Earlier text: IGNORANCE“Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand.” This is, literally, “with what large letters;” relating to the size of the letters which he was obliged to make because of his defective eyesight. This itself was an appeal which would tenderly touch the Galatians, and revive in them the memory of the blessedness of their first days in Christianity; for, in the fifteenth verse of the fourth chapter, he says: “Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me.” This was their love to him when they enjoyed the blessedness of the true gospel which they had received, and Paul gladly witnessed to it. But there never would have been any need, nor any ground for thought, of plucking out their eyes and giving them to him if there had not been in him a manifest need of eyes. This defect in his eyes was the result of the consuming glory of Christ that day when the Lord appeared to him as he was on his way to Damascus; for, when the vision was past, he was unable to see; and “they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.” And there “he was three days without sight,” until Ananias was sent by the Lord to put his hand on him “that he might receive his sight.” And when Ananias had so done, “immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales.” But forever there was thus in his flesh that mark which he calls “my temptation which was in my flesh.” And now, in his last words to the Galatians, when he says, “Ye see with what large letters I have written unto you with mine own hand,” it is a delicate and touching way in which he would call their attention to this affliction which they, in their love at the first, would have remedied by plucking out their own eyes and giving them to him. This expression shows to them that he had written this whole letter with his own hand in spite of this affliction, which obliged him to write in exceptionally large letters, in order that he himself might be able to see his writing. This of itself would be a powerful testimony to them of his tender love still for them, and that, whatever he had said, in none of it was there any ill-feeling toward them, but a great fear lest they should be caused to lose the great salvation that had been so freely given to them. This writing of a whole letter in Paul’s own hand was unusual. He usually wrote the body of a letter by an amanuensis. For instance, the actual script of the letter to the Romans was written by Tertius. Rom. 16 : 22. But, always, Paul would sign the letter with his own name, with his own hand, as, for instance, 1 Cor. 16 : 21: “The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand;” Col. 4 : 18: “The salutation by the hand of me Paul;” and 2 Thess. 3 : 17: “The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write.” This, indeed, became essential, because 2 Thess. 2 : 2 shows that there were those who were circulating letters as from Paul, which were fraudulent. “As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.” It must be borne in mind that those who had confused the Galatians and caused all the trouble there, were “Pharisees which believed.” They were Pharisees at first, and, still holding to their phariseism, had professed to believe in Jesus; and this had made their profession of Christianity merely phariseism. And pure Christianity at that time, as well as in every other time, could not be made to fit well with phariseism; because, at that time, it was a very humiliating thing to be known as a Christian outright. The One in whom all Christianity centered had only lately been crucified as a malefactor; had thus died the most disgraceful death, and by the most disgraceful means, known to mankind. In addition to this, there was persecution attached to the outright profession of Christianity. But the Pharisees, still holding to their pride, had not discerned the true glory of the cross of Christ so that they could with confidence, and even with joy, suffer persecution. But in the way of circumcision there was no persecution: that was the way of glory. True, it was worldly glory; it was pharisaic glory; it was self-glory; but that being the only glory which they knew, to them it was the true way of glory. Consequently, so long as they could hold to circumcision, they would escape persecution. Thus the controversy centered in the question as to the true way of glory — whether it was by circumcision, or by the cross of Christ. By the pride of the Pharisees circumcision was exalted to the pinnacle of the true way of glory. The cross, as already stated, was the most degrading thing in the world. But behold here the illustration of the great truth that “that which is highly esteemed amongst men, is abomination in the sight of God.” The Pharisees had made circumcision the greatest of all things, and the perfect highway to glory, while they, and all mankind, looked upon the way of the cross as the most disgraceful thing that could ever come to a man. But that way of the cross, God shows to be indeed the highway of glory. The way which men most despise is the way in which God would most manifest his glory: the way in which men most gloried is indeed the way which is most truly to be despised. Therefore, it is the true, triumphant exclamation of the Christian everywhere and forever: “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. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” “And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.” And this is forever true; as many as walk by this rule of the cross of Christ, and of the glorying in the cross of Christ; as many as walk by this rule of being by the cross of Christ crucified unto the world, and the world unto them; as many as walk by this rule that neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but only a new creature availeth in Christ Jesus,—“as many as walk according to THIS RULE, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.” “From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” These marks of the Lord Jesus were those which Paul received in the scourgings, the stonings, and all the other hardships which left their impress upon him. As another translation gives it: “I the brands of the Lord Jesus in my body bear.” These things were the token to all who might see, that he belonged to Christ; these were the marks, the brands, which he bore, signifying Christ’s ownership of him. And so it is with the Christian forever.729 “Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.” As to the additional subscription, “Unto the Galatians written from Rome,” it is but proper to state that the letter to the Galatians was not written from Rome at all, but from Corinth. The Eastern Question in Turkey and China
*It will be remembered that in the studies on the Eastern question in these columns a few weeks ago—The Sixth and Seventh Trumpets—it was made plain that the greater Eastern question as it is now in China is but the extension of the original Eastern question as it began and continues in Turkey; and that the Eastern question as it centers in Turkey is the real pivot of the greater Eastern question as it centers in China. The following extract from an address by President Washburn, of Robert College, Constantinople, published in the Hartford Seminary Record, November, well expresses the same truth:—* The world center has not been shifted to China, but is still in the nearer East—in Asia Minor, Syria, and the Balkan Peninsula—in those lands which were the birthplace of Judaism, Christianity, and Mohammedanism—which have always been the battle ground of East and West. Here will be finally decided the question of Christian or Mohammedan supremacy. Here it will be settled whether the Slavic or Teutonic races are to rule the world. In its relation to the future, Constantinople is the most important city in the world. London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Rome, are the work of man. Nature had little to do with the choice of these cities for great capitals, but nature herself has destined Constantinople to be the capital of the Old World, and some day this will be realized; and whatever Power may rule in that capital, the same races who now inhabit the Turkish Empire will still be there. War has never united them. In the Evangelist, Prof. Warren Clark writes upon “The Great Obstacle to the Progress of Christianity in Heathen Countries.” He declares this great obstacle to be “the inconsistency of Christians.” Yet, when we come to read his article, this “inconsistency of Christians” is not indeed the inconsistency of those who profess to be Christians, but that which is counted the inconsistency of the people who are not Christians at all, in their going from what are called Christian lands to what are called heathen countries, and acting there in a way unbecoming to Christians. He says that “to veterans long on the field [of missionary work in heathen lands] the ingenuity is taxed to know how to answer the questions of heathen converts, as to why these rich and wealthy people from Christian lands are indifferent to all religion.” He speaks of having taken from Japan “two of our most earnest Christian converts on a visit to the foreign resident quarter of Yokohama,” when “the first thing they saw in front of the English Episcopal church was a drunken British ‘tar,’ assaulting an equally intoxicated American sailor, and both of them were being arrested by a heathen Japanese policeman!” Further, he mentions a Japanese student whom he met in London, and with whom he went around to see “the sights of the metropolis,” and, “returning at night along the Strand, the evidences of drunkenness and licentiousness were so glaring as to put to blush anything I had ever seen in any ‘heathen’ country, and my Japanese companion (whom I had been trying to convert to Christianity) was dumb with surprise and horror. ‘Is not this the capital of the greatest Christian empire in the world?’ he asked. ‘Did you ever see such wickedness in heathen Tokio?’ ‘No,’ was the only answer I could give. ‘Then why don’t your churches convert these degraded men and women here in London? You need not send missionaries ten thousand miles to find heathen when they are at your very doors. Before I left Japan,’ he continued, ‘our consular agent advised me against the immoralities of London, and warned me against the temptations in this great Christian city!’” The great mistake of all this is in speaking of Britain, America, etc., as Christian lands, and of London, New York, and the like, as Christian cities. There is no such thing in the world as a Christian country, nor even a Christian city. Only those are Christians who individually and decidedly choose Christ as their life, their all in all. Whoever does not do this is as certainly a heathen as is any person in any heathen land or heathen city, who does not make such a choice of Christ. But to count these countries Christian countries when they are not such at all; and to give the people in heathen countries the idea that these are Christian countries indeed, according to the Christianity which is preached to them, and which alone they can look upon as Christianity; and then blame these people with inconsistency in not being Christians in those heathen lands when they never thought of being Christians in their own “Christian” land,—this is the greatest inconsistency of all. It is an utter misleading of the people in those so-called heathen lands. And when the missionaries themselves so mislead the people in heathen lands, they themselves are the ones who are responsible for this “great obstacle to the progress of Christianity in heathen countries.” And they can not in justice wonder that the people in heathen lands are caused to question the power and virtue of Christianity when the missionaries themselves give the people in heathen lands to understand that these others are “Christian countries,” and when they teach those people to expect Christianity in the people of these “Christian countries” and “Christian cities,” when in fact the vast majority of these people make no pretensions to Christianity, and care nothing for it whatever. For the missionaries, there is a way out of this difficulty; but it is not by complaining of the inconsistency of Christians, when the people of whom they complain are more heathenish than the heathen, and are in no way connected with Christianity. The true way out of the dilemma is to get down to the truth of Christianity upon its true foundation: that Christianity is an individual thing, and that the only Christians that there ever can be, whether in America, in England, in Japan, or in China, are those people who, as individuals, have chosen, in the true Christian way, Christ as their portion forever; and along with this recognize also the truth that every person who does not do this is a heathen, whether he be an American, a Japanese, a Britisher, or a Chinese. This conception of things would also, among the missionaries and all Christians, break down at once all national lines and race distinctions. Then the people of one country would not stand any higher in the estimation of the missionary than those of any other country, because, not having accepted Christ, all being heathen, and the missionaries having a message to all such,—the people being all alike, and the message being one to all people,—the missionaries would necessarily look upon all alike. But the missionaries will all at once say, “It would never do to call the American people heathen.” Very well, then, why call the Japanese, or the Chinese, or any other people, heathen? And if other people must all be called heathen, and the people of America and other such “Christian lands” can not be called heathen, when all know that, as a matter of fact, multitudes of these are more heathenish than are those who are called heathen,—then it is a mere matter of favoritism on the part of those who do the calling. But why should there be such favoritism, especially toward those who are the worst in the comparison? We do not say that people in America and other such countries, who are not Christians, should be called “heathen.” No more do we say that the people in China, Japan, and other such countries, who are not Christians, should be called “heathen.” The people in America who are not Christians, are simply sinners and lost men; wherever they are, they are all alike; and there is no respect of persons with God, nor with those who are of God. Let all the missionaries, ministers, and Christians in the world recognize everywhere the Christian truth that only those are Christians who have chosen Christ as their Saviour and their portion forever; and that all who have not so done are alike in all the world, wherever they be, and whatever they may be called. Then this “great obstacle to the progress of Christianity in heathen countries” that is here, and so much elsewhere, complained of will no longer exist anywhere in the world. THE FAITH THAT IS BLESSED.
