After half a century of investigation, many of the greatest scientists of the world are convinced that in automatic writing and talking they have discovered a positively certain method of communicating with the “spirits” of the dead. In his recent address before the English Psychical Research Society, Sir Oliver Lodge said: “We have discovered that there is a new human faculty for communicating with the dead. The most important set of phenomena are those of automatic writing and talking.”
Many noted thinkers believe that at least parts of these written or spoken messages may be safely credited to telepathy and clairvoyance.
But Messrs. Stead, Wallace, Crookes, Lodge, and others have demonstrated repeatedly that much of the writing and talking of an automatic character can not possibly proceed from the subconscious mind of any living person. These eminent investigators declare that they can no longer doubt that the force and intelligence exerted are wholly extraneous; in other words, that they are the manifestation of spirit life. This is conclusively proved, they hold, by the fact that most of these messages are packed with events, dates, identifications, intimate details, profound secrets, which the medium could not possibly have known. Striking instances of automatic writing and talking are numerous enough to fill volumes.
Mr. Stead asserts that he wrote that marvelous work, “Letters from Julia,” automatically, and produces evidence to prove his claim. The famous French dramatist, the late Victorien Sardou, possessed the gift of automatic writing in a preeminent degree. Let him tell us in his own vivid phrasing about his gift. Here are his words:
**“The first time I had any peculiar manifestation I came in one night and, before going to bed, I wished to try to see whether my hand would write anything. All of a sudden my hand began to run rapidly over the paper, but when the thing was finished I could not make anything out of it. I laid the paper down and went over to the other side of the room to exchange my lamp for a candle. In coming back I looked at the paper from the other side. What was my amazement to see the5head of the devil perfectly drawn, horns and all! And this was upside down.**
“Shortly after this, I was sitting by my table one day, idling, dreaming, not making any effort to do anything in particular. All of a sudden my hand began to work on the paper before me with a rapidity and precision which astonished me. The result was a fantastic piece of work, drawn in delicate lines, fine almost as a spider’s web, and at the bottom a signature—‘Bernard Palissy.’ ‘What is it?’ I asked.
“And my automatic hand wrote: ‘The House of Swedenborg, on the Planet Jupiter.’ This was considered as most curious by all my friends, who knew that personally I had no aptitude for drawing. A plate was prepared and I was given an etching-tool. The result, in the same order of design, was a more elaborate piece of work, this time curiously combined out of all sorts of musical terms, clefs, notes, bars, and so on, and the whole was designated as the House of Mozart, also on Jupiter, and the whole was again signed ‘Palissy.’ In fact, Bernard Palissy became my almost constant companion.
“Do not misunderstand me. I do not believe that those drawings are necessarily copies of houses occupied by Mozart and Swedenborg. Nor do I think that the being which guided my hand was necessarily Bernard Palissy. It might have been simply some talented spirit which came to me to convince me of a grand truth,—the existence of intelligent beings around us.”
One of the most remarkable illustrations of the gift of automatic speaking is afforded by Miss Laura Edmunds, daughter of Hon. J. W. Edmunds who was for many years on the bench of the Supreme Court of New York State. Judge Edmunds vouches for the fact that the only language his daughter knew besides English was a smattering of French. Yet when in a trance state, under the dominance of her “controls,” she spoke thirteen languages fluently, including Italian, Polish, Hindu, and Greek. This took place, says Judge Edmunds, in the presence of eight or ten persons, all intelligent and reasonable, and all “as capable as any one of distinguishing between illusion and real fact.” This case especially has nonplused those who advance the theory that automatic writing and talking are purely functions of the subliminal mind.
Professors James, Hyslop, Newbold, Crookes, and Lodge have published copious reports of their experiments with the noted psychic, Mrs. Piper. Through her automatic hand her spirit “controls” dictated scores of messages divulging details which no living person could by any possibility have known. Not a few of these messages were forecasts of future events, all of which actually came to pass. The most significant and melancholy of these predictions automatically written by Mrs. Piper was the forecasting of Dr. Richard Hodgson’s death from too violent exercise—“a warning which the doctor disregarded only to fall dead at the Boston Tournament Club,” not many months after the prediction was given.
