The common idea of a wall is of a solid structure settled upon strong foundations, for the protection or custody of those within and the repulsion of those without unless they enter by permission through the door. No wall has yet been built high, deep, and thick enough to prevent its being scaled, pierced, or demolished. From all old prisons there have been some escapes. All ancient fortified cities have been thrown down and all forts undermined.
The most separating walls are invisible. They are built, not of rock, but of thoughts, feelings, and purposes. . . .
Two sit in the same pew, the husband and his wife. They gaze with love upon the children whom God has given them. The hour comes when the holy communion is administered. One proceeds reverently to the place appointed, in remembrance of Jesus, to show forth His death “till He come.” The other moves not, but tarries until rejoined. An invisible wall separates that husband from his wife. It is as high as heaven, it is as deep as hell, yet no eye sees it.
To the Christian the thought of God is more absorbing than that of wife or child, of home, country, wealth, even of health and wisdom. If piety be genuine, deep is the anguish of spirit of the communicant, who feels the separation far more than the partner of his domestic joys. This invisible wall will part them forever; for unless the one who is on the impenitent and unspiritual side shall transcend or penetrate it, every qualification for admission into Christ’s kingdom will be wanting. The Christian who can realize this knows the meaning of St. Paul’s agony when he was in continual heaviness because of his kinsmen who were rejecting Christ; and the other, unless past feeling, would inwardly say, Can I bear such separation of heart and spirit longer?
At times there is an appalling consciousness of these invisible walls. When death seizes and bears away a child loved fully as much by the one without as by the one within the kingdom, they betake themselves to different sources of consolation. Prayer and the Word are the cordials of the believer; absorption and stoicism, the only resort of the other in grief.
But when the parent stem is touched, and the wife or the husband approaches the river which has no outer shore that the eye can see, and the waters are chill, and all the mutually-shared enjoyments and thoughts of life seem impertinences, there is silence, embarrassment, or inconsolable grief where there should be sympathetic speech, community of feeling, and undying hope.
An invisible wall stands between every sinner and God. When Benedict Arnold was meditating his treachery, he moved to and fro as before among his compatriots, but the invisible wall was there. So he who looks at the earth for comfort, whose ambitions are bounded by self, to whom God speaks, but who perceives it not, who has not received divine forgiveness, even tho God in His ever-present Spirit, by which all things exist and cohere, be in every atom of his body and every activity of his spirit, is separated from Him in thought, feeling, and purpose. It is to break down this invisible wall that Christ came to seek and to save that which is lost; His whole work is an at-one-ment. Every word He uttered, all the miracles that He performed, each sigh that He breathed, meant but this: “The invisible wall must disappear. God and man, now discordant, shall be united. I am the Expiation, the Propitiation, the Mediator. Be ye reconciled to God.”
At this time many churches are thronged and earnest appeals are heard. The invisible wall runs all through the assemblies in every direction. Here it separates parents from children, and there husbands from wives; hence at the end, unless there be changes, “one shall be taken, and the other left.” In some instances it may separate the seemingly fervent preacher from the pious of his flock. Hence it is that the preaching of the Gospel is to the believer the savor of life unto life, and to the other a savor of death unto death.
Palpable walls do not seriously obstruct the true end of life. True success can be achieved against every obstacle, but the invisible and the impalpable may resist all angels of mercy. Happy he who is divided by such a wall from sin, the world, the flesh, and the devil. It is then his rampart, and nothing that men or devils can contrive against him will work his ruin; for “he looks not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.”—Christian Advocate.
MY FRIEND THE MISSIONARY.
By Marian Harland
My opposite neighbor at table upon the voyage from New York to Southampton in the autumn of 1893 was a young woman about twenty-five years of age, whom I silently decided by the closing of the second day out to be the most interesting of my fellow passengers.
