p. 441 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 28. (7/20/1915)

Earlier text: The Eternal Kingdom at Hand

Time on a Round World

By W. C. Young

Days Gained and Lost as We Circle the Globe—The Ship’s Chronometer Explodes the Bomb

By W. C. YOUNG

WHILE on a recent trip to St. John’s, Newfoundland, I met a person on board the steamer who had often had his duty as to the sacredness of God’s Sabbath pointed out to him by Elder Keslake. A bombshell had been given him to drop into the Seventh-day Adventist camp whenever an opportunity presented itself; and he, thinking that my apparent innocency offered an excellent target for practice, approached me one evening with some complimentary remarks on my seeming intelligence and honesty of purpose, and remarked:

THE BOMBSHELL QUESTION

“We have often wondered, Mr. Young, how any people keep the seventh-day Sabbath on this round world. For when you pass the 180th meridian, the days are changed; so how can you keep the same day all around the world?”

Quietly I asked him if he thought the sun kept correct time, or if he had any idea that the wheels of the sun’s machinery ever slipped a cog when it reached the 180th parallel.

He replied that he was perfectly satisfied that the sun made no mistakes, and that it fulfilled the requirements of Gen. 1:14, 15 in perfect order. “But,” said he, “if another day is added, that must throw your Saturdays out of kilter in your reckoning of time.”

In my earlier life, I had made the circuit of the earth five times; so I felt it my duty as well as a privilege to show that the bomb was only a shell, that there was nothing in it. I explained as follows:

Every navigator on a voyage carries with him a timepiece called a ship’s chronometer, built expressly to withstand the influences of heat and cold; and it swings like a ship’s compass, so that the vessel’s motion may not affect the correctness of its time keeping.

This chronometer is set by the sun’s time at Greenwich, England, because that place is the starting point (degree 0) of and for all the calculations relating to the meridian (midday) lines of Mercator’s projection charts.

FOLLOW THE SHIP AROUND THE WORLD

With these facts in view, let us follow a vessel sailing around the world in an easterly direction. With each day’s progress on this journey, the ship meets the sun a little earlier than do the people at its starting point. When the sextant reveals the fact that the sun has reached its highest altitude, then the ship’s clocks (not the chronometer) are fixed so as to point to noon, twelve o’clock.

Thus day by day, as the vessel moves forward, the hands of the ship’s clocks are turned, until at last the ship crosses the 180th meridian, which is exactly opposite to Greenwich on the world’s surface; and when it is twelve noon there, it is twelve midnight at Greenwich. Thus the ship will appear to have gained half a day, when in fact it has not gained a moment of time. The difference is fully accounted for by the moving forward of the hands of the ship’s clocks, so as to be in harmony with the sun’s time where they happen to be each day.

After passing the 180th meridian, they must continue to adjust their ship’s timepieces to their observation of the sun’s time, until they again reach the meridian of Greenwich, when they will find that their ship’s clocks, the chronometer, and the people’s time are exactly alike, thus showing a change in the part of their clocks of still another twelve hours, making in all twenty-four hours that was only imaginary time.

NO TIME GAINED OR LOST

Now I want to ask you, dear reader, How much actual time did they gain in making the circuit of the globe? The chronometer was never changed from start to finish, and it is in perfect harmony with local time. Then any child can see that they who observe the Sabbath by the sun’s markings on a trip around the globe are in harmony with God’s arrangements, while those who keep Sunday by their midnight reckoning, having to depend upon their own reckonings, in their desperation try to excuse their faulty methods by criticizing God’s plan.

Let me illustrate how man himself admits that God’s plan alone is correct: In many parts of the world, a gun is fired by the signalman, who pulls the lanyard of his gun the instant the sun reaches its zenith, noon. Immediately, all over the city, men reach for their pockets, and pull out their watches. Women step to the family timepieces and look. What for? Is it to see if the sun is right?—Never! It is to see how their timepieces harmonize with the sun, and if different, to bring them into right relationship at once.

When my questioner found that he could do nothing against “the truth” (see Ps. 119: 142, 151), but for the truth, he remembered a call to the upper deck, and soon his head was wreathed in clouds of smoke, not from the bombshell, but from his pipe. I think he was studying.

Can You Read?