A Remarkable Disclosure
Dr. Isaac K. Funk, of New York City, head of the well-known publishing house of Funk and Wagnalls Co., vouches for the truth of the following striking case of revelation through the agency of Spiritualism. He says he spent considerable time investigation the following facts. He has this to say:
“I have seen the correspondence, and am acquainted with the man concerned—I will call him Mr. R.—and have thoroly cross-examined him, and have made inquiries of his neighbors and business friends who have known him for years, I find him to be a thoroly reputable man and that he is regarded by those who know him as wholly truthful.
“When he was two years of age his father and mother quarreled and the father left home, never to return. This was in London, England. Twenty-nine years passed. The mother had died, and the son had come to America, and had succeeded in business, and had married. Through newspaper reports he learned that a psychic a number of miles distant from where he lived was answering questions concerning lost friends, etc. He wrote a letter, addressed it to his spirit mother, asking whether his father was living, and if so, how he could find him. He told no one of his intentions to visit the medium. He was not a Spiritualist, and knew no one at the meeting. The letter he placed before the medium. She answered that a motherly woman is here and calls ‘William.’ She says his father was living, and that if he would address a letter to Messrs. So-and-So on such a street and at such a number in London, he would be told of the father’s whereabouts. Mr. R. said that he did not know the firm in England, but sent a letter of inquiry as directed, asking his father’s address. In a short time he received a letter saying that Mr. —— had been in their employ until about three years before, and that if a letter were addressed to him at such a street and number in Glasgow, it would be likely to reach him. He addressed a letter, and soon received one from his father. It so happened that shortly after having written this letter, the father was killed in a railroad accident; but the son, through the correspondence that was found among his father’s papers, heard from the executor and received his share of the estate.
“This is a case that, if the facts are as here given,—and after very extensive investigation I am fully convinced that the facts are correct—no recognized theory of telepathy or clairvoyance can possibly explain.
“What is the explanation? I frankly say: ‘I don’t know.’ . . . It is not inconceivable that the countless spirit intelligences, good, bad, and indifferent in the universe, may be able to perform such marvels as these I have just mentioned; AND THIS EXPLANATION MAY LEAVE THE MOTHER WHOLLY OUT OF THE CASE. This latter explanation would be Spiritualism, minus the identity of the spirit.” (Capitals mine.)
One of “Many Convincing Experiments”
Mrs. Ella Wheeler Wilcox has assured Dr. Funk of the truth of the following which she herself experienced and which is to her conclusive proof of the continuity of existence and of the possibility of intramundane communication. She says:
“A woman of . . . social position and culture called upon me a few days ago. We possessed mutual friends; but had never before met. I had heard of the remarkable psychic powers of this lady, known only to her intimate associates, and never employed for gain, as she was born in affluence. . . . I mentioned what I had heard of her and expressed a wish for a test. My caller seemed embarrassed and said: ‘I do not like to tamper with the strange force. I have possessed it since a child, and my father nearly lost his mind investigating these things. . . . I rarely permit myself to give any exhibition of my powers to any one. I confess I do not understand my gifts, and am a little afraid of them.’
“After some persuasion she consented to oblige me. I was living in a New York hotel at the time. . . . I obtained two slates. But we had no pencils; and at my suggestion the psychic for the first time tried to obtain messages on note paper between two slates. With the paper I placed a morsel of lead-pencil, . . . so small that it could not have been held under the finger-nail without losing itself.
“I alone touched the paper; I alone touched the pencil; the paper bore the hotel mark and I took it from my own desk with my own hands.
“The room was brilliantly lighted. After I placed the paper and pencil between the two slates, my caller held two ends of the slates in her hands and I held the other two. Almost instantly the closed slates were jerked and pulled as by some violent force; and on the table and on the back of my chair knockings were distinctly audible.
“Upon the paper in a fine, spider-like penmanship, but perfectly legible, was a most tender and motherly message bearing the signature of my husband’s mother, who died when he was a small child; . . . and whose name and history are not known to one friend in a thousand of our circle of acquaintances.
