CHRIST said to the Jews: “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.” Luke 19:42. Then He tells them of the complete destruction that would come on Jerusalem, and gives as a reason for their misfortunes, “Because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.” By the study of the prophetic scriptures, they could have known the things that belonged to their peace and the time of their visitation. But instead of studying the scriptures, the Word says, “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.
Christ had also called attention to the prophecy of Daniel when admonishing them of the destruction that was coming upon them. Matt. 24:15. The people of Jerusalem might have understood this prophecy, but they did not. If the Jews had understood the prophecies relating to the first advent of Christ, they could not have rejected Him as the true Messiah. They could have told the very year the Messiah would come, if they had chosen to do so, by heeding the prophecy of Dan. 9:25. But they did not; therefore they rejected Christ, and finally put Him to death. Such is the fatal result of not seeking to understand prophecy. This was the experience of ancient Israel, and God had their failures “written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” 1 Cor. 10:11. The Lord had the history of ancient Israel written that we, as modern Israel, might take warning and not do the same things. It is for this reason that we are exhorted by the Apostle Peter, to be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets.” 2 Peter 3:2.
It is necessary that we give heed to the prophecies, lest we walk in darkness and fall, as did ancient Israel. The prophecies point to the dangers and calamities which confront us. If we fail to heed the light they give us, we will surely reject the very way the Lord has given to save us.
The Lord designs that His people shall have “understanding of the times” that they might “know what Israel ought to do.” 1 Chron. 12:32. This is one of the Lord’s objects in giving prophecy. For us not to heed the instruction thus given will result disastrously, as the experience of ancient Israel shows.
Christ reproved the people for being so slow to believe what the prophets had spoken: “Then He said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.” Luke 24:25. This scripture shows that it is an obligation to believe and understand the prophecies. Paul said he believed all things which were written in the law and in the prophets. Acts 24:14. Christ preached prophecy. Compare Luke 4:16-21 with Isa. 61:1, 2. Peter preached prophecy on the day of Pentecost. Compare Acts 2:14-21 with Joel 2:28-32. “Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.” 1 Peter 1:11. The verse just before this one refers to the prophets. Then all the prophecies of the Old Testament, as well as those of the New, were inspired by Christ, and are therefore to be studied by Christians.
This experience of ancient Israel is a lesson that should profit us. Their failure was in not giving heed to the prophecies. Shall we take any admonition from their failure? Shall we, like them, by not giving heed to the understanding of the prophecies, fail to “discern the signs of the times” (Matt. 16:3), and not know the things which belong to our peace, nor the time of our visitation, and perish as they perished? God forbid. May God help us to take warning from their failure, and give heed to the prophecies.
Let us heed the exhortation of the apostle to “Despise not prophesyings.” 1 Thess. 5:20.
THE MUSIC OF THE HEART.
By Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler
TRUE piety is the harmony of the soul with God. His will becomes the will of His loving and obedient child; and such a Christian finds his happiness in the chime of his own desires with what God bids him to do. This is the fountain of genuine music of the heart. God's hand is on every string and chord of this wonderful instrument which a loyal believer carries in his or her breast; it is a harp of a thousand strings, and yet they all respond to the same divine touch. The great apostle, in writing to the early Christians, tells them that they must not merely sing, but that they must make “melody in their heart to the Lord.” This signifies the music of the soul; if it be religious music, it must come from a religious heart; it must be the breathing of sincere love and grateful adoration. The most marvelous of all instruments is the harp of the human heart.—Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler.
EVIL THOUGHTS.
By Asa Smith
BY ASA SMITH.
While “Christian” was passing through the “valley of the shadow of death,” one of the evil ones stepped up behind him and whispered many evil thoughts which he verily supposed proceeded from his own mind. It troubled him very much to think he would have such thoughts. He would have avoided them if he could, but he had not the discretion to stop his ears or to know from whence such suggestions came.
Many Christians to-day are troubled very much in the same manner with wrong and foolish thoughts. The evil one suggests many things to the mind which find no sanction or sympathy in the heart.
Circumstances often suggest thoughts which might never have entered the mind. We can not prevent suggestions entering the mind, but we need not retain them. Some one has said, “We can not hinder the birds from flying about our heads, but we can prevent their building nests in our hair.” If the evil suggestions find no approval in our hearts, it is evident that they come from without. The sin is not in what comes from without but that which comes from within (Matt. 15:18, 19), prompted by our own evil desires. Satan wants to discourage us, so when we have temptations we may know that he fears he will lose a subject. The best way is to keep our eyes on Jesus.
