CHRIST or Cæsar? God or Mammon? Which one shall it be?
Will you follow Mars and Moloch, or the Prince of Peace?
Do you long for greed and conquest, wrong and butchery,
Or a golden age to come when war and hate shall cease?
You may sneer; but what of that? You can not sneer down right.
You can not answer God by jeers, or laugh the truth away.
Over all there is a standard that is infinite,
While your prejudice and hate last only for a day.
War is murder, gloss it and disguise it as you will.
War is right if murder is, and wrong if murder's wrong.
Down the ages thunders the command, "Thou shalt not kill,"
That will last, unmodified, as long as time is long.
War is manly say you? And so once was murder thought;
Dueling more recently and bruising yet to-day;
But as we ascend the scale a nobler view is caught,
And the moods and passions of our childhood pass away.
No, that man is truly manly who within his breast
Crushes out the brute and seeks to follow right,
Strives to benefit his kind and give the world his best;
And, in spite of hostile tongues, pursues the higher light.
WASTE AND SERVICE.
By J. R. Miller
MARY'S ointment was wasted when she broke the vase and poured it upon her Lord. Yes; but suppose she had left the ointment in the unbroken vase? What remembrance would it then have had? Would there have been any mention of it on the Gospel pages? Would her deed of careful keeping have been told over the world? She broke the vase and poured it out, lost it, sacrificed it, and now the perfume fills all the earth. We may keep our life if we will, carefully preserving it from waste; but we shall have no reward, no honor from it, at the last. But if we empty it out in loving service we shall make it a lasting blessing to the world, and we shall be remembered forever.—J. R. Miller.
Standing on the Side of Truth
By Richard Whately
It is one thing to wish to have the truth on our side; but it is quite a different thing to wish to be on the side of truth.—Archbishop Whateley.
Patent Medicines and Heaven
SOME people think that they can get to heaven by taking patent medicines.—Saturday Evening Post.
A LAY DISCOURSE ON THE SOUL
By Prof. J. A. L. Derby
THE MEANING OF SOUL IN SCRIPTURE.
Revelation.
THUS far we have found that in common usage the word "soul" has no technical meaning. "All the elements which it can be shown to possess, are known by other special names [the feelings, the thoughts, the mind, a person, etc.], and can be referred to their proper places in a system of psychology. . . . It is a complex conception, whose elements may be separated and specifically named. . . . The only apparent reason for retaining it seems to be the need of a term to embrace these elements in combination, and thus frequently to avoid a circumlocution."
There is no evidence that the word is differently used in the Bible. By a brief examination, any student of the subject may satisfy himself that in any particular instance where "soul" is used in Holy Writ, it means either these various psychological elements taken collectively, or some one or more of them.
There is not the slightest need of either a learned or an ignorant juggling with original words—nephesh, ruach, psyche, pneuma, et cetera. The English translation is sufficient to settle the question, if common sense and sincerity be our lawyer and judge. However, as champions of inherent immortality will think otherwise, it sometimes becomes necessary to show their mistakes. Hence books on this phase of the subject are not useless. As there are plenty of these to be obtained at the office of this paper, we shall not add another.
It may be objected to our position above, that if psychological elements only make up "souls," since thought, feeling, willing, are the same in all persons, this leaves no way of distinguishing them—say, in the resurrection; that is, there can be no individuals.
To which it may be answered, that the peculiar die in which each person is cast—the special combination of these elements—the individuality—is recognized by philosophy (see Professor Joyce's "Conception of Immortality") as one of the things outside of the "closed universe." It is totally unknowable, undefinable. What that is, is God's secret. But so far as we know it, it is only in the combination of these elements. The word "individual" is a symbol for a something we can neither fathom nor analyze. What it is has puzzled the sages of all time. But "individuality" is not the soul; for it is as certainly true of the myriad leaves of the forest, of the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, as it is of man. Any one acquainted with the history of philosophy knows this.
This question, therefore, of individuality does not, can not enter into our definition; but whatever it is, it is powerless to save the soul alive; for we are admonished, in Matt. 10:28, to "fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."
However, if any wish to define soul as psychological elements plus X, we shall not quarrel with them.
Let us take two or three texts to illustrate the use of the word in Scripture. Speaking of Rachel it is said:—
"And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing (for she died)," etc.
If we should say, "As her powers were growing feeble (for she died)," etc., the whole thought would be expressed.
(Query: Did her individuality depart?)
