Earlier text: THE INNER SANCTUARY AND ITS CONTENTS“BE CAREFUL TO ENTERTAIN STRANGERS.”
By Wm. Penniman
On one occasion Bishop George, of Philadelphia, called at the home of one of his Methodist brethren, who lived at a place not far distant from the city, expecting to preach at a quarterly meeting to be held there. The old gentleman was quite plainly dressed; and this was generally the habit of both preachers and laymen among the Methodists of that time, which was about forty or fifty years ago. He was also plain and unassuming in his manners. There was a party at the house, and a sumptuous supper was in preparation. The society people of the town were present, as was also the circuit preacher in charge. The preacher, who expected to be examined by the bishop at the coming quarterly meeting, was no doubt much more fashionably dressed than his venerable superior. Little attention was paid to the bishop. He was not invited to the supper, but left in the kitchen. Finally he said he would like to retire, and they told him he would have to sleep with a young preacher who was there. “Very well,” the bishop said. The young preacher then came into the room and said, “Let me see the old man; yes, that will do. I notice he is clean.” The old preacher then went to his sleeping-room, and spent some time in reading his Bible. The young preacher soon came into the room, and jumped quickly into bed, planting himself in the middle. Soon after, the bishop, having offered up a silent prayer, also got into bed. His religious turn in reading the Bible and prayer set the young man to thinking. He asked the old gentleman where he was from, and he replied, “From Philadelphia.” The young man then said he expected Bishop George from Philadelphia, and then he hitched along a little in the bed. He next inquired if his companion knew Bishop George. “Yes,” he said, “I shaved him this morning.” The young man then, giving another hitch, inquired his name. He replied, “They call me George when I am at home.” “What! you are not Bishop George?” “That is what they call me.” The young preacher asked, “Have you had supper?” He jumped out of bed much more quickly than he had got in, and went and ordered it. But the bishop refused to eat; neither would he take any breakfast; and who can blame him for refusing, as no doubt he wished to teach them a lesson. The bishop left in the morning, and after getting his breakfast at another place, went to the meeting-house. He gave a plain sermon on Christian duties, including the injunction to “be careful to entertain strangers.” Then he gave the young preacher a powerful exhortation, including an examination, which effected his conversion, or at least a reformation in his character. The bishop left the preacher and the church in a much better spiritual condition than they were in when he went there. Wm. Penniman. An old Scotch woman was walking to church with her family. The Auld Kirk minister rode past at a tremendous rate, and the old lady said to her children: “Siccan a wey to be ridin’, and this the Sawbath day. Aweel, aweel, a gude man is merciful to his beast!” Shortly afterward her own minister rode past just as furiously, and the worthy old wife cried: “Ah, there he goes! The Lord bless him, puir man! His heart’s in his wark, an’ he’s eager to be at it.”—Boston Journal. “YE SHALL RECEIVE POWER.”
By G.
