Earlier text: NIAGARADIVINE HEALING VERSUS THE WORKING OF SATAN.
By J. B. Cogswell
“Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits; who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases.” Ps. 103:1-3. The spirit of consecration brought to view in this text plainly shows where one may look for divine healing, and among whom that power will be made manifest. The subject of healing is one that is now agitating the whole world. All of the medical fraternity who are recognized by law as regular healing agencies, are at least tacitly banded together for the legal prosecution of all illegal (so-called) methods of healing. These methods or systems of healing comprise the list of faith healers, divine healers, theosophists, Christian scientists, Dowieites, and hypnotists. All of these must be examined by the State’s board of health, and if they can not exhibit a material method or system of healing, or at least give evidence of curing sickness by a material curative agent, they get no license, and so become the legal victims of persecution by all the so-called “regulars.” So much for the situation as it now is. The regular physician, that is, any surgeon or therapeutist of any of the regular schools of medicine, is performing many wonderful feats in surgery and many cures of disease; indeed the expert M. D. reads from the manifest symptoms the nature, course, and result of any given case of sickness, as if it were an open book. This class represents the material curative agents, as known to practise or recognized by law. And their cures in ratio to the number of cases treated in no way overshadow those of the alleged divine healers. The spiritual or mind curative agencies are enumerated under such heads as Spiritism, Theosophy, Christian Science, Hypnotism, Dowieism, faith healing, false christs, false prophets, et al. Of these, hypnotism is claimed by scientists to be one of the regular healing agents. But it is certainly Satan’s favorite mind-enslaving power, and it is held in greater or less degree by many more persons than are accredited with having the power.5 I may as well state here as elsewhere my reasons for the above classification. God does not seek to control our minds. He says, “Give Me thine heart,” leaving man at all times a free agent to accept or reject the invitation. But Satan seeks always to gain control of the mind of man; then man is not free any more; he has become the slave of Satan, which slavery is made manifest by evil habits and practises of the man. The above enumerated spiritual curative agencies or systems, one and all, seek first to gain control of the mind, then they spiritualize away sickness, pain, and sorrow, also death, and even the corporeal body. Aye, they spiritualize away (or attempt it) the personality of the living God, and set up a fantasy of a devil-controlled mind, and say to us, Here, worship this supreme—nothing—which fills the universe; it is god. I can understand how God can be love, but I can not understand how love can be God. Love is not God. I can understand a God, the completeness of whose Spirit (life) fills the whole universe. But I can not conceive of a spirit, without a personality, of a chance happening to find a spiritless nothing in which to dwell for a time. Satan has not yet been deprived of the power that was given to him when he was created, and now we are living in the time foretold by the Saviour and by the apostle Paul. Matt. 24:24; 2 Thess. 2:9-12. Then why do we scoff at and make light of the evidences of God’s supreme power, by the perversion of which Satan is working with “all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness [unrighteous deceiving] in them that perish.” They have healed, they are now healing, giving evidence of miraculous power; and investigation will prove the fact. I personally know of some wonderful things they have done. And through trustworthy sources I am convinced of many wonderful things that fully establish the supernaturalness of the power used by these forces in performing these works. And yet they—these workers of iniquity—will never succeed in deceiving “the very elect;” because neither their words nor their works are according to “the law and the testimony.” Isa. 8:20. I have seen some things performed by these people by which, were it not that I knew by the Word of God that that Word was most surely being fulfilled, I too might have been led astray by these devilish exhibitions of a Satanic power. But I thank God that every exhibition of this power that I behold only confirms me more surely in the “faith of Jesus,” and it gives me longing for the time when God will manifest His power, through His people, to the confounding of Satan and all his followers, and to the glory of the living God. “He sent His Word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.” Ps. 107:20. At this time Satan is posing before the world in a dual role. To the unconverted world he is working as the uncloaked demon, responsible for a harvest of sin and crime unparalleled in the annals of this world. And to the nominal Christian world he appears as “an angel of light,” leading them to deny God’s law and the power of His righteousness, and blinding them to the sure destruction of those who “obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Thess. 