“I replaced other sheets of paper and in all six messages were given to me, all from different people, and all under the glare of a fully lighted chandelier, and all in my own room and with my own materials.
“Several of these messages contained assertions and statements to which time has given added weight. . . . I know that I was not under any hallucination; I know that I was not in a hypnotic state; I know that the slates were not tampered with, and that I alone touched the paper and pencil; and I know that no financial consideration entered into the experiment; and I know that the messages were written by some power not explainable by physical science.
“It seems to me, in the light of such experience, that it is as stupid as it is stubborn to deny the fact of communication with realms beyond. This is but one of the many convincing experiments which have come to me in the course of my investigations.”
How Mr. Stead Vouches for the Genuineness of Spirit Photography
Hosts of intelligent people contemptuously deny the possibility of a genuine “spirit photograph.” Mr. Stead firmly believes in such a possibility, and tells the following wonderful experience, in corroboration of his belief:
“I have referred to spirit photography. Let me disarm any skeptical reader by admitting that nothing is more easy than to fake bogus spirit photographs, and further, that an expert conjurer can almost always cheat the most vigilant observer. The use of marked plates, which I handle, expose and develop myself, no doubt affords some protection against fraud, but my belief in the authenticity of spirit photographs rests upon a far firmer foundation than that of the fallible vigilance of the experimenter. The supreme test of an authentic spirit photograph is that a plainly recognizable portrait of a dead person shall be obtained by a photographer who knows nothing whatever of the existence of such a person, and that no visible form shall be seen by the sitter in front of the camera.
**“I have had such photographs not once, but many times. I will here only mention one. The photographer whose mediumship enables him to photograph the invisible is a very old, rather illiterate man, to whom this faculty was at one time a serious hindrance to his photographic business. He is clairvoyant and clairaudient. During the late Boer War I went to have a sitting with him, wondering who would come.6**
“I had hardly taken my seat before the old man said: ‘I had a great fight the other day. An old Boer came into my studio carrying a gun. He fairly frightened me, he looked so fierce. So I said to him, “Go away; I don’t like guns!” And he went away. Now he’s back again. He came in with you. He has not got his gun now and he does not look so fierce. Shall we let him stay?’
“By all means,” I replied. “Do you think you can get his photograph?”
“I don’t know,” said the old man, “I can try.”
“So I sat down in front of the camera and an exposure was duly made. I could see nothing. Before the plate was removed I asked the photographer:
“You spoke to him the other day. Could you speak to him again?”
“Yes,” he said, “he’s still there behind you.”
“Would he answer any question if you asked him?”
“I don’t know,” he said, “I can try.”
“Ask him what his name is.”
“The photographer appeared to put a mental question and to listen for a reply. Then he said:
“He says his name is Piet Botha.”
“Piet Botha,” I objected; “I know Philip, Louis, Chris, and I do not know how many other Bothas. But Piet I never heard of.”
“That’s what he says his name is,” doggedly replied the old man.
“When he developed the plate there was seen standing behind me a hirsute, tall, stalwart man who might have been a Boer or a Moujik. I said nothing, but waited till the war came to an end, and General Botha came to London. I sent the photograph to him by Mr. Fischer, now Prime Minister of the Orange Free State. Next day Mr. Wessels, another Free State delegate, came to see me.
“Where did you get that photograph?” he asked, “the photograph you gave to Mr. Fischer.”
“I told him exactly how it had come. He shook his head. ‘I don’t hold with superstition. Tell me, how did you get that portrait? That man did not know William Stead. That man was never in England.’”
“Well,” I replied, “I have told you how I got it, and you need not believe me if you don’t like. But why are you so excited about it?”
“Why,” said he, “because that man was a near relative of mine. I have got his portrait hanging up in my house at home.”
“Really,” I said, “is he dead?”
“He was the first Boer commandant killed in the siege of Kimberley.”
“Pietrus Johannes Botha,” he replied, “but we always called him Piet Botha for short.”
