Earlier text: The Judgment in SessionFollowing God
By J. W. Rich
Learning to Walk with Him — Our Distance May Cause Us to Deny Him “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” Luke 9:23. There are people on the earth to-day who attach a great deal of importance to the idea of having walked in the same territory traversed by the Saviour when He was here, a man among men. The apparent thought is that it will add virtue to their lives, will in some way make them better men and women; that the very fact that Jesus trod the way before them, will give them the advantage in meeting temptation. To follow the footsteps of Jesus up the slopes of Olivet, to Jericho, to meet the procession passing from the city of Nain, to proceed to the pool of Siloam, etc., would, in their estimation, give them a standing in the eyes of Heaven that they could not get without this privilege. Such trips, no doubt, would be interesting and instructive. A greater blessing, however, came to the disciples in that they accompanied Him on these excursions, and had more than the privilege of reading the accounts. They actually experienced them. They were with Him at the time. They witnessed His mighty works, and have borne testimony concerning them. This certainly was a privilege to those men of long ago. They followed Him daily, and more, they walked with Him. There is a beautiful significance in the fact that they followed the Master, yet were with Him. Too many times, it cannot be said that we are with Him in the following process. How often do we follow as did Peter on the night of the betrayal? John followed, but he was with Jesus. Peter followed a long way off. He was cold — cold physically and spiritually. He needed to follow the Master more closely. He needed to increase his pace, and be brought to a nearness with the Master, with His warming influence. It was so easy for Peter to deny his Lord while he was in this far-away position! And that was the cause of his humiliating experience in even asserting that he did not “know the Man.” No, it was true. He did not know the Master as he should. He was so far away he could not. Did it ever occur to you that that might be the reason why we deny Him so often by our actions in our daily living? The hopes of those who wish to trace the roads the Saviour trod, and those who were personally with Him, are and were interesting themes; but a greater blessing for the people of to-day is to follow the Master in the twentieth century — not to tread the literal road He trod, but to go with Him in principle, to teach and practice the things He taught and practiced, to live as He lived, to walk as He walked, to stand for the reforms for which He stood. That, dear friends, is walking with yet following Him. WOULD SUCH A COURSE BE FOLLOWING HIM?
To make a practical application, I wonder how many of us could follow Him and hide behind a cloak of piety at the same time; excuse our indifference by saying, “It doesn’t make any difference”; could follow Him and say, “I will pay tithe when I get out of debt,” “I will keep the Sabbath when the way opens.” Could you, dear friend, follow Him and carry on your regular business on the Sabbath while He is away meeting with His people in worship? Could you have Him with you while you are voting to license the saloon in your town? Could you follow Him with a pipe or cigar in your mouth? Would blowing your whisky- or tobacco-tainted breath into His face recommend you to His company? Can you even imagine that you would under such conditions want to be anywhere near Him? If following God means anything — and it does — the large majority of us need to get nearer to Him. Are you one of the number? And will you draw near, and remain near — near enough that He can carry on a conversation with you even in a whisper, and say at close range, “This is the way, walk ye in it”? If you are not one that thus follows the Master, why not? Answer to Him who will later demand the answer. Dangers of Constant Dissatisfaction
By C. B. Newcomb
THERE is great danger in constant dissatisfaction. Sooner or later it will involve the health, or finances, or both, for it destroys the mental balance, and impairs the judgment.— C. B. Newcomb. THE PAPACY STRENGTHENING HERSELF
By G. B. T.
