The Pagan Philosophies of India Fulfilling Prophecy
By GEORGE F. ENOCH
In the second chapter of Isaiah is found a remarkable prophecy of conditions that are to prevail in the last days. The modern peace propaganda, purposing to beat all swords into plowshares—a dream now rudely shattered—is clearly portrayed. The Lord does not say that peace will be, but foretells that “many people” will make such a prediction.
In the midst of these conditions, we have thrust on our attention a prophecy which, if less spectacular, has a vital relation to the welfare of the church. “Therefore Thou hast forsaken Thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the East, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers.” Isa. 2: 6. These matters now agitating the minds of the people should have our attention. The Christian church is in grave danger of being “replenished from the East.”
An item of interest along this line is that of the lectures now being delivered by Dr. Paul S. Chinappa, a young man from South India. These lectures are attended by throngs in the Eastern States, among whom are to be seen prominent society people. Dr. Chinappa is a Hindu priest with a university education. He is steeped in the philosophy of India, and is giving lectures on the nature of the soul, producing what are stated to be convincing proofs concerning reincarnation and the transmigration of the soul. The soil is already prepared, and there can be but little doubt that many people will be surprised and dazzled as they come under the influence of the keen, subtle arguments of this Oriental, and these deceptive teachings will find ready acceptance in many quarters.
Perhaps the first representative of this particular movement to make an impression in America was Swami Vivekananda, who made his début at the Chicago Parliament of Religions in 1893. His real name was Narendra Nath Datta. He was a graduate of Calcutta University. He had, however, so tinctured his Vedantic philosophy with ideas from the West that, while it surprised and pleased the West, it did not make as rapid progress in the East as he would like. Since then, others have succeeded him, and the Vedantic philosophy of India has found acceptance in many places in this country.
One of the interesting converts to the cult was Miss Margaret Noble, a girl of Irish descent, who met the swami in New York and became an ardent “Vedantist,” eventually going to India, and adopting Hindu dress, manners, and customs. Her facile pen wrote some of the best books ever produced in defense of Hinduism. She took the name of Sister Nivedita, but after a few years, stricken with a tropical disease, she died in Darjiling, a tragic figure, surrounded by a few of the natives of India for whom she had given her life.
Few realize how rapidly the principles of this Vedantic philosophy are permeating the thought of the West.
The Vedas are the most ancient books of India. There are four of them, written in Sanscrit, at some date unknown, beginning at least 1,300 years B. C. They form one of the most interesting groups of literature in the world. No other pagan people ever produced a body of religious poetry of such striking originality and beauty at such an early stage in their history.
“Veda” means knowledge; and the hymns give a clear, distinct picture of the people, their daily life, their wars, their toil and worship. The later Vedas gave formulas for the priests and the sacrifices.
But the ancient Aryans, in their contact with the darker and inferior peoples they found in India, allowed them to retain their gods and demonology, and eventually absorbed into their system of religion all the congeries of beliefs they found scattered over the land. A learned class grew up, and some of the brightest and keenest intellects this world has ever seen, for centuries, in uninterrupted succession, concentrated all their faculties in what they considered a great search after God. The soil thus prepared not only developed the Vedantic philosophy, but gave Buddhism to the world, and offered a congenial clime for the growth of Mohammedanism, until India is to-day the greatest single Mohammedan country.
This Vedantic philosophy is the most subtle and successful attempt that the human mind, unaided by inspiration, has ever made to solve the mystery of existence and foretell the future. Its underlying principles are as follows: There is only one impersonal Reality. The actual phenomenal world that we see and of which we are a part is unreal, only maya, or illusion.
Its explanation of the problem of existence is twofold: First, the doctrine of transmigration, that is, that souls are the emanations of the one Reality, sparks from the central fire; that these souls are incarnated times without number; that the same soul may in one life be a god, in another a man, in a third an animal or even a plant; and that there457can be no rest for the soul, or relief from suffering, until it finds release from the necessity of rebirths, and returns to the source from which it came. One of the poems says:
“How many births are past, I cannot tell;
How many yet to come, no man can say;
But this alone I know, and know full well,—
That pain and grief embitter all the way.”
