WE have received from Brother W. T. Gibson, of Malden, Mass., a statement of his defense for nonobservance of Sunday, which by the law of that State is made a crime. Brother Gibson was recently summoned into court at Malden, and fined ten dollars because he had performed secular labor on Sunday; namely, painting his barn. He appealed the case, and the district attorney, on investigation, decided to dismiss it, because of an exemption in the law for seventh-day observers, to which class Brother Gibson belongs. Brother Gibson did not plead the exemption clause in his behalf, because, as he says, to do so would be to acknowledge the right of the civil power to enforce a religious observance, and virtually to sanction a union of church and state. To obtain the benefit of the exemption, an individual must religiously observe the seventh day, and there is as much compulsion about this observance as there is in the observance of Sunday, which the law commands. He who does not observe Sunday must observe the seventh day, or take the penalty which the law inflicts. In his case nonobservance of the seventh day is punishable under the law, the same as nonobservance of Sunday in other cases.
The civil law should know no distinction between men that is based on religious grounds. It should take cognizance of men, not as Methodists, Baptists, Catholics, or Seventh-day Adventists, not as observers of one or another religious day or institution, but only as citizens. This was the position assumed by Brother Gibson at his trial, and accordingly he did not ask the law to recognize him as a Seventh-day Adventist, but stood before the court as an individual possessing the inalienable right to worship God according to the dictates of his conscience. No doubt the court and the district attorney were desirous of doing justice in the matter, but justice cannot be done in the enforcement of a law that is itself unjust. Justice demands the abolition of every law that has its origin in the union of church and state. L. A. S.
The Church’s One Business
“THE church that does not make it its one business to instruct people in the Bible, and to instill into them a love for its study, has no reason for existence.”
An Appeal for Unselfish Effort
By Ellen G. White
MRS. E. G. WHITE
If our ministers realized how soon the inhabitants of the world are to be arraigned before the judgment seat of God, to answer for the deeds done in the body, how earnestly they would work, together with God, to lead men and women to accept the truth. How untiringly they would labor to advance God’s cause in the world.
“Prepare to meet thy God,” is the message we are everywhere to proclaim. The trumpet is to give a certain sound. Clearly and distinctly the warning is to ring out, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen. . . . Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”
John writes, “And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.”
The words of this scripture are to be fulfilled. Soon the last test is to come to all the inhabitants of the earth. At that time prompt decisions will be made. Those who have been convicted under the presentation of the word, will range themselves under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel. They will see and understand as never before that they have missed many, many opportunities for serving God. They will realize that they have not worked as zealously as they should to seek and save the lost, to snatch them, as it were, out of the fire.
Our work has been marked out by our Heavenly Father. Taking our Bibles, we are to go forth to warn the world. We are to be God’s helping hand in saving souls. We are to be channels through which his love can flow to the perishing. A realization of the greatness of the work in which we have the privilege of taking part, ennobles and sanctifies the true worker. He is filled with the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. Nothing is drudgery to the one who submits to the will of God. “Doing it unto the Lord” is the thought that throws a charm over the work that God gives him to do.
The Lord’s servants are to be “not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.” Listlessness and inefficiency are not piety. When we realize that we are working for God, we shall have a higher sense of the sacredness of spiritual service than we have ever had. This realization will put persevering energy into the discharge of every duty. True religion is intensely practical. In the saving of souls nothing but earnest, whole-hearted labor will avail. We are to make our every-day duties acts of devotion, constantly increasing in usefulness because we look at our work in the light of eternity.
Only a little longer will the voice of mercy be heard; only a little longer will the gracious invitation be given, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.” God sends his warning message to people everywhere. Let the messengers he sends work so harmoniously, so earnestly, that all will take knowledge of them that they have been with Jesus. Let them speak the words of “truth and soberness,” words of reason and good sense.
My brethren, do you realize your responsibility? Are you doing the work that God has given you to do? Is the love of Christ abiding in your hearts, softening and subduing your words? Do you seek for the Holy Spirit’s power, humbling yourselves before God? Have you surrendered yourselves to him for purification and sanctification? Do you pray earnestly for the heavenly power that alone can quell the quick-rising anger and check the hasty words? Have you put away all self-seeking? Are you doing your work faithfully? Are you drawing with all your might for Christ? Do you give such evidence that you are working with Christ that no one can justly question the worth of your labor?
