The power of God revealed through Christ, who is “the Lord our Righteousness,” is the central thought and the hope of the Gospel. Compare Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 1:24; Jer. 23:6, and Col. 1:27. This power of God was first revealed through Christ, before the entrance of sin, and so before there was need of a Gospel of salvation in the creation of the world. “All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made.” John 1:3, R. V., margin. “The hand of inspiration writes the name of Jesus where artists put theirs, beneath all things in heaven and on earth, visible or invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers.” See Col. 1:16.
Creative Power.
It was through Christ that God spake the world into existence. Ps. 33:6-9. God in Christ said, “Let there be light,” and it was in Christ and through Christ that he issued the ten creative commandments as recorded in the first chapter of Genesis. So it was God in Christ who “rested on the seventh day from all his work,” and it was God in Christ who “blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work.” Gen. 2:2, 3. Thus at the very beginning, and before sin entered into the world, God in Christ “made his wonderful works to be remembered,” or “hath made a memorial for his wonderful works.” Ps. 111:4. Since sin appeared in the world, this same power of God which had been revealed through Christ unto creation, has been revealed “unto salvation,” and he who had been the agent in creating became the agent in redeeming the world and man. It requires creative power to redeem, and the redemption of man is simply carrying out God’s original purpose in his creation, as expressed in the words, “Let us make man in our image.” It is for this reason that redemption is spoken of as a creative work. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” Eph. 2:10. So David prayed, “Create in me a clean heart.”
Converting Power Is Creative Power;
and unless creative power be displayed, there can be no genuine conversion, and hence no salvation. But creative power, which is redeeming power, is the mark of divinity. For this reason our attention is called to “the things that are made” as being evidences of “his eternal power and Godhead [divinity, R. V.]” Rom. 1:20. But Christ is “the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:24), and in Christ “dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9); therefore it follows that the power revealed in creating and upholding all things is abundant proof of the divinity of Jesus Christ, who is the agent through whom all this has been, and is, wrought. Thus a ground of confidence is established that “he is able to save” by the fact that we have before us continually the evidences of his divine power.
The Sabbath a Sign.
When God embodied in his law the Sabbath which he had established at creation, he thus stated the basis upon which this institution rested: “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Ex. 20:8-11. The Sabbath is therefore designed to call our attention to the Creator. It is his memorial. But we have already learned that God created the heavens and earth through Jesus Christ; therefore it was Jesus Christ who rested on the seventh day, who blessed, hallowed, and sanctified the seventh day; and the purpose of this day, thus blessed, hallowed, and sanctified, is to call the attention of men everywhere to the Creator. But the Creator is Jesus Christ. Therefore, the purpose of the Sabbath is that we may be reminded of the power and the divinity of Jesus Christ. This is made clear by another scripture: “And hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.” Eze. 20:20. But all we can know about God and his character is what is revealed to us in Jesus Christ. So the force of the scripture is this: That ye may know Christ, that thus knowing him, ye may know the Father. So the Sabbath institution is for the purpose of revealing Jesus Christ, of teaching us of his power, of his divinity. And it follows, therefore, that he who observes the seventh day, the day upon which God in Jesus Christ rested, the day upon which God in Christ let his blessing rest, the day which was thus hallowed and sanctified, acknowledges by this act before heaven and earth that he believes in the divinity of Jesus Christ.
The Sabbath is the sign to all the world that Jesus Christ is the divine Son of God; that it is through Christ that the power of God is manifested as it was in creation, when he made the heavens and the earth by the word of his mouth, as it is also in re-creation, or redemption, when we are created anew in Jesus Christ. The power that was manifested through Christ in the creation of the heavens and the earth is the power that is manifested through the same agency, that we may be created anew. And so the Sabbath is the sign, not merely of the power of God manifested through Jesus Christ in the creation of the heavens and earth, but it is also the sign of that power which saves, which redeems. And when we recognize the memorial which God himself has set up as the sign of that power in Jesus Christ, we thereby acknowledge that we believe in the divinity of Christ, and that we believe in the power of God through Jesus Christ unto salvation; that he who created us is also our Redeemer, and that our confidence and our trust for salvation are in the God of the heavens and the earth, who reveals himself to the world in Jesus Christ only.