By Charles L. Taylor

Messages That You Should Interpret and Appreciate

By CHARLES L. TAYLOR

WHEN the divine hand etched those burning characters upon the wall of Belshazzar’s banquet hall, the hour of Babylon’s final doom was at hand.

What a tremendously important event in the history of that mighty empire, was the “handwriting on the wall!” And yet that heaven-dictated message found not one soul, among all the great and wise and learned, who could discern even a part of its significance.

SELFISHNESS AND PASSION HAD BLINDED THEM

But how quickly God’s aged servant saw and understood and interpreted! Without hesitation, he said to the king, “I will read the writing.” With him dwelt “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,” and having the eye of faith which daily read the writing of providence, he found no difficulty in reading this.

To-day God is sending very specific and important personal messages to men, especially to His children,—messages of reproof, of instruction, of warning, and of promise. Few of them, however, are read, and for the simple reason that spiritual eyesight is impaired, and no Daniel can be found to give the wording and the interpretation.

God spoke to Babylon by the handwriting on the wall. To-day He flashes His messages of reproof, of correction, of instruction, of promise, and of hope, upon the screen of life’s circumstances. He writes to the mechanic upon and through the happenings of the shop; to the mother through those of the home; to the farmer through those of the farm. In every case, His handwriting is to be seen on the wall of the soul’s environment.

SAW AND READ ONLY THE MESSAGE

When Daniel read the message to Belshazzar, he offered no comment regarding the wall, nor that which wrote, nor many other things incident to the giving of the message. He had to do only with the message itself. He went directly to the heart of the matter, and made application of the truth revealed. When God writes to-day, He would have us forget the wall, the hand, the various things used of Him in revealing His will, and see only the meaning of the writing.

God’s daily providences! O, how wonderfully and how frequently and how perfectly they bear to God’s children the messages which are needed for present and future good!

NOT IN UNKNOWN TONGUE

And let it be remembered that our God is not speaking and writing in an unknown language. Like the simple, beautiful, helpful, and easily understood parables of Jesus, His present-day messages are dark and hidden to those only who have no eyes to see. The Daniels are still able to read, and every child of God is privileged to be a Daniel. Those who are struggling to know the will of the Master, are men and women “greatly beloved” (see Dan. 9:23), and to them the angels will and do come to give “skill and understanding.”

Daniel first understood for himself, and then for others. When light had come to his own soul, then he could speak and interpret for his neighbor’s good. How blessed is the experience of the present time, to be able to read not only the messages of God to one’s own soul, but those which trouble and perplex others, both in the church and in the world!

Can you read God’s messages? Are you able to read fluently? Or are you still a child, depending upon the reading of another?

Whether you read or not, you may thank God that He is writing for you—writing daily and hourly. All His messages breathe of love, of hope, of salvation. And He will teach you to read if you so desire.

Let us pray: Lord, give me the eyes to see, the mind to read, the heart to understand, the spirit to love all Thy messages to me.

How Can We Know the Truth?

By James White

The acquisition of this inestimable knowledge is not the exclusive privilege of the wise and prudent of this world. No collegiate course can avail so much toward gaining this knowledge, as a spirit of humble obedience to the will of God. We shall find a genuine and infallible guide to the knowledge of the truth in the word of God.

Says Jesus, “If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:31, 32. Again: “Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me. If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself.” John 7:16, 17.—James White.

His Appointment

By John Norton Loughborough

“COMMIT thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass.” Ps. 37:5. Too often we are like the man in Pennsylvania who inquired the best road to take among the hemlocks, to a certain place, the distance by either road being about the same. His informant said, “Take either road, and before you get through, you’ll wish you had taken the other.”

In the heavenly pathway, having committed our way to the Lord, instead of meeting roughness in the way with a murmur, and crying, “Disappointed,” why not say, “His appointment,” and profit by our experience in the way?

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.

THE CONTRASTS IN KAFIRLAND

By W. A. S.

Transformed from Babbling Heathen into Intelligent Blessedness—Dark Souls Come into the Light and Rejoice in the Blessed Hope

It is a wonderful change that the gospel makes in the very appearance of these Kafirs of Kafirland.

Here are some of the raw heathen Kafirs,— Red Kafirs, they are called, because they still smear their bodies with red ocher, and color their blankets with the same red earth. Several came bouncing out into the road, and ran on ahead of our cart, laughing and jumping, and hurrying to open the gate and get the expected copper.

