The clouds of the recent storm and awful disaster of St. Pierre, Martinique, have scarcely floated away. The rumblings and the quaking of old mother earth have scarcely ceased. The fumes of the smoke and of the sulphuric discharges are yet fresh in the nostrils of those who escaped a doom common to almost 40,000 souls. Yet the world moves on in its same mad rush toward fame, fortune, and pleasure,—never stopping, never heeding this emphatic note of warning.
Thousands who read the awful story of death and disaster, have thrown aside the paper, dismissed the subject from their minds, turned again to the various pursuits of life, to the amusements and pleasures of the world, as though nothing had happened. But can we learn of such wonderful manifestations of the power of God, and not be moved? Is there no way by which the Almighty Himself can call a halt in the headlong plunges that men and women are making on the downward road to ruin? In all the realm and recesses of nature, is there no voice through which a loving Creator can speak to the multitudes in sin?
“God works in a mysterious way His wonders to perform.” “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto his servants the prophets.” Amos 3:7. According to this statement from Holy Writ, can we consistently look to the writings of the prophets for a prediction of this terrible calamity? In Isa. 64: 1–3, we read as follows:—
“O that Thou wouldst rend the heavens, that Thou wouldst come down, that the mountains might flow down at Thy presence, as when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make Thy name known to Thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at Thy presence! When Thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, Thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at Thy presence.”
All who have heard of this terrible calamity—these “terrible things which we looked not for”—will admit that this prayer of the prophet has been in a measure answered. The mountains have flowed down. The melting fires have burned, and in molten streams reached the waters of the ocean, and caused them to boil. And what was all this for?—To make His name known to His adversaries, that the nations may tremble at His presence. Is it not plain that the Lord had an object in this mighty display of power? This is only an inkling of the mighty display of His power and of the vengeance that will befall the wicked in the day of judgment. As in the judgments that came upon the antediluvians, when the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened, and the earth was destroyed by water, so, again, in the end of this world, the fountains of the great deep will be broken up, and fire will come up from beneath, and the windows of heaven will be opened and fire will come down from above, and the earth and the works (of sin) that are therein will be burned up, and destroyed forever.
Dear readers, you who know not the name of the Lord, do you hear in this remarkable event the voice of God calling you? The Lord your Creator is already acquainted with you. He knows every fiber of your being. He knows every blemish in your character. But He wants you to become better acquainted with Him. He wants you to know that His name is above every name that is named in heaven and in earth, and that it is comprehended in the one single word, Love.
The Word says: “Since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen.” Will5you, my friend, fulfil this prophecy, and turn a deaf ear to this note of warning? Will you close your ears to His voice calling you from the wrath to come? O, turn again, and follow on to know the Lord. Let us apply our hearts to wisdom, and increase in the knowledge of God.
His desire is that we become better acquainted with His name. We can understand His character through His revealed Word. When Moses prayed, “Show me Thy glory,” the Lord answered, “I will make all My goodness pass before thee.” And as the Lord passed before Moses, He proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” “He is slow to anger and of great kindness, because He delighteth in mercy.” Let us train our spiritual sensibilities to that delicate degree that these wonderful manifestations of nature will preach whole sermons to us. We will have reached a hopeful point in this training, when we can readily recognize that all nature joins in the solemn proclamation, “Prepare to meet thy God.” F. F. FRY.
Forsyth, Ga.
The Father’s Chastening Love
By P. J. Flaherty
OUR heavenly Father chastises those whom He loves, and never are we so secure of eternal life as when we meekly receive from His hand the cup of bitterness.—P. J. Flaherty.
WILL YOU DO IT?
By Edison Driver
WILL you do it? Not would you do it, or should you do it, or could you do it; but will you do it! It takes a straight, firm answer, you see, like the sailor’s “Aye, aye, sir!” And that is why it has been so very much trouble to some people, some billions, in fact!
