Earlier text: Nearing Home“What Is Man?”
By C. P. BOLLMAN
THIS question, asked in the eighth psalm, is not intended to introduce a panegyric upon man, but to emphasize the wide contrast between the Creator and the creature, between the whole universe and man, an infinitesimal part of that great whole. The infinity of the Creator is shown not alone by the vastness of his power and the universality of his sway, but also by his equally wonderful grasp of the most minute details. This thought is strongly emphasized in the first eighteen verses of the one hundred and thirty-ninth psalm:— “O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.” In Matt. 10: 28-31 we find our Lord appealing to the same truth to fortify his followers against dread of persecution, saying: “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.” Matt. 10: 29-31. The Bible teaches man to rely not upon himself, but upon God; to trust not his own power, but the power of God; to rest his hope of a future existence not upon his own feeble hold upon life, but upon God’s ability to restore life even to those who have died and moldered back to dust. The Scriptures declare that God “only hath immortality.” 1 Tim. 6: 15, 16. He only has life in himself, and consequently he only has life to give to others. John 5: 26. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” John 3: 36. The same absolute dependence upon God for life through Christ is taught in 1 Cor. 15: 16-18:— “For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” It is against this entire dependence upon God that the natural man revolts. In the temptation Satan said, “Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Gen. 3: 4, 5. Referring to the principle, if not to the original temptation, the Lord says through his prophet: “With lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life.” Eze. 13: 22. As he came from the hand of his Maker, man was free from both moral and physical defilement, but he did not possess immortality. His being was such that uncorrupted by sin it might measure with the life of God; but it could never become independent of God. Man could live eternally only by maintaining an eternal, sinless connection with the great Fountain of life. Such was man as he was created, but by sin he became positively mortal, or dying. Hence he is in the Scriptures called “mortal man.” Job 4: 17. “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth: for the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.” Ps. 103: 13-16. “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” Ps. 146: 3, 4. Again: man’s absolute dependence upon God for all future life is strongly emphasized in Eccl. 3: 19: “For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath [in this respect] no pre-eminence above a beast: for all is vanity.” But as already stated, it has always been hard for man to accept this truth, and confess himself absolutely dependent upon God for life. We have seen that man was led into sin by the promise of life apart from God. He is encouraged to continue in sin by the same delusive assurance, that he has life, life eternal, apart from and independent of the will of the Creator. In line with this we read in the thirty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel the plaint of a people who, having largely lost sight of the promise of a resurrection, had lost hope of a future life. “Behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord.” Eze. 37: 11-14. The gospel of the Bible is life only through Christ. The hope of all false systems is life by inheritance—natural, inherent immortality. The Bible doctrine of life only in Christ, and no life aside from Christ, leads to dependence upon him, trust in him, and obedience to him. The doctrine of natural immortality begets independence of God, distrust of his goodness, disobedience to his will. In other words, the hands of the wicked are strengthened by the promise of life without righteousness. A Triumphal Possession of the New Earth
By H. A. ST. JOHN
Seven Great Triumphs — No. 7
A Triumphal Possession of the New Earth
AFTER the triumphant entrance of the redeemed into paradise, they reign with their Redeemer throughout the long millennial age. During this one thousand years we know not how many delightful excursions and visits they may make together to the sinless worlds of God’s beautiful creation. And when the millennial age is ended, Jesus, with all his angels and all the saints, comes back to this earth, which was left one thousand years before, a dark, desolate, bottomless pit, the kingdom and prison of Satan and his angels. The beautiful city is then seen descending. Jesus purifies and prepares a place for its reception, a great plain upon which it settles. When this takes place, all the wicked8 dead are raised. Satan then has all his subjects of all the ages. He at once prepares to capture the holy city and all its happy and holy inhabitants. When all is ready, fire falls from above, and Satan and all his mighty hosts are burned to ashes. Thus the promise to the saints, made many centuries ago, will be verified: “When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.” The rebellious being all destroyed, the works of man and all the works of Satan are dissolved and consumed, and sin and the curse are no more. When the fire has done its work, Jesus calls his saints, saying, Come, behold what desolations I have made in all the earth! The great controversy of the ages is ended, and the great battle field presents a picture of desolation and ruin that no pen can describe. The saints cast one sad look upon the scene of desolation, then their attention is drawn away from the cheerless picture by the cheering words of Jesus, “Behold, I make all things new.” Then the blessed Jesus proceeds with the grand work of making the new heavens and the new earth. We know not how long a time this may occupy; but as it is a re-creation, might not the unfolding of the new heavens and new earth be accomplished in a period of seven days, ending with the re-creation of the holy Sabbath? Jesus made the Sabbath for man in his first estate. So may not he remake it as the Sabbath for man in his perfect state? Then indeed may be heard again the morning stars singing together, and all the sons of God shouting for joy. Then will the work of redemption be complete. And when the saints are invited to enter, take possession, and eternally inherit this glorious earth made new, it will be their final, seventh, and eternal triumph. Are we pressing on in the way? O, what will it be to be there! The Silver and Gold Belong to God