Here, soul is evidently used for the combination of those elements for each of which psychology has a particular name; as, consciousness, sensibility, etc.
Again, "And man became a living soul"—a conscious (and in this instance self-conscious) being.
Common sense easily distinguishes its meaning here from its meaning in such passages as, "And every living soul died in the sea." Fishes, whales, and seals are conscious, but not self-conscious beings.
And so we might go on, but it is not necessary.
The Scriptural Argument.
Let us now for a brief period transport ourselves in thought to some benighted clime—to Japan, for instance; to some region untaught in the Christian's glorious lore. Let us forget that we know aught of the true religion or of Bible light. Let us dress ourself in the strange garb of a citizen of this alien country—some thoughtful soul nobler in mind than his fellows, because he would know what truth is, what the meaning of life, and what his destiny. Let us take the color of his skin; let us see with his eyes, and think his thoughts. Let us wander from day to dreary day through the midst of multitudes who only shake their heads and shrug their shoulders when we ask them what they know of the mighty problems of existence. Tell me, O friend! O stranger! is man but a vapor of the morn? Is he but a flame which burns for a moment, and then goes out in eternal darkness?
Wearied at last by our vain questionings, we stand and gaze with envy upon the dog which knows not enough to dread the inevitable.
With the apathy of incredulousness we hear that there have arrived from afar in our city copies of a certain book which claims to be a divine message from heaven. With the desperation of a last hope we resolve to possess a copy. We shall ask it if indeed it reveal aught of the Whence and the Whither of humanity.
We carry it to the solitude of our chamber. As we approach the study of its pages, a strange fear comes over us. What if it should tell us that love and friendship place no interpretation on the deep night of death? that the yearning for life, the longings and aspirations of the soul, are but vanishing lines in the panorama of time, and focus in the grave!
We dread lest our last hope may prove in vain! Is not the hope of an uncertain possibility better than the positive knowledge that hope shall never know fruition? What if this book should shatter even the small consolation of the dim hope that somewhere may be found an assurance of better cheer! Can we face such an alternative, and still care to live?
But the agony of suspense overpowers the terror of denial,—"Tell us, O Book! what sayest thou?"
As we address ourself to discovering its message, four questions are uppermost in our mind: First, does it anywhere call man immortal? second, is he said to possess an immortal soul? third, is he conscious in death? last, is there a future life; and if so, when does it begin?
Our heart begins to sink within us when from cover to cover we find no statement that man is immortal, while we do find him distinctly referred to as "mortal man." Job 4:17.
We console ourself that this passage is speaking of the body, not the soul.
But our quest for a statement that man has any immortal part whatever ends as fruitlessly as the other. Our fear revives. Can it be that this volume also shall bring us no prospect but annihilation?
But what is man's condition in death? We encourage ourself with the thought that he may be conscious, tho possibly not immortal. Alas! at each new step in our eager search, our flickering hope grows fainter! With what despair we learn that—
Our cherished belief in the imperishable nature of something within us—our possession of an immortal soul—forever vanishes. Dazed by being brought face to face with such a fate, we begin to ponder the respective worth of suicide and of a life forever brooding on the horror of extinction.
With stolid gaze and a mechanical movement of the hand, we turn the leaves of this book which has fixed our doom. But a strange new sentence attracts our eye. We pause—we read—we read again,—"I am the resurrection and the life." We search anew! We shout for joy! Life! endless life! and under conditions of glory inconceivable!
But now are we troubled in spirit. Despondency and gloom settle down upon our heart. Alas! we are undone! We learn that SIN is a deadly virus in the soul; that iniquity God hates; that transgression of His law means eternal death. For we read:—
"The soul that sinneth, it shall die."
"The wages of sin is death."
"The Lord preserveth all them that love Him; but all the wicked will He destroy."
"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. . . . For they shall be ashes . . . in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts."
The mystery of destiny is exchanged for the stupendous problem of sin.
Ah, sinner, well, well you know the remedy. "Choose you this day whom ye will serve."
The Real Defeat of Cowardice
"A BRAVE man may fall by the sword of a coward, as did John the Baptist, but the real defeat is the coward's."
Truth Needs No Government Support
By Thomas Jefferson
It is error alone which needs the support of government; truth can stand by itself.—Thomas Jefferson.
UNDERSTANDING AND APPRECIATING THE SCRIPTURES.
