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Review and Herald, Vol. 88, No. 24.

A Song of Praise

Review and Herald

Jun 15, 1911

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 15, 1911

A Song of Praise

By Christopher Wordsworth

O LORD of heaven, and earth, and sea, To Thee all praise and glory be; How shall we show our love to Thee, Who givest all?
The golden sunshine, vernal air, Sweet flowers and fruits, Thy love declare; Where harvests ripen, Thou art there, Who givest all.
For peaceful homes and healthful days, For all the blessings earth displays, We owe Thee thankfulness and praise, Who givest all.
For souls redeemed, for sins forgiven, For means of grace and hope of heaven, O Lord, what can to Thee be given, Who givest all?
We lose what on ourselves we spend; We have as treasure without end Whatever, Lord, to Thee we lend, Who givest all.
O Thou from whom we all derive Our life, our gifts, our power to give, May we forever with thee live, Who givest all!
— Christopher Wordsworth.

July-August Issue

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

The Sentiment of this number is ===
“I’ll Find a Way, or Make It”
This sentiment pertains to the gaining of an education by the youth of the denomination. The July-August number reveals to the student how an education may be gained under all circumstances.
All parents who are face to face with the delicate work of laying educational foundations that will endure, and will be a strong support for subsequent work in our schools, will find some true principles and helpful suggestions in the July-August number of Christian Education.
All teachers will find material for meditation and reasons for encouragement in such subjects as —
“Called to Be a Teacher.”
“The Teacher’s Compensation.”
“The Teacher’s Dream.”
The youth will be enlightened, instructed, and encouraged in such parts of this issue as treat of —
“The Economy of Educating Ourselves.”
“Openings for the Educated.”
“The Educational Rights of Our Children.”
One whole section is devoted to educational work, showing how the student may make ends meet financially while attending school, and some of the ways in which this is actually being done. This is the most important lesson for the youth to learn.
In this number, testimonials are given from a large number of men and women, ripe in the experiences of life, concerning the estimate that they place upon the value of school training in their life-work. Many testimonials from students in schools at the present time, in which they give expression to their ideas of the value of what they are getting before putting it to the test in the field, are also given.
Why talk about, why think about, and why dream about educating ourselves? Why not read the last issue of Christian Education, and learn how to make it a reality? This issue of the magazine will tell you how to secure an education.
Yearly subscription, 50 cents.
Five or more subscriptions to one address, cash with the order, 35 cents each; 1 to 4 copies July-August number, 10 cents each; 5 to 40 copies, one order, to one address, 5 cents each; 50 or more copies, 4 cents each.
Send All Orders Through Conference Tract Societies

With Jesus

By WORTHIE HARRIS HOLDEN

WORTHIE HARRIS HOLDEN
Has Jesus a place at your table, When you lay care aside for the night? If friends “happen in,” or are bidden, Do you witness for Jesus aright?
He waits by your dwelling to enter, He stands by your counter to bless; Is your ledger accounting with Jesus? Does your day-book his entries attest?
His great heart of love is still yearning A blessing unknown to bestow; Would we live with our Jesus in heaven, We must welcome his presence below.
Portland, Ore.