Her Political Power in the United States — The Historian’s View of Her Character THAT the Roman Church is strengthening its hold in this country must be apparent to those who are observing the trend of things. Her subtle hand is seen everywhere. She controls to a great extent the plans and policies of municipalities and states throughout the nation. This great religio-political machine largely controls the elections in cities, states, and the nation itself. What political party could hope to triumph that showed itself unfriendly to the interests of that influential church? The sad part is, Protestantism is ceasing to protest. This is no time for her to fold her arms and take things easy. True to her name, she should protest against the domination and aggressions of Romanism. Rome never changes. What she was in the days of Luther she is to-day. The trenchant pen of the famous historian of the Reformation, Wylie, in a few paragraphs sets forth the true character of this ecclesiastical system in the following forceful words: “The papacy is a new Babel, in which the old redoubtable idolatries are the builders. It is a spiritual pantheon, in which the local and vagrant superstitions find again a center and a home. It is a grand mausoleum, in which the corpses of defunct paganisms, like the mummied monks of Kreutzberg, are laid out in ghastly pomp, while their disembodied spirits still live in the papacy, and govern the world from their grave. Analyze popery, and you will find all these ancient systems existing in it. The Magian philosophy flourishes anew under the monastic system; for in the conventual life of Rome we find the contemplative moods and the ascetic habits which so largely prevailed in Egypt and over all the East; and here, too, we find the fundamental principle of that philosophy, namely, that the flesh is the seat of evil, and, consequently, that it becomes a duty to weaken and mortify the body. In popery we find the predominating traits of the Grecian philosophy, more especially in the subtle casuistry of the popish schools, combined with a sensuous ritual, the celebration of which is often accompanied, as in Greece of old, with gross licentiousness. And last of all, there is palpably present in popery the polytheism of ancient Rome, in the gods and goddesses which, under the title of saints, fill up the calendar and crowd the temples of the Romish church. Here, then, all the old idolatries live over again. There is nothing new about them but the organization, which is more perfect and complete than ever. . . .” “Popery, then, we hold to be an aftergrowth of paganism, whose deadly wound, dealt by the spiritual sword of Christianity, was healed. Its oracles had been silenced, its shrines demolished, and its gods consigned to oblivion; but the deep corruption of the human race, not yet cured by the promised effusion of the Spirit upon all flesh, revived it anew, and, under a Christian mask, reared other temples in its honor, built it another pantheon, and replenished it with other gods, which, in fact, were but the ancient divinities under new names. All idolatries, in whatever age or country they have existed, are to be viewed but as successive developments of the one grand apostasy. That apostasy was commenced in Eden, and consummated at Rome. It had its rise in the plucking of the forbidden fruit; and it attained its acme in the supremacy of the bishop of Rome,—‘Christ’s vicar on earth.’ . . .” “Popery is the last, the most matured, the most subtle, the most skillfully contrived, and the most essentially diabolical form of idolatry which the world ever saw, or which, there is reason to believe, it ever will see. It is the ne plus ultra of man’s wickedness,107 and the chef-d’œuvre of Satan’s cunning and malignity. It is the greatest calamity, next to the fall, which ever befell the human family. Farther away from God the world could not exist at all. The cement that holds society together, already greatly weakened, would be altogether destroyed, and the social fabric would instantly fall in ruins.” “It follows from the principles taught in this chapter, that the Church (so called) of Rome has no right to rank amongst Christian churches. She is not a church, neither is her religion the Christian religion. We are accustomed to speak of popery as a corrupt form of Christianity. We concede too much. The Church of Rome bears the same relation to the church of Christ which the hierarchy of Baal bore to the institute of Moses; and popery stands related to Christianity only in the same way in which paganism stood related to primeval revelation. Popery is not a corruption simply, but a transformation. It may be difficult to fix the time when it passed from the one into the other; but the change is incontestable. Popery is the gospel trans-substantiated into the flesh and blood of paganism, under a few of the accidents of Christianity.”—“The Papacy,” by Wylie, pages 11-14. Romanism is becoming bolder in her claims and assumptions. Stung by the exposure of her unscriptural claims and gross corruptions, she is seeking to have laws enacted by the national Congress which will exclude from the mails any books, pamphlets, and periodicals that tell the truth concerning this false system of religion. Bills which, if passed, would give the postmaster-general such power, are now pending in Congress. The liberties vouchsafed to us by our national constitution are jeopardized by this foe of liberty and progress. It is time that Protestant America awake to her dangers, lest all that we hold dearest as a nation expire in a convulsion. G. B. T. HOW BERNARD GILPIN WAS DELIVERED FROM THE STAKE
By W. A. S.
Bernard Gilpin was a Protestant witness in the north of England in the early Reformation times. His labors and successes brought him the title of “the apostle of the north.” His cheery trust in God was proverbial. Whatever came, whether apparently of prosperity or adversity, his word was always, “Ah, well, God’s will be done; all is for the best.” This saying of his was well known through the north country. It was in this time that Catholic Queen Mary came to the throne, and tried by the stake and the sword to stem the tide of reform in England. The history says: “Toward the close of Mary’s reign, Mr. Gilpin was accused of heresy; and being speedily apprehended, he left his happy home, ‘nothing doubting,’ as he said, that it was ‘all for the best,’ though fully expecting, when he bade his family farewell, that, instead of returning, he would die at the martyr’s stake.” “While on the way to London, by some accident, he broke his leg. This, for a time, put a stop to his journey. While thus detained, some malignant persons took occasion to retort on him his habitual remark. ‘What!’ said they. ‘Is this “all for the best”?’ ‘Sirs, I make no question that it is,’ was his meek reply. And so it actually proved; for before he was able to travel, Queen Mary died, the persecution ceased, and he was restored to liberty.” Gilpin was but clinging, in those stormy times, to the lesson God would have us read for all time in the story of His work in the earth. The apostle puts it, “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” Rom. 8: 28. It Is God Working the Things
The margin of the Revised Version does us good service when it makes the reading, “God worketh all things with them for good.” It is not these “things” working; it is God working the things. And out of things and conditions that are in themselves forbidding and unfriendly, the loving Father can cause good to spring forth for us. Only to know it while in the trial—that is the blessedness. And the Lord wants us to know it, and to say always, “Ah, well, God’s will be done; all is for the best.” “‘My times are in Thy hand.’
