Did Not Feel Right—Went All Wrong—A Better Guide than Our Feelings
By C. L. TAYLOR
SUNDAY morning: I feel fine. I am rested, I have a good appetite, I feel like reading my Bible, I feel cheerful, I feel like praying, I feel like a real Christian.
Monday morning: I feel just fairly good. I did not sleep well last night, and this morning it is cloudy. I feel a kind of premonition that something will go wrong during the day. I don’t seem to care about reading; and anyway, I am late in getting up, so will let it go.
Tuesday morning: I cannot tell how I do feel this morning. Everything went wrong yesterday. One of my neighbors came over to talk business with me; and feeling that he was crooked, I told him so. I am not feeling much like praying, and what good is prayer when you don’t feel like it?
Wednesday morning: I feel of pretty good courage to-day. Yesterday was a splendid day, and I accomplished a great deal. I feel thankful that I have health, home, and a hope in God.
Thursday morning: Please don’t ask me any questions. Yesterday afternoon, I lost my patience; and when my wife remonstrated against what I was doing, I felt still more out of sorts, and I gave her a piece of my mind. Then, when prayer meeting came, I couldn’t pray, nor could I bear testimony. I felt like a hypocrite. There is nothing to be gained by trying to act like a Christian when you do not feel like it. And I do not feel like praying even now.
Friday morning: I feel as though the past twenty-four hours had been about right; still, I suppose I ought to have gone over to my neighbor and righted up that blunder I made the other day. But I can’t feel like doing it, and so what is the use? And there’s my wife. Oh, well, I cannot help my feelings. I can say, however, that they get the best of me right along. I do not feel like reading my Bible and praying with all730these things on my mind. Maybe I shall feel better later.
Sabbath morning: Just what is the matter nowadays is hard to tell. This is the day when I ought to feel near to God, but I do not. I ought to feel like reading my Bible; but after a hard week’s work, and so many trials, I find my Bible distasteful. I ought to feel like going to church; but when one’s whole feeling is against it, nothing is to be gained. I really wonder if I am a Christian. One thing is certain: if I cannot get to feel better before long, I might just as well cease my profession, and act out my nature as it really is.
FEELINGS ARE NO GUIDE
The Christian life is based not on feeling, but on faith in God and His word. Feeling is not faith. Feeling is never a true guide.
Feeling is dependent upon conditions, upon circumstances. When the sun shines, when friends prove true, when business is good, when health is perfect, then feeling is generally quite enjoyable.
But faith lives and thrives without sunshine, without friends, without prosperity, without health. Faith is a principle which triumphs over all opposition, and does its very best when conditions are the very worst.
Faith ignores feeling. Faith leads one to pray when he feels least like it, to read his Bible when he feels indifferent, to give of his means to gospel work when he feels penurious, to sing when he feels to scold, to labor when he feels lazy or tired, to acknowledge the Lord Jesus before his brethren and the world when he feels like a hypocrite.
An old adage says, “We cannot hinder the birds from flying over our heads, but we can keep them from building nests in our hair.” Thus it is with bad feelings: we cannot prevent their coming and knocking at the doors of our hearts, but we can refuse to give them any place in our lives.
IGNORE FEELINGS
Ignore your feelings. They are probably ill this morning because your stomach is out of order, or your nerves short circuited. But God is not dead because digestion has gone wrong, nor has He ceased to regard you because your nerves are out of order.
Keep so busy with thoughts and deeds of faith, that you will have no time to consider your feelings. Do not talk about them, whatever you do. A feeling slighted and neglected is soon dead.
Do friends ask you how you feel? You need not answer the question. To do so might open the floodgates of discouragement. Let your reply be one of faith. Keep on the right side in what you say, and very quickly you will find yourself on the right side in what you live.
Talk faith. Act faith. Treat your bad feelings as unwelcome visitors, and they will one day cease to make their usual calls.