The Blessing of Turning Away From Iniquity

By T. E. Bowen

T. E. BOWEN
PETER, in pressing home to the elders and chief priests, after Jesus’ ascension, their sin in having chosen Barabbas for release and Jesus for crucifixion, used this expression in appealing to them to turn to God: “Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.” Acts 3:26.
The silence of Jesus when abused by the mob was a wonder to all who beheld. Pilate marveled. Herod could not understand how Jesus could endure such treatment without a word of complaint. Over and over Pilate pronounced him innocent, and said he was a just person. When he heard the Jews state that Jesus had claimed to be the Son of God, he was all the more troubled; for he knew this man was different from any he had ever met. But because of the terrible, demon-like howling of the Jewish mob, which prevailed in the crisis, he permitted Jesus to be led away and crucified.
Marvelous love of God the Father for the murderers of his Son! Notwithstanding all they had done in so cruelly treating his beloved Son, through Peter this message was sent to the very men who led the cry, “Crucify him:” “Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.”
We still pray for God to bless us, and we repeat the prayer over and over. But do we always sense what we are asking? God desires to bless us. He is more anxious to bless us than we are that he should. But in the text quoted it is pointed out that he sought to bless his people on this occasion by turning them away from their iniquities. Actually, this was the greatest blessing he could send them. To bestow this blessing, he sent his own Son; but somehow his chosen people so loved their iniquities that they “killed the Prince of Life,” “denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer.” All this they did while Jesus was gently yet earnestly trying to turn them away from their iniquities.
Is God less anxious to bless us to-day with this same blessing? Shall we likewise refuse it? At that time God desired to bless “every one,” by turning him from sin; and he desires to do the same thing for “every one” to-day.
To be delivered from bondage—what a blessing! Suppose, after the war of the rebellion, when thousands shed their life-blood to free a nation of slaves, they had refused the freedom from bondage purchased at such tremendous cost! It has cost Heaven much to prepare the way to free us from bondage. Shall we refuse the terms of release? There is but one Name given under heaven by which this release can be obtained. The name “Jesus” implies all this: “And thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” For this purpose was he born; for this purpose was he raised up; and this is the one purpose before him as he ministers on high,—to bless us by turning every one of us away from our iniquities. Shall we, or shall we not, let him thus bless us?
Takoma Park, D. C.

Perfect Union Only in Christ

By Clarence Santee

CLARENCE SANTEE
To-DAY men are associating themselves together in unions of different types, with the hope of making economic conditions better. When one organization fails to accomplish its purpose, it seeks a stronger one, evidently believing that ultimately the combination will be so strong that all opposition will be overborne, and the goal will be attained.
But what is the goal sought? Is it to make men better? Is it to relieve the wants of a larger number of suffering men and women? Combinations and unions, actuated by the right spirit, could be a means of accomplishing these much-to-be-desired ends; but as long as self rules in the hearts of men, such combinations will but add to the distress that it is vainly hoped will be removed. The prophet, looking with the eye of inspiration down the ages, has said: “Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught. . . . Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy.”
We do not need to seek far to find the reasons why unions and associations do not, and under present conditions can not, conduce to the permanent betterment of social relations. The object sought is to wield a greater power, a more successful warfare, against all who may oppose or obstruct their progress toward universal control.
The heart of the individual is the same, whether alone or associated with others of like ambitions. It cries out, as did Lucifer, “I will be like the Most High.” Even if that object were attained, the craving spirit would not be at rest, but would weep that there were not other worlds to conquer. Self can never rest content.
Disguise the issue as we may, the desire to build up self upon the basis of other men’s downfall and financial ruin, —though these men may be equally good, equally deserving, with helpless loved ones equally depending upon them, —enters into all the ambitions of sordid, money-loving, worldly hearts; and of such as these, unions are largely composed.
If some philanthropist, with a desire to accomplish some great achievement, associates with himself other men for counsel and additional means, it is but a short time before the element of life and growth for all is lost from this laudable enterprise, or association, and the self-centered principle of absorption becomes the ruling, controlling power that binds it together.
Legislation can not eliminate the dangerous element. One reason for this is that legislation—if “by the people”—is enacted by the same persons who form these unions, which exist for the different ends sought, and which are often directly opposed the one to the other. Another reason is that legislation can not change the human heart. If one leak is apparently stopped, another must break out. Unions and their aims are but the outgrowth of the sentiments and desires of human hearts; and these sentiments and desires, no laws, however wisely framed, can control or change. Only the acceptance of the spirit of the Man of Calvary can change the desires of the heart, and cause the spirit of the sacrifice of self for others’ good to enter and reign.
While this spirit may obtain the mastery in willing individual hearts, by acceptance of the power of God in Christ, it is foreign to unions and confederations, to their aims, and to the causes for their existence. This being so, they can not but be a hindrance to the only power that can work permanent good and salvation to men.
Loma Linda, Cal.