ONE of the greatest lessons that Christ taught on earth was that concerning the value of character. There is nothing of greater consequence in human life than the character in which that life finds expression. A righteous character is of more consequence than the most stately temples, and far more enduring.
The Jews looked upon their magnificent temple as the greatest thing in the world; but when Jesus had taken up His mission, He declared, “One greater than the temple is here.” That was one of the many things in the mission of Jesus that the Jews as a people could not see. A grand temple, beautiful porticos, ceremonies and ordinances whose meaning they had forgotten, were more to them than anything which the Redeemer of men could offer them. They were unable to yield themselves to this truth, because of their love of tradition and display. So firmly was this trait imbedded in their character that there came a time when their temple service became a thing so dead that God could no longer recognize it as His house. Having rejected Him to their own undoing, having cast Him aside as a thing of less consequence than the dead forms to which they clung, there remained nothing for them but the thing they had chosen. So the voice was heard, when the Redeemer had been crucified, “Your house is left unto you desolate.” The veil that had separated the “holy” from the “most holy” was rent from top to bottom to show them that God no longer recognized their “most holy place” as His dwelling-place. He speaks of it now, not as “My house,” or “My temple,” but as “your house;” and now holding nothing but dead ritualism and display, the substance gone and only the shadow remaining, it is indeed desolate.
This is the lesson for every soul in the building of the human temple. Christ declared to one company of His hearers that they were “whited sepulchers,” painted upon the outside to represent pureness, but on the inside full of corruption and dead men’s bones. It was His mission in this world to provide a way whereby souls, of whom even that terrible statement could be made, might be transformed into living temples of the Holy Spirit. Of those who have surrendered themselves to Christ to be moulded and fashioned after His likeness, it is said, “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?” Such temples are not “desolate,” as the temple of Jerusalem was finally declared to be. The selfish hearts that have been wishing ill to others while they maintained fair exteriors have been making sepulchers of themselves. The entrance of Christ will cleanse these death-breeding places, these habitations of evil, remove the last taint of that defilement which had polluted them, and make them temples which He will recognize as His. There could be no greater transformation. It is the grand triumph of the Gospel work.
It is upon such transformed characters that Heaven at last sets the seal of immortality. To persons bearing such characters there is at last given that “new name” which only God and the recipient know. “To him that overcometh, to him will I give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it.” Rev. 2: 17. Again: “He that overcometh, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out thence no more: and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God, and Mine own new name.” Rev. 3: 12.
Those who have let sin triumph over them and bind them to the things of this earth, who in the choice they make, make it necessary for God to withdraw from them and leave their house unto them desolate, have no part nor lot in the plans of God for eternity. They are cut off as profitless branches, destroyed by the brightness of His coming, they perish as the chaff. That which is of utmost worth they have not chosen. God would have made them “more precious than the golden wedge of Ophir,” more enduring than the pyramids. Instead, they have become as the chaff and the stubble, the dew upon the grass, and the clouds of the summer sky. God wants character. It is the only thing that can stand the test of time, the only thing worthy of perpetuation through eternity; and when we have chosen that and possess that, God sets upon that His seal of endurance. We may have the jewels or the stubble. We may choose that which is of least value and perish with it; or we may choose that which is of the utmost worth and endure with it in the presence of God throughout eternity. We are making our choice every day which it shall be.
BABYLON'S LAST APPEAL TO DANIEL.
THE failure of Babylon's wise men to read the handwriting on the wall, which had mysteriously appeared during the blasphemous feast which King Belshazzar had made for his lords, afforded another opportunity for the manifestation of the wisdom with which God had endowed His servant Daniel. When the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers had publicly acknowledged that they “could not read the writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof,” the queen was moved to refer back to former experiences of a like character. The queen here mentioned was evidently the mother of Belshazzar, he being king in conjunction with his father, who was then absent from Babylon, in command of the army.
The queen assured the king that he need not be troubled in mind because of the failure of his “wise men” to read the writing; it was nothing new for them to fail. She said: “There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of thy father [margin, ‘or grandfather’] light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him; whom the king Nebuchadnezzar thy father [grandfather], the king, I say, thy father, made master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers; forasmuch as an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and showing of hard sentences, and dissolving of doubts, were found in the same Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar; now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation.”
