Earlier text: MY SHEPHERDKEPT BY THE POWER OF GOD.
By H. E. Sawyer-Hopkins
NOT long since a cyclone passed through the vicinity of a small railway station near Battle Creek, Mich. I was visiting a relative at this place; and as we were seated at the dinner-table, I noticed dark clouds rising in the west. They seemed to linger a long time, but anon came a light shower, the forerunner of the storm. When a child attending a public school, I learned to sing several pieces, one of which I have never forgotten; and since that time whenever a thunder-shower comes up, these lines come to mind:— “It thunders! but I tremble not;
My trust is firm in God;
His arm of strength I’ve ever sought
Through all the way I’ve trod;
He saves in danger’s fearful hour
The children of His love;
His watchful eye and boundless power
No shock of time can move.
“The hand that gives the morning light,
And paints the blushing rose,
Controls the storm with sovereign might,
Or bids it e’en repose;
’Tis He that guides the sparrow’s wings,
And keeps the insect’s ways,
And watches every herb that springs,
And numbers all our days.
“I therefore fear no tempest’s rage,
No lightning’s dazzling fire;
His vows who rules from age to age,
My heart with trust inspire;
While I am His and He is mine,
I’m ever safe from ill;
O, let my heart and voice combine
His courts with praise to fill.” I thought I would go up-stairs, and close the windows. Passing a room, I heard the crashing of window-panes and the wind rising at a fearful rate. As I returned down-stairs, it seemed for a moment as if our time had come, and the big house would surely go. The roaring was terrific, sounding like great water-wheels in motion under the house; I can not describe it. We called upon the Lord to save us and spare the building; and in an instant it passed over. On going out-doors, I saw that the chimneys were all blown off, the blinds torn down, the tops of the trees on the east side and the wind-mill on the west twisted off, and over across the road in front of us, in an eleven-acre orchard about a dozen large apple-trees were uprooted or had large branches broken down. One very large oak-tree was torn up by the roots, and lay across the road; a small building back of the wood-shed was lifted over a wire fence eight feet high, and laid down on its side; thus the work of destruction was seen on every side of us. Across a forty-acre lot a farmhouse had turned over twice, then taken fire from the stove, and it was all in a blaze. Here a lady was badly injured, and died a few days later. Beyond us on the east side another house was blown down, then torn to pieces and several were injured. The fact that we had been kept in safety amid all this wreck of the tempest, impressed me with the thought, “What a kind and loving heavenly Father we have, who cares for those who trust in Him through storm and wild tempests.” It brings to mind now as I write, these lines found in the Review of May 21: “The Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the earth, and calamity is following calamity by land and by sea. Tempests and earthquakes, fires and floods, are upon every hand. Only in God can security be found.” May the Lord teach us how we can best honor Him, by using every power in His service, that we may find shelter from coming storms. H. E. SAWYER-HOPKINS. THE ETERNAL NATURE OF GOD.
By C. Castberg
THIS is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.” John 17:3. The Holy Scriptures reveal the fact that there is only one true God, the Creator and Upholder of all things. To know this God, and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent, is life eternal. But the bare assent to this fact does not contain in itself the saving power of God. We must become “partakers of the divine nature” by beholding the glory of God. 2 Peter 1:4; 2 Cor. 3:18. “God, who commanded ‘the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give ‘the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.’” 2 Cor. 4:6. But it is “in the face of Jesus Christ” that we see this glory; for “no man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, which is ‘in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him” (John 1:18), and “the light” of the knowledge of this glory, or as we may also term it, the eternal nature of God, shines into our hearts from the leaves of the sacred Word; hence the admonition of Christ, “Search ‘the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are ‘they which testify of Me.” John 5:39. In searching the Scriptures for testimony in regard to the eternal nature of God, one stands amazed at the richness and grandeur of the theme. We find that God is an eternal being, with no beginning and no end (Ps. 90:2, 4); that He is everywhere, and that He inhabits the present moment with all His eternal greatness (Ex. 3:14, 15; Isa. 57:15); that He has life in Himself, and that He is self-existent, and imparts life to all living substance (John 5:26; Acts 17:24–28; Jer. 10:10; 1 Tim. 6:16; Col. 3:4); that His plans and purposes are eternal, and that His truth and dealings are forever changeless (James 1:17); that the eternity of God is beyond