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Signs of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 34.

JORDAN AND ITS LESSONS
Earlier text: JORDAN AND ITS LESSONS

Is Affliction from God?

By W. S. Sadler

THE MISSION OF PAIN AND THE LANGUAGE OF DISEASE. NO. 5.

Is Affliction from God?

“Fools, because of their transgression, And because of their iniquities, are afflicted.”
AFFLICTION is the portion of those who through ignorance, folly, or wickedness, have been led into transgression. It may not be clear to some just what part God acts in this affliction; for suffering is not a part of God’s original plan for the human family. We may sow thorns and thistles in our yards, and God will permit them to grow; but we must bear in mind that He did not inspire us to sow these evil seeds, which, when they have grown, will pierce our hands and those of our children. The inspiration to sow thorns and thistles came from beneath; but after they were sown, God permitted them to grow, that their thorns might be the means of correcting us of the disposition to sow any more of the same kind of seed.
It is not the purpose of God to afflict mortal man, nor to cause unnecessary suffering to any of His creatures. We read this plainly in Job 37:23: “Touching the Almighty, we can not find Him out; He is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice; He will not afflict.” But when man persists in sowing the seeds of affliction, God permits him to have the way of his choice, and so allows affliction to overtake the wrong-doer as he journeys on in the path of disobedience, in the hope that it will prove to be the correction of his wickedness. So that it is only in this sense that affliction can be said to come from God, in that He permits it as a consequence of transgression, and for the purpose of leading transgressors to acknowledge their offense and seek His face. “In their affliction they will seek Me early.” Hosea 5:15.
Our Heavenly Father keeps back the full harvest of transgression until every resource of His love and mercy is exhausted, and then He permits justice—the law of sowing and reaping—to begin its operation; and this is Heaven’s last resort to save the sinner from the destruction that will be the inevitable consequence of his continued wrong-doing.
If you should take a knife and scratch yourself till you had made a running sore, the moment you ceased to inflict the injury, nature, the power of “divine healing” within you, would begin the work of repair. You scratch it again and again, but nature faithfully heals the wound.
All the while “physical forgiveness” is being manifested, just as when you do something morally wrong and ask God for forgiveness, He freely grants it the moment you “cease to do evil” and begin to do well. But if you should keep up indefinitely this process of scratching, by and by the time would come when the extent of the injury would pass beyond the power of repair within the body, and you would have a chronic sore, an ulcer. Thus you have despised God’s physical forgiveness. Shall we continue in transgression that healing may abound?—Certainly not, no more than we would think of continuing in sin that grace might abound. There is a limit, not to God’s love and forgiveness, but to the extent to which human beings can persist in physical or spiritual transgression, and be able to find repentance and healing at the time they seek for it.
It is the sin of presumption to continue in transgression expecting God continuously to bestow upon us either spiritual or physical healing just to save us from the pain or inconvenience of suffering the consequences of our wrong-doing. So, to continue the illustration, if you persist in inflicting physical injury upon yourself, the time will surely come when the healing power within will cease to act, and then, physically, you have reached the condition analogous to that of the soul which has finally rejected light and truth, trampled underfoot the blood of the covenant, and forever grieved away the Spirit of God, which alone had power to give repentance. The one is the close of physical probation; the other is the unpardonable sin, the sin against the Holy Ghost,—the close of moral probation.
W. S. SADLER.

NOT SO FAR FROM HEAVEN.

