Earlier text: PRESENT TRUTHThe Prophecy
By H. C. Giles
THE ANCIENT APOSTASY, A TYPE OF THE FALLING AWAY IN THE CHURCH.
[This is article eighteen, and the last of the series.] BUT the question will doubtless arise in the mind of the reader, Can it be that as soon after the establishment of the church in all the splendor and power of the Gospel, by Christ Himself, only a few short years after the apostles had ceased their labors apostasy had become so deeply seated in the church as to effect a change in the Sabbath? Let us briefly consider what was necessary for this apostasy to do its work. It was to speak things "perverse," or "turned to evil." The heart of man naturally is "prone to evil." "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." All that would be necessary, then, for the church to speak things "perverse," or "turned to evil," would be for her to lose her first love. And just in proportion as she declined in spirituality would the "falling away" be brought about and the "man of sin" be developed. That the tide of retrogression had already set in before the close of the Scripture canon, can be abundantly proved. Already in the time of the apostle were those in the church who would "pervert" the Gospel of Christ; "and no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness." 2 Cor. 11: 14, 15. Said the inspired penman: "There were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them." Let this point here be carefully noted: The experience of ancient Israel, "the church in the wilderness" (Acts 7:38), is typical of the experience of modern Israel, the Christian church. In relating God's dealings with His ancient people, the apostle declares: "Now all these things happened unto them for types; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." 1 Cor. 10:11. Therefore the church founded by Moses in the wilderness was but a type of the experience of the church of Christ. To appreciate the full significance of this, let the following comparison between the two churches, the type and antitype, be carefully studied:— Moses, the apostle of ancient Israel, warns against apostasy in the wilderness church:— "Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life; but teach them thy sons [the church], and thy sons' sons; lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the host of heaven, thou be drawn away and worship them, and serve them." "But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shall be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish." Deut. 4:9, 19 (R.V.); 20:17, 18. The wilderness church was to "take heed" lest it be "drawn away" to worship "other gods."
Sun, moon, and host of heaven were to "draw away" the church after them.
Sun-worship outside the church is Paganism. Paul, an apostle of modern Israel, warns against apostasy in the Christian church:— "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them." Acts 20:28-30. "For it will not be, except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God." 2 Thess. 2:3, 4, R.V. The Christian church was to "take heed" lest it be "drawn away" to worship a power setting itself forth as God.
Grievous wolves and men were to "draw away" the church "after them."
Sun-worship in the church is the Papacy. The Fulfilment of Prophecy.
"And the people [the wilderness church] served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that out-lived Joshua; and Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died. And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers; and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which He had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim; and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger. And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth [the sun and moon]." Judges 2:7-13. And the church served the Lord all the days of Paul, and all the days of the apostles that out-lived Paul. And Paul, the servant of the Lord, died; and also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers; and there arose another generation after them, which kept not God's Sabbath, by which alone the knowledge of God and His works can be maintained. Eze. 20:12-24. And the church did evil because of the "perverse things" spoken (Acts 20:30), and kept the sun's day; and they forsook the Sabbath of the Lord, the sign of their allegiance to the true God, and substituted the "pagan habits and ceremonies" of the people round about them, and provoked the Lord to anger; and they forsook the Lord, and worshiped the sun on the sun's day.—Ecclesiastical and Profane History. The foregoing is no fancy picture, but the plain statement of the prophecy, and its fulfilment in both the typical church and the antitype. Between the two there is perfect accord. Otherwise the wilderness church could be neither "type" nor "admonition" to the Christian church. "A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me." Acts 3:22; Deut. 18:18. As Moses was "like unto" Christ, so was the church founded by Moses a "type" of the church founded by Christ. As in the wilderness church, no sooner had its founder been removed, than the generation following relapsed into idolatry, uniting with the surrounding nations in the worship of the sun, so in the Christian church, no sooner was its Founder taken away, and His co-laborers, the apostles, passed off the stage of action, than the "mystery of iniquity" began to work and "perverse things" began to be spoken, resulting in the "falling away" of the church into adopting "habits and ceremonies" borrowed from sun-worship, chief among which was the observance of the first day of the week (the sun's day, hence Sunday) instead of the seventh, "the Sabbath day according to the commandment" of Jehovah. The Third Angel's Message.