The Nature of Its Teachings

By J. O. Corliss

Tracings of the Prophetic Gift—No. 6

The Nature of Its Teachings

J. O. CORLISS
It is positively affirmed by the writer of the letter to the Hebrews that God spoke unto the fathers “by [literally, in] the prophets.” Just how this was done may be gathered from the statement of one of these prophets; namely, David. He says: “The Spirit of the Lord spake by men, and his word was in my tongue.” 2 Sam. 23:2. In other words, the indwelling Spirit of God breathed the divine will through the prophet’s lips, causing the expression of that will to be uttered in words from the tongue of the human instrument.
This placed the prophet above kings and priests, causing both to bow to the divine authority spoken through the fleshly organ of God’s revealed will. For this reason the near-by counselors of the earlier kings of Israel were chosen from the ranks of the prophets. Thus Samuel was Saul’s source of appeal in matters of importance (1 Sam. 15:1), as Nathan was to David (2 Sam. 7:1-3; 12:1, 7), and also to Solomon (1 Kings 1:45).
A careful study of the books of the Bible written by the ancient prophets reveals the fact that an important part of their teaching was historical, connecting past events with the present, thus giving a basic support for a connected view of God’s dealings with his people from the very first. Without such historical connection, one could have no basis of faith for personal trust in God’s helpful dealings with man in either the present or the future.
We may, therefore, believe that in the “schools of the prophets” many hours were occupied in the study of past events, the recital of which was to form the groundwork of confidence in God to those whom they were yet to direct in the way of righteousness. Through this line of study the unity of God, or the simplicity of his eternal purpose, was established. This done, the superstitions among the people, who would set up idols, or false gods, in his place, could be attacked with withering energy and to a definite purpose, as by Elijah and Isaiah. 1 Kings 18:27; Isa. 44:16.
One remarkable feature of the positive teachings of the prophets, as contrasted with the negative, was the assertion of the divine spiritual essence,—his morality, justice, goodness, and love. This was the first burden of every prophet of the Old Testament, and was continually increased in the New Testament prophets. Thus Christ, the Prophet above all prophets, constantly called attention to the infinite attributes of Jehovah, as they had been taught by prophets of old, and said: “Ye believe in God, believe also in me.” John 14:1. The reason for this appeal is apparent from another statement made by the Saviour: “No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Verse 6. In other words, Jehovah, who at first called light out of darkness by his word, now gives to the darkened hearts of men the light of the knowledge of his own glory “in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Cor. 4:6.
To reveal his divine attributes to men has ever been the purpose of God, not only through his “only begotten Son,” but also through the “sons of the prophets.” This was to destroy the common tendency of religious forms to ignore morality, and on this account form an inseparable unity between morality and religion. This was only possible by establishing the sense of morality above the mere ritual of speculative dogma, and was the work of all the prophets, as may be seen by reference to a few of their positive doctrines.
Thus Samuel said to Saul: “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to harken than the fat of rams.” 1 Sam. 15:22. Repentant David said: “Thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” Ps. 51:16, 17. Chiding Micah spoke thus to Israel: “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” Micah 6:8. Isaiah’s message to the same people is: “Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble [burden] unto me. I am weary of bearing them. . . . Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings; . . . cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.” Isa. 1:14-17.
The “weightier matters of the law,”—judgment, mercy, faith, goodness, and truth,—rather than an endless round of hollow ceremonies, were the constant theme of the prophets. This assertion of the supremacy of the moral and spiritual above the ceremonial, draws a decided contrast between the work of the prophets and that of the priests of the Old Testament. It was the same with the teachings of the Lord Jesus. His chief protests were directed against the ceremonials of his day on which the Jewish church rested for salvation. The writer of the book of Hebrews continued to teach that the sacrifice of animals was no longer available as service to God, but that men are to be sanctified by the will of God through the offering of the body of Christ. Heb. 10:4-10.
The same prophetic strain is heard throughout the epistles. Love is there raised above every other attainment. 1 Corinthians 13. The companionship of the Spirit is to be sought above miraculous signs (Eph. 3:9, 16-19), and thus the “fulness of God” is to be received. This is an apparent impossibility; but through the deep breathing of God’s spirit through the person, this utmost degree may be reached.
It must come, however, in God’s established way; that is, through communion and fellowship with God. The will of God must be known and followed. But as the natural darkness of one’s heart is liable to becloud the intent of God’s Word given by ancient speech, in his goodness and love God makes known his will through chosen instruments for each generation. Then, lest one should lean too strongly on his own mischievous judgment in spiritual things, God warns all not to quench the Spirit and so despise prophesyings. 1 Thess. 5:19, 20.
Archbishop Whately once said: “It makes all the difference in the world whether we put the duty of truth in the first place or in the second place.” The spirit of the world in general first asks concerning a spiritual requirement, “Is it expedient?” and second, “Is it necessary?” Not so, however, with the spirit of the prophets. Its first consideration is whether a thing is right; and its second, how it may be accomplished.
It only needs that attention be directed to the prophetic gift to see that, as oracles of God and counselors to the people of their day, real prophets must be endowed with power of discernment to penetrate the human heart, in order to address themselves to the special emergencies of each particular and individual case. Oftentimes the prophet was and is consulted for wisdom to deal with special or perplexing cases. When Saul in his wanderings became anxious about his father, who was left at home, and went to inquire of Samuel about his welfare, the prophet was prepared to tell him more than he sought to know, because God had, on the previous day, given the prophet a quiet view of Saul and of his future. 1 Sam. 9:5, 15, 16. The Shunammite woman, also, went at new moons and on Sabbaths to consult the prophet at Mount Carmel. 2 Kings 4:23-25.
It was more usual, however, for the prophet to address himself voluntarily to the persons or situations needing correction or encouragement. Sometimes these utterances came suddenly, and without warning, as in the case of Elijah’s meeting with Ahab in Naboth’s vineyard, which he had seized after having killed the owner. 1 Kings 21:17-20.
Great calamities were frequently turned to account by the prophets, and held before the people to move the national or individual conscience. Elijah used the long drought (1 Kings 17, 18), and Amos employed the earthquake (Amos 1:1, 2), as a basis of spiritual education.
Mountain View, Cal.

