p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 10. (1/9/1893)

Earlier text: REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION

LESSON IV.—SABBATH, JANUARY 21, 1893.

By Editor

POWER OF GOD'S WORD—CONTINUED.

[For any modification in these lessons, and for the notes, the editor is responsible. For other notes and suggestions the student is referred to the lesson pamphlet, and to the S. S. Worker.]

Lesson Scriptures and Suggestive Questions.

I. John 3:3-8: "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born anew. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit."

On what condition can one see the kingdom of God? Note 1.
Is this a natural or a spiritual birth?
What is the generative agency?
What contrast is drawn between the natural and the spiritual birth?
Are the results of the moving of the Spirit visible? Note 1.
What comparison is drawn between this and the work of the Spirit?

II. 1 Peter 1:23: "Having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which liveth and abideth."

What change is here mentioned? Note 2.
How is the contrast drawn between the natural and the spiritual birth?
What is the generative agency?
What characteristic of God's word is spoken of?

III. James 1:18: "Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures."

To what change is reference here made?
What is the generative agency?
What do those become who are thus begotten?

NOTES.

1. Born anew.—The margin of both versions has, "born from above," and that is what it literally is, and what the birth literally is. Jesus said to the carnal Jews, "Ye are from beneath; I am from above." John 8:23. As Christ, so are those who are his. That which (and those who) is born of his Spirit is spiritual. In him is life (John 1:4); he came "that man might have life," and to all who believe in him he gives life (John 3:16, et al.). All these statements imply man's dying condition. All are sinners (Rom. 3:23), and the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). By faith in the gospel of Christ, the word of God, our sins are forgiven (Rom. 1:16, 17; 4:4-8; 1 John 1:9), and his Spirit is given unto us (Rom. 8:9); and this Spirit is life to us (verse 10); that is, it imparts a new life; it makes us a new creature in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5:17). The term "born" is not to be pressed to extravagant lengths and parallelisms. It simply indicates the radical change in the nature of him whose heart, affections, motives have been changed, regenerated, by the power of God. It shows change of character, and change of character here assures the physical, immortal change at the second coming of Christ. Phil. 3:21. In ourselves, therefore, we have no life, no immortality. It is all dependent on Christ and his word. By his word we are brought forth, upon it we feed (1 Peter 2:1), by it we are nourished, kept alive, built up (Acts 20:32). Those who are Christ's are sons here, whom the world knows not; but when Christ shall appear, we will, in the epiphany,

or shining forth, of his glory, be like him. 1 John 3:1, 2.

The wind bloweth.—Better, it seems to us, is the margin, "The Spirit breatheth." This is the only place in the New Testament where the word pneuma is rendered anything else than spirit, or that which means spirit, and we see no reason for departing from its obvious meaning here. Note the statement: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. . . . The Spirit breatheth where it listeth [not controlled by earthly power], and thou hearest the voice thereof [John 16:8-10; Gal. 5:22, 23], but knowest not whence it cometh, and whither it goeth [1 Cor. 2:11-14]; so is every one that is born of the Spirit" (1 Cor. 2:9, 10, 12, 15). Wind is visible, and its source is known. Its coming can be predicted with tolerable certainty; it can be caused, weighed, measured, as accurately as any worldly force; but the carnal man knows naught of the Spirit of God.

2. Having been begotten again.—Here God is represented as being our Father, begetting us through or by means of his word. Rotherham renders "regenerated." It is the living word of God which brings life to the soul who is dead in trespasses and sins. Eph. 2:4, 5. Begotten of God's word, born of his Spirit, we become the sons of God (John 1:13; Gal. 4:5, 6; 1 John 3:1, 2); we come to know God (1 John 4:7), whom to know is life eternal (John 17:3). But all this, with many attendant blessings, comes through God's word, which is spirit and life (John 6:63), a seed incorruptible. This word also becomes to the receiver a sword (Eph. 6:17), by which we defend ourselves and defeat the enemy (see Matt. 4:1-11).

