Earlier text: General ArticlesHis removal to Byzantium was doubtless to glorify himself by building up a strong city to the honor of his own name, calling it Constantinople. Yet the result was so clearly favorable to the interests of the Roman bishop that some have thought the movement had this object in view. Thus Stanley speaks of it:— "According to the fable of Sylvester, Constantine retired to Greece in order to leave Italy for the pope—'Per cedere al pastor si fece Greco.' So said the legend, and it was undoubtedly the case that, by retiring to the East, he left the field clear for the bishops of Rome. In the absence of the emperors from Rome, the chief Christian magistrate rose to new importance. When the barbarians broke upon Italy, the pope thus became the representative of the ancient republic. It is one of the many senses in which the saying of Hobbs is true, that the papacy is but the ghost of the deceased Roman empire, sitting crowned upon the grave thereof."—Stanley, p. 305. Stanley calls the bishop of Rome "the chief Christian magistrate." This truthful expression is worthy of careful consideration. He was not only a "magistrate" in the civil acceptation of that term, but "chief" among the highest magistrates in the empire. He was not content, however, to be above all; he was too arrogant and ambitious to long permit even an approach to his dignity. In 451 the council of Chalcedon elevated the bishop of Constantinople to be next in rank to the bishop of Rome, against which the Roman delegates protested, and appealed to the decision of the council of Nice, 325, in favor of the Roman primacy. The imperial commissioners, who heard the plea, thus decided:— "From the whole discussion, and from what has been brought forward on either side, we acknowledge that the primacy over all and the most eminent rank are to continue with the archbishop of old Rome."—Schaff, Ch. Hist., vol. 2, p. 281. This shows that the question of the primacy was settled, not by the judgment of the imperial commissioners, but by an appeal to the decision of the council of Nice. All after action upon that subject was but a confirmation of the decision of that council. But the prophecy of Daniel had spoken of three horns or kingdoms which were to be plucked up before the Roman pontiff to prepare the way for his supremacy. The third kingdom was plucked up when the Ostrogoths were subdued by Justinian. In his letter to the Roman bishop, Justinian recognized and confirmed his primacy. It is true that Justinian did not particularly speak of the civil power, or make a grant in that behalf. Nor was it needed. The bishop was a high civil magistrate under the empire by the authority of Constantine; and it was only needed of Justinian to put down the opposers in Rome, and to continue to hold the imperial court in Constantinople, to open the way for the exercise of independent magistracy by the Roman pontiff. And he was not slow to improve every opportunity in that direction. He soon claimed a divine warrant to govern, not only his own territory, but all the kingdoms of the world. And such was the power of popular superstition that kings imagined that they could add to the glory of their kingdoms by receiving the blessing of the "universal bishop." Accustomed to the idea of a union of civil and ecclesiastical power, they thought to strengthen themselves by receiving the benediction of the highest ecclesiastical officer; and that which they accorded to him as a privilege he soon demanded as a right. Mighty rulers, by their complaisance to Rome, exalted the power of the bishop over themselves; and what they intended as an act of reverence to his spiritual authority, he used as a precedent to prove his right to reign over all civil governments; and he soon demanded homage of kings and emperors as the condition of their reigning unmolested in their own territories! Truly, "his look was more stout than his fellows." The foundation was laid, and strongly laid, by Constantine. Justinian, by plucking up the third horn, gave efficiency to the decision of the Nicene council, and opened the way before "that wicked," whereby he was enabled to "exalt himself," even "above all that is called God, or that is worshiped." We have here given what we believe to be the truth in regard to the union of church and State, and the part which Justinian took in fulfilling the prophecy of Daniel; and we think this view is abundantly sustained by history. Of course we include the observance of the "day of the sun" as a day of rest from manual labor, as an important part of Constantine's legacy to the church; and the part which has had a wider influence than any other. After he professed to embrace Christianity he enforced the day of his tutelary god, the sun, with additional honors as an ordinance to be observed by the church. From a carefully compiled work we quote the following:— "A recent English writer says of Constantine's Sunday law that it 'would seem to have been rather to promote heathen than Christian worship.' And he shows how this heathen emperor became a Christian, and how this heathen statute became a Christian law. Thus he says: 'At a later period, carried away by the current of opinion, he declared himself a convert to the church. Christianity, then, or what he was 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.' Thus it is seen that a law, enacted in support of a heathen institution, after a few years came to be considered a Christian ordinance; and Constantine himself, four years after his Sunday edict, was able to control the church, as represented by the council of Nice, so as to cause the members of the church to establish their annual festival of the passover upon Sunday."