The Sabbath always has been, and always will be, a sign of the power of God manifested through Christ. There is a striking example of this in the experience of the people of Israel:—
“For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it? Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live? Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched-out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?” Deut. 4:32-34.
This people were delivered by signs and wonders, which were a display of creative power. After the children of Israel had been delivered by such creative power, the Sabbath obligation was repeated, and the Lord said: “And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched-out arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day.” Deut. 5:15.
The Rest of the Sabbath.
The Sabbath rest is a spiritual rest, and it is therefore impossible for one to keep the Sabbath unless Christ, whose presence gives rest, dwells in his heart by faith. Matt. 11:28, 29. Every case of conversion is a display of the creative power of God in calling out of darkness into light; in delivering from the power of darkness, and translating into the kingdom of his dear Son; and the true Sabbath is a sign to every Christian of the creative power that has thus wrought for his deliverance, and which is to uphold him through all his varied experiences as he journeys toward the eternal kingdom. As the Israelites were enabled to keep the Sabbath after they were brought out of Egypt, so the Christian, who has been delivered from the bondage of sin, can enjoy the spiritual rest of Sabbath-keeping.
As the presence of Christ at the burning bush made the ground there holy (Ex. 3:4, 5), as the presence of Christ with Joshua made the ground in that place holy (Jos. 5:13-15), as his presence on Mount Sinai made that place holy, so the presence of Christ in the blessing which he has put upon the seventh day, makes that day holy.
What Sabbath-keeping Is.
When it is understood what the Sabbath really is, and Sabbath-keeping is, there is not a person who desires Jesus Christ, there is not a person who longs for the blessings and the rest that are in Jesus Christ, who would hesitate one moment as to what day it is. It is what it is rather than when it is that we must consider, because when we study what it is, we shall at the same time find out in the most emphatic way when it is. God in Christ has blessed the seventh day and no other day. He blesses man upon every day, but he has blessed only one day, and that is the seventh day. So when man, upon whom the blessing of God already rests, comes to the seventh day, upon which a blessing rests, there are two blessings, and both of them for man; and so it is possible upon the seventh day of the week to enjoy a blessing which can not be enjoyed upon any other day, because it is not there. There is only one day on which we can keep the Sabbath; there is only one day that has the blessing of the presence of Christ in this way.
Thus the Sabbath is the sign on God’s part of his power in Christ to create anew those who accept him, and, on our part, the keeping of the true Sabbath is the outward sign of our trust in God’s power in Christ for salvation from sin and our rest in him. No one who observes the true Sabbath in the true meaning of it, can ever turn away from Jesus Christ. It is the constant acknowledgment of his belief in the divinity, the authority, the saving power, and saving grace of Jesus Christ. As there has never been any change in “the power of God unto salvation,” as Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, yea, and forever (Heb. 13:8), so there has never been any change of the true Sabbath, which is the sign of this power in Christ. Our hope can be well founded only when it is founded in Jesus Christ. And the Sabbath of the Lord, the seventh day, the6day instituted by Christ himself, blessed by him, sanctified by him, hallowed by him, is the sign to every Christian of his power to save. True Sabbath-keeping is the measure of his Christian experience, his growth in grace, and his knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Receive Jesus Christ, the only Saviour, and receive his Sabbath, the sign of what he is to every one who believes in him.
W. W. PRESCOTT.
BLIND LEADERS OF THE BLIND.
