Earlier text: Faith Manifested in RighteousnessTHE TITHE: ITS HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY.
By M. L. M.
THE tithe enters Bible history, like the story of Elijah, without preface or comment. It first appears as a natural incident in the meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek. Without question, explanation, or requirement, the tenth of Abraham's spoil is handed over to God's high priest. This is done in such a matter-of-course way as to require some already established, well-defined custom for its explanation. Somehow, somewhere, man must have been instructed in this matter. What more natural and reasonable conclusion than that it was by a law given of God himself in some of those audible communings which we know were not uncommon at that early period. We wonder what Abel and Cain knew about offerings that should make the one acceptable and the other not. The mode of their instruction is not revealed. But reason tells us that in some way they must have been instructed. That this giving of the tenth possessed, in some manner and from some source, an authority greater than mere established custom; that it had in it all the force of an enacted law, we think will clearly appear further on. The second appearance of the tithe in the sacred record is in that significant story of Jacob at Bethel. As a result of the vision by which he was made to realize that he was alone with God, he cried out, "How dreadful is this place!" Dreadful because it made him conscious of his sins. He at once sets up a pillar and consecrates it, adding his vow of future service, and without any allusion to the tenth on the part of the angel, he says of his own free-will, "Of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee." In moments of great spiritual quickening like that, the mind does not fly to the unknown for refuge and resolve, but to the well known, to the best known. This quickening of Jacob's53 dormant spiritual nature instantly suggests to him an obligation with which he was familiar, and to which the newly stirred impulses of his soul had instant recourse. The highest religious act with which he was acquainted, next to the building of the altar, was the giving of the tenth. He knew it either from observation or parental teaching, but it came to him with a force of conviction like that of law. The next allusion to the tithe is found in Lev. 27: 30-33. That long list of requirements running through the entire book is closed with this one, which is not in the form of a law given for the first time, but as if reminding them of something well understood. God says: "And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's; it is holy unto the Lord." He does not say it shall be so; "it is." But we must not fail to note here that this law, whatever its origin, was not Levitical. For all these allusions to it occur before the Levitical period. It was twenty years after this that God appropriated it to the use of the Levites, as recorded in Num. 18: 24-28. He there says, "But the tithes of the children of Israel, . . . I have given to the Levites to inherit." As if he had said, "This portion, which is mine, I assign to them." But he does not give even this wholly to them, for he immediately adds, "Ye shall offer up a heave-offering of it to the Lord, even a tenth part of the tithe." Thus keeping distinctly before the mind the fact that a "tenth is the Lord's." Passing some allusions to the enforcement of the law, not essential to the argument, we come to Neh. 10: 37, 38. After a long period of decline and captivity, the pure worship of God is restored, and the tenth comes in again as part of the law. Fifty years more pass away, and the nation again lapses into forgetfulness of God, when Malachi sounds out his call to repentance, as found in Mal. 3: 8, 10: "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me." Observe, he does not say they had robbed the Levite, but the accusation is that they had robbed God himself. And then he specifies that they had robbed him of both "tithes and offerings." The tithe was not an offering, nor the offering a tithe. Each word has a distinct meaning. The tenth was God's; the offering was a portion voluntarily given of the remaining nine-tenths, which, by this simple distinction, is clearly recognized as ours. We cannot be said to bring an offering of that which does not belong to us. The use of this word, therefore, indicates that there is a sense in which God recognizes our right to that which remains after the dedication of tithes, just as he recognizes our right to the remainder of time after setting apart the Sabbath. "Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Thus it appears that infinite Wisdom has made a distinct, definite claim upon a certain portion of both time and substance as his own. But it is urged that this claim belongs solely to the Old Testament dispensation; that the apostles make no allusion to it, and their teaching favors a purely voluntary giving; and that it does not appear in church history until after the establishment of the hierarchy. To this we reply that there is under the gospel no disannulling of the law, but, on the contrary, the Saviour expressly says: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." The fact is simply that after Pentecost the impulse to give was so strong and continuous that the law of the tenth was more than fulfilled without requirement. There was no need of a re-statement. The training they had had, together with the holy zeal that possessed them, carried them away beyond all mere statutory requirement. There are everywhere upon our sea-coasts great rocks away out in the sea which at