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Bible Study Helps
The value of this group of helps in pamphlet form can not be overestimated
Coming of Christ—New Earth
A chapter-by-chapter outline of the book of Daniel. It explains “the time of the end.”
“The Sure Word of Prophecy,” 10c.
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Sanctuary—Sabbath—Prophecy
Explains the whole sanctuary question, the 230-day period, and the judgment.
“Christ Our Advocate,” 10c.
Traces the Sabbath through the Patriarchal, the Levitical, and the Christian dispensation, and into the new earth.
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“Wisdom”
By E. W. Catlin
“The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth.” Prov. 3: 19.
“He hath established the world by His wisdom” (Jer. 10: 12), “by wisdom made the heavens.” Ps. 136: 5.
WISDOM is that power which enables one, under all circumstances, to do the thing that must be done, as it ought to be done.
Wisdom has converted the vast forests of the mountainsides into the beautiful cities of the valleys.
Wisdom has taken the crude materials of earth, and fashioned them into an artificial bird with which man is able to flit about at his own pleasure.
Wisdom has reached out and taken hold of the electrical currents of the heavens, and used them to carry the human voice over land and sea.
Wisdom has emptied the rivers of earth upon the parched, barren wilderness.
“But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.” James 3: 17.
Pure: Keeping men from defilement of sin, and ever constraining them to holiness.
Peaceable: Enabling men to make and keep peace, in harmony with purity and righteousness.
Gentle: Disposing men to bear with the infirmities of others, and to yield their own rights for the sake of peace.
Easily entreated: Causing men to yield to godly counsel and good reason.
Full of mercy: Prompting men to exercise pity for those afflicted, expressing it in liberality.
Without partiality: Manifesting no difference between man and man on a carnal basis.
Without hypocrisy: Will not brook any misrepresentation or counterfeiting.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Ps. 111: 10. “Walk in wisdom.” Col. 4: 5.
E. W. CATLIN.
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Home Courtesies
How many times does a wife refuse an invitation from a husband because it lacks heartiness! How many times does a husband regret giving one because it is accepted in a “don't-care-anything-about-it” manner! One of the most talented and busy men of the age, a man whose profession requires the use of every faculty and every minute, yet finds time to treat his wife as if she were a queen. Her entrance into a room in which he is, even in her own house, brings him to his feet until she is comfortably seated. Her slightest movement is not lost to him. The tones of her voice make or mar his happiness for the time being. His eyes follow her with looks of love and pride that make her an object of envy to wives whose hearts ache for a crumb of similar attention from their own husbands.
But there are many wives who, by receiving attentions in an indifferent manner, kill the impulse in the husbands to show attention. Wives sometimes do not invite such attentions; and when their attitude is one of coldness, the expression of affection by tender loving attentions is repressed, and, after a time, dies. Fussiness is not tenderness. Worrying over one is not evidence of affection. It may be the depths of selfishness—a fear of material comfort being interfered with by illness. But tenderly dignified courtesy can not fail to call forth the fullest affection if there is any capacity for affection in the heart.
A courteous, dignified manifestation of affection is a most beneficent education in the family life. It is the most refining influence that can be brought to bear in forming the manners and usages in the home life.—Selected.
A PRACTICAL PRESENT
By Editor
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CAUGHT AT LAST
Rome Officially Denounces Our “Lying Constitution” and “Declaration”
Mr. Protestant: You need not read more than four of the many bristling articles in the January “Protestant Magazine” to make your Protestant “pulse” run high! Note these:
“The Mask Removed”—Official Catholic Utterances Condemning Our Constitution, Declaration of Independence, etc.;
“Roman Catholic Congress”—Full Report of Boston Meeting;
“Secretary Bryan Addresses Knights of Columbus”—A Shocking Eulogy of Rome;
“Against Freedom of the Press”—Watch your State Legislature;
“Luther’s Hammer”—A Great Sermon by Dr. Radcliffe, Washington, D. C.
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PROTESTANT MAGAZINE
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The Depths of His Love
By FRED J. GREENWOOD
THERE are depths to the love of Jesus
We have never yet attained.
There are heights of joy in His service
Weak efforts have never gained.
How deeply have I been plunged
Into the depths of the flood?
How much of sin has been washed from me
By the touch of the cleansing blood?
How far have I gone on the journey
From the plains of sin and strife
To the mountains of light and glory
That are crowned with eternal life?
How deeply have you, my brother,
Been sunk in the love of God?
How much of your sin has been washed away
In the tide of the cleansing flood?
How is it with you, my brother,
My sister, whom I love?
How far have you gone on the highway
That leads to the realms above?
O, let us step together
Into the cleansing stream,
And together rise with Jesus
To service and love supreme.
