Earlier text: One with HimSTUMBLING-BLOCKS—FOUNDATION STONES.
By Ellet Joseph Waggoner
If you would only give up that idea of keeping Saturday, you might do so much more good. You preach Christ, and hold him up in an attractive manner before the people, and if you would be content with that, you might reach thousands where you now reach tens; but your preaching that the seventh day should be kept instead of Sunday, is a stumbling-block,—a barrier to keep them away from Christ. Thus spoke a friend to the writer a few days ago. The speaker was sincere, and was not the first one to entertain such a thought. Others have said, and many more have thought, that the preaching of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is a barrier to prevent people from coming to Christ. “If it were not for that,” say they, “you might have multitudes join your ranks.” Let us examine the matter briefly. The fourth commandment, which enjoins the observance of the seventh day of the week,—the Sabbath of the Lord,—is one of the ten. The first and second forbid the worship of any false god and the making and worshiping of images. Would our friends say that they are stumbling-blocks in the way of people’s accepting the gospel?—Perhaps not, yet to many people they are such as truly as the Sabbath ever can be. A missionary goes to Africa. He finds the natives wholly given to idolatry. They have charms and fetiches by the thousand. He begins to preach the gospel, presenting Christ to the poor people, who are much attracted, when, lo, he begins to talk about the worship of images, the use of charms, etc.! This cools their ardor. One of the most intelligent comes to him and says: “Why do you not preach the way the Roman Catholic missionaries do? They simply present the gospel, and do not bother the people with the law. Our people are thoroughly settled in the worship of these idols. To give them up would cause much inconvenience and ridicule. The Catholic missionaries allow us to use them as aids to devotion, and if you would do the same, you might make thousands of converts; but as it is, you are simply presenting a barrier to keep people away from Christ. Your preaching of the law nullifies the good that your preaching of the gospel might do.” Would any man be at loss to know how to answer such a question? Could not every reader of the Bible point out the fact that the worship of the one true God, and him alone, is the very object of the gospel, and that to gain image-worshiping professors of Christianity would be a calamity? Take the eighth commandment. It says, “Thou shalt not steal.” Now there are quarters in nearly every large city where the people live almost entirely by preying upon others. Indeed, it appears to them that they are compelled to steal in order to live. People will not employ them because of their bad characters. Some of them would gladly reform, but they have a police record, and it is a sad fact that even many professed Christians have a strong aversion to a man who has been detected in gross sin. Consequently the path of honesty seems to be closed up to these unfortunate people. Now a true missionary goes into the slums, and preaches Christ. But someone says to him: “You are cutting off your own usefulness in these parts by telling the people that it is a sin to steal. Don’t you see that their ancestors for generations back have been thieves, and they were trained from infancy to steal, and if they should leave off stealing they could not live? Say nothing about the stealing, and you can raise up a vast congregation here, and do much good; but by making so much of the eighth commandment, you are keeping people away from Christ.” The fallacy of such talk need not be pointed out. But why are the first, second, and eighth commandments any better than the fourth? How is it that they are an essential part of the preaching of the gospel, if the fourth commandment be against it? In a very popular religious journal we have seen a correspondence carried on under the heading “The Bible a Barrier.” One of the writers says:— My trade has brought me into contact with a great many fellows of my own age in London and elsewhere, and nearly all must be ranked as agnostics, simply because of the narrowness of their teachers, who have tried to force them to look upon all the Bible as perfectly true, and as all equally inspired. So here we have another stumbling-block. How many thousands of people there are who are kept out of the church solely by the Bible! There is not the slightest doubt but that the whole world would be “converted” almost in a body if practical belief in the Bible were not made an essential part of conversion. But then what would be the use of preaching which ignored the Bible? But this is not all. The apostle Paul found that Christ himself was a stumbling-block. He wrote, “We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness.” 1 Cor. 1:23. “Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious; and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious; but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient.” 1 Peter 2:6-8. It is even so to-day. “The offense of the cross” has not yet ceased. Christ is still a stumbling-block to many. Many will be kept out of heaven because they cannot get there without faith in Christ. If Christ were but left out, how many people would believe. Believe what?—Why, that they are about right as they are, and that they are safe in doing as they please. Notice that, although Christ is a stumbling-block, he is also “a sure foundation.” What some imagine to be a hindrance to them others find to be a support and a joy. Even so it is with the Bible and with all the commandments. For Christ is in the word, and the law is in Christ. The law of God was in his heart, and he kept all the commandments. Ps. 40:8; John 15:10. To the extent that people find any one of the ten commandments a stumbling-block, to that same extent do they find Christ a stumbling-block, for his life is nothing but the perfection of the law in action. It is the hardness of the human heart that causes people to “stumble at the law,” so that the stumbling-block is in reality the stubborn heart. It was this that caused the ancient Jews to fall. See Rom. 9:31-33; Heb. 3:12-19; 4:11. The one who finds a stumbling-block in the fourth commandment would find one in anything else that seemed contrary to his inclination and convenience. Whoever will exercise “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21), thus keeping “the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12), will find the stumbling-blocks removed, and will be one of those who will “raise up the foundations of many generations.” Isa. 58:12. MYSTERY BABYLON.
