THE first of these, viz., that of a strong, centralized, if despotic government, of course suggests itself to those politicians who sympathize with capital and the trusts, or to even those individuals of a conservative stamp who are not prepared to concede anything to the insistent demands of “rabid” democracy. These can not but see that it is the outworking of knowledge and individual liberty on the part of the turbulent classes that is bringing about the social evils he deplores. An intellectual knowledge that brings the daily paper within the comprehension of a discontented man only enlarges the field of his vision, multiplies indefinitely the objects of his envy, and thus increases a thousand-fold his discontent and his hatred of those more fortunate in any way than himself. At the same time the telegraph, the daily press, and the hundred other agencies of our day that bring one continent in almost instant touch with all the others, are producing possible means of quickly and extensively organizing millions of men together for any purpose whatever, in a way that former ages never dreamed of; and this in an age and a civilization where the people are supposed to be the real rulers of the country, but where the same people have lost the power of individual self-government, must inevitably produce most disastrous results. Knowledge and liberty are not in themselves regenerative; they are only forms of power placed within the reach of the individual, enabling him to better disguise for a time, or to carry out on a broader scale, his real governing motives of character, and we all know that an increase of power, in the hands of any but the unselfish, only brings an increase of blasphemy, rebellion, and wo.
But the only remedy that the politician can think of is to regulate and restrain the causes; in other words, to regulate free speech and individual action. Here is the necessity and seeming justification of a paternal despotism. And history testifies that whenever a people have ceased to be capable of governing themselves, there has always been found waiting a man or a set of men anxious to assume the job. As a recent writer very ominously expressed it: “The populace have had their day, and have proved to be ignorant, criminal, and corruptible.”
Mr. Herbert Spencer, just before his death, expressed the conviction that the financial tyranny of the trusts in America would result in a civil war accompanied by immense bloodshed, and eventually in the establishment of a severe military despotism.
A Popular Trend.
We all know that there is everywhere a strong current setting in against the old-time principles of government by consent of the governed. When well-known scholars, like Dr. Lyman Abbott, undertake to lead this reaction, we can neither deny nor ignore this trend of the popular mind. For what the scholars advocate to-day, the people will believe and act upon to-morrow. What with the labor unions and with the trusts, we are certainly beholding the fast passing of individualism. And this not in America only, but in the Old World also. In every one of the great world powers the popular mind seems to be tending steadily away from the rights of the individual, and toward the aggrandizement of the state, subordinating everything to the one idea of corporate “progress.” Some go even further than this, for a prominent scientific writer recently remarked, “As care for the tribe preceded care for the nation, so care for the nation may only precede care for a federation of the nations.”
Suppression of Individual Rights.
But when this federation of the nations is really accomplished, altho it be but the exact logic of the evolution theory, may Heaven pity not only the smaller states, but the poor individual atom in every one of these great, soul-crushing machines. How can men acquainted with even the outlines of history be indifferent to the steady growth of this heaven-darkening despotism over the grave of liberty?
Some quotations in illustration of these tendencies may be useful.
Lord Salisbury, in his Guildhall speech of 1900, speaking of how well-conducted governments and clear thinking statesmen are liable to be hurried by popular clamor into actions directly contrary to their better judgment, said:
We can not be certain that any government will not yield its powers to the less educated and less enlightened classes, by whom more and more in many countries of the world public affairs are being governed.
Lord Strathcona, returning about the same time from Europe to Canada, is reported as saying, “There is a wave of imperialism sweeping irresistibly over Europe.” And in the current political agitation in England led by Joseph Chamberlain, we see a further development of this idea there.
In the United States these developments are even more marked. A generation ago who ever dreamed of seeing in a leading American magazine, such unblushing statements as the following about those historic sentences of the Declaration of Independence:
All men are simply not created equal in any possible sense of the word. . . . The creation of man has been a gradual process of evolution, and they have been coming into being in different parts of the earth through long generations, with differences and inequalities, which development has varied and widened, and not obliterated.—North American Review, December, 1899.
