THE prayer-meeting is a reliable thermometer of the spirituality of the church. A cold, poorly attended prayer-meeting marks a cold church. A well-attended, enthusiastic prayer-meeting indicates a spiritual church.
The prayer-meeting is intended to be the people's meeting, and it is not designed that the leader and perhaps one or two others shall occupy the greater part of the time. A good meeting has frequently been spoiled by the leader's taking the most of the time, and then telling the rest of the congregation to be brief, as only a few minutes of time were left. This is a serious blunder under ordinary circumstances.
A noted clergyman has made the following excellent observations concerning a prayer-meeting, which I copy and pass along, hoping the hints will not fall on stony ground:—
"It commonly requires the presence of several sensible persons to make a good prayer-meeting; but it is in the power of one or two weak-headed and troublesome persons to mar it most wretchedly. Certain persons of this sort will come into a meeting as moths fly into a candle. They stick there like the moths; but, instead of being scorched to death, they nearly extinguish the meeting. Now, it is the imperative duty of the pastor or the conductor of the service to deal with such brethren most frankly. If self-conceit makes the brother so troublesome, then that self-conceit should be kindly rebuked. If he offend ignorantly, then his ignorance should be kindly corrected. The man who has not enough sense or conscience to take a wise hint gratefully will never be of any value to a devotional meeting. Some good people mar a meeting without intending to. For example, one fluent brother gets to monopolizing the time by the inordinate frequency or the inordinate length of his utterances. . . .
"A prayer-meeting is sometimes marred by aimlessness, both in the addresses to the Lord and to one another. Brother A talks about faith, and Brother B about the pestilence at Memphis, and Brother C about—no one can exactly tell what. One method of correcting this aimless diffuseness, and of compacting the service, is to select and announce beforehand some profitable topic for discussion. This may be even selected by the leader and announced on the previous Sabbath. Then everybody has some definite object to aim at in his remarks. Then the whole service hangs together like a fleece of wool, and there is spiritual instruction afforded, as well as a kindling of devotional feeling by a study of God's truth. If a company of Christians will carefully discuss such a practical topic as 'Obeying Conscience,' or such a passage as the twenty-third psalm, or the parable of the wheat and the tares, they can not but be instructed and strengthened. Food for devotion will be furnished, and both the praying and the speaking will be directed 'at a mark.' Of course, this arrangement need not hoop a meeting as with iron, or forbid any one from presenting some special request or some matter of immediate interest that lies near his heart.
"The moment that any system of management kills the freedom of the family gathering at the mercy-seat, then the system should be abated. A cast-iron rigidity may be as fatal to the meeting as aimless verbiage. If the Spirit of God is present with great power, there is no danger from either quarter. Wherefore the most effectual cure for an invalid prayer-meeting is to open the lips and hearts in fervent supplication for the incoming of the Holy Spirit. There may be cases in which a meeting is seriously disturbed by the unwelcome utterances of persons whose character is more than doubtful, and who desire to gain a cheap reputation for piety by taking part in prayer or exhortations. Such transgressors should be frankly informed that they would better remain silent until they are ready to open their lips in honest confession. Mr. Moody pithily says that 'a man who pays fifty cents on the dollar when he could pay one hundred cents on the dollar had better keep still.'
"To confess a flagrant wrong-doing in a social meeting is no easy thing; but I once heard a man do it in a way that not only thrilled the assembly, but brought a rich blessing on his own soul and reinstated him in the position which he had lost. Sincere confession to God or to our fellow men fills a prayer-room with an odor as sweet as that of the broken alabaster box in the house of Simon the leper. But there is a species of wordy and windy parading of one's own 'awful guiltiness,' which only nauseates the auditors and can not impose upon God. It is a terrible thing to tell lies in the name of the Lord. Whatever else be the faults of our prayer services, let them be delivered from pious fraud and solemn falsehood.
"Brevity should be rigorously enforced in the prayer-meeting, except in those rare cases where an individual is speaking so evidently under the inspiration of the Divine Wisdom that it would be a sin to apply the gag-law. Five minutes is commonly long enough for an address, and three minutes for a prayer. The model for our petitions which our Lord has taught us, does not consume half a minute; and even that wonderful intercessory prayer which he offered for his followers on the night of his betrayal, occupied just twenty-six sentences. We ministers too often transgress in monopolizing time at our people's devotional meetings. It is their meeting. We have an ample opportunity for Bible exposition on the Sabbath. If the social meeting has broken down under the weight of long, heavy preachments, it is time it was mended. An energetic leader can do this by a prompt tap of a bell or a kind word of monition, or by calling on some 'full' brother to offer a word of prayer."