Then let us go upward together
On the path to higher ground,
Till, in the light of His presence,
The “fulness of joy” is found.
FRED J. GREENWOOD.
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The “Desire of Ages”
This masterpiece on the life of our Saviour, published in several large forms and circulated widely, in the limp leather style weighs 26 ounces, and is 8 3/4 inches long, 5 3/4 inches wide, and 1 inch thick. Although it was issued in response to an urgent call from ministers and workers, all classes of people are appreciating this edition of “Desire of Ages.” It is furnished at the same price; namely, in the limp leather binding, $2.00; in durable cloth, $1.50.
The “Acts of the Apostles”
This book furnishes spiritual strength for the Christian in the home, strength to live more godly among daily associates, and help in reaching others with the truth. It breathes forth energy and spirit and instruction for all classes of Christian workers, speaking definitely of the great unwarned cities, and the millions in heathen lands who must hear the gospel.
Price in limp leather, $2.00; Cloth, $1.50.
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Systematic Bible Study
The first great trial in the public life of the Master was the undergoing of most severe temptations from Satan. Man first sinned by yielding to his appetite, and being persuaded to partake of the forbidden fruit.
The Master began the work where man fell. He was “led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.” He “fasted forty days and forty nights,” and no marvel that the text immediately adds, “He was afterward an hungered.”
While He was in this weakened condition, the tempter came to Him with the words, “If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” The devil has power to transform himself into an angel of light; and we may believe that as he came to the Master there, he presented himself as an angel who had come to bring comfort and relief, but he prefaced his remark with a doubt. He began by saying, “If Thou be the Son of God.”
The Master did not argue with him, but placed His dependence wholly upon words that He had inspired Moses to write a millennium and a half before. “It is written,” said the Lord of glory, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Matt. 4:4. This was a quotation from the Old Testament. The words are found in the eighth chapter and the third verse of Deuteronomy; and thus does the Master not merely sanction the writings of the Old Testament, but He emphasizes the fact that “every word” is of value.
The majority of people depend upon what the minister says. If the minister says it, they think that it must be in the Bible, and that it must be true; and a doctrine is held simply because of faith in some mere man. But this is not God’s plan. God’s word says, “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.” Ps. 146:3. Each individual is to know the Word for himself. The minister has an important work, but we must not allow our indolence to make him an excuse for our not studying the Bible for ourselves.
We have the authoritative statement of the divine Lord that man can not live by bread only, but that he must live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. If due emphasis is placed upon the expression “every word,” we must readily see that each individual Christian is in duty bound to study the Bible for himself from beginning to end, until he knows all its sacred pages, all its wonderful promises, all its great precepts, all its great prophecies, and all the other great things it contains.
Emphasis should be placed upon the fact that it is the duty of the Christian to do this; but it is the experience of every Christian that this duty, which may seem arduous at first, becomes the delight and pleasure of the life.
A great many people wonder why it is that there are so many denominations and so many sects, all claiming to get their doctrines from the same Book. A good explanation lies in the fact that so few people know the Bible for themselves. Some of the most absurd doctrines and the most ridiculous delusions arise. Their advocates quote a few passages of Scripture very glibly; and upon the individual who does not know God’s word for himself, the impression is made that the doctrine taught is in harmony with the Bible, whereas if the individual knew the Bible for himself he would readily see the absurdities and the fallacies of the teaching, and how contrary they were to what the word of God says.
The Bible is fairly vibrant with warnings against delusions that were to arise, particular warning being given against the delusions that will plague the last days. We know that the prophecies all show that we are living now in the closing hours of this earth’s history, and our only safety lies in being familiar with God’s word.
Thousands of professors have their names on the various church books, who have never read the Bible through for themselves. The Bible is not a very large book. Not a great deal of time is required to read it through. And it needs to be read not merely once, but again and again, because in that Word is the infinite expression of divine truth, and we can never fathom its great depths, nor soar beyond its sublime heights. Each time we read its sacred pages, the divine words flash out with new beauty, with new comfort and a new power in the soul.
We are standing on the threshold of a new year. Every one who has not read the Bible through should form at least one New Year’s resolution that he will conscientiously keep, and that is that he will read God’s word through from beginning to end during 1914. And those who have read it through will find help and pleasure in rereading it. Yea, they ought to find the necessity coming into their hearts of forming the determined resolution that they will read it carefully day by day, until each precept, each promise, each word, has been examined anew during 1914, under the guidance of the divine Spirit.
“Must the Church Itself Go?”