By M. E. Kellogg
On one occasion, when Christ was questioned by certain ones upon the subject which involved the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, he prefaced his reply to their question by saying, “Ye know not the Scriptures, neither the power of God.” This first statement, “Ye know not the Scriptures,” is an explanation not only of the errors into which they fell, but also the errors into which thousands are falling continually. The writer once had a conversation with a chance acquaintance, a student in the college preparing for the ministry. In the course of our conversation we spoke of prophecies in the Scriptures which predict an apostasy in the church, and the rise of the man of sin, or of the Papacy,—things which we had at that time supposed were thoroughly understood by every Protestant student, especially those who were preparing for the ministry. He replied that he did not know anything about that matter, for he had not yet studied theology. Really, it was not necessary for him to study theology to know this; a study of the Bible would have made it clear to him.
The same dependence upon theology and neglect of the Bible is responsible for the numerous errors which are believed and advocated from thousands of pulpits. In relation to the great questions of religion it is seldom asked, What does the Bible teach? but, What is taught in this college or that university?—in a word, theology, and not the Scriptures, settles these questions, and often with very little reference to the Bible.
But one may ask, Do not theologians study the Bible?—Certainly they do. They study it very intently and often to find something to prove a theory which they have embraced. Go back to the day of Christ’s first advent. The Jews whom Christ charged with not knowing the Scriptures were very diligent students of those same Scriptures. Those Scriptures contained a prophetic declaration of Christ’s birth, descriptions of his character, work, teachings, sufferings, and death. But the Jews did not see these things. Why?—Because they had imbibed a wrong idea of his coming. They had a theory of their own; they looked for a Messiah to come in glory and power, to subdue their enemies, and to exalt Israel above the nations. Bound up in this theological theory so pleasing to them, and believing that all the glorious things predicted of the reign of the Messiah were to be fulfilled in connection with the Jewish nation upon his manifestation as the Messiah, their eyes were shut, their ears closed, and their hearts obdurate to any other ideas than those they had adopted. They read the Scriptures, but they knew them not, and in their blindness they fulfilled them in rejecting and crucifying their Saviour. “For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him.” Acts 13:27. That failure to understand God’s word, and fulfilling prophecy, marked the close of one of the great epochs in the history of God’s dealings with men. As we look back at it, we see a sacked and burning city, a broken and scattered nation, and, above all, we hear a voice which declares, “Your house is left unto you desolate.”
More than eighteen hundred years have passed away since this disastrous experience, and again we are approaching, not an epoch, but the epoch,—the end of all things,—and it becomes us to inquire whether it is possible that the Christian world of to-day have not some theory of their own which they are holding as tenaciously as did the Jews of old. We submit evidence that this is the case. To-day the theory of the world’s conversion, and a good time coming, before the advent, is quite generally believed, and, indeed, with many, the second advent of Christ, so fully described in the Scriptures, is explained away as meaning nothing but a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. As an illustration of the common teaching upon this subject, the rosy hue which our latter-day popular teachers are trying to cast upon the future, we here insert the closing part of an article from the Union Signal, organ of the W. C. T. U., written by Frances E. Willard, the president of the organization. Let it be clearly understood that we would not speak a disparaging word of this lady, or decry her work in all rightful lines. But when a theory is put forth by one in so responsible a position as she holds which we feel confident is well calculated to lull souls to sleep, and close the eyes of thousands to imminent danger, duty suggests that that danger be pointed out. The following is the passage referred to:—
For my part I believe the world will progress until time and space will be practically annihilated. We shall know each other’s thoughts by telepathy; we shall live as one great family; we shall have control of the weather and everything else, all of which our heavenly Father is only waiting to give us until we have the wit to manage it. We shall pay attention to the lower animals, and teach them to talk, and shall bring them up to a high plane; we shall find in records now unknown the history of the past, and shall know a hundred things about it where we now know one. We shall gain communication with the stars, and in time be able to travel through the ether from one to another. The world will be surrounded by a railroad, but only for purposes of freight, even as we now use the canal, that was once considered the grand highway. The flying machine will have attained such perfection that every person will be individually capable of ranging at his own sweet will through the air, even as the swiftest birds do now. There will be no desert place on the earth, but by means of irrigation the waste places will be made to blossom as the rose.
