Earlier text: When the Saviour Shall ComeThe COMMANDMENTS of GOD
By William Mayhew Healey
THEY ARE KEPT BY CHRISTIANS AT CHRIST’S COMING—THEY SUM UP MAN’S WHOLE DUTY
“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” Eccl. 12:13. At the coming of Christ, His people will be performing every duty to God and man; for we read in Rev. 14:12 that they have “the patience of the saints,” and they also have “the faith of Jesus,” and in addition to this, “keep the commandments of God.” The commandments of God, in the days of Solomon, taught the whole duty of man. God has not changed since then, and man’s duty toward Him and toward his fellow man has not varied one iota. But some will possibly say, as we have heard them say, “In our day, we are not saved by the law, but by faith through the gospel.” True. Solomon could not be saved by the law, and did not intimate that he expected to be saved thus. In his day, all who were saved, were saved by faith in Jesus Christ, looking forward through the promises of God to His coming. The commandments of God contain man’s whole duty in all ages. But every sinner has not only wandered away from that path of duty, but he has, by sin, placed himself where he is not able to do his duty. He has lost his power to keep the commandments of God. The law of God “is spiritual,” but the sinner is “carnal,” therefore is unable to obey, or keep, the commandments, “because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Rom. 8:7. The gospel is the way and the means by which we are forgiven for our past neglect of duty, the keeping of the commandments; and it places us where we may do our duty now. It is often said that it is impossible to keep the law of God. God says it is impossible for those who are carnal in heart. The psalmist says: “I will run the way of Thy commandments, when Thou shalt enlarge my heart. Teach me, O Lord, the way of Thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep Thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.” Ps. 119:32-34. PROPER UNDERSTANDING NEEDED
To keep the commandments of God needs a proper “understanding,” and a change of heart, which the psalmist calls enlarging it. Paul calls it changing it from carnal to spiritual. This is done by the Spirit of God dwelling in the mind and heart, in the place of the spirit of the evil one. The sinner who, through faith, comes to Christ and confesses his sin, will receive pardon. Yet it is possible for him to go immediately and break God’s law by again transgressing any one of His commandments. This he may do through a lack of the “understanding” for which the psalmist prayed. In the ages past, many earnest men and women who sought Christ for forgiveness of sin, went right along breaking the law of God, not because the heart was bad, but because they did not have the right “understanding” of the Sabbath commandment. From the “doctrines of men,” they had been taught that the first day of the week, Sunday, was the Sabbath; while the commandment of God said, and still says, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord.” So while they had faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of sin, they did not have the faith of Jesus, because His faith was a faith that was fully informed on all points of the law, and therefore He kept the seventh-day Sabbath. Before probation shall close, when sins of ignorance, like other sins, can not be pardoned, God has provided that His people shall know the truth about the Sabbath. They exclaim, like the psalmist, “Give me understanding, and I shall keep Thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.” It is not the Sabbath alone that God’s waiting people keep, but they “keep the commandments of God” without any exceptions. They not only teach them and believe in them, but they keep them. “The law of the Lord is perfect.” “The law is spiritual.” It is a lamp to our feet, a rule for our lives. It never can be moved or changed. Man changes. In Eden he was in full harmony with the law of God; but sin entered, which is a condition of being out of harmony with God and His law. Man’s only hope was in forgiveness for his sin, and restoration to the path of righteousness and duty. Christ is soon coming. Will He find us with “the patience of the saints,” keeping “the commandments of God,” and believing just what Christ believed, thus having “the faith of Jesus”? “A GOOD character is a capital of more value than gold or silver. It is unaffected by panics or failures, and in that day when earthly possessions shall be swept away, it will bring rich returns. Integrity, firmness, and perseverance are qualities that all should seek earnestly to cultivate; for they clothe the possessor with a power which is irresistible,—a power which makes him strong to do good, strong to resist evil, strong to bear adversity.” “ANY amusement in which you can engage asking the blessing of God upon it in faith, will not be dangerous. But any amusement which disqualifies you for secret prayer, for devotion at the altar of prayer, or for taking part in the prayer-meeting, is not safe, but dangerous.” Declining Church Attendance
By A. Carter
