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Review and Herald, Vol. 90, No. 18.

Is It Worth While?
Earlier text: Is It Worth While?

The Spirit and the Word

By G. B. Thompson

The Holy Spirit—No. 16

The Spirit and the Word

G. B. THOMPSON
THE apostle Paul tells us that “all scripture is given by inspiration of God.” 2 Tim. 3:16. That is, all scripture is God-breathed, inspired. “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” 2 Peter 1:21. It was the “Spirit of Christ” which was in the prophets, when they “testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.” 1 Peter 1:11. Many other texts of similar import might be given, all clearly showing that while there were a number of writers of the Bible, there was but one Spirit breathing upon and inspiring them all. The Bible, therefore, being the product of the Spirit of God, between the Spirit and the Word there must be, and is, the utmost harmony.
In the Christian warfare we are exhorted to go into the battle armed with “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Eph. 6:17. The Holy Spirit wages a warfare against sin, and uses the Word as its weapon. It never leads us from but to the Word. When Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost to preach, he did not set off some oratorical pyrotechnics, and give an essay on ethics or some social problem; but the Spirit led him to the Word. He expounded the Scriptures. There was no long introduction, and not much peroration; but he began by saying, “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.” Then he cited another prophecy in the Psalms, and showed how these two prophecies had been fulfilled. The Spirit accompanied the presentation of this word with great power, and those who heard were “pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Peter was the spokesman, but the Spirit was present and convicted the people. Without the Spirit the sermon would have convicted no one.
Mr. Moody says: “There was a time when I thought the raising of Lazarus was the greatest work ever done on this earth. But I think the conversion of those three thousand Jews on the day of Pentecost was more wonderful still. Those hard-hearted Jews were full of hatred and unbelief; many, no doubt, were the same men who murdered Christ. And yet they were swept down by the mighty power of the Spirit. We have the same obstacles to contend with as the apostles had. Our gospel that we are preaching is a supernatural gospel, and we have got to have supernatural power to preach it.”
This example stands as a clear illustration of the relationship between the Spirit and the Word. And the same power should be witnessed to-day in the presentation of the Word. The preaching of the Word should have effect. When the prophecies, which came by direct inspiration of the Spirit, are explained, and their fulfilment shown, why should not the same power be seen at this time, and a deep conviction of their truthfulness settle upon those who listen?
M. E. Guers, a French writer, well says: “The Spirit and the Word, the Word and the Spirit, are two things indissolubly united by God. A theology which separates them is not worthy the name. ‘The Spirit without the Word’ is, with some, personal inspiration with all its illusions, or mysticism in its bad sense, if not fanaticism with all its errors.
“On the other hand, ‘the Word without the Spirit,’ is for some orthodox intellectualism with its desolating dryness, or, what is still worse, rationalism and its errors; for others it is a prolongation of their childish comprehension of the Word, the want of peace and confidence in the promise of God, of assurance and rejoicing over our reconciliation with him through faith in Jesus Christ, and it also is a delay in sanctification. Let us avoid these two extremes with equal care; while we hold the Book, let us lift our hearts to him who makes us able to read it with profit; in the union of the Word and the Spirit, and there alone, is there entire safety for our souls.”