By Clarence Santee

WHEN speaking of this earth in its relation to heaven, it is natural to think of it as being out of the circle of worlds that compose heaven; as far removed, in every way, from God’s design in creating it. While it is true that this world is not, at the present time, filling the position that the Lord intended in creating it, yet it is still the same material that composed the new world in the beginning. We walk over the same particles of earth that will compose the new world to come. See Ps. 119:89-91.
God said to Abraham, “Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.” Gen. 13:17. “All the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it.” Verse 15. That Abraham did not, during his lifetime, receive the land promised, is certain from the Bible record. Stephen says, “He gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on; yet He promised that He would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him.” Acts 7:5. This is made still more plain in Heb. 11:8-13, where, in speaking of Abraham and his seed, it is plainly stated that “these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them.” Verse 13.
So we are living and walking over the identical substance that will be the everlasting home of the family of Abraham. It does not, however, present the same appearance that it did before the curse came upon it in consequence of sin, nor that it will present when the results of sin are removed. Then “the trees were vastly larger, and far surpassing in beauty and perfect proportions anything that mortals can now look upon.” “The whole surface of the earth was changed at the flood. The third dreadful curse now rested upon it in consequence of man’s transgression.” “The beautiful, regular-shaped mountains had disappeared. Stones, ledges, and ragged rocks, appeared upon some parts of the earth which were before out of sight.” “The earth was not one extensive plain; but the monotony of the scenery was broken by hills and mountains, not high and ragged as they now are, but regular and beautiful in shape. The bare, high rocks were never seen upon them, but lay beneath the surface, answering as bones to the earth.” “The air was pure and healthful, and the earth seemed like a noble palace.” The curse hath “devoured the earth.” Isa. 24:6. The circle of the months, with which we are so familiar, will still be retained. The “tree of life” bears “twelve manner of fruits,” and yields “her fruit every month.” Rev. 22:2. “From one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship.” Isa. 66:23.
The water, without which the earth becomes a lifeless desert, is the same that was brought into existence by the “Word of God.” It is the “water of life” to this earth, even now, filled as it is with the poison washed from the face of nature. There is nothing that will purify itself so quickly as water when in action. In the beginning a “river of life” flowed out from the Garden of Eden. Gen. 2:10. The waters still flow to make the earth habitable.
As I crossed the great desert between the East and the Pacific Coast, there were hundreds of miles given up to silence and barrenness. Why was this so? There was soil that would do its part in producing large crops, but it was lifeless. All that it needed was water. Then, even here, we can thank God for the “water of life.” It is God’s gift to man. When we reach the time that these things are all purified, and “the city” is the great center, we shall have no more cause to praise God for the “river of life” than we now have for God’s gift to rich and poor alike, the abundance of life-giving water. We will praise Him more, that is true. But the cause will be that we see His goodness in the gift more plainly than now. We ought to see it now; but we make use of all, and pass on blindly.
We are not so far from heaven; and when the poison of sin is taken away, all the elements with which God perfected the earth in the beginning, and with which we now have to do, will be a real, not a mystical, part of heaven.
We ought, then, to prize these gifts more highly, striving to use them as God will give them to be used when in the earth made new, praising Him for them, and at the same time see more clearly, and dread more intensely, the blighting results of the sins that have caused so heavy a curse to rest upon the work of His hands that was once pronounced “very good.”
CLARENCE SANTEE.

CHOSEN LESSONS.

By Frances Ridley Havergal

In the way that He shall choose He will teach us; Not a lesson we shall lose, All shall reach us.
Strange and difficult indeed We may find it, But the blessing that we need Is behind it.
All the lessons He shall send Are the sweetest, And His training, in the end, Is completest.
—Frances Ridley Havergal.

TRUSTING GOD.

TRUSTING God may bring financial success. It will not always do so. If it did it might tend to make men mercenary. But it may do so, because it makes the heart lighter. It inspires new hope and strength into the soul. When the burden of care is lightened, one is in better frame for financial enterprises. His mind is clearer, his nerves are more quiet, his spirit more calm. But whether trust in God brings financial success or not, it will certainly bring what is far better. It will bring peace. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee; because he trusteth in Thee.” It will give strength. Even physical strength and intellectual strength may result from patient trust in God. Certainly spiritual strength will be the result. “They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.”—Christian Advocate.

A Great Man’s Reputation

“It sometimes happens that after meeting a great man you discover that his reputation is about three times larger than he is.”

THE BRAZEN SERPENT.