—Andrews, Hist. Sab., p. 349. In this effort Constantine showed his craft, by at once exciting and appealing to their prejudices against the Jews. Although the passover was a yearly festival and affected only one Sunday in the year, yet it was a triumph in the work of honoring that day; and every step in that direction was made a part of the process of suppressing the observance of the seventh day, "the Sabbath of the Lord." It was on this subject that Constantine, in his "Letter to the Churches," used the following language:— "Let us then have nothing in common with that most hostile rabble, the Jews." "Let us withdraw ourselves from that most odious fellowship." "Use every means that the purity of your minds may not be affected by a conformity in anything with the customs of the vilest of mankind."—Eusebius' Eccl. Hist. No better reason for exalting the Sunday was ever given,—a reason which stands against any other precept of the decalogue as well as against the fourth; which might have been urged against the marriage institution with as much force as against the Sabbath. All history attests the truthfulness of the statement, that his first Sunday law was given out of regard for the sun, or, as Dr. Schaff says, "in conformity to his worship of Apollo," the sun-god. His obsequious bishops were but too ready to please the humor of the emperor by constituting "the venerable day of the sun," the chief festival of the church. Eusebius—who has so often been quoted, and even with an ill-timed air of triumph by the devotees of this relic of sun-worship—acknowledges its paternity in his celebrated endorsement, as follows:— "And all things whatsoever that it was the duty to do on the Sabbath, these we have transferred to the Lord's day, as more appropriately belonging to it, because it has a precedence and is first in rank, and more honorable than the Jewish Sabbath." Those who have noted the temper of the dignitaries of that day, their servility to the emperor, and their bitter prejudice against the Jews, will not be astonished that they attached more honor to the day of the sun, backed as it was by the imperial decree, than to the day which was observed by the Jews, though it had been honored as Jehovah's rest from the work of creation; it had received the divine blessing; it was hallowed or set apart for religious observance by the Lord himself; its observance had been expressly commanded by the Lord with his own voice; it was written with his own finger in the enduring tables of stone; it was declared to be honorable, and a sign or memorial of the Creator's power; blessings had been promised to all who should keep it; and curses had been pronounced against all who should profane it; each and all of which were lacking for the first day. Said Eusebius, "We have transferred." We shall not here give the evidence, of which abundance exists, that this transfer of Sabbath duty from the seventh to the first day was, as Eusebius affirms, made by the dignitaries of the church in the fourth century. It was, on their part, only an endorsement of Constantine's decree of 321, and the adoption of his favorite day which was devoted to the worship of his favorite god! The complete evidence that the Sunday was never observed as a Sabbath, or a rest day of any kind, until after Constantine's law, that it was adopted as a church festival, out of complaisance to the emperor, and as a means of more readily leading the Roman people to profess Christianity by conforming to their customs in regard to the "venerable day of the sun," of the regard for the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, which was, up to that time, observed by Christians, and the steps taken by bishops and councils to cause a discontinuance of the observance of the seventh day; these do not properly belong to the life of Constantine, though the complete erection of the Sunday festival is traceable to his influence. But, influential as he was, it was not without a long struggle that Christians were brought to observe the first day to the exclusion of the original and divinely instituted Sabbath. The bishop of Rome put forth every effort to suppress the observance of the seventh day. And because many churches utterly refused to conform to the rules sent to them from Rome, the aid and authority of councils was invoked, and those who refused to join in this "new solar paganism" were anathematized, and straitly threatened by the dominant party, which threats the Romanists were not slow to fulfill. Of the principal acts of his life which have a bearing on his character as a pagan and a professed Christian, we give the following summary:— A. D. 312, professed to have the vision of the cross.