The second doctrine is that of Karma; that is, a man’s body, character, capacity, social status, in fact everything about him, are but the just retribution in this life for his actions, good or bad, in his former birth. He can only work out salvation by being passive and actionless. The greatest sin is to love and enjoy life, and the goal of all his hopes has been well described as “the sweetness of being wrecked on the shores of eternity.”
This may all seem of little practical interest to our readers; but next week we will trace the story of the way these ideas have invaded the West, well-nigh capturing intellectual Germany, and now making rapid strides in England and America.
The Crisis Before the War-Mad World
By Charles S. Joyce
Significant Progress and Invention—Europe’s Breaks in Spite of Everything—What Will Be the End?
By CHARLES S. JOYCE
In looking over the history of the nations for the past century, one is favorably impressed with the marked progress that has been made in all branches of universal knowledge. Man has been enlightened intellectually. His mind is broader, deeper, and more comprehensive than that of his forefathers.
THE PROPHET SEES THE INCREASE OF KNOWLEDGE
Daniel the prophet, in looking down the stream of time, saw the wonderful things that would happen in the closing scenes of man’s history; and by the pen of inspiration, he foretold that men should run to and fro, and that knowledge would be increased. How true this is, and how precisely it has come to pass! Most of the wonderful inventions and masterpieces of science have been produced in the last half century.
This sudden increase of knowledge goes to demonstrate the rapidity with which this old world is rushing on to its impending doom—yes, rushing on to its doom; for in this enlightened age, in this boasted twentieth century of marvelous progress in science and art, where do we find ourselves? Is the world enjoying the peace and prosperity that should follow such achievements?—Ah, no! We find that the whole Eastern hemisphere, and practically every nation under the sun, is involved in the bitterest, bloodiest, and most barbarous war that has ever been recorded in the annals of history.
PEACE EFFORTS FAILED
In spite of the gigantic efforts put forth by peace conferences to stay the wrath of the war god, he has broken forth in all his fury, and has swept down like an avalanche upon the nations of earth, and the devastation is terrible. The work of generations has been undone. The millions of money spent to maintain peace have been of no avail. The cry of peace and safety, and the arming of the nations, occurring at the same time, have been as prophesied. The bugle calls to the last and great struggle, which is to terminate in the battle of Armageddon.
The nations have responded to the battle cry. “They are at one another’s throats, from the Orkneys to the China Sea; the iron rule of militarism prevails; the hours are gory—each day a debacle. Here, without taking toll of the blood and the butchery and the loot and the lust; without counting the incredible ferocity and filth of it; without marking the ruin and ruthlessness of it; without thinking of the sacrifice and the slaughter—here, all over the countries of this Eastern world, exists a situation that is as widespread in its enormity, as it is infinite in its ramifications.”
A WRECKED CONTINENT
DR. PAUL S. CHINAPPA
When we come to realize in a measure the appalling character of the catastrophe, we must look beyond the battle field, and by so doing can see nothing short of a wrecked continent; for “this war and its stern realities will be poverty, ruin, hunger—perhaps famine. The sternest reality will be the wreck of the commercial and trade prosperity of every nation involved, and the consequent ruin of hundreds and thousands of men. This war means not only dead men and weeping women; it means starved men and starved women. It means financial disaster. It means obliteration of credit. It means taxes beyond the possibility to pay. It means depreciated currency. It means long continued woe. It means that the whole commercial hemisphere has been wrecked—which means, in its turn, that the people will pay a price that will make the price of spilled blood seem like cents to dollars.”