Now, a good many years ago, one of these people, an influential man he was, too, was turning the problem over in his mind. Said he to himself, “Will you do it?” “Do what?” “O, go down and bathe in that dirty, wretched little stream of a river!” “No, sir!” He drew himself up proudly, with a sneer on his face: “I won’t do it; it’s nonsense.” But he did. Proud Naaman, the Syrian, dipped himself seven times in muddy Jordan—simple foolishness till he understood it—“and his flesh came again like the flesh of a little child.” What made him change his mind and do it, after all?—I’ll tell you; he got at the kernel of the thing; there wasn’t any special virtue in the muddy water, or the seven times dipping, but there was everything in saying, “Aye, aye, sir!” when God asked, “Will you do it?”
God made Saul king. Saul knew it. God knew Saul would make as good a king as could be found, if he would be wise. So God said to Saul, “Will you do it? Will you obey me?” “Yes,” replied the fine, strong, tall, young fellow, “I will.” But by and by he began to think about like this: “Go to now; surely it is always good to offer sacrifice, and I’ll offer up some sacrifices, even if the Lord did tell me to wait for Samuel. Surely it doesn’t make any special difference about Samuel being here.” You see he would do just a little different from what God said—he couldn’t see any harm in it! But alas! by and by he did! He had made his offerings, and said his prayers, and chanted his psalms, and was feeling pretty well satisfied with himself, when Samuel came and stood before him with the sad words, “Thou hast done foolishly; thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which He commanded thee. . . . Now thy kingdom shall not continue.” Ah, Saul! didst thou not know that if thou disobeyedst God in the little things, thou wouldst soon disobey Him in the great?
From the first to the last, from the test he made in Eden, all through the troubled years of history, down to your trials and mine to-day, God has been asking individuals that question of all questions—Will you do it? Do what? Obey Me.
Will we obey? What a question! The weight of the ages of sorrow hung on it once, and hang on it to-day. The only thing that stands between man and his Maker, and cuts off the infinite tide of love and joy, is the heart’s dull, stupid answer, I will not! Or, many times he says to us, Will you do it? We say, Yes Lord; but do we? No! We forget the main thing He is trying to teach us, and we crawl around the difficult place and meet the command on the other side. He says, Swim the river. We go over in a boat—it don’t make any difference how we get there, surely. O, when will we learn that to obey is the teaching and the way of salvation! Not the little, stupid, poverty-stricken goals that are to be won in this earth, but simply obedience. O, that is the lesson of time and eternity. It was the wisdom of Him who walked the earth a conqueror, and it will be the glory of every one who follows in his way.
Fresno, Cal. EDISON DRIVER.
THE RIGHT WAY VS. THE WRONG.
By W. C. Mathewson
“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man,” but nevertheless, “the end thereof are the ways of death.” Prov. 14:12. The wrong way seems right to man, because it is “broad.” Those who travel this way, find plenty of room to carry their worldly possessions along. Therefore, “many there be which go in thereat;” but notwithstanding its convenience and the multitudes that travel it, it “leadeth to destruction.”
There is another way that is “narrow,” so exceedingly narrow that the traveler must “lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset” him, “and run with patience.”Heb. 12:1. Because of this, “few” there are who choose this way; but nevertheless it is the right way, for it “leadeth unto life”—eternal life. Matt. 7:14.
The right way is a spiritual way, and must be “spiritually discerned;” but the “natural man,” not being spiritual, can not discern it, because it seems “foolishness unto him.” Cor. 1 2:14. But the “natural man” can be “put off” in exchange for the spiritual man, which when “put on” will enable one to distinguish the right way from the wrong; and with the Word of God as a “lamp” unto his “feet” and a “light” unto his “path,” he finds the way so plain that the “wayfaring men, tho fools, shall not err therein.” Ps. 119:105; Isa. 35:8.
