with which it was received, shows what is becoming more and more the popular idea of Christianity. It is that "the church" should control the Government, and be able to manipulate Parliaments and Legislatures. If Christianity means the doctrine of Christ, then that is not Christianity; for Christ countenanced no such thing. There is no more solemn and imperative duty resting upon Christians, than to declare and demonstrate that dabbling in politics and controlling Legislatures is not Christianity. The Gospel is "the power of God to every one that believeth." It is God's power, instead of human power; it deals with individuals instead of masses; and it reveals the righteousness of God to faith, and not to force.

The officers of the United States Government seem to be determined to furnish a practical commentary on the recent Supreme Court decision that the United States is a Christian Nation. For example read the following statement as to how the Collector of the port of San Francisco intends to enforce the Geary Chinese Exclusion Act, as soon as it goes into effect on May 5th:-

"The Collector, however, has made all plans for the biggest round-up of Chinese on that May morning ever seen in this country. By hiring a large force he will arrest simultaneously several thousand Chinese. Those found without passports will be bundled into express wagons with their baggage and taken to the wharf. There four tugs will convey them to Goat Island, in the bay, opposite San Francisco, and three miles away, where temporary buildings will be erected to shelter them till they can be shipped on the China steamers. The tugs will be provided with an armed guard, and a tug filled with crack rifle shots will patrol around the island. In this way it is estimated that 20,000 Chinese may be comfortably housed on the island at small expense."

If any one questions the Christianity of all this, the officers have only to refer him to the decision of the Supreme Court.

In the United States the churches already have such a control of Congress that the members dare not vote contrary to their wishes. We have already noted the enthusiastic and vociferous applause that greeted the statement of Hugh Price Hughes in regard to the House of Commons being held in the hollow of Christian hands. Now it seems that in Australia the same thing is proposed. From the New Zealand Herald we learn that in Victoria, "All the Protestant bodies have united in organising a representative body to be called the Council of Churches in Victoria. Each church is represented in proportion to its members, and the work the Council has taken in hand is to review the various political measures as they are brought forward, and judge them by a moral standard. If they decide that any proposed measure is 'morally right,' the churches will support it. If they decide that it is wrong, then the churches will oppose it with all their united strength."

The writer thinks that adversity is bringing the Protestant churches to their senses, so that they will henceforth not leave the Roman Catholic Church a monopoly of politics, and that the result will be to restore the lost influence of the church. Yes, it will restore to the church the influence that it had in the days of Constantine and the Dark Ages, and it will take from the church the last vestige of Spiritual power. And Roman Catholicism will be the gainer, for ecclesiastical interference in politics is essentially Roman, whether engaged in by professed Protestants or not.

A few days ago the Pope gave a private audience to a Mr. Moriarty, who had with him a phonograph, by means of which he delivered a congratulatory address on the occasion of the Episcopal jubilee. Messages were delivered by it also from the late Cardinal Manning, and from Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore. Mr. Moriarty begged that the Pope would speak into the phonograph a message to the American people, to be delivered at the opening of the Exposition in Chicago. Accordingly the Pope spoke into the phonograph, and then said: "I hand you this message. Guard it carefully, for it is the expression of my love for all the people of the United States. I wish you to deliver it with your own hand to the President." The message, which is in Latin, will not be made public until it is reproduced in America. This will undoubtedly prove a great attraction.

Under the heading, "Jesus, King of London," the Christian World of March 9 gives a brief resumÈ of the sermon by Mr. H. F. Horton on the previous Sunday evening, at Lyndhurst Road Chapel, Hampstead. Like most of the popular sermons of the present day, it was addressed to workingmen, and was interrupted more than once by cheering. "It was an interesting fact, he concluded, that there had never been a Duke or Count, or Lord of London. Let them explain to the rich and poor what Jesus really means, and then some day; by a vast unanimous election, they would make Jesus Christ King, Lord of London."

Has the character of our Lord changed? When He was here on earth He was once offered the lordship of the whole earth, and His indignant reply was "Get thee hence, Satan"; and still later when He saw that the people were determined to make Him king, He at once departed from them. It is strange that men cannot see that the kingdom of Christ can never come by force of arms nor by votes. A kingdom received in that way would be after all nothing but a government by the people, and not the kingdom of Christ.

April 20, 1893

"Unity and Uniformity" The Present Truth 9, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

Unity and Uniformity .-There may be the most perfect uniformity without the slightest approach to unity. A box full of marbles may be exactly uniform as regards size and shape and colour and the material from which they are made; but there is no unity among them, and it is impossible that there should be. There may be the same uniformity in a gross of buttons, but there can be no unity. There may be a connection between the buttons, by means of a string, but that is not union of the buttons.

In like manner there may be uniformity among people, without any unity. Since the days of Constantine strenuous efforts have been put forth by the ecclesiastical politicians to produce uniformity, and these efforts have been thought to be in the interests of Christian unity. In some cases uniformity has been attained, but there has been no more unity than there is in a gross of buttons fastened together by a string.

The Bible is full of the idea of unity in the church of Christ, but we do not read so much about uniformity. This unity is to be the unity of life and growth, and not a mere outward connection. In Christ's prayer to the Father for His disciples, He said, "And the glory that Thou gavest Me, I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one." John xvii. 22, 23. Here we see that the glory of the Lord is to effect the union of believers, and the union is to be that of the Father and the Son.

The union of the Father and the Son is union of Spirit. We can not comprehend this union, but we may know that it is not a forced union, but that it results from their very nature. They have one life. Their thoughts and purposes are the same, not because they come together and compare notes and agree to be alike, but because one life is in them both. So the union of believers is to be a vital union, or it is not any union at all. It is not accomplished by strife and debate and decisions of majorities, but by yielding the mind to Christ and hearing His voice. They are to be united by the mind and Spirit of Christ. The life of the Father and the Son in each member of the church will produce the most perfect union in the whole body.

For the human body is the most perfect example of unity, and it is the example that the Bible gives us. Christ is the head of the body, the church. Eph. i. 22, 23; Col. i. 18. "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many." 1 Cor. xii. 12-14. In the human body there are many members, and each member has a different office from the rest; there is not uniformity of action among the members, but there is the most perfect unity. All work together in perfect harmony for one object. So it is in the body of Christ. "There are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all."

This gives no ground for the idea that there may be divisions in the church of Christ, one division believing one thing, and another division believing and practising another thing. God has tempered the body together, that there should be no schism in the body." 1 Cor. xii. 24, 25. "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as we are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." Eph. iv. 4-6. The apostle's exhortation is, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." 1 Cor. i. 10. But let it be borne in mind that this union is not artificial, but natural; not the human nature, however, but the divine nature.

All political efforts for uniformity are antagonistic to the Gospel. A prominent man has recently stated that unity of religion is essential to the existence of a nation. That is what the Czar of Russia thinks, and the result is the most cruel and oppressive tyranny. That idea, which is seizing the most enlightened nations at the present day, is the foundation of the Inquisition. Christ desires unity, but He does not try to force it, because the unity which is essential is the unity of growth into Christ, and growth cannot be forced. The religion of Jesus is love, and force kills love. Where there is no love there is no righteousness; and therefore since "righteousness exalteth a nation," it is evident that the surest way to debase a nation is to attempt to produce perfect uniformity in matters of religion by means of law.

"Giving Thanks" The Present Truth 9, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

"In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." 1 Thess. v. 18. This is one of the most important commands in the Bible. On it depends all our peace, and the receiving of all the blessings which God has for us. No matter if everything does not appear favourable, we are to give thanks therein. This, like all of God's commandments, is not an arbitrary rule for us to follow blindly, but is most reasonable when we consider it from the side of God.

Very often people think that they have nothing for which to be thankful. This is the greatest mistake in the world. Even professed Christians often give way to such thoughts. Of course if they were to give candid thought to the matter they could see enough to give thanks for under all circumstances. But fortunately God has not left to us the task of searching out among the affairs of our lives those things for which we should be thankful. Here are the Divine directions: "Be not drunk with wine, wherein

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is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Eph. v. 18-20. So that instead of there ever not being anything for which we may return thanks, there is never anything for which we may not thank the Lord.

Some one may say, "I don't see how this can be done; there are some things of which it is impossible to be thankful." Not if one is a Christian. Some one will bring up to me some circumstance, and will ask, "How can I be thankful for that? What is there about that to be thankful for?" I cannot answer those questions. You must take them to the Lord, and let Him answer them for you. It is not necessary for us to know everything. It is sufficient for us to know that God knows all things; that He knows the way that we take, and is leading us, if we yield to Him; that He cares for us far more than we can care for ourselves; and that He has all power to do the good for us that His love prompts Him to do.

If we know but one thing, and really know that, we may be thankful under all circumstances, and for all things. "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." Rom. viii. 28. Some will ask, "How may we know that?" We may know it because God says so. That is reason enough. We are not called upon to know how it can be, but only to know the fact. "But perhaps I am not one of them who love the Lord." You can settle that very easily. It is the easiest thing in the world to love God. But we must not think that we are to force ourselves to love Him. No; that which is easy does not require force; and where there is force there is never love. Force destroys love. How may we love God? By thinking about Him. We cannot help loving things that are altogether lovely, if we but know them. God is love. He has shown His love for us in giving Himself for us. "God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Rom. v. 8. Whosoever meditates upon this one thing, cannot fail to love God. "We love, because He first loved us." 1 John iv. 19, R.V.

Now if we love God we shall know that all things work together for our good. We shall know it because He says so; and if we love Him we shall believe Him. Mark, that it does not say that all things shall work together for our good, but that all things do work for good. We do not have to wait until some future time for the good, but we get it as we go along. Everything that comes to the Christian is good. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. 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. 35-39.

Well, then, if everything that comes to the Christian is good, and he knows that it is good, how can he help giving thanks? Wouldn't he be a surley fellow, who would complain all the time, while he was all the time receiving good things? It is not for us to ask, "How can any good come from this or that thing?" We have nothing to do with that. God has taken on Himself the task of making all things work out our good, and as long as He knows how to do it, and is able to do it, that should be enough for us. But we may see this much, for the encouragement of our faith: Everything is in Christ. "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Rom. viii. 32. Mark it "all things." Both the things that seem bad, and the things that seem to be good. All come to us in Christ, if we are only His. The devil seeks our destruction, but Christ has conquered him, and has power to turn the greatest curses that he would bring upon us into blessings. He can make the wrath of man to praise Him. See how He overruled the hatred of Joseph's brethren, and made it work out His own purposes.

"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree; 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 one thing contains everything. The mystery of the cross has in it all other mysteries. It is by means of it that all things work together for our good. The law has for sinners only curses and death. But Christ receives in Himself, on the cross, the curse of the law, and suffers the death that the law pronounces upon the ungodly, and, lo, to every one who believes Christ, and through faith hides in Him, the law brings life and blessing. In His body death is turned to life, and cursing is turned to blessing. Here is Divine alchemy, far surpassing the wildest dreams of the old philosophers. They thought to find a means whereby all metals could be turned into perishing gold; but in Christ everything is transmuted into the gold of the everlasting kingdom of God,-into eternal life and glory.

In view of the cross, therefore, how plain becomes the exhortation and promises, "Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Phil. iv. 6, 7. Thanksgiving must be a part of every prayer. Thanksgiving for what? Why, for all things, as we have already read. Thank God not only for blessings in the past, but for the blessings that you are about to receive. Thank Him for the things for which you are making supplication. Only on this condition are you sure of receiving anything. "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. 24.

"How can we believe that we have the things, when we don't have them?" We can't, and we are not expected to. But we are to believe that we have the things, because we have them in the very promises of God, which are the basis of our prayers. If it were not for the promises of God, we could not pray at all. Prayer is simply coming to God with the promises He has made, and presenting them to Him, and claiming all that there is in them. The word of the Lord is a creative word. The things named is in the name. The substance of the thing promised is in the promise. When we take the promises in faith, then we have the things promised, and of course we can thank the Lord for them. Faith is the appropriating of the words of God. When it is said that we cannot receive anything without faith, that means that we cannot receive anything unless we take it. But if we believe the promises of God, then we do have the things asked for, and our thanksgiving from the heart is the evidence of our faith. If we have not faith enough to thank God for the things asked for, we have not faith enough to take the things that God has promised.

If every one would strictly follow the Divine injunction, to give thanks in everything and for everything, and in every prayer, there would be fewer lifeless prayers. Indeed there would not be any. There would be no talking at random in prayer. No one would dare ask for a

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thing for which he could not thank the Lord at the time, and that means that he would not dare ask for things for which there is no warrant in the word of the Lord. We should ask only in accordance with His will, and then we should know that God hears us, and that we have the things desired. See 1 John v. 14, 15. And then the peace of God, that passeth all understanding would keep our hearts and minds. Peace would flow as a river, and we should be filled with righteousness, even as the waves fill the sea.

One thing more: the good from thanksgiving is all to us. We do not thank the Lord for His benefit, but for our own salvation. Unthankfulness is the first step towards idolatry. The heathen became such, "because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful." Rom. i. 21. Thankfulness must necessarily result from a recognition of God and of His goodness. No one can realise that "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," without being deeply grateful to Him. Therefore whoever is not thankful, does not worship God. Unthankfulness arises from selfishness. The unthankful person is so because he is absorbed in himself, and worships self rather than God. Let us beware, then, lest we, through unthankfulness, lose not only the blessings which God has for us, but even the knowledge of God Himself. True worship consists not in making petitions to God, but in thanksgiving to God.

"'Christian Mission Colony'" The Present Truth 9, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

A few years ago William F. Davis, of Boston, Mass., U.S.A., refused to acknowledge the right of the Council of that city to prohibit preaching on Boston Common, and as he would not acknowledge their right to prohibit, he would not ask their leave. So he preached and was put in gaol. He has now organized a "Christian Mission Colony." "All who join must sign a covenant to repent of their sins, give all to God, and take Jehovah God as their Father, Jehovah Jesus for their Saviour, the Holy Spirit of Jehovah for their Sanctifier, the Word of God for their Creed and Rule, Christians only for their intimate friends, and God's promises for their inheritance. They also avow their fixed purpose never to knowingly give aid or countenance to Romanism, oath-bound secretism, sectism, poisoning with deadly drugs, covetousness, worldly amusements, indolence, or insubordination."

How difficult it is for men to learn to exercise that freedom to others that they claim for themselves. Although he does not know it, his "Colony" has in it all the seeds of the Inquisition. Every man's conscience and private life will have to undergo almost daily examination, in order to be sure that worldliness is not creeping into the Colony. But aside from this, the principle of exclusion is wrong. God wants His people to be the salt of the earth, and salt that is shut up in a box is not of any use. It may as well have no savour as to have it not in use. Christ does not want His people taken out of the world, but kept from the evil. Christianity that cannot stand contact with the world is not worth preserving.

"The Creature Instead of the Creator" The Present Truth 9, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse; because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their own hearts unto uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonoured among themselves; for that they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever." Rom. i. 18-25, R.V.

The above is a simple statement of the process by which men became heathen, losing not only the knowledge of the true God, but losing all knowledge, and becoming foolish in every sense of the word. We say it is a statement of the way in which men became heathen; but the same course will produce the same results still, and, unfortunately, that way is not a thing of the past.

The whole thing is summed up in the words, "exchanged the truth of God for a lie," or, as in the old version, "changed the truth of God into a lie." Both renderings are needed in order to get the full sense.

What is the truth of God? It is that He is the Creator, that He "created all things by Jesus Christ." "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him, and for Him; and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist." Col. i. 16, 17. He upholds all things by the word of His power. Heb. i. 3.

That is, not only was nothing brought into existence except through Christ, but nothing continues in existence except by His power. Christ is the power of God (1 Cor. i. 24), and the power of God is seen in the things that are made. Wherever in nature force and energy are manifested, there is evidence of the personal presence and working of Christ. The force of matter is the power of God, which is Christ.

Men speak of "gravitation" as though it were something inherent in the heavenly bodies, keeping them from crashing into one another, yet no one can define gravitation. But the Scriptures let us into the secret. "To whom then will ye liken Me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these, that bringeth out their host by number; 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. 25, 26. Gravitation, therefore, is simply the power of the word of God, He upholdeth all things by the word of His power.

So with "cohesion," the force which is manifested in like particles of matter, binding them together. Cohesion means, literally, to stick together. Ask the "philosopher" what holds the particles of matter together, and he will say that it is the force of cohesion, or adhesion if it be unlike particles of matter. That is to say, that they are held together by the power of holding together! The Scriptures tell us that as in Christ all things were created, so "in Him all things consist," or hold together. So the power which holds matter together is the power of Christ.

But such an answer as this would be considered foolishness. Even professed Christians have become so much under the influence of those who do not like to retain God in their knowledge, that they seem to think it is little less than sacrilege to thus recognize God in everything. Accordingly, God is left out of their system of philosophy, and matter is deified. Thus the truth of God is changed into a lie. The truth that God is seen in all His works, that there is nothing without His personal presence and care, is exchanged for the lie that matter controls itself by certain "natural laws" residing in it. This is the germ of all idolatry. Instead of seeing the power of God in everything, and glorifying Him, men saw everything as god. To the creature was attributed the power of the Creator.

A striking instance of this is furnished by the reflections of a noted modern philosopher upon a view of the Alps.

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The paragraph is given an honourable place in a daily paper. Here it is:-

"I looked over this wondrous scene towards Mont Blanc, the Grand Combin, the Dent Blanche, the Weisshorn, the Dom, and the thousand lesser peaks which seemed to join in the celebration of the risen day. I asked myself as on previous occasions, How was this colossal work performed? Who chiseled these mighty and picturesque masses out of a mere protuberance of the earth? And the answer was at hand. Ever young, ever mighty-with the vigour of a thousand worlds still within him-the real sculptor was even then climbing up the eastern sky. It was he who raised aloft the waters which cut out these ravines; it was he who planted the glaciers on the mountain-slopes, thus giving gravity a plough to open out the valleys; and it is he who, acting through the ages, will finally lay low these mighty monuments, rolling them gradually seaward, sowing the seeds of continents to be; so that the people of an older earth may see mould spread, and corn wave over the hidden rocks which, at this moment, bear the weight of the Jungfrau."

This is actual sun worship, for as there is no thought of the Creator, there can be no feeling of thankfulness to Him; and whatever glow of joy or admiration is called out by the sight is directed to the creature. The creature entirely eclipses the Creator.

Now when one thus deifies the creature and forgets the Creator, what is to hinder the actual worship of the creature? Nothing in the world. It was just in this way that in ancient times men came to worship the host of heaven, and birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. In the same way man was deified. Becoming vain in their imaginations, their foolish heart was darkened, says the apostle. The historian puts it thus:-

"There were a few sages of Greece and Rome who had conceived a more exalted, and, in some respects, a juster idea of human nature, though it must be confessed that in the sublime inquiry, their reason had been often guided by their imagination, and that their imagination had been prompted by their vanity. When they viewed with complacency the extent of their own mental powers, when they exercised the various faculties of memory, of fancy, and of judgment, in the most profound speculations, or the most important labours, and when they reflected on the desire for fame, which transported them into future ages, far beyond the bounds of death and the grave, they were unwilling to confound themselves with the beasts of the field, or to suppose that a being for whose dignity they entertained the most sincere admiration, could be limited to a spot of earth, and to a few years of duration."

So from looking upon inanimate nature, not as manifestly, but as having, the power of God, they came to deify man. Accordingly they very naturally came to consider the soul not merely as immortal, but as really self-existent-from everlasting to everlasting. Consequently men were regarded as Divine, and were worshipped after death. But it was not simply certain men, but humanity, that was regarded as Divine; and therefore the weaknesses and vices of humanity were regarded as attributes of Divinity. So their gods were monsters of crime, and the results stated in the first of Romans naturally followed.

Like causes will invariably produce like results. Therefore the inevitable result of leaving God out of the knowledge that is taught the people, will be the same wickedness that is described in the first of Romans. Read the closing verses: "Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up unto a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting; beig filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, unmerciful." Rom. i. 28-31.

Now compare with this list the following: "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; holding a form of godliness, but have denied the power thereof." 2 Tim. iii. 1-5, R.V.

What is the safeguard against this? The Gospel in its fulness. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth; and the power of God is creative power. Christ, the power of God, must be honoured as Creator. He must be recognised as the possessor of all power in heaven and in earth, and His power to save must be recognised as the power by which He creates. The power by which He keeps His people from falling, is the same power by which He upholds all nature.

The sign of this is the Sabbath,-the memorial of His wonderful works. God's power and Divinity are known by the things that He has made, and the Sabbath is a sign by which men know God. Eze. xx. 12, 20. It makes known the sanctifying power of God. So the Sabbath kept in Spirit and truth means the perfection of God. It means not simply resting upon the day of the Sabbath,-that is the form; but it means committing the soul to God in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator,-that is the power of godliness.

Here then we have before us the special danger of the last days, and the special message which warns against it. The message is that God is the Creator and upholder of all things, and that the Sabbath is the sign of His power. The Sabbath kept indeed, through the Spirit, is the sign of God's power working in the man just as it works in the sun, moon, and stars, and the plants. The power of God will be manifested in that man; but just as he refrains from deifying nature, and recognises God as the Supreme power in nature, so he disclaims any power of goodness in himself, and depends alone on God. And being thus grounded upon the everlasting Rock he is secure from the flood of error which Satan brings over the earth, and from the destruction which must follow.

"A Sign of the Times" The Present Truth 9, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

Nothing is more noteworthy than the growing prevalence of the observance of the so-called "festivals of the church." Mark it well, that they are church days, and not days commanded in the Bible. A generation ago the observance of Easter and Christmas was confined to the Roman Catholic Church, and its eldest daughter, the Church of England; but now nearly all the churches of the land make almost as much of them as do the first mentioned.

The Congregationalists are pointing with more and more pride to their descent from the Puritans, and have just celebrated the death of three of them, who were martyred in this city three hundred years ago, because they rejected Popish forms and vestments; yet we have seen Congregationalist houses of worship decorated for Eastern and Christmas; and less than a month ago a body of Congregationalist ministers in the city of Chicago voted "to recommend that so far as practicable Holy Week be observed by our churches with special devotional services, and more particularly on Thursday evening and Friday afternoon."

In the discussion of the resolution, one prominent minister "took ground in favour of the adoption of the Church Year, or at least so much of it as relates to Passion Week and Easter." His idea was that it would "bring before the churches the life and personality of Christ," and this, he said, "is a great need at the present time." Indeed it is; but think of it! A professed minister of the Gospel seriously arguing for the adoption of the Roman Catholic "Church Year," in order that the life and personality of Christ may be brought before the churches! Heaven pity the churches, if this observance of one day or one week in the year, is all that they have to bring before them the life and personality of Christ. But the growth of ritualism is always in proportion to the decadence of spirituality. And this then is one sign of the times.

But it is when we consider the origin of these festivals, that we see where the churches are drifting, in their observance of them. We shall confine our attention

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at this time wholly to Easter. John Richard Green the historian, says that "Eoster, the god of the dawn or the spring, lends his name to the Christian festival of the resurrection."-History of the English People, section 20. Dr. Schaff says, "The English Easter, Anglo-Saxon Oster, German Ostern, is at all events connected with East and sunrise. . . . . The comparison of sunrise and the natural spring with the new moral creation in the resurrection of Christ, and the transfer of the celebration of Ostara, the old German divinity of the rising, health-bringing light, to the Christian Easter festival, was the easier, because all nature is a symbol of spirit, and the heathen myths are dim presentiments and carnal anticipations of Christian truths."-History of the Christian Church, vol. 1, sec. 99.

We may not accept the statement that the heathen myths are presentiments of Christian truths; but the statement is of importance as showing that the so-called Christian festival of Easter had only a heathen origin. It was a part of the nature worship of the ancients. The fact is very well stated in an editorial in the Daily Chronicle of March 31: "Easter Sunday, too, is related to the ancient celebrations, as that of Demeter, at Eleusis, of the annual resurrection of nature after the long black winter sleep. At Eleusis the very appearance of the time of the goddess might have suggested to a later observer the aspect of a Catholic cathedral. The altar was ablaze with lights. The smoke of incense filled the air, the chant of thanksgiving rose and fell on the ear."

When men began to worship and serve the creature instead of the Creator, their chief deity was the sun. They had great festival days to celebrate the various positions of the sun. After midsummer the sun sinks lower and lower toward the horizon, until it reaches its lowest point about the close of the year, when it begins to rise higher. This was celebrated as the birthday of the sun. Then there was the festival in the spring, to celebrate the new life that was springing up in the earth, under the influence of the sun. The early Christians saw how attached the pagans were to these superstitious ceremonies, and so they made them church festivals. They professed to see in the heathen worship of the sun a symbolic worship of the "Sun of Righteousness," and so they called the pagan festivals in honour of the "birth" and the new life of the sun, the celebration of the birth and resurrection of Christ. Thus they eased their consciences for adopting the heathen festivals, and at the same time they made the way very easy for the heathen to come into the church which was thus paganized. Mosheim says that as early as the second century a large part of the Christian observances and institutions "had the aspect of the pagan mysteries." The Roman Catholic Church is, therefore, simply the perpetuation of ancient Paganism under the name of Christianity.

Professed Protestants may think that it is a light thing that they are adopting these "Church" festivals. The Chronicle says that "the fierce ultra-Puritanism, which looked askance on Good Friday as a 'Popish' celebration," does not find much favour with people in modern England; and there are few people Protestant enough to dispute the fact. But in so far as it is a fact it marks the decline of Protestantism and the growth of the Papacy. It marks the rejection of the traditions of men. Roman Catholics are not slow to see whether the professed Protestant bodies are drifting; they read the signs of the times in this respect very accurately. Here is what is said by the Catholic Times and Catholic Opinion of March 31st, under the heading of "Holy Week in London":-

"That Holy Week is becoming a religious reality to thousands of people in London, outside of the Church, is but one more sign of the slow and gradual undoing amongst us of the work of the 16th century Reformation. Fifty years ago, in this so-called Christian land, it is not too much to say that Good Friday meant nothing more than a somewhat gloomy Sunday, enlivened by an early consumption of hot cross buns. The very term of Holy Week had dropped out of the ordinary vocabulary, and no pretence was made of marking, by outward observance, the most solemn portion of the Christian year. Theatres, entertainments, amusements of all sorts went on as usual, and it is a fact that not so many years ago Her Majesty the Queen, wishing to give a ball to her servants and dependents, fixed on Good Friday for the celebration of the festivity, without apparently the inappropriateness of the date having occurred to anyone within the Royal circle.

"Such obliviousness, we venture to hope, would be impossible to-day. 'The old order changeth giving place to the new.' The old-fashioned dissenting prejudice against anything and everything in the shape of a church festival, whether mournful or joyful, is slowly dying out. To be sure, there is as yet not much resemblance during Holy Week between London and a Catholic city like Madrid, where for three days all traffic is stopped, and pious crowds pass slowly on foot from church to church. But a beginning has undoubtedly been made, and every year sees some progress achieved."

In closing, the editorial says that what it calls "this re-awakening sense in the English conscience," is telling "in favour of the Catholic church." We should not think that this would be pleasant reading for those professed Protestants who are thus following in the wake of Rome, but we fear that very few of them will take warning. There is a great outcry against the encroachments of Rome, and strong talk about the enforcement of law; but that will not affect anything. It is not by law that Roman Catholicism is to be successfully met. Civil laws concerning matters of religion are what made the Catholic Church in the first place, and they are what foster its growth now. For while professed Protestants are seeking the aid of the law in their work, the enemy is coming in silently, and yet like a flood. The only thing that can successfully cope with Rome is the Spirit of the Lord working upon individual hearts who are loyal to the word of God, and who will give not the slightest heed to anything that cannot be found therein.

"Wholesale Conversion" The Present Truth 9, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

On Sunday, March 11, the "wholesale conversion of the Roman Catholic inhabitants of the parish of Zaba, in Hungary, to Protestantism," took place. So says the dispatch, which adds that "the explanation of this colossal conversion is to be found in the new drastic law, which enacts that Catholic religious services in Hungary must be conducted in the Hungarian language. The inhabitants of Zaba are Germans, and they have publicly stated that they prefer to enter the Protestant Church, in which divine service in German is allowed, to attending service in a language they are ignorant of." That, however, was not a conversion, but transference. As a matter of fact, "Protestantism" has about ceased to be a distinctive term. Such "conversions" as the above are on a par with that of the man who changes his church relationship because he dislikes the pastor or some of the members.

"Spelling Sunday" The Present Truth 9, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

The New York Mail and Express has decided to spell Sunday hence forward with an "o" instead of a "u," thus, Sonday, so as to indicate that the day is a Christian and not a heathen institution; and a request is made for everybody to do the same. The editor says:-

"We are only proposing a reform as to one day, which can be accomplished by the least amount of change. It is simply to close the top of the u. The proposed change philologically and etymologically only amounts to a part of one vowel-making u into o-and yet, morally the change from Sun to Son is the change from heathenism to Christianity."

Exactly; Sunday observance is just that far removed from heathenism and no more. "Leo the Great speaks of Christians in Rome, who first worshipped the rising Sun, doing homage to the pagan Apollo before repairing to the Basilica of St. Peter."-Schaff. As professed heathen, the son had been their chief

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god. As professed Christians they still worship it, but "Christianised" the custom by claiming that they were doing homage to "the Sun of Righteousness," the Son of God. Sunday is and always will be only "the venerable day of the sun," and its heathen character can no more be changed by a change of spelling than the character of a thief can be changed by an alias.

"Superstitious Service" The Present Truth 9, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

The following bit of nineteenth century superstition is related in all seriousness by no less an authority than the Catholic Times and Catholic Opinion:-

"Our readers will remember that last year a difference of opinion arose between the ecclesiastical authorities of the Cathedral of Treves and the Church of Cagenteuil in France. At each place they maintained that they possessed the tunic which our Lord wore on the day of His Passion. Leo XIII. thereupon commissioned Mgr. Goux to make special investigations on the subject, and that prelate has now published an interesting report setting forth the opinion he has formed. Judging by historical documents he is convinced of the authenticity of the Holy Coat of Treves. At the same time he does not maintain that the Argenteuil tunic is spurious. On the contrary it seems to be his belief that both belonged to our Lord, the Argenteuil relic being a vest and the other a coat. Like the garment exhibited at Treves the tunic preserved at Argenteuil is all of one piece. In shape it is said to be similar to tunics worn by the Copts during the first two centuries of the Christian era. About the shoulders and loins there are large dark spots, and a careful chemical analysis has placed it beyond doubt that they were caused by blood stains. The inquiry, whilst leaving the honour of Treves undiminished, will be of considerable service to Argenteuil."

We saw a statement of the above several days ago, but thought it must be a joke. But the secret of the superstition, like that of the indulgences in the sixteen century, is the "service" rendered to the cathedrals.

"Protestantism" The Present Truth 9, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

There is the ring of true religious liberty in the reply of Rev. J. Guinness Rogers to one who charged him with being favourable to the Papacy, because of a certain position which he takes. After stating that he yields to no man in his antagonism to the Papacy, whether in its political or religious aspects, he says: "But Protestantism is to me something more than an 'ism,' and in so far as it is narrowed down to a mere 'ism,' its power is weakened. It is a contention for liberty, or to fulfil its proper mission, when it is not as ready to respect the rights of a Roman Catholic as to insist on its own."

"High Caste and Low Caste" The Present Truth 9, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

Boys, did you ever have a new pupil come into your school who could not appear quite so well as yourself, who did not have so much money to spend, and whose parents worked harder than yours for a living? Did you ever make fun of him, or feel ashamed to be seen doing him some kindness, because he did not belong to your "set," as you called it?

Girls, did you ever turn your head the other way, and draw your dress aside for fear it might touch the plainer one of your little neighbour as she passed by?

If ever you are tempted to feel or sob so again, stop and think: That is the way the heathen of India do, those who know not God or His word.

It is not strange that the heathen should do so, because they have never known that it is wrong. But it must grieve the kind Father of all very much to see us do so when we know of His love, and when He tells us so plainly in His letter that "One is our Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren."

If you could once visit India and see how much better some classes of people are treated than other classes, and how selfish and cruel it causes people to become, I think you would see the foolishness and sinfulness of all rush feelings and actions.

"The Hindus believe that after Brahma, their great god of the universe, had made the world, he made the people to live on it. Out of his mouth came the Brahmins, who were highest of all. This is the priestly caste or class.

"From Brahma's shoulders came the next caste, who were strong and brave, and became soldiers and chieftains.

"Next came the merchants and traders, who sprang from the loins of the god.

"Lastly, from Brahma's feet cams the lowest caste of all, the Sudras, who were to be the servants of the higher castes."

After awhile these four classes were divided into a great many more, until now, jewellers, merchants, shepherds, carpenters, tailors, weavers, robbers, basket-makers, writers, farmers, potters, hunters and fishers, palm cultivators, barbers, washerman, sweepers, and there, all form separate castes. Besides these a great many people do not belong to any caste and are called Pariahs, or out-castes.

As the Brahmins are the highest caste, they must be treated very politely by all other castes, and must be obeyed. They are given costly presents and worshipped as gods. This has caused the Brahmins to become very proud and selfish. The people do not love them, but are polite to them and treat them well only because they are afraid they will get into trouble if they do not.

I hope that you will learn all that you can about these different castes, for there are many interesting things that we have not time to tell you.

If you were a little Hindu and your father were a merchant, you could play only with the children of merchants. If your father were a carpenter, you could eat and drink only with the children of carpenters. It would never do for you to eat with one of lower caste, or drink out of a cup that had been touched by one of lower caste, or give up your religion, or do thousands of other things, or you would lose your caste, and then you would become an out-caste, despised and abused by every one. Your friends would drive you from their doors and leave you to perish from hunger and want. They would rather have you die a thousand times than have you break your caste. "No crime is considered so great as breaking the rules of caste. A man may commit murder and it will not effect his standing. But let him take a mouthful of food, or a drink of water from a low-caste man and he becomes defiled." And then he has for ever lost his caste unless he can get money enough to buy it back. It matters not whether he did it purposely or not. If he did it by accident it is just the same.

Once during a great famine in India, when men, women, and children were dying for something be eat, one poor woman was so hungry that she went to a place where food was prepared for them, and ate a little, although it was cooked by one of lower caste. It is said that she then went back to her own village, and was afterwards found lying in the road, so weak and tired that she could do nothing to help herself; and no one would touch her, because by doing so they would get defiled themselves!

The Brahmins have the power of giving bank caste to those who have lost it; but they will not unless they get a very great deal of money for it.

Another thing: If you were a Hindu you would have to learn your father's trade and never could work at anything else as long as you lived. If your father were a jeweller, then you would be a jeweller, or if he were a street sweeper or a washerman, you could be only a street sweeper or a washerman.

But we are thankful to say that the feeling about caste is not so strong as it once was. Some are beginning to see how useless and foolish it is. And as the entrance of God's word giveth light on this, as well as on every other thing that men teed to know on the way to heaven, we know that the Indians will be led into all truth as soon as they learn to follow the true Guide-Book,-God's precious word.

But remember that you have the Bible and they have not, and they are your brethren. Therefore you are in debt to them. You are not only to follow the true Guide-Book yourself, but you are to be a light-bearer for Jesus carrying or sending this wonderful lamp of life to these who still sit in darkness and know not the truth.

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

Scientific men say that the pure white luster of snow is due to the fact that all the elementary colours of light are blended together in the radiance that is thrown off from the surface of the various crystals. More than a thousand distinct and perfect forms of snow crystals have been enumerated and figured by the various investigators.

-Madagascar has 800 Congregational churches and stations, with 762 ministers.

-Two thousand houses have been destroyed by fire at the Japanese town of Kanagana.

-The 800th anniversary festival of Winchester Cathedral has just been celebrated.

-Paris has now a new water supply, brought to the capital in an aqueduct sixty-three miles long.

-A railway, the first in Siam, connecting Bangkok with the port of Paknam, has been opened by the King. The first sod of the new line was cut by the King in July, 1891.

-All Turkish journals have been ordered to cease publication in the morning, and not to appear until afternoon.

-The Glasgow Town Council has agreed by 22 votes to 4, to petition in favour of the Government Liquor Control Bill.

-In some weeks upwards of 15,000,000 eggs reach London from the poultry farms of France, Italy, Austria, and Russia.

-A general strike has been ordered in Belgium on account of the rejection of universal suffrage by the Constituent Assembly.

-The Legislature of Nova Scotia has given a second reading to a Bill extending the franchise to women on the same terms as men.

-Gutta-percha was first introduced into Europe from Malaga in 1852. The annual consumption now amounts to some 4,000,000lb.

-The immense Mormon temple, which has been in process of erection for forty years, at Salt Lake City, Utah, has just been dedicated.

-The strike of the dockers at Hull has caused much trouble to shippers. Many vessels have been tied up, and the work of the port brought almost to a standstill. There were some serious collisions between the strikers and the police.

-Reports of most disastrous cyclones come from the United States. Several States have been visited by tornadoes, and many towns have been almost obliterated. In Mississippi a school-house was blown down, and twenty-five children were killed.

-A serious fire occurred in the Great Western Colliery near Pontypridd in the afternoon of the 11th. Many men were entombed, and a number of lives lost. Several bodies have been recovered. The fire was due to a spark from an underground engine.

-The Rev. Stepford Brooke has begun at Bedford Chapel a long promised aeries of Sunday evening lectures on the work of Lord Tennyson. We are happy to be able to state, however, from personal knowledge, that there are still a number of ministers who have not yet discarded the Bible.

-The new law for the suppression of Stundists in Russia provides that all children of Stundists are to be placed under clerical guardians, and are to be baptised in the orthodox Church. The Stundists are further forbidden to employ Orthodox servants in their meeting-houses, while their graves are to be kept apart from those of members of the Orthodox Church. Finally, their passports are to be no marked as to show that they belong to the Stundist sect.

-A correspondent of the Echo has had an interview with the Rev. Robert R. Kane, LL.D., Vicar of Christ Church, Belfast, who is at the head of the Orangemen of Ulster. To the question, "If Home Rule does come, what then?" the Dr. replied: "Civil war, unquestionably, civil war. I am as absolutely certain of it as that I am sitting and talking now to you. We mean to ignore the Dublin Parliament, refuse to pay its taxes, and if its judges come down to us we will hunt them out of the country." The Dr. also said: "We already have our police, we are organising our provisional government, and preparing our forces to resist.

-But recently we were reading in a Catholic journal that the Catholic Church is the mother of religious liberty. Here is a sample: "A member of an evangelical church in a certain town in Austria was active in explaining in his own hired rooms the simple gospel. Without any word of warning as to limiting the meetings to actual members, he was pounced upon by the highest official of the county with a fine of six dollars. He declined to pay any ouch unrighteous fine. After waiting awhile the Government actually attached the best chair and sewing machine. They were duly sealed and left for some time in his dwelling. Not long after the Austrian Government actually sold at public auction the chair and sewing machine to meet the fine imposed for having a few friends (not members) at a simple Bible service in private room."

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

Prosecution for Sunday labour is becoming epidemic in England. The Echo of April 7 said:-

"The campaign against trading on Sunday is still being prosecuted at Southampton. For keeping his shop open for selling ice creams on Sunday evening, an Italian was to-day fined by the Borough Bench five shillings and costs. The police have intimated their intention of putting down all Sunday trading."

In the British Weekly, Prof. J. R. Harris gives an account of the finding, by Mrs. Lewis, of Cambridge, of a palimpsest copy of the Gospels in Syriac. They were found in the Convent of St. Catharine, on Mount Sinai. For over a month several scholars have been at the convent, busily engaged in deciphering the text, which can be traced under the more modern writing. It is thought that this Syriac version of the Gospels dates from the middle of the second century.

A bloodless revolution has taken place in Servia. King Alexander, who is not yet seventeen, at a banquet on the 14th, to celebrate a successful examination just passed, suddenly rose and thanked the Regents and Cabinet Ministers, who were present, for their past services, and told them that they would be needed no longer, as he had taken the Government into his own hands. They refused to resign, and were placed under military surveillance. The young king has been acknowledged by the troops and the people.

On the night of the 18th, the Lord Mayor gave a banquet at the Mansion House to Cardinal Vaughan and the Catholic bishops of England. Although a Catholic Lord Mayor has as good a right to entertain his Catholic friends as a Methodist Lord Mayor has to entertain his Methodist friends, this case is really an event in history, since it is the first occasion since Reformation times, on which the Chief Magistrate of the city has entertained the Catholic clergy at the Mansion House. We may be assured that the Catholic hierarchy will make the most of this advantage. But one most significant thing was that in proposing the usual toast to the Queen, the Mayor coupled the Pope with her, and put the Pope first.

In proposing the health of the Pope before that of the Queen, the Lord Mayor did not do dishonour to the Queen so must as to the Lord, as will be seen by the following report of his blasphemous language:-

"And confessing with her their dependence on that King of kings, by whom all kings reigned, and following the old tradition still retained in the great City halls, he united with her "The Church;' and, as he found himself in that great meeting amidst so brilliant a company of bishops and clergy and other members of the Catholic Church, he prefixed, as their custom was, the health of him, the great head of that Church, vicegerent of the King of kings, who, seated on Rome's heights in incense-laden atmosphere, as the great husbandman, kept his watchful eye on every portion of his flock, raised up his voice to lead in all emergencies, and sent forth, as he had done to them that day, a careful shepherd to carry out his wish. To him they owed their princely guest, to him was due in this his year of jubilee that homage and respect which their loved Queen, with all her Catholic people, has offered to him. The toast was, 'The Holy Father and the Queen.'"

A wonderful "temperance victory" was won in London on Saturday, the 8th. A meeting in opposition to the Government Veto Bill had been appointed in Trafalgar Square. Long before the hour, the best space was occupied by several thousand members of various "temperance" organizations. As the first contingent of liquor men came up, they were set upon by the "temperance" men, and their banner was torn to pieces. The same thing was done with the next, and some personal violence was done. When the liquor men began to address the meeting their voices were drowned by the hoots and jeers of the "temperance" party. Finally the liquor advocates were hustled from the pedestal of the monument, and the "temperance" party captured the meeting, conducting it to suit themselves. One of the most prominent ministers in London, in referring to the event, said that it showed that the power of the publican, even in London, had gone. If there were so, it would be small cause for rejoicing, under the circumstances, for the worst defeat that temperance could sustain is a victory gained by mob violence and brute force. Those who make profession of temperance should know that there are various forms of intemperance. Drinking liquor is by no means the only form. From the instruction of God's word we know that there was no element of temperance in Trafalgar Square on the 8th inst. Temperance is the outgrowth of faith, and is associated with patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity. See 2 Peter i. 5-9.

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster has just returned from Rome, where he has been made Cardinal. On Easter Sunday he performed his first public service after his return, celebrating high mass at the pre-Cathedral, Kensington. Following is a portion of the report of the service:-

"It was a little after eleven o'clock when a procession, headed by a cross-bearer, and including the local clergy and attending acolytes, emerged from the sacristy, and went to the main entrance to receive the Cardinal-Archbishop. His Eminence was accompanied by Monsignor Canon Johnson, his secretary, who wore the purple in right of his newly-conferred dignity. Cardinal Vaughan wore the scarlet biretta and a scarlet soutane, over which was thrown the snow-white pallium; and as he walked up the aisle under a white satin canopy, held by four distinguished Catholics of Kensington, the entire congregation rose to their feet, and the choir and organ gave with splendid effect Santley's 'Ecce Sacerdos Magnus' (Behold the Great Priest). The Cardinal was conducted to a throne on the Gospel side of the altar. Dr. Weathers (the veteran Bishop of Amycia), sung the high mass, assisted by the local clergy; and as soon as the Gospel of the day (Mark xvi. 1-7) was sung, the Cardinal wearing a heavily-jewelled mitre, and holding the crosier in his left hand, advanced to the front of the chancel close to the sanctuary, and preached the sermon of the day."

The sermon was mostly in praise of the Pope, whose special blessing he had been charged to impart to the people. The Cardinal said that the Pope had authorised him to say that he "watched over them, cared for them, and would pray for them." We make no comment on all this, but leave the reader to decide whether it is Christianity or Paganism.

The Eastern Star (Madras) of February 20, contained a notification from the Collector and Magistrate of the District of Madura (South India), which needs no comment other than the statement that the "Christian" Government has a monopoly of the sale of the liquor referred to, and presumably derives a handsome revenue therefrom:-

"It having been brought to the notice of the undersigned that the arrack vend monopoly renters do not keep a sufficient stock of liquor to meet the public demand, the Collector under clause 14 of Abkarri Notice No. 1, enjoins on the arrack renters that they should maintain an adequate supply in their depots and shops. The failure on the part of the renters to conform to this condition will in future be visited with fine, etc."

May 4, 1893

"Front Page" The Present Truth 9, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

"Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord." Ps. cxxx. 1. And he did not cry in vain. The depths from which he cried were the depths of sin; for he said, "If Thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquity, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared." "Let Israel hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities." So out of the depths of iniquity we may cry to the Lord, with the assurance that He will gladly help us. We cannot be too low down for Him to reach us.

The Pagan maxim, which too many quote as though 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 that cometh against us; neither know we what to do; but our eyes are upon Thee," (2 Chron. xx. 12) and 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 feelings 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, 16. 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.

For it is only at the very lowest possible state that we become connected with Christ. He came not to call the righteous, but sinners, unto repentance. Matt. iv. 13. As He came to save the lost, we commend ourselves to His mercy by acknowledging that we are lost sinners. But sin is death. Therefore Christ bore our sins, and died for us. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; . . . 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. So it is in our wretched, sin-cursed condition that we receive help from the Lord.

Death is the lowest condition possible, and it is in His death that we become perfectly united to Christ. "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ." Gal. iii. 27. We put on Christ by baptism. And what is baptism? "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 we also should walk in newness of life." Rom. vi. 3, 4.

What does this show? Simply this: that not only may we be saved when in the very lowest state, but we cannot be saved in any other condition. As a matter of fact all men are in that lost condition; for "all have sinned;" "they have all gone out of the way; they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good; no, not one." Rom. iii. 12, 23. But in order for any to get the benefit of Christ's salvation, they must acknowledge themselves to be in that condition. By the law of faith boasting is excluded. And this not only once, but always. The Christian can never boast of his goodness, for boasting shows the absence of faith, and "whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Rom. xiv. 23. The Christian must always acknowledge himself to be a sinner, and then he may always be a sharer in the sacrifice of Christ. So he always lives only in the present. With Paul he may say: "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." 1 Tim. i. 15. "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Gal. iv. 14.

"The Resurrection of Christ" The Present Truth 9, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

Taken as a simple matter of history, there is nothing better attested than the fact of the resurrection of Christ. It was well known to all the people who lived at that time, and was a matter of common report. When the apostles spoke to the Jews, they talked of the resurrection of Jesus as something that did not need to be proved, but as that of which everybody was well informed. When Paul stood before Festus and King Agrippa, and spoke of the resurrection of Christ, Festus tried to make light of the matter, but the apostle replied that he was not mad, but spoke forth the words of truth and soberness, and then added: "For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely; for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner." Acts xxvi. 26.

The fact is that the Jews never disbelieved that Jesus had risen from the dead after the crucifixion. This is shown by their action after the resurrection. An angel had come down from heaven, and had rolled the stone away from the sepulchre. Before the dazzling light of his countenance, the guards had fallen to the earth as dead men. Then Jesus came forth, and met His disciples, who went to tell the rest of the brethren. "Now when they were going, behold, some of the

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watch came into the city, and showed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money to the soldiers, saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole Him away while we slept. And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him, and secure you." Matt. xxviii. 11-14.

Who that knew anything about Roman discipline would ever believe such a story as that? What Roman soldier would ever dare acknowledge that he had slept on guard, if it were really so? The story was absurd, on the face of it; for although in spite of the sure death that always follows detection, a single soldier sometimes sleeps on guard, it is not possible that an entire guard should fall asleep at the same time. But the story which the Roman guard was bribed to tell was its own best refutation. For the very fact that they were not put to death, although they told that they had slept while on guard, and had allowed their charge to be stolen from them, is evidence that nobody really believed the story. The very means used to discredit the resurrection, established the truth of it.

IMPORTANCE OF THE RESURRECTION

To bear witness of the resurrection of Christ was the one work of the apostles and their co-workers. This appears more fully than anywhere else in the account of Paul's case, which Festus gave to Agrippa. After telling about the desire of the Jews to have judgment against Paul, and of his own demand that they appear against him in a regular manner, he said that when the accusers came, "They brought none accusation of such things as I supposed; but had certain questions against him of their own superstition, and of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive." Acts xxv. 18, 19. That was the sum of the whole matter. The Jews said that Jesus was dead, and Paul affirmed that He was alive. To the mind of the heathen ruler it seemed a most foolish, trifling controversy. What difference did it make to him or to anybody else, whether Jesus were alive or dead?

Ah, the heathen ruler did not know that that simple question was the greatest thing in the world; that on it hung everything, even the destiny of the whole world. For as the apostles and disciples preached, they did not speak of the resurrection of Jesus as a mere fact of history, but they dwelt upon the results of that event. That which angered the rulers of the Jews was that they "preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead." Acts iv. 2. Without the resurrection of Jesus there could be no life for man. The Apostle Paul puts the matter thus: "Now if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? Now if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen; and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ; whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised; and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead." 1 Cor. xv. 12-20. All our hope comes from the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So the Apostle Peter blesses God that He has "begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." 1 Peter i. 3.

Notice that in the discourse of Paul concerning the resurrection he says not only that if Christ be not risen those who have fallen asleep in Him are perished, but that "ye are yet in your sins." The resurrection of Jesus assures the resurrection of men from the dead, only because it brings the forgiveness of sins. The hope of the resurrection is simply the hope that comes from righteousness received through faith in Christ, "who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." Rom. iv. 25. The Apostle Peter connects the "lively hope" to which God has begotten us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, with the fact that we are "kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation."

THE POWER OF THE RESURRECTION

The Apostle Paul's earnest desire was to "win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith; that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death." Phil. iii. 8-10. And in His prayer for us he desired "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him; the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, 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." Eph. i. 17-20.

The power of Christ is the power of the resurrection. Paul declares that the Gospel of God is "concerning His Son Jesus Christ, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." Rom. i. 3, 4. It was by the Spirit that Christ was quickened, or made alive (1 Peter iii. 18); and the Spirit has the power of giving life, because it is the Spirit of holiness. See Rom. viii. 10. Life and righteousness are identical, as we learn from Rom. viii. 6: "To be spiritually minded is life and peace;" and also from Gal. iii. 21, which tells us that if there had been a law given which could have given life, righteousness would have come by it. The Spirit of God, therefore, gives life to the dead, because it gives righteousness to sinners.

In order to see that this is what is to be learned from the resurrection of Christ, read again the quotation from the first chapter of Ephesians, and then follow on with the second chapter: "And you hath He quickened made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins; . . . but God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sin, 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. 1-6. Therefore we know the power of the resurrection of Christ only by experiencing the same power in the forgiveness of sins, and in overcoming sin. Thus we share even now in the resurrection of Christ, and that is the assurance of the future resurrection at His coming.

Read also the same thing in the Epistle to the Colossians: "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 [working] of God, who hath raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened [made alive] together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses." Col. ii. 10-13. All tell the same thing: the forgiveness of sins comes by the resurrection of Christ, not as a historical event that took place eighteen hundred years ago, but as a present thing, which we are to experience day by day with Him. Thus we may see how the resurrection of Christ is to be the one theme of Christian preaching now as well as in the days of the apostles. We are to be reminded of it, not by the formal observance

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of a day once a year, which has never been commanded, but by going through the process daily.

WITNESSES OF THE RESURRECTION

This shows us how we, as well as the apostles, may be witnesses of the resurrection of Christ. For we are to be witnesses as well as they. A witness is one who tells what he knows, if he is a true witness. Otherwise his testimony is good for nothing. He is not to bear witness to what has been told him, but to that of which he himself is personally assured, by his own experience. If only one man knows a certain thing from his own personal knowledge, and he tells a dozen other men, and the whole thirteen then go into court and testify to that fact, there are not thirteen witnesses, but only one. The one man has simply repeated his testimony thirteen times. The case is no stronger for the testimony of the twelve men who repeated what had been told them. They might better have held their peace. So it is with the witnesses of the resurrection of Christ. He who tells it because somebody else has told him, is not a witness, and might better say nothing about it. If pressed closely, all that he can say is that somebody told him so.

But is it possible for anybody in these days to be able to give testimony concerning the resurrection of Christ, of the same nature as testimony that is required in earthly courts? Most certainly. Can it be thought that God requires less positiveness in His witnesses than earthly judges in those who appear before them? Not by any means. How can they give such testimony? Simply by knowing Christ, and the power of His resurrection. The question is, Does Jesus live, or is He yet dead? All know that He died: may we know that He is alive again? Most assuredly. The experience of the Apostle Paul may be that of every one. The Jews said that Christ was dead, and Paul affirmed that He was alive. They are brought before the court on that point. How does Paul demonstrate that Christ is now alive? Thus: "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." Gal. ii. 20. That is sufficient. That is as good testimony as could be given in any court. A man is said to be dead. I say he is alive. The question is, "How do you know?" and I reply, "He lives at my house, and is my constant companion." That is the evidence to-day to the world, that Christ is risen from the dead. On this testimony alone can unbelievers be convinced.

The Christian's hope, therefore, is seen to be a certainty, and not a doubtful thing. If they know that Christ is risen, they know just as well that they too will be raised from the dead. Thus Christ has brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. The Gospel makes known Christ as the risen Saviour, who is alive for evermore. His life is manifested in the mortal flesh of those who believe on Him. They pass from death unto life with Him. Nevertheless they are mortal. To sleep in the grave is their sure lot, unless prevented by the coming of the Lord. But as they live by faith, and not by sight, they hold fast their faith. So, whether waking or sleeping, their life is hid with Christ in God. The Spirit of God which is given them is their life, and their assurance of immortality. The life is theirs now, but the immortality will be bestowed only at the coming of the Lord.

"Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but 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." 1 Cor. xv. 51-53. "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [go before] them which are asleep. For 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. 14-17.

"Essentials and Non-essentials" The Present Truth 9, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

It is a very common thing for people to regard truth as of two kinds-essential and non-essential, important and unimportant. This is a great mistake. All truth is one, and cannot be divided into classes. Every point of truth is of equal importance with every other point. Truth is of God, for Jesus Christ whom He has sent is the truth. But the riches of Christ are unsearchable. He is infinite, therefore the truth is infinite. But there can be no comparison of infinities. To the human mind, at least, all infinities are equal. So the only thing necessary to be determined is whether or not a thing is true. If it is, then no matter how unimportant it may seem to human understanding, we may be sure that it cannot be ignored without sin.

In a perfect machine the smallest bolt is as important and necessary as the largest shaft, for the reason that without the bolt the shaft would be useless. So in God's perfect word the smallest matter is as important as what are called the great things. God has not wasted His time on non-essentials. He does not speak that which is of no importance. "Every word of God is pure; He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him. Add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar." Prov. xxx. 6, 7.

"The Church in the Early Centuries" The Present Truth 9, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

Some weeks ago the Archdeacon of London wrote an article which appeared in the Christian Commonwealth, entitled, "The Christian Church at the End of the Third Century." Coming from the source it does, the article is worthy of the attention of those who think that everything that "custom" sanctions in the present practices of the church is necessarily of Divine authority. We quote below a large portion of the article:-

"It is very natural, after the long lapse of centuries, that Christian people, in all their manifold divergences of faith and practice, should appeal to the example of the primitive church. Much, indeed, may be learned from its history, to illustrate and explain the development of Christian institutions. But even here we shall nowhere find absolute perfection. As the apostles themselves could be mistaken about so important a point as the meaning of our Lord's words about St. John, 'If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?' so we should expect to find errors and inconsistencies even in those early days. It is well for everybody alike to remember the wise rule of the English Church, 'Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith; or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.' And again the English Church pronounces clearly the fallibility of all churches, even the earliest: 'As the church of Jerusalem, Alexandria and Antioch, have erred, so also the Church of Rome hath erred, not only in their living and manners of ceremonies, but also in matters of faith.' And once more speaking of General Councils, the English Church declares: 'Forasmuch as they be an assembly of men, whereof all be not governed with the Spirit and Word of God, they may err, and sometimes have erred even in things pertaining unto God. Wherefore things ordained of them as necessary to salvation, have neither strength nor authority, unless it may be declared that they be taken out of the Holy Scripture.'

"The present inquiry is intended to show some of the more noticeable points where the church at the end of the third century had diverged from apostolical practice.

"1. The delay of baptism till after a catechumenate of two or three years.

"2. The form of exorcism of evil spirits in baptism.

"3. The administration of milk and honey in baptism, as typifying the blessings of the Heavenly Canaan.

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"4. The giving of the Lord's Supper to infants.

"5. The distinction between clergy and laity, as constituting the former 'Churchmen' in some sense.

"6. The multiplication of subordinate church officers.

"7. The beginnings of the Roman primacy. 'The claims which ripened into the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome over the Western Church had already been put forward, and to a great extent admitted, during the first three centuries. Arising naturally out of the civil supremacy of the capital, the pretensions of Rome were supported by the fiction of Peter's bishopric there, and also by the equally groundless statement that the church was founded by Paul." "At the end of the second century we find a precedence assigned by Irenaeus, not to the Bishop of Rome as the successor of Peter, but to the Church of Rome as the chief centre of the Apostolical tradition derived from Peter and Paul." "Cyprian is the first eminent advocate of the superiority of the Bishop of Rome as the successor of Peter. . . . He calls the Church of Rome the chair of Peter, and the chief church, whence the unity of the priesthood had its source, the root and mother of the Catholic Church.' The importance of the capital of the Roman Empire was thus ignorantly transferred to a new and spurious spiritual supremacy.

"8. The earlier Apologists gloried in the taunt of their heathen adversaries, that they had neither temples nor altars. But in the second century the metaphor of sacrifice began to be used incautiously and indiscriminately about the Lord's Supper, and the political term 'altar' began also to be employed for the Lord's table.

"9. The carrying of the elements (the consecrated bread and wine) by the deacons after the service to those who were sick or in prison. The earliest germs of the Romish practice of communion in the bread alone was to have sprung from the custom of communicants carrying home portions of the bread to be partaken of by the family at morning prayer. This habit of 'domestic communion' prevailed in North Africa. . . .

"15. The custom of keeping Lent, however excellent and desirable in itself, is not of apostolical authority. 'The great Quadradescimal fast before Easter, in commemoration and imitation of the forty days' fasting of Jesus in the wilderness, began in the second century. But the exact correspondence of the duration was not at first insisted on. It was sometimes as short as a day, or two days, or forty hours, and sometimes a few weeks, but less than the forty days, a period which was finally fixed by the influence of Rome.'"

The Archdeacon closes his article with the following remarks, in which he ignores and directly violates the declarations of the Church of England, which he quoted at the first:-

"Some of the customs and principles introduced by the Church of the first three centuries, as distinct from what we gather from the actual writings of the New Testament, have commended themselves; others have been dropped by Reformed Christianity. . . . But no period of the Christian Church is guaranteed to be free from error, except the life and teachings of its Founder; and though the earlier we go back, the purer and simpler we find, to our great delight, its doctrines and customs, still it has over us no absolute authority; and those doctrines and customs must all be submitted to the test of agreement with Holy Scriptures, where as in the case of the points mentioned in this paper, there are divergences and variations-these may be perfectly harmless and even salutary; they may also be the reverse. We must be guided in our attitude towards them partly by our own judgment, in reliance on the Holy Spirit and the use of earnest prayer; partly, where recourse can be had to such assistance, by the advice and direction of the spiritual organisation to which we belong."

There are many other things besides those mentioned by the Archdeacon, wherein the modern church differs from the Apostolic church. Notable among these are infant "baptism," the substitution of sprinkling for baptism, and the substitution of the observance of Sunday instead of the seventh-day-the Sabbath of the Lord. On this last point, the Christian at Work, a Presbyterian journal, has said:-

"We hear less than we used to about the apostolic origin of the present Sunday observance, and for the reason that while the Sabbath and Sabbath rest are woven into the warp and woof of Scripture, it is now seen, as it is admitted, that we must go to later than apostolic times for the establishment of Sunday observance."

The Rev. Dr. Scott, in commenting on Acts xx. 7, had the following to say on the subject:-

"The change from the seventh to the first appears to have been gradually and silently introduced, by example rather than by express precept."

The celebrated ecclesiastical historian, Mosheim, speaking of the second century, says:-

"It is certain that to religious worship, both public and private, many rites were added, without necessity, and to the great offence of sober and good men. The principal cause of this I readily look for in the perverseness of mankind, who are more delighted with the pomp and splendour of external forms and pageantry, than with the true devotion of the heart, and who despise whatever does not gratify their eyes and ears." "There is good reason to suppose that the Christian Bishops purposely multiplied sacred rites, for the purpose of rendering the Jews and the pagans more friendly to them." "A large part, therefore, of the Christian observances and institutions even in this century, had the aspect of the pagan mysteries."-Eccl. Hist., Book 1, century 2, part 2, chap. 4, sections 1, 2, 5.

The question arises, How are we to distinguish the pagan additions from the Christian original? The answer is, By the Holy Scriptures. It is so easy a matter that any child who can read can readily discern it. "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. The Holy Scriptures are perfect, and they contain all that is necessary for perfection in all good works, all that is necessary for salvation. Whatever, therefore, differs from their standard is wrong, and tends to imperfection and destruction.

The Archdeacon says that "some of the customs and principles introduced by the church of the first three centuries, as distinct from what we gather from the actual writings of the New Testament, have commended themselves." To what have they commended themselves? Only to those who are "more delighted with the pomp and splendour of external forms and pageantry, than with the true devotion of the heart." Those things which do not come from the Bible, do not come from God, and hence are only blots on Christianity, instead of a part of it.

In determining what things are right and what are not, there is no guide but the Bible. Even "earnest prayer" is no guide; prayer is a help only as it is prayer for the aid of the Spirit to lead into the truth which the Bible sets forth. He who resorts to prayer to find out whether or not he shall do a certain thing, when he has a plain command for it in the Bible, or when the Scriptures give no warrant for it, thereby insults God. He is guilty of asking God if He really means what He says.

Neither is "the spiritual organisation to which we belong" to be in any respect our guide in these matters. In His word the Lord speaks to individuals. Each person is to read for himself. "The head of every man is Christ." 1 Cor. xi. 3. It makes no difference whether the Papacy is represented by one man or by an organisation of men,-the Papacy consists in the interposition of some man or men between the individual soul and God. There are many good and learned men in the world, but there is not and never has been one so good and wise that he could in the slightest degree take the place of Jesus Christ.

God has set teachers in the church; but the work of the teachers is not to originate truth, not to take the place of God's word, but to lead souls to God and His word, so that they may drink for themselves from the Fountain Head. Whoever deviates in the slightest degree from the word of God, is to that degree a false teacher. He is blind, and can only lead his blind followers into the ditch.

In passing through the darkness of this world's night, "hardly bestead and hungry,"

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the only safety lies in turning "to the law and to the testimony." God's word and it alone is the truth. "The church" is not the guide. Whoever takes it for a guide is following men. The church is not a law-making body; Christ is the head of the body, the church. "The church" is indeed the church of Christ, only when it implicitly follows his word. When the body is connected with the Head, having nourishment ministered to it from the Head, it "increaseth with the increase of God." Col. ii. 19.

Therefore! "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. For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power." Col. ii. 8-10.

"A Case of Conscience" The Present Truth 9, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

It occurred nearly twenty-six hundred years ago, in the province of Babylon. The circumstances were the following: On account of the disobedience of the great mass of the children of Israel, the Lord had suffered the whole nation to be conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and many of the people had been taken from Jerusalem to Babylon.

This Nebuchadnezzar was a heathen king, and so some time after the conquest of Babylon, he "made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits; he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up."

When all these officers of the kingdom were gathered together before the image, "an herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages, that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up; and whoso falleth not down and worshippeth, shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace."

The people knew that the king was in earnest, and so whatever their private scruples might have been against worshipping the image, they concealed them, and in appearance, at least, did homage to the golden image. Who that believes that the civil government has a right to make laws concerning matters of religion, dare say that they did wrong? Would they not be met with the statement that it is necessary to the peace and good order of the State that there should be uniformity in matters of religion? And if this is so, who but the chief ruler of the State can prescribe the forms of religion?

Doubtless there were some who would suggest that they ought not to bow down to the image, but they could speedily be silenced, by the inquiry, "Who are you, that you should set yourself up to know more than all the wise men of this nation, and the king himself?" Some might even recall a commandment to the effect that none shall bow down to graven or molten images, but they would be met with the statement, "if it were wrong, do you suppose that all the nation would be doing it? Hasn't it been the custom of almost the whole world for centuries to worship images? Don't all our religious teachers say that it is right? Don't you suppose that they know more about these things than we common people do?" Who could meet such an argument as that?

And then others would say to the doubtful ones: "You don't have to worship the image, in your heart; you need not feel any reverence for it, but you can bow down before it in obedience to the king's command. If you refuse, you will be cast into the fiery furnace, and your family will be deprived of your support. What is the use of virtually committing suicide?" And thus the scruples of all would be silenced.

But not of all, for there were three men in the vast assembly who did not bow down to the image. At that time certain Chaldeans came before the king, and, after repeating the decree, said, "There are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; these men, O king, have not regarded thee; they serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up." What made the offence of these men the more odious, and magnified the contempt in which they held the king's decree, was the fact that they were foreigners. Such disobedience of a direct law could not be tolerated, and least of all in such men.

So "Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. Then they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true [is it of purpose] O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?" And then in the kindness of his heart, he offered them another chance to redeem themselves. He would not at once carry into effect the decree that they should be burned. But if on the second sounding of the music they did not bow down, then there should be no alternative, but they must be cast into the furnace.

Then what did those men do? Did they begin to apologize for their mistake, and promise obedience in the future? Did they plead that they had been very quiet in their disobedience to the law, so that no one could take offence at their disregard of the image? Not they. Listen to their brave words:-

"O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up."

The consequence was that they were thrown into the furnace, which for their especial benefit was heated seven times hotter than usual. But before we notice the result, let us see what power these men were disregarding. If ever there was a king who ruled by Divine right, that king was Nebuchadnezzar. Hear what the Lord Himself said through His prophet:-

"Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say unto your masters: I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by My great power, and by My stretched out arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto Me. And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him. And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son." Jer. xxvii. 4-7.

These three Jews knew this, for they were associated with Daniel on a previous occasion, when he received the interpretation to a dream which the king had, in which he said, "Thou, O king, art a king of kings; for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath He given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all." Dan. ii. 37, 38.

God Himself, therefore, had given Nebuchadnezzar the right to rule. Moreover, He had commanded the Jews themselves to serve Nebuchadnezzar. The prophet Jeremiah, who remained in Jerusalem, in a letter which he wrote to his captive fellow-countrymen, at the command of the Lord, had said to them, "Seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it; for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace." Jer. xxix. 7.

Surely then God must have been very angry with these three Jews for thus refusing to obey the king's dream. Not

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by any means. Although the fire was so hot that it slew the men who threw the three Jews into the furnace, the Hebrews themselves were not affected by it in the least. The fire simply destroyed the bands which held them, and they walked at liberty in the midst of the furnace, and the Lord Himself came down and walked with them, to show His approval of their act. See the whole story in the third chapter of Daniel.

The point of this simple story is that, while "the powers that be are ordained of God," "there is no power but of God." "Power belongeth unto God." God has never ordained any power to be above Him. This He could not do, for "He cannot deny Himself." He has never constituted any authority to contravene His authority. We learn that while we are to seek the peace of whatever country we may dwell in, and are to pray for kings and for all that are in authority, the peace of any country is not found in disobedience to God, no matter what may be the laws of that country. While we are to be subject to the powers that be, it is to be for the Lord's sake.

No man on earth is warranted in resisting authority. On the contrary we are charged not to resist evil, that is, we are not to oppose force with force. But as we have learned from this story, submission and subjection to the powers that be does not consist in obeying laws that are contrary to God's laws. In the case before us, the king gave all their choice: they might worship his image, or they might go into the burning fiery furnace. The most of the people showed their subjection by worshipping the image; but the three Hebrews showed their subjection by refusing to worship the image, and going into the furnace. They did not resist the power. They did not try to raise an insurrection. They served God by disobeying the king, and showed their regard for the king's authority by calmly accepting the alternative which he granted them.

The commandments of the Lord are very plain. A child may understand them. "If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the doctrine." All that is needed is a willing mind. It is self-interest that clouds the mind to the precepts of the Lord. But he who has no intention or desire but to do the will of the Lord, will not be confused as to his duty by conflicting human laws, but will say as did the apostles at a later time. "We ought to obey God rather than man." Only the man who is conscientiously resolute in serving God, can be rightly subject to the powers of earth.

"The light that shines upon our path, the truth that commends itself to our conscience, will condemn and destroy the soul, or sanctify and reform it."

"Falsifying the Holy Scriptures" The Present Truth 9, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

The Catholic Times and Catholic Opinion calls attention to the fact recorded in an Anglican journal, that a large number of members of the University of Oxford are presenting a petition to the Bishops of the Church of England, praying them to take some steps to prevent clergymen from "attacking, maligning, and falsifying the Holy Scriptures." The petitioners state that the Oriel Professor of Interpretation of Holy Scripture has spoken of one of the books of the Bible as "a shriveled-up myth." The editor of the Catholic journal says:-

"The same canker of unbelief is fast eating its way into the Presbyterian churches of Scotland. How is it, we may well ask, that the only Christian community in which attacks on the authority of Scripture are unheard of is the Church of Rome?"

We can answer that question. The

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reason is that in its very beginning the Catholic Church practically took the Bible out of the hands of the people, by the dogma that only the clergy can understand it, and that the people must receive it only as interpreted by them. Having taken the entire Bible from the people, there is no need to make attacks upon it. Professed Protestantism has not yet proceeded so far, but it is gaining on the Catholic Church with long and rapid strides.

"A B C" The Present Truth 9, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

Do you know your alphabet?

"A strange question," you say, "to ask of one who has read for years and years, and who at this moment is reading a paper."

It does seem strange at first thought, but it has struck me within the last week, that it is a question which we should carefully consider.

It is a sad fact that we are fast outgrowing our childhood. Our hearts are becoming stereotyped. We take it too much for granted that we have learned, and well learned, all the lessons of youth, that we have passed all over that ground once, and need never to return. We have put away childish things, and our superior learning and wisdom causes us to look with a sort of pity, akin to contempt, upon youth with its ignorance and follies. We forget that in our zeal to grow beyond the follies of youth, in our eagerness to become full-grown men and women, we may leave behind some of the prime requisites of Christian men and women. What gain is there in becoming men and women, if we leave the Christian out?

It seems that Jesus must have seen our danger, for these are the words that He has sent to us: "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven," or as found in Luke, "Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein."

Here is one thing in childhood, then, that we should not have left behind, and our Master says that we must confess our sin and humble ourselves until we are willing to take it back, or we shall in no wise enter the kingdom of God. We must be willing to learn our alphabet, and believe that "A" is "A," and "B" is "B," because our Father says so.

The father tells his son that all the treasures of earthly wisdom and knowledge are hid in his alphabet. If he will but learn it thoroughly and use it well it will open up to him all the wisdom in the world. He takes his father's word for it, learns his alphabet, and finds it indeed true.

Now that is what we are to do. We must in childlike faith believe in and learn the Christian's alphabet; and having that we shall have all things.

"But what is the Christian's alphabet?"

Jesus Himself tells us in Revelation xxii. 13: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last."

Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. In Jesus we find our whole alphabet, from the first to the last, for in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Col. ii. 3.

Is it not most necessary, then, that we know our alphabet? Is it enough that we know about it?

If we could get but one glimpse of the riches of wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption that are hid in Christ for us, would we not willingly become as little children, and spend the rest of our days in becoming acquainted with this wonder of wonders,-this God-given Alphabet?

Without Him we "can do nothing." Without Him all our reachings out after wisdom, holiness, life, and heaven, will be as useless as a child's reaching out after learning without a knowledge of his letters.

God help us, then, to study Jesus more, to become so thoroughly acquainted with Him that He will form a part of our very being. Then we shall have the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. i. 24); righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor. i. 30); all spiritual blessings (Eph. i. 3); eternal life (John xvii. 3; iii. 16; an everlasting inheritance (Eph. i. 11; 1 Peter i. 4); we shall be sons of God (John i. 12), and heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ (Rom. viii. 17). What more could we wish?

But let us remember that Jesus is the only Door and the only Way. He is the Alphabet, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

"Saying No" The Present Truth 9, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

Have you ever said Yes, when you knew that you ought to have said No? Have you ever felt afraid to obey God for fear of what someone might say or do? Let me tell you a true story.

Years ago in the city of Jerusalem lived three young men. They were very much like any other young men, only they had thoroughly learned one thing,-they had learned to love God with all their hearts. They had become acquainted with Him and His word. They had proved Him and found that He always kept His promises, and that no other friend was so able and willing to help them. They had learned that if He was for them He was more than all that could be against them. It was well that they knew this, for they were soon to pass through some very trying times.

One day a mighty king with his soldiers came and surrounded their city and overcame it, and carried them away from all their friends to Babylon, the great city where the king lived.

How glad they must have been, then, that they knew the best Friend of all! Although they were so far from home, they could not feel alone, for they knew that God was with them in Babylon as much as He was in Jerusalem. They therefore took courage knowing that all would work together for their good if they continued to love and trust God.

They cheerfully studied the new language and all the other things that the king wanted them to learn, and, with God's help, became very wise, good men, loved and respected by all who knew them. The king was so well pleased with them that he finally set them over the great affairs of his province. But you will see that they did not become proud and forget the Friend who had brought them into all this prosperity. They knew that it was God who had been with them and had given them all that they had.

The king had heard of their God, but was not himself acquainted with Him. He looked upon Him as but one of the many gods, like unto their idols. But God wished to teach the king that He alone was God, and that the idols which they worshipped were of no good at all.

The king made a great image of gold about ninety feet high and nine feet broad, and set it up in a plain near the city of Babylon. Then he sent word to all the great men and rulers of the

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provinces to come to the dedication of the great image.

And they came. What a sight it must have been! There were princes, governors, captains, judges, treasurers, counsellors, sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces standing before the bright image of gold which the king had set up. As the three young Hebrew men were rulers, of course they also were there, besides musicians with their cornets, flutes, harps, sackbuts, psalteries, and singers.

Then a man cried out very loudly so that they all might hear, "To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages, that when you hear the sound of the cornet and all the other kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the golden image that the king hath set up; and whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning, fiery furnace."

Suddenly the music began, and the people, not daring to disobey, all dropped on their knees and began to worship.

Did I say all the people began to worship? No, no, that is a mistake. Three lone men stood straight up, and did not bow at all! Can you think who they were?

The three men from Jerusalem knew that that image was not God. They were acquainted with the true God, and although they felt sorry to hurt the feelings of the king who had been so kind to them, they thought it would be far worse to grieve the heart of the One who had given them their lives and everything else that they had ever had, and who had loved them so much that He had given His only Son to die that they might be saved. If God had suffered all that for them, surely they ought to be willing to suffer a little for Him. They knew well enough that it would grieve Him if they should only bow down to the image, even though they should not worship it in their hearts, for He had plainly commanded them not to make unto them any graven image, and not to bow down to them or serve them. And then it would look as though they were ashamed of their God, and afraid to trust Him. No, no, they very quickly decided that they would rather die than grieve their best Friend. So they did not bow down.

As soon as the king heard about it he was very angry and sent for them and said, "Is it true, did you purposely disobey me and not bow down? I shall now give you one more chance. I shall have the music sound again, and if you bow down when you hear it, it will be well with you, but if not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands!"

The three Hebrews did not hesitate a moment, but said, "We do not care for another chance; if our God thinks best He is able to deliver us out of your hand, and He will; but even if He does not think best to do this, be it known unto you, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up."

Then the king was full of fury and had them bound by his mightiest men and cast into the furnace heated seven times more than it was wont to be heated, and they fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.

The fire was so hot that it slew the men who cast them in, but to the great astonishment of the king it did not seem to hurt the three Hebrews at all.

The king rose up in haste and said unto his governors, "Did not we cast three men bound into the fire?"

They answered, "True, O king."

He answered and said, "Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the mist of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God."

Then the king came near the door of the furnace and called the three men, and said, "Ye servants of the most high God, come forth and come hither."

Then they came out of the fire, and the princes, governors, captains, and the king's counsellors gathered together and saw them. The fire had no power at all upon their bodies, not a hair of their head was singed, their coats were not changed, and there was not even the smell of fire upon them! The Lord Himself in whom they trusted had come and walked in the fire with them and by His power had kept it from hurting them.

And the king saw that He was God and believed on Him and praised Him, and commanded that if anyone should say a word against Him they should be cut in pieces "because," he said, "there is no other god that can deliver after this sort." The image could not keep its worshippers from being burned, but God could.

How glad the three Hebrews must have been that they had learned to obey God in their youth!

Do not be afraid to take Jesus for your best Friend. He can strengthen you to say No when you are tempted. He is able to deliver you from sin and every other evil thing. He may sometimes allow you to suffer, but remember if He does it is for your good, for He loves you and gave His life to save you.

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

-It is stated that 70 per cent. of the people of Ceylon live by agriculture.

-Some 67 ton guns recently turned out at the Royal Gun Factory at Woolwich cost £10,668 each.

-In the Nova Scotia Legislature a Bill granting female suffrage has been rejected by a majority of three votes.

-Serious rioting has taken place in Belfast. Roman Catholic workmen have been attacked and stoned by a "Protestant" mob.

- The Home Rule Bill passed its second reading Friday night, April 21. The Committee stage was formally fixed for May 4.

-A dispatch of April 20 reports another severe cyclone in the Mississippi Valley. Whole villages have been destroyed, and many people killed.

-The Norwegian Ministry has resigned, owing to the King's refusal to regard the settlement of the consular question as a purely Norwegian matter.

-The tithe of the Church in Wales amounts to £304,429 a year. As many as 410 benefices out of a total of 987 belong to private patrons not affected by the Suspensory Bill.

-The Emperor of Germany and the Pope have had a long interview, with the result, according to the Pope, that many little misunderstandings have been removed.

-Custom House returns show that on the 1st of last month there was in the bonded warehouses of the United Kingdom no less a quantity than 8,842,017 gallons of wine in casks.

-The churches of the Wesleyans, Bible Christians, and Free Methodists of New Zealand are likely to be amalgamated, a joint committee having agreed upon a basis of union.

-The island of Zante has suffered from several more shocks of earthquake, completing the work of destruction begun by the one in February, and the people are in a state of panic.

-In Japan most persons can write as well with their left hand as with their right. At the earliest age boys and girls are taught to use both of their hands m writing and in other work.

-The Protestant Alliance has tamed a protest against the precedence given by the Lord Mayor to the Pope in placing his name before that of the Queen at the recent banquet at the Mansion House.

-Official returns just published show that last year in Egypt the number of murder cases dealt with by the courts of justice was 289. In many of these crimes the primary motive was robbery.

-The magistrates at Cardiff are perplexed by a new phase in the drink traffic. In order to frustrate the Sunday Closing Act in South Wales, workmen now club together to buy a cask of beer, which is taken to a field and there consumed at leisure.

-A fire broke out in the timber yards of the Victoria Dock, at Hull, on the 28d ult., and burned for twenty-four hours, destroying property to the amount of £100,000. There is evidence that the fire was the work of incendiaries, and was connected with the great strike of the dockers, which is still in progress.

-Sir W. Harcourt has introduced his Budget for the year 1898-94, estimating the expenses of the Government at £91,464,000, and the revenue at £89,890,000, leaving a deficit of £1,574,000, which he proposes to meet by an increase of a penny on the income tax thus producing an estimated surplus of £176,000.

-It is stated that during the past two years in Bengal the percentage of cases of lunacy due to "ganja," a most insidious drug, was no less than 58 per cent. of admissions "where the cause of the disease could be traced." The special cultivation of Indian hemp, and the preparation of "genja," is carried on under Government license, the amount produced averaging 600,000 lbs. annually.

-The Cunard Steamship Company have just sent to sea the Campania, the largest ship afloat, and now the White Star Company are building the Gigantic, which will greatly surpass the Campania. The Gigantic is to be 700 feet long, 20 feet longer than the Great Eastern, but it will be 15 feet narrower. The engines of the Great Eastern were 7,650 horse-power, while those of the Gigantic are 45,000. It is expected that the speed of the Gigantic will be 27 knots an hour.

-As stated in the preceding number of this paper, the "temperance" organisations succeeded in breaking up a meeting of publicans in Trafalgar Square. This was chronicled as a temperance victory. About two weeks later the publicans played the same dishonourable trick upon a temperance meeting at Mile end. This proceeding is reported as an outrage. It would seem that violence in the interest of "reform" is considered as altogether better than ordinary violence.

-Prof. Elisha Gray, one of the inventors of the telephone, has invented an instrument which may supersede it. It is called the "Telantograph," and is already in actual use in Chicago. Two instruments are required, one for transmitting and the other for receiving a message. A man can sit at the transmitter, take an ordinary pencil, write a note to a friend, and simultaneously with his writing another pencil at, the other end exactly reproduces the message. Not only are the words transmitted, but an exact facsimile of the handwriting is produced. If the sender does not wish to keep a copy of his message, it is not necessary to make any marks in writing; tracing the letters on the paper with a pointed stick will do equally well. By this means sketches of persons or places, outline maps, etc., can be sent by telegraph. It is not necessary that anybody should be present at the instrument to receive a message. If a man's business is out of his office, any message will be recorded as well as if be were present, and will be ready for his inspection when he returns. The whole thing is done in silence, and anyone who can write can use the instrument. The advantages of the telantograph over the telephone are obvious.

"Protestantism, True and False" The Present Truth 9, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

A meeting was held in St. James' Hall on the 24th ult., to protest against the Welsh Suspensory Bill. The reason for the opposition to this Bill on the part of churchmen, is that it is but the first step toward the disestablishment and disendowment of the whole Church of England. Some friends of the Bill were present, however, and vigorously demonstrated their right to be called "Nonconformists" and "Dissenters," by an utter failure to conform to the rules of decency and good behaviour, and by dissenting in such boisterous tones that the meeting was broken up before it was half finished. It is strange that men cannot see that rudely and senselessly to break up a meeting, to the object of which they are opposed, only strengthens that object, and weakens their own case.

A victory for the truth can never be gained by force. Mob law has no connection with the law of righteousness. When the professed friends of freedom indulge in intolerant acts, they show themselves the enemies of freedom. No man is a friend of freedom who is not willing and anxious to give to every other man all the liberty he wishes for himself. Such a man is not only no friend of freedom, but he does not even know what freedom is, and is, therefore, himself a slave.

That man alone is free whom the truth makes free. See John viii. 31-34. And this freedom comes alone through Christ; for He alone is the truth. John xiv. 6. It is the "free Spirit" (Ps. li. 12) of God, whom the Father sends in the name of Christ, that bestows this freedom; for only where the Spirit of the Lord is, is there liberty. 2 Cor. iii. 17. So that the only absolutely free man in the world, is the man who is led by the Spirit of God. But such a man cannot by any possibility do anything which would tend to curtail the freedom of any other person; for since the Spirit of the Lord gives liberty, he who is led by it must allow liberty to others, or else he himself forfeits it.

True Protestantism has nothing to do with violence in any form. It is true that in Reformation times men rushed to the sword in behalf of "Protestantism" and against Catholicism; but therein they ceased to be true Protestants. The Papacy is simply professed Christianity upheld by civil power and worldly methods. When therefore, the professed Protestants had recourse to the sword, and made their "Protestantism" an affair of politics, they thereby showed that they had not yet been emancipated from the Papacy; and as in their supposed protest against the Papacy they adopted Papal methods, their very protest was a real victory for the spirit of the Papacy, although its outward form suffered a defeat. Protestantism, indeed, is simply the protest of truth against error; not the protest of the form of truth, but the protest which a life of truth opposes to error.

This principle must apply in the present controversy. Since the Papacy fully developed is but professed Christianity, deriving power, support, and influence from secular sources, it follows that the Church of England, being a State Church, is essentially Papal in its constitution. And therefore it follows that to attack it with any form of violence, which is always only the manifestation of human power apart from God, is simply to oppose the Papacy in the spirit of the Papacy. And it is obvious that a victory in such a case could be nothing more than a victory for the Papacy. "The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." James i. 20. All this applies equally well to the violence which some professed Protestants are using towards Catholics. Indeed, it is rather worse, for while Catholicism proclaims itself intolerant, and so in persecuting dissenters is only carrying out its principles, Protestantism proclaims liberty to all.

And now just one point on the merits of the disestablishment question. The churchmen call disestablishment and disendowment robbery. If by those terms is meant depriving the church of endowments which it has received from private estates, and the free gift of the proprietors, and appropriating them to secular uses, then it is indeed a robbery. For although it is contrary to the whole spirit of Christianity for the church to amass property, yet the property once acquired is as sacred as the property of a private individual. The same principle must apply to the church as to an individual professor. A Christian should distribute wealth as it comes into his hands, instead of hoarding it up, yet even though he disobey the precept and example of his Master in this respect, no earthly power has the right to dispossess him of his property.

But if disestablishment and disendowment mean simply the ceasing on the part of the Government to give to the church funds that are raised by general taxation, then it is perfectly just and no robbery. For it is certainly no robbery for either a person or a State to cease at any time to continue even a voluntary gift which is within its right to bestow; how much more proper must it be, then, to cease to bestow a gift which it never had any right to bestow. It is true, as Lord Selbourne said at the recent meeting in St. James's Hall, that no religious work can be carried on without temporal means; but the necessary temporal means should not come from those who are opposed to the religious work done, or to the mode of doing it. "The labourer is worthy of his hire," but only from those who have hired him. "God loveth a cheerful giver" (2 Cor. ix. 7); He will accept only the freewill offerings. See Ex. xxv. 2. Therefore it follows that when the Government takes advantage of its power, to appropriate for church purposes money that has been paid as taxes by men who do not believe in that church, and who protest against being forced to support a form of religion in which they do not believe, God does not accept such appropriations, and His work is not carried on by them. Such appropriation is itself a robbery, and the fact that it is carried on professedly for the service of the Lord, does not make it any less sinful in His eyes. "For I the Lord love judgment; I hate robbery for burnt-offering." Isa. lxi. 8. "To obey is better than sacrifice." 1 Sam. xv. 22.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

At the Bible House in New York, a few days ago, the Rev. Hiram Bingham, a missionary of Micronesia, saw the completion of the printing of the entire Bible in the language of the Gilbert Islanders. The work of translating was begun in 1859, Mr. Bingham having been compelled first to reduce the language to writing. Twenty years ago he finished the Old Testament, and on the 11th of last month he completed the New Testament. Dr. Gilman of the Bible Society, spoke of Mr. Bingham as the only man who has reduced a language to writing, completed a vocabulary, constructed a grammar, and translated the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and then revised all the proofs.

May 18, 1893

"The Fear of the Lord" The Present Truth 9, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Prov. i. 9. As the marginal rendering has it, the fear of the Lord is the principal part of wisdom. So in Job xxviii. 28 we are told plainly, "The fear of the Lord that is wisdom." But we also read, "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil." Prov. ix. 13. Also, "by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil." Therefore we learn that true wisdom and knowledge spring from righteousness. "A good understanding have all they that do His commandments." Ps. cxi. 10. This is because the commandments can be kept only in Christ, for His life is the living law; and in Him "are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Col. ii. 3.

"The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens." Prov. iii. 19. "He hath made the earth by His power, He hath established the world by His wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by His discretion." Jer. x. 12. But this is only another way of saying that God "created all things by Jesus Christ." 1 Cor. i. 24. So not only are all power and all true wisdom found only in Christ, but all knowledge of the creation of the heavens and the earth can be obtained only through Christ. He who studies nature in the light of Christ and His work, will arrive at real knowledge; for "the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him."

Christianity is the religion of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the only manifestation of God. No man knoweth the Father "save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him." Matt. xi. 27. Therefore whatever religion is not the religion of Jesus Christ, is not the worship of God, and must be heathenism. There are only two systems of religion in the world-Christianity and heathenism.

Christianity is the religion of love. "God is love," and love is the fulfilling of His law. Jesus Christ is the manifestation of God's love to man; "for 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. Whatever religious practices therefore do not spring from love, are not a part of Christianity, but are a part of heathenism.

But love knows nothing of force. It cannot be forced. "Does your dog love you?" said a man to a boy. "Indeed he does," replied the lad; "he knows that I'll pound the life out of him if he doesn't. Such "love" as that does not afford any satisfaction to either party. Forced service is not love, but is slavery. Therefore compulsory religious service, not being a service of love, is not Christianity, but is essentially heathenism. But law means force, for a law that cannot be enforced is not a law. Therefore it is absolutely impossible that religion by law can be Christianity. Enforced religious observances, no matter of what kind, are no part of Christianity.

"A Present Salvation" The Present Truth 9, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

As God inhabits eternity, so that all time is present with Him, so all His promises and blessings for men are in the present tense. There can be no future or past time to Him. This makes Him "a very present help in trouble," for we can live only in the present. We cannot live one moment in the future. We expect things in the future, and have hope of things to come, but the present is all that we can ever have, for when the things hoped for come, they will be present. Indeed, the things which we have reason to hope for in the future, will be only the continuation of the things which we have now. All things are in Christ, and His promise is, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." Matt. xxviii. 20.

The apostle Paul blessed God because He "hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ Jesus." Eph. i. 3. The promises of God for the future must be present realities to us, if we ever receive any benefit from them. "For all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us." 2 Cor. i. 20. It is by these "exceeding great and precious promises" that we are "made partakers of the Divine nature." The glories of the world to come will be but the revealing of that which we have now in the personal presence within us of the Lord Jesus Christ. The only hope of glory is Christ in us.

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." Heb. xiii. 8. The word of God "liveth and abideth for ever." 1 Peter i. 23. We do not have to deal with a dead word, which was spoken so long ago that there is no more force in it, but with a word which has the same life as though it were just spoken. Indeed it is of benefit to us only when we receive it as spoken directly and personally to us. "When ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of man, but as it is in truth the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe." 1 Thess. ii. 13. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable." 2 Tim. iii. 16. It is all in the present.

For this reason we can never outgrow the Scriptures. There is not a single text in the Bible that has become obsolete. There is none that the Christian of the longest experience has outgrown, so that he has no need of it. There is none that can be laid aside. The text which brings a man to the Saviour, is the text which is ever needed to keep him there. And this, too, although his mind has expanded, and his spiritual sight has been greatly strengthened; and the reason is that every word of God is of infinite depth, so that as the Christian's mind expands the word means more to him than it did in the beginning. The universe appears much greater to the astronomer than it does to the man who has

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never looked through a telescope. We look at the stars with the naked eye, and they seem very far off. Then we look at them through a powerful telescope, and, although we can see so much farther with it, the distance to the stars seems to be very much greater than it did with our limited vision. So the more one becomes acquainted with the word of God, the greater does it become. The promises of God, which seemed so exceeding great when they first appeared to us, become much more exceeding great the more we consider them and apply them.

The word of God is a light shining in a dark place. 2 Peter i. 19. It is the revelation of Christ, who is the Light of the world, therefore it is a lamp. Ps. cxix. 105; Prov. vi. 23. We have all heard of the young sailor who was left in charge of the helm, with instructions to hold the ship's head straight toward a certain star, which was pointed out to him, and who, in a few hours called the captain and said that he wanted another star to steer by, as he had sailed past the first one given him. What was the trouble? He had turned the ship round, and was sailing away from the star. So it is with those who say that they have outgrown certain portions of the Bible. The trouble is that they have turned their backs upon it.

What is the Gospel? "It is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." Rom. i. 16. It is present power applied to the salvation of the one who has present faith. From what does the power of God save men? Jesus is the power of God, and of Him it was said, "Thou shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins." Matt. i. 21. "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." 1 Tim. i. 15. The Gospel is the power of God to save men from sin. But it is present power, for sin is ever present. Its power is applied only while one is believing. "The just shall live by faith." Rom. i. 17. The moment a man ceases to believe, then he is a sinner, just the same as though he had never believed. Yesterday's faith will not answer for to-day, any more than the breathing of the man yesterday will keep him alive to-day.

The message of the Lord to the church in the days immediately preceding His coming is, "Thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked." Rev. iii. 19. Who is there that has outgrown this text? Not one. The blessing comes to the one who acknowledges the truth of the Lord's charge; for to him the Lord will enter, with a supply for all his need. It is the man who says, "Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner," that goes down to his house justified.

And it is only as the man continues to utter that prayer, that he is justified. "For every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." Luke xviii. 14. The apostle says: "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." 1 Tim. i. 15. Note that he does not say, "Of whom I was chief;" but "of whom I am chief." And it was when he acknowledged himself to be the chief of sinners, that in him as chief was exhibited the mercy and longsuffering of God.

Some have wondered whether a Christian ought to sing these lines in Wesley's blessed hymn:-

"Just and holy is Thy name,

I am all unrighteousness;

Vile and full of sin I am;

Thou art full of truth and grace."

The man who thinks that he has outgrown those lines is in a pitiable condition, for he is shutting himself off from the source of righteousness. "There is none good, but one; that is, God." Matt. xix. 17. Therefore whatever righteousness is ever exhibited in any soul must be only the righteousness of God. It is only the soul that acknowledges his own sinfulness, that will lay hold on the righteousness of God that is by the faith of Christ. It is only by the obedience of one that many are made righteous. Rom. v. 19. And that one is Christ.

"And He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." 1 John ii. 2. The Christian of forty years' experience is just as much in need of the righteousness which comes through Christ, as is the sinner who is now for the first time coming to the Lord. So we read again, "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 say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." 1 John i. 7, 8. The most that anyone can say is that Christ is without sin, and that Christ has given Himself for us. He is of God "made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." 1 Cor. i. 30. But note that cleansing is a present process. We may know that the blood of Christ did cleanse us from sin at some time in the past; but that will do us no good. That life is continually needed, in order that the cleansing may go on continually. We are "saved by His life." Rom. v. 10. For Christ is our life. Col. iii. 4.

So it is that "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. Note again the present tense. It is not enough to confess that Jesus Christ did come in the flesh; that will bring no salvation to anybody. We must confess from positive knowledge, that Jesus is just now come in the flesh, and then we are of God. Christ came in the flesh eighteen hundred years ago, just for the purpose of demonstrating the possibility. That which He did once, He is able to do again. He who denies the possibility of His coming in the flesh of men now, thereby denies the possibility of His having ever come in the flesh.

So our part is with humbleness of mind to confess that we are sinners; that in us is no good thing. If we do not, then the truth is not in us; but if we do, then Christ, who came into the world for the express purpose of saving sinners, will come and take up His abode with us, and then the truth will indeed be in us. Then there will be perfection manifested in the midst of imperfection. There will be completeness in the midst of weakness. For we "are complete in Him." Col. ii. 10. He has created all things by the word of His power, and therefore can take men who are but nothing, and can make them "to the praise of the glory of His grace." Eph. i. 6. "For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things; to whom be the glory for every and ever. Amen." Rom. xi. 36.

"The Basis of Sunday Laws" The Present Truth 9, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

Those who have read the papers to any extent cannot have failed to notice that the enforcement of Sunday observance is increasing. In Birmingham, in Southampton, in Belfast, and at various other places in the Kingdon, crusades have been carried on against those who have ventured to take Sunday as a business day, instead of a day of rest and worship. These things are becoming so common, and are done so much as a matter of course, that it is necessary again and again to call the attention of the people to the basis upon which Sunday laws rest.

First, however, let us recall a statement concerning the action taken in the Isle of Man. A correspondent of the Christian Commonwealth said:-

"The Sunday trading question is becoming a vexed one in the Isle of Man. For some time past the sale of newspapers in the streets, and Sunday trading generally, have become distasteful and intolerable to the majority of the Manx people; and on the introduction of the Local Government Act into the House of Keys, Mr. John Thomas Cowell, the member for North Douglas, moved the insertion of a new clause, to the effect that any person publicly crying, showing forth, or exposing for sale any wares, merchandise, fruit, newspapers, or any chattels whatever, on the Lord's Day,

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shall at the instance of a constable, be liable to a fine of 40s. for each offence."

The clause was carried by a vote of fifteen to five, but was thrown out on being sent back to the Legislative Council. One member declared that he would rather lose the whole Bill than consent to such a piece of legislation. The writer above referred to says: "This will undoubtedly be the case, as the Manx ire is now fully aroused, against the wholesale Sunday desecration of recent years, and things are gradually growing worse. The Council may play the part of obstructionists for a time, but the voice of the people must ultimately be heard, and a strong measure be passed prohibiting Sunday trading."

NO CONNECTION WITH TEMPERANCE

In this connection it may be well to note the fact that the Bishop of Sodor and Man said that during his twelve months' residence on the island, he has been favourably impressed with respect to the temperance question. "So far as he could recollect, he had observed only one case of drunkenness in a Manxman." So it will be seen that it cannot be claimed that Sunday legislation is necessary on the ground of temperance.

We have already repeatedly shown that the Sunday observance question cannot in any sense be considered a temperance question. The same number of the Christian Commonwealth which contained the item in regard to the Isle of Man, had an editorial on the drink question. From that editorial we quote the following:-

"Most temperance advocates believe that Sunday closing ought to be national, and not local. But why do they think so? Simply for the reason that the country is ripe for a national Sunday Closing Bill, and that such a Bill is right in itself. Undoubtedly these are weighty considerations. But we fail to see why Sunday Closing should be made national, and total closing local. The evil influence of the drink traffic for six days in the week must be more than for one day; and yet some who are comparatively indifferent to the former, are sticklers for the latter."

This should be sufficient to settle the question as to the connection of Sunday closing with temperance. There is none whatever. "The whole country is ripe for a national Sunday Closing Bill," but not by any means for national prohibition seven days in the week. Sunday closing would make but little appreciable difference in the amount of liquor consumed, for the workingmen are as idle on Saturday nights as they are on Sundays, and there is ample time then for them to get rid of their wages, even if they did not lay in a supply of drink for the next day.

NOT A PHYSICAL NECESSITY

We may therefore leave the question of temperance entirely out of our study of the basis of Sunday laws. There are only two other possible grounds on which compulsory Sunday observance may be based, and they are (1) the physical benefit to be derived, and (2) the religious character of the day. We will consider them. But first, again, let us see how much importance is attached to this matter of Sunday observance. The Christian Commonwealth of March 20 said:-

"If shopkeepers persist in needless Sunday trading, they must be stopped by the strong arm of the law. In Birmingham the nuisance has become so intolerable that a Watch Committee has been formed, and is making a crusade against Sunday trading. . . . We should prefer Sunday closing to be voluntary, but if this cannot be realised, the only alternative is to make it compulsory."

Take now the idea that Sunday observance is necessary for the physical well-being of people, especially of the workingmen. At the most that can be claimed for a weekly physical rest it is of far less importance than many other things. For instance, it is far more necessary that a man should have a regular amount of sleep in every twenty-four hours. A man may work every day in the week for an indefinite time, if he has sufficient regular daily rest; whereas if he is broken of his rest at night for a few nights, he will be totally unfitted for work. But we never hear of a proposition that labouring men should be compelled by law to sleep seven hours every night, and nobody will ever be foolish enough to advocate such a thing. Laws are not needed to compel people to rest when they are tired; nature will attend to that.

Again, if enforced Sunday rest is only for the physical well-being, then it is most absurd, not to say tyrannical, because all persons do not become weary and in need of rest at the same time. Different kinds of labour induce different degrees of weariness; and to say that all men shall take exactly the same amount of rest, and at the same time, is as absurd as to say that they shall all eat the same amount of the same kind of food, and at precisely the same time. One man's work does not make another man tired, neither does the fact that a hundred men are working hinder one from resting, and therefore there is no reason why every man shall rest at a given time, simply because a few wish to do so.

But it is often urged that the Government has the right to set apart certain days as holidays. Very true, but that is not what Sunday is desired to be. A holiday is a day on which people are permitted to cease labour if they wish; on Sunday it is desired to force people to cease work whether they want to or not. If a man wishes to dig in his garden on a Bank Holiday, instead of going to the parks, he is at liberty to do so. If there were an attempt to force everybody to stop all kinds of work on a Bank Holiday, there would be such a protest as would put an end to the attempt. Pleasure cannot be forced, and neither can rest.

"Religious Legislation Pagan" The Present Truth 9, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

We are plainly shut up to the fact that the only basis of Sunday laws is the religious character of the day. Some people regard the day as sacred, and therefore they want to have everybody compelled to observe it as such. If it were not so, it would not be styled "the Lord's Day," and the term "desecration" would never be applied to labour on it. We will therefore proceed on the assumption that Sunday is indeed the Sabbath, and see if we can find in that any just ground for enforcing its observance.

The Scripture says: "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." James i. 27. Therefore it is evident that true religion cannot be forced, any more than the law can compel a man to be sympathetic and generous.

Suppose we take it for granted that the observance of Sunday is required by the law of God. What then? God's law is love. "This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments." 1 John v. 8. "Love worketh no ill to his neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." Rom. xiii. 10. But love is a voluntary thing, and cannot be forced. The use of force shows the absence of love. No force is needed to compel a man to do that which he loves to do; and if he does not love to do a thing that God has commanded, there is no obedience in the forced performance of it. But that which is not obedience is disobedience; therefore to compel a man to do a thing, even though the Lord has commanded it, is to compel him to disobey God.

This is stated directly by the Apostle Paul, in the words, "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Rom. xiv. 23. No argument is needed to show that there is no faith in religious acts that are forced. Therefore when it is said, "We should prefer Sunday closing to be voluntary, but if this cannot be realised the only alternative is to make it compulsory," it is the same as though it were said, "We should prefer to have men voluntarily religious, but if this cannot be realised the only alternative is for the State to compel them to add hypocrisy to their irreligion." If Sunday observance were commanded ten thousand times over in the Bible, and each succeeding time with

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increased emphasis, even then to compel men to keep it would be to compel them to sin. Enforced religion is Paganism.

Take for instance the commandment, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." This is the basis and the sum of all true religion. The disregard of this commandment is the source of all evil, yet it is impossible to force its observance. If it were attempted to enforce it, the result would be nothing less than general idolatry.

Sometimes it is claimed that Sunday observance is enforced, not with the idea of making men religious, but for the benefit of those who do regard Sunday as the Sabbath, that they may not be disturbed in their devotions. Let us consider this in detail. The fallacy of the argument is seen by the fact that there is not a religious body that does not hold religious exercises upon other days of the week, besides Sunday. Indeed there is not a day in the week, and at some seasons of the year scarcely an hour in the day, when there is not some sort of religious service being held in London, to say nothing of other places. But no one thinks of requesting Parliament to stop all labour while these services are going on. And no one ever heard any complaint that these services were disturbed by the ordinary necessary traffic with which the streets and shops were filled during the hours of these services. How does it happen, then, that Sunday labour is such a disturbance to worship? How can it be that work which is said to disturb the devotions of people on Sunday, has no effect whatever on the devotions of those same people on another day of the week?

If labour should be prohibited on Sunday, on the ground of not interfering with the devotions of religious people, then by the same rule it ought to be suspended while those same people are performing their private and family devotions. And in that case, it would be necessary that Parliament should regulate the hours of family worship, requiring all families to adopt the same time. There is exactly the same reason for having a uniform hour for family worship, and prohibiting all labour during that hour, that there is for enforcing the observance of Sunday.

"Majority Rule" The Present Truth 9, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

But here we are met with the question, "Ought not the majority to rule?" The answer must always be, "No; nor the minority either." Neither the majority nor the minority are to rule in matters of religion. What did the Saviour say? When there was a strife among His disciples, as to which of them should be the greatest, "He said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so; but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve." Luke xxii. 25, 26.

Again, when two of them were seeking for high position of authority, and the others were envious, Jesus said: "Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you; but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant; even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." Matt. xx. 25-28.

In line with this statement are the words of the Apostle Paul: "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men." Phil. ii. 3-7.

The same Spirit speaks thus through the Apostle Peter: "Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility; for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble." 1 Peter v. 5.

Again the Saviour said: "But be not ye called Rabbi; for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth; for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters; for one is your Master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted." Matt. xxiii. 8-12.

Where the idea prevails that in matters of religion the majority must rule, whether it be a majority of numbers or a majority of influence, there must of necessity be judging, and the application of force to the minority, to compel compliance with the wishes of the majority. But here is what the Lord says will be the fate of those who interfere with their fellow-servants: "If that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord delayeth His coming; and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for Him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Matt. xxiv. 48-51.

How is it that the evil servant says in his heart, "My Lord delayeth His coming"? It is by the very act of presuming to judge and smite his fellow-servant. God alone is Judge, and He has committed all judgment into the hands of His Son. John v. 22. The Divine injunction is, "Therefore 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. And again, "Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned; behold, the Judge standeth before the door." James v. 9. And it is written, "Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." Now those who take upon themselves the work of judging, and condemning their fellow-servants, say by their actions that the Lord is not coming to judge men, but that if such work is ever done they must attend to it themselves. Thus they virtually exclude the Lord from the affairs of His own church.

When God raised Jesus from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, He "gave Him to be the Head over all things to the church, which is His body." Eph. i. 22, 23. "And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And He is the Head of the body, the church; who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell." Col. i. 17-19.

Christ therefore is the source of all authority in the church. The State has no right to make laws for the church, for then it would be usurping the place of Christ as the head of the church. And the church has no right to make laws for itself, nor for anybody else, for in that case the body would be assuming the functions of the head, and the result would be a monster. The business of the church, and of all in it, is to obey the Head, and not to rule.

And so it may be said, after all, that the majority should rule in matters of religion, for the Lord alone is a majority. "Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance; behold, He taketh up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before Him are as nothing; and they are counted to Him less than nothing, and vanity." Isa. xl. 15-17. Let puny men beware, therefore, how they venture to arrogate to themselves the work of the Lord.

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Men in their zeal for religion say that Sunday labour cannot be tolerated. But God tolerates all sorts of evil on the earth. It is not because He is less pained by it than men are, but because the time of judgment has not yet come. Where sin abounds grace does much more abound. It is with the cords of His everlasting love that the Lord seeks to draw men, and to turn them from evil. When men, therefore, begin to talk about not tolerating irreligion, it means that they cannot tolerate difference from them. It means that they take themselves as the standard, and that all must be compelled to do as they do.

In the account of proposed Sunday legislation in the Isle of Man, it is stated that Sunday trading is distasteful to the majority. Tastes differ, and are sometimes very capricious, and if the fact that a certain thing is distasteful is sufficient ground for prohibiting it, no one can be sure of being unmolested. But note the fact that personal prejudice, and the desire of certain men that everybody shall conform to their ways, is the reason why Sunday legislation is desired. So we have found that the basis of Sunday laws is in the selfishness of unregenerate man.

"Sunday Laws Not Sabbath Laws" The Present Truth 9, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

Enough has been said to show that we oppose Sunday laws, as well as all laws enforcing any manner of religion, because they are opposed to the Gospel. Their only tendency can be to lower the standard of religion. But there is something more to this matter, and that is that Sunday is not the Sabbath at all. It is purely a human institution. And herein is seen the truth of the statement that Sunday laws grow entirely out of human selfishness. For they are not a manifestation of zeal for God, since God has nothing to do with Sunday observance. Instead of commanding men to rest on the day, He has given it to them as a working day. Mark what He says: "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. 9, 10.

"But did not Christ rise on the first day of the week?" Undoubtedly; but what has that to do with the matter? Nowhere in the Bible is there the slightest intimation that He ever designed that anybody should observe the day in any manner whatever on that account. Many people think that the commemoration of redemption has taken the place of the commemoration of creation; but creation and redemption are the same. Redemption is creation. It is the power of God, by which He made the worlds, working in men to save them. For it was by Jesus Christ that all things were made, and He is the power of God. See John 1-3, and 1 Cor. i. 24. The Gospel is the mystery of God, and that is Christ in men the hope of glory. Col. i. 26, 27. Christ is of God made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor. i. 30), and the Sabbath, of which He Himself is Lord (Mark ii. 28), was given to men that they might know that He is the Lord, by whom they are sanctified. Eze. xx. 12.

Throughout the New Testament the seventh day of the week is called the Sabbath, and the first day of the week is known only by that designation. What does that signify? It means that those are the titles that the Holy Spirit designs that those days shall bear throughout all time. The Bible is the word of God, and when God gives a name to a thing, it means that the thing is just what He names it. So the seventh day is the Sabbath, and so it will always be, no matter what men may do.

Now read the record of what occurred in connection with the resurrection: "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." Luke xxiii. 54-56; xxiv. 1. They rested on the seventh day, for they "rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment," and that says that "the seventh day is the Sabbath." And they resumed work on the first day of the week.

Now note further what the Holy Spirit says of the relation of the first day of the week to the Sabbath. In the last part of the thirteenth chapter of Mark we find the same thing referred to which is told in detail in the twenty-third of Luke. Having said that the women beheld where Jesus was laid, the record proceeds, "And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint Him. And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun." Mark xvi. 1, 2.

What may we learn from this? That no matter how early one gets up in the morning of the first day of the week, he is too late to find the Sabbath. The Sabbath is then past. No man can arise early enough in the morning of the first day of the week to find any portion of the Sabbath. The seventh day is the Sabbath; and as soon as the seventh day is gone, the Sabbath is past. This is the statement of the Spirit of the Lord. "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."

So we see that when the State, at the instigation of the church, proceeds to compel men to observe the first day of the week, it is committing a double sin. It is compelling men to rest on a day when God says they ought to work, and thus by indirection seeking to force them to work on the day that He has appointed to be kept holy; and it is presuming to legislate on matters of religion, which pertain solely to God. It is putting itself in the place of God. Although the seventh day is the Sabbath, no power on earth has the right to compel men to observe it. Even God Himself does not seek to compel men to obey Him.

"Opposition to God" The Present Truth 9, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

The Sabbath, as we have seen, is the seventh day of the week. It is the Lord's day, for God Himself calls it "My holy day." Isa. lviii. 13. "The Sabbath of the Lord" must be the Lord's day. Moreover Christ declared Himself to be the Lord of the Sabbath day. Matt. xii. 8. In so saying, He had direct reference to the seventh day of the week, the day which the Jews profess to keep; for He was repelling their false charge that He and His disciples were breaking the Sabbath. The seventh day Sabbath is therefore the only day known in Scripture as the Lord's day.

But it is claimed that Sunday is the Sabbath, and a very common name for it is the Lord's day. Indeed, it is as the Lord's day that its observance is enforced on the people. It comes in as a usurper, taking the place of the Sabbath of the Lord. Hence every attempt to enforce its observance is a direct attempt to oust the seventh day from its rightful place as the Sabbath of the Lord, and to put the first day in its place. Therefore whenever the State makes laws enforcing Sunday observance it is legislating squarely against God. It is not simply ignoring the commandment of the Lord, but it is teaching men that God's word is to be disregarded for that of the State.

Thus in Sunday legislation we have a direct issue joined between the State and God. And this, too, in a way that is not done by ordinary sins that men commit. All sin is rebellion against God, but it is not always wilful rebellion. "The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Rom. viii. 7. And men are the slaves of this carnal mind, so that they cannot do even the things that they would. See John viii. 34; Rom. vii. 14-20; Gal. v. 17. But Sunday legislation is direct rebellion against God, inasmuch as it strikes at the very foundation of His authority.

The distinctive characteristic of God

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above all the false gods that are worshipped, is that He is Creator. "For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In His hand are the deep places of the earth; the strength of the hills is His also. The sea is His, and He made it; and His hands formed the dry land." Ps. xcv. 3-5. "For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols; but the Lord made the heavens." Ps. xcvi. 4, 5. "The Lord is the true God, He is the living God, and an everlasting King; at His wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide His indignation. Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. He hath made the earth by His power, He hath established the world by His wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by His discretion." Jer. x. 10-12.

The things that God has made are the sign of His power and Divinity. See Rom. i. 20. And the Sabbath is the memorial of His wonderful works; for He 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." Ezek. xx. 20, 12. "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." Ps. cxi. 2-4. The literal rendering is "He hath made a memorial for His wonderful works."

The Sabbath, therefore, is the thing by which men may acknowledge the Divine power of God, since it commemorates the creative work of God, and the works which God has made are the sign of His power and Divinity. Consequently, when the State enforces Sunday as the Lord's day, and thereby exerts its power to obliterate the Sabbath of the Lord, it is using all its power to erase from the minds of men a knowledge of the power and Divinity of God. It is putting itself forward as the thing to be worshipped in the place of God.

More than this. When the first day of the week is put in the place of the Sabbath of the Lord, and its observance is enforced, the State, which by that act becomes not only the Church, but the head of the Church, exalts itself to a place above God, arrogating to itself power that even God does not possess. Thus: When God had made the worlds in six days, He rested on the seventh day. That made that day His Sabbath. If He had been so minded, He could have made the earth in five days, and rested the sixth. In that case, the sixth day would have been the Sabbath. Or He might have made the heavens and the earth in four, three, or two days, and then the fifth, fourth, or third day of the week would have been the Sabbath. If He had wished, He might have made the heavens and the earth in one day, and rested on the second day, so that the second day would have been the Sabbath. But mark this fact, that by no possibility could He have made the first day of the week the Sabbath. If He had created all things on the first day, He could not also on that same day have rested from all His work, so as to make that day the Sabbath.

Thus we see that in choosing the first day of the week as the substitute for the Sabbath of the Lord, Satan has moved man to assume a power that God Himself does not possess. This fact shows that Sunday as a rest-day is the mark of Satan's power, and not of the Lord's, for the work of Satan is to put himself in the place of God, and this he could do only by claiming greater power than the Lord. But Satan works through man. So he is "the god of this world" (2 Cor. iv. 4), he works through the powers of the world; therefore when worldly powers assume control of the affairs of the church and religion, the State Church thus formed is Satan's church, in direct opposition to the church which is the body of Christ.

The putting of Sunday in the place of the Sabbath of the Lord, thus putting man above God grows naturally out of the evolution idea that all that is in man is naturally good, so that a man can be righteous by his own works. Natural religion-the religion of "science falsely so called," teaches that man can bring righteousness out of himself. But that which is in man by nature is sin, and therefore the idea really is that men can make righteousness out of sin. But God Himself cannot do this. He can put away sin, and destroy it by His own righteousness, but He cannot make righteousness out of sin. That would be to deny Himself. Satan has instilled into the minds of men the idea that they are as good as God, and even better, and from this idea very naturally comes the attempt to make a Sabbath out of Sunday. In each case it is simply the manifestation of the "mystery of iniquity," the development of which forms "that man of sin," "the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped." 2 Thess. ii. 3, 4.

This spirit as it is manifested in human governments, is represented in the Bible under two forms. The first is thus described:-

"And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion; and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. . . . And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven." Rev. xiii. 1, 2, 5, 6.

The power thus described is known as the Papacy. In Paganism, which until the days of Constantine was the religion of the world, the devil ruled the minds of men without any attempt at concealment. It was simple devil-worship. But Constantine saw in Christianity a power that had come up in the face of pagan persecution, and was rapidly overtopping it. Therefore he resolved to unite his empire with this power, as more likely to insure its stability than Paganism. The Bishops of the church, who, as Mosheim says, had purposely multiplied rites and ceremonies, modeling the church after Pagan forms, in order that they might render the Pagans friendly to them, gladly accepted Constantine's offer of union, if they did not even suggest it to him.

Thus the State, instead of being professedly Pagan, became professedly Christian. But the Christianity was only in form. The religion was that of the world. The power was that of Satan. It was from the dragon, which is "the devil and Satan" (Rev. xii. 9), that the composite Church and State beast received all his power and authority. The Pope of Rome, therefore, who poses as the vicegerent of the Son of God, is in reality the vicegerent of Satan. He represents anti-Christ, opposing and exalting himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped. And this point is made too plain for any question, when we recall the fact that the Catholic Church bases its claim to the allegiance of all men on the fact that it has, contrary to the Scripture, substituted the first day of the week for the seventh day, the Sabbath of the Lord.

The other manifestation of opposition to God, under the guise of Christianity is thus described:-

"And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the

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sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads; and 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. 11-17.

Here we have the same power working as in the Papacy, only a little more disguised. At the first Christianity, which was a reformation, was joined to the State, making the Papacy, through which Satan worked. So now we have Protestantism, the reformation from Catholicism, linked with the State, so that it becomes an image of the Papacy. As Sunday is the badge or mark of the power and authority of the Papacy, so the exercising of the power of the first beast, in his sight, is the enforcement of Sunday by professed Protestant powers. By compelling men to observe Sunday, professed Protestants are forcing them to receive the mark of the Papacy,-the man of sin.

So we see that around the question of Sabbath observance, whether it shall be the seventh day or the first, centres the whole question of whether Christ or anti-Christ shall be worshipped. And since it is a question as to which power shall be recognised,-whether that of God or that of Satan,-it is the central battle ground of the Gospel. If the Sabbath be kept, as the Sabbath of the Lord indeed, then God's power is recognised and yielded to, and that power is the Gospel, which brings salvation. But if, after a knowledge of the facts, the Sunday be kept, then the authority and power of Satan and his representative is recognised and yielded to, and that is the power of death and destruction.

Thousands of people are ignorant of these things. Sincere in their desire to serve the Lord, they are keeping Sunday as the Sabbath of the Lord, with no idea but that they are obeying Him in so doing. Like Saul of Tarsus, they think that they are doing God service, and live in all good conscience. But as the Lord Jesus revealed Himself to Saul, so in these days He is seeking to reveal Himself to all men. Satan has monopolised the attention of almost all the world, but he is not to be allowed to have things his own way. Christ is going to reveal Himself in His Church so fully in these last days, that all men shall know the truth as it is in Jesus. The people of God will acknowledge and worship Him as Creator. Therefore the last message before the coming of the Lord, which is the one that is being given now, since we are in the last days, is the following:-

"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. And 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. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man 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. 6-10.

Reader, which side will you take?

"Religious Liberty" The Present Truth 9, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

At the recent annual meeting of the Society for the Liberation of Religion from State Patronage and Control, the one speaker who went to the root of the matter was Dr. Parker. He confined himself wholly to the religious phase of the question, which is the only phase that it can properly have. He said that he cared nothing for majorities or minorities; if only one man was on the side of religious liberty, that man was right. Said he: "The Church of Christ is such that the State has nothing whatever to do with it." That is true. Not only so, but the Church of Christ is of such a nature that the State cannot by any possibility have anything to do with it." Jesus, whom Dr. Parker styled "the greatest Nonconformist," said: "My kingdom is not of this world." John xviii. 36. Therefore it follows that when Church and State are united to any degree, that church is not the church of Christ.

The most of those who are opposed to the Established Church, base their opposition on the fact of inequality and unfairness. They say that it is unfair that the Church of England should be favoured above other churches. This was largely the tone of the speakers at the meeting of the Liberation Society, and it is the tone of most that is written. But that is a low, selfish view of the matter. It is really no opposition whatever to State patronage and control of religion. Those who hold it virtually say that they wouldn't object to State patronage if the patronage were equally distributed. Dr. Parker took the correct and only consistent position when he said that the case would not change in the least if nonconformity were on an equality with the establishment. State connection with religion is wrong in principle, no matter who is concerned. Those who oppose it on any other ground, offer no opposition whatever.

In speaking of the matter of disestablishment, Dr. Parker referred to the fact that it was claimed that it would "secularize ecclesiastical establishments." While protesting that he did not want to see St. Paul's turned into a vegetable market, nor Westminster Abbey into a railway station, he said that to secularize them was not the worst thing that could happen to them. "I would rather," said he, "secularise them than Romanise them." He might have gone further. He might have stated that they are already both Romanised and secularized. Secular means pertaining to the world. The church of Christ is not of the world, but the State is. Therefore whenever the church forms a connection with the State it thereby becomes secularized,-made worldly. The ecclesiastical establishments that are supported in whole or in part by the State are already secularized. But they are also Romanized, because the essential characteristic of Romanism is professed Christian institutions supported by the State. It is the most natural thing in the world, therefore, and even inevitable, that Romish customs and ceremonies should be introduced into any denomination that accepts State patronage. So the State is asked to let the church alone, not for the purpose of secularizing it, but of freeing it from secularism; in short, it is for the purpose of Christianising the church.

"Only a Mirage" The Present Truth 9, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

We do not refer to the delusive pictures of houses and green trees and streams of water that we have seen floating o'er the shady plains, but we refer to the false visions of life and freedom and beauty and pleasure that we all have been seen floating o'er the deserts of sin.

They are only a mirage; they are only a delusion of the devil. There is no life, there is no freedom, there is no beauty or pleasure in sin.

Have we not again and again clawed after these phantoms, like a boy after a butterfly, only to find them at last,-just beyond our grasp? Have we ever yet been able to seize it and hold it fast, and prove it true? Never!

We have found the very opposite true. Instead of life, we have found ourselves "dead in trespasses and sins." Instead of freedom, we have found ourselves in the "bond of iniquity," and so "holden with the cords of our sins" that we could not so much as raise ourselves up. Instead of beauty we have found "ashes," and instead of pleasures, the "spirit of heaviness," and the "gall of bitterness."

"A Blessed Reality" The Present Truth 9, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

How different is the religion of Jesus Christ! What a blessed reality! No false visions, no rosy-hued paths that end in captivity and death!

It binds up the broken-hearted, proclaims "liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound" in sin. It comforts all that mourn, and gives unto them "beauty

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for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." It clothes us with the garments of salvation, and covers us with the robe of righteousness. It opens to us the path of life, where there is "fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore." It lays up our treasures "where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal." It gives us a crown that fadeth not away, and a mansion in the city "whose builder and maker is God."

The religion of Jesus Christ has bread for the hungry, water for the thirsty, garments for the naked, homes for the homeless, and riches for the poor. It brings a Friend to the friendless, a Father to the fatherless, and a Husband to the widow. It sheds light on those in darkness, furnishes a guide to the blind, and opens a fountain for the unclean and a place of refuge for those in danger. It gives rest to the weary, strength to the weak, wisdom to the ignorant, comfort to the mourner, freedom to the captives, and life to the dying.

O reader, taste and see that the Lord is good.

"False Gods in India" The Present Truth 9, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

"What ugly looking pictures! What can they be?"

I do not wonder that you think the pictures ugly, but if you could see them, idols in the temple of Juggernaut, in India, you would think them still more ugly than their pictures. And yet you would see something that would seem worse to you than the idols themselves; you would see people bowing down before these hideous looking idols and calling them their gods, and praying to them!

"And are these the only gods that the people of India know anything about?"

Oh no, there are more gods in India than there are people! There are so many that a person could not worship them all if he should try. Each person therefore chooses the ones that he likes best and worships them.

"Well, are the gods all like them!" you say.

No not just like these, but very many are as bad as these, and some are still worse.

There are "idols of every form and shape, from the little painted clay image in a poor man's house, up to the huge figure of gold in one of their temples, or to the image of a bull, twenty feet high, cut out of a rock." Then besides these frightful idols of clay, and stone and brass, and gold, some of them worship demons, which they say are the blood-thirsty spirits of wicked men who have died. Others worship "the sun and moon and stars, the fire which blazes on the hearth, the wind which sweeps across the plains, the stream which flows by their dwelling, the cow which browses in the pasture, the very tools with which they work, the snakes that crawl across their path, the trees that surround their villages, the mountains, hills, plants, and stones, and numberless other familiar objects.

The three greatest gods are Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Siva the destroyer.

Siva is worshipped more than the other because the people are afraid of him. He and his wife, Kali Devi, are said to be so bloodthirsty that the people are willing to give them almost anything, not because they love them, but to keep them from hurting them. Siva is represented by a small black bone carried in a silver box around the neck, or fastened to the arm.

Siva's wife, Kali Devi, is an idol of very dark blue, almost black. "She has four arms, having in one hand a sword, and in another the head of a giant which she holds by the hair, another hand is open to bestow a blessing and with the fourth she is forbidding fear. She wears two dead bodies for earrings, and a necklace of skulls; her mouth is open, and her tongue hangs down to the chin. The heads of several giants are hung as a girdle around her waist, and her tresses fall down to her feet. As she is supposed to have been drinking the blood of the giants which she has slain, her eyebrows are bloody, and the blood is falling in a stream down her breast; her eyes are red like those of a drunkard. She stands with one foot on her husband, Siva, who had cast himself down before her among the bodies of the dead."

Just think of worshipping a god like that! It is said that she can be kept from hurting them in no other way than by giving her plenty of blood. "The blood of a tiger is said to please her for a hundred years, and the blood of a lion, a deer, or a man, a thousand, while by the sacrifice of three men she is pleased a hundred thousand years." No wonder that the poor people at one time offered human beings to her, and that they still spend so much of their money for animals to sacrifice to her at her yearly festivals. Every year the blood runs in streams before her shrines.

Ganess, the elephant-headed son of Siva and Kali Devi, is also much worshipped. His image is found everywhere, by the roadside, and under trees, and in small temples. "No one sets out on a journey without praying to him, 'O! thou work-perfecting Ganess grant me success in my journey.' At the head of every letter, his peculiar mark is made. When a person begins to read he salutes Ganess, and shopkeepers and others paint the image or name of this god over the doors of their shops or houses, expecting him to protect them and help them in their work. Many keep in their houses a small brass image of him and worship it daily. In him they think is found all wisdom. Often is the Hindu mother seen pointing her frightened infant to this hideous idol, and joining its tiny hands together towards the god."

The people live in fear all the time. Those who worship demons dare not even show that they love their children, or take good care of them when they are ill, for fear the demons will see their love and kill their children or cause some other dreadful thing to happen to them.

And what has one of these idols ever done that they should be thus worshipped and feared? Not one thing.

They are but wood or stones or brass or clay made into these shapes. Can a piece of stone or clay hear you when you speak to it? Can it feel when you touch it? Does it know when you are in trouble? Has it power to come and help you? No; and neither can these false gods.

"They have mouths, but they speak not;

Eyes have they, but they are 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 mouths."

"If they can do nothing to hurt anyone

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why do so many of the people of India fear them?" "If they can do nothing to help a person, why do they pray to them?"

It is because they are following false guide-books. They are told that these are their gods and that bad spirits come into their idols that will do dreadful things to them unless they worship them and give them many offerings. They believe this so strongly that sometimes they go for years without noticing that their prayers are never answered, and when they do notice, they often think it is because they must offer still greater sacrifices, or more sorely afflict their bodies.

Oh, that all might get hold of the true Guide-Book! Oh, that all might learn of the true God!

"The Most High God" The Present Truth 9, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

The idols of India are called gods because people worship them, but they are no more like the only true God than a piece of mud if like the sun, or a grain of sand is like the ocean.

We have seen that the idols do not know anything; they never have had power to do anything, and never can have power to do anything; they have no beauty, no glory, no life, no goodness, no love; they cannot even feel, or hear, or see. But they are thought to be filled with hateful, cruel spirits that delight to torture, kill and destroy.

But, praise the Lord, there is a true God. There is a living God. One who knows and feels, and hears and sees, and who manifests a good and loving Spirit.

I see flashes of His glory in the sun and moon and sky, and exhibitions of His power in the heavens and the earth. I see the reflection of His greatness in the sea, and examples of His handiwork in the fleecy clouds, balmy air, and downy snowflakes. I see marks of His wisdom, and tokens of His love and thoughtfulness, in the animals and birds and flowers, and in the tiniest thing that He has made. I know of His goodness and His mercy, for I have felt them in my own heart. I find Him all that the Bible says He is.

The more I know of God the more I know that He alone "is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols; but the Lord made the heavens." He not only has life in Himself, but He has power to give life. Everything that lives gets its life from Him, for He "made the heaven, the earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein."

The most high God lives in heaven, up, up above the starry sky. He has a great white throne, surrounded by a dazzling rainbow, a temple such as this earth has never seen, a glorious city, and shining attendants more than can be numbered. His face is brighter than the sun, and "he dwells in a light which no man can approach unto."

And yet what seems still more wonderful, this glorious being so high and lifted up, is willing to come down and by His Spirit dwell in our poor bodies, cleansing them from sin and using them for His temples,-if we but love Him and invite Him in!

"How can He come and live in us?"

I am sure I cannot tell. But He says He will if we really want Him to, and I know that He does because I've asked Him to, and He has kept His promise; and the peace and joy and comfort that He brings with Him is more than this world can give or take away. When He is within, we can do right, but without Him, we can do nothing right. He can do this thing that seems so impossible to us, because He knows so much more than we, and is so much more powerful.

His love is as great as His glory and His power. He has given us our lives and everything else that we have. He causes the sun to shine and the rain to fall that we may have corn for bread, and water for drink, and fuel for fire, and clothing for our bodies. He surrounds us with life and beauty everywhere, with green grass, bright flowers, shady trees, merry birds, wonderful insects and animals, singing brooks, and lofty mountains. And best of all, when He saw us in sin and without hope, He loved us so that He gave His only Son, whom He loved as His own life, to suffer and die that we might be saved from our sins and live. And He promises that if we will take Jesus as our Saviour, and let Him live in us, He will with Him give us all that we need,-peace and joy and righteousness now, and immortality, a crown of life, and endless happiness on the earth made new. Then we may see Him

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as He is. Then we may share His glory and shine as the stars for ever and ever.

Although God is so great, yet He is so like a loving Father that we need not be afraid to go and talk with Him whenever we wish. "Like as a Father pitieth His children so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him." He is touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He knows all about us, for He sees us all the time. He knows our names and where we live, and everything we do. He sees when we are in trouble, and He feels for us, and hears us when we cry unto Him; and He is able and willing to help us.

God knows that He alone can help us to be good, that no one else is able to care for us and save us. He therefore says, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols."

"Why," you say, "I never could care for an idol!"

Do not be too sure. If you love anything better than you love God, you are making an idol of that thing, and are trusting in it to save you. It may not be an image of stone or brass, but it is an idol, and an idol of any kind cannot save you.

Do not think that you must wait till you are older to become acquainted with this wonderful God. Do not think because you are a child that He does not notice you or care for you. He is not like the gods of India. You need not be afraid to come to Him. Although so wise and great He loves you and longs to save you.

When Jesus was on earth He took little children in His arms and blessed them, and said, "Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not." He loves them now just as much as He did then. He longs to have you come and tell Him when you are tempted to do wrong, and when you are in trouble, for He can help you. He longs to be your best Friend, for He has done more for you than your own father and mother. In His word He speaks to you. There you may listen to His voice, and become acquainted with His goodness.

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

-Disastrous cyclone are still reported from the United States.

-One of the peculiarities of the cocoanut palm is said to be that it never stands upright.

-The present drouth has been the longest continuous dry spell remembered in England.

-Mashonaland has a white population of 1,490 of whom over 800 belong to the local police force.

-In the United States, according to the Eleventh Census, there are 143 separate and distinct denominations.

-The presence of extra police at Hull on account of the dock strike is costing the corporation there about £1,000 a week.

-Serious floods are also reported from China, 400 villages having been submerged by the overflowing of the Yellow River.

-Over 4,000 houses were destroyed by a fire in Manila on Good Friday. Scores of people are reported to have perished.

-Quill toothpicks came first of all from France. The largest factory in the world is near Paris, where several million quills are dealt with yearly. The factory started to make quill pens, but when these went out of general use it was converted into a toothpick mill.

-Another dynamite explosion occurred in Dublin, at the Law Courts, on Saturday night, May 6, but no damage resulted except to window glass.

-A monthly line of steamers is to run direct between New York and South Africa, beginning on the 25th. The enterprise is undertaken by British capital.

-The British and Foreign Bible Society has issued 4,049,756 copies of Bibles, Testaments, and portions of the Scripture, from the London depot during the past year.

-Cholera is said to be raging with frightful effect at Malacea, the average number of new cases daily being about 200, with the result that the population has become panick-stricken.

-On 1st of May the World's Fair was opened at Chicago. The President and Cabinet, and many noted men from various countries were present. Over 400,000 persons were present.

-At the beginning of the century the Bible was accessible to but one-fifth of the population of the world. Now it may be read by nine-tenths of the people of the globe, so rapidly has its translation been carried on.

-A Bill to make permanent the Irish Sunday Closing Act and to extend its operation to the five large towns, and also to provide for earlier closing on Saturday evenings, has passed the second reading in the House of Lords.

-A report from Lima, Ohio, states that the Lewiston Reservoir, which covers 17,000 acres, and is the second largest artificial body of water in the United States, broke on the 3rd, inundating the country, with great loss of life and property.

-On the 10th instant the record for fast railway travelling was broken by the New York Central Railway as a new engine, "New Columbian," which, attached to an express train, ran 102 miles in an hour, between Buffalo and Rochester.

-In spite of all the appeals of the Emperor and Count Caprivi, the German Army Bill was rejected by vote of 210 to 162. Immediately on its rejection Caprivi read an imperial mandate dissolving the Reichstag. The new elections will take place in June.

-Horrible cannibalism is reported from the Congo. An explorer who has just arrived in Liverpool says he saw slaves tied together, with marks on their bodies. The poor creatures were to be killed on the following day, and the marks on their bodies were made by persons who had purchased those particular "joints."

-The continued rise of the Mississippi River is spreading consternation among the cotton planters in all parts of the valley, who have not yet recovered from the disastrous effects of the overflow of last year. The heavy rains have already inundated the plantations along the Arkansas, the St. Francis and Red River, and replanting will be necessary.

-A German journal puts the milk production of the chief countries of Europe as follows, in kilo litres: Germany, 14,218,000,000; France, 10,117,000,000; England, 8,925,000,000; Austria, 8,807,000,000; Sweden, 2,203,000,000; Low Countries, 1,250,000,000; Belgium, 1,201,000,000; Switzerland, 1,109,000,000. The kilo litre is the equivalent of 220 gallons.

-A young student, who was recently murdered by two of his companions in a wood in the neighborhood of St. Petersburg, is said to have been "executed" by his fellow students for leaving the society of which he was a member. There is reason to believe that a great many secret societies have lately been formed amongst the students and educated classes of Russia. The frequent suicides among some Russian students are attributed to the fact that these unfortunate young men belong to secret societies, which sentence their members to self-destruction in the event of their not carrying out the duties expected of them.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

On Friday, the 12th, the first clause of the Home Rule Bill, which contains the gist of the whole matter, passed the House of Commons by a strictly party majority of forty-two.

The new Cunard liner, the Campania, on her return trip from New York, made the quickest passage ever made across the Atlantic. Her time was five days and fifteen hours, and she took the longest route. On one day of the voyage she made 517 knots.

A joint committee of the two Houses of the Convocation of Canterbury have made an elaborate report on Sunday recreation and the Sunday opening of museums. In the main they make no objection. They thought, however, that it is vital to the safety of the "English Sunday" that no library, museum, gallery, etc., should be open for payment. They think that free opening, to a moderate extent, is incompatible with the spirit of the fourth commandment, but utterly fail to indicate how there can be any possible connection between the fourth commandment and the English Sunday.

The following from the Chicago Advance is very pertinent to the circumstances on this side of the water:-

"We are heartily sorry for those churches which report an endowment, furnishing a handsome income, left them by some rich parishioner. It is a good deal with churches as it is with individuals. Nothing is so likely to stunt healthy growth or to paralyse energetic effort as being heir to a fortune."

The most of the Christian work that has been done in this world, from the days of Christ until now, has been done by the offerings and labour of the poor. "Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He hath promised to them that love Him?" James ii. 5.

At the recent eight-hour labour demonstration in Hyde Park some of the most noted leaders declared that while they now ask for an eight-hour day, they meant in turn to ask for seven hours and six hours, and would not be content until they had as much leisure as the inhabitants of Mayfair or Belgravia. And if they succeed they will be no happier than the inhabitants of those sections are now, nor so happy. People cannot be made wise, happy, or contented by Acts of Parliament. This effort is in line with those made in the last days of the Roman Republic, and under the Empire by which the Government was made bankrupt, and the people were made paupers. The false idea that the labour leaders are instilling in the minds of the people, namely, that all the evils to which they are subject can be cured by Parliament, are exactly in harmony with the idea held by so many religious leaders, that all moral evils can be eradicated by legal enactment.

"The objects of the society are to declare and defend Christianity as a Divine revelation; to controvert the errors of atheists, agnostics, secularists, and other opponents of Christianity; to counteract the energetic propagandism of infidelity, especially among the uneducated, to meet the difficulties, and strengthen the faith of the doubting and perplexed; and to instruct the young in the evidences of Christianity." What society is it that is thus defined? It is the "Christian Evidence Society," which is composed mostly of ministers, doctors of divinity, and bishops. One cannot help wondering what there is left for the church to do. The Church of the living God is "the pillar and ground [or stay] of the truth." 1 Tim. iii. 15. The church is the only agency ordained by God to carry on the work of the Gospel. No other institution, no matter how good the intentions, can have the life of God in it. If in any of these societies heavenly life is manifested, it is only because the members, or a part of them, are members of the church of the living God, and in that case they ought to do their work as simple Christians, and not let human organisations eclipse the glory of the church. The godly lives of true followers of Christ form the best and only evidence of Christianity to the world: "that they all may be one; . . . that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." John xvii. 21.

In a pastoral letter recently issued, the Bishop Potter of New York reminds the clergy that any minister or congregation failing to use the revised and official order of prayer, as determined by the General Convention of 1892, will be liable to censure. The Bishop says, among the other things: "The day for individualism in the public worship of the churches is past." Then the Bible must be a thing of the past, for it deals with men as individuals. The Gospel is "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." Rom. i. 16. Christ left "to every man his work." Mark xiii. 34. "Let him that heareth say, Come." "And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Rev. xxii. 17. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." James i. 5. "The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal." 1 Cor. xii. 7. There are many gifts, but they are all ministered by "that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will." Verse 11. "The head of every man is Christ." 1 Cor. xi. 8. The Gospel deals with and elevates man as an individual; the Papacy deals with men as an ecclesiastical establishment.

There is nothing in the tenets of the Church of England that makes it worse for it to be connected with the State than for any other denomination. That religious dogmas held by the Roman Catholic Church do not make its connection with the States any more dangerous than the connection of any other sect with the State, or of all religious bodies without regard to sect. The danger and the wickedness lies in the connection of any form of religion with the State. Professed Christianity united with the State was what made the Roman Catholic Church. In like manner to-day, the union of Christianity as professed by Protestants, with the State, will make either Roman Catholicism or an exact image of it.

The Gospel is "the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth." Rom. i. 16. The introduction or institution of any other power is a perversion of the Gospel. Power is necessary, but it must be Divine and not human power. There is no Gospel where there is no power to save, and there is in man no power to save. Therefore the connection of religion with earthly powers is the destruction of the Gospel. The life is in the power, and so, although a body of men may hold the Gospel in its purity and perfection, the moment they attempt to unite that with secular power, that moment the vitality leaves it, for there is no power in man. "They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; none of them can by any means redeem his brother, or give to God a ransom for him; for the redemption of their soul is costly, and it must be let alone for ever." Ps. xlix. 6-8, R.V. "Power belongeth unto God." Ps. lxii. 11. Therefore it is that only to Him belongeth to the Gospel, even the weakness of God is stronger than men. 1 Cor. i. 25. Concerning His Gospel God says to all earthly powers "Hands off!" It "must be let alone for ever." God alone can redeem.

June 1, 1893

"Front Page" The Present Truth 9, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

"But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises [virtues, or excellencies] of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light." 1 Peter ii. 9. Whom is the apostle addressing? It is those who "have tasted that the Lord is gracious." Such ones, coming to Christ the living corner-stone, are made living stones also, and "are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." This applies not to a special class of Christians, but to all, "for there is no respect of persons with God."

This means, then, that all the people of God, whatever their earthly condition, are priests, capable of offering up "spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." But this does not mean that all or any of God's people are capable of offering up a sacrifice that will be acceptable to God for the salvation of some other person or persons. Christ says, "No man cometh unto the Father but by Me." John xiv. 6. "There is one God, and one Mediator between God and man the Man Christ Jesus." 1 Tim. ii. 5. There is no human being who can stand between God and man; and there is no need of a mediator between man and Christ, for He is the Divine Man. He is the one link that connects humanity with Divinity. He is God by nature, and He took upon Himself the nature of man, so that men can have free access to Him, and through Him to God.

There is therefore no special priestly class in the church of Christ. Each soul may come directly to the Lord for himself. No man can offer a sacrifice for another. "None of them can by any means redeem his brother, or give to God a ransom for him." Ps. xlix. 7. How is it then that all our priests? and how can they offer up sacrifices acceptable to God? The answer is given in the text which says that all are priests. They offer up acceptable sacrifices by Jesus Christ. "This Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God." Heb. x. 12.

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise." Ps. li. 17. A broken and a contrite heart is one that is broken in pieces and ground up. Not of much worse, is it? What is it good for? Nothing. And that is why it appropriates Christ, who is of infinite worth, a sacrifice that is always acceptable to God. Having nothing in itself, it trusts wholly in Christ. He is the surety of the new covenant, and so when He comes He will say, "Gather My saints together unto Me; those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice." Ps. l. 5.

"God as a Companion" The Present Truth 9, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

It has ever been the work of Satan to bear false witness against God, "He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it." John viii. 44. It must be Satan, therefore, that has made so many people believe that God is harsh, and stern, and unapproachable; for the truth is that "God is love." 1 John iv. 8. So approachable is He that we may "come boldly unto the Throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." Heb. iv. 16.

It is a fact that no man can come to God except through Christ. "No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." John xiv. 6. "Through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father." Eph. ii. 18. But this is not because God is unapproachable, but because in Christ dwelleth "all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Col. ii. 9. He is God, and the only manifestation of Divinity that can possibly be made to man. It is impossible to find God, except in Christ. They are one, so that where Christ is there God the Father is. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." John i. 18. "They shall call His name Emmanuel, which is being interpreted is, God with us." Matt. i. 23. When Christ was here on earth, "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." 2 Cor. v. 19. This of itself should be enough to show all men that God the Father is the reverse of everything that is stern and forbidding.

Jesus said, "All things are delivered unto Me of My Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and He to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." Matt. xi. 27. God was revealed in Christ, for Jesus said to Philip, when he had been asked to be shown the Father, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father, and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?" John xiv. 9.

Immediately after saying that He alone could reveal the Father, because the Father was in Him, Jesus said, "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. Christ was meek and lowly in heart; but He was but the manifestation of the Father; therefore that is the character of God. It seems too wonderful to be true, that God, the great Creator is meek and lowly in heart, but it is true, nevertheless. One trouble is that we have so meagre an idea of what meekness is. What Christ was, that He is still, for He is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." Heb. xiii. 8. So God is now meek and lowly in heart, and that is why He can be a companion to men.

The character of Christ when He was in heaven, glorified the Father before the foundation of the world, was the same

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as when He came to this earth. He did not assume a character for the occasion. He came to the earth for the purpose of showing man what the Father always is. Paul says, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men." Phil. ii. 5-7. When was it that the mind was in Christ to make Himself of no reputation? It was when He was with the Father. The lowliness and meekness which He manifested on earth were His native characteristics. The mind which He exhibited on earth was the mind which He had in heaven before He came; and that was the mind of the Father.

Taking upon Him the form of a servant, He served. "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister." Matt. xx. 28. "I am among you as He that serveth." Luke xxii. 27. If He had come to earth clothed with the glory of heaven, He could not have come near enough to sinful man to serve them. All would have been afraid of Him. Therefore He took upon Him the form of a servant; but He did not take upon Himself that character of a servant, for He had that before. Although He is Lord of heaven and earth, He lives for the service of His creatures. So when He was here He "went about doing good; and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him." Acts x. 38. Mark the expression, "for God was with Him." That is given as the reason why Christ went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed. This shows the character of God. God with Him did those works. See John xiv. 10. He associated with the poor of earth, and ate with publicans and sinners, for "the common people heard Him gladly." Thus He was illustrating the words of God, "For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." Isa. lvii. 15. And again: "Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool; where is the house that ye build unto Me? and where is the place of My rest? For all those things hath Mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord; but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word." Isa. lxvi. 1, 2.

What are we to learn from all this? That as Christ and the Father are one, and Christ is but the manifestation of the Father; and as Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to-day and for ever, and God says, "I am the Lord, I change not;" therefore God will be the companion of men to-day, just as in Christ He was the companion of poor sinners eighteen hundred years ago, provided they will let Him. Of Enoch it is said that he "walked with God." And they were men of the same nature as the men in this age of the world. The promise of Jesus is, "If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My Father will love Him, and make our abode with Him." John xiv. 23. To those who are "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked," He says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if 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. 17, 20.

But we must open the door to Him, by acknowledging that we are poor and needy. God dwells with those who are of a contrite and humble spirit, because He Himself is of a meek and lowly disposition. He could not dwell with any others, for if He could they would try to lord it over Him; and although He is lowly in heart, yet He is Lord of all. Men feel themselves above the Lord, and therefore it is that He calls them to come and learn of Him. "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to humble thyself to walk with thy God?" Micah vi. 8, margin. Just think of it! Mortal men feel themselves too good to walk with the Creator of heaven and earth! And what a wonder! If they will but let their pride go, they may have Him for a companion, and He Himself asks the privilege of being their companion! Could any higher honour be conceived?

Abraham was called a friend of God. 2 Chron. xx. 7; Isa. xli. 8. That was because Abraham trusted the Lord, and accepted the companionship of God on His own terms. What is the chief characteristic of friends? It is that they open their hearts to each other. So God said, "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?" Gen. xvii. 17. Because Abraham was His friend He revealed secrets to him. For "the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and He will show them His covenant." Ps. xxv. 14. So Christ says to us, "Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servant; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you." John xv. 14, 15.

One final lesson we must learn from these things. God is great,-the Creator and upholder of the universe,-yet is meek and lowly in heart. We learn then that true greatness is combined with humility. "Before honour is humility." Indeed, God's very greatness is in His humility. We cannot comprehend it, yet it is a most cheering and uplifting thought. We know that His greatness lies in His humility, because the Psalmist says, "Thou hast given me the shield of Thy salvation; and Thy right hand hath holden me up, and Thy gentleness hath made me, great." Ps. xviii. 35. He makes us great by clothing us with His meekness, if we will but submit.

God can dwell with men, and not lose any of His dignity, because is truly great. When Christ washed the feet of disciples, He did not forget that He was their Master and Lord. John xiii. 13, 14. His friends and disciples, with whom He associates on terms of the most loving familiarity, do not forget that He is the Mighty One. It is that which makes the companionship so blessed, because while He manifests His tenderness and love, they know that He has the power to do all that His love prompts. And so in the earth made new, when "the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God shall be with them, and be their God," and they shall see His face, and His name shall be in their foreheads (Rev. xxi. 3; xxii. 4), none in their exaltation will forget that He is great, and will presume upon His familiarity; because it was through humble submission to Him that they learned His greatness and gentleness. "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time." 1 Peter v. 5.

"Let There Be Equality" The Present Truth 9, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

There are few nuisances greater than that of smoking. It was borrowed from the savages, and its almost universal adoption is a mark of the savage element existing in man by nature. It is for this reason that smoking seems so terribly out of place in an otherwise seemingly refined woman. But we cannot see how those who try to defend tobacco-using as a harmless, and even beneficial habit, should object to a woman's indulgence in it. The matter is vigorously expressed in the following paragraphs from the Echo:-

"An indignant English Mother" has written to one of the papers in a white heat of indignation because she came across two young women, apparently foreigners, who were smoking cigarettes in Regent's Park, and she exclaims, "Surely the keepers have power to arrest any women smoking cigarettes." No, indeed, that offence is not in the bye-laws. When those bye-laws were constructed no one dreamed that women would take to

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smoking except certain ancient dames in the North whose age and ugliness was some excuse for their indulgence in a little black cutty.

But why this amazing indignation? If smoking is a good thing for men, it ought to be equally good for women. If it will whiten men's teeth, and sweeten men's breath, and brighten men's appearance, why should not women indulge in the luxury? If it will soften sorrow or mitigate trouble, why should not women, who certainly have sorrows and troubles of their own, seek consolation from smoke-sucking? It is not right or seeming that a perennial source of satisfaction should be monopolised by the magnanimous and disinterested sovereigns of creation. If smoking is such a blessed comfort as its male votaries declare, the caterer who will institute Smoking Concerts for Women will be a benefactor of his race.

"Saints" The Present Truth 9, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

The term "saint," is used in the Bible has altogether a different meaning from what it has in common use. In the common use there is seen the wonderful influence of Roman Catholic teaching, and how much it lingers among those who are the most "Protestant." In ordinary use it is applied only to those in whom the Catholic Church, through its bishops and Pope, has decided are worthy of the title. But the Catholic Church calls none saints except those to whom it decrees that prayers may be made, and not until a long time after they are dead; whereas in the Bible the term is applied to men living, and to none others, for "the dead know not anything; . . . also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished." Eccl. ix. 5, 6. "The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence." Ps. cxv. 17.

Several of the epistles of Paul are addressed to the saints living at such and such a place. He wrote "to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints." Rom. i. 7. Again he wrote "unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints." 1 Cor. i. 2. In both these instances the better rendering, as shown by the fact that the translator supplied the words, "to be," is, "called saints." It is a fact that God calls all men to be saved, but it is also a fact that those who heed the call of God in Christ, are called saints.

The fact that God has called all men to be saints is hidden by the Catholic customs of applying the term only to a select few. That custom is responsible for the introduction of a false standard of morality, or in reality a double standard.

It is responsible for the idea that common people cannot be saints; that they cannot attain to the degree of goodness necessary to make one a saint; but that in order for one to be a saint he must have nothing to do with the ordinary affairs of life, but must give himself wholly to what is called a "religious life." The effect of this was naturally to discourage Christian effort on the part of common people, and also to make Christianity consist in forms and ceremonies, and not in exhibiting the life of Christ in all the details of every-day life. It ignores the fact that Jesus was the Son of God as much when He was working at the carpenter's bench as when He was preaching upon the mount, or stilling the tempest.

The Catholic Church in declaring some persons to be saints, and assigning others to a lower place, takes upon itself the work of judging the character of men, which belongs only to God. It is only carrying out a little more fully the principle acted upon by most professed Protestant bodies, in declaring of some people that they have gone to heaven, and saying of others that they have gone to hell. Thus they not only anticipate the Judgment Day, but take judgment entirely out of the hands of God.

One of the most necessary things to remember is that God has called all men to be saints, and that those who accept Christ and His salvation are saints. It is only as this fact is recognised, that men will "press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Phil. iii. 14. A few texts will show that among God's people there are no distinctions, but that all are saints.

The epistle to the Ephesians was addressed "to the saints which are at Ephesus." Eph. i. 1. Still more plain, as showing that the term includes the whole church, is the first verse of the epistle to the Philippians: "Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons." It is very evident that this includes the whole church at Philippi.

Again, in closing the epistle to the Philippians, the apostle said, "All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of CÊsar's household." Phil. iv. 22. This is a very important text. It shows that there were saints in the court of Nero, one of the most cruel and profligate rulers that ever lived. In these times there remains so much of the old monkish ideas, that people think that in order to live a Christian life they must get into the midst of Christian surroundings, where they will hear scarcely a breath of unbelief. A man living in a neighbourhood of unbelievers becomes a Christian, and he at once begins to think of getting into a place where he can have "church privileges." Young men and women engaged as servants to people who are not Christians, think that as soon as they accept Christ they must seek service in the family of believers. No greater mistake than this could be made.

Of course there are circumstances under which it becomes impossible for an employe to retain his situation and to be a consistent Christian, as for instance when he is absolutely required to labour on the Sabbath. But in too many cases the evil is created by the imagination. The notion that Christians must be clannish lies too often at the bottom of the difficulty. Hear the counsel of the Scriptures: "Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Art thou called being a servant? care not for it; but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather. For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman; likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant." 1 Cor. vii. 20-22.

Christ said to all His followers, "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Matt. v. 14-16. A light is of no use unless it shines in the darkness; so a Christian is of no use if his sole desire is to get away from the dark places of earth. The Saviour also said, "Ye are the salt of the earth." But no matter how good salt is, it is useless unless it comes in contact with the thing that is in need of preservation. And salt that loses its savour by contact with that which needs preservation, is worse than no salt at all. So Christianity that has to be shut up in a cloister, or some other secluded place, is not worth preserving.

True Christianity, will survive all lawful contact with the darkness of the world. Christ's prayer was, "I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from the evil." John xvii. 15. Joseph in the house of Potiphar, Nehemiah in the court of Artaxerxes, Daniel and his three friends in the palace of the king of Babylon, are shining examples of saints in the midst of the worst kind of heathenism.

When Christ shall come the second time, it will be "to be glorified in all his saints." 2 Thess. i. 10. But He will be glorified in all those who believe on Him, for all His people are to be changed, and "fashioned like unto His glorious body." Phil. iii. 21. Therefore all who believe in Christ are His saints. A saint is one who is sanctified, and Christ is the sanctified heir of all that believe. He "of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption." 1 Cor. i. 30. Christ is not divided. He is not one thing to one person, and another thing to another person. All that He is to one, He is to all. God

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is no respecter of persons, and therefore He has no special favourites among His children. Christ's prayer for all who should believe on Him, was "that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me." John xvii. 23.

And so the possibility for all, and that to which all are called, is shown by the inspired prayer and assurance, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it." 1 Thess. v. 23, 24.

"Words and Work" The Present Truth 9, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

It is a common saying that "words are cheap," and that is much easier to say than to do. And this is true, as concerns men. The Saviour said of the scribes and Pharisees, "They say, and do not." Matt. xxiii. 3. The difference between saying and doing is also forcibly shown by the Apostle James, thus: "What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." James ii. 14-17.

Words are of no more value than the one who utters them. If a man is a pauper, his promise to pay money is worthless. So if a man has no goodness in him, all his promises of goodness are but empty wind. And since "there is none that doeth good, no, not one," it follows that there is none whose promises to do right are of any worth. The Scripture says, "Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity." Ps. xxxix. 5. Therefore the best promises of men are mundane things.

Well is it for man that God does not ask him to make promises, but simply to accept the promises of God. On the principle that a word is worth only what the one who utters it is worth, the word of God is worth everything. His word is a real thing; it is not simply sound, but it is substance. While it is an easy thing for man to say and not do, it is a far different thing with God. With Him saying and doing are the same. His word is itself work. He "calleth those things that be not as though they were," because when He speaks they come into being.

Two utterances of the Saviour set this thing forth in a very forcible manner. When Philip asked to be shown the Father, Jesus told him that whoever had seen Him had seen the Father; and then He continued, "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself; but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; or else believe Me for the very works' sake." John xiv. 10, 11.

At first thought it would seem that in the above statement the Saviour made an abrupt change. He began to speak about words, and ended up with works. As proof that He represented the Father, He said, "The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of Myself; but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works." We should naturally expect that the antithesis of the statement "The words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself," would be, "But the Father that dwelleth in Me, He speaketh them." This would have been the exact truth, as we shall see presently; and it was in reality what Jesus said, because God's words are works.

In John viii. 28 we have the same thing stated in opposite terms. "Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father hath taught Me, I speak these things." Here He started out with a statement about works, and ended up with words. As in the previous text we are taught that the words of God are works, so here we are taught that the works of God are all in His word. With God a word and a work are the same thing. With Him to say is to do.

Christ, as the only representative of Divinity to man, spoke the words of God. To Moses it had long before been said, "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. Therefore Christ, as God, has the power described in Rom. iv. 17: He "quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were." The words which Christ spoke brought the dead to life. When the nobleman came to Jesus, entreating Him to come down and heal his son, who was at the point of death, Jesus did not go, but said to the father, "Go thy way; thy son liveth" (John iv. 50), and the son was healed that instant. Even so "He sent His word, and healed them." Ps. cvii. 20.

Among all the works of the Lord, the heavens stand forth the most prominent. "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork." Ps. xix. 1. "Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of Thine hands." Heb. i. 10. But now read, "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; He commanded, and it stood fast." Ps. xxxiii. 6, 9. "And He rested on the seventh day from all His work which God created and made." Gen. ii. 2. Here we learn that God's words are His works. He works by speaking. As soon as He had finished speaking, the work was all done. Therefore we see that it is impossible for God to speak and not do. This is the reason that "All the promises of God in Him [Christ] are yes, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us." 2 Cor. i. 20.

But we have an explicit statement that the word of the Lord works. The Apostle Paul wrote, "For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe." 1 Thess. ii. 13.

What a solid basis this gives for faith! With what confidence we may make our requests to God? We may rest upon His word, knowing that as it upholds the universe, it is able also to hold us up. When we are in need, and lift up our hearts to God, the Holy Spirit brings to our remembrance some of the words of the Lord. When those words are thus brought to our minds, we are to accept them as the answer to our prayers. We are not merely to think of them as promising something that will be done in the future, but as actually doing all that they say. If we ask anything according to His will, we know that He hears us; "and if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him." 1 John v. 14, 15.

Christ as the Prince of Peace, came preaching peace. Eph. ii. 17. "I will hear what God the Lord will speak; for He will speak peace unto His people." Ps. lxxxv. 8. Therefore when the Lord speaks peace to us, we have His peace. He speaks righteousness; and since His word is life itself, and works, if we take His word, just as He speaks it, without any human modification, we have His righteousness. And the righteousness which comes by the word is active righteousness, because the word of the Lord works actually in all that believe.

This one thing must not be lost sight of, however, and that is that it is only the word of the Lord that is work. Everything else is vanity. Only life can

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produce life. That which is dead, can produce only death. Therefore we must be sure to take only the word of the Lord, and must not modify it or add to it. Everything else will fail, but the word of the Lord abideth for ever. Therefore we "commend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified." Acts xx. 32.

"The Office of Bishop" The Present Truth 9, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

When the Apostle and Paul wrote his epistle to the Philippians he began as follows: "Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons." Phil. i. 1. Nothing more than this text is needed to show how greatly the modern professed church has departed from the simplicity of the days of the apostles. Such a thing as more than one bishop in one city would be thought almost a crime in these days. Those denominations which use the term at all, so far from having more than one bishop in one city, have only one bishop over a large territory. So strong is the influence of Roman Catholicism, even this long time after the Reformation, that there is scarcely a denomination of Christians that is not an ecclesiastical institution, with more or less elaborate laws devised by men, for its direction.

What is a bishop, in the true Scriptural sense? The only way to answer this question is to examine the texts which mention the office. Read in the first place Titus i. 5-7: "For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee; if any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God." Here we note two points. One is that a bishop is the same as an elder, and the other is that there were to be a number of them in every city where there were believers.

The first point is the one specially under consideration. The apostle speaks of the ordination of elders, and then proceeds to define the necessary characteristics of such officers, saying that certain things are necessary, because a bishop must be blameless. This text shows on the face of it that the terms elder and bishop are used interchangeably. An elder is a bishop, and a bishop is an elder. So it was in the days of the apostles, and so it ought to be now.

In 1 Tim. iii. 1-7 we find only the word "bishop" used, but the characteristics are the same as those given in Titus. Moreover here as in the epistle to the Philippians, the office of deacon comes immediately after that of bishop, showing that there is no intervening office.

Now read 1 Peter i. 1-4: "The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed; 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. And when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away."

Note the several points that we find here. 1. The Apostle Peter was himself an elder. He counted himself one among his brethren. 2. The work of the elders is to feed the flock; and therefore an elder is a shepherd; and this fact is shown by the references to Christ as the Chief Shepherd. It may be noted here that a shepherd is a pastor, the word pastor being simply the Latin word for shepherd. Peter, who said that he was an elder, was charged to feed the flock. John xxi. 15-17. From this last text we learn that the work of the elders is to feed not the sheep only, but the lambs of the flock as well. 3. The work of the elders or shepherds or pastors is to take the oversight of the flock which they are set to feed. We shall refer to this again in the next paragraph. 4. There are to be no lords among the elders, whom we have already learned are bishops. Therefore there can be no such thing as a "Lord Bishop" or an archbishop in the church of Christ. Those offices were made by men, and pertain only to a church founded by men, and not by Christ. Christ, who is "that great Shepherd of the sheep" (Heb. xiii. 20), "the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls" (1 Peter. 25), is the only Lord. For a man to allow himself to be called Lord Bishop is to put himself in the place of Christ.

Now we will turn to the twentieth chapter of Acts. There we learn that when Paul was on his last journey to Jerusalem, "from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church." Verse 17. We read the verses following, which contain the substance of his talk to them, until we come to verse 28, where we read, "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."

Here we learn, as in the epistle of Peter, that the elders are shepherds, charged with the duty of feeding the flock. As Peter exhorts the elders to take the oversight of the flock, so Paul says that the Holy Ghost has made them overseers to the flock. An overseer is one who is over. The word overseer is the literal rendering of the Greek word; from which comes our word "episcopal," which means "pertaining to a bishop." Therefore we find again that elders and bishops are the same. What the apostle really said to the elders of Ephesus was, "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you bishops, to feed the church of God."

If the reader will now read again all the texts which have been quoted, comparing each one with all the rest, he will see that the following facts are true concerning bishops:-

1. A bishop and an elder are exactly the same. 2. There is to be not merely one bishop over several churches, but there are to be several bishops in one congregation. 3. An elder or a bishop is also a pastor or shepherd. Every pastor of a church is a bishop. Therefore the Bible contemplates no such thing as a single church with a single pastor. It enjoins more than one pastor, who is an elder, and a bishop. 4. Elders or bishops are not to be lords; there is but "one Lord," the chief Shepherd. The office of Lord Bishop is not of Divine origin. We shall see at another time where it originated. We may note therefore that the pastors of a local church are as much bishops as is possible for any men to be, provided they are true pastors, feeding the flock. The question of supremacy is settled by the following words of Christ:-

"But be not ye called Rabbi; for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren." Matt. xxiii. 8. "Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you; but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant; even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." Matt. xx. 25-28.

"Beginning and Finishing" The Present Truth 9, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

"I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, for your fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until now; being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." Phil. i. 3-6.

Among all the encouraging things in the Bible, there is none more encouraging than this. For the confidence expressed by the apostle is confidence inspired by the Holy Spirit; and it applies to us as well as to the saints in Christ which were at Philippi, to whom the epistle was immediately addressed. Let us note some of the precious lessons that may be learned from it.

In the first place we learn that there is no work that is good except that which is done by the Lord. "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 i. 17. Not only does everything that is good come from the Lord, but every good thing comes from Him. That is, every good thing that God has He gives to men. "No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly." Ps. lxxxiv. 11. Some people think that God is especially good to certain people; but the fact is that He is just as good He can be all the time, and is equally good to everybody. "He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust." Matt. v. 45. "The Lord is good to all; and His tender mercies are over all His works." Ps. cxlv. 9.

But the apostle here refers especially to good that is done in men, and which appears in their lives; to those things which make people refer to one as "a good man." Since "there is none good but one, that is, God" (Mark x. 18), it follows that there is no good deed done except that which is done by the Lord. To this the whole of Scripture gives witness. "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 men!" Ps. xxxi. 19. "But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." John iii. 21. "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." Phil. ii. 3. "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. If people would always remember this, it would be an effectual bar to pride and self-conceit.

The Spirit of God strives with the wicked, to lead them to choose the ways of God. Gen. vi. 3. Christ is working to draw all men to Himself. John xii. 32. Some will not heed the voice of the Spirit, but resist it; but there is not even a good desire in the heart of man that is not planted there by the Lord. It is grace that has put enmity between man and Satan. Christ lights every man that cometh into the world. John i. 9. Whoever opens his heart by faith to the first glimmer of that light, and allows it to remain thus open, will be glorified by it as surely as God lives; for the light will shine brighter and brighter until the perfect day. Prov. iv. 18.

"This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." John vi. 29. In Christ all things are in created, that are in heaven and in earth, whether things that may be seen, or things unseen. Col. i. 16, R.V. He is "the beginning of the creation of God." Rev. iii. 14. Creation began in Him, and in Him is complete. The same power by which the worlds were created, is the power which works righteousness in men. For as "the heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showth His handiwork" (Ps. xix. 1), so "we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained (prepared), that we should walk in them." Eph. ii. 10. So as all creation stands perfect in Him, those who believe in Him to the saving of their souls are "complete in Him." Col. ii. 10.

Jesus Christ is the "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending." Rev. i. 8. He is "the author and finisher of faith." Heb. xii. 2. And as all power in heaven and earth is in His hands, He is able to perfect that which He begins. So everyone who has yielded to the desire for good which the Lord has planted in his heart, may be assured that if he continues to yield as he did at the first, the work will be perfected in him. But he must remember that he himself has no more power to complete the good work that is begun, than he had to begin it. Having begun in the Spirit, which is the only way that a beginning can be made, it is impossible to be made perfect by the flesh. Gal. iii. 3. Only the power that begun the work can finish it. Let this be a check on boasting. "Thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded but fear." Rom. xi. 20. Yet let it be an encouragement. "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him." Col. ii. 6. The work begins and is completed in the submissiveness of faith.

Lastly, let us learn that the Lord is not one of those who begin a work without first counting the cost. "Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world." Acts xv. 18. He knew before He undertook the salvation of man just how great a work it was. "He knew what was in man." John ii. 25. "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Rom. v. 8. And He knew just how great the sin was, and how weak the flesh is. Knowing all this He deliberately undertook the work of saving all who should believe in Him. Therefore it is that "He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till He have set judgment in the earth." Isa. xlii. 4. The Lord is longsuffering. He is infinite in patience. We sometimes become discouraged at our failure; but let the thought that the Lord is not discouraged, inspire courage in our hearts. Let His courage be ours, as it may well be, since the work which is to be done, and which we find so difficult is His work. Therefore even in our failure we may derive courage from the Lord, and 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. "For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." 2 Tim. i. 12.

"Ashamed of Luther" The Present Truth 9, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

Here is an interesting item bearing on one of the most important signs of the times, namely the drifting of so-called Protestantism into Catholicism:-

"Although Germany is the leading Protestant power on the Continent, it has been decided that in the new Parliament building being erected in Berlin, in which there will be the busts of scores of princes, generals, scientists, poets, and other men prominent in the history of the Fatherland, there shall be no bust of the greatest of all Germans, the Reformer Martin Luther. It had been regarded as a matter of course by the building commission that Luther should be included among those thus honoured, but the determined protests of the Ultramontanes and the desire to keep the Centre in good humour has influenced the authorities to exclude him. Naturally the Protestants of Germany are more than indignant at the slight put upon the Reformer's memory."

The trouble is that men have almost completely lost sight of what Protestantism is. The Reformation started with the Bible, and there was never any real reformation that did not come from the word of God. But not even the Reformers themselves had all the light, and were not always consistent in opposing Rome only with the Bible. The majority who followed in the train of the Reformers

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saw only the political bearing of the movement, and consequently opposed with the sword. This is the aspect of a great deal of the "Protestantism" of to-day, and since political religion is the very soul and life of Catholicism, it naturally thrives under such "protesting."

"Gospel Temperance" The Present Truth 9, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

In these days when the enactment of law is the almost universal panacea for all evils, it is refreshing to hear an occasional note in favour of the Gospel, which alone is the power of God unto salvation. Such a note we find in the following paragraphs from the Christian Commonwealth:-

A most remarkable temperance crusade is in progress in the State of Connecticut. The crusade is conducted by the younger Mr. Murphy, and its success has been greater than anything of the kind in the history of the temperance movement. Mr. Murphy confines himself entirely to what has been called "Gospel Temperance" or "moral suasion," and by showing charity towards all he has practically carried whole communities in favour of total abstinence. After the continued mockery as regards our temperance legislation, may it not be that our road to victory is that followed by Mr. Murphy?

At any rate, there is at present little hope that our help will come from legislation. And in view of this fact would it not be well for temperance agitators to put on the armour as of old, and make their appeal direct to the people to become total abstainers without the intervention of the law? We can soon get rid of the public-houses if the people will give up the drink habit. While we believe in the prohibition of the drink traffic, at the same time we believe still more in the prohibition of the drink habit.

"Religion in the Schools" The Present Truth 9, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

The question of religious teaching in the public schools is the subject of a great deal of controversy at present. Not but that religion is already taught, but there is a party that want it taught a good deal more decidedly than it is at present. They want the "mysteries" taught to the children. Now there is nothing in the Gospel that children may not comprehend as readily as adults, and there is nothing that may legitimately be taught to anybody, in the line of religion, that should not be taught to children; but the question is as to where it should be taught, and who should teach it. "God hath set some in the church, first, apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers." 1 Cor. xii. 28. The teaching of religion, therefore, is the work of the church, and not of the State. Moreover, it is wholly contrary to the teaching of the Bible, that religious teaching should be forced upon people against their will, or that any should be taxed to support any religious teaching whatever. "For His name's sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles." 3 John 7. That was the way the early disciples went forth.

"The Gospel Is a Gift" The Present Truth 9, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

The Gospel is a gift. To tax people for a gift is an absurdity. To come with a message of love and peace to people, which brings the news of free salvation, and then compel them to receive it, and tax them for it, is to deprive that message of all its love and peace and freedom. But some will say that the Gospel must be supported. True, but not by forced contributions. "God loveth a cheerful giver;" and that means that He takes no pleasure in compulsory giving. "Of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart, shall ye take My offering," said the Lord to Moses. The moment that the raising of funds for the support of the Gospel teaching is regarded in the light of payment for instruction received, that moment the Spirit of the Gospel is gone. The Gospel can be propagated only by free gifts. Christ gave Himself, not in payment of a debt, but for those who had no claim upon Him. Those who receive the Gospel in the spirit in which is given, will also give freely, not as payment for what they have received, or may receive, but for the benefit of others. Giving on any other terms may support an ecclesiastical establishment, but it can never help the Gospel.

"The Bible" The Present Truth 9, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

The Bible is not like any other book. It is Divine; all other books are human. Books which are only the product of the mind of man, may be thoroughly mastered by the mind of another man. But the Bible is the production of the Spirit of God, and therefore can be understood only by the aid of the Spirit of God. When therefore the Bible is studied, whether in the home, the school, or the church, merely as an ordinary text book, its object is perverted. Men say that it is as necessary to study the history recorded in the Bible as that recorded in any other book. Yes, it is a great deal more necessary, for the Bible history is the only key to all other; but it is only when we study it as inspired history that we get any benefit from it. It is utterly impossible to get a correct idea of the Bible narratives, if we do not study them in the light of God's great plan.

More than this it is a sin to regard the Bible as an ordinary book, and to study it as one would CÊsar's "commentaries" or Green's "History of the English People." One of the great sins of the Jewish priest was that they "put no difference between the holy and profane." Eze. xxii. 26. Anyone who regarded the Bible as he would a book of profane history, does incalculable injury to his own soul. He not only misses the point of the historical narrative but he makes it more and more difficult for him to be impressed by sacred things. Let the Bible be studied as the word of God, and it will impart wisdom that will be the wonder of the world. See Deut. iv. 5, 6.

"Church Establishment" The Present Truth 9, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

It would seem that the men who are so zealous for a church establishment must be wholly destitute of a sense of humour. The reason doubtless is that the union of professed Christianity with the State is so incongruous a thing that those who adopt that principle become lost to a sense of consistency. Otherwise they could scarcely sing with a sober face,

"The Church's own foundation,

Is Jesus Christ her Lord,"

to open a meeting called for the purpose of protesting against any interference with the union between Church and State; nor, while strenuously pleading for continued support from the throne of England, that if that support be withdrawn, the Church's influence and power will be destroyed, could they sing,

"O God, our help in ages past,

Our hope for years to come,

Our shelter from the stormy blast,

And our eternal home:

Beneath the shadow of Thy throne

Thy saints have dwelt secure;

Sufficient is Thine arm alone.

And our defence is sure."

Those were the hymns sung at the great meeting in the Royal Albert Hall, in "Defence of the National Church." There is a lack of harmony here. The Church of England may well depend upon the throne of England, but the Church of God depends only on the throne of God. For it to recognise any other power would be to discredit the power of God.

"Treaty" The Present Truth 9, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

There is quite a general protest in the United States against the clause in the treaty with Russia, which binds the American Government to extradite refugees accused of attempts on the life of the Czar, since the expression of an opinion adverse to the Government is in Russia construed as an attack on the Czar. But those who protest do not seem to realise that such an action on the part of the United States Government is exactly in line with the principles which many of them are advocating. Where the free exercise of religion is prohibited by law, there can be no freedom of any kind; and the United States is getting an unenviable notoriety in the line of interfering with religion. When, as in Tennessee, grand juries interrogate children and women as to what is said in religious meetings, in order that they may bring an indictment against God-fearing men, it is no wonder that sympathy should be manifested with Russia and oppression.

"Afghan Estimate of Human Life" The Present Truth 9, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

In the New York Independent Thomas P. Hughes, D.D., for many years a Church of England missionary to India, relates some incidents of his life on the Afghan frontier, among which we find the following, which shows how lightly human life is regarded. It is a good illustration of the text, "The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty":-

In 1870 the whole of India was aroused by the assassination of Lord Mayo, the Viceroy of India, at the Andaman penal settlement. The assassin was an Afghan named Shore Ali; a native of the Peshawar Valley. I remember him well as orderly to the Commissioner of Peshawar. Share Ali, like every living Afghan, had a family fend, and he had murdered two of his enemies outside the limits of that "red line" which marks the British Empire on the map, and had even boasted of the deed to his muter, the Commissioner of Peshawar. For this, of course, he received no punishment; but he killed his third enemy within the boundary of British Territory, and for this the Commissioner sent him to penal servitude for life. Shen Ali considered himself deeply wronged, and in revenge took the life of Earl Mayo, an Irish nobleman who, had he lived, would have undoubtedly proved himself to be one of the greatest among the many great rulers of British India. I may here remark that Mohammedans, Afghans or otherwise, regard murder as purely a family matter, and not as an offence against the State; in fact, such is the case amoung the Hindus, also. In Cerebrum, for instance, if a man kills a cow he is sentenced to death, but the life of a human being can be atoned for by a few years' imprisonment! It is impossible to get Oriental races to view the crime of murder from a Christian standpoint.

I have often repeated it story (which, although true to the very latter, has always excited an incredulous smile among my American and English friends), which illustrates the very slight value which an Afghan places upon human life. On one occasion among my guest was an Afghan chieftain from Kunar with a large retinue of servants. As my custom was, I invited the chief and his party to an evening entertainment in my library. I showed him a magic lantern, I explained to him the movement of the magnet, I sent shocks of galvanism through his stalwart frame, I illustrated and explained the method of the telegraph. The chieftain and his servant, were all deeply interested. When the entertainment was over, the chief dismissed his servants and sought a private interview with me in my study. Drawing his chair near to Mine, in a confidential mood, he said: "Sir, it is very evident that you are a man of science, an alchemist, and medicine man of high attainments. May I inquire if you have a poison which, if administered, will take effect about a week or ten days afterward?"

I replied: "I have no such poison; but may I ask for what purpose you want it?"

Drawing his chair still closer to Mine, he, in a low whisper, said; "I want to take the life of my enemy."

I sprang from my chair with indignation, and exclaimed: "It is very evident that you do not understand the work and office of a Christian minister. I am not here to take life, but to save it."

"Don't get angry Padre Sahib," he said, placing his hand gently upon my shoulder. "If you will only sit down quietly and listen patiently to my story, I will tell you the circumstances under which I want that poison; and then, after all, you will see that I am not the villain you take me for."

"I am open to conviction," I said; "proceed with your story."

He then related as follows: "Some time ago a mortal feud existed between myself and the chief of a rival tribe. For many years this man sought my life; but he never found me alone nor could he seize me unguarded and unarmed. But one summer's night, when we were all sleeping on our beds in the open court facing my house, this man crept stealthily to my cot, and, raising his dagger, plunged it violently through the cot under which he thought I was sleeping. It so happened that I was not sleeping in my cot that night, but my beloved child, a little maid of ten years, was. The villain's knife had pierced the heart of my favourite child! I sought revenge. I pursued the man over hill and dale, by night and by day; but I could not catch him. But one evening, when I was in my chamber alone, he came to me unarmed, and, casting his turban at my feet, begged that I would spare his life. The sight of my enemy, who was in our country esteemed a warrior of renown, pleading at my feet, touched my heart, and I forgave him. "But, "he continued, heaving a deep, heavy sigh, "an Afghan never forgives. And when I saw you do those wonderful things, and felt those shocks of lightning pass through the nerves and sinews of my body, I thought to myself this man is a man of science, and if he could give me a poison which I could put in the food of my enemy, when I entertain him as my guest, and which would take effect a week or ten days afterward, so that I never could be suspected, then I could take the life of the murderer of my beloved child and yet keep my word and pass as a man of honour among my own people."

This story is perfectly true, and it illustrates that strange contradiction of character, that admixture of base treachery and impulsive sense of honour with low meanness and great personal bravery which, all combined, form that strange complexity of the Afghan character which is utterly beyond the comprehension of an Occidental mind. It perplexes the English ruler is well as the Christian missionary:

"Indian Dress and Ornaments" The Present Truth 9, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

If you were to visit India you would be much interested in the different styles of dress, for the people there do not dress at all as you do.

For four or five years, sometimes longer, "the children run about with no clothes on at all, except that the boys wear a charm tied round their waists with a string, to frighten away the evil spirits; and the girls, besides the charm, wear as many jewels as they can get-necklaces, bracelets, and bangles on the ankles."

But after they grow older many of them seem to pay more attention to their clothing and ornaments than they do to their houses and gardens, for it is said that out of houses and courts that hardly look fit for a dog-kennel, come ladies in very grand clothing!

They wear so many bright colours that it makes their clothing appear very gorgeous. A lady thus describes a group of little Hindu girls who were off on a holiday with their lady missionary:-

"One child wore a pale primrose-coloured chuddah (the shawl they wear over their heads), another was dressed just like a daffodil. There were several little brides; one dressed in a red silk skirt trimmed at the bottom with a deep border of real silver, and a pale pink chuddah trimmed with the same costly trimming. Most of them carried little round looking-glasses fastened to their thumbs."

Another lady speaking of the little girls that attend her school, says, "They look so pretty in their native dresses, some of which are very bright coloured. All wear small nose rings."

Still another lady missionary who visits the homes of the Indian women to teach them, says:-

"In a house where I was to-day our pupil [a Hindu lady] wore a bright red skirt, and a bright yellow veil over her head; she wore it so that it quite covered her face. This is because she is a bride, and in her father-in-law's house. She had a black loose jacket trimmed with green silk and gold braid-was she not smart? She had a great many earrings in her ears, and a nose ring in her nose, and her arms were covered with bracelets, and her feet with anklets."

"In another house where we went the women were Mohammedans, and dressed rather differently. They were long, loose drawers, dyed some pretty colour, pink or yellow or green. Their veils are the same as those of the Hindu women. In this house, which was the doctor's, the women wore very nice clothes made of fine material, but they had not on much jewellery."

Sometimes you will see girls in "soft silk draperies of the most delicate tints imaginable, and boys in oriental dress with rich velvet caps embroidered in costly designs." Some dress in all sorts of beautiful embroideries, laces, and thin white cloth sown with pearls or glistening with beetles' wings.

Even the men like to wear fine clothing, for grand ones are sometimes seen in the processions with white satin coats, and bright scarlet umbrellas held over them. "Finger rings, earrings and toe rings are also worn by the men." All Brahmins, as well as the other "twice-born castes," wear a sacred thread, made of twists of cotton, which hangs from the left shoulder across to the right side. Religious Brahmins wear round the neck a rosary of hard nuts of certain trees, which they count when saying their prayers. Those who worship Siva wear a rosary of another kind of nuts, and those who worship Vishnu, a rosary of still another kind of nuts. And the Hindus all wear some kind of mark on their foreheads, that shows what their religion is, and what god they worship.

The Hindu men generally wear two snow-white cloths, each from two to ten yards in length. There are no pins, buttons, or strings, but they are fastened by simply folding one part within the other. Many, however, among the educated classes now wear made-up tunics, while others wear loose and tight trousers, like the Mohammedans, the latter fastening them on the left side, and the former on the right. The turban or head-dress is a long, narrow piece of

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cloth worn around the head, sometimes of one colour, and sometimes of another colour. Many wear no head covering at all. "Stockings are scarcely ever seen, and many go without shoes. Sandals or native slippers, peaked and turned up at the toes, and turned down at the heels, are usually worn outside, but never inside the house."

The high-caste woman wears a tight-fitting bodice and a long garment from six to twenty yards in length, which she winds round and round her body. It may be a wholly white garment of widowhood, or rich coloured silk, or coloured cotton with the end handsomely figured. The low-caste woman had not the bodice, only the cloth. The women wear no head-dress, but a single fold of cloth drawn up over the head.

All women are very fond of jewellery, which they wear on their arms, wrists, necks, and fingers, in their ears and noses, round their ankles, on their toes, and in their hair. Some spend nearly all of their money on jewellery. Instead of a wedding ring the married women wear a twisted thread around their necks, on which is one or more small gold jewels. This, as well as all other jewels, are stripped off of the widows as soon as their husbands are dead. The poor coolie women who labour so hard in carrying baskets of clay, etc., on their heads, do not dress so well. Their clothes are dirty, and some have hardly any clothes at all.

As in this country, the rich are richly dressed, and the poor are poorly dressed. There are many different costumes among the labouring classes, each class of workmen being dressed according to their work.

Would you like to dress as beautifully as some of these high-class ladies of India? If so, read the next article and you will find how you can have clothing that is far more beautiful than theirs.

"Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness

My beauty are, my glorious dress;

'Mid hosts of sin, in these arrayed,

My soul shall never be afraid."

"Dress and Ornaments for You" The Present Truth 9, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

No matter how poor you may be, you may dress better than any of the fine gentlemen or ladies of India, if you wish. You may have clothing and ornaments that are far more beautiful and more costly, that will never fade and never wear out, and that never can be destroyed!

The wonder of it is, you may have them for nothing! A Friend has sent a letter saying that He will give them to you, if you wish!

This Friend saw you, although you may not have known it, and He saw something about you that perhaps you have never noticed. He saw that you were not dressed nearly so well as you thought you were. He knew of clothing so much better than yours that the very best that you ever put on looked like filthy rags to Him. He knew that when He should come, for He is coming soon, you would know how worthless your clothing is, and would feel ashamed to see His face. He knew that your present clothing could never protect you from the burning heat of the fires of the last day, when all the wicked will be burned up. He was not willing for you to be destroyed, for He loved you. He left His beautiful home, became poor, came to this earth, and in weariness and painfulness wrought out for you a beautiful pure white robe, and an ornament such as this world cannot give. It cost Him His precious life, but He willingly gave that up for the love wherewith He loved you, and for the joy that He knew He would feel to see you clothed and safe in the trying time that is coming.

The name of this dear Friend is "Jesus"; the name of the costly robe that He worked out for you is "The righteousness of God"; the name of the priceless ornament is "A meek and quiet spirit."

You see the robe is not made of cotton or silk, but of good works,-of kind thoughts, gentle words, and loving acts. It therefore cannot be worn on the outside, but on the inside. You cannot put it on yourself. Jesus alone can take away your naughty feelings and naughty actions, and fill you with this love and kindness and good works. He does this by coming into your heart Himself, by His Spirit. He wants you to give yourself all up to Him, and let Him use your tongue to say kind words, your hands to help others, your feet to run on errands of mercy, your whole mind and body to do as He did when He was on earth.

Oh, will you let Him clothe you with this beautiful dress? Will you let Jesus in, and let Him take away the filthy rags of your own goodness, and clothe you with the glorious garments of His spotless purity? Will you let Him take away your selfish, unkind spirit and fasten in your heart the ornament of His own meek and quiet Spirit?

It grieves His heart when He sees you seeking to adorn yourself in the flimsy finery and worthless ornaments of this earth, for it shows that you do not care for the better clothing that He has suffered so much to provide for you. It shows that you have forgotten how His head wore the shameful crown of thorns that yours might wear a crown of gold; how He wore a plain, seamless coat that you might wear the beautiful robe of His righteousness, and how He meekly and quietly suffered that you might have the ornament of His meek and quiet Spirit.

Although feathers and flowers and costly trimmings and jewellery may for a time cause man to look upon you with more favour, it does not have that effect upon God. He looketh not on the outward appearance, but upon the heart. He knows that all such things will soon pass away, and that only inward beauty and ornaments will be accepted in the great day of judgment.

Jesus therefore says of your adorning, "Let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair and wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which will not perish, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." 1 Peter iii. 2, 4.

Again He says in 1 Timothy ii. 9, 10, that women should adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but with good works."

In Proverbs He says, "My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother; for they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck."

Here are beauty and clothing and ornaments that you need not be ashamed to wear among your friends on earth, or among the great company of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues that shall stand before the throne of the great God, clothed with white robes and with palms in their hands.

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

-Severe storms with floods, are reported from the United States, especially from Ohio and Pennsylvania

-The petitions already presented to the House of Commons against the Home Rule Bill contain over a million signatures.

-Fifty-three per cent. of the lunatics in the asylums of "Bengal are there solely as the result of using hashish, a preparation of Indian hemp.

-The National Committee of the World's Fair has decided by thirty votes against twenty-seven in favour of the opening of the Exhibition on Sundays.

-The Correctional Tribunal at Mulhousen (Alsace) has sentenced a young Alsatian woman to three weeks' imprisonment, and a fine of 16s., for shouting "Viva la France."

-The Legislative Council of New South Wales has adopted a resolution in favour of Australasian Federation, and generally approving the Commonwealth Bill drafted by the Sydney Convention.

-It is said that there are five printing presses in Iceland, and that ten newspapers and eight magazines are published. If this is so, the Icelanders must be as a class about the most literary people in the world.

-Reuter's telegram from Budapest, May 17, says: In the Lower House of the Hungarian Diet to-day the Government, amid great applause, introduced the Bill assuring freedom to all religions denominations in Hungary.

-In Iceland the past winter has been the finest on record, the lowest temperature registered being 12deg., which is not as low as we had in some parts of England. In the three months to the end of February there were no frosts at all.

-At a meeting of the Religious Tract Society, Miss Ashburner, who is about to return to mission work in Mongolia, referring to the great power of the mother-in-law over the Chinese women, declared that she knew even a Christian preacher who had had to beat his wife in order to please his mother.

-In connection with the Russian student who was lately found murdered, it is reported that the society to which he belonged contemplated the assassination of the Czar and the Czarewitch, as well as of several of the prominent members of the Government. He was murdered because he would not carry out his part of the affair.

-Mr. Alfred W. Stokes, public analyst of Paddington, recently called upon to make an analysis of a patent medicine, was unable to discover any remedial agent whatever. After recounting what he did not find in the supposed compound, the analyst declares that there was at any rate one substance-water.

-An Act of Parliament passed during the last Session at Toronto provides that a curfew bell is to be rung in all cities, towns, and villages throughout the province at nine o'clock at night, and that all persons under 17 years of age found after that hour in the streets without the permission of their parents or guardians are to be punished by fine and imprisonment.

-A speaker at one of the Church Missionary Society meetings said that the Turkish authorities at Constantinople refused to allow the circulation of the Epistle to the Galatians, supposing that it was a letter addressed to the people of Galatia, the suburb of Constantinople. When corrected on this point, to make sure they demanded the certificate of St. Paul's death!

-The United States Government enacted a law that all Chinese, in the country, who should not register their names by the fifth of May, should be sent back to China. The Act was an open violation of the treaty with China, but was passed, like other Chinese exclusion Acts, for political purposes. Very few of the Chinese registered, but those who did not will not be exported, since to do it would cost over five million dollars, and there are only thirty-five thousand available for the purpose.

-President Cleveland has signed the extradition treaty between Russia and the United States. The treaty has not yet been published, but it is known that conspiracy against the life of the Czar is to be an extraditable offence. In Russia this includes everything from throwing a bomb at the Czar, to criticizing the methods of the Government, so that the American Government will be simply as one paper puts it, "the watchdog of Russian Absolutism, as forty years ago it was a slave catcher for Southern planters." There is much dissatisfaction over the treaty, and most enthusiastic meetings, addressed by prominent citizens, protested against its ratification.

-The Echo says that the blow aimed at the Church of England by the Welsh Suspensory Bill, comes at a most opportune time for the Church as an establishment. "It comes when the Imperial sentiment is aroused to full activity, and when other powerful interests feel themselves threatened. An attack simultaneously made on different interests has simultaneously called into existence common combination for common defence. When the House of Lords is attacked, as it is pretty sure to be when it rejects the doomed Home Rule Bill, it will have behind it, not only the lauded aristocracy, but the capitalist class; not only the Church, but the great drink interest; not only, as a rule, the commercial class, but the Imperialistic sentiment."

-Dr. Pentecost spoke at the annual meeting of the Baptist Missionary Society, and took occasion to speak of the educational system adopted by most of the denominations in India, namely, the system of educating heathen men in secular education for secular purposes. This system, he said, reversed the Divine order, which was not Go ye educate and then preach, but, "Go, preach," It was subsidised by a Government, which, to say the least, was not intensely favourable to the missionary enterprise. It employed two heathen teachers for every one Christian teacher. It gave a minimum of the Gospel which saves, to a maximum of knowledge which puffs up. Its tendency was almost invariably to lose the missionary in the educationalist; and its results were seen in the conversion of less than one in every thousand students.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

A landslip occurred at Vaerdalen, near Trondhjem, Norway, on the 18th, resulting in the loss of one hundred and twenty lives, and destruction of property to the amount of 1,000,000 kroner,-over £55,000.

The United States Supreme Court has decided that, the infamous Geary Chinese Exclusion and Registration Act is constitutional. The Supreme Court is doing its best of late to bring the United States Constitution into contempt. The decision was not unanimous, however; one judge was absent, and of the eight remaining, three, including the Chief Justice, dissented from the opinion of the majority.

The Russian police have now turned their attention to the Pashkovites, an energetic body of Protestants, whose adherents are generally found among the upper classes of St. Petersburg and Moscow. Priests of the Russian Church are in the habit of attending Pashkovite meetings in St. Petersburg, and engaging in theological controversy with those present, with a view of catching expressions hostile to the church. Proselyting by means of the police is peculiar to a State Church.

The New York Central Railway Company is breaking its own record for speed. Its new engine two weeks ago took the Empire Express train from Syracuse to Buffalo, and for a portion of the distance made the unprecedented time of a mile in thirty-two seconds, which is a rate of one hundred and twelve and one-half miles an hour. With the Compania, the Gigantic, and other and swifter steamers that may follow, unity of action for the whole world will be more possible than for a single nation a few years ago. "This they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do."

