WHEN God made promises to Abraham and his seed, who were included? To whom will they be fulfilled?
As John the Baptist was baptizing, there came to him many of the Pharisees and Sadducees, lineal descendants of Abraham, to be baptized by him. But as he saw them coming, he said: "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." Matt. 3:7-9. These Pharisees and Sadducees did not belong to the promised seed. The prophet declared with great emphasis that God would make men of the stones by the wayside rather than acknowledge those who came to him for baptism as the seed of Abraham.
On another occasion Jesus addressed the same class of people when this question was discussed. "They answered and said unto Him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. . . . Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. . . . And because I tell you the truth, ye believe Me not." John 8:39, 44, 45. Here the Saviour teaches that the children of Abraham are those who do the works of Abraham.
To this agree the words of the apostle when speaking of Abraham's being justified by faith before his circumcision: "And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith that he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, tho they be not circumcised." Rom. 4:11.
One becomes a child of God, not by lineal descent, but by faith in Jesus Christ, whether he be Jew or Gentile. If Abraham became their father by faith, then the children, those who are counted Abraham's seed, must become so by faith also.
Another testimony is very clear: "For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." Rom. 9:6-8. "They are not all Israel, which are of Israel;" that is, not all who are Jews belong to the Israel of God. Not all who are Jews are counted as the seed. "They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God [or Abraham's seed]: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." "Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called."
Isaac was a child of promise. Abraham was a hundred years old, and Sarah was ninety, when he was born; and the Scriptures bear testimony that "through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed." Heb. 11:11. And so Isaac was born the child of faith. Another witness declares: "Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now." Gal. 4:28, 29.
Only Those Born of the Spirit
It follows, then, that those only are counted as the seed of Abraham who are born of the Spirit; that is, they experience the new birth. Natural descent, nationality, is not reckoned in this genealogy. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." "Except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God." John 3:6, 3. It is the new birth alone that places a man in line with the promise to Abraham. It is the new birth, not the old, that makes one a child of Abraham. A carnal or unconverted Jew is no more an heir of Abraham and the promises made to him than a carnal or unconverted Gentile. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." Rom. 8:14. "For to be carnally minded is death" to the Jew as surely as to the Gentile.
Testimony is given us still further on this point: "Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham." Gal. 3:7. How clear the evidence that in the promise to Abraham, the "seed" does not have reference to natural descent, but to those born of the Spirit, whether Jew or Gentile! "So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." Gal. 3:9.
Christ and Abraham
Another very positive testimony is the following: "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." Gal. 3:16. In considering the great host of the redeemed, we can never disassociate their Saviour and Redeemer. He is "the chiefest among ten thousand. . . . Yea, He is altogether lovely." Cant. 5:10, 16. He is the "tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion." Micah 4:8. He is the One who entreats, "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." Isa. 45:22. "And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power." Col. 2:10. All things center in Him. "I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one." John 17:23.
So when God made promise to Abraham, saying, "In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 12:3; 18:18), the promise specially refers to Christ. In it Abraham saw the promised Redeemer. The One who filled the horizon of the patriarch's vision was none other than Christ. All else was eclipsed by Him, and so, "He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ."
The Triumphant Company
"And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Gal. 3:29. Thus it is that all Christ's children are counted as the seed, and become heirs together with Him. God said, "In multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore." Gen. 22:17.
The prophet John saw the same company. "After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." Rev. 7:9, 10.
What a host of the redeemed there will be! How they sing! These are all Abraham's children. These are numbered among the promised seed. "They shall walk with Me in white," is the promise of the One who made them white.
Next week we will study the inheritance promised to Abraham.
A Vision of Empires — 3
Prophetic Specifications of the Little Horn—Their Application to Rome
In our last issue, twenty-nine specifications of the prophecy of Daniel 8 were noted. The first three of these pertain to the time of the culmination of the prophecy in its fulness, its intensity, its understanding: (1) The vision that is twice told belongs to "the time of the end;" (2) It reveals what shall be in "the latter time of the indignation;" (3) It belongs to the "many days to come," and therefore is to be considered as among the many things "shut up" until "the appointed time of the end." Dan. 8: 26; 12: 4-9.
