Earlier text: What Is My Lord to You?The Healing Message
By Prof. L. A. Reed
It is a matter of history that during the Dark Ages God's church was not at all the power she had been in the days of the apostles. As predicted in prophecy, the woman, the church, had been driven into the wilderness, to remain there in seclusion 1260 years. But at length the light broke amidst the darkness. True to the promise of God, the two witnesses, the Word of God composed of Old and New Testament, were again to be exalted to heaven. God had a message for His humiliated, overburdened church — a message of hope, a message of healing. The church which had been corrupted during these ages of oppression God calls Babylon. This name had been given to the people of the earth at the time of the confusion of the tongues at the building of the tower of Babel. The word means "confusion," and aptly designated the confused condition when the workmen, not understanding one another, had to cease the united work of building. So in figure the word Babylon is applied to the church in which a confusion of religious belief and conduct exists. This is plain enough from the one scripture, "Fallen, fallen, is Babylon the great. . . . Come forth, My people, out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." Rev. 18:2, 4. It is thus apparent that God's people are in Babylon, and that He calls them forth; that it is a place where sin exists, and in time God's judgments will be visited upon it. There is no city or nation by the name of Babylon that could be meant by this prophecy; for Babylon the city and nation have been inconsequential for ages, and even years antedating the Christian era. And so to the Lord's sin-laden church comes the message of reformation. It began in the time of Luther and other noble men of God who took their stand upon the pure Word of God. Had the good work thus begun continued until our day, Babylon would have been healed, unity would have taken the place of confusion, harmony would have conquered discord. But the work did not continue. The message from God's Word was not followed out in all its fulness. Men became followers of men and of men's teachings rather than the followers of the Word. "We would have healed Babylon," says the Lord, "but she is not healed; forsake her." Jer. 51:9. To heal Babylon could mean only to bring unity out of her confusion. But to unify Babylon means to bring all God's children to a unity of the faith. And this unity of the faith can come only by all accepting the standard given in the Word. Thus we get unity in the commercial world when all accept the standard weights and measures, and all buy and sell by the one standard. The Only Standard Requisite
And similarly we can have unity of belief and practise in the church, only by one standard. Manifestly this standard can not emanate from any human being. We can not take the standard of even a Luther and call ourselves Lutherans, for example, without being in confusion. Luther followed the light he had, but he did not have all the light. He came out, far out, from the darkness of the Dark Ages, the errors of the Papacy; but there was to be continual advancement by his disciples until they arrived at a pure faith. Practically all that the adherents of Luther and Wesley and others saw of light from the Word, was the great doctrine of righteousness by faith. And while in a sense this is all the light, yet, so understood, it comprehends all the Word of God. And the followers of that doctrine did not follow out all its meanings into all parts of the great Book of God. That message, that healing message, comprehended much that God's people have failed to receive. They have not walked out in the full light of the Gospel message. We will enumerate some of the points which that message covers. We will enumerate some of the conditions which God by this Word would have healed. 1. First there is the great light which the Word sheds upon the creative act. God made the world in six days. So viewed, we see the almightiness of God's Word which speaks the world and all therein into existence. This truth fully grasped and fully kept is the bulwark against all scientific speculation and agnosticism whatsoever. 2. This truth is directly connected with a memorial that can not be ignored if the first truth would be retained. God made this world in six ordinary days, and, that man might never forget it, set His Sabbath, the seventh day, to mark off all future six days, and end these six days by a weekly cycle. Thus time forever bears impression from God of what He did in time at the beginning of the world. Not to observe the day which memorializes God's creative power is to question, sooner or later, the might of that creative power. In refusing to observe the day thus sanctified by the work and Word of God, the people of God, vast hosts of them, are turning from that Word and that mighty power that worked then and works still, and are turning to the fables of science and false philosophy. 3. But the world at large, the vast majority of God's professed children included, have taken the word of scientists who say that God did not make the world in six ordinary days; that the world was ages in progressive building, and power at any time exercised was therefore proportionately less. And so there is by them seen no need to observe the seventh day, which alone commemorates that power. But this has brought them a step further, where, having rejected the miracle of creation, they are ready to reject all miracles and all miraculous working. This means the rejection of the divinity of Christ, and the failure to receive His sin-conquering power into the life. And all these errors the acceptance of the Gospel message would have prevented. 