Earlier text: A SONG FOR THE NEW YEARTHE SABBATH
By L. A. Phippeny
SABBATH means rest. Sabbath-keeping means resting. There is a condition of rest, and there is a day of rest. Too often the condition escapes serious consideration because of controversy over which one of seven is the day of rest for Christians to observe. But without the condition, the observance of a specific day of the week, or the refraining from one's occupation during twenty-four hours out of one hundred sixty-eight amounts to little, save loss of valuable time. "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," is the call of the Rest-giver to a restless world. This is the rest all-essential to true Sabbath-keeping. It is the condition here spoken of as a thing to be obtained. No man has it, or ever had it to give but Jesus, the Christ,—because, first of all, this rest from labor and from heavy burdens is "rest unto your souls." Then if our souls are troubled with sin and are worrying over the perplexing affairs of this life, or are even filled with a controversial spirit over affairs of the Kingdom, how can we keep the Sabbath?—Impossible. "Come . . . and . . . rest." What a quieting, helpful message to weary souls! This is more than resting from physical or mental labors for one day only in the seven. It is a rest that brings peace to troubled hearts, and assurance of salvation forever to the one who finds and takes it. It is freely offered; the taking is not a hard thing except to the one who makes it difficult; its benefits are experienced seven days in the week, and its possession is the earnest of a more glorious rest promised to God's children. It is the first-fruits of that rest—the keeping of the Sabbath—that "remaineth . . . to the people of God." "Let us . . . enter into that rest," is the admonitory invitation extended to the whole world, because the whole world needs to enter in. Here the condition of soul-rest broadens, expands into a spiritual kingdom, whose boundaries are abundantly ample to embrace all who enter in. Who can enter in?—Every one that will. Who may enter in?—All. There is no limitation except as made by the individuals themselves to whom the call comes. Some things are necessary, to be sure, such as the way, the truth, the life, and grace. And these are at hand and provided freely, without money and without price. But there is only one way. "I am the way." "There is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Jesus is the entrance, and the broad, heaven-lit, pleasant savannahs of eternal soul-rest are just within. If we have heard the call, and have not entered in, let us enter now. "Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the Gospel preached, as well as unto them; but the Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest." The land of Canaan, with its well-dressed vineyards, its cultivated and grain-grown valleys, and broad pasture lands, was a land greatly to be desired by the weary multitudes journeying from Egypt. It had been promised to their fathers centuries before. They were now going to possess it. To the majority of them it meant physical comforts and advantages after a condition of servitude. But the great Leader of Israel had a higher mission for His people than the more physical enjoyment of temporal prosperity. He wished them to be a light to the world. The world was in darkness and the confusion of error and sin. He desired to clarify the moral atmosphere and bring in righteousness and peace. And so in His people, first of all, He wished exemplified the principles of righteousness that would distinguish them as His representatives. But they needed a preparation, and to this end were their experiences from Egypt to Canaan. If they had viewed the circumstances and episodes of the journey as developers of character, and had trusted God, their march to the promised land would have been a triumphal procession, and they would have entered gloriously into the rest God had prepared for them. But they entered not in because of unbelief. They murmured and complained. They were homesick and restless, fearful and trembling, and looking with apprehension into the future. The Father wished them to learn to trust in His word and His power to overcome the difficulties they themselves could not overcome. He wished them individually to rest quietly and wait for His salvation at every step of the way. But rest and trust come only by exercise, as does any growth. And so, in order to teach them valuable lessons of faith, He gave them many opportunities to trust Him under circumstances entirely beyond their own power to deliver themselves. Looking back on their record, it seems to us that they ought to have learned to believe and to trust, and to rest in confidence in God's word. Do you discern anything in their experience in this respect that tallies closely with your experience to-day? To Israel of old Egypt meant physical bondage—and worse. It has ever since been the type of the bondage of sin. God's deliverance of Israel from the physical bondage was His call to them to come out of sin to righteousness. It was the preaching of the Gospel to them, for in the actual thing accomplished was illustrated the power of an Almighty Saviour. The Father wanted them to grasp the significance of this deliverance, and let Him present them to the world as types of delivered ones. The temporal rest—the land of Canaan—to which they were going, typified the eternal rest of God's people. But before that it meant soul-rest after deliverance from the Egypt of sin. He wished them to understand this truth also, and exemplify it in themselves. But they failed to grasp the lessons. They wavered in their allegiance to God. They wandered in spirit and they wandered in the flesh, hither and thither on the borders of Canaan through the lifetime of a generation, and died in the wilderness of unrest. They entered not into the temporal rest because they entered not first into spiritual rest. How could they enter in as witnesses for God, when their attitude and their experience were in nowise better than could be witnessed in the nations around them? How could they enter in and be different from the heathen before them, if they had not really learned to know and believe in the One who had delivered them from bondage and was endeavoring to lead them into rest? How could they guide others into an experience they had not themselves experienced?