Draw your power from the highest Authority, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will aid you in your efforts to save those who are out of the fold. Remember that you are working for God, not for man. Plead earnestly for the power of God. Show a constantly increasing devotion to his service, and leave with him the measurement of your work.
God will carry on his work through wholly consecrated workmen. If his ministers fail of representing Christ, he will turn to others, many of whom have not been prepared for the work by a regular course of study, and will put a message into their lips, even the last message of warning. He will call men from their various employments, and at his bidding they will go forth to proclaim present truth.
Fear, and Fear Not
By John Norton Loughborough
J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH
“LET us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Eccl. 12:13, 14. “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Luke 12:32.
It is a matter of deep interest to notice the word “fear” as used in the Scriptures. It must be evident to any reader that the word does not have the same significance in every text. Even in the two quoted above one says “fear,” and the other says “fear not.” The word of the Lord is “not yea and nay.” So we know there is no contradiction in the scriptures quoted above. We therefore conclude that there is more than one kind of fear spoken of in the Word. Paul, when writing to the Hebrews, said, “Let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.” Heb. 12:28. As this text speaks of godly fear, it is evident that there must be another kind of fear—one that is not godly.
This ungodly fear must be the kind referred to by the apostle John when he says, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” I John 4:18. And then the fear spoken of by Peter at the house of Cornelius could not have been ungodly fear; for he said, “In every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.”
The lexicons define the word “fear” as follows: “1. To regard with dread, fright, or terror; to be apprehensive or afraid of. 2. To look upon with awe or reverence; desire to avoid displeasing; venerate.”—Standard Dictionary.
“1. A painful emotion or passion excited by an expectation of evil, or the apprehension of impending danger. 2.9Apprehension of incurring, or solicitude to avoid, God’s wrath; the trembling and awful reverence felt toward the Supreme Being.”—Webster’s Unabridged.
This latter definition appears in the margin of 1 Peter 3:15: “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear [“reverence,” margin].” Those actuated with such fear the Lord mentions by the prophet Isaiah, in these words: “To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” Isa. 66:2.
The Lord contrasts this reverential fear with the worldly fear, in these words: “Say ye not, A confederacy [combination for mutual protection], to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.” Isa. 8:12, 13.
It may be of interest to note some of the Scripture statements respecting the fear of the Lord. We read, “God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.” Ps. 89:7. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” Prov. 1:7. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Ps. 111:10. “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.” Prov. 8:13. “By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.” Prov. 16:6. “The fear of the Lord tendeth to life.” Prov. 19:23. “The fear of the Lord prolongeth days.” Prov. 10:27. “In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence [faith]; and his children shall have a place of refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.” Prov. 16:6. “The fear of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy.” Ps. 33:18.
Bible Definition of the Fear of the Lord
“Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.” Ps. 34:11–14. Samuel’s instruction to Israel is a good definition of the fear of the Lord. He said, “If ye will fear the Lord, and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall both ye and also the king that reigneth over you continue following the Lord your God. . . . I will teach you the good and the right way: only fear the Lord, and serve him in truth with all your heart.” I Sam. 12:14, 23, 24.
We see that the fear which the Word commends is the yielding of reverential submission, and obedience to all of God’s commands. If we thus stand, we shall not be of those mentioned by the psalmist, who had “not called upon God. There were they in great fear, where no fear was.” Ps. 53:4, 5. They had not the fear of God which would lead them to call upon him, and to trust in him, and so were left to the terror of coming doom.
Some in ancient times are spoken of as those who “feared the Lord, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations.” “These nations feared the Lord, and served their graven images.” 2 Kings 17:33, 41. This text brings to mind the answer of a Chinaman in San Francisco to some of us who were witnessing his worship of Joss. He was asked, “Is this your god?” Said the Chinaman, “No, he not my god, my god all the same as Melikan’s God. This is an image of my god.”
There came a necessity in this ancient time of worshiping God through idols, to have priests of Israel come to Samaria to teach “them how they should fear the Lord.” Verse 28. They must be instructed in true service and obedience to the Lord.