It will then be no distinction to be a genius, for everybody will have reached a height greater than has yet been attained by the greatest who ever lived, both in beauty, intelligence, inspiration, and goodness.
We shall traverse the depths of the sea and heights of the air as readily as we now do the surface of the earth.
We shall no longer believe only, but shall absolutely know that we are immortal, and that the future is to be occupied by us in journeying from life to life, from star to star. “The powers of the world to come” will rest upon us, and we shall be in conscious communication with our translated relatives and friends. We shall know that “the kingdom of God is within us,” and that “in him we live and move and have our being.”
This whole statement might be dismissed with one remark,—It appears like a chimerical fancy of an unbalanced mind. But, considering the position and influence of the author, this would not do. So the position will be examined more minutely. Notice that it is all based on “I believe.” No word of God is brought forward as a foundation of this tremendous structure of curious hopes. Take the first statement,—we shall progress until we shall be as “one great family,”—and compare it with the Scriptures as to what the condition of the world will be in its latest phase.
Read the following scriptures: Matt. 24:37–51; Luke 17:26–30; 21:25–36; 1 Thess. 4:16–18; 5:1–3; 2 Tim. 3:1–5; 2 Peter 3:1–5; 2 Thess. 1:7–10. These scriptures, and many others which might be cited, teach that wickedness will increase until the end of the world; that there will be a “peace and safety” cry; that the last days will be days of especial danger; that the coming of the Lord will be denied; that his coming will be sudden, unexpected; and that at his coming destruction falls upon the wicked, and that the saints are “caught up” to be with Christ. Thus there is no progress taught, but it is taught that we are drifting onward on an evil tide unto a fearful ending, compared to which the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the Jewish age was a small thing.
Passing by the teaching of animals to talk, gaining communication with the stars, traveling through the ether from sphere to sphere, and the statement that “everybody will have reached a height greater than has yet been attained by the greatest that ever lived, both in beauty, intelligence, inspiration, and goodness,” all of which are diametrically opposed to the Scripture passages above referred to, we notice the most astonishing statement of all, one which seemingly betrays an entire ignorance of the Scriptures: “We shall . . . know that we are immortal,” shall “journey from life to life [whatever that may mean],” and we “shall be in conscious communication with our translated relatives and friends.” All this reached by progression in our present state! Paul tells us that we shall put on immortality at the coming of Christ, and then both the saints living and the resurrected dead will be caught up together to be forever with the Lord. 1 Thess. 4:16, 17; 1 Cor. 15:51–54. But this popular teacher “believes” that we shall be immortal while in a different condition from our “translated relatives and friends.”
This last expression shows that the writer has no idea of the difference between death and translation. But there is a vital difference. If we “believe” the Bible, we are assured that but two persons, Enoch and Elijah, were ever translated. Those living in holiness at Christ’s second coming will also be translated. Some others, like Moses, and other unknown (to us) persons who were raised at the resurrection of Jesus, are in heaven. But the great mass of the saints sleep in Jesus, waiting the voice of the Lifegiver. There will be no communion between us and the translated until we are all translated at the coming of Christ. There is a strong suggestion of Spiritualism in this idea of communion with translated friends. Indeed, the communion with what purports to be the spirits of the departed is the very essence of Spiritualism; and all such communions are condemned by the Scriptures of both the Old and New Testaments.