It is not in the mere half-nakedness that the heathenism appears; for in lands of the black and the brown races, the color of the skin always seems as clothing. But it is in the undisguised emptiness of the life, the hopelessness of it all, that the dark heathenism stands out. The very gayety has an appearance and a sound that seem ghostly and hollow.

WHEN THE LIGHT CAME IN

Passing from this to the real Christian demeanor is like passing from dark shadow into light.

Our bouncing cape cart swung out of the road, down by the Fish River, and the brother driving called before a mud hut for some one to come out.

“Where is Batlani’s?” he asked of an unkempt and cowering Red Kafir woman who scarce dared look up. We found the way to Batlani’s village—Batlani being headman here. He and his family were Red Kafirs only two years ago. Now we have a most interesting school work in his village, and he and his family and numbers of the neighbors are rejoicing in the “blessed hope.”

IT IS A NEW LIFE

What has it meant to them?—They do not appear to belong to the same life that runs on all about them. They look different.

Naturally they have substituted European dress for the old blanket and beadwork costumes. But beyond all this, their faces are transformed. The mothers have the true motherly and hopeful look on their faces. Their children are learning to read, and to awaken to the wonders of the knowledge of God’s word, and of things in this great world that God has made.

When I saw the tears of joy flowing down their cheeks as we studied of God and heaven and the coming of the Saviour, and as I heard the children of these people, so recently Red Kafirs, reading creditably in English as well as in Kafir, and singing the English hymns in those mud huts, my heart kept saying, What a glorious and wonderful change! What a contrast is this new life to the old one left behind, such as we see lived all about by those who have not broken into the light!

The gospel translates the believer from one kingdom into another, sure enough.

HOW IT APPEALS

And this contrast between the two ways is a powerful appeal to us to send the men and the means to bring the truth of God to these souls in darkness. Some one has written of this contrast:

“The night lies dark upon the earth, and we have light; So many have to grope their way, and we have sight; One path is theirs and ours—of sin and care; But we are borne along, and they their burden bear. Footsore and weary each upon the way; Mute is their sorrow, while we kneel and pray. Glad are they of stone on which to rest, While we lie pillowed on our Father’s breast.”

One by one, over a hundred and twenty of these Kafirs have found that pillow on the Father’s breast, in these regions where our first Kafir station is operating. The earnest calls come from outposts yet farther into Kafirland; and as fast as men and means will allow, our workers are pushing onward.

“The night lies dark upon the earth, and we have light.”

We must let it shine, for it does bless the hearts that receive it.

South Africa. W. A. S.

PAPAL DIVISION OF BABYLONIAN APOSTASY

By R. C. P.

Its Creed Borrowed from Pagan Babylon—Would Tolerate No Rivals—Sought to Overthrow Opposition by Destroying Those Who Opposed—The Reformation Launched Protestantism Against the System

This is the third of four articles in which Mr. Porter is telling the story of how the creed and pagan doctrines of old Babylon have been the basis of all great apostasies. His first article spoke of the intolerance and persecuting principles of the Babylonian creed. His article last week showed how these principles operated through paganism in the old dispensation. It also spoke of the counterfeit sabbath observance that is an invariable accompaniment of these apostasies.

This week, he shows how this corrupting influence of Babylon has worked through the papacy. Next week, he will tell how the wine of the false doctrines of Babylon is imbibed by organized and professing Protestantism.

EDITOR.

At the time of the introduction of the papal division of the great apostate Babylonian system, the pagan division was not obliterated. It was merely superseded. The great apostolic gospel movement was followed by an apostasy into a more crafty and cunningly devised counterfeit of the spiritual system of faith that had been presented to the world in the life and teachings of Christ.

In the city of Rome, there was developed, in the days of the apostles, a Christian church whose “faith” was “spoken of throughout the whole world.” Rom. 1:7, 8. From this pure

Christian church in the city of Rome, there began in Paul’s day an apostasy (2 Thess. 2:7) which later developed into the most notable apostasy of history. “And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.” Rev. 17:5, 6.

That the papacy—the supreme division of the great Babylonian apostasy—is here emphatically designated, is as plain as if it were written in letters of fire upon her forehead. The papacy’s entire creed was the counterpart of that of the pagan apostasy.