In any great controversy with a powerful enemy the essential thing is power. Our contest is against the “prince of the power of the air.” As compared with our own strength, this is a mighty power, one that easily overcame the race even in its upright beginning. “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Eph. 6:12. For this reason nothing short of the “whole armor of God” will enable us to conquer. During the last meeting of our Saviour with His disciples on earth, they manifested a deep anxiety about the time when His kingdom would be established. They still entertained the prevalent Jewish idea that the Messiah would rebuild the temporal kingdom of Israel, and they were expecting prominent positions. Jesus did not intimate that He would not at some time set up a tangible kingdom in the earth; on the contrary, He left them to understand that He would do so, but had studiously taught them that it would not be confined to the Jewish race. A new birth was essential to citizenship in that kingdom. Christ had told these disciples that “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. But He had not told them when this would be. He had also promised them exalted position. “Ye which have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Ch. 19:28. He had given them signs by which they might know that His coming was “near, even at the doors.” But in no instance had He advised them of the definite time of the consummation. In fact the promise of position to them, yes, even their salvation at all, was predicated upon their enduring to the end. Ch. 24:13. And one of their number (Judas) had already failed, making it necessary for another to take his “office.” Acts 1:15-20, R. V. Hence the question of definite time was of no practical importance to them. It was best for them not to know the time, else the Lord would have told them. Under the circumstances of their situation and calling, it was power that they most needed. The Lord always knows what His people need, and it is well that He supplies according to need, rather than according to request. Requests often betray selfishness, and this our heavenly Father knows better than to encourage. “We know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which can not be uttered. And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” Rom. 8:26-28. The knowledge of profitable asking comes by the Spirit thru the Word, and not thru mere anxiety. “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” John 15:7. The “promise of the Father” was the Holy Spirit, and with it was to come the “power from on high.” In this also is comprised the presence of the Father and the Son. Speaking of the sending of His Spirit upon the disciples, Jesus says, “At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.” John 14:20. The source from which we must derive power successfully to “resist the devil,” is Christ, to whom is given all power in heaven and in earth. The power that He imparts is the power that overcomes the world. John 16:33. “Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” 1 John 5:4. Then instead of telling the disciples when He would set up His kingdom, Jesus told them what was essential to have a part in the kingdom. It was necessary to have the Spirit of Christ, who had given His life for sinners. It was necessary to go out to seek and to save that which was lost. He had commissioned them to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Their burden, like His, was to be the gathering in of perishing souls to make subjects for the kingdom. This was the purpose of giving them power from on high, and not that they might immediately become rulers. They were to go out as witnesses for the truth, “unto the uttermost part of the earth.” It was a very important trust to repose in fallible men, and it was essential that they be endowed with every possible qualification, and surrounded by every safeguard. But these were all included in the promise, “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” To step out in the faith of this promise is the assurance of Christ’s dwelling in the heart, of His being with us to guide and to protect and to provide. It is the assurance of overcoming grace against every obstacle, of wisdom for every obligation, and power in every emergency. “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” Rom. 8:32. “God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7), and “hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.” A Washington correspondent sends us the following, clipped from the Signs of March 6, to which he takes strong exception:— “It was the privilege of Lucifer to retain his glorious beauty and wisdom and light by choosing God’s ways. It was his privilege to pervert the life, the light, the wisdom, which God placed in him and continually poured upon him from the ministry of others in the service, and to the glory of God, to himself, and what would seem to unbelief, his own benefit. Only by free choice can character—eternal, unswervingly loyal, loving and lovable—be formed. And God must take the risk of sin in giving the right of choice. But He did it under such conditions that no soul at the last can charge God with injustice or partiality.” His protest is against “the right of choice.” He speaks of a home where a mother has given her children the right of choice, and the children are practically worthless. He says:— “Jesus told some that they worshiped God in vain, teaching for the commands of God the tradition of men. Will not the same condemnation come on us if we teach that God has given man the right to choose, the right to worship according to the dictates of our own conscience, instead of the command, ‘Thou shalt not bow down to them nor serve them?’ . . . Do you not err in stating, ‘Only by free choice can character, etc., be formed?’ Will not prompt obedience to just authority of the Creator form a symmetrical character? Such was God’s plan in the first for the formation of the character, and I have no doubt it was sufficient.” 1. The word “right” is used in the sense of the Revised Version in John 1:12: “As many as received Him, to them gave He the right [power, privilege, authority] to become children of God, even to them that believe on His name.” “Right,” in this sense, falls under the definition of “a claim founded upon any consideration of justice, morality, courtesy, custom, civility, or upon either natural or positive law, or that which may be claimed on such grounds; often in the plural.”—Standard Dictionary. 2. This right, privilege, power, is conferred on man by our great Creator, and is absolutely necessary to the formation of character. It is true that God commands, commands clearly and positively. It is only right (not wrong) to obey what He commands; but He gives man the power, privilege, right, to refuse to obey, even the right, the power, to do wrong. 3. It is not teaching the doctrines of men to say that God gives man the power, the right, the privilege of choice. One of the invitations which Infinite Love extends to the sinner all thru the Scriptures is, “Come.” That the sinner has power to come shows that he has power to refuse. Said the Lord thru Moses, “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.” Deut. 30:19. Thru Joshua He said: “If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15. The wise man declares that distress comes upon the wicked because they “did not choose the fear of the Lord.” Prov. 1:24–31. Jesus said, “If any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.” John 12:47. God in His goodness has given to man the right, the privilege, the power of choosing eternal destruction if he prefers so to do. The right to worship according to the dictates of conscience is not a right which man may confer or withdraw; it is God-given; it is unalienable. 4. Character is built up of acts based on choosing. If man is compelled to do what he does not choose to do, he is made in that doing a slave, an automaton. If his heart be against the requirement, compulsion makes him all the more the enemy of him who requires it. There is but little question that England would not give the Boers a better government than they have yet given themselves; but for England to force it upon them makes the Boers her everlasting enemy. “God is love.” That is the essential of His character. Love can not be compelled save by love. Man can not form a character like God’s save thru love. And love is not, it can not be, a matter of compulsion. 5. Yes, “prompt obedience” to God will form a “symmetrical character;” but there is no prompt obedience to God save that prompted by faith and love. What God requires is, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.” Love is willing; willingness implies free choice; and “the willing and the obedient shall eat the good of the land.” “Love is the fulfilling [obeying] of the law.” “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not grievous.” The only way a man can obey God is to love God; and the only way a man can love God is to choose God and His ways; and the only conditions under which he will choose God is to believe God. 6. God’s plan in the beginning is just what God’s plan is now. Man may be different, but God is the same. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him.” This is now true; it has always been true. It is true since man sinned; it was just as true before man sinned. Obedience without faith, without choice, is mere will-worship, or self-righteousness. It centers man’s thoughts in himself, and in himself each would glory, bringing confusion and desolation ever. God’s plan was sufficient in the beginning to save man; it is the same sufficient plan now. 7. The care, instruction, and correction of a child involve other considerations. Parents have authority over their child that no government has over the individual, and God holds them responsible for its salvation. God commands man that which is right. He tells man the consequence of wrong-doing,—trouble, and, if continued, ultimately death. He permits affliction and sorrow and trouble to come upon the sinner, that he may see how sinful sin is, and so return to God. He in this way chastens and corrects, but always in love, that he may win man to Himself. So the parent may deal with the child; for only so will he win him to God. For he can not by mere force compel the child’s obedience. He may compel him, while the child fears him, to do the outward act, but unless he thru God’s grace awakens the love of choice of good in the child, rebellion will follow. There are thousands of children who are being driven to rebellion thru compulsion of only outward duties. There are also thousands being ruined by foolish mothers who leave the child the right of choice when he has never been taught what it means to choose. Both ways are equally unwise and equally averse to the developing of a right character. Only by faith and love will God’s government311 stand. All who truly obey Him do so because they truly believe Him and love Him. Such will give all glory to God, will ever prove loyal to Him, because they have proved by choice that God’s way is the only true way, and in His kingdom “affliction will never rise up the second time.” THE CHANGE OF THE SABBATH.
By T.