1:8. The people of God everywhere are suffering from diseases, sickness, and malformations; and the question naturally arises at this time, Why is not the power of divine healing manifested among them? It seems to me that the answer is very plainly pointed out in the Scriptures. First, they have not the consecration set forth in the text at the beginning of this article. We must not forget that Christ said that in these last days there would be a class of people who would do wonderful things in His name, even to the casting out of devils; yet He would say to them at His coming, “I never knew you; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.” Matt. 7:22, 23. The Saviour, in all His wonderful works, simply spoke, and it was done; but the word was always accompanied by some simple act of obedience on the part of the conscious recipient of divine favor, showing his or her faith. The prophets and apostles made no display in performing miracles; but the results were wonderful, because of the mighty power of God that was in them and working through them. It was a simple thing that Elisha told Naaman to do; but when Naaman did it, he was healed. 2 Kings 5:10-14. Peter and John, at the gate beautiful, said to the impotent man, “Look on us.” That was all the poor fellow could do, besides longing for something beyond; the power of a risen Saviour did the rest. Acts 3:4-8. But the man showed his faith, and gave God the glory. We must not expect that every one who beholds the manifestation of God’s power will believe, for it never was so. Even when the mighty Son of God gave the greatest evidence of His divine power over death at the grave of Lazarus, not all of those who stood about believed. Some of them went right away to the chief priest, and from that time forward sought how they might kill Him. John 11:39-44. Once upon a time the Lord spoke these words: “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” John 15:7. The whole question of divine healing (the true), and the manifesting of God’s power among the remnant of His people, resolves itself into one word, or rather it depends on one word—OBEDIENCE. Saith the Lord, “If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord that healeth thee.” Ex. 15:26. Through disobedience we are diseased or sick unto death, and it is not altogether through the disobedience of Adam that all flesh suffers. By our own disobedience and sin we are sick and diseased, and only by the obedience of faith can we get into that place or condition where God can heal us. We say we believe, but we go right along in the same old way, our acts stamping as false our declaration of faith. When we obey God in all His commands, and live in the light He sheds upon us from day to day, when we so conduct our lives that the scathing arraignment in 1 John 2:4 does not apply to us, then will God manifest Himself to His people with Pentecostal power. Then the latter rain will fall upon all flesh for a witness to the glory and majesty of our God, and the salvation of the saints for His kingdom. Our Lord’s parting admonition was, “What I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch.” Truly, let us watch and pray, trust and obey. OUR Lord gives us a test, a most effectual one for all peoples, ages, conditions and times. That test is, “Ye shall know them by their fruits.” THE IMPORTANCE OF SOUND DOCTRINE.
By Emma Lena Runck
How often we hear people say, “It don’t make any difference what a man believes, just so he is sincere.” But God says in His Word that He has from the beginning chosen us “to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth.” 2 Thess. 2:13. The Lord calls us to believe the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. Sincerely believing a thing does not make it the truth, even tho the whole world should believe it. One may desire to go to a certain place, and believe with all his heart that he is in the right way, and at the same time may be going farther and farther from the place he wishes to reach. No one traveling to the Holy City need be mistaken in the way; for Christ says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” “Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy Word is truth.” The Word of God is our guide. We are not to believe every spirit, but we are to try the spirits, whether they be of God. We are to “prove all things,” and to hold fast that which is good, “because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” Every religious tenet should be “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone.” Eph. 2:20. “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” 1 Cor. 3:11. In Christ is the foundation of all true faith, and all faith must rest upon that foundation. If it is not firm on the Rock, it can not stand the test of God, and is sure to fail. The Word says, “To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isa. 8:20. It is not safe to place our hopes upon any doctrine that is not according to the Word of God. Why?—“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; . . . and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” 2 Tim. 4:3, 4. No one need be in error concerning the truth; for every one has the privilege of knowing on what his faith rests, and to be assured that it is on the true foundation. For “if ye continue in My word,” Christ says, “then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:31, 32. “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God;” for “the meek will He teach His way.” Christ says, “He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” John 8:12. Alma, Neb. Emma Lena Runck. RESTING IN GOD.