From this we see that the doctrine of universal Evolution is used as the reason and justification of this movement toward imperialism and away from the rights of the individual. A generation ago who ever dreamed that a paper like the Independent would set aside the great bulk of natural rights as only a “theory,” and appear well pleased that “the revolt against it grows apace”?
Subversive Principles of Government.
As was already stated, Dr. Lyman Abbott, the editor of The Outlook, is leading out in this crusade against men having any natural rights whatever. In a recent number of his paper, after declaring that government is not founded upon the consent of the governed, but upon the inherent right of every man to protect himself, his property and those dependent upon him, this author defines government as follows:
What is government?—It is nothing less than the control of one man’s will by another man’s will.
The real question as to the basis of government, then, is this. When has one man a right by his will to control the wills of other men, to overrule them, to substitute himself as the director of the action of other men, to make his personality dominate another’s personality? And this question brings us to the same result we have already reached,—he has the right to do this whenever that other is, in the exercise of his own will, violating the rights of his fellow-men.”
I can not here go into a discussion of this monstrous definition of government, or show how such a definition would not only answer for the most outrageous and absolute tyranny that was ever exercised upon the earth, but any that we can conceive of being exercised. As a recent reviewer has said of it: “Government is not the control of men’s wills; it is the protection of men’s rights. It has nothing whatever to do with the wills of men; it has only to do with the actions of men which infringe upon the rights of others. . . . Government, much less than being the control of one man’s will by another man’s will, is neither a matter of will on one side or the other; it is neither the enforcement of will nor the subjection of will. There is no need of quoting authority on this point. Search the annals of Anglo-Saxon history and jurisprudence from King Alfred down, and the overwhelming answer you will get is that there can be no rule of will but the rule of tyranny.”
These three journals quoted above might well be taken as representing almost all the educated American public. But they are much more than mere reflectors of public opinion. Perhaps no other three public agencies have such a moulding, educating influence upon public opinion, or can so turn its attitude on great public questions, but when the above are scattered broadcast with scarcely a word of protest we may well say that a most tremendous change has come over public sentiment, and we scarcely know how soon the full effect of these imperialistic doctrines will be seen in the process of practical application. Surely this phase of the evolution theory is fast ripening its harvest.
The Panacea of State Religion.
The other remedy, the other panacea for the evils of our time, that of religion by law, is just as logically the fruit of Evolution, if possible its results will prove even more horrible. The Roman Catholic Church has always advocated, and where practicable has practised, the enforcement of the teachings and worship of the church. Now the Protestant churches have for years been looking for the speedy triumph of religion over all forms of evil. Not seeing the progress desired in this direction, and having denied and discarded the “supernatural” part of religion, they seem to be planning for an organized raid on all unrighteousness to hasten on the speedy triumph of religion. Would it not be for the greatest good of the greatest number? Why should the commercial and industrial concerns secure all the benefit resulting from this new7system of organized and combined effort?
For many years these things have been discussed by the pulpit and the press, and the vast majority of all the real efforts of the church for the good of the world seem to be devoted more to the salvation of the state than to that of the individual, till the contagion of this trust fever has quickened their pulses, and we can see looming in the near distance a confederation together of all the “orthodox” churches for economy of work and to secure the enforcement of those things that are held by them in common. But in the light of the history of the first centuries, where a similar work was carried on and developed into the Roman Catholic Church, and the enforcement of its regulations by civil law, I would ask, What can we expect from such work but that worst of all despotisms, religion by law?
SCIENCE FALSELY SO CALLED.
By Ellen G. White
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
In these days when skepticism and infidelity so often appear in a scientific garb, we need to be guarded on every hand. Through this means our great adversary is deceiving thousands, and leading them captive according to his will. The advantage he takes of the sciences, sciences which pertain to the human mind, is tremendous. Here, serpent-like, he imperceptibly creeps in to corrupt the work of God.
