"Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." To illustrate the rapture that fills the inmost souls of those who are in the full enjoyment of the glorious deliverance and freedom which is available to the children of men through the plan of salvation, let us take the case of a prisoner on trial. He is accused of high treason against his government. His life will have to pay the penalty if he is found guilty and if sentence is executed. He is placed in the prisoner’s box, witnesses are called, their evidence is conclusive. The jury, instructed by the judge, go out, and return promptly with
The Verdict of "Guilty."
Breathless silence reigns in the courtroom while the judge pronounces sentence. The prisoner turns deathly pale; his head falls upon his breast. The sentence finished, around his wrists are clasped bands of steel. He visibly trembles as the bailiff leads him away to his prison cell, to await the day of execution. His weeping wife and children are allowed a few moments in the cell. She tries to cheer him, but there is little hope in her own heart. His advocate follows him and tries to encourage him with the thought that there is still one ray of hope. He may appeal to the chief ruler of his country. The appeal is immediately prepared and forwarded. The chief executive of the nation investigates, and sees in the history of the case some mitigating circumstances. He extends pardon to the condemned. A swift messenger conveys the glad intelligence to the prisoner’s cell. He leaps from his chair, his face lights up with a new-born joy, beyond the power of words to express. The prison door is thrown open; instead of the stifling atmosphere of his cell, he breathes the free air of heaven. The sheriff has no longer any authority over him, for a higher power has set him at liberty. The bidding farewell to father and mother, brothers and sisters, wife and children, the ascent to the scaffold, the adjusting of the hangman’s rope, the drawn cap, and the final drop into eternity, have no dread nor terrors, for him now; he is a free man. His heart wells up in genuine gratitude to his Creator and to his deliverer; his lips are heard joyfully to express the sentiment of his full heart—"Thank God, I’m a free man." He returns to his home and friends, firmly resolved that he will lead a new life, and there is grace sufficient for it.
Our illustration is, by way of comparison, weak. He could only die the first death at the hand of any earthly law. He might have accepted a full and free pardon and the "great salvation" of the King of Glory, in the interval following his apprehension and condemnation, ere the day of execution came. Then, had capital punishment been administered, he would still7escape the second death, and instead, have the life everlasting, and the prospect of being joined again to his loved ones in the better land. Friend, you and I are or have been in the prisoner’s box, and occupied the cell of the condemned, for all have sinned and thereby become subject to the condemnation of heaven, even the second death, "for the wages of sin is death." Have you been pardoned? If so, let us rejoice together. If not, why? Pardon is freely offered, even tho you have sinned and thereby joined Satan in rebellion against the government of heaven. There is great "joy in the presence of God over one sinner that repenteth."
The deeper the sense of sinfulness, and the keener the appreciation of deliverance, the greater will be the rejoicing and gratitude on the part of the ransomed one. The "great salvation" will save from sin, and all of its woful results, of which the second death is the ultimate. It is
a Message of Life Rather than Death,
of fulness of joy instead of unutterable anguish. When David had experienced its ecstatic benefits, his mouth was filled with praise. He said of the Lord, "He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And He put a new song into my mouth, even praise unto our God; many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord."
When Paul was under condemnation for sin, he cried out in the agony of his soul, "O wretched man that I am; who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Immediately finding deliverance, his inmost soul responded, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Thus he received pardon and complete freedom from condemnation. Surely there is a reason for great rejoicing.
The individual so greatly blessed has passed from eternal death unto eternal life; from being a bond-servant of Satan, to adoption into the royal family of the King of the universe; from condemnation to acceptance in the Beloved, to sonship with God and brotherhood with Christ. This rejoicing comes from a knowledge—attested by the sure Word—of sins forgiven.
Altho we have reason to "greatly rejoice" now, yet our present joy can compare but feebly with the gladness of heart which may be ours to enjoy "at the appearing of Jesus Christ," when it will be the privilege of the redeemed to "rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory," receiving the end of their faith, even the salvation of their souls.
Not Appreciated Now.
