Earlier text: Jesus Our SaviourXVIII. God's Plan for Jerusalem
"And, behold, the angel that talked with me went forth, and another angel went out to meet him, and said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, by reason of the multitude of men and cattle therein. For I, saith Jehovah, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and I will be the glory in the midst of her." Zech. 2: 3-5. We know that just as long as Jerusalem stood obedient to God she was impregnable. Her walls of stone and mortar were practically no protection at all at any time. As a guard, they stood as a type of the wall of God's presence which held the enemy from devastating. When once the Lord departed from Jerusalem, when, as tradition records, in the temple courts was heard a voice saying, "Let us depart," and the rustling of the wings as the angel watchers left that house desolate, then in a few hours the soldiers of Titus were wreaking the ruin that will never be forgotten while the records of history stand; a million people slain within her walls as recorded by one of her own sons, the temple stones running red with blood, the fire doing its last great work and making the ruin complete of the place which once God had graced with His presence. God ceased to be a wall of defense round about her. He was no longer a glory in the midst of her, and outside the walls even to this day that rejected people, that forsaken nation, "wail and cry for the calamities that have come upon us;" calamities resulting directly from that awful climax of their crimes when they said as they delivered up the Holy One to be crucified, "His blood be on us, and on our children." And even in the time of Zechariah the seeds of apostasy were lying ready to fructify and grow into their baleful harvest. It had been almost twenty years since the first call of God out of Babylon had been given. There were still many of God's people who had not returned to the favored land, and so the Lord gives a second call: "Ho, ho, flee from the land of the north, saith Jehovah; for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heavens, saith Jehovah. Ho Zion, escape, thou that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon. For thus saith Jehovah of Hosts: After glory hath He sent Me unto the nations which plundered you; for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye. For, behold, I will shake My hand over them, and they shall be a spoil to those that served them; and ye shall know that Jehovah of Hosts hath sent Me." Zech. 2: 6-9. This was God's second call out of Babylon. "Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon." As now, so then, and as then, so now, God gives two calls out of Babylon. In Rev. 14: 8 we read the first call, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon;" and again in Rev. 18: 2 it comes the second time with a still mightier cry, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon," and this second time with the urgent invitation, "Come forth, My people, out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." So in this vision of Zechariah the second call comes, "Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north." "Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon." Babylon was soon to feel the judgments of God, and so the voice of the messenger sounds forth to God's people: "Go ye forth from Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans; with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth: say ye, Jehovah hath redeemed His servant Jacob. And they thirsted not when He led them through the deserts; He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them; He clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out. There is no peace, saith Jehovah, to the wicked." Isa. 48: 20-22. "Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he goats before the flocks." Jer. 50: 8. "After the glory hath He sent Me unto the nations which spoiled you." God's People the Glory of Earth
God's people were to be a glory in the earth; a light to shed its genial rays everywhere; a city set on a hill that could not be hid. This was one of the great considerations of His mercy when He allowed them to be taken captive,—the fact that wherever they went they would carry the healing grace of His truth. Daniel stood as high as any foreigner possibly could stand all the days of his life in the city of Babylon both under the Chaldean and the Medo-Persian rule. He published the name and the glory of God by his exemplary life and by the great trying circumstances that came to him in his loyalty to his heavenly King. Israel went down into Egypt that they might be a means of salvation to countless thousands that knew not the truth. This was the purpose of God in settling them in Jerusalem, in the midst of the nations; and when they allowed themselves to be carried away by the trappings of earthly grandeur He afflicted them by putting them more directly under the control and power of the nations; but His great purpose underlying their existence is the great cause still to be carried out, the great eternal purpose of making them saviours of men, the salt of the earth, the healing for the afflictions of the