By B. E. PINES
“THE silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts.” Haggai 2:8. Therefore every coin we possess is literally our Lord’s money. The question may then arise, Are we never to spend anything on ourselves? — We are. We must consider the fact that the Lord has given us our bodies as a special personal charge; and we are responsible for the keeping of these bodies, according to the means given us. We are to spend what is really needful on ourselves, because it is our charge to do so; but not for ourselves, because we are not our own, but our blessed Master’s. He who knows our frame, knows its need of rest, medicine, food, and clothing; and in procuring these necessities for our own intrusted bodies, we ought to be very cautious that we do so as we should if we were to have the greater pleasure of procuring them for some one else. Therefore we cannot consider that consecration is real, full, and complete so long as we look upon a single cent as our own to do with as we like. It matters not whether we spend dimes or dollars, it is all our Lord’s money, and must not be spent without reference to him, the Giver of all things. “He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.” Acts 17:25. We should continually ask him to take and keep our intrusted money, and to direct in our purchases. Then our shopping would be different. We should look up to our Lord for guidance that we may spend his money prudently and rightly, not lavishly or extravagantly. By his guidance the gift or garment is selected conscientiously, under his eye and with conscious reference to him as our own dear Master, for whose sake we shall give it, or in whose service we shall wear it; for it is with his own silver and gold that we pay for it. Eternal Life in Torment Impossible
By O. F. FRANK
The Lord means just what he says when he declares that “the wages of sin is death.” “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” and, having sinned, they must either pay the penalty or have a substitute pay it. God will not declare a penalty for a certain thing and then never enforce it. He does not speak his word to break it. And if the wages of sin, or the penalty for sin, is eternal life in torment, then no one could ever finish paying the debt. He would always, as long as eternity lasts, be paying the debt, but he could never get it paid, if the wages of sin is eternal life in torment. Then, if the sinner had no substitute, he could never be saved; and if he did have a substitute, even this could not save him. For in the former case he would always be paying his penalty and never getting it paid, and in the latter case his substitute would always be paying the sinner’s penalty but never could he finish the payment, if the wages of sin is eternal life in torment. Thus the penalty never being fully paid, but the sinner or the substitute being always in process of payment, always in the act of paying, it would be impossible for the sinner to be saved if he should undertake to pay his own debt, or for either to be saved if a substitute should undertake to pay it for him. For in the latter case, after the substitute had burned for a time in the lake of fire for the sinner’s sin, the time would come for the sinner to die; and because his penalty would not be fully paid, he could not be taken to heaven, for the Lord will not take a man to heaven without first having satisfaction made for the sins he has committed. Satisfaction not being fully made, and because it never could be, the Lord would then, in justice, have to cast the sinner into the lake of fire to make him help his substitute pay his penalty for sin; and this penalty could never be paid, the burning forever as the wage for sin could never be performed and finished, if the wages of sin is eternal life in torment. If the wages of sin is eternal life in torment, then our Saviour Jesus Christ, our substitute, is burning yet; and what is more, he will never get through. All our sins were to be laid on him. He was to bear all our iniquities, and take all our punishment. Isa. 53:6-10; 2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 4:25; 8:3. The evil one, in attempting to make us believe that the wages of sin is eternal life in torment, has tried to make us believe that which would make the damnation of the whole human race necessary, and also the damnation of the Saviour sure, when he became our substitute to save us. But thanks be to God, the wages of sin is not eternal life in torment, but death. And Christ has fully paid the penalty for our sins, and we may be fully saved. And because Christ himself never sinned, after having paid our penalty for sin it was by the justice of God that he was raised from the dead. It has also pleased our merciful Heavenly Father to give unto his Son our Saviour eternal life and all the riches of his glory; and what is more, this same Heavenly Father has also given unto those who will accept the sacrifice of his Son and take his life for their model, the privilege of being joint heirs with him forever. But every sinner that will not accept the provisions made for his pardon, will finally die a real death and be no more. Sin itself will finally be no more. God will have a universe that is perfectly clean of everything that is bad, and then all God’s creatures will be in perfect accord with his righteous will. “And every created thing which is in the heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and on the sea, and all things that are in them, heard I saying, Unto him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb, be the blessing, and the honor, and the glory, and the dominion, forever and ever.” Rev. 5:13, A. R. V. Debit and Credit