The Holy Spirit

By Florence J. Morrison

FLORENCE J. MORRISON
How comfortingly Christ talked to his disciples just before his ascension to heaven! He knew the experiences they would have in preaching the gospel to the world. He knew some would be persecuted, some would be cast into dark prisons, and some would suffer martyrdom. More than all, he knew how much they needed a special preparation for the gospel work. He knew how much they needed the Holy Spirit to strengthen them in times of greatest need.
How wonderfully was Peter sustained when he stood before that great throng of many nationalities, and by the aid of the Holy Spirit preached that powerful sermon on the day of Pentecost! He traced the gospel message all the way down through the prophecies, and proved beyond a doubt that Christ had been prophesied of; that he had come to this earth, and fulfilled his mission as the Son of God; that he had been crucified and laid in the tomb; and that he had arisen the third day.
Christ promised to give his disciples the Holy Spirit, which he knew they must have in order to go forth preaching the gospel message to the world. The scenes witnessed on the day of Pentecost were a demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit. Peter's sermon was so convincing and forcible that it led the multitude to a conviction of sin, and they cried out, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Acts 2:37. As a result of this sermon, three thousand persons were converted.
How deeply we are moved when we read of this wonderful experience! But do Christ’s followers in these last days realize that the Holy Spirit is promised to them in no less degree, and will accompany them until he comes whose right it is to reign, and receives his faithful children unto himself?
Blessed thought! It is for those who labor in the last gospel message to realize fully the leadings of the Holy Spirit, even though their experiences may be altogether different from those recorded in the Book of God. It is the privilege of all to know and feel the full assurance of the divine leadings of the Holy Spirit in all things.
May the study of the Sabbath-school lessons this quarter inspire all fully to sense the power of the Holy Spirit. The Lord is no respecter of persons. He gives his sympathy, his blessings, his love, his power, and his Holy Spirit to every one who desires these blessings, who lives and labors for them, and who has a receptive heart to receive them.
Ouray, Colo.