3. Brought us forth.—Equivalent to born again. Of his own will.—But he is "not willing that any should perish" (2 Peter 3:9); he takes "no pleasure in the death of the wicked;" but "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; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon" (Isa. 55:7); he will beget again "unto a lively hope" (1 Peter 1:3); he will bring forth unto a new life all who trust in him. With the word of truth.—It is not our own feeling upon which we have to depend, but God's word of truth. Every precept is sure; no promise of his can fail. A kind of first fruits.—The force of the figure seems to be that just as the first fruit of the land and the first born of beast and man among the Israelites belonged to God, were holy unto him, so Christians are brought forth that they might be dedicated, consecrated, devoted to his service.

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.

What bearing does the teaching of this lesson have upon the question of conditional immortality?
How does this lesson enforce the importance of constant study of the Bible?
What things only can be brought to our remembrance?
What great evil has resulted from the abuse of that invention which has made cheap Bibles possible?
Why has an effort been made to fill the mind with the words of men?

News and Notes.

By Editor

FOR THE WEEK ENDING JANUARY 2.

RELIGIOUS.

—The Jewish Exponent says: “Fresh outbreaks of Anti-Semitism are reported from Russia, sanctioned by the government. This time, conversion to the church, as it was with Torquemada, is the only condition to avoid the severest penalty.”

—Monsignor Satolli, the special papal representative in America, has removed the sentence of excommunication from Father O’Flaherty, of Auburn, N. Y., who has been under the ban of the church for twenty-four years. It is said that a long list of similar cases are yet to be heard.

—The Moscow papers boast that since the beginning of 1891, 20,000 Jews have been converted to orthodoxy. The unhappy converts who have been driven to a pretended denial of their religious faith in order to escape intolerable persecutions, are rigorously governed by priests of the Russian Orthodox Church, who require them to attend the services of that church and to comply with its various rules, watching narrowly for any sign of evasion or repentance.

—In New York City, December 27, with great ceremony, was laid the corner stone of what is to be known as the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine. It is designed to be the greatest church structure in America, costing $10,000,000, and requiring twenty years to build.

—At the annual convention of the American Sabbath Union, recently held in Chicago, a resolution was adopted calling for $1,000,000 during the coming year with which to carry on the Sunday cause. The following officers were elected: President, Elliott F. Shepard, of New York; General and Corresponding Secretary, Rev. J. H. Knowles, of New York; General Field Secretary, Rev. H. H. George, of Pennsylvania; Treasurer, R. M. Perley, of New York.

—The National Reform Association and the American Sabbath Union are striving to get hold of the reins of government in order to have it run on religious lines. That the people may know what their ultimate success means, we give the following sentiment uttered by the editor of the leading organ of these two associations: “It would not do the average American a bit of harm to be put through a course of genuflections and prostrations after the Greco-Russian style. It might help to moderate some of this imprudence to be made to kneel oftener; even to get his face fairly in the dust, as I have seen in the case of well-dressed ladies, black-coated civilians, and officers in gold lace, as well as poor folks.” When men will boldly proclaim such sentiment, and openly seek the power to enforce it, what would they not do if they had the power? Will the “average American,” either Christian or infidel, sit listlessly down and allow such designs to obtain through negligent default?

SECULAR.

—Omaha, Nebraska, had a $500,000 fire on the 27th ult.

—Montana has a female attorney-general, Miss Ella Knowles.

—Yellow fever and typhoid are reported to be raging in La Guayra, Venezuela.

—The burning of sugar mills and stock near Galveston, Texas, on the 27th ult., caused a loss of $250,000.

—The telegraph says that Mr. Cleveland denies having offered Senator Hill the position of Secretary of State.

—Judge Sharpstein, the only Democrat on the California Supreme Bench, died in San Francisco on the 28th ult.

—Nine officers and several private citizens have been arrested at Kieff, Russia, on charges connected with a conspiracy against the Czar.

—A Hamburg dispatch of the 28th ult. says that cholera continues to claim new victims, and the people are dreading the return of spring.

—Susan B. Anthony, the well-known temperance and woman's rights lecturer, has been appointed manager of the New York State Industrial School.

—Mr. Loring Pickering, editor of the San Francisco Morning Call, and part owner of both the Call and Evening Bulletin, died December 28, aged eighty years.