“I have the portrait still in my possession. It has been subsequently identified by the other Free Staters who knew Piet Botha well.
“This at least is not a case which telepathy can explain. Nor can the hypothesis of fraud hold water. It was the merest accident that I asked the photographer to see if the spirit would give his name. No one in England, so far as I have been able to ascertain, knew that any Piet Botha ever existed.”
[NOTE.—In the next article of this series will be given the internal evidence showing that Spiritualistic phenomena can not possibly proceed from disembodied human intelligences. In a later article inspired evidence will be given as to their origin and meaning.—G. W. R.]
Did Jesus Change the Sabbath?
By Luella A. Harmon
“Why no, of course, He did not make the change,” some one says, “but after He was raised from the dead the apostles changed the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first day in commemoration of His resurrection.”
Do you mean to say that the apostles, after all Jesus had taught them by example and precept, after His return to heaven, set about to change the Sabbath to suit themselves; thinking they had a better reason for making the first day the Sabbath than God had for making the seventh day the Sabbath? We will investigate, and see if those apostles did make such a change. It seems very strange that they tried to overthrow the Saviour’s teaching and to change God’s unchangeable law.
The first day is mentioned but eight times in the New Testament; let us see if it is called a Sabbath:
1. Have you noticed that never a one of the New Testament writers says anything about the change of the Sabbath? Nor do they call the first day of the week the Sabbath.
2. Mary did not go home and keep that day for the Sabbath. She with Joanna, and Mary the mother of Jesus, ran back to tell the other disciples.
3. The disciples did not believe Jesus had risen, “and their [the women’s] words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.” Luke 24:11; Mark 16:11, 13. Peter and John ran to the sepulcher to see, and then returned home, but Mary remained at the tomb weeping.
4. That same day two disciples took a long walk to Emmaus, and back, about fifteen miles. Luke 24:13. They did not know in the afternoon of that day that He had risen.
5. Jesus did not meet with the apostles until the evening after that day, while they were eating their evening meal. They met during the last hours of that day; the meal and the coming of Jesus were later. They were terrified when He came in, for they thought He was a spirit. The day had passed, and they did not yet believe He had arisen. He had to let them handle Him, and see the nail prints in His hands and feet; and to further assure them that He was not a spirit, He ate some of the fish and honey from their supper, then they believed. Luke 24:36-43.
Now we know they did not keep the first day as a holy day; for some of them were traveling on that day, while the majority of them did not believe He had arisen until after the evening meal, and had not seen Him once during the whole day, and, as all know, the day ended at sunset.
LUELLA A. HARMON.
The Coming of the Redeemer
By Geo. A. Snyder
By Geo. A. Snyder
II. The First Advent
We have already seen that the first advent of the Saviour, as the Seed of the woman to be bruised for our iniquities, was foretold in Eden. From the days of Enoch all through patriarchal and Levitical history the prophets had spoken of the coming of the Just One, revealing His lowly birth, humiliation, suffering, and death. In the fulness of time, after the voice of true prophecy had been hushed, for nearly four centuries, a voice was heard in the wilderness: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” The ways of the Lord had been so perverted by His people that something striking must be done to awaken them from the slumber of sin. The wilderness abode of the forerunner of the Messiah was a fitting emblem of the desolate condition of the people who should have been ready for His advent, but who were self-blinded to their own highest interests.
The minds of the Jewish people were more thoroly captivated by the silken meshes of Grecian and Roman philosophy than the bodies of their ancestors had ever been by the iron chains of Egypt and Babylon. The wise men of the East, through their scant knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures, were ready to be guided by His star to Bethlehem. We can hardly imagine their surprise on finding even the priests in the temple unaware of the Saviour’s birth. The Jewish people had permitted the true spiritual significance of the humiliation and death of the Saviour to be eclipsed by a groundless desire for Him to come as a national hero to deliver them from the political supremacy of Rome. They failed to discriminate between the prophecies pertaining to His first advent, and those pointing to His second coming as a deliverer from earthly oppression.