Thus we have the issue brought plainly before us. In order that the exceeding sinfulness of sin might appear and that iniquity might be unveiled in all its enormity, God permitted the "man of sin," the very embodiment of iniquity, to be revealed in its fulness here upon the earth, in full view of all the beholding universe, for "we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men." 1 Cor. 4:9. For twelve long centuries the truth and people of God were trodden underfoot, but through it all God reserved witnesses of His truth and a remnant of His people. As in the beginning God "commanded light to shine out of darkness," so at this time, when darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people, God said, "Let there be light; and there was light." God had a message that all the world must hear. Christ was soon to come. God's downtrodden truth must rise, and the earth, as at the first, be enlightened with its glory. To prepare the way for this, the power of the Papacy was broken, and its desolations ceased A.D. 1798, as has been shown. Here, according to the prophecy, "the time of the end" (Dan. 11:33, 35) was to begin. At this time the prophetic book was opened, and many ran "to and fro," searching through its sacred pages for light and truth. Dan. 12:4. Studying these prophecies, it was seen that the longest prophetic period, reaching to God's appointed time for the judgment of the world (Acts 17:31) and the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary (Dan. 8:14), closed in 1844. At that time a heaven-sent message began to be proclaimed with a loud voice throughout the world, the burden of which was, "Fear God [not the apostate "man of sin"], and give glory to Him [by honoring His Sabbath instead of the institution of the apostasy]; for the hour of His judgment is come; and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." Rev. 14:7. That reference is here made to God's down-trodden Sabbath, is evident; for in the Sabbath precept alone God appears as Creator, and the Sabbath alone is the sign of His creatorship. Hence this message is a heaven-sent call to "every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people," to recognize their allegiance to their Creator by observing His rest-day. But this is not all. Another message, the third and last, follows, saying:— "If any man worship the beast [the papal system] and his image [something embodying like principles], and receive his mark [the observance of Sunday, the sign of papal authority, against God's warnings] in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation." Rev. 14:9, 10. This is Mercy's last warning to a world in rebellion against the government of heaven. That the Sabbath is the point at issue in the message, appears again from the fact that those who receive it are designated as "they that keep [not simply nine, but all ten, of] the commandments of God." Rev. 14:12. God's true saints, or "holy ones," in the last days will keep all His holy commandments, as they have ever sought to do. The institution through which the knowledge of God is communicated to man, is the Sabbath; therefore the saints keep the true Sabbath. It is for this reason that the Papacy formerly sought to corrupt and destroy all in her power. Dan. 7:21; 8:24. And when in the providence of God other saints are raised up to communicate the knowledge of God to a world in darkness, "the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God." Rev. 12:17. Thus the Sabbath is the testing truth in the "remnant" church. Fear God and keep all His commandments and enter into life, or worship the beast of apostasy by observing a false institution instead of Jehovah's rest-day, and perish at last, is the alternative brought before us in Mercy's last warning from heaven. Reader, which will you choose? The Second Coming of Jesus Christ
By H. M. Butler
THERE is a second coming of Jesus Christ. It is often spoken of by the name of the “second advent.” “We believe that He will come to be our judge.” This human life of ours on earth is not intended by God, who gave it, to last forever. Here it is stamped by three dark shadows: the shadow of sin, the shadow of sorrow, and the awful shadow of death. They will not be forever. There will be a close of what is, expressively, if not unconsciously, called this earthly “scene;” and then a great change will come. Jesus Christ will be revealed, to good and bad alike, with a “glorious majesty” that may be either feared or welcomed, but can not be questioned or ignored. “Heaven and earth shall pass away; but My words shall not pass away.”—Rev. H. M. Butler. THE FUTURE OF OUR COUNTRY.