When the World's Fair at Chicago was opened it was announced that the grounds would be closed on Sundays. A large crowd went to the gates the first Sunday, having understood that they were to be open, and were furious at being denied admission. Later it was announced that the grounds would be opened on Sundays, but that the buildings would be kept closed. Now the news comes that the buildings are to be open, but that no machinery will be running. How this compromise will suit all parties remains to be seen. It will doubtless be a disappointment to many mechanics, and it is sure not to please those people who want all to be made to act as though they kept Sunday, even though they care nothing for it.

"A significant article on disarmament is published by the Oservatore Romano. It urges that as a preliminary to international disarmament international peace must be established by the suppression of sacred societies, race hatred, and national jealousies."-Catholic Times.

That's very good. And now will some wise person tell how to suppress secret societies, race hatred, and national jealousies? It is a truth that all talk about disarmament and universal arbitration is folly, as long as race hatred and national jealousies exist; and these are the natural products of human nature. "From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?" James iv. 1. So long as men are what they are, wars will continue. The only thing to do, therefore, is to preach the Gospel of Jesus, which will produce peace in all that believe.

Arrests for Sunday labour are now getting very common in certain portions of the United States. One striking feature is that, with a few insignificant exceptions, the persons arrested are all conscientious and faithful observers of the seventh day of the week. Others who make a profession of keeping Sunday, or who do not profess to keep any day, work on Sunday at the same time, and are unmolested. Recently in Maryland a man was arrested and sent to gaol for thirty days for working in his field on Sunday. The work was of a quiet nature, and there was no disturbance. A minister on his way to church saw the man at work, and informed against him. The writ was served on Sunday, which made it illegal, nevertheless it was allowed to stand. A Sunday law being itself a piece of injustice it is quite fitting that justice should be ignored in every part of its application.

In Lloyd's Newspaper of April 23 there was an account of an inquest regarding the death of a man who was alleged to have died from poisoning by pork from Ostend:-

"Dr. Stephenson, analyst to the House Office, gave it as his opinion that the pork contained a chemical poison, the greater part of which disappeared by absorption during life. Death was caused by chemical poisons produced by the excreta of bacteria. The coroner having remarked on the fact that this pork, which would produce death, seemed wholesome and fit for food, not only to an outsider, but even to a butcher, the jury returned a verdict of 'Accidental death.'"

At its best state the hog is an unclean animal, utterly unfit for food. A direct command of the Lord forbids its use, and all who violate the commandment must expect to suffer the consequences. It is only occasionally that death is traced directly to pork eating, as in this instance, but for that very reason the danger is augmented. Nobody can habitually partake of the flesh of swine, in any form, without being injured not alone physically, but mentally and spiritually as well.

The Archdeacon of London says:-

"It is one of the peculiarities of our ancient and complex ecclesiastical system that the idiosyncracies of a Prime Minister can alter the personal complexion of a whole diocese, and, if he is long enough in office, of almost the whole Church, by the appointments to bishoprics."

The Rev. A. R. Buckland, writing in the same journal,-the Review of the Churches,-also says in regard to Church patronage:-

"There is no age qualification; an infant can present, the guardian guiding his head. There is not even a moral qualification; the patron may go straight from the Divorce Court or from gaol to present a clergyman to a cure of souls. An Atheist, a Mohammedan, a Theosophist may present equally with a Wesleyan or a Baptist. Some day the Church may find, with amazement, that a Unitarian is, as Prime Minister, choosing its bishops."

Why not? A State church is a church dependent on the fluctuations of politics. The only way to avoid such fluctuations is to have the State a despotism, in the hands of one man, or to provide that none but those who profess, and will swear to maintain, a certain creed shall hold office. There is at present too much individual freedom in England for the consistent working of an Established Church. Union of Church and State, and individual liberty, cannot exist together. Just to the degree that the union is complete is there despotism and tyranny.

June 15, 1893

"Front Page" The Present Truth 9, 12.

E. J. Waggoner

"And king Solomon made two hundred targets of beaten gold; six hundred shekels of gold went to one target. And he made three hundred shields of beaten gold; three pound of gold went to one shield; and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon." 1 Kings x. 16, 17.

"And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem; and he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's house; he even took away all; and he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made. And king Rehoboam made in their stead brazen shields, and committed them unto the hands of the chief of the guard, which kept the door of the king's house. And it was so, when the king went into the house of the Lord, that the guard bare them, and brought them back into the guard chamber." 1 Kings xiv. 25-28.

In these passages there is contained the history of a great many people's experience. Rehoboam had suffered the loss of the golden shields which his father had made, but he kept up appearances with brass. Perhaps he persuaded himself that brazen shields were as good as golden ones. No doubt they did look as well, if they were kept well rubbed up; but nevertheless the value was not there. In the same way many people who have had a real experience in the things of God, and who have allowed Satan to rob them of their treasure, have substituted the brass of formal profession for the pure gold of love and faith. It made as good a show, but they themselves were conscious, in spite of themselves, that the value was not there. The enemy also knows the difference between brass and gold. He will not attempt to rob one of his brazen substitute for gold. That is why one has so much easier a time when he allows Christian reality to degenerate into a mere form.

But the case of Rehoboam with his brazen shields is more exactly paralleled by those who make their boast that they adhere closely to "the faith of our fathers." Doubtless their fathers had real faith, and held much truth. But faith is something which cannot be transmitted from father to son, and so those who pride themselves on believing just what their fathers believed, are the possessors of merely sounding brass.

This is the case with the "historic churches." Men formulate creeds, and their followers are careful to believe just what the founders believed, and still more careful not to believe anything which they did not believe. The result is that they do not have the faith which the founders had. They have the words, but not the life. As brass will make even a more dazzling show than gold, so State churches, whose boast is their "historic" succession, exhibit a dazzling ceremonial in place of the substance.

"'The Day of Jesus Christ'" The Present Truth 9, 12.

E. J. Waggoner

"Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." Phil. i. 6. What the day of Christ is, may be learned from the apostle's words in other places. In the same line as above, he says, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." 2 Tim. i. 12. So it seems that there is a day so far above all other days, that is sufficiently designated as "that day." In the fourth chapter of the same epistle, after speaking of his approaching end, and the good fight he had fought, he said, "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing." Verse 8.

This verse, together with the first verse of the chapter, which says that the Lord, "the righteous Judge," will judge the quick (living) and dead "at His appearing and His kingdom," shows us that "the day of Christ," is "that day," when the work which God has begun will have been finished,-the coming of the Lord. That day is the one day toward which the eyes of all God's people have been turned since the fall. It is the day which marks the consummation of the Christian's hope. Let us note a few texts which show its importance.

With what can we more naturally begin than with the words of Christ, "Let not your hearts be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." John xiv. 1-3. All that is contained in this promise we shall not search for now, but will be content for the present with the simple promise of His coming, and will read other texts which speak of it.

Enoch, the seventh from Adam was a prophet, and spoke of the coming of the Lord. Speaking of the wicked, the Apostle Jude says, "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." Jude 14, 15.

Since "the wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth" (Ps. xxxvii. 12), it follows that to execute judgment upon the wicked means the deliverance of the righteous. This is what is stated in the promise first quoted. So also we read, "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment; so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall

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He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Heb. ix. 27, 28. So we have before us not only the fact that Christ is coming, but that His coming is to be the "second" coming; and that it is to be for the purpose of saving the righteous, and punishing the wicked.

So again we read the words of Christ, "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then He shall reward every man according to his works." Matt. xvi. 27. And again, "Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be." Rev. xxii. 12. The Lord is the righteous Judge, and at His appearing and His kingdom He is to judge the living and the dead; and therefore we are exhorted to "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.

The patriarch Job, in his deep affliction, was comforted by the thought of the coming of the Lord. He said, "For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand up at the last upon the earth; and after my skin hath been thus destroyed, yet from my flesh shall I see God; whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another." Job xix. 25-27, R.V.

In the Psalms the coming of the Lord is often mentioned, and always as a cause for rejoicing. For instance, "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. "O sing unto the Lord a new song; for He hath done marvellous things; His right hand, and His holy arm, hath gotten Him the victory. The Lord hath made known His salvation; His righteousness hath He openly showed in the sight of the heathen. . . . With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King. Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills be joyful together. Before the Lord; for He cometh to judge the earth; with righteousness shall He judge the world, and the people with equity." Ps. xcviii. 1-9.

Before the coming of the Lord His people shall suffer persecution at the hands of earthly governments, which assume the right to prescribe the religion of citizens. The church, making itself the head, in the place of Christ, will, through the State, dictate to man what form of religion they shall openly profess. This is now done to some extent in every country, and the thing is constantly growing. Thus they will virtually substitute another in the place of Christ, for men to worship. But the true saints of God will have nothing to do with the unholy alliance with the world. They will be sorely persecuted, but their hope will be in the coming of the Lord, who is to deliver them. "And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us; this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation." Isa. xxv. 9.

That event will be emphatically "the day of Christ," for it will be the demonstration before all the world of His right to reign. When He was here the first time, He was "despised and rejected of men." Isa. liii. 3. He had not where to lay His head. Then men esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, afflicted. But when He comes the second time, it will be as King of kings, and Lord of lords, and all men will know that the Father hath given Him the heathen for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession. Then rude soldiers bowed in mockery before Him, ridiculing His claim to be a king. But when He comes the second time, every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Phil. ii. 10, 11.

"He comes not an infant in Bethlehem born.

He comes not to lie in the manger;

He comes not again to be treated with scorn,

He comes not a shelterless stranger;

He comes not to Gethsemane,

To weep and sweat blood in the garden;

He comes not to die on the tree,

To purchase for rebels a pardon;

Oh, no; glory, bright glory

Environs Him now."

"The Blessed Hope" The Present Truth 9, 12.

E. J. Waggoner

"For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 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 the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ." Titus ii. 11-13, R.V.

In another article we have called attention to some of the texts which show a prominent place that the coming of the Lord occupies in the Scriptures. That event is the blessed hope. It is such, because it brings salvation to all the faithful. The grace of God has brought salvation to all men, and whosoever will may have it; but all that Christ has done for man would be of no value if it were not for His coming again. That coming brings everlasting salvation. It brings deliverance from death to all who have accepted deliverance from sin. For when the Lord comes the second time, the resurrection of the righteous dead occurs. To the Thessalonian brethren the Apostle Paul wrote:-

"But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [precede, or go before] them which are asleep. For 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. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." 1 Thess. iv. 13-18.

The Apostle Peter blesses God because He "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, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." 1 Peter i. 3-5. The resurrection of Jesus carries with it the resurrection of all who believe in Him. Those who are baptized into Christ put on Christ, and then live in Him. Gal. iii. 27; Rom. vi. 3-8. Therefore since they live in Him, if they fall asleep, they sleep in Jesus, and so they will be brought with Him from the dead. Their resurrection is as sure as His.

And this is the Christian's hope. It is "a lively hope." It is this, and this alone, that is the God-given comfort for those who mourn for the dead. The Divine command is, "Wherefore comfort one another with these words." No one has any authority to use any other words of comfort and peace, for there is

NO OTHER HOPE

Even as besides the name of Jesus "there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts iv. 12), so there is no other time than the coming of the Lord and the resurrection, when that salvation is to be made complete. As already seen, it is only by the coming of the Lord that either the dead or the living can ever be with the Lord. Read the testimony of the Scriptures about this. There were some who said that there is no resurrection of the dead, and so the Apostle Paul wrote:-

"If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen; and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching

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vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ; whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised; and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." 1 Cor. xv. 13-18.

This is according to the statement in Peter that it is by the resurrection of Christ that God has begotten us to a lively hope. Our resurrection depends on His resurrection; and that the resurrection is the sole hope of the Christian, is shown by the statement that if there is to be no resurrection our faith is vain. And in that case they who have fallen asleep in Christ would be perished. This shows that there is no other way of living with Christ, except by means of the resurrection of the dead, and the changing of the living, at the coming of the Lord. If the righteous who have died in past ages were now in heaven with the Lord, they would not be perished even if there were no resurrection. No matter how incomplete their condition, if they were in heaven they would be very far from perished, even if the resurrection never took place. But the Scripture says that if there were no resurrection they would be perished; and therefore we know that their future existence depends wholly on the resurrection.

And the resurrection is only at the second coming of the Lord. In connection with the passage in 1 Thessalonians, read 1Cor. xv. 51-54:-

"Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but 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."

The coming of the Lord marks the swallowing up of death; for all His people will then for ever be delivered from it, and death itself will be destroyed. 1 Cor. xv. 26; Rev. xx. 14. That is the time of reward for the people of God. Jesus said: "When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and recompense be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind; and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee; for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." Luke xiv. 12-14.

A SURE HOPE

In the Christian's hope there is no element of doubt or uncertainty. Sometimes people say that they hoped for a thing which they have no just reason to believe they will receive. That is not hope; it is simply desire. Hope, and especially the Christian's hope, is based on a certainty. God has begotten us unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Therefore hope is as sure as the fact that Jesus has been raised from the dead. For the hope of the resurrection is based on the knowledge of the power of the resurrection. Paul's desire was, "that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead." Phil. iii. 10, 11.

The "lively hope" to which God has begotten us is a living hope. It is a hope which the Spirit gives. It is by the Spirit that we are "sealed unto the day of redemption" (Eph. iv. 30), which is the day of the resurrection; for we read, "If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." Rom. viii. 11. And this Spirit is given to all who believe in Christ. Eph. i. 13. To possess the Spirit of God is to know the power of the resurrection (Eph. i. 17-20); for conversion is the experiencing of the power of the resurrection of Christ. Eph. ii. 2-5. This being made alive in Christ is the forgiveness of sins (Col. ii. 12, 13); and the resurrection of the dead at the last day is simply the application of the same power by which those who were dead in trespasses and sins have been saved from sin. The changing of this vile body at the coming of the Lord is "according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself." Phil. iii. 20, 21.

Therefore it is that the Christian's hope of the resurrection is a positive knowledge. It is the assurance that the life of Christ in man will triumph over death, even as it did in Christ Himself.

THE HOPE OF THE AGES

As no name but that of Christ has ever been given among men for salvation, and as salvation is completed only at the coming of the Lord and the resurrection, even so the coming of the Lord and the resurrection has been the hope that has sustained the people of God ever since the fall. When he was before the council, the Apostle Paul declared, "For the hope of the resurrection of the dead I am called in question." Acts xxiii. 6. Still later, when before King Agrippa, he said, "And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers; unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?" Acts xxvi. 6-8.

Here we learn that the resurrection of the dead was the hope of the "fathers" of the Jewish race. It is commonly thought that the ancient Jews had little or no knowledge of a future life, having at the best very vague and shallow ideas of the resurrection and immortality to be received at that time. But the Scriptures tell a far different story.

The first explicit account of a promise to the fathers (although not by any means the first promise ever made), is that recorded in Gen. xii. 1-3. Read the connection. This promise was referred to by Stephen when he gave his last testimony, in these words:-

"The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran; and from thence, when his father was dead, He removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell. And He gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on; yet He promised that He would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child." Acts vii. 2-5.

Note carefully that statement. God brought Abraham into the land, but gave him not so much inheritance in it as to set his foot on, and yet He had promised to give it to him and to his seed after him. Is there unrighteousness with God? Never. God cannot lie. Then how shall we understand this seeming failure of His promise? Just as Abraham did. Read how he looked at the matter:-

"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 tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their

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God; for He hath prepared for them a city." Heb. vi. 8-16.

What does this mean? Simply this, that God did not promise the land of Canaan for a temporal inheritance, and that Abraham never expected such an inheritance. He did not expect to receive the possession at once, for the Lord had expressly told him that he should die before the inheritance was bestowed. Gen. xv. 15, 16. Therefore Abraham was not disappointed when he came to die, but died in faith. In what did he have faith? He had faith in the resurrection, which he saw in Christ; for he saw the day of Christ, and was glad. John viii. 56. This was the hope of the promise made of God unto the fathers, for which Paul was in bonds.

Take the promise Abraham when he had offered up Isaac. God said "By Myself have I sworn, . . . that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of His enemies." Gen. xxii. 16, 17. This is one of the most comprehensive promises in the Bible; but a few texts will suffice to indicate how far-reaching it is.

Note first that the seed of Abraham means first of all Christ. "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ." Gal. iii. 16. But this is not all, for it includes all who are Christ's. "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Gal. iii. 29. So when God said to Abraham, "Thy seed shall possess the gate of His enemies," He told the complete triumph, not only of Christ, but of all the righteous, over all their foes.

In Ps. ii. 7-9 we read, "I will declare the decree; the Lord hath said unto Me, Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." So the promise to Abraham, that his seed should possess the gate of his enemies, meant nothing less than the complete possession of the whole earth by the Lord Jesus Christ, and the destruction of all the wicked.

But the greatest enemy of all is death. Christ has conquered this enemy, for He says, "I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." Rev. i. 18. Therefore Christ possesses the gate of His enemy. But that is not the complete fulfilment of the promise to Abraham, for those who trust God are the seed just the same as Christ. They are "heirs God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ." Rom. viii. 17. So the promise will not be fulfilled until they, as well as Christ, possess the gate of their enemies. "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." 1 Cor. xv. 26. This, as we have seen, is at the coming of the Lord. Therefore we learn that the promise to Abraham comprehended nothing less than the coming of the Lord, and the salvation of all the people of God, by resurrection and translation.

Moreover, Abraham fully understood this, for He died in faith. He was content to be a sojourner and a stranger on earth all his life, "For he looked for a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." He desired a better country, that is, an heavenly. It was the hope of the resurrection that sustained him, and it was by that same hope that he overcame.

Isaac and Jacob had the same faith, as we have read in the Epistle to the Hebrews. This enables us to understand better why Esau is called a "profane person" because he sold his birthright. When he came in from the field hungry and think, and asked Jacob to give him some of his pottage, Jacob said, "Sell me this day thy birthright." "And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die; and what profit shall this birthright do to me?" Gen. xxv. 29-32. And so he sold his birthright. How different was he from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They all died in faith, knowing that death would make no difference with the promise of God. They knew that the resurrection would give them the fulness of the inheritance. It was with the expectation of death, and the hope of the resurrection, that they received the promise. But Esau had no such faith. He did not believe in the resurrection, and had no hope in any promise that extended beyond this life. And so in the despair of unbelief he sold his birthright.

THE SACRIFICES AND THE HOPE

"By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts." Heb. xi. 4. In whom did Abel have faith? Only in Christ; for there is no other in whom to have faith. Faith begins and ends in Him. Moreover, Abel's faith obtained witness for him that he was righteous; and there can be no real righteousness except "that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness of God by faith."

Still further, it is not simply through faith in the death of Christ, that righteousness comes, but through faith in His resurrection. The Apostle Paul tells us that, as Abraham, so too us, righteousness will be imputed, "if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; and was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification." Rom. iv. 24, 25. It is through the resurrection of Christ, therefore, that we are made righteous. We are reconciled to God by His death, and saved by His life. Rom. v. 10. The Apostle Paul preached nothing but Christ and Him crucified, and he declared that the preaching of the cross is the Gospel; yet it was for preaching the resurrection through Jesus that he was condemned. This shows that the preaching of the cross includes the preaching of the resurrection. The cross means not only death, but the resurrection as well.

He who believes in Christ's death merely, does not have any saving faith. It is not a dead Saviour, but a living Saviour, that delivers us. Now all the sacrifices that, like Abel's, were offered in faith, represented Christ. But such sacrifices of faith indicated not only the death of Christ, but His resurrection as well. We have seen that in the resurrection of Christ is contained the resurrection of all who believe in Him, and therefore all those who offered sacrifices in faith, thereby expressed their faith in the promises of God to Abraham and His seed, of an inheritance in the earth made new, and also showed their hope in the resurrection. Therefore when we say that all the sacrifices pointed to Christ, we do not mean simply that they pointed to the death of Christ, but that they pointed to His second coming in glory, to give His people an inheritance, by the resurrection of the dead and the translation of living.

This is further shown by what the Apostle Paul says of the Lord's Supper, which corresponds to the ancient sacrifices. The lamb slain represented the body and blood of the Lamb of God, and the bread and the wine represent the same thing. So the Apostle says, "As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till He come." 1 Cor. xi. 26. The coming of the Lord and the resurrection is the grand consummation of the Christian's hope. To that everything has reference, since none of the work of the Gospel will amount to anything without that. Without the resurrection of Christ His death would have profited nothing; and without His second coming His resurrection would have been in vain. But the resurrection of Christ carries with it the sure promise of His second coming; therefore every memorial of the death of the Lord must be also a pledge of His second coming.

And so we learn that all of the patriarchs

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and prophets had but one hope, and that was in the coming of the Lord, and the resurrection, which should establish them in the kingdom promised to them that love the Lord. "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling." Eph. iv. 4.

There were people in those days who did not perceive the significance of the sacrifices which they offered, even as there are multitudes of people in these days and who time after time eat the bread and drink the cup at the Lord's Supper, without having any just sense of what they mean, but celebrate it as a mere church ceremony. We do not say that the Gospel is not clearly preached in these days, simply because some do not understand it, and so we are not justified in saying that the Gospel was not clearly made known in the days of the patriarchs, because some did not understand it then. It is most probable that fully as many grasped the real meaning of it then as now.

More than this, there were many besides Esau, in those days, who did not believe, even as there are now, although they understood it was preached. It is in reminding us of the fact that there will be unbelievers in the last days, that the Apostle Peter shows us that the coming of the Lord was the hope of the fathers. He says that "there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." 2 Peter iii. 3, 4.

Thus we see that the promise to the fathers was the promise of the coming of the Lord. Some profess that they cannot see any prospect of the fulfilment of that event, but that is because they are willingly ignorant. The word of God created the heavens and the earth in the beginning. That same word caused the destruction of the earth by the flood. The heavens and the earth which are now kept by the same word until the time of the end, when the wicked will be destroyed, at which time the earth will consume from the fires as it was when it was first created. This is that which was promised to the fathers, and so "we, according to His promise, look for new heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." 2 Peter iii. 13.

"Science" The Present Truth 9, 12.

E. J. Waggoner

Here is what, according to our writer in the North American Review, "science" gives man in place of the religion of the Bible:-

"Science knows no other plan of redemption than the survival of the fittest, knows no other day of creation than this day, knows no other fall of man save the present daily fall of ignorance and vice, knows no heaven or hell save those we make for ourselves, and knows no immortality save the persistence of life and force, and, finally, knows no God save the infinite power that fills and floats all things."

If this be the case, those who have heard Christ, "and have been taught by Him as the truth is in Jesus," must conclude that "science" doesn't know anything. But science means knowledge, and there is such a thing as a positive knowledge; therefore we must conclude that the above is a statement of "science falsely so-called."

"The Exhibition at Chicago" The Present Truth 9, 12.

E. J. Waggoner

Although the World's Fair has been open but little over a month, and many of the exhibits are not even yet in place, it has already afforded much more of an exhibition than was ever designed by any of the originators of the scheme. If the exhibition in the next six months equals that of the past few months, it will be one of the most notable events in the history of the world.

The special exhibition to which we refer is the exhibition of religious bigotry. Very soon after the project of World's Fair took definite shape, the question of whether or not it should be opened on Sunday was raised. That question furnished material for many sermons; and in Chicago it has been the leading topic in the pulpits for the last eighteen months. The question of individual salvation, by the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is "the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe," has given place to the preaching of "another gospel, which is not another," even the Gospel of force, which is the power of civil government to make all men appear religious in certain lines, whether they believe or not.

The means by which the Congress of United States was induced to couple with its grant of two and a half million dollars, the condition that the gates of the exhibition should not be opened on Sunday, need not be related here. Suffice it to say that it was done only because an organisation composed mostly of ministers, made the Members of Congress believe that if they did not vote for Sunday-closing they would lose their seats. In consequence of the threats of professed followers of Christ, they were led to vote in open opposition to the Constitution which they had sworn to uphold. The first feature, therefore, is an exhibition of the fact that when the Church sets out on the career of dictating to the State, it will not stop for so small a thing as perjury.

The gates of the Exposition were closed for Sunday. On the next Sunday they were opened, although the machinery was not in motion. Over 200,000 visitors entered on that day, and the general verdict was that "a more orderly assemblage of that magnitude was never seen in America." No advocate of Sunday legislation has denied that fact.

Still later the local directory voted by a very large majority to open the entire Exposition on Sundays, running the machinery no more than it is absolutely necessary. The resolution provided that "exhibitors and employÈs shall be relieved from duty, except so far as their presence is essential and necessary for the protection of property and the public peace; but all employÈs whose services are required Sunday shall be given one day of rest during each week."

It was still further voted to return to the United States Government the money that it had granted to the Fair. It must be remembered that Congress did not enact a law requiring the gates to be closed on Sunday, but simply made the grant of money on condition that the gates should be shut on that day. If the directors accepted the money on those conditions, they of course bound themselves to keep the gates closed; but by voting to return the money, they freed themselves from the condition.

Thus it will be seen that the recent action of the directors is fair and just. Nobody is obliged to work on Sunday, who does not wish to, and nobody is required to work more than six days in a week. So no just charge can be brought against them, of oppressing labourers, or of ignoring their conscientious scruples.

It will be apparent to every candid observer, that in this action the observance of Sunday is not affected in the least. That is, everybody who thinks that Sunday ought to be observed as a day of rest, will be as free to rest as though the gates were shut. For those who are employed labour from choice, and of course none who have conscientious scruples about Sunday observance will attend on that day. Only those people will be in attendance at the fair, either as employÈs or visitors, who would be engaged in labour or amusement somewhere else, if the gates were shut. These are in brief, the facts in the case; and now for a further exhibition.

SENSITIVE CONSCIENCES

As stated already, the opening of the gates and of the World's Fair on Sunday does not affect the real status of Sunday observance. Those who are religiously inclined, and who look upon Sunday as a sacred day, are free to attend church as usual, and even more than usual. One would think that with this all ought to be satisfied. The opening of the gates, and the attendance of visitors, on Sunday, is simply an affair of those who do not regard Sunday observance as essential. They do not propose to interfere in the least with the rights of anyone else to rest and worship, and they rightly feel that

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as much liberty ought to be conceded to them.

But this does not give satisfaction. A portion of the church people of Chicago and the rest of United States have determined that the gates of the Fair shall not be opened on Sunday. They are not willing to grant to others the liberty which they demand for themselves. They have persuaded themselves that they are prompted only by holy zeal for the Sunday; but inasmuch as the shutting of the gates of the Fair on Sunday will not in the least diminish the amount of pleasure seeking on that day; inasmuch as the shutting of the gates will have only the effect of driving the people to other and less reputable places of amusement, with which instruction is not combined, as it is in the Fair,-it looks very much as though the demand for the closing of the gates on Sunday is simply a manifestation of a dogged determination on the part of certain people to have their way, simply because it is their way.

For example, one Chicago religious journal, said, before it had been decided to open the gates:-

"Two of the leading dailies have conceded that it would be unwise to oppose the conscience of the country on this question; and the gates were closed last Sunday."

The same paper, after vote of the board of directors, characterised it as a "defiant action," and spoke of "the resolution adopted in stupid defiance of the decent opinion of mankind."

This is an exhibition of a grossly erroneous view of the function of conscience. The men who have voted to open the Fair on Sunday have not acted in defiance of their own conscience. Whether their action has been right or wrong makes no difference with fact. They have done what their own conscience approves. Then whose "conscience" have they "defied?" Why the "conscience" of those who think the Fair ought to be closed on Sunday. But that is impossible. One man cannot have conscience for another. God gives to every man conscience enough for himself, but not enough for two. "Why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience?" 1 Cor. x. 29.

It is not conscience, but bigotry and pride of opinion, that is wounded by the action of another. In the Dark Ages the Waldenses "defied" the "conscience" of the Roman Catholic Church, and as a consequence they were almost exterminated. When people complain that their consciences are outraged by the action of others, there is danger near, if those people have any power. The kind of "conscience" that is hurt by the action of another, is the "conscience" that turns the rack and kindles the fires of persecution. It is in direct opposition to the mind of Christ, who said, "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. 47. It is therefore not a Christian conscience that talks about being defied because somebody else does not agree with it.

He who says that his conscience is defied, and who would condemn another for disagreeing with him, sets himself up as the standard. His ideas are to be the rule not only for himself, but for all mankind. In short, he makes himself a pope. The World's Fair, therefore, has already afforded an exhibition of popery in the United States, and it was there long before Satolli was made Papal delegate.

"CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOUR"

But the Popes, whenever they have had the power, have always used force to compel others to conform to their consciences, and the American Papacy is true to the Papal traditions. As proof of this, read the following:-

"This telegram was sent to-day to John Willis Baer, general secretary of the Christian Endeavour Societies, to President Thomas W. Palmer of the World's Columbian Commission:

One million and a half members of Christian Endeavour will stand by the Commissioners in bringing an injunction against President Higinbotham and Associates if they open the gates on Sunday. Have wired President Cleveland and Attorney-General New York Tribune, May 15.

The New York correspondent of the Christian World, writing of the probability that the gates would be opened said:

"Meanwhile the Christian Endeavour Societies have threatened a general boycott in the event of Sunday opening, and their example will probably be widely followed."

The Christian Commonwealth seconds the motion saying:-

"Christians cannot possibly countenance such a wholesale desecration of the Lord's day as would result by opening the Exhibition on Sundays. But it may be asked, can they help themselves? We answer, abstaining from any participation in the Exhibition at any time. Let Christian churches of the United States not only protest against the action of the committee, but utterly refuse to patronise the Exhibition until the resolution is rescinded, and it is then highly probable that the committee will come to their senses."

That is what they propose to do, for President Bottsford, of the Massachusetts Sunday protective League has said:

"The League has sufficient funds at its disposal to set all the wheels of the State courts in motion in order to avert what it holds to be a desecration of the Sabbath."

And the committee representing the National Council of Congregationalists has telegraphed their representative at Chicago to withdraw immediately the denominational exhibit, in case the Fair shall be opened on Sundays.

But this is not all. No ordinary boycott is proposed. At the meeting of the Evangelical Alliance the following resolution was unanimously passed, and ordered telegraphed to Attorney-General Olney, at Washington:-

"The Evangelical Alliance of Boston and vicinity respectfully invokes the aid of the National Executive to prevent the Local Directory of the World's Fair from opening its gates on Sunday in defiance of an act of Congress granted to petitioners representing 40,000,000 of the best citizens of the country. The nation rejoiced that President Cleveland forbade the proposed Sunday night inauguration festivities in the Treasury Building. The presence of the United States troops at Fort Sheridan holds Chicago Anarchists in check. Cannot the Administration notify the Directory that those troops will be properly used, if necessary, to maintain inviolate the nation's authority, and keep the fair closed on the Lord's Day?"

That is high language. It is scarcely probable that in the present instance United States troops will be called out to enforce Sunday observance; but we see the temper of the churches on this subject. They are willing to shed blood, if necessary, to secure their ends in regard to Sunday. Now when we remember that the action of Congress was at there dictation, and that it has been demonstrated that the churches control Congress, and can get whatever they want, if they are united and in earnest, it will be seen that it is by no means a remote possibility that at sometime soon, if not now, not only the courts, but the army, may be called upon to enforce the observance of Sunday.

There is no doubt but this is very vigorous endeavour, but it would puzzle one to show anything Christian in it. Christ said, "My kingdom is not of this world; if My kingdom were of this world then would My servants fight." John xviii. 36. Therefore where we find religion that seeks to uphold itself by force, we may know that it is not the religion of Christ, but is of the world. But the religion of the world is paganism, and even such is that phase of religion which talks of the boycott, and of armed resistance. A single angel of heaven has more power than an entire army of men; and Jesus could at any time have summoned to aid more than twelve legions of angels; yet He never suggested the use of force to compel people to accept His teaching. On the contrary He forbade the lifting of a hand against His bitterest opposers, and refused to condemn the unbelievers.

PAGANISM AGAINST CHRISTIANITY

In all this we have not raised the question of the correctness of Sunday observance. We wish simply to show the means by which it is sought to further the observance of the day. But we do not write for the purpose of censuring the people who advocate the use of those means; it is only that certain principles may stand out clearly before the reader. And there are some questions that must present themselves to the thoughtful observer.

1. Suppose that the observance of Sunday is of Divine obligation,-that it is a necessary part of the religion of Christ; how much will the cause of religion be furthered by the steps that have been taken, and that are proposed? Suppose that the directors are compelled by force to shut the gates of the Exposition on Sunday, and the people are compelled to stay away; will that make them anymore Christian? Certainly not. Then what is gained? Nothing for the cause of Christianity, nothing in the line of saving souls, but much hatred to that form of religion which uses force.

Not only is there stirred up hatred to that form of religion, but much hatred to Christianity, since the world in general takes it for granted that what professes to be Christianity is Christianity, and so they are led to think that Christianity is synonymous with bigotry. Therefore it is that we emphatically declare, on the authority of Christ Himself, that there is no Christianity in it. We have no ill-will to the men who are doing these things. We do not question their sincerity. We wish that we could avoid making any reference to their actions. But the cause of Christ is of more value than anything else, and we should be false to Him, and unfaithful to men, if we did not point out that there is no Christianity in force of any description. If we allow people to turn away from the instruction of God's word, under the impression, that it sanctions such things, we should be guilty of their destruction. So we repeat that God is the God of peace, that Christ is the Prince of peace, and that His Gospel is the Gospel of peace. See Heb. xiii. 20; Isa. ix. 6; Eph. vi. 15. Every lover of the Lord Jesus, no matter how highly he regards Sunday, ought to lift his voice in protest against the injustice that is being done to His name.

2. Most important of all, Can the right ever be aided by wrong? Does error ever help the truth? Can truth be built up by falsehood? Can true peace ever be gained by war? No more than health can be built up through consumption, or wealth preserved by prodigality. Since the beginning of the world, there has never been an instance where force was called in to aid in the propagation of the truth. It is true that in numerous instances those against whom force has been brought to bear, because of their adherence to truth, have unwisely met force with resistance, to the great detriment of the truth, and of their own souls; but in no case have the possessors of truth ever sought to advance it by the sword.

An illiterate shoemaker used to attend the theological discussions of the school-men. When asked what he could learn from them, since the discussions were carried on in Latin, which he did not understand, he replied that he could very easily tell which side was in error. And when asked how he could tell that, he replied, "By noticing which party gets angry."

That principle will hold good in all cases. Apart from any statements as to the correctness of a position, we may know that it has no foundation in truth, if force is used to sustain it. And so, without going into the Sunday question at all we may know that it is not from God, from the simple fact that its adherents seek to maintain it by force. Boycotting and armed forces are of the world, and emanate from Satan, who is the god of this world. The fact that they are called in to the aid of Sunday observance, proves its connection with the religion of the world.

From the most ancient times the sun god claimed the allegiance due to God alone, and the day of the sun stood as the rival of God's holy day. It was the heathen Emperor Constantine, whose special divinity was the sun, who made the first law requiring the observance of "the venerable day of the sun." By this act Church and State were united, or in other words, the union of paganism and Christianity was effected, and for the first time force was used in behalf of professed Christianity. Therefore in the World's Fair we have already an exhibition of the spirit of Paganism, and that, too, long before the Parliament of Religions has assembled.

It is therefore not a trivial matter that is being agitated in connection with the World's Fair. It is the question that is as old as the fall, whether the peace of God or the enmity of Satan shall prevail. The final struggle of the conflict is just before us. The intimation that armed troops may be called out to defend the Pagan Sunday is only a foreshadowing of coming realities. But "when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him." It will be demonstrated that the power of the Gospel of peace is greater than the power that error can muster. There can be no middle ground; every one who loves the Lord must declare his allegiance in no uncertain tones. And may there be many who read this paper who will say, in the Spirit that moved Joshua, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

"The Sabbath" The Present Truth 9, 12.

E. J. Waggoner

Rabbi Hirsch, of Chicago, having declared that the Romans were "a selfish perfidious, cruel, and superstitious race of barbarians," a writer in a daily paper says, "We admit we owe much to the Jews-the Sabbath, for instance-but it must be allowed we Europeans also owe a little to the Romans." But it would puzzle the writer to show any connection between the Jews and the day which the Europeans generally regard as the Sabbath. That which in Europe and America is generally kept in place of the Sabbath-namely, Sunday-is the seventh day of the week, and it is the day which the Jews observed, but we do not owe it to them. "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord," and it is He that gave it to man. Neither God nor the Jews had anything to do with giving the people the first day of the week as the Sabbath.

"In Favour of Liberty" The Present Truth 9, 12.

E. J. Waggoner

We are pleased to know that there are men in the Church of England, who do not think that the existence of the Christian religion depends on Government support, or from tithes wrung from unwilling contributors. The following, written to the Daily Chronicle, by the Rev. Prebendary Eyton; expresses the sentiments of not a few men:-

"There are some of us clergy, and, perhaps, some church wardens, who do not quite see the, force and reason of having our assent taken for granted, even by the Archbishop of Canterbury, on the question of the disestablishment of the Church in Wales. While on the one hand we entirely sympathise with the efforts which have been so splendidly made by the Welsh Church of late years to recover a position which the over-ruling power of English influence had caused her well-nigh to lose, while we deprecate the ruthless and reckless temper which has boo often characterised the attack made on her, yet we cannot hold that it is for her real advantage to continue to hold a position which must prejudice her spiritual claims. Though her case be very different from that of the Irish Church, the question put by Mr. Keble in reference to Irish disestablishment, "Is it not just?" still haunts the ear.

"Were not the tithes granted to the Church on the understanding that the clergy ministered to the whole people, and if so large a mass of the people reject their ministrations, is it fair to go on exacting them for that purpose? Will not the Welsh Church be much stronger for her great spiritual work if she has to fall back on the tithes paid with good will by her own members, and gets rid of the suspicion of being, as a church, imposed by the English people on unwilling Wales?

"We look in vain for any answer to such elementary questions among the fervid utterances of those who are claiming to speak for the whole Church of England on the question.

"The object of this letter is only to protest against the assumption that every Churchman must be on one side in this matter. If that assumption continues to be made, we may be forced to some method of counteraction in the form of a public protest."

"Death in India" The Present Truth 9, 12.

E. J. Waggoner

Death is a great enemy. How it makes our hearts ache to seek our loved ones cold and silent in death! How empty the house seems, after they have been laid away in the grave! How could we bear it without Jesus, and without the precious promises in His word? His words alone bring comfort. His presence alone satisfies our longings and fills the aching void in our hearts. On Jesus only can we roll off the heavy burden.

There are people in India who know nothing of Jesus, and nothing of His word, and nothing of His power to help in such trying times. How much more sad death must be to them!

When their friends die, they generally burn them instead of burying them. "After the body has been burned they think the parts all join together and go through a river of mire and blood. When it gets to the other side of the river it must walk over ground like fiery hot copper, and finally lie down in a place full of sharp spikes. Then comes the judgment, when all the good deeds and all the bad ones committed by the dead man are added up. If there are more bad deeds than good ones, he will have to be born again at once in a lower animal; but if there are more good than bad, he goes to heaven for a little while, and then comes back to be born again in the something else. So there is no end to their misery even in heaven; the best they can hope for is a little rest before they begin again."

They are taught, you see, that when their friends die they do not really die, but that they merely stop living in that body and go to live in some other body. If they are not very bad they think they will go into a nice animal-"a cow or sheep, or something of that kind; but if they are wicked, they go into such creatures as mice, or rats, or flies; and this does not happen only once, but again and again, till the soul has done more good things than wicked ones. This is why the Hindus will not eat meat; they are afraid of turning out the souls of their friends into a worse animal. "They do not dare to kill an ox, or cow, or monkey, or even a crow." The crows are allowed to fly in and out of the houses just as they like, and to help themselves to anything that they want. Once a year the crows have a great feast, called 'Ancestors' Dinner,' when the people pray to their dead relations to come and eat the good things they have made ready for them."

"The Jains never eat or drink in the dark, for fear they might unconsciously swallow an insect, and thus cause pain to some departed human soul. Some Jains carry a broom to sweep the ground before they tread on it!"

A baker is sometimes seen before his shop feeding twenty or thirty yellow street dogs. "The priests have told him that the soul of his father has gone into the body of a dog, so he feeds all, that his father may be sure of something to eat."

"The soul has to pass out of body into another no less than eight million four hundred thousand times before it is thought to be quite free from sin." "For all the wrong things they do or say they expect to be punished when their souls have gone into other bodies."

"If a man loses his caste when he is dying, his soul would go after his death into the body of a very low animal, perhaps a rat, and then it would not be able to get back into another man after the rat died, but into the animal that comes next above a rat; for they think that the soul must go in regular order through all the animals, rats and cats and dogs and donkeys, and all the rest, until it gets up to a cow; and then from a cow to a man, and then back again into another animal, according as it behaves itself in its different bodies; so that losing your caste before you die means that your soul will have to begin its journey all over again."

Many of the people in South India, you remember, worship demons, which they think are the spirits of very wicked men who have died. They live in fear of them all the time.

The Mohammedans think that "an angel is in every man's grave, waiting for him, and as soon as he is buried the angel tells him that two examiners are coming to him, they ask him whether he believes in God and in Mohammed; if he says, yes, then they comfort him; but if he says, no, they torment him.

"The soul does not go to heaven until the resurrection day; where it does go depends upon how good it has been; if the man was very holy, his soul will go to Paradise, to be with the prophets; if not quite good enough for that, it will go into a green bird, and live with the martyrs; if only a common sort of a believer, it will either stay near the grave, or with Adam, in what is called lowest heaven, or in a well, until the trumpet sounds at the resurrection day. The souls of those who do not believe in Mohammed, have to bear terrible sufferings all the time until the resurrection day.

"When that day comes, all the dead bodies will rise, and their souls will go into them, after which they all will go to sleep till judgment has been passed upon them.

"Then everyone in turn has to walk over a tiny bridge, as fine as a hair, and sharp as a sword; the good people get over it very nicely, but the wicked ones tumble off and fall into hell, which is underneath. If they are Mohammedans, they will come out again someday, and go to heaven; but if not, they must stay there always."

"The Parsees suppose that there is a particular dog in the spirit world, that takes care of the souls of dead people, and keeps the evil spirits from hurting them, especially on the fourth day after death, when they are judged." For three days the spirit of the dead man is supposed to hover about the Tower of Silence, where he is left for the vultures to eat.

Oh, that these poor souls knew of the sweet peace and comfort found in our blessed Bible. Let us go to it ourselves in every time of trouble, then we may be able to comfort them which are in trouble and know not of Jesus, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 12.

E. J. Waggoner

-Cholera is reported at Bussorah and Amarah, on the River Tigris.

-Another goldfield has been discovered in Burmah. It is said to extend over an area of 900 square miles.

-Sixty-four men were drowned while lightening the ship Germania during the recent cyclone in the Bay of Bengal.

-It is estimated that from 40,000 to 50,000 slaves are yearly carried away captive from Zanzibar and neighbouring ports.

-In the Metropolis the shelters of the Salvation Army provide for upwards of 4,000 homeless men and women every night.

-The Russian Government has decided to suppress at an early date the Jewish Consistories in Livonia, Esthonia, and Courland.

-Under a new edict, Jews in Russia who are received into the Russian Church must take the Christian name of their godfathers,

-The Social Democrats in Germany have candidates in 856 out of 897 electoral districts, for the coming election. In Berlin there are sixty-nice socialist candidates.

-A report from Odessa states that no fewer than 15,000 prisoners, exclusive of women and children, are to be dispatched in 82 parties from the forwarding prisons at Moscow to Siberia via Nijni-Novgorod, Perm, and Tiumen.

-Afghanistan, it is said, has 6,000,000 people, and one missionary; Annum has 5,000,000 and only Roman Catholic missionaries; India has one missionary to 275,000 people; Persia one to 300,000; Thibet one to 2,000,000.

-Professor Garner, who went to Africa to study monkey language, claims that he has already written down a vocabulary of nearly 200 monkey words, and that there are not more than twenty or thirty words more in the monkey language.

-An untamed swallow which had its nest in a farm near Roubaix was lately caught and taken in a cage to Paris, where it was released. It returned to its nest in 90 minutes, having accomplished a distance of 250 kilometres, or over two miles a minute.

-The Corinth Canal, which will be opened in a month, is about four miles in length, 71 feet wide, and 26 feet deep. It will materially reduce the length of voyages between Western Europe and the ports of the east coast of Greece, Turkey, and the Black Sea.

-The town in England best provided with places of worship is the ancient one of Rochdale, where there are 145 churches and chapels. Fifty belong to the Church of England and 95 to the Nonconformists. The Church of England accommodates 24,449, and the Nonconformists 61,850 persons in sittings.

-During the month of March there were eighteen cases of suicide and eighty-two attempts at suicide, in the German Army. No other comment is needed as to the condition of the army.

-Advices received by the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society from Morocco, show that there is no diminution in the slave trade in Morocco, batches of girls being frequently publicly sold in Tangier and other towns.

-One of the leaders of the Free Church of Scotland speaking in the General Assembly in Edinburgh, recently, said: "Instead of disestablishing the Church of Scotland, let us Free Kirk men strive for the fusion of all the Scottish Presbyterian Churches in one great National Church, tolerant, cultured, unchained by merely abstract dogmas."

-A St. Petersburg telegram states that a "scientific" expedition, consisting of a captain, a lieutenant, eight soldiers, and three volunteers, will depart about the middle of this month on a journey of exploration through several provinces of the Chinese Empire. It is undoubtedly in the interest of the "science" of extending Russian territory.

-A dispatch of May 29, says: "Enormous tracts of country are now submerged in Tennessee, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The inhabitants of the lowlands have been driven from their homes, and many people had been for days on the verge of starvation before assistance could reach them. Thousands of cattle and sheep have perished, and great damage has been done to property. The rivers are still rising."

-An interesting test of a new system of lighthouse signals was recently made off New Haven, Connecticut. By an ingenious combination of the usual lighthouse lenses and light, together with a system of shutters, the lighthouse keeper is able to throw any number agreed upon to represent a given harbour to great distances in a horizontal plane. A reference to a "port book" shows the master of a vessel his location beyond doubt.

-The Pope has granted the private request made by Cardinal Vaughan, Archbishop of Westminster, when in Rome, asking that St, Peter might be made the Patron Saint of England. A solemn ceremony, placing England under the protection of St. Peter, will take place at the Oratory, Brampton, in the beginning of July. Of course Peter being dead, is perfectly unconscious of this bit of nonsense; but taking the Romish supposition that he is still alive, think of the presumption of the Pope in assuming that Peter is subject to his orders, and will meekly assume the oversight of any country the Pope may allot to him.

-One of the counsel for the Chinese Government in the recent case brought in the Supreme Court of the United States, to test the constitutionality of the Geary Chinese Exclusion Act, says that the ultimatum of the Chinese Government has already been sent to Washington. He says that "it informs the Government of the United States that if the provisions of the Geary Law are carried out, all diplomatic and commercial relations between the two countries will come to an end, and the American citizens now in China will be asked to quit the country." This is no more than might be expected.

-Hardly a week passes without some Lutheran pastor being imprisoned or removed from office for alleged offences against the Russian Church. Stundists and other Non-conformists also continue to be persecuted in the interior of Russia. The Volskoi Vyestnik states that a few days ago a Molokan, or evangelical dissenter, named Stephen Generaldi, was sentenced by the Kazan District Court, for "heresy" and proselytising, to the loss of all civil lights, confiscation of property, and to banishment to the Province of Transcauasia. If the principle of State religion be correct, then all this persecution is justified. Russia is simply acting consistently with the idea that religion is an affair of the State.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 12.

E. J. Waggoner

After the next number, the PRESENT TRUTH will be published weekly, instead of fortnightly, as heretofore. We are sure that this change will give satisfaction to all who have been receiving its visits regularly.

In this number of the PRESENT TRUTH we have called attention to the boycott which some zealous religious, both in the Old World and in the New, have called for against the World's Fair at Chicago, because it is open on Sunday. In the next number, if the Lord will, we shall compare this with a few boycotts of ancient times.

The warden of the Central Prison at Toronto says in his report to the Ontario Government that "of 25,000 children brought to Canada by Miss MacPherson, Dr. Barnardo, Mr. Quarrier, and others, from Great Britain, only three per cent. have lapsed into crime." When we remember from what these children are rescued, this report speaks volumes for the value of the training given them.

In a recent interview, Mr. Moody made the following statement in connection with the account of his work in Great Britain:-

"The Nonconformists are not flourishing. They have not been faithfully preaching the Word, and are being crowded to the wall. Unitarianism has crept in, and growth and prosperity have dropped out. The influence of the Established Church is overshadowing. Men of wealth and ambition go into it, because it means position and honour."

It is reported that the recent harsh measures against the Stundists in Russia have in several places had the desired effect, that of bringing them back into the Russian Church. Great popular rejoicings are alleged to have taken place at Kanev, where 130 Stundists, including several leaders, have recanted. That is the rejoicing of a political party that has gained a number of voters from the opposition, and not at all like the rejoicing that there is in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth.

"And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." Rom. xii. 2. This is true nonconformity. The only thing to which a man is not to conform, is the world. "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." James i. 27. Christ said of His disciples, "They are not of this world, even as I am not of the world." John xvii. 16. He was the great Non-conformist. No one need feel ashamed to be one with Him.

A much more sensible contest than that which took place last winter between Berlin and Vienna, has just been concluded. Then horses were ridden to death by unfeeling cavalry officers; this time it was a walking competition. Fifteen men made the trip, two of whom being known as vegetarians, were the cause of much sport to their companions. Nevertheless they kept on their way, subsisting on bread and apples, and drinking only water, with a result that they arrived at the journey's end so far ahead of their flesh-eating fellows that there was really no competition. And yet people think that it is necessary to eat flesh in order to have strength.

When a crime has been committed, such as murder, theft, adultery, etc., the first thought of the natural man is of disgust or contempt towards the culprit, and a more or less clearly defined feeling of satisfaction with himself for being free from such vices. But the enlightened man will take a far different view. He will realise that those crimes are the natural product of the human heart; "for from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness." Mark vii. 21, 22. Therefore instead of a feeling of self-satisfaction, he will have a feeling of humility, knowing that what he sees is but a manifestation of the nature that is in him. In every criminal the Christian will see himself, and will be led to trust more fully in the Saviour for deliverance from the evil nature which is common to all men.

The Echo, referring to Dr. B. W. Richardson's proposal that sheep, calves, and pigs be slaughtered by electricity, or else that they be rendered insensible to the knife by means of a mixture of chloroform and coal gas, says: "But is not the whole thing, from beginning to end, from conception to execution, a huge mistake? The system of breeding animals to slaughter them-and to slaughter them to eat them-grew out of barbarism, and will pass away with barbarism, as sure as cannibalism was first condemned, and then abandoned. In proportion as men and women are cultured, refined, elevated, the slaughter-house will be avoided." We agree with the sentiment, although we do not believe the slaughter of animals for food will ever cease in this present world. On the contrary the slaughter of animals will increase, and, in the same proportion, human life will be lightly regarded.

The Congregational ministers of Boston (U.S.A.) and vicinity, have adopted the following resolution: "That consistency requires that all those who have conscientiously opposed the opening of the World's Fair on the Lord's Day, should refuse to patronise the exhibition so long as Sunday opening continues."

Consistency requires nothing of the kind. If it did, it would also require them never to patronise the railways; it would require them never to travel on a steamboat; it would lead them never to ride on a tram car. Least of all does consistency require them to seek to enter the Fair by inducing others to stay away. Not only does consistency not demand the boycott, but Christianity positively forbids it.

The Congregationalist (Boston, U.S.A.) Notes the greatly increased circulation of Sunday newspapers, and complains that they go throughout the country, "invading every town and competing with the churches of every, even the smallest community." This discloses the secret of the desire to suppress the Sunday newspaper, together with all Sunday labour and amusement. It competes with the churches, therefore it must be suppressed by law. But suppose that everything which is a competitor of the church were suppressed, what would be the use of the existence of the church? Its only object is to hold forth the word of light and life in the darkness of the world. Darkness is always opposed to light, but it is the business of light to dispel the darkness. What would be thought of the proprietors of an electric light establishment, who should beg to have darkness done away with, so that their light might have a fair chance? One of the worst features of the churchly clamour for religious legislation is the fact that it indicates diminishing vitality on the part of the churches. They want the State to do their work for them. But although "the church" as an institution, loses all its power, it still remains a fact that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.

June 29, 1893

"Front Page" The Present Truth 9, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

The great question that has always confronted man 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 out 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 that 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 permits. 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 to 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 the 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."

"The Gospel to the Gentiles" The Present Truth 9, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

It is quite commonly supposed that until several years after the ascension of Christ nothing had ever been done for the Gentiles, and that the carrying of the Gospel to them was something in the nature of an afterthought, even with the Lord. Without realising how dishonouring to the Lord such a thought is, men have rather taken it for granted that the Lord loved the Jewish people more than He did any other people, and that all of His plans for centuries were with reference to them alone. Yet the whole teaching of the Bible is contrary to such an idea, as the following points will in part show.

We may note, in passing, that more than two thousand years of the world's history passed before there were any such people as the Israelites. In this period we may note Enoch, the faithful prophet and teacher, and Noah, the "preacher of righteousness," whose message was to the whole world. Coming to Abraham, the head of the Jewish race, we find that God called him when he was a Gentile, in the midst of heathen people. His faith was reckoned to him for righteousness. "How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised; that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also." Rom. iv. 10. 11.

So we see that in the very call of Abraham the Lord showed that He is no respecter of persons, but that "in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him." Abraham was to be the father not simply of a certain race, but of all them that believe, no matter of what nationality. In the very days of Abraham there was Melchizedek, a king in the land of Canaan, and a priest of the Most High God, who was a greater man than Abraham, and whose greatness Abraham recognised in receiving his blessing, and paying tithes to him. Heb. vii. 1-10.

That God did not cast off the Gentiles in choosing Abraham, is shown not only by the fact that Abraham was himself a Gentile, but also by the fact he would not give Abraham and his seed an inheritance in the promised land until the present occupants of it had been proved to the full. As in later times He bore with the Jews until they should fill up the measure of their iniquity, and as He gave the people before the flood a probation of one hundred and twenty years after the flood was threatened, so to the inhabitants of Canaan He gave a probation of four hundred years. This is an illustration of the truth that God "will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." 1 Tim. iii. 4. It is an instance of the longsuffering of God, who is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." 2 Pet. iii. 9.

We come to the time when God sent Moses to Egypt to deliver the children of Israel from bondage. In doing this God did not doom to destruction all the rest of the inhabitants of the world. His wonderful works for Israel were that His name might be declared throughout all the earth. Ex. ix. 16. Therefore in delivering the Israelites, it was for the purpose

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of making them missionaries to the whole world. The only reason for making His name known throughout the whole earth was that people out of every nation might believe on Him. Evidence of this is seen in the fact that when the plagues came on Egypt, warning was given, so that any among the servants of Pharaoh who feared the Lord might save themselves and their cattle. See Ex. ix. 18-21. The blood upon the door-post would have saved the lives of Egyptians as well as the lives of Israelites, if they had believed. The only advantage of the Jew was that to them were committed the oracles of God. Rom. iii. 1, 2. To them was given the high honour of carrying the Gospel to the nations.

We find that the purpose of God in bringing the plagues upon the obstinate Egyptians was fulfilled, because His name was declared throughout all the earth. When the spies entered the house of Rahab, forty years after, she said to them: "I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what you did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed, and as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you; for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath." Josh. ii. 9-11. All the inhabitants of Canaan had heard of the Lord and His power. Rahab believed, and "by faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace." Heb. xi. 31. All the other inhabitants of Canaan might have been saved, as well as Rabab, if they had only believed, as she did. The opportunity was given them.

It is true that the Israelites were forbidden to make any league with the inhabitants of the land. And why? Because the Israelites were the congregation, or church, of the Lord, and He would not have His church in alliance with the world. The union of Church and State is a thing that is utterly abhorrent to the Lord, since it destroys the life of the church, and makes the world no better. But all who had faith might in those days, as well as in these become identified with the church, and thus come out and be separate from the world. See in the case of Rahab.

It is a sad fact that the Jews did not accept the high commission given them, and did not proceed to evangelise the world. Once in the land of Canaan, they settled down to their ease. They assumed that what the Lord had done for them was because He thought more of them than of any other people in the world, and so they began to trust in themselves that they were righteous, and despise others. This spirit was shown in the case of Jonah, which also shows God's care for other people besides the Israelites. How strange it is that with the case of Jonah before them, men will think that God had no care for any people but the Jews! It is far more strange then that the Jews themselves should have thought so.

Throughout the prophecies of Isaiah we find many references to the Gentiles, and there are prophecies addressed especially to them. The same is true of other prophets. At length, because the Jews would not make known the truth of God to other people, they were carried into captivity, God Himself delivering them into the hands of their enemies, in order that in captivity they might do that which they refused to do in freedom. And so God's name was made known throughout the world. Nebuchadnezzar himself was given a wonderful dream, and its interpretation. Through the three friends of Daniel the truth of God was made known to all the rulers of the kingdom. In all the history of the captivity we find that six hundred years before Christ, as well as in the days of Paul, God was desirous of having His name borne before kings.

We come to the birth of Christ. When the angel appeared to the shepherds on the plain, he said, "I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." Luke ii. 10. When Jesus was presented in the temple, six weeks after His birth, the aged Simeon took Him up in his arms, and said, "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, that Thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel." Luke ii. 29-32. So there was no reason in the world for the exclusiveness which the disciples of Christ manifested. What Simeon knew they might all have known. For through the prophet Isaiah the Lord had said of Christ, "I have put My Spirit upon Him; and He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles," and had said that He was to be given "for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house." Isa. xliii. 1, 6, 7.

In the presence of His disciples Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." John viii. 12. To them, together with the assembled multitudes, He said, "Ye are the light of the world." Matt. v. 14. This shows the position that He wishes His people to occupy. And this is what He designed them to be from the beginning. The disciples might have known and ought to have known, that the mission of the Gospel was to the whole world. "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. And when was Christ given? "Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot; who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you." 1 Peter i. 18-20. God changes not; therefore from the beginning, and all the time, He has been working for the salvation of the whole world. Ever since the fall it has been as true as it is now, that Christ "is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." 1 John ii. 2.

Take the instance in which to the superficial reader Jesus seemed to be the most indifferent to suffering, and regardless of any but the Jews. "Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto Him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, Thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But He answered her not a word. And His disciples came and besought Him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But He answered, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Matt. xv. 21-24. Yet He granted the woman's request, and healed her daughter, thus showing that when He said, "I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," He did not mean that He was not sent to every one that would believe on Him. By her faith the woman showed that she was one of the house of Israel. The fact that Jesus granted her request should have taught the disciples that He was not exclusive in His work.

All this is only a beginning of the evidence that from the first God's plan has been the same. When Peter went to Cornelius, and, after hearing the whole story of how God had brought him there, he said, "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but to every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him." Acts x. 34, 35. This was the first time that Peter had perceived that truth, but it was not a new thing. God did not at that hour cease to be a respecter of persons.

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He had never been one. God was at that time just what He had always been. And thus it will be that before the throne of God will stand at last a multitude "of all nations and kindreds, and tongues." Rev. vii. 9. The closing message of the Gospel, which is "to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people" (Rev. xiv. 6), is but the last note of the song which was begun in Eden, after the fall, and which the angels echoed to the shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem. As Christ was sent that the world through Him might be saved, so are His disciples sent to all the world; not aside from the Master, but together with Him for the assurance is, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

"Evolution and the Gospel" The Present Truth 9, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

Years ago, when the subject of evolution began to be generally discussed, the prevailing idea was that it was wholly an infidel scheme in opposition to the Bible. Now, however, things have greatly changed, and we find that evolution is believed and defended by the greater number of religious teachers, and is regarded as an essential part of religion. Indeed, the minister who does not believe in evolution to some extent, is considered greatly behind the times. They feel that it would be dangerous to their reputation as scholars, if they should not agree with the men who have given their whole lives to the study of science.

Besides, it is claimed that no mere "layman" has any right to express an opinion upon matters purely scientific. The lordly position is taken that the dictum of "scientists" ought to be received without question by common men. But as evolution has to deal with the very fundamental teachings of the Bible, that is the same as saying that none but a privileged class may form a just opinion on all matters of faith. This is the very spirit of the Papacy, which will not allow that common people can decide matters of faith for themselves, but that they must accept the decision of their leaders. But this is a thing that God never designed that any man should do. No man on earth has a right to assume the control of another man's judgment and conscience, and no man has any right to allow another man to so control him.

"The head of every man is Christ." 1 Cor. xi. 8. The promise of the new covenant is, "They shall all know Me, from the least to the greatest." Heb. viii. 11. No man on earth is or ever was wise enough and good enough to stand in the place of Christ to any other man; and no man on earth is so poor and uneducated that he needs another man to stand between him and the Lord, to interpret the will of God to him.

When Christ was on earth, "the common people heard him gladly," for the reason that they could understand Him. Even the children pressed around Him to catch the gracious words that came from His lips. Those same words are in the Scriptures. In them Christ is speaking to the humble, believing soul as clearly and as plainly as when He was in Judea. The Bible is the living word of the living God. It is able to make a man "wise unto salvation;" to make him "perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." And it reveals Christ, who is "the fulness of God." Therefore it is a complete revelation, and perfectly adapted to all time. It is inexhaustible.

Now while it is true that the ordinary man cannot follow the scientists through all the mazes of argument by which they reach their conclusions, and it is fortunate that he cannot, it is true that he can take those conclusions when they are stated in plain English, and by comparing them with the Bible can tell whether or not they are true. If this were not true, then there would be no other alternative but an infallible Pope. For it is evident that the people cannot trust every man who may want to teach them. Scientific teachers, like purely religious teachers, differ greatly, and so there must be an infallible teacher to decide among them. But the Lord has provided for this, not in the person of any man, but in the Holy Spirit, which is freely given to all who believe. Thus no man is left to follow blindly the dictum of some other man.

AUTHORITATIVE STATEMENTS OF EVOLUTION

In the month of April, Professor Henry Drummond delivered a course of lectures in Boston, U.S.A., before the Lowell Institute of that city, taking the Evolution of Man as his subject. Those lectures were quite fully reported in the current numbers of the British Weekly, from which we shall quote. Professor Drummond is a religious teacher of prominence, and is also a teacher of science, so that in his utterance we have the latest and best theories of evolution from a religious point of view. Let the reader decide whether it is possible for a man to be a believer in the theory of evolution and a believer in the Bible at the same time.

The Professor began his first lecture by saying that he proposed to introduce his hearers to "a few of the more recent facts bearing upon the account of man." That when the evolutionist speaks of the "ascent of man," he refers to the man spiritually as well as physically, is shown by the following statement concerning man:-

"Should his pedigree prove to be related in undreamed-of ways to that of all other things in nature, 'all other things' have that to gain by the alliance, which philosophy and theology have often wished to dower them with, but could never lawfully do. Every step in the proof of the oneness in an evolutionary process of this Divine humanity of ours, with all lower things in nature, is a step in the proof of the Divinity of all lower things. If evolution can be proved to include man, the whole scheme of nature from that moment assumes a new significance. The beginning can then be interpreted from the end, and the end from the beginning. All that is found in the product must be put into the process."

This is in direct contradiction of the Bible, which declares that "God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions." Eccl. vii. 29. These "inventions" are not the discoveries of good things, but the products of the "inventors of evil things," (Rom. i. 30,) on which the Lord takes vengeance. Ps. xcix. 8. Evolution speaks of man as ascending; the Bible speaks of him as having fallen. Which is true? And remember that evolution is entirely independent of faith. It applies to all men and to all things alike. So that while the Bible teaches that men have fallen, and that only through faith in Christ can they rise, evolution teaches that man has never fallen, but has always been ascending.

Evolution, however, discounts the Bible entirely. If, as Professor Drummond says, "the beginning must be interpreted from the end, not the end from the beginning," then the record of the creation and fall of man, as related in Genesis, is of no use to us. According to evolution, therefore, even as set forth by a professed Christian teacher, the Bible is not a guide to us, but is to be interpreted by human science. In that case, there would be really no need for the Bible, since the science which interpreted the Bible must be amply sufficient of itself, and the study of the Bible would become merely an unnecessary pastime.

Take the above statement, that "all that is found in the product must be put into the process," and put it with the following: "Men begin to see undeviating ethical purpose in this world, a tide, than from eternity has never turned, making for perfectness. In that vast procession of Nature, that vision of all things from the first of time, moving from low to high, from incompleteness to completeness, from imperfection to perfection, the moral nature recognises in all its height and depth the eternal claim upon itself." What do they teach? This, that man is his own saviour. Not only that, but that every man will be saved; evolution is universalism. Still more, they teach that everything that is in all men is good; for if there is from

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the beginning a steady tide working in all nature, making for perfectness, and all that is in the product must be put into the process, then it follows that perfectness has been in all men from the very beginning. That is just what evolution means,-an unfolding. Therefore all that the Bible says is evil in man, evolution says is only undeveloped good; and that is simply the teaching of Spiritualism. So evolution is Spiritualism. But let us note further.

Mr. Drummond says:-

"The supreme message of Science to this age is that all Nature is on the side of the man who tries to rise. Evolution, development, progress are not only on her programme, these are her programmes. For all things are rising, all worlds, all planets, all stars and suns. An ascending energy is in the universe, and the whole moves on with one mighty idea and anticipation. The aspiration in the human mind and heart is but the evolutionary tendency of the universe becoming conscious. Darwin's great discovery, or the discovery which he brought into prominence, is the same as Galileo's-that the world moves. The Italian prophet said it moves from west to east; the English philosopher said it moves from low to high. And this is the latest and most splendid contribution of Science to the faith of the world."

With the above, contrast the following declarations of men who spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost; "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." Heb. i. 10-12.

"For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth together in pain until now." Rom. viii. 20-22.

"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken away." Isa. lxiv. 6.

Immediately after the last quotation from Professor Drummond, that the discovery of evolution-the movement from low to high-come the following words: "The discovery of a second motion in the earth has come into the world of thought only in time to save the world from despair."

What does that mean? It can mean nothing but that the Gospel, which has been in the world for ages, gives man no hope, but on the contrary has plunged the race into despair. The Gospel provides a perfect salvation for all, if they will accept it; yet a professed Christian says that evolution, which means the salvation of all in spite of themselves, is the only thing that stands between man and despair. Can there be any doubt that evolution is only one manifestation of antichrist?

Which shall we take as a basis for our faith-the "latest contribution of Science," or the word of the Lord?

WHAT IS MAN?

"And God said, Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness; and let them have 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 face of the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them." Gen. i. 26, 27. "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. "For Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and has crowned him with glory and honour." Ps. viii. 5. The Revision has it, "Thou hast made him but little lower than God." This is what the Lord says; what does evolution say? Read the following:-

"Nature husbands all it gains. A momentum won is never lost. Each platform reached by the human embryo in its upward course represents the embryo of some lower animal which in some mysterious way has played part in the pedigree of the human race, which may itself long since have disappeared, from off the earth, but is now and for ever built into the inmost being of man. These lower animals, each in its successive stage, have stopped short in their development; man has gone on."

Why this contradiction should occur in evolution; why the dog and the monkey should not go on developing into men, and finally into gods, the evolutionists do not explain. But read farther:-

"The single cell, the first definite stage which the human embryo attains, is still the adult form of countless millions both of animals and plants. Just as in modern America the millionaire's mansion-the evolved form-is surrounded by labourers' cottages,-the simple form,-so in Nature, living side by side with the many celled higher animals, is an immense democracy of unicellular artisans. These simple cells are perfect living things. The earth, the water, and the air, teem with them everywhere. They move, they eat, they reproduce their like. But one thing they do not do-they do not rise. These organisms have, as it were stopped short in the ascent of life. And long as evolution has worked upon the earth, the vast numerical majority of plants and animals are still at this low stage of being. So minute are some of these forms, that if their one-roomed huts were arranged in a row, it would take twelve thousand to form a street a single inch in length. . . . Yet as there was a period in human history when none but cave-dwellers lived in Europe, so there was a time when the highest forms of life upon the globe were these microscopic beings. It is a general scientific fact, however, that over the graves of these myriad aspirants the Animal Man has risen."

If there were any such thing as the evolution of which the Professor speaks, then these microscopic beings would in turn become men, just the same as those others did in the ages past. The acknowledged fact that the microscopic forms "do not rise," should be sufficient to show the baselessness of the whole evolution fabric.

Indeed, Professor Drummond, for all of his positiveness in regard to evolution, admits that "part of this embryological argument is at present founded on analogy," and still further, that "evolution is after all a vision." It is a creature of the imagination. The Professor says that "No one asks more of evolution at present than permission to use it as a working theory. Without some hypothesis no work can ever be done." But the work that is done with this hypothesis is only evil. A fact is surely more valuable for working than an hypothesis; and the Bible furnishes us with facts, with which righteousness may be worked.

THE ORIGIN OF EVIL

The Bible says that "by one man sin came into the world, and death by sin." Rom. v. 12. What does evolution say?

Let it be remembered that the argument is that man has in his structure the characteristics of all the lower animals out of which he has been evolved. Contrary to the common supposition, however, Professor Drummond says that "it is not to be supposed that man is descended from any existing ape." In fact, the Professor is impartial in his distribution of honours, and gives all the animals a chance. The fishes come in also, the fact that in man there is a connection between the ear and the throat being evidence to his mind that man has brought the remnants of gills as a legacy from his fish ancestors. With this statement the reader can understand what follows on the problem of evil:-

"If man inherits the gill slits of a shark, is it unscientific to expect that he will also inherit the spirit of a shark? . . . If man inherits the head of a tiger or a bear, shall not some blood of the tiger or the bear run in his veins? and if the temptation is to let these loose in his family life, are the means for helping him to check it a thing of laughter? It is not to be supposed that his animal past has left nothing more in man than material relics. A father leaves his son

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his money, his home, his business, his material likeness, it may be, and physical constitution. But these are nothing. His chief legacy is his mind and soul. What mind and soul, what disposition and nature an animal has, that it has partly left in man."

Does the reader detect any lack of harmony between this statement and that of the Scripture? The Bible tells us that the serpent, "which is the devil and Satan," beguiled Eve, and that she induced Adam to partake of the forbidden fruit. Adam was not deceived, therefore his was the greater sin. Thus "by one man sin came into the world." But evolution, according to the latest and best exposition, tells us that sin came into the world of human beings through all the lower animals. Which will the reader accept?

Do you think that this is not a very serious matter, after all? Then consider the further statement that "the problem really is not how sin came into the world, but how to get it out," and the statement that if science can even in part diagnose the disease, that is a step toward removing it. "If we saw how vestiges disappeared in the animal world, that knowledge might accelerate the disappearance of evil."

Thus we see that the Gospel is wholly ignored as a means of salvation. The disappearance of evil becomes simply a matter of training and education and environment. But the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ has been set forth for the remission-the sending away-of sin. It is by faith, and not simply by education and training. "There is none other name under heaven given among risen, whereby we must be saved." Acts. iv. 12. It is not possible for a man to be an evolutionist and at the same time believe the Bible. The very name contradicts the Bible narrative of the fall of man, and thereby denies the necessity for the Gospel. Our views on evolution will doubtless be thought very antiquated. That may be the case; we shall not stop to dispute it, but simply to ask a candid decision of the question as to whether evolution does not contradict the Bible.

THE CHARGE AGAINST EVOLUTION

The charge is this: that it is one of the devil's means of undermining the Gospel, or rather to undermine the sense of need of the Gospel, on the part of men. The only result of its teachings can be an increase of wickedness. And this danger is augmented by the fact that so many men in high position in the church have taken up with it.

How does it tend to evil? In this way: As noted above, it teaches that everything naturally tends to rise. It teaches that the perfection which is sure to be seen at the last, exists in every man; so that everything in man is really good, and that evil is only undeveloped good. Therefore there cannot possibly be any incentive on the part of those who are consistent in their belief of evolution, to lay hold of the Gospel of Christ.

Moreover evolution if true would do away with the possibility of any Judgment day, or of any punishment for sin. For just as the jelly-fish is not to blame for being a jelly-fish, and the undeveloped cell is not to blame for being only a cell, so, if evolution were true, the man who is all deformed by evil habits is not to be held responsible for them. This is the direct teaching of Spiritualism, which is only evolution under another name.

Evolution, by directly contradicting the Bible, lessens its hold upon men; indeed, it cuts them entirely loose from it. Thus they have no safeguard against sin; for the word of God hidden in the heart is the only protection against sin. The record of the fall of man, as given in the Bible, being declared untrue, the necessity for the sacrifice of Christ is also denied, and thus the entire Gospel is cast aside as a myth. The Bible teaches that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believes; but evolution teaches that it itself is the power of nature unto salvation of every one, whether he believes or not.

It virtually teaches that whatever is is right. Evolution being the law of nature, and all the good that can ever be developed in man, being in him all the time, it follows, as Spiritualists tell us, that all a man has to do is to follow the inclinations of his own heart. But "out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness; all these evil things come from within, and defile the man." Mark vii. 21-23. Therefore the man who with all his heart believes in the theory of evolution will act out all the evil that Satan can suggest to him. Surely, "He that trusteth his own heart is a fool."

At a recent meeting of the English Church Union a resolution was adopted, affirming that no settlement of the question of religious teaching in Board Schools could be acquiesced in which did not "guarantee to the children of members of the Church of England compelled to attend such schools, the teaching, by members of that Church, of the articles of the Christian faith, as contained in the Apostles' Creed, and of their duty to God and their neighbour, as summed up in the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments; and does not admit of similar provision for the religious instruction of the children of members of other religious bodies in all cases where their parents desire it."

It is strange that the clergy who are so persistent in demanding that religion shall be taught in the Board Schools, do not use a little more caution, lest they find their occupation gone. For it may occur to some that there is no use for the clergy when religion is taught daily by others in the schools. Religion ought to be taught every day, but only in the church and the home.

GOD'S ANSWER TO MAN'S FOOLISH BOASTING

In spite of the contradictions in the theory of evolution, and the acknowledgement that it is at best only a vision, we are gravely told that "Evolution is seen to be little more than the story of creation, as told by those who know it best." That is either to deny the inspiration of the Bible, or else to claim that modern "scientists" know more about the story of creation than the Lord Himself! To all this wise folly the words of the Lord, as recorded in Job, chapters xxxviii., xxxix., and xl., are strikingly applicable:-

"Who is this that darkeneth counsel

By words without knowledge?

Gird up now thy loins like a man;

For I will demand of thee, and declare thou

unto Me,

Where wast thou when I laid the foundations

of the earth?

Declare if thou hast understanding.

Who determined the measures thereof, if thou

knowest ?

Or who stretched the line upon it?

Whereupon were 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?

Or who shut up the sea with doors,

When it brake forth as if it had issued out of

the womb;

When I made the cloud the garment thereof,

And thick darkness a swaddling hand for it,

And prescribed for it My decree,

And set bars and doors,

And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no

further;

And here shall thy proud waves be stayed?

Hast thou commanded the morning since the

days began,

And caused the dayspring to know its place

That it might take hold of the ends of the

earth,

And the wicked be shaken out of it?"

"Have the gates of death been revealed unto

thee?

Or hast thou seen the gates of the shadow of

death?

Hast thou comprehended the breadth of the

earth?

Declare, if thou knowest it all.

Where is the way to the dwelling of light,

And as for the darkness, where is the place

thereof;

That thou shouldst take it to the bound thereof,

And that thou shouldst discern the paths to

the house thereof?

Doubtless, thou knowest, for thou wast then

born,

And the number of thy days is great!"

"Canst thou bind the cluster of the Pleiades,

Or loose the bands of Orion?

Canst thou lead forth the Mazzaruth in their

season?

Canst then guide the bear with her

Knowest thou the ordinances of the heavens?

Canst thou establish the dominion thereof in

the earth?

Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds,

That abundance of waters may cover thee?

Canst thou send forth lightnings, that they

may go,

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And say unto thee, Here we are?

Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts?

Or who hath given understanding to the mind?

Who can number the clouds by wisdom?

Or who can pour out the bottles of heaven,

When the dust runneth into a mass,

And the clouds cleave fast together?"

"Hast thou given the host his might?

Hast thou clothed his neck with the quivering

mane?"

Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom,

And stretch her wings toward the south?

Doth the eagle mount up at thy command,

And make her nest on high?"

"Gird up thy loins now like a man

I will demand of thee and declare then unto

Me,

Wilt thou even disannul My judgment?

Wilt thou condemn Me, that thou mayest be

justified?

Or hast thou an arm like God?

And canst thou thunder with a voice like Him?

Deck thyself now with excellency and dignity;

And array thyself with honour and majesty.

Pour forth too overflowing of thine anger:

And look upon every one that is proud, and

abase him.

Look on every one that is proud, and bring

him low;

And tread down the wicked where they stand.

Hide them in the dust together;

Bind their faces in the hidden place.

Then will I confess of thee

That thine own right hand can save thee."

"Nature of the Boycott" The Present Truth 9, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

The word "boycott" is of recent origin. It was introduced into Ireland in 1880, and soon became, like the practice, common throughout the English-speaking world. It is defined as "an organised attempt to coerce a person or party into compliance with some demand by combining to abstain, and compel others to abstain, from having any business or social relations with him or it; an organised persecution of a person or company, as a means of coercion or intimidation, or of retaliation for some act, or refusal to act in a particular way." The word is derived from the name of Captain Boycott, upon whom the persecution was perpetrated.

The verb is thus defined: "To combine (a) in refusing to work for, buy from, sell to, give assistance to, or have any kind of dealings with, and (b) in preventing others from working for, buying from, the selling to, assisting, or having any kind of dealings with (a person or company), on account of political or other differences, or of disagreements in business matters, or as a means of inflicting punishment, or of coercing or intimidating."

Boycotting has now become so common, and the word is so well-known, that is not necessary to define it; for there is nobody who has not seen instances of it. We have given the definition in order that the reader might more clearly see the identity between it and the more ancient forms. For although the word is of such recent origin, the thing itself is not new, it may be noticed, in passing, that to boycott is about the same thing as "to send to Coventry," which from old times has been common principally among school-boys. The thing itself is really as old as sin, of which it is one of the meanest examples.

The Saviour said, "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets." Matt. vii. 12. He said 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. 44, 45. Again He said, through His chosen Apostle, "Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath; for it is written, Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." Rom. vii. 19-21. "Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" 1 John iii. 17.

From these texts it will be seen that the boycott, or the same thing under another name, is directly contrary to the law of God, and the Gospel; that men who are the children of God and who have His love dwelling in them can engage in it; for it is as directly contrary to God as is possible for anything to be. The boycott, therefore, under whatever name it goes, is something that proceeds directly from the devil. If any think that this is strong language, let them read the Bible and see if they can find any warrant in the Gospel for the boycott. If they cannot, and indeed they cannot, then it is sin; "and he that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning." 1 John iii. 8. "If ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work." James iii. 14-16.

RELIGIOUS BOYCOTTS

Although in modern times the boycott has been used more frequently in connection with political and business matters, it originated in religious differences. We can mention only a few instances. In the fourth century the Trinitarian controversy arose in Alexandria. Arius, a presbyter of that city, held views contrary to those held by Alexander, the bishop of the city. It is perhaps safe to say that neither party was correct, since the controversy was over the nature of God, which cannot be defined by man. But that is a matter that does not affect our subject. Following is a portion of a letter that Alexander wrote to his brother bishops:-

"I beseech you, beloved brethren, to avoid those who have thus dared to act against Christ, who have publicly held up the Christian religion to be to ridicule, and have eagerly sought to make a display before judicial tribunals, and who have endeavoured to excite a persecution against us, at a period of the most entire peace, and who have enervated the most unspeakable mystery of the generation of Christ. Unite unanimously in opposition to them, as some of our fellow-ministers have already done."

It may not be amiss to note here that opposition to Christ was not the sole, nor by any means the greatest, offence of the Arian party, in the eyes of Alexander. In the same letter in which he urged his fellow-ministers to boycott them, he gave this as the sum of their offence: "They not only set their battle in array against the Divinity of Christ, but ungratefully insult us." The doctrinal views held by the dissenters might have been tolerated; but when by the persistent advocacy of them they insulted the bishops, the bounds of endurance were passed. That is the real secret of all the religious persecution that has ever been practiced. Compare Alexander's statement with that quoted in our last number from the Advance in which the resolution to open the gate of the World's Fair on Sunday was called a "defiant action," not a defiance of God, but a "stupid defiance of the decent opinion of mankind."

In course of time the views held by Arius and his friends were condemned by the Council of Nice, which was convened and supported by the Emperor Constantine, and was therefore able to speak with "authority." Sozomen says:-

"The Emperor punished Arius with exile, and dispatched edicts to the bishops and people of every country, denouncing him and his adherents as ungodly, and commanding that their books should be destroyed, in order that no remembrance of him or of the doctrine which he had broached might remain, whoever should be found secreting his writings and who should not burn them immediately on the accusation should undergo the penalty of death, and suffer capital punishment. The emperor wrote letters to every city against Arius and those who had received his doctrines.

"He threatened with punishment those who should venture to speak well of the exiled bishops, or to adopt their sentiments."

It will be seen that when any party can secure the aid of the government in their boycott, it can be made very effectual.

Coming down to later times, we find Charles the Fifth declared a general boycott against Martin Luther. Here is the substance of it:-

"The Almighty having confided to us

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for the defence of our holy faith more extensive dominion and rule than He hath given to any of our predecessors, we propose to employ all or part to preserve our holy empire from being polluted by any heresy."

"The Augustine Monk, Martin Luther, regardless of our exhortations, has madly attacked the holy Church, and attempted to destroy it by writings full of blasphemy. . . .

"We have therefore dismissed from our presence this Luther, whom all reasonable men count a madman, or possessed by the devil; and it is our intention that, so soon as the term of his safe-conduct is expired, effectual measures be forthwith taken to put a stop to his fury.

"For this end, and on pain of incurring the penalty of treason, we hereby forbid you to receive the said Luther from the moment the said term is expired, or to harbour, or to give him meat or drink, or by word or act, publicly or in private, to aid or abet him. We further enjoin you to seize, or cause him to be seized, wherever he may be, and to bring him before us without delay, or hold him in durance until you shall be informed how to deal with him, and have received the reward due to your co-operation in this holy work.

"As to his adherents, you are enjoined to seize upon them, putting them down, and confiscating their property."

The boycott, although under another name, has always been a favourite weapon of the Papacy. It first connected it with professed Christianity. It was Augustine who laid down the rule that has ever since been followed. In his treatise on the "Correction of the Donatists," he said, "It is indeed better (as no one ever could deny) that men should be led to worship God by teaching, than that they should be driven to it by fear of punishment or pain; but it does not follow that because the former course produces the better man, therefore these who do not yield to it should be neglected." And then he proceeds to argue from the Bible for persecution. He says, "Why therefore should not the church use force in compelling her lost sons to return, if the lost sons compelled others to their destruction?" That is to say, that whatever course is followed by wicked men ought to be followed by the church.

That force may rightly be used in matters of religion, is a cardinal doctrine of the Papacy, as is shown in the "Syllabus of Errors," issued by Pope Pius IX. the 24th section of which declares it to be an error to teach that "the church has not the power of availing herself of force, or any direct or indirect temporal power."

With all this before us, and this is only a suggestion of what might be presented, what shall be thought of the spirit manifested by the leading ministers and religious journals of the United States, and by many journals of England, in relation to the Sunday opening of the World's Fair? We quoted in the last number, the statement that "the Christian Endeavour Societies have declared a general boycott in the event of Sunday opening." The Chicago Advance (Congregationalist) says, "Secretary Baer of the Christian Endeavor Society states that thousands of members of the societies all over the country have not only declared their intention of staying away, but are earnestly working to extend such action. The United Society has not 'instituted a boycott,' as it has no authority or power to do so, but this is a widely prevailing sentiment among its members." It will be remembered also that the Evangelical Alliance of Boston and vicinity telegraphed the Government, asking that troops be called on to enforce Sunday closing.

AN IMAGE OF THE PAPACY

All this is in fulfilment of prophecy. In the thirteenth chapter of Revelation we have the Papacy represented as a beast, which exercises the power of the dragon, or Satan. "And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies." "And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them; and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues and nations." Rev. xiii. 5-7. That this beast is antichrist, is further shown by the fact that "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."

Then another beast is seen coming out, which exercises all the power of the first beast before him, or in his sight. This power says to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the first beast. "And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads; and 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. 11-17.

Here we see the declaration of a general boycott, and a boycott for a religious purpose. What is the mark the rejection of which causes the general boycott. It is the distinguishing characteristic of the Papacy. It was in the days of Constantine that the Papacy first took definite shape, in the union of Church and State. In the year 821 he issued an edict in favour of Sunday observance, of which "Chambers' Encyclopedia" says:-

"Unquestionably the first law, either in the ecclesiastical or civil, by which the sabbatical observance of that day is known to have been ordained, is the edict of Constantine, A.D. 321."

The original law was not a very strict one, as it gave country people full liberty to continue their agricultural operations on Sunday, requiring only city people and tradesmen to rest. It was not until several years later that this decree was passed at the synod of Laodicea:-

"Christians shall not Judaise and be idle on Saturday, but shall work on that day; but the Lord's day they shall especially honour, and, as being Christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day. If, however, they are found Judaising, they shall be shut out from Christ."

One testimony will be sufficient to show that this institution of Sunday is the special mark of the authority

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of the Catholic Church. In the "Catholic Christian Instructed," by the Right Reverend Richard, we find the following:-

"Q. What are the days which the Church commands to be kept holy, or as days of particular devotion?

"A. First, the Sunday, or Lord's day, which we observe by apostolical tradition instead of the Sabbath."

Then follow New Year's Day, Christmas day, Easter, etc.

"Q. What warrant have we for keeping the Sunday preferably to the ancient Sabbath, which was the Saturday?

"A. We have for it the authority of the Catholic Church and apostolic tradition.

"Q. Does the Scripture anywhere command the Sunday to be kept for the Sabbath?

"A. The Scripture commands us to hear the Church, and to hold fast the traditions of the apostles; but the Scripture does not in particular mention this change of the Sabbath."

"St. John speaks of the Lord's day, Rev. i. 10, but he does not tell us what day of the week this was, much less does he tell us that it was to take the place of the Sabbath ordained in the commandments. St. Luke also speaks of the disciples meeting together to break bread on the first day of the week, Acts xx. 7; and St. Paul, 1 Cor. xvi. 2, orders that on the first day of the week the Corinthians should lay by in store what they designed to bestow in charity on the faithful in Judea; but neither one nor the other tells us whether this first day of the week was to be henceforward the day of worship, and the Christian Sabbath; so that, in fact, the best authority we have for this ancient custom is the testimony of the Church. And therefore those who pretend to be such religious observers of the Sunday, whilst they take no notice of other festivals ordained by the same church authority, show that they act more by humour than by reason and religion; since Sundays and holidays all stand on the same foundation, viz., the ordinance of the Church."

Here we have the distinguishing mark of the Catholic Church. And true to the prophecy, we find professed Protestantism following directly in its steps, and enforcing its mark upon the people. We see already the indications of the decree that no man shall buy or sell save he who has the mark of the beast; and when the churches ask the government to call out troops to enforce the observance of Sunday, it is not difficult to foresee the decree that all who shall not observe the day which is the mark of the authority of the Papacy, shall be killed.

But all will not obey these decrees, no matter how severe the boycott declared. In these days the Gospel is to be proclaimed with greater power than ever before, calling upon all men to "fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of judgment is come; and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters," (Rev. xiv. 6, 7) the special memorial of which is the seventh day, which "is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." In this final conflict the call is, "Who is on the Lord's side?"

"The State and the Individual" The Present Truth 9, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

The Hon. Auberon Herbert, recently addressed a meeting of the Oxford University Social Ethical Society, at St. John's College, on the subject of "The True Relation of the State to the Individual" He said that the question was this, "Is the individual to exist for the State, or is the State to exist for the individual?" To this he replied in words, some of which follow, which are worthy of careful consideration:-

"If they said the State was supreme over the individual what did they exactly mean? They meant that they did not belong to themselves, but belonged body and soul to a crowd outside them, which they might like or dislike, and with which they might agree or disagree. If, on the other hand, they believed in individual supremacy they said that each person belonged to himself. Most people, however, tried to find some middle course and to divide supremacy between the two claimants, but the attempt was a failure.

"Self-ownership necessarily implied the widest possible liberty and the freest use of faculties, and also the right of self defence as regarded the rights vested in him. This right was delegated to a body conveniently called the State, and so long as the State employed force only to guarantee the sovereignty of the individual, and to repel the aggressive force that threatened it, so long was it acting within its true powers, but whenever it passed beyond the limit and exercised power for any other purpose, it was using powers which it could not rightfully possess, because there existed no one competent to clothe it with those powers. In fact nine-tenths of what the State took on itself to do at present was immorally done, nine-tenths of its power was usurped.

"As to the rights of property, free trade, and free contract, there was only one system which satisfied self-ownership and was equal for all. The system was the open market-the market in which tariffs, customs, taxes, rates, official interference and inspections, professional monopolies, trade corners, trade union restrictions, were things unknown."

But State interference in all these private matters is of trifling importance compared with its interference in religious affairs, presuming to prescribe the forms of religion that the individual shall adopt. It is a fact scarcely ever recognised, that the principle that the State has to do with a man's religion, is at the bottom of all its usurped authority. All the efforts of socialists, and labour reformers of every class, to better the condition of the individual, will be in vain so long as the root of oppression remains. There can be no civil liberty where the State either controls the church or is controlled by the church.

"Religious Teaching in Public Schools" The Present Truth 9, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

The following, which is a portion of an editorial in the London Daily Chronicle, relating to the controversy before the London School Board, contains some sound principles on the subject of religion and the State. Its statement that the list of memorialists for religious teaching in the schools "reeks of Toryism and aristocracy," is worth noting; for it is in keeping with the principle of union of Church and State, which is despotism. Union of Church and State arises from the idea that none but a favoured few have any rights:-

"The Sacred Waters of India" The Present Truth 9, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

What a strange place to go to pray! Why do they do it?

If you were in India, you would see many scenes like this, and once a year you would see thousands and thousands of people coming from every direction along the hot, dusty roads toward certain rivers and wells. Some travel for many miles on foot until they are well-nigh ready to die with the heat and fatigue.

Why are they so anxious to visit these particular rivers?

Have they no water nearer home?

They have water at home, but none like this water, they are told. There false guide-books declare that the sight, the name, or the touch of the river Ganges takes away all sin or naughtiness, however bad; that thinking of the Ganges when at a distance, is sufficient to remove the taint of sins; but that bathing in it has blessings more than any one can imagine.

No wonder, then, that the poor Indians are so willing to leave their work and home and everything and make long pilgrimages, if they only can see this wonderful stream and bathe in its sacred waters.

If you know of a fountain where you could really wash away every unkind word that you have spoken, and every hateful thing that you have done, would you not also gladly go to any trouble to reach it?

Well, the Lord says that there is such a fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, where every naughty thing that you have ever done can be washed away, but there is only one such fountain, and it is not the River Ganges or any other river in India.

Satan knows where the real cleansing fountain is, but he hates people, and wants them to be destroyed by sin, so he sends them false guide-books and tries to lead them around some other way to fountains and rivers that can do them no good, some of which are too filthy to cleanse even their hands and faces. How sad it is to see people travel for hundreds and hundreds of miles to have their sins washed away, and then go back just as sinful, just as unsanctified, and just as thirsty as when they came. They have indeed "forsaken the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water."

"When a pilgrim first comes to Allababad, he sits down on the bank of the Ganges, and has his head shaved, holding it over the water, so that every hair may fall into it; and he believes that for every single hair he will get a million years in heaven."

The Hindus are also taught to believe that whoever dies in that stream is sure of future happiness. Many sick people, therefore, are brought there to die. As soon as it is thought that a man is too ill to get well, he is carried down to the river, laid on the ground so that the sacred water may touch his feet; his mouth is filled with mud out of the stream, and then he is left alone to die, with no food, no drink, no medicine! A great many are thus forced to die of hunger, for they are not always so ill as their friends suppose.

"Why don't they take them home again? you will ask. Because if a man gets better after he has been taken to the river, his friends say it must be because he was so wicked the gods would not have him, so none of his relatives, not even his mother or his little boys or girls would ever touch him again, and he would have to live by himself all his life and be a beggar, and everyone would think it a disgrace to have anything to do with him." "And this is all the comfort and help that the Hindu religion can give to the dying soul." It is said that one thousand of these unhappy deaths take place every day in India!

But India is such a large country that not all of the poor people in the far south can afford to travel the thousand miles or more to reach the Ganges. They therefore have their own sacred streams and fountains which, although not thought so sacred as the Ganges, are yet thought to have power to cleanse from sin.

One Brahmin, however, not satisfied with these, worked for years, spending all his money and much that he begged from others, in digging a tank where they might have the sacred Ganges water. Although the river itself was more than 1,100 miles away the sacred book said that if one should dig deep down in that certain place he would find a spring into which the Ganges flowed. Poor misguided soul! If he had only sooner known of the true Guide-Book he might have used his money and strength in a way that would have done him more good, for after the tank was all finished he found that its water could not wash away a single sin!

In the Golden Temple at Benares is a well called the Well of Knowledge. It is full of dead flowers and rice mixed with Ganges water; the flowers and rice being the offerings put in by those who have come there to worship. "A dreadful smell is caused by all these dead leaves and the stagnant water; and yet a Hindu will give a great deal of money,

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if he has it, to be allowed to have just one teaspoonful of that water; he thinks it so very holy."

Besides all the sacred tanks and wells, that have been made in different parts of India, Ganges water is taken by carriers around the country and sold to those who wish it. Then those who go to the Ganges themselves, carry some of the water home for their friends. "It is used to purify people who have been defiled, it is sprinkled on the bride and bridegroom at a wedding, and on the dead."

Women as well as men bathe in the Ganges. Of course a high-caste lady must not be seen by a man outside of her own family, so she is shut up tightly in her palky, and carried to the river. She does not get out even when she reaches the river, but is dipped in the water, she and her palky together. (As the bottom of the palky is full of holes the water can easily get into it.) Then she is carried back home without so much as an opportunity to put on dry clothes.

If a Christian touches a Hindu after he has been bathing in the Ganges, all the good is undone, and he must either go without the good, or go back and bathe again.

But what does the good amount to? "An old Hindu named Moses, said he had worshipped many idols, and dug into many wells, washed in many streams, drank even the water in which he had first washed a Brahmin's dirty feet. But nothing satisfied his soul; it was still unclean, and he thirsted still."

Bathing in the so-called sacred streams does no more good than bathing in any other water. Water will indeed cleanse from all outward stains and filth, but sin is in the secret chambers of the heart, and it has left such deep, poisonous stains there that no water on earth can take it away. The Lord Himself says that "though thou wash thee with niter, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity [sin] is marked before Me."

"The Only Fountain for Sin and Uncleanness" The Present Truth 9, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

It is necessary to have clean faces, clean hands, and clean bodies, and to have clean clothes and clean houses and clean gardens, for uncleanness of any kind brings disease and sometimes death. But the uncleanness of sin is worse yet, for it will always bring eternal death unless it is removed.

Have you ever disobeyed your father or your mother? Have you ever said unkind words, or acted selfishly, or thought or felt naughty things in your heart? The Lord says that every time you thought or acted thus, it left poisonous stains in your heart that will destroy you forever unless you have them all washed away. You need to be cleansed from sin as much as do the people of India. Suppose you should lay this paper away and never get another mark on it, would that take away the marks that are already upon it? Suppose you should never make another sin stain on your heart, would that take away the sin stains that you have already made there? No, even though you should never do another naughty thing, your heart must be cleansed from the sins already in it, or they will destroy you.

Jesus knew that you never could wash the stains out with water or anything else that you could find.

He knew that they must be washed away or you would perish. He loved you. He could not bear the thought of seeing you destroyed. He knew that He alone could do it for you, that He only could open a fountain that would cleanse you. But it would cost Him His very life if He did it. Jesus loved you so that He willingly suffered the shameful death that the fountain might be opened where you could be cleansed. Oh, what love!

Where is the fountain? In Him is the fountain of life.

Who will cleanse you? "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

With what will He cleanse you? "And the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin."

Can His blood cleanse from very bad sins? "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

How much will it cost? "Ho, everyone 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."

Is there room enough for all? "And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely."

Does He invite the children? "Suffer the little children to come, and forbid them not."

How far away is He? "Behold I stand at the door and knock."

When will He cleanse you? "If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him."

How only can you take darkness out of a room? By bringing a light in.

Why does Jesus' coming into our hearts drive out the dark stains of sin? "I am the light of the world."

Dear child, will you let Him in? If you are sorry for your naughty ways, tell Jesus, and ask Him to forgive you and come into your heart. He is the only fountain of cleansing, of righteousness, of life, of happiness.

Sin brings eternal death, but righteousness springs eternal life. Therefore as long as you let Jesus dwell with you you are safe, for His own purity and righteousness drive out your sins, he has promised to come in if you ask Him to, really wanting to give up your ways and take His ways. Then you must believe that He does come in and that He does cleanse away your sins, as soon as you believe, it is done.

You cannot see Him now with your eyes, but you can feel His sweet, gentle Spirit helping you to do right, and by and by, if you do not grieve Him away, you shall see Him coming in the clouds of heaven to take you to His beautiful home.

"Protection Against the Sun's Rays" The Present Truth 9, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

Now that the season of hot weather has come again, the following, which we clip from the China Mail, will be of interest. We present it just as we found it, without vouching for its value. It is a simple experiment, however, and is worth a trial by those who are much exposed to the direct rays of the sun:-

"A correspondent writes to the Lahore paper the following letter: 'With reference to the protective effect of certain colours against the sun's rays, years ago, on my way out to India the second time having already been invalided home once from the effects of the sun, it occurred to me to try the photographer's plan. I reasoned to myself that since no one ever got sunstroke or sun fever from exposure to a dark source of heat or even to one which, though luminous, possessed no great degree of chemical energy, the furnaces in the arsenal for example, it could not be the heat rays therefore which injured one, but must be the chemical ones only. If, therefore, one treated one's own body as the photographer treats his plates and enveloped oneself in yellow or dark red, one ought to be practically secure, and since the photographer lined the inside of his tents and belongings with yellow it was obviously immaterial whether one wore the yellow inside or out. I had my hats and coats lined with yellow, and with most satisfactory results, for during five years and with extreme exposure never once did the yellow lining fail me, but every time that either through carelessness or over confidence, I forgot the pre-caution a very short exposure sufficed to send me down with the usual sun-fever. Many friends tried the plan, and all with the same satisfactory results.'"

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

-A general strike of Bohemian miners has taken place.

-Three hundred and seventeen deaths from cholera occurred at Mecca from the 18th to the 16th instant.

-Ten years ago the capital invested in the railways of the United Kingdom amounted to £750,000,000; now it is £1,000,000,000.

-A dynamite bomb was exploded on the 12th near the royal palace in Madrid. The buildings were shaken, but not seriously injured.

-An immense cargo of China tea is on tghe way to England from Woo Sung. A vessel left there a few days ago with 8,280,000 lbs. on board.

-It is computed that there are in the Metropolis some 50,000 families in such a miserable plight that each family has only one room to live in.

-Over 10,000 people, the great majority of whom are negroes, have been rendered homeless by the inundations that have occurred in Louisiana, U.S.A.

-In Greater London there are consumed every year about 45,000,000 gallons of malt liquor, 8,000,000 gallons of wine, and 4,500,000 gallons of ardent spirits.

-Russia is actively pushing forward her naval armament. A second and a third cruiser of the Rurik type are to be built, each having 14,600 tons displacement.

-It is reported that the Queen of Hawaii has formally abdicated. If the report be correct, the United States Government will annex the islands, and grant the ex-Queen a quarterly allowance.

-The emigration of Jews from the Baltic provinces to America continues to increase. Some fifty Jewish families have left their homes in Riga during the past few days in order to take up their abode in the New World.

-In seconding Mr. Cremer's motion in the House of Commons. in favour of arbitration with the United States, Sir John Lubbock declared that one-third of the national expenditure of England is devoted to payment for past wars, another third in preparation for future wars, while the last third alone is available for purposes of Government.

-It is stated that of the 750,000 voters in Belgium, more than one-fourth are proprietors, managers, or agents of drinking saloons. The remainder are probably patrons.

-Officers of the Fishmongers' Company seized at Billingsgate last month over 63 tons of fish as unfit for food. It would be interesting to know how much that was unfit for food was not seized, but was eaten.

-The municipal election in Rome last week resulted in a Catholic triumph, the Catholic Church candidates being nearly everywhere successful. This, as a matter of course, has caused great satisfaction at the Vatican.

-Last year New York City paid for its school bill $4,000,000, for its amusement bill $7,000,000, and for its drink bill $60,000,000. The worst of it is that New York doubtless presents a fair average with other large cities.

-France has decided to spend more money on her navy. In the French Naval estimates for 1894 the proposed expenditure is 267,571,528 francs, being an increase of some 12,000,000 francs upon the votes of the present year.

-A Belgian glass-blower, working at Jeannette, Pennsylvania, has blown a cylinder of window-glass, from which was cut a sheet clear of blemishes 59in. by 92in. It is said to be the largest cylinder of window glass ever blown.

-The Financial World says that the richest man in the world is Han Quay, a Chinese banker, worth the almost inconceivable sum of 1,800,000,000 dollars. A great number of the largest banks in the Chinese Empire are believed to be under his control.

-The gifts from individuals and religious orders to the Pope during his episcopal jubilee celebrations amounted to 5,600,000 francs, of which the Duke of Norfolk gave 1,000,000 francs. The various pilgrims in their corporate capacity gave 3,460,000 francs.

-Prayers for rain have become quite general in the churches of East and Mid Kent, where the drought is very severe. A Canterbury correspondent of the Chronicle states that in one district in the Isle of Thanet more than 400 acres have not been ploughed this season owing to the hardness of the soil, and where the seed has been got in it has either not germinated at all or the crops are miserably thin. The outlook for graziers is equally serious. To sell their stock at the present on remunerative prices would mean ruin, while the difficulty is to find keep for them. Cases are mentioned where in default of other sustanence sheep are devouring the nettle tops. A water famine is also being experienced in many high-lying districts, and supplies have at considerable expense to be carted long distances. At Stone Street, a few miles from Canterbury, the rain-water supplies are quite exhausted, and the inhabitants have to obtain their drinking water from ponds which are fast drying up.

-It is extremely difficult to import goods into Turkey, owing to the absurd Custom House regulations. Political, medical, and explosive, are the three heads under which objectionable articles are classed. "Chambers' Encyclopedia" was promptly confiscated as being political. A drum was treated in like manner, because it is a military instrument. A walking-stick was seized because it might be a dangerous weapon. Some aniline dyes had safely passed, when it occurred to the inspector to test them by fire. They crackled, like salt, and were forthwith declared exile site, and so were seized. A phonograph was seized as being "an instrument of a suspicions nature." The English Consul-General at Constantinople reports that Custom House difficulties are increasing. The Chronicle says: "These fresh examples of Turkish folly prompt afresh the wonder how long suet a country will continue to cumber the soil of Europe-how long it will be before the unspeakable one will be turned out 'bag and baggage,' in Mr. Gladstone's famous phrase, to his natural home in Asia?"

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

With the next number of the paper, which will be issued July 6, one week from the date of this paper, will begin the weekly publication of PRESENT TRUTH.

By a vote of 383 to 116 the Presbyterian General Assembly of the United States has reversed the decision of the New York Presbytery, which cleared Dr. C. A. Briggs of the charge of heresy. Dr. Briggs has therefore been suspended from the Presbyterian ministry.

A novel thing has occurred in Spain, being nothing less than a barristers' strike. It is one of the best things in the way of a strike that we ever heard of, and the whole world will owe the Spanish lawyers a debt of gratitude if they will only keep it up long enough to demonstrate the fact that they can very well be dispensed with.

The United States Court of Appeals has finally decided against the Sunday closing of the World's Fair. The reason given is that the Government has not sufficient capital invested in the Exhibition to support its claim to absolute jurisdiction, the court holding that the local administration has complete control of the Fair. The case may now be considered as permanently settled, as any further appeal would have to go to the United States Supreme Court, which does not meet until October, when the Fair will be over.

The Daily News, commenting on the Free Church Jubilee, put the matter of church and State union very truly and concisely, in the following paragraph:-

"If the Church is to know none but spiritual authorities, it must content itself with spiritual prerogatives and spiritual motives. It cannot take the pay of the State without taking also State control. It cannot be given special prominence and privileges unless it renders some service in return. This condition is realised in the Church of England, which owns the Sovereign as its Head, allows its chief pastors to be appointed by politicians, and is in fact only another aspect of the State."

If anything were needed to show how the zeal for enforced religious observances drives the spirit of the Gospel from men's hearts, the following from a letter from a Chicago correspondent of a religious weekly, supplies it:-

"Christian sentiment here does not favour a general boycott, since it is not clear to the bulk of church people that they are called upon to forego all the privileges of the Fair because they have been beaten after a brave and prolonged fight."

That is, they would think nothing of doing everything in their power to injure their neighbours, if it did not involve any personal sacrifice. The only thing that keeps them from trying to ruin the Fair is the fact that they would lose some pleasure. And this is called "Christian sentiment"!

At a recent meeting in Cardiff, to consider the subject of the Sunday opening of free libraries, museums, public parks, etc., a letter was read from the vicar of the parish, Rev. Canon Thompson, who was unavoidably absent, in which he said:-

"I need hardly say that the question under consideration is one requiring wise handling, and every consideration for the religious sentiment of the community. In my opinion, it is indeed a religious question, using the term in its highest and truest sense, and on that ground namely, I am in favour of the removal of all conventional restrictions on liberty of conscience and of conduct."

That is the language of a man who evidently knows something of the meaning of religion "in its highest and truest sense." We are glad to note that other ministers concurred in the sentiments.

Now religion "in its highest interest sense" means liberty. It means liberty for every man, not only to decide in what way he shall honour God, but also whether he shall honour Him at all. It gives to every man this privilege of choice. The command is, "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve." The privilege of choosing implies the privilege of rejecting. God does not compel people to serve Him. His law is a law of love, and not of force. God draws men by the power of love, knowing that only those who yield to love are religious in the highest and truest sense, since love is of God, and only those who are like God have pure and undefiled religion.

Let it not be imagined for a moment that the decision to open the World's Fair on Sunday is a satisfactory solution of the main question. That is not touched by the decision of the Directors. Some have thought that the only point involved was whether the gates of the Exposition should be opened or closed on Sunday. With most people that was all that was seen. With us, however, it made no difference. The only thing of consequence was the position of the United States Government in regard to the matter. It has not changed its position in the least, but still stands committed to the unrighteous principle that it has a right to decide matters of religion. Thus it turns its back on the sound principles set forth by the founders of that Government. If the Directors of the Exposition had decided to keep the gates closed on Sunday, they would have had the right to do so, and no one except shareholders could have reasonably objected. If they had, of their own accord, decided to keep the gates open, that was their privilege. Those who thought it wrong could have stayed away, not only on Sunday, but on every day, if they wished. The new evil that has arisen, and to which we have of late called special attention, is the unchristian and antichristian principle of the boycott, which has been advocated by professed Christians.

"Sunday in India" The Present Truth 9, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

The Bombay Guardian of May 6 says that "a Lord's Day Union for India has been formed in Calcutta, through a provisional committee appointed by the Calcutta Missionary Conference. The Constitution is drafted, and is in process of revision. The central committee, which consists of seventeen Calcutta Christians appointed by the provisional committee, will meet one month hence to take a final action in the matter. Among the items suggested is a 'Sabbath Creed Card,' being a simple statement of belief in the sanctity and value of the Sabbath, and a promise to keep it holy. This card will be widely circulated, particularly among the young. In all the principal centers of India, vice-presidents of the Lord's Day Union will be nominated, who, it is expected will become presidents of Auxiliary Unions in their own localities. When the list is completed, their names as well as names of other officers of the Union will be made public."

Of course this movement, like all others in the interest of Sunday observance, means not simply encouragement for the stricter observance of Sunday by professed Christians, but compulsion for those who do not profess to be Christians, or who, being professed Christians do not see the connection between Christianity and Sunday-keeping. And thus the work of substituting a gospel which is but the power of man, for the only true Gospel, which is the power of God, goes on throughout the world.

July 6, 1893

"Front Page" The Present Truth 9, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

A Christian is a follower of Christ, and since Christ is not divided, but is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever," there can be only one standard of Christianity, and that is the life of Christ. "Why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say? the Saviour asks. The beloved disciple says: "He that saith he abideth in Him, ought himself also so to walk even as He walked." John ii. 6. "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to humble thyself to walk with thy God?" Micah vi. 8, margin. "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. 29.

Meekness, then, is an essential quality of a Christian. Hear what Jesus says: "I say unto you that ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." Again: "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." Matt. v. 39, 44, 45.

Again the Master said: "If ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." "Then came Peter to Him and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, until seven times; but, until seventy times seven." Matt. xviii. 21, 22. He said also, "If he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him." Luke xvii. 4.

All this was practically illustrated in the life of our Lord. He left us an example that we should follow in His steps. He, "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. "He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth." His only words concerning those who were torturing Him were, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Such love and forbearance as this are not natural to man, yet they are possible. All this Christ did as a man, but not with the strength of man. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." As God was in Christ, so may Christ dwell in our hearts by faith, that we also may "be filled with all the fulness of God." Eph. iii. 17-19. This cannot be done for a people as a whole, but only as individuals. It is not accomplished by any formal statement of belief, to which all give assent, or subscribe their names, but by Christ dwelling in each man's heart, through his personal faith. Each one must be able to say for himself, I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Galatians ii. 20.

Then how would it be possible for an entire nation to become Christian? Only by every person's becoming converted, and a follower of Christ. But in that case the nation would cease to occupy a place among the Governments of the earth. How so? Because no Government on earth could follow the instructions of Christ, and remain in existence. Just imagine a Government acting according to the injunction, "Love your enemies"; or "Resist not evil." Its place would be known no more, and it would be absorbed by others. Earthly Governments can be maintained only by force, and violence is foreign to the character of Christ. So it is utterly impossible that there should be such a thing on this earth as a Christian Government. This does not mean that civil government should be abolished; on the country, it is imperatively demanded in the present condition of things; since there are so many who will not behave without the use of force. In the world to come, when the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ, civil Government will come to an end; for God's Government is a moral Government. Then the peace and love of God will reign in every heart.

"Abolishing War" The Present Truth 9, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

Speaking of the proposed treaty of arbitration between England and the United States, a writer to the Echo says that "it will bring eternal peace between ourselves and our American brethren." "Once this great example has been set, the idea will spread throughout all civilised States, and men will comprehend that it can be realised. There is little hope of their agreeing to disarmament, so long as nations think their existence threatened; but when they have once pledged themselves for ever to refer their disputes to arbitration, they will feel able

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to dispense with the monstrous armies which threaten to bring about universal ruin."

The history and experience of the world does not warrant any such high hopes. Innumerable treaties have been made between nations, and as many have been broken. "When they have once pledged themselves for ever to refer their disputes to arbitration," they will refrain from war until they feel that their rights are not sufficiently regarded, and no longer. The source of wars is in the human heart, and so long as that remains unchanged, there will be no peace. "From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members?" James iii. 1. "There is no peace saith my God, to the wicked." Isa. lvii. 21. The peace of God in the hearts of all men is the only thing that will end wars; and that cannot be effected by arbitration treaties.

"How to Get Knowledge" The Present Truth 9, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

"Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets; she crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates; in the city she uttereth her words, saying, how long, ye simple ones, will you love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning; and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof; behold, I will pour out My Spirit unto you, I will make known My words unto you." Prov. i. 20-23.

This is the language of the Lord Jesus Christ, "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Col. ii. 3. This means that there is nothing of any kind whatever that is worthy to be called wisdom, which is not to be found in Christ. Read 1 Cor. i. 22-24: "For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." That is, the wisdom which the Greeks sought after, is contained only in Christ. Because they sought it in themselves, and not in Christ, the wisdom which they had became foolishness. Out of Christ it is impossible to find true wisdom.

True wisdom consists in knowing God. "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 lovingkindness, judgment and righteousness, in the earth; for in these things I delight, saith the Lord." Jer. ix. 23, 24. To know God is the sum of all scientific knowledge for Christ, who is the only manifestation of God, is the Source of all creation. "O the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!" For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things." Rom. xi. 33, 36. Christ is the beginning, the head, or source, of the creation of God. Rev. iii. 14. He is "the firstborn of every creature." Col. i. 1-5. "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. 16, 17. Therefore the study of natural science must begin and end with the study of God in Christ.

But Christ is the righteousness of God. Righteousness is the character of God. Therefore no one can know God without knowing His righteousness; and so the study of true science reveals the righteousness of God. And this is wisdom, for "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." Prov. i. 7. The knowledge of the righteousness of God is connected with the knowledge of the works of God that we see with our eyes; for the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, and the power of God is seen in the things that are made. Rom. i. 16, 20. Therefore when the Bible speaks of wisdom and knowledge, it means not only the wisdom and knowledge which would be counted as such by men, but also "all wisdom and spiritual understanding."

All this is summed up in the words of Moses to the children of Israel: "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. 3. They who keep the commandments of God, not in form merely, but in fact, will have wisdom which will excite the wonder of people who do not recognise the source of knowledge.

And now that we have seen what wisdom is let us note the words with which this article begins, to see how it may be obtained. The Lord says, "Turn you at My reproof; behold I will pour out My Spirit unto you, I will make known My words unto you." That is; those who listen to heed the reproofs of the Lord, will know His words, which are wisdom. "For the Lord giveth wisdom, out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding." Prov. ii. 6.

The reproofs of the Lord are by the Spirit of the Lord and are given, not for the purpose of taunting us with our failures, nor for the purpose of causing us to cringe in terror before Him, but that we may turn from our sins to righteousness. Before He went away, Christ promised to send the Holy Spirit as a Comforter, and the first thing that He was to do was to convince the world of sin. This He does by revealing the righteousness of God. These reproofs come in various ways, according to the sin and the peculiarity of the person. They are not simply of a general nature, but they come home to the individual, pointing out specific acts of wrong, and saying "Thou art the man."

It is naturally a severe trial to any one to receive a sharp reproof, because it cuts directly across self. But no matter how cutting it may be, and even though the Lord has allowed the knowledge of our failing to come to us through an unfriendly source, it is the part of wisdom to heed it. To heed it means to forsake the evil, and that can be done only through Christ; for it is the blood of Christ alone that cleanses from all sin. "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." 1 John i. 7. The promise is that those who turn at the reproof of wisdom shall have the words of wisdom made known unto them.

Not only will such an one have the words of the Lord,-the words of wisdom,-told to him, but he will have them made known to him. In this is found the secret of the failure of many to understand the Bible. They are cherishing some sin, or they are unwilling to keep all the commandments of God, and consequently they cannot know the meaning of the words of wisdom. Self stands in the way. Christ said that if any man had a mind to do the Father's will, he should know of the doctrine. John vii. 17. "The meek will He guide in judgments; and

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the meek will He teach His way." Ps. xxv. 9.

Surely the result is worth all that it costs, even though the lesson be a trying one. The pain comes only in the letting go of self. When one has once yielded fully to the Lord; the reproofs of the Lord are pleasant. When self is dead, it cannot be hurt by them. Then instead of mourning over the reproof, because of wounded pride; or even in despondency, he will delight himself in the increased knowledge of God. Try it, all you who wish that you might understand the Bible. Let your doubts go to the winds. Let your own foolish wisdom, which would lead you to hesitate to receive the word of God, if it is contrary to your preconceived opinion, give place to the meekness of wisdom. In short; let your own opinions go entirely, and do not try to draw conclusions according to your own wisdom, but let God teach you at every step of the way. When you cannot see how a certain statement harmonises with another, do not get impatient, and begin to doubt, but wait in faith, and God will explain it to you. Do not be afraid of waiting awhile. It may be that the Lord has some other lesson for you to learn before you can understand this one. But while you are, waiting, wait only on the Lord, and His words will explain themselves. "Consider what I say; for the Lord shall give thee understanding in all things." 2 Tim. ii. 7.

"The Reign of Peace" The Present Truth 9, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

The greatest and most common mistake among men is to judge God by themselves. The Lord's reproach to man is, "Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself." Ps. i. 21. But the facts in the case are stated in these words: "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." Isa. lv. 8, 9.

That is the reason that men have such erroneous ideas about the Government of God. They judge God's method of governing by what they know of human governments, and therefore we hear such expressions as these, "If God rules this world why does he not put a stop to all this poverty and misery?" Or, "Why doesn't He make everybody good?" "If he rules, and is omnipotent, why does He allow anybody to be lost?" or, allowing that He does reign, they conclude that He is neither good nor merciful, because He allows sin and misery to exist. Thus many infidels rail against the Lord, and many poor, overworked men and women echo the sentiment, because they do not know the Lord, but form their opinions of Him by themselves.

The fact is that if God were to do what the people say He ought to do, they themselves would add hate to their indifference to Him. Men shout for liberty, and execrate tyranny, and then murmur against God because He is not a tyrant. They refuse to serve Him, because He does not deprive them of their liberty, and make them not only slaves, but mere machines.

God is a "God of peace." Heb. xiii. 2. His reign is a reign of peace. The Apostle Paul says, "Let the peace of God rule in your hearts." Col. 3:15. He rules by peace. This is different from anything known among men, and we shall see the significance of it presently. Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, is the "Prince of peace;" "and of the increase of His Government and peace there shall be no end." Isa. ix. 6, 7. His Gospel is "the Gospel of peace." Eph. vi. 15.

God's thoughts concerning man are "thoughts of peace, and not of evil." Jer. xxix.11. And His ways are peace. When He speaks, He speaks peace. "I will hear what God the Lord will speak; for He will speak peace unto His people and to His saints." Ps. lxxxv. 8.

Of the work of the Father and of the Son upon the throne, the prophet says: "And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and He shall grow up out of His place, and He shall build the temple of the Lord; even He shall build the temple of the Lord; and He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His throne; and He shall be a priest upon His throne; and the counsel of peace shall be between them both." Zech. vi. 12, 13.

Thus we see that the God of peace, and the Prince of peace, "who is our peace," are sitting upon the throne together, and their counsels together are counsels of peace. Their thoughts toward men are thoughts of peace, and they speak peace. The word of the ruler is law, and therefore the law of God is a law of peace. Everything in connection with His Government is peace.

The peace of God is an active quality. It is peace that rules. "Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Phil. iv. 6, 7. It is impossible to describe peace that passes all understanding, and the only way that men can know it is to receive it at the hands of the Lord, for He says: "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you." John xiv. 27. And yet, although we are not able to fathom its depth, we may know the nature of it from the word of God.

PEACE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS

Peace comes with righteousness. In the throne of God "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other." We have seen that the law of God is a law of peace, and so the psalmist declares, "Great peace have they which love Thy law, and nothing shall offend them," or cause them to stumble. Ps. cxix. 165. And again, we read the words of the Lord, "O that thou hadst hearkened to My commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea." Isa. xlviii. 18. Peace and righteousness, therefore are synonymous. This is further shown in the statement, "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." Isa. Ivii. 21. "Being justified [made righteous] by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Rom. v. 1. "The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever." Isa. xxxii. 17. Peace is the opposite not only of open war, but also of enmity, for war is the result of enmity in the heart. Now Christ is our peace, because He has abolished the enmity in Himself. Eph. ii. 14, 15. He has "made peace through the blood of His cross." Col. i. 2. "God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 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. 8-10.

"It is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul" (Lev. xvii. 11), because the blood is the life. Therefore

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we are reconciled to God by the life of Christ, which He gives to us in His death. When we read that Christ has made peace through the blood of His cross, we understand that He made peace by the life which He poured out on the cross. And so when He says, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you," we know it is the same as if He said, "My life I give unto you." His life is peace and righteousness. "To be spiritually minded is life and peace." Rom. viii. 6.

THE FREEDOM OF PEACE

Christ gave Himself for the world; He is able and willing to save the whole world, and will give His life to all who will have it; but He will not force His presence upon any. He says, "Behold I stand at the door, and knock; if 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. 3:20. He will not force the will. His rule is a rule of perfect liberty. The wonderful and glorious liberty of the sons of God is beyond all human expression. The liberty of the kingdom of God is the perfection of liberty. Every man is to be absolutely free. And in order that every man may be absolutely free in His kingdom, God gives to every person on this present earth perfect liberty to choose what he will have. The right and liberty to choose life, which God extends to all, implies liberty to reject it. "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live." Deut. 30:19. "Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely." Rev. 22:17. So not only in the world to come, but also in this life, God gives to every person exactly whatever he wishes to have. Those who desire life will have it abundantly, and of the wicked the Lord says: "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." Prov. i. 29-31.

It will be seen that there is nothing like force in the Government of God, nothing like compulsion. If there were, His reign would not be a reign of peace. It is altogether different from any earthly Government that exists, or that ever did exist. Christ explained this matter when two of His disciples were seeking for themselves places of power in His kingdom. Said He: "Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you; but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant; even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." Matt. xx. 35-38.

Mark that statement beginning, "even as the Son of man came." That shows us that serving is the rule in the kingdom of God, because Christ Himself sets the example. His gGvernment is in every respect different from earthly governments. They exist by force and authority; His exists by love and peace. Not only when on earth in the form of a servant did Christ serve, but He says that when the saints are all gathered with Him in glory, He Himself will come forth and serve them. Luke 12:37. In coming to this earth He took upon Him the form of a servant; but the mind to serve was in Him before He came. And so it will be in the glory of His kingdom. But there will be no danger that Christ's position will not be properly respected in that innumerable throng, all of whom are bent on serving others. Greatness there will be measured by the amount of service rendered, and in that He will ever be infinitely above the whole human race.

PEACE IS REST

Since the world began there has never been a time when there was perfect peace. Neither has there ever been a single nation in which at any time there has been peace. There have been times when no war was in progress, but the so-called peace that existed was made and preserved by force, just as the peace of Europe is maintained now by huge armies. But it is not peace. Peace is rest; but in all earthly governments there is a state of constant unrest. There is no real peace unless there is peace in the heart, and peace can be in the heart only by the presence of Jesus there. "He is our peace."

The peace of God's Government is not maintained by standing armies, nor by compelling people to submit to His laws, but by the infusing of His own life in the hearts of those who will receive Him. And now we can see why God does not arbitrarily interfere to put a stop to sin and its consequent misery. To do so would be to deny Himself, and to subvert His own Government; for His Government is peace, and peace cannot be forced any more than love can be. God is not only the King, but He is the Father of His people, and that means that His subjects are to associate with Him as with a father, on terms of intimacy. They are not to cower and cringe before Him as before a tyrant, not to fawn and flatter to obtain His favour, but to be as free as He Himself is. They are to have the liberty of His Spirit. While gladly acknowledging His infinite greatness, His people are to feel in His presence the freedom of equals. This is the mystery of God. The absolute perfection of liberty can be found only in Him.

In the beginning God filled all things by His presence. Then sin came in, and there was rebellion against His gentle sway. But He did not change. His rule now is the same that it was in the beginning, and the same that it will be in the earth made new. It is ever a reign of peace. So now He is seeking to bring men back to His mild rule, in the same way that He will rule when all acknowledge Him. He stretches out His hands to all. He reveals His love and tenderness, and begs and entreats all to be at peace with Him; but He compels none against their will, for He has set that forever free. Those who obstinately and persistently refuse Him, and choose their own way, are left to their own way, which is death (Prov. 16:25), because it is separate from the life of God.

It would not do to close without calling attention to the contrast between the way in which God works to extend His Government among men, and the way in which men work to do the same thing. Religious law made by men have only the power of physical force, while God's law has the power of His own life of peace. It will be seen that when men make laws professedly for the purpose of extending Christianity, they are working against God, instead of for Him. So for human governments to enact and enforce religious laws, is to oppose and exalt themselves against God. Civil laws concerning religion, therefore, even though they expressly state that they are to upbuild the religion of Christ, are only the work of antichrist. They upbuild the religion of physical force, while His religion is that of spiritual peace. They misrepresent

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God, and cause Him to be hated, or at least dreaded. But when God is represented as He is, men love Him. Therefore let all His servants say, "Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace; so shall good come to thee."

"One Book" The Present Truth 9, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

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.

Can one believe the Gospel, and disbelieve the Old Testament? Bet 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 these which have preached the Gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." 1 Peter i. 10-12.

Read the above 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.

Suppose the position be taken that the story of 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 were imaginary, then we have the entire Gospel built on 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 into 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 was 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 so 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 to 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

We have just seen a sermon on the flood, which instead of seeking to strengthen the faith of the weak, is almost wholly devoted to an attempt to prove that there never was any such thing. Here are some of the statements. We give them because doubts in regard to the flood are becoming quite common. The 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 false 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 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

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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 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. We have written this to call attention to what is involved in setting aside any portion of the Bible, and to enable the reader more clearly to see that "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. It is all profitable, and all necessary.

"More than Queer" The Present Truth 9, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

The following paragraph is clipped from the South Wales Echo:-

Our English Sunday is perhaps the queerest anomaly that ever existed in a queer world. The statistics showed that not more than 30 per cent. of the population, on the most liberal computation, attend church or chapel on a Sunday, but, so far, the minority have been strong enough to tell the majority that if they do not attend to religious duties on that day they shall not do anything else. The favourite argument on the one side is that if people do not go to church they ought to do so. But the fact remains that 70 persons out of every 100 don't, and surely the needs of the 70 deserve some consideration. There is no more painful sight in a large town on a Sunday than to see the thousands wandering aimlessly about, employed in the mere task of killing time, accomplishing a sort of self-effacement, engaged in the salutary but wearisome pastime of "taking a walk."

The mother who would lay an absolute prohibition on her children, that they should do no work, or even engage in wholesome sport, but should enjoin on them a condition of absolute idleness, would be not only queer, but decidedly foolish. But no mother would be so foolish. Without any training in the science of government, her knowledge of children would teach her that nothing is more conducive to mischief than idleness. And that is true not only of children, but of adults as well.

Now when we remember that only a small portion of the people of any country make even a profession of religion, and that the majority have no real reverence for Sunday, more than any other day, it will not be difficult to see that for the government to prohibit labour on Sunday is to put temptation in the way of the people, and to use its authority to drive them into mischief.

It may be objected that the same charge lies against the Lord, since in the fourth commandment He says: "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 work," etc. But the charge does not lie against the Lord, for the following reasons:-

1. The keeping of the true Sabbath does not consist in absolute idleness. Christ's example shows that. He healed the sick on the Sabbath day, defending Himself against the charge of Sabbath-breaking by saying, "It is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days." Matt. xii. 12. That was not a new version of the law of the Sabbath, but the statement to the effect that the law of the Sabbath sanctions works of love and mercy on that day. Christ declared that He Himself kept the commandments. Therefore the fourth commandment itself must give warrant for labour of the class Christ did on the Sabbath.

Turning to the commandment we see that is our work that is forbidden on the Sabbath. But Christ came not to do His own work, but the will of the Father. So it is lawful, according to the commandment, to do work on the Sabbath day, which is in no sense for ourselves, and by which we are to derive no personal benefit whatever, but which is done solely and purely for the love of God.

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As stated before, the Sabbath does not consist primarily in physical rest. That is, the true Sabbath. "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." It is His rest. But since God is Spirit (John iv. 24, R.V.), His rest is spiritual rest; therefore to keep His Sabbath is to yield to the influence of the Spirit, and to enjoy the rest from sin that it gives. The body may be active; but the principle that only God's work, and not that which is for our own personal gain, must be done, will, if conscientiously followed, guard against all violation of the Sabbath.

2. God does not force anybody to keep the Sabbath, even in this higher sense. He is love; His law is a law of love; and the keeping of the Sabbath is a purely voluntary matter, a growing out of love to God. He who does not keep the Sabbath willingly and gladly, does not keep it at all. The true worshippers worship God in spirit and in truth, and the Father seeketh only such who worship Him. John iv. 23, 24.

"Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Rom. xiv. 23. Whatsoever is forced is not of faith, and therefore the service that is forced is sin. So if God should force man to keep the Sabbath, or to appear to keep it, by abstaining from labour, He would be forcing them to sin, instead of serve Him. But "let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man." James i. 13.

God has no delight in the formal, outward observance even of the things which He has commanded. Through the prophet Amos He said to those who were worshipping Him in appearance, but not with the heart, "I hate, I despise your feasts, and I will take no delight in your solemn assemblies, yea, though ye offer Me your burnt offerings and meat offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from Me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment fall down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream." Amos v. 21-24, R.V.

And later Christ said to the punctilious Jews: "Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, this people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoureth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me. But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Matt. xv. 7-9. Since God looks with such abhorrence on the mere outward observance even of things commanded, with what pain and loathing must He regard compulsory observance of that which He has not commanded?

"An Unforeseen Outcome" The Present Truth 9, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

One of the London dailies lately contained the following from a Cardiff correspondent, which opens up a phase of the Sunday legislation question, that is not given much attention:-

"Each Sunday there is now to be witnessed in this town and extraordinary spectacle. Large numbers of men congregate in an open space near a populous suburb, and subscribe money for the purpose of buying beer, which is obtained in casks from the nearest wholesale stores. This is then shared and drunk openly, a recent decision by the stipendiary magistrate having legalised their action, on the ground that they constitute a crude but genuine club. On the seventh there were some 150 men engaged in this Sunday drinking. On Sunday last the number had risen to 500, with some 2,000 spectators, and next Sunday considerable development of the movement is expected. This is surely an unforeseen and curious outcome of the Sunday Closing Act."

That is similar to what occurred in Chicago, where the gates of the Exposition were closed on Sunday, and consequently thousands of people who were denied admittance, spent the day, and their money, in the numerous side shows, beer halls, etc. But the advocates of Sunday legislation will say that such cases as that at Cardiff can be easily remedied by a law suppressing clubs, or at least prohibiting the drinking of liquor in them. Suppose that that is done, and the people then buy liquor on Saturday and drink it in their own private houses on Sunday, one man inviting a dozen of his neighbours to visit him on that day, and share his hospitality. What is to be done? If the course already begun be carried out, the next step will be to prohibit Sunday drinking in private houses, and then all privacy will be at an end, since the police will have power to search any house in which they may expect that people are drinking; and, indeed, they will have to keep informed of the practices of the inhabitants of every house. This will be another difficulty, but it need not be unforeseen by any who will give a little study to the nature of religious legislation. It will readily be seen that civil liberty cannot be enjoyed when religious liberty is interfered with.

It does not require argument, but only that the attention of the thoughtful should be directed a little way ahead, to enable them to see that all the wickedness of the Inquisition is logically in Sunday legislation, or in any other religious legislation. The only reason why we do not see the Inquisition established in every Government where there is Sunday legislation, is because that legislation is so nearly a dead letter. It needs, however, only a revival of misdirected religious zeal to set the Inquisition in full operation.

Observe that in this question of Sunday drinking the right of the State to prohibit the sale or manufacture of intoxicating liquor is not involved. The total prohibition of the liquor traffic, on the ground that alcohol is a poison, and the free use of it dangerous to life and property, is quite another matter. The only question here involved is the right of the State to prohibit the use of liquor on Sunday, not out of regard for the lives and property of the people, but out of regard for the day. It is a question of whether or not religion is a matter between the individual and God; of whether the Government has the right to be conscience for all citizens, and to compel all to act in harmony with the convictions of a few. This is the most important question now before the people, not only of England but of the world, and it will soon come to the front in a way that will demand a decision by every individual.

Notice also how religious legislation not only establishes the Inquisition, but also establishes a false standard of morality. The standard of morality must necessarily be a false one, since it is a human standard, and the ways of man are as much lower than the ways of God as the earth is lower than heaven; as much lower as man is inferior to God. The whole tendency of Sunday closing, as applied to the liquor question, is to teach that it is worse to drink liquor on Sunday than to drink it on any other day. Now no sane man can suppose that alcoholic liquor is any more poisonous on Sunday than it is on Monday or Tuesday. Therefore when its use is freely allowed on six days in the week, but prohibited on Sunday, the natural conclusion is that there is nothing wrong in the use of liquor, but that there is some peculiar sacredness to Sunday. And here again we have a false standard, since Sunday observance has no Divine sanction, God having never imparted the least sacredness to the day.

Another point should always be borne in mind in the discussion of

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Sunday legislation. It is this: That in protest against such legislation, no thought is had of hindering anyone from resting on that day. Although Sunday is not the Sabbath, and has no trace of sacredness nor of Divine sanction, every man has the right to observe it as strictly as he pleases, and no man or combination of men has the right to forbid him so to do. This does not mean that it is right to keep Sunday, but simply that God his given to every man the right and privilege to choose his own course, and to receive the due reward or punishment at the Judgment. Jesus said: "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. 47. The simple proposition is that no civil Government has the right to go beyond Christ, and do what He does not do. Judgment belongs to Him, but He judges no man till His coming. The State therefore is to let this whole matter alone, and leave people as free as God has given them the right to be. The further the State goes in this matter of religious legislation, with the idea that it is responsible for the morals of men, the more unforeseen difficulties will it encounter.

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"Holy Places" The Present Truth 9, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

Some of the towns in India are said to be very holy, especially those on the banks of the River Ganges. The water of the Ganges is thought to be so holy that it makes the towns on it holy. Some of them are made more holy than others because many parts of the river are considered more holy than other parts. Among these are Allababad, Jugarnaut, Muthra, Hurdwar, and Benares the most sacred of all.

Benares is said to have been built by the God Siva out of gold and precious stones, but on account of the sins of the people who lived there it was finally turned into stone and thatch. "The Hindus think Benares is 80,000 steps nearer heaven than any other place, and that those who died there will go straight to Siva's heaven, the best of all."

There are 2,000 temples in Benares a large number of sacred wells and pools, and 500,000 idols! There is also the Monkey Temple, the temple full of sacred cows, and the Well of Knowledge of which we learned last week. Many are the pilgrims that go there from all parts of India hoping to obtain purity and wholeness by coming in contact with such a holy place. But holiness is not obtained in that way, nor from such things, so they go home as unsatisfied and as unholy as when they came. Their gods have no power, there sacred waters are no more holy than any other waters.

What makes a place sacred? What makes a thing holy? Look in your Bible and you will see.

In the third chapter of Exodus we are told of a wise and good man named Moses, a shepherd, who was taking care of the flock of Jethro his father-in-law. One day as he was leading the sheep to the backside of the desert, and came near to a mountain called Horeb, he suddenly stopped, for he saw something very wonderful. Off to one side was a bush on fire, and it burned and burned, but did not burn up!

"And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And He said, Draw not nigh hither; put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover He said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God."

Ah, it was the glory of the living God that wrapped a bush in flames; it was the presence of the King of kings that caused Moses to hide his face; it was the holiness of Him who alone is holy that caused that barren wilderness to become holy ground. Before the Lord appeared there it was not holy, and after the Lord left there it was not holy; it was His presence that made it holy.

Once more the Lord appeared in this same wilderness on Mount Sinai, when He came with all His angels and spoke the ten commandments with His own voice. And the mountain became so holy that the children of Israel did not dare to go near it. "And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly."

Wherever the Lord is, there is a holy place, as we see it again in the fifth chapter of Joshua: "And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand; and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto Him, What saith my Lord unto His servant? And the captain of the Lord's host said unto

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Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so."

Again we read of the holy mount where Jesus appeared in His glory and the voice of God said, "This is My beloved Son, Hear ye Him."

The apartment of the temple in which the Lord appeared above the mercy seat was the Most Holy Place, because God appeared there. But as soon as He stopped visiting the temple it was no longer holy.

We see, therefore, that it is not where God has been or where He is going to be that is holy, but it is where God is. No place is holy because Jesus was once there, but if it is holy at all it must be because He is there now, a living Saviour.

Not only in the wilderness does the Lord have a holy sanctuary. He says that wherever two or three are gathered together in His name, there is He in the midst of them. Then if He is there, is it not holy? Should not we, like Moses, be very careful how we act in His presence, that we grieve Him not away and bring not a curse upon ourselves? He says, "Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence My sanctuary; I am the Lord." Why?

He does not say because I am a Lord, and you should respect Me as you do earthly kings and lords; no, you should reverence Him for He says, "I am the Lord,"-the Holy One. "For who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord? God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about Him."

It is very sad to see even children noisy and impolite and disrespectful in church and Sabbath-school, for it shows that they do not realise that they are in a holy place on account of the presence of the Holy One who is King of kings and Lord of lords, and the Creator of the heavens and the earth. They are not showing disrespect to their teacher merely, but to the God of heaven.

We read that the Bible, God's Word, is holy. Then since no place can become holy unless Jesus is there, who must be in God's word? Yes, Jesus Himself lives in it by His Holy Spirit.

Since Jesus dwells in the words of God, since Jesus is the Word of God, you see it is easy to let Him into our hearts. It can be done just by letting God's word into our hearts. If we read it, and believe it, and accept it as God's word to us, and love it, and take it as our rule, it will bring Jesus, the Holy One, into our hearts.

Since Jesus makes holy every place that He enters, our hearts will be holy as soon as Jesus comes in. No wickedness and insecurity can stay where Jesus is. It flees before Him even as it did when He entered the temple at Jerusalem and found the priests and rulers buying and selling cattle. And that is just what Jesus has bought for us. He has bought us with a price, even the precious blood of Christ, that our bodies may be holy temples where He may dwell.

So you see you do not need to go on long pilgrimages, as the Indians do, to find holiness. He, the Word, the Holy One, is nigh thee, waiting to be invited to make of you a holy temple unto Himself. Will you let Him in? And remember that it is not enough to let Him in. You must let Him stay in, if you would have your heart continue to be holy.

"The Things that Are Made" The Present Truth 9, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

How children do love to play! They love to play in the house with their blocks and games, dishes and dolls. But they love to play out-of-doors still better, because there are so many pleasant things there that they cannot find in the house.

The air out-of-doors is so fresh, the sun so bright, and sky so blue, and the carpet of soft green grass all over the ground is so much finer than the carpet in the house. Here and there are tiny flowers and red strawberries peeping out of the grass and waiting to be picked. Bees and bright-winged butterflies and dear little humming birds are flying in and out among the rose bushes. In the great leafy trees are young birds with their mouths wide open, waiting for the mother bird to give them something to eat. There are pet hens, so tame that they will come and eat right out of your hand, with soft, downey little chicks that follow them wherever they go.

In the farm yard some little people find pet kitten, rabbits, lambs, and goats; the horses waiting to be fed, and the cows to be milked. In tiny streams they find pretty stones and pebbles, and many queer little animals and fish, besides the ducks and geese that love to float upon the water.

Then, there is the garden, in which may be found at different seasons, strawberries, lettuce, radishes, onions, cabbage, beets, currents, gooseberries, blackberries, raspberries, and many other things that are good to eat. Out in the fields are the turnips and potatoes waiting to be hoed, and the fresh hay to be raked up in heaps. In the orchard are apple, peach, and cherry trees, where at certain times are red cherries, great rosey apples, and sweet juicy peaches. Along the road or in the woods are other trees which are sometimes loaded down with hickory nuts, hazelnuts, butternuts, walnuts, beechnuts, filberts, and chestnuts.

How many of these things did you ever see? Well, all of these, and many other things, cause it to be more pleasant out-of-doors than in the house.

In the winter, it gets very cold in some places, and when little boys and girls go out they have to put on thick coats and gloves, and something over their ears. But how beautiful it is even then! The soft, fleecy snow falls gently from the clouds and covers the houses and trees and ground with a robe of the purest white. Then the sun in the daytime, and the moon and the stars at night, shine upon this snow and make it so bright and sparkling that we can hardly look at it. What fun to go out and skate and play snow ball, to make snow men and snow houses, or to ride down the hill on a sledge! What beautiful and wonderful things are all around us!

But the grass, and flowers, and trees, and animals, and sunshine were already here when your father and mother were little children, and when your grandfather, and grandmother, and all your grown-up friends were children. (Ask them to tell you about it.) As all of these things were already here, when your friends were children, we know that none of these friends made them.

Did you ever stop to think where all the beautiful and wonderful things that you see came from? and how they were made? See if you can tell by the next week where we can find out all about it.

1. Do you like to play?

2. With what do you like to play when you are at home?

3. Where do you like to play better, in the house, or out-of-doors?

4. Why do you like to play out-of-doors better than in the house?

5. What kinds of animals have you at home?

6. What kinds of birds?

7. What kinds of trees grow near your house?

8. What kinds of flowers grow in your garden?

9. Tell what else you see when you go out-of-doors.

10. When you go out on a clear night and look up, what do you see?

11. Have you a father and a mother? a grandfather? a grandmother? any other grown-up friends?

12. Do you think that they were ever little like you?

13. Did the sun and the moon and the stars shine, and were their animals, and trees, and flowers when they were little children?

14. How do you know?

15. Then could they have made these beautiful things?

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 9, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

-The largest dredger in the world has just been built and tested for the Mersey Harbour Board. It will raise 24,000 tons of sand in a day.

-King Alexander of Servia has granted an amnesty to all ecclesiastics banished or dismissed from their offices by the Metropolitan and Consistory.

-The cholera at Mecca is increasing with great rapidity. On the 26th of June there were 455 deaths, and on the 29th the number of deaths was 999.

-The Ministry of Ways and Communications in Russia has given orders for the establishment of compartments reserved for lady-smokers in all railway trains.

-The Pope has issued an encyclical on the subject of a native Catholic clergy in India, exhorting the Catholics of Europe to co-operate with him in the work of founding Indian seminaries.

-Nearly all the German newspapers now concede that as the result of the late elections, the Government will have a majority in the Reichstag and that the Army Bill will doubtless be passed.

-A list of 111 Jewish families living in Tiflis has just been sent to the Governor of that province, with the request that he is to take steps to have them removed from his government before November 1.

-In the twenty-seven years during which Dr. Barnardo has been engaged in his work, 22,000 waifs and strays have been rescued. There are now about 5,000 children in the fifty-one different institutions under his care.

-A serious riot, in which many people were killed, broke out during the Mohammedan festival at Rangoon, which began June 25, owing to the refusal of the magistrate to allow the Mohammedans to slaughter a cow in the vicinity of the Hindu temple.

-An inn keeper has been sentenced by the imperial tribunal at Liepzig, to seven years penal servitude and ten years loss of the rights of citizenship, for "attempted high treason," in having, as was charged, furnished drawings of the fortress of New Breisach, in Alsace, to the French Government.

-Governor Altgeld, of Illinois, has pardoned Fielden, Neebe, and Schwab, three of the Anarchists who were sentenced to imprisonment for life for complicity in the Haymarket riots in Chicago, in 1866, in which many policemen were killed by a bomb. The Governor holds that the court was prejudiced, and that they did not have a fair trial. The Anarchists are jubilant, and the law-abiding people are indignant, and fearful as to the results.

-It is said that ten of thousands of Jews are congregated on the Russo-German frontier. Driven from their homes in the interior by the Russian officials, they are met on the opposite banks of the Vistula by German sentinels, who refuse to allow them passage into Germany. Permitted neither to go forward nor to return, with little means, and no way of earning a livelihood, they seem destined to perish miserably unless succour is at once sent them.

-In the House of Commons, on the 28rd ult., a motion was made to the effect "That, in consequence of the pressure of public business, and the failure of this House to deal with Scottish affairs in accordance with the wishes of the Scottish people, it is desirable to devolve upon a Scottish Legislature all matters exclusively relating to Scotland." The motion was defeated by a veto of 168 to 150. The House evidently regards one Home Rule Bill at a time as sufficient.

-A terrible calamity occurred in the Mediterranean, June 23rd. ult., The new turret ironclad Victoria, having on board Admiral Sir George Tryon, commander of the fleet, went down after collision with the Camperdown, taking with her about 400 men, including the commander. The collision occurred while the fleet was manoeuvering off Tripoli, Syria; but the details are not known. The Victoria sank, bottom upward, in seventy fathoms of water, within fifteen minutes after she was struck.

-In some parts of the Continent the drought has been severe. In the Jura, the Ardennes, and especially in the Vosges, the drought has completey destroyed the forage crops. It is said that even in the most favoured regions, there is but one-tenth of an ordinary crop. At the fair of Mirecourt, three horses have been sold for seven francs and a half. At Darney, a pair of oxen in good condition, and three years old, went for seventy-five francs. At Epinal, horses which found no purchaser have been abandoned on the market.

-A large cylindrical petard, capable of destroying an entire building, was found on the 26th ult. in the Royal Alcazar, at Seville Spain, a burning fuse being attached. A mason employed in making some repairs discovered the bomb and extinguished the fuse by throwing a bucket of water over it. The frequent discoveries of bombs here have thrown the inhabitants of the city into a state of consternation. Armed guards are kept stationed outside many houses, with orders to fire upon any one approaching during the night.

-A correspondent of the Daily Graphic speaks thus of the effects of the famine in Algeria: "Men with sunken cheeks, eyes starting from their sockets, legs and arms little more than skin and bone, women in utter despair crying out for a morsel of food to keep their little ones and themselves from starvation, with just a few rags to cover their bodies, excite one's deepest sympathy. It is not uncommon to find people dead along the roads, of sheer starvation. One sees men and women digging everywhere for roots which they dry in the sun and then grind into powder, with which they manufacture a kind of bread, very indigestible, thereby adding a further amount of suffering."

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

In his twenty-fourth anniversary sermon, Dr. Parker said:-

"I open this word of God anywhere (as my mother used to do), and there is the balm, the cordial for me. To me this book is not a rag-shop, where I may find a patch of velvet here and a patch of silk or cotton there. My Bible is to me the word of God which abideth for ever. I have witnessed a great many funerals-funerals in the air. Shut out the visible, and see these funerals in the air. These funerals are always very silent. The theory, the hypothesis, is born amid great acclamation, but the poor little wraith is carried out very quietly, and buried without a tear! I have witnessed several thousands of these funerals in the air. But the all-enlightening Bible abideth for ever. Get rid of hypotheses.

The danger of falling does not diminish as one ascends. On the contrary it increases. And what is more, the hurt is greater from the higher fall. Even so the Christian of long experience and great attainments has no warrant that he will not fall. He need not fall, for Christ is able to keep him from falling; but the point is, that it is as easy for him to fall as for the one just beginning the Christian life. "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." "Thou standest by faith; be not high-minded, but fear." Faith means humility, which alone insures one's standing. As Bunyan has aptly put it:-

"He that is down needs fear no fall;

He that is low, no pride;

He that is humble, ever shall

Have God to be his guide."

At the meeting of the Baptist Missionary Society the Rev. R. Wright Hay related the following incident: "An intoxicated Brahmin, a man of position and education, staggered at midnight to the door of the mission house, clamouring for the sacred privilege of baptism, and argued, 'Am I not as drunk as any Christian?'" What an example that man must have had before him, to imagine that drunkenness is an essential part of Christianity. If he should come to this country, with the popular notion in his mind that this is a Christian nation, would the illusion be dispelled? It would seem as though all Christians would for the honour of Christ, repudiate the idea that any nation can be Christian, and would let it be widely proclaimed that to be Christian is to be like Christ.

On Thursday, June 29, the ceremony of placing England under the patronage of St. Peter and the Virgin Mary was performed at the Brompton Oratory. Cardinal Vaughan officiated, assisted by all the Catholic bishops of England except two. It was stated that the ceremony was one of "reconsecration," since it is claimed that Peter was from earliest times the patron saint of England. To demonstrate how intimately devotion to St. Peter entered into the life of the common people, it was stated that there is evidence of the familiar use of his name as an expletive, or mild form of swearing! The Cardinal had previously published a statement to the effect that no slight is intended to St. George, in thus handing the country over to Peter. St. George is to be, as heretofore, the military protector, and St. Peter the spiritual protector, of England.

Two Armenians, Professors Thoumaian and Kayayan, of the American College at Marsovan, have, among others, been sentenced to death for the alleged offence of inciting to rebellion against the Turkish Government. It is thought that their sole offence was that they preached vigorously, urging the Christians to greater zeal and unity; and the evidence on which they were convicted was very insufficient. In view of this, Sir E. Gray, when speaking of the matter in the House of Commons, said that there was "every reason to hope that the Sultan would, when the evidence was laid before him, exercise the prerogative of mercy without delay." This hope has been echoed even by the religious press, seemingly without an idea of its incongruity. To release innocent men is but an act of simple justice. Mercy is unmerited favour. God exercises mercy in pardoning the guilty; and there is justice in His mercy, because His pardon makes guilty men innocent. On the contrary, men outrage justice in the name of mercy, and by presuming to "pardon" an innocent man, make him appear to be guilty.

One of the daily papers recently said in an editorial, "No law was ever passed that did not work a slight injustice to somebody. If this be true, then there was never a just law. Nobody would claim that a law must work injustice to everybody, in order to be unjust. The question to be decided, therefore, is To how many people must a law work injustice in order to be an unjust law? Injustice is injustice, whether it be to one man or to a thousand, and a law which works injustice to a single person, is an unjust law. Now an unjust law is an unjust law, and nothing else. It cannot be both just and unjust at the same time. Therefore a law which works injustice to one man is, as a matter of fact, unjust to everybody. But however the case may be with human laws, the law of God stands for ever as a law that provides perfectly equal and exact justice for all.

It seems that the great question now before the churches is whether or not the Bible is true. One would think that that question ought to have been settled long ago. It is not surprising that it should be raised by worldlings; but if professed Christians doubt the Bible, why are they professed Christians? One religious paper says that "the missionaries of the primitive church did not proclaim the infallibility of the New Testament, for the New Testament did not exist." But they made the New Testament, and the Apostle Paul wrote to one church: "If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord." 1 Cor. xiv. 37. And to another he wrote: "We thank God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of man, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believeth." 1 Thess. ii. 13. If this is not a claim for infallibility, what could be?

The Christian World says:-

"We learn on good authority that M. Pobedonostseff, the procurator of the Russian Holy Synod and chief Inquisitor of the Standists, has been recently approached by persons anxious to mitigate the present condition of the Stundists. The cruel law by which the children of these unfortunate Protestants can be kidnapped from their parents was specially brought to the Minister's notice. In reply, M. Pobedonostseff stated distinctly that he would not consider any suggestion for the amelioration of the 'heretics,' and that as to the children he was determined to save their souls, and the souls of those who in the future would be their children, even though in so doing he gave pain to their Stundist relatives. It is the answer of a cruel fanatic."

It is that, and more. It is the answer of a consistent Church and State man. What ought to be done at all, ought to done thoroughly. If Government is to teach religion, it can only be because it thinks that it alone has the true religion. But the only power that the State has is force, therefore religion taught by the State means religion by force. And if people can be saved by force, which is the principle of Church and State, then the more force is used, the more surely will the people be saved. That is the theory of the Spanish Inquisition, but it is needless to say that it has not the slightest connection with the Gospel.

July 13, 1893

"Front Page" The Present Truth 9, 15.

E. J. Waggoner

"Let not mercy and truth forsake thee; bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart; so shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man." Prov. iii. 3, 4.

"In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." Prov. iii. 7. To knowledge God is to acknowledge that He has all wisdom, all power, all goodness. And that means to acknowledge that we lack all those things, and are dependent on Him for them. That means meekness and submission; and the promise is, "The meek will He teach His way." Thus acknowledging God in all our ways will make our ways such as God Himself will acknowledge.

"Character and Reputation" The Present Truth 9, 15.

E. J. Waggoner

Character and Reputation.-Character is what a man really is; reputation is what others think him to be. There is a vast difference between the two. A man may have a brilliant reputation and a most vicious character. This is very common. On the other hand, a man may have no reputation and an excellent character. Most people think more of having a good reputation than they do of having a good character. With our reputation we have nothing to do; if we take care to have a good character, our reputation will take care of itself. But those who are very jealous for their reputation, devoting all their attention to shielding it, are certain to deteriorate in character. The reason is that character is reality, while reputation is only appearance; and he who spends his whole time "keeping up appearances" will have no time to keep up the realities. The only absolutely perfect character ever known on this earth, "made Himself of no reputation," and He says to us, "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake." Matt. v. 11. "Let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evil-doer, or as a busy-body in other men's matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christians, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf." 1 Peter iv. 15, 16.

"The Fruits of Righteousness" The Present Truth 9, 15.

E. J. Waggoner

"And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God." Phil. i. 9-11.

The fruits of righteousness are righteous fruits. These fruits are by Jesus Christ, as He says: "I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. . . . Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the branches; He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without [apart from] Me ye can do nothing." John xv. 1-5.

The last verse quoted shows clearly that the fruit borne by the branch that abides in Christ, is deeds of righteousness. The statement is that whoever abides in Christ brings forth much fruit, while separate from Him we can do nothing. Doing nothing is made equivalent to not bearing fruit. So then bearing fruit in the vine is identical with doing something. There is nothing more passive than the bearing of fruit; and yet there is nothing in which more intense activity is shown than in a fruitful vine or tree. The tree can do nothing to make itself bear fruit, yet the bearing of fruit is a period of activity.

In Gal. v. 22, 23 we have the fruits of righteousness spoken of as the fruit of the Spirit. These are, "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." The fruits which are by Jesus Christ are the fruits of the Spirit, for Christ said of the Spirit, "He shall glorify Me; for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you." John xvi. 14. This glorifying Christ is in the fruit that is borne of the Spirit; for the glory of Christ and the glory of the Father are the same, and Jesus said: "Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit."

In the fifth of Galatians we have it made very plain that the fruits of righteousness are active deeds. In verses 19-21 we have a list of "the works of the flesh," which are "adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like." And the apostle says, "they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Then in direct contrast with these he places "the fruit of the Spirit," which consists of deeds of a directly opposite nature to the works of the flesh. One set is active wickedness, and the other is active righteousness.

Moreover, the apostle follows the

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list of the fruits of the Spirit with the statement, "against such there is no law." That means that they are in harmony with law. As the works of the flesh are violations of law, the fruit of the Spirit is obedience to law.

Evil deeds are called works, because they are done for the purpose of getting a gain, although the doer is grievously disappointed in his wages; "for the wages of sin is death." Rom. vi. 23. But righteous deeds are those that are done with no thought of self, but as the manifestation of the life and love of God in the heart; and the doer receives, not wages, but a free gift; for "the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

There is one most encouraging thing in connection with bearing the fruits of righteousness, and that is that the Lord does not cut off the branch that bears only a little fruit. On the contrary, He encourages it, by giving to it the best conditions for bearing more fruit. In the thirteenth of Luke we have a parable, which is represented by a man with a fig tree in his vineyard, to which for three years he has come looking for fruit. To the words, "Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?" the vine dresser says, "Let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it and dung it; and if it bear fruit, well; but if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down." When the man comes the next year, and finds that the tree has begun to bear fruit, although in a feeble manner, will he cut it down? No, indeed. If he would bear with it three years when it bore no fruit at all, he will certainly much more bear with it now. He will hail the indications of fruit with gladness, and will more thoroughly continue the work of pruning and dressing, "that it may bring forth more fruit."

So the Lord "is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." 2 Peter iii. 9. "A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax [dimly-burning wick] shall He not quench; He shall bring forth judgment unto truth." Isa. xlii. 3. "God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 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. 8-10.

"Fruit Trees Yielding Fruit" The Present Truth 9, 15.

E. J. Waggoner

"And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind; and God saw that it was good." Gen. i. 11, 12.

As we have already seen, righteousness is declared to be fruit that is borne by those who are abiding in Christ. We have not by any means exhausted the references in which the fruit-bearing is spoken of. "The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace." James iii. 18. "The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing." Ps. xcii. 12-14.

Fruit grows on trees and vines. Therefore as the righteousness of the saints is declared to be fruit, they themselves are called plants. Notice the text just above. They are rooted in Christ (Col. ii. 7), or are branches from Him as the vine. John xv. 5. So the Lord, in the parable of the vineyard, says, "The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah His pleasant plant." Isa. v. 7.

Again we read that the Spirit of the Lord anointed Jesus "To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them 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. lxi. 3.

In harmony with this, we are told that the bringing forth of righteousness is exactly like the bringing forth of natural fruit. "For 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 the nations." Isa. lxi. 11.

In like manner we read in the first psalm: "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 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." A man is like a tree in that his doings are fruits.

Still further, we have a striking likeness as presented in the fourth of Mark, verses 26-29: "And He said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth ripe, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come." This describes the growth of righteousness, because the kingdom of God "is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Rom. xiv. 17. Therefore as we have learned that the perfecting of righteousness is exactly like the bearing of fruit by the plants of the garden, let us look for a few minutes at

HOW PLANTS GROW

Three things are necessary to the growth of plants. These are, a good soil, good sunlight, and plenty of moisture, either from rain or dew, or from both. There is nothing more wonderful than the luxuriant growth of plants under these conditions. Without them, all the efforts of science and art are in vain. Yet we have all seen plants growing under very unfavourable conditions. We said that nothing is more wonderful than the luxuriance with which plants grow under favourable conditions; but really the most wonderful thing is that plants grow at all under some circumstances.

Who has not wondered to see the trees growing seemingly out of the very rocks on the mountain side? Who has not seen the tender plant pushing its way through the almost imperceptible crevices between the stones of the pavement? Who has not passed through a corn field and noticed the tender blades coming up under the most discouraging circumstances? Take, for instance, the case where the seed has been sown in heavy soil, and then the rain has come, followed by sunshine which has baked the earth before the seed sprung up. As you pass through the field you will see little cracks where the blade is forcing its way to the light of day. Here and there you will see a clod of earth standing on edge, and looking beneath you will see that it has been lifted up by a blade of corn. The clod will perhaps weigh several pounds, and the blade of corn only a few grains, yet the

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clod has to give way before it. The blade of corn will be so tender that if you pull it up it will not be able to stand alone. It cannot, when removed from that spot, bear up its own weight; yet it grows right along, pushing the heavy clod away from before it, as it needs the space, as though the weight upon it were nothing.

The same wonder is seen in the germination of the seed. Take for instance a nut, the shell of which is so hard that several sharp blows of a hammer in the hands of a strong man are scarcely sufficient to crack it; yet when the proper time comes the shell parts as easily and as gently as the opening of the rose bud. This is the same miracle that is seen afterwards in the tender plant pushing its way to the surface against the opposing forces of stones and heavy clods of earth.

There we have a remarkable exhibition of power. But whence comes that power? Does it reside in the plant itself? Is it a part of the outfit of the little corn that lies coiled up in the shell, so tiny that often it is invisible to the naked eye? Surely not. Scarcely anything could be weaker or more helpless. If anyone is asked what the power is He can only say that it is life. The power exhibited in the growing plant is the power of life. We can see the results of it, but we cannot see the life itself. No eye was ever yet formed that could discover anything in the tiny germ, or the tender blade, that would indicate the power that it afterwards manifests, or rather that is manifested in it.

For the power does not reside in the plant, as an inherent part of itself. In the beginning God spoke to the earth, saying: "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth; and it was so." Immediately the earth responded to the word of the Lord, and since that time it has been obedient to that word. "The word of God is living, and powerful." Heb. iv. 12. The words that the Lord speaks are Spirit and life. John vi. 63. The words of God are the breath of the Lord, and that is the breath of life. Therefore the life that is exhibited in the growing plant is the life of the word of the Lord. No other explanation can be given of the source of the power that we see in the things that are made. The apostle Paul expressly tells us that the eternal power of God is seen in the things that He has made. Rom. i. 20.

This is not by any means an ignoring of the statement that the plant grows because of moisture and sunlight. "For the Lord God is a sun and shield." Ps. lxxxiv. 11. The light which the sun gives is only a part of the glory of God. "The heavens declare the glory of God." Ps. xix. 1. "O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth! Who hast set Thy glory upon the heavens." Ps. viii. 1. So it is true in the most literal sense, that Christ is the Light of the world. His word also sends the rain upon the earth.

Plants grow, therefore, because of the voice of the Lord. In the beginning He spoke, and they came forth; and that same word continuing until this day, still causes them to grow. "He sendeth forth His commandment upon earth; His word runneth very swiftly. He giveth snow like wool; He scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes. He casteth forth His ice like morsels; who can stand before His cold? He sendeth out His word, and melteth them; He causeth His wind to blow, and the waters flow." Ps. cxlvii. 15-18. Thus we may see the direct power of God in all His works.

THE FULNESS OF GOD

The food materials that are in the soil, the light of the sun, and that dew and rain, which cause the plant to grow, are all from God. In the energy manifested in the plant we see the working of the life of God in it. Without Him nothing exists. All life is from God. He is both Creator and Father. His creating is begetting. "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God." Ps. xc. 2.

But although it is the life of God that is the life of all creatures, both animate and inanimate, there is endless variety in creation, because God is infinite. Not only are there many kinds of plants and animals, but no two of the same kind are exactly alike. "God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him, and to every seed His own body. All flesh is not the same flesh; but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another star in glory." 1 Cor. xv. 38-41. Since we have the statement that the firmament declares God's glory, which He has placed upon the heavens, we know that the apostle does not mean that the heavenly bodies get their glory from different sources, but that they each have a different measure of it. Yet each one is perfect in its glory; each one gives forth all the glory that it was designed to display.

So in the growth of plants. God has planned each one "after his kind." The life of God in the vine makes it perfect after its kind; the same life in the oak tree makes it perfect in its sphere. The vine can never become an oak, and yet the same life is in both. Each one, being filled with the life of God, grows to perfection, according to the purpose for which God designed it.

All inanimate creation is passive to the will of God, yet we do not see in the most perfect plant the perfection that was in the beginning, when "God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good." But this is not the fault of the plant. "The creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly." Rom. viii. 20. When man sinned, God said "Cursed is the ground for thy sake." Gen. iii. 17. And again, after Cain had murdered his brother: "When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength." Gen. iv. 12. This is the reason why we do not find perfection in anything. Yet the trees and plants afford the best illustration of the power of life of God.

Now just as God manifests His life in the plants, so He will in man, provided man will voluntarily be as passive as the plants are by nature. Man has the power and the right of choosing for himself; and if he chooses to allow the life of God to dwell in him, he will be made as perfect as a man, as the plant is as a plant. For the same life will dwell in them both; only just as the life of God makes a perfect vine and a perfect oak, so the same life in man will develop him into just the perfection that God designed for him.

A little thought will show that the life in man is the same as that in the plant. We have already seen that there is life and energy in the plant, that is not derived from itself, but must come directly from God. The same life that is in the growing plant is all stored up in the seed, to furnish

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either life for another plant, or for man. The grain is made into bread, and men eat and derive strength from it. A man becomes faint and at the point of death, through long fasting; he eats bread, and life comes to him. No one questions the fact that the new life which he feels comes directly from the bread; but the life in the bread is the life that was in the growing plants; and that was life from God. So whenever we sit down to the table we are as surely taking in the life of Christ as were the men who ate of the five loaves which in the hands of Christ became as many thousands.

FLESH AND SPIRIT

The careful reader will now imagine that he detects a fallacy. He will explain, "If what you say is true, then everybody must be good; then all those 'works of the flesh' must be in reality manifestations of the life of God; and therefore since God cannot deny Himself, it must be that all will be saved." Not so fast; there is no fallacy here; every man is partaker of the life of God, and yet all men will not be saved. Let us study a little further.

That every man is a partaker of the life of God, is expressly declared in the Scriptures. Inspiration has set the seal of approval to the statement of a heathen poet, that "we are His offspring;" and the apostle was speaking to a congregation of heathen when he said, "In Him we live, and move, and have our being." Acts xvii. 28, 29.

But let it not be forgotten that man differs from the plants and from beasts, in that he has perfect freedom and power of choice, and that in this is his pre-eminence over them. God Himself will not interfere with man's will. He will not bend nor break it; He will not in any way coerce it. God leaves man's will as free as His own. This is why there is in man the possibility of being a companion of God, and of associating with Him on terms of the closest intimacy. If God to the slightest degree coerced the will of man, then man would be to that extent the slave of God, and not the son and companion, and therefore could not spend eternity with Him; for "the bondservant abideth not in the house for ever; but the Son abideth ever." John viii. 35.

God pleads with man to submit his will to Him; He asks us to choose His will in place of our own, so that our wills may be the same, but when we do that, our will is still free.

Now just as we do not see God's life work complete perfection in the inanimate creation, through no fault of its own, so we do not see it work complete perfection in most men, and that because of their own wilfulness. The inanimate creation is subject to vanity unwillingly; man is subject to vanity of his own choice.

The plant and the beast cannot choose how the life of God shall develop them. Consequently the will of God concerning them is perfected, except in the measure wherein they are degraded through the sin of man.

But men can choose what the life of God shall work in them. If they choose to live only a fleshly life, that will be all that the life of God can develop in them. Their life, then, will be of the same nature as that of the beast; and as flesh is corruptible, enduring only for a little while, they are choosing only the limited existence of the beast. So "man that is in honour and understandeth not is like the beast that perish." Ps. xlix. 20. "Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning." Verse 14.

If, however, on the other hand, men submit themselves fully to Christ, His life will develop in them all the perfection which God in the beginning designed for them. What possibilities there are for man, the heights of attainment, no man has ever dreamed. Only God knows the thoughts He thinks toward man,-thoughts of good, and not of evil, to give him an expected end. But although man's possibilities of development are so great that only God's mind can comprehend them, if man will but voluntarily submit himself to the life of God as fully as the plant does involuntarily, he will be brought to that high state of perfection. The same life that brings the plant to its full measure as a physical plant, will make the man reach his highest destiny as a spiritual man.

In the beginning the life of God flowed freely through all things. Man gladly accepted God's will as his own, and so, of course, perfection was seen in all creation. That dominion is lost, but it is to be restored through Christ the Creator acting as Redeemer. Micah iv. 8. Christ died and went into the grave, and rose again and ascended into heaven, in order "that He might fill all things." Eph. iv. 8-10. So the possibility before men, even in this life, is thus stated: "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye being rooted and grounded in love" (note the characteristics of a plant), "may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." Eph. iii. 16, 19.

So the church, the body of Christ, consisting of all who abide in Christ, and allow Christ to abide in them, not as their physical life only, but as their wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption,-is "the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." Eph. i. 22, 23.

And when the time comes that God fills all in all, that is, when God is everything in everybody and in everything, then there will be no place for those who have chosen only the fleshly life, and have rejected the Spirit. "They shall be as though they had not been." Obadiah 16. Then God will be glorified in His saints, and in all creation, for there will be nothing that will not be the perfect expression of His own personality. Then "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 be heard saying, even though some of the created things have no voice, "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." Rev. v. 13.

"A Godly Life" The Present Truth 9, 15.

E. J. Waggoner

"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world." Titus ii. 11, 12. Godliness is of the character of God. The Scriptures declare it to be "profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." 1 Tim. iv. 8.

The character of God cannot be separated from His life. And the life of God is known only in Christ. Christ was good, for He "knew no sin;" (2 Cor. v. 21) He "did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." 1 Peter ii. 22. Yet to the young man who came to Him and called Him "Good Master," He said, "Why callest thou Me good? none is good save one, even God" (Mark x. 18), thus showing that He Himself was

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God. See also John i. 1, 14. To Philip, who said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us," He replied, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." John xiv. 8, 9. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself." 2 Cor. v. 19. Of His work He said, "The Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works." John xiv. 10. His life, therefore, was in the fullest sense a godly life. It is the life of Christ that saves us. Rom. v. 10. Not the simple fact that He once lived on earth, but the fact of His now living in us. He is a present Saviour. "Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is born of God." 1 John iv. 2. Note well that it does not speak about confessing that Jesus has come or did come in the flesh, but that He is come in the flesh. Through Christ dwelling in the heart by faith, the life also of Jesus is to be manifested in our mortal flesh (2 Cor. iv. 11) that so we may be filled with the fulness of God. Eph. iii. 17-19.

Christ's life on earth was a life of obedience. Said He, "I have kept My Father's commandments." John xvi. 10. Again, "I honour My Father," and, "I know Him, and keep His saying." John viii. 49, 55. He was subject to His earthly parents." Luke ii. 51. He came to save life and not to destroy. Luke x. 56. So far was He from taking that which was not His own, or even from coveting, that He gladly gave up His own, and did not think it a prize to be retained. Phil. ii. 5-7. No guile was in His mouth, for He was the embodiment of truth. "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth." John xviii. 37.

He also kept the Sabbath day, namely the seventh day of the week, the same day that the Pharisees professed to keep. Although they found fault with Him for His acts of mercy on that day, they well knew that He was not violating the Sabbath, but only disregarding their senseless and wicked traditions. They were constantly on His track seeking for something of which they might accuse Him to the rulers, yet they found nothing; and when at last He was betrayed into their hands, they had to bribe the false witnesses against Him. It was His custom to attend service on the Sabbath day. Luke iv. 16. As for Sunday, the first day of the week, no one has ever yet been found with the hardihood to claim that He ever paid any more attention to it than to any other working day.

Therefore the life of God, which Christ will live in us if we allow Him, will be a life of obedience to the commandments. There will be manifested in it obedience to parents, truthfulness, reverence, unselfishness, gentleness, together with Sabbath keeping not merely in form, but in fact. Since there was no Sunday observance in the life of Christ, it is impossible for Him to put any of it into the lives of His followers. Where that is exhibited in the life and it shows a lack of perfect submission to the life of Christ, although that lack of submission may not be intentional, but may arise from failure to recognise Sabbath keeping as part of His life.

But some one says, "The keeping of the seventh-day Sabbath was part of Christ's life as a Jew, and we are not saved by Christ as a Jew." Listen: Jesus Himself said, "Salvation is of the Jews." John iv. 22. His truthfulness, obedience to parents, reverence, gentleness, etc., were also a part of His life as a Jew. Shall we cast them aside? If we do, we shall simply be denying Christ.

Just think what it means to say that we are saved by Christ's life, but not by His life as a Jew. It charges Christ Jesus with having two different lives, that is, of having two characters; with being changeable. Yet when a man is one thing in one place and another thing in another place, he is lightly esteemed. Even so must Christ be held in light esteem by those who think He lived any differently on earth, saving His poverty, than He did or does live in heaven.

No; Jesus Christ is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." Heb. xiii. 8. The life which He lived on earth was the life of God, and with Him there is "no variableness neither shadow of turning." James i. 17. To say that every portion of Christ's earthly life is not necessary for us, is to say that a part of God is of no consequence.

Christ lived on earth to give us a living example of the life of God, so that we may know to what we should submit, that He may live it in us. He left us an example, that we should follow in His steps. 1 Peter ii. 21. Christ is not divided, and therefore we must take Him as a whole. When we take Him we shall not at first know all that there is in His life. Indeed we shall never be able to fathom the depths of His character. But we have such confidence in Him that we take Him on trust for all that may be revealed to us in Him, as well as for what we see in Him. Who will make this complete surrender to Him, that He may fill them with the fulness of His life, and at last bring them to enjoy that life in immortality?

"England and the Virgin" The Present Truth 9, 15.

E. J. Waggoner

In the sermon of "reconsecration" of England to the Virgin Mary and to Peter, was the following passage:-

"And now a few words on the act to be made to-day. I observe, then, that it is not a mere act of personal devotion. It has been announced as an act by which the Catholic Church in England consecrates Our Lady and St. Peter not merely its own actual members, but the whole of England. Are we competent to perform an act like this, we who for only a minority, and even a small minority of the nation? I reply that what would be certainly presumptuous and ridiculous in a modern sect, well befits the ancient Church that brought England to the faith, and held it in the unity of the faith for a thousand years. If she has been deposed from her throne by force and cruelty, she has never ceased to claim the nation as her appanage. This reason would hold good though some entirely new act were in contemplation. But, in fact, the national act was performed long since by the king of England and his united people. England then gave herself in free oblation to Our Lady. What we now ask, and what the Catholic Church throughout England is about to ask, is that our dear Lady would enter again into full possession of her ancient dowry.

"One other thing we must not forget. Devotion in this wretched world must ever mean reparation and expiation. As the procession of Corpus Christi was a reparation for the blasphemies of Berengarius, and afterwards of the Hussites and the Lollards, so, too, the consecration of England to Our Lady coincided with the outbreak of Wickliffe's impieties against her, and was quickened by those insults."

Thus it appears that the act of consecrating or as it is called, of "reconsecrating" England to the Virgin, is a step in the recovery of the power which the Catholic Church once had in this kingdom, and which she regards as lawfully hers still. Of course the ceremony itself is only a pious farce, since the Virgin Mary and Peter are both dead hundreds of years ago, and know nothing of what is going on, and would be no party to it if they were alive. But it is intended to quicken the zeal of Catholics, who believe that the dead are more alive than ever, and that Peter, if he were alive, would consent to be made lord over God's heritage. Let the reader now couple with the reference to the reformation under Wickliffe and Huss, the following which appeared in the Tablet of Oct. 1, 1887. It was published beneath

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the Papal arms, and was entitled, "a letter of our Holy Father Pope Leo XIII. the Bishops of Italy, on the Rosary:-

"Since God has called us to govern His church on earth, we have sought to use every possible means that we deemed suitable, for the sanctification of souls, and the extension of the reign of Jesus Christ. We have excepted from our daily solicitude no nation and no people, mindful that our Redeemer and His precious blood on the cross, and opened the reign of grace and of glory for all. None, however can be surprised that we showed special care for the Italian people, for our Divine Master Jesus Christ chose, from out all the world, Italy to be the seat of His Vicar on earth, and in His providential designs appointed Rome to be the capital of the Catholic world. On this account the Italian people are called upon to live close to the Father of the whole Christian family, and to share in a special way in his sorrows and his glory. Unfortunately we find in Italy much to sadden our souls. Faith and Christian morals, the precious inheritance it bequeathed by our ancestors, and in all past time the glory of our country and of Italy's great ones, are being attacked artfully and in covert ways, or even openly, with a cynicism that is revolting, by a handful of men who seek to rob others of that faith and morality they themselves have lost. In this more especially is seen the work of the sects, and of those who are more or less their willing tools. Above all, in this city of Rome, where Christ's Vicar has his See, are their efforts concentrated, and their diabolical designs displayed with ferocious obstinacy. We need not tell you, venerable brethren, with what bitterness our soul is filled at seeing the danger there is for the salvation of so many of our beloved children. And our sorrow is greater because we find it impossible to oppose such great evil with that salutary efficacity we would desire, and have the right to use; for you know, venerable brethren, and all the world knows, the state to which we are reduced. On this account we feel a still greater desire to call upon the Mother of God, and to ask her help. And our most lively and sure hope is placed in the Queen of the Rosary, who has shown herself, since she has been invoked by that title, so ready to help the church and Christian peoples in their necessities. Already have we recorded these glories, and the great triumphs won over the Albigenses and other powerful enemies, glories and triumphs which have not only profited the church afflicted and persecuted, but also of the temporal welfare of peoples and nations. Why in this hour of need should we not behold again such marvels of the power and goodness of the August Virgin, for the good of the church and its Head, and of the whole Christian world, if the faithful only revive on their part the magnificent examples of piety given by their forefathers under similar circumstances."

The reader will notice that the horrors inflicted upon the Albigenses, by which a province was depopulated, are by Leo XIII. termed glorious victories, and are said to have been gained under the patronage of the Virgin.

Note also that the Pope mourns the spread of heresy, and the fact that he has not now the power to use those "salutary" means which he desires, and which he claims the right to use, in order to check the spread of error. It is for this reason that he calls on the Virgin, that she may restore to him the power which he used so effectively in the case of the Albigenses.

Can the reader now have any difficulty in seeing why England is put under the special patronage of the Virgin? Can there be any doubt as to the meaning of the ceremony recently performed? We well know that most people will laugh at the suggestion; but Rome likes nothing better than that people should laugh at her movements, if they do not believe. The carelessness with which Romish assumption is regarded in these days is regarded as an evidence of freedom from the bigotry which Protestants once exhibited. It is thought to show that the world is getting more tolerant. But the fact remains that Rome is not growing more tolerant. She has not changed since the days of the Albigenses; and the carelessness with which professed Protestants view her encroachments, is evidence only of the fact that professed Protestantism has receded from the standard of the Reformation, and is unconsciously assimilating to Rome. A marked instance of the Papal spirit in professed Protestantism was afforded in the position which the churches of the United States took in regard to the Sunday closing of the World's Fair, when a meeting of the Evangelical Alliance desired President Cleveland to compel Sunday closing with the aid of troops.

The designs of the Pope upon England which are obvious enough, are not such as can be thwarted by legislation. Appeals to the patriotism of Englishmen will effect nothing. It is not a question of patriotism but of Christianity. The fact that the churches did not seem to regard the appeal to arms, that was made by the Evangelical Alliance of Boston, as a very serious matter, is evidence that the spirit of the Papacy has permeated them to an alarming extent. Nothing can oppose the progress of Rome, but the "preparation of the Gospel of peace," and a love of the truth as it is in Jesus.

"One Word, One Spirit" The Present Truth 9, 15.

E. J. Waggoner

One Word, One Spirit.-He who would derive any real food from the Bible must study it as the word of God, and not as the word of man, believing that "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. There are many writers of the Bible, and only one Spirit. The various writings do not make many different books, but one complete, harmonious book. It is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable; he who believes it will be thoroughly furnished unto all good works. And as it is all profitable, He who doubts any part of it will be lacking in some essential. Indeed, since it is one book instead of many, he who disbelieves a part of it, throws discredit upon the whole, and thus cuts himself off from the profit to be derived from it.

"The Fakirs of India" The Present Truth 9, 15.

E. J. Waggoner

There are three millions of these fakirs in India. Some of them are Hindus and some of them are Mohammedans.

They do not shave, so their hair grows very long and they often coil its filthy links into ropes, and wind them about their arms. "They do not have homes but wander about from one place to another, either without any clothes at all or else in the poorest rags they can get, and with both their rags and their bodies as dirty as they can be. Sometimes they torment themselves with human bones." They never earn anything themselves but are beggars, living on what is given them.

"Mohammedan Fakirs are not pleasant men to meet, for they think it is a very good thing to kill an 'unbeliever,' whenever they get the chance. They do their best to imitate madmen, and succeed so well that often they end by going mad themselves. Sometimes they sit for years together looking at a stone wall, and say they are trying to forget everything but God; sometimes they live in cages; and some of them clench their fists as tightly as they can, and keep them so, till their nails grow through their hands, or they tie their hands and feet together, and roll thousands of miles instead of walking.

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The Mohammedan Fakirs do more of this kind of thing than the Hindu; and even little children are taught to give themselves up to such a life as this."

"They go on pilgrimages to holy places: if they are Hindus, to the Ganges, or to some of the great temples; if they are Mohammedans, to Arabia, either to Mecca, where Mohammed was born, or to Medina, where he was buried."

At the melas or yearly festivals may be seen different kinds of fakirs, some with matted hair and beards, others with large bonnet-shaped head coverings; others with a wild expression upon their faces which tell that they are far from being holy or perfect.

"Some fakirs make a vow of perpetual silence, and seldom, if ever, open their lips in conversation; some wander from place to place, never remaining long in any locality; others take up their abode by some river or temple, or under some sacred tree, and never stir; many smear their bodies with dust and ashes, and present a frightful appearance as they walk about;" again others have their ears split, and wear large wooden or bone earrings.

"Some take to this profession from sheer laziness, preferring to wander through the country begging, to honest work, while others give up pleasant homes, thinking by such self-denial to win the favour of God" and obtain pardon and holiness.

"A fakir, near Benares, said that from childhood he had wished to know about God. He read his sacred books to see what they could tell him, but did not find what he wanted there. At the age of eighteen he became a fakir and went away into the jungle, there to think about God. Finding the solitude and danger of this life still gave him no light, he hollowed out a pit beneath the floor of his hut and for two years sat there, seeing neither sun nor moon. His mother was his only visitor, but even to her he did not speak. After this He sat alone for twenty-two years outside a certain village, hoping that God would show Himself to him there. But, after all this, he still sadly confessed, 'I do not know God, and I do not know the way of peace.'"

One missionary says, "One day we went to a village called Little Calcutta, situated on the banks of the Ganges. As we walked down to the sacred river, we were surprised to see a man who had his home in a box which floated upon water. The box was about six feet square, and was set in a native boat shaped like a canoe. It was a novel sight, and so we approached the man, whom we recognised as a fakir, and began talking to him. His one desire was to obtain deliverance from sin, and for this reason he had given up the world and become a fakir. He had lived twenty years in a dry well, the people bringing him food and water; but this had failed to give him peace. He then made this box, and took up his abode in it, floating about on the sacred river. Twenty years more were thus passed, and still he felt that the load of sin had not been taken away."

He was between eighty and ninety years old. A wonderful change has taken place in him since then. The darkness of sin has given way, and the light of God's word has shown into the old man's heart, shedding abroad the peace and joy which only Christians know. He has found that when he goes at it in the right way, when he stops trying to save himself and trust alone in Jesus, Jesus is able to save even to the uttermost all that come to God by Him. Although a hundred years old, his eye is not dim, and his voice is strong and clear, as he goes about with his Bible telling of the power of Christ to save.

"You Cannot Save Yourself" The Present Truth 9, 15.

E. J. Waggoner

"I was quietly sitting in my tent door," says Rev. E. T. Pegg, "and an Indian of rather good caste came up to me, and we talked of Christ. He said that three months ago his wife died, and the priest told him that if He wished to obtain pardon for her sins he must wander about the fields, and enter house for three months. He did so; it being the rainy season, he fell ill, had a fever, and came to me nearly dead. His furniture had all been stolen. He said he could not trust in heathenism any longer." And no wonder that he could not trust in such works any longer. What good have they done him? Learn a lesson from this poor Indian and from the fakirs. You cannot make yourself good, and you cannot make your friends good; you cannot save yourself, and you cannot save your friends.

The very best works that you could ever do would be only your works, and it is God's works that you must have. He says that His ways are as much higher than your ways as the heavens are higher than the earth. So you see how impossible it is for you to make yourself good and save yourself.

There is only one way that you can get the goodness and salvation of God: Jesus says, "I am the way."

God is not pleased when you try some other way. It grieves Him when you try to work it out for yourself, or try to buy it from Him, for He has offered it to you as a free gift. He has given you His only Son Jesus, and if you will only take Him into your heart, you will find everything that you need to save you, for in Him is wisdom, righteousness (goodness of God), salvation, and eternal life. If you will invite Jesus in and allow Him to stay and use you to do His ways, willingly giving up your ways, you will be saved.

Do not wait one moment thinking that you must make yourself good before you invite Jesus in. He knows just how naughty and weak and wicked you are, and how impossible it is for you to do one good thing without Him. He therefore stands at the door and knocks and pleads for you to let Him in now, just as you are, that He may do for you what you cannot do for yourself.

Jesus is the only way, and His is the only name under heaven given among men whereby you can be saved.

"The Best Book" The Present Truth 9, 15.

E. J. Waggoner

"Every word of God is pure." Prov. xxx. 5.

Last week we talked about the trees, grass, flowers, birds, animals, sunshine, and many other beautiful things that we see when we go out of the house.

This week we shall talk about a certain thing that we see in the house. It can tell you who made the grass and animals and just how they were made. It is a wonderful book called the "Holy Bible," and it can tell you all about these and many other things of which you would like to know. Ask someone to please open it and read the first chapter to you.

The first chapter in the Bible says that God, who lives up above the stars in heaven, is the One who made the sun, moon, and stars, the flowers, birds, and animals, and all living things.

In Ephesians the third chapter and Colossians the first chapter we also read that God created "all things by Jesus Christ" His Son, "all things that are in heaven, and that are in earth, seen and unseen." "For it please the Father that in Him [the Son] should all fulness dwell." And in Hebrews the Father says to the Son, "Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows."

No man hath seen God at any time; but the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared, or made Him known to us. So we need not be afraid to trust Him, for Jesus has come down to the earth and shown us that God is so powerful, and wise, and good, and loving, and kind, that among the gods there is none like Him, neither are there any works like unto His works, but He is God alone.

And yet God says that "all should honour the Son even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which sent Him." And "unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." "And again when He bringeth in the first begotten into the world, He saith, And let the angels of God worship Him." In Hebrews we read that God "hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds, who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person," upholds all things by the word of His power, and is set down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Now there are many books in the world but all of them together are not worth so much as this one book-the Bible-which introduces us to the God who made the heavens and the earth. It is the only book that is perfectly good and perfectly pure, because it is the only book that comes to us from God Himself. It came not as other books, by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. It is therefore God's word to us, and can have nothing wrong in it. When it says that God made the grass and flowers, we may believe every word that it says about it.

The word "Bible" means book. It is the "Holy Bible" (Holy Book), because Jesus by His Holy Spirit dwells in it. Jesus is so holy that His very presence makes a place holy. The Bible is therefore the purest and the best book in the whole world.

It is the most wonderful book of all for by studying it and believing it and receiving it in our hearts we receive the pure and lovely Jesus in our hearts, because He dwells in it. Thus it can take from us every naughty thing; for naughtiness cannot stay where Jesus is.

1. Have you found out who caused the pretty flowers and grasses and animals to grow?

2. Who was it?

3. Where only can we find out all about it?

4. What is the Bible?

5. Who sent it to us?

6. Then what kind of book is it-a good book, or a bad book?

7. Why is it a good book?-Because it is the Word of God, and God is good.

8. How are other books written? By the will of man.

9. How was the Bible written?-By the will of God, holy men wrote only as they were guided by the Spirit of God.

10. Then whose word is it?

11. Therefore when it says that God made the grass and every living thing, what may we believe?

12. Is it always safe to believe what other books say? Why not?

13. Why may we believe all that the Bible says? Prov. xxx. 5.

14. If we really receive God's Word into our hearts, what a wonderful change will it work in us? Why?

15. Can any other book do so much for us?

16. Then which is the best book in the whole world?

17. Has any one ever seen God?

18. Then how can we know Him?-By knowing Jesus. John xiv. 6, 7; i. 18.

19. What does the Father call Him?-God. Heb. i. 8.

20. What did He tell the angels to do?-To worship Him. Heb. i. 6.

21. How does He command us to honour Him? John v. 23.

22. By whom did God create all things? Eph. iii. 9; Col. i. 16.

"What Do You Think About?" The Present Truth 9, 15.

E. J. Waggoner

The Lord says that as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he; and the same is true of a little child.

You become like the things which you think about. If you get into the habit of looking at bad pictures, pictures of battles, of murders, of impurity, you will think about them and began to love such things, and ere long you will be doing such things yourself.

If you learn to read silly books you will become silly. If you read novels or books that are not true, you will lose all love for true things, and your mind will become like a sieve, which allows whatever is good and useful to escape, and keeps only a mass of coarse and useless rubbish.

Then if you would become pure and noble you must choose good companions, good pictures, good books, and good plays, yes, and good food and drink, and helpful clothing. Rich food and fiery drinks and unhealthful clothing cause you to have bad thoughts as surely as bad books.

Remember that in the Bible you may find the best book, the best companions, the noblest pictures, the purest water, the most heavenly dress, and the only living bread. If your greatest pleasure is found in reading and thinking of its wondrous works, your thoughts will grow more and more Christlike, and so will your words and actions; for as a man thinketh, so is he.

Please learn this little verse"-

"Bad thought's a thief; He acts a part,

Creeps through the windows of the heart,

And if he wants has his way can win,

He lets a hundred robbers in."

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 15.

E. J. Waggoner

-The new constitution granting Natal responsible Government has been proclaimed.

-A freehold estate of 297 acres in Essex was sold on the fourth for £560, or 37s. an acre.

-The city of Seville, Spain, is kept in a state of constant alarm by the petard explosions which are continually occurring.

-During the past 20 years, the Lord Mayors of London have collected £20,000,000 for charitable and benevolent purposes.

-A Bill has been presented to the Reichstag on behalf of the members of the Centre in favour of the revocation of the decree of expulsion against the Jesuits.

-As a result of the recent rich discovery of gold near Coolgardie, Western Australia, people are flocking to the scene in large numbers.

-A seamen's strike in connection with the Federated Union has been declared at Sydney. Many vessels have been detained in consequence.

-During the month of June the loss of twenty-seven British vessels, with a tonnage of 12,378, was reported to the Board of Trade. The loss of life involved was 57.

-Anti-Christian troubles are said to have broken out in China, at a place sixty miles from Hankow, and two Swedish missionaries are reported to have been murdered.

-A colliery explosion occurred July 4 in a mine at Thornhill, a suburb of Dewsbury, Yorkshire, by which over a hundred miners lost their lives. The cause of the explosion is unknown.

-The Earl of Rosberry has informed the House of Lords that although the Turkish Court of Cassation has confirmed the sentence upon the Armenian professors, they will be pardoned and sent out of the country.

-According to Mr. Gladstone's resolution, which has been carried, allotting a specified time for the different clauses of the Home Rule Bill, the committee stage of the Bill, is to close altogether on July 27.

-Later reports show that the collision of the Camperdown and Victoria, by which the latter together with nearly 400 men was sent to the bottom of the sea, was due to a blunder on the part of Admiral Tryon, who also went down.

-The Paris students of the Latin quarter have come into collision with the police, and serious riots have occurred. That portion of the city was in a state of siege. The number of killed is not definitely known, but hundreds have been wounded.

-From Maloroshovaya news comes that six Stundist families there have been fined some far above their means, and that the police have taken from them their bedding and clothes, which will be sold by auction unless the fines are paid at once.

-The loss to the agricultural wealth of India this year from rinderpest alone, exceeds 46,000,000 sterling. Rinderpest is increasing among cattle yearly. People who subsist on the fruits and grains that God made for the food of man, are much safer than those who eat animals.

-Socialist disturbances are again reported from Bohemia. A force of infantry and cavalry was called out to assist the gendarmes and police, and many of the rioters were wounded with bayonet thrusts and sabre cuts. Ninety persons, including a number of women, were arrested.

-Owing to the depreciation in silver the mine owners in Colorado have decided to close every mine in the State. Thirty thousand men will, it is expected, be thrown out of work in consequence. It has also been decided to close the Broken Hill Mine, Victoria, and it is probable that the Chilian silver mines will likewise be closed.

-The glacier of Devdorak, on Mount Kazbek, one of the highest peaks of the Central Caucasus, is causing great alarm in Vladikavkaz and all along the course of the Terek river. Its movement downwards has recently been greatly accelerated, and there is great danger that in a very short time it will temporarily dam the Terek, and divert a vast body of water on the plains where Vladikavkaz stands. So great is the alarm that numbers of people are leaving the lower part of the town for higher levels.

-Violent measures against the Stundist Protestants of the province of Kherson are reported from Tiraspol. Six men, leaders of the movement, have been summarily arrested in Yoshitski by the local commissary of police. For the first two days of their incarceration they were kept together without food, and it is stated that the police and village authorities came and made game of them, enjoying their hunger, and flinging the most opprobrious epithets at them.