In features she was pleasing, even pretty, but her charm lay in a certain refinement of speech and manner, combined with quick intelligence and sensibility of expression. She was a lady ingrain, and in education and conversation so far above the average of her sex that when the crucial twenty-four hours of “slight unpleasantness” to both of us were happily over, I made opportunity to cultivate her acquaintance.
We were already good friends when, on the fourth night of our voyage—which chanced to be Sunday night—we were pacing the moonlit deck together, and the talk took a personal turn. The initiative step was my statement that I was bound for Palestine, the promised land of my life-long dreams, never before visited by me in body and in truth. My companion listened, and when I proposed jestingly that she should join me in Jerusalem, smiled brightly.
“In other circumstances, nothing would give me more pleasure, but I, too, am going to a promised land. My destination is Rangoon.”
“Are you going alone?”
“Alone so far as human companionship is concerned. The friends with whom I was to have sailed left America a week ago. I was detained by a short but severe illness.”
This was the preface to the story I drew from her. From childhood she had known that she was “appointed,” as she had phrased it, to the Master’s service in foreign lands. With the natural shrinking of youth from privation and toil, she had tried to get away from the conviction in various ways. At twenty-three she was impelled to reveal to her mother the struggle going on between conscience and expediency, and how she could not escape from the persuasion that the divine will urged her to consecrate herself to the life of a foreign missionary. The mother’s reply set the seal upon her purpose:—
“Were I fifteen years younger, I would go with you. As it is, let me fulfil my part of the mission by giving you up cheerfully.”
From the moment, the deep peace that entered the daughter’s soul had never known a cloud; a clear-headed, resolute woman, she knew what she had undertaken. In putting her hand to the plow, she had grasped it not hastily, but with staying power in the hold. In our long and earnest talks upon the subject, I appreciated for the first time what constitutes “a call to the mission field.” Since then I have thought and spoken of it with reverence, as something with which a stranger to such depth of spiritual conflict and such heights of spiritual enlightenment as hers may not intermeddle.
My last glimpse of her was at Waterloo Station, London. We had said “good-by.” She caught sight of me, and stepped to the open door of my carriage; the electric light showed the ineffable white peace of the smile with which she kissed her hand to me silently, and made a slight but eloquent upward motion. Then the crowd and the London night swallowed her up, and I saw her face no more.—Marian Harland.
SURCHARGED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT.
By Rev. Wm. Arthur
WHEN a lecturer on electricity wants to show an example of a human body surcharged with his fire, he places a person on a stool with glass legs. The glass serves to isolate him from the earth, because it will not conduct the fire—the electric fluid; were it not for this, however much might be poured into his frame, it would be carried away by the earth; but when thus isolated from it, he retains all that enters him. You see no fire, you hear no fire; but you are told that it is pouring into him. Presently you are challenged to the proof—asked to come near, and hold your hand close to his person; when you do so, a spark of fire shoots out toward you.
If thou, then, wouldst have thy soul surcharged with the fire of God, so that those who come nigh to thee shall feel some mysterious influence proceeding out from thee, thou must draw nigh to the Source of that fire—to the throne of God and of the Lamb—and shut thyself out from the world, that cold world which so swiftly steals our fire away. Enter into thy closet and shut the door, and there, isolated “before the throne,” await the baptism; then the fire shall fill thee, and when thou comest forth, holy power will attend thee, and thou shalt labor, not in thy own strength, but “with demonstration of the spirit and with power.”—Rev. Wm. Arthur, in Tongue of Fire.
Ingratitude and Ill-Nature
“WHENEVER you see ingratitude you may as infallibly conclude that there is a growing stock of ill-nature in the breast, as you may know that man to have the plague upon whom you see the tokens.”
Meet Danger Rather Than Wait
“It is better to meet danger than to wait for it. He that is on a lee shore, and foresees a hurricane, stands out to sea and encounters a storm to avoid a shipwreck.”
WAS MOSES RAISED FROM THE DEAD?