313, issued the edict of Milan, stopping persecution on account of religion.
321, March 7, issued a decree that certain classes abstain from labor "on the venerable day of the sun."
321, March 8, issued the edict for the consultation of haruspices—a practice purely pagan.
323, according to the opinion of Mosheim, made a profession of Christianity.
324, murdered Licinius in violation of his solemn oath.
325, convened the council of Nice, and presided over its deliberations.
325, after the council of Nice, revoked the edict of Milan, and copied the penal regulations under which Diocletian had persecuted the Christians, and employed them in the persec277tion of those who did not accept the Catholic faith.
326, murdered his son Crispus, and his nephew Licinius, and a great number of their friends.
330, May 11, dedicated Constantinople to the virgin Mary.
337, near the close of his life, was baptized into the Christian faith. And in regard to his legacy to the church, we may enumerate the following as the principal points:—- Investing the officers of the church with authority as judges in secular matters.
- Union of church and State; or using the machinery of the civil government to enforce ecclesiastical laws and tenets.
- The adoration of the cross, pictures, and images.
- The worship of the virgin Mary.
- The primacy or pontificate of Rome.
- The observance of the day of the sun, the first day of the week, as a rest from manual labor.
They who can confidently decide that Constantine was a genuine Christian at any time in his life—anything but a crafty politician and selfish ruler—must be able to adjust the balances very accurately to show where Christianity predominates over paganism in the scale! For ourselves, we believe that paganism may exist and flourish with any amount of profession of Christianity; but we do not believe that Christianity can exist together with both the profession and practice of paganism. For this reason we cannot admit that, judged by any possible standard found in the Bible, Constantine ever was a Christian. And here we close our examination of the life and acts of Constantine. We have aimed in every case to give, not only the exact words, but the actual idea of the historian. Common Responsibility.
By Christian Union
WIVES are accepted in a general way as the moral educators of their husbands. And from the force of habit, when a man is reported to have failed morally, the question comes to the mind, What kind of a wife had he? Too often must the answer be, "Extravagant," "Socially ambitious," "Determined to dress and live as well as or better than her associates." But it certainly will be acknowledged that when a man allows his wife to be his tempter, allows her weakness to lead him to sin, he has given positive evidence of moral infirmity, and is one who would yield with little effort of will to temptation outside of home. It is not true that women are the divinely appointed moral guardians of men. A true woman can, and does, influence a man for good, but so does a good man. Personal influence is not a question of sex, but of character, of force. It is an unexpressed thought in the minds of many, that woman is a sort of moral shears, designed to clip and cut off the fungous and superfluous growth on a man’s moral nature. This is one of the reasons why we find young men living fast lives, and justifying and excusing themselves on the ground that they will soon marry, settle down, and become good men under a wife’s influence. Our divorce courts testify too frequently to the fallacy of this doctrine. How rarely is the educating influence of a husband referred to! and yet, a strong, good man is a wondrous power to educate, inspire, and help the woman whom he has made his wife. The fact that the wife is a woman does not insure infallibility. She has her faults, which he can help her to overcome; her weaknesses, which he can help her to remove; and false standards of life and its responsibilities, which it is his duty to remedy. The oak and ivy idea of the relation of husband and wife is beautiful in poetry, but most unfortunate in life. And more than one oak sapling which promised to grow to equal any of its fellows, has been strangled to death, or left to a puny, stunted living by the ivy that smothered it by its too clinging tendencies. No husband does his duty as a husband, as a man, who allows a wife to throw on him the cares that it is her duty, and should be her privilege, to assume; and it is weak and unmanly for a husband to shirk the burden of helping a wife to see and take to herself that part of the business of life that belongs to her as a wife. Hundreds of girls marry with no thought of the solemn duties that are theirs by right of their position as a wife. They have been educated to the oak and ivy theory, and immediately put it to practice. Let every husband kindly, gently, lovingly help his wife to fill her place. What right has he to prevent her reaching her highest stature as a woman? None. It is one of the severest temptations of a deep, strong love to stand between the object of that love and every trouble. But it is the highest privilege of true love to help the loved one bear every responsibility, meet every trouble that tends to develop strength of character and high purpose in life. Men marry helpmates, not infants; women with souls, not dolls. And it is a weak, selfish love that refuses to help a wife to attain her highest altitude as a woman. God Dwells in His People.