Then Daniel was called, and the king stated to him the situation. It would seem that Daniel had been retired from public office, and in a great measure forgotten at court, as Belshazzar merely says: “I have heard of thee.” He related the fact of the failure of the wise men to read the writing, and made to Daniel the same promise that had been made to them, namely, that he should be clothed in scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and be the third ruler in the kingdom. This was the highest honor that Belshazzar could bestow, for he was himself only the second ruler.
But Daniel did not value the honor of being the third ruler in a kingdom that was about to pass out of existence. So he said, “Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation.” Then the aged servant of God delivered to the young king a stirring rebuke, which contains a most valuable lesson for us all. Had Nebuchadnezzar’s successors heeded the lessons of his experience, and his example in recognizing true wisdom in the administration of governmental affairs, the golden kingdom would not have come to such an inglorious end.
Daniel rehearsed to the king what God had done for Nebuchadnezzar in giving him dominion over all the kingdoms of earth; and when his heart was lifted up with pride he was humbled until “he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever He will.” Then he applied the lesson to Belshazzar in person: “And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this; but hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; . . . and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified: then was the part of the hand sent from Him; and this writing was written.”
The writing was, “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.” And the interpretation was as follows: “MENE: God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. TEKEL: thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. PERES: thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.”
Taken all in all, here was a real Gospel sermon—a proclamation of the true God, and the consequences of rejecting Him. The majesty of the God of heaven, and His wonderful power to give the kingdom of men into whosesoever hands He chose, was eloquently portrayed; together with the blessings attached to obedience of His will, and the futility of all effort to set Him at defiance. Judgment was near to the king and many of his companions in revelry, but the merciful God sent a warning message in advance of the executioner.
Belshazzar must have felt deeply impressed that the reading and the interpretation of the writing were true; for he at least tacitly admitted the fact by bestowing upon Daniel the promised reward. Whether that immediate company were in any way profited by the prophet’s exposition we do not know; but it was put into the sacred Record for the benefit of all who should afterward read it. It is a most remarkable instance of the fulfilment of a remarkable prophecy. In that very night the army of Cyrus found an entrance to the city through the gates which had been unwittingly left open; there was a general carousal in the city, and even the army was off guard. About one hundred seventy-four years before, Isaiah had prophesied: “Thus saith the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut.” Jeremiah also, more than fifty years before, had told of the great fall of Babylon. See chapters 50: 33–37 and 51: 47–58.
So the record says: “In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom.” Thus ignominiously ended the great universal kingdom of Babylon, after a brief career of about sixty-eight years. King Nabonadius being absent from the capital, and King Belshazzar being slain, Daniel, as the “third ruler,” would be the one to enter into any negotiations that might arise. And this would be to the advantage of the captive people of God. And the next chapter shows that Daniel did receive high consideration from King Darius.
THE WITNESS OF THE AGES.
GOD'S witness for all later ages is His written Word. Primarily, it is His voice sounded out from Sinai in His holy law, comprehending all morality, written by His own finger on tables of stone.
This law is a test of all words, all doctrines, all creeds, all teachings, all voices, which come after it.
Are the teachings of any one in harmony with that Word?—Accept them; it is simply truth's witness to truth.
Does a new prophet arise? and does his teaching lead man away from that law?—Then it is false, follow it not. But are his words in harmony with God's voice?—Then it is God's Word confirming God's Word.
So when Christ walked the earth He said that in the closing of the days of persecution in the Dark Ages the sun should be darkened. Nearly eighteen centuries rolled away, and May 19, 1780, the phenomenon occurred just when the Lord said it would.
What was that obscuration of the sun?—It was God's Word in the sky confirming God's Word given through Matthew and Mark. The standard was the written prophetic Word, and when the sun was darkened, God's Word was written again. We know it was God's Word, because it confirmed the written Word. It was not the main witness of truth, but a concurring witness, warning the world, and confirming the hope of the people of God.
"THE COURT OF LAST APPEAL."
An influential religious journal asks the question, “What is the court of last appeal in matters of religion?” and then replies: “To this question three answers have been given. The answer of Rome is, The Roman Church; the answer of Protestantism is, The Scriptures; the answer of those who have recently taken to themselves the name of Liberal Christians is, The individual himself.”