Besides these three specifications regarding the vision in general, and its culmination in "the time of the end," we have twenty-six specifications, or particulars, concerning the character and work of that little horn. Thirteen of these are taken from the prophet’s description of the symbol and its work (Dan. 8: 9-14), and thirteen from Gabriel’s explanation (verses 20-25). In our study of the application of these particulars we will simplify as far as consistent, by combining duplicate specifications and merging others, as follows:
The little horn power came out of one of the four powers represented by the four horns of the goat. Verse 9.
It arises to power in the latter time of the kingdom of the four horns, when their transgressions are come to the full. Verse 23.
It would wax "exceeding great." Verse 9.
Its conquests would be extended toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land.
It would be a cruel, destroying power, symbolized by the fierce countenance. Verses 23, 24.
It would deal in and understand dark sentences. Verse 23. Compare Deut. 28:49, 50.
It would become mighty not by its own power—that is, it would be supported and made mighty by another. Verse 24.
It waxed great to the host of heaven, casting down some of the host of the stars to the ground, destroying wonderfully the mighty ones and the holy people. Verses 10, 24. Compare chapter 7:24, 25.
It would magnify itself in its heart. Verse 25. Compare chapter 11:36; 2 Thess. 2:4.
It would magnify itself even to the Prince of the host, or stand up against the Prince of Princes. Verses 11, 25.
It would take away from the Prince of the host the daily (sacrifice, or continual burnt offering) given into its power through transgression. Verse 11.
The place of the Prince's sanctuary would be cast down. Verse 11.
The host of the Prince, together with the continual, was given over to it through transgression. Verse 12.
It would destroy many by peace and prosperity. Verse 25.
It did its pleasure, and prospered for a long time. Verses 12, 24.
It cast down the truth to the ground, corrupting it by craft and policy. Verses 12, 25.
Its blasting, blighting effect would be manifest until the long period of 2,300 evenings and mornings should end. Verse 14.
It should be broken without hand, or continue until God should judge. Verse 26.
Analogy, as well as the terms of the prophecy, would fix the application of the above particulars to the successor in world empire of Grecia; and that successor is Rome — Rome in its entirety as a world power. Do these particulars — earmarks, so to speak, these insignia of identification — apply to Rome? We believe they do. Let us study them.
First Specification
In the prophet’s vision, the little horn came out of one of the four horns of the goat. Is this true of Rome? Note the following:
(a) In all probability the Latin tribes, the ancient people who made Rome great, came from Greece, or were but offshoots of the Hellenic or Grecian tribes. Ridpath says: "The Greek and Latin languages, if other evidence were wanting, prove conclusively the original tribal identity of the two races by which they were spoken. The institutions of the two peoples also, springing naturally into existence under the necessity of their surroundings and the impulse of innate preference, point with equal certainty to the primitive unity of the Græco-Italic race."—"Universal History," volume 3, page 47.
The historian goes farther than this. He gives good evidence in the same connection that the Pelasgians, the earliest inhabitants of Italy, were identical with the Græco-Italic family. "Adams’s Historical Chart" also places the origin of Rome with the Grecian people.
(b) Rome’s world triumphs were just beginning when she came into decisive conflict with one of the divisions of Alexander’s empire. Up to the time of her war with Macedon, the conquests of Rome were confined to the Mediterranean. All Italy was not conquered until B.C. 266. Syracuse was captured in B.C. 212. It was twelve years later before Roman ascendancy was assured in the Mediterranean by the conquest of Carthage. Then began war with Macedon, the strength of the Grecian empire, and the people whence Rome sprang was conquered in B.C. 168. Really the decisive battle was fought in B.C. 197. Macedon became a second-rate power, and Philip V paid tribute to Rome. Had Rome failed in her wars with Macedon she never would have become a world power; but that conquest gave Rome greatly added prestige, and whetted her insatiate ambition for world conquest.
(c) The little horn was a continuation of the beast power. It was a development in the kingdom of man, as was the iron which followed the brass in the image. The metals were distinct, but both belonged to the same image. Grecia and Rome were distinct powers, but both were Babylonian, both having the same Babylonian spirit of exaltation, rebellion against God, and intolerance toward His people — Rome’s origin racially being Hellenic, her nature Babylonian as was that of preceding dynasties, and the prestige coming from her power in overthrowing Macedon.