Is religion ceasing to have its former power over human lives? In a recent paper published in Elgin, Illinois, the statement is made that sixteen thousand places of worship in the South are vacant. In another paper—Current Opinion—appears an article on "The Desperate Plight of the Country Church," which refers to a report made by C. O. Gill and Gifford Pinchot. These writers tell of the result of their investigation into the religious conditions as they found them in the states of Vermont and New York. Church attendance had fallen off from thirty-one to fifty-three per cent. In a very large part of the churches of two counties, "the congregations have been decreasing so rapidly and are now so small as to make the conditions and prospects most disheartening to the church-going people." Do facts of this character have any bearing on Christ’s question, "Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" Luke 18:8. IDLENESS is only the refuge of weak minds, and the holiday of fools.—Chesterfield. THE AMBITION OF ROME
By W. A. Colcord
HER HISTORY—A PREDICTION CONCERNING HER—THE WARNING SHOULD BE HEEDED WHEN Daniel, in vision, saw the fourth great universal world power, he saw a great and terrible beast, which “devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it.” Such indeed was Rome in the days of her unity and supremacy as a world empire, strong, overmastering, destructive, inexorable. When the kingdom had been broken into ten parts, represented by the “ten horns” on the symbolic beast, the prophet saw another “little horn” arise amidst the ten, which had “eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.” “MORE STOUT THAN HIS FELLOWS”
Describing this horn still further, the prophet said his look “was more stout than his fellows,” and that he should “wear out the saints of the Most High.” Dan. 7: 20, 25. This likewise pictures Rome, but in its later or ecclesiastical phase, or what is commonly known as papal Rome. When Rome as a united world empire fell, Rome ecclesiastical arose. From the ashes of political and pagan Rome there arose the more extensive and the more ambitious spiritual Rome, the papacy. The seat vacated by the Cæsars was filled by the Roman pontiffs. The seven hills of ancient Rome were still held as the citadel of modern Rome. The dragon had given to the ten horned beast in its “little horn” phase, “his power, and his seat, and great authority.” Rev. 13: 2. Speaking of the conditions which prevailed after the fall of Rome in 476 A. D., the historian Myers aptly says: “The Romans could not forget — never did forget — that they had once been masters and rulers of the world. Even after they had become wholly unfit to rule themselves, let alone the ruling of others, they still retained the temper and used the language of masters. . . . In the absence of an emperor in the West the popes rapidly gained influence and power, and soon built up an ecclesiastical empire that in some respects took the place of the old empire and carried on its civilizing work.”—Myers’s “Rome: Its Rise and Fall,” edition 1900, pages 398, 399, 442, 443. Wylie likewise tells of the transition from pagan Rome to papal Rome in the following graphic language: “With Rome would have fallen her bishop, had he not, as if by anticipation of the crisis, reserved till this hour the master stroke of his policy. He now boldly cast himself upon an element of much greater strength than that of which the political convulsions of the time had deprived him; namely, that the bishop of Rome is the successor of Peter, the prince of the apostles, and, in virtue of being so, is Christ’s vicar on earth. In making this claim, the Roman pontiffs vaulted at once over the throne of kings to the seat of gods: Rome became once more the mistress of the world, and her popes the rulers of the earth.”—“The Papacy,” by J. A. Wylie, page 34. And to this day Rome still possesses this same spirit of master rule. Its temper and its language are still the temper and the language of “masters and rulers.” This is readily discernible in its every move and its every utterance. The popes still claim to be the rightful “rulers of the earth.” In every land the papacy is seeking to have its representatives fill, as far as possible, every office of trust and power. In his essay on “Ranke’s History of the Popes,” Lord Macaulay says, “The papacy remains, not in decay, not a mere antique, but full of life and youthful vigor.” HER AMBITION UNDIMINISHED
While the world at large has been made drunk with the wine of this modern Babylon, and many of the professed people of God have gone to sleep regarding the plotings and plannings, the intrigues and ambitions, of this persistent, persecuting, and oppressive ecclesiastical despotism, there have been a few wise and discerning souls here and there, who have risen above the clouds and smoke, the mist and moral miasma, of this great latter-day apostasy, and obtained a correct view of the real situation, and sounded a note of warning. About eighty years ago Alexander Campbell, editor of the Millennial Harbinger, “a man of extraordinary acuteness of intellect, and who seemed to see into the far future almost with the eye of an inspired prophet,” put on record the following words: ALEXANDER CAMPBELL’S PROPHECY
“Were I to be asked what is the darkest and most ominous cloud in our national heavens, unhesitatingly I would answer, ‘Slavery as now established by law.’ “Again, were I asked for the next most inauspicious and portentous cloud in our political horizon, I must, with equal promptitude, reply, ‘The rapid growth of a popish empire in the bosom of a republic.’ “Popery is naturally, essentially, and necessarily despotic, cruel, and implacable. It constitutionally claims a sovereignty over not only the secular sword, but over everything on earth, thought, language, action, spirit, soul, body, and estate. It regards itself as the heir of all earthly things, and by a right divine and irrevocable, the only earthly king of kings and lord of lords. Its motto is, ‘The empire of the globe or nothing.’ The law of gravity will cease to act sooner than this superstition sleep on this side of absolute dominion. “It can not be the guest in any land; it must be the host. It claims to be the church, the only church in which there is salvation; and that, as Jesus Christ is in heaven head over all things for the church, so His vicar of Rome is to be—jure divino [by divine law]—the head over all earthly things for the sake of the church, in which alone salvation can be found. “It can not be cured; man can not wash the Ethiopian white nor change the leopard’s spotted skin. “While popery lives, it must reign. It is the soul, the very life of the system; and take away from it these attributes, and nothing remains.” WE SEE THE CONDITION FORETOLD