Blindness in Part

By F. D. Starr

F. D. STARR
“Blindness in part is happened to Israel.” Rom. 11:25. Partial blindness is a peculiar condition. Having had the misfortune to be in this physical state for a limited time, some reflections have come quite forcibly to my mind concerning the import of this scripture.
Those who are afflicted with spiritual blindness are not always completely deprived of sight. Peter says of some that they are “blind, and can not see afar off.” 2 Peter 1:9. If they were totally blind, they could not see either near or far off.
One of the most noticeable characteristics of this partial loss of eyesight is that the afflicted one is not able to discern between a substance and a shadow. He may stumble into a tree, thinking it to be nothing but a shadow; or he may lift his foot high to step over the shadow of a fallen tree, thinking it to be the tree itself.
The poor, blind Pharisee brought to view in Matt. 23:16–26, was in this very predicament. With him the external forms of religion were of supreme importance, while true moral obligations were of little account. He mistook the shadowy ritual for the eternal obligations of the divine code, and vice versa. “I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.” Hosea 8:12.
So it is with the poor, blind antinomian of to-day: he can not discern between that which was merely a shadow of good things to come, and the substantial demands of the decalogue. A shadow is but an imperfect outline of what it represents, “and not the very image of the things.” Heb. 10:1. “Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances [“rites,” or “ceremonies,” margin], imposed on them until the time of reformation.” Heb. 9:10. This is the description of the ceremonial law, or law of ceremonies; it became extinct at the cross which cast that shadow.
A shadow has no weight, but the demands of the decalogue are very weighty. “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” Matt. 23:23.
Mercy is a matter of the decalogue—“Showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep my commandments.” Do we desire to obtain mercy? Then let us keep his commandments. Faith is also a matter of the law; for “whatsoever is not of faith is sin,” and “sin is the transgression of the law.” Judgment is a matter of the law; for by that law all will be judged in the final day. James 2:12.
It was because the shadows of the old dispensation were being substituted for the moral precepts of the law and true faith in Christ, that it became necessary to call the council of which such a lucid account is given in Acts 15. Many could not look to the end of that which is abolished, such as the carnal ordinances and shadowy sabbaths. But the sabbath of the decalogue, given in Eden (before the age of shadows), the memorial of Jehovah’s rest, was the substance and not the shadow. “Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” Ps. 119:18.
Forest, Idaho.