We find in Prov. 29:25 the kind of fear that the Lord condemns: “The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.” Again the Lord says, “Fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings. For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool.” Isa. 51:7, 8. “Who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; and forgettest the Lord thy maker?” Verses 12, 13.
The catalogue of sins enumerated in Revelation as leading to the lake of fire, starts with “the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers,” etc. Rev. 21:8. This class have not the fear of God that leads to faith, but that fearfulness that is followed by unbelief. Those of that character Christ reproved when he said, “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?” Matt. 8:26. The Lord grant that we may heed the admonition found in Prov. 23:17: “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.”
“Come Unto Me”
By Alfred Cole
WHEN men revile thee till the way grows dreary
In which thy feet so long have blameless trod;
When friends condemn thee, and the heart is weary
Beneath the chastening of misfortune’s rod,
Then turn unto the Master’s kind bequest,
“Come unto me, and I will give you rest.”
Be not cast down; behold, the roses borrow
Fresh buds of promise from the cloud-rapt day—
Buds that shall blossom in a fair tomorrow,
And seem the sweeter for the rude delay;
So may the clouds beget the promise blest,
“Come unto me, and I will give you rest.”
Fret not thy soul, though now misjudged and slighted,
If thy own heart no condemnation feels.
Thy bruises shall be healed, thy wrongs be righted,
In God’s own time; he knoweth all our needs,
And gently bids the weary and oppressed,
“Come unto me, and I will give you rest.”
— Alfred Cole.
Consolation Versus Suffering
By I. H. Evans
I. H. EVANS
Paul wrote to his brethren in Corinth: “For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.” What soldier of the cross cannot attest that the sufferings of Christ abound in us? However our fancy may have imagined the Master’s service, experience bears testimony to the trials.
Our Recruiting Officer
A recruiting officer often slips a dollar into a young man’s hand, and tells him of the pleasure and ease of a soldier’s life; that he has but little to do save to parade in his flaming colors, be honored of men, and go straight on to glory. Not so, however, the Captain of our salvation. When he makes his call for recruits, he uses no deception. He specifies the conditions, not omitting the hardships, the demands, and the reward. “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” His very call is to self-denial, to abandonment of self,—to caring nothing for one’s life or earthly prospects. Again he said, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.” No earthly tie is too sacred for Christ to sever. He writes his name above every name in the hearts of his followers. Friends, family, relatives, earthly possessions,—all become secondary when once the heart is enlisted in his service. Not that his follower loves his friends less or is less lovable; but the enmity between the serpent and the seed of the woman then springs forth. So the Master adds, “Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.” Here is the call of our great Captain. In it he specifies self-denial, cross-bearing, alienation of friends, foes, hatred, reproach, and death; but adds to his call the soul-stirring peroration: “Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.”
Suffering
Now notice: “As the sufferings of Christ abound in us.” There is to be plenty of suffering. It is to abound, to be in abundance,—no stint in the measure,—no meager amount. It is to be a river, a sea, an ocean of suffering. Sometimes it will seem that a whole Niagara of woe, and trouble, and misfortune, has swept down upon the soul in an unexpected hour, and we cry with the psalmist: “Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.”
Christ’s Sufferings
Whose suffering is to abound?—“As the sufferings of Christ abound in us.” Then these sufferings are not our own; they are Christ’s. Says some one: If suffering is the lot of Christians, then I am surely one. Yes, but mere suffering is no evidence of discipleship. The wicked suffer. They are sick. They have rheumatism, and heart trouble, and stomach trouble, and poverty, and death, and at last end in a lake of fire. Suffering, then, is not all the text implies; the suffering must be of a specific kind,—it must be the suffering of Christ. This is what the text requires.
What, then, are Christ’s sufferings?—O, Christ’s sufferings were sufferings for others,—sufferings that he did not bring upon himself by wrongdoing; but which came to him while he was faithfully carrying out God’s will. “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem his stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was10wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. . . . And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Ye who would know Christ’s sufferings, behold them here! Not one thread of self in all this glorious apparel of character! ’Tis a royal robe, fit only for him who wove it—Prince Immanuel. And would ye know whence he gathered the material for this matchless character? Let me tell you. He gathered up all the griefs and sorrows, the sins and broken hearts, the blasted hopes and ruined lives; he took all the slanders and envies, the covetousness and shame, the woe and misery; he searched out all the impenitence and ingratitude, the broken vows and rebellions of a lost world, and made them his own, and suffered for them. The Captain of our salvation was made perfect through suffering. The sinless One became the chief of sinners. Never a crime so black, never a wrong so unjust, never a deed so heinous, but for it Christ was reckoned the transgressor. Take all the covetousness, and lying, and stealing, and adulteries, and murders, and disobedience to parents, and Sabbath breaking, and blasphemies, and idolatry, in all ages past and in all time to come, and concentrate them into one life, and make that life answerable for all these deeds, although guilty of none of them; and then strip him of all human comfort, and hide the Father’s face from him, till in dying agony he cries, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” and you have Christ’s sufferings.