HEART FAILURE THROUGH FEAR
As these things are now presenting themselves upon the earth, men’s hearts fail them for fear. Their minds become greatly agitated, and they ask why this great calamity has come upon the earth, and if it was not possible to hold the world’s peace intact, thus doing away with war and strife forever. No, such a thing was impossible for men to accomplish; for God, looking upon the future history of the nations, saw that they were doomed to destruction. In view of this fact, God has, through His servant Daniel, given us ample instruction concerning this, and that His work was not to be in vain, and that He would set up a kingdom where war and strife and sin would be no more.
God said that the kingdoms of earth would not cleave one to the other. Dan. 2: 43. But men have tried to make this prophecy of no effect in various ways. There is not a country or nation upon the earth but is related by marriage, directly or indirectly; but family ties have failed to keep peace and ward off the inevitable struggle for world supremacy.
England and Germany, whose sovereign heads are first cousins, have become the bitterest of enemies, and all because of avarice and desire for earthly glory.
THE BRIGHT PROSPECT BEYOND
Therefore, as we see these things coming upon the earth in fulfillment of prophecy, we are to know the time is at hand, even at the door, for the setting up of the eternal kingdom.
Then why should we be perplexed, why disturbed, when we know that as we watch the dying struggles of earthly kingdoms, we are drawing near, yes, even standing upon the threshold of the kingdom of our God, and of His Christ, which shall stand forever and ever?
A City Ordinance and the Law of Jehovah
By John H. Hartog
OUR school election took place on Saturday. As several of us were anxious to vote, I took the matter up with the clerk who had charge of this election, and, explaining to him that by having this election on Saturday and closing the polls at 8 P. M., we were disfranchised, I asked him if he would not keep the polls open a little later.
He replied that this was absolutely impossible, as the law provided for them to close at 8. He asked me why we could not get there before 8, and I explained that the Sabbath did not close till 8.02.
“Well,” he said, “that is certainly very narrow-minded. Suppose you made it a few minutes shorter. Moreover,” said he, “nobody knows when the sun sets, and I always thought that sunset meant 5 o’clock.”
I explained to him that we did not ask him to break the city law for our benefit, and that since he said he had to close at 8, we would simply have to abstain from voting; but that we were just as anxious not to break God’s law, as he was not to break the city election law. This was a puzzle to this city official—but food for thought, let us hope. John H. Hartog.
This Is My Infirmity
By Albert M. Dart
“WILL the Lord cast off forever? and will He be favorable no more? Is His mercy clean gone forever? doth His promise fail forevermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath He in anger shut up His tender mercies? And I said, This is my infirmity.” Ps. 77: 7-10.
In our human weakness, we are sometimes led to doubt the tender mercy and loving-kindness of our heavenly Father—to wonder if He is all that He claims to be.
This trend of thought comes because of pressure of darkness, of the things we cannot understand. But we should ever remember that “this is my infirmity.”
Let us at such times call to mind the fact that “Himself took our infirmities,” and that He is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” and “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”
If faith takes hold of this work of our great High Priest for us, the darkness of doubt is gone, the “Spirit also helped our infirmities,” and we find ourselves safely sheltered in His pardoning love. ALBERT M. DART.
Care Returns with Reinforcements
“CARE that is driven away by drink is bound to return with reinforcements.”
Providence Points the Way
“THE hand of Providence always points to the right.”
THE PROTESTANT DIVISION OF THE BABYLONIAN APOSTASY
By R. C. P.
Casts Off Her Name—Caters to Rome—How Her Apostasy Started—Downward Steps—An Angel’s Stirring Warning and Appeal
This is the fourth and concluding article by Mr. Porter on the story of old Babylon as the mother of all apostates. In previous articles, he has shown the principles of the Babylonian system; that her religion was intolerant, and enforced upon the people regardless of their wishes; and furthermore, that the Sunday was a central institution in her sun worship, and thus became a rival and a counterfeit of the true Sabbath.
He has shown how the Babylonian system of doctrines has manifested itself through both paganism and the papacy; and this week, he shows how Protestantism is yielding to the subtle influences of the great originator of abominations. EDITOR.