These are weighty words, and are worthy of careful study, of preservation, and of wide publicity. They foretold a condition which we see rapidly being fulfilled in this country to-day. To “make America Catholic” is now the slogan of every Roman priest and prelate in the land. SEES A CATHOLIC IN THE WHITE HOUSE
A few years ago (1889) Archbishop Ireland, in an address delivered at the centenary of the establishment of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the United States, stated that it was the ambition of the Roman Catholic Church “to make America Catholic.” That this ambition has not waned since that statement was made is apparent from more recent utterances of this same prelate. Addressing a notable gathering of Catholic prelates and citizens of St. Louis in the banquet hall of the Hotel Jefferson, on the evening of October 18, 1908, upon his arrival in St. Louis to lay the corner-stone of the St. Louis cathedral, Mr. Ireland said: “There are now 17,000,000 Catholics in this country, and they are not represented in its great offices as they should be. Go to Washington and you will find perhaps two or three Catholics in responsible positions. Wherever you go you will not find Catholics well represented in public offices. What is the cause?—Timidity and a foolish fancy that the country holds them down. “There is a chance for Catholics if they are worthy. I have heard the statement that there will never be a Catholic president of the United States. This is all nonsense. When the right man is presented, the United States will choose him, and not discriminate because of his religion, but elect him because of his fitness. “Never again will there be a discrimination against a candidate for president because his wife is a Catholic. You may be sure that if this ever happens again the candidate who is nominated by that party will be defeated as certain as two and two make four.”—Washington Times, October 19, 1908. To sound the warning against the Apocalyptic “beast” and his “image” and the reception of his “mark” should be the ambition and effort of every loyal child of God, and every lover of liberty in this land. The Reformation of the sixteenth century began a work which must be taken up and completed in the twentieth.279 The indictment brought against the papacy by Dr. Adam Clarke in his comments upon Dan. 7: 25, needs to be repeated and sounded throughout the world. Speaking of the popes and their wonderful claims and pretentions to place and power, he says: “They have assumed infallibility, which belongs only to God. They profess to forgive sins, which belongs only to God. They profess to open and shut heaven, which belongs only to God. They profess to be higher than all the kings of the earth, which belongs only to God. And they go beyond God in pretending to loose whole nations from their oath of allegiance to their kings, when such kings do not please them. And they go against God, when they give indulgences for sin. This is the worst of all blasphemies.” This is a terrible but a true indictment; and, being true, it should be sounded in the ears of all men everywhere, that they may flee from this idolatrous superstition, and turn to the love of, and the worship of, and the obedience to, the only true God. The pope is not God, neither is he Christ's vicar. God is God, and Christ is the one and only Mediator between God and man; and the Holy Spirit, whom Christ said He would send in the Father's name, is Christ's vicar, or personal representative, on earth during Christ's absence, and not the pope, the self-appointed vicar of Jesus Christ. No man has a right to intrude himself between the soul and God. Every man who knows God, may, like John the Baptist, point sinners to the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. No one need expect that Rome will cease her ambitious aims for supremacy until she reaches that place where she can say in her heart, "I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow." Rev. 18:7. But this will be the signal for her final downfall and her complete overthrow. Her plagues will then come "in one day, death, and mourning, and famine." Verse 8. As a great millstone cast into the sea, God will hush and put to silence that voice which for so many centuries has spoken "great words," and tyrannized over the children of men. SCENES AT HIS COMING
By Malcolm N. Campbell
DESOLATION OF THE EARTH—SATAN IS LOOSED—THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW EARTH SUPPLANT ALL EVIL AND MISERY