But the greatness of this salvation cannot be appreciated until the redeemed are finally translated to the New Jerusalem, and are dwelling in that presence where there "is fulness of joy forevermore." Then shall they "discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not," and have a full sense of the greatness and priceless value of their salvation.
Friend, are you rejoicing in the assurance of the present salvation? You certainly have great occasion to rejoice if you know that you "have passed from death unto life," and that you are "a child of the King." Are you daily drawing "living water out of the wells of salvation?"
You, who are a professed follower of Christ, is there a new song in your mouth, and are the lost hearing it, and thus being led to accept salvation? Truly can we all, if we are "born again," say of the Lord, "Thou hast delivered my soul from death," and let us in the same breath pray, "Wilt Thou not deliver my feet from falling?" "Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon His name, make known His deeds among the people. Sing unto Him, sing songs unto Him, talk ye of all His wondrous works. Glory ye in His holy name; let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Sing unto the Lord, all the earth; show forth from day to day His salvation." 1 Chron. 16:8-10, 23.
Self-Knowledge and Self-Advertisement
“He who knows himself will not advertise himself.”
PRAYER.
PRAYER is, in the highest conception of it, a state rather than an act. A full fruition of its benefits depends on a continuity of its influences. Reduce it to two isolated experiments daily, and separate these by long, blank hours in which the soul has no glimpse of God for its refreshment, and how can prayer be other than a toil, and often a drudgery?—Phelps.
HEBREW AND HEATHEN LITERATURE.
By Albert H. Darrow
IT is often said by Catholics and infidels that Protestants are book worshipers. It is absurd, they say, to suppose that the definite thoughts originally embodied in written words could be handed down through the centuries in such a manner as to accurately convey to the modern reader the identical ideas of the original writings. Aside from providential interposition, and the great care taken by the Hebrews to preserve their sacred writings, it seems to me that the following quotation from Ridpath’s History does much to clear up the mystery:
“The languages which were spoken by these people [the Hebrews] were the strongest auxiliary to the preservation of their religious institutions. Every Semitic language was seemingly the natural and unchangeable vehicle of those religious beliefs, which, in their institutional development, became in the first age, Judaic; in the second, Christian, and in the third, Islamite. The language was of a kind to hold fast a belief, and to prevent its inflection into other forms, or its deterioration into idolatries and myths. It was almost impossible for a dogma once recorded in the Semitic tongue, and accepted by the people who spoke it, to change its form.” Vol. 5, p. 274.
Consider also what he says concerning the absence of myths from the Hebrew writings:
“Take the Hebrews for example. . . . To them the fretted vault on high seemed as the work of an infinite Hand. Under its shadow and curtain they became worshipers of an unseen Power. Their thought took no form of fancy. Their emotions were serious, and found vent only in forming concepts of almightiness, and in vague (!) ejaculations of praise. In the migratory period of a race it were irrational to expect artistic achievement. It is in that precise period, however, that the fanciful dreams of mythology—winged forerunners of art —prevail and flourish. At that age, also, the rudiments of the heroic epics take birth and substance. Neither the one nor the other, neither the fanciful inflections and hallucinations of mythology nor the early epic of heroes, battlemen, and protagonists, appeared among the Hebraic races.” Vol. 5, p. 276.
These statements accord well with what Professor Osgood says on the subject: “He [Paul] testifies to the truth, and he just as plainly testifies against all myths. He repeatedly uses the very word ‘myth,’ which, unfortunately, in our version, is translated ‘fable.’ He lays special injunction upon his beloved sons in the faith and ministry to reject all myths.”
As for the Greeks, their poems were founded mainly upon unhistorical legends and fables, and when we go back beyond a certain date, we find nothing but myths. Even when they pretend to write sober history, “the great critic Niebuhr,” says Professor Draper, “admits that the Greek accounts, when examined, present little that was possible;” and Draper himself says of their history of the Persian wars that the accounts “have been more than sufficiently illustrated by the brilliant imagination of the lively Greeks.”