THE PAPAL CREED BORROWED FROM BABYLON

As in the development of paganism, forms took the place of faith; and all the religious orders, ceremonies, and holidays of the pagan system were adopted under the name of Christianity. From the pope downward, all can be shown to be radically Babylonian.

“The college of cardinals, with the pope at its head, is just the counterpart of the pagan college of pontiffs, with its pontifex maximus, or sovereign pontiff, which had existed in Rome from the earliest time, and which is known to have been framed on the model of the grand original council of pontiffs at Babylon.”—“Two Babylons,” page 206.

The sovereign pontiff of the Babylonian system was believed to be incapable of error. (Wilkinson’s “Egyptians.”) So also the pope claims infallibility. The pagan system had its priests, monks, and nuns. The papacy has the same. Paganism had her madonna and child. The papacy has her Virgin Mary and Child. Paganism had the sign of the cross, infant sprinkling, relic worship, purgatory, prayers for the dead, sacrifices of the mass, extreme unction, Christmas and Lady Day, Easter, image worship, and a host of religious holidays. The papacy has the same. Paganism had the Sunday sabbath as a rival of the Sabbath of the Lord, decreed by civil enactment by Constantine in A. D. 321. The papacy accepted this edict as her creed.

“At a later period, carried by the current of opinion, he [Constantine] declared himself a convert to the church [A. D. 323]. Christianity then, or what he pleased to call by that name, became the law of the land, and the edict of A. D. 321, being unrevoked, was enforced as a Christian ordinance.”—“Sunday and the Mosaic Sabbath,” by Groombridge and Sons, page 4.

EXALTED ITSELF ABOVE GOD

The papacy exalted itself above God, claiming the power to change His law. The Roman Catholic Church boldly asserts that it has changed the Sabbath day, as shown in “Doctrinal Catechism,” page 352; “The Catholic Christian Instructed,” pages 202, 203; “The Douay Catechism,” page 58; “The Christian Sabbath,” published by the Catholic Mirror Publishing Company, pages 30-32; Hartford Weekly Call (Kansas), February 22, 1864; Cardinal Gibbons in the Catholic Mirror; etc., etc. Thus the papacy has followed in the path of the pagan division of Babylon, which was so severely arraigned by the Lord through the prophets of old as an apostasy from the true faith.

After God has so clearly exposed the falsity of the Babylonian system in the pagan division, all are without excuse if they follow this false system to their destruction under the second and third divisions. Fifty millions of martyrs of the Christian faith will arise in the Judgment and convict the papacy as a persecuting power. And the Master will say in that day, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.” Matt. 25:40. The representative head of the papacy, bearing two swords, one a civil, the other a religious, will find no way of escape from the verdict of guilt as charged. Through a union of church and state, she stands before the world as the climax of the Babylonian apostasy.

WALKED ON KINGS’ NECKS

In the fifteenth century, the papal division, in the height of its power, setting its feet upon the necks of kings as an exhibition of its temporal power over nations, with the Inquisition in full operation to proscribe and deal with heretics, confronted Martin Luther at Wittenberg in the person of Tetzel, its representative, selling indulgences to sin as common merchandise. Martin Luther well knew that the fifth council of Toledo, Canon 3, had declared that “whosoever hereafter shall succeed to the kingdom, shall not mount the throne till he hath sworn among others to permit no man to live in his kingdom who is not a Catholic.”

THE WORD FEARLESSLY LAUNCHED

But awakened by this unholy traffic in the souls of men, he fearlessly launched the word of God as the only basis of hope for a lost world. While bulls thundering their anathemas at Luther from the Vatican at Rome were burned at Wittenberg, and inquisitions sought for him as their lawful prey, a reformation movement based on the eternal word of God spread over Europe, overturning the faith of empires, and arousing greater indignation at the Vatican. The great Protestant reformation movement restored to the world once more the pure gospel. There was given to the world another call to universal reformation. The tremendous shock of the reformation movement sweeping over the world inflicted a deadly wound upon the papal division of the Babylonian system. Rev. 13:3. Unmasked, it fell humiliated before the triumphant advance of the great Protestant Reformation. It was not killed, but superseded, by this new world-wide movement.