DURING the millennium, or the thousand year period spoken of in Revelation, chapter 20, the earth will be a desolate waste, entirely uninhabited by man, but used as the prison-house for Satan and his angels. At the coming of Christ the wicked are all slain. "Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and He shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it." Isa. 13:9. As shown last week, the righteous are taken to heaven at the beginning of the thousand years. Thus, with the sinners destroyed and the righteous all in heaven, the earth lies bereft of human inhabitant. The prophets say of that time: "I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger. For thus hath the Lord said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end." Jer. 4:23-27. "Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. . . . The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word." Isa. 24:1, 3. See also Zeph. 1:14-18. The earth, enshrouded in impenetrable darkness, becomes the "bottomless pit" (Greek, abussos, meaning wild and desolate place) in which Satan is confined for a thousand years, "bound" by his inability to tempt the children of men. There he may reflect upon the appalling ruin that his rebellion has wrought in the earth, and realize to the fullest extent that the way of sin is the way of sorrow, disappointment, and despair. AT CLOSE OF THE LONG NIGHT
At the close of that long night of a thousand years, the wicked dead are raised from their graves, a vast, unnumbered multitude of every race and condition. They bear on their persons the marks of vice and degradation. What a contrast to the happy company that emerged from the tomb a thousand years before! There stand murderers, adulterers, thieves, Sabbath-breakers, false accusers, unbelievers, and blasphemers. Satan, now furnished with material much to his liking, no longer bound in idleness by circumstances, immediately goes out to deceive the hosts of the unsaved. "And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea." Rev. 20:7, 8. Readily accepting the leadership of Satan, the wicked hosts are led by him against the city of God, the New Jerusalem, which has just descended from God out of heaven. Rev. 21:2, 3. Inside the vast extent of the city are the saved of all ages. Outside are the lost, from Cain down to the last sinner that rejected the Lord's mercy before the end. The wall of the city is the dividing line between the two classes. THEY SURROUND THE HOLY CITY
While the wicked, under satanic leadership, surround the holy city, fire comes down from heaven and devours them. This is the "second death." Satan and his angels, with those who have chosen their leadership by the rejection of the gospel, are destroyed in this overwhelming storm of fire. "And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them." Rev. 20:9. "For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." Mal. 4:1. The fire that destroys the wicked, also melts the earth, and purifies it from the curse laid upon it when sin entered. "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. . . . Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." 2 Peter 3:10, 13. "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea." Rev. 21:1. "And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him." Rev. 22:3. The foregoing is a brief account of the events connected with and following the coming of our Lord to this earth again. This is a theme that should appeal with solemn force to every human heart. Let none cherish the fatal delusion that there will be another and more favorable opportunity, in another age, to turn to God. "To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart," is the admonition of the Lord. The coming of Christ seals the reward and fate of every individual for eternity. Just before He comes, the decree goes forth from the heavenly courts: "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be." Rev. 22:11, 12. There is no appeal from this decree. It is final. We may properly, then, consider whether it is really important that men give heed to this subject of the second coming of the Lord, and to the prophecies bearing upon it. When Christ returns to earth to claim His faithful children, only those will be recognized as such who have been expecting His coming. "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Heb. 9:28. "And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation." Isa. 25:9. "Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching." Luke 12:37. It is plain, from these scriptures, that none280 can with impunity disregard the truths concerning the second coming of Christ. ON EVERY HAND WE SEE THEM
Upon every hand, we see the fulfilment of the prophecies relating to the second advent of our Lord. Wars and rumors of wars fill the hearts of men with deep apprehension. Crime is alarmingly on the increase. Love of pleasure, with its attendant low moral tone, seems to have well-nigh sapped the spiritual power of religious organizations. Famine, pestilence, and earthquake, with fire, storm, and flood, are uniting their voices in a thunderous warning to this generation to PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD. Life and Death—the Why
By B. L. Post
Questions with Answers in Scripture Texts