A Restless Age

By C. H. Bliss

C. H. BLISS
All observers who mingle more or less in society to-day, easily recognize the increasing nervous, restless disposition of the masses; it is not uncommon for one who distributes reading-matter among the people to be asked for new and startling literature. Old men, old ideas, and old beliefs are relegated to the rear. The churches are seeking young men, fresh from the colleges, to serve them as pastors. Many of these are entirely lacking in reverence for the Bible and for the God of the Bible; and the patriarchs and prophets of olden times are by them considered but a few degrees above the ape or baboon from which they say all men have ascended. One minister, a graduate of a theological school, remarked in my presence that “Solomon, if living to-day, would be considered an old fool.”
Most of the old men are gone, at least from the churches. Occasionally one or two old, gray-haired veterans are seen sitting in the amen corner; but it is remarkable how quiet they keep. The hearty “amens” and expressions of approval, once heard, have largely gone. The sermons seem to have little effect, and one seldom hears the remark, “That sermon did me good.” The old-fashioned class-meeting has also nearly passed away.
On Sunday afternoon, many church-members are seen at the theater or the ball game, or they are at home reading fictitious stories in the magazines. The Sunday shows, the parks, and a thousand other attractions in the cities satisfy the restless cravings of a restless age. Not long ago the pastor of a popular church was requested to deliver a series of up-to-date lectures for the Sunday morning services; but he preferred to give a few practical discourses, hoping thereby to give an uplift to the moral standard of his people. He was soon informed, that his services were no longer desired by that church. Another minister told me that he had lost his pastorate because he spoke against the saloon; another failed because of his age and build, his congregation desiring a tall, slender-appearing man for a pastor.
We are living in an age when men are deified, receiving the honor which should be given to God. Saul was great in the eyes of the people, but he proved a failure. So it was in the days of Christ. To the Jews he said, “How can ye believe, which receive honor one from another?” It is God who takes men and uses them to glorify himself. We are but clay in the hands of the potter. Even Christ glorified not himself. Only he who humbles himself will be exalted.
Peoria, Ill.

Higher Criticism

By Harry Matthew Carvill

HARRY MATTHEW CARVILL
This is an age of enlightenment. We have empiricism in everything,—in medicine, in science, in politics, and even in religion. The empirics, who are the so-called New Theology ministers, and teachers of the theories of Higher Criticism, deal not only in quack medicines and in political legerdemain, but also in the once hallowed tenets of a holy religion. Our modern theologians feast us on New Thought, evolution, Higher Criticism, and Christian Science, to say nothing of a thousand and one other newfangled notions and isms.
While it is well known that there is a movement in the churches called Higher Criticism, or better known as the New Theology, many are unaware of its real nature, and imagine that because it is welcomed by many great theological scholars and noted divines of the present century, it must certainly be of great importance. In this they greatly err; and without examining its history, or even testing its fruit (for “ye shall know them by their fruits”), many, alas, have been blindly led headlong by its teaching to the very brink of infidelity.
The world is filled with infidelity and scoffing, most of which can be easily traced back to its fountainhead,—the teaching of Higher Criticism, which has so mutilated God’s Word that the ministers themselves are slowly but surely losing faith in the divine compass, and thus beginning to preach without either faith or conviction.
These Higher Critics tell us, as an apology for their ever-changing theories, that this is an age of enlightenment and of progress. Is the heaping of absurdity on absurdity, and the adding of vagary to vagary, any evidence of enlightenment or of progress? They also tell us that this is the age of mental liberty and of free and open inquiry in everything,—from things in the most humble walks of life to those in the highest realms of philosophy and religion. Is there, then, no difference between rational liberty, trammeled only by the fetters of sober reason and by the golden bonds of obedience to a divinely constituted and clearly ascertained divine religion, and that licentiousness of intellect which knows and acknowledges no restraint whatever, either human or divine? Must we be the sons of infidelity, and shake off all restraint of every kind, in order to be free and broad-minded? If liberty can be attained only on such conditions, and at such frightful cost to the human soul, then away with liberty.
If one takes the time to listen to one of the exponents of the so-called Higher Criticism speak on the Bible, he finds that these new and up-to-date ministers have absolutely nothing new to say on the subject. And I have often found a curious lack of originality among the so-called freethinkers in the theories of Higher Criticism; in fact, their thoughts can hardly be designated as “free,” or “broad,” when they all run in such narrow grooves of similitude. Their opinions differ scarcely a whit from those of the common infidel.
Nothing but a return to the old paths and the blessed Bible can ever heal the disorders of the present age, and give a wholesome impulse and direction to its tendencies. Higher Criticism has been tried, and it has failed; it has aggravated instead of healing, making infidels instead of saints, and has miserably failed to stop the crying evils of the times.
Globe, Ariz.