Takoma Park, D. C.
Our House of Worship
By Kenelm Hungerford
MEN of Israel, we are told,
Worshiped in the days of old
In a temple, richly grand,
Filled with treasures of their land.
Deepest reverence was paid
When the congregation prayed,
Every footfall hushed and slow,
Every forehead bowing low.
Now in Christian churches we
Serve the gospel ministry,
Celebrate the service new
That the ancient pointed to.
Who shall say our church of wood
Is less holy and less good
Than the sanctuary old
With its cherubim of gold?
This we know, that Jesus' grace
Granted in a humble place
Makes a sanctuary there
Of that humble house of prayer.
Soerabaya, Java.
The Fountainhead
By Armory
A stream may be defiled, a reservoir may become polluted, a cup may be poisoned; but the fountain will still remain pure. The gospel comes to us to-day in many forms and through many channels; it comes to us tinged with the feelings, thoughts, and fancies of a multitude of men of passions like our own; and often the honest inquirer is perplexed and misled by the wordy strifes of discordant teachers who profess to draw their differing faiths from a common source, and to bend their steps to a common destination.
There is nothing better for us to do under such circumstances than to go to the Fountainhead. The Christ who died on the cross again lives; the Holy Spirit which brings all things to our remembrance yet abides in the world; and the Sacred Scriptures, which contain the truth as it is in Jesus, are within our reach. Nothing but our idleness and indifference can prevent our searching for ourselves, to see if these things are so; and if we turn away from the advices of man, and draw our faith from the Fountainhead, the Word of God, we shall attain a knowledge of the truth, pure and unadulterated, which we may not hope to gain in any other way.
"Search the Scriptures!" Within the pages of that Word the inquiring soul may find his doubts resolved, his faith nourished, his soul purified, and his heart made glad; for he shall find that the Holy Scriptures are able to make him "wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus."—Armory.
India Census
The completed census of India, including Burma, gives a population of 316,019,846, as compared with 295,166,039 ten years ago. The Christian population is given as 3,876,000, more by one third than it was in 1901.
Editorial
By Francis M. Wilcox
The Lonely Ones
THE great heart of Infinite Love yearns tenderly for every disciple of the Master, wherever his lot in life may be cast. Particularly does the Master have a care for the lonely and desolate ones among his waiting children. These have a double burden to bear, and recognizing this, the Lord stands ready to hold out his hand to aid and succor them.
In his all-wise purpose the Israel of God is scattered abroad throughout the earth. Some are gathered in large companies, others in little groups, and some there are who, unaided and alone so far as human Christian fellowship is concerned, are endeavoring to hold up the standard of truth. Here is a single family, the only one in the neighborhood or in the surrounding country who believes the precious truths which bind us together as a people. In another place, perhaps away back in the mountains or in a home on the broad prairie, is a lonely brother or sister, who, in the fear of God, is seeking wisdom and strength from day to day to live a life of loyalty and righteousness. Or perhaps in the heart of some great city there is found the lonely one, surrounded by a multitude of fellows, and yet alone after all, with no one near of like precious faith to whom he can go for sympathy and counsel, in whom he can confide the joys and sorrows of Christian experience.
How blessed it is for these lonely ones to feel that although deprived of the human associations for which their hearts so many times long, they may have a Companion who "sticketh closer than a brother." The blessed promise of Jesus, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world," is for us to-day as well as for the disciples to whom it was directly addressed; and particularly may the lonely ones draw strength and courage from this assurance of divine companionship. The consciousness of this presence of the Master is the true basis for courage. It is made such in the word of the Lord to Joshua: "Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." Why should not Joshua be strong with this assurance? and why should not we be strong wherever our lot may be cast when we have this blessed promise of companionship with the Lord? And this companionship may be made through faith so real, so practical, so helpful in every daily experience that we shall be able to realize that we have indeed walked with the Lord hand in hand, and that we have talked with him face to face, as a "man speaketh unto his friend," even as did Moses of old. This blessed companionship, this sweet communion, it is the privilege of every child of God to enjoy.