(d) Then, too, the very corruptions in Rome, Mahaffy points out, came from the debasing influences of depraved Greek culture, which Rome absorbed, so that while Rome conquered Greece politically, she herself was banefully molded by Greece. What wonder, then, that God represented this horn as having its base, its root, its feeder, in another horn without which it must have remained an inconsiderable power! From the conquest of Macedon and Greece, Rome began her world conquering career.
Thus in the light of her origin and the position and prestige to which conquest raised her, Rome could well be said to have come forth from one of the four horns (the Macedonian) of the goat.
Second Specification
The little horn arises to world power in the latter time of the four horn kingdoms, when their transgressions are come to the full.
God not only tolerates earthly empires, kingdoms, States; He uses them as long as they will be used. Nebuchadnezzar was His servant (Jer. 27: 6); so also was Cyrus (Isa. 44: 28; 45: 1-3); and so also are other powers. "The Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will." Dan. 4: 17. "He removeth kings, and setteth up kings." Dan. 2: 21. He would have used Egypt to her good even as He used Babylon, Medo-Persia, Grecia, Rome, Germany, England, America; but if a State will not be used of God,
He will cast it down from its great height, break down its mighty walls, and open its invulnerable gates. The day of each great world power is reckoned from the time of its certain dominance to its decline. But one king is named in God’s Word after the great Nebuchadnezzar, under whose rule Babylon reached her zenith, and that is the weak, dissolute, sacrilegious Belshazzar, under whom the empire came to an end. But one Persian king is referred to in Dan. 11: 3, after Darius Hystaspes brought the empire to its greatest glory, and that is Xerxes, under whom Persia began her decline by the loss of European prestige and territory.
The four divisions of Alexander’s empire began their career in B.C. 301. As great kingdoms they ran a brief course. Macedon and Greece passed through a fearfully checkered career after the death of Cassander. Lysimachus lost his dominions in Asia Minor and Europe, then including Macedon, in the year 281 B.C., to Seleucus. The Syrian division reached its climax in the reign of Antiochus Magnus, B.C. 238 to 187, who in his later years felt the heavy hand of Rome, and paid tribute to the power on the Tiber. But two kings of Syria came into the power of chapter 11, after Antiochus Magnus, when Rome again speaks. Egypt is also at this time in her degenerate condition, under the protection of Rome. It was truly in the latter time of their kingdom that Rome became the rising power in the world. And the corruptions and weaknesses of all these powers had become so manifest that God appointed their doom. They had filled up the measure of their iniquity, and the coming event of Roman triumph had "cast its shadows before."
Third Specification
The little horn was to wax exceeding great (verse 9).
The Medo-Persian ram became "great" (verse 4); the Grecian goat became "very great" (verse 8); the little horn waxed "exceeding great." While we would not contend that the terms relating to the growth and progress of the three prophetic symbols of Daniel 8 are a series of comparative terms, yet they are striking in this respect. They clearly show that the power of the little horn required a stronger term to express its growth than did either that of the ram or that of the goat. The ram became "great;" the goat "very great;" and the little horn waxed "exceeding great." It was a worthy world power successor of the goat empire, tho it originated in the goat empire itself. God saw in the very small origin of that Roman people the iron power which would rule the world. Antiochus IV found his own territory subject to Rome, and he left it less than he found it, submitting himself to the demands of Rome. Brought down by his former friend, Popilius, Antiochus grew less; Rome waxed exceeding great.
Fourth Specification
The conquests of the little horn would be waged toward the south and toward the east and toward the pleasant land (Palestine). Rome began her world-conquering career toward the south. Syracuse was subjugated in B.C. 212, Carthage was conquered in B.C. 200, during the very time when Antiochus the Great was waging conquering wars in the Far East. In 168 B.C. Macedon was fully conquered, and the mighty European power on the Tiber stepped forth from the great drama as a world conqueror, and as a world dictator. Rome came into league with the Jews in B.C. 161. Syria continued by sufferance. Egypt finally fell in B.C. 31, and the kingdom of David in the "pleasant land" met the third overturning predicted in Eze. 21: 25-27. Rome was universal.7
Fifth Specification
The little horn would be a cruel, destroying power. Its countenance was "fierce." It destroyed wonderfully. It symbolized a strong, energetic, cruel power. So Rome is called in Deut. 28: 50 "a nation of fierce countenance." See also Isa. 19: 4. Fierce, strong, harsh, over-mastering, cruel, well describes the Roman power in its entirety.