Of the Romans the same writer affirms that, “In its entire form, the Roman power consists of two theocracies, with a military domination intercalated. The first of these theocracies corresponds to the fabulous period of the kings; the military domination, to the time of the republic and earlier Cæsars; the second theocracy, to that of the Christian emperors and the popes. The first theocracy is so enveloped in legends and fictions that it is impossible to give a satisfactory account of it.”—“Intellectual Development of Europe,” Chap. VIII., pars. 10, 11.
In regard to the literature of India, another writer, Caroline Atwood Mason, has given us some valuable hints. She says:
“In the period during which the Hebrew people, led by Moses out of Egyptian bondage, were wandering on their devious course northward, or were entering their Promised Land by the fords of the Jordan, another great exodus was taking place, nearly 2,000 miles to the east. Led by their seers, chanting the earliest hymns of the Vedas, this mighty conquering horde poured southeastward through the rugged passes of the Caucasus and the Himalayas and entered their holy land, the Land of the Five Rivers, which they named India. These tribes were not a nation of newly-emancipated serfs, like the Hebrews, neither were they, like them, of Semitic origin. They belonged to the splendid Aryan stock; were a highly intellectual people, with a Sanscrit (polished) language.”—“Lux Christi,” pp. 4, 5. “The religion of the Indo-Aryans . . . rapidly degenerated.”—Id., p. 7. “For the facts of India’s authentic history we must, however, turn to foreign writers.”—Id., p. 39.
Here, then, is a people starting with the highest culture then known, and degenerating so rapidly as to be unable to preserve any authentic records of its own history! What a contrast to the Hebrews, who started in ignorance and degradation, and whose historical records are now the basis of all reliable ancient history!
THE LAST DAYS.
By Missionary Review of the World
“In the last days perilous times shall come; for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” 2 Tim. 3:1-5.
THESE are God-given signs of the times—indications of the last days. Whether they fit these times or not, the devout, thoughtful reader must decide for himself. But certainly some of the signs here indicated are very obvious present facts. Self-love, greed, boastfulness, haughtiness, lawlessness in the family and in the state, ingratitude and ungodliness, even the decay of natural affection, resentment, defamation, cruelty, the love of pleasure, and the external form of godliness without its power—who can deny the presence of these evils in modern society, and even in Christian lands? These are ever before us, and our study should be both to recognize, and as far as may be, arm ourselves against such dire and threatening evils.
DON'T REPINE.
By Susan Birdsall Roberts
(From a Christian in her 84th year.)
CHILD of a Saviour's love,
O do not e'er repine,
Because the flowers have faded,
The fruit dropped from the vine.
Again will smile the springtime,
Again will spring the flowers,
And carpet green again be seen,
Washed by the vernal showers.
And clouds that darkly gather
To-day above thy head,
May break away to-morrow,
By radiant sunbeams sped.
When saddest trials whelm us,
And earthly joys have flown,
Look up and claim the promises,
And know you're not alone.
SUSAN BIRDSALL ROBERTS.
Elmira, N. Y.
PEACE.
By François Fénelon
PEACE of heart lies in perfect resignation to the will of God. What you need is true simplicity, a certain calmness of spirit which comes from entire surrender to all that God wills, patience and toleration for your neighbor’s faults, and a certain candor and child-like docility in acknowledging your own faults.
The trouble you feel about so many things comes from your not accepting everything which may happen to you, with sufficient resignation to God. Put all things, then, in His hand, and offer them beforehand to Him in your heart, as a sacrifice.
From the moment when you cease to want things to be according to your own judgment, and accept unconditionally whatever He sends, you will be free from all your uneasy retrospects and anxieties about your own concern.—Fenelon.
Obedience and Knowledge of God
“The most illiterate Christian that obeys knows more about God than the man that has learned everything except obedience.”
The Devil’s Changing Shape
If the devil takes a less hateful shape to us than to our fathers, he is as busy with us as with them.—Lowell.
THE AWFUL TRAGEDY OF SIN—ITS REMEDY.