Whatever they may be,
Pleasing or painful, dark or bright,
As best may seem to Thee.
“‘My times are in Thy hand.’
Why should I doubt or fear?
My Father’s hand will never cause
His child a needless tear.” The Highest Form of Success
By J. O. C.
ELIZABETH CADY STANTON once said that there are three degrees of success. These may be enumerated somewhat as follows: The most common quality, and that which seems most to engage attention, is the ability to accumulate wealth. The next highest, and one which greatly stimulates human ambition, is the aptitude to win intellectual strength. But the third step upward, and the one most to be desired, is devotion to principle in behalf of needy humanity. No higher success is allotted to earth-born dwellers than this last named quality. On this basis, the life of an unselfish reformer, although the stake and the fagot may end his work, is the grandest form of success. J. O. C. THE UNITED STATES RECOGNIZED IN PROPHECY
By M. C. Wilcox
The Two Preeminent Characteristics of the Nation—No Other Nation Ever Possessed Them—Its Unique Character
This is the fifth of some seven articles by Elder M. C. Wilcox on the general subject of the United States in the field of Bible prophecy. In former articles, he has shown that the United States did receive the attention of one of the prophets nearly two thousand years ago. He specified the time and manner of its rise, also the territory in which it was to grow into empire. EDITOR. The beast had two horns like a lamb. He spoke as a dragon. Both lamb and dragon are explained symbols in the Revelation. The lamb is a symbol of Christ. “And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not; behold, the Lion that is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath overcome to open the book and the seven seals thereof. And I saw in the midst of the throne . . . a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, having seven horns.” Rev. 5: 5, 6. The lamb and the lion are both symbols of our Lord. He is a lion in His power and strength; He is a lamb in His sacrifice for the universe. The dragon is the symbol of Satan. “And the great dragon was cast down, the old serpent, he that is called the devil and Satan.” Rev. 12: 9. The character of both lamb and dragon will be manifest in this nation. A horn is a symbol of power and individuality. Jesus possessed a fullness of power, represented by the complete number, seven, which makes Him worthy of the sevenfold ascription of praise: “Worthy is the Lamb that hath been slain to receive the power, and riches, and wisdom, and might, and honor, and glory, and blessing.” Rev. 5: 12. The power of Christ rests in the divine principles of His government and character. This beast, with the two horns of a lamb, represents a government which possesses, professedly at least, two Christian principles,—principles characteristic of Christianity alone of all religions, and of this government of all governments. This the prophecy demands. These particulars must be manifest. By such explicit and conclusive evidence does inspiration set forth this sign of the end. We have found, in former studies, that all the specifications of the prophecy thus far — the time, the territory, and the manner of its rise — have been met in the United States of America. Are these additional characteristics, more definite, more particular, more explicit, also met in this country? If so, they fix the application of the prophecy to the United States of America, beyond question. EQUALITY OF MAN, AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
There are but two characteristics of Christianity alone of all religions that could properly be applied to civil government; these are:- The equality of man.
- Religious liberty, or freedom of conscience.
