In the great threefold message of Rev. 14: 6-12, perhaps this is the most startling statement: “The hour of His Judgment is come.”
This is given as a special reason why men should fear God and give glory to Him. Earthly courts announce the time of the opening of each session. So God intends the people of earth shall know when the great tribunal of heaven is sitting, for we read: “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets.” And while the secret things belong to the Lord, the things revealed belong to us and to our children.
So the great message for all the world just before the Lord comes, will contain the announcement: “The hour of His Judgment is come.” This Judgment was seen in vision by the prophet Daniel (chapter 7, verses 9 to 11). He says: “I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool: His throne was like the fiery flame, and His wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him: thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him: the Judgment was set, and the books were opened. I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.”
In this scripture the prophet beholds a judgment taking place in heaven before the Ancient of Days, and while contemplating this his attention is called to the great words which were then being spoken by the little horn, which represents an earthly, blasphemous, persecuting power, as shown by verses 21, 22, 24, 25. Then following this description of the Judgment, in verse 13 the prophet sees Christ receive His kingdom which, as we have already shown, He does immediately before coming to this earth.
In this Judgment Daniel says he saw books opened, and John the revelator says that in the Judgment “another book was opened, which is the Book of Life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books.”
What Is in the Book of Life?
Speaking of a wicked power, the apostle says: “All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” Rev. 13: 8. Jesus said to His disciples: “Rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you: but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10: 20. The apostle Paul speaks of Clement and other colaborers whose names are in the Book of Life. Phil. 4: 3. And John, in speaking of the city of God, says that nothing shall enter therein which defileth or worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, “but they which are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” Rev. 21: 27. And again we read the words of Jesus: “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels.” Rev. 3: 5.
These texts clearly teach that only the names of those who have accepted Christ as a Saviour are written in the Book of Life and that the names of those who are unfaithful will be blotted out in the Judgment.
The Other Books.
“The dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books.” Since we are to be rewarded or punished according to the deeds done in the body, these books of judgment must contain a record of our lives.
“O wondrous books by angels writ,
What secrets do they hold!
Each man must count himself unfit
To stand thus naked-souled
When God to judge the world doth sit,
And record-books unfold.
Haste! soul, to put the garment on
Provided by God’s only Son.”
The apostle Peter, speaking to the people, said: “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of His holy prophets since the world began.” Acts 3: 19-21.
Thus we see that just before God sends Jesus to this earth, He will send times of refreshing (latter rain) to His people, and while the Holy Spirit is thus poured out, Jesus will blot out the sins from the record-books of heaven, for those who have repented; and confessing each name before the Father and the angels, He will substitute His righteousness in their behalf.
“O wondrous, wondrous Saviour,
How canst Thou bear our shame,
And in Thy Father’s presence
Confess each tarnished name,
So graciously to cover us
With robes of Thine own righteousness?”
This is the judgment of the house of God, or the professed people of God with whom the work of judgment is begun, as stated by Peter, who in speaking of the last days says: “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” 1 Peter 4: 17, 18.
In this Judgment the Lamb’s Book of Life is opened, and name after name is taken up. If the individual has been unfaithful, Jesus in sorrow denies the name and blots it from the Book of Life, and the sins stand against that name in the record-books of heaven. His case is carried over to the second judgment and he is appointed a portion with the hypocrite. “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matt. 24: 48-51. But if the individual has been faithful, Jesus will with joy confess his name before His Father and His angels. The name will be retained in the Book of Life, and his sins will be blotted from the books of record to be remembered no more. All such shall be delivered and shall shine as the stars in the firmament forever. And with this agree the words of Daniel, for in speaking of the close of probation he says: “And at that time shall Michael stand up [take kingdom], the great Prince which standeth [ruleth] for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble [falling of plagues], such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book [Book of Life which has just been examined]. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.” Dan. 12: 1-3.
But the apostle Paul says God “hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world,” and as we have shown that the Judgment begins with the house of God, then He must have appointed the time when He will begin this judgment of His people. But to appoint a day is to set a time, and to make that time known, for it is not an appointment until it is made known.
In the typical services of the Jews, where in the earthly sanctuary the work of Christ as our priest is set forth in types, this blotting out of sin was done on the Day of Atonement and was called the “cleansing of the sanctuary.” This Day of Atonement, which came once a year, was a day of judgment, for every soul who did not confess his sins on that selfsame day was cut off from among God’s people. Lev. 23: 27-30.
