“We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts.” 2 Pet. 1: 19.
What is prophecy? It is history written in advance. If a person by the direction of the Holy Spirit could have written out twenty years ago the history of our own nation from that time till the present, those events not then transpired would have been matters of prediction, or prophecy; but a record of the same facts written now, after the events have occurred, becomes history.
And thus it is. History is a record of events already consummated, while prophecy lifts the dark curtain of futurity, penetrates the regions beyond, and points out what will take place in time to come.
Any person of ordinary ability may become a recorder of historical facts to a greater or less degree; but none except God's chosen instruments, who are especially moved by the Holy Ghost, can foretell with accuracy (astronomical and scientific calculations excepted) the events of a single day.
Can the prophetic Scriptures be understood? and are they not among the secrets of the Almighty that we ought not to pry into? Many persons can say of a truth that they do not understand them, for the reason that they have never tried to do so; but to say that they cannot be understood is to teach an infidel principle. To say that the Bible, as a whole, is not a revelation from God to man is infidelity. To say that it was given by God, but cannot be understood, is not the slightest modification of the same principle of infidelity, inasmuch as God has not revealed anything to us through his word if we cannot understand it. Therefore, if we teach that even one page of the Bible was never designed to be understood, just so far we inculcate the principles of infidelity.
We are informed by the sacred word that “the secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever;” Deut. 29:29; and that “no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation.” 2 Pet. 1:20. Therefore, we may rightly conclude that the prophecies are neither secret nor private, and that they are designed to be understood. Should we give any attention to the study of the prophecies? and does it not bring darkness upon our Christian pathway to do so?
The text at the head of this article is an answer to this question. Peter says we do well to take heed unto the sure word of prophecy; and, instead of its bringing darkness upon us, he says it is as a light that shineth in a dark place.
A light is often of the greatest importance to a person who is in a dark place. Just so is the sure word of prophecy to God's people while journeying through this world of moral darkness.
Among the important facts which may be learned from the sure word of prophecy are the following:—
1. That the prophets must have written under the direct influence of the Spirit of God, else they could not have foretold, with such unerring exactness, events which would transpire so far in the future.
2. That the Bible, of which the subject of prophecy forms an important part, is a revelation from God to man, and that it is given to us in language that can be understood by us.
3. That God has directly, and by the mouth of the prophets, foretold many important events which would transpire in the history of certain individuals, countries, cities, nations, the church, and the world at large; and that, if we trace the history of these different parties, as they have successively arisen and acted their part in the world's grand drama, we shall see that they have thus far fulfilled the specifications of prophecy relating to them.
4. That the nations whose deeds and acts God has pointed out beforehand have generally been those that have had some important connection with his people.
5. That God has by the prophets pointed out, in consecutive order, the history of certain nations, extending from the days of Daniel the prophet and the Babylonian Empire to the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
6. That very many events in the history of the true and the apostate churches, and also mankind at large, have been foretold in different lines of prophecy, many of them extending from before the commencement of the Christian Era to the closing-up scene of this world's history.
7. That the world, in its history, has now reached the last link in the great prophetic chain, and the events now taking place in the world, and among the people of God, and especially in our own country, are but the fulfillment of the specifications of prophecy which foretell the scenes to transpire just prior to the close of human probation and the second coming of Christ.
8. That now, while we are amid the perils of the last days, 2 Tim. 3, when evil men and seducers wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived, and iniquity and crime of the most horrible forms is flooding the land, and when men's hearts are turned away from the truth and turned unto fables, and professed followers of Christ evince a greater love of pleasure than of God, the light of the sure word of prophecy, as it emanates from the sacred page, is shining on every hand, and its piercing rays penetrate the cloud of moral darkness and corruption that is now settling down upon the world; and with glorious beauty and brilliancy it falls upon the pathway of the humble student of God's word, who would take heed to the sure word of prophecy, and walk in the light of present truth.
W. H. BLAISDELL.
Self-Reliance.
No alliance with others can diminish the necessity for personal endeavor. Friends may counsel, but the ultimate decision in every case is individual. As each tree, though growing in the same soil, watered by the same rains, and warmed by the same sun as others, obeys its own laws of growth, preserves its own physical structure, and produces its own peculiar fruit; so each person, though in the closest communication and intercourse with others, and surrounded by similar influences, must do his own duties, contest his own struggles, resist his own temptations, and suffer his own penalties. There is too much dependence placed upon all kinds of co-operation for security from evil, and too little reliance upon personal watchfulness and exertion. Too many friends are sometimes worse than none at all. There are some who seem to feel in a great measure released from obligations if they do not receive such aid, and some will plead the shortcomings of others as an excuse for their own.