-Archbishop Alarcon has presented the National Museum at the City of Mexico with a stone head of an idol, which, until its discovery by some Roman Catholic missionaries a short time ago, was still being worshipped by the Indians in the State of Merelos. The head was on a statue of immense size covered with a crocodile's hide. Those who worshipped it were only poor Indians; the Archbishop should come to London, and he could make a large collection of idols for a Museum. Only two weeks ago professed images of Peter and the Virgin Mary, six foot high, were worshipped by crowds of people in the Oratory at Brompton.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 15.

E. J. Waggoner

Some time ago the committee of Convocation rendered a report favouring Sunday opening of museums, etc., and it was thought that the church was going to place itself in opposition to a strict observance of Sunday. But the Bishops have indefinitely postponed the consideration of the subject, and the lower House has passed a resolution against it. The Sunday institution is going to be exalted instead of being made to occupy a lower place.

"If prejudice and ignorance could be removed from the world, the Gospel might make rapid strides." That is the same as saying that if sin could be removed from the earth, the Gospel might make rapid strides. "But," some one will say, "if sin were removed from the world, there would be no need of the Gospel." Exactly; and that would be the case if wicked prejudice and ignorance were removed. Prejudice, and the ignorance that arises from it, is sin, and the work of the Gospel is to remove sin, and not to wait for sin to be removed by force, so that it can have a chance. "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. 4, 5.

The representative of the Christian Commonwealth has had an interview with Dr. B. W. Richardson, and in the course of the conversation asked the Doctor (who, by the way, is not Sir Benjamin) if he had any faith in any of the alleged cures for drunkenness. The Doctor replied:-

"Oh, no! none whatever; in my opinion they are quite impostures. There is no cure for inebriety but total abstinence. Of that I am quite sure. There is no reason to suppose that it should be otherwise. Alcohol produces a constitution of its own, it remains long in the body after a man has commenced to be an abstainer, and so long as it is there the craving is there-the desire for itself. There is a sort of mental attraction for it, which goes on until the thing is entirely eliminated from the body; then the taste for it if forgotten, and the body itself is reconstituted out of healthy material. Then you have your healthy abstainer, and even he is not so sound as a person who has never from the beginning of his life tasted alcohol."

The fact that Jesus has done everything for man is sometimes perverted. It is often said that as He fulfilled the law, keeping it for us, we have nothing whatever to do with it. That is the same as saying that because He always told the truth, we may lie with impunity; that as He honoured the Father, we are free to dishonour Him. No greater error could be conceived. It is true that He fulfilled all of the law, but it was in order "that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us." Rom. viii. 3. It is true that He kept the law for us, but it was that He might keep it in us. We are "saved by His life," but not unless we have His life. And if we have His life we shall have all the obedience to the law that was in it; for He has not changed, but lives the same life to-day that He did eighteen hundred or six thousand years ago.

A man sits in his room, looking out over the country with a telescope. Away he sees a traveller crossing the plain. The traveller can see but a few rods before him, while the man with the telescope can see for miles ahead of him, and can note all the difficulties or pleasant places in the way. Now the fact that the man with a telescope sees what the traveller is coming to does not oblige the man to come to them. It has no effect upon him in any way whatever. Even so the foreknowledge of God does not affect the destiny of man. God knows the end of everything from the beginning, not because He studies it out, but because He is God. He inhabits eternity, and everything is present with Him. The thing a thousand years in the future is as much present with Him as a thing of to-day. Man by searching cannot understand God, and we are not called upon to explain all His acts; but we may trust Him, knowing that "He doeth all things well."

At its last meeting, the Peace Society passed a resolution disapproving of the influence and tendency of the Boys' Brigade. It has all along been denied that the Brigade tended to foster a disposition on the part of the boys to follow a soldier's life; but this has not changed. At the last meeting of the Brigade, the chairman admitted that some of the boys had entered the army, and justified it on the ground that so long as the country has an army, no one can object to its being recruited from the best material. Facts will ultimately demonstrate what any thoughtful person might know at once, that giving boys a military training is no part of Christianity, even though it be done under the name of church work.

The same principle that would justify the churches training boys for the army, and the Boys' Brigade, because the army ought to be recruited from the best material, would justify the church and Sunday-school in training boys for jockeys, gamblers, publicans, etc., on the ground that since those professions exist it is better to have them filled by Christians, so that they may be transformed. The true followers of Christ are in the world but not of the world. When the church enters into any kind of partnership with the world, it at once loses its converting power, and instead of bringing the world up to its standard it sinks to the level of the world.

It is getting to be quite a favourite idea among professed Christians that the work of the church lies largely in the region of politics. "Christians must enter politics, in order to purify them," is the cry. Must Christians keep gambling dens and public houses in order to purify them? Many men have tried it, and found that it worked the other way. The "purifying" of politics is expected to be accomplished by the passing of "Christian" laws. But everybody knows that the man who wishes any favourite measure passed, must adopt "political methods;" and when that is done, the agent of purity himself becomes the tool of corruption. There is a curse pronounced in the Scripture upon those who say, "Let us do evil that good may come."

Christians are the salt of the earth. That means that they are to have a saving, purifying influence on the world. But that does not mean that they are to become a part of the world, and to adopt the ways of the world, salt must remain salt, if it is to do any good. If we use it to preserve meat, we do not want it to turn to meat, but to retain its distinctive character. The church is not going to overcome the world by using the weapons of the world. The Gospel is the power of God, not the power of man; and God's ways are as much different from man's ways as the heavens are different from the earth.

July 20, 1893

"Front Page" The Present Truth 9, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

"Jesus answering saith unto them, 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 which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith."

Many people do not believe that statement, because they have wanted some things very much, and have not obtained them. Others have attempted such seemingly impossible things as removing mountains, and have failed. And yet the word is true. The only trouble is that people do not observe the conditions. They forget that the promise is not that a man shall have the thing simply because he thinks he wants it, nor simply to amuse him or gratify his vanity. He is to have it only in response to his faith.

"Well," says one, "I tried as hard as I could to have faith, but it didn't do any good; I didn't get what I asked for." Of course not; the fact that you tried to have faith shows that you didn't have any. Faith is not credulity, nor is it the imagination. It is not an effort to make yourself believe something that may or may not be so. It is the simple acceptance of a fact, and the acting upon it as a fact, although it is unseen. Faith deals only in facts. There is nothing uncertain about it. It simply enables a person to grasp unseen things, and to know things of which he would otherwise be ignorant.

"Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Rom. x. 17. Where there is no word of God, there can be no faith. His promise is what faith is built upon. So when the Lord says that if we shall say to a mountain, "Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea," and shall have perfect faith, with no doubt in the heart, it shall be done, He does not mean that our action is to be based on a freak of fancy, but on a word from the Lord. He can speak to us by His word concerning the things that personally concern us, as well as He could to Enoch, Abraham, or David. Knowing that His word cannot fail, we do not make an effort to believe in it, but believe without trying. Nobody has to make an effort to believe what he knows to be true. And when God has not spoken a thing, we ought not to want to believe. He who acts upon this principle will find that faith always brings its object.

"A Better Way" The Present Truth 9, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

A Better Way.-The three men who were imprisoned in 1887 on a charge of complicity in the Anarchist riot in Chicago, and of the murder of policemen, and who have just received a pardon, have pledged themselves to have nothing more to do with anarchists. Following is a portion of a reported interview with Fielden:-

"Six years in prison," said he, "give a man a chance to change his mind."

"In what respect have your views on social subjects changed?"

"That would require a long time to answer. Certainly there is much wrong in the world that needs to be righted, but violence is not the way."

That man has discovered a great truth. No wrongs righted by force. Truth must win its way by its own inherent truthfulness. He who, even with the best of intentions, attempts to correct evils by force, only adds to the evil. There are many professed Christians whose zeal might well learn a lesson from the sometime anarchist. God does not need human force to carry on His work. On the contrary, His work is hindered by it; for "the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." "The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace."

"The evil cannot brook delay;

The good can well afford to wait."

"The Love of God" The Present Truth 9, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

"And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." Rom. v. 5. Note that it does not say that love for God is shed abroad in our hearts, but that the love of God is shed abroad. The latter does not exclude loving God, but embraces it, and means much more. He who has the love of God shed abroad in his heart, will most certainly love God, for He will be of the same nature as God. The love of God is the love that God has; and since God is love, we can have His love in our hearts only by having Him to dwell there. The Spirit of God brings the loving life of God into our hearts, and makes it a part of us.

When God dwells in the heart, His will must reign there. His will then will be ours. In the second chapter of Romans we learn what the will of God is. "Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law." Verses 17, 18. God's law is His will, for they who are instructed out of the law know His will. So then, He who has the love God in his heart, has the law of God there, even as Christ, who said, "I delight to do Thy will, O My God; yea, Thy law is within My heart." Ps. xl. 8.

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This is also plainly indicated in 1 John v. 2, 3: "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous." Put this with Rom. v. 5, and we find that to have the love of God shed abroad in our hearts, is to have the keeping of the commandments there. This is the work that God has convenanted to do, for He says, "I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts." Jer. xxxi. 33.

Again we learn that there are two possible states for men,-carnal and spiritual. These are directly opposite states. See Rom. viii. 4-8; Gal. v. 16-18. "The carnal mind is enmity against God; for is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Therefore the spiritual mind is one that is subject to the law of God. "For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal." Rom. vii. 14. Wherever the Spirit of God is, there must be the law of God; and that law is love.

Love and true charity are the same. In the Revised Version we find the word "love," where in the old we find "charity." Now remembering that "this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments," and "love is the fulfilling of law," let us read the description of love, or, in other words, of the law of God. We find it in 1 Cor. xiii. 4-7:-

"Love suffereth long and is kind, love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, it is not puffed up, doth not behaved itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh no account of evil; rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."

To keep the commandments of God, therefore, is to be patient, cheerful, loving, kind, gentle, truthful, courteous, and meek. In fact, it is to have every good quality, because it is to have the character of God. It is too often thought that love takes the place of the law. Men sometimes get the idea that before Christ's first advent the law was the rule of life, but that since that time love has superseded it. That is a great mistake. The law is love, and was such from the beginning.

Read in the blessing wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the people before his death: "The one Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; He shined forth from mount Paran, and He came with ten thousands of saints; from His right hand went a fiery law for them. Yea, He loved the people." Deut. xxxiii. 2, 3. The law was given as a manifestation of the love of God. It was just as true in the wilderness of Sinai, and when Israel crossed the Jordan, as it is now, that the keeping of the ten commandments was nothing else but love.

Love-the keeping of the law-includes both hope and faith. Love hopes and believes. See 1 Cor. xiii. 7. Therefore it is the greatest of all things, because it includes all things. He who has not the faith in God does not keep the commandments. For he who does not believe God, has made Him a liar. But God cannot lie, and therefore he who makes Him a liar, is himself a liar; and lying is forbidden by the commandments.

"Love never faileth." But "love is the fulfilling of the law." Therefore the fulfilling of the law will never fail. But "it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." So throughout the ages of eternity God's holy law will be performed, for His love will fill all hearts, and the most perfect manifestation of love is but the carrying out of the things enjoined in the ten commandments just as they were given from Sinai. "Thy word is true from the beginning; and every one of Thy righteous judgments endureth for ever." Ps. cxix. 160.

"The Suffering of Christ" The Present Truth 9, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

The prophet says: "All we like sheep have gone astray, and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Isa. liii. 6. "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." Verse 5. Note that the healing is present; but present healing means a present remedy, therefore Christ suffers from the stripes even now. "With His stripes we are healed."

The sufferings of Christ for us were not all confined to the cross. "For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are attempted." Heb. ii. 18. "Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our profession. For we have not an high priest that 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. 14-16.

It was the sins of men that nailed Christ to the cross. "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. "Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes we are were healed." 1 Peter ii. 24. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." Gal. iii. 13.

The suffering, therefore, that Jesus endured for us, was not simply the pain of the nails through His hands and feet. Many men have endured that physical suffering. At that very time there were two thieves undergoing the torture of crucifixion; and many men have been tortured in body to the fullest extent that fiendish cruelty could invent; yet no man has ever suffered as Jesus did. And why?-Because no one but He has ever suffered the sins of the world. "All we like sheep have gone astray, and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." It was human weaknesses and frailties that caused the suffering of the Son of God.

Now the apostle says that although He is in the heavens, He is still "touched with the feeling of our infirmities." That is, the same things that caused Him pain when He was on earth, cause Him pain now. And this is still further shown by the statement that those who turn away from the Lord, and go deliberately into sin, "crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh." Heb. vi. 6.

Surely in this there is something to hold us back from sin. We cannot keep the Son of God from suffering, for in all our affliction He is afflicted, and He suffers in all the temptations that beset us; but we can keep from putting Him to open shame. The thought that our sins cause grief and pain even now to the Son of God, and also that in our temptations He has the sympathy that comes from actual common suffering, must draw us to Him. It must bind us to Him, so that, as He shares our suffering, we may share His strength that is able to bear it.

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"Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator."

"Christ in Everything" The Present Truth 9, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

"For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Phil. i. 21. These words are often quoted, but scarcely ever with a sense of the unselfishness that prompted them. On the contrary, if they meant what they are usually supposed to mean, they would show that the Apostle Paul was very selfish even in the midst of his work for Christ. The reason why they are so little understood is not because they are so difficult, but because they are read without any reference to their connection, as though they stood all by themselves. Let us read the connection, and see if there is any doubt as to who Paul expected would be the gainer by his death.

At the time the epistle to the Philippians was written, the apostle was in a Roman prison. But he did not write about that, except to thank his dear friends in Christ for their kind remembrance of him. We find in the whole epistle not one syllable of complaint. Instead, he says, "I have learned; in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." And again, "I have all, and abound." Phil. iv. 11, 18. At his first visit to Philippi, when the Gospel was first carried to the brethren to whom he was now writing, he was cruelly beaten, and thrust into the inner prison, and his feet made fast in the stocks; yet when he was released the next morning, he went direct to the brethren, and comforted them. Acts xvi. 40. Not a complaint did he have to make. He was not going to begin pitying himself at that late day.

So he begun his epistle with thanksgiving. One might suppose that his thoughts would naturally be very much taken up with his own situation, preparing for his defence before the emperor. But not so. His thoughts were mostly upon his brethren, for whom he constantly prayed. And now he is rejoiced almost beyond measure in the prison, because Epaphroditus, who was the bearer of assistance from the Philippians, had brought word that they were abounding in faith and love.

Then he speaks of himself, but not to complain. Indeed, it is not really of himself that he speaks, but of the work of the Lord. "But I would ye should understand that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel." Verse 12. The result had been that the Gospel of Christ had been made known not only in the court of CÊsar, but in all other places. The courage of the brethren in Rome had been quickened, and they had begun to preach Christ. It is true that all did not preach from love, but the fact remained that Christ was preached, and he said, "Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice." Verses 18. There is not the slightest trace of self cropping out there.

Now read carefully the next two verses. "For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death." And then follows the words, "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."

Can anybody, after reading the previous part of the chapter, and especially the verses that immediately precede the statement that to die is gain, say that Paul had in mind gain to himself? Nothing could be more out of harmony, not only with the text, but also with Paul's entire life. Would it be possible for the apostle to say that his only desire was to preach Christ with all boldness, and that Christ should be magnified in his body, whether it was by life or by death, and then to immediately congratulate himself that if he was put to death that would be a great gain to himself personally? The idea is so absurd that the question needs no answer.

Paul's whole soul was wrapped up in Christ, and in the desire to see His cause advanced. When the brethren tried to dissuade him from going to Jerusalem, where he was seized by enemies, he said to them, "What mean ye to weep and to break my heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord Jesus." Acts xvi. 13. And a little before that, while he was upon the same journey, he had said:-

"And now, behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there; save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God." Acts xx. 22-24.

So then, the apostle was not thinking of any gain to himself, when he wrote to the Philippians, but only of the gain to Christ. His only desire was that Christ should be magnified, whether it was by his life or by his death. For he knew that whenever he should die, it would be the death of a martyr, and that therefore the cause of Christ would be glorified thereby. Let this fact be borne in mind, and it will assist materially in understanding the verses that immediately follow.

"Being with Christ" The Present Truth 9, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

He who loves, always wishes to be with the object of his love. For love of men, Christ came to earth to dwell with them; and then, as He was about to return to heaven again, He prayed, "Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am." John xvii. 24. In like manner also, they who loved the Lord, long for nothing so much as to be with Him where He is. The disciple who loved the Lord the most, and who leaned on His breast at the last supper, begins the Revelation with the words, "Behold, He cometh with clouds," and closes with the prayer, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus," in response to the promise of Jesus, "Surely I come quickly." Rev. xxii. 20.

When the disciples were sorrowing over the fact that Jesus had made known to them, that He was about to go way, He said to comfort them, "Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." John xiv. 1-3. The coming of the Lord is the Christian's hope-the blessed hope. Titus ii. 13.

The Apostle Paul, more than any other, wrote of the coming of the Lord. In all his epistles he had something to say about it. He loved the Lord, and therefore he loved His appearing. Just before his martyrdom, he said, "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which

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the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing." 2 Tim. iv. 6-8.

In writing to the Philippians, he said, "What I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better." Phil. i. 22, 23. As seen in what has been said about the preceding part of this chapter, there was nothing of selfishness in this desire of Paul's. He was the last person in the world to think about himself, and to spend his time sighing for rest. He had no desire to leave his work before it was done. There was no joy to him in thinking of leaving the work undone, for someone else to finish.

The preceding article has set forth the fact that when Paul said, "To die is gain," he had no thought of gain to himself, in getting rid of some of the work. His only desire was that Christ should be magnified in his body, whether it was by life or by death. And as he did not know in what way the Lord would best be magnified, he had no choice in the matter, as to whether he should live or die. So in the verses before us, he says that he does not know what he would choose, if the choice were given him. The true Christian will not choose for himself, but will leave all choice to the Lord.

It is manifestly absurd to suppose that the apostle Paul expressed an earnest desire to die, immediately after saying that he did not know what he should choose. To suppose that when he said that he had a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better, when he had just said concerning life and death, "What I shall choose I wot not," is to accuse him of the inconsistency of saying, "I do not know whether I should choose to live or to die, but I should much prefer to die."

Paul did not know whether life or death would best glorify the Lord, and therefore he left the whole matter with the Lord, who alone could know, and did not trouble his mind about it. He had no choice in the matter. But there was something which he desired as far better than either one, and that was to be with Christ. And being with Christ is something that cannot be gained, either by remaining on this earth, or by dying.

HE WILL COME FOR US

How may we be with Christ? There is only one way, and that is by His coming for us. Christ said to His disciples, "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself, that where heart I am, there ye may be also." He will not come in vain. He comes in order that His people may be with Him, where He is; and that would be useless if they could be with Him in some other way. It would not only be useless, but very foolish, for Christ to come again, to take His people to Himself, so that they may be with Him, if they could go to be with Him by dying; for the most of them, at least, would in that case be with Him before He came. The fact that Christ said that He is coming in order that His people may be with Him, is evidence enough that they cannot be with Him except by His coming.

The Apostle Paul well understood this. To the Thessalonians he wrote: "For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [go before] them which are asleep. For 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. 15-17.

What the apostle longed for, therefore, was the coming of the Lord. And there could be no selfishness in this; on the contrary, it was pure love for the Lord. There was in the desire nothing like a longing to leave the work for someone else to finish; for the coming of the Lord is at the end of the work. "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. So the longing for the return of the Saviour has taught us, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."

The Apostle Paul had wonderful revelations, but the time of the coming of the Lord was not one of them. To the apostles Christ had said, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power." Acts i. 7. When Daniel, the beloved of the Lord, desired to know about the times which had been shown him in vision, it was said, "Go thy way, Daniel; for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end." Dan. xii. 9. "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only." Matt. xxiv. 36.

This is in order that all Christians, in all ages, may alike look for the coming of the Lord. Nothing else has ever been set before man as the object of their hope; for by that alone can they be with the Lord. It makes no difference though Apostle Paul knew that he was to die before the coming of the Lord; that was not the object of his desire, but Christ's coming only. When he was about to be executed, the coming of the Lord was the one theme on his tongue. And so we, not knowing and not caring whether it will be our lot to sleep or to live till the end, may, with the apostles and prophets, rejoice in hope of His coming.

"The Lord's Day" The Present Truth 9, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

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:

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"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.

"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.

"They that forsake the law praise the wicked." Prov. xxviii. 4.

"The Sabbath and the Cross" The Present Truth 9, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

We have in another article seen that the Lord's day is, according to the Bible, which is our only guide, the seventh day of the week. And yet very many people do not so regard it, because they think that in some way or other the crucifixion of Christ made a change in the day. It ought to be sufficient to say that while the Lord with His voice from Sinai called the seventh day His day, afterwards claiming the Sabbath as His day, through Isaiah, and while the Lord Jesus Christ declared Himself to be Lord of the day which the Jews professed to regard sacred, He never gave even so much as a hint that any other day was His special day. No other day was ever called His day; but all the other days of the week are classed under the general head of "the six working days." The least that should be expected of one who claims Sunday for the Lord's day, is that He should show from the Scriptures as plain a declaration to that effect as there is for the seventh day.

But leaving this negative argument, let us see exactly what relation there is between the cross of Christ and the Sabbath.

In the first place we find that the Sabbath was given to man at the close of the creation of the earth, before the fall. It is an institution of Eden. See the second chapter of Genesis. Therefore the keeping of it as it was given, must bring something of Eden into this wicked world.

It was given to commemorate creation completed. "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. 3. "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. 11. And so when the psalmist says that the work of the Lord is honourable and glorious, he adds, "He hath made His wonderful works to be remembered." Ps. cxi. 3, 4. How has He made His wonderful works to be remembered? By giving the Sabbath. That which causes a thing to be remembered is a memorial; and so we have the plainer and more literal rendering of the last text, "He hath made a memorial for His wonderful works."

There is another thing that dates back at least as far as the Sabbath, and

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that is the crucifixion of Christ. We read of Christ that He is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Rev. xiii. 8. Therefore the Sabbath and the cross run parallel through the history of the world, and it is certain that the hanging of Christ upon the cross of wood, in the sight of men, could make no difference with the Sabbath. Any effect that the cross was to have upon the Sabbath must have been seen in the very beginning; but it is certain that since the crucifixion of Christ was only the continuation of a thing that had taken place at least four thousand years before, it could make no change in the Sabbath which had existed all that time in connection with it.

THE POWER OF GOD

The Sabbath, as we have seen, is the memorial of the wonderful works of God. But the power of God is clearly seen in the things which He has made, and God expects all men to see His power in them; for He holds all men inexcusable if they do not know His eternal power and Godhead. "For the invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen being perceived through the things that are made, even His everlasting power and Divinity; that they may be without excuse." Rom. i. 20, R.V. Now the Gospel is "the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth." Verse 16. Therefore since the power of God is seen in the things that He has made, and the Sabbath is the memorial of His works, it is evident that the Sabbath is the great Gospel memorial. In and through it we learn the power of Christ to save.

The cross of Christ is also the power of God. "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God." 1 Cor. i. 18. Therefore since the Sabbath and the cross of Christ both show forth the same power of God, it is evident that not only are they parallel, but that they are most intimately connected. The connection is shown in the following passage of Scripture:-

"Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son; in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins; who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature; for by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him, and for Him; and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist." Col. i. 12-17. That is to say, that Christ, who is the image of the invisible God, is the one through whose blood we have redemption, because by Him all things were created. Instead of "by," in verse 16, we should have "in," the same as in verse 14. The Revised Version so gives it; and we have the truth set forth before us more clearly that we have redemption in Christ, because all things were created in Him, and all things exist in Him.

Christ shed His blood on the cross; and through that we have redemption. But this is so only because all things were created in Him. Therefore the Sabbath, which is the memorial of God's works, may show forth identically the same thing that the cross of Christ sets forth to us. It shows the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. For redemption is creation. "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." Eph. ii. 8, 9. See also Ps. li. 10; 2 Cor. v. 17.

THE POWER OF THE LIFE

Creation and redemption are the same, and the Sabbath and the cross are so intimately connected, because both are alike manifestations of the life power of Christ. He is the first-born of every creature, or of all creation. In Him all things were created. He is the beginning, the head or source, of the creation of God. Rev. iii. 14. That is, in the begetting of Christ by the Father, in the eternal ages past, the creation of all things was accomplished. In Him they were created. In Christ all things existed from the days of eternity, just as surely as they did after He by His word made them to appear. All things spring from His life. In the life of the things that are made, we see the life of Christ. "In Him all things consist." "In Him we live, and move, and have are being." Acts xvii. 28.

But it is by the life of Christ that we are saved. Rom. v. 10. The blood is the life, and we have redemption through His blood. On the cross Christ shed His blood, or poured out His life for man. The preaching of the cross is the power of God, because it is the preaching of the giving of the life of Christ for our salvation. But that life which was given for us on the cross, is the life from which all creation sprung. Therefore the cross of Christ brings to us the creative power which is commemorated by the Sabbath. "Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid." Gal. iii. 21. So the Sabbath of the Lord, instead of being opposed to the Gospel of Christ, is the very heart of that Gospel.

We often hear about the cross involved in the keeping of the Sabbath. By this is meant the loss of employment or possibly of friends, etc. for it is a fact that to very many there seems to be nothing ahead of them but starvation, if they begin to keep the Sabbath of the Lord. Then, too, people who do so peculiar a thing as to keep the seventh day of the week, are often despised, and deemed almost insane. All these things are naturally trying to a person's feelings. And so Sabbath keeping is called a cross that is hard to bear.

How little those who speak of it in that manner realise what the cross is. There is more truth in what they say about the Sabbath and the cross, than they think; but how different! The Apostle Paul said, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Gal. vi. 14. The cross of Christ, therefore, is something to glory in. Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. Heb. xi. 26. It is by the cross that the Lord gives to us His life, by which we are saved; and therefore the glory of the cross is the joy of salvation.

We are reconciled to God by the death of Christ, and saved by His life. The life which does this, is the life from which all created things came, and by which they exist. The power of redemption is the power of creation, and that is the power of the life of Christ. The Sabbath is a great memorial of the wonderful works of God, which are the measure of His graciousness. He gave it that we might know that He is the Lord that sanctifies us. Therefore as the cross of Christ brings joy and celebration, so the cross of the Sabbath is not a cross hard to be endured, but a cross that lifts up and saves. Instead of mourning over the difficulties involved in keeping the Sabbath,

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we say with the psalmist, "For Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through Thy work; I will triumph in the works of Thy hands." Ps. xcii. 4.

"The Royal Wedding" The Present Truth 9, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

The sixth of July, 1893, will be long remembered by the people of London, as the day of the Royal Wedding,-"a ceremony destined to go down to posterity as one of the most brilliant in the whole repertoire of Royal functions of the past fifty years, receiving as it does, the unanimous and enthusiastic approval of the people of the land, and uniting the Duke of York to Princess May of Teck," the expected future King and Queen of England. "Never before perhaps, has the ancient city been so profusely decorated." "Never-within the memory of the oldest police man-has so solid a phalanx of sightseers wedged itself between the bricks and mortar of our streets."

Many were so anxious to get a good view that they begun to line the roads soon after midnight. "As early as four o'clock some of the specials from the north began to deposit their human freights, and the main arteries of the city soon became crowded." For hours and hours they stood there in the scorching sun,-men, women, and children, and mothers with infants in their arms. The minutes seemed to multiply themselves, the sun waxed hotter, and hotter, "and the sufferings of that wedged, helpless crowd of sightseeing humanity grew every moment more intense. The Ambulance Corps were in constant demand, now in this direction, now in that, and the presence of nurses with surgical bandages in their hands, and grim cases of the scissors and lancets hanging from their girdles suggested the unpleasant possibilities attaching to great State functions and loyal crowds." Hundreds of persons were carried out of the crowd fainting from the heat and fatigue, a few of whom never recovered; and others died from accidents and sunstroke. But of those who lived through the terrible ordeal none seemed to be sorry that they had gone, for they had seen the royal procession, and had celebrated the Royal Wedding.

The thought comes to me o'er and o'er. How many of us are willing to go through that much trouble to be present at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb?

That will be a scene before which the grandest of earthly pageants will sink into utter insignificance. There will be royalty that you and I cannot afford to miss seeing,-the King of kings and Lord of lords, with all His royal attendants each one as bright as the lightning and clothed in dazzling white.

But the joy of it is that we shall not be permitted merely to stand in crowds and see Him pass by, but we shall be guests of honour, seated at the royal table and served by the King Himself,-everyone of us will put on the beautiful wedding garment that He has so kindly provided for us. It is a garment more costly than that worn by any princess of earth. Silks and satins and diamonds are not to be compared with it, for it cost the life of the Son of God. And yet He offers it freely to us because He loves us so. Did ever earthly king show such love for his subjects?

Oh, let us not deceive ourselves into thinking that we can make our own dress for that grand day. The King makes it very plain that no earthly hand is skillful enough to weave those threads of purity. Neither let us deceive ourselves into thinking that we can attend that Royal Feast without a wedding garment on, or we shall be found speechless, like the man in the parable.

You and I are not only invited to be present at that Supper, but we are invited to become members of the Royal Family,-we are invited to become sons and daughters of the King, and live with Him in His Royal City! We are called to wear never-fading crowns, and bear palms of victory, and sit on thrones! Shall we accept the invitation? Can we take time to prepare for this great event? Shall we have on the wedding garment and be all ready and waiting "when the King comes in"? Shall we lift our voices in glad shouts of welcome when His cloudy chariot appears?

"The Homes of India" The Present Truth 9, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

The homes of India are very different from your home.

In the southern part of India the villages are very pretty. They are built amid palm groves, and have no walls. The low, mud houses have thatched roofs-often covered with vines. In the north the houses are close together, and are built entirely of clay. There are no trees, and few flowers. The villages are generally surrounded by clay walls.

The educated and wealthy live in the cities and large towns. Some cities contain very magnificent palaces and mosques of marble and stone, but the houses are mostly built of brick around a central court-yard, on which all the rooms open. There are scarcely ever any windows on the outside, only a blank prison-like wall, with one door for entrance. When there are windows they are so small and high that the street cannot be seen from them. The streets are very narrow and dirty.

You would be the most surprised if you were to visit some of the villages of the hill tribes, for you would find their houses, not on the ground but up in the trees! They build them there that they may be out of the reach of wild elephants and tigers.

"The houses of the Hindus are mostly one story in height, though some are two-storied. They are built of clay bricks dried in the sun and white-washed with a kind of lime. They have an open verandah towards the street. The door is placed in the middle. Entering this door you come into a small room with a raised pial, or alcove, on each side. Here the owner receives his guests. Passing on, you come to an open court, paved, but not roofed, and around this the house is built. There are three deep verandahs, and behind these are some small dark rooms where the people sleep when it is very hot or very cold or damp. In ordinary weather, and at night during the hot weather, they sleep either in the open court-yard, or in the verandahs, or on the roof. In one of the verandahs the cooking goes on; there is no kitchen such as we understand it. The stove is made of earth, and stands only a foot from the ground, so an Indian women sits when she does her cooking.

"One room is set apart for the use of the women and girls, and the others for the other members of the family, as well as for various purposes, such as eating, storing grain, etc. The household gods are usually kept in the kitchen, and worship is paid to them before eating. In better houses a special room is set apart for this purpose, where anyone who wishes may go for worship. There are no tables or chairs, but a low bedstead, without mattress, a box for keeping clothes and jewels, a rush mat, and a few earthen and metal pots, are all the furniture.

"Some of the educated and wealthier classes now have chairs, tables, couches, pictures, lamps, etc., but this is not the general custom. In large houses there is often a second smaller court and a small garden with a well in it. The ceiling, rafters, and beams are of teak or palmyra wood, and the roof is covered with tiles. The dwellings of the poorest natives consist of four mud walls, with bamboo rafters, covered with grass or palm-leaf thatch. Cows, buffaloes, and fowls are freely admitted inside an ordinary Hindu house, and may be seen entering at the front door!"

A missionary says of a rich man's house in India: "If you went into the upstairs rooms, where the gentlemen live, you would find them very nicely furnished, but very dusty. Hindu rooms are always dusty and full of cobwebs, for the Hindu think it is very lucky to have plenty of spiders, and that it is a great sin to disturb them."

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But although you will find plenty of gentlemen enjoying themselves, and little boys and big boys and little girls running about playing and laughing, you would not be able to find one lady or one big girl, until you go into another square building, smaller and not so nice as the other. There up at the top after going through a dark narrow staircase we find ourselves on a verandah, "with a few doors and little windows with bars to them, too high up for you to see out, opening into it; and now at last we have got at the women and girls, hidden away up here altogether, where they cannot see anyone, and nobody can see them. There they are, shut away by themselves all the year round, from the time they are a few years old, to the time they die."

"You will find no nice furniture in the ladies' rooms, like that you saw in the gentlemen's; no tables or chairs or sofas; no pictures, except of dreadful gods and goddesses painted on the walls themselves, and no books. Perhaps you will find a bedstead with a mat on it, and there may be even two or three hard pillows; but most likely not. There will be a box in one corner for the ladies' clothes, and a brass cup for them to drink out of, and generally that is all. Not quite, though, for running about under the bedstead, on the box, anywhere, you will find hens and chickens and dogs, that live there with the ladies. So you may imagine how dirty everything is; and remember this is not a poor man's house but a rich man's, and these ladies, living in this dirty, close, bad-smelling place, are the wives and children of the richest men of India. The rooms where they live form what is called a zenans.

"Under the house, we find a passage leading out of the court to a piece of ground with a high wall all round it, in the middle of which there is a pond. The water in the pond comes from a spring which stops running in the very hot dry weather, and then the pond gets green and muddy, and stays like that till the rain begins. This is all the high-caste Hindu ladies know of a garden. In a very few of these courts there are two or three trees by the side of the pond; but there are some ladies in India, even old ones, who never saw a tree in their lives." The pond is the ladies' bath, in which they bathe every day, and sometimes even twice a day.

Some Hindu ladies have to begin this shut-up life when they are six years old. Do you not think that you have a very pleasant home compared with these poor souls? They are often treated with such unkindness that their lives are very miserable. Their husbands do not visit with them and take them out to pleasant places with them; they see nothing that goes on in the streets, and never go for an outing under the pleasant trees, as you do; and they have very little that is pleasant to do or think about, and no books or pictures to look at. But worse than all else, their gods do not hear them when they cry to them, and cannot help them when they are ready to drop under their heavy burdens. Very few of them know of the living God who can hear their cries, and lighten their heavy burdens, who can bring beauty and sunshine and love into the humblest house, and peace and hope and joy into the saddest heart.

"Our Homes" The Present Truth 9, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

"It matters not," says J. R. Miller, D.D., "how little or how much of grandeur, of luxury, of costly adornment, there may be. Money and art can do many things, but they cannot make a home. There may be more of the spirit of a true home in a lowly cottage or in the one room where poverty finds a shelter, than in the stateliest mansion.

"What is it that makes a home complete after all that the architect, the builder, the painter, the upholsterer, the furniture maker, and the decorator can do? What is it that comes into the furnished house and makes it a home? Is not the answer found in one word-God? If we leave Him out our most perfect home will be but like a marble statue, with all the grace and beauty of life, but having neither breath nor heart-throb."

We need Jesus in our homes to help us each to do our duties faithfully. The parents need Him, or how can they train up their children in the way they should go? The brothers and sisters need Jesus, even the tiny ones, for they have a duty in the making of a pleasant home. How can they be kind and thoughtful, unselfish and helpful to one another and to their parents, if they have not Jesus with them?

"Kindness and patience must rule in the home to make it happy." "Thankful hearts and kind looks are more valuable than wealth and luxury; and contentment with simple things will make home happy if love, the love of God, be there." When Jesus was on earth "He was a light and blessing in every home, because He carried cheerfulness, hope, and courage with Him." We read that He is the same "yesterday, to-day, and for ever." Then if we let Him into our homes to-day, will He not bring the same blessings that He did then?

"Oh that we could be satisfied with less heart-longings, less strivings for things difficult to obtain wherewith to beautify our homes, while that which God values above jewels, the meek and quiet spirit, is not cherished. The grace of simplicity, meekness, and true affection, would make a paradise of the humbles home."

We need Jesus in our home in the time of prosperity and in the time of sorrow. "Where is the home into which sorrow comes not? We can build no walls strong enough or high enough to shut it out. We can gather within our doors no treasures so sacred that sorrow will never lay its hand upon them. Then when sorrow comes where shall we find comfort if not in the religion of Jesus Christ? Shall we find anything in the splendors of architecture, in the beauties of art, in the luxuries of costly furnishing or adorning, to bring calm and comfort to our hearts when one of our household lies in the struggle of death?"

"But in the home of prayer when trial comes there is help at hand. An unseen presence walks amid the shadows. A voice others hear not whispers peace. A hand others see not ministers consolation. Religion pours light in the darkness. No home is prepared for the trials which are at some time inevitable which has not its altar standing in the centre, whereon the fires burn perpetually."

As we read of the sad hopeless homes of heathen India, as we so often call it, let us pause and think. What mark is there that distinguishes our home from the home of our godless neighbours, from the homes of heathen India? Is our home blessed with the daily presence of the living God, or is it cursed with the idols of gold, of appetite, of self, that can do nothing but drag us to the same pit into which our heathen neighbours are falling?

May God open our eyes to the grand possibilities in our homes. God has given us our homes, not for our own selfish pleasure, not for our permanent abiding place, but merely as a halting place in which to prepare for the home above, in which to become acquainted with Jesus and accustomed to the atmosphere of heaven. If He finds that He can trust us in our present homes, we soon shall be called up higher to a home where there is no sin, no sorrow, and no death.

Oh, shall we not, young and old, invite Jesus into our homes? Shall we not yield up our wills and choose His will? Shall we not begin to use the lamp of God's word? Then our homes will be filled with the light of heaven, for the word of God in our hearts brings Jesus into our hearts, and where Jesus is there is no darkness at all for He is the light of the world.

"In the time of trouble, cry

To the Lord who rules above,

To thy help he'll quickly fly,

For His heart is made of love."

"Our Best Friend" The Present Truth 9, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

"There is a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother." Prov. xviii. 27.

All little boys and girls like to have friends-those who love them-to whom they can go and tell all of their joys and sorrows. Some children have a great many friends. There are their playmates, with whom they go to school and spend many happy hours. Then there are their uncles, and aunts, and cousins, their brothers and sisters, and best of all their father and mother. Their father and mother are the best earthly friends that they have, because they love them more and have done more for them than any other of their friends.

Some children have lost their father and mother and do not have many other friends. But no matter how poor and lonely they may be, all children have one Friend, "that sticketh closer than a brother," a Friend that loves them more and has done more for them than any father and mother. He gave them their parents, and brothers and sisters. He caused the wheat to grow that they might have bread to eat. He made water for them to drink, air for them to breathe, and warm sunshine to keep them well and strong. And He made the animals, and birds, and bright flowers, with which they love to play. He watches over them and takes care of them day and night. Can you think who this good Friend is? Yes, it is God, our kind Heavenly Father, of whom we learned last week.

It is right for us to love our fathers and mothers, and to do all that we can to please them, for they have suffered and done a great deal for us. But our Heavenly Father has done more for us than they, so we will love Him best of all. And we will try to show our love and thankfulness to Him by doing all that we can to please Him.

We cannot see Him now, for we are too weak and full of sin to bear even the sight of His purity and brightness. His face is brighter than the sun, and His garments are of dazzling white. He has beautiful angels (messengers), more then we can count, and each one shines like lightning, and is clothed in light as white as snow. He has a wondrous white throne, encircled with a rainbow. And He lives in a city with gates of pearl and streets of purest gold, a city where there is no sin, sickness, pain, or death. How rich, how great, how glorious!

But best of all, this glorious King is so loving and good that He is willing to be our best Friend. Such a Friend! How we should love and praise Him for His goodness. He says, Can a woman forget her little baby? Yes, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. (Isa. xlix. 15.) Let us remember this precious promise when we get into trouble. And let us remember that although His home is in heaven, He is not so far away but that He can see us all the time, and can hear us whenever we cry unto Him.

1. Have you any brothers and sisters?

2. Do you ever play with anyone else? Who?

3. Have you any cousins, or aunts, or uncles who come to see you?

4. Have you a father and mother?

5. Which of these friends do you love best? Why?

6. How can you show them that you love them?-The best way is to try to please them.

7. Then if you do not try to please them, what will they think?-They will think that you do not love them.

8. Would you be very lonely without all of these dear friends?

9. Who gave them to you?

10. What else has God done for you?

11. Has anyone else done so much for you?

12. Then who is the best friend of all?

13. How can you show Him that you love Him and thank Him for all His kindness? By trying to please Him.

14. Can we see God now? Why not?

15. How bright is His face? Matt. xvii. 2; Acts xxvi. 13-15; Rev. i. 13-16.

16. How is He clothed?

17. How many beautiful angels has He? Rev. v. 11; Heb. xii. 22.

18. How bright are their faces? Matt. xxviii. 2, 3; Dan. x. 5, 6.

19. What kind of garments have they?

20. What do angels do?-They are God's messengers, going here and there at His bidding. Ps. ciii. 20, 21; Heb. i. 14.

21. Tell what you can about God's throne. Rev. xx. 11; Dan. vii. 9; Rev. iv. 3-8; Ezek. i. 26-28.

22. Who only have thrones?-Kings.

23. Then what is God?-A mighty king.

24. In what kind of city does He live? Rev. xxi. 10-23.

25. Where is this city?

26. Although so great, what is He willing to be?-Your best Friend.

27. A better friend than a brother? Prov. xviii. 27.

28. And what does He say that shows Him to be a better friend than even your own mother? Isa. xlix. 15.

29. Can He hear when you call upon Him? Ps. xxxiv. 17; cxlv. 18.

"Eating in India" The Present Truth 9, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

The Hindus usually have but two meals a day-one at twelve o'clock, and the other at night, although the labouring classes do take a little something early in the morning.

"The principal food is curry and rice. Curry is a kind of powder made of pepper, salt, turmeric, ginger, tamarinds, onions, cocoanut juice, garlic, saffron, etc., mixed so as to suit the taste of the person. This is added to the rice, fish, fowl, piece of mutton, or vegetable, which is boiled in an earthen vessel."

There are no tables, chairs, knives, forks, or spoons. The person sits cross-legged on the ground. A plantain leaf, sometimes several fig leaves sewn together, form the plate. The curry and rice is placed on this. The women cook the food and bring it when ready and set it before the men and boys, as the women and girls are never allowed to eat with the men. When the men have finished, the women eat the remainder from the same leaf plate.

The fingers are used in eating. Some of the curry and rice is taken, rolled up into a sort of ball, and thrown into the mouth. Ripe fruits are eaten raw when in season. Sweets are much used, and buttermilk and curds.

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

-Justice Blatchford, of the United States Supreme Court, died on the 8th inst.

-The first reading of the German Army Bill was passed by the Reichstag on the 8th.

-There are in Great Britain and Ireland 10,655 breweries. In Germany there are 23,138.

-Nearly 10,000 persons are reported as drowned or crushed to death by falling houses, from floods in China.

-Of the 1,847 deaths in London the week before last, 1,054 were of persons under twenty-one years of ago.

-It is estimated in Somerset that the farmers in that county have lost £1,000,000 by the failure of the hay crop.

-Cholera is reported to be spreading among the villages in Russia along the Dnieper and the Dniester Rivers.

-During a severe storm at Chicago and on Lake Michigan, on the 9th inst. several boats were capsized, and about thirty persons were drowned.

-For the half-year ending the 30th ult. the number of failures in the United States was 6,400, with liabilities of over $171,000,000. The failures included 175 banks,

-Now that the Chinese land telegraph line has been joined to the Russian system, messages can be sent to every part of the world from any telegraph station in China.

-The twenty-eighth anniversary of the formation of the Salvation Army was celebrated on the 9th inst. There are now 8,068 corps, and 10,816 paid officers at home and abroad.

-Two hundred persons are under trial before the Assize Court at Viterbo, Italy, charged with aiding and abetting the notorious brigands Tiburzi and Fioravanti in their criminal career.

-There is trouble again in Brazil. Telegrams from Rio Grande de Su report a partial revival of the insurrection in that province. The City of Rio Grande is stated to be infested by the rebels.

-The brig Odorilla brings the news to Philadelphia that thousands of people are dying of yellow fever at Santos, a part of Brazil whence great quantities of coffee are exported. The death-rate averages 310 a day.

-According to recent advices from Australia, the late financial troubles have had the effect of increasing the discontent among the unemployed, which agitators are taking advantage of for the purpose of fomenting trouble.

-The crush of persons to view a marble Madonna at the Milan Cathedral-the image is credited with having the power of healing the lame-has been such that the police have had great difficulty in preventing accidents.

-The village of Pomeroy, Iowa (U.S.A.), was destroyed on the 7th inst. by a cyclone. Fifty-three persons were killed, and one hundred and fifty have suffered severe injuries, and half of the injured are not expected to recover.

-More than fifty persons were drowned or burnt to death in the destruction by fire of the Volga steamer Alphonse Zevecke. General Petroshieffsky, who was amongst the victims, was one of the most celebrated generals in the Russian army.

-It is reported as an event worthy of record, that the first shipment of hay ever made from the United States was cleared from New York two weeks ago. It was carried in a German vessel, and shipped to France, the charge for carrying being 10s. 6d. a ton.

-A religious riot broke out in Montreal on the evening of the 8th, because an Indian missionary at the Gospel tent of the Christian Endeavour Association made in comparison between the Roman Catholic Church and idol worship. The Christian Endeavour leaders apologised for the remarks.

-Official returns show the general revenues of Cape Colony, during the eleven months, July to May, 1892-93, to have yielded £4,574,982, as against £4,112,895 for the corresponding period of 1891-2. The net increase amounts to £462,1107, customs showing an increase of £63,309, and railway receipts £372,359.

-During a terrific thunderstorm which raged throughout Lincolnshire on the afternoon of 8th, a large pleasure boat, called the Shannon was capsized off Skegness, and thirty workmen, excursionists from London were drowned. The men were employÈs of the North London Railway, and were on their annual trip. Most of them have families.

-The Socialists in Vienna have been recognised by the authorities to the extent of being allowed the use of the town-hall for a mass meeting in favour of universal franchise. For the first time also the Socialists were allowed to march through the streets carrying Socialist emblems. Although 40,000 were in the demonstration, there was no disorder, and few policemen were present.

-Disastrous floods and landslips, caused by heavy rains and cloudbursts, are reported from the Tyrol, the principal scene of destruction being the upper and lower Inn Valleys, the Oetzthal and the Zillerthal. Many houses have been swept away, together with the inhabitants and their cattle, while others have been buried in landslips, among them being the building at Brixlegg in which the Passion Play took place

-A terrible fire, resulting in the death of thirty firemen, occurred on the 10th in a cold storage warehouse on the World's Fairgrounds at Chicago. The building, although not used for purposes of exhibition, and half a mile from the nearest exposition building, was, architecturally, one of the finest in the park. The fire was first observed in the high tower of the building, and the firemen climbed up to it, when the fire suddenly broke out on all sides beneath them, cutting off their escape.

-At a Silver Convention held last week in Denver, Colorado, at which 2,000 people were present, Governor Waite made a speech in which he said: "If the money power should attempt to sustain its usurpation by a strong hand we shall meet that issue when it is forced upon us, for it is infinitely better that blood should flow to the horses' bridles than that our national liberties should be destroyed. If it is true that the United States is unable to carry out its governmental policy without the dictation or consent of foreign Powers; or if we are a province of European monarchies, then we need another revolution, another appeal to arms." Many other speakers confirmed these sentiments.

-While the Czarewitch was in Loudon attending the wedding of his cousin, the Duke of York, he received a warning letter from the Nihilists of this city. The writer forwarded to him a piece of rusty chain, which he begged the Czarewitch to keep always before him as an emblem of the tyranny and cruelty which prevailed in the Russian Empire. The waiter expressed a hope that His Imperial Highness might profit from what he saw among the happy people in this free country, stating that if he sought to ameliorate the condition of the unfortunate people in his father's country, it would be well, but that if the barbarous cruelty prevailing in Russia be continued, all the Guards of the Russian Empire would not be sufficient to protect him from the vengeance that would surely be meted out to him.

-Following is the new plan that has been put into effect to regulate the drink traffic in South Carolina:-A State Commissioner, a total abstainer, buys in bulk all the intoxicating liquor to be sold in the State. The liquor is tested by a State chemist, then sold to a body of legally appointed dispensers. This dispenser must not be addicted to drink, neither a hotel keeper, nor in the amusement business, and his petition for appointment must be signed by a majority of the voters in his town or district. A county dispenser can only sell in packages not less than half a pint, and this must not be opened on the premises. He must take oath to sell to no minors, drunken persons, or persons unknown to him. The idea of the law is to lessen the drink habit, and give the State all the profit on the liquor that is sold.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

An armed cruiser, with a displacement of about 3,000 tons, has just been completed at Newcastle-on-Tyne for the Japanese Government.

It is stated that out of 50,000 school children in England, more than 30 per cent. were found on examination to be suffering from physical or mental defects, largely attributable, either directly or indirectly to the drinking habits of their parents.

Another Presbyterian, Professor John Campbell, of Canada, has declared his disbelief of the Bible. He takes the strong ground that there is no infallibility in the Bible. Such statements as that are the best evidence of the tendency of professed Protestantism to unite with Catholicism.

The mayor of a town in Valencia, Spain, has just been convicted on 217 counts of forgery and falsifying public records, and has been sentenced to fourteen years' imprisonment on each count, making a total of 3,068 years' imprisonment, to which he is sentenced. Earthly courts have long assumed the prerogative of sitting in judgment on matters pertaining wholly to God, but this is the first instance we have known of their assuming jurisdiction in the world to come as well as in this world.

The "Conference for the Reunion of the Churches" is now in session at Lucerne. In the opening address, Dr. Lunn stated that the unity of the Christian Church was to be the great testimony to an unbelieving world, of Christ's mission; and then he added the statement that this testimony could never be afforded by any invisible unity. Of course "invisible unity" would be no unity at all; but the fact remains that the cause of the unity of the Church of Christ is invisible, and the thing itself will be a source of wonder to the world, when it is seen. "I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me," were the words of Christ, in His prayer to the Father. This will be brought about, not by formal federation, but by individual submission to Christ.

This is the plan which the Rev. Canon Curteis, of the Chapel Royal, Savoy, has submitted to the Reunion Conference, at Lucerne, for the union of all the churches:-

"It seems to be that the Church of England ought to consent (if Nonconformists vehemently and sincerely demand it) to some sort of disestablishment and disendowment; and certainly Churchmen ought to give up at once their worrying and senseless policy about 'religious education.' But, then, on the other hand, it ought to be candidly and charitably borne in mind that the great mass of Church of England people hold (superstitiously if you like) to Episcopal ordination, and it should perhaps be taken much to heart, whether (hypothetically or somehow) all ministers in charge of congregations ought not to place themselves on a brotherly footing of equality in that matter."

Of Christ it is said, "He shall not fail nor be discouraged." Isa. xlii. 4. "In the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." Isa. xxvi. 4. "He is our peace." Eph. ii. 14. "If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful; He cannot deny Himself." 2 Tim. ii. 13. If He lost courage and strength and faithfuless every time we do, we should be in a pitiable condition. Our comfort is in the fact that He is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." Therefore we are to derive courage from His courage, strength from His strength, peace from His peace, and trust from His faithfulness. And there is a never-failing supply of all.

Arrests for Sunday labour are becoming more and more frequent in the United States, Tennessee and Maryland taking the lead. Among the latest arrests for Sunday labour in Maryland is that of the young lady who was caught in the very act of sewing in her own room. She was taken before the magistrate and fined, but the case was appealed. The result will doubtless be, as in other cases, imprisonment. Surely, it is in place now, if ever, to sing,

"O, say, does the star spangled banner yet wave

O'er the land of the free, and home of the

brave?"

Although the flag undoubtedly waves, we fear that the question must be answered in the negative.

When it is said that God is able to speak to us now as He was to speak to Enoch, or Abraham, or David, or Isaiah, it should not be understood as depreciating the Bible. That is the word of God. It contains all the revelation that God has for men; and there is nothing that man will ever need to know from God, that is not in the Bible. So when God speaks to us as plainly as He did to the patriarchs and prophets of old, He speaks to us by the same word which He spoke to them. Many read the Bible, and do not hear the voice of the Lord. The province of faith is to enable us to come into personal relation to the word, so that through the written word we may hear the voice of God speaking to us individually, about even the everyday affairs of life.

"Seeing Life" The Present Truth 9, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

"Seeing Life."-One of the evening papers contains a dispatch from San Francisco, of which the following is a portion:-

"Charles Stenzel, of this city, who had previously been in moderate circumstances, inherited $75,000 from a wealthy relative some years ago, and being anxious to see a little life, soon made the acquaintance of a number of supporting characters."

The remainder is summed up in the statement that the young man got into trouble which nearly cost him his life, and which permanently disfigured him. The paragraph is referred to for the purpose of calling attention to the false view of things which sin has made so common. The reader will note the fact, when his attention is called to it, "to see a little life" is generally understood as equivalent to learning the ways of sin. The following scriptures show how gross a perversion of the truth that is:-

"For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death." Rom. vi. 20, 21.

"For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." Rom. viii. 6.

"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." Prov. xiv. 12. The tragic end of so many who boast that they are "seeing life," and even of the young man referred to, is a striking comment on this text.

"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life." John iii. 36.

Here is the description of the true way to see life: "For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile; let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it." 1 Peter iii. 10, 11.

July 27, 1893

"Front Page" The Present Truth 9, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

"My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee, and will look up." Ps. v. 3. The Revised Version renders its, "and will keep watch." For what would he look up and keep watch? Evidently for the blessings for which he prayed. Said he: "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth." Ps. cxxi. 1, 2. Too many people make their requests known to God, but don't keep watch, so that, although the blessings are extended to them, they do not see them. The Lord loves to have people do Him the honour of acting as though they expected to receive from Him the things that He has promised.

"Creative Power" The Present Truth 9, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

Creative Power.-"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, margin. God adapts things to each other. He makes good works, and then creates good men to do those works. "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 men!" Ps. xxxi. 19. "He that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." John iii. 21. Only the works that God does are of any value; and only the man who is God's workmanship can manifest those works. The same power that created all things in the beginning, creates the good works, creates men new creatures in Christ, and will create all things new for their inheritance.

"Keeping Power" The Present Truth 9, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

Keeping Power.-The Apostle Peter tells us of an "inheritance incorruptible, undefile, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." 1 Peter i. 4, 5. Two things are kept,-the inheritance, and the people. The inheritance is kept for us, and we are kept for the inheritance. No one doubts that God is able to preserve the inheritance intact for the saints, therefore they should not doubt that God is able to keep the saints intact for the inheritance. The same power that keeps the inheritance undefiled, will also keep undefiled all who trust it.

God's people are His elect "through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus." 1 Peter i. 2. From the beginning God hath chosen us to salvation "through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." 2 Thess. ii. 13. Indeed He has chosen us, in Christ, before the foundation of the world." Eph. i. 4. Still He allows us full liberty to accept or reject His choice for us. We may resist the Spirit, and grieve it away, and then our election will fail. If we say, "We will not have this Man to reign over us," Christ will not compel us to serve Him. But if we gladly submit ourselves to Him, choosing His ways, we make our calling and election sure.

"Whom, having not seen, ye love." 1 Peter i. 8. This is said of Christ. We cannot see Him, yet we may love Him. But we cannot love one with whom we are not acquainted. We may admire traits of character, which a man is described to us as possessing, but that is only the character in the abstract that we admire. Love can be felt only for one with whom we are personally acquainted. So the one who loves the Lord, is the one who knows Him. Only such do love Him; and everyone who knows the Lord must love Him, for He is love. All that is necessary in order to have faith is to get acquainted with the Lord. Then they can say with Paul; "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." 2 Tim. i. 12.

"'Seventy Times Seven'" The Present Truth 9, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

"Then came Peter to Him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times; but, until seventy times seven." Matt. xviii. 21, 22.

Doubtless Peter thought that he had stretched the matter of forgiveness to its utmost limit when he asked if he should forgive his brother seven times; and the reply of Jesus must have astonished him. Seventy times seven is practically without limit, for remember that this is with only one, and there are very few that would be called upon to forgive one brother four hundred and ninety times. Or even supposing a brother were so great an offender as that, where is the soul so mean as to keep tally of every call for forgiveness, so as not to exceed the exact number? One who would do that would not really forgive at all. Surely the Lord has not left any provision for the cherishing of enmity.

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But we have something which makes the case even stronger. Luke (xvii. 4) thus records the words of Christ concerning our dealing with a brother: "And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him." Seven times in a day, days without number, are we to forgive the one who trespasses against us, if forgiveness be needed so often. If a brother shall do the same thing seven times in one day, and each time ask forgiveness, we are to grant it freely.

But whether the brother asks for forgiveness, or not, is to make no difference with our feelings toward him. We are to feel the same toward him if he does not ask to be forgiven, that we do if he does ask forgiveness. We are told to forgive one another "even as God hath for Christ's sake forgiven you." Eph. iv. 32. If God had not manifested forgiving love to us before we asked for it, we would be lost. "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Rom. v. 8. It is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. Rom. ii. 4. So we are to win an erring brother to repentance by love. A bitter spirit will never do it. "A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger."

Our object, however, in calling attention to these texts is not exhortation, but encouragement. It is of very little use to exhort a man to forgive, as a matter of duty, if he has not himself felt the touch of Divine forgiveness, which is the spring of all tenderness. But we write for the encouragement of those who feel that they have sinned too greatly to be forgiven, or that they have so often asked forgiveness for a single failing, and so often repeated the same fault, that God must be weary of forgiving. God is not a man. Says He to us:-

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." Isa. lv. 8, 9.

Those who despondently imagine that God cannot forgive their oft-repeated sin, virtually say that God is not so forgiving as He demands that we shall be, and in so doing they greatly wrong God. His infinity is no less in the direction of love and tenderness than it is in that of wisdom and power. Why, we cannot even know how to forgive if we do not learn from Him. And whether we know how to forgive or not, the fact remains that we are required to forgive the same brother times without number, even to seven times in one day, for the same offence, and that God is infinitely more willing to forgive than man can be.

This is not said for the purpose of encouraging anybody in wrong-doing; and let no one say that the emphasising of this matter will lead people to think that they can sin with impunity. If the forgiving love of God would tend to confirm men in sin, God would not have made it known. The fact is that nothing but the love of God can turn a man away from sin. The world was in sin, and God manifested to them His infinite love, in order that they might be able to cease from sin. The fact that some will despise the riches of His goodness and forbearance and long-suffering, does not cause Him to withdraw His love, and should not prevent us from dwelling upon it, for the encouragement of any who may want to do God's will.

But it is not alone by what God requires of us that we may learn what He is anxious to do for us. The death of the Son of God is the pledge of God's infinite love for us, and of His inconceivable desire to cleanse us from sin by the application of His healing forgiveness. "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Rom. viii. 32. The gift of Christ comprises everything. And trusting in that unspeakable gift, the humblest and most debased sinner may look up from the midst of his sore temptations, and confidently say:-

"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. 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. 37-39.

"Soul Winner" The Present Truth 9, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

The evangelist B. Fay Mills tells of a young man who went out from the London Pastors' College, and after a time came back and said: "Mr. Spurgeon, I am very much disappointed. I try to preach like you do, but while you see a great many people coming to Christ, I do not see anybody." The story goes on to show that the reason for Mr. Spurgeon's success was that he always expected converts, while the other failed because he did not. But the story failed to point out the fact that the young man had no reason to expect converts. His failure was the natural result of copying another. He who would succeed in the work of the Lord must have a personal message to give, and not the echo of one that another has given. A phonograph can never be a successful winner of souls, even though it be made of flesh and blood, instead of metal.

"'Hear Him'" The Present Truth 9, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

"And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is My beloved Son; Hear Him." Luke ix. 35. Does this absolve us from hearing and obeying the commandments of the Father? They who thinks so, evidently do not know who it is that we are commanded to hear. Read what is said of Him: "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. Now hear Him: "Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me." John vii. 16. Hear Him: "For I have not spoken of Myself; but the Father which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak." John xii. 49. "The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of Myself; but the Father which dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works." John xiv. 10. "As My Father hath taught Me, I speak these things." John viii. 28.

Hear Him: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." Matt. v. 17. "And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." Luke xvi. 17. "Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven." Matt. vii. 21.

Christ is the manifestation of God to man. The law of God is the righteousness of God. See Isa. li. 6, 7; Rom. iii. 21, 22. It is God's way. Ps. cxix. 1, 2. God's way is His life, for He does not act a part. Therefore the law of God is the life of God. He says, "Be ye holy; for I am holy." 1 Peter i. 16. Christ, whom we are to hear, says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness."

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Matt. vi. 33. But Christ is God. "In the beginning was Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." John i. 1, 14. "I and My Father are one." John x. 30. But the Father and the Son have one life; therefore the righteousness of God is the righteousness of Christ. The commandments of the Father are, therefore, equally the commandments of the Son.

This is shown more clearly by the fact that it was Christ who spoke the ten commandments from Sinai. The Apostle Paul, in showing the fact that the law and the Gospel are inseparable, says that the law "was ordained by angels, in the hand of a Mediator." Gal. iii. 19. And then he adds, "Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one." And again, "There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." 1 Tim. ii. 5. In this the apostle is showing exactly what John did in the words, "Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." John i. 17. In Him righteousness and peace are met together.

Christ spoke the law from Sinai, by virtue of His position as the only manifestation of God to man. He spoke as God, for He is God. When He said, "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me," He spoke by Divine right. He was the Creator of all things, and therefore He was by right the lawgiver. "God was in Christ" on the mount Sinai, in Arabia, as well as on mount Olivet, in the land of Judea.

The law was in the hand of a Mediator, and that only Mediator is Christ. For "in Him was life; and the life was the light of men." John i. 4. "As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me." John vi. 57. His life is the life of the Father, and that is the life which He gives to all who receive Him.

But we have already seen that the law of God is His life; and since the Father and the Son have both one life, it follows that the life of Christ is also the law of God. In the life of Christ we see the law of God in action. As Watts has sung,

"My blest Redeemer and my Lord,

I read my duty in Thy word;

But in Thy life the law appears

Drawn out in living characters."

Therefore the law of God-ten commandments-are found in their fulness only in the life of Christ. He is the Mediator between God and men, because His life is the medium through which the law of God flows into men. And the fact that the ten commandments were ordained in the hands of Christ, the one Mediator, is most positive evidence that the law just as it was spoken from Sinai is the very thing which Christ as Mediator ministers to us.

So we are commanded to hear Him, because only as we hear Him can we hear the voice of God. He is the only one who can bring us to God. He does not set aside or alter in any way the law of God, for that law is His own law as well, and "He cannot deny Himself." "The Father hath committed all judgment unto the Son even as they honour the Father." John v. 23.

"Citizens and Strangers" The Present Truth 9, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

"Only let your conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ." Phil. i. 27. In every instance except one, where the word "conversation" is used in the New Testament, it is used in its original sense of turning to and fro, embracing the whole course of one's life. So in the Revised Version the modern equivalent for the Greek word is used, and it is rendered, "manner of life." In the text before us, we have this idea still further emphasised by the alternate rendering in the margin, "behave as citizens worthily." The apostle Paul, therefore, exhorted the Philippians, and through them us, to behave as citizens worthily.

Of what country does the apostle exhort us to be worthy citizens? He himself informs us in the same epistle, where he says, "For our citizenship is in heaven." Phil. iii. 20, R.V. In the margin we have the reading, "commonwealth." The apostle did not concern himself with telling the Christians about their duty to vote, and how they ought to mould politics, as so many preachers are beginning to do; He knew that if the disciples of Christ behaved as became citizens of the heavenly country, they would do their duty to earthly rulers.

Is it a fact that true Christians are not citizens of this earth? or is it only in figure that they are said to have their citizenship in heaven? Let us read further. "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul." 1 Peter ii. 11. In the sixth chapter of Hebrews we are exhorted to be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Reference is made especially to Abraham, and so we will read concerning him.

"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 tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. . . . Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city." Heb. xi. 9-16.

Those who are without God in Christ, are declared to be "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise." Eph. ii. 12. But those who are at home in the earth, and strangers to the heavenly country, are in Christ made nigh to God, and then they are addressed thus: "Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God." Verse 19. Here we learn that those whose citizenship or commonwealth is in heaven, are of the commonwealth of Israel.

But God is not only the King of heaven, but He is the Father of His people. Earthly rulers like to be considered the fathers of their subjects, but God is indeed Father. His subjects are His own children, so that the commonwealth of the Israel-those whose citizenship is in heaven-are all one family. "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named." Eph. iii. 13, 14. Those who are "fellow-citizens with the saints," are, "of the household of God." But they are strangers on this earth.

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"Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." James iv. 4. As we have seen, the sons of God are members of the commonwealth of heaven. As such they must be strangers on earth. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God; therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not." 1 John iii. 1. Christ said to His disciples: "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you. 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. 18, 19.

CHRISTIANS AND EARTHLY OFFICE

This being the case, it is evident that the followers of Christ cannot possibly court the favour of the world to the extent that is necessary in order to be chosen to positions of honour and power in the governments of the world. Christ's example marks the course to be followed. When two of His disciples, with their mother, did a little office-seeking on their own account, and the other disciples were indignant because the two had stolen a march on them, Christ said to them all, and to us as well:-

"But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you; but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant; even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." Matt. xx. 25-28.

The rule for Christians, therefore, is self-sacrifice. But that is not the way that offices are obtained in this world. He who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, must be content to be the least in the earth. This effectively cuts off the Christians from seeking place and power on earth. The apostle Paul writes: "Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another." Rom. xii. 10. Again: "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves." Phil. ii. 3. How much headway would a man make in politics, if he adhered to these injunctions? The politician, even though he professes to be a Christian, will tell you that such directions are not adapted to the century. But the men of this century are no different from the men in the first century. And the injunctions of the apostle and of Christ were intended for Christians of every age.

Remember that Christ's followers are strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Those who are out of Christ are called aliens and strangers to the commonwealth of Israel. Christ said, "My kingdom is not of this world." John xviii. 36. Now just as it would be greatly out of place for worldly men to presume to direct the affairs of the kingdom of heaven, and to guide the church of Christ, even so it is out of place for those whose citizenship is in heaven to presume to direct the affairs of earthly governments.

When the Israelites came into the land of Canaan, they were forbidden to make any alliance with the nations around them. The reason was that they were the church of God, and the church cannot have any connection with the nations of the earth. Even when the Israelites had so far apostatised as to desire a king, that they might be like the nations around them, the same prohibition remained, for God had not rejected them, although they had rejected Him. And when Christ Himself came to earth, He carried on His works solely by the power of the Spirit of God, and asked no favours of earthly power; neither did He presume to take any part in their government. It should be enough for the disciple that he be as his Lord.

The apostles went out to fulfil their commission to preach the Gospel to every creature, but they asked nothing from earthly rulers. Neither did they seek office for themselves or their converts. The believers were designated as the "called out," the meaning of which has been lost sight of in the modern translation, "church." They were to be a separate people; separate not because of exclusiveness or unfriendliness, but because by their profession they were cut off from participation in the things which engross the attention of the people of the world. They were to be in this situation of men in a foreign country. They may have their residence there, and they may be doing business there, but they are still separate. While they will mingle socially with their neighbours, they take no part in their political affairs.

CHRISTIAN INFLUENCE ON POLITICS

And yet the apostles and those who followed in their steps exerted a most powerful influence on the government of the world. It was not, however, by engaging in politics. It was by the preaching of the Gospel by the power of the Spirit. By the power of the preaching of the Gospel alone, a complete revolution took place in the Roman Empire. Within less than three hundred years from the ascension of Christ, the Roman government, which was the whole world, proclaimed the principle of religious liberty and equality for all men. Such a thing had never been known before. Both Christians and heathen were given full liberty to adopt whatever religion they chose. It is true that that liberty was maintained only for a moment, as it were, but it was long enough to show the power that there is in the simple preaching of the Gospel.

Christianity has exerted a great influence upon men who have never acknowledged it. Wherever in any government we find principles of liberty established, it is the influence of the Spirit of Christ that is responsible. But never has any government been benefited by the interference of the ministers of the Gospel. Christians are sent to influence the whole world, but it is only by preaching and living the Gospel; when they think to accomplish the end in any other way, they are bound to fail.

The fact that Christians are not of right a part of earthly governments, does not make them anarchists, or in any way evil disposed to civil government. On the contrary they are bound by their profession of Christianity to be the most law-abiding people on earth. As subjects of the Prince of peace, they must always keep the peace. They are to live peaceably with all men. They are to love their neighbours as themselves, and consequently they can never do any injury to anybody. They are to submit themselves "to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake." They must submit even to unjust laws, if they involve no transgression of the law of God; and even when the human laws require disobedience to the law of God, Christians are not to rebel, but are to obey God, taking meekly whatever consequences may follow ignoring the law of man.

It may be remembered by some that the Apostle Paul often shielded himself from unjust punishment by asserting the fact that he was a Roman citizen. But in that action of his we

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have no contradiction of the principles here set forth. He was by birth a Roman citizen, yet he did not engage in any of the politics of the Roman Empire, and did not try to influence politics in favour of the Gospel. But men have certain rights in this world, with which they are endowed by their Creator. When an appeal to these rights will be recognised by men, then Christians are justified in making the appeal. It is simply appealing to the sense of justice in man. But nations are selfish, and will not generally pay much attention to the rights of men who are aliens. Therefore the apostle made use of the fact that he was by birth a citizen of Rome, to secure the rights he ought to have been accorded as a man. The same thing may be done by the Christian citizen of any country, but never to the extent of compromising the Gospel, or of admitting that the State can have any manner of connection with the church of Jesus Christ.

The principles here drawn from the Scriptures, are far-reaching, and are of the most vital importance. The professed church of Christ is losing her power in the world, solely because she is coquetting with the State, in the vain hope of increasing that power. The true church will keep clear of every shade of alliance with the world, and leaning only on the arm of her Beloved, will shine forth "fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners."

"A Sad Prospect" The Present Truth 9, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

The Quiver contains an interview with the principle of Chesnut College, where young men are trained for the Congregational ministry. No more important sign of the times can be found; for in the statement of how the young men are trained, we see what is the nature of the religious instruction that is to be given to the world. The principal says, among other things:-

"They (the students) of course read along lines of study we indicate to them, taking up very carefully the long-ago preparation in eastern and western heathendom for the conception of 'The Word Made Flesh;' the Christology of the Old Testament; the Alexandrine Gnosis; the special teachings of the four Gospels; our Lord's testimony of Himself; and the theological conceptions deducible therefrom; but on this they graft their own study of modern theology."

"I have elaborated a rather comprehensive plan of theology, which I am gradually opening up to my classes. I am dealing a good deal with comparative religion, the relation of Christianity to philosophy and theology, starting from Christology, and thence to theology. I teach them that the Incarnation is the great centre, and how it presses on conscience and heart. I take up the doctrine of the Godhead, and here I instruct them in 'Vanoosterzee,' Ellicott's 'Being of God,' and 'Dorner.' I advise them in their exegesis and general theology to take up the great books, and to regard theology equally with the biblical, the philosophical, and the historical point of view, tracing it all from the Scriptures to the present day."

But this is not all; they must have a special course in infidelity before they are prepared to preach; for the principal says:-

"They have a three years' course in philosophy, psychology, history, dogma, and ethics. They are specially instructed in the points of agnostic and infidel controversy; they are advised where to concede, and where to hold fast."

We have no words of censure; but, oh, the pity of the thing! It would be bad enough if it ended with the young men themselves, but when we think of the thousands of unsuspecting and confiding people upon whom all that mass of speculation, heathen philosophy, and infidel controversy is to be unloaded, the prospect is appalling. It was through just such theological teaching in the seminary under Origen and Clement of Alexandria, that the professed Christian church in the third century became paganised, and only the same results can follow now.

"Christianity in Schools" The Present Truth 9, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

The question of religion in the schools has been very much discussed in London in the past few months, both in the School Board, and even in Parliament. The facts, in brief, are that for some twenty years there has been a "compromise" measure in force, to which all the religious denominations are parties. By this compromise, religion is to be taught, but in a colourless, non-sectarian way, so that the particular beliefs of no party or sect are to be taught. Certain churchmen are very much dissatisfied with this arrangement, with which the non-conformist bodies profess, through their representatives, to be perfectly satisfied. The following extract from a letter to the English Churchman, by the member of the School Board who is most prominent in the demand for more definite religious teaching, puts the matter clearly:-

"The Board's rule-the 'compromise' as it is called-provides that 'the Bible shall be read, and instruction given therefrom in the principles of religion.' Last November I brought before the Board evidence that, in certain cases, teachers acting under this rule were denying or ignoring such cardinal principles of the Christian religion as the Incarnation and the Trinity, and I call upon the Board to set this right; hence the whole controversy.

"Here is the position. The Board's rule contemplates a common or 'undenominational' religion. Our opponents contend that this must be of such a character as not to offend Unitarians, who they allege, were parties to the compromise, and further maintain that the School Board has no right to make any inquiries as to the religious character of the teachers who give this instruction. I and my friends contend that this common religion ought to be, and, in fact, was originally intended to be, at least Christian, and that to place the child of Christian parents under a Unitarian or infidel teacher (and we have many such now giving the religious instruction in the London Board-schools) and to permit that teacher to ignore, or to explain away and deny, the doctrines of the Incarnation, the Atonement, and the Trinity when professing to give instruction from the Holy Scriptures to that child, is monstrous and intolerable."

Speaking of the "compromise" clause, he says:-

"I, in company with many High Churchmen and Low Churchmen, wish to see it repeated, because I regard it as the great support of undenominationalism, and undenominationalism means logically and, as the London School Board controversy shows, practically, no Christianity."

We must say that the Churchmen have the best of the controversy; for indefinite religious teaching is nothing; it is like sugar without sweetness. What benefit the nonconformist bodies think can possibly be gained from religious teaching that scrupulously avoids teaching anything, we cannot imagine. In the discussion of the Education Bill, Mr. Gladstone expressed a "wish that the exposition of the Bible in schools should take its natural course, that it should be confined to the simple and devout method of handling which is adapted to the understanding and characters of children;" but at the same time he would "not admit that that simple and devout character of teaching can be secured by an attempt to exclude all references to tenets and doctrines."

But the fact is, that Christianity, pure and simple, cannot possibly be taught in the schools, and that any attempt to teach it is a grievous wrong, not so much to the children as to the cause of Christianity.

The Bible is not like any other book. It cannot be taught in the same way that secular history or geography are taught. Christianity is life, even the life of Christ, and can neither be taught nor accepted except through the Spirit of God. A person may be able to explain any one or all of the varying creeds of Christendom, and yet be no nearer the kingdom of heaven than an ignorant heathen. In some of the so-called missionaries schools of India there are Hindus and Mohammedans who can write as able papers on the evidences of Christianity as a theological professor could, and yet they have not the slightest belief in Christianity. It is purely an intellectual exercise with them. Will anyone claim that they

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are the better for it? Are they not more impervious to true Christianity than if they had never heard the name?

Bible teaching which does not impress the learner with the fact that the Bible is the living word of the living God, and that gives only theory, leaving the heart unmoved, can result only in producing indifference to the Bible, and that is worse than positive irreverence. Whenever the Bible is taught it should be only with the one purpose of making Christians. It was given for no other purpose, and any other use of it is an abuse of it.

It may be claimed by the advocates of more definite religious instruction in schools, that this is what they desire. The desire is laudable, but they are seeking to carry it out by a means not adapted to the end. The schools are Government institutions, and Governments do not exist for the purpose of teaching religion. Government is something which pertains to all people equally, while religion is purely a personal matter between a man and God.

It will not be denied that God gives to every man full liberty to believe the Gospel. It cannot be claimed that He forces men to believe. If He did, there would be no liberty; for liberty to accept a thing necessarily implies liberty to refuse it. If there were no liberty to refuse, then there would be no liberty in the Gospel. But the Gospel is the very essence and perfection of liberty. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." 2 Cor. iii. 17. Therefore where the Spirit of the Lord is not, there is no Gospel. Therefore religious teaching which is forced, is not the Gospel, no matter how glibly the Incarnation and the Atonement are taught. Those things can never be understood by the intellect, but are to be grasped and made part of the life by faith.

But it is said that if religion is not taught in the schools, many children will not get any religious instruction. Perhaps; but whose fault will it be? It will be the fault of those whose sole business it is to teach the Gospel, and they are the professed members of the church of Christ. Christ's commission, which is in full force to-day, was, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." It is the church's business to carry religious instruction to the homes of those who do not get it elsewhere.

"But what if the people will not allow religious instruction in their homes?" This is their risk; they cannot be forced to take it, as a spoiled child is made to take medicine. If a man has taken poison, an antidote may be administered, and it will counteract the effect of the poison just as well if the patient is averse to swallowing it, as it will if he takes it gladly; but the Gospel cannot be administered in that way with any success.

The example of Christ will guide us in this particular, as in everything else. Many of His own people rejected Him. He had untold blessings for them, but was forced to say in sorrow, "Ye will not come unto Me, that ye might have life." John v. 40. But He did not force them to come to Him, although His power over them was shown in the cleansing of the temple. In sending out His disciples to preach, He gave them directions how to act toward those who would not receive them. See Luke ix. 5. And still His Spirit says, "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Rev. xxii. 17. Whosoever will not will be left to the consequences of his own choice.

"The Divine right of dissent" is not an idle phrase. There is indeed such a thing. Jesus Christ Himself is the originator of it. Said He: "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.

We have no sympathy with Unitarianism or infidelity; but by the permission of the Author of Christianity, infidels and Unitarians have as much right to disbelieve in the Divinity of Christ, as others have to believe it. He has given to every man full liberty to hear Him or not to hear Him, just as he may choose; and no man has any right to go a step farther in the line of compulsion than He did. This is not a local question, but is of world-wide interest. It is a live question everywhere, and the principles involved ought to be thoroughly understood by every Christian.

"The Pope and Europe" The Present Truth 9, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

In McClure's Magazine for June, M. de Blowitz presents the following outline sketch of the work and influence of the Pope in Europe, which is interesting because of its suggestiveness:-

"No one can have any idea of the life and movement which reigns in this voluntary prison which lies over against the Quirinal. Thither flow innumerable missives from every part of the world, and could I only tell some of them, it would be seen how long still is the arm extending from the shadow of St. Peter's; how dreadful still are the lips that speak in the shadow of the Vatican. I should show the Pope and his Cardinals writing to the Emperor of Austria, directing him by counsel and advice, and sometime almost by their orders. I should show Prince Bismarck continuing since his fall, to hold before the eyes of the Pope glimpses of the more or less partial restoration of the Papal power. I should show Leo XIII. now trying to unite, now to alienate, France and Russia, according as at the moment this or that policy seems to him most propitious for his own cause, or the cause of peace. . . . I should show, also, all the leading politicians of France, whether in power or out, soliciting the support, the protection, the favour, of Leo XIII. and the latter working with astounding insight for the fusion, more and more complete, of the liberal monarchical party with the Republic."

"Pagan Customs" The Present Truth 9, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

In the Echo of July 13, a correspondent who signs himself, "M. A. (Oxon)," and who was brought up in the Romish Church gives the following account of "the origin of the two principal feasts of the Romish Church, namely, Easter and Christmas, which have also been adopted by the chief systems of Christendom." The explanation is the same that is given by all ecclesiastical historians; but the re-statement of it may lead some one to inquire how the observance of Pagan festivals can be a part of Christianity. If the observance of Pagan ceremonies is not Paganism, what would be? But here is the article:-

"The English word Easter is directly derived from the Chaldean word Ishtar, another name of Astarte or Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Philistines, Sidonians, and other heathen nations; the name was found by Layard on the Assyrian monuments. (See Layard's "Babylon and Nineveh," p. 629.)

"If Eostre, as a correspondent remarks, is the name of a Saxon goddess, there can be no doubt that it is identical with or a transformation of Ishtar, and originated in Babylon, the mother and fountain head of all the idolatrous systems of antiquity.

"A further and most conclusive proof of the purely Babylonian origin, not only of the word Easter, but also of the idolatrous rites and superstitious ceremonies connected with the festival of Easter in the Romish Church, is the fact that a Lent of forty days was observed by the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess. Such a Lent of forty days, in the spring of the year, is still observed by the Yezidis, or Pagan devil worshippers of Koordistan, who have inherited it from their early masters, the Babylonians. Want of space forbids me giving further interesting details as to the spread of these Babylonian idolatries to distant countries, such as Mexico, where Humboldt found them to have been practiced from the earliest times, etc.

"Another most remarkable fact is that in the third and fourth centuries the festival now observed under the name of Easter was then called Pasch, the same as in most European countries at the present day, as Italy, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, etc. Nor was there at that time the observance of a forty days' Lent. In the fifth century, however, when the Papacy had become utterly corrupt, all this was changed, and rapid strides were made in the introduction of Pagan rites and abominable idolatries, so that at the present day a Roman Catholic church can hardly be distinguished from a Chinese pagoda with its ten thousand idols.

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"Christmas.-At the winter solstice, they celebrated in Pagan Rome the feast of Saturn, the sun god, or Baal of the Babylonians. This feast, as regulated by Caligula, lasted five days; loose reins were given to drunkenness and revelry. This was precisely the way in which, according to Berosus, the drunken festival of the month Thebeth, answering to our December, in other words, the festival of Bacchus, was celebrated in Babylon; and many of the other observances still kept up in so-called Christian lands came from the very same quarter.

"The candles, in some parts of England, lighted on Christmas Eve and used so long as the festive season lasts, were equally lighted by the Pagans on the eve of the festival of the Babylonian god, to do honour to him; for it was one of the distinguishing peculiarities of his worship to have lighted wax candles on his altars. The Christmas tree, now so common among us, was equally common in Pagan Rome and Pagan Egypt.

"Many more irrefutable proofs might be given of the absolute identity of this so-called Christian festival with the festival observed at the same time of the year in Babylon of old, and in Pagan Rome and Pagan Egypt."

"The Children of India" The Present Truth 9, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

We introduce to you this week a few of your little brothers and sisters in India. Their faces are a light brown when they are babies, but soon become quite dark from playing in the hot sun. But that should not cause us to love them any the less, should it? Their eyes are as full of fun and mischief and good nature as yours, and they can feel and love and suffer as much as you can. How solemn they look as they carry their precious dollies down the steps to throw them into the river Ganges. They love their dolls as much as you love yours, although they are often but rude things made of clay or wood.

Dear little children! how their hearts would thrill with joy if they could have some of the pleasant things that you have. If they could have a pleasant home where there were no cross words, no frightful idols, and no child-marriages; a home where the little girls could be as free and happy as the little boys, and know that they were as welcome; a home where they could have the privilege of climbing upon father's knee, of running to meet him when he returns from work, and of going for an outing with father and mother, or for a play under the green trees. How happy these little girls would be if they could have pretty picture books, and go to school and learn to read and write, and be taught how to knit and sew. And oh, if they only could gather around their mother's knee in the quiet twilight hour and hear stories of the lovely Jesus Friend, and learn to sing His praises, and clasp their little hands in thankful prayer.

Dear child, if you are ever tempted to feel discontented with what you have, think of these little brothers and sisters who have so much less, and see if you do not find many things to thank God for.

Jesus loves little girls as well as He loves the little boys, and of course those parents who have the love of Jesus in their hearts love them also. But in India most of the fathers and mothers know nothing of Jesus so they do not have this impartial love in their hearts.

Their religion causes them to pay out so much money and to make such grand fees at the marriage of a daughter, that if they have many daughters it takes all their money and more too just to get them married. They therefore think it a great calamity to have many little girls, for they do not know how they ever can get money enough to have them all married. And married they must be before they are ten years old, or it would be thought a very great disgrace.

"You will hear a Hindu talk about 'children and girls,' as though girls were not children at all, but something not nearly so good; and often if you were to ask a father how many children he had, he would tell you only the number of boys, for they say 'girls don't count.' When a little girl is born, the Hindus say the gods must have been very angry, or else they would have given a boy."

You can imagine something, therefore, of the general rejoicing when a son is born, and of the anger and disappointment when a daughter is born. The mothers finally get over their disappointment and love and pet their girls, for they know that it is only when they are little that they can have any pleasure at all.

The boys and girls live together in much the same way until they are five or six years old, after that their lives are very different. The boys then begin to go to school, but as there are no Hindu schools for the girls they never go to school unless it be to some English or missionary school, but they begin to be taught how to worship the idols.

If they are high-caste they must be shut up in the zenana, or women's room, as soon as they are married, for their husbands might kill them if they went out of doors or let another man see them. Some of them are married when they are but little babies not old enough to walk, and others when they are five, six, or seven years old, and all of them before they are ten. So you see how soon they must be shut away from everything that is pleasant. Some of them who are now grown

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never saw a green tree in all their lives.

The only useful thing the little girls do is to help their mothers to cook, and so learn to be good cooks. They are not taught to knit and sew, for the boys and men do all the sewing in many parts of India; and they have no picture books.

What a lonely tiresome life they must lead! About all they can do is to help with the cooking, and amuse themselves with putting up and taking down their mother's long hair, and listening to her stories about the ugly idols. You see their mothers cannot read either, so they know no stories but what their husbands tell them.

We shall have to tell you at another time about the boys' schools, and about the little girls after they are married.

Mohammedan children are not taught to worship idols of stone or brass, but to reverence the prophet Mohammed, and to turn their faces toward his birthplace, Mecca, when they pray. They are taught that Jesus is not the Son of God, so you see their prayers do not reach God any more than the Hindus' prayers, for Jesus says that no man can come to the Father but by Him.

Their sacred book, the Koran, is written in the Arabic language, and the children are made to learn to repeat page after page of it, although they cannot understand a word it says. If they do not say it just right they are beaten. They are taught to say their prayers in Arabic also, and how to stand when they pray, how to clasp their hands, and throw themselves on the ground, and count the beads, saying a different name of God with every bead.

But we are happy to say that a few of the dear children of India are beginning to learn of Jesus, the living Saviour, and of His blessed Bible. And when they do get acquainted with Him they become just as good little Christians as any of our white boys and girls.

Some little girls have prayed so earnestly that their mothers have also begun to pray. They pray that Jesus will help them to learn their lessons, and when they get into trouble they tell Jesus, and He helps them out of it or gives them peace and comfort in bearing it.

Will not you, who have had so many more opportunities of learning of Jesus than these poor children have had, will not you go to Jesus with your difficult lessons and with all your troubles? He is just as willing to help you as He is to help them. If you only would study His word and become better acquainted with Him, we are sure you would thank Him for His goodness, and go to Him for help oftener than you do. Are you allowing His word to be a lamp to your feet, and are you doing all that you can to send this wonderful lamp to shine upon the pathway of others?

"Our Best Lamp" The Present Truth 9, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

"Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Ps. cxix. 205.

When your father is far from home and wants you to come to him, he writes you a letter telling you what to do to get ready, and what road to take to come. Then he tells you about the road. If there are any dangerous places he tells you just where they are, and how to keep out of them. If there is anything very pleasant, he tells you where to look for it that you may enjoy it. You feel quite safe and happy as long as you have father's letter.

The heavenly Father, your best Friend, loves you so much that He wants you to come and live with Him in His glorious, happy home of which we learned last week. But the road is very narrow and straight, and there are broad, dangerous paths leading from it on both sides that lead to death. He does not want you to lose the right road and get into these dangerous places, so He has sent you a long, loving letter, which tells you all about the way to come to Him. He did not write it Himself, but holy men wrote as they were guided by His Holy Spirit. Do you know, now, what we call this letter that your Heavenly Father has sent to you? Yes, it is the Holy Bible. He says that it is for little ones like you, as well as for father and mother.

But this letter from your Father in heaven is much better in every way than the one from your earthly father; for if you do as it says, it will lead you to a home in heaven. There are no mistakes in it, and it tells so very plainly where to step and where not to step in the way to your heavenly home, that it is better than the best lamp that was ever made. You know in a dark night how a lamp shows the safe places and the dangerous places along the road.

But a lamp cannot lead you safely to your earthly home unless you use it, and unless you walk in the safe places that it shows you. Neither can the wonderful Bible lamp from heaven lead you safely to your heavenly home unless you use it, and do as it says,-unless you walk in the safe places and keep away from the dangerous places about which it tells you.

Jesus says that if you carefully read and study the Bible, and do what it says, just as you would follow the light of a lamp, He and His Father will love you and send holy angels to be with you all the time. But that is not all. He promises that if you love His words and do them they will lead you safely to His heavenly home, where you may live with Him for ever.

Ah, this precious letter from God, this heavenly lamp, is worth more to you than gold or silver, or any other thing on this earth. Love it; study it; do as it says; and you will be following its light. Walk in the narrow path of obedience, and keep out of the crooked paths of sin. Then you may truthfully say, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."

1. When your father is far from home and wants you to come to him, what does he write you?

2. If there are dangerous places along the road, what does he tell you?

3. What do we call the letter that your heavenly Father has sent to you?

4. Why did He send it?

5. Which is better, the letter from your father, or this one from God?

6. Why is the one from God better?

7. How plainly does it tell where to go, and where not to go?-As plainly as a lamp shows the way in a dark night.

8. So what does David call it? Ps. cxix. 105.

9. Suppose you should never read the letter that God has sent, would it then be like a lamp unto your feet?

10. Suppose you should read it and learn all it says, but not do what it says, would you be walking in its light?

11. Then how must you use the Bible so that it will be to you a lamp?

12. What is the straight path in which it says you must walk?-Obedience to your parents and to God.

13. What are the crooked and dangerous paths which it says you must not go near?-Disobedience; all kinds of naughty ways.

14. If you study and love the Bible and do as it says, who will be with you every day?

15. And to what beautiful city will you finally come?

16. Can gold, or silver, or any other thing in the world do you so much good?

17. Then what is worth more to you than anything else in the world?

18. How can you show that you are very thankful for this precious gift from your best Friend?

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

-There is trouble again among the native chiefs in Samoa.

-The telegraph brings daily reports of the suspension of United States banks.

-Thirty warehouses were destroyed in West London by a fire on the morning of the 18th.

-The coins struck in the German mint last year represented in value 3,117,969,059 marks.

-One of the Russian monasteries on Mount Athos has been attacked and plundered by a band of Greek pirates.

-The overland journey from the Atlantic to the Pacific is to be shortened twenty-two hours by the Canadian Pacific railway.

-An address on the peace question is about to be sent through the executive of the Society of Friends to the European monarchs.

-The Turkish Minister of war has signed a contract with a firm for the supply of 150,000 rifles, to be delivered before February, 1895.

-A narrow gauge railway line is being commenced by a French company between Beyrout and Damascus. The line will be 87 miles in length.

-Gold to the value of $87,503,468 was exported from the United States during the past fiscal year. The net silver exports amounted to $17,544,007.

-The barque Royal Tar, which sailed from Sidney July 16, for Monte Video, had on board 200 emigrants whose intention is to found a "New Australia" settlement in Paraguay.

-The Russian Minister of Imperial Domains has in hand a plan for laying under cotton cultivation an area of nearly 1,000,000 acres in the neighbourhood of the Merv Oasis.

-It is stated in military circles at St. Petersburg that the Russian Government will shortly reply in the adoption of the Army Bill in Germany by the formation of a 19th and 20th Army Corp.

-Troubles have broken out in Mashonaland, the territory of the British South Africa Company. The Company's police at Fort Victoria have had a skirmish with some of Lobengula's warriors, and a war with the Matabele is feared.

-The Vatican has just received an intimation from the German Government that the latter will not oppose the proposal to introduce into the Reichstag a motion in favour of the religious orders being permitted to return to Germany.

-Some weeks ago the Russian Government promised to send no further expeditions into the disputed terrritory in Central Asia, but now a body of troops is again on the march. The present expedition, which is the third of its kind, is intended to be a decisive one, the Russians having made up their minds to take possession of the Pamirs.

-A terrible tornado swept through Northern Italy, on the 18th. It did not leave a single building at Voghera undamaged, and a huge number of houses were levelled to the ground. The great Marogliano Palace is a vast mass of ruins. At Casteggio 100 houses were completely wrecked. The loss of life is great, but the number killed is not known.

-Sunday, July 10, was the last Sunday that the World's Fair at Chicago will be opened. This decision of the Directors was by twenty-four votes to four, the reason being that Sunday opening has not paid. The proceeds of the last Sunday opening were devoted to the families of the firemen who perished in the recent terrible fire on the Fair grounds.

-There has lately been a serious conflict between Chinese men-of-war and a fleet of pirate vessels in Chinese waters. Three gunboats were escorting a flotilla of merchant junks, and the pirates opened fire upon them. After a fierce conflict in which the Chinese men-of-war lost sixty men, the pirates were captured, together with a large quantity of booty.

-After the 1st of December, postal orders in France are to be cashed at the residences of the persons to whom they are made payable. As the postmen in charge of this service will necessarily have at times large sums of money in their possession, the Post office authorities are considering the advisability of arming them. Thus the "advance of civilization" opens up greater possibilities for crime and violence.

-As might have been expected the South Carolina experiment of the State's going into the wholesale and retail liquor business, is not giving satisfaction. People resent the intrusion of the police into their houses, to see if they have our liquor. It is in keeping with the paternalism of government, that the State should be supposed in some way to know just how much liquor each man may be allowed to drink with impunity to himself, and profit to the State, and to allow him just so much and no more

-On the 15th inst., the German Reichstag passed the third reading of the Army Bill by a vote of 201 to 185. On the result of the vote being announced, the Social Democrats left the House. "After the supplementary military estimates had been passed without debate, Count von Caprivi read the imperial message closing the Session, and expressed the thanks of the Emperor and the Federal Governments for the patriotic action of the Reichstag."

-There is difficulty between France and Siam, some French gunboats having forced their way to Bangkok. The French claim that it was because they were fired upon by Siamese forts, although the evidence seems to be that the Siamese fired because the French ships were advancing. It is very easy for a great power to find that a weaker power has been making attacks upon it, which will justify it in taking the weaker power under its "protection." It is said that the English are gradually leaving Siam.

-It is reported from America that the feeling against the suspension of silver coinage is so bitter in Colorado that "a secret organisation has come into existence in the Rocky Mountains called 'The Knights of the Silver Circle.' The knights threaten in case the Sherman law is repealed to compel Colorado to leave the American Union, and unite with the Republic of Mexico which is a silver coinage country. The western States are honeycombed with secret societies, who are deliberating the question of secession. Many of these societies are armed organisations, and it is said, are in the habit of holding moonlight meetings for purposes of drill."

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

In a recent contribution to the North American Review, Dr. Briggs, of Union Theological Seminary, New York, anticipates the union of all Protestant denominations, first with the Roman Church, and then with the Greek Church. The current is evidently in that direction.

"Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it." Prov. iii. 27. Whatever else may be included in this commandment, it certainly charges those who have money that is due to the Lord's work, to give while they are alive, and not to keep it until after death. Then it is not in the power of their hand to do anything, and there is no certainty that their intentions while living will ever be carried out. If God loves a cheerful giver, how must He regard the man who holds fast to his money until his latest breath, having previously made a will that the Lord may have it when it is of no more use to him?

The Jews are not flocking to Jerusalem as rapidly as the advocates of a certain theory like to imagine that they are. There are about 45,000 Jews in the whole land of Palestine, 27,000 of whom live in and about Jerusalem. A large portion of those who are there are largely supported by charity. It is safe to say that the average Jew would far rather live in London or New York, where he can be unmolested, and can make an independent living, than to go to Jerusalem. There will be a gathering of Israel to Jerusalem, but it will not be to "Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children;" it will be the gathering of all the saints of God-the New Israel-to the New Jerusalem.

The Conference over "The Reunion of the Churches," at Lucerne, has not made much progress. As a matter of fact a reunion is not expected, but only a federation, and that really exists now for all "practical" purposes for which union is desired, namely, influencing legislation. In the course of the discussion, Dr. Duff maintained that it was "unreasonable, and an insufficient argument, to take the New Testament as the one sole criterion of what a church in the nineteenth century should be." That means that the New Testament may be followed as far as it meets men's ideas, and depart from when men have ideas that they think better. And that is to put man in the place of the Bible. All the indications are that whatever "union" of the churches is effected will be upon the Papal basis.

When Livingstone was in Africa, there was a chief named SechÈle, who accepted Christianity, and who was very devoted to the missionary. Of this chief Livingstone tells the following story:-

"Seeing me anxious that his people should believe the words of Christ, he once said, Do you imagine these people will ever believe by your merely talking to them? I can make them do nothing except by thrashing them; and if you like, I shall call my head man, and with our litupa (whips of rhinoceros hide) we will soon make them all believe together."

Let no one laughed at the simplicity of the African chief. He had grasped the great principle of the Union of Church and State. It was by such means that "the Gospel" was sought to be propagated in the Middle Ages; it was by similar methods that the different nations of Europe became "Christian nations"; thus it was that Cortez Christianised the Mexican; and in that way the Czar of Russia is "converting" all the people of his dominions. Whoever thinks to advance Christianity by any political method whatever has ideas of Christianity in common with the African chief.

As has been noted in our "Interesting Items," the World's Fair at Chicago will from now on be closed on Sundays, unless the Directors should take another freak, which, considering their past record, is not impossible. They have made themselves ridiculous by their lack of principle and purpose, and will receive no thanks from either the friends or opponents of Sunday closing.

Many readers have evidently misunderstood the position of the PRESENT TRUTH, on the matter of the Sunday opening of the World's Fair. It has been stated that we are in favour of Sunday opening. This is a mistake. We neither favour nor oppose it. In the thing itself we have not had the slightest interest. Whether it should be open or not, has been from the first a matter of perfect indifference to us. We have continually stated that it was a matter for the Directors themselves to decide, just the same as whether or not a manufacturing establishment shall be opened on Sunday, or a railway train run on that day is solely a matter for the managers to decide.

What we have been interested in is the light that has been thrown on the development of the control of United States affairs by the churches. The question as to whether or not the Fair should be opened on Sundays has demonstrated the fact that the churches of the United States control Congress, and that the Spirit of the Inquisition is active. When Congress offered the Directors of the Fair a bribe of two and a half million dollars if they would keep the gates closed on Sundays, it was at the dictation of church people. Congress had no jurisdiction over the Fair, and hence could not order it to be closed; but what was done was in violation of the Constitution, which expressly declares that "Congress shall make no law respecting religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Thus it was shown that the churches are held by Congress as above the Constitution.

In that lies the evil of the whole thing, and that evil cannot be undone by any action of the Directors, either in opening or closing the Fair on Sundays. The question is one wholly apart from that of whether or not Sunday is a sacred day. The interference of the church in the affairs of State, and State legislation upon religious affairs, is always a sin. It is never anything less than the manifestation of the spirit of antichrist. The Scriptures teach that the seventh day is the Sabbath, and that it alone of all the days of the week is holy. We heartily believe this; but if it were proposed that the State should make any law respecting the true Sabbath, that would in any way whatever tend to influence any person's action upon that day, we should protest with all the vigour we possess. We repeat, State recognition of religion is always and everywhere a sin. The religion of Christ asks for nothing from the State,-not protection, nor recognition in any way. The worst thing that any government can do for Christianity is to presume to pass laws in its favour.

By this all readers may understand that all our reference to the controversy over the Sunday opening of the Chicago Exposition, has been for the purpose of illustrating a principle and of showing the growth of the union of church and State in the United States. With this we may let the Fair rest for the present. But the matter of union of Church and State, in whatever form it appears, we cannot be silent upon, since such union strikes at the very foundation of the Gospel.

August 3, 1893

"Christian Striving" The Present Truth 9, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

Christian Striving.-The apostle Paul desired to be able to hear that the Philippians were standing fast in one Spirit, "with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel." Phil. i. 27. That "striving together" which is done "with one mind," is certainly not contention and quarreling. The text, therefore, does not teach that they were to strive with one another, but that together they were united to strive for a common object.

There was once a very worthy minister of the Gospel, who acknowledged to the writer that for the greater portion of his ministry he had understood the statement, "Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness," to mean that the mystery of godliness is great when there is no controversy, but that controversy would unfold the ministry. Consequently he was always ready for controversy, forgetting the statement made by the same apostle, that "the servant of Christ must not strive."

In harmony with the desire expressed by Paul to the Philippians, the Apostle Jude exhorts us to "earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints." Jude 3. Therefore many think that while Christians must be at peace among themselves, they should lose no opportunity to get into a controversy with unbelievers, in regard to the Gospel. But again we read: "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 acknowledgement of the truth." 2 Tim. ii. 24, 25. The Apostle Peter says: "Sanctify the Lord God in your heart; and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is that is in you with meekness and fear." 1 Peter iii. 15.

This gives us the correct idea of the strife. It is to be conducted with God in heart. Therefore the "one mind" with which we are exhorted to strive, is the mind of God, "which is also in Christ Jesus." Phil. ii. 5. We are to strive in the strength of God, and clothed with the Divine armour; "for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Eph. vi. 12. We are not to contend with men, but with wicked spirits,-evil angels; not with the weapons of carnality, but with those which are "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. 4, 5.

The striving, therefore, is to be wholly with ourselves, with the evil thoughts and the imaginations that Satan seeks to inspire us with. Those are the only things that can destroy the faith of anyone, and therefore they are the things to be fought against in contending for the faith. One man's unbelief cannot destroy another's faith. The Apostle Paul could keep the faith in Nero's court in Rome as well as with his brethren in Antioch. Because God was with him. If we strive and contend with men, we do not thereby increase their faith, but we have run the risk of losing our own. So "the faith" is never helped, but hindered by laws professedly in its favour, which necessarily depend on force. The Gospel is a mystery, entirely different from things of earth. And so while it is a warfare, it is a strife of peace, and the Captain of hosts is the Prince of peace.

"Helping God" The Present Truth 9, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

How natural it is for us to think that what we do is of great assistance to the Lord. In a missionary meeting it was recently stated that "God needs our help in evangelising the world." No greater mistake was ever made, yet it is a very common one. No man can ever put God under any obligation to Him. Neither can any man do anything to recompense God for what He has done for us. He does not stand in need of man's work or gifts. He says, "If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; for the world is Mine, and the fulness thereof." Ps. l. 12.

How can it be said or thought that God needs our help, when He Himself supplies all the wisdom and strength with which we work, and Himself does whatever is done that amounts to anything? The apostle Paul, speaking of his work, said, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made us able ministers of the new covenant." 2 Cor. iii. 5, 6. And again: "But by the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." 1 Cor. xv. 10.

Even Christ did not claim to be doing work by Himself. He said: "I can of Mine own self do nothing." John v. 30. "The Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works." John

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xiv. 10. How much less, then, can we do anything that will help the Lord? "The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him."

Who has not seen the little child trying to help its mother? Perhaps it tried to sweep, and though it only moved the dirt from one place to another, and left it, the mother was pleased, and rewarded the child with a kiss. Then she afterwards went and swept the room clean. And the child rejoiced in the great help it had rendered.

Or, perhaps, the child thought to help with its mother's knitting or sewing. It dropped stitches and tangled threads, yet the mother accepted the work for the love that prompted it, and although the child's work was done so bunglingly, the job was perfect when finished. How so? Because the mother untangled the thread, and picked up the dropped stitches, and made the work perfect by her superior skill.

We are but children; but, oh, how infinitely greater is the contrast between us and our Father in heaven, and that between our children and us! We take hold of the work of God, and fancy that we are actually doing something, when we are really only dropping stitches, and hindering. Yet God does not call it hindering, but smiles in tender love as He sees our awkward yet earnest attempts, even as the mother catches her child to her bosom and kisses it when its loving efforts make the work worse instead of better. And when work is done, God will say, "Well done, good and faithful servant," and the work will be found to be perfect, because we are "complete in Him," and His perfection has made up our deficiency.

"The 'Borderland'" The Present Truth 9, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

Such is the name of the latest addition to the literature of Spiritualism. It is a quarterly journal under the editorial management of the versatile W. T. Stead, and is designed to be to Spiritualism and kindred subjects what his Review of Reviews is too general literature. In connection with it he proposes also to form circles for investigation of the various phenomena connected with Spiritualism. After the plan had been formed in his mind, Mr. Stead sent a summary of what he proposed to do together with a circular letter, to most of the famous men and women of England, who he thought would be likely to express an opinion, asking them what they thought of it. The first number of Borderland contains the answers that were received; and all of the most of those who replied expressed disapproval of the scheme, their letters are most interesting, and showing how well prepared people are, unconsciously to themselves, to be led astray by this masterpiece of deception. Accordingly we give extracts from a few of them.

WAITING ON SCIENCE

The Archbishop of Canterbury did not reply, but he had some time before written to a friend, upon the same subject, and this friend was given permission to hand the letter to Mr. Stead. The Archbishop is very chary about expressing an opinion, as will be seen in the following reference to the accounts of phenomena, which have been submitted to the Psychical Research Society:-

"Mr. Stead states that the depositions have now been referred to the investigation of a society which is able to weigh the evidence impartially, the Psychical Research Society.

"When they have had before them all that is alleged, and have reported, we shall be in a better position to judge of the moral character of the actions. But at the present there is little alleged which does not come within the formula called 'automatic' or 'thought transference;' one 'spiritualistic' interpretation of them is repudiated in these articles.

"At present, therefore, it seems to me that we have only to wait until the scientific inquiry has taken place, which is challenged."

But surely the Archbishop could have expressed an opinion without waiting for the "scientific" decision. If not, then the flock that looks to him for guidance in spiritual matters is in great danger; for there is nothing more certain than that, while there have been many frauds, there have been Spiritualistic phenomena that could not be accounted for on any grounds known to science. Now when the scientific report is in, and it appears that some at least of the phenomenon submitted were genuine, and evidently supernatural, those whose opinion hangs upon that report are bound to look upon Spiritualism with a favour that will lead to a full acceptance of it. One who is set to feed the flock, and to watch for their souls, ought to have a definite statement to make upon so live a question as Spiritualism.

The Bishop of Rochester writes thus:-

"I am interested in what you tell me as to your proposed new Review and Index. I confess I had myself supposed that the journals and occasional papers of the Psychical Research Society were already covering the ground on which you proposed to build; but I am not sufficiently familiar with them to know how far this is a just estimate. I entirely concur with you in deprecating any such attitude towards the mysterious phenomena you refer to as you describe, when you say that, 'Science has hitherto, for the most part, contemptuously relegated all such phenomenon to superstition.' I am certain that calm and even reverent investigation of these phenomena is essential to our arriving at any true estimate of their real character."

Here we have another shepherd who is waiting for science to tell him what to believe on the subject concerning which the Bible speaks in no uncertain language. No investigation is needed. The Bible warns against "spirits of devils working miracles," and that should be sufficient. The Holy Spirit of God will speak to us through the word of God, if we humbly and reverently accept it as the word of God; and angels of God,-not spirits of dead men, but beings who were formed before men had in any existence,-will speak to us in harmony with that word. But when messages are given by spirits professing to be the spirits of the dead, we need not stop to inquire the nature of the message, for "the dead know not anything," and their thoughts have perished, so that they cannot send messages. Therefore we may know that all such things are from the devil.

TOO BUSY

Here is another minister who is too busy to know anything about Spiritualism. The Dean of St. Paul's writes:-

"I have to spend so large a portion of my time in the practical side of church work that I fear I am not so well qualified as I ought to be to give advice on the important subject about which you ask my opinion. Scientific men do attack Christian truths, sometimes in ways that seem to be most unfair; and if you could secure any competent scientists to deal with subjects of the Borderland in a way which non-scientific people would understand and be interested in, I should think it might be most useful."

There is a man who is already to fall into the snare of Spiritualism, simply because of his indifference to it, and his willingness to submit it to the decision of scientific men. The Bishop of London is really in the same situation, because he does not believe that there is anything to investigate. He believes that the professed phenomena of Spiritualism are all a sham. Therefore when it is demonstrated to him, as it surely will be, that there is something to them, he will be ready to investigate with the rest.

APPROVAL

The Rev. H. R. Haweis writes a lengthy letter of approval, in which the following paragraph occurs:-

"The independent spiritual consciousness of man-a something not matter in matter-is about

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to be established. The survival of human personality after the shock and redistribution of atoms, which we call death, will shortly be proved-proved again and again, and to order."

When a man turns away from the Bible, to find proof of a thing which he cannot find in the Bible, there can be no doubt as to the result. Whatever is demonstrated is bound to be a lie, and the man is bound to be deceived.

Miss Willard writes:-

"I have never been one of those who hold that there are subjects that we are forbidden to investigate; such a position is false, to my mind, the distemper of superstition. If man's reason and nature's phenomena are to be kept apart at any point, then why not at many points? Whatever exists is a legitimate subject of thoughtful and reverent study by man's illimitable mind. For this reason I have always been sympathetic towards the scientific study of the phenomena with which you propose to deal in the projected magazine called Borderland."

Lady Henry Somerset wrote in very much the same strain.

STRAIGHT TESTIMONY

There are some replies that put the matter in the correct basis, saying that the Scriptures ought to be the guide; but the only one who told the simple exact truth about the business, is, strange to say, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Nottingham. He said:-

"The intelligence which uses your hand, and of which you are not conscious, is no other than the Devil; and if you continue to such unlawful intercourse with the unseen, you will necessarily be misled to your ruin by the enemy of God, the murderer of souls, and the liar from the beginning."

And yet the Bishop states positively in the same letter that human souls live after death, a belief which is the foundation of Spiritualism. Without such believe there could be no Spiritualism. And, after all, one cannot see any real difference between avowed Spiritualism, and the professed communion with the dead which the Catholic Church carries on into its prayers to those whom it calls saints. So that really, although the majority seem to be opposed or indifferent to Mr. Stead's proposal to investigate Spiritualism, that very thing, whose name they reject, has a very strong hold on them.

HOW TO INVESTIGATE

One word as to the propriety of investigating Spiritualism. Is it lawful or not? Most certainly it is lawful; but not in the way proposed by Mr. Stead. The man who refuses to have anything whatever to do with Spiritualism, because of what the Bible tells him about it, knows far more of its nature than does the man who is deceived by it, under the supposition that he is investigating it. The Scriptures are the only place where we can successfully investigate Spiritualism.

Let us illustrate. Here, we will suppose, is a vast, unexplored cave. It is, of course, as dark as anything can be. There is absolutely no delight in it. Here are some men who propose to "investigate" the cave, and they go into it and feel around in the dark. What will be the result? Simply this, that they will fall into some of its deep pits, and lose their lives. But here is a man who does not investigate in any such blind way. He stands outside and flashes a strong searchlight into it, by means of which he discovers its dangerous nature. Is there any question as to which is the more sensible method? It is utterly useless to distinguish between genuine Spiritualistic phenomena and fraud; for since we may know that the genuine are from the devil, there can be no object in studying that which is only an imitation.

"And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and to wizards that peep and that mutter; should not a people seek unto their God? for the living unto 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. 8:19, 20.

"To Undo the Reformation" The Present Truth 9, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

For the last four years Roman Catholics, under the direction of the "Guild of our Lady of Ransom," have made an annual pilgrimage to Canterbury, the special object being to visit the spot where Archbishop Thomas · Becket was killed. This pilgrimage was made this year on the 20th of July. The Catholic Times, in its account of the pilgrimage, says:-

"These annual visits of the Ransomers and other devout Catholics to the great cathedrals so dear to every Catholic heart, have two objects, and private devotion is a subordinate one. The pilgrimage is a great public act of devotion and prayer for the redemption of England from the evil of the fruits of the so-called Reformation, and a public testimony by Catholics, not only of the faith that is within them, but of the hope that their countrymen and women may be ransomed for the faith for which the blessed martyr St. Thomas died."

While the pilgrims were at the shrine, they were asked to pray earnestly "especially for the reconversion of this country to the faith, in defence of which the blissful martyred died." Perhaps the readers may not know, or at least may not have fresh in their minds, the nature of the cause in defence of which "the blissful martyr died," and will therefore give a brief statement of it, that they may see what is desired for this country.

Thomas · Becket was made archdeacon of the diocese of Canterbury, by Archbishop Theobald, and was employed in some difficult negotiations at Rome, in which he distinguished himself, so that when Henry II. ascended the throne, in 1154, he made Becket his chancellor. "He had all the qualifications of a courtier-a fine person, a cultivated mind, a pleasing address, a disposition to engage in the revelry and sports in which nobles delighted, and which ecclesiastics were not severe to shun."-Knight. "Of unbounded ambition, of over-bearing pride, and we will venture to believe of very doubtful honesty, he followed for eight years the path of secular greatness, having the confidence of the king and his undoubted ability, and securing that confidence by his agreeable qualities. His predilections were not in the least towards that church of which he received the revenues almost in the capacity of lay-in propriator."-Ib.

His interest in religion seemed to begin and end up only in the wealth that came to him from it. The Roman Catholic Church was at that time at the height of its power in England. William the Conqueror had given to the Church the prerogative of acting as supreme judge in all cases affecting an ecclesiastic. Those who belonged to the priesthood were not subject to the laws of the kingdom for the punishment of crimes. The result was that there was really two independent kingdoms in England-the civil and the ecclesiastical; and the ecclesiastical was becoming the more powerful, since in those days the clerical order included the whole of the professional and educated classes.

"The usurpations of the clergy, which had at first been gradual, were now become so rapid, and had mounted to such a height, that the contest between the regal and the pontifical was really arrived at a crisis in England; and it became necessary to determine whether the king or the priest, particularly the Archbishop of Canterbury, should be sovereign of the kingdom."-Hume. The idea that Church and State could be separated, never once entered Henry's mind, and neither did he propose to change the system established by William; but he did propose to be king of England, not realising that no civil ruler can be freed as long as there is a priesthood that exercises civil power.

In 1162, on the death of Theobald,

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Henry made Becket Archbishop of Canterbury, which office he expected that Becket would combine with his chancellorship. Henry's idea was that, since Becket had as chancellor compelled the priests to pay their dues to the crown, he would be able, as Archbishop, to keep the encroachments of the Church upon the civil power within proper limits. But in this Henry was mistaken. No sooner had Becket been made Archbishop than he resigned the chancellorship, and devoted all his energies to entrench the Church in its iniquitous position. Henry's determination was that all should be equal before the law; but, says Knight:-

"The position of the Church presented an inseparable obstacle to the equal administration of the laws. The clergy claimed an exemption from all secular judicature. Whilst the murderer and robber were punished with death, if tried in the court of the crown, the vilest offender, if a clerk, escaped the extreme penalty of his offence, and was often freed from all consequences except that of pecuniary compensation. . . . It has been stated that in the first years of Henry II. there were reckoned nearly one hundred homicides that had been perpetrated by a priest then living. After the appointment of Becket to the primacy, a priest of Worcestershire committed the infamous crime of murdering a father, that he might be undisturbed in a guilty intercourse with his daughter. Even such a crime would not, under any circumstances of atrocity, have been punished with death in the church-tribunals. This offender was required to be delivered up for the trial in the king's courts. Becket interposed the shield of the Church between the criminal and the outraged laws; and passed upon him a sentence of degradation only [from the priesthood], contending that the degraded priest could not a second time be brought to trial for the same offence."

This is sufficient to show the ground of controversy between the king and the archbishop. It is not necessary to follow the course of it through. Suffice it to say that at length, in 1170, the king in a state of exasperation let fall some words which four knights understood to mean that he wished to have Becket killed. They therefore set off post haste, and, finding the Archbishop in the Cathedral, killed him before the altar. Of course Becket was lauded as a martyr to the faith, "and the miracles wrought by his relics were more numerous, more nonsensical, and more impudently attested, than those which ever filled the legend of any confessor or martyr." Two years after his death he was canonised by Pope Alexander, and consequently is now reverenced as "St. Thomas · Becket."

Of course his assassination was a sin and a crime, but that does not make the cause for which he died any the better. He died in consequence of the unscrupulous and wicked ambition of the church with which he was identified. It is for the restoration of that usurpation that Catholics are instructed to pray and work; and the Canterbury Cathedral, now under the control of the "Protestant" Church of England, is freely given for that purpose. The pilgrimage was for the purpose of praying for "the redemption of England from the evil of the fruits of the so-called Reformation," the chief of which was the taking away from the church the power to build up itself at the expense of justice and civil order. The fact that Catholics desire a return of the times of Thomas · Becket shows that the Papacy is the same to-day that it was seven hundred years ago.

THE IMPENDING DANGER

That which has gone before was not written for the purpose of merely calling attention to the fact that the Papacy is the same enemy of freedom and progress that it always was. In the July number of the Contemporary Review, Archbishop Farrar has an article entitled, "Undoing the Work of the Reformation," in which he sets forth and protests against the growth of Romish ritualism in the Church of England. He says: "It is now notoriously a common practice of the Anglican 'priests'-many of whom derive their stock-in-trade of catchwords and formulae from Romanising manuals-to ignore the clergy and the churches of their own communion on the Continent 'as schismatic,' and to 'go to mass' in Romish churches." But passing by what he has to say of the aping of the priesthood in the growth of relief in transubstantiation, we will note his vigorous words concerning auricular confession. He says:-

"It should be observed that the ignorant and indiscriminate abuse of auricular confession, which may be made in the unscrupulous hands an instrument of the most insufferable and dangerous journey, is even more perilous in England than it is in the Church of Rome. For in the Church of Rome there is, I believe, some limitation put on the right to hear confessions. How are we to assume, in the face of fact, that all 'priests' have that gift of 'spiritual discernment,' without which the pretence to absolve becomes not only baseless, but pernicious? But in the stress of the unrestrained license to which we have now been reduced and betrayed by supineness in the defence of truth, any silly youth who has barely scraped through a poll degree, and who may have shown in his ordination examination an incredible ignorance of the most elementary facts of Scripture, scholarship, and theology, thinks himself at liberty, as soon as he enters a parish, to pose as a confessor, and to tell men and women, whose very shoes he is not worthy to tie, that they are to come and kneel to him 'as culprits before their judge.' He will indeed find a few-and none of any manliness and intelligence-to adopt such abject thralldom to one who may be immeasurably their inferior in the most elementary crushing graces; but he may do-as has been done a thousand times-quite infinite mischief to himself, and to weak and miserable souls. Not to dwell on his utter unfitness to dabble his unspiritual hands

'In the dark dissolving human heart

And hallowed secrets of this microcosm,'

such a youth, in his self-sufficiency and blindness, made hopelessly poison the peace of families; may

'Divert and crack, rend and deracinate

The unity and wedded calm'

of households; may subtly alienate the love of wives from their husbands; may sow discord between the daughter and her mother; may, in sheer incompetence, and without consciously wicked intentions, reduce the whole religious state of the silly and the impressionable to a chaos of hysteric falsities by teaching for doctrines the deceits of men.

"Bishop Wilberforce, all his life long an acknowledged leader of the High Church party, declared to his clergy with passionate emphasis for days before his death that the system of auricular confession was baneful to the person confessing; baneful to the person receiving confession; and, above all, baneful to the society in which the practice prevailed; but now the Ritualists are patronised by many bishops in their worst excesses, and all over the country the interests of the Evangelical laity are being trampled down with a contemptuous insouciance which in many cases is really shocking.

"These innovators of yesterday have utterly abandoned Hooker, and gone immensely farther than great old Anglican divines, like Bishop Andrewses and Jeremy Taylor, and even Archbishop Laud. They have even left far behind such Anglican leaders as Keble, Bishop Wilberforce, and Dean Burgon. Dean Burgon told them that they were 'Sectarians and Separatists,' who 'as a party would have been disowned by churchmen of every age and every school.' Bishop Wilberforce, in his last public speech, described the growth of Ritualism 'not as a grand development, but as a decrepitude'; 'not as something very sublime and impressive, but something very feeble and contemptible.'

"And already, like a swarm of locusts, Ritualistic practices have settled on every green field. In twenty years, if things are suffered to go on at the present rate-if the cause of the Reformation is on every side abandoned and betrayed-the Church of England will be Romish in everything but name. Lord Halifax will have had his ardent wish that there be restored 'those filial relations that formerly existed between the successors of Augustine in the See of Canterbury and that chair which is now occupied by the successors of St. Gregory the Great';-in other words, the Church of England will have finally undone the work of the Reformation, and will have been insidiously seduced back step by step, into the corrupt bosom of the Church of Rome."

Unfortunately the Anglican Church is not alone in opening the way for Rome's revival. While engaged in so-called "scientific" criticism of the Bible,-pulling it to pieces under the plea of a design to free it from its human incumbrances,-the non-conformists are rapidly, although unconsciously, coming over to the Roman Catholic ground of depriving the common people of the Bible. No preaching of masses, auricular confession, etc., can tend to Rome as surely as destroying confidence in the Bible; for with that gone all heresies are bound to come.

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The Reformation, so far as it was carried forward, not only in England, but in every country, was a result of plain preaching from the Bible, and of putting that book into the hands of rich and poor alike, teaching them that through it the voice of God was speaking to their souls. The Reformation can be maintained, and the advance of Romanism opposed, and not by appeals to Parliament, nor by the calling of the Ecclesiastical councils, but only by a return to Reformation principles,-by giving people the Bible in such a way that they will receive it as the living word of the living God, the only guide to salvation.

"Gifts and Sacrifices" The Present Truth 9, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

"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 i. 17. This being the case, it is evident that no good and perfect gift can come from beneath. God alone is good (Luke xviii. 19), therefore from Him alone can come good things. In man dwelleth no good thing, therefore from him can come no good thing.

"For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly." Ps. lxxxiv. 11. This text is the complement of the one in James. Everything that is good comes from God, and there is not anything that is good that He does not give.

What is there then that man can give? Nothing but his own miserable self, and that is not a gift, but an exchange of nothing for everything. When we take a broken watch to the watchmaker's to have it repaired, we do not say that we have given him anything; for the idea of a gift is that of value bestowed. Much less do we say that we have made a gift if we exchange a poor, worthless article for something of great value. In that case the gift is received by us, instead of giving.

Now that is the way matters stand between us and God. He has everything, and we have nothing. He gives, and we receive. If we give Him ourselves and all that we have and are, as we often say, what have we given Him? How much do we add to the store of His wealth? Nothing. We give Him ourselves in order that He may make us over entirely new. But that is not a gift, for which full value is received. Much less, then, can it be called a gift, when the thing given is not only worthless, but a positive loss, and the thing received in exchange is above all price. We give the Lord ourselves, because He has bought us, paying for us His own life, which He freely gives to us in exchange for our forfeited lives.

And yet people who profess to be Christians, and who know something of the value of the preciousness of Christ, talk about "making sacrifices." Did you ever notice that there is no such expression in the Scriptures? Are we not to learn something from the fact that while the Scriptures often exhort us to "offer" sacrifices, they never tell us to "make" sacrifices? Perhaps you have not thought of the matter before. If not, stop and think of it, and ask yourself how gifts and sacrifices can be made by those who have nothing to give. People who have made large contributions to the work of the Gospel, are often said to have sacrificed heavily for the cause of God. It is not probable that any one man ever gave more for the cause of God than David did-three thousand talents of gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver, besides many other things he gave for the temple. And now hear what he said in his prayer:-

"Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is Thine; Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honour come of Thee, and Thou reignest over all; and in Thine hand is power and might; and in Thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. Now therefore, our God, we thank Thee, and praise Thy glorious name. But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of Thee, and of Thine own have we given thee. . . . O Lord our God, all this store that we have prepared to build Thee an house for Thine holy name cometh of Thine hand, and is all Thine own." 1 Chron. xxix. 11-16.

Notice that when David offered his great store to God, he returned thanks to Him for it. Most people would almost expect God to thank them for such a gift. At least it is very natural for people to think that the cause of God is under some sort of obligation to them for what they give.

The heathen idea of sacrifice is that man must give something to God; the Christian idea is that God gives everything to man, and then only recognises the fact that it all belongs to the Lord. He even thinks that he must deprive himself of something, or undergo some hardship, in order to appease the wrath of his god; the true Christian knows that God gave up everything, and underwent the suffering of death, in order to reconcile man to Himself. Christ's sacrifice is the only one that can ever be made or required. "For this man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God." Heb. x. 12. He, "Through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God," in order that man might have something to offer to God.

"Knowing that ye were redeemed, and not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your father; but with precious blood, as of the lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ." 1 Peter i. 18, 19, R.V. In this we see why it was that an incorruptible sacrifice had to be made to redeem man. He had to be redeemed from his vain, empty life. That means that he had to have another life that was not vain and empty. So we are redeemed by the life of Christ, which is given to us. In the beginning man received perfection from the Lord, and therefore he owed the same to the Lord. But he lost everything, and therefore God gave to him again His own perfect life, in order that he might render a perfect offering to the Lord again. See how this idea is carried out in the next chapter:-

"Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby; if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." 1 Peter iii. 1-5.

The only acceptable sacrifice that we can offer is that which we receive in Jesus Christ. "Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance unto Israel, and forgiveness of sins." Acts v. 31. Therefore it is that "the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit." Ps. li. 17. The presence of Christ in the heart gives repentance, and that is an acceptable sacrifice.

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And this last text shows us that the idea of a spiritual sacrifice was not a new thing in the time of the Apostle Peter. There were many sacrifices offered, but none of them were of the slightest consequence unless they came from a contrite heart. It was faith that made the offering of Abel acceptable. Heb. xi. 4. The sacrifices with which God is well pleased are "the sacrifices of righteousness." Ps. li. 19. That means the sacrifices that come from Christ, who is our righteousness. To the people whose hands were filled with blood, the Lord said, "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me?" Isa. i. 11. And again, "Though ye offer Me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fed beasts. . . . But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream." Amos v. 22-24.

The prophet Micah, with a just sense of the requirements of God, said: "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" Micah vi. 6-8.

It is a mistake, then, to suppose that in one age of the world the Lord required men to make material sacrifices, but that now He requires only spiritual sacrifices. The fact is that He never required anything but spiritual sacrifices, for no man could ever offer any other. He has prepared the sacrifice, and given it freely to man, so that man may have wherewith to offer an acceptable sacrifice to Him. It was the heart touched by the gift of Christ, that made the offering of value. But now, as well as then, he whose heart has felt the love of God will gladly recognise the fact that everything good comes from the Lord, and will therefore hold whatever material things he may have as the Lord's, and will not feel that he is making a sacrifice when he yields up some of it, or all of it, to the cause of God.

"Vainly we offer each ample oblation,

Vainly with gifts would His favour secure;

Richer by far is the heart's adoration,

Dearer to God are the prayers of the poor."

"Man's Freedom" The Present Truth 9, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

There is an important statement made by Mr. Stead in the first number of Borderland, in regard to the way that his hand is used to write communications, and the conditions under which it is done. In the first place he repeats the statement that the communications are given to him, without any conscious direction of his own mind, and without any knowledge on his part of what is written. He holds his pen in the ordinary way, resting the point of it lightly on the paper, and the rest is done by a power other than that of his own mind. Then comes this most important statement:-

"These communications come to me at all times and places, but their arrival depends almost altogether upon my volition. That is to say, unless I take a pen or pencil, make my mind passive, and wait for the message, I do not receive any communication any more than I should receive a telephonic message if I never went to the telephone. The analogy between the method of communication and the telephone is very close, but with this difference-in this system it is always the recipient who rings up, so to speak, the transmitter at the other end of the line, possibly others may have a different experience. But I am never rung by the Invisibles. They do not seem to have any means of communicating with me when I am all alone unless I first place my hand at their disposal. They often complain, when I have been too busy to let them write for some time, that I have never given them an opportunity of addressing me."

This is not only important, but it is reassuring. It shows that every man has his destiny in his own hands, and may have whatever he chooses. Although "the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about, seeking whom he may devour," he cannot control anyone who does not submit to him. The will of man has been for ever set free, unless man himself voluntarily puts it in subjection to another. God respects man's freedom of will, since He Himself has given it to him, and He will not interfere with it; and Satan cannot control it without man's consent, although he tries to.

The very fact that a writing or other medium is obliged to put his will wholly under the control of another, should be sufficient to teach thoughtful men the evil of the whole business. God is free, and delights in freedom, and He wishes men to be free, and not slaves. We are to submit our wills to God, but in so doing we do not lose liberty, for we simply voluntarily take His will and make it our own, and then we have a better, stronger, and freer will than before. It is true that others have an experience different from that of Mr. Stead, but only because they have been longer in the business than he has. If he continues to yield his mind and body to the control of Satan, there will come a time when he cannot help himself,-when the devil will use him without his consent. Thus the soul is taken captive by the devil at his will. The only way to avoid such a sad fate is to obey, from the very start, the Divine injunction, "Resist the Devil," in which case we have the sure promise that he will flee. Let the sons of men rejoice in the fact that Satan cannot control them against their will. Even though through man's compliance he has secured partial control, the power of God can break the chains, for Christ came "to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound."

"Defending the Faith" The Present Truth 9, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

When Henry VIII. wrote a book against the doctrine of justification by faith, which Luther preached, the Pope, in an unconscious irony, gave him the title of "Defender of the Faith." The king was as much pleased with this as a child would be with a coloured paper doll, and could not conceal his delight. His fool asked him the cause of his extravagant joy, and Henry said, "The Pope has just made me 'Defender of the Faith.'" Whereupon the fool replied, "Ho! ho! good Harry, let you and me defend one another, but take my word for it, let the faith alone to defend itself."

In this case the fool was the wise man. The faith needs no defence. On the contrary, the faith is itself a defence. Among the armour which we are exhorted to put on is "the shield of faith." Eph. vi. 16. Who ever heard of a man defending a shield? It is the shield that is used as a defence for the man. So those who talk about "defending the faith," have simply got the matter turned round. They have put themselves in a place of the truth of God. The idea as well as the title comes from the Papacy, which "opposeth and exalteth itself above all that is called God."

It is because of the idea that they are set to defend the faith that legislators pass laws against irreligion. They seem to think that God could not get along without the help of earthly rulers. They imagine that God's truth will be blotted from the earth if they do not defend it. They even presume to defend God Himself by passing laws against blasphemy, that term being usually in such cases

279

made to include a denial of certain dogmas which the aforesaid men have declared to be God's truth.

There was a time when the worship of Baal had almost entirely taken the place of the worship of God in Israel. One night Gideon, at the command of God, threw down the altar of Baal, and cut down the images. When the men of the city found out who had done it, they demanded that Joash should deliver his son Gideon to be slain for his impiety. But "Joash said unto them that stood against him: Will ye plead for Baal? will ye save him? he that will plead for him let him be put to death while it is yet morning; if he be a god, let him plead for himself, because one hath cast down his altar." Judges vii. 31.

There was wisdom. If Baal were not a god, who should want to defend him; and if he were, he could defend himself. If he could not defend himself he was not worth pleading for, much less worshipping.

"But Jehovah is the true God, He is the living God, and an everlasting King; at His wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide His indignation." Then we can throw away the vain idea that man, who is not able to defend himself is required to defend God. Rather accept His truth, that it may defend us. "The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee; send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion." "Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his refuge."

"Feeding on Husks" The Present Truth 9, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

A gentleman's attention was recently attracted to some Eton students in a railway carriage who were so absorbed in their books that they could scarcely lift their eyes from them when darkness set in. Admiring their studiousness, he was astonished to find that they were reading penny sensational novels of the most trashy character, whose least fault was their shocking disregard of the laws of the English language. He remonstrated with the youths but to no purpose. This incident sent him to investigating, and he sums up in the Echo the result of his observations:-

"Stop ten boys in any London street, and search them, and it would be perfectly safe to wager that, coiled up in the pockets of eight out of the ten, you would find a 'penny dreadful.' And also that four out of the eight would possess imperfect vision.

Watch them, and you will see them, as they go on errands or what not, suddenly pause and snatch the thing out, and take a mouthful so to speak. The boy has been conning over in his mind the story as far as he has got, and cannot resist the temptation to find out whose throat is to be cut next. So he crawls along reading, full of anticipatory harmful thrills and gasps, unthinking, unseeing. Not only does this description apply to bored school children, office boys, and others, but to those of high-class schools, in whose satchels lie, cheek by jowl with their lesson books, tales of impossible "Penny Gaff" Pirates, of bushrangers who make their homes in the Himalayas, and dozens of other incongruities sickening to dwell upon.

The worst is, that this is true not only of London, but of other cities, and of other countries besides England. It is proposed that, if parents and masters are powerless to remedy the evil, the State should interfere. But it is impossible that the State can succeed where parents fail. Of course the failure on the part of parents is due to carelessness and indifference; but the fact remains that nothing in this world can take the place of parental control over children. "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it," is a truth that will bear the test; and that "a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame," is too often demonstrated.

"A Fighting 'Christian Conscience'" The Present Truth 9, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

In the July number of the Review of Reviews, Rev. F. H. Stead gives his impressions of "The Civic Life of Chicago." Of course the Sunday opening of the World's Fair comes in for a notice, and what he has to say of it throws, as he says, "a strange light on the Sabbatarian sentiment of Christian Chicago." It was at a time when it was thought that the Fair would be opened in defiance of what was thought to be the law. "Religious people confidently look to Mayor McClaughery" (the Chief of Police) to bar the way to the crowds which on Sunday might insist on entering the Fair. We let Mr. Stead tell the rest in his own words:-

"The eager advocate of civic reform, to whom I have already alluded, was prepared for the emergency, should it arise. 'See here,' he said to me, producing a sheet of signatures. 'These are names belonging to some of the best families in Chicago. They are names of men who hereby pledge themselves to stand by Mayor McClaughery should the Fair gates be opened on Sunday. He will have a difficult task, and he needs to have his hand strengthened.'

"I naturally thought of moral support only being thus tendered. My friend seemed to perceive this, and so he proceeded, 'These are the names of young men, strong men,' and lowering his voice to a whisper, he added, 'men who can fight.'

"I understand it now. This is the way the Christian conscience enrolls its special constables in Chicago. It seems rather strange to British minds, this possible spectacle of stalwart Christian young men, armed with Derringers, going down on a Sunday to 'stand by' the Chief of Police, as he endeavours to uphold the law of the Sabbath."

Of course the occasion did not arise, but the incident shows how both "Christianity" and "conscience" are misused. Doubtless those young men would have complacently regarded themselves as giant "soldiers of the cross," if they had shot down a few people who persisted in disregarding Sunday; and if they had a chance to receive a few shots in return, they would have been considered martyrs. How strange it is that men with Bibles which they read, can suppose that conscience has anything to do with regulating the affairs of anyone besides the possessor thereof, or that the "Gospel of peace" can be advanced by clubs and revolvers.

"Going to School in India" The Present Truth 9, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

We learned last week that little Hindu girls do not go to school, unless sometimes to an English or missionary school. So what we say about going to Indian schools will all be about the boys.

When the little boy is about five years old, he is sent to the infant school. "Hindu boys are just as excited as English ones about going to school for the first time."

"When the day comes, the little boy has a bath, and puts on his new clothes, very likely the first clothes he has ever worn, except when he was six months old, and was dressed in silk to be shown to his friends." Then he pays a visit to a temple, and offers some rice and fruits to the god or goddess of learning, after which his father takes him to school.

His first lesson is the alphabet. He learns the letters by writing them over and over, not on paper as you do, but in the sand on the ground, with a piece of soft stone!

When he knows all his letters, he is allowed to write on dried palm-leaves with a real pen or a metal style; next he is allowed to write on a wooden slate, and last of all on paper.

Beside reading and writing he must learn the multiplication table very thoroughly. Some of the Hindu boys learn to be good arithmeticians, and to keep accounts well. Instead of learning the multiplication table out of a book, the boy who knows it best says it aloud, and the others repeat it after him in a loud monotonous chant until they know it.

The school-house is generally a rude building with three mud walls on three sides, but quite open on the fourth, and a thatched roof supported by bamboos. No benches or desks are needed as the boys generally sit on the ground when writing.

In order to get the boys to come in time the master has a strange rule. The boy that comes first gets one stroke of the cane, the second boy gets two, the third three, and so on to the one who comes last. If the last boy comes very late indeed the master sometimes makes him stand on one leg for an hour. If he plays truant he may be made not only to stand on one leg, but at the same time to hold a brick in his right hand, or to stand with both his arms stretched out at full length until he feels quite ill.

One punishment for a bad boy is for him to stand in a very stooping posture, with his two feet and one hand resting on a stone, whilst he has to hold a stone in the other hand. How this must make his back ache, when it is continued for hours! But if he should straighten up one moment he would be punished still more, for an assistant stands behind him with a cane in his hand. Sometimes a boy must stand on one leg with his other foot drawn up to his knee, while his hands are joined over his head, or in a stooping posture with his hands passed under his body so as to touch the tips of his ears. "Another very dreadful punishment is to put stinging leaves on to the boy's naked back, where he cannot get at them to take them off, or even to rub the sore place."

"Oh pity those poor children

In far-off heathen lands,

Who're taught to worship Dagon

And suffer at his hands.

"I'm told they have no Bible-

No holy Sabbath day;

No teacher, friend, disciple,

To teach them how to pray.

"I'm told that they are ready

To hear the Gospel sound,

Will you not give your penny,

To help send it around?"

"Man Cannot Create" The Present Truth 9, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

"Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it." Ps. cxxxix. 6.

Did you ever go out-of-doors on a bright sunshiny day and look up at the clear blue sky? Isn't it beautiful? The sun, how bright it is! And at night, there are the pretty twinkling stars and the great shining moon. This beautiful place above you that looks so blue, and where you see the sun, and moon, and stars, is called "the heavens."

But the ground upon which you walk and upon which people build their houses, and plant their gardens, this is called "the earth." It is not flat and level like the floor, but the earth is round like a ball or orange, only it is so large the trees can grow on it; so large that cattle can graze and wild beasts roam, upon it; so large that thousands of men and women can live on it, and many little children do. In some places it is soft and green; in some parts it is covered with tall and thick forests, then again it is steep and rough, covered with great hills, so high that when you look up you can scarcely see the tops of them; but in some parts there are no hills at all, but quiet little ponds of water where the white water lilies grow, and silvery fishes play among their long stems. On other parts of the earth there are no ponds, but there are great plains of sand; and still other parts it is covered with water stretching away farther than you can see on every side; and on other places as you go round the wonderful ball, can be seen drifts upon drifts of snow and mountains of blue ice, even in the summer time. You can see clear round your ball, and can hold it in one hand, but the earth is so large round that you can see only a small part of it at one time, and you can hold but a few grains of it in your hand. Men can go round the earth, and surely as a fly can go round your ball, only it takes a great many days. The earth has many other strange things upon it, which we have not time even to mention.

Did you ever see a man building a house? How many things he must have before he can build it! He must have stone and timber, and nails, and slates or tiles, and brick and mortar, and hinges, and knobs, and glass, and locks, and many, many other things. Before he can make a fence he must have wood, or wire, or stone, or iron. The shoemaker must have leather before he can make your boots. Your mother must have cloth before she can make your clothes, and flour before she can make up the bread. Look around the house and see if you can tell what men had to have before they could make the chairs, and tables, and stove, and grates, and dishes, and carpets. Men and women and even little children can make many fine things, but did you ever think that they always have to have something to make them out of. No man or woman or child knows how to make things out of nothing.

And yet we read in our Bible that this great earth upon which we live, and the beautiful heavens above us, were all created; and that means that they were made out of nothing! Who could have done it? Surely not man, for he does not know how to make even the smallest thing out of nothing. It must be some one who is much wiser and greater than man. Do you remember who it is?

1. What do we call the beautiful place above us where we see the sun, and moon, and stars?

2. Have you a ball? What kind?

3. Is it flat like a book, or of what shape is it?

4. What do we call the great round ball of ground upon which we live, and build our houses, and plant our gardens?

5. Which is larger, your ball, or the earth?

6. How large is the earth?

7. Name some of the things that we see on the earth.

8. What did the man need before he could make your ball?

9. What must a man have before he can build a house?

10. What did the shoemaker need to have before he could make your boots?

11. What must your mamma have before she can make up the bread?

12. Did you ever make anything?

13. What did you have to have before you could do it?

14. Did you ever create anything, that is, make it out of nothing?

15. Did your father?

16. Did your mother?

17. Why not?

18. Cannot some of your friends create things? Why not?

19. Of what does the Bible say the beautiful heavens and earth were made?

20. Then was it created by man?

21. Who did it?

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

-A crisis is reported to exist in the Servian Cabinet.

-Fresh cases of cholera are being discovered daily at St. Petersburg.

-King Otto, of Bavaria, is critically ill, and his death is looked for hourly.

-It is reported that Great Britain has annexed the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific.

-Trouble is threatened between the French and the Hovas in Madagascar. The latter are arming.

-An epidemic of dengue fever prevails among both natives and Europeans on the island of Zanzibar.

-Thomas Spurgeon, son of C. H. Spurgeon, now occupies the pulpit so long filled by his illustrious father.

-The world's record for a twenty-four hour bicycle run was recently made at Herne Hill. It is 426 miles and 440 yards.

-The annual budget statement for Queensland, Australia, delivered in the legislature, July 25, reports a deficit of £1,500,000.

-It is now regarded as practically certain that Lord Herschell will succeed the Marquis of Lansdowne as Viceroy of India.

-The new comet is now visible to the naked eye. It is situated in the region extending below the constellation of the Great Bear.

-In 1830 the whole tonnage of the British Empire reached but 2,500,000. To-day the tonnage register is 6,000,000 of steam and 4,250,000 of sailing.

-The steamers Pearl and Archibald Finnie collided near the coast of Down in the Irish Sea, with the result that the latter sank, with seven of the crew.

-News from the scene of the revolution in Nicaragua reports a battle near Mateare, in which 5,000 men were engaged. The result of the fighting is not known.

-The Russian army is being supplied with a new small-bore rifle, which will necessitate a new system of drill. Several new cruisers are in process of construction.

-Some miscreant sent an infernal machine by post to Mr. Richard Richards at Broadstairs, July 22, which while being opened exploded, inflicting upon him fatal injuries.

-Cases of cholera continue to occur in the South of France. A German says the cholera bacillus will live three days in milk, eight days on cooked meat, and one day on bread-and-butter.

-The court-martial with regard to the loss of the Victoria ended by the Court finding that the disaster was due to Admiral Tryon's order, and Captain Bourke and the other survivors were acquitted of all blame.

-A plague of scorpions has overwhelmed the city of Durango, Mexico, where the authorities are paying bounty for each of the pests killed.

-Several cases of cholera are reported from Smyrna, and all arrivals from that port to Athens will be subjected to a quarantine of eleven days.

-Intelligence from Rio Janeiro announces that another revolution has broken out in Brazil, in the State of Santa Catharina, supported, it is said, by the national forces. Its purposes is the overthrow of the government.

-A terrible famine is reported from the province of Shansi, in China. The dispatch states that children are being sold by their parents for $2 each, and the most revolting scenes of cannibalism are witnessed among the natives.

-A French journal states that M. Charles de Lessepps, of Panama Canal infamy, is shortly to be released from prison. M. Bloudin, a fellow culprit, now serving out a two-years' sentence has had one year of his term remitted.

-The financial crisis in America is growing more serious, and a feeling of great uneasiness pervades trade and commercial circles. Bank failures are reported daily, and many manufactories are running on short time or closing down altogether.

-Serious trouble is apprehended from the miners' strike in Missouri, U.S.A., and eleven companies of militia have received orders to be in readiness to march to the scene of disturbance. At Weir City the stockades are manned by 600 negroes.

-Sunday closing again prevails at the World's Fair grounds in Chicago. This is not, however, out of any regard for the day, but because so large a part of the fair was closed on Sunday that the attendance was too small to make Sunday opening profitable.

-News has been received from Hong Kong that the Spanish steamer San Juan, which sailed from that port on the 29th June last, has been totally destroyed by fire. Out of 230 passengers on board the ill-fated vessel, 221 are stated to have perished.

-The last sitting of the present French Chamber of Deputies was held July 22, when the Budget was finally passed, after some final modifications had been made in it by the Senate. The general election to the next Chamber will take place on August 20.

-A clergyman of the Church of England, when being examined as a witness in a matrimonial suit, refused to divulge the substance of a confession made to him by a wife. As it was not considered necessary to press the matter, no penalty was attached to his refusal.

-San Francisco dispatches report a terrific powder explosion at Canton, China, by which every village in the vicinity was wrecked. In one village, separated from the powder factory by a narrow stream, four hundred houses were destroyed. Several hundred people were killed end injured.

-At a meeting of the Northumberland Miners' Association, July 22, it was resolved to make an application to the owners for an advance of 11 per cent. At several of the collieries in the north prices are to advanced from 2s. to 3s. 6d. per ton, and London coal merchants have withdrawn all their price-lists which are subject to hourly change.

-The trouble between France and Siam, which it was expected would involve a declaration of war, continues without any material change in the situation. France lays claim to the left bank of the Mekong river up to the Burmese frontier, which Siam disputes, and China is said to regard the same territory as a part of her own possessions. France threatens a blockade of the Siamese coast, and has a fleet of twelve war vessels in Siamese waters, with which her threat may be carried out

-What was probably the most undignified scene ever witnessed in the House of Commons, occurred July 27. Sir Chamberlain, in a speech on the Home Rule Bill, compared Mr. Gladstone to "Herod," and Mr. O'Connor retaliated by applying to the speaker the term "Judas." A scene of confusion followed which culminated in a personal encounter between members of the Irish party and the friends of Mr. Chamberlain, and for the first time in its history, the House of Commons became the scene of a vulgar meleÈ which there was a free exchange of blows. Order was finally restored without any member having sustained serious damage.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

As a result of the French blockade of Siam, it is stated that the Siamese Government has accepted the French ultimatum.

The uncertainty of things in which men mostly put their trust is indicated by the fact that there were 301 bank failures in the United States, between May 1st and July 22nd.

The epidemic of English cholera at Belfast has assumed such alarming proportion that, acting on the advice of the superintendent medical officer of the city, the Public Health Committee of the Corporation has issued an elaborate statement urging upon inhabitants the importance of strict attention to food and drink as well as to the cleanliness of their persons and homes. The greatest mortality is among children and youth.

On Friday, July 28, the coal miners' strike begun in England, when 280,000 miners, and others engaged in the work of getting out coal, ceased work. This number has doubtless been increased by the present time by at least 60,000 more. Practically, the whole of the coal trade in Lancashire, Cheshire, North Wales, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Notts, Yorkshire, Warwickshire, Gloucestershire, Somersetshire, and Cumberland is stopped. It is expected that this will be the greatest labour war ever fought in England.

While regarding the miners' strike as inevitable, Mr. John Wilson, M.P., secretary to the Durham miners, deplores the fact, because, in his opinion, strikes have never brought the miners any real good. He says that war is barbarism, and that a trade war is no exception to the rule. All of which is truth. While there is no question but that labourers suffer oppression and extortion, and have many times just cause of complaint, it is just as certain that grievances are not redressed by force. A "victory" may be gained in some instances, but in the end the results are the worse. Christ's injunction, "I say unto you, that ye resist not evil," seems to the natural mind unsuited to the case; but those who follow Christ will know that He did not speak at random. Christians cannot engage in such a thing as a modern strike. They may seem for a time to be foolish because of their non-resistance, but to the Christian labourers whose higher is kept back by fraud, Inspiration says, "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord." James v. 7.

In a recent charge the Bishop of Bath and Wells said:-

"When I have put together as carefully as I can all the facts of the case, and have weighed as fairly and impartially as I can all the considerations which the 'Higher Criticism' brings before us, I only return with greatly increased confidence to the ancient faith, and to an implicit reliance upon the truth of Holy Scripture as given by inspiration of God."

The fact that a scholarly man believes in the full inspiration of the Bible, does not add one whit to its truth; but it is well once in a while to remind people that not all the scholarship is running to infidelity.

Someone says that "the reunion of Christendom is an impossible dream, and would be useless and mischievous even if it were possible. For Christendom is that field wherein the enemy has sowed tares, which cannot be united with the wheat, but must be gathered out by the angels at the end of the age, and bound in bundles for burning." This is but another way of saying that "Christendom" is not the same as "Christians." Christians do not need reunion, for they are united already, by virtue of their communion with Christ.

Who has not, when going upstairs in the dark, proceeded on the assumption that he was at the top, when he lacked one step of being there? And what has been the inevitable result? A stumble, perhaps a severe fall. The same thing will befall him who, while still below "the major of the stature of the fullness of Christ," imagines that he has reached the top. How can such a result be avoided? By remembering that the mistake of supposing you are at the top when you are not, is made only when you are in the dark. Learn, then, to walk in the light, even the life of Christ, who is meek and lowly in heart.

"The end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart." 1 Tim. i. 5. He who does not attain to the end of the commandment, comes short; and he who comes short is as bad off as he who does not start. Anything short of the end of the commandment is a violation of the commandment. But the end of the commandment is attained only by a pure heart. Commandment-keeping can come only from a pure heart. It is impossible therefore, to purify the heart by trying to keep the commandments, because the heart must be pure before any acceptable service can be rendered to God. He will cleanse the heart freely by His Spirit, and then the end of the commandment will be the natural result of His life. "For of Him, and through Him, are all things." Rom. xi. 36.

"It is not to politics, and it is not to science, and certainly it is not to the interests of men, or the utopias of dreamers, that we must look for the salvation of France or of the world. Our salvation must come from Christianity alone. But to work this miracle, Christianity must regain its true character; it must be the religion of the Gospel, the religion of justice and charity. It must tear itself free from the superstitions which degrade it, from the sects which would rend it into fragments, from the clergies and the governments who enslave and exploit it."

Thus speaks Pere Hyscinthe Loyson, and very truly, too. Christianity is going to be seen in just that condition before long,-the manifestation of the life of Christ among men. But it will not result in the salvation of France, nor of any other country, but only in the culling out of the people from every nation, who will follow Christ. Sad to say, there are many now, as in the days when Christ was on earth, to whom He is obliged to say, "Ye will not come unto Me, that ye may have life."

And in his article in the Contemporary Review, on "Undoing the work of the Reformation," Archdeacon Farrar says:-

"Disestablishment will be one of the first consequences of the triumph of Ritualism; and immediately after disestablishment will come the necessity for, and the certainty of a New Reformation to re-establish the truths which Ritualism endeavours to overthrow."

That New Reformation has already begun. It is the everlasting Gospel, set forth in the following message: "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. 7. It teaches that "the Head of every man is Christ," that the Scriptures are able to make men "perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works," and that God is able to speak through them to every person individually, without the intervention of any man or body of men.

August 10, 1893

"Front Page" The Present Truth 9, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

"Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, according as we hope in Thee." Ps. xxxiii. 22. What infinite resources there are for us in that sentence. It is true that it is only a prayer, but it is a prayer inspired by the Holy Spirit, and therefore it is equal to a promise by the Holy Spirit. It is a promise that we may have, from the mercy of God, anything that we hope for. We cannot exhaust His mercy. Not only may we have all that we hoped for from God, but He is "able to do it exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think." Eph. iii. 20. And whatever God is able to do, He will do. Then let us put on love, the bond of perfectness, "that hopeth all things," and all things are ours.

"Unto you therefore which believe He is precious." 1 Peter ii. 7. "Precious" does not mean simply beloved, but valuable, costly. The precious metals are those that are the most valuble, as silver and gold. Precious stones are distinguished from ordinary stones by their worth. The preciousness of anything is in proportion to its value.

Jesus is precious, because He is worth more than the entire universe. "In Him were all things created." All things come from Him, and "in Him all things consist." In Him "are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Col. ii. 3. The riches of Christ are "unsearchable." Eph. iii. 8. This does not mean simply that He has great wealth, but that He Himself is beyond all price.

That the word "precious" is applied to Christ in its strict sense of costly, or valuable, is shown from 1 Peter i. 18, 19: "Knowing that ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your father; but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ." (Revised Version). Compared with the blood of Christ, silver and gold have no value; they are but worthless trash. "Ye have sold yourselves for naught, but ye shall be redeemed without money." Isa. lii. 3. "For the redemption of their soul is precious." Ps. xlix. 8. Money cannot be mentioned in the transaction; something far more precious is required, even the blood of Christ.

The blood is the life. Lev. xvii. 14. Therefore being redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, means that we are redeemed with the precious life of Christ. He Himself is precious. We are justified "through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Rom. iii. 24. Faith in His life brings the righteousness of God. There is more than enough of value in Him to redeem all the world, putting the pure gold of God's righteous as in the place of the dross of humanity.

Christ is infinitely precious in Himself, but no one receives the wealth that is in Him, unless he takes it; and it is taken only by faith. Therefore it is said, "Unto you which believe He is precious." The value of Christ to us in our daily life, is according to our faith. The promises of God are worth to us just what our faith takes them for. We receive value to the extent of our belief. If we believe more, we get more. If we believe that Christ is everything, and is able to help to the uttermost, then He will be everything to us. This is not imagination; for although a man may vainly imagine himself to be rich, those imaginary riches will not purchase anything; but the riches of Christ are real and enduring. We get in Him just as much as we believe in Him, without limit, because there is no limit to Him, and faith is the only thing that can take of Him. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for." "Unto you therefore which believe He is precious."

"The Deep Things of God" The Present Truth 9, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

Repetition is the secret of success. The artisan becomes expert with his tools by constantly handling them. He can execute that job of work so quickly and so neatly, because he has had so much practice. It is by constant drill that a body of soldiers become able to move as one man, without giving the matter any thought. So it is by repeatedly in reviewing the things that he has studied, that the student becomes master of them. It is his perfect familiarity with first principles, gained by going over them again and again, that he is able at length to master other things very quickly, and often with no seeming effort. Constant application is the secret of success in anything.

So it is with the study of the Scriptures. One need not expect to become "mighty in the Scriptures," as Apollos was, without giving himself wholly to them, as Paul exhorted Timothy. The trouble with many who desire to understand the Bible is that they are impatient of study. They wish at once to be as proficient as some other person who has devoted years of study to it. This they think they will gain by listening to the discourses and explanations

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of that other one. But familiarity with the Bible can come only by personal study. One may learn much by seeing another do a certain kind of work, but he may watch a skilled mechanic for months, and he will still be awkward when he first attempts to do the job himself. The exercise of one man will never give strength to another man; but the second man may be guided in his exercise by the experience of the first one. So one man's study can never give understanding to another. The man who has studied much may guide another one in his study, but no amount of counsel or instruction to the beginner will ever take the place of earnest, diligent study for himself.

The truths of the Bible do not all lie on the surface. They must be searched for. The wise man said: "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." Prov. ii. 3-5. There are very few places where silver and gold and diamonds can be picked up on the surface of the ground. He who would have them must dig for them.

This does not mean that everybody may not understand the Bible. The things of God are revealed unto babes. He who would receive the kingdom of God, must receive it as a little child. That which may be understood by children, can surely be understood by anybody.

Someone may say that he has not a great mind, and is not able to search out deep things. The Lord knows all about that, and He has provided for it. "As it is written, Eye have not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." 1 Cor. ii. 9, 10. Christ said also of the Spirit. "He shall glorify Me; for He shall receive of Mine and shall show it unto you." John xvi. 14.

It is in Christ that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden. See Col. ii. 2, 3. Therefore in taking of His things and showing them to us, the Spirit is revealing to was the deep things of God. Now the Spirit is given freely and without measure to every one that wishes it (Luke xi. 13), so that anyone may have revealed to him the deep things of God. God will speak to all who are willing to listen, and He is able to speak so that He may be understood by the most simple. "The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." Ps. xix. 7.

"Christian Warfare" The Present Truth 9, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

The Christian life is a life of warfare. "We wrestle," says the apostle Paul, "against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Under the most favourable circumstances the conflict is a severe one, and no one can afford to waste strength in misdirected efforts. Very serious mistakes are often made by people who are eager to do valiant service in the cause of Christ, but do not know the method of successful Christian warfare.

This can only be learned from the Bible. In this, as in everything else, it is important that we follow implicitly the instructions of the Captain of our salvation. From His instructions we learn that our warfare is to be a warfare of resistance. "Resist the devil," is the Divine injunction, "and he will flee from you." We do not have to seek out the devil and attack him; we are not to try to overthrow him, but to prevent him from overthrowing us.

Neither is it of any use to try to cleanse the earth of the evils which the "prince of this world"-the devil-has planted upon its face. God designs that we should live in this world in the midst of evils. In the Divine economy even these things have a purpose. Jesus did not pray that the evil should be taken from the world, or that His disciples should be taken from it, but that they should be kept from its power to harm them. God aims at the development of individual Christian character. This is the whole present purpose of His Gospel, and the object for which our efforts should be put forth in His service. God Himself, in His own time, will overthrow Satan and cleanse the earth of its evil, and we can safely leave such matters in His hands.

But our Divine Captain has not merely said to us "resist." There is a right way in which to resist, and there is a wrong way. And the first step in this resistance, as He has instructed us, is a submission. We surrender in order to gain the victory! "Submit yourselves therefore to God; resist the devil, and he will flee from you." James iv. 7. Submission to God means the most effectual resistance to Satan.

But further, the apostle Peter tells us to "resist, steadfast in the faith." The devil overcomes men by deceiving them; and the only safeguard against deception is to know the truth. We know the truth by knowing the word of God. John xvii. 17. Faith is a shield, wherewith, says St. Paul, "ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." Eph. vi. 16.

This great apostle made a successful warfare with Satan, and at its conclusion he said, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." 2 Tim. iv. 7. And he had the full assurance that there was then laid up for him a crown of righteous, which would be given him in the day of his Lord's appearing. So we are to resist the devil by submitting to God, and knowing and keeping His word. Keep the faith, and the faith will keep you.

"An Object Lesson" The Present Truth 9, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

"In the province of Kieff, in Russia, the local authorities are engaged in making an exact census of Stundist children, with the object of removing them from the control of their parents, and placing them under the tutelage of the priests, or of relatives who belong to the Greek Church."

This is about the worst form of persecution that can be devised, yet it is not peculiar to Russia. The settlers of the Plymouth Colony, in America, ordered that all parents and master's should instruct their children and servants "in the main grounds and principles of Christian religion," "by causing them to learn some short Orthodox Catechism," or something similar. The penalty for the first failure, after admonition, was a fine of ten shillings; for the second, a fine of twenty shillings, to be levied on the delinquent's goods; and if in three months after that there was no Reformation, "then the said Selectmen with the help of two magistrates, shall take such children and servants from them, and place them with some masters for years, (boys till they come to twenty-one, and girls eighteen years of age), which will more strictly educate and govern them according to the rules of this Order."

When it is said, as it has been in the English Parliament and the American Congress, that if the State does not provide religious instruction for children, and insist on its being given,

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many children will not receive any, the above act is endorsed. For if the State decides what is proper religious instruction, and insists that it must be given, and certain parents refuse to have their children so instructed, the only way in which the State can carry out its scheme is to constitute itself parent of those children, in the place of their own parents.

It is only when we see the union of Church and State consistently carried out, as it is in Russia, that some people can get their eyes opened to see the essential iniquity of such union. All the heartless persecution that is carried on in Russia, is really involved in even the slightest connection between religion and civil government. Russia furnishes a good object lesson to those who believe that civil government has anything to do religion.

"Translating the Letter" The Present Truth 9, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

If a dear friend of yours in India had sent you a letter containing his last wishes and a special message of love, would you not prize that letter very highly? There is no doubt but that you would read it very often, until you were able to tell all its contents without reference to the written page. And yet, although you might become so familiar with its contents, you would still frequently turn to the letter, and read it again and again.

Would it make any difference to you if you knew that the letter was not written with his own hand, but that it was dictated to an amanuensis? The fact that it was from your friend would be the great thing; you would not mind if he had used the hand of another to transcribe the thoughts. And you would not need to depend on the signature in his own handwriting, to know that the letter was indeed from your friend. The tone and spirit of the letter, and the messages sent, which show more plainly than the signature, that it was from him. Somebody else might forge his signature, but nobody could counterfeit his sentiments and spirit, nor could the love that is breathed through the messages be counterfeited.

But suppose that the letter is written in Hindustani; what would you do then? You cannot read a word of that language, and how can you know that the letter is from your friend, and what it contains? Would you give the matter up, and say that you cannot be expected to know the contents of a letter written in a foreign language? Not by any means. You would straightway seek a man who is acquainted with both the English and the Hindustani, and get him to translate the letter for you. Then you could read it as readily as though it had been originally written in English. And you would be able to tell that it was from your friend, just the same as before. You would recognise his style of thought and expression, and would know that the messages of love or even of a business nature, could come from no stranger. The fact that the letter was written in Hindustani would not make a particle of difference. You could become as well acquainted with it as though it had been written in English.

Moreover there could not now be the charge that in your love for the message of your friend you were guilty of making a fetich of the letter. For the letter that you now carry in your pocket, and which you so frequently open and read, is not the original copy that came from India, but the translation, if you carried the original copy which you cannot read, around with you, bending over it again and again, then there might be some colour for the charge of fetichism; but the fact that the copy which you carry and consult is not the one that came from your friend, and which his hands touched, shows that it is the message that you love and reverence, and not the paper and the letters. You would very naturally seek to preserve the original letter, but if it should be lost, you would have none the less doubt about the genuineness of the message.

But there might still be one more difficulty in your mind. What if the man who translated the letter for you did not do the work properly? Perhaps he was not competent, or perhaps he wilfuly inserted something or changed something, to serve some private ends. What will you do now? Why, you will get somebody else to translate the letter. Still, although you have only the one translation, and are not sure that it is a correct rendering, you do not have any doubt as to its having come from your friend, for it bears the impress of his own personality. You cannot be deceived in that, but you are in doubt as to certain parts. You want to be sure that you have the exact message of your friend.

So you get another man to translate the letter, and then another, and still another. If you think that the first man might have had such relations to the business matters referred to in the letter that he, perhaps unconsciously, gave the translation the colour of his own mind, instead of that of your friend, then you seek others who are differently related to the matter, so that if there has been any mistake the translations may correct each other.

Now you take all these different translations, and compare them. What do you expect to find? Do you expect and demand that all the translations shall be identically alike? If they are not, do you throw them away, and say that you cannot know anything about it? Not by any means. You will expect that there will be some slight differences. Indeed, if there are not, but if every translation is word for word and letter for letter the same, you will be in doubt more than before, for you will think that the translators have conspired to cheat you.

No; you do not expect to find any two of them exactly alike. If you have a dozen translations, you will find that certain expressions are the same in every one. Then you will find that certain other points are the same in three or four copies, and that they differ in the rest. And you will find that the copies that were exactly the same on these points are different on others, and that those that differed on the first are the same on the others.

Another thing that you will not fail to notice, is that you understand the letter a great deal better, with the different translations, than you did with only one. You are also sure that there is no serious error in any of them. If there should be a serious error in one, you would detect it by the fact that all the others, while not identical on that point, are uniform in thought, and all differ from the one. You will also find that the differences in the translations are not necessarily errors, but that the more translations you have, all presenting those slight differences, the clearer the thought is to you. One presents a phase of thought that is not fully expressed in another, and you need them all in order to get the fullest conception of the matter. And so after all, you have as good an idea of the matter contained in the original letter, as you would have if you were able to read the Hindustani.

Suppose, still further, that the letter was of such a general nature that it interests many people, and that they each wish to have a copy of it. Some make their own copies, and others hire copies made. These copies are scattered over the country, but in process of time the original letter is lost. Now someone suggests that these

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copies are full of errors, and that since no one now living has the original letter you cannot know anything about the correctness of what you have. Now what can you do? Well, in the first place, you can be as sure that what you have is a letter from your friend as you could be in the case first supposed; for you recognise his thoughts. You know that the subject is one on which he alone would or could write. So that you know that the letter is from him, although for a moment you are thrown into doubt as to the correctness of the copy that you have.

You feel that you cannot afford to be in doubt in this matter. The letter is too important for that. So you set to work to collect all the copies that can be obtained. Then you compare them, just as you did the translations. What do you find? You possibly find that there are no two of them exactly alike, yet the most of them differ very slightly. In some you will find a word omitted here and there, for even the most careful copyist is liable to make mistakes. Let some one copy a page or a column of this paper, and he will see how easy it is to omit a word in copying.

But although a certain word is omitted in one copy, the fact that it is found in all the rest shows that it was in the original letter. Then in one copy you find several words omitted. On this point you search diligently, and you find that the words are in all the others. Looking carefully, you observe that in the copies which have the words, the last word before them is the same as the last word that is omitted in the one copy. What does this show you? Simply this, that in the original letter there were two lines that both ended with the same word, and that one of the copyists, after writing the first line, looked up and saw at the end of the next line the same word that he had just written; and suppose that it was the line that he had just copied, and so he skipped that line.

And so you go through, and although you find little differences all through, the mistake that is made in any one is corrected by the others, so that you have no difficulty in learning the thought of the letter. And now mark this point: You are more sure of your letter, because of these many copies, even though there are little differences in them, than you would be if you had only one copy, or if all the copies were exactly alike. And why? Because in that case you would have nothing to show that there had been no forgery, whereas the slight differences proved to you that there has been no collusion, but that all the copyists have worked independently. And the most sceptical person must admit that in the beginning there must have been one copy from which all these came, either directly or indirectly.

The reader does not need to be told that all this is to illustrate some of the facts concerning our Bible. Sometimes the people are troubled over the fact that there are many copies and versions of the Bible, whereas they ought to be more confident of the genuineness of the Bible on that account. And if this article shall have the effect of removing any honest doubts, even though it be from the mind of but one person, it will be a cause of great rejoicing.

"Christ and Antichrist" The Present Truth 9, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

Antichrist means opposed to Christ. The spirit of antichrist is, therefore, the spirit that is opposed to the Spirit of Christ. The apostle John says, "And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God; and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world." 1 John iv. 3. There are many forms of it, for the same apostle says, "Even now there are many antichrists." 1 John ii. 18. But no matter what the form or the disguise, the spirit of antichrist is primarily the spirit of Satan, for his is "the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." Eph. ii. 2.

The great opponent of Christ does not always carry on his work of opposition openly. He "is transformed into an angel of light" (2 Cor. xi. 14), and "deceiveth the whole world." Rev. vii. 9. Now no one can deceive unless he appears to tell the truth; therefore it must be expected that Satan will in his work counterfeit the truth as nearly as he can. Christ warns us that "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." Matt. xxiv. 24. This being the case, no one need be surprised to find that Satan has carried and does still carry on his work under the guise of Christianity. It is only when people are quite fully given to his service, and there are few to challenge it, that he throws off his disguise.

If it were possible, he would deceive the very elect. And why is it not possible to deceive them? Christ gives the answer. He said of the shepherd of the sheep, "When He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him; for they know His voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him; for they know not the voice of strangers." John x. 3, 4. And then He said, "I am the good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine." Verse 14. In becoming acquainted with Christ, therefore, and in that way only, can we escape the deceptions of the enemy. It is therefore necessary that we first study briefly

THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST

so that we may know by contrast the spirit of antichrist. This is very clearly set forth by the apostle Paul, in his exhortation to us to have the same Spirit. He says:-

"If there is therefore any comfort in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassions, fulfil ye my joy, that ye be of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind; doing nothing through faction or through vainglory, but in lowliness of mind each counting other better than himself; not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others. Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, being in the form of God, counted it not a prize 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." Phil. ii. 1-8, R.V.

The characteristic of Christ is here seen to be humility. He says of Himself, "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." Matt. xi. 29. Note well that when He came to earth He took upon Himself only the form of a servant. That does not mean that He did not serve, for He also said that He "came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." Matt. xx. 28. To His disciples He said on another occasion, "I am among you as He that serveth." Luke xxii. 27. What is meant is that He had only to take the form of a servant, because He had the mind to serve before He came to the earth to give His life on the cross.

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He was in the beginning with God, and He was God (John i. 1), yet He had the spirit of service. The mind that was in Christ was the same when He was in heaven that it was when He came to earth. The mind that was shown in His service on earth, when He went about doing good, and which found its most natural expression in washing His disciples' feet, was the same mind that led Him to divest Himself of the glory and riches He had in heaven. He is the same "yesterday, and to-day, and for ever," and so He was the same before He came to earth, that He was on earth, and that He is now in heaven, and that He will be when the saints are all gathered with Him in glory; and of that time He says that He will make His followers sit down to meat, and will gird Himself, and will come forth and serve them. Luke xii. 37. This is the mind and character of Christ.

SEEKING NOT HIS OWN

But this does not show it all. When He was in the form of God, He "emptied Himself," because He did not count it a prize-a thing to be grasped-to be on an equality with God. "By inheritance" He had a more excellent name than the angels. He was the Son of God by birth, and so was by birth "heir of all things." Everything was His by right. "All things were created by Him, and for Him." His possession of them worked no injustice to any. And yet the mind that was in Him did not lead Him to grasp them and hold them fast. "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich." 2 Cor. viii. 9.

"Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." Rom. viii. 9. Therefore since Christ did not seize upon and hold fast to that which was His by right, it is evident that those who are His must not be characterised by the spirit of self-seeking. Love, which is the bond of perfectness, "seeketh not her own."

This is a far different spirit from what prevails among men. The highest virtue known among men is for a man not to seek that which is not his own. The common form of self-justification is, "I want nothing but what is due me; I simply want my rights." But that desire was not in Christ. He gave up His own. He committed everything into the care of the Father, who "highly exalted Him," because of the mind that was in Him. To be sure it looked very dark for the Son of God for a while. It seemed as though He were forgotten even by the Father. "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." Isa. liii. 3, 4. But He trusted God, and God did not forsake Him. Therefore we are exhorted, "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.

The mind that was in Christ was the mind of God, for "God was in Christ." 2 Cor. v. 19. When Christ emptied Himself, it was that God might appear; "for in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." The love that seeketh not her own is the love of God, which is manifested toward us. "He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities." Ps. ciii. 10. If men who stand so firmly on their rights, demanding that they shall be accorded everything that is due them, were consistent, and claimed the same thing from God, it would fare hard with them. God treats us better than we deserve, in order that we may learn how we ought to treat others. "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any; even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." Col. iii. 12, 13.

THE SPIRIT OF ANTICHRIST

We have not more than begun to study of the Spirit of Christ, for that is an inexhaustible subject; but we have sufficient outline of it before us to form a sharp contrast with the spirit of antichrist. Christ declared that His kingdom was not of this world, whereas Satan claims the whole world as his own. See Luke iv. 5, 6. Therefore he is called "the God of this world," and the "prince of this world." 2 Cor. iv. 4; John xiv. 30. It is for this reason that in the 28th chapter of Ezekiel Satan is represented as the king of Tyre, while the nominal king is called the prince of Tyre. When wicked men ruled they are simply instruments in the hands of Satan, who is the real ruler. He is king, while they are only princes. The Scripture referred to is this:-

"Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God; thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so; thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned; therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness; I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee." Eze. xxviii. 12-17.

The reading of this is sufficient to show that it does not apply to man. None but Satan, who "abode not in the truth," can here be described. He lost his first estate because his heart was lifted up on account of his beauty. This is the first indication of the spirit of antichrist,-thinking of self. Now we will learn to what extent Satan's heart was lifted up, and what was the mind that was in him. Under the figure of the king of Babylon, he is thus addressed:-

"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 ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north; I ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High." Isa. xiv. 12-14.

Note that Satan's thought was all of self. The pronoun "I" is most on his tongue. He was going to be like the Most High. He would place his throne by the side of the throne of God. He was not content with being first among the angels; he must be God. He was sure that his talents and beauty deserved a far higher place than was

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granted him. Ambition caused his fall.

Mark the contrast between Christ and Satan. Christ had everything by right, being God by nature, yet He resigned all. He would not look out for His own interests, and let others look out for themselves; He emptied Himself, and thought only of others. Satan had nothing of his own, but only that which was given him, yet he designed to seize everything. He was a created being, yet he thought that he ought to be God, and that he could be. He would seize what his ambition craved, no matter what the consequences of others. This is the spirit of antichrist.

Remember that selfish ambition is never satisfied. The man who covets ten thousand pounds craves ten thousand more when he has that. The man who thinks that his happiness depends upon his getting the farm that joins his, still wants the land that joins his after he has obtained the first lot; and he keeps on wanting the land that joins his, as long as he lives. Alexander and Napoleon were never satisfied with conquest. And so it would have been with Satan, if it had been possible for him to carry his mad ambition into effect, and become like God. He thought that that would satisfy him; but if he had got that, he would not have been content. Nothing would have done then but to put God out of the way, so that he could reign alone. This is evident from what he really tried to do. When Christ was here on earth, representing God to men, Satan constantly tried to kill Him. It was at his instigation that the men of Nazareth tried to throw Jesus headlong down the precipice, and the Jews often took up stones to stone Him. It was he that put it into the heart of Judas to betray the Lord, and he it was that stirred up the rulers of the Jews to crucify Him. What Satan tried to do on earth was just what he would have proceeded to do in heaven, and if he had been allowed to place his throne by the side of that of God. Indeed, he did not hesitate to lift up his hand against the Most High in heaven itself, for we read,-

"And there was war in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. 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. 7-9.

THE CHILDREN OF DISOBEDIENCE

Satan is called "the prince of this world," "the God of this world," the ruler of the darkness of this world, and "the prince of the power of the air." The "course of this world" is according to the guidance of Satan, and therefore he is called "the spirit that now

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worketh in the children of disobedience." Eph. ii. 2. As soon as he was cast out of heaven, he set to work to deceive men, as he had deceived many of the angels of heaven. From the account of the way in which he deceived our first parents, we may learn how he deceived the angels, and how he still works. The record runs thus:-

"Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, 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, knowing good and evil. And 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." Gen. iii. 1-6.

The fifth verse is better rendered in the Revised Version, where we have "God," instead of "gods." Satan made the definite statement to Eve, that if they should eat from the forbidden tree, they should be like God. In this we see the same spirit working that caused his own fall. He said, "I will be like the Most High;" and when he fell he set about compassing the fall of man by instilling the same desire into him.

Let no one get the idea that it is wrong to desire to be like God. That is right, provided we wish to be like Him in His own way. To wish to be as wise and as powerful as God, is wrong, because that is virtually to wish to be God. The desire to be like God even in goodness becomes a source of evil, if the thought is to make ourselves like Him; for that implies a disposition to assume the power of God. The evil lies in thinking of self, and seeking self. If we allow God to work in us that which is good, in His own way, He will make us like Himself in holiness; but this is far different from the motive that actuated Satan, and which he has put into mankind. That was a selfish ambition to make self equal with God.

Notice how Satan proceeded to work Eve up to this unlawful desire. Instead of the words, "Yea, hath God said," etc., the first verse is better rendered, as by Young, "Is it true that God hath said," etc. Even this does not fully convey the sense of the Hebrew, which implies a sneer. Satan would first induce them to believe that God was unjust in His requirements. This is what was involved in his question: "Can it be possible that God would do so unjust a thing as to forbid you to eat of all the trees of the garden? I have heard so, but it is so monstrous, so tyrannical a requirement, that I can scarcely believe it." Thus with feigned words, under the cover of pretended interest in the good name of God, he sowed the seeds of distrust.

Then when Eve replied that they were allowed to eat of every tree but the one, he 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 like God." He had instilled so much of his own spirit into her, that he could now openly charge God with gross injustice. He made her believe that they were really equal with God, but that God did not want them to know it, because He wanted to exalt Himself at their expense; that the forbidden fruit would open their eyes to their high estate, of which God was unjustly depriving them; that instead of being subject to God, they were entitled to rule equally with Him. He flattered her till, like himself before his fall, her heart was lifted up because of her beauty, and she thought herself worthy of the highest dignity. In short, Satan led her to think of herself instead of God.

THE COURSE OF THIS WORLD

We are now giving a simple outline of the subject, and cannot at this time follow out the details, that will be done later, but now we wish to go on to show how the spirit that was in Lucifer, which caused him to become the destroyer, and which, being instilled into the minds of our first parents, caused their fall, has been perpetuated through their descendants, so that the course of this world is according to the mind of Satan, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.

In the first chapter of Romans we have a picture of the heathen world, and of the process by which they fell from the knowledge of God to their low estate. At present we care only for the story of their fall. Here it is:-

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse, because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves; who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator." Rom. i. 18-25.

Satan fell because his heart was lifted up on account of his beauty. He thought that nothing in the universe was above his merits, or beyond his capacity. Having fallen, he put the same spirit into the hearts of our first parents, inducing them to think that they were in themselves as good as God, and worthy of as high a place as He had. They reached out for everything, and lost everything. The same spirit has continued in men until the present day, except where men have allowed the Spirit of Christ to expel it. The heathen reached their low position because they professed themselves to be wise, and thus cut themselves off from God, the only source of wisdom.

In looking over these typical cases, it will not be difficult to see that love of self is the cause of all the trouble. Lucifer was perfect in heaven until iniquity was found in him, and that iniquity was all wrapped up in the first thought of self. It was his thinking of and admiring self, and his consequent seeking for the advancement of self, that made him the dragon, "that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan." Therefore we are justified in saying that the spirit of antichrist is simply the spirit of self.

Wherever self predominates, there Satan rules. The Spirit that works in the children of disobedience, is the spirit of self. It cannot be too fully learned that self is Satan. Every manifestation of self is nothing but the manifestation of the working of Satan in man. Every sin among men has sprung from selfishness; and the perilous times of the last days will be due to the fact that "men shall be lovers of their own selves." 2 Tim. iii. 1, 2.

On the other hand, "Christ pleased not Himself." Rom. xv. 8. Whoever will be His disciple must deny Himself. As Christ emptied Himself, and allowed God to appear in His fulness, so the disciples of Christ must allow Him to come into their hearts, driving away self by the same power by which He emptied Himself, that they may be "filled with all the fulness of God."

We have now before us in outline the two spirits,-that of Christ, and that of antichrist. In the next paper, if the Lord will, we shall begin to consider some of the special lines in which the spirit of antichrist-self-has developed, in opposition to the Spirit of Christ.

"The Russian Stundists" The Present Truth 9, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

The New York Observer has for some time been printing letters from a correspondent in Russia concerning the Stundists of that country. The issue of July 13th contains a letter about their religious views, from which the following is taken. It will be seen that they are a peaceable, God-fearing people, and that they have almost completely returned to the Christianity of the Bible. That they have not yet perceived the truth of the Sabbath of the Lord is not wonderful; but it ought not to be a difficult matter to point it out so that it would be accepted by a people so devoted to the Bible as they are. Remember that these are the people whom the Russian Government, guided by the self-styled "Orthodox" church, is doing its best to exterminate:-

"The Stundists have never enjoyed the somewhat doubtful advantage of sitting together in council for the purpose of elaborating a creed which all their members could subscribe. There is no such thing as a Stundist confession of faith. Established not by learned theologians like Knox or Calvin, or by political timeservers like Cranmer, Russian Protestantism has neither the close-jointed body of argumentative divinity possessed by Presbyterians, nor the mechanical order and symmetry of Anglicans. It bears on its face the faults and shortcomings of its founders and leaders-ignorant peasants, without any training, and only in imperfect communication with one another, men whose single desire it was that their neighbours should not continue to imperil their souls' salvation by connection with an idolatrous and corrupt Church. But although there are no formularies and no systematised theology peculiarly Stundist, and although the Stundism of each province differs in certain particulars from that of every other province, there is, nevertheless, a great body of Christian doctrine common to all, held fast by all, prized by all as Scriptural and essential.

"The views of the Stundists naturally fall into two divisions-those which they reject as unscriptural, dangerous, and idolatrous, and secondly, the positive side of their belief, the doctrines that are necessary for a believer to hold because of their Scriptural foundation, their efficacy, and their wholesome influence on religious life.

"Stundists reject the authority of tradition, called in the Orthodox Church, equally with the Scriptures-holy. They hold that the Scriptures alone contain all that is necessary for salvation. As to the apocryphal books, they will not even accept Luther's compromise that they are 'good and useful.' The Scriptures are their only rule of faith, and the doctrine consequent on this-the right of every man to interpret Scripture for himself-is strenuously asserted by every Stundist leader. As a leader once wrote to men: 'Scripture was written by simple men-shepherds, tentcloth makers, carpenters-for simple men like myself. The more I study the Scripture commentaries of learned men the more I am mystified, and I return for refreshment to the pure spring itself.'

"As to a hierarchy-and here I again quote from a letter in my possession-"The brethren utterly abhor the notion of rank in the church. These bishops and priests are to us what the scribes and Pharisees were long ago; and I am convinced that John in his Revelation (ix. 1, 12) accurately describes them. The disciple even describes the long hair worn by the clery (verse 8); and certainly as far as we are concerned they torment like scorpions, and their teeth are as those of lions.' Every Stundist man and woman possesses an equal right to teach the Scriptures and to conduct worship, although the texts on which this view is founded (1 Cor. xiv. 26 and Col. iii. 16), are undeniably weak. Sacerdotalism

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and all it means, consequently, an abomination to the Stundists. Officers of course they have, but their functions will be described later.

"The worship of saints and angels, and belief in their intercessory powers, prayers for the dead, and all kindred doctrines which play so important and vital a part in the Orthodox Church, are rejected by the Stundists as unscriptural and as some of the many devices of the clergy for robbing the people. The (2 Maccabees) where Judas Maccabaeus prays for the dead, is only another proof, if proof were needed, that the Apocrypha is not in any sense deserving of respect.

"Stundists do not hold the doctrine of the saving efficacy of the sacraments. They will not even use the word sacrament, as it bas no place in Scripture. The Orthodox Greek Church, from which they have seceded, calls the sacrament 'holy mysteries.' This conception, with all that it signifies, the Stundist detests. The Lord's Supper he partakes of simply in obedience to Christ's command, just as he does not neglect the injunction of assembling to worship, or the other injunction on to be baptized. The ideas of transubstantiation and consubstantiation with regard to the Eucharist, and of regeneration in connection with baptism, he totally rejects as having neither a scriptural nor a rational basis. In well organised Stundist communities it is generally the elder or presbyter who performs the ceremony of baptism, but every member is considered equally qualified for the duty. The notion that only the elder or presbyter may break the bread or pour out the wine and gave them to the people smacks of sacerdotalism, and that is sufficient to condemn it.

"The Stundist likewise condemns the setting apart of specially consecrated edifices for the purposes of worship, and bases his objection to temples male with hands on John iv. 90-24; Acts vii. 42-50 and xvii. 24, 25. He has in his mind the orthodox churches, with their gold and silver, their pictures, icons, relics, wonder-working crosses, sweetly singing boys, and other paraphernalia of a sensuous and spiritually lifeless church. The worship of icons and of particular crosses and pictures is also held in utter abomination, and it is this iconoclastic spirit more perhaps than anything else that causses the Stundist to so no detested by the Orthodox Church party. The icon plays an extraordinary part in the life of the Russian people. From the Czar down to the meanest peasant every orthodox Russian has his icons to which he prays, calling them his God, before which he prostrates himself, to which he ascribes the happy ordering of his life, and to the neglect of the worship of which be attributes all evils that befall him. In every public officer in courts of law, in prisons, banks, in railway carriages and in the cabins of steamers, icons meet one at every step; and when the Stundist says that these representations of divine beings are nothing but idols-painted wood and metal,-and that the fire is the proper place for them, he deeply wounds the national as well as the religions sensibilities of his orthodox fellow-countrymen.

"Holy days in Russia are, as everybody knows, absurdly numerous. In addition to Sundays, there are fifty-three days in each year when all public offices and schools must be closed, and which are observed as general holidays. Every Russian, moreover, has his name's day-the day set apart for the worship of the saint whose name he bears. St. John's day. for example, is observed as a holiday by all the Ivans in the empire. The Stundist sets his face resolutely against these 'prazdniki,' as they are called: says they are relics of heathenism, which they undoubtedly are, and somewhat too ostentatiously for his own peace, he goes about his work on these days as on ordinary days. Sundays the Stundist observes with almost Caledonian strictness.

"To describe the positive side of the religion of Stundists is extremely difficult, because in its essence it is rather a protest negation than anything else. In general, however, it may be said that they hold fast to the broad essentials of Christianity as they are held in evangelical churches the world over. Their primary doctrine is that Christ is the head of the church, and that the church is where two or three are gathered together in His name. These two great truths the Stundists never tire of reiterating. Christ's words are their rule of life, He and His apostles their only anthority in church matters. His death brings them life through faith. Nothing but His death admits them to the presence of God. By the sacrifice which He offered through the Holy Spirit He satisfied Divine justice and reconciled us to God. This is solid Protestant doctrine, and it is the cardinal point, the hinge rather, of the Stundist belief.

"But the positive side of their religious belief is best understood by noticing its effect on their work-a-day life. S. Kapustinsky, one of their leaders, was once asked by a Prussian friend of mine to tell him what he actually believed. Kapustinsky smiled; 'Our single doctrine,' he replied, 'is faith in Christ; love for all men follows on this; so do inward peace and well-ordered conduct; so does forgiveness of our enemies. That is our single article of faith, and everything else is subsidiary. If a brother offends we warn him, and should he prove recalcitrant we proceed as the Scriptures direct. But we never appeal to secular courts to settle any of our disputes. And when we are in trouble of any kind, personal or communal, we have the the invitation of the Master, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden." I have now told you everything.'"

"Where Is Your Treasure?" The Present Truth 9, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

This is a question which to us is daily becoming more and more important. The so-called safest places in the earth are failing. By the failure of a famous Building Society in London, very many people have lost all their property, so that now they are in deep poverty. Last report showed that no less than 301 trusted banks have recently failed in the United States. Men who have spent all their lives and work early and late in laying up a comfortable amount of money for their old age, have seen their hard-earned treasures swept away in one moment of time.

"How foolish," you said, "Why did they not put their money in a reliable bank?"

That is just what they thought they were doing, but they see now, when it is too late, that they were mistaken.

And are not you and I in danger of making the same mistake if we trust our own judgment? The Lord of heaven and earth says, and He surely is in a position where He ought to know,-the Lord says that there is only one bank in the universe that we can safely trust, and where we can put our treasures and know that they are perfectly safe,-and that is the Bank of Heaven. He says, "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 and steal."

And then He adds still another reason why we should lay them up there: "For where your treasure is there will your heart be also." The Lord yearns for our hearts, and He knows that our hearts always follow our treasures. He therefore allows our faith in earthly banks to be severely shaken sometimes, and then He counsels us to lay our treasures up where they may be safe. He knows that unless our faith in earthly places of safety is shaken we shall be content to leave both our treasures and our hearts here, and He knows that will mean for us not only temporal ruin, but eternal ruin. Can we not in this also see His great love? He says, "Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth." Col. iii. 12. He knows, and wants us to know, that heavenly things alone are enduring.

But how can we lay up our treasures in heaven? Heaven is so far away, we are apt to think. Jesus makes it very plain in His answer to the young man, in the nineteenth chapter of Matthew, and twenty-first verse: "Jesus said unto them, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come and follow Me." Again in Luke He says: "Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourself bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, were no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth." In 1 Tim. vi. 17-19 we read: "Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life."

In accordance with this we learn in Prov. xix. 17 that "He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord," and in Matt. xxv. 34-40 that those who have fed the hungry, given drink to the thirsty, and shelter to the stranger, clothed the naked, and visited the sick and those in prison, have done it unto the Lord Himself. He says, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me."

And these are the ones to whom He says, "Come, ye blessed of My Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Will not this be greater treasure than any that we could lay up for selves on this earth?

We may invest our money in houses and lands, but we have no continuing city here; a fire, a flood, and earthquake, and our treasures are no more. We may pull down our barns and build greater, and store up the golden corn, but we may awake in the morning to find that we have not a grain left. We may own the cattle upon a hundred hills, but disease or famine may destroy them all. We may expend our wealth on a gold mine and find that its treasures are exhausted, or on a silver mine and find that the value of silver has suddenly depreciated, or we may lay up the most precious diamonds and guard them with jealous care and finally have them carried off by a thief. We may bury our treasure in the earth and find them spoiled with rust and canker. Surely he that seeketh to save his money shall lose it the same as he that seeketh to save his life shall lose it.

We may learn a lesson from the bird. One year it began to build on the lower branches of the tree. It

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hastily gathered the strings and hairs and straws and wove them into its tiny house. By and by the cunning house was finished, the bird laid in it her little eggs and hatched young. How proud she was! What songs floated out from the old tree! and how busily she worked that she might provide a good breakfast for her little family. But one morning the nest was empty. A few scattered feathers told the tale. The cat had destroyed the old bird and all her treasures!

What was the matter? Why this sad ending to such bright hopes? Do you not see? She had placed her treasures too low down, she had builded too near the earth.

Now God looks down to-day and sees us who have minds with which to reason,-He sees some of us beginning to have treasures upon the earth; he sees us planning, and building all our hopes on having pleasures here, on getting rich, on having great earthly wisdom, or a great name among our friends, just as though we always were going to live here. His great heart of love aches as He sees it. He longs to save us from the trouble that must be ours if we build so low down. He allows some of our treasures to be taken to show us the danger, and then He cries out, Build higher! O build higher! If you have your treasures so low down, they will be stolen, or spoilt, or destroyed. "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven." Look up, My child, look up. Here you may send up your treasures and they will be enduring. Here are everlasting mansions that I am preparing for you, will you let Me write down your name? will you have them? Here is a dazzling crown that when once received no man can take from you. Here are riches eternal and that fadeth not away. Will you have them?

God help us to send our names and our treasures. Then we shall be safe, for we shall want to go where our treasures are.

"Our Sisters in India" The Present Truth 9, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

"Black skin or white skin, yellow or brown,

For one and for all Christ laid His life down."

If we could but once have the curtain lifted that separates us from India, and could see how millions and millions of our poor sisters live, or if we could but for one day change places with them and live as they live, and feel as they feel, would we not have more of this impartial love of Christ in our own hearts? We forget how many they are, how needy they are, and how they are looking toward us with beseeching eyes and outstretched hands.

London is the largest city in the world, yet if it were twenty-three times as large as it is there would not be any more men, women, and children in it than there are women and girls in India!

And they are not like the free, happy, educated girls and women that you see on your own streets.

Forty millions of them are shut up in zenanas, which are the portions of Indian gentlemen's houses set apart for the women,-not beautiful parlours, but dark dirty, uncomfortable dens which are "more suggestive of the hopeless seclusion of the prison than of the social sunshine of the home." They may never go where they like, not even in their own houses, and may never go for a walk, nor for a drive. If they go out at all they must be shut up tight in a palky where they cannot see a thing. They may never pick a flower, or listen to the birds singing, or see the street. If one wishes to speak to her husband she must not go to look for him, but wait till he chooses to come to her. She must not lift her vail or speak to her husband in the presence of her mother-in-law, or of any member of the family older than herself. She must obey her husband's mother in everything, no matter how cross and cruel she may be. If the Hindu wife has a little boy she is treated kindly, but if she has no son

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she is despised, and her husband gets another wife.

These rich ladies cook their husbands' meals, but they cannot eat with them. They and the children must eat what the husbands leave. They cannot eat anything until it has been offered to a man. They cannot read, for they have never been to school. So they spend their time in cooking, eating, sleeping, plaiting their hair, counting their jewels, threading beads, worshipping the idols, and gossiping; and some smoke. In gloom and many times in despair they pray to their idols, but the idols cannot hear nor help them.