By Elder William Covert
SATAN told our first parents through Eve that they would not die, but that they would become as gods. Whether the deceiver had in mind at that time all the idolatry that he brought into the world to curse humanity or not, it is certain that the theories which have been promulgated in the perpetuation of that falsehood, have laid the foundation for the doctrines of gods many and lords many; for every system of iniquity and idolatry has its base resting upon his teaching of that hour. Whether Satan intended that Eve should understand his promise to mean that she should put off mortal flesh that she might become a god or not, it is certain that since that time he has stoutly affirmed that what we call death is not death, but transition, by which man becomes deified. The plan of obedience and consequent unbroken life marked out for Adam and Eve, was highly displeasing to Satan, and, being determined to deceive man, that he might control him, he laid out the whole plan of his course with man in this earth, making his first promise to our race to constitute the basis for all man's rebellion against God. The promise was deceptive, crooked, mysterious, and crafty. Not only is Satan the father of lies, but he made his first lie to man to be the father for all subsequent lies. In this he planned that all the progeny of falsehood should stand together in defense of their kind, to pose as the truth. The teaching that man should not die, but instead of death he should become as gods, made way for the doctrine and worship of devils, or demons. This end was brought about by the deifying and worshiping of the dead. There deified ones were supposed to serve the purpose of middle powers between the sovereign gods and living men. Back in the early history of idolatry it was taught that the celestial gods were too sublime and pure to be approached by mortal man, and too holy to be profaned by the cares of earthly business. But when man passed from the fleshly state, he could better serve his mortal kindred upon the earth. Therefore it was advocated that he had passed into the spheres to become mediator between the gods and man. Plato said, "God is not approached by men, but all commerce and intercourse between gods and men is performed by the mediation of demons." He further says, "Demons are reporters and carriers from men to the gods, and again from the gods to men, of the supplications and prayers of the one, and of the injunctions and rewards of devotion of the other." Another said, "Demons are middle powers, by whom both our desires and merits pass unto the gods; they are carriers between men on earth and the gods in heaven790from hence of prayers, from thence of gifts." Thus it was taught that those who had departed this life were not dead, but that they had become officers of the gods, to be attendants, recorders, overseers, and governors for the gods among men. So they had it that all things were done by the will of the gods, through the service of the demons, demon with them simply meaning a deified man. This teaching was, no doubt, brought about by the intermeddling of Satan and his angels with the affairs of men. This was done for the purpose of deceiving man, and thereby gaining dominion over him. This scheme, founded upon the falsehood which Satan told Eve in Eden, has afforded the devil a working basis for all the idolatry that has ever cursed the inhabitants of this world. The history of demonism seems to date its formal beginning back to the death of Bel, Baal, or Belus. Nimrod, the first ruler of Babylon, or Babel, or his successor was deified, or worshiped, under this name. He was reported as having become a demon god after his death. Here it was that in old Babylon was laid the foundation of the mysteries of Satan. This was the foundation of the mystery of Bel, or Babylon. Here was the beginning of Baalism. They called all demons Baalim, from the deified king. But this king would, of course, be regarded as the chief among all those who were deified. In the estimation of these ancient idolaters, those great men who were deified in time became gods, and were regarded as the natural deities, represented in the sun, moon, and stars. Bel, or Baal, became the chief god of the sun, and others of royalty ruled among the planets. In order to worship these deities man made images and consecrated them, and called these departed souls, as they thought them to be, to inhabit these senseless objects of their own creation. The sum of it was that their images were bodies, and their demons were the souls that lived in them. One idolater said in explanation of his worship, "We do not think brass, and gold, and silver, and other materials of images, to be of themselves gods and holy powers; but in these we worship and reverence the gods brought into these images by sacred dedication, and keeping their residence there." It was this kind of worship which had the support of Manasseh, king of Judah. It is stated that "he reared up altars for Baalim, and made groves, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served them. . . . And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. . . . And used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards. . . . And he set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God." 2 Chron. 