IN the last two issues of the SIGNS we have considered the basic principles upon which this government was founded, the blessed freedom these principles produced, and the indications of departure therefrom. It was shown that the Scriptures had foretold all these things: the rise of the government, and the truly Christian principles which should give it life,—principles which if they had been followed would have perpetuated a free government forever. The divine prophecy also shows that the government founded on Christlike principles should speak as a dragon, in other words, become a persecutor. It should also make an image to the beast which preceded it. The beast preceding it was Papal Rome, combining in its complex, diverse nature the characteristics of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Grecia and Pagan Rome. It was the merging of an imperial despotism of an empire into the imperial despotism of a church. The two united, persecuted and put to death myriads of the saints of God. An image to that beast would be a union of Church and State in this nation, a repudiation of its fundamental principles of government as set forth in the Declaration of Independence and its Constitution. There must be a union of religion with the State in a political way before there can be legal persecution, or the speaking like a dragon. A church not connected with the State can not persecute. A State not connected with a church will not persecute. Neither will a true republic or democracy persecute. Counting all men as equals in respect to their natural rights, a true republic can never assume to legislate respecting man's religion or take the responsibility of directing it. All these things the founders of our government left to man and his God. Furthermore, a spirit of all-controlling greed is inimical to the life of a republic. Greed wants all. It is imperial in its nature. And where greed corners the markets, crushes out small manufacturers and tradesmen, combines and controls markets and men, it fosters imperialism and is death to a republic. Its spirit soon permeates Church and State, and individualism is lost in the mad race for money and power. So it went with Rome from the last days of the republic. So it is going in an ever-augmenting ratio in this land of America to-day. Here is a picture, taken from Froude's introduction to Cæsar, where is discussed the causes of the dissolution of the Roman Republic. With the exception of a few terms, it reads like a chapter of current events:— "To the student of political history, and to the English student above all others, the conversion of the Roman Republic into a military empire commands a peculiar interest. Notwithstanding many differences, the English and the Romans essentially resembled one another. The early Romans possessed the faculty of self-government beyond any people of whom we have historical knowledge, with the one exception of ourselves. In virtue of their temporal freedom, they became the most powerful nation in the known world; and their liberties perished only when Rome became the mistress of conquered races, to whom she was unable or unwilling to extend her privileges. "If there be one lesson which history clearly teaches, it is this, that free nations can not govern subject provinces. If they are unable or unwilling to admit their dependencies to share their own constitution, the constitution itself will fall in pieces from mere incompetence for its duties. . . . "Amidst the endless variety of circumstances there are constant phenomena which give notice of approaching danger; there are courses of action which have uniformly produced the same results; and the wise politicians are those who have learned from experience the real tendencies of things, until misled by superficial differences, who can shun the rocks where others have been wrecked, or, from foresight of what is coming, can be cool when the peril is upon them. "For these reasons the fall of the Roman Republic is exceptionally instructive to us. A constitutional government, the most enduring and the most powerful that ever existed, was put on its trial and found wanting. We see it in its growth; we see the causes which undermined its strength. We see attempts to check the growing mischief fail, and we see they failed. "With such vividness, with such transparent clearness, the age stands before us of Cato and Pompey, of Cicero and Julius Cæsar; the more distinctly because it was an age in so many ways the counterpart of our own, the blossoming period of the old civilization, when the intellect was trained to the highest point which it could reach; and on the great subjects of human interest, on morals and politics, on poetry and art, even religion itself and the speculative problems of life, men thought as we think, doubted where we doubt, argued as we argue, aspired and struggled after the same objects. "It was an age of material progress and material civilization; an age of civil liberty and intellectual culture; an age of pamphlets and epigrams, of saloons and of dinner parties, of senatorial majorities and electoral corruption. "The highest offices of State were open in theory to the meanest citizen; they were confined, in fact, to those who had the longest purses, or the most ready use of the tongue on popular platforms. Distinctions of birth had been exchanged for distinctions of wealth. "The struggles between plebians and patricians for equality of privilege were over, and a new division had been formed between the party of property and a party who desired a change in the structure of society. The free cultivators were disappearing from the soil. "Patriotism survived on the lips, but patriotism meant the ascendancy of the party which would maintain the existing order of things or would overthrow it for a more equal distribution of the good things which alone were valued. "Religion, once the foundation of the laws and rule of personal conduct, had subsided into