AS in apostolic days, the gospel of Christ stood forth in the great Protestant Reformation again triumphant. Nations influenced by the purity of its principles, turned from religious intolerance to the support of its claims of individual liberty for all people. Liberty bells were rung. Cannons pealed out the joyful news. Statues of liberty were erected. Martyrs burned by the papacy as heretics, were honored by the erection of monuments to their heroism. The dark night of the reign of terror had again given way before the dawn of the fair morn of the gospel of peace on earth, good will toward men.
For four centuries, this new movement of Protestantism has marked the high-water tide of the world’s peace and prosperity. With lamblike gentleness which has made it great, it has influenced nations to proclaim liberty to slaves and freedom of conscience to all people.
ELIMINATES THE WORD “PROTESTANT”
Protestantism placed in its foundations of four hundred years ago the protest of the German princes at the Diet of Spires against the papal apostasy from God’s word. But in 1912, the great federation of Protestant churches in America deliberately and openly repudiated the word “Protestant” from their federation name, that without prejudice the Catholic federation movement might be induced to unite with them in a crusade of religious legislation. See Chicago Inter-Ocean, December 7, 1912; London Daily Mail, August 6, 1910, pages 462-464. This legislation was for the enforcement of Sunday observance, the sun’s day of the pagan division, and the Sunday of the papal apostasy. Thus organized Protestantism, ceasing to protest, proposes to join the papacy in an apostasy movement which would enforce a religious creed.
SUPREME COURT AND ENFORCED RELIGION
Justice Brewer, of the Supreme Court of the United States, in a decision rendered February 29, 1892, explained away article 1 of the amendments of the United States constitution, which prohibited the enforcement of religion. See Supreme Court records, entry No. 143. And organized Protestantism, having apostatized from her principles, is now prepared to act her part as the third division of the great Babylonian apostasy movement. She who for four centuries has represented before the world the lamblike principles of civil and religious liberty, is now beginning, through an enforced religious movement, to speak as a dragon. Rev. 13: 11. She who for four hundred years has protested against the religious intolerance of the papal apostasy, is now making an image to that very apostasy, and enforcing its traditions in opposition to the word of God, which is her professed creed. Rev. 13: 12-14. Cessions from Protestant churches to Rome are becoming popular. Protestant statesmen now court the Vatican. The following statement is most significant:
“ENVOY TO VATICAN
“England Resumes Diplomatic Relations after Four Hundred Years
“New York, December 25 [1914].—The Italian papers say that the dispatch of Sir Henry Howard as an envoy extraordinary by England to the Vatican will mean a reopening of diplomatic relations between the two countries which was discontinued four hundred years ago. It was decided upon in order to ward off the intrigue of Germany and Austria to obtain the help of the Catholics in England, and therefore it is of much significance. Even Turkey, refusing to deal with the French ambassador in Constantinople who tried to be a mediator on the question of the Christians in Turkey, has desired to send a representative to the Vatican as the representative to Turkey. France also is trying to renew diplomatic relations with the Vatican.”—The China Press, January 3, 1915.
More evidence is not required to convince the ordinary observer that Protestantism now condones the creed of the Babylonian apostasy which she repudiated four hundred years ago, when she took her stand openly upon the word of God. Her statesmen now seek recognition and support from the same papal apostasy then repudiated.
BEGINNING OF THE PROTESTANT APOSTASY
This apostasy of Protestantism from the Word began when, in 1840-1844, she rejected the world-wide proclamation of the Judgment message.
The Congregational Journal of 1844 said: “At a recent meeting of the Presbytery of Philadelphia, Rev. Mr. Barnes, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, whose notes are so extensively used in our families and Sabbath schools, stated that he had been in the ministry for twenty years, and never till the last communion had he administered the ordinance without receiving more or less into the church. But now there are no awakenings, no conversions, not much apparent growth in grace in professors, and none come to his study to converse about the salvation of their souls. With the increase of business, and the brightening prospects of commerce and manufactures, there is an increase of worldly-mindedness. Thus it is with all denominations.”