33: 3-7. This kind of idolatry was especially forbidden even as early as the times of Moses, for in Deut. 17: 2, 3 instruction is given to deal with these who have "served other gods, and worshiped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I [the Lord] have not commanded." Notwithstanding the positive commandments and the explicit instruction given to prevent Israel from falling into such gross habits, yet it frequently became necessary to correct them for their iniquitous practices in these idolatries. The Lord forbade Israel making marriages with these idolatrous people, because he said the result would be that they would be led to serve other gods if they did so. Deut. 7: 3, 4; Josh. 23: 12; 1 Kings 11: 2; Ezra 9: 2. Yet this important instruction was frequently disregarded, and greatly to the detriment of those who did it, too. Perhaps the most noted case of departure, followed by the introduction of the grossest idolatry, is the marriage of Ahab, king of Israel, with Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians. 1 Kings 16: 31. This Jezebel, according to Philo, brought into Israel the worship of Baal; and this Bible history abundantly attests, for the narrative of the marriage proceeds to tell how Ahab went and served Baal and worshiped him, and reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria, and that he did more to provoke the anger of the Lord than had been done by all the kings of Israel which had been before him. Verses 32, 33. This took place about three hundred years before the carrying of Judah and remnants of Israel into Babylon. The entire history of this wicked woman goes to show that she was wholly under the influence of demon worship, and, consequently, an enemy to the law and worship of the one true God. She succeeded in preventing the public worship of God, and caused those who would obey the commandments of God to become outcasts, and to wander among the mountains and hide among the caves of the earth, because they were hunted like wild beasts of prey. And when, finally, the prophet Elijah and King Ahab met face to face, Ahab accused the prophet of troubling Israel, because he would not submit to the idolatry that the wicked queen had caused to be enforced in the nation. The answer of Elijah was, "I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim." 1 Kings 18: 17, 18. It was at this time that Elijah proposed a test as to who was God. Jezebel had the prophets of the Lord murdered, except those who were hid from her cruelty. She then fed eight hundred and fifty of the prophets, or priests, of Baal and image worship, while one poor widow fed, by a perpetual miracle, the hiding prophet of God. The proposition of the prophet was accepted, and with the result of the test as to who was God the reader is acquainted. The religion so zealously espoused and defended by Jezebel embodied in its theology the worship of Baal, who had by this time become to be, in the mind of the heathen, the sun god; and in addition to this Bel there were a vast number of deities and demons of lower rank, who belonged to this family of confusion. These constituted Baalim; therefore it became necessary to employ a large number of idolatrous priests about the business of so many gods and demigods. The reader will please notice in 1 Kings 18: 25 that Elijah asked them to call on the name of their gods, using the plural number. But when they began in their frenzy to greatly exercise themselves in their importunity, they called loudly for Baal. "O Baal, hear us!" Then the Lord's prophet mockingly said, "He is a god." He, Baal, was the one on whom they chiefly depended. In this it is seen that the prophet understood that this body of men professed to represent a multitude of gods, of whom Baal was chief. This system of Baalism originated in Babylon, but seems to have been the prevailing religion of the State everywhere at this time, for Ahab hunted in every kingdom and nation for the hiding prophet, and took an oath from all that he was not to be found by them. So all nations joined in the hunt for the prophet who worshiped Him who created heaven and earth. Surely the mystery of Babylonian worship was even then ruling the nations, and the doctrine of Satan,—that man did not die, but became as gods,—was everywhere defended by all but the true worshipers. There was much image worship and various kinds of apostasy during the reign of Jeroboam over Israel; but these were not full-blown Baalism until the wicked Jezebel brought in the Babylonian mysteries. We have noticed that the kingdom of Judah under Manasseh was given over to the worship of Baalim. The testimony is that "Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen." 2 Chron. 