Laying aside all religions excepting the Christian religion as unworthy of serious consideration, the question is, What is the court of last appeal in matters pertaining to the Christian religion? In answer to this question, we have only to ask, To what court did Christ appeal as the ground of faith and action? His testimony is that the Word of God is truth, and through that Word men are to be sanctified. John 17:17. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Matt. 4:4.
To the Jews He said: “Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me; for He wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My words?” John 5:46, 47. To the doubting disciples, after His resurrection, He said: “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken; . . . and beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” Luke 24:25-27. “Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures.” Verse 45.
This was a plain indication that the Scriptures were to constitute the standard of the Christian religion. And the Apostle Paul recognized this fact in his ministry. He commended the people of Berea because, when they had heard his preaching, “they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so.” Acts 17:11. The preaching of the Gospel was the preaching of the Word, and these people searched the Scriptures to see whether Paul had taught them the true doctrine. For this the apostle commended them, thus acknowledging that the Scriptures were “the court of last appeal in matters of religion;” that is concerning the religion that he taught.
Paul further sustains this principle in his instruction to Timothy, hence to all ministers of Christ, when he gives this charge: “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom; preach the Word; . . . for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth [the Scriptures], and shall be turned unto fables.” 2 Tim. 4:1-4.
But some who will concede the argument of scriptural authority to a certain extent, hinge the question of last appeal on interpretation. Here again Rome comes in with a claim for the authority of “the church” as the only true interpreter; and the “liberal” Christian presents his claim to individual interpretation. We concede the right of the individual to interpret for himself, but that does not make his interpretation true; and it is only the truth that will stand the judgment test. The Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation; they are all given by inspiration of God, and are all profitable for doctrine and instruction in righteousness, to the extent that the man of God is thereby thoroughly furnished (2 Tim. 3:15-17); but they can not be privately interpreted (2 Peter 1:20) in a manner profitable for spiritual instruction.
What, then, is the court of last appeal in this regard? When Christ was about to leave the earth, He promised to send the Holy Spirit to be a Comforter of His people, the Spirit of truth to guide into all truth. John 14:15-17, 26; 15:26; 16:12-15. The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” 1 Cor. 2:10-13.
It is natural, however, for the natural man to be wedded to the idea of being himself “the court of last appeal in matters of religion,” for the natural man naturally thinks more highly of himself than he ought to think, and it is impossible for him to lift himself out of that condition. The natural man is prone to deem himself “liberal,” and to think it bondage to adhere closely to the Word of God. His idea of a liberal religion is a religion that suits his own natural inclination. “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
Therefore only those who make the Scriptures of truth “the court of last appeal,” and acknowledge the Spirit of truth as the only infallible guide to an understanding of the Word, can possibly know the things of God. This is made very clear by the Author and Finisher of our faith, and in all matters pertaining to the truth, we are to hear Him. Deut. 18:15; Matt. 17:5; Acts 3:22.
EVERY ONE TO HIS OWN WORK.
The endowment of two men by the Holy Spirit for service does not always mean that they are to do the same work, or to do a like work in the same way. Failing to understand this fact has been the cause of much, if not all, the friction and division and factional bickering that ever has come in to distract the influence and hinder the work of the church. Failing to grasp this fact caused division in the Corinthian church, when one said, “I am of Paul;” another said, “I am of Apollos;” another claimed to be “of Cephas,” and still another “of Christ.” Now all these instrumentalities were endued by the same Spirit, and called to the same general work. But each one’s manner of work differed from the others’, and each had his peculiar style of preaching and of laboring. In the same letter in which Paul rebukes the spirit of controversy and factionalism, he also sets forth the manifold workings of the Spirit in different individuals:—
“Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will.” 1 Cor. 12: 4-11.
Then the apostle, by the Spirit, aptly illustrates the principle by applying it to the human body: “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.” Verse 12. Every member has its special office, or duty, to perform. The tongue can not see, the eyes can not hear. The hands can not walk, nor the feet do the work of the hands, to advantage. God knows the work to which the member is best adapted, then why not trust Him to direct, and to give gifts to every one “as He will.” Then shall I find fault with some one else because he does not work as I do? I am not to say to this brother, “That is not the way I do;” or to this sister, “I always do so and so.” I am not to assume that any work of the Lord is not done right just because it is not done in my way.
