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Signs of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 43.

Science Falsely So Called
Earlier text: Science Falsely So Called

Results of the Superstitions of Popery in Europe.

WHILE darkness and night covered the face of Europe, while the clergy through its domination was able to prevent people from tasting the fruits of the tree of science, the food of its own superstitions was sufficient for the minds of ignorant men. But when the invention of printing, when the Reformation, followed by the bold geniuses who entered into the path traced by Luther, had multiplied and diffused the means of learning, a glimpse of doubt was thrown upon the Roman Catholic Church by its long enslaved children; the tares were separated from the good wheat, and the spring of the human mind bounded with more strength because of its long compression. The pure and shining light of a new sun cheered the face of the earth. Human reason, emancipated from its bondage, began to breathe and to soar aloft. In proportion as the popish laws were looked into, they lost that illusion which had so long fascinated the eyes; like those objects seen in the midst of darkness, which fear or superstition represents to us as phantoms or dreadful beings, but which seen nearer, prove to be the most common things. Thus far learned and reflecting men have dissipated the main phantoms created by popery when not seen with the eyes of prejudice or ignorance, but with those of philosophy and truth. For the happy countries which, favored by heaven, have profited by the Reformation, a new era of prosperity has begun; but for other countries in Europe, remaining in the chains of popery, there has been no change for the better. Some men, who, by the superiority of their talents, were leaders of public opinion in the seventeenth, and, above all, in the eighteenth century, showed an open scorn for the faith of Rome, and overthrew its chief tenets by the irresistible force of logic and sarcasm. Those writers were considered so many suns, round which thousands of satellites made haste to revolve as round their center. These satellites became themselves suns for others.
In this manner, from the first class of authors, from Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, D'Alembert, to the poorest village schoolmaster, has been opened a vast school of impiety; for those men, improperly called "philosophers," were authorized to include the whole Roman Catholic system in the same reprobation by the grand and capital dogma of popery; that all its lessons, all its tenets, are of the same certainty, are all equally divine. Such a criminal principle put a terrible weapon into the hands of its enemies; for as soon as they had proved the falsity of purgatory, of indulgences, of relics, etc., they had the right, by a conclusion founded upon the doctrine of popery itself, to say that there was nothing true in any of its dogmas. Consequently they rejected altogether, with the superstitions of the clergy, the most sacred articles, such as the divinity of Christ, the inspiration of the gospel, and even the very existence of God.
Gradually it became fashionable among a certain class of society to believe nothing. Unbelief was diffused from the highest ranks to the lowest, which last, by a natural vanity, copy always from those above them. Ignorant men, indeed, do not know "logically" why they are unbelievers, but they reason thus: "Such a one is a learned man, he does not believe; I cannot do better than to imitate him." The original cause of this impiety is the revolting falsities of Rome, which, rousing the disgust of able men, have brought upon the word of God the indifference or the contempt of the peoples of Europe, because they have not distinguished between truth and falsehood. The result of this general unbelief is a deplorable immorality. When I look at France, Italy, and Spain, countries which, if Protestant, would have been so enlightened, so religious, so powerful, and see that they have been despoiled of religion (without which no nation can subsist) through the abuse of popish superstitions, and that they are from day to day suffering from a deep and alarming demoralization, I tremblingly interrogate the future to know their fate. For no one species of faith has taken the place of the popish faith in the greatest part of these countries. Many have been eager to tear down the old edifice; but no one has reared any other in its place. The peasantry under the immediate influence of the priests are yet attached to all the superstitions and pantomimes of popery; while in cities there remain scarcely any traces of religion. In Paris, for example, religion is confined in the churches to a mere theatrical representation, in which priests, sunk in the vices of their time and of their order, endeavor to kindle into life again a dead faith, by their gorgeous pomp, their ceremonies of the opera, their music of the ballet. Is there a human heart that would not bleed, when, entering those churches consecrated to the God of truth, one sees priests, whose intimacy with actresses is almost public, playing their parts, doing their best to strike the senses, either of those whom mere curiosity attracts to their "representations," to see and to be seen, or of some pious aged women, who are the only representatives of religion in Paris.
