VII. Evidence of the Sinister Origin of Spiritualistic Phenomena
The Rev. Dr. J. G. Raupert, of London, after many years of painstaking, scientific research in the world of Spiritualism, asserts: “To me it would be impossible to think of the dead as the originators of these mysterious communications, and of the moral and intellectual confusion and chaos necessarily resulting from them.”
No psychical researcher has delved more deeply than has Dr. Raupert. There is no phase of Spiritualism to which he has not given the most careful attention. He is an acknowledged adept in the difficult art of photographing spirit apparitions. He has talked for hours with unseen intelligences in a way that fully persuaded him of their independent individuality; he has witnessed all of the marvelous things known to spiritualistic seances; yet, despite all this experience, he believes that, so far from being produced by the discarnate spirits of the good who have departed this life, everything that he has seen and studied can be traced directly to a distinctly evil influence.
He is fully convinced, as are hundreds of the world’s greatest thinkers, that the manifestations which we know as psychical phenomena, are produced by absolutely independent intelligences, and not by the sensitive, or medium. “To me,” he says, “it seems far more reasonable to believe that altho we may have independent intelligences operating, they are not necessarily ‘spirits’ of the dead.”
“Spirits” Contradict One Another
Dr. Isaac K. Funk declares that the greatest hindrance to accepting the identity hypothesis is the crass contradiction that characterizes the “messages.” He recounts this experience: “Through one of the best mediums I ever met I was told that the spirit of Theodore Parker wished me to do a certain thing. This was explicit. Three days later, I was with another medium, whom I believed and still believe to be honest. Theodore Parker reported himself as present, but denied all knowledge of the previous interview, saying that he was not there and had said nothing of the kind. Since that time I have had Theodore Parker reported as present at a dozen seances through different mediums, and have not yet been able to have him recognize any previous interview that I have had with him.
“This is not exceptional, but is typical of a multitude of experiences. One explanation of this lack of harmony is that these spirits are not what they claim to be.”
Dr. Funk says further: “Note this lack of harmony. Through one medium of remarkable power, and, to my mind, unqualified honesty, a spirit described to me with great particularity his trip to the planet Mars; he described the inhabitants, their civilization as further advanced than ours, the fauna, the flora — all this from personal observation. Sometime afterward through another medium equally creditable, another spirit told me of his trip to Mars, telling me that he found it wholly uninhabited and practically destitute of animal and vegetable life. I informed this latter intelligence of what the other spirit had assured me he had found true in his trip to that ruddy planet. His reply was: ‘I can not help what he said. I am telling you what I know.’
“Some spirits assure me that there are animals and flowers and trees galore on the spirit plateaus connected with the earth; others tell me there are not. Some tell me they have there hospitals and schools and churches; others the reverse. Some tell me that no one in the spirit realm believes in what we call God; others that He is preached and believed in far more there than here.”
The noted Spiritualist, Dr. J. M. Peebles, wrote Dr. Funk that such contradictions were not uncommon experiences. He gave Dr. Funk an instance of a prominent Spiritualist who had consulted thirty mediums upon the subject of identifying and communicating with a relative of his in the spirit world. “In these communications,” he said, “there were twenty-seven contradictions and no positive proof that identified his brother.”
It is undeniably true that even those “spirits” that pose as the highest of spirit intelligences, differ so hopelessly in all their assertions, including their descriptions of conditions existing in the next world, that it is absolutely impossible to harmonize them. In short, their several systems not only show nothing approaching unity, but are utterly destructive of each other. In Budapest and Paris they teach the doctrine of reincarnation; in England and the United States they deny it. Unprejudiced investigators tell us that some “controls” teach what is practically the orthodox view of heaven and hell, while the learned “spirits,” writing through the hand of Stainton Moses, promulgate teachings in which all the tenets of orthodox Christianity are explained away. It is certain, then, that all these spirits can not be right. It must be that some of them are teaching lies under the guise of lofty truths. How, therefore, can we believe any of them? The famous psychical investigator, Dr. V. Maxwell of Paris, attests “that there is a formal, absolute, and irreconcilable contradiction between Anglo-Saxon and Continental ghosts.”