—Impossible! Let us therefore fear! The entrance into Canaan was to have been a perfect type of the final entering in of greater Israel into their eternal inheritance. But the entering in of Israel under Joshua was not all in the type that God held before Israel in the deliverance. The fathers fell in the wilderness because of unbelief. The children entered, but not by virtue of perfect belief nor in the fulness of rest. That day of entering into Canaan might have been a day of rest whose glory would have made a world's history far different than the history of succeeding ages. Everything was prepared for them, but they did not discern the fact. They did not learn the great lesson of perfect peace and rest so essential for the well-being of every man, and the world waited for its perfect example of a righteous and Sabbath-keeping nation. It is waiting still. And, therefore, because they who should have done so did not exemplify the character of the Great Leader, and because by reason of their failure the perfect rest was not entered into by a chosen nation, there still remains that perfect rest for some to enter into, and exemplify in their experience. "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God." That rest embraces all true Sabbath-keeping. It means first of all soul-rest, peace from turmoil, confusion, unrest, surmisings, and fears, and doubts, and perplexities of the natural heart. The Gospel preached to Israel was the power of God unto salvation, even as preached unto us. That Gospel was the Messiah; our Gospel is the Christ. It was a simple matter,—by believing in Him they would enter into rest; by believing in Him we enter into rest. It is not merely a matter of acknowledging the fact of Christ's mission on earth. It is the acknowledging of that fact as a mission in our hearts, involving the experience of a transformation of character. It is a belief that leads a man to renounce sin—everything that stands between him and rest, peace. The record is that "God did rest the seventh day from all His works,"—works "finished from the foundation of the world." Those works included the eternal rest we have been considering; they are summed up in Christ. They are all righteousness. "He that entered into His rest, He also hath ceased from His own works, as God did from His." Our works are the works of the flesh. Let us cease from our works. If we do not, how can we rest? how can we keep the Sabbath? how can we be true Sabbath-keepers? how can we know what the Sabbath really means to us or to any one else? Let us therefore enter in! [The next article in this series is 'Jesus Christ, the Revelation and the Knowledge of God.'] EVOLUTION AND GEOLOGY
By Geo. McCready Price
V. EVOLUTION AND THE WORLD PROBLEMS.
We of the twentieth century are in some respects the heirs of the ages. The intellectual accumulations of centuries have descended to us, and, in our great libraries, lie before us, tabulated and indexed for our convenience. A knowledge of the secrets of nature, unknown to our fathers, has taught us to harness the mighty resources of water, earth, and air, and make them minister in a thousand ways to our real or supposed necessities. But all are not deceived by the superficial seeming of our modern civilization. Most clear thinkers know that this age is in no way superior to those of the past in real mental or moral development. They know that mere knowledge is not power in the realm of morals. An Alexander may be educated at the feet of an Aristotle, and a Nero by a Seneca, but the mere intellectual training thus received will result only in giving greater scope and power to the fiendish propensities of the soul. We know also that the creature comforts of a high civilization, like those of Babylon, Egypt, Greece, or Rome, have never tended to strengthen the foundations of man's moral nature. He who understands man's nature knew it would be for his good that he should only eat of the fruit of the ground in toil and sorrow. We can not inherit the progress that our fathers made in heart culture any more than we can in art, and all acknowledge that in the latter we are sadly degenerate. The literature of Greece and Rome has been imitated for over two thousand years; their sculpture and architecture have been the despair of every generation since; and their civilization exhibited, for over a dozen times the length of our boasted modern period of progress, a development of law and government that we have not surpassed, but can only copy. In the words of Froude: "We live in days of progress and enlightenment; nature, on a hundred sides, has unlocked her storehouses of knowledge. But she has furnished no 'open sesame' to bid the mountain gate fly wide which leads to conquest of self." In morals and ethics, as in art, our laws and models are all in the dim, misty past; and the Dark Ages of sin and wo, that separate us from those bright ideas, have served only to weaken our moral powers of discernment and resolve, and to fasten about our degenerate frames our heritage of mental, moral, and physical decay. Why the Increase of Knowledge?