We have glanced at the evils scattered through France and Italy by the superstitions of Rome; let us see what becomes of those countries, now that enlightened upon such gross falsehoods they laugh at them; let us see the deepness of their wounds, the natural result of popish tenets.
It has been said justly that "the literature of a country is the true picture of it." If, then, we read any of those books called French literature in the nineteenth century, we shall have a just idea of morals in France, the inevitable result of the superstitions of popery.
Novels are poured out with a prodigious fecundity, and produced by the hunger of some hundred lazy men, who, knowing the wants and the taste of their contemporaries, heap together all the monstrous inventions of a disordered brain, and proffer this nauseating stuff to their readers. All these books are filled, with few exceptions, with the most indecent pictures of guilty love, seduction, sacrilege, incest, murder, poisoning, and crimes of every description. All religious feelings are either forgotten or treated with revolting scorn. The sacred ties of matrimony, of virtue, fidelity, probity, are laughed at, always represented as unhappy, while crime is always triumphant. And this is the food of many minds. The lady and the servant-maid read only these books in their hours of leisure. If you should walk into the bedroom of any woman whatever, what book will you find on her dressing-table as the book which she reads before sleeping, and in the morning as soon as she awakes? The Bible? Oh, no; nobody has the Bible. It is some of these infamous romances. The young girl in her academy, who has seen them in the library of her mother during the vacation, will procure them for herself, and deceive the surveillance of her teachers. She will form her heart from these poisonous pages. The young man in his college devours those impure pictures of criminal pleasures, and he dreams but of them, to the prejudice of his studies. Thus is the rising generation enlightened. In order, too, that the poor may share these advantages, cheap editions of the same works are printed, and trusted to peddlers, who carry them into the country, and sell them for a few pennies to the poor peasants, that their daughters, their children, may be thus enlightened. Many thousands of these editions have poured out from the press in every direction; and one finds them side by side with the book of superstitions of the priest, alike read and believed by every ignorant peasant who is able to spell them.
The theater is perfectly on the same footing, and it brings before the eyes of the spectators, more vividly and more powerfully, a real corruption. In books one reads, in theaters one sees, true seductions. At first, indeed, they shocked the eyes; but now, a piece without those real representations would appear feeble and destitute of interest. Husbands carry their wives, mothers their daughters, fathers their sons; the workingman after his day's work goes here with his family, at least every Sunday; for on that day the higher classes of society abstain from the theater, too crowded by the throng and the lowest classes.
Foreigners cannot understand the genius and taste either of the authors, or of the readers, or of the spectators. They ask themselves where Frenchmen look for such subjects, such pictures. This question is quite natural in a foreigner. But what will be his surprise when it is answered, that it is the true picture of real life. The superstitions which have so long besieged and filled the minds of the people, have given place to a complete indifference to religion, which has been followed by its natural result, a general immorality. From Paris to the smallest cities there is everywhere such a deplorable emulation in vice, suicides, murders, that there is scarcely a village which is not tainted with crime. Esteeming as nothing the most awful crimes, provided they accomplish their aim, they make use of fire, sword, and poison to succeed. Morality is not founded upon duty, but upon utility or ambition. If, instead of those public lessons of vice, the Bible was permitted to circulate among the people, then those guilty men would have read in it this word of God: "Thou shalt not kill;" and everybody would know that it is a crime to kill a king as well as any other man. Young men, instead of dreaming of revolutions to enjoy pleasures, riches, and honors, would have seen in the sacred book that it is the duty of a Christian to submit himself to the will of God, the great Author of all society. But alas! the divine book is unknown in France, Italy, and Spain, owing to the perpetual care of the clergy to conceal it. None among the people have the Bible, nor do they know what it is, but by some stories detached from it and dispensed by the clergy to favor their own designs; consequently nobody has any other rule of conduct than his own passions. Can we refrain from deploring such a state of things in a country which, by its geographical position, its influence, and the universality of its language and its books, will thus be forever a sink of corruption for the world?