Dr. Van Eeden, the noted Dutch scholar, gives a glaring illustration of “spirit” mendacity. He said recently: “During several sittings I believed that the question of identity had been solved — that I was really in communication with a friend who had been dead for sixteen years. When I left the medium I felt that the evidence was practically complete. But when I returned to Holland I discovered that there were inexplicable errors. If I were really holding intercourse with the deceased he could never have made such errors as I found in my notes. And what was noteworthy was that these errors were always in the details that I did not myself know, and which I was not able to correct at the time.”
Dr. Van Eeden says that he satisfied himself that the intelligence could not have been that of the medium. Neither could the information have come from his own mind. The only possible conclusion left, he declares, is that it was an independent intelligence “that was personating this departed friend.” The exposure of the “control” was owing to the fact that Dr. Van Eeden demanded information that he himself did not then know. As a result, most of that information turned out to be false when subsequently investigated.
The Practise of Spiritualism Tends to Disrupt Family Ties
In one of his popular lectures, Mr. G. G. Hubbell said, in respect to the trend of spiritualistic practise, that from its inception it was surrounded by such a vast mass of fraud, credulity, and immorality that it fell into utter disrepute from which it has been powerless to emerge. The movement6tended unfailingly to introduce discord into every family that tampered with it. It arrays husband against wife in the divorce court, and produced all manner of domestic infelicities and sexual irregularities. “This,” says Mr. Hubbell, “is a strange result of a belief which teaches that we are surrounded by the spirits of our beloved dead who see all we do.” Can not Mr. Hubbell see that it is not at all strange? for, Spiritualism, teaching what he says it does, teaches lies, since the inspired word categorically declares that when a man dies “in that very day HIS THOUGHTS PERISH.” Ps. 146: 3, 4. Can anything good come out of a system of lies?
Dr. J. G. Raupert testifies similarly, thus: “Personally, I have known hundreds of cases in which homes have been wrecked and lives ruined from paying too much attention to spiritualistic things, and that is the reason why I have been sent to America — that I might warn the people of the dangers they are running in allowing themselves to be carried away by a force of which we know little, and, even in that little, nothing good.”
Undermines Faith in the Scriptures
Dr. I. K. Funk gives the following as a sample of many speeches by “spirits” that he has heard in the seance room:
“O ye foolish men, when will ye learn that spirits are not infallible and that mediums are not infallible and that Bibles of the earth are not infallible? Your Bible was not given to you as an infallible guide to save you from thinking out these things, but only to serve as hints and suggestions as do the teachings of professors in schools. No man is free from working out his own salvation, intellectual or moral or spiritual. Your Bible has been taken from the greatest and best utterances of the men who lived nearest the plane of God and holy angels; but THINK NOT THAT THESE ARE UNERRING. . . . There is that within us that responds to truth as the soul of the musician recognizes an oratorio of Handel.”
Is it thinkable that the spirits of the righteous dead — if such spirits existed — would promulgate teachings so utterly subversive of the divine inspiration of the Christian Scriptures, by which alone they had been led to the only Source of righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ?
Leads to Demon Worship and Tragic Death
Every one who persists in communing with the dark and terrible forces that swarm in the realm of Spiritualism will ultimately become hopelessly enslaved to those malignant powers. Already there are thousands in Europe and America who are irreclaimably enthralled by the powers of death. They find themselves irresistibly drawn down into the terrors and blackness of everlasting death. This collaboration with the diabolic powers of the unseen world our ancestors rightly called magic. To-day, as always, it is a perilous practise — the most perfidious psychic intoxicant.
Not long ago Mr. Vance Thompson made an extended study of these dark exploits of modern magic — of Spiritualism run to seed. He confined his observations mostly to Paris. He tells us that he has been able to lift but a corner of the veil that hides the necromantic life of modern Paris. Yet he succeeded in getting a very close view of the stormy and mystic adventures in this city of latter-day sorcery. He has seen men die and men go mad in their attempts to explore the land beyond the visible frontier — that weird and misty land where demonic forces hold devouring sway.