Sixth Specification
The little horn power would deal in dark sentences. In warning Moses of the coming oppressors, God describes Rome as "a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand." Deut. 28: 49. This was true when Rome came into connection with Israel. How true it is, also, in Rome's ecclesiastical, or ritual services, conducted largely in a tongue not understood by the people, and manifest, too, in all her subtle disquisitions and definitions in theology!
Seventh Specification
The little horn would become mighty, but not by its own power. Verse 24. The great apostasies of the world are portrayed in the form of a great seven-headed, ten-horned, composite beast in Rev. 13: 1-10. Among these great powers is Rome, represented in her two phases by two of the heads. It is said of this beast, especially in its Roman phase, "The dragon gave him his power, and his throne, and great authority." Rev. 13: 2. By referring to the previous chapter, we learn that the dragon is a symbol of that arch-apostate, the devil, working through earthly powers. Rev. 12: 3, 4, 9. His very masterpiece for world dominion, for overmastering lordship of the bodies and souls of men, has been Rome in both pagan and papal phases. That her devotees do not see this, that many are conscientious, sincere, faithful to the light they have, does not alter the great fact that the exaltation of men to the place of God, the effort to control and bind conscience, is not of God, but is of the evil one.
Eighth Specification
The little horn power would wax great to the host of heaven. Verses 10, 24. In other words, it assumed to govern conscience, and took a stronger hold upon the relationship between God and man than any previous power had assumed to do. It cast down some of the host of the stars to the ground, and trampled upon them. God's people are likened to the stars. Gen. 15: 5; Heb. 11: 12. It would destroy wonderfully the mighty ones, the holy people. The margin reads, "He shall corrupt the mighty ones." In other words, he will do the work of the one who gave him his power, and his throne, and great authority. When Lucifer fell he drew after him the third part of the stars, or angels of God. He corrupted the mighty; he cast them down to earth. The evidences are that he is a cruel master, a persecuting tyrant to his own. The little horn power carries on the same work in the earth that Satan began among the sons of God on high. The little horn power destroys by corrupting and persecuting. The very heart of God's people, the priesthood, became corrupted in Roman politics in the very beginning of Rome's connection with the Jews. And that work has gone on from that time to the present.
Ninth Specification
It would magnify itself in its heart. Even so Rome is referred to in Dan. 11: 36, 37; and 2 Thess. 2: 4. Even so will great Babylon do, that last great, queenly apostasy which shall commit fornication with all the kings of the earth, and which is met in no other power save that of the Papacy and those who follow that system. Rev. 18: 7. Rome's ancient emperors in paganism assumed divine prerogatives. These assumptions have been magnified under the Papacy in the titles conferred upon man, in the assumption of authority to make and unmake kings, to speak infallibly, to forgive
sins, to change the law of the Most High, and to deliver over to death all who will not bow to her assumptions and imperial mandates.
We wish to say again, and emphasize the thought, that we are not condemning individuals, persons, Catholics, but the system of the Papacy. There are many Roman Catholics who live above the system, who, tho hindered in knowledge by the system, are true in heart to God. All of them, as all outside of the Roman fold, are amenable to God, and shall stand before His judgment-seat; and there we leave them, praying for them the same mercy and grace we ask for ourselves. But we believe that the system itself which exalts man to the place of God is evil, and it is against this which God warns us in this and kindred prophecies.
Tenth Specification
It magnified itself even to the Prince of the host. In the angel's explanation he says, "He shall also stand up against the Prince of Princes." Verses 11, 25. This, too, has been emphatically true of Rome. Herod was a subject-king of Rome. The devil instigated him to destroy the little children — the slaughter of which is recorded in Matthew 2 — in the hope of slaying the infant Jesus. Pilate was a Roman governor who pronounced sentence of condemnation and death upon Jesus, at the time of His crucifixion. In a far subtler way the Roman power in its papal form has taken the Saviour from His rightful place, shut Him from humanity by a cordon of priests and saints, taken from Him the glory of His humiliation, degraded Him by the "sacrifice of the mass," and made access to His eternal, infinite depths of love impossible save through a finite mediator. Truly that horn has stood up against the Prince of Princes, who longs to come into closest living connection with every soul redeemed by His blood. But of this more later.
