“NO MAN,” says our Lord, “can serve two masters.” And yet how to do this is the problem that multitudes are attempting to solve. The effort in this direction has, in all ages, culminated in a false spirituality which has been a curse to those attempting it, to the church in which it is developed, and to the world at large. The word of the Lord is that there shall be an absolute break with the god of this world, who rules through the flesh, and an entire and utter consecration to him who rules through the spirit. “If the Lord be God, serve him.” There can be no middle ground. God will accept no compromise on this point. By this, we do not mean that God accepts no one in whom there is any sin, no one who is not perfectly and utterly separated from the lusts of the flesh; for that would cut off every man who is trying to serve him. There is a vast difference between imperfect service and a deliberate purpose to serve two masters; a deliberate compromise with the world, the flesh, and the devil. This double-mindedness in the service of God, this spirit of compromise, this false spirituality, has been the object of God’s wrath in all ages and under every dispensation. Moreover, it is the way of death to all who walk in it. It deludes and deceives in life, and the end thereof is death.
The attempt to combine and harmonize the worship and service of God with our own natural desires and worldly plans is characteristic of a false spirituality. Men who are but half-hearted always attempt to please two masters. They desire the favor of God, and at the same time to save and gratify the flesh. The Bible affords abundant illustration of this principle. Cain was the first example of those who try to combine natural with spiritual worship; to serve God and yet to protect and gratify the flesh. He brought of the fruit of the ground instead of the flock. He did not refuse to sacrifice, but he did not see the necessity of offering up a life. It seemed to him that fruit was just as good as life. Thus he acted according to his own thought and desire rather than in accordance with God’s word. It is this intrusion of our own ideas and thoughts into the revelation of God, or rather the substitution of our thoughts for God’s word that lies at the bottom of all false spirituality.
When the earth was well peopled, and there was a clear line between the worshipers of the true God and the unbelieving class, the sons of God began to intermarry with the daughters of men. Thus they tried to gratify their desires among those who were fair to see, and at the same time continue in the service of God. The result was the worst apostasy the world ever knew. God found it necessary to call Abraham out of his country and away from his people in order to train him and his descendants in a separated and spiritual life, in which he should be seen and worshiped as the one supreme Master of all.
Lot failed in maintaining a purely spiritual life by first pitching his tent toward Sodom, and finally going into the city to live. No doubt he thought he would be able to maintain a loyal service to God even while he was profiting after the flesh by a partnership in the well-watered plains round and about the commercial advantages and worldly honors of Sodom. No wonder he “vexed his righteous soul,” and was saved from that place of sin and compromise only “so as by fire.” Moses saw the impossibility of holding a feast to the Lord in Egypt; for to do so would be to sacrifice to the abomination of the Egyptians; so he insisted on an entire separation, and went out of the land of Egypt, not leaving a hoof behind.
Balaam, on the other hand, is a perfect illustration of the double-minded man, who tried to preserve standing with God and at the same time accommodate Balak and fill his own coffers with the gold of God’s enemy. Fear of God and covetous desire after this world contended for the mastery, and he tried to arrange a compromise. He desired the favor of God, and yet was unwilling to forego the advantages and pleasures of this world. He saw the advantages of righteousness, but did not have the courage to go over entirely to the Lord’s side. He desired to live like a sinner and yet die like a saint. This was an effort to solve the problem of how to serve two masters. We know how he fared.
Moses, on the other hand, saw that if he was to serve God at all, he must forego the pleasures of sin and the riches of Egyptian inheritance. He did not hesitate to make the choice as soon as he saw the issue. Joshua dealt with this same question in his farewell address to the children of Israel. “Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.” This was the ground of Elijah’s controversy with Ahab on Mount Carmel. Baal and God could not both share the throne of Israel’s heart. If the Lord was God, then he must be served and Baal cast off; if Baal was God, then serve him and cast off Jehovah altogether. Since the days of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, Israel had tried to worship God and yet serve Baal.
It was this persistent tendency in Israel to compromise the pure service of Jehovah with the worship of Baal that, after long and patient effort to recover them, led God to give them over to captivity. We do not read of their return to idols after the captivity; but the principle of double-minded service and mammon worship appeared in the Phariseeism and formalism which our Lord found in Jerusalem when he came, and which he so unsparingly denounced. There was a great pretense of serving God; but, underneath it and along with it was the “evil eye,” the covetous and carnal ambition after the wealth, the pleasures, and power of this world.