Any one can believe all this if they want to, but would it not be better to believe what the Bible says upon these subjects, instead of erecting a theory and trying to believe that? Such teaching is paving the way for a general rejection of the doctrine specifically taught in the Scriptures in regard to the coming of Christ and the end of all things; and a belief of theories having no support in the Scriptures, deceptive in their nature, which are best described in the words of Paul when, having referred to those who “received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved,” he says, “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”72 Thess. 2:10–12. God’s word is the truth. Whatever is contrary to that word is a lie, and the belief of a lie leads to destruction and death. May God help us to cling to his word, for surely thousands of teachers (2 Tim. 4:3, 4) are themselves in darkness,—blind leaders of others as blind as they, and repeating over again the same terrible blunders of the Jews, who chose to believe their own theories instead of the word of God.
M. E. KELLOGG.
THE FREE MORAL AGENCY OF MAN.
By G. T. Wilson
By the word “moral,” we are to understand that which pertains to “intentions and actions, of which right and wrong are predicted.” And morals have to do with our relationship to our Maker and our fellow-creatures. So man is a moral being, and his actions are weighed in the balances of his Creator by the standard of God’s universal moral law. All men are accountable to him in their intentions and actions.
God is love, and he intends that man shall be ruled by that blessed principle in all his thoughts and acts; for he says: “He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love.” “We love him, because he first loved us.” “And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.” Then to love the Sovereign of the universe with all the powers he has given us, and to love our neighbor as ourselves, are the moral duties he requires of all his intelligent creatures, who can know and comprehend his holy will. That will is expressed in the moral law, the Ten Commandments, for God said to the Jew to whom he gave the written law on tables of stone, “Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, and knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law.” The will of God is therefore expressed in his law, and in it is made known “the whole duty of man.” Eccl. 12:13.
The blessed moral code is the briefest expression of the character of Jehovah, who is love, and on the two great principles of this law, love to God and love to man, “hang all the law and the prophets.”
All the actions and intentions of all God’s intelligent creatures are either moral or immoral as compared with the moral law.
We, of course, know that in a commonly accepted sense, morality is outward conformity of action to the civil law, or to the accepted rules of the majority in society; but this may leave, yea, does leave, the thoughts, which are the real index of our character, untouched. A man may think impurely, hate his fellow-men intensely enough to murder, covet the property of others enough to want to steal, but the fear of punishment may restrain him from doing these. Will any candid person say that such a man is strictly moral, according to the strictest use of the word “moral”? Webster says of morality, it is “the conformity of an act to the divine law, or the principles of morals.”
We use the word not as meaning simply civility, but as meaning the entire conformity of our lives to God’s perfect law of morals, the Ten Commandments. True morality, then, is righteousness, and we are unable to bring our lives into harmony with perfect righteousness until we are born again, born of the Spirit, from above. Christ alone has power to make and keep any man truly moral.
“All unrighteousness is sin,” and sin is immorality in that it is not conformable to God’s holiness. Morality is therefore righteousness. All men are active agents of morality or immorality in its strictest sense; and we all either gather with Christ or scatter from him. We are either the children of God or the children of the wicked one; for, said our Saviour, “Ye can not serve God and mammon.” We become the children of God by faith. “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin,” and sin is immorality in God’s sight. The leader of immorality is Satan. The leader of true morality is Jesus Christ. If we are of Christ, we will do his works, as it is written, “He that doeth righteousness [morality] is righteous, even as he [Christ] is righteous.” We are the servants of that power which we obey. “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness.” Rom. 6:16.
We are free to choose our masters,—to choose good or evil, life or death; to choose Christ as our master, or Satan. God will not compel us to choose eternal life, nor force us to be lost. We may become the agents of just that power we choose to obey. So God says: “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil.” “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live; that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him; for he is thy life.” Deut. 30:15, 19, 20. Again he has said, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve” (Joshua 24:15); and again: “How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him” (1 Kings 18:21). “I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God; wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye” (Eze. 18:32).