Gentiles; and yet while He subjected them to the chastisement of these nations for the good of His people and for the salvation of those very nations, He gives the blessed assurance that "he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye." The most tender, delicate spot in all the human organism is taken as a picture and a type of how tender is the child of God in the infinite love of God. In His appointed time all those who afflict God's people become spoil, and all know that the Lord of Hosts hath been at work. "Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith Jehovah. And many nations shall join themselves to Jehovah in that day, and shall be My people; and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that Jehovah of Hosts hath sent Me unto thee. And Jehovah shall inherit Judah as His portion in the holy land, and shall yet choose Jerusalem. Be silent, all flesh, before Jehovah; for He is waked up out of His holy habitation." Zech. 2: 10-13. These scriptures present the great final results of that ideal condition which God's people might have realized in this world had they kept pace with the purposes of God. The Lord would have associated Himself so closely with them as to have been their salvation. Jerusalem would have stood forever a praise in the earth and Israel would have remained God's church till the close of time. Altho they failed, the purpose of God shall not fail. In the new earth state Jerusalem shall be inhabited. Towns without walls for the multitude of men shall be her prosperity, and God there will be a wall of fire round about and will be a glory in the midst of her. He will come and dwell in her midst, and many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day and shall be His people, and then the Lord shall inherit Judah His portion in the holy land and shall choose Jerusalem again. He chose it once, but it failed; but there is a new Jerusalem which He has chosen. Indeed He chose the old merely because it was to be brought up and become the new Jerusalem, but since it failed there is a way out. The prophecy was not given in vain. There is "a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." The glory of God will lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. The nations shall bring their glory and their honor into it, and the nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of God's presence forevermore. Wisdom on Toil and Trials
"BETTER the hands that ache from toil than the heart that aches from trouble." "AT the end we may be most thankful for our worst trials." (From "The Glory of the Night") WERE there no night, we could not read the stars,
The heavens would turn into a blinding glare;
Freedom is best seen through prison-bars,
And rough seas make the heaven passing fair.
We can not measure joys but by their loss;
When blessings fade away, we see them then;
Our richest clusters grow around the cross,
And in the night-time angels sing to men. The Willing Mind Toward God
"To RECEIVE what Thou givest,
To lack what Thou withholdest,
To relinquish what Thou takest,
To suffer what Thou inflictest,
To be what Thou requirest,
And to do what Thou commandest." Higher Criticism
By Earle Albert Rowell
XIII. Higher Criticism and Interpretation
O-DAY there is not the crude and violent unbelief of a century ago. Infidelity is just as infidelic, but it is more refined. It has taken on culture and learning. It no longer inhabits mainly the taverns and gambling-hells. Its headquarters are now in the great universities and popular churches, and its propagators are their learned professors and devout divines. But in neither place is it called infidelity. In the university it is called science and in the church it is called Higher Criticism. It everywhere scorns the coarse unbelief of Paine, while adopting his very arguments, and eschews the vulgarity of Rousseau, while maintaining his conclusions, and clothes itself in the pleasing garb of culture or learning, or the grave habiliments of Christianity. With an air of advanced learning and a pose of impartial justice the Higher Critics have advanced a new theory of interpretation which has been reduced by Jowett to one precept: "Interpret the Scripture like any other book."—"Essays and Reviews," page 416. This method of interpretation has been called by Delitzsch the chief "charism" of our age (American Journal of Theology, January, 1902), and Ryle calls it the special gift of God to the modern church ("The Canon of the Old Testament," page 14), and Dr. Hall says it may "almost be described as a second advent of the Incarnate Lord" (see his "Universal Elements of the Christian Religion," pages 207-255). The interpretation of the Old Testament by New Testament writers is marked by their practise of seeing Christ in all parts of the Old Testament. But the interpretation of the Old Testament by Higher Critics is, on the contrary, marked by their practise of excluding Him from it entirely. That I have by no means exaggerated will be evident from the words of the eminent divine who has written the most recent, and from the Higher Critical view-point the most authoritative history of interpretation: "There is no evidence that Jesus saw a predictive element in the Old Testament; no evidence that, in His thought, any Old Testament author had foreseen His historical appearance, the circumstances of His ministry, His death and resurrection."