Dare we say that this false spirituality, this attempt to serve two masters, has been eradicated from the purer and more spiritual constitution of the Christian church? Is it not this double-mindedness as to God and mammon that is our curse and paralysis to-day? “The light of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.” “No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
What shall we say to these things? Mammon enriches his thousands and damns his ten thousands. Far be it from any servant of Him who came “to destroy the works of the devil” to attempt to compromise with the devil for any portion of the world in which Christ is not supreme Lord.—Independent.
The Inquisition’s Sorry Logic
The Christian Advocate says: “Monsignor Capel has a prodigious task on hand when he undertakes to defend the Inquisition. The best argument he advances is this:—
“If you imprison a man for damaging property, if you hang a man for taking the life of another, I will imprison and I will hang the man who takes from me my faith.”
“That is to say, because we imprison a man who takes another’s property, or hang a man who takes another’s life by violence, we may therefore imprison or hang one who convinces us by argument that we have been holding a wrong opinion. Sorry logic, this! Besides, the lecturer ought to remember that the Inquisition spent much of its force in imprisoning and burning men who were holding on to their own old faith, and resisting the efforts of the ‘holy’ church to take it from them.”
Thorns and Grace
By Evangelical Messenger
It is better to have thorns in the flesh with grace to endure them, than to have no thorns and no grace.
Art and Modesty.
We do not wonder that in all ages many excellent people have regarded the fine arts as prejudicial to piety and morals. Everybody knows that they ought to be the handmaidens of religion, virtue, and everything that elevates and strengthens. But art culture so often leads to disregard of everything but beauty, form, pleasure, and sensual delight, that its results appear to be, on the whole, debasing to the heart, degrading to the intellect, debilitating to the national as well as individual character. Hundreds of persons, very far from being bigoted religionists, have had this impression after a stroll through the halls of the annual exhibition of the Paris Salon.
An art company in this city has instituted legal proceedings for the recovery of photographs which an artist retains on the ground that they are his property, the living persons who acted as models being ladies who would be unwilling to have their identity made known. It is to be hoped that no lady would be led by her enthusiasm for art, to act in any way that would bring discredit through the accident of a law suit. When a French woman belonging to an imperial family was asked by a friend whether she did not feel uncomfortable when she reclined as a model for Canova's Venus, it is said that she replied, "No, the room was quite warm."
We have not reached this point of aesthetic development in America. It were better that all the art schools in the land were turned into Quaker meeting-houses than that they should in any way impair the delicate sensibilities of our young people in regard to what is pure and true in heart, speech, and behavior. That the manners and customs of many art schools are extremely detrimental to moral purity we have reason to know. Our magazines have given illustrated records of their methods, which are enough to condemn them utterly in the minds of those who regard the interests of the young more than the gratification of the senses in pictures and statuary.—N. Y. Observer.
“If the Lord Be God, Follow Him; but if Baal, then Follow Him.”
BAAL was the chief god of the Phoenician and Canaanitish nations. He was the sun-god, and in him the people worshiped the sun. His worship to some extent had found a place among the people of God before the time of Samuel (Judges 2: 10–13; 10: 10) but under the guidance of Samuel his worship was wholly forsaken by Israel, and they followed and “served the Lord only” (1 Sam. 7: 3, 4). Two hundred years pass by, to the accession of Ahab, before Israel turns again to the worship of Baal.
AHAB is introduced thus: “And in the thirty and eighth year of Asa king of Judah began Ahab the son of Omri to reign over Israel; and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty and two years. And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshiped him. And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.” 1 Kings 16: 29–33.
THIS very supremacy of wickedness reached by Ahab was through the alliance formed with Jezebel. Taking her to wife was considered by the Lord as worse than walking in the wicked ways of all before him. As stated above, “as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam . . . he took to wife Jezebel.” And when he had taken Jezebel for his wife, his queen, and put himself thus in her power, then he had literally sold himself to work evil. And thus the matter is summed up by the graphic writer of the Kings: “But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up.” 1 Kings 21: 25.