The Religious Telescope, in 1844, under the heading, “Great Spiritual Dearth,” said: “It is a lamentable fact, from which we cannot shut our eyes, that the churches of this country are now suffering severely on account of the great dearth, almost universally complained of. We have never witnessed such a general declension of religion as at the present. Truly the church should awake, and search into the cause of this affliction; for an affliction every one that loves Zion must view it. When we call to mind how ‘few and far between’ cases of true conversion are, and the almost unparalleled impenitence and hardness of sinners, we almost involuntarily exclaim, ‘Has God forgotten to be gracious?’ Or, is the door of mercy closed?”},{
“NO MAN LAYETH IT TO HEART”
Robert Atkins, in a sermon preached in London, said: “The truly righteous are diminished from the earth, and no man layeth it to heart. The professors of religion of the present day, in every church, are lovers of the world, conformers to the world, lovers of creature comfort, and aspirers after respectability. They are called to suffer with Christ, but they shrink from even reproach.
“Apostasy, apostasy, apostasy, is engraven on the front of every church; and did they know it, and did they feel it, there might be hope; but, alas! They cry, ‘We are rich and increased in goods, and stand in need of nothing.’”
The Genesee Evangelist also said: “Our Zion is in a state of mourning. The Holy Spirit has not visited us as in former years, and we have great cause for deep humiliation in view of the sins and worldliness and spiritual indifference of most of our churches.”
The Rev. Professor Denney, in an address delivered in the assembly hall at the World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh, Tuesday evening, June 21, 1910, said: “Men are not coming forward as ministers, nor coming forward as missionaries, because they are not coming forward into the membership of the Christian church at all.”—“History of World Missionary Conference,” 1910, volume 9, page 323.
REJECTS HEAVEN-SENT MESSAGE
From these sad statements, it is plain that the beginning of the apostasy of Protestantism dates from her rejection of the heaven-sent Judgment message in 1844. The rejection of the word of God in the proclamation of that message opened the way for “higher criticism,” which has since seriously weakened the foundations of Protestant faith in the word of God and the power of the gospel; and this has paved the way for Protestantism to seek the aid of civil power to support her in the accomplishment of her ends. When Protestantism turned from Christ to the state as the source of her power, she left her position of anchorage to the word of God and the power of Christ, conversions ceased, and she became a persecuting power. She has since become identified with the great threefold Babylon of Scripture, having fallen away from her Protestant principles.
A DOWNWARD STEP
A downward step was taken by Protestantism in America when, in open defiance of the law of God, in 1892 she repudiated the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and by a solemn act of legislation, started upon a career of Sunday enforcement (see Congressional Records of 1892, pages 6614, 694, 5204, 6752, 6755, 5144), and later repudiated the word “Protestant” from her federation name in order to seek a union with Catholicism. With the religious legislation movement has been joined the old Babylonian creed of establishing a temporal kingdom of Christ.
The Protestant apostasy has identified itself with the pagan and papal divisions of this great apostasy. Its creed and movements are now the same. Protestantism no longer represents the pure gospel of the word of God. All three divisions are fallen; and the Lord is now sending, through the third angel’s message of Rev. 14: 9-14, the final message of warning and reform before His second advent. That message presents the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus as the only standard of preparation for entering the kingdom of God. Rev. 14: 12. It warns against the whole apostate Babylonian system. Verses 9, 10.
AN ANGEL’S STIRRING WARNING
In the finishing of its work, it is joined by a mighty angel descending from heaven, which, though unseen, takes charge of the movement, and the earth is lightened with his glory. Then a last mighty cry is raised throughout all three divisions of the Babylonian apostasy, which now fill the world: “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 the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
“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. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.” Rev. 18: 1-10.
UNPARALLELED APPEAL
This is no common appeal. It is unparalleled in any other period of the world’s history. When the pagan division became hopelessly apostate, there was still hope through a general reformation movement arising out of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. When the papal division became hopelessly apostate, there was still hope through a general reformation movement inaugurated through Protestantism. But when Protestantism, turning persecutor through apostasy, enforces her creed, there is beyond that no further hope of any movement arising to open a general door of hope to a lost world. To no earthly power can men look for help or hope.