THE very significant question standing above is raised by Jesse B. Thomas, D.D., in a recent number of the Word and Way. The Word and Way is one of our most esteemed Baptist papers, and is among the Protestant publications that stand strongly for the Bible and its teachings. Dr. Thomas sees a menace to the real strength of Christianity in the “headlong consolidation of religious bodies” that is being proposed. The following paragraphs from his article are worthy of careful study:
“The advocates of headlong consolidation of religious bodies that have grown into isolated independence through long discussion and experience, do not always seem to recognize the radical nature of the questions thereby raised, nor the paltriness of the reasons assigned for the step proposed.”
“Modern advocates of Christian union have become uniformly embarrassed and divided when they come to the question of a right stopping point. Should the new scheme include Romanism, Unitarianism, Swedenborgianism, or the other more or less amorphous bodies that call themselves Christian? The Anglican church has fallen into discord over proposed affiliation with the Greek church. Some of her devotees have sought eagerly to be recognized as legitimate children of the ‘harlot’ of Rome. The Lambeth appeal has offered the sheltering wing of the ‘historic episcopate’ to all Protestants. The Baptist Union of England requires no doctrinal test as a condition of membership, and an eager effort has been made by some of its constituency to efface all denominational lines outside the state church, under the general character of ‘dissenters.’ Meantime the famous Parliament of Religions at Chicago signalized its breadth of sentiment by enthroning a Romish cardinal; persuading Jews, Mohammedans, Buddhists, and agnostics to fall into a vocal harmony in the joint recitation of the Lord’s Prayer; and receiving from a Shinto priest the benediction of the hundred million deities of Japan. Which of these experimentalists was wrong?”
“But aside from the demands of the ‘era of good feeling,’ it is strenuously urged that our ‘petty differences’ ought to bow themselves out in the presence of ‘financial expediency,’ ‘scientific management,’ ‘socialistic efficiency,’ and ‘statesmanlike strategy.’ This raises at once the prior question as to the validity of the reasons out of which grew the ‘petty differences’ referred to. It furthermore compels study of the origin, nature, and purpose of the church itself as indicated in its New Testament history. For, unless its appointed field of operation be primarily financial, scientific, socialistic, or politically strategic, considerations drawn from these spheres can hardly be decisive, to say the least.”
“The idea of segregation was inseparably connected with the grouping apart, into a ‘sect everywhere spoken against,’ of those who had become ‘of one heart and one soul,’ after the day of Pentecost. This sect resolved itself again into local bodies such as those in Galatia, in Corinth, in Thessalonica, and even in a private house, to whom apostolic letters and congratulations were sent. The process went still further; for special emphasis was from the beginning laid on that individualism which is so much dreaded in our day. Peter’s demand of obedience to Christ was specifically individual: ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you.’ This was indeed the new note in Christianity as compared with Judaism.”
Any one who is acquainted with current events knows that there is a feverish activity on the part of many leaders in the world to consolidate religious bodies, whether they be Protestant, Catholic, Hindu or Mohammedan, into one great organization. “Financial expediency,” “scientific management,” “socialistic efficiency,” and “statesmanlike strategy,” as Dr. Thomas suggests, are urged. But all these are merely political reasons. Any one ought to be able to see that the whole plan of church federation as it is being put forward is that of politics, and not of the religion and power of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are indeed living in the very time when the words of the prophet Isaiah apply most strikingly:
“For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself; and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread.” Isa. 8:11-13.
The prophet points to a time when there was to be a great chorus of people calling out for “confederacy”; and when the people call for a confederacy, the Lord warns us that we should say No to it.
No confederation of people can ever bring about permanent reforms. The great multitudes who are looking to this federation that is being formed are doomed to disappointment. We may, by our force of numbers, seem to compel certain reforms; if that reform is not in the heart and life, we find the evil breaking out again all the stronger, and all the worse for having been smothered for a brief time under popular sentiment.
There is power in the preaching of God’s Word. There is power in that Word as it comes into the lives of men. It will transform the vilest hearts, and make them morally fit to stand in the presence of the divine Father Himself. But man, nor any multitudes of men, have this power in themselves. The only power that men can have is the power that comes into their lives through the inspired word of God.
Religious combines that have become strong enough to inject religious wars into this world, have caused great rivers of blood to flow in different periods in the world’s history. In fact, a number of the bloody wars that have been fought have been religious wars. No one need ever fear the dissemination of the pure principles of the word of God. No one need ever fear having these advocated by whosoever will advocate them. There is great occasion to fear when large numbers of men begin to combine and seek to envelop themselves in the atmosphere of religious enthusiasm. They soon become intoxicated with their numbers, and lose sight of the real spiritual power of Christ of God, and become a mighty persecuting force.
No Paper Next Week
By Editor
This issue of the paper completes the present volume. Our continued advertised plan has been to give fifty numbers during the year. This requires that two numbers shall be dropped out. The first number of the new volume for next year will be dated January 13.