—Gilbert, "History of Interpretation," page 71. A more astounding statement, or a more complete denial of the truth of the Old Testament, or of the teaching of the New, was never made by the most hard-headed infidel; and yet it emanates from an eminent theologian. What shall the Christian think of this in the teeth of Christ's words in Matt. 24: 15, "When therefore ye see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet"? Is there no predictive element recognized here? What about His quoting Isa. 61: 1, 2 in Luke 4: 17-21, and saying, "To-day hath this scripture been fulfilled in your ears"? And still further, "And beginning from Moses and from ALL the prophets, He interpreted to them in all THE SCRIPTURES THE THINGS CONCERNING HIMSELF." Luke 24: 27. And yet "there is no evidence that, . . . in His thought, any Old Testament author had foreseen His historical appearance"! In view of such utter denial of Christ by avowed believers in Him, we may well ask, Where will this baptized skepticism, this Christianized infidelity, end? and what will be the necessary harvest of such teaching in the church? Not "Mistakes of Moses," but "Mistakes of Christ"
In order to exalt their own authority and infallibility, the Higher Critics must insist that Christ's methods of interpretation were not only faulty but mistaken. "Of what in modern times is regarded as the technical qualification for scientific exegesis, He had, of course, no more than the generation to which He belonged."—Id., page 72. Could anything be more blasphemous than the condescending fatuity of such a statement? Christ's interpretation of the Old Testament is sneered at as blinded by Jewish prejudice, and He Himself actually held up to ridicule because He was not a Higher Critic, or in other words, an infidel! Higher Critics defend their action thus: "Many people are alarmed, as if, when we begin to remove the dirt from an old master, we were going to destroy the glorious picture itself. But we remove the dirt which has become encrusted, that the picture may be more clearly seen and better appreciated than before."—Joseph Wood, "The Bible," page 12. The reader has in these articles had ample evidence that what the Higher Critics study the Bible for is to find dirt, and that where they can not see any they imagine it and then engage in herculean and learned efforts to remove this imaginary dirt. What should we think of the student of art who brought a microscope with him into an art gallery, and when he saw what looked like a fly-speck off in the corner of a picture, immediately lost himself in examination of that fly-speck, and then left the gallery without having even noticed the picture itself, but discoursed learnedly and wrote weighty tomes upon the fly-speck in the corner? One who is not willing to squander most of his time in erudite investigation of supposed fly-specks, but prefers to devote it to the study and investigation of the majesties, splendors, and unrivaled beauties of the Bible, is called not only "unscholarly and behind the times," but one minister asserted that one who in simple faith believes the Bible is "a brainless idiot." Yet no one believed the Bible more implicitly than his own Creator and Saviour. Such are the fruits of Higher Criticism. It is their principles of interpretation that leads the Higher Critics so far astray. One of their primary principles of interpretation, tacitly used or openly avowed, is this: Given a scripture which admits of two meanings, one making sense and the other nonsense, choose the latter meaning as the only one admissible, criticize according to Higher Criticism, and eliminate from the Bible, as evidence of the ignorance of the writer, and proof that the Bible is "full of errors, imperfections, contradictions, prejudices, passions, . . . that it had its birth in the mind of man."—Balmforth, "The Bible from the Standpoint of Higher Criticism," volume 2, page 263. Another principle is this: If two writers record the same event in the same or practically the same language, why then they both borrowed their ideas from some common source, and are not to be relied upon, because we know not how trustworthy that common source is. On the other hand, if two writers see the same event from different but equally true angles, as Paul and James, or Matthew and John, why then one or the other must be wrong, usually both, and the Higher Critic constructs a theory which alone can be right. Also, if a certain event is recorded by only one writer it is not to be credited, because it is unsupported by other testimony! But that is by no means all, for if a writer is silent concerning certain events that the Higher Critics think he ought to have written about, why then he is ignorant of it and is held up to ridicule because of this ignorance! For instance, the fact that Christ did not in specific terms denounce the sin of slavery is adduced by these learned divines as proof that He did not believe or know it is a sin!! This nightmare system of interpretation