If those who are anxious to discern the way of life will make the psalmist’s prayer their own, “Teach me Thy way, O Lord,” He will answer, “This is the way, walk ye in it,” when they would “turn to the right hand” or “to the left.”Ps. 86:11; Isa. 30:21.
Luce, Mich. W. C. MATHEWSON.
XX
It was in the autumn of 1860, when I was scarcely fourteen years of age, that my attention was first called to the Sabbath of the Lord and the great truths of the great threefold message of Revelation 14. If one text of Scripture above all others impressed me, it was Luke 23:54-56. I saw from this that the seventh-day Sabbath was enjoined and observed after Christ’s crucifixion. This in connection with the first verse of the following chapter clearly showed me that the day that we called Saturday was the day that Christ’s followers kept after the Lord of the Sabbath had been crucified, and that there was a commandment that required its observance then; and if then, I knew it was still required.
This, in connection with the fact that everything in the Bible was in perfect harmony with this view, made an impression on my mind that has grown and strengthened through all these years, and I have found that in the keeping of the Sabbath “there is great reward.” SMITH SHARP.
Graysville, Tenn.
XXI.
FROM a child I was brought up a Presbyterian, and taught that the seventh day was the Sabbath from creation to the crucifixion; thereafter the first day was the Sabbath, and would be to the end of the world.
A minister in Ohio, of what name or sect I know not, said in my hearing one Sunday eve, “If any one has a better religion than I have, I would like to know it.” Instantly it flashed in my mind, “If you would keep the seventh day, you would have a better.” As the thought came to mind, I saw there were two days kept for the Sabbath, whereas God had given but one, the seventh day. Assuredly that day was right, and I was wrong. As God’s Word is the revelation of the way of salvation, I determined to study the Bible to see what the Lord said in regard to the Sabbath. The more I read the more I saw the unchangeableness of His Word. In it was no word for the observance of Sunday as a sacred day. I therefore became a Sabbath-keeper, after years of keeping of the first day.
Waynesville, N. C. W. H. ARMSTRONG.
How They Became Convinced
[Believing it would be of interest to our readers, the editor of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES has asked Sabbath-keeping ministers and evangelical workers to tell in a few words the scripture or scriptures, the truths and principles, which constrained them to accept the unpopular truth of the seventh-day Sabbath. These testimonies must not exceed 500 words. Let us hear from all.]
XIX.
I was born and brought up in the Lutheran Church in Denmark, where I also had my first Christian experience. At the age of twenty-one I was baptized, and united with the Baptist Church, which at that time always wanted a “Thus saith the Lord” for their preaching and practise.
Some years after coming to this country the Sabbath question came up in the church of which I was pastor. Some of my members had investigated the subject, and began to advocate the observance of the seventh day; while others believed that, as Christians, we were not commanded to keep any day. I, with the majority, believed that the first day of the week was the Christian Sabbath, and this I would endeavor to prove. Thus I was led to a careful and prayerful investigation of the Sabbath question, under which I was convinced that the commandment unquestionably meant the day that God Himself rested upon, blessed, and sanctified; and that the fourth commandment must be just as binding upon Christians as the first, second, and third, or any other in the Decalogue. This kept coming to me with such force that I could not honestly resist. For thirty-one years I have kept and preached the Sabbath, rejoicing in the Lord. J. C. NIELSEN.
Neenah, Wis.
Love Gives and Receives
By C. W. Gullette
Love gives—delights to give. Love also receives. It delights to receive. It receives as naturally as the flower drinks in the rays of the sun. One can receive material things without loving the giver, but the higher things are received by love alone.—C. W. Gullette.
Wisdom of the Children of Light
By J. P. Brushman
If the children of light were only as wise in their generation as the children of darkness, they would not “hide their light under a bushel.”—J. P. Brushman.
“WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT?”
The old burden of Dumah is still on. The calls still come from a turbulent world, “Watchman, what of the night?”