By T. T. Carter
It is a sign that a soul is living in God, if it maintains calmness within through the consciousness of His presence, while working for Him in active ministrations. Such restfulness will show itself in the commonest ways, in doing common duties at the right time, in preserving a sweetness and evenness of temper in the midst of ordinary interruptions and disturbances, in walking to and fro quietly on the day's varied errands, in speaking gentle words, in sweetly meeting unexpected calls. A calm, restful temper grows as self is learning to lose itself in God. Such grace tells gradually on the daily life; even the minutest detail may be brought under the power of God, and carried out in union with Him.—T. T. Carter. With the exception of the few Bibles printed by special license, all the Bibles printed in the United Kingdom, the Liverpool Daily Post tells us, are those made by the king's printers and by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Special pains is taken with its printing. “A few years ago the question arose whether the word ‘spirit’ in Matt. 4:1 and Mark 1:12, should have a capital ‘S,’ it having been previously printed with a7 small one; and altho the word was obviously wrongly printed, it was not until after the ruling powers at the universities and the king's printers had met in solemn council that leave was given to use the capital letter. Nothing sanctioned by authority in 1611 may be changed without creating something akin to a revolution in the places where Bibles are printed.” Just now a particular interest is being taken in saintship because of the canonization of Jeanne d'Arc. Two years ago she was beatified, or declared supremely blessed. Presumably she had been this all the time if she were living, but it was not supposed to be known until the “church” declared it. Now she is to be canonized, or enrolled among the saints. What subliminal folly is all this (the details of which make it more apparent, but which we have not space to give) compared with the simple truth of the Word. The word “saint” in the Old Testament comes from two words: (a) qadash (kaw-dash'), to make or pronounce clean; to consecrate, hallow, sanctify; (b) chasad (khaw-sad'), to bow in courtesy to an equal, to be kind, pious, godly, merciful, holy. In the New Testament it comes from the Greek word hagios, meaning sacred, pure, blameless, consecrated, sanctified. The following are instances of its occurrence: Ps. 106: 16; Deut. 33: 2, 3; Dan. 8: 13; Ps. 16: 3; 50: 5; 89: 5; 116: 15; Dan. 7: 25; Acts 9: 13, 32, 41; Rom. 1: 7; 15: 25, 26; Eph. 4: 12; Rev. 13: 7; 14: 12. In all the word occurs in our common English version over one hundred times, and in most cases it refers to the people of God living on this earth. Sometimes it refers to angels, holy ones, and sometimes to the saints in glory. According to both Hebrew and Greek, a saint is a sanctified person, one made holy, not by any holiness of his own, not by any deeds that he wrought, not by any miracles that he did; but one made holy by the holiness of God, sanctified, saintified, by the creative power of God, through the agency of the Spirit and Word. So we read that God gave His Sabbath “to be a sign between Me and them [God's people], that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.” Eze. 20: 12. “Thy people also shall be all righteous;” and “their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord.” Isa. 60: 21; 54: 17. And the material which God uses out of which to make saints, is poor sinful humanity. “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Rom. 3: 20–24. The same lesson is taught elsewhere. The apostle tells us that only saints can have a part in God's kingdom at all. “Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” What hope is there then? Hear him further: “And such were some of you [thieves, adulterers, covetous, etc.]; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Cor. 6: 9–11. The saints are God's elect “through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus” (1 Peter 1: 2); chosen “to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2 Thess. 2: 13). Hence our Lord's earnest prayer: “Sanctify [sanctify] them through Thy truth; Thy Word is truth.” John 17: 17. The characteristics of the saints of God do not necessarily include signs, wonders, or miracles. They need not be recognized as saints by any church or council. Their names need be on no earthly roster. There will, we opine, be seen tremendous differences between God's roll of saints and that which men have made. Here are the divine characteristics of latter-day saints as given in the Word of God: “Here is the patience of the saints, they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14: 12, R.V. Of that holiness of character, of that power to keep God's commandments and the faith of Jesus, no one will boast; it is all of God through Jesus Christ. It is the blessed privilege of every soul right here and now, no matter what his condition, to have the Lord call him a saint; his highest, most blessed expression of that condition will be to call himself a servant of Jesus Christ. And the true servant is God's saint. THERE IS SOMETHING BETTER.