The writer of the Hebrews says: “Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.” Heb. 8: 1-3. And in chapter 9: 24, 26, he tells us that “now once in the end of the world hath He [Christ] appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself;” and in verse 28 he says: “Unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” Thus just before He comes in the end of the world He puts away sin, and then comes without sin to save His people.
The prophet Daniel, in chapter 8, verse 14, presents the longest prophetic period in the Bible which he tells us reaches to the cleansing of the sanctuary: “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Thus the prophet announces the antitypical Day of6Atonement. That this prophecy reaches to the last days is shown by verse 17 which says, “At the time of the end shall be the vision.” The angel Gabriel was commissioned of the Lord to make Daniel understand this vision. Verse 16.
In verse 21 he begins the explanation and proceeds to verse 24, explaining the first three symbols; to wit, the ram which was great (verse 4) he says represents the kings of Media and Persia. The goat which waxed very great (verse 8) was the king of Grecia. The little horn which waxed exceeding great (verse 9) was another power which was also to stand up against the Prince of Princes. The only nation this side of Grecia which exceeded it in power was Rome, and its authority did put Jesus to death. In verse 26 the angel mentions the time symbols, but Daniel faints and the explanation is interrupted.
In the following chapter Daniel begins to pray for additional light. In verse 21 the same angel Gabriel appears to him and informs him that he has now come to give him skill and understanding, and then directs his mind to the vision by saying: “Therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.” He then proceeds to carry out the commission by explaining the time question left unexplained in the former visit. This he does by saying: “Seventy weeks are determined [cut off and given] upon thy people.” In prophecy a day used as a symbol stands for a year of time. So the seventy weeks or 490 days (years) are cut off of the 2,300 days (years) and given to the Jews to accomplish certain things, and at the end of that time they will cease to be the especially chosen people of God.
In the 490 years the following things were to be accomplished: “To finish the transgression” (Jews to fill up their cup of iniquity), “to make an end of sins” (or sin offerings by the death of Jesus the true sin offering), “to make reconciliation for iniquity” (by the blood of Jesus), “to bring in everlasting righteousness” (the righteousness in Christ’s earthly life), “to seal up the vision and prophecy” (by the minute fulfilment of a part of it, thus making sure the remainder), “and to anoint the Most Holy” (the sanctuary in heaven or the true tabernacle). But the important thing for Daniel to know, and for us to know, the angel has not yet revealed, and that is at what point in the world’s history all this begins. Without this knowledge the prophetic period is of no value, but in verse 25 the angel locates the starting-point in these words: “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and three score and two weeks,” or sixty-nine weeks—483 years. Then, in verses 26, 27, he says that in the midst or middle of the one week the Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself, and He shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease.
The word “Messiah” means “anointed,” and Jesus became the Anointed at His baptism when the Holy Ghost came upon Him. According to this, in the 483rd year from the going forth of the decree Jesus would be baptized. In three and one-half years more He would be crucified, and at the end of three and one half years more the Jews would be rejected. This would bring us to the end of the seventy weeks or 490 years cut off and given to the Jews. At the end of the whole period of 2,300 years the cleansing of the sanctuary would take place. The decree for the complete restoring and rebuilding of Jerusalem we find recorded in Ezra 7:11-26. This decree was made on the first day of the first month of the year 457 B.C. But its going forth was four months later when Ezra reached Jerusalem and began to put it into operation among the Jews and other nations in that region to whom it was addressed. So we find the decree going forth in 457 B.C. with a loss of four months or one-third of a year; that is, it went forth 456 2-3 years B.C.; 483 less 456 2-3 equals 26 1-3 or 27. Then Christ was baptized in A.D. 27, autumn; A.D. 27 plus 3½ years reaches to A.D. 31, spring. Jesus was crucified at the Passover in the spring of A.D. 31. One more date in the seventy weeks: 490 less 456 2-3 equals 33 1-3, or in the year 34 A.D. The Jews were rejected A.D. 34.
2,300 less 456 2-3 equals 1843 1-3, or 1844 A.D. Hence in 1844 we reached the antitypical day of atonement when Jesus as our High Priest began the work of cleansing the sanctuary in heaven by the blotting out of sins, and thus through the prophet Daniel God announced His appointment to begin the work of judging His people; and since the year 1844 we have been living in the time of the Judgment, and the Judgment-message of Rev. 14: 6, 7 has been going to the world. Beginning like all of God’s work in the world with a few faithful ones, it has gathered momentum with each passing year, until now there are thousands of people who have devoted their lives to its proclamation.