This entering in of Satan through the sciences is well devised. Through the channel of phrenology, psychology, and mesmerism, he comes more directly to the people of this generation, and works with that power which is to characterize his efforts near the close of probation. The minds of thousands have thus been poisoned, and led into infidelity. While it is believed that one human mind so wonderfully affects another, Satan, who is ready to press every advantage, insinuates himself, and works on the right hand and on the left. And while those who are devoted to these sciences laud them to the heavens, because of the great and good works which they affirm are wrought by them, they little know what a power for evil they are cherishing; but it is a power which will yet work with all signs and lying wonders,—with all deceivableness of unrighteousness. Mark the influence of these sciences, dear reader; for the conflict between Christ and Satan is not yet ended.
If Satan were to make an open and bold attack upon Christianity, it would bring the Christian at once to the feet of his mighty Deliverer, who alone could put the adversary to flight. He does not generally do this. He is artful, and knows that the most effectual way for him to accomplish his designs is to come to poor, fallen man in the form of an angel of light. In this disguise he works upon the mind to allure from the safe and right path. He has ever been ambitious to counterfeit the work of Christ, and establish his own power and claims. He leads deceived mortals to account for the works and miracles of Christ upon scientific principles; he makes them appear as the result of human skill and power. In many minds he will thus eventually destroy all true faith in Christ as the Messiah, the Son of God.
Satan worked in a similar manner, when, through Moses, the power of God was manifested in Egypt. He well knew that Moses was chosen of God to break the yoke of bondage from off the children of Israel; and he also knew that in this work Moses was a type of Christ, who was to come to break the reign of sin over the human family, and to deliver those who were captives to its power. He was aware that when Christ should appear, mighty works and miracles would be wrought by Him, that the world might know that the Father had sent Him. He trembled for his power. He resolved to accomplish a work which should answer a twofold purpose: (1) To destroy the influence of Moses as the servant of God, by using his agents to counterfeit the true work of God; (2) To exert an influence by his work through the magicians which would reach down through all the ages, and in many minds destroy true faith in the mighty miracles to be performed by Christ when He should come to this world.
It was the power of God, and no human influence or power possessed by Moses, that produced those miracles wrought before Pharaoh. Those signs and wonders were designed to convince Pharaoh that the great “I AM” had sent Moses, and that it was the duty of the king to let Israel go, that they might serve the living God. Pharaoh called for the magicians to work with their enchantments. They also showed signs and wonders; for they wrought not by their own science alone, but by the power of their god, the devil, who through them ingeniously carried out his deceptive work. Yet even here the power of God was shown to be superior to that of Satan; for the magicians were unable to perform all the miracles which God wrought through Moses. Only a few of them could they do. The magicians’ rods did become serpents, but Aaron’s rod swallowed them up. And when they sought to produce lice, and could not, they were compelled to acknowledge, even to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.”
Satan was unwilling to have the children of Israel released from bondage that they might serve God. He wrought through the magicians in a manner to harden the heart of the tyrant against the miraculous manifestations of God’s power. He also thought to stagger the faith of Moses and Aaron in the divine origin of their mission, and then his instruments would prevail. But after the magicians had failed to produce the plague of lice, they could no more imitate Moses and Aaron. God would not suffer satanic deception to proceed further. His controlling power cut off the channel through which Satan worked, and even the instruments, through whom Satan wrought so wonderfully, could not save themselves from the plagues. We read: “The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians.”
When Christ came to earth, Satan renewed his attack. He came to the Saviour in the wilderness in the form of a beautiful young man,—more like a monarch than a fallen angel,—with Scripture in his mouth. Said he, “It is written.” He spread the world before Christ in the most attractive light, and intimated to Him that He need not endure so much suffering to gain its kingdoms; Satan would yield all his claims, if Christ would but worship him.