It meant something once, did the piece of brass in the form of a serpent which Moses by the direction of the Lord erected upon a pole in the sight of all Israel. God had given Israel victory after victory; He had manifested His mighty power to save them from perils and enemies; He had dealt mercifully with them in their sinning. Now they were turned back from the nearest entrance to Canaan to compass the land of Edom and enter the Promised Land north of the Dead Sea.
This was of their own choosing. In eleven days after starting from Sinai they might have entered the goodly land. But murmuring turned them back. Now the way was long and hard and difficult; and the soul of the people was discouraged. Then they did what discouraged people nearly always do, criticise and complain. They spoke against God, to whom they owed life and deliverance. They spoke against Moses who would have given his life to save them. What did the Lord do?—He withdrew His protecting hand which shielded them from the poisonous serpents which abounded in that region, and permitted the reptiles to swarm into the camp. He would let Israel know how utterly helpless they were without Him. Many were bitten and died in their rebellion. Others saw in it a merited harvest of their own seed-sowing. They came to Moses and confessed their sins, and pleaded that the plague might be removed. The Lord was waiting for this moment, that He might help them. And to do this He must develop faith, and reveal to them another evidence of His power, and the necessity on their part of unquestioned obedience. He instructs Moses to make a serpent of brass, evidently resembling the poisonous reptiles among them, erect it where all might see it, call the attention of the people to it, and say to the suffering ones that every one who looked upon it would live.
It was not the serpent that healed, it was not the looking that healed; it was not even their faith which healed; it was the power of God that flowed into the poison-infused frame of every man, destroyed the venom of the serpent, and gave life.
It was not to them a type, but an evidence of God’s power to save.
Jesus used it as an illustration of His own work.
As that serpent was lifted up that all might see, so Jesus was lifted up upon the cross, His very death drawing to him the eyes of the world. As the bitten Israelites must look to the brazen serpent, the only remedy for salvation from this plague, so sinners must in faith look to Christ, God’s only remedy for sin. As neither pole nor serpent, but the power of God, healed the people, so neither the cross nor Christ’s mere physical crucifixion saved the people, but souls are saved by the pardon Christ purchased, the life that He gives through His Spirit. These are illustrations from the very circumstances of the case by which Jesus sought to impress the important lesson upon the blinded heart of Nicodemus. As truly the only hope of life from the serpent’s bite was in the means God provided, so the only hope of life from sin is in the Sin-bearer, Jesus Christ our Lord.
The serpent of brass had its little place at one time; but Israel in later apostate times made it a creed; they worshiped the mere thing, the means of power, not the Giver of power. Hezekiah the iconoclast saw it in its true light, broke it in pieces, and called it nehushtan, a “piece of brass.” 2 Kings 18:4.
Not a fact in any creed but sometime did good service, when present duty and present faith transmuted the fact into living, saving truth. After that, when backslidden, men put the cold fact into words, called it a creed, and worshiped that. It would be a great blessing to the world if some men, like Hezekiah of old, would take down the time-worn creeds, denominate each one what it truly is, “a piece of paper,” and destroy it. Not one single truth of God would be lost thereby. Not one soul would be left without hope. God would reign the same. His Word would abide. Christ Jesus would make every word potent to the believer; and many men, now looking to cold, lifeless creeds for life and guidance, would be led to look beyond the material sign, to the living God. Let the brazen serpent and all its ilk in creeds of gold, silver, brass, marble, wood, stone, or paper go; and let Christ Jesus and His Word live and reign in the heart of faith.

“THE FAITH OF JESUS.”

By G.