We would by no means disparage the effect of influence, or discourage in the slightest the generous assistance which we all owe to one another, or undervalue the important effect of a worthy example. These are vital elements of growth, and their results can never be fully estimated. But they should not usurp the place of a proper self-reliance, or diminish the exercise of individual powers. Moral force must be a personal possession. It can never be transferred. Material benefits may be conferred by a single gift, but mental and moral activities can only be sustained by their own exercise. Thoughts may be exchanged, but not thought power; moral help and encouragement may be given, but virtue cannot be transferred; responsibility cannot be shifted.
The most permanent good we can do to others is to nourish this individual strength. To aid the physically destitute most effectively, food, fuel, and clothing, are not nearly so valuable as steady, remunerative employment. To educate a child it is not half so important to instill large amounts of information, as to set his mind at work, to bring out his mental powers, to stimulate his thoughts, and quicken his faculties. And in moral life, especially in cities, where masses are crowded together, and men incline to lean upon each other, the best lesson to enforce is, that virtue, to exist at all, must be strictly individual.
That which cannot stand alone, but depends upon props and supports, which needs the constant spur of fear and the bribe of reward to insure its activity, is but the semblance of virtue, and will crumble before temptation.
A well-developed body ever excites admiration. But a well-developed and self-reliant spirit is a nobler thing. It is calm, modest, and unassuming, yet firm in conscious integrity of purpose, and steadiness of aim. Inflated by no vanity, it is at once humble, yet courageous; helpful to the tempted, yet resolute in assailing evil.
And the truest self-reliance is found in those who have learned to renounce self and rely upon the everlasting God. Trusting in him, they fear not the wrath or rage of man. Anchored to the Eternal Rock, no storms can start them from their moorings, no waves nor tides can bear them from their place of rest.
The world wonders at their course. Calm, firm, steady as the stars above, and steadfast as the rock beneath, worldlings have yet to learn that those who have made the Most High their refuge, need and want no other trust.—Sel.
The Joys of Heaven.
By Mary L. Williams
We have joys even in this life; but here there is much to detract from our peace, where we see the laws of our Heavenly Father violated, and loved ones exposed to eternal death. Christ does not free us from the common ills of life. He makes no promise to us that our names shall never be cast out as evil. He gives no assurance that we shall never endure the sorrows of poverty, nor does he free us from man's liability to physical suffering. But he does assure us that in his Father's house are many mansions, and he has gone to prepare a place for us, and will soon come again and receive us into his kingdom.
The inhabitants of that clime never say they are sick, and the tongue of the slanderer never robs the child of God of his good name. There the Christian's battles are ended, and he has entered a state where sorrow, pain, and death, are strangers. Are not these joys worth contending for? How worthless in comparison to them are all the trifles of this earth! What is earth's fleeting wealth in comparison to an inheritance that fadeth not away? Reader, will you make every sacrifice for this world's goods, and none for the cause of Him who provided Heaven for you if you will only come? And he says, “Come unto me, all you that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
MARY L. WILLIAMS.
The Promise Sure.
By Spurgeon
THERE is much prayer which brings no results. Mere repetition of good words is not prayer. Prayer is bringing God's promise to him, and pleading it with him. It carries the checks to the bank, and comes away with the cash. Many prayers are defective for want of pleading promises. I cannot pray very long prayers. I just go and plead the promise and come away. I present the check and then go about my work. What would you think of men going to a bank, and loafing about the counter for the half hour together? Praying is not spending a great deal of time on your knees, and saying a great many things to God which he knows beforehand. Yet though we may not constantly pray very long at a time, we go again and again. Prayer needs faith in the promises. Do you say you cannot believe? Think what that means. What! cannot trust your God? Heaven and earth shall pass away, but no promise of God shall fail.