An evidently candid correspondent in Mississippi, who presumably may represent many others, writes us as follows:—
Believing you to be fair in your exegesis of the Scriptures, and that you want to receive and advocate truth, and nothing but truth, will you let a reader of the SIGNS make a little dissertation on a recent comment by your paper? You say: “That Moses was raised from the dead is inferred by Jude 9.” Logicians tell us that inference and analogies prove nothing. These are stock arguments with Sunday-keepers, Rhanists, and Pedo-baptists. You say: “It was literally Moses and Elijah on the mount. Jesus glorified represented His second coming; Moses raised from the dead represented the sleeping saints who will be raised at Christ’s second coming; and Elijah represented the living righteous, who will be translated at Christ’s second coming without tasting death.” “Jesus glorified” would certainly represent the resurrectional state, and Elijah translated would represent the righteous translated when Christ comes. Moses represents the intermediate state between death and the resurrection. Now the burden of proof is mine, that Moses has never been raised from the dead or was not before Christ’s resurrection. Christ was to be the first that should rise from the dead (Acts 26:23), not the first in preeminence only, but the first in order, to eternal life. Many bodies of the saints were raised, but after Christ’s resurrection (Matt. 27:53), “women received their dead raised to life again,” and Christ raised some, but not to eternal life, for they went about with their earthly bodies, and died again. Christ is “the first-begotten of the dead,” “the first-born from the dead,” and “the first-fruits of them that slept.” “Every man in his own order, Christ the first-fruits.” Now the first-begotten and first-born are always first in order. “I am Esau thy first-born,” so with first-fruits (Deut. 26:2). If Moses was raised from the dead, it was among the saints who were raised after Christ’s resurrection. Here were three in glorious appearance on the mount, representing the three states of the dead, or, rather, three states of existence beyond this life: “for God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living.” Moses and Elijah had come from heaven, Paradise, where Christ said the converted thief should be with him the day of their death, in which place Paul said “he had rather depart and be with Christ; for to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” From Paradise will God bring the saints with Christ when He comes (1 Thess. 4:14), even those whose bodies sleep in Him.
You say, “The dead know not anything.” The same is said of the living (1 Sam. 20:39), and must be taken in a limited sense. The Bible does not contradict itself, but needs to be correctly construed. And a person to do this must be spiritual-minded, honest, and taught of the Lord, and not tied down by a patent theory. Now, brother, if I am crooked and you can straighten me, do so with the Scriptures, which thoroughly furnish us, and not try to do it by inference.
A Sunday-keeper said to me, “Christ appeared to His disciples on the first day of the week, and we must infer that it was to be a holy day.”
We might infer the devil disputed over the body of Moses because it fell on his territory, but it would only be an inference and no more prove it than the dispute about his body proves his resurrection. Yours fraternally, D. W. Leath.
Here is the scripture which speaks of the transfiguration:—
(27) “But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God. (28) And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. (29) And as he prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment was white and glistening. (30) And, behold, there talked with Him two men, which were Moses and Elias; (31) who appeared in glory, and spake of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem. (32) But Peter and they that were with Him were heavy with sleep; and when they were awake, they saw His glory, and the two men that stood with Him. (33) And it came to pass, as they departed from Him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias; not knowing what he said. (34) While he thus spake, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them; and they feared as they entered into the cloud. (35) And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is My beloved Son; hear Him.” Luke 9:27–35.
Let us state the matter briefly and clearly.
1. What was shown on the Mount of Transfiguration was a representation in miniature of “the Son of man coming in His kingdom” (Matt. 16:28); “the kingdom of God come with power” (Mark 9:1); “the kingdom of God” (verse 27, above). That kingdom of the Son of man is not now set up, nor will it be till He comes again. “At His appearing and His kingdom.” 2 Tim. 4:1. “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.
The appearance on the mount was to convince the disciples of the truth of what Jesus had repeatedly told them of His coming suffering, leading to future glory. And so Peter says: “We have not followed cunningly-devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with Him in the holy mount.” 2 Peter 1:16–18. The transfiguration was therefore a representation and pledge of Christ’s coming. And had the disciples listened to the conversation between Christ and the tried servants of God, they would have known “of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem.” Verse 31 above. The transfiguration being a representation of Christ’s coming and kingdom, it follows that it was not a symbol of the intermediate state.
