p. 8 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 5. (1/31/1911)

Earlier text: Important Articles in This Number

XIII. God's Agencies

WE would ask the student to read with Revelation 4 the marvelous visions of Isaiah in chapter 6 and of Ezekiel in chapters 1 and 10. God would not have presented these wonderful and, to mere human vision, grotesque symbols, if they did not have for His people profound meaning. Each of these visions was given in a time, looking at it from the mortal view-point, of great discouragement, when it would seem that God's cause in the earth was to be utterly swept away before the mighty onrushing hosts of wickedness.

Isaiah had been called to the prophetic office in the closing days of Uzziah, a king whose reign generally had been great and good, but who finished his days as a leper on account of his presumptuous sin. The prophet knew that God's judgments would follow transgression; and he also knew that Assyria, cruel as mighty, was dominating or swallowing up all the kingdoms not under the special protection of God. To the human view of the prophet, Judah would follow the ten-tribe kingdom, and all would be lost. God gave the devoted prophet the vision of the seraphim and the throne to assure him that the Most High ruled.

Ezekiel's lot fell in times darker, in surroundings more discouraging, in dangers more appalling. The Chaldeans had unloosed the dogs of war. Tribe and kingdom and nation had been overthrown, and their rulers had become Babylonian vassals or had perished before the victorious king from the North. Ezekiel had already been carried from Jerusalem, and was among the captives by the river Chebar in the land of the Chaldeans. Jerusalem was waiting destruction; and saddest of all, the prophet's own people were deceived by false prophets, disobedient, idolatrous, rebellious.

To encourage the heart of the prophet the vision of chapter 1 was given, in which by marvelous and complicated symbol—of living creatures, lion and ox and eagle and man, and whirling wheels—God's care for His people, His overruling power among the nations, is set forth. The next year the prophet was carried in visions of God to Jerusalem, and the wonderful symbols were again revealed to the prophet.

Later on, in the beginning of the centuries of the Christian era, God calls another man to the prophetic office. The purity and devotion of the early church were waning; she had lost her first love. Upon the throne of the mistress of the world, was a cruel tyrant. Our Lord's own prophecy of continued war and rumors of war, Daniel's prophecies of great antagonistic powers to the Gospel of Christ and the consequent persecutions of God's children, and his own vision of the seven churches, must have weighed heavily upon the mind of the exile on lonely Patmos. To encourage his heart and the hearts of the faithful in all subsequent centuries, the apocalyptic vision from the throne of God, with the four living creatures, was given him to show that the Most High ruled over the kingdoms of men, and overruled all the wrath of man to His praise.

A Brief Comparison

A few observations regarding the living creatures of the various visions may help us before we come directly to the lesson study:

1. The living creatures which Ezekiel saw are called "cherubim." Eze. 10:1; compare with 1:22, 26. The forms which Isaiah saw are called "seraphim," perhaps from their burning brightness. What John saw are called "beasts," an utterly erroneous translation of zoa, literally "living ones."

2. That they were not living, individual beings is evident from changes which had occurred as indicated by the different descriptions. The cherubim over the mercy-seat had each two wings; the cherubim of Ezekiel had each four wings: the seraphim of Isaiah had each six wings, and the living creatures of the Apocalypse had each six wings. The seraphim of Isaiah had each one face, so also the living creatures of the Apocalypse and the cherubim of the ark; but the living creatures of Ezekiel had each four faces. Then, too, the eyes in Ezekiel's vision are represented as being in the wheels, beside the living creatures, while in John's vision the living creatures were full of eyes. The seraphim of Isaiah and the living creatures of John both cry, "Holy, holy, holy" in their majestic hymn of praise to Him who sits upon the throne.

3. The living creatures of Ezekiel were upon the earth, tho at times lifted up from its surface. Eze. 1:19, 21. Above them was the mighty expanse of the firmament, and above the firmament was the throne of God. Yet were these cherubim guided by His Spirit, and in all that they did was the divine hand of power underneath their wings. There is no reason to suppose that those which John saw, tho vitally connected with the throne of God, were not also upon the earth, mighty agencies of God for the carrying forward of His purpose.