JESUS CHRIST IS OURS
By Tyler E. Bowen
He Connects Us with Royalty — He Lived a Continuous Victory, and Gives That Victory to Us — He Suffered Everything for Us, and Now He Lives for Us
By TYLER E. BOWEN
WE but faintly comprehend what Jesus, the Son of God, really is to us. God’s enemy, Christ’s foe, and our adversary has for his constant objective the setting aside, in some manner, of the Lord Jesus Christ. He cares not whether he leads us to count the gift so high as to be out of our reach, or so common that it is of no value. Either, he knows, will deprive the sinner of the saving, life-giving touch of Jesus. He suits his temptations to each individual, or to that class to which the individual belongs.
CONNECTED WITH ROYALTY
To have royalty connected with a family is esteemed a great honor. No little stress is laid upon this by the members of such a household. It is something in which they glory. Christ occupies the highest place of honor next to the Father’s throne, is the only Son of the Sovereign of the universe; but nevertheless He is ours. The glory He once had, He laid aside, and descended to the lowest depths, that there He might clasp hands with the veriest sinner; and there, too, He is ours.
IN HEAVEN FOR US
Some think that when Jesus ascended on high, He left the world, to enter again the same place He had with the Father before the world was. This is not so. When He ascended on high, He ascended there as the Son of man, as well as the Son of God. He went up there to the throne of the universe for us, to represent us in an infinitude beyond that which we can comprehend or think.
When the Father proclaimed Christ’s name above every name in heaven and in earth,—when to that beloved Son was ascribed by Jehovah all power both in heaven and in earth,—all this, brother, sister, was for us in all the blessedness of its actuality, and that, too, to be ours forever.
Right here is where we are likely to underestimate the Christ. The enemy plans it thus. He desires to eclipse all this blessedness which is possible for you and me. He does not want us actually to lay hold by living faith upon this blessed fact that the Son of God really belongs to us. He knows that if he can lead us away from this glorious truth, he can then whip us into discouragement, or even on to despair. When we look within our own hearts, or to any other fallible human being, no matter who he may be, we become an easy prey to Satan’s devices. But here we must fight, as did Jesus, with the weapons provided for our spiritual warfare, and hold our ground. Christ Jesus is ours. Never must this point be yielded.
JESUS LIVED THE VICTORIOUS LIFE FOR US
When Jesus, among tantalizing half brothers, lived the victorious home life, He lived it for you and me. When He went to John at the Jordan, and was baptized by him there, it was for us. When, upon the bank of the river, Jesus bowed in humble, earnest prayer, and the heavens opened, and the Father’s voice was heard saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” that message from God was spoken to the human race, to us, sinners though we are, in the person of our Representative, the divine Son of man. These terrible forty days of temptation following were endured, and the victory was won, for the race, from Adam down. All the blessed ministry of Jesus’ three years and more, belongs to us; for it all was performed because Jesus was here in our world, ours, sent to us, yea, more, given to us by the Father.
The Gethsemane experience, when the weight of the sins of us all was upon Him, was because our own Brother, our “elder Brother,” was then representing you and me, taking from the Father’s hand that bitter cup belonging to us. Oh, the depths of both the love and the goodness of God! And as Jesus took the cruel mocking, and was spit upon and beaten, in the palace of the high priest, before Pilate’s judgment seat and that of Herod, He was there because He loved you and me, and could not bear to think that we must perish. He attempted to bear to Calvary the cross that you and I should have been slain upon, because He had been born into a sinful race, to bear its woe, and even receive the death stroke due us. The divine Son of God died as man must die when, without God, the wicked go down to their eternal doom from the presence of the living God. He died with “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” upon His holy lips. Why this cry?—Oh, it was because He was ours, and bore in His body our sins upon the tree, “that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” Heb. 2: 9.
But three days later, there was a glorious climax. While at the cross Satan, as an African native put it, as related by Missionary Dan Crawford, “did his very, very, very worst, the Father for us was doing His very, very, very best,” and it was all for us. God did not leave our Brother in Joseph’s new tomb. That would have been a great triumph for Satan, who, through hatred, had killed Him. Ah, no! The Father sent a mighty angel to call forth His sleeping Son. He came forth gloriously triumphant. Still He is ours. Glorified?—Yes; but even yet, the Representative of lost man, ours still. Let us revel in the preciousness of this glorious truth every day. To do so spells our victory.