Satan was dissatisfied in heaven, because he could not be first and highest in command, equal with the Father, exalted above Christ. In the wilderness he hoped to gain advantage through the weakness and suffering of Christ, and obtain from Him that homage which he could not win in heaven. Could he have succeeded, then the plan of salvation would have failed, and mankind would have been plunged in hopeless misery. But Jesus yielded not to the suggestion of the tempter for a moment;8on the contrary, He asserted His superior power by bidding him, “Get thee hence.” Satan was baffled. He then turned his attention to accomplishing his purpose in another way,—by winning from the human race that honor which was refused him in heaven, and by Jesus on earth; and here he has been only too successful.
The plan of redemption was not defeated. The dear price has been paid for man’s ransom. And now our great adversary seeks to tear away the foundation of the Christian’s hope, by turning men’s minds into such a channel that they may not be benefited through the great sacrifice offered. He leads them to believe that they can do very well without an atonement; that they need not depend upon a crucified and risen Saviour; that their own merits will entitle them to God’s favor. And then he destroys confidence in the Bible, well knowing that, if he succeeds here, and faith in the detector which places a mark upon himself is destroyed, there are no bounds to the victories he may gain.
If the tempter can so deceive the human mind as to lead mortals to think that they possess the inherent power to perform great and good works, they cease to rely upon God. They acknowledge not a superior power. They give not God the glory which He claims, and which is due to His great and excellent Majesty. Satan’s object is thus accomplished; and he exults that fallen men presumptuously exalt themselves, as he exalted himself in heaven; and was cast out. He knows that, if they take this course, their ruin is just as certain as was his own.
Another means by which Satan seeks to separate the soul from God is to make man believe that prayer is but a useless form. He well knows how needful are meditation and prayer; and by his devices he would divert the mind from these important exercises, that the soul may not lean for help upon the mighty One, and obtain strength to resist his attacks. The prayer of faith is the great strength of the Christian, and will assuredly prevail. This is why Satan insinuates that we have no need of prayer.
Neglect of prayer leads men to rely on their own strength, and opens the door to temptation. In many cases the imagination is captivated by scientific research, and men are flattered through the consciousness of their own powers. The sciences which treat of the human mind are very much exalted. They are good in their place; but they are seized upon by Satan as his powerful agents to deceive and destroy souls. His arts are accepted as from Heaven, and he thus receives the worship which suits him well. The world, which is supposed to be benefited so much by phrenology and animal magnetism, never was so corrupt as now. Through these sciences virtue is destroyed, and the foundations of Spiritualism are laid. And thousands are conversing with, and receiving instructions from, this demon-god, and are acting according to his teachings, all the while supposing that they are obeying the voice of God through their dead friends.
[This important article will be concluded next week.]
Flattery Is a Sort of Bad Money
“FLATTERY is a sort of bad money, to which vanity gives currency.”
A PRAYER.
By Sarah S. Davis Sowell
LORD, save us! O’er our shrinking heads
The murky clouds hang low;
And fiercely from the darkening hills
The stormy tempests blow.
Lord, save us! All the weary day
We’ve toiled, and now when night
Falls ’round us, blinding us with gloom,
O, save us by Thy might.
Too much we’ve trusted our poor strength,
Too proudly braved the storm;
But now, while whelming floods roll high,
We fly to Thy strong arm.
For pride is broken, strength is gone;
Helpless upon the wave,
Our shattered bark lies, tempest-driven,
Waiting for Thee to save.
—Sarah S. Davis Sowell.
Salvation Through Christ’s Love
In the life-story of the Countess Schimmelmann we get the account of her own conversion. After weeks of conviction of sin, of darkness, and uncertainty, she seemed to hear God saying to her: “My child, thy salvation does not depend upon thy love to Me, but My love to thee, just as thou art.” “Then,” she adds, “broke upon my heart a sun of joy, in the beams of which I still rejoice, and whose life will shine upon me eternally. Now my cold heart began to burn, not on account of my love to Christ, but of His love to me.” This is the true pivot on which faith turns; the point of crisis where salvation becomes a conscious possession and delight.