These differences and similarities, and other features which we have not space to consider, lead us to the conclusion that these symbols were not so many individual creatures, but great companies of God's angels arranged in various forms, moving and acting as one individual. We have listened to a chorus of a thousand voices singing as one person, the words clear, distinct, as one great voice. Horses with riders are trained to perform various and intricate evolutions. In the superior realm of God, with His sinless, perfect, heavenly intelligences, how much more should we look for such arrangements of His mighty agencies!

We do not know what form the cherubim (plural, two or more bodies of angels) assumed who guarded the Eden of God. Gen. 3:24. We may learn somewhat of one form of organized body for special service by the cherubim over the ark. Ex. 25:18-22. In Ezekiel's day we find them in the form suggested in chapters 1 and 10; in John's day, in Revelation 4. Elijah was carried to heaven by a body of angels in the form of a chariot and horses. 2 Kings 2:11, 12. And it is embodied in divine song: "The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of

angels." Ps. 68:17. God's mighty armies, His effective agencies, have different forms, even as His Spirit has different manifestations. 1 Cor. 12:4-7. These symbolisms exist in perverted forms in the colossal figures in Babylonia and Assyria of the man-headed lion, the eagle-headed ox, etc. We will note other particulars in our note and comment.

The Answer of the Text

[The answers to the questions are from the American Revised Version. Omitting questions, and disregarding sometimes the capital at the beginning and the period at the close of an answer, the text may be read continuously. In notes and comments both versions are used without designation.]

1. What did John further see round about the throne?

And in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, four living creatures full of eyes before and behind. And the first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face as of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle.

2. What song do they sing?

And the four living creatures, having each one of them six wings, are full of eyes round about and within; and they have no rest day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God, the Almighty, Who was and who is and who is to come.

3. Who join them in praising God?

And when the living creatures shall give glory and honor and thanks to Him that sitteth on the throne, to Him that liveth forever and ever, the four and twenty elders shall fall down before Him that sitteth on the throne, and shall worship Him that liveth forever and ever, and shall cast their crowns before the throne.

4. In their worship what do they say?

Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power: For Thou didst create all things, And because of Thy will they were, and were created.

Note and Comment

1. In the midst of the throne and round about.—"In the midst" is within the boundaries of God's covenant bow, the circle of which surrounds the throne; and their "round about" extends thence into all the plans and work of God. Four living creatures.—Four, the world number, God's living agencies in the four quarters of the earth, bending, molding, shaping all things to His glory and the good of His children. "Living creatures," or "living ones," is much more literal than "beasts," a most unfortunate rendering.

2. Full of eyes.—Denoting clearest intelligence. God's purposes are not blind. Before a vast audience of people the one thing which ever attracts is the intelligent eye, the vast number of eyes. So with God's angels thus arranged. In Ezekiel the eyes were in the rims or fellowes of the wheels, God's angels in a different form, symbolical of the way God's work moves forward with intelligent power, confused to the prophet, but perfect order and system with God.

3. Lion . . . calf . . . man . . . flying eagle.—Symbolical of power and majesty; of strength, patience, sacrifice; of wisdom and intelligence; of swiftness and glory. The king of wild beasts; the strongest and most serviceable of domestic animals, the calf, or ox (Eze. 1:10); the king of birds in power and swiftness; and the noblest of God's earth creatures, the man. They illustrate God's attributes in His irresistible working among the children of men. His heavenly intelligences in these forms symbolize one great feature of God's work among men, the molding of all things earthly to His will. He desired that His people should fall under the same great system; consequently the twelve tribes, pitched under the four great symbols of Ezekiel's and Daniel's visions. The tribes were ranged under four divisions, three tribes in each division,—the world number four, and the sacred number three, multiplied,—under the standards of Judah—the lion; Ephraim—the ox; Dan—the eagle; Reuben—the man. In the center were God's sanctuary and the abiding Presence in the pillar of cloud and fire.