THERE is beauty, much beauty, great beauty in nature. Her soft, blue sky; the splendor of sunlight; the glories of sunset clouds, the heavens, blazing with myriad stars—the garnishing of God; the mellow radiance of the moon; the lovely flowers; the waving grasses; the majestic trees; the ever-moving, rolling sea; the steadfast, mighty mountains; the gleaming lake, mirroring the fleecy clouds overhead; the purling brook, the hum of bee; the sweet bird songs,—all are dear and beautiful.
And yet nature is marred, fearfully marred with sin's awful tragedy. The sky is not always softly blue, but sometimes terribly angry. At times the splendid sunlight scorches and burns and withers to decay and death. The very stars blaze up and die, and the myriad meteors tell of some cosmic tragedy in sidereal space. The mellow light of the moon, science tells us, is the reflection from a dead and frozen face. And on tree and grass and mountain and brook and bird has sin left its blasting, blighting, damning mark of disease, decay, and death.
But upon no part of nature has the tragedy fallen as upon the human family, that part of God's earth-creation which in his own normal conditions was given dominion over all things earthly. "How have the mighty fallen!" How low and base is the king! How he is marked with disease and decay and death! His bent form and palsied limbs and bleared eyes greet us everywhere. One drops to decay and death every second; 3,600 in an hour, 86,400 in a day, 31,536,000 in a year. The great majority of these have died without hope. They have lived for self, have sought selfish gain and selfish pleasure, and died in their selfishness. And all, all, all have died in consequence of sin. They are sin's victims, part of sin's awful tragedy of wo.
What makes the tragedy more awful is that it might all have been prevented. "In the way of righteousness is life, and in the pathway thereof there is no death." But man sinned, and behold the consequences of unfathomable wo and misery!
But even tho sin came, still there is a remedy, the Remedy, which reaches to the very depth of human wo, and lifts to God's normal plane of everlasting righteousness and life eternal. The eternal Son of God, by whom the worlds were created, left His throne of infinite splendor with the Father, and came down to save men from the awful, hopeless tragedy of sin. God the Father so loved the unlovely, suffering ones that He gave His only-begotten Son, that all might have eternal life, with all that eternal life comprehends of gladness and joy and happiness. Down, down from the highest heaven He came, the Creator,—a servant with the angels, Himself the Archangel only because of chiefest service; "made in the likeness of men;" "born of a woman, born under the law;" "in all things" "made like unto His brethren;" beaten, mocked, insulted, maltreated, rejected by those for whom His great heart of love broke; yielding Himself at last to death, the ignominious death of the cross! O, what love! What treatment of such love!
He met the awful tragedy in His own soul, sinner, for you that you might not meet it. But if you are saved from it, you must become one with Him. He asks only that you shall surrender your rebellious, selfish, sinful will and purposes and accept His will. That is what saving belief means. That is what faith means. To give up all to Him, to accept all from Him that He purchased with His own blood. How reasonable it is that man should do it, isn't it? How ungracious, ungrateful, it is that we should slight His love, His mercy, His goodness. This is the saddest part of the great tragedy of sin to see so many thousands, millions, of souls rushing on in the mad dance of death to utter destruction, ignoring their hopeless condition, the leprosy of sin, and brushing, pushing, smiting aside the pitiful hands of Infinite Love reached out to save them; which because of love can not save them against their will. O, this is the saddest part of the awful tragedy! In His own words we plead with you: "Come now, and let us reason together, saith Jehovah; tho your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; tho they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." "As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?"
NO GROUND FOR CONSCIENCE.
By G.
IN the Sabbath Recorder we find this lucid statement of a well-known condition:
"The average American citizen has but little conscience in the matter of Sabbath observance. He has accepted the popular 'rest-day' theory and holidayism. His idea of the Sabbath as sacred time is obliterated and the divine obligation in Sabbath observance is blotted out of his conscience. He claims that if brain or body needs rest or pleasure on Sunday, their demands should be acceded to. This takes all authority away from God and the Bible, and places it upon his own mental and physical conditions, leaving it with his own choices and caprices; and he alone is judge in the case. Thus he takes the Sabbath from its God-appointed place and degrades it to the low level of his own pleasure and convenience."