REV. DR. LYMAN was recently quoted as saying: “I want something better for America than the Sunday of Continental Europe.” Why not take “the Sabbath of the Lord thy God”? Next to Christ Himself it is God’s best and most blessed gift to the human race. It was blessed and hallowed by the Lord when given to the world. That blessing and that sanctification were never repealed by the One who only had a right to repeal them. The institution itself was never set aside by a command of the One who only had the right and the power to make such a change. One of the purposes of its establishment was to keep in men’s minds the memory and love of the “Maker of the heavens and the earth.” God pronounced a blessing upon those who would remember to keep it. Christ kept it. He neither changed it nor intimated that He ever intended to change it. His disciples kept it. There is no record, sacred or profane, that they ever ceased to keep it, or that they ever kept any other day. No statement of the New Testament can by any fair or impartial interpretation be made to teach that they kept any other day as a Sabbath or sought to teach others to do so. We are free to admit that the world needs something better as a Sabbath than the “Continental Sunday.” And we know there is something better. It is the Sabbath of Jehovah, given in Eden; given with His seal; protected by Him through all the ages; still in force as when He spoke the law concerning it; never to be repealed. “Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.” Isa. 56: 2. This is God’s own promise to the man that honors His hallowed Sabbath day. He who does it God will cause “to ride upon the high places of the earth,” and to be fed “with the heritage of Jacob.” Isa. 58: 13, 14. That is better than anything which the “Continental Sunday” has to offer. There is no promise in all God’s Word of a blessing with the keeping of a “Continental Sunday” or an “American Sunday,” or any other kind of a pseudo-sabbath. Look it up, and find out for yourself, if you are not sure already that this is true. Man is not a source of divine blessing. So no Sabbath that he can institute can carry a divine blessing with it. Dr. Lyman declares that “there is no distinction in the days,” and proposes to have the Sunday preserved “one-half for religious culture and the other half for real rest and recuperation.” Now, that is a man-made arrangement, pure and simple. There is no blessing pronounced upon it by the One who only can bless humanity with spiritual blessing. No one who has the right and power to hallow a day, or a Sabbath, has hallowed that one. It can carry no divine blessing with it; for none has been put into it by the One who alone could do it. More than that, it is a distinct defiance to the Author of the true Sabbath; for the would-be founder of this half-and-half Sunday-sabbath has declared that there is no difference in the days. To him (and to many others) it makes no difference in the days for God Himself to declare one day blessed and hallowed, and command it to be kept. But God has put a difference between the days of the week; and in the body of the law which He wrote with His own finger He has declared that difference. He is the same unchangeable God “yesterday, to-day, and forever.” “I am the Lord, I change not.” Mal. 3: 6. The difference is still there; the blessing is still there; and he who honors God in the keeping of His holy day will receive and know that blessing, and will have something better than the “Continental Sunday.” Then why not take Him at His word, honor the day He appointed for a Sabbath—the only one He ever did appoint—and get the blessing which He has in it for you? Let us be loyal to the great King now, if we expect to dwell forever under His government by and by. It is left on record for the encouragement of every sinner that after man sinned and sought to hide from God, it was God that sought the sinner, not the sinner that sought God. And this has ever been the order. “We love, because He first loved us.” We would have no desire, no courage to return, if He did not call us. Our longing to return is but the response to His call. Do not be afraid to heed it; you will find a welcome. THERE is no true life apart from righteousness. With God “is the fountain of life.” He also is essentially righteous. Nay, more, He is the fountain of righteousness; for as our life is from Him, so our righteousness is from Him also. “Their righteousness [the righteousness of His servants] is of Me, saith the Lord.” Isa. 54: 17. “And this is His name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Jer. 23: 6. Now the natural man has a life apart from this as truly as he has character or conduct apart from it. In fact, every living thing has a life, God-given, it is true, but not the life of God. The life of the earth itself follows the perverted laws of its combinations, and manifests itself in its numerous chemical changes, in its convulsive groanings of storm, tempest, and