is the boasted product of Higher Criticism, and there is hardly a denomination in Christendom that is not honeycombed with its emasculated Christianity, and in imminent danger of being deluded to its destruction by this mirage of destructive Criticism. Hasty doubters, whether ecclesiastical fanatics, blank atheists, mechanical fatalists, despairing pessimists, or Higher Critics, all make the Bible a patchwork interpreted by a scissors exegesis, which measures religious emotion by a foot rule, and in their fluent and flippant strictures they leave the Christian with nothing upon which to found his faith but the empty covers of the destroyed Bible. Thus we see the baneful effects of the perverted ingenuity by which Higher Criticism attempts to escape from a difficulty by resorting to a preposterous absurdity. When Higher Critics are compelled by the force of evidence, as has often been the case by discoveries on the ancient monuments, to abandon their arguments, they merely hold the more tenaciously, and assert the more boldly, their disproved conclusions. This is no trivial matter for the Christian. It strikes at the very foundations of his faith. For if Higher Critics' methods of interpretation are true, then every inspired writer is on one pretext or another discredited as ignorant, or denounced as maliciously deceiving, and faith in the Bible is absurd, and faith in Christ impossible, for we would have no means of knowing Him.8 Seeing where these principles lead us, we need no other proof that they are not only false, but the baseless figment of a chimerical imagination. And we are led back to the consideration of the fact that the only safe, the only true method of interpretation is that employed by our divine Lord and Master: "Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, He INTERPRETED to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." Luke 24: 27, A.R.V. If we follow this divine principle of interpretation, begin at Moses — that is, at Genesis — and interpret "in all the Scriptures" the things concerning Christ, this Higher Critical product will be seen to be but the spawn from the stagnant cesspool of eighteenth century infidelity. Key to the Bible
By Newton
Let me suppose a person to have a curious cabinet, which is opened at his pleasure, and not exposed to common view. He invites all to come and see it, and offers to show it to any one who asks him. It is hid, because he keeps the key; but none can complain, because he is ready to open it whenever he is desired. Some, perhaps, disdain the offer, and say, “Why is it locked at all?” Some think it is not worth seeing, or amuse themselves with guessing at the contents. But those who are simply desirous for themselves, leave others disputing, go according to appointment, and are gratified. These have reason to be thankful for the favor, and the others have no just cause to find fault. Thus the riches of divine grace may be compared to a richly furnished cabinet to which “Christ is the door.” The Word of God likewise is a cabinet generally locked up, but the key of prayer will open it. The Lord invites all, but He keeps the dispensation in His own hand. They can not see these things, except He shows them; but then He refuses none that sincerely ask Him. The wise men of the world can go no further than the outside of this cabinet; they may amuse themselves and surprise others with their ingenious guesses at what is within; but a child that has seen it opened can give us satisfaction, without studying or guessing at all. If men will presume to aim at the knowledge of God, without the knowledge of Christ, who is the way and the door; if they have such a high opinion of their own wisdom and penetration as to suppose they can understand the Scriptures without the assistance of His Spirit; or if their worldly wisdom teaches them that those things are not worth their inquiring, what wonder is it that they should continue to be hid from their eyes? — Newton. Reasons for Believing the Bible
A good old Highlander gave Claudius Buchanan the following reason for believing the Bible to be from God: “I know nothing about what the learned men call the external evidences of revelation; but I will tell you why I believe it to be from God: I have a most depraved and sinful nature; and, do what I will, I find I can not make myself holy. My friends can not do it for me, nor do I think all the angels in heaven could. One thing alone does it — the reading and believing what I read in that blessed Book; that does it. Now, as I know that God must be holy, and a lover of holiness, and as I believe that Book to be the only thing in creation that produces and increases holiness, I conclude that it is from God, and that He is the Author of it.” Let those who imagine that a nation can be made Christian by incorporating the letter of a Christian creed into its constitution, remember the lessons of history. The worst despotisms that have ever cursed the world, were administered in the name of God. — N. Y. Tribune. Our Bible Reading
By Editor