In our article on “the day of the Sabbath” last week, the question was raised in regard to the change of the Sabbath. There are thousands, and for aught we know, hundreds of thousands, of honest, conscientious people who believe that the seventh-day Sabbath of the old dispensation has been superseded by a first-day or Sunday-sabbath in the new. A little careful thought on this subject will enable us to arrive at the facts. In previous articles it has been shown that the Sabbath was instituted as a memorial of creation. God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day, and for that reason He blessed and sanctified the seventh day, and called it the Sabbath. Thus the Sabbath was made the great bulwark against idolatry, or any other form of worship that does not bring the worshiper into the audience-chamber of the great Creator of all things. Our God is also our Creator. And not only did He create us, but He created every planet in all His great universe. To see and to sense the greatness and majesty of His power is to reach the sublimest heights and depths of true worship. True worship of the Creator is not a servile adoration of some ill-formed ideal, some ideal that has been created by finite and imperfect man, some ideal that can not possibly lift one above the low level of the possibilities of the mere human; but real worship of the all-powerful God lifts us into the realm of the Infinite. Every emotion and power of the mind is stirred to the highest point of activity and real joy as we seek to comprehend more of our great Creator, our divine Father. True worship lifts the soul higher, it makes the emotions and aspirations purer, and every faculty of the mind and heart is broadened and ennobled. Knowing the great effect of true worship, the Lord has given us the Sabbath, not as a mere day of rest, but as a day on which to “remember” that God is our Creator, and that we may have time to contemplate and “worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” Sabbath-keeping is not spending the day in languid, dreamy, or possibly lazy rest. The Sabbath brings us a day of restful activity. It gives the joys of rest in action, so that both mind and body are built up and revived. Sabbath-keeping stirs the memory. The first thought is to “remember” the Sabbath day. And in calling the day to mind, we instinctively recall the great acts of God’s creative work, for which the day stands. We see our heavenly Father calling the earth from chaos into a thing of beauty by His creative word; we see the sun and the moon taking their places in the heavens, and one after another the myriads of stars begin the majestic rounds of their never-ending course in space. How vast is this great creation! How infinite the power required to form it, and to keep it in all its intricate and uncomprehended life and movements! Our God is calling us to know more and more of His majesty and great power, as we study to know Him, who is the Creator of all things. But you are now impatiently asking, “What has this to do with the change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday?” It has a great deal to do with it. It is intended to show you that the Sabbath, in the very nature of things, could not be changed. The Sabbath is the memorial day of creation, and the creation that it commemorates is a fixed thing of the past. It is as immovable and as unalterable as any other of the eternal things of God. God’s Sabbath law is not based upon any of the movable and shifting things of time. It rests upon the solid basis formed for it in creation by the God who alone creates. And in the face of all heresies, and idolatries, and delusions of the ages, it has come down to us as one of the mighty oracles of God; and still in tones as clear and as strong as the thunders of Sinai, it turns the mind to the omnipotent One, who alone has the power to make the worlds and the things upon them. Do you talk about the Sabbath being changed? Then strive to comprehend what Sabbath-keeping means, as defined in God’s Word. As you do this, the fact will dawn upon you that such a thing as a change of the Sabbath is an utter impossibility. To make such a change would nullify the importance of creation, and constitute the Creator a changeable being like finite, imperfect man. Nowhere in God’s Word does He even intimate an intention to change His Sabbath day. And as the importance of the Sabbath is studied, as the object the Lord had in giving it is seen, who could have a heart so at variance with his Creator as to desire that His memorial of creation should be changed? Why change an institution that is so bountifully blessed, and that in turn is so full of blessing for every one who observes it? Begin at the book of Genesis, and carefully read every word of the Old Testament, and you will nowhere find any intimation of any other than the seventh day of the week being the Sabbath. Begin with the Gospel of Matthew and just as carefully read every word of the New Testament, and you will not find a shadow of evidence that either Christ or His apostles made any change in the Sabbath day. The Master was particular to show His disregard for many of the Jewish superstitions and burdensome requirements that they, without any divine authority, had cast upon the great rest-day of Jehovah; but when it came to the realities of the Sabbath as the Lord gave them, He showed the unsurpassable respect of perfect obedience. The Saviour did for the Sabbath what the prophet foretold He would do for every one of the precepts of Jehovah. It was written of Him, “The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake; He will magnify the law, and make it honorable.” Isa. 42:21. How could He “magnify” a law and make it “honorable” by mutilating or changing it? A law that has to be changed shows that it has come from a finite hand, and that it is therefore imperfect. This is not true of the great law that the Saviour, by brushing away the superstitious traditions that man had piled upon it, magnified and made honorable. No, indeed! The Sabbath has not been changed. The great rest-day of Jehovah—His great memorial of creation’s week, so filled with mighty power—still lives on. God still designs that we should have one whole day in seven in which the mind shall be absorbed in the study of His infinite power, so that we may know that He who created still sustains, and guides, and keeps that which He has made. While the Sabbath has not been either changed or abolished, yet has there been an attempt so to do, and this attempt to change, and therefore to abolish the Sabbath, is one of the most interesting things that prophecy foretells. The prophecy that foretells this attempt to change the Sabbath will be the theme of an article next week. T. Says the great apostle, “Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.” 