In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews we have set before us a long list of examples of faith. But above all these towers conspicuously “the faith of Jesus.” Out of the judgments that shall come upon this world, as the culmination of its wickedness, there will stand out in grand conspicuity a company of whom it will be said, “Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:12.
Men often think and speak of Jesus as tho His life-work on earth were merely a display of power; that He went about just as He pleased, showing the people what He could do. The fact is too often overlooked that His life on earth was purely a life of faith, and that whatever advantage He had over other men in the matter of overcoming the world lay in His greater exercise of faith. Were this not so, it would be inconsistent for Him to expect His disciples to overcome the world as He had overcome it. He said, “I can of Mine own self do nothing,” yet at the closing of His earthly career He could say, “I have overcome the world.” To this we may add the words of the apostle John, “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” How then did Christ overcome sin in the flesh (Rom. 8:3) when He was “in all points tempted like as we are” (Heb. 4:15)?—It is evident that He overcame by faith in the Word of God. And that is how He is able to help us to overcome in the same way. Ch. 2:18. It is robbing Him of all the credit of being an overcomer to assume that He had any advantage over those to whom He was to become an example. If He had strength of His own to overcome sin, what encouragement is His example to those who have no strength of their own. How can they follow Him? He had strength because of His faith and His constant communion with the Fountain of strength. Because He never allowed that connection to be severed, He was continually in condition to impart strength to others. Whatever others received through Him, they received because of His unbroken chain of faith in the Word of His heavenly Father.
We have three prominent instances of His temptation and faith in the very beginning of His ministry. The enemy, taking advantage of Christ’s supposed spiritual weakness from hunger, tempted Him to display His power as the Son of God to relieve His hunger. When the tempter came to Him he said, “If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.”
But Jesus answered, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Here was absolute faith in “every word” of God. No variation from it whatever. Altho Jesus had fasted forty days, He would do nothing to please the adversary of truth in order to obtain food. He would rather continue hungry. He did not say, “I know it is not right, but one has to live. It is easy enough for people to talk who have plenty to live on; but when it comes to starving, that is another thing.” Altho He was in the wilderness, had fasted forty days, and still no bread in sight, there was no compromise with evil; His trust was in the Word of God. Such was “the faith of Jesus.”
Then the devil took another tack. He set Jesus on a pinnacle of the temple, and said, “If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down; for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee; and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.” What an opportunity! Right there in the most public part of the city of Jerusalem; right in presence of the people of whom He was especially seeking recognition; would it not be grand to sweep down from that high eminence into their presence unharmed? Would they not all be convinced when they should see such a wonderful manifestation, such a plain fulfilment of prophecy? And then to think of convincing even the devil that Christ had come. Was Jesus caught by this beautiful prospect?— Not at all. Why?—Because something had been written away back in Moses’ time, (Deut. 6:16). He was not trusting in wonderful displays of miraculous power. His faith was in the Word of God; but not in that Word as interpreted, or perverted, by the enemy. “It is written again,” He replied, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” Such was “the faith of Jesus.”
Then the enemy tried Him again, in a way that would be quite tempting to ordinary men. He took Jesus up to a prominent place, and showed Him the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and said, “All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me.” The devil here made himself known. Did not he have dominion of the earth? Had he not taken it from the first Adam, and therefore was able to hold it? Was he not the “prince of this world,” with power to give it to whomsoever he would? Now Jesus had come to win this world back from the power of Satan. He had planned to overcome through terrible trials and suffering and even death on the cross. Would it not be nice to have the controversy ended without this awful ordeal? Would it not be a great relief if the usurper of the dominion would just give it up without a struggle? Do men ever compromise true Gospel principle for the favor of the world?
But accepting the prize from the hands of the enemy to avoid the sacrifice incident to real victory would not be overcoming the enemy. The enemy’s terms always leave him master of the field. The way to victory over sin is not a path of roses. And none ever knew this better than He who saw the end from the beginning. So the Captain of our salvation chose the long, arduous way of suffering, of patient continuance in well-doing, rather than the apparent short cut by the way of the adversary’s suggestion. Again He falls back on the Word of God: “It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” Such was “the faith of Jesus.” He that would come up to the mark of such a faith must also stand in the commandments of God, as He did. John 15:10; Matt. 19:17. “The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” are inseparably connected. G.

IS IT CANOSSA?

By S.