By John Foster
God has an all-pervading power; can interpose, as it were, his very essence through the being of his creatures; can cause himself to be apprehended and felt as absolutely in the soul—such an intercommunion as is, by the nature of things, impossible between created beings. And thus the interior, central loneliness, the solitude of the soul, is banished by a perfectly intimate presence, which imparts the most affecting sense of society—a society, a communion, which imparts life and joy, and may continue in perpetuity. To men completely immersed in the world, this might appear a very abstracted and enthusiastic notion of felicity; but to those who have, in any measure, attained it, the idea of its loss would give the most emphatic sense of the expression, “Without God in the world.” —John Foster. “Very Startling Statements.”
THE Boston Journal says: “Prof. Christlieb, of Bonn, Germany, read a paper before the recent meeting of the Evangelical Alliance at Copenhagen, which contained some very startling statements. According to the statistics of the last twenty years, he said, there has been a large falling off in attendance upon religious services throughout Europe, and this has been followed by an increase of crime. Paris has more atheists to-day than ever before existed in any great city. In no Christian country, however, were things so bad as in Germany. In many districts in Berlin there was only one church to every 50,000 of the population. In New York there were 200 places of public worship; in Berlin, only 50. Besides this, out of the whole population of Berlin, namely, one million, only 20,000, or two per cent., attend divine service. Hamburg was even worse, for, out of a population of 400,000, public worship on Sundays was attended only by 5,000. In certain provinces of Germany there are suicides at the rate of forty a week. The ordinary religious teaching of the country is quite dead, and Christianity resolved into mere education. Skeptical works are popular with the working classes, and in the middle and upper classes hundreds are led away by the influence of scientific discovery and invention.” Young Married People and Boarding-Houses
A FRIEND of the Spectator wonders if anything can ever be done to keep young married people from rushing into hotels and boarding-houses, instead of going to housekeeping, as all young married people should. He fancies he can trace many a divorce suit and many an unhappy marriage to badly conducted boarding-houses and hotels. The best of these places cannot be one-half so good, one-half so beautiful, as three or four, or even two or three, rooms, neatly furnished and hallowed by the name of home. Better live in one room, even, than go to a boarding-house. Every young couple beginning their journey as “bride and bridegroom, pilgrims of life together,” should heed this bit of well-meant advice, and keep out of even the best of boarding-houses.—Sel. It is a compliment to a preacher to say of him that he "hammers away." That is his business. To accomplish the salvation of souls, the Lord gives "line upon line, line upon line; precept upon precept, precept upon precept; here a little and there a little." It is these repeated littles, these continued influences, falling on the heart from day to day, that often lead to the soul’s conversion. The word gradually sinks into the memory, penetrates the conscience, pierces the heart, and the cry is heard, "What must I do to be saved?" A preacher should not be discouraged if he does not see at once the fruit of his labor. Let him "hammer" away. Every stroke is making an impression, and the result will be seen by and by.—Sel. The Fruits of Whisky Shops
By Rev. Dr. Arnot
PEOPLE need not tell me that I am excited on these questions. I know that I am. I should be ashamed before God and man if I were not. In my ministry, I meet the horrid fruits of these whisky shops. I see men and women perishing in these pitfalls. The number of the victims is so great that it overwhelms me. My brain is burning, my heart is breaking. The church is asleep and the world too, and they are hugging each other. I am weary with holding in. I must cry. I would rather be counted singular in the judgment of men, than to be unfaithful in the judgment of God.—Rev. Dr. Arnot. Baptismal Water from the Jordan
TWELVE persons united with the First Congregational Church last Sunday. The water used in the baptismal service was procured by Rev. T. L. Brown, from the river Jordan, at the traditional spot where Christ was baptized.—Eureka (Kan.) Herald, Feb. 27. Obedience Better Than Superstition