Now, dear reader, if you have not accepted Jesus as a Saviour, do so at once, that Jesus may present your name before the Father among His people, and let us all seek earnestly to so live that our names may not be blotted out. Let us study God’s law carefully and allow His Holy Spirit to write it for us, not on tables of stone, but upon the fleshly tables of our hearts, that the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us, not as changed and interpreted by man, but as spoken and written by Jehovah, that we may be of that company under the third angel’s message of which it is said: “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus,” thus getting the victory over the beast and his image and his mark.
Christ’s Revelation of God
By Ellen G. White
By Mrs. E. G. White
All that man needs to know or can know of God has been revealed in the life and character of His Son. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.”
Taking humanity upon Him, Christ came to be one with humanity, and at the same time to reveal our heavenly Father to sinful human beings. He was in all things made like unto His brethren. He became flesh, even as we are. He was hungry and thirsty and weary. He was sustained by food and refreshed by sleep. He shared the lot of men, and yet He was the blameless Son of God. He was a stranger and a sojourner on the earth—in the world, but not of the world; tempted and tried as men and women to-day are tempted and tried, yet living a life free from sin.
Tender, compassionate, sympathetic, ever considerate of others, He represented the character of God, and was constantly engaged in service for God and man. “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, . . . full of grace and truth.”
“Unto the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world,” He said, “I manifested Thy name,” “that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them.” “Love your enemies,” He bade them, “bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven;” “for He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.” “He 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 merciful, as your Father also is merciful.”
The Glory of the Cross.
The revelation of God’s love to men centers in the cross. Its full significance tongue can not utter; pen can not portray; the mind of man can not comprehend. Looking upon the cross of Calvary we can only say, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Christ crucified for our sins, Christ risen from the dead,7Christ ascended on high, is the science of salvation that we are to learn and to teach. “Who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped; but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.”
“It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God.” “Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.” “We have not a high priest that can not be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but One that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”
Here are infinite wisdom, infinite love, infinite justice, infinite mercy,—“the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.”
Every Blessing Through the Gift.
It is through the gift of Christ that we receive every blessing. Through that gift there comes to us day by day the unfailing flow of Jehovah’s goodness. Every flower, with its delicate tints and sweet fragrance, is given for our enjoyment through that one Gift. The sun and moon were made by Him; there is not a star that beautifies the heavens which He did not make. There is not an article of food upon our tables that He has not provided for our sustenance. The superscription of Christ is upon it all. Everything is supplied to man through the one unspeakable Gift, the only begotten Son of God. He was nailed to the cross that all these bounties might flow to God’s workmanship.
The fruit of the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden possessed supernatural virtue. To eat of it was to live forever. Its fruit was the antidote of death. Its leaves were for the sustaining of life and immortality. But through man’s disobedience, death entered the world. Adam ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the fruit of which he had been forbidden to touch. His transgression opened the flood-gates of wo upon our race.
After the entrance of sin, the heavenly Husbandman transplanted the Tree of Life to the paradise above; but its branches hang over the wall to the lower world. Through the redemption purchased by the blood of Christ, we may still eat of its life-giving fruit.
Of Christ it is written, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” He is the fountain of life. Obedience to Him is the life-giving power that gladdens the soul.
Christ declares: “I am the bread of life; He that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.” “As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me. . . . It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life.” “To Him that overcometh will I give to eat of the Tree of Life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”
“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.”
The Knowledge That Works Transformation.
The knowledge of God as revealed in Christ is the knowledge that all who are saved must have. “It is the knowledge that works transformation of character. This knowledge, received, will recreate the soul in the image of God. It will impart to the whole being a spiritual power that is divine. “We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory.”
Of His own life the Saviour said: “I have kept My Father’s commandments.” “The Father hath not left Me alone; for I do always those things that please Him.” As Jesus was in human nature, so God means His followers to be. In His strength we are to live the life of purity and nobility which the Saviour lived.
“For this cause,” Paul says, “I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
“I Am Thy Part and Thine Inheritance”
By Emma Hildreth Adams
By Emma Hildreth Adams
THESE are wonderful words, thrilling words. What must have been their effect upon the man to whom they were spoken, accustomed tho he had become to the voice of force and power which had uttered them!
He had heard that voice amid scenes of glory and splendor unimaginable, amid displays of majesty and might inconceivable.
He had seen its utterances followed by exhibitions of sorrow overwhelming, of suffering intense, of death most frightful.
In the wilderness of Paran he had heard its decisive tones after strange displays of human rebellion, after rash outbreak against authority omnipotent — on the part of disappointed and frenzied Israel.