earthquake. Each various kind of mineral has a life that leads to a reproduction of its crystal forms, even tho the mineral be dissolved. When the deposition again takes place, the same crystals are formed. And so life operates according to the law of the creature it vivifies, all the way from the mineral to the carnally-minded man; but in each and all on this earth, it is a life ever tending to death. “For to be carnally-minded is death.” Rom. 8: 6. The carnal man does not have the life of God, because he will not have the righteousness of God. God does not call this mortal life His life. That He preserves us is no proof that He is in us. The man in that condition is “alienated from the life of God;” he has “no hope, and is without God in the world” (Eph. 4: 18; 2: 12), and in that condition is doomed utterly to perish. To say that his life is God’s life, that God dwells in him, is to make God responsible for all evil deeds ever committed. God gives to mortal man a life in which he may “lay hold on eternal life;” but until he does by faith lay hold on eternal life, he has it not. It is a favorite saying with many that God is in everything, even the evil things, because He permits them and controls them. But there are many things in which God is not. When Elijah fled from Jezebel to the mount of God, the Lord told him to go forth and hear what He might say. Obedient, Elijah went forth. Satan anticipated his coming, and sent forth a mighty, destructive whirlwind, which broke in pieces the rocks; “but the Lord was not in the wind.” After the wind Satan sent an earthquake; “but the Lord was not in the earthquake.” After the earthquake came a fire; “but the Lord was not in the fire.” After the fire came “a still small voice.” And God was in the voice, and Elijah was so in harmony with God that he knew it. Neither is God in the works of Satan and evil men to-day. He may restrain them, repress them, if for His glory; but He is not in them. He will have His way in the storm and the earthquake. He will make wrath to praise Him, all that can be so used; and the remainder will He restrain. But the evil is not of Him; He is not in it. God is righteous; and only that which is in harmony with His righteousness can claim His life. He who yields to the will of God, however great his sin, will be given that life to cleanse the soul from all defilement. There is power in His life over sin. It lifts man above sin. It separates him from the world; it crucifies the deeds of the flesh; it makes man a partaker of the divine nature. Jesus died to bring it to man. “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” SUNDAY ENFORCEMENT BY THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT.
Some persons say that the Sunday (mark of the beast) never will be enforced by law under the existing state of government, as the Constitution forbids any religious interference. Therefore how can it be done? G. T. To answer in one sentence, it can be done by construing the Constitution. To illustrate: In 1797 a treaty between the United States and Tripoli, signed by President Washington, declared that “the government of the United States is not in any sense founded upon the Christian religion.” This was the construction placed upon the Constitution in the lifetime of those who framed it. But in 1892 the Supreme Court, reasoning from premises founded in conditions existing in the Old World two to three hundred years before the framing of the Constitution, handed down the opinion that “this is a Christian nation.” In evidence that we have already had “religious interference” by the government, we cite the instance of the federal law closing the gates of the Columbian Exposition at Chicago. This action was taken just after the foregoing action of the Supreme Court, and its alleged legitimacy was predicated upon that opinion. This law included the declaration by the government that Sunday is the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. The law made the appropriation for the fair conditional on its being closed on Sunday. The provision was evaded by the directors; but that did not alter the position of the government, and it stands officially committed to a change of the law of God. And this action of Congress was largely influenced by threats of “reformers” that members who refused to vote for it could not be re-elected. A leading one of these “reformers” afterward boasted that twenty men writing letters from a certain State had made the representatives from that State believe that the whole State was in favor of the measure. Thus we see how it is possible to establish principles directly contrary to the Constitution as it was understood and intended by those who framed it, and by those who administered it for almost a century. Following up this precedent, the last Congress, urged on by the same “reformers,” made an appropriation of $5,000,000 for the Louisiana Exposition, to be held in St. Louis in 1903. Then the condition is attached that if