4. Wings.—Symbolizing the outstretching divisions of God's forces as the wings of an army. Full of eyes round about and within.—They see on all sides. In Ezekiel's vision they faced in every direction. The intelligence of each unit in each cherub is the intelligence of all. In no blind way do they obey God. They are in intelligent and blessed submission to all His counsels. No rest day nor night.—There is no idleness in God's normal kingdom. There is ceaseless working, and ceaseless joy in the work. As God's plans develop under the work of these intelligent agencies, as good is brought out of evil, as the wrath of man is turned to God's glory, ceaseless praise arises from these living ones to the one only God. In Ezekiel it is said: "And the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard even to the outer court, as the voice of God Almighty when He speaketh." They are indeed God's voice in operation. Even so was John the Baptist in a more limited sphere. John 1:23. Blessed is he in these days of trial, change, revolution, and overturning of thrones and empires, who can stand in the outer court even and hear the voice of God in operation. Aye, it is the privilege of all; for He is no respecter of persons.

5. The four and twenty elders.—A grand pean of praise in which are joined God's heavenly agencies symbolized by the living creatures, and the redeemed of earth represented in the four and twenty elders.

6. Thou didst create.—The great mighty truth runs through all the Word from Genesis to the Revelation. The almighty ever-existing God is our Creator. He is Jehovah, the covenant-keeping God of His people. He can create and re-create. In this rests the hope of the poor sinner, in this the hope of the world. The long travail of ages shall issue by the creative power of God in a re-created, renewed earth, inhabited by a redeemed, a re-created race, knowing no sin nor sorrow nor death. And the surety of the promise is God's creative power and His omnipotent will. Blessed are those hearts in harmony with Him whose "glory goodness is."

Scripture Lesson

Rev. 4: 6-11

Common Version

6. And in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.

7. And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.

8. And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

9. And when those beasts give glory and honor and thanks to Him that sat on the throne, who liveth forever and ever,

10. The four and twenty elders fall down before Him that sat on the throne, and worship Him that liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

11. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.

Get Acquainted with God

By G. W. White

ACQUAINT now thyself with God." Job 22: 21, margin. Get acquainted with God. That is the thought. Know Him; know His power, His love, His way and will concerning you.

Why Get Acquainted with God?

Because to do so is the highest privilege extended to mortals in this life. It is the end of all true living; yea, it is life itself. Hear the words of Him who knows all about it: "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." John 17: 3.

When Get Acquainted with God?

"Acquaint now thyself with God." The other day I saw hanging over a business man's desk this motto: "Do it now." Yes, do it now. Now is ours; to-morrow belongs to God, and we know not what a day may bring forth. To-morrow may be too late. O, the Gospel ring there is in that word "now"! Satan says, "Not now—some other time—some more convenient season—to-morrow." But God says now—to-day—this very hour—now. "To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts." Heb. 4: 7. "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." 2 Cor. 6: 2.

How May I Get Acquainted with God?

There is a systematic way. "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord." Isa. 55: 7. Forsake your way. For your ways are not My ways, saith the Lord. Jesus said, "I am the Way." John 14: 6. "Put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles," and "return to the Almighty" (Job 22: 22, 23), and by faith take Christ, God's Way, and He will introduce you to the Father.

Another thought: "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it can not save; neither His ear heavy, that it can not hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have made Him hide His face from you, that He will not hear." Isa. 59: 1, 2. Your iniquities have formed a barrier between Him and you that has kept you a stranger to Him. Put those sins away. A difficult task, you say. A most painful task. Yes; but put them away if it costs your life. "If thy right eye do cause thee to offend, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand do cause thee to offend, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell." Matt. 5: 29, 30.