Many of those who live in the zenanas begin that wretched shut-in life when they are but little girls like the tiny bride in our picture, or even younger. Her wedding day is her last day of liberty, even if she has been allowed to go to school or run about before. She is now a wife, and must be treated as a woman and not as a child. She must say good-bye to her mother and to everybody and everything that she cares for, and go into a strange family, all by herself, with no one to love or care for her. Poor little girl, how sad and lonely she must feel!

But being a wife in a zenana is pleasant compared with being a widow.

Twenty-one millions of the women and girls of India are widows!

"Of women and girls!"

Yet of the vast number of widows under fifteen years of age, 33 per cent. are widows under five years of age!

And being a widow is not like being a widow in England. She may never have another husband, and she may never again have any kindness shown her. She is thought to be very wicked, or else her husband would not have died. Years ago, the screaming and struggling widow, in many cases herself a mere child, was bound to the dead body of her husband, and with him buried to ashes." Although this burning is not allowed now, they are treated just as cruelly, and they say they would rather be burned, for then their pain would last only a very little while, but now their misery lasts all their life.

As soon as the husband is dead, they tear the ornaments out of the wife's nose and ears and hair, sometimes tearing out the flesh and hair with them. She must never wear any more ornaments, and must dress in the coarse white clothing of widowhood. If there are bracelets in her arms, some of the women hold her arm on the ground, and others hammer the bracelet with a stone until it is broken off. During the funeral ceremony she is treated most cruelly, and after it she must for a year eat but once in twenty-four hours, and then nothing but a dish of rice.

In some parts of India she may eat but one meal a day as long as she lives, and twice a month she must fast for twenty-four hours. And even her one meal a day must be carried away and eaten by herself after everyone else has finished. She must never sleep on a bed, but on the floor, and she must do the hardest and dirtiest work of the house, and be scolded for all that is wrong, and praised for nothing that is right. When she is ill she is treated even worse than the other women.

The widows are treated in this way, not because the people of India are so cruel, but because their religion makes them think that the gods would be displeased if they treated them kindly.

We have been all this time talking about the high-caste ladies. The low-caste women have greater freedom, that is, they are not shut up in zenanas, but they have to labour hard and carry heavy weights on their heads, and are treated very cruelly by the men, who say that a cow is worth much more than a women.

Now, my child, when you are tempted to feel unhappy and discontented, think of your sisters in India, and see if you have not a great deal to be thankful for. There are many who are worse off than you. If you will stop thinking about the few unpleasant things which you have to endure, and begin to think of others and do something for those who are worse off, you will not only learn to be contented but you will find that you have many things to make you thankful and happy. And one never-ending cause of joy you may always have, and that is that you know of the living God who is not only great, but good; not only powerful, but kind; not only God, but Father. As long as you have this glad news, you always may have something to give to those who know Him not.

"The Story of Creation" The Present Truth 9, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Gen. i. 1.

Do you like stories? Yes, we are sure you do. We like stories to, and the best ones that we ever saw are in the Holy Bible that God sent us.

The Bible is the most wonderful story book in the whole world. There are stories in it for every one: for gray-haired grandfathers and grandmothers, for fathers and mothers, and for little ones like you. There are stories in it for those who are ill and for those who are well; for those who are poor, and for those who are rich; for the deaf and dumb, and the lame and blind; for those who hate God and for those who love God.

There are stories about Jesus; about the beautiful place and beings where God lives; about the sun, moon, and stars; about men and women, and little boys and girls; about mountains, valleys, and seas, lakes, wells, and springs; about battles, fires, and floods, cities, gardens, and houses; about the wonderful things that live in the water, and the animals that live on dry land; about birds and insects, and trees and flowers, and really we can scarcely think of anything but the Bible tells something about it.

You see God knows every body and every thing, and is perfect and good. No wonder, then, that God's stories are so much better than men's. Oh that everyone knew about the good things that are in the Bible for him! Cannot you tell some one about them? We will love these stories because our kind Father in heaven sent them to us, because every word of them is true, and because if we search carefully we can find something precious in every story that will show us how to be good and happy. Shall we not search, as Jesus says, and see what we can find in this precious book?

The first story in the Bible is called "The story of Creation," because it tells about the creation of something, or how it was made out of nothing. The beautiful heavens above us and the great round earth upon which we live, were not always here. A long, long time ago there was nothing at all here where the heavens and earth now are. But at the beginning of the first day, someone commanded that they be created (that is, made out of nothing), and they were! He just spake and said, Let there be heavens and earth, and there was!

We have seen that no man did it, for men do not know how to make even the smallest thing out of nothing. They can call but it will not come. He who created the heavens and the earth must be much wiser and greater than man. Who is it? If you will open your Bible at the first verse of the Story of Creation you can read for yourself who it is. Please learn it so well that you can say it without looking at it. Listen, this is what it says: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Ah, it is the God of heaven, He who knows everything, the Friend who sent us this precious Bible, and who gives us all that we have. What a great, and wise, and good Friend we have! Surely it is safe for us to love and to trust Him with our whole hearts.

1. Do you like stories?

2. Have you any story books?

3. Of all the story books in the world, which is the best?

4. For whom did God have these beautiful stories written?

5. Did He not forget anyone?

6. How wonderful and how good! Do you think man ever could have written such a book? Why not?

7. Can you think of any reasons why we should love these stories better than other stories?

8. Do you know what any of these stories are about?

9. Do all people know about the good things in the Bible for them?

10. Cannot you help to tell them? How? By telling those near you, and by giving money to send the preacher and papers and books to those who are far away.

11. What is the first story in the Bible called?

12. Why?

13. What does that mean?

14. And what was it that was made out of nothing? The Bible says that it was the heavens and the earth.

15. What are the heavens?

16. What is the earth?

17. Did your father and mother create them?

18. Did your grandfather do it?

19. Did any man create them?

20. What makes you think that man did not do it?

21. Then what kind of Being must have done it? One who is much wiser and greater than any man.

22. Please repeat the first verse in your Bible.

23. Who, then, does it say created them?

24. By whom did He create them? Jesus Christ, His Son. Eph. iii. 9; John i. 1-3; Col. i. 12-19.

25. What was it He created?

26. And what does created mean?

27. How did He make them out of nothing? Ps. xxxiii. 6, 9; cxlviii. 5.

28. Say the verse once more. When does it say He created them?

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

-Peace has been restored in Nicaragua.

-Paris is experiencing an epidemic of typhoid fever.

-The entire revenue of all the Protestant missions alone of the world is computed at £2,450,000.

-Fighting continues in the Soudan between Egyptian troops and a strong force of dervishes.

-A destructive fire occurred July 23 on the island of Mauritius, which destroyed 200 houses.

-Potato disease has appeared in some parts, especially in Ireland, since the break-up of the drought.

-The general election in Bulgaria gives the Government control of all but six seats in the legislature.

-Siam having agreed to all the terms imposed by France, the blockade of the Siamese coast has been raised.

-The American Congress has assembled in special session, to consider the state of the national finances.

-Japan has a new cruiser, the Yoshima, lately launched on the Tyne. She is 350 feet long, and in her trial steamed more than twenty-three knots with and against tide.

-Two engagements have been fought between the Government and insurgent troops in Brazil with no important results.

-But the explosion of a charge on a German man-of-war, two officers and seventeen killed, and eighteen men wounded.

-It is announced from Shanghai that an Italian Roman Catholic mission at Mien Yang near Hankow, has been destroyed in a riot.

-It has been decided to hold a Universal Exhibition at Rome in 1895-the 25th anniversary of the entry of the Italian troops into Rome.

-For the theft of a letter which contained a postal order for 5s., a postman was recently given eighteen months hard labour at the Devon assizes.

-A new law against duelling has been promulgated in Russia, by which any person killer another in a duel renders himself liable to imprisonment for six years.

-The cholera is spreading rapidly in Maine, and the mortality is very great. The dread disease also prevails alarmingly in Bessarabia, and is on the increase at Naples.

-Out of twenty-eight millions received by the railway companies of the United Kingdom the passenger receipts in 1890, nearly twenty million pounds was for third-class passengers.

-Huntingdonshire and Cambridgeshire are troubled at the present time with an extraordinary number of wages. In the neighbourhood of Gamblingay alone nearly forty nests have already been destroyed.

-Major von Wissmann, in a private Inter, states that travellers had informed him that Emin Pasha and the whole of his caravan were massacred by some Arabs to the west of the Victoria Nyanza.

-Dispatches from Calcutta report that a disastrous rainfall has occurred at Darjeeling, causing landslips and the loss of a largo number of native lives. Srinagar is inundated, the flood there being the highest over known.

-A glass dress has been provided for the Infanta Eulalie. The fabric from which it is made contains over 2,000 miles of crystal thread. It has the appearance of being a white satin dress. There is row of glass fringe round the bottom.

-A terrible fire has occurred at Birsk, Russia, by which 180 buildings have been completely destroyed, including the city hall, the barracks for the troops, and a church. Seven persons were killed, and 700 families have been rendered homeless.

-The expenditure of the United States last year on her Army and Navy, which included pensions was over $289,000,000-far more than the entire cost of the Government, and nearly double the military expenditure of either France or Germany.

-The directors of the World's Fair at Chicago having decided to close the exhibition on Sunday, five of them have been fined £200 each by Judge Stein, for contempt of court in violating an injunction granted some time ago to restrain them from closing it.

-Agricultural returns show that in England farmers will have an excellent second cut of grass so that the supply of hay will not be so scant, as was feared, while the potato crop is reported to be one of the best over known. The yield of turnips also beats the record.

-The Austrian Government has granted permission for the building of two Russian Orthodox churches in Vienna. One will be erected near the Russian Embassy, and the other in the cemetery. In this way satisfaction is given to a long-standing desire of the Russian Government.

-Several important insurgent successes are reported from Argentina. The Santa Fe Government has surrendered to the Radicals, and it is expected that the town of La Plata, which is surrounded by Radical forces, will surrender likewise. In the fighting in Rosario 100 persons have been killed and 300 wounded.

-Thousands of miners in Colorado, U.S.A., are reported to be out of work and starving, and one of the parks of Denver, has been turned into a camp where the men sleep at night, and receive bowls of soap and slices of bread from the city authorities. Riots are feared, and arrangements for organising charity on an enormous scale are being perfected. Hundreds of miners declare their readiness to fight for Colorado in case the State accedes from the Union, which they say she will unless Congress grants relief, and passing a Bill for the free coinage of silver.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

The readers of PRESENT TRUTH will notice that the Paternoster Row address has been changed from 48 to 59. A larger and more accessible room has been obtained at the latter number, on the ground floor, which will be constantly open during business hours, except on the Sabbath. All who have business and correspondence with the International Tract Society will please remember that its city address is 59, Paternoster Row, E.C. The Holloway Road address is unchanged.

Whoever is a son of God is born of God. That is self-evident, for a son becomes a son by being born. Therefore the question of the new birth may be settled very easily. We read: "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." John i. 12. Therefore whoever receives Christ is born of God. Union with Christ makes one a joint-heir with Him. But this is not a thing that is done once for all; it is a continuous process. "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him." Col. ii. 6. And so the Scriptures do not say that a man was born of God, but that he "is born of God." "For though our outward man perish, the inward man is renewed day by day." 2 Cor. iv. 16.

"Then drew nearer unto Him all the publicans and sinners for to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them." Luke xv. 1, 2. This, which the Pharisees thought to be a cause of reproach and censure, is the glory of Christ. Not only does Christ receive sinners, but He seeks for them. "For the son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." Luke xix. 10. This being the case, we may well believe Him when He says, "Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out." John vi. 37. If therefore anyone feels himself to be a sinner, let Him know that He is the very one whom Christ is seeking. "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. 16.

The English Churchman sounds the alarm to the effect that the Roman Catholics are "seeking to gain influence on the school boards to serve their own denominational purposes: and they are exerting themselves to obtain legislation which shall give increased financial support out of the rates, or other public funds, to their voluntary schools." It is well that such an alarm should be sounded, and heeded. But at the same time it should be remembered that there is no more danger in Roman Catholic control of schools, than there is in the Church of England or Nonconformist control of them. It is not the creed held by a sect, that makes its connection with the State dangerous, but the fact that there is any connection at all. If there had never been any union formed between the Church and State, there would never have been any Roman Catholic body.

"More Inquisitorial Methods" The Present Truth 9, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

The Chronicle's Moscow correspondent calls attention to the mediÊval policy of Russia, in regard to the Stundists, and says:-

"Intelligent Russians who reflect on all this must be utterly ashamed of the reactionary spirit displayed by their rulers; and there is a widespread feeling among them that until Englishmen and Americans, who must sympathise with this cause of religious freedom, take vigorous action in protesting against the persecution of their co-religionists, the Government will continue in their insensate and cruel course."

Unfortunately Americans are handicapped both by the treaty that has just been made with Russia, and still more by the record which several of the States themselves are busily engaged in making as persecutors.

For example take the following case. A Mr. G. W. Marvell was, with other Seventh-day Adventists, arrested in Maryland, for alleged labour on Sunday. The writ upon which he was arrested was not a warrant, and did not charge him with any crime, and the lawyer who appeared for him argued that he should therefore be set at liberty. The Justice, however, would not dismiss the case, but held it under advisement for a week, and then issued a real warrant for Mr. Marvell. The case was then tried, and although there was no evidence against him, Mr. Marvell was convicted.

This is how it was done. Mr. Marvell was required to prove that the charge against him was false. This he would not do; whether he could have done so, or not, makes no difference. "The constable who made the charge against him, and who arrested him, and who will get the fees, came to him the evening before the trial and said that he did not actually see him doing any work, and that if he would swear that he was not working that would settle it. This Mr. Marvell declined to do, and the next morning he was properly convicted."-American Sentinel.

This rivals anything in the "judgment by administrative process" in Russia. A man is usually in law considered innocent until he is proved guilty, but in these cases an unfounded charge is considered sufficient evidence of guilt, unless he proves himself innocent. Does the reader wish to know why? The answer is that the charge is a religious one. Wherever the civil power has presumed to interfere in matters of religion, evidence has never been necessary to conviction. From the trial of Christ, down through the days of the Inquisition, to the present time, simple charges, unsupported by evidence, have been sufficient to convict. Justice is overturned in all such cases, and for the simple reason that any civil cognisance of religion is in itself the essence of injustice, and only by unjust methods can it be carried out.

In the use of the word "guilty" in the case of Mr. Marvell, we do not wish to be understood as implying that any guilt attaches to labour on Sunday. It has been given to man as one of "the six working days," but the Lord Himself, and every man has the right to use it as such, not withstanding all laws of men to the contrary.

"'Holy' Russia" The Present Truth 9, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

"Holy" Russia.-A Moscow correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette, speaking of the fearful state of morality in that city, writes: "Speaking from an intimate acquaintance with this ancient capital of Holy Russia, I am bound to say that the morals of its inhabitants have never been at a lower ebb. I can only fitly compare them to those of the two towns in Palestine, on whose behalf Abraham daintily interceded with the Almighty."

And yet Moscow is a city whose inhabitants have their religion carefully and thoroughly supervised by the State. And Christian people still cling to the idea that a union of religion and the State is necessary to the preservation of good morals! They are very slow to learn the fact that State religion and good morals do not go together.

August 17, 1893

"Front Page" The Present Truth 9, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

When the angel Gabriel appeared to Zacharias in the temple, and told him that his wife Elisabeth should have a son, who should be great in the sight of the Lord, being filled with the Holy Ghost, and who should turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, Zacharias said: "Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years." Luke i. 11-18. For this question he was made dumb, and was unable to speak until after the birth of the son.

Six months later the same angel came to Mary, in Nazareth, and told her that she should bring forth a son, who should be named Jesus, who should be great, and should be called the Son of the Highest, and that He should reign for ever over a kingdom that should have no end. Immediately Mary asked, "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" No reproof was given for this question, but it was answered at once.

Why were these two questions so differently received? Evidently because they were prompted by entirely different motives. This plainly appears when we closely consider them. Zacharias said, "Whereby shall I know this?" showing that he doubted the message. He wanted proof of the words of the angel of the Lord. He was punished for unbelief. Mary's question, on the other hand, showed that she fully believed the message, but that she wanted further information. She said, "How shall this be?" She believed, but wanted to know what part, if any, she had to act in the matter, and her desire for more light was granted.

In these two cases we have illustrated two classes of questions that are asked. There are many questions that show unbelief as fully as could be done by any positive statement. Such questions are wicked and ought never to be asked, as God does not answer them. There are other questions that show the desire of a believing soul to receive more light and knowledge. Such questions always receive an answer from the Lord. The promise is that "if any lack wisdom, and ask for it in faith, it shall be given them." James i. 5, 6.

"Christian Experience" The Present Truth 9, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

The apostle Peter testified of Christ, that "He went about doing good." Acts x. 38. No man ever led a busier life than did our Saviour. The narrative of His ministry on earth contains no record of weeks or months passed in seclusion or inactivity. It is a narrative of continual travel and labour among the inhabitants of the cities and towns of Palestine,-the fields that were white for the heavenly harvest. It is a narrative of constant work for the physical and mental uplifting of those around Him. He healed the sick, He raised the dead, He cleansed the leapers, restored the crippled, gave sight to the blind, cast out devils, fed the multitudes, and to all He preached the Gospel. He was found amidst the throng and press of the multitudes, out in the common daily walks of life, ministering and bringing relief wherever there was suffering and need.

This is the example that is set before the Christian, the follower of Christ. This is to be the basis of his Christian experience. His life must be a life of work, and such work as centres not upon himself, but upon his fellows. Here is one contrast between heathen religions and the religion of Christ. The former makes self the object of all religious activity in devotions, while in the latter the object is not self, but our fellow-men. "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." Phil. ii. 4. Christ left His seat upon the throne of His glory, to come to this dark world where He would have neither wealth nor position, and He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister to others. This was the mind of Christ, and this is to be the mind of His followers. Phil. ii. 5-8.

But there are very many whose religious experience bears a resemblance to that of the heathen devotee. Their Christian life is lacking in real work done for the uplifting of others. They may be very devout, be seldom absent from religious service, pray long and earnestly, and read and meditate much upon religious themes; but all this does not make a true Christian life. They themselves realise, perhaps, in their inmost souls, that there is a lack somewhere,-some essential feature of Christian living that their lives do not show, yet they cannot see that all this should not make them good Christians. Ah, it cannot be said of them that they go about doing good. Their experience rests upon no solid foundation. They do not do as did the Saviour.

Christ prayed much, but His time was not all spent in prayer. Nor was it all passed in religious reading and meditation, nor in other acts of public or private devotion. His life was spent in contact with others, in ministering to their needs, relieving their distress, and pointing them to the way of life. And this example is to be

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copied by His followers. Christian labour is essential to Christian life. He who does nothing but pray will soon cease to pray with devotion; and he who does nothing but read the Scriptures will soon cease to read them with interest, or to get from them their precious lessons of truth. He who merely goes through the forms of Christian service must soon cease to feel the sacred impressions of Christian worship, or to see beyond the mere round of formalities which he observes. The Master does not reveal Himself to the idlers in His vineyard, but to the workers. His lessons of truth become vital principles in the soul only by coming in contact with the spirit of earnest labour for His sake.

The great commission from Christ's lips says, "Go!" "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature;" and His promise is, "Lo, I am with you all way, even to the end of the world." Mark xvi. 16, 17. But He left no promise to be lookers on. True Christian experience must have a basis of earnest Christian labour. The successful aspirate for a heavenly crown will be the one who has unselfishly labored to relieve the wants and uplift the souls of his fellows; for to him will be spoken the words, in the day of his Lord's appearing, "Come, ye blessed of My Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Matt. xxv. 34.

"An Unanswerable Argument" The Present Truth 9, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

This Anti-Infidel publishes the following little story, which ought to be read and remembered by all who profess to be Christians:-

In one of the towns in Massachusetts there was a man who took in an infidel paper, and set himself up as an avowed infidel. He argued with, and, as he thought, refuted all the Christians in the place. But there was one old professor in the village who would not debate with him. He spoke of the unspeakable love of Christ; of the preciousness of a good hope; of the comfort it afforded him. His conduct worried his sceptical neighbour. For all the rest he cared not a whit; but that old man-he talked about him most of the time-somehow harrowed up his mind so that he could not rest. And so great was the trouble this old man caused him that it led him to reflect, repent, and believe on Christ. When he came into Conference to relate his experience, anterior to uniting with the church, he pointed to the hoary-headed member, and exclaimed, "the life of that man slew me."

No infidel was ever converted by arguing. Though you answer the objections of a sceptic a thousand times, he will be ready with them the thousand and first time as fresh as ever. But the argument which will have the effect, and which is the only one for the Christian to use, is the manifestation of the life of Christ. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Matt. v. 16. Then when they are attracted by the life, so that they wish to learn instead of to fight, you can "be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear." 1 Peter iii. 15.

"Authority for the Sabbath" The Present Truth 9, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

We are in receipt of a letter which says: "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 it? 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 the amusement and revelry, but there was no thought of cessation of labour. Those who went to the greatest lengths in the observance of the holidays, were the ones who did little or no work, while for the labouring class there was no respite.

It is a fact 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 man 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 that is, and rested the seventh day." The idea of an indefinite Sabbath, regulated 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

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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 men; 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 men 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." 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. xxvii. 1.

What 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 command" 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 tittle 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 plowed 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 on 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 imposter; yet He was the Son of God, although "despised and rejected of men."

There is 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 in His steps. 1 Peter ii. 21. Of Him we read that after His baptism and temptation, "being full 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?

"God's Nearness to Men" The Present Truth 9, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

The Apostle Paul affirms that God is "not far from every one of us." Acts xvii. 27. He is not so far away that He may not be found by anyone who will earnestly seek Him. The apostle says that God "hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him." He represents them as groping about in obscurity, with but a ray or two of light to guide them in the search; and yet, even under these circumstances they are able to find God, because He is not far away from everyone of us. He guides our steps to Him in the darkness and in the light.

But God does not will that man should live in darkness concerning Him. He would have them live in the light, where they can behold His divine presence, and rejoice in a clear view of His attributes of mercy and love. He ordained it so in the beginning, but men turned away from Him, because they "did not like to retain God in their knowledge," and they "became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." Rom. i. 21, 28. They "have sought out many inventions" (Eccl. vii. 29) and their inventions, have turned their minds away from the things of God, and shut out His glory from their view.

And nowhere has human invention

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done more to darken the spiritual eyesight than in the very means which men employ to-day for the worship and service of God. Through the creeds and dogmas, the forms and ceremonies, the orders and offices which pertain to present modes of divine worship, men see God but dimly, if indeed they are able to see Him at all. They interpose before them an opaque theological body, by which the pure light of heaven is constantly kept in eclipse. The true character of God, and the nature of the plan which He has devised for man's salvation, have been lost to view, and all sorts of vague and erroneous ideas have sprung up, to waste and pervert the spiritual energies.

To interpose something between man and God, between the worshipper and the divine object of his worship, has been the constant aim of Satan in his opposition to the plan of salvation. He wants men to look to some earthly object instead of to Christ their Redeemer, or to look at Him through some medium of human invention, which will darken and distort their view. He is pleased to have men believe that they cannot come to Christ directly, but must approach Him through some means devised by that Church. He does not care particularly what object that is brought between man and God, whether a priest, or a bishop, or a pope, or the Virgin Mary, or the "saints," or anything that is less than God, for all these serve his purpose of causing man to lose sight of the Being whom alone he professes to worship. And when men have lost sight of God and of His character, Satan's aim is to insert himself into the place of God, and present his own character and requirements in the place of God's, so that in thinking to worship and serve God men will in reality be worshipping and serving him. This is what will inevitably result when men allow their sight to be turned away from God and fixed upon something else.

The Christian world needs to learn to-day that God is not a great way off from man, shut out by a great church with its forms and ceremonies, and a long array of "saints" and bishops and ecclesiastical paraphernalia, but that He is near to His creatures, even within the sound of the voice and the sight of the eye. All that is necessary to bring Him in view is simple faith, and not the faith of some great divine or some ecclesiastical body, but that of the individual. "He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." Heb. xi. 6. These are the conditions of seeking and finding God. They are such as any individual who wills to can readily perform.

Christ is the true Shepherd. He speaks to His sheep, and they hear and know His voice. John x. 4, 5. We are to look to Christ, and from Him receive our light. "For 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." 2 Cor. iv. 6. "Let us," says Paul, "run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith." Heb. xii. 1, 2.

Nature and revelation alike point us to God direct. God's word is a revelation of Himself, in which, by the eye of faith, we behold His goodness and His majesty. Jesus said, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and their life." John vi. 63. Christ is the Head and the Bishop of His church. "For ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls." 1 Pet. ii. 25. He is the Bishop to whom all must look who would find a way of salvation.

"How to Have Faith" The Present Truth 9, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, 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. And this shall be a sign unto you; ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." Luke ii. 8-12.

Now note what the shepherds said and did: "And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us." Verse 15.

Most people would say, "Come, let us go and see if this thing is so," but it was not so with the shepherds. They simply wanted to see the great thing, which they knew was true, because the Lord had made it known to them.

That was simple faith, and it is all there is to faith. Faith is the simplest and most natural thing in the world.

"Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Rom. x. 17. There can be no faith where there is no word of God; but where there is the word of God, all one has to do is to believe it, not hesitatingly, not questioningly, but with the positiveness of actual knowledge.

Who would think of trying to teach a little child how to believe its parents? Surely it is important that the child should believe its parents, is it not? Certainly; but there is no necessity for teaching, for the child believes without being taught. It is the most natural thing in the world to do. Now all there is to having faith is to believe just as a little child does.

It does not require an effort to have faith. On the contrary an effort is required not to have faith. For he who does not have faith necessarily believes that which is not true; and it stands to reason that it is much easier to believe truth than to believe falsehood. God's word is truth, and it is the foundation of faith. Therefore faith gives the only true wisdom, since nothing is wisdom except the knowledge of truth.

"Spiritual Blindness" The Present Truth 9, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

Spiritual blindness, like physical blindness, is a sad misfortune. Indeed, it is much the greater calamity of the two, being almost as difficult to remove, and much more disastrous in its ultimate effects. And it is no less real because of its insidious nature, which prevents its victim from recognising its presence; it is only rendered thereby the more dangerous. To persuade an individual to submit to treatment for an affliction which he does not believe to be upon him, is a very difficult task. Just this difficulty must be met in trying to cure the one who is spiritually blind. He neither understands his need, nor understands the necessary remedy agreeable to his natural taste.

The word of God has much to say of this prevailing spiritual affliction. It speaks of those who have eyes, and see not, and ears, yet hear not, and hearts, but do not understand. Such were those to whom the prophet Isaiah was sent (Isa. vi. 10), and such were very many of those who listened to the words of Christ during His ministry upon the earth. Nor was it alone the scribes and Pharisees, or those accounted to have been the greatest sinners, who gave proof of their spiritual blindness. In all ages of the world this affliction has been exceedingly common, and some of the best men as well as the worst have been conspicuous as its victims. Our own age is no exception to others in this respect, nor are we ourselves beyond the reach of this dangerous evil. Indeed it is only by the grace of God received into the heart that any can escape this condition, for men are not born naturally into a state of spiritual enlightenment. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Cor. ii. 14.

There is something in the heart of the natural man which, whenever he is called upon to see spiritual things, entirely obstructs his view, so that he cannot discern anything; and no matter how plainly a thing may stand revealed before him, he cannot see it. No matter how hard he tries to see it, he will not be able to do so. It is a simple impossibility. And this something in the natural heart is very liable to exist where its presence is least suspected, or to creep back into the heart after it has once been driven out. It is this something which makes the heart, as the prophet Jeremiah says, "deceitful above all things" (Jer. xii. 9), more deceitful even than Satan himself. "Keep the heart with all diligence," is the wise man's admonition, "for out of it are the issues of life." Only by the greatest diligence can it be kept in a state which will leave the spiritual vision clear and unperverted.

Even the disciples of Christ; those who stood nearest to Him and were most constantly with Him, often signally failed to discern the spiritual truths which He spake. Often they were as much in the dark as to the meaning of His parables as were the Pharisees themselves. And there is one instance of their failure in this respect which makes one of the strangest and most striking narratives to be found in the Bible. The account is very instructive, both in regard to the effect of spiritual blindness, and the cause which produces it. We will notice briefly that furnished by Mark, beginning with verse 31, of the eighth chapter:-

"And He began to teach the disciples that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again." "And when He had called the people unto Him with His disciples also, He said unto them, Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me."

Although Jesus spake this saying openly, the disciples understood it no more than though it had been uttered in an unknown tongue. What was the reason of their failure to comprehend language so plain and simple? Did God, by some miracle, withhold it from them? Not at all. God does not withhold from anyone knowledge that would be for his good. Verse 34 reveals the cause. "Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." It was SELF. Self was in the hearts of the disciples, and robbed the words of Christ of all their meaning.

"And they departed thence, and passed through Galilee; and He would not that any man should know it. For He taught His disciples, and said unto them, the Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill Him; and after that He is killed, He shall rise the third day. But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask Him." Chap. ix. 30-32.

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Here Jesus made a second attempt to prepare His disciples for the momentous scenes that were to attend His trial and crucifixion, then so near at hand; but again they failed to understand what He said. The succeeding verses give the reason: "And He came to Capernaum; and being in the house He asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way? But they held their peace; for by the way they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest." Verses 33, 34. Here was self again, seeking for exaltation, and the result was that the simplest and plainest statements were turned into a mystery. Self threw the whole field of spiritual vision into a total eclipse. The plainest objects before them, so near that they were standing within their very shadows, were by self made wholly invisible.

Yet again Jesus sought to tell His disciples of the solemn events connected with the solemn tragedy so soon to be enacted at Jerusalem. A third time He endeavoured to prepare them for the approaching scenes of Gethsemane and Calvary, using even more explicit language than on the two occasions preceding. "And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus went before them; and they were amazed; and as they followed, they were afraid. And He took again the twelve, and began to tell them what things should happen unto Him, saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles; and they shall mock Him, and shall scourge Him, and shall spit upon Him, and shall kill Him; and the third day He shall rise again." Chap. x. 32-34.

But His words were as much of a mystery to them as ever. Three times within the space of a few days, the Saviour had told them, in the plainest possible language, what was about to befall Him; and yet they understood nothing about it, and when the events that He had told them of took place, they were taken wholly by surprise. What can account for such blindness? Again the record tells us. "And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto Him, saying, Master, we would that Thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire. And He said unto them, What would ye that I should do for you? They said unto Him, Grant unto us that we may sit, one on Thy right hand, and the other on Thy left hand, in Thy glory." "And when the ten heard it, they began to be much displeased with James and John." These two disciples were scheming to get the chief places in the kingdom of heaven, and the remaining ten were angry with them because they had gotten their plea in first! This was what occupied their minds while the Saviour was trying to tell them of the great events that should mark the conclusion of His earthly ministry. Self was there, and filled the whole horizon of the future, so that nothing else was visible to their sight.

What a loss the disciples sustained on account of their blindness! The privilege of watching with their Lord in Gethsemane, of strengthening Him by their sympathy through the dark hours of His agony, of being actors for God in the world's greatest tragedy,-what, to the Christian, would not this be worth! But they missed it all, and acted the part of sleeping sentinels and deserters. It was not necessary that it should have been so. It was not some inscrutable act of Providence that kept back the disciples from comprehending the plain statements of their Master. It was self. Seeking for their own exaltation and filled with their own desires, they lost the rich blessings which God desired to bestow upon them.

And this is what always comes from the presence of self. It works just the same to-day that it did in the days of the apostles. It will keep us from getting what is for our good just as surely as it did them. It will make us just as blind as it did them. It will prevent us from comprehending the plainest statements of God's word, or of knowing what He speaks to us by the agency of His Spirit. Self perverts the judgment of the most powerful intellect, and turns the spiritual light of the mind into darkness. Self must be purged from the heart, or the individual will walk in spiritual darkness, and know not whither he goeth.

"Walking in the Dark" The Present Truth 9, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

We do not blame straws for being straws, although we make use of them to show which way the wind blows. Even so in quoting the following conversation, we make no criticism on Dr. Lyman Abbott, but simply use him to call attention to the peculiar "wind of doctrine" that seems to be blowing pretty strongly now. Dr. Abbott is pastor of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, N. Y., and editor of the Outlook, formerly the Christian Union. He is a very pronounced evolutionist, and recently gave a lecture to the intent that evolution is God's only method of operation. After the lecture the following conversation occurred:-

"Dr. Abbott, do you think that Jesus was miraculously conceived?"

"I am not certain about it, but I think that He was."

"If He was, what becomes of evolution, regarded as an exhaustive explanation of God's method?"

"I have not considered this point seriously, and I do not think that the miraculous conception of Jesus is a vital question."

An English clergyman just returned from America, says that Dr. Abbott "is systematising and consolidating in American theology much that Beecher alone made possible." But when such theology becomes general, where will the Gospel be? When, in their zeal for "scientific theology," men deny the very heart and life of the Gospel, what error is there into which they may not run? The miraculous life of Christ is the only light of the world; if that is rejected, it is inevitable that men must be deceived by the ruler of the darkness of this world.

"Trusting, Not Tempting" The Present Truth 9, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

There is much that passes for trust in God, that is nothing else but tempting God. Christ endured a great temptation on this point, in order that we might know how to distinguish between trusting God and tempting Him. In the account of Christ's temptation in the wilderness, we read:-

"Then the devil taketh Him up into the holy city, and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto Him, If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down; for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee; and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." Matt. iv. 5-7.

There is such a thing as changing the truth of God into a lie, and that is always done when the devil quotes Scripture. The words which the devil quoted from the ninety-first psalm are addressed to those who dwell in the secret place of the Most High, abiding under the shadow of the Almighty, taking His truth for their shield and buckler, and not to any who should presumptuously disregarded God's word, and do what He has not commanded. Christ was kept

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because He trusted in the Father; but there can be no trust where there is no commandment and no promise. As there was no commandment for Christ to throw Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple, and no necessity for it, He could not have claimed any promise if He had done so.

The Lord tells us that where sin abounds grace does much more abound; and then the question arises, "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" Rom. vi. 1. In other words, "Shall we do evil, that good may come?" Not by any means. The grace abounds only in order that we may be saved from the sin in which we find ourselves; to go on deliberately committing the sin after the grace of God has shown it to us, would be to tempt God, instead of to trust Him. It would be trying to get Him to deny Himself by giving His grace to condone sin, and to multiply it, instead of to pardon and cleanse from it.

We once knew of a mother who, in her mistaken idea of love for her boy, allowed him to have his own way in everything, never correcting him for any fault. The result was that as he grew older he manifested no regard for her or her wishes, but made himself intolerable, not only to strangers, but even to his own mother, who had fancied that she loved him. Too late she began to be interested in his salvation, and called in a minister to try to make up for her neglect; but as might be expected, the youth would not listen to a word of counsel or reproof. And then the mother with that spirit of weakness which many mistake for pious resignation, said, "Well, I can do nothing but trust in the promises of God."

But there was no promise in which she could trust. "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it," she had ignored. The only word that fit the case, was one in which there was no comfort, namely, "A child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame." So her supposed trust was nothing but presumption.

Many people to whom a plain duty is made known by the commandments of God refuse to obey, and yet they imagine that they are trusting the Lord, whereas they are only tempting Him. When they ask Him to protect and save them, while refusing to listen to His word, they are asking Him to break His word. But it is written, "Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God."

When people go to places where they ought not, merely to gratify morbid curiosity, and not to seek and save the lost, they are yielding to the temptation of Satan, which Christ resisted. When they are in the path of duty they may safely trust the Lord, no matter where they are, or what the circumstances; but to go needlessly on the devil's ground is to tempt God, and to court destruction.

The story is told of William III., that in one of his battles he was in a very exposed position, and an officer who had brought a message to him, tarried with him after his business was done. The king told the officer that he was in danger, whereupon the man rejoined, "but Your Majesty is in danger also." "I am safe," replied the king, "because duty calls me here; duty does not demand your presence, and you are not safe." In a few moments the man was killed by a cannon ball, while the king was uninjured. Whether the story is true or not, it illustrates the fact that the only place of safety for any man is the place of duty. While he is in the way of duty, he may "trust and not be afraid."

It is often the case that supposed work for the Lord is done for other motives. Mosheim says, "What is man! The very best often serve God and themselves when they fancy they are serving God alone." Much that is supposed to be defence of the faith, is undertaken at the instigation of the enemy of truth, rather than at the command of the Lord. The professed followers of Christ often allow themselves to be drawn into discussions and contests by unchristian taunts. When professed Christians engage in controversy because they fear that some will accuse them of cowardice if they do not, they are not following the example of Christ. He would not do anything for the mere purpose of proving that He was the Son of God.

We hear much about the necessity of speaking for God, but very little about the importance of keeping silent for Him. Jesus often held His peace when the scribes and Pharisees tried to provoke Him to speak in order that they might catch up something from His mouth. So we may often show our trust in God, and our confidence in His truth, by keeping silent. Here is an example:-

"I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue; I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me. I was dumb with silence, I held my peace even from good." Ps. xxxix. 1, 2.

There is such a thing as casting the pearls of truth before swine, which is forbidden. Who can know when to speak and when to keep silence? Who can know what is exactly the right thing to do on every occasion! Christ alone never made a mistake, and only those in whom He dwells can be kept from stumbling. "He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool;" but the Lord has promised that those who receive His words and cling to them alone, shall "understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path." Prov. ii. 9. Then, "trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding."

"'Ye Must Be Born Again'" The Present Truth 9, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

For some times you have been learning of your brothers and sisters in India. Your heart has ached as you have heard of their sad hopeless condition, and you have doubtless formed plans in your own mind of how you were going to save up pennies to send them Bibles and preachers that would tell them of the living God and His great love. Perhaps you have already begun this good work.

But there is another work which we long to see you begin, which is just as important as helping your brothers and sisters in India. We long to see you seeking help for yourself. Would it not be a sad thing if after you have sent money to save the Indians, you yourself should be lost? You need to be saved from sin as much as they. Jesus says, "Ye must be born again," and "Except a man be born again [margin, from above], he cannot see the kingdom of God." Then it is not enough to have a Bible of your own, and to know about the only true God. Jesus says if you are ever saved, you must be "born again."

"Well," you say, "I do not see how I can become a little baby again."

No, you do not need to, that is not what the Lord means. He does not say that your body must become small again and that you must again come into the world as a little baby. From the above text in John iii. 3 we see that He does not say that a man must have another earthly birth, but what He does say, is that he must have a heavenly birth as well as an earthly birth. He must be born "from above." It is not enough for you to have an earthly father, you must also have a heavenly Father who is real to you and who lives with you every day as truly as your earthly father does. You must become changed inside and begin all over again. You must put away your naughty thoughts and feelings and partake of the sinless and Divine nature of your heavenly Father, as truly as at your first birth you partook of the weak sinful nature of your earthly father.

It is not enough to call God your heavenly Father, you might do that all your life and yet never be born of God at all. You must allow Him to come right into your heart by His Holy Spirit. He can then take away every sin and make your heart all over new so that you will want to do good instead of evil. Then you will feel just like a new creature, indeed you will be a new creature, as truly as though you had become little and been born again, for do you not see? you will feel so differently and act so differently that you will not be like the same person at all. Where you used to disobey your parents you will now obey them, where you used to get angry you will be patient, where you used to say crosswords you will say kind words. You will even look different in some ways, for instead of looking solemn and cross and worried, you will look happy and kind and peaceful, for the loveliness and gentleness of Jesus will be shining through your eyes. You will now be the child of God as well as the child of men, for the Lord says that those who receive Jesus are born again (1 John v. 1) and thus become the "sons of God." (John i. 12, 13.)

Now if we only can learn how to receive Jesus into our hearts, we shall know how to be born from above, shall we not?

We read in Eph. iii. 17 and 1 Peter i. 23 that we can receive Christ into our hearts and be born again by believing and taking into our hearts the word of God. We can see how this is by reading the sixth chapter of John and John i. 1, for there it says that the Spirit and life of Jesus are in the word.

Then if you will read God's words in your Bible and believe that they are God's words to you, that they are living words filled with the Spirit and life and power of Jesus, and will love them and let them stay in your mind and heart, they will, like a wonderful seed, spring up in your heart and make it all over new and fill it with all the fruits of the gentle Spirit of Jesus,-even with the righteousness of God. In other words, the word of God, if received and loved, will cause you to be born again.

You will not be able to see the life of the word come into your heart anymore than you can see the wind coming into the house, but you will soon be able to see the wonderful change which it has wrought. You will not be able to see how it takes away the bad thoughts and fills you with heavenly thoughts and actions, but God says that it will, and that is enough. All you must do about it is to read and believe and think on His words, and He has promised to cause them to work in you that which is good.

Now do not think that this being born from above is done once and then that is the end of it. Oh, no. It is enough to be born as a baby once, but we must be born from above every day. So you see you shall need to read and believe and think on God's words very often, for it is God's word that is the living seed that causes you to be born from above.

"Growing" The Present Truth 9, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

If you would become a good strong man or woman of God, it is just as necessary for you to grow as it is for you to be born again.

If a little baby never grows after it is born, it never can become a strong man or woman. It will always remain a poor, weak, helpless little babe, or else lose the life it already has.

Now what causes the babe to grow?

"With plenty of good milk," you say.

That's true. Nothing can make it grow like pure milk. If the milk is mixed with other things that are not good, the baby will soon become ill, and will die.

Well, suppose your baby brother has all the good milk he can eat for once, and then you should not give him any more, what would happen?

"He would cry," you say.

Yes, undoubtedly. But should he not be satisfied if he has had all that he needs?

"He has had all that he needs for one time, but that will not last him always."

Why not?

"Because in a little while it is used up by the body, to make it grow, and then it is just as hungry as ever."

Yes and, when the body has used up all its growing material and needs more, it calls for it by making him feel hungry. And even after he has stopped growing and has become a big man, he will still need food, and will get hungry, for the body needs it to keep up repairs.

So you see a person must have food, and must have it every day if he would grow and keep well. And he must not only have food, but he must have good food.

Now the Lord says in 1 Peter ii. 2 that after you are born from above, after you have received Jesus in your hearts, you will need heavenly milk to make you grow in the heavenly life, just as much as the little babe needs earthly milk to make it grow strong in the earthly life.

What is the heavenly milk?

The Lord says, "As newborn babes, desire the sincere [pure, unadulterated] milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." We see, therefore, that the heavenly milk is the pure, unmixed word of God.

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"How can that make me grow more and more like Jesus, and strong to do right?"

By eating it (John vi.), by studying it, and thinking upon it, and just drinking it in with your mind, and desiring it more than your necessary food.

You wonder how it can become a part of you, and make you grow better, just by letting your mind think upon it and love it. It does seem wonderful.

But the little baby does not understand how the milk can make its body grow. It just eats and eats and grows, as a little plant,-it knows not how, and we know not how.

Thus the Lord wants you to take His living words into your heart every day, as trustfully and as faithfully as the little baby takes its milk, and His promise is, ye shall grow thereby. Men's words will not do, God's words alone can make you grow.

But above all things, remember that one meal, or even one meal a week, is not enough. You must take time to feed on the milk of God's word every day. Just as surely as you forget for one day to feed on God's word, you will be too weak that day to overcome the temptations of Satan.

By feeding upon the word you feed upon Jesus, and He is the only One has power to overcome Satan. So if you forget to feed upon the word you forget to have Jesus in your heart, and thus having nothing but your own weakness with which to resist Satan, you surely will be overcome.

Then let us not be content with being born again. There will be no dwarfs in the kingdom of God. We must also feed on heavenly milk that we may grow.

"Our Home, Our Books, and Our Friends" The Present Truth 9, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

For the last few weeks we have been looking around us and trying to get better acquainted with our home, our books, and our friends.

We have found that we have a very pleasant and beautiful home, which is as strange as it is beautiful. It is a great round ball of sand and rocks and water! This ball is called "the earth," and it is so large round, that we can see but a small part of it at one time, and can hold but a few grains of it in our hands.

When we look up, we see something that looks like a beautiful, blue starry curtain stretched over us. This is called "the heavens."

The heavens and the earth were not always here. A long, long time ago, on the beginning of the first day, they were made out of nothing! And the earth was hung upon nothing! (Job xxvi. 7).

We know that man did not create them, for he cannot make the smallest thing out of nothing.

At first the earth was not round like a ball, as it now is, for it was "without form." There was no dry land with grass and trees and flowers; there were no animals or fish or birds or people; there was not a living thing upon it; and it was covered with water. Shut your eyes and cover them tightly with your hands, and see what you can see. Well, that is all that you could have seen if you had been here when the earth was first created; it was as dark as the darkest night. But it was not less so, for it was made to be lived upon by good people.

Now, about our books. As we look them over we see one that has the words "Holy Bible" on the back. We have learned that this book is still more wonderful than our home. It is worth more to us than the whole earth, because if we search and use the precious things that are hidden in it, we shall get perfect happiness in the eternal life. It really is a letter sent to us by our best Friend, because He loved us and wanted us to know how to come to Him. It shows us how to go as plainly as a lamp shows us where to step. There is something good in it for every man, woman, and child that lives upon the earth. It is so much better, and is worth so much more than the other books that it should be handled very carefully. It never should be played with, nor touched with dirty hands. In the first chapter we learn when, how, and by whom, our home was made.

We have found that we have a great many good friends, and also that our parents are the best earthly friends that we have. But our precious Bible tells us about a Friend who lives up above the stars in heaven, who loves us more and has done more for us than even our father and mother. He is the God of heaven, and our kind heavenly Father. He knows more, and can do more than all the men in the world, for it was He who made this great earth and the starry heavens out of nothing. He just commanded them to be created, and they were! He spake, and the earth was; and it was not there at all before. He made us also, and the birds, and flowers, and every living thing. He gives us all that we have, and cares for us day and night. We should be very particular to do as He says in His letter, and always be very careful how we speak His name, for we do not wish to grieve the dear Friend who has done so much for us.

1. With what three things have we been trying to get better acquainted during the last few weeks?

2. What kind of home have we, pleasant, or unpleasant?

3. Name some of the things that make it so pleasant.

4. What is this great ball called?

5. How large is it?

6. On a bright day, what do we see when we look up?

7. What is it called?

8. Were the heavens and earth always here?

9. When were they made?

10. Of what were they made?

11. Upon what was the earth hung?

12. Did men make them? How do you know that they did not?

13. How was the earth at first?

14. Suppose God had left the earth so, how long do you think you could live here?

15. What is the name of our best book?

16. Why is it called "the Holy Bible?"

17. Who sent it to you? Why?

18. Is it true?

19. How much is it worth?

20. How is it like a lamp?

21. What kind of stories are in it?

22. What story do we find in the first chapter?

23. Who wrote the story of creation? Moses.

24. Did Moses see God do it?

25. Then how did he know anything about it?

26. Who is our best Friend?

27. What makes you think so?

28. Tell some of the wonderful things that He has done.

29. Are you not thankful that you have such a wise, but great, loving Friend?

30. How should you always speak His name and treat His name? Why?

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

-Heavy bank and mercantile failures continue to be reported from America.

-The financial crisis in Australia is regarded as being nearly at an end.

-Much embarassment is being felt in Italian financial circles from a scarcity of silver small coin.

-The International Workingmen's Congress at Zurich declared almost unanimously in favour of an eight-hour day.

-Wheat has been steadily declining in value since the end of May last, when the average price was 27s. 6d. per quarter, the highest this year.

-The Christian public of Toronto, Canada, are protesting strongly against an effort to have Sunday street cars. A popular vote on the subject is to be taken.

-Unemployed and destitute miners of Kansas and Colorado, U.S.A., are leaving in large numbers for other sections of the country where they hope to obtain employment.

-A telegram from Hillsborough, in Illinois, U.S.A., gives details of an experiment that is to be made of burying a man alive and keeping him interred for forty-eight days.

-Taxation returns show that the rate per head of the expenditure on the relief of the poor last year was 6s. 1d. The total amount of relief to the poor in 1892 was £8,847,678.

-In accordance with an Act passed by the Canadian Legislature, all persons under 17 years are forbidden to be in the streets of certain towns and villages after nine o'clock at night.

-The Italian man-of-war Etna recently visited Montreal, Canada, but was refused a salute from the mayor, an ardent Roman Catholic, because of the attitude of the Italian Government towards the pope.

-The revolution in Argentine is considered to be practically ended. The governor of the province of Buenos Ayres has fled, and Senor Delvalle, Minister of War, has assumed control of affairs at La Plata.

-Cholera is still on the increase in nearly all the infected provinces of Russia, but is reported to be lessening in Bessarabia and at Naples. Strict quarantine measures have been adopted by England and the United States.

-The aboriginal Ainus of North Japan are said not to look upon drunkenness as wicked, or a thing to be detested. Fully 95 per cent. get drunk whenever they can obtain enough sake, and to be drunk is their ideal of supreme happiness.

-The suburbs of Melbourne have been suffering from an epidemic of measles. On one day recently there were in Fitzroy 1,500 cases, in Collingwood 2,000, and in Richmond cases were so numerous that all the State schools except one were ordered to be closed for a fortnight.

-Not much progress seems to have been made toward settling the controversy of the coal miners with their employers. In some cases the latter have offered to take back their men on the old terms, but no general offer has been received, and the miners express their intention to hold out to the last.

-A miniature fortress has been erected in the park of the new palace at Potsdam. It is a present to the Emperor from Herr Krupp. The model shows an entirely now departure in the construction of fortifications, and experts have declared that fortresses built on that plan will be absolutely impregnable.

-Whilst a party of twenty-eight excursionists from the Rhondda Valley wore boating in Swansea Bay, off Port Talbot, on Bank Holiday, the vessel was struck by heavy sea. Amid the confusion that followed the boat was upset, and twenty-two of the occupants, men, women, and children were drowned.

-Fighting is reported in Samoa between the foces of the rival kings Malietoa and Mataafa. Malietoa, impatient at what he considered the indifference of the Powers, took matters into his own hands, and attacked Mataafa. The latters losses numbered thirty killed and twenty wounded. England, Germany, and the United States have interfered to prevent further fighting.

-A correspondent of the Daily Chronicle writes from India that through an oversight in the construction of the Indian penal code the Temple people have been able to revive the horrible practice of hook-swinging, and to set the law at defiance, while they fill their own pockets. He urges prompt action on the part of the English Government to avert a revival of the religious atrocities of former times.

-In his message to Congress President Cleveland deals exclusively with the silver question, to the unsatisfactory condition of which he attributes the present unfavourable financial and commercial condition of the United States. He declares that the people of the United States have a right to demand that legislation which is condemned by the past three years' experience, shall be removed from the statute books as soon as possible.

-The present financial position of the British and Foreign Bible Society is causing some anxiety to the secretaries and committee. The excess of expenditure over income during the last four years has amounted to a total of no less than £67,263, and during the last year alone it was £23,397. This has arisen from the great extension of the society's operations in order to meet the growing demand for the Scriptures from all parts of world.

-Serious rioting has occurred in Spain in the vicinity of Madrid. The inhabitants of Vitoria expected that their town would be made the headquarters of an army corps, and on the adverse decision of the Government, the inhabitants, to testify their disapproval, organised a demonstration while the Minister of War was passing through, attacking the military escort by which he was accompanied. Quiet has now been restored, but the district is being closely watched for signs of a revolutionary movement.

--Readers of the PRESENT TRUTH have, oft been told that the Church of Rome hopes to regain in England the supremacy which she lost by the Reformation. To this end she is working most diligently, and, sad to say, with fair prospects of success. How much that result when it is reached, will contribute to the good of the country, the reader can judge from the following testimony of one who has been several years a resident of a country over which the Catholic Church has long had full control. Mrs. E. G. Clemens, of Paraguay said at a meeting of the International Missionary Union, Clifton Springs, New York, June 14: "I arrived in Assumption in 1889. There had never been a Protestant sermon there till six years before. Romanism has had control of Paraguay as fully as it had of any country. Nine-tenths of the Paraguayans do not know that there is any other religion than the Roman Catholic. Ninety-eight per cent. of the inhabitants are illiterates, and only two per cent. are of legitimate birth."

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

In a letter noticed on another page, in regard to the Sabbath, occurs the statement that "every day is a seventh day." This is said for the purpose of showing that men can rest on any day they choose, and still be keeping the Sabbath. But the commandment does not say anything about "a seventh day;" it deals only with "the seventh day;" and it is a fact that every day is not the seventh day. The week has just seven days, and the seventh day is the last of the seven; the Sabbath cannot be found anywhere except on the seventh day of the week, and the seventh day occurs nowhere else but at the close of the first six days.

The Bible knows nothing about observing a "seventh part of time" as the Sabbath. That is an invention of men, to avoid keeping the Sabbath of the Lord. People may say it makes no difference, but it does. Suppose we try it on something else. Here are seven points in a row; the first six are silver, but the last one, the seventh, is gold. Here is also a man who believes that the commandment requiring rest on "the seventh day" may be kept by resting on the seventh part of time. I tell him that he may have the seventh coin. Of course, true to his theory, he will choose the first, which is only a sixpence. No? Why not? Isn't the first the seventh, as well as any other? That will answer for theory, but not for practice. He will take the seventh coin, the sovereign, without any hesitation, and nobody can convince him that any other coin, being one-seventh of the number, is the seventh coin. And he would be right. But why will he argue about God's seventh day in a way that he would call absurd if applied to his seventh coin?

The cases are quite parallel, for there is as much distinction between the seventh day of the week and "the six working days," as there is between the sovereign and the six silver coins. Men may say, "We cannot see any difference in days." But God says that there is a difference, and when God says a thing, it is man's business to see it. He has put His blessing upon the seventh day, and upon no other; therefore although we may have a blessing from God on any and every day of the week, we can have the Sabbath blessing only on the seventh day. Here is what the Lord says to those who can see no difference where He has made a difference:-

"Her priests have violated My law, and have profaned Mine holy things; they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them." Eze. xxii. 26.

The Interior, commenting on the outbreak of religious persecution in Asia Minor, says,-

"It was fondly supposed that the days of persecution for conscience sake belonged to ages long past. But apart from the power of the word of God religious tolerance does not exist in the world to-day. We pass every day a lad who is pursued with vindictiveness in his own home because he has to renounce the teachings of the Catholic Church. His Bible has been burned, and the Greek Testament that he borrowed was committed to the flames. The public libraries have been forbidden to furnish him reading, and one by one his youthful pleasures are stripped from him. It is as true to-day as it was eighteen centuries ago, that unless the grace of God has softened the heart of the parent, the disciple of Christ must find "a man's foes shall be they of his own household."

Nor is the case here mentioned an exceptional one. Persecution for righteousness sake is not by any means an obsolete thing to-day. There never was an age of the world in which the righteous could live without persecution. But this is not at all strange, for Inspiration plainly tells us that "all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." 2 Tim. iii. 12. This statement is as true to-day as it ever was. No one should expect or desire to gain heaven in any other way. As the hymn says,-

Must I be carried to the skies

On flowery beds of ease,

Whilst others fought to win the prize,

And sailed through bloody seas?

Without persecution, no one can be fit for the society of Jesus and the martyrs who have followed in His blood-stained steps.

The Kat River district, in South Africa, has been experiencing a plague of locusts. The insects, it is stated, stripped the country of everything that was green, except the tobacco. Nor do we wonder. It seems strange that a locust should have more sense about what is fit for the mouth than many men, but it appears to be even so.

"Abolishing War" The Present Truth 9, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

Abolishing War.-The Zurich Labour Congress has had under consideration recently the question of the attitude to be taken by the working classes in the event of war. It was proposed to make a European war impossible, by means of a general strike when hostility should have been declared; but this proposal was rejected, and another substituted which aims at the same thing, through the withholding of supplies.

We are sure, however, that, desirable as is the end sought, it will not be attained by either of the means proposed. War has its origin in the depravity of human nature, and unfortunately this depravity is not confined to the aristocracy, but extends to all classes, rich and poor alike. The working-men are quite as ready to fight among themselves, should provocation arise, as are the ambitious representatives of royalty. The only sure way to abolish war is to eradicate that innate selfishness of human nature which continually leads men to seek to advance their own interests at the expense of their fellow; and the only antidote for this is the religion of Jesus Christ.

"Mohammedan Zeal" The Present Truth 9, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

We are reminded that we are by no means to think of Mohammedanism as a system of religion that is dying out, by the fact that even now there are 400 Mohammedan missionaries sent out from Cairo every year. These missionaries are to be found everywhere in the East, and even in the heart of Africa. There are 11 million Mohammedans in China, and 100 mosques in Pekin alone. Mohammedanism is not less aggressive now than it was in the days of Mohammed. It is a religion of force, and can be successfully met only by the Gospel of peace. While it is not dying out, it is a dead religion, in that it has no spirit of life in it. The greater its activity, the greater the death that it causes. Therefore it must be met with the Gospel of life. Mohammedan missionaries need only zeal, and a knowledge of the theory of Mohammedanism. Christian missionaries must have the zeal and knowledge that comes from the life of Christ in the soul.

August 24, 1893

"Front Page: Tired of Life" The Present Truth 9, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

"Tired of life." Such is one of the prominent headings in a recent morning paper, under which the "suicidal maniac" is discussed. It is a sad comment on modern life, that so many people seem so anxious to get rid of it. It is an unhealthy and unnatural state, for love of life is the natural condition of all who have life.

How differently the Bible speaks of life. Read the promise of God to the one who sets his love upon Him: "With long life will I satisfy him, and show him My salvation." Ps. xci. 16. Your life is represented as something most desirable, and the greatest promise God can make men is that He will bestow life without end.

Read some of the statements of the inducement which God holds out to men: "For 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. "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John x. 10. "I will give to him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely." Rev. xxi. 6. "The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. vi. 23.

Life is the one thing to be desired. How is it then that so many grow tired of it? The Bible furnishes the answer. "To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." Rom. viii. 6. The sinner is represented as carrying about with him a hateful "body of death." Rom. vii. 24. "He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." 1 John v. 12. Those who commit suicide because, as they say, they are "tired of life," do not really know what life is. They are tired of death, and wish to end consciousness of it.

With God is the fountain of life. He is life. Only he who loves God loves life. But in His presence there is fulness of joy. Therefore he who loves the Lord finds life a joy, and not a burden. The "joy of the Lord" is his strength. No Christian ever becomes weary of life. Even though he may suffer tribulation and persecution, that only brings Christ the closer, and in the midst of affliction he rejoices for the very joy of living. "O taste and see that the Lord is good," and you will find, not a burden, but a "blessing, even life for evermore."

"Recreation" The Present Truth 9, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

This is the time of the year when everybody who can do so, leaves the city for the country, the mountains, or the seaside, for the purpose of finding recreation. And yet there are far more people who are obliged to keep up their daily round of toil, than there are who are able to take a holiday vacation. It is not the very poor only, who cannot leave their tasks; there are many whose labour demands their constant attention, and who are for this reason obliged to forego the pleasure that they would gladly take. It is for this larger class especially, that we write this.

Recreation is not always obtained by those who go away for their holidays; for be it known that not all pleasure-seeking is recreation. Recreation means re-creation, reviving, refreshing. It means the receiving of new life. But very many who go away thinking to get recreation, come back jaded and weary, hoping to find rest at home, in their usual employment. We wish therefore to let the weary ones at home into a secret, which may also be profitable to those who go away.

All life comes from God, for with Him is "the fountain of life." Ps. xxxvi. 9. He is the Creator. Therefore He is the only one who can re-create. Whatever blessing of health and life any person enjoys, comes directly from God. "Do not err, my beloved brethren. 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 i. 16, 17.

Let us see, now, how the Lord can give to those who are obliged to stay at home and work, all the advantages that they could hope to gain by a trip abroad. How many there are who would choose the fields, and the cool waters. Well, those who know the Lord can say, "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul." Ps. xxiii. 1-3. He who knows this may have more real recreation, both for soul and body, than he who is lying in the cool meadows, but is ignorant of it.

If we long for the mountains, or the ocean, we read, "Thy righteousness is like the great mountain; Thy judgments are a great deep; O Lord, Thou preservest man and beast." Ps. xxxvi. 6. And in His righteousness He will be to us "as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." Do not the very words bring a sense of refreshment?

On these sultry days memories of

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mountains streams of clear, sparkling, life-giving water haunt us and tantalise us until the heat seems almost unendurable. Now let us find something that is more substantial than a memory, and which satisfies. "How excellent is Thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house; and Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures. For with Thee is the fountain of life; in Thy light shall we see light." Ps. xxxvi. 7-9.

Of course it is refreshing. Recreation, new life, is what we want, and with God is the fountain of life. We may drink it in as we would drink from the mountain spring, and find far more real refreshment. He who is with God, therefore, finds the truest recreation.

This is evident, further, from the fact that the memory of former draughts from the pure spring, just as it gushes cool and sparkling from the earth, serves rather to increase our present discomfort than to allay our heat and thirst. It did not last. Even before we were home from our excursion we were vainly longing for more. Now listen to Jesus as He talks with the woman at the well of Samaria. It was a deep well, and the water was cool and good, but He said, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." John iv. 13, 14. We can carry it with us continually.

That water is "living water," and that is what we want. But how may we get it? Why, if you are taking it in now, if you receive these texts as the living words of the living God, spoken directly to you. Jesus said, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life." John vi. 63. All this refreshment is to be found in the words that tell of it.

Some one will say that this is imaginary. Not a bit of it. It is real. In the chapter just quoted from we have an example of the ability of Christ to give real recreation-the renewal of wasted energy. The day before several thousand people were in the hot and sultry desert, with nothing to eat, and Jesus fed them with bread, so that they were filled and refreshed. This He did, in order that they and we might know the real life that is in His Word.

Take another instance. A nobleman's beloved son was lying at the point of death. His frame was wasted away, and his life was being burned up with fever. What was needed? Something to stop the fever,-something cooling. The man went to Jesus and asked Him to come and heal his son. Jesus said, "Go thy way; thy son liveth." "And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way. And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth. Then inquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth." John iv. 46-53.

Whoever believes that miracle, must know that the word of the Lord has cooling, refreshing, and healing properties. Nothing is so good in fever as cool water, both within and without. Many physicians have testified as to the value of water in fevers, and how the skillful application of it has reduced the temperature and saved the patient's life. But all this was accomplished by the word of Jesus, which is living water. Therefore we know that in His word we may find on the hottest day refreshment for the body.

At another time Simon's wife's mother, "was taken with a great fever; and they besought Him for her. And He stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her; and immediately she arose, and ministered unto them." Luke iv. 38, 39. Many other instances might be mentioned, but these are sufficient to show the life-giving power of the word of the Lord. Now what the Lord wants us to do is to take His words for all that they are worth, and use them in our every-day life.

That which we call nature is simply the ordinary working of God. The sunshine, the air, the dew and the rain, the great mountains, the broad ocean, the crystal springs, and the laughing mountain stream, all come from Him. They exist because of His word. When He spake, they immediately appeared, because they are all in His word. Therefore we may find all the benefit of them in His word.

Try it, and you will find that it is true. The words of the Lord are restful. They give peace. Without them, a person may fret himself into a fever on the coolest day, or in the deepest recesses of the mountains. With them in the heart, he may find the fever of his blood allayed even in the crowded city, on the hottest day. When you have learned that the words of the Lord are righteousness and life, and that we may drink them in as water, you can say with the psalmist:-

"My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips; when I remember Thee upon my bed, and meditate on Thee in the night watches. Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice." Ps. lxiii. 5-7.

"True Faith" The Present Truth 9, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

"And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God." Mark xi. 22. These are words that apply as well to us as to the disciples, to whom they were first spoken. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. xi. 6) and "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." 1 John v. 4. Yet though faith is so important to the Christian life, few people really have it.

There is a great deal that passes for faith among religious people, that is not faith at all. True faith is simple belief of God's word. True faith does not mystify the word; it does not explain away the miraculous; it does not "account for" this or that statement of Scripture. It feels no need of accounting for anything that the Bible says. It does not bring human suppositions and explanations into the matter at all.

This is why most men will not exercise true faith. It is too simple a thing for them. They want to make some display of their own wisdom; they want to understand Scripture in some way that will reflect credit on themselves,-on their ability to reason, discover, and conjecture. And so we see the word of God twisted and perverted and "explained" until its meaning is all but lost, and opposers of the truth scoffingly assert that "anything can be proved from the Bible." This all comes from a lack of faith.

Faith never questions; it believes implicitly. It is satisfied with the simple fact that God has said so, and if the statement that He makes is unexplainable to human reason, it makes no difference. Faith simply asks, What has God said? and when it finds what God has said, it says, That is so! God has said it, and that settles it. Here is the

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simplicity of true faith. It does not have to bother with human theories and explanations, but simply accepts a thing just because God has declared it. To believe implicitly and unquestioningly whatever God says is very much easier than to try to believe in it with some human wisdom worked in. It is so easy that anyone, high or low, learned or simple, who will still believe, can do it.

"Denying Self" The Present Truth 9, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

What is it to deny self? Most people, if not all, have in their minds a certain conception of the meaning of self-denial; but popular conceptions of things are not always true ones, especially in regard to Christian virtues. Self was never known to give the correct definition of self-denial. This can only be obtained from the Word of God.

The second chapter of Philippians tells us very clearly in what true self-denial consists, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Phil. ii. 5-8.

This was the example set by Christ in self-denial. He left all the riches and glory and honour that were His at the right hand of His Father, and came to this earth to live a life of toil and poverty and hardship and sorrow, in order that He might give to fallen man the riches and glory and honour that He had left in heaven. He "pleased not Himself," and of His own self He did nothing for He said, "My Father, that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works." See John v. 19, and xiv. 10.

Self-denial means, to the Christian, to do as Christ did. As Christ did nothing of His own self, so the Christian must do nothing of his own self. He must keep self repressed at every point, so that it will not be seen in anything. He must put it away altogether. But how often it is that self finds occasion to glory in some particular act that it can hold up to public view! This is the definition that self gives of self-denial. It is some particular act of self-denial on the part of an individual, held up and paraded as a virtue.

True self-denial is the total suppression of self, not at one point merely, but at all points; not for some particular occasion, but always, to the end of life. It is a process which self cannot survive. The Christian is never conscious of being a hero; he never counts his self-denial a virtue. In his life he sees all the imperfections and failures; for he has a view of the life and virtues of Him who was equal with God, but left all and came to earth and suffered and died for His enemies. He has no desire to serve himself in any way, but only to have Christ dwelling in him, working and doing whatever is in accordance with His Divine will.

"The Necessity of a New Heart" The Present Truth 9, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

When the Lord would cleanse His people,-those who professed to be serving Him,-from all their idols and their filthiness (Eze. xxxvi. 25), He said to them, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be My people, and I will be your God." Eze. xxxvi. 26-28.

This is the only way that any person can be brought into a condition where he can walk in the statutes of God, and keep His judgments. He must experience a change of heart. The same thing is declared in the thirty-first chapter of Jeremiah.

"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; . . but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people." Verses 31-33.

The Israelites had the law of God written upon tables of stone and preserved in the sacred ark. They had heard the law spoken from the summit of Mt. Sinai by the voice of God, and had heard it repeated by Moses; but they did not have it written upon their hearts, and the result was they did not keep it. The record of their lives is a record of transgression, of worshipping idols, and other iniquitous practices by which they violated the Divine statutes and judgments. They intended to keep them, and professed to be keeping them; perhaps even persuaded themselves that they were keeping them; but they were not. The conditions under which they tried to serve God made the keeping of His law an impossibility to them. Not that these conditions were imposed upon them; they were simply the conditions of every man in his natural state. The law of God was not written in their hearts. They were hardened through unbelief, so that their hearts would not receive the impress of the principles of God's great moral code.

A change of heart is the great requisite felt by the repentant sinner as he turns to God. "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." Ps. li. 10. Thus David prayed after he had gone in the way of the carnal heart and grievously sinned against God; and his prayer is echoed by every repentant soul. The clean heart for which he prayed is one upon which is written the principles of righteousness.

All who are truly converted have these principles upon their hearts, the agency by which they are written being the Spirit of God. Thus Paul writes to the church at Corinth: "Ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart." 2 Cor. iii. 3.

As the heart is, so is the life; for "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." It was the apostle's trust that the Corinthian brethren would in their lives be an epistle unto their fellow-men, wherein would be read the virtues of Christ and the power of God unto the salvation of believers. All persons who have the Divine law written in their hearts will be the epistles of Christ.

The Jews among whom Christ walked when upon the earth had the law of God everywhere about them, but in the one place where its living principles were most needed it was absent. It was held up before them in their synagogues; they wore it in letters upon their garments; they had it in their minds, so that they could repeat it from memory; but they were constant and flagrant violators of its requirements. "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites"! was the stern

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denunciation upon them from the lips of Jesus. "Ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess." Matt. xxiii. 25.

No one ever made a greater outward show of piety and reverence for God than did the Pharisees, yet all that did not save them from the most terrible condemnation. Neither will it avail anymore for the most respectable professor of Christianity to-day, who has not experienced the needed change of heart.

All along from their day to ours, the devil has led men to try to be servants of God without undergoing this change; and it has been one of his most successful devices. He has led men to think that if they kept the law of God often before their eyes and upon their lips, they would be living about as God would have them. So they have surrounded themselves with pictures of the Saviour and the names connected with His ministry, and with images of Himself and His mother and the apostles and "saints," wore crucifixes upon their breast-as the Pharisees wore the law upon their phylacteries-and in every way by their surroundings and outward practices endeavoured to convince themselves and others that they were the true servants of God. But however well they succeeded in deceiving themselves and their fellow-men, they did not in the least deceive God. His eye read their hearts, and He knew who were His and who were mere pious hypocrites, like the scribes and Pharisees. He knew whether they were His subjects at heart, or whether forms and ceremonies and imposing houses of worship and pictures and images served only to hide the secret iniquity of hearts that were still carnal.

Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you." It is Christ dwelling in the heart by faith (Eph. iii. 17); it is God dwelling with the spirit that is humble and contrite (Isa. lvii. 15). We may have the precepts of God upon the walls of our churches and our homes, and upon the tablets of our memories, and sounding often in our ears-and all this is proper and well; but if they be not written upon our hearts we are but subjects of the kingdom of darkness. "Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." John iii. 3.

"Faith and Credulity" The Present Truth 9, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

It has been remarked that the present is an age of unbelief and also of wonderful credulity. The statement is true, and there is nothing strange about it either. Unbelief is not absence of all belief, but only of a certain kind of belief. It implies a belief opposite in nature to that which is absent. The man who calls himself an agnostic, only seeks to hide under that term a belief which is just as real as anyone's, but which, generally, he has not the courage to avow and maintain.

The apostle Paul, in his letter to Timothy (2 Tim. iv. 4), speaks of this age of unbelief, saying that men "shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." The result could not be otherwise, for when people turn away from the truth there is nothing left for them to believe but error, and they grow credulous as a natural result. There is nothing in the world more credible than the statements of God's Word. They who refuse this and try to construct a material and a spiritual world upon some hypotheses of their own, may consider themselves wise, but in reality they are the most credulous persons in existence.

"War Declared" The Present Truth 9, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

War is declared against us! not by the French, not by the Germans, not by the Russians, nor by the Chinese, but by enemies more powerful than all these nations together,-by our own fleshly lusts, our natural longings after sinful pleasures.

It is not war against our poor frail bodies, but what is infinitely worse, it is a war against our souls. It is a war before which men's faces may indeed turn pale and their hearts fail them for fear, if they have not an impenetrable armour, and an all-powerful Captain. If we gain the victory it means life and happiness that will run parallel with the life of God. If we are overcome, it means darkness and death that shall have no awakening. It is then a war the most momentous, the most fraught with grave consequences of any that has ever been declared on earth.

It is a war from which we cannot escape, because it follows us wherever we go.

It is a war which we cannot end, once for all, and then never more be troubled with it. It will continue as long as there is life in us.

But there have been men who by nature were no better nor stronger than we, who have fought in this battle and been faithful unto death and come off more than conquerors through Him that loved them. And God Himself gives us encouragement to believe that you and I also may do the same. Then let us not sink down in discouragement and say it cannot be done and we are as good as overcome already, but let us go straight to our Father in heaven and ask Him how this may be accomplished.

We turn to 1 Peter ii. 11 and He says, "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against your souls." In other words, refrain from them, don't give up to them. Perhaps you say, That is just what I've tried to do again and again, but I can't put them away, they are more powerful than I, I cannot do the things that I would. Be patient, perhaps the Lord has more to tell us about it.

In 2 Tim. ii. 22 He says, "Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." Here He tells us that we are not only to abstain from these lusts by fleeing from them when we see them coming, but when we turn our backs upon them we are to follow after righteousness, faith, charity, peace. Perhaps we have tried to flee from the longings after sin without seeking something better in its place. If our hearts become filled and satisfied with good thoughts there is no room for longings for bad thoughts.

But we read again in Titus ii. 11, 12: "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world." Here we learn again that the grace of God teaches us to deny worldly lusts when they come begging for our favour. But notice further, the grace that teaches us that we must deny worldly lusts does not then leave us alone to fight it out the best we can, but the same grace that warns us of our danger, provides the remedy,-"The grace of God that bringeth salvation" teaches us, etc. Then the same grace that teaches us to deny the lusts will give salvation from them if we will allow it to.

But let us listen again to His gracious words. Rom. viii. 13. "For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds

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of the body, ye shall live." Ah, have we not now arrived at the secret of our failures? We have been trying to mortify and put down our sinful desires in our own strength, and as they have been stronger than we, we have been defeated every time. But here we learn of a Spirit that is stronger than the spirit of evil, and the promise is if we will allow this Spirit of God to dwell in us it will mortify every evil desire that shows itself, and we shall live; we shall not be overcome.

But how are we to get this Spirit? He tells us in the thirteenth chapter and fourteenth verse; "But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, too fulfil the lusts thereof." We get the Spirit of Christ by putting on Christ, and when we do this we are to make no more provision or calculation to give up to the lusts of our flesh, "for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other." Where one is the other cannot remain. When we put on Christ we therefore bid goodbye to our lusts for ever, and instead of our ways and our desires, we choose Christ's ways and His desires. And since He furnishes the power by which we can keep these lusts from coming and making their home in our heart again, we are stronger than they as long as we hold to Jesus.

But can we know how to put on Jesus? Yes, He tells us in Gal. iii. 27, "As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ."

But how can we get into Christ and Christ in us? We read again in Eph. iii. 17, "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith."

How can we get faith? "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Rom. x. 17.

Then if we hear God's word and receive it "not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God," it will effectually work in us that believe, because it brings Jesus with His Holy Spirit of power into our hearts. Thus, "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, 4.

Then do we not need the Word, the bread of life, more than we need our necessary food? Can we hope to grow in the spiritual life and have strength to overcome and keep out these deadly foes without daily partaking of this heavenly bread? We are apt to think that when we once put on Christ we have nothing more to do, when we once take a full meal of this heavenly bread and a full draught of this living water, we shall for ever be satisfied and never more be weak or faint. But we cannot eat enough of this in one day to last us all the rest of our lives, any more than we can eat enough physical food to last us the remainder of our lives. We must continually, daily, feast upon His words of life, and then the promise is that we shall grow thereby, grow stronger and stronger. We need not worry about how it is done, or how we are going to meet these foes when they assail us. But if we lay hold of fresh supplies of strength every day, the victory will finally be ours, not because of our strength, but because of Christ the Mighty One who has lived in us. He is the "captain of our salvation," and He is our "armour of light" that is able to quench all the fiery darts of the enemy. With such a Captain and such an armour can we not with courage engage in this great war?

"Go forward, Christian soldier,

Beneath His banner true;

The Lord Himself, thy Leader,

Shall all thy foes subdue.

His love foretells thy trials,

He knows thy hourly need;

He can, with bread of heaven,

Thy fainting spirit feed.

"Go forward, Christian soldier,

Nor dream of peaceful rest,

Till Satan's host is vanquished,

And heaven at last possessed;

Till Christ Himself shall call thee

To lay thine armour by,

And wear in endless glory,

The crown of victory."

"Supplying Our Need" The Present Truth 9, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

"But my God shall supply all your need, according to His riches in glory." Mark it well; "all your needs." Consider as well, also, that God does not promise to supply everything that we may crave. "But," says one, "in that case we can never be satisfied; we shall always be longing for something." Not so; for the promise is, "They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house." Ps. xxxvi. 8. He who has every need supplied ought to be satisfied. The reason why more people do not experience the satisfaction is that they do not realise that God knows what will supply their needs better than they themselves do. Some men think that they must have whisky to satisfy their thirst, whereas it will only increase it. Now if while they are craving the alcoholic drink, someone supplies them with a good, cooling draught, which satisfies their thirst, are they not much better off than they would have been if they had been given the object of their desire? So God often supplies our need by withholding the really hurtful thing that we have set our hearts upon, and giving us that which He knows is best. Our part, then, is to refrain from getting our desires fixed on any certain thing, as though that alone could satisfy us, and to trust His superior wisdom, to give us the thing that we really need. When we pray from the heart, "not my will but Thine, be done," we shall always have the desires of our hearts, and shall always be satisfied.

"Begin To-Day" The Present Truth 9, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

"And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee." Acts xxiv. 25.

The Roman governor Felix had sent for the apostle, that he might hear and pronounce judgment upon his cause; but suddenly he found himself at the bar of judgment instead of the apostle; and as Paul "reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled." He saw a change demanded in his own life if he would be prepared for the issues of the future; but he said to himself, Not to-day. "Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee." But though Paul remained a prisoner in his charge two years, there is no record of his having found that "convenient time," when he sent for the apostle and heard further "concerning the faith in Christ."

To the unrenewed heart, the future is always a more convenient time for attending to the interests of the soul, than the present. This is always a suggestion of the devil. He keeps before the mind's eye the ignis fatuus of a future convenient day, when the heart will feel like attending to spiritual things, and the individual can prepare for the judgment to come, without the effort that would be necessary at the present hour; and meanwhile he makes it more and more difficult and inconvenient

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each day for the individual to take a step towards God.

It is as true in spiritual as in temporal matters that success demands the vigorous improvement of to-day. To wait for a more convenient season is only to court defeat and eternal loss. When the destiny of the soul is at stake, convenience is not to be consulted. While the sentence of death hangs over it because of transgressions, the opportunity to escape and gain the life eternal must be improved at whatever costs. If the saying that "delay is dangerous" is good as a worldly maxim, how much more should it be regarded when it concerns the danger of the loss not of earthly possessions, but of eternal life in the world to come.

In the words of solemn import the Word of God appeals to the careless, world-loving soul to delay not the work of repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ. "Seek ye the Lord while He may be found; call ye upon Him while He is near." "To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts." "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." Ps. xcv. 7, 8; Isa. lv. 6. "Exhort one another daily, while it is called To-day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." Heb. iii.13. Delay hardens the heart. To reject the light that you have now will never prepare the way for its future reception. To turn from the still small voice that speaks to you to-day will never lead you to heed the invitation that may come to you to-morrow.

Life must be lived in the present, and the present means to-day. To try to live in to-morrow or in yesterday, is but to dream away to-day. The devil doesn't care how much you dream; he is not troubled over your pleasant anticipations and good intentions. There is no difficulty to him in storming castles that are built in the air. He doesn't care a farthing about what you are going to do, but only about what you are doing. He has no anxiety about where you intend to be to-morrow, so long as he can keep you where he wants you to be to-day.

God knows that man must live his life one day at a time. And He has accordingly made His relation to him that of an ever-present Help. He does not give strength and grace to-morrow, but for to-day. He "is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." Ps. xlvi. 1. Any other arrangement would be useless, because-

"Strength for to-day is all that we need;

There never will be a to-morrow;

For to-morrow will be but another to-day,

With its measure of joy or sorrow."

To-day is yours,-yours to make the choice for good or evil, life or death. "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve." Joshua xxiv. 15. "Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; a blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day; and a curse, if ye obey not the commandments of the Lord your God." Deut. xi. 26-28. It is the hour of God's judgment (Rev. xiv. 7), and you have a case pending at the great tribunal. No life record will escape the searching investigation. You cannot put off the solemn issue. Prepare for it early. Begin to-day.

"Christ the Bearer of Burdens" The Present Truth 9, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

"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 is the invitation of Christ, the world's Redeemer, to all those "that labour and are heavy laden" in the journey of life. It is the invitation of Him who "hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows" (Isa. liii. 4); of Him who is "touched with the feeling of our infirmities" (Heb. iv. 15); who has been "in all points tempted like as we are." He knows fully the nature of the responsibility He is assuming; and He is fully able to assume it, for He has said, "All power is given unto Me in Heaven and in earth." Matt. xxviii. 18.

It is a very easy thing to cast our cares and our sorrows upon Him who has thus made Himself the great Burden Bearer of the race, yet how few seem inclined to avail themselves of the privilege. He does not force us to give Him our burdens; we can't carry them ourselves if we choose to. But He stands ready to take freely every load that is laid at His feet. Yet it is almost always the case that we take our burdens to our earthly friends, instead of to the Lord. We go to them for their sympathy-which perhaps they are not slow to give-and we talk over our troubles with them, and get such satisfaction from it as we can; but ah, who ever knew their burden of tears and grief to get any lighter by this process? Who ever found that it did not, on the contrary, make it even heavier than before? And besides this, it has added to the load of others who already have burdens enough of their own.

But when we come to Jesus with our load, what a difference! When we have told Him all our sorrows, how much lighter the burden all at once becomes! and we experience the rest that He promised to the weary and heavy-laden.

But let no one burden themselves with borrowed troubles, for all these they will have to carry alone. Jesus has not offered to take upon Himself our imaginary troubles, but only those which are real. He has said, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." To borrow trouble is to distrust God. Our blessings are not sent to us weekly or monthly, but "daily"; as He has taught us to say, "Give us this day our daily bread." Thus there is no occasion to burden ourselves with the imaginary troubles, which are usually the hardest to bear.

"Grasping Too Much" The Present Truth 9, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

"Daniel Quorm" tells us this story. "When I was a little boy, helpin' mother to store away the apples, I put my arm round ever so many o' them, an' tried to bring them all. I managed for a step or two. Then out fell one, an' another, an' two or three more, till they was all rollin' over the floor. Mother laughed. 'Now, Dan'el,' says she, 'I'm goin' to teach you a lesson.' So she put my little hands quite tight round one. 'There,' said she, 'bring that, an' then fetch another.' I've often thought about it when I've seen folks who might be doin' ever so much good, if they didn't try to do too much all to once. Don't go tryin' to put your arms round a year; an' don't go troublin' about next week. Wake up in the mornin', an' think like this: 'Here's another day come. Whatever I do, an' whatever I don't do, Lord help me to do this-help me to live it to Thee.'"

One day at a time, one hour, one minute,-yes, one second is all the time we get at once. So our best course is to "Do the next thing next."

"Day and Night" The Present Truth 9, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

"And God said, Let there be light; and there was light." Gen. i. 3.

This earth was not always so bright and pleasant as it is now. We learned last week that when God created the earth it was covered only with water and darkness. But God, in his goodness, did not leave it so. The first thing that He did was to make it light. And do you know how He did it? God commanded the light to shine right out of darkness; and it did! (2 Cor. iv. 6.) He just said, "Let there be light;" and there was light. How wonderful! "Surely the Lord is a great God." "Who is so great a God as our God?"

And God gave names to the light and the dark. "He called the light Day; and the darkness He called Night." But it takes both the light and the dark to make a whole day, for the rest of the verse says that "The evening and the morning were the first day." Say it over slowly and see which came first, the evening, or the morning. Yes, the evening, or darkness came first, for you know the earth was all dark until God made the light. So the first part of the first day was all dark, but after God said "Let there be light," the rest of the day was light.

You see the dark part was first, and then the light part; first the evening, and then the morning. The Bible says that every day begins in the evening, just as the first day did. The evening or dark part of the day, always comes first. But we shall learn more about this in another lesson.

Can you count? If so, count these straight marks: I I I I I I I. Now you can tell how many days there are in every week, for there are just as many days in a week as there are straight marks here on our paper.

Do you remember what was done on the first day of the first week? If you will read again in the first chapter in your Bible, you will see that there were three wonderful things made (Put three little marks through the first straight mark so that you may remember how many things were made on the first day): God created the heavens, and the earth, and the light. And that means, you remember, that He spake and they were; He commanded and they were created! Name them over and over again, for you should never forget that on the first day God, by His Word, created the heavens, the earth, and the light. "In the beginning God created the heavens and earth," "And God said, Let there be light; and there was light," "And the evening and the morning were the first day."

1. Why can you see things so much more easily in the morning than you can in the night?

2. Who made the beautiful light?

3. When did God create the light?

4. What other things had He created before that?

5. Then what three things did He create on the first day?

6. How did God create the light?

7. What name did God give to the light?

8. What name did God give to the darkness?

9. And yet what did it take to make the whole day?-Both the darkness and the light.

10. Which part of that first day came first,-the dark part or the light part? Gen. i. 5, last part.

11. Then according to the Bible, when must every day began? In the evening.

12. What is the colour of light? Matt. xvii. 2.

13. Name some white things.

14. What is the colour of darkness? Prov. vii. 9.

15. Name some black things.

16. Which part do you like best, the light or the darkness?

17. Why?

18. Do you know how many days there are in every week?

19. What do we call the first day of every week?-"Sunday.

20. What did God do on the first day of the first week?

"'Let There Be Light'" The Present Truth 9, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

Naughty thoughts and feelings and actions are called sins. When a person's heart is full of sin he cannot see what he ought to do, and he stumbles and makes even more foolish mistakes than though he were blind, or were walking in the blackest darkness. So God calls sin blindness and darkness.

Every man, woman, and child in the world has sinned. Therefore the hearts of even little children are full of the dangerous darkness of sin.

It is more dangerous than common darkness, because it will cause us to miss the way to heaven, and will cause us to fall into the snares and pitfalls of Satan and be destroyed for ever. We cannot go to our heavenly home without light a bit better than we can on a dark stormy night go over a dangerous road to our earthly home without light.

Lamp-light or fire-light or electric light, or even sunlight is not powerful enough to drive the darkness of sin out of our hearts. Nothing but the mighty light of God's word can do it, the word which in the beginning said, "Let there be light, and there was light." We cannot fill ourselves with light any more than the earth could.

God is longing to say to your naughty heart, "Let there be light." Just as sure as He does, your heart will be filled with the marvellous light of His own purity and goodness instead of with the darkness of your impurity and sin.

But God will not speak light into your heart unless you want Him to. If you want to do wrong, and disobey your parents, and be selfish and unlovely, He will allow you to do so; but if you are tired of sin, tired of your own way, and really want to give it all up and do God's way, just tell Him so, and let Him send His word, "Let there be light," into your heart. Then Jesus the light and righteousness of the world will fill your heart; for Jesus is the Word of God.

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Then as long as you daily study and obey His word you may walk in His light. But if you choose your own will, and grieve Him away, your heart will again be as dark and full of sin as ever. Jesus alone is the light of life, and you must walk with Him every day, if you would "walk in the light."

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

-By a fire at the Senate Hotel, Chicago, eight persons lost their lives.

-Professor Carl Miller, the eminent German artist, has died at Neuenahr.

-Seven people lost their lives in a railway disaster near Milton, Virginia, U.S.A., August 16

-Fire has destroyed 100 houses in Minneapolis, Minn., U.S.A., rendering 1,500 people homeless.

-The British Indian Government is about to undertake a punitive expedition against the Kachins.

-A very severe drowth, accompanied by intense heat, prevails throughout Spain, and cattle are suffering severely.

-The New Zealand Parliament has passed a Bill conferring the franchise on women both of the European and Maori race.

-Serious floods have occurred in Galicia and Hungary, involving great loss of life and considerable destruction of property.

-Crime in Russia is distinctly increasing. During the last year there were perpetrated no fewer than 2,401 murders, of which 763 were cases of infanticide. During the same period there were 1,736 suicides.

-A boat load of seventeen excursionists were drowned in the river Shannon, on the evening of August 16, by the capsizing of their boat.

-A Frenchman, M. Boutau, has devised an apparatus by which an instantaneous photograph of the sea bed can be obtained in deep water.

-Trouble is anticipated between the United States and Japan through a collision of their respective interests in the Hawaiian Islands.

-No other country in the world produces as many eggs as France. Her trade in this department last year reached the gigantic sum of £40,000,000.

-It is reported at Eagle Pass, Texas, from Monterey, that President Dias has called out the Mexican troops to put down a revolt at Cardenas.

-Serious labour riots between French and Italian workmen are reported from Aigues Mortes. Ten Italians are said to have been killed and forty wounded.

-The entire stock of the DeBeers Company's diamonds, (South Africa) were recently sold to a syndicate for £1,000,000, being the largest transaction in diamonds ever made.

-Destitution is lamentably prevalent in Johannesburg, South Africa. During the last fifteen months starving men have been supplied with 22,000 meals, and 8,489 applicants were given beds.

-The cholera is still spreading rapidly throughout Russia, and has obtained a good foothold in Central Europe, particularly in Naples, Berlin, and the Austrian province of Galicia.

-The coal strike still continues to extend, with no prospect of a speedy settlement of the difficulty. Meanwhile a scarcity is beginning to be felt by ship owners and those who run furnaces.

-The canal across the Isthmus of Corinth has just been opened by the King of Greece. The modern Greeks have thus completed what Alexander the Great projected, Julius CÊsar decided upon, and Nero actually commenced.

-Petitions signed by 1,078,609 persons have now been presented to the House of Commons against Home Rule, by 1,239,019 against Church Disestablishment in Wales, and by 1,161,900 against Local Veto in regard to the liquor traffic

At the Tuberculosis Congress in Paris, the cremation of consumptive patients was advocated, it being contended that earth-worms bring to the surface the bacilli which infest the dead, and in dry weather they may be inhaled in the form of dust.

-Religious riots have broken out in Bombay between the Mohammedans and Hindus, which have resulted in considerable loss of life and property. Two mosques and four Hindu temples have been sacrificed, and order is with difficulty maintained by the police and military forces.

-A terrible railway accident occurred near Pontypridd, in South Wales, on the evening of August 12. A train filled with passengers was rounding a curve at a high rate of speed, when several of the coaches left the metals and plunged down an embankment, resulting in death to twelve persons and severe injuries to many others.

-Telegrams from Buenos Ayres again point to a disturbed state of affairs in Argentina. Fighting has taken place at La Plata, between Radical and Federal troops, in which the former appear to have been worsted. The Federal Congress at Buenos Ayres has decided in favour of the establishment of a state of siege throughout Argentina, and Federal intervention in Santa Fe and san Luis.

-The international Behring Sea controversy appears to have finally reached a settlement, the Court of Arbitration having rendered their decision in the matter, which seems to be satisfactory to both governments concerned. The decision declares that Behring Sea is not a closed sea, and adjudges damages to be paid to Canadian sealers by the United States to the amount of 1,500,000 dols. but places restrictions upon sealing which will operate in favour of the United States.

-A horrible discovery has been made near Warsadin in Croatia. A band of men have been detected in making a regular business of the mutilation of children, their crippled victims being afterwards disposed of to persons who send them out to beg in the streets of large towns, when their deformities excite the pity of the charitable. Three men have been arrested, and in the house occupied by them a number of implements were found for the forcible production of deformities.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

Then Lord said: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." Mark xvi. 16. Throughout the Bible belief is made the one condition of salvation. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Acts xvi. 31. The Gospel is "the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth." Rom. i. 16. "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established." Isa. vii. 9. Without belief there can be no salvation; with it, salvation is sure.

Some people imagine that this is arbitrary and unjust. They say that it does not seem reasonable that one person should be saved because he believes a certain thing, while another, equally good, should be lost, because he does not believe that thing. The trouble is that they do not realise what Bible belief is, nor what we are to believe. Now man has no business to question the justice and reasonableness of God's requirements, and for the reason that God has given us overwhelming evidence of His justice; and His justice is not simply coupled with love, but it is love.

It is not by the belief of arbitrary and independent statements that men are saved. God does not make a statement of fact, and say, "Believe this or I will destroy you." The belief that saves is belief in God or Jesus Christ, who is the only manifestation of Divine power and goodness and wisdom to man. Belief means appropriation, identification with. Belief on Christ is the acceptance of Christ as our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. He alone has life. Our lives have been forfeited, and through Jesus alone can we get life. If a man who cannot swim is in deep water, it can be said of him that if he will seize the rope that is flung to him, he will be saved, but that if he will not, he must be drowned. No one would say that we were condemning him to death as a punishment for not grasping a rope. So he who will not believe is lost, not as a punishment for unbelief, but because belief is the laying hold of Christ; and he who rejects Christ rejects life.

Here is the one thing to be kept in mind: The belief which saves a man, is the belief that effects a change in his character, and not merely the passive assent of the mind. If the belief of any given thing cannot affect one's character, there can be no celebration in it. But this does not exclude anything that is written in the Scriptures, for the Spirit of Christ was in the men who wrote the Bible, and therefore belief in Christ means belief in His word. "As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is tried; He is a buckler to all those that trust in Him." Ps. xviii. 30.

When the friends of J. G. Paton knew that he was about to enter the mission field, they tried hard to deter him. One old gentleman thought to keep him back by repeating again, "You will be eaten by cannibals." Finally Paton said to him:-

"Mr. Dixon, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms. I confess to you that if I can but live and die serving and honouring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms; and in the great resurrection day, my resurrection body will arise fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer."

That was not only philosophical, but it indicated some of the spirit that led Paul to say, "None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God." Acts xx. 24.

In some things men make much finer distinctions than the Lord does. Thus the different systems of religion are all labelled, so that there are, according to men, many grades between Christians and heathen. The common idea is thus stated in an article written for children:-

"Some people call everybody who is not a Christian 'a Heathen,' but this is not quite fair. We should not call anyone who professes to worship God 'a Heathen.' The Mohammedans, for instance, are not 'Heathen,' for they worship God. But then they do not worship God's Son, Jesus Christ, and their sacred book, the Koran, is not to be compared with our Holy Bible."

All agree that a heathen is one who worships some other god than the one true God. Now Jesus has said: "I and My Father are one." John x. 30. And again: "No man cometh unto the Father but by Me." John xiv. 6. Therefore those who do not acknowledge and worship Jesus Christ do not worship God; and they who profess to worship God, but who reject Christ, are worshipping a god of their own devising, and not the God of the Bible. And so we find that the Bible recognises only two classes of men, Christian and heathen. This should not cause those who profess to be Christians to look with contempt upon others, but to consider themselves, lest, while professing to be Christian, they may be by the Lord classed among the heathen.

We are not very much in favour of the plan of writing biographies while the subjects are still living, and we are convinced that the Bible supplies incentives to missionary labour far exceeding anything that has been written since; but a little book entitled "John G. Paton, His Life Work," strikes us as being one of the best missionary biographies. It tells briefly, yet clearly, the story of the life of the one who was instrumental in converting the natives of the New Hebrides islands from cannibalism to Christianity. The book is a pamphlet of 66 pages, with the low price of one penny. Published by Alfred Holness, 14, Paternoster Row, London, E.C.

"A Contrast" The Present Truth 9, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

A Contrast.-"In the beginning God created the heaven and earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light." Gen. i. 1-3. "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; He commanded, and it stood fast." Ps. xxxiii. 6, 9. This is plain and definite; a child can understand it. Now listen to the opening words of a recent book entitled, "Reveries of World History, from Earth's Nebulous Origin to its Final Ruin," and note the contrast:-

"In the beginning, obedient to the word of Eternal Law, the chaos of Earth circled in the vastness. Formless and void in the profundity, out of formlessness, a form evolved.

Diffused in vapour, condensing by the force of gravity, and absorbing gaseous matter from its nebulous surroundings, the World wandered through limitless space, ordered by the natural but mysterious government of inexorable Law, etc, etc."

That is truly a "nebulous" description. After reading the two accounts, who can doubt that "the foolishness of God is wiser than men"? Surely all who have not become so "vain in their imaginations" that their foolish minds are utterly darkened, must agree with the Chronicle, that "the old is better."

August 31, 1893

"Front Page" The Present Truth 9, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John i. 9.

Confession is acknowledgment. The word "confess" is derived originally from words meaning, "to speak together," that is, to speak the same thing-to agree. God says that all men are sinners, and He also, by His Spirit and His word, tells us of the particular instances in which we have sinned, saying, as through the prophet Nathan He did to David, "Thou art the man." To confess, to speak together, or agree with the Lord, is to respond, "That is true; I have sinned."

Many people suppose that the Lord requires us to confess sin, in order that we may be humiliated. They think that the object of confession is to make one so ashamed that he will not do the thing again. But that is a mistake. None of God's requirements are arbitrary. He requires us to confess, because confession of sin means agreement with Him; and unless we are agreed with Him there is no life for us. He desires us to walk with Him; and two cannot walk together except they are agreed. So it is impossible that we should live with Him unless we are agreed with Him. Indeed, who would wish to? It is very trying to live even for a short time with one with whom we are in constant disagreement. That would be the very opposite of heaven. God intends that His people shall "delight themselves in the abundance of peace."

"By the law is the knowledge of sin," and "the law is spiritual." "Spiritual" means of the nature of the Spirit. Accordingly it is the Spirit of God that convinces men of sin. If God did not do this, we should not know that we had sinned. "The heart is deceitful above all things; and desperately wicked; who can know it? I the Lord search the heart." Jer. xvii. 9, 10. God alone can know what is in man. How foolish, then, when God tells us that we are doing wrong, for us to say, "I can't see it; it doesn't seem to me to be wrong." Of course not; and that is why the Lord shows it to us. For us to say that we have not sinned, when God says that we have, is to charge God either with ignorance or falsehood; and who can expect to be saved while making such a charge against God? There would be war in heaven at once, for we would be setting our will and our judgment against God's.

Sin is a hateful thing. God so regards it. His great love for us is shown in that He loves us while we are full of sin. Knowing the terrible nature of sin, He wishes to deliver us from it. Therefore He makes known to us our danger, that we may flee for refuge to the hope set before us in Christ. Now since confession means agreement, it is plain that when we truly confess sin we agree with all that God says about its nature. And since he tells us of our sin, in order that we may be freed from it, it is also plain that confession of sin means that we desire to be freed from it. Therefore as soon as we truly confess sin we are fully agreed with God, and since He is righteous, His righteousness is ours.

Since true confession involves desire to be separated from sin, it follows that it means restoration wherever anything has been unlawfully taken; for it is evident that no one can be freed from the sin, while resolutely clinging to it. Restoration, therefore, even though it be fourfold, is not for the purpose of appeasing God with a bribe, but it is the natural manifestation of the earnest desire to be rid of the sin.

But it must not be supposed that making "a good confession" means the recollection and acknowledgement of every act of sin that has ever been committed. That is an impossibility. In the first place, life would not be long enough for a man to recount all his sins, even if he knew them; and in the second place, no man can know all his sin. The sins that lie hidden in the heart,-the sinful nature,-are as deadly as those that have come to the light. So confession involves the acknowledging to God that there is no good thing in us, and praying, "Cleanse Thou me from secret faults." Ps. xix. 12. And this alone is sufficient to show that confession should be to God only, and not to man, except to the man whom we may have offended. For confession does not mean the telling of news, but the acknowledging of a known fault.

One thing should not be forgotten, and that is that forgiveness immediately follows confession, and that forgiveness of sin means cleansing from it. David, blinded by passion, did not realise that he had grievously sinned. The prophet Nathan, in a parable, set the wickedness of the act clearly before him, and then said, "Thou art the man." David immediately exclaimed "I have sinned against the Lord," and instantly the response came, "The Lord also hath put away thy sin." 2

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Sam. xiii. 13. As soon as the sin is really confessed it is forgiven, and the soul is cleansed from it. Well may we say to the Lord: "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.

"Christian Unity" The Present Truth 9, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

The Christian Commonwealth in a recent issue discourses at some length on the above-named subject, and says, "The melancholy impression prevails in most minds that Christian unity is practically impossible." Looking at the vast array of sects into which Christendom is at present divided, and at the process of division still going on, this "melancholy impression" seems to be well-founded; but in reality it is not so. Christian unity is a natural condition. Outside of Christianity there is no unity; for unity, like all other things desirable, is of God; but this union in the church of Christ is something painfully unnatural. There is "one Lord, one faith, one baptism," and "by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free." Eph. xiv. 5; 1 Cor. xii. 13. No allowance has to be made for differences of race or position, or any other distinction by which the people of earth are divided in worldly things. In the church of Christ all distinctions are obliterated, and the members are all one. "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. 28.

The trouble is not with God's plan, nor with the provisions He has made for unity among His followers, but with those who are counted as composing His church. They are divided because they are not in a state of spirituality. "From whence come wars and fighting among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?" Jas. iv. 1. This is the source of strife and divisions in the church. "God is not the author of confusion."

It is useless to attempt to unite the discordant fragments of Christendom into one harmonious body, through the methods that are commonly tried. No amount of argument or debating or summoning of councils or revising of creeds will ever secure the result. How then can it be obtained? The answer to this question has been given by Jesus Christ. "That they all may be one; as Thou, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us. . . I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one." John xvii. 21-23. It is by the possession of the Spirit. There is but one Spirit; and when all are controlled and actuated by it, laying aside self, no other condition but that of Christian unity will be possible.

"The True Church" The Present Truth 9, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

"God is love; and he that dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world." 1 John iv. 16, 17.

Concerning His disciples Christ prayed: "Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy word is truth. As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." John xvii. 17-21.

Again He said to them, and to all them also who should believe on Him through their word: "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.

In the above text the words "chosen out," are akin to the word which is rendered "church"; for that which is in modern language called the church is really the chosen, or called out. Therefore in the above texts Christ addresses what is commonly termed His church, and we learn from them that the church of Christ must be the same in this world that He Himself was when on earth. The following Scriptures make this still more clear.

"He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church." Col. i. 17, 18. God wrought great power "in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in 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; and hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." Eph. i. 20-23.

The church is the body of Christ. This does not mean that anything that calls itself the church is therefore necessarily the body of Christ, but that nothing is the church unless it is the body of Christ; and nothing is the body of Christ unless it is the living manifestation of the Spirit of Christ. Only those are Christ's who have His Spirit. Rom. viii. 9. The body of Christ is that which is directly connected with the Head, so that it "increaseth with the increase of God." Col. ii. 19. In short, it is "the fulness of Him that filleth all in all."

OFFICES IN THE CHURCH

"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.

"Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. And 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. 27, 28.

"Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues; but all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will." 1 Cor. xii. 4-11.

"But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore He saith, When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. . . . . And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and

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some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." Eph. iv. 7-12.

At one time there arose a question in the little company which Jesus had chosen out,-the church,-as to which should be the greatest, and Jesus said unto them: "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so; but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve." Luke xxii. 25, 26. And again He said: "Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you; but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant; even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." Matt. xx. 25-28.

The apostles Barnabas and Paul "ordained them elders in every church," as they returned from their first missionary tour. Acts xiv. 23. The apostle Paul wrote to Titus: "For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee; if any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre." Titus i. 5-7.

Here we learn that an elder is the same as a bishop. The terms "elder" and "bishop" are interchangeable. The word "bishop" is episcopos, from which we have "episcopal," and means one who oversees. It is used in Acts xx. 28, in the apostle Paul's address to the elders of the church in Ephesus: "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." Here again we see that elders and bishops are the same.

But in this last text we have a reference to another title belonging to the same persons. The apostle exhorted the elders to feed the church of God. Accordingly we read in 1 Peter v. 1-4: "The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed; 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. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away."

Here we see that the elders have a flock to feed, under the direction of Christ, who is the chief Shepherd, they being under-shepherds. Now "shepherd," and "pastor" are the same thing, the latter being simply the Latin equivalent of the former. So we learn that there is no difference between elders, bishops, and pastors. The different words represent the same office. The fact that in Phil. i. 1 "bishops and deacons" are mentioned the same as elders and deacons elsewhere, shows that bishops and elders are the same, since there is no intervening office between bishops and deacons. The duties attached to those offices are fully set forth in the scriptures above referred to.

"Church Authority" The Present Truth 9, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

The words of Christ must ever be our guide. They cannot be too often repeated. Again we quote: "Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you; but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant; even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." Matt. xx. 25-28.

It should be understood that the word "minister," in the above text, does not necessarily mean "preacher." A minister is a servant, one who ministers or serves. In the text just quoted, the word "servant" indicates a more complete and humble servitude than the word "minister." The difference is shown in the margin of the Revised Version, where we have "servant" given as the equivalent of "minister," and "bondservant" as the equivalent of "servant." The word rendered "minister" is the ordinary word for servant, while that rendered "servant" is the usual word for slave. Now note the gradation in which they are used by the Lord. He who will be great in the church, must be a servant; but he who will be chief, must be a bondservant. That is, the degree of greatness depends upon the completeness of the service and the giving up of self to Christ.

So we learn from the words of the Saviour, that there is to be no such thing in the church of Christ as the exercise of authority such as is known in civil government. The church is on an entirely different plane from the State. There is no likeness whatever between them. The kingdom of Christ is a thing entirely different from human ideas of government. He said, "My kingdom is not of this world." John xviii. 36. They who think to understand the working of Christ's kingdom by studying earthly models, are proceeding in the wrong way, and are working in the dark.

We have read in 1 Corinthians xii. 28 that "governments" are among the gifts that God has bestowed upon the church; but we shall come more closely to God's idea of government if we note that the Revised Version gives the alternative reading, "wise counsels." One of the titles of Christ, as the one upon whose shoulder the government is laid, is "Counselor"; He is "wonderful in counsel," and so He provides wise counsels for the government of His church, said counsel to be derived solely from Him, who alone is the source of wisdom. He governs by love. His counsel is "the counsel of peace."

Recall again the words of 1 Peter v. 3. The elders or bishops he exhorts not to be "lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock." There can therefore be in the true church of Christ no such thing as a "Lord Bishop." That is one of the fruits of the unlawful connection of the church with the world. Christ is the only Lord; but here again we shall grievously err if we think of Him as occupying the "lordly" position of earthly lords. He is "meek and lowly in heart" (Matt. xi. 29), and all men have to learn humility from Him who is "Lord over all." He calls upon them to humble themselves to walk with Him. Micah vi. 8, margin.

The church of Christ, as directed by the Lord Himself, is the only place on earth where "liberty, equality, and fraternity" can be fully realised. The apostle Peter proceeds, "Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility; for God resisteth the proud, and

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giveth grace to the humble." 1 Pet. 5:5. The trouble with earthly associations formed for the purpose of promoting liberty and equality on earth, is that they are only human organisations, directed only by human wisdom and human power, and among men self is bound to predominate. Only the Spirit of Christ is unselfish.

"Rank," as known among men, is unknown to the church of Christ. There is no such thing as one setting himself up above another, or allowing himself to be so placed or considered. That pertains to the princes of this world, but the words of Christ are, "It shall not be so among you." Christ "emptied Himself," and therefore self has no place in His body, the church. To the Jews He said, "How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God?" John v. 44. Through the apostle Paul He said, "Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another." Rom. xii. 10. Again, "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves." Phil. ii. 3. Love "seeketh not her own." 1 Cor. xiii. 5. "Be not ye called Rabbi; for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren." Matt. xxiii. 8.

MEMBERS ONE OF ANOTHER

The Lord has, however, actually guarded against any such thing as disorder or anarchy. We are not to understand, because there is no such thing as rank in the church, that each one is independent of every other one, and that no one is to concern himself with the conduct of any other. Let the Scriptures themselves give us the relation that all the members of the church of Christ sustain to one another:-

"There are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all." "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ." "For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary." "God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked; that there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another." 1 Cor. xii. 6, 12, 14-22, 24, 25.

We see from this, that although there are different offices and gifts in the church, no one member is any more necessary than another. Neither are there to be any to have no responsibility. One may be in a position to do seemingly twice as much work as another, yet he is no more necessary to the work than one who occupies a humbler place. If the one in the lowest place is doing the work which God has given him there to do, then his place is just as important as that of the one in the highest place. There is no place in God's plan for arrogance on the one hand, nor for fawning servility or fear on the other. "One is your Master, even Christ; and all ye our brethren." "The head of every man is Christ." 1 Cor. xi. 3. Therefore there are no such things in the true church as "superior officers." Christ is the only Superior. The command, "Let each esteem other better than themselves," applies to those who have great gifts, as well as to those of less ability. Each member sees in every other one the representative of Christ, and esteems him accordingly. This mutual esteem is not brought about, however, by vote, nor by resolution, nor by the signing of any articles, but by the same Spirit of God dwelling in each.

In the human body every member is as much concerned to protect every other member, as to protect itself. Each different member and organ has a different work to do, there is perfect order and harmony. This is because they all receive orders from one common centre. The hand is joined to the arm, yet it acts in obedience to orders from the head. The last joint of the finger is connected with the one just above it, yet it is not directed by it, but by the head. Every part has direct communication with the head. So in the church, different members have different offices, each one having a work, yet while no one controls another, all agree. Indeed, it is only when some begin to exercise authority over others, that disagreement begins. The Spirit of Christ in every member makes all act in unison, just as do the nerves the organs in the body. Christ may use some members to convey His will to others, yet the message is to be received only as from Christ, and not as from a man.

Thus there is equality, while there is the greatest diversity. No one can despise another, or look with contempt upon his inferior gifts. "For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?" 1 Cor. iv. 7. Christ is the only Head of the Church, and all the life of the church must be that which is received from Him. The church is useful only as each member "holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God." Col. ii. 19. There is perfect independence, because the members of the church are built upon Christ, and not on one another; and there is also perfect unity, and subjection one to another, because all are filled by one Spirit and one mind,-the Spirit and mind of Christ.

Men will greatly admire the work of the mighty fly wheel in a great engine, and think nothing of the band; yet without the band the wheel would be useless, so that they are of equal importance; neither could do its work without the other. The smallest bolts in a well-constructed piece of machinery is as important as the largest beam, since without the bolt the larger part will be useless. So in the church of Christ no one member, no matter what his office, can despise the humblest member. "Much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary."

There was a time when seventy elders were chosen, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon them, so that they prophesied. But there were two young men in the camp, upon whom the Spirit of prophecy also rested; and Joshua said, "My lord, Moses, forbid them." But Moses replied, "Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!" Num. xi. 28, 29. That wish of Moses indicates something of what the true

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church of Christ will be when it really becomes "the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." It is what is set forth in Eph. iv. 7-16, and 1 Cor. xii. "Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ." "The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal." Christ has given "to every man his work." Mark xiii. 34. The work of many may be only that of helping in a very humble capacity, yet it is as necessary as any other.

That which Moses wished is, indeed, actually promised in the Scriptures: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; and on My servants and on My handmaidens I will pour out in those days of My Spirit; and they shall prophesy." Acts ii. 17, 18.

"Church Courts" The Present Truth 9, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

We have seen that everything that applies to the individual, applies to the Church of Christ as a whole. Those who are Christ's must have the Spirit of Christ; they must have the mind in them that was in Christ. So the church is to be "the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." It is to be simply the aggregate of representatives of Christ upon earth, therefore the perfect representative of Christ. But because the church is the representative of Christ on earth, that does not give it the right to assume a lordly position. Christ tells His followers to learn of Him, that He is meek and lowly in heart. His life was the manifestation of that love that "seeketh not her own." It was a life of humble service. He gave everything, and claimed nothing for Himself. He did not even plead His own cause when He was falsely accused, "but committed His cause to Him that judgeth righteously."

Neither does the church have the right of sitting in judgment upon any, much less the right of pronouncing sentence. The Father "hath committed all judgment unto the Son;" yet even Christ Himself does not judge now. God "hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given the assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead." Acts xvii. 31. It is impossible that He should be at the same time the Advocate and the Judge. It is impossible that He should condemn men whom He is labouring to save. "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.

There is a prevalent idea that religious condemnation and persecution in all its phases is wrong only when the wrong persecutes the right. Now it is a fact that none but those who are in the wrong do ever persecute, although those who are persecuted may also be in the wrong. But the fact that people are in error gives no others the right to persecute them in any way. The judging of a person, and the condemning of him, contains the germ of all persecution: for whenever that is done, the only reason why active persecution does not follow, is that the power is lacking. Listen to Christ: "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. This shows that saving and condemning are incompatible.

Jesus said to His disciples, "As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you." John xx. 21. Therefore as Christ was sent into the world to save the world, and not to condemn it, it follows that His disciples have nothing to do with pronouncing condemnation. No matter how much in error a man may be, the church has no right to sit in judgment upon him, and to pronounce any manner of sentence.

Read the words of Christ: "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." Matt. vii. 1, 2. To some this seems almost unjust, but there is a reason for it. Indeed, knowing that there is not unrighteousness with God, the reader might readily conclude the reason why men will be judged as they judge others; but the reason is thus plainly stated: "Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest; for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest dost the same things." Rom. ii. 1. Surely that is a good reason.

"But," we are apt to say, "I am certain that I do not do the things that I condemn in others." In that case it is our word against God's, for He says that we do. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" Jer. xvii. 8. The only way we can know what is in our own hearts is by listening to the words of the Lord, who knows what is in man. "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness." Mark vii. 21, 22. That is the nature of man. Wherever Christ is not, those evils exists, even though they be not apparent to the eye; and wherever there is a spirit of judging, there Christ is not, for He does not judge; therefore wherever there is a spirit of judging, there are all the evils which are common to man.

Read again: "Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law; but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy; who art thou that judgest another?" James iv. 11, 12. Yes, Who art thou? There is one lawgiver, even God, and He alone is judge. "For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; He will save us." Isa. xxxiii. 22. Therefore whoever presumes to judge another, puts himself in the place of God, and virtually claims to be God. How pertinent the question, "Who art thou that judgest another?" Who makest thou thyself?

Not only does the one who judges, or the professed church which judges, put itself in the place of God, but it exults itself above God, in that it anticipates His work. He has "appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained;" but man cannot wait His time, and so must pronounce judgment before the Lord does. Every human judgment will be set aside by the "judge of all the earth," "for the lLrd seeth not as man seeth."

There will come a time when judgment will be given to the saints of the Most High, but it will be when the time comes that the saints possess the kingdom. See Dan. vii. 22. Then the saints will be allowed to sit in judgment not only on the world, but on angels as well. See 1 Cor. vi. 2, 3. "Therefore judge nothing before the

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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. "Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up; for God is able to make him stand." "But 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." "Let us not therefore judge one another any more." Rom. xiv. 4, 10, 13.

A CASE IN POINT

Not long since the attention of the whole religious world was turned to the trial of Professor Briggs for heresy. A regular court was convened, and a "Prosecuting Committee" was appointed. In opening the trial, the Moderator said:-

"I, as Moderator, do solemnly announce that this Assembly is about to pass to the consideration of business assigned for trial, and I do enjoin upon members to regard their high character as judges of the Court of Jesus Christ, and the solemn duty in which they are about to engage. We are now sitting in our judicial capacity."

This was undoubtedly very solemn, but it was also very sad. It was said that Dr. Briggs had taught error, as he undoubtedly had, and it was no less sad that that great Assembly did not know that Jesus Christ is not yet sitting as judge, and that consequently He has no court. He says, "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." Jesus Christ gives every man the right to disbelieve if he wishes to, and no one may judge him till the last day, when the word that he has rejected will judge him. The court that presumes to sit in judgment upon him before that time, puts itself in the place of and above the Lord Jesus Christ.

What is the difference between a church court now and the Inquisition in the Middle Ages? None whatever, except in a lack of power to proceed to extreme measures. Church courts now cannot silence a man whom they have condemned for heresy, and consequently the whole thing is a farce. But when the church had the State to enforce its decrees, it could silence him by imprisonment or death. Now take the spirit of judging that is so rife in the churches to-day, and couple it with the very prevalent idea that the State has of right a voice in matters of religion, and it will be seen that the re-establishment of the Inquisition,-and that, too, by professed Protestants,-is not a remote possibility.

Wherever there is judging before the time appointed by the Lord, it is self that does the judging. Men think that it is zeal for God, but that is only because self is put in the place of God. It is mostly zeal for self. This is shown in the above instance by the fact that the main point of the prosecution was not that Dr. Briggs had taught contrary to the Bible, but that he had taught contrary to the Creed, and the "Confession of Faith," which was made by men. True zeal for God never leads to a desire to condemn somebody for disobeying Him. God is able to avenge His own cause, and has not asked puny men to punish His enemies.

But it not be forgotten that the true church is not a law-making body, but a law-abiding body. Jesus Christ is the head of the body, because He is the head of every individual man in the body. The church cannot issue commands, nor set up standards. We often read about the church having "of its own authority," ordained certain things, but that is usurped authority. So no one need ask, What does the church command? The church is composed of individual members of the body of Christ, and cannot command and condemn except as the individual members command and condemn, and that they are forbidden to do. Therefore what are known as "church courts" are indications that the church, being less longsuffering than God, is unable to wait His time, and is proceeding to take judgment into its own hands. In short, it is an indication that self rules instead of Christ.

"Binding and Loosing" The Present Truth 9, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

Christ says, "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Matt. xviii. 18. Does this mean that God has pledged Himself to be bound by the decisions of men? Does it mean that whenever any body of men calling themselves the church of Christ, shall decide that certain ones are worthy of heaven, and that certain others are not, God will accept their judgment as His own? Hardly; for that would be to step down from the throne, and to exalt man above Himself. "The servant is not greater than his Lord; neither he that is sent greater than He that sent him." Moreover one scripture cannot be used to offset another. Christ has expressly forbidden His followers to judge; and He has not contradicted Himself. Let us therefore study this question of binding and loosing.

When Christ declared that He had not come to judge the world, but to save the world, He also said, "He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My words, hath one that judgeth him; the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." John xii. 48. The Lord also said 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. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto My words which He shall speak in My name, I will require it of Him." Deut. xviii. 18, 19.

From this we see that the word of the Lord is of supreme authority. It is to be the judge in the last day. Therefore whatever is bound or loosed contrary to the word of the Lord, is not really bound or loosed, for it will be reversed in the judgment. Consequently we know that the binding and loosing that men do, that is to stand in heaven, is the binding or loosing that is done by the word of God through them. This is made more manifest by the words of the Lord to the young prophet Jeremiah.

Jeremiah said that he could not speak because he was only a child. "But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child; for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak." "Then the Lord put forth His hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build." Jer. i. 6-10.

How was it that Jeremiah was set to do all this? It was by having the words of God in his mouth. What then was the power that was to pull down and to build up? It was the word of the Lord. The words of the Lord are found in the Bible, for the Bible itself is the word of the Lord. Therefore only as men have it dwelling in them, so that they speak it, and have all their acts perfectly in harmony with it, can they bind or

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loose anything. Thus we see that what is bound or loosed on earth is bound or loosed in heaven, only by the word of the Lord which is settled for ever in heaven. Whatever is not in harmony with the word of God, is done against God, and therefore cannot stand.

But the word of the Lord is pure, and must not be adulterated with human opinions. Men must not put their interpretation upon the Scriptures, or draw inferences from it, and then say that they are following the word. The word must be taken just as it reads, without addition or alteration. God has said just what He means, and we are not warranted in acting "according to our best judgment," when we do not understand it in any given case. We must wait until we do understand it. Moreover we must remember that it is not permitted to the church to make precedent. It is the church's duty to obey, and not to command. Christ is "head over all things to the Church," "that in all things He might have the pre-eminence." Eph. i. 22; Col. i. 18.

The Holy Scriptures is sufficient to make a man "perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 2 Tim. iii. 17. Whatever the Lord wishes done He has placed in His word. Therefore if there ever should arise any case about which nothing can be found in the Bible, that would be sufficient evidence that nothing is to be done in that case.

"Keeping the Church Pure" The Present Truth 9, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

Ever since the days of the apostles, the great problem has been how to keep the church pure. The Inquisition was started for that purpose. True, the Inquisition itself was a grievous sin, yet there is no question but that the men who pushed it into operation were sincere in their zeal. Blind they were, because they took counsel of man instead of the word of God; but they were actuated by a sincere desire to rid the church of impurities. Although religious persecution always calls into action the lawless elements, and gives wicked men an opportunity to earn a reputation for great piety while giving loose rein to their depraved natures, it is a fact that since the days of Saul of Tarsus until now, the originators of such persecution have been men of outwardly blameless lives, who have been actuated by a most sincere, although mistaken, zeal for the welfare of the church.

The Bible does not leave us in darkness as to how the church is to be purified and kept pure. The following texts tell the whole story: "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently; being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." 1 Peter i. 22, 23.

"Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." John xv. 3. "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." Eph. v. 25-27.

The word of God, then, is to purify the church and to keep it pure. Nothing else can. When all the members of the church let the word of Christ dwell in them richly in all wisdom (Col. iii. 10), and do nothing without the clearest warrant from the word of God, there will be no trouble. And no one is absolved from strictly following the word, because some others, or even the majority, are indifferent to its instructions. On the contrary there is then the more necessity for being loyal.

Let us now read the specific instruction which Christ has given for keeping the church pure. "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of My Father which is in heaven. For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish." Matt. xviii. 10-14. This is a picture of Christ, whose whole life is devoted to the salvation of the erring, for He gave His life for them. He came not to condemn the world, but to save the world. And He says, "As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you." Therefore the whole duty of those who profess to be Christ's is to seek to save the lost, and especially those of the flock of God, who are wandering out of the way. See Gal. vi. 10. And we are to seek to save them in His way; not by force, but by loving self-sacrifice.

"Restoring the Erring" The Present Truth 9, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

"Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone, if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother." Matt. xviii. 15. Some ancient authorities omit "against thee," in this text. That this course is to be pursued in all cases, and not simply where a personal offence has been committed, is shown by Gal. vi. 1: "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."

Self is not to appear in the transaction. The man is not to go to his brother because he has been injured, but because his brother's course is injuring himself. He is to go to save his brother, and not to seek reparation for himself.

Let it be remembered that as Christ "emptied Himself," so His followers are to allow Him to take self away, so that He may appear. Whatever is different from Christ, is antichrist; Christ "pleased not Himself;" therefore to be jealous for one's own rights and feelings, is to manifest the spirit of antichrist.

Is it any worse for a man to lie about us than it is for him to lie about our neighbour? Is it any worse for him to steal from us than it is for him to steal from our neighbour? Is it any worse for him to use any kind of violence toward us than it would be to do the same to any other men? Evidently not, yet self prompts the reply, "No; but it seems worse, because it hurts us worse." Ah, but if self were gone, and Christ were in its place, it would not hurt us worse. "God commendeth His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Rom. v. 9. When Christ was reviled, and slandered, and rudely treated, His only thought was of the injury which His tormentors were doing themselves. So if a man does wrong, we are to be moved with compassion for his infirmity; and our feelings are not to be affected at all by the fact that his enmity is directed to us personally. Therefore when the brother is in a fault, we are to go to him with a one thought of restoring him.

A REAL REVIVAL

But who is to go? The answer is, "Ye which are spiritual." All men are alike by nature. The sins which are committed by any person, are the outgrowth of the sinful nature that is common to all. Therefore when any sin comes to our notice, instead of producing disgust or contempt for the sinner, it should cause us to think, "That is a specimen of what I am by nature." Therefore before we go to set that one right, we must be sure that we are spiritual, for if we are not we are partakers with him in his sin, and cannot do him any good.

Thus we see that the perception of a fault in another throws us right back on ourselves. If there is any feeling in us save such a burning love for the sinner as Christ Himself had, then we may know that we are not spiritual, and that our first duty is to seek the Lord for ourselves. Perhaps by the time we have become spiritual, the offending brother will also be spiritual; or we may find out that what we thought was sin in him was only the reflection of our own selves.

"But," it is asked, "if I do not think that I am spiritual, ought I not to tell somebody else who is spiritual, the elders or a committee, for instance, so that he may be helped at once?" The Lord says, "Go and tell him." Tell whom? Tell the one who is in error. You dare not tell anybody else, for you have no warrant in Scripture to do so.

"But perhaps he may go so far as to be irreclaimable before I get in a position to help him." That is nothing to you; the Lord can take care of him without any of your unsanctified help. Everything that you do while not spiritual will only make the matter worse. Besides, if you fully realise that you are not spiritual, it need not take you an hour to become so; the Lord is not hard to find, since He is "not far from every one of us," and He gives the Spirit freely to all who ask Him for it.

"But," and it is astonishing how many exceptions we may find to the word of God, "if I know that some other person knows of the fault, may I not talk it over with him? Suppose everybody knows it; is it not then common property?" What does the word say? "How readest thou?" "Go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone." That is definite, and should be sufficient. If all the members of the church were loyal to the word, and they would be if they were spiritual, and if one of the number committed a sin so that they all knew it, not one of them would speak to another about it, but each one would go to the offending one alone, and seek to reclaim him. And it would not be human effort, but it would be Christ Himself working and speaking through them for the salvation of a soul in danger.

See how wonderfully God has provided for the purification of His church. If one commits a sin, and all know it, then each one is driven at once to seek the Lord for himself, and no one may rest until he knows that Christ dwells in him. So that if men followed the word of God, a revival would be the first thing that would follow the commission of a grievous sin by any member. Is it not a simple yet most effective means? God forgive His people that it has been so little used.

THE LONGSUFFERING OF CHRIST

"And 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 a heathen man and a publican." Matt. xviii. 17. We may not talk with them about the matter, but take them along to assist in restoring the offender. And all must go "in the spirit of meekness." But if the word of God is followed it will not be often that matters will come to this step. The erring one will listen to the voice of Christ, if that is the only voice that he hears. Remember also, that once going to him, not to upbraid, but to pray with him and strengthen him, is not sufficient. The Lord says, "All day long I have stretched forth My hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people." Rom. x. 21. The longsuffering of God bore with men one hundred and twenty years in the days of Noah. 1 Peter iii. 20. Christ bears long with us, and does not upbraid us, and we ought to learn from Him how to be patient with the erring.

Suppose a case where all know of the sin, yet all are so loyal to the word that no one will speak of it to any but to the sinner. If there are forty who know of it, and, after they have sought the Lord, each one goes alone to labour for the one in fault, as Christ would, who can imagine the effect upon his heart? It would be melted unless it had become exceedingly hard.

Such cases there may be. "And 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 a heathen man and a publican." Matt. xviii. 17. One or several have been to him alone. Then three or four have gone together. And how have they gone? "In the spirit of meekness." Whom have they represented? None but Christ. Whose words have been spoken? Only the words of the Lord. What has been the sole object? To restore the offender to Christ. As God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, so Christ has been in His servants reconciling the sinner to Himself. "As though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." 2 Cor. v. 20.

Then how is it when it comes before the church? Just the same. One alone tried to reclaim the sinner. Then several together laboured for Him. And now the whole body is to seek to save him, only as Christ would. It is impossible that he should be brought before the church for trial, as before a court, because a trial always implies a judge and a possible condemnation. But the church is for the purpose of representing Christ to the world, and God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world. Christ refused to judge when He was on earth, and is not yet sitting in judgment; therefore the church cannot sit as a court without accusing the Lord of neglect of duty.

All the church, then,-the body of Christ, "the fulness of Him that filleth all in all,"-is aroused for the restoration of one diseased member. It is as though God Himself did beseech the erring one, for He does do it through His church. He who resists that appeal is not resisting men but God, because self has not appeared; only the word of God has spoken all the way through. What then? "But if he neglects to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican." All has been done that can be done, and now "let him be." The church has cleared itself from all complicity with the sin, and is pure, because their obstinate one in rejecting the word of the Lord, has rejected the Lord Himself, and consequently is no longer a member of His body. Yet he is not to be treated as an enemy, for the heathen and the publicans are to be loved and laboured for.

Now we can see how it is that whatever shall be bound or loosed on earth shall likewise be bound or loosed in heaven. It is not because heaven has pledged itself to abide by every decision of man, but because the word that is

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settled in heaven, and which alone binds and loses, has been allowed free course on earth. Other points in this same line will be noticed in other articles. But studying the Divine model, we know how to detect and avoid error. If we know what constitutes the true church of Christ, and how it acts, we shall know the characteristics of apostasy.

"God Is a Shield" The Present Truth 9, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

In the story of John G. Paton's "Thirty Years Among the South Sea Cannibals," are numerous instances of the power of the gospel to "calm the savage breast to peace," and of the zeal which leads the converted heathen to tell the story of Christ and His salvation to others who had not heard the gracious news. Mr. Paton gives the following account of one such instance"-

"In heathendom every true convert becomes at once a missionary. The changed life, shining out amid the surrounding darkness, is a gospel in largest capitals which all can read. Our Islanders, especially, having little to engage or otherwise distract attention, become intense and devoted workers for the Lord Jesus, if once the Divine passion for souls stirs within them.

"A heathen has been all his days groping after peace of soul in dark superstition and degrading rites. You pour into his soul the light of revelation. He learns that God is love, that God sent His Son to die for him, and that he is the heir of life eternal in and through Jesus Christ. By the blessed enlightenment of the Spirit of the Lord he believes all this. He passes into a third heaven of joy, and he burns to tell every one of this glad tidings. Others see the change in his disposition, in his character, in his whole life and actions; and amid such surroundings, every convert is a burning and a shining light. Even whole populations are thus brought into the outer court of the temple; and islands, still heathen and cannibal, are positively eager for the missionary to live amongst them, and would guard his life and property now in complete security, where a very few years ago everything would have been instantly sacrificed on touching their shores? They are not Christianised, neither are they civilised, and the light has been kindled all around them, and though still only shining afar, they cannot but rejoice in its beams.

"But even where the path is not so smooth, nor any welcome awaiting them, native converts show amazing zeal. For instance, one of our chiefs, full of the Christ-kindled desire to seek and to save, sent a message to an island chief, that he and four attendants would come on Sabbath and tell them the gospel of Jehovah God. The reply came back sternly forbidding their visit, and threatening with death any Christian that approached their village. Our chief sent in response a loving message, telling them that Jehovah had taught the Christians to return good for evil, and that they would come unarmed to tell the story of how the Son of God came into the world and died in order to bless and save His enemies. The heathen chief sent back a stern and prompt reply once more, 'If you come, you will be killed.'

"On Sabbath morning, the Christian chief and his four companions were met outside the village by the heathen chief, who implored and threatened them once more. But the former said, 'We come to you without weapons of war! We come only to tell you about Jesus. We believe that He will protect us to-day.'

"As they steadily pressed forward towards the village, spears began to be thrown at them. Some they evaded, being all except one most dextrous warriors; and others they literally received with their bare hands, striking them and turning them aside in an incredible manner. The heathen, apparently thunderstruck at these men thus approaching them without weapons of war, and not even flinging back their own spears which they had turned aside, desisted from mere surprise, after having thrown what the old chief called 'a shower of spears.' Our Christian chief called out, as he and his companions drew up in the midst of them on the village public ground:

"'Jehovah thus protects us. He has given us all your spears! Once we would have thrown them back at you and killed you. But now we come not to fight, but to tell you about Jesus. He has changed our dark hearts. He asks you now to lay down all these your other weapons of war, and to hear what we can tell you about the love of God, our great Father, the only living God.'

"The heathen were perfectly over-awed. They manifestly looked upon these Christians as protected by some Invisible One! They listened for the first time to the story of the Gospel and of the cross. We lived to see that chief and all his tribe sitting; in the school of Christ. And there is perhaps not an island in these Southern Seas, amongst all those won for Christ, where similar acts of heroism on the part of converts cannot be recited by every missionary to the honour of our poor natives and to the glory of their Saviour."

"Following Copy" The Present Truth 9, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

When you first started to school, and before you had learned to write a word, suppose the master had come to you with paper and pencil and had said, "Take this paper and pencil and write just as I do," and then had left you to do it alone, do you think you could have done it?

"Oh course not," you say, "how could I write when I could not even hold the pencil right? and how could I write as he did when I had never so much as seen his writing?"

But when he kindly set you a copy, and thus showed you some of his writing, and when he perhaps placed the pencil in your fingers and took your little hand in his and moved it back and forth just where it should go, were you not delighted to see how nearly you could write like the master? And yet really you were not writing at all, but the master was writing with your hand.

Now no matter how old you are, you cannot by yourself act right or talk right or think right, any more than you could write correctly when you were a little child. You cannot guide your hands and feet and tongue and mind right any more than you could then guide your pencil right. And yet is not knowing how to do right of far more importance than knowing how to write?

The heavenly Master alone knows how to do good. And yet, like the schoolmaster, He says to you, "Do as I do." I do not mean that He asks you to write as He does, but He asks you to act as He does and think as He does and speak as He does, for He says, "Be ye holy; for I am holy," that is, "Be ye pure and good, and do right in everything; for I am pure and good and do right in everything."

"But," you say, "I have tried to be good and I cannot."

Of course not, for you have doubtless tried to do it by yourself and without any copy.

Your heavenly Master does not expect you to work all alone or without a copy any more than your earthly master does. Indeed, He says, "Without Me ye can do nothing." You must be as willing to allow Him to use your hands and feet and tongue and eyes and mind, as you were to allow your schoolmaster to use your hand in following his copy. This you will need to do as long as you live, for you can never grow old enough or wise enough to do right alone.

The heavenly Master knows all things. He therefore knows that you must have a copy of His work so that you can see just how He does. If you should spend your life in copying someone else, He knows that your labour would all be in vain, for there is no one else just right,-no, not one.

The Master therefore in His great love has at infinite cost and suffering provided for you a heavenly and perfect copy of His perfect life. It is the most marvellous copy that this earth has ever seen. It lives, and loves, and feels, and has power to come into your heart and use your hands and feet and eyes and mind, in tracing "each line and turn and curve of the Master's life." But it will not do this unless you are willing to give up your way and let it use you.

This heavenly Copy is one that you can never outgrow. It is just right for you when you are a little child, when you are a youth, and when you are grown up. It is just as good for you to follow the last part of your life as it is for you to follow the first part of your life. It is just as good for the poor man as it is for the rich man, just as good for the servant as for the king. Purity, meekness, obedience, perfect sinlessness is found in every part of it, for this wonderful, marvellous, glorious copy is the life of Jesus Christ,-the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the Majesty of heaven, the babe in Bethlehem's manger, the obedient child of Nazareth, the Son on the banks of Jordan in whom the Father was well pleased, the tempted but victorious One in the wilderness, the man of poverty and acquainted with grief, the Friend of publicans and sinners and little children, the Comforter, Healer, Lifegiver, and Deliverer; the One who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we might be dead to sins and live unto righteousness, He who suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow in His steps, Jesus Christ, through whom God can "make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight."

Dear child, is this the copy you are following? If not, you will certainly come short of heaven's prize at last. You can find the whole picture of His life in your Bible, how He talked and how He acted when at home, in company, and on the streets; how He treated His friends and His enemies, and everything else that you need to know about Him. And the wonder of it all is that He will so cause you to follow Copy, if you will allow Him to use you, that you may become perfect even as the Father in heaven is perfect. Are you willing to unselfishly step where He stepped, and love as He loved, and suffer with Him? If so, the promise is that ye shall also reign with Him.

Oh, do not grieve and dishonour the Master by choosing some imperfect copy when he has at such cost provided His only Son.

"Light and Darkness" The Present Truth 9, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

"The path of the just is as the shining light, . . . The way of the wicked is as darkness." Prov. iv. 18, 19.

One of the most pleasant things in the world is light. Do you remember who made it, and how it was made? What a cold, lifeless, gloomy place this earth would be without the beautiful light. 'Tis true we need the cool, quiet night in which to rest, but how gladly everything welcomes the morning light! At the first peep of day, the little birds pour out their songs of praise. And as the trees and grass and flowers are touched by the warm rays, they shake out there dewy leaves and seem to say, "Good morning, merry sunshine! We are so glad that you have come again." Men go forth to their work with gladness, and baby hands reaching out with joy to catch and kiss the pretty sunbeam that rests a moment on the floor. Ah, yes, 'tis true, we love the light better than the darkness. And sometimes we almost wish that it would never go away.

Although day and night will continue to come and go as long as this earth remains, yet our whole life will be as pleasant as the shining light if we have Jesus with us. He says, "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. We need the sunlight, but we need Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness, more.

But how can we have Him with us? Jesus by His Holy Spirit dwells in His word, therefore by loving His holy letter and letting its words enter into our hearts we let Jesus into our hearts, and He will then abide with us, and His life will be our light. Then no matter if we are all alone in the dark, away from every earthly light, we are safe, and may be happy.

When we disobey God or our parents, and are cross and angry with our brothers, sisters, or friends, and say naughty words, and lie, or steal, Jesus looks grieved and sad, for that shows that we do not love Him. He cannot stay with us, and we feel unhappy and everything seems dark and unpleasant, no matter how bright the sun may be shining. Wickedness always brings a feeling of darkness and unhappiness, because Jesus leaves us. Without Him we make mistakes and go into wrong ways as surely as without light we stumble and go into broad paths. So the Bible says that "the way of the wicked is as darkness."

Dear child, in which road are you walking? Are you cross, and selfish, and disobedient? If so, you are walking in the way of darkness. Jesus loves you and wants you to be saved, but He knows that if you keep on in this way you will finally be lost. He therefore calls you to come out of the way of the wicked into the path of the just (righteous), to come out of the darkness of sin into the light of Jesus' own righteousness. That you may not make mistakes and go wrong, He places in your hand the Bible lamp. "Take it," He says, "Let its words enter into your hearts, and do as it says, and you will find the right way. It will lead you to Me, and I am the light of the world." Then your path will be as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. At that time Jesus will come and take you to live with Him in His beautiful home, where it is always light.

Here are some little verses for you to learn:-

"God is always near me

Hearing what I say;

Knowing all my tho'ts and deeds,

All my work and play.

"God is always near me,

In the darkest night

He can see me just the same

As by midday light.

"God is always near me,

Though so young and small;

Not a look or word or thought

But God knows it all."

1. Of what use are your eyes?

2. Suppose that this earth to-day were just as it was at first, what good would your eyes do you?

3. Who made the light?

4. When?

5. How?

6. "And the evening and the morning were-?

7. When does every day begin?

8. For what is the light good?-It shows us the beautiful things that God has made; we can seek to work and play; it makes us warm and healthy; it gives colour to the grass and flowers and fruits; it makes things grow and ripen. Everybody and everything would become ill and die if there were no light.

9. Did you ever see any grass or plants or people who lived in the dark?

10. How did they look?

11. Then do you think that we ought to keep our blinds shut and our shades down so that the light can't get through our windows? Why not?

12. Of what use is the night?

13. Can you see the night when it is very dark?

14. Who can see just as well in the night as in the day? Ps. cxxxix. 11, 12.

15. Can He not watch over us, then, and take care of us in the dark just as well as in the light?

16. To whom do both the day and night belong?-God. Ps. lxxi. v 16.

17. Then have we any right to use them in a way that will not please Him?

18. Which do you like better, light or darkness?

19. How may your path all the time be like the shining light?

20. If you continue to live without Jesus, how will it be?

21. How much do you need Jesus?-More than you need sunshine.

22. How can you find Him?-By following the wonderful Bible lamp.

"The heart that will open

To Jesus the Sun

May dwell in the sunlight

Till life's day is done."

"Walk in the Light" The Present Truth 9, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

There are only two ways through this world, and you, my child, are in one of them.

Satan's way leads to unhappiness and eternal death, but the way of Jesus leads to happiness and eternal life.

Satan's way is like darkness because it is so full of wickedness and sin that those who walk therein cannot see where they are going.

The Lord's way is like the shining light because there is no sin to blind, and it is so full of the perfect life of Jesus that all who walk therein can see just where they should go and what they should do. They have Jesus the perfect copy to follow, and although they cannot imitate this copy themselves, they can easily do it when they allow the Master to use their hands and feet and eyes and tongues and minds. But there are but few who are willing to give up their own way and allow Him to do this, so there are but few who are walking in the straight and narrow way of Jesus.

Satan's way is broad and those who walk in that way are allowed to do all the wickedness that they please; therefore many walk therein. They have no perfect copy to follow, but just copy Satan or one another, so you can imagine how they get farther and farther from the right way and the perfect copy.

There are Bibles in both ways, but no light comes out of most of those in Satan's way because sometimes they are not even opened, and are allowed to lie on the shelf covered with dust and spiderwebs, and even many of those that are opened are not loved and received as God's word, but are read as any common book. 'Tis true that now and then a darkened soul takes up the Bible and opens it and receives it as God's words to him, and believes it with his whole heart. When this occurs, of course a flood of light falls upon his way, and lo, he is no longer in the dark way, but is led out of darkness into the marvellous light of Jesus.

Those who are walking in the light every day are every day studying their Bibles, like the boy in our picture, and are daily receiving it into their hearts and loving and obeying it. They thus have Jesus with them every day and do not walk in the darkness of sin.

But sad to say, some of those who are in the way of light get tired of receiving God's word every day, and neglect to study and take it into their hearts, and thus neglect to receive Jesus the Light. A change takes place immediately. The light begins to grow dim, Satan's throws some of the clouds of sin before their eyes, and ere long their feet turn out of the right way and go stumbling along in the sin-darkened road of Satan.

It is God's word received that brings the light, it is God's word received daily that keeps the light. God's word is therefore called a lamp to our feet and a light unto our path. If you receive it daily and obey it, you will be walking in the light. Oh, will you do it?

There are two ways and two leaders. You may take your choice, but you must walk in one of the two ways. Jesus died that you might have a path of light to walk in. Which leader do you choose? the prince of darkness or the Prince of Light?

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 9, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

-Yellow fever is reported at Tampa, Florida, U.S.A.

-Incendiarism prevails to an alarming extent in Spain.

-Fresh raids by the Matabele are reported from Mashonaland.

-The Servian Government is reported to be in danger of bankruptcy.

-The village of Costacomelioo, in Italy, has been destroyed by fire.

-A repetition of last year's flood is feared at the village of St. Gorvais, France.

-The elections in France, have resulted in a decisive victory for the Republicans.

-The socialists have occasioned several riots at Prague, and order is preserved by the police.

-Government statistics show that deaths from over-indulgence in alcohol are on the increase in Italy.

--Serious labour riots have occurred near Vienna, between the police and unemployed workmen.

-Disastrous floods prevail at Tipperiah, India, and it is feared that an epidemic will follow their subsidence.

-Accidents among Alpine tourists have been very frequent of late, and several persons have lost their lives.

-Twenty-five lives are reported to have been lost by an overflow of the Vistula at the town of Kasmierz, Poland.

-Corporal punishment has been introduced into the Egyptian prisons. The maximum number of lashes to be given is thirty-six.

-A boating accident, by which it is said ten lives were lost, occurred near Sutton Bridge, Lincolnshire. One woman was saved.

-It is computed that 300,000 persons, or nearly one-fifth of the entire population, have emigrated from Alsace-Lorraine within 20 years.

-A cyclone in New Jersey, U.S.A., has laid waste the finest peach orchards in the Slate, besides causing much other damage to property.

-Much anxiety is felt at Montreal over the non-appearance of the steamship Sarnia, of the Dominion Line, which is now nearly a month overdue.

-Large numbers of Icelanders are emigrating to Manitoba, and the Danish government is making strenuous but unsuccessful efforts to stop the exodus.

-Roman Catholics at Moyrus, Connemara, Ireland, have been recently stirred up against the Protestants, and acts of religious persecution are now frequent.

-The police of Rome are exercising great vigilance to guard against anarchists, several of whom have been arrested with manifestoes in their possession.

-Letters received in Vienna from Constantinople state that the condition of the Armenians in Turkey is growing worse, both in the Ottoman capital and in the provinces.

-Three persons have died in London recently under circumstances which gave rise to a suspicion of Asiatic cholera. Hull also reports two deaths from the Asiatic plague.

-Bombay opium merchants have addressed a notice to the Viceroy of India complaining that on account of the recent action of the Indian Government on the silver question, the opium trade of the country is threatened with utter ruin. We trust their fears are not groundless.

-Dispatch from the scene of the flood in Upper Hungary report a most distressing condition of affairs. Whole villages are under water, and many persons have been drowned.

-Attempts have been trade to set fire to five churches at Belknap, N.H. Placards have been pasted up on dead walls and fences, threatening the destruction of every church in the town.

-A military journal published at Vienna states that Austria and Italy will be called upon to increase their military forces, in consequence of an increase in the armies of Russia and France.

-It is reported at Victoria, B.C., that Yokohama will be made the centre of the seal fishing industry in the future, although the vessels engaged in it will continue to fly the British flag.

-The great coal strike still continues, but there are signs of a break among the miners, many of whom are in great distress, and the prospect is that a large number will return to work at an early date.

-The largest family in the world is said to be that of the King of Siam. He has two official wives, eighty-eight wives of minor order, and seventy-two children. The King has fifty brother-and sisters.

-The new Cunard steamer Lucania, on her voyage to the Mersey round the West Coast of Ireland, attained a speed of 2.51/2 statute miles an hour without being pressed at all. She will be ready for her first voyage early in September.

-Nova Scotia has been visited by a most destructive hurricane, the severest effects of which were felt at Halifax. A steamer and a barge foundered in the storm, causing twenty-four deaths, and the damage to shipping was very great.

-The Governor of Corrientes, in Argentina, has fled to Paraguay with 1,000 followers. The insurgents have appointed a Provincial Government to conduct affairs until the arrival of the Federal arbitrator, whom the National Government has decided to dispatch.

-As a consequence of the killing of Italians by the French in the Aigues-Mortes riot, an anti-French demonstration occurred in Rome, Aug. 20, where the French embassy was attacked, and similar demonstrations took place at Naples and other principal Italian cities.

-The annual Roman Catholic pilgrimages to Lourdes have begun, and crowds of deluded unfortunates have for several days thronged the Orleans Railway Station, waiting for the departure of special trains to convey them to the place where they hope to become cured of their misfortunes.

-The cholera continues to spread rapidly in Galicia, and is steadily increasing in Russia. Arrangements have been made at St. Petersburg to supply travellers with boiled water. Two cases of the disease are under treatment at Rotterdam. Berlin doctors state that there will be no epidemic in that city.

-Severe fighting, with the loss of several lives, is reported from the town of Gilberton, Penn. U.S.A., between the citizens and militia who were guarding the property of the Schuylkill Traction Company, which the citizens were destroying on account of the failure of the Company to comply with a town ordinance.

-Stagnation in trade is becoming very serious in America. Thirty-three per cent. of the cotton mills in the country are idle, while the percentage of the machinery stopped is 24. Of the knitting mills from which news has been received, 53 per cent. are stopped either completely or in part while 47 per cent. of the machinery is idle.

-News comes from Moosh, in Armenia, that the whole population of the village of Hamzasheikh-about thirty families-have embraced Islamism in the hope of escaping Turkish cruelty and oppression. The Turkish Government, it is also, stated, has "encouraged them with many gifts." Seventy families in the village of Yonjaloo, near Alashgerd, have followed their example.

-Long Island City, New York, contains a Baptist church in which mass is performed ever Sunday. Recently St. Mary's Roman Catholic church was burned down, whereupon the Baptists tendered to the Roman Catholics the free use of their handsome church till the latter could rebuild. So Father McGuire, the Catholic priest celebrates mass on Sunday morning to his congregation, and when he has finished, the Baptists commence their service.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

The Catholic Times cites as an evidence of "the prodigious influence which the Church exercises upon humanity," the fact that 7,000 telegrams, from all parts of the world, were sent to the Pope, congratulating him upon the attainment of his episcopal jubilee.

The following very humble letter from the president of United States to Cardinal Gibbons, is an indication of the influence which the Pope has among nations. It was dated June 9:-

"Pray be pleased to permit me to send, through the medium of your Eminence, to his Holiness Leo XIII. my sincere congratulations on the occasion of his Episcopal Golden Jubilee. The pleasure which accompanies this expression of my congratulations, is much enhanced by the recollection I have of the lively interest which his Holiness has always exhibited in the prosperity of the United States, as well as his great admiration for our political institutions. I rejoice to think that these sentiments are the natural outcome of the solicitude which the Holy Father cherishes for the well-being and happiness of the masses of mankind, and the special sympathy with which he regards every attempt made to make the human individuality respected and favour the moral and social betterment of the toilers. The kindness with which his Holiness has lately accepted a copy of the Constitution of the United States, induces me to make known to you that, if it would not be presuming too much, it would be extremely agreeable to me to place in his hands a book containing the official papers and documents which I have written during my previous administration.-Very sincerely yours,

GROVER CLEVELAND

The letter is stamped with the obsequiousness of a servant to his master. No wonder that the Pope regards himself as superior to all kings and potentates, when they themselves act as though he were.

"Great Fire in Chicago"; "The Cyclone in America'; "The Industrial Crisis and England"; "The Cholera in Europe"; "Great Flood and Poland"; "The Floods and India"; "The Socialist Riots"; "The Uprising in Argentine"; etc., etc.,-such are the heading's which meet the eye as one glances over the pages of the daily newspaper of to-day. And all this after civilisation has advanced to the zenith of its splendour, and done its utmost to bring in that ideal state where peace and prosperity, with "Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality," shall be the heritage of all mankind. Is it not time for every Christian to pray earnestly, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven"? and not only to pray, but to labour earnestly to hasten on the glorious day of the appearing of earth's Redeemer?

The following from the Alliance News will be found quite as applicable to those who remain at home, or who travel in other places, as to those who visit Paris. It will be a good thing to remember, also, when rumours of cholera are driving timid people to alcoholic drinks, which only increase the liability to the disease.

"Throughgoing," in a letter to the Editor, says, "Week-kneed teetotallers who when visiting Paris are frightened by Seine water into drinking wine will now have no justification for their feeble faith." The recent investigations of M. Girard, chief of the Paris Municipal Laboratory, undertaken with the object of making it safe to drink water of questionable quantity, here again shown that acids give the coup de grace to microbes. "Citric acid," he finds, "is the most powerful of all; one gramme added to a quart of water will destroy all the microbes that are in it." Now, as the juice of half an average-sized lemon contains a gramme of citric acid, and as few people dilute that quantity with so much as a quart of water, it follows that natural lemonade prepared in the normal way by thoroughly mixing lemon juice with water must be fatal to the organisms which the water contains.

"If I regard iniquity in my heart; the Lord will not hear me." Ps. lxvi. 18. Does that mean that God will not hear the prayer of a sinner? Must a man be a doer of the law of God before God will listen to him? Certainly not. He justifies-makes righteous-the ungodly. The publican who prayed, "God be merciful to me, a sinner," was justified. But if a man regards iniquity in his heart, while praying with his lips,-if while seemingly praying to God for righteousness, he in his heart clings to sin,-of course God will not hear him, because he does not really ask for anything. He seems to ask for the will of God to be done, because he says, "in the name of Jesus;" but the will of God is to free man from sin, and that the man does not wish done in his case. But "this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (1 Tim. i. 15); and He says, "Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out" (John vi. 37), and, "If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it." John xiv. 14.

"Be ye angry, and sin not." Eph. iv. 26. This gives us permission to be angry, provided we do not sin. Anger that is not sin must be allowable, for nothing is forbidden except sin. "But how can we be angry without sinning?" is the question. The writer must confess that he does not know. It is doubtful if anybody knows. What then shall we do? It is evident that we must not run any risks, for sin is terrible thing. The only course for us to pursue, therefore, is to refrain from getting angry, until we are sure that we know how to be angry without sin. He who does this, will learn the meaning of the text as soon as it is necessary.

"Notions About God" The Present Truth 9, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

The editor of a religious magazine announces that he has in mind several series of articles, one of which will be an "attempt to recast our notions of the Deity in the light of modern research." That was what the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Greeks, and the Romans did. Not satisfied with God's own revelation of Himself, they recast their notions of Him in the "light" of what was then "modern research." The result was heathenism. "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things." Rom. i. 22, 23.

"The world by wisdom knew not God." 1 Cor. i. 21. This has always been the case, and always will be; for "no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and He to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." Matt. xi. 27. God is as great as His thoughts; and He says to us: "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." Isa. lv. 9. Therefore it must always be the case that the highest conceptions that man forms of God, are infinitely below the reality.

So we must conclude that man has no business whatever to have any "notions" about God, since that is but to make a God of his own. He who would worship God "in spirit and in truth," which is the only way that God can be worshipped, must avoid making limits for Him. He must simply take God's own statements of Himself, and, realising that all God's words are infinite in depth, must allow them eternally to expand before his mind, not in "the light of modern research," but in the light of the Holy Spirit.

September 7, 1893

"Front Page" The Present Truth 9, 23.

E. J. Waggoner

"For 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.

This does not mean to imply that Christ was arbitrarily sent by the Father. The Father and the Son are one, and therefore the love of God and the love of Christ are the same. The Apostle Paul wrote: "The life which 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.

The Father did not send the Son as one would send another on and unpleasant errand; neither did the Son go of Himself, in order to appease the wrath of God, as if His wounded feelings demanded a sacrifice. The Son is in the Father, and the Father is in the Son (John xiv. 10), and therefore the sacrifice of one is the sacrifice of the other. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself." 2 Cor. v. 19.

Nay, more, it is even plainly stated that God gave Himself for man. To the elders of the church at Ephesus, the Apostle Paul said: "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood." Acts xx. 28. How could He shed His blood for man? we ask. Only God knows, and He cannot explain it to men, for no human mind could understand it. Only Divinity can comprehend Divinity. The death of Divinity for the life of humanity, is "the mystery of God."

The Lord says to man, "I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." Isa. xliii. 25. There was nothing about man that was of any value, nevertheless God loved him, and love always clothes the object of affection with the qualities that it delights in. Moreover love can never be satisfied except with the possession of its object. We often hear about one who loves another so much that it seems as though he could not live without the loved one; but God actually had such love. He could not live without man, so great was His love, and so He died for him. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us!"

"The Lord hath appeared of old unto Me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee." Jer. xxxi. 3. That is love that will not easily be repulsed. "I have spread out My hands all the day unto a rebellious people." Isa. lxv. 2. Though often rejected, He still woos sinful men, seeking to draw them to Himself. There is a void in the heart of God that can be filled only with the love of man. The lover in fancy clothes the object of his affection with all charms and graces, but the Lord does so really to His people, for whom He gave Himself. His love will transform them, and clothe them with the beauty of His own righteousness. "So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty." Ps. xlv. 11. "He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing." Zeph. iii. 17.

"Self-satisfied" The Present Truth 9, 23.

E. J. Waggoner

The world is full of people who are self-satisfied; people who, like the self-righteous Pharisee, thank God-or themselves-that they are not as other men are-the sinful publicans around them-who steal, and lie, and cheat, and do things that are vain and wicked. They are a respectable class of people-very much so. No one ever finds occasion to charge them with any breach of propriety. They are just "about right"; not quite so, for they are aware of some little failings-not very noticeable-that still cling to them from past weaknesses; but that is nothing, for they are going to do better directly, and then everything will be all right. There are some things about them that they wish were a little different, but on the whole they are fairly well satisfied.

But what does God say of this class? How much satisfaction does he feel over their lives? We learn from the words of Christ, spoken to the chief priests and elders-those who thought themselves to be righteous: "Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of heaven before you." Matt. xxi. 31. Instead of being nearest, as they thought, to the kingdom, they were the farthest from it; and so it is with every soul that feels no need of Christ. Jesus said, "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." They who consider themselves to be whole do not feel the need of a physician. And until they feel their need, they cannot be reached by the great Physician, who alone is able to restore the soul.

The apostle Paul, in his letter to Timothy, has left us a testimony on this point. He says, "This is a faithful

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saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." 1 Tim. i. 15. Did not Paul make some mistakes here? Did he not mean to say, "of whom I was chief"? having in mind the time when he was Saul of Tarsus, the persecutor of the church? No; he meant just what he said: "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief"; and this was written by him thirty years after he had become the faithful apostle of Christ, and had laboured for his Master with a zeal and devotedness that could hardly be surpassed. He spoke from no motive of false modesty; he felt that he was, then, the chief of sinners. That was the amount of self-satisfaction which he possessed. Where, then, has any man a warrant for possessing more?

Reader, has the above text always brought to your mind simply the Apostle Paul? If so, you have been giving to him what belongs to yourself. The pronoun "I" does not mean the Apostle Paul when you read it; but it means you. It is still "a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation." Therefore accept it, confess its truth, and let all your self-satisfaction go. Then God will look upon you with satisfaction, and count you righteous through Him who knew no sin, and by whose blood the chief of sinners may obtain an abundant pardon.

"Successful Seeking" The Present Truth 9, 23.

E. J. Waggoner

The life of man is a continual seeking. There is implanted in his very nature a longing for something better, a reaching out for something more than He has yet attained. But the result is always more or less disappointing; he is never satisfied. If he gains that which he sought,-wealth, fame, position,-it is only to discover that he wanted twice as much of it as he got. One drink from the intoxicating cup of worldly success only increases the thirst for more. And as a conviction of this fact forces itself upon the minds of men, they settle down to the belief that life is only a continual striving after the unattainable, and that lasting peace and satisfaction are things to be contemplated and longed for, but never realised.

All this is the result of sin. With Adam, in his innocence, it was not so. He had the same longing and reaching out for higher things that his descendants have always had, but it was not a longing that brought restlessness and discontent. It was one that could find satisfaction. In the garden of Eden Adam walked and talked with God, and the desires of his heart were only the means by which he was led constantly upward to the attainment of clearer and broader views of infinite majesty, goodness, and truth, which filled his soul with the peace a perfect satisfaction.

But with man's fall, there came a change. The longing for something beyond him still remained, but, separated from God, and with a mind darkened by sin, he no longer understood how to satisfy it. He began to devise ways of his own, and to reach out after the illusions of a perverted imagination. "Lo, this have I found," says the wise men, "that God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions." Eccl. vii. 29. Their inventions have not added to their peace and happiness, but only plunged them deeper into the mire of restlessness and want. They have brought man down from his uprightness, without which happiness and peace cannot be felt. And so we see men to-day seeking, in a hundred selfish and sinful ways, to the wicked inventions that have been sought out to gratify carnal desires, for that which will satisfy their longings; and we see them becoming tired of the search, and seriously questioning whether life be worth living, and in many sad cases are arriving at a negative conclusion. They do not know what they want. True wisdom is hid from their eyes, and their minds are bent on realising the foolish ambitions of a perverted heart. It is a vain task, and brings only sorrow and vexation of spirit.

True wisdom is the fear of the Lord. It is to turn from the ways and devices of men, and seek the ways of God. It is to pray with the psalmist, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." The desires of a perverted heart can never be satisfied, any more than can the appetite of the drunkard; but the clean heart can even now find that which it seeks, as it did when man was perfect. The renewed heart can commune with God, as did Adam in the garden of Eden. The longing which it feels is for the courts and the presence of God. "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?" "My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God." Ps. xlii. 2; lxxxiv. 2. Nor does it thirst and cry out in vain; for "the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from them that walked uprightly." Ps. lxxxiv. 11. And the Saviour said, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled." Matt. v. 6.

Communion with God brings rest and peace. Yes, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee." The psalmist understood well the requisites of a peaceful and satisfied existence here below, and His words are full of this knowledge. "O satisfy us early with Thy mercy, that we may be glad and rejoice all our days." "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." "O taste, and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the name that trusteth in Him." Ps. xc. 14; xxxvii. 3, 4; xxxiv. 8.

"The Day of Rest" The Present Truth 9, 23.

E. J. Waggoner

The editor of the Shorthand Temperance News (Belfast) has sent us a kindly letter, of which the following is a copy, with the exception of the omission of a personal explanation at the close:-

Allow me to offer a humble suggestion to obviate the difficulty experienced on such a momentous, vital, and burning question as the observance of the Lord's Day. It might facilitate the clearer exposition of God's written word on the subject, if I were to quote some passages: "and rested the seventh day." Ex. xx. 11. Lev. xix. 30; xxvi. 2 show that it was more than a rest the Sabbath was made for; to reverence God's sanctuary; to show in deed and truth that God was the Lord, the ruler and maker of the universe. We ought therefore to know that "some" regular rest was observed heretofore. Under the new dispensation manners and customs have completely changed. The Jews kept, we know, the "seventh" day, and yet after all, were they found on the right side-honouring their Lord and Master, who redeemed them from sin and wickedness, and the power and snare of the Evil One? Facing that indisputable fact in this nineteenth century, can we not lay higher claim on the first day of the week as being the Christian Sabbath, free from the contaminating influences of such displeasing recollections in the history of the world, and raise our ebenezer to Him who washed us in His own blood, and made us whiter than snow, on this very day of the week which Christians have since observed as the day appointed wherein to worship, praise, and magnify God, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords? Is there one single argument to the contrary whereby we can change a custom which has stood the test for centuries?

Until I find a church or sect, established on more high and deep-rooted principles of practical religion, I shall continue in my assertion (although

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I do not say that anybody is wrong) that we are keeping the day appointed, according to the teachings of the Scriptures, as one whole day out of the seven, and it is only right we should give the first fruits of our labours unto the Lord, when we give the first day of the week upon which we enter in labouring for the bread that perisheth.

Yours sincerely,

ROBERT M'MASTER,

Editor "The Shorthand Temperance News."

Belfast, August 18, 1893.

We are always glad to receive communications upon any subject treated of in PRESENT TRUTH. Our only desire is for the truth, and so we welcome anything that has truth for its object, and pray for grace rightly to receive all criticism; and believing that others are as desirous for truth as we are, we take it that they will be pleased if we reason with them out of the Scriptures. Let it be understood always that man is to live "by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God"; and that as His word contains everything necessary to make a man "wise unto salvation," and to make him "perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Tim. iii. 15-17) everything that has not express warrant of His word, is sin. To do that which God has not commanded is sin, the same as not to do that which He has commanded.

Our friend well says that the matter of the day of rest is a "momentous, vital, and burning question;" but, fortunately, there is no difficulty connected with it, provided one is determined to abide by the word of God. It is so very clear that a child can understand it as well as a philosopher. Let us read some of the things that it says.

"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.

Following the record of the six days of creation, come these words: "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.

There we have the whole story. "The seventh day is the Sabbath." It is made the Sabbath by the Lord's resting on it. After He had rested on it, He blessed it; that provided the blessing which the Sabbath brings to man. And He sanctified the seventh day. In Ex. xix. 23 we read: "And Moses said unto the Lord, The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai; for thou chargedst us, saying, Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it." Also we read in Joshua xx. 7 that "they appointed Kedesh in Galilee," and certain other cities to be the cities of refuge. The Revised Version has "set apart" in the place of "appointed," and the margin of both versions gives "sanctified" as an equivalent. If therefore when we read that God "sanctified" the seventh day as the Sabbath, we know that He appointed it, or set it apart, to be kept wholly by man.

THE SABBATH DAY DEFINITE

Although this matter has recently been set forth in these pages, it may be well to recur to it again. Our friend says, referring to the common practice of Sunday observance: "I shall continue in my assertion (although I do not say that anybody is wrong) that we are keeping the day appointed, according to the teachings of the Scriptures, as one whole day out of the seven." But he has overlooked the fact that the Scriptures nowhere say anything about "one whole day out of the seven." It says, "the seventh day." It is true that the seventh day is "one whole day out of the seven," but it must be remembered that there are six whole days out of the seven, that are not the seventh day. The Bible has not left any room for doubt as to which particular whole day out of the seven, shall be observed. It says "the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God"; and the seventh day is not the first day.

Shall we repeat the substance of an illustration given in a previous number? Here are seven coins lying in a row on the table. The first six are pennies, but the seventh is a sovereign. The man who owns the coins tells my friend and me that we may have that seventh coin. Will my friend tell me that the man has kindly given us one-seventh of the coins? and will he choose the first? Indeed, he would not; for while the first coin is truly one-seventh of the entire number, it is not the seventh; and in a question of a sovereign against a penny, it is worthwhile to be exact. But can anybody say that in choosing the sovereign we selfishly strained a point? Certainly not; but when the sovereign was the last of the seven coins, and we were told to take the seventh, there was nothing else for us to do.

The case is the same with the Sabbath. There are seven days in the week. God has rested upon the seventh day, and has blessed and sanctified it. He calls it His Sabbath, and tells us to keep it holy. Can we obey Him by selecting some other day, and say that it makes no difference, provided we keep one whole day out of the seven? Let the reader who has decided in the case of the pennies and the sovereign, answer for himself.

The circumstances at the time that the law was spoken from Sinai, show clearly that the command refers to a certain, definite day. The fourth commandment did not introduce a new thing. The Sabbath was well known before the commandment was spoken. More than a month before, God had given the Israelites a test in regard to the Sabbath. See Ex. xvi. They were in need of food, and He gave them manna. It fell six days in the week; each morning they were to gather enough for that day's use, but were not to try to keep any until the next day; if they did, it spoiled. On the Sabbath none fell, but on the sixth day twice as much fell as usual, and on that day they were to gather enough for use on the Sabbath. Although the manna would not keep overnight at any other time, it was fresh and good Sabbath morning, after having been kept over the sixth day night.

This was going on when the law was given, so that when God said "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy," nobody could have the slightest doubt as to what day it was. And the Jews never had any doubt about it. They often broke it, but they knew when it came. There is nothing in this world more clearly defined than the Sabbath day. It is the seventh day,-the day immediately preceding the first day of the week.

SABBATH IN THE NEW DISPENSATION

This is a subject which the theologians have succeeded in enveloping in almost complete obscurity. It is almost impossible for people to read the Bible except through the fog of theological terms that they have heard from childhood, and consequently it is no wonder that they get perplexed.

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Here is where a child has the advantage of a man. Not knowing anything about theological terms and definitions, the child takes the Bible just as it reads, and finds no difficulty provided he does not have somebody at his elbow to suggest difficulties that do not exist.

In our friend's letter we read, "Under the new dispensation, manners and customs have completely changed." Let us investigate this. We read, "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." 2 Cor. v. 17. What is it that is changed in the "new dispensation?" It is the man. What is the change?-Simply this, that whereas before all things were of self, now all things are of God. But the Sabbath is of God, for the commandment says, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Therefore the Sabbath is one of the things that pertain to the "Christian dispensation." We shall see a little later on, that Sabbath keeping is not found in the "old dispensation." Only the man who is in Christ, keeps the Sabbath.

Again we read: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained prepared that we should walk in them." Eph. ii. 10. God makes a man a new creature in Christ, making old things-the old man, the body of sin-pass away, so that the new man may walk in the ways that God has prepared. One of these good ways is the Sabbath of the Lord, for in the new creation, "all things are of God."

It is a common idea that the "new dispensation" began at the resurrection of Christ, or at Pentecost. Then it is supposed that the new order of things was introduced, and old things passed away. But if that were so, what about Jesus Christ? His earthly ministry was all before the resurrection, closing with the crucifixion. Is His life to be left out of the "new dispensation?" If this is what theology gives us, we will choose the "old dispensation" with Christ, rather than the "new dispensation" without Him.

The Scripture tells us that "we are saved by His life." Rom. v. 10. He is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." Heb. xiii. 8. Therefore His life that saves us is identical with the life that He lived on earth for thirty-three years. He Himself said, "I have kept My Father's commandments." John xv. 10. Jesus recognised the seventh-day Sabbath, and kept it, claiming for Himself the honour of being its Lord. Therefore Sabbath-keeping "according to the commandment" is part of His life, by which we are to be saved.

After Jesus had died upon the cross, His body was taken down, and laid in a sepulchre, for "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." Luke xxiii. 54-56; xxiv. 1. Here we learn that the Sabbath came between the preparation day and the first day of the week.

In Mark we learn the same thing, only he specifies a little more closely, saying that it was "when the Sabbath was passed," that they came to the sepulchre very early in the morning of the first day of the week." Mark xvi. 1, 2.

But Matthew is still more explicit. He writes: "In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn for the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre." Matt. xxviii. 1.

This shows that the first day of the week immediately followed the Sabbath; but the Sabbath was all past before the first day of the week began. Although they came "very early in the morning the first day of the week," there was no Sabbath there. They could not have found it if they had been looking for it; but they were not looking for it, because they had kept it the day before, "according to the commandment."

This was after the resurrection of Christ. It will not do to say that the disciples had not yet learned of the change in the day, for be it remembered that these Gospels were written years after the event, and if there was ever to be any change in the Sabbath the disciples would have known it by that time; but they do not give a hint of any such change. Moreover the language is inspired by the Holy Spirit. Therefore we find that many years after the resurrection, the Holy Spirit inspired the statement that the day immediately preceding the first day of the week, is the Sabbath "according to the commandment." And this is written for all time; therefore the seventh day of the week is still the Sabbath according to the commandment. And the commandment is the same now as when it was given, for "it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." Luke xvi. 17. Therefore the seventh day of the week is the Sabbath of the "new dispensation."

THE "TWO DISPENSATIONS"

Christ is the "Lamb that hath been slain from the foundation of the world." Rev. xiii. 8, R.V. We are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot; who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world." 1 Pet. ii. 19, 20.

Ever since the foundation of the world, men have had "redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins." Col. i. 14. It is through "faith in His blood," that righteousness is declared. Rom. iii. 21, 25. Now "by faith Abel offered unto God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous." Heb. xi. 4. So we see that "the blood of His cross" was available for righteousness and peace as soon as there was sin in the world. He is the propitiation "for the sins of the whole world," not merely for a certain age of the world.

But as surely as Christ was slain from the foundation of the world, He was raised from the dead from the foundation of the world; for He saves men by His life. Therefore the "Christian dispensation" began for man as soon, at least, as the fall. There are indeed, two dispensations, a dispensation of sin and death, and a dispensation of righteousness and life, but these two dispensations have run parallel from the fall. God deals with men as individuals, and not as nations, nor according to the century in which they live. No matter what the period of the world's history, a man can at any time pass from the old dispensation into the new. It is when men know Christ after the Spirit, that "old things are passed away," and "all things are become new;" but Moses "endured, as seeing Him who is invisible" (Heb. xi. 27), and therefore Moses was in the new dispensation.

In 2 Cor. iii. 5-18 we have this matter of the two dispensations clearly set forth. We will quote it from Dr. Young's Literal Translation, putting in brackets some of the renderings of the Revised Version; so that the reader, having the common version

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before him, can have the benefit of three renderings:-

"Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who also made us sufficient to be ministrants of a new covenant, not of letter but of Spirit, for the letter doth kill, and the Spirit doth make alive. And if the ministration of the death, in letters engraved in stones, came in glory, so that the sons of Israel were not able to look steadfastly to the face of Moses, because of the glory of His face, which was being made useless was passing away, how shall the ministration of the Spirit not be more in glory? for if the ministration of the condemnation is glory, much more doth the ministration of the righteousness abound in glory; for also even that which hath been glorious, hath not been glorious in this respect, because of the superior glory; for if that which is being made useless is through glory, much more that which is remaining is in glory. Having then such hope, we use much freedom of speech, and are not as Moses, who was putting a vail upon his own face, for the sons of Israel not steadfastly to look to the end of that which is being made useless was passing away; but their minds were hardened, for unto this day the same vail at the reading of the old covenant doth remain unwithdrawn,-which in Christ is being made useless which vail is done away in Christ,-but till to-day, when Moses is read, a vail upon their heart doth lie, and whenever they may turn to the Lord, the vail is taken away. And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty; and we all with unvailed face, the glory of the Lord beholding in a mirror, to the same image are being transformed, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

The reference here is to the circumstances attending the giving and receiving of the law, from Sinai. Read Ex. xxxiv. 29-35, and you will see that when Moses came down from the mount, where he had been talking with God, his face shone. Although he did not know that his face shone, the children of Israel could not look upon its dazzling brightness. So while he talked with them, he put a vail upon his face, but he took it off when he went into the presence of the Lord. While the people could not look upon the reflected glory of God, in the face of Moses, he could go with unvailed face into the presence of God Himself. And there were others who did the same, for we read:-

"Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and they saw the God of Israel; and there was under His feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in His clearness. And upon the nobles of Israel He laid not His hand; and they saw God, and did eat and drink." Ex. xxiv. 9, 11.

Let us now summarize the above points. 1. Life comes from the Spirit alone. But "we know that the law is spiritual." Rom. vii. 14. He who has the Spirit, has the righteousness of the law (Rom. viii. 4); it is only when the Spirit is rejected, that the law worketh wrath, for without the Spirit the law is transgressed.

2. The glory of God is the righteousness of God. "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Rom. iii. 23. Therefore to be partakers of the glory of God, is to be freed from sin. But freedom from sin is true obedience to the law. It is the Spirit that changes men from glory to glory, into the perfect image of God. So again we see that it is the Spirit that gives the perfect righteousness of the law of God, which is simply His life.

3. That Spirit was given to men from the beginning. It was striving with men before the flood, to bring them into the way of righteousness. Gen. vi. 3. The Spirit was with the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai: "Thou gavest also Thy good Spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not Thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst." Neh. ix. 20.

4. The law merely upon tables of stone or written in a book, can work only wrath and death. The reason is that in such a case it is only the statement of righteousness, and no man can be saved by a mere statement of what his duty is. The law on stones, or in a book, simply tells us what to do, but gives us no power to do it. Therefore the giving of the mere written words of the law to any people, is simply ministering death to them. The thunders and lightnings and the earthquake at the giving of the law, and the fact that no one could touch the mount without dying, showed that men cannot approach the law to get righteousness from it of themselves. He who takes the law as a simple statement of duty that he of himself must perform will find only death in it.

5. But there was the ministration of righteousness at Sinai, as well as the ministration of death. The whole thing was designed for righteousness, and all would have received the righteousness of the law, through Christ, if all had believed as Moses did. "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 through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. v. 20, 21. Then no matter how much the law showed men to be sinners, and that the wages of sin is death, there was grace abounding to cleanse from all sin, by the life of Christ.

6. This is shown also by the fact that Moses went into the immediate presence of the glory of the Lord with unvailed face, although the people could not look upon the reflected glory in his face. And why could they not? Because their minds were blinded. That vail over the face of Moses, stood for the vail of unbelief over their hearts. When a man shall turn to the Lord, the vail is taken away, even as it was from the face of Moses, who, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, was changed into the same image from glory to glory.

That glory was the glory of the Gospel, for, continuing the narrative, we read: "But if our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel [or, the glory of the Gospel] of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4. The minds of the people were blinded, and so the light could not shine in; but the light was there, ready to shine in, for the mind of Moses was not blinded, and the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ shone in his face, transforming him. The law and the Gospel were united at Sinai, as everywhere else. The glory of Calvary was shining at Sinai, as clearly as it shines now. Those who received it by faith had righteousness and life; those whose unbelief refused to see it, remained in sin and death. That which is a savour of life to some, is a savour of death to others.

What then? Just this, that as the law at Sinai was "in the hands of a Mediator," even the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only Mediator, it was to teach all men that the law just as spoken there, is what Christ, through the medium of His life, puts

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into the hearts of believers. Christ dwells in the believing heart, and ministers the law as life, for His life is the law. And so in the "new dispensation," the Sabbath-the seventh day-is kept by men. And it is only in the new covenant or dispensation that the Sabbath of the Lord can be kept; for the righteousness of the law is fulfilled only in those in whom Christ dwells. The old dispensation is self, but the new dispensation is Christ.

OBJECT OF THE SABBATH

"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.

"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. 3.

"And hallow My Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God." Eze. xx. 20. "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." Verse 12.

All this is spoken of the seventh day of the week, and of no other; for "the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Therefore the seventh-day Sabbath-the only Sabbath-was given that men might know God and His sanctifying power. God is known through His works (Rom. i. 20) and it is through His creative power that men are freed from sin. See Ps. li. 10; Eph. ii. 20. So the Sabbath, as the memorial of creation, is the means through which a perfect, saving knowledge of God is obtained. But God is known only through Christ, for all the works of God are wrought in Him.

Now the question is, Since God sanctified the seventh day for this purpose, is it possible that the same object can be gained by another day, upon which He never blessed or sanctified? Certainly not; to say that it can, is to impugn the wisdom of God in sanctifying the definite seventh day in the beginning.

We have already seen that the Sabbath pertains to what is called the "Christian Dispensation." There is more evidence still. Who created all things? It was Christ, through whose blood we have redemption. See John i. 1-3; Col. i. 13-17. It is He also "who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." 1 Cor. i. 30. He, then, is the sanctifying power of God, for He is the power of God. Now the Sabbath was given that we might know God who sanctifies us. Therefore the Sabbath was given for the purpose of revealing Christ to us as a Saviour of sinners.

The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Rom. i. 16. The power of God is known by the things that are made. Verse 20. The Sabbath is for the purpose of directing our thoughts to the things that God has made, so that through them we may know His power to save; for redemption is creation.

In the resurrection of Christ the power of God is shown. Paul's prayer was that we might know the "exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead." Eph. i. 19, 20. But God's power is one, and ever the same, and it is seen in the things that He has made. Therefore it was creative power that raised Christ from the dead. We are sanctified through living faith in the death and resurrection of Christ, which, as we have seen, were accomplished from the foundation of the world. But the Sabbath makes known the sanctifying power of God; therefore the Sabbath is the reminder of the power of the resurrection as well as of the power of creation.

"What is the chaff to the wheat?" Men cannot sanctify a Sabbath. They can make nothing holy. The customs of the people are vain. Custom decides nothing. True, the Sunday has been nominally observed more or less for fifteen hundred years, but that proves nothing. God's name has been blasphemed, and the sun and the other objects have been worshipped instead of Him for nearly four times as many years; but that does not make blasphemy and idolatry right.

It is true also that the Jews rejected Christ, but that was not because they kept the Sabbath. On the contrary, it was because they did not keep it although they professed to. They rejected Jesus because they did not know Him; but if they had kept the Sabbath and the Spirit, and not in the outward form merely, they would have known Him as the sanctifying power of God.

Not how men have regarded the Sabbath, but who gave it, is what determines its sacredness. God gave the Sabbath day, and the blessing and sanctification which He placed on it, can never be removed by any action of men. But the observance of Sunday-"the venerable day of the sun"-was "the wild solar holiday of all Pagan times," and as such was adopted by that power which exalting itself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, thought itself able to change times and laws. Shall we continue to observe it, and thus recognise the authority of the Papacy? or should we walk in the "old paths," and by keeping the rest day of the Lord, find the rest from sin, which He alone can give?

"Making Excuses" The Present Truth 9, 23.

E. J. Waggoner

In one of the parables of our Lord there is set forth the tendency of men when invited to the performance of spiritual duties, to make excuses. The parable is recorded in the fourteenth chapter of Luke: "Then said he unto him, 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. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them; I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came, and showed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. . . . For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper." Luke xiv. 16-24.

All these excuses appeared valid enough to the ones who made them, but the master of the house, when he heard them, was "angry." He understood the nature of the excuses, and the reason why thy were given. He saw and felt a slight that had been put upon himself. He saw that their excuses were not excuses, but were evasions prompted only by selfishness; and he determined that they should be excluded from the benefits he thought

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to confer upon them. When afterwards they might come to him expecting his favour, they would find that their excuses had not possessed in his mind the validity which they had seemed to have in their own. They would find the stern decree gone forth, "None of those men which were forbidden shall taste of my supper."

The master of the house who made the feast, is God. He has sent out His invitation to men and told them how to come to His feast, but on every hand His messengers are met with excuses. Men do not want to come in the way that God has appointed. That way is a little too difficult and rough; they want one that is easier and more convenient. There is one path that leads to the Master's house over steep hills and through dark valleys, and is stony and thorny and beset with many difficulties. Not many are inclined to choose this path. There are others that look far more inviting, that seem to lead to the same place; and the greater number choose one or the other of these, where they can travel along at their ease. But they do not know that the rough path, the path that is inconvenient and narrow and seemingly so difficult to travel, is the only one that leads to the desired destination. They do not know that the way that is smooth and easy at the start, is the way that is rough and dark at the end, and terminates in the midst of obstacles that cannot be surmounted.

No man objects to heaven. It is the path that leads there that he does not like. All men would go to heaven if they could go in their own way; but few, comparatively, will get there, because there is but one way, and that is a way which no man naturally desires.

The excuses which pass current in the minds of men will turn out to be counterfeit at the bar of God. Pause, reader, and consider carefully whether you will dare to offer to God, in the great reckoning day, the excuses with which you have satisfied, or sought to satisfy, your conscience and justify your course here. Will they not look different to you when you stand face to face with Him at His judgment bar, not with an earthly reputation to be secured, or worldly wealth or position to be attained, but waiting the decision which is to determine the eternal destiny of your soul? Will you not then be seized with a terrible feeling of uncertainty as to whether God will look at the matter just as you did,-whether His all-searching eye, which read your inmost thoughts and motives, may not have seen with clearer vision than your own, and beheld self-interest where you imagined there was none? Well may you fear, if in that day you have no better foundation to stand on than the excuses which satisfy men.

There, in letters of fire, will appear before you the law of God, which demands death upon every transgressor. There, in its fourth precept, will appear the words, "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." Will you dare to say to God, Yes, Lord, that is the way it reads, but you meant by that that we should keep holy the first day of the week? Will you dare to say, Lord, that meant that we were to observe any one day out of the seven? Will you dare to explain to God the meaning of His law? Will you dare assert before Him that He did not mean just what He said?

Will you dare tell Him to His face that His law has been abolished? Will you dare tell Him that His requirements were too inconvenient and hard? Will you dare affirm that you were right because you did like the majority, or like the dignitaries of the church told you to do, albeit it was not just what God's word had commanded? No; no. Not one of these excuses will find its way through the trembling lips of those to whom it shall be said, "Depart." One piercing glance from the eye of the Infinite will discover the hidden motives of each heart, and they will stand speechless and self-condemned.

God Himself has provided the only foundation upon which we can stand with the assurance at all times, even when we are brought into His presence in the Judgment hour. "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of Judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world." "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous." 1 John iii. 16, 17; iv. 2, 3. "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you." 1 Peter i. 23-25. That word will pass the test. Standing upon it, and it alone, you have a foundation which will be secure amidst the wreck and dissolution of earthly things, and give you all confidence in the day of God.

"The Great Deceiver" The Present Truth 9, 23.

E. J. Waggoner

It is the work of Satan to deceive. He does not go about openly and compel men to serve him, and to do evil and live a life of sin. He is not permitted to rule the world by force. He accomplishes his dark designs by means of deception. He began his work in this way, when he deceived the mother of the human race, and he has carried it on in the same way ever since.

Satan has persistently sought to misrepresent to the world the character of God; and sad to say, his efforts have been highly successful. He has succeeded in making men believe that God is a harsh, stern, inexorable Judge, that looks down from His throne in heaven only to discover the failings and sins of men, and punish them for their disobedience. He is represented as ever watching for something to find fault with, as if his thoughts towards the inhabitants of earth were only those of vengeance, and of the coming judgment day when He can pour out His wrath upon a wicked world. With this false conception in their minds, men have had little disposition to love God with all the heart, and mind, and strength, which is the first and great commandment.

Jesus Christ came to destroy the works of the devil. He came to give men the truth. He came to reveal to them His Father. He did nothing of Himself, but declared that it was the Father who dwelt in Him, that did the works. Every act of mercy, every miracle performed, every truth uttered and every gracious invitation given, was but a manifestation of the love of God. Jesus said, "I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me"; and "The Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works." John xi. 28; xiv. 10. The life of Christ was a continual declaration that "God is love." It was God who "so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life." John iii. 16. The love of the Father and the Son for our fallen race, are equal.

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God hates sin, but loves sinners; not because of the sin, but in spite of it. He is "the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty." Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7. We sometimes hear about "the endless controversy between God and man"; but there is no such controversy, at least on the part of God. His controversy is with sin. Men are often the enemies of God; but God is not the enemy of men. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ was for all men, and now it only remains for all-all who will-to be reconciled to God. As the apostle says, "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." 2 Cor. v. 20. God not only is not our enemy, but He beseeches us to be reconciled to Him. If a person will not be reconciled to God,-will not accept the provisions God has made for his salvation,-will not have God for his ruler, will not accept God's laws as his laws, and God's ways as his ways, God can do nothing for him; and when sin is finally destroyed, the sinner upon whom it is found must go with it. God accepts the sinner through Christ, but if the sinner will not be reconciled to God through Christ, God cannot save him. But God does not what the sinner to die. "For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God; wherefore turn yourselves, 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 way and live." Eze. xviii. 32; xxxiii. 11.

You, reader, whoever you may be, do not have to do something to propitiate God and reconcile Him to you, that you may obtain salvation. You are "accepted in the Beloved." Eph. i. 6. Your part is to accept what Christ has done for you, to accept Christ and His righteousness, looking to God not with the fear that would be inspired by a stern, harsh judge, but in the Spirit of the apostle who wrote, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." 1 John iii. 1. Then the harmony between yourself and God will be mutual and complete.

But the devil is not satisfied with misrepresenting the character and government of God. To facilitate his work of deception, he has also misrepresented himself. The devil cares nothing about how bad a name he has among men. He cares nothing for the appearance of being an object of universal aversion and abhorence, if only he can be the "god of this world" and the one whom men honour and serve in reality. So he has painted himself in the blackest colours, and created a conception in the popular mind which pictures him as a hideous being with horns, hoofs and tail, and dragon wings, who is associated with scenes of murder, riot and debauchery, and other outbreaking crimes, but not with anything that has an appearance of morality and respectability. Men expect him to be in the drinking saloon, the gambling hell, and a dark alley where men lie in wait to rob and murder, but not in the drawing-room, or the pulpit, or at the head of an organisation composed of persons of education and refinement. So they are not on the lookout for him in such places, and his suggestions are received without any suspicion of the real source from which they come.

The truth is that there is no place on earth that enjoys immunity from the presence of his Satanic majesty, and no person or association of persons so refined and respectable as to shut out his visits from their midst, or cause him to be conspicuous in his disguise. In short, there is no one who can be more eminently refined and respectable in appearance than Satan himself. No one can talk more eloquently or learnedly, or make a greater profession of piety, than he. He is a ready quoter of Scripture. Of course he does not appear personally, himself; that is not necessary, for he can do his work through human agents. Here is what the Bible says about it. "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness." 2 Cor. xi. 13-15. Thus while men are thinking of Satan as a hideous being with the traditional horns, hoofs and tail, he is deceiving them in the guise of an angel of light. And so perfectly is he able to disguise himself that it is not possible to determine from appearances whether what seems to be an angel of light is such in reality, or whether it is Satan himself; and those who have no better method than this of ascertaining the truth will be certain to be deceived.

Satan is doubtless as black in character as human imagination has painted him; but his character is seldom shown in his appearance. Once a mighty angel in heaven, he is, though fallen, an angel still. There is but one way of detecting and escaping his deceptions, and that is to stand upon and be guided by the inspired word. "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. That word, that testimony, is the word of God,-the Bible. From whatsoever source a thing may seem to come, or however specious or plausible its appearance, or whatever may be its pretended aim, if it is not in harmony with the statements of God's word, it is but a lie-a deception of the great deceiver.

"The Air" The Present Truth 9, 23.

E. J. Waggoner

"Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men." Ps. cvii. 31.

Did you ever stand at the window and watch the trees? Did you ever sit beneath their shade and look up at the swaying branches, and listen to the music of the rustling leaves?

What makes the leaves and branches move back and forth? What makes the grass wave, and the dust fly? What upholds the little bird as he rests a moment in his upward flight? What wafts to us his merry song? Upon what float the music of the evening bells, the organ's swelling notes, and the voice of praise? What scatters the fleecy clouds and drives them withersoever it will? What catches the rays of sunshine and spreads their light along the shady side of the street, and in the lanes and houses where the sun never shines? and what causes it to linger long and lovingly on the sky after the sun has gone down? What slyly lifts your hat and pushes back the moist hair and cools your aching brow? What rushes into the house with you whenever you enter the door, and slips through the windows and cracks and keyhole, when the door is shut. What enters every room and cupboard and box as fast as you empty it? and even goes in and out of your lungs every time you breathe?

"Air?" Yes, it is the wonderful, wonderful, thrice wonderful air! So busy, and constantly doing the most wonderful things, and yet so clear that we can look right through it and not see it, and so pure, when fresh, that we cannot smell it. But we have heard it, and felt its power upon us, and have seen the wonders that it works, so we know of its presence and are led to praise our Heavenly Father for this marvellous gift. For He it was who gave us this great blessing.

Stand up straight and breathe hard. Hold your hand before your nose and you can feel the air as you breathe it out.

You could not live if there were no air to breathe, neither could your dog or kitten or bird or horse or cow, nor your trees or flowers or grass.

"Trees and flowers and grass! do they breathe, too?"

Yes, they breathe too. Their leaves are to them what our lungs are to us, and the tiny little pores or holes in the leaves are their noses. Put a plant or flower into a jar without air and it will soon wither and die.

But plants and trees do not live on the same part of the air that we and the animals do. When we breathe the air out it is very different from what it was when we drew it in. When you wash your hands you dirty and spoil the water in which you wash them; just so when our lungs cleanse our blood with the fresh air, they spoil and really poison the air so that it is not fit for us or the animals to breathe again. But how wise God is! He has made the trees and plants so that they need that very poison that we breathe out, and we need what they breathe out. So they use the poison up and put into the air the very thing that it needs to make it all clean and pure for us to use again. And if there are not enough trees near us to cleanse the air, God hastens it off to some other place until it is cleansed and then hastens it back again. When the air is thus rushing from one place to another we call it "wind."

We therefore may always have all the good pure air that we need. It is from fifty to a hundred miles deep all round the earth,-a great ocean of air with the earth right in the middle of it. Everything would die if the air were taken away.

Do you see now, why windows were made in your house? They were made that the light and air might get in. The light can come in through the glass when the window is shut, but the air cannot get in much unless you open the window. You know how soon your head aches when you stay in a room where the windows and doors are kept tight shut. It is because there is not enough fresh air in the room. If a little did not get in through the cracks round the doors and windows, and through the door when people go in and out, you would die.

Tight clothing shuts the air out of our lungs as surely as tightly fastened doors and windows. We should therefore always have our clothing so loose that we may take in a good full breath.

Our cellars get full of bad, mouldy air if we do not air them and keep them clean and fresh, and then it comes up through the floor into the house and we breath it. We should always remember that we cannot smell pure, fresh air. If a room smells bad there must be bad air in it. We should never let apple peelings, spoiled fruit and vegetables, open dust-bins, or anything dirty stand about, for that also spoils the air. And if we live in spoiled air it will destroy our health the same as though we lived on spoiled food.

Air is good for many, many things which we have not time to tell you. Find out all that you can about it.

This wonderful air and wind was made on the second day,-the day after the light was made. It was created by the same kind heavenly Father who made the beautiful light, for hear what the Bible says: "For, lo, He that createth the wind, the Lord, the God of hosts is His name."

"Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!"

Ask your mother to please read you that beautiful story in the Bible about how the wind obeyed Jesus when He was here on earth. (Mark iv. 35-41.)