IN dealing with such an important subject as is before us, we need the same Holy Spirit to enlighten the mind which indited the word of Holy Writ. It need not surprise us that the enemy of all righteousness should undertake to overthrow any attempt to find the truth concerning God's plan of salvation. That there are many conflicting theories concerning the ages, especially concerning the future ages, none will deny. This being true, we should be very careful to follow closely the divine revelation. God's Word is correct, whether or not we have the correct understanding of it.
We may understand a portion of the principles of truth, and misapply them because we are ignorant of other auxiliary principles. By a human rule of interpretation, altho based upon Scriptural teachings we may unconsciously make the Bible seem to teach what it does not really teach. Again, we may, by studying the Word, receive light on one point, but fail to receive all the Lord has for us, because we make an effort to connect the truth we have received with some theological idea we have previously held. It is very natural for Bible students to do this. From this way of studying, men have come to differ on almost every point of truth taught in the Scriptures. All have some principle with which they can agree with others, but each has his way of interpreting and applying the teachings of God, until the skeptic is led to believe that the Bible is like an "old fiddle," on which any tune you desire can be produced.
But it is unjust to charge the Bible with making a skeptic of one, a libertine of another, a latitudinarian of another, a bigot of another, a Pharisee of another, a Mormon of another, a Baptist of another, etc. The influence of the Scriptures, without human interpretation, acts as one harmonious whole, for one harmonious end, to make man wise unto salvation. The Bible does not make a Christian of one and an atheist of another. That is not God's plan. The Scriptures do not incite to good and to evil. They do not conform and adapt themselves to all capricious phases of belief and character. The mind in them, altho written by forty writers, covering a period of sixteen hundred years, is one and unalterable, and so are the influences that proceed from them.
The results of these influences are determined by the character of the mind on which they fall. If a man charges the Scriptures with being contradictory in their influence, we can deny the accusation, and affirm that whatever may appear to be contradictory can not be attributed to the Scriptures, but to causes altogether apart from them. The parable of the sower fitly represents this principle. The seed was all good, but it did not all produce the same results. That which fell upon the wayside never sprang up, while that which fell among the rocks and thorns did not produce any fruit, but, on the contrary, withered away. Matt. 13:1-8.
Infidels, skeptics, Mormons, etc., are all formed outside of the Scriptural teaching. They come into existence by rejecting, neglecting, or perverting the Word of Truth. The light of truth may shine, but they will not see, or they look through diseased eyes or colored glasses. The most beautiful painting has no influence on a man who is blind, or who, seeing, has no power to distinguish colors. The sweetest song has no influence on a man who is deaf, or who is totally devoid of taste for music. So with the influence of the Bible. Its words fall upon some with no spiritual effect, because there is wanting an appreciative mind. To others, who live in the same community, they prove a great benefit. These "walk in the light," and enjoy the harmony and beauty of God's words. Like David, they say, "More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb." Ps. 19:10.
As we have already said, the reason for this difference is in the minds brought under the influence of the Bible. To the one its words are the "savor of death unto death, and to the other the savor of life unto life." 2 Cor. 2:16. We are told by some scientists of the present day that the world has outgrown the Bible, and that its influences are obsolete! It would be just as reasonable to say that the world has outgrown the light of the sun because electricity has been discovered. Do all the improved methods of light and fire which science has discovered, render the sun obsolete? Do the scientific improvements in mechanics and agriculture make the laws of nature and the necessity of human nature obsolete?
Until science can reveal a god of greater intelligence, wisdom, holiness, love, and power, than the God of the Scriptures, we need not throw aside the Bible. Until science can reveal a religion that will realize to man more equity, justice, purity, and happiness than are revealed in the Scriptures, we need not hold science in advance of the Bible. Had there been no Scriptural influences acting on the minds of men in the past, would science have attained that eminence which it now occupies in the intellectual world? Which nations have advanced most rapidly in science,—those that have not the Bible, or those that have it constantly taught to their people?
The Bible has come through the centuries of the past abused, slandered, persecuted, as only human depravity could persecute it; and to-day it is wreathed with trophies of universal victory, and is fresh with all the pristine beauties of holiness. Its power is as young and buoyant as it was centuries ago. It has been the fountain at which myriads of thirsty souls have quaffed and been refreshed; and still its life-giving streams are satisfying the millions at this moment. As well might we fear that men could stop the uprising of springs from the reservoirs of nature, as that scientists, or freethinkers can stop the mighty forces of the word of Jehovah. "The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away; but the word of the Lord endureth forever." 1 Peter 1:24, 25. Scientists and scoffers come and go, they are changing and changeable, like the waves of the sea; but the Bible, like the rocks, stands firm on its everlasting foundation.
