Earlier text: God Will Get Glory to HimselfTHE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB.
By J. O. Corliss
THE kingdom of heaven is set forth by Christ in many different parables. It is said to be like treasure hid in a field, a net gathering fish from the sea, a grain of mustard seed, a pearl of great price, and many other things. All these, however, simply represent various phases and operations of the kingdom in all time, each parable showing some particular part of its working. But at a certain time the heavenly kingdom assumes another aspect, and so must be represented by another picture. After pointing out the conditions of society, and the religious situation of the world at the time when He is soon to return to earth, Christ says, “Then shall the kingdom of ‘heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went ‘forth to meet the bridegroom.” Matt. 25:1. This scene, and more connected with it, was portrayed in another parable, setting forth the likeness of the kingdom to its King making a marriage for His Son. Some of the invited guests excused themselves from attendance on the ground of their own more pressing business. But the wedding was at last provided with guests, and when the King came in to see them, one was there who had not on the prescribed garment for the occasion. When asked why he appeared at the royal ceremony in such plight, he had nothing to say, and so was cast out from the happy company, into darkness. Matt. 22:1–13. In this narrative one traces the work of God, through Christ, for the salvation of sinners, and the judgment of those not prepared to stand before the Lord. It all goes to tell that the Bridegroom of the occasion is none other than the Lord Jesus. The bride may be identified as easily. An angel said to the revelator, “Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” The seer was then taken to an exceedingly high eminence, and there directed to look at the holy city, the New Jerusalem, as it descended out of heaven from God, to be located on the new earth, which had been specially prepared to receive it. Rev. 21:1–3, 9, 10. The marriage of Christ with the capital city of the earth made new, and necessarily with the kingdom in which it is located, is solemnly, yet beautifully, described in the prophetic Scriptures. Daniel saw it, and says that in the ceremony, immediately following the decisions of the final judgment, the Son of man was brought before the Ancient of Days—Jehovah—when there was bestowed upon Him, dominion, glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve Him forever. Dan. 7:13, 14. Referring to the instruction of the Lord Himself concerning this matter, we find Him using a parable, evidently referring to Himself, in which He says that “a certain Nobleman went into a far country to ‘receive for Himself a kingdom, and to return.” Luke 19:12. This can be applied to none other than the passing to heaven of the Saviour, and His second return to bestow rewards upon those who have been found faithful in their Master’s service. But in making another reference to His return to the earth, Christ exhorts His followers to be like men who wait for their Lord when He shall return from the wedding. Luke 12:36. This confirms the thought that the reception of the kingdom is identical with the nuptial ceremony, since it is the glad reunion of the Lord with His chosen people, who are to constitute the unchanging subjects of His eternal reign. This brings us again to consider the parable of the virgins who were waiting to greet the Bridegroom on His return from the wedding. Eastern ways had established the custom of the bridegroom going to the home of the bride to have performed the nuptial ceremony, and immediately to return to his waiting friends, with whom he then partook of the marriage supper. The ten virgins, representing the churches of earth, represent those who were to be waiting and watching for the Bridegroom. In the midst of night’s darkest hour, the word is passed along the ranks, “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh.” At once all arise from slumber to trim their lamps, when a part of them find, to their dismay, that the oil is not only burned out of their lamps, but that they have neglected to bring an emergency supply. In other words, they were not ready to meet the bridegroom. They tried to borrow from those who had enough with which to keep their lamps ablaze, but could not. They were directed to go and fill their vessels from the original source of supply. They went; but before getting what was necessary for their preparation, the ceremony was over, and they were left out of the festivities of the grand occasion. The fulfilment of this began in 1843. Word was sounded in that year that the Lord would return from His wedding at a given time, not far in the future. As the set time drew near, however, all were not sure of their position; and as soon as the period passed, it was readily seen that the end of the 2300 days was not due until the autumn of 1844. At the first cry, some who were held in worldly positions, from various causes, were not ready to meet the Lord, and were much troubled over the matter. Just before the tarrying time arrived, they thought they would break away from earthly ties, and seek needed grace. But as the excitement of near expectancy lulled, and the time was being re-adjusted, these lost their interest, and never returned to their former desires. The others, who patiently waited on the Lord, were soon rewarded by the sanctuary vail being drawn aside, which gave them a view of the judgment work being carried on in the holiest apartment before the ark of God’s Ten Commandments. Rev. 11:19. Into this place of judgment, and bestowal of the kingdom, the true worshipers went joyfully, by faith, to rest in the recognition of the Lord’s approving smile. WITNESSES IN BRICKS.