Our very desolation may be made an avenue whereby we may take hold of heavenly strength. Like the mighty oak which stands out by itself all alone, and in wrestling with the storms and winds takes deeper rootage, and firmer hold upon its foundation, so God designs that the trials and afflictions of life, the sorrow and sadness, the difficulties and perplexities, shall be the means of driving us nearer to him and of leading us to lean more heavily upon his strong and mighty arm.
God has set his children in these lonely places as heralds of the light. Through them he will demonstrate to their fellows that it is possible, even under forbidding temporal circumstances, in the face of temptation and trial, in spite of mockery and ridicule, to obey God and live out the truth for this day and generation. He demonstrated that through Lot in Sodom; through Abraham wandering among the tribes of ancient Canaan; through Joseph in Egypt; through Daniel and his companions in the Babylonian court; through Jesus in Nazareth, a city so wicked that Nathaniel questioned if any good thing could come from it. He is demonstrating the same power of his blessed gospel to-day in the experience of this people. God has given to the lonely ones a great commission.
Dear lonely ones, be loyal to the right. Be true to God just where you are. In your neighborhood be messengers of light and blessing. Do not shut yourselves away from your fellows. Visit them in their homes, especially those who are suffering from sickness or disaster. Invite them to your homes. Be neighborly, be obliging. Prove yourselves liberal, generous, broad-minded men and women. Do not compromise the truth. Do not for a moment trail the gospel banner in the dust, but demonstrate that the truth of God has not dried up your soul, nor narrowed your sympathies, nor made you less neighborly or less helpful in your life among men.
Speak the truth in love. Stand ready always to give a reason of the hope that is within you, with meekness and fear, but use good sense and careful judgment in the manner of its presentation. Do not by indiscreet words or unwise methods bring the holy truth you profess into disrepute. Circulate our good literature, and let that speak. That enters into no personal controversy, as you may be tempted to do.
If the way opens, gather your neighbors into your home for a little prayer band, or the wandering children together on Sabbath or Sunday for a Bible study. Demonstrate to those around you that your religion is not an experience of gloom, but one of joy and hope and courage. Forget your loneliness and lack of Christian fellowship in your daily communion with the Lord Jesus Christ, and then go forth from his presence radiant with joy, to dispense to those around you the light and blessings which you have received from him. Thus laboring, God will bless you in order that you may be a blessing to others. You will then fulfil his great purpose, and be the means, through his grace, of bringing salvation to your fellows.
F. M. W.
Forces in Active Antagonism to the Fundamental Principles of the American Government
By C. M. S.
(Continued)
SOME of the advocates of the principles for which the National Reform Association stands see the logical result of the adoption of those principles, and frankly admit them. Prof. C. A. Blanchard said:—
Congress must establish a standard of religion, or admit anything called religion.
That means an established religion. Said Rev. M. A. Gault:—
Our remedy for all these malefic influences is to have the government simply set up the moral law, and recognize God's authority behind it, and lay its hand on any religion that does not conform to it.
That is all that was done under the union of church and state in colonial days; that was all that was done in England and Europe when the Pilgrim fathers sailed for America and made exiles of themselves to escape persecution. That was all that was done in Spain in the palmiest days of the Inquisition; that is all paganism was doing when Nero and his fellow butchers were making torches of the Christians, or feeding them to the lions in the arena. And it is that same principle of operation that the National Reform Association9proposes shall be substituted in our government for the principles upon which it was established, and upon which it has been operating thus far.
Again the Rev. M. A. Gault declares:—
We propose to incorporate in our national Constitution the moral and religious command, “In it [the Sabbath] thou shalt do no work,” except the works of necessity, and by external force of sheriffs we propose to arrest and punish all violators of this law.
Says the Christian Nation:—
Let those who will, remember the Sabbath to keep it holy, from motives of love and obedience; the remnant must be made to do so through fear of law. We have no option.
Dr. David McAlister said:—
Those who oppose this work now will discover, when the religious amendment is made to the Constitution, that if they do not see fit to fall in with the majority, they must abide the consequences or seek some more congenial clime.
That is what we have always predicted will happen when they secure the legislation they desire. Professing to govern in the name of, and as the representatives of, Jesus Christ, they will dishonor him, and oppress and persecute and exile those who would worship him in spirit and in truth.