Faith in the Future Made Easy

By Elihu, Jr.

ELIHU, JR.
Let us compare the transition which our Father promises to make in his faithful children in the morning of the resurrection, with some of the transformations that are taking place daily before our eyes. Of this change Paul says: “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.” Again, speaking of the change that will take place in “our vile body” at the coming of “the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ,” the apostle declares that it “shall be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.”
In nature, as we have often seen, sun-energy is transformed into material substances, including food. This food is again transformed into flesh, blood, and bones, and thought, feeling, and emotion. Further, thought is made dependent entirely on right relations to even so gross a substance as water. Let a human being be deprived of water (moisture) for ten days, and the mind will be totally deranged; or let fever germs get into the blood, and the same thing will occur. Again, let the nerves of the brain be thrown out of harmonious relationship, and the mind will soon be broken up.
As I look upon the body and its intricate mechanism, and consider the mighty and wonderful working of creative power that can thus transform material substances, and even go so far as to generate mind out of, and make it dependent on, material energy, I can not conceive that the future change to a spiritual body is any more wonderful or mysterious than the changes we already see taking place.
None of these changes toward spiritual power and substance would be possible had not spiritual power, in the first acts of creation, been changed into what we call physical laws and material substances.
Who would for one moment believe that the block of coal could be changed into heat, and made to generate life in the egg, unless he had seen it done? Who would believe that oil could be changed into light and warmth, unless so taught by experience? Again, who would believe that the weight and motion of the water in the stream could be changed into electricity, and conveyed for miles, to appear again as power, and be changed into light and heat and motion? Every one of these and of a thousand other processes in nature is utterly beyond our comprehension. So, likewise, is the resurrection of the dead.
Where, then, is there room for unbelief in God’s promises? There would be none if men were studying the works of God in nature, as they are developing on the right hand and on the left. There are, in our every-day lives, phenomena just as mysterious as any of the unseen phenomena of the kingdom of God in its most intricate workings. In the light of these facts, we can appreciate what the psalmist meant when he said: “Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up.” Ps. 28: 5. If men knew God and his almighty power as revealed in his works, they would not seek excuses for not believing all his promises. Nothing would be too wonderful for them to believe.
And if human minds were taught to gratify their innate love of the marvelous by studying the deep things of God, as revealed in his works, there would be neither time nor disposition left to chase after the wild, imaginative literary fiction that is so popular with the mass of mankind to-day, and which, more than anything else, hinders faith, and makes it distasteful.
To know God through his works is to prepare to know him through his Word. To become thus acquainted with him is to be satisfied, rested, refreshed and strengthened, and prepared for life both here and hereafter. His works are to the revelations of his Word what the illustrations in a book are to the printed page, only they are living, moving pictures. If the pictures are attractive, one the sooner learns to love the text.
Let us, then, devoutly study and accept all those things which bring rest and peace, and place us in harmony with our environment, through filial obedience and resignation to the divine will.
Los Angeles, Cal.

The One Who Did His Best

By Walter A. Brooks

The one who did his best has no occasion to waste time on wishing he had done otherwise.—Walter A. Brooks.

GEORGE E. TACK

By GEORGE E. TACK

Service

GEORGE E. TACK

I HAVE not wealth nor great estate To offer thee, my Lord, Nor servants that my call await, And haste to do my word.
So poor am I that none of wealth Care if I die or live; And yet I have a priceless wealth That I to them would give.—
The treasures of thy wondrous love, The health thou dost impart, The health of mind and soul, which prove Thy presence in the heart.
A pleasure deep I ever find, As from fair nature’s store I bring her wealth, from sunbeams mined, To lavish on thy poor.
Then grant me of thine own free grace The holy gifts I need, To banish tears from every face, And bind the hearts that bleed.
Baltimore, Md.
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