high tide are completely hidden from view, not lost, not washed away, only for the time covered up and made invisible. So it was with this great law of the tenth, which stands out so clearly in Old Testament history as God's law. Christian giving was at flood tide in the apostolic age, and completely covered up that great historic monument of God's will and pleasure. Yet the monument stood unchanged; and when the ebb tide came, and the interests of the church demanded, God's rock of requirement re-appeared, and the tithe law was again enforced. Nor can its abuse by the hierarchy be urged as evidence against its real, divine authority. For it was not the principle of the tithe, but the unwarrantable method of its collection and the unholy uses to which it was put that made it odious. But it is desirable that this law should not only be authenticated, but that it commend itself to the reason. The philosophy of the tithe is therefore an important subject of inquiry. Between man and man the right of property is expressed in the payment of rent, taxes, and interest. No one but an anarchist questions the right of a man to anything he has made. We belong to God. He has a property right in us which it would seem he has chosen to express in this law, or requirement, of the tenth. Not, however, because it is his right or his pleasure, so much as because it is in the line of his great purposes. Having chosen to save the world by human instrumentality, it may be said there is a sense in which he needs man's money. But apart from any such consideration as this, and vastly higher and deeper, is the consideration which grows out of man's need. That is deep and radical. The ruling principle of the natural heart is self-indulgence. A divine requirement like the one before us tends directly and constantly to check the undue accumulation of property; and especially when coupled with offerings from our part, or the remaining nine-tenths. It is estimated that a devout Jew gave a full fourth of all his possessions. The sacrificial law had doubtless a deeper meaning than to typify the atonement. Self must be sacrificed, laid upon the altar, crucified. Large giving, or giving that means sacrifice, is directly in the line of God's great thought for us. We talk much of hygiene, seeking, by analysis and experiment, to find what most contributes to the nutrition of these bodies of ours. It is a wise quest. Should we be less wise in the matter of soul development, less earnest in seeking out its laws? And what so potent in building noble character as this principle of sacrifice, the yielding up of ourselves in some way for the good of others? What the oxygen of the atmosphere is to the blood, what protein in food is to the tissues, that Christian giving is to soul nutriment. Without it, vigor, strength, development, are impossible. But the men of business, the great money makers of the world, have little opportunity for personal sacrifice for Christ's sake, for getting to themselves this great boon of spiritual health and power, except in the giving of money. Hence the beneficence of God's great plan, which makes the giving of the tenth the foundation, the entering wedge, for larger, more generous giving. It is a law of our nature that we love most that which has cost most. That to which we have given time, thought, anxious days, and sleepless nights, comes to be woven into the very fiber of our being. How evident, then, that we shall love God and his service in exact proportion to the share he has in our treasures. Our interests become identified with his interests. We have an actual share in the things that belong to him. This world, with its throbbing, palpitating human life, belongs to him, and we have a vital interest in it. He loves it. We love it too. We are bound to him and his by an all-consuming love. But into this ideal we must grow by a natural process. "First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear."—M. L. M., in Missionary Herald. "If the Christian possesses the humility of his Master, he will rise above the slights, the rebuffs, and annoyances to which he is daily exposed, and they will cease to cast a gloom over his spirit." THE man who stands up for the truth of God in opposition to the atheism, agnosticism, infidelity, and anarchy of the present day, who stands up for an open Bible for all the people, in opposition to the priestcraft and superstition which prevails; who stands for a vital and personal regeneration, religion, and righteousness, instead of the dead formality and worldliness which wraps the pall of death over so many who have named the name of Christ, and who have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof, will need to strengthen his heart in God, and put on the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left. His enemies will be many, and his friends will be few; and while his enemies will be subtle and fierce, his friends are liable to be lukewarm and indifferent. His enemies know what he is doing; his friends will perhaps find it out in season to erect a monument to him when he has been dead half a century. Of old, God's professing people stoned the live prophets and honored the dead ones, and history often repeats itself. It is no light thing for a man to set the battle in array against such a host of foes, but the battle is the Lord's, and those that fight for him are on the winning side. Many a man has suffered fines, imprisonment, and death itself, for the truth of Christ. Many a man has entered the conflict well aware that there were men who thought it no sin to shed his blood. Men ready to make such sacrifices are needed now.—Selected. HANDLING THE WORD DECEITFULLY.