The Rev. S. V. Leech said:—
Give us good Sunday laws, well enforced by men in local authority, and our churches will be full of worshipers, and our young men and women will be attracted to the divine service. A mighty combination of the churches of the United States could win from Congress, the State legislatures, and municipal councils all legislation essential to this splendid result.
Notice the form of attraction which it is proposed to use,—the external force of sheriffs,—exactly what was done in colonial days, when every absentee from church service must give satisfactory reason for his absence or suffer in person or goods. Notice also that it is “a mighty combination of the churches of the United States” that is to force from Congress the laws that are needed to increase church attendance. But that “combination” is exactly what Congress, through the famous Sunday Mail Reports, wisely warned the nation against. Notice another thing. Jesus Christ said, “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” This proposed “combination” says that “by external force of sheriffs” the people will be, not drawn, but forced into the churches. Such a policy, we hold, is diametrically opposed to every principle of the gospel; and its insinuation that the power of love needs the “external force of sheriffs” to make it effective in accomplishing God’s purpose, is an insult to Heaven.
To carry still further its policy of arrogant disrespect to Heaven, that movement proposes by external force of human law and the boycott to wipe out completely the Sabbath of Jehovah, and to substitute for it the false sabbath which originated in the Catholic Church. Says the Rev. Dr. Bascom Robbins:—
In the Christian decalogue the first day was made the sabbath by divine appointment. But there is a class of people who will not keep the Christian sabbath unless they are forced to do so; but that can easily be done. If we would say we will not sell anything to them, we will not buy anything from them, we will not work for them, nor hire them to work for us, the thing could be wiped out, and all the world would keep the Christian sabbath.
And thus is the boycott, that last heartless weapon of an illegal conspiracy, advocated by a doctor of divinity as a means for advancing what he considers the cause of Christ. Certain it is that they who utilize such a weapon in the name of Christ will receive from him in the day of final awards the terrible sentence: “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
It takes more than one society to make a combination, and the prophetic Word has given us warrant for believing that there will be more than one society engaged in the work of bringing the world into subjection to one antichristian power. Says the prophet: “Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.” Isa. 8:12. But this is the age of confederacy. And it is a most striking and significant fact that every confederacy that is working in our country to-day is working in antagonism to the fundamental principles of our government. We saw that the National Reform Association, by the very name itself as well as by its declaration of principles, is working against the principles incorporated in our Declaration of Independence and in our national Constitution, with the other organizations to which we shall briefly refer.
In 1864 there was one obscure organization advocating those un-American principles. In 1888 there were three more,—the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, the Third Party Prohibition party, and the American Sabbath Union,—and each of these three was capable of wielding a greater influence than was the parent organization.
In the year 1884 the National Reform Association made a bid for an ally stronger in numbers and political influence than all four of these organizations. Said the Christian Statesman of Dec. 11, 1884:—
Whenever they [the Roman Catholics] are willing to cooperate in resisting the progress of political atheism, we will gladly join hands with them.
What was meant by “political atheism” was simply the separation of church and state and the nation’s guaranty to the individual of the right to worship God according to the dictates of conscience. That being common ground to both the National Reform Association and the Catholic Church, the latter took the proposition of cooperation under favorable consideration, and in the year 1889, at the Catholic Lay Congress held in Baltimore on November 12, issued the following pronunciamento:—
There are many Christian issues upon which Catholics could come together with non-Catholics and shape civil legislation for the public weal. In spite of rebuff and injustice, and overlooking zealotry, we should seek an alliance with non-Catholics for proper Sunday observance. Without going over to the Judaic sabbath, we can bring the masses over to the moderation of the Christian Sunday.
The editor of the Catholic Universe urged the consummation of such a confederacy, in these words:—
What we should seek is an en rapport with the Protestant Christians who desire to keep Sunday holy.—Paper read at the above-named congress.
The action of the Catholic Lay Congress in issuing such a pronunciamento was taken “after correspondence and conference with the American Sabbath Union.” Both these organizations have declared it their purpose to enforce the Sunday institution. But we find another policy upon which they are in agreement. Said the Rev. David Gregg, a vice-president of the National Reform Association, in an article in the Christian Statesman of June 5, 1884:—
The civil power has the right to command the consciences of men.