The outlook, however smooth the story of oily-tongued politicians, is dark. The much-vaunted prosperity is like a burst of lurid sunshine heralding the coming of the tempest of night.
Thoughtful minds are looking beyond the immediate present to the present’s fruitage. Many of them have seen the seed-sowing in part. They are noting the ripening. They tremble for the baleful harvest which lies just ahead.
The present prosperity is not real prosperity. (We are not discussing this from a political view point. As between the great political parties we see little difference.) When the prosperity is largely with the rich, the great corporations, the trusts, when the common people have to face life in conditions where the cost of living is increasing more rapidly than rates of wages, where discontent increasingly grows from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Lakes to the Gulf, surely it is not a “prosperity” of which to be proud. It presents a foundation too insecure for public confidence to build upon.
Strikes are prevalent. The consciousness that they are not sharing in the “prosperity” of inflated values make laboring men restless and turbulent. Too, they have tasted of power in some quarters, and it is teaching them their strength, whether they have wisdom to use its power aright or not. It is almost as certain as can be that they will be ruled by demagogues as unscrupulous—if less open—as the trust magnate.
In the East an awful calamity has fallen. Thousands of mills, factories, shops, and business places are dependent upon anthracite coal. Many thousands of families have houses, furnaces, stoves, fitted for its use alone. They have been hoping that the great coal strike would end in time to obtain their winter supply. But they are doomed to disappointment. If the strike were settled to-day, coal could not be supplied the needy in time. Some of the mines are filled with water; in some the timbers are down; 30,000 of the miners on strike have left the anthracite fields for the bituminous region or elsewhere. Bituminous coal can not be obtained even at the price of $7.50 a ton, instead of $2.50 a ton as when the strike began. Even now schools are closing because of a lack of fuel, and manufactories are shutting down. What it will be one month, two months, three months from now, no one can tell. The situation is awful, and many of the worst sufferers will be those having nothing to do with the strike.
The mine-owners are also the railway owners. They are violators, the Springfield Republican points out, of the federal law in combining to regulate prices, of the interstate commerce law in charging unreasonable prices for the carriage of coal, and are violating the State law in adding to the business of common carrier that of coal mining. Yet neither the Federal nor the State government has instituted proceedings against the coal trust. Both governments seem to be paralyzed before the power of wealth and influence which the coal trust sways.
Such conditions will inevitably lead to paternalism in government, a calamity to be much deplored. But when a few men say that the mines of God-given fuel “are ours, to do with as we see fit,” the people are ready to adopt any expedient which seems to offer relief. Think of a man, owning the only fresh water spring or well in a large section of country, shutting off all access to it by the people dying of thirst, and saying, “The spring is mine to do with as I see best.” Would not the people be justified in seizing the water source and distributing it among the needy? No one could deny it for a moment. Would not the same principle apply to the coal supply?
The financial outlook is far from assuring. Vast sums are invested in speculative enterprises. The Secretary of the Treasury has taken certain steps (“illegal” it is directly charged) to release some of the gold held and accumulating in the United States treasury. But this can give only temporary relief; and many business men look to the near future with foreboding. They will be happily disappointed if a great financial collapse does not sweep the country in which thousands will be ruined and crushed.
The great religious world with the exception of the Roman Catholic Church, is in confusion. That church is quietly plodding on her way, planning for nothing less than the conquest of America. Protestantism is at sea. It has measurably cut loose from the Bible, regarding it in the light of tradition, has partially embraced the hypotheses of science; and the Protestant vane is veering according to the wind between tradition and science, and resting nowhere.
Never was there a greater time of peril. Scoff at it as you will, infidels, skeptics, half-hearted believers, it is a time of peril, and the only safe guide out of it is the “more sure word of prophecy,” which shines as a light in a dark place till the day dawn. 2 Peter 1:19. God has foretold these days and these things. He alone can lead the way to safety.
MOZOOMDAR’S FAILURE.