1 Cor. 8:1. To put it in simple Anglo-Saxon, “Knowledge puffeth up, but love buildeth up.” Many possess knowledge who know not love. Knowledge is a mere accumulation of cold, dead, empty facts, mere shells or forms, having no other power of themselves but to inflate the mind that contains them. The difference between knowledge and love is the difference between a soap-bubble and a pearl. The one may shine for a few seconds with all the beautiful, blending, changing coruscating colors of the rainbow, but the next moment it is gone; but the beautiful pearl, built up by a yielded life, little by little, shines as beautifully, and abides. Who would not prefer the pearl to the bubble? The same difference is well illustrated in a gorgeous silk, inflated balloon and a substantial house. The one is puffed up, the other is builded up from the foundation rock. The former may permit a man or two to soar in peril for a little while, the other, tho not as outwardly beautiful perhaps, forms a safe, comfortable, and abiding habitation. The one is a plaything of storm and tempest, invariably driven to destruction if cast loose; the other is a shelter in the time of storm, a refuge from cold and heat. Which do you prefer, the balloon or the house? It is not so difficult to obtain knowledge of the empty facts of the Christian religion. Many of the scholars of India are more than a match for the puffed-up missionaries whom they meet. One often meets with an infidel who has gathered many facts of Holy Writ, and it may safely be said, that the devil is an extraordinary living (or dying) encyclopedia of facts concerning the work of God in the salvation of men. But mere facts will not save. To depend upon them for food is to feed upon ashes, out of which the life has been burned. To depend upon them for shelter in storm and tempest, is to trust in a hot-air balloon. To cherish them as marvels of value and beauty is soap-bubble fancy. It is love only that abides; love only that stands the storm and stress and trial of life. Love has cast off self, yielded all to Christ, and in sweetest devotion accepted His way as best. It is born of the love of God, which spared not the eternal Son, but gave Him a ransom for all. It responds to that love by yielding all. The psalmist expresses it thus: “O how love I Thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” The Spirit of Christ in David declares, “I delight to do Thy will, O My God; yea, Thy law is within My heart.” The same Spirit of life in John declared, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous.” Love has knowledge. It does not merely know about God, but it knows God. It is like a knowing of the father not of the man. There are boys that know of the educated, refined man across the way with his large estate, immense wealth, great fertile fields, fruitful orchards, and large benevolence, of which they have been in varying degrees partakers; but there are other boys who know the man as a father, who have access to the inner circle of his affections, who have partaken of the great warmth of his love, who know the tenderness of his severity, the sweetness of his reproof, the wisdom of his counsel, the strength of his love. The first boys mentioned may know the statistics of the man's estate, the amount of his wealth, the figures of his public benevolences; the latter class may not know any of these facts, they may have never inquired, but they know what is infinitely better, the great wealth of heart-love and nobility and sweetness of his manhood and fatherhood even to the extent of his ability and life. Love, the love born of God, is builded on the foundation Rock, Christ Jesus. It is the principle, the expression, the fulness of His life. Love “beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth.” It is of God, eternal, immortal, and to it the knowledge of eternity will be imparted. Reader, is it knowledge or love? The Day of the Lord Is Nigh
“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand.” This is a warning that the Lord has commanded to be given. When the time is at hand for it, you may be sure that its warning notes will be heard; for everything that the Lord decrees must come to pass. Every one of the prophecies point to the fact that we have reached the very time when God is giving the message that “the day of the Lord” “is nigh at hand.” It is not a man-made message, nor does it come from the theorizing of men. The very soul of all mankind is being awakened to the fact that some great event is hanging over the world. Those who take the time to study the Bible know that the event is the coming of the Lord. Do you know it? The Lord designs that you should; and if you will but take His Word for your guide, you will be overwhelmed by the evidence that the end of all things is at hand. The great thing before us is to get ready for it. “WHATSOEVER ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” Judge Not, That Ye Be Not Judged