These remarkable words were spoken to Aaron the priest by Jehovah Himself (Num. 18:20), at Kadesh, near the western edge of the wilderness of Zin, from which point the twelve representatives of Israel were bidden to pass through the entire length of the land, which, centuries before, God had promised to Abraham, and ascertain its condition, the character of its inhabitants, and bring back report thereof.
God did not make this remarkable statement to Aaron because he had been always a faultless man, for twice especially had he been a leading party to great wrong in the camp of Israel.
Every observant reader of the Bible Band has felt a thrill of amazement at Aaron’s daring act recorded in Exodus 32 while that uneasy, just emancipated host lay encamped at foot of Sinai.
There, in the long, mysterious absence of Moses, listening to God, far up in the grand, historic mountain, Aaron became a ready helper to the impatient, wayward multitude in its enormous act of idolatry.
Reader, tarry here a moment. By their own feeble human skill they manufactured out of inert metal an image, a leader, which should take the place before them of the Creator of the universe, their Creator, and who should lead them on through deserts drear and enemies mighty, to the fair land they were eager to enter! They made a figure which was to guide, clothe, nourish, and finally establish them amid the hills and vales where their father Abraham had walked, a prince rich and powerful.
That entire chapter, including Aaron’s amazing deed and its heartrending result, puts before us a piece of tragedy astonishing,—tragedy evoking deepest thought, teaching gravest lessons, publishing most solemn warnings.
Again, Aaron, influenced possibly by Miriam — he seems to have been a man who was easily influenced, and, sometimes, not to safe, right deeds — spoke against Moses, their brother, these words: “Hath the Lord spoken only by Moses? hath He not spoken by us also?” Mark the quick, startling result, “The Lord heard it!”
Then followed suddenly an awe-inspiring scene. From the door of the tabernacle was heard the voice of the great Lawgiver saying to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, in tones impossible to resist, “Come out ye three into the tabernacle of the congregation.”
Let us not fail to note the strong, practical teaching of this twelfth chapter of Numbers. It contains a lesson for a lifetime. Therein we can see the mind of the Lord touching a deed of which we ourselves have been many times guilty, never thinking that the Lord hears.
But nineteen years after the last incident, during which years Aaron had served the children of Israel with conspicuous ability and fidelity as priest of the most high God, we hear the Lord saying to him, “Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou have any part among them: I am thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel.”
Probably this conclusive statement came unexpectedly to him, who, for years now, had served before the Lord and the people in holy things. In spirit and in life he was a different man from the Aaron who broke distinctly one of the most important commandments of God, notwithstanding he had been personally upon great Sinai — with8Moses, Nadab, and Abihu — and had seen the God of Israel.
He had now been disciplined by great trials. He had seen two of his sons, Nadab and Abihu, perish instantly for placing unhallowed fire upon the altar of incense, an act forbidden explicitly by the divine One.
Because of wrong-doing in which he himself had fully shared, Aaron must have sorrowed deeply over his beloved sister, when smitten extremely — made “white as snow” — with leprosy, a disease imperiling the life of all who touched her.
Nevertheless, after all His servant’s lapses from rectitude, God, ever ready to forgive, ever mindful of the sacred service the tested man had rendered, ever mindful of the fact that all possession had been refused him in fruitful Canaan, for which, during the saddening years since the triumphant outcome from Egypt, Aaron must sometimes have yearned intensely, now enriched him supremely by declaring Himself his part, his inheritance.
Aaron was not permitted to even see his fathers’ land. Because of another very serious error, wherein this time his great brother, marvelous for might of mind and spirit, himself shared (Num. 20: 8-11), God bade Aaron, in the fortieth year after the children of Israel left Egypt, to go up into Mount Hor, on the western edge of the land of Edom, and die there. Num. 20:23-28. It was a sad ending of a distinguished life.
But, in comparison with having the Creator of sun, moon, and myriad worlds for an inheritance, what was Canaan, with its flashing streams, green hills, lovely vales, luscious fruits, and radiant flowers, tho Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had walked therein?
To-day the same forgiving Lord who exalted Aaron to inheritance in Himself, is the inheritance eternal of every regenerated mortal who, walking by faith and consecration of life, is striving to enter the “strait gate.”
“I Will Heal You from Backsliding.”