The first is thus expressed in the Christian Book: “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, . . . hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.” Acts 17: 24-26. “For One is your master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.” Matt. 23: 8. Other scriptures are equally conclusive, that “God is no respecter of persons,” but that all have equal right before Him. As to the second principle, liberty of conscience, the evidence is equally clear. Listen to the Master: “And if any man hear My sayings, and keep them not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.” John 12: 47. Listen to the great apostle to the Gentiles: “Not that we have lordship over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for in faith ye stand fast.” 2 Cor. 1: 24. The Christian religion therefore accorded to all men the right to believe or not to believe, to accept or to reject. Our divine Lord, who “needed not that any one should bear witness concerning man; for He Himself knew what was in man,” was willing to leave to the Judgment “in the last day” all questions of religion and worship and faith — of man’s relationship to God. IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
In this country, the first of these characteristics — equality of man — is set forth in the Declaration of Independence, the Magna Charta of American liberty: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” And the second of these principles — freedom of conscience — was thus embodied in the first amendment to the fundamental law, the constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.” A mass of evidence could be presented in support of the above, from Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and others. Men were equal before the law. Freedom of religious choice was theirs. Search the world as we will, no religion save Christianity can be found possessing these two great principles. Study the history of nations, and but one nation — the United States of America — can be found that meets the prediction and the demand unequivocally. In Christianity alone, in the United States of America alone, are they found. What a mighty effect these two characteristics of Christianity must have had upon a world enswathed in the darkness of tradition, and oppressed and suffocated by imperial state religions! How they brought light and hope to hearts darkened and despairing! Such a heart would say, as he listened with eager ear to the preaching of Paul or Peter: “Here is a God who regards men, before whom Nero’s soul is of no more value than that of the lowest scullion in the emperor’s kitchen. Here is a Deity who invites me into His fullest confidences; who reveals Himself, His plans, His purposes; who has given all for me, offers all to me in an everlasting salvation, and yet He leaves me free to choose, without let or hindrance, His service or my own way. He has no legions of worldly censors or spies to follow me, condemn me, punish or torment me, according to their conceptions of infractions of duty. I will serve Him.” And thousands did. In the face of every earthly obstacle, they chose Christ instead of Diana, Jehovah instead of Jupiter; the eternal law of love and right and duty instead of the law of the flesh, translated in a thousand forms into religion. And they lived and they died for their faith, with the blessed assurance108 that He who had given them the earnest of the inheritance, would complete it in eternity. KINGLESS STATE — POPELESS CHURCH
So America, with its “state without a king,” its “church without a pope,”—where all men might choose to worship as conscience dictated, or not to worship,—invited the oppressed and heavy-hearted lovers of liberty from all lands. It was a haven of rest. True, it had its vicissitudes and hardships and dangers; but what were ocean perils and savage Indians and inclement winters, compared with liberty, freedom to worship God? And so liberty-loving souls came—the best of Europe’s seed; and liberty was reborn in the hearts and hopes of men. Its mighty throbbings touched the heart of European rulers, and the fetters of medieval tyranny began to break, the mighty yokes of oppression were lifted or lightened, and tolerance, if not freedom, was granted to the dissenters from state religions. The United States of America meets thus far the specification of the prophecy in every particular. Thus far she alone, of all the nations of earth, has met each one. Our study has revealed her as a verification of God’s revealed prophecy, a demonstrated fourfold sign of the last days. The identification is complete, and the further specifications will all be met. M. C. W. “The Dragon Voice” is our next study. Question Corner
By Milton C. Wilcox
Conducted by MILTON C. WILCOX Mountain View, California NOTE.— This department is for the purpose of helping Bible students. Answers must of necessity be brief, often only suggestive, never exhaustive, never infallible only as they agree with the infallible Word. Such questions only will be answered as seem to the editors to minister to the mission of the paper. Questions of the same import can not be answered repeatedly in the same volume. Name and address must be given, not for publication, but as evidence of good faith and to insure reply by letter if thought best. It is well always to inclose stamp, not stamped envelope, unless answer is desired by letter alone. Does this passage refer to the Roman Catholic Church? E. B. T. No, it does not. The passage reads as follows: “And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” First, the passage refers to Peter’s confession of Jesus. Jesus asked him, “Whom say ye that I am?” Peter reached the very basic fact of man’s salvation when he said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Second, that confession was of Jesus Himself as the foundation of all hope. It was not Peter building upon himself. It was not Peter building upon his own confession. It was nothing whatever of what Peter did that brought the blessing, for even what he said, he did not say of himself. Jesus declares, “Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven.” Therefore the confession itself, as well as the one confessed, lay entirely outside of human strength or wisdom or perception—all was of God, and all centered in Christ Jesus. Third, Peter’s confession placed him upon the Rock, he a stone upon the Foundation Stone, and therefore built into