By A. F. Schauffler
[A. F. Schauffler, D.D., in Christian Work.] THE story of Israel’s oppression in Egypt has been denied as unhistorical. ‘There was no such oppression, said some skeptics. Now this criticism, too, has been shown to be false. If you turn to Ex. 1:11, you read, “Therefore they did set over them [the Israelites] ‘taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for ‘Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.” As this did not accomplish what the Egyptians desired, we read in Ex. 5:7, 8: “Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, . . . and the ‘tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon ‘them.” And later on we read that the taskmasters said to the people, “Go therefore now and work; for there shall no straw be ‘given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks.” So far the record of the Word. Now in these later years, thirty-two centuries after these events, what do we find on making excavations in Egypt? At Pithom they have excavated these very “treasure cities,” and have found the lower layers of bricks to be well made with straw. Then come layers of bricks that have poorer straw, which points to the time when the poor Israelites had to collect their own straw as best they could. Then come other layers of bricks that have no straw at all, which we may well suppose to have been made when even what straw the slaves could gather gave out. We read of sermons in stones. But here we have sermons in bricks, and they preach to us this truth, that the Word of God is true, and that the history that it records is reliable. PREACHING THE GOSPEL.
By E. H. Dewart
[By E. H. Dewart, D.D., in Homiletic Review.] THE history of the preaching of the Gospel is the history of Christianity. When the pulpit has given an uncertain sound or conformed to an earthly philosophy, the church has been smitten with feebleness and failure. But when the teaching of the pulpit has been a message of spiritual power, the hosts of the Lord have gone forward to victory. From the day of Pentecost, when the preaching of Peter brought conviction of sin and the knowledge of salvation to three thousand in one day, down to the present time, the preaching of the Gospel by a living ministry has been the most potent means of winning the moral victories that have extended the kingdom of Christ in the world. The missionaries who have lifted up the standard of the cross amid barbarism and idolatry, the reformers who have rejected the canonized heresies and corruptions of their times, and the leaders in the great revivals of religion that have quickened the languishing life of the church in times of prevailing unbelief and worldliness, all achieved the work which has made their memory an inspiring legacy to succeeding generations, simply by preaching “the truth as it is in ‘Jesus’” “in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” ARE MR. DOWIE'S CLAIMS TRUE?
There have been in various periodicals which have come to us reports of a declaration by Mr. John Alex. Dowie, that he was Elijah the prophet, predicted in Mal. 4:5 and elsewhere. We have been slow to believe the exact reports of an antagonistic and sensational press, and have therefore waited for confirmation. This we have over Mr. Dowie's own signature, in the Laws of Healing of June 8, his own paper. In a letter dated June 8, addressed “to the Overseers, Elders, Evangelists, Deacons, Deaconesses, Zion's Seventies, and Members of the Christian Catholic Church in Zion throughout the World; and to all Lovers of God,” he tells us that a new era opened in Zion June 2. He declares:— For more than two years we have taken the responsibility before the church and the world of being the Messenger of the Covenant. The Scriptural and logical issue of our action was the declaration as Elijah the Restorer, which we made in the Chicago Auditorium before about seven thousand persons last Lord's day afternoon. The Messenger of the Covenant, Jesus tells us, was John the Baptist. John the Baptist, Jesus said, was Elijah. . . . Malachi and Jesus say that the Messenger of the Covenant and Elijah must come again. . . . If we are the Messenger of the Covenant, we must also be Elijah the Restorer. . . . God does not rebuke us now in saying that we are Elijah the Restorer. Both offices center in one man. . . . The preparation of God's people for Christ's coming can only be made through Elijah, since God has so decreed it, and through no other person. The “restoration of all things” was to be accompanied by the prophet, of whom God spake to Moses in Deut. 18:15–22. . . . The Messenger of the Covenant, and Elijah the Restorer, and that prophet of whom Moses spake, are all one and the same person. The declaration that we are that person is either . . . a great blasphemy, or a tremendous fact of the utmost importance to the whole world. Which is it? The omissions we have made, and indicated, take nothing from the above declarations, nor in any way modify them. We have omitted them for the sole reason of lack of space. The above astounding claims are either true or false. They are either Scriptural or unscriptural. No Christian, no wise man, will take Mr. Dowie's unsupported word; he will desire the proof from the Word of God. Let us ask and examine the following questions:—- Who is the Elijah that is to come? and how is he to come?