JEZEBEL was the daughter of Ethbaal (Baal with him), priest of Baal and Astarte, and king of Tyre and Zidon. Tyre was the chief seat of the Baal-worship, and there was a magnificent temple devoted to his worship, and when Jezebel became the wife of Ahab she deliberately set herself to establish his licentious worship amongst all Israel. The most of the people were idolaters already; but the calf-worship, established by Jeroboam, was in the name of the Lord. With him the calf-worship was more a political measure than anything else. He set up the calves to keep the people from going to Jerusalem to worship the Lord, through fear that if they should go there to worship, the kingdom would turn again to Rehoboam. So to prevent this apparent danger to his kingdom, he set up the calves, saying, “Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” This worship, idolatrous as it was, and bad as it was, had yet this merit, that it was at least in the name of Jehovah, and the people in their worship, mistaken though it was, still at least pretended to worship the Lord.
BUT this was not enough for Jezebel. It was not enough that idolatry should abound; Baal must be the idol. Nor was it enough that one god should be worshiped; Baal—the sun—must be that one. It was not enough that some, or even most, of the people should worship the sun; they must all do it. So she set on foot a systematic attempt to absolutely suppress the true worship of the Lord, and by Baal to supplant the true God. Nor was it enough for her that all should, if possible, be persuaded to adopt the service of Jezebel and Baal, they must be compelled, under penalty of death to do it. Accordingly she began to cut off all who clung to the worship of Jehovah. By these energetic measures she brought the condition of affairs to the point where there were only 7,000 out of all Israel that had not bowed the knee to Baal; and these only escaped by taking refuge in dens and caves of the earth, and were so widely scattered that Elijah thought that he was the only one left alive.
THUS matters stood when the voice of the Lord came to Elijah saying, “Go show thyself unto Ahab.” Elijah went and said to Ahab, “Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel’s table.” Ahab did so, “And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” The question was not, whether they should worship God. The question was, Who is the true God? The question was not whether they should worship or not worship; all were ready and willing to worship. But the question was, Whom shall we worship? Would they have another god before Jehovah? or would they have him and him alone, according to his own commandments.
THE first commandment was the one that was involved in the controversy in the days of Elijah. Should God be worshiped? or should Baal? In last week’s lesson we learned that that people who shall be alive on the earth, and who when the Lord comes, shall be translated as Elijah was, will be brought to a like test as to whom they will worship. They will have to decide whether they will worship the beast and his image or whether they will worship God. The word of God says, “If any man worship the beast and his image, . . . the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God. Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14: 9–12. And in Rev. 15: 2, we learn that those who keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus, get “the victory over the beast and over his image,” and “stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.”471
ANY one who fairly studies the subject cannot fail to see that the following is the truth. The “beast” is the papal power. The “image to the beast” will be the United States Government when the National Reform party shall have succeeded in forming here the union of Church and State for the purpose of compelling everybody to keep Sunday (the day of the sun) as Jezebel in the days of Elijah compelled the people to worship the image of the sun. And as the Sunday institution was established by the papacy—the beast—and is set forth as the sign of her authority; so when, after the similitude of the papal church, the National Reform party unites, in this country, Church and State, for the express purpose of compelling all the people to keep Sunday—an institution of the beast, the papal church—then to keep that day will be to worship the beast and his image.
WE say that then to keep Sunday will be to worship the beast and his image. Because absolutely the only authority for Sunday keeping is the Church of Rome, and when we yield obedience to any power that enforces that authority, we then become servants to that power, for, “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey?” Rom. 6: 16. What then shall we do? The Bible tells. When the beast and his image are enforcing their own worship, the Lord says, “Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”
TRUE the National Reform party pretends that it is the ten commandments to which they are going to compel obedience. But not one of the ten commandments says a word about keeping Sunday. Oh, but the fourth commandment says, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy;” and they will have it that Sunday is the Sabbath. But that is not true; that same commandment which says, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,” says also, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” The National Reform party and everybody else knows that Sunday is not the seventh day. Therefore when they seek to compel people to keep Sunday, that is not obedience to the commandment of God. And in opposition to that very thing the Lord sends his own word, “Here are they that keep the commandments of God,” etc.