These dark forces, which science now recognizes but does not name, exercise resistless attraction for a certain class of human minds. “In scores of temples,” asserts Mr. Thompson, “they are worshiped under different names.” There is a little temple in the city of Bruges where the followers of Lucifer regularly gather to observe ghastly rites. Not far from the Pantheon in Paris there is an altar to Pandaemon. Very naturally, the rites wherewith Lucifer is worshiped are veiled in much mystery. Mr. Thompson visited one of the “chapels;” it was in the street named Rochechomart. The Black Mass (which Mr. T. refuses to describe) was celebrated. Of course it was on Friday, at three o’clock. Over the altar was a winged figure of Lucifer, amid flames; he trampled under foot a crocodile, a symbol of the church.
“As of old, Satan is worshiped; every Friday the Luciferians gather.” Many of these Satanists are men prominent in the learned professions — in the world of science and of literature. The veterans among these twentieth century worshipers of devils enter at midnight into the catacombs, where amid skulls and bones, with orgies unmentionable, they worship the spirit of evil, calling upon Lucifer and Beelzebub and Baphomet and Ashtaroth and Moloch, with hysterical cries and wailings. It is not at all strange that Mr. Thompson should regard this recrudescence of the worship of the fallen angels as “the most remarkable manifestation of modern Spiritualism.” Yes, Paris, the city of fashion and gaiety, of skepticism and lechery, is dotted over with spiritualistic (Luciferian) temples. We must not forget that Spiritualism insistently avows itself to be a religion. And in the very nature of things, every religion that does not derive its authority from Jehovah through Jesus Christ, must be, in its last analysis, a religion of the devil.
Note the testimony of the Spirit of truth to this effect: “But I say, that the things which the Gentiles [heathen] sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.” 1 Cor. 10:20. Again, the same infallible witness referring to the apostasy of the Israelites to the worship of heathen gods, says: “Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, . . . whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan.” Ps. 106:37, 38. In this divine testimony it is logically demonstrated that to sacrifice to idols or false gods is to sacrifice to devils; to worship idols is to worship devils. The devil being the author of sin, is the author of death; for death is the wages (fruition) of sin. Compare Rom. 6:23 with Heb. 2:14. How natural, yea, necessary, that all false worship, which is devil worship, should inevitably end in death.
This is precisely what has happened and is happening in all the great cities of Christendom, the hotbeds of Spiritualism. Mr. Vance Thompson asserts that in Paris the famous scholar, M. de Guaita, lost his reason and ultimately his life in his devotion to the invisible powers of darkness. He reached the conviction that his astral body (soul) was detachable, as the occultists say: that is, his soul possessed the power of leaving his body, without breaking entirely the “fluidic cord” that attached it to the body. “This dangerous practise,” says Mr. Thompson, “led de Guaita to madness and death; it led the poet Dubus to madness and death; and, at one time, Laurent Tailhade was cared for in a madhouse.” M. de Guaita had married the popular actress, Susanne Gay, whom he led with him into the vertigo of sorcery and final death. De Guaita died as the result of sending his soul out to fight distant enemies, as he believed. Just before he expired he declared, “O, I had made my pact [contract] with the people across the frontier!” By this he meant that he had mortgaged his life to the powers (devils) “across the frontier.” And did they not foreclose the mortgage? Again, it is a matter of common knowledge, not only in France, but in all Europe, that the eminent scientist, M. Charcot, and the eminent author, Irving Bishop, actually went so far in their intercourse with the “wicked spirits in high places” that they laid down their lives in sacrifice to those demon spirits.
Many others have traveled and are traveling the same miry spiritualistic road to black despair, ruin, and death. It would be easy to name scores of the votaries of Spiritualism (diabolism) who have gone down, down, down into the blackness of the regions of death forever. Lack of space precludes further illustrations of the deadly dangers of paying court to the gods of Spiritualism — the lords of death and hell.
For This One Day
By Edna S. Valentine
For this one day —
Grant us sight to see the road,
To plainly tread our winding way;
Grant us strength to bear the load,
For this one day.
For this one day —
Guide our feet the road along,
Let not our weary footsteps stray;
Give us to lift a stave of song,
For this one day.
For this one day —
Let us not see the mud beneath,
But know the gold above the gray
And smell “the wind upon the heath,”
For this one day.