human comprehension, and that His existence is independent of time. Job 36:26; Ps. 90:4. Not only the Scriptures, but nature itself is a revelation of God. “For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are ‘clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His ‘eternal power and Godhead.’” Rom. 1:20. “The heavens declare ‘the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork.” Ps. 19:1. In the days of Christ this lesson had been lost sight of. Men had well-nigh ceased to discern God in His works. The sinfulness of humanity had cast a pall over the fair face of creation; and instead of manifesting God, His works became a barrier that concealed Him. . . . Not only the things of nature, but the sacrificial service and the Scriptures themselves,—all given to reveal God,—were so perverted that they became the means of concealing Him. And this is as true to-day as at that time. To Adam and Eve, in their Eden home, nature was full of the knowledge of God, teeming with divine instruction. Wisdom spoke to the eye, and was received into the heart; for they communed with God in His created works. As soon as the holy pair transgressed the law of the Most High, the brightness from the face of God departed from the face of nature. The earth is now marred and defiled by sin. Yet, even in its blighted state, much that is beautiful remains. God’s object-lessons are not obliterated; rightly understood, nature speaks of her Creator. Christ’s purpose in parable-teaching was in direct line with the purpose of the Sabbath. . . . The Sabbath bids us behold in His created works the glory of the Creator. . . . On the holy rest-day, above all other days, we should study the messages that God has written for us in nature. We should study the Saviour’s parables where He spoke them, in the fields and groves, under the open sky, among the grass and flowers. As we come close to the heart of nature, Christ makes His presence real to us, and speaks to our hearts of His peace and love.—Christ’s Object Lessons, pp. 17–27. “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of ‘the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even ‘as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Cor. 3:18. C. CASTBERG. IS IT SIGHT OR FAITH?
By Phillips Brooks
“WHAT shall I do with this sorrow that God has sent me?” “Take it up and bear it, and get a strength and blessing out of it.” “Ah, if I only knew what blessing there was in it, if I saw how it ‘would help me, then I could bear it like a plume!” “What shall I ‘do with this hard, hateful duty which Christ has laid right in my way?” “Do it, and grow by doing it.” “Ah, yes; if I could only see that ‘it would make me grow.” In both these cases do you not see that what you are begging for is not more faith, altho you think it is, but sight? You want to see for yourself the blessing in the sorrow, the strength in the hard and hateful task. Faith says not, “I see that it is good for me, and so ‘God must have sent it,” but, “God sent it, and so it must be good for ‘me.”—Phillips Brooks. THE PARTING OF THE WAYS.
By Edison Driver
The other day, not knowing which of two roads led to a certain place, I asked a little girl who happened by, to direct me. The answer was given readily enough, but the child was so small I asked again, “Are you sure?” “Of course I’m sure,” replied the little one. “Why, I can just see their house way, way down there now!” The house was not in sight, but the little girl, standing there at the beginning of the long road, could really see in her mind what was at its end; and I thought as I went on, What a glorious world this would be if people could only see the end of all roads as clearly as she saw the end of that one. Often, very often, we have stood at the parting of two ways, hesitating, not knowing which to take; and sometimes we have taken the wrong way because we could not see its end from the beginning. Every day, and hundreds of times every day, we are called on to decide. We ask ourselves, “Shall I do this or that? will it not be better to go than to stay? which subject shall receive my attention? what shall I say? had I better buy this article or not?” Such thoughts bring us to forks in the road, to places where our successes and our failures are all decided,—if we were wise enough, they would all be successes. If men could see the end of each undertaking when they start it, all would be successful men. Armies would not march to defeat, they would never fall into ambuscades; there would be no financial distress, no blasted hopes, no accidents, no calamities, no misfortunes. Instead, there would be health and happiness; and this old earth would now be blossoming as the garden of Eden, had Eve seen the end, as she stood at the parting of the ways by the tree so long ago. But see it she did not, for she would not. Tho God had told her clearly what the end would be, she closed her eyes to fact, and falsehood took its place. It is not in man’s power to see the end of any way from its beginning. Solomon says, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death,” and Jeremiah expresses the same