THE time is coming, and now is, when the people shall hear the message of God, “Saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation. . . . Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” In obedience to that message from God, the test will be as strict as was that in the day of Elijah; and the question for decision will be, “If the Lord be God, follow him;” but if the Church of Rome, then follow her. If the authority of God be binding, obey him; but if the authority of the papal church be binding, then obey her. If the commandment of God should be kept, which says, “The seventh day is the Sabbath,” then keep it; but if the commandment of the Romish Church should be kept, which says we must observe Sunday “instead of the Sabbath,” then keep it. And thus it must be decided whether we will “worship Him that made the Heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters;” or whether we will “worship the beast and his image.”
THUS we find another parallel in the experience of Elijah and of those who must be translated as was he. In the next lesson we shall see another.
The Sabbath-School.
LESSON FOR THE PACIFIC COAST—AUG. 29.
Inheritance of the Saints.—Continued.
THE GATHERING OF ISRAEL.
1. WHEN God made the promise to David, concerning his kingdom, what did he say of Israel?
“Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime.” 2 Sam. 7: 10.
2. Yet what happened to the people a few hundred years after this? See notes on preceding lessons.
3. What did Isaiah say concerning the gathering of Israel?
“And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek; and his rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” Isa. 11: 10–12.
4. Who are the children of Abraham?
All who are Christ’s are the children of Abraham. Gal. 3: 29. Christ himself said: “If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.” John 8: 39. Abraham’s characteristics were faith (Rom. 4: 3), and obedience to the commandments of God. Gen. 26: 5. Therefore those who are the children of Abraham, must keep “the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”
5. Relate a circumstance that happened to Jacob as he was returning to Canaan, from Syria.
“And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there.” Gen. 32: 24–29.
6. What name was then given to him? See verse 28.
7. Why was this name given to him?
8. What is the signification of “Israel”?
The name “Israel” signifies, “a prince of God,” or “one who prevails.”
9. Then what name should be applied to all who overcome? They are Israelites.
10. Who only will have a place in Christ’s kingdom?
“To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” Rev. 3: 21.
11. When are the overcomers called to a place in the kingdom of Christ?
“When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Matt. 25: 31–34.
12. Why do the angels come with the Lord?
“And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Matt. 24: 31.
13. Then is not this the gathering of Israel? It can be nothing else.
14. How extensively will God’s people be gathered?
“And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Matt. 24: 31.
15. With what statement of Isaiah does this agree?
“And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” Isa. 11: 12.
How Do Your Scholars Spend the Sabbath?
By William Clarence White
THE Sabbath-school teacher who has a deep interest in the welfare of his scholars, will not willingly remain ignorant of how they spend the Sabbath hours. He knows that the spiritual and moral growth of his pupils depends as much upon the way they spend the remainder of the day, as upon the character and fitness of the instruction received at the Sabbath-school and church service. He knows that the temptations of the youth are strong, that the habit of irreverence is almost universal, and that in many cases, parents are indifferent to, or ignorant of, the multitude of temptations that beset the young to break the Sabbath, if not by open act, by words and thoughts.
It has been truly said that if men had always kept the Sabbath, there would never have been an idolater or a heathen; and we believe that if the youth and children of this generation were properly taught to keep the Sabbath, there would not be an infidel or an impenitent one in their number.
The thoughtful teacher knows too well that the deeper the conviction, the more solemn the impression made upon the young mind, by the lesson or the sermon, the greater is the condemnation and discouragement, if by old habits or associations, the youth is betrayed into sins he has resolved to abandon; and therefore many a word of counsel or entreaty which springs to the teacher's lips is never spoken.
If a portion of the holy day is spent in reading light and trashy literature, or in frivolous conversation, of how little avail are Scripture lessons and moral instruction; for frivolous conversation and light reading corrupt the mind, and sully the conscience, and spoil the taste for that which is good. When this is accomplished, holy conversation, the study of the Sabbath-school lesson, reading the Bible, and the reading of truly valuable books, is distasteful and a burden.