It would be very much better to encourage loyalty to Jesus Christ, by urging people to be immersed according to his commandment, than to encourage their superstition by sprinkling upon them water from the river Jordan. Obedience is better than superstition.—Christian Standard. "Be not thou envious against evil men." 1. COMMENCE promptly, no matter if there is no one present but the leader. 2. Have a good leader—a person who will not read two chapters, talk half an hour, and say nothing, but one who studies the Bible and can bring out of its treasure things new and old. 3. Have good, lively music, in which all can take part. 5. Have short speeches, and let every one speak the truth in love; if a person feels that he is not right with God, let him say so; and those who are rejoicing in hope, let them say so. The aim of the prayer-meeting should be, help for all. Let us aim to develop help for the sinner and saint, and the meeting will not be a failure.—Sel. Consider Both Sides
By Downey
NEVER be too precipitate in your decisions; but previously to pronouncing them, consider both sides of the question.—Downey. PAUL says, "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful." God has called us to peace; he wants us to enjoy it; he wants us to let it rule in our hearts; but we allow so many things to come upon our hearts to perplex and annoy, that his peace cannot rule, we do not let it. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee." Isa. 26:3. Our minds must be stayed on him; our trust must be in him; then, and for this reason, it is that he can and will keep us in perfect peace. It is upon these same conditions that Paul bases our enjoyment of the peace of God which passeth all understanding. He says, "Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." We are to yield to him implicitly, to trust to him wholly, and count his choice the best; to say freely and from a full heart, "Thy will be done." Does not he know more about us than we know about ourselves? Does not he know all that awaits us, before it comes to pass, while we know nothing about it? While we know not what a day may bring forth, he knows the end from the beginning. Then is not he the only one to trust? "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is." Jer. 17:7. JESUS again and again presses this thought upon us. And he tries his very best to show us how abundant, how far-reaching, and how intricate the care of our Father is for us. The texts are familiar to all, but the lesson of the texts is familiar to very few. He instances the birds of the heaven, and that "your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they?" If he feeds the birds, and we are of much more value than they, then will he not "much more" feed us without our wearying ourselves with anxiety about it? Then he says, "And why are ye anxious concerning raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; . . . yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." See Solomon arrayed in his robe of snowy whiteness, his jeweled kingly crown upon his head, sitting on his royal throne of ivory and gold, of which "there was not the like made in any kingdom;" or see him in his chariot of the cedar of Lebanon, his spokes of solid silver, "the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple," drawn by the most beautiful horses, and surrounded by sixty of the finest young men in the kingdom, clothed in garments of Tyrian purple, and their long hair sprinkled with gold-dust so that it sparkled with the reflected sunbeams. It required a great deal of anxious thought to set Solomon in all this glory, yet what was it all compared to the "tint that decks the rose, or paints the lily fair"? Nothing. Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. "Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you?" Matt. 6:30. It was in view of this that Peter said, “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” 1 Pet. 5:7. And why shall we not? Has he not done all that he can to assure us of his loving care? And having done all this, can we not trust him? It was thus that David saw it: “Trust in the Lord and do good; and verily thou shalt be fed. . . . Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.” Psalms 37:3, 5. It is for us to do what our hands find to do, to do it in the fear of God, and leave all the consequences with him. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God.” Rom. 8:28. Appearances may be otherwise, as with Jacob of old, when he cried out in anguish, “Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away; All these279 things are against me.” Gen. 42:36. But instead of all these things being against him, God was making every one of them work for his good. So it is with us all; there will be times when apparently all things are against us, but we have no right to think so, because all these things happened to those of old for examples, and they are written for our admonition. “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” Rom. 15:4. Therefore, “Trust ye in the Lord forever; for in the Lord Jehovah is the rock of ages.” Isa. 26:4, margin. LESSON FOR THE PACIFIC COAST—MAY 30.