(Quotations are from the American Revised Version) 1. What is the origin of the institution of the Sabbath? “And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on THE SEVENTH DAY God finished His work which He had made; and He RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY from all His work which He had made.” Gen. 2: 1, 2. 2. In what three steps did God institute the Sabbath? (a) “He RESTED on the SEVENTH DAY from all His work.” (b) “God BLESSED the SEVENTH DAY.” NOTE.—Thus specifically the record declares the institution of the Sabbath. We hear much nowadays of man’s reasoning out the necessity of the Sabbath in man’s needs, but the Lord did not leave it to the imagination or reason of man to find out that he needed a Sabbath. He who created man knew man’s need, and in the very beginning established the Sabbath by resting, blessing the day, and hallowing it, or setting it apart. Resting upon the day made it God’s rest-day; blessing the day placed within it potencies of good for man; hallowing it set it apart to the service of God, separating it from the ordinary days of the week. When God would thus mark the Sabbath in the beginning, it would be highly reasonable to suppose that if any change should take place or any new day should be instituted we would have the same clear, explicit, public record of the act. 3. Why did God thus make the Sabbath? “BECAUSE that in it HE RESTED from all His work which God had created and made.” Gen. 2: 3. “He hath made His WONDERFUL WORKS to be REMEMBERED.” Ps. 111: 4. 4. In the great law of the Decalogue how did God guard the Sabbath? “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath unto Jehovah thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for IN SIX DAYS JEHOVAH MADE HEAVEN AND EARTH, the sea, and all that in them is, and RESTED THE SEVENTH DAY: wherefore Jehovah BLESSED the SABBATH DAY, and HALLOWED IT.” Ex. 20: 8-11. 5. What shows that the Sabbath was at this time no new institution? “REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY.” “For in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth . . . and rested the seventh day: wherefore Jehovah blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Cf. Gen. 2: 2, 3. 6. What is there in the Sabbath law which shows that it is not man who hallows the Sabbath? “Remember the Sabbath day, to KEEP it HOLY.” NOTE.—God has already hallowed the Sabbath. He asks that man shall keep holy that which He has made holy. 7. Of whom, then, did the Sabbath become a sign to God’s children? “Hallow My Sabbaths; and they shall be a SIGN between Me and you, that ye may know that I AM JEHOVAH YOUR GOD.” Eze. 20: 20. 8. Of what is the Sabbath a sign to the truly converted man? “Moreover also I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a SIGN between Me and them, that they might know that I am Jehovah that SANCTIFIETH them.” Eze. 20: 12. 9. For whom was the Sabbath made? 10. What do the Scriptures say of that law of which the Sabbath precept is a part? “The works of His hands are truth and justice; ALL HIS PRECEPTS ARE SURE. They are ESTABLISHED FOREVER AND EVER; they are done in truth and uprightness.” Ps. 111: 7, 8. “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one tittle of the law to fail.” Luke 16: 17. NOTE.—Rotherham renders the last text: “But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than that of the law one little point should fail.” This little reading is but a very small part of the testimony which might be given on the great subject of the Sabbath, but it proves this: First, that it was instituted in the very beginning when man was created, and therefore was made not for any particular race or nation of mankind, but for the whole race; secondly, that it was instituted by three specific acts or steps on the part of the Creator; thirdly, that it is emphasized by God’s holy and universal Decalogue, being placed right in the very center of that great document; and fourthly, our Lord Jesus Christ places His emphatic endorsement upon the law, and declares with the psalmist for its everlasting, unchanging continuance. WHEN we read the lives of distinguished men in any department, we find them almost always celebrated for the amount of labor they could perform. Demosthenes, Julius Cæsar, Henry the Fourth of France, Francis Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, Franklin, Washington, Napoleon — different as they were in their intellectual and moral qualities — were all renowned as hard workers. We read how many days they could support the fatigues of a march; how early they rose; how late they watched; how many hours they spent in the field, in the cabinet, in the court; how many secretaries they kept employed; in short, how hard they worked. — Great Thoughts. Schedule for Week Ending August 20, 1910
Sunday, August 14 Ezekiel 42-44
Monday, “ 15 “ 45-48
Tuesday, “ 16 Daniel 1, 2
Wednesday, “ 17 “ 3, 4
Thursday, “ 18 “ 5-7
Friday, “ 19 “ 8, 9