33: 9. But Judah had long been cursed with monuments of heathenish folly. "For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites," and "for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab." 1 Kings 11: 5, 7. In the reign of Josiah these images and houses of idolatrous worship were destroyed. See 2 Kings 23. In the righting up of matters there were found images and priests, to accommodate the worship of the sun, the moon, and twelve constellations. Then there were represented all the host of heaven. The host of heaven, as understood through the heathen mysteries, were departed souls of men, deified, together with a more sublime caste of demons who had never been linked with a mortal body. These last mentioned were the wise "gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh." Dan. 2: 11. It was because Judah and Israel were so inclined to imitate the iniquitous worship of the Babylonians that the Lord permitted Israel to be almost entirely absorbed by heathenism and Judah to be taken captive by the Babylonians. Why should they be kept separate, while they were so nearly alike? Then, again, if there was any truth left among them, chastisement and reverses were to call it to light through affliction. FORGIVENESS.
By Helen A. Hawley
LITTLE words have great force sometimes. In the prayer, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors," who has not stumbled over that word "as," and found it more than a mouthful? Who has not offered the petition with a mental reservation? For it means vastly more than forgiveness of our enemies. That might be easy; in fact, many of us are not conscious that we have any enemies. But our friends who hurt us, who touch us in the sorest places, who are unjust to us, our friends who pass by on the other side when we are overcome in life's conflicts, they are the ones we find it hardest to forgive. In the words of the prophetic psalm: "It was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it. . . . But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance." Our Saviour, entering into all the depths of human needs by his own experience, knew well what power this one petition would have791to bring the hearts of men into harmony with his own loving Spirit. Only as we are filled with his love, only when like him, we are meek and lowly in heart, unselfish, seeking not our own; only then we dare to pray, "Forgive us as, we forgive."—Helen A. Hawley. NO ONE CONVERSANT with the trend of things in the church can be ignorant of the fact that the phase of rationalism called modern thought is playing havoc with those doctrines which have been universally received by the church and upon which the faith and wisdom of the church has set the seal of accredited truth. It is marvelously strange how widespread are false views of Christ, his atonement, the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. These truths, always regarded as fundamental, are feebly held now by many who ought to be rooted and grounded in the faith. Views always rejected by the great body of believers as unscriptural, are deferred to without scrutiny or protest. Dr. Lyman Abbott, editor of the Christian Union and pastor of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, says: "I accept the Apostles' Creed, though I give to the phrase resurrection of the body the modern interpretation." In explanation of this modern idea he says:— The modern doctrine repudiates this idea of a literal resurrection of the flesh. Yet it holds that the spirit has in another world some sort of organism through which it acts and by which it has its connection with the material universe. What that organism is and how it operates no one pretends to know. Swedenborg held that there is in the human body a spiritual body, and that this spiritual organism rises at death, so that the soul is not yet clothed with an immortal tabernacle. This is one form of the modern doctrine of the resurrection of the body. In a sentence, then, the modern doctrine of the resurrection of the body, so far as that doctrine is in any form intelligently held, is that the spirit has in the other life a spiritual organism, and that this spiritual organism has some sort of connection, not by us understood, with the material organism which it possessed upon the earth. It is one of the marvels of this age how the broad, deep, pure current of orthodoxy has, almost in a moment, plunged and lost itself in the shallows and sands of the worst forms of heterodoxy. It is a subject worthy of the profoundest study to ascertain the process and causes of this wonderful metamorphosis. But so it is. Mr. Spurgeon waked up all at once and found that the old reliable Baptist bark in which he had sailed with a through ticket had veered invisibly from her course, changed the port of entrance, and was bearing under a full head of steam and sail into a strange and unfriendly port. He got off at the first point at which they touched, and tacked to get back to the port of his departure, but he had much trouble, had to weather many a big tempest and fearful breaker. He did not propose to be bound hand and foot and delivered over body and soul to rationalism, Unitarianism, or Universalism—though it were immersed. These modern ideas are not modern, they are as old as Christianity and as heterodox as they are old. But we do not oppose them because they are new, neither do we reject them