A last warning message goes quickly to the world, pointing helpless, hopeless sinners to the throne of God—through His worship alone there is hope. The mighty call to all, in all three divisions of the Babylonian apostasy, is, “Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”
Then a triumphant company, keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, having obtained the victory over all divisions of this Babylonian apostasy, standing faultless before the throne, sing a triumphant song of deliverance, and inherit the kingdom of God. Rev. 15: 1-4. R. C. P.
HOW THEY ARE TO BE WITH JESUS
By G. B. T.
Does Man Have an Immortal Soul?—If So, What Need of the Second Coming of Christ?—Why a Resurrection and Judgment Day?
“AND if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14: 3.
In these words, the Saviour tells us how the saints will finally be gathered to their Paradise home. At the same time, He demolishes, with a few words, the unscriptural and heathen dogma of the soul’s inherent immortality and consciousness in death.
IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
Modern theology teaches that the soul is immortal—that the real man does not die—that the body is simply the house, the tenement, in which the real man lives, and that there is in reality no such thing as death. It teaches that man lives right on, and that at what is called death, he enters at once upon his reward, either in the ineffable bliss of heaven, or in the confines of endless and awful despair.
Death is thus made the gateway to heaven. It becomes the gatekeeper. In funeral eulogies, the bereaved friends are assured that their loved ones who have departed this life are460not really dead, but have only passed through a sort of transition, and have entered upon a life of endless happiness. Of course, not much is said about the lost. Generally the mourners are comforted with the thought that their deceased friends are now in heaven.
WOULD MAKE HIS COMING UNNECESSARY
If such a doctrine were true, it would make the coming of Jesus unnecessary. For why should Jesus come for His people when they are already with Him in glory? Imagine the sublime and awful spectacle of the Son of God coming to this earth to receive His people, when millions of them have been with Him through millenniums of time, singing psalms around His throne.
WHAT NEED OF A RESURRECTION?
It also destroys the need of a resurrection of the dead. Think of the farce of the Life-giver descending and calling for the dead to come forth from their dusty beds, when there are no dead, and none are in the graves, but all have passed to their reward immediately at the stroke of death. If they are receiving their reward, what need of a resurrection? Why bring up this body? Have they a body now? If so, what would they do with a resurrected body? Would the dead have two bodies? Then how could the Saviour resurrect, or bring back to life, those who have passed away, if they are not dead?
A JUDGMENT DAY NOT NEEDED
Again, the doctrine of the immortality of the soul destroys the doctrine of a future Judgment. If man goes to his reward immediately at death, he must be judged. No one could think of a just God sending any to the bliss of heaven, or to the torments of hell, without a Judgment to decide which place they are fitted for. The Judgment, therefore, instead of being a future event, would be an event continuously in session since death entered the world.
But the Bible teaches a future Judgment, in which all who have lived on the earth will stand in solemn review before God. Any doctrine which destroys so many of the great fundamental doctrines of the Scripture, cannot be founded on the truth.
THE REAL HOPE OF MAN
But the Saviour, in the words that are quoted at the beginning of this article, sets before us the real hope of man. It is the hope of all who are sleeping in the tomb. He tells us that if He went away, He will come again, and receive us to Himself, that where He is, we may be also. He has gone; but, bless His name, He is coming again, and He is coming for His people. He is coming to receive them to Himself. He is coming to take them from the grave to the mansions He has gone to prepare. At that time, the living righteous will be changed, and will be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. We are all going to heaven at the same time. This is really the hope of the church. It is your hope, reader; it is my hope. If Christ did not come the second time, redemption would not be complete. There would be no hope for the dead.
THIS GLORIOUS PROMISE
Listen to these glorious words: “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thess. 4: 16-18.