The time of Christ’s first advent was opportune. Rome was in her golden age. All peoples were subject to her jurisdiction. The Greek language, into which the Bible had already been translated, was widely spoken. The Jewish religion had become so honeycombed by tradition that it was little better than mockery. Heathenism was beginning to lose its hold on the masses. Men were hungry for something really satisfying, and yet the outward power and pomp of heathenism were at high tide. The world seemed ripe for destruction, yet “God so loved the world” that instead of rising in His might and crushing His enemies “He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If God’s purpose had been to punish the wicked, as the Jews thought, they would have been the first to feel the stroke.
Every step in the Saviour’s early career, from His birth to His ascension, was in fulfilment of prophecies with which the Jews ought to have been so familiar that they would have hailed Him as the “Desire of Ages.” Yet “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” They were self-blinded. They had surrounded the7plain prophecies of His advent of humiliation with such a fog of human tradition that they were unable to discern the signs of the times. When they reached that awful state of darkness where they could raise the mob cry of “Crucify Him,” even in the face of Pilate’s effort to save Him, it was because they had neglected to walk in the light of which they professed to be the favored depositaries.
When Jesus drew near to the city of Jerusalem on His last Passover visit He wept over it, saying, “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.” Yes, they were so blinded by their own rejection of light that they were unable to see any of the wonderful proofs of His Messiahship. They united with, and urged on, the Romans until at last they crucified Him. No wonder the rocks were rent, and darkness veiled the awful scene. Inanimate nature groaned, and was draped in mourning for her dying Lord, after His chosen people had stood with hearts harder than stone, and mocked His dying agony.
He had grown up among them as a tender plant. He had “made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant.” He had veiled His divinity with humanity that He might come closer to His dear people, and that they might have greater reason to confide in Him. But the very things which should have enlisted their confidence, and caused their heart-strings to vibrate with love, were to them evidences that He was an impostor. O what an object-lesson of the results of neglecting to cherish each precious ray of light that shines along life’s pathway!
They crucified their Saviour to save themselves from One whom they thought to be a dangerous impostor, but in and through it all there was the fulfilment of the words of the prophets who “testified beforehand of the sufferings of Christ.” It yet remains for Christ to fulfil those prophecies which testified of “the glory that should follow.” The first note of victory thrilled the sorrowing saints when they grasped the fact of the Saviour’s resurrection. They were sad again when He was taken up from them into heaven, but He left two of His messengers behind to reassure the disciples that He would return to finish the triumph. Acts 1:7-9.
Christian Experience and Redemption's Rest Day
By John Quinn
HOW many wearisome pilgrimages have been made in order to obtain the blessing of him who claims to be the vicar of the Son of God; and yet how unsatisfactory is the result. The soul-longing and the burden of sin remain; peace comes only through receiving Him who is the “Desire of Nations.” When Christ Jesus is received into the heart, God’s blessing floods the life, and rest is obtained in the work finished on the cross. The Holy Spirit, the true Vicar of Christ, controls the life, and His power to sanctify ever after is revealed. A great change has come into the life; old things have passed away, all things have become new. He has entered into rest, has received the blessing of God, and is being sanctified through the truth.
In the beginning God rested from His work of creation, pronounced His blessing upon the seventh day, sanctifying it to the service of His children. Many are teaching that there is no distinction of days in the Christian dispensation. One might just as consistently teach that the experience of a Christian is not different from that of a sinner, or from what it was before he became a Christian. God’s rest, blessing, and sanctification can never be divorced from the seventh day; neither can they be separated from the believer in Christ Jesus. And if there is a great difference between Christian experience and the bondage of unbelief, so also is there a vast difference between the seventh day and the other days of the week. Eph. 1:3; Heb. 4:3; John 17:17.