Sabbath, “ 20 “ 10-12 THE first part of the week closes Ezekiel's prophecy of the unbuilt sanctuary, which can never be built and fill the place which God designed it should when He described it through the prophet. For that instruction provided not only for the sanctuary, but for the old sanctuary service, including sacrifices. But there can be no more any sacrifice without making void the sacrifice which Christ our Lord offered. THE remainder of the week is given to a reading of Daniel; a wonderful book for the last days, revealing now as it did then the God who is interested in all the affairs of men as well as nations. In the first chapter He reveals Himself as the One able to teach and instruct above all the schools of the world; in the second chapter, the One able to reveal; the third, to deliver; the fourth, to rule. Chapter six presents another deliverance. Both this chapter and chapter three contain great religious liberty lessons applicable in all ages. CHAPTER seven is a prophecy of the nations as God looks upon them in a religious way, enemies to His Gospel; and so also chapters eight and nine. In chapter seven and onward are great prophetic periods in which days stand for years, and which reveal great events in connection with God's work. The four great lines of prophecy cover the same ground, bring before us the same powers, and bring us to the same end, the second coming of our Lord and the everlasting kingdom. Daniel was one of the captives in Babylon, as set forth in the first chapter. In him was the fulfilment of the prophecy to Hezekiah that some of that king's seed should be eunuchs in the palace of Babylon. He prophesied from about 603 to 524. It was Babylon where in all probability the 119th Psalm was written by him. The Interpretation of Prophecy
THERE are certain principles which should ever be kept in mind in the exposition, explanation, explication, or unfoldment of prophecy. Ignoring these and men are bound to make mistakes. Following them in the devoted spirit of humble discipleship and one can not go far astray. This does not mean that he shall see everything at once or perhaps ever, but when he does not he will be willing to wait God's time. We will not attempt to consider all the principles involved, but will briefly consider some of the more important. 1. The exposition of the prophecy must agree with other scriptures. This is clearly indicated in the following: "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of private [margin, "special"] interpretation. For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit." 2 Peter 1:20, 21. This text does not mean as Roman Catholics teach, that no one man can of himself learn what the Scriptures teach, but that he must learn it from some authoritative church. The nature of the interpretation is in question, not the person who explains it. This is the thought: Neither individual nor church has the right or authority to put a special or private interpretation upon any one prophecy apart from others. If each prophetic book of the Bible had been given by some man, if it were simply his opinion or the expression of knowledge that he had gained, private or special interpretation would be permissible. Each prophecy would be independent of all other prophecies, Daniel of Revelation, Revelation of Zechariah, all of Ezekiel, etc. But this God prohibits. All were given not by men but by the Holy Spirit through men. The one Spirit moved all the men, revealing through one certain things, through another some of those same things and others as well, and so on, that each and all might aid in the understanding of all. Daniel is not to be interpreted apart from Jeremiah or Paul or Ezekiel. The Spirit of God, for instance, in Eze. 4:6 has given us the inspired rule for the interpretation of the great prophetic periods of Daniel and John, "Each day for a year." And this is perfectly consistent; when a short-lived beast is used to symbolize a long existing empire, it is only consistent that a short period of time should be taken to represent a longer period. 2. Prophecy should be consistent with itself. When a certain term is used by the Spirit in prophecy to mean a certain thing, it ought still to bear that meaning, unless the prophecy itself indicates otherwise. For example, when the symbol of a "dragon" is used in a prophecy, as it is in Revelation 12, and the meaning of that symbol is clearly defined, as it is in verse 9, it is utterly inconsistent to say that the dragon in one place means the devil and nothing else, and in another place in the same prophecy means another power. Of course, the devil has his agents, and to his agents might the term apply, but only as his agents. In Revelation 16 we have a prophecy of the seven last plagues in which is filled up, or completed, the wrath of God. It is not reasonable to say that some of these plagues are fulfilled by divine power, while one or more of the others are of an altogether different fulfilment. To so discriminate in nature and time where God has not discriminated is private interpretation. We have no authority to interject special interpretation into any prophecy. We may not see its outcome if we follow right principles; if not we can wait; for— "God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain." 3. The object of prophecy must be kept in mind. That object includes the progressive steps in the fulfilment of God's promise of the Seed of the woman, the triumph of eternal right, the progress, trials, persecutions, and triumphs of God's people, the everlasting kingdom of the Messiah. It is the light of God's