1. What plea does the apostle make to those whom he addresses?
“I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called.” Verse 1. Note 1.
2. With what spirit are they to walk?
“With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love.” Verse 2. Note 2.
3. What are they to give diligence to keep?
“Giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Verse 3. Note 3.
4. What great unity of God’s children ought to appeal to Christians?
“There is one body, and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling.” Verse 4. Note 4.
5. How does he further express this unity?
“One Lord, one faith, one baptism.” Verse 5. Note 5.
6. Who stands at the head of all this union?
“One God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all.” Verse 6. Note 6.
Notes
1. “I therefore.”—The apostle Paul has the right to plead. He is the apostle to the Gentiles, and he has sealed his apostleship with suffering for Christ, and for the sake of the souls for whom he labored. He therefore refers to himself again as “the prisoner in the Lord.” He would let them understand that even the sufferings that he is undergoing, he takes as blessings from God. Having been partaker in Christ’s sufferings for them, he can truly plead with them that they should honor Christ, and walk worthily of the calling wherewith they were called. And then think of that calling. The original name of the church, ekklesia, comes from the verb ekkaleo, meaning “to call out,” or “to summon forth,” and the church itself is an assembly of the citizens regularly summoned by the one who has authority to summon. So God’s people are called out of sin and darkness and woe and misery and death, called out from idolatry, called out from everything that is low and base and evil, called by the voice of God, the gospel of God, the Spirit of God, and called out always and forever to better things. We are “called to be saints” (Rom. 1:7); “called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:9); called “to peace” (1 Cor. 7:15) from the strife and unrest of sin. From the bondage of sin He has called us to liberty (Gal. 5:13); from the world’s uncleanness He has called us to holiness (1 Thess. 4:7); He has called us “out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9); we are called from the infamy of sin “unto His eternal glory” (1 Peter 5:10); we are called to His kingdom and glory (1 Thess. 2:12). And so we might multiply passages regarding the calling of the children of God. We are called sons and daughters, heirs of God, fellow citizens with the saints. Truly it may be said, in the language of the apostle, that He has called us with a holy calling. 2 Tim. 1:9. Surely there is force in the apostle’s exhortation to “walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called.”
2. “With all lowliness,”—humility. The whole tendency of the world is in the opposite direction. Men are proud and haughty and arrogant. The true child of God is meek. Jesus was meek. Moses was meek. This does not mean that he was soft and pliable, and yielding to everything that came before him. It does mean, however, that he was teachable under God. “The meek will He guide in judgment: and the meek will He teach His way.” Meekness is mildness and gentleness of temper, submissiveness not to evil, but to God, a disposition not easily provoked. The truly meek man is the truly strong man. Many times, he who seems to be strong, and blusters, and resents what are thought to be injuries, is, after all, the weak man. He has not conquered himself, he can not control himself. The meek man may be submissive under injuries, patient under trials, heedless of rebukes or abuse; still, where he believes anything to be right, he will stand like the everlasting rock. He is submitted to One who will enable him to stand; namely, God. So the man who walks in lowliness and meekness will be long-suffering and forbearing and patient toward others; and as God has done all this, not because of necessity, but because of His love for souls, so will the Christian. It will all be wrought in love. Let us learn that while we hate the sin, we must not hate the sinner.
3. “Giving diligence.”—The thought of the Christian life is not one of ease; it is one of activity. Diligence implies earnestness in application. It implies industry, steadfastness, watchfulness. The good things of God are certainly worth the keeping, and the keeping is certainly worth the effort. We are to give “diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit,”—that is, one Spirit, and the one Spirit binds together into one life all God’s children. But it is easy for the human, with his limited knowledge and powers, his inability to see the thoughts and motives of others, to allow to come in that which will break the unity and the harmony that ought to exist in the church of God. Let him give diligence to keep all the irritating things out of his intercourse with others. Let all his efforts be to bind together and strengthen the bond of peace which ought always to exist between the believer and his Lord, so that Christ Himself becomes the bond between the individuals; “for He is our Peace, who hath made both one.”