Satisfactory to Rome.
Dr. B. F. Da Costa has well expressed the silent satisfaction with which the Roman Catholic Church sees that “all those forces of science, which it was once thought would be fatal to her, are now, in a way which constitutes one of the surprises of history, so grouping themselves as to afford her a new foundation.”
And we can trace it all to the effects of the scientific and philosophic teaching of the day. For it is the younger men, men educated in an atmosphere of Evolution and “Higher Criticism,” and accustomed from youth to hear the records of Genesis sneered at as “nursery yarns,” who are leading out along these lines. And, as it was in the Dark Ages, when the Bible was shut away from the people, and their ignorance of it resulted in crime and lawlessness on every side, and in their having no protection against their civil and ecclesiastical oppressors, so now we see iniquity abounding on every hand, and the people with no care for, or knowledge of, their danger from the religio-political combinations now forging the chains for their enslavement.
A religio-political despotism is the logical outcome of the evolution theory; its triumph is only a question of time; and its strength and universality when established can be estimated only by the popularity of the teaching which for nearly half a century has been preparing the world for just such a state of things, by teaching that the struggle for existence is the normal and not an abnormal condition of society, that man has developed from the lowest and crudest beginnings through this process, and can therefore complete the work of self-regeneration and purification without any outside, “supernatural” help or revelation.
The Sabbath
By L. A. Phippeny
By L. A. Phippeny
Jesus Christ, the Revelation and the Knowledge of God.
“No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me,” said Jesus; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.” “I am the way.”
The world is seeking after God,—some in one way, some in another way,—but is slow to recognize and acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the only revelation of the Father to humanity. If He is not, then there is some other way whereby we must be saved, and He was an imposter; for there are His words. And another word is, “There is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
These statements of Scripture are exceeding broad. It is not simply that He is the Revealer of divinity to humanity from the beginning of the Christian era. In order that these words shall be true, He is the Way from earth to heaven, the Door into the celestial realm from the beginning, and forevermore. He is the Saviour from the time a Saviour was needed. He is the Sacrifice from the beginning, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
All-embracing.
It is essential that this great fact be clearly grasped, that through one individual the fulness of the Godhead has been revealed to humanity, and not to humanity only, but to all created intelligences; that Jesus Christ, the world's Redeemer, is identical with the Word by whom all things were made; that “all things were created by Him, and for Him; and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.” It is essential that His words be believed when He said, “Before Abraham was, I am,” and “I and my Father are one.” Believing and grasping these facts as revealed, it still need not be assumed that Jesus, the Man, while on earth was self-conscious of His own life preceding the incarnation; but it must be believed that every principle, and teaching, and act of the Man Christ Jesus, while performing His mission among men, deviated not a shadow of turning from the principles of His own life before that time, and were based on those principles.
Not only were His teachings and deeds based on the divine principles inhering in Him previous to His work on earth as man, but they were a continuation of one great plan, another and advanced scene in the great controversy between truth and error. His resurrection, ascension, and official work by the Father's throne continue the story of redemption. Creator; “from the days of eternity” “with God;” yielding the equality and becoming the Angel of divine presence, the Leader of the chosen people, the Messiah, Redeemer, High Priest, King of Glory—indicate in a word the plan, and the outworking, and revealing, of the plan in which Jesus Christ appears as chief actor. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself” from the time it needed reconciliation. “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.”
Vicarious Atonement.
Therefore the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation, and there can be no other Gospel of salvation that has the power of God with it. The one who believes in Jesus Christ must believe in the fall of man and in man's utter inability to save himself by any deed of merit that he can himself do, and he will believe in the vicarious atonement. He must believe the Word which says that since the fall man is by nature dead in trespasses and sins. Believing that it is at once clear why the power of God is necessary to save men from their sins, for the power must be resurrection power, the power to give life,—creative power. And the greatest argument in favor of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that IT DOES THE WORK.