For this one day —
When bowed at eve for benison,
Grant that upon the uphill way
Our passing smile has gladdened one,
On this one day.
— Edna S. Valentine.
Duty Brings Danger, Never Defeat
“He who follows duty ever may find danger often, but defeat never.”
Think Well, Act Well
It is well to think well; it is divine to act well.—Horace Mann.
The Coming of the Redeemer
By Geo. A. Snyder
By Geo. A. Snyder
III. I Will Come Again
“Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” Heb. 9:28.
THERE was no more doubt in the inspired writer’s mind with regard to the second advent of the Saviour to this earth than there was concerning His first advent. As surely as Christ was once offered to bear our sins, just so surely He will appear the second time to complete the salvation of those who look for Him. We should just as firmly believe in His personal second advent, as we do in His personal offering to bear the sins of many at His first advent. This promise of His second coming unto salvation is only to those who look for Him. He will also come to those who do not look for Him, but not unto salvation. The full redemption from sin to eternal glory is only for those who hunger for it.
The humiliation and death of Christ at His first advent benefited only those of the Jewish people who, through a right understanding of the prophecies, were looking for Him to come as He did. The vast majority of that people, through a wrong understanding of the prophecies, were looking for Him to come as a national hero, and hence were unprepared to receive Him as the Messiah. The glorious appearing of Christ at His second advent and the gathering of His people away from this polluted earth to the mansions prepared in the upper kingdom will benefit those who look for Him to come suddenly, visibly, and with power and glory; while those who still look for Him to come as a national reformer through political methods and measures will naturally be unprepared for His glorious appearing. The promises of His second advent are just as clear and unmistakable to those who search the Scriptures as were the promises of His first advent.
What could be more clear than the Saviour’s own promise to His disciples just before He ascended to heaven? “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: 2, 3. The apostle Paul bears concurrent testimony in 1 Thess. 4:16, 17: “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” Similar promises might be multiplied indefinitely, all pointing with unerring certainty to the dawning of that long-looked-for morning when He shall come again to gather the fruits of His sacrifice.
Sweet music in the Christian’s ear are these precious promises of the return of Him who “was bruised for our iniquities” to take His redeemed children into the light of His glorious presence. When He bowed His bleeding head and died, it was “the joy that was set before Him,” when He shall behold all the redeemed of the ages safe in the Father’s house, that enabled Him to “endure the cross and despise the shame” of Calvary. Shall not the joy of meeting all the ransomed throng that was set before our dying Saviour reecho in the hearts of all His living children in the joy of meeting Him and seeing Him as He is when He shall appear the second time? “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.” 1 John 3:2.
Only those who are like Him will be able to see Him as He is at His appearing, and it is equally true that only those who see Him as He is will ever be made like Him. It is the seeing Him as He is that gives us the desire to be like Him. Not that we can now see Him literally as He will be when He comes, but as we now through the Scriptures see Him as He really is, showing His wounds and spreading His hands before the mercy-seat for us that we may be accepted through the merits of His atonement and made ready for His appearing, our hearts are filled with earnest longing to be like Him; yes to be like Him in humility and suffering here, that we may also be like Him in His glory. “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many,” that many might at last share in the glory to be revealed when He comes to harvest the seed sown in Gethsemane, on Calvary, and in the sepulcher.
To see Jesus as He is, is to see all the phases of His redemptive work, including the great climax of it all when the blue scroll of heaven shall be rolled back to reveal the closing scene in the great drama of the ages. Some of God’s children will be alive here on this earth when Jesus comes, and will rise to meet Him in the air without tasting of death. O the thought of it thrills the heart with unutterable longing to be among that favored, deathless company!
My poor pen is too feeble to portray that bright scene “when the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him;” when His mighty voice shall roll along the arches of heaven and penetrate the dark corridors of the tomb; when the slumbering saints shall be stirred by the voice of the Life-giver, and respond with shouts of triumph as they come up from the dark valley. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”
The Gospel of God
By H.
1. When “by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin” (Rom. 5:12), what promise came to the guilty ones?
“I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.” Gen. 3:15.