By Uriah Smith
When the apostle Thomas finally met the Lord, a week after the other disciples had seen him after his resurrection, he acknowledged his restored conviction, in the hearty words found in John 20: 28. Then, says the record, “Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” Verse 29. By implication three classes are here brought to view: (1) Those who have seen, and have not believed; (2) those who have seen, as did Thomas, and then have believed; (3) those who have not seen, and yet have believed. The first class surely have no blessing; the second class do better, and are blessed to that extent; but upon the third class a blessing is emphatically pronounced. This last is the blessing for all Christians now. It is for us. We have not seen, and yet we believe. So Peter said, “For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” Acts 2: 39. “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Cor. 5: 7. Again, Peter, speaking of our relation to Christ, says: “Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” 1 Peter 1: 8. But there yet remains before us the supreme blessedness of seeing him face to face, without any need of believing, in the sense that we now believe; for we shall see him as he is, with such nearness, and with such clearness, as to be made like him, in the fashion of his own glorious body. 1 John 3: 2; Phil. 3: 21. But for the present, this is our position: to have faith without sight; and not having seen him, yet to believe in him, and keep him before our minds, and trust in him as the coming One. What a privilege that such a high degree of blessedness is open to us! Let us not mar this blessedness of believing without seeing, by wishing to see; by pining for some marvelous voice or vision or revelation, before we will believe. Many a skeptic has said, If the Lord would meet me as he is said to have met Saul of Tarsus on his way to Damascus, and give me such a revelation of his glory, I would believe. But has he not already done that very thing in your case? What did the Lord design to accomplish, and what did he accomplish, by meeting Saul on the way to Damascus? Was it not to reveal to him that that Jesus whom he had persecuted, and who, he knew, had been crucified, is indeed the Son of God, and has been raised from the dead, and is exalted to the right hand of his Father in heaven? And has not the Lord amply shown you all these things? Has he not placed upon record a sufficient number of infallible proofs of his resurrection, and testimony that can not be gainsaid nor questioned; and that, in pursuance of his great work, as mediator for the world, he has ascended up on high to appear in the presence of God for us? Is not this the substance of what was communicated to Saul—the great lesson to be taught him by his wonderful experience? But are we not all settled in these great facts? If so, God has wrought for us in another manner what he accomplished suddenly and in a miraculous way for Saul. Then why need such manifestations be repeated in our cases, to convey to us the same information? For the same reason, do not seek for marvelous providences, or particular dispensations. And in your experiences do not pine for depths of depression of spirits, or transports of ecstasies, for a sensation. These have nothing to do with the great facts concerning those things which, though we have never seen, it is our privilege and joy to believe. Do not let us mar the faith which brings a blessing upon those who entertain it, by perpetually demanding new arguments and logical demonstrations, as if the evidences we already possess are not sufficient,730 Do not make the maintaining of this faith which one is called blessed for adopting, dependent upon conspicuous success in preaching the word, or upon the progress of the missionary or other enterprises of the church, as if it was incumbent on us to maintain the faith just in proportion as these attempts and movements succeed. Let us not try to trim this faith till it conforms to what the majority believe and follow; for more frequently the truth and spiritual life are with the minority, than with the majority. Let us not bring a blemish upon this faith by failing to believe practically,—that is, by putting our faith into practice, or living it out,—or by failing to believe intensely, so that we can laugh at seeming contradictions and impossibilities which stand in the way; nor fail to believe lovingly, with the simplicity of little children. We should also believe continuously, so that our confidence may be even and undisturbed at all times. Our belief should have our own personality in it, so that we shall feel the same assurance when alone as when a multitude are with us, and be able to sing, with confidence and integrity.—
“And though all men should forsake thee,