‘UNTO US A SON IS BORN’
When the devil approaches you and me with those subtle insinuations that “if such a one as you can be a son of God, can be a Christian,” etc., let us quote this: “Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” This is as Isaiah of old had said: “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given.” Ah, He is ours, and that, too, forever! Our glory comes in holding to this precious truth with a grip like the grip of death.
“In the world,” said Jesus, among His last words to His disciples before He suffered, “ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” John 16: 33. O brother, there is a world of comfort, of holy cheer, in these words! We stumble and fall. We find ourselves outwitted and defeated by our foe; but our elder Brother, never. He bound the strong man in his own house, in his kingdom; and that, too, as a man. No sin was found in Him.
‘I GIVE YOU MY VICTORY’
This word to us is as though He said: “Be of good cheer, then, in the midst of tribulation; for I have overcome the world for you. I give you My victory. I thus have put you on vantage ground. Use My victory, and win. The hideousness of sin in its every form I overcome. Distrust of God, disobedience, worldly ambition for wealth and fame, murder, hate, adultery, lying, cheating, drunkenness, evil of every description—these temptations I faced. I encountered them all in the world, right where you live, and overcame them for you. Be of good cheer. This victory I now give to you. It is all yours. Use it. I won it for you. With it you too may overcome all the evil, in My name. Use it; for I am yours, and will be yours to the end.” This is His message to you and me when He said, “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
(Continued on page 13)11
Jesus Christ Is Ours
(Continued from page 10)
NOW YOURS, THOUGH HIGHLY EXALTED
Christ Jesus to-day is not so highly exalted that He will not listen to the prayer of every struggling brother or sister of His on earth. Look directly to Him. Go into your closet, or aside anywhere, and talk to Him. He hears. Present the mighty argument that He is your Brother, that He lived and died for you. No matter how sinful you may have been; this has nothing to do with it. The question is, Will you believe that He lived for you on earth, and now ministers in your behalf before the Most High in heaven? Believing this, you can claim Him and all His power in your struggles with the flesh and the devil here in this present evil world.
How true to-day, as when first uttered, are the following lines from Charles Wesley:
“Arise, my soul, arise!
Shake off thy guilty fears!
The bleeding Sacrifice
In my behalf appears.
Before the throne my Surety stands.
My name is written on His hands.
“He ever lives above,
For me to intercede;
His all-redeeming love,
His precious blood, to plead.
His blood was shed for all our race,
And sprinkles now the throne of grace.
“Five bleeding wounds He bears,
Received on Calvary.
They pour effectual prayers,
They strongly speak for me:
‘Forgive him, oh, forgive,’ they cry,
‘Nor let the contrite sinner die!’
“The Father hears Him pray,
His dear anointed One.
He would not turn away
The presence of His Son.
His Spirit answers to the blood,
And tells me I am born of God.”
SUPERSTITIONS IN THE ROMISH CHURCH
By J. O. C.
The Practices of Rome Where She Bears Full Sway — She Is Greatly Modified by the Influence of Protestantism
Few people in Protestant lands appreciate the unreasonable forms of worship indorsed by the Church of Rome. Living though they do side by side with Catholics, Protestants do not seem to comprehend the existence of any great difference between themselves and their Catholic neighbors. Even to speak of gross superstitions in the Church of Rome seems to many an exaggeration, or perhaps an open slander.
CATHOLICISM DIFFERENT IN AMERICA
This condition of affairs is explained in an article on modernism, by Prof. Giovanni Luzzi, of Florence, Italy, in the Bible Magazine for June, 1915. He says:
“I did not understand at first this skepticism of our brethren abroad; but after visiting England, Scotland, and the United States, I learned the reason. Roman Catholicism in these countries is quite different in its outward manifestations from what it is in our Latin lands. It feels, without wishing or seeming to do so, the Protestant influence which surrounds it; so that whoever wishes to judge aright of Romanism must not judge it from what it appears in Protestant lands, but from what it is in Latin lands.