"My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass." "Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law." Deut. 32:2, 46. Divine revelation is given that we may grow in the knowledge of God and enjoy His love. We need to know how rightly to divide the Word of Truth that we may rightly understand God's plan of salvation for lost humanity.
THE MEASURE OF GOD'S LOVE.
THE depths of God's love finite man can never fathom. Its heights he can never climb. Its exceeding length and breadth he can never measure. It is a great bottomless, shoreless sea, rolling its infinite life-tide ever outward to the needy and helpless and hopeless.
It is manifest in all God's works—in the shining sun, the refreshing rain, in the sparkling dew, in the great leafy trees, the green grass, the fragrant flowers, the rolling, flowing rivers, the majestic, but ever-restless sea, the mighty mountains—in all the common things of life. His love is revealed in all His bountiful providences, and in the glorious revelation of His Holy Word.
But the one great evidence of His love, the one Great Gift which includes in itself all others, is the gift of His only-begotten Son. While we can never in eternity fully comprehend or appreciate His love, we can by considering Him see it more clearly than elsewhere. Then, Who was He?—The only begotten of God, the one divine Son, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the Upholder of all things by the Word of His power, the "Fellow" of the Almighty, the One in the perfect form of God. He, before the foundation of the world, "gave Himself," gave Himself in the very beginning, for the good of all His creatures. Even before sin entered, His great life of love flowed out to all His creatures. And when sin entered and abounded, love through grace much more abounded; for a field was entered which demanded more of its manifestation. For it was only in manifestation, not in augmented power, that the love of God and His Son was manifest upon the cross. God was just as truly love in the beginning as He was when Christ died on Calvary. "I have loved thee with an everlasting love;" "I am the Lord, I change not," are His words to His children.
God's purpose in Christ Jesus was a perfect one in the beginning. What followed in the humiliation of His Son were but steps in the eternal purpose and revealings of that love adapted to the understanding and apprehension of the sin-blinded minds of His creatures. Note the successive steps as revealed by the apostle:—
"Who being originally in the form of God, counted it not a thing to be grasped to be on an equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, becoming 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. 2:6-8, R. V., margin.
The first thing was the unselfishly divine purpose of emptying Himself, which included all the sacrifice for the redemption of the lost, the fruitage of infinite love.
The first step was the taking of the form of a bond-servant, with no will but His Master's, to serve and not to rule. We behold Him thus as an angel with the angels. He was Michael the Archangel, chief only because He was the chief servant of God, the most devoted of all. He partook of their nature, and His angelic ministry may be traced from the time that sin entered throughout the record of the Old Testament.
The second step in the manifestation of the purpose was becoming in the likeness of men, those whom sin had made lower than the angels. He took the human form to retain it forever. He will never be in outward form what He was in the beginning. He gave up all the ineffable glory of the God-likeness for man's sake. He lived for man, suffered for man, died for man; and will ever bear the prints of the scars, forever glorified, which sin made. The sacrifice was eternal.
The next and last step—for no lower could be taken—was that of the nothingness of death, from which His righteous character only saved Him. From the highest He came down to the very lowest. From the Throne of the Universe He became subject to the cruellest of all tyrants—death. He did it all, suffered it all, sacrificed it all, that He might lift7up to everlasting peace, glory, and immortality every human victim of sin. The grave could not hold Him, because He was righteous. It can hold no one upon whom His righteousness rests. Such love ought to lead each and every soul to let Christ's mind possess them, and so reap the fruits of His infinite love.
The Conversion of the Will
“The service which God requires is the service of the will. The conversion of the will to God is the fundamental change Christianity aims at producing.”
Honor of the Wise Few
"It is worthier to be honored by the wise few than to be flattered by the foolish many."
CHRISTIANITY VERSUS "NATIONAL CHRISTIANITY."
By G.
THE only cure for the diseases which threaten the life of a nation is to be found in a pure, avowed and consistent national Christianity.—Christian Statesman.
The National Reformers are always holding up "national Christianity" as a cure-all for national "diseases." But despite the efforts of the apostles of that particular feature of so-called Christianity—through its conventions, and Bureau of Reforms at the capital—the "diseases" do not show any signs of healing. To sustain this conclusion we have only to cite the testimony of the organ of the Reformers themselves. From a number of specifications in a general charge published in the Statesman, we select three, which are sufficient to state the case quite comprehensively:—
(1) Government has fallen too largely into the hands of evil men. Especially in our great cities, public offices are the prey of spoilsmen, who plunder our treasuries, grant protection to lawbreakers for a price, and levy blackmail on honest men.