By Editor
On Sunday, January 13, a large number of the ministers of Oakland, including the Catholic, preached upon the subject of the Sabbath, according to previous agreement. The object was to stir up the people to the importance of legislation to protect Sunday. At the close of the services in most of the churches, the petitions for a State Sunday law, which were gotten up by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, were circulated. But the point which we wish decided is what to call the position that was taken by some of the preachers. For example, one of them who took for his text Ps. 122:1, "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord," remarked upon it as follows:— "The man who was touched with this emotion was a statesman, a warrior, a king, a poet, a man of great intellect, and one of exquisite genius. He was a man who was busily occupied on week-days, and so might well have felt that he had excuse for non-attendance in the Lord's house on Sundays, but he no more wanted to be released from the obligation than a healthy boy wishes to be excused from a Thanksgiving dinner, or than a lover desires to be excused from visiting his sweetheart. He might have made many of the pleas that are daily made use of by the man of the present. He had nothing more important to do—no task to write letters or no papers to read; no headache which he had not on Saturday nor would have on Monday was offered as an excuse; no fear of the dampness or the dust, or the heat or cold, which on a week-day would not deter him from attending to his business or pleasure, possessed him." Another preacher told about the giving of the manna, and its miraculous preservation over the Sabbath, when it would spoil on other days. Said he, "That which the people gathered on Saturday kept fresh and good until Monday morning." Now shall we call this ignorance of the Scriptures, or a deliberate design to deceive people who might be unfamiliar with them? Did not the first speaker know that David never kept a Sunday in his life? Does he not know that David, like all the Jews, kept the seventh day of the week, commonly called Saturday? Did not the other know that it was the seventh day of the week that the Israelites kept in the wilderness, and upon which no manna fell, and that they gathered it on Sunday the same as on the following week-days? Did he not know that it is the seventh day of the week that James referred to when he said, "For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath-day"? Acts 15:21. We are verily persuaded that both these preachers knew all these things. What causes us to believe that there is no minister who does not positively believe that it was the seventh day of the week—Saturday—which was kept by Moses and David, is the fact that they never fail to refer to it as the "Jewish Sabbath." This is sufficient evidence. We do not refer to this from any desire to direct the attention of people to the short-comings of ministers, although when the command is given to "cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins" (Isa. 58:1), we do not know why an exception should be made in the sins of ministers. Indeed, we think such deception as the above ought to be promptly exposed, since an error on the part of a teacher is necessarily followed by greater evil consequences than one by a learner. That such a course as the above should be taken, shows the utter absence of any foundation for Sunday observance, and should put people on their guard against that which they seek by such means to secure. It shows that when they would show the people how to keep Sunday, they are forced to go back to examples of Sabbath-keeping. That would be allowable, if there were any command transferring the weekly rest from the seventh to the first day of the week; but when they claim that Sabbath-keeping is Sunday-keeping, they give their whole case away. If this is not prophesying falsely, and handling the word of God deceitfully, we do not know when there ever was such a thing. The men who are working for a Sunday law try to secure the co-operation, or at least the assent, of seventh-day keepers by telling them that they do not want to oppress anybody; that no person shall be molested who conscientiously observes the Sabbath-day. They may be sincere, but the methods which they take to show the necessity for a Sunday law are not very assuring. W. THE POWER OF CHRIST.
By Ellet Joseph Waggoner
"And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead."