4. And the Gospel, in presenting the divinity of Christ, presents Him as Creator and as Redeemer; and thus the creative power of God and His redeeming power are seen to be one and the same. And thus the Gospel message brings healing and unity to all who receive it. 5. This light upon the work and nature of Christ, fully followed, leads us to the knowledge of His present office and work in the heavenly sanctuary. This leads away from the error of placing the complete atonement at the cross, and saves from the two extremes of Universalism and Calvinism. God neither saves all sinners nor does He elect any for damnation. Even so we are saved from confusion; that is, from Babylon. 6. But this light upon the office and work of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary saves from the mistake of supposing that the saints are rewarded at death. And this in turn shows us that death is not an entrance immediately into life. Thus the nature of man is comprehended. Thus the fact of immortality only through Christ is discerned. Thus the punishment of the wicked is comprehended. 7. And we may further say, out of this understanding of the recompense of saints and sinners, which is but a full understanding of the sacrificial work of Christ, a right understanding of the second advent is gained, and the true setting of all events connected with it are closely and distinctly arrayed before the mind. Thus wrong teachings regarding the millennium and regarding Jewish restoration and age-to-come teachings are eradicated. By this view of God's work and Word as presented by the Gospel, we see the unity of that Word and work for every age. The first advent was not an abrupt change in the work of God, but an unfolding of His work. The appearance of Christ was the fulfillment, the budding flower from the Old Testament stem. And this same unity of thought and purpose comes into the lives of the believers. The unity of the Word and the unity of the Spirit are exemplified in a unity of belief and conduct. And this unity of belief and conduct on the part of God's children — this oneness of mind and character, the oneness of Christ's mind and character — puts them at once out of Babylon, which is confusion, into Christ, who is unity and harmony forevermore. "We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her." "Come forth, my people, out of her." "Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be to you a Father, and ye shall be to Me sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." 1. In what time of the world's history are we living?
"But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to THE TIME OF THE END; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." Dan. 12: 4. NOTE.—Following the evidence Biblically, from whatever standpoint we will, we are brought in every case to the same conclusion; namely, that we are in "the last days," "the time of the end." More than twelve lines of prophecy clearly show that we are nearing the end of earth's history. A score or more of special signs, pointing conditions in the political, the social, the physical, the religious worlds, add their united and cumulative testimony that the end of the ages is upon us, and that the dissolution of earth's present drama is soon to close in awful tragedy and sublime triumph—tragedy for the wrong, triumph for the right. And we may "know" this is so. Nay, more, the great Teacher has commanded us to know. "When ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors." Matt. 24:33. And again and again His apostles have told us the same thing, as, for instance, "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day [the great day of God's judgment] should overtake you as a thief." 1 Thess. 5:4. It is upon those who shall say "Peace and safety," that "sudden destruction cometh," "and they shall not escape." Verse 3. God has done His part to enlighten us regarding "present truth;" are we setting it aside for "cunningly devised fables"? Condition of the Religious World
2. What is declared to be the condition of the professedly religious world in the last days?
"This KNOW also, that IN THE LAST DAYS perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; HAVING A FORM OF GODLINESS, but DENYING THE POWER THEREOF: from such turn away." 2 Tim. 3: 1-5.
"I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of My mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." Rev. 3:15-17. NOTE.—Such passages might be greatly multiplied. It is a sad, sad fact that from all parts of Christendom goes up the cry that
"The church has fallen, the beautiful church,
And her shame is her boast and pride."
Higher criticism has unsettled the faith of millions in the Bible, and the religious profession is all that marks the difference between professed Christians and the world. The power of godliness lies in the creative, regenerating energy of the Gospel; but the basic facts of the Gospel—the incarnation, the atonement, the resurrection—are set aside, and evolution has come in to take their place. Pleasures, in a more refined form perhaps, but equally selfish and sensuous, are what the many are seeking as truly as the people of the world are seeking them. The same sins ascribed in 2 Tim. 3:1-5, quoted above, are the sins which possessed the pagan world in the days of the apostle. See Rom. 1:28-32. Jesus truly said of these days: "And because iniquity [lawlessness] shall abound, the love of many [the many] shall wax cold." Matt. 24:12. Division in belief, in great essential truths, such as the coming of the Lord, the nature of man, the punishment of the wicked, the reward of the righteous, the law of God, the Sabbath, baptism, characterizes the professed church of Christ, till her creeds are as numerous as her costly towers, and the only successful efforts at union are brought about by the ignoring of great essential truths of the Bible. 3. What is bound to follow when such conditions exist?