the gates of the exposition are opened on Sunday, the appropriation is to be void. This is virtually imposing a fine of $5,000,000 for opening the exposition on Sunday. But back of this particular construction of the Constitution by the U. S. Supreme Court, we have Federal indorsement of State action involving the same principle. The constitution of the State of Tennessee provides that “no human authority can, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience, and that no preference shall ever be given, by law, to any religious establishment or mode of worship.” But Tennessee has a law giving preference to Sunday observance (which is a religious establishment), and giving that preference to the extent of making it a crime not to formally observe the day. And the Supreme Court of that State has so construed the constitution as to make that law constitutional. In 1899 a man named R. M. King, who observed the Sabbath of the Lord (the seventh day), was convicted in Obion County of the crime of doing farm labor on Sunday. His case was appealed to the Supreme Court, and the judgment of the lower court was affirmed. Then an appeal was taken to the United States Circuit Court, and the judge of this Federal Court sustained the State Sunday law, which is a violation of both the State and the United States Constitution. He went so far as to say that “if one ostentatiously labors for the purpose of emphasizing his distaste for, or his disbelief in, the custom, he may be made to suffer for his defiance by persecutions, if you call them so, on the part of the great majority, who will compel him to rest when they rest.” And in order to make a show of reason for this extraordinary statement, this judge of a Federal Court was obliged to assume, and did assume, that this defendant and “his sect” labored “ostentatiously” for the purpose of emphasizing their “distaste” for the custom of Sunday observance. And this assumption was without any semblance of fact. Furthermore he asserted that “Sunday observance is so essentially a part of the religion of Jesus Christ that it is impossible to rid our laws of it.” Now put this opinion alongside of the U. S. Supreme Court’s dictum that “this is a Christian nation,” and see where it logically leads. The judge himself saw where it would lead, but was not deterred from it even then. He deliberately stated that “the logic of this position may lead to a union of Church and State, undoubtedly; but it is not essential nor always useful, indeed often otherwise, to go to the end of one’s logic.” Thus, with his eyes open to the logic of his position, the judge of a United States Court upholds the principle of Church and State union without the contemplation of any formal change in the Constitution. The State of Georgia has a Sunday law that is unique in that it is possible for a conscientious observer of any other day to suffer the death penalty. He may be imprisoned for laboring on Sunday, and while in prison if he should persist in declining to work on the day which he believes to be the true Sabbath, he could be legally put to death for insubordination. Of course this latter feature is not a part of the Sunday law itself, but it is a possibility of the result of conscientious non-observance of such a law. According to the Federal judge whom we have been quoting, “civil or religious freedom may stop short of its logic in this matter of Sunday observance.” And in a case where a railroad company appealed to the U. S. Supreme Court from a decision of the State Court, this Georgia Sunday law was held to be constitutional. From the foregoing facts, and more that might be adduced, it is not difficult to see how Sunday observance can be enforced by national law “under the existing state of government.” It is already being done, and is being indorsed in the States by the general government. The “image of the beast” of Revelation 13 is the union of Church and State in the United States Government. And in relation to this “Christian nation” opinion of the Supreme Court, and the subsequent legislation by Congress, we quote from a work entitled “Rights of the People,” by Alonzo T. Jones:— What more could be done to create the very image of the Papacy in this nation, in the principle of the thing, than is done in this decision? In principle we say; not in its positive workings, of course, because the decision in itself on this point does not bear the force of a statute that can be made at once obligatory upon all by the executive power of the nation. But it does sanction and justify beforehand any and every encroachment that the religious power may make upon the civil, and every piece of legislation that Congress might enact on the subject of religion or religious observances; so that by it the national door is opened wide for the religious element to enter and take possession in whatever way it chooses or can make effective. And there stands at the door, ready and determined to enter and take possession, the strongest