GOD AND CHRIST PUSHED BACK
“Here prayer is irrational, mechanical, repeated from the lips in a foreign tongue without the heart and soul having any part in it. Here the service is sumptuous, surrounded by glaring lights, by showy drapery, by, more often than not, noisy rather than sacred music. Here religious acts are reduced to magical arts, which are supposed to work by intrinsic efficacy, without him who officiates and him who worships having any moral part in it. Here sacred things are bartered for in a barefaced manner, eternal life being assured to the highest bidder. Here the morals of the laity are so lax that they can only be compared to the extreme laxity of the morals of the greater part of the clergy. Here God is pushed into the shade, Christ is almost forgotten or considered simply as the helpless child, and the virgin only is raised up as an object of worship, as the only omnipotent mediatrix, and is surrounded by a veneration which is often grosser than that which the pagans give to their divinities.
A STORY TO ILLUSTRATE
“With regard to this I should like, if I may be allowed, to narrate a little incident observed by me and by two American students while we were making an excursion in the Tuscan Apennines. The story has little value in itself, but much from a symptomatic point of view. We had arrived at a quaint little village clinging to the rocky side of a mountain and hanging over a precipice at the bottom of which ran a river. We were tired and hungry, so went into a little shop, a most primitive little place, where a woman came forward to serve us. While we were waiting, we noticed in the corner of the shop a little shrine covered with a cloth which evidently could be pulled aside by cords. We were curious to know what was behind that curtain, so I said to the woman, ‘What have you behind that curtain on the shrine?’
“She answered, ‘An image.’
“‘Could we see it?’ I asked.
“‘No,’ she answered, ‘because it is a miraculous image which we only uncover once a year, when it is carried in procession round the village.’
“I did not insist more, as I was unwilling to hurt the woman’s religious feelings; but as she heard that my two companions had come from so far away, she overcame her scruples, and went up to the shrine and drew aside the curtain. A more grotesque spectacle could not possibly have met our eyes; we had great difficulty in keeping from laughter. Before us we saw a rather large doll, with a shockingly distorted face, dressed in a most ridiculous manner in all the colors of the rainbow, and on its head a species of turban of no definable color. What struck me was that there was place for two in that little shrine; so that the virgin, who was standing, had room at her left for another figure which was missing.
“‘And why,’ I asked, ‘is there an empty place here?’
“‘Ah!’ she answered, ‘there we had the eternal Father, but — we sold Him!’
“I repeat, it is a little story of great symptomatic value. Those people, put to the point of having to dispose of the image of God or of the virgin, chose to keep the virgin and got rid of the other, just as all the Italians have done from one end of Italy to the other, under the influence of a Christianity ruined by the Church of Rome.’”
This seems almost like a fairy tale, yet it is but a repetition of the statements coming from Latin sources in other parts of the world. It is, too, but the natural sequence of spiritual darkness, and only a step removed from the obscurity of heathen ritualism. Yet those at the head of just such a system are said to have well matured plans looking to the religious control of all Protestant countries, especially of the United States. Let such an event occur, and nothing could prevent this country from adopting the superstitions of those lands where the iron hand of Rome rules, to the detriment of any and every religious faith antagonistic to that of the Roman system.
PROPHETIC FORESIGHT POINTED IT OUT
Prophetic foresight pointed out this latter-day hazard, centuries ago, as witnesses Rev. 13: 7, 8, 11-17; 14: 9-12, and other references which might be cited. Worship of Jehovah in its truest sense is the demand of the present hour, because of the fact that the entire world now stands on the verge of the Judgment, when each individual must meet the record of his life. Rev. 14: 6, 7. Verse 12 of the same chapter points out that the standard of loyalty in such a time is “the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Who will be prepared to stand the soon coming onslaught of the papal power as set forth by the living prophetic word of God? J. O. C.
Focusing the Sun of Righteousness
By J. E. F.