"Where envying and strife is, there is CONFUSION and every evil work." James 3:16.
4. What is God's desire concerning His children?
"That they all may be ONE; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be ONE IN US: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that THEY MAY BE ONE, EVEN AS WE ARE ONE: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and8 that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me." John 17: 21-23. God’s Desire Concerning Babylon
5. How does Inspiration designate the present divided condition in the religious world? —“Babylon.”
God does not use the term “Babylon,” meaning “confusion,” as a term of condemnation, but to show the division and confusion which exist among His followers who ought to be ONE. 6. What has ever been God’s purpose concerning Babylon?
“Take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed. We would have HEALED Babylon.” Jer. 51: 8, 9. NOTE.—The origin of earthly Babylon (or Babel, meaning confusion) is found in Gen. 11:1-9. It is here shown, in connection with the cuneiform records left us, that Babylon’s origin was in the perversion of God’s plan. To glorify Him is His purpose; glorify self, said Babylon. Scatter abroad is His command; keep together and make us a name, said Babylon. So they built a tower and glorified themselves, and called it Bab-il, the “Gate of God.” That was their means of salvation instead of simple faith in God. But God called their effort, their plan, their perversion of His ways, Babylon, confusion. And the perpetuation of Babylonian ideas is the same to-day. 7. What message has God given for the healing of present-day Babylon?
“AND I SAW ANOTHER ANGEL FLY IN THE MIDST OF HEAVEN, HAVING THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL TO PREACH UNTO THEM THAT DWELL ON THE EARTH, AND TO EVERY NATION, AND KINDRED, AND TONGUE, AND PEOPLE, SAYING WITH A LOUD VOICE, FEAR GOD, AND GIVE GLORY TO HIM; 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: 6, 7. NOTE.—Angels of God heralded the Gospel when Christ was born. God’s messengers of heaven co-operate with God’s messengers and servants of earth. Spiritual forces, clad in power and light, are coworkers with every true child of God. Heb. 1:14. Spirits of evil are cooperating with all the forces of evil in the perversion and opposition of truth. (There will be many references to the above scripture.) 8. What is this message?
“The everlasting GOSPEL.” 9. What is the Gospel?
“The POWER OF GOD unto SALVATION to every one that BELIEVETH.” Rom. 1:16. 10. What is this power?
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature [“there is a new creation,” A.R.V., margin].” 2 Cor. 5:17. NOTE.—Not in the fables of evolution, or the slow progress of ages of reincarnations, or the scientific “divine immanence” in every man, or in the dreamy vagueness of “Christian Science,” does God give us to hope, but in the creative power of His Gospel is His reform message for this time founded. 11. How far will this message go?
To every part of the world’s Babylon, “to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.” 12. What is one emphatic demand of that message?
“FEAR GOD.”
“Behold, the FEAR OF THE LORD, THAT IS WISDOM; and to depart from evil is understanding.” Job 28: 28; Ps. 111:10; Prov. 1: 7; 9:10. 13. To whom alone should glory be given?
“Give glory to HIM.”
“Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name.” Ps. 96: 8. NOTE.—It requires no spiritual perception to see that in the present plans and desires of men to save or comfort the sinful, the creature is glorified rather than the Creator. God is no longer to many a personal Father, but an abstraction. His Word is no longer spirit and life, but a more or less fabulous tradition. The higher critics, Mrs. Eddy, the apostles of new thought, the speculators in evolution, are glorified, while the Gospel message of the Bible is set aside. “Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils,” and turn to the living God. 14. What reason is given as to why we should fear God?
“FOR THE HOUR OF HIS JUDGMENT IS COME.” 15. What did Paul say of the judgment in his day?
“He hath APPOINTED A DAY, in the which He WILL judge the world.” Acts 17: 31.