4. There is one body.—That one body is the church; the one Spirit is the life of the church; “for by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” Cherish the blessed thought that we are one body—the body of Christ; and cherish the thought that the life power in that body “shall give life also to your mortal bodies through His Spirit that dwelleth in you.” Rom. 8:11. And there is one hope to which we are called,—the hope which centers in our Lord Jesus Christ. We have learned the prayer in the beginning of these studies, “That ye may know what is the hope of His calling.” Eph. 1:18. That hope centers in our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming; for the same apostle tells us that “we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world; looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” Titus 2:12, 13. That hope, he tells us in the first chapter and the second verse of Titus, includes the hope of eternal life. It includes becoming like our Lord Jesus Christ physically as well as spiritually. It includes the resurrection from the dead. It includes the eternal inheritance of all God’s children. That is the one hope to which we are called.
5. “One Lord.”—Not many lords. In the great heathen world there are gods many and lords many. They had no conception of one God who was infinite enough to encompass all things. They divided up all the beneficences and malignancies of nature into different gods, every one demanding different kinds of sacrifices, and some of them the most cruel, even of human sacrifices. But the Christian has one Lord—one Master; not an earthly one, but a heavenly one, who combines in Himself the human and the divine,—one Lord Jesus Christ. One faith.—That is, the faith of Jesus Christ, the faith by which He walked while here, the faith which centers in Him, the faith that lays hold on all the eternal springs of God’s word. One baptism.—This does not mean the baptism of the Spirit, for we are told of the Spirit before this, and that is the life of the Spirit that interfuses and unites all God’s children. This is that baptism which brings us into the fold of Christ, the baptism of which the apostle speaks in Rom. 6:3-6 and Col. 2:12, the baptism which shows forth in its very symbolism—immersion—faith in the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus our Lord. It is the outward marriage ceremony which unites the believer to Christ. Rom. 7:4; Gal. 3:27.
6. One God.—Over all this great unity of apparent diversity is one God and Father of all. God’s great universe is one. There are different suns and systems of suns and clusters of suns in the sidereal heavens, but they are all under the control of the one great Power. Sin has interfered with the unity of God’s plan in some measure, and God has suffered it. Therefore we see all creation groaning and travailing in pain together until now. It is manifest in burning sun, in dead wanderers in the heavens, in broken planets, in dead moons, and in a thousand different ways upon this sin-cursed earth. All this is the result of sin, which God has suffered, that the inhabitants of the universe may see the evil outworking of sin always. But it shall not always be. The longing of the universe will be met, and the creation that travails in pain itself also “shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.” It is of this and for this that God waits. He is over all now. He is working through all now. He is in all now, in the sense that He is controlling it to His own glory; and he who waits God’s time, will sometime see the fruition of all the operations of God during the waiting, travailing time. It is His plan, it is the original plan, that the whole universe shall be holy, that it shall move on in the everlasting cycles of life in glory. All who will take themselves out of this plan shall perish, but those who abide steadfast will be crowned with the glory of the triumph of the purpose of the ages.
The Rule of the People
By T.
Photograph Underwood and Underwood, N. Y.
Photo by Clinedinst, Washington, D. C.
Photograph Underwood and Underwood, N. Y.
One of the phrases coined in this country and about this country is that it is “a government of the people, by the people, for the people.” No better governmental sentiment was ever cast into human language, provided it is understood in the light in which the fathers of this republic believed and taught it. But it is an easy matter to see that this splendid sentiment, as well as any other great doctrine of government or of religion, may be readily subverted. It is quite possible and absolutely natural for us to slide into a position where we are still shouting for the literal wording of the old and approved doctrine, while in practise we are going in the opposite direction, and doing untold mischief at every step of the way.
Appealing to the People
There has come down to us from the Romans, Vox populi, vox Dei; that is, “The voice of the people is the voice of God.” And while this has not been admitted generally in the past as a sound American doctrine, yet in practise we are swinging more and more toward it during the last few years. One of the great political war-cries of the present time with a great and constantly growing number of men and women is, “The people! the people! Let us appeal the whole matter to the people, and let them decide.” And so the “initiative, referendum, and recall” are growing in popularity, and we are sure that the popularity is destined to increase greatly, even tho some strongly influential men are opposing the doctrine with all their might.