Inheritance of the Saints.
PROMISES RENEWED TO ISAAC AND JACOB.
1. To whom besides Abraham was the inheritance of the earth promised? "For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever." Gen. 13:15. 2. From which one of his sons was his seed to be reckoned? "And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac; and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him." Gen. 17:19. "And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called." Gen. 21:12. 3. Where do we find the promise to Abraham explicitly renewed to Isaac? "And there was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar. And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I swore unto Abraham thy father; and I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Gen. 26:1-4. 4. How do you know that Isaac alone was not the "seed" referred to in the promise to Abraham? "And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Gen. 26:4. The promise, when renewed to Isaac, included also his seed. 5. Upon what condition was the promise to Abraham based? "Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws." Gen. 26:5. 6. Since the same promise was made to Isaac, must it not also have been on the same conditions? It certainly must. 7. Where do we find this promise again repeated? "And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac; the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth; and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south; and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Gen. 28:13, 14. 8. On what occasion and to whom were these words spoken? See Gen. 28:10-17. 9. Who besides Jacob was at this time included in the promise? Gen. 28:13, 14. See quotation above. 10. Where are Isaac and Jacob expressly called the heirs of the promise made to Abraham? "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise." Heb. 11:8, 9. 11. Did they, then, receive the promise? "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." Heb. 11:13. 12. From this last verse, what would you conclude as to their understanding of the nature of the promise? We must conclude that they did not expect the promise to be fulfilled to them in their life-time, because they "died in faith." When they died they were just as certain of receiving the promise as they were when it was first made. 13. Quote the texts already learned, which prove that these promises will yet be literally fulfilled to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." 2 Pet. 3:9. "For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us." 2 Cor. 1:20. The Father’s Care for His Children
But the Saviour is not done yet. In Matt. 10:29 he says: "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father." Four farthings make an English penny, but that is two cents of our money. Two farthings therefore would equal one cent, and one farthing equals one-half a cent. Two sparrows therefore being sold for half a cent, the value of one sparrow would be but the half of half a cent, or one-quarter of a cent. One sparrow, of the value of only a quarter of a cent, "shall not fall on the ground without your Father. . . . Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows." What our Saviour would have us understand, is that nothing of as much importance as a quarter of a cent, can befall the child of God without the Father's notice; that his care for his children is so great as this. Yet this is not expressive enough. Jesus goes a step further, as far as he can in human language: "But the very hairs of your head are all numbered." Nothing, therefore, of as much importance as a single hair can come upon a child of God without the Father's notice. Taking these four illustrations together, it would seem that the Saviour tried to draw out our minds to grasp the greatness of the Father's care for us, and that human language cannot express it. NOTES ON THE INTERNATIONAL LESSON.