If the civil power has the right thus to do, then all the persecutions of the dark ages were right; all that Rome ever did in commanding the consciences of men and “correcting heretics” by flame, rack, dungeon, and thumbscrew was right; all the persecutions of early colonial days were right; and all that has been done in this country to free the soul from the oppression of spiritual tyranny is wrong. But we will see how that declaration of Dr. Gregg’s harmonizes with the Catholic purpose. Says that Roman Catholic theologian Peter Dens (Vol. II, No. 51, page 80):—
Baptized infidels, such as heretics and apostates usually are, also baptized schismatics, may be compelled, even by corporal punishment, to return to the Catholic faith and the unity of the church. The reason is because these by baptism have become subject to the church; and therefore the church has jurisdiction over them, and the power of compelling them through appointed means to obedience, and to fulfil the obligations contracted in baptism,10It may be news to many Protestants to learn that if they have taken part in the ordinance of baptism, they are considered subjects of the Roman pontiff; but such is the case. If you have ever been baptized,—no matter by whom,—Rome looks upon you as her subject, and claims the right to compel you by corporal punishment to enter her fold.
Says Dr. O. A. Brownson, a Roman Catholic editor and author:—
The people need governing and must be governed. . . . They must have a master. . . . The first lesson to the child is, obey; the first and last lesson to the people, individually and collectively, is, obey; and there is no obedience where there is no authority to enjoin it. . . . The Roman Catholic religion, then, is necessary to sustain popular liberty, because popular liberty can be sustained only by a religion free from popular control, above the people, speaking from above, and able to command them; and such a religion is the Roman Catholic. . . . In this sense we wish this country to come under the Pope of Rome. . . . We assert his supremacy, and tell our countrymen that we would have them submit to him. They may flare up at this as much as they please. . . . They will not move us, nor relieve themselves from the obligation Almighty God has placed them under of obeying the authority of the Catholic Church, Pope and all.—Brownson's 'Essays,' pages 380-383.
The two organizations are thus shown to be in harmony so far as the principle of forcing the conscience of individuals in religious things is concerned.
We have shown that the National Reform Association opposes the fundamental principles of our government, and has set itself to the task of so revising the national Constitution that it shall speak a different language from what it speaks to-day, shall repudiate what it has hitherto guaranteed, and authorize the interference of the state in the religious concerns of the people. We have seen also that this organization has invited the Catholic Church to join her in her purpose. How does the Roman Catholic Church stand with reference to the fundamental principles of our government and the Constitution that has guaranteed our liberties? Said Pope Leo XIII, in his encyclical published in 1885:—
All Catholics should do all in their power to cause the constitutions of states, and legislation, to be modeled on the principles of the true church.
The word 'states' in this quotation is used in the sense of nations. The Constitution of the United States was not founded on Roman Catholic principles. It therefore becomes the bounden duty of every Catholic in this country to see to it that our Constitution is so altered as to be acceptable to the Pope. The Catholic World (Vol. XIII, page 736) tells us how Catholics regard our national Constitution:—
As it [the United States Constitution] is interpreted by the liberal and sectarian journals . . . or is interpreted by the Protestant principle, so widely diffused among us, . . . we do not accept it, or hold it to be any government at all, or as capable of performing any of the proper functions of government. . . . If the American republic is to be sustained and preserved at all, it must be by the rejection of the principle of the Reformation and the acceptance of the Catholic principle by the American people.
These are plain words, expressing a bold and unchanging purpose toward our country. Rome has declared that governments, to be legitimate, must be based upon the law of God. Ours is not so based, therefore, in Rome's eyes, is illegitimate. She has said that governments ruled by the people, or by kings not submissive to her, are merely governments de facto. Says Balmes, in his work 'Protestantism and Catholicity Compared:'—
It is allowable to resist illegitimate power by force. The Catholic religion does not enjoin obedience to governments existing merely de facto.—Chap. 56, page 336.
That releases American Catholics from moral responsibility for any attitude of antagonism they may assume toward the government of the United States. It is absolution in advance for any act they might commit against the government. Such is the ally which the Sunday-law advocates have taken into their camp to assist in the overthrow of the Constitution of the United States.
C. M. S.
(To be concluded)
Notes on Important Eras of Fulfilling Prophecy
By W. A. S.
The Hand of God in History— No. 11
Notes on Important Eras of Fulfilling Prophecy
The Fall of Jerusalem
THE cry rang through the city of Jerusalem, "His blood be upon us!"