The present increase of intellectual knowledge and of mechanical power in the hands of man is not the result of inherent racial progress, but of divine interposition for a special purpose. Had it been the result of Evolution, it ought to have come about somewhat gradually, say, a gradual development in art, etc., since the time of ancient Egypt, and not be all crowded into the last hundred years,—the last sixtieth part, or less, of human history. No, there is a reason for it all. The church, for long centuries, had neglected to heed the command to go "into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." Like her Jewish sister, she had shut herself up in proud seclusiveness, deeming the rest of the world too degraded to heed the Gospel call. But Christ had said that the Gospel of His coming kingdom must, before the end, be "preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations." And so, in the very evening of time, while the shadows of the gathering night were settling down over the church's unfinished work, He taught men how to employ the elements of nature, and even the very bolts of His throne, in speeding the work His people had so long neglected. But the logical, reflecting scientist is the very man who stands most in awe of the outcome of present conditions along the lines of their natural development. Any one familiar with the history of nations can not but feel a terrible foreboding creep over him as he faces the prospect presented by civilized society the world over. So much is this the case that those who stand at the heads of nations, and are real statesmen and not mere politicians, are nevertheless almost solely occupied with desperate endeavors to check, for a little season at least, the almost universal tendency toward retrograde movements as the next thing in order, so that the social crash will not come in their day. Most thinking men now acknowledge that we seem as far away as ever from the long-talked-of, long-hoped-for age of universal peace and brotherly love. Present Education Ineffective.
A writer in the Forum, December, 1896, says:— The diffusion of intelligence is now understood to be of little conservative value, if not accompanied by a corresponding improvement in morals. That is, you may train the memory, reason, and perceptive faculties to the highest pitch, but if the morals, the secret motives of the soul, are not cleansed, the intellectual training gives the person only a greater power for evil. As to the moral outlook, we have the following from President Harper, of Chicago University:— It is difficult to prophesy what the result of our present method of educating the youth will be in fifty years. We are training the mind in our public schools, but the moral side of the child's nature is almost entirely neglected. The Roman Catholic Church insists on remedying this manifest evil, but our Protestant churches seem to ignore it completely. They expect the Sunday-school to make good what our public schools [and he might have added the homes] leave undone, and the consequence is that we overlook a danger as real and as great as any we have had to face. Then, again, as Goldwin Smith remarks, our modern system of education "begets a general desire to rise in life." This desire "to rise" must inevitably breed almost universal discontent, as we see is the case in every grade of society about us; for very few, even by industry, temperance, and perseverance, traits not especially common in our day, can manage to "rise" as fast as they think they ought. Organized greed and social position have the upper hand, and evidently mean to keep it. And the almost universally-accepted doctrine that all progress, whether in the individual or the race, is to be reached only by a ceaseless struggle for existence and survival at the expense of others, has, in the words of the late Sir William Dawson, "stimulated to an intense degree that popular unrest so natural to an age discontented with its lot, . . . and which threatens to overthrow the whole fabric of society as at present constituted."—"Modern Ideas of Evolution," p. 12. This popular and perfectly natural application of the evolution doctrine to every-day life is certainly intensifying, as never before, the innate selfishness of human nature, and, in every pursuit of life, embittering the sad struggle for place and power. Perhaps no other one cause and result serve more plainly to differentiate the present strenuous age from all those that have gone before. The hitherto undreamed-of blessings and comforts of the present day, instead of tending toward universal peace and happiness, have only emphasized the fact that the greater the blessings received, the greater discontent and depravity will be produced in unregenerate hearts. Intelligent people of to-day, even tho evolutionists, are in dread of another retrograde movement, that will again bring upon us the wreck and anarchy of the French Revolution, all the more hopeless and horrible this time, because it will be universal over the world, conterminous with the bands of civilization. As Herbert Spencer says: "My fear is that the retrograde movement will become too strong to be checked by argument or exhortation." Ineffective and Evil "Remedies."