Nor am I to endeavor to imitate some other person’s work, or manner of work. One may make a success in the way in which the Spirit leads him, with the gifts with which he is endowed, while another, with different endowment, endeavoring to do a like work, or to work in the same way, would make an utter failure. But the Lord’s people are to work to the one grand end, with the glory of God in view, and His Word for a guide, and the Spirit for interpreter. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might,” remembering always that “it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” When the heart is yielded up to God, He will do through that individual the work which he is qualified to do by the gifts with which he is endued, “according to the measure of faith.” Paul may plant, and Apollos may water, but it is God that gives the increase.
ETERNAL LIFE AND IMMORTALITY.
While eternal life and immortality are often used interchangeably in common parlance, the Biblical distinction between them is clear and distinct. Eternal life is the life principle, the actuating principle, of the child of God. It is, in fact, the life of God operating in harmony with the law of God. Operating in any other way, it is perverted, and death takes its place. Adam had eternal life at first, and as long as Adam believed God, as long as his life was yielded to the law of God, God’s life operated in him normally. Adam possessed by creation and held by faith the life of the Eternal Spirit, or eternal life. When he fell, when he turned from God’s law, no longer yielding to its righteous claims, he lost eternal life, and became a dying man. Now God offers to regenerate the heart of the sinner, and give to him eternal life, if the sinner will only yield to the law of God, so that God may work in him to will and do of His own good pleasure. The yielding to God is faith, and it is not faith if one does not yield. But yielding to God absolutely is the accepting of Jesus Christ and Him alone for salvation. Therefore it is said: “He that hath the Son hath life;” “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life;” and, “These things have I written unto you . . . that ye may know that ye have eternal life.” Thus it is said that the life of Christ is manifest in our mortal flesh, while the wicked are alienated from the life of God. See 2 Cor. 4:11; Eph. 4:18. But, as with Adam, this life is held only by faith. Not till man perfects character under test will he possess eternal life absolutely.
But immortality, or incorruptibility, pertains to the physical man, and is God’s stamp of an incorruptible character, perfected through faith. Or it might be said that it is God’s impress upon that character that had absolutely yielded to His holy law, the law of His life, so that God’s character was developed in it. This development is many times a mere matter of degrees in this world; for many of those who will be saved were comparatively ignorant of all God’s requirements. But they yielded absolutely to all they knew, under test, and God accepted them; and when Christ comes the second time, He will clothe the incorruptible character in incorruptible flesh, never more to know sin or death.
God gives us eternal life, His life, here, that we may develop His character. If we do this, He places upon us the eternal stamp of incorruptibility and deathlessness.
Eternal life is not a natural consequence growing out of the present natural condition. It is a matter of God’s promise, conditioned on faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. John 3:16, 36; Rom. 6:23. What God promises He is “able also to perform.” Rom. 4:20, 21. “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness;” but when this sin-polluted earth shall have been melted “with fervent heat,” and purified from every taint of the consequences of sin, then “we, according to His promise,” shall share in what we look for, “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 2 Peter 3:9–13. “As the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself; and hath given Him authority to execute judgment also.” John 5:26, 27. So in the execution of judgment the Son will give eternal life to whomsoever He will. Verses 21, 22, 28, 29. The condition of such life is stated again in these words: “Being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.” Rom. 6:22.
Honesty in Business
“A false balance is abomination to the Lord; but a just weight is His delight.” Prov. 11:1. This idea was one of the first impressions that came to the mind of a Chinese convert to Christianity. He was a pottery manufacturer at Yuen-chan, and used false balances in buying materials for his work. But on experiencing a change of heart, he immediately corrected his purchasing scales. This is the true Christian principle. It is he that not only confesses but forsaketh his sins that finds mercy. Prov. 28:13.
THE PROTEST WEAKENING.
A FEW years ago, when Protestants were told that the Sunday institution was a creature of the Papacy, that the Roman dignitaries held it up as a mark of papal authority to change even the law of God, they would at least pause and reflect. Some would decide that, if such were the case, they would no longer observe the first day of the week, but would accept the Sabbath which the Lord blessed and sanctified9in the beginning. Now, however, this distrust of things Roman is passing away. The Sunday imitation of God’s memorial day has become so entrenched in the professed Protestant mind that Rome is even accredited with doing a pretty good thing in maintaining the substitute “sabbath” with so much tenacity. The so-called Protestant churches are no longer the outspoken antagonists of Romanism that they used to be. They no longer stand upon the high pedestal of hostility to a religion of works, a position that once gave them prestige and power as the champions of justification by faith in the plain Word of God. They are now reaching across the ever-narrowing chasm to clasp the hand of their old-time enemy, and according her a place of recognition as at least a “branch” of the church of Christ. But in recognizing this Sunday “mark” or badge of Roman authority to change the law of God, Protestants are paving the way for eventually conceding all that Rome claims, namely, that she is the church”—the whole church, the only church, of Christ on earth. The attempt to change the Sabbath, and the recognition of the attempt by professed Protestants, tells the whole story of Roman assumption and Protestant surrender. And the prophecy of Rev. 13:1-14 is being fulfilled in a remarkable manner. There is a decided weakening of the Protestant protest.