Do Thoro Work

Make thoro work of it, brother, sister. We are on the verge of eternity, and have no time for careless, slipshod work. An acquaintance with God will teach you that

your temptations are such as are "common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able." 1 Cor. 10: 13. Nothing but the most thorough work will avail, and bring us into that close, intimate relationship with God that our hearts long for.

When once you know Him, you will care to glory in nothing else than that knowledge. "Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth." Jer. 9: 23, 24.

Note Some Results of This Acquaintance and Some Inducements Given Us

1. Peace.

"Acquaint now thyself with God, and be at peace." Job 22: 21. And Peter in his salutation says, "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord." 2 Peter 1: 2.

2. Delight in the Lord.

"For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty." Job 22: 26. Ah, there is such a thing as a really joyous, delightful, happy life in the service of God. "Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord." Isa. 58: 14.

3. Face lifted up.

"For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy face unto God." Job 22: 26.

In our sins we can not look God in the face. Daniel said, "O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto Thee, but unto us confusion of faces." Dan. 9: 7. "Confusion of faces!" Have you ever noticed a child overtaken in a conscious sin, how confused it was, how the face flushed, and every act was covered with confusion? Well, "unto us belongeth confusion of faces," because He who never slumbers nor sleeps sees every sin.

But once acquainted with Him, with the sins all forgiven—then shalt thou "lift up thy face unto God," and when Jesus comes in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, when those who know not God are calling for the mountains and rocks to fall upon them to hide them from His face, you will be among those who will lift up their faces to God and say, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation." Isa. 25: 9.

4. Thou shalt prosper.

"If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up." Job 22: 23. Ah, you thought if you gave your heart and life to the service of God, everything would be a failure, didn't you? People sometimes say, I would like to be a Christian—to serve God and keep all His commandments; but if I did, and especially if I undertook to keep the Sabbath according to the commandment, I would lose my position, my home, my friends, and—well, everything would go to pieces. No, no, my friend; God promises, "Thou shalt be built up." You will lose nothing but that which will prove to be gain for you; and all things needful will be added.

5. Your prayers will be answered.

"Thou shalt make thy prayer unto Him, and He shall hear thee." O, how much that means—to be able to whisper our petitions into the ear of our Father, assured that He hears us. "Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart." Ps. 37: 4.

6. "Light shall shine upon thy ways." Job 22: 28.

Yes, your path will grow brighter every day. "The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day" (Prov. 4: 18), the eternal day of righteousness, whose sun shall never set.

Eastern Hospitality

"It is considered dishonorable to sell bread to travelers passing through a Syrian village," says George McMackie, D.D., of Beirut, in the Sunday School Times. "At the base of the Oriental guest law is the fact that the stranger on a journey entrusts himself to God's care, and he who receives him is helping God to keep that which has been committed to Him. In the time of sickness, friends with the best of intentions crowd the sick room to keep the patient from feeling anxious or alarmed about himself. In the Oriental prison the prisoner is apt to be forgotten and the examination of his case to be indefinitely postponed unless friends come and show an interest in him." This throws light on Matt. 25: 35, 36. What a blessing it would be if there were more even of the old-time hospitality which this country used to know.

Jesus Ever the Same

By John Greenleaf Whittier

AND what if my feet may not tread where He stood, Nor my ears hear the dashing of Galilee's flood, Nor my eyes see the cross which He bowed Him to bear, Nor my knees press Gethsemane's garden of prayer! Yet, Loved of the Father, Thy Spirit is near To the meek, and the lowly, and penitent here; And the voice of Thy love is the same even now As at Bethany's tomb or on Olivet's brow. — Whittier, "Palestine."

Flight of Time

By Adams

LET good fellows sit in a tavern from sun to sun, and they think the day very short, confessing (tho insensible of their loss) that time is a light-headed runner. Bind them to the church for two hours, and you put an ache into their bones—the seats be too hard. Now time is a creeper, and many a weary look is cast up to the glass. It is a man's mind that renders any work troublesome or pleasant. —Adams.