Who Suffers with Him?
O, says one, then who ever abounded in Christ’s sufferings? Ye innumerable multitude of martyred saints of ages past, make bare your scars, by sword, and famine, and stake, and dungeon cell, and prison bar, and show the church militant the measure of your sufferings for Christ!
In whom to-day do the sufferings of Christ abound? Tempted and tried soul, thou in whom are burning the fires of passion and lust and appetite, but who art determined to die rather than to yield, it is in thee! O man, O woman, whosoever thou art, wheresoever is thine abiding place, by whatsoever name thou art known among men, if, in thy breast thou art carrying an unspeakable grief, for Christ’s sake, to shield his name from reproach; if thou art wronged by friend or foe, but dost patiently bear it; if the love that should be thine is given to another; if all men cast out thy name as evil for Christ’s sake, because of the truth that is dear to thee,—then the sufferings of Christ abound in thy life.
Consolation Offered
But now the rest of the verse: “As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.” In whom are the sufferings of Christ, to him is offered also the consolation by Christ. But some people seem so fond of their grief that they refuse consolation. I met a woman once who had lost two of her children. She mourned, and had been mourning for months before I met her. Like Rachel, she refused to be comforted; and her sufferings drove her from God into Egyptian darkness. Here is a mother who has done her best, by precept and example, to train her children for God. Day by day she consecrated them to him in her prayers; but now they have plunged into sin and the world, and she cries, All my prayers are unheard, and all my life of toil is wasted. I shall never be happy again. Over in that house death came a few weeks ago, and laid the husband to rest. A pale mother, with five small children, stands weeping, to-night, beside yon little mound of earth. In the bitterness of her grief she cries, My God, my God, why hast thou done this? Family reputation is gone; the family whose name was so honored and respected,—all blighted in a day; some cherished friend gone down to ignominy and shame. In sorrow they cry, My grief is killing me. I shall never be comforted. Where is there any consolation for grief like mine?
But now notice our text: “As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.” What a blessed proportion—the one equaling the other. As the sufferings abound, so the consolation abounds also. The greater the sufferings of Christ, the greater the measure of his consolation. One offsets the other. As he bore our sins, so hath he borne our griefs and sorrows. “In all their affliction he was afflicted.”
The Christian Rejoices in Suffering
Then the Christian is joyful amid his sufferings, because they are not his own, but a portion of Christ’s. Were they our own, and not for another’s sake, with no comfort to be had, well might we weep. All the watery things of earth would fail to make tears enough for us. But now it is all for Christ’s sake. We take joyfully the spoiling of our goods. We lay our loved ones down to sleep in mother earth, sorrowing not “as others which have no hope.” If it be a bitter and dark future, what matters it, so long as Christ our Lord sanctifies it, and the Holy Ghost still gives us courage, energy, and strength? If loved ones are untrue, take the heart that loved, perhaps too fondly, and adore your Master with it. He abideth faithful. Never a heart loved him too ardently. Never was a secret whispered to Jesus betrayed.
To suffer for Christ’s sake has inspiration in it. Martyrs have sung praises to God amid the devouring flames, and cried, “I lie down upon beds of roses.” Paul and Silas, with lacerated backs and feet fast in the stocks, held a midnight praise service in the inner prison. Hear the testimony of the man who said, “I die daily;” “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” He says, “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”
Christ Our Comforter
O faltering one! O tried and tempted one! O heart well nigh crushed with the burden of thy griefs and sorrows! hear me for one moment. Thy sufferings are the sufferings of Jesus. Thy trials are his trials. Side by side thou dost fight with the Captain of thy salvation. Every foe is his foe; Christ is with thee to bear his part most valiantly. Every blow is a blow aimed at him. Every slander is a slander on Christ. The battle is the Lord’s; he is leading in the fight. See the drops of blood bursting from his veins as he deals death blows to thy carnal desires, and is setting the hedge of defense about thee. Now, in the midst of the conflict, he casts a glance at thy unstained brow, and says, “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” Then courage, soldiers of the cross.