the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. A few scriptures upon this will be of help—first, Isa. 28: 16—a prophecy of Christ: “Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.” Again in the eighteenth psalm we read, “For who is God save the Lord? or who is a rock save our God?” Verse 31. There are many other kindred expressions in the Old Testament. The apostle Paul teaches the same thing. Speaking to the church, he declares, “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone.” Eph. 2: 19, 20. Christ the foundation; those who are built upon Him constitute the church. Again: “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” 1 Cor. 3: 11. Surely this ought to be conclusive, “Upon this rock,” said Jesus, “I will build My church.” The apostle declares that that rock is Christ Jesus. But we have the testimony of Peter himself, and he tells us that Christ is the chief corner stone, “elect, precious,” and that those who build upon Him are “lively stones,” or living stones, forming a “spiritual house, an holy priesthood.” 1 Peter 2: 4-6. Certainly this is conclusive as regards the foundation and the believer. The foundation is not Peter, therefore. It is Christ. And Peter is a stone built upon that foundation, and forming one of the living stones that constitute the great church of God. Fourth, the binding and the loosing of souls does not rest in the man, but in his message. Peter, separate from Christ, our Lord called Satan—an adversary. In this very chapter in which the text in question is found, Jesus said to Peter, when Peter possessed wrong principles and was held by them, “Get thee behind Me, Satan: thou art an offense unto Me.” But Peter with God’s gospel in his heart and on his lips, became the one who opened the door to both Jews and gentiles in the gospel church. But as before stated, the power to bind and to loose was in the message and not the man. We have an example of this in the experience of the prophet Jeremiah. When God called Jeremiah, He said to him, “See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.” Jer. 1: 10. No mightier commission was ever given to men than that to Jeremiah; but Jeremiah himself tells us how this was accomplished, namely, by the word of God. For the Lord declares through that Word: “At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; if that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; if it do evil in My sight, that it obey not My voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.” Jer. 18: 7-10. So is the message of John the Baptist. The power was not in John because he was of the priestly tribe, but because of the message he bore. And so when the Pharisees sent a committee to ask him who he was, he did not tell them that he was of the tribe of Levi, that his father was an honored priest, but, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.” John 1: 23. He was God’s voice to that generation. And so Jesus declares of him: “And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him.” Luke 7: 29, 30. Therefore, when Peter on the day of Pentecost, as recorded in Acts 2, bore the message of God to the Jewish nation, it was the Lord speaking through him to bind and to loose. Those who accepted that message were loosed from their sins. Those who rejected it were still held by them—slaves to sin. This was not true of Peter alone. It was true of the other disciples as well. “Whose sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose sins ye retain, they are retained.” John 20: 23. All these things do not apply to the Roman Catholic Church or to any other church that has departed from the simple principles of God’s truth. They do apply to the true followers of Christ everywhere in whom the Word is living. I have studied the Scripture, and find the word “heaven” mentioned a great many times in the Bible, but I get no light as to where it is. C. R. There are three heavens mentioned in the Scriptures: 1. The atmospheric heavens, where the birds fly, where the clouds are. Gen. 1: 20. 2. There are the sidereal heavens, where the stars are. Gen. 1: 14, 17. 3. There is also the third heaven, where God dwells. The apostle Paul thus refers to it: “I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth); and such an one caught up to the third heaven. How that he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.” 2 Cor. 12: 2-4. This text teaches us that Paradise and the third heaven are one and the same thing. From Rev. 2: 7 we learn that “in the midst of the Paradise of God” is the tree of life; and from the twenty-second chapter and the first and second verses, that the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God, is fast by the river of life, which flows from the throne of God. The third heaven, therefore, is where God dwells, where His throne is, where the tree of life is, where Paradise is. But the throne and the tree and Paradise are in the heavenly Jerusalem—the “Jerusalem which is above,” we read in Gal. 4: 26, “the heavenly Jerusalem” in Heb. 12: 22; and the Jerusalem which shall at last rest on this earth, coming “down out of heaven from God,” in Rev. 3: 12. Just where in the great sidereal universe this throne of God is we do not know. We may well believe that it is the very center of the universe of God. It is that which balances and ballasts all the great suns and worlds. It is near us in this sense—that God’s agencies can come and go as the flash of lightning; that heavenly angels are continually near to the children of God, and that they also behold the face of the Father who is in heaven. In the words the apostle Paul said to the Athenian philosophers, “He is not far from each one of us.” God is able to annihilate time and space, so to speak; but just where the great center is, we do not know, nor do we need to know. In all probability we could understand nothing if we were told it, because it is far beyond human comprehension. We do know this, however,—that when our Lord comes, He will take His children to heaven. This is told us in the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of John. At the end of the thousand years, the New Jerusalem, with all the saints of God, will descend to this earth, and the renewed earth will be the home of God’s children forever. Our selfish individuality and personal magnetism may attract a following, but the saving grace of the gospel is not thereby imparted. Christ, and Christ alone, imparts the power that saves.