“He reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and JUDGMENT TO COME.” Acts 24: 25. NOTE.—When the message of Revelation goes to the world, it will not be to proclaim a judgment afar off, one to come, but a judgment impending. This message began at the close of the prophetic period of Dan. 8:14, “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Those days ended in 1844. See SIGNS OF THE TIMES of January 5. The cleansing of the sanctuary represented Christ’s closing work, when “the mystery of God should be finished, as He hath declared to His servants the prophets.” Rev. 10:7. The close of every probationary work is a judgment, and even thus the Gospel shall close. Rom. 2:16. That judgment will precede its execution at the second coming of Christ; for the righteous dead are not raised and then judged; but their cases are first examined, then adjudged; those “accounted worthy” have part in the first resurrection, and are raised immortal. Luke 20:25; 1 Cor. 15:51, 52. That investigation and determination of cases began in 1844, naturally with the first of the sleeping dead, and will proceed till the case of the last of the living is decided. That time we know not. “Be ye also ready.” 16. What should we do in view of that judgment?
“WORSHIP HIM.” 17. What only is true worship?
“Thou shalt WORSHIP THE LORD THY GOD, and HIM ONLY shalt thou SERVE.” Matt. 4:10.
“Why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and DO NOT the things which I say?” Luke 6: 46.
“If ye LOVE ME, KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS.” John 14:15. 18. Whom are we to worship?
THE CREATOR. “Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” 19. What is the distinguishing mark between the true God and the false gods?
“For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD [JEHOVAH] MADE THE HEAVENS.” Ps. 96: 5. See also Jer. 10:10-12; Acts 14:15; 17: 24-26. 20. What special memorial of His creative works and sign of His re-creative, sanctifying power has the Creator given?
“REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord [Jehovah] thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the LORD MADE HEAVEN AND EARTH, THE SEA, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: WHEREFORE the Lord blessed the SABBATH DAY, AND HALLOWED IT.” Ex. 20: 8-11.
“Moreover also I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might KNOW that I am the LORD that SANCTIFY them.” Eze. 20:12. NOTE.—He only who recognizes the true power of the Gospel, can be a true Sabbath-keeper. He only can know the true rest—wrought by the creative power of God—there is in Christ Jesus. 21. What then does that Gospel message comprehend?
“All things that pertain unto life and godliness.” 2 Peter 1:3. NOTE.—Every positive truth of the saving, sanctifying power of God. It means the giving up of all human devices, the setting aside of all creeds, and the submission of every tradition of theory or practice to a “Thus saith the Lord.” “Old-fashioned,” “out-of-date,” “antiquated,” “the religion of a book,” “the worship of a book,” “Jewish,” and many other kindred terms of reproach will be heaped upon it; nevertheless the religion of the Book is what regenerates and saves men from sin. It may be the weakness and foolishness of God, but it is stronger and wiser than men. 1 Cor. 1:25-31. A Blade of Grass
By Eugene Rowell
I CLIMBED far up on the rugged steep
Of a high and lonely hill,
Where the summer sun shone bright and hot,
And the winter winds blew chill.
Up there on the mountain’s rock-strewn side,
Where the wild crags darkly frowned,
In a tiny cleft of the barren rock,
A blade of grass I found. Again, when a season had passed, I climbed
Up the mountain’s rocky side;
And looking around on the scene, I found
That the little plant had died.
But not in vain had it lived; for there,
Where once was the blade of green,
With firm roots pressed in the widening cleft
A sturdy young tree was seen. Then I thought of the men who in ages past
Like the blade of grass had been;
Who had lived and died in a narrow cleft
In a world of strife and sin.
They lived and died; but there followed the tree,
Defiant to gale and storm,
That had riven the rock of a tyrant’s power—
The giant oak, Reform. O, a seed of truth, by a careful hand,
Or as if by the mild winds, sown,
In the rocks of Error will root and grow,
Till it severs the hindering stone;
And a thought, or a word, or a deed of love,
Tho it falls on the rocks of Hate,
Will grow and burst through its prison walls,
Till a tree stands proud and great. Toiler, thy life, in its narrow sphere,
A grander thing may be,
In the plan of the growth of the tree of Truth,
Than at present it seems to thee.