THERE is plenty of evidence, outside the pages of the Bible, as to God’s attitude toward backsliders. Take the case of Jerry McAuley, for example. Jerry was won to Christ while serving a term as a convicted criminal. He at once went to work for Christ, so vigorously that a wonderful revival broke out in the prison, and many were saved. The change in his life was so marked that he was pardoned in the middle of his fifteen-year term. But after he left prison, he fell, and it was then that his reputation was made as a notorious criminal. For four years he was the terror of the police and the public. Then he was brought back to Christ again. After this he fell again and again, five times within eight months. But Christ did not give him up; Jerry kept coming back until the time came when he never fell again. And it was after all this repeated backsliding and reclamation that he founded what is now the famous Jerry McAuley Mission in Water Street, New York. It would seem that God does not intend to block the way of a returning backslider. It is only because the love of God in Christ will not let go of the backslider that he ever returns; and the angels in heaven join in the rejoicing that welcomes him back.
One closing thought. Jerry McAuley “stayed saved” after he devoted his life permanently to the saving of others. When men get saved in the Water Street Mission to-day, they are put right to work, and kept at work, saving others. That is the only way they are kept from backsliding, or recovered from backsliding. The editor knows nothing about the particular forms of Christian service which occupy the time of the inquirer whose letter is under consideration. But this question is worth considering: Is he devoting himself persistently, daily, to telling others individually about Jesus Christ and what Christ will do for them if they will but let Him? To triumph over evil thoughts is a very good thing; but it does not compare, in joy-bringing and in dynamic power, with helping others to triumph over evil by leading them, one by one, to their personal Saviour. There is nothing on earth that will dispel doubts, and worry, and gloom, and that will create joy, and dynamic power for Christ, like personal soul-winning. Let us trust God for our salvation, and devote ourselves to winning others to that same trust, while we resolutely turn our backs on our own black pasts that Christ is willing to forget if we are.—Sunday School Times.
The Sufferings of Christ for Sin.
By H.
1. How did sin and death come to be in the world?
“Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned.” Rom. 5: 12.
2. What provision was made whereby life might be restored?
“Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” Heb. 9: 28.
“Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, tho He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might become rich.” 2 Cor. 8: 9.
3. When was this offering made?
“While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5: 8),—“slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13: 8).
4. How complete was the sacrifice?
“Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.” Phil. 2: 5-8.
5. How does Isaiah describe His treatment?
“He was despised and rejected of men; a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and as one from whom men hide their face He was despised; and we esteemed Him not. . . . He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” Isa. 53: 3-5.
6. After a life of ministry on earth, ill treated and neglected by His people, how did Jesus foretell His own trial and death?
“Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man shall be delivered unto the chief priests and the scribes; and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him unto the Gentiles: and they shall mock Him, and shall spit upon Him, and shall scourge Him, and shall kill Him.” Mark 10: 33, 34.
7. What was the climax of suffering in the life of Christ?
“They took Jesus therefore: and He went out, bearing the cross for Himself, unto the place called, The place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: where they crucified Him.” John 19: 17, 18.
8. How are the agonies of the cross described by the psalmist?
“I am poured out like water,
And all My bones are out of joint:
My heart is like wax;
It is melted within Me.
My strength is dried up like a potsherd;
And My tongue cleaveth to My jaws;
And Thou hast brought Me into the dust of death.
For dogs have compassed Me;
A company of evil-doers have inclosed Me;
They pierced My hands and My feet.
I may count all My bones.”
“My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?
Why art Thou so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning?”
Ps. 22: 14-17, 1.
9. What are the results of this infinite sacrifice?
“Him who knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Cor. 5: 21.
“In that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted.” Heb. 2: 18.
“We have not a High Priest that can not be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Heb. 4: 15.
“Who His own self bare our sins in His body upon the tree, that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness; by whose stripes we are healed.” 1 Peter 2: 24. H.
Jesus Is Calling You.
By Lephia Bryant Larson
CHRIST is calling you, my brother,
Calling for thy world-worn soul;
Will you heed His tender pleading?
Will you let Him take control?
Wait no longer, wait no longer,
But accept His pardon now;
Wait no longer, wait no longer,
Let faith’s garland clothe thy brow.
Leave thy sins and doubts behind thee,
Leave the path thou long hast trod;
Let not Satan’s baubles blind thee,
Face about, and serve thy God.
He alone can give thee comfort
When death’s shades are hovering near;
He alone—O arm almighty!
He alone can banish fear.
Come to Him with all thy weakness,
Let Him cleanse thy soul to-day;
Come to Him in truth and meekness,
Cast not His dear love away.
Wait no longer, wait no longer,
Till death’s dews are on thy brow;
Wait no longer, wait no longer,
Give thy heart to Jesus now.