In all study concerning the Holy Spirit we need to keep close to the Bible. The false doctrine that the Spirit leads and guides without reference to the Word lies at the very foundation of all folly and fanaticism. This claim leads men into error, where impressions and whisperings of human fancy are placed above the divine oracles of the written Word. The Spirit himself is grieved and dishonored by the setting aside of the very instruction which he gave as a light and guidance to man. The Spirit often does give clear impressions of duty; but we can be assured that any impression which leads us to lightly esteem the Scriptures, or to go contrary to their plain teaching, is not the leadings of the Spirit.
Another dangerous error is that of claiming to take the Word and at the same time rejecting the Spirit. This kind of religion is simply a cold, legal form without life or spiritual power. The Spirit and the Word can never be separated. The Spirit is in the Word, and it leads us to love and study the Book of God, and to obey its holy instructions.
There must be something by which we can test the spirit. We are told to “try the spirits whether they are of God.” 1 John 4:1. We read of “the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” Eph. 2:2. By what shall we test the spirit, and be able to distinguish between the leading of the Holy Spirit and that of some other spirit which seizes hold of man now as truly as in Jesus’ time, when great exhibitions of demoniacal possession were seen? This infallible guide is the Holy Bible, which the Spirit himself indited.
We have been warned that while the power of the Spirit of God is coming upon his remnant church, a spirit from beneath will come up and seize hold upon those who, because of their unconsecrated condition, have rejected the light of the Word.
In “Early Writings” is a view given of Jesus going into the most holy place at the beginning of the investigative judgment. Of those who followed the Saviour into the second apartment we read:—
“Those who rose up with Jesus would send up their faith to him in the holiest, and pray, ‘My Father, give us thy Spirit.’ Then Jesus would breathe upon them the Holy Ghost. In that breath was light, power, and much love, joy, and peace.”—Page 46, edition of 1882.
But there was another company seen. Concerning these we read:—
“I turned to look at the company who were still bowed before the throne; they did not know that Jesus had left it. Satan appeared to be by the throne, trying to carry on the work of God. I saw them look up to the throne, and pray, ‘Father, give us thy Spirit.’ Satan would then breathe upon them an unholy influence; in it there was light and much power, but no sweet love, joy, and peace. Satan’s object was to keep them deceived, and to draw back and deceive God’s children.”—Id., pages 46, 47.
Here are the two spirits brought to view. One is the Holy Spirit of God; the other is the unholy spirit of Satan. One is represented as the breath of God, the other the breath of Satan. Both have light and power. In the unholy power of Satan, however, there was “no sweet love, joy, and peace.” The spirit from beneath may possess power and light. Satan is able to transform himself into an angel of light. But the fruit of the Holy Spirit—love, joy, and peace —is absent. These constitute the kingdom of God.
Many will be deceived by this spirit of disobedience, be led into error, and finally lost. But we need not be deluded. We have the unerring guidebook, the Bible, which clearly reveals the workings of the Spirit of God in the human heart, and unmasks all the deceptions of the powers of darkness. Let the Word of God be studied as never before, with earnest prayer for the illumination and guidance of that same divine Spirit which inspired prophets and holy men of old to write it.