WHEN a boy, I often played with a sunglass. What a marvel that I could burn holes through paper, and light shavings, with the sunglass, by focalizing the sun’s rays! Those rays were mine; and though but a lad, I had the great luminary at command. But other boys did the same; and had there been thousands of boys with their sunglasses, each could have made the sun do duty at pleasure. Each could personalize the sun, and that great light be none the less. God has also set the great refulgent light, the Sun of Righteousness, in the heavens, and each one can focus His blessed rays, to burn away the dross, dispel the darkness, and warm the soul. J. E. F.
QUESTION CORNER
By Milton C. Wilcox
CONDUCTED BY MILTON C. WILCOX, MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA
NOTE.—This department is for the purpose of helping Bible students. Answers must of necessity be brief, often only suggestive, never exhaustive, never infallible; only as they agree with the infallible Word. Such questions only will be answered as seem to the editors to minister to the mission of the paper. Questions of the same import cannot be answered repeatedly in the same volume. Name and address must be given, not for publication, but as evidence of good faith and to insure reply by letter if thought best. It is well always to inclose stamp, not stamped envelope, unless answer is desired by letter alone.
200 — RULERS IN EUROPE
Will you please tell me how the rulers of England, Russia, Germany, and the other warring nations are related? G. E. G.
This Question Corner is too limited to give the long line of genealogy necessary to show how the rulers of Europe are related. If you will look in the “World Almanac” for 1915, pages 498 to 502, you will get some idea of how it is. This would probably fill two pages of our paper. The “World Almanac,” however, which can be purchased for 25c, contains not only this information, but a vast amount of other information. Address the New York World, New York City.
Just to quote one paragraph from Germany: William II, German emperor and king of Prussia, was born January 27, 1859; succeeded his father, the emperor Frederick III, June 15, 1888. He married the Princess Augusta Victoria, of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (born 1858), and has had issue: 1. Frederick William, crown prince, born May 6, 1882; married June 6, 1905, to Duchess Cecile of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and has four sons: William Frederick, born July 4, 1906; Louis Ferdinand, born November 9, 1907; Hubert, born September 30, 1909; and Frederick, born December 19, 1911. 2. William Eitel-Frederick, born 1883; married February 27, 1906, Princess Sophie Charlotte, of Oldenburg. 3. Adalbert, born 1884; married in August, 1914, Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen. 4. August, born 1887; married his cousin, Princess Alexandra Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, 1898; issue, one son, Alexander Ferdinand, born December 26, 1912. 5. Oscar, born 1888; married morganatically Countess Ina Marie von Bassewitz, August, 1914. 6. Joachim, born 1890. 7. Victoria Louise, born 1892; married May, 1913, to Prince Ernst August, of Cumberland, duke of Brunswick; issue, a son, Prince Ernst August, born March 18, 1914.
It is almost impossible to retain in one’s mind, unless one is used to that sort of thing, the relationships and inter-relationships of all the royal families of Europe.
201 — THE FOUR LIVING CREATURES
I am desirous of enlightenment regarding the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders in Revelation 4. W. M.
It is impossible to give, in this department, a complete explanation of Revelation 4; for it involves also the two chapters that follow. We do not understand that the living creatures are so many different “beasts,” or living organisms. “Beast” is an utterly wrong translation. “Living ones,” or “living creatures,” is much better. It seems clear to us that they represent four different companies, or armies, of God’s messengers, or angels. These angels are arranged in the form of a lion, a man, an eagle, and an ox.
Human beings often combine so as to form very striking things. For instance, we have a photograph, in our office, of a big battleship of England in Chinese waters, in which the soldiers were so arranged on the side of that ship as to spell out, “God save the king.” At a distance, they do not look like soldiers at all. They are simply white letters against a dark ground. Children are arranged sometimes in vast companies, spelling out the word “Welcome.” Sometimes great companies have been arranged in the form of a cross—a white cross upon a dark ground.
These angels are represented in the form of these various creatures, because of the symbolism expressed in these creatures. For instance, a lion indicates courage and power. It is the king of beasts. The ox represents strength and patience. It is the most patient of all domestic animals, and is often used in sacrifice. The eagle is the king of birds. It represents glory. Man represents wisdom. So in God’s working, there is power and patience and glory and wisdom.