“JUDGE not, that ye be not judged.” Sectarian lines are built up mainly by prejudice. We all claim to be seeking for truth, but when a truth comes to us, do we examine the truth for its own sake, not asking, Is it in harmony with our sect? Is it in accord with what we have always believed? We should not be continually changing from one thing to another by discarding what we hold to-day so as to take up some new thing to-morrow, but we should learn how to tell the flavor of truth. We should learn how to know the truth when we meet it, no matter what the vehicle or means thru which it may reach us. And the truth that we learned yesterday will not have to be discarded so that we may take on more truth to-day; but we hold what came to us in the past so that we may all the more rapidly and safely advance in still broader and more glorious fields of expanding truth. In order to do this we must not allow prejudice9 to bind us. We must stand before God so that the sunlight of His truth will fall fully and directly upon us. And as He fills us with truth we may know that the spirit of truth is also a spirit of unity. Hence we need not feel at all surprised to find that other individuals have found the same truth that we have, and are rejoicing in its benefits. Thus we go on from step to step in the power of truth, and thru truth God brings also unity. If we are seeking for a unity that will break down sectarian lines and make us all one, we should know at the outset that such a desirable condition can come only thru truth itself. And since the Saviour presents Himself to us, not only as the “Way,” but also as the “Truth,” we should study to be all united in Him, and in Him alone. If we work on these lines, we shall find ourselves united, every sectarian wall that has stood between us having been completely destroyed. But this result has not been argued into us. It has come thru the unprejudiced study of the teachings of Christ. T. PRIVATE INTERPRETATION.
By C. M. S.
A LITTLE paper called Good Tidings for You comes to us bearing a message which it does not understand. The message begins, “We are on the eve of a glorious morn.” This is peculiar, but pardonable. But the message continues: “The Mountain of the House of the Lord is soon to be established in this Mount of Freedom, the United States of America, the Jerusalem which is above. And many nations shall come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths. . . . He shall rebuke strong nations afar off, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares. . . . Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither learn war any more.’” Micah 4. It is very evident that Good Tidings does not understand its message. The quotation which it gives does not represent what the Lord or His people are saying or doing, but what “many nations” will be saying and doing. They are raising a peace-and-safety cry and declaring the establishment of the Lord’s kingdom in this present world. They will be telling the world that the “law shall go forth of Zion;” that is, that the laws of the land must be dictated by the church. They are declaring that now, and working to that end. But after the Lord has told us what “many nations” will be saying in the last days, He Himself speaks, and brings to view another class of people, those who hold back from the ways of the “many nations;” and His promise is to them, not to the “many nations.” These are His words: “In that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted: and I will make her that halteth a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation; and the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth, even forever.” Micah 4:6, 7. These are the two classes, the self-assertive class who propose to establish the mountain of the Lord’s house in their own way, and the class that will not join in such a work of folly. The Lord Himself points out the two classes; He Himself makes the distinction between them; He Himself declares which class is to have part in the glorious, everlasting kingdom of righteousness over which He is to reign. While the people are saying that “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks,” and that “nation shall not lift up sword against nation,” nor “learn war any more,” the Lord says (Joel 3:9, 10), “Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles: Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears.” This is the very opposite of what the “many nations” will be saying. There is no “peace-and-safety” cry in that; for there is to be no peace and safety until Christ shall set up in this renewed, re-created, purified earth His kingdom of righteousness. Now, if Good Tidings is giving the message found in the first part of Micah 4, what part can it expect among the “remnant” that “halteth,” brought to view in verses 6 and 7? If it is giving that “peace-and-safety” cry of “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more,” how can it expect to escape when “sudden destruction cometh upon them”? for the Lord declares (1 Thess. 5:3) “they shall not escape.” It is a serious matter, and those bearing such a message would do well to study the Lord’s counsel, and not be led astray by what “many nations” will be saying “in the last days.” It certainly is a wresting of Scripture to hold that the United States of America is that “Jerusalem which is above,” if that is what the author means, and it certainly is what he says. That Jerusalem is still above, and will remain there until God has made a “new heaven and a new earth” in place of this that is cursed by sin. After the “first heaven and first earth were passed away,” John says, “I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Rev. 21:1, 2. To claim that the United States of America is that Jerusalem which was to come “down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband,” requires a terrible stretch of the imagination, and does violence to the words of Holy Writ. It is dangerous to invent a theory and then seek to sustain it from the Bible. It is safer and better to learn out of God’s Word what He has for us to learn, and carry that message to the people. In that is safety, truth, and salvation; in the other course is darkness, error, and soul-ruin. THE “HEBREW SUNDAY BILL.”