It was not the voice of the common people, who had "heard him gladly." A well-organized minority secured the condemnation of Jesus. The religious leaders determined to put a stop to his teaching. They said he taught the people to "transgress the traditions of the elders," the customs of the church. Jesus answered, "Why do ye also transgress the commandments of God by your tradition?" Matt. 15:3.
He had taught only the old, old truths of the Word of God, which they professed to follow, but which they had made void by human tradition. And because of his loyalty to the divine law, they condemned him by their human law.
The Jewish leaders disguised their enmity under high-sounding phrases. It was a mere matter of civil procedure. The law of the land must be enforced. "We have a law," they said to Pilate, "and by our law he ought to die." The Roman magistrate saw through the injustice of religious prejudice. But at the threat of accusation to Cæsar—an ancient form of applying political pressure—he yielded at last.
How little those Jewish leaders realized the meaning of the cry, "His blood be upon us"! Graetz, a Jewish historian, evidently looking upon Jesus as a reformer who was unjustly condemned, says:—
How great was the woe caused by that one execution! . . . He is the only mortal of whom one can say without exaggeration that his death was more effective than his life. . . . Strange that events fraught with so vast an import should have created so little stir at the time of their occurrence at Jerusalem!—"History of the Jews," Vol. IV, page 165.
The round of social activities ran on, business was brisk in the city, money was to be made, daily bread to be earned, and political rivalries were keen. The people generally could not stop to notice. Yet at that time the doom of Jerusalem was sealed.
For a long time before the first advent, tumult and strife had filled Judea. As the time of Christ's ministry drew near, there was a change. As plainly as if by the visible hand of Providence, elements of disorder were repressed, the winds of strife were held. In that quiet interval the voice of Jesus was heard up and down Judea. But quickly after his crucifixion and ascension, the storm burst again in fury over the land. In his warning of coming judgment, Christ had said: "All these things shall come upon this generation."
The blow was terrible when it fell. Jerusalem had been so blessed that when its light became darkness, how great was that darkness! Standing so high, it fell so low! It chose the evil one as its leader, and turned away from the protection of the Almighty. Josephus, the ancient Jewish historian, says in the preface to his "Wars of the Jews":—
Of all the cities which came under the Roman sway, Jerusalem arrived at a higher degree of felicity than any other; and then it fell into a lower depth of calamity. It appears to me that the misfortunes of all men, from the beginning of the world, are not to be compared with those of the Jews.
And in the body of the history he says:—
In one word, and to speak in brief the whole truth, never did any other city endure such tribulations; and never from the beginning of time was any generation more prolific of evil.—Book 5, chap. 10.
What a testimony to the fulfilment of the woes pronounced by the voices of the prophets through the ages of warning and entreaty, which Jesus said would come upon that generation.11
Josephus tells of portents that startled Jerusalem before the end. A countryman appeared, who cried in the streets and lanes, "Woe, woe to Jerusalem!" He was severely punished; but to no avail. Especially at feasts the disquieting cry would be raised, "Woe to Jerusalem!" This continued, Josephus says,—until the very time that he saw his presage in earnest fulfilled in our siege, when it ceased. For, as he was going round upon the wall, he cried out with his utmost force, "Woe, woe to the city again, and to the people, and to the holy house." And just as he added at the last, "Woe, woe to myself also," there came a stone out of one of the engines, and smote him, and killed him immediately.—"Wars," book 6, chap. 5.
It was in A. D. 66 that the Roman army, under Cestius, appeared before Jerusalem. Soon there was fighting about the temple itself. The Romans "attempted to break into the temple at the northern quarter of it; but the Jews beat them off from the cloisters." The cloisters were parts of the temple buildings. Then, placing their shields together in the "tortoise-back" formation to protect themselves from darts shot from the wall above, the Roman soldiers "undermined the wall, . . . and got all things ready for setting fire to the gate of the temple."
In his prophecy of the fall of Jerusalem, Jesus had said to his disciples:—
"When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place (whoso readeth, let him understand), then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains: let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house: neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. . . . But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day." Matt. 24: 15-20.
The Roman standards about the temple itself were a signal to the Christians to flee. Those in the fields or villages round about could easily do so; but how could those in the city escape, with the Roman army encompassing the walls? —An overruling Providence made the way of escape. Josephus says that just as Cestius had the wall undermined and all in readiness for the attack, suddenly—
he recalled his soldiers from the place, and by despairing of any expectation of taking it, without having received any disgrace, he retired from the city, without any reason in the world [italics ours].—Book 2, chap. 19.