R. C. P.

WHO CAN READ THE FUTURE?

By L. A. B.

What Lies Before Was Sealed to All—A Mighty One Prevailed and Broke the Seal—All Who Wish May Understand

THE book of Revelation is a series of visions given to the apostle John while he was imprisoned on the isle of Patmos by the Roman government for “the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” By thus becoming a partaker with the early Christians “in the tribulation and kingdom and patience which are in Jesus,” he received “the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show unto His servants, even the things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John; who bare witness of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, even of all things that he saw.” Rev. 1: 1, 2.

THE THINGS THAT ARE TO BE

That the book of Revelation is a revealing of the future, is shown by the first verse. It is “the things which must shortly come to pass.” Also in Rev. 4: 1 we read, “Come up hither, and I will show thee the things which must come to pass hereafter.”

As we have said, the book of Revelation is a number of visions; and the one that we wish particularly to study is the one that begins with the fourth chapter. In this one vision, there is a revelation of divine providence, one of the grandest ever given to mortal man.

THE BOOK OF THE FUTURE

A door is opened in heaven, and One is seen sitting upon the throne. It is God Himself. His glory is as the glory of a jasper stone and a sardius; and there is a rainbow round about the throne, and there are worshipers, voices sounding the praise and the adoration of God’s creatures, for the One who is so glorious, so powerful, and so good.

There is really no break between the fourth and the fifth chapter. The description continues without interruption.

In the fifth chapter, we are told that John saw “in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne a book written within, and on the back close sealed with seven seals.”

Further study of the vision shows that this book is the book of the future; that God holds this book of the future; that

the writing upon it, within it, is hidden, is shut away from all other eyes, or, as it were, “close sealed with seven seals.” Seven represents completeness, and therefore the book is completely or fully locked against every eye.

Next a strong angel proclaims with a great voice, “Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?” This question of who can read the future, or open the book—who can unlock its secrets, or loose the seals—is the great question that God is impressing upon humanity.

ALL ASK THE QUESTION

It is the question that is being impressed upon human hearts everywhere to-day. What is coming? What do the events of to-day signify? What shall be hereafter? Whither are we going? These questions man would not naturally ask. He would go on content with thinking that to-morrow will be much like to-day, only more abundant; but in the providence of God, by events happening on sea and land, by the impress of the Holy Spirit, by the warnings of the Word, by the preaching and teaching of consecrated men and women, caution enters the minds of some, and they begin to think of and prepare for the future. “A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.” Prov. 2: 3. “Surely the Lord Jehovah will do nothing, except He reveal His secret unto His servants the prophets.” Amos 3: 7.

THE CLAIRVOYANT NOT ABLE

The question of the angel should be a question that each one of us asks for himself: “Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?” Where shall we go to know about the future? Shall we do as Saul did, rejected of God—turn aside from the light that shines from the throne of God, and seek through some necromancer or clairvoyant or palmist or spiritist to get the word regarding the future days, the word that we feel is so important? In other words, “Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?”

Let us, without hesitation, in absolute faith, believe the word, that “no one in the heaven, or on the earth, or under the earth,” is “able to open the book, or to look thereon.” Aside from Deity, there is not a being who knows anything about the future. Not an angel, fallen or unfallen, of himself can open the book, or look at it—can get a glimpse of the coming days; and there is not an unfallen intelligence throughout the sweeps of God’s vast universe who knows, unaided, the events to come, or reads the days that are yet to be. There is not a person in the earth who of himself can give us the faintest inkling about the things that will happen to us or to others in this world. No one in heaven, or on the earth, or under the earth, is able to open the book of the future, or to gaze upon the events which it holds within its bosom. And so we turn our backs on all fortune tellers, clairvoyants, and their ilk, for good and all. No one aside from Deity reads the future, knows what is coming.

John was saddened as he thought of this lack of knowledge. And if it were the last word, then we would all look forward to the future as one would look at a great black pall. The future of the church—unknown; the future of the world—unrevealed; the future of nations and of kingdoms—unseen; the events of human life—covered by impenetrable mystery.

SEAL IS BROKEN — FUTURE UNROLLED

John wept when he realized the situation, but his tears were wiped away. His grief was assuaged. One of the elders said to him, “Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.”