By Philip Giddings
In bookkeeping, what we get is our “debit;” what we give, our “credit;” so in the heavenly ledger the two sides of the account must be justly balanced. The extent of our “debit” to God must measure our “credit” to our fellow men. Talents of gold and silver, of intellectual or moral strength, are our Lord’s goods to us for disbursement. “Of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.” John 1:16. Our opportunity is the measure of our responsibility. The extent of Paul’s receipts had rendered him “debtor both to the Greeks, and to the barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.” Rom. 1:14. As our strength so must our day be. “As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak9 as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 4:10, 11. That fact borne in mind would be a prevention and a cure of vanity and selfishness, of national, racial, social, intellectual, and any other kind of pride. Knowing by the “gifts” that we are “debtors,” how evident would be our folly to boast of our “debts” instead of discharging them? “For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” 1 Cor. 4:7. Are you wealthy? Who gave you life and power to get wealth? Can you sing? Who gave you voice? Are you intellectual? Who furnished brain cells? Are you spiritual? Who gave you grace? Our personal selves and all we are and have are gifts—streamlets from God’s ocean, meant to course through right and left banks of usefulness to our fellow men, as gratitude back to the Giver. Eccl. 1:7. Our due points our duty. We are simply doing honest bookkeeping by daily balancing the debit by the credit. “If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth.” Eccl. 11:3. And “the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God.” Heb. 6:7. “Give, and it shall be given unto you.” Other conditions being equal, rain falls most by watercourses. As the evaporation, so shall the distillation be. You are blessed to be a blessing, given that you may give. An inlet of blessing without its outlet, stagnates. If we are ministered unto, it is that we may administer. ’Tis more blessed to give than to receive. To receive blesses one; to give blesses two, and as many more as we give unto; for, like happiness, passing it on to others does not lessen our share of it, but rather increases it. Here is a divine law contradictory to that of human subtraction. Instead of 1—1 = 0, 1—1 = 2; while the self-absorbing 1 + 1 = 0, or worse still, —2; or, in other words, 2 less than nothing, yea, as many more less as there might have been more; for we are accountable to the extent of not only what we are, but also what we might have been. So then according to this “more blessed” arithmetic, “there is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself. He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him: but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it.” Prov. 11:24-26. The comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God is meant by God, through us, to comfort others. 2 Cor. 1:3, 4. Unless we are misers (and that is the same word from which come misery, miserable, etc.), is not our happiness increased by sharing with others those things that make us happy? Let your light so shine that it may enlighten others to the glory of God. If you absorb the light without reflecting it, you are preparing yourself to be cast into outer darkness. Matt. 25:30. If you let another lack what you have, what God has given you to impart; if, like a miser, you hoard up what should be dispersed abroad; if, like the unreciprocal servant, you dig in the earth and hide the Lord’s money, hide your talent in the earth, instead of putting the same to heavenly exchangers, in the auditing of your account on the day of reckoning it will be shown what a one-sided business you did—unbalanced forever; weighed against the scale of your “debit,” your “credit” found altogether wanting. What a miser! What a miserable, self-afflicted monomaniac, blessing-cursed and soul-eaten by the canker and rust from the slothful nonuse of the very riches of God! Why God Gives Us Truth
By ARTHUR W. SPAULDING
Why does God give us truth? Most Christians, if you put that question to them, will give one of two answers: “In order to save us;” or, “That we may give it to others.” These answers contain but half truths; and they represent the attitude of the majority of church members, an attitude which is responsible for their spiritual sloth or their zeal without knowledge. Jesus said, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” He did not say, “The truth shall save you;” because, while it does save, to stop short with saving is not the object of truth. Sinners need saving; they can do nothing for God and humanity until they are saved from their sins. Therefore the first thing God does is to save from sin; the first great truth he offers, is salvation from sin. There is just one truth that saves, and that is the truth that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The truth of the atonement, of justification by faith, is the basic truth of Christianity. And it is the truth that the devil tries the hardest to hide. He has led one great church to deny the doctrine, and he has induced other churches which hold the doctrine to deny its practical application. Millions