THE statement in this verse is a continuation of that in verse three, or, rather, is the complement of that; so this article must be but little more than a continuation of the preceding one. We have learned what is embraced in the statement that Christ was made of the seed of David, "according to the flesh," and now we have to note what he is to us "according to the Spirit of holiness." "And declared to be the Son of God, . . . by the resurrection from the dead." This must not be understood as meaning that Jesus was not the Son of God before his resurrection, nor that he was not declared to be the Son of God before that time. We well know that he was the Son of God before the world was, and he was then glorified with the glory of the Father. It was as the dearly-loved, only-begotten Son of God that Christ came to this earth. When he was baptized, at the beginning of his earthly ministry, the voice of God came from Heaven saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Matt. 3:17. Upon the mount of transfiguration that voice again was heard, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." Matt. 17:5. And all through his earthly life, Jesus did not hesitate to declare himself the Son of God. So we know that the resurrection did not affect his relationship with God. It seems evident that the phrase, "according to the Spirit of holiness," must be the key to unlock the mystery. If we take the closing words of Jesus, as recorded by Matthew, we shall be upon the track of the correct explanation. He said:— "All power is given unto me in Heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Matt. 28:18-20. The kind of power that was given unto Christ may be known from that the disciples were to do: "All power is given unto me in Heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach." Their going and teaching was based upon the fact that Christ had all power, and promised to be with them always. And this agrees with what Paul says in the verse immediately following the one quoted at the head of this article: "By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name." Rom. 1:5. Now we may know how it is that Jesus was declared to be the Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead. He was the Son of God, whatever took place. But by the resurrection from the dead he acquired power to impart holiness to as many as should believe on him. It is true that thousands lived holy lives before the first advent of Christ, but they did so only by the power which Christ obtained for them by virtue of his promised death and resurrection. It will be seen that the Scriptures sustain this exposition. We first read Heb. 2:14, 15:— "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them, who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage." Christ took part of flesh and blood, in order that he might have power to redeem man. This does not in any way limit his power before he came to earth; but it is a simple fact that man could not have been redeemed except by the blood of Christ. The law could not relax its claim, and so the Law-giver consented to receive in himself the penalty of his own law, and thus God can be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. More than this by his life of suffering and temptation, he learned how to sympathize with poor, weak mortals. And so the resurrection, which was the triumphant close of his earthly work for man, the thing toward which all his previous life tended, is said to be that by which he obtained power to fill his followers with holiness. The apostle Peter bears testimony to the same effect. He says:— "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in Heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." 1 Peter 1:3-5. As this text will come in again in our comment on Rom. 1:16, we pass it without remark for the present. In his second epistle Peter says:— "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue." 2 Peter 1:2, 3. Here is comfort, indeed. All things that pertain unto life and godliness are given to us by this divine power of Christ. Surely there is no manner of excuse for anybody's failing of righteousness and eternal life. Read now what the apostle Paul says: "We also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness." Col. 1:9-11. The "glorious power" of God is shown in the heavens, which "declare the glory of God," and in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. This glorious power may be ours, so that we may be "strengthened with all might," to be able to "walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing." This power Christ can bestow on us, because he has experienced the very lowest ebb of human weakness, so that he knows just what help is needed. Therefore he is able to save to the uttermost those that come to God by him. It is a soul-clearing thought that human weakness, instead of being a bar to our overcoming, may be the very stepping-stone to victory. The apostle Paul had a weakness, which it seemed to him was an insuperable obstacle to his fulfilling his divine commission, and so he besought the Lord to take it from him; but the Lord said:— "My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness." With this assurance the apostle said:— "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches,55 in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then am I strong." 2 Cor. 12:9, 10. But we are persuaded that it is not in physical weakness alone that Christ's strength is made perfect. The infirmities of the flesh, those tendencies which make us an easy prey to the temptations of Satan, call for the manifestation of divine power in an especial manner. In his list of the wonderful things accomplished by faith, the apostle tells of some who "out of weakness were made strong." Heb. 11:34. That is, the very weakness of their moral nature called for more of the divine power, and the greater the weakness, the more divine power was called for; and so it appears that the weakest point in our nature may, through the divine power of Christ, become our strongest point. From this standpoint, then, we may even glory because of the weakness of our moral natures. Not that we should glory because we are or have been weak, but having been "strengthened with all might according to his glorious power," being "strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might," we can glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world, with its lusts, is crucified unto us, and we unto the world. "All power is given unto me in Heaven and in earth," says Jesus. Let us not, then, tremble at the power of the enemy. Let us not talk about the power of the devil, for that will give him an advantage over us. By our very fear of him we give him power over us. He is a strong man armed, but Christ is the stronger than he, who has entered into his house, and bound him, and taken away his armor wherein he trusted. See Luke 11:21, 22; Rev. 1:18. His power is nothing in comparison with that of Christ. Let us, then, exalt the power of Christ, and joyfully trust it. No matter what the inherited or acquired weakness of character, nor how sorely the enemy may press, we may rest confident in the promise:— "Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be. There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." Deut. 33:25-27. And in all these things we may be "more than conquerors through Him that loved us." W. ADAM'S ORIGINAL CONDITION.