Some deed, or a thought by chance expressed,
Or a task that thou hast done,
May open the way to a better day
For the ones who follow on.
EUGENE ROWELL. The First Hebrew Printing Press
REGGIO, the Italian city on Sicily which was recently devastated by the earthquake, was the seat of the first Hebrew printing-press. There in 1475 the first printed book in the Hebrew language—Rashi's commentary on the Pentateuch without text—was issued from the press. From Reggio the printing of Hebrew books spread throughout Italy, and the celebrated family of printers, Soncino, carried the Hebrew printing-press to Constantinople.—Hebrew Standard. God's Message for This Time
By M. C. Wilcox
GOD is one. Normally, His universe is one, bound together by the life which is in Him. The myriad suns and countless spheres are all of one, as truly as the members of a man's body are one. If one suffer, all partake of that suffering. God's everlasting purpose is to "gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on the earth" (Eph. 1: 9, 10), and to hold them together by the bonds of His all-comprehending life and all-comprehending law throughout all eternity. Sin has seemed to thwart the Perfect Purpose. Where we look for union, we find division. When we seek strength and stability, we find weakness and wavering. We look for gladness of heart, and find grief of soul. We hope for righteousness and integrity, and lo, sin and decay. We long for manifestations of love, but see strife and hatred and envy. The earth, established to feed and to nourish, brings forth, in response to the blood poured by brutal hatred upon her bosom, thorns and thistles. And the culmination of all the misery is manifested and felt in the great restless, throbbing, longing heart of humanity. But God's purpose is one still; and "He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand." Dan. 4: 35. He has sworn by His own existence that His good pleasure in Christ Jesus shall be completely met in an eternity of oneness and love. Isa. 45: 17, 18. But "we see not yet all things put under Him." We know, the most optimistic of us, that the universe is not normal. It will be the purpose of this number and numbers which shall follow to set forth briefly, definitely, comprehensively, that which earnest hearts in both church and world are day and night longing for — the divine diagnosis of world and church, and God's all-efficient and all-sufficient remedy for this time. Nor do we arrogate to ourselves superior wisdom in thus doing. We have no wisdom, save what God by the Spirit freely bestows upon all; we have no source of knowledge, save the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make all "wise unto salvation through faith that is in Christ Jesus." The world and the divided church have messages and messengers many, as numerous and varied as their costly heavenward-pointing towers. They are certainly not all true, yet all may be false. What and where is the true? What message has God, wringing with the true metal of heaven, bearing God's hallmark of truth, to lead the world and church from the wilderness of human creed and tradition, from the quagmire of infidelity and unfaith, to the clear highway of right and righteousness, to the solid ground of faith and verity? The great sick world and divided, sore-wounded church are longing for a healing remedy which will take from the saturated systems the poison of the panaceas of human compounding, and bring the healing life of heaven into the soul. For among the worst of earth's ills are the panaceas of man's devising. Their forms are many; their base, in the last analysis, is ever the same — self-salvation. How the world has hoped and hoped to despair; and how it has struggled and wrestled in the hopeless struggle; and how, even in the advancement which has been made, it has failed to recognize the true Source of uplift. Is there a message, definite, clear, strong? Is there a balm in Gilead, a physician, a healer for the dying ones? In all other ages of the past God has had messages, definite and clear; remedies, specific and all-potent. When the world was worthy of destruction at the time of the Deluge, God sent the definite message of warning, of righteousness, of healing, through His righteous servant Noah, and provided the refuge from destruction in the Heaven-preserved ark of salvation; and He would have provided a thousand fleets, if it had been necessary, for those who believed the message. Very clearly came God's warning through Lot to wicked Sodom, while Abraham prayed for the city. Clear, definite, and strong came God's repeated warnings to Jerusalem and Samaria and their kings, and to all the nations and cities of the past. Betimes and all-sufficient has been the remedy and its proclamation to all who would believe and receive. Definite, strong, and clear rang out the message of John, the forerunner of Jesus, in the Judean wilderness, typical of the greater spiritual desert in which Judea was famishing and dying; and those who believed and accepted, "justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John," while the Pharisees and scribes "rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized by him." Luke 7: 29, 30. When the darkness of the Dark Ages was upon the church and world, and the very sun of truth seemed sinking into the oblivion of everlasting night, God struck the light-darkening bandage of superstition from a monk of Germany, a scholar in England, a soldier in Switzerland; and to the church and world again rang out the saving message of God's truth in Jesus Christ. Not the less God has a message for this time, and as clear, as definite, and as strong, as any in the past; a remedy He has, not less specific and potent. That message, it will be seen, includes God's everlasting purpose in Christ Jesus; the everlasting Gospel, fitted to meet the definite need for this time; a present, living truth, demanding living, active, progressive faith. Study the great question with us. Sermons Not Preached
By Editor
THE Christian Advocate of New York quotes from an editorial in the St. Louis Christian Advocate which the former journal declares should raise most serious thought. The title of the editorial is "Sermons We Have Not Heard." And the writer of the article tells us that he has heard many sermons, many really good sermons on humanitarianism, ethics, esthetics, occasionally, and only occasionally, a really warm, earnest exhortation to personal piety, but "so far as our ears bear witness we have not heard a sermon on the religion of the home. . . . We have heard no sermon — not even an exhortation — on the family altar with the Bible, its song, its prayer, and the daily contact of the home life. We have heard no sermon — for a long time, at least — upon sin, its essence and its results, the awful danger to the soul, and the final ruin that follows its indulgence. We have heard no sermon upon the condemnation of the wicked and their eternal banishment. . . . We have heard no sermon on the call to the ministry — not one that we can remember. And yet the church is suffering to-day for lack of ministerial supply as rarely, if ever, before. . . . We have heard no sermon on the Passion, the supreme incident in the history of the world and the turning-point of human destiny. We often see the Christ in His more triumphal hours, and His exhibitions of sympathy for humanity, but it is rare that we see Him in the awful agony of the garden or the sufferings of the cross." Surely such a statement as this from such a source ought to stir every true Protestant and make him think at least of turning back to the basic truths of the Gospel. THE last argument of Job's three friends is presented in the short discourse of Bildad in chapter 25. It is a last effort to convince Job that he was a sinner and deserving of his condition. Job replies in bitterness. They have neither helped him, nor convinced him of his guilt. As he forgets himself in contemplation of God, sublime indeed are his descriptions of Infinite Power (chapter 26) and his panegyric on wisdom (chapter 28). "He hangeth the earth upon nothing" is clear evidence that the earth in space was understood by the old Idumean emir; and the connection shows that he apprehended the vastness of the universe. The mistake of the old patriarch was his persistent self-justification, provoked by the false accusations of his friends. Elihu's admirable discourse does not seem to help Job much. Then the Lord speaks, not only for Job's sake, but for all who should come after. God's goodness is to be clearly inferred from His power and wisdom. A new experience came to Job. He had heard of God, now he saw Him. Then he prayed for his "friends," and God turned his captivity. It is worth much in our experience when we can truly pray for those who misjudge us. Job's prosperity returned; Satan was defeated, and God vindicated. THE "behemoth" is thought to be the hippopotamus; the "leviathan," the crocodile. "EXODUS" means "going out;" and this book is so called because it records Israel's going out of Egypt. It was written about 1451 B.C., but its history began at the close of the patriarchal age. It is the second book of the Pentateuch, or "five books" of Moses. It leaves the simplicity and beauty of patriarchal life among God's children, and conducts us to their congregational and national life. THE first chapter records the passing of Israel into a new dynasty of Egypt, under which they were treated as despised slaves, as indeed they were. But the persecuting hand of man could not stay the prospering hand of God. The record of Moses' ancestry, birth, and education follows; his belief that he was to be a saviour of his people, the human way in which he attempted it, his failure, and his flight into Midian, where God gave him a postgraduate course in keeping the sheep of Jethro, his father-in-law. Jethro was a God-fearing man, one of many outside of Israel who had the knowledge of the Most High. GOD'S revelation of Himself, as the Self-existent One, the great I AM, is recorded in chapter 3. That name is God's note in blank to every soul who believes, and he may draw upon it ad libitum to the fulness of God's promises. In response to the unwillingness of Moses to enter upon his work, he is promised the aid of Aaron, who is more conversant with the Egyptian tongue.