1. Did you ever have your hat fly off your head when you went out of doors?

2. Did you ever play with a kite, or paper balloon, or little windmill?

3. What made the hat fly off your head?

4. What carries your kite and balloon up so high, and turns the wheel to your windmill?

5. When it is not moving, but quiet, as it is in the house, what is it called?

6. Can you see air and wind?

7. Then how do you know that there is any?

8. Why can we not see it?

9. For what is the air good?-Name all the things that you can think of.

10. Suppose that all the air were taken away, what would happen?

11. Have you any windows in your house? Why?

12. Would you like to live on rotten apples and mouldy bread? Why not?

13. Is it any better for us to live on spoiled air?

14. Is it good for us to wear tight clothing? Why not?

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 23.

E. J. Waggoner

God's mercy and love as free and boundless as the air surrounds us on every side. It is as necessary to our spiritual life as the air is necessary to our temporal life. Are the windows of our hearts wide open to this heavenly atmosphere?

-A charge of one franc is levied on each passenger going through the new Corinth Canal. Vessels pay navigation dues in addition.

-The United States Congress is wrestling with the problem of bimetallism, with every prospect of a crushing defeat for the advocates of silver.

-The Maharajah of Mysore has issued a decree that in future no girl may many at an age of loss than eight years, and no boy at less than fourteen.

-A cyclone which raged along the upper Atlantic Coast of the United States has caused an almost unprecedented loss in shipping, with many lives.

-The practice of circumcision is reported to be very general among the natives of the west coast of Africa, both converts to Christianity, and pagans.

-Residents of Tunis have been troubled by swarms of locusts, so numerous that on one day the flight of the insects almost obscured the sun for three hours.

-The gates of the World's Fair are once more closed on Sundays, and it is again in order for misguided church people to rejoice over their "great victory."

-The Pester Lloyd reports that, as the result of a change in the constitution of Bavaria, the Regent, Prince Luitpold, is about to be officially proclaimed as king.

-The editors of the Buenos Ayres newspapers have been summoned by the Chief of Police and informed that they would not be allowed to publish military or political news.

-Great preparations are being made for the coming Catholic congress at Chicago, one of the denominational congresses to be held in connection with the World's Fair.

-Rockaway Beach, Long Island, a famous American seaside resort, has been visited by a disastrous conflagration, and was only saved from complete devastation by a heavy downpour of rain.

-Proclamations have been issued declaring that all sovereigns and half sovereigns coined before Her Majesty's reign shall cease to be current or legal tender in the Colonies of the Cape of Good Hope and Natal, and in Fiji, after a day to be fixed by the Governors of those Colonies.

-The Franco-Siamese difficulty is on again, owing to the exhorbitant demands made by France. The French Government seems determined to force the Siamese to some desperate action, which can be made a pretext for asserting the necessity of a French "protectorate" over the whole country.

-The cholera continues its westward march across Europe, cases being now reported at nearly all the chief cities on the Continent, and at Grimsby and Hull in England. In Russia the mortality continues very high, notably in the provinces of Orel, Tu'a, Kielf, the Don Territory, and the city of Moscow.

-A Vienna paper learns from Samareand that the Russians are making preparations for the occupation of Herat at an early date. They are said to be fortifying Penj-deh, Sarakbs, and Piel-i-Khatun. It is thought that the Ameer will not try to recover Herat, and that Great Britian will compensate herself by occupying Cabal and Kandahar.

-Rioting is reported from Lisbon, where mobs of unemployed workmen have been parading the streets and holding meetings. A conflict occurred Aug. 20 between a party of workmen and the police, the former carrying a black flag which the latter attempted to take from them. The black has also been raised at the head of a procession of the unemployed in Chicago, U.S.A.

-Severe fighting has taken place in German East Africa, near Rilima Njaro, between a native German force and a camp of the powerful Moshi tribe, which inflicted the severe defeat on the Germans when Baron Von Billow was killed. On the present occasion the hostile camp was stormed after four hours' severe fighting. A German officer and several native soldiers were killed.

-A terrible railway disaster is reported from Long Island, New York, U.S.A. An excursion train, travelling from Rockaway Beach to New York, was overtaken by another while running at high speed, with the result that a terrible collision took place. The rear carriages of the forward train were telescoped and piled into a shapeless heap. Fifteen persons were killed and seventy-five injured.

-In connection with the coal dispute a great amount of distress is reported from various ditricts. At Pendlebury a crowd of between 500 and 600 women and children, with the permission of the owner, took possession of a field of cabbages, and in a few minutes stripped it absolutely bare. In the Midlands a general stoppage of industries is threatened. The strike in Wales is said to be collapsing.

-Serious disturbances have occurred San Sebastian in connection with the demands of the Basque Provinces for the retention of the partial self-government they now possess. After a demonstration in front of the hotel where Senor Sagasta, the Premier, is at present staying, during which the mob stoned the hotel and the police, the civic guard and troops were called out and fired on the mob, killing one person and wounding others.

-The States of North and South Carolina and Georgia were swept by a cyclone on Tuesday, and enormous loss of life and property was the result. The damage at Charleston is estimated at $1,000,000, fort Royal, in the same State, was swept by a tidal wave which followed the cyclone, and the city of Savannah and towns situated upon the islands along the coast are almost in ruin. Two hundred lives were lost, the victims being mostly negroes.

-Trouble is anticipated between China and the United States. President Cleveland recently received a communication from Li Hung Chang which leaves no doubt that China will retaliate against the United States in case Congress, at the next regular session, fails to modify the Geary law in regard to Chinese immigrants, so as to make it less oppressive to the Chinese. Li Hung Chang stated that no retaliatory measures would be instituted at present, and that Americans in China would be fully protected until the assembling of Congress in regular session. This is regarded at the State Department as an implied threat that such protection will be removed in the event of the failure of Congress to enact re-medial legislation.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 23.

E. J. Waggoner

The congregation of Seventh-day Adventists, that has hitherto been worshipping in the Athenaeum, Camden Road, N., will hereafter, until further notice, meet in Duncombe Hall, Duncombe Road, Hornsey Rise, N. Services will be held every Sabbath at 11 A.M.; Sabbath-school at 9:45 A.M. Besides these, there will be preaching every Sunday evening at 7, and Bible study at 3 P.M. A general invitation is extended.

The Temps, a French Protestant paper, speaking of the Papal Jubilee, said:-

"There is something startling for the imagination and even for the reason, in the fact that is before our eyes. This century, which had flattered itself as having struck a decisive blow at Christianity, and at Catholicism in particular, sees at its close crowds of pilgrims gather together from all parts of the world to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Episcopal consecration of the Head of the Church." "We have before us a phenomenon in which the attention of statesmen cannot be too much drawn, in order that, in the direction of human affairs they may not forget to take into account the moral force of the Papacy."

The Rev. Dr. Alexander Carson, in his great work on Baptism, says:-

"With respect to religious doctrines and institutions, there is no antecedent probability that those in existence at any time are actually in Scripture. The vast majority of religious rites used under the Christian name are the mere invention of men; and not a single institution of the Lord Jesus, as it is recorded in the New Testament, has been left unchanged; and it is no injustice to put each of them to the proof, because, if they are in the Scripture, proof is at all times accessible."

This is true, and therefore the Scripture must be the test of every doctrine and practice. If the thing is true, it will not injure it to put it to the test; and if the Scripture does not sanction it, then it should be abandoned.

Holy Scripture is able to make men "wise unto salvation." It 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. 15-17. Thus there is in the Scripture everything that is necessary for perfection, and nothing that is not necessary. Whatever, therefore, is contrary to Scripture, is wrong, and whatever is not contained in Scripture tends to imperfection. Therefore to do that which is not commanded in the Bible, is the same as to do that which the Bible forbids.

The folly of trusting in the power and wisdom of man, was curiously shown by the following incident connected with the loss of the battleship Victoria,-itself a mournful commentary upon the psalmist's words, "put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help":-

"Two memorials of the late Admiral Tryon were found floating in the water after the foundering of the Victoria, and they are now at the Admiralty, Whitehall. One was Sir George's telescope, and the other his code of signals, contained in a box which was specially constructed to sink, so as to prevent it falling into the hands of an enemy in case of disaster. But this is the irony of fate-the great battleship constructed especially to float went down like a lump of lead, and the signal-box constructed especially to sink floated like a duck."

The commandments of God are declared to be more precious than gold. Ps. xix. 10. This being the case, it is no wonder that they are counterfeited. Everything valuable has its counterfeit, which professes to be the thing itself, but which is worthless. There is much counterfeit coins in existence, and some of it has been in circulation for many years; yet no one thinks any more of it on that account. Age does not add any genuineness to a counterfeit. A piece of brass shaped and stamped like a sovereign, does not become gold by the lapse of time. Though it be a thousand years old, it is still brass. Neither would it be of any more value if the majority of the people agreed to call it gold, and to accept it as a genuine sovereign.

Even so it is with the counterfeit Sabbath. The seventh day of the week is the Sabbath of the Lord. No other day has had the Divine sanction. No other day has ever been blessed and sanctified by the Lord, nor in any way been recognised as a rest day. The seventh day is enjoined in the fourth commandment-one of the commandments of which it is said: "All His commandments are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness." Ps. cxi. 7, 8. Yet we find that many people have agreed to call another day the Sabbath, and they think that because the day is so generally recognised as such, it must be the Sabbath. Let them remember that a counterfeit does not become genuine by being circulated. Gold was made by the Lord, and no man has ever yet been able to manufacture gold out of anything else. If man cannot do that, how can he think to make the Sabbath of Jehovah? "Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?"

"For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh." "For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." 2 Cor. iv. 16. This is the true revival,-a steady growth, the constant springing up of the life of Christ in men. The Bible knows nothing of the modern "revival effort." We do not say that they are not good, but they are certainly not the best. They are a confession of weakness and of previous neglect. Plants do not make an effort to live; they simply live because there is life in them. So Christians can live only by the light of Christ in them through the word; and that life, being eternal, is always new. The constant taking in of the word makes a constant revival.

How quickly the great coal strike, which is paralysing industry and bringing want and distress, even to the point of actual starvation, all over the country, might be settled if those concerned in it, both employers and employees, possessed a little of that unselfishness which goes with the Spirit of Christ. There is plenty of food in the world, and plenty of money in the world, to relieve all the distress which the want of them occasion, if men would only be actuated by a spirit of love and sympathy toward their fellows, instead of the grasping, cruel spirit of self. As long as self rules, strikes and starvation, riot and paralysis of trade, misery and distress of every description, must go on.

The Archdeacon of London has said that the time has come for some sort of compromise between the Church of England and the nonconformist bodies, on the subject of a reunion. Of course no one expects that the union could be effected without some concessions on both sides. The concessions would need to be only on the surface, for effect, while all parties would believe as before. The result would be an establishment in which there would be all the freedom of belief that now exists and the established church, with sufficient unity of action to gain any political end desired.

September 14, 1893

"Front Page" The Present Truth 9, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

"Turn you at My reproof; behold, I will pour out My Spirit unto you, I will make known My words unto you." Prov. i. 23.

This is the promise of Wisdom which is but another name for Christ, "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Col. ii. 3. He is "the power of God, and the wisdom of God." 1 Cor. i. 24.

Therefore the promise in the first chapter of Proverbs is identical with that recorded in the Gospel according to John. Jesus promised His disciples the Comforter, and said, "Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth; for He shall not speak of [from] Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak; and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me; for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you." John xvi. 13, 14.

The Holy Spirit, then, makes known the things of God. It unfolds to us the meaning of the words of Christ. The psalmist exclaimed, "O Lord, how great are Thy works! and Thy thoughts are very deep." Ps. xcii. 5. The Lord tells us, "As the heavens are high above the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." Isa. lv. 9. But however deep and wonderful the ways and thoughts of God are, the Spirit is able to make us understand them; "for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God;" and "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. 10, 12.

We are told that God "made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel." Ps. ciii. 7. This was by means of His Spirit, for we read that He gave them His good Spirit to instruct them. Neh. ix. 20. This was not because they were so good, for the chapter which tells us this is filled with the record of their misdeeds; but God sends His Spirit to convince men of sin, in order that it may bestow righteousness upon them. As disobedient as the children of Israel were, the Spirit of God was ready to make them intimately acquainted with the words and ways of God, if they would but listen to His reproofs.

It is not in man to give to another an understanding of the words of God. The words of God are an expression of His thoughts, which are very deep; and only the Holy Spirit knows the deep things of God. The Spirit alone can give an understanding of the truth of God. Men are used by the Spirit, to open the Scriptures and present them to their fellows; but only the Spirit of God itself can give an understanding of them. There is therefore no such thing on earth as a class of men possessing the sole right and power to deal out the truth to less favoured mortals.

For God is no respecter of persons. In far greater measure than sinful men are willing to give good things to their children, is God willing and able to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. Luke xi. 11-14. The Holy Spirit is given to everyone who believes. John vii. 39. And what must he believe? "He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." Heb. xi. 6. The Spirit is given without stint to everyone who desires it, and who believes that God gives it.

Therefore the poorest and humblest may understand the words of God as well as the greatest. No one can have a monopoly of the knowledge of God. Everybody can believe, and whoever believes shall understand. No self-constituted priest is needed to stand between the soul and God, for the humblest soul may come boldly to the throne of God, through Christ the great High Priest, "who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way." No man can hinder another from receiving the Spirit, and therefore no one can prevent another from finding and knowing God, if that other really desires to know Him. Then let the despondent ones, who have thought that they were too poor and ignorant to know God's truth for themselves, take courage. The promise is without exception, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." James i. v.

"Giving Men a Chance" The Present Truth 9, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

"What about those who haven't heard the Gospel-the men who have never had a chance for salvation?" This question is almost invariably asked in these days, whenever the necessity for righteousness, and the certainty of judgment for all men, are preached. It seems to be quite generally taken for granted that the great majority of men have never had an opportunity to know anything

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about the Gospel, and consequently the theory of a probation at some time after death has been devised, as the only means by which all men could have a chance to accept the Gospel. To be sure, there are some who will have it that there must be a future probation for all who do not accept the Gospel in this life; but others arrange a probation only for those who they say "have not had a chance in this life."

The question is easily answered. In the first place we must understand beyond all question, that God is just. The plan of salvation includes all men. "For 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. "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Rev. xxii. 17. God says, "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else." Isa. xiv. 22. Christ by the grace of God tasted death for every man. Heb. ii. 9. Therefore salvation is provided for all, and all are called to accept it.

In the next place, it is certain that there will be no probation for any man after the coming of the Lord. When the Lord comes, there will be but two classes-the righteous and the wicked. To the first, Christ will say, "Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Matt. xxv. 34. To the other He will say, "Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil, and his angels." Verse 41. There is no intermediate class, and so the fate of all is decided when the Lord comes. Read also in this connection Rev. xxii. 11, 12.

Still further: When Christ came the first time, He bore the sins of all men, and tasted death for every man. "The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Isa. liii. 6. But when He comes the second time, He comes "without sin unto salvation." Heb. ix. 28. He bears no sin then for anybody. And He "dieth no more." Rom. vi. 9. He "offered one sacrifice for sins for ever." Heb. x. 12. Therefore if any were to be saved after the coming of the Lord, they would have to be saved without Christ; but that cannot be. "Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Acts iv. 12. So it is absolutely settled that there will be no further opportunity for salvation after Christ comes. And since "the dead know not anything" (Eccl. ix. 5), but their thoughts have perished (Ps. cxlvi. 4), and in death there is no remembrance of the Lord (Ps. vi. 5), it follows that all the probation that anybody ever has is in this present time, before death comes.

The question then resolves itself into this: "Has everybody that has lived on this earth had a chance to learn the Gospel?" What saith the Scripture? Paul wrote to the Colossians, "We give thanks to God. . . . for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the Gospel; which is come unto you, as it is in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you." Col. i. 3-6. And again, he said that they would be presented holy before the Lord, "if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister." Verse 23.

That is explicit enough, but the Scripture says much more. The apostle Peter speaks of the fact that God will judge the living and dead, and then adds, "For this cause was the Gospel preached also to them that are dead." 1 Peter iv. 6. He does not say that it is now preached to them that are dead, but that it was preached to them that are dead. To how many that are dead?-"To them that are dead." There is no exception; all that are dead have had the Gospel preached to them, and therefore they may justly be judged with the living.

We might leave the matter here; but some will not be satisfied without an answer to the question. "How has the Gospel been preached to all who have lived on the earth?" It makes no difference if we cannot tell how; since the Bible says that it has been done, that is sufficient. Still we may partially answer the question. We cannot tell how many people have heard the Gospel through human agency. The number is much larger than is commonly supposed. But there is one way in which all have had a chance to know God, and that is through His works; and that they are sufficient, the next paragraph will show.

The Apostle Paul tells us that "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold [restrain] the truth in unrighteousness." Rom. i. 18. Notice that there is no exception; "all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men," whether of Jew or Gentile, is to receive judgment from God. And the justice of this is shown in the two verses immediately following: "Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse."

There is no excuse for any, because God has showed to everybody the truth concerning His power and Divinity. This means that He has preached the Gospel to them, for the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Rom. i. 16. The works of God, then, preach the Gospel, so that it is impossible that a person having the use of his senses should have lived in the world without having heard the Gospel. One more proof from Scripture must suffice on this point.

The Apostle Paul having said that whosoever shall call on the Lord shall be saved, and having admitted that men cannot believe in Him of whom they have not heard, and that they cannot hear without a preacher, says, "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace, that bring glad tidings of good things! But they have not all obeyed the Gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." Rom. x. 15-18.

This assures us that everybody has heard the Gospel of peace. As proof, the apostle says, "Their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." Whose sound, and whose words? The sound of the works of God, and the apostle was quoting from Psalm xix, which reads: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech,

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and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world." Ever since the creation, the sun, moon, and stars have been preaching the Gospel in a language that all men can understand if they will. And in every generation, and from every class of people, some have listened to the word of the truth of the Gospel, and have believed. Some "of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues" (Rev. vii. 9) will stand before God in white robes, as evidence to all the unsaved that they are without excuse. And in all the host of the lost there will not be one soul to charge God with injustice, for every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." "To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts."

"Move to Adjourn" The Present Truth 9, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

"Resolved, that the Christian life is one of gloom." Perhaps you do not remember having heard this resolution read anywhere, but we dare say you notice something about it that sounds familiar. Some one has presented that resolution to you, and asked you to endorse it. Can you say that you have never assented to it? It has been presented a great many times, not only to you, but to all who have any thoughts of living a Christian life; and its author has had a wonderful success in pulling it off for truth.

This resolution is drawn up by the devil, the father of lies. He comes to you with a company of his imps, choosing some opportune time, and with a voice full of the semblance of a mournful reality; he repeats the words. "I move," he says, "that the Christian life is a hard, toilsome, and gloomy one." The motion is at once seconded by his imps, and you-you, it may be, give your assent. So it is moved, seconded, and carried unanimously that the Christian life is hard and cheerless and full of gloom. You are discouraged and tempted to give up, angels are made sad, and the devil and his imps rejoice.

You know the wicked falsity of the whole proceeding. Your whole Christian experience, if it has been genuine, tells you so. Genuine Christian experience is based on belief in the promises of God. You know, if you have taken God at His word, that He "is a Sun and a shield"; that Jesus Christ is the "Sun of righteousness," and "the bright and morning Star," that rises upon you and dispels your night; that "the blessing of the Lord maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow;" that "the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace"; and that the psalmist spoke with no impropriety when he said, "Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous; and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart." You know the peace, and joy, and satisfaction that comes into the heart from believing and trusting God. You know the brightness of the hope that is set before you, that is always in sight to the eye of faith. Then do not allow Satan and his evil company to hold a meeting with you and pass a joint resolution on the gloominess of the Christian life. Keep these texts and others before your mind, and when the prince of darkness comes next time to discuss Christianity with you, and begins his old story of "I move that the Christian life is one of gloom," you say, "I move that we adjourn!" Angels will second that motion, and the devil and all his imps will have no power to prevent its being executed.

"'Come Thou with Us'" The Present Truth 9, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

"We are journeying unto the place of which the Lord said, I will give it you; come thou with us, and we will do thee good; for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel." Num. x. 29.

We are journeying unto the land of which the Lord has said to His people in this age, "I will give it thee." The Israel of to-day are not the literal seed of Abraham, but they are the spiritual seed, the children of promise. "For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel; neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children; but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." "For 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." "Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham." Rom. ix. 6-8; iv. 13; Gal. iii. 7.

The promise to Abraham was that he should be the heir of the world; and the same promise reaches down to us to-day; for "if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Gal. iii. 29. Abraham did not receive the promise, for, said the martyr Stephen, "He gave him none inheritance in it the land of promise, no, not so much as to set his foot on" (Acts vii. 5); nor did his descendants receive it, nor any of the faithful who lived after him. "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." Heb. xi. 13. This has been the lot of God's people in all ages. They have been but strangers and pilgrims, knowing that "here we have no continuing city" (Heb. xiii. 14), but looking, as did Abraham, for "a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." Heb. xi. 10.

It is true that the literal descendants of Abraham did enter and possess the land of Canaan, but that was not the fulfilment of the promise to Abraham that he should be the "heir of the world." The Israelites possessed but a very small portion of the world, and their tenure of that was only maintained by almost continual war with the surrounding nations. They did not obtain that for which Abraham and the patriarchs looked. They did not enjoy the promised rest. "For if Joshua had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God." Heb. iv. 8, 9. The promise to Abraham and to his seed is yet to be fulfilled.

The promise is, as we have seen, that they shall inherit the earth. It is not an inheritance in heaven, or on some distant star or planet, but here, where they have sojourned as strangers, and amid trials and temptations and persecutions have fought the good fight of faith. But they will not inherit the earth in its present state, for now it is given over to the dominion of sin and evil. It is under the rule of "the god of this world" (Satan), who "hath blinded the minds of them which believe not." 2 Cor. iv. 4. Also Peter tells us that "the heavens and earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto the fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." 2 Pet. iii. 7. "For behold," says the prophet Malachi, "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,

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that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." Mal. iv. 1. And we, says Peter, "according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." 2 Peter iii. 13.

We are journeying to this land, this new earth, of which the Lord has said to the seed of Abraham, I will give it you; and we are nearing the end of the journey. We are "looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat." 2 Peter iii. 12. "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts." 2 Pet. i. 19.

The day dawn is near at hand. If we inquire, in the language of the prophet, "Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? the answer is, "The morning cometh, and also the night,"-the morning of eternal day to those who are the seed of Abraham, and the night of eternal death to such as are not the children of faith. Isa. xxi. 11, 12. "The night is far spent; the day is at hand; let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light." Rom. xiii. 12. "This Gospel of the kingdom," said Jesus, "shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." Matt. xxiv. 14.

We are living in the day of the fulfillment of these words. Already the proclamation of the hour of God's judgment (Rev. xiv. 7) has encircled the earth. Every nation and kingdom has been entered, and dwellers in the uttermost parts of the earth have heard the voice of them "that preached the Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things." Their sound has gone "into all the world, and their words unto the ends of the world."

A little work yet remains to be accomplished, and "then shall the end come." Then "the saints of the most the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever." Dan. vii. 18. That is the kingdom of the Son of David, the Seed of Abraham, to whom the promise of inheritance was made. The prophet beheld the time when "there was given Him dominion, and glory, and the kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him." Dan. vii. 14. This kingdom and dominion His saints will share with Him. Verse 27. Then the heirs of the world will enter upon their inheritance-the new earth purified from sin and every trace of the curse-and enjoy with faithful Abraham the rest which has so long been promise.

To this land of promise we are journeying, and we would that every man might share in this inheritance. Come thou with us. "Set your affections on things above, and not on things on the earth," for "the world passeth away, and the lust thereof." Col. iii. 2; 1 John ii. 17. It is hastening on to the burning day, when "the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat."

Already war and commotion, pestilence and earthquake, distress of nations with perplexity, signs in the heavens and in the earth, the sea and the waves roaring, and men's hearts failing them for fear and for looking after the things that are coming, betoken the approach of the day of God. It is the rumbling of the chariot wheels of the coming King. "The Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father, with His angels; and then shall He reward every man according to His work." Matt. xvi. 27.

The reward of the faithful is the inheritance promised to Abraham. Set your face toward Zion, and away from the city of destruction. "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." Ps. xxxviii. 9-11.

Come thou with us to this inheritance. "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. "Come thou with us, and we will do thee good; for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel."

"Socialism and Christianity" The Present Truth 9, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

Socialism and Christianity.-Many people fancy that modern Socialism is a step towards primitive Christianity-the Christianity of Christ and the apostles; but there is as great a difference between them as there is between earth and heaven. "And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need." Acts ii. 44, 45. "And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul; neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own." Acts iv. 32. This was not the result of a claim made by the poor, and a forced distribution of the property of the more wealthy, but the result of individual unselfishness. They all had one mind, and that was the mind of Christ. Socialism says, "Your property belongs to me as much as to you." Christianity says, "Give"; Christianity says, Receive." There is a world of difference.

"The Drink Cure" The Present Truth 9, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Gal. v. 19-21.

"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10.

We have heard much of late about cures for drunkenness. And men in America has made a fortune out of credulous people who believe that by swallowing an unknown mixture, and having another solution injected into their arms, they could for ever be cured of drunkenness. More recently, Mr. Stead has publicly advertised for five confirmed drunkards, who are the children of drunkards, whom he proposes to so effectual cure by means of a new remedy which they are to swallow, that they will for ever after hold alcoholic liquor in abhorrence. And yet with all these "sure cures" for drunkenness, and with thousands who in their sober moments earnestly desire to be free from the drink bondage, drunkenness is on the increase in every country.

Drunkenness is a sin, and not a disease. Of course men inherit a tendency to drunkenness, just as they

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inherit a murderous or a thievish disposition. Those who advocate medical cures for drunkenness, may be sincere in their desire to promote temperance, but, as a matter of fact, they are working against it. They are helping to establish the idea that drunkenness is no more wrong morally than is rheumatism or consumption, and are inducing people to put their trust for salvation from it in that which is worthless.

The Scriptures quoted above class drunkenness with theft, murder, adultery, covetousness, idolatry, etc. Therefore it is as absurd to think of curing it by taking medicine, as it would be to think to cure a man of a disposition to steal, murder, or commit adultery, by inducing him to swallow some patent nostrum. The logical outcome of a generally-received idea that drunkenness is a disease, that may be cured by drugs, would be the discovery and advertisement of a sure cure for licentiousness, and there would be men claiming to cure pride, covetousness, and hatred in two months, provided the patient would take his mixture thrice daily.

But there is a remedy for drunkenness, as well as for all other forms of sin. A fountain has been opened for sin and uncleanness. Zech. xiii. 1. The Apostle Paul said to those to whom he had said that thieves, drunkards, adulterers, extortioers, etc., cannot inherit the kingdom of God: "And such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." 1 Cor. vi. 11.

"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." 1 Tim. i. 15. "If we confess our sins, He faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteous." 1 John i. 9. "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." Verse 7.

This is a sure cure. No case is too hard for the Great Physician, for "He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him." Heb. xii. 25. And it costs nothing, but may be had "without money and without price." There is hope for every sinner, however degraded, for the Lord says, "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth" (Isa. xlv. 22); and Jesus says that He will in no wise cast out any that come to Him. Then do not spend your labour for that which satisfieth not, but come to Christ, and find healing from every earthly ill.

"Saturday, Sunday, and the Sabbath" The Present Truth 9, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

We have received the following letter, which speaks for itself:-

Permit me to call your attention to the error in your issue of Aug. 17th, where our Sunday is repeatedly called the "seventh" and "Sabbath" day. Surely it only needs a reminder to cause an acknowledgement of the fact that Saturday is the seventh day of the week, and always was, and is at the present day, the Jewish Sabbath. Everyone who receives even a partially-completed religious education is taught the reasons for the Christian and apostolic observance of Sunday, the "first day of the week," as the day of rest.

The writer was momentarily shocked when the above lines first met his eyes. Could it be possible that so egregious a blunder as to call Sunday the seventh day of the week had found its way into PRESENT TRUTH? A little examination showed that it had not been done. God forbid that we ever should do such a thing. The article in question was written for the express purpose of showing that by no possibility could Sunday, the first day of the week, be the Sabbath. Unfortunately our correspondent seems to have the idea so fully fixed in his mind that Sunday is the rest day, that he has assumed that any reference to "the Sabbath," by a Christian, must mean Sunday. Let us see if a few points cannot be made so clear that any can see them, whether they believe them or not.

1. In the Bible the days of the week are not named, but numbered, with the exception of the seventh day of the week, which is named the Sabbath. "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Ex. xx. 10. The seventh day, the last day of the week, is the only day of the week that is honoured in the Bible with a name. But that seventh day-THE SABBATH-is not Sunday.

2. "The Sabbath day according to the commandment" (Luke xxiii. 56) is the day before the first day of the week. Compare the verse above referred to with the first verse of the next chapter, and also with Mark xvi. 1 and Matt. xxviii. 1, where we find that the Sabbath immediately precedes the first day of the week, and that when the first day of the week begins, the Sabbath is "past."

3. Let it be remembered that the statements concerning the Sabbath and the first day of the week were written long after the resurrection and ascension of Christ, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, by Christian men, and for Christians, and also for those who through their words might become Christians. Therefore, as surely as the Scriptures are the word of God, and the perfect guide for Christians, that is, the guide which if heeded will make perfect Christians, the seventh day of the week is the Sabbath for Christians. The writers of the Bible, the prophets and apostles, knew of no other Sabbath.

4. The seventh day of the week is not, and never was, the "Jewish Sabbath." Such a thing is unknown in Scripture. Read again: "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Ex. xx. 10. The Lord Himself calls it "My holy day." Isa. lviii. 13, 14. It was made for man in Eden, at the close of the six days of creation, thousands of years before there was a Jew in existence. Gen. ii. 1-3. True, the Jews kept it, except when they apostatised from God, but that did not make it their day. Christ kept it, and His life is the model life for all men. "He that saith he abideth in Him, ought himself also so to walk even as He walked." 1 John ii. 6. The disciples, as we have seen, kept it, and the Holy Spirit has set the Divine seal to the fact that it is the Sabbath. He who would find any other name for it, or would find any other day appointed as a day of weekly rest, must go elsewhere than to Holy Scripture.

5. The reasons for "the Christian and apostolic observance of Sunday," are not so apparent as our correspondent thinks. From an influential Presbyterian journal, the editor of which must be supposed to have had at least a "partially-completed religious education," we quote the following statement:-

"It is now seen, as it is admitted, that we must go to later than apostolic times for the establishment of Sunday observance."

The venerable Dr. Scott, the commentator, in his comment on Acts xx. 7, says:-

"The change from the

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seventh to the first appears to have been generally and silently introduced, by example rather than by express precept."

And the Christian at Work, the above referred to, also said editorially:-

"Some have tried to build the observance of Sunday upon apostolic command, whereas the apostles gave no command on the matter at all. . . . The truth is, as soon as we appeal to the litera Scripta [the literal text] of the Bible, the Sabbatarians [those who observe the seventh day of the week] have the best of the argument."

The fact that the change from the seventh to the first day of the week, was "gradually and silently introduced," as Dr. Scott says, shows that the change was a part of that "falling away," of which the Apostle Paul wrote, which was the result of the working of the "mystery of iniquity." 2 Thess. ii. 3-7. Chamber's Encyclopedia (art. "Sunday") says:-

"Unquestionably the first law, either ecclesiastical or civil, by which the sabbatical observance of that day is known to have been observed, is the edict of Constantine, 321 A.D.

That law commanded city people to rest "on the venerable day of the sun," the chief heathen festival day, but allowed those who were "situated in the country" "freely and at full liberty to attend to the cultivation of their fields." Yet notwithstanding the fact that this law allowed all who lived in the country-the majority of the people-to work on Sunday, the ecclesiastical historian, Mosheim, says that in consequence of it, Sunday was "observed more sacredly than before." Anyone, therefore, can readily judge how much sacredness was attached to Sunday as late as 321 A.D.

6. It should not be forgotten that "Saturday" and "Sunday" are not the exact equivalents of "the seventh day of the week," and "the first day of the week." The Sacred Record says that "the evening and the morning were the first day," "the evening and the morning were the second day," etc. Gen. i. 5, 8. The "evening," according to the Scripture, which must be our sole guide in everything pertaining to the Sabbath, begins at the setting of the sun. See Deut. xvi. 6; Joshua x. 26, 27; Mark i. 32. The day properly begins and ends with the setting of the sun. "Saturday" and "Sunday" are heathen names, and are applied to two days beginning and ending midnight, according to the change made by the heathen. The "seventh day of the week" begins at sunset on the sixth day, commonly called Friday, while "Saturday" does not begin until midnight, several hours later. Those who rest on "the Sabbath day according to the commandment" begin their rest at the setting of the sun on the sixth day. Thus the Sabbath of the Lord begins several hours before "Saturday" begins, and ends several hours before the beginning of "Sunday." Strictly speaking there are no, or at the most very few, observers of the first day of the week, which begins and ends at sunset.

7. Let it therefore be understood that whenever the PRESENT TRUTH mentions the Sabbath, it means "the Sabbath according to the commandment,"-the seventh day of the week,-the day immediately before the first day of the week. Let it never be supposed that the PRESENT TRUTH calls Sunday either the seventh day of the week, or the Sabbath. For all this it claims no other authority than the plain word of God, and for this or any other religious act it will recognise no other authority than that.

"Pilgrims and Strangers" The Present Truth 9, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

The people of God are, and have been in all ages, pilgrims and strangers in the earth. They have been such because it has always been a necessity to them. As servants of God, owing and maintaining their allegiance to Him, there was never any other course for them to take. When man fell, the earth which had been given to him for his possession and his abode as a "son of God" (Luke iii. 38) past into the possession of the one by whom the man was overcome. Man was overcome by Satan, and became his servant; for the Scripture says, "of whom a man is overcome, of the same is He brought in bondage." 2 Peter ii. 19. Consequently all that man possessed passed under the dominion of Satan.

Satan thus became the "god of this world" (2 Cor. iv. 4), and he spake not untruly when he said to Christ on the mount of temptation that all the glory of the kingdoms of the world was his, and he gave it to whomsoever he would. Luke iv. 6. The world became his dominion, and all the descendants of Adam became his subjects. The vast majority of these have chosen to remain under his rule, but a few in every age have renounced the dominion and service of Satan, through the provision made therefore by the sacrifice of Christ, who died to redeem man and that which man had lost. By thus renouncing allegiance to Satan they necessarily renounced all desire for home or position in the kingdoms of this world. They looked by faith to a future country, and to a city whose builder should be the Lord.

The promise was made to Abraham that he should be the heir of the world. Rom. iv. 13. Isaac and Jacob were heirs of the same promise. Heb. xi. 9. The Seed of Abraham, which was Christ (Gal. iii. 16) was also Heir with Abraham, and all who are Christ's are heirs likewise. Gal. iii. 29. But Abraham received not the dominion of the earth, nor has it yet come to any of his descendants. "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now," being still under the dominion of the author of pain and death. Rom. viii. 22. Abraham sojourned by faith in the land of promise, and "looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God." Heb. xi. 10. And his descendants, the spiritual seed, also died "not having received the promises," but having confessed by their lives that they were "strangers and pilgrims on the earth." Heb. xi. 13. When the heavens and the earth that are now, which by the word of God are reserved under fire (2 Peter iii. 7), shall have passed through the burning day, and from their ashes creative power shall have called forth a "new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness" (2 Peter iii. 13), then the promise will have its fulfillment; the meek shall inherit the earth, and "the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom and shall possess the kingdom for ever." Dan. vii. 18.

The children of faith have never reckoned this world to be their home, or counted its riches and honour and power as the objects for which their efforts here should be put forth. They have never been imbued with the idea of subduing a part or all of the dominions of the god of this world, so as to make it the dominion of Christ. They have never looked for a country here wherein should dwell righteousness, or in which they should be anything else than strangers and pilgrims. For earthly power and dominion they have never sought nor cared.

But with the subjects of Satan it has been just the reverse. They have never counted themselves pilgrims and strangers here. Their lives have never declared that they seek a country other than this for the realisation of their ambitions and their hopes. They have sought ever for power, wealth, and honour among men. They have sought for possession and dominion on the earth. And not merely those who made no pretence of allegiance to God-though openly worldly and irreligious-are to be reckoned in this class; it includes nearly the whole Christian church as well. But it is a mark of worldliness, wherever it may be found. Temporal power, temporal dominion, belong to him who is the "god" and "prince" of this world, the one by whom Adam was overcome, and to whom, consequently, he lost his possession, the earth; the one to whom every person not born again yields a natural allegiance; the spirit that has ever

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ruled in the "children of disobedience." This is his, to be given to whomsoever he will, and must remain his until the day when "the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up;" for "the heavens and the earth that are now, by the same word [the word of God] are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly men." 2 Peter iii. 7, 10.

The church therefore is entirely out of her sphere when she seeks for temporal power; and that person is greatly deceived both in his own heart and in respect to the nature of Christianity, who imagines that it is the church's place to be established in wealth and power and dominion here, to rule earthly governments and countries and kingdoms. The Church of Christ cannot legitimately fill any position or occupy any station here that is not consistent with that of a stranger and pilgrim in the earth. The mission of the Church, and her only mission, is to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. Mark xvi. 15. Therefore the Church or individual that is looking to any country, or any place in this earth for the attainment of dominion and honour among men, is moved by another Spirit and following another leadership than that of the Author of Christianity.

"Suffering with Christ" The Present Truth 9, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

"Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind; for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin." 1 Peter iv. 1.

There are various kinds of suffering, and the severest kind is not that which is of the body alone. The suffering of Christ for us in the flesh was during His whole earthly ministry, and not alone while He was being buffeted by the rude soldiers, scourged before Pilate, and nailed to the cross. In 1 Peter iii. 18 we read that Christ "suffered for sin the just for the unjust." The sins were not His own, but ours. He who knew no sin, was made to be sin for us. 2 Cor. v. 21.

"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. 5, 6. Since He suffered because of our sins, and was bruised for our iniquities, it must be that His suffering in the flesh was all the time that our sins were on Him. But that was from the first, for He was made to be sin for us; He was "made under the law" (Gal. iv. 4), literally, "born under the law," as we read in Revised Version. He was sent "in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin" (Rom. viii. 3), being in all things 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." Heb. ii. 17. So during the whole of His earthly life Christ was bearing our infirmities, and suffering for us in the flesh.

"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." Heb. iv. 15. "For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted." Heb. ii. 18. This is how Christ suffered for us in the flesh. His suffering was in the resisting of temptation.

The first recorded temptation was the forty days' temptation in the wilderness. The last was in the Garden of Gethsemane. In both these instances He most emphatically "suffered, being tempted." He kneeled down and prayed, saying, "Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly; and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." Luke xxii. 42-44. This was a most powerful temptation of Satan, as is shown by the fact that when Jesus had foretold His sufferings and death, and Peter had said, "Be it far from Thee, Lord [Pity Thyself]; this shall not be unto Thee" (Matt. xvi. 22, margin), He replied, "Get thee behind Me, Satan; thou art an offence unto Me; for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." Verse 23. The same spirit that was seeking, through Peter, to induce Jesus to shun the cross, was working with inconceivably greater force in the garden, for the same purpose.

But in this crowning temptation Jesus was steadfast, as in all others. He was perfectly submissive to the will of God. In that temptation Satan exhausted his power upon the Son of God, but without effect. When that trial was over, the great victory was won. No more temptation came to Him, for there was nothing more that could come. The final victory for man was gained in that night struggle in Gethsemane. Therefore it is to that time that the Apostle Paul directs our minds in the following exhortation:-

"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of (our) faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin." Heb. xii. 1-4.

Christ did that very thing. In the greatest trial that any being ever passed through, He resisted unto blood. "With His stripes we are healed." Through His suffering, He "obtained eternal redemption for us." The victory over sin is to be obtained by us through our Lord Jesus Christ. So we come back to the words, "Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind; for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin." What suffering, and what kind of suffering is here referred to?-Evidently to the suffering that Christ endured. Christ suffered for sin; we are to arm ourselves with the same mind; and having done that, His sufferings will be borne in us, and they will prove as effectual in us as they were in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

It is no fancy that the sufferings of Christ are to be experienced by men who shall overcome. The Apostle Paul expressed this as his desire, "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death." Phil. iii. 10. And again, "For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ." 2 Cor. i. 5.

There can be no question but that the man who resists sin as Christ did, will not sin. But the only way in which this can be done, is to have

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Christ Himself living in us His own life of resistance to sin. He alone of all those who have lived on earth, committed no sin. "Ye know that He was manifested to take away our sin; and in Him is no sin." 1 John iii. 5. God was manifest in the flesh in order to demonstrate His ability to live in the flesh of man. He stands at the door of every heart and knocks, craving admittance. If He is given full permission to come in and take up His abode in any heart, He will resist sin with the same strength that He did eighteen hundred years ago, for He is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

"Essentials and Non-essentials" The Present Truth 9, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

What are the "essentials" and "non-essentials" of the Christian religion? From the ideas expressed by people on the subject it would seem that the "non-essentials" of Christian faith and practice were very numerous. No one, perhaps, would be able to define just what they are, still the belief in their existence is both wide-spread and firm. Of course, if the "non-essentials" cannot be defined, it is equally impossible to say what constitutes the "essentials." In practice, each individual adjusts the matter to suit himself. The "essentials" he endeavours to put in practise, and the "non-essentials" are practised so long as their observance is not a matter of too great inconvenience.

There has been an effort made for many years to bring about a union of the various bodies of Christendom upon the basis of these "essentials" of the Christian faith, but the movement has made little progress. The united wisdom of these various bodies has not been able to produce a satisfactory statement of what these essentials are. The prospect, to many minds, is an alluring one; but the more the ground is explored from which the proposed union must come, the more does the subject become involved in obscurity. There is a vengeance about it which prevents the promoters of the enterprise from getting hold of anything tangible. The basis upon which it must rest is altogether unstable.

Turning to the Bible, from whence all truth upon questions of Christian faith and practice must be drawn, we find it altogether silent regarding the "non-essentials" of which we are speaking. The only information it gives on the subject is of a negative kind. And this fact is sufficient to account for the confusion that exists with regard to it in the minds of men; the question is one which exists only in the human imagination, and concerning which each man is his own source of authority. The only authority on the subject-other than the negative information of the Scriptures-is human reasoning, dictated by self-interests. When God wrote the Bible to tell man what things he must do to be saved, He left the non-essentials out. Whatever the Bible has set forth as man's duty in this relation to God, is essential; and whatever the Bible has left unmentioned, is not essential. All the practices and forms and observances pertaining to religious worship, that are not specified and enjoined in the Bible, are non-essentials. And they are so entirely non-essential that they have no rightful place in Christian faith or practice whatever.

This belief in non-essentials pertaining to the service of God is not peculiar to our own day. It has been manifested in all ages. The Bible tells us of the experience of some who held this belief in ancient times. Cain did not think it essential that his sacrifice should consist of a lamb, as Abel's did, and he brought the fruits of the ground, but his offering was not accepted. Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, on one occasion did not think it essential to offer one particular kind of incense before the Lord in the tabernacle; "and there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord." Lev. x. 1, 2. King Saul did not think it essential that a sacrifice to God should be offered by one particular man when it necessitated a long delay, so he offered the sacrifice himself. The sacrifice was the essential thing; the particular person offering it was a non-essential. But when Samuel who was to have offered the sacrifice, appeared, he told Saul that obedience was an essential thing, and that the kingdom should be taken from him for his transgression.

The ancestors of the idolatrous heathen did not think it essential to worship God in the particular way that was practised by those who feared God, and decided it would make no difference if they worshipped Him through something that their eyes could behold, just as Roman Catholics to-day think it makes no difference if they worship God through an image, since it is God, and not the image that they worship; but the result was that "they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things." Rom. i. 22, 23. And their descendants speedily sunk into the lowest depths of ignorance and degradation. It is not necessary to refer to all the examples given us on this point. It is evident enough that man, in venturing upon this ground, does so at a terrible risk. It is evident that the wise and only safe course to be pursued, is to regard nothing as non-essential which is enjoined upon us in God's word.

It is at the peril of our souls that people undertake to decide that there are essentials and non-essentials in that which concerns their duty to God, and to determine what these are. When God speaks, it is man's place to hear and obey, without reference to his own views of what the situation requires; and when God has not spoken, it is man's place to know nothing on that point, and to be silent both in word and deed.

"Clouds" The Present Truth 9, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

Clouds can sometimes look very threatening, but there is only one kind that can really harm us. It is the kind spoken of in Isa. lix. 1, 2:-

"Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear."

No other clouds, however threatening, can shut us away from the Sun of Righteousness. But sin cherished in the heart covers us with a pall of blackness. As long as we hold on to it we cannot see a ray of light. At any moment it is liable to burst upon us in all its fury and carry us down to destruction.

But there is hope for us even then. When we let go of sin and really want it removed, and allow Jesus to speak light into our souls, that instant the cloud disappears and the blessed light shines in. Then He can say to us, as He did to ancient Israel, "I have blotted out as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins." Isa. xliv. 22.

Trials, sicknesses, and troubles of various kinds are sometimes called clouds. But these clouds need not frighten us at all. They cannot harm us if we but have faith and ever cling to the Master. He is near us though we cannot see Him, for He says so, and "the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers."

"Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;

The clouds ye so much dread,

Are big with mercy, and shall break

In blessings o'er your head."

"These very days of dreariness are sent us from above;

They do not come in anger, but in faithfulness

and love;

They come to teach us lessons which bright ones

could not yield,

And to leave us blest and thankful when their

purpose is fulfilled."

"We do not need to see through the dark clouds. We have only to lie in Jesus' arms and let Him carry us along. He knows the way. To Him 'the darkness and the light are both alike, and the night shineth as the day.'

"A mother took her baby in her arms to carry her up stairs to bed. Through a long hall, and up the circular stairs, without any light she wended her way. The baby clung closely.

"'Darkee, darkee,' she lisped, 'baby 'faid.'

"'Baby needn't be afraid, mother knows the way,' mamma said cheerfully, hugging the little one still more closely; and the baby was quiet, there was no cry or word of alarm.

"When the door was opened into the light, pleasant bedroom, the little one clapped her hands with delight. 'Mamma knows the way,' she repeated, 'baby no more 'faid.'

"In the simple trust of the little child let us contemplate the dark clouds before us. We would prefer sunlight it is true, but if our Father sends clouds it is not to alarm us, only to test our faith. It is that we may get the sweetness, and comfort, and real joy of trusting.

"When we open our eyes in the bright shining of the better land we shall thank God for the clouds through which he carried us so tenderly and safely. 'I would rather walk in the dark with God than go alone in the light.'"

"The Handiwork of Man and God" The Present Truth 9, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

The handiwork, or handwork, of a man is really the work that he has done with his hands.

You can tell a great deal about a man by looking at his works,-the things that he has made. If he finishes off the smaller things as carefully as he does the greater, and takes pains to make the hidden parts as perfect as those parts that are plainly seen, you say that he is a faithful workman. The man who can make a steamboat is wiser, you say, than the one who can make only a row boat, and the man who can by his word set a whole army in motion is more powerful than the one who can send out but one man. The one who chooses to make only those things that are for the convenience and comfort of those around him is more kind than the one who chooses to make things to weaken and destroy his neighbour.

But did you ever stop to think of the great difference between the handiwork of God and the handiwork of man?

The wisest man that ever lived could never make a ship out of nothing, and hang it upon nothing, and cause it to make regular trips year after year, and year after year, for thousands of years. Yet look at the earth which carries millions of people and animals and all the things they need,-their houses, gardens, pasture lands, forests, and everything else, at the rate of thousands of miles an hour. God but spoke the word, and it was. He hung it upon nothing and it does not fall. It daily and yearly travels in its appointed track and passes the stations at the appointed seasons.

Look at its twinkling lights. What man could even count them? Yet they came at God's call, are upheld by His word, and daily do His bidding; and He knows them each by name.

How perfect even now is the earth in every part! How full of light and beauty! The tiniest flower or the eye of an insect is formed as perfectly as the loftiest tree or the highest mountain. Think of the faithfulness of the Master workman!

What man could put life into the smallest blade of grass? Yet see grass, flowers and trees, and insects, birds and animals, and men, women and children, all living and growing by the power of the life-giving God.

What man in his handiwork has shown such kindness? Out of the ground grows every tree and plant that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. In the ground are treasures for man and beast. The waters and the air are filled with things of beauty and comfort; and the heavens with their light and warmth and beauty are a continual reminder of the love and kindness and goodness of God, as well as of His glory and power.

How mean, how weak, how ignorant does man appear when we compare his handiwork with the handiwork of God. "When I consider Thy heavens, and the work of Thy fingers, the moon and stars, which Thou hast ordained; What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the Son of man that Thou visitest him?"

"The God of nature and of grace

In all His works appears;

His goodness through the earth we trace,

His grandeur in the spheres."

"First Impressions" The Present Truth 9, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

Early impressions are always lasting. The ideas which are stamped upon the mind in the plastic period of childhood, do not easily wear away when the material of character has become hardened. How important then, that these early impressions should be truthful, and such as will draw the soul toward that which is good and pure in later years. The following item is to the point:-

"Prof. Henry Drummond says he got his first conception of God from Isaac Watts's old hymnbook in which there was a picture of a great, somber thunder cloud, black as night, in the middle of which was a piercing eye. Since then, though not without struggle and pain, God to him has evolved from a detective into a Father. Well may he say:-

"'It is almost impossible to obliterate childish impressions, and hence we should take the utmost care to guard our children against bad books, bad theology and a bad conception of the Father.'"

"The Firmament" The Present Truth 9, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork." Psalms xiv. 1.

Did you ever watch the steam rising out of the tea-kettle and floating off in the air? If you look at it closely it looks very much like little tiny drops of water floating about. And that is really what it is, for if you hold a cold tin over it, the tin soon will be covered with water. When the sun comes out bright and warm after a rain, you can see steam or vapour, like this, rising from the wet pavements; in a few moments the water that was on them has all gone up in the air, and the pavements are dry. Some mornings when you look out of the window the air is so full of fog, or vapour, that you cannot see across the street.

When the earth was first created, you remember it was all covered with water. Part of this water was in vapours and fogs, like that which you have seen, only very much thicker. Job xxxviii. 9.

On the second day, the next day after the heavens and earth and light were made, God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters," that is, Let there be a space between the waters. It was the same as though He had said, "Waters, do not stay together any more, but let there be a space between you." And it was so! Part of the waters (those which were in vapours) rose right up, away from the other waters (Jer. x. 13), and there was a great space between them and the others! And God filled this great space or firmament with air.

Some of these waters which rose up, God bound in thick clouds (Job xxvi. 8), and others float around in such fine specks that we cannot see them. Even in a bright clear day, there is a great deal of water mixed up with the air. And God balances these clouds full of water and keeps them from breaking, and causes them to be driven by wind from one place to another where rain is needed. Then he causes them to let the rain come gently down in small round drops upon the thirsty plants and trees.

When we look up through this great firmament which God made, it looks blue, almost like a blue curtain or roof above our heads. We call it the "sky." This beautiful space or firmament above us which looks so blue, which is lighted with the twinkling stars, and in which are the air and the wonderful clouds,-this we call the "heavens." How grand and beautiful!

We cannot see the air, but we know there is air and wind because we see what it does. In just the same way we know there is a God. We cannot see Him, but we know that God is, for we see all around us and over us the wonderful things that He has done-things that no one else could do. No wonder that the Bible says, "The heavens declare [or tell of] the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork." In other words, the wonderful things in the firmament show us some of the glory of God, and some of the work that He is able to do.

1. Did you ever watch it rain?

2. Did you ever catch any rain?

3. What is it?

4. From whence does it come?

5. How did water first get up so high? God put it there.

6. When? On the next day after He made the heavens and earth and light;-on the second day.

7. Did God take the waters in his hands and put them up there, or how did He do it? He did not touch them at all. He just said, "Let there be a firmament [or space] between the

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waters," and all at once there was a great space between them; part of the waters rose right up away from the other waters and stayed there!

8. Can you make a space between things in that way?

9. With what did God fill the firmamant? Air.

10. What did God do with some of the waters that rose up? He bound them up in thick clouds.

11. And when God sees a certain place in the earth that needs rain, what does He cause these clouds to do?

12. Do we know when the rain is needed as well as God does?

13. Instead of complaining, then, and looking cross when it rains, what should we do? We should be happy, and should thank God for sending the beautiful rain just when we need it. If He did not send it just when He does, we might be ill, or the plants or trees might not grow, and then we would not have any good food to eat.

14. Can you think of anything else for which the clouds are good?

15. When we look up through the vast firmament, how does it look?

16. What do we call this blue that looks so much like a blue roof? The sky.

17. Then on the second day when God said, "Let there be a firmament," what three things did He really make? The air, the sky, and the clouds.

18. What name did God give to this firmament? or the air and the sky, and the clouds? The heavens.

19. What do the heavens declare, or tell us?

20. And what does the firmament or heavens show us? His handiwork, or the work that He has done.

21. Can anyone but God do such wonderful things?

22. You cannot see the air, but how do you know that there is air?

23. You cannot see God, but how may you know that God is?

"In the sun, the moon, the sky;

On the mountains wild and high;

In the thunder, and the rain,

In the groves, the wood, the plain;

In the little birds that sing;

God is seen in everything."

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

-King Milan of Servia is dangerously ill.

-War with the Matabeles is anticipated in South Africa.

-Low water in the Nile is causing considerable anxiety at Cairo.

-The Clyde steamship Alva is thought to have been lost at sea.

-Crops in Norway are reported to have been much damaged by frost.

-Serious apprehensions are felt in India of a renewal of the Hindu riots.

-A strong feeling prevails in France against foreigners residing in that country.

-The attendance for the first three months at the World's Fair numbered 7,000,000.

-The Primrose League is gaining numerical strength. The membership is now 4,160,561.

-The Czar has ordered the Russian autumn manúuvres to take place on a magnificent scale near the Austrian frontier.

-A revolutionary plot which was to have been put in effect Aug. 14, in Spain, was discovered and suppressed by the government.

-It is estimated that the unemployed number ten per cent. of the workmen of the country, or three quarters of a million men.

-According to the latest news from Uganda the country is quiet, and the natives are cordially co-operating with the missionaries.

-News by steamship from Japan, received at Victoria, B.C., report the destruction of several Japanese villages by fire, with terrible loss of life.

-The latest use of aluminium is in the manufacture of slate-metal. It is claimed that the metal will mark on slate, will not break, needs no pointing, and will last a long time. A German company is now engaged in this manufacture.

-Roman Catholic mission stations in the province of Hupoh, China, have been attacked by mobs, which compelled the priests to flee for their Iives.

-A good deal of the sugar now used is made from beetroot. France has this year grown 4,715,000 tons of the root for manufacturing purposes.

-A collision took place between a World-Fair express and a goods train near Batesville, Indiana, resulting in the death of six persons and injury to many others.

-The city of Rio Janeiro is in a state of great excitement owing to the demand made by the commander of a Brazilian squadron lying off the city, for the resignation of the government.

-In spite of the recommendations of the supreme sanitary board, the Austrian Emperor insists upon the military manúuvres taking place in Galicia, though the district is cholera-infected.

-The Tower Bridge, now nearing completion, will have cost £800,000. In its construction there have been used twenty-four million bricks, 415,000 tons of granite, and nearly 16,000 tons of iron and steel.

-A widespread Nihilist conspiracy against the life of the Czar is reported to have been discovered at Moscow, leading to the arrest of a large number of university students and several professors.

-September 4 was "Labour Day" in America Processions representing the various industries passed through the streets in all the leading cities and towns and no serious disturbance was reported in connection with the demonstrations.

-The coroner for East London held sixteen inquests in one day, nearly all the deaths having been brought about through strong drink. On account of the extraordinary evidence the coroner asked if there were any sober people in the neighbourhood.

-A circumstantial report has reached London of the death of Emin Pasha, which states that he was killed by Arabs in the Manyema country out of revenge, together with his escort of thirty Nubian soldiers, and their bodies devoured by cannibals.

-Reports from the various districts affected by the coal dispute indicate a gradual collapse of the strike. Disturbances have been reported among the miners in Derbyshire, and in South Yorkshire, and at several collieries the strikers have done much damage.

-The Home Rule Bill passed the House of Commons by the usual government majority, and is under consideration by the House of Lords, by whom it will doubtless he thrown out. The promoters of the bill do not look for its passage by both houses prior to 1895.

-The cholera epidemic in Europe shows no signs of abatement. At Grimsby and Hull cases continue to occur daily, and the disease is marching inland, one death having occurred in the district of Masborough, Rotherham, and one also among the employees in the House of Commons.

-A railway collision occurred near Chicago, resulting in the death of ten persons and injury to twenty-five others. Another collision occurred between a passenger express and an accommodation train thirty miles from Valparaiso, Indiana, about twelve persons being killed and many injured.

-A popular vote in Toronto, Canada, on a proposal to run street cars in the city on Sunday, resulted in showing a majority of 1,000 against the proposal, out of a total of 27,000 votes. Compared with a similar vote taken in January, 1822, it appears that the number favouring Sunday cars has increased by nearly 3,000.

-The Roman Catholic congress connected with the World's Fair at Chicago began its session in the morning of September 4, to continue for ons week. A glance at the programme for the session shows that the purpose is to promote the effort that is being made by the Pope and the Catholic Church to win the favour of the labouring classes.

-A terrible railway disaster is reported from New York, a part of the Western express, one of the fastest trains on the Boston and Albany Railway, having fallen through a bridge over the Westfield River, near Chester, Massachusetts. The engine had safely crossed the bridge (which was under repair) when the latter gave way, and four cars were precipitated into the river. Fifteen passengers were killed outright, and thirty-six injured, many fatally.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

Speaking of the martyrs of 1593, Mr. R. F. Horton said in a recent sermon:-

"There still exists in England a kind of tyrannical public opinion which forces men into specific forms of worship when they have no heart in the matter; and we want to realise, as these martyrs did, that it is better not to worship at all than to worship under compulsion, or to worship with any ulterior ends of social or pecuniary gain."

It is stated in The Hospital, that about five and a half pounds of tea, per head, are consumed annually in England. This is equal to about thirty-seven gallons of the fluid; and this makes no note of those who do not drink it. The paper above referred to says that the people are yielding with all the weakness of the inebriate to nerve and stomach diseases consequent on tea-drinking. It anticipates the time when temperance advocates will plead with people even to substitute beer for the more harmful tea.

The New York Observer is now publishing a series of articles, the object of which is to prove that Calvin had nothing whatever to do with causing the death of Servetus. It has been but a few years since the same paper published a series of five articles designed to show that Calvin was justified in compassing the death of the brilliant Spaniard. The inconsistency is one that will always occur when faith is built upon fallible men instead of the infallible word of God. He who builds only on the word, is never put under the necessity of making apologies.

"They that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee, for Thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek Thee." Psa. ix. 10. What is the name of the Lord? It is a "glorious and fearful name," and here is, proclaimed by the Lord Himself: "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin." Ex. xxiv. 6, 7. To know God is to love and trust Him. To know Him is eternal life. It is impossible for one to know the Lord and not to trust Him. Consequently it is only those who do not know the Lord, that will be destroyed. But no one need be unacquainted with Him, for He has declared His named in all the earth. "O taste and see that the Lord is good; there is no want to them that fear Him."

There are very few more pernicious ideas than that the majority must always be right, or that, right or wrong, the majority ought always to have their own way, regardless of the wishes of the minority. Here are some plain and simple statements of fact from the New York Independent, which are worth thinking about:-

"The majority may rule like tyrants, to the suppression of the rights of the minority, a majority can make slaves of a minority, and has done it often. That only is a free government in which the minority as well as the majority are free, a principle not easy always to understand or to apply. It is a very common and a very subtle and dangerous error to imagine that the majority has the right to interfere with the liberty of the minority, either through the tyranny of law, or the tyranny of society, where the tyranny of voluntary organisation."

It is said that in Tinnevelly it is the native custom to use a necklace, instead of a ring, in the marriage ceremony, and the Church of England missionaries there have consented to change the marriage service so that it reads, "with this necklace I thee wed." Some of their brethren at home, however, are protesting against the crime involved in the change. The thing which puzzles us is to know what connection either a ring or a necklace has with a wedding. How a man can wed a woman with a ring or a necklace any better than without, is one of the mysteries that nobody has ever attempted to explain. In this, as in many other things, custom that has come down from pagan antiquity, stands in place of a reason.

In the September number of the Contemporary Review, Archbishop Farrar gives expression to some vigorous Protestantism. He denies that he is a priest, except in the "sense in which all Christians, laymen every whit as much as presbyters, are so-called;" and He declares that his office is simply that of presbyter. Speaking of the Church of England, he says: "If she taught the doctrines of Sacerdotalism, of Transubstantiation (or anything at all akin to it), of unconditional priestly absolution, and of the duty of auricular confession, I for one would leave her communion tomorrow, and in leaving it I would shake the dust from off my feet." As there is a large and influential body of men who hold that the Church of England does teach those things, it is more than probable that the Archdeacon and others may have an opportunity to show their Protestantism in a practical way. The High Church party has scant courtesy for "Protestants."

"Asking Amiss" The Present Truth 9, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

"Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss." So wrote the apostle James in his letter to the church. Thus it is with a great many prayers that are offered to-day. "If we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us." 1 John v. 14. But the majority of prayers that are offered are not asked "according to His will," but according to the will of man. A notable instance of this is now before the public. The committee on religious congresses at the World's Fair have issued a request for universal prayer on behalf of these great religious conclaves, in which we find this paragraph:-

"It is suggested that on one day in September the religious teachers of the world call public attention to this first great effort of mankind to realise their common religious fraternity. And the request is earnestly preferred, and sent out to all those who believe in a divine order and the government of the world, and to work and wait for a kingdom of God on earth, that during the month of September in 1893, at some special time and places of public worship, devout supplication should be made that this historic meeting of the children of one Heavenly Father may be blessed to the glory of His name, to the advancement of spiritual enlightenment, to the promotion of peace and goodwill among the races and nations, and to the deepening and widening of the sense of universal human brotherhood."

Thus all sounds pretty good, but we can have no faith whatever in any prayer that is offered to God with the spirit and the understanding that the Christian religion can unite with pagan systems of worship and be placed on a level with them in a common religious fraternity, or in behalf of the enterprise which seeks to bring this about. Nothing of this kind can be according to the will of God; for the will of God is revealed in His word, which makes a difference as high as the heavens between the Christian religion and all other religions whatsoever.

We would suggest that this great congress be opened by reading these words from 2 Cor. vi. 14-16: "What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?" Pending the answers to these questions, it will be in order to entertain a motion to adjourn sine die.

September 21, 1893

"Front Page" The Present Truth 9, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

Jesus said: "All things are delivered unto Me of My Father; and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and He to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." Matt. xi. 27.

Again we read, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." John i. 18. And accordingly, when Phillips said, "Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us," Jesus answered, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, show us the Father?"

Man cannot by searching find out God. It is true that God has promised to make known His ways to men, that they may know Him; but the ways of God cannot be found out by human reasoning. No one can find out anything about God, if he studies with a critical or a selfish spirit. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant." Ps. xxv. 14. No man is understood except by his friends; who could expect to understand God except by loving Him?

But, more than this, it should be understood that God is known only in Christ. The life of Christ is the life of God, but the life cannot be studied critically, as an artist would study a picture. We can know the life of God only as it is lived in us. "For with Thee is the fountain of life; in Thy light we shall see light." Ps. xxxvi. 9. Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world; therefore we must, like Paul, determine to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified, if we would know the truth about the ways of God. The cross of Christ reveals the deep things of God. Every conclusion arrived at outside the light of the cross, will be but a libel on the character of God.

"Why Did Christ Die?" The Present Truth 9, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

The fact that this question has been asked in all seriousness by an active Christian is sufficient reason for considering it, apart from the fact that it touches the very core of Christianity. It shows that the fundamental principles of the Gospel are not so generally understood as people are wont to imagine. This is not because they are so obscure and complex as to be beyond ordinary comprehension, but because they have been so thickly enveloped in the fog of theological terms. Those terms are the intention of men, and have nothing to do with the Scriptures. If we are content with the simple statements of the Bible, we shall see how quickly its light dispels the fog of theological speculation.

"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." 1 Peter iii. 18. That is a sufficient answer, but we will read further. "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." 1 Tim. i. 15. "Ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him is no sin." 1 John iii. 5. "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John i. 7.

Read again: "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. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 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. 6-10.

Once more: "And you, that were sometime enemies, and alienated in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight." Col. i. 21, 22. "Therefore 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 committed unto us the word of reconciliation." 2 Cor. v. 17-19.

All men have sinned. Rom. iii. 23; v. 12. Sin is enmity against God. "The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Rom. viii. 7. In one of the texts above quoted we read that men need reconciliation, because they are enemies in their minds by wicked works. Therefore

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since all men have sinned, it follows that all men are by nature the enemies of God; and that also is what we read in Rom. v. 10, above quoted.

But sin is death. "To be carnally minded is death." Rom. viii. 6. "By one man sin came into the world, and death by sin." Rom. v. 12. Death came in by sin, because it carries death concealed within it. "The sting of death is sin." 1 Cor. xv. 56. Sin when it is full grown bringeth forth death. James i. 15.

Sin is death, for the reason that it is enmity against God. God is "the living God." With Him is "the fountain of life." Ps. xxxvi. 9. Christ is called the "Author of life." Acts iii. 15, margin. Life is the grand characteristic of God. "He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things." Acts xvii. 25. "In Him we live, and move, and have are being;" "for we are also His offspring." Verse 28. The life of God is the source of every created thing; and apart from Him there can be no life.

But righteousness, as well as life, is the grand characteristic of God. "There is no unrighteousness in Him." Ps. xcii. 15. "As for God, His way is perfect." Ps. xviii. 30. Since the life of God is the source of all life, and all depend on Him, it follows that His righteousness is the standard of righteousness of all intelligent beings; for God's life is nothing but righteousness. Therefore life and righteousness are inseparable. "To be spiritually minded is life." Rom. viii. 6.

Now since God's life is the standard of righteousness, it is evident that everything that is different from the life of God is unrighteousness; and "all unrighteousness is sin." But if the life of any being is different from the life of God, it must be because His life is not allowed free course through that being. But where God's life is not, there is death. Whoever is out of harmony with God-enmity against Him-has death working in him, and death for his inevitable portion. So it is not by an arbitrary decree that the wages of sin is death. That results from the very nature of things. Sin is opposition to God,-rebellion against Him,-and is utterly foreign to His being. It is separation from God, and separation from God is death, because there is no life outside of Him. All that hate Him, love death.

Let us now sum up the case of the relation between the natural man and God. (1) All have sinned. (2) Sin is enmity against God; it is rebellion. (3) Sin is alienation from God; men are alienated and enemies in their minds by wicked works. Col. i. 21. (4) Sinners are "alienated from the life of God." Eph. iv. 18. But God in Christ is the only source of life for the universe, and therefore all who are thus alienated from His righteous life are by the very nature of things doomed to death. "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." 1 John v. 12.

RECONCILIATION

From all that has preceded it is very evident that the only object that Christ could have in coming to earth and dying for men, was the reconciliation of man to God, so that he might have life. "I am come that they might have life." John x. 10. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." 2 Cor. v. 19. "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight." Col. i. 21, 22. Christ suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, "that He might bring us to God." 1 Peter iii. 18. "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," someone will say, "You have made the reconciliation all on the part of men; I have always been taught that the death of Christ reconciled God to man; that Christ died to satisfy God's justice, and to appease Him." Well, we have left the matter of reconciliation just where the Scriptures have put it; and while they have much to say about the necessity for man to be reconciled to God, they never once hint of such a thing as the necessity for God to be reconciled to man. To intimate the necessity for such a thing is to bring a grave charge against the character of God. The idea has come into the Christian Church from the Papacy, which in turn brought it from Paganism, in which the only idea of God was of a being whose wrath must be appeased by a sacrifice.

Stop a moment, and think what reconciliation means. The existence of enmity is the only necessity for reconciliation. Where there is no enmity, there is no necessity for reconciliation. Man is by nature alienated from God; he is a rebel, full of enmity. Therefore man needs to be reconciled-to have his enmity taken away. But God has no enmity in His being. "God is love." Consequently there is no necessity for Him to be reconciled; there is no possibility of such a thing, for there can be no reconciliation where there has been no enmity.

Again: "For 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. Surely, they who say that the death of Christ reconciled God to men, have forgotten this blessed text. They would separate the Father and the Son, making the former the enemy, and the latter the friend, of man. But God's heart was so overflowing with love to fallen man, that He "spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all;" and in so doing He gave Himself, for "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." The Apostle Paul speaks of "the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood." Acts xx. 28. This effectually disposes of the idea that there was any enmity toward man on the part of God, so that He needed to be reconciled. The death of Christ was the expression of God's wonderful love for sinners.

Consider further what reconciliation means. It means a change on the part of the one reconciled. If one has enmity in His heart towards another, a radical change must take place in him before he is reconciled. This is the case with man. "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." 2 Cor. v. 17, 18. But to speak of the necessity for God to be reconciled to man, is not only to say that He cherished enmity in His heart, but to say that God was partially in the wrong, and that a change had to take place in Him as well as in man. If it were not in the innocence of ignorance that men talked about God's having been reconciled to men, it would be blasphemy. That is one of the "great things and blasphemies" that the

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Papacy has spoken against God. Let us not echo it.

God is. He could not be other than He is, and be God. He is absolute and unchangeable perfection. He cannot change. Hear Him: "I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." Mal. iii. 6. Instead of having to change and be reconciled to sinful man, in order that they might be saved, the only hope for their salvation is the fact that he never changes, but is everlasting love. He is the source of life, and the standard of life. When any beings are unlike Him, the difference is on their part, and not on His. He is the fixed standard, to which all must conform, if they would live. God cannot change to accommodate the desires of sinful men, but simply because such a change would lower His dignity, and make His Government unstable, but because He cannot be other than He is, "He that cometh to God must believe that He is."

Just a thought concerning the idea that Christ's death was necessary to satisfy outraged justice. Christ death was necessary to satisfy the love of God. "God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." Rom. v. 8. "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." Justice would have been met by the summary death of the sinful race. But God's love could not suffer that. So we are justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Through faith in His blood, God's righteousness-which is His life-is declared upon us, and thus He is just, and at the same time the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. Rom. iii. 21-26. The reason why it was necessary that Christ should die, in order that men might be saved, will be considered in the next edition of this article.

Why have we dwelt so long upon the fact that man must be reconciled to God, and not God to man? Because in that alone is man's hope. If God ever had any enmity in His heart against men, there would always arise the torturing thought, "Perhaps He is not yet sufficiently appeased to accept Me; surely He cannot love so guilty a being as I am." And the more one realised his guilt, the greater would be his doubt. But when we know that God never had any enmity towards us, but that He has loved us with an everlasting love, and that He has loved us so much that He gave Himself for us, that we might be reconciled to Him, we can joyfully exclaim, "If God be for us, who can be against us?"

REMISSION

Freedom from sin, or at least from its consequences, is what men have been seeking ever since the fall. Sad to say, however, the great majority have sought it in the wrong way. It was with a lie against the character of God, that Satan caused the first sin, and he has been vigorously engaged in trying to induce people to believe that lie ever since. So successful has he been, that the mass of mankind regard God as stern and unsympathetic, a being who regards man with a coldly critical eye, and who would much rather destroy than save. In short, Satan has largely succeeded in putting himself in the place of God, in the minds of men.

Thus it is that much of the worship of the heathen is, and always has been, devil-worship. "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. Consequently all heathen worship springs from the idea that a sacrifice must be made to appease the wrath of their God. Sometimes this sacrifice is in the shape of property, but often it is of the person. Thus arose the great hordes of monks and hermits among the heathen, and later among the professed Christians, who borrowed their ideas of God from the heathen. These thought to gain the favour of God by scourging and torturing themselves.

The prophets of Baal cut themselves with knives, "till the blood gushed out upon them" (1 Kings xviii. 28), hoping thereby to induce their god to listen to them. With the same idea of God, thousands of so-called Christians have worn hair shirts, walked barefoot on glass, made pilgrimages on their knees, slept on the hard floor, or the ground, and scourged themselves with thorns, starved themselves nearly to death, and set themselves the most impossible tasks. But nobody ever found peace in any of those ways, because no man could get out of himself that which was not in him, and righteousness and peace are not in man.

Sometimes this idea of propitiating the wrath of God has taken an easier form,-that is, easier for the worshippers. Instead of sacrificing themselves, they have sacrificed others. Human sacrifices have always been to a greater or lesser extent connected with heathenism. Men shudder as they read of the human sacrifices offered by the ancient inhabitants of Mexico and Peru, and by the Druids; but professed (not real) Christianity has its awful list. Even so-called Christian England has made hundreds of burnt offerings of men, for the purpose of turning away the wrath of God from the country. Wherever there is religious persecution to any degree, it springs from the mistaken idea that God demands a victim. This is shown by the words of Christ to His disciples: "The time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service." John xvi. 2. All such worship has been devil worship, and not worship of the true God.

Just here somebody has remembered that it is said in Heb. ix. 22, "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission;" and this makes him think that after all God did demand a sacrifice before He would pardon man. It is very difficult for the mind to rid itself of the idea received as a legacy from Paganism, through the Papacy, that God was so angry at man for having sinned, that He could not be mollified without seeing blood flow, but that it made no difference to Him whose blood it was, if only somebody was killed; and that since Christ's life was worth more than the lives of all men, He accepted Him as a substitute for them. This is almost a brutal way of stating the case, but it is the only way that the case can be truly presented. The heathen conception of God is a brutal one, as dishonouring to God as it is discouraging to man; and this heathen idea has been allowed to colour too many texts of Scripture. It is sad to think how greatly men who really loved the Lord, have given occasion to His enemies to blaspheme.

"Apart from shedding of blood there is no remission." What is remission? It means simply "sending away." What is to be remitted, or sent away? Our sins, for we read that "through faith in Christ's blood the righteousness of God is declared for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God." Rom. iii. 20. So we learn that apart from the shedding of blood there is no sending away of sins.

What blood is it that takes away sins? Only the blood of Christ, "for

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there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." "Ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin." 1 John iii. 5. "Knowing that ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver and gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers; but with precious blood, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ." 1 Peter i. 18, 19. "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." 1 John i. 7.

But how is it that the shedding of blood, even the blood of Christ, can take away sins? Simply because the blood is the life. "For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul." Lev. xvii. 11. So when we read that apart from the shedding of blood there is no remission, we know it means that no sins can be taken away except by the life of Christ. In Him is no sin; therefore when He imparts His life to a soul, that soul is at once cleansed from sin.

Remember that Christ is God. "The Word was God," "and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself." God gave Himself in Christ for men, for we have read of "the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood." The Son of man, in whom was the life of God, came to minister, "and to give His life a ransom for many." Matt. xx. 28.

The case, therefore, stands thus: All have sinned. Sin is enmity against God, because it is a condition of alienation from the life of God. Therefore sin is death. The one thing, then, that man stood in need of was life, and this is the one thing that Christ came to give. In Him was life that sin could not touch, and that could triumph over death. His life is the light of men. A single light may make ten thousand other lights, and still not be diminished. No matter how much sunlight any person receives, there is just as much for everybody else; and if there were a hundred times as many people on earth as there are, there would be no less sunlight for each one than there is now. So with the Sun of Righteousness. He can give His life to all, and still have as much left.

Christ came to impart the life of God to man, for it is that that they lack. The lives of all the angels in heaven could not have met the demands of the case; not because God was so inexorable, but because they could not have imparted any life to man. They had no life in themselves, but only the life that Christ imparted to them. But God was in Christ, and in Him God's everlasting life could be given to everyone who would receive it. Remember that in giving His Son, God gave Himself, and you will see that a sacrifice was not demanded to satisfy God's outraged feelings, but that, on the contrary, God's inexpressible love led Him to sacrifice Himself, in order to break down man's enmity, and reconcile us to Himself.

"But why could He not give us His life without dying?" That is to say, Why could He not give us His life, and still not give it? We needed life, and Christ alone had life to give; but the giving of life is dying. His death reconciles us to God, provided we make it our own by faith. We are reconciled to God by the death of Christ, because in dying He gave up His life, and He gave it to us. Being made partakers of the life of God, through faith in Christ's death, we are at peace with Him, because one life is in us both. Then we are "saved by His life." Christ died, but He still lives, and His life in us keeps us united to God. The imparting of His life to us frees us from sin and the continuing of it in us, keeps us from sin.

"In Him was life; and the life was the light of men." John i. 4. Jesus 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. Now we can understand how it is that 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." His light is His life; walking in the light is walking in His life; and when we thus walk, His life is flowing through us, a living stream, cleanses from all sin." "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift." His life is light, and will dispel all earth's darkness. In His light (life) we shall see light. Only as we consider hard questions in the light of His life, can we understand them.

"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Rom. viii. 31, 32. Let the weak and fearful sinner take courage, and trust in the Lord. We have not a God who demands a sacrifice from man, but one who in His love has offered Himself a sacrifice. We owe to God a life perfectly in harmony with His law; but since our life is just the opposite of that, God in Christ has substituted His own life for ours, and so we can offer up "spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." Then "let Israel hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities." Ps. cxxx. 7, 8.

"Our Duty to Rejoice" The Present Truth 9, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

It is the privilege and duty of the Christian to rejoice. In the Christian life, privilege and duty go hand in hand. Duty is a privilege to the Christian, and it is his duty to improve his privileges. And one of the privileges given him by the God whom he serves, is that of always rejoicing. "Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, rejoice." "Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Phil. iv. 4, 6, 7.

The Christian life is the only life which affords continual joy. The world says. Rejoice when everything goes right,-when you have health and home and position and money and friends-but in this life of sudden changes all these things are not likely to keep company very long in the experience of any one individual. The day of misfortune comes, when one or more of these happy accompaniments of life's journey takes its flight, and lo! he is left in mourning and gloom. The conditions which prevail in this world do not invite one to hope for a life of happiness in any of its pathways. But in the path that leads up from earth to the city of God, that leads away from sin to holiness, it is

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not so. There joy is continually present, no matter how rough the road and how dark the way; for there is One who walks beside the traveller, who lights his path and whose presence gives rest and peace.

The Christian's joy may be perpetual, because he can "rejoice in the Lord." This is the secret of his ability to rejoice in the midst of trials. In God there are no difficulties and no trials. Whatever he loses here, he has again "in the Lord." God has everything, and can lose nothing. No misfortune can befall Him. All the conditions of perfect happiness are constantly with Him. And all these conditions surround the individual in whom He dwells. For God dwells in the human heart by faith (Eph. iii. 17), and the human body is made the temple of His Spirit. 1 Cor. vi. 19. And no individual is of such lowly station that He may not have God's company; for it is not with Him as it is with the worldly great, who deem themselves too honourable to associate with such. "For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." Isa. lvii. 19. And "the blessing of the Lord maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow."

The psalmist understood all this when he penned the beautiful and familiar words of the twenty-third psalm: "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want." The divine Shepherd is able to supply every want of all in His flock. "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, He leadeth me beside the still waters;" and when misfortune and sorrow come, "He restoreth my soul. Yea," the psalmist exclaims, "though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me." If God be for us, what can be against us? Truly, nothing; for there is nothing that can stand against Him. "One person, with God on his side, is in the majority." Even in view of the dark passage through the valley of the shadow of death, in the midst of all the vicissitudes that marred his life, the psalmist could say, "My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." And these words were written for the afflicted and the sorrowing of all succeeding ages; for God is the Shepherd of all His people, as He was of Israel's king. He will do for them what David knew He would do and was doing for him.

Therefore we can take to ourselves these words of cheering admonition: "Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous; and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart." Ps. xxxii. 11.

"Motives" The Present Truth 9, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

This is a subject which cannot be too carefully considered in connection with our Christian experience. Upon the character of our motives depends the result of the efforts put forth in the Christian life. Motives lie back of all deeds, and are the true index of the condition of the heart. And they are often a source of deception, not only to the friends and neighbours of an individual, but also to the individual himself.

God reads the motives of every heart, and by them measures the standing of each individual. When the prophet Samuel came to anoint one of the sons of Jesse to be king, and looked upon Eliab, the first-born, he said, "Surely the Lord's anointed is before Him." "But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him; for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." 1 Sam. xvi. 6, 7. Men may deceive those around them by their outward appearance and life, and may even thereby deceive himself; but no one can in the slightest degree deceive God. And upon many a one who presents himself, as did Eliab, a confident candidate for Divine honour, God looked as He did upon the firstborn son of Jesse, and unheard by man repeats the sentence of condemnation.

Eliab was doubtless self-deceived; but in this respect he does not stand apart from the generality of mankind, the victim of a strange misfortune, for it is the natural condition of every man to be ignorant of the evil that is within him. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" Jer. xvii. 9. Man cannot in his own wisdom know his heart, and the hidden motives that lie within it. God only can read the heart of man, and only upon the revelation made to him by God can man depend for a correct knowledge of what he is. "I the Lord search the heart; I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings." Verse 10.

Not all motives that prompt the performance of religious deeds are acceptable in the sight of God. "Without faith it is impossible to please God" (Heb. xi. 6); and "whatsoever is not of faith is sin." But much that passes for faith is not true faith. We are told what is the characteristic of true faith in Gal. v. 6: "For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love." This is the motive which God approves, and which makes a deed acceptable to Him. Faith which worketh by love is that which avails in the service of God. All effort which proceeds from any other motive is thrown away. Without love it is equally "impossible to please God," for love is greater than faith. "Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." 1 Cor. xiii. 13. And charity and love by which faith works, are one and the same thing.

In the opening words of this thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, the effect of trying to serve God without charity (or love) and the possibility of deception upon this point, are strikingly set forth. "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." 1 Cor. xiii. 1-3.

Can a man, then, bestow all his goods to feed the poor, and give his body to be burned, and yet not have charity? Evidently, he can; or Paul would not have stated it as he did. The misguided fanatic or the deluded enthusiastic may outwardly go to the very extreme of self-denying labour for God, and yet be without that motive of love which would render his service acceptable. That love is the love of God, the love that comes from and has its origin in Him, and contains no human element in its composition. It is a love in which self is entirely lost. "Not everyone that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven.

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Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity." Matt. vii. 21-24.

These have not been wanting in zeal, and outwardly they have made a very good showing in all respects, having "many wonderful works" to their credit, which have no doubt brought them great admiration and reverence from their fellow-men. But there was something wrong with their hearts. The right motive was not there,-the faith working by love, which takes no account of self. Their plea gave evidence of this fact. "Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name?" have we not cast out devils? have we not done many wonderful works? "We" is not the password into the gates of heaven; and "our wonderful works" are not good currency at the bank of Heaven, but only the basest counterfeit.

In that day, the righteous will base no claim upon themselves or anything they have done, or upon the great things accomplished by the religious organisations with which they have been connected. One thing alone will avail the candidate for a position at the right hand of God,-Jesus Christ and His righteousness, received and held by the faith which worketh by love. "Charity never faileth." It will continue as long as God continues; for God Himself is love. When this love is in the heart God is in the heart, and eternal life can never be separated from Him. This is the one acceptable motive in all work that is done for His name.

"Majorities" The Present Truth 9, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

In round numbers, there are six hundred million Buddhists in the world, two hundred million Mohammedans, two hundred and fifty million Brahmins and followers of Confucius, besides millions of unclassified heathen. Of professed Christians, including Greeks, Catholics, Protestants, etc., there are less than four hundred million, and these are divided into a multitude of discordant sects, many of them holding scarcely anything in common. Some of our friends think that custom, and the majority, ought to decide the correctness of matters of religion; but if that were true, it would show Christianity to be false, for it is greatly in the minority. If majorities are to be counted, we must not stop at professed Christians, but must include all men. But majorities do not decide anything. Since the fall of man, the majority of people on earth have been in error. The Lord 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.

"A Sure Foundation" The Present Truth 9, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

"The foundation of God standeth sure." So wrote the Apostle Paul to Timothy, after he had spoken of some who were teaching heresy in the church, and who did "overthrow the faith of some." 2 Tim. ii. 18, 19. There were some in the church then, as there have been ever since, who built their faith upon the teaching of men. But this is not the foundation that God has provided. Man is fallible, and nothing of a fallible nature will do to put into the foundation upon which God erects His church. With anything there that was not permanent in its nature, the church itself would inevitably be swept away; for the time is coming when everything that can be shaken will be removed, that only that which cannot be shaken may remain. See Heb. xii. 27.

The church of God is not built upon the Apostle Peter, as claimed by very many who profess to be Christian teachers, for Peter was but a man, and fallible like all who are human. If any testimony were needed upon this point other than that supplied by reason and common sense, it is furnished by the Apostle Paul, in his epistle to the Galatians. In the second chapter of this letter, speaking of his visit with Barnabas to the brethren at Jerusalem, he says: "But contrariwise, when they saw that the Gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the Gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter; (for He that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles); and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision." Gal. ii. 7-9.

From this it is evident that Paul had at least as much laid upon him in the building up of the church as had been laid upon Peter, and if it be measured by the extent of the field assigned him, very much more, since "the circumcision" were but a very small part of the total of earth's inhabitants. Considering this fact, and the labours of the great apostle in building up the church of Christ, both in his own day and, by his numerous epistles, in all succeeding ages, the honour that is claimed for Peter might with more propriety be given to the apostle to the Gentiles.

In the same chapter also is found a record of Peter's fallibility. "But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles; but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision." Gal. ii. 11, 12.

How many other mistakes Peter made we are not informed, but the record of this one has been left to us, in anticipation, it may be, of the blasphemous claim that was to be put forth for his so-called successors, the popes.

But neither Peter nor Paul were chosen by God to constitute the foundation of which it is testified that it "standeth sure." The great apostle himself said, writing to those who had made the mistake of confessing spiritual allegiance to men: "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase." And the same apostle who here testifies that he is nothing, in another place declared, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." 1 Tim. i. 15. What a mistake, then, to think that spiritual allegiance can be due to any being on the earth. "For," says Paul, "other foundation can no man have than that is laid, which is Christ Jesus." 1 Cor. ii. 5-7, 11.

Christ is the sure foundation. God is revealed to us in Christ, and Christ is revealed in His word; for it was the Spirit of Christ that inspired the writers of the Scriptures. See 1 Peter i. 10, 11. Christ is called the Word. See John i. 1-14; Rev. xix. 11-13. Therefore we know the foundation of

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God by knowing His word. We stand upon the foundation by standing upon His word, and that His word is an unmovable foundation Christ testified when He said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away." Luke xxi. 33. And in the conclusion of His memorable sermon on the mount, He testified, "Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not; for it was founded upon a rock." Matt. vii. 24, 25. Whosoever builds upon Christ's sayings, builds upon Christ Himself.

Let us make sure of the foundation upon which we stand. The rain will descend, the floods will come, the winds will blow; and "the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies." But the word of God will stand. God has provided a sure foundation for all His people. He does not leave them to build their hopes of heaven on the least uncertainty. "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 stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil." Heb. vi. 13-19.

"How sure a Foundation, ye saints of the Lord,

Is built for your faith in His excellent word."

How confidently can His saints stand upon that foundation! The time is coming when men will be looking, even more than at the present, for something on which they can rest with confidence. Already they are losing confidence in earthly institutions and earthly helps. Distress and perplexity prevail among high and low, and men's hearts are failing them for fear, for the prospect presented as their eyes turn to the future. And when the day comes in which the earth itself shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and on every hand men's eyes shall behold the breaking up and dissolution of earthly things, then what will it not be worth to a man to know that under his feet is a foundation that cannot be moved. What will it not be worth to recall the words of the Saviour, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away," and to know that His words are the foundation on which we rest! He offers us now this foundation. Truly we may say, "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift!"

"The Truth Must Be Heard" The Present Truth 9, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

The New York Independent brings us the latest intelligence concerning the controversy over closing the World's Fair on Sunday, in the following paragraph, printed in its issue of September 7:-

"The injunction restraining the World's Fair directors from closing the gates on Sunday came before Judge Goggin, who invited two associates to sit with him. Before they could announce their views in favour of closing the gates, Judge Goggin told the clerk to enter an order to continue the case for sixty days. On the protest of his associates he withdrew his invitation to them to sit with him, and carried through the sixty days' continuance. This will result in leaving the Fair open for the remainder of the time on Sunday."

The most indifferent person to this Sunday controversy cannot have failed to note that it has displayed wonderful vitality in keeping before the public, in the face of a long-continued and almost unanimous desire to see it ended. The whole combined legislative and judicial powers of the United States Government invoked to decide the question, with public sentiment thrown in, had failed to give it a quietus. The people have grown tired of the discussion, and enough time has seemingly elapsed for it to die a natural death; but with each new turn of the wheel it comes up again as fresh as ever. With nothing, apparently, to feed upon, it still keeps strong and flourishing. What is the secret of its vitality?

Ah, the secret is with Him who has instituted the Sabbath, to whom belongs its observance, and to the interests of whose cause the discussion of the whole subject pertains. The truth must be heard. God's designs to enlighten man upon the subject of His Sabbath, that those who will may observe it on the day and in the manner that He has commanded; and when God sets His hand to carry out His purposes in the earth, all opposition must give way before it. It matters not what the appearances are or what are the natural expectations of men. The work may appear to have no foundation at all; yet in reality it rests on the best of all foundations, for it is in His hand. Like the burning bush that stood unconsumed before the astonished eyes of Moses in the wilderness, it sets at naught all human calculations and expectations, because it is ordered and controlled by the Omnipotent.

The number of times it has seemed that the question of closing the World's Fair gates on Sunday was definitely settled, so that the public mind could be turned upon something else; but the announcement of the fact was each time speedily contradicted by its reappearance in the arena of public controversy. First, Congress settled the matter by a vote, which not only declared that the gates must remain closed on Sunday, but also that the first day of the week was the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. But the directors of the Fair entertained doubts as to the binding nature of this politico-religious vote upon themselves, and accordingly it was again "settled" by them. Meanwhile the gates had been closed for three Sundays.

The directors deciding differently from Congress, by a strict interpretation of the governing rules, the gates were thrown open to the public. The question then went into the courts, where at first it was decided that the decree of Congress must stand; but about two weeks later a higher court declared that Congress had no authority in the matter. Next the directors decided to close the Fair on Sunday because it did not pay financially; but a decree of court restrained them, after the gates had been shut on the first day. Next it was heard that the injunction was dissolved and the gates were shut; and now again comes the announcement that the Exhibition is likely to remain open seven days in the week until it ends.

It is needless to say that in the meantime the claims of Sunday sacredness of character and to honour and reverence from men were investigated and discussed as never before. It was not left merely for such as felt inclined to consider it from a passing feeling of interest or curiosity. It was thrust upon them, and there was no escape. They were compelled to investigate it, until they had no excuse for ignorance upon the subject.

There is a compelling power about the truths which God sends to the world. Men cannot pass them over

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with the feeling of indifference that attaches to matters of no importance, or which have no higher mission than to attract the minds of the curious and speculative. They compel men to make a decision. Often it is made unwillingly, because against the admonitions of conscience, but it must be made, nevertheless. God's truth must go, and all the world must hear it, some to heed and obey it, and others to reject it-but the question of whether man will obey or disobey is not the paramount question, God's justice must be vindicated when He visits His judgments upon the disobedient. The world must be warned; they must have the light set before them. Then if they reject it, the great plan of God for the destruction of sin and evil must still move forward; the end must come, the righteous and the wicked be separated, and transgressors be blotted out in the lake of fire; but the consequences will not reflect in any way upon God. It will be seen by all that the wicked have brought destruction upon their own head; and all will unite in giving unto the Lord the glory that is due unto His name, for His mercy toward all, even those who were the most indifferent to His claims.

The same journal from which we have quoted makes mention also of a great agitation upon the question of Sunday observance in the Dominion of Canada, a proposition having been made to run street-cars on Sunday through the streets of Toronto. The question came to a popular vote, after having attracted universal attention from both platform and press. We are told that "interminable columns of letters and editorials were written and eagerly read. Several meetings were held in which both parties were represented. The feeling was intense. . . All classes represented on the platforms, from the hod-carrier and workwoman to learned Profressor Goldwin Smith, who favoured a limited service. . . The city was strewn with dodgers, fly leaves and cartoons, and the walls placarded with quotations from the Scripture and from bishops and divines, on the obligations or limitations of the Sabbath. The subject was thoroughly thrashed out in pulpit and press and on the platform as never before. Like the opening of the World's Fair, the attempt to run Sunday cars caused, in a narrower sphere, a thorough discussion of the Sunday question, which cannot but be a great moral education of the people."

We do not agree, of course, with the statement that the subject of Sabbath observance was "thoroughly thrashed out;" for no part of the truth of revelation can be "thrashed out" by man, though it is quite possible for a man to thrash out all he knows on the subject, and that, doubtless, was done upon the occasions mentioned. But the point in it all is that there was "a thorough discussion of the Sunday question, which cannot but be a great moral education of the people." That is what God wants. He wants people to be educated in His truth, and to be sanctified and saved by it; but if they will place themselves among the class to "hold the truth in unrighteousness," it must needs be that it be brought before them, that they may be without excuse in the day of God. The Gospel will not convert and save all men, but it will be sent to all for a witness before the end shall come.

God has said, "My word shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish the purpose whereunto I sent it." And He will send it into all the earth. The agitation must go on in countries where it has already been raised, and be raised in fields to which it has not yet come. Sooner or later it will be here; how, or in what form we know not, but it must come. All will be called upon to decide whether they will honour God by keeping His Sabbath,-the seventh day-or whether they will acknowledge the authority of the power which has dared to change God's law, in commanding the observance of Sunday. The decision all must make, however reluctantly. The truth received, sanctifies; rejected, it condemns. It will be a choice for life or death. Decide now, and wisely, which it shall be

"Prejudice" The Present Truth 9, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

Prejudice is a decision of a biased jury rendered before any evidence has been offered. Morally, there would be no difference between the witness who perjured himself, and the juryman who took oath to be governed by the law and the testimony, and then made up his mind as to the guilt of the prisoner before evidence was heard. We are all sworn to be impartial. No man can allow himself to be ruled by his prejudices in matters of religion without laying himself liable to the charge of stultification. The man who resists Christ and His claims on some vulgar prejudice which he has imbibed he scarcely knows how, is a juryman bound by every solemn obligation to be fair and impartial, yet who, taking his seat with a preconceived view of which he has not tried to dispossess himself, is a perjurer.

"'Fire Water'" The Present Truth 9, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

Satan, the enemy of all good, was not satisfied with the cooling, refreshing, life-giving drink that our heavenly Father made for all His creatures. He therefore caused men to think that they knew more than God, and led them to invent another kind of water for us to drink.

It looks very much like the water that God has given us, but, oh, how different it is! Instead of cooling and refreshing what it touches, it burns and sears and withers. Instead of life and health, it brings death and decay.

Place a beautiful white lily or a rose in it, and lo, what a change! The green leaves become spotted and eaten, the flower turns brown and withers and decays.

If you should get some of this water in your eye it would hurt you very much.

Your horse or cow or dog would not touch it, and if you should give it to your little baby brother, it would throw him into spasms, and might kill him.

It is so hot and fiery that it cooks and hardens the white of an egg that is dropped into it. And it treats men's brains in the same way when they drink it. It hardens their brains so that they cannot think well, and it burns the lining of their stomachs and causes it to become covered with sores. It makes their blood hot and feverish, makes their faces and eyes red, and sometimes covers their faces with sores. It often makes men so crazy that they cannot walk straight, and do not know what they are doing. It first causes them to be very silly and foolish, and then to be very cross, so that they want to steal, and fight, and shoot one another, and even kill their own wives and children. It causes them to become so weak and ill that they are not able to work, and it makes them so thirsty that they will sell their homes, and furniture, and children's clothes, and let their families starve to death so that they may have money to get some more of the dreadful drink. They think it will quench their burning thirst, but it makes it only worse and worse. Sometimes it makes men so drunk that they cannot stand up or know any more than a dead man, and then they lie about by the roadside or in the ditches like beasts.

Thousands are dying every day because of this terrible poison.

The water that God has given us puts out the fire, but if we soak a paper in this water that Satan has given us, and touch a match to it, how it burns! A pair of the Indians call it "fire-water" because it burns people, and is so much like a fire. Do you not think it is a very good name for it?

But the real name of this fire-water is-Alcohol. We find it in brandy, whisky, beer, wine, hard cider, and other strong drinks.

Alcohol is no better for a food than it is for a drink, for "there is not so much food in a pint of wine or beer as there is in a grain of wheat."

It does not give men strong bodies, and strong minds with which to resist evil, but it makes them weak and wicked.

In short, alcohol is one of Satan's own traps which he has set for every boy and girl and man and woman. He hides it in the ruby wine and in the foaming beer, and in the innocent looking sweets. He tempts a boy to taste it but for once, and then to taste just once more, until he wants it all the time, and cannot break away from the deceitful habit. Ah, Satan's caught him now, and he cannot get away! No one but Jesus Himself has power to set him free. Oh, will he let Him do it? or will he go on and on until he sinks into a drunkard's grave, lost, for ever lost? No drunkard can inherit the kingdom of heaven.

My dear young friend which water do you choose? Do you know what your best Friend says to you to-day? Listen to His voice:-

"Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder."

"Touch not the foaming, tempting glass

Nor look upon the wine;

A serpent vile is hid within

The liquid of the vine.

Its ruddy gleam invites you all

To taste the sparkling bowl,

And hides beneath the poison fangs

Which smite into your soul."

"Pure Water" The Present Truth 9, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

As we bathe in the billowy sea, or sit neath the falling cataract, or quench our thirst at the bubbling spring, or walk by the peaceful river, we should be reminded of that better and living water which flows from Jesus, the never-failing Fountain of Life. It can cleanse the inner most recesses of the hearty. It can satisfy the thirsting soul as nothing else can. It can be a well of water in us springing up into everlasting life. It is free for who-soever will, and the supply is more boundless than the ocean, more powerful than the cataract, more satisfying than the purest mountain spring, and more peaceful than the river. Blessed is the man, woman, or child that forgets not to drink daily of this wonderful, life-giving water.

Impure, dirty water is as unhealthful as impure, spoiled air. We therefore should be very careful not to drink water which has stood all night for it has taken in the impurities of the room. Our cisterns should be cleansed often, and we should be careful to have everything dirty far away from the well, for the impurities soak down through the ground and find their way into the water.

Did you know that water is one of the best medicines in the world?

"Water" The Present Truth 9, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

Jesus said, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. . . . And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." John vii. 37; Rev. xxii. 17.

Water, how clear, and sparkling, and beautiful! It is so bright that you can see your face in it, and so clear that you can look right through it. If it is clean, good water, you cannot smell it? Almost the last thing before you close your eyes at night you say, "Mamma, please give me a drink of water." Did you ever notice how many times you say that in just one day? Then in the morning you bathe your face and hands in it; how cool and refreshing it is, and how bright and clean it makes you look. "It is the world's cleanser. It washes everything, even the air. Your breakfast and dinner are cooked in water, and your clothes are washed in water. Some people have their houses warmed with the steam that comes from boiling water, and others have their sewing machines run with water. We have not time to tell you half of the wonderful things that are done with water. Ask your father to tell you how it runs the steam cars, the steamboats, the mill that grinds your flour, the printing presses that print your books and papers, and the machines that weave cloth for your dresses. Watch and see how many ways water is used in your house. Keep your eyes and ears open every day and see how many things you can learn about it.

Do you remember how some of the water that was on the earth at first, got way up above our heads in the clouds? Well, after God had made the beautiful firmament above us, and part of the waters that had been on the earth were floating about in the air, there was still much water on the earth; for there was no dry land at all.

On the third day, therefore, God gathered these waters together so that the dry land could be seen. He did not have to dip the water up, and carry it to the places where He wanted it, as we do, but He just said, "Let the waters be gathered together by themselves"; and they were! And God called the dry land "Earth," and the great bodies of waters he called "Seas." And God placed sand all around the edge of the seas for a bound or border. And God said to the waters of the seas, "Hitherto [that is, to this place] shalt thou come, but no farther; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." And though the great waves have tossed themselves ever since, yet they cannot break away from where God put them and again cover the earth; though they roar, they cannot pass over the sand that God placed around them. Jer. v. 22.

God did not put all the water in one part of the earth. He sent some into the mountains in springs and told them to run down into the valleys in little streams, that the beasts and birds might go there and find water to drink, and that the grass and trees in those places might be kept fresh and green. He put part of the water into lakes and ponds; and part, he put way down in the ground so that if men do not live near a river or spring, they can dig holes or wells down in the ground and find water. And then besides all this, He shows His tender love, by giving us the beautiful rain, about which we learned last week. The great Heavenly Father must love us all, for He sends His rain on the good and on the bad, and He freely gives us each all the good pure water that we need.

This water is wonderful, and useful, and good, and it keeps us alive; but it cannot keep us alive for ever. It causes us to have clean faces and hands; but it cannot cause us to have pure thoughts and actions. Jesus can give as "living water," water that will cause us to have pure, good thoughts and actions, so that we finally can live for ever with Him. Would you like to know what this "living water" is? It is His Holy Spirit. We cannot see it any more than we can see the air, but it makes us gentle and kind, and makes us want to please Jesus in every little thing that we do. You know how freely God gives us the beautiful water. Well, the Bible says that Jesus is just as willing to give us His Holy Spirit. Let us think of this every time we take a drink of water.

1. How do you get your face clean?

2. Name some of the places where we find water.

3. Did you ever see a spring? An ocean? A river?

4. What is an ocean?

5. Why don't the waves rush out over the dry land?

6. Do you think that it is just that

398

little sand that keeps them there?-No. Ps. lxxxix. 8, 9; xciii. 4.

7. Were the waters always in oceans, and lakes, and rivers, and springs?

8. When did God gather them together?

9. How did He do it?

10. For what is water good?

11. Suppose God had put all the water in one part of the earth, would it be so pleasant? Why not?

12. What should we always remember about dirty, bad-smelling water? It is just as bad for us as spoiled, bad-smelling air.

13. Is wine, or any other strong drinks as good for us as water? Why not? Prov. xx. 1; xxiii. 29-32.

"Water, bright water, pure water I drink,

From clear mountain streamlet, or deep wells

brink;

It cooleth, when parched, my thirsty tongue;

It helpeth my happiness to prolong;

'Tis the drink of the flowers, the birds, and bees.

The insects that dance on the summer's breeze;

The cattle that graze on the hill and plain:

The traveller's friend on the mighty main:

'Tis the drink that God gave first unto man.

In rivers that through lovely Eden ran.

Water, bright water, pure water, to thee

May I be a life-long, true devotee!"

14. What precious promise does God make to those who love and obey Him?-Their water shall be sure; they will always have enough. Isa. xxxiii. 15, 16.

15. But can this water make us live for ever?

16. Can it cause us to have pure thoughts and actions?

17. What kind of water can?-Living water.

18. What is this living water?-God's Holy Spirit. John vii. 37, 39; iv. 10-13.

19. Where can we get it? John xii. 37.

20. Do you want this gentle Spirit to come and live with you?

21. Then what does Jesus invite you to do?-To come unto Him, without money, and ask Him for it and He will give you freely all that you want.

"Ho, ye thirsty, come and drink!

Water! living water!

Gather at the fountain's brink,

Take the living water.

Souls athirst, oh, hither haste,

Stay not in the desert wastes;

"Come the healing waters taste,

Water, living water.

"Come ye who in deserts roam:

Water! living water!

Whosoever will may come

To the living water.

Ye who hear, lift up the cry,

Every soul that thirsts, draw nigh:

Come and drink, and never die;

Take the living water."

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

-The insurgents appear to be getting the upper hand in Brazil.

-It is announced that Sweden is about to join the Triple Alliance.

-A Capetown telegram says that fears are still entertained in Mashonaland of a Matabele attack.

-The Foreign Ministers at Rio de Janeiro have been warned that the city will be bombarded forthwith.

-A battle is reported to have taken place at Cordova in Argentina, in which the insurgents were victorious.

-A pension attorney of Pittsburg has been arrested on a charge of conspiring to assassinate President Cleveland.

-Egypt's cultivated area of land is about 5,000,000 acres, 2,800,000 being in Lower Egypt, and 2,200,000 in Upper Egypt.

-A great fire broke out at the Philadelphia Asylum for the Insane. Many of the unfortunate inmates are said to have perished in the flames.

-A telegram from Buenos Ayres states that fighting has been going on between the rebels and the Government troops in the City of Tucuman.

-The Legislative Council in New Zealand has passed the clauses of the Electoral Reform Bill, conferring the Parliamentary franchise on women.

-This Hungarian Government has replied to the Papal Encyclical, affirming that the Emperor-King will accept the politico-religious programme.

-India has 280,000,000 inhabitants, and only between 14,000 and 15,000 miles of railways. America has 85,000,000 people, and over 120,000 miles of railway.

-The New York express train on the Lake Shore Railway was stopped by a gang of armed robbers, the driver shot, and gold to the value of 250,000 dollars stolen.

-It is calculated that the quantity of opium grown in China is five times as much as that in India. Ten per cent. of the whole population of China are addicted to the habit of opium smoking.

-M. Charles de Lesseps, who was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for swindling and breach of trust in connection with the Panama scandal, has been released after remaining nine months in prison.

-The National Liberal Federation has issued an important manifesto to the federated Liberal associations with regard to the action of the House of Lords in rejecting the Hone Rule Hill. It is intended as a warning to the Lords.

-In consequence of the Czech agitation for Home Rule the Bohemian Constitution has been partially suspended by Austria, and the police have already suppressed some of the Radical papers and dissolved unions of the young Czechs.

-Of 9,000 Mecca pilgrims from Tunis and other parts, it is estimated that 4,500 perished of cholera on their way to or from the Holy City.

-"Very little alcoholic liquor is drunk in China," says Professor James Legge, Professor of the Chinese Language and Literature at Oxford. "In thirty-four years I have often been in such large cities as Canton, and I never saw one Chinaman drunk."

-As a result of the recent cyclone in the islands off the coast of South Carolina, it is stated that 20,000 persons are on the verge of death from, famine, thirst, and disease. Another cyclone has visited Lockport, Louisiana, killing six persons and injuring others.

-The cholera continues its havoc in Russia and Central Europe, but does not seem to be making much headway on the western frontier. The latest Local Government Board report as to cholera in England states that "the history of the more recent occurrences, and their isolated character, may be regarded as reassuring respecting the immediate future."

-The great coal strike still continues, and distress is deepening among the unfortunate families of the miners. Several persons in the mob who were fired upon by the military during the recent riots, have succumbed to their injuries. At a meeting of the London Trades Council a resolution was passed expressing sympathy with the miners, and recording its severe censure upon the Government for allowing the military forces to be used against the men.

-A number of merchants and captains engaged in the seal trade met recently at Victoria, B.C., and appointed a committee to draw up a petition to the British Government, showing that the regulations, as settled by the recent International Tribunal of Arbitration at Paris, will operate against the interests of the Dominion so seriously as to threaten the ruin of the seal-fishing industry. The petitioners ask the Government to purchase their schooner and outfits at a reasonable compensation.

-The Austro-Hungarian Ministry has suspended certain constitutional rights of the inhabitants of the city of Prague and its environs owing to the Home Rule agitation, and has issued a proclamation prohibiting all assemblages in its public squares or thoroughfares, the parading of the streets in bands, the ostentatious wearing of badges, and the carrying and displaying of flags with the exception of the Imperial and national colours. Anyone contravening this order will render himself liable to very severe punishment.

-War is raging in the central Soudan. Intelligence has been received from the interior

-The Congress of Religions, which promises to become one of the most interesting of the numerous gatherings in connection with the World's Fair, was opened in the Columbus Hall in the Fair ground September 11. On the platform were Christians-Protestant and Roman Catholic and members of the Greek Church-Buddhists, Brahmins, Mohammedans, followers of Confucius, and representatives of their creeds. The session will last seventeen days, and during that time each sect will expound the principles of its faith. The services are to be free to mankind. The doors were opened at ten o'clock. The proceedings were commenced by prayer, which was offered by Cardinal Gibbons.

-Great excitement continues to prevail in the Midlands in connection with the coal riots. At Pontefact three of the rioters who had been shot by the military on duty at Lord Masham's Acton Hall pit died of their injuries. More troops have been dispatched to the scene of the riots. Miners ballots taken in Derbyshire and Lancashire in the direction of the National Federation, show that the men are determined to resist the demand of the employers, and to remain out til the whole dispute is settled. In North Staffordshire, the men have gone back to the pits at the old rate of wages, pending the general decision. A new strike is said to be imminent in the Pas de Calais colliery distract, the coal companies being determined to resist the demands of the men.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

No financial panic was ever known to affect the bank of Heaven. If your money is there, it is as safe as you could possibly wish it.

The denominational statistics read at the recent Conference of Wesleyan Methodist Churches of Great Britain, showed that during the last connectional year 23,839 persons "ceased to be members."

It will be the poorest kind of consolation to the sinner when in the great Judgment he finds himself among the lost, to reflect that he was just as good a man as his neighbour Mr. A or Mr. B, who is lost likewise.

Christian people are civilised. Christianity civilises, the most ignorant heathen as if by the touch of magic. Christianity and the highest civilisation are identical; we mean not the highest national civilisation now seen, but the highest that is possible; for the truest civilisation cannot exist where there is not the observance of the golden rule. Civilisation owes much if not everything to Christianity; but Christianity owes nothing to civilisation. Its source is only in God.

Public Opinion states that a well-known American geologist, Mr. C. King, has by the use of a new and improved method of computation, discovered the earth's age to be only about twenty-four millions of years. This is a great reduction from the "vaguely vast" figures given us by geologists hitherto. So let them keep on with their computations. It may be that in the lapse of time they will at length get almost as near the truth on the subject as it would from a few hours devout study of the Scriptures.

We are not familiar with all the facts and arguments pertaining to the Home Rule controversy, but there is one kind of Home Rule which we thoroughly believe in and would advocate everywhere. It is that mentioned by Solomon in Prov. xvi. 32: "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city." This kind of "home rule" is more pressingly demanded to-day than any other. In fact, no scheme of governmental rule can succeed without it; for he who is not able to rule himself, is certainly not fit to govern any one else.

An Italian physician has come forward with the announcement that tobacco smoke possesses "a very pronounced bactericide power, acting particularly on the bacillus of asiatic cholera." He therefore urges that tobacco smoking be adopted as a preventive of the disease. One cannot help thinking that the physician is himself a smoker, or that he has an interest in the tobacco trade; for although the mission of tobacco is solely to kill, there is no evidence that in cholera epidemics women and other non-smokers have suffered more than smokers. On the contrary, the greatest mortality is among the drinking class, who are also the most addicted to the smoking habit.

The Chronicle publishes a letter written by James Defoe, a pauper paralytic, who claims-and to all appearances truthfully-to be the great-great-grandson of the author of Robinson Crusoe. The Chronicle appeals to the boys of England to do something that will enable this unfortunate descendant of the celebrated author to pass his last days, amid some comforts which do not fall to the paupers' lot. It is the old story of the unreliable nature of the gratitude and mercy of man. Not so is it with God. Cardinal Woolsey declared that if he had served God as faithfully as he served the king, he would not have been left to the misery and gloom which attended his approach to the grave. The Psalmist testifies, "I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." Ps. xxxvii. 25.

Some Zulu converts to Christianity, being told that they did wrong in exchanging girls and women for cattle, have demanded of the missionaries proof from the Bible that it is wrong to dispose of their daughters in that way. To civilised people such a demand seems very foolish, as of course it is; but it is no more so than the demand often made by civilsed men-or those claiming to be civilsed-for proof from the Bible that it is wrong to use tobacco. The one may be explained in some degree by the natural ignorance of the untutored savage; but the other is only accounted for by the lustfulness of the natural heart.

When men are told that they must cease some practice or custom because it is contrary to the word of God, they are always particular to demand a plain "Thus saith the Lord" in proof of it; but when they are told that they should begin, some new observance because God's word enjoins it upon them, the smallest inference to the contrary that can be drawn from any passages seeming to have a bearing upon the subject, is sufficient to convince them at once.

It is said of Moses that "by faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is invisible." Heb. xi. 27. This statement will apply generally to those who live the life of faith on earth. Their sight is directed to that which is invisible. They look with the eye of faith, and that brings invisible things in the sight; for "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." And while the eye of faith sees that which is invisible, it takes note of the carnal things which are visible. In the crowded street, in the busy marts of trade and commerce, in the presence of sin and temptation, the man of faith lives and moves so though he saw it not. The sounds of earth's confusion and revelry and strife break upon his ear in a hardly distinguishable cadence, while his mind is full of the consciousness of the truth of the life beyond. Satan does not find easy access to such a mind with his temptations. And when the hour of trial comes, faith brings in sight the glory beyond, and the individual is strengthened to endure.

Thus it was with Moses, who, amidst the splendour of the royal palaces of Egypt, saw with the eye of faith the glory of the courts of the King of kings, before which all the glory of Egypt paled in insignificance. Thus it was with Christ, whose faith beheld the time when He should "see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied," who thus "for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame." And thus it is with the follower of Christ to-day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." 2 Cor. iv. 17.

September 28, 1893

"Wanted: a Gospel for the Age" The Present Truth 9, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

"Wanted: a Gospel for the Age." Such is the thought that is beginning to take shape in the minds of some who are set to minister to the spiritual needs of men and women to-day, in view of the existing state of things in the social and industrial worlds. It is a thought that is full of meaning. If a gospel for this age is wanted, it must be that there is none now which is suited to the demands of the present. And if that be true, we may well stop and consider the desperate nature of the situation.

We are reassured, however, as we look into our Bibles, for there we find the grace of God, mercy and forgiveness of sin, Divine power, and every provision for every need of mankind, set forth in language which applies as well to our own age as to any age in the past. We have to-day all that there is to be had from any possible source of moral strength. We have the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is "the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth." Rom. i. 16. There is no greater power unto salvation than the power of God, for God is omnipotent.

But it may be that this power of God unto salvation is not realised and felt by all, so that there seems to be a gospel needed for some; for it is not the power of God unto all men, but "to everyone that believeth." Not all men believe. Indeed, it will hardly be denied that the number of true believers is comparatively very small. There is an intellectual belief which many have-a mere assent to the truth of what the Bible says respecting the existence of God, the coming of His Son to the earth, His life here, and His death, burial, and resurrection-and there is a similar assent to these truths in the minds of the devils themselves, for we are told that "the devils also believe, and tremble." James ii. 19. But this is not faith toward God. Faith is that which takes hold of the heart as well as the head, which has not only our assent to the truth of what God says, but our will that it should be true, and calls into exercise every power of our being to live in harmony with it. This faith but few possess; yet it is this which is referred to by the words "every one that believeth." Those who believe in this way are the ones that experience "the power of God unto salvation."

What is needed then is not a new gospel, but faith in the gospel which now is, not a new provision for the moral needs of mankind, but an appropriation of the provisions that are already made. The gospel has not failed, but a failure has been made by men. If men would to-day accept the gospel which is declared to them in the word of God, the difficulties which exist in industrial and social life, and darken the horizon of the future, would vanish as if by magic. All that is needed is an application of the Golden Rule. Let all men do to others as they would that others should do to them, and there will be no further thought of a new gospel. The old one will be found amply sufficient. Strikes and lock-outs will disappear instantly, distress will be relieved, and prosperity and peace will reign in all the land as they never have done before.

The principle which rules in the world is selfishness. This it is which causes the distress and the evil under which the earth is growing. Each one is spent on his own advantage, without reference to the interests of others. Not only so, but the world is full of men, many of them rich and powerful, who not only disregard the interests, but also the rights, of their fellow-men. The powerful dictate to the weak; the rich oppress the poor. The fortunate extort from their less fortunate fellows all that opportunity offers, regardless of the misery which they may thereby inflict upon them. This is what we see all over the world to-day. We see the rule of the principle of self. By it men are divided into two opposing classes, and the conflict between them rages with ever-increasing violence. And so it must be as long as self continues to rule. It is a question of the survival of the strongest.

The principle of the gospel is just the opposite. It is the principle of unselfishness. "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." Phil. ii. 4. "Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth." 1 Cor. x. 24. What a change would be produced in human affairs by the introduction of this principle. Instead of each individual working for himself, at the expense (as it so often is) of others, each one would have in view the interests of friends and neighbours. Instead of having only his own efforts upon which to depend for prosperity, he would have the united efforts of all those around him. Could the result be otherwise than the happiness and prosperity of each? It is rarely that an individual cannot be prosperous with the help of but one other person;

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how certain would his prosperity be, then, with the help and sympathy of all who know him!

And this is what the gospel of Jesus Christ would do for the world if men would only let it. This age no more needs a different gospel than any other age before it. Doubtless it does need, however, a new preaching of the gospel,-a preaching which is not the presentation of the power and wisdom of man, but of the power and wisdom of God. "My speech," wrote the Apostle Paul, "and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." He preached "the power of God unto salvation," and his words were effectual in the minds of his hearers. This is the preaching that is wanted to-day; and when we have it, it will be found as powerful and efficient for this day as it was in the days of Paul.

"God's Ways and Man's Ways" The Present Truth 9, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

God's ways are not man's ways. This is well illustrated by the following comment on man's ways, from the Religious Herald:-

"Steal a chicken, and you are a thief; steal $1,000 from your employer, and you are an embezzler; steal $5,000 from the Government, and you are a defaulter; rob your competitor on the Stock Exchange of $10,000, and you are a financier; rob him of $100,000 to $500,000, and you are a wizard or a Napoleon of finance; wreck a railroad and gather it in, and you are a 'magnat'; wreck a great railroad system, and you are a 'railroad king'; conduct a 'negotiation' by which a strong nation plunders a weak nation of thousands upon thousands of square miles of territory and makes the weak nation pay millions of money indemnity for the wrong it has suffered, and you are a diplomat. Truly, "the times are out of joint."

God has but one named for all such transactions, and but one standard by which to measure those who engage in them. He sees not as man sees; for "man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." He is not at all blinded by the things which dazzle and bewilder fallen and finite man. No brilliancy of intellectual power or magnitude of achievement; no splendour of wealth or station, can palliate the slightest degree in His mind the wrongdoing of men. Business principles and usages which are permitted by men and sanctioned by human law and custom, do not thereby undergo the slightest alteration in the character which is given them by the declarations of God's law; for it is His law that determines the character of everything. We should remember that it is by God's law, and not by man's law or man's customs, that our needs are judged and given their characters for eternity.

"Church Disestablishment" The Present Truth 9, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

There has always been an idea in the minds of most men that the church of God in the earth needed some kind of human protection thrown around it. Since every other good thing enjoys, or should enjoy, the protection of human laws, and since "the Church" has enjoyed such "protection" so much in the past, it is very naturally assumed even by Christian people that the withdrawal from the church of governmental support, would be a great wrong to the church, and a grievous sin on the part of the government. This we think must be the opinion of the English Churchman, which says, "We look upon the disestablishment of a faithful church as a national insult to the Almighty God." A brief examination of the subject in light of Bible truth, will, we think, lead to an entirely different conclusion.

In the first place, the true church of God never received any protection from the civil power at all. Many false and apostate churches have received aid from the State, as notably the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek Church, and others that might be mentioned; but the true church has never been recognised by the State, and was therefore never in a position to receive aid from it. The church to which the State gives its aid and support is always the largest and most powerful within the limits of the State. The State has no spiritual discernment, and naturally looks upon numbers, wealth, and influence as credentials of Divine favour and authority; but they are far from being such in reality. The true church was never the greatest in numbers, or the most wealthy, or influential. To the true church is said, "Fear not, little flock; it is My Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom;" but it was never said, "Fear not, big flock." The true church is never designated in Scripture by a denominational name. The Scriptures tell us that "God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him." There are such persons in every nation and in every church to-day. All those whom God accepts and owns as His are not visible in any denominational form or organisation; and they have never constituted more than a little company, looked down upon by the great men of earth, and maintaining in their course through the world the attitude of strangers and pilgrims. God will save His church, the "little flock," and give them the kingdom as He has promised; but He will save no one merely because of his connection with a church organisation.

God believes in organisation, for He "is not the Author of confusion;" and while in the strict sense of the word the "church" includes all those in every place who have been called out from the world, it is true that there is an organised body to whom God has entrusted His work. But it is not a body wealthy or great in numbers. Not that God has any objection to wealth or numbers in His church, but He can make use of only that which is sanctified-dedicated to Him-whether person or thing; and never many men or much wealth, comparatively speaking, have been in this condition. The people and the wealth of this world have been mostly controlled by "the prince of this world," the devil. John xiv. 30. Whenever the church has become large and influential, it has also become worldly, and God has had to raise up others and entrust His work to them. And as these in turn attained to popularity and influence, they in turn lost their spirituality and another company was called out to take their place. Thus the history of the church has been one of continual reformation; not because God has designed it so, but because His people have always separated from Him and ceased to trust in Him and allowed errors to come in whenever they have become powerful and great in their own eyes.

THE STATE CANNOT HELP THE CHURCH

But in the second place, the church does not need any protection or support from the civil arm, and in reality, the civil arm has no support to give. God's people can be a protection to the State, but the State cannot be a protection to them. The followers of Christ are indeed "the salt of the earth." Matt. v. 13. By them the earth is preserved. Were they removed, the judgments of God could fall at once upon the heads of the wicked. We have an illustration of this truth in the account of the destruction of Sodom. The Lord told Abraham of His intention to destroy the wicked city, and the patriarch,

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knowing that his nephew Lot dwelt there, pleaded with Him to spare it, because, peradventure, it contained some inhabitants that were righteous. See Gen. xviii. The Lord said He would not destroy it if it contained fifty persons that were righteous; and on Abraham's venturing to reduce the number, finally promised that He would not destroy it if it contained but ten. Ten righteous individuals among the thousands which made up the population of the city! yet if but that number had been found, the city would have been spared.

Luther understood this truth when he refused the offered protection of the Elector Frederick, saying it would be more fitting that he should offer the Elector his protection-the protection of God-than that the Elector should offer to protect him. Thus it was when the great Reformer went up to the Diet of Worms. He went depending alone upon the protection of God, and under that protection he faced the emperor Charles and all the array of Rome's prelates, fearlessly and triumphantly proclaimed the truth, and departed as unmolested as he came.

A STRIKING ILLUSTRATON

There is nothing, perhaps, in all history which more strikingly sets forth the utter falsity of the idea that the sacred things of God need the protection and support of human powers in the midst of which they are placed, than the events recorded in the fifth and sixth chapters of 1 Samuel. The narrative is preceded by an account of a battle between the Israelites and the Philistines, in which the former were defeated, and the ark of the Lord, which had been brought into the camp of Israel by the order of the dissolute sons of Eli, was taken by the Philistines. Eli, who was then old, when he knew that the ark had been carried down into the battle, went and sat upon a seat by the wayside to wait for news from the conflict, "for his heart trembled before the ark of God." He imagined the sacred structure had been placed in great jeopardy,-an opinion which was no doubt shared by many others; and when the word came that the ark had been taken by the Philistines, "he fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck brake, and he died." And the effect of the news was hardly less disastrous upon others. Israel had failed to protect the ark, and had been captured by their enemies; and to all appearance it seemed doubtless that that would be the end of it.

But what happened to the ark as a result of Israel's failure to keep it out of the hands of the enemies of God? We quote from the record in chapter in five:-

"And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod. When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon. And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the Lord. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again. And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him." Verses 1-4.

There was the ark of God in the hands of God's enemies, entirely bereft of all human help, wholly alone and unattended by any who entertained a regard for it; and yet it not only suffered no harm, but did what all the armies of Israel with all their power could not do, to Dagon, the god of the Philistines. But did not this awaken the wrath of the Philistines so that the sacred structure suffered at their hands? Not at all. Let us examine the narrative further:-

"But the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof. And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us; for his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god. They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them, and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And they answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto Gath. And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about thither." Verses 6-8.

Thus far this sacred structure faired very well among its enemies without any human aid or protection whatever. What happened when it came to Gath? We read further:-

"And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the Lord was against the city with a very great destruction; and He smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts. Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people. So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to his own place, that it slay us not, and our people; for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there." Verses 9-11.

Then the Philistines, after taking counsel of their priests and diviners, set up the ark upon a new cart, to which they hitched two milch kine that had never worn any yoke, and left them to take it where they would. But first this testimony to the glory of God had been extorted from the priests and diviners:-

"If ye send away the ark of the God of Israel, send it not empty; but in any wise return Him a trespass offering; then ye shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why His hand is not removed from you. . . . Wherefore ye shall make images of your emerods, and images of your mice that mar the land; and ye shall give glory unto the God of Israel; peradventure He will lighten His hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land." Chap. vi. 3-5.

And how fared it with the ark when, drawn upon the cart behind the milch kine, it went along the highway unattended by human friend or foe? We read:-

"And the kine took the straight way to the way of Bethshemesh, and went along the highway, lowing as they went, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them unto the border of Beth-shemesh." Verse 12.

Thus, after having been seven months in the land of the Philistines, the ark return to the land of Israel, having sustained not the slightest injury, and having done a work which all the power of man on the earth could not have performed. There was more power with the ark than was possessed by the armies of Israel or by all the inhabitants of the countries through which it passed. How erroneous then to suppose that any harm could come to it from a lack of human protection. As well might one think that a very strong power needed the protection of a very weak one.

THE POWER OF THE CHURCH

It is the same with the church of God. The church is sacred. It is the temple of the Holy Ghost (2 Cor. vi. 16; Eph. ii. 20-22), and the body of Christ (Eph. ii. 22, 23; Col. i. 18). Therefore God is with His church just as He was with His sacred ark, and He will perform wonders through it, without any aid from the arm of flesh, just as He performed wonders with the ark. He will preserve it as He preserved the ark. It is true He has suffered His church to pass through persecution, and to feel the wrath and power of man against it; but this did not harm the church. It only built up the church; for the sufferings and death of its martyrs were but occasions of a wider sowing of the seeds of truth, which sprang up and bore an abundant harvest.

God is with the church just as long as they are with Him. But a church can separate themselves from Him, become worldly, and lose their hold upon the Divine arm, and then the only power left for them is the power of man, and to that, and such a case, they naturally turn. But the church that is connected with God has no need

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whatever of any support from the powers of earth. The Saviour made this matter very plain in the great commission which He gave to His followers just previous to His ascension. We quote the words recorded by Matthew:-

"And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Matt. xxviii. 18-20.

What do these words tell us? Just this: that Jesus Christ, the Head of the church, has all power in heaven and in the earth; that His followers are to go into all the world and preach the gospel to all nations; and that He is with them, even to the end of the world. Therefore His followers, His church, have all the power in heaven and earth, for use in their legitimate work. How, then do they need any other power? What more power is there for them to have?

Certainly, then, it is evident that the church of God should not concern herself with the question of "the establishment" or "disestablishment" by the powers of earth, but pursue her Divine calling entirely independent of all human power and authority. Her establishment is of Heaven; and being established there, she is established as fully as she can be on the earth.

"Measuring His Ignorance" The Present Truth 9, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

The Christian Commonwealth has some straight and just comments on Professor Drummond's evolution fancies, called out by his recent statement that the original members of the human family wandered about for thousands of years without being able to speak. After showing how squarely the statement contradicts the Bible, the Commonweath says:-

"We do not now stop to consider speculations as Professor Drummond did before a popular and promiscuous audience. We have long since learned that men who find fault with what they call the narrowness of those who hold to the old faith, usually imagine that they have the right to introduce their crude speculations at all times and places, simply because they are the heroes of a new order of things. Indeed, the liberalism of some men is altogether more illiberal than the bigotry of what is called orthodoxy. We have little patience with either. And we cannot close this article without protesting against the 'cocksure' of Professor Drummond about matters concerning which he knows little, if any, more than other men. In fact, he has been trying to measure depths which cannot possibly be fathomed without the aid of the Bible, and as he has practically thrown the Bible overboard he cannot hope to do more than measure his own ignorance concerning the facts of which he speaks. This may be a service which is much needed, and it may be that in this view of the matter the 'seeming evil' of his recent remarks may really educe good, by showing how impotent man is when he lets go the hand of God."

"Looking unto Jesus" The Present Truth 9, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

The Christian must look unto Jesus. This is his safety and the source of his strength. There are plenty of other places to which he can look, and plenty of voices calling him to look elsewhere, but He can heed them only at his peril. The word of inspiration counsels us, "Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Heb. xii. 1, 2.

To look unto Jesus, we must know where He is. We know that He came to earth, died, and ascended again to heaven, and that the text above quoted tells us that He "is set down at the right hand of the throne of God;" but this knowledge is not enough to present Him before us in a clear and definite light. In looking unto Jesus, we are to see Him. Faith does more than show us the vicinity of the object toward which it is directed; it brings the object into plain view. And when we see an object plainly, we know all about the situation that surrounds it. If it be a man, we see where he is and what he is doing. So it is with the faith that looks to Christ. It brings Him into view, and we behold His position and the nature of the work in which He is engaged. And seeing Him in this way, we can pray to Him with an intelligence and a confidence that would not be possible were we in ignorance or but vaguely informed upon these points. There is such a thing as praying with the spirit, but having the understanding unfruitful; it is best to pray "with the spirit" and "with the understanding also." See 1 Cor. xiv. 14, 15.

THE HEAVENLY SANCTUARY

It is not a mere coincidence that the book of the Hebrews, which more than any other book contains instructions upon the office and work of Christ in Heaven, contains also the most remarkable chapter on faith. They belong together. The knowledge of the office and work of Christ is given first, as the foundation upon which faith can rest, and then is set forth the importance of faith and the works which can by means of it be accomplished. We are cited to the journeyings of ancient Israel in the wilderness towards the land of promise, to their unbelief and the fact that they failed thereby to enter into the rest which God had promised, to the shadowy nature of their service of sacrifices and offerings, to the rest that remains to the people of God and the danger of losing it through unbelief, to Christ as the Leader of the spiritual seed of Abraham and their High Priest, who performs the true work of ministry for man before God; then beginning the eighth chapter of the apostle says: "Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens. A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man." Christ is therefore, our High Priest performing in the heavenly sanctuary a work of which that performed by Aaron and his sons was typical. He is not yet a king, but will receive a kingdom when His ministry is finished and He lays aside His priestly garments, and the great scene takes place which is described by the prophet Daniel: "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before Him. And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." Dan. vii. 13, 14.

The faith which looks unto Jesus, therefore, looks into the sanctuary in

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heaven, and beholds Him engaged in His priestly work before His Father. That work is a work typified by the work of the high priest in the sanctuary built by Moses. The earthly sanctuary, with its two apartments, was a pattern of this true sanctuary above. Heb. ix. 23, 24. And as the high priest ministered in the earthly sanctuary, but went only once in the year into the inner apartment of it, when the day of atonement-or cleansing-had come; so our High Priest has ministered the sacrifices and offerings of His people in this sanctuary above, and has now entered into its inner apartment, there to perform the great work of cleansing the true sanctuary, into which have been brought the sins of the people. Here will be made a final disposition of their sins, and when the work is finished He will change His priestly garments for the robes of a King, and "appear the second time, without sin and salvation." Heb. ix. 24-28.

"Having therefore, brethren," writes that the apostle, "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, [by] 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; and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works; not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." Heb. x. 19-25. That day which is the day of the fulfilment of the promise to Abraham-the promise of the inheritance of the world, when Christ, the Seed of Abraham (Gal. iii. 16), shall receive His kingdom, and His saints with Him. See Dan. vii. 18. For we are told that the new earth will be the seat of Christ's kingdom, the abode of the New Jerusalem, which comes down from God out of heaven, when it will be said, "The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them." Rev. xxi. 2, 3.

This is the hope which is set before the Christian. And it is a hope which nothing can shake. The apostle says that "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 Melchisedec." Heb. vi. 17-20.

Looking unto Jesus, therefore, we look within the vail of the heavenly sanctuary, and see Him engaged in His solemn priestly work of cleansing it from sin, preparatory to His coming again to earth, not as a babe but as King of kings and Lord of lords, to receive His saints to Himself and to execute vengeance on "them that know not God and that obey not the gospel." By the eye of faith we see Him now presenting His blood for the remission of the sins of all those who have believed and will believe on Him till His heavenly ministry ceases. And it will cease when the gospel of His kingdom has been "preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations." Matt. xxvi. 3, 13, 14. When that has been done, all people will either have accepted or rejected it, and it will witness either for them or against them at the bar of God. Christ's blood will have secured the remission of the sins of the former class, and His priestly work will cease with the transferring of the sins onto the head of Satan, which was typified by the act of the high priest on the day of atonement and cleansing of the earthly sanctuary, in confessing the sins which had been removed therefrom upon the head of the scapegoat. See Leviticus xvi. Looking unto Jesus engaged in this great and solemn work, we cannot but look also to the coming of that day when His work there will be ended, and He shall be seen again coming in the clouds of heaven, "without sin, unto salvation."

Let us, then, with the eye of faith, steadfastly look unto Him. There is no better place to turn our eyes, no greater and more momentous scene than that of which He is the center, to claim our attention and our thoughts. It is not safe to look away to something else, even momentarily. He is the Beacon Light which guides the heaven-bound mariner into the harbour of rest. We are not anchored upon smooth waters, but tossing upon the surface of a stormy sea, and beset by deadly currents of worldliness and sin, which will speedily take us out of our course if we cease our vigilant watch. The drifting bark will never make the harbour. We cannot drift into the kingdom of heaven. We cannot be towed in by the effort of someone else. God has not given anyone powers of mind and body to be left unused, while they are borne along upon that heavenward tide. He has given men their powers to be used in co-operating with Him. The tide of sin must be breasted. Our utmost endeavours must be put forth to remain unswerved by the currents of evil, looking unto Him who is the Author and Finisher of our faith. Then although all of our efforts alone would be utterly useless, God works in us, all the difficulties are overcome, and the voyage terminates gloriously in the haven of everlasting joy and peace.

"Our Refuge" The Present Truth 9, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

"Shall I lift up mine eyes unto the hills? From whence should my help? My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth." Ps. cxxi. 1, 2.

Popular hymnology, based upon the common rendering, "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help," has made the hills-the supposed abodes of the deities of the heathen mythology-a source of help and hope for the Christian; but in God alone is his help. As the prophet Jeremiah has said, "Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains; truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel." Jer. iii. 23.

God is the help of those that look unto Him. He says, "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. But it is in vain to seek for salvation without looking to Him. We must know where He is, and not be looking to some place where God is not; for there are many places which appear to be the sanctuary of Omnipotence, which are but the deceptions of that evil one whose aim is to turn man's eyes away from God, to look unto himself. All earthly sources of help are of this kind. There is no help for the sinner but in creative power; and therefore his help cometh only "from the Lord, which made heaven and earth."

Many are the men that look up to the hills, to the groves and the temples of their pretended deities, but they do not experience the working of creative

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power. Only God can send creative power into the heart, and answer the longing of the sin-burdened soul for a new creation. Only He can answer the prayer, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." This is the power that we feel when we look to the right Source of help. If we do not experience it, we are not looking as we should.

The hills and the mountains shall melt and disappear, together with all that is earthly and of human origin, and in that day God will be the hope and refuge of His people. In that day it will be said, "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. xlvi. 1, 2. The prophecy is about to be fulfilled which foretells the transfer of the kingdoms of this earth into the hands of Him who shall "break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." Ps. ii. 8, 9. "Be wise now therefore, O ye kings; be instructed ye judges of the earth." Cease to trust in the power of man, and look to Him who is the Source of all authority and power, and the Refuge of His children. "Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him."

"Dry Land" The Present Truth 9, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

"The earth is full of Thy riches" (Ps. civ. 24), but "set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth." (Col. iii. 2).

Water is good and useful, and we could not live without it. But we need dry land just as much as we need water. The earth at first was covered with water. We could not have lived upon it because there was no dry land. God created the earth to be lived upon, therefore, on the third day he gathered the waters together by themselves so that dry land could be seen. And you remember He called the great bodies of water Seas, and the dry He called Earth.

God did not make all the dry land flat and level like the floor; but in some places it is high, in other places low, in still other places level, and in certain places in the ocean dry land is seen, with water all around it. The high places are called hills, the very high places, mountains; the low places between the mountains, valleys; the level places, plains; and the small places in the ocean, islands. How much more pleasant than if it were all alike! We think the hills and mountains very beautiful now, but they were much more beautiful when God first made them. Then no barren, ragged rocks could be seen, for the mountains were perfect in shape and beauty.

We live upon the dry land, and see it every day. But did you ever stop to look closely at it? It is wonderful. Dry land is not merely one great rock, but it contains many different kinds of rocks and stones, and little specks of dust and sand more than you can count. You can scarcely count the grains even in one handful! There are so many that no one but God knows how many. He knows because He made them.

The dry land is good for many things; we walk, and ride, and build upon it. We get clothing and fuel from it, also food for ourselves and our birds and our animals. We dig from it stone and marble for our houses, iron for our stoves, coal for our fire, and paint for our buildings. In it we find salt for our food, silver and gold for our money and our watches, lead for our pencils, slate for our slates and our roofs, chalk for our black-boards, mica for our lanterns and stoves, clay for our brick and our dishes, sand for our glass, besides diamonds, rubies, and many other precious things. Oil and gas are taken from the dry land, and out of it grows every tree and plant that is pleasant to look at and good for food, fuel, and clothing.

Surely the earth is full of riches, and our Heavenly Father is very kind to prepare for such a pleasant home. The Bible says that He did not place all these things here for our pleasure alone, but for us to use in a way that will please and glorify Him. It would grieve Him very much if we were to make our gold and silver into idols and get down on our knees and pray to them, or if we should get all the money we could and carefully laid it away not doing any good with it. This would show that we thought more of the money than we did of the kind Father who gave it to us. Again, if we should use all our money for buying fine houses, clothing, jewellry, and something good to eat, it would show that we thought more of pleasing ourselves than pleasing God.

God wants us to enjoy the treasures that He has given us, and He wants us to lay up all that we can that we always may have them to enjoy. Yet He knows that if we lay them up on the earth, they surely will be stolen, or spoiled, or burned up; he therefore tells us to do good with our treasures. If we do this He says that we shall be laying them up in heaven, "where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal."

God has far better things to happen for us than anything we can find on earth; and they will never pass away. He does not want us to forget about them, so He says, "Set your affections [love] on things above, not on things on the earth."

1. Did you ever take a walk out under the shady trees and through the green fields?

2. Upon what did you walk?

3. Was this earth always dry enough to walk on?

4. How was it when God first made the earth? Gen. i. 2.

5. When did it first become dry?

6. Why did God not leave it covered with water? He created it to be lived upon. Isa. xlv. 18.

7. What did God do with the water that was all over the earth? Gen. i. 6-9.

8. What did He call those places that no longer had water upon them?

9. When we look closely, what do we find the dry land to be?

10. Did you ever count the grains of sand? Why not?

11. Who alone knows how many there are? Isa. xl. 12-26.

12. What is dry land good for?

13. How does God feel when we never thank Him for it?

14. Why did God put so many good things in the earth? Not for our pleasure alone, but for us to use in a way that will please and glorify Him.

15. How will He feel if we make our gold and silver into idols, or carefully lay it away and never do any good with it?

16. How will He feel if we use it all for ourselves? Why?

17. Does He not want us to enjoy or keep any of our treasures? Yes; He wants us to lay them up and enjoy them for ever.

18. What does He know will happen to them if we lay them up on the earth?

19. Where only can they be kept safe from thieves and moth and canker?

20. So where does God tell us to lay them up? Matt. vi. 19-21.

21. Can you think of the ways in which you can do good with your treasures and thus lay them up in heaven?

22. What does He say about our loving them? Col. iii. 2.

23. Why does He not want us to love these earthly treasures? Because that would make us lose the better things that He has in heaven for us?

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

-The Dutch Parliament is now in session.

-The Matebele are advancing in strong force towards Victoria and Tati, in Mashonaland.

-The executive committee of the World's Fair Directorate has decided to close the exhibition on Oct. 31.

-Extensive floods have occurred in Spain in the province of Toledo, causing considerable loss of life and great damage to property.

-There is considerable emigration from Spain to the South American Republics, owing to the distress prevailing in the former country.

-A collision occurred between passenger trains near Kankakee City, Illinois, Sept. 19, resulting in seven persons being killed and sixteen injured.

-In an attempt to lynch a negro who had beaten and robbed a poor woman at Roanoke, Virginia, nine men were killed and nineteen injured.

-At the Vienna Institute of Experimental Pathology, six persons swallowed a large number of comma bacilli for the purposes of experiment, and in no case Asiatic cholera ensued.

-Coalowners, in conference at the Westminster Palace Hotel, decided to meet the colliers for the purpose of establishing some agreement, if possible, for the resumption of work.

-A telegram from Rome states that a friendly disposition is being manifested at the Vatican towards the Triple Alliance. The Pope seems to be trying to espouse the cause of both France and Germany!

-Five lives were lost in a fire which occurred early in the morning in High-street, Whitechapel. An inquest has been opened on their bodies, three being suspicious circumstances connected with the tragedy.

-The Emperor William has sent a sympathetic telegram to Prince Bismarck, and offered him a residence in one of the imperial castles. Owing to Prince Bismarck's state of health, the offer has been declined.

-Scotch colliers at Glasgow resolved that the miners in Stirlingshire, Ayshire, the Lothiam, Lanarkshire, and Dumbartonshire should continue working five days a week, with one fixed idle day per week.

-Severe fighting is reported in Argentina, and the National troops are said to have fraternised with the rebels. The Government has ordered the National Guard to be mobilised throughout the country. The national troops at Corientes have revolted.

-Eight Cornish miners were entombed at Dolcoath, Camborne, by the fall of a huge quantity of rock while they were at work. Relief parties were immediately organised, and unremitting efforts are being made to rescue them, with some prospect of success.

-A most violent storm passed over the south of France, Sept. 20, doing great damage in the town and harbour of Cotte. One person was killed by falling timber, and fifteen were injured from various causes. The Italian ship Glorio di Dio foundered in the storm. Her crew were saved.

-During a performance at an Opera House in Canton, Illinois, some fireworks used in the course of one of the acts ignited the scenery. The audience were seized with panic, and a wild stampede was made towards the doors. In the galleries no fewer than twenty-five persons were injured, three of them fatally.

-The situation in Europe with respect to the cholera epidemic remains substantially unchanged, except for the fact that Hamburg is now again in the grasp of the pestilence, owing it is supposed to an accidental influx of Elbe water into the reservoirs which supply the city. Sporadic cases continue to occur in several cities and towns of England.

-The situation of the Brazilian Government is reported to be critical, and the rebel squadron, which is well supplied with provisions, is obtaining the increased support. Rio de Janeiro is in a state of anarchy, and much damage has been done to life and property from the bombarding received from the insurgent fleet. Admiral de Melio has issued an ultimatum demanding the unconditional surrender of the city.

-There are in the world to-day, says the Chronicle, 12,801 steamers of more than 100 tons, and of these 5,694 are British. Counting steam vessels and sailing vessels together the order of shipowning is as follows: Great Britain, United States, Norway, Germany, Italy, and Russia. The most astonishing fact of all, however, is the enormous gap which intervenes between the number of steamers owned by Great Britain and by her nearest rival, which in this case is Germany. We have 5,694, as stated above, Germany comes next with 779, France next with 500, and Norway next with 490.

-The Chronicle says: Guernsey seems in a fair way to become an educational preserve of the Church of England. Rates are already levied in every parish for the support of denominational schools, and the States have just passed an enactment for the building of more from the same source. But the Act further provides, not only that religious instruction shall be given in the public elementary schools, but that it shall be in accordance with the doctrines of the Anglican Church, and under the direction of the ecclesiastical authority. That the enforcement of this Act may be the more carefully guarded, the rector in each parish is appointed ex officio, chairman of the Education Committee. Naturally, the Nonconformists of the island are vigorously protesting against a measure which in educational matters places them under the absolute control of the English Church. They have appealed to the Queen in Council to enforce in Guernsey the provisions of the English Education Acts. This may not be possible, but it is very clear the Nonconformists need some protection if they are not to be swamped by Church schools and ecclesiastical supremacy.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

Send three shillings and three pence and have the PRESENT TRUTH sent to your address post free for six months and see how you like it.

The PRESENT TRUTH may be obtained throughout Great Britain at the bookstalls of Messrs. Smith and Sons. If any have difficulty in getting the paper it will greatly oblige the publishers if such persons will inform them of the fact.

Elder O. A. Olsen, President of the General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists, who has spent several days in London, sailed last week by the Norham Castle for Cape Town, South Africa. After spending some time in the interests of the missionary work in that field he will go on to Australia and New Zealand to attend important annual meetings in those colonies.

The European Mail commenting upon the recent murder of Swedish missionaries in China, says that "it is only fear of reprisals by means of British, American, and French gunboats that prevents the wholesale slaughter of missionaries." A system of missionary work which is maintained by force and at the point of the bayonet can never be prosperous.

The American Catholic Congress recently held in Chicago, at the conclusion of its session, sublimely ignored the past history and present principles of the Catholic Church by passing a resolution of sympathy with the Irish in their efforts for self-government, and also with Jews, Poles, Russians and others who were suffering persecution! This however is nothing strange, for "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light." He does not forget either, at the time, that he is the devil.

Cardinal Vaughn, speaking for the Catholic Church, has made the statement that on the question of the recognition by his church of Anglican orders, he does not know of one among the 1200 bishops who form her Episcopate, who would for a moment admit that such orders were valid; and that the "Holy See" had in the plainest manner refused such recognition. Small as is the gap that intervenes between High Church Anglicanism and Catholicism, Rome will not take the step that would bring them together. "Rome never changes." She will make no concessions to Protestantism, though it be Protestantism only in form. She will wait for her Anglican admirers to take the step that separates them, and evidently she will not have to wait very long.

The programme of the International Congress on Sunday Rest, to be held Sept. 28-30, in Chicago, is an elaborate one, including papers, addresses, and reports from over a score of speakers, covering all the real and supposed relations of Sunday rest to the individual, family, and nation, socially, economically, and morally. Among the active participants are Cardinal Gibbons, O. Prunier, Secretary of the French Association for Sunday Observance, Charles Hill, Secretary of the "Working-men's Lord's Day Rest Association," of London, William Allen Butler, Chaplain of the United States Senate, and Hon. John Wanamaker, ex-United States Postmaster-General. The session will no doubt be very interesting, but there seems to have been one omission from the programme, and that is, the assignment of the Speaker to consider the subject of the relation of Sunday rest to the word of God. The Congress certainly could not consider a more important subject, nor one that would require less time for its thorough elucidation.

"The Cross and the Crucifix" The Present Truth 9, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

The English Churchman says:-

"It is painful to notice in visiting churches throughout the country how frequently a cross is to be seen above the communion table; in fact, it now seems to be considered the correct thing, much to the advantage of the manufacturer and seller of such articles, if to no one else. The next step is a crucifix, and even now this idolatrous emblem is being introduced into reredoses, in such a way, too, that, as at Hatfield Parish Church, unless very closely examined it appears to be detached from the structure. If the doctrine of the cross were only better understood the dealers in these wares would have little occupation."

This is true. If the doctrine of the cross were understood as it should be, and as the Bible teaches it, there would never be any demand for a crucifix to be stationed in the church, or worn on the person, or for any other purpose. Christian faith and worship demand no outward symbol of that kind. He who understands and lives out the doctrine of the cross of Christ will see that such a thing is utterly useless. For the Christian, the crucifixion of Christ is an ever-present reality; not a symbol upon the breast or gazed upon in the church, but a daily experience in his life. Here the apostle Paul: "I am crucified with Christ" (Gal. ii. 20); and again, "We are troubled on every side. . always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifest in our body." 2 Cor. iv. 8-10. And to the church he wrote: "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. And what had been done for the Galatian church had been done for all the churches. In Paul's day and under his preaching, the churches saw Jesus Christ set forth, crucified among them, and the believers experienced His crucifixion in their hearts. They had the reality; and where the reality is, symbols are altogether unnecessary and out of place.

Symbols are only necessary were the reality is not. Christ suspended from the body in a crucifix is not consistent with Christ dwelling in the heart. Christ suspended as an image in the church is not consistent with His actual presence there by the Holy Spirit. Where such images are, they are the only proof the religionist has to offer of the connection of himself or his church with Christ; but the possession of Christ in the heart is a condition which speaks for itself, showing to all men Christ crucified, and His life in human flesh.

By images and crucifixes the devil has made a great many men believe that they were followers of Christ, just as he made the Pharisees believe that they were very pious because they wore the law upon their phylacteries and were so zealous for its outward forms, and just as he makes a great many people to-day believe they are pretty good Christians if they have a Bible or two in their homes or carry one with them to and from church, although it is little read and still less understood. The great truth needs to be learned that the place for Christ and His word and for His law is in the heart; it will avail nothing to the individual to have them anywhere or everywhere else.

October 5, 1893

"Front Page: God's Mercy" The Present Truth 9, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

"O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy endureth for ever." Ps. cxxxvi. 1.

The mercy of God endures for ever, because it is an attribute of His being. As He is infinite in power and knowledge, majesty and justice, so also is He infinite in mercy. And having mercy as one of His attributes, He might show mercy; for otherwise He would deny Himself. He cannot deny His own character; He cannot go contrary to His nature.

It was necessary, therefore, that when Adam sinned he should be dealt with in mercy. It was necessary that the plan of salvation should be provided, whereby sin could be pardoned, and then escape the consequences of transgression. Had God at once smitten the offender and blotted him out of existence, the universe might have stood in awe and acknowledged the justice of the transaction, but they would not have seen Him as a God of mercy to the offender. They would not have known Him by His true name-"The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgressions and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty." Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7.

Every act of God is an act of mercy; for He can not go contrary to one of His own attributes. He can never act in a way which is not consistent with His possessing infinite mercy. Every attribute of God is exercised in all that He does. We never read of an act of infinite power, which was not also one of infinite wisdom, or vice versa. We never see Him manifesting infinite goodness, without also showing His infinite wisdom and power. The exercise of one attribute in an infinite degree, demands the exercise of all.

In being infinitely just to man, God must also be infinitely merciful, and in being infinitely merciful, He must also be infinitely just. And this is what we see in the wonderful plan of salvation. The death of Christ, which was the great central act of this plan, speaks in awful eloquence of both God's justice and His mercy; His mercy in that He gave His Son to die rather than that man should be lost; and His justice, in that He would not pass over sin, even though it would cost Him the life of His only begotten Son.

The one hundred and thirty-sixth psalm, from which we have quoted, presents this idea clearly before us. It speaks of numerous acts of God, judgments as well as favours, and links each one with the thought of His goodness and mercy. "O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good; for His mercy endureth for ever. O give thanks unto the God of gods; for His mercy endureth for ever. O give thanks to the Lord of lords; for His mercy endureth for ever. To Him who alone doeth great wonders; for His mercy endureth for ever. To Him that by wisdom made the heavens for His mercy endureth for ever. To Him that stretched out the earth above the waters; for His mercy endureth for ever. . . To Him that smote Egypt in their firstborn; for His mercy endureth for ever. . . To Him which divided the Red Sea into parts; for His mercy endureth for ever. And made Israel to pass through the midst of it; for His mercy endureth for ever. But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea; for His mercy endureth for ever," etc. The whole psalm is a declaration that infinite justice and infinite mercy are consistent one with the other, and in the working of God are linked together.

Infinite mercy to God's creatures demands the punishment of sin. It demands that sin be dealt with in infinite severity. Who would want a God who would not be severe with sin? How could pure and sinless beings be happy if sin were to be lightly regarded? Something so utterly contrary in its very essence to the nature of God and to that of all sinless beings, could not be suffered to exist without marring the peace of the universe, and bringing discord into the happiness and harmony which should be uninterrupted for ever.

Justice to the sinner, is also justice to the saint. The smiting of the firstborn of Egypt, the overthrow of Pharaoh and his hosts in the Red Sea, and the various other judgments mentioned in this psalm, are acts of mercy to the people of God, and to all who would thereby have opportunity to be admonished, and turn from their evil ways unto the Lord. The destruction of sinners is even a mercy to themselves, since it saves them from a further unhappiness. For a sinner cannot endure the presence of God, and would be nowhere more miserable than in heaven itself. And since life to him would mean nothing but misery (for sin and misery are inseparable) it is only a mercy to him that it should terminate.

"The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him." Ps. ciii. 17. It not only lasts to all eternity, but has existed from all eternity. This is why His

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covenant with the righteous is called the "everlasting covenant." Heb. xiii. 20. From everlasting there existed in the mind of God the covenant of grace, whereby the one that should sin could be pardoned and restored to his position of favour. And when Adam fell, God simply brought forth this covenant and manifested to the universe that He possessed the attribute of mercy toward the offender. He proclaimed Himself not alone the God of justice, but the God of mercy. And by all His acts since then toward fallen man, He has proclaimed Himself in the same way, and will do so by all His dealings with both saints and sinners to the end of time.

"O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good; because His mercy endureth for ever. Let Israel now say, that His mercy endureth for ever. . . Let them now that fear the Lord say, that His mercy endureth for ever." Ps. cxviii. 1-4.

"Christ in Everything" The Present Truth 9, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

The name of Jonathan Edwards is usually associated only with that which is stern, harsh, and unlovely in religion, and one is glad to learn from the following paragraph from some of his unprinted manuscript, that there was another side to him. The truth here expressed has been almost entirely overlooked, but it is the very soul of Christianity-Christ the Saviour by virtue of His creative power:-

"The beauties of nature are really emanations or shadows of the excellency of the Son of God. So that when we are delighted with flowery meadows and gentle breezes, we may consider that we see only the emanations of the sweet benevolence of Jesus Christ. When we behold the fragrant rose and lily, we see His love and security. So the green trees and fields, and the singing of birds are the emanations of His infinite joy and benignity. The easiness and naturalness of trees and vines are shadows of His beauty and loveliness. The crystal rivers and murmuring streams are the footsteps of His favour, grace and beauty. When we behold the light and brightness of the sun, the golden edges of an evening cloud, or the beauteous bow, we behold the adumbrations of His mildness and gentleness. There are also many things wherein we may behold His awful majesty-in the sun in his strength, and comets, in thunder, and the hovering thunder clouds, and rugged rocks, and the brows of mountains. The beauteous light with which the world is filled in a clear day is a lively shadow of His spotless holiness and happiness and delight in communicating Himself."

"Exaltation" The Present Truth 9, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

There is no more natural tendency of the human heart than to think highly of self. Yet this, like all other tendencies of the natural heart, stands in the way of all efforts to live the Christian life. The Apostle Paul wrote, "For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." Rom. xii. 3.

How highly, then, ought a man to think of himself? The same apostle has answered this question in his epistle to the Galatians: "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself." Gal. vi. 2, 3. A man who thinks truthfully of himself will know that he is nothing. And this places him upon a level with all his fellow-men, so that he may not distain to bear their burdens, and to esteem others better than himself. Phil. ii. 3.

The way of the world is to seek to exalt self. The way of God is to abase self, and become the servant of others. But exaltation is attained by the latter way, and not by the way of the world. The wisdom of God is foolishness with men; but "the foolishness of God is wiser than men." There is no real wisdom in seeking exaltation by one's own efforts. It is far better to let others lift you up who have more power than you have yourself. The principle of service to others is therefore the true principle of exaltation, for it is service to others that secures their esteem and wins their efforts, and clears the pathway of the opposition and ill-will which pursues and drags down the individual who seeks his own aggrandisement at the expense of others.

But in reality no man has any power to exalt himself. It is righteousness that exalts, and no man has any power to accomplish anything toward making himself righteous. Sin, on the other hand, brings degradation. "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 ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in 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. Thus did the sin of pride degrade the being who is addressed in these words, who was once the "son of the morning."

Sin promises exaltation, but has nothing but degradation to give. To Eve it promised elevation to the position of gods, but it brought only shame and the loss of Paradise, and thus it has been with every one who has yielded to it. It has brought them all into bondage; for "whosoever committeth sin is the bond-servant of sin." John viii. 34. In this bondage all men are to-day who have not secured freedom by faith in Christ; and they can do nothing to free themselves from it. While they seek for exaltation among men, they are still in the position of slaves. They may gain world riches and honour, but this only fastens them the more securely to that which is fallen and is sinking ever lower into degradation; for the course of the world is downward, and will continue to be thus until it falls into the gulf of perdition, and disappears in consuming fire.

Sin, degradation, and slavery are inseparably connected. The highest position in slavery is lower than the lowest in freedom. The mightiest sinner on earth is less exalted than the humblest one whom Christ has made free.

Since exaltation comes only from righteousness, it must come from God; for God is the source of all righteousness. And as we have no righteousness in ourselves, but only sin, we can only obtain righteousness through the renunciation of self. We can only become exalted by self-abasement. When self is renounced we esteem others better than ourselves and count ourselves their servants; and then we are following the example of Christ Himself, for He "took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men." Phil. ii. 7. The humblest position only is consistent with renunciation of self. And this explains the words of Christ to His disciples, "Whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all." Mark x. 44. It was no arbitrary rule that Christ here stated, but the true and only way of becoming great,-of

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attaining to the honour that real and the exaltation that is enduring.

Therefore the exhortation is given, "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up." James iv. 10. God will exalt the humble "in due time." 1 Pet. v. 6. "Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility; for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble." Verse 5. "To him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with Me in My throne; even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne." Rev. iii. 21.

"Defending the Word of God" The Present Truth 9, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

It is not an uncommon thing at the present time to see men undertake the task of defending the word of God. They do so doubtless, with the best of intentions, but they have a zeal which is not according to knowledge. They do not know the nature of that word and the purpose for which it was given.

The word of God is always capable of defending itself. More than this: It is not on the defensive, but is always aggressive. It is a weapon; it is nothing less than the sword of the Spirit. Eph. vi. 17. "Is not My word like as a fire? saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" Jer. xxiii. 29. And Paul in his letter to the Hebrews testifies that it "is quick [living] and powerful, 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." Heb. iv. 12.

However evident, then, that the word of God does not need to be defended by the efforts of man. Rather is it a weapon of defence to man; for he is admonished to take this sword of the Spirit with him, as he goes out to engage in the Christian warfare. Nothing can prevail against the Word, but the Word can and will prevail against all things. Thus it becomes an invaluable weapon to finite man, who is compelled to meet those that are stronger than himself.

All the efforts that man can make in defence of the Word God are utterly useless. The Word has infinitely more power than man has, for it has the power of God. It is a weapon for the propagation of truth. If truth is to be vindicated, the best method is not by arguments made up from human reason, but by speaking forth the living word, fresh from the pages of inspiration. Human reasoning, debating, speculation, and philosophy are the weapons employed (through his agents) by the devil; and he knows better how to use them than any man. The armory of God contains no such weapons, and the cause of truth can never be vindicated by their use. Our weapon is the word of God. By it we can overthrow all these, and successfully "contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints." Jude 3.

Error cannot stand before the word of God. Though it will still be clung to by such as have chosen to make themselves its champions, because of their corrupt desires, it cannot keep its place in the honest heart before the sword of the Spirit. When argument and human reasoning cease to be substituted for the Word in the conflict with error, the cause of truth will make much faster progress.

"The Light of Prophecy" The Present Truth 9, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

The value of prophecy is but little understood by the people of the present day. Prophecy is history written in advance. It has to us the value that history would have if some period of the past were again to be lived through and we were to be actors in it. We can all of us be wise with regard to the past. We know just what course we should have taken in order to have identified ourselves with the right and have made our lives a success. We can see just where others made mistakes and know just what they should have done to have avoided them. Prophecy is designed to give us this advantage with respect to the future. It tells us what is coming even more surely than history tells us what has come, for history has in it the element of human fallibility; nor does it confuse us with a view of many things that are of secondary interest, in the midst of which the important things are liable to be undistinguished, but it points out the dangers and the calamities that are coming, thus giving us ample opportunity for preparation to meet them and when the crisis comes, to stand in a right position.

The spiritually great and wise men of the past have been students of prophecy; and by its light they took some of the most important steps of their lives. The prophet Daniel has recorded an instance in which he derived advantage in this way. "In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; in the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem." Dan. ix. 1, 2. This to Daniel was most important information. A stranger in the land of the Chaldeans, with his people captives and Jerusalem lying forsaken and in ruins, his mind must have turned often to the future with the anxious question whether there was to come a brighter day for His people and the city of his God; and there, in the book of the prophecy of Jeremiah, was the information for which he was seeking. By searching this prophecy he understood that the period of the desolation of Jerusalem was to be seventy years, and at the time of which the record speaks-"in the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus"-this period was just about to terminate. Daniel therefore understood that it was a time for action; and he tells us that he set himself to seek the Lord. "I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek [Him] by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes." Dan. ix. 3. He sought the Lord in behalf of his people and the city where he had worshipped in the land of his fathers, which was lying desolate; and his prayer was answered by a vision from God in which was contained a prophecy that was to be of the utmost importance to the people of God in after years. How much the efforts of Daniel, due to his understanding of the fact that the time had come for the termination of the captivity, contributed to the return of the Jews and the restoration of Jerusalem, we are not told; but in view of his high position in the realm of Darius and of Cyrus, we may conclude that the amount was not small.

In the record of the wise men from the East, who came to visit the infant Saviour at Bethlehem, we have another instance of the value of a knowledge of prophecy. These were "wise men" because they understood what it was that would indicate the arrival of the time for Christ's birth, and the place where the event would occur. In other words, they were wise in the understanding of the prophecies. See Matt. ii. 1-7. And they came to the infant Saviour and presented unto Him presents of gold and frankincense and myrrh, by which they rendered to Him invaluable service, in view of the approaching

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flight into Egypt which would be necessitated by the decree of Herod. If the Jews had understood the prophecy of Christ's birth in Bethlehem as did the wise men, they would have been ready to welcome Him and show Him honour that was His due. But they had not searched the inspired utterances which foretold the time and place of the great event (see Dan. ix. 25; Micah v. 2), and when the world's Redeemer came, not the slightest preparation had been made for His reception. The royal Babe, the Son of the King of heaven, was left to lie in a manger! This was the result of their neglect of the prophecies. Such a neglect has never failed to work disaster.

God is the ruler over all things, and the prophecies are but the declarations of His purposes. Every great purpose of God in His works for the salvation of men has been made known before the time for its accomplishments. "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets." Amos iii. 7. He reveals them for the instruction of men, that they may be wise and may know what to do when the time for action arrives. God's great plan for the redemption of men has never from the first moment of its inauguration been standing still. It has been moving steadily forward, and is moving forward to-day. Satan at every step has been opposing the work, and as these opposing forces have met, a crisis has been the result. Then those who were zealous for the glory of God, and whose zeal was according to knowledge, have improved the opportunity to do an important work for God, and have made their names prominent among those who have been counted as His servants. But those who have not "had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do," have thereby failed to relate themselves properly to the work of God, or have stood in opposition to it, and their lives have been dismal failures; for the great purposes of Omnipotence must move forward to their completion, and if a man will not fill the place into the work which God has designed for him, the loss is his, and the honour that might have been his is given to someone else.

How few have known the day of their visitation! How few have understood how to relate themselves to the work of God so as to act in harmony with His purposes for their time. It is easy enough to look back upon the past and see how to have related ourselves to the work of God in other times, but the past will not in this matter serve as a guide for the present. Here is where people have been ever prone to make a mistake. They have accepted the results worked out in some previous conflict of truth and error, as if they were all that they needed, forgetful of the fact that they must needs engage in a conflict themselves,-forgetful that the battle between truth and error is going on in their own day and must go on till the end of time, and that there is a battle for them to fight, just as truly as there was for the Reformers and the martyrs. And they flatter themselves that they, if they had lived in other times, would have been among those who stood for God and the right. Yes, they would have stood with Noah when he proclaimed a coming flood; they would have gone with Abraham when he separated himself from the worshippers of idols; they would not have made the mistakes and committed the sins of the Hebrews in the wilderness on their way to Canaan; they would not have been guilty of the deeds by which they committed apostasy in later time; they would not have stoned the prophets; they would not have been among those that rejected Christ; they would have received the preaching of His disciples; they would have stood with the Reformers when they separated from an apostate church, and so on. But those who built and garnished the tombs of the prophets were the very ones who rejected and crucified Christ! And those who accepted Moses were the ones who put the prophets to death. And the ones who accepted Christ and the apostles were the ones who put to death the Christian martyrs. Of course, they did not really accept Moses and the prophets and Christ and the apostles, but they professed to accept them, and to all appearance did accept them. If they had done so in reality, they would have known from their words what aspect the work of God would assume in their own day, and would have been saved from their fearful mistakes.

We take to ourselves the credit of the victories won by those who have preceded us. We fight over their battles, when there is no real opposition to be met, and think that by this we show ourselves to be soldiers of the cross. But their victories are not ours, any more than their circumstances are the ones that surround us. Our day is different from theirs, and the work of God has assumed a different aspect. Not that the plan of salvation ever changes from one age of the world to another; but men and circumstances change, the opposition of Satan assumes new forms, the work of redemption is moving on to its completion, when the earth will be made new and become the abode of the righteous; and God adapts His work to the circumstances and needs of each age. As His work progresses, there is a continual unfolding of truth, and a continual call to men to accept it and be sanctified by obedience to it. The test comes to all men alike. No age has yet witnessed the final victory of truth over error, so as to leave no conflict and no test for those who should live afterwards. Nor has truth in its spiritual forms ever yet attained to popularity. When the battle is being fought, the defenders of truth are but a little company, helpless against the array of the forces of error, were it not for the God of truth who works with them, and against whom all opposition is in vain.

We cannot, if we neglect the study of prophecy, understand how to relate ourselves to the work of God for our time; for prophecy, as stated before, is but a declaration of what was to take place in connection with God's work in times which when the prophecy was written, were yet future, but which now, it may be, are past or present; and we can only understand what the events predicted are and discern them in their true character, as they are pointed out to us in the prophetic word. When Satan is transformed into an angel of light, when he inaugurates movements in the world which are clothed with an appearance of sanctity and claim to be of God, we must depend not upon our own wisdom to detect the imposter, but upon the revelation that has come down to us from above.

But some may ask, Is not prophecy something which belongs to the past? Are there prophecies to be fulfilled in our own day? The best answers to such questions can be obtained from a study of the prophecies themselves. They would never be raised by one who has made them a subject of prayerful study. Hear the testimony of Peter: "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts." 2 Pet. i. 19. Do we indeed do well to take heed unto the sure word of prophecy, until the day dawn? Then many of us may be admonished by this utterance of the apostle. The

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day has not yet dawned. We are yet in the time when the word of prophecy is "a light that shineth in a dark place." If we take no heed to the light, we must walk in darkness, the result of which cannot fail to be a disaster; "for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth."

There are, it is true, many vain and foolish interpretations of prophecy put forth before the world in our day, but we must not for this reason throw the prophecies aside. It is the devil who seeks by this means to throw discredit upon them and cause men to turn from them with a feeling that they afford no positive knowledge, but offer only a field for fanciful speculation. The counterfeit is but an evidence of the existence of the genuine. The devil would like to explain all the prophecies to suit himself and get men to accept them as the true explanations. He would like to discourage men in the study of prophecy, and thus cause them to be taken by surprise at the coming of that which it foretells. But God has given the prophecies to men that they may be wise concerning the time in which they live; and just as surely as God has a special work to be done in our day, as he has had for times past, just so surely has He given us prophecies which relate to it, and we can only slight them at our peril."

"Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets: Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish; for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you." Acts xiii. 40, 41. Let us speak of those who have the understanding of the times, by taking heed, as did the wise men of old, to the word that God has spoken by His prophets.

"Key Note of Christian Living" The Present Truth 9, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

Here is an extract from a letter written by Ruskin to a young student of his, which touches the key note of Christian living:-

"I believe there is no means of preserving rectitude of conduct and nobleness of aim but the grace of God, obtained daily, almost hourly-waiting upon Him and continual faith in His immediate presence. Get into this habit of thought, and you need make no promises. Come short of this, and you will break them, and be more discouraged, than if you had made none. The great lesson we have to learn in this world is to give it all up; it is not so much resolution as renunciation-not so much courage as resignation that we need. He that has once yielded thoroughly to God will yield to nothing but God."

"'Faith Cometh by Hearing'" The Present Truth 9, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

The evangelist, L. W. Munhall, relates in the New York Independent the following of the inquiry room, which is but an illustration of the statement that "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." "Being justified by faith," not by feeling, "we have peace with God." But we have need to take heed how we hear. All of the difficulties that people experience in understanding the Bible, and all the conflicting theories that are said to be derived from it, arise from the fact that people do not take the word just as it says, but persist in reading their own doubts into it. Mr. Munhall was conducting a series of meetings, and during one of the inquiry services he was told that a man named John Ewing was in great distress of mind, and anxious to see him. He proceeds thus:-

"I found Mr. Ewing in a corner of the room, behind a door, on his knees, before a chair. His hands were laid open upon a chair, palms downward. His face was turned upward, was ashen-hued and covered with great drops of cold perspiration. He was the perfect picture of despair. I dropped upon my knees by his side and the following conversation took place:-

"I understand, Mr. Ewin, you wish to see me."

"Yes, sir!" he replied.

"What is your trouble?"

"Oh, sir, I am such a great sinner."

I said: "Praise the Lord!"

I can never forget the look he gave me as he said: "I see nothing for which to praise the Lord."

"Doubtless that is so," I responded; "but that is because 'the eyes of your understanding' are not 'enlightened that ye may know what is the hope of His calling.' There is hope for the man who believes himself to be a great sinner. Jesus came not 'to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.' 'They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.' Do you not know, Mr. Ewin, that we have a very great and gracious Saviour?"

"Yes," he said, "but my sins are heinous and very black."

"But," I responded, "Jesus 'is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.'"

"That may all be true," he replied; "but I am the vilest sinner in this city. I have sinned knowingly and with a high hand."

I opened my Bible to the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, and laid it upon the chair before him. I asked: "Do you believe the Bible is true?"

"I do," was the quick response.

I then said: "Will you notice carefully the three things stated in the sixth verse of this chapter. First: 'All we like sheep have gone astray.' Do you believe that?" I asked.

"Yes; I know I have wandered like a lost sheep."

"Second: 'We have turned every one to his own way.' Do you believe that?"

"Oh, yes, sir. I know I have not walked in God's way."

"Third: 'And the Lord hath laid on Him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all.' Do you believe that also?"

He responded, hesitatingly and evasively: "I have been the wickedest man upon earth."

"So, then," I said, "you believe the first and second statements of that verse, but not the third?"

"O, sir, I believe it all."

"Are you certain of it?"

"Yes, sir; but I am such a great sinner."

"Do you really believe God laid your iniquities on Jesus? It says that, does it not?"

"Yes, it says, 'And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.' Well, I believe it."

"With your whole heart?"

"Yes, with my whole heart?"

"Well," I then asked, "where are your iniquities?"

"On me, sir; and they are very great and heaven."

"And you say, Mr. Ewing 'I believe the Bible is true;' and yet, when God says He 'hath laid on Him the iniquities of us all,' 'who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree,' and thus hath 'put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself,' you say, in effect: 'It is not so; my sins are yet on me.' In other words, God says He laid your sins on Jesus, and you say it is not so; and yet claim to believe the Bible."

"But, sir, he answered, 'I do believe God's word."

"Very well," I said; "let us look at it again. God says: 'And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all,' does He not?"

"Yes, that's how it reads."

"Well, then, where are your iniquities?"

"With somewhat of hestitation, he said: "I suppose, sir, they must be upon Christ."

"You suppose so? don't you know so?"

"Well, but I'm such a very great sinner."

"Very well, then, I'll read it your way, and we'll see how it sounds. Will you listen?"

"Certainly."

Again I read: "'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,' excepting John Ewing."

Springing to his feet, he shouted: "That's not there, sir! It doesn't say that!"

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I replied: "I know it does not. But that's the way you have been reading it all the while, in spite of my every effort to get you to see what it really does say."

"I see it! I see it!" he said, vehemently and exultingly: "He did lay my sins on Jesus! He did! He did!" and he clapped his hands again and again in the ecstacy of his joy, and shouted aloud the praises of God.

"Where Is the Truth?" The Present Truth 9, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

To what source among men can we look with confidence to find religious truth? Is it with the masses of mankind? Is it with a church that is the largest in numbers and greatest in wealth and influence? Is worldly popularity and prosperity anywhere a sign of its presence? These are questions upon which very much depends, and which multitudes have answered unwisely, to the ruin of their souls. The following words from a sermon by the Rev. F. J. Hamilton are instructive upon this theme:-

"There are times, and the present is such a time, when the Christian warrior must make a special stand, and feel more keenly the pressure of the strife. Never should he, for a moment, shrink from loyalty to the truth through fear of man, never should he quail before the power of the world; never should he imagine that to please man's carnal fancies is the way to win their soul; never must he be deluded by the notion that the truth is with the multitude. Was the truth with the eight hundred and fifty prophets of idolatry, headed by royalty, applauded by the people, clad in their vestments, and leaping on their altars; or with Elijah, as he stood alone before his dripping sacrifice, strong only in his God? Let the fire from heaven testify, and the shout of the unwilling crowd declare it. Where was the truth? With the seven thousand obscure believers, or with the multitudes that kissed the images? Let all the after history proclaim it, and the witness of the Spirit confirm it. Where is the truth now? With those who multiply ceremonies, bring back unlawful rites, and teach for doctrines the commandments of men; with those who spin out the web of some sceptical argument, and assail the integrity and inspiration of the Scriptures by which they shall be judged; or with those who believe in Christ Jesus as their all-sufficient and only Saviour, who look for the sanctification of the Spirit, and simply trust the Divine word? We confidently appeal from the flabby sentiment of a self-seeking age to the unerring verdict of eternity!"

Where, it might also have been said, was the truth in the days of Noah, when only eight souls and all the world believed his message and were saved from the flood? Where was it in the days of Abraham, when he was called to separate himself from his father's house and become a stranger in the earth? Where was it in the days of Christ and His little handful of disciples, scorned and persecuted by the sanctimonious Jews? Where was it in the days of Martin Luther, when he began his work amidst the opposition of popes and prelates, emperors and kings? And where is it to-day? Has the tide at length turned, so that truth is not to be found on the side of the majority? or is it still fighting the battle with error under similar circumstances to those which have prevailed in ages past?

Is it not necessary that these queries should be made and answered in uncertainty. There is one certain source of truth, accessible to all, and upon which all may rely with absolute certainty. It is the word of God." "Sanctify them through Thy truth," said Jesus; "Thy word is truth." John xvii. 17. This is the source which supplied Abraham, Noah, Elijah, the apostles, Luther, and all others in all ages who maintained the cause of truth against the opposition of the multitude; and it is the only reliable source in the world to-day. Let us come to it and take it as such, notwithstanding the opposition of men. Let us say with the apostle, "Let God be true, but every man a liar." Rom. iii. 4.

"Prayer" The Present Truth 9, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

Prayer is the channel of the soul's communion with God. Through it our faith ascends to God, and His blessings descend to us. The prayer of the saints ascend as incense before God. They come actually into His presence. Ps. cxl. 2; Rev. v. 8; viii. 3, 4. Prayer is the index of the soul's spirituality. There is "the prayer of faith," spoken of by James, and there is also the wavering prayer, mentioned by the same writer. There is "the effectual, fervent prayer," which "availeth much," and there is also the cold, formal prayer, which avails nothing. Our prayers show the exact measure of our spirituality.

The effectual prayer takes hold by faith upon the word of God. Faith not only believes that God is, but that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Heb. xi. 6. It is offered not formally, but with a sense of need; not doubtingly nor despairingly, but with full confidence that it is heard, and will receive an answer in due time.

The effectual prayer is not argumentative, for it is not the province of man to argue with God. Its statements are not for the purpose of conveying information to God, or of persuading Him to do what He had not intended to do. God cannot be persuaded by man. The arguments and appeals of a finite man cannot change the mind of the Omniscient. The man of faith does not plead with God for any such purpose. He does not want to persuade God to work in man's way, for he believes God's statement that as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than man's ways. His prayer is ever, Thy will, not mine, be done.

What then is prayer, and what the purpose for which it is offered? It is the expression of our assent to that which God is willing and waiting to do for us. It is expressing to God our willingness to let Him do for us what He did wants to. It is not left for us to instruct the Lord in regard to what we need. "Your heavenly Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him." He knows what we need much better than we know ourselves. "For we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered." Rom. viii. 26.

God knows every need that we have, and is ready and anxious to give us that which will supply them; but He waits for us to realise our need of Him. He cannot consistently with the infinitely wise principles by which He works, bestow upon men spiritual blessings of which they would have no appreciation. He cannot work for man without man's co-operation. The heart must be in a condition to receive an appropriate gift before it can be bestowed. And when it is in that condition, it will feel an earnest longing which will naturally take the form of prayer. And when this longing is felt, when the soul feels an intense desire for the help that God alone can give, when the language of the soul is, "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God,"-the effect is to open the channel between God and the soul and let the flood of blessings which was already waiting to descend. And it is the intensity of the desire that determines how wide the door shall be opened.

We need to realise more the great truth that God sees and knows everything that we need and has every provision made for all our wants, before we have even considered those wants ourselves, and that our work is not to determine what must be done to relieve them, but to place ourselves in a position where God can relieve them by the means which He has provided; to conduct ourselves with Him, to know His mind and thus to move according

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to His plans, and not set about the fruitless task of trying to make Him work for us according to some plans of our own.

"God and Government" The Present Truth 9, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

A religious journal argues that "as there is no future life for a nation in its corporate capacity, it must receive its rewards and punishments in this world."

This reasoning overlooks the relation sustained to the nation by the individual. The former is but an organised aggregation of the latter; and you cannot separate national responsibility from the responsibility of the people composing it. The sin of a nation is the sin of its component individuals.

It is organisation that distinguishes a government from a mere aggregation of individuals; and organisation is an abstract thing, and not capable of being considered in any system of rewards and punishments. There is no sin that is not the sin of an individual; for "sin is the transgression of the law" (1 John iii. 4), and the law speaks always to the individual,-"Thou shall not," etc.

The organisation which makes a government out of an aggregate of individuals, adds nothing to and takes nothing from the previous relation of the individuals to God. A nation cannot be rewarded or punished in its corporate capacity, but it can be rewarded or punished in its individual members. But each individual is rewarded according to his own works. He is not rewarded for any good deeds that he has not done, nor punished for any sins that he has not committed.

An abstract thing can have no sense of accountability, or of rewards and punishments. The highest punishment is death, and this can be inflicted on any corporation or form of government by simply taking away its organisation. But it is evident that this is not in any true sense a punishment to the corporation or to the government. Whatever arrangements may be entered into between governments to recognise governmental responsibility to each other, there can be no such thing as governmental responsibility to God. God deals only with sin, which is the accountability of the individual.

A government can fail; it can be found wanting in resources to meet the ends for which was established; but it cannot sin. Otherwise it could repent, be converted, and have eternal life through Jesus Christ. It is well to keep the distinction between government and individual, and the relation of one to the other, clearly in mind.

"What One Little Plant Did" The Present Truth 9, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

The Master who formed His creatures, appointed each its place. There is a place for the weak as well as for the strong.

The "Arundo," or "Bentgrass" as it is commonly called, has nothing attractive about it, but as the oak has its work in the forest, this little plant has its work on the shifting sand. It has no blossoms, but is a hard and sturdy plant, being neither a true rush nor a true grass; but it has done a wonderful work for Britain. We may find how wonderful by going to the West country, to nooks about Morecombe and in Cheshire, to the sands of Anglesca, and to the wastes of Cornwall.

Crona Temple tells of a spot on the West coast "where the sand drifts had worked their work of destruction unchecked for generations. Yard by yard, good land had been swallowed up; cottage after cottage submerged by the sweeping tides of sand. Tall trees perished, choked by the throttling strength that was at the same time their murderer and their grave. There had once been here a small but safe harbour, where many a fishing smack had found shelter. The sand spoiled and choked it until not even a skiff could find anchorage."

But someone thought of the Arundo and planted its creeping roots in the sand. "It must be confessed that it made but little way that first year, but by the end of the second summer it had got good grip of the enemy. The penetrating roots held together in firm elastic masses; the needle-like leaves let the sand fall between them, and so hard were they that even the bitter rattle of its sharp particles failed to cut into or destroy them. Months went by. The sand arose with its million grains, and hurled itself on the Arundo. Those running roots merely lifted their fresh growth higher through the frifts, leaving the old dry fibre as an extra strength below. As the sand settled upon them, banking itself against their gentle resistance, they just grew through it, catching more sand against their knotty corners, and, holding it tightly, making out of the sand a rampart against itself. The very means which had overcome all other obstacles only served to build it higher.

"Through the sand, and upon the sand, the sea-mat grew, binding and holding the drifting tide until it was a firm bulwark stretching from north to south, behind which the world began to dare to grow green again.

"Ever growing, ever working in its silent and most humble way, the Arundo, had held its own. And not only its own, but England's against the onslaught of the sea! The best, the only bulwak which could have kept the coast."

"Grass, Herbs, and Trees" The Present Truth 9, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

"And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit, whose seed is in itself; and it was so." Gen. i. 11.

How pleasant on a bright summer day to step on the soft green grass, to rest in the shade of the leafy trees, and to smell the fragrant flowers! How bright and pleasant the pansies look as they nod at us with their velvety heads! Oh, what a dreary place this earth would be without any grass, or plants, or trees! How thankful we should be that God did not leave it as it was at first.

You remember that on the third day, God gathered the waters together and caused the dry land to appear. But there was not yet a blade of grass nor a tree nor a flower,-just bare, dry land. Then a most wonderful thing occurred. God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, herbs, and trees;" and it did! All at once they began to come up everywhere out of the ground! And the hills, mountains, valleys, and plains, that a moment before were brown and bare, where suddenly covered with green plants, flowers, and tall, grand looking trees of every kind! The trees were much larger and more beautiful than trees now are, and there were no thorns on the trees and rosebushes, and no thistles and weeds among the grass, for God looked and saw everything that He had made, and behold it was very good. How perfect and beautiful it must have been!

Even now our plants and trees are wonderful and beautiful. The trees and grass are not all alike, nor the flowers of one colour. You can find no two of them that are exactly alike; and yet nearly all are so pretty and useful that we can hardly tell which we like best. From them we get our wood, food, clothing, medicine, and many other useful things. Ask your mother from what your furniture, cotton and linen cloth, straw hats, flour, meal, sugar, corks, and India rubber are made. There are many strange things to be learned by studying roots, stalks, buds, leaves, flowers and seeds.

Just think; "how much is within a small acorn cup! When you hold an acorn in your hand, you hold not a small nut only. Folded within its tiny shell lie trees, and their children trees-even a whole forest. It is a great wonder to make a tree; but how much more wonderful to give to the tree the power to bring forth acorns that would make other trees, and they in turn to bring forth other acorns to make other trees for years and years!"

"A watch is, perhaps, one of the most beautiful and wonderful things ever made by man, but you might plant it in the ground again and again and it could never bring forth more watches. Does not this show us how much greater God's work is than man's?" Every tree, every plant, every flower, every blade of grass, and every tiny seed should cause us to think of the wisdom and goodness of the great Creator. And should they not fill all our hearts with joy, and our songs with praise, when we remember that He is our best Friend?

1. What kind of carpets have you seen?

2. What kind of carpet is on the hills and fields, valleys and mountains, in the spring?

3. Were the grass and trees and flowers always here?

4. When did they first begin to grow?

5. Who caused them to grow?

6. How? Gen. i. 11, 12.

7. Can man make them grow in that way?-Man cannot make them grow in any way; he can plant the seed, or young tree or plant, but God alone can make it grow. Man cannot cause even one blade of grass to grow.

8. Would the earth be so pleasant if all the trees and grass were exactly alike?

9. Were the first trees and plants as good as ours?

10. Name some kinds of grass.-Wheat, oats, barley, and rice are grasses.

11. For what are the grasses good?

12. What flowers have you seen?

13. What are they good for?

14. Name some kinds of herbs or plants.

15. For what are they used?

16. Name a fruit tree; an evergreen tree; a flowering tree; a cone-bearing tree; a nut-bearing tree; a fruit-bearing tree.

17. Of what use are trees?

18. For whom did God make all of these good things? Gen. i. 9, 30.

19. How can we show our thankfulness?-By thanking God in our prayers, by giving thanks before we eat, and by using the things in a way that will please and glorify Him.

20. Does it please and glorify God when we use our fruits, grains, and plants in a way that will make us selfish, unhealthy, and unable to do good work for Jesus?

21. Then should we drink strong drinks? Smoke and chew tobacco? Smoke opium? Prepare our food in a way that will make us weak or ill?

22. What does God say about our eating and drinking? 1 Cor. x. 31.

23. About what should every tree, and plant, and tiny seed cause us to think?

24. And when we remember that this great Creator is our Friend, how should we feel? Verily should we be glad?

"Strange Coats" The Present Truth 9, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

Trees and shrubs wear the most wonderful coats. Just stop and examine them. Some are smooth and others are rough; some are brown, others green, still others a silver colour; some are plain, a few spotted, others striped, and many trimmed with the daintiest velvet, and the softest draperies.

What a perfect fit! The trees are entirely protected from top to base, from trunk to the end of the smallest twig. And yet there are plenty of the tiniest openings for ventilation.

Those trees and shrubs living in warm countries have thinner coats, and those living in cold places thicker ones.

Some trees get new coats once a year, and others wear the same ones all their lives.

"Well don't they wear out or get too small?" you say.

They would if they did not keep them so well repaired. As the trees grow larger they burst their coats open in different places but immediately fill up these rents with the cunningest patches set in so neatly that you cannot find a seam anywhere, no matter how closely you look. In this way they keep their coats in good order and large enough for their growing bodies.

In the winter the trees go to sleep and their buds are snugly tucked into their "winter cradles." Then they would freeze if it were not for the nice warm coats and softly-lined cradles which their Creator has given them and their buds. What are these wonderful coats called? How are the trees enabled to mend them? And what are the cradles for the buds? Why are the "winter cradles" in cold countries lined with a blanket of down, while those in warm countries are not lined at all? Do you wonder that God is called the loving Father of all His creatures?

A small microscope is a never-ending source of delight to the children, and reveals to their wondering view still more and more of the wondrous works of God.

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

-The health of Prince Bismarck is improving.

-There are 5,250,000 Catholics in the United Kingdom of this number over 3,500,000 are in Ireland.

-The finest business block in St. Joseph, Mo., U.S.A., has been burned, resulting in a loss of 1,000,000 dollars.

-By a railway collision in Indiana, U.S.A., Sept. 22, eleven persons were killed, including several residents of London.

-An International Congress for the suppression of bad literature was held recently in Lausanne. What the results of the session were we are not yet told.

-The town of Mochowa, in Poland, has been partially destroyed by fire. Eight persons perished in the flames, and hundreds of families are without shelter.

-President Cleveland in a recent letter expresses himself as in favour of the immediate and unconditional repeal of the purchase clause of the Sherman law.

-The Haytian warship "Alexandre PÈtion" has been mysteriously wrecked with a number of Haytian diplomatists of high rank on board, all of whom were drowned.

-The Liberal Churchmen's Union has presented an address to Mr. Gladstone, congratulating him on having passed the Home Rule Bill through the House of Commons.

-A former resident of Stanley Falls who has arrived at Brussels says that he is convinced that the power of the Arabs on the Upper Congo is completely broken after the sanguinary defeats inflicted upon them by the troops of the Congo Free State under the command of Belgian officers.

-Strong measures are being demanded at Madrid for suppressing Anarchism. In Vienna the practices of the Anarchists were strongly denounced at a meeting of Socialists.

-The Church Missionary Society met recently at Exeter Hall. London, to bid God-speed to upwards of 100 missionaries who are to proceed to distant parts of the world under the auspices of the society.

-A Cape Town telegram reports that a dispatch from Mashonaland confirms the intelligence that the Matabeles are preparing for a big fight, the young warriors having broken away from Lobengula's authority.

-Prospects of a speedy termination of the coal dispute are not hopeful, the miners hesitating to meet the masters on the terms proposed. The men are determined not to accept, or even discuss, a reduction of wages.

-The Russian ironclad "Rossalka" was lost in the Gulf of Finland during the recent gales, with twelve officers and 166 sailors. She was known to have been in a very unseaworthy condition, and generally unfitted to encounter heavy weather.

-Telegrams from the regions of the coal strike in Northern France and Belgium state that, except at Charleroi, there is an improvement in the situation, although in the Nord and Pas de Calais the miners are being urged by the union official, to continue the strike. At Mons there has been some rioting.

-The British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society has addressed a memorial to Lord Rosebery urging upon item Majesty's Government the importance of proclaiming the abolition of the legal status of slavery in the British Protectorate of Zanzibar, which includes the island of Pemba, where thousands of slaves are engaged in the cultivation of cloves.

-During a military review at Barcelona two petards were thrown into the midst of a group of staff officers, wounding thirteen of them, among whom were Marshal Campos, General Castellvi, chief of the staff, and Generals Rustos and Molins and several others. The Anarchists who threw the bombs have been arrested, and will be tried by court-martial.

-Advices from Argentina indicate the continued spread of the revolt against the Government of President Saenz Pena. The States in the northern part of the Republic are in open revolt, and doubt, is expressed regarding the loyalty of many Government officials. Rosario is in the hands of the insurgents, and a division of the latter are marching upon Santa Fe.

-Great indignation has been caused among members of the Greek Church in Constantinople by the opposition offered to the Crook Patriarch in his endeavour to obtain the release of a priest of the orthodox Greek Church, name, Photius, who was recently arrested and imprisoned by the Turkish authorities. The outcome of the incident may be serious.

-The cholera epidemic still continues in Europe, and is spreading in Asiatic ports along the Persian Gulf. The mail steamer "Carlo R," which was not allowed to land her passengers or cargo at Brazilian ports, has arrived at the quarantine station of Asinara, on the Sardinian coast. During her voyage from Brazil 149 of her passengers and crew died of cholera on board.

-Intelligence received at Berlin states that the town of Brzeznaca, in the Government of Petrikan, has been completely destroyed by fire. There is evidence that the fire was the work of incendiaries, flames arising simultaneously from the four quarters of the town. Five hundred families are homeless, and are now camping out in the open fields, while several were burned to death.

-Intelligence has reached New York front Monte Video, that the insurgent squadron had renewed the bombardment of Rio, killing many persons, although it ceased shelling the city when the forts opened fire. The damage done is said to exceed that of the first bombardment. Santos is still blockaded by the insurgent fleet. A proclamation has been issued by Admiral de Mello, the insurgent leader, accusing President Peixoto and the Cabinet of various malpractices and malversation of public funds. A Brazilian naval officer, who has been interviewed at Lisbon, expresses the view that in the event of the success of the insurrectionary movement an attempt will be made to bring about the restoration of the monarchy.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

It is now estimated that the recent hurricane which swept over the southern Atlantic coast of North America destroyed over 1,000 lives and damaged shipping to the extent of $20,000,000.