—Sixteen Tomachic Indians, taken as prisoners by the Mexican troops in the recent battle in Chihuahua, have been removed to the City of Mexico, and sentenced to be shot.

—In San Francisco, New Year's eve, A. Sydney McCoy was accidentally stabbed to the heart by a young lady, while acting in a parlor tragedy as Russian Nihilists. He died a few minutes later.

—A party of United States engineers, who have been in the field since April, 1891, surveying a route for a railway between North and South America, arrived at San Jose, Costa Rica, December 20.

—Ex-Senator Henry W. Blair, of New Hampshire, will be a member of the House of Representatives in the next Congress. It is said that he proposes to again introduce his once-famous Educational Bill.

—The vicinity of Fortress Monroe, Virginia, experienced the worst storm known to that region in twenty years, on the night of December 26. There was a heavy fall of snow, and navigation was suspended.

—Recent high water has caused disastrous floods along the Sacramento and lower San Joaquin Rivers, in this State. A Sacramento dispatch says that at least 90,000 acres of cultivated grounds have been overwhelmed.

—In the early morning of the 29th ult., an explosion in the hallway of the Paris Prefecture of Police caused considerable damage to the building. The police lay the blame on the anarchists, but there is no positive clew to the guilty party. One of that class has boasted that "so long as human beings die from hunger by the side of those who die from indigestion, the former will be avenged by every means in the power of their friends."

—A fight over a claim in the new mining region of San Juan County, Utah, in which seventeen men participated, is cited by miners as evidence of valuable deposits. Two men were killed and several others wounded.

—Mr. John D. Rockefeller has given another million dollars to the new Chicago University. This was a Christmas gift in 5 per cent. bonds, and makes $3,600,000 altogether that Mr. Rockefeller has given to this enterprise.

—The ferry boat Tiburon was damaged by fire to the extent of $50,000, while lying at her dock in San Francisco, on New Year's day. The fire was started by a pan of grease becoming ignited in the restaurant galley.

—An epidemic of chronic diarrhea is afflicting the convicts of the Arkansas penitentiary. About fifty victims are reported, and officials are charged with negligence in regard to sanitary precautions. Fears of cholera are also entertained.

—A dispatch from Charleston, South Carolina, reports a heavy storm on the night of the 26th ult., and for the first time in fifteen years the housetops were covered with snow and sleet. Orange trees are injured, and will probably bear only one-fourth crop this year.

—A Dublin detective was recently killed by a dynamite explosion, and a London dispatch says fears are entertained of an extended dynamite conspiracy. Mr. Gladstone and Home Secretary Asquith are said to be secretly guarded by detectives in citizen dress.

—The house of William Phillips, a colored laborer living near Stony Brook, L. I., was destroyed by fire on the night of December 31. Four small children, who were locked in the house, were horribly burned. Two were dead when discovered, and the others died the next morning.

—A serious labor riot occurred in Madrid, December 31. While 1,000 workingmen were marching in a body to interview the mayor they became involved in a conflict with the police. Many people were wounded with sticks and stones before the workingmen were dispersed.

—A plot to burn the city of Buenos Ayres was discovered last week, and a number of policemen and firemen were arrested on charges of being connected with the conspiracy. The plan was to set fire in different places at once, including the custom house, post office, and archbishop's palace. The object is supposed to have been plunder.

—Late advices from Buenos Ayres say that the rebels in the province of Corrientes, Argentine Republic, have defeated the provincial troops in a number of skirmishes, and have seized the town of Mercedes and the railway lines of the district. An attempt was made to capture the towns of Caseros, but the would-be invaders were defeated, after a hard battle, and were obliged to retire.

—It is now asserted that $2,500,000 of the Panama Canal funds was used in the United States to quiet the natural objections to a canal across the isthmus under European control. It is a fact that when the project was first mooted there was considerable objection on the part of the press, and a resolution was introduced in the Senate expressing disapproval; but the company appointed an "American committee" to look after "American interests," and for some reason the work went on without protest.

—Of the two thousand people camped along the border of Oklahoma, waiting for the opening of the Cherokee Strip lands to settlement, about three-fourths were severely frost-bitten during the terrible blizzard of the night before Christmas. Many have lost hands or feet, and in one family two children were frozen to death. Two men out hunting were caught in the storm and frozen to death. In one family three children had to have their feet amputated. Live stock also suffered terribly, many head perishing from exposure to the cold.