thought, “It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” Christ puts it in this way: “Without Me ye can do nothing.” True, the lamp of experience guides men somewhat; but when the new or the unforeseen happens, that light goes out, and the man who depended on it feels the need of a better guide. We all acknowledge that our wisdom, knowledge, and experience are extremely limited and narrow, and it is this acknowledgment that lies at the foundation of all worship. Every prayer may be summed up in the words, Help us, for we can not help ourselves. Christ achieved success at every point, and yet He said, “Of Mine own self I can do nothing.” “Nothing” is absolute. Many times Christ repeated that statement in different forms to His questioners; He wanted them and us to see and understand, that, so far as His personal wisdom and strength went, they were merely the wisdom and strength of a man; He wanted to make it clear that the power and judgment He exercised were obtained in the same way we may obtain them. As a man Jesus stood at the parting of the ways, but He said, “He that sent Me is with Me.” He who sent Christ knows the end of every way from the beginning, and through Isaiah’s pen has promised, “The Lord shall guide thee continually.” That is how Christ was able to live a perfect and altogether successful life. The same hand that led Christ is stretched forth to lead us,—to lead us not only in the great affairs of life, but in every detail that comes with the passing moment. And when He does so lead, it will be to continued victory and success. It does not matter how many failures we have had, how many mistakes we have made, how foolish we have been—these things count for nothing. These things should only lead us to acknowledge with Christ, “Of mine own self I can do nothing.” When we have learned that, the way lies clear before us: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.” No longer the insufficient experience, no longer the erring judgment, no longer the sorrows of defeat; for the parting of all the ways will be but partings to greater and yet greater joys. “I have learned the wondrous secret of abiding in the Lord;
I have found the strength and sweetness of confiding in His word;
I have tasted life’s pure fountain, I am trusting in His blood,
I have lost myself in Jesus, I am sinking into God. “For my words I take His wisdom, for my works His Spirit’s power,
For my ways His gracious presence guards and guides me every hour.
Of my heart He is the Portion, of my joy the ceaseless Spring;
Saviour, Sanctifier, Keeper, glorious Lord and coming King.” One can not help wondering what men's idea of the Bible is when they speak of it in the following way:— Lincoln . . . built up his entire reading upon his early study of the Bible. He had mastered it absolutely; mastered it as later he mastered only one or two other books, notably Shakespeare; mastered it so that he became almost “a man of one book,” who knew that book. We have great respect for Lincoln, “the martyred president,” and we respect the hearty, strenuous, pushing man who was vice-president of this great republic when he uttered these words June 11, 1901, at the Long Island Bible Society, Oyster Bay, L. I., and who is now president; but we can not say that we have high regard for this conception of the Bible. If the Bible is God’s Word, it is infinite with His fulness. Neither Lincoln, great as was his heart or mind, nor all the great and good men that have lived, ever “mastered” the Bible. Men may read it through a few times, once or twice or thrice a year for a quarter century; they may have studied it topically and by books, or in other ways, so as readily to recall the place of record of any event, or to tell where a certain scripture is found, or to become in fact walking concordances, but all this is not “mastering” it. One man may master an intricate machine made by another. It proves no more than that his mind is as comprehensive as the other’s work. One may master another’s development of a science and go farther; it would simply prove a slight difference perhaps in mental quality and capacity. Man can master the books and works of men. But man can not master God nor His Book. It is a mine of fabulous wealth, the surface diggings of which have only been touched. It is a fathomless, shoreless sea, of which man has explored only its beaches and sounded its little bays. It is an unfenced field growing ever richer in flower and foliage as we go out from its boundaries, but of which man has plucked but a few bright blossoms, and fed upon a little of its fruit. To aver that a man has mastered the Bible is to declare the Bible a mere human book. It is an infinitely larger conception of man that is warranted, or an infinitely smaller conception of the Bible, one may take his choice. “But the Bible is human?”—Yes; so is Jesus Christ; but He and the Bible are also as truly divine as human; and only those who recognize this will ever come to know either at all, to say nothing of mastering it. He only has learned God’s Word in whom dwells the perfection of sinlessness, knowledge, power, wisdom, and love. THE LORD'S FORBEARANCE.
By G.