The reason there is so "little conscience in the matter" is that the "average American" imbibes the common idea that Sunday is the Sabbath, and of course there is nothing in that to which conscience can safely anchor. Being a human institution, supported only by human law and common custom, conscience is not essential to its observance. Any human ordinance can be observed and its claims satisfied by mere formality. Human law and custom can not take cognizance of anything but outward act. It has no appeal to conscience, and has no right to dictate to it. Where conscience and action come together in a legitimate union, conscience is always the actuating power. Conscience is amenable to the law of God, and a "good conscience" is always "toward God;" therefore it is always toward His law. The difference between divine law and human law is, that divine law is not satisfied by outward act alone; it is spiritual, and must be obeyed in spirit; only conscientious observance can meet its requirement. But man may even despise the human ordinance, yet if he conform outwardly to its demands, he is free from its penalty.
There is no conscience required in Sunday observance; a man may be compelled to observe the day according to law and custom. But he can not be compelled to keep the Sabbath of the Lord; being a part of the law of God, the motive power in its acceptable observance is the Spirit of God working upon the heart.
OUR POSITION.
By Editor
LET it be clearly understood, the SIGNS OF THE TIMES is not in politics. It does not belong to any party whatsoever. If it criticizes a political doctrine or platform, held by any party, it does not do it to criticize that party, but to warn men against the evil principles inherent in the teaching. If it refers to or points out a condition of depravity or wickedness in connection with some political party, it does not do this as an attack upon the party but to show that political conditions in general are just what God declared they would come to be in the last days, and that we can not afford to place our trust in men, princes tho they be.
We have no fight against union men. There are principles in labor-unionism contrary to true Americanism, to the Word of God, and to the Christianity of the Bible; these we have pointed out, and shall continue so to do that our skirts may be clear in the day of God. The same thing is true as regards the great commercial combinations known as trusts.
Yet if we needed an employee or work done, and a union man should apply for that work as other men, we would neither employ him nor reject him because he was a union man. That would not enter into the matter at all. The only question with us would be, Is he the man qualified to do the work, at wages we could afford to pay?
We grant men the right, if they so desire, to organize into unions or trusts, into anti-union and anti-trust organizations. But when they demand that we shall join with them in this, contrary to our conviction or desire, we emphatically demur. If a labor union can not win men on the ground of its innate principles of benefit and helpfulness to mankind, it has no right to exist, and should be permitted to die. Coercion in fellowship is a misnomer, and the man9coerced against his will is ever a secret enemy.
We can not agree with many religionists. We do not believe, for instance, in Roman Catholicism, and are free to give our reasons why we can not. We believe it our bounden duty to do this in a Christian manner. But Roman Catholics have the same right to their belief as we to ours, and would have that right if we were a million and they were one. The rights of the human are God-given, inalienable, not dependent upon majorities or superior physical force.
We believe that in the number of those who adhere to the various systems of error, there are many honest, sincere souls, beloved and accepted of God; they are accepted not because of the errors they hold, but in spite of them. The principles of truth are dominant in character over the error. But honest or not, deceived or not, the judgment of all rests with God. It is for His people to persuade and entreat, never to coerce.
Kindly we feel toward all. Animosity, antipathy, hatred, we hold toward none. We are not infallible. We believe there are many things in His Word to learn better, many things to learn new, many experiences to be obtained through His grace; but we believe that Holy Book to be the sufficient guide in all things without the traditions of men; Jesus Christ a sufficient Saviour without other intermediaries, and the living church of Christ a sufficient fellowship without the extra human counterfeits and organizations of men. Believing thus, we find real joy in the simplicity, sweetness, and power of the blessed Gospel of His grace, and in the language of one of old we would say, “Come thou with us, and we will do thee good, for Jehovah hath spoken good concerning Israel.”
SEEKING PROOF OF MAN'S NATURAL IMMORTALITY.
By G.
If men would believe the testimony of the Word of God, they would not seek outside of it for proof of that which is plainly disproved inside of it.
Again, if men who profess to believe the Word of God could find in it the proof of the immortality of the soul, they would not seek outside of it for such proof.