But what can the Sabbath-school teacher do to check the evil, and to encourage the right use of the sacred hours? Much every way. The teacher can learn at what time each scholar learns the lesson, how much time upon the Sabbath is devoted to its study, what portions of the Bible have been read most, and what religious and historical books the student has read or is reading. Beginning with these points, he will soon know what occupies the Sabbath hours. He will also learn what good books are within the scholar's reach that he has not read. Often the teacher can obtain for his pupils the use of good books, and can arouse an interest in them by relating some of the incidents contained in, or connected with them. Sometimes he can secure the exchange of good books by his scholars, and he should be very careful to discourage the reading of those that are not good.
The faithful teacher will work in harmony with those parents who are alive to the spiritual welfare of their children, and will enlist the co-operation of those that are indifferent. There should always be a perfect understanding between parent and teacher.
WHAT CAN BE DONE FOR THE LITTLE ONES?
When we come to consider what the teacher can do to help the little ones to keep the Sabbath, our task becomes more difficult; for here the teacher must work principally through the parents. The teacher can do much to help; but with the parents and older brothers and sisters lies the duty of "making the Sabbath a delight, holy unto the Lord, and honorable." The influential teacher may do much to secure special attention to the children at home on the Sabbath, that the day may not be tedious and uninteresting, so that they feel to rejoice when its hours are past; but that it may be a day that they will look forward to with pleasure, as a time when father and mother will read to them, and tell them the very best stories, will show them the wonderful things that God has made, and explain the use and beauty of plants and flowers. The story of creation may be taught the children over and over again, not in the same words, but as illustrated by different objects which arouse the child's curiosity. Then, while the mind is filled with wonder, the lesson of reverence to God, and obedience in keeping holy his Sabbath, can be often taught.
Very early, children should be taught to reverence the house of worship, and here the teacher may exert a powerful influence both by precept and example. As a people we lack reverence for the house of God; and while older ones are trying to reform bad habits, let the children be taught right. We believe the old English custom was a good one, for each teacher to keep all his class with him till after the church service. Whenever the parents desire it, we recommend our teachers to continue their watchcare of their scholars till the church service is closed.—W. C. White, in Sabbath-School Worker.
Guarding the Tongue
"I WILL take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue." Ps. 39:1.
Loving and Influencing.
"LOVING" your scholars, and "influencing" your scholars, are by no means identical; although the two things very often go together. A teacher who loves his scholars and who is loved by his scholars is pretty sure to influence his scholars; but a teacher may influence his scholars without either loving them or being loved by them. A teacher may have and exert an influence by the purity of his life, by the strength of his character, by the positiveness of his convictions, by the earnestness of his nature, by the persuasiveness of his words and manner, and yet be unloving and unloved as a teacher. But loving is as clearly a duty as influencing, on the part of a Sabbath-school teacher. Loving and winning are an inseparable portion of the obligations resting on every disciple of Christ, who goes in the name of Christ to those for whom Christ died.—Sel.
Teaching in Faith
We too often excuse ourselves from teaching, upon the plea of our unfitness, forgetting that "He will supply all our need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus," and that wisdom is given liberally unto those who faithfully ask for it. The greater our sense of unfitness and need, the fuller may be the supply from him. Whosoever prayerfully teaches, is also taught. The simple, earnest faith of a little child can but make our faith more complete. Who of us encountering the earnest, eager look of those innocent eyes, can help pleading that no deed or word of ours shall hinder or dim the clearness of vision always beholding the Father's face!—Sel.
Preparing to Teach
If we rightly estimate the importance of true teaching, we feel it to be an imperative duty to be thoroughly prepared, by prayerful study, to teach the lesson. It is refreshing to have something, outside our household cares, on which to ponder while our hands are busy; and it becomes also a positive delight, when we take “the word” for the object of loving thought; and many incidents of our daily duties furnish just the illustrations, for the lesson, most readily understood by the little ones.—Sel.
The Proof of Teaching
ALTHOUGH teaching is by no means the exclusive, nor yet always the foremost, duty of a teacher, yet teaching is teaching; and no prevalence of popular opinion can make anything else than teaching, teaching. And let it be remembered that the proof of the teaching-process always rests with the learner; not with the teacher, whether the scholars be young or old. The teacher can prove that he tried to teach; the scholar alone can show that the teacher succeeded.—Teaching and Teachers.