(Continued in our next)
The Practical Life
By G. W. White
Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee. Mark 5:19.
HESE are simple words, but they become very remarkable when we consider the circumstances under which they were spoken.
The one to whom they were spoken was a man who had been "exceeding fierce," "had devils," "had his dwelling among the tombs," "neither could any man tame him." His cure was as remarkable as his malady. Jesus passed by, and with one irresistible word the devils were cast out and the man healed. Surely,
The Lord Will Make Much of This Case
Surely He will label him as proof of His mighty power — convert him into a living advertisement, and take him with Him whithersoever He goes. The man himself seems to think so, for he prays the Lord that he may be permitted to remain with Him. He seems to think that his experience has lifted him out of the plane of the common life. But instead, the Lord meets him with the unlooked for words,
"Go Home to Thy Friends"
and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee."
Underlying this simple and direct command is a divine philosophy. There, at the point of your daily life, you are joined, vitally, to your fellow men; and if you are to do them any good by this new experience into which you have come, it must be at that point where you touch them in actual, practical life. That is your place to make your life tell upon the great round world.
By Reading a Little Between the Lines
we can easily see that some of the early Christians probably thought that in their conversion they were to have a complete translation from their practical life. They expected to be given up wholly to marvelous experiences such as speaking with tongues, falling into trances, working miracles, etc. But the great apostle meets them with these forceful words: "Let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God." Your place of contact with your fellow beings, whether in the shop, in the market, in the home, or in the State, is the very point at which your new life is to gain access to the gross life of this great world. Therefore, "go home to thy friends;" "let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God."8
Multitudes To-Day Are Puzzled
concerning the boundaries of the religious and secular life. They are asking: "What is the due proportion of time and thought and affection to give to each? How shall the duties of these separate lives be regulated? If I give myself to the secular life, how will it affect the spiritual, and vice versa? Have I time for both, or must one be given up in proportion as I devote myself to the other? If I am to exert spiritual power upon my fellow men, can I do so and remain in the midst of the activities and interests of the secular life?" Now, the fountain from which spring all such questions is a total misunderstanding of our life.
We Have Not Two Lives, but Life
Neither have we two sides to our life, any more than a ray of light or a current of electricity has two sides. We live, that is all. But multitudes are saying, in act if not in word: "My secular life lies yonder in the world. I go down there among earthly things and worldly men, and do about as everybody else does. I adopt the same principles and conduct — the same methods of work and business — and expect the same results. But when I want to be spiritual — when I want to make my spiritual life tell — I withdraw from the world, read my Bible, go to church, and pray and sing hymns." They expect no spiritual results from their secular life in the practical world, but look for large spiritual results from the retired reading, praying, singing, and churchgoing. One might as well say, "I do not expect to accomplish much upon my fellow men by my waking, active life, but I do expect to make a tremendous stir by my dreams."
What Is the World to You and Me?
Is the world some great, vague realm of sin outside our own life and experience, where we may go and be worldly, and then come back to our religious life? No, indeed. The world to you and me, so far as our actual life is concerned, is just our own small circle of daily life. Now, that small circle is our point of contact with the great, busy, bustling world, and so far as you and I are concerned, we must operate upon the world at that point. If we succeed here, we succeed altogether; if we fail here, we fail altogether.
To illustrate: here is a humble, honorable carpenter. The average Christian carpenter says to himself: "My secular life is yonder in my shop. There I work about as others, and follow the same principles and practises as the world. But my spiritual life lies in another place. I must go apart there to do my praying and receive or impart spiritual nourishment." So we find Mr. Carpenter in church, Sabbath-school, and prayer-meeting, looking after his spiritual interests. Then he goes to his so-called other world, and there works as other men do — no better and no worse. The Lord Jesus Christ meets this man in his so-called spiritual realm, and bids him, "Go home to thy friends;" and Paul follows with the injunction, "Let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God."