because they are hoary reprobates. We put no store by the modern idea, no special store by the ancient idea, but we do put store, all the store that we have, by the Bible idea. We measure all that is old and all that is new by that infallible standard, and whatever is old or whatever is new which does not agree with that, we say let it be accursed, and he who bids it Godspeed is partaker in its sin. Is this modern idea the Bible idea? How vague and intangible this modern idea! How strange that the human mind in its pride should reject as unworthy of credence the Bible idea and yet gulp down with greediness the unintelligible, dreamy vagaries of Swedenborg or those of his modern disciples! The Bible doctrine of a literal resurrection of the body, in contrast with these visionary and super-ethereal views, commends itself to reason as well as to faith. The idea that pervades the Bible is the idea of a literal resurrection of the earthly body. This body that has been a partner with the spirit in its obedience and faith, or its partner in its sin, will be partner in the honors and rewards of the future life, or a partner in its shame and punishment. The same body laid in the grave is to come forth; the weakness is to put on strength, its corruption put on incorruption. This comforting and hopeful doctrine, which has been the support of martyrs and saints, which has inspired their efforts, quickened their faith, wiped away their tears, relieved the bitterness of death, and triumphed over the grave, is to be relinquished for this modern idea, which for practical Christian use is as profitless and vain as "Æsop's Fables" or The "Arabian Nights." This modern idea is not the creation of men of faith and prayer; it does not spring from meditation on God's word, but in the creation of no faith, or of a feeble, timid faith which has surrendered its hold on revelation and substituted reason, sentiment, or science for the Bible. Like a rudderless ship, they have broken anchorage and are at the sport of the wind and waves, or like travelers who, having forsaken the springs and rivers that lie along their way, vainly cover their desert with the mirage, which turns the glowing sand into fancied life-giving waters, which attracts only to elude, which shines only to mock, which exists only to deceive, whose waters are bitterness, despair, and death.—St. Louis Christian Advocate, March 26, 1890. THE STING OF SIN.
By H. A. St. John
THE sting of insects is painful—sometimes very painful. Yea, the sting of some insects and vipers is exceeding painful, poisonous, and dangerous, being followed by swelling, suffering, inflammation, and death. The sting of sin is always fatal in its results. Adam and Eve, the father and mother of all the human race, were stung by sin in the beautiful Eden. It produced their death, and all the untold and unmeasured suffering and death of their posterity is the result of that sting. The strength of this sting is the law of God, and God's law has all the strength of God himself; hence its dreadful power. Mortality, corruption, disease, decay, pain, infirmities, and suffering, are but the symptoms of this sting manifest in all fallen humanity, and death is the sure result. All have sinned in Adam, hence all are stung in Adam, and must die. This is why death has passed upon all men. Many have sinned in themselves also, and hence are stung on their own account, or doubly stung, and must die a second death, unless a remedy can be found. But thanks be to God for his infinite love. We may lay hold upon One who is mighty to save. Jesus is able and willing to cure every soul that will come to him. He will deliver all from that death resulting from the hereditary sting received through Adam. And he will cure from the sting received for their own sins, all who will come to him, and they will not be hurt with the second death, in the lake of fire, from which there is no resurrection. Jesus cures now from the sting received for our own sins, but the effects of the sting of sin received through Adam will continue until Jesus comes again in glory. That is the glad day appointed by the Lord for the perfect and eternal cure of all the saints from the hereditary sting of sin. Reader, mark you that it is not at death that this cure is effected, for death is but the fatal result of that old sting; the cure is at the resurrection, at the last trump. For the trump shall sound, and the saints will be raised. Then this corruptible will put on incorruption, and this mortal will put on immortality. Then, and not till then, will be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Cor. 15: 54-57. The saints up to that glad hour will have to suffer the effects and result of the sting of sin, never free for a single moment. Then what a glorious victory, what a joyful song will that be when they feel the touch, the final touch, of the great divine Healer, and every cord in their glorified bodies vibrates with immortal life! No marvel that they break forth into singing, "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." DR. JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE, of Boston, has