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Our Bible Reading

What Christ's Coming Means to the Earth

1. To whom was the earth in the beginning given?

The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's: but the EARTH hath He given to the CHILDREN OF MEN. Ps. 115: 16.

2. To whom did man's dominion pass?

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Gen. 1: 28.

And the devil said unto Him, All this power will I give Thee, and the glory of them: for THAT IS DELIVERED UNTO ME; and to whomsoever I will I give it. Luke 4: 6.

3. What therefore is Satan rightly called?

The prince of this world. John 12: 31. The god of this world. 2 Cor. 4: 4.

4. What came upon the earth because of sin and Satan?

Cursed is the ground for thy sake. Gen. 3: 17.

5. What prophecy is given of the restoration of that dominion?

And Thou, O Tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto Thee shall it come, even the FIRST DOMINION; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem. Micah 4: 8.

6. What mission did Jesus have in coming to this world?

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. Luke 19: 10.

7. What throne will He take at His second coming?

When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the THRONE OF HIS GLORY. Matt. 25: 31.

8. What will He then say to His children?

Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, INHERIT THE KINGDOM prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Matt. 25: 34.

9. What then will He win back for His children?

And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the KINGDOM UNDER THE WHOLE HEAVEN, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him. Dan. 7: 27.

The Son of Man Comes in Glory

WHEN THE SON OF MAN SHALL COME IN HIS GLORY, AND ALL THE HOLY ANGELS WITH HIM, THEN SHALL HE SIT UPON THE THRONE OF HIS GLORY. Matt. 25: 31.

The Insult of Trying to Trust

TRYING to have faith in God is pretty poor business for any Christian to be engaged in. Yet it seems to be a sadly common experience. An earnest Christian woman whose whole life of fruitful service bespeaks her faith, and who is weighed down just now by a heavy burden, writes to a friend about it, "I am sure it will work for good—and so I strive to have faith in God, and wait." She does not put the friend to whom she writes on any such low plane as that. She has faith in her friend; she knows that her friend will help her in every way possible; but of God she can not be so sure; He is not to be depended upon as her earthly friend is; yet she will try to trust God, and do her best to give Him as much trust as she finds He may deserve. How long would most human acquaintances stand such treatment? If we asked an acquaintance to do something for us, and he promised that he would, and we should then answer, "Well, I'm going to try to believe that you mean what you say, and that you'll do what you say,"—how many more commissions would he be likely to accept from us? That is the way we treat God when we heave a sigh and say we are striving to trust Him. God forgives us the wound and the insult; but God himself, by the ordering of His own laws of faith and prayer, can never do as much for those who distrust Him in their "striving" as for those who treat Him at least as well as they treat their every-day friends on earth.—S. S. Times.

The Sure Word of Prophecy

By Editor

ELSEWHERE in this issue is a Bible reading on Christ's coming and what it means in the light of prophecy respecting this earth. Our cover page emphasizes the importance of prophecy. The old ruins and monuments of Babylon, of Egypt, of Assyria, of Greece, of Judea, of Rome, bear mighty tho mute witness to the truth of God's Word.

More than one hundred years before Babylon, the queen city of Chaldea, reached the height of her glory under her greatest monarch, Nebuchadnezzar, God foretold her doom by His prophet Isaiah: "Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation." It should be a habitation of wild beasts and noisome creatures. The superstitious Arab would not through fear pitch his tent over its buried palaces; it would be a desolation forever. See Isa. 13:19-22.

The very conqueror of the empire is called by name before he is born, and a wealth of particulars is given concerning the doom of that then flourishing kingdom and city. (See Isa. 44:26-28; 45:1-6; Jeremiah 51.) The great heap of ruins by the river Euphrates has borne long and eloquent witness to the truth of prophecy.

Not the less true have been the prophecies concerning Nineveh, the great rival of Babylon; and as decidedly have they been fulfilled.