By thy grace I’ll follow thee.” “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” Let us not think that this blessedness is not attainable. The blessedness is linked forever with the faith which our Lord accepts, and is its appointed reward. God’s work and word deserve this faith of us. He is so true that his own unsupported announcement is quite enough for a foundation for faith to build upon. Can we believe God only so far as we can see him? Thousands of saints can speak with confidence in this matter, their own experience having demonstrated that it is blessed and safe to trust in him. Bishop Hall says, that “with men it is a good rule to try first, and then to trust; but with God it is just the opposite: I will trust him first as most wise, omnipotent, and merciful, and try him afterward.” The faith that exists without sight, is the only true and saving faith. Faith which demands sight is not faith at all, and can not save the soul. This faith which Christ calls blessed, is the only faith which is acceptable with God. Indeed, nothing is acceptable to him without it. For “without faith it is impossible to please him.” Heb. 11: 6. This faith is a proof of grace within, a renewed nature; it is the root principle of a glorious character. It makes its possessor rich to the uttermost, giving power in prayer, strength of mind, decision of character, firmness under temptation, boldness in enterprises for the Lord, and joy of soul. The charge upon the Laodiceans of being wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, would not hold against a person with this faith; for he shows that he has the gold tried in the fire, which makes him rich—the faith that works by love. J. P. Thompson, author of “Home Worship,” says: “This far-reaching benediction, ‘blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed,’ embraced upon one hand the prophets and saints of the Old Testament, who, with no visible signs of Christ’s appearing, and with no conception of his life and death, nevertheless kept him ever in view as the object of longing desire; and on the other, it embraces everyone who now comes to Christ with a living faith. This faith makes Christ present, makes heaven near, makes salvation sure. All the wondrous truths of the gospel, in the person, the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus; all its blessed promises of honor and glory in the future, are made real to our faith, more precious than gold in its pureness and brightness, and more enduring than the fires by which it is tried and tempered. This faith answers to the inheritance to which it leads, incorruptible, unfading.” A few thoughts from the “Rugby Sermons” may be in point, at this place, on the subject: “Our Lord does not treat the doubt of Thomas as a sin. There is not the slightest trace of fault-finding in what he says to him. He only tells him that his is not the most blessed state. The most blessed state is that of those who can believe without such proofs as this; and this is certainly the far higher, the more blessed state, the more heavenly; still the doubt of St. Thomas was not a sinful doubt. His doubt is a type, and his character is an example, of what is common among Christians. There are many who are startled at times by strange perplexities. Doubts arise in their minds, or are suggested by others, about doctrines which they have always taken for granted, or about facts connected with those doctrines. What shall we do when we find these difficulties arise? (1) In the first place, let us not permit them to shake our hold of God and conscience. However far our doubts may go, they can not root up from within us, without our own consent, the power which claims to guide our lives with supreme authority. They can not obliterate from within us the sense of right and wrong, and of the everlasting difference between them; (2) but again, let us not treat such doubts as sins, which they are not, but as perplexities, which they are. As we must not quit our hold on God, let us not fancy that God has quitted his hold on us. Doubts may distress us, but they can not destroy us, for we are in the hands of God; (3) in all such cases remember St. Thomas, and feel sure that what is wanting Christ will give. You are not called on to believe till you are fully able to do so; but you are called on to trust.” The faith of Thomas reached at last a sublime height. It was not faith that assured him that what he saw before him was the actual Jesus whom he had seen and associated with in his life. That was sight. But overpowered by his convictions, he rises to the spiritual plane, and gives expression to the highest confession of faith man ever made: “My Lord and my God.” “Scoffers talk of the apostles as if they had been the most credulous people in the world. Now, of Thomas, at least, they can not say this; for he was evidently one of those cautious people who must feel the ground upon which they set their foot. And yet his doubt in a matter is of deep interest to us. All things must work together for good to them that love God. And the effect of Thomas’s doubting is to prevent us from doubting. Thomas doubted thus, that all who doubt like him might be convinced like him. You are astonished at his skepticism. Be astonished then likewise at his faith, after the Lord had, in infinite condescension, satisfied even the presumptuous demands of his doubt.”—Tholuck. Another writer says: “That Thomas did not do what Jesus invited him to do, and what he had made the condition of his believing, seems plain from verse 29. He is overpowered, and the glory of Christ breaks in upon him like a flood. His exclamation surpasses all that had yet been uttered. Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen One, he calls his Lord and his God. ‘My Lord and my God.’ It is thus that the faith which saves speaks: that Christ is the Lord, and that he is God. The devils also ‘believe;’ but that saying ‘my’ they can not utter for fear and trembling.” You can say it because “God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” Gal. 4: 6. OBJECT-LESSONS A REVELATION OF THE DIVINE MIND.
By S. N. H.