Thank God for the fact! The mighty Lion has prevailed. He has overcome. And by His overcoming, He is worthy and powerful enough to open the book and make its contents known. He is able to break the complete security in which it is contained, and hold it forth to the gaze of all who will read.

Let us remember, however, that no one has the ability, or the power, or is worthy, to do such a deed, only the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David. John looked to see this wonderful One, and he “saw between the throne with the four living creatures, and the elders, a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain.” Verse 6, margin. The mighty Lion is the Lamb. The Root of David is the Slain One—slain for the sin of men. Thus we discover that Christ, by taking the place of man, by stepping down from the high throne of God to the lowly manger and the accursed cross, prevails, overcomes, is found worthy to reveal all the future history of humanity.

But to no one else is given the power.

Therefore to Him be the glory and the praise throughout unending ages. Amen.

More will be said on this subject next week. L. A. B.

Question Corner

By Milton C. Wilcox

CONDUCTED BY MILTON C. WILCOX, MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA

NOTE.—This department is for the purpose of helping Bible students. Answers must of necessity be brief, often only suggestive, never exhaustive, never infallible, and must agree with the infallible Word. Such questions only will be answered as seem to the editors to minister to the mission of the paper. Questions of the same import cannot be answered repeatedly in the same volume. Name and address must be given, not for publication, but as evidence of good faith and to insure reply by letter if thought best. It is well always to inclose stamp, not stamped envelope, unless answer is desired by letter alone.

152 — The Law and the Prophets

Please give the meaning of the following through the Question Corner of your paper: Luke 16: 16, first part, and Matt. 11: 11.

J. H.

The passage in Luke should include the whole verse if you wish to get a proper understanding of this. “The law and the prophets were until John; since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.”

It does not mean that the law and the prophets lasted only until John; because many prophecies of the Old Testament are not yet fulfilled, and some of them reach forward to the new earth and the eternal state of God’s children. But up to the time of John, the preaching of God’s servants had to do with the law and the prophets. They had no light beyond that. But when John came, he preached the kingdom of God. “The kingdom of heaven is at hand,” was the burden of his message. Christ, the royal Majesty of heaven, had approached.

To say that the law ceased at the time of John, is to leave the world without any detector of sin at all. Usually the same ones who try to do away with the law when John began preaching, also tell us that it was nailed to the cross. But John began preaching about four years before Jesus died upon the cross. Certainly a law that was operating during that time, did not expire when John began his message. Our Saviour Himself showed that the law had not expired, in Matt. 5: 17, 18, by declaring that it was binding in every jot and tittle; and the next verse in Luke declares, “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.”

In Matt. 11: 3 we have a question that John the Baptist asked Jesus: “Art Thou He that should come, or do we look for another?” In prison, suffering what he did, hearing nothing as to how the work of Jesus was progressing, John evidently had become discouraged. He had almost come to doubt; and to settle this question in his own mind, he sends to Jesus, to whom God had borne witness when John baptized Him. Our Lord answers John’s question by the miracles which He there wrought. John was the forerunner of Jesus. Jesus was the One who came not to restore a broken law, not to do away with that law, but to restore men’s hearts, so that they would find the greatest joy in being in harmony with that law and living it in character. God’s holy law does not depend upon the whims or changeable ideas of men. It is as eternal as His character.

153 — “A Ruinous Heap”

In Isa. 17: 1, it is stated that Damascus shall be “a ruinous heap”; but I understand that Damascus is yet inhabited and quite flourishing. Was this prediction fulfilled in the past, or does it only point to the future?

A. K.

Damascus is one of the oldest cities in the world. Its origin is not even known. Some have ascribed it to Abraham and to his steward Eliezer of Damascus; but the record in Gen. 14: 15 simply shows that Damascus existed then. It has passed through a great many vicissitudes, and in some of them it has been utterly subverted, and practically left in the condition the prophecy intimates—“a ruinous heap.” But it has been built again, and it is, as stated, a fairly prosperous town at the present time. It was at one time the capital of the whole Moslem world, until the caliphate was removed from it to Bagdad.

Of course the prophecy will be again fulfilled in a fuller sense when Damascus will be utterly destroyed. However, the passage in Isaiah does not forbid the rebuilding of the city—simply foretells the subversion of the Assyrian empire for a while.

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