Are the People Safe?
It is a comparatively easy matter for a fluent talker to take a superficial view of public questions in a popular government, and by the mere bewilderment of his words, become a great popular idol that the people will follow as an authority. He appeals to their passions and prejudices, and not to their sense and reason. He arouses and inflames them until they are ready to form a great crusading host to march against they know not what. These orators can make every popular movement of the past that has gained the approval of history fit into their schemes.
Not all of the people can be touched by these superficial word artists. There is always a great body of men who do not move by mere sentiment; they think. But it is safe to say that when conditions are favorable, there may be found a majority of the people who can be inflamed into taking positions that history will not approve. Even these same people may be led into taking contradictory positions from day to day as public sentiment is shifted from side to side. Ambition for position and power, or some other selfish interest, can be made to glitter and shine forth as the loftiest patriotism. And one of these demagogic leaders can so present his themes as to make “the people” think they are having their own way and doing the governing, when in reality they are simply following him blindly, and, by the sheer force of numbers, making it possible for him to have his own way.
We should learn to distinguish between the genuine rule of the people where they have calmly thought out the important problems and principles of government, and the rule of passion, inflamed by superficial oratory that is blinded by selfish ambition.
A Monument in History
The French Revolution is one of the monumental mountain peaks of history. In the nation there were many glaring wrongs that were oppressing the people. There was a striking similarity between the governmental wrongs and problems of that time and the abuses and problems of this time. The generation that produced that great revolution in France was noted for its appealing orators and scribes with powers of vivid portrayal. “The people” were stirred. “The people” finally took things in their own hands, and one of these orators or scribes might be the popular idol of to-day; to-day they would laud him as a god, until the intoxication of applause would lead him to think that he was secure as the “leader of the people.” But on the morrow, these same “people,” having found a new object of idolatry, would hilariously march the idol of yesterday, with perhaps a score of his most influential followers, to the guillotine, and chop off their heads. It was “the people” who applauded yesterday, and it is the same “people” who decapitate to-day. History abounds with similar illustrations, which ought to teach the man who aspires to be a popular idol of the people that it is a singularly dangerous thing.
When the Lord Jesus Christ Himself was crucified, it was because of the popular demand of “the people.” Designing and ambitious priests and rulers had worked upon “the people” until they raised the popular cry that was so general as to be almost deafening,—“Away with Him,” “Crucify Him, crucify Him.”
Moses is reckoned by all to be one of the greatest characters of history. He was a mighty leader, a great jurist, and yet so kind, unselfish a man that his thoughts were never of himself, but always of the people whom he was seeking to serve while he led them. He was so true in all the principles of his great manhood that history, both secular and divine, accords him a place of perfection, of power, and of influence next to Christ. And yet, on more than one occasion, designing and ambitious characters worked among “the people” until they stood ready to stone to the death the man whose every moment, with all his masterly powers, was devotedly given to their true service.11
Clinedinst Photo, Washington, D. C.
“The people” are the perpetrators of all the persecutions of all the ages. “The people” put Jeremiah in the filthy dungeon and fed him with bread and water. “The people” whipped the Quakers and banished and ill-treated Roger Williams in the early history of this country. “The people” mobbed and imprisoned the Wesleys. “The people” have dragged men to the stake and burned them alive, not only in the times of the persecutions of the Dark Ages, but also in these very days and in this very country in which we now live. For whenever the mob is excited to the extent of violence, burning or hanging a culprit, it is all because “the people” in that particular locality have become inflamed to the point of lawlessness.
The expression “the people” is purposely placed in quotation marks in the foregoing paragraphs, because in times of social or political intensity there are numerous characters that are excitable, and can be wrought up to a high stage of violent activity, and the really stable people are trampled beneath the feet of this mob. There seems to be little that can be done at such times except to let the mob, that passes for the time being for “the people,” exhaust itself with its own excesses. Then after the storm the people assert themselves to right things up, and in the reaction no one can be found who cares to acknowledge that he was among “the people” that formed the erstwhile mob.
The Example of Lincoln
Clinedinst Photo. Washington, D. C.