2. At the second coming of Christ, when He, having closed His work as priest, begins His eternal reign, His people will be divided into two classes: (1) Those who will be raised from the dead; (2) those who will be translated without seeing death. “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thess. 4:16, 17. “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we [the living] shall be changed.” 1 Cor. 15:51, 52. It will not be until the coming of Christ and the resurrection that the dead live. Matt. 16:27.
3. We have, then, the glorified Christ, the King; Elijah, a representation of those who will be translated at Christ’s coming; and Moses, the representative of those who sleep in Jesus, but will then be raised from the dead. These were God’s pledges to His people under the will before the Testator died.
4. With this Jude 9 agrees: “Yet Michael the Archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.” Michael, the archangel (“who is like God”), is Jesus Christ. Compare Dan. 10:21; 12:1; 1 Thess. 4:16; John 5:29. He is the Prince of Life. Acts 3:15. Satan is the prince of death (Heb. 2:14), and claims as his prisoners those who enter the grave’s embrace (Isa. 14:17). In the nature of the case, the common inference would be that the dispute was over Moses’ resurrection. In the light of all the foregoing scriptures, the inevitable conclusion would be the same. The Son of God gave all in the beginning, but as the messenger of God He had not yet met the fulness of the sacrifice; therefore He speaks not in His own authority, but the Father’s. “The Lord rebuke thee.” Did God do it? or did the devil retain Moses?
Against the above our correspondent brings such expressions as “the First-begotten of the dead,” “the First-born from the dead,” “the First-fruits of them that slept,” with the statement that the first-begotten and first-born are always first in order. “I am Esau thy first-born.” But in this our correspondent did not look far enough. These terms are used to denote preeminence in rank as well as priority in time. Esau said, “I am Esau thy first-born” (Gen. 27:19), but the Lord says, “Israel is My son, even My first-born” (Ex. 4:22). Joseph’s first-born in time was Manasseh (Gen. 41:51), but the Lord says, “Ephraim is My first-born” (Jer. 31:9). To the first-born belonged the priesthood, but it was taken from them and given to the Levites. Num. 3:41, 45. So God made Christ of the seed of David, His first-born (Ps. 89:27), and He became the first-fruits (1 Cor. 15:20), because (1) it was through Him and by virtue of His power and righteousness that all others live; (2) He was the preëminent One of those who passed through death’s portals; (3) He was the first that “by the resurrection of the dead should proclaim light both to the people and to the Gentiles” (Acts 26:23, R.V.); not the first that should arise, but the first that by rising from the dead should proclaim the Gospel.
“God is the God of the living,” not the dead. His children may sleep in death now, but He does not count them dead, not because they are not truly dead, but because in His purpose they live; that is, they will be raised from the dead.” Luke 20:37, 38; Rom. 4:17.
As to the thief on the cross and our Lord’s promise to him, it will be sufficient to the Bible student to note: (1) Paradise is where God is. Rev. 2:7; 22:1, 2. (2) Jesus did not go to the Father until some time after His resurrection, hence had not ascended to Paradise. John 20:17. (3) In all probability the thief did not die that day, as a victim of the cross lived oftentimes for many hours; and the thieves’ legs were broken at the close of that day so as to hasten their death. John 19:32, 33; Mark 15:44. (4) The children of faith are not rewarded at death, and will not receive their reward until Christ comes. Matt. 16:27.
As to the condition of the dead, it is not based on a mere statement as to man’s mentality, but as to his consciousness. Let the reader consider the following texts, and others similar: “In death there is no remembrance of Thee.” Ps. 6:5. “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” Ps. 146:3, 4. “For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not anything. . . . Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished.” Eccl. 9:5, 6. “Let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried.”7“For David is not ascended into the heavens.” Acts 2:29, 34.