AFTER the infliction of nine plagues upon the land and people of Egypt, the king and his advisers still refused to let the Israelites go. Pharaoh had become exceedingly insolent by this time, and threatened that Moses should die if he came before him again. But the Lord had still another message for the arrogant king. He said to Moses, “Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt.” And Moses took the warning to the king that all the first-born in the land should die, “from the first-born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the first-born of the maid-servant that is behind the mill; and all the first-born of beasts.” The children of Israel had been warned concerning this plague, and directed how to escape its infliction upon them. Moreover, all the preceding plagues had been in the nature of a warning to Pharaoh against this one. And herein is shown the wonderful forbearance of the Lord. At the first appearance of Moses and Aaron before the king, they had told him this same thing: “Thus saith the Lord, Israel is My son, even My first-born; and I say unto thee, Let My son go, that he may serve Me; and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy first-born.” The Lord knew that it would come to this, yet in His long-suffering mercy He would give every possible opportunity to the Egyptians to escape. He would show them His power and wisdom and majesty, His great superiority over the gods of Egypt, and withal His leniency and tender mercy toward His enemies, giving them opportunity to turn unto Him and enjoy His blessing. So when Pharaoh first refused to let the Israelites go, the Lord did not bring upon Egypt the full penalty. He first sought to convince the king that the gods of Egypt were powerless. The first plague came upon the river, which they worshiped, turning it to blood. It was powerless to throw off the plague, and none of the Egyptian gods could bring relief. The second plague was worse than the first; for it afflicted all the land, and even infested the houses, with frogs. Neither was there any power among the Egyptians or with their gods to remove the pest. It was a plague of gods; for the frogs were objects of worship, and the Egyptians did not dare to kill them. This was followed by the plague of lice, which was even more annoying. The very dust turned to lice, and they were upon man and beast. Even the magicians acknowledged to Pharaoh that this was the finger of God. There was no longer any excuse for regarding these wonders as merely the superior magical work of Moses and Aaron. There was no longer even the semblance of an excuse for supposing that God was not able to carry out the judgment at first announced. But because He did not do so, the king presumed upon His mercy and hardened his heart. Not to do the worst in face of Pharaoh's repeated refusal to obey seems to have encouraged further resistance. Mercy was regarded as weakness, and gave hope of final failure to carry out the threatened judgment. Then came the plague of flies, from which the land of Goshen, where for the most part the Israelites dwelt, was exempt. In connection with this plague the Lord repeats the object of these chastisements,—“to the end thou mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth.” The Lord would not only deliver Israel, but He wanted to convert and save the Egyptians. Then, as now, He was “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” Hence His long-suffering patience. From this standpoint, it is easy to see that, severe as the first nine plagues appear, they were but merciful warnings that a continued refusal to obey the mandate of the God of Israel, and let His people go, would result in the judgment at first proclaimed by Moses and Aaron. The fifth plague afflicted still other objects of Egyptian adoration. The murrain fell upon the cattle, horses, asses, camels, and sheep. The ox and the cow were symbols of Osiris and Isis, and were deemed sacred by the Egyptians; as also the sheep, which was a symbol of their great god Amon. But the humiliation of these deities failed to soften the heart of Pharaoh more than to create a desire to be relieved of the plagues. The succeeding plagues were such as to show the utter inability of any god of Egypt to relieve from any evil attack, or to impart any blessing. These were boils and blains, hail with fearful thunder and lightning, clouds of locusts, and three days of darkness so dense that it could be felt. These were followed by the one that was at first declared, the warning of which Pharaoh had especially ignored, namely, the slaying of all the first-born of both man and beast. And so it was demonstrated that “he, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.” Prov. 29:1. It is possible for the true Christian to have peace, the truest peace, in the midst of the most stormy surroundings; and not only that, but to bring peace to others in such times. When the storm lashed the waters of Galilee, Christ lay peacefully sleeping in the tossing boat. He had the peace that passeth understanding. He imparted it not only to the elements, but to the hearts of the frightened disciples. The worries and afflictions of the world are like the storm-tossed waters of Galilee. It is the privilege of the Christian to have peace, no matter how threatening the heaving billows may be; it is his privilege to speak peace to the hearts that are frightened at the waves and the howling tempest. Christ spoke to the tossing water and the raging storm, and they were still. The Christian can in Christ's name speak to the storm that is tossing a human soul, and bid it cease, and be obeyed. The storm has lost its power to toss the soul when Christ has spoken peace. “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. “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts.” Col. 3:15. Let it; and remember that the peace of God comes only to the heart that is submitted to the will of God. The cry of “peace and safety” from the lips of the wicked and careless is the cry of delusion. Their peace is not the peace of God—it is not peace. The safety for which they look is not the safety which God guarantees to His children—it is not safety. Their cry is a false one, for it arises from a heart prone to its own desires. The cry of “peace and safety” brings “sudden destruction” upon the criers and the believers in it. The “peace of God” comes as a result of obedience, faith, and belief in God's Word. It is a harbinger of heaven, a foretaste of the blessings of the redeemed. Let it “rule in your hearts.” In Rom. 9:11-13 we understand that God hated Esau before he was born. In this case was not Esau predestined? And how can the Lord hold him responsible? S. B. T. 1. Hate, when spoken of God, is used in the sense of loving less. Jesus tells us that it is necessary to hate father, mother, etc., in order to be His disciple. That is, they must be loved less than God. Luke 14:26; Matt. 10:37. 2. Esau represented a character; Jacob another character. God predestined neither. He simply chose the character which would best glorify Him. Neither was God's election in this instance to eternal life or death, but for the promised seed. The elder should serve the younger. It neither means necessarily Jacob's salvation or Esau's destruction. Every soul has the privilege of choosing, and therefore every soul will be held responsible, even as every man naturally holds his enemies responsible. 1185. Circuses and Amusements.
Please inform me, Is it right for Christian parents, who are looking for the coming of the Lord, to take their family to circuses and other places of worldly amusement? H. M. H. It would naturally seem that time and money could be better employed. Sometimes the exhibition of wild animals attracts good conscientious people. But on the whole the associations are undesirable and degrading. God's Word must guide each one. Take for instance Eph. 5:1-7 and 1 Cor. 10:31 and measure each his own conduct (not his neighbor's) by them. He who is truly the Lord's till the warfare is over will see greater sights than earth ever knew. 1186. Who Are the 144,000?
Are the 144,000 of Revelation 14, which “were redeemed from the earth” and “from among men, being the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb,” the same 144,000 which were sealed “of all the tribes of the children of Israel”? Revelation 7? If so, what is the Scriptural proof? A class of teachers set up the claim that the 144,000 of Revelation 14, are the saved from among the Gentiles “taken out for His name,” who are to be teachers of mortal nations in another age, manifestly a great error and carnal doctrine. E. L. D. L. They are identical. Note the following reasons: (1) They are developed at the same time, in the last generation; those of Revelation 7 under the opening of the sixth seal; those of chapter 14 under the preaching of the great threefold message. (2) Their character is the same, as indicated by the seal of God and the Father's name. Those are sealed whom the King stamps with His name; they possess His character. Proof on these points could be greatly enlarged. The seventh chapter notes the sealing; the fourteenth chapter predicts the triumph. Sealed of the tribes of Israel does not mean that the sealed ones are Jews by natural birth. True Israel is composed of the overcomers. Read for the origin and meaning of Israel Gen. 32:24-32; Rom. 2:28, 29; 9:6-8; Eph. 2:11-22; 3:3-6. Men may not number the tribes, but God does; and every soul that enters the city of God will enter as one of the tribes of Israel. See Rev. 21:12; 22:14. All Israel are gathered out from the nations of earth whether originally Jews or Gentiles. The last thing noted above is a great error, for which there is no shadow of an excuse. If this answer is not clear, state wherein. 1187. Divorce and Marriage.
If a man has put away his wife for fornication, and procures a divorce, do the Scriptures teach that it would be wrong for him to marry again while his divorced wife is living? C. H. We do not understand that they do. See Matt. 5:32. 1188. Fornication and Adultery.
Does the word fornication as used in Matt. 5:32 include the sin of adultery? Or in other words, does the Lord recognize the sin of adultery as being an adequate reason for the severing of the marriage relation, and the taking of another companion? Or is the only Scriptural reason one which existed before marriage, such as fornication in its technical sense? Your brother in the faith, A. L. O. The word “adultery” in the New Testament comes from the Greek word moicheia from moicheo, a paramour, adulterer. “Fornication” comes from porneuo, to act the harlot, indulge unlawful lust; to commit fornication; from porne, a strumpet, harlot. We understand that the fornication of Matt. 5:32 includes that of adultery, and would be an adequate reason for divorce. THE PURPOSE OF THE HOLY SYNOD.