For such an evil, what is the remedy? Will the Roman Catholic dogmas ever be able to cure it? Everybody can answer; for this very evil is the result of the popish deceptions. Such a plague, indeed, would require all the science and art of a skillful physician. We know the nature of the ability and morality of its clergy. Shall some thousand ignorant priests, passing, after some appearance of study, to the altar and to the pulpit, be able to enlighten France and Italy upon those two grand causes of human misery—ignorance and immorality? Their childhood has been spent among the lowest class, the most ignorant, superstitious families of the peasantry, who cause their boys to become priests that they may become rich, and thus the supporters of their kinsmen. With this view the lad is brought up; he sees his poor parents occupied in hard labor, and often starving. He judges it to be more eligible to study at the expense of public charity. He learns how to read and write at the age of twelve or fifteen; learns some words of Latin, geography, and history. When he leaves the college, he goes to his family, which he astonishes by his ability, because his poor parents do not know how to read, and they gaze with admiration upon their learned gentleman. Afterward he is sent to a seminary, where his knowledge is completed by poring over theology, by reflecting upon stories of ghosts, devils, legends, miracles; such as those of Francis Xavier, who, in proof of the possibility of a body's being in many places at the same time, was seen in two ships at the same hour; of a Jew who pierced a wafer with a knife, and from which blood flowed, as the best proof of the real presence; of a devil who pointed out, and marked with his pencil, the priests, who, while in the church, were inattentive instead of praying; of a woman, who, having a horrible cancer, changed the worms thereof, by her patience, into diamonds; and a thousand other tales, at which it is not permitted to laugh under pain of expulsion. This single fact gives a just measure of their mind, for all is faithfully received and firmly believed. Besides this, they preserve all their native coarseness of manner and habit, and when all this is joined to superstition, and the self-complacency of a man clothed in an ecclesiastical garb, who believes himself a species of god, participating in the infallibility of his divine church, the result is the education of the coarsest, the most ignorant, and most ridiculous being in the world. I repeat it, can this boor in a cassock ameliorate the state of minds, even leaving out of the question his immorality, the natural result of his position, and speaking only of his ability?
It is easy to conceive how professors in seminaries fill the heads of their worthy pupils with the most exaggerated opinion of popery; for among the clergy, more even than among common Roman Catholics, there are the knaves and the dupes. Those churls are the blind instruments of the bishop, who does not blush after the above detailed instruction in the seminary; to use, in sending them into parishes, the very words of Christ to his apostles: "As my Father hath sent me, so send I you."
Therefore, among such a clergy, the spirit is always the same; and if it does not display itself so fully now, it is owing to the want of occasion, not to any change in its system. Instead of laboring to remedy the state of their country, they think but of power, of influence, of riches, of the domination of their church, of the destruction of heretics. The cruelty of the clergy, so infamous by their horrible persecutions of every religion different from their own, by the torrents of blood shed in its wars, has proved that its spirit is imperishable. Their predilection for darkness is the same, because they have more than ever reasons for hating the light, like owls whose eyes are dazzled by the sun. By every means in their power they stop the diffusion of knowledge; they persecute all schools that they do not themselves teach, calling them inventions of the devil; they prevent boys from going to them, or parents from sending them, under pain of excommunication here on earth and of damnation in the next world. Many hundreds of monasteries, convents, and cloisters are, as formerly, the abodes of idleness and ignorance (not to say more), where the people are compelled to feed with their substance those beings devoted to laziness under the appearance of perfection. At the head of the popish army are the Jesuits, the most cunning and daring body, the true personification of popery, the true grenadiers of the pope, twenty times banished by the wisdom of Government, and which always finds some way to creep in again; a body composed of knights errant, who wander from city to city, from village to village, to spread everywhere superstition and ignorance.
As in former times, the clergy coin money from masses, indulgences, and relics. These profitable inventions increase by new discoveries, by new accumulations, as the ball of snow increases in rolling. Less free than formerly, on account of the press and of diffused knowledge, the Roman Catholic clergy has added to its native corruption a deeper hypocrisy. Its celibacy, its education, its gloomy relations of the confessional, are an unceasing source of corruption and crime.
In short, if it is easy to see the ill they produce, especially on the minds of children, of women, and of the ignorant, it is as difficult to discover the utility of this burden on the earth as to find the philosopher's stone.
I have given a true picture of the Roman Catholic clergy in the nineteenth century. Let us hope, then, that God will prevail over all opposition; and that at length the pure light of the gospel will shine upon those countries of Europe from which the unchristian system of the religion of Rome has banished it. And let Americans be ever watchful in guarding their liberties against the encroachments of Rome, remembering what the great Lafayette said, "American liberty can be destroyed only by the Roman clergy."—Converted Catholic.