If it be said that the above texts refer to the body, but the references to the penitent thief and to Moses refer to the soul, it is sufficient to reply that this is mere juggling with the words of God. When Inspiration says Moses it means Moses. Moses was as truly on the mount as was Elijah. David, the whole man, was dead. To claim that man does not die, contrary to the express statement of Scripture, is to deny the necessity of the Lord’s coming and resurrection. It lays the basis for belief in Spiritualism, and all the demon-worship, ancestor-worship, and saint-worship of paganism and Papacy.
Let God be true. There is beautiful harmony in His Word unperverted. Sin came into our world, and death by sin, and “so death passed upon all men,” soul and body. But in God’s love in Jesus Christ there is life, life for all who will receive Him, but eternal death for all who will reject Him. In Him alone is eternal life, even as in Him alone is everlasting righteousness.
Question Corner
“Enquire and make search and ask diligently.”
765. Does the Day Matter?
Would there come to the people greater good by keeping the seventh day than there does now by keeping the first day? And if no greater good would come to the people, would it not be best for all people who love Jesus to work together and see that the day recognized by the church in general and by all States is really made a day of rest, and thereby stop this controversy? And those whose conscience will not allow them to work on the seventh day could rest then also on the first day. Yours in Christ,
E. J. V.
Let us answer these questions, in part at least, by asking others. (1) Is it a right Christian motive, a motive of true faith, to seek to measure which of two ways are best when God has spoken? Has not God commanded the seventh day? Did He not set it apart for man, by example, by precept, and finally sanction it by the life and example of Jesus Christ? Has He so given another day? He says, “Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” Knowing His commandments, ought we to ask, “Will it pay?” or to question at all God’s way? Ought not faith in God always say, God’s way is the only safe way, the only good and true way, whatever the appearances? If God’s people had always kept the Sabbath, there would have been no idolatry, no worship of false gods, no substitution of evolution for the sanctifying power of His grace. See Eze. 20:12, 20. (2) To compromise truth for peace, to please the multitude that hold to error, is to set the multitude in the place of God. It was in this way that the heathen Sunday came into the church, and with it purgatory, demon, or saint, worship, pedobaptism, the idolatrous mass, and many other things. “Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil.” Ex. 23:2; Hosea 10:13. Because of this we find men appealing to human law to support a sabbath instead of to God. (3) We can make a day our rest, but can we make it God’s rest? for that is what the Sabbath is to the believer. Can we keep a day “holy” which God has not made holy? Can unholy men keep a holy day holy? Ought we not “in Christ” “to obey God rather than men”? (4) What will the “people who love Jesus” do? He says, “If ye love Me, keep My commandments.”
766. Arius and His Doctrines.
At what age of the world did Arius live, and what was the doctrine which he advocated? Was it a branch faith from the Christian church, or did it arise from Jewish tenets?
Arius was a presbyter of Alexandria, and lived probably between the years A.D. 260 and 336. He wrote between the years A.D. 318 and 325. He maintained that the Son was not equal to the Father, and strongly opposed the Trinitarians. That he has been grossly maligned is evident. About all we know of his doctrines is what has come to us through his enemies, in a not overscrupulous age. He supposed that he got his theory from the New Testament, and was probably much nearer right than his opponents.
“BEHOLD, THE JUDGE STANDETH BEFORE THE DOOR.”
By T.
In this controversy between “capital and labor” the contest is growing warmer and warmer. And there are hundreds of intelligent men who fear that it may yet come to universal rioting. The occasional strike, it is thought, is only an indication of what may yet become a prolonged and world-wide fight. There are indeed strong indications of this. And there is very much to provoke it.