Thus far all are agreed. It is only when we begin to discuss possible methods of acting so as to prevent these natural tendencies of societies and nations, that the logic of the evolution philosophy is illustrated. To stop the alarming increase of incurable diseases, such as idiocy, cancer, and consumption, we have every now and then some logical but heartless evolutionist advocating a return to the old customs of Sparta or Plato's ideal republic, where all the malformed and sickly were killed in infancy. Such teaching, while logical enough as a means of securing the perpetuation of only the "fittest" specimens of our race, is rather too manifestly inhuman to become a dangerous doctrine very soon.8 But the rapid increase of crime and lawlessness of every sort, the increasing lack of self-control so apparent all about us, has suggested two methods of dealing with these conditions which are more plausible, and hence, far more dangerous. They are the greatest social and political problems of to-day. One of these specifics for the evils of our modern life may be described as a "benevolent," but sturdy, despotism; the other is the next step, the regulation of religion and morals by law. Twin fiends, born in iniquity, and cradled in apostasy from God, they are to-day piecing together into life the dismembered forms that man fondly believed he had cut to pieces for evermore. Even now are they leering their bloodshot eyes upon the remnant church, as she hurries, for a last, brief period, into the wilderness; and what but the promise of Jehovah stands between her and their fury? These are the living questions of the hour. Is popular government a failure? Or does the state need the assistance of the church, or the church of the state? These are the problems before us, which we must soon individually and collectively decide. I do not mean to say that all evolutionists are advocating either of these methods, much less both of them. Rather may we say that some are advocating one remedy, some the other. But both of them are certainly "in the air," or are characterizing the spirit of the times; and for the simple reason, that, since most of the educated classes believe the evolution theory, these are the natural remedies suggested to their minds, in view of the emergencies of the present social and political conditions, because they are the logical remedies from the standpoint of their theory. [The second article on this topic will appear next week.] THE ONE TRUE CHURCH.
By T. B. Snow
WHICH one? Where is it? Of what kind of people is it composed? When and where did it originate? These questions arise in many minds because there are so many denominations, each one of which would fain be deemed orthodox. There is one at least, and possibly more, that lays claim to being the only one in which there is salvation. We will endeavor to answer the questions at the head of this article, but in the reverse order, beginning with the last. When and where did the true church originate? Did it have its origin in the days of Dowie, or Brigham Young, or Wesley, or Calvin, or Luther, or of the apostles? The one true church antedated all of these. There has been in existence a body of people whom the Lord claimed as His ever since the beginning, when "men began to call themselves by the name of the Lord." Gen. 4:26, margin. In Deut. 23:3, and other places, the one true church is called "the congregation of the Lord;" in Ex. 19:6, "a kingdom of priests," "a holy nation;" in Gen. 6:2, "the sons of God." In the New Testament this same body is called "the church in the wilderness." Acts 7:38. The word "church" comes from ekklēsia meaning a company regularly called out. Sometimes it is the "church of God," sometimes "the church of Christ," sometimes only "the church." In other scriptures it is called "the body of Christ," "the household of God." All these titles refer to "the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." 