(2) The liquor traffic flourishes under sanction of law, corrupting morals, destroying life, spreading sorrow and desolation like a pestilence, defying all attempts to curb or suppress it, and able often to dictate the policy of the government.
(3) Through our whole history whenever we have come in contact with men of a weaker race, they have suffered injustice and wrong at our hands. The negro, the Indian, and the Chinaman have all had, and still have, cause to complain against us.
This, too, in the face of a "national Christianity" which the Reformers deem of sufficient importance to be worthy of a special exhibit at the coming St. Louis Exposition next year. Well, the more we hear about it, the more mysterious seems the character of this thing called "national Christianity." The Christianity of Christ is clear; it is light itself. It challenges the scrutiny of the world on the testimony of its fruits. Its "only cure" for the "diseases" which threaten life is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, "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." Rom. 3:25. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." John 3:36. It is the righteousness of Christ that heals. The righteousness of Christ consisted in His obedience (Rom. 5:19; Phil. 2:8, 9), and salvation, or healing of the disease of sin, comes to the obedient (John 19:17; Rom. 16:25; Heb. 5:8, 9). The rule of life laid down by the Christianity of Jesus Christ is, "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."
How would such a rule work in national affairs in a sinful, grasping world? Where the majority of the people are selfish, and seeking every advantage to make personal gain, how can the nation work out the Golden Rule? Like people, like nation. But suppose the United States Government should adopt the Golden Rule to-day, and actually begin work on that principle. Would it not first have to confess and forsake all it has done that has not been done on that principle? Would it not have to restore all it has gained by conquest? Would it not have to repeal its tariff laws, and discard its Monroe doctrine? How about its army and navy, when Christianity says, "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal" (2 Cor. 10:4)? Of course the other nations would take advantage of the situation, but there are the words of the Leader of Christianity: "I say unto you, That ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also." How long would the United States Government stand on such a proposition while sin is in the world?
The logic of "national Christianity" is just the reverse of the Christianity of Christ. National Christianity is based on profession—on Congressional utterance and Supreme Court decision. It relies on compulsory observance of human decrees. It depends upon eradicating sin from the world through the agency of civil government. One of its leading champions says that the National Reform remedy for evil is, "to have the government simply set up the moral law and recognize God's authority behind it, and lay its hand on any religion that does not conform to it." Now everybody who reads history at all knows what is meant by a government's laying its hand on dissenters from the State religion.
All this is very different from the Christianity of Christ. No such government ever could be a Christian government. When Christ was on earth He 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 12:47. But He was not proposing to save the world by civil government; for He instituted the Christian church as the organized medium of Gospel work, and sent His Holy Spirit as the guiding influence. His kingdom for the furtherance of the work of salvation is a spiritual kingdom, and "is not of this world." Ch. 18:36. He is to have a kingdom for the government of the earth (Luke 1:32, 33), and it will extend over all the earth (Dan. 2:31-45); but it will be in the "new earth" (2 Peter 3:9-13), after the Gospel and the judgment shall have accomplished their work (Ps. 2:7-9; Rev. 21:1-8).
Thus is shown a great contrast: The so-called "national Christianity" would set up a human government, label it "a Christian nation," and start it out to purify the earth. But the Christianity of Christ would first gather out from the kingdoms of earth those who will receive the law of God in their hearts, then destroy all the fruits of evil by purifying the earth by fire, and establish the truly Christian nation on the earth made new. No man or association of men ever can do the work of the Gospel by laboring in a contrary direction to the plan laid down by the Lord Himself. True Gospel workers are "laborers together with God." This is the only means of curing "the diseases which threaten the life" not only of the nation but of the world.
FAMOUS; AND FOR WHAT?