But God compels no one to come to him, or to choose eternal life. He pleads for all to come, and complains of some, “Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life.” From these words, it is evident that all men are left free to make their choice of masters, and are therefore free moral agents, at least so far as their relationship to their Creator is concerned. Of course he will bring them to judgment for the violation or infringement of his law, if they do not repent, but God does not compel any one to serve him. He entreats, beseeches, and by love’s most bewitching means, tries to win souls to come unto him and receive everlasting life, but compels no person to make the choice of life.
The moral Governor of the universe alone has the right to condemn for disobedience those souls who have trampled down his laws, and so we hear him say to mankind, “There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy; who art thou that judgest another?” James 4:12. This great Lawgiver asks of those who have appointed themselves as moral governors of their fellow-men, in earthly governments, and have condemned those who did not come up to their ideas of what is required in religious morals: “Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth; yea, he shall be holden up; for God is able to make him stand.” “But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at naught thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another any more.” Rom. 14:4, 10–13. “So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.” James 2:12, 13. “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” Matt. 7:2.
Said the Christian Statesman of Oct. 2, 1884:—
Enforce upon all who come among us the laws of Christian morality.
And said Rev. M. A. Gault, a district secretary of the National Reform Association, U. S. A.:—
Our remedy for all these malific 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.
At a Woman’s Christian Temperance Union Convention, held at Augusta, Wisconsin, Oct. 24, 1888, the following preambles and resolution on the subject of morality were passed:—
WHEREAS, God would have all men honor the Son, even as they honor the Father; and,
WHEREAS, The civil law which Christ gave from Sinai is the only perfect law that will secure the rights of all classes; therefore,
Resolved, That civil government should recognize Christ as the moral Governor, and his law as the standard of legislation.
And so these self-constituted moral reformers are determined to set themselves, or others in their place, to act as moral governors, and to thus usurp the place which belongs alone to God as the moral Governor of mankind, taking their interpretation of God’s law as the standard of morality, and judging men accordingly. God will ask at last, “Who hath required this at your hands?” “Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant?” It is the same spirit which reigned in the breasts of the princes of Darius’ court, in Daniel’s day, when they said of him, because he did not conform to the will of the majority in matters of religion, “We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.” Dan. 6:5.
But how about these lawmakers setting themselves in the place of God, and usurping his rights and authority, and making laws to compel his servants to break Jehovah’s law to obey their laws? Our Saviour tells us the reason that men put themselves in the place which belongs alone to the Lord, and persecute those not of the majority’s way of doing and thinking, or who do not act as the rulers think they should in matters of religion. He says: “If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my sayings, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not Him that sent me.” John 15:20, 21. “They shall put you out of the synagogues; yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.” John 16:2, 3.
This statement of Scripture is very important, for it tells us that the reason men persecute those who are serving God differently from themselves is that they do not know God, the Father, nor his Son, Jesus Christ. They are entire strangers to the Spirit of God and to the Gospel of his salvation. Human laws have never yet made one Christian, or saved a single soul from eternal ruin; why then should men be so eager to force others to bend to their religious dogmas and practices? G. T. WILSON.
Impression Bay, Tasmania.
Saved From Sin, Not In Sin
JESUS saves from sin, not in sin; and “sin is the transgression of the law.”
CHRIST THE LIVING WORD.
By C. P. Bollman
In the first chapter of the Gospel by John, we are told that “in the beginning was the Word,” that “the Word was with God,” and that “the Word was God.” By this Word “all things were made,” “and without him was not anything made that was made.” That this Word was Christ we learn from verse 14, wherein it is declared that “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.”
The writer used to wonder why the Son of God was called the Word. A word is an expression of a thought, and how, thought I, can one in human form be denominated the Word. But it is all plain now; he is called the word because he is the expression of the thought of the Father.