By C. M. S.
THE State Legislature of Massachusetts has been doing battle over the old question of religious liberty. On Friday, April 12, the bill known as the “Hebrew Sunday Bill” was put upon its passage, and won by a standing vote. When the roll was called, however, many who had voted for the bill voted against it, seemingly afraid to go on record in the matter, and the bill was defeated. On the following Monday it was voted to reconsider the bill, inasmuch as it had been put thru without its advocates having a chance to defend it in open debate, and the discussion revealed several staunch advocates of religious liberty in the Legislature of the Old Commonwealth. It also revealed the presence of those who are unable to appreciate a conscientious regard for the true Sabbath day, or to sense the injustice of majority rule in matters of conscience. After considerable discussion, the bill was passed by a vote of 98 to 69. Of course the Massachusetts Sunday law still holds; and as long as it does, Massachusetts can lay no claim to being a religious-liberty State, no matter how many amendments or exemptions are made to the law. Legislation upon matters of conscience and religion is always wrong in principle and oppressive in practice, unreasonable and unscriptural; but it is refreshing to see even a slight ray of light breaking thru the mists and clouds, even tho there be no prospect of a general and genuine religious liberty. The measure referred to reads as follows:— “Whoever conscientiously believes that the seventh day of the week, or the period from sundown on Friday night to sundown on Saturday night, ought to be observed as the Sabbath, and actually refrains from secular business and labor during that day or period, or whoever having such belief actually refrains from keeping open his shop, warehouse, or workhouse during that day or period, and has filed with the clerk of the city or town wherein he intends to keep open his shop, warehouse, or workhouse on the Lord’s day a certificate setting forth such intention, his name, the purpose for which he intends to keep open his shop, warehouse, or workhouse, and the place where the same is located, giving the street and number when practicable, shall not be liable to the penalties of this section for performing secular business and labor on the Lord’s day if he does not disturb or interfere with any other person, nor for keeping open his shop, warehouse, or workhouse at such place on the Lord’s day if he does not disturb or interfere with any other person.” It will be noticed that by the provisions of this exemption, all those who wish to labor or do business on Sunday must file with the city or town clerk a certificate, or declaration of intentions. Some of the legislators would have made it necessary for any one who wished to make a purchase on Sunday to file a similar certificate; but this did not prevail. One speaker declared that it was an unfair bill, as it “would give one race an unfair advantage over others.” In what the unfairness consisted he did not show; nor is it easy for one to imagine. For certainly the man who can labor, or keep his shop or store open six days in the week has an advantage, so far as this world goes, over the one who, after resting upon the Sabbath, is compelled by law to refrain from labor on another day. Mr. Roads, of Marblehead, declared that it was “a matter of liberty of conscience, a right guaranteed to every man by the Constitution.” “There are,” said he, “numbers of Christian people who fervently believe that the seventh day is the true Sabbath, and have observed it as such.” Mr. Saunders, of Boston, referred to the early history of Massachusetts, and her dark record in the matter of religious persecution, and closed his address with these words: “We are making history to-day. We can take the pen with a halting hand and make a blot upon the statute books, to be wiped out in the future in humiliation and repentance; or we can grasp it firmly, and write upon the book in letters of living light, ‘For every citizen within the Bay State, equal and complete religious liberty.’” C. M. S.