The Captain’s “visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.” He stays not when once a soul has enlisted under his banner, till victory is won. He knows no defeat. He never lost a soul that trusted in him. For six thousand years he has been the defense of his people, and he knows thee. Hear him cry, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.” Keep thine eye on him. In this awful fight let nothing get between thee and Christ. He is truly in earnest with thee. Life to him is nothing if he can only save thee. The battle is the Lord’s; the victory is the Lord’s; and triumphantly shalt thou come through this conflict, if only thou dost patiently fight the battle, and endure the trial.
What is suffering to a crown? What is a few years’ trial with Jesus in it as a helper, when compared to eternal life? Then let resignation to his lot, and courage for the fray take possession of every soul.
The Great Translation
By Rev. W. Preston
“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.” 1 Thess. 4: 16, 17.
Things that are to come to pass may well engage our thoughts. They should be regarded not as subjects of mere curiosity, but their reality should be considered. A prediction given nineteen centuries ago may now receive its fulfillment sooner than anticipated. We refer to the coming of our Lord. This promised return is not a question of controversy or of speculation. It is certain. The only thing uncertain in connection with it is the period when. That is beyond our knowledge. The latter is not revealed, so we cannot be wise above what is written. The former is fully revealed: therefore there need be no doubt in our minds on the subject. It is one we do well to consider; for it involves great and lasting results.
The “signs of the times” are significant enough, so that he who runs may read. Voices from many quarters proclaim forcibly, “The coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” Our Lord has informed11us of signs antecedent to his advent, and which would be indicative of its nearing. Famines, pestilences, earthquakes, wars and rumors of wars; increasing godlessness, skepticism, and efforts to undermine men's faith; the love of many waxing cold, and the cynical inquiry, “Where is the promise of his coming? for . . . all things continue as they were.” Respecting what is coming, it is not theories of our own which we are to build, but humbly to hear “what saith the Scriptures.”
Well, Paul gives an insight to what approaches. He was anxious to assuage the grief of his Thessalonian brethren to us for their deceased—“them which are asleep.” In time they would rise and again be associated with, and be fully recognized. The period when this should be is pointed out, and the order of events then fully set forth.
When the Lord descends, “the dead in Christ” (note the expression) “shall rise first.” Then, those having arisen, “we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.” 1 Thess. 4: 17. When he comes, his true people, his true church—some sleeping in death, others here, belonging to the church militant on earth—will meet the great Captain of their salvation “in the air.” His descent will be for those who, like Simeon of old, wait “for the consolation of Israel.” And the happy consummation of all this will be—“So shall we ever be with the Lord.”
All this is to be in reality. We follow no “cunningly devised fables” in believing it. In its contemplation there is much to make the Christian rejoice. The comforting promise and gladsome prediction are as much for us to-day as for those of old. If we be in Christ, we have naught to fear. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,” is the assurance.—Rev. W. Preston, in The Quiver.
A New Way
By Ellet Joseph Waggoner
E. J. WAGGONER
With the story of the crossing of the Jordan every reader of the Bible is familiar: with the lessons to be learned from it there is far less acquaintance. Yet it was written not merely to excite our wonder, nor to gratify our curiosity, but for our learning. If, through contemplation of the Scripture narratives, we lived far more in the events which they describe, we should experience the power of God in our daily lives to an extent far beyond what we now do. We must understand that the Bible is not the record of an age which is antiquated, and can never be paralleled, but of the acts of the living God, who is our God.
“When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language, Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion. The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back” (Ps. 114:1–3); or as picturesquely put in the Danish, “Jordan turned, and ran back,” as if abashed at the presence of the Lord. The crossing of the Jordan is coupled with the crossing of the Red Sea, and is fully as wonderful an event.