1 Tim. 3:15. The true church of the living God centers in that body of believers which accept Jesus as their Saviour from sin, which is "the transgression of the law" (1 John 3:4), and believe the Gospel which is the "glad tidings" of salvation, the only remedy that will effectually heal the leprosy of sin. Ever since the promise of a Saviour (Gen. 3:15) was believed, and the Saviour accepted as such, God has had a body of people who, through the aid of the Holy Spirit, have been "righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." Luke 1:6. This body of believers, this one true church, was at one time reduced to eight persons, to-wit, Noah and his family. After the Flood, when men had again multiplied, they again apostatized and became worshipers of false gods, until the record tells us of but one man who proved true to God and His law. This man (Abraham) was called by the Lord to "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee." Gen. 12:1. The reason Abraham was called to separate from his people was because they were idolaters. Abraham was to form a nucleus around which would gather all who would accept of the Saviour; for Abraham was to "be the father of all them that believe" (Rom. 4:11), and, "if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Gal. 3:29. Thus Abraham connects the one true church before Christ with the one true church after Christ. The Roman Catholic Church is hardly old enough to have existed in Abraham's time. The believing Jews constituted the nucleus of the one true church "in the wilderness" (Acts 7:36-38), where it was nourished forty years. This people were9 chosen of God to give the Gospel to the world—for they had the Gospel—and all who would accept and obey it would belong to the one true church,—the body,—the church of Christ. This one true church is not composed of those who merely make a profession of religion; but of those who do God's will, "Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven." Matt. 7:21. The mass of the people who constituted the one true church of Jesus Christ, in the days of Moses, apostatized, repented, and were forgiven. Again and again they departed from the Lord, until they filled up the cup of their iniquity by the rejection and crucifixion of Jesus. Then they were rejected of God, as a nation, and were scattered among all the nations of the earth. Jesus had chosen twelve men to be with Him, to learn from His lips the same Gospel of Salvation that was given to Abraham, which Gospel is "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek," or Gentile. Rom. 1:16. These twelve men, chosen by Jesus, formed a nucleus around which the body (church) of Jesus, the one true church, was to gather. They were commissioned to "preach the Gospel," the same Gospel that Abraham had learned (Gal. 3:8), and all who would "believe and be baptized," (Mark 16:16) and "repent and be baptized" (Acts 2:38) would be saved. These believers were first "called Christians in Antioch;" but calling them Christians did not make them Christians. They were Christians (Christ-like) before they were so called at Antioch. Abraham was a Christian, because he believed in Christ and obeyed Him. So was Abel and all true believers, whether they lived in the Patriarchal, Mosaic, or Christian age. Do you want to "know the doctrine of the one true church?" the doctrine taught by Jesus Christ, the doctrine that God sent His Son to teach? How can you know it? Do you not have to go to some man to learn it?—"Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Rom. 10:17. But "how shall they hear without a preacher?" Rom. 10:14. Here is a man who would know of the doctrine. What must he do?—"If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine." John 7:17. The first thing for the man to do, is to be willing to do God's will, and then he shall know the doctrine. When he yields his will to God's will, the Lord will see to it that this man will in some way hear the truth. But "how shall they hear without a preacher?" Rom. 10:14. "How can they call on Him in whom they have not believed," unless some man shall instruct them?—They can not. When the man whom God sends to them preaches to them, what must he preach?—"I charge thee before God, . . . preach the Word." 2 Tim. 4:1, 2. Preach it so it can be understood; "Cry aloud, spare not." Isa. 58:1. And when this Word of God is preached it will result in true conversions, and additions to the one true church, which is set to be the "light of the world." May every one who reads this article do as did the Bereans of old, who searched the scriptures daily, whether these things were so. Acts 17:11. And for this reason they "were more noble" than those who did not search for themselves. “SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES.”