You Are Joined to the Great World
by your actual daily life. The principal part of your thought, time, and labor is expended there. If you are not spiritual there, if you fail to tell for God and righteousness there, you are a failure. In your daily occupation, you meet your fellow men, you have opportunity to speak the kind, helpful word, to give the warm, sincere hand-clasp, to extend brotherly sympathy and encouragement, or to lend whatever aid is needed; and if you fail in these things, you fail altogether, and any fine talk you may bring to your fellow men about praying and reading and churchgoing will be to them as chaff and dust. They will say:
'Away with Your Religion!
I needed you. I needed a kind word, and you had none to give. I needed sympathy and encouragement, and you locked it in your stony heart. I needed a strong arm to lean upon for a little time, but yours was so full of selfishness as to have no place for me. I needed a friend, but with your cloak of self-righteousness drawn closely about you, you shunned me. I needed a dollar with which to buy bread for my little ones, but you had none for me. I needed you. I had a right to expect, to demand something of you —
At That One Point Where Your Life Touched Mine and at that point you proved false, and you have lost your chance for me. And in losing such opportunities, the man has lost his chance of making a spiritual impression upon and of wielding a godly influence over the world.
O, be careful when your life touches another. Be kind, be true-hearted, be Christ-like.
It was in the practical life that the power of Christ was felt. He never touched a man except to do him good. No one ever appealed to Him in vain. No one ever felt His arm fail him. Not even a longing look has gone unrewarded.
O, let us faithfully represent Him to the world. "Wherever we may be, Christ bids us take up the duty that presents itself. If this is in the home, take hold willingly and earnestly to make home a pleasant place. If you are a mother, train your children for Christ. This is as verily a work for God as is that of the minister in the pulpit. If your duty is in the kitchen, seek to be a perfect cook. If it is your work to till the soil, or to engage in any other trade or occupation, make a success of the present duty." Let God's people "put on Christ," and "let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God."
The Tree of Life
By Delwin Rees Buckner
Of Which Some Day, by the Grace of God,
I Hope to Eat
By Delwin Rees Buckner
Majestic tree, root-anchored on each side
The stream of life, how ardently I long
To thrill among the tried, triumphant throng
Whom Christ, the bruised, torn Lamb of God, will guide
Beside the tranquil, still, transparent tide,
The valleys vibrant with victorious song,
Whilst the acclaiming cohorts press along
To pluck thy fruit—so many years denied.
E'en now methinks my quickened senses hear
The priceless waters, purling on their way
Beneath the foliage of thy banian-trees;
And O, I would some living leaves were near
To lay upon my fevered brow to-day,
And heal me of mine oft infirmities.
'Simon, Son of Jonas, Lovest Thou Me?'
By J. M. Warwick
By J. M. Warwick
THE incident given in John 21, from which the above heading is taken, is as fresh and heart-stirring to-day as when it first took place, nearly two thousand years ago. The Lord of life still walks among His children, probing our hearts as He probed poor Peter's in that early morning interview on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, until we also are fain to say, "Thou knowest all things."
It is usually taken for granted that Christ questioned Peter three times because of the thrice-repeated denial of the latter. That may be the right conclusion, but is not inevitably so. It comes from the supposition that Christ asked Peter the same question each time except for the addition to the first, "more than these," but that is not correct. The question was different each time. Christ simply continued to probe Peter's heart by His questionings, until He had reached the depths, and compelled His loving and enthusiastic but weak and vacillating disciple to throw himself upon the mercy of his Lord, as did the publican in the temple, the penitent thief on the cross.
Christ addresses His recreant follower as "Simon," not "Peter." "Peter" means "a stone," unstable, easily moved. The man and the name had been very intimately and appropriately fitted together in the last few days preceding the conversation; but the loving Friend of sinners does not remind him of it now. He calls him Simon, "one who hears and obeys," hence a fit subject for discipleship. The very name is a rebuke to Peter, but one so gently spoken that he is only made humble, not driven away in despair. Perchance he thinks of that other Simon, him of Cyrene, who bore the cross after Christ up Calvary's slope. He knows that is where he should have been, following after his Master, and he waits to hear what Christ has to say to him for his defection.