Note.—This curse pronounced by God upon the serpent was to the sinful pair in the Garden a promise of ultimate deliverance, when the “Seed,” which is Christ (Gal. 3:16), shall bruise the head of the serpent, which is Satan. This, then, was the beginning of the preaching of the Gospel of God, the good news of final salvation.
2. How was the promise renewed to Abraham?
“In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed;” “in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed My voice.” Gen. 12: 3; 22:18.
3. What is this promise called by Paul?
“The Scriptures . . . preached the GOSPEL beforehand unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all the nations be blessed.” Gal. 3:8.
4. Through whom is the Gospel given?
Our Saviour Jesus Christ “abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.” 2 Tim. 1:10.
5. What does the Gospel thus become?
“I am not ashamed of the Gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth.” Rom. 1:16.
6. What is revealed in the Gospel?
“Therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto faith.” Rom. 1:17.
7. In what specific manner is God’s righteousness manifested?
“Let my tongue sing of Thy word; For all Thy commandments are righteousness.” Ps. 119:172.
Note.—God’s Gospel, God’s righteousness, and God’s commandments are thus but different terms for the active, specific agency in the plan of salvation, which is made possible and effective through His Son Jesus Christ. Where the Gospel is preached, God’s righteousness is manifested and His law magnified, even as the prophet says, “It pleased Jehovah, for His righteousness’ sake, to magnify the law, and make it honorable.” Isa. 42:21.
8. How long will God’s Gospel, the manifestation of His righteousness and law, endure?
“Harken unto Me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is My law; . . . My righteousness shall be forever, and My salvation unto all generations.” Isa. 51: 7, 8.
9. How far will the Gospel be preached?
“I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.” Rev. 14:6.
10. When this has been accomplished, what will take place?
“This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come.” Matt. 24:14. H.
The Line of Duty and Beauty
“STRAIGHT is the line of duty;
Curved is the line of beauty;
Follow the straight, and thou shalt see
The curved line ever follow thee!”
Never Loses by Doing Good
ONE never loses by doing good.
Inherited Traits
By R.
This talk of what we have inherited from our parents is but evidence of the common acceptation of the law of like begetting like, of the harvest being in accord with the sowing.
And oftentimes it is disheartening to know that we will be in a measure what our parents were—we inherit some of their traits of character. It seems at first glance unfair. Yet as we become familiar with the great law, we realize it is inevitable. Nevertheless, is there no release from our inheritance?
Some things of our parents we are glad to see reproduced in us. But from others we fain would be free. Is there no surcease from these unenviable things? If the father has eaten sour grapes, must the children's teeth be set on edge?
“That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” By our birth in the flesh we conform to the flesh that begot us. The color of our hair and eyes, the contour of body and the cast of the countenance are all established by this fleshly birth. Even the trend of the mind and the impulses of the heart have come to some extent in the same way. But as these last are subject to training and daily influence they may be greatly changed and transformed as the days go by until individuality is strongly marked.
But one thing is unchangeable by training or education of the mind alone. The flesh can beget only flesh. It is subject to sin, it is destined for death. Must I inherit this sinful flesh from my parents?—Yes. Must I from them come into this legacy of death?—Yes, again, sad tho it be.
But there is a way of escape, not through my inheritance in the flesh, for in this natural world I get nothing but what the flesh, this human nature, has. But there is One whose nature is not sinful, but sinless, and who offers to make me His spiritual son. He offers through the spiritual birth to beget me into the realm of spirit, and I shall inherit His traits of character, and shall partake of His spiritual nature. His Spirit is to be sent into my life “as a divine power to overcome all inherited and cultivated tendencies to evil, and to impress His own character” upon me, His child.
This He offers to every sinful man and woman and child in this broad world. He offers it to you and to me. What shall we do about it? Shall we go on with the sinful traits that daily strengthen in us? Or shall we submit to Him? Shall we die to sin and live anew to Him? O the blessed privilege of getting rid of the old burden of sin and guilt! O the blessedness of the freedom from the old ways which we find in Him! O soul for whom He died, take Him as your holy inheritance.