CHRISTIANITY with the Saviour left out is not true Christianity. Men have proved again and again—not to their satisfaction, but to their disappointment—that the theory of Christianity, without Christ in the heart as a living, personal Saviour, does not do for them what they had hoped.
It was not the design of Christianity’s Founder to give to the human race a set of theories and leave them to work out their salvation through those theories, however moral and righteous they might be. The precepts of life which God has given for our guidance are the expression of God’s good pleasure, the expression of His will concerning us. But tho we adopt those precepts as the precepts of our life, we must remember that “It is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” We can not “work the works of God” independent of God’s help. Every such attempt is foredoomed to failure. “Without Me ye can do nothing,” is the declaration of Him who is the Author and Finisher of our faith, the One alone who has authority to speak in the matter, the One who is the founder of Christianity. That declaration from the Fountain-head of Christianity goes to the very root of the matter—it is final.
The tree can not grow whose roots are not buried in the earth; the branch which does not draw sap from the living vine can bear no fruit, but withers and dies; the electric motor which does not have the electric current surging through it is dead and can accomplish nothing. And such are all attempts to live Christianity while the door of the heart is close shut against its Founder. “Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” As there is no other name which has salvation in it, so there is no system of human devising that has salvation in it. Men can not invent a way of gaining heaven. They tried it at Babel. It ended in confusion and defeat. Every attempt since has ended as that attempt did; but the building of Babels goes on to-day as it did anciently.
Mozoomdar, of India, revolted against the grossness of Hinduism, and recognizing the purity of the precepts which Jesus taught, their exalted character, sought to establish a religion upon them and the best that was in other religions. But he did not accept Christ for what He is, the Saviour of the world. Now he has given up the struggle, and has announced his determination of retiring to the mountain fastnesses of Central Asia where he can be alone. He has recognized with great disappointment the failure of his system, and now he will flee from men as men fled from one another when God showed the first Babel-builders the nothingness of human schemes. We may plan and scheme and devise systems; we may call them Bab-il, “the gate of heaven,” but God calls them Babel, confusion, and blows upon them and they crumble and the builders die. There is no success out of God. If we leave Him out, we and all our plans and systems are failures. If we accept His plan, His way, there is no power on earth that can defeat us, no power in heaven that will. If you want to have success stamped upon you and all you do, believe God, accept His way, the sacrifice He has made, the power He has given. Then success is sure, and the blessings of eternity are guaranteed you.
A STUDY OF THE REVELATION.
Introduction.
In this and subsequent articles it is proposed to enter upon the study, with our readers, of the most wonderful, and to many the most mysterious, book of the Bible, and proceed in easy stages to its close. These studies will not aim to be exhaustive, but expositive, practical, suggestive. Our readers are invited to follow us prayerfully, for only so may we arrive at the truth. We wish them also free to ask questions; for questions oftentimes open avenues to glorious light.
The Name.
The book is called in our common version, “The Revelation of St. John the Divine,” for which there is absolutely no authority save tradition. The American revision (which we shall largely follow) gives simply, “The Revelation of John.” The Greek term, “Apocalypse,” meaning “revelation, disclosure,” is only a part of the title, the first words of the book supplying the whole—“The Revelation of Jesus Christ.”
The Writer
is John, the beloved disciple, the brother of James, who assumes no title dearer to him than “your brother and companion.” Inspiration uses the same expression to designate John’s faithfulness that the Lord used to designate Moses, namely, “servant.” “Moses, My servant,” “John, His servant.” What better reveals the noble character of the man than the position that the angels delight in; for one who excelled in power declares to John, “I am thy fellow servant.” Rev. 19:10. Blessed are those who serve such a Master.
The time of the writing of the book was doubtless A.D. 95, where it is generally placed by all save the higher critics; and the place was the rocky isle of Patmos, about twenty-four miles west of the coast of Asia Minor. Here John was banished by the Emperor Domitian, through whose darkened heart Satan thought to destroy the torch that Christ had lighted in John. But the gloom of his captivity was banished by the glory of God, and his isolation was replaced by the companionship of immortals. The rugged sea-girt isle became a gate of Paradise and the ante-room of the audience chamber of heaven.