uttered some clear, humiliating truths in the following:— Young people grow up in all our churches who have no opinions of any kind concerning God, Christ, sin, salvation, the foundation of morals, the grounds of belief in the Creator, in duty, or in immortality. Instead of being educated by doctrine they are fed on sentiment. Instead of truth they get love. The consequence is they drift easily into any church, creed, or opinion which happens to attract them. They easily become Roman Catholics or Free Religionists, as accident determines. If they meet a Jesuit they joyfully accept the pope. If they encounter a disciple of Huxley or Spencer, with equal contentment they reject God. And all this in the interest of liberality and toleration! But know this, that it is impossible to tolerate the opinions of others until you have some of your own. You cannot be charitable to those who differ with you unless you first differ with them. What sort of toleration does the ship floating in the stream exercise toward the current which sweeps it along? I have heard the story of a young lady brought up in one of our Unitarian parishes in Boston, which seemed to be somewhat characteristic. She was visiting some poor Irish families to help them, and she encountered their priest. "You must not think," said she, "that I wish to convert them to my opinions." "What are your opinions?" asked the Roman Catholic. Then it appeared that she had none. But he had; so in a short time he had converted her to his views, and she has remained a Roman Catholic ever since.—Home Guardian. Saint and Canonization
By H. L. Wayland
SAINT: A man with convictions, who had been dead a hundred years. Canonized now, cannonaded then. The Songs of the Redeemed
By Elder E. W. Whitney
The Songs of the Redeemed.
As we have seen that the plan of redemption is the basis of music here, and is to be the "science and song" of the redeemed throughout eternity, we can perhaps do no better in concluding these articles than to briefly consider some features of what is revealed of the nature of the songs of the redeemed. We read that "the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." Isa. 35:10. John says that he saw a company of the redeemed standing with the Lamb upon Mount Zion singing and "harping with their harps." Rev. 14:1-3. We may safely conclude, then, that the production of music, both vocal and instrumental, will constitute no small part of the occupation and worship of the redeemed. Indeed, everything will be music, because all will be perfect harmony, and harmony is music. It seems, however, that there will be a significant distinction in the songs of different classes of the redeemed, based, probably, upon the varied experiences of each class. As each person who overcomes is to receive a new name (doubtless expressive of his individual character and experience), "which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it" (see Rev. 2:17), so one class of the redeemed will sing songs of praise expressive of their reasons for worship, in which others cannot understandingly join, simply because they had not the same experience. This seems plainly taught by certain scriptures. In Rev. 5:8, 9 we read of a company symbolically mentioned as "the four living creatures [living ones, Greek] and the four and twenty elders [who] fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp, . . . and they sing a new song, saying, Worthy thou art to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with thy blood men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation." (Revised Version.) In chapter 14:1-5 another company is spoken of as "an hundred and forty and four thousand," who stand before the company referred to in the fifth chapter, and sing a song which none others except themselves could learn. Now by a study of the thirteenth and fourteenth and fifteenth chapters (which is outside the design of these articles), it is evident that this company is composed of those who are developed by the three messages of the fourteenth chapter, and who, in the face of the penalty of death (see chap. 13:15) for doing so, are persistent in keeping "the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus," in opposition to the worship of the "beast and his image," and that in this manner they obtain "the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name" (chap. 15:2). The song this company sing is said to be "the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb." Their experience has been a peculiarly trying one, preparing them by its very intensity for the coming of the Lord. Chap. 14:14. It is referred to in chapter 3:10 as follows: "Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." The next verse declares, "Behold, I come quickly," and exhorts, "Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." Of this same experience Peter speaks: "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you; but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy." As the experience and sufferings of Moses and Christ (of whom Moses was a type) were more intense because of the superior knowledge they had of the character