By John Harvey Waggoner
THERE are some queries that are very troublesome to some people, although they are of no possible practical importance. Among these is one respecting the creation of Adam, whether he was created mortal or immortal. The question is generally presented in the form of a dilemma, thus:— The penalty of death was presented to Adam. He was told that if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he should surely die. But if he were created mortal, he would die by reason of his mortality, whether he obeyed or disobeyed. So the penalty would have had little weight. Or, if he were created immortal, he could not die, even though he disobeyed. What, then, could his original condition have been? I am not now writing to try to relieve the dilemma; there has been quite enough written on that point. My present object is to show that the dilemma does not exist. No dilemma of that kind could exist, no matter what the original condition of Adam is assumed to be. 1. Adam could have been created mortal, and still death could have been consistently announced as the penalty of disobedience. Being on probation, the death which might have come in course of time, according to his natural condition, might have been averted by the grace and power of God. In other words, after having proved his loyalty to the commandments of God, he might be changed to immortality, by a change similar to that which the saints will experience at the coming of Christ. Surely, there is no difficulty in this view, no formidable horn of a dilemma in this supposition. 2. The other side is supposed to present a greater difficulty, namely: If Adam were created immortal, the threatening of death would be but a farce, as, in his very nature, he was entirely beyond the reach of such a penalty. In this statement the assumption seems quite plausible, at first glance, but it is contrary not only to reason, but to accepted facts of Scripture. It is contrary to reason. While it must be admitted that God could have created him immortal, it is unreasonable to suppose that he could create a being of such a nature as to be beyond the reach of his own power. No matter what might be the condition of a being whom God should create, he could at any time reverse that condition. Surely, it is unreasonable to conclude that God could create conditions which, when created, were beyond his control. Here it may be replied, that if God could destroy man, that would prove that he was not in his nature indestructible. But this again is an unjust assumption. A man might be in his nature immortal, so that, in the common course of events, he would never die; yet God, who conferred that immortality upon him, might withdraw it if he saw fit. And the assumption in the supposed dilemma is contrary to facts. The Son of God prayed that he might be glorified with the Father, with the glory that he had with him before the world was. John 17:5. And he was in the beginning with God, and all things were made by him. John 1:1-3. Now it will be conceded by all that such a being must have been immortal—not at all subject to death. Yet we are told that the Word, by whom all things were created, "was made flesh, and dwelt among us." John 1:14. He was made, for a time, lower than the angels, that he, by the grace of God, might die for us. Heb. 2:7-9. How this could be accomplished, we cannot comprehend. This is the great "mystery of godliness." 1 Tim. 3:16. He who was even called God was manifested in the flesh, became subject to death, to fulfill the work of redemption. And beyond a doubt it will forever remain a mystery, beyond the reach of finite minds, but not beyond the reach of the infinite power of God. At some time in the past the angels of Heaven were divided, or divided themselves, into two classes. One class rebelled, left their principality, were cast out of Heaven, are now awaiting the decision of the Judgment upon their actions, and are appointed to destruction. Compare Heb. 2:14; Rev. 5:13. Now it is immaterial what we assume in regard to their condition before that rebellion. Whatever it was, just such a change has taken place, or must take place, as the dilemma assumes to be impossible. If Satan and his angels, perfect and glorious in their creation, were immortal, then that condition must be reversed, for it is plainly revealed that sin and sinners will be exterminated from the universe. Sin has no right to exist. God never gave it existence, and he never conferred any right of existence upon it. If it has any title to eternal existence, it must have acquired that title by its own inherent power, to which no one can consent. God may permit it to exist for a time, for the purpose of probation, for the formation of character of his creatures, and to vindicate the justice of his Government. But if it exists eternally, it must be because God himself shall immortalize it (which would be as inconsistent as for him to create it), or because he consents that it shall have an eternal existence. But he will never act so contrary to his nature and attributes: Satan and his followers will be destroyed. Ps. 145:20; Matt. 15:13. Their very place shall cease to exist. Ps. 37:10. Or, assuming that the angels were mortal before the rebellion took place in Heaven, then the fact remains that the angels who retained their steadfastness to God have been made immortal since that event, just as Adam might have become immortal if he had remained obedient; for we learn by the Scriptures that the angels in Heaven are immortal. 1. Jesus was made lower than the angels that he might taste death for us. Heb. 2:7-9. Were the angels not immortal, he need not be made lower than they that he might be subject to death. 2. Jesus said that "they who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead," cannot "die any more, for they are equal unto the angels." Luke 20:35, 36. To be equal to the angels is to be beyond the power of death. Of course it is the first resurrection to which Jesus referred, for only they who have part in the first resurrection will have a place in that world wherein dwelleth righteousness. See Rev. 20:5, 6; 2 Pet. 3:13. In whatever manner we view these subjects, whether in the light of reason, or of the declarations of the Scriptures, we find that the supposed dilemma does not and cannot exist. Adam might have been created in any conceivable condition, and still the penalty of death would have been reasonable, and its execution possible. J. H. W. SOME QUESTIONS ANSWERED.