Do we not often miss answers to prayer because we present the check, and then go without waiting to have the cash? Do you expect and actually look for answers to your petitions? Are you like the child who went to prayer-meeting appointed in time of drought to pray for rain, and brought her umbrella with her, because she expected an answer to the prayers to be offered? Do you say to yourself, “True, I have asked; true, God has promised, but will he give?” Away with the question! God forbid that it should loiter for a moment on your minds! Let us be in earnest; Let us have no playing with God! Put your name down, “I do believe this promise. I asked with a real faith.”—Spurgeon.
Truth Must Be Practiced, Not Merely Held
DOCTRINES are of use only as they are practiced. Men may go to perdition with their heads full of truth. To hold the truth and fight for it is one thing. To be sanctified through it is another.
Dives and Lazarus.
By John Nevins Andrews
(Concluded from No. 21.) *
WE answer these questions precisely as we do those which arise from the testimony of “Moses and the prophets,” to which we are in this parable referred. When Rachel, long dead, is represented as shedding tears and lamenting the murder of her children; when the mighty dead converse with Pharaoh in hades, and he is “comforted” with what he sees in the nether parts of the earth; and when the king of Babylon is mocked by dead kings who rise up from their thrones in hades and taunt him with his overthrow; when we read all this of that place where all is darkness, silence, secrecy, and death—a place within the earth itself, and when we consider that this parable relates to this very place, and cites us to these very testimonies for information on the subject, it becomes evident that one common answer pertains to all these questions.
The dead are personified, and made to speak and act in reference to the facts of their respective cases as though they were alive. Why should not the Spirit of God do this when it has seen fit to personify every kind of inanimate thing? Thus the blood of Abel cried to God. Gen. 4. And thus in Job, the depth and the sea are made to speak, and even destruction and death are represented as saying that they have heard the fame of wisdom with their ears. Job 28: 14–22. The stone by the sanctuary heard all the words of Israel. Josh. 24. The trees held an election and made speeches. Judges 9. The thistle proposes a matrimonial alliance with the cedar. 2 Kings 14; 2 Chron. 25. All the trees sing out at the presence of God. 1 Chron. 16. The stone cries out of the wall, and the beam answers it. Hab. 2. The hire of the laborers, kept back by fraud, cries to God. James 5. Dead Abel yet speaketh. Heb. 11. The souls under the altar, slain for their testimony, and who do not live till the first resurrection, cry to God for vengeance. Rev. 6: 9, 10.
Thus, when Job sets forth the nature of that wisdom which is from above, he introduces four things destitute of life, two of them being the very opposite of life, to speak concerning the place of wisdom:—
“The depth saith, It is not in me; and the sea saith, It is not with me.” “DESTRUCTION AND DEATH say, We have heard the fame thereof with OUR EARS.” Job 28: 14, 22.
And, finally, death and hades are both personified—the one riding a pale horse, the other following, and both cutting down mankind. And this personification is still further carried out, when both, as though living enemies, are at last cast into the fire of gehenna. Rev. 6: 8; 20: 14; 1 Cor. 15; Hosea 13: 14.
The apostle Paul has given us the key to all this, when he says of God that he “quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not, as though they were.” Rom. 4: 17. And our Lord, in that remarkable discussion with the Sadducees, in which he proved the resurrection of the dead by the fact that God spoke of dead Abraham as though he were alive, gives us this same key, thus: “For all live unto him.” Luke 20: 38. Abraham, though dead, is spoken of as alive, because in the purpose of God he is to live again.
Lazarus died a beggar. But he rests in hope, an heir to the inheritance promised Abraham. Eternal life and endless felicity are his, and by personification it is said that he is “comforted.” Dives lives in the greatest splendor, and dies an impenitent man. The lake of fire is to be his portion. By personification, he is represented as in it already. This is in accordance with the teaching of Paul, when he says of God that he calleth things that be not as though they were. That is, God speaks of things that exist only in his purpose just as though they had a present existence, because they shall surely exist; even as he called Abraham the father of many nations, when as yet he had no son. Gen. 17; Rom. 4: 16, 17. There is, therefore, the utmost propriety in thus presenting before the living the dead in hades, and giving them opportunity to speak just as they would, had they the powers of thought and utterance.
This is the more clearly seen when we consider that to Lazarus, in the silence of hades, there will not be a moment between his death, at the gate of the rich man, and his resurrection to eternal life; and not a moment to the rich man between the closing of his eyes in death, and his opening them in the resurrection to damnation.