By S.
Perverted Ideas of the Purpose of Christianity.
The contention referred to some months ago in these columns that Russia is not a persecutor of Christians, is hardly borne out by the recent demand of M. Pobedonostzeff, procurator of the Holy Synod, that there be a “complete suppression” of Protestantism in Russia. Protestantism, in Russia, means any religion that is not in harmony with the Greek Catholic Church; and just as the Roman Church has always been, and always will be, opposed to any religion she does not control, so the Russian Holy Synod has been, and always will be, opposed to any religion which it does not control. The Russian State stands behind the Russian Church to enforce the decrees and wishes of the Holy Synod. In fact, the czar is the head of the church. These governmental officers of the Russian Church, viewing with alarm the growth of independent religious bodies, are demanding that such bodies be completely suppressed, and that all “recalcitrant religionists” be forced into the fold of the State Church or leave the realm. Many have done the latter; for vital godliness in Russia is just as incapable of enduring the captivity of a State creed as it is in any other part of the world. For the love of an unchained Gospel these religious sects have been willing to leave the homes of their childhood to find liberty of belief in a foreign land, even as did the earlier settlers of America. M. Pobedonostzeff declares that unless steps be soon taken to destroy these independent sects, they must eventually destroy the imperial authority. He does not do them the injustice to claim that this is their aim, but holds that it is the “logical conclusion” of their beliefs. He does not accuse them of teaching beliefs contrary to the Word of God, but of practising a religion not recognized and controlled by the State. Thus is the imperial authority of the czar over the souls of his subjects greatly endangered. These sects, especially the Stundists, have of late been specially active in the circulation of tracts and pamphlets in propagation of their faith, and this, the procurator fears, will “lead to a democratic social State.” Commenting on this, The Interior says there is indeed some reason to think that the Bible does favor “government of the people, by ‘the people, and for the people’ rather than “a ‘government of the czar, by the bureau, for the ‘bishops.’” That is a terse way of expressing the difference between a true republican government and the government of a State controlled by a church; and yet we must not fall into the error of supposing that the purpose of the Bible is to set up, transform, or overthrow civil governments. The Bible teaches self-control, self-government; and that is why the true Christian will be the best-behaved man in the world, the most law-abiding citizen of any government. He is obeying that law which is the source of all just laws. His law-keeping goes to the root of the matter; and that is Christianity. The Christian finds it no harder to obey the law of the czar, king, or emperor than he does to obey the law of the Legislature; and he will disregard the laws of the one as quick as the laws of the other, when, as in the case of Daniel, they step out of their legitimate sphere and seek to control the conscience or religious belief of the individual. It is this supposition that religion must have to do with the State that is causing the State of Russia now to persecute the Stundists, the Molokans, and the Doukhobors. They are looked upon as a menace to the State because their religion is not under State control. Pilate realized, on the day of Christ’s crucifixion, that Christ’s kingdom was no menace to him. If governments could but realize to-day, as Pilate did, that Christianity is not in the world to govern it, but to save it, how much less persecution and trepidation, how much more peace and security, there would be in the world. The whole trouble has come through a misapprehension of the business of Christianity; and it must be admitted that in too many instances professed Christians have given the State reason for supposing that a religion not controlled by the State was a menace to it. That is the belief in Russia; that has been the belief in every country where Church and State have been united; that is the belief that has been responsible for persecution for conscience’ sake in all the history of the world. Russia has “harried out of the kingdom” thousands upon thousands of her most peaceful citizens because the government could not control their consciences or their religious practices; and yet it is a matter of record that the provinces in which these proscribed sects have flourished most are the provinces which are in the best economic conditions of any of the provinces of Russia, models of sobriety and thrift. Thus Russia, because of her State-controlled religion, is robbing her realm of the best she possesses; and in carrying out the purpose of the Holy Synod for the preservation of “imperial authority” in the realm of conscience, she is weakening the very foundation of good government in her territory. As sin will finally compass its own destruction, so this error is really waging war against the stability of the government that supports it. The purpose of the Holy Synod may be carried out; but it will never bring peace and a stable government to Russia, nor advance the interests of the kingdom of Christ in the earth. Natural versus Artificial Homes.