The world has stood these thousands of years. Our foreparents have gathered a long series of tendencies of evil through the ages which they must inevitably pass on to us. Weakened and stunted by the inroads of sin upon the human race, our heritage in the flesh is faulty in the extreme. Each of us has felt its weakness.
Jesus Christ is equal with God. For all9the days of this world's history and back into the ages of eternity He has shared with God the divine floods of holiness, life, and power. Unhindered, unchanged, enduring even the strain of His years on earth in the flesh, Jesus Christ offers to transmit to us His own exalted, vigorous, pure, eternal nature. Have we felt its power? Have we partaken of the power of His endless life? The opportunity is so great, so wonderful, so easy of accomplishment that not one of us can afford to pass it by. It is our privilege to
“Rise to walk in heaven’s own light,
Above the world and sin,
With heart made pure and garments white,
And Christ enthroned within.”
God visits the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him, because they allow the natural law to work without hindrance or interruption. But He shows mercy unto thousands of those who love Him and keep His commandments because they allow the spiritual to come in and transform the unholy traits—“the iniquities of the fathers”—and implant in the soul the very traits of God Himself, the inwrought character of the Son of Man, the Holy One of God.
R.
How Much More
THE devotees of superstition are often more zealous than the children of God. As illustrating this, note the following:
Before work was begun on the battle-ship “Florida,” before even a keel plate was laid, her headboard was nailed up, upon which was the following inscription: “U. S. S. Florida. Battle-ship No. 30. Displacement, 21,825 tons. Keel laid March 9th, 1909.” In the middle of the board was nailed the traditional horseshoe. Harpers’ Weekly, which presents a photo reproduction of the headboard, thus describes it:
“The silver horseshoe nailed on the headboard of the ‘Florida’s’ cradle TO WARD OFF EVIL HAPPENINGS during her infancy. The nails were driven in the horseshoe by Rear-Admiral Goodrich, commander of the yard, and naval constructor Baxter, and ‘clinched’ back of the board by Miss Heather Baxter, the constructor’s daughter. As soon as the horseshoe had been fastened, the ‘Florida’s’ first keel plate was laid with interesting ceremony.”
The “horseshoe” superstition is very old. It had its origin away back in the Dark Ages, and was placed upon doors to keep off witches. An old legend tells us that the devil asked “Saint” Dunstan to shoe his (the devil’s) single (fabulous) hoof. Dunstan, knowing it was the devil, tied him to the wall and put the devil to so much pain that he roared for mercy. Dunstan at last released him on the condition that he would never enter a place where he saw a horseshoe displayed.
Now, think of it! Grave, scientific builders do not presume to do a stroke of work on a modern battle-ship till they first nail up a horseshoe at the entrance of the “cradle” in which the ship is constructed! And this is the enlightened twentieth century! Just as if the presence of a piece of metal could change or modify conditions around that ship! Just as tho the shape of that piece of metal could make any difference! The doing of it is childish, superstitious, heathenish, silly. Yet were Uncle Sam’s great builders true to their superstition, true to the worship of the horseshoe.
And yet professed Christians undertake, inaugurate, and presume to carry forward work in which are involved eternal principles and the issues of life and death, without seeking God, the living, all-seeing, overruling God; work pertaining to the salvation of souls for whom Christ died and for whom He pleads. Truly, if care and dependence are shown in the one case, how much more they ought to be manifest in the other. It is our Lord who has said, “Without Me ye can do nothing.” On the other hand, “Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” Matt. 7:7.
Inordinate Selfishness
To ASSUME that all persons working in a certain line should be controlled by me or by some organization which I control, is the assumption of selfishness. And yet Satan makes men believe that only so can the work of God be kept from going to pieces. My way is successful, my way is therefore right, and, therefore, again, men ought to be compelled, “peaceably if we may, forcibly if we must,” to work in my way, which, of course, means under my direction. Such ideas are born in selfishness and unbelief—selfishness in thinking that I am superior to others, that God has committed to me what He will not to them except through me, and unbelief in the wonderful, gracious, and all-comprehending wisdom and power of God by which He is able to direct and provide for His own work. The words of Jesus are, “One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren.” The words of His apostle are, “The head of every man is Christ.” In organized work it is generally necessary for some one or more to exercise general direction, so as to unify undeveloped human efforts and assist the uninstructed; but that direction ought to be so general, the lines of boundary so suggestive and flexible, that the Spirit of God in the heart of every individual worker could exercise all its life-giving force and expansion. Give room for God to direct. We are small and limited; God must have many through whom to manifest His manifold wisdom and grace.