children in and through the darkness of this world to the Homeland. Everything else is made to bend to these objects. Years, centuries, ages before, God has predicted these things. "When the fullness of time" comes for their fulfilment, God in His providence causes them to be written in the fulfilling events. Thus He ever gives to His children a twofold witness of His Deity and His love and care. 4. Within the scope of the prophetic field come those powers, nations, dynasties, kingdoms, empires, peoples, that have to do with the progress or retarding of God's work in the earth, or who by their laws or rule affect the people of God. For this reason some great nations are not specifically mentioned, while some inferior powers are repeatedly referred to. We must not demand that a certain prominent power must have place in the prophecy, because to us or to the world it seems important, or has ambition to do great things. It may be of very little importance in God's great overlook of empire. China is one of the greatest and oldest of civilizations, and includes within her bounds a fourth of the world's population; yet is she but once named specifically, and then to declare that saved ones will come forth from her darkness. God does not give prophecy to satisfy human curiosity or to fulfil human expectations. 5. Not the time when the prophecy is given should be studied alone. Paramount to this is the time for which it is given. And this is almost always for "the last days." Just as the devil will bring all his deceptions of the ages to bear upon the children of men in the last great struggle, so God will focus upon that time the concentrated light of all the prophecies of the past. Even so it was in a measure when our Lord first came. It will be the word of prophecy made doubly sure in connection with His second coming. In the light of this principle can we best understand the declaration of the angel in Rev. 14:7, "The hour of His judgment is come," not in John's day, but when other prophecies show that the judgment is pending. So also the "is" of Rev. 17:10, "Five are fallen, the one is, the other is not yet come," does not apply to the time when the vision was given, but to the time when that part will be specifically fulfilled—the last days. This is emphatically true of some of Daniel's prophecies. See Dan. 2:28; 8:19; 10:14; 12:4, 9. We could not therefore hope for the full understanding of these great predictions till the prophecy was fulfilled "in the time of the end," in "the latter days." Regard for these principles will greatly help in the understanding of the prophetic Word. With this must be a prayerful heart and a paramount desire that we may know God's will in order to do it. Upon such is pronounced God's blessing. Rev. 1:3. Fire Service Rejects Cigarette Smokers
The fire service of Canton, Ohio, refuses to receive men who smoke cigarets. Chief R. O. Mesnar declares such persons lack "physical stamina and nerve." Roman Catholicism and the Reformation
By Editor
Just recently an encyclical letter by Pope Pius X recalled again the battles of the Reformation and the attitude of the Papacy toward that movement and the Reformers. It was objected to by certain Protestant members of the German Reichstag. Concerning that the "Western Watchman," in its issue of July 7, says: "She [the Roman Catholic Church] has never changed her opinion of the Reformers. She said four hundred years ago that they were bad, unprincipled, and immoral men; she proscribed their lives as vicious and their doctrines as of hell. She denounced Luther and his partners in heresy as the corrupt disseminators of a corrupt doctrine, and the methods they employed to overthrow the Catholic religion as blasphemous and satanic. She said so four hundred years ago; she has not changed her opinion since. The late encyclical was a mild reaffirmation of the encyclicals of all the popes since the Council of Trent. "Many years ago we stated that the greatest iconoclasm in history would be the demolition of all the statues raised to the heroes of Protestantism and their consignment to the dump heap of history; and we declared that the event was nearer than people suspected. . . . No one now regards Cranmer and Ridley and the other English Reformers as anything but blasphemous scoundrels, for whom hanging and burning were too good. . . . "Protestants need not expect that the judgments of Catholics upon Reformers and their work are going to undergo any mitigation. Time has only added confirmation and irrefutability to the original estimates. The process of religious peace will be on the lines of truth and loyalty to the church's heroic past. . . . The promoters of heresy are children of perdition. She has always maintained this as a theory; she is prepared to demonstrate its truth in the lives of her detractors. It has taken a long time; but the original Protestant sin has found its authors out. Get ready the ropes; the bloated authors of the Reformation will soon be toppled from their place of pride and cast in the dunghill of the world's scorn." It is well to know how Catholics look upon Protestants and Protestantism, and here we have it from one of their ablest exponents and defenders.