"Christian Nations."

By W. N. Glenn

THIS is a term commonly applied to several of the more prominent nations of the earth, but the appellation is of exceedingly doubtful propriety. The claim is especially set up in this country, for this nation, and the assumption is offered as an argument in favor of "such an amendment to the Constitution of the United States as will indicate that this is a Christian nation, and place all the Christian laws, institutions, and usages of our Government on an undeniable legal basis in the fundamental law of the land."
When we consider that the people of the United States spend more money for alcoholic drinks and tobacco than for all necessary supplies combined, including even the preaching of the gospel of Christ; when it comes to the point that leading men and leading journals assume that the moral character of candidates for the highest offices is not a legitimate subject for public inquiry, and the masses act upon this principle; when men who are selected for positions of trust because they are presumably the best men for the positions, and able to command the largest following among the people, so often prove false to their pledges;—when these things loom up before us so conspicuously, it gives emphasis to the doubt that this nation may properly be styled a Christian nation.
There is much complaint in all ranks of society against the insincerity, profligacy, and mercenary tendencies of office-holders; especially is there an outcry against the venality of judges, Congressmen, and State legislators. Now, who are the office-holders in this republic? Are they not the men who have been put forward by their respective parties as the best men, and held up by the party organs as the best men, and indorsed by a majority of their constituents as pre-eminently qualified for the positions? It will not do to say that their incumbencies make them dishonest; it is more probable that the opportunity merely develops the previously existing propensity. Men do not become defaulters, pledge-breakers, schemers, and monopolists in a day. No honest man steps into office to-day and becomes dishonest to-morrow. If he is really honest at heart, he will be honest wherever he may be placed.
The political office-holders of this country are of the people, selected by the people who know them best, generally with great eclat, and are more perfect representatives of the people than is generally supposed. The degeneracy of the last days is exemplified in the place-holding circle, which develops outwardly that which lies smoldering within. How often it occurs that those who make the loudest complaint against the officials, on gaining like position do the same things themselves. No, the opportunity does not make the dishonest man, it merely develops his character.
The chosen representatives of the people of this Government are the real gauge of the moral status of the nation. By them we see the fulfillment of the prophecy concerning the character of the people of the last days—lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, traitors, high-minded, etc. See 2 Tim. 3:1-7. There are, of course, exceptions among the representatives, as there are also exceptions among the people.
Verily something more than a display of verbiage in the Constitution, binding men, against their convictions, to certain dogmatical forms, is necessary to "indicate that this is a Christian nation." The Pharisees of old endeavored to indicate by their gorgeous garments, their broad phylacteries, and their wordy traditions, that they were the people of God; but the Lord repudiated their pretensions. As with individuals, so with nations, their Christian standing is known by their fruits rather than by their outward indications. When that constitutional amendment shall have been enacted, we shall see the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy repeated: "This people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men."
God never recognized but one nation as his people in the capacity of a nation. The condition of this recognition was on the express condition that they should obey his law (Ex. 19:5, 6); that they should not add thereto nor diminish therefrom (Deut. 4:2). The honor is thus expressed in verse 8: "And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous, as all this law." And Israel might have retained her exalted position, had the people remained true to their covenant. The covenant with Israel was designed for an everlasting covenant (1 Chron. 16:17), and the Lord never would have violated it, for he is a covenant-keeping God (Deut. 7:9; Neh. 1:5; 1 Kings 8:23; Ps. 89:34) "to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments." Dan. 9:4.
But Israel transgressed the covenant by violating the law, and adding so much of tradition to it that its legitimate influence was made void. Ps. 119:126; Matt. 15:3-6, etc. As a nation they turned away their ears from the "schoolmaster" that would have brought them to Christ (Gal. 3:24), so that when the promised Messiah "came unto his own his own received him not." John 1:11. They knew him not because they had been estranged from the Father through disobedience to his law (John 8:55; 16:2, 3). On this account "their foolish heart was darkened," and not knowing the things that belonged to their peace, they were rejected and their city destroyed. Luke 19:41-44. Nor is it probable that any nation which covers up God's law with human traditions, especially in transgressing his Sabbaths (see Isa. 58:13, 14)—even compelling the people by law to obey the traditions of men—will ever win the recognition of Heaven as a Christian nation. God will not accept any nation while it indulges the same sins for which another has been condemned.