1. Upon what conditions is our life from God to be retained? "He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words; keep my commandments, and live." Prov. 4:4. "And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive." Deut. 6:24. 2. Why are these conditions necessary? "And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law. For it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life." Deut. 32:46, 47. "In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death." Prov. 12:28. "The Spirit is life because of righteousness." Rom. 8:10. "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; . . . the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." John 6:63. Words are but thoughts expressed. God's thought expressed is life itself. A creature's thought expressed is not life, and therefore can not impart life. A continual life, then, depends upon receiving the expressed thought of God, His word. 3. Can God's word, with a man-meaning attached, give life to those who receive it? "And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death." Rom. 7:10. "For to be carnally minded is death; . . . because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Rom. 8:6, 7. "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Harken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord. . . . They say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you. . . . Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal My words every one from his neighbor." Jer. 23:16, 17, 30. From the above texts, we conclude that the carnal mind may, when giving consideration to the word of God, find no life therein; for in looking at God's word through the eyes of a carnal concept, a carnal meaning is attached to the Word, that steals from the Word God's thought, which is life. When the commandment is read with a carnal meaning attached, that which is ordained to life is found to be to death. 4. When one assumes the right to give his own meaning to God's word, can he at the same time be subject to God as his King? "In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes." Judges 21:25. "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." Rom. 10:3. It is evident that the natural man, in so far as he attempts to obey the word of God, but obeys his own idea of it. In reality, he obeys himself, and not God; for when the Word requires of him that which is contrary to his own thought, he rejects the Word for that which is right in his own eyes. He then rejects God as his King. 5. In view of our natural tendency to give our own meaning to God's word, what counsel should be heeded? "Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes." Deut. 12:8. "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; . . . for My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." Isa. 55:7-9. 6. How may we be sure we are getting God's thought from His word? "Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak." John 16:13. "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. 2:12, 13. To receive, then, an interpretation of God's word which originates in a creature's mind, is to find it to death; but to receive an interpretation from the Holy Spirit, one text explained by other texts, bringing together the evidences on the subject under consideration, in this way allowing the Bible to interpret itself, is to receive God's thought as expressed in His word, and consequently life. B. L. POST. Fireside Efforts
By E. A. Sutherland
IN man's effort to evangelize the world, there is a place for the sermon; there is a place for the written article; but there is a large amount of work also to be done in an individual way. Christ gave one of His most effective lessons when His congregation consisted of only one woman. His pulpit was the curbstone of Jacob's well; His congregation, a Samaritan woman, whom national prejudice forbade that He even address. The spirit of the true teacher is manifested in this gospel story, for the Master put just as much truth into His words when He spoke to one as though He were addressing thousands. His plea was no less telling, His sympathy no less, than when the multitudes gathered around Him. It might seem like wasted effort. Some men depend upon the inspiration of a multitude for their own upbuilding; but the Saviour, judging from the testimony He Himself bore, was fed in spirit when ministering to that one, for through that one He saw many accepting the truth. Nor is this an exceptional experience in the ministry of the Saviour of mankind. In response to the soul yearnings of one woman in Syrophenicia, He journeyed one hundred fifty or two hundred miles to answer the call—and she a poor woman not of His faith! These are marks of the true teacher. The Blessed Hope
By LeRoy Edwin Froom
FOR six thousand years, Death, that grim-visaged monster, has been stalking back and forth upon the earth. One by one the human family have been silenced by his icy touch. They have passed through the gloomy portals of the tomb, till old earth has become a vast burial-place for her dead. We wistfully listen at those sealed doors which "never outward swing," but profound silence reigns. We seek to catch a glimpse of the mysterious, unknown beyond, but the massive gates open only to those who enter its domain never to return. The aching heart cries out, "If a man die, shall he live again?" To whom shall we turn in our sorrow? From whose lips shall we seek knowledge and comfort? We can not afford to be mistaken. Life is too short, and the end too important. Shall we listen to the seductive voice of stoical philosophy? Let us be careful lest our judgment be captivated by the beauty of its imagery. It is not so impressive when stripped of its flowers of rhetoric. Its fascination is gone when stated in plain prose. What grim satisfaction is there in the thought that we are simply going the way of all the great and wise of earth! What cold comfort in the fact that all the rest will soon follow us, and we are therefore to face death calmly! What barren consolation when Death's cruel figure is approaching with rapid strides! In glorious contrast, what a blessed hope is set forth in the grand old Book! This is the Christian's hope, and it is a "hope big with immortality." Listen to these consoling words of life: "But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." 1 Thess. 4:13-18.