This seems to be indicated also by the fact that these cherubim, so called, change their form. They are represented in Revelation 4 as each having six wings full of eyes round about. In Ezekiel 1 and 10, they are said to have four wings. In Isaiah 6, they are again represented as having six wings. In Ezekiel, all four of the symbols are combined in each one. Each one had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, etc. But in Revelation 4, each one had but one face. This would indicate that they changed in different times and in different ages.
Tradition tells us that when the children of Israel went out of Egypt, each one had his own ensign, and all the tribes pitched under four different ones. That is, all Israel pitched under the four tribes of Judah, Ephraim, Dan, and Reuben. The ensign of Judah was a lion, the ensign of Reuben a man, of Ephraim an ox, and of Dan an eagle. God has used the same symbols. The tribes doubtless got them from the heavenly symbols, which show God’s great care and protection for His people, His power and wisdom in His own work, and assure His own children that heavenly beings are interested in carrying forward that work to ultimate and glorious triumph.
“Full of eyes round about” would indicate that they are made up of many individuals. When we look at an audience, one of the most striking things we see is the eyes. When we meet one of our fellow men face to face, we look at the eyes. Naturally these four great armies, or companies, made up in the form that they were, consisted of thousands of angels, and the one thing that impressed the prophet was the eyes.
Angels do not always appear, however, in this form. Sometimes they take other forms. When God’s prophet Elijah was taken into heaven, he was seen by Elisha. There came a chariot of fire, which took Elijah up into heaven; and Elisha, when he saw it, said, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.” Therefore we read in Ps. 68:17, “The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels.”
The twenty-four elders of the fourth chapter of Revelation are evidently those who assist our Lord in His ministration. They answer to the twenty-four courses of priests spoken of in 1 Chronicles 24. There are doubtless thousands who have been removed from this earth, and who were taken to heaven when our Lord ascended. See Matt. 27:51-53 and Eph. 4:8. The first scripture declares that when our Lord died, many graves were opened; and that after His resurrection, many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep arose. Paul tells of their ascension,—that “when He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive,” or “a multitude of captives.” John saw that those in heaven, or at least some of them, assisted our Lord in His priestly work.
The opening of the little book is the opening of the gospel. The opening of the various seals is the development of the work of the gospel in the world.
These things have been covered at various times in the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, the last, we believe, in 1912; and a series of articles by J. Vuilleumier, to begin the first of 1916, will quite fully present an explanation of these important prophecies of Revelation.
202 — MOSES AND ELIJAH
Would you please explain how Moses and Elijah could appear to Peter, James, and John on the mount of transfiguration after they had been dead and buried? W. H. M.
In the first place, it could not be said of both Moses and Elijah that they had been dead and buried, for Elijah never died. We have an account of his translation in 2 Kings 2:11, 12. He was therefore translated without seeing death.
You will get a better idea of the meaning of the mount of transfiguration by reading what comes just before it. In Mark 9:1 Jesus said, “Verily I say unto you, There are some here of them that stand by, who shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God come with power.” Then follows the account of the transfiguration, in which Peter, James, and John were with Jesus. Now, in the kingdom of God, there will be two classes of the Lord’s people in the beginning, those who have died through the ages of the past, who will then be raised from the dead, and those living when the Lord comes, who will be translated without seeing death. This is set forth in 1 Thess. 4:13-17, also in 1 Cor. 15:51-53.
The transfiguration was an epitome, or a miniature representation, of the kingdom of God.
Moses was there representing those who would be raised from the dead. Jude 9 seems clearly to indicate that Moses was raised from the dead. We read, “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.’” Now Michael the Archangel is Christ, the chief of all the angels. After Moses died, he was raised from the dead. The One who came to call him to life was Michael, or our Lord in His angelic form. Satan contended that Moses belonged to him, because of having sinned. Michael did not attempt to argue the question with him at all, but simply said, “The Lord [the Father] rebuke thee.” We certainly must know that He was victor, and that the body of Moses was raised from the dead as the result of Michael’s mission.