God has revealed himself to man in various ways; first in creation: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork.” But fallen man failed to read aright the character and will of the Creator, in the earth, the sea, the sky, or even in the vast expanse of the heavens set with blazing suns, garnished with twinkling stars, and beautified with habitable planets destined to be the homes of holy, happy beings who should “know God and enjoy him forever.” “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,” and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
And then God gave up some to these delusions, but not all; he spoke by prophets, giving his written word—the Scriptures, concerning which the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, “From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”
This written word revealed the same God whose glory the heavens so eloquently proclaim. The entrance of sin had, it is true, given occasion for an expression of love and mercy not easily discernible in the material creation, but it was simply the unfolding of the divine character; the same benevolence which planted a garden in Eden and beautified it with everything pleasant to the eye, and enriched it with every tree the fruit of which was pleasant to the taste and good for food, moved God to give “his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
But centuries of sin and alienation from God had so blunted the finer sensibilities of man, had so blinded his spiritual sight, that even God’s written word did not enable him to comprehend the depth of the divine love, the beauty of the divine character, the breadth of the divine law, the purpose of the divine Being; and then God spoke “unto us by his Son,” not merely as he had spoken by the prophets, but by him and in him; for “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,” and as the poet has expressed it,
“In his life the law appears drawn out in living characters.”
“The Word,” God’s will, his purpose, his thought concerning us, “was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory;” that is, in Christ, and nowhere else, man sees revealed the perfect righteousness, the matchless benevolence, the boundless love of the infinite Creator of the universe.
God is just what he is. The name which he proclaimed before Moses (Ex. 33:19 and 34:5, 6) was simply a description of his character. In Christ that character found perfect expression. And as that character is formed within us, we are “made partakers of the divine nature,” and our experience is expressed by Gal. 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
Christ dwells in our hearts by faith (Eph. 3:17), and as “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17), and since Christ is the Word made flesh, to receive the word is to receive Christ; for it is when we abide in him and his words abide in us (John 15:7), we have fellowship with him.
When about to leave the disciples the Saviour said: “I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me; because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, “If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings; and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” And that word brought home to the consciousness by the Spirit of God, received not as the word of man but as the word of God, “which effectually worketh,” is the real presence of Christ; it is Christ within the hope of glory. May God help us to cherish his word.
C. P. BOLLMAN.
A DIREFUL YEAR.
WHILE a multitude of voices are singing of the coming millennium of universal peace and good-will among men, when the war drum will forever cease to beat, and the parliaments of the world shall know no more estimates for war preparations, the sad facts of every day show unmistakably that the prediction of peace, howsoever desirable it may be, is but a fanciful dream, a falsehood of the enemy. Hatred, murder, and wholesale murder—war—is yet in the hearts of men. There were in the United States alone
In 1894 9,800 murders.
In 1895 10,500 murders.
In 1896 10,652 murders.
All of which were known and reported by the Chicago Tribune, in the years named. How many never came to the public are not known. There were but 122 executions of criminals and 131 lynchings, many of them not for murder. In the city of San Francisco alone there were 43 murders during 1896, but not one execution. It would seem by the slow, legal, technical processes of law and decisions of courts that the whole system was devised to favor criminals and give respectability to crime, instead of the purpose of securing justice and protection to life.
Murder exists in the hearts of men; if not in particular9designs against persons, in the natural hatred of the human heart; for “whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.” 1 John 3:15. The various forms of selfishness, ever leading to life-taking, are manifest in the envy and enmity which everywhere exist among rivals for place or profit, in the increasingly brutal athletic contests, in the desire for military glory in state and school and church, in the clamor for war by professed followers of Christ against those nations of earth which in greater degree and less polished way are ignoring the rights of humanity, and in many other ways.
In the days of Noah it was said that “the earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” Gen. 6:11. How much does the earth lack of fulfilling these specifications? How long will it be ere the cup is filled?
What does this indicate?—Just this, in the words of Jesus: “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man” (Luke 17:26); “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matt. 24:37). These things are the signs of Christ’s coming to reign, when sinners will be destroyed with the sin they have chosen, and eternal righteousness shall reign forever more. Christ is coming, and this record of crime is one of the many precursors of his approach.