- Who is the Messenger of the Covenant?
- Who is that prophet like unto Moses?
- What does restoration of all things include?
- What are the Biblical credentials?
1. Who Is the Elijah That Is to Come?
Elijah was a prophet of God who lived in the time of the weak king Ahab, and his Baal-worshiping wife, Jezebel, who had corrupted and cursed all Israel by their idolatrous apostasy. See the record in 1 Kings 16 and onward. Baal was the Phoenician sun-god, and his system of idolatry the worst and most corrupting of any of the heathen cults. Nearly the whole nation of Israel had become corrupted, and were transgressing God's commandments. Elijah was the pre-eminent one among God's servants who denounced the fearful sin of the nation, and called the people back to the true worship of Jehovah, and obedience to His holy law, tho there were seven thousand others in Israel, unknown to the prophet, who had not bowed the knee to Baal. Two characteristics stand out clearly in the prophet: (1) His fearlessness for God; and (2) his faithfulness in overcoming, which fitted him for translation without seeing death. The Lord through Malachi tells us: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Ch. 4:5. In Matthew 11, Jesus, in speaking of John the Baptist, says: “And if ye will receive it, this is Elijah, which was for to come.” Verse 14. (Elias in the New Testament is the Greek form of Elijah. The Revised Version is uniform with the Old Testament.) On the mount of transfiguration Elijah appeared with Moses and Jesus, glorified. The disciples asked, “Why then say the scribes that Elijah must first ‘come’?” Jesus replied, “Elijah truly shall first ‘come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, ‘That Elijah is come already, and they knew him ‘not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. . . . Then the disciples understood that He spake ‘unto them of John the Baptist.’ See Matt. 17:1–13. But when John the Baptist was asked by the committee of inquiry sent to him, “Art thou Elijah?” unlike Mr. Dowie, he replied, “I am not.” John 1:21. But when Jesus tells us that John was Elijah, and when John tells us that he was not, what are we to understand? How can their words be harmonized?—There is no inharmony in their words; Inspiration strikes the note that completes the chord and reveals the harmony. The angel said of John at his birth: “He shall be ‘great in the sight of the Lord; . . . he shall be ‘filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's ‘womb; . . . and he shall go before Him [the ‘Lord] in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the ‘hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a ‘people prepared for the Lord.’” Luke 1:15–17. Elijah was in spirit and power a prototype of John, God's next similar messenger to the same people. Both spent their early life in the rugged wilderness alone with God and nature. Both there learned to know and fear God, and fearing God, no fear of man could swerve them from duty. Both denounced the sins of the people, high as well as low. Both preached with mighty power. Both were persecuted. Both had weak, vacillating kings, and strong, unscrupulous queens for their enemies. Both preached the need of deep repentance, and turning again to implicit obedience to God's law. In these respects Elijah was a type of John to the Jewish people. Not a Complete Fulfillment.