of professed Christians have not salvation, but are striving by their own good works to get salvation. Pin a man down to real facts, and in nine cases out of ten he will tell you that he has accepted the truth in order to be saved; he is keeping the Sabbath, he is paying tithe, he has adopted health reform, he is looking for the Lord to come, in order to get to heaven. But he never can be saved by such means. Whoever keeps the Sabbath in order to get to heaven never will get to heaven; for he is trusting in his own works, which never can save him, because they do not measure up to God’s standard. Salvation is not surcease of sorrow, relief from trouble, a taking of lustful pleasure. If pleasure. Salvation is a freedom from the crushing load of sin, and a companionship with God, which as often occurs in a fiery furnace as on a mount of transfiguration. No man without that salvation, that abiding presence, loves to do right; no man with it loves to do wrong. Salvation is a free gift, not a wage; and he who has received that gift has received the love of the truth and the power to do right. He keeps the Sabbath, then, and he keeps the other nine commandments, not in order to be saved, but because he is saved. The justified-by-works tries to keep the law in order to get to heaven; tries and fails. The justified-by-grace keeps the law because he loves it. The process, it is true, is not always instantaneous; it is a growth, often but slowly coming to perfection; and one may in a moment, by losing Jesus, lose that salvation, and commit sin; but so long as he keeps Jesus, the power of salvation, Jesus is within him, and holds him from falling. Sabbath keeping, and all other good works, are the fruit, not the cause, of salvation. You can’t keep the Sabbath unless you are saved. See Ex. 31:12-17. To us “who are saved” the gospel is the power of God. I Cor. 1:18. And you must be saved, not merely once in your life, but day by day and moment by moment. Every Sabbath you truly keep (and that means more than you or I realize) is a Sabbath keeping performed by Christ, and not by you. His perfect Sabbath keeping, as his perfect keeping of the law in every other particular, works in the man who keeps the Sabbath and the law. The result of your salvation will be Sabbath keeping, if you know the truth of the Sabbath. “Why, then, should I be taught the truth of the Sabbath?” That is the question. And the answer to it is the key to the whole purpose of God’s giving us truth. The truth is given to the members of the church to build them up, until they have the full stature of the character of Christ, until they are perfect in the work of ministering. To minister means to serve; as Jesus says, “The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister,” and, “I am among you as he that serveth.” Mark 10:45; Luke 22:27. That perfect ministry is the full stature of the character of Christ, that stature is the place to which Christians are to be brought by receiving, through the teachers Christ has ordained, the gifts of new and fuller truths. That is why God gives us more and more truth: that we may become better helpers of our fellow men. First, he saves us from our sins, by our acceptance of the great truth of the atonement, of justification by faith, of free grace; then he sets us to work, and in order that we may be more efficient, he gives us, point by point, more truth, greater light, which will reveal10 our deficiencies and faults, which are then removed by the grace of Christ working in us, and we are made freer to do God’s service. In this way, “the truth shall make you free.” Every additional truth God gives us is intended to free us from some superstition or evil practice which hinders our ministering to our fellow men. For instance, the truths of hygiene and rational living are given us not merely that we may have the pleasure of health, but that we may use that health of body and mind in blessing and helping others. A sick man is a poor minister. Perfect ministry requires perfect health. And so it is with every truth which God reveals, up to the Sabbath, which is the crowning truth of the great system of edifying (building-up) truths. Every single truth you know, if you will analyze it, will be found to remove some obstacle in your way of being a better worker for Christ. That is why God gives us truth. First, he gives us one great truth that saves us. We are saved to serve. Then he gives us a succession of truths, each one of which is to build us up, bring us nearer the stature of Christ in his work of ministry. And unless those truths accomplish that for us, they accomplish nothing at all. It is worth nothing to us to have the mere theory of the truth. But if those truths are working in our lives, they are making us more unselfish, more helpful, more intelligent, more efficient; and others will know that we have truth, not because we talk about it, but because of what they see in us and receive at our hands. We are meant to practice the truth before we preach it. Christ never taught a truth that he had not tried and tested by practice; and his hearers, before they heard it from his lips, knew it from his practice, knew it from the healing of their sick, the clothing of their naked, the feeding of their hungry, the comforting of their sorrowing, the joy of their redeemed. “Christ prefaced the giving of his message by deeds of love and benevolence.”