Photo by Paul Thompson.
Lincoln is often appealed to as a man that was of the people and for the people. But many of those who hold Lincoln forth as an example are going in the exactly opposite direction from the whole course of his noble and useful life. Lincoln was himself one of the common people. He had the good of the whole people at heart, and his whole life-work was with that end in view. But Lincoln appealed to the reason and sense of the people. His speeches were models of calmness, logic, and dignity. No American has ever arisen who was a more profound student of the true principles of the American Constitution and government of these United States. And altho he was called to lead the nation through the great storm period of its history, and altho a cruel war was fought while his hand was on the helm of state, and altho the majority of the people were with him (else he could not have done the work that he did), yet he and his associates had them so educated that they all were guided by the principles for which he stood, rather than by the personality of the man. There was excitement in the controversy, it is true. It could not have been otherwise. But it was not allowed to break entirely away from the control of reason.
Even the great Lincoln, who is one of the best champions of the real people that the nation has ever produced, recognized that it was possible for even the people to go wrong. For he it was who framed the expression that has become a classic, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you can not fool all the people all the time.”
There is something highly intoxicating about popular applause. Not only the individual who is applauded becomes intoxicated, but the people who are doing the applauding are intoxicated as well. Very frequently they applaud not because their reason is touched and their admiration is aroused by something that is highly commendable, but they want to be in the style. Whom they are applauding, and why they are doing it, is not so much the question as to know that it is the style to do it. Men frequently jest about the women following the styles in dress; but it is one of the weaknesses of humanity to try to follow the styles of thinking as well as dressing. And more dangerous than anarchists are the demagogs who inflame and excite the populace; for when the populace becomes intoxicated with the frenzies of excitement and passion, like the drunken man, you can never tell what they will do. When great popular movements, like that of the French Revolution, once get under way, they soon become uncontrollable, and the men who are to blame for starting them are soon without power to guide them.
A Prophetic Picture
At the very close of time, there is to be a great popular movement that will swing all the world into it, with but very limited exception. This statement is made on the basis of the following prophecy:
“And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like unto a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the authority of the first beast in his sight. And he maketh the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose death-stroke was healed. And he doeth great signs, that he should even make fire to come down out of heaven upon the earth in the sight of men. And he deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by reason of the signs which it was given him to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast who hath the stroke of the sword and lived. And it was given unto him to give breath to it, even to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as should not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and the bond, that there be given them a mark on their right hand, or upon their forehead; and that no man should be able to buy or to sell, save he that hath the mark, even the name of the beast or the number of his name.” Rev. 13:11-17.
Please observe that the foregoing language calls for a great popular movement in which all the people on all the earth will be appealed to to make an image to the beast. This popular movement will have power and signs and miracles connected with it. It will also use the boycott, for it will not allow any to buy or sell unless they have its mark. If language12can be made to mean anything, the foregoing language from the prophet shows that the last great stroke of the powers of this world will be a world-wide “people’s movement.” The evidence is clear, and we should think about what we are doing.
Against this great popular movement among the people we have one of the most startling warnings that may be found in the word of God. It reads:
“And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a great voice, If any man worshipeth the beast and his image, and receiveth a mark on his forehead, or upon his hand, he also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is prepared unmixed in the cup of His anger; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment goeth up forever and ever; and they have no rest day and night, they that worship the beast and his image, and whoso receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints, they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:9-12.
It may be exhilarating to some minds to start great, ambitious schemes, and try to carry them by telling the people that they are infallible. But it will ever remain true that the Master has said that “wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Matt. 7:13, 14.
The people who are strong enough and calm enough to refuse to be inflamed, may be trusted to listen to reason and be guided by intelligence. But the foregoing prophecy indicates that there will be enough of the other class to make a great world-wide movement that will finally come to grief. It is well to be careful to stand on the safe side. T.