Among the many Christian enterprises of helpfulness which the later years have brought, is that of orphanages, children’s homes, etc., without number. They represent oftentimes an immense amount of money and much real charity and sacrifice. But this socialistic idea of helping people en masse, is not the better, the Christian idea, after all. The Lord thus expresses His method:— “Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?” See Isa. 58:5-11. The thought is that of individual work, while the present tendency is to do charity by proxy. Doing by proxy, through some one employed by some society, the one who has the burden for the needy rarely comes in contact with them. The hired dispenser of the charities, not having a real burden, often becomes cold, mercenary, and exacting, while the people who have the burden, not having the heart kept warm by actual work, soon weary. They are not blessed, and cease to be blessings. The way to make both effectual is to come into direct contact with the needy, and minister a part at least of your beneficence with your own hand. Great blessings follow this course. Another way of helping is to seek to do mechanically—in a socialistic way—what the Spirit of God did in the early church when the believers had all things common. The Spirit of God can do such work; no genius and plans of men can accomplish it in unregenerate hearts. It may run well for a season, but selfishness will soon thwart the purpose. Till men are “new creatures” indeed, the ideal assemblage is the natural, divinely ordained home. Nourish and cherish the home life. Help the poor to make a home. Ask, if health will permit, lone wanderers and orphans into your home. The following from a recent sermon by Bishop Henry Codman Potter, of New York, contains thoughts worthy of contemplation in this line:— We come back to these occasions of which I have already spoken, and to others like them, and the impressive fact in them is again, and again, and again, that Jesus emphasizes the sanctity of the family life. It was into the fisherman’s home that He went yesterday; it is into the publican’s home He goes to-day; it is into the home of Mary and Lazarus that He goes to-morrow, and the day after, and the day after that, girding Himself for the last great agony of the cross by inspiring the domestic heart and the domestic love. Believe me when, over and over again, He took the commonest means of the commonest men—even the publican and the sinner—and made it the sacrament by which He transmitted Himself to the hearts and to the love of men, He made an example to endure forever. No communistic mechanism which destroys the sanctity of the family, which strikes at the bond of marriage, which disbands the home, and reduces men to a hard and common treatment, and common life, and common activities, will meet the want of that individual heart and life which in each human soul guards most of all the home fellowship, and the nourishment and inspiration of the home life. That communism is characteristic of our modern Christian activity and of those social enterprises which are largely associated with it, and which I would describe by the word “institutional” charity. Let me not disparage it where it is valuable. Let me recognize its large service, especially in this twentieth century, in the amelioration of suffering and of physical pain. But, after all, when you and I undertake to deal with the miseries of men en masse, we forget of what they are made. You remember when Mrs. Senior, that clever and brilliant English woman, was taken into an orphanage in Liverpool, she was presented to a throng of some five or six hundred boys and girls, who went through, for her edification, the various exercises of the school-room, in which they arose and sat and extended their arms, and lifted their hands and drew them together, and repeated these mechanical gestures over and over again with the splendid precision of a machine—that she was asked by the matron of the institution, “Can you tell us, Mrs. Senior, anything that you think these children want?” “Nothing,” she said, “nothing ‘but a little motherhood.” You can not get a matron for five hundred children with mothering enough to go around. That is a moral as well as a physical impossibility. And there you touch the nerve of failure in all our conceptions of the present problems and perplexities of our social order of mere institutions. Whether you like it or not, you and I must imitate the Master, whose disciples we claim to be. When at the end He hung on His cross, there filed before that cross one after the other the rulers, and priests, and people, and with a fine scorn they cried up into the face of that dying figure, “He saved others; Himself He can not save.” And they were right. Not that it was impossible for Him in a moment to have arrested the whole process of that cruel tragedy, and have come down in triumph from the cross. But no man can save his brother, and at the same time spare and save himself. He saved others because He did not save Himself. He saved others because He did not shrink from the homeliest and humblest contacts. And while men stood without and watched Him with scorn, He went to eat with publicans and sinners; He broke the bread of the hardened and the outcast, and opened the door for the coming of the kingdom of God. Believe me, my brothers, if you and I are of His, we must go and do likewise.