But John and his times did not meet all the requirements of the type in Elijah; neither did Elijah and his times meet all the antitype in John. Elijah was translated; he did not see death; John was slain. Elijah's career ended gloriously; John's career ended in eclipse. Elijah had to meet in apostasy the foul abominations and rebellion against God manifest in sun-worship; John had to meet apostasy in cold, hypocritical formalism. Elijah sought to restore Israel to the true worship of God; John preached again God's truth in its beauty, that Israel might be prepared for the coming King. It takes the times of both Elijah and John properly to typify the last days. It takes both Elijah and John to typify the work and character of God's servants in the last days. God has used the individuals of the past as the archetypes of a class; the one little country as the type of the world; the one people as the type of all who profess His name; for all now are the inheritors of those who lived then. To illustrate: In the days of Elijah we have the people of God joined with the world in the great general forms of worldly idolatry, chief of which was Baal, or sun-worship. We have as the chief personage in this seduction from truth Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, the Zidonian, sun-worshiping king. We have this unholy union terminating in the treading down of God's law, and the persecution of the prophet and true worshipers of Jehovah. In short, we have a union of Church and State. In the days of John we have an apostasy, in form different, but not less evil, namely, a cold, self-righteous, ceremonial, hypocritical formalism, manifest in Pharisaism; an infidelic, critical, loose liberalism, manifest in Sadduceeism; a low condition of business morals; a gross commercialism, invading even the temple precincts. We have the nominal, local ruler bewitched by a low, designing woman—Herodias. We have the coming of the Lord impending, indicated by prophecy, and heralded in mighty power by John, the messenger of Christ, who called people to repent, to turn to obedience to God, and thus prepare for Christ's coming. For even then, if His own people had received Him with all the heart, the destruction of people and city would have been averted. The people of Israel in Elijah's day and in John's day are both typical of conditions and classes now. We have Jezebel reproduced in the great apostate church under the symbols of woman and city. Rev. 2:20; 14:8; 17:1–6, 18, etc. We have the antitype of Ahab in the weak rulers of earth, relinquishing to the idolatrous woman their power. We have the growing tendency to union of Church and State, and that around “the wild solar holiday of all pagan ‘times,” the Sunday. We have the faithful voices of God's children calling men from all this idolatry, this7 denial of God's Gospel power, to His holy law, and the Sabbath, the seal of His creative power. We have the Sadducees reproduced in the “higher ‘critics,” the evolutionists of religion. We have the same cold, hypocritical, Pharisaical formalism,—form without power. We see the same gross commercialism, which traffics with things divine as tho they were common. We have piled-up evidence to show that Christ's coming is near at hand. In the providence of God there are those carrying to the world His great three-fold Gospel message of healing, of proclamation, of prophecy, of warning, summarized in Revelation 14, to prepare a people for Christ's coming to reap the harvest of the earth. That message develops the very character in the people who receive it as in those who bear it; for they are all one; and of them the Lord says: “Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:12. They keep all the commandments of God; they have all the faith of Jesus. Herein are reproduced Elijah and John,—their antitypes,—not in person, but in character. It is not persons that God respects. The only thing of value in His sight is character. As John, who went before Christ “in the spirit and power of Elijah,” was the reproduction of Elijah's service and mission, so God's servants, in the last days, as they bear the last great three-fold message to the world, will be the antitype of the mission and character of both John and Elijah. John's message was to prepare a people for Christ's first coming. The mission of God's servants in the last days is to prepare a people for Christ's second coming. Elijah met by the Word the great sun-worshiping system of Baal, which dethroned the Sabbath of the Lord. God's servants in the last days meet the same old error in the pseudo-sabbath, Sunday, which has usurped the place of the Sabbath of the Lord. By this error the Creator is forgotten, creative power in the Gospel is almost unknown, evolution has taken the place of regeneration, the State is sought to supplement by its force the lack of the power of the Spirit, and souls are lost, tho the prophets of error are a multitude. John met the formalism of his day by pointing out the transgression; by the preaching of repentance and faith. God's servants in the last days meet the fearful formalism by the simple preaching of the Word. Elijah was translated without seeing death; so will the remnant be who give God's last message to the world. John the Baptist died; but his chief delight was in seeing no glory come to him, but in seeing his own light diminish in the ever-increasing light of Christ's presence. So God's people of the last days will not glory in men, nor will they take glory to themselves, nor will each or any proclaim himself or some other some great one; but all will rejoice that they are privileged to give the message, “Fear God, ‘and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment ‘is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and ‘earth, the sea, and the fountains of waters.” “All ‘flesh is as grass, and all the glory thereof as the ‘flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the ‘flower falleth; but the Word of the Lord abideth ‘forever.” The other questions raised in the beginning will be considered in subsequent issues. Please follow them to the close. Epidemics Among Men and Beasts
By T.