Those Christian believers, watching for the signal that the Saviour had foretold thirty years before, must have known well the meaning of the sudden, unexplainable retreat. As the Jews rushed out to attack the retreating Romans, the moment for the flight of the Christians had come. Though the next siege was deferred several years, the time for flight was that day when the Jewish forces rushed from the city.
As the fanatical Zealots came back exulting from slaying the rearguard of Cestius's army, they came to take possession of affairs in Jerusalem, and to organize every force for the next attack. Christian believers attempting then to get away would doubtless have met no mercy. James Morrison says of conditions that developed in Jerusalem:—
The Zealots created and maintained a "reign of terror" akin to that of the French Revolution, only more dreadful, and, considering the available scope and compass, more bloody.—"Comments on Matthew," page 471.
Four years later the Roman army returned to the siege. Jerusalem seemed drunken with fury. At the last Passover ever celebrated in Jerusalem, while Titus and his army were compassing the walls, rival factions of Jews fought and slew one another about the sacrificial altars of the temple. Satan was in full command. The hardened Roman besiegers were astonished at the suicidal rashness of the people. Titus tried to persuade them to save at least the temple. Remonstrating with their leaders, he said:—
Why do you pollute this holy house with the blood both of foreigners and Jews themselves? I appeal to the gods of my own country, and to every god that ever had any regard to this place (for I do not suppose it to be now regarded by any of them); I also appeal to my own army, and to those Jews that are now with me, and even to you yourselves, that I do not force you to defile this your sanctuary; and if you will but change the place wherein you will fight, no Roman shall either come near your sanctuary nor offer any affront to it; nay, I will endeavor to preserve you your holy house whether you will or not.—"Wars," book 6, chap. 2.
But Christ had said of the temple: "There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." Matt. 24: 2. Titus's effort to save the temple in spite of the Jews, failed, and the house went down in ruins.
This Roman commander and future emperor felt impressed that there was something supernatural about the forces of destruction let loose. Josephus says that as Titus made the rounds one day,—he gave a groan; and spreading out his hands to heaven, called God to witness that this was not his doing.—"Wars," book 5, chap. 12.
When Christ foretold the coming destruction, the disciples could not see how it was possible for such walls as those of the temple and towers to be thrown down. They said to him: "Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!" After the city fell, and Titus had examined these walls and towers, he exclaimed:—
We have certainly had God for our assistant in this war, and it was no other than God who ejected the Jews out of these fortifications.—"Wars," book 6, chap. 9.
The destruction that came upon Jerusalem was but the fruit of its own ways. When God's protection was thrust finally aside, even he could not save from the judgments bound in justice to fall upon persistent transgression.
The witness to the living God is borne by the fulfilment of prophecies of judgment as well as by the happier prophecies of deliverance. This sad story of the fall of Jerusalem is one of the lessons of Bible history "written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." 1 Cor. 10: 11.
Jerusalem fell because it knew not the message of God for that day and generation, even though the "sure word of prophecy" had plainly declared it, and the Scriptures of truth were fulfilled before the eyes of all. Many in Jerusalem saw and believed, and found refuge. But for every man and generation the solemn witness is borne that Jerusalem fell because it knew not the time of its visitation. "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day."
"Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, God's new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight,
Parts the goats upon the left hand and the sheep upon the right,—
And the choice goes by forever, 'twixt that darkness and that light."
W. A. S.
Nature and Perpetuity of the Sabbath
IN tracing the steps by which the Sabbath was instituted, we are not only impressed with the fact that after God had used the seventh day as his own rest day, had made it holy by his special blessing, and had set it apart for the use of man, he designated this day by a particular name. The first six days of the week are referred to throughout the Bible by numerals. The seventh day of the week, however, is not generally called by this number, but is known by the name which signifies the service to which it was set apart, the Sabbath, or rest day. It stood originally as the rest day of the Lord; hence he calls it "the Sabbath of the Lord thy God," "my holy day," "the Lord's day," etc. Ex. 20:10; Isa. 58:13; Rev. 1:10. While it is his day, he commits its use to, and bestows its blessings upon, the human family. In the six days of the week, man was to follow his own purposes and perform the labor which his judgment might indicate, but the seventh day was reserved for a holy use. It therefore became a test of the loyalty of man to his Maker.