Therefore, a belief of the Holy Scriptures would save much labor and expense in the promulgation of a great delusion, and the necessity of much more labor and sacrifice in order to refute the error. The Pittsburg Christian Advocate says:
“The books written on this subject would make an immense library. They have been written in many languages, and from time to time throughout all the historic years of the world. A simple catalog of them would make a very bulky volume. Within the last few years much has been added to the literature of this all-absorbing question. There has been a revolt against the gross materialism of science, so called, and from the critical and purely scientific point of view many notable books have recently been written seeking, outside the teaching of the Word of God, to establish on some solid basis the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. Scientists have emerged from the materialistic school, and declare their belief in a future life, without accepting the teachings of Christianity as of divine authority.”
It has always been the aim of “science falsely so called” to establish doctrine, or theory—nominal truth—without acknowledging Christ; but no “solid basis” for anything but delusion has been, or can be, found in that way. Satan invented the doctrine of the immortality of the soul for the purpose of turning mankind from the acknowledgment of dependence on God for life. The declaration of the tempter, “Thou shalt not surely die,” was designed to beget doubt of God’s declaration that, if man should disobey, he should “surely die.” And the same assertion of the enemy works to the denial of the Gospel of Christ; for the reason that the Gospel promises eternal life to believers, while the adversary’s immortal-soul doctrine alleges that man already has eternal life in himself.
The Advocate further comments on the subject as follows:
“It is because of the supreme importance of getting on to some stable basis and setting these tormenting fears at rest, that we point out the ground on which we may rest and bid defiance to death, and have victory over the grave. It is in ‘Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.’ To all who accept Jesus as the Son of God, who believe that He spoke with divine authority, and that all He taught was declared to be true by His resurrection from the dead, the belief in a future life is put on such immovable ground that doubt, when it comes, is put to flight at once. Our belief in it can crumble and fall only with the decline of our belief in Christ Himself.”
The scripture herein quoted is indeed a “stable basis,” but not of the doctrine of man’s inherent immortality, the natural immortality of the soul. It is a solid basis for the doctrine that the sinner, tho under sentence of death, may still find life and immortality in Jesus Christ—not in himself. And this all-important truth is “brought to light in the Gospel.” So the scripture says, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Eze. 18:4. “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Rom. 6:23. If man had immortality in himself, it could be said that he has life and immortality through Adam; and that is just what scientists are endeavoring to establish outside of the Bible, in other words, independently of the Gospel of Christ. The saddest part of it is, that they get so much encouragement from men who profess to believe the Gospel.
Christ has given us this declaration: “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 [the wages of sin] abideth on him.” John 3:36. And the apostle Paul assures us that eternal life is the reward of “them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality.” Rom. 2:6-9. Why should one seek for immortality if he has it already? Furthermore Paul tells us that immortality is a condition to be “put on” at the resurrection. “So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” See 1 Cor. 15:51-57.
The completion of the victory in Christ is the bestowal of immortality, the “crown of righteousness,” at the second coming of the Lord in glory. 2 Tim. 4:6-8. Believers have the assurance of eternal life, but it is the “assurance of faith.” Our eternal life is the gift of God in Christ. 1 John 5:11. “Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God,” to be given at His coming. Col. 3:3, 4.
Eternal life is a matter of hope and of promise. Titus 1:1, 2; 1 John 2:25. Both hope and promise imply future realization, and not inherent possession. “We are saved by hope; but hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man seeth [or hath], why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not [or have not], then do we with patience wait for it.” Rom. 8:24, 25. “Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:13.
Please explain passage of scripture found in Mark 12:27: “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” F. G. K.
God is the source of life. He is a living God. Death does not originate with Him, nor can it exist with Him. It does not come into His plan. It is here only by perversions of His perfect laws. He is not, therefore, the God of the dead. His children have fallen under its power and dominion. But in His purpose they are not dead. They live in their righteous characters recorded in heaven. So when it is declared, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” He counts them as alive; for in His purpose they live, and will come forth at the resurrection; “for all live unto Him.” Luke 20:38. He “calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Rom. 4:17), because in His purpose they are, and by His power they will live at His appointed time. It is by this argument that Jesus proves not the immortality of the soul, but “as touching the dead, that they rise” (Mark 12:26), that the righteous dead are “children of the resurrection;” “that the dead are raised” (Luke 20:36, 37). This instruction of our Saviour was given for the express purpose of teaching the resurrection of the dead.10
1907.—In the New Earth.