Yet we have hope, based upon God's word, that the earth will yet be peopled by Christian nations. When the earth that now is reserved unto fire (2 Pet. 3:7) shall have been thoroughly purged, and its works burned up, there will appear a new earth, "wherein dwelleth righteousness" (verse 13). The commandments of God are righteousness (Ps. 119:172), and if righteousness dwells there, the law will be in force—nothing added, nothing diminished. "The nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light" of its capital, the New Jerusalem, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory and honor into it. Rev. 21:24. From one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship the Lord. Isa. 66:23. Here, then, will be Christian nations indeed, for Christ himself will reign King of kings.

The Sabbath-School.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

LESSON FOR THE PACIFIC COAST—DEC. 6.

  1. When Christ was crucified, who were put to death with him? Luke 23:32, 33.
  2. While they were hanging on the cross, what did one of the thieves do? Verse 39.
  3. What did the other one do? Verse 40.
  4. With what words did he rebuke his companion? Verses 40, 41.
  5. To whom did the penitent thief then address himself? Verse 42.
  6. What request did he make? Verse 42.
  7. What reply did Jesus make? Verse 43.
  8. What is in the midst of paradise? Rev. 2:7.
  9. By the side of what river is the tree of life? Rev. 22:1, 2.
  10. From what does the river of life proceed? Id.
  11. Then since both the tree and the river of life are in Paradise, where is God's throne?
  12. When people go to Paradise, into whose presence do they go?
  13. How long after Christ's crucifixion was the resurrection? 1 Cor. 15:3, 4.
  14. On the morning of the resurrection what did he say to one of his disciples? John 20:17.
  15. If he had not yet ascended to the Father, could he have been in Paradise on the day of his crucifixion?
  16. Since Christ cannot deceive, can it be that he intended to meet the thief in Paradise three days before?
  17. If not, why did he use the word "to-day"?
  18. At what time did the thief want to be remembered? Luke 23:42.
  19. When does Christ have his kingdom? Matt. 25:31.
  20. And when will all who believe on him be with him? John 14:3.
  21. Then to what time did the penitent thief look forward?
  22. Will his request then be granted notwithstanding he is now dead? 1 Thess. 4:15-17.
The lesson this week covers that much-discussed passage, Christ's answer to the thief on the cross. Comments on this subject need not be extended to any great length, for if the texts referred to are each read carefully, and a comprehensive view of them all is then taken, there can be no difficulty in arriving at the true interpretation.
In the first place we must consider the present and previous circumstances of the malefactor, and what it was for which he asked. One source of the popular error on this subject is the supposition that the thief had never before heard of Christ. Such a supposition is not probable. The wonderful thing about his action was the faith which he manifested. But faith comes by hearing (Rom. 10:17), and in no other way. So then the thief must have heard of Christ and his mission. While others, even his chosen disciples, thought that Christ's career was ended, and that there was no hope of his saving any one, the thief grasped the great truths which Jesus had been trying to impress upon his followers, of a resurrection and a future coming in glory, when he would reward every man according to his deeds. In harmony with this new-born hope, the penitent thief exclaimed, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom."
It is evident that whatever might happen to the thief that day would not be in answer to his request; for Christ did not have his kingdom that day. He himself had likened the kingdom of Heaven to a nobleman that "went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return." In the seventh of Daniel we learn that the kingdom is not given to the Son of man until all earthly kingdoms have run their course. When he receives the kingdom he will return. So he says, "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." Matt. 25:31. And therefore Christians are instructed still to pray, "Thy kingdom come;" as yet they are only "heirs of the kingdom which God hath promised to them that love him." It is worthy of note in this connection that, according to Griesbach, Luke 23:42 should read, "Lord, remember me in the day of thy coming."