opinion. The educated, in their hearts, disbelieved it. Temples were still built with increasing splendor; the established forms were scrupulously observed. Public men spoke conventionally of Providence, that they might throw on their opponents the odium of impiety; but of genuine belief that life had any serious meaning, there was none remaining beyond the circle of the silent, patient, ignorant multitude. "The whole spiritual atmosphere was saturated with cant—cant moral, cant political, cant religious; an affectation of high principle which had ceased to touch the conduct and flowed on in an increasing volume of insincere and unreal speech. "Tendencies now in operation may a few generations hence land modern society in similar conclusions unless other convictions revive meanwhile and get the mastery of them, of which possibility no more need be said than this: that unless there be such revival in some shape or other the forces, whatever they be, which control the forms in which human things adjust themselves will make an end again, as they made an end before, of what are called free institutions. "To make money—money by any means, lawful or unlawful—became the universal passion. Money! The cry was still money! Money was the one thought from the highest senator to the poorest wretch who sold his vote in the Comitia. "For money, judges gave unjust decrees and juries gave corrupt verdicts. Governors held their provinces for one, two or three years. They went out bankrupt from extravagance; they returned with millions for fresh riot. "The opportunities, opened for men to advance their fortunes in other parts of the world, drained Italy of many of the most enterprising citizens. The grandsons of the yeomen who had held at bay Pyrrhus and Hannibal sold their farms and went away. The small holdings merged rapidly into large estates bought up by the Roman capitalists. . . . Everywhere the small farmers were disappearing, and the soil of Italy was fast passing into the hands of a few territorial magnates. "The multitude was kept quiet by the morsels of meat which were flung to it when it threatened to be troublesome. The seven thousand in Israel, the few, who in all States and in all times remained pure in the midst of evil, looked on with disgust, fearing that any remedy which they might try might be worse than the disease. . . . "The nobles and great commoners of Rome rapidly found themselves in possession of revenues which their fathers could not have imagined in their dreams, and money in the stage of progress at which Rome had arrived was convertible into power. To obtain a province was the first ambition of a Roman noble. The road to it lay through the prætorship and the consulship; these offices, therefore, became the prizes of the State; and, being in the gift of the people, they were sought after by means which demoralized alike the givers and the receivers. The elections were managed by clubs and coteries; and, except on occasions of national danger or political excitement, those who spent most freely were most certain of success. Under these conditions the chief powers in the commonwealth necessarily centered in the rich. There was no longer an aristocracy of birth, still less of virtue. . . . The door of promotion was open to all who had the golden key. The great commoners bought their way into the magistracies. From the magistracies they passed into the Senate; and the Roman senator, tho in Rome itself and in free debate among his colleagues he was handled as an ordinary man, when he traveled had the honors of a sovereign. "The proud privilege of Roman citizenship was still jealously reserved to Rome itself and a few favored towns and colonies; and a mere subject could maintain no rights against a member of the haughty oligarchy, which controlled the civilized world." How it reads like a chapter in American political life, doesn't it? He who is familiar with Roman history sees it repeated in America to-day. Said America's greatest historian, John Clark Ridpath, in September, 1898:—7 "A revolution is at the door. It impends like a cloud on the horizon. Whether we shall accept it and its results remains to be determined; but that a great transformation of political society is in the dawn let no man longer doubt. What a few thinkers have been able to foresee and foretell, and what they have been ridiculed for foreseeing and foretelling, has risen like an exhalation of the night. The swift whirl of events, becoming even swifter, has brought the apprehended change upon us, and ere the century closes we are obliged, looking around upon what is virtually the wreck of our old-time institutions, to see arising over them the spectre of Imperialism. "The proposition to transform the American Republic into an empire is not only put forth, but it has the support of all the special interests in the United States. . . . They do not openly propose, any more than the leaders at Rome proposed at the middle of the first century B.C., to cast aside the name of the republic and adopt the name of the empire; but they proceed insidiously to use the old terminology and to discard the facts. The democracy of the New World is to be deceived with the retention of the name of the Republic while the Republic is robbed of its character and substance. "As evidences of this is set forth "insular ambition—a craving for the acquisition of territories in the ocean;" "political ambition;" "an increase of political power;" and "the rule of money over manhood." He might have added an indication of an element far more potent, the constant effort and combination of religious bodies to suppress religious freedom, having Sunday laws for its center, and which can never be made effectively operative save under an imperialism. We were told in the beginning of the Spanish-American War, in December, 1897, by the chief magistrate of this government, that "forcible annexation can not be thought of; that, by our code of morality, would