The Contents
of the book are remarkable. It is the epitome of all the prophecies, of all the ethical teachings, of all the books which have come before. It sets a divine seal upon them all. The references of Bibles which give them will cite to every book in the Bible except eight; two of the eight have references to the Revelation, while the six others refer to the same great facts, truths, principles; but being small, personal, or purely historical, are not considered of sufficient import to note in reference. But every book in the Book of books finds echo in the Revelation. This it is, doubtless, which gives to its Greek its strongly Hebraistic mould. The practical, soul-stirring truths of all the ages shine with added luster in their new settings, and the prophecies of the past are enlarged and carried forward to the eternity of the glorious consummation.
It is one book, not several. The one Central Figure is Jesus Christ. The whole plan of the book, of the grand, poetic drama, circles round the one Triumphant One. It presents Him in its very beginning a Conquerer; it reveals His work for His church in this world, in her conflict with the spiritual powers of darkness, and the secular powers controlled by the spirit of evil. All the various phases of her struggles and sufferings, of their efforts, seeming successes, and utter failures, are set forth with a startling vividness, often in highly symbolic language, in moving, acting, living figures in the world’s great arena, but all tending to the one great consummation, the extirpation of all evil, and the absolute triumph and everlasting reign of the Good.
While its practical, ethical lessons are taught in language easily understood, its prophecies frequently are presented in striking symbols. It deals in all the imagery of the prophets of the past. It has the living creatures of Ezekiel and Isaiah; the horses, the lampstands,7the olive trees, the golden oil of Zechariah; and the beasts and year-day periods of Daniel.
The numbers three, four, seven, ten, and twelve play an important part in the scheme of the book. Three is the sacred number, four a world number, and seven the perfect number, denoting completeness, fulness. There are seven lines of prophecy in the book that span the Christian era to the consummation of the Gospel message, as follows:—
1. Seven churches reveal the internal condition, the spiritual state, of the church of Christ throughout the age.
2. Seven seals reveal the Gospel working through the events of earth to a triumphant end in the triumph of its Author.
3. Seven trumpets usher in, one by one, great changes and events in the history of nations affecting the work of God in the earth.
4. The two witnesses, testifying of the power of God through the Dark Ages of earth, in sackcloth.
5. The seven-headed dragon’s reign and his persecution of the church of Christ is shown from the beginning to the end.
6. The seven-headed composite beast, together with the two-horned beast, are prophetic symbols of powers which the dragon uses in his work against Christ Jesus.
7. The seven-headed scarlet-colored beast with his gaudy female rider, covering the same period of time as the dragon, but emphasizing the harlot’s work and the last days. Nearly all of these are subdivided by seven.
We have also the seven-hued rainbow, the seven lamps of fire, the Lamb with seven eyes and seven horns, the sevenfold ascription of praise to the Lamb, the seven angels with the seven bowls of wrath, the sevenfold judgments, the sevenfold triumph, the seven promises to the victor, and more,—all speaking of the completeness of the wonderful revelation of Jesus Christ.
The Revelation is a fitting close to the Scripture Canon. It carries us from the apostolic days, with their backward connecting links with the vital past, to the glorious consummation of a sinless earth, a deathless, all-victorious King, and immortal subjects. Who would not indeed ardently and devoutly explore this great treasure-house of divine knowledge of potency to save to the uttermost?
GOD AS A PROVIDER.