Egypt, the fruitful land, fed by the abundance of the Nile, was for centuries the center of world civilization. Her monuments speak of her power, her greatness, her fame, her wealth, her art, her fearful idolatry, her cruelty and wickedness. But the prophet of God declared that the rivers of her great delta would be dried up, her idols would be abolished, her native princes would no more reign over her, and she would become "the basest of kingdoms." Eze. 30:12, 13; 29:15. For centuries Egypt has affirmed in her humiliation the truth of prophecy.

So too has Tyre, the merchant city of the older days; and Greece, which fell before the iron monarchy of Rome; and Rome, a prey to Northern barbarians; and Jerusalem, for so long the center of Jehovah's worship, where taught and died the Son of God;—all these and many more, bear witness in their death, their destruction, their decadence, their eloquent ruins, to the truthfulness of prophecy, of its importance to us. For not alone of the past has God spoken; He has spoken of these times and these days; of the present kingdoms of earth and their proud cities. The "sure word of prophecy" is God's light in the midst of uncertain darkness. Shall we, according to the apostles' injunction, give it heed?

Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth

A LEAFLET has been sent me containing certain statements to which I am asked to reply. These statements assume to point out errors in our teaching. The most important of these are as follows:

1. That "the Tree of Life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil were literal trees bearing literal fruit, and that the Tree of Life has been taken up into heaven, and will eventually be replaced on the earth a literal tree."

2. That "the river that watered the Garden of Eden was a literal stream of water with its four natural branches." Gen. 2:8-17.

Not very serious charges, surely. Now in the first place the earth was literal, the man was literal, the garden out of which grew every tree pleasant to the sight and good for food was literal, as indeed were the man's sight, appetite, and food. It would be an utterly incongruous thing to put a spiritual tree in the midst of literal ones. God uses parables and metaphors, and a hundred other figures of speech, but they are consistent. While it is not expressly said that the Tree of Life, etc., were planted in Eden, it is clearly implied. They were among the trees. The "also" does not mean that the Tree of Life was placed there also, but that this tree was singled out as in the midst of the garden with the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

In the second place, we find trees with wonderful potencies for good and evil now. If God wished to place in one tree that which would prolong physical life to the obedient, we see no reason in the world why He could not do so, and the Bible clearly teaches that He did. So with the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It is utterly impossible, and so highly preposterous, for mortal, sinful man to reason what could not be before sin entered.

In the third place, the tree of knowledge of good and evil was not God's law; God's command was concerning that tree, not the tree. The laity among the children of Israel were forbidden to eat of the holy things, but the holy things were not the law. God wished men to learn what was good and what was evil solely by His commands and prohibitions, not by experience in evil. The evil came because of man's disobedience. According to our critic the eating of God's law brought sin. So have not His children found the eating of the bread of life. The test was very simple yet comprehensive; but it was as effective, as decisive as one much more elaborate. It involved almost every principle, if not every principle, of the Decalogue.

In the fourth place, the second chapter of Genesis is just as literal as the first. The first is general from beginning to the third verse of chapter 2. Chapter 2:4-24 is particular as regards the first pair.

Lastly, upon this point, the tradition of the Jews seems to be that the Garden of Eden was translated to heaven. See 2 Esdras 7:26. There is but one Tree of Life mentioned in the Bible, and everywhere it is "the Tree of Life." It is not unreasonable to believe that God removed it to His holy heaven, whence it will come again, the center of a sinless earth.