be criminal aggression." And he was right. But what was true as to Cuba was just as true as to Porto Rico and the Philippines. But both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution have been repudiated or ignored in the government of the United States for many months, at first as of necessity, but latterly openly. A people who for hundreds of years waged war against the despotism of Spain's imperialism, and especially the religious despotism which Spain fostered; a people who, looking across the broad Pacific and seeing the great free Republic of the West basking in security, having religion without a pope, a government without a king, founded the first Asiatic republic, were purchased with their land, and forced again under the religious yoke from which they sought to free themselves. Upon Porto Rico was levied taxes without her consent. She was subject to the United States, but not under the protection of its Constitution. Says a noted publicist, a former United States minister to Spain, an ex-major-general in the army and United States senator, a member of President Hayes' Cabinet:— "Can you be blind to the effects which the tendencies of imperialism are already exercising among ourselves upon the popular mind? Do you not hear the scoffing levity with which the Declaration of Independence and the high ideals of liberty and human rights which have so long been sacred to our people are made sport of; how the teachings of Washington and Lincoln are derided as antiquated nursery rhymes, and how the Constitution, when it stands in the way of grasping schemes, is lightly brushed aside? . . . Nothing can be more dangerous in a democracy like ours than the prevalence of the notion that might is right—a notion involving the worst kind of anarchy, above and below. And that principle is preached and proclaimed every day by this imperialistic policy." We are not attacking the politics of the matter. With that we have nothing to do. We are simply showing that this great Republic, in harmony with the prophecy of Inspiration, is repudiating the very basic principles of its existence, and is becoming an imperialism. Israel of old wished to become like the nations around her. She did so to her own undoing. America in her splendid providential isolation has been the wonder of the world, the cynosure of liberty to the oppressed, a means in God's providence in influencing the nations of earth to higher, better thought and broader liberties. She has been admired and loved. But now, in her desire to become like the nations, she has broken her bonds of peace, has descended from her elevation of strength, and has launched herself upon the great, troublous sea of international strife. And this is to the undoing of the Republic. The Republic still exists in name; the Empire is here. More than this, the language of imperialism is becoming common. We read in the papers of the "court" at Washington. The authorities in the Philippines are sending out to school superintendents in this country circulars, which begin as follows:— "United States Military Government in the Philippines, Department Public Instruction.—A Department of Public Instruction for the Philippines has just been established, and I write to ask if you can aid us in the civilization of this new part of our EMPIRE by sending such reports, bulletins, school laws, etc., now or to be issued, as you may have for distribution?" Back of all this in Satan's plan lies the religious question. The United States Supreme Court affirmed in 1892 that "this is a Christian nation." The next year both the legislative and executive branches of this government committed itself to the principle of religious legislation, the union of religion with the State. The Sunday-law workers of the country, the National Reform organizations, are endeavoring to enforce religious dogmas by law upon the conscience of free men. But Sunday laws are practically inoperative, and always will be in a true republic. But let imperialism rule, let the equal rights of men be ignored, as they are coming to be more and more, and the dragon voice of imperialism will be heard, and God's children will be persecuted for conscience' sake. The image to the beast will enforce the laws of men that have made void God's law, and enforce the mark of the beast and his image upon all. This is the meaning of the prophecy and history. As surely as we have seen the first, we shall see the second. God faithfully warns all, and points us to the same Refuge—Jesus Christ, His righteousness, and everlasting kingdom. It is not a hard task to obey God if we will only let Him write His law in the heart. If we look at His commandments through carnal eyes, they are arbitrary, and the heart rises in rebellion against them; because "the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." To such God's commands will always seem an intolerable yoke. But to him who sees in them the wishes of a loving Father for His children's good, all His requirements become a delight, blessed promises of assurance, enabling acts of power. How do you receive His law? Is it as a rebel, or a loyal subject? It makes all the difference in the world in the results. Laying on of Hands
By Editor