The plea is made that in resting on the first day of the week honor is given to the redemption made possible by Christ Jesus. But the observance is one day too late, as redemption’s rest day is identical with creation’s rest day. The work of creation ended at the close of the sixth day, and the next day was set apart as its memorial. Near the close of another sixth day, four thousand years later, the world’s Redeemer in triumph cried, “It is finished,” even as God had said on the first sixth day, It is very good. The next day He rested in the new tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, thus making redemption’s rest day identical with that of creation. When the first day came, He spent it in travel from earth to heaven, and from place to place on the earth, convincing men of their unbelief in Him as the promised Messiah, and establishing their hearts in faith. And just as God brought light out of the darkness on earth’s first day, so again out of the open tomb in Palestine the light broke forth, to shine even to the perfect day. Loyalty to redemption means loyalty to its rest day, the seventh day of the week. Gen. 1:21; John 19:30; Luke 23:56; 24:1, 13; 2 Cor. 4:6, 7.
JOHN QUINN.
Takoma Park, Washington, D. C.
The Law of God—Its Immutability and Perpetuity
1. Of what is the law of God an expression?
“Let my tongue sing of Thy word; For all Thy commandments are righteousness.” Ps. 119:172.
2. How long will God’s righteousness endure?
“Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness.” Ps. 119:142.
3. By what striking comparison does God emphasize the perpetuity of His righteousness?
“Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment; and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but My salvation shall be forever, and My righteousness shall not be abolished.” Isa. 51:6.
4. What is this righteousness?
“Harken unto Me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is My law; My righteousness shall be forever, and My salvation unto all generations.” Isa. 51:7, 8.
5. Why is the law so enduring?
“The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.” Rom. 7:12.
NOTE.— When men make laws which are just and good, they remain unchanged; there would be no justice in a change; there would be no necessity for a change, even tho all obey the laws. God’s law is not only righteous and good, but holy; infinite love and justice would make no change.
6. What was the attitude of the Saviour with respect to the law?
“Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” Matt. 5:17.
7. Did He teach that the law had been or could be done away?
“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.” “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one tittle of the law to fall.” Matt. 24:35; Luke 16:17.
8. This is in harmony with what words of Solomon?
“I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever: nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it.” Eccl. 3:14.
9. What will be the result of disobedience to the commandments?
“Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called least [by those] in the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 5:19.
10. What shall be for those who obey?
“Whosoever shall do and teach them, shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 5:19.
“Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the Tree of Life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Rev. 22:14.
11. In the very last days of earth’s history, John saw a “remnant” church keeping the commandments.
“The dragon waxed wroth with the woman [the church], and went away to make war with the rest [the “remnant”] of her seed, that keep the commandments of God, and hold the testimony of Jesus.” Rev. 12:17.
12. Beyond the “remnant” church is the Judgment, and there we find the law, still binding, still the standard of life.
“Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Eccl. 12:13, 14.
13. To what, then, shall we ever look?
“To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isa. 8:20.
Pioneering in Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador
NEARLY all the pioneering in Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador has been done by men converted in South America.
Old Wrongs Revived
OLD wrongs have a terrible way of coming to life again.—S. S. Times.
True to What?
To be true to oneself is a good thing if one’s self be true. But, in the language of old, “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?—Not one.” “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” “They are all gone out of the way.” Essentially, human nature apart from God is untrue. Sin is missing the mark. It is being not true to the right line. Froward in desire and purpose, finite in knowledge and power, man is a creature of faults, and “faults” and “false” have the same root, fallo, “to deceive.” To be true to oneself is therefore to be essentially false. It is to follow the changing moods of finite, wandering man. And yet self, self-hood, self-interest, self-exaltation, self-advancement, at the best self-effacement by self, is the root and ground work of all the false religions of the present day.
To be true to God is to be true to truth. God is infinite in love and wisdom and power. He always does just right, purposes just right, acts just right. He is always consistent with Himself, for He is never selfish. His acts are ever in harmony, whether man, with nature keyed on the low, imperfect scale of sin, can recognize the harmony or not. He who is true to God will never fail, for God can not fail.
God is not only essential truth, but He will make of the truth every one who will yield to Him. “Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free.” “If the Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” “He that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” As, therefore, God is truth, and he that is in harmony with the truth is free and abides forever, it follows that he who is true to God, regardless of self and selfish interests, is working for his own eternal good. Be true to something, but let that something be eternal and essential Truth.
Dangers of Prosperity
By H.