The Outcome of Sunday Laws
Ardent Sunday-law people believe in stopping all labor on Sunday, excepting what they may call works of mercy and necessity; all Sunday papers, picnics, theaters; close all stores and shops, public museums and libraries. But some of these very men will admit that Mormon teaching is worse than an open corner-grocery; others, that an open museum has less harm in it than an open Catholic or Unitarian or Christian Science or Modern Spiritualistic church. After they close the shops, museums, etc., will they next begin to close up those churches and places of meeting considered inimical to “evangelical Christianity”? Logically, to conserve public morals and religion by law they ought. Or will they make Sunday the mark of loyalty, and honor by the protection of the law every one who in form observes the day religiously, even tho the religion be the baldest denial of the God of the Bible? Have our Christian friends thought of the outcome of the current on which they are launching their frail craft? If not, it is time to pause and think.
Hymns in the Darkness
AN English miner rescued from a mine disaster after being imprisoned in total darkness for sixteen hours, on being asked how he passed the dreadful hours of suspense, replied: “We sang a great deal. We sang such hymns as ‘Crown Him Lord of All,’ and it helped to keep our courage up.” When poor man comes to the awful brink and is about to drop into the unknown, there seems to be nothing like a bit of Gospel or the knowledge of a saving Christ to keep him from the depths of an awful despair.
Our Old Testament lessons begin with the 10th chapter of Second Chronicles. The succession of Rehoboam to Solomon, the revolt of the ten tribes under Jeroboam; the migration of the Levites to Judah; invasion of Judah by Shishak, king of Egypt, and his despoiling of the temple; Abijah's reign; his war with Jeroboam, the defeat of Israel; the good reign of Asa; Judah's great victory over the Ethiopians; the good reign of Jehoshaphat and his reforms; the reign of Jehoram and Jehoahaz; Athaliah's wicked reign of seven years; reign of Joash of forty years, compose the record of the kings in Judah. During this same time we have the reigns of the Jeroboam I dynasty, including the reigns of Jeroboam himself, Nadab and Baasha, followed by the dynasty of Omri, including Ahab, Ahaziah, and Joram, and that of impulsive, rash Jehu, under whose dynasty came Jehoahaz and Jehoash.
Our New Testament lessons begin with the 30th verse of the 11th chapter of John, and close with the 15th chapter. We have the story of the resurrection of Lazarus; the last public discourse of our Lord; His acknowledgment from heaven; the institution of the ordinance of humility; the pointing out of the betrayer, and the first two chapters of His farewell discourse to His disciples.
Inconsistent
By H.
A RELIGIOUS paper gives the following sentences concerning the death of a loved one: “On Sabbath morning, we received word that mother had gone to glory. The news was very sad to us, even tho we had been warned that we should expect it any time.”
To one who knows what the Bible teaches concerning the state of the dead, these sentences seem little short of ridiculous. In the first place, however commendable the life may be, when one dies he does not go to glory. Such a thing is not in the plan of redemption as revealed in the word. “In Adam all die,” Paul writes. Then he gives the cheering word, “In Christ shall all be made alive.” But in the same connection he guards against mistakes in the matter. While all are made alive in Christ, it is at a certain time—“each in his own order [or time]: Christ the first-fruits; then they that are Christ’s, at His coming.” 1 Cor. 15: 20-23.
In the second place, it seems strange that one who knew that the departed one was in glory should be made so sad by the news. It would be only natural to miss a mother, but it is surely inconsistent with such a belief to give way to grief. It must be that in the human heart there is still deeply embedded and firmly fixed of old, old fear of death. With all the centuries of repetition of the old lie in the Garden, “Thou shalt not surely die,” man can not believe it wholly. Still the fear lingers, and a pang of pain and sorrow comes with the news of the passing of a loved one. H.