There are 5,250,000 Catholics in the United Kingdom. Of this number over 3,500,000 are in Ireland. The Catholic power in the kingdom might however be less with even much greater numbers, if fewer positions of influence were filled by individuals of that faith.

A Frenchman is said to have recently written a book of several hundred pages to prove that the effect of oysters when eaten is to rest the brain! If all the wasted human energy in the world were directed to useful ends, how much better off our race would be than it is.

The "Cherokee Outlet" said to be the last remaining piece of the public domain in the United States, has just been thrown open to settlement. On the day of opening there was a mad rush on all sides by people of all classes and travelling by every sort of conveyance, to secure the choice localities in the territories; for it was a case of "first come first served." It was a representation on a large scale and inconspicuous form of the spirit that controls in the small individual transactions of those were not ruled by the Spirit of Christ.

The present may not be untruthfully spoken of as a time of universal trouble. Two wars in South America, financial ruin and starvation in North America, prostration from the same cause in Australia, pestilence in Europe, and the great coal strike with the attending paralysis of industries in our own land, make up a stupenduous and awful picture for the mind's eye in this latest day of the world's progress and civilisation. It is better to look upon the bright side of a picture than the dark one, but it is well to be admonished by the situation which confronts us, and ask ourselves what it may portend in the purposes of Him who ruleth over all things.

Transatlantic journals are just now full of the proceedings of the great "World's Parliament of Religions," sitting in connection with the World's Fair. Nearly every prominent religion in the world is represented, and a vast fund of information-not all of it very valuable-is elicited by the various speakers who participated. Some effort is even made to discover a resemblance between the faiths of the Orient and the Occident; though none save the most deluded enthusiast can be blind to the fact that between these there is a hopeless divergence. There is one point of union, however,-one great doctrine upon which they all stand alike; they all believe that man has an immortal soul. This doctrine is the very foundation stone of all heathenism. It may be that with this as a common basis a considerable degree of advancement will be made toward a general union of apostate religious sects.

The Mohammedan pilgrims who annually journey in such great numbers to Mecca drink from the "holy" well of Zem-Zem, which is within the city. A sample of the "holy" water taken from this well, on analysis by a correspondent of the London Times, was found to contain "in an equal volume, considerably more animal matter than is found in average London sewage," being full of dead and living microbes and the foulest refuse which filtered into it from soil which has never known any other drain than that provided by nature. Mecca is supplied with water of an excellent quality, but it is not "holy" like the solution contained in the well, and of course the pilgrims feel bound to drink of the latter. The relation of this to the fact that Mecca is a chief, if not the principal, cholera centre of the East, will be at once apparent.

We must not however be too severe in our condemnation of the devotees whose unsanitary practices are so productive of evil; for wherein we would judge them we might also condemn ourselves. Our own forefathers, of times yet scarcely historic, were guilty of similar practices. The Christian people of Europe were a long time learning the truth that holiness and filth do not go together; and the Mohammedans are as yet only a century or two behind us. Anyone familiar with the Middle Ages knows that uncleanliness was then regarded rather as an aide to sanctity than as something incompatible with it. The "saints" were generally persons whose appearance amply testified to their contempt for ideas of personal sanitation. Long and unkempt hair, cut nails, and unwashed bodies were considered in perfect keeping with, if not evidences of, the highest attainments in piety. Of course, the monastic dungeons and gloomy and solitary caves where such piety as they possessed was attained, were not especially conducive to habits of attention to the appearance and wants of the body; but the illustrious examples of "bodily mortification" which the world then saw can only be accounted for by the prevailing religious sentiment of the time, which made neglect of the body a positive virtue. And there was a reason for this sentiment; but this we will consider at another time.

Even to-day there are a great many civilized people who firmly believe in the holiness of ancient and mouldering pieces of bone,-the remains, real or supposed, of some departed "saint," revered by the Roman Catholic Church. If holiness can pertain to these relics, of which so much is made by the Church of Rome, certainly it is not unreasonable to suppose it may also belong to the cholera-producing well of Mecca, notwithstanding the conditions which render it so dangerous to human life.

In the purposes of God, holiness and filth are incompatible. One has but to glance casually through the Old Testament Scriptures to observe the sharp line of separation drawn between the clean and the unclean, not only as pertaining to the character, but to the flesh as well, nor are the New Testament Scripture less explicit. We are exhorted to "cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." 2 Cor. vii. 1. We are told that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, and "if any man defile the temple of God, him will God destroy." If people understood better what holiness is, there would be much less superstition pertaining to the relics and "holy" places both among civilised people and others, and much fewer "pilgrimages" with their attendant evils undertaken both in Asia and Europe.

October 12, 1893

"Front Page" The Present Truth 9, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

The condition of things which prevails in a great civilised country of the world attracts our attention by reason of its peculiar as well as serious nature. United States journals tell us of bread riots in the streets, and at the same time state that the farmers have difficulty in finding sufficient help to harvest their crops. There is a riot and starvation in a land of peace and plenty. Surely this is an emergency not generally contemplated hitherto by the statesmen who have in charge the welfare and prosperity of nations.

Such a state of things would never exist in the ordinary course of nature. The natural condition of things is that there should be peace and prosperity where there is plenty, and riot and depression and want where there is a dearth; but in this last decade of the ninteenth century the world beholds the strange and unnatural spectacle of prosperity and plenty going hand in hand with riot and want. A new lesson must be taken in the science of statesmanship; and upon the interpretation of that lesson will turn the outcome of the present situation.

The writer of Ecclesiastes states a fact which lies at the bottom of the whole difficulty. "Lo, this have I found," says he, "that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions." Eccl. vii. 29. Nothing but an invention of man could produce the artificial condition of affairs which we have before us. Man has sought out these inventions for the reason that the conditions of things as he found them did not afford such opportunities as he desired to gratify his perverted taste. The selfish nature within him clamoured for opportunities for a fuller exercise of its depraved desires, and man, obedient thereto, has exercised his God-given faculties to devise ways by which such opportunities could be had. And one of the selfish desires-the most prominent one, perhaps-is the desire for worldly gain. "The love of money is the root of all evil." The conditions which exist naturally in the domain of trade and commerce, will not enable men to get rich as fast as they want to. Therefore some artificial conditions must be produced which will allow of attaining the selfish goal. And as men cannot compel the natural source of wealth-the earth-to furnish such conditions, they must necessarily be obtained from manipulations of another and unnatural source-their fellow-men. The wealth of the world's millionaires, with possibly a few exceptions, comes not from the pockets of the earth but from the pockets of their fellows. It comes not from a natural condition of things, or from an equitable and just condition, but from artificial, invented conditions, having legal but not equitable support, by which they are unable to take advantage of the wants of mankind, and squeeze from hard necessity that which inclination would never consent to give.

We see men to-day in our own land who do not hesitate to starve the poor, in order that there may be a sudden and extensive swelling of their own bank account, by conditions which have no natural necessity for existence; for it is more than probable that the great coal strike which is so conspicuous among present evils in our land was not necessitated by circumstances beyond the control of man, but is the result simply of human greed, taking the advantage of circumstances to put upon a much-needed commodity an artificial value. The same principle underlies every "corner" in trade, with which the public are now so familiar. And it is even stated upon good authority that the financial crisis in America is the product of nothing but human greed. We reprint an extract bearing upon this point, taken from an interview had by a correspondent of the London Chronicle with a prominent citizen of Minneapolis, Minn.:-

"You speak of the tyranny of monopoly. Do you mean its political power, its omnipotence in the lobbies of Washington and of the State legislatures?"

"Yes, I mean that, and I mean more than that. Monopoly is strangling the industries of the country, and turning the bounty of nature in this vast Continent into a curse. Here is this money panic, which has led to the destruction of business confidence, and the throwing of millions of men idle on the streets. It is a purely artificial panic brought about by the financiers to enable them to appreciate gold which they held in reserves. The real industrial life of the country is perfectly healthy, but it is throttled by the money power. Why, last year the New York bankers (and Mr. Owen quoted from Mr. Henry B. Clews, the noted Wall-street magnate) actually lamented the abundant harvest, because it did not suit financial interests."

"But how does monopoly strangle industry and enterprise?"

"Now, you take this city of Minneapolis, with its 200,000 people, not more than thirty years old, so rapidly has it grown. You can't establish any industry in this city; it is a literal fact; you can't do it. Every great industry, those mills and elevators, are all in the hands of rings, and no man can get into the business to-day unless on the rings' term. Talk of free competition! It is as dead here in this great new city as it was in a walled town in the Middle Ages! The whole city is in the grasp of syndicates which deny to people the right to labour on the raw material of the globe."

The result, when this comes to be generally believed, will be a mighty impetus to Socialism, or, as is predicted by many, the establishment of a new

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political party, in the platform of which will be embodied those ideas of needed reforms, both civil and religious, which have latterly been attaining to popularity.

But the lesson to be learned from it all is that to insure good government and prosperity to all, the world needs something it does not possess, and which human wisdom cannot furnish. It needs something to successfully combat that universal desire of mankind-the love of money; for it is this that is the root of all evil which the spectacle of financial prostration and paralysed industries presents before us. The struggle between rich and poor is a part of a great contest between good and evil; and only that which avails in the one will avail in the other. But the contest against human selfishness can only be successfully waged by means of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Temporary reliefs for existing troubles may be devised by the wisdom of man; but only the power of the gospel can touch the root, and destroy the evil at its source.

This is what the world needs, though it knows it not. This is that for which the present situation calls,-not an alliance of the gospel with politics, but its reception into the heart. The lesson is, government cannot give the world what it wants for the peace and prosperity of its inhabitants. Let it be ours to point men to the gospel of God-"the power of God unto salvation"-and to the coming of that better kingdom and government which will be the answer to the prayer, "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven."

"The Tongue" The Present Truth 9, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

"There are but ten precepts of the law of God," says Leighton, "and two of them, so far as concerns the outward organ and vent of sins there forbidden, are bestowed upon the tongue (one in the first table and the other in the second), as though it were ready to fly out both against God and man, if not thus bridled."

The apostle James says, "the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity; so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire of hell." "If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body." James iii. 2, 6.

The reason of this is, as stated by our Saviour, that "those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." Matt. xv. 18, 19. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."

Therefore when a man offends not in word, he has a clean heart, and when the heart is clean, freed from its "murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts," etc., the man is perfect. All these things exist in the heart before they exist in the outward acts; for the acts are but the outward manifestations of that which already existed within the individual who does them. For, as our Saviour declared, hatred in the heart is murder, and lust in the heart is adultery.

It is useless to attempt to control the tongue while the work goes no deeper than the tongue. The stream cannot be cleansed except at its fountain head. The work must be done in the heart; and then out of the abundance of a good heart, the mouth will speak only that which is pure and truthful.

"The Church and the World" The Present Truth 9, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

The Echo, commenting upon the tardy interest now being manifested by "the Church" in the social and industrial welfare of mankind, says: "It is better late than never. Now, when secular movements are manifesting themselves so powerfully in the world; now, when Socialists are increasing in number in every country in Europe; now, when the 'world' is leaving the Church behind, the Church is making prodigious efforts to overtake the world, and is generously using worldly agencies for its own protection."

There is altogether too much truth in these words. The world is leaving "the church" behind, and "the church" is following the world. This is exactly the reverse of what God intended. The church ought to take the lead in all matters which affect the welfare of mankind, not only spiritually, but temporally; but the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which she is set to minister, is not something that concerns the spiritual nature alone, but has to do with the whole life, physical as well as moral. When Christ was on earth a very large part of His time was spent in healing the sick and relieving those who were suffering from physical afflictions; and His followers ought to be in the same work. It is to those who clothe the naked, feed the hungry, visit the sick and the prisoners, and seek to relieve the distress of any kind in their fellowmen, that Christ will finally say, "Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

Jesus says to His church, "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid." Matt. v. 14. The light of the world ought to be before the world, and not behind it. It ought to go ahead, to reveal the dangers and point out the path before the world, and not that which has been left behind. It ought to lead the world; but it is being led by the world. The result of such an order of the procession need not be foretold.

The world will never go in the right path. Its representatives may do their best to deal with the problems which concern the physical and moral welfare of mankind, but they are moving in the dark. There is no light into a world but the light of the Gospel. The socialist and other movements in progress in the world, which have for their object the amelioration of human ills, are all moved by the spirit of self; they have in them the seeds of the very evils they seek to cure. What is wanted is the spirit of unselfishness, of disinterested love for others; and that is only found in the Gospel, for it is the Spirit of Christ. And it can only be had by those to whom Christ gives it.

This is the Spirit that should be shown by the church; and the benign results accomplished by it would throw a bright light upon all problems having to do with human welfare. Then people would see that in the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to be found everything that is needed by mankind, not for spiritual wants alone, but for those which are felt by man as a social and industrial being.

The church ought to be in the lead of everything; not allied with the world or its governments, not falling behind it, but far ahead, leading the way with majestic step, clothed with the power and encircled by the glory of Divinity, while the world looks on in wonder and awe. This is where the church ought to be, this is where God has designed that she should be; and this is where the true church of God will be, in the not distant future when, purified from hypocritical and worldly elements, she shall stand forth "fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners."

"The Value of the Soul" The Present Truth 9, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Mark viii. 36, 37.

Many a man has exchanged his soul for something far less than a world. No man this side of Adam ever owned a continent. Very few have more than a few square miles of the earth's surface, or hold even this much by more than a precarious tenure. The vast majority have never possessed more than a few hundreds or thousands of pounds; yet even this is sufficient to blind the eyes of men to the value of their souls. Men have bartered away their souls for a little worldly honour or a moment's pleasure. They are making just such bargains to-day. They do not do this understandingly of course; but they do it because their eyes are blinded by the god of this world, and they have no realisation of what the soul is worth.

Yet these same persons have a vivid sense of their own individual importance. They think that no position on earth is too high for them, and no honour too good for them. They are ready and anxious to be exalted above their fellow-men. They live as if it were their aim to make themselves the centre around which everything else ought rightfully to revolve.

But the prophet David, with mind enlightened by a higher wisdom, exclaimed, "When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained,-what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?" Ps. viii. 3, 4. Man, considered by himself, becomes very small when the eye looks over creation; so small that, as an individual, he sinks into absolute nothingness. What is the globe itself, upon which man dwells? Astronomy reveals it to be nothing but a tiny speck among the myriads of lights that fill the heavens,-in which it is lost like a grain of sand upon the seashore! And what is the nation itself to which an individual belongs? It is only one among hundreds of other nations that have existed upon the earth since time began. And what is he himself? Only one among the countless myriads that have been born and lived and moved upon the earth since it became the home of the human family,-an indistinguishable speck upon an indistinguishable speck, compared with a great creation which exists and moves and lives and fills the immensity of space, upheld by the life of God!

But only God Himself can estimate the soul at its true value; and He has revealed His estimate to the sight of man. The cross of Calvary tells what the soul is worth to God; and its worth to Him is also its worth to us. For we belong to Him, and were created for His pleasure and His glory. But apart from God the worth of the soul is lost. Without Him life would not be worth living. The sinner apart from God would eventually long for death. Connected with God, the soul is of infinite value; but severed from Him it is lost both to the individual and to Himself.

The cross of Calvary is the link that connects the soul with God. Life has its value to us by virtue of that alone. Let us say therefore with the apostle, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Gal. vi. 14.

"Mistaken Conceptions of Holiness" The Present Truth 9, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

We stated last week that there was a reason for the sentiment which prevailed so extensively in the religious world a few centuries ago, and is still manifested to a considerable extent, that piety and filth are not incompatible things; and we re-affirm the statement here. The reason is one which has given rise to a very large share of the false doctrines and evil practices which have cursed the world since the days of Adam, and will continue to do so till the end of time. It is the belief in the immortality of the soul.

According to this doctrine, the soul is the living, acting, thinking part of men, and the body only the poor clay tenement in which it is confined for a time here, till death strikes off its earthly shackles and sets it free to soar away to the eternal realms, etc. It could hardly be possible that such a doctrine should fail to foster in men's minds a contempt for the body which would cause them to treat it with neglect.

It is a doctrine which makes the body and the soul almost antagonistic, like a prisoner and the shackles by which he is held back from the freedom for which he longs. And therefore to bestow much attention upon the body was too slight the soul and the spiritual interests, while to neglect the body and leave it almost unnoticed in the pursuit of spiritual things, came to be regarded as evidence of the attainment of a high degree of piety.

Of this theory the "saints" of earlier times were a visible exemplification. They wasted no time on the culture of their physical natures; for why, indeed, should they give attention to the poor earthly shell, the mere outward covering of the true man, when they might bestow it upon the immortal tenant within? It would be almost an open denial of the piety and regard for spiritual things which they professed. So they left the body to take care of itself, or subjected it to severe mortifications and penances, while in gloomy monasteries or solitary caves or retreats, separated, as they thought, from all the polluting influences of earth, they sought the cultivation of the soul and the attainment of holiness; and such as entertain any reverence for religion looked on and endeavoured to harmonise this association of piety and uncleanliness with the teachings of common sense. When some one of these "holy" men had for a particularly long period neglected to comb his hair or abstained from some other acts incident to the proper care of the body, it was thought worthy of mention among the virtues recorded of him after his departure. The "saints" occupied themselves in seeking holiness by bodily modifications, and the church busied itself in collecting the revenues paid for the repose of departed souls and their release from purgatory; and for centuries not a step was taken in the direction of human progress. For centuries the death rate in Europe equalled or surpassed the birthrate. And not till the coming of the Reformation, with its increase of knowledge concerning the word of God and its impetus to the study of science, did humanity begin to recover from the effects of this belief in the post-modern consciousness of man, and to see that the welfare of the soul and that of the body cannot be disconnected.

Even to-day, with all the light which modern medical science has shed upon the matter, the subject of the proper care of the body is but little understood; and the doctrine of man's natural immortality does much to encourage the unconscious violation of the command, "Thou shall not kill." If the Mohammedan pilgrim, having drunk from the "holy" cholera well of Zem-Zem, falls a victim to the plague, it does not matter, since (as he thinks) the soul of one engaged in so pious and occupation will go straight

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to Paradise. No more did it matter to the penance-doing "saint" if his body, worn out from continued abuse, succumbed at last and sank into the grave, since (in his view) his soul was all the more sure in such a case to soar direct to the realms of unending bliss. Nor is it to-day generally regarded as a sin to sacrifice the body and the (fancied) interests of the cultivation of the spiritual nature. It is impossible that that interest should be taken in the body and that attention given it which should be felt and given while it is looked upon as the mere clay shell and which all that is important of man is enveloped.

The Bible teaches upon this subject is, "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." 1 Cor. x. 31. There is such a thing as living to the glory of God even in eating and drinking. The same inspired writer says, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." Rom. xii. 1. We are to serve God, therefore, with our bodies. Again, the apostle writes, "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20.

How are we to glorify and serve God in our bodies? Evidently, not by subjecting them to misuse, but by preserving each faculty in the best condition for use in His service. This is how we can eat and drink to the glory of God. The preservation of the faculties of the body is intimately connected with eating and drinking; and therefore we are bound to eat and drink such things and to do this in such a manner, as will tend to keep our physical faculties strong and unimpaired. For, as the text declares, even our bodies are not our own, but belong to God, and are to be used not to gratify ourselves, but to serve Him. We are therefore accountable to Him for the manner in which we treat them, as men are accountable for the use they make of the property of another.

The spiritual faculties are, to a large extent, dependent upon the physical. The two are not separate and distinct, but closely joined together. And no one can fully exercise his spiritual faculties while his mind is beclouded and his physical faculties benumbed from any cause, as for example from improper eating and drinking. The fate of Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron is set before us as a terrible warning of the danger that lurks in this act, and an object lesson upon the relation between the physical nature and the spiritual perceptions.

The prayer of the apostle Paul for the church of the Thessalonians (and doubtless for all believers) was, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Thess. v. 23. Holiness is wholeness. That which is perfect is holy. But man is imperfect. He was perfect at its creation, but he sinned and lost his uprightness. Body and soul and spirit became tainted with sin and therefore subject to death; for sin is a cancer that, left to itself, eats its way steadily into the soul, untill death is a result. Bringing man again to a state of holiness, is bringing him back to the condition that was his before the fall. And this is done not by any visible outward change, but by the gift of Christ,-the substitution of His perfection for all that is imperfect in man. Christ gives Himself to us, so that His perfection is our perfection, whether of body or soul or spirit. And hence the prayer of Paul can be answered, and believers be preserved blameless in all these unto the coming of Jesus Christ.

Holiness, therefore-or wholeness-comes only from the presence of Christ, bringing His perfection. Nothing that man can do can bring holiness, but only that which is opposite to it; for if he did but use any tool upon the altar which he built to the Lord, it became polluted. God only can make that which is holy, and that which is not so can be made so only by His presence. But His presence is not found in the midst of that which is unclean. Decay and filth are not conditions which invite the presence of the Lord of life. Not that any man can make anything clean in the sight of God; but he is bound to co-operate with God to the extent of the power that God has given him.

The soul which dwells in a body polluted from neglect or misuse cannot be holy, for God will not dwell with it. The temple of God-the body-which is defiled can only be destroyed. 1 Cor. iii. 17; vi. 19.

"Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18; vii. 1.

"God's Promises" The Present Truth 9, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

The promises of God are to all His children alike. He has no favourites among them, and makes no preference on account of differences in race, colour, wealth, or station. "In every nation, he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him." "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him." 2 Chron. xv. 9.

What then is to hinder the manifestation of the mighty power of God, the power of Him who can do all things, in your behalf? Nothing, except it be your own refusal to let your mind be perfect toward Him,-your own refusal to believe that He can and will show Himself strong toward you in spite of the circumstances which seemed destined to make your life a failure.

What is it that God will do for us when our heart is perfect toward Him? How will He show Himself strong in our behalf? He may not work as man wishes or desires, but He will always do that which is for the best. He will do what any one would wish Him to do could he see his needs with the eye of God. He will show Himself strong in our behalf, not merely in one way, but in all the affairs in which we may need help. The idea is altogether too common among people that while God will help them in spiritual things if they earnestly seek Him, in the temporal affairs of life they must look out for themselves. But this is a great mistake. God can make temporal things, even of the most trifling nature, the minister to our spiritual welfare. He can be glorified in all the every-day affairs of our lives, if we will but let Him into them. And what a blessing it will be to ourselves! How many unnecessary steps are taken, how much work done that needs to be done again, where God is left out of the undertaking! How many unwise plans are laid, that can only result in failure! And how much unnecessary discouragement and sorrow is thereby brought into our lives-all because we thought we must lay our plans by our own

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wisdom and carry them out in our own strength.

"Cast thy burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain thee; He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved." Ps. iv. 22. What burden?-the burden of sin? Yes; and your burden of care also. He will take care of every burden that you have. There is no "may be" or "perhaps" about it. The word is, "He shall sustain thee." The burden of care comes because we are afraid of being brought into some place where we will not be sustained. We are afraid of having to experience some want. We must be constantly looking and studying to know how we are to meet some contingency that looms up before us in the near future, and no sooner is one disposed of than we see another ready to take its place; and it seems to be a necessity that we should devise some way to meet it.

Children do not feel this burden of care and anxiety because they have not yet learned the lesson of doubt. They know that there are difficulties to be met, but they have implicit confidence in the ability of "papa" and "mama" to provide for them. They have perfect faith that all their wants will be supplied. But the children of God have not so much confidence in Him! They are constantly afraid that He will not be able to provide for them without with some help from themselves! It is true that God does not work for individuals independently of their own efforts: but when they unite their efforts with God's they should believe that He will sustain them, and carry no burden of care and anxiety as to the result.

Therefore it is your privilege now to be as free from this burden as a little child, as free as if you had suddenly found a relative or friend who was able and willing to attend to all your wants. For you have such a Friend, as real and tangible as any that your eyes behold, who is willing and able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you can ask or think. Eph. iii. 20, "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may bound to every good work." 2 Cor. ix. 8.

Therefore "be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Phil. iv. 6, 7.

"Our Life" The Present Truth 9, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." Col. iii. 1-4.

Our life is in Christ, and outside of Him we have no life. "He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." 1 John v. 12. "The wages of sin is death." Rom. vi. 23. Death is the loss of life. Adam sinned, and the result was the loss of life to the human family. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Rom. v. 12. But through Christ life is again brought within their reach. For "the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." "As by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." Rom. v. 18.

By the provisions of the plan of salvation, Adam and his posterity obtained a stay of execution of the judgment which God's law pronounces against the sinner, with the opportunity, meanwhile, to escape from it altogether. For although all men die in this world, both the righteous and the wicked, that death is not the wages of sin, but only a consequence of the moral nature that man has while upon probation. Adam was placed upon probation with a different nature, and given access to the tree of life, of which he could eat and live for ever. His prosperity are upon probation with a fallen nature and without access to the tree of life. They are, for the present, without the means of maintaining life, and death is the natural result. But this death is not taken account of in the reckoning which is finally to be made. The wages of sin is eternal death, and the gift of God is eternal life. The eternal death will be found in the lake of fire.

It was necessary, in order that this reckoning should be made with those placed upon probation, that all men should have a resurrection from the death that comes through Adam. Neither the gift of God nor the wages of sin could be bestowed were men to be left in the graves into which they sink at the close of their earthly lives. The gift of God comes by accepting Christ, and the wages of sin, by rejecting Him. The sacrifice on the cross of Calvary determines what shall be given to every man-whether the gift of God, or the wages of sin. And therefore by the sacrifice of Christ comes the resurrection of all the dead, both those that awake to life, and those that awake to condemnation.

In the eye of the law, the criminal is dead the moment that sentence has been pronounced upon him, although some time may elapse before the sentence is executed. So the sinner out of Christ is accounted dead by the law of God, although the sentence of death is not immediately executed. He lives and moves here as though there were no wages of sin, and so far as life is concerned there is no apparent difference between him and one who is righteous. But he is dead. God gives him a space of time to repent; but the judgment for sin is hanging over him, and unless he turns to Christ, there is no possible escape from his doom. "He that hath the Son of God hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life."

The righteous man has the Son of God and therefore has life; for righteousness comes alone through Christ. He seems to have no more life than the wicked and ungodly, but this is a truth that is known by faith and not by sight. Like the sinner, he lives his allotted space here, and dies, and is laid away in the grave. But now is seen the mystery of the life through Christ; for the hand that is still and cold and lies motionless across the breast, has as strong a hold upon life as when it was animated by warm and flowing blood. We see no life as we gaze upon the motionless form; and yet it is there. Amid the chill and gloom and shrouds that attend the entrance to the tomb, come again with all their power these words, "He that hath the Son of God hath life." Death cannot take from us the Son of God. "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me." Christ has been through the tomb, and robbed it of its dark terrors. When He came, it had an entrance; when He left, it had an entrance and an exit! And now the Christian, as he comes to the dark passage before which earth's journey ends, beholds an opening through it which shows a light beyond. He enters it with his hand in the hand of Christ. We do not see His hand;

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but it is there. The Saviour never lets go the hand that is placed in His.

In the purposes of God, His sleeping saints still live. In His purposes those things that be not are counted as though they were. One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years one day. 2 Pet. iii. 8. He calls Himself "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." And Jesus declared that "God is not the God of the dead but of the living." Not that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were then alive, for Christ spake these words to prove a resurrection to come. But God counts them alive; for eternal life is theirs. In His eternal purposes, the lapse of time is not taken into account.

The Christian here is dead, and his life is "hid with Christ in God." He lives in the world, but he is not of the world. There is no life in the world but the life of sin; and to that he counts himself dead. By the cross of Christ the world is crucified unto him, and he unto the world. He has life, but it is hid with Christ. It will not be seen or manifested till the day of His appearing.

And this life is obtained through death. Jesus passed through death that He might become the Prince of life to those that believe on Him. And we that believe on Him are crucified with Him. We likewise passed through death. We die to self that we may have life unto God. "Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it." Mark viii. 35.

Let us reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto the world, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ. "If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." Righteousness and life are inseparable, and if the Spirit of righteousness dwell in us, we shall be quickened by that Spirit unto eternal life at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whether we be living or dead, as Christ Himself was quickened from the dead. "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Rom. viii. 10-13. "It is a faithful saying, For if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him, if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him." 2 Tim. ii. 11, 12. For "when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him glory." Col. iii. 1.

"Abide in Christ" The Present Truth 9, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

The work of the Christian is to abide in Christ. "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the branches; He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing." John xv. 4-6.

The fruit which hangs upon the branches is produced by the nourishment supplied by the vine. Just so the work which the Christian does must be done by the energy and wisdom of Christ flowing into him, or it will amount to nothing.

It is very common, however, for the branches of Christ to think that they are the vine, and attempt to bear fruit of themselves. But such fruit is always bitter, like the apples of Sodom. It is not the work of the branch to regulate the flow of sap through itself and direct the formation and growth of the fruit that depends from its sides, but simply to let the sap flow as it is supplied by the roots of the vine, and let the fruit form by the power of the life principle that is within it. No more is it the place of man to control and direct the energy that is given him from God; but simply to let the life and power of God flow through him and work in him, as God Himself may direct.

If it were left to man to wield the power of God to suit himself, he would be worse than the devil; for the devil does not have the power of God. It is God's part to direct and control the power which He supplies, and man's part to let that power work in him without hindrance.

If a branch abides in the vine it must maintain its connection with the vine. Any obstruction that comes between the two may stop the flow of the life-giving sap, and the branch will wither and die. So the Christian must abide in Christ by maintaining his connection with Christ. But he cannot do this without knowing the mind of Christ; and here is the point where failure often comes in. He ceases to seek to know the mind of Christ, and begins to direct the affairs by his own wisdom. And then everything begins to go wrong. He finds that it is hard work, and so he shoulders a heavy burden of care and perplexity, because his wisdom is not sufficient to make things move harmoniously and successfully. And sooner or later, if he persists, he becomes discouraged and is tempted to give up.

But how can we know the mind of Christ? We can know it by the study of His word and by prayer. And this is why no time is ever lost that is spent in earnest prayer. It is said of Martin Luther that the larger the day's work that was to be done by him, the greater was the amount of it which he devoted to prayer; and it was a rule that he always found to work well. And it will be found so by all who will try it to-day; for by prayer, when offered in sincerity and faith, we place ourselves where Christ can work in us, where He can enlighten us by His wisdom and energise with His strength; and thus avoid the perplexity and mistakes which would otherwise attend our work.

Not only must we be where God can reveal His purposes, but we must let Him carry out His purposes in His own way. There have been men who have tried to accomplish the purposes of God themselves, and their experience has been recorded for our profit. Abraham and Sarah tried it and the result was Ishmael; Rebecca and Jacob tried it, and the result was separation and long years of sorrow. God will work out His purposes in the best possible way if we will let Him,-if we will remove the hindrances that are within us, the barriers that are directed by self. "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy and for Thy truth's sake." Ps. cxv. 1.

"Church State Education" The Present Truth 9, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

The Congregationalist says:-

"The Prussian minister of public worship has announced that children whose families have no religious faith need not receive religious instruction in the public schools except at the request of their parents. The order, it is explained, does not apply to the primary schools, but it is the first step toward the abandonment of the State of the duty of religious instruction and, as such, has met with loud protests from both Protestants and Roman Catholics."

No Protestant, however, wishes his own or any other children taught the Catholic faith, and no Catholic wants the public schools to teach Protestantism. While each class is loudly protesting, each is unwilling to allow the protest of the other. Each class believes in having religion taught in the

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public schools, provided it is their own particular religion that is taught; and the government, in allowing either protest, is virtually deciding what is truth and what is heresy. But this can only be rightly decided by the word of God.

Where parents and the Church cannot attend to the religious instruction of the children, there is something radically wrong. And it does not help the matter any to shift the responsibility upon the State.

"Weakness and Power" The Present Truth 9, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

What is more frail, more weak, and more helpless than a little blade of grass? Yet did you ever notice the marvellous power that it exhibits?

Look at that lifting clod,-a hard, heavy, impenetrable mass of dry clay. What is moving it so slowly and yet so surely out of its way? Not an animal, not even an insect,-only a little blade of young grass! The clod is many times heavier than the grass, and yet it seems to lift it with the utmost ease. You could not cause a tiny grass root to exhibit such power. You might lay the clod upon it ever so carefully, but it would be crushed to the earth with the great weight. This wonder must be accomplished, then, by some power that is not in man, and that is not in the grass itself. The Bible says that it is the power and life of God's word that causes the grass to grow; for "God said, Let the earth bring forth grass: and it was so."

Look at the tiny acorn. How helpless, how worthless! But look again. An unseen life, a marvellous power breaks the hard shell, and pushes little rootlets downward, and tiny branches upward, that grow and grow, turning hindrances aside, climbing over obstacles, and bursting asunder solid rocks. What is the unseen life? What is the marvellous power? The life and power of God's word; for "God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth; and it was so."

Although two of the weakest and most helpless things in existence, yet what miracles of strength the grass and the acorn become when their weakness is united to the power of God's word. In like manner we behold man. Weak? Yes, as weak as the grass and as helpless. "His days are as grass," "and all the glory of man as the flower of grass." His life,-"even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." Helpless, utterly helpless in himself, unable to care for himself a single moment, unable to resist the smallest temptation, unable to do one good act.

But look again. An unseen power has taken possession of him, a new life has animated him, and lo, he has "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouth of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness was made strong, waxed the valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens!" In that wherein he was weak, now he is strong, where once he would have trembled and fallen, now he stands unmoved like a house built upon a solid rock.

What is this unseen power? What is this new life? It is the life and power of God's word united with man's weakness. It is the life and power of God Himself, for God goes with His word "working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight." "For it is God which worketh you both to will and to do of His good pleasure."

Man alone, without the Word in him, is like a house that is built on the sand. There is nothing to hold him up when the floods come and the winds blow. It is utterly impossible for him to withstand the tempest, for he has not strength in himself.

But God is willing to take the most helpless man that ever lived, if he will submit like the grass and the acorn, and work through him in the most marvellous manner by His mighty word. He loves to do it. He has "chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty; and the base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in His presence."

He says, "Whosoever heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock." Then he who receives God's word into his heart and does it, has built upon immovable

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rock. But Jesus Himself is in the word, and is the Word (see John i. and John vi.), therefore humbly receiving the Word brings Jesus into the heart to work. Hence man's work is to submit and receive, and Jesus the living Word supplies all the power and does all the work through the man, if he will let Him.

It is not enough for a man to become united to another man who is united to Christ. Each man for himself must come to Christ the Word as to a living stone, and build on Him. Then he becomes a living stone, because he partakes of the life of the living Foundation. He and the Foundation grow together until he is a part of the Foundation, and the Foundation is a part of him. Is it any wonder, then, that he has strength, and that he can stand unmoved through all the storms and tempests of life?

Then when we look at the grass and realise our frailty, and our helplessness, let us not become discouraged, but rather let us lift our eyes in thankfulness to heaven and praise that mighty One who can take the weakest and most helpless of His creatures and by His word strengthen him "with all might according to His glorious power."

"A Lesson from the Grass" The Present Truth 9, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

"As for man his days are as grass" (Ps. ciii. 15), "and all the glory of man as the flower of grass." 1 Peter i. 24.

There was no grass upon this earth until the third day. There was no place for it, because the earth was covered with water. But when God had gathered the waters together, there was plenty of dry land on which it could grow. Then suddenly at the word of God, the earth put on a robe of the richest green; grass, beautiful grass came up everywhere! We learned last week how useful it is, and how hard it would be for man and beast to do without it. Do we thank God as much for it as we should? We see it so often that we sometimes almost forget to notice it or think how wonderful it is or remember who made it for us. The Bible says that "He hath made His wonderful works to be remembered." Ps. cxi. 4. He wants us to notice them and watch them and think about them. If we do this, we shall learn useful lessons from the tiniest things that He has made.

Now the next time you go out to play just try it. Get down and take a good look at the pretty grass. Lay your hand in it and see how soft it is. Notice the colour; isn't it a lovely green? Look at the little stalk, the curious roots, and the tender leaf or blade. Perhaps if you look you may find a tiny flower peeping out somewhere. Touch it gently or you will break it. How very tender it is! A rude touch, or a strong breeze will cause it to drop to pieces. And the grass itself is almost as frail. It may look ever so bright and stand up ever so straight in the morning, but if the sun shines a little too warm, before night it will droop and die. Or the grass-cutter with one stroke of his sharp scythe may cut it down and leave it to wither and dry up. It is a very weak and helpless little thing, isn't it? It cannot cause itself to live, and it cannot keep itself alive. It can do nothing at all which God does not give its strength to do. It cannot live a moment without His care. Do you think it has much reason to be proud of its strength or what it itself can do?

Is it possible that God wants us to learn anything from such a helpless, tender little plant? Yes, there is something that He wants us to remember every time we see the grass. Listen to what He says: "As for man, his days are as grass," "and all the glory of man as the flower of grass."

He wants us to remember that we are helpless, and tender, and die easily just like the grass; and our strength and beauty and learning and good name and riches fall to pieces and become worthless as easily as the flower of the grass.

The very strongest and healthiest man does not live long. In the morning he may go up to his work as strong and as wise as ever, and before night brought home still and dead. A very little fall, a hit on the head, or a short illness may kill him. Ah, is he not as tender and helpless as the grass? He cannot cause himself to live, nor keep himself from dying. He can do nothing at all which God does not give him strength to do. He cannot live a moment without God's care. Do you think that he has any more reason than the grass to be proud of anything that he himself can do? Do you think that he ought to hold his head high and say proud things and tell how he can get along just as well without God?

How it must grieve our Father in heaven when we feel proud and want to praise ourselves, when the praise all belongs to Him. Whenever you feel like being proud, just run quickly and look at the grass. Remember how helpless it is, and how God says that without Him you are just as helpless as the grass. He says, "Pride do I hate" (Prov. viii. 13), but "I dwell. . . with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit." Isa. lvii. 15.

1. When did the grass first begin to grow upon this earth?

2. Who caused it to grow?

3. How?

4. Has man power to make things grow?

5. Then whenever we see a little plant or tree pushing up through the ground, of whom should it make us think?

6. When we have a fine field of grass or garden of flowers, whom should we praise, ourselves, or the One who causes it to grow for us?

7. Is God pleased to have us pass by the grass and trample it under our feet without even noticing it or thinking about it? Why not?

8. When you lay your hand on it how does it feel?

9. What is it?

10. What part is the stalk? The roots? The blade?

11. What do some kinds of grasses have?-Flowers.

12. If you should touch them rudely what would happen to them?

13. Although the grass may stand up ever so straight and bright in the morning, how may it look before night? Why?

14. Can it cause itself to live, or keep itself alive?

15. Can it do anything at all which God does not give it strength to do?

16. How long can it live without God's care?

17. You think that it has much reason to be proud of its beauty or strength?

18. Have we any more reason to be proud than the grass?

19. Why not? 1 Peter i. 24.

20. Then what is the lesson that God would have us learn from the grass?-Do not be proud.

21. Name some of the ways in which we may show that we are proud.

22. How do you suppose that it makes God feel when we feel proud and want to praise ourselves?

23. To whom does all praise belong?

24. What does God say about pride? Prov. viii. 13.

25. With only what kind of people can Jesus live? Isa. lvii. 15

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

Those ugly ink spots on your carpet may be removed with salt and milk. Pour on plenty of salt, rubbing it in well with your finger. Then pour on a little milk and rub it again. The ink will disappear as if by magic. Try it.

-The cholera epidemic in Europe is slowly abating.

-Yellow fever has broken out in the town of Jesup, Ga., U.S.A.

-In Valparaiso women are now employed as conductors on the street tramcars.

-The United States has a deficit fur the past quarter of nearly five millions stifling,

-The Ashantees are threatening the British protectorate on the Gold Coast of Africa.

-As many as 510 persons committed suicide in the Metropolis last year-44 more than in 1891.

-The illness of prince Bismarck has reached a critical stage, and he is not expected to survive long.

-The price of wheat is now lower than it has been in any corresponding period of the past five years.

-There were 80,757 persons arrested for drunkenness in the Metropolis last year, of whom 9,358 were women.

-The United States Treasury still continues the purchase of silver; 300,000 ounces were purchased October 3.

-The valuation of Cape Town is assessed at £3,657,147, being an increase of £1,000,000 sterling in five years.

-It is estimated by the Canadian authorities that at least 100,000 pounds of opium, refined in British Columbia, are annually smuggled into the United States.

-Recent storms and floods at the mouth of the Mississippi are reported to have entailed the loss of 3,000 lives, the damage to property being set down at 1,250,000 dollars.

-The Americans have now entered into competition in the coal trade of England, and shipowners in the United States have already chartered vessels to take part in the traffic.

-The advance of the Matabele in Mashonaland has led the British South African Company to assume the defensive, and a force is about to be despatched against Lobongula's native warriors.

-According to a telegram from Buenos Ayres, the rising in Argentina is regarded as suppressed. Other telegrams, however, show that fighting still continues in several places, although apparently the insurgents are being worsted.

-The Rhone is rising to a great height in consequence of recent torrential rains, and the farmers living along its course have been warned by the authorities to take precautions for the safety of themselves and their property.

-Reports from the country districts indicate that the distress consequent upon the coal lock-out is increasing, but that committees are coping bravely with the task of relieving the necessitous. Meanwhile the end of the conflict is not in sight.

-A San Francisco telegram states that a steam whaler passed last winter in the Polar ice, and, aided by an open Rea, worked her way this summer in pursuit of whales to within six degrees of the North Pole, the most northerly point man has yet reached.

-New Zealand is a little smaller than Great Britain and Ireland. The population at the census of April, 1891, was 626,568, and is now nearly 700,000; there were in 1891 about 38,000 more males than females. There is besides, a Maori population of 41,525.

-The yearly output of the coal mines of the kingdom is about 182,000,000 tons, which, at an average price of 7s. 3rd. per ton at the pit's mouth, means an annual gross revenue of £65,975,000 per annum; and a net revenue, assuming 6s. per ton as the regular pit-mouth cost, of £11,375,000.

-War is raging inn Morocco between the Spaniards and the Moors. A determined attack has been made by a force of 5,000 Moors upon the Spanish garrison at Fort Guaraich. The Spaniards, who only numbered 800, defended the position for nearly a day, and then were obliged to retreat. A large number of Moors wore killed in the conflict.

-The Church Congress at Birmingham has been the occasion of some extraordinary scenes. When the Rev. Charles Gore, author of "Lux Mundi," proceeded to read his paper in the Congress-hall on Reunion, Father Ignatius protested, and it was some time before order was restored. Later on the Bishop of Worcester, in giving some account of his visit to Grindelwald, where the conference on the same subject was hold, was saluted by groans and hisses.

-The Franco-Siamese treaty has at last been signed. It apparently concedes all the demands originally put forward by France, with one or two additional claims embodied in the convention. A formal protest against the labor was presented to the French Plenipotentiary by the Siamese Foreign Minister, but was withdrawn under pressure. The settlement has given great dissatisfaction to the Siamese and portions of it are denounced as a complete violation of treaty rights.

-The Echo says: "Apparently the streets of London are as healthy as some of our seaside towns which are always boasting of their low death-rate. It appears from the report of Sir Edward Bradford, which has just been issued, that no less than 917 cabdrivers are between sixty and seventy years of age, 151 are between seventy and eighty, while one venerable patriarch who is going on for ninety still holds a licence. There are also 118 busdrivers over sixty, and of these eighteen are over seventy. London contains 15,011 cabdrivers and 0,517 omnibus and car drivers."

-A telegram from Rio do Janeiro states that acting on instruction from their respective Governments, the commanders of the war vessels stationed there, with the exception of the German, have informed Admiral de Mello that no attack on Rio will be permitted. Intelligence from Monte Video states that there is growing discontent among the inhabitants of Rio, who resent the arbitrary conduct of President Peixoto. The Revolutionary movement appears to be gaining strength, but the President has issued a manifesto declaring that he will not resign, and will continue to fight so long as he controls the 5,000 troops now under his command.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

The statement is made that the murderer, De Jong, is to be hypnotised in order to get from him information of the whereabouts of the bodies of his victims. If so, it remains to be seen whether such a method of dealing with criminals is as practical as it is scientific.

Christianity places all men upon a level; not-as is often said-down on a level, but up on a level. It, and it alone, can supply perfectly the demand for "liberty, fraternity, and equality." It says, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free" (Gal. v. 1); "all ye are brethren" (Matt. xxiii. 8); and "let each esteem others better than themselves" (Phil. ii. 3). And there is no true liberty except that which Christ gives, and no fraternity and equality without the possession of the Holy Spirit.

The great "World's Parliament of Religions," at Chicago,-the first of the kind ever held-is in the past, and in the public mind has left the inquiry, What has it accomplished? The answer perhaps can best be given by time, but it is safe to assert that it has gained nothing for the cause of Christianity. And why? Simply because Christianity can have nothing to do with other religions. It cannot recognise them, any more than truth can recognise falsehood. Christianity speaks to and reasons with men, not with man's religions. But if a false religion can get recognition-as in this "parliament" it has apparently-from Christianity, it has gained much.

One of the latest instances of Russian paternalism is said to be an order from the Czar providing that with respect to the payment of medical fees, the people shall be divided into three classes, according to the position which they occupy in the scale of social and commercial prosperity; and that five roubles shall be the fee for the first class, three roubles for the second class; and thirty kopecs for the third class; so that "presumably the first question which a medical man in Russia has now to ask his patient is, 'What are you' and upon the answer will depend the amount of fee to be charged." Presumably, also, a great many more people will be found included in the thirty kopecs class than were ever suspected to belong there heretofore. Paternalism is a great producer of hypocrites. And religious paternalism-to which so little objection is raised in the civilised countries of Europe-produces the worst kind of hypocrites that are known.

In the Pall Mall Magazine, Mr. Raymond Blathwayt has an article on "Rome in America," in which he says that in America the Catholic Church "is on her trial as she has never been since that moment when she first reared her temples amid the palaces and glories of imperial Rome." And then comes the following, which is spoken of as a "prophecy," but which, in fact, is an actual reality to-day:-

"If all her ideals are carried out in their entirety, it goes without saying that the Church will speedily become an important, if not the most important, political factor in the Republic. She will become a factor that will not permit itself to be left unreckoned with in the calculations of any politician, or body of politicians, desirous of exercising an influence either for good or evil in the States-a factor that more than any other in American politics will go towards the construction and maintenance of unity in the Republic. Rome, say what we may, and however much we may dislike or seek to explain away or absolutely deny the fact, Rome, nevertheless, is the one great Church-the one vast political, as well as ecclesiastical organisation that speaks with authority-with a voice that will be heard."

With such accounts of suffering and privation before us as now fill the columns of the daily press devoted to the great coal strike, it is well to consider how far we ourselves are the creatures of circumstances, and to what extent the goodness that we fancy ourselves to possess may be due to the absence of those temptations which are felt with the pinching hand of want. We can none of us be sure as to what we might do under circumstances less favourable than those which now surround us. There is much food for thought in the saying of an American humorist: "We could all of us be honest if we had the money to be honest with." It is money-or its equivalent in other things-that rules the world and supports its good appearances and professions, far more than integrity of character. Christianity designs that men shall live the same under all circumstances; and it contains this provision for the realisation of its design,-that "all things work together for good to them that love God." Rom. viii. 28.

Tidings of another terrible calamity come to us from across the waters, overshadowing by its magnitude even the direful events which have so lately turned the eyes of all the world in horror upon the shores of North America. A hurricane accompanied by a tidal wave sweeps over the lowlands at the mouth of the Mississippi River, and 2,000 people drowned or crushed by falling buildings is the result. Whatever may be said by men to account for these awful events upon the theory of natural causes, the student of God's word will see in them "the sea and the waves roaring" in fulfillment of the prophetic words spoken by Christ to His disciples in reference to the end of the world.

From reports which come to us from the Church Congress at Birmingham, it is evident that the session will not do anything to elevate Christianity in the eyes of the people. A perusal of its proceedings reminds one far more of the noisy and tumultuous church councils of the fourth and fifth centuries, than of the council of the apostles at Jerusalem. The benediction, however, as we are informed, is pronounced and received with the utmost reverence.

In a discussion on "Church Reform," Archdeacon Farrar made a plea for more liberty in curtailing the Sunday services. It is, he said, not only puzzling, but irksome, for plain people who are not well up in the Prayer-Book to go into a church on a Sunday morning and listen to two exhortations, two creeds, two confessions, two absolutions, three prayers for the Queen, and six repetions of the Lord's Prayer. We should certainly think that it would be. What the people want is the word of God-the gospel, the "good news" of salvation from sin; and they want it presented, as Paul presented it, "in a demonstration of the Spirit and of power." There is nothing irksome or tedious about the presentation of the gospel of Christ. The Bishop of Wakefield also added a truthful statement by saying, "Let the Church forsake her chilling proprieties and demure respectabilities, and she will be popular enough with the working-classes." One of the evidences of the Divine character of Christ's ministry, was that the poor had the gospel preached to them; and the same evidence will be presented to-day by the church of which He is the Head.

October 19, 1893

"Front Page: God's Providence" The Present Truth 9, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

There is nothing more comforting to an individual who knows his own weakness and the limitations of his powers, than a belief in a supreme power and goodness, which watches over all things and attends to the wants of all living creatures. And there is nothing more comforting to one who holds this belief than to see, in the light of Divine revelation, the care of Him who is the embodiment of that power and goodness, for every one of His children here on earth.

We live in a world of suffering and sorrow, and our eyes have become familiar to sights of poverty and distress of every kind. Yet God has not withdrawn His care from the world; He has not left His earthly children to take care of themselves. While they meet with experiences which try their faith, they are not left without the evidence of His guiding hand in all the darkness and difficulties of the way; and they may see, if they will, tokens of the abiding presence of that love which gave the Son of God to die upon the cross for their salvation.

Our conceptions of things are so coloured by the false light of human ideas and human practices, that it is natural for us to think of God and His dealings with us much as if He were a man like ourselves, only a little higher up in the scale of being. As we seem to have come into the world by accident, and the care and attention which we receive from men comes by the accident of our association with them, so it seems to us that our relation to God is also accidental. Since we are here, He is obliged to take notice of us, and when He finds us in the midst of difficulty and danger, He helps us out, at other times leaving us to look out for ourselves. And perhaps we are all the time worrying about what we shall do in this or that difficulty that looms out before us, for fear if we trust to the Lord we may find Him unprepared for the emergency.

With such a conception of God's providence toward us, it is not surprising that we are so often afraid to trust Him. It would be different if we would take the view which is revealed to us in His word. Let us glance at some words of the Apostle Paul upon this point: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; according as He hath chosen us in Him 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 Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved." Eph. i. 3-6.

Do we grasp the meaning of these words? If we do, we see that God thought of us before ever we thought of ourselves. He thought of us ages before we ever came into existence. His love and His care were exercised toward us before the foundation of the world! The Omniscient, looking ahead to the ages to come, down even to the scenes of the present hour, saw us, and chose us in Christ, adopting us into His royal family, making us sons and daughters of God! These were the conditions under which we were born into the world.

God not only saw us before the foundation of the world, but He knew us by name. The Old Testament record furnishes an instance of God's calling an individual by name long before that individual came into being. Isa. xlv. 1-4: "Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron; and I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. For Jacob My servant's sake, and Israel Mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name; I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known Me." This is a prophecy of the taking of Babylon by the Medo-Persian armies under the leadership of Cyrus and Darius. It was uttered about 712 years B.C., and the event which it foretells took place about 538 B.C. and thus king Cyrus, nearly 150 years before he was born, was called by name and "surnamed" by the God of heaven, for the sake of Israel His elect, who were to pass sixty years in Babylonish captivity. And surely God knows His own elect as well as those whom He uses as the instruments of their welfare.

But who are the "elect" of God? The apostle says, "Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son;" and Peter tells us that the elect are "

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elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." Rom. viii. 26; 1 Pet. i. 2. Again we read that it is an "election of grace;" which grace is "given us in Christ Jesus." Rom. xi. 5; 2 Tim. i. 9. The "calling" and "election" of God are in Christ. They apply not . . . by ourselves, but only in Him and they apply to all that are in Him . . . so "according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." Eph. iii. 11. It was the fulfilling of the "everlasting covenant" of grace, which from eternity provided for the acceptance of the sinner in Christ. If then we are in Christ we are numbered with God's elect; and if we are out of Christ we should without delay come to Him, accepting the invitation given us; for it is to all, saying, "Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely." Rev. xxii. 17.

God not only saw before the world began, and sees us now, but He looks ahead and sees us in the ages to come; for we read that "God, who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are 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." Eph. ii. 4-7. God will show to "the principalities and powers" in heavenly places the wonderful riches of His grace, in taking from among frail, sinful, fallen men, those who in future ages will sit with Christ and share in the deliberations of heaven.

Who will say, then, that they are here in this world to contend with chance or with fate. Is it not evident that in the Christian's life at least, there is no such thing as chance. Certain it is that He who knew us and exercised His grace toward us before the foundation of the world, does not withdraw His love and care when we are here on the stage of action. He sees every event of our lives before it comes; and we are told that "all things work together for good to them that love God." Rom. viii. 28. All things must, therefore, be under His control and direction, even those events which seem the most strange and accidental. Let us, then, "trust in the Lord and do good"; let us "rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him," believing that He who began the work of grace toward us before the foundation of the world, will not fail now to carry it forward to a glorious completion.

"Acquaintance with God" The Present Truth 9, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

To mortal man is extended the honour of becoming acquainted with God. The highest being in the universe is willing to become acquainted with the weakest and most finite. He even desires that we should seek His acquaintance, and to this end has given us a revelation of Himself, adapted to our finite comprehension. Nor is this acquaintance to be like that of an earthly king with one of his subjects, or of some lord or great man with one who is poor and in humble station, who sees only his wealth and splendour and hears only his command; but it is to be the acquaintance of friends,-one which will reveal to us not only the majesty and greatness of God, but His love and mercy, and every attribute that He possesses. He is willing that we should know all that He is and all that He has. This is friendship in its highest and most intimate form.

The prophet of olden time evidently understood this truth when he spoke the words, "Acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace." Job xxii. 21. But how can we become acquainted with Him? How can moral beings, shut out from His presence with capabilities infinitely lower than His, know Him who reigns in the heavens? To human wisdom this would seem impossible; but not so to the wisdom of God. By one of the most wonderful provisions of His grace, He has brought to us the knowledge of Himself. Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians inquires, "Who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him?" But he adds, "We have the mind of Christ." 1 Cor. ii. 16. And this revelation comes to us through the agency of the Spirit.

How wonderful is the truth here brought to our view! We, who cannot know (as perhaps we would often like to know) the minds of one another, can know the mind of God! We do not need to know the minds of one another; it would be a great injury to us if we could, for we should lose all confidence in humanity. But knowing the mind of God, we know all that is good and pure and holy, all that is for our strength and hope and comfort. And so God has given us this wonderful insight into Himself. The apostle writes, "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. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things 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. 9-12.

Jesus has said, "He that overcometh shall inherit all things." Rev. xxi. 7. And these things God has revealed to us by His Spirit, which "searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." It is not merely houses and lands and silver and gold that the saints are to inherit in the world to come. They will inherit also that which pertains to God Himself,-His mind and His nature; for the Spirit searcheth the deep things of God that it may reveal them unto us as among the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.

The revelation of God is Christ. Christ gave Himself to us, and in accepting Him, we receive His mind and His Spirit. He is the express image of His Father. Heb. i. 3. His mind is the mind of God. He is one with His Father. John x. 30. God is in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, and Christ is in the heart of the believer. 2 Cor. iii. 19; John xvii. 21, 23. Thus the same mind and the same spirit are in all three, and the individual no longer sees all things within the narrow realm and through the cloudy atmosphere of his own mind, but has rich glimpses into deep and glorious mysteries in the realms beyond.

In Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Col. ii. 3. To these treasures, therefore, we have access by having the mind of Christ. A limitless field is open before us, which we can never fully explore. There are no treasures of wisdom and knowledge outside of Him. Whether we look in the realm of nature or of human thought and life, we cannot grasp the truth concerning the things that we see, except as we view them in the light of the knowledge of Him who made all things, and by whose hand they are controlled and upheld. The atheist, as he looks into the heavens, sees only the operations and results of the law of nature working through a "nebular hypothesis;" but the devout

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astronomer explains, "O God, I think Thy thoughts after Thee." To those who become acquainted with Him, God gives His thoughts. He withholds "no good thing from them that walk uprightly." Ps. lxxxiv. 11.

In becoming acquainted with God, we become also acquainted with our self; and though the knowledge may not be pleasant to us, it is exceedingly profitable. While we compare ourselves with others around us, we are not wise, or at most are wise in our own conceits; but when we come to know God, we can view ourselves in the light of the true standard of perfection. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked;" and God has said that only He can search and know it. And only as we see with the mind of Christ can we know the evil that is lurking there, waiting to accomplish our ruin.

Acquaintance with God is beneficial in every way. The prophet understood this when he uttered the words which we have quoted, "Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace." The knowledge of what He is to us and will do for us brings us perfect peace; for we know that He is for us, and "if God be for us, who can be against us?" "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee." Isa. xxvi. 3.

Acquaintance with God is also our salvation. For said Jesus, "this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." John xvii. 3. For the knowledge of God comes by Christ dwelling in us, "Who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption."

Who will fail to avail themselves of the privilege of becoming acquainted with God? Who will prefer their own mind to His mind, their own wisdom to His wisdom? Who will not esteem it a high honour to be able to say, I know the God of Heaven? Let earthly potentates and great men seclude themselves and refuse their friendship and there acquaintance; we know One who is infinitely the superior of any man. We enjoy fellowship and communion with Him, and are on terms of the closest intimacy, even that of sons and daughters with their father. We do not care for the honour that comes from men. "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 lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth; for in these things I delight, saith the Lord." Jer. ix. 23, 24.

Let it be our aim to "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ;" that in the day of His appearing, we may meet Him not as a stranger, but as a friend, as One whom we well know, and have earnestly longed to behold.

"Holding the Winds" The Present Truth 9, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

Every one who keeps the run of current events must know of the tension that has for a long time existed in the mutual relations of the great powers of Europe. The most trivial circumstance, from a national point of view, such as a petty quarrel or even the indisposition of one man, among those who hold the reins of power, may, we are told, suffice to throw all Europe into desperate conflict. Just now the tension is very severe in the relations between Italy and France, and is said that those in high military circles look for a rupture to occur at any moment. On the military frontier, long lines of semi-belligerence stand facing each other, ready at a moment's notice to spring forward and inaugurate a conflict into which all Europe will be drawn. And yet it is probable, as has already so often been the case, that the war cloud will pass over without any deadly discharge upon the earth, and the restless dogs of war, crouching in readiness for the spring, will settle down again and content themselves with glaring at each other across the line which keeps them apart.

But why is this? Why the constant repetition of this curious phenomenon-now hardly regarded as curious because of its frequency-of relations strained almost to the point of rupture, yet meeting a relaxation just before the breaking point is reached; of war clouds rising as if to scatter death and destruction over a continent, and as suddenly disappearing again without a discharge of their light and thunder? That the phenomenon is a striking one, not known in the history of international relationships hitherto, cannot be denied. For a score of years Europe has been a vast armed camp, with her governments staggering under a constantly increasing military burden, so that peace itself is now more expensive than war was formerly,-and yet the war for which all have been straining every nerve in preparation, and has not occurred. People have grown accustomed to the sounding of the alarm, and now hear it with indifference. Some had even arrived at the conclusion that the world is going to adopt the rule of arbitration and other peaceful methods of settling international disputes, and thus war become a thing of the past.

But there is a reason why these things have occurred as they have-a reason not understood by the world, but which makes all clear to the student of the inspired word. And let it be stated here that no one is prepared to understand the significance of the events either in the political or the religious world, who does not study the word of God. The political situation of to-day is thus foretold by the Apostle John, writing eighteen centuries, ago: "And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." Rev. vii. 1.

The verses preceding this statement describe the coming of the great day of God's wrath, when "the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man," shall hide in the dens and caves, and say to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand." We have reached the period of time just preceding this awful day, and now the "four angels" are "standing on the four corners of the earth," holding the winds, that they may not blow upon the earth till the servants of God are sealed with His seal. There is a sealing work going on in the earth, and it is the work of God, and meanwhile nothing can take place which will interfere and cause it to stop. The world is not to be distracted by the blowing of the winds of strife, the convulsions of the nations of Europe. The servants of God are in those nations, and they must be sought out and sealed. So there have been momentary outbreaks and appearances of

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strife, but the great struggle has not yet come; there have been fitful gusts, but the hurricane wind has not yet blown. This is what the world has seen for a score of years in the past, and sees to-day.

But sooner or later the storm will burst. The winds will not always be held. The sealing work will be completed and those who are the servants of God will be prepared for His appearing and the day of His wrath. Then the restraining power will be taken away, and a whirlwind of strife will be the result. We must not rest in the fancied security of those who dream of the extinguishment of war and an era of universal peace. "When they shall say, Peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them." 1 Thess. v. 3. Our safety now is in being numbered with the servants of God-those who "Keep the commandments of God and have the faith in Jesus" (Rev. xiv. 12)-and in receiving His seal-the mark of His authority-in our foreheads, that thus we may "be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man." Luke xvi. 36.

"Glorifying God" The Present Truth 9, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

Wonderful as it may seem, it lies in the power of feeble, finite man, to glorify God. He who is the King of kings, dwelling in light whereunto no man can approach, and before whom angels vail their eyes, can receive an augmentation of glory from mortal man! We do not know how this can be, but God Himself tells us that it is true. "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth Me." Ps. l. 23.

All things were created for the glory of God. Rev. iv. 11. Yet God is not arbitrary, but has made the glory of the Creator the highest happiness of those created. The apostle Peter tells us, "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light." 1 Pet. ii. 9. Though man is fallen, he has not lost the privilege of serving the original purpose of his creation. In one thing he can yet stand with the sinless throng in worlds above; he can do that which will glorify God; he can join in the great anthem of praise which myriad tongues, from realms beyond our sight, send forth to the great Creator.

And God is glorified by the praise of our feeble tongues just as much as by the anthems of seraphim and cherubim; for it is not the might or the grandeur or the eloquence of the tribute that glorifies Him, but that which tells most of the power of Divine love. And man, to whom that love has been most revealed, is perhaps the best fitted of all to testify of that grace which is sufficient for all needs, and that power which is made perfect in weakness.

"The Hope of Salvation" The Present Truth 9, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

The hope of salvation is the Christian's helmet. The Apostle Paul, in his epistle to the Thessalonians, says, "Let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation." 1 Thess. v. 8. The purpose of the helmet is to guard the head. The mind of the Christian is to be fortified by firm belief in and expectation of salvation in the kingdom of God. With such a belief, his mind is guarded against being cast down in discouragement or despair by the attacks of the devil.

Most people believe in salvation, but few, apparently, look upon it as something that is to become an actual reality in their lives. It is made altogether too much like a mere theory, to be spoken of in religious meetings, sung about and prayed over-something that exists, like the heaven of the popular imagination, "beyond the bounds of time and space." It should be made a fact, future, it is true, so far as the kingdom is concerned, but no less real. It must be a fact, a reality, or it will not serve its purpose in the Christian warfare.

Some, it may be, have more of a theory of salvation than a hope of it. They see the path that is cast up for the righteous to walk in, and it is high and very narrow. They see the standard of righteousness set up in the law of God, and it seems impossible of attainment. The frailties of the flesh press upon them so strongly that a perfect life seems altogether beyond their reach. And so it is to all, except to those who attain to it by faith; but these have not strong faith, and by their own powers they can make no progress. And so the "hope of salvation" is with them almost a dead hope. It is a theory rather than a fact. It is nothing that is able to keep them from having frequent attacks of despair.

But the Apostle Peter says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 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, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you." 1 Peter i. 3, 4. The hope of salvation is meant to be a "lively hope." And when God asks us to have a lively hope of anything, He has made provision that we should have it. What God asks us to hope for, we can expect with certainty. We hear a great deal about the uncertainties of this mortal life. We hope for things, but we do not know that our hopes will be realised; we expect things, but we find ourselves disappointed. It has been said that the only thing certain to us are death and the Judgment. But the resurrection of Jesus Christ has added to these the certainty of salvation. He has made it certain that every man will be saved who will believe on Him. And thus salvation-eternal life in the kingdom of God, which is so much beyond all that we ever hope for in this life, is something of which we may be absolutely certain. God has not left us in any doubt upon this vital point. "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. . . . 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 stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil." Heb. vi. 13-19.

Let us then improve the privilege offered us, and make this hope a lively hope and a sure anchor of the soul. Let us remove it from the far-off realms of a theory, and bring it near into the realm of fact. Let us expect as much and more than we expect anything in this world. We are in the position of the children of Israel upon the borders of the promised land; let us profit by their experience. They received word that the cities were strong and "walled up to heaven," and the inhabitants were giants before whom they themselves were as grasshoppers; and then they were seized with unbelief. There hope of entry into it was lost and they gave way to despair; and by their action made necessary the mournful record, "They to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief." Heb. iv.

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6. The high walls that seemed to reach up to heaven represent to us the walls of doubt; the giants are the giants of unbelief. And as those walls and those giants fell then before the advance of faith, so they will fall now, however high and strong they may seem to us. Let us put on this helmet and move resolutely forward, knowing that "God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Thess. v. 9. And like those to whom Peter wrote, it will be to us a hope "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, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." 1 Peter i. 6, 7.

"'Christian' Nations" The Present Truth 9, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

The idea that there are any Christian nations in the world in the sense of being governments which are actuated by the principles of Christianity, was rudely shattered by a Japanese Buddhist, in an address made at the World's Parliament of Religions, at the World's Fair. Kinza Ringe M. Harai (such was the speaker's name) is a Japanese gentleman of learning and ability, a fluent speaker of English, and well informed in the ideas and practices of English-speaking people. In his address he said:-

"If any person should claim that there are many people in Japan who speak and write against Christianity, I am not a hypocrite, and I will frankly state that I was the first in my country who ever publicly attacked Christianity-no, not real Christianity but false Christianity; the wrongs done toward us by the people of Christendom. If any reprove the Japanese because they have had strong antichristian societies, I will honestly declare that I was the first in Japan who ever organised a society against Christianity-no, not against real Christianity, but to protect ourselves from false Christianity and the injustice which we receive from the people of Christendom."

"One of the excuses offered by foreign nations is that our country is not yet civilised. Is it the principle of civilised law that the rights and profits of the so-called uncivilised or the weaker should be sacrificed? As I understand it, the spirit and the necessity of law is to protect the rights and welfare of the weaker against the aggression of the stronger; but I never learned in my studies of law that the weaker should be sacrificed for the stronger. Another kind of apology comes from the religious source, and the claim is made that the Japanese are idolaters and heathen. . . . Admitting, for the sake of argument, that we are idolaters and heathen, is it Christian morality to trample upon the rights and advantages of a non-Christian nation, colouring all their natural happiness with the dark stain of injustice? I read in the Bible, 'Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also;' but I cannot discover there is any passage which says, "Whosoever shall demand justice of thee, smite his right cheek, and when he turns, smite the other also.' Again, I read in the Bible, 'If any man will sue thee at law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also;' but I cannot discover there any passage which says, 'If thou shalt sue any man at the law, and take away his coat, let him give thee his cloak also.' . . .

We are very often called barbarians, and I have heard and read that Japanese are stubborn and cannot understand the truth of the Bible. I will admit that this is true in some sense, for though they admire the eloquence of the orator and wonder at his courage, though they approve his logical argument, yet they are very stubborn and will not join Christianity as long as they think it is a Western morality to preach one thing and practice another."

All this the Japanese naturally charged to, or at least associate with, the religion which is supposed to dominate the western nations. If they were told the truth of the matter-that there is no such thing as a truly Christian government-there would be far less antagonism to Christianity roused in the minds of those who most need its truths.

There is, indeed, not a nation upon the earth to-day that is actuated by any other motive than that of self. Their policy is, Let us lookout for self, self last, and self always. This is why one or another of the so-called Christian nations adopt the policy of "protection." It matters not to the government of the United States that hundreds or thousands of people in England are thrown out of work and reduced to starvation by a law which places a prohibitive duty upon the importation of tin. It matters not to that government that it has closed its doors upon hundreds of millions of the human family, in China. When the poor and needy paupers come to its shores, it unceremoniously drives them back to the place whence they came. Is this Christianity? So also it matters not to the government of England that China is forced to accept the importation of a deadly drug that is fast slaving both the bodies and souls of millions of population. Is this Christianity? And these are only a few of many illustrations that might be given. And the same governments which do these things are, we are told, fitted to legislate on the subject of religion! Let us hope that the words of this outspoken Japanese may not be lost to the cause of complete separation between religion and civil government.

"The Earth Shaken" The Present Truth 9, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

The latest deductions of seismic science seem to demonstrate that our globe is not the great mass of terra firma which it is popularly supposed to be; in fact, that it is susceptible to convulsions which shake its entire circumference. A writer in the Youth's Companion says:-

"The astonishing tremors to which the solid shell of the earth is subject are only just beginning to be made apparent by the delicate instruments of modern science. It is now known that the effects of earthquakes reach hundreds and thousands of miles beyond the point at which they are perceptible to the unassisted human senses. In fact the shocks of severe earthquakes appear in some cases to be transmitted completely around the globe.

A remarkable example of this occurred on July 28, 1889, and has only recently been brought to light. While examining the record of pendulum experiments at Potsdam, Herr Paschuitz happened to consult a volume of the publication of the seismological Society of Japan, an association for the study of earthquakes, and was surprised to find that a severe earthquake which had occurred at Kumamato on the date above mentioned coincided in time, allowance being made for transmission of the shock, with a double perturbation which had been noticed by the pendulum experimenters at Potsdam and Wilhelmshaven.

The explanation of the double perturbation recorded in Germany is not the least interesting part of the story. It was interpreted to mean that the shock in Japan ran both ways around the globe, and as the perturbation which travelled westward had a shorter distance to go, it arrived at Potsdam about two hours and thirty-eight minutes sooner than did the perturbation which ran round the shell of the earth eastward.

The distance along a great circle of the globe from Kumamato to Potsdam, reckoning toward the west, is about fifty-five hundred miles, while the distance along the same great circle reckoned the other way round is nineteen thousand five hundred miles. The average velocity with which the shock travelled in the earth was about seven thousand five hundred and eighty-seven feet to a second. This agrees very well with the velocity observed in some other similar cases.

Once has the solid surface of the earth yielded to the mighty forces within it, when "the fountains of the great deep were broken up," and the waters leaped forth to meet the torrents descending from the opened "windows of heaven," and formed within the flood by which the world that then was, perished; and we are told that "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 man," 2 Peter iii. 7. Fountains of fire now lurk in the depths of the earth, ready to burst through its trembling surface to meet the fire from above, in that day of final reckoning when "Upon the wicked He shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and horrible tempests," by which they will receive "the portion of their cup." Ps. xi. 6; Rev. xx. 9.

"Denominationalism and Foreign Missions" The Present Truth 9, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

In His memorable prayer recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John, Jesus said: "That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." John xvii. 21. Nearly nineteen hundred years later comes this comment on the words of Christ, from the lips of a prominent adherent of the Buddhist faith, Mr. H Dharmapala, given at the "Parliament of Religions" in Chicago:-

"There are too many religions in the present day. Representatives of each urge our acceptance of their God. The Christian calls on us to accept his God; the Jew wants us to adore his God, and so on with the others. The result is we are puzzled which to accept. These conditions have led to much scepticism and materialism."

As every one familiar with the history of foreign missionary effort knows, denominationalism has been and is now the bane of the missionary work. The professed followers of Christ have not been one as He wished, and the world has not believed that God has sent Him. Those who are one with Christ are one with each other, but His professed church have not been united to Him; the multiplicity of Christian sects is most certainly not the work of His Spirit. While therefore it is true that there are Christians in all these sects, it cannot be true, as some would have us believe, that all these sects are recognised by Him as parts of His church. In the Church of Christ there is unity. The apostles question to the Corinthians-"Is Christ divided?" can no more be answered in the affirmative now than it could in the days of Paul.

"Feeding the Starved" The Present Truth 9, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

While so much is being said to call attention to the urgent necessity of relief for the physical wants of men and women, it may be well to point out that there are other wants no less real than these, and no less clamorous for relief, although the dull ears of mortals are insensible to the sound. For those misfortunes which affect visibly the bodies of men, have their counterparts in the evils that fasten upon the soul. As there are around us the maimed, the halt, and the blind, the starving and the paralysed, physically, so there are also the spiritually and morally halt and blind, the starving and paralytic. There come dearths in the realm of spiritual things, just as there do in that of things material; only the minds of men are so dull and stupefied as regards the reality of spiritual needs that the dearth is often not perceived. A person will starve spiritually from a lack of spiritual food, but just as truly as he will starve physically from a lack of that which supplies the muscles and tissues of the body; only the one process is perhaps a little slower than the other. And spiritual starvation ends in death, just as physical starvation does. The individual becomes "dead in trespasses and sins." Then indeed is his condition truly deplorable. While taking care for the wants of the body, we must not forget this great truth, that "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Matt. iv. 4.

"'Awake, Thou that Sleepest'" The Present Truth 9, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

This is the call that is sounding to-day from the throne of Divine mercy, to the children of men. But it falls, for the most part, upon ears that are dull of hearing. We read in the book of Proverbs that "wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets; she crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates; in the city she uttereth her words." Prov. i. 20, 21. But how many realise the fact and discern her voice? She says, "How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at My reproof; behold, I will pour out My Spirit unto you, I will make known My words unto you." "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." Prov. i. 7. The voice of wisdom is the voice that calls men to turn to the Lord. Through the night of sin, to the myriads that lie in darkness and the shadow of death, but down by the stupor of sin, it calls, and its language is, "Awake, thou that sleepest, arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." Eph. v. 14.

The world is asleep, and their sleep is as the sleep of death. The voice of wisdom calls, but they know it not; the hand of Mercy is reached down to save them, but they know not the day of their visitation. While their destiny is trembling in the balance, and the hours are burdened with the awful events which turn the scale for life or death, they are engaged in oblivious revelry or the pursuit of gain, like Belshazzar feasting with his lords, not knowing that he was the same night to be slain, and his kingdom given to another. Consider the case of Sodom. There was the wicked city wholly taken up with its vain and licentious pleasures, living its life of "pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness," without a thought of righteousness or judgment to come; while the same day, only a few miles distant, the patriarch Abraham, with face bowed to the earth, was talking with the God of the universe, and saying, "Peradventure ten [righteous] shall be found there" and receiving the answer, "I will not destroy it for ten's sake." But the ten were not found, and the wicked inhabitants were overtaken in a moment by "the vengeance of eternal fire." Or consider that more momentous scene, many years later, in the garden of Gethsemane, where the Son of God, in human form, poured out the agony of His soul in prayer. There the awful burden of sin forced from His lips the words, "O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me;" and if that prayer had been answered, the world would have been left to its fate. But while this momentous scene, upon the outcome of which its destiny hung, was taking place in Gethsemane, the world was asleep. The inhabitants of the earth were totally oblivious to the crisis which had come, in which their eternal destinies were involved. Even the three disciples, whom the Saviour had chosen to accompany him to the scene of His suffering, were wrapped in the same oblivious slumber; "for their eyes were heavy." Only the inanimate trees and the watchers that looked down in pity from above, beheld at the scene when the iniquities of the world were laid on the world's Redeemer. With men, there was no thought of the awful crisis that had been reached in the history of the human family. They slept, and rose and went about their accustomed rounds of duty or pleasure as if that night were like all others, and not darkened by a great tragedy in which every interest of their existence, both for time and eternity, was involved.

And so it ever is with those who sleep when they should awake to spiritual things. They know not the day of their visitation. The crisis comes when their destiny for eternity will be decided, and they perceive it not. Like the blind inhabitants of Jerusalem spending in self-righteous ease the last day before the Divine judgment was pronounced upon the city, or the licentious Sodomites feasting

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and revelling through the very hours when the question of their doom was being decided, these sleeping ones pass on and know not their position untll their fate comes upon them. Then their eyes are opened, but the awakening comes too late.

So it may be with us who live in the world to-day; for there is a spiritual crisis which must come to us as well as to those that have lived before us, a time when the decision must be made for us, as it has been for the destiny of others. And how near that hour may be, who can tell? How far off are we from the day of our visitation? We cannot do better than to turn to the words of Paul in the exhortation given on this point in his epistle to the Romans: "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand; let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light." It is not necessary that the crisis should overtake us asleep. The apostle says, "Ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day; we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober." 1 Thess. v. 4-6. Let us "awake to righteousness, and sin not." 1 Cor. xv. 34. The righteousness of Christ is offered to us, and will be ours if we awake and grasp it. That is the light which Christ will give to those that awake and "arise from the dead."

But if we heed not the call of wisdom, if we hear not her voice saying, "Turn you at My reproof," the day will surely come when we will hear her saying, "Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out My hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all My counsel, and would none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they shall not find Me; for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord." Prov. i. 24-29. "Behold now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."

"Man proposes, but God disposes."

"A Lesson from the Flowers" The Present Truth 9, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

"Consider the lillies: . . . if God so clothes the grass of the field, . . . shall He not much more clothe you?" Matt. vi. 28-32.

Last week we learned a very important lesson from the grass. Every time we look at it God silently whispers through it, Do not be proud. Do not be proud.

Our best Friend is grieved when we think of ourselves and forget Him. He has made and placed on every side of us wonderful things, not only for our pleasure but to remind us of Him-to teach us of His power and love, and of our need of Him. He is our Teacher; we are His people; and the whole heavens and earth is our schoolroom. Above us, beneath us, and all are around us, His own dear hand has scattered the lessons that He would have us learn. If we search, we shall find them in the Bible, in the grass, flowers, and trees; in the insects, birds, and animals; and in the air, and clouds, and sky. When we look at any of these things we should say, Lord, what would you have me learn from this? Help me to understand what it is. Then we should study and watch it and think about it; and He will make us understand.

God will teach us many things through the flowers alone, if we but listen to His still small voice. He speaks to us through the buttercups and daisies, through the modest violet, the sweet-scented pink, the blue-eyed for-get-me-not, the friendly-faced pansy, and the beautiful roses; through the geraniums, and all their pink and scarlet glory, and through the golden-hearted lily.

Listen to what Jesus once said about the lilies. He asks the people why they spent so much anxious thought, and so much of their time upon their clothes? He said: "Consider [think about] the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?"

It grieves God when we spend so much time in thinking about our clothes, and in trying to dress up so very nicely our poor frail bodies. It looks as though we could not take time for Jesus, for fear we should have to go without clothes. He says that that poor little lily out yonder in the field is dressed more beautifully than you can possibly dress yourself-no matter how hard you work or how much time you spend. You would please God more if you would spend more time in seeking the inward adorning-"the ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit"-a pure and humble heart. This, He says, is worth a great deal more in God's sight, than the outward adorning and costly clothing. Just listen what He promises. He says to seek first the beautiful garment of God's righteousness-a garment of purity for the heart-and try to lead others to God; and all these other things, such as food and clothing, will be added unto you. You need not fear, then, that you will have no food or clothing, if you spend a little time in thinking about and trying to please Jesus. "Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things." Matt. vi. 32. "He careth for you" (1 Peter v. 7), even more than for the lilies, and will not suffer you to want if you serve and trust Him.

In another place in the Bible Jesus says: "I am the lily of the valley." Then, as you look at the lily with its golden heart and raiment of purity, think of Jesus, the purest and best of all the lilies that ever grew upon this earth. Remember that He whispers to you through the lilies, and this is what He says: "I care for the lily, but I care for you more; I clothed the lily in its robe of snowy white, but I'll wash away your sins and clothe your heart in a robe more pure, even in my own pure robe of righteousness-if you will let Me. Do not be afraid to spend time to read your Bible and pray, and obey Me, for, remember, I care for you; you shall not want."

1. Do you go to school?

2. What schools should we all attend every day? The school of Christ.

3. Then who will be our Teacher?

4. What is the school-room?

5. Where are the lessons that we should learn?

6. Who placed them there for us?

7. If we never notice the things that He has made, or think about them, can we learn the lessons?

8. How can we learn from these things the lessons that He would have us learn?

9. What lesson did we learn last week from the grass?

10. How does it cause our best Friend to feel when we think of ourselves and forget Him?

11. How does it cause Him to feel when we spend more time in thinking of our clothes than we do in serving Him?

12. How does it look? As though we were afraid we'd have no clothes if we should take time for Jesus.

13. What little flower is clothed more beautifully that we can ever clothe ourselves?

14. Who gave it its beautiful dress?

15. For which does God care more, the lily or you?

16. Then do you think that He would forget to give you what you need when you love and obey Him?

17. Which does He say for us to seek first, the outward adorning, or inward adorning?

18. What is this inward adorning which God prizes so much more highly than outward adorning and costly clothing? 1 Peter iii. 3, 4.

19. If we take time to seek this shall we not be in danger of having no food and clothing?

20. Who knows that we need such things?

21. What precious promise does He make about it? Matt. vi. 33.

22. What did Jesus once say about the lilies? Matt. vi. 28-33.

23. Who cares for them and gives them their beautiful clothing?

24. What should you remember every time you see a lily? Jesus, the purest of all lilies, cares for the lily, but He cares for me more. He gave the lily its robe of purity, but He will make me pure like Him if I ask Him; then I'll be purer than this lily.

25. And what does the Lord promise to the pure in heart? Matt. v. 8.

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

-The health of Prince Bismarck is said to be improving; also that of Ferdinand de Lesseps.

-The schooner, Star of the Ocean, from Shields to Ramsgate, was run clown by a steamer off the North Foreland, and six lives are supposed to have been lost.

-An attempt is being made in Hampshire to weld the Free Churches together into one strong association. Meetings of delegates are being held in the chief district centres.

-It is telegraphed from New York that an English syndicate has purchased the Lower Californian peninsula from the Republic of Mexico. It will be annexed to the United States.

-A conference of French Socialists was in Paris Oct. 7. It is attended by eighty-five delegates, representing 419 groups, and included some Socialist members of the Chamber of Deputies.

-The war in Morocco seems likely to subside as suddenly as it commenced. There has been no resumption of fighting at Melilla, and the Moorish tribes are said to be divided on the subject of continuing hostilities.

-The Sunday-closing question is being fought over again in connection with the prospective midwinter fair at San Francisco, Cal., at which it is proposed to have on exhibition many of the exhibits now at the Fair in Chicago.

-Some fishermen on the Gulf of Riga have picked up a bottle, which had been washed ashore, containing a message from one of those who went down in the Russian warship Roosalka, in which it is stated that the vessel had run aground.

-The new session of lectures and classes in connection with the Oxford Extension Delegacy is just commencing, arrangements having been already made for 179 courses of lectures, to be delivered at 149 different centres in every part of England.

-Spain is still troubled with Anarchists. An announcement that a body of the latter intended to make an attack upon Xeres caused considerable alarm in that town. Nothing, however, transpired, and several well-known Anarchists were arrested.

-By the breaking out of a fire at the barracks at Roslavi, in the Russian government of Smolensk, twenty-eight soldiers were burned to death, and eleven others, who escaped by jumping out of the window, are not likely to live, owing to the injuries they sustained.

-Cholera has again appeared at Grimsby. The Local Government Board's report states that since the 6th inst. five cases of a choleraic nature, two of them fatal, have been recorded at that place, and one fatal ease of cholera is reported to have taken place at Rawmarsh, near Rotherham.

-Signs of the end of the great coal strike and lockout are becoming visible, and victory seems to be turning on the side of the miners. Many thousands of the latter have gone back to work at the old rate of wages. The result is largely due to the generous sympathy shown by the public in contributing to the support of the men and their families.

-Active hostilities have been begun in South Africa, the initiative having been taken by the Matabele, who are supposed to have broken loose from the restraining hand of their king Lobengula. A Cape Town telegram says it is expected that the combined British forces will proceed to Buluwayo and make a simultaneous attack on Lobengula's kraal. It is not thought that the campaign will last more than a month.

-Oct. 9 was "Chicago day" at the World's Fair, being the anniversary of the great fire in 1871. Nearly 800,000 persons passed through the gates. A number of accidents are reported, owing to the tremendous increase in the traffic, several people having been killed and some thirty injured by being struck by grip-cars and other vehicles, or crushed in the crowd. Terrible scenes resulting from the crowding took place at night.

-A Nonconfomist house-to-house visitation is now in progress at Leeds, and is exported to be completed on Oct. 20. One or two of the churches are not participating in the work, having already carried out a visitation in their own districts, and the Unitarians have not been invited to join in the movement. The visitor's card of introduction bears the intimation that "this visitation is undertaken with a sincere desire to extend the religion of Jesus Christ in the community. It is entirely unsectarian in character."

-No decided change in affairs is reported from the Brazilian insurrection, but the probability of ultimate success seems to lie with the insurgents. Manifestoes have been issued by President Peixoto and Admiral de Mello. The former is understood to infer that if the elections to Congress go against him he will bow to the will of the country, while the insurgent Admiral declares that in the event of his success he will adhere rigidly to Republican institutions and forms of government. He also defends, at considerable length, the line of action he has taken up, and charges President Poixoto with violating the Constitution.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

The question of religious education in the public schools is being forced upon the attention of the London School Board. A deputation of Primitive Methodists have waited on the Board and declared that the present unsettled state of the question is due to the High Church party, who are trying to insert into the public-school system the thin edge of a wedge which would force upon it an intolerable religious test. The Chronicle says (and very truthfully), "It is too late in the day to have any 'ism' whatever taught in the public schools at public expense."

"Apostolic Succession" The Present Truth 9, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

Apostolic Succession.-The Rev. J. Guinness Rogers, in a recent sermon, had this to say on the subject of "apostolic succession," in allusion to claims put forth by a prominent speaker at the Church Congress:-

"What is this apostolic succession? Mr. Gore appeals to the epistle of Ignatius, the apostle of Clement, the record of the second century tradition as represented by Hegesippus and Irenaeus, and asks how in face of them any one can doubt the immense strength of the doctrine of apostolic succession. What do I care for the apostles of Clement or Ignatius, or the traditions of the second century, they are only valuable as historic records of the state of the Church at that period, and as showing the rapidity and ease with which it had lost its pristine beauty and lost its first love. They are no more guides to my faith than the words of Rev. Chas. Gore himself!

"When he appeals to the Acts of the Apostles and the pastoral epistles, however, it is a different thing, and my reply to, 'How anyone can read them and find in them any warrant for the doctrine of the apostolic succession, or the exclusive rights of an episcopal organisation, I am at a loss to understand. It is not there, and was only manufactured by the fathers of the second century.'"

This is the simple truth about this much-mooted question. "Apostolic succession" can no more have been handed down from the apostolic days to ours by men, than could the faith and righteousness of Abraham be handed down from his time to the Christian era by means of a literal descent. The Pharisees put as much confidence in the virtue of Abrahamic succession, if we may so speak, as is put now by some who partake of their characteristics, in "apostolic" succession; but the truth is that the faith and love necessary to make one an acceptable labourer for God, are the gifts of God, who Himself calls His servants, as He did Paul, and gives them the true commission of the Holy Spirit.

"Mr. Moody Expects a Smash-up" The Present Truth 9, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

The great evangelist, D. L. Moody, has written to the Independent (New York City) his reply to the question (asked him by that journal), "Is the world growing better?" His view of the subject is one of English-speaking people in all lands. He says:-

"In reply to your question, 'Is the world growing better?' I would say that God has a plan in the history of this world, and He is constantly carrying it out. The Gospel has converting power, and wherever it goes men are being converted to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Gospel also has an elevating influence in many ways upon those who do not accept it.

"While all this is true, on the other hand, men who reject the truth grow worse and worse, and we see the development of the kingdom of darkness going on side by side with the development of the kingdom of light. The facts which every one who is not blinded by prejudice must see about him on every hand, as well as the teaching of Scripture, clearly indicate that "in the last days perilous times shall come." There is every indication that the present dispensation will end in a great smash-up; but I believe that out of that smash-up the most glorious age of the world's history will come. So I look into the future, not with despair, but with unbounded delight."

The last two sentences are somewhat vague and ambiguous; perhaps purposely so. But the fact that one of so wide an acquaintance with the ways of God and of men, looks for this dispensation to end in a general smash-up, should lead to a closer investigation of the subject in the light of the prophetic word. And if his view of the approaching catastrophe is that held by the Apostle Peter and other inspired writers, it may well be said that out of it the most glorious age in earth's history will come; for out of it will come "new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." See 2 Peter iii. 3-13. And we may well "look into the future with unbounded delight," for that is only to fulfil the Saviour's words, "When these things begin to come to pass, then looked up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." Luke xxi. 28.

"Cannot Be Harmonised" The Present Truth 9, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

Cannot Be Harmonised.-A leading religious journal in the United States professes to be greatly puzzled by the fact that while people there "have listened to beautiful addresses in Chicago [at the Catholic Congress] by Cardinal Gibbons and Bishop Keane and Archbishop Ireland and dozens of other distinguished representative Catholics, telling us about the liberality of the Pope and his sympathy with free institutions, his love for republics and the freedom of the American Catholic Church," the Papacy still perpetuates the institution of the Index Expurgatorius, which, by a deliverance from "his holiness" published last July, excludes from all Catholic homes several copies of The Nineteenth Century Magazine, since they contain some articles which the pontiff and his associates have seen fit to proscribe. The directions aforesaid read as follows:-

"Therefore, let no one of whatever rank or condition dare in future either to publish or to read or to keep those above-mentioned condemned and proscribed works; but let him deliver them over to the local bishops or to the inquisitors of heretical doctrine, under the penalties which have been proscribed by the Index of Forbidden Books."

But why will any sensible person undertake to harmonise the beautiful talk which we listened to from Catholic prelates, about the pope's love of freedom and the liberality and humanity of the Catholic Church, with facts of this nature which ever and anon come to light? Why will not people believe that "actions speak louder than words," even the words of a Catholic cardinal or Archbishop? The Index Expurgatorius of Rome used to contain not only the names of books, but the names of persons, and would to-day if she had any means of making the theory practical. How can a pope who makes no protest against intolerance of Protestant worship in Spain, the oppression and hatred manifested toward it in Austria, the killing of Protestants by Catholic mobs in Mexico and the countries of South America, the exclusion of Protestant missionaries from Ecuador, and the mental and moral degradation of the masses in all of them, when a word from him would be powerful to check such bigotry,-how can he allow all this without a protest and yet be the liberal and benevolent father, the friend of democracy and lover of popular rule, which the smooth-tongued prelates would have us think? When they have satisfactorily answered this question, it will be time to put some faith in their representations.

October 26, 1893

"Front Page" The Present Truth 9, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

Jesus said to Pilate: "For this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews." John xviii. 37, 38.

If Pilate had remained with Jesus he might have found out the answer to his question. It would have been well for him if he had. Many are to-day asking this same question, and like Pilate, are running away from the answer. The reason why people fail to know the truth is not that it is so difficult, but because they do not enquire in the right place for it, or are in too great a hurry to wait for an answer.

Pilate enquired at the right source, but he did not stay for the answer. He probably thought that the question could not be answered. But Jesus had already answered it. Only the night before He had said in His prayer to the Father: "Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy word is truth." John xvii. 17. And but a short time before He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."

Whoever would know the truth must come to Jesus, and must remain there. He is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. All truth is to be found in Him, and aside from Him no truth can be found. He is "the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world;" but men must cherish the light, and walk in it, or it will be of no use to them.

This is shown by the case of the Jews, who, like Pilate, had the Truth before them but did not recognise it. "Jesus said unto them, 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 light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide Himself from them." John xii. 34-36.

But Jesus will not depart from those who do not reject Him. To those who accept Him as the truth, He says, "I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." And so all who wish may know Him as the very present truth, to shed light on every difficult question.

"Overcoming in Christ" The Present Truth 9, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

To His disciples on one location Jesus said, "In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." John xvi. 33.

Why should this fact cause us to be of good cheer? Why should we rejoice because some one else has overcome the world, when it must also be overcome by ourselves? The grand truth which answers this question is, that we are not overcomers in ourselves, but overcomers in Christ.

To the Corinthians the apostle writes, "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. How is it that we are always caused to triumph in Christ? It is simply because Christ has triumphed over everything, and in Him victory is ours.

Christ was tempted in all points like as we are, yet was without sin. He has met and overcome every obstacle that can possibly be brought against humanity in the struggle for the life to come. And whenever any of these things, "the world, the flesh, and the devil," meet Him, they meet their Conqueror. The victory has been already won. And therefore in Christ we have the victory; for when we are in Him, the temptations assail Him, and not ourselves. When we hide our weakness in His strength, there is only His strength to fight the battle. He has gained the victory, and the beaten foe can never recover from his defeat so as to hope for victory over Him.

What, then, must we do to overcome? And why is it that we are so often overcome? The obvious answer is that we cannot overcome outside of Christ. What we have to do is to take the victory that has been already won, the victory that has been gained by Him. He overcame for us, that He might bestow His triumph upon us. And we take the victory by faith, for it is by faith that Christ comes into our hearts.

This is what is meant by the apostle John, when he says, "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." 1 John v. 4. By faith we bring Christ into our hearts and lives. Eph. iii. 17. And Christ being there, He is there as the Conqueror of all that is to be met and overcome in the Christian warfare.

The glorious truth is thus made manifest, that the victory over every temptation and difficulty is already ours, in Christ. We need not, therefore, come up to the conflict with a faint heart, but with all confidence, knowing that defeat cannot possibly be the outcome, no matter how formidable

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the foe may make himself appear. The battle is already fought, and Jesus Christ holds out to us the victory. We have simply to take it, and say, "Thanks be unto God, which giveth us the victory throughout our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Cor. xv. 57.

"Hearing, Seeing, and Handling" The Present Truth 9, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

"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." 1 John i. 1, 2.

The Word of life is that which was from the beginning. Life must necessarily have been before all things,-the source of all things. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made." John i. 1-3. "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." Verse 14.

Christ, then, is the Word of life, which was from the beginning, from whom proceeded all things. He is eternal life, and those who heard and saw and handled Him, heard and saw and handled life-eternal life. He is all life, for He said, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." "Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day." John vi. 51, 54.

John says "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." We are therefore to see and hear and handle the Word of life as really as did the apostles. How can that be?

Let us first look at the other side. There were many on earth in the days of Christ's first advent, who saw Him, and heard Him speak, and who had their hands on Him, who yet knew really nothing of Him. They did not perceive the life that was in Him, and derived no benefit from it. Christ is the wisdom of God (1 Cor. i. 24) "which God ordained before the world unto our glory." 1 Cor. ii. 7. But the apostle says of that wisdom, "Which none of the princes of this world knew; for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." 1 Cor. ii. 8.

Why did they not know Him? Because they had not faith. "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." John i. 11, 12. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life." John iii. 36.

Take as an illustration the case of the poor woman who was diseased with the issue of blood. She "came behind Him, and touched the border of His garment; and immediately her issue of blood stanched. And Jesus said, Who touched Me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with Him said, Master, the multitude throng Thee and press Thee, and sayest Thou, Who touched Me? And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched Me; for I perceive that virtue is gone out of Me." Luke viii. 43-46. Then the woman came forward, and Jesus said to her, "Be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole."

Now we see how it was that the apostles, and others, saw and handled the Word of life. It was by faith. Multitudes thronged the Saviour, but in that crowd there was but one who handled the Word life. She touched Him by her faith. She saw life in Him, for her own life was ebbing away, and she touched Him for the purpose of receiving life from Him. It was not mere physical contact that made known to the apostles the Word of life; it was by faith that they saw and heard and handled the life. When Peter said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," Jesus said, "Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father, which is in heaven." Matt. xvi. 16, 17. "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. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." 1 Cor. ii. 9, 10.

And so we may hear and see and know and handle Christ, the Word of life. John says that he and the other disciples wrote that which they had heard, and seen, and handled, for our sakes. That which they saw, they have shown unto us, that we may, by faith, see it with them. So our knowledge of Christ, and benefit from Him, may be the same as theirs. The fact that He is not present to our physical senses, makes not a particle of difference, since it was not by their physical senses that they knew Him as the Word of life.

"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."

"Fellowship with God" The Present Truth 9, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

"That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." 1 John i. 3. The last clause of the text shows what the fellowship is, which the apostle desires us to have. He wishes us to have the same fellowship with the Father and the Son that he and his fellow-apostles had.

The association of Jesus and His disciples was very intimate. They brought all their troubles to Him, receiving His sympathy and help; and He also shared their joys. He ate with them, directed and assisted them in their work, and healed their diseases. He was their companion at feasts and also in the solitude of the desert. He rejoiced with them at the wedding, and wept with them at the grave. No human companion could ever be more close, and on terms of greater intimacy than was the companionship of the disciples and the Son of God on earth.

But while they were thus associating with the Son, they were also having fellowship with the Father, as well. "God was in Christ." 2 Cor. v. 19. Jesus said, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." "Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me." John xiv. 9, 11. Those who fail to recognise the fact that God the Father is in every respect just what Jesus was when here on earth, lose the whole object of the ministry of Christ.

Jesus was the genial companion of His disciples. But while they associated together as fellows, His lowly position did not obscure His greatness, nor lead them to lightly esteem Him. When He washed His disciples' feet, it was with the full knowledge that He was their Master and Lord, and that the Father had given all things into His hand, and that He came from God

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and went to God. See John xiii. 3, 4, 5.

Thus they had fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And the companionship which they had-which the beloved disciple had when he reclined on the bosom of Jesus,-is the same companionship which we are privileged to have. It was for the purpose of letting us know this, that John wrote his epistle.

Who may have this companionship? Is it only the wealthy, and those whom the world calls "noble"? Listen: "For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." Isa. lvii. 15.

In the world there are "classes," and so there will be till the end of time. No device nor organisation of men, no vows nor pledges will break down the barriers between the "classes" and the "masses." Socialism is powerless, even though it bear the prefix "Christian." In Christ Jesus, "there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; but Christ is all in all." Col. iii. 11. In the true Church of Christ there is but one standard,-love to God and love to man,-and nothing can bring men to this but the love of God shed abroad in the heart, by His Holy Spirit.

The life of Christ on earth shows that in His church there can be none of the false standards that exist in society. He came as a servant, showing that none who follow Him must think themselves above serving. "By love serve one another," is the exhortation of the apostle, and the Master says, "Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant; even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister." Matt. xx. 27, 28. He was a carpenter on earth, in order that none of His followers might think it beneath their dignity to work. "The servant is not greater than his Lord."

Companionship with God involves humility, for Jesus said, "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. 29. "What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to humble thyself to walk with thy God." Micah vi. 8, margin. "Before honour is humility," for "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted." And what greater exaltation could created beings have, than to associate on terms of loving familiarity with the Creator of the universe? to be esteemed by Him as a friend, and to have God reveal His secrets to him? See John xv. 15; Ps. xxv. 14. Let us then give good heed to the message of the beloved disciple, which he has written unto us that our joy may be full.

"Walking in the Light" The Present Truth 9, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

"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. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth; but 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." 1 John i. 5-7.

Of the Word which was in the beginning, which was God, the apostle says, "In Him was life; and the life was the light of men." John i. 4. Jesus 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. Christ is God, and God is light. The light of God is His life, so that walking in the light is nothing but walking in the life of God.

The Apostle Paul says of the heathen, that "they have their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God." Eph. iv. 18. Apart from His life there is darkness. The Holy Spirit moved David to say to God, "For with Thee is the fountain of life; in Thy light shall we see light." Ps. xxxvi. 9. Since the life is the light, this is the same as saying, "In Thy life shall we see light."

How is the life of God to be obtained? The Saviour said to the woman at the well, if thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water." John iv. 10. And again He said, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive." John vii. 37-39. The life of God is bestowed through the Holy Spirit, which may be had for the asking in sincerity and faith. See also Luke xi. 13.

"This I say, then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh." Gal. v. 16. That is to say, walk in the light,-the life of God,-and the life of God, and not that of fallen humanity, will be manifest in you. Some people expect a great deal of humanity; God does not. It is not to be depended on, and therefore we are exhorted to become partakers of the divine nature. Human nature will always be imperfect, but the nature of God may take its place, and that is perfection.

"A Wonderful Bargain" The Present Truth 9, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

People are usually on the lookout for good bargains, and when they see one, are not slow to improve the opportunity presented. Oftentimes it happens, however, that they fail to see the opportunity that is before them, and the chance for a wonderful bargain is discovered only when it is too late; and then there is occasion for much vain mourning and regret.

There is a most wonderful bargain that is within the reach of every one of us, one that will bring us greater and more lasting benefit than was ever bought by gold or silver, if we will only be wise enough to see and improve it. It is a bargain offered us by the Lord of heaven. And though He is so much wiser than we are, we need not be afraid to accept what He offers, for there is no trickery or dishonesty about Him, but all His thoughts toward us are for our benefit. He offers to make with us a most wonderful exchange. In His word He has told us what this is. We find it referred to in Paul's letter to the Galatians in these words: "Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who 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. 3, 4.

To whom did Christ give Himself? Who are the principals in this wonderful transaction? We find several texts which answer this question. In His prayer for oneness among His disciples, recorded in John xvii., Jesus said, "I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one;" and we are told that the "mystery" that had been hid from ages and generations but is now manifest to the saints, is "Christ in you, the hope of glory." Col. i. 27. Again Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that all things are ours, and we are Christ's. 1 Cor. iii. 21-23. Also in

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his letter to the Romans we find him saying, "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Rom. viii. 32. Christ therefore is in His followers, and God "with Him," freely gives us all things. Thus it is evident that Christ gives Himself to us; and as the text says, "He gave Himself for our sins."

The transaction is now clearly before us. On the one side is ourselves, with all that we have, which is our load of sins; and on the other side is Christ with all that He has. Christ says to us, I will give you Myself, and what I have, for yourself, and what you have. Christ has all that we need: We have only that which we do not need. He has righteousness, we have none; He has spotless raiment, we have only filthy rags. Isa. lxiv. 6; Zech. iii. 3. He has "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Col. ii. 3. He has "unsearchable riches." Eph. iii. 8. He has a name which is better than that of angels. Heb. i. 4. He is the Son of God, and we also, through Him, are sons and daughters of God. 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18. We, of ourselves, have none of these things. We may think ourselves to be "rich and increased with goods," but if so we simply do not know that we are "wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." Rev. iii. 17. Christ has everything, we have nothing.

What an exchange is this! We are offered everything for nothing; yes, for worse than nothing, for our load of sins would surely sink us in perdition unless we should become freed from it. And Christ simply asks us to give it all to Him; for He has purchased us, and our sins with us. He has paid the penalty of our sins, and He knows what to do with them. He will remove them as far from us as the east is from the west; He will cast them into the depths of the sea. Ps. ciii. 12; Micah vii. 18, 19.

Have we made this wonderful exchange? If not, do we realise that the opportunity is now before us? Will any of us be so foolishly unwise as to refuse to exchange debt for life? Christ will not compel us to make the trade; but He invites and urges us to do so. The offer will not always hold good, for we read that the time will come when it will be said, "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." Rev. xxii. 11. And how terrible will it be to awake to a realisation of this neglected opportunity after it is gone! The opportunity to exchange nothing for everything, death for life, and yet we did not improve it! We let it slip out of our hands! Verily, among those who thus awake, there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

But this wonderful exchange can be made just now. It only lies with you to decide to make it, and to do so when you have so decided. "Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation." "And 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.

"Is the World Growing Better?" The Present Truth 9, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

A great deal has been said of late years an answer to this question. We printed last week the brief but pointed reply thereto of the evangelist Mr. Moody, which appeared among a number of others in a "symposium" on the question in the Independent. Aside from the interest lent to Mr. Moody's remarks by his expectation of a general "smash-up" at the close of this dispensation, what he says is noteworthy for the truth it contains in reference to the real point which the question involves, and concerning which many dangerous and misleading ideas are entertained in the religious world.

Mr. Moody stated that there was power in the Gospel of Christ, and that wherever it was presented, people were reached by it and converted to God; while at the same time those who rejected it were growing worse and worse, and thus there was a development, side by side, of the kingdoms of light and of darkness. This is true; and this is really all that can be said in answer to the question. Men are growing better, and men are growing worse; the world itself shows no perceptible change in either direction.

How could the world, in its relation to spiritual things, be any worse than it is, and has been for ages in the past? How can worldliness be any different in one age than it is in another? How can the carnal heart, which is not and cannot be subject to the law of God, be any more subject to that law at one time than at another? How can the natural man, which "discerneth not the things of the Spirit of God," and is "dead in trespasses and sins," be either more or less acceptable with God? How can a dead man become any more dead than he is?

There is not one thing about the natural man or the carnal heart that can ever find favour with God. The path to salvation lies through death to self. Self is so utterly and totally bad that the Lord cannot use a particle of it in His kingdom, but every bit of it must die. How then can it be any worse, so far as God is concerned, than it is?

"The [human] heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." How then can the human heart be any worse, spiritually, than it is?

We are careful to relate this question to spiritual things, because while there is no difference spiritually in hearts that are not regenerated by the power of God, there is a great difference between them in other respects. The world has its standard of morality, to which some individuals conform much more closely than others. And the Spirit of God strives with all men, even the most worldly. But there is no power to uplift men save the power of the Spirit. Man, left to himself, is subject to the rule of sin and Satan; the inevitable tendency of which is downward. Until the man yields to the invitations of the Spirit and is "born again," he cannot be in a position to be uplifted to a higher plain of life. He can do many things that make an appearance of improvement, but all the time he has the heart which is deceitful above all things, and at enmity with God, and is the subject of sin and the devil. He cannot therefore become really and permanently better by any power that he has in himself.

All these-the natural heart, the enmity against God, the fruits of the flesh, its lusts and desires, we find in the world. The apostle John writes, "all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." It is respectable enough, according to the popular standard. It is often gentlemanly, refined, and polished, so that there is nothing wrong with its outward appearance; for "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light." But it has no power to become better, in the true sense of the word. The difference between men of the world is one of circumstances, not a moral power. The only uplifting force in the world that can successfully combat the power of sin and the devil, is the force of the gospel of Christ. The grace of God, not any inherent power of man, makes the difference between the honest, virtuous,

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upright man, and the consciousless knave.

Times change, and with them there is a change of customs, institutions, and ideas. But worldliness does not change. The fruits of the flesh do not change. The carnal heart unrenewed by the grace of God, does not lose any of its carnality; pride, love of money, the thirst for power, are the same now that they always have been. The only way in which there can be any real growth toward a better state is through the substitution of the works of the Spirit for the works of the flesh, which can be done only through the power of the gospel.

Christian people are apparently very slow to learn the great truth that the only road to a better life lies through death. There is nothing of all that which fell under the dominion of sin, that can be reserved to a future life, or that can be changed over to suit the conditions of life with God. All must die, all must pass away. The new birth comes only through death to self, and the new birth comes only through the destruction of the old. The apostle John declares that "the world passeth away, and the lust thereof," and Peter tells us that the world of to-day has long been reserved under fire against the day of wrath and perdition of the ungodly.

The question, therefore, whether the world is growing better or not is not one of any moment to us, for so far as spiritual things are concerned, the world can no more grow better than the leopard can change his spots, or the Ethiopian his skin. But the point is one in regard to which a great many good people are deceived. The world does not seem to them quite too bad to be reformed, and they are continually in hopes of seeing some wonderful transformation take place, which will usher in the millennium. A great many of the worlds leading men,-kings, emperors and zealous ecclesiastics, have tried to usher in the millennium, and the same thing is being attempted by men and women to-day. And in perfect keeping with such Biblical and spiritual ignorance is the short-sighted means by which they hope to accomplish their aim,-the ballot box and legislative enactments. But the millennium will never come in that way. It will never be brought about by the efforts of man for the reformation of the world. It will never come as a result of the world's growing better.

People who are looking to see how much faster the world is growing better, with a view to determining the nearness of the millennium, are entirely off the track, and liable to be fatally misled. The truth is, as Mr. Moody has expressed it, that the development of the kingdoms of light and of darkness are going on side by side. Men are being gathered out and converted by the Gospel, and its opposers, on the other hand, are waxing worse and worse. But God's purposes in the world will be accomplished; the mystery of godliness will be finished; and then will be ushered in the long-looked-for millennium, but not, as people have expected, upon the world rejoicing in an era of universal goodness, prosperity and peace; but a world desolated by sin and evil, all prepared for its final destruction by the fire to which it has been reserved.

The conflict between sin and righteousness, good and evil, will not go on for ever. It will terminate, in the day when a people shall have been gathered from every nation, and kindred, and tongue, prepared to stand without fault before the throne of God, and to inhabit that new earth which shall arise from the ashes of the old. The conflict will deepen as it nears the end. The efforts of Satan to overthrow that which is good and to establish his kingdom of sin and rebellion against God will become more fierce and determined. We are told that "in the last days perilous times shall come; for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy," and so on through a long catalogue of sins (2 Tim. iii. 1-5), and the prophet John tells us that he heard a voice from heaven saying, "Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." Rev. xii. 10-12. When the devil knows that his time is short, that the conflict is near its end, he only becomes more furious than before, and in the climax of his fury, the end comes. It is cut short by the appearing of Christ in the clouds of heaven, "in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel" (2 Thess. i. 7, 8), and sending forth His angels "with a great sound of a trumpet," to "gather together His elect, from the four winds, from one end of heaven unto the other." Matt. xxiv. 30, 31. The righteous dead will be raised, and together with the living servants of God will be taken to heaven, to reign with Christ a thousand years. 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17; Rev. xx. 4. This is the millennium, and this is the manner of its ushering in.

Let it never be forgotten that the purpose of God toward men and toward the world is not a changing over of what already is, but a new creation. If we will keep this fact, so abundantly set forth in the Bible, before our minds, we will not be misled by all the talk and speculation in the religious world as to the world's growing better, and the dawning of a millennial era of righteousness and peace.

"Zeal and Knowledge" The Present Truth 9, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

Zeal and knowledge are equally essential to the worker for Christ. Without zeal, the knowledge which one has is put to little or no use; and without knowledge, the zeal that one may possess is often put to a very bad use. The two must go together, or the result will not be for advancement of the cause of truth.

A person who possesses knowledge without zeal will not be so conspicuous or do so much harm as one who has zeal without knowledge. It is better to have nothing done than to have that done which is evil and wrong. That is therefore a condition more carefully to be shunned which the Scriptures designate as a zeal "not according to knowledge," than that which comes from the possession of knowledge without zeal, although the latter condition is certainly not one to be desired.

Our knowledge and our zeal should both come from the same source, and that source should be Christ. The trouble is that so many persons mistake the source from which their zeal or knowledge,-or both, it may be-come. They imagine that it is given them of God, when in reality it comes from themselves. And whatever comes from themselves, is self. To just the extent that their zeal or knowledge comes from self, to that extent they are serving self in their fancied service of God. Such people need to be converted before they can realise what the true service of God is.

It is a very common thing for people to serve self under the pretence of serving Christ. And they pass, with many or most of their associates, as very exemplary Christians. Their activity in religious duties is known far and wide, and to all outward appearance they are all that they profess to be, and imagine themselves to be servants of Christ. But here is manifested the deceitfulness

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of the human heart,-that heart which "is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked." It clings most tenaciously to self, and puts itself into the life in so many ways, and so completely disguised, that only by the closest possible test can the presence of that evil be detected.

In the word of God there are presented several conspicuous examples of men whose lives were actuated by this self-originating zeal. There was Jehu, the king of Israel, who when he met Jehonadab, exclaimed, "Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord." 2 Kings x. 16. True zeal for the Lord is never boastful. It is only self that boasts, and desires to put its zeal on exhibition. Jehu's zeal is the zeal so often possessed by those who engage in work for God to-day. Self can be displayed in apparent zeal for God, as well as in anything else.

In the New Testament there is brought before us the example of Saul of Tarsus. He was the most zealous man, but, until his conversion, he was sadly lacking in knowledge. He imagined, however, that he was just such a man as God would have him. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, a strict observer of all the Jewish ordinances, and an indefatigable worker in all that pertained (as he thought) to the service of God; but his zeal was directed in a channel which made him not the servant of God, but the persecutor of Jesus of Nazareth. While thinking himself to be a most exemplary man, which opinion was no doubt shared by his associates, he was in reality engaged in that which was most wicked. While appearing to be a zealous servant of God, he was in reality fighting against Him.

There is also the case of Peter, and his example is more profitable to us in this connection than either of the others. Peter was a follower of Christ. He was the personal companion of Christ during the Saviour's earthly ministry. There is nothing in the narrative of his association with Christ, up to the time of the betrayal, to show that Peter was not a true and devoted follower of his Divine Master. That he was devoted to Him, personally, there can be no doubt; but he did not possess the spirit and the mind of Christ. He did not understand the real nature of the work that Christ came to do; he did not see the path to the kingdom of glory led up to the cross and through the valley of death. In common with the other disciples, he had fixed his mind upon a temporal kingdom to be set up on the earth, upon the throne of which should sit Jesus as the "king of the Jews." In all that he did, his eyes were fixed upon this alluring vision; and deep in his heart there was a motive which God could not approve.

Peter acknowledged Christ to be the Son of God, and was very zealous for the success of His cause. When the night of Christ's betrayal came, Peter stoutly declared that he would never forsake his Lord, and was willing, if need be, to die for Him. And to show that he meant what he said, he drew his sword when the mob came to take Jesus, and smote one of them and cut off his ear. But when he saw that Christ made no resistance but suffered Himself to be taken captive and resigned Himself into the power of His enemies, his zeal and courage suddenly disappeared. When the decisive test came of his loyalty to the cause of Christ, and of the loyalty of the others with him, "then [as the record runs] all the disciples forsook Him and fled."

What was the trouble? Had they not been the true and faithful disciples of their Master? Had they not been zealous for His sake? Yes; they were not lacking in zeal; but their zeal was found to be "not according to knowledge." All the time there was before their minds the picture of a glorious earthly kingdom, upon the throne of which Christ should sit, and (this is the important point) they themselves associated with Him in His glory. For as the record tells us, they had frequently fought among themselves about which one of them should be the greatest. They had disputed among themselves on this point on the way up to Jerusalem, and James and John, to the indignation of other disciples, had even requested that they might sit, one on His right hand, and the other on His left hand, in His glory. So firmly fixed was this idea of an immediate kingdom in their minds, that they were entirely unable to comprehend the plain statements of Christ, several times repeated, concerning His crucifixion and death. Even when they were seated at supper on the very night of the betrayal, and Christ told them that one of them should betray Him, and designated Judas by giving him the sop, when Judas arose and went out, they thought he had gone to purchase something! How was it they were so blind, in the face of the plainest statements that could be uttered? It was simply because self clung so tenaciously to the idea of a glorious earthly kingdom in which it would be honoured and exalted. They could be followers of a Christ going to a throne, but to follow Christ going to the throne and to the tomb,-that was a very different matter. When self saw at last that it was to get nothing, all their zeal and devotion left them, and they "forsook Him and fled."

Peter thought, and the other disciples doubtless thought, that he was a true disciple, partaking of the mind and spirit of his Master. Such zeal as he displayed for Him was certainly, it would seem, conclusive evidence of the fact. But Christ, just before His betrayal, said to them, "When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." Ah; Peter, with all his seal of an apparent devotion for his Master, was not converted! And how many Peters has the world seen since his day! How many very zealous and devoted persons are there to-day who will imagine themselves good Christians, and are thought to be such by their associates, who are not really converted. How many are there whose zeal and devotion is but a subtle form of the service of self!

The actuating motive of the true Christian is "faith, which worketh by love." Gal. v. 6. "Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth anything," neither zeal, nor works, if the motive is other than this. And why? Simply because any other motive than this is a selfish motive. Let us examine our motives and see if our zeal is zeal for Christ, or for self; whether "the love of Christ constraineth us," or whether we are constrained by some motive that springs from an unconverted heart.

"Heathenism at the Expense of Christianity" The Present Truth 9, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

"The Parliament of Religions," is the subject of a letter to the Daily Chronicle, by Mrs. Annie Besant, and a single quotation which she makes shows how exactly correct those were who predicted that the only result the "Parliament" would be to exalt heathenism at the expense of Christianity. She says:-

"The impression created on the great crowds of Christians who thronged the halls day after day, by the learning, gentleness, power, and lofty spirituality of several of the Eastern representatives was startling in its strength of generality. 'We have been for years spending billions of dollars,' said one man, 'in sending missionaries to convert these men, and have had very little success; they have sent over a few men, and they have converted everybody.' The phrase very well expresses the general feeling as to the noble types of the Eastern races who represented their ancient

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faith in the most modern of Western cities."

This is nothing to the disparagement of Christianity, because it had no place in the Parliament. True Christianity teaches, and does not exhibit itself on a stage, along with other religions, for people to see how nearly alike they all are.

"Liberty and Bondage" The Present Truth 9, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

Where sin is, there is bondage: but "where the Spirit of God is, there is liberty." 2 Cor. iii. 17.

"Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin." John viii. 34. "Of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought in bondage." 2 Peter ii. 19. Sin overcame Adam, and through him the whole human family; so that every man is by nature in bondage to sin. We hear a great deal said in the world about liberty, and the best means of securing and preserving it; but it comes for the most part, from those who know little or nothing of liberty in its highest form. "While they promise them liberty," says Peter, "they themselves are the servants of corruption." It is not to such a source that we should look for liberty. We cannot be satisfied with liberty of the body or of the mind, if there is not with these liberty from the bondage of sin. Better is it to be shut up in prison than to be bound in the chains of evil habit. Paul and Silas when they were cast into gaol and their feet made fast in the stocks, sang praises to God; but Paul in the bondage of sin exclaimed, "O wretched man that I am; who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Rom. vii. 24. And many a slave to sin since Paul's day has echoed in his heart these words. If we have never felt their force ourselves, it is because the stupor of sin has never been lifted from our minds.

But Christ came to bring us liberty. He came "to preach deliverance to the captives," "to set at liberty them that are bruised." Isa. lxi. 1. And Jesus Himself said, "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." John viii. 36. That liberty is the liberty of the Spirit. If the Spirit of God is in the heart, liberty is there; and the Spirit comes into the heart as soon as it is yielded to Christ.

Where the Spirit of God is, it rules. It controls in the actions and the life. And as the Spirit is all-powerful, it does whatsoever it will. There is no obstacle that can stand before it, nothing that can restrict its action in any direction. Sin, the conqueror of Adam, gives way before it, and the individual realises that he is at last delivered from the body of flesh, and has come into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

Let us seek first for the true liberty, the freedom that is in Christ; and then liberty of mind or of body will inevitably follow in God's own time.

"Trees of Righteousness and Secret of Their Strength" The Present Truth 9, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

What a wonderful thing a tree is! Look at it closely; study it carefully. Heaven-sent messages unfold with its opening buds, flutter on its rustling leaves, wave from its swaying branches, and cling to its spreading roots. And if we but pause to listen, from every part of it may be heard the still small voice of the great Creator whispering words of love and instruction, of warning and comfort.

Look at that old familiar friend! For years and years it has guarded the entrance to our home. We have climbed its rugged sides, swung in its branches, rested in its shade, eaten of its fruit, and sought its shelter in the storm.

How often we have seen it bent to the ground and twisted in every limb by the mighty storm-winds. And yet it has straightened up as soon as the storm was passed, and has seemed to grow stronger every day.

The heat and droughts of summer have never affected it. When the grass and flowers were drooping and dying for want of rain, the old tree stood there as bright and green as ever.

Every spring it has put on a new green dress, and adorned itself with fragrant blossoms; every autumn it has rained upon us the most delicious fruit.

What is the secret of its great age and strength, and of its ever-green leaves and never-failing fruit?

Look down at its roots. Uncover them and follow them throughout their endless twistings and turnings, and you will discover the secret of the old tree's strength.

Great and gnarly, underground branches it has spread out on every side, which strike deep into the ground and throw out multitudes of tough, wiry rootlets that twist themselves round the very rocks.

But look again. The old tree is not content to find merely a solid resting-place, it seeks for life and nourishment as well. Down, down, and then farther and farther to the right it has sent out a great strong root. Where does it go? Follow it and you will see. Down under the celler floor, tearing up the cellar floor, and out at the other side of the house goes that wonderful root, until you find it quenching its thirst at the family well, or at the little stream that flows through the garden!

Ah, no wonder the old tree stands so fresh and green through the heat of summer; it has moisture and nourishment of which we little dreamed! No wonder it stands unmoved through the storms and tempests; its roots are clinging fast to the solid rocks beneath!

Now listen to the heavenly message, "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith." Col. ii. 6, 7. "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For He shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit." Jer. xvii. 7, 8. "Being rooted and grounded in love" (Eph. iii. 17), and "God is love" (1 John iv. 8), "the root of the righteous shall not be moved" (Prov. xii. 3).

There is the secret of the strength and never-failing fruit of the righteous man. He is rooted and grounded in Christ the solid Rock, and yet the living, life-giving Rock. There is the source of all his power to resist the storms of trouble and sorrow, to withstand all the fiery heat of temptations. From Him he draws all his nourishment, and satisfies all his thirst. Christ dwells in his heart by faith, and he is strengthened with all might "by His Spirit in the inner man." His branches bring forth holy fruits because he has sent his roots down deep in Divine love; "if the root be holy, so are the branches." His fruits never fail, for Christ, in whom he is rooted, is "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever," and daily gives him just the nourishment that he needs.

But the wicked are not so; "their root shall be as rottenness" (Isa. v. 24), "the whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked no more" (Prov. x. 25).

Oh, shall we not learn, before it is too late, the lesson that God would have us learn from the trees? In what kind of soil are we sending down the strong rootlets of our affections? In

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the barren soil of this earthly wilderness, or in the rich, nourishing soil of heaven? Are we sending out our roots to broken and empty cisterns thinking to quench our thirst? or to the cool, crystal waters of the never-failing Fountain of Life. Do the rough winds of persecution and tempests of sorrow cause us to strike our roots still deeper and twine them still closer round the Rock of Ages? If not, can we hope to stand unmoved in the great whirlwind that is just before us? Can we hope to be found standing in our place and bearing good fruit when the Master cometh?

"A Lesson from the Trees" The Present Truth 9, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

"We should bring forth fruit unto God." Rom. vii. 4.

As we sit down to rest in the shade of a grand old apple tree and look up at the strong branches bending neath their load of rosy apples, we ask, "Lord, what lesson would you have us learn from this fruit tree? Help us to understand." Suppose we begin to study and think about it, and recall what He has said about fruit trees in His holy word, and see if He will not make us understand.

We know that this is a good fruit tree because it has such good fruit; and we know that that one over yonder is a bad tree because it has such little, hard, bitter fruit. It is just as Jesus said, "Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit"; and, "by their fruits ye shall know them." We wonder why that bad tree does not bring forth good fruit like this good tree. And then we remember that it cannot because it is all bad inside; of course nothing good can come out unless something good is in it. And we read this also in our Bible. It says, "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." We turn on a little farther, and read the strange words; "A good man bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man bringeth forth that which is evil." What! does God mean that men are like fruit trees, and that bad men are like bad fruit trees, and good men are like good fruit trees? Yes, that is just what He means, for read Rom. vii. 4. It says that "We should bring forth fruit unto God." Ah, that is the lesson, then, that He wants us to learn from this good fruit tree: We should bear good fruit for Jesus.

But what kind of fruit can He mean for us to bear? The Bible says that "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, and gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." These are the kinds of fruit that Jesus loves best, and that He wants us each to bear. He says that if we bear these kinds of fruit we shall be called His "trees of righteousness," because we do only those things that are right. Are you not glad that you may be a good fruit tree for Jesus, and bring forth loving looks and words, and kind gentle actions to please Him?

But there is one thing that you must never forget. You cannot bear these fruits unless you have the Spirit of Jesus in you, for it says that these are the fruits of His Spirit. He says, "Without Me ye can do nothing." Do you know why? It is because without His Spirit in you, you are all bad inside and full of naughty thoughts and feelings, so that no good fruit can come forth a bit more than it can from a dead tree. But if you ask Jesus to fill your heart with His sweet, gentle Spirit, He will do it. Then your thoughts and feelings will be pure; then you can bear good fruit, for it changes you from a bad tree into a good tree. You need not wait till you are older, Jesus is willing to take the bad out of your heart now and help you to be His own little fruit tree. Would you let Him do it?

1. Did you ever see an apple tree loaded down with apples?

2. How can you tell whether the tree is good? Matt. vii. 20.

3. How can you tell whether the tree is bad?

4. Always what kind of tree bears good fruit? Matt. vii. 17.

5. What kind of tree bears bad fruit?

6. Why cannot the bad tree bring forth good fruit?

7. How is a good man like a good fruit tree? Luke vi. 45.

8. How is a bad man like a bad fruit tree?

9. What lesson does God wants us to learn from the good fruit tree? Rom. vii. 4.

10. Then whenever we see a good fruit tree, what should we remember?

11. What kinds of fruits does Jesus love best and want us to bear?

12. What is it to be loving? Joyful? Peaceful? Long-suffering? Gentle? Good?

13. What is it to have faith in God?

14. How are we when we are meek? Temperate?

15. If you can do all these things, what will Jesus call you? Isa. lxi. 3.

16. Can you bring forth these could fruits alone?

17. Why not?

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18. Who only can take away the bad that is in your heart?

19. Then who only can help you to bear good fruit?

20. Is He willing to do it now while you are so young? Matt. xix. 14.

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

-A ministerial crisis is reported in Spain.

-A $3,500,000 fire occurred in Now York city, Oct. 18.

News of a decisive battle with the Matabele is expected from South Africa.

-The internal political situation in Austria is greatly strained, and rumours of a ministerial crisis are current.

-The death of the eminent musical composer, Gounod, is reported from Paris. Deceased was seventy five years of age.

-A railway collision is reported from Jackson, Mich., U.S.A., by which a dozen passengers were killed and thirty injured.

-By a recent flood on the Yellow River, in China, three ferry boats were swept away, and a hundred persons were drowned.

-Brigandage is unusually prevalent in the island of Sicily, and the authorities are devising energetic plans for its suppression.

-From Paris comes the news of the death of the veteran Marshal MacMahon at his chateau, Oct. 17. He was in his eighty-sixth year.

-There are over 2,600 cases of scarlet fever being treated in the metropolis, and the death rate from the epidemic is about thirty-five in a week.

-The president of the republic of Guatemala has declared himself dictator, dismissed the special session of Congress and ordered a new election.

-The National Protestant Congress is in session at Bath. The subjects considered are largely related to the danger to the country from Romanism.

-A fire which occurred a fortnight ago at Brad-ford small-pox Hospital has resulted in a great increase in the number of cases of small-pox in that vicinity.

-On the 16th inst. five men were killed and five injured at Wilmington, Ill., U.S.A., by an explosion of dynamite which they were using in digging a well.

-A dispatch from Belgrade brings news of the explosion of one of the government powder mills, Oct. 16, killing six men and shaking the country for miles round.

-Somewhat serious anti-European excesses are reported from Fez on the occasion of the celebration of the Moslem feast of the Moolood, or birthday of the Prophet.

-An industrial Co-operative Conference was held at Chelsea to consider the advantage of a closer union between the different working-class movements of the country.

-The secretary of the United States Treasury has announced to the Senate that if present conditions continue to the end of the year, there will be a deficit of $50,000,000.

-The Gaikwar of Baroda has just passed a law making education compulsory for both sexes in his territory. All boys are to attend school from the age of seven to twelve, and girls from seven to ten.

-Pope Leo is endeavouring to impress the people of Europe with the idea that the Vatican is in a very dangerous situation, owing to the liability of war in Italy. His aim is to secure a conference of the powers of Europe upon the subject. In the event of a war to which Italy should be involved, the movable part of the papal treasury should, it is said, be transported to London-

-The Chroncile's Moscow correspondent telegraphs that towards the end of the month a conference of Orthodox Churchmen will be held to consider what steps to take for the repression of the Stundist and Baptist sects.

-The reception of the Russian fleet at Toulon has been the occasion of great demonstrations of friendship on the part of the French and Russians. There seems to be something approaching an understanding between those two powers.

-Mortality from cancer has increased nearly seventy per cent in the last twenty-throe years. Out of a million persons, six hundred and seventy-five die of this disease. Deaths from tuberculosis are on the other hand steadily decreasing.

-At a conference held at the Eleusis Club, Chelsea, under the auspices of the Metropolitan Radical Federation, it was resolved to commence an agitation for the abolition of the House of Lords, and a committee of thirteen was nominated.

-Official statistics show that in Europe alone the quantity of boor consumed last year was not less than 3,000,000,000 gallons. Germany heads the list with 1,051,000,000 gallons, the United Kingdom coming next with 885,000,000 gallons.

-Slowly but surely the revolutionists in Brazil are gaining ground, having received important accessions to their forces by recent defections from the forces of the government. Rio Janeiro is still under fire from the insurgent fleet, and has suffered much damage.

-Two Hamburg doctors are reported to have discovered a new treatment for combating typhus, consisting of the subcutaneous injection of a preparation made from typhus bacilli. The treatment, it is stated, has already been successfully applied to patients.

-The Assembly of the Congregational Union, which was recently in session, at its final meeting considered a resolution dealing with the question of strikes, and also passed resolutions on the subjects of local option and Sunday closing, religious persecutions, and disestablishment.

-The struggle between the miners and coal-owners still continues, but the former are apparently certain of victory, as they are obtaining fresh advantages every day by the opening of the pits at the old rate of wages. Nearly 88,000 has been raised by the Chronicle for their relief.

-The Belgian mail steamer Marie Henriette from Ostend to Dover, ran down the Danish schooner Elinor, in the English Channel, soon after midnight on the morning of Oct. 14. The schooner, which was cut in two, sank immediately, only one of the six men on board being rescued.

-A New England firm is introducing an automatic gas-lighter for street lamps, which works on the principle of an eight-day clock. It is explained that the only attention the lighter requires is a weekly winding of the clock movement, and that it lights the lamp at the required time and extinguishes it at daybreak.

-A disastrous storm is reported from the eastern seaboard of the United States. In Washington, New York, and Philadelphia it appears to have been very severely felt, some lives being lost, and a considerable amount of property being destroyed. Several wrecks are reported from Lake Erie, with the loss of thirteen lives.

-It is computed that the number of missionaries throughout the world is 5,034, of unmarried female missionaries 3,445, of native ministers 3,730, and of native helpers 40,438. The total income raised annually for foreign missions amounts to £2,749,540. Of this sum England contributes £1,228,211, or nearly half, and the United States of America £786,991.

-According to accounts received in Madrid from Melilla, the Moors are continuing their war-like preparations, and have numerous and well-drilled forces in strong entrenchments, whence they make daring sallies against the Spanish lines. The Spanish remain on the defensive, and will delay an attack in force until they have 10,000 troops and a strong artillery train.

-A mysterious epidemic has raged the past week at Greenwich workhouse, the number of inmates attacked being over 300, of whom a dozen or fifteen hate died. The disease exhibited some symptoms of Asiath cholera, but the latest declaration of examining physicians is that it is not true cholera, which opinion would seem to be substantiated by the small percentage of deaths.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

Thibet and Nepal are the only two countries of Asia not open to Christian missions. Nepal is an independent kingdom lying along the southern slopes of the Himalayas in Northern India. Its population is said to be about two millions.

Towards the end of this month a conference of Russian churchmen will meet in Moscow, under the presidency of the Metropolitan, to take into consideration what steps are necessary for the extermination of dissenters, special reference being had to the Stundists and the Baptists. This will be the third conference of the kind. The Government has adopted all the propositions of the preceding conferences, so that about the only thing now left to do in the way of suppression of "heresy," is wholesale banishment and murder.

The New York Independent has articles from several noted men, in response to the question, "Is the World Growing Better?" Dr. Cuyler's article contains a thought that is worth bearing in mind in this age when every intention, even of an instrument of death, is hailed as a sign of the speedy approach of the millennium. He says:-

"The wonderful advance made in science, arts, and mechanical inventions, has nothing to do with the question, which is purely ethical. Brain-culture does not mean heart-culture; steam-engines and telegraphs are not spiritual agencies. In making humanity permanently better, God's word is the standard, and God's Spirit is the regenerating factor."

The following is from Lloyd's Weekly London Newspaper, of the 8th:

"The Lovestoft Standard is constrained to say a word with regard to the prosecution of Frederick Leach, the Kirkley newsagent and tobacconist. Leach has been breaking the law by opening his shop on Sunday, and as a result has been twice fined by the magistrates. He feels himself hardly treated, and that not without reason. You see in the same town a man fined for selling a Lloyd's paper in his shop, whilst Salvationists are allowed to hawk the War Cry about the streets and to turn their place of worship into a newsagent's shop with impunity. There is another aspect of the case with respect to the boats which during the season ply for hire on Sundays. Their proprietors are not summoned, although the Act forbids the use of any boat or barge on the Lord's day. Then why should Leach be punished? Again, there are those grogers who possess beer licenses. Why should they not be summoned for selling other articles on Sundays? Why should two restaurants be permitted to open? The Act is simply absurd. The publican may sell tobacco on Sundays, whilst a regular tobacconist may not. A Salvationist may hawk papers, whilst a recognised newsagent may not; and some few people may imagine the Act to be a good one, whilst others may not."

There is an evident inconsistency in the law, but that is not the thing against which complaint should be made. The trouble is with the existence of any Sunday law. There never has been, and never can be, a consistent Sunday law. Sunday laws are arbitrary and inconsistent because they have no shadow or foundation in right and justice. In the first place the observance of Sunday in any way is contrary to the law of God, and therefore to compel men to observe it, is to compel men to sin; and in the second place, to compel men to rest even on the Sabbath of the Lord, is contrary to God's law, and so Sunday laws are evil in principle and in application.

It is well known that there is now in the United States a law which calls for the expulsion of every Chinese who will not consent to become a ticket-of-leave man. On account of lack of funds for that particular purpose, no general enforcement of the law has been attempted. It is no small affair to transport a hundred thousand Chinese, and the probability is that if it were seriously attempted, China would retaliate by expelling all Americans from China. The author of the infamous law is prepared for that, however, for he says:-

"I am perfectly willing to vote for a bill requiring every American missionary in China to return to his country within a year, the protection of this Government to be withdrawn from him at the expiration of that time. I would do this just as I would vote to expel every anarchist from the United States within a year."

This brings up for consideration the question of the right of the people residing in one country to say who shall and who shall not dwell in that country. It is a large question. There are very few, if any, people on earth who were the original occupants of the land in which they dwell. Therefore, when the people of any nation claim that people from any other nation have no right to dwell upon "their soil" without their consent, they thereby undermine their own claim to the land. The fact is that the only right is that of might. The nations of earth occupy lands which they call their own, only because they or their remote ancestors dispossessed the original inhabitants, and killed them; and the only right that they now have to say that people from any other country shall not dwell among them, is the fact that they may be more powerful.

The Chinese outnumber, by hundreds of millions, the inhabitants of America. If they should pour into the United States by millions, overpowering the present inhabitants, they would have as much right to the exclusive control of the country as the present inhabitants have, and that is just none at all. "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein." Ps. xxiv. 1. "God hath made of one blood all nations for to dwell on all the face of the earth." Acts xvii. 26.

Nevertheless the nations of earth assume the exclusive right to the land in which they dwell, and if they be what are called "Christian nations," they also assume the right to the possession of the lands of other people. It would not be at all surprising if these other nations should learn the lesson that is given them, and should enact laws expelling strangers from among them. What would the missionaries do then? If they were missionaries of Christ they would remain, and God would protect them, or else He would make their death contribute more to the advancement of the Gospel than their lives could do. The Gospel does not depend on carnal weapons. Whenever the Gospel has really been carried to heathen people, it has been by the sacrifice of life, but not in battle. Christ has condemned the use of the sword in His behalf, and He will not accept its service now. It would be well if this fact were remembered by those missionaries who are declaring that the success of the mission work in Africa depends on the overpowering of the Matabele by the English.

November 2, 1893

"Front Page" The Present Truth 9, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

"Fret not thyself [or, be not angry] because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb." Ps. lxxii. 1, 2. See also Ps. lxxiii. 18, 19. Since this is the end of evil-doers, it is evident that whoever envies them, is in reality envying them their reward. How foolish! Surely none who consider the end of wickedness, can envy anybody's ill-gotten wreath, or be angry when selfish men use oppression. "Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways."

"Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed in security." He who trusts in the Lord will do good, and he will dwell securely. For "they that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from henceforth even for ever."

"Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way [roll thy way] unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass." Ps. xxxvii. 4, 5. This is a promise that is as sure as the existence of God. In it is the means for the solution of all difficult questions, and the removal all labour troubles, if men would believe it. But men refuse to rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him. They become fretful and angry, and take matters into their own hands, and so spoil everything. In the world there will be trouble until the coming of the Lord, because men will be lovers of their own self; but this need not disturb the Christian. "These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace."

"Capital and Labour" The Present Truth 9, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

Capital and Labour.-"And, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto the reapers, The Lord be with you. And they answered him, The Lord bless thee." Ruth ii. 4. There was no conflict there between capital and labour; nor will there ever be when such expressions can be used between employer and employes, not as a matter of form, but from the heart. When masters remember that they have a Master in heaven, who is no respecter of persons, and servants remember that they serve the Lord Christ, there can be no clashing. But only the Spirit of God in the heart can bring this about. Strikes, wars, and fighting will go on as long as evil desires reign in the human heart.

"The Infallible Word" The Present Truth 9, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

The question of infallibility is one that is receiving a great deal of attention at the present time. As a matter of fact, everybody believes that there is such a thing as infallibility somewhere; the question to be decided, is, Where is it? Many will deny that there is any such thing as infallibility, but it will be found that those who the most loudly deny its existence, are the ones who most complacently trust in themselves, and think that their own reason is infallible.

Infallibility is one of the great essentials of religion. In a matter concerning our eternal destiny we cannot afford to rest on uncertainties. We must know. Now the Gospel provides a certainty. We are told that we may "rest in the Lord," and are exhorted to know the truth for ourselves.

But the church is not infallible, for it is composed of men, and there is nothing infallible in any man on earth. "He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool" (Prov. xxviii. 26), because "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." Jer. xvii. 9. This is true of the human heart without exception. It is just as true of the Pope of Rome as it is of the savages in Africa.

Here is something that the Bible says about trusting in human power and wisdom. "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help, his breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." Ps. cxlvi. 3, 4. "Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited." Jer. xvii. 5, 6. This is not an arbitrary decree, but the statement of a natural consequence. Man is as the grass. At his best state he is "altogether vanity." He who puts his trust in man, no matter who the man may be, is trusting in nothing; and He who trusts in nothing, must come to nothing.

Look now at the other side: "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in

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the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit." Jer. xvii. 7, 8. "Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God; which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is." Ps. cxlvi. 5, 6.

The One who made the heavens and the earth is infallible, for we read, "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. 10-12. He "worketh all things after the counsel of His own will." Eph. i. 11. "Whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever; nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it; and God doeth it, that men should fear before Him." Eccl. iii. 14.

There is, however, no direct controversy about the infallibility of God. Few openly deny it, although one really denies it when he trusts in himself instead of in God. But the controversy in these days is over the Bible. The discussion is not between avowed infidels and Christians, but among those who profess to be Christians. There was a time when the Bible was held to be the word of God by all who professed to be Christians; but in these days the infidel's occupation is gone, since a portion of the church is acting his part.

The above is strong language, but it is true. At the recent meeting of the Congregational Union, in London, the minister read a paper in which the position was taken that,

"A man who affirmed the absolute inerrancy of the Bible laid himself open to one or other of the three following charges: Either (1) that he did not know the facts with which he professed to deal; or (2) that he was unable, owing to the influence of some kind of intellectual strabismus, to see their true bearing and the conclusion to which they inevitably pointed; or (3) that he had not the manliness and courage to admit the unwelcome truth which he perceived."

Another minister, of another denomination, recently pleaded most pathetically with a congregation, not to lead souls to ruin by teaching them that the Bible is absolutely true. Said he, to the few souls who still hold that the Bible is true, and to our simple-minded enough to expect others to believe it:-

"You are safe-safe not because you believe in an absolutely inerrant Bible,-I hope you have a better foundation than that,-you are safe because you believe in an inerrant Saviour."

From the report of another sermon, we take the following:-

"In the course of his argument, the preacher said that to claim infallibility for the Bible was to contend for more than itself claimed. Nor was infallibility to be found in the Church; and no man living within sound of a railway whistle claimed infallibility for a church creed. Infallibility could not be in a book, but must be in a person who was sinless. Therefore Jesus Christ the sinless One was the only possible seat of infallibility."

In these references no names have been used, because our object is not to call any man in question, but simply to give a few specimens of a sentiment that is becoming alarmingly prevalent. Some may think that the last two quotations are not very bad, since, although they do set the Bible aside very summarily, they uphold the infallibility of Christ. But this is just what as a matter of fact they do not do. Speaking of this discussion about the Bible, a religious journal recently said:-

"We greatly fear that some of those who are trying to break up what they call 'book worship,' and thereby magnify the Christ will soon practically get rid of Him also."

That is just what they have already done, as we shall show; and that is why we raise our voice in earnest protest and warning.

It is said that the Bible does not claim to be infallible. Let us see. It does claim to be the word of God, spoken through men. Read the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the rest, and on almost every page you find the words, "Thus saith the Lord;" "The word of the Lord that came," etc.; "The word which the Lord spake." To Jeremiah the Lord said, "Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth." Jer. i. 9. We read, "The word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest" (Eze. i. 3), and the Lord said to Him, "Thou shall to speak with My words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear." Eze. ii. 7. And thus it is throughout the book. It claims to be the word of God; if it could be shown that it is not what it claims to be, then the whole thing would be a monstrous forgery, and unworthy of the slightest regard.

But let us read further as to what the Bible claims for itself. Take the following texts:-

"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son." Heb. i. 1, 2.

"No prophecy of Scripture is a private interpretation. For no prophecy ever came by the will of man; but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost." 2 Peter i. 20, 21, R.V.

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." 2 Tim. iii. 16.

"And He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you; whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began." Acts iii. 20, 21.

"For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe." 1 Thess. ii. 13.

"If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of God." 1 Cor. xiv. 37.

Many more texts might be added, but these are sufficient. They show plainly that the Bible claims to be the word of God. It is not that it contains the word of God, but it is the word of God. In the words of the Bible, the Holy Spirit testifies. See Heb. x. 15, 16; 1 Cor. ii. 13. It was the Spirit of Christ that was speaking through the prophets. This is what the Bible claims, and there are many who know of a surety that it is true. They are not Bible critics, however, but Bible believers. "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." John vii. 17. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant." Ps. xxv. 14.

From the texts that have been quoted it is evident that whoever brings a charge against the Bible is bringing a charge against God. To say that the Bible is fallible, is to say that God and Christ and the Holy Spirit are fallible. For if the word of God be not infallible, then God is not infallible. But God is infallible, and so is His word. "As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is tried; He is a buckler to all those who trust in Him." Ps. xviii. 30. "The words of the Lord are pure

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words; as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times." Ps. xii. 6. "For ever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven." Ps. cxix. 89. Jesus said to the Jews, "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. And so it is that in rejecting the Bible, either as a whole or in part, men not only are in danger of rejecting Christ, but are actually rejecting Him. We write for the purpose of warning honest souls who may be confused by the show of learning made by Bible critics. Let them remember that "the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding." "A good understanding have all they that do His commandments." When people who decry the Bible profess to believe in an infallible Christ, it is enough to ask them how they can know anything about Him, if it is not from His word, which they treat so lightly.

But some will say, "Even though we admit the Bible to be infallible, every man's opinion and interpretation thereof is not infallible." Very true. We go further, and say that no man's opinion or interpretation of the Bible is infallible. Further still, we will say that there is not a man on earth, whose opinion or interpretation of the Bible is worth any more than the paper on which it is written. It is not what men think about the Lord but what the Lord thinks about men, that we are concerned with. The Bible is not to be interpreted, but read, studied, and believed. The most learned man in the Scriptures can do no more than to lead others to the place whence he derived his knowledge and let them drink from the same fountain for themselves.

There are in the Bible many "deep things," and "things hard to be understood." But

"God is His own interpreter.

And He will make it plain."

He gives the Holy Spirit freely to everyone who will receive it, as a Guide into all truth. John xvi. 13. The Spirit makes known to us the things that are freely given to us of God, "for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God." 1 Cor. ii. 10. Learning is not to be despised, but rather desired; but the humblest person who truly fears God, may understand the Bible far better than the most learned Doctor who trusts in his own wisdom. The truth of God is hidden from the wise and prudent,-wise in their own wisdom,-and is revealed unto babes, who are willing to receive the wisdom that comes from God.

Depend upon it that souls will never be saved by preaching that throws the least discredit upon the Bible. The man who feels constrained to apologise for the Bible, may have crowds to listen to his smooth eloquence, but he will not have them crying out, "What must I do to be saved?" The men through whom God worked in the past, were men who believed the Bible without reserve. There were things that they did not understand, but instead of parading their ignorance as wisdom, they took it to the Lord, and waited for Him to show them wisdom. And God is as able and willing to do mighty things through human agency to-day as He ever was. He says, "To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at My word." Isa. lxvi. 2. When we see the humble acceptance of the word of God, we shall see the demonstration of the statement that it works effectually in all that believe.

"The Eye of Faith" The Present Truth 9, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

The Christian sees with the eye of faith. Faith is the only means through which we obtain a knowledge of the things to which Christianity pertains. By faith we have received all that we know of the life to come. By faith we look back to the time before man was, and "understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God." Heb. xi. 3. By faith also we understand truths of the highest importance pertaining to the present life. By the eye of faith we are enabled to guide our feet in the narrow path that leads by many snares and pitfalls to an eternity of joy and peace.

Faith sees that which is not cognizable to the natural senses. "Faith," we are told in Heb. xi. 1, "is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." But faith does more than simply see that which the natural senses cannot perceive, it contradicts the evidence of the senses. It refuses to see that which the senses claim to perceive. And this is where faith is especially valuable, for if we allowed ourselves always to believe the evidence of our senses, we should wander quickly and hopelessly away from the path which leads to God.

One of our senses,-feeling, for instance, that inner feeling which is of the mind and heart-says, I do not see any happiness in the way, or any eternal weight of glory at the end of it; but faith says, It is there! Again, feeling says (and perhaps reason backs it up), I see great difficulty in the way; but faith says, It is not there; what you saw was only an appearance, not a reality. Faith deals only with realities. They may be invisible to us now, but they are no less tangible. That which seems so awfully real to us now, is described by Paul as the "light affliction, which is but for a moment"; the invisible glory beyond is an "eternal weight." 2 Cor. iv. 17.

Perhaps you see before you-or seem to see-a great list of very grievous sins that have darkened your past life. You have repented of and confessed them, but the devil comes and holds them up before you and says, There are your sins; do you not see them? You are too wicked a person for the Lord to save. But faith says, They are not there. And why? Because it quotes to you these words of God Himself, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all of righteousness." 1 John i. 9. And when God forgives sins, He removes them from us, "as far as the east is from the west."

The very fact that the devil tries to discourage you with a long and vivid array of your past sins that you have confessed, is reason for encouragement, because the devil never brings to a person's mind sins that are not confessed and pardoned. His work is to keep people in ignorance of their sin; but as soon as they are seen and confessed, and God has removed them according to His word, the devil holds them all up and tells the individual they are still there, in order to make him discouraged. He is as persistent in bringing such sins to the Christian's mind and keeping them before him, as he was before in keeping them in the background.

But faith says, "as far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us." Ps. ciii. 12. And thus we are enabled to know the truth on this vital point; for faith always speaks by the word of God; and His word is truth. Rom. x. 17; John xvii. 17.

Where feeling sees mountains, faith sees only molehills. Where faith sees only the arm of flesh, faith sees only the arm of God. Where the

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wisdom of man sees foolishness, faith sees the wisdom of God. Where feeling and reason see nothing but defeat, faith sees eternal victory. Where feeling and reason see only death, faith sees everlasting life. It makes all the difference in the world whether we share our course in accordance with the evidence of the one, or the other.

Faith sees nothing but truth. More than this; it sees nothing but that which is worth seeing. Paul said to his Philippian brethren, "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." Phil. iv. 8. These are just the things that faith sees. So long as we direct our steps by the eye of faith, we shall walk in the paths of righteousness, but when we cease to walk by faith and begin to walk by sight, or by reason, or by feeling, we begin to go wrong, because we are guided by appearances and not by truth.

Moses at the Court of Pharaoh, and Joseph and the house of Potiphar, walked by the eye of faith and thus kept themselves from paths that were false and evil. We are told that Moses "endured as seeing Him who is invisible"; and we may be sure that Joseph, surrounded by the licentiousness and idolatry of Egypt, walked in the midst of them as one who saw them not. And so it is with the Christian of to-day. He is not influenced by that which he does not see. Though he may see evil and wickedness with his natural eyes, and feel the promptings of evil in his own heart, he walks by faith, which sees only his Saviour and the pardoning blood of Calvary, and the things of the kingdom of God.

The Christian must walk by faith, and faith alone. He will not be safe in making the least departure from the path that faith marks out, or in substituting any other source of knowledge for it, for all other sources of our knowledge are liable to be fallacious and misleading. And the devil can mislead a man every time when he can get him to substitute reason or feeling or something else, for faith. The devil surrounds his deceptions with very plausible appearances of truth. Notice how it was that he deceived our first parents. He appeared to Eve in the form of a serpent; and as she beheld him he was among the branches of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, eating of its fruit. As she came near the serpent spoke to her. She was surprised to hear a serpent speak, for she knew God had not given it the gift of speech. Then the serpent told her that the fruit of the tree of knowledge would not cause her to die, but would open her eyes and make her like a god; for see, he said, I have eaten of the fruit and it has not hurt me; and more than that, it has given me the power of speech! This, when we come to consider it, was really an overmastering deception. Her eyes, her ears, her reason, all testified to the truth of what the serpent said. Ah, had she then been guided by faith, and not by these, she would have known the truth, and the history of the world would have been deferred. Faith would have said, "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." This was the truth, and all the specious appearances before her were entirely false.

The devil has lost none of his cunning since he tempted Eve. He has worked continually upon men's feelings, upon their reason, upon all their natural senses, to get them to discredit the word of God. If he can do this He can deceive them every time. But if we will cling to the word of God, if we will have faith in it in spite of all appearances, however plausible, that contradict the word, we shall escape the deceptions of the devil, and keep our feet in the straight path that leads to eternal joy.

"Getting Faith" The Present Truth 9, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

Getting Faith.-How often in a conference meeting we hear someone say, "What we need in order to make our Christian work more of a success, is more faith." Very often a member will make the confession, "I know that the trouble with me is that I have not faith enough." And then they will resolve to pray for more faith. People seem to think that if they have not faith it is the Lord's fault, and that if He wishes them to have more of it, He must give it to them. They seem to think that faith is something that God must pour down from heaven, as He does the rain. It is an utterly senseless thing for men to complain that they have not enough faith. The only way to have faith, is to believe, and God has given all possible foundation for that in His word. What would be thought of a man on a broad plain, or by the sea-shore, who should complain that he is not breathing as much as he ought to? We should say to him, "Then breathe; for God is giving you abundance of air." So to the faithless one we may say, "Believe; for you have the word of God as free and as abundant as the air."

"Right and Wrong Worship" The Present Truth 9, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

The fall, it has been rightly said, was the transferring of man's worship from God to self.

God claims man's worship as due alone to Him. He claims all worship, as being the only rightful Object of worship. To worship is to ascribe power and glory and honour to the object adored. This may be done either by words or actions. Indeed, as "actions speak louder than words" obedience is in reality the truest worship.

As God is the only Being who has power and honour and glory in Himself, He is the only proper Object of worship. All other things derive their power and glory from Him. Hence to ascribe such attributes to them, when they belong only to Him, is a falsehood. It matters not how glorious or exalted one may be; they have nothing except that which the Creator gave them. Whether they be angels, or principalities, or things in the heavens or things in earth, none have any power and honour and glory in and of themselves. All was bestowed by God, and to Him only can they be properly ascribed.

The devil fell from his exalted place in heaven because he became lifted up in his heart on account of his beauty and brightness. Eze. xxviii. 17. He saw-or thought he saw-something to admire in himself, and straightway he set out to work to establish a kingdom of his own, and make himself an object of worship. But though he was, as the prophet tells us, "full of wisdom and perfect in beauty," and perfect in all his ways from the day of his creation till he began to be lifted up with pride, as soon as he saw self to be perfect, and full of wisdom and beauty and brightness, he began to fall. The Lord took from him His Spirit, and let him see, and let all the universe see, what he possessed of himself. But he immediately ceased to be an object worthy of admiration, and has been sinking lower and lower from that day to this.

No one will ever become so good and bright and beautiful, or get so near to God, as to be in himself an object of admiration and worship. Should he even be, as Lucifer was, the anointed cherub overshadowing the throne of

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God, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, and sinless in all his ways, just as soon as he would begin to admire himself and see in self that which is inherent only in God, he would make as great a mistake as Lucifer did, and the result, if persisted in, would be just as bad.

The same principle was revealed in the fall of our first parents. The tempter made Eve think there were some god-like attributes in herself, that only wanted the magic influence of the fruit of the tree of knowledge to cause them to spring into life and elevate her to her proper place. The result was her fall and the fall of the human family. And the evil principle of self admiration and self worship has been handed down in her descendants, and rules the world to-day.

The gospel turns men's worship back again from self to God. It shows men that self is nothing, and God is everything. It puts in man the Spirit of God, which is the Spirit of truth, and can never witness to a falsehood. The Spirit expels the thought that there is anything good in self, and testifies of Jesus Christ as the One through whom all goodness comes. It causes death to self, but life unto God. It brings life and immortality to light through the everlasting righteousness of Christ. In the worship of God it brings to man more than he ever dreamed of attaining through the worship of self.

"Clearing the Way" The Present Truth 9, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

Clearing the Way.-In mountainous countries, where the snow in winter falls to a great depth, it is often necessary to attach great ploughs to powerful engines, by which the snow can be removed. Sometimes the force of several engines is required before the obstruction can be removed. Suppose now that the engine driver should declare that it is impossible for his engine to make any headway as long as the snow is in the way, what would be said? He would be told that it is his business to remove the snow, and that if the snow were first cleared away, there would be no use for his snow plough. Just so must people say to the ministers gathered together to consider the "spiritual needs of London," when they declare that the Gospel can make no headway as long as the public-houses remain. They say that the attractions of the public-houses, gambling houses, and other places of vice, are so great that the churches cannot successfully compete with them. But the church exists on earth for the sole purpose of saving men from those things, and if they were removed entirely from the land there would be no need for the church. Let the professed ministers of the Gospel preach the Gospel, and let all professed Christians live a Christian life indeed, and there will be no complaint about the superior attractions of vice. When Christ was on earth, the common people heard him gladly, and crowds flocked to hear the preaching of John the Baptist. For preachers to complain that they can accomplish nothing while wickedness is so rampant, is like an army of soldiers complaining that they can gain no victories as long as their enemies have arms in their hands.

"AdvocateóComforter" The Present Truth 9, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

In the second chapter of the first epistle of John we read that "if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." Whole "systems" of theology have been built upon the idea which is commonly attached to the word "Advocate," namely, that means a lawyer. Some men regard Christ as acting the part of a lawyer in heaven, labouring to work our cases through the heavenly court, before a God who is a stern and all most implacable judge. Return to the passage in question, and the Revised Version, and we find at the word "Advocate," a reference to the margin, where we read the following: "Or, Comforter or Helper. Gr. Paraclete." This opens up a new thought, and we pursue it further. Any reader of the PRESENT TRUTH can carry it through for himself. Let us see how easily it may be done, and what a wonderful blessing it will bring with it.

We will suppose that the reader does not understand the Greek. Those who do will not need these suggestions, but will take their Greek Testament and Greek Concordance, and look the matter up for themselves. But having our curiosity aroused by what we find in the margin of the Revised Version we take Young's Analytical Concordance, and turn to the word "Advocate." There we find that it is indeed from the Greek word Paraclete. Of course this does not seem to help us much, for we cannot use the Greek Lexicon, in order to find out the meaning of the word Paraclete; but that need not hinder us in our study. We notice that the word "Advocate" does not occur elsewhere in the Bible, but we remember that the margin of the Revision gave "Comforter" as an alternative reading, and we also remember that somewhere in the Bible we have seen that word; so we turn it up in the Concordance.

We find that the word "Comforter" occurs but four times in the English translation of the New Testament, and also that it is from the Greek word Paraclete, and from which "Advocate" is derived, in 1 John ii. 1. Not if we have access to an Englishman's Greek Concordance, we may find that the word Paraclete occurs but these five times. Four times it is translated "Comforter," and once "Advocate," with "Comforter" in the margin. Let us now turn to all these texts in the Bible and read them.

"And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever." John xiv. 16.

"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." John xiv. 26.

"But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me." John xv. 26.

"Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. . . . He shall glorify Me; for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you." John xiv. 7-14.

"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have a Comforter with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." 1 John ii. 1.

Now we have the texts all before us, and can read and re-read them, until the comfort that is in them comes into our hearts.

We are all accustomed to consider the Holy Spirit as the Comforter, forgetting that He is only "another Comforter." Jesus Christ is a Comforter, and the Holy Spirit is a Comforter simply because He represents Jesus Christ, coming in His name. Sorrow filled the hearts of the disciples when Jesus told them that He was going away from them. They had been used to going to Him in all their troubles, and He had always helped them and comforted them. So He said to them, "I will not leave you

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comfortless." John xiv. 18. He promised to come again; but in the meantime, until His second coming, He sends His representative, the Holy Spirit, who speaks to believers the words of Christ, and who reveals Christ to us.

But this is not all. Jesus Christ is the Comforter, only because He is the manifestation of God the Father. "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." 2 Cor. i. 3, 4.

Now let us read again, "If any man sin, we have a Comforter with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." What means the statement that we have a Comforter "with the Father"? Read John i. 1, 2: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God." Also the eighteenth verse: "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." And again, "Believe Me, that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me." John xiv. 11. "I and My Father are one." John x. 30.

Now we can see how it is that we have a "Comforter with the Father." He is "the God of all comfort." There is no comfort to any soul in the universe, that does not come from God the Father. But Jesus Christ is with the Father, even "in the bosom of the Father." That is His dwelling place; He is there continually. He is the manifestation of God to man. His name is Emmanuel, "God with us." So we have a Comforter with the Father, in His very bosom, even God Himself.

And this Comforter is ours if we sin. He "comforteth us in all our tribulation." But sin is the greatest trouble, being the source of all the trouble on the earth. It was sin that "brought death into the world, and all our woe." So if we sin,-and "all have sinned,"-He is ready with His comfort. We cannot see Him, but "the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him" the Holy Spirit comes as the representative of both the Father and the Son,-"another Comforter."

When He comes, He convinces of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. We should not know that we had sinned, but for the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. He makes us know that we have sinned, by revealing the righteousness of God. Just as the man who stands at the foot of a great mountain, or who gazes at the wonders of the heavens, feels his own insignificance (see Ps. viii. 3, 4), so he who holds the righteousness of God, knows that he is a sinner. But God does not make known to us that we are sinners, in order to taunt us. It is the Comforter that convinces us that we have sinned. That same righteousness of God which causes us to know that we are sinners, is the righteousness which is declared unto and upon us in Christ, for our righteousness.

This then is the comfort wherewith God comforts us. In Christ He has given Himself for our sins. Because of His love wherewith He loved us, even while we were dead in sins, He gives us His own righteousness in Christ. What confidence this gives us! God does not hate us, but He loves us. He loves not our sin, but He loves us, and He loves us so much that He has manifested Himself in Christ to take away our sin. We have a Comforter in the bosom of the Father, and if we accept the comfort that He offers us, we are taken into the bosom of the Father, and learn the preciousness of the word: "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you."

"Christianity and Other Religions" The Present Truth 9, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

The PRESENT TRUTH has contains several criticisms of the "Parliament of Religions," and it is pleasant to be able to note that there was at least one expression of truth there. Professor Wilkinson, of the University of Chicago, had a paper on "The Attitude of Christianity to Other Religions," in which he said:-

"Of any ethnic religion, therefore, can it be said that it is a true religion, only not perfect? Christianity says no. Christianity speaks words of undefined, unlimited hope concerning those, some of those, who shall never have heard of Christ. These words, Christians, of course, will hold and cherish according to their inestimable value. But let us not mistake them as intended to bear any relation whatever to the erring religions of mankind. Those religions the Bible nowhere represents as pathetic and partly successful gropings after God. They are one and all represented as groping downward, not groping upward. According to Christianity they hinder, they do not help. Their adherents' hold on them is like the blind grasp of drowning men on roots or rocks that only tend to keep them to the bottom of the river. The truth that is in the false religion may help, but it will be the truth, not the false religion. That attitude, therefore, of Christianity toward religions other than itself is an attitude of universal, absolute, eternal, and unappeasable hostility, while toward all men everywhere, the adherents of false religions by no means excepted, its attitude is an attitude of grace, mercy, peace for whosoever will. How many may be found that will, is a problem which Christianity leaves unsolved."

It is significant, however, of the prevailing sentiment, that his paper is said to have "created a sensation"; and he is reported as having "had all his armour on," and being "a valiant champion with shield and lance." Fancy the benefit that can come to Christianity from a "Parliament" in which a man has to be armed and full of courage to dare to tell the truth about it.

"'Jesus Christ the Righteous'" The Present Truth 9, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

"If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." 1 John ii. 1.

Of all the beings who have lived on this earth, Christ alone "did no sin." He is the only one of whom it could be said, "There is no unrighteousness in Him." Ps. xcii. 15. He Himself without egotism declared Himself to be sinless. And the reason why He could do this, was that He was indeed God. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." John i. 1, 14. Christ was God manifest in the flesh, so that His name was Emmanuel,-"God with us." Matt. i. 23.

Because "in Him is no sin," "He was manifested to take away our sins." 1 John iii. 5. "This is His name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." Jer. xxiii. 6. Note that He is our righteousness, and not simply a substitute for righteousness that we have not. Men are not, as a Roman Catholic work charges justification by faith with teaching, "reputed or considered wholly on account of the merits of Christ, without really being so." The Bible teaches that they are actually to be righteous, through the merits of Jesus Christ.

More and more is it getting to be held by professed teachers of Christianity, that there is in man at least as much good as evil, and that the good in men will eventually gain the complete victory over the evil. But the Bible teaches that "There is none righteous, no, not one." Christ, who "knew what was in man," declared that "out of the heart of men proceed

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evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness." Mark vii. 21, 22. He also declared that "an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil," and that good cannot come from a bad source. Luke vi. 43, 45. Therefore it is plain that from man of himself "no good thing" can come. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one." Job xiv. 4.

God does not propose to try to bring goodness out of evil, and He never will call evil good. What He proposes to do is to create a new heart in man, so that good can come from it. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them." Eph. ii. 10.

No man can understand how Christ can dwell in a man's heart, so that righteousness will flow from it, instead of sin, any more than we can understand how Christ the Word who was before all things, and who created all things, could come to earth and be born as a man. But as surely as He dwelt in the flesh once, He can do it again, and whosoever confesses that "Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God."

"If we walk in the light as He is in the light, . . . the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John i. 7. "We walk by faith, and not by sight." By faith we receive Christ, and to those who thus receive Him He gives the right and power to be called the sons of God. John i. 12. Then the exhortation is, "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him." Col. ii. 7. This is walking in the light.

As the physical life is sustained by breathing and eating, so the spiritual life is sustained by faith; and as we cannot to-day breathe enough for to-morrow, but must keep breathing all the time, so we cannot to-day have faith for the future, but must continue to have faith, if we would continue to live a spiritual life.

While we thus by faith walk in the light, we are continually receiving a divine life into our souls, for the light is life. And the life continually received, continually cleanses the soul from sin. The cleansing is an ever-present work, showing an ever-present need. Thus it is that we can never say that we have no sin. It is always only "Jesus Christ the righteous."

It is by the obedience of One that many are made righteous. What a wonder! Only one-Christ-obeys, but many are made really righteous. The apostle Paul said: "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which 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 then, if anyone asks a Christian, "Are you without sin?" he can only reply, "Not I, but Christ." "Do you keep the commandments?" "Not I, but Christ." Imperfect and sinful in ourselves, and yet "complete in Him."

With God is the "fountain of life." Ps. xxxvi. 9. Christ is the manifestation of God, and so the fountain of life is in Him. "He ever liveth," and so the fountain ever flows. As it is said of the river of life, "everything shall live whither the river cometh" (Eze. xlvi. 9), so of the life of Christ, wherever it comes it cleanses from all defilement. And so, while confessing ourselves to be sinful and helpless, we are constrained to place all dependence in Him who "knew no sin," and are "made the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Cor. v. 21.

"'He Calleth Thee'" The Present Truth 9, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

By the wayside, near Jericho, as Jesus passed along, sat blind Bartimaeus, begging. "And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he should hold his peace; but he cried the more a great deal, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they called the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; He calleth thee." Mark x. 46-49.

The result is well known. As soon as Bartimaeus said, "Lord, that I might receive my sight, Jesus replied, "Thy faith hath made thee whole." "And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way."

All men are blinded by nature, for "all have sinned," and sin is blindness. "For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another." Titus iii. 11.

With a word Jesus gave to blind Bartimaeus his sight. That was written for our sakes, that we might know His power to open our sin-blinded eyes. Said He, "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. His word is light and life, and the same word that gave sight to Bartimaeus, can remove the blindness of sin.

"If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." 1 John ii. 1. In another article we have seen that Jesus as our Advocate, is our Comforter. It would have been better if the translators had put "Comforter" in the text, instead of "Advocate," since the latter word is associated in so many minds with the idea of a lawyer before a judge; but if we take the word "advocate" according to its derivation, we shall find the same comfort.

If we consult a dictionary we shall find that the word "advocate" is made up from two Latin words, meaning to call to. Thus an advocate is one who calls to another. In law it has come to mean one who speaks for another; but we will adhere to its original use.

Now let us read the first with this definition of "advocate." If any man sin we have with the Father One who calls to us. God does not turn away from us, but calls to us in Christ, who is in the bosom of the Father. So we read, "God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ." 1 Cor. i. 9. "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you in the grace of Christ." Gal. i. 6, R.V.

"God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." 2 Cor. v. 19. Jesus said, "The word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's which sent Me." John xiv. 24. Therefore it is God who calls to us, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matt. xi. 28.

If any man sin, we have One with the Father who calls to us. And what does He say? "I will hear what God the Lord will speak, for He will speak peace unto His people." Ps. lxxxv. 8. He says, "Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to Him that is near." Isa. lvii. 19. Also He speaks righteousness. "I the Lord speak righteousness." Isa. xlv. 19. God has set Christ forth "to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed." Rom. iii. 25. When Christ speaks

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righteousness to a sinful soul, then there is righteousness there, just the same as there was light when He said, "Let there be light."

And so again we find that Christ as Advocate is a Comforter. The voice that calls out to us, "Peace," comes from God Himself, for our Advocate is "with the Father." "The Word was with God, and the Word was God." The righteousness which it speaks is the righteousness of God. And He is calling to all; all may have the comfort, if they will hear His voice. "Incline your ear, and come unto Me; hear, and your soul shall live." What greater comfort could there be than to know that a voice from God is calling to us to come to Him? Whosoever reads this, "to you is the word of this salvation sent." Are you weary with grouping in the darkness of sin? "Be of good comfort, rise; He calleth thee."

"The Privileges of Love" The Present Truth 9, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

It is love that finds the highest and best privileges in the Christian life.

Probably no one mentioned in Scripture had a more ardent love for the Saviour than did Mary Magdalene. Christ had cast out of her seven devils, and she was one that "loved much because she had been much forgiven.' And her love brought her greater privileges than were realised by any other of the associates of her Master.

It was Mary's love for the Saviour that brought her precious lessons from His lips while her sister Martha was busy with household cares. But a greater privilege than this fell her lot,-the privilege of anointing the Saviour of the world for His burial. The event is thus recorded by Matthew:

"Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, there came unto Him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as He sat at meat. But when His disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor."

It is possible that Mary did not understand the full significance of what she had done; but she did that which her love prompted her to do, and God in His own wisdom ordained her reward. But what a contrast was presented in the mean and selfish spirit of His disciples! That which had been bestowed upon Jesus they characterised as a "waste"! As we are told elsewhere, it was the traitor Judas who first whispered the idea among the disciples, not on account of his love for the poor, but because the money would have been put in the bag which he carried; but the suggestion met with prompt sympathy from the rest. They had been constantly with Jesus, which Mary had not. They had been chosen to the highest positions; they were the foremost in point of privileges and honour; but Mary was foremost of anointing Christ for His burial and they lost it.

Mary sought not for honour and renown, but she gained it; for the Saviour said, "Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her." Matt. xxvi. 13. And with it is also told the story of the meanness and ingratitude of the disciples. Her love brought her a privilege that might well have been coveted by angels; their selfishness brought them what was just the reverse.

Yet another instance is recorded of what Mary gained through her love for her Saviour. The record in Mark tells us that "when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene." Mark xvi. 9. Mary, as we learn from the narrative, was more anxious to find Jesus than were the others, and she was the first to behold Him. She was the first to have visible evidence that she had a risen Saviour. At this time, also, as we are told in the twentieth chapter of John, Christ had not ascended to His Father. He had waited in order that He might appear unto her! Her love for Him held Him to the earth until He had filled her longing heart with joy and comfort.

Love gains the privileges now, as well as it did then. We may not have the talents or occupy the high position of others whom we know; but if our hearts are filled with the love of Christ, we may rest assured that our privileges will be as great as theirs. If we do that which our fervent love for Him prompts us, though we may not see the result now, we shall see by and by the privilege and the blessing that we gained, and the nearness which our love will have brought us to our Redeemer in the life to come.

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

-The epidemic of diphtheria continues in the inner circle of London.

-Dr. Philip Schaff, President of the American Bible Revision Committee, has died at New York from paralysis.

-There are only about thirty non-commissioned officers and men alive who were in the charge of the Light Brigade.

-A dispatch from Valparaiso announces that a volcanic eruption has occurred near Calbuce, causing great damage to that town.

-The United States government has launched a new battleship, the Oregon, said to be the must powerful in her navy, and to have cost $4,000,000.

-lmprovements that are to be made in the Southampton docks by the South-western Railway Company will, it is said, make that port one of the best equipped in the world.

-The latest transatlantic record is held by the Cunard steamship Campania, which recently made the trip westward in five days, thirteen hours, and thirty-nine minutes.

-A World's Fair special train collided with an express train on the Grand Trunk Railway at Battle Creek, Mich., Oct. 19, and twenty-six people were killed and as many more seriously hurt.

-It is anticipated that next year emigration to Siberia from the congested districts of European Russia will be continued on a large scale.

-A conference, convened by the London Nonconformist Council met recently, to consider the "spiritual needs of London from a practical standpoint." The results have not yet become apparent.

-Admiral Stanton, in command of the United States warships at Rio do Janeiro, has been proclaimed provisional President of Brazil by insurgent leader Admiral de Mello.

-Senor Frederica Lorenz, the captain of one of the Brazilian insurgent vessels, has been proclaimed provisional President of Brazil by Admiral de Mello. Both sides are strengthening their forces preparatory to the final conflict.

-Intelligence received from St. Petersburg reports extensive fires in the Crown forests in the district, of Gori, Caucasus. The damage done already amounts to several million roubles, and a number of persons have boon burnt to death.

-Aluminium is now used in the construction of field officers' canteens in the German army, the whole of the cooking utensils, plates, cups, etc., being made of this metal. The weight of the entire outfit for six persons is little more than 9lbs.

-It is announced that during 1894 the Italian Admiralty commence the construction of three new ironclads of the theft class, six cruisers of the first class, three cruisers of the second class, four despatch boats, and twelve sea-going torpedo boats.

-The crisis in Austria in consequence of Count Taafle's new Franchise Bill is said to be growing more and more acute. The Premier, contrary to what has been stated, has no intention of resigning, and a dissolution of the Riochsrath and an appeal to the country on the question are regarded as inevitable.

-Out of fifty-six cases at the Newcastle Police court on a recent day, fifty were charges of drunkenness. It is significant that, while the prisoners were at the Court-house, the unemployed of the town were holding a meeting not far off to urge the authorities to provide work to mitigate the distress in the district.

-A telegram from Algiers reports that a detachment of forty French soldiers has been attacked by Tuaregs, near El Golca, in the extreme south of Algeria. The soldiers made a desperate defence, lasting an entire day, during which twelve of them were killed. The survivors were rescued by reinforcements from El Golca.

-"The Buddhists of Japan," says Church Bells are fighting desperately against Christianity. They are organising 'salvation armies' and 'moral associations,' buying up timber so that churches cannot be built, seeking to persuade hotel-keepers not to lodge Christians, and in some cases they are resorting to force, destroying chapels, and other buildings.

-A subsidy has been recently granted by France for a Pacific cable between Queensland and New Caledonia. This has aroused considerable discussion in government circles at Washington, and it is urged that the United States should take steps for the construction of a cable to the Hawaiian Islands, with a view to its ultimate extension to Japan.

-The Chronicle's Moscow correspondent telegraphs that according to a published statement over thirty Lutheran pastors in the Baltic provinces have during the past year been fined, imprisoned, or dismissed their posts, mainly for administering the sacraments according to the Lutheran Church, to nominal members of the Orthodox Church.

-It is announced that the forces of the British South Africa Company have had sharp engagements with Lobengula's impis in Matabeleland. The Matabele were defeated with heavy loss. It is becoming apparent to the English public that the Matabele war is but a scheme of conquest on the part of the Company, who have promised a liberal reward in booty to all who will aid them in the undertaking.

-Advices received from Uganda state that there has been further serious fighting in that region between Christians (so-called) and Mahommedans, the latter being defeated with the loss of several hundred killed. Selim Bey, the commander of the Nubians, is also reported to have mutinied with his troops. The latter were disarmed, and Selim was banished to a small island. He is reported to have since died.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

The best way to oppose an error is to state the truth; and the best way to state truth is to state it in the words of God.

Jesus Christ is the "Prince of peace;" not of outward peace merely, but of inward peace, that peace which reigns in the heart where He sits enthroned.

Mr. Stead seems to be making wonderful progress as a writing medium. It is not from the professed spirits of the dead, that the messages are received, but from the living, as well, and that without their knowledge. In the last number of Borderland he relates the following incident:-

"During my stay at Lucerne I received a very long communication from a friend, detailing minutely an occurrence which had taken place by the seaside in England, which was known only to himself. The curious thing was that his conscious itself was very anxious to keep the incident from my knowledge, and his letters not only did not refer to the incident, but he wrote as if it had never happened. It was only when I read the whole detailed statement to him, that he owned up, and said that everything had occurred as it was written. I should say that the message occupied more than a thousand words, and there was not a mistake in a single detail. I had not any knowledge as to the probability of the event recorded."

Another case is thus recorded:-

"When I was in the train at Dover, I succeeded in securing an automatic telepathic interview with Lady Brooke, who was at that time in Dunrobin Castle, in the extreme north of Scotland; the distance between us must have been about 600 miles. I had not heard from Lady Brooke for weeks, nor have I heard from her since I published my article on 'The Wasted Wealth of King Demos.' My hand wrote her criticisms of the article, and, in short, I interviewed her without her conscious knowledge, at a distance of 600 miles. When I arrived at Victoria Station, I received from my manager a letter from Lady Brooke, which embodied in brief the substance of the communication written with my hand on the line between Dover and Canterbury. . . . It is the first time I have ever interviewed anyone by automatic telepathy for publication in the press; I hope it will not be the last."

It is not likely that it will be the last. Many people will not believe Mr. Stead's statements, while many others will believe them, and will conclude that this automatic interviewing is a wonderful discovery, and very harmless with all, not knowing that it is nothing but the same Spiritualism as of old. That was the spirits of devils impersonating the dead; this is the work of the same spirits, but is so artfully designed as to disarm suspicion.

In the first instance reported, there was no antagonism between the man's "conscious self" and his unconscious self. The man-the whole man-wished to conceal the occurrence from Mr. Stead, but the devil, who knew all about it, revealed it to him. The second instance is just as easy of explanation. The communication of Lady Brooke had been written and was already in London when Mr. Stead's hand was riding in the train, between Dover and Canterbury; for his manager met him with it at the station. The devil simply stole Lady Brooke's copy, and gave a summary of it to Mr. Stead, in order to entangle him, and others, more closely in the meshes of his great deception. Of course the ones interviewed knew nothing about the affair, since they had nothing whatever to do with it.

The "American Board," which is the name of the corporation through which the Congregational churches of America do their missionary work, has just had its annual meeting, and the most important business transacted was the appointment of a Mr. Noyes as missionary to Japan. This case has been under consideration for several years, the "Prudential Committee" of the Board having refused to appoint him on account of his pronounced belief in probation after death. The case was at last referred to the entire Board, which, after a vigorous debate, appointed Mr. Noyes by a vote of 106 to 24. It was stated that this action involves no doctrinal changes in the sentiment of the Board; but inasmuch as Mr. Noyes is already in Japan as a missionary, and has been there for five years, it seems evident that this vote indicates nothing but a growing sympathy with the idea of probation after death. The secretary of the Board, who had served for twenty-four years, and two directors, which served forty-four and seventeen years, respectively, resigned in consequence of the altered position of the Board.

During the debate on the appointment of Mr. Noyes, the Rev. Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, who has been actively connected with missions for sixty years, made a speech protesting against it, in the course of which he said:-

"Your missions in the Turkish Empire and in all papal lands, and wherever you find the Oriental churches-Armenian, Greek, Syrian, Jacobite Syrian, Ethiopian, whatever they may be-have to meet with this doctrine of probation after death. All those churches, without exception are built upon that doctrine. I have never met with an Oriental or a Romanist who did not believe in probation after death. Their hope is placed on that doctrine. Their sins are indulged in on that basis. I have known one man of the basest life, when he knew he was dying, surround himself with two sets of men, musicians, to distract his attention, and the clergy, to administer to him the last sacraments, he leaving a sum of money for the performance of masses for his wicked soul after death. His hope was that by the discipline of suffering, by the ministries of the Church, by the offering of the bloodless sacrifice in the Mass, and by the prayers and supplications of the Church and of the Virgin Mary and the Saints, his wicked soul would be freed from its entanglements and his destiny after all his life of sin would be life eternal. Now that is the condition of the people to whom you have sent your missionaries, and your missionaries have invariably preached that 'now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation.' This proposed appointment will reverse all that. Pass the case; admit Mr. Noyes, and it will be known all over the world that the American Board has joined the side of its enemies, and all the devoted believers in the Oriental and in the papal churches will utter a shout of joy."

"'Itching Ears'" The Present Truth 9, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

"Itching Ears."-In summarising the Press notices of the Borderland, Mr. Stead says: "Both in the Old World and in the New there is, if not an open mind, at any rate an itching ear." Undoubtedly. It is just what the Bible predicts, and it stamps as false and misleading everything connected with this "borderland" teaching. "Preach the word; . . . for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, having itching ears, will heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and be turned unto fables." 2 Tim. iv. 2-4. It has already come.

"'Christian Education'" The Present Truth 9, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

This is the title of a book of 256 pages, that has just found its way to our table. It is a book which we unqualifiedly recommend, not simply to teachers, but to parents. Indeed, it is more especially designed for parents, as it begins with the child in infancy, where its education really begins, whether the parents realise their responsibility or not. The parent is the natural and proper teacher of the child, not only before it is of school age, but afterwards as well. If this book were carefully read, and heeded, by every parent, it would be a blessing to all the children in the land.

As will be supposed, it does not deal wholly with book education. The truest and best part of education cannot be gained from books. The physical, mental, and spiritual needs of the child are considered in this little treatise. As it is designed for all parents, it is in a simple style that all can comprehend. Send your order, with 2s., to the International Tract Society, 59 Paternoster Row, London, E.C.

November 9, 1893

"Front Page" The Present Truth 9, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

The accompanying picture is a striking likeness of an ancient stronghold, as those who have seen many of the ruined castles of Europe can testify. Situated upon the very summit of a solitary peak, the sides of which were almost as steep as the walls of the castle itself, such a stronghold was almost inaccessible to an enemy.

Very similar to a castle represented in the cut, is the Wartburg, in Germany. It was to this castle that Luther was carried by his friends, when he was returning from the Diet at Worms, an outlaw because of the faith; and in it he was kept for ten months, in order that he might be preserved from his enemies, who sought to take his life. The castle had been a familiar sight to Luther in his boyhood, for he had attended school in Eisenach, at the foot of the mountain; and it was doubtless this castle that prompted his notable hymn,

"Ein est Burg ist Unser Gott."

For God is represented in the Bible as a high tower, and a strong place of refuge, into which men may flee for safety. Thus we read, "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it and it is safe." Prov. xviii. 10. "The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strong rock, in Him will I trust; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower." Ps. xviii. 2.

In the passage last quoted, the word "trust," is from the word which in many places in the Revised Version is translated "take refuge." This is strictly literal, and makes the picture much more vivid. We shall so render it in the passages that follow. So the text ought to read: "The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strong rock, in Him will I take refuge." This is in keeping with the idea expressed in Prov. xviii. 10, above quoted. In the eighteenth psalm we read: "As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is tried; He is a shield unto them that take refuge in Him."

Just as Luther found refuge in the Wartburg from the enemies who would

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have taken his life, so we may find protection in the Lord, from the enemies of our souls. Read Ps. xxxi. 19-21: "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 men! Thou shalt hide them in the secret of Thy presence from the pride of man; Thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues. Blessed be the Lord; for He hath showed me His marvellous kindness in a strong city."

Take notice that those who take refuge in the Lord are to be kept in the secret of His presence from the pride of man. Not from the pride of men, but from the pride of man,-from human pride; that is, each one from his own pride. It is pride that causes man's destruction (Prov. xvi. 18); but the Lord is meek and lowly in heart (Matt. xi. 29), and those who take refuge in Him are protected from the destruction of pride by being encompassed with His humility. They are partakers of His righteousness, which is salvation.

Still further, they are to be kept secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues. No man can be injured by any strife of tongues, in which his own tongue does not partake. The tongue is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. "It setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell." James iii. 6. But from this the Lord offers a sure refuge. The tongue of the man that is in Him, will not utter both blessing and cursing, but will "bless the Lord at all times," saying, "Blessed be the Lord; for He hath shown me His marvellous loving kindness and a strong city." "How precious is Thy loving kindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge under the shadow of Thy wings." Ps. xxxvi. 7.

Again, read these comforting words: "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my God; in Him will I trust. Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust; His truth shall be thy shield and buckler." Ps. xci. 1-4. And again: "Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me; for my soul trusteth in Thee; yea, in the shadow of Thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast. I will cry unto God Most High; unto God that performeth all things for me." Ps. lvii. 1, 2. Earthly castles could never afford a perfectly safe refuge, for there was a possibility of their being taken; but "they that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even for ever." Ps. cxxv. 1, 2.

Here is another comforting assurance: "The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and He knoweth them that trust in Him." Nahum i. 7. We read that the wicked "plotteth against the righteous, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth;" but "the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord; He is their stronghold in the time of trouble. And the Lord helpeth them, and rescueth them; He rescueth them from the wicked, and saveth them, because they have taken refuge in Him." Ps. xxxvii. 39, 40.

These things are not figures of speech, but they are real. Even now we may know that the presence of the Lord to protect is as real as any stone wall that was ever built, and infinitely more safe. And the blessedness of the whole thing is that anyone may have this refuge. Faithful will build a wall of defence as high as heaven itself,-defence not merely from spiritual foes, but from physical ones as well. But faith is shown by confidence and rejoicing. He who fears has not faith, because fear is born of doubt. So the Psalmist says to the Lord: "Thou art my hiding place; Thou shall preserve me from trouble; Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance." Ps. xxxii. 7. Just as the people of Israel were saved from an overwhelming force, when they began to sing, saying, "Praise the Lord, for His mercy endureth for ever" (2 Chron. xx. 21, 22), so the people of God will always be delivered when they sing songs of faith and praise. Therefore in the time of greatest danger they sing, "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation." Isa. xii. 2.

"What Authority?" The Present Truth 9, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

What Authority?-In a paper on "The Lord's day: Its Obligation and Observance," at the Midland Institute, Canon Edmonds said that they "need not entangle themselves with the question of the relation of the Lord's Day [which he erroneously applied to Sunday] to the Fourth Commandment. It was not observed to satisfy the commandment: it was made for man. Neither did its sanction rest upon the authority of the apostles or the Apostolic Church." True, Sunday observance does not rest upon the authority of God, nor of those sent directly from Him. It is a product of human apostasy. How much better to observe the seventh day,-the Lord's day indeed,-which does not require that one should "entangle" himself in connecting it, through the commandment, with God Himself.

"The Great Deceiver" The Present Truth 9, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

The second number of Borderland contains a report of some experiences with a writing medium, which is interesting as showing how readily people yield to delusion when they ignore the teachings of the Bible, the only source of truth. There are five letters that were obtained at one sitting, none of which are in any way remarkable. By this we do not mean that there was not more than human power involved in their production, but that the information contained in them is not remarkable. The gentleman who had the interview wrote his questions on slips of paper which were rolled up tightly, so that the medium did not see them, and the answers were written by the medium, in the usual manner. In some instances a very brief answer was written on the closed question paper, while the gentleman held it in his own hand.

There are five letters given. The first gave the gentleman the advice to study the phenomena of Spiritualism. This is what might have been expected. To ask the spirits if one shall study Spiritualism, is as if one should ask a land agent if he ought to invest his money in land.

The second letter expressed the opinion that a certain person referred to will do very well if he engages in business with a certain other person. The third letter gives the date of the gentleman's little daughter's birth. The fourth consists of some platitudes in answer to the question how he should spend his life so as to do the most good. The fifth letter is an answer to the request for a device with regard to his investments. Several banks are mentioned, which pay good interest, and which are said to be sound.

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The gentleman says: "I have no theory on which to account for these remarkable phenomena. The 'trick' hypothesis seems to me to be precluded by the conditions. The 'devil' hypothesis is out of it, for the 'father of lies' could not have said so many things that are good and true." We have no hypothesis either, but we do know that all such communications can come from no other source than the father of lies. It is strange that anyone who has ever heard that there is such a thing as a hypocrite, should think it impossible that such communications can come from the devil.

It is true that the devil is the father of lies, but that does not show that he cannot state a simple matter of fact when it will better serve the purposes of his deception. Satan told Eve that if she should eat of the forbidden fruit, her eyes should be open, and so they were. Yet he deceived her. A statement that is true in itself, becomes a part of a lie, when it is told in order to lead a person into a deception beyond. A lie may be told when the form of the words in which it is uttered is true.

It should be borne in mind that Satan is a great deceiver. Now no one is deceived by that which is palpably false. That which successfully deceives, must have the appearance of the truth. The writer once knew a man who used to practice telling lies as a pastime, and would exert himself to see how preposterous a story he could tell. But he never deceived anybody, and never expected that anybody would be deceived by his yarns. It was of course a vicious habit, nevertheless. But there was another man in the same town, who practiced lying as a fine art. He would, with the most sober face, tell a lie that had every appearance of truth. His stories were always told in the most natural manner, and there was no improbability in them. Now although everybody knew of this man's habit, they would be deceived again and again. There was such an appearance of truth in all that he said, that even his most intimate acquaintances would be deceived.

How often does the seducer put on an air of respectability, and even piety, and give utterance to the most solemn truths, in order that he may win the confidence of his victim. But the very truths which he utters become parts of a great lie, since the man's whole life is a lie. So it is with Satan. If he did not come in the guise of an angel of light, he would deceive nobody.

The Scriptures did not leave us without warning on this point. We are told that there shall come in the last days false christs and false prophets, who shall show great signs and wonders, so that they will all but deceive the very elect. Matt. xxiv. 24. Immediately before the coming of the Lord, Satan is to work "with all deceivableness of unrighteousness." 2 Thess. ii. 9, 10. The rapid growth of these deceptions, is one of the surest signs of the nearness of the end. There is but one sure way of escaping these delusions, and that is by receiving "the love of the truth," which is the word of God.

"Righteous Judgment" The Present Truth 9, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

Whenever the kindness and mercy of the Lord are dwelt upon in order that sinners may be encouraged to trust Him, someone will always be sure to interpose with the objection, "Yes, but the Bible says that God is angry with the wicked every day." Of course the natural effect upon the doubting, trembling soul is to lead him to think, "I know that I am wicked, and therefore God is angry with me;" and then will follow either a feeling of apathy, or else vain efforts to do something to appease the supposed anger of God. Thus the purpose of the enemy of souls is accomplished.

Remembering that "God is love"; that He "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); and that this was a sacrifice on the part of God Himself, because "the Word was with God, and the Word was God," and "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself" (2 Cor. v. 19), let us examine the scripture in which the statement of God's continual anger against all men-"for all have sinned,"-is supposed to be found. It is the seventh psalm, and we will study it as a whole. The study will show incidentally the danger of building a theory on a single text detached from its connection.

In the quotation of the psalm, which follows, we have not followed any one translation, but have combined several, so as to give the most literal and vivid rendering of the Hebrew. It will be seen that the psalm may be naturally divided into six sections, the last consisting of but one verse. The first section presents a picture of one

PURSUED BY THE ENEMY

O Lord my God, in Thee do I take refuge;

Save me from all them that pursue me, and deliver

me;

Lest he tear my soul like a lion,

Rending it in pieces, when there is none to deliver.

This is the cry of a soul in extreme peril. He is chased by an enemy who is like a raging lion, which will tear him in pieces if he does not find a place of safety. We see at the very outset that we have before us the cry of a soul pursued by Satan, the great Destroyer; for "the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about, seeking whom he may the power." 1 Peter v. 8. In a preceding article we have read some of the text which show how sure a refuge God is in such times of peril.

The next section shows the injustice of the enemy's attack:-

O Lord my God, if I have done this;

If there be iniquity in my hands:

If I have rendered evil to him that was at peace

with me;

(I have even delivered him that was mine enemy

without cause);

Let the enemy chase my soul and catch it;

And let him tread my life to the earth,

And cast down my glory to the dust.