That we have done right in hearing the testimony of “Moses and the prophets” on this subject, we have the authority of the parable itself to show. And we have this further evidence of the truth of this exposition that, without doing violence to a single text, we have a divine harmony on the subject of the dead in hades, in all that is said by Moses and the prophets and by Christ and the apostles. These writers all place hades in the interior of the earth, and make it a place of utter darkness and silence, where there is no knowledge; yet they present several cases of the dead in this very place conversing, lamenting, or being comforted.
But, probably, no one thinks there are literally dead kings sitting on thrones deep in the earth, and holding discourse. The dead are not alive. Hades is not a place of thought, but one of utter forgetfulness and deep sleep.
When persons or things which have no life and no consciousness are represented in the Scriptures as talking, how do we understand such declarations? Not that they do really have feelings, and thoughts, and powers of utterance, but that they are personified, and made to speak and act just as they would under the existing circumstances were they indeed alive and capable of thought and utterance. Things which in the purpose of God are to be, he can speak of as existing, simply because they shall exist.
This parable of the rich man and Lazarus is therefore in harmony with all the testimonies of the Bible relative to the time of recompense. The day of Judgment comes before God inflicts punishment upon wicked men. 2 Pet. 2: 9; 3: 7.
J. N. A.
The United States in Prophecy.
By Uriah Smith
In previous articles on the third angel’s message of Rev. 14: 9-12, we have shown that that message is now due, and is being proclaimed through the length and breadth of the land. We have shown what constitutes the worship of the beast and image, and the reception of the mark, against which this message warns us. This is a living issue before this generation. And as it is the two-horned beast of Rev. 13 that enforces the worship of the beast and image, and the reception of the mark, it only remains to show that this symbol represents our own government, and that it is already far advanced in the work assigned it in the prophecy. This proved, our position becomes impregnable, and the application of the prophecy is placed beyond cavil or dispute.
An exposition of the two-horned beast of Rev. 13 demands a hasty glance at the whole line of prophecy with which it stands connected. This commences with chapter 12, and ends at verse 6 of chapter 14. The symbols introduced are, a woman, representing the true church, and a dragon, leopard beast, and two-horned beast, symbolizing the earthly powers with which this woman or church is more or less persecuted and oppressed through her entire history.
A very general agreement exists among expositors in calling the dragon a symbol of pagan Rome. This is beyond question correct. This dragon gives his seat to the leopard beast. Rev. 13: 2. Rome pagan gave its seat, the city of Rome, to the papacy. The leopard beast of Rev. 13: 1-10, is therefore a symbol of papal Rome. But this point is more clearly proved by the fact that this beast, in its chronology, its location, its character, its work, the time of its continuance, and the doom it meets, is identical with the little horn of the fourth beast of Dan. 7, which all Protestant commentaries apply to the papacy.
The two-horned beast is “another beast,” says John. It therefore symbolizes a power in addition to, and different from, the papal beast, which the prophet had just had under consideration; that is, it symbolizes a power separate and distinct from that which is denoted by the preceding beast. This which John calls “another beast” is certainly no part of the first beast; and the power symbolized by it is likewise no part of that which is denoted by that beast. This is fatal to the claim of those who, to avoid the application of this symbol to our own government, say that it denotes some phase of the papacy; for in that case it would be a part of the preceding, or leopard, beast.
It is claimed by others that the two-horned beast represents England, by still others, France, and by some, Russia, &c. The first, among many other fatal objections to all these applications, is, that the territory occupied by all these powers is already appropriated by preceding symbols. If the two-horned beast symbolized any of these, it would be a part of other beasts instead of “another beast,” separate and distinct from all the rest. It is a law of symbols that each one occupies territory peculiarly its own; that is, the territory which constituted the original government was no part of that which had been occupied by the previous powers. Thus Medo-Persia rose on territory not occupied by Babylon; and Medo-Persia and Babylon together covered all that portion of Asia known to ancient civilization. The Grecian or Macedonian kingdom arose to the west of them, occupying all Eastern Europe, so far as it was then known to the ancients. Rome arose still to the west in territory unoccupied by Grecia. Rome was divided into ten kingdoms; but though Rome conquered the world, we look for these divisions only to that territory which had never been included in other kingdoms. We look not to Eastern Europe; for that was included in the dominion of the third beast; nor to Asia; for that constituted the empires of the first and second beasts; but to Western Europe, which territory was unoccupied till taken by Rome and its divisions.
The ten kingdoms which arose out of the old Roman Empire are enumerated as follows by Machiavel, indorsed by Bp. Newton, Faber, and Dr. Hales: 1. The Huns. 2. The Ostrogoths. 3. The Visigoths. 4. The Franks. 5. The Vandals. 6. The Suevi. 7. The Burgundians. 8. The Heruli. 9. The Anglo Saxons, and 10. The Lombards. These kingdoms have since been known, says Scott, as the “ten kingdoms of the western empire,” and they are distinguishable at the present day, some of them even by their modern names, as Hungary from the Huns, Lombardy from the Lombards, France from the Franks, and England from the Anglo Saxons. These ten kingdoms being denoted by the ten horns of the leopard beast, it is evident that all the territory included in these ten kingdoms is to be considered as belonging to that beast. England is one of these ten kingdoms, France is another. If therefore we say that either of these is the one represented by the two-horned beast, we make one of the horns of the leopard beast constitute the two-horned beast. But this the prophecy forbids; for while John sees the leopard beast fully developed, with his horns all complete and distinct, he beholds the two-horned beast coming up, and calls it “another beast.” We are therefore to look for the government which this beast symbolizes in some country outside the territory occupied by the four beasts and the ten horns already referred to. But these, as we have seen, cover all the available portions of the eastern continent.
Another consideration pointing to the locality of this power is drawn from the fact that John saw it arising from the earth. If the sea from which the leopard beast arose, Rev. 13: 1, denotes peoples, nations, and multitudes, Rev. 17: 15, the earth would suggest, by contrast, a new and previously-unoccupied territory.
Being thus excluded from the eastern continent, and impressed with the idea of looking to territory not previously known to civilization, we turn of necessity to the western hemisphere. And this is in full harmony with the ideas already quoted, and more which might be presented, that the progress of empire is with the sun around the earth from east to west. Commencing in Asia, the cradle of the race, it would end on this continent, which completes the circuit. Bishop Berkeley, in his celebrated poem on America, written more than one hundred years ago, in the following forcible lines, pointed out the then future position of America, and its connection with preceding empires.
“Westward the course of empire takes its way;
The four first acts already past,
A fifth shall close the drama with the day;
Time’s noblest offspring is the last.”
By the “four first acts already past,” the bishop had undoubted reference to the four universal kingdoms of Daniel’s prophecy. A fifth great power, the noblest and the last, was, according to his poem, to arise this side the Atlantic, and here close the drama of time, as the day here ends its circuit.
To what part of the American continent shall we look for the power in question? To the most powerful and prominent nation certainly. This is so self-evident that we need not stop to pass in review the frozen fragments of humanity on the north of us, nor the weak, superstitious, semi-barbarous, revolutionary, and uninfluential kingdoms to the south of us. No; we come to the United States, and here we are led. To this nation the question of the location of the two-horned beast undeviatingly leads us.
As an objection to this view, it may occur to some minds that the two-horned beast exercises all the power of the first beast before him (Greek ἐνώπιον, literally before his eyes), and does wonders in his sight; and how can the United States, separated by an ocean from European kingdoms, hold such an intimate relation to them? We answer, Space and time are annihilated by the telegraph. Through the Atlantic cable (an enterprise which, by the way, owes its origin to the United States), the lightnings are continually picturing to European beholders the affairs of America. Any important event occurring here is described the next hour in the journals of Europe. So far as the transmission of an account of our proceedings to the people of the old world is concerned, it is as if America lay at the mouth of the English Channel.
And the eyes of all Europe are intently watching our movements. Says Mr. Townsend (New World and Old, p. 583):—
“All the great peoples of Europe are curiously interested and amazed in the rise of America, and their rulers at present compete for our friendship. ‘Europe,’ said the prince Talleyrand, long ago, ‘must have an eye on America, and take care not to offer any pretext for recrimination or retaliation. America is growing every day. She will become a colossal power, and the time will come when (discoveries enabling her to communicate more easily with Europe) she will want to say a word in our affairs, and have a hand in them.’”
The time has come, and the discoveries have been made, to which Talleyrand referred. It is almost as easy now to communicate with Europe as with our nearest town. By these things the attention of the world is drawn still more strongly toward us; and thus whatever the United States does, it is done in the sight, yes, even before the eyes, of all Europe. U. S.