The next point to be noted is what the Lord promised. It was, "Thou shalt be with me in Paradise." Where and what is Paradise? A few words in answer must suffice. Paul plainly intimates (2 Cor. 12:2-4), that it is in, or corresponds to, the third heaven. We can identify it still more closely. In Rev. 2:7 we learn that the tree of life is "in the midst of the Paradise of God." In Rev. 22:1, 2, we learn further that the tree of life is on either side of the river of life. Then the river of life must also be in Paradise. From this same passage we also learn that the river of life proceeds from the throne of God, thus showing that the throne of God is in the midst of the Paradise of God. Whoever goes to Paradise must necessarily be in the presence of God. Christ's promise to the thief, then, was virtually this: "Thou shalt be with me in the presence of God."
Now what about the fulfillment of that promise? Was it fulfilled that day? or is its fulfillment still future? We can determine this in two ways: (1) By considering, as we have done, what an answer to the thief's request would imply, and (2) By examining the actual facts in the case. By the first we learned that if Christ intended his promise as a direct answer to the thief's request, then its fulfillment must be still future, because Christ's coming is still future. Now as to the recorded facts. On "the third day" after the crucifixion, as Mary, suddenly recognizing her risen Lord, was about to embrace him, Jesus said: "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father." John 20:17. This at once settles the matter, for if he had not ascended to the Father, of course he did not go to Paradise—into his presence—three days before. But it is not possible that Jesus should have prevaricated in the least, for "he did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth." (1 Pet. 2:22); and therefore if he did not go to Paradise on the day of his crucifixion, it must be that he did not promise the thief that he should be with him there that day. In the light of the facts of the case we are forced to conclude that they who think that Jesus and the thief met in Paradise on the day of the crucifixion, do not understand the Saviour's words to the thief.
Consider the circumstances under which Jesus uttered those words. He had told his disciples that he was the one spoken of by the prophets, who was to occupy the throne of David. He had told the twelve that when he should sit on the throne of his glory they also should sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Their hopes had been raised to the highest pitch when, but a few days before, he had entered Jerusalem in a triumphant manner, while the multitude waved palm branches before him. They had thought that their hour of triumph had come, and that he was then to assume his kingdom. Instead of that, however, they had seen him taken by a cruel mob, hurried unresistingly from judgment-seat to judgment-seat, subjected to the most brutal insults, beaten, spit upon, and scourged, and finally, fainting under the load of a heavy cross, to which he was now fastened with huge nails, dying the death of a malefactor. The hopes of the disciples were blasted, and while they had all confidence in the integrity of their Master, they thought he had been deceived. To them the future looked dark and gloomy. Not so with Jesus. From the beginning of his earthly ministry he had foreseen this event; and his confidence in God's power to raise him from the dead, and in the final success of his mission,—that through suffering he should bring many sons into glory,—remained unshaken. And so when the penitent thief, with a faith that has seldom, if ever, been equaled, preferred his request, the mind of Jesus reached forward to the consummation of his work, and like a king he replied in words calculated to strengthen the faith of the petitioner, "I say unto thee to-day, thou shalt be with me in Paradise." Truly so royal a gift was never before promised under such untoward circumstances.
"But," some one will say, "the punctuation will not allow of such interpretation." Well, we have found that the words of Jesus himself will not allow any other interpretation, so what shall be done? Shall we preserve the present punctuation, and thus make Jesus contradict himself? or shall we alter the punctuation so that the passage will be in harmony with the after statement of Jesus, and with the rest of the inspired record? Reason and reverence would say the latter, because the punctuation is only the work of men, while the words of Jesus cannot disagree. If we just imagine ourselves back in the time when Luke wrote these words, or else that the art of punctuation has not yet been invented, our difficulty will vanish. Remembering that there were no marks of punctuation when the Bible was written, we can read the words of Jesus so that they will harmonize with other statements of Scripture. We will not say to change the position of the comma, but just drop it out, leaving the text as it was originally written. Then read it, making the emphasis where a due regard for the harmony of the sacred word would suggest that it be made. Surely there is no more of presumption in dropping out a comma than there was in placing it there in the first place. In fact, there is no presumption in either case. Those who placed it there doubtless thought that it was necessary to the sense. We, with clearer light on God's word, see that it destroys the sense, and read it in harmony with that clearer light. E. J. W.
Continue reading: NOTES ON THE INTERNATIONAL LESSON