Prof. Charles W. Pearson has become famous all at once from one cause. He has been for thirty years connected with the Methodist Episcopal Northwestern University of Evanston, Ill., as professor of English literature. Still he was not famous. But there is a famous Old Book which men have loved for centuries, which has regenerated men, changed the face of the world, brought hope to unnumbered souls; and lighted the dark valley into which so many of God's trusting saints have entered. Its every word has been cherished by the pilgrim, its every infallible promise has proved a staff and stay to some soul on life's rough journey. And this professor has become famous because he denies the infallibility of the Old Book. He tells us, according to the Des Moines Daily News of Feb. 12, 1902, that if theologians wish to regain their lost intellectual leadership or even to possess an influence on the thoughtful part of the community, co-ordinate with that of poets, philosophers, and men of science, they must throw aside the dogma of an infallible Bible as completely and frankly as Protestants have thrown aside the dogma of an infallible pope.
He ridicules the stories of the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace and of the ravens' feeding Elijah, terming them myths, allegories, or fancies; he does not believe in the division of Jordan by Elijah, nor the miracle of the multiplied meal and oil, or the miracles wrought by Elisha, some of which he denominates "crude and childish;" and he places in the same category the miracles of the New Testament, among which are mentioned the feeding of a multitude by Jesus, the restoration to life of the son of the widow of Nain. He pronounces as "incredible" the giving of the Ten Commandments on the tables of stone. This attack by the professor upon a famous Book has made him famous—for a little while. The fame of the Book will continue.
But notwithstanding these pronounced ideas concerning the Bible, the university retains him till a successor is found and continues his salary to Jan. 1, 1903. Surely this indicates either a strong sympathy with the professor in his views, a weak conception of duty toward God's cause, or both. One who is teaching soul-destroying error better go at once, even if his whole department should be forced to close.
The whole Bible, its giving, its story, its mission, its work, its central figure, Jesus Christ, are all manifestations of the mighty, and to fallen man, miraculous power of God. He who denies the miracles of the Word will deny at last its every essential, saving truth.
THAT NO-LAW THEORY.
FOR any one to assume that the law of God was done away when Christ died, and is no longer operative, and then to profess faith in Christ as a Saviour from sin since that time, is the height of inconsistency; for "where no law is, there is no transgression." Rom. 4:15. "Sin is not imputed when there is no law." Ch. 5:13. If this no-law theory be true, then there is no need of Christ as a Saviour.
Again, not only the inconsistency, but the fallacy, of the no-law doctrine is shown in the fact of Christ's priesthood in heaven. He is a "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." Heb. 8:1, 2. This inspired record was written at least thirty years after the ascension of Christ; yet it asserts in the present tense that "He is set," etc. Now what is the character of the office of a high priest? The next verse tells us: "For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices; wherefore it is of necessity that this Man [Christ] have somewhat also to offer." As a high priest, what does He have to offer?—It must be blood, for "without shedding of blood is no remission." But "the blood of bulls and of goats" is not sufficient; so He presents His own blood.
Some claim that He did this on the cross; but His crucifixion was not a priestly act. He was representing the sinner then, and gave Himself as the victim to be slain. The slaying of the victim was always outside of the sanctuary, and the atonement was made inside with the blood. He could not offer His blood in the sanctuary, then, for three reasons: (1) He was dead; (2) that sanctuary was no longer recognized; (3) He could not be a priest on earth because he was not of the tribe of Levi. The earthly priests served "unto the example and shadow of heavenly things." So when Christ ascended to heaven, He began His priestly work, offering His own blood (His life, Himself) in mediation for penitent sinners. There was then a change of the law of the priesthood, a "disannulling of the commandment" that reposed the priesthood in the tribe of Levi; and Christ is a "priest forever [as long as there shall be any priesthood at all] after the order of Melchizedek."
Thus the inconsistency of the no-law doctrine to which we are referring, is emphasized by the fact that Christ is still mediating for sinners (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14; 1 John 1:7), and that "sin is the transgression of the law." 1 John 3:4. G.
Question Corner
By Editor
1218.—Palmistry and Fortune Telling.
What is the teaching of the Bible on palmistry and fortune telling?
(1) There is very much of this that is pure folly. Some indulge them as pastimes, having no real belief in either the one or the other. Yet as a matter of folly it is playing in fire. But (2) the real basis of it is a perverted desire to know the future, which is in God's hands, and which He has revealed sufficiently in His Word. The desire is right to know, if we will meet it from the right source. But to answer this desire in unsanctified, selfish hearts, Satan has devised astrology, divination by stars, by entrails, by hands, by palms, by finger-nails, by feet, by cards, by a hundred other different ways. This is what God says of such things:—
"Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them; I am the Lord your God." Lev. 19:31.
"And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set My face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people." Lev. 20:6.
"There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord; and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee. Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God." Deut. 18:10-13.