By Ellen G. White
“Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of Me.” The apostle tells us, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” There is power in the Word of God, and those who frame excuses for neglecting to become acquainted with its teachings, will neglect the claims of God in many respects. The character will be deformed, the words and acts a reproach to the cause of Christ. The student should be as thoroughly in earnest to become intelligent in the knowledge of the Scriptures as to excel in the study of the sciences. If either is neglected, it should not be the Word of God. The injunction of our Saviour, “Search the Scriptures,” should be religiously regarded by every one who professes His name. Parents should make the Book of God their constant guide. They should not plead trifling excuses for not interesting themselves in its study with their children. But, instead of seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, they often exalt the temporal above the spiritual and eternal. This example of forgetfulness of God and neglect of His Word moulds the minds of the children after a worldly standard, and not after the exalted standard erected by Christ. How much more profitable to be faithful disciples of Christ, ever searching the Scriptures, that they may be able to give an intelligent explanation of the Word given of God to be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Mothers are heard to deplore that they have no time to teach their children, no time to instruct them in the Word of God. But these same mothers find time for needless trimming upon their own dresses and those of their children. They can find time for tucks and ruffles, even tho their own minds and the minds of their children are starved in order to follow custom and fashion. They act as tho they considered the adorning of the mind and the culture of the soul of less importance than the adornment of the apparel. Fathers and mothers, take up your long-neglected duties. Search the Scriptures yourselves; assist your children in the study of the Sacred Word. Do not send the children away by themselves to study the Bible, but read it with them; teach them in a simple manner as far as you know, and be diligent students, that you may guide them wisely. Mothers, dress yourselves and your children in modest apparel, clean and neat, but without needless trimming. When you learn to dress with conscientious plainness, you will have no excuse for being ignorant of the Scriptures. Follow Christ’s injunction, “Search the Scriptures,” then will you gain spiritual strength yourselves, and be able rightly to instruct your children. “They are they which testify of Me,” the Redeemer, Him in whom our hopes of eternal life are centered. The prayer of Christ for His disciples was, “Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy Word is truth.” If we are to be sanctified through the truth, we must have an intelligent knowledge of God’s will as revealed in His Word. We must search the Scriptures, not merely rush through a chapter, taking no pains to understand it; but we must dig for the jewel of truth, which will enrich the mind and the soul. By searching the written Word we are enabled closely to observe the divine Model. As one becomes acquainted with the history of the Redeemer, he discovers in himself serious defects of character; his unlikeness to Christ is so great that he sees the necessity for radical changes in his life. Still he studies, with a desire to become like his great Exemplar. He catches the looks, the spirit, of his beloved Master; by beholding,—“by looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith,”—he becomes changed into the same image. It is not by looking away from Him that we imitate the life of Jesus; but by talking of Him, by dwelling upon His perfections, by seeking to refine the taste and elevate the character, by trying, through faith and love and by earnest, persevering effort, to approach the perfect Pattern. Even unconsciously we imitate that with which we are familiar. By having a knowledge of Christ,—His words, His habits, and His lessons of instruction,—we instinctively borrow the virtues of the character we have so closely studied, and become imbued with the spirit which we have so much admired. Jesus becomes to us the “chiefest among ten thousand,” the One “altogether lovely.” “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” But there are very many who profess to be Christians who gratify the desires of the carnal heart in following their own inclinations; and God-given probationary time, granted them to become acquainted with the precious truths of the Bible, is devoted to the reading of fictitious tales. This habit, once formed, is overcome with difficulty; but it can be done, and it must be done by all who would gain eternal life. That mind is ruined which is allowed to be absorbed in story-reading. The imagination becomes diseased, and there is a vague unrest, a strange appetite for unwholesome mental food. Thousands are to-day in insane asylums whose minds became unbalanced by novel-reading, which results in air-castle building and a sickly sentimentalism. The Bible is the Book of books. Practise its precepts, and it will be to you life and health. “For the Lord giveth wisdom; out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.” “When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant to thy soul; discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee.” No Good Deed Dies
By Canon Farrar
No good deed dies; be it a rejoicing river, be it but a tiny rill of human nobleness, yet, so it be pure and clear, never has it been lost in the poisonous marshes or choked in the muddy sands. It flows inevitably into that great river of the water of life, which is not lost save—if that be to be lost—in the infinite ocean of God’s eternal love.—Canon Farrar. A ROYAL MESSAGE INTERCEPTED.