GOD “giveth to all life, and breath, and all things,” yet most men, even those who profess faith in His Word, are afraid to trust Him implicitly as a provider. They strive and worry, and defraud one another, and usurp God’s time, and withhold His means, in the effort to gain for themselves the necessaries of life. Now Jesus says this is the way the Gentiles do; so, notwithstanding a profession of faith, the man who devotes his time solely to the procuring of necessary things for this life, or even makes that the first business of life, places himself in the ranks of the Gentiles. And a Gentile, according to Paul’s definition, is one “having no hope, and without God in the world.” Eph. 2: 12.
Jesus draws the line between His disciples and the Gentiles on this very subject; so the two classes may be recognized by their attitude in this respect. He says to His servants, “Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (for after all these things do the Gentiles seek); for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matt. 6: 31-33.
This is a plain, positive promise, and the Lord always means just what He says, and all that He promises He is “able also to perform.” Rom. 4: 21. All the promises of God are Yea and Amen, positively sure, in Christ (2 Cor. 1: 20), and He has all power in heaven and in earth at His command. Not only so, but God has demonstrated His care for His own, as also His willingness and ability to provide the necessaries of life.
When He delivered Israel from Egypt, they soon became alarmed lest they would starve in the wilderness. Ex. 16: 2, 3. “Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.” Verse 4. This shows what the Lord can do when it is necessary in order to sustain His people. And the demonstration of it is in the fact that “the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan.” Verse 35. Then it was no longer necessary for them to be fed in that manner. And as for clothing, that was also miraculously preserved. The Lord reminds them that “Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.” Deut. 8: 4; Neh. 9: 21.
In the time of a great famine in the days of Elijah, the Lord said to His prophet, “Hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee.” Was He able to fulfil this promise?—Yes, abundantly able; for Elijah “did according unto the word of the Lord; . . . and the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.” See 1 Kings 17: 1-6.
But by and by the brook dried up because of the drought, and the Lord said to Elijah, “Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there; behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.” Verse 9. Was the widow woman rich? was she well supplied with food? that the Lord should command her to sustain His servant?—We shall see. Elijah went to Zarephath, as directed, “And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks.” That was not much evidence of opulence, or ability to take another permanent boarder for charity’s sake.
Elijah asked the woman for a drink of water, “and as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.” And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse; and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”
Some of our modern Elijahs would have looked farther in quest of the promised sustenance, hardly dreaming that one in such circumstances was prepared to entertain him during the famine. But Elijah was a man of experience in faith. He had been fed from day to day by the ravens, and did not lack for food. So he said to the woman, “Fear not; go and do as thou hast said; but make me a little cake thereof first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.”
What was the result?—Why the woman did as Elijah said, “and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days. And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which He spake by Elijah.”
Again, when Elijah fled from the wrath of Jezebel, and lay under a juniper tree in the wilderness, ready to perish, he was fed by an angel. After eating but two meals, he was enabled to go in the strength of that food forty days. See 1 Kings 19: 2-8. So the Lord is not limited in resources, nor in ways and means for sustaining His people.
And Jesus Himself demonstrated His power to feed the hungry, when with five loaves and two fishes He fed five thousand people, taking up more in fragments of food left over than there was at first. Also in feeding four thousand with seven loaves and a few little fishes, having seven baskets of food remaining after all had eaten and were filled. See Matt. 14: 15-21; 15: 32-38.
With all these illustrations before us, shall we doubt the ability of Him who feeds the sparrows and clothes the lilies, to add the necessaries of this short life to those who will seek first His righteousness and the interests of His kingdom. If we believe God, it will be counted to us for righteousness, and put us in position to expect the temporal supply. Let us look to Him who creates and preserves all things, and recognize in Him the all-provider of our necessities.
Russia Closes Polish Libraries
The governor-general of Russian Poland has now been clothed with authority to close every public library or free reading-room maintained by individuals or corporations in the Polish province of Russia. It is thought that this measure is aimed at the Socialists and Polish Nationalists. This is the continuance of Russia’s policy of oppression and repression for the maintenance of government. There is certainly a better way to maintain authority than by such a dangerous policy as that indicated in this latest move against the people.