"And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." To enjoy peace is the Christian's privilege. Genuine peace belongs to the Christian alone, and if he has it not, he is living far below his prerogative. "Acquaint now thyself with him [God] and be at peace." Job 22:21. "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." John 14:27. "But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest. . . . There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." Isa. 57:20, 21. There is no peace apart from a course of obedience to God. "O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea." Isa. 48:18. God has made ample provision, and has given abundance of assurance of peace, and it may be ours if we will only let it. God’s Roundabout Way
By H. Clay Trumbull
"AFTER three months we set sail. . . . At Syracuse, we tarried . . . From thence we made a circuit . . . and so we came to Rome." And this was a voyage where God was leading his own messenger, with a promise of bringing him safely to its end. What a roundabout way God seems to take for the accomplishing of his purposes! Can we wonder that strange and unlooked-for embarrassments, and hindrances, and delays, come into our experiences, while we know that we are in the path of duty, desiring to be led of God? Why Paul was led in such a roundabout way—such a tossed-about way—toward Rome, you and I do not know. But that it was all of God’s leading, and that it is of the kind of leading for which we must be prepared, and with which we must be contented, we ought not to question or to doubt.—H. Clay Trumbull. THE name Gamaliel is chiefly thought of now as the name of the Jewish rabbi or teacher at whose feet Paul represents himself as having been brought up. Acts 22:3. A great many notices are found in the rabbinical writings of this man (see Lightfoot, Horae Hebraicae, Acts 5:34), from which it appears that he was held in the highest respect among his countrymen. He is there reported to have been the son of Rabbi Simeon, and grandson of the famous Hillel; to have had the presidency of the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem during the reign of Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius, and to have survived the destruction of Jerusalem eighteen years. These accounts cannot altogether be relied on; but they may fairly be taken as evidence of the high place held by Gamaliel about the period of the gospel era, among Jewish authorities. In the same writings, the epithet of hazoken, the aged, or the elder, is frequently ascribed to him. There is a patristic tradition of his having become a Christian, and received baptism from the apostles Peter and John; but it is entitled to no credit. On the one occasion in which Gamaliel appears taking any part in connection with Christianity, it was not as an advocate of its claims, but as a man of moderation and prudence, restraining the intemperate zeal of his fellow-councilors, and advising them to leave matters to the testing influence of time. His speech may certainly be regarded as indicating both a broader and a calmer view of the subject than was taken by others around him; but it bespoke no leaning toward Christianity itself. It had, however, the effect of saving the apostles from immediate violence; and in that point of view is to be regarded as among the means employed by God for shielding the infant cause of the gospel. But men could not remain long in the neutral position of Gamaliel; and within a few years afterwards, the most noted representative of the school of Gamaliel, Saul of Tarsus, comes forth breathing threatenings and slaughter against the followers of Jesus.—Imperial Bible Dictionary. Illustrations in Sermons
By The Watchman
ILLUSTRATIONS, comparisons, metaphors, anecdotes, in a discourse have been likened to the windows in a room. That is a true similitude. But it happens with many anecdotes in sermons as with the windows in Gothic churches; they are put in more to display the colored glass than to reveal the interior. The true, white light, through plain glass, reveals other things, and draws no attention to itself. When, after a sermon, you hear chiefly this, “What beautiful illustrations he used!” it may remind you of the meeting-house in which people said, “What a lovely rose-window!” but you could not see to read the hymn. “Whatsoever doth make manifest is light.” If your anecdote really makes the subject clear, put it in.—The Watchman. The Old Testament in Infant Class
Do NOT discard the Old Testament, which is full of Christ, if you wish to find him, and which is, in its place, just as important as the gospels; and I have never failed to find something in every Old Testament lesson, for twelve years past, which would interest, instruct, and help the Christian lives of the little ones in the infant class.—Sel. HUMAN things must be known to be loved; but divine things must be loved to be known.—Pascal. PAUL had learned this lesson of trust; he had learned upon whom to cast his care. And thus he had learned Christian contentment. “For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” Phil. 4:11. And having learned this he could rejoice in the Lord. This the Philippians knew, for it was in their own city where Paul and Silas were beaten with “many stripes,” and in their own prison where the feet of these two men “were made fast in the stocks,” and where at midnight they “prayed and sang praises unto God. . . And suddenly there was a great earthquake, . . and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.” Acts 16. They knew of these things and could recognize the voice of him who, though still a prisoner in chains, could sound the cheerful note, “Rejoice in the Lord.” “Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I say, Rejoice.” The Scriptures recognize no such idea as that we cannot control our thoughts. The wicked is directly commanded to forsake his thoughts. “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.” Isa. 55:7. The Lord wants us to think his thoughts. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isa. 55:8, 9. Yet, “Though the Lord be high, he hath respect unto the lowly.” He dwells not alone in the high and lofty place, but “with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” The Lord by his Spirit has moved men to record the thoughts which he has concerning us, and which he would have us think concerning him, ourselves, and one another. “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” 2 Cor. 10:5. A. T. JONES
By Alonzo Trévier Jones
But those things of which God would have us think, can never be better written than they have been by Paul, as chosen in the lesson for to-day: “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” And thus we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, shall be changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.