By H. A. St. John
To intercept mail in any government is an infraction of law with severe penalties. How much greater must be the wrong of negligently, purposely, and continually intercepting the royal mail of Heaven? Suppose the President of the United States had a message of great importance for all the people of California. He decides to send the message by a line of supposed trustworthy public servants, in high position, the last of the line being the Governor of California. Now we will suppose that the message has been carefully and promptly passed from one to another of these messengers, until it has reached the governor, who is expected to accept it for himself, as a citizen of the state to whom the message is addressed, and then without delay to give the people of his state the message. Now suppose the governor says, This message is for me, and I will absorb it for myself alone. So he intercepts this message to the people, withholding it from the hundreds of people for whom it is intended, as much as for himself. Would he not be justly accounted as guilty of a great crime, and deserving of a severe reprimand and punishment? Now the God of heaven has sent a great and important message to all the wicked and rebellious inhabitants of the world. It is a message of good news and glad tidings to all people, of every kindred and tongue. The present and eternal welfare of every soul depends upon receiving and obeying this message from the God of heaven and earth. The good message of love is not limited in its rich provisions, by caste, color, or country. The links in this royal line of communication are, God, Christ, Holy Spirit, holy angels, holy prophets, and the church of God. The message is to the unconverted, the ungodly, everywhere. With all absorbing interest, unerring accuracy, promptness and despatch, the heavenly message has reached the church. But, sad to say, the church, in the majority of its membership, has long been criminally negligent in the matter of passing the message on, without delay, to the sinful and dying world outside. They have endeavored to absorb selfishly and exclusively the good news, and by so doing bring upon themselves the guilt of intercepting the royal mail of the most royal Being in the universe. Souls are perishing everywhere for the salvation contained in this message which is intended for them, and which is being withheld, stopped in its course, by thousands of church members, every one of whom the Lord has called, appointed, and ordained, to be royal mail-carriers of a royal message to all mankind. God's great commission to His church, collectively and individually, is, Go to all the world, preach and teach the Gospel to every creature, "teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." When will the church of God arise, shake off the works of darkness, and gird on the armor of light? Condemnation for great and long-neglected duty can be removed in no other way. When will every receiver of the Gospel message cease to intercept that message in its divinely-appointed course? When we consider the world's great distress, sorrow, and need of the things this royal message freely proffers to them, and that the receiver's benefits, both for time and eternity, instead of being diminished, are greatly enhanced by telling it out with gladness, and by every means possible passing the message along to the multitudes of suffering, sinful, and dying, this great neglect seems all the more strange. Surely a fearfully blinding deception is upon all who are thus negligent. At no distant day the great message will be withdrawn. Then the church of Christ will learn the decision of the great Judge, in each individual case. Some will hear the welcome applaudit, "Well done, . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." But many will hear the awful sentence, "I never knew you; depart from Me." Dear reader, let the great truth take hold of your inmost being just now—before your opportunity is passed away forever—that it depends upon yourself now, as to which of these sentences you will hear in that great decisive day. "Are you happy in the Lord,
Tell it out with gladness;
Are you trusting in His Word,
Tell it out with gladness;
If a Saviour's love you feel,
Can your soul its power conceal?
To the world your joy reveal,
Tell it out with gladness.
"Are you walking in the light,
Tell it out with gladness;
Is your hope of glory bright,
Tell it out with gladness;
While your thoughts on Jesus dwell,
Does your soul with rapture swell?
Can you say that all is well?
Tell it out with gladness." It can easily be shown that every departure from the faith and every unscriptural ordinance that exists in the Roman Church came from the superstitions of Paganism that were absorbed and adopted. The doctrine of transubstantiation, tho formally enunciated by Pope Innocent III. in 1215 A.D., originated in Gnostic teaching, a fact not generally known, because only recently discovered. Mr. W. St. Chad Boscawen, lecturing on some remarkable Egyptian papyri in May, 1900, observed that the Gnostics borrowed from Greek, Persian; and Syriac sources. In one of their texts occurred these words, plainly written in Greek and described as being said over a cup of wine: "This is not wine; this is the blood of Osiris." Then, over a piece of bread: "This is not bread, it is the very body of Osiris," i. e., Nimrod, the Babylonian god. Some of your readers are doubtless aware that ritualistic and popish "altars" are decorated with curious symbols and cryptic letters, such as I. H. S., A. O., a round disc, an ear of corn, palms, triangles, etc. These are invested with Christian meanings, but are derived exclusively from heathen sources, through Egyptian Gnostics principally, precisely as transubstantiation is derived. Those original sources are Babylonian. Hence Babylon comes up at the last for final judgment—she has corrupted both church and the state.—Watchword and Truth. Burying the Wrongs We Have Suffered
In the very depths of yourself dig a grave. Let it be like some forgotten spot to which no path leads; and there, in the eternal silence, bury the wrongs that you have suffered. Your heart will feel as if a weight had fallen from it, and a divine peace will come to abide with you. —Selected.