All within the graves will hear His voice, and come forth. The voice of the Archangel will resound through the long galleries of the tomb, and those in silence who sleep in Christ will be awakened and will come forth. All the living righteous will be changed and caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, and ever after be with Him. This is our comfort; this is our hope.
HE IS PREPARING OUR HOME
The Saviour is preparing a place for us. A man may leave his home in some city, and go perhaps into western Canada or some other place, and take up a claim. He writes home that he is preparing a place for his family. He is building a house. He has planted a crop, and is beautifying the premises. He is getting things ready. He writes that when he has the place all prepared, he will come and take them with him to the new home.
How they will look for the return of father, and long for the time when he will come and take them with him to the home he has gone to prepare! This is but a feeble illustration, yet it points to the truth.
Our Saviour is preparing a place. His people are the apple of His eye. He loves them. He longs for the time to come when they will be with Him, and see His glory, and dwell with Him through all the countless ages to come. He will look on this redeemed company from all nations of the world, and from all ages of time, and see of the travail of His soul, and be satisfied.
How glorious is the blessed doctrine of the second coming of Christ! What a hope it places before us to know, from the teachings of the Scriptures, that this great and glorious event is soon to dawn! It should inspire us to greater zeal, to greater earnestness and consecration, than ever before, that we may prepare for this great event, and be among that company who will look up with joy and say: “Lo, this is our God, we have waited for Him, and He will save us; this is the Lord, we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.” Isa. 25: 9. G. B. T.
Question Corner
By M. C. Wilcox
Conducted by M. C. Wilcox
154 — The Hire of a Harlot
In Deut. 23:18, the hire of a harlot is said to be an abomination to the Lord; but in Isa. 23:18, it is stated that such hire shall be holiness to the Lord. Please harmonize. A. K.
The first of the scriptures has reference to actual, continual, physical harlotry. We have samples of a similar kind in the saloon business, which preys upon the lives and characters of men. Men try to justify themselves by making gifts to the cause of God. Such gifts are an abomination. Such also would be the hire of one who is selling his or her soul to sin, continual iniquity.
The second passage, Isa. 23:18, does not have reference to physical but spiritual harlotry. Tyre is represented as being left desolate; and the visiting of Tyre after her desolation means that God would do a work for her. He did, and a Christian church was raised up in the city of Tyre. And in that Christian church there were those who gave to God their means and of the wealth of Tyre; yet the city itself did not escape the punishment that was due her.
There is another thought in connection with this merchandise and hire being holiness to Jehovah, and that is, its being devoted the same as was Jericho. Jericho was holy to Jehovah. That is, it all belonged to Him. Man must not profit by it. So when Jericho was taken, it was destroyed, or devoted. And so with Tyre. She had so sinned against God that the Lord utterly destroyed the city. No one profited by her destruction.
155 — Buying Swords
For what reason is it, probably, that Jesus instructed the apostles to buy swords, when He forbade Peter to use the blade when he wanted to defend the Lord? INQUIRER.
It is generally held that this was done simply that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. They did not need to buy swords, for they had sufficient without them; but the Lord took that occasion to give to His people instruction for all time when He directed Peter to put up the sword into its place, and declared that “they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.”
156 — Chronology of Nehemiah
In the margin of Neh. 1:1 it says, “B. C. about 446”; and in the margin of Neh. 13:23 I find, “About 434.” This makes a period of about twelve years; but in the notes on the Old Testament it is stated that the book of Nehemiah covers a period of thirty-two years—445 to 413. Why is there such a great difference in the length of the period?
The difference between the thirty-two years and the twelve years can be understood by this fact,—that the dates at the beginning of chapters refer only to the time of the events with which the chapter opens. For instance, the Bible before us, B. C. 445 is given at the beginning of chapter 13. That simply has reference to the day in which the reading took place that is there mentioned; but those who have given special attention to chronology, place the latter part of chapter 13 twenty years later. “Prideaux’s Connection Between the Old and the New Testament” gives a chapter or two on this very thing.