That ten thousand, or more, horses have been stricken down in New York City by some distemper that closely resembles la grippe, is only another one of the evidences that the atmosphere is becoming so laden with disease that both man and beast will be swept away by thousands, and these epidemics will become more numerous and more and more malignant. The majority of mankind will not be disposed to accept this statement; but the Lord, who knows all things, is the Authority back of it. His prophetic Word clearly reveals it; hence there can be no mistake about it. By faith we learn that we are sinners. God reveals it to us by His Holy Spirit through His law. “For by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Rom. 3:20. “Nay, I had not known sin but by the law; for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” Rom. 7:7. “When He [the Holy Spirit, the Comforter] is come, ‘He will convince the world of sin.’” John 16:8, margin. The Spirit of God makes the living Word a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Heb. 4:12. It is by faith that the repentant sinner yields his old sins, and is made righteous in “the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference.” Rom. 3:22. The sin-black record of the past has departed, and the sinner is counted as tho he had not sinned. Ps. 32:1, 2. By faith the heart is purged from its impurity, its fountains of pollution are cleansed; for Christ puts “no difference between us and them [Jews and Gentiles], purifying their hearts by faith.” Acts 15:9. By faith the sinner dies with Jesus Christ to sin, and rises to walk in “newness of life;” not in a new purpose in life merely, but in the actual life of the Son of God, by which and in which Christ dwells in the heart by faith. Rom. 5:10; 6:4–11; Gal. 3:17. Faith is like the trolley which reaches up and connects with the unseen power above, not less mighty because invisible to mortal eyes. By faith, when the tempter is met, Jesus Christ is placed between ourselves and the evil one. Christ has met all of Satan’s attacks. Christ has turned aside his thrusts. Christ has quenched in his own life-blood all the fiery darts of the wicked one. Christ proved all Satan’s craft and policy to be naught. Christ has conquered death and the grave. And faith puts Christ between us and the wily, powerful foe. Faith is not the life. Faith is not the power. Faith simply forms the channel of the life and power of God to us. It opens the doors of the heart; it opens the portals to the mind; it bids Christ to come in and take full, glorious, victorious, everlasting possession. Faith accepts God’s Word in whatever form or way it comes. There are thousands who believe in its promises. They hope to have forgiveness of sins, deliverance from trouble, and an everlasting reward; but they wish to do it apart from God’s precepts. But that is not faith which accepts a promise and despises a precept. The measure of the faith to obey the precept is the measure of the faith to accept the promise. He who disregards God’s precept, can not claim God’s promise. O let us remember this important truth. But the faith which truly accepts God’s promise, willingly obeys His precept. Nay, more than this: in obeying one finds the precept a promise. The power to do is in the command to do, when faith yields to obey. That which before seemed impossible is now delightful. That which to the unbelieving heart was a “yoke of bondage,” becomes to the faithful heart a blessed “law of liberty.” No longer is the carnal heart at enmity to the law; renewed in Jesus Christ, it exclaims, “O how love I Thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” TESTED BY THE PROMISES.
By W. N. G.