By Milton C. Wilcox
WE have received a number of letters taking exception to articles published in the SIGNS from time to time which touch upon the question of immortality or the resurrection. One objector thinks we have ignored texts, and did not reply to his questions, notably so in the article entitled, "Present with the Lord," in the SIGNS of December 28. But let us say: First, we have not time to refer to every text in the Scriptures or notice every cavil which is made against the truth. Secondly, the article named had not the slightest reference to our correspondent or his questions. As to what the Bible teaches concerning the resurrection, we will briefly state:— 1. The resurrection from the dead is all based on the resurrection of Christ. 1 Cor. 15:20, 23. He is called the first-fruits, not because of priority of resurrection, but because of pre-eminence; for all who were or who will be raised from the dead are raised through Christ, and by virtue of his death and resurrection. He was "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world;" he was the Redeemer from the same time. In God's purpose he was to die and rise again for the redemption of all, this purpose being confirmed with promise and oath (Heb. 6:16-20), and God's purpose cannot fail. God calls those things that are not as though they were, because they exist in his purpose. Rom. 4:17. 4. The resurrection of the wicked will take place at the end of the one thousand years. Rev. 20:5, 13. "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." If a man dies in Adam, or dies the Adamic death, to which all are subject, with his sins washed away in the blood of Christ, he will be raised immortal and incorruptible. But if he dies in sin, he will come up in sin. 5. There have been exceptions to the general rule in some cases both before and since the first advent of Christ; to wit, The widow's son raised by Elijah, the Shunammite's son, by Elisha, the raising of Moses, the man raised by the bones of Elisha, the son of the widow of Nain, Jairus' daughter, Lazarus, Eutychus, Tabitha, and those raised from the dead at the resurrection of our Lord (Matt. 27:52, 53), and afterward ascending with him, the antitype of the wave-sheaf. Eph. 4:8, margin. Some who live at Christ's coming will be made immortal; but all others will live only by a resurrection from the dead through the power of Christ. For if there be no resurrection from the dead, then even they that have fallen asleep in Christ have utterly perished. 1 Cor. 15:16-18. The dead are not alive. They are silent in the grave; they praise not the Lord; their thoughts and emotions perish; they know not anything. See Ps.8 115:17; Eccl. 9:5, 6; Ps. 31:17; 6:5; 146:4, et al. Left to themselves, they would never live more. But in the purpose of God, which cannot fail, they live; consequently he is their God. "He calleth things that are not as though they were." For this reason he styles himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; "for all live unto him." Luke 20:38. For the same reason the great God does not give his name as I shall be or I was, but as I AM. He could say at the exodus from Egypt, I am the God of Abel, and I am the God of Paul, though the first had been dead over 2,000 years, and the latter would not exist for 1,500 years. He speaks in this way of Cyrus nearly 200 years before his birth, "He is my shepherd." Isa. 44:28; 45:1. All this would as surely be as though then present. The Lord speaks of both classes of the dead as though they were undergoing judgment, or now present; for they will as truly exist as though they did already. Even now they exist in God's purpose. Human, mortal flesh will not exist in the kingdom of God; but when our vile bodies will be changed like unto Christ's most glorious body, there will be no corruptibility. Thus Job will see Christ out of his immortal flesh. Compare Eccl. 12:3. As the faithful have borne the image of the earthy, they shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 1 Cor. 15:45-49. But it will not be in mortal flesh, but in immortal, glorified bodies. M. C. W.