Attention has been called from time to time to the “heaping together of treasure” that characterizes these days. Mention has also been made of the destitution, hopeless and helpless, that is so prevalent side by side with this unprecedented wealth. Now it should be very evident to any one that when massive fortunes display themselves on the one hand, while on the other, despairing, starving poverty is clamoring for the barest existence, there is great danger of a fearful social explosion. It will most likely come, but if we only give heed to the admonitions of the Word of God, we will have no part in the controversy. The child of God as an ambassador of truth should stand apart from all these heated discussions that so strongly mark these last days. His work is not to discuss the merits or demerits of the capital-and-labor controversy. His duty is to point to it as one of the signs of our times—an evidence of the soon coming of the Saviour.
In several of the recent issues of this paper attention has been called to the fact that the fifth chapter of James fully outlines this capital-and-labor controversy. In the first place, we are told of the “rich men” who have “heaped treasure together for the last days.” And then in the same direct manner are we told of the “cries” of the laborers. This fifth chapter of James is one of the most remarkable in all the inspired book. Study it closely. It is the one and only true presentation of what the capital-and-labor problem really is. And how plainly, too, does this same chapter reveal to us what the gigantic contest between wealth and poverty portends! God is here speaking to us in literal language, and there should be no mistaking His meaning.
The apostle not only tells of the “rich men” who will be heaping together treasure for the last days, and of the “cries” of the laborer, but he also gives important instruction to both classes. Knowing that the tendency of the poor will be to envy the rich, and seek to take the matter of executing judgment upon them into their own hands, the Lord says to all:—
“Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth; and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned; behold, the Judge standeth before the door.” James 5:7–9.
Then this is a time for patient waiting. When the “heaping” of treasure and the consequent “cries” of the laborers are apparent everywhere, then it is that the “coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” And God invites us to patiently take cognizance of this great truth and He will attend to the judgment of those who persist in the wrong. If we engage in hot speeches against the rich; or if we, being wealthy, continue to hoard our treasure and oppress the poor; in short, if we in any way become a party to the controversy, we only make bad matters worse. God simply invites us to look at these things as some of the evidences that He has given to show us that we are in the “last days,” and that “the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.”
To the wealthy the word comes:—
“Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Luke 12:33, 34.
The man of wealth, when alone with his own aroused conscience, knows perfectly well that this advice from God’s Word is the one right thing to do. He knows that it is wrong for him to “heap” wealth together simply for the purpose of possessing so many millions. Yes, he knows that it is criminally unkind, base, and grossly selfish for him to go on piling up his millions added to millions, when his fellow-creatures are sinking lower and lower in degradation because they lack the simple necessities of life. And any one must have the abiding consciousness within that if he continues to give himself to the service of money-getting, his only hope is destruction. God has planted this great truth in His Word, and the selfishness that leads a man to devote all his powers to seeking wealth merely for the sake of personal gratification, is too base to merit anything else but total extinction.
And while the Word of God so plainly instructs and warns the rich, it also admonishes each and all to “grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned; behold, the Judge standeth before the door.” James 5:9. If you are poor and feel the weight of oppression from the rich, do not “grudge,” “lest ye be condemned.” “The coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” The great Judge of heaven and earth “standeth before the door.” Get ready to meet Him. This one great thought should overshadow everything else.
Then, if you are one of the laborers that “crieth,” let your cries be to God that He may deliver you. This is the one great hope. “Grudge” not against the wealthy man. Do not engage in the clamor that would lead to the plundering of his wealth. No! no! no! a thousand times no! For the sure Word warns you that if you do you will be “condemned”—condemned, not by a human court, but by the heavenly Judge, who even now “standeth before the door.”
This is a time for deep and serious thought. Everything points to the great fact that the Judge must soon take action in every case. Are you prepared to meet Him? If not, O, hasten to get ready! And be we rich or poor, high or low, we should never be found “grudging.” The wealthy man who does not know the Saviour, is just as much to be pitied as he whose lot is the poorest poverty. And so, whatever our station, our feelings toward our fellow-men should be only those of love and brotherly-kindness. The world has far too much “grudging.” Will you not put it all away by joining the ranks of the gentle Redeemer, the God of love? T.