religio-political combination that could be formed in the land. Therefore we say that, altho life is not by this given to this image that it should of itself speak and act (Rev. 13:15), yet so far as the making of the evil thing, and the establishment of the principle of it are concerned, it is certainly done. As to the “mark of the beast,” it is an undisputed fact that the Papacy holds up the Sunday institution as the special “mark” of the authority of “the church,” and the United States Government has set its seal to the rejection of the seventh day in the Lord’s Sabbath commandment and the insertion of the first day in its stead. But the actual issuing of the decree that men should worship the image of the beast or be put to death, or be deprived of the right to do business unless they receive the “mark,” is yet to be accomplished. But the progress of the whole process has been so marked in the past twenty years, and especially in the past decade, that the full consummation can not be far in the future. This may seem sudden and impossible to those who have not been noting the signs of the times; but, shocking as the thought may be, there is nothing involved in the process that has not been predicted and threatened by the very “reformers” who are moving every possible lever to have the government committed to their peculiar style of religion. Some people say that the Sunday (mark of the beast) will never be enforced by law under the existing state of government, as the Constitution forbids any religious interference. Therefore how can it be done? G. T. (1) Sunday of itself is not the mark of the beast, neither is Sunday-keeping. Not until it is enforced by law against the sign of God’s power, and so accepted, does it become the mark of the beast. (2) The “existing state of government” is easily changed. The Constitution has been and will be overridden. For fuller reply see previous article. Will you please explain Mark 9:4: “And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus.” 1. The transfiguration of Jesus was a type of His second coming in power and glory. See Mark 9:1. At that time there will be Christ Jesus the King, and His people, consisting of two classes; those raised from the dead, and those translated without seeing death. 1 Cor. 15:51-54; 1 Thess. 4:16, 17. So Peter tells us that this glory of Christ on the mount was a shining forth of His “power and coming.” 2 Peter 1:16-18. 2. In that scene Moses was there as the representative of those who will be raised from the dead. For Moses had died, and the Lord buried him in Mount Nebo. After that Michael—the Son of God—came to raise him from the dead. The devil, who claims all the dead as his lawful captives, death being the fruit of sin,—was there to dispute Michael’s power to raise the dead. God’s Son only replies, “The Lord rebuke thee.” Who won? There can be but one answer, the Son of God, Michael, “who is like God,” conquered, and set free the captive; and therefore Moses was on the mount as the type of the greater victory when all shall come forth who sleep in Jesus. 3. Elijah did not die, but was translated; he did not see death. 2 Kings 2:1-11. He was there as the type of those who live in the last days, and who shall be taken to the heavenly mansions without seeing death. 4. These noble men of God were sent from heaven to talk with Jesus over His coming trial (Luke 9:31), and to instruct and strengthen the souls of the disciples. (1) Does the Bible contradict itself? (2) Does the devil contradict himself? J. R. G. 1. Not when rightly translated and understood. There are expressions when torn from their context which seem to contradict each other; but not in their true settings. In some places the original text of some of the historical books has come down to us very uncertain. Some of the copyists have made mistakes, and so there may be seeming contradiction. But nothing of this kind is serious, and the seeming contradiction is easily explained to all candid minds. 2. The devil often contradicts himself, not purposely, but because he can not do otherwise. “He is a liar, and the father of it.” It is impossible for a liar to be harmonious. He is led by his own perverted way into false paths. He is forced to cross and recross old paths. Of course he does all in his power to make souls believe that error is truth, and so deceives many. But error can not, in the very nature of the case, be consistent. 1216.—The Sabbath and Its Counterfeits.
Has the Sabbath any other counterfeits than the Mohammedan Friday and the Sunday? G. It has no others. All this talk about every day of the week a Sabbath somewhere has no basis in fact, such as “the Egyptians keep Monday, the Assyrians keep Tuesday,” etc. The Egyptians are Mohammedans. There is no nation of the Assyrians. There are only two days which stand as rivals to the Sabbath of the Lord, the Mohammedan sixth day, or about an hour of it, and the pagan first day, “the wild solar holiday of all pagan times.”