of God and of the plan for man's salvation, in like manner it is said of this company, though living in a time when "darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people," that "the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee." Isa. 60:2. This is the same glory which was seen upon Moses and upon Christ. Thus they will have such an understanding of God's word, plans, and purposes as the majority of the saved of the past have not attained; and their trials and suffering will be in proportion. In harmony with this idea we find the reward promised by Christ to those who overcome at this time proportioned to the experience. To those under the Laodicean—the seventh and last—state of the gospel church, it is said, "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. 3:21. When James and John asked of Christ that they might sit, one at his right hand and the other at his left in his kingdom, he answered, "To sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father." That privilege, then, of being directly associated with Christ in the dominion of the earth when made new, "is prepared" by God for some, and promised by Christ, in the scripture quoted above, to those who overcome as he overcame. This same distinction is presented in other scriptures. That there will be in the new earth nations to be governed is evident from Rev. 21:24: "And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it [the New Jerusalem]; and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it." The "song of Moses and the Lamb," then, is the song of a company whose experience has been in a particular and complete sense the experience of Moses and Christ—an experience which has made known to them the character of God as but comparatively few have ever learned here to know it. They will have come to appreciate the harmony and the perfection of God's works to the fullest extent in this life possible. Not only does the title of the song (considering the experience of Moses and Christ) indicate this, but the words of the song themselves plainly express it. Moses and Christ saw God and talked with him "face to face;" his goodness, mercy, justice, and truth were made known to them, and revealed in their lives as men here upon the earth; his glory was upon them. The words of the song, therefore, are simply an expression of what they had realized in their human experience, and this will be true of all who are able to sing it. Notice them particularly: "Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy; for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest." Rev. 15:3, 4. These words are evidently taken from the distinctive song of Moses as recorded in Deuteronomy 32, which opens with these words: "Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. . . . Because I will publish the name of the Lord; ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the rock, his work is perfect; for all his ways are judgment; a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he." That this is the song of the Lamb, or Christ's song, will be recognized from the fact that his entire life was a living melody, expressive of the perfection of God's character and work, and was, therefore, a constant publishing to the world the name of his Father. His life says in the most effective manner, "His work is perfect." And so the lives and characters here of those who shall constitute this company, who sing this song in the future, must "publish the name of the Lord;" "his name shall be in their foreheads." While we thus find that a special company only join in singing this particular song, yet the harps, voices, and hearts of all will be attuned to the perfect music of praise which will fill all the universe, nevermore to be interrupted by discord, for John has left upon record what he saw and heard in holy vision of the time when sin and all its consequences shall have been forever banished. He says:— "And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And 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, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever." Rev. 5:11-13. WHAT CHRIST DEMANDS.
By Charles M. Sheldon
OH, yes, sacrifice, sacrifice! What does the church of America in this age of the world know about it? How much do church members give of themselves nowadays to the Master? That is what we need,—self, the souls of men and women, the living sacrifices for these lost children down yonder. O God, to think of what Christ gave up, and then to think of how little his church is doing to obey his last command to go and disciple the nations! . . . Yes, truly, except a man is willing to renounce all that he hath, he cannot be his disciple. Yes, all. My beloved, if Christ speaks so to you to-day, listen and obey. Service, self, that is what he wants. And if he asks for all, when all is needed, what then? Can we sing that hymn with any Christian honesty of heart unless we interpret it literally? "Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all."
—Rev. Chas. M. Sheldon.
A good Christian, says Trapp, is ever praying or praising; he drives a constant trade betwixt earth and heaven.