THE BREAKING DOWN OF THE PHYSICAL FABRIC.
We see indications on every hand of a deterioration in the physical fabric of the human race in perfect keeping with the moral retrogression so painfully manifest in the world to-day—especially in that part of the world that has long been considered enlightened and civilized.
There is being continually manifest a strong tendency to increase in all the various diseases that have afflicted the race, and diseases that were rarely heard of fifty years ago, or even twenty, are now common. The increase is seen in consumption, in pneumonia, in heart failure, in diabetes, in cancer, hydrophobia, and other diseases, while at the same time the skill of the medical profession is being used to counteract them. The grip has been doing a wonderful work in weakening the race and rendering it susceptible to every kind of disease; and the cigaret and liquor and drug habits are helping the terrible work along in a marvelous way.
A well-known German professor of pedagogics, Professor Hahnel, recently investigated the cases of 7,338 school children between the ages of six and eleven, and found that only a little over two per cent. were ignorant of the taste of strong drink; while over thirteen per cent. admitted having been drunk one or more times. Over eleven per cent. of these children had daily supplies of strong drink given them, and a considerable portion received alcohol in some form every morning before leaving home for school. We have no reason for supposing that this is confined to Germany. The drink evil is increasing among all classes everywhere, and thus there is being formed rich soil for the seeds of all manner of diseases, mental, moral, and physical.
The increase of immorality also is abundantly proven, and is cultivated and propagated by the theater, and the novel in its various forms. In fact, it is quite a question whether novel-reading is not to be blamed for a share in the increase of insanity. It is known to be responsible for some such cases. A young woman, a stenographer, of Syracuse, N. Y., was committed to the insane asylum not long since, whose whole time outside of office hours was given to the reading of sensational novels. A great portion of her time that should have been spent in sleep was devoted to the novel. Her break-down was gradual; but she could not break off the chains of her slavery to that habit. We could cite other cases, but this will illustrate the point.
Concerning the perils that beset the young on every side to snare the feet and turn them into the ways of vice, the Rev. Newell Dwight Hillis, of Plymouth church, Brooklyn, says:—
There was never an age when cities held more temptations and the necessity for safeguarding was greater. There never was an era when there were so many forces gilding sin. We have come to a time when all the places where vice reigns and men appeal to the lower passions are made beautiful.
It is an age when beautiful paintings and stained-glass windows adorn saloons and hotels; when men are hired to write alluring plays; when tunes are made catchy to convey suggestive words; a time when gardens such as those on the way to Coney Island abound, where young men and girls stop at first for a chop or roll, and then for worse. It is easy enough to break through the hedge of innocence. If you could only hear the stories that are told to me. If you ever had to go to pray at the bedside of a dying girl, and heard her curse you with hideous curses for the sin you had heard her confess, you could understand what a pastor sometimes has to hear. Another peril is the tendency of Americans to turn night into day. All the wreckages of life are in the night. Men and women, if you want to ruin your children, turn them loose in the streets at night; give them parties when they are ten or twelve years old; give the boys dress suits, the girls party dresses; teach the latter to count their little lovers before they are twelve; and then God pity the man who marries these unmarried widows at fifteen.
Verily, the race is breaking down in moral as well as physical stamina, and Satan is preparing every possible pitfall to entrap the staggering feet of those whom his devices have made weak and unsteady. It is his last harvest. He has planted diligently, and he is reaping close. He will leave no stone unturned, no trick untried, to compass the destruction of every soul on the earth. The evidence of this moral breakdown is plain, and its portent is ominous. We can not mistake it. The presence of these terrible conditions in the world to-day teaches us that we are in the last days, and that the coming of the Son of Man draws nigh. The question for each one to decide is whether he will be a part of Satan’s harvest or a part of that harvest which Christ will send forth His angels (Matt. 24:31) to gather to Himself out of the tare-strewn and thorn-infested fields of this wicked world.