“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature [creation]; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” The old man of sin is crucified and dead; the new man lives because Christ lives within. The perplexities and cares that troubled before are not permitted to vex and worry now. The impatient spirit gives place to patience.
The man has heard and accepted the invitation, “Come unto Me, . . . and I will give you rest.” He has ceased from the works of the flesh and has entered into God's rest in Christ. The power of God has worked in him; he is resurrected, recreated, saved from sin. And the sign that salvation has been accomplished is his own soul-rest, as revealed in his life.
What Regeneration Means.
Then it is that the man is reconciled to God. Then it is that the man has ceased to be an alien—a foreigner. Then it is that the ignorance which was in him by reason of sin which caused him to forget God, has been changed. He is given a new mind,—a mind which knows and appreciates his Creator. God has been revealed to him and has taken up His abode with him. The life's conduct has been touched and transformed, and the Lord will do in and through him the works of righteousness. Christ enthroned within will do the Christ work in human flesh again, and from him will also sound on the call, “Come . . . and . . . rest.”
Then will have been accomplished God's purpose in creating man. “Where is the place of My rest?” is the question propounded by the Lord. “Where is the house that9ye build unto Me?” Ah! Here is the answer: “Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool.” My hand made them. No house that can be built can contain Me. Nevertheless My rest is not there. “But to this man will I look; even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word.” Who is the Questioner?—The one who made heaven and earth, the Leader of the people, the Redeemer, the Saviour.—“Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.”
This man in whom this Lord finds rest is a man after the Master's heart, for he has been created and re-created by Him in His own image. He is a man who fears God, and who trembles at His word. He honors that word, for it is a word that never changes, never deceives. It is a word of power, and salvation, and life. In the beginning it went forth from the Master-builder and made the earth the footstool. But the place of divine rest was not found until the Builder crowned His creative work by forming the man. Then He rested.
In the Image of His Creator
was the man made,—upright, perfect. And God dwelt with and in him, and the man knew God and entered into life and into the rest prepared for him. And there was a sign of that rest and knowledge given him. What was it?—The same sign that was given to Israel when the Lord revealed Himself to them in the mighty deliverance from the Egyptian death. “Hallow My Sabbaths,” He said to Israel, “and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.” The weekly cycle at creation was closed with the Sabbath, a joy and a delight to the man, and given to him as an outward sign of the wonderful life inaugurated for him and into which he had been ushered by creative power.
That sign is the same to-day as then. The same Creator lives and His Word remains unaltered. He looks to see if we fear and tremble at that Word, for He is looking for a place of rest.
[The next and third article in this series is “Blessing, Sanctification, and Knowledge.”]
Trusting God for Quiet of Mind
I do not know when or how it may please God to give you the quiet of mind that you need; but I tell you that I believe it is to be had; and in the meantime you must go on doing your work, trusting in God even for this.—Selected.
WORK FOR GOD.
By J. R. Miller, D.D.
All work is for God, in a certain sense. We do our business for Him. We keep house for Him. We drive the team, or run the engine, or keep the books, or sell the goods, or carry the mail, or sew the seams, or build the house, for Him. Yet it is true that, besides what we call our week-day work, all of us have special work to do for God, our “Father’s business.” We are in this world for Christ. Part of our duty, in addition to our secular affairs, is to do good in the ways that our divine Master may indicate, to perform the tasks of love and service that He may allot to us. All our busy days, for example, we are to be gentle, kindly, patient, Christly, to every one whose life touches ours. In the heaviest pressure of our task-work we must never fail to do the kindness that we are called to do. We must never be too much occupied in this world’s affairs to do the part of the good Samaritan, if by our path we find a wounded brother. We must get into every one of our days some work for Christ. We all remember the story of the king who counted that day lost in which some other life had not been made happier. That day is lost in a Christian’s life which has no record of blessing to the world and glory to God.—J. R. Miller, D.D.
HE WILL COME AGAIN.