“Timothy was admonished (1 Tim. 4: 14) not to neglect the laying on of hands; and in 2 Tim. 1: 6 Paul says, ‘Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.’ I think that I, with many others, need to have that gift stirred up, if we have ever had it. If the laying on of hands was practised in the first centuries of the Christian church, why is it not practised now on all the household of faith?” We will reply to our correspondent briefly. 1. The testimony of the “fathers” is of but little worth. They give us an idea of what some practised in the times they wrote, but they are no authority whatever for what the Lord requires. For that we must go to His Word. As soon as a church backslides, it loses sight of the spiritual meanings of God’s symbols and ordinances, and superstitiously exalts the mere ceremony, adding to it, as human wisdom always does, thinking thereby to make it more sacred. And so the heathen philosophers who came into the church, among whom were some of the early “fathers,” perverted to a greater or less extent every part of the Christian system. Are not the Scriptures sufficient? 2. Of the passages cited above, only three have direct reference to the laying on of hands, at all. Laying on of hands for blessing, for healing, for ordination, for the bestowal of the gift of the Spirit, is mentioned in the New Testament in the aggregate twenty-one times. Two of these refer to the blessing of children (Matt. 19: 13, 15; Mark 10: 16); eight times refer to healing; four times refer to ordination to specific work; namely, Acts 6: 6; 13: 3; 1 Tim. 4: 14; 5: 22, and perhaps Heb. 6: 2. The following are records of instances in which the Holy Ghost was given by the laying on of hands: Acts 8: 17-19; 9: 17; 19: 6; 2 Tim. 1: 6, and perhaps Heb. 6: 2. 3. Our correspondent should remember the apostle’s instruction to Timothy, “Consider what I say.” He does not say “Neglect not the laying on of hands,” but, “Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery,” referring to Timothy’s ordination to the ministry. The laying on of hands was one thing, the gift another. The one was the means, the other the result. Neither is the gift stirred up by the laying on of hands, but by faithfully using it for God. God bestows His Spirit upon us for service. It will not be until we are ready for service for Him alone, that He will bestow it. And then in order to hold it we must use it. In order to keep it we must give it. 4. Sometimes the people of God received the gift of the Spirit by the laying on of hands, as recorded in Acts 8: 17 and 19: 6; sometimes, and more frequently, without such interposition, as at Pentecost (Acts 2: 5); at the house of Cornelius (Acts 10: 44), and doubtless in many other cases. 5. Is not the Spirit needed now?—Most certainly, as never before in the history of the church. How shall it be obtained?—By faith, and faith implies absolute separation from sin and complete consecration to God. The Son of God “emptied” Himself, and the Spirit filled Him. “Let this mind be in you.” God will guide as to the particular means in each case when the heart is right. Get the heart right by putting away all sin and worldliness, washed in the blood of the Lamb, then seek for the Spirit. “Ask ye for rain in the time of the latter rain.” But ask for God’s glory. 1068. R. T. Eternal Life and the Commandments.—There is eternal life in the keeping of the commandments. “Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And He said, . . . If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” Matt. 19: 16, 17. See also Deut. 11: 18-21; Lev. 18: 5; Deut. 30: 19, 20. But the only way that one can keep the commandments is through Jesus Christ, and the power of His Spirit in the Gospel. Rom. 1: 16, 17; 8: 4. 1069. S. J. B. Satan Expelled from Heaven.—The first casting out of heaven was when his sin and rebellion were made manifest. 2 Peter 2: 4. In that rebellion he drew one-third of the angels, now demons. Rev. 12: 4, first part. Usurping man’s rule of the earth he still, in a way, as representing this world, came among the sons of God before the Lord. Job 2: 1. Knowing that the Son of God was to come in human form, he waited for Him to be born, hoping to destroy the race in one effort. And the latter part of verse 4 to verse 12 gives the result. While God could see and know the outcome of Satan’s rebellion, the heavenly world were in doubt till he caused to be put to death the Son of God. Then Satan was cast out. 1070. J. C. S. Dan. 11: 36.—The power that exalts itself above all that is called God or that is worshiped (2 Thess. 2: 4) is surely in that place where he will not “regard any god; for he shall magnify himself above all.” This is just the thing ascribed to the man of sin by Paul. 1071. A Subscriber. Swearing.—Matt. 5: 34 and James 5: 12 refer to extra-judicial oaths, to uncalled-for swearing. As to regular judicial, solemn asseverations, our Lord took oath before the high priest, and God swore by Himself in His promise to Abraham. (2) If a commandment-keeper was drawn on a jury or as a witness on the Sabbath, he should explain to the court his conscientious convictions, and if the court insisted that he should serve, he should kindly and firmly refuse to serve on the Sabbath. Should he be punished for contempt of court, let him bear it like a man for Christ’s sake. The Language of Peace
By Editor
The Language of Peace.—Referring to the “conviction” of Bishop Fowler that the Anglo-Saxon race “is to keep the world’s peace, and soon it will be true that not a soldier will lift his foot unless the command is given in the English language,” Ambrose Bierce remarks that “it looks as if not a soldier would grow gray waiting for the command. . . . It is a great language; it has the richest military vocabulary of any in the world. And it lends itself with a glib facility to fool prophecies of universal peace.” All of which is true. Mr. Bierce continues: “There is a tongue in which, so far as we know, no military commands were ever thundered forth—in which great State papers were never written—in which rulers of provinces and colonies never received their instructions from beyond the sea; a tongue whose words are not found inscribed in shouting characters on triumphal arches and the tombs of conquerors. That language is Aramaic—the mother tongue of Jesus Christ. It is not much spoken to-day, and does not appear to be spreading. The world is not taking very kindly to the language of the Prince of Peace.” And it is all too true. But the language of Jesus Christ is being written into characters—characters which will live, rejoice, and grow when all the crumbling arches of military triumph and glory shall have crumbled into dust.