In the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, king of Israel, the prophet Hosea bore a decided message against the wickedness of these two kingdoms. In wonderfully forceful language he set before them their departure from God and the results of that apostasy. Fearlessly he told of the depths to which they had fallen, the idolatry, the disobedience, the wickedness.
But Ephraim said, “Yet I am rich, I have found me out substance: in all my labors they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin.” Then it was that the prophet called their attention to their beginnings. “Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.” One lone man, he fled from his angry brother, sleeping by the wayside, with a stone for a pillow. Too poor to pay the usual dowry, he served Laban for Rachel.
In his humility the Lord prospered him and made him strong and great. Then “he had power over the Angel, and prevailed.” When he was increased in wealth and numbers, “by a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved.” From small beginnings he became a mighty nation. “When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling, he exalted himself in Israel.”
But Israel offended; he turned from God to the worship of Baal; wherefore all the terrible judgments which came upon him. Yet through it all the prophet pleaded with his generation to turn and live. “Come, and let us return unto the Lord,” said he, “for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up.” He told them just how they could obey the Lord: “Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord.” But with all the warning, Israel and Judah went farther and farther away from God, sank deeper and deeper into sin. Finally the message came, “Ephraim is joined to his idols: let him alone.” And disaster, destruction, and captivity followed.
It was but the fruit of their own planting, the natural goal of their wicked course—the sure result of sin. The whole race runs on to the same end. As with the race, and the nation, so with the individual, the first step into sin is a step downward; and never in the course of sin does there come an upward step — it is all down, down, down, with open-armed Death at the verge of the abyss.
But there is hope, even to the fallen. However sinful, however far removed from Him, God’s message to Israel, and to all who wander as did Israel of old, is the same: “O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen in thy iniquity.” “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for Mine anger is turned away from him.” There is hope for every soul, deep-dyed in sin tho he be, who will cry unto God for succor, for He will hear the cry, His ear is inclined unto all. With David all may sing:
“He brought me up also out of a horrible pit,
out of the miry clay;
And He set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.”
H.
Whom the Lord Calls
By H.
GOD’S work in the earth has been committed to men. Not to one class of men does the call to service come; not upon one class does the burden rest. King David had his place; Moses had his. Upon each of these great responsibility was placed, not because of their position in the world, but because of their position at the head of God’s people. But upon the humble workers a proportionate burden rested. Amos, “who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa,” bore a decided message to both the houses of Israel. He recognized the responsibility placed upon him, and faithfully warned the wicked kingdoms of Israel and Judah to turn from their sins, put away their idols, and worship God.
He told them of the pestilences and sure destruction which would certainly follow their course of sin. He told them how offensive in the sight of God were their doings. In his simple, straightforward speech, rich in rural figures, he delivered his message, declaring, “Thus the Lord Jehovah showed me.” To Israel the message struck home. When Amos told them that the Lord had set a plumbline in their midst, by which their crookedness and broken-down condition were made apparent, “Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to Jeroboam, king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee.” To Amos he said, “O thou seer, go, flee thou away into the land of Judah, and there eat thy bread, and prophesy there.”
But Amos did not fear the king, nor would he leave Israel until he had delivered his message. It was not his work which he was doing, but the work of the Lord, as he told Amaziah, “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore-trees: and Jehovah took me from following the flock, and Jehovah said unto me, Go, prophesy unto My people Israel. Now therefore hear thou the word of Jehovah.”
He was only a herdsman, but the Lord called him. With the call of the Lord and a message from Him, he was fully equipped for doing his duty. Fearlessly he did that duty, even tho opposed by the priest himself. With a “thus the Lord Jehovah showed me,” he could declare, “The end is come upon my people Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.”9
To-day the Lord calls many a humble one to work for Him in His vineyard. To every one He gives a message and a charge; to every one He gives strength and wisdom for the work. While we may say with Amos, “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son,” we can say, too, that “Jehovah took me,” and said unto me, “Go.” And if the Lord has said, Go, delay not to make His work the chief concern of the life. His commission is definite; His promise is broad; His reward is sure. H.