By F. M. Wilcox
BY F. M. WILCOX.
THERE is, perhaps, no one theme in the Sacred Scriptures commanding so much attention as the coming of Christ to this earth. Almost every book of the Bible, and many, indeed, of its chapters, contain some allusion, direct or implied, to this great event. Christ will come again. His coming has been set before the church in all ages as its hope, the fruition of its joys, the culmination of its earnest desires and eager expectations. The Bible opens with a prediction which includes Christ's second advent (Gen. 3 : 15); and the beloved disciple closes the sacred canon with a prayer for the speedy return of his loving Master (Rev. 22 : 20). Prophet and apostle alike have made the coming of Christ in glory the grand central theme of their prophecies and teachings. To Enoch, the seventh from Adam, it stood as an anchor to the soul in the flood-tide of wickedness which sought to overthrow him: “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” Jude 14, 15. Job, in his sorrows and afflictions, found comfort in what awaited him at the coming of His Lord: “For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and tho after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God; whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; tho my reins be consumed within me.” Job 19 : 25–27. David in his persecutions could look with joy to the time when every wrong would be righted, and a difference made between the people of God and the enemies of His truth: “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people. Gather My saints together unto Me; those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.” Ps. 50 : 3–5. Thus in every age of the church has Christ's second advent been set before His people as their hope. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and a host of others have borne witness to its glorious reality.
But probably the most important testimony regarding Christ's return is found in the words of Christ Himself, and thus directly associated with Him. On the memorable night of His betrayal He comforts the sorrowing hearts of His followers with this promise: “Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14 : 1–3. At the time of His ascension the same promise is verified to us in the words of the angel: “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.” Acts 1 : 11.
Paul, and Peter, and James, and John, all bear witness to the return of Christ. There is no discord, no jar, in all the witness borne. With one universal voice the sacred writers proclaim the return of the Lord a second time to the earth. “And unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation”—their Redeemer and Saviour. Heb. 9 : 28; Isa. 25 : 9.
A PRAYER FOR HELP.
By Helen A. Steinhauer
BY HELEN A. STEINHAUER.
Send comfort down from Thy right hand
To cheer me in this barren land,
Great God, or I shall die!
'Tis not enough to know that Thou
In Heaven's courts art seated now;
For I here prostrate lie.
Prone on the earth,—weighed down by care;
By grief beyond my strength to bear,—
Behold Thy follower, Lord!
In vain I strive on Thee to lay
The burden of each weary day,
And trust Thy promised word.
Too weak my faith, too faint my heart;
Altho from it I fain would part,
The load remaineth there.
Like stricken deer I fain would hide
From all the prying world outside
What I alone must bear.
No human heart to share my woe—
No love to soothe to gentler flow
These bitter, scalding tears.
The sleepless anguish of my breast,
The cruel pain, the drear unrest,
The torture of my fears
Are known to One—and only One!
To Jesus, God's beloved Son,
To whom for help I cry:
Send comfort down from Thy right hand
To cheer me in this barren land,
Great God, or I shall die!
The Gift of Making Friends
BLESSED is the man who has the gift of making friends; for it is one of God's best gifts. It involves many things, but above all, the power of going out of one's self and seeing and appreciating whatever is noble and loving in another man.—Selected.
AT YOUR OWN DOOR.
SOPHIA had been praying for twelve years to become a foreign missionary. One day she had so prayed, and the heavenly Father seemed to say:
“Sophia, stop; where were you born?”
“In Germany, Father.”
“Where are you now?”
“In America, Father.”
“Well, are you not a foreign missionary already?”
Then the Father said, “Who lives on the floor above you?”
“A family of Swedes.”
“And who above them?”
“Why, some Switzers.”
“Who in the rear?”
“Italians.”
“And a block away?”
“Some Chinese.”
“And you have never said a word to these people about My Son! Do you think I will send you thousands of miles to the foreigner and heathen when you never care enough about them at your own door to speak with them about their souls?”—Selected.