God’s first method of instructing the human race was by objects in nature. When they failed to comprehend, he gave them the written Word. Afterward he sent his Son to illustrate what there is in nature and in the written Word, and how to teach it. “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.” John 1 : 14. Christ’s life in the world is an object-lesson. His teaching was by parables. “All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.” Matt. 13 : 34, 35. Christ’s parables and lessons were drawn from nature, and from circumstances with which the people were familiar, so that when those objects were seen, or the same circumstances again occurred, the spiritual lessons drawn therefrom would come fresh to their minds. The creation of the world was an object-lesson of the love of Christ; for it was he who spread the heavens, and laid the foundation of the earth; it was he who filled the earth with beauty, and the heavens with songs of praise. All created things in heaven and earth are object-lessons of the love of Christ. This planet, working out the problem of salvation, is an object-lesson to the universe. Angels and unfallen inhabitants of other worlds are watching with the most intense interest the details of each person’s life; “for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.” 1 Cor. 4 : 9. When the cloudy mist that now obscures our view, is rolled back, and eternal things appear in their reality, and the great problem of life is worked out, “every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them,” will be heard saying, “Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.” Rev. 5 : 13. “The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” Rev. 4 : 10, 11. Every step in the working out of the problem of redemption, even that which may appear mysterious and obscure to us now, will finally be seen as important, when the great plan of the salvation of the human family is completed. Each event has its appointed hour and place. Every individual has a life distinct from all others, and an experience differing essentially from them. God desires that our praise shall ascend to him, marked by our own individuality. So intimately is Christ connected with the human family, that he never leads his children, or in any manner deals with them, otherwise than they would choose to be led and dealt with, could they have seen the end from the beginning and the wise purpose of him who would have them co-workers with him. This principle is true also with nations. It is God who has a controversy with them, because they give themselves up to destroy souls for whom he has died. But in their mad rush, he keeps in view his glory. “Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.” Ps. 76 : 10. It is thus the entire problem of life becomes an object-lesson of infinite wisdom in working out the eternal purposes of God. He who is able to “guide Arcturus with his sons” and “bind the sweet influences of Pleiades” (Job 38 : 31, 32), also shapes the destiny of nations upon the earth. “He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death. He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them: he enlargeth the nations, and straighteneth them again. He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way. They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.” Job 12 : 22-25. The great controversy is between Christ and Satan. It began in heaven when Satan said: “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.” Isa. 14 : 13, 14. He was the anointed cherub that covereth; he was “upon the holy mountain of God;” and he “walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.” Eze. 38 : 14. Satan desired to improve the government of God; and when cast out of heaven to this earth, he set up his hellish banner here. The sin, war, and bloodshed of the last six thousand years, with their attendant suffering, are but results of the working out of Satan’s plan, showing what his government would have been throughout the universe had he succeeded in heaven. Those governments that are the most cruel, the most oppressive, are a symbol of his satanic majesty. The rapid increase of crime shows his increasing power over mankind. Either Christ or Satan controls men. The final conflict is before us. It will11 be seen in the marshaling of the nations against the Prince of Peace as he comes forth upon the great white cloud in the heavens. A vivid description of this conflict is given in Rev. 19 : 11-21. The prophet describes the enemy’s plan of battle, referring to the Beast and the Image to the Beast, as follows:— “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 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.” Rev. 13 : 11-15. “These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.” Rev. 17 : 14. “And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. . . . And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” Rev. 18 : 1-5. The people of God are called out from their associations with worldlings and evil doers, lest they be partakers of their sins. The spirit of war and revenge is not the spirit of peace. One is the battle of the Lord, the other the battle of the enemy of all righteousness. The light of heaven will penetrate the darkened minds of the earnest inquirers for truth. The revelation of Christ will bring to them a realization of his power and majesty, as they stretch forth their hands by faith. Thus, till the closing scenes of this earth’s history, this world, with all the conflicts of life, is an object-lesson of sin and its results, as described by the inspired penman. And when sin and Satan shall be wiped out of the universe of God, all the holy intelligences will see that God is just, and that his character is eternally vindicated. S. N. H.