The Springfield Republican, in its issue of July 25, discusses editorially the results of Governor Taft’s “business” trip to Rome, and in its discussion gives voice to some ideas which we are certain many others have felt if they have not expressed.
“It is hard to make out,” says the writer, “that the negotiations have amounted to anything, except to introduce the United States Government to the subtleties and many-centuried smoothness of Vatican diplomacy.” But in accomplishing that, something has been accomplished—not for America, but for the Vatican. An official representative of the great republic of the West has gone to Rome to treat with the self-styled king of kings respecting affairs within his jurisdiction. This is pleasing to the Vatican, for it can be used and will be used in the future for an entering wedge in bringing about other negotiations of a business or diplomatic nature. Thus will the American people become educated to the idea of diplomatic intercourse with the Holy See until a diplomatic representative at Rome will not be the impossibility that it would be now.
The Vatican has been pleased with the complications that have brought about this intercourse, pleased to negotiate with a representative of this country by whose fundamental law Church and State are declared separate, pleased with the gift of the President, pleased with the interest which European nations have taken in the progress of the negotiations, pleased with the opportunity for an exchange of letters between the papal Secretary of State and the Secretary of State of the United States which has established a precedent for official negotiations between the Vatican and the American Government. Commenting on these developments, the Republican says:—
“Developments of such interest in our history, however, cannot be passed by without some notice. The American people have not gone to Canossa, but something certainly has happened that can scarcely be said to have ever happened before. No one can read the various notes that have passed between Cardinal Rampolla and Gov. Taft and not have some dim consciousness of the fact.”
The Vatican, it may be repeated, has been pleased by the visit of a high official of the United States Government, and practically speaking it has done nothing to meet his requests. It has made no promise to withdraw the friars from the Philippine Islands, the farthest extreme to which it would go being a proposal to introduce, “little by little, ecclesiastics of other nationalities, especially American.” This is not particularly surprising perhaps, in view of the tendency of any church to stand by its own missionary organizations, but it marks failure upon that part of Gov. Taft’s mission which contemplated the early withdrawal en masse of the Spanish friars from the islands. All other questions involved are postponed, and will be considered at Manila by a papal delegate and the American authorities. That this is an unsatisfactory outcome of the visit to Rome can not fairly be denied. The policy of the Vatican in this matter is evidently one of delay. Such would naturally be its policy, viewed from a certain standpoint, yet it had been expected in this country, perhaps overconfidently, that the church authorities would not postpone a settlement which can not be avoided in the end. Meanwhile, however, the Vatican will surely enjoy the experience of having the United States to negotiate with. For the transactions must increase the size of Rome in American affairs.”
And that has been Rome’s purpose from the outset, to enlarge her place in American affairs. Her ultimate purpose is to establish diplomatic relations with the United States as she has with other countries. This has furnished the opportunity to insert the entering wedge, and it has been inserted. Nothing was accomplished in Rome except to agree to negotiate in Manila. So much could have been done without a representative of this government going to Rome, had Rome chosen to have it so. She did not so choose, for the reason that, in bringing America to Rome, there was greater opportunity to make her influence felt in the affairs of men and nations. It is literally true that these transactions “must increase the size of Rome in American affairs.” Altho Secretary Root was explicit in stating that the mission was a business and not a diplomatic one, Rome will use it to increase her negotiations with government officials of this country until diplomatic relations, or their equivalent, are established. America has not “gone to Canossa,” says the Republican; but Rome is doing all in her power to bring her there, and some day it will be seen that she was nearer Canossa than we thought.
S.

DEMONSTRATED FAILURES.

By G.