There was an exhibition of sublime faith on the part of a vast host, and an example of how to meet obstacles that confront us in the way that the Lord has told us to go. It was the time of harvest, when “Jordan overfloweth all his banks,” and the river was not fordable. The Lord could have timed Israel’s arrival so that they would have found the water very low, and could have crossed with comparative ease. But God delights in difficulties, that is, in what to us are difficulties; for with him there is no such thing. He deliberately chooses the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty; and foolish things to confound the wise; and things that are not, to bring to naught things that are. 1 Cor. 1:27, 28. This is not for vain boasting, but in order to strengthen the faith of his people, and to induce men to trust in his salvation. If Israel had always gone forward in the power that took them through the sea and through Jordan, no enemy would ever have stood before them; and if we in this day would continually trust in God as the God who always does just such wonderful things, we should be invincible.
When the officers were preparing the people for the great movement that was to take them into the promised land, they said to them: “When ye see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore.” Joshua 3:3, 4.
That is the secret of Christian progress: always treading a new way, a path hitherto untrodden. We must never assume that past experience is sufficient to carry us through any work without special, divine guidance, however familiar with the affair we may consider ourselves. “It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps,” no matter how often he has passed over a road. “Man’s goings are of the Lord,” and only the Lord can keep him from falling in the plainest path.
So each day’s task, though it may be but the repetition of the same thing that we have done hundreds of times, must be met as an entirely new thing. In that way continual improvement may be made in our work; and that is what God would have. God promises to show us “new things;” for the work that we best know how to do, he knows how to do far better; and therefore there is always the possibility for us to do far more and far better work than we ever yet have done. With God all things are possible, and therefore in him even the impossible is possible for us. With our eyes fixed on God, we have but to step boldly into the raging flood that threatens to stop our progress, and God will make the way. “It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect.”
Did you ever stop to think that the apparent danger to the Israelites increased every minute that they were crossing the river? The water below them was running away to the sea; but to their right the wall of water was continually piling higher and higher, as that from above came down. We are so accustomed to think of the fact that they crossed over safely, that we never consider the danger that they were in while crossing. “Ah, no;” you say, “they were not in danger at all; for God was holding the waters back.” True; and so he is always doing for his people. He measures all the waters of the seas in the hollow of his hand; and this is told us as a reason for quiet confidence in him at all times. The Israelites were really in as much danger in crossing the Jordan as the disciples were on the Sea of Galilee, or as we ever can be when we are in the path in which God is leading. What we need to do is to dwell in the secret place of God, who inhabits eternity, so that in the midst of present difficulties and threatening dangers, we look at them as already past. That is the secret of strength, and of victory. Our very temptations and dangers and difficulties are made the means of our deliverance, just as Noah and his family are said to have been “saved by water” (1 Peter 3:20) which destroyed the earth.
It is by “a new and living way” that we draw near to God, though the flesh seems to interpose an impassable barrier. Christ took our sinful flesh, which separates us from God and veils him from our sight, and consecrated a way through it, so that we are “made nigh by the blood of Christ.” No flesh is so corrupt, no inherited evil is so strong, that the Lord cannot make a way for us through it, straight to his throne. Yea, he has made a way: he has “condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Rom. 8:3, 4.
With this knowledge we may give thanks to God who “always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place.” 2 Cor. 2:14. The greater the sin in the flesh, with which we have to contend, the more can the sweet fragrance of the knowledge of God be spread in the world, to the praise of the glory of his grace. “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” 2 Cor. 12:9.
The strength which God displayed in making even the depths which obstructed their passage “a way for the ransomed to pass over,” is the measure of the strength which he gives to us day by day in our march to the promised land; “therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.”
A Song of Faith
By J. G. Holland
Day will return with a fresher boon;
God will remember the world!
Night will come with a newer moon;
God will remember the world!
Evil is only the slave of Good;
Sorrow the servant of Joy;
And the soul is mad that refuses food
Of the meanest in God’s employ.
The fountain of joy is fed by tears,
And love is lit by the breath of sighs;
The deepest griefs and the wildest fears
Have holiest ministries.
Strong grows the oak in the sweeping storm,
Safely the flower sleeps under the snow;
And the farmer’s hearth is never warm
Till the cold wind starts to blow.
Day will return with a fresher boon;
God will remember the world!
Night will come with a newer moon;
God will remember the world!