ABRAHAM was not the only individual to be tested by the promises made to him by the Lord. The promises are not only blessed assurances of good things to come, but they are tests of faith. They were to test the faith of worshipers of the true God to the very end—to the coming in glory of Him in whom the things promised were to be fully realized. It must always be remembered that the promises were to Abraham and his seed. From Gal. 3:16 we learn that primarily this seed is Christ; and in 2 Cor. 1:20 we read that “all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” Also, in Gal. 3:29 it is stated that “if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” In the same chapter is the injunction, “Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.” Verse 7. “So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.” Verse 9. And “the blessing of Abraham” was to “come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” Verse 14. From these scriptures, and many others, it is evident that the promises to Abraham were impossible of fulfilment in his day, including, as they did, the multitudes as yet unborn. The promises to Abraham were promises to every believer, and as he had to receive them by faith, so every child of faith must receive them in the same way; for they can not be verified in full until Christ comes to fulfil them. Men have failed in the past, and are to-day failing, to grasp the far-reaching character of these promises, by limiting them to the land and the time of the temporal kingdom of Israel. There was much that of itself was discouraging to intervene between the making of the covenant with Abraham and its fulfilment, much to try the faith of every one that should afterward be concerned in it. Abraham’s trial concerning the covenant began right there. When he had slain the animals and the birds, and had laid them in the order prescribed by the Lord (Gen. 15:9, 10), and had himself passed between them, he had to watch with the utmost vigilance to keep the flesh-eating birds from defiling the symbols before the Lord had formally indicated His partnership in the matter. “When the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away.” The ceremony was one familiar to Abraham, as it was a customary way of binding agreements among men. An animal was slain and divided, and each party to the agreement passed between the parts. On this occasion, however, the Lord directed that several animals and fowls should be used, being those acceptable to Him in sacrifice. When Abraham had done all that he could in the matter, his faith was further tested by these annoying birds until the sun was setting, and they instinctively retired to their roosts. Then a deep sleep came upon Abraham, “and, lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him.” In this he saw the terrible afflictions through which his literal descendants would be obliged to pass. Yet all this was but typical of the trials and afflictions that would be experienced by the spiritual seed through all probationary time. During one age of the church’s history, long after the literal seed had ceased to receive recognition at all, the people were to pass through a “great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world.” Matt. 24:21. The enemy of this covenant with Abraham and his seed not only tried to cheat Abraham out of the blessing, in fact to destroy the covenant altogether, but he has kept up the effort ever since. Those birds of prey that “came down upon the carcasses” were types of the various hindrances which the enemy employs to destroy the covenant relation between God and His people. These come not only in ways to thwart the purposes and work of the church as a whole, but to discourage individual progress in a life of faith. And, as in the case of Abraham, nothing but the utmost vigilance and persevering effort, until the going down of the sun, will beat back these continual onslaughts. When Abraham had been shown the trying experiences that would befall his posterity before the consummation of the promise—“when the sun went down, and it was dark,” then the Lord appeared to put His signature to the covenant. “Behold, a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.” Thus was Abraham encouraged after his sore trial. So in all the trials of the “children of Abraham,” they may know that in the darkest hour the Lord is near to reward the patience and perseverance of faith. When Abraham had done all that the Lord had directed, when he had performed faithfully his part, he could only wait and watch until the Lord had added His seal to the transaction. So every child of faith, when he has carefully done his part, can safely trust the Master to fulfil His promise in His own good time. Abraham had to wait until all who should afterward believe could receive the fulness of blessing with him, before he could receive the promise. His life was beset with trials both on account of his own weakness and because of the unfaithfulness of others, and his children need not expect to escape like experiences. Let us always remember that “others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment; they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented (of whom the world was not worthy); they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise; God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.” Heb. 11:36–40. Surely with all these experiences before us, and the great example of sacrifice and long-suffering patience manifested in the life of Him who made the promises, we ought to have implicit confidence that He is both able and willing to fulfil. If ever a people had abundant encouragement to stand the test of faith in the promises to Abraham and his seed, it is those who live in these last days. Matt. 24:13; Rev. 3:10. W. N. G. We Are Sure the Advocate is Mistaken.
The Christian Advocate, in speaking of Sunday laws and the persistent opposition of Dr. A. H. Lewis, Seventh-day Baptist, thereto, remarks concerning the Sunday “Blue Laws:”— Nobody wishes to re-enact them, and there are without doubt some laws the letter of which, if enforced, would be an infraction upon liberty; but the general principle is right. The embodiment of it in law is a matter for discussion. Dr. Lewis would think so and argue for it, if the case were reversed, and nearly the whole population of the United States favored the seventh day, and a few individuals were continually contending that the first day of the week was the one. Now we do not know an instance where laws enforcing the observance of the Sabbath have ever been asked. We do not know as they have ever been desired by a Christian Sabbath-keeper. He believes that God is able to care for His own without the aid of human law. And that is true on the part of every Biblical duty men owe to God. What true Christian ever thought of enforcing baptism or the Lord’s supper? The editor of the Advocate admits the need of no law in the following: “We agree with him that ‘the whole question of Sabbath observance as a ‘strictly religious right should be left to individual ‘conscience without any interference on the part of ‘the civil law.” But that is what the Sabbath is—pre-eminently and only religious. Men who do not thus keep it, do not keep it at all. Men who do thus keep it, need no aid of human law. 1162. Miscellaneous Questions.