We have already learned that Elijah did not die. He was on the mount of transfiguration representing those who should be taken to heaven without tasting death. Therefore, on that mount of transfiguration we have our Lord. He is glorified as He will be when He comes again. We have Moses, one who was raised from the dead with the power of God. We have Elijah, one who was translated by the power of God, without seeing death. Therefore we have the substance of the kingdom itself.
Peter refers to this in his second epistle, the first chapter: “For we did not follow cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory, when there was borne such a voice to Him by the Majestic Glory, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; and this voice we ourselves heard borne out of heaven, when we were with Him in the holy mount.” Verses 16-18, A. R. V.
Certainly this is conclusive. Peter saw the majesty of Jesus, heard the voice of God, saw types of the subjects of the kingdom in Moses and Elijah. Their appearance on the mount of transfiguration showed that they were both alive, and they were there for the specific purpose of witnessing to the coming of the kingdom of God. The record also clearly indicates that they were there to conduct our Lord, for they talked with Him over the death which He would suffer in Jerusalem. See Luke 9:30, 31. It was therefore not the soul of Moses and the soul of Elijah that appeared on the mount, but Moses and Elijah actually, and in their glorified bodies, as all will be after the general resurrection.
203 — TO BRING BACK HIS SOUL FROM THE PIT
Please explain Job 33:30. Shall we come back from the grave to be enlightened when we have once departed this life? J. H. D.
The text does not indicate this. It simply means that God brings back men from terrible affliction, when it would seem that they were lost, as in the case of Job. Read the context just before as to how God delivers men. They seem to be on the utter brink of destruction, and then God brings them back, that they may be enlightened. That is what Elihu wanted Job to understand, so that he might be enlightened.
SANITARIUM COOKING OIL
“The Oil of Quality”
Pure Cotton Seed Oil direct from refinery. Sweet, wholesome, and delicious.
Large olives, excellent quality, five eighths of an inch to three fourths of an inch, 50-gal. bbl., 55c per gal.; 25 gal. @ 65c; 5 gal. @ 70c; 1 gal. 80c. Canned for keeping through summer in 1-gal. and 5-gal. cans, 10c extra per gal. In one quart cans, $3.00 per doz. One half to five eighths of an inch, 10c less per gal. The fruit is choice grade. Peaches 5½c; figs 5½c; raisins 10c; prunes 8½c; apricots 11c; apples 9c; peanuts 9c, roasted 11c, skinned and salted 20c; almonds 15c and 18c; walnuts 18c; extra fine pure honey, light, gal. $1.00, five gals. $4.00. Satisfaction guaranteed.
A. E. Crist, Chico, California.
The Three Best Ways to and from California
The Overland Route via Ogden
The Overland Limited
Extra Fare Train
The Pacific Limited
The San Francisco Express
All Making Less than Three Days to CHICAGO
“The Sunset Route”
Via the Elegant Sunset Limited
Three Days to New Orleans
Connecting with Palatial Southern Pacific Steamers, or Trains for the East
“The Shasta Route”
Through the beautiful Shasta Region, through Portland and the North
All protected throughout with automatic block signals. Inquire of any agent, or
C. S. Fee, Passenger Traffic Manager
Flood Building, San Francisco
SOUTHERN PACIFIC
HAVE YOU ARRANGED FOR TERRITORY?
A large number of persons are already taking orders for the Home Workers’ books. Others who are planning to go out should arrange with their tract society secretaries at once for territory and supplies. Fleeting time calls for prompt action.
The present season promises to be the best on record for books of the character of the Home Workers’ set. People are appreciating more and more the need of clean, wholesome books for young, impressionable minds, and will give warm welcome and consideration to persons selling them.
This year’s prospectus is similar to the one used last year. A few new books — better sellers, perhaps — have been substituted for some that were carried heretofore. Your old prospectus can be used again by having it brought down to date.
To interested persons who do not fully understand the plan under which these books are sold, we would suggest that they write to their tract society secretary (see list of representatives on page 15), and ask for a free copy of “ALICE GOES TO WORK.” This short, interesting story tells of some actual experiences of workers, and contains helpful selling hints, also sufficient other information for the beginner. Free to all applicants.
PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING ASSN. MOUNTAIN VIEW CALIFORNIA