I. Long Temporal Life.

EXPERIENCE has proved that the things which men naturally most long for are not for their best spiritual good. Men naturally desire length of days, altho the manner of life of most of them would almost belie the desire. Yet the means spent in journeys for health, and for so-called elixirs, and preventives of disease, and various other efforts to ward off the results of intemperate living, are in evidence of a quite general longing for continued existence.
But the history of the antediluvian people prove that the natural heart is not made more spiritual by the mere experience of a long life. Men lived hundreds of years, and in the record left to us of that time there is no mention of the death of a child. And what is the summing up? Here it is in a single sentence, and terrible as it is brief: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Gen. 6: 5.
When the Lord at last decided to cut short the experiment of long individual probation in defiance of His law, He set a bound and gave warning: “My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” “And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and everything that is in the earth shall die.”
But Noah, who was found righteous before the Lord, even in that wicked generation, was commissioned to build an ark and to preach the Gospel during the allotted time. And what was the effect upon that race of long-lived veterans in sin? Were their hearts any more susceptible to the Gospel because of their long experience in the world?—No; in all the millions of people there was not a single convert outside of the immediate family of the preacher himself. Then of what use is long life to the man who does not give himself to the service of God? The longer he lives in rebellion against the law of his Creator, the greater his condemnation. The longer he lives in sin, the less susceptible he becomes to the overtures of mercy.
So, after the flood, when the new race began to come upon the stage of action, in the merciful providence of God the life of man began to shorten very rapidly. To-day the average is estimated at about thirty-three years. And a notable fact is, that the large majority of conversions to Christ are of persons under twenty years of age. As individuals grow older in disregard of the long-suffering of God, the more hardened and selfish and worldly they become. “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.” Eccl. 12: 1. G.

"PLEASED WITH A RATTLE."

Under the above heading, the New York Thrice-a-Week World has the following:—
Lord Salisbury is now a K. G. C. R. V. O.—Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order. The insignia that go with this new distinction cost perhaps $25, and would not be good collateral for over $5 at our uncle’s sign of the three golden balls.
Yet Lord Salisbury regards this as a fitting climax to a strenuous career covering nearly half a century in British public life. How paltry then, shall we say, are the prizes for which British statesmen strive! Fifty years of “toil and trouble” for a bit of jewelry, a mere trinket, to be fastened to your coat with a blue or a pink ribbon, and the privilege of writing six capital letters after your name. Incomprehensible, is it not, that men of the largest mental caliber, the widest scholarship, and the very highest order of executive ability, should be thus “pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw?”
Our Morgans, Rockefellers, Armours, and the long train of our “captains of industry” we can understand. We see what they work and worry for; we can count it, put it down in figures, add it up, calculate the net annual income of it, and what it will grow to in ten, twenty or fifty years. Kitchener’s $250,000 also is intelligible. But where is the sane American who cares a fig for a ribbon, clasp, cross, or other decoration, and the privilege of putting R. M. N. O. P. O. at the end of his signature?
Well, we don’t know; but there are over forty secret orders to which over 6,000,000 American men belong, and every one of them has its insignia, its decorations, and its long titles, which take anywhere from four to six capital letters to indicate; and there are mighty strivings going on all the time in every one of them to be the Right Worthy Chief It.
But what better is a man when he dies whether he counts the worldly honors of his life-work in six capital letters, or the accumulations of his life-work, honorable or dishonorable, in from six to nine figures.
“Thou for fame, The miser for pelf, The end is one.”
But of what do all avail in the great day of God? “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world [of honor and dollars], and lose his own soul?” How small in that day will appear all the “rattles,” and “toys,” and baubles for which men have striven!

WHY CATHOLICS SHOULD BE SATISFIED.

The noted Catholic prelate, Archbishop Ireland, in speaking of the Philippine questions, and of the fear in Catholic quarters that Catholics are not receiving fair treatment in the Philippines, declares that during the present administration it is absurd to imagine injustice or impairment of religious rights, and thus continues to address his dissatisfied people:—
As to schools in the Philippines, when the presence of non-Catholic teachers is talked of, state that out of a total of 5,000 teachers 3,500 are Filipino Catholics? Why not state that Father McKinnon is a member of the school board of Manila? And why, when mention is made of non-Catholic teachers, allow the false impression to go abroad that many of these are ministers and active proselytizers? And why not remember that, by the law of the islands, clergymen who are ministers in any place of organized congregations may three times a week teach religion in the schools of the place, the condition that they be ministers of organized congregations virtually confining the privilege to the Catholic priesthood?
Surely, when Catholic priests have their own way absolutely in seven-tenths of all the schools, and the privilege of teaching religion three times a week in the other three-tenths, they ought to be satisfied. In the light of this we can well believe the archbishop's closing words:— I repeat, the agitation I am reproving only comes from the few. American Catholics, as a body, trust the government, and in the present issues trust the Holy See and hold their souls in peace.