Will there be increase in the new earth, or will the people that are saved be all that are in the new earth? Prov. 28:28; Zech. 10:8; Ps. 92:13, 14 seem to indicate that there will be increase; if not, to what do these texts refer? M. T. C.
The size of this earth and the number and character of those who would inhabit it existed in the plan of God before the earth was. The names of these characters were written in the book of life “from the foundation of the world.” Rev. 13:8; 17:8. When that number is made up the work of begetting and procreation will cease; and presumably that work ceases when Christ comes the second time; “for they that are accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage,” “but are as the angels in heaven.” Luke 20:35; Matt. 22:30. It is true that the world pictures and talks about baby angels; but the thought is entirely unscriptural. Prov. 28:28 has direct reference to conditions in this life, in its last clause as well as its first. So also does Ps. 92:13, 14 and Zech. 10:8, and the increase of the latter text refers to spiritual children. There is no old age in the new earth.
It is a great mistake to endeavor to apply all the Old Testament promises which God gave Israel to new earth conditions. God would have fulfilled them to Israel then and there, if Israel had permitted it, the sanctuary of Ezekiel 40 to 48 would have been given, the wolf and the lamb would have dwelt together in peace, and the little child would have led the erstwhile savage beasts. But Israel failed to meet these conditions; and while God will give to His people even more than human words can express, He will not in the nature of the case carry out in detail what was promised to fleshly Israel. When sin is forever over and the work of God's creation shall go on, He will use those redeemed from this earth to teach other worlds the glory and praise and love of God.
1908.—Tithing Gifts.
Is it necessary or is it required that we pay tithe on all things given us? If so, will it not include Christmas presents, as well as all other kinds? If not, where is the line to be drawn? In other words, if presents are to be tithed, which ones, or does it include all? W. B. T.
The law of tithing is expressed and implied in Lev. 27:30-32; Gen. 14:20; 28:22. But in all this common sense is to be used. The gift should not be estimated by its cost to the giver, but its worth to us. If the king of Siam should give us a white elephant, it would be a magnificent gift on his part, worth, perhaps, several thousand dollars. It might be worth that to some show, but it would be worthless to us. We are sure that God would not have us tithe it. Friends might give us a gold-headed cane and a screeching parrot, costing from five to a hundred dollars, and we needed neither, unless we desired to destroy, by the latter, the peace of the neighborhood. To our mind these should not be tithed. But if we are given a suit of clothes, a pair of boots, a sack of flour, something we needed, something of worth or profit to us, or something we needed to purchase, it should be tithed. Give God the benefit of the doubt.
Will you please tell me the true rendering of Matt. 28:1, and like scriptures, where the word "day" is in italics? Should we understand it as it reads, or is the right rendering "the first of the Sabbaths," as some affirm? H. P. G.
The best rendering is doubtless that of the American Standard Revised Version, published by Thomas Nelson & Sons, New York. That translates: "Now late on the Sabbath day, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week." There is no authority whatsoever for "the first of the Sabbaths." The Greek adjective, mian, rendered "first," does not agree with "Sabbaths," but it does agree with "day" understood. Note this: All Bible translations in English have been made by those who adhered to Sunday observance. Do you not think that they would have rendered Matt. 28:1 and similar expressions elsewhere "the first of the Sabbaths" if it had been at all admissible? Surely, they would. But they knew better than that. Truth and scholarship demanded the faithful rendering they have given it. Greenfield, in his Greek Testament, suggests joining the first clause of Matt. 28:1 with verse 66 of the previous chapter, so that in English it would read: "So they went, and made the sepulcher sure, sealing the stone, and setting the watch, late on the Sabbath [or "in the end of the Sabbath"]. As it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher." This is in perfect harmony with Mark and Luke.