Regarding the river of Eden, there is every reason to believe it as literal as the earth and the Garden of Eden. Of course it did not flow the way rivers do now. Our kind of rivers, since the Deluge, begin away up in the hills and mountains, grow larger by numerous tributaries as they flow on; and while they do much good, yet they do evil also by taking much of the richness of the soil and depositing it finally in the great salt sea. Not so the original stream. It welled up at earth's center, divided into four streams, and kept continually subdividing, somewhat as man seeks to imitate in his best irrigating systems, till the whole earth was watered, and waste there was none. At the Deluge the whole cosmos, or arrangement, of the world was changed. "Whereby [the Deluge] the world [cosmos] that then was, being overflowed with water, perished." 2 Peter 3:6. Therefore it is utterly impossible for men now to fix the place of the Garden of Eden. In the new earth we shall return to the divine system of irrigation. Up from the throne of God on Mount Zion will well the perennial fountain, parting into different streams, till all the earth is watered in its onward flow. All our critic's objections may be as easily answered. He wrongly divides the Word of Truth.

McClure's and the Ferrer Case

After a critical review of the Ferrer case in two numbers of "McClure's," Mr. William Archer says:

I reject, then, the theory of any criminal conspiracy against Ferrer. Malignant stupidity, coupled with the absence of the most rudimentary sense of fair play, is sufficient to account for all that occurred. But certainly it has a good deal to account for: the arbitrary banishment of all Ferrer's friends; the studied neglect to call for their evidence; the pettifogging refusal of that evidence when offered; the wantonly harsh treatment of the untried prisoner. . . .

Mr. Archer thinks that Ferrer was guilty of indiscretions, and in sympathy with revolution, but —

he was certainly not the "author and chief of the revolt;" that accusation was a monstrous absurdity.

Comparing this famous Spanish case with the Dreyfus case in France, Mr. Archer says:

In each case we see militarism, inspired by clericalism, riding roughshod over the plainest principles and practises of justice. The victim in each case is a personage hated by the [Roman Catholic] church — in France a Jew, in Spain a freethinker.

One can not read the results of Mr. Archer's painstaking investigation without feeling that the whole proceeding against Ferrer was a pitiful travesty of justice, and that the fervid reports of the revolution and of his influence therein, circulated by his enemies, are gross exaggerations. Whatever his character or teaching, he was entitled to a fair trial.

— ★ ★ —

The Harm of Disbelieving Truth

By George Hepworth

The truth is the truth, whether it is believed or not. It doesn't hurt the truth not to be believed, but it hurts you and me not to believe it.—George Hepworth.

One of Many Like Testimonies

A CORRESPONDENT in Minnesota sends us the following answer of a Catholic priest in reply to the question, "Is it true that the only authority for Sunday observance is the Catholic Church and in Paul's letter in the New Testament?" It speaks for itself.

Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, the 28th of August, 18—.

Dear Mrs. ———: St. Paul taught every Sabbath (our Saturday) in the synagog (see Acts 18:4) and said (Paul, 1 Cor. 16:1, 2): "Now concerning the collection for the saints," "On the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store," etc., etc. Presuming that the request of Paul had been strictly attended to, we may call our attention to what had been done each Saturday during the Saviour's life and continued for thirty years after as the book of Acts informs us. It would be absurd to infer that reading of the Scriptures, prayer, exhortation and preaching, which formed the routine duties of every Jewish Sabbath (our Saturday) were overslaughed by a request to take up a collection on another day of the week. The request of St. Paul to make the collection on Sunday remains to be classified with the work of embalming of Christ's body, which could not be effected on the Sabbath, or Saturday, and was consequently deferred to the next convenient day, namely, Sunday. As you see, this text, instead of proving something in favor of Sunday, does the very opposite, and is a proof in favor of the Saturday. There is not an inference, not a shadow of a hint in the whole Bible proving Sunday observance, and it is an institution of the Catholic Church. If you wish to persuade yourself fully of the arguments, you may order a copy of the Sleepy Eye Herald of next week. I am just writing an essay on that subject. I will be glad if any one can give me a text giving the least inference of a Biblical Sunday observance. The conclusion to be drawn from all this ought to be that the Protestant religious systems founded on the private interpretation of the Scriptures are a failure, and as faith must be one, so must there be but one church.

Yours truly, GEORGE PAX, Cath. Rector.

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