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VII, page 228. He spent far more time in healing than in teaching, and what drew the crowds to his teaching was not a flamboyant system of advertising, but just the fact that he had practiced the truth among them. That is the best advertisement a Christian evangelist can have today. How unprofitable it is for us to go out preaching doctrines to people if we make no use of those doctrines ourselves. Why should I urge a man to accept the Bible system of tithes and offerings if it has not acted its mission in my own life of making me more unselfish, economical, generous, and helpful to others, and enabled me to recognize God’s ownership in this world? Why should I attempt to teach others the truth of the sanctuary if my knowledge of Christ’s present position has not drawn me closer to him in communion, and in consequence made me more gentle, compassionate, patient, earnest, and sweetly serious? Why should I proclaim the coming of Christ as king in glory, if he is not already king in my life? If I do so, I bring the truth into ridicule instead of into favor. It is a fruitless and foolish waste of energy to try to proselyte to a faith which has no works, to teach truths that bear no fruitage in our lives. Let the tree bear its fruit, and people will seek it. There is a cry coming up to God from this sick old world, a cry for help and comfort and salvation. To you and me who know him, he sends the message down: Go and give to them the help I have fitted you to give. Heal their sicknesses, comfort their sorrows, remove their ignorance, revive their hopes, bring them to the Source of life. Freely you have received; freely give. Receiving Jesus
By F. A. ZAPPE
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” This scripture brings to our view the conditions with which men must comply in order to obtain power to become the sons of God. It clearly states that it is the simple receiving of Jesus into the heart, through faith, that turns on the power which enables weak, sin-sick humanity to be brought into perfect relationship with the family of God. By nature man is the servant of sin, and has no relationship, directly or indirectly, with the sinless family. He is the child of darkness, and manifests the character of the household of Satan in his daily life. The Holy Spirit describes his condition in these words: “Without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world;” “dead in trespasses and sins.” “The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.” While we were in this hopeless state, God commended his love toward us, in that Christ died for us. “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” Behold what manner of love has been bestowed upon us that we might have the privilege of obtaining a power which can enable us to manifest the character of the family into which the love of God has adopted us. The simple receiving of Jesus into the soul is the power whereby the members of the family of Satan are transformed into children of God. Through faith and the surrender of all, we receive Jesus. Nothing less than this complies with the conditions of obtaining that power which works from within and changes the old family manners, and enables the weakest soul to become a son of God. Profession of Christlikeness is worthless unless the power to transform the life is manifested in words and actions moment by moment and hour by hour. None need feel that when they have been adopted into the new family they will naturally have to follow a few of the old family ways as long as they are clothed in sinful flesh. The power of God is not limited thus. The Father of the new household gives the command, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.” There is power enough in this command to enable man clothed in sinful flesh to obey. Not only in a few cases, but in all cases, the receiving of Jesus into the heart carries with it power to free men from the bondage of sin and death. Those who have received the Spirit of adoption are not debtors to the flesh, to live after the flesh. They through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body. To them it is said, “Sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” The true object of life is the receiving of Jesus into the soul. How important it is for all who profess to be looking for the soon return of Jesus to this world, to comply with the condition of receiving that power which will enable them to live sinless lives in sinful flesh. What the world needs today is men and women who will manifest in their lives what the fully receiving of Jesus into the soul will accomplish for sinful humanity. The waiting Guest expresses himself thus: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” Joys of a Consecrated Life
By Adolphus Smith
WHEN I awake in the silent night, my meditation shall be of thee, O Lord. When I remember the incidents of the day gone by, many seemingly trivial, I can see in them the guiding hand of my loving Father. When I walk in darkness and hear the howlings of the beasts of prey around me, I can feel thy hand clasping mine, and hear thy low, assuring voice, and know that I am safe, and need not fear. When life seems joyous, and I walk amid the fragrance of the floral mementos of Paradise, my feet might go astray; but thou art with me, and I hear thy gentle, chiding voice still calling me. When I am almost breaking under my burden of affliction, thy hand with tender pity doth lift the heavy weariness from my troubled soul. Every pulsation of my heart in joy or sorrow, and every step I take with my hand in thine, is bearing me onward to thy home—my home: In my dreams I walk and talk with thee; and my first thought on awakening in the morning is of thee, O my Saviour! Give me a willing heart to live and do for thee another day, in service for the lost and perishing.11 So shall all my life be filled with activities in thy service, O my God! O, the peace of Jesus’ service
Fills my heart with joy and praise!
And I long for all its fullness
In the realm of endless days. Every grief my heart oppressing,
All the joys my life can know—
Gently leading with thy blessing,
On toward heaven I will go. Soon thy glory, O my Saviour,
In the opening heavens I’ll see.
Thence, approved in my behavior,
I’ll forever be with thee.