—The bandits, or insurrectionists, or whatever else they may be called, are again raiding the Mexican border along the lower Rio Grande, taking refuge on the Texas side. They have twice defeated Mexican troops within a few weeks' time. These adventurers also give much trouble to United States troops who endeavor to hunt them in the chaparral thickets in the Rio Grande bottom. At last accounts they had secured two U. S. deputy marshals as prisoners. It is said that a document has been found implicating 200 prominent citizens in a plot to overthrow the government.

—The city of Milwaukee continues to experience disastrous fires. Early in the morning of December 28 a bomb was thrown into a building of the Street Railroad Company, causing a terrible explosion, and a fire, which was not subdued until property valued at $500,000 had been destroyed. On the day previous two large tanneries were burned, causing the death of three persons and a loss of $250,000 in property. And two days previous to that occurrence two fires destroyed property to the value of $125,000. These occurrences, only two months after the great $500,000 fire, naturally cause much apprehension, and the suspicion of a determination on the part of evil-disposed persons to utterly destroy the city.

Which Day Is the Sabbath?

By Editor

In an article in the Literary Northwest of January, 1893, entitled "Shall the World's Fair Be Open on Sunday?" Mr. Edwin H. Jaggard says some good things. For instance, in referring to the First Amendment to the Constitution and its bearing on the closing of the Fair, he says:—

"No set of men can say to others that they shall in all things not harmful to others act out the dictates of their own consciences. That is an infringement of personal liberty."

Again he says:—

"Unthinking acquiescence has largely caused to be forgotten the controversy as to what day is the Lord's day under revelation. The Old Testament enjoined that the seventh day be kept holy. What warrant is there for changing this to the day of the resurrection. . . . Indeed it would seem to the average layman that Doctor McCosh made the best of their case when, realizing that the burden of proof rested on the Sundayites to show authority for the change, and that the New Testament did not furnish it, he sought for a reason in tradition. Thus he advanced a step. Tradition, however, failed to bridge the chasm. And the good Doctor got no further. He was left on its brink lost in hopeless contemplation."

After speaking of the testimony which shows that Sunday regarded as Lord's day or sabbath was not known till long after Christ, and that Saturday was observed for centuries, he thus refers to the "unruffled complacency" with which

"These ardent souls [Sunday-law people] consign sabbath breakers [by which he means Sunday breakers, if such can be] each to peculiar punishment of his own, and then themselves break the fourth commandment by turning Saturday into a day of national festivity."

The writer is obviously not a seventh-day man, but he is evidently disposed to be fair. His words quoted above are worth thinking of by every Sunday keeper. First decide which day. He who decides aright will never ask for civil law to enforce its observance.

THE END OF THE LAW.

By W. N. G.

SOME of the brethren at Unionville, Iowa, have been threatened with prosecution for laboring on Sunday. A minister of the United Brethren denomination reproved them for Sunday labor, and after they had reminded him that they kept the Sabbath of the law of God, said that "Christ is the end of the law." Although a professed minister of the gospel, he seems to think that Christ put a stop to the operation of the law of God. He should read Matt. 5:17, 18, where Christ expressly says: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."

James 5:11 says: "Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." Does James mean to say that the Lord has come to an end? Does he not mean the object or design of the Lord? These are definitions of the word "end" in every dictionary. In 1 Peter 1:9 we have: "Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." Does Peter mean to say that the annulling of our faith would be the salvation of souls? No one would be so foolish as to suppose that to be his meaning.

Yet it would be just as reasonable as to put such a construction upon Paul's words in Rom. 10:4: "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth." In 1 Tim. 1:5 we read that "the end of the commandment is charity." This U. B. minister, to be consistent, would argue that charity works an annulment of the commandment; but he is forestalled by Rom. 13:10, which says that "love is the fulfilling of the law." In other words, the fulfilling of the law is the manifestation or fruit of charity, or love. To what great lengths will men not go to evade the claims of God's great rule of life? W. N. G.

LITERARY NOTICES.