The Militant Suffragettes
By Editor
It seems clear to us that the English authorities are justified in the three years' sentence of penal servitude imposed upon Mrs. Pankhurst. She deserves it all, and more. The scene at the trial was unprecedented in the Old Bailey. It recalls the trial of the Camorra of Italy. The women are said to have yelled and screeched and shouted, and in fact, it seemed to have been bedlam let loose for a while. After her sentence, Mrs. Pankhurst told the judge, Sir Charles Montagu Lush, “I deliberately break the law,—not hysterically, not emotionally, but for a set and serious purpose, because I believe it is the only way.” And yet Mrs. Pankhurst might have seen that all over the English-speaking world women have secured and are securing the power to vote without resorting to any of the means which she and her followers have indulged in.
It has been suggested that the militant suffragettes be deported to some English colony where there is equal suffrage, or be placed in some walled town or territory on some of the old feudal estates of England, and left to themselves. But that would not suit them, of course. They would be at war among themselves, and something else would take the place of their present hobby. As it is, they are a constant menace to life and property, public and private, and ought to be confined either in a madhouse or in a penitentiary.
It was said that at the time of the trial one of the suffragettes declared that it would not be mere property now, but life would be in danger. Just recently in Plymouth telephone and telegraph wires have been cut, unoccupied houses have been fired, and now they declare that occupied houses will be. Manchester Art Gallery has recently been visited and the glasses on thirteen paintings smashed, some of them religious and noted paintings. These militant suffragettes certainly are a disgrace to the entire noble womanhood of England, and are retarding everything that is good in their own cause by the course which they have pursued. In the beginning they seemed to have the sympathy of the throngs which gathered around them, but now even the mob itself has turned against them. As before remarked, they deserve all that they are receiving, and more.
The Rising Power of the Slavs
ONE of the disquieting features of the political situation in Europe is the growing union and activity of the Slav race. What the frenzied activity of this age will do in very short periods of time as the war-mad nations are being marshaled for Armageddon, it is hard to predict. The activity among the Slavs is well set forth in the following paragraph from the Christian World:
“One of the great facts of the present time is the rise of the Slav nations to power and influence. The present war with Turkey has enormously furthered this fact, and every one acquainted with the spirit animating the Slavic nations is aware of the new ambitions which have been aroused, and of the determination of the Slav committees throughout the east and southeast of Europe to press forward the pan-Slavist idea. The air is full of the idea of a greater Servia, a greater Bulgaria, an Illyrian empire on the Adriatic, Slav ports in Greek waters, Slav railways through territory which was once Turkish. Teeming Slav populations are aspiring to free institutions, to education, and to a dominating voice in the counsels of Europe. Socialism has its terrors for Germany, the revival of France is also an ugly dream for the German statesman; but far away more threatening for the pan-German is the shadow of the steady, ruthless on-march of the Slav. Germany has its pressure from within; she has a pressure on her western frontier which gives her strategists no rest, and which lays ever fresh burdens on the people; but the greatest pressure is in the East, and it is towards the East that the anxious gaze of her statesman is directed. — Pan-Slavism is triumphing all along the line. It is easy to prognosticate. There must come a time when Teuton and Slav will stand face to face. There must be a contest for mastery. For every German in Europe there are already two Slavs, and every year that passes makes the proportion more in favor of the Slav.”
Girls Who Go Wrong
By Editor
We are glad to see working girls and representatives of working girls repudiating the repeated statement that a young woman's virtue depends upon her wage, and we note also that this is confirmed by those who have chosen the downward path. The latter declare that it was not low wages which led them to a life of shame. We are not pleading, let it be understood, for a starvation, meager, or insufficient wage, but we do not believe that the low wage is responsible for lives of sin. There are two great evils which, added to the natural tendencies of humanity, wreck the majority of girls who go wrong. These are the dance hall and the curse of fashion. With the dance hall come the late suppers, the excitement, the wine, and — ruin. The love of dress is fostered and fed by the ever-changing, extravagant, immodest fashions. If the curse of frequently changing fashion were removed, if, as one woman writer of ability pleads, well-dressed women in the average world should possess three suits as they formerly did — best, second-best, ordinary — women could dress well on moderate incomes. In the devil's multifarious devices for destroying souls, dress and dance hall, fashion and folly, are among the most successful. Pay better wages for well-rendered service to respectable women, but pay no bribe for decency.