The lion cares nothing for the fact that his prey is inoffensive, and has done him no injury. He is filled with a desire to destroy, and he slays to gratify his own passion for destroying. So the devil lies in wait for the innocent, as shown in his dealing with our first parents in the garden of Eden. The spirit that deliberately plots the spiritual ruin of an innocent soul, is purely satanic. Such a degree of wickedness is abhorrent to any soul that is not utterly degraded, and so the psalmist utters a

CALL FOR JUDGMENT

Arise, O Lord, in Thine anger;

Lift up Thyself against the fury of mine adver-

saries;

And awake for me the judgment Thou hast com-

manded.

So shall the congregation of the peoples compass

Thee about,

And over it return Thou on high.

Read in the light of the first section of the psalm, this cry for vengeance does not seem so revengeful as it sometimes does to the careless reader. It is not the demand of one man for vengeance upon other men who are hostile to him, but it is a call for judgment upon the arch-enemy. Moreover it is inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that the element of human passion does not enter into it. Compare this section, and indeed the whole psalm, with the thirty-fifth psalm.

In this section we have present before us, in brief, the last judgment,

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and its results. When the judgment which God has commanded, shall be executed upon the "wicked spirits in high places," the congregation of the people will compass the Lord about, as He returns on high to "reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously." Isa. xxiv. 23.

In the next section we have a statement of the

CERTAINTY OF THE JUDGMENT

The Lord judgeth the peoples;

Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness,

and the uprightness that is in me,

Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an

end, but establish Thou the righteous;

The righteous Lord trieth the hearts and the reins.

My shield it is with God, who delivereth the upright

in heart.

God is a righteous judge, yea, a God that hath

indignation continually.

If He turn out, He hath whet His sword,

He hath bent His bow, and made it ready;

He hath prepared for him the instruments of

death,

He will make His arrows fiery.

Have we here a little self-righteousness? No, for the Lord says of His people, "Their righteousness is of Me." Remember that this is the prayer of one who has taken refuge in Christ, and "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." 2 Cor. v. 17, 18. The uprightness that is in such an one, is the uprightness of God, and it is according to that that the psalmist would be judged. The soul that makes God its refuge, can look on judgments without fear, because he is in the place whence they come, so that they cannot call upon him.

It is in this section that the verse occurs which in the common person is rendered, "God is angry with the wicked every day." The words in italics, however, show what was added by the translators. Even if we take the text as it stands in the common version, there need be no difficulty, since we see that "the wicked" are not sinners on probation, but the devil and all his hosts, both of angels, and of men who have sold themselves to him to persecute the godly.

"God is a righteous judge, yea, a God that hath indignation continually." Is it not well? Is it not comforting to know that we are not left alone and forgotten? that the efforts of the enemy to accomplish our destruction, awaken the indignation of the mighty God? Even when Satan's rage works through men who have no fear of God before their eyes, we may know that God regards it as directed against Him. And so indeed it is, when we fly to Him for refuge. He makes our cause His own. When the children of Israel were marching toward Canaan, the Amalekites came out to fight against them, but in reality it was to fight against God. In Ex. xvii. 16, with the margin, we read, "Because the hand of Amalek is against the throne of the Lord, therefore the Lord is against Amalek," etc.

SELF-DESTROYED

In the last part of the section of the psalm that we have just considered, there is evident allusion to the wicked, and the words, "if they turn not." If the wicked turn not, God has prepared the instruments of destruction for him. Read Job xxxviii. 22, 24. In the following section we have a description of the persecutor, a statement which shows the justice of his punishment:-

Behold, he travailleth with iniquity,

And he hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.

He made a pit, and digged it.

And he shall fall into the ditch which he hath made.

His mischief shall return upon his own head.

And upon his own crown shall his violence come down.

In the judgment it will appear that God is clear. He is love, and yet there is punishment for the wicked, and "fiery indignation that shall devour the adversaries." And this is because He is love. We cannot now go further into particulars than to call attention to the obvious fact that it would not be an indication either of love or justice, for God to allow the wicked to destroy the innocent. But let it not be forgotten that all the punishment that any wicked person will ever receive, will be only that which he brings upon himself, and which he might have avoided if he would. "Despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." Rom. ii. 4, 5.

So we read in the last part of the first chapter of Proverbs, that the wicked in their destruction only "eat of the fruit of their own way." All they that hate the Lord, love death. Prov. viii. 36. Thus in the passage before us, the wicked only receive that which they themselves have worked out; they are taken in their own net, and fall into the pit which they dig for another. They that love cursing shall receive it, for God will give to every man that which he most delights in.

The last section is the ascriptions of praise:-

I will give thanks unto the Lord according to

His righteousness.

And will sing praises to the name of Jehovah

Most High.

And thus we find, as we always shall, that the portion of Scripture which Satan uses for the purpose of discouraging people, is the one that is full of comfort for them. If we are not ignorant of his devices, nor unmindful of the goodness of God, we shall know, whenever a text seems to be for the purpose of holding us off from God, that we do not understand it, and will study it with a prayer that the Holy Spirit will teach us the truth as it is in Jesus.

"Propitiation" The Present Truth 9, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

"And He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." If men would allow the Bible to explain itself, instead of trying to explain it, much difficulty would be saved. All the logical definitions are derived from Paganism, since theology is principally the study of heathen philosophy. Men have looked into the human heart in order to find God, instead of looking into His word and His works. Accordingly they have thought of God as a being whose wrath against men must be appeased by sacrifice; and the history of religion in the world is largely a history of the attempts of men to devise some sacrifice that would "appease the Divine justice, and conciliate the Divine favour." Men have punished themselves almost to death, and have persecuted others quite to death, because they thought that God demanded it of them as the price of His favour. This is the human idea of propitiation, but it is not God's.

If instead of the long word, "propitiation," we read "sacrifice," we shall simplify matters a great deal, because the shorter word is more common. Then let it be remembered that God Himself has provided the sacrifice, or the propitiation. Thus we read, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through

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the forbearance of God." Rom. iii. 23-25.

Notice that it is God who has set forth Christ as the propitiation or sacrifice. Then since God provides the sacrifice for sin, it surely cannot be that He has enmity against sinners. "For 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. "God is love" (1 John iv. 16); but "the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Rom. viii. 7. The enmity that is to be appeased is all on the part of men, and God, who is sinned against, provides the means of reconciliation. Of Christ we read:-

"For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell; and, having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight." Col. i. 19-22.

Now remember that "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself," and you will see that God Himself has made the sacrifice for us. It is by the death of Christ that we are reconciled, and God was in Christ reconciling the world. The Word that was made flesh, and that was offered upon the cross, was God.

It would be impossible for man to make a sacrifice that would atone for sin. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" Micah vi. 6-8.

Even a human sacrifice would not avail, not because God requires something more valuable, but because it cannot remove sin. The sacrifice which God provides, and which He alone can provide, is one that will remove sin, and thus destroy the enmity that is in man's heart against God. God gives to us His life in Christ, and that life can take away sin, as has been demonstrated by the fact that it has conquered death. "There is none good but one, that is God." Therefore the only way in which man can become good is to be filled with the life of God, and this He gives us freely in Christ.

Why will not men believe the Lord, and take Him just as He reveals Himself? The only reason is, as stated before, that they take counsel of their own hearts, and not of God. They do not come close enough to the Lord to get acquainted with Him. To Him belongs power, but His mercy is equal to His power. "God is love," and therefore the more we learn of His power, the more powerful must we know His love to be. When we taste, and continue to taste, and see that the Lord is good, we shall turn a deaf ear to all the insinuations of Satan, no matter in what guise they come.

"The Confessional" The Present Truth 9, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

At the late Protestant Conference at Bath, the ex-nun, Miss Golding, is reported to have alluded to the Roman Catholic confessional as "a den of infamy worthy only of Satan himself."

Whether she was correctly reported or not, the words are quite true; because it could not be otherwise from the circumstances which the confessional presents. This will be apparent from a brief examination of the nature and object of confession as a feature of the Christian life.

We are taught in the word of God to confess our sins. "Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another, that he may be healed." "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Jas. v. 16; 1 John i. 9. Many other passages likewise teach the duty of confession, this being a necessary step in the process of conversion, or the new birth, without which no person can see the kingdom of God.

But to whom should confession of sin be made? The Catholic says, To the priest, at the confessional. If, as the Catholic doctrine teaches, the priest is the one who has power to grant absolution from sin, such an answer might not be improper. But the doctrine is not true. God alone has the power to forgive sin. Every sin that men commit is against Him, and must have forgiveness from Him.

He who has the power to forgive sins has the power to do miracles. Jesus said to the scribes, "That ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, [He saith to the sick of the palsy], I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house." Mark ii. 10, 11. He had just put to them the question, "Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?" The question was a pertinent one, for the one act was as difficult as the other, since both required the exercise of creative power. To heal the palsy, required the creation of new parts of the body to take the place of those that were diseased. To say, "Thy sins be forgiven thee" required the creation of a righteous man out of the sinner, even as we, all who believe, are "created in Christ Jesus unto good works." Eph. ii. 10. Creative power belongs only to God; it has never been delegated to any of His creatures.

But for what purpose do we confess our sins? What is accomplished by the act? To the priest, who presides over the confessional, one chief result is the gaining of knowledge which he did not before possess. But is this the object, or one of the objects, which confession is designed to accomplish? Do we confess in order to impart information to some one? Certainly this is not the object of confession to God, for He sees all our sins, and we can impart no information to Him. Nor do we do this when we confess to our brother the trespass that we have committed against Him, unless, as sometimes happens, it is a wrong the existence or the author of which he has not discovered. But no one will seriously contend that the proper object of confession is to impart information. We confess to an individual because he is the one concerned in the wrongful act which we have committed. We confess for our own good, that our spirit may bear witness with the heavenly Spirit that we are sinners, and also for his benefit, too manifest to him our contrition of heart, and take out of his way the stumbling block that our wrong-doing may have placed before him.

Confession of sin, therefore, should only be made to the party or parties that have been wrong. God is always one of these parties, for every sin is a transgression of His law. A sin that is against God alone, should be confessed to Him alone. One that is against our neighbour should be confessed

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to God and to our neighbour. God forgives the wrong that has been done to Him in the transgression of His law, and our neighbour forgives-or should forgive-the wrong done to him. And thus the one who committed the wrong is cleared from the guilt of his transgression. Man has no power to forgive sin, for sin is the transgression of the law of God, and no man has authority to say that the claims of that law are satisfied. Even God Himself could not say so had not the demands of that holy law been met in the death of Christ. Any man can forgive a wrong done to himself, but this would not free the wrong-doer from the claims of the law of God. But if a man will not forgive a wrong that is done him, he cannot hold the wrong-doer in guilt if the latter has made confession.

And what is confession? It is coming into agreement with the Spirit of God and saying that the act of which we have been guilty, is wrong. But in confessing that we were wrong we also testify that God and His law are right. By the very act of condemning ourselves we justify God. We say with Paul, "The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good; . . but I am carnal, sold under sin." Rom. vii. 12-14. When we have transgressed against our neighbour we have thereby testified against the law of God, which commands us to love our neighbour as ourself. We have in the act condemned God and His law, and justified self. And our confession, our condemnation of self and justification of God and God's law, must be as extensive as was our justification of self. Obviously this must be so, before God can hold us guiltless.

But how do these considerations apply to the institution of the confessional? Certainly it needs no argument to show that this papal institution meets none of the requirements of that repentance and acknowledgement of sin which will secure the pardon of Heaven. The priest is but a man. He has no power to forgive sin; for this, as we have seen, is nothing less than the power of creation. To take away sin is to create a man new in Christ Jesus; it is to bring a clean thing out of an unclean thing, a work which God says no man can do. Job xiv. 4. He listens to a recital of sins that do not concern him, and thereby incurs great damage to his own soul; for no man can long contemplate sin without being harmed thereby. He does not have the witness of the Spirit to the confession that comes to him, for the Spirit does not bear witness with confessions that are not made to God. Nor does the confessor find the comfort that is bestowed by the Spirit when true confession is made. The knowledge that comes to the priest in this way is knowledge that he should not have. It is neither for his own benefit, or for the benefit of the confessor, or of any one else. And it need not be said that the use which the priest makes of such information is often one that is not justified by either the law of God or of man.

When we confess a sin to one whom we have wronged, the interest and concern which the latter person has in the matter makes it a very different thing from a confession made to someone else; for the Spirit of God operates in such a case both upon the heart of the confessor and of the person wronged; to both it bears witness of the righteousness and goodness of God. But if the party is one not concerned in the transaction, the Spirit cannot bear that witness to him, because he is not the party wronged, and has consequently nothing to forgive. Confession, indeed, cannot, strictly speaking, be made to another person than the one who was wrong, because confession means an acknowledgement of our wrong-doing to the one against whom we have transgressed. We can tell the same thing to a third person, but that does him no good, but rather harm, because it can never benefit any person to listen to the tale of another's sins. Paul exhorts us to listen to and think upon only what is pure, lovely, virtuous, and of good report. Confession comes in this class of things, but a mere recitation of sins does not.

"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall find mercy." Prov. xxviii. 13. In the confessional, the great deceiver has substituted for true confession something that is not confession at all. Just as he has perverted the Christian ordinance of baptism into the ceremony of sprinkling, and the observance of the Sabbath into the keeping of Sunday, so he has perverted confession-wherever the confessional is established-into something which can never bring pardon or mercy. The devil does not want people to confess their sins. He is willing enough that a person should confess the sins of others, and tell them far and wide, but he does not want that confession which is the putting away of self. He knows what the Scripture says, that "with the heart men believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Rom. x. 10. But there is no salvation from the confessional. Those who would obtain salvation must not be ignorant of the devices of Satan. And in order not to be ignorant they must search the word of God for enlightenment. There they will find only that which is genuine, and learn the difference between the true ordinances which pertain to salvation, and the false and spurious inventions which the devil has palmed off upon the credulous minds of those who neglect its sacred pages.

"Union" The Present Truth 9, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

Union.-We are told that those who took part in the conferences of the "Parliament of Religions"

"represented systems as diverse as those of the Episcopalians, Methodists, New Churchmen, Christian Scientists, Theosophists, Friends, Catholics, Presbyterians, Jews, People's Church, Monism, and Idealistic Atheism.

"The outcome of its deliberations was an agreement upon the following formula as a possible basis for universal religious co-operation:-

"'Recognising all humanity as one family, we welcome light from every source, and earnestly desire to grow in knowledge of truth and the spirit of love, and to manifest such growth by helpful service.'"

We have nothing to say as to the propriety of the union of these "systems," but we are well assured that Christianity has nothing in common with Theosophy, Atheism, Shintoism, "Christian" Science, and other things of that kind, and there can be no manner of union between it and them. "What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?" 1 Cor. vi. 14-16. Those professed Christians who have given the representatives of heathen religions cause to think that there is a basis for union between their religion and Christianity, have injured the cause of missions more than they can remedy in their whole lives.

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

-The "cyclists' stoop" is troubling doctors. Cyclists' leaning forward affect both spine and chest.

-Severe fighting has been taking place between the Spaniards and the Moors at Melila, General Margallo being killed.

-A New York paper states that the Brazilian Government has purchased six United States merchant vessels for use as warships.

-Rioting has been going on at Lima, Peru, and the Ministry have tendered their resignations, which, however, have not been accepted.

-The estimated population of Victoria, is 1,162,526. The average expenditure on intoxicants for each man, woman, and child last year amounted to £4 14s. 6d.

-It is stated that 21,448,910 persons have paid for admission to the Chicago Exhibition since its opening. About $2,500,000 will, it is said, remain to be distributed among the stockholders.

-French troops are reported to have entered the disputed territory on the Tripoli-Tunisian frontier. Fifteen hundred Turkish troops have arrived at Tripoli from Constantinople to reinforce the garrison.

-English missionaries in China affirm that there is every prospect of a coming political upheaval there and that the Christian missionaries are largely blamed by the Government officials for the existing situation.

-The Matabele have a singular marriage custom. The husband does not buy his wife, who therefore remains the property of her father, and when children are born their own father has to buy them from their mother's father.

-A nun eloped from a convent in Buda-Pesth. On reaching the street she joined a young man and disappeared with him. In a letter sent to the Mother Superior, the runaway said she had not found at the convent the happiness she desired.

-President Cleveland will, it is reported, soon send a message to Congress completely disavowing the policy of ex-President Harrison in reference to the Hawaiian Islands, and in effect a declaration in favour of the restoration of the ex-queen Lilluckalani.

-An Australian has patented an invention for setting type by telegraph. We are told that a newspaper correspondent in New York, by playing a typewriter keyboard, will ere long be able to set type simultaneously in a dozen or more cities all over America.

-It is announced from the Cape that after several engagements with the Matabele, the latter have been utterly defeated by the force of the Chartered Company, who now occupy Buluwayo, which was Lobengula himself has fled to the northwest.

-Ancient ruins have been discovered in Mashonaland, believed to have been the work of people who went there in search of gems in Solomon's time. An explorer says he has discovered in the locality six or more of the precious stones mentioned in the Book of Revelation.

-Railway enterprise, after a period of slackness, is budding again in Japan. There are no fewer than eleven new railways under consideration, two of them electric, one from Kobe to Mitamachi seventeen miles long, and another from Sogo to Ozuma, a little over eleven miles long.

-A woman in Tunis proclaimed that she had been told by an angel in a dream that whosoever drank of the water in her cistern would escape cholera. Within two days 20,000 passed through her premises to drink there, and the police had eventually to interfere to stop the profitable traffic.

-Dr. Gregory, of the British Museum, during a recent expedition, made an ascent of the great African mountain, Kenia, to a point 17,000 feet above sea-level, or 3,000 feet higher than had been reached by any other explorer. Glaciers were reached, and some of the party suffered from frostbite.

-The Bill repealing the purchase clause of the Sherman Act was passed by the Washington House of Representatives by 191 votes against ninety-four, and has since been approved by President Cleveland. This, it is hoped, will do something to relieve the financial situation in the United States.

-Cholera has broken out at Susa, and twenty-five deaths are reported. 4,000 of the inhabitants have fled, and the majority have arrived at Tripoli. A panic consequently prevails. Asiatic cholera still exists in St. Petersburg, in Moscos, in Buda-Pesth, in Brussels, in Rotterdam, in Rome, in Hamburg, and in the Hague.

-By means of the hydrograph, a new invention messages can be exchanged between ships on the sea with the Morse system of signlas. The apparatus consists of a transmitting and a receiving instrument which, when in operation on different vessels, are in no way connected with each other, except through the medium of the water.

-An electric car on the Oregon City Tramway line, containing thirty passengers, went through an open drawbridge in Madison-street on the morning of Nov. 1, and was plunged into Carpen River. Twenty-five of the passengers were drowned. The accident was caused by a dense fog which obscured the river and concealed the fact of the drawbridge being open.

-Four natives of India who pretended to cure diseases of the eye, and inflicted great suffering on their patients, were charged at the Old Bailey with obtaining money b false pretences. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty, adding an expression of their regret that there is no criminal law to prevent persons of gross ignorance from practising medical surgery.

-The large nomadic population of Kalmucks inhabiting the immense steppes between the Don and the Lower Volga, and also to the east of the latter river, are, it is stated, rapidly leaving European Russia. It is believed that in a very few years the Kalmucks, the last remnants of the Mongolian race in this continent, will have finally settled in Southern Siberia or Mongolia.

-As regards time the countries of Europe will now be divided into three groups: That of the West-England, France, Spain and Portugal-who take their time from Greenwich; The Central Group-Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Switzerland, and Italy-whose time is an hour later; and finally the Oriental Group-Russia, Turkey, the Balkan States, and Greece-whose time is two hours ahead of Greenwich.

-The Mayor of Chicago (Mr. Cater H. Harrison) was shot dead at his residence on the evening of Oct. 28, by a man named Prendergast, who is supposed to be insane. The funeral was one of the most imposing ever witnessed in America, no less than 50,000 persons being in the procession. An epidemic of homicidal mania is said to have resulted from the assassination, and many arrests have been made. in consequence of this state of things President Cleveland, when he goes out, is attended by detectives.

-Owing to the spread of dissent in the Russian Army, the question has been raised as to whether it is advisable to allow Nonconformists to attain even non-commissioned rank, as in the opinion of the "Holy Synod" such persons may have a pernicious moral and religious influence on the rank and file, and especially on recruits. In consequence of this inquiry the Minister of War has informed the Procurator of the "Holy Synod" that soldiers belonging to dissenting sects will not in any case be promoted.

"English Christianity" The Present Truth 9, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

English Christianity.-The question is asked, "Who could bring himself to think of the English Christianity without the English Sunday?" and the answer must be, no one. But Englishmen, like Americans, Germans, Romans, etc., are human, and therefore "English Christianity." Like the so-called "Christianity" of any other nation, is purely a human affair. Sunday is very appropriately and necessarily associated with "Christianity" of a human type, because as a religious state it is wholly of human creation. But Sabbath observance is inseparably connected with the Christianity of Christ, which is the only form of Christianity that is of any value.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

In The Evangelical Magazine, Rev. J. Guinness Rogers has an article, the object of which is to show that "the fullest recognition of the rights of free thought is compatible with the truest of loyalty to the faith of the Gospel." That is true, but it is not all of the truth. The whole truth is that nothing but the recognition of the rights of free thought is compatible with the faith of the Gospel. Christ said, "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. 47. The test of a Christian is that he is like Christ; therefore he who tries to repress freedom of thought, and who would punish a man for his opinions, is to that extent, at least, not a Christian.

The Nonconformist churches of Hampshire have just formed a "Free Church Federation," the object being that of "uniting all Evangelical Free Churches in the county, upon questions of common interest." They propose to establish a Free Church Association in every town, and, as far as possible, in every village in the county, with a central county council. The delegates were in session two days, and passed resolutions in favour of the Local Veto Bill, and the disestablishment disendowment of the Church of England and Wales. It is expected that this Federation will soon be general throughout the kingdom. Such a Federation is sure to make the power of the churches felt in politics as never before.

The Turkish Ambassador declares that there has been no religious persecution of Christians in Turkey, but that all that has been done is to punish violators of the laws of the country. Exactly, and by the same token there has never been any religious persecution in the world. The Christians were put to death in the days of the Roman emperors, and later in lands controlled by the Roman popes, because they violated the laws of the land; and keepers of the Sabbath of the Lord are prosecuted in the United States and other countries, for violation of the laws of the land, which declare Sunday to be the Sabbath, in defiance of the laws of God. No professed Christian who believes that civil governments have a right to pass laws concerning matters of religion, or to define to any extent what shall be the religion of a country, can consistently find any fault with what has been done in Turkey and Russia.

The Government of Saxony has adopted the following method of securing the payment of taxes. The names of persons who are delinquent are printed and hung up in all the restaurants and public houses, and the proprietors dare not serve those persons with food and drink, under penalty of losing their licenses. This must be an efficient method, for the publicans would no doubt in many instances be willing to pay the taxes themselves, knowing that it would not take long to recoup themselves out of the enormous profit of the drink which they would sell.

"Devotional Reading" The Present Truth 9, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

Devotional Reading.-The following, by Dr. James W. Alexander, is a picture of how very many people seek to manufacture devotional feeling:-

On Sabbath and other occasions, I have worried myself with attempts to awaken devotional feeling, by reading compositions of a merely hortatory kind-practical and experimental writings. Our devotion must have a solid basis, and I believe it is in many cases the best thing we can do to go into the very strongest parts of theological argument, and feed upon such strong meat as one finds in Calvin, Rivet, Turretin, Witeius, and Owen.

We make no comment on the authors referred to, but wish to call attention to the principle. We have seen the list of books published in religious papers, in response to requests for information as to the best books for devotional reading, but have never seen the Bible mentioned among them, although it is the one book for that purpose. To go to other books in order to awaken devotional feeling, when the Bible is at hand, is as if one should go to a cistern for water to quench his thirst, when the fountain whence the cistern water comes is close by.

"Theology against Christianity" The Present Truth 9, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

Theology against Christianity.-At the recent meeting of Nonconformist ministers, and the Mansion House, to consider "the spiritual needs of London," Dr. Parker said that the churches "might be to blame to some extent for men supposing theology was Christianity." The churches are assuredly wholly to blame for whatever idea of that kind men may have. Dr. Parker's statement is an admission of the fact that theology is not Christianity. Of course it is not. But whatever in the line of religion is not Christianity, is Paganism, and that is exactly what theology is. Since it is admitted that ideology is not Christianity, why would it not be the proper thing to ignore theology entirely, and give attention wholly to the Gospel?

November 16, 1893

"'Jesus of Nazareth'" The Present Truth 9, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

"Jesus of Nazareth."-"Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see." John i. 45, 46. A whole volume could not describe the standing of Nazareth any better than Nathanael's question of astonishment. It had a bad reputation. It was so bad that nobody expected any good thing from it. Yet Jesus was all His earthly life associated with Nazareth, and He is still known as "Jesus of Nazareth." It would have been according to human nature to associate His name with some more renowned place. Any ordinary man would have taken care that he should be announced as from Jerusalem, or from Capernaum: but Jesus was content to be heralded as "Jesus of Nazareth." He "made Himself of no reputation," for our sakes.

From this simple fact we may derive both comfort and instruction. We may be comforted by the knowledge that Jesus identifies Himself with the humblest and the most despised. No matter how poor and despised people are, nor how degraded they are, if they but come to Him in faith, "He is not ashamed to call them brethren." This is most comforting. And we should learn also from "Jesus of Nazareth," not to despise or reject any person because of his birth or station. Many a man who has lived all his life in a hovel, and had only shabby clothing, will yet dwell in a mansion, and be clothed in light as the brightness of the firmament. Martin Luther was a miner's son, John Bunyan was only a tinker, and one of the grandest titles of the Lord of all worlds is "Jesus of Nazareth."

"Come and See."-When Nathanael said to Philip, "can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Philip's only reply was, "Come and see." He did not argue the question, but took the only sure way to convince the questioner; he led him to Jesus, that he might see for himself. It was thus that the woman of Samaria convinced her neighbours. She did not argue with them, but said, "Come and see." When they saw Jesus, they believed on Him, as Nathanael did. That is the Christian's strongest and only valid argument. He may argue, but the unbeliever can argue also; but when a man sees Jesus there need nothing more be said. So in everything Jesus is to be lifted up and presented to the people, and He will do the convincing. Blessed are they whose lives, as well as their words, say, "Come and see."

"WantedóA Saviour" The Present Truth 9, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

Wanted-A Saviour.-In the Review of the Churches for October there is an account of a conversation between a young Brahmin and a missionary. Said the Brahmin, "Many things which Christianity contains I find in Hindooism, but there is one thing which Christianity has and Hindooism has not." "And what is that?" asked the missionary. "A Saviour," was the reply. This is a point which is overlooked by people who extol the other systems of religion. It is true that there are excellent precepts in Hindooism, Mohammedanism, and among all pagans, from the most ancient times; but none of these religions give the man any help in carrying out those precepts, and in forsaking evil. With them it is each one for himself. And so they can never give satisfaction and perfect peace. They do not satisfy the desire of the heart. But Jesus, "the Desire of all nations," saves from sin, and lives in the soul the righteousness which He requires. Let Him then be lifted up before all the world.

"God Is for Us" The Present Truth 9, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

We have not learned the greatest and most precious truth in the world, if we have not learned that God is for us. God is not for sin, but He is for the sinner. He hates the one, but He loves the other. This is what the Gospel means. It is God for us and God with us. It "is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth," and it is sent to no one who is not a sinner.

Here is a world of comfort for every person who will open his eyes and heart to realise the fact. Wheresoever he may be, whatsoever may be his surroundings, whatever his dangers and difficulties and enemies, he is not beyond the reach of this mighty truth. He is not beyond its power and discomfort. He is not beyond the love and mercy of God.

God has given to all men a revelation of Himself. He has surrounded all with the tokens of His creative power; He has sent His word to all, telling that that power is for them,-that the power of God in creation is "the power of God unto salvation," to everyone that believeth. The salvation is salvation from sin, which means victory over every temptation, and therefore victory over every opposing force or influence that wars against our eternal welfare.

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It matters not what this opposing power may be, whether it be within us or without us,-the pride and lust of our own hearts, the misfortunes that come upon us, the scorn and hatred of those around us, or the fiery temptations of the evil one in self,-all fall far beneath "the power of God unto salvation." To every fear that arises in the heart as these obstacles loom up in the pathway, the answer of God is, "My grace is sufficient for thee." Most assuredly; for all these opposing forces are finite, while the power of His grace is omnipotent!

"Who," says the apostle, "shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. 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. 35-39. There is nothing that can keep us from the love of God, and His love includes His power, His wisdom, and everything else that can be needed for our salvation. "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall he not with Him also freely give us all things?"

Only we ourselves can take ourselves out from the hands of Him who would do this work for us. Only we ourselves can close to ourselves the flood gates of the mighty tide which is the power of God unto salvation. We may forget that God is for us; we may become discouraged at the difficulties and trials of the way; we may doubt the power or willingness of God to carry us through, and so remove ourselves, in a great measure, from the channel of His grace, for He can never work for any person except in a way that will bring glory to His name, He cannot reward doubt or distress. He must guard His glory for the welfare of His creatures, for His glory is their strength. The greater the glory of our God, the greater is the hope and confidence which we may have in Him.

But we need not doubt or distrust God. We may know that He is for us; we may know that His salvation is for us. We may know it on the authority of His word, for He has sworn by Himself that the blessing of an inheritance in the new earth-which is eternal life-shall be to all that are the children of faith, the seed of Abraham. See Heb. vi. 13-20. He has said it, and we may know it by believing it. It is a way that is not too difficult for anyone. True, it will be contradicted by many things that appeal to our feelings, our natural senses, or our reason; but God is greater than all these, and His word is as great as Himself. The question for all is, Will you believe? Will you have the faith which works? If you will, you can in no wise lose its reward.

"'Only a Conjurer'" The Present Truth 9, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

Ever since Spiritualism has been before the public attention, there have been men who have gained a livelihood by "exposing" it. There are two ways of exposing Spiritualism. One is by setting it forth in its true character, as the working of Satan, as is done in the PRESENT TRUTH. Another is the more common way of professing to show that it is nothing but trickery and sleight-of-hand performance.

The last number of PRESENT TRUTH contained an article entitled, "The Great Deceiver," in which attention was called to some writing that had been received by a gentleman, through a medium. The gentleman was a minister, and the medium was a "Professor" Baldwin. It now appears that Mr. Baldwin does not claim to be a Spiritualist, and announces himself as only a conjurer. Some of the daily papers are making merry over the manner in which Mr. Stead and the minister were duped, yet the doubt is expressed if either of them will be convinced, by Mr. Baldwin's confession, that there is nothing to Spiritualism. We see no reason why they should be, for even admitting that the phenomena exhibited were mere trickery, the fact remains that again and again, through the mediumship of avowed Spiritualists, phenomena have taken place that were manifestly supernatural, the most expert scientists and trained observers being witnesses.

Satan is a great deceiver, and the Bible warns against his deception. It tells us that in the last days he will work with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with "all deceivableness of unrighteousness." 2 Thess. ii. 9, 10. He is the Destroyer, and his sole work is to destroy. See 1 Peter v. 8. It is evident, therefore, that he would be very likely to seek to conceal all traces of himself, and to make it appear that he has nothing to do with that which is performed through his own power. This is evident, because if Satan's work were labeled with his own name, and men knew and realised that it was from him, they would shun it; few would deliberately walk into what they knew to be only the trap of destruction.

Consequently we are never surprised when we hear that some professed Spiritualist medium is proved to be only a trickster, nor when some professed conjurer or magician "exposes" Spiritualism, by seeming to do the same things, or by actually doing them. It is all in accordance with Satan's plan to get people accustomed to his work without detecting his agency. All this prepares the way for the time when Satan himself will appear in person, doing the same and even greater wonders, and will be received by the people, not however as the devil, but as a great benefactor, even as Christ Himself.

It is not, however, by any means proved, in the present instance, that Mr. Baldwin is not a Spiritualist after all, the "explanation" that "An Amateur Magician" gives of the way in which the writing is done, is no explanation at all. Some years ago "slate-writing" was professedly exposed by a learned society, which published the statement that the slate always had to be in the hands of the medium, which is not the case. So in the case to which reference has been made. Writing was done on paper that never left the observer's hand.

But allow the claim that the supposed medium is only a conjurer, what then? The case is the same, for conjuring, the practice of magic, and Spiritualism are all of the same nature. Satan himself is a mighty conjuror or magician, his work being to make people see things that do not exist. He will make the sinner see safety in a course which leads directly to destruction; and when the sinner has repented and been forgiven, and his sins have been washed away, he will present the appearance of them before him, to make him believe that they are in existence to his condemnation, when they are not. All the practice of magic and conjuration is from Satan.

Some will disbelieve this, thinking it to be a wild statement; but it is the truth. It will not be denied that in everything of that kind deception is

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practised. There is always a successful attempt to bewilder the senses, and to deceive the judgment. Now nothing of that kind comes from God. He "cannot lie." Titus i. 2. With Him is "no variableness, neither shadow of turning," (James i. 17), or as the Revised Version has it, "neither shadow that is cast by turning." He is straightforward it all His ways. He is the truth, and "no lie is of the truth." 1 John ii. 21. Therefore the practice of magic and all kindred arts, is of the devil, who is a liar from the beginning, and the Father of lies.

Remember that the ones who opposed Moses and Aaron in Egypt were magicians. They performed miracles, but they were false miracles, wrought for the purpose of deceiving. The Apostle Paul speaks of the perils of last days, and says of some, "now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these resist the truth." 2 Tim. iii. 8. So it will be with the practice of magic, by professed conjurers, that will lead people astray in these last days. People will not admit that there is anything supernatural in these false miracles, until they are ready to go to the opposite extreme, and attribute them to the power of God. So we would utter an emphatic warning, that people may be on their guard, giving no heed to anything that is not the open truth, the standard of which is the Bible-the word of God.

"Faith, Hope, and Love" The Present Truth 9, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

Faith, Hope, and Love.-"Now abideth faith, hope, love; and the greatest of these is love." In some way it has come to be the common opinion that love is the greatest because it continues longer than the others, although the text says that they all remain. There is no indication that love will outlast faith and hope. Certainly the saints in glory will never lose faith in God, and hope will eternally be new, as each unfolding pleasure gives promise of still greater pleasure beyond.

Wherein then is love greater than faith and hope? The seventh verse of 1 Corinthians xiii. suggests that answer. Love "beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." Love is greater, because it contains both faith and hope. The statement that love believeth all things is limited by the preceding verse, which says that it rejoices only in the truth. Faith comes only by the word of God, so that the meaning of the text is that love believes all things that God says. Where love is, it is easy to believe. He who loves God, has no doubts, no unbelieving questions to ask. And surely it is not difficult to love God, for God is love.

"Usurping God's Place" The Present Truth 9, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

Two weeks ago three Lincoln tradesmen were fined by the magistrates, for offences under the "Lord's Day Act," the defendants having refused to cease trading on Sundays. The Lincoln Town Council prosecuted.

Such an action as that will arouse little comment, because people generally think it's sufficient that it was "due process of law." A law has been violated, and of course punishment must follow; but some people cannot help inquiring what is the basis of such a law.

We will suppose, in the first place, that, as we are sometimes told, the law is solely in the interests of humanity,-to prevent people from overworking, by compelling them to rest one day in seven. But a man who does not know enough to rest when he is tired, needs, not a Sunday law, but a home in the asylum for the feeble-minded. Fewer people, by far, are killed by overwork, than by the dissipation of leisure. We must therefore seek another basis for Sunday laws.

We may be told that such laws are in the interest of fairness and equality, since (as it is claimed) it is unjust for a few men to be allowed to carry on their business while others are at rest. The same reasoning would force all to close their places of business on every holiday; but that is not done, and if it were attempted, an indignant protest would be raised against such interference with people's liberty. If one man wishes to take a holiday, that is no just reason why his neighbour should be forced to take one also. If it is unjust on one day to compel a man to stop work because his neighbours do, it is unjust at all times. Therefore we must seek a different basis still for Sunday laws.

And this is found in the very title of the laws. The act under which these men were prosecuted, was the "Lord's Day Act." Sunday is a day invested with a religious character, and this makes the difference between it and ordinary holidays. So the makers and enforcers of Sunday laws persuade themselves that it is zeal for the Lord, and not selfishness, that actuates them.

Suppose we allow for the moment that Sunday is all that is ever claimed for it; that it is indeed the Lord's day; by what process of reasoning is it made to appear that men have any business to enforce its observance? The very title that is given it,-the "Lord's day,"-takes it out of human jurisdiction. If it is the Lord's day, He is the one to enforce its observance, if He wishes it enforced, or to punish for the non-observance of it; and if it is not the Lord's day, then the simplest principles of justice demand that every man should be allowed the same liberty on it that he enjoys on other days.

Unless men can show a direct commission from the Lord, for enforcing His laws, it is evident that all who do so, or attempt to do so, are doing what they have no business to do. There is no nation that would think of enforcing the laws of another nation. The United States Government once passed an infamous law, which demanded that, whenever a slave escaped bondage, anyone who found him should return him to the one who had held him in bondage. Scores of slaves escaped to British possessions, and not one was ever returned. If a slave could find refuge on board a British man-of-war, he was safe; not a man would pay the slightest attention to the law which demanded the slave's return.

Perhaps this is not a perfect illustration, because the law in question was unjust. But principle is true, no matter what the law; the British would say of the best United States law, "Let the Americans enforce their own laws," and so of the Germans, or any other nation. Moreover, it would be considered the height of impertinence for the people of one nation to interfere with the institutions of another nation. If a German or an American should be found passing sentence upon and imprisoning British subjects, and claiming the authority to do so as an officer of the British Government, he would soon be ousted from his self-assumed office, and would receive severe punishment. Yet men of every nation presume even to make and enforce laws for the King of heaven.

Men think that such zeal for the Lord is very honouring to Him, but that is a great error. Nothing in the world could be more dishonouring to God, then the assumption by men, that they must execute His laws. An incident recorded in the Bible will show just what men really teach concerning God, when they assume that

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it is their duty to execute His laws, and defend His name.

A young man named Gideon was prompted by the Lord to throw down the altar which his father had erected to Baal, and to cut down the obscene image (improperly rendered "grove") that stood by it. When the men of the city found out who had done the deed, they demanded of Joash, the Father of Gideon, that he should bring out his son that he might be put to death for destroying the altar of Baal. "And Joash said unto all that stood against him, Will ye plead for Baal? will ye save him? he that will plead for him, let him be put to death whilst it is yet morning; if he be a god, let him plead for himself, because one hath cast down his altar." Judges vi. 31.

That was sound sense, as all will admit, and it convinced even the infatuated worshippers of Baal. They saw that if Baal could not protect his own altars, he was no god, and consequently could not protect them. "If he be a god, let him plead for himself." All heathen know that the gods they worship, are not indeed God. "They must needs be borne, because they cannot go." The sense with which God has endowed man, is sufficient to teach them that an image which must be carried from place to place, is not God; and they show their knowledge of that fact by resenting any insult to their god. They know that it cannot defend itself, and so they constitute themselves its defenders.

Now when men make laws for God, or think to execute His laws, they unconsciously show their opinion of Him. They show that they do not believe Him to be the true and living God, but altogether such an one as themselves. To make or execute laws for Him, is for man to put Himself in His place, and to assume to be His equal, if not His superior; and a greater insult to Him could not be devised.

For "Jehovah is the true God, He is the living God, and everlasting King; at His wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nation shall not be able to abide His indignation. . . . He hath made the earth by His power, He hath established the world by His wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by His discretion." Jer. x. 10-12.

Surely such a Being is able to execute His own laws, and needs not the help of puny man, who, in comparison with Him, is "less than nothing, and vanity." And He will vindicate His own laws. "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." Jude 14, 15. What harder speech can be uttered against God than to say, in action, that He is not able to execute His own laws?

And then the case is aggravated by the fact that the day which is enforced as the Lord's day, is not His day at all. "The seventh day is the Sabbath," and it is that which He Himself calls "My holy day." Men have presumptuously dared to pass laws for God, putting His name to that with which He has had nothing to do, and then enforce them in His behalf. Could human presumption go higher?

We say nothing about the magistrates and Town Council of Lincoln. They are simply executing laws which they find on the statute books, with no thought as to what is implied by the very existence of those laws. But what of those who make such laws? and what of the people who, professedly acting as servants of God, demand them? What will they say when He arises to execute His own laws, and to reprove men for their hard speeches against Him? Will they not repent before that day comes?

"'Thy Kingdom Come'" The Present Truth 9, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

There is no thought which is given greater prominence in the word of God than that expressed in the above sentence. All through the pages of both the Old and New Testaments, it stands out prominently as a leading thought in the minds of prophets and the apostles. Paul in Titus ii. 13, calls it "the blessed hope." It was that to which the church in all ages looked forward, as the brightest prospect which their faith revealed, and the realisation of their fondest hopes.

In the heart of every true Christian this thought, this hope, will be uppermost. We are taught to give it this prominence by the Lord Himself. The very first petition of the "Lord's prayer" is, "Thy kingdom come." And this prayer is one for all Christ's followers. In the sermon on the mount, also, the first utterance is one concerning the coming kingdom: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Other sentences which follow allude to the same thing. "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." This inheritance cannot be until the coming of the kingdom, by which the wicked shall be destroyed (2 Thess. i. 8, 9), and the earth made ready for its future inheritors. Ps. xxxvii. 10, 11. "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." The time of comfort of the saints is when "the tabernacle of God is with men," and "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying." Rev. xxi. 3, 4. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." They shall see Him at the coming of His kingdom. "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." The blessings which come to the poor in spirit, the meek, the pure in heart, and other possessors of heavenly graces, are many in this life; but they are not to be compared with those that will be realised at the coming of the kingdom of God.

The very first prophecy that was ever uttered by inspiration, so far as we have any record, is a prophecy of the coming of Christ in His kingdom. We find the record in Jude. "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold the Lord cometh, with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." Jude 14, 15. Note the very last prophecy of the Bible is also a prophecy of the same event. "He which testifieth these words saith, Surely I come quickly." Rev. xxii. 20.

The sacred writer adds, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." This is the prayer of every Christian heart, the goal toward which he strives, the event for which he labours. Let others make their pilgrimages to Mecca, or to the shrine of "our lady," or to Rome; the Christian's pilgrimage is to Mount Zion. And the one inspiring thought that leads him on over the rough and narrow passage is "that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ." Titus ii. 13. Would you be of the mind of Enoch, and of John, and of Paul, and of Christ? If so you will say with them, "Thy kingdom come." For that you will hope, that you will pray, for that you will work. And

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in the hour of trial you will find comfort in the thought, "Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty; they shall behold the land that is very far off." Isa. xxxiii. 17.

"A Specimen Criticism" The Present Truth 9, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

In their haste to rush to the front to assure the people that the Bible is not all true, but only such portions as chance to accord with their ideas, many ministers of the day are fairly stumbling over one another. Not all of the ministers, by any means, but a rapidly increasing number of them. There was a time when the distinguishing feature of Protestantism was that it stood for the Bible, in opposition to Roman Catholicism; but now those who are foremost in attacking the old Book, and in seeking to shake the faith of the people in it, are professed Protestants. They seem to understand the injunction, "Preach the word," if they ever think of it, as though it read, "Criticise the word."

This is not written in any carping spirit, but with sorrow, and exceeding great alarm. "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" In their most persistent and aggressive teaching that the Bible is not all true, these men are undermining the very foundations of the Gospel. Not that the Gospel, which is the power of God, can ever actually be destroyed, for the Lord is still in His holy temple; but so far as many people are concerned, it will be the same as though it were destroyed. We write solely for the purpose of saving some, if possible, from being led astray by the array of titles and the show of learning that are paraded by those who thus oppose the Bible.

As a specimen of the wickedness, to say nothing of the shallowness, of this onslaught upon the Bible, we give the following which appeared in one of the leading religious journals, in an article from a man who writes "Rev." before, and "D.D." after, his name. He is a man whose influence, through his position and writings, is extensive. It is not necessary to give names, as we are dealing with a principle, and not with men. Here is the passage:-

"In Acts vii. 4. Stephen says that Abraham came to Canaan 'after his father was dead.' But comparing Gen. xi. 26, 32; xii. 4, we learn that Terah lived many years after Abraham left Haran. The error is easily accounted for by the mention of Terah's death before the migration of Abraham. It does not affect either the spiritual teachings of the story of Abraham or the great facts underlying that teaching. But it is inconsistent with Mr. Urquhart's assertion, [namely, that the Bible does not contain errors.]

"This case is especially interesting because Stephen could claim the special inspiration promised to those brought before judges: 'It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.' No inspiration richer than this was promised to or predicated of the sacred writers. And as we read Stephen's heroic defence we feel how abundantly the promise was fulfilled in him. Yet it did not save him from two clear discrepancies, discrepancies, however, which in no wise weaken his defence."

Let us read all the texts that are referred to in the above. And reading the following verses, remember that "Charran" and "Haran" are the same. The Hebrew letter beginning the word is a guttural, very difficult of pronunciation and of representation in English. In this case, as in the case of many other proper names, the common version of the New Testament gives a different spelling from the Old. Now for the texts:-

Acts vii. 2-4: "The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran; and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell."

Gen. xi. 26: "And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran."

Gen. xi. 31, 32: "And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years; and Terah died in Haran."

Gen. xii. 1-4: "Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee; . . . so Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him; and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran."

The trouble with the critic is this: He reads Gen. xi. 26 as though it stated that Terah was just seventy years old when Abram was born, and then putting that with the statement that Terah died in Haran, at the age of two hundred and five, and that Abram left Haran when he was seventy-five years of age, he concludes that Terah was only one hundred and forty-five years old when Abram left Haran, and that therefore Abram left Haran sixty years before his father died, instead of after his death, as stated by Stephen. This is one side of the case, the side of unbelief, or of the "Higher Criticism."

All the texts referred to are simple and harmonious, and very easy to be understood, provided we accept the Bible as true. One who believes the Bible will have no trouble with the statements. It is the one who disbelieves the Bible, who cannot understand them. In this we shall see a demonstration of the fact that unbelief is not caused by the difficulties in the Bible, but that the greatest difficulties are caused by unbelief.

For example, our critic says that Stephen's statement cannot be correct because it disagrees with the account in Genesis. With just as much reason he might say that the record in Genesis cannot be true, because it is not in harmony with the statement by Stephen. But if either of these assumptions be true,-that is, if it be so that one or the other of the statements is not true,-how may we know that the other is correct? And if it could be proved that part of what Stephen said is not true, what confidence can we have in anything that he said? And, further, if what Stephen said when he was so filled with the Holy Spirit that his face was transfigured, and he could look directly into heaven, is in any degree doubtful, what confidence can be placed in any part of that which "Holy men spake from God, moved by the Holy Ghost." Thus we see that this is not simply a trifling question as to when a certain man died, but is an exceedingly grave one, involving the truthfulness or falsity of the entire Bible.

Now we see how easily the whole thing straightens out when we approach it in a spirit of belief, accepting the whole Bible as the living word of the living God. Moses writes what Terah was two hundred and five years old when he died, and that Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed out of Haran. But Stephen tells us that Abram did not leave Haran until his father was dead. Accepting both statements as the simple truth, we

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have a very simple problem to solve, namely, If Terah died at the age of two hundred and five, and Abram his son left Haran immediately afterward, at the age of seventy-five, how old was Terah when Abram was born? Subtracting seventy-five, we have the answer,-one hundred and thirty.

But what about the statement that "Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran"? Let us first look at a similar statement in Gen. v. 32: "And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth." The careless or unbelieving reader would conclude that the three sons of Noah were all born at once. But on reading Gen. x. 21 we find that Japheth was the eldest of the three. Two years after the flood Shem was one hundred years old (Gen. xi. 10), and as the flood lasted nearly a year, he must have been ninety-seven at its beginning. But Noah was six hundred years old when the flood came. Gen. vii. 6. Therefore he was five hundred and three years old when Shem was born. The text in Gen. v. 32 therefore does not mean that all three of Noah's sons were born at the same time, but that he was five hundred years old before the first one was born. So with Terah; he was seventy years old when the first of his sons was born. Abram, though not the eldest, is always named first, because he was the most prominent, as in the case of Ephraim and Manasseh.

The case is simple and easy, if one believes the Bible; it becomes difficult only when one approaches it with a spirit of doubt, and the fear, if not the settled belief, that the Bible is not all true.

"Blind unbelief is sure to err,

And scan His work in vain;

God is His own interpreter,

And He will make it plain."

The trouble is that men will not allow God a chance to speak, or will not believe Him when He does.

We have called this a sample criticism. It surely exhibits in a marked manner the Spirit of the new criticism, and that is what we wish to emphasise. Many of the criticisms cannot be disposed of so easily as this one, but no one need be troubled over that. The question is, Shall we believe man in preference to God? We see that in their criticism of the Bible, men do not hesitate to impeach the testimony of the Holy Spirit. Stephen was "full of the Holy Ghost," and the Doctor of Divinity from whom we have quoted, allows that Christ's assurance, "It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you," was fulfilled in a special manner in his case; yet in the face of that he does not hesitate to charge Stephen with making a mistake. But to charge Stephen with making a mistake under such circumstances, is to charge the Holy Spirit with error. To such fearful lengths does the spirit of criticism and unbelief lead men. There are honest souls who might be confounded by the questions which these critics may propound, who we are sure will refuse to listen to them when they are reminded how dishonouring to God such criticism is. There are many who yet reverence God, and honour His word, notwithstanding the words of the Lord are fulfilled:-

"Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord. For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." Jer. ii. 12, 13.

"Religion in Schools" The Present Truth 9, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

For some time there has been a controversy over the policy of the London School Board, in regard to religious instruction in the public schools. The controversy is not as to whether or not there shall be instruction, but as to the amount. Those who are opposing an increase, agree that there should be some, and thereby they deprive their protest of all force. The following letter to the Daily Chronicle, from a member of the Board who is making desperate efforts to have a specific religious teaching in the schools, and more of it, gives opportunity to speak briefly of the principles involved in the question:-

The Education Department, acting upon certain rumours, has inquired as to the kind of instruction which is being given to the Jews in the London Board Schools. The answer of the Board, as reported yesterday, discloses the fact that for nearly twenty years a more or less organised system of Jewish instruction has been in force in certain of the schools, that the Board has made a regular practice of appointing Jewish teachers, and that at the present moment the Board is giving instruction at the ratepayers' expense in a "systematic knowledge of Judaism and, with special reference to its distinctive dogmas and tradition." This denominational teaching the Board shows no disposition to abolish-very wisely, as I think, for I have a rooted objection to teaching other people's children a religion which their parents do not believe in. But I could not help asking the Board, as I now venture to ask your readers, why it is allowable to teach Jewish doctrines at the ratepayers' expense, but so very wrong to teach Christian doctrines in the same way. Why should the rights of Jewish parents be recognised, while the rights of Christian parents are so utterly disregarded that the writer of this letter, who has ventured to stand up for them, is treated as the enemy of religious liberty? I want justice for all, Christian, Jew, Unitarian, and Secularist alike; my only fault (surely a venial one) is that I am inclined to place the rights of parents before the convenience of a school board.

That is a fair presentation of the case. There is no reason to doubt the honesty of purpose of the gentlemen who wrote it. And if the principle be conceded, that State schools ought to teach religion at all, then the position taken in the letter is a very fair one. For if religion is to be taught at all, it is plain that the teaching ought to be definite and thorough; and the proposal that the parents have a right to say in what religion, if any, their children shall be instructed, is just.

There is no place in the world where religion ought not to be, not in form, but in fact. True religion-the religion of Jesus Christ-is not form, but fact, a living reality. And that is just the reason why it cannot be enforced by law, and cannot be taught by any system instituted by law. Therefore the teaching of religion in the public schools, is a far different thing from having religion in those schools.

It is true that it is just as proper to teach Christian doctrines in schools, as it is to teach Jewish doctrines, because neither is proper. Let the thing be carried further, it is just as allowable to teach Catholicism as Judaism; just as allowable to teach Mohammedanism as Catholicism; just as allowable to teach Buddhism as Mohammedanism; just as allowable to teach Spiritualism as Buddhism; just as allowable to teach infidelity as Spiritualism. "Oh, no, no; that would never do," says the advocate of religious instruction in schools. Why not? "Oh," would be the reply, "because infidelity and Spiritualism are wicked." Of course they are, but are Mohammedanism and Buddhism righteousness? "No; and we would not allow them to be taught at the public expense." But we ask again, Do you think that Catholicism and Judaism are the truth? "No;" would be the reply, at least as far as Judaism is concerned; "but we must respect the rights of parents."

The reader can see by this presentation of the case that the rights of parents are not considered at all; for none of those who clamour for religious instruction in schools would listen for a minute to a proposition to teach

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Spiritualism or Mohammedanism, no matter how many parents might be of those persuasions. But a Mohammedan, a Unitarian, a Spiritualist, a Mormon, or an infidel, is a man, and therefore entitled to the same rights and privileges as any other man. And therefore we are forced to the conclusion that those who clamour for State instruction in religion, do so only because they are persuaded that their particular system of religion-their denomination-will be the gainer by it.

The fact is, that there is no justice nor equality in the thing. There is no such person as the Government, who impartially supplies the money for religious training. All public money comes from the people. Now the writer of the above letter allows that it is not just to teach children at public expense a religion in which their parents do not believe. Neither is it just to tax people, whether parents or not, to teach the children of others that which they themselves do not believe. But that is just what is done when any form of religion is taught in the schools. For all Christians are taxed for the support of Judaism, when it is taught in schools; and when a form of Christianity is taught, the Jews help to pay for that teaching; and infidels are taxed for the support of religion, when they do not believe in any form of it.

It may be urged that equality is maintained by using in the support of each form of religion, just the proportion of money that comes from the believers in that form. This is not true, since there are many forms of religion which would not be allowed at a moment's consideration. If it were the case, then why not leave all the people free to provide their own religious teaching, instead of having the civil government handle the money and provide the teaching?

Any religious teaching whatever in the public schools is manifest injustice, and in reality to none more than to those who are taught. As said before, a true religion is a life, not a form, nor a creed. Christianity does not consist of a system of doctrine, but of a vital connection with Christ. But the most that can be taught in any public school, is an outline of certain doctrines, so that the child is choked with a form, instead of being fed with the Bread of life.

There are many who think that the rights of Nonconformists are in danger of being trampled upon in this attempt to increase the amount of religious instruction in the schools, which attempt comes mainly from the High Church party. This is true, but their protests are all useless, as long as they admit the right of the civil government to have anything whatever to do with religion. Civil government is not adapted to that end. It can indeed teach religion but not Christianity; but religion without Christianity is paganism, which is all that the State can ever teach or enforce. Therefore in the interest of pure and undefiled religion, in the interest of the pure Gospel of Christ, the PRESENT TRUTH will never cease to call attention to the essential wickedness of State connection with religion in any form whatever.

"'Blessed Are the Meek'" The Present Truth 9, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

These words were spoken by Christ, among the beatitudes pronounced by Him in His sermon on the mount. The reason there assigned is, "For they shall inherit the earth." But there is a present blessing in meekness as well as a future one. It is one of the fruits of the Spirit, and a natural accompaniment of that "love, joy, peace," which is the Christian's heritage in this life, as well as in that to come.

Without meekness there can be no real enjoyment of spiritual blessings. The person who will take honour and glory to himself cannot be altogether at peace with Him who claims all honour and glory and power as due to Himself. So far as a man ascribes these to himself, he makes himself a rival of God. He cannot under such circumstances love God with all his might, mind and strength. Meekness is in short the opposite of selfishness, which strikes directly against all the fruits of the Spirit, causing an individual to take to himself that which belongs alone to God. And in taking to self that which is God's-or attempting to do so-an individual does not in reality get anything, and loses all that which God is able to give him.

But what is meekness? It may be said, in the first place, that Christian meekness (which is the only true meekness) is not altogether what it is popularly supposed to be. The common idea of meekness allies it with weakness,-lack of will. It pictures the meek person as one who makes little or no resistance to persons or things that set themselves against him. But this idea is entirely false. It has no place in the make-up of the meek characters of the Scripture record. It should be evident, at a glance, that the Spirit, which is all-powerful, cannot produce as one of its fruits anything that lacks force and strength.

Meekness is not the absence of will, but the absence of self. Among Scripture characters with whom the idea of meekness is naturally associated, probably none are more prominent than Moses, and John, the disciple of Christ. The record of Moses is that he "was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth." Numbers xii. 3. But no one at all familiar with the events of his life could think of him as a weak character, or lacking in resoluteness and power of will. While he persistently refused to be the father of a great nation, or to be angry with those who murmured against him, he was never slow to take vigorous measures for the suppression of idolatry and other sins, no matter how great the number arrayed against him. He was, indeed, one of the most energetic and forceful characters that the world has ever seen.

The same decision of character was possessed by John. John was an apt pupil in the school of Christ, and his natural traits of character were tempered by the lessons he there received. But while self was repressed, there was no loss in force of will. And this is evident from a glance at his epistles to the church. No one of the inspired writers, indeed, uses plainer, more forceful language than does John. His speech, like the speech of Paul, was "in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." He simply let himself become a mouthpiece of the Spirit and an instrument of Omnipotence, and decision enforced appeared as an inevitable consequence in all that he said and did.

At the very foundation of meekness, lies the conviction that the very best place for us to be is the place where God wants us to be. If that place is up above the heads of others, it is all right; and if it is down under their feet, it is just as well. Wherever it may be, it is the only place we can afford to be in. We cannot afford to occupy a high place when God wants us to fill a humble one; we cannot afford to remain in a humble place when God wants us to fill one higher up. There is a selfishness which affects humility as well as one which is proud. Moses displayed a touch of the former at the burning bush in the desert, when he begged to be released from going before Pharaoh, on the plea that he was too humble an instrument

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to accomplish the work; and there have been many since his day who evaded responsibilities in the work of God under the same plea. But such humility is only professed, not real. True humility never rebels against God's purposes under any pretext whatever. True humility is the absence of self, so that so far as the individual is concerned, there is nothing in the way of the accomplishment of God's will in any direction.

One of the greatest blessings of meekness is the peace which it brings into the individual's daily life. For if he is fully persuaded that the place God wants him to be in is the best place for him and the only place he can afford to be in, all chance for murmuring is taken out of his life. He simply feels that "all things work together for good to them that love God," and leaves the result with Him. He has "godliness with contentment" which, the apostle says, "is great gain."

But how will he know when he is in the position that God wants him to fill? The Bible has answered this question. The Psalmist says, "the meek will He guide in judgment; the meek will He teach His way." The meek person is the only one that God can teach, because he is the only one that will not trust in his own wisdom. It is with the meek person that God dwells, and that he should be led of God when God dwells with him, is inevitable. We are told that "the high and lofty One, that inhabiteth eternity," said, "I dwell in the high and holy place; with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." Thus the meek person dwells with God, and in whatever place he may be, he knows that God is there too. God never asks an individual to be in a humbler place than He is willing to be in Himself.

The meek person dwells with God. He is safe; he is contented; he has instruction in the ways of the Highest. He will be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. Zeph. ii. 3. He will inherit the earth. Ps. xxxvii. 11. He is willing, for all this, to give up self. Is not the exchange a good one? Truly we can well afford to exchange the highest position that earth can offer for the lowest place that God wants us to fill. The highest position without God is lower than the lowest place with the Him.

"Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker."-Prov. xvii. 5.

"Indulgences" The Present Truth 9, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

The Catholic Times says that "the Protestant mind is apparently quite incapable of grasping the doctrine of indulgences," and as an instance in support of this assertion mentions the case of a Protestant lady who had seen people in Italy buying pictures and cards with indulgences on the back of them at the church doors. Her Catholic friend denied that indulgences were ever sold, and said that the selling only applied to the cards and pictures, while the indulgences could only be gained "by saying the prayers to which they were attached and fulfilling the necessary conditions."

Whatever truth there may be in this representation, it is certain that the Protestant mind is capable of grasping the doctrine of indulgences, for it is a doctrine known to every unconsecrated heart. This doctrine did not originate with the papacy. The devil originated it, and it has been a common thing among all over whom he has had control; not, indeed, in the precise form in which it is held and practised by Catholics, but the same in principle. The devil is adept at revamping all his old deceptions of ancient times, and palming them off upon the modern world as something new. But the principles that run through his evil devices never change. Men, however, forget to look at principles, and fasten their eyes upon persons, and forms, upon some particular things of a tangible nature, and forget that paint and whitewash can give different appearances to a thing which does not change at all in character or substance.

The Jews among whom Christ walked had the doctrine of indulgences. We have a plain record of it in the Bible. It is not mentioned that they were gained by saying a prayer, but they could be had by selling certain other things. There is an instance recorded in Matt. xv. The scribes and Pharisees came to Jesus and asked Him why His disciples transgressed the tradition of the elders, by eating with unwashed hands. In reply Jesus asked of them, "Why do ye also transgress the commandments of God by your tradition?" and He added, "For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother; and he that curseth father and mother, let him die the death. But he said, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift (by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me), and honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition."

A son is under obligation to honour his father and his mother by his service, either of money or labour. It is a duty embraced by the fifth commandment. But the Pharisees and elders and rulers among the Jews, ever ready to obtain all that they could for the church (for their hierarchy can as well be called a church as the Catholic), invented this way of freeing a child from his natural service to his parents, and turning it to their own benefit, ostensibly as a gift to God. And this differs only in form, not in principle, from the doctrine proclaimed by Tetzel, or that set forth in the Times, whereby a person, by performing certain works, can secure to himself moral privileges which he would otherwise not possess.

It is only the old Satanic principle of merit attaching to works-the principle which runs through all heathen systems, and finds ever a ready welcome in the natural heart. It matters not whether the price be money, or prayers, or other pious (?) works; the principle is the same in all. That which clamours for indulgence is self; and it is often willing to pay a good price to secure the privilege. In this way the coffers of the church have been kept filled, but the souls of men have been made eternally poor.

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

-The health of Pope Leo is said to be causing anxiety at the Vatican.

-Serious Socialist riots have been reported from Vienna, collisions having occurred between the Socialists and the police, in which many were injured.

-The Lucania has accomplished the voyage from Queenstown to New York in 5 days 12 hours and 47 minutes, beating the Campania's outward voyage by 36 minutes.

-Vesuvius is at present in a state of activity, and streams of lava are distinctly visible at night. The Prince of Naples has left for the mountain, to obtain a better view of the grand spectacle.

-Nov. 7, elections were held in several states of the American republic, including New York, New Jersey, Iowa, Ohio, and Kansas. In all of the latter the Republican party secured a sweeping victory.

-A vessel flying the American flag has been fired on at a Honduras port, owing to the refusal of the captain to deliver up General Bonilla, who led the recent revolt in Honduras, and who was a passenger on board.

-At Delphi a slab of marble has been discovered bearing a hymn to Apollo, with musical characters engraved over each syllable. This is the only record yet found that music was used by the ancient Greeks centuries before Christ.

-A band of rebel Arnauts from Macedonia is said to have attacked and captured the town of Prizand, the Turkish garrison retreating into the citadel. The Arnauts looted shops and houses, and have demanded the evacuation of the citadel.

-The pension list of the United States is made up of 969,012 names, and it records an annual disbursement of £31,348,003, exclusive of expenses.

-Mortality in London from diphtheria and scarlet fever is on the increase, the patients in the hospitals suffering from the latter being close upon 3,000, and there are 111 cases of small-pox under treatment on the hospital ships lying in the Thames.

-The position of affairs in connection with the coal lock-out remains unchanged. Meetings of the men have been held in various districts, and resolutions passed condemnatory of the owners' proposals. Great distress continues to prevail, especially in Lancashire.

-Only 1,600,000 of the half-dollar souvenir coins given by Congress to the World's Fair have been sold, and 2,000,000 have been returned to the Treasury with the request that they be withheld from circulation, as the Fair Directory hope to realise a premium upon the 1,400,000 that are still in their hands.

-A Cabinet crisis has occurred in Greece owing to the defeat of the Ministerial candidate for the Vice-Presidency of the Chamber. The Premier at once waited upon the king, and tendered the resignation of the Cabinet. This has since been accented, and M. Tricoupis has been charged to form a Ministry.

-Cargoes of mummies are being shipped from Egypt and Palestine to New York to be used as fertiliser. The embalming represents the theoretical phase of the ancient Egyptian faith, and the use now made of the bodies, the practical phase of that faith, which it remained for the nineteenth century to discover.

-The Chronicle's correspondent telegraphs that the Emperor Francis Joseph has given his assent to the introduction into the Diet of a Bill establishing obligatory civil marriage. Strenuous efforts have been made by the clerical party to induce the Emperor to withhold his sanction. The Cabinet crisis in Austria still continues.

-During a performance in a Barcelona theatre two tombs were thrown from the gallery into the midst of the stalls in the arena. Only one exploded, but fifteen persons were killed on the spot, many being injured. It has since been discovered that there were two more unexploded bombs in the theatre. The supposed author of the crime has been arrested.

-A correspondent of the Paris Temps states that the Dahomeyan envoys will inform the French Government that King Behanzin is anxious to conclude a treaty of peace on the basis of recognising French rights over Kotonu and Port Novo, and agreeing to the presence of French troops in certain specified places, while the King pledges himself to abolish human sacrifices and predatory raids.

-Continued skirmishes are reported as taking place between the Moors and Spaniards at Melilla. The Sultan of Morocco, however, on learning of the attacks of the Riffs Arabs upon Melilla, at once addressed a Note to the Spanish Minister at Tangier expressing his regret, and announcing his intention of dispatching a force to Melilla to chastise the Riffs, and offering Spain every satisfaction for the aggression.

-There has been further fighting with the Matabele on the part of the chartered Company's columns. Dr. Jameson reports defeating a Matabele force numbering 7,000, of whom 1,000 were killed and wounded. The Matabele, he says, burnt Buluwayo on the approach of the British. Dr. Jameson has sent an ultimatum from Buluwayo to Lobengula asking him to come in on a guarantee of good treatment, in order to prevent further loss of life.

-A vessel loaded with dynamite and petroleum exploded Nov. 3, in the harbour of Santander, Spain, wrecking surrounding ships and the greater portion of the town, and setting the latter on fire. The quay, upon which a large crowd had gathered to watch the fire, was wrecked, and its occupants thrown into the water, with fearful loss of life,-the estimate varying from 300 to 1,000. It is stated that the town has been virtually abandoned by its inhabitants, who are mostly encamped in adjoining hamlets. All business is at a standstill, the civil and military authorities alone remaining to prevent the town being pillaged. Owing to the horrifying spectacle presented by the bodies when recovered from the harbour, the work is only carried on at night.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

"And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, Men and brethren," etc. Acts xv. 7. No dispute was ever worthy of being recorded in the Bible. But when the Holy Spirit was given an opportunity of speaking, "Peter rose up," and what he said it was recorded and has come down to us. A dispute never settled anything, either in the Church or out of it.

We have just received the tenth annual report of the "London Tram-Car and Omnibus Scripture text Mission." The aim of this mission is to place Scripture texts in conspicuous positions in every tramcar and omnibus in London. It is a laudable aim, for no one can tell how much some tempted or discouraged soul may be helped in an emergency by having his eyes light on some word from the Lord. There is power in the word, and these texts cannot fail to do some good when left to tell their own story. Unfortunately lack of funds has limited the work, so that only about one-seventh of the cars and omnibuses have a text in them. Anyone wishing to assist, or to receive further information, should send to L. Newbery, Esq., or Mrs. E. S. Woods, 1, King Edward St, London, E.C.

Here is an item which shows the perfection of Church and State union in Russia:-

Owing to the spread of dissent in the Russian Army, M. Pbiedonostzeff has raised the question as to whether it is advisable to allow Nonconformists to attain even non-commissioned rank, as in the opinion of the Holy Synod such persons may have a pernicious moral and religious influence on the rank-and-file, and especially on recruits. In consequence of this inquiry the Minister of War has informed the Procurator of the Holy Synod that soldiers belonging to dissenting sects will not, in any case, be promoted.

There was a time when Christians would lay down their lives rather than bear arms to take the lives of their fellow-men. Perhaps that time has not yet passed; but the evil genius of Constantine effected such a change that professed Christians were willing to serve in his army, and now we see that his policy has borne such fruit in Russia that a man must have a certificate of "orthodoxy" before he can be allowed to engage in the work of killing people! That is true national religion.

No opportunity is neglected by Roman Catholics to impress upon the minds of people the idea that the Pope of Rome is the only one who can solve all the difficult problems of the day, and maintain peace on earth. By and by the majority of people will believe it, and will render allegiance to the Papacy, as is predicted in the prophecy. The days of "speaking great things and blasphemies" are not yet passed, as will be seen in the following extract from a report in the Catholic Times, of a lecture by a Catholic priest:-

It is because of the overthrow of the Catholic Church in this country that we have workhouses, and all those people who are unemployed or who dare not work. The State, no doubt, can do much for the amelioration of the people, but if we are to find a remedy we must go to the root of things. There is no power, my dear friends, that can control the intellect and the heart of man but that of Leo XIII., who has sent forth that glorious Encyclical on Labour.

The "man of sin" still sits in the temple of God, "setting himself forth as God."

The secret of the slaughter of the Matabele by the troops in the employ of the chartered company of South Africa, is let out in the following extract from a report from the seat of the massacres:-

The shrewd Colonists who form the bulk of our fighting forces are delighted with Matabeleland. The country has quite justified its reputation. It is full of reefs rich in gold, and the pasture is described as splendid. Consequently our men have gone to stay-that, at any rate, is the opinion of the men who have sent the news and of every Colonist here.

The march of "Christian civilisation" is a very unfortunate thing for savages who chance to have valuable land.

Last week we noticed the Federation of churches in Hampshire. The following from the Christian World shows that religious combination for political purposes is the order of the day:-

"Organise, organise!" is the note of modern Nonconformity. While Anglicans are discussing impossible schemes of union, the Free Churches are themselves actually uniting. The Baptists and Congregationalists of Yorkshire have just given another illustration of this by forming "A Civil Rights Joint Committe," and they commend their example to their brethren in all the other English countries. In a circular which they have just issued they express their conviction that "some method ought to be adopted by which the influence of nonconformity might be brought to bear directly on public questions." They say that the annual assemblies are too overcrowded with necessary business to have time for the adequate discussion of political questions. The Yorkshire Joint Committee consists of twenty representative men, including several M.P.s. If similar united Vigilance Commmittees are formed throughout the country, the rural despotism of squire and parson will find its operations followed up in a way extremely uncomfortable to those whilom potentates, while distinctly helpful to the cause of civil and religious liberty.

There is the greatest danger in such combinations,-danger no less to the bodies forming the combination than to people in general. To the bodies themselves there is the loss of spiritual power, and to the people at large there is a pressure of religious despotism. The preaching of the pure Gospel alone, is the only legitimate way in which Christians can bring their influence to bear on public questions. As to the possibility of helping the cause of religious liberty by any sort of political action, we shall, the Lord willing, have something to say next week.

Although the Czar takes pains to guard his soldiers from the contaminating influence of those who worship God after the way which he calls heresy, it appears that something more than laws and regulations is needed to bind his subjects to him. The Toulon correspondent of the Times says that as soon as the Russian sailors were allowed to go ashore, on the occasion of the French reception of the Russian fleet, both officers and men made their way to the booksellers' shops, to lay in a stock of literature prohibited in Russia, such as Russian translations of treatises on democracy, Socialism, etc., which the enterprising French bookseller, with rare knowledge of human nature, had specially procured from Geneva.

Some beer given by a landowner to the soldiers during the recent Berkshire manúuvers was issued during one march to the extent of one pint per man. In reference to this Sir Evelyn Wood says: "The medical officers advised me, and I am satisfied, that although the stimulant of the beer produced an apparent beneficial effect for about an hour, it was manifest, later, that the men would have marched better without it."

That is always the effect of a mere stimulant. If the beer had been food, the man would have marched even better an hour after taking it than at the first. The incident shows that beer, instead of giving strength, actually diminishes it. And so we must consider the enormous amount of beer consumed as just so great a waste of strength. If it were merely a question of money wasted, it would be bad enough, but when the money is spent for that which not only is not bread, but diminishes the strength, the evil is beyond computation.

November 23, 1893

"Front Page" The Present Truth 9, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

"He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God." John iii. 34. This admits of no exception. Of course it primarily applies to Christ, but also to all whom He sends to teach. "As My Father hath sent Me, so send I you," are His words. This, then, is the test of a teacher sent from God. If He speaks only the words of God, he has Divine authority; if he speaks his own words, he is not from God.

Every religious teacher should remember these words. He has no right to speak from his own wisdom. Even the Holy Ghost has said, "He shall not speak from Himself; but what things soever He shall hear, these shall He speak." The teacher therefore has nothing to do with opinions. He must not put forth his own opinions, even though he be asked for them. Even though he expressly declares that it is only his own opinion, somebody will take it as authority, and thus he leads men to trust in man, instead of in God. "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God." 1 Peter iv. 11.

On the other hand, there is a responsibility resting on the hearers. "Take heed how ye hear," is the command of Christ. When anyone receives God's message from one of His servants, he is to receive it as the word of God, and not of man. See 1 Thess. ii. 13. "But how are we to know that it is the word of God?" By the word itself. You are to become acquainted with the voice of the Lord. Jesus says, "I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine." John x. 14. Do you ask how you are to get this acquaintance with Him? The answer is, Talk with Him. Meditate in His word, and ask and receive the promise of the Spirit.

Those who have learned and have submitted to the Spirit, are thus addressed: "Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things." "The anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you." 1 John ii. 20 This is in accordance with the promise of the new covenant. "And They shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord; for they shall all know Me, from the least to the greatest."

This cannot possibly be intended as a depreciation of teachers, because God has set teachers in the church. See 1 Cor. xii. 28. But the teachers whom He sends are to speak His words, and therefore their teaching is not the teaching of men. Although men know the Lord, that does not signify that there is no possibility of their learning anything more. See Col. i. 9, 10. The teachers whom He sends speak His words to men, in order that those who do not know the Lord, may become acquainted with Him, and that those who do know Him, may "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

It is possible for a man to hear the words of God, and to receive them as the words of man. Then they do him no good, no matter how much he remembers. What is the evidence that one has received the word of the Lord as the word of man?-Simply this, that he connects the light and knowledge which he has received, with a man who uttered the words. When a man says, "Brother So-and-So says," etc., that shows that God has not taught him the truth which he may have a feeble hold of. He has taken it as from man. But when the truth of God, uttered by man, comes to him as a revelation from God Himself, so that he forgets the agent, and feels that God has spoken to him directly, then he knows the truth. "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God," and let him who listens hear as if God did beseech him by the speaker.

"Better than Miracles" The Present Truth 9, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

Jesus said to His disciples: "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.

It is not to be wondered at that the question is often asked, What are these greater works? Why do we not see them performed by the followers of Christ? It is not possible for man to tell what the greater works are, for nobody can conceive of any greater works than Jesus did: "The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them." Matt. xi. 5.

The statement that is sometimes made, that the promise of Jesus is fulfilled in the great numbers that have accepted the Gospel through the preaching of His followers, does not meet the case. While conversions are included in the promise, miracles of healing, and even of raising the dead, cannot be excluded; for they were all among the works which Christ did.

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That promise has not yet been fulfilled, except for a brief period in the days of the apostles. But a fulfilment of it at one time does not exhaust it, because it is unlimited. "He that believeth in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do."

Perhaps we shall find the complete answer to the question why miracles are not now wrought, by considering a case of failure, in contrast with the spirit which Jesus manifested in performing His mighty works. When Philip was preaching in Samaria, he performed some wonderful miracles, and among those who believed in consequence was one Simon, who had bewitched the people with his sorcery, "giving out that himself was some great one." He "continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done." Finally Peter and John came, and laid their hands on the people, who received the Holy Ghost. This caused Simon to wonder the more, and he offered the apostles money, saying, "Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter; for thy heart is not right in the sight of God." See Acts viii. 6-21.

What was the trouble with Simon? It was self. The fact that he was willing to give money, in order to get power to bestow the Holy Spirit, shows that he wanted to make money out of it. Pecuniary gain, and self-glorification were the motives that prompted his desire for the Holy Spirit's power. He doubtless was not fully conscious of all this, but persuaded himself that his object was to do good; "for the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it." And Simon's heart was not right with God.

We see from this that the power of the Holy Spirit cannot be used for selfish ends, and therefore it cannot be given where there is a possibility that the one to whom it is given will become exalted because of it, and take honour to himself. It is the Spirit and power of God, and if men take any of the glory of the power to themselves, they would be putting themselves in the place of God; and then people would be led astray, because they would follow a sinful man, instead of God.

Now note a peculiarity of Jesus. "And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed and them all, and charged them that they should not make Him known." Matt. xii. 16. So when He raised the ruler's daughter from the dead, "He charged them straitly that no man should know it." Mark v. 43. Also when He healed the man full of leprosy, "He charged him to tell no man." Luke iv. 14. And so we find that He did on other occasions. In no case do we find Him telling anybody to advertise Him through His miracles, except in the case of the demoniac of Gadara, and then He was about to leave the country because the people would not allow Him to stay.

How many religious teachers are there in these days, who would pursue a similar course under the same circumstances? In these days any event of importance is heralded far and wide. Sometimes minor matters are magnified into vast proportions, so as to have a good report. If by any means a miracle healing should be performed, the probability is that the papers would fairly groan with accounts of it.

Of course in all this there would not be any conscious egotism, or desire to make self prominent. No doubt it would be expressly stated that the glory was all due to the Lord. The object would be to win converts to the faith. Nevertheless it would not be the way Jesus did; and as long as there is a spirit in man, different from the Spirit of Christ, they will not be able to do the things that He did. We may say that times have changed, but the fact remains that the truth of God has not changed, and the conditions under which the Spirit and power of God are given, have not changed.

Let it be remembered that Jesus never performed any miracles merely for show. Every one was for the purpose of relieving pressing need. He did them because with His sympathising nature, and the power that He had, they were the most natural things in the world for Him to do. In doing them His whole thought was for others, and not for Himself. "Said he, "I seek, not Mine own glory." John viii. 50.

Neither were Christ's miracles wrought for the purpose of winning converts, because there had to be belief before miracles could be performed. We read of His own country, that "He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief." Matt. xiii. 58. His words and His very presence were what won His disciples. Remember that His most intimate disciples, those who followed Him the most steadfastly, and who continued His disciples after His ascension,-followed Him before they saw any miracles. When many professed believers on Him left Him the very next day after one of His most wonderful miracles, and He said to the twelve "Will ye also go away?" Peter answered for the twelve, making no reference to His miracles, by saying, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." John vi. 66-69. It was His words that held them to Him. It was His words that charmed the soldiers who were sent to take Him. "Never man spake like this Man."

This is why Jesus did not want to have His miracles advertised. He did not want people to follow Him from selfish motives, nor out of mere curiosity. Of course they could not be concealed, yet they were wrought because of pure love for the needy, and not for the purpose of making converts. He wished, as He does still, people who follow Him because they love Him.

In this we see that there is something far better than the power to work miracles. It is the meek and quiet spirit of Jesus. The ability to work miracles is inferior in importance to the power to bring to people the words of God. See 1 Cor. xii. 28. Jesus had "emptied Himself," and God worked through Him, so that when miracles were performed, the people "glorified God." So God can work now only through those who are wholly emptied of self, having the mind of Christ in them. Now, as in the days of Simon the sorcerer, those who desire the power to work miracles, will be the very ones who will not receive it.

We see in Samson a specimen of the spirit that will be manifested in those for whom the Lord works mightily. "A young lion roared against him. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand; but he told not his father or his mother what he had done." Judges xiv. 6. So we have in the twenty-fifth of Matthew the difference between the false and the true followers of Jesus. The one

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tell of the wonderful things that they have done, while the true followers are unconscious of the fact that they have done anything of value. And so we may conclude that when the disciples of Jesus do the "greater works" of which He spoke, they will not be conscious of the fact that they are doing anything extraordinary.

Therefore instead of wondering why miracles are not done, and faintly longing for the power to do them, the right thing to do is to hunger and thirst after righteousness; to seek to know the will of God, and to study His word until its Spirit permeates the soul. To have the power to speak a word in due season to him that is weary, just as Jesus did, is the thing most to be desired. And that can be done only by those who speak the words of God as He did. Then when self is wholly gone, and the individual is completely surrendered to the Lord, and living by every word that proceeds out of His mouth, seeking not his own, but only the glory of God, and willing that God shall do whatsoever He wishes with him, no matter how humble the task,-then will the lowliest services of love be transformed by the power of God into the most wonderful works, and men will praise the Lord for His goodness.

"Contending with Truth" The Present Truth 9, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

When the minions of Rome came one day to the home of the reformer Wycliffe, who was then prostrated upon what was supposed to be his death-bed, and looked upon him with exaltation over the prospect of his early decease, the old man raised himself upon his bed and confronting his enemies, exclaimed, "With whom do you think you are contending? with a poor, feeble, worn-out man, tottering upon the brink of the grave? No; but with truth; truth, which is mightier than you, and will one day will vanquish you!"

In these words the Reformer stated a principle that has been lost sight of by the world at large, but is nonetheless true for failing to obtain popular recognition. Truth is mightier than all its foes. When men fight against Christianity, they are not contending with men, but with principles; and their efforts are entirely useless against those. They can imprison a man; they can burn him at the stake; but they cannot imprison or burn a principle of truth. The men who advocate them die, but the principles live on. The Reformers died; but the Reformation continued on, in spite of the utmost efforts of all its foes, and is moving majestically forward to-day, clothed in an ever-brightening panoply of truth, to a near and glorious triumph.

The reason is that it has in it the power of the word of God, which is the power of omnipotence. If we stand in the way of this truth, our efforts will avail nothing, and we ourselves shall be overwhelmed beneath it; but it comes to us not for that purpose, but that we may take refuge upon it. The word of God cannot be shaken. Jesus said, "Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not; for it was founded upon a rock." Matt. viii. 24, 25.

Here is offered to every one a sure foundation. You may take your stand now upon the truth, upon the sayings of Jesus Christ, and know that you stand upon that which is immovable. This is the move which wisdom calls you to make. No matter what your circumstances may be, no matter what difficulties may rise up against you, they cannot shake you if your feet are planted upon the foundation of God's word. The truth will triumph, and those who rest upon it will triumph with it. Will you build upon the rock, or upon the sand?

"Religious Liberty by Law" The Present Truth 9, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

A few days since the writer was very much interested in reading the story of the experience of an agent of the Bible Society in South America. It told of narrow escapes from Roman Catholic mobs, and of the power of the preaching of the pure Gospel, to remove prejudice. In the last paragraph of the article there occurred this statement: "No less a personage than the public school teacher came to warn me that, not bonds and imprisonment (we have religious liberty by law), but death at the hands of a mob awaited me if I did not desist from entering Orobe Grande."

This started a train of thought. What is religious liberty? and is it something which can be secured to people by law? Is its existence doubtful if it be not upheld by law? and can oppressive laws deprive people of it? The answers to the last three questions depend upon the answer to the first. According to the popular idea of religious liberty, the last three questions must be answered in the affirmative; but there is at least a strong probability that the popular idea of the matter is wrong. How can we find out the true definition?

A question concerning religious liberty is one that pertains to religion; and where should we go for information concerning religion, except to the Bible? There we learn that "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." James i. 27.

How can one keep himself "unspotted from the world"?-Again we read the answer, in the statement that the Lord Jesus Christ "gave Himself for us, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father." Gal. i. 4. Therefore true religion is a religion of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There are very many kinds of religion in the world, but only one true religion. That is not a form, but a life. It consists not in a creed and ceremonies, but in a living faith in Christ. The word "religion" is not synonymous with "Christianity," but true religion is. It promises what no other religion does, and fulfils its promises. It alone gives salvation. Besides the name of Jesus, "There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." There is not salvation in any other. Acts iv. 12. And this salvation is not merely something, promised for the future, but is a present reality. It is deliverance "from this present evil world," and that means deliverance from the evil of this present world. See John xvii. 15.

The word "deliverance" means freedom. To deliver is to free. Therefore we find that the religion of Jesus Christ is a religion of freedom. Read the words of Christ, and the opening of His earthly ministry. "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." Luke iv. 18.

Read again what He said to the Jews who followed Him: "If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John viii. 31, 32. Then when

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the Jews demurred, saying that they were never in bondage, He continued, "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin." And so the Apostle Peter, speaking of false prophets that were to arise, teaching false light, said: "While they promised them [that is, their followers] liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption; for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is He brought in bondage." 2 Peter ii. 19.

We have just read the Scripture which says that the Spirit of the Lord anointed Jesus to preach deliverance to the captives, and to set at liberty them that are bound. Now read in 2 Cor. iii. 17: "Now the Lord is that Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." That means, as well, that where the Spirit of the Lord is not, there is not liberty. If it were otherwise, there would be no point in Christ's work. He came to grant liberty, for the reason that liberty could be obtained from no other source.

We have therefore the answer to our first question. Religious liberty is the possession of the Spirit of the Lord. The others are easily answered. Can religious liberty be secured by law?-Not unless the Holy Spirit can be secured by law. What saith the Scripture?-"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit." John iii. 8. The Spirit of God is subject to no men, or the will of the men. God is not a subject; He is the King of kings; and therefore His Spirit cannot be controlled by any human power. The Spirit can no more be affected by human law than the north wind can by legal enactment be made to blow from the south. Therefore since religious liberty is obtained only through the Spirit, it is evident that religious liberty is something with which human laws have no more to do than with the blowing of the wind or the shining of the sun.

That which is ordinarily called religious liberty is not religious liberty in any sense of the term. Legal permission to worship in public without molestation, is of precisely the same nature as liberty to open a shop, or to carry on any business without interference. But liberty to think or to believe, is something with which laws can have nothing to do. The slave is as free to think as is his master. Prison bars cannot stop a man from thinking what he pleases, nor can they take away man's freedom to believe. Nay, more, they cannot take away a free man's freedom to speak what he will. The apostles spoke in spite of all the laws against them; and their words were with power because of the very liberty which they enjoyed through Christ, which could not be checked by bonds and imprisonment.

The man who depends upon civil law for liberty to believe, is not a free man, even though the law be the most liberal ever known. For the fact that he derives his freedom from the law, shows that if the law were adverse, he would at once lose his liberty; and that shows that his is not the liberty of Christ, for that comes from heaven.

It is evident therefore, that they who think to advance the cause of religious liberty by political action, are really working against it. The very existence of laws concerning religion is a badge of slavery. When men wish a law to "protect" them in the performance of religious duties, or what they conceive to be religious duties, they thereby show that they are slaves to fear. They want a law to help them to do what they have not the power or the courage to do without the support of "public sentiment." "God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." 2 Tim. i. 7.

"The word of God is not bound," and therefore whosoever has it abiding in him has liberty. Let us "stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free," and not dishonour Him by intimating that He or His cause depends to any degree whatever on human laws.

"Church Establishment and Destitute Clergy" The Present Truth 9, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

The Methodist Times does not view with satisfaction the condition of things which prevails in those churches where ecclesiastical interests are presided over and controlled by the State. The Times says:-

We believe that many of the country clergy are so destitute that they are even depending upon charity. It is to be presumed that the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London and other great dignitaries, lay and clerical, of the established church are aware of these facts. They have long existed and are notorious. Is this the blessed result of the political union between the State and Church? Is this the ideal community to which the nonconformist churches are invited? Is this the spectacle that is calculated to melt the hearts of the infidels, and to commend Christianity to all men as the religion of honesty, disinterestedness, and unselfish devotion?

No; but this is the spectacle that is naturally to be expected wherever a union of Church and State exists; for such a union substitutes politicalism-if we may be allowed the expression-for that spirituality which should be the controlling power of the church. It leaves open the avenues through which human pride and ambition enter into and debase the life that purports to exemplify Christianity. When the same spirit that controls in the State also rules in the church, it is nothing strange if we see some holders of ecclesiastical benefices living in ease and opulence, while others are dependent on charity, just as seen among office holders in the State. The remedy is a total dissolution of the unholy alliance by which the church is robbed of her spiritual life and power, and a return to Him who is the Fountain of all goodness and whose spirit is that of unselfish regard for the welfare of all men.

"Christianity and Equality" The Present Truth 9, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

The equality of all men is a fundamental principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not that all men are equal physically or intellectually or even morally; but they are equal in that they all stand on a common footing in their relation to their Creator. God is no respecter of persons. They are equal in that they all have the same rights; for rights are God-given. God gave His Son to die for all men, that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life. John iii. 16. All souls are of equal value in His sight. He paid the same price for one that He did for another.

But while God is no respecter of persons, we find that man, whom He has created, is a respecter of persons. The Majesty of heaven, the Creator and Upholder of all worlds, treats with equal regard the most humble and the most exalted of our race; but puny, finite man presumes to make a distinction among his fellows, and even those who profess to be His followers are often not behind the rest in ignoring the rights of those whom fortune has surrounded with the least favourable circumstances of birth, education, or nationality.

The Matabele savage, for example, although it is his fortune to be born into surroundings and circumstances which cause him to grow up an ignorant, uncivilsed denizen of his native wilds, is none the less for that a member of the human family, and possessed of those rights which are inherent in every man by birth. In his relation to God, he stands upon the same footing

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as that of his more fortunate fellows in civilised lands. God has no more respect to the person of one than of the other. He gave His Son to die for both alike. And the power of Divine grace will work the same transformation in both, and fit both alike for the inheritance of the children of faith. The body of the ignorant savage, no less than that of his enlightened, civilised brother, may become the temple of the Holy Spirit. Yet the latter presumes to deal with the former as if God had given him no rights whatever, and as if his standing in the sight of God was entirely different from his own. He invades his country, despoils him of his property, kills him if he tries to prevent it, and divides his territory and portions it out among the victors, with no more thought of its native possessors and their rights than as though they were but "the cattle upon a thousand hills." And he does all this in the name of justice; yes, even sometimes in the name of Christianity.

But the principle which actuates him in such work is the very opposite of Christianity. Christianity is unselfish. It makes a man the servant, not the master, of his fellows. It does not prompt a man, when he beholds some wrong, to commit a greater wrong in order to make it right; but it prompts him to go to the wrong doer, not with rifles and Maxim guns, but with the Spirit of Christ, and endeavour to reclaim him from the evil to which he has fallen. It does not palliate a wrong because it is done to one who happens to be uncivilised. It teaches the brotherhood of man, and that each man is his brother's keeper. It puts him under obligation to both Jew and Gentile, not to override and rob and slay the latter, but to bring to him the glad tidings of that gospel which is the power of God unto salvation.

Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles, and one of the most illustrious followers of Jesus Christ, has left on record for us his own view of himself by declaring himself to be "less than the least of all saints," and "nothing." Eph. iii. 8; 2 Cor. xii. 2. This is the view which every Christian will have of himself when he is living as near to his Lord as was the Apostle Paul. And this is the secret of the realisation of equality among men. This is the only way in which it can ever come. When each one sees himself to be the least of all, no one will put himself above any of his fellows, no matter what may be their race, colour, or the misfortunes which have dragged them down.

Let it be understood, therefore, that nothing that is not done for the welfare of those who are its recipients, is prompted by the Spirit of Christianity, or should have the sanction of Christian men and women.

"War? Or Murder?" The Present Truth 9, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

A gentleman has written to the Daily Chronicle in regard to the slaughter of the Matabele, inquiring whether the English nation is at war with King Lobengula. As a matter of fact, the war is being carried on by the Chartered Company, which wants Matabeleland, and is imploying British soldiers to effect the conquest. But the point which the Chronicle's correspondent makes is as follows:-

Either we are at war with him, or we are not at war with him. If we are at war with him, then we should declare war against him, and the force of the Crown should carry on the war. If we are not at war with him, then those engaged in slaughtering his people are engaged in simple murder.

In the above we are able to see the flimsiness of the distinctions that people make in things that do not differ. Thus, the difference between war and murder lies entirely in a proclamation by the Government. If the Government makes the Company's fight its own, then the men engaged in the slaughter are doing a lawful act; but if not, then they are murderers! Isn't it wonderful what a change can be wrought in the moral character of man's action, by a little piece of paper with a big seal on it?

The idea generally obtains that in an army a man entirely loses his individual responsibility, so that however unjust the war, or whatever atrocities are committed, the "Government" alone is responsible, and the men are individually guiltless. And then the "Government" is an impersonal character, so that no officer of State can be held responsible for murder, no matter how many people are slaughtered at his instigation.

Now all this will appear to be, as it indeed is, the veriest nonsense, when one stops to think. If one man sets upon another, and kills him for his money, he is a murderer. If three or four men are engaged in the work, they are all murderers. There is no question about that in anybody's mind. If those four men, or four times as many men, have drilled themselves so that they can act in concert, and have appointed a leader, and then attack a dozen or more men, and kill them in order to possess their property, the slayers are still murderers. Suppose now that the men who desire the property of some other people, are so numerous that they are not obliged to act secretly; suppose that they are the majority of any nation, and that the chief men in the nation are the leaders in the affair, wherein does the latter case differ from the first? Manifestly in no particular whatever, save that in the latter instance there are more murders and more accessories.

It may be said that the soldiers do not declare war, and have no personal interest in the matter. That does not relieve them from responsibility. If a man were caught in the act of killing a fellow-man, could he save his neck from the gallows by pleading that somebody else had hired him to commit the deed. Certainly not; both he and the man who hired him, would be counted guilty of murder, and justly so.

The fact is no man in his senses is ever free from personal accountability for his acts. Others may share his guilt, but he cannot shift the responsibility of his acts upon some other person, or upon an impersonal "Government." That which would be murder in one case, cannot be made lawful by being dignified with the title "war."

"'I Don't Believe'" The Present Truth 9, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

Some men are very much given to telling what they don't believe. Especially is this so with regard to the statements of Scripture. It is fashionable, even in church circles, to doubt some portions of the word of God, and this tendency of the age is constantly becoming more marked. Its effect upon youthful minds is most disastrous. Many a young man to-day is resting in spiritual apathy, refusing to identify himself with the followers of Christ, because of certain things pertaining to Christianity, or which he fancies pertain to it, which he does not understand, and does not believe to be true. When he thinks of Christianity it is only to think of these doubts. He views it only from a negative side. When these doubts are all cleared away, he will (as he thinks) embrace it. He is patiently waiting for them to be cleared up; but until they are gone he feels justified in remaining where he is.

A course so foolish as this would hardly be taken in anything outside of the realm of our obligations to God. The very worst foundation in the

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world to stand on is that of doubt. There is no virtue in doubt; it imparts no wisdom, no strength. No man could accomplish anything in any line of physical or mental achievement, working on a basis of what he did not believe. No; it is faith that gives power; it is belief from which a man draws inspiration for the task before him. It is conviction that fills him with energy and nerves his hands for the successful prosecution of his work.

The men who have done the most in the world are those who have not been held back by doubt. Who ever undertook a great work that did not involve many difficulties the solution of which was not apparent? No man can see the end from the beginning; he cannot even see with certainty a single hour into the future. The pathway which leads out to the regions beyond, though plain enough where our feet are standing, becomes less and less distinct until, apparently, it is hedged up altogether; but no one turns back on that account. He knows there is an opening through which the path continues on, and that he will see it when he comes to it. He would characterise as extreme folly the idea of standing still and waiting till he could see the openings all the way, before he proceeded further.

And such it is; and no less so in spiritual things than in things that are temporal and earthly. The truth is, we are surrounded on every side by that which we cannot understand. Look which way we will, we have plenty of chance to doubt. There is no place where we can take our stand and say that everything around us is clear and plain. If we reject the word of God because there are things in it we cannot understand, we only involve ourselves in more doubt; for now we must explain to our satisfaction how many things that come under our notice can be, if the Bible be not true. The phenomena of Christianity-not so-called Christianity, but that which is based upon the Bible-its power, its effect upon the minds and hearts of men, must be explained; and the unbeliever finds himself more in the dark than ever. Accepting the Bible as true, the power which is in the word, and all that history, both sacred and secular, testifies of its power in healing the bodies and the souls of men, is easily comprehended; but discarding the sacred word, we only find ourselves compelled to account for all this upon some hypothesis, we know not what. But those who disbelieve the Scriptures usually shut their eyes to the difficulties in which their unbelief involves them. In getting rid of the word they have released themselves from duties and responsibilities that were disagreeable to self, and this is generally the real thing for which they are seeking. It is much easier to doubt a disagreeable truth than one which involves no sacrifice on our part.

Look not at your doubts, at what you do not believe, but at what you do believe. Your "don't believes" are of no value, either to yourself or anybody else. It is belief only that contains a positive force. If there is any part of God's word that you do believe, take your stand on that and conform your life to it, and seek to the Author of that for further knowledge. Search not for things to doubt, but for things to believe. Make an advance move; walk out in the light that you have, and you will find your pathway growing brighter and brighter, "unto the perfect day."

"'Higher Criticism'" The Present Truth 9, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

The "Higher Criticism" is not by any means a new thing. From the most ancient times there have been men who were able to demonstrate to their own satisfaction the impossibility of the truthfulness of the word of God. Two instances occur to mind just now.

The first instance occurred in Samaria. The city was closely beseiged, and the people were perishing for famine. Then Elisha the prophet said: "Hear ye the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord, To-morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria." 2 Kings vii. 1.

But there was a certain "lord" in the city, who was something of a "higher critic;" and he said, "Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be?" He knew too much to believe so impossible a story, and he reaped the consequences of unbelief. The prophet said to him, "Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not eat thereof."

And so it was. The same day the Lord caused a panic to seize the besieging army, so that they all fled, leaving provision in abundance, so that provision the next day was as cheap as the prophet had said. The unbelieving lord had charge of the gate, so that he saw the plenty; but the people in their desperate rush for food trod upon him, so that he died without getting any benefit from it. It is to be feared that many of the "higher critics" of these days will meet a similar fate. If they do not come down from their lofty position, they will derive no benefit from the life which God's word abundantly supplies, although they will certainly see it some day.

Another instance of the "higher criticism" occurred in the days of Christ. Certain Sadducees made great profession of believing the Bible, but they did not put any confidence in the Saviour's teaching concerning it. His words must be measured by their reason, the same as those of an ordinary man, and if they were not in harmony with their mind, they must be rejected. And so they brought the well-known question concerning the resurrection, which showed conclusively to their own minds, that Jesus was mistaken.

Notice the directness of Christ reply, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." Matt. xxii. 29. That was the trouble with this Samaritan lord. And that is the trouble with all who presume to criticise the whole or a part of the Bible. He who knows the Scriptures, will not sit in judgment on them. The ignorance of the Scriptures that is displayed by those who find so many errors in the Bible, is one of the most noticeable things in connection with the "higher criticism."

What is it to know the Scriptures? It does not necessarily consist in ability to quote portions of it, or to read or even to repeat it in the original Hebrew and Greek. Many a man who could read the Bible with ease in the ancient languages, knows far less of the Scriptures than some poor man who can do no more than spell out the text in his own language. He who receives the Scriptures as the very word of God, is the one who knows the Scriptures. Such an one will not doubt and criticise that which he does not understand. To believe the word of God, is to know it. He who does not believe cannot possibly understand.

"A Counter Reformation" The Present Truth 9, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

Quite recently Archdeacon Sinclair, of London, made the following statement:-

The most serious fact which we have at present to face is indicated by the support given to the book of the President of the English Church Union and his friends, called "The Lord's Day and the Holy Eucharist." The book points out with great frankness the mistakes of the Reformers in our present prayer book, speaks with unreserved freedom of its shortcomings and blots,

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proposes the omission of the Ten Commandments, advocates mediÊval additions to our office to bring it into line with Sarum, pronounces fasting reception, to be necessary, urges the practice of reservation, proposes the introduction of the Romish service of Benediction, wishes to alter our cathedrals services so that there should be Mass every morning, longs that everybody should recognise that our chief religious duty is the oblation of the Lamb of God, insists on the restoration of the word Mass, and deplores the disastrous effects of the Reformation. We are reluctantly brought to the conclusion that the policy advocated in the book is really the policy of the Sacerdotal party, and that we are indeed in the presence of a strong, hopeful, and united phalanx, who desire to restore what was repudiated at the Reformation. The English CUnion has now 34,761 men in its ranks, of whom 4,200 are in Holy Orders, and twenty-nine are Bishops. We are compelled to suppose that as the policy of "The Lord's Day and the Holy Eucharist" is now supported by the great party organ, and is not disavowed by any of the members of the English Church Union, and they are prepared to enlist in the same campaign of melancholy retrogressive change. We are in the midst of a real counter-Reformation.

It is fitting that the Ten Commandments should be omitted by a party that is seeking to unite with Rome. It is encouraging to know that there are many who are opposed to retrogression; but the outlook would be more encouraging if they realised that the Reformation has never been completed, and is, in fact, but little more than begun.

"The Loudest Noise Ever Heard" The Present Truth 9, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

In an American journal Sir Robert S. Ball thus describes an occurrence which was the occasion, as he affirms, of "the mightiest noise ever heard on this globe." No doubt it was the mightiest noise ever heard since the awful sounding of the trumpet from the smoking, quaking summit of Mt. Sinai, when once the camp of ancient Israel was pitched before it, and the more dreadful sound of the words of Divine law as they came from the lips of the Lawgiver, "whose voice that shook the earth." Secular history, at least, gives us no record of anything in the annals of terrestrial disturbances of such appalling magnificence as this occurrence of which he writes, and which may well be regarded as a prelude to the convulsions of the day of God:-

No thunder from the skies was ever accompanied with a roar of such behemoths as that which issued from the throat of the great volcano in Krakatoa, an islet lying in the Straits of Sunda between Sumatra and Java, at ten o'clock on Monday morning, August 27, 1883. As that dreadful Sunday night wore on, the noises increased in intensity and frequency. The explosions succeeded each other so rapidly that a continuous roar seemed to issue from the island. The critical moment was now approaching, and the outbreak was preparing for a majestic combination. The people of Batavia did not sleep that night. Their windows quivered with the thunders from Krakatoa, which sounded like the discharge of artillery in their streets. Finally, at ten o'clock on Monday morning, a stupendous convulsion took place which far transcended any of the shocks which had preceded it. This supreme effort it was which raised the mightiest voice ever heard on this globe. Batavia is ninety-four miles distant from Krakatoa. At Carimon, Java, 355 miles away, reports were heard on that Sunday morning which led to the belief that there must be some vessel in the distance which was discharging its guns as signals of distress. The authorities sent out boats to make a search; they presently returned, as no ship could be found in want of succour. The reports were sounds which had come all the way from Krakatoa. At Macassar, in Celebes, loud explosions attracted the notice of everybody. Two steamers were hastily sent out to find what was the matter. The sounds had travelled from the Straits of Sunda, a distance of 969 miles. But mere hundreds of miles will not suffice to illustrate the extraordinary distance to which the greatest noise that ever was heard was able to penetrate. The figures have to be expressed in thousands. This seems almost incredible, but it is certainly true. In the Victoria Plains, in Western Australia, the shepherds were startled by noises like heavy cannonading. It was sometime afterward before they learned that their tranquillity had been disturbed by the grand events then proceeding at Krakatoa, 1,700 miles away.

"Understanding the Scriptures" The Present Truth 9, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

The study of the Scriptures is a matter of vital importance to the welfare of every individual. In this day the Scriptures are little read and still less understood, even by the majority of those who profess Christianity. The result of this neglect will be seen, by many, only when it is too late to be remedied.

It is possible to read the Bible as if it were but the word of men. The language of the sacred volume contains very much that is instructive and entertaining from a primarily literary standpoint. Its narratives are as fascinating as any to be found in history or fiction. But it is not this that gives the Bible its excellence; but the fact that all its narratives, its poetry, its figures of speech, its lofty diction, are the vehicles of Divine truth which is able to save the soul; that its words are living words, giving life and power to whomsoever will receive them into the heart. The Bible contains many stories, but it is not a story book; it contains much history, yet it is not a history; neither is it a text-book for the study of literature; it is more than all of these; it is the word of God speaking to us and showing us the truths which pertain to salvation. It is the living word sent down from heaven to re-create and give spiritual life to souls that are dead in trespasses and sins.

A person may be familiar with all the inheritance of the sacred word; he may know the substance of what is treated of in the various books, and be able to repeat much of the language verbatim, and yet not know the Bible. He may know that Jacob wrestled all night with an angel, and yet not know how to obtain the blessings of God. He may know that the Israelites came up to a land of Canaan and their halted and did not enter in for fear of its high-walled cities and giant inhabitants, and yet not know the power and necessity of faith. He may read all the inspired record of ancient wanderings and conquests and settlements of God's chosen people, the history of their days of prosperity and of adversity, and not know that "to obey is better than sacrifice," and that justice, mercy, and truth are the weightier matters of the law. Yet these are the truths which God designs to teach us in His word-not historical truths, but ever living and present truths; not truths to enlighten us concerning some events that happened in ancient times, but to show us the mercy, wisdom, and power of God in His present dealings with men.

History is valuable because history repeats itself. Men learn wisdom for the present from the mistakes of the past. But the Bible is valuable because human nature is the same, and the power and love and wisdom of God are the same, and His righteousness the same, through all ages of the world.

The Bible was given to men to be understood, and it can be understood. God made no mistake when He dictated His word to the holy men of old. He knew the capabilities of those to whom it was sent, and is sent to-day. The only difficulty in the way of its comprehension is the carnal heart. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned." 1 Cor. ii. 14. What is needed is spirituality. The spiritually minded man is a magnet to all spiritual truth. "The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." Having the Spirit, there is no impassible barrier in the way of the understanding all that which God has spoken.

The inquiry of Philip to the eunuch is an important one for all. "Understandeth thou what thou readest?" Acts viii. 30. The eunuch was reading a most important statement of truth, but he knew not what it signified till the Spirit of God, through Philip, enlightened his mind. And scripture is read to-day with little or no compresion

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of its spiritual meaning. Truths of vital importance to the spiritual welfare are scanned by the eye, yet not perceived by the heart. They are truths that must be spiritually discerned, and no amount of human wisdom or intellectual keenness can grasp them without that power of discernment which the Spirit gives.

And why do we not have that power? The answer is, that self occupies the heart, instead of the Spirit of God. The two cannot dwell there together; self shuts out spiritual truths. We cannot see through self. It is perfectly opaque. No matter how plain the truth is, we cannot see it if self is in the way. And self is wise (in its own conceits). It wants a chance to display its own wisdom, it does not seek for that wisdom which is from above.

Spiritual knowledge is not head knowledge, but heart knowledge. It is a part of the life. It is the word of life hid in the believing heart. This is why spiritual truth must be spiritually discerned. They come into the heart only in the form of an experience; and experience cannot come without the working of the Spirit. It cannot come without the entrance of the living word, which is received by faith. But truth and human wisdom are things altogether distinct from each other. Their testimonies are often contradictory one to the other, and in such a case the latter is always to be discarded. Human wisdom and reasoning have nothing to do with discerning spiritual truths.

Without the study of the word there can be no discernment of the real essential truths which pertain to the Christian life. But can we grasp them unless our study is in humility and with prayer for spiritual enlightenment. And this is a matter of vital importance, for salvation comes through the word. For the Word is God (see John i. 1), and salvation is "the end of your faith" (1 Pet. i. 9), and faith is belief of the Word. Peter testifies also that the result of wresting the Scriptures is destruction. 2 Pet. iii. 16. It is not a question of taste or inclination with us whether we shall study and understand God's word; it is a matter of life or death, of eternal gain or loss. God has sent us His word. Too slight it is too slight Him. He has made all provision that we should understand it. If we do not, it will be only because of the presence of self, which might have been put out of the heart but was not, and remained to obscure the spiritual vision.

"Personal Religion" The Present Truth 9, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

The Christian religion is a personal religion. It is a religion which deals with individuals. Though men are associated together in the church, this association does not change the nature of Christianity, or of their relation to God. The voice of God speaks not less personally to each component member of the church, and the "power of God unto salvation" is no less truly sent "to every one that believeth."

The idea that God deals with corporations, or with a church, or a denomination, as such, and not directly with the individuals who compose them, is a most mischievous one, and has been productive of very great harm. It has caused individuals to look to their church, or their denomination, rather than to the one true Source of spiritual life. Men have been led to think of Christianity as a matter of church relationship, rather than of connection with the living Vine; to look at God through an opaque theological body which eclipses the light of heaven, rather than "with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord," to become thereby "changed into the same image from glory to glory." 2 Cor. iii. 18. They have come to think of the power and glory of God as coming to them diffused through the atmosphere of the church, rather than as coming into their souls direct from the eternal throne.

This is not the object of the church; this is not the purpose for which God has established it on the earth. The church exists for the purpose of spreading abroad the knowledge of the power of God and salvation, of manifesting to the world the body of Christ, through whom He works as its spiritual Head; not of manifesting to the world its own power, and regulating the supply of the grace of God. Although connection with the church is proper and a source of great benefit to the individual when the church is not in a fallen state, his relation to God and to the Gospel is the same as though he were living alone upon an island in the midst of the sea. He has no freer access to the grace of God in the one case than in the other; the "power of God unto salvation" would have to be sought by the same means in the one case as in the other.

It is very natural for an individual to associate and compare himself with others, and to look for some advantage to himself through the mere fact of his connection with the world around him; but that which holds true in temporal things must not be carelessly accepted as true in things spiritual. Spiritual blessings are not gained in that way. There is no spiritual advantage to be gained in looking to others. Perhaps you are as good as they are, and satisfy your conscience with the reflection that you will fare as well as they in the day of final reckoning; but that will never save you from perdition. It matters not how others stand, your own standing is independent of all others. If another stands he cannot hold you up; and if he falls, his fall does not affect the footing on which you stand. "To his own master he standeth or falleth." We follow Christ as individuals, not as companies; and when we began to say, like Peter, "Lord, and what shall this man do?" His answer is, "What is that to thee? follow thou Me."

Christ did not die to save a world. He did not die to save a church, or a denomination. But He did die to save you. And your relation to Him through His work of salvation is the same as if there were no other person in the world besides yourself, or as if you alone of all earth's inhabitants were destined to obtain salvation. And therefore His pardon and love are for you; His power is for you; His wisdom is for you; His deliverance from sin is for you; the Christian experience, with all that it contains, as revealed in the word of God, is for you, irrespective of every other person, church, or organisation in the world. And you will get them by your own individual seeking.

Notice how this idea of the personality of the Christian life is set forth in the one hundred and sixteenth psalm. By giving emphasis to the personal pronouns as they occur, the force of the psalmist's testimony will be more clearly seen:-

"I love the Lord, because He hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because He hath inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me; I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the Lord; O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful. 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

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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. I believed, therefore have I spoken; I was greatly afflicted; I said in my haste, All men are liars. What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all His people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. O Lord, truly I am Thy servant; I am Thy servant, and the son of Thine handmaid; Thou hast loosed my bonds. I will offer to Thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all His people, in the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord."

This is a true Christian experience.It mattered not to the psalmist at such a time what the church in general was doing or receiving, or how the Lord was dealing with this one or that one around him; he rejoiced because God had heard his voice and his supplications. The pains of hell had gotten hold upon him, and he needed a personal deliverance, and this was what he found. He had been in bondage, but now could say, "Thou hast loosed my bonds." It is not enough for the soul bound with the chains of sin and Satan to sit in contemplation of the goodness and mercy of God, and realise that He has loosed the bonds of others. That would only make his own bondage the more grievous. Nothing but a personal experience in "the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free" can bring heavenly joy and comfort to any of the fallen children of men.

Can you join with the psalmist in these utterances of gladness and praise to God? Has God heard your voice and your supplications? Has He loosed your bonds? If not, then no matter what He may be doing for the church with which you are connected, you are living altogether outside of the blessed privileges that God offers to you through the Gospel. Seek Him for yourself; believe Him for yourself; and He will clothe you with His salvation.

"In Six Hundredweight of Chains" The Present Truth 9, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

A few weeks ago a Mohammedan fakir came to Bombay, who had voluntarily loaded himself with twenty-four maunds (six hundredweight) of chains. We visited him at that convenient, free rest-house for native travellers, the Falkland Road Dharanisala. He was reclining on his mat and hard pillow, and was dependent upon an attendant for food. The hulk and weight of the chains welded around his neck, arms, and legs, rendered walking impossible. It was said that when he travelled by train (he came from North India), he was charged partly as a passenger and partly as freight. He desired to go as a pilgrim to Mecca, and an ordinary ticket by steamship was purchased for him, but when he arrived at the ship, the astonished officer declined his company.

Some large iron pegs and a heavy iron mallet were attached to his chains. These were used in fixing him firmly down, at his desire, in any particular spot.

This iron bondage was no new one. For twenty-four years he had submitted to it. What caused him voluntarily to endure a burden of chains which, if inflicted by any official authority as a punishment, would bring down upon the government that permitted it the execration of mankind?-He said it was his inclination to evil. As a young man he was very wicked, and he caused chains to be fastened upon hint to keep hire from sin. As time went on he added more chains, until the present weight was reached.

The man's face was not a dishonest one. The manner of his conversation was also open. There is no reason to doubt that for twenty-four years he had been engaged in a desperate struggle with sinful inclinations. But his admission that as time passed by he added more chains, was a confession of defeat.

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This Mohammedan fakir in his ignorance had been dealing with the effect instead of the cause. Better then chaining the limbs is to seek a change of heart. The psalmist understood this when he cried, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." Create? Yes; that is the word; and no hand but God's can do it. the same truth appears in the words of Jesus Christ to Nicodemus: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."-Bombay Guardian.

[The chains upon the limbs of the fakir, which were increased as he grew older, were significant of the chains of an which bound bins. The strength of an evil habit increases with age, instead of diminishing, thus showing that there is no inherent goodness in men, which will ultimately overpower and destroy the evil. The increase of the weight of the chains is in keeping with the fact that the strongest human efforts to overcome sin, only serve to increase it. Every form of religion, except the pure religion of Jesus Christ, only increases the bondage of men: but Christ removes the heavy chains, and lets the oppressed go free.-ED. P.T.

"To Know God Is to Love Him" The Present Truth 9, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

"Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace." Job xxii. 21. To be equated with God is to be at peace with Him; and it is equally true that to be equated with God is to love Him: for God is lovable, and to love a thing that is lovable needs only an acquaintance with it. Therefore, he who does not love God does not know Him. And he does not love Him because he does not know Him. "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." 1 John iv. 8. Undoubtedly the reason so many people love God so little is because they have such a slight acquaintance with Him. "Acquaint now thyself with Him."

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

-A political crisis is reported from Servia.

-Deaths from diphtheria are largely on the increase in the metropolis.

-The manufacture of silk from wood is said to have become a practical success in France.

-The German emperor has opened the Reichstag in person, making a speech from his throne.

-The Havock, a new torpedo boat built by the Yarrow Company, has, without being pressed, attained a speed of thirty miles per hour.

-A Dundee whaler brings information of the loss of an Arctic exploring party, which was under the leadership of two Swedish scientists.

-An Anarchist outrage is reported from Marseilles, an attempt having been made to blow up the residence of the commander of the Fifteenth Army Corps.

-By the terms of the Convention, just signed between England and the Transvaal, Swaziland has been ceded to the Boer Government under conditions safeguarding the rights of natives and white residents.

-The water supply of London is said to be running short of the demand. All the water companies of London, with one or two exceptions, are at the present date exceeding their Parliamentary limit of supply.

-The foreign trade of China now amounts to a total of some £52,000,000, being the equivalent of about 235,000,000 Haikwan taels. This was composed for last year of imports £27,000,000, and exports £25,000,000.

-Fighting has been renewed between the Riff Arabs and the Melilla garrison. The Spanish Government continues to push forward war preparations.

-The penny-in-the-slot machines, it is declared, were used in Egyptian temples more than 5,000 years ago. By placing a piece of money in the slot, the worshippers received some consecrated water through a valve.

-Tahiti alone is capable of yearly producing 50,000 tons of sugar for export. The land, which practically in all parts of the plains is adapted for cane-growing, can be obtained at a very low figure.

-For the fourth time influenza threatens to become epidemic. It is raging in Birmingham, Blackburn, in the Bourne district, and in Essex. It is said to be associated with a condition of the throat which has a tendency to become diphtheria.

-Fifty-two miners have been entombed in a coal pit near Coatbridge, by the explosion of a paraffin lamp in the engine room of the colliery, which set fire to the framework. The ventilating fans were stopped, and it is feared the men have been suffocated.

-Mr. Reeds and his wife, the only missionaries left in Matabeleland, have been treated kindly by Lobengula, and forwarded by him to Tati under an escort of Lobengula's people. Yet it is claimed, by way of palliation for the murder of the Matabele, that Lobengula is so hostile to the missionaries that they cannot live in his territory.

-Despatches from the Congo Free State announce that Captain Ponthier, after capturing Kirundu, an Arab stronghold, continued the pursuit of the retreating Arabs, and finally crushed them completely. Among the prisoners captured was Said ben Abadi, by whose orders Emin Pasha was beheaded. He was condemned to death, and shot.

-Martial law has been proclaimed at Rio de Janeiro by President Peixoto, extending to the 30th inst. Admiral de Mello having issued a warning of his intention to again bombard the city of Rio, the commander of the British squadron has protested that forty-eight hours should be allowed for foreigners to retire. Two insurgent magazines have been blown up.

-Another bomb explosion is reported from a town in Barcelona, a gate of the gendarmerie barracks having been blown to pieces. No one, however, was injured. A decree has been published suspending the usual constitutional guarantees in the Spanish province of Catalonia, in consequence of the Barcelona outrage. Anarchists will now be tried summarily. The issue of the decree is generally approved.

-A Social Democratic journalist has been sentenced at Dortmund to a year's imprisonment for having declared in a newspaper article that Prince Bismarck had falsified the famous Ems dispatch. The counsel for the defence asked that the Prince himself might be called, but this was refused; and the Public Prosecutor stated that while it was true that Prince Bismarck had altered the telegram in order to provoke a declaration of war, it was not on that account permissible to call a diplomatist a forger.

-Professor Garner, who went out to Southwest Africa fourteen months ago to study the language of the monkey, considers he has succeeded in establishing what he went out to ascertain, viz., that the monkeys had a language which could, with study, be learned by man. The professor has brought home with him two examples of the Kulu Kamba chimpanzee which it is said can communicate to the professor their wants and feelings. The professor reached about 250 miles inland from the coast. He stayed in his steel cage 101 days, and while there had many opportunities of observing the wild animals in their native haunts.

-A German newspaper published in Odessa announces that the Russian Minister of the Interior has forbidden the assembling of Stundists for the purposes of worship, on the ground that their meetings are injurious to the well-being of the people. An instance of the minute care taken to have the "Orthodox" Church held in the highest regard is seen in a new law against "negligent" treatment of the "icons" or holy pictures of the church, by persons engaged in their sale. They are not to be placed on the ground, or to be sold from carts, and when sold in shops they are not to rest on the ground. Should their sale be carried on in fairs, special places in the booths must be assigned them.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

The Apostle James tells us, "Ye asked and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." James iv. 3. Here is stated a cardinal principle to be borne in mind by all in asking the blessing of God. "The only way to keep the blessing of God, is to give it away."

On the 11th inst. the new steamer John Williams, which was built for the London Missionary Society's use, was launched at Glasgow. The ship is 180 feet in length at the water line, is 700 tons burden, is fitted with electric light, and cabins specially built for a tropical climate, and cost £17,000. It is the fourth John Williams, and the fourteenth ship that has been set apart for the South Sea Mission.

As the result of the conference between the miners and the coal owners, suggested by Mr. Gladstone, and presided over by Lord Roseberry, the coal dispute was settled, and work began on Monday last, at the old rate of wages. Work will continue at the old rates until February, when a conciliation board to be appointed at once will deal with the question. The strike had continued sixteen weeks, and had caused intense suffering.

A vicar is one who takes the place of another, acting as a substitute for him. A substitute implies the absence of the one for whom the substitute acts. If therefore it could be proved that the Pope of Rome is the vicar of Christ, that would only demonstrate that Christ had abandoned His people. For any people to claim that they have the vicar of Christ, is to disclaim the presence of Christ with them. But there is no necessity for a vicar of Christ, because we have His sure promise, "Lo, I am with you all way, even unto the end of the world."

The Apostle Paul, answering for himself before Festus, when he had been accused by the Jews, said, "Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against CÊsar, have I offended anything at all." He could not have spoken thus if he had by example or precept taught disregard of the seventh-day Sabbath, or regard for Sunday as a sabbath day. His practice and teaching in this respect is shown to have been wholly in harmony with that of the men of God who lived back in what is known as the "Jewish age."

It is stated that a new "incense society" has been quietly organised by some of the Church of England clergy, and that in a few hundreds of churches incense will be introduced at Christmas. The Christian Commonwealth states also that curates of some churches where confession cannot be practised, go secretly to confess to Romish priests, and that one of these curates advises souls in anxiety to do the same. One thing is certain, and that is that in the Church of England there is a strong current tending Romeward.

We hear much about "the credulity of ignorance." That is bad indeed, as any mere credulity is. But the credulity of ignorance is not to be compared with the credulity of learning. When men have so much learning that they cannot believe the Bible, their credulity is amazing. As a natural consequence of rejecting the truth, they unhesitatingly accept the most patent falsehood, and the greatest absurdities. It is when men profess themselves to be wise, that they become fools. Rom. i. 22. True wisdom comes from God, the Author of the Bible, and humility and an acknowledgment of our dependence upon Him is necessary in order to obtain it.

According to the Christian World, "the most exciting topic" for consideration at the Manx Nonconformist Council, which has just met at Douglas, was "the question of the Manx magistracy, and the practical exclusion of nonconformists from the Bench. Rev. Thomas Rippon moved that a deputation be appointed to wait on the lieutenant-governor, and urged him to create additional magistrates to remedy the grievance complaint of. At present, out of forty magistrates, thirty-eight are Churchmen." The resolution was unanimously carried. In order to get the full force of this situation, we must try to imagine the apostles holding a council and issuing a protest because they were not given a place upon the Roman Magisterial Bench. When one wished Christ to act as a judge in a dispute, He replied, "Man, who made Me a judge or a divider over you?" It should be enough for the servant to be as his ward.

A writer in the Guardian, describing the religious (?) influences of public school life, says:-

I have in my mind one excellent young man of twenty-five, prepared for confirmation by a late respected head master and Prebendary of St. Paul's, who candidly admitted to me that all that confirmation had meant to him ten years ago was the possession of a new pair of gloves for the occasion! And I have known others, educated and confirmed not a hundred miles from Bristol, who had not even learned the commonest proprieties of worship, such as that kneeling, not squatting or crouching, is the proper attitude of prayer. Another tells me that all he can remember of the preparation for confirmation is that three times a week the candidates met in the school chapel, and nervously read aloud a chapter from the Gospels, a few verses each in turn; and that shortly before the day appointed, the head master (who now adorns a deanery) sent for each boy privately, and asked him what his besetting sin was, to which he invariably replied, "laziness," and was gently exhorted to greater industry.

It is this sort of education that so many people think is going to save the country from everlasting ruin. Strange that all Christians cannot see that nothing can be more damaging to the cause of true religion than a caricature of it that is provided by the State.

It is commonly supposed that the Christian life is all hardship, and that the easy way is the way of sin. Like most popular suppositions, this is a mistake. The Bible assures us that "The way of transgressors is hard." Prov. xiii. 15. True, it often seems most pleasant, but that is because of the hallucination that Satan is able to produce. He intoxicates the senses, so that the dangers of the way seem to be comforts. On the other hand, Jesus says, "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. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." Matt. xi. 28-30.

November 30, 1893

"Who Is My Neighbor?" The Present Truth 9, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

Who Is My Neighbor?-This is the question that a certain lawyer once ask Jesus. The commandment, "Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself," had just been quoted, and the lawyer asked the question as though it were a difficult thing to know who one's neighbour is, so as to show love to him. The reply of the Saviour was the parable of the Good Samaritan, in which it is shown that anyone with whom we may come in contact is our neighbour, and that we are to show helpful love to all.

Who Is My Brother?-This is a question that to many minds seems as difficult of settlement as the other. The phrase, "The Brotherhood of Man" is very common, yet it is almost always wrongly used. When used to indicate that all men are equally sure of salvation, whatever their profession or practice, and that all religions are from one common stock, then it is grossly perverted. But there is a sense in which it is true that all men are brothers, and he who studies the Bible carefully will learn that fact. As might be expected, the disciple who loved the Lord the most is the one who has the most to say about love to men. Let us read a few passages.

"We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death." 1 John iii. 14. Does this mean that loving those who love us is proof of the new birth? The Saviour settled that, when He said, "For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?" Matt. v. 46. A man may be a heathen and do that. So while it is true that they who love the Lord are brethren in a peculiar sense, as members of the household of God, the word "brother" is used in the Bible to indicate any fellow-creatures.

"But whoso hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" 1 John iii. 17. It is evident that that question is equal to a statement that the love of God does not dwell in a man who refuses to help a needy brother. But suppose we take the term "brother" here in its most restricted sense. Are we to suppose that a man may be indifferent to the wants of another, provided that other is a heathen, and still have the love of God dwelling in him? Certainly not; for the words of Christ have settled that. To be a Christian, then (for a Christian is one who has passed from death to life), means to have love for everybody, no matter who they may be. It is to have love-the love of God-dwelling in the heart.

But the next verse settles the matter more clearly yet. "Hereby we perceive the love of God, because He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." That is, our love in laying down of our lives for the brethren, is of the same nature as God's love in laying down His life for us. It is only His love in us that enables us to do that. But for whom did He lay down His life? Was it for His friends?-No it was for His enemies. "God commendeth His love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." "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. 8, 10. The love of God, which is shed abroad in the hearts of Christians, is a love that embraces all mankind. It does not ask who the man is before deciding to give him help. The case then, seems to be this: As far as we are concerned, we are to treat all men as brothers; it must be left for them to show themselves unbrotherly, if they choose.

"Heart Condemnation" The Present Truth 9, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

"And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God." 1 John iii. 19-21.

What are we to learn from this? A lesson of condemnation or of comfort? of self-confidence or of trust in God? The average reader sees nothing more in it than this, that if our heart condemns us, we are to know that God condemns us to as much greater degree as He is greater than our hearts. If that were true, then there would certainly be no comfort in the passage. Neither would there be any hope in it. For every man's heart does condemn him, and if God condemns him also, where shall he go for mercy?

Let us first read a verse or two in the book of Romans. "What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who shall be against this?" "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession

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for us." Rom. viii. 31, 33, 34. More forcible still is the rendering, "Who shall lay a charge against the chosen ones of God? God is He that is declaring righteousness. Who is he that is condemning? Christ is He that died." Or, as the margin of the Revised Version has it, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Shall God that justifieth?"

The idea plainly is that when God justifies, nobody has any right to condemn. Moreover, we are told that God justifies, and that is evidence that He does not condemn. God sent His Son into the world as the representative of Himself." God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." Now read, "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. Therefore God is not condemning even the wicked world, but is seeking to save them.

Now let us go back to the text with which we started. Note the nineteenth verse: "And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him." Here is assurance, not despair. Assurance is necessary when there is something that would naturally cause fear. Sin is in the human heart, and that naturally produces fear of God. We judge God by ourselves, and therefore feel as though we must hide from Him. But when our heart condemns us, there's something by which we may gain assurance. What is that?

For an answer we have only to read the verses that precede, and we find that the entire chapter is devoted to showing the love of God. It begins, "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." The marvellous love is shown in the fact that we are called the sons of God. That God receives sinful men, and calls them sons, is shown by Heb. xii. 5-11. If we were perfect, we should not need chastisement. God's love is shown in that Christ died for the ungodly, and God justifies such when they believe in Him.

In this we are to assure our hearts before Him, when our hearts condemn us. When we are borne down with a sense of sin, what hope should we have if that was only meant to teach us that God was condemning us to an infinitely greater degree? But "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." So when we are the most conscious of the sinfulness of our hearts, we may the more draw comfort from the assurance that God's grace is infinitely greater, and that it justifies and saves from sin.

Having seen, even from the common version, that the text teaches confidence in God's love, which delivers from condemnation, let us read the passage in the Revised Version. "Hereby [that is, by the love of God] shall we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him, whereinsoever our hearts condemn us; because God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things."

We know that we are of the truth, not from anything that we have done, but because of the love of God, which He shed abroad in our hearts by His Holy Spirit. "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." Titus iii. 5. In this fact we assure our heart whereinsoever our heart condemns us, and find comfort in the greatness of God. For when we are conscious of sin, then is the time when we may trust in the love and mercy of God. And when we trust the Lord our heart ceases to condemn us; because it has no reason to condemn us when God justifies us. So when our heart, through the knowledge of the love of God, has ceased to condemn us, we necessarily have confidence toward God. "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."

Let us for a moment look at this question from the other side. If we are to consider it from the basis of the human heart in one case, then we must do so in the other. Therefore if we are to know that God condemns us because our own heart condemns us, then we are also to know that He justifies us because our own heart does not condemn us. That really leaves God out of the matter entirely. That makes our only ground of confidence our own heart. But "he that trusteth in his own heart is a fool." Prov. xxviii. 26. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" Jer. xvii. 9. If we trust in it we shall be deceived. If our confidence is in the fact that our heart does not condemn us, then we are trusting in vanity. No; our only hope is in God. The only just ground on which our heart will not condemn us, is the knowledge that God does not condemn us. Trusting in His love, we may have strong confidence. Our heart has no business to condemn us when God does not.

So the Bible speaks only encouragement to the sinner. If it did otherwise, we could not be drawn to God, God is great, but He does not wish that fact to be a source of terror to men. In all creation He speaks to us of His power, in order that we may trust Him; for His kindness and mercy are equal to His power. "God has spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God. Also unto Thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy." Ps. lxii. 11, 12. "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."

"The Devil's Best Weapon" The Present Truth 9, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

Doubt is the most effective weapon in the hands of Satan. When he can lead a person to doubt, it is but an easy step to open transgression of the Divine will. The devil works by persuasion; he is not allowed to work by compulsion. But to persuade the heart he finds it necessary to fill it with doubt. Doubt is the wedge by which he gains access to the human soul.

The apostle writes, "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." Heb. iii. 12. It is unbelief that leads an individual to depart from Him. When Satan came to Christ in the wilderness, he prefaced his temptations by the words, "If thou be the Son of God;" and he prefaces his temptations now also with an "if," not an honourable one perhaps, but one which nevertheless is felt in our hearts. He uses every means to induce doubt,-the evidence of the senses, the evidence of reason, and even of the word of God; for Satan can quote the Bible as readily as anybody, as we find him doing when he tempted Christ. Of course he perverts its meaning, and is always sufficiently erroneous either in his quotation or his application of it to turn it into a lie; but those not versed in the Scriptures are often deceived thereby. Indeed, whenever the devil cannot deceive a person by getting him to trust in his reason or his natural senses for the discernment of spiritual

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truths, he will assail him with Scripture (in a perverted form, of course), and then if that person be not grounded in the word of God, he will have nothing to withstand Satan's attack.

We doubt by looking away from God,-by looking away from the Word, which is God manifest in the flesh (1 John i. 1, 14), and letting that Word leak out of our hearts. When we look away from God, our finite eyes see nothing but that which would lead us to doubt. We could see nothing in ourselves, in our neighbours, in science, in philosophy, or in any earthly thing to which we may look, that will testify to the truths which pertain to salvation. Their testimony seems to us to be rather in the opposite direction. Darwin and Huxley looked at science; Voltaire at philosophy. The modern sceptic looks at his neighbours and sees their shortcomings, and many others lose their faith by looking at themselves, but he who looks at God, at His glory revealed in the face of His Son Jesus Christ, leaves no avenue open for doubt. Looking always unto Jesus, you will not stumble in running the race that is set before you. Heb. xii. 1, 2.

"Heathen at Home" The Present Truth 9, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

A friend has sent us a paper from which we clipped the following:-

We have right in our midst in Lancashire as absolute a heathenism as exists among the dwarfs of central Africa. At Manchester, a little girl of six or seven stepped into the witness-box, and the following conversation ensued between Justice Grantham and her: "Now, my little girl, you go to school? Yes, sir. You know what the Bible is?-No. Nor of Jesus Christ? No. Do you know where you will go if you tell lies? I don't know. Do you go to school every day? Yes, sir. Do you hear the Bible read?-No, sir. You know what the Bible is?-No. Nor of Jesus Christ? No. Do you know where you will go if you tell lies? No. Do you know it is wrong to tell lies? I don't know. Do you go to school every day? No." Needless to say the child was not sworn, and the judge subsequently said it did not say much for the education given in-well, he supposed he should not say Board Schools, because he believed there was some kind of religious education given there. But the reflection in this case is not so much on the school as on the guardians of the child.

The closing remark is just to the point. But some one will say that the guardians of the child may be almost heathen themselves, or they have no regard for God even if they know of Him. Then upon whom does the responsibility rest?-Evidently with the professed Christians, whether ministers or not, whose duty as followers of Christ is to seek and to save the lost. It is a most significant fact, that in a case of this kind the first thought is to fix the responsibility upon the State, or upon some State institution, instead of upon the church. This would not be so if the church had not been shifting its proper work upon the State.

"Christ and Moses" The Present Truth 9, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

"For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." John i. 17. There seems to be a strange prejudice against Moses, on the part of a great number of professors of religion. If anything is quoted from his writings, the reply is, "Oh, that was written by Moses;" or, "That is in the law of Moses;" as though that fact were sufficient impeachment of its authority.

Doubtless the reason for this prejudice is found in the text above quoted: "The law was given by Moses." The prejudice against Moses is not against him primarily, but against the law, with which he was so closely associated. We do not find people taking exceptions to other portions of Scripture, on the ground of their authorship. Men do not say, "Oh, that was given by Paul," or, "That is in the writings of Jeremiah," when passages are cited from those writers. And the reason doubtless is that in the writings of Moses are found the things that most directly cut across the man's ideas and practices. "The law was given by Moses," and therefore Moses is discredited. The law is not despised because Moses wrote it, but Moses is discredited because he wrote the law.

No matter what men may think of Moses and his writings, neither he nor they are in the least discredited in the Bible. To those who spoke slightingly of Moses, the Lord said, "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. 6-8.

Again, after the death of Moses, it is recorded, "There arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, in all the signs and the wonders, which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, and in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses showed in the sight of all Israel." Deut. xxxiv. 10-12.

Almost the last word of the Old Testament refers to the very last days of the earth's history, when "the works that are therein shall be burned up," and the righteous saved; and to the people at that time is given this exhortation: "Remember ye the law of Moses My servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments." Mal. iv. 4. And then Elijah the prophet is promised, to bring these things to remembrance so that utter destruction may not come upon the earth.

The above text presents the fact that the law of Moses is not something that originated with him. "Remember ye the law of Moses My servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel." Throughout the books of Moses we find the teaching prefaced thus, "And the Lord said unto Moses." Accordingly Moses said to the children of Israel, "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.

So we find that Moses, like all the other prophets, spoke only the words of the Lord. He made no claims for himself, and nothing originated with him. It is customary to speak of him as a great legislator, but he was such only because he acted as the mouthpiece of the Lord. The law was given by Moses in the same way that precepts were given by the other prophets, and by the apostles. Peter said that he himself wrote, "That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour." 2 Peter iii. 2. But the Apostle Paul said, "The things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord." 1 Cor. xiv. 37. He thanked God that the Thessalonians received the word which he preached, not as the word of men, "but as it is in truth, the word of God." 1 Thess. ii. 13. The apostles did not give commandments on their own authority, but from God.

While the Lord spoke the ten commandments

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with His own voice, in the hearing of all the people, the details of the law were communicated to them only through Moses. He it was who wrote them in a book, for the permanent use of the people (for none could look upon the tables of stone in the ark); and to him we are indebted for a knowledge even of the fact that they were ever spoken by the Lord.

To throw discredit upon Moses, is to throw discredit upon Christ. The Lord spoke thus unto Moses, concerning Christ, "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. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto My words which He shall speak in My name, I will require it of Him." Deut. xviii. 18, 19. And Christ said to those who did not believe Him, but who professed to believe Moses, "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me; for he wrote of Me. But if ye believed not his writings, how shall ye believe My words?" John v. 46, 47. So whoever slights Moses, thereby rejects Christ.

GRACE AND TRUTH

Turn again to the statement that the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. That is not an intimation that there is a contrast between the law and the truth, for the law is the truth, as we read, "Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Thy law is the truth." Ps. cxix. 142. The contrast is between the power of Moses, and that of Christ. The contrast is the same that would be between Christ and any other man than Moses. The greatest man that ever lived is only a man, while Christ is God, having life in Himself.

In order to get the full force of the words which we have quoted from the first of John, we should read from the fourteenth verse to the eighteenth. With these connect the first verse. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth. . . . And of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him."

Neither Moses nor any other men can put truth in the hearts of men. The righteousness of God is that which we are exhorted to seek (Matt. vi. 33), and that is expressed in the law of God. Isa. li. 5-7. Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. Men may preach, but He alone can put the righteousness and truth of God into the hearts and lives of men. The law was given by Moses; but although the law is righteousness and truth, no man ever yet obtained righteousness and truth from the law. All the law can do is to tell us what we ought to do; but it does not work out its own requirements for us, and in us. It is a grand thing to declare the law to men; it is a most wonderful thing to be used as a speaker for God, to declare His word faithfully; but the best man who ever lived could not save a single soul.

"But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." Remember that the law is the truth. Ps. cxix. 142. So the law comes by Jesus Christ, but it comes with grace. He says that the law is in His heart (Ps. xl. 7, 8), so that when He dwells in the heart by faith (Eph. iii. 17), the law is necessarily there; and thus the truth is in the inward parts, as the Lord desires. Moreover since in Him is life, it is manifest that when the law comes into us in Christ, it is life to us. "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." Rom. viii. 2.

Christ is the declaration of God. The exhortation to us is, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Matt. v. 48. God says, "Be ye holy, for I am holy." But no man hath seen God at any time, and therefore how can we know how to be holy as He is holy?-"The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." Christ is in the bosom of the Father. That is His home. He is with God, because He is God. All the attributes of the Godhead are His, "For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Col. ii. 9. "And of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace." That is, in Christ all the fulness of God is conveyed to us (Eph. iii. 17-19), and consequently all the righteousness of God.

Now it is evident that no man, however good, could do this for us, because in the first place no man can have any goodness except what is necessary for himself, and, in the second place, no man can live in another. No man can live another's life for him. Only Christ, who gave Himself for us, and who is able to live in us, can bring into our lives the righteousness of God, making His life our own.

GRACE AND TRUTH FROM THE BEGINNING

And now comes the most important question, When did grace and truth come by Jesus Christ? At what particular time in the history of the world does Christ bring the righteousness of the law into the hearts of believers? Is it only since His first advent, and His resurrection? Did God lay upon men before Christ came, the burden of getting righteousness out of the law by their own efforts, and only since His crucifixion give to men the blessing of righteousness through Christ? What saith the Scripture? The first chapter of John is sufficient to settle the matter for us.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. . . . And of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." John i. 1-18.

What is the Word?-The Word was God. Who is the word?-Christ is the Word. When was the Word?-"In the beginning was the Word." How far back does that reach?-"But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, and yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth hath been from of old, from the days of eternity." Micah v. 2, margin. Where is Christ always?-He "is in the bosom of the Father." What always dwells in Him?-He is always "full of grace and truth." The law is ever in His heart. "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." Heb. xiii. 8. What then is the necessary conclusion?-Simply this, that there has never been a time since the existence of man, when the righteousness of the law could not be fulfilled in everyone who

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would allow Christ to dwell in his heart by faith.

THE ENTERING OF THE LAW

But let us particularise. We will take the days of Moses, and the very time of the giving of the law. Surely if we can find that the righteousness of the law came to Christ then, and through Him only, the question will be settled for all time. "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, said of Moses, "This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the Angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers; who received the lively oracles given unto us." Acts vii. 38. The Angel that spoke to Moses in the mount Sinai was the Angel in whom is the Name of God (Ex. xxiii. 20-23), even the Lord Jesus Christ. That angel was to go before the children of Israel, and lead them into the promised land; and we read that "they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed [went with] them; and that Rock was Christ." 1 Cor. x. 4. The law was ordained by angels, "in the hand of a Mediator" (Gal. iii. 19), and there is but one "Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus." 1 Tim. ii. 5. Christ, therefore, was in Mount Sinai, and gave the law to Moses, to give to the people.

"Moreover 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. The law could only make sin to appear "exceeding sinful." Rom. vii. 13. "By the law is the knowledge of sin." Rom. iii. 20. Therefore the giving of the law could only make prominent the sins which already existed by the law. "The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law." 1 Cor. xv. 56. The law makes sin to abound, not because the law is sin, but because it is the declaration of perfect righteousness.

"But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." Where does sin abound?-Where the law is. Where was the law?-It was most emphatically at Sinai. Then when was sin made to abound?-Most certainly at Sinai. But what superabounds wherever sin abounds?-"Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." Then what was in infinite abundance at Sinai?-The grace of God, which is by Jesus Christ. And what does grace do?-"By grace are ye saved." Eph. ii. 8. "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." Titus iii. 5-7.

So we find that in the very giving of the law, by which is the knowledge of sin, the grace of God which brings salvation from sin, was present. For Christ was there, the giver of the law to Moses, and He is always full of grace; grace and truth come by Jesus Christ.

Very forcible are the words of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians concerning this matter. He says that God has made us sufficient to be ministers of the new covenant; not of letter, but of Spirit; for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. 2 Cor. iii. 6. Men are associated with Christ in the work of salvation. "As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." 2 Cor. v. 20. "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God. God does the work, the apostle says of his desire to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus, "Whereunto I also labour, striving according to His working, which worketh in me mightily." Col. i. 29.

MINISTRATION OF DEATH AND LIFE

Following on in the third of the second Corinthians, we find the apostle making a contrast between the ministration of death and the ministration of life; the ministration of the condemnation, and the ministration of the righteousness. The law was death, and so it is still to every sinner. Moses ministered only the law to the people, and therefore his was the ministry of death. Yet it was with glory, for as he talked to the people the skin of his face shone so that they could not bear to look upon it. See 2 Cor. iii. 7; Ex. xxxiv. 29-35.

But the ministration of the righteousness was there also, for Christ was there in His glory, with grace "according to the riches of His glory." So we read, "Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech; and not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished; but their minds were blinded; for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ." The vail over the face of Moses was indicative of the vail that was over their hearts. If their hearts had not been vailed by unbelief, he would not have needed to vail his face from them.

"Which vail is done away in Christ." Not now merely, but whenever the heart turns to the Lord. It was at that very time done away in Christ. For Moses, who "endured as seeing Him who is invisible," and who talked with God face to face, did so without a vail over his face. He took the vail off when he went into the mount to talk with the Lord. That which was possible for Moses, was possible for all the people, if they had possessed the same faith that he did. For read what the apostle says further:-

"Now the Lord is that Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But 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." 2 Cor. iii. 17, 18.

Instead of "open face," read "unvailed face," as in the Revised Version, and the thought is preserved, for the references to the face of Moses, which was vailed. The vail, however, as we have seen, was on account of the children of Israel. Moses put a vail on his face, to save them the trouble of putting vails on all their faces. It was the same as if all the people had vails upon their faces. For himself no vail was necessary, for He talked with the Lord with unvailed face. Now that the vail was significant of the unbelief that was in their hearts, and was made necessary because of that unbelief, we learn definitely from the next chapter, in which the apostle says:-

"If our Gospel is vailed, it is vailed in them that are perishing; in whom the god of this world hath planted the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them." 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4, Revised Version.

The vail, therefore, is unbelief, and that was the great trouble with the Israelites. See Heb. iii. 18, 19, iv. 1, 2. Christ was with them, "full of grace and truth," but they did not believe, and consequently they were not saved. Moses believed, and he entered into close communion with the Lord,

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and his face was transformed by the heavenly glory. If they had believed, then they could have viewed the glory of the face of Moses, and even greater glory, for the progress is "from glory to glory," in an increasing measure.

What is the glory of God? It is His righteousness. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Rom. ii. 23. Sinning is coming short of the glory of God; therefore righteousness is the attainment of His glory. In the account of the first miracle that Jesus performed after He began His earthly ministry, we read, "This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory." John ii. 21. This miracle, like all others that He did, was one of helpfulness. It was done for the purpose of supplying need. Therefore we learn that the glory of God is manifested in helping the needy. The glory of God is shown in His grace. So John says of the Word which dwelt among us, "We beheld His glory, full of grace and truth." Those who are made children of God, are "to the praise of the glory of His grace." Eph. i. 6.

Therefore the glory of God which transfigured the face of Moses, was an indication of the change in character that would be effected by the glory of His grace, in all who believe. Moses himself received the law not only in his hands, but in his heart, through the grace of Christ, with whom he conversed in the mount. If the children of Israel had had the same faith, they also would have found the same grace and truth by Jesus Christ. Then Moses would have been as much a minister of the new covenant as anyone can be. Not all the Israelites were unbelieving. There were seventy elders who were permitted to see the glory of God, and they at least would be able to look upon the face of Moses. So God made him, as well as the apostles, sufficient to minister the grace of life.

In closing, note that fact that the law was ordained "in the hand of a Mediator," namely, Christ, who is the "one Mediator between God and men." What does that signify?-Simply that although the law in itself is death to any man, God did not leave men to deal with it alone. He did not give the law to them by Moses, simply, leaving them to meet it face to face in their own strength; He gave it to them in Christ, in whom it is life, if they would but receive Him. Christ receives the curse of the law again Himself, and passes the blessing of it along to all who believe in Him. He takes the death sting from it, so that in Him it becomes "the law of the Spirit of life."

The law is in the heart of Christ. Out of the heart are the issues of life. Prov. iv. 23. Therefore the life of Christ is the law of God. It is not a substitute for the law of God, but it is the very law of God. His life on earth was the manifestation of the law as life; it was a specimen of the life which He will live in every one who will receive Him. He does not change. He is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." Therefore His life to-day is the same that it was eighteen hundred years ago. Looking to Sinai we see a statement of the law of which Christ is the Mediator; looking to Judea we see the same law in action; and looking to Calvary we see the life flowing for us, by means of which the law may dwell in us. He is the Mediator of the new covenant, to write the law in the hearts of men; for He dwells in the heart by His Spirit, and thus becomes the Medium through whom the righteousness of the law is wrought out in men.

"'Evidence' in Spiritual Things" The Present Truth 9, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

An exchange, speaking of the growing tendency toward dabbling in the occult, of which Mr. Stead with his Borderland is perhaps the most conspicuous example, says,-

The man who nowadays makes up his mind to be deceived finds no obstacle to complete success. He has always the "evidence of his senses" to help him, and certainly could not find a more efficient ally.

This is true, and it is something which every person would pass unharmed through the midst of the dangerous delusions of our day, should bear in mind. But the evidence of the senses, but the evidence of faith, will be the safeguard against the deceptions which are now coming, and continue to come more and more, in the spiritual realm. The Bible speaks of some upon whom God should permit strong delusion to come, that they should believe a lie, because they received not the love of the truth. 2 Thess. ii. 10, 11. Do you have the love of the truth? If you do, then you have the safeguard against these delusions sent by Satan to draw souls to perdition; for he is to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect. Matt. xxiv. 24. And the elect are saved from the deceptions, not because they have keener intellects and finer reasoning powers than other men, but because they are the elect; that is, those who by the love of the truth, have made their "calling and election sure." 2 Peter i. 10.

The truth is the word of God. "Thy word is truth." John xvii. 17. To love the truth, is to love the word of God. The truth is unpopular; it is unpleasant (to the natural heart); it involves sacrifices and hardships. But if you have the "love of the truth," all this will make no difference in your attitude towards it. You will, like our Saviour, "endure the cross, despising the shame" keeping in view the joy that is set before you, and having "respect unto the recompense of reward." And our joy, our reward, as Christians, is Christ Himself. He is "the way, the truth, and the life." If we have the "love of the truth," we will gladly give up all that we may obtain Him.

"The Open Door" The Present Truth 9, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

"I am the door; by Me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." John x. 9. These are the words of Christ, the Good Shepherd. Again He says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." John xiv. 6. He is the way and the door by which a man may find access to a more desirable place than he now is in.

By nature, all persons are in a state of bondage. They are born into a prison, and this prison is represented by the carnal nature. Men may not realise the fact, like the Jews who said to Christ, "We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man;" but the truth is not affected by man's ignorance. "Whosoever committeth sin is the bond servant of sin." John viii. 34. All men are by nature sinners. "Of whom a man is overcome, of the same is He brought in bondage." 2 Peter ii. 19. Satan is the author of sin. Satan overcame Adam, and thus the whole human family were brought into the bondage of sin.

But "the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." 1 John iii. 8. The Son of God, therefore, will destroy sin, and when sin is destroyed, its bondage is also gone. Christ is the way out of the dark realm of sin and bondage. He is the door that opens into the realm of light and liberty. In announcing His mission to the world, He quoted the prophetic words of Isa. lxi. 1: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me; because the Lord hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent

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Me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." This is release from the bondage of sin. It is the opening of the prison doors to them that are bound by the chains of their own evil natures, so that Satan, through them, leads them captive at his will.

The prison door is open; the shackles are loosed. This is the glad tidings of the Gospel to the fallen children of men. Jesus Christ has repealed the law of the realm of bondage, which is the "law of sin and death." Rom. viii. 2. He has substituted in its place the "law of the Spirit of life." He has overcome Satan, and overcome the world, so that all the power of evil in Satan and in the world is made subject to His will, expressed in this law of the Spirit of life.

Why then are not all men free? Ah, freedom has come to them, but they do not know it. Like the poor slave who (as we are told) was kept in bondage by his wicked master in the Southern States of America long years after the emancipation proclamation by President Lincoln, so mortals are kept in ignorance now of that greater emancipation proclamation contained in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They are kept in ignorance by their wicked master, the devil. He does not want anyone to know that there is freedom and light and life in Christ. He could not prevent this freedom to man; so he tries to prevent them from receiving it by keeping them in ignorance of it.

But the message to you, reader, and to all who hear the glad tidings of the Gospel, is, the freedom is here. Life and immortality are here; they have been brought to light through the Gospel. 2 Tim. i. 10. The work of liberation is not a future work, but one already accomplished. It only waits your acceptance. If you say as did Paul, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?" you may also say, "I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." The deliverance is yours, if you will take it. The prison door is open; will you walk out, or remain in your bondage?

"Choose ye this day whom ye will serve." So spake Joshua to the children of Israel, as recorded in Joshua xxiv. 15. They could choose themselves whether they would be servants of God or not. And the same power of choice lies with each of us. The secret of success in this matter lies in the use of the will. We can will to serve God, or we can will to serve the God of this world. "To whom ye yield yourselves to obey," says Paul, "his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" Rom. vi. 16. Every sin is prefaced by yielding on the part of the sinner; and every righteous act is also prefaced by yielding; but in the one case the yielding is to Satan, and in the other case to God. And the moment of temptation, when it seems that we must fall, we may yield ourselves to Him, and in that condition we will not yield ourselves to Satan, for we are controlled by the one to whom we yield ourselves. And when you yield your will to God, you do not thereby lose your will, for God allies it with His own, which is a source of incalculable strength. And then you will know that "it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure."

"Choose You This Day" The Present Truth 9, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

"Choose ye this day whom ye will serve." So spake Joshua to the children of Israel, as recorded in Joshua xxiv. 15. They could choose themselves whether they would be servants of God or not, and the same power of choice lies with each of us. The secret of success lies in the use of the will. We can will to serve God, or we can will to serve the god of this world. "To whom ye yield yourselves to obey," says Paul, "his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" Rom. vi. 16. Every sin is prefaced by yielding on the part of the sinner; and every righteous act is also prefaced by yielding; but in the one case the yielding is to Satan, and in the other case to God. In the moment of temptation, when it seems that we must fall, we may yield ourselves to Him, and in that condition we will not yield ourselves to Satan, for we are controlled by the one to whom we yield ourselves. And when you yield your will to God, you do not thereby lose your will, for God allies it with His own, which is a source of incalculable strength. And then you will know that "it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure."

"Christian Growth" The Present Truth 9, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

Growth is the process of development by which that which is immature advances toward a state of perfection. Growth is as much a possibility and a necessity of spiritual life as a physical life. The spiritual life begins with a birth,-the "new birth." The individual is then a babe in Christ. Were he always to remain a babe he could not become a soldier of the cross, enduring hardness in the service of his Master. He could not partake of the strong meat which, with the more simple "milk of the word," is provided in the Gospel of Christ. From the condition of a babe, he must pass to that of the full stature of manhood in Christ; and this can only be done by growth.

What are the essentials to growth? Almost anyone can tell what is necessary to the growth of a plant, but scarcely anyone seems to understand what is necessary to development as a Christian. Yet it needs no greater effort to know what is necessary in the one case than in the other. A Christian is but a plant in the garden of the Lord; and spiritual plants, like any other plants, need plenty of water, good soil, and sunlight.

All these the Lord has provided for His garden, and it only remains for His plants to assimilate what they find. But there is a strange perversity about these plants of the human kind, that is not seen in the physical world. The Lord to the prophet Jeremiah complains of His people of old that though He had planted them "a noble vine, wholly a right seed," yet they had "turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine;" and thus it is with many now who have enjoyed like privileges. There is no fault in the provision that God has made; but there is an evil principle which finds its way into the plant and perverts its nature, causing degeneracy and ultimate loss of all that is noble and good.

It is the nature of a plant to turn towards the sun; but in God's spiritual garden are seen some plants that try to grow in another way. There are some that try to grow by something inherent in themselves. Of course, no growth can be attained in this way. Imagine a plant trying to make itself grow, exerting itself,-if it could be capable of exertion-to become higher and stronger and to strike its roots more deeply into the soil! The idea is absurd; yet this is what many people think they must do in order to grow as Christians. But Christ said, "which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?" Luke xii. 25. Who would think of exerting himself in order to grow physically? It is true that exercise influences growth, but it is not the cause of growth, nor is there anything that man can do to cause it. The principle of development is in every human organisation by nature, and asserts itself as a principle of all living beings; and all that man can do is to secure those conditions within which this principle can operate to the best good of the individual. So it is in the spiritual world. The principle of growth is implanted by God at the new birth, and only needs right conditions to cause the babe in Christ to grow up to the full stature of Christian manhood. Man can interfere with this principle, and repress it, but he cannot create it. But the devil, who understands all this, continually sets men to work to try to make themselves grow by exertion. He would have men think that by taking thought and doing a large amount of good works they can add a cubit to their stature in Christ. And men try this plan, as they have been doing for ages in the past, and keep trying it until they find that it does not work. They find that after years of such efforts, they are not any stronger Christians than they were at the start, nor reach higher up into the spiritual atmosphere of heaven. Then they become discouraged,

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and the devil, who knew what the result would be, comes and tempts them, and finds them ready to fall an easy prey to his devices.

But there is no impossibility in the way of Christian growth. The difficulty was, they did not understand the nature of that growth. They did not know the conditions under which alone it could take place. They were not instructed by that which God has revealed in His word and in nature. A plant grows and reaches up and becomes stronger without any exertion on its own part. It simply looks to the sun. It feels the vivifying influence of its rays, and reaches up toward the source from which they come. The whole process is simply an effort to get nearer to the source of its life. In the soil it finds water and the various elements that enter into its composition as a plant, and the principle of assimilation within it, which it has so long as it looks at the sun, draws up the substances through the roots and into the stem and leaves. The plant simply lets the process go on according to this law of assimilation which its Creator gave it.

So it must be with the plants in the heavenly garden. They cannot grow by looking at themselves; they cannot grow by looking at other plants around them. They must look at the sun. Neither must they exert themselves to assimilate that which is necessary to build them up and make them strong, but simply let the process of assimilation go on according to the "law of the Spirit of life" that has been put within them. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus," is the exhortation that is given us. It will be in us if we will let it. All God wants of any person is to let Him work in him.

Man is continually doing something to hinder God's work. He is continually putting self in God's way. He refuses to submit his will to God's will. And this is all the difficulty about living the Christian life. It is not a difficulty of performing works, but the difficulty of making the right choice, of yielding to God and not to self, of looking to Christ and not to something else, and of letting His mind and His spirit be in us. He is our Sun, the "Sun of Righteousness." Mal. iv. 3. If we will look steadfastly at Him as the plant does at the sun that shines in the heavens, if we will make it our constant effort to turn toward Him as the plant does to the source of its life, and to reach up more and more toward the brightness of His face, we shall experience no difficulty in obtaining the full measure of growth that we desire.

But we need not expect to realise the fact that we are growing, any more than we can realise that we are growing physically by trying to note changes in our stature from day to day. If the plant should turn its head away from the sun to look at itself and see how fast it was growing, it would soon cease to grow; and just so with the Christian. When he tries to see himself growing spiritually he is taking one of the most effective means to stop his growth entirely.

There is no cause for discouragement therefore in the fact we do not at any time realise this process of growth. It is taking place just as truly as it takes place in the physical world, and we need not make the outcome a matter of anxious concern. The outcome will be that which the Apostle Paul describes in his letter to the Ephesians, for whom he prayed that they might be strengthened by the inward presence of the Spirit, "that ye, been rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the length and breadth and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God." Eph. iii. 19.

We are not told to grow in the knowledge of self or the knowledge of our sinfulness or that of our neighbours, but "in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." 2 Pet. iii. 18. We cannot know His grace and all His attributes unless we see them; and we cannot see them unless we look to Him.

"A Necessary Distinction" The Present Truth 9, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

The Parliament of Religions at Chicago has been marked by some vehement attacks by men of one religion on another religion, and Christianity, as was to be expected, has had a full share of the storm. Vive Rananda, the popular Hindu monk, says the correspondent of the Chronicle, denounced our commercial prosperity, our bloody wars, and our religious intolerance, declaring that at such a price the Hindu would have none of our boasted civilisation:-

You come, with the Bible in one hand and the conqueror's sword in the other-you, with your religion of yesterday, to us, who were taught thousands of years ago by our Richis, precepts as noble and lives as holy as your Christ's. You trample on us and treat us like the dust beneath your feet. You destroy precious life in animals. You are carnivores. You degrade our people with drink. You insult our women. You scorn our religion-in many points like yours, only better, because more humane. And then you wonder why Christianity makes such slow progress in India. I tell you it is because you are not like your Christ, whom we could honour and reverence. Do you think, if you came to our doors like Him, meek and lowly, with a message of love, living and working, and suffering for others, as He did, we should turn a deaf ear? Oh, no! We should receive Him and listen to Him, as we have done our own inspired Richis (teachers).

We all know that war, commercial prosperity, and shameful treatment of women, have nothing to do with Christianity, but we see also that heathen nations inevitably associate them with Englishmen, who, as a nation, profess to be Christians. They seem to say, "These be thy gods, O England!" But we must distinguish between Englishmen and Christians; between the seed of Adam and the seed of Christ; between old creation and the new.-The Christian.

[But the trouble is, that the Hindus cannot be expected to make that necessary distinction. It is impossible that they should, since Christians themselves foster the delusion by calling England a "Christian country." The natural conclusion is that in England all are Christians, just as in a Mohammedan country all are Mohammedans. Where Christianity is identified with any nation, it is placed on a level with Paganism.-ED. P.T.]

"Englishmen and Machine Guns" The Present Truth 9, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

We expected to hear of the complete and final overthrow of the unhappy chief or sovereign of Matabeleland. How can undisciplined savages, without artillery, withstand or successfully assail Englishmen, who call to their aid the machine gun? It appears that Lobengula knew after the first battle that he was beaten. But the younger men in his rude forces were not so ready to acknowledge the necessary superiority of white men. They insisted on fighting another battle. Individually these savages are brave men. Let them meet any foe on equal terms and they would not easily be driven off the field. The inequality in this instance is too great. Seven thousand Matabele, resolute and daring, attacked the South Africa Company's forces. After an hour's fighting even these young warriors were compelled to retreat. What else could they do? The machine gun with deadly aim literally sent forth hundreds and thousands of bullets, which thinned the advancing ranks. And ultimately convinced the most heroic that success was impossible. Of the one thousand wounded or dead natives left on the field of battle, nine hundred were laid low by bullets from the machine gun. The company's loss was, three killed and seven wounded.

This is not war-it is butchery. It seems to us that the next war in Europe on a large scale will be so revoltingly deadly, so unheroic in its killing, that,

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while Christians can do none other than weep over the massacre, civilised men must he ashamed of the slaughter. Is it not time to put an end to this horrible business? The four chief sinners among the nations impoverish their populations to perfect weapons and engines of destruction, and in training men to use them. Here is a note of their expenditure on war:-

Great Britain, . . . . . . . . . . . . £50,000,000

France, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £56,000,000

Germany, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £38,000,000

Russia, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £34,000,000

£178,000,000

We hope that the scientific slaughter of so many hundreds of Matabele warriors will make Christendom ashamed of outdoing in real savagery and cruel barbarism the most bloodthirsty tribes on the dark continent itself. We regard the news from the seat of war between the South Africa Company and the chief of Matabeleland as most revolting. War is seen there in its true character. There is nothing so unchristian, so inhuman, so insanely cruel as the slaughter of men by machine guns.

[The above is from The Freeman, and the sentiment expressed is one with which all right-minded people must agree. Surely we need not wait until the next war in Europe, in order to be ashamed of the slaughter; and yet, after centuries of it, so-called "Christian Nations" do not seem any more ashamed than at the beginning. Although the Freeman uses a common expression, saying that the slaughter of the Matabele is not war but butchery, it expresses the truth in the last paragraph where it says, that "war is there seen in its true character."

But what about the question, "Is it not time to put an end to this horrible business?" How is it to be done? The word of God says: "From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence even of your own lusts that war in your members? Ye lust and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain." James iv. 1, 2. So long as the cause of war exists in human hearts, it will be as impossible to stop it by councils and legislation, as it would be to stop a river's flood by throwing a dam across its mouth. Make the heart pure, and the actions will be the same. This cannot be done by wholesale, but for individuals, through "the preparation of the Gospel of peace." Soon, however the Prince of Peace will come to reign, and, after a last battle, wars will be made to cease to the ends of the earth.]

"A Lesson from the Vine" The Present Truth 9, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

We have learned from the grass that we have no reason to be proud; from the flowers, that God cares for us and is able to clothe us with the purity of the lily; from the tree, that we should be rooted and grounded in Christ and bring forth fruit unto God.

But what can we learn from little vines that cannot even stand alone? We see them creeping along the ground, twining around a string or stick, climbing into trees, and clinging to anything that they can reach with their curly little tendrils or claspers. By noticing carefully see that even they are beautiful and useful, and have a work to do that no other plant or tree can do. We find them clambering over the dull city houses, and hanging graceful festoons down their bare walls. We observe them creeping slyly up the trunk of some dead tree, and throwing over it a mantle of living green. We see them decorating our porches and walls and fences with bunches of fragrant blossoms and bright berries. In the heat of summer we sit beneath the shade in the cool arbour, and in the days of autumn we feast upon the clusters of pink and white and purple grapes that hang from their fruitful branches. No, no, this earth would not be what it is to us without the beautiful vines. The more we look at them and study them the more we see in them to admire, and the more we feel like praising God for this another token of His love.

The grape-vine does not die down every year like the morning-glory and many other vines. It loses its leaves, but the largest stalk that is rooted in the ground remains, and in the spring it puts out new leaves and new branches, and then how fast they grow!

What makes those young branches grow so fast? What makes them bear such lovely fruit? If you would look just inside of the hard bark which covers the stalk and branches, you would see. There are many little hollow pipes or tubes there, through which a thin watery juice, or sap, goes up from the roots to the leaves, and then from the leaves back again to the roots. It is the sap that runs from the vine into the branches that gives food to the branches, and keeps them alive and makes them grow and bear fruit. It really is the sap that forms the fruit.

You have noticed how quickly a branch withers and dies, but it is broken or cut off from the main vine. It cannot live, or grow, or bear fruit alone, for when it is not united to the vine the sap cannot run into it.

Jesus says that without Him, you are just as helpless as that little branch is without the vine. You cannot bear the fruits of His Spirit alone, any more than a little branch can bear the fruits of the sap alone; for do you not see? you cannot have the Spirit without being united to Jesus, any more than the branch can have the sap without being united to the vine.

Listen to what Jesus Himself says about it: "I am the vine, ye are the branches. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; nor more can ye, except ye abide in Me." John xv. 4.

We learned in our lesson from the trees, that the fruits of the Spirit which we should bear, are named in Gal. v. 22, 23. They are, "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance." They are loving thoughts and looks and actions, kindness to those about us, and doing as Jesus does in all things.

Now "who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one." In other words, Who can make these pure, good actions come out of an impure, wicked boy or girl? Not one. It is impossible. There is no good spirit in their heart, so of course there can be no fruits of the good Spirit come out of their hearts.

But if that bad child comes to Jesus, and allows a good Spirit of Jesus to come into his heart and take the place of the bad spirit that fills him, then he can do right and bear all the good fruits of the Spirit, for then he is united to Jesus, the True Vine, and the good fruit-bearing spirit of the True Vine is running through him.

Jesus says, "He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit," and "herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be My disciples."

But when a child tries to do right and bear the fruit of the Spirit alone, without believing in Jesus or allowing the good Spirit of Jesus to come in, he is just as foolish as a little branch would be if it should try to bear grapes alone, without allowing the sap to come into it from the vine.

It is the Spirit of God alone that can do good actions, and we can obtain it only through Jesus the True Vine. Therefore you and I cannot do one good act or overcome one temptation without keeping close to Him and allowing His Spirit to use us as it will. Jesus says, "Without Me ye can do nothing."

Now, my child, are you willing to be kept near to Jesus, and willing to let Him use you? Are you willing to give up your own naughty spirit, and allow the Spirit of God to use your hands and feet and tongue and eyes and ears and the whole body? If so, you may be a fruitful little branch of the True Vine and bear much precious fruit to glorify God. If not, the heart of the good Master will be sadly grieved when He comes and finds after all His loving care, that you are bearing nothing but bad, bitter fruit, and that you must be gathered with the bad branches and cast into the fire.

But He is "not willing that any should perish"; He says that He has no pleasure in their destruction. He loves His little branches, and longs to see them all connected with the True Vine, and bearing good fruit so that they never shall need to be cut off. He sees you, and knows how you have been trying to live without Jesus, the Vine. He knows that without Him you will wither and die. He therefore

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pleads with loving tones, "Turn ye, turn ye; for why will ye die"? Come to Jesus, and then you can live and bear good fruit. Oh, will you come?

The fruit tree teaches you to bring forth fruit unto God; the vine teaches you how.

1. What does the grass teach us? 1 Peter i. 24.

2. What may we learn from the flowers? Matt. vi. 28-33.

3. What do the fruit trees say to us? Rom. vii. 4, last part.

4. Did you ever see a grape-vine?

5. What makes its branches grow?

6. What causes its branches to bear fruit?

7. Could they not live and bear fruit just as well without the vine? Why not?

8. What soon happens to a branch when it is taken away from the vine?

9. Of whom should the grape-vine always cause us to think? Of Jesus.

10. Why? Because He says, "I am the True Vine." John xv. 1.

11. Of whom should the branches make us think? Of ourselves.

12. Why? Because Jesus says, "I am the True Vine; ye are the branches." John xv. 5.

13. How is Jesus like a grape-vine? John xv. 4.

14. How are we like branches?

15. What can a little branch do without the vine?

16. What can we do without Jesus? John xv. 5.

17. But what can a little branch do when it is united to the vine?

18. And what can we do when we are united to Jesus? John xv. 5.

19. What kind of fruit does Jesus, the True Vine, bear? Gal. v. 22, 23.

20. Then what kind of fruit will we bear when we are as closely united to Him as the branch is to the vine?

21. What will happen to all the branches that will not allow the True Vine to give them life and strength?

22. Whose fault will it be?

23. What is done with dead branches?

24. Do you and I need to be burned up among the dead branches?

25. What does the loving Father in heaven plead with us to do? Eze. xxxiii. 11.

26. Tell, now, what the grape-vine says to you?

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

-Prince Alexander, late ruler of Bulgaria died suddenly at Gratz, Austria, where he was buried Nov. 20.

-A Dalziel's telegram, dated Cape Town, Nov. 22, says: There are reports of great damage done by floods in the north-eastern portion of the colony, especially at Port Elizabeth and Grahams-town and in Aliwah North.

-An Austrian has invented a machine which is said to solve the problem of aerial navigation. The sails are to be worked by steam, and the progression of the machine will be on the same principle as the flight of a bee.

-The committee of the unemployed, finding that their case is not to be considered during the present session of Parliament, have decided to organise a monster procession, when the poverty of East London will be paraded in the West.

-Eighty persons have been arrested recently at Warsaw on suspicion of being connected with a Nihilist conspiracy. The prisoners, who mostly belong to the literary or student class, are lodged in the citadel, and great excitement prevails.

-Reports from South Africa state that the "war" is ended, and that the main portion of the Matabele have placed themselves under the "protection" of the British forces. King Lobengula is reported to have been captured by the raiders of the Chartered Company.

-The civil war in Brazil stilt drags on, with much desultory skirmishing and damage to property, but with no decided change in the positions and prospects of the contending forces. The latest reports from the scene of action are favourable to the Brazilian government.

-In accordance with the new law of March, 1893, the German national fast day was observed Nov. 22, instead of between Easter and Whitsuntide, as has been the case hitherto. The public offices and theatres were closed, all business was suspended, and no evening papers were published.

-The Chronicle's Rome correspondent, in discussing the prospects of the successor to Leo XIII. in the Papal chair, states that Cardinals Vannutelli and Di Pietro are believed to be the beet candidates for the succession. He adds that the projected canonisation of Joan of Arc seems likely to fall through.

-The police at Montreal became aware of a plot on the part of French Canadians to blow up the Nelson Monument in that city, on Nov. 20, and apprehended three men as they were about to carry out their nefarious design. A strong anti-British sentiment prevails in the French quarter of the city.

-A Madrid telegram represents the state of affairs created by the war in Morocco as critical, and as likely to lead to a split in the Ministry. The Government must, it is declared, obtain terms of peace such as will satisfy public opinion, or it must continue the war without risking international complications.

-A Barcelona telegram states that a nest of Anarchists has been discovered in that city, the police having lighted on an Anarchist club, which they searched, discovering a number of explosives and other things, showing the club to be a revolutionary and Anarchist centre. Two hundred supposed Anarchists are under arrest in Madrid.

-America is suffering from a strike on the Lehigh Valley Railway, which is being accompanied with a good deal of violence. It is reported from Wilkesbarre, Pa., that upwards of 27,000 men will be thrown out of employment owing to the strike. Those men are engaged at about sixty collieries, which will be compelled to close for want of railway trucks.

-A telegram from Quebec states that the greatest destitution prevails among the Canadian Indians. From Labrador to British Columbia reports have been received giving the most harrowing details. One Indian town in the northern part of the province of Quebec has lost every one of its inhabitants by famine. It is known that at least 400 Indians have already perished from hunger, and it is believed that thousands more will starve to death before the winter is over.

-Terrific gales swept over the English Channel, Nov. 19 and 20, and numerous wrecks, with much lose of life, are reported from ail parts of the British Isles and from the coast of the continent. The steamer Hamshire, of London, foundered off the coast, and the crew took to the boats; but in the terrible sea the boats were broken up and twenty-one persons are thought to have perished. Altogether about 240 persons are reported to have lost their lives in the storm, and over 500 have been rescued from sinking vessels.

-Herr Reichard, a Protestant student of theology, and Herr Sonnenburg, a publisher of Troves, were condemned some time ago to six and three weeks' imprisonment respectively for making a "slanderous" attack on the usages of the Catholic Church, and "insulting" the Bishop of Troves in a pamphlet published by them under the title of "The Holy Coat Pilgrimage to Troves in the Era of Bishop Korum." The sentence on Herr Reichard has now been commuted into one week's detention in a fortress, and that on Herr Sonnenburg into a fine of 100 marks.

-The Chronicle says: "The relations between Austria and the Vatican are becoming steadily worse. For centuries past this Roman Catholic country has consistently supported, so far as was compatible with its independence, the claims of the Pope. This, however, carne to an end when it was found that the Pope had, so to speak, given his pontificial blessing to the Franco-Russian entente. The degree of intimacy which the relations between the Pope and Russia have reached is shown by the fact that the Vatican has consented to the Roman Catholic liturgy being celebrated in Poland in the Russian language. The negotiations on the subject have lasted for nearly a century, the Vatican having persistently opposed all appeals for the employment of the vernacular, on the ground that it was the spiritual protector of the Poles. Nov the agreement in question is expected to be signed during the next few days. Needless to say it will carry with it the exposure of the Poles to the Russification of their country through the medium of the Church."

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

It is wonderful how good words are abused. "Protection" is one of them. For instance, in view of the way the Matabele have been slaughtered, who could read the statement that "the remainder of the tribe is gradually placing itself under the protection of the British forces," without being impressed that there is a grand satire in it?

"Liberty," especially "religious liberty," is another term that has had to suffer. Many crimes, both before and since the death of Madame Roland, have been committed in its name. Those who are diligently working to have strict religious teaching in all the public schools, are doing so in the name of liberty, and here is how it works: At a recent meeting of the managers of a certain school in London, a candidate for the situation of assistant teacher was asked if he had "the Archbishop's Certification of Proficient in Religious Knowledge," and when he answered in the negative, he was rejected, and another was chosen, whose educational standing was so low that he was ineligible according to the rules of the Board, but who had the Archbishop's certificate.

Russian "orthodox" missions, it is said, have proved a total failure among the inhabitants of the Kirghese steppes, and will probably soon be withdrawn. Mohammedanism, on the other hand, is being embraced by the Kirghese almost en masse, being spread by Tartar teachers who have always enjoyed the privilege of free proselytism among them. Of course there is little choice between the Mohammedan and Greek religions, but it is a great pity that a people so ready to embrace a new religion should not have had opportunity of hearing and accepting the religion that is unto salvation.

"Christianity-Yes? or no?" That is the way the matter was recently put by Sir Richard Temple, when talking of the School Board election, which would determine the question of religious teaching in the schools. That is the question to be decided by the coming election. No wonder conscientious people tremble when they contemplate the slender thread upon which the existence of Christianity hangs. Just think of it! The fate of Christianity to be decided by a popular election. It may be so with what is known as "English Christianity," but it is not so with the Christianity of Christ and the Bible. "The foundation of God standeth sure." Popular elections can neither help or hinder the cause of true Christianity.

The question whether or not the doctrine of the Trinity, according to the definition of the Catholic Church, shall be taught to the little children in the public schools, has been agitating the London School Board for many months. The idea of Christianity that is held by those who are clamouring for State instruction in religion, is shown by a remark of the leading agitator, who said that Churchmen must do all they possibly can "to force this proud Board to bow its head before the Son of Mary." Such Christianity is on a par with the politeness of the child whose mother takes its head in both her hands, and forces it to make obeisance to a visitor. We believe and are sure that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that He is God, but we also know that forced homage to Him is no better than professed heathenism.

The coxswain of the volunteer life-saving crew at Aldeburgh, near Harwich, which did good work in saving lives during the recent terrible gales, is a fishermen who has had much experience in life-saving. His father and grandfather both lost their lives in rescuing shipwrecked sailors. When asked, after his return from the work of the last storm, how many lives he had saved, the brave fellow replied, "I'm sure I don't know; I don't keep count of 'em." That is the way with hundreds who are doing some of the best work in the world. They are not keeping count of what they are doing, so as to report it. It is highly probable that the bravest deeds and the best work that has been done in this world will never be publicly heard of till the Judgment. In many cases the doers themselves are unconscious of it.

The projected beatification of Joan of Arc-so it is announced from Rome-is likely to "fall through." So poor Joan must wait some time longer yet before she can become a saint. But if it is her life that has made her such, why is it not a fact to-day? Truth is not manufactured by the decisions of men, lay or ecclesiastical. But the "saints" of the Catholic Church are manufactured by that church; and she can as well undertake to manufacture saintliness, as to manufacture saints, since the latter cannot exist without the former. No one, however, can be less concerned over the matter than Joan herself, sleeping, as she is, unconscious in her grave. Eccl. ix. 5; Ps. cxlvi. 3, 4.

"The Next Pope" The Present Truth 9, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

According to advices received from Rome, the Papal world is beginning to be seriously agitated over the consideration of the question of the next pope. The Rome correspondent of the Chronicle says, "The next vote of the conclave seems in truth, almost restricted to two names,-Cardinal Serafino Vannutelli, and Cardinal di Pietro."

Whether this statement be correct or not, there is little doubt that Leo's successor will be an Italian, since only that nationality seems able to afford any abundance the quality of material of which pontiffs are made. History tells of but one English pope. Glancing over the long list of those who have occupied the pontifical throne since early times, we find few other names besides those that are Italian. Germany has fared a little better than England, while America has been left out altogether. The nations which produced the world's great thinkers, its statesmen, its philanthropists, its missionaries, its leaders and all that tends to the progress and betterment of mankind, do not compare with Italy in furnishing men qualified to stand at the head of "the Church"!

And this is true enough of the Catholic Church; but it is not true of the true church. The church of Christ needs no man to stand at its head, for her Head is Christ Himself.

December 7, 1893

"Front Page" The Present Truth 9, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

Physical power moves the arm of men, intellectual power the arm of the nation; but spiritual power moves the arm of God. Prayer can set in motion the mightiest force in the universe.

"Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are," although he stands out boldly in sacred history as one who had power to shut up heaven so that it should not rain, and to open heaven and bring down its rain or its fire upon the earth. We are not to think of Elias, or Moses, or Isaiah, or the other prophets, as men different in their origin or nature from ourselves. They were all subject to the same passions, and of themselves had no more power than we have; but they yielded themselves to God, and thus became instruments in His hands. That is all the difference. When we will fully yield ourselves to Him, God will make us His instruments,-not, perhaps, to call down fire or to withhold rain, but to do work which is no less His work, and no less honourable and needful than that done by His prophets of old.

We are apt to think that the work of God is some visibly great work, something that affords some striking manifestation of superhuman power and majesty, like some of the mighty miracles never performed by the prophets or the apostles. But this opinion comes only from the finite nature of our human minds. The human mind would naturally have concluded that the Lord was in the wind, or the fire, or the earthquake, that passed before the fugitive Elijah on Mount Horeb; but we learn from the record that God was not in these, but in this "still, small voice." It is "not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord."

We are told that John the Baptist "did no miracle," and yet Jesus said, "Among men that are born of woman, there has not arisen a greater than John the Baptist." His work was the work of preparing the way for the Son of God, and as the prophet tells us, every valley was exalted, and every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked was made straight, and the rough places plain. Isa. xl. 3. That was as great a work as was ever done through men. And so likewise our work is no less a great work though there be nothing about it especially calculated to arrest the eye or startle the senses. If through us the still small voice speaks, and is heard by other hearts around us, we are doing a greater work than that of producing tornadoes and earthquakes. It is a mightier miracle to work upon and change the human heart, than to work upon inanimate matter, which has been given no will power of its own.

The power of God is the same power in all ages, and the same in all persons through whom it is manifested. And all persons through whom God manifests His power are the same in nature; all are of like passions with ourselves. If we will believe this, it will be to us a source of much encouragement. Elias had power to shut up the rain or to call it down, and to bring down fire from heaven. These are the two grand agents of destruction,-the one, that which destroyed the earth in the days of Noah, the other, that which will destroy it again in the day of Judgment, which comes in our day. But to the righteous, God places even these agencies of His wrath in subjection. And so we, men of like passions with Elias and all the prophets, having like them the righteousness of God, who is the "same God over all" and equally "rich unto all them that call upon Him" may have all confidence in the day of His appearing.

"True Riches" The Present Truth 9, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

True riches do not consist in the possession of gold, or real estate, or government bonds, or any of the many things which we commonly associate with the idea of riches. True riches cannot be seen with the natural eye. Gold can secure to an individual many advantages, but it cannot save him from accident, loss of physical and mental power, or of life itself. The true riches consist in that which secures to the soul the highest blessings, and benefits which will never be lost.

True riches are not laid up in earthly banks, but are stored in the bank of heaven. We are exhorted, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth. . . . but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal." Matt. vi. 19, 20. In another text we are told how to lay up treasure in heaven: "Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags that wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth." Luke xii. 33. By disposing of our earthly riches, in the right way, we may obtain the true riches. That which is done for the sake of Christ here, is a deposit in the bank above, which will never be lost.

But the true riches cannot be purchased

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with money. The obtaining of them is not dependent upon the possession of earthly wealth. The poorest and humblest of mortals possess them as well as the kings and potentates of the financial world; yes, even easier, for earthly gold is naturally a barrier to the possession of the wealth of greater value. And this is the satisfactory thing about the true riches,-all may have them. Inequalities of earthly fortune are no barrier in the way of any in obtaining this wealth. It is a gift, and anyone may have it who will take it.

The faithful and true Witness says, "I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich." Rev. iii. 18. Are you seeking for earthly wealth? Pause and listen to these words of Christ, for they are addressed to you. His counsel cannot be disregarded except at a price which no man can afford to pay. You are not too poor to buy, for we buy of God, "without money and without price." Isa. lv. 1. And what is the "gold tried in the fire"? The fire is that which will enable us to endure it. Peter refers to this in language addressed to those who "now, for a season, if need be, . . are in heaviness through manifold temptations." He says, "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." 1 Peter i. 6, 7. The gold is faith, and faith, we are told, "worketh by love." Gal. v. 6.

Have you faith and love? If not, you may buy them "without money and without price" of Him who counsels you to obtain them. He has such gold to sell; He has gold that has been tried in the fire. It is His own faith and love, which were tried in the furnace of affliction while He was "a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief," here on the earth. It is faith and love that have stood every test to which humanity can by any means be subjected. If such faith and love are in our hearts, they will keep us amidst all the trials and temptations of this life, as they kept the Saviour while He lived and walked in human form among the inhabitants of Judea.

Are you seeking for earthly riches, to the neglect of the true riches, the gold tried in the fire? If you are, then God says unto you, "Thou fool" (Luke xii. 20); for "so is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." Matt. vi. 23. Seek first the true riches, and all other riches will come after them,-if not immediately in this life, then when our brief existence here is ended; for the children of Abraham by faith are heirs with him of the whole world. Rom. iv. 13; Gal. iii. 7. "Hearken, my beloved brethren," writes the Apostle James, "hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He hath promised to them that love Him?" James ii. 5. Are you one of the "poor of this world"? Then be satisfied if you are "rich in faith;" for you are an heir of all things, and no reversal of fortune can take the inheritance from you.

The Apostle Peter writes, "And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindest charity." 2 Peter i. 5-7. Here is marked out the road to wealth, and all may enter it who will. There are not too many competitors in the way to lessen in any degree the certainty of success. These are golden steps, at the top of which are riches that infinitely exceed all the fortunes of earth, awaiting whomsoever will come and take them.

"The Purpose of Truth" The Present Truth 9, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

To the Jews Jesus said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John viii. 32.

The Saviour here stated the purpose for which men need the truth. Not that a man may be exalted, not that he may be exalted, not that he may take advantage of his fellow-men, but that he may be free, is the purpose for which he should search for the truth. If men could first realise that without the truth they are in bondage, they would search for the truth with more earnestness and with a different spirit than is commonly to be seen at the present time.

How often are Divine truths treated more as curiosities than as living principles which can save the soul. The Bible must not be searched as though it were but a great museum filled with the relics of the religious thought and life of a bygone age. Its truths are not given for the purpose of gratifying any inclination of the natural heart. Their purpose is, as Paul wrote to Timothy, to make men "wise unto salvation." He who comes to them with any other purpose in view will fail entirely of attaining the end which God by their means has placed within his reach.

To the tempter Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." The word of God has been given to men that they may live. Life is in it, and if men will feed on the word, its life will be in them.

When God spake the law amidst the lightnings and thundering of Mount Sinai, the terror-stricken Israelites removed afar off and said to Moses, "Let not God speak with us lest we die." God cannot speak to man directly, for he cannot bear it. So He has veiled His terrible Majesty in the flesh of humanity, and His word has come to us through His apostles and prophets, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. But it is none the less the word of God, and no less entitled to our reverence and implicit faith than though it came sounding in our ears with the awful tones of the voice of God, accompanied by lightnings from heaven, and convulsive tremors in the earth.

If the Jews had accepted the truth which Christ gave to them, it need not have been written of them, as it was by Paul, that "Jerusalem which now is. . . is in bondage with her children." Gal. iv. 25. But they did not want truth for the purpose of becoming free, for they imagined themselves to be already in possession of freedom. The use they made of truth was to exalt themselves, to bind it upon their garments in ostentatious display, while they flattered themselves that they were thereby elevated above the remaining majority of mankind. And they were elevated above them in point of privilege, but that only laid upon them a greater responsibility of obedience to the Divine requirements. Having only their own exaltation in view, they lost sight of the truth they most needed to learn,-that Christ had come to free them from bondage, and that only by accepting Him they become "free indeed."

Self blinds the spiritual eyesight to the needs of the soul, so that the individual fails to see that he needs the truth-the word of God (John xvii. 17)-because he is in the bondage of sin, and thinks that the chief value of truth is to exalt him above his fellows. It leads him to view the study of the word

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of God as an optional matter, and not a necessity. No one can see the grandest and most important truths that are to be known, so long as self stands in his line of vision. When we approach the word, self, with all its preconceived wisdom, must be put away. We must come with a sense of our need, and a belief that life and freedom are contained in its sacred truths. He who will do this will know the truth, and experience the "glorious liberty" prepared for the children of God.

"The Church vs. Christ" The Present Truth 9, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

It is well-known that Archdeacon Farrar and Canon Knox Little appear as the champions of the evangelical and the Romanist parties, respectively, in the Church of England. Farrar protests against the idea of a sacrificing priesthood, the Mass, and auricular confession, all of which Knox Little defends, claiming that the Church of England prayer book authorises them. The latter has written a reply to Farrar's denunciation of Sacerdotalism, which reply is highly commended by the Church Times in its issue of November 24. On the point of receiving the communion fasting, as to whether or not it is as a mere matter of self-denial, or as an honour to the Lord, whose real presence is claimed to be in the bread and wine, the Church Times says:-

This particular phase of the question does not, however, touch the essential point of Canon Knox Little's controversy with Archdeacon Farrar on the binding force of the custom of the Catholic Church. The Canon does not go as fully as we could wish into the important question whether it is sinful to break the fast before communion. No one has ever stated that it is wrong in itself to eat food before communion; but if the established custom of the church is the law for Christian people, and that is one of the fundamental principles of jurisprudence, then there must be sin in breaking such law, just in proportion as there is willful disregard of ecclesiastical authority.

There is much more in this than the simple question of fasting communion and the real presence. The whole matter of the source of authority in matters of religion is involved. Is it "the church" or is it Christ? If "the church" is decided to be the source of authority, then the question is, What is the church? If "the church" is the lawgiver, who are they who are to obey? It is evident that as soon as it is claimed that "the church" has the power to make laws, it is also claimed that "the church" consists of something else than the body of professed believers in Christ. For in this latter case, we should have the anomaly of the individual members making laws for themselves, and that would be anarchy.

The idea that "the church" is the lawgiver, therefore, implies that a certain class compose "the church," and that all who join the church must join those few, so that joining the church would be something distinct from joining Christ. This is the Roman Catholic theory, that "the church" consists of the "clergy," and that they control and make laws, while the people-the "laity"-have only to obey their "superiors." This is founded on Cyprian's dictum that "the church is in the bishop."

We hope our readers will pay special attention to this point, because it is the very foundation of the Papal fabric, and because that idea has so strong a hold upon professed Protestants. What "our church" says and allows, and the "customs of the church," have a great deal to do with directing the course of many who nominally repudiate the pretensions of Rome. And now, having called attention to the main point involved, let us see where the sole authority in matters of religion rest.

Read again Eph. v. 23, 24: "For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church; and He is the Saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be subject to their own husbands in everything."

Again, we read that God hath set Christ "at His own right hand 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; and hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the Head over all things to in the church." Eph. i. 20-22.

Here we find that Christ is the Head in all things; that "the church" itself needs to be saved, and is to be subject to Christ. It is subject, therefore, and not in authority. It needs to be saved from sin, instead of being the one to set the standard of righteousness.

Again we read, "There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy." James iv. 12. Who is that one Lawgiver?-The prophet Isaiah answers: "The Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King: He will save us." Isa. xxxiii. 22. "Sin is the transgression of the Law." 1 John iii. 4. And since God is the one Lawgiver, it is evident that sin is the transgression of the law of God, and not of any law of "the church." If anyone ever should sin in deviating from any custom of "the church," it would be only because he violated the law of God, and not because he did not conform to the custom of "the church." When "the church" presumes to originate customs and laws, or when it claims lordship in customs and laws which Christ has given, it is usurping the place of Christ, the true Head, and thereby becomes antichrist.

"The Authority for Sunday" The Present Truth 9, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

In the same connection as that which we have quoted in the preceding article, the Church Times proceeds to speak of the necessity for people to be present at communion, whether they partake or not. This "necessity" is of course on account of the custom of "the church." Speaking of Canon Knox Little's treatment of this subject, under the head of "Eucharistic Worship," the Church Times says:-

He pleads earnestly for the liberty of the English Churchmen to be present at the offering of the Holy Sacrifice, whether they are going to receive or not; but it is not so much a question of liberty as of duty. It is as much a custome of the Catholic Church to hear Mass every Sunday as it is to receive Holy Communion fasting. We might ask Archdeacon Farrar why he insists on the observance of Sunday, as we suppose he does, and he could give no adequate answer except that it is enjoined by the Church; but the same Church has laid down as the one obligatory devotional exercise the hearing of Mass, whilst communion on any other Sunday than Easter Day is left to the conscience of each individual.

We should very much like to know how Archdeacon Farrar, or any other professed Protestants, would answer the above question. It really seems as though it is the "evangelical" portion of the Church of England, that is in the dilemma, while the Romanising portion is consistent. We say consistent, but not correct. The "Protestants" reject the Mass and fasting communion, as Romish customs, while they cling closely to Sunday observance, which has no other authority than the custom of the Roman Catholic Church.

Ask a Ritualist or an avowed Roman Catholic why he keeps Sunday, and he can promptly reply, "Because it is a custom of the Church." Ask a professed Protestant why he keeps Sunday, and he can make no other reply; for the Bible gives no more sanction to Sunday observance than it does to the worship of images. But in returning that answer, the professed Protestant would convict himself of inconsistency,

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because he indignantly spurns the Mass and other customs of the same church.

The truth is that the Roman Catholics have not nearly so difficult a task before them, to win England back to the allegiance to Rome, as many suppose. If Churchmen and other observers of the first day of the week, do not repudiate that practice as strongly as they ever did the Mass and the infallibility of the Pope, they will be forced into the Catholic Church by their own sense of consistency. It will not be long before the issue will be set squarely before them, and we wait with deep interest to see what they will do. May God help many thousands of them to accept the truth.