By Editor

American Young People is a new monthly illustrated magazine, the first number of which will appear in January. It will take up the work of furnishing choice reading along the line of American history and literature, and entertaining matter of all kinds for young people and the household. The subscription price will be $1.00 a year. The publication office is in Chicago.

The Literary Northwest is a high-class literary magazine, published at 203 Merrill Building, St. Paul, Minn. The magazine is under new management, which designs, by the best productions in literature and art, to make a strictly first-class magazine in every respect. The January issue, just at hand, is creditable. Price, till January 15, $1.50 a year; after that date, $2.00; 20 cents a copy.

The December number of Jenness Miller Illustrated Monthly contains many special features, some pertaining to Christmastide. Mrs. Jenness Miller has three pages of matter about dress, books, and chat particularly interesting to women and young girls. There are also timely articles of interest to the housewife. Miss Mabel Jenness' book on physical culture is still given as a premium to subscribers. Price $1.00, with premium. Jenness Miller Illustrated Monthly, 114 Fifth Avenue, New York City.

The Mentor, the December number of which lies before us, is a neat magazine, published ten months in the year, by the Alumni Association of the Perkins Institution for the Blind, Boston, Mass. Price $1.00 per year. It aims to keep the schools for the blind acquainted with all improvements in methods or appliances; to serve that far greater number who are beyond school age by bringing information which will inspire them with new hope and guide their efforts to more successful issues; and to keep the seeing and the blind in touch with one another by a periodical which, printed in ink, is valuable to parents and friends, to all educators, and to the general public, as well as to the blind themselves. Address 37 Avon Street, Boston, Mass.

The Health Exponent is a bright little magazine devoted to hygiene and healthful living in all its phases, published at Mt. Vernon, Ohio. Among the features of interest in the December number are, "Houses That Breathe" (editorial), "What Is Hygiene?" (poetry), "Craving for Stimulants," "Whalebones," "What Shall We Eat?" etc. Price 75 cents a year.

The Californian Illustrated Magazine takes a place in the front ranks of the great monthlies. The January number is not behind the special Christmas edition in general excellence, and the promises of the publishers that the policy of the publication is continual improvement, are fully exemplified in this issue. It contains a review of Alfred Tennyson's life, with a fine portrait as frontispiece. "Barbara Frietchie," "The Woman's Christian Temperance Union," "Alaska and the Reindeer," "Regulation of Railway Charges," are prominent among the interesting articles of this number. Published in San Francisco, 25 cents a copy; $3.00 a year.

The young men and young women who aspire to obtain academic or college educations, and whose parents cannot well afford them that expense, will be interested in the work of the Cosmopolitan magazine, which has offered for the year 1893 one thousand scholarships at any of the leading colleges or schools of the United States, upon the condition of introducing the magazine into certain neighborhoods. Yale, Vassar, Harvard, Ann Arbor, Chicago, the Southern colleges, the great schools of art and medicine, all are alike open to the ambitious boy or girl who is not afraid of a little earnest work. The Cosmopolitan sends out from its New York office a handsomely printed pamphlet to any applicant, telling just what is necessary in order to secure one of these scholarships. The scholarship itself includes board, lodging, laundry and tuition—all free. Cosmopolitan, Fifth Avenue, New York.

The value and utility of that unique literary publication, the Weekly Bulletin of Newspaper and Periodical Literature, published at 5 Somerset Street, Boston, are to be greatly enhanced by the immediate addition of some important new features. Besides serving as a guide and index to the press of the country by affording a weekly classified and descriptive catalogue of the contents of over twelve hundred different papers and magazines, the Bulletin will hereafter supply the growing public demand for a review of the periodical press by devoting several pages every week to comprehensive summaries of the best and most interesting articles appearing in the monthly magazines and the daily and weekly papers. As the Bulletin is a weekly publication, its readers will have the summaries of the best features of this press almost as soon as the original articles appear. The department of "Literary Notes" will also be enlarged and enriched, and other attractive features, such as an illustrated cover, portraits of authors, etc., will be introduced.

Price List of California Nursery Company, for 1892-93, can be obtained by addressing the company at Niles, Alameda Co., Cal.