Only by a paraphrase, or by lengthy marginal notes, could the whole meaning of this beautiful story be rendered, and the translators did not choose to give us either; therefore we must go back to the Greek for ourselves.
In the language of the New Testament, as in no other language of which the writer knows, there are two words for "love," both in the noun and the verb forms. One is Agape, love, benevolence; agapao, to love, to long for. The other word is philia, phileo. The first is the word used in 1 Corinthians 13, the highest, holiest love of which one can conceive, the love which endures when the object of it proves unworthy, which can suffer long and still be kind. It has very happily been termed friendship-love; but it is the love of a person who thinks more of being a friend than of having a friend, the friendship which can give and give and still give itself while it waits to love the recipient into the character which it longs to see him possess. This is the love which God gives us. The love expressed by the other word, tho not an unworthy one, has much of the earthly in its composition. It is the love which most of us have, not only for each other, but for our Lord; the love which measures itself, or is rightly measured, by the affection which it receives in return. Such love ceases when the object of it proves unworthy.
The night before his Master's arrest, Peter declared, "Tho all men shall be offended because of Thee, yet will I never be offended." Matt. 26: 33; Mark 14: 29. Christ, then, in His first question, took Peter up just where Peter had placed himself, in comparison with the other disciples. "Lovest thou Me more than these?" The question is twofold. There is the comparison and the verb used. It is from Agapao. Simon, son of Jonas, have you for Me that self-sacrificing love which you claimed for yourself? and is it greater than that of My other followers? Peter arrogates to him9self no supremacy now. He humbly answers that he loves his Lord, and he does not even use the same verb which Christ uses to him. He only says, "Philo se," I love Thee. He knows now that he can not lay claim to any great and noble love, and he is willing to acknowledge it.
Christ's second question omits the comparison, but retains the same verb: "Simon Ioanou, agapas Me?" Simon, is your love for Me that which can sacrifice self? Peter answers as before: "Thou knowest that I love Thee" (philo se).
The third question probes deeper still: "Simon Ioanou, phileis Me?" It is the word which Peter used in his answers. Christ comes down to the position which Peter has taken for himself. Are you sure you love Me, Simon, even with this love? Search your heart and see. What can Peter say other than he did? "Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest even this, that I love Thee." A poor, ignoble love it is, but still — in spite of all, I love Thee.
And he is not left comfortless. Tho he can claim but little for the love he bears his Master, and makes no promises for the future, tho he is humble, remembering the sins and weakness of the past, yet Christ still gives him something to do for Him. Because He sees that Peter will do better in the future? Perhaps, being omniscient Lord, but even more because His love for Peter is not philia, but agape, not the love which ceases when the object of it proves unworthy or fails, but that which seeks to love the unworthy back to something like the ideal held up. There would be small hope for any of us if divine love fell short of this and retrograded to human limits. Again and again in the Old Testament comes the cry, "How can I give thee up?" and in the New Testament the plain statement of a fact, "Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end." Hosea was made a living example, and the father of the prodigal son a pictured type, of the faithfulness and patient endurance of such love.
Have we yielded to this matchless love, this deathless devotion? Are we resisting it, thinking it weakness to yield? We do not call it weakness to accept great human love. We count it an honor to be the recipients of unselfish, enduring devotion. If we are willing to accept it and let it enrich our lives, are we following on after our Master, entering into the rich heritage of service He opens to us?
Each of us can decide this question, for He has given us the test: "This is My commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you" (John 15: 12), and the kind of love He mentions is that we have been considering, the noble friendship-love of which He, the Giver, is a constant example. He gives it to us, He asks us to give it in turn to others—to love those whom we can reach, with exactly the same kind of love He has given to us and the rest of the world, unworthy tho we are. Will we refuse? Will we draw comparisons between ourselves and others, as did Peter before his fall? Or will we ask, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" and then go bravely forward, tho it lead us into peril and ignominy?
As the time draws near the end, there is more imperative need of those who do not wait to count the cost or look for return of their love, but who, like their Lord, will love the lowly and the unworthy until we and they come into the unity of faith, and the Lamb’s bride is ready for the Husband who has loved her with an everlasting love, and with loving-kindness has drawn her to Himself.