One word more ought to be added. We have said that if a professed Protestant were asked why he keeps Sunday, he could make no other reply then that it is the custom of "the church." And therein he would show that he is not indeed a Protestant. Not all professed Protestants would make such an answer. We know of many who, if they were asked why they keep Sunday, would each promptly and emphatically reply, "I do not." If asked why not, he would reply, "Because I am a disciple of Christ, and because Sunday observance has no authority but that of "the church." If asked what he does do, he would reply, "I keep the Sabbath of the Lord our God,-the seventh day of the week,-upon which Christ, 'by whom the worlds were made,' rested, and which He blessed and sanctified, and of which He declared Himself to be Lord; the day which He Himself observed when He was on earth." Who would dare accuse him of sin in thus following the precepts and practice of the Lord?

"A Free Conscience" The Present Truth 9, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

The following item is from Truth:-

A striking example is reported to me from Gloucestershire of the manner in which religious persecution is still practised in our midst. In the village of Brockworth feeling has recently run very high between the High Church and Low Church parties. The vicar and the High Church party being in the ascendant, the Protestant Union sent out lay-readers to hold private religious meetings. A cottage where such meetings were held was occupied by a woman whose son was gardener to a lady connected with the High Church party. The son was actually informed that his mother must stop the meetings at her cottage, or he must take lodgings in another house and undertake not to support his mother out of his pay. The young man naturally declined to accept either alternative. As a consequence he was summarily dismissed from his situation. Such is the extent to which liberty of conscience prevails in rural England in 1893.

Such is the extent to which religious bigotry prevails in "rural England in 1893," and doubtless in cities as well. But the writer is mistaken in supposing that such actions are any infringement of liberty of conscience. The incident itself shows that the young man's conscience was not bound. No laws nor persecution can better any conscience that is not already in chains. God has placed the conscience beyond the reach of narrow-minded bigots.

"Putting the Creature Above the Creator" The Present Truth 9, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

At the dedication of a Catholic church, called St. Joseph's in a town in Wisconsin, U.S.A., the preacher, who had among his hearers Monsignor Satolli and the bishop of the diocese, delivered the following:-

Joseph was the head of the family; the foster father of Jesus; the spouse of Mary. Jesus was subject to him, so the Scriptures say, not only loving him, but was a dutiful child, obeying him readily. A mere wish of Joseph had the power of command for Jesus. The relations of the three are not now changed, although the surroundings are; the Virgin Mary is still the spouse of St. Joseph, as Jesus is still the foster child. That Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth, is still the perfect spouse, and Jesus still subject to Joseph, his foster father, gives some idea of the high position in heaven of Joseph; with the exception of the blessed Virgin he alone of all the saints, takes for strength; for even Mary and Jesus pay homage to Joseph, what they could pay to no one else. Therefore his influence with the Fountain of Grace must be powerful; a mere wish of Joseph equalling to Jesus as a command. This immense influence Joseph uses in the interest of the welfare of his clients, and as protector of their temporal interests.

The New York Independent, from which we clipped the above, says of it: "This is very curious language, and makes assertions which no human being living can justify by any knowledge." That is true, but it is no less the truth. The whole truth is that it makes assertions the falsity of which every living person can demonstrate by the surest knowledge. We will note three points.

Take the statement that Jesus pays homage to Joseph, and that Joseph exercises authority over Jesus, using his influence over Jesus in favour of his "clients." That would make Joseph superior to Jesus, and the most important factor in the salvation of men. Now let us read a few Scriptures. Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, said of Jesus, "Neither is their salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be say." Acts iv. 12. The name of Joseph and of the Virgin Mary are excluded.

Again, after speaking of the sacrifice of Jesus, the Apostle says: "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name that is above every name; that the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth." Phil. ii. 9, 10.

The scripture tells us that Christ "upholds all things by the word of His power," and that after he had "by Himself purged our He our sin" He "sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." Heb. i. 3. To make Him pay homage to a created being, is to exalt the creature above the Creator. This fact, therefore, shows that Roman Catholicism is the direct, lineal descendant of heathenism. See Rom. i. 21-25.

Again, the Apostle Peter assures us by inspiration that Jesus "is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject to Him." 1 Peter iii. 22. The Bible affords ample evidence by which anybody may detect the fallacy of the assumption that there is any creature that is above Jesus, or that divides honours with Him.

But the simplest and strongest evidence has not yet been given; that is that neither Joseph nor Mary are in heaven, to influence Jesus by their prayers or commands, or to look after the temporal interests of earthly "clients." Not only so, but they are utterly unconscious of and indifferent to all the idolatrous adulation that is paid to them. Read the words of Scripture:-

"The living know that they shall die; but the dead know not anything." Eccl. ix. 5.

"Put not your trust in princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." Ps. cxlvi. 3, 4.

These two texts are sufficient to settle for ever any question as to the souls of the departed being in purgatory or paradise. If the Scriptures were believed, there could never be any saint worship, prayers for the dead, or masses to help souls out of purgatory. Of all the faithful souls of old, the apostle says that they have not received the promise, "God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." Heb. xi. 40. When the Lord descends, and the last trump sounds, the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and the living changed, and together all will meet the Lord, and ascend with Him to heaven. "And so shall we ever be with the

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Lord." 1 Cor. xv. 51, 52; 1 Thess. iv. 15-18. Then Joseph and Mary, with all the redeemed saints, will render humble and grateful service to Jesus, the only Mediator between God and man, the Saviour of mankind.

"Rome Is Gaining" The Present Truth 9, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

The English Churchman of Nov. 16, contained some correspondence between the Protestant Alliance and the Home Secretary, in regard to Roman Catholic processions. They refer to a royal proclamation issued in 1852, warning against violation of an Act of Parliament passed in the tenth year of George IV., which enacted that no Roman Catholic ecclesiastic nor member of any of the religious orders of the Church of Rome, should exercise any of the rites of that Church, or wear any of the habits of his order, except in the usual places of worship. The Protestant Alliance calls attention to the report of the Roman Catholic procession, and prays Her Majesty's Government to take steps to enforce the law.

The Home Secretary promised that the matter should receive attention. About three weeks later, having received no reply, the Alliance sent another letter to the Home Secretary, asking what action had been taken, whereupon the Secretary replied that Her Majesty's Government did not purpose to take any action in the matter.

This decision is all right in itself, for such a discrimination against Roman Catholic processions was unjust, and out of place; nevertheless the incident shows that a great change has taken place in the attitude of the English Government towards the Roman Catholic Church.

"Women's Christian Temperance Union" The Present Truth 9, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

There is a "Women's Christian Temperance Union" in a town in Nebraska, U.S.A., which has introduced a new line of work. Its members, some of whom are the wives of the leading men in town, and all of whom had been considered highly respectable, got the idea that some of the young ladies of their acquaintance were not as discreet as they should be. Accordingly they set about reforming them. Decoy letters were written to the young ladies, who were thereby induced to visit the park in the evening. There they were seized, bound, and gagged by the eminently respectable ladies aforesaid, who wore masks. After all the girls had arrived, they were most cruelly flogged by the women, who were armed with great whips. Some of the girls in their struggles had their clothes nearly torn from them. Of course great indignation was aroused, but the women gloried in their deed and boldly justified themselves. The affair has been compromised by each of them paying a nominal fine. They still retain the name "Christian," and are preparing an extended sketch of the raid for the publication. The worst of the matter is that many people who recognise the dastardliness of such conduct, will think that it is really prompted by Christianity, since its perpetrators bear the name.

"Rome's Challenge to Protestants" The Present Truth 9, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

The watchful eyes of Rome are ever alert to discover a wrong move in the camp of Protestants. They are alert to note any vantage ground which may be given her through the blindness and perversity of those with whom she is contending for the mastery. Rome is wise. She has access to the treasured wisdom of centuries of experience, and inconsistency has not blinded her eyes to the true situation. And she has discovered a vantage ground of the utmost importance to her ends,-one from which she can compel the large majority of Protestants to acknowledge themselves inconsistent in their course for the past three hundred years, or to admit (tacitly if not openly) the claim of Rome that not the Bible alone, and the Bible as interpreted by itself, the Bible as interpreted by the Church "Fathers," and tradition with it, is the correct basis upon which the Church of Christ should rest, a claim as false as it is presumptuous.

This vantage ground for a successful warfare with Protestantism as represented by the various so-called "orthodox" sects, she has long seen; but the time has now come when Protestants themselves, by their frantic seeking for State aid to uphold one of Rome's institutions, have given her the opportunity of using this vantage with telling effect; and our Rome has risen to the occasion, and has issued a challenge to the Protestant world for a combat on the latter's own ground, which they must either accept or ignore. But if they accept it, Rome well knows that the ground is utterly untenable for them, professing as they do that the Bible and the Bible alone is their only rule of faith. And on the other hand, if they reject or ignore it, it is a tacit confession of their own weakness, which in the popular mind must greatly tend to the advantage of Rome.

This challenge appears in the Catholic Mirror, the official organ of Cardinal Gibbons in the papacy and the United States. Its nature will appear from the following heading under which the Mirror published four leading editorials, one for each of four consecutive weeks:-

The Christian Sabbath: The Genuine Offspring of the Union of the Holy Spirit and the Catholic Church His Spouse. The claims of Protestantism to any Part Therein Proved to be Groundless, Self-Contradictory, and Suicidal.

The following short quotation from the Mirror's first article will set in view the leading facts of the situation:

Our attention has been called to the above subject in the past week by the receipt of a brochure of twenty-one pages, entitled "Appeal and Remonstrace" embodying resolutions adopted by the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventists (Feb. 24, 1893). The resolutions criticise and censure with much acerbity, the action of the United States Congress, and of the Supreme Court, for invading the rights of the people by closing the World's Fair on Sunday.

The Adventists are the only body of Christians with the Bible as their teacher, who can find no warrant in its pages for the change of day from the seventh to the first. Hence their appellation, "Seventh-day Adventists." Their cardinal principle consists in setting apart Saturday for the exclusive worship of God, in conformity with the positive command of God Himself, repeatedly reiterated in the sacred books of the Old and New Testament, literally obeyed by the children of Israel for thousands of years to this day, and indorsed by the teaching and practice of the Son of God whilst on earth.

Per contra, the Protestants of the World, the Adventists excepted, with the same Bible as their cherished and sole infallible teacher, by their practice, since their appearance in the sixteenth century, with the time-honoured practice of the Jewish people before their eyes, have rejected the day named for His worship by God, and assume, in apparent contradiction of His command, a day for His worship never once referred to for that purpose, in the pages of that sacred volume.

After noticing the "loud and impassioned invectives" against Sabbath desecration, with which Protestant pulpits so often ring, and "the fanatical clamour of the professed Protestant ministers throughout the length and breadth of the land, against opening the gates of the World's Fair on Sunday," the Mirror proceeds to an examination of the ground upon which Protestants stand in their observance of Sunday, from the standpoint of "the Bible, and the Bible alone." "The discussion of this paramount subject," it declares, is not "above the capacity of ordinary minds, nor does it involve extraordinary study, it resolves itself into a few plain questions, easy of solution":-

First, Which day of the week does the Bible enjoin to be kept holy?

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Second, Has the New Testament modified by precept or practice the original command?

Third, Have Protestants, since the sixteenth century, obeyed the command of God by keeping 'holy' the day enjoined by their infallible guide and teacher, the Bible; and if not, why not?

It is not our purpose to reproduce all that the Mirror says in its examination of the texts of the Old and New Testaments, which relate to the observance of the Sabbath. The examination is conducted in a style both clear and logical. As Sunday is never once referred to in the Bible as the Sabbath, there is no great chance for argument from the standpoint of "the Bible and the Bible alone," since there is only one side to the controversy. All that can be done is to examine the texts which speak of the Sabbath, and note the fact that in every case reference is made to the seventh and not to the first day of the week. Anyone with a Bible and concordance can make the examination for himself.

Some statements made by the Mirror "in conclusion" will show the attitude of Rome towards Protestants in this matter. She says:-

The history of the world cannot present a more stupid, self-stultifying specimen of dereliction of principle than this. The teacher demands emphatically in every page that the law of the Sabbath be observed every week, by all recognising it as "the only infallible teacher,' while the disciples of that teacher have not once for over three hundred years observed the Divine precept! That immense concourse of Biblical Christians, the Methodists, have declared that the Sabbath has never been abrogated, while the followers of the Church of England, together with her daughter, the Episcopal Church of the United States, are committed by the twentieth article of religion, already quoted, to the ordinance that the Church cannot lawfully ordain anything "contrary to God's written word." God's written word enjoins His worship to be observed on Saturday, absolutely, repeatedly, and most emphatically, with a most positive threat of death to him who disobeys. All the Biblical sects occupy the same self-stultifying position which no explanation can modify, much less justify.

Their pretence for leaving the bosom of the Catholic Church was for apostasy from the truth as taught in the written word. They adopted the written word as their sole teacher, which they had no sooner done than they abandoned it promptly, as these articles have abundantly proved, and by a perversity as wilful as erroneous they accept the teaching of the Catholic Church in direct opposition to the plain, unvaried, and constant teaching of their sole teacher in the most essential doctrine of their religion, thereby emphasing the situation and what may be aptly designated "a mockery, but delusion and a snare."

And now notice how history sustains Rome in this attitude, as shown in the following language of a Protestant writer:-

"It was upon this very point that the Reformation was condemned by the council of Trent. The Reformers had constantly charged, as here stated, that the Catholic Church had apostatised from the truth as contained in the written word. 'The written word,' 'The Bible and the Bible only,' 'Thus saith the Lord,' these were their constant watch words; and 'the Scripture, as in the written word, the sole standard of appeal,' this was the proclaimed platform of the Reformation and of Protestantism. 'The Scripture and tradition,' 'the Bible as interpreted by that church and according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers,' this was the position and claim of the Catholic Church.

"This was the main issue in the Council of Trent which was called especially to consider the questions that had been raised and forced upon the attention of Europe by the Reformers. The very first question concerning faith that was considered by the council was the question involved in this issue. There was a strong party even of the Catholics within the council, who were in favour of abandoning tradition and adopting the Scripture only, as the standard of authority. This view was so decidedly held in the debates in the council, that the pope's legates actually wrote to him that there was 'a strong tendency to set aside tradition altogether, and to make Scripture the sole standard of appeal.' But to do this would manifestly be to go a long way toward justifying the claims of Protestants.

"By this crisis there was devolved upon the ultra-Catholic portion of the council the task of convincing the others that 'Scripture and tradition' was the only sure ground to stand upon. If this could be done, the council could be carried to issue a decree condemning the Reformation, otherwise not. The question was debated day after day until the council was fairly brought to a standstill. Finally, after a long and intense mental strain, one of the ultra-Catholic members came into the council with substantially the following argument to the party who held for Scripture alone:-

'The Protestants claim to stand upon the written word only. They profess to hold the Scripture alone as the standard of faith. They justify their revolt by the plea that the Church has apostatised from the written word and follows tradition. Now the Protestants' claim, that they stand upon the written word only, is not true. Their profession of holding the Scripture alone as the standard of faith, is false. Proof: The written word explicitly enjoins the observance of the seventh day as the Sabbath. They do not observe the seventh day, but reject it. If they do truly hold the Scripture alone as their standard, they would be observing the seventh day as is enjoined in the Scripture throughout. Yet they not only reject the observance of the Sabbath enjoined in the written word, but they have adopted and do practice the observance of Sunday, for which they have only the commission of the Church. Consequently the claim of "Scripture, alone as the standard," fails; and the doctrine of "Scripture and tradition" as essential, is fully established, the Protestants themselves being judges.'

"There was no getting around this, for the Protestants' own statement of faith-the Augsburg Confession, 1530,-had clearly admitted that 'the observance of the Lord's day' had been appointed by 'the church' only.

"The argument was hailed in the council as of Inspiration only; the party for 'Scripture alone,' rendered; and the council at once unanimously condemned Protestantism and the whole Reformation as only an unwarranted revolt from the communion and authority of the Catholic Church; and proceeded, April 8, 1546, 'to the publication of two decees, the first of which enacts, under anathema, that Scripture and tradition are to be received and venerated equally, and that the deutero-canonical [the apocryphal] books are part of the canon of Scripture. The second decree declares the Vulgate to be the sole authentic and standard Latin version, and gives it such authority as to supercede the original text: forbids the interpretation of Scripture contrary to the sense received by the church, 'or even contrary to the unanimous consent of the Fathers,' etc.

"Thus, it was the inconsistency of the Protestant practice with the Protestant profession, which gave to the Catholic Church her long-sought and anxiously desired ground upon which to condemn Protestantism and the whole Reformation movement as only a selfishly ambitious rebellion against church authority. And in this vital controversy the key, the chiefest and culminative expression, of the Protestant inconsistency, was in the rejection of the Sabbath of the Lord, the seventh day, enjoined in the Scriptures, and the adoption and observance of the Sunday as enjoined by the Catholic Church.

"And this is to-day the position of the respective parties to this controversy. To-day, as this document shows, this is the vital issue upon which the Catholic Church arraigns Protestantism, and upon which she condemns the course of popular Protestantism as being 'indefensible, self-contradictory, and suicidal.'"

The question is, What are Protestants going to do about it? What are they going to reply to Rome's challenge? or will they make no reply at all? Whichever it be, they are in a sad

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dilemma, for who does not see that Rome intends to make vigorous use of the weapon which they by their inconsistency have put in their hands, to greatly accelerate the influx from without into her fold? There is just one thing left for Protestants to do to save themselves from the overthrow in which such weakness must end, and that is to stand squarely and consistently upon the position defined in the rule they profess to have adopted,-"the Bible and the Bible alone,"-by repudiating the Sunday sabbath as an institution not sanctioned by Scripture, and returning to the Bible Sabbath, the "Sabbath of the Lord thy God," the seventh day of the week.

But it is not a question for some denomination or body, but for you. What are you going to do? It is a question between your own soul and your God. Will you observe the Sabbath which He has instituted as the memorial of His creative power, and thus acknowledge yourself a worshipper of the true God, "that made heaven and earth," or will you cling to the Sabbath which "the Church" (of Rome) actuated by that spirit of apostasy which Paul said in his day did "already work" (2 Thess. ii. 7, 8), instituted as the sign of her authority, thus repudiating the principle of "the Bible and the Bible alone," and making yourself a worshipper of that power which stands in opposition to the power that creates and redeems? The issue is raised; the decision must be made; and upon your choice will depend your eternal welfare.

"Christmas in Gaol" The Present Truth 9, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

In his account of how he spent Christmas in an gaol, Mr. W. T. Stead pays his respects to gaol chaplains as follows:-

Gaol chaplains have great opportunities, and some of them are great frauds. There was one wretched creature who was officially charged with ministry to my spiritual welfare when I was in Goldbath Fields, who might have been a tolerable groom, although I should have been sorry for his horses, but who as chaplain was simply intolerable. Our chaplain at Holloway was a good old gentlemen, well-meaning and diligent. But even he occasionally set our teeth on edge. I nearly threw a hymn-book at his head that Christmas morning in Holloway. I am sure that I was not very wrong in repressing that healthy, instinctive desire to emphasise my protest against his inhuman doctrine. The good man was appealing to his congregation to lead better lives, and in the course of his appeal he said, "I do not appeal to you by your love for your wives and children; I do not appeal to you by your domestic sympathies and your love of home. The fact that you are here shows that you have long ago trampled all these finer feelings out of existence."

He says also that "there is no doubt that their office tends to harden them from human beings into near perfunctory machines." This is doubtless true, and it is not through the fault of the men themselves, but their office as officers of the State. A man who has to preserve his dignity as a government officer cannot possibly show the loving sympathy with sinners and unfortunate men, that should be shown by a servant of Christ alone.

"Which Shall It Be?" The Present Truth 9, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

In the solemn scene grouped together on Calvary we have all the three possible forms of death. We have the death of the Sinless; we have the death of the sinner who repents; and we have the death of the sinner who puts away repentance. Which of the three shall yours be? It cannot be the death of the Sinless. That belongs to Jesus alone. Therefore your death, as that of a sinner, is limited to two possibilities-that of the penitent and that of the impenitent. How awful is that of the latter, close beside the former, and Christ as near to the one as to the other, only to be put willfully and, as far as we see, hopelessly away. In that other criminal, as near the opened fountain, as welcome, had he asked it, to the living water, no conversion is seen; in his last end there is no testimony and no prayer, and if he believed not that Christ was He, must he not have died in his sins? It is as fixed as destiny, but it is fixed by choice.

Were it not for the equal promise, revived by the record of all the great sinners whom the Cross has saved, we should all despair; but as it is we all may and, if we believe it, must hope. He who remembered that penitent in His own hour of mortal sorrow, will not forget us now.

"Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood

Shall never lose its power,

Till all the ransomed church of God

Be saved, to sin no more."

"Look Up!" The Present Truth 9, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

Looking done, when there is a crown of glory just above his head! Looking down, raking to himself the worthless straw and small sticks and the dust of the floor, when there are the eternal riches hanging over him! Dressed in filthy rags, when there are beautiful garments awaiting his upward look! What is the matter with the man? Why does he not look up?

Should we not rather ask, What is the matter with us! and why do we not look up? For have we not been doing just what this man is doing? Have we not been so taken up with the perishing things of earth that we have lost sight of the imperishable treasures? Have we not become so accustomed to looking down that it is well-nigh impossible to look up, even when we are told of the priceless riches above us? And have we not drawn our "filthy rags" of self-righteousness close about us, and failed to realise that we are "wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked"?

'Tis true that the Father of all has filled the earth and seas with wonders for the comfort and service of man; and "He has made His wonderful works to be remembered," and to be appreciated; but they were made to lead our minds upward and not downward, to cause us to worship and serve the Creator and not the creature. He plainly tells us that we are to set our affections "on the things above, and not on things on the earth"; thus we are to "love not the world, neither the things that are in the world," for "the world passeth away and the lust thereof." "Here we have no continuing city," but we are to "seek one to come, whose builder and maker is God" for He hath prepared for us a city. We are to be "strangers and pilgrims" here, with our citizenship in "a better country, that is, an heavenly," His own "meek and quiet Spirit." Is there bread and water on earth? there is better Bread and Water in heaven. Are there mansions down here? there are better mansions up there. Have we friends below? we have a better Friend above. Do we belong to the royal families of the earth? it is better to be sons and daughters of the King of kings and Lord of lords. There are no pleasures and no treasures of earth but that will soon pass away never to return. Therefore the Lord counsels us to lay up our treasures in heaven where moth cannot corrupt nor thieves break through and steal, and to seek the pleasures that are for ever at His right hand.

Then let us "look up." Let us seek "first the kingdom of God and His righteousness." If we look down and

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seek earthly things, we shall receive only earthly things, but if we look up and seek first the heavenly, we shall receive both the heavenly and all that is necessary of the earthly!

"A Three Days' Work" The Present Truth 9, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

A man can make but a few things in three days, even when he works hard and has plenty of material out of which to make them. But did you ever stop to think of a great number of wonderful and beautiful things that God made in only three days? And the greatest wonder of all is that He made them by His word!

On the first day, you remember, God made the heavens and earth and light. On the second day He made the firmament, that is, the air, and sky, and clouds. On the third day He gathered the waters together into seas, caused dry land to appear, and all kinds of grass, herbs, and trees to grow. He just said, Let these things be; and they were! There are so many stones and grains of sand in the earth, so many trees, plants, and flowers on the earth, and so many clouds above the earth, that no one but God can count them. But in all these things that God made, He made no mistakes. He looked at them and behold they all were good. Just think, God made things by His word; He made so many in only three days that no man can count them; and He did not make a single mistake! How much more wise and powerful than any man. And He it is who is our heavenly Father, who loves us and cares for us, and gives us everything that we have; who loves and cares for the smallest thing that He has made. Surely we need not be afraid to trust such a Father.

1. What are carpenters?

2. Did you ever watch them at their work?

3. How many things can a man make in three days?

4. How many things did God make in only three days?-So many that no man can count them.

5. Out of what did He make them?

6. Can we make things thus?

7. And did you ever see a man who never made mistakes?

8. Did God make any mistakes in His work?

9. Which, then, is wiser and more powerful, God, or man?

10. What does He do for the smallest thing that He has made?-Loves and cares for it.

11. What does the Bible call Him? "Our heavenly Father."

12. Do you think that we need to be afraid to trust such a Father?

13. What did God make upon the first day? Gen. i. 1-5.

14. Which part of the day comes first, the dark part, or the light part? Gen. i. 5, last part.

15. Which do you like better, light or darkness?

16. How may our path always be as pleasant as the shining light?-Prov. iv. 18; John viii. 12.

17. With what was the earth at first covered?

18. What did God say on the second day?-"Let there be a space, or firmament between the waters." Gen. i. 6.

19. And what happened?-Part of the waters rose right up from the other waters and were bound up in clouds, and the air was made in which they float. Gen. i. 7.

20. Can you see the air?

21. And how do you know that there is air?

22. How may we know that God is?

23. What did God do on the third day? Gen. i. 9-13.

24. What would happen to us if the water were taken away?

25. But can it cause us to live for ever?

26. Of what fountain must we drink if we would have eternal life? John vii. 37; iv. 14.

27. Is there enough for all?-"Whosoever will." Rev. xxii. 17.

28. What would we do without the riches of the dry land?

29. What does God say about our loving them? Col. iii. 2. Why?

30. Where does He tell us to lay up our treasures? Matt. vi. 26. Why?

31. Is God pleased when we do not notice or think about the things that He has made? Ps. cxi. 4. Why not?

32. Name some other things through which He wishes to teach us useful lessons.

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

-A military expedition against the Sofas, a West African tribe, has been started from Sierra Leone.

-The Jews are preparing to emigrate in large numbers from Bessarabia in the early spring. They will go to Argentina.

-The French and Italian Governments have within the past fortnight experienced a reconstruction of their respective Cabinets.

-A serious shock of earthquake has occurred at Montreal. Much injury was done to property, though so far no loss of life is reported.

-News from Calcutta states that a serious engagement has taken place between a force of Gwalior police and a band of Dacoits. Seven of the Dacoits were killed and three of the police.

-Senator Palmieri, the director of the observatory on Mount Vesuvius, after conference with the other officials, has come to the conclusion that the present activity of the volcano presages an eruption on a large scale.

-According to a Tangier telegram the Riff tribes in arms against the Spaniards at Melilla have been sending criers throughout the Shinhaza district, urging the followers of Islam to join them against the Nazarenes.

-The persecution of Stundists and Baptists in Russia continues with unabated severity. The Baptist meeting house at Tiflis has been shut up by the police, and the congregation assembles for worship in the mountains outside of the town.

-During the year ending in March, 1893, the Bible Society has placed on the list of its versions nine which are entirely new. These include one for Central Asia, one for India, two for Australasia, and five for Africa. The total number is now 313.

-One of the largest and most influential Presbyterian Churches of Baltimore, U.S.A., has seceded from the Presbyterian body, as a result of the Briggs controversy which recently ended in the condemnation of Prof. Briggs by the General Assembly.

-The demand for Sunday opening of public, libraries, says the Chronicle, is evidenced by the figures for Sunday attendance at the Manchester libraries during the past year. These show that 314,193 visits were paid in the twelve month, or 6,412 each Sunday.

-Influenza in an exceedingly acute shape is making many victims in the provinces of Posen and East and West Prussia, the disease in many cases developing into inflammation of the lungs. At several manufactories one-fourth of the workmen are on the sick list.

-A Bill modifying the McKinley tariff has been drawn up by the Democratic majority of the Committee of Ways and Means of the United Status House of Representatives. The measure reduces the duty on a large number of articles, and places many others on the free list.

-Volapiik is threatened with a rival universal language called 'Esperanto.' The inventor claims for Esperanto that it is equally suitable to prose or poetry. There are only sixteen rules in the grammar, and the language can, it is said, be completely acquired in a few days.

-A Belgrade correspondent of a German paper states that ex-King Milan is again in want, of money, having spent since his abdication 3,500,000 francs. It is feared that the ex-King may attempt a fresh coup d'Ètat, and it is added that he has advised King Alexander to suspend the constitution.

-A coal strike is in progress in Scotland, owing to the refusal of the coal owners to grant the men a shilling advance on the present price of labour. The stoppage is already affecting other industries. Coal has risen more than fifty per cent., and many worker, whose employment depends upon a supply of fuel have been rendered idle

-A district of Persia comprising the city of Kuchan and the surrounding territory has been desolated by earthquake shocks which began Nov. 17 and continued for a week. The city of Kuchan and neighbouring villages were completely destroyed, with an estimated loss of 19,000 lives, and 50,000 domestic animals.

-The German Emperor, addressing some recruits, said: "I want Christian soldiers who say their Lord's Prayer. The soldier should not have a will of his own, but all of you should have one will, and that is my will. There exists only one law, and that is my law. And now go and do your duty, and be obedient to your superiors."

-A serious railway disaster is reported from Limito, near Milan, an express train having collided with a goods train, owing, it is believed, to a thick fog, which prevented the signals being seen. The wrecked train caught fire, and many people were burnt to death. The loss of life is estimated at twenty-two, and an equal number were seriously injured.

-There are, according to the Belfast Chamber of Commerce, 400 floating wrecks at the present moment in the Gulf Stream within a distance of 1,350 miles. These are a great menace to any vessels of lesser size than the trans-Atlantic liners, as they give no warning of their presence in time to avoid what may be a disastrous collision.

-Emperor William and Count von Caprivi have each been made the recipient of an "infernal machine," sent by some miscreant unknown. As their suspicious appearance cat. sod them to be turned over to the police and opened by the latter with great care, the plot of the sender failed and no explosion resulted. In unskilful hands, however, the opening would have boon attended with terrible results.

-A late steamer arrival at Victoria, B.C., brings word from Alaska that there have been four earth-quakes during the summer at St. Augustine Island (Chorna Borna), where the mountain is now emitting douse clouds of smoke, forewarning another eruption. The natives, remembering the devastation caused by the eruption twelve years ago, are deserting the island in haste, abandoning all their interests. The last eruption rendered useless all existing charts of the neighbouring waters, causing five shipwrecks.

-A telegram to the Vossiche Zeitung from Kovno, gives an account of a terrible affair which is reported to have taken place at Krosche, a small town in the government of Kovno, about thirty miles from the German frontier. The authorities at that place, it is stated, received orders from the Russian Government to close the local Roman Catholic church, and to prove it this from being done, the Roman Catholics assembled in the church, and occupied it day and night. Finally a detachment of troops led by the government, one night forced their way into the building, and attacked its occupants with drawn swords. Before the building was cleared twenty persons were killed and more than 100 were wounded. The remainder then fled, but were pursued by Cossacks, and in attempting to escape across a neighbouring river, a large number of them were drowned. Some hundreds were taken prisoners, and are to be tried before a court-martial.

"'Can't Remember'" The Present Truth 9, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

"Can't Remember."-One of the most common complaints that we hear from religiously-inclined people is that they cannot remember what they read in the Bible. This they usually attribute to their poor memories. They wish that they had memories equal to that of some of their acquaintances, but since they have been deprived of that blessing, they resign themselves to what they suppose is their fate.

Now the fact is, in nine cases out of ten, that the same people have very good memories. Engage them in conversation on their special line of work, and they will tell all the details, the state of the market, etc., with a minuteness that will astonish you. Some of these "poor memory" people can give you all the gossip of the neighbourhood for years back, without losing a link. And yet they "can't remember" a Bible text. The man who can in the dark lay his hand on any article among the hundreds or thousands in a shop, where the woman who can do the same thing with her household affairs, or who can tell what every woman of her acquaintance wears, even to the exact shade of every ribbon, cannot tell where a single passage of Scripture may be found. Why is this?

The answer is simple. The trouble is not with the memory, but with the attention. They give their minds to the one thing, and not to the other. It is the thing that makes a distinct impression on the mind, that we remember. A person may read half a dozen chapters in the Bible every day, in a desultory manner, and not remember anything. It is not to be expected that he should. But let him become so interested in the subject that for the time it fills his mind to the exclusion of everything else, and he will never forget it. It is not always the length of time that one bestows upon a thing, that makes him remember it. If the impression is vivid, a minute will serve to accomplish what hours would otherwise fail to do. It is not by any means always the case, but it is so very often, that "poor memory" is but another name for "poor interest." That same person will remember without difficulty that in which he is deeply interested.

The writer has often tried a plan which was very effectual in teaching him to remember the location of a text. It was very familiar, would come to his mind at appropriate times, but where to find it he could not tell. To turn it up in the concordance will do in case of emergency, if he must have it then, and the concordance is near; but the trouble is that the concordance is needed time after time for the same text. The first time the writer put the plan into use, he thought the desired text was in Isaiah, but was not sure but that it might be in Jeremiah, or even Ezekiel. So he began at the first verse of Isaiah, and read till he found it. In that case he found it before reading the book of Isaiah quite half through. He never forgot it. Sometimes he has had to read the Psalms half through in order to find a text, and it has paid, because he has not only fixed that one in mind, but has learned many other things as well.

"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." This is a comforting assurance to those who have little or no ability to read the Bible, or who, by reason of age or infirmity, have little power of memory. There is life in every word that proceeds from God. One need not necessarily know all the word of God, in order to have life from it. If he knows but one word of God, and knows it as the word of God, it is life to him. If he knows more, that is life to him. Of course, if one has much of the word, and ignores part of it, he gets no life at all from any of it; because to ignore one word of God, is to ignore it all, since one life is in it all. Man must live by every word of God; but if only one word comes to him, he will get life from that.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

The Bishop of Liverpool has just delivered his fifth triennial charge. In it he dwelt upon the "unhappy divisions" in the English Church, which, he says, "are far more serious than any we have ever had to face in the Established Church since the era of the Reformation. He described the church as "drifting, drifting, drifting, and in imminent danger of shipwreck." He says that the inevitable result of these divisions, if they are not healed, will be "the disruption and complete breaking up of the Establishment to England." This he regards as the greatest possible calamity, not to the church only, but to the State, so much so that he would far rather see "any one of the sects established in this country, than see the State ceasing to recognise God." The bishop evidently confounds recognition of a church with recognition of God.

It is stated that in the elections just concluded in New Zealand, the women voters, who exercised the franchise for the first time, gave their votes, as a rule, to the candidate professing Christianity and "advanced temperance." Many people will doubtless hail this as a wonderful addition to the cause of Christianity, but thoughtful ones will see in it a special bid in favour of hypocrisy. When a profession of Christianity is generally considered essential to public office, every political hack in the world will at once profess Christianity, and will shout himself hoarse in his anxiety to demonstrate the strength of his profession.

From the Chicago correspondent of the Congregationalist (Boston, U.S.A.) we learn that Mr. Stead has been in the former city, lecturing the ministers. The correspondent says: "He has addressed our ministers, and with an earnestness which carried everything before it, urged them to seek some kind of union with the leaders of the Trades Unions. He has secured the appointment of a committee to bring this about." The result of such an alliance will be simply that the church will carry on its work more in accordance with worldly policy. The proper work of the church is to save people, but no one will ever be converted through trade unionism.

It is estimated that there are about 10,000,000 Spiritualists in America, and 12,000 mediums.

December 14, 1893

"Front Page" The Present Truth 9, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

"We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not abideth in death." 1 John iii. 14, Revised Version.

This is much more comprehensive than the rendering, "He that loveth not his brother, abideth in death." Moreover it is identical with 1 John iv. 7, "Love is of God," and verse 19, "We love, because He first loved us." Perfect love is unselfish, and comes from God alone. It appears in man only when the love of God is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Spirit. Rom. v. 5.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of life. "It is the Spirit that quickeneth." John vi. 63. "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." Rom. viii. 2. Christ symbolised the Spirit as "living water" (John vii. 37, 39), and also said, "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." John iv. 14. "If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." Rom. viii. 11.

Love and life, therefore, come from God, through His Spirit. This is what is indicated by the text first quoted. Love is the evidence of having passed out of death into life. That is, the new life from above, which begins in those who believe on Christ (John iii. 36) is love, and the beginning of that life in man is the beginning of love. True love and real life are identical.

"For 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. In giving His Son, God gave Himself. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." 2 Cor. v. 19. It is the death of Christ that reconciles us to God. Rom. v. 10. Therefore God was in Christ in His death. So the elders are exhorted to "feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood." Acts xx. 28. We cannot understand the mystery of it, but the fact remains that God has given His own life for man; and those who pass from death to life receive the life of God. Love is but the outflowing of the life of God.

"This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments." 1 John v. 4. "Love worketh no ill to his neighbour, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." Rom. xiii. 10. We have seen that the life of God is love; and since love is the fulfilling of the law, it is evident that the life of God is the perfect law. So that life, love, and law are identical. "God was in Christ;" in Him the life of God was fully exhibited, so that in the life of Christ we find the perfection of the law. As the hymn says,-

"My blest Redeemer, and my Lord,

I read my duty in Thy word;

But in Thy life the law appears

Drawn out in living characters."

What then necessarily follows from the fact that it is the life of God which comes into believers?-Nothing less than that the law comes in with the life, because the life is the law. What that law of life and love is, we see stated in the ten commandments, which Christ spoke from Sinai, and which He lived out in Judea and Galilee. He kept the Father's commandments (John xv. 10), because the law was within His heart. Ps. xl. 8. But Jesus Christ is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." Heb. xiii. 8. Therefore when He lives in the heart by faith, He will live as He did when on earth eighteen hundred years ago. There will be no change. God changes not (Mal. iii. 6; James i. 17); Christ changes not; therefore the law which is but the life of God in Christ, cannot change. "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." Luke xvi. 17.

"Witnesses for God" The Present Truth 9, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

"Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen; that ye may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He; before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me. I, even I, am the Lord; and beside Me there is no Saviour. I have declared, and have saved, and I have showed, when there was no strange god among you; therefore ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God." Isa. xliii. 10-12.

Coming down to New Testament times, we find very frequent utterances to the same effect. The Saviour impressed this truth upon the minds of His disciples. "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me," said He, "both in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Acts i. 9. And Peter writes, "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you

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out of darkness into His marvellous light." What is our witness to be? For answer we may inquire what it was that Christ witnessed when He was a mortal like ourselves? for His life is our example. And Christ said, when He stood before Pilate, "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth." John xviii. 37. We also, then, are to bear witness unto the truth.

But what is the truth? This question is answered in the prayer of Jesus for His disciples, recorded in John xvii. 17: "Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy word is truth." There is a great controversy raging between truth and error, represented by the forces of God and of Satan. The character of God and the justice of His dealings with His creatures, are on trial before the universe. The rebellion of Satan is based on his assertion, persistently maintained ever since it was first uttered in heaven, that God is unjust and that His system of government is faulty. Jesus Christ came into the world to demonstrate to all intelligences that "God is love," and that justice and judgment are the habitation of His throne. Ps. lxxxix. 14. Therefore it was that the heavenly choir sang at the birth of Christ: "Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace, goodwill toward men."

Our lives are a constant testimony either for the principles maintained by God, or for the assertions maintained by Satan. The life of Christ was a constant and unvarying testimony to the truth of the words of God and the perfection of His character and government; our lives give a testimony that is strangely inconsistent with itself. At one time we witness for God; at another time we die Him. How deny Him? We read of some who "profess that they know Him, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate." Titus i. 16. We deny God by sinning against Him. Every transgression is a testimony on the side of Satan. It is a testimony on the side of Satan. It is a testimony that under God's government we cannot do that which is right, that His grace is not sufficient for us, and that the misery and ruin into which we come by transgression are the necessary result of the circumstances, under His government, surround us; for we justify at the time the act by which we transgress. This is in direct harmony with Satan's claim, for he declared that God's government was not a just and perfect one, and seceded from it to set up, as he claimed, a better one. This is the true significance of sin. It is a declaration before all the universe in denial of God, and in justification of God's great enemy.

But when we obey God, and when we exercise faith and claim His promised power to enable us to do His will, we testify that sin is without excuse; that God's government is just and right, and that in it every provision is made for the welfare and happiness of His creatures. This is that which we are to witness for God. What an honour to glorify Him by giving this testimony before men, before angels, and before all the beholding universe!

"'I Am with You'" The Present Truth 9, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

These are the words left by Jesus Christ with His disciples for their comfort amidst the trials and temptations which beset their pathway here. And how well adapted they are to cheer and sustain His followers through the vicissitudes of their earthly pilgrimage. "I am with you always,"-I, who have all power in heaven and in earth-I, who "am the way, the truth, and the life," the embodiment of perfect wisdom and grace and righteousness. How full of comfort are such words if we will but believe them and keep them with us.

Is your place in life a very humble one, so that you seem altogether beneath the notice of men? The word of Christ to you is, "I am with you." Is your lot a hard and painful one? Still the assurance comes, "I am with you." The Saviour condescends to occupy any place, no matter what, that can be filled by one of His disciples. No station is to humble for Him; no lot too trying. Do you suffer for the necessaries of life? Christ knows what it is to feel the pangs of hunger. Are you without friends? He knows what it is to be friendless; in the very hour of His trial, "all the disciples forsook Him and fled." Are you without a home? The Son of man had not where to lay His head. Wherever you have been as His followers, there He has been; wherever you are, there He is.

Christ has passed through lower depths and darker trials than any that ever have been or can be experienced by His earthly children. He did this that He might "save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him." He descended to the lowest depths of human woe, that He might reach and save those who were sunken therein, as well as those who had fallen less low.

And not only has the Son of God been through all these dark places, but He is in each one of them with you. When you feel, He feels. He identifies Himself with you in all your trials and sufferings. And thus it is that He will say to those who have clothed the naked, and visited the sick, fed the hungry, and in other ways ministered to the necessities of the needy, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye did it unto Me."

The Apostle Paul tells us that "unto you is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake." Phil. i. 29. But, we are further told, "as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ." 2 Cor. i. 5. "In all our tribulation," said the apostle, "we are exceeding joyful." In suffering, we have fellowship with Him. Phil. iii. 10. And therefore we may think it not strange concerning the fiery trial that comes upon us, but rejoice, inasmuch as we are made partakers of Christ's sufferings; and when the hour of darkness comes, commit the keeping of our souls to Him, as unto a faithful Creator. 1 Peter iv. 12, 13, 19.

"Not Majority, But Unanimity" The Present Truth 9, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

Much is said about majority rule, and most people seem to think that for the majority to rule, even in religious matters is a most just and equitable arrangement. But whatever may be said for it in worldly affairs, it is a fact that the Gospel knows nothing of any such rule. Unanimous action is the only thing recognised in the Bible. Note the following texts:

"And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place." Acts ii. 1.

"And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul." Acts iv. 32.

When there was a question under consideration in the church at Jerusalem, "the apostles and elders, with the whole church" were of one mind in regard to it. See Acts xv. 22.

The Apostle Paul wrote: "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the

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same mind and in the same judgment."

Again: "Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus; that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Rom. xv. 5, 6.

This last text gives the secret of unanimity. It must come from God. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." Phil. ii. 5. This comes not by discussion and argument, but by prayer for the Spirit of submission one to another. Therefore prayer and the study of the word of God, in which is the mind of Christ is revealed, and not discussion and legislation, is the proper way to settle all the affairs that concern the church of Christ. If there is not perfect unanimity in the church, there is wrong there. The wrong may lie with the majority, or with the minority, or with both; but it is certain that when there is not unanimity in regard to any question, the proper thing to do is to drop that question for the time, and seek the Lord. The "peace of God" is the only thing that should rule in the church of Christ.

"Christianity and 'Christendom'" The Present Truth 9, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

Christianity and "Christendom."-Religious journals are not prone to recognise the distinction between a "Christian" nation and one in which Christianity, in form at least, is the prevailing religion; but The Christian, looking across the ocean to semi-civilised lands which have become the field of Christian missionary effort, sees the distinction very plainly, it is led to speak as follows:-

The distinction drawn by Dr. Pentecost between Christianity and Christendom, between the followers of Christ, and the inhabitants of so-called Christian countries, is of the utmost importance. The drink and opium traffic, the legalisation of vice, and other forms of evil are not Christian but heathen. There is no Christian nation in the world, in the sense in which the word Christian is used in that classical passage which declares that "the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch."

There is therefore in the Bible sense of the term "Christian," no such thing as a Christian nation on earth. But will The Christian and other religious journals of England admit this fact when it is not a question of clearing Christianity from the stigma sought to be put upon it by the heathen by the means above mentioned, but of maintaining religious customs and traditions which come down to us with the sanction of very many prominent ecclesiastics and laymen of England, both by precept and practice? Will it be admitted then that the voice of government, which now permits "the drink and opium traffic, the legalisation of vice, and other forms of evil," is not the voice of Christianity?

"The ChurchóTrue and False" The Present Truth 9, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

The Bible contains very little of what is known as "church history." We find abundant testimony as to what the Church of Christ ought to be, and what it will be when He returns to receive it to Himself; but we find only enough of its history to enable us to see that such a church as the Bible requires is not an ideal affair, but that it did once actually exist; and thereby we may know that it will exist again. There are numerous "Church Histories" in existence, but they are only the history of apostasy. People who study church history to find out what the church should be, are as those who go to a crippled to learn how to walk. Since the days of the apostles, the names and history of the members of the true church of Christ have been written only in the books in heaven.

We cannot at this time enter into a study in detail of what the church ought to be. Suffice it to say that the Church of Christ is the body of Christ, and that therefore it draws its life from Him. "He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." 1 John ii. 6. Of Him it is said that He "did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth; and 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. 22, 23. Although He was rich, for our sakes He became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich. 2 Cor. viii. 9. And the church is exhorted thus: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, . . . made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant." Phil. ii. 5-7.

To find out, therefore, what the church of Christ must be, we have only to study the life of Christ; "because as He is, so are we in this world." 1 John iv. 17. We may, however, quote a few words that Christ has spoken to His followers. By keeping them in mind, we shall easily be able to discern and be on our guard against the spirit of antichrist whenever we meet it.

UNSELFISHNESS AND HUMILITY

At one time two of the disciples made a request, through their mother, for the two highest places in Christ's kingdom. When the rest of the disciples heard of it, they were moved with indignation against the two. They thought that it was unfair for the two to steal a march on them in a place for preferment. "But Jesus called them unto Him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you; but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant; even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." Matt. xx. 25-28.

In the world men seek for place and power for themselves. But in the church of Christ the rule is, "In honour preferring one another." Rom. xii. 10. Whenever a spirit of seeking a position for oneself, or a disposition to exercise authority over another, comes into the church, then it is the world, and not the church of Christ. "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." 1 John ii. 16.

The true church is the body of Christ, "the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." Eph. i. 22, 23. Therefore we find this exhortation: "If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfil ye My joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant." Phil. ii. 2-7.

It was the mind that Christ had when He was in heaven, that led Him to do that. In heaven He had the spirit to serve, and it only needed that He should take the form of a servant, for men could not look upon Him in His glory. In Him we see in what His church must be. He "went about doing good," living among men as one that served. So it is said to us, "By

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love serve one another." Gal. v. 13. This mind can be in men only as they yield themselves to the Word of God, for the word is spirit and life. The prophecy concerning Christ was, "I will put My words in His mouth; and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him." Deut. xviii. 18. And when He came, He took as the rule of His life, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Accordingly we find that the characteristics of the church at the time when the Spirit of God dwelt in it were humility and loyalty to the word of God. "They were all with one accord in one place." Acts ii. 1. "And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul." Acts iv. 32. Their prayer was that with boldness they might speak the word. Verse 29. When they were dispersed from Jerusalem, they "went everywhere preaching the word.' Acts viii. 4.

THE BEGINNING OF APOSTASY

But this state of things did not last long, and change all came through the disloyalty to the word of God. To the elders of the church at Ephesus, the Apostle Paul said, "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." Acts xx. 29, 30. Notice that the "perverse things" spoken would have the effect of drawing disciples after the speakers, instead of to God. "He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God." John iii. 34. The effect of speaking the words of God, will ever be to draw men to Him; but he that speaketh his own words, draws to himself. It was for this reason that the Apostle Paul through the Spirit gave the solemn charge to Timothy:-

"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; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For 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. 1-4.

Even in the days of the apostles, the seeds of this apostasy were in the church. Paul wrote, "The mystery of iniquity doth already work." 2 Thess. ii. 7. John says, "I wrote unto the church; but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Therefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words; and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church." 3 John 9, 10. He spoke perverse words, to draw away disciples after Himself.

THE CAUSE OF APOSTASY

It was not long before the fine gold had become dim, and a different voice than Christ's was heard in the church. Within a little more than a hundred years after John wrote, a "Theological Seminary' was in full operation at Alexandria, spreading the darkness of Egypt over the earth. The two principal teachers at the school were Origen and Clement. To this school young men came from all parts of the world, to learn how to preach; and so great was its influence, that we are told that nearly all the servants of the day were taken either directly or indirectly from Origen. We have only to learn the sentiments of the teachers in that school, to know the kind of husks upon which the churches were fed.

Origen wrote a work on the principles of things, from which we quote:-

Having spoken thus briefly on the subject of the Divine inspiration of the Scriptures, it is necessary to proceed to the consideration of the manner in which they are to be read and understood, seeing numerous errors have been committed in consequence of the method in which the holy documents ought to be examined not having been discovered by the multitude.-De Principiis, book 4, chap. 1, section 8.

Clement also said: "For many reasons, then, the Scriptures hide the sense. First, that we may become inquisitive, and be ever on the watch for the discovery of the words of salvation. Then it was not suitable for all to understand, so that they might not receive harm in consequence of taking in another sense the things declared for salvation by the Holy Spirit."

Here we have a direct contradiction of the words of Christ, who said that the things of God were revealed unto babes, and that they who receive the kingdom of God must do so as little children, and not as philosophers. When Christ was on earth, "the common people heard Him gladly." Mark xii. 37. They could understand the deep things which the learned men found so difficult. But let us read further what these men said. Origen said, "With respect to Holy Scripture, our opinion is that the whole of it has a spiritual, but not the whole a bodily meaning, because the bodily meaning in many places proved to be impossible."

Again He said, in the same book:-

The word of God has arranged that certain stumbling-blocks, as it were, and offences, and impossibilities, should be introduced into the midst of the law and the history, in order that we may not, after being drawn away in all directions by the merely attractive nature of the language, either altogether fall away from the true doctrines, as learning nothing worthy of God, or, by not departing from the letter, come to the knowledge of nothing more divine. And this also we must know, that the principal aim being to announce the "spiritual" connection in those things that are done, and that ought to be done, where the word found that things done according to the history could be adapted to these mystical senses, He made use of them, concealing from the multitude the deeper meaning; but where, in the narrative of the development of super-sensual things, there did not follow the performance of those certain events, which was already indicated by the mystical meaning, the Scripture interwoven in the history the account of some event that did not take place, sometimes what could not have happened; sometimes what could, but did not. And sometimes a few words are interpolated, which are not true in their literal acceptation, and sometimes a larger number. And a similar practice also is to be noticed in regard to the legislation, and which is often to be found what is useful in itself, and appropriate to the times of the legislation; and sometimes also what does not appear to be of utility; and at other times impossibilities are recorded for the sake of the inquisitive, in order that they may give themselves to the toil of investigating what is written, and thus attain to a becoming conviction of the manner in which a meaning worthy of God must be brought out in such subjects.-Section 15.

And as though this was not enough, he proceeded to say:-

Nor even do the law and the commandments wholly convey what is agreeable to reason. For who that has understanding will suppose that the first, and second, and third days, and the evening and the morning, existed without a sun, and moon, and stars? and that the first day was, as it were, without a sky? And who is so foolish as to suppose that God, after the manner of a husbandman, planted a paradise in Eden, and placed in it a tree of life, visible and palpable, so that one tasting fruit by the bodily teeth obtained life? and again, that one was a partaker of good and evil by masticating what was taken from the tree? And if God is said to walk in the Paradise in the evening, and Adam to hide himself under a tree, I do not suppose that anyone doubts that these things figuratively indicate certain mysteries, the history having taken place in appearance, and not literally.-Section 16.

THROWING THE BIBLE AWAY

Before noting the necessary results of such teaching, let us see how diligently it has been transmitted to the present time. Many quotations might be given like the following, which is taken from an article by a clergymen, in one of the most prominent religious journals: "The infallibility of Scripture

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is on a par with the infalliblity of the Pope, and the desire to lean on it is evidence of a like weakness." Again, "I have been surprised that so little stress has been laid hitherto, except by Dr. Clifford, upon the grave popular mischief that is worked by this doctrine of Biblical inerrancy. It is the Communist stumbling-block to young disciples, and the stoutest weapon of the ignorant unbelievers. . . . If common man held a reasonable Christian doctrine of Scripture, four out of every five secularist arguments would have no point left."

So Origen thought, and he proceeded to take the point out of secularist objections to the Bible, by throwing the Bible overboard. It was thus that some of the ministers of America proceeded to answer Ingersoll several years ago. When the infidel carped at the flood, and at other things mentioned in the Old Testament, they met it by saying that those things were not believed by educated Christians. That is, they met his objections, by agreeing with him.

Bearing in mind the fact that the same thing that Origen taught nearly seventeen hundred years ago, is in the church to-day, let us see what is involved in it.

In the first place it is evident that it is the spirit of antichrist, because it directly contradicts the words of Christ, who said that the things of God are revealed unto babes. Then it puts man above God, inasmuch as it claims that God is not able to make Himself understood by common people, without the help of men who have been trained in philosophy. It puts man in the place of God, and really makes man God, since the man who is able to tell when God means what He says, and when He does not, and who is able to find out by his own wisdom "a meaning worthy of God," must have a mind even greater than that of God.

Anyone can see, also, that the result of such teaching must be the same as to take the Bible away from the common people by force. For once get the common people to believe that the Bible is a book that they cannot understand, and that it needs special interpreters, and they will certainly not trouble themselves with reading it. Thus it appears that the result of teaching that the Bible has errors, and that people who read it for themselves, and who believe just what they read, will fall into dangerous errors, is to place all religious teaching in the hands of a few self-constituted interpreters. Thus are fulfilled the words of the Apostle Paul, that men should arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Of course with the Bible practically out of the hands of the people, there was no manner of false doctrines that their teachers could not palm off upon them.

Clement's teaching was that "Before the advent of the Lord, philosophy was necessary to the Greeks for righteousness. And now it becomes conducive to piety; being a kind of preparatory training for those who attain to faith through demonstration."-Stromata, Book 1, chap. 5. Therefore it followed that in course of time only those who had taken a course in "philosophy," especially that of Plato, were thought fit to teach the Scriptures; just as in these days a man cannot be counted a "theologian" unless he has taken a thorough course in the heathen classics. The study of heathen writers is considered one of the prime essentials in the preparation of a minister of the Gospel.

The result of this philosophical training for the ministry in the early days of the Christian era, was that it let the teachers of religion, "to involve in philosophical obscurities many parts of our religion, which were in themselves plain and easy to be understood; and to add to the precepts of the Saviour not a few things of which not a word can be found in the Holy Scriptures."-Mosheim. Not only so, but the greater part of the Platonists, imbibing the idea that Christianity was only another system of philosophy, "were led to imagine that nothing could be more easy than a transition from the one to the other, and, to the great detriment of the Christian cause, were induced to embrace Christianity without feeling it necessary to abandon scarcely any of their former principles."-Ibid.

And thus, as a result of departing from the plain word of God, and being turned to fables, the church was utterly corrupted, so that it came to pass that the greatest "heretics" were those who believe the Bible. Everything was perverted. In process of time it happened that even the teachers themselves lost all the knowledge of the Bible that they ever had; for since all that they taught they drew from their own heads, using the name of the Bible to give weight to their opinions, it soon became unnecessary to so much as refer to the Bible. When the priests spoke, the people were led to believe that it was the same as if God Himself had spoken. This will be more apparent when we consider the

TRUE PASTORS, OR BISHOPS

In the primitive church, which is the only model for the church in all ages, there were no officers but elders and deacons. Each church had not simply one elder, but several. Thus Paul and Barnabas ordained "elders in every church." Acts xiv. 23. Paul wrote to Titus saying, "For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldst set in order the things that were wanting, and ordained elders in every city." Titus i. 5.

The office of elder was identical with that of bishop. Thus when Paul wrote to Titus as above, that he should ordain elders in every city, he proceeded to state the qualifications of the elders,-"if any be blameless," etc.n-"for," said he, "a bishop must be blameless." Titus i. 6, 7. "Elder" and "bishop," therefore, are but two terms for the same person and office.

The word bishop is "episkopos," from which we have the word "episcopal." The literal meaning of the word is one who looks over or oversees. Accordingly we find Paul addressing the elders of Ephesus thus: "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." Acts xx. 28.

But although elders are bishops or overseers, they are not to be lords or drivers. They are to feed the flock. To feed a flock is the duty of a shepherd; and so we read the following exhortation:-

"The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed; 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. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." 1 Peter v. 1-4.

One who feeds a flock is a shepherd; therefore the elders are called shepherds, feeding the church

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under the direction of Christ, the Chief Shepherd. Shepherd is the same as pastor, the latter being the Latin word for shepherd. As shepherds, the elders are to have the oversight of the flock, thus exercising the office of bishop, still under the direction of Christ, who is Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. 1 Peter ii. 25.

In the above text, therefore, we find that elders, pastors, shepherds and bishops, are all one and the same thing. The church of Christ knows no higher office than that of the elders, or presbyters, which is simply and Anglicised form of a Greek word for elder. Peter declared himself to be an elder.

These elders were not to exercise lordship over the church. They were to be esteemed very highly in love, for their works' sakes; but they were not to assume any airs, nor to claim any respect as "superior" officers. The church of Christ knows no such thing as rank. So the Apostle Peter continues his exhortation, "Likewise ye younger submit yourselves to the elder; yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothee with humility." 1 Peter v. 5. Remember the words of Christ, "He that will be chief among you, let him be your servant."

EXALTATION OF THE BISHOPS

As already intimated, the exaltation of the bishops grew out of and was parallel with the withdrawing of the Bible from the people. The idea that the Bible needed to be "interpreted," naturally led to what Neander describes as "the formation of a false sacerdotal caste in the Christian church." The body of bishops regarded themselves as far above the common people, whence arose the terms, "clergy," and "laity." The word "clergy" is from the Greek word klaros, meaning a lot, or an inheritance,-a heritage,-and the application of this term to themselves by the bishops, show that they regarded themselves as the heritage of God, while all the rest were simply the "laity," that is, the people. It was the old heathen Roman distinction of patricians and plebeians. On this point we read the following from Hase's Church History:-

It seemed desirable to increase the generation which necessarily attends the virtues and a faithful performance of official duties in the church, by mysterious forms of ordination, by connecting them through various associations with the Old Testament priesthood, and by external tokens of peculiar sanctity. The result was that even in the second century the priests were represented as the official mediators between Christ and the congregation. To speak in the church, and to administer holy rites, were conceded to be the special prerogatives of the clergy, although learned laymen were sometimes heard in the public assembly, with the consent of the bishop.

But this was not enough. Ambition is never satisfied, but only grows with each successive step in its gratification. The bishops were not content with being as a body above the people, but they must strive for supremacy, one over another. Accordingly one of the elders in the church assumed and was granted the sole right to be called "Bishop," while all the others retained the simple title, "presbyters." Thus the two names for the one office were made to indicate two different offices. The deacons were an order below the presbyters, and still below these were added, in course of time, several other orders; because the introduction of new orders among the "clergy," raised the rank of those already existing.

Another step in the exaltation of the bishops was the distinction that was made between the bishops residing in the city and those over country churches. The churches in the villages and the country round the city, were considered as territory to the larger body, and the bishops as under the bishop of the city church. They were considered as above the presbyters, but beneath the chief bishop.

COUNCILS

Still another step was the holding of Councils. "For by then, in the first place, the ancient rites and privileges of the people were very much abridged; and on the other hand, the influence and authority of the bishops were not a little augmented. At first the bishops did not deny that they were merely the representatives of their churches, and that they acted in the name of the people; but by little and little, they made higher pretensions, and maintained that power was given them by Christ Himself, to dictate rules of faith and conduct to the people. In the next place, the perfect equality and parity of all bishops, which existed in the early times, these councils gradually subverted. For it was necessary that one of the confederated bishops of a province should in those conventions be intrusted with some authority and power over the other; and hence originated the prerogatives of Metropolitans. And lastly, when the custom of holding these councils had extended over the Christian world, and the universal church had acquired the form of a vast republic composed of many lesser ones, certain head men were to be placed over it in different parts of the world, a central point in their respective countries. Hence came the Patriarchs; and ultimately a Prince of Patriarchs, the Roman pontiff."-Mosheim.

All this would have been avoided if the Bible had been held. Truth does not depend upon majorities, nor on great men, the Bible is the truth, and it makes no difference how unlearned and despised a man is who states truth in the language of the Bible; it is just as true, and has as much authority as though it were stated by a council of Doctors of Divinity.

THE CHURCH PAGANISED

The limits of this article do not allow the statement of all the errors that crept into the professed church. It is sufficient to say that they were all the abominations of heathenism, gilded over with the appearance of Christianity. This was inevitable, for when it came to be a settled thing that the study of heathen philosophy was the necessary preparation for the teaching of religion, it could not be otherwise than that the religion taught after that preparation had been gained, should be the religion of heathenism. Thus it is that the Catholic Church is simply the continuation of ancient heathenism under the name of Christianity. Not but that there are thousands of people in that church who are as sincere as men can be, and who have the spirit of loyalty to the truth, as far as they know it; but the church itself is paganism. This may be seen in the fact that the clergy of the church gladly accepted all the homage that had previously been paid to the heathen priests. CÊsar gave the following account of the priests of Gaul in Britain:-

The Druids are in great honour among them; for they determine almost all controversies, public and private; and if any crime is perpetrated, if a murder is committed, if there is a contest about an inheritance or territories, they decide and determine the rewards or punishments. If any one, whether a private or public character, will not submit to their decision, they debar him from the sacrifices. The Druids are not accustomed to be present in battle, and argue they pay tribute, with the other citizens; but are exempt from military service, and from all of their burdens. Allured by such privileges, and from inclination, many embrace their discipline, and are sent to it by their parents and friends.

In a note to Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, Schlegel shows how naturally this homage paid to the Druids came to be transferred to the bishops of the church. He says:-

That these pagan nations had been accustomed to treat their idolatrous priests with an extraordinary reverence, is a fact well known. When they became Christians, they supposed they might show the same respect to the Christian priests. Of course they honoured their bishops and clergy as they had before honoured their Druids; and this reverence disposed them to bear patiently with their vices. Every Druid was accounted a very great character, and was feared by everyone; but the chief Druid was actually worshipped.

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When these people became Christians, they supposed that the Bishop of Rome was such a Chief Druid, and that he must be honoured accordingly. And this was one cause why the Roman Pontiff obtained in process of time such an ascendancy in the Western countries. The patriarch of Constantinople rose indeed to a great elevation; but he never attained the high rank and authority of the Roman patriarch. The reason was that the people of the East had not the same ideas of the dignity of Chief Priest as the people of the West had.-Cent. part 2, chap. 2, section 7.

When the reader remembers that heathen philosophy had taken the place of the Bible, and that great numbers of learned heathen had been led to accept this paganised Christianity, thinking, as was true, that it was only another form of paganism, and that they did not think it necessary to change any of their practices and principles, it will not be difficult to see how the Papacy became so firmly established.

TAKING THE PLACE OF GOD

But the "Fathers" of the church had prepared the way for this long before. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, had written: "The church is founded upon the bishops, and every act of the church is controlled by the same rulers."-Epistle xxvi. Again he wrote in his sixty-eighth epistle: "They are the church, who are a people united to the priest, and a flock which adheres to its pastor. Once you ought to know that a bishop is in the church, and the church in the bishop; and if anyone be not with the bishop, that he is not in the church." And yet again he made the following blasphemous claim, putting the bishops on a level with God:-

But deacons ought to remember that the Lord chose apostles, that is, bishops and overseers; while apostles appointed for themselves deacons after the ascent of the Lord into heaven, as ministers of their episcopacy and of the church. But if we may dare anything against God who makes bishops, deacons may also dare anything against us by whom they are made.-Epistle lxiv.

But let it not be thought that the fault lay wholly with the bishops. They grasped for power, but they could not have gained the power that they did, if the people had not given it to them. If the people had held fast to the Bible, no ambitious priests could ever have brought paganism into the church. But the truth is, that the majority of people desire a pope fully as much as anybody desires to be one. Just as we read of antichrist, and then read that there are "many antichrists in the world," so we may know that although there is one who is universally known as the Pope, there are many popes in the world. So strong is the pope-making spirit in the world, that the truest minister of the Gospel must needs exercise all the grace that God gives him, in order to keep from being made a pope against his will. Let us see how this is done.

MAKING POPES

Instead of believing the promise of God, that He will give the Holy Spirit to everyone who asks, and that the Spirit will make known the words of God, people prefer to go to their minister, to find out his opinion. In short, they put the minister in the place of the Spirit of God. Now while it is his duty to open the word of God, and to hold forth the word of life to the people, he is not to hold forth himself. He is to give them only the word of God, and not the word of man. But the people find it much easier to let somebody else do their thinking for them, and so, attaching themselves to some minister in whom they have confidence, they take his words as the words of God. Of course this reverence and deference is very pleasing to the natural man. It is very soothing to have one's opinions received, without question, as the settlement of all controversies, and therefore the man who is not on his guard will, without realising it, be pope to as great an extent as his influence extends. Most people are bound to have a pope. Instead of studying the word of God for themselves, they will beseech a minister to tell them what this or that means, to give his opinion upon this text of Scripture, and to tell them what they ought to do in this or that matter. Many a good man, therefore, who can scarcely find language strong enough to condemn the Papacy, are themselves popes without being conscious of it.

We need not expend all our indignation on the Pope of Rome. The man who puts his trust in man instead of in God's word, is as culpable as the Pope, inasmuch as they who make popes are as guilty as those who consent to be made popes. A Protestant Papacy is no better than a Roman Catholic Papacy. The evil of the Papacy does not consist in the special errors that are held by it, but in the fact that man is put into the place of God. All the errors spring from that. Therefore repudiating some false doctrines of the Papacy, does not necessarily mean a repudiation of the Papacy itself. A man may cry out against all the false doctrines of the Papacy, and still be in reality a part of that false system. For whenever there is the spirit of exaltation of self, or the trust in man, there is the Papacy.

The word of God is the only safeguard. "Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against Thee." Ps. xix. 11. "Concerning the works of man, by the word of Thy lips I have kept me from the path of the destroyer." Ps. xvii. 4. Of the righteous it is said, "The law of His God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide." Ps. xxxvii. 31. Therefore the only work of the minister of the Gospel is to hold forth the word. He is to resist every attempt to make him a pope, by teaching the people that the man who puts his trust in man is cursed. It makes no difference if the fact which they get from man is the truth. He who accepts any truth on the authority of man, has not the truth on that point; for he has not received it as God would give it to him. Moreover he who receives a truth on the authority of man, will just as readily receive an error on the same authority. And there is no man in the world who is infallible. Therefore the people are to be taught that no man's opinion is of any value whatever, in religious matters. Not only is a man to refrain from giving his opinions about the Bible to other people, but he is as strictly to refrain from giving his own opinions to himself. He is not to put his opinions into or upon the sacred word. He who approaches the Bible with any opinion of his own, will learn only from himself, and not from God. Such are walking in sparks of their own kindling, and not in the light of God.

Let everyone understand, then, that the Papacy is all contained in deviation from the word of God; in putting man in the place of God. Let them know that Protestantism does not consist in denunciations of the Pope of Rome, nor is it simply anti-Catholicism. True Protestantism is positive, not negative. It consists in perfect loyalty to the word of God. "Whoso keepeth His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected; hereby we know that we are in Him."

"Love the Manifestation of the Life of God" The Present Truth 9, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

Since love is the manifestation of the life of God in the soul, and that is righteousness, it should be evident to everybody that righteousness cannot be forced. No man can force another to do right; no man can even compel himself to do right. Neither good resolutions in individuals, no laws in the State, can make people righteous, or contribute anything toward it. Societies, in which the members bind themselves to love one another, or even to love those who are not of their number, are of no account. Love is a

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growth, not something tied on; it is from within, not from without. It flows spontaneously from the heart. When the love of God is in the hearts of men, they do not have to resolve to love one another, neither do they love only those of their own class.

"Shunning Evil" The Present Truth 9, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

A very baneful but popular error which has obtained the sanction even of ministers of the Gospel, consists in supposing that an evil, to be shunned, must first be seen and examined. In America recently a prominent minister of Ohio illustrated from his pulpit the "three-card-monte" game or trick before an immense audience which had assembled to witness the exhibition. Of course, his purpose was to expose the evil of card gambling, but whether he did not turn more minds in his audience in the direction of gambling than he turned away from it, is more than questionable. Ministers sometimes go to the theater in order to be prepared to expose its evils before their congregations; and some, like the "Rev." Dr. Parkerhurst, of New York, investigate even worse places than that, in order that they may be able to preach against them effectively! Such methods are altogether unscriptural, and thus result in more harm than good.

The Bible rule is, "Abstain from all appearance of evil." Moral evils are not in this world to be studied, but to be shunned. The devil, of course, who introduced them, wants people to look at them and "investigate" them, because he knows that aversion, through the magic power of constant beholding, changes to pity and then to love, as expressed in the well-known lines of Pope. But moral evils, to be seen and realised in their true character, must be looked at in the light of that which is pure and righteous; they must be studied by contrast, and not by themselves.

And therefore the only proper method of treating people to shun them is to familiarise them with that which is good and pure; as the Apostle Paul says, "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." Phil. iv. 8. When we are familiar with these things, as God by His Spirit will make us familiar if we will let Him, we shall have no trouble in instantly recognising and shunning evil in any of its forms.

"The Bible Sabbath" The Present Truth 9, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

Last weekly we published some statements about the Sabbath, from the Catholic Mirror, under the heading, "Rome's Challenge to Protestants." Following is a further portion of the hard problem which it sets for Sunday-keeping Protestants, who profess to take the Bible as their sole guide. The idea of the Mirror is to demonstrate the insufficiency of the Bible; we hope, however, that our readers will hold to the Bible, and wholly repudiate Roman Catholicism. The Scripture quotations in the following are of course from the Douay Version:-

Conformably to our promise in our last issue, we proceed to unmask one of the most flagrant errors and most unpardonable inconsistencies of the Biblical rule of faith. Lest, however, we be misunderstood, we deem it necessary to premise that Protestantism recognises no rule of faith, no teacher save the "infallible Bible." As a Catholic yields his judgment in spiritual matters implicitly and with unreserved confidence, to the voice of the church, so too, the Protestant recognises no teacher but the Bible. All his spirituality is derived from its teachings. It is to him the voice of God addressing him through his sole inspired teacher. It embodies his religion, his faith, and practice. The language of Chillingworth: "The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible, is the religion of Protestants," is only one form of the same idea multifariously convertible into other forms, such as, "The Book of God," "The Charter of our Salvation," "The Oracle of God," "God's Text-book to the Race of Mankind," etc., etc.

It is, then, an incontrovertible fact that the Bible alone is the teacher of Protestant Christianity. Assuming this fact, we will now proceed to discuss the merits of the question involved in our last issue. Recognising what is undeniable, the fact of a direct contradiction between the teaching and practice of Protestant Christianity (the Seventh-day Adventists excepted) on the one hand, and that of the Jewish people on the other, both observing different days of the week for the worship of God, we will proceed to take the testimony of the only available witness in the premises; viz., the testimony of the teacher common to both claimants, the Bible. The first expression with which we come in contact in the sacred word, is found in Gen. ii. 2: "And on the seventh day He [God] rested from all His work which He had made." The next reference to this is to be found in Ex. xx., where God commanded the seventh day to be kept, because He had Himself rested from the work of creation on that day; and the sacred text informs us that for that reason He desired it kept, in the following words: "Wherefore, the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it." Again we read in the thirty-first chapter, fifteenth verse: "It is an everlasting covenant," "and a perpetual sign," "for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and in the seventh He ceased from work."

In the Old Testament, reference is made one hundred and twenty-six times to the Sabbath, and all these texts conspire harmoniously in voicing the will of God commanding the seventh day to be kept, because God Himself first kept it, making it obligatory on all as "a perpetual covenant." Nor can we imagine anyone foolhardy enough to question the identity of Saturday with the Sabbath or seventh day, seeing that the people of Israel had been keeping the Saturday from the giving of the law, A.M. 2514 to A.D. 1893, a period of 3383 years. With the example of the Israelites before our eyes to-day, there is no historical fact better established than that referred to; viz., that the chosen people of God, the guardians of the Old Testament, the living representatives of the only defined religion hitherto, had for a period of 1490 years anterior to Christianity, preserved by weekly practice the living tradition of the correct interpretation of the special day of the week, Saturday, to be kept "holy to the Lord," which tradition they have extended by their practice to an additional period of 1893 years more, thus covering the full extent of the Christian dispensation. We deem it necessary to be perfectly clear on this point for reasons that will appear more fully hereafter. The Bible-the Old Testament-confirmed by the living tradition of a weekly practice for 3383 years by the chosen people of God, teaches then, with absolute certainty, that God had, Himself, named the day to be "kept holy to Him,"-that the day was Saturday, and that any violation of that command was punishable with death. "Keep you My Sabbath, for it is wholly unto you; he that shall profane it shall be put to death; he that shall do any work in it, his soul shall perish in the midst of his people." Ex. xxxi. 14.

It is impossible to realise a more severe penalty than that so solemnly uttered by God Himself in the above

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text, on all who violate a command referred to no less than one hundred and twenty-six times in the old law. The ten commandments of the Old Testament are formally impressed on the memory of the child of the Biblical Christian as soon as possible, but there is not one of the ten made more emphatically familiar, both in Sunday-school and pulpit, than that of keeping "holy" the Sabbath day.

Having secured with absolute certainty the will of God as regards the day to be kept, and from His sacred word, because He rested on that day, which day is confirmed to us by the practice of His chosen people for thousands of years, we are naturally induced to inquire when and where God changed the day for His worship? For it is patent to the world that a change of day has taken place, and inasmuch as no indication of such change can be found within the pages of the Old Testament, nor the practice of the Jewish people who continue for nearly nineteen centuries of Christianity obeying the written command, we must look to the exponent of the Christian dispensation; viz., the New Testament, for the command of God canceling the old Sabbath, Saturday.

We now approach a period covering little short of nineteen centuries, and proceed to investigate whether the supplemental divine teacher-the New Testament-contains a decree canceling the mandate of the old law, and at the same time substituting a day for the divinely-instituted Sabbath of the old law viz., Saturday. For inasmuch as Saturday was the day kept and ordered to be kept by God, divine authority alone, under the form of a cancelling decree, could abolish the Saturday covenant; and another divine mandate appointing by name another day to be kept "holy" other than Saturday, is equally necessary to satisfy the conscience of the Christian believer. The Bible being the only teacher recognised by the Biblical Christian, the Old Testament failing to point out a change of day, and yet another day than Saturday being kept "holy" by the Biblical world, it is surely incumbent on the Reformed Christian to point out in the pages of the New Testament, the new Divine decrees repealing that of Saturday and substituting that of Sunday, kept by Biblicals since the dawn of the Reformation.

Examining the New Testament from cover to cover, critically, we find the Sabbath referred to sixty-one times. We find, too, that the Saviour invariably selected the Sabbath (Saturday) to teach in the synagogues and work miracles. The four Gospels refer to the Sabbath (Saturday) fifty-one times.

In one instance the Redeemer refers to Himself as "the Lord of the Sabbath," as mentioned by Matthew and Luke, but during the whole record of His life, while invariably keeping and utilising the day (Saturday), He never once hinted at a desire to change it. His apostles and personal friends afford to us a striking instance of their scrupulous observance of it after His death, and while His body was yet in the tomb. Luke xxii. 36 informs us: "And they returned and prepared spices and ointments, and rested on the Sabbath day according to the commandment." "But on the first day of the week, very early in the morning [they came] bringing spices and ointments they had prepared." The "spices" and "ointments" had been prepared Good drew near." Verse 54. This action on Friday evening, because "the Sabbath the part of the personal friends of the Saviour proves beyond contradiction, that after His death they kept "holy" the Saturday, and regarded the Sunday as any other day of the week. Can anything, therefore, be more conclusive than that the apostles and the holy went women never knew any Sabbath but Saturday, up to the day of Christ's death?

We now approach the investigation of this interesting question for the next thirty years, as narrated by the evangelist, St. Luke, in his Acts of the Apostles. Surely some vestige of the cancelling act can be discovered in the practice of the apostles during that protracted period.

But, alas! We are once more doomed to disappointment. Nine times do we find the Sabbath referred to in the "Acts," but it is the Saturday (the old Sabbath). Should our readers desire the proof, we refer them to chapter and verse in each instance. Acts xiii. 14; same chapter, verse 27; again, verses 42, 44. Once more, chapter xv., verse 31; and chapter xvii., verse 2; and chapter xviii., verse 4. "And He [Paul] reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks." Thus the Sabbath (Sabbath) from Genesis to Revelation!!!

Thus it is impossible to find in the New Testament the slightest interference by the Saviour, but on the contrary, an entire acquiescence in the original arrangement, nay, a plenary indorsement by Him while living; and an unvaried, active participation in the keeping of that day and no other by the apostles, for thirty years after His death, as the Acts of the Apostles have abundantly testified to us.

Hence, the conclusion is inevitable; viz., that of those who follow the Bible as their guide, the Israelites and Seventh-day Adventists, have the exclusive weight of evidence on their side, while the Biblical Protestant has not a word in self-defence for his substitution of Sunday for Saturday.

"The Sun, Moon, and Stars" The Present Truth 9, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

"And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth; and it was so." Gen. i. 14, 15.

How bright, and sparkling, and beautiful! Did you ever wonder how they got up in the sky, and what makes them so bright?

The Bible says that God placed them there on the fourth day. You remember that He made light on the first day, but on the fourth day He placed the sun, moon, and stars, in the sky, put the light upon them, and took them to hold it for Him; and ever since then they have been God's light-bearers (light-carriers) for the earth.

The moon does not really have a light for itself, but it reflects the light that the sun shines upon it, just as a looking-glass reflects the light that the sun shines upon it. Because the sun is so much larger and brighter than the other lights, and rules the day, he is called the King of day. Because the moon is a lesser light and rules the night, she is called the Queen of night, and the stars her attendants.

Besides holding the light to warm the earth, to cause things to grow and ripen, and to make it pleasant that we may see, God says that He placed these lights in the firmament to divide the day from the night, to tell us when the days, weeks, months, years, and seasons begin and end, and to be for signs.

Men say that the days begin in the middle of the night, when people are asleep, but God makes everything so plain that there is no need of making a mistake. He says that every time the sun goes down in the west, a new day begins (Lev. xxiii. 32; Deut. xvi. 6). What a wonderful clock to be placed in the sky? It never goes too fast nor too slow, and all the people in the world can tell by it just when their old day ends and their new day begins!

The earth, you remember, is round like a ball, therefore the sun cannot shine all over it at once. It shines on this side of the earth, and then the earth turns on and allows it to shine on the other parts of it. The sun and moon look as though they come up in the east and pass over us and set in the west; but they do not. The earth turns round so fast that it makes the sun, moon, and stars look as though they were passing us, when we are really passing them, just as the railway trains go so fast when we ride upon them that it makes the trees and houses look as though they were passing us instead of our passing them.

The sun, moon, and stars were to be for signs. You know what a sign is. The shoemaker puts a large wooden boot in front of his shop, or boots and shoes in his window; this is a sign that he has boots and shoes for sale. A little green bud comes on your rosebush; and you know that it is a sign that a rose is coming. The leaves come out on the trees, and we know that it is a sign that summer is coming. Jesus hung out in the heavens the sun, moon, and stars for His signs. He says that when the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars fall from heaven that it is a sign that He is soon coming to this earth the second time, and that His coming is near, "even at the doors."

Now we know that He has not yet come the second time, for we read that this time when He comes, "every eye shall see Him" (Rev. i. 7). "For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (Matt. xxiv. 27.)

How earnestly, then, ought we to study the sun, moon, and stars, for they show us not only the glory and wonderful handiwork of the great Creator, but they tell us when to look for His second coming, not the day and hour to be sure, but when it is very, very near. And this time He comes not to suffer and die, but to receive all who are ready, and take them to live with Him in His beautiful home.

What a dreadful thing it would be if we were not ready! He is waiting now for us to get ready (2 Peter iii. 9), but when He finally comes He can wait no longer, and if we are not already and looking for Him we shall have to be left behind.

And we have not long in which to prepare, for the stars have already fallen, many are now living who saw them fall; the sun and moon also have been darkened, you could read about it in many different books and papers. We therefore know that the Lord is coming very soon.

Those who are ready when Jesus comes will not have a single spot of sin about them (2 Peter iii. 14). They will have given themselves to Jesus, and will have allowed Him to come into their hearts by His Spirit and take away all their naughty habits, and use them to do good instead of evil. They will be kind and gentle and helpful and lovely like Jesus. They will be washed in blood from all their sins, and clothed in His purity and righteousness.

Oh, shall we not now, before it is too late, ask Jesus to cleanse us and clothe us and help us to get ready?

1. Have you learned anything more about the grass and trees and flowers this week?

2. In what way are we like the grass?

3. Then have we any reason for being proud?

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4. What should we always remember when we look at the lily?

5. In what way are we like fruit-trees?

6. What kind of fruit does Jesus love best? Kind words, loving acts, etc.

7. What does the grape-vine teach us?

8. Has the sun always shone upon the earth?

9. When did God first make the sun, moon, and stars His light-bearers for the earth? Gen. i. 14-19.

10. Where did He tell them to stay while they held the light for Him? Gen. i. 17.

11. What do we sometimes call the sun? The moon? Why?

12. Can you count the stars? Who can tell the number of them, and call them all by their names? Ps. cxlvii. 4.

13. Do they shine only here where we live? Ps. xix. For-6.

14. Where do they always appear to rise? Where do they go down?

15. Do they really rise in the east and pass over our heads and go down in the west?

16. What makes them appear?

17. How do we know when every day begins?

18. Then how do we know when to stop work and begin to keep the Sabbath? Lev. xxiii. 32; Deut. xvi. 6.

19. For what else are the heavenly lights good?

20. Did you ever see a shoemaker's sign? What is a sign of summer?

21. What wonderful signs has Jesus hung out in the sky?

22. When the sun should be darkened and the stars should fall, of what did He say that would be a sign?

23. Has the sun ever become dark? Yes, on May 19, 1780.

24. And have the stars fallen? Yes, on Nov. 13, 1833 in the Western world, and in 1866 in the Eastern world.

25. Then of what may we be sure? That Jesus is in coming. Matt. xxiv. 29, 30.

26. For what is He coming? Heb. ix. 28; 1 Thess. iv. 13-18.

27. What must be we do to get ready? 2 Peter ii. 14; Rom. xiii. 11-14.

"Studying Our Mercies" The Present Truth 9, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

Even the darkest, saddest life is endowed richly with the Divine mercies. God is not angry with us if, when He has seen fit to allow some terrible misfortune to befall us, we temporarily forget them to some extent. He understands and pities us while He chastens. But as soon as we recover our mental and spiritual balance sufficiently, we can see that they have not failed us. We even come to perceive it usually that our very distresses were mercifully sent.

These and kindred truths often are admitted freely, and not only by professed Christians. They ought also to be studied attentively. It is more than merely worth one's while to appreciate them. What would be thought of a merchant who should make careful estimate of his debts and of the possibilities of a commercial disaster, and should refuse or neglect to reckon up also his assets and the reasonable probabilities of future prosperity? Does not the same principle apply in spiritual things? No one can rightly understand his actual relation to either God or man, or face the future calmly and cheerfully until he is counted and weighed his mercies.

We also owe it to ourselves to deal justly by our Heavenly Father. We are bound in honour to recognise gratefully the blessings which come to each of us from His hand. We dwarf our own better natures and we wrong Him if we fail to appreciate His goodness. Too much of the depression which seems to engloom some lives is wholly needless. There are even some people who seem to hug their misery and to refuse such cheer as is offered. Studying our mercies habitually, prayerfully, never fails to sweeten the bitterest lot and to illumine even more the brightest experience of life.

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

-The insurgents are still gaining ground in Brazil.

-It is rumoured that Satolli, the Papal delegate to America, is soon to be made a Cardinal.

-A severe hurricane has visited the Province of Cordova, and has caused great devastation.

-A dispute has broken between Ecuador and Peru, and there is some fear that the outcome will be war.

-The steamship Nyanza has been wrecked off St. Ives, and her crew of 22 men are supposed to have been drowned.

-In France there are 781 localities which have Protestant houses of worship, and 887 pastors in charge of congregations.

-Signor Zanardelli, to whom was entrusted the formation of a new Italian Cabinet, has failed in his task, and King Humbert has sent for Signor Crispi.

-An International Exhibition is being organised at Antwerp for next year. The buildings are already completed, and are of very large extent.

-Professor Tyndall, the famous scientist, died at Haslemere in his seventy-fourth year. An overdose of chloral is supposed to have been the cause.

-The British ship Jason, of Greenock, was wrecked on the night of Dec. 5, off Boston, Massachusetts, and her crew, with the exception of one man, perished.

-The Servian Government is wrestling with the problem of the formation of a new Cabinet. General Gruich will, it is thought, be the central figure when the task is finished.

-The latest news from Matabeleland shows that the force of the British South African Company is still pursuing Lobengula, and the early capture of the king is expected.

-Intelligence from Warsaw states that a number of Russian students and several ladies have been arrested at Kieff and Czernikoff on suspicion of being concerned in Nihilist plots.

-It has been decided to let the World's Fair buildings at Chicago remain standing until next Spring.

-The Swiss federal Council has authorised the issue of a new Swiss Loan for twenty million francs, most of which will be devoted to needed improvements in the national defences.

-The steamer service of the Peninsula and Oriental Steamship Company is such that less than a month is now required for the transmission of mail from Bombay to London and return.

-Some Scotch forests were almost swept away during the recent storm. The trees blown down in two counties alone numbered close upon a million and a half, the damage being estimated at £282,683.

-The invitation for the Universal Week of Prayer observed during the early days of January has been issued by the Evangelical Alliance. The document bears the signatures of representatives of branches of the Alliance throughout the whole world.

-The serious character of the coal dispute in Scotland is becoming intensified. At Glasgow the miners' delegates decided to call out the 17,009 then who had received the 1s. advance; also to appeal to Mr. Gladstone to intervene, as in the case of the English lock-out.

-President Cleveland's Message to Congress was read in both Houses. In the references to foreign affairs allusion is made to the action taken by the American representative at Hawaii in connection with the disposition of the Queen, the President announcing that the wrong will be redressed.

-There is prospect of a repeal of the anti-Jesuit laws now in force in Germany. A motion to that effect recently passed the Reichstag, and it is said that although the immediate acceptance of such a measure, by the government is not to be expected, the proposal will receive important support in the Bundersrath.

-A despatch from Barcelona announces that several more arrests have been made there in connection with the bomb outrages. Two foreign Anarchists were arrested of Tuesday, and subsequently three more were taken into custody, one being the proprietor of a beershop where Anarchists were accustomed to meet.

-The official inspection of the Manchester Ship Canal was made December 7, by the directors, prior to the opening on January 1st. The steamship Snowdrop, containing the directors, left the landing stage, Liverpool, at an early hour, and as the vessel passed Runcorn and Warrington, there were various demonstrations of pleasure by the people.

-Bishop Tucker has arrived in London from Uganda. Speaking of his work there, he said: "The Church is now almost fully equipped. If one could see the native deacons raised to the rank of presbyters, then its equipment would virtually be complete. The native ministry is now at work; we shall, I hope, see priests as well as deacons, and in time even a native bishop."

-The famous Tchoodova Monastery in Moscow has again been robbed of a quantity of silver lamps and other valuable Church furniture. The robbery on this occasion took place in the Church of the Miracle of the Archangel Michael, the same in which stolen jewels and money were discovered hidden inside the altar last May, when the Tchoodova Monastery was robbed of treasure valued at over 1,000,000 roubles.

-A "safe deposit," or subterranean fortress, has been opened in the heart of London. It covers half-an-acre, and extends to two floors underground. The strong rooms and safes are, constructed of impenetrable steel plates. It is provided with the electric light. A guard with loaded rifles will patrol the place at night, although the place is regarded as impregnable, proof alike against burglars and fire.

-The discovery of a new explosive, fulgurite, is announced. The discoverer is M. Pietet, a Swiss engineer, who was a pupil in Paris of Berthelot, the famous chemist. He has experimented with his explosive at Thun and Fribourg, in the presence of a military and scientific commission. He claims for fulgurite (says the Daily News correspondent) equal power with dynamite as an explosive, and greater power if used as a gunpowder. It is smokeless, and gives out relatively to older explosives but a small quantity of deleterious gas. Weather and water do not injure this explosive.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

The Vicar of Old St. Pancras (London), has determined to bring before his parishioners "the duty of commemorating the faithful dead," and has received the permission of the Bishop of London for a "celebration of the Holy Eucharist, to be offered annually on behalf of the departed." From praying for the dead, it is only a short step to praying to the dead.

It is good to know that there are still many people with sentiments like the following from a correspondent of The Freeman:-

I grow a little weary of this talk about "the spirit of this century." The spirits of this world have ever been anti-Christian. We are not to be saved by the spirit of the age, but by the Spirit of the Lord. When the Apostle Paul was instructing Timothy, he did not tell him to adapt the Gospel to the spirit of the times. The instruction of our Lord abides for every generation,-"Except a man be born of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."

In the opinion of General Sir Archibald Alison, the great European war cannot be long delayed. The strain of constant preparation will soon become unendurable, and a break must come. When it comes, Russia and France will be able to put into the field 5,437,971 men, 9,920 field guns, and 1,480,000 horses. The Triple Alliance-Germany, Austria, and Italy-can oppose them with 5,914,276 men, 8,184 field guns, and 813,996 horses. We are given the "comforting" assurance that "England will remain neutral so long as her interests are not directly involved." No doubt, and so will all the other powers.

The apostles said: "Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word." Acts vi. 2-4. Accordingly "they chose Stephen, a man full of the Holy Ghost, and Philip," etc. "And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people." Moreover, the adversaries, "were not able to resist the wisdom and Spirit by which he spake." Philip, also, approved to be an excellent evangelist, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The obvious lesson is that while a minister of the Gospel cannot consistently employ any of his time in mere business affairs, even though it is the business of charity, business men may be full of the Holy Ghost, and are not shut out from the ministry of the word.

"Bomb-Throwing in the French Parliament" The Present Truth 9, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

Bomb-Throwing in the French Parliament.-Anarchy, with its terrible accompaniment of bomb-throwing, has made its appearance in the French Chamber of Deputies. On the afternoon of December 9, a bomb thrown from the gallery was exploded on the floor of the Chamber, causing injuries to fifty deputies and visitors. Such an event is a warning to every country that it will be called on to meet an attack of this foe to human life and civilisation, for every such deed will be a stimulus to anarchists all over the world. Meanwhile we hear frequently of the discovery of some new and more deadly explosive. And thus the troubles augment which darken the pathway of statesmen, and cause men's hearts to fail them for fear and for looking after the things that are coming. Luke xxi. 26. Happy is he who can see in these portentous events the fulfilment of the word of prophecy, and look up, knowing that his redemption draweth nigh. Luke xxi. 28.

"The Fighting Instinct" The Present Truth 9, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

The Fighting Instinct.-One of the most prominent novelists of the day, whose standing is indicated by the fact that he delivered an address before the Reunion Conference at Grindelwald, last summer, and has addressed other religious gatherings, writes to the Daily Chronicle a defence of prize fighting. The Chronicle had declared that the prize ring developed only bullies, and not heroes, which the novelist denies, saying, among other things:-

It is time enough to discourage any instinct when it has ceased to be of use to the community. With all Europe one armed camp, the fighting instinct is as necessary in this country now as ever it has been; and the day may be coming when we may find that our ancestors had some reason for its systematic encouragement.

If the nations of Europe are "Christian nations," then of course their standing armies must be Christian institutions; and so we need not be surprised to see the prize ring, which helps to develop the "fighting instinct" by which these "Christian nations" are maintained, upheld as a Christian institution when properly "regulated." Perhaps the "Boy's Brigade" will be the form it will assume in the future.

"The Pope Defending the Scriptures" The Present Truth 9, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

The Pope Defending the Scriptures.-The religious world is being treated to the amazing spectacle of the Pope of Rome constituting himself a champion in defence of the authenticity of the Scriptures, against the "Protestants" who by the "higher criticism" and other inventions of disguised infidelity, are doing all they can to cast discredit upon the Bible. What a comment upon the "Protestantism" of our times!

Of course, the Pope does not aim to lead people to come direct to the Bible as the word of God; the sacred word is to be "interpreted" in harmony with the teachings of the "Fathers" and the rules laid down at the Council of Trent, and with the aid of the study of ancient languages and monuments. But in the public mind it will serve the purpose intended-that of making the Pope appear as the great champion of the Scriptures, and therefore the one who is more in accord with their own principle of "the Bible and the Bible alone" than the Protestants themselves! By standing upon the ground of Rome, and clinging to the institution of Sunday, and upon that of infidelity, by discrediting the truthfulness of the Biblical record, Protestants (so-called) have placed themselves in a position where Rome can attack them with the certainty of complete victory. And Rome knows all this, and is preparing to act accordingly.

We say "so-called" Protestants; because there is a true Protestantism maintained by the remnant of the worshippers of Jehovah, who neither cling to an institution of the Papacy nor question the infallibility of the Scriptures, but accept them as the word of God and not of men, to be interpreted and understood, not by the wisdom of man, but by the "Spirit of truth," which is promised to guide the believers into all truth. The true Protestantism still has its champions. There yet remain in Israel seven thousand men that have not bowed the knee to Baal.

December 21, 1893

"Front Page" The Present Truth 9, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

All the sin and misery that have ever blighted this earth, are the result of a look; and all the righteousness and peace that will glorify the earth made new will also be the result of a look. Thus consider the two ways of looking, that produce such widely different results.

Pain and death are the result of sin, and sin is from the devil. See Rom. v. 12, and 1 John iii. 8. Satan was once Lucifer, the light-bearer, the son of the morning. Isa. xiv. 12. He was one of the cherubim above the throne of God, "full of wisdom and perfect in beauty." He was perfect in his ways from the day that he was created, until iniquity was found in him. Eze. xxviii. 12-17. He sinned, and was cast down to the earth, where he succeeded in instilling his wicked spirit into the hearts and minds of men.

In the Scripture last referred to we read: "Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy his brightness." The lifting up of his heart was shown thus: "Thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven; I will exact my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High." Isa. xiv. 13, 14.

The fall of Satan was the result of his pride, and his pride was on account of his beauty and brightness. Why did his beauty cause him to be proud?-Because he looked at it. He began to look at himself, to consider his own beauty and accomplishments, all of which were lent him by the Lord, and the result was a rebellion that contemplated nothing less than the dethronement of Jehovah.

"For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." 1 John iii. 8. All evil springs from love of self. 2 Tim. iii. 1-5. Men love themselves because they look at themselves so much. Thus the spirit of Satan is manifest in men. Now if Christ destroys the works of the devil and men, it must be by getting them to cease looking at self. And this He does by offering them something better to look at, namely, Himself. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, and even so must the Son of man be lifted up." The serpent was lifted up in order that people might, by looking, be healed of their wounds; Christ is lifted up in order that, by looking at Him, men may be healed of sin.

Men always become like those with whom they constantly associate. Reading bad books, looking at evil sights, tends inevitably to corruption. So he who looks at his own sinful self will become only more sinful. "Looking unto Jesus" takes one away from self. There is nothing of self in Him, because, although He was perfect, He emptied Himself, that the Father alone might appear. So we read, "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit." "For 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." Let us then be among those who will heed the general invitation: "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth."

"Asking and Receiving" The Present Truth 9, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

"Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment, That we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment." 1 John ii. 21-23. The first verse quoted, concerning heart condemnation and confidence toward God, has been dealt with in a previous number of the paper. There we found that the only just reason for our hearts not condemning us is that God Himself does not condemn us. When God justifies us, our hearts have no business to condemn us; and so our ground of confidence toward God is not our righteousness, but God's mercy.

Now for the next verse, "And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight." Many souls have been discouraged by the faulty use of this verse, namely, taking it out of its connection. They have supposed that before we can expect to receive anything that we ask of the Lord, we must be able to show that we have kept all the commandments, and that if after a careful examination of the commandment and our own hearts, we are not able to demonstrate that we have kept them all, then it is useless for us to ask. True, people who have that idea do go through the form of asking, but they never really expect to receive anything.

If it were the case that our confidence

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that we shall receive what we ask from the Lord grew out of our knowledge that we have lived perfect lives, then we should not be asking favours of the Lord, but demanding our just do. "Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Rom. iv. 4, 5. The same apostle declares that it is "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." Titus iii. 5.

"To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Faith is what brings the blessings of God; for "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Heb. xi. 1. Now this is just what is taught by the text at the head of this article, as will be seen when it is not cut off from its connection. Thus: "Whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment, That we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ."

Is faith in Christ, then, a substitute for the keeping of the commandments? Not by any means; it is the keeping of the commandments. The Jews asked Jesus, "What shall we do, that we might work in 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. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." Rom. x. 10.

The law of God is unfathomable. The human mind will never be able to explore its utmost depths. Eternity will ever have something new to reveal to us in it, because it is the very life of God, and no man can by searching find out God. Therefore no man can ever be able to declare that he has kept all the commandments of God. "Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin." Prov. xx. 9. Only God can declare a soul to be righteous, and then only as the soul accepts His righteousness through Christ by faith.

Faith brings not only freedom from the consequences of past transgressions, but it also brings the keeping of the commandments in the present time. "The just shall live by faith." Faith works by love. The only righteousness that will enable one to stand in the day of Lord's coming, is "That which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." Phil. iii. 9. And this is real righteousness, because it is the active righteousness of God. It will be manifested in the life, although its possessor will be too unconscious of it to boast. Boasting is excluded by faith, although the believing one will be showing forth in his life the excellencies of the Lord. It is just because it is the righteousness of the Lord, who dwells in him, that he will have nothing of which to boast. And so we may still continue to sing, and may we sing it from the heart,-

"Just as I am, Thou wilt receive,

Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve,

Because Thy promise I believe;

O Lamb of God, I come, I come."

"Requests with Thanksgiving" The Present Truth 9, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

"Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." Phil. iv. 6. This does not give another condition besides faith, by which we are to receive blessings from God; but it shows a feature of faith, which many people do not understand. Thanksgiving is just as much a part of acceptable prayer, as is the request itself.

Jesus said, "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 which 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. 23, 24. The promise is sure only to him who believes. Faith makes the promise a present reality, for "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." He who believes that he really has that which he asks for, has it. This is not imagination, but fact. The promise of God holds out the reality; faith lays hold of it.

Now ordinary politeness demands that one shall return thanks for what he receives. Therefore thanksgiving must necessarily attend a prayer of faith, for such a prayer brings the things that it asks for. He who has not enough faith to thank the Lord for the thing asked for, even while asking for it, has not enough faith to claim the thing that he asked for.

Unthankfulness leads to heathenism. The heathen became such, "because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, and neither were thankful." Rom. i. 21. He who is not thankful is not a worshipper of God; for, "he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that seek after Him." Heb. xi. 6. He who does not believe that God is a rewarder of them that seek Him, does not believe that He is, therefore he who does not thank God for what he asks from Him, does not really ask anything from Him. He does not worship God. So as soon as men cease to thank God, they begin to lapse into a heathenism. Let us then remember the exhortation, "In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." 1 Thess. v. 18.

"Asking in His Name" The Present Truth 9, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

Jesus said, "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. And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in My name, I will do it." John xiv. 12-14. This is as comprehensive a promise as can be found in the Bible. Who believes it?

There is no qualification to this statement. "If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it." There is no limit. Someone will say, "I have been asking for something in the name of Jesus, and I have not received it." That cannot be, for Jesus Christ is "the faithful and true Witness," and He cannot lie. Perhaps you do not know what it is to ask in the name of Jesus.

The Apostle Paul tells us that "All the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us." 2 Cor. i. 20. The name of Christ, therefore, stands to all the promises of God. God is good, and therefore He gives only that which is good. "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 i. 17. But this text assures us that God gives everything that is good. He withholds nothing. "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Rom. viii. 32.

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Since all the promises of God are in Christ, it is evident that we do not ask in the name of Christ unless we ask for something that God has promised. God will honour every draft presented at the bank of heaven, if it has the name of Jesus upon it. But let everyone beware how he attempts to forge that name. That name is written in blood, even the blood of Christ, and every forgery will be detected instantly. He who puts the name of Jesus to a request for a thing that God has never promised, is taking that name in vain; "and the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain."

"'According to His Will'" The Present Truth 9, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

In close relation to the above promise is the following statement: "And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us; and 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. 14, 15. Here is something definite. It is positive knowledge. On this basis we do not have to imagine that we receive the things that we ask for, nor to wonder if we shall receive them; but we know, every step of the way.

Of course the first question that will arise is this, "How may we know that we are asking according to the will of God?" We may know by His word. The word of God contains His will. In it He has recorded the "exceeding great and precious promises," which guide us in our request. Let us note a few of the statements of what His will is.

"Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, Who 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. 3, 4. This gives us a wide range for requests. Anything that pertains to this present evil world,-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life,-we may know that it is the will of God to deliver us from. Therefore whatever evil thing we wish deliverance from, we have only to ask for deliverance, and we know that God hears us; and we know that He hears us, we also know that we have the thing that we asked for. Therefore in asking the Lord for deliverance from evil, we may thank Him for the deliverance granted.

Here are some more promises: "I will heal their backsliding; I will love them freely." Hosea xiv. 4. "I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely." Rev. xxi. 6. "Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shall glorify Me." Ps. l. 15. "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee." Isa. xliii. 2. "I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." Isa. xliii. 25. "I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring." Isa. xliv. 3.

But time and space would fail us if we should attempt to repeat all the statements of the will of God concerning us. There are things enough in the Bible,-things that it is the will of God to give to us,-to keep us asking as long as we live; and whenever we ask for one of them we not only may, but must, know that He hears us, and that He gives us what we ask for. It is His will to do so, and He cannot deny Himself.

But suppose now that there is something concerning which we do not know the will of God; what shall we do? Well, we may ask Him to reveal His will to us. He is able to do it, and it is likely that the reason that we do not know it is that we have not given close enough heed to His word. Often our impatience, or our selfish desire for a certain thing, prevents us from hearing the voice of the Lord in the matter.

We will suppose, however, that the will of the Lord has not been made known to us, in a certain case. Shall we then not ask at all? Certainly we may ask, but only according to His will; for what confidence can we have that our request will be granted, if we do not know that God is willing to give it to us? This is a very simple thing, if our wills are only submitted to God. The Saviour left us an example, when He prayed, "O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt." Matt. xxvi. 39.

When we do not know what the will of God is, we may ask that His will, whatever it may be, may be done. This does not mean that God has to be asked to do His own will, but it is simply telling Him that we are willing that He should do His will in our case, whatever it may be. What shall we then do?-Leave the matter with the Lord, and await the result, and be sure that whatever the result is, it is according to the will of God, and be satisfied with it. The trouble with so many who pray in this way is that they allow their desires to destroy the force of their prayers. They decide in their own minds what the result ought to be, and when that result does not follow, they say that the Lord did not hear their prayers. This is charging God foolishly. If we do not know what the will of the Lord is, then we are not to allow our desires to become fixed upon what may prove to be a forbidden thing to us.

There is a text that opens up a vast field for our prayers. "Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart." Ps. xxxvii. 4. This is unlimited. The one whose delight is in the Lord, can make any request he pleases, and it will be granted. Such an one will not make any selfish request. At another time, if the Lord will, we shall consider the matter of delighting in the Lord.

"Praying for the Dead" The Present Truth 9, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

The Church Times of November 24 says that "the celebration of the holy eucharist," with the English Church Union "offers in the fall of the year on behalf of its departed members, is now so firmly established that there is little that calls for remark in the service which was held on Tuesday last in the Church of St. Matthew, Westminster." It therefore proceeds to give quite a full account of the sermon that was preached on that occasion, which was for the purpose of justifying the practice of praying for the dead. In conclusion, the speaker used the following language, which is fully as Catholic and Spiritualistic as can be:-

And now as we pass to the Holy Sacrifice and to the adoration of the Lamb, may those blessed spirits be near us, all our own loved ones who have passed away since our last service, that we may meet with them for a few minutes in this mystery of love, and then go back refreshed to our life of toil and conflict, until in due time we enter with them into rest.

Following the report noted above, there is a brief report of "a solemn Requiem for departed members," which was celebrated at the Church of St. Raphael the Archangel, Bristol. The reader must remember that these services were not in Roman Catholic churches, but were regular services of the Church of England. The Church Times is careful to state that "the ritual no where exceeded the limits prescribed by the prayer book."

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In this second service there was "censing of the altar," and quite a complete Romish service. The Church Times says that the sermon "was a very practical one, enforcing Christian duty both as to the living God and the departed. The preacher quoted a passage from Dr. Newman's last sermon at Littleworth, and cleverly pointed out how all the gifts which Newman so plaintively desired have been granted in God's own good time to the faithful of the English Church."

No wonder that Cardinal Vaughan feels hopeful of the return of England to the Church of Rome. Such a return can scarcely be called an undoing of the Reformation, since the Reformation was never really accomplished. Wycliffe and Tyndale started a real reformation in giving the Bible to the people, and in teaching loyalty to the word of God alone; but when the Church of England seceded from the Pope, the prayer book was made the standard, instead of the Bible; and wherever the Bible is not, there Romanism is.

"Be Steadfast" The Present Truth 9, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

The apostle writes, in his letter to the Corinthians, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." 1 Cor. xv. 58.

This, then, is a privilege and duty of every Christian, and every person in the world, for God is no respecter of persons. Christ died for all, and all alike may have the victory through Him. Amidst all the influences which draw away from truth and right, and swell the mighty tide that is sweeping downward to perdition, we may stand like immovable rocks, breasting the current of worldliness and sin, and maintaining the principles of our righteous King.

This we can do by faith. The apostle Paul says, "But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory throughout our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Cor. xv. 57. And John writes, "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." 1 John v. 4. By faith we see what cannot be discerned by the natural eye. By faith Moses, at the court of Pharaoh, "endured as seeing Him who is invisible." And this is why it is that men by faith "out of weakness were made strong." Heb. xi. 34. The psalmist writes, "I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved." Ps. xvi. 8. Peter, quoting the Psalmist's words on the day of Pentecost said, "I foresaw the Lord always before my face." The Lord is there; He is at our right hand to help us; as Paul said to the people at Athens, He is not far from every one of us. Acts xvii. 27. And it only requires the eye of faith to assure our hearts of this fact.

"Knowing God" The Present Truth 9, 38.

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 lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth; for in these things I delight, saith the Lord." Jer. ix. 23, 24.

These words set forth the whole purpose and end of man's existence. Wisdom, might, or riches, with God left out, count for nothing. But he who knows God cannot be without wisdom and might and riches. The highest study of mankind is not man, but God.

There is a wisdom of the world which is possessed by those whom the world recognises as its wise men; but no one should glory in the possession of this. True wisdom is from above, and not from beneath. The wisdom of the earth will perish, and will save no one from perishing with it. It will perish because it knows not God. Whatever is of the world is not of the Father, and every plant that God has not planted must be rooted up. Not that knowledge will perish; for in the future state knowledge will abound much more than it does now; but the wisdom of this world will perish. Wisdom is the ability to use knowledge. Satan, as an angel in heaven, had a vast amount of knowledge, but his course was the most unwise that he could have taken. And so of the knowledge of the wise men of the earth. They know much, but they know not God. They see many things, but they do not see God. They do not discern God in that which they see. God has "made His wonderful works to be remembered," and true wisdom sees God in all things that He has made. And thus to the one who has true wisdom, all things speak of God.

But worldly wisdom speaks not of God. It speaks of science, it speaks of evolution, of forces that are "inherent" in nature and matter, and of the wonderful intellect of man; but it speaks not of the Creator who made all things. It glorifies Him not as God. And so it was that "the world by wisdom knew not God." That which should have served to draw their attention to God, was perverted to an opposite purpose. Their knowledge lacked the one essential thing that makes the difference between wisdom and foolishness.

We read in the epistle of James: "Who is a wise man, and endued with knowledge among you? let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom." Chap. iii. v. 13. And we are told what are the characteristics of true wisdom, that it "is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." This is "the wisdom that cometh down from above." It is nothing else than the manifestation of the knowledge of God. And if these things are not a part of your life, then whatever knowledge you may have, you have not true wisdom. If knowledge points not to God, it can only tend to destruction.

"Neither let the mighty man glory in his might;" for his might is nothing. Light without God is of no more value that wisdom without God. There is no might but of God. Rom. xiii. 1. Whether it be the power of angels or man or of devils, it is still His. "The powers that be are ordained of God." Men who have power are but the stewards of the power of God. When Pilate said to Christ, "Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?" Jesus answered, "Thou couldest have no power at all against Me except it were given thee from above." John xix. 11. Men may pervert their stewardship, as Pilate did, but in the end they must give account thereof to God. The Master requires that all things should be done according to His will. Those who do according to their own will, making their possession of power an occasion for the glorifying of self, will sooner or later discover with sorrow the exceeding folly of their course.

No one has a knowledge of God who does not know that all power belongs unto Him. "God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God." Ps. lxii. 11. This truth is to the Christian a source of joy, since he can look to God as his Father. Whatever manifestation of

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power he beholds, he recognises has the power of God, and knows it the same time that the power of God is for his good, since it is to him the means of salvation. Rom. i. 16. It is a truth which comforts him and gives trust in the place of fear. Since all power is of God, it necessarily follows that "all things work together for good to them that love God" and believe on Him unto salvation.

What has been said of wisdom and power, may also be said of riches. All wealth belongs unto God, and no man to whom God entrusts a part of it has occasion thereby to glory. To him who would do this the question comes, "What hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou didst not received it?" 1 Cor. iv. 7. God only is rich; and His riches do not consist of silver or gold, or of anything that has in itself no value. The riches of God are riches of mercy and grace; and in the ages to come we shall know "the exceeding riches of His grace, and His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." See Eph. ii. 4-7. He "is rich unto all that call upon Him." Rom. x. 12. He is rich, therefore, in that which they need who call upon Him, and this is mercy and grace. These are things of intrinsic worth. And God says of them, "In these things I delight."

No flesh has anything whereof to boast. No man has anything whereof to glory, save in the knowledge of God. "God forbid that I should glory," says the apostle, "save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Gal. vi 14. Christ is the wisdom of God and the power of God. 1 Cor. i. 24. In Him are manifest the riches of the mercy and grace of God. To know Him is to have the knowledge of God. "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." John xvii. 3.

But "not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption; that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." 1 Cor. i. 26-31.

"Religious Education" The Present Truth 9, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

The controversy over the question of religious instruction in Board Schools is waxing warmer. The ladies have now taken a hand in the struggle, and have formed a "Woman's League for the Maintenance of National Christian Education," of which Lady Shaftesbury is president. In a prospectus which they have issued, their purposes are avowed to be the defence of the rights of parents, of liberty of conscience, and of the Christianity of England, all of which they conceive to be seriously threatened by the leading of some of the school boards and the direction of secular instruction only.

How near this organisation is likely to come to the realisation of any true defence of the rights of parents and of liberty of conscience, may be seen by a brief glance at this prospectus and a letter addressed by the president to the Church Times, setting forth the aims of this society, and the reasons for its formation. "The League is based," it says, "on the principles of liberty of conscience and the rights of parents. Christian parents and Christian rate-payers are saying to their rulers, 'You compel us to send our children to school. You compel us to pay rates to support the schools, therefore you must make the education such as we can conscientiously accept.' Especially are the Christian women and mothers of England saying this, and the League is meant to unite their voices and make them effective. We are entirely prepared to concede to non-Christians the rights which we demand for ourselves. The Jewish religion is at this moment being definitely taught to the Jewish children in the Board schools of London by Jewish teachers, who are paid from the rates to which we are compelled to contribute, and to which we would contribute willingly provided that Christian instruction as definite might be given to the children of Christian parents, otherwise liberty of conscience and parental rights are violated."

We had always supposed that the term "non-Christians" would include others besides the Jews and those belonging to the various non-Christian sects. But it appears from the above quotation that those who do not profess any religion, and do not wish their children educated in any form of religion, are left wholly out of the question; while the emphasis placed upon "the Christian women and mothers of England" in connection with this move throws additional light upon the phrase, "the rights of parents." When we are considering a question of rights, Christians and non-Christians, of members of religious sects or those belonging to no sect at all, stand upon exactly the same level. Human rights do not depend upon religious belief. They are outside the sphere of religion altogether.

No one can rightfully be compelled to pay for the teaching of religion in any form, either in Board schools or anywhere else. And why? Simply because a person's religious beliefs and his attitude toward religious precepts and obligations are matters between him and his God, and God has never ordained that any person shall be compelled to and or support religion. The Gospel is not compulsion, but persuasion. God leaves every person perfectly free to do as he sees fit in the matter of religious faith and practice. He sends him light and blessings from heaven, and throws around him such influences as will draw him to Christ if he will yield to them; but if he does not voluntarily choose to do so, there is no further pressure brought to bear upon him. In the day of final reckoning everyone will have to give account of himself to God for the course he has pursued here, and any attempt on the part of man to hold his fellow-man accountable in that which pertains to religion, is an attempt to usurp the place of God.

All offerings to the gospel-to be acceptable to God-must be voluntary. He will have nothing that is forced. He might have created man in such a way that he could not transgress His will, or He might now if He chose, by the exercise of His all mighty power, compel every creature on earth to reverence and obey Him; but He has not chosen to exercise His power in that way. What human parent would be satisfied with a respect and obedience that came from compulsion instead of from love? and will God be less particular than men? No; "God is love;" and love alone is that which satisfies Him.

Religion, therefore, is altogether out of place in the hands of the State; for State power means compulsion. Not the guidance and control of the State, but of the Holy Spirit, is necessary to

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the proper teaching of the Christian religion; for Christian truths are spiritual, and spiritual things must be spiritually discerned. And if Christian parents are willing to be made to pay for the teaching of Judaism in the schools, it does not right the inconsistency and wrong of such a thing, to compel Jews and atheists to pay for the teaching of the religion of the Church of England.

The training and education of children have been committed by God to their own parents. But a marked tendency is noticeable at the present day to shirk this responsibility, and shift it onto the shoulders of others. But will God not hold parents accountable for the children He has entrusted to their care? Let no parents flatter themselves that they can please Him by leaving the religious instruction of their children in the hands of the teachers of Board schools. In the Old Testament are found repeated instructions to parents upon this point of the religious training of their children, and parents will not be guiltless who neglect a matter of such importance.

In all that pertains to the welfare of the child, there is nothing that can take the place of home influences. Let those influences be what they should be, and the child will go forth into life's battle with strength to meet and conquer the obstacles and temptations which oppose him; but let those influences be pernicious, let there be no memories of a mother's patient and loving instruction, of a mother's pleading and a mother's prayers, and the outcome of the battle of life with that child is more than doubtful. What would the world have known of Moses, or of John and Charles Wesley, if religious instruction had been left by parents in their day to the supervision and control of the State?

As to the part which this League-or for that matter any other human organisation-can play in the defence of Christianity, it is only necessary to observe that Christianity is not in the hands of men, but of God, and He is its Defender. Christianity-the Gospel-is "the power of God unto salvation." Rom. i. 16. The power of God does not need to be defended by man. The heathen often manifest a belief that man can do something to defend his gods; but it is only such gods as those of the heathen that need the protection of man. A system of religion which depends upon men for its support, is not the system which has in it the power of God.

We are sure, therefore, that the energy and means devoted to the "Woman's League for the Maintenance of National Christian Education" could be expended to much better purpose for other ends than those for which the League is now organised.

"Protection to Religion" The Present Truth 9, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

The idea that Christianity must be "protected" by the State is so common in these days, that even the Baptists, who have always been in the front ranks of the advocates of religious liberty, are falling into the error. Thus, in noticing a pamphlet from the pen of Sir Theodore Hope, formerly of the Council of the Governor-General of India, the Freeman says:-

Sir Theodore is dissatisfied with the amount of support given by the State to Christianity and India. We are glad he does not advocate the establishment of the Church of England in that part of the British Empire. So far as we are concerned, we should be glad if the State ceased to show the least favour to any Church or clergy, but dealt out to all the same measure of protection and the exercise of undoubted rights and of the religious freedom to which every subject of the British crown is entitled. At the same time we agree that the State should provide the ministrations of religion for those of the servants that are withdrawn from their homes and placed in localities where, without such provision, it would be deprived of these ministrations. But in the appointment of chaplains or ministers in these instances no denomination should enjoy advantages or suffer disadvantages more than any other denomination. Beyond this the State should not go, and within these limits the State should act with caution.

"Protection" is necessary for false systems of religion, for they could not exist without it. Since they originate with man, of course they must be upheld by human power. A religion without power, is no religion at all; but a religion that does not come from God, and does not have Him to support it, must necessarily derive its power from the State. The very fact that a religion asks and receives protection of the State, shows that the State is above it; for the greater never seeks protection from the less. That which is protected is weaker than that which protects.

This obvious fact also shows that when men ask for State protection of Christianity, they have lost sight of its Divine origin. They must have forgotten that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, or else they could not ask human protection for it. For the State to offer its protection to Christianity, or for ministers of the Gospel to ask for it, or even to consent to receive such protection in behalf of Christianity, is an insult to its Founder.

There is but one thing that the religion of Christ asks from men, and that is that they should put themselves under its protection. It is not in the world asking favours, but giving them.

Who can read the second Psalm, and then talk about State protection of anything pertaining to the Gospel of God? Let us read, "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision."

This shows that the kingdom of God has nothing to fear from earthly rulers. All the powers of the earth in combination cannot destroy it; their thoughts of injuring it are nothing but vanity. But if they have no power to injure it, neither have they any power to protect it. For example, a great power like that of England, would laugh at a declaration of war against it by some petty tribe in Africa; what an absurdity it would be, therefore, for it to ask the protection of that same petty tribe. That is the way the case stands with the religion of Jesus Christ and earthly governments, only the difference is infinitely greater. Therefore the Lord says, "Be wise now therefore, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth." Instead of ministers of the Gospel asking for the protection of kings, they are instructed to offer to all men, including kings, the protection of God, if they will receive it.

A word as to the duty of the State to provide the ministrations of religion to those who are withdrawn from their homes. It can indeed provide the ministrations of religion to such ones, but it cannot provide the ministrations of the Christian religion. The State cannot give that which it has not; and the State has not the Gospel, for the Gospel is the power of God. Therefore whenever the State goes into the business of providing the ministrations of religion, it can at best provide nothing but a modification of Christianity,-a form of godliness without the power.

What then shall be done for those who are withdrawn from their homes, and placed where there are no churches to which they can have access? The answer is, Let the true ministers of Christ seek them out, and minister to

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them, if they will receive such ministrations. Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost, and it is the duty of His followers to do likewise. If men in such places do not wish the ministrations of religion, then they are not to be forced to receive it by the State. Christ came to proclaim liberty, and freedom to accept the Gospel, means freedom to reject it, and this Christ gives to every man. But no minister can adequately proclaim the liberty wherewith Christ makes men free, when he has so limited an idea of that liberty that he thinks it needs the protection of the civil power.

"Wrestling" The Present Truth 9, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

Wrestling was much more common in the ancient times than it is now, because warfare was then a hand-to-hand matter, and victory in a battle depended more on the athletic skill of the combatants, than it does these days of long-range rifles. The great battles were often little else than huge wrestling contests. This is why the Apostle Paul describes the warfare of the Christian as wrestling. "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Eph. vi. 11, 12.

This contest is to be carried on with the strength that the Lord gives, and the armour that He supplies. The wrestler is exhorted to "be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might." He is to strive, but it is to be according to the working of God in him. Col. i. 29. The power all comes from God, and it is really God that gains the victory over the enemy, working through the man who yields to Him. Jesus says, "In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." John xvi. 33. Therefore we read, "This is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith. And who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" 1 John v. 4, 5.

In the thirty-sixth Psalm, verses eleven and twelve, we have a reference to this wrestling against the wickedness of this world. "Let not the foot of pride come against thee, and let not the hand of the wicked remove me. There are the workers of iniquity fallen; they are cast down, and shall not be able to rise." The hands and feet play the principal part in wrestling. Each wrestler seeks to trip up his antagonist with his feet. There is no foot so dangerous in wrestling as the foot of pride, because "pride goeth before destruction and an haughty spirit before a fall." Therefore it is that the psalmist prays to be kept from the foot of pride. Only He can keep us from this dangerous foe, because He is meek and lowly in heart. Whoever abides in Him will be kept from the pride of man.

It is an unfortunate thing that most people have made a wrong use of the account of Jacob's wrestling with the angel, who was the Lord Jesus Himself. They read the account of His wrestling all night, and then in the morning receiving a blessing, and think that means that we are to wrestle with the Lord in order to get a blessing from Him. Because of this mistaken idea, many people fail to receive the blessings that they might otherwise have. Let us study the case a little.

WRESTLING AGAINST GOD

A moment's thought should be sufficient to show us that the Lord is not our adversary. He is not opposed to us. Therefore we do not have to fight with Him. Wrestling is fighting, and it is a dangerous position for one to occupy, to be fighting against God. God is for us, to protect us from all that come against us. We do not want to fight with the only Friend we have.

But of course the idea of fighting is not in the minds of those who speak of wrestling with God. Their idea is that of striving with Him to get Him to give us His blessing. But God has come to us with His blessing before we ever felt the need of it. "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 that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Rom. viii. 32. If we were half as anxious to receive the blessings of God as He is to bestow them upon us, we should have more than we ever dreamed of.

But did not Jacob wrestle all night with the Lord? Yes, he did, but do not forget that he did not know that it was the Lord. He thought all the time that it was an enemy. And that illustrates the position of those who think that they must wrestle with the Lord for a blessing. Unconsciously they are regarding the Lord as their adversary, instead of their Helper.

Now let us see what we are to learn from the case of Jacob. When was it that he first found that the One with whom he was wrestling was not a man, but the Lord Himself?-It was when the Angel put forth His hand, and put Jacob's thigh out of joint with a touch. Read the account in Genesis xxxii. 24-28. How much longer did Jacob wrestle after he found out that he was wrestling with the Lord?-Not a minute, because such a thing was impossible. It was the dislocation of his thigh that made him know with whom he was wrestling; and no man can wrestle with a thigh out of joint. A man with his thigh out of joint would be at a greater disadvantage in wrestling, than a man with only one leg, because in addition to having only one leg to stand on, he would have the inconvenience and the intense pain of the useless one.

What, therefore, did Jacob do as soon as his dislocated thigh made known unto him with whom he was wrestling?-He did the only thing that he could do, namely, he threw his arms around the Lord for support. If one were wrestling or walking, or even standing still, and his thigh should suddenly be thrown out of joint, he would immediately fall to the ground. So Jacob would have fallen, if he had not held on to the Lord. And this we learn from the record. As soon as Jacob's thigh was out of joint, the Angel said, "Let Me go, for the day breaketh." And Jacob replied, "I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me." This shows, what we should naturally conclude, that as soon as Jacob learned that it was the Lord with whom he was wrestling, he ceased wrestling, and threw himself upon Him for support.

And it was then that Jacob prevailed. During all the night of wrestling he had not been able to gain anything, but as soon as he stopped wrestling with the Lord, and hung helpless upon Him, he gained a blessing. And so it will ever be. "For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; in returning and rest shall ye be saved; and quietness and in confidence shall be your strength." Isa. xxx. 15. "Trust ye in the Lord for ever; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength."

Then instead of striving with the Lord, let us yield to Him, and allow Him to do our fighting for us. See Ps. xxv. 1, 2. We shall find all that we wish to do, in keeping our wills subject to His. Power belongs to

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Him, and He will exert all in our behalf, if we will throw ourselves upon Him.

"The Majority" The Present Truth 9, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

Is your religious faith and practice in conformity with that of the majority? Are you dwelling at ease because you are on the side of the majority? Then beware! In Noah's day the majority were drowned in the flood. In Abraham's day the majority were idolaters. In the time of Moses the majority perished in the wilderness. In Elijah's day the majority were worshippers of Baal. In the days of Christ the majority rejected Him, and crucified Him. In the days of Luther and the reformers the majority were Roman Catholics.

Is our own day an exception to all others? Verily, no. For "in the last days perilous times shall come; for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud," etc. 2 Tim. iii. 1-5. In our day the majority have a form of godliness, but deny (that is, do not know) the power thereof; and the inspired exhortation is, "From such turn away." "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil." Ex. xxiii. 2.

"A Lesson from the Sun, Moon, and Stars" The Present Truth 9, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

"Ye are the light of the world." . . . "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Matt. v. 14, 16.

How beautiful for the sun, moon, and stars to be light-bearers for Jesus! And what faithful light-bearers they are! Day after day and night after night finds them in their places, faithfully holding out the glorious light that their Maker placed upon them.

But did you know that the Lord created you to be His light-bearer, too? and that He has commanded you to shine, as truly as He ever bade the sun, moon, and stars to shine? Listen to what He says: "Ye are the light of the world." . . . "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. "

'Tis true that you have no light of your own any more than the sun, moon, and stars had light of their own, but the Lord is able to give you of His light and glory as He was to give it to the sun, moon, and stars, that is, if you as fully yield yourself to Him and allow Him to. If you are not shining, the only reason is that you have not allowed God to fill you with His light.

Upon the sun, moon, and stars He placed some of His brightness and glory, and told them to show it to the people of the earth every day and every night that they might constantly be reminded of a glorious and powerful Being who made all things.

Upon you, and in you, He wants to put His own perfect and lovely life (for His life is His light, John i. 4) that you may show it to the people of the earth, and thus lead them to see that He is as kind and lovely as He is powerful, and as good and gentle as He is glorious. He says that your life will then be "as the shining light" (Prov. iv. 18), because you will show forth Jesus, "the Light of the world" (John viii. 12), in all your actions. Your words and actions will show people the way to their heavenly home as plainly as the sun shows them the way to their earthly home. So you see that your words and actions will be a real light to them to lead them to heaven. You notice when Jesus says for you to let your light shine He says, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works" and be led to glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Thus "the Lord is a Sun" (Ps. lxxxiv. 11), a far greater sun than the one you see in the sky, for He not only gives the sun, moon, and stars all the light that they have, but His life can enter right into your heart and show you how to get to heaven, and shine on through you, and show those around you how to get there also.

His ten commandments are but a word picture of His ways, of His light, of His life, that He will live in you if you will let Him come in and use you. He knows that without this light of life, His life of goodness, you cannot live eternally any more than you can live this common life without the sunlight. He therefore pleads with you to let Him in, and says, "Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to Him."

But how can you let this blessed Light in? He answers, "I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on Me should not abide in darkness" (John xii. 46); "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." Eph. iii. 17.

Then if you really believe what God says, that is opening the door and letting Him in. You must believe that the life of Jesus is the light of the world, that you cannot live for ever without it, and that He is able to come in and live it in you, and then that He keeps His promise and does come in as soon as you ask Him to.

No one but Jesus can do works that are good enough to shine and show others how to do, therefore you must not try to do right by yourself, even after you have let Jesus in, or you will stop shining. You must every day give up your way and just let Him use your hands and feet and whole body, working in you that which is pleasing in His sight. If you let Him stay with you all the time you cannot help shining, for He is Light, and the more you give up to Him and let Him have His way with you, the more and more of your life will shine unto the perfect day, the nearer and nearer you will be getting ready for His second coming.

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For do you not see? Last week we learned from the sun, moon, and stars that His coming is very near, and this week we have learned from them how we may get ready.

If we would be ready when He comes we must, like them, allow Him to put His light within us, and then daily and nightly show it to the people of the earth. We must, like them to be faithful light-bearers for Jesus.

If we allow all our actions to shine with His gentleness, goodness, kindness and loveliness now, we shall be given a body like unto His glorious body when He comes, and then our bodies shall shine forth as bright as the sun in the kingdom of our Father (Matt. xiii. 48), and as the stars for ever and ever (Dan. xii. 3).

1. When did the sun, moon, and stars begin to shine upon this earth? Gen. i. 14-19.

2. Did they have any light of their own?

3. Who gave them all that they have?

4. Then whose glory to they show? Ps. xix. 1.

5. When the sun should be darkened and the stars should fall from heaven, of what was that to be a sign? Matt. xxiv. 29-33.

6. Have the signs been seen in the heavens? Yes.

7. Then of what may we be sure? That the second coming is very near.

8. Why is He coming?

9. If we would be ready to go with Him when He comes, what must we do? We, too, must be light-bearers for Jesus. Matt. v. 14, 16; 1 Thess. v. 4, 5.

10. How can we shine when we have no light of our own? Let Jesus bring His light into our hearts.

11. Is He willing to come in? Rev. iii. 20.

12. How can we let Him in? John xii. 46; Eph. iii. 17.

13. What is His light? His life (John i. 4), His ways.

14. When we allow His loveliness to shine through all our actions, what will our way be like? Prov. iv. 18.

15. What will people see? Good works. Matt. v. 16.

16. What will our good works lead them to do? Matt. v. 16.

17. Then will not our words and actions be like a light to them?

18. If we thus shine for Jesus, or let Jesus shine through us every day, what does He promise us? Phil. iii. 21; Matt. xiii. 43; Dan. xii. 3.

19. How old must you be before you can shine for Jesus? You can shine for Him now if you believe Him and let Him come in and use you.

"Shine like the stars above,

Clear and bright, through the night;

Tell of the Saviour's love,

Shine by doing right."

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

-India is trying to borrow £10,000,000 to pay off the interest on her indebtedness, which is due in gold.

-The Burmah section of the "Opium Commission" is said to have decided against the abolition of the opium traffic.

-The death rate in London has reached the high percentage of 31 per 1,000, owing to the increasing prevalence of influenza.

-Evangelical circles in Germany are being stirred by a strong movement against the threatened repeal of the anti-Jesuit laws.

-A "National League for the Abolition of the House of Lords," has been formed, and a recent meeting was presided over by Mr. Labouchere.

-Between Dec. 9 and 13 severe gales have been experienced over all portions of the British Isles, with much damage to shipping and considerable loss of life.

-The Panama correspondent of the New York World states that war is absolutely certain to break out between Peru and Ecuador on the boundary question.

-A telegram from Buenos Ayres states that the Argentine Congress has sanctioned the conclusion of an extradition treaty with Great Britain. The treaty is not retroactive

-Mr. Keir Hardie, M.P., stated in Parliament that he estimated that three persons in London died every two days from starvation or from suicide through fear of starvation.

-As the result of a conflict between gendarmes and peasants in the Italian province of Bari, a Customs officer was seized by the mob, and, after petroleum had been poured over him, was set on fire.

-Recently three shop-keepers at Lincoln were fined for trading on Sunday. Other convictions are said to have taken place, and a determined effort is being made there to enforce the Sunday laws.

-According to information from Honolulu, President Cleveland's censure of the action of Mr. Stevens has created great bitterness. Preparations to actively resist the restoration and the queen had been made.

-A medical journal declares that something like 80,000 cases of lead poisoning, causing much sickness, occur yearly in England from drinking home-made wine and beer, brewed in glazed earthenware pans.

-A large and disastrous fire is reported from Antwerp. Some grain warehouses covering 80,000 square yards have been burnt, the total losses being estimated at from 5,000,000f. to 6,000,000f. The fire is believed to have been due to incendiarism.

-The Italian Cabinet is now fully constituted, with Signor Crispi as Premier, Minister of the Interior, and ad interum Minister for Foreign Affairs. Its programme will include the reduction of the Army Estimates by some half-million sterling.

-According to Dalziel advices from Bulawayo, Lobengula has been captured by Captain Wilson's patrol. A Reuter's telegram, however, states that Captain Wilson's force was repulsed on attacking the King's escort, and is in a perilous position.

-Two hundred thousand men in London are unemployed, and one hundred and seventeen thousand of Chicago's citizens are in a similar predicament. And these cities but furnish instances of a destitution and distress that is world-wide.

-The coal dispute in Scotland has come to an end, a meeting of miners at Glasgow deciding for a general resumption of work on the employers' terms. The men are urged to cooperate with the English miners in the formation of a conciliation board.

-Mr. Edison, the American, has produced an improved pattern of his "talking machine" which he claims will reproduce speech from a whisper to the loudest tones with greater intensity than the original voice. It will, he says, entirely do away with reporting.

-The Spanish commander at Melilla has presented an ultimatum to the Moorish Foreign Minister as a condition of bringing the present warlike operations to a close. The demands include the evacuation of the neutral zone by the Arabs, the surrender of 12,000 rifles, and the punishment of the leaders of the rebellious tribes.

-There has been repeated rioting by the Socialists at Palermo, in which the rioters were fired on, owing, it is said, to the troops mistaking an order from their officer, with the result that eight were killed on the spot and fourteen others wounded. The crowd, in revenge, after the retirement of the troops, out off the heads of the town clerk and his wife, and carried them away on pikes.

-In a proclamation issued by Admiral de Gama, who has taken over the command of the Brazilian insurgent squadron in the Bay of Rio, he covertly advocates the restoration of the monarchy. The secession of Admiral de Gama is regarded as important. Admiral Wandenkolk, the leader of a previous revolt, who is in prison, is expected to be appointed to the command of the Government squadron.

-At Mongtze, in China, a timber mine has been discovered. The trees have been buried under sandy soil to a depth of six to twenty-five feet, and they are well preserved. Apparently they have been overwhelmed by an earthquake at some immemorial time. They are of the pine trees called "Nain Hon" by the Chinese, and contain a preservative essence, hence the wood is employed in making coffins.

-The "Excelsior" the largest diamond in the world, is now deposited in one of the safes of the Bank of England. It was found in June last in the mines of Jagersfontein, Cape Colony. The "Excelsior" is said to be a stone of the purest water, and is worth about a million sterling. Exceptional precautions were taken to have it conveyed from the mine to the coast. A squadron of the 16th lancers guarded the carriage to Cape Town, from which it was brought to London in the gunboat Antelope.

-The Anarchists who threw the bomb in the French Chamber has been discovered, and is under arrest. The investigations being made at Paris as a result of the outrage, show that the Anarchists of Franco and Spain are in constant communication, incriminating letters having been found. An extensive search was made in the principal Anarchist centres in Paris, and some thirty expulsions are expected to follow. Special precautions are being taken by the Paris police for the protection of public buildings. By a bill passed in the Chamber a few days after the bomb-throwing, it is made an offence for any French paper to publish articles glorifying criminal acts. This is one of four bills which have been introduced with a view to the suppression of anarchy.

-The following particulars have become known relative to the recent Nihilist plot: "Through the numerous arrests made at Warsaw the St. Petersburg police learned that the Warsaw secret organisation, besides having its branches at Charkoff, Kieff, and Odessa, also extended its ramifications to St. Petersburg. Thus warned, the police were put on the alert, with the result that on the night of the 5th inst. the river police stopped a boat on the Neva, which on examination was found to contain three small cases filled with dynamite. The subsequent arrest of the person to whom the cases were addressed-a medical student-led to the discovery of the Nihilist plot. Up to the present, upwards of fifty persons have been taken into custody in connection with the affair, among them being several ladies, some of them more girls, and a large number of officers. The police declare that they have evidence to show that a bomb outrage on the Czar had been planned. It is said that the application of the knout has aliened a full confession from the medical student above-mentioned, and that the rest of the prisoners have also been knouted and subjected to other terrible tortures."

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

It is stated that the Pope of Rome has just conferred the rank of Monsignor and Domestic Chaplain upon a Bavarian village priest who has achieved much celebrity on account of his cures by the use of cold water. The Pope's judgment in matters pertaining to the body is evidently much better than his judgment in spiritual things.

One of the most famous distributors of Bibles, if not the most famous, was Deacon William Brown, of New Hampshire, U.S.A., who recently died at the age of seventy-six. Since 1849, when He began the work, he had given out no fewer than 120,000 copies of the Scriptures. In the two years preceding his death, he canvassed 239 towns, and visited over 80,000 families.

The will of Gen. S. C. Armstrong, of Hampton, Virginia, who did so much in the way of educating and civilising Indian children, contains the following item:

I wish no effort of a biography made. Good friends might give up a pretty good story, but it would not be the whole truth-the truth of a life usually lies deep down, we hardly know it ourselves-God only does-I trust His mercy. The shorter one's creed, the better; "Simply to Thy cross I cling" is enough for me.

The Apostle Paul wrote to Titus, "Let no man despise thee," and similarly to Timothy, "Let no man despise thy youth." How could they prevent it?-By not acting in a despicable manner. Many think to keep people from despising them, by bluster and show of authority. Such a course may keep people from exhibiting their contempt, but they will despise them in their hearts. He who is an example "in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity," will not be regarded as despicable, however much he may be hated by ungodly men.

There is nothing so far-seeing as faith, and nothing so short-sighted as unbelief. Judas was so blinded by unbelief that he could accompany Christ as one of His apostles, listen to His teachings, and behold His miracles, and yet make himself a thief, as if his Master would not know what he was doing! It was self that blinded Judas, for self is the essential element of unbelief. Not honest doubt, but doubt which is prompted by self, is unbelief. Faith depends not so much upon evidence as upon a clean heart. If you would have the former, first be sure that you have the latter.

"Faithful is this saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me as chief might Jesus Christ shew for all His long-suffering, for an example of them which should hereafter believe on Him unto the eternal life." 1 Tim. i. 15, 16. In this there is wonderful encouragement, namely, that the chiefest sinner will receive the chiefest grace. All may accept the Saviour's salvation, for if a man is extraordinarily weak, Christ will bestow upon him extraordinary strength; if a man is the greater sinner, he may have the greater grace. Where sin abounded, grace does much more abound.

"The Coming War" The Present Truth 9, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

The Coming War.-The Echo says:-

No doubt there is some exaggeration in the following telegram from Rome, and yet it serves to show that the position of Italy is fast becoming intolerable:-"The terrible condition of Sicily is causing great anxiety. About 350,000 men and women have joined the ranks of the Socialists. The people are utterly desperate, the women being the worst, and leading the men on. 'Bread or death' is the general cry." Yet poverty-stricken Italy continues to pay about fourteen millions a year for army and navy, and the new Prime Minister, Signor Crispi, himself a Sicilian, refuses to make any abatement in the war expenditure.

The only question is, How much longer can Italy stand the strain of the militarism that is cursing Europe? If she is not already in the "last ditch," how long will it be before she gets there? And when she can go no further, then what? To all human appearance and to all predictions, the long-looked-for European war, with its whirlwind of murder and desolation! But Christ is coming, the "Prince of peace," He who "maketh force to cease unto the ends of the earth," and "breaketh the bow and cutteth the spear in sunder." Ps. xlvi. 9. Who will be ready to say in that day, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him; and He will save us"? Isa. xxv. 9.

"Dead unto Sin" The Present Truth 9, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

Dead unto Sin.-"Likewise recokon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive under God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. vi. 11. We are not to wait till some experience shows us that we are dead unto sin, before we reckon ourselves to be so, but count it as a fact from the first moment that we accept and believe on Christ. Sin may be in us, but when we count ourselves to be dead to it, and alive unto God, He works in us, and not the sin; and His work will be to remove sin from us, to "cleanse us from all unrighteousness." And thus will we live here the life of those who are raised from the dead.

"Murdering Sleep" The Present Truth 9, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

Murdering Sleep.-The New York Independent of December 7, contains an article on "Sleep," by Henry M. Lyman, A.M., M.D., in which the various causes of sleeplessness are noted, with the object of helping troubled ones to obtain needed rest. Among other things he says:-

In certain cases it will be found that the sufferer is a victim of malaria, or other infective poison, which must be thoroughly eliminated from the body before healthy sleep can be enjoyed. But, in the majority of the patients whom one encounters in our modern cities, there has been a slow poisoning of the brain with the narcotics and irritants that are so freely employed by the many who are ignorant of their effects. I do not now refer to alcohol and tobacco, for their pernicious activity is pretty generally recognised. I refer to those milder poisons, tea and coffee. These substances are slow and insidious in their action; and the comfort derived from their use is of such an agreeable nature that their harmful energy is often overlooked.For labourers, and for workmen who pass the greater part of their life in the open air, these beverages possess the minimum of noxious influence. But for women and children, and for men of the professional and official classes, whose life is passed indoors, and whose nerves are consequently in a highly sensitive condition, the constant use of tea and coffee, as ordinarily prepared, is very prejudicial to that nervous integrity that permits unbroken, restful sleep. These beverages should no more than alcoholic beverages be allowed as a daily means of refreshment.

He further says that tea and coffee as ordinarily used are "dangerous poisons." This is a truth, and should be heeded. Thousands of persons who are troubled with sleeplessness and general nervousness would find relief and a great increase of strength by abandoning the use of tea and coffee.

December 28, 1893

"Haven't Time" The Present Truth 9, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

"Haven't Time."-Have you no time to think of God, to seek Him, to study His word, and to learn of Him? "Are there not twelve hours in the day"-yes in your day? Is it not as long as any other person's day? "From him that hath not," said the Saviour, "shall be taken away even that which he hath." If you have no time now, you will have none hereafter. None are so short of time as those who have no time to prepare for eternity.

"Speaking for God" The Present Truth 9, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

Speaking for God.-Who will speak of the wonderful love and power of God? Are there any special ones of His followers who are privileged to tell of His goodness, while others must keep silence? Hear what is written: "The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?" Amos iii. 8. Evidently none can help speaking His word, save those who have not heard it. Jeremiah once, because of the criticism of men, thought he would not make mention of the Lord any more; but he said, "His word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay." Jer. xx. 9. And so when the apostles were even commanded not to speak any more in the name of Jesus, they said "We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." Acts iv. 20. And so it will always be; none will keep silence except those who have not known the voice of God speaking to them.

"Let those refuse to sing,

Who never knew our God;

But servants of the Heavenly King

May speak their joys abroad."

"Our Song" The Present Truth 9, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

Our Song.-"The Lord is my strength and song." Ex. xv. 2. Why then should it be thought that there is anything about the service of God that is dismal and sad? It is a service of song. The psalmist says, "He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God." Ps. xl. 3. We are called to "show forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvellous light." 1 Peter ii. 9. Is there anything sad about coming out from darkness into the bright light? This is what the service of God is,-standing in the light where His glory can be seen upon us (Isa. lx. 2), and rejoicing in it. And if we stand there, that song will be in our mouth, and not words of discouragement and lamentation; and then, many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord." Ps. xl. 3.

"Supping with Christ" The Present Truth 9, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

Supping with Christ.-Jesus says: "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any an 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. He is the King of kings, yet He consents to sit as a guest with "any man," even the humblest. Nay, He begs the privilege of associating with us. but what shall we set before Him, for He comes and knocks when we are "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." He knows this, and so He brings abundant provision with Him. He Himself is the Bread of life. He says, "Hearken diligently unto Me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." Isa. lv. 2. But do not forget that we must sup with Him. What that means we learn from His prayer in the garden. Matt. xxvi. 27:42. If we would sup with Him, we must not refuse the cup of temptation, suffering, and reproach. The joy of it is that we have the presence of Christ with it. In Him we have peace in the midst of tribulation. There is exquisite joy in sorrow when Christ shares it with us.

"Workers with God" The Present Truth 9, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

To the Corinthians Paul wrote "We are labourers together with God." 1 Cor. iii. 9. The work of God is carried forward by cooperation. But it is the cooperation of the branch with the vine. The branch bears fruit, but it receives all its nourishment, its strength, from the vine. "Without Me," said Christ, "Ye can do nothing."

No person can do anything that would save himself from the penalty of even the smallest sin. He might work all his life, and work harder than any man ever worked, and at the end he would be no nearer to salvation than he was at first. Yet he is required to cooperate with God, and he will not obtain salvation unless he does. All men are sinners, and before they can be saved that sin must be removed. God has provided a way whereby sin may be removed, but He did not in that act actually remove it. He opened "a fountain for sin and uncleanness;" and now all who will may come to that fountain and become clean. None are compelled to come; and all who do not come will die in their sins.

God works through man; but He works always for His own glory, and therefore He can use only those who will give Him the glory. And these are only those who deny (know not) self. Man can place himself where God can use him by denying self. In this work he can cooperate with God.

This thought is prominently set forth

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in the first part of Phil. ii.; and then in verse eleven the apostle adds, "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." But how can that be?-"For it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure." Verses 12, 13. Thus man cooperates with God, and thus is it possible to "work out your own salvation." The work of man is self-denial; the work of God is to fill the vacuum made thereby with His own life and power.

"A Positive Force" The Present Truth 9, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

A writer in the News has been discussing the question, "Is Protestantism a mere negation?" The answer to such a question must depend very much upon that signification given to the term "Protestantism." If by that word is meant only what is seen in the most of that worship which differs in form from Catholicism, it may be doubtful whether it is a "mere negation" or not. Certainly a large part of it is not much more than this, and is so rapidly identifying itself with Romanism that it will soon cease to be even that. But if by that term we mean the faith of men like Luther, Wycliffe, and others who in former times earnestly contended against Rome for "the faith once delivered unto the saints," and of the few who are contending in like manner to-day, then the question may be answered with an emphatic negative. Protestantism is not a mere negation, but a positive and most powerful force.

True Protestantism is something carried different from a mere denial of the errors of popery. It is a denial of those doctrines, just as truth is always a denial of error, although this is not the proper way to speak of truth. Truth comes first and error afterwards, so that error is a denial of truth, rather than truth a denial of error. And this is all error is; but truth is a positive, living force. It stands alone, beautiful and complete in itself, ignoring all error, and clothed with the power and life of Him who gave it birth.

True Protestantism is the Gospel of God, it is "Protestantism" only because of the protest of the princes whose faith led them to stand out against the corrupt communion of Rome. It is a belief, a faith. It was not created by the protest of the princes, but only acquired by that a new name. It existed long before "Protestantism," as a name, was known; long before there was any occasion for such a name. It existed, indeed, for all eternity; for the Gospel of God is the "everlasting Gospel," being "the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth." Rom. i. 16; Rev. xiv. 6.

The only protest that is needed against Rome's errors is the proclamation of this Gospel, this power of God unto salvation. This is the most effective protest that could be made, for the straightforward proclamation of Divine truth is the best barrier that can be raised across the path of the error that denies it. The worst thing that can happen for error is to be contrasted with the truth. The worst thing that can happen for popery,-the power of the pope and the priest and the virgin unto salvation,-is to be contrasted with the power of God unto salvation, which is the gospel. This Gospel can be proclaimed without any reference to popery whatever, and still be just as strong and effective a protest against it.

But the adherents of the papacy wish to make it appear that Protestantism is something dependent upon popery, a mere denial of the doctrines of popery, and therefore something which could not have existed without it. They wish it to appear that popery was first, and Protestantism came after it. But it is only the name that came after it, and not the principles. Popery is the thing that denies, and not Protestantism. Gospel truth was first in the field; it was there for all eternity. It was preached to the children of Israel in the wilderness (Heb. iv. 1, 2); it was preached by the apostles eighteen hundred years ago; it was preached by a faithful few in the dark ages; it is preached by the "remnant" of Christ's followers to-day. The Gospel is not on the defensive; it does not care for popish innovations; but now, as ever, it calmly and majestically pursues its way to every nation and people and tongue, being "the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth."

The Gospel is a positive force; it is an infinite force. Popery cannot stop it, nor any other power that can be brought against it. This is the force which is in the true religion, the true Protestantism. It is a force which lives and works in individuals, and the word of God which abides in the hearts of Christians. If your religion does not contain this force, it is not the Gospel of God. If your heart does not feel this power, if your life does not manifest it, you are not yet in the way of salvation.

"Abiding in God" The Present Truth 9, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

The Saviour says, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me." John xv. 4. If we abide not in Him, our whole lives will be utterly barren.

How may we abide in Him? Turning to the fourth chapter of 1 John, we read (verses 7, 8), "Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." If therefore we cherish enmity and hatred toward those around us, we cannot abide in God; we cannot even know Him.

But again we read (verse 16), "And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him."

And what must we do to love? Can we love by trying to love, by exerting ourselves to make love come into our hearts? Who was ever able to love in that way? Who ever seriously tries to get love for another by such a process? But if we cannot love one of the human family by trying and exerting ourselves to love them, no more can we love God in that way. "He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, cannot love God whom he hath not seen." 1 John iv. 20, R.V.

Love comes by beholding. We see one on earth whom we admire, and almost before we know it love has sprung up in our hearts. We made no exertion, but simply let it come, there was no barrier in its way. And that is the only way that love ever comes. "Love is of God,"-all love that is true love,-and whether it be love toward God or man, it comes in the same way.

The trouble is, there is a barrier in the way of our love toward God. Sin placed that barrier there; it is self. The door of the natural heart is closed to that which is Divine. Jesus says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him, and he with Me." Rev. iii. 20. Open that door, and the love of God will come in. Jesus will come in, and we shall see Him, "the chiefest among ten thousand," and "

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altogether lovely"; and love will be the inevitable consequence.

But until the door is open, we do not see Christ. There is much rubbish about the door, which must be cleared away,-the rubbish of self, selfish ambition, pride, jealousies, and all the other works of the flesh. We cannot see Christ through self. Though He is the beauty and the majesty of heaven, so long as we look at self, we shall not be able to discern Him.

We may remove this rubbish by counting ourselves dead unto sin (Rom. vi. 11), dead to all selfish desires and selfish acts. Then there will be no difficulty about opening the door; and then we shall see our Heavenly Visitor in His beauty, and our hearts will be filled with His grace. We will abide in Him.

"We love, because He first loved us;" because "love is of God" and we have opened our hearts and let that love in. And "love is the fulfilling of the law." Rom. xiii. 8, 10. By love will the keeping of the law be manifested to those around us. "He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in Him. But whoso keepeth His word, in Him verily is the love of God perfected; hereby know we that we are in Him." 1 John ii. 4, 5.

"The Word of Power" The Present Truth 9, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

The Word of Power.-When the angel Gabriel announced to Mary the coming birth of Jesus, and how it was to be brought about, he said, "No word from God shall be void of power." Luke i. 37, Revised Version. Every word of God is living, and active; every word is life, so that man may live by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Therefore the Lord says: "As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but 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. lv. 10, 11. His word cannot return to Him void, because it is power and life; it will produce life, just a surely as the rain causes the earth to bring forth fruit. Therefore all that ministers and teachers of the Gospel have to do, is to let the word of God dwell in them, so that they can speak it, and God will see that it reaches those who need it. "He that hath My word, let him speak My word faithfully." "Is not My word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?"

"The Grace of Giving" The Present Truth 9, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

The matter of raising money for religious work is one of the greatest perplexities connected with such work in these days. In almost every church the question of raising the minister's salary and meeting other incidental expenses, takes more consultation and planning than the salvation of the people. Almost every denomination has its special agents to raise money for foreign missions,-men who have great power of persuasion,-and the successful pleader for money is considered the most useful man in the cause. And then there are the other methods for coaxing a few shillings out of people, such as suppers, fairs, and bazaars, with devices that ought not ever to be named as becoming Christians.

Now there cannot be any question about the necessity for money and the work of the Gospel. "The labourer is worthy of his hire," and the Lord has "ordained that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel." 1 Cor. ix. 14. The only question is, How shall the means be raised?

This question is answered in the statement last quoted. "They which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel." God Himself has ordained this. It arises from the very nature of the Gospel, which begins and ends in giving. If sufficient attention were given to the Gospel, the money question would settle itself. Let us read a few texts about giving.

"For 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.

"Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who 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. 3, 4.

"The life which 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.

"He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Rom. viii. 32.

"Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy." 1 Tim. vi. 17.

The Apostle Paul exhorts us to "abound in this grace also," the grace of giving; for, says he, "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich." 2 Cor. viii. 9.

From these texts, and there are many other similar ones, we learn that the grace of God consists in giving. Grace itself is a gift. Eph. ii. 8; Rom. v. 15-17. Righteousness is a gift, and so is eternal life. It is the love of God that leads Him to bestow these gifts upon us. The love of God must manifest itself in giving. Therefore when the love of God is shed abroad in the hearts of men, they will give according to their ability, just as freely as God Himself does.

See how this was demonstrated in the case of the believers in Macedonia. "Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God which hath been given in the churches of Macedonia; how that in much proof of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. For according to their power, I bear witness, yea, and beyond their power, they gave of their own accord, beseeching us with much entreaty in regard to this grace and the fellowship in the ministering to the saints; and this, not as we had hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God." 2 Cor. viii. 1-5. They knew the grace of the Lord, who gave Himself, and so they gave themselves; and in giving themselves they gave all that they had.

Notice also how the love of the brethren in Galatia showed itself. The Apostle Paul wrote, "I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, he would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me." Gal. iv. 15. Nothing that they could give was withheld. What was the cause of this?-Jesus Christ had been set forth evidently crucified among them. Gal. iii. 1. Let the Gospel be preached with the power of the Spirit, so that it becomes a living reality to the hearers, and there will be no trouble in regard to gifts.

All that is necessary, therefore, in order to raise money for the support of the Gospel, is to preach the Gospel of free grace of God. Men in whose hearts the love of God finds a place, will give without urging, and the Lord

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does not desire offerings from any others. "Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, nor of necessity; for God loveth a cheerful giver." 2 Cor. ix. 7. God desires gifts from people who give without urging.

This is shown in the call for offerings for the tabernacle in the wilderness. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering; of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering." Ex. xxv. 1, 2. "And they came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made willing, and they brought the Lord's offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation, and for all His service, and for the holy garments. And they came, both men and women, as many as were willing hearted, and brought bracelets, and earrings, and rings, and tablets, all jewels of gold; and every man that offered offered an offering of gold unto the Lord." Ex. xxxv. 21, 22.

That shows the kind of offerings that the Lord requires; and now for the result of such giving: "And all the wise men, that wrought all the work of the sanctuary, came every man from his work which they made; and they spake unto Moses, saying, The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work, which the Lord commanded to make. And Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing. For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much." Ex. xxxvi. 4-7. What a sensation it would make for such a proclamation to be made in some congregation in these days.

Since not even the brethren are to be urged to give against their free will, it is very evident that it is not according to the will of God that contributions for the Gospel should be solicited from unbelievers. God is not so poor that He is obliged to beg for the support of His cause. "For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains; and the wild beasts of the field are Mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; for the world is Mine, and the fulness thereof." Ps. l. 10-12. There is nothing more dishonouring to the cause of Christ, than the desperate efforts that are put forth by many who profess it, to induce the world to give to its support. The Apostle John says of the early ministers of Christ that "for His names sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles." 3 John 7.

The love of God is the secret of real giving. When Christ dwells in the heart, the language will be "I am debtor." This was the case with the early disciples. "And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul; neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own." Acts iv. 32. The mind that was in them, that made them one, was the mind of Christ, who gave Himself. Such ones delight to give, and thank God for the privilege, so that they can say with David: "Now therefore, our God, we thank Thee, and praise Thy glorious name. But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee."

"The Glory of God" The Present Truth 9, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

Man was created for the glory of God. "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." "Even every one that is called by My name; for I have created him for My glory." Isa. xliii. 1, 7. Also in Revelation we read that the four and twenty elders before the throne of God worship Him, saying, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power, for Thou has created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created." Rev. iv. 10, 11.

But God is not arbitrary in any of His acts. He is not selfish in any of His dealings. In creating man for His glory He had in view not only that glory but the good of man. God existed before any of His creatures were brought into existence, and He was then the Omniscient and the Omnipotent, just as He is to-day. He was dependent on nothing; He needed nothing. But He did not choose to enjoy existence by Himself; for "God is love," "the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever;" and love demanded that His power should be exercised for the good of others. The glory of a Being whose very nature is love must consist in the manifestation of that love; and hence man and all created things were created for the glory of God.

The word of God abounds with exhortations to man to give glory to Him. "Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name." Ps. xcvi. 7, 8. "For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." 1 Cor. vi. 20. But who is meant to glorify God? He has no glory in himself; he has nothing about him which is worthy of being offered to God. He has no power to get anything that would be worthy. Only that which comes from God Himself can be worthy of presenting back to Him.

God knew this when He created man, and provided that man should be given that which he did not possess himself for an offering to his Creator. From the Saviour's words in John xvii. 1, we learn how it is that man is to glorify God: "Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee." God bestows His love and favour upon His children, and they, in making manifest that love, can glorify Him. As we are told by Peter, we are chosen of God that we should "show forth the praises" of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvellous light. 1 Peter ii. 9. And God has said, "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth Me." Ps. l. 23.

God bestows His love upon man, and He in return manifests the love of God. God delights in acts of love and mercy, and His creatures thereby delight themselves in Him. The arrangement is a reciprocal one, and no less for the benefit of one party than for the other. That which is for the glory of God is for the benefit of man; and that which has been given for man's benefit, if not perverted, redounds to the glory of God. And when God does some act of seeming severity, to maintain in the world the majesty and glory of His name, it is done really for the benefit of His creatures who depend upon Him. That which guards His glory, also guards their happiness.

But most men pervert that which God bestows upon them, using it to the glorification of self. Instead of reflecting the glory of God, by words and acts of praise to Him, they absorb it with the idea of thereby calling attention to themselves. This, of course, entirely fails of its objects, and robs God of His glory. Hence it is that He cannot bestow His glory in large measure upon those who would serve self. But He has bestowed some degree of it upon all, so that each one may, if he will, do something to the

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glory of God. And God will bestow upon a person just as much glory as he will use properly. He gives to each one all that can safely be entrusted to him.

The message God sends His people is, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." Isa. lx. 1. In manifesting to them the righteousness of His Son Jesus Christ, which is "unto all and upon all them that believe," He has shewn His people the worthlessness and sinfulness of self, that they may cast self utterly away. And self being cast out, they are prepared to glorify God, to reflect back to Him the light which He sends upon them. And thus this call, this message, is the signal for God's name to be glorified in the earth. No man will be glorified in it; but "His glory" shall be seen upon His people, and all the earth will note that it is the glory of God.

All men have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Rom. iii. 23. They have come short of giving to God the glory that is His. When sin is in the heart, the glory that God sends will not be perfectly reflected, but a part if not all of it will be absorbed by self. Self never throws out anything good, but always seeks to retain it. And therefore to make ourselves perfect reflectors of the glory of God, we must cast out self. To cast out out self we must look to Christ. Looking into His face, beholding the beauty and glory of "the chiefest among ten thousand and the One altogether lovely," we will soon cease to be conscious of self; and then self is gone, and only the image of Him we see, remains with us. And Jesus is "the Light of the world" and the brightness of the glory of God. Heb. i. 3; John viii. 12.

When Isaiah beheld in vision the Lord seated upon His throne, he exclaimed, "Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and dwell in the midst of the people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen that King, the Lord of Hosts." We, like him, are men of unclean lips; but when our lips have been touched by a live coal from off the altar of the Lord, we can be sent forth with His message. "O Lord, open Thou My lips, and my mouth shall shew forth Thy praise." Ps. li. 15.

"Note" The Present Truth 9, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

An address by Mr. Charles Booth, recently read before the Royal Statistical Society, shows that there are in London 172,502 single room tenements; 189,700 tenements consisting of two rooms; 153,189 of three rooms; and 115,117 of four rooms. Of the single-room tenements, 60,115 are inhabited by one person only; 55,766 by two persons; 29,005 by three; 16,111 by four persons; 7,409 by five; 2,871 by six; 879 by seven; 231 by eight; 72 by nine; and three are some single rooms that are actually occupied by ten, eleven, and "twelve or more" persons. These figures tell their own story.

"What Is Christmas?" The Present Truth 9, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

Possibly ninety-nine out of every hundred people who give the matter any thought at all, would answer that it is the anniversary of the birth of Christ. So general has this idea become, that many people regard Christmas as a sacred day, and think that labour thereon is a sin. In the Catholic Church it is regarded as far more holy than Sunday.

As a matter of fact, nobody knows the month nor the day of the month on which Jesus of Nazareth was born. The only place where we could hope to find any definite information on the subject, namely, the Bible, is utterly silent regarding the matter. The fact that the Bible gives no sanction whatever to the celebration of the birth of Christ, not even mentioning when it occurred, is sufficient evidence that the Lord did not wish to have it celebrated. Whatever the Bible does not mention is forbidden.

There is only one thing that we can know with any certainty about the birth of Christ, and that is that it did not take place on the twenty-fifth of December, nor in the month of December. Read the record: "And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, 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." Luke ii. 8-11.

Winter in Palestine is the season of rain. Snow falls, and there are sharp frosts. While it is a subtropical country, it is certain that in the winter season sheep are not kept in the field, and shepherds do not in winter, watch their flocks by night "all seated on the ground," as the hymn has it. Christ was undoubtedly born in the spring or summer, although at what day nobody knows, for no record has been kept. No one thought of celebrating any day as the birthday of Christ until about three hundred years after His ascension. Dr. Schaff tells us that we first find Christmas in Rome, "in the time of the Bishop Liberius, who on the twenty-fifth of December, 360, consecrated Marcella, the sister of St. Ambrose, nun or bride of Christ, and addressed her with the words, 'Thou seest what multitudes are come to the birth festival of thy bridegroom.' This passage implies that the festival was already existing, and familiar. Christmas was introduced in Antioch about the year 380; in Alexandria, where the feast of the Epiphany was celebrated as the nativity of Christ, not till about 430."

Dr. Schaff also tells us something about the origin of the Christmas festival. He says:-

The Christmas festival was probably the Christian transformation or regeneration of a series of kindred festivals-the Saturnalia, Sigillaria, Juvenalia, and Brumalia-which were kept in Rome in the month of December, in commemoration of the golden age of unbridled freedom and equality, and in honour of the unconquered sun, and which were great holidays especially for slaves and children. This connection accounts for many customs of the Christmas season, like the giving of presents to children and to the poor, the lighting of wax tapers, perhaps also the erection of Christmas trees. . . . Had the Christmas festival arisen in the period of the persecution, its derivation from these pagan festivals would be refuted by the reigning abhorrence of everything heathen; but in the Nicene age this rigidness of opposition between the church and the world was in a great measure softened by the general conversion of the heathen.

When we recall the fact, stated by Mosheim, that in consequence of the introduction of pagan philosophy into the church, the heathen came into the church in great numbers, without thinking it necessary to materially change any of their former practices, we can understand how the opposition between the church and the world came to be softened by the general "conversion" of the heathen. As Dr. Schaff says, Christmas was adopted after the close of persecution, when abhorrence of everything heathen had ceased. There is not the slightest question but that Christmas is of purely heathen origin, and is one of the things which marked the progress of the transformation of Paganism into Roman Catholicism.

In the paragraph quoted above, Dr. Schaff says that the heathen festival which later became Christmas, was "in honour of the unconquered sun." In heathen times, when sun-worship was universal, there was a festival in the latter part of December, to hail what the heathen termed the birth of the sun, when the sun began to rise

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higher and higher, after its decline. The professed Christian bishops, who were willing to make almost any compromise to enlarge "the church" numerically, adopted this festival, identifying the sun with Christ, "the Sun of righteousness," so that the heathen could keep their old customs and still be called Christians. They continued to worship the sun, but were told that in doing so they were worshipping Christ.

Mosheim tells us that even in the second century, a large part of the Christian observances and institutions had the aspect of the pagan mysteries. This was because "the Christian bishops purposely multiplied sacred rites" for the purpose of conciliating the pagans. As illustrating the spirit of compromise he quotes the following from Gregory Nyssen's life of Gregory Thaumaturgus: "When Gregory perceived that the ignorant and simple multitude persisted in their idolatry, on account of the sensitive pleasures and delights it afforded, he allowed them in celebrating the memory of the holy martyrs, to indulge themselves, and give a loose to pleasure (i.e., as the thing itself, and both what precedes and follows, placed beyond all controversy, he allowed them at the sepulchres of the martyrs on their feast days, to dance, use sports, to indulge conviviality, and to do all things that the worshippers of idols were accustomed to do in their temples on their festival days), hoping that in process of time they would spontaneously come over to a more becoming and more correct manner of life."-Ecclesiastical History, Cent. 2, part 2, chap. 4, section 2, note 3.

When "Christian" bishops would allow that, it would be but a light thing to them to adopt the very days themselves that the heathen celebrated. This is shown very fully in the following by Dean Milman:-

The festivals in honour of the martyrs were avowedly instituted, or, at least, conducted on a sumptuous scale, in rivalry of the banquets which performed so important and attractive a part of the pagan ceremonial. . . . Panegyrical operations were delivered by the best preachers. The day closed with an open banquet, in which all the worshippers were invited to partake. The wealthy heathens had been accustomed to propitiate the Manes of their departed friends by these costly festivals; the banquet was almost an integral part of the heathen religious ceremony. The custom passed into the church; and with the pagan feeling, the festival assumed a pagan character of gaiety and joyous excitement, and even of luxury. . . . As the evening drew on, the solemn and religious thoughts gave way to other emotions; the wine flowed freely, and the health of the martyrs were pledged, not unfrequently, to complete inebriety. All the luxuries of the Roman banquet were imperceptibly introduced. Dances were admitted, pantomimic spectacles were exhibited, the festivals were prolonged till late in the evening, or to midnight, so that other criminal irregularities profaned, if not the sacred edifice, its immediate neighbourhood.

The bishops had some time sanctioned these pious hilarities with their presence; they had freely partaken of the banquets, and their attendants were accused of plundering the remains of the feast, which ought to have been preserved for the use of the poor.-History of Latin Christianity, Book 4, chap. 2.

The Dean says that "the heathen calendar still regulated the amusements of the people." These amusements, be it remembered, where the festival days of the church; so that the "church year" is but little else than the old heathen round of festivals. The heathen had a festival on the day that the sun was longest seen in the heavens,-the midsummer holiday. This was, of course, just six months before the winter festival which afterwards became Christmas, and so it was very conveniently adopted as the birthday of John the Baptist, and is known as St. John's day. Most of the other church festivals had a similar origin and connection with sun worship.

Thus much for the compromising spirit in general, which adopted heathen customs, so that the heathen could be brought into the church. Now for one more statement, bringing the matter home. In "The Story of Religion in England," by Brooke Herefore, D. D., we find the following in connection with the history of Saxon times:-

Gradually Christianity became the general religion of the whole people. The change was made easier by its not destroying all their old associations, but rather turning them to account. Augustine had found that at various times in the year there were great religious festivals kept up all over the land, and he knew that it would be very difficult to put these down, for they have been so kept up for centuries, yet he did not like them because they were associated with the old heathenism, and helped to keep it alive. So he sent to Rome to ask what he must do. The Pope wisely replied that he had better let the people keep them as before, and indeed keep their old customs generally, but that he must teach them new meanings for them, and turn them into festivals and customs of Christianity. Thus there was a great religious festival kept by the Saxons in honour of their goddess Eostre, in the spring, about the time when the Christians kept the festival of the resurrection, so it was changed into the Christian festival, but the old name, Eostre-our Easter-remained for it among the people, and still remains. Then in the winter the Saxons, like all the northern people, kept the great Yule feast, so this was turned into a festival of the birth of Christ, and by-and-by people forgot that Christmas had ever been anything else.

The wisdom of the Pope in giving the advice he did to Augustine, was worldly wisdom, and not the wisdom of Christ. The Apostolic injunction was, "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness"; but "the church," in its desire to become "Catholic," went into full fellowship with those unfruitful works, and thus brought the darkness into the professed church of Christ.

"But is not Christmas a Christian festival now, since it is associated only with the birth of Christ?" It is just as much a Christian institution as a statue of the Emperor Nero would be a true image of Jesus, if people associated it with thoughts of Christ, and called it His statue. Thinking so, and calling it so, could not make it so. Calling the twenty-fifth of December Christmas does not the least take away the fact that it is a purely heathen affair.

The existence of such festival days in the professed Protestant Church to-day, only shows how incomplete was the work of the Reformation of the sixteenth century. That was only a beginning, and much yet remains to be done; for when Christ appears the second time He will find a church as free from Paganism as it was when He left it. The finishing of the work of the Reformation will not be brought about en masse, nor by any general or formal action, but by individuals taking the Bible alone as their guide, and daring to be counted peculiar for the sake of Christ. Who will be among the number?

"Reproving the Works of Darkness" The Present Truth 9, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

In the home or at business many Christians are brought into association with those who do not honour Christ,-whose ways are a source of pain. At every turn we are reminded that, though not "of the world," we are yet "in the world," and surrounded by the darkness of the world. The Lord tells us what should be our relation to all this. "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them." Eph. v. 5.

How is this reproof to be given? Is it by telling the wrong-doer of this or that act, and arraying before him its wickedness? Sometimes, when we knew no better, we have tried this way, and have found a warmth of spirit generated which left matters worse than before. In the verse following the one quoted, the Lord shows that this is not the way: "For the things which are done by them in secret it is a shame even to speak of."

Then sins may be reproved without even speaking of them. "But all things when they are reproved are

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made manifest by the light." We reprove the works of darkness by holding forth the light. "For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." In the light sin is its own condemnation, and as Christ "was the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world," every man in sin knows the condemnation. Therefore the Christian is to be simply a light, a reflection of the glory of the life of Christ, and the light will reprove sin, and work with persuasive force to lead the sinner to yield.

It is not by pressing upon associates some form of words, or setting forth even various truths as a matter of doctrine, that we let the light shine. Many who are continually besieging their friends in this way cannot understand why their efforts are so unfruitful. The difficulty is this: the light is life. "In Him was life; and the life was the light of men." Only as we have the life can we have the light. But the life of Christ lived in the home or the place of business is the powerful and constant reprover of sin, even though no words are spoken. And the words spoken will not be to press condemnation more heavily upon the one in darkness, but they will flow out from the life within, full of light and helpfulness.

This is the way the Lord treated us. Dead in trespasses and sins he called to us, "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee." Then in the brightness of His glory self was made manifest. And we who "were once darkness," became "light in the Lord," and rejoiced in the life which He gave. Let us then "walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth), proving what is well-pleasing unto the Lord."

"When Popery Comes In" The Present Truth 9, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

When Popery Comes In.-This is when men began to turn away from the Bible as the very word of God. For instance, in Scotland for a series of years there has been a desperate effort on the part of many to overtake the advanced Biblical critics in other lands, and instead of the preaching of the word, the errancy of the word has been preached.

Now there is a marked Romeward tendency, which surprises many. A Scottish correspondent of a London paper calls attention to the spectacle of "multitudes running headlong to the superstitions of the Middle Ages," and the other day Professor Blakie, presiding at a Protestant lecture, referred to the fact that some ministers of the Presbyterian Church had been expressing themselves in favour of the practice of prayers for the dead. All this is the sure result of shutting away the word of God from the people. The darkness of popery must follow as surely as the night the day. The only way to keep the spirit of the Papacy out of our own hearts is to let the word of God dwell in us, subduing self unto God. The man who slights the word of God may not be a Romanist, but he cannot avoid being a papist in principle; for the mystery of God, the word of the Gospel, is the one thing which is able to vanquish the mystery of iniquity, which has its seat in every unrenewed heart.

"Speedy Deliverance" The Present Truth 9, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

"Pray without ceasing," is the inspired injunction. "Continuing steadfast in prayer,' is another expression. "In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." "Man ought always to pray, and not to faint,' is what the Saviour said. Few understand the reason for these directions, and that is the reason why there is so much praying that seems to be to no purpose.

Prayer is not for the purpose of changing the mind of God, nor to make Him favourably disposed toward us. That is the heathen idea of prayer, and so the heathen connects with his prayer a sacrifice made by himself. Often it is a money offering as a bribe to God, and sometimes it is a self-inflicted injury, as was the case with the prophets of Baal, as recorded in 1 Kings xviii. 26-28. But God Himself has provided the sacrifice which brings the things that we ask for, and is willing and anxious to bestow good gifts upon us even before we are ready to receive them. It is His promise alone that is the basis of all true prayer.

The fact that God has made "exceeding great and precious promises" to us, and that in our prayers we have only to claim those promises, shows that prayer, instead of changing the mind of God, is simply coming to take what He unchangeablely holds out to us. He "satisfieth the desire of every living thing." Wherever there is an intense, earnest desire for God's good gifts, there follows the bestowal of them. "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled." Matt. v. 6.

Why, then, the necessity for continual, unceasing prayer?-Because there is continual need. "A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven." John iii. 27. "Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above." James i. 17. We are to pray every day, "Give us this day our daily bread," because we need food every day. The fact that we have eaten and been satisfied to-day, will not do away with the necessity for food to-morrow. So with all spiritual blessings. Our inward man must be "renewed day by day;" and it is just when we realise the necessity for natural food, that we get a continual supply.

This is the lesson conveyed by the parable of the importunate one and the unjust judge. The widow kept coming continually, because she realised that she was in extreme need. Her very existence depended upon her being delivered from the adversary who was about to devour her property. She would not be satisfied with anything less than complete deliverance.

The widow in the parable is an apt illustration of our case. We are in great need. Our "adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." 1 Peter v. 8. His power is the power of death (Heb. ii. 14), with which he would devour our life; and the sting of it is sin, which he leads us into. See 1 Cor. xv. 56; 1 John iii. 8. What we need is deliverance from sin; the only difference between us and the widow is that she realised her need, while as a general thing we do not. See Rev. iii. 17.

The poor widow obtained her request even from the judge who "feared not God, neither regarded man" (Luke xviii. 2), because she would not give him any rest until he granted it. He finally said, "Because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest she wear me out by her continual coming."

"And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily." The Greek word rendered "though" in the above, is a regular word for "and," which is given in the Revised Version. The whole sentence is, "And He is long-suffering over them." Liddell and Scott's Greek Lexicon renders

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the same expression, "long-suffering towards." Wycliffe rendered "patience," instead of "long-suffering," the meaning of course being the same.

We may therefore read the passage thus: "And shall not God avenge [give satisfaction to] His own elect, that cry to Him day and night, and He is long-suffering [or patient] toward them?" Now we see the contrast clearly brought out between the Lord, "the righteous judge," and the unrighteous judge. The latter forced the poor people to "bear long" with him; taxed their patience to the utmost. But with the righteous Judge, it is different; it is He that is long-suffering and patient. Whereas the unjust judge did not wish to do justice, and forced the people to wait long upon him, God is most intensely anxious to confer benefits, and is begging us to come to Him and be saved, but yet is extremely patient with our unwillingness. Here is the sharp contrast: The unjust judge did finally, much against his will, give the poor widow satisfaction, because her need made her importunate, how much more, then, we may expect God to give satisfaction to those who cry to Him, since He has long been imploring them to come to Him for deliverance, and has been patiently waiting upon them.

But what about their crying day and night unto Him? Does that mean that He will keep them waiting a long time? Will He hold them off as long as possible? By no means. "I tell you that He will avenge them speedily." When will He avenge them, or give them satisfaction speedily?-When they are so in earnest that they will cry day and night for deliverance. When we ask God once or twice for deliverance from sin, but have so little burden for it that we may forget it for days, or even weeks, there is no real sense of need, and consequently no real desire for help, nor willingness to receive it. But when our whole being cries out for the righteousness of God, just as every fiber of a starving man's body cries out for food, then the promise is, He will give speedy deliverance. What a blessed comfort is given us in the parable of the unjust judge.

Have we sins that have long beset us, with which we have kept up an intermittent struggle, sometimes in dead earnest, and sometimes willingly overcome, yet all the time feeling guilty and ashamed? Let us fully realise that those sins will shut us out of heaven, so that we shall cry out "Who will deliver me from this body of death?" and be so much in earnest that we must have that deliverance above all things else, and the promise is that it will speedily come.

"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."

"Water Animals" The Present Truth 9, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

"Stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God." Job xxxvii. 14.

Last week, we learned about the sun, and the moon, and the stars that we see in the heavens above us, this week we shall learn about the "stars of the sea," and about the many other curious and wonderful things that are found in the oceans, lakes, and rivers.

If you were to visit the sea-shore, and go down among the great rocks, and lift up the long sea-weeds that hang from their sides, you would find stars clinging tightly to the rocks,-not shining stars like the one in heaven, to be sure, but little, five-pointed, living stars. These star-fish, as they are called, are of different colours, but generally reddish orange yellowish. The upper part is hard and rough, while the underside is soft and contains the mouth, and an eye is said to be at the end of each of its five rays. This odd little creature sometimes presses the points of its rays upon the sand, and raises itself in the middle, until it looks like a five-legged stool. If one of its points, or rays, is bitten off, another grows in its place, and if the fish is torn entirely in two and thrown back into the water, the two parts will get new rays and grow into two perfect star-fish.

But this fish is but one of the many strange things that live in the water. The ocean is just swarming with the living creatures. Some of them are very large and many are too small to be seen; yet they are all wonderful. Most of the animals that live in the water have a broad tail and fans with which to swim, "but some crawl, as the crab, some float about, like the jelly-fish, and some lie still, like the oyster."

Each animal has just such covering or clothing as it needs. The whale, the largest water animal, is so heavy, and goes to such great depths in the water that it needs a very strong covering to protect it from the pressure of the water and the force of the waves. We therefore find it covered with a thick "blanket," as it is called. Its skin is so made that it can hold a great mass of oily matter, which, it is said, is never less than several inches in thickness, in many places nearly two feet deep, and as elastic or springy as India-rubber. The outside of the skin has no hair, but looks like velvet because of the oil that oozes from it. This causes the great animal to move easily through the water. We find the seals and some other animals dressed in soft, warm fur. One kind, called the Crested Seal, has even a little wood which it can fill with air to protect its head and nose. One animal is called the Sea Mouse, because it has such a hairy coat. It is small, and lives under stones and shells, at the muddy bottom of the sea; but it is exceedingly beautiful. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet flesh from every hair in its little coat, and make it seem like a tiny "breathing rainbow." The fish are dressed in suits, hard, different-coloured scales, so lapped one upon the other that they keep out all the water and yet allow the fish to bend in any direction. The scales are kept oiled in order that the fish may glide swiftly through the water. Some animals are covered with sharp, needle-like spines, and others, like the turtle, with thick, bony armour, and still others which lead quiet lives, in houses of the most beautifully-tinted and pearly-lined shell.

Each animal has just such tools as it can use. The whale carries in its mouth a strainer made of fringed whale-bone with which to restrain the water out of its food. The Sword-fish has a sword, the Saw-fish a saw, and the Cuttle-fish and Squids carry pen and ink. The pen looks like an islinglass quill pen, and lies along the body just under the back. The black ink is carried in a little sac, and when the animal is in danger of being caught, it fills the water with ink. Then it cannot be seen and quickly darts away. The Angler-fish has fishing-rod, and line and bait, and can fish with them as deftly as any fisherman you ever saw. A small round fish called the Beaked ChÊtodon, has a little gun, or bow, and can shoot as straight as you can. The gun is on the end of its nose, and the bullet or arrow is nothing but a

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drop of water. If it sees a fly or other insects, hanging on the grass over the water, the fish comes up quietly and points its little gun towards the victim. Suddenly it shoots a drop of water at the fly, knocking it off its perch and into the water, where it is quickly snapped up by the cunning hunter.

But the creatures that live in the water are more than interesting; they are useful. Sometimes one hundred barrels of oil are obtained from one whale, besides the whale bone that is taken from its mouth, and the boot that is made from its tail. Food, oil, leather, fur, ivory, isinglass, trumpets, costly pearls, ornaments, and many other things are obtained from the creatures in the sea. Many of the windows and lanterns in China are made of the clear Chinese Window Shells; and your sponges are but the skeletons of animals that live in the bottom of the ocean. But what seem to be the most wonderful of all are the little coral insects, many scarcely larger than the head of a pin. And yet we find places in the bottom of the ocean that look like a beautiful flower gardens, vegetable gardens, and large forests; and more wonderful still, we find great islands miles and miles in length, which were made by these tiny builders of the sea.

Oh, where did they come from, all these wonderful, beautiful, and useful creatures? Being fitted each one with just the clothing that it needs, and gave it just the tools that it can use? Who taught them all to use their tools? Who painted the lovely shells and caused each hair of the Sea Mouse to reflect a rainbow? Surely it could have been no other than the Creator of the heavens and earth. The Bible says that on the fifth day He said, Let these things be; and they were. How wise, and how good! He has strewn "beautiful things even on the bottom of the ocean before us." Shall we not love Him with our whole hearts, and praise Him continually?

1. Have you been trying to be a light-bearer for Jesus this week? How?

2. On the fourth day, what light-bearers did He place in the sky?

3. Where else may we find stars? Describe them.

4. Are these the only living things that live in the oceans, and lakes, and rivers?

5. Name a few others.

6. What kind of clothing does each animal have?

7. How is the great whale covered?

8. How are the seals dressed?

9. What kind of coat has the little Sea Mouse? The fish? the turtle?

10. In what kinds of houses to some of the quiet animals live?

11. What kinds of tools do the animals all have?

12. Name a few of the strange tools that are used by some of them.

13. Of what use is the whale? The seal? The Pearl Oyster?

14. Can you name any fish that are used for food?

15. Where did your sponge come from?

16. Did you ever see a piece of coral?

17. What wonderful things are done by the coral insects?

18. Were these marvellous creatures always in the waters of the seas and rivers?

19. Who placed them there? When? How? Gen. i. 20-23.

20. Who alone could give them just the clothes they need, and the tools that they can use?

21. What must they have to keep them alive?

22. Who gives it to them? Ps. civ. 24-28.

23. Then could they live without God?

24. What must we have to keep us alive?

25. Who gives it to us?

26. Then could we live without God any longer than they?

27. What does the Bible say we should do when we see these wonderful things that He has made? Job xxxvii. 14.

28. Why? They will teach us to know God and to love Him better.

"Interesting Items" The Present Truth 9, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

-The Baptist denomination has now through-out the world 44,502 churches and 30,548 ministers.

-Mr. John P. Hopkins, a Democrat, has been elected Mayor of Chicago, in place of the late Mr. Harrison.

-Wages in Germany, in the iron, steel, and metal industries are very low, ranging from 11s. 6d to 19s. per work.

-Manchester is now constituted a harbour and port under the Manchester Ship Canal Act of 1865. Both this port and Southampton are now said to be nearer to New York by ship than Liverpool.

-A Vienna telegram gives details of a colonising experiment to he tried in British East Africa by a number of colonists of all nationalities, including, Englishmen and Americans, at a place some 190 miles south of Mount Kenia.

-As a result of the Anarchist outrage in Paris, every person entering or leaving France will be closely scrutinised by police, who are provided with descriptions of a number of well-known anarchists and revolutionists.

-A terrific bombardment of Rio is reported to have taken place at Rio do Janeiro, by which many persons were killed. It is also stated that Admiral de Mello is preparing to engage the new Government vessels America and Nichtheroy.

-Severe weather continues to prevail on the Atlantic. The Allan line steamer Carean, from Glasgow, recently arrived at St. John's, Newfoundland, completely covered with ice. On one day of her voyage she made but fifty-six miles.

-It is reported that two hundred foreign Anarchists and Socialists are about to be expelled from France. This raises the question, Where will they go? They are considered more likely to come to England than to any other European country.

-Temperance women of Norway asked the public authorities a short time ago to make it unlawful for women or girls to serve in publichouses. The request has been granted, and at present an alehouse keeper cannot employ any other woman than his own wife.

-A freight train on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway recently fell down an embankment 135ft. high. Three persons were killed, and four others have received such injuries that it is not likely they will recover four hundred pigs and one hundred head of cattle were crushed to death.

-In President Cleveland's Message to Congress dealing with Hawaiian affairs, it is stated that the American Minister has been directed to aid in the restoration of the Queen, provided an amnesty is granted to those who took part in the recent revolt. This the ex-queen is unwilling to grant.

-The new Italian ministry propose to tread closely in the path of national economy. Signor Crispi will propose the retrenchment of 6,000,000 lire in the military and 4,000,000 in the Naval budget. In the ether State departments, savings to the amount of about 10,000,000 lire will be announced.

-Virginia raises 5,000,000 bushels of peanuts and $4,000,000 worth of fruits and vegetables. The iron product is 200,000 tons, and over $2,000,000 of gold has been sent to the United States Mint. This State has the largest lead mines in the South, and the greatest maganese mines in the world.

-It is announced that Signor Crispi will shortly pay a visit to Sicily to examine into the causes of the popular dissatisfaction there. From Palermo it is announced that further serious rioting has taken place at Monreale, where the rioters attacked the Customs House officers. The military had to intervene, and some of the combatants were wounded.

-Philanthropists in Maine have been fruitlessly endeavouring to induce unemployed factory girls in some of the Massachusetts mill centres to go out to domestic service. Most of these young women appear willing to undergo almost any hardship rather than accept employment in honourable work that offers them better remuneration and less hours than they can find in almost any other industry.

-Mr. F. Wheelock, an engineer at St. Paul, Minnesota, has just completed a model of a new electric fire engine. It does away with the use of coal, and can be put in motion with one horse and one man loss than the engines now in use. The engine weighs but 4,500 pounds, and is of 70 horse-power. This makes the machine weigh 9,000 to 10,000 pounds less than the apparatus now in use, while its efficiency is claimed to be much greater.

-In response to the alarming talk of several prominent ex-officials relative to the condition of the British navy, M. ClÈmenceau has started a similar campaign against the defective condition of the French Navy. He gives a deplorable account of the defence of the coasts, owing to the bad state of the torpedo service and the insufficiency of the fortresses, his object being to stimulate the French Government to keep pace with England in naval expenditure. Thus the process of adding to the military strain goes on.

-Statistics of the 1891 census dealing with the occupations of the people show that in England and Wales there are 24,232 clergymen of the Established Church, 2,511 Roman Catholic priests, and 10,057 ministers of other religious bodies. As compared with 1881, the priests and ministers in these classes have increased respectively by 2,569, 422, and 323. In the ministry of the Established Church there are seventy-three foreigners of European birth, in the Roman Catholic priesthood 365, in the ministry of other bodies 149, and amongst missionaries, etc., 121.

-According to authoritative information received at Vienna, the relations between the Vatican and Russia are not at present marked by the same cordiality as war the ease sumo time ago. It is understood that in an autograph letter recently addressed to the Czar, Leo XIII. complained of several acts on the part of the Russian Government contrary to the liberty of the Catholics in Russian Poland. It is added that, in the event of the Pope's demands on behalf of the Polish Catholics not being well received at St. Petersburg, it will not be a matter of surprise if the supreme Pontiff makes the matter the subject of a public pronouncement.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 9, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

Three new tracts have just been issued by the International Tract Society, which should have a wide circulation. "What to Do with Doubt" (1d.) is a timely tract, not only for the professed doubter, but for the professed believer as well; for scepticism, the sin of all ages, is specially characteristic of this age. "The Sinner's Need of Christ," and "Consecration," half-penny tracts, are full of gospel truth, simply and powerfully stated.

Nearly half of the wealthy people of Germany are Jews. Pastor Theodor Jellinghaus gives as the principal reason for this, the fact that in Germany it is not considered gentlemanly to be engaged in trade, and that the sons of wealthy Germans seek positions in the army, which is the sure road to admittance to "good society." Of course their wealth decreases, passing into the hands of the Jews, who care more for wealth than for artificial respectability.

A letter from a friend in Basel, a few weeks ago, told of the zeal of the authorities of that city to enforce the Sunday law. All in the establishment with which he is connected observe the Sabbath day according to the commandment, and having rested on the seventh day by the command of the Lord, they do not feel free to dishonour Him by resting on the first day by the command of man. They had been warned by the officials, and were consequently expecting trouble the next Sunday; but a more recent letter says:-

The authorities have not as yet made us any trouble, and we hardly expect any this month, as the Sunday law is laid on the table for the last three Sundays of this month, on account of the extra amount of work.

Nothing could more clearly expose the shallowness, to say nothing of the wickedness, of all Sunday legislation. It is claimed that Sunday is a Divine institution, yet the city authorities grant indulgence to work on it when it suits their convenience. Who cannot see that the enforcement of Sunday laws is an act of the most arbitrary tyranny? It is all summed up in this: Certain ones say, in effect, "I do not want to work to-day, and so you shall not," and then they get the government to enforce their decision. Even if Sunday were the Sabbath, such a proceeding would be a denial of the very foundation principles of Christianity.

"True Worship of God" The Present Truth 9, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

True Worship of God.-"The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth." John iv. 23, 24. Mark, that spiritual worship is not a privilege merely, but a necessity. Jesus did not say that they that worship God may worship Him in Spirit, but that they must do so. There is no worship of God but spiritual worship. All professed worship of God, that is not in spirit, is but idolatry, and the taking of His name in vain. How can we worship Him in spirit?-By taking His Spirit, which He freely gives to all. Men cannot give it to us, they cannot compel us to have it; but God gives it as freely as the air, and we may have it as abundantly.

"Celebrating Christ's Birth" The Present Truth 9, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

Many people think that it is almost infidelity, or even sacrilege, not to celebrate the birthday of Christ, even though no man has the slightest knowledge of the day or the month when it occurred. They would ask, "Shall we not devote at least one day in the year to thinking of the miraculous birth of the Saviour?" We would reply, not one day only, but every day. Let us see how this may be.

The birth of Jesus was by the Holy Spirit. The angel said to Mary, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." Luke i. 35.

By that same Spirit's power Christ dwells in the hearts of all who believe. The Apostle Paul prayed to God for us, "That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." Eph. iii. 16, 17. That is the only way that we can have real life, for Christ is our life. Col. i. 27. Christ in us is the hope of glory. Col. i. 27.

Now the birth of Christ is nothing to anyone in whom His birth is not repeated. Indeed, he in whom Christ's life has not sprung up, does not know of a certainty that He was ever born, and that He was crucified and raised. These things are known only by faith, and faith brings the life of Christ into our mortal bodies. No one can certainly know anything about Christ's birth, if he does not know Christ Himself; and we know Him only by His life. See John xvii. 8; 1 John i. 1-3; v. 20. The birth of Christ, therefore, can be known and celebrated only through the new birth.

But this is not accomplished once for all. That is to say, the new birth is not an event of one hour or one day, to be celebrated ever after looked back upon and celebrated. "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." 1 John v. 1. Note that he is born while he is believing. The new birth is complete only as it is continually progressing.

To this end are the words of the Apostle Paul, in 2 Cor. iv. 10, 11, 16: "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh." Here we have Christ formed within, the real life of Christ. Now read, "For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day."

He in whose heart Christ's life is not daily renewed, cannot celebrate His birth, because he knows nothing about it. The birth of Christ is not a thing of memory, but of present experience. We commemorate it not by observing days, but by putting on the new man "which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him."