(1) If men worship mammon, shall not mammon rule over them? (2) If any one despises His salvation, His love, and His cross, is he entitled to our aid or comfort? (3) Does not the Hindu’s contempt for women express his own unutterable corruption and foulness? (4) Must we love the children of the world, the flesh, and the devil, as our brethren and sisters? (5) Can all the powers of the world prolong our days one second, or combined scientific knowledge lengthen life against His will? (6) Are self-made men and leaders of society endurable? 1. Men irresistibly form character or mould their lives after that which they worship. The man who worships mammon will be ruled by mammon and his lesser brood,—greed, avarice, covetousness, oppression, etc.; and therefore “thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” Matt. 4:10. 2. “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.” Gal. 6:10. God “maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Matt. 5:45, 48. 3. In part. In part the result of a cursed education in a man-made religion. 4. We can not love the ways of the world as we love the ways of God. We can not therefore love the associations of the world as we love those of God. We should see by faith, through the power of God, the possibilities of grace in every soul, and love the sinner for the sake of the Master, in the love of the Master. Yet love for the people of the world can not be as strong as love for those bound to us by the bond of His life. See John 13:34, 35; Gal. 6:10; 1 John 4:7, 21. The Christ-love in every heart will respond, not to selfish desire, but to the need of souls, even of the loveless. 5. Only the power of God can prolong life. This He does through various means. Only as scientific knowledge, seen under His guidance, can help us better to appreciate His truth and the working of His life is it profitable. His life is given to us through the food we eat and the water we drink. But the life and the power is all of Him. He is the omnipotent One. 6. God has endured the continuance of evil beings from the time evil entered. Can not we endure what He has? Long-suffering and forbearance often bring to repentance. Love “endureth all things.” “IS THE WORLD GROWING WORSE?”
SOME one in Chicago has written to Dr. A. T. Pierson, asking his opinion on this question. The question does not ask for an elaborate opinion, or for any reason for the opinion, whatever it may be. He deems the noted gentleman’s mere dictum of so much “real importance to our church life” that he asks for only a simple “yes” or “no.” But Dr. Pierson is not so presumptive as to assume the solution of such a problem in that way; so he sends the following reply, as published in Watchword and Truth for June:— I can not by a “yes” or “no” reply to a question like yours, as such reply would be misunderstood. I hold that to have theories of our own, where the Word of God has clear teaching, is rationalism, rather than faith, and that our great peril and risk is to put our reason in the place of His revelation. We are to take God’s philosophy, even if we do not always understand it, and can not in some cases make it seem altogether desirable or even reasonable. This is only conceding that God’s thoughts are too big and wide-reaching for us to take them in or comprehend their scope. Now, on the matter about which you inquire, the teachings both of our Lord and His apostles, and the epistle writers of the New Testament—not to go back at all to the plain teachings of the Old—are clear, and I simply accept this divine testimony and cease my vain reasoning. Let me advise you to compare a few passages of Holy Scripture which I put opposite each other, and then ask in all candor what they, unitedly, teach; and then do not be ashamed, whatever others hold or teach, to stand by the simple Bible testimony, remembering the blessing and the curse in Rev. 22:18, 19. These thirty distinct passages could be easily quadrupled, and all of them trend in one direction. From them as a whole we may get God’s system of truth on this matter, and any candid mind will easily perceive that they unite in teaching seven things. - That the world will to the very end of the age continue to hate and oppose Christ and His true church.
- That God’s method with man is not evolution, but revolution—not natural growth, but supernatural birth.
- That the purpose and result of this dispensation is not the conversion of the world, but the out-gathering of the church, as a people for His name.
- That the witness of the church is by separation from, not assimilation to, the world; that its great danger, therefore, is accommodation to the world, and its final state, as a whole, is apostasy.
- That, to the end, there will be formalists and hypocrites in the church, and that the counterfeits of piety will be too close to be always detected by men.
- That the hope, both of the church and the world, is the coming of the Lord, when the real world-wide triumphs of the Gospel will begin.
- That the attitude of the believer is to be one of perpetual watching against the perils of worldliness and heresy, and waiting for the return of the Son of man.