Question Corner

1266. Is She Bound to Him.

Does 1 Cor. 7:15 mean just as it reads? If an unbeliever departs, forsaking wife and family, is the wife still bound to him in the sight of God?
She is not bound to follow him, but she is still his wife. There is but one Biblical cause for complete separation of husband and wife, namely fornication. If either party has proved false to marriage vows,—committed fornication,—the other after legal separation—divorce—can marry again.

1267.—Misled Ones.

What will become of those who have been misled by preachers, and believed their church was right? J. L. H.
We do not know. It is a great satisfaction to us to know that God, the Judge of all the earth, will do just right. God addresses us as individuals; let us heed His voice for ourselves, as we must stand before His judgment seat for ourselves. Rom. 14:11, 12. See Eze. 33:1–20.

1268.—Feet-Washing.

Do you believe feet-washing ought to be practiced in the church? J. L. H.
We believe the Word, not to neglect it, but to do it. Read John 13:3–17. “If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them.” Note verses 13–15.

1269.—Eating Swine’s Flesh.

Will you please tell us where it says in the New Testament, “Eating swine’s flesh and doing abominable things”? I. M.
There is no such passage in the Bible. “Swine’s flesh” does not occur in the New Testament. You probably refer to Isa. 65:4, “Swine’s flesh and the broth of abominable things.”

1270.—The Falling Stars.

When the stars fell on Nov. 13, 1833, was it only in America, or throughout the world? What is the history of the case? Were they actual stars? If so, what became of them? did they return to whence they came? or were they simply meteors looking like stars? I remember the time yet, tho four years old when they fell; people were much scared, thinking the day of judgment had come? G. W. G.
They were meteors, not stars. The distinction in terms between meteors and stars which we have did not obtain in the time of the New Testament. Prof. Denison Olmsted, of Yale College (1791–1859), as the result of special study which he put upon the phenomena, said:—
“Those who were so fortunate as to witness the exhibition of shooting stars on the morning of Nov. 13, 1833, probably saw the greatest display of celestial fireworks that has ever been since the creation of the world, or at least within the annals covered by the pages of history.
The extent of the shower of 1833 was such as to cover no inconsiderable part of the earth’s surface.
This is no longer to be regarded as a terrestrial, but as a celestial phenomenon; and shooting stars are to be no more viewed as casual productions of the upper regions of the atmosphere, but as visitants from other worlds, or from the planetary voids.
In 1799 there was a remarkable shower noted in the Old World. Others have been predicted by scientists, but they have amounted to very little. Prophecy was fulfilled in 1833.

1271.—Ascended into Heaven for what?

Please show me the harmony of the following scriptures, John 3:13; 2 Kings 2:11; Eph. 4:8. B. Q. W.
2 Kings 2:11 refers to the translation of Elijah. Eph. 4:8 refers to the “multitude of captives” (see margin) which Jesus took with Him to heaven, a later event than the utterance of John 3:13, which reads, with the verse previous, as follows:—
“If I have told you of earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things. And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven.”
The thought is that no one but Jesus Christ has come from heaven to tell these things. He was of the very nature and atmosphere of heaven, and by His life-union with the Father, practically dwelt there. There is yet a deeper meaning in it. No man hath ascended, or ever will ascend into heaven unless he in his life and new birth came down from heaven. See verse 3, margin, “Except a man be born from above, he can not see the kingdom of God.” The earth-born are of the earth, earthly. The spiritual man has his origin in heaven.
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