A Misconstruction

By F. D. STARR

F. D. STARR
THE claim is made with much confidence by some that a correct translation of Matt. 28:1, and the parallel texts in the other Gospels, would show the first day of the week to be the Sabbath. The verse reads thus: “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.” It will be noticed that the word day in this text, as well as in all the other instances in which the expression “first day of the week” occurs, is a supplied word. The word week as here used, is from the Greek word sabbaton, usually rendered sabbath. It occurs, as will be noticed, previously in this same verse, and is there translated sabbath. Why should it not be translated sabbath in the second instance of its occurrence as well as in the first? The reason is simply this, that in Greek such words as adjectives and numerals must agree in gender, case, and number with the nouns they limit. To those who are acquainted with the English language only this seems rather incomprehensible. But in the original this is a very imperative matter. The noun sabbaton as here used, is in the neuter gender, plural number, and genitive case. The numeral mian that comes just before it, is in the feminine gender, singular number, and accusative case. So the noun and the limiting word do not agree at all, and some other word must be supplied. The word hemeran, meaning day, agrees exactly with the numeral mian in every respect. So the eminent scholars who translated the Bible have all correctly rendered the expression “first day of the week.” The Sabbath is that to which the week owes its origin, and in cases like the above, the rules of the language require that the word is to be understood as meaning week. Whatever English version is consulted, the same fact will be apparent. So it is also in translations in other languages. The German translation was rather obscure on this point, but more recently this translation has been revised, and the learned revisers translated the words in question “first day of the week.” They could not do otherwise, and be true to the work they were doing.
We might illustrate the subject by reference to Eph. 4:5: “One Lord, one faith, one baptism.” In the Greek language the word Lord is, of course, masculine, faith is feminine, and baptism neuter. So the word meaning one must be in three different forms to correspond with the nouns. Please notice variations. The passage reads thus: “Heis Kurios, mia pistos, hen baptisma” (One Lord, one faith, one baptism). It would not do at all to get these forms of the word one interchanged. It would be an outrage on language to apply the feminine numeral mian to Kurios, Lord, but no more so than to apply it to sabbaton in Matt. 28:1.
The same conditions prevail to a large extent in modern foreign languages. For instance, take the words of Jesus in John 14:6, as translated into German: “Ich bin der Weg und die Wahrheit und das Leben” (I am the way, the truth, and the life). Way is masculine, truth is feminine, and life is neuter, and so three different forms of the article the are required; namely, der, die, and das. For one to insist on applying the feminine article die to the masculine noun way would likely subject the one so doing to considerable ridicule. It would be fully as improper as for us to say of George Washington that she was the father of our country. This same reason makes it utterly impossible to understand the Greek of Matt. 28:1 as conveying the idea of a new series of Sabbaths.
The word day is really necessary to a correct understanding of the text, and must therefore be supplied. Bible students are well aware that frequently such added words are indispensable to the translation, as the original terms and forms of expression imply much that is not expressed. Take, for instance, the added words in Acts 16:40. It was “the house of Lydia” into which the disciples entered. The words “the house of” are not expressed in the Greek, but the reading would be repulsive without them in English. The idea of entering into the house of Lydia had already been mentioned (Acts 16:15), and did not need to be repeated in the second reference.
A case somewhat similar is found in 2 Cor. 3:7. The language is elliptical as has been admitted by scholars. “But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious,” etc. The “ministration” was not written in the tables of stone, but that ministration and that old covenant were “concerning all these words” that the Lord spoke, and wrote on two tables of stone. Ex. 24:8. The meaning of the passage would be correctly conveyed by this rendering: “But if the ministration of death concerning that which was written and engraven in stones was glorious.” So the student of the writings of Moses would not need to misunderstand the language of Paul. Neither is there a chance to misunderstand and misapply the language of the evangelists in regard to Matt. 28:1 and similar texts if one will consider the facts in the case.
Forest, Idaho.

Growing Laxity in Sabbath Observance

By F. M. W.

IN the Sabbath Recorder for April 7, J. Schepel discusses the question “Why Is Our Denomination Losing Ground?” referring to the Seventh-day Baptist people. He gives to this question the following significant answer: “It is on account of the carelessness and indifference with which the Sabbath of Jehovah is regarded by great numbers of our members.” This is certainly a startling charge to be made by a representative of this denomination which has for long years nobly stood in defense of the Sabbath of the Lord. The writer then proceeds to illustrate his statement by incidents which have come under his personal observation. He refers to the case of a barber who, while he closed his shop all day Saturday, kept it open during the Sabbath hours on Friday evening. His excuse was that it was necessary to do this in order to make a living. Reference is made to a prominent member of the church who sold ice-cream. In a quiet way this was dispensed on the Sabbath, and that, too, to members of the church. “Time and again,” he says, “I have seen members have the bus call at their homes on Sabbath afternoon to take them to the railway station, where they would take the train to a neighboring city.”
Our object in referring to this is not to call attention to the laxity of our Seventh-day Baptist brethren and sisters, for whom we entertain a very kindly regard, but we have wondered if these same conditions in some measure may not be found among the members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Have we as Seventh-day Adventists that sincere, careful regard for the Sabbath of the Lord which once marked the history of this people? Some, we believe, have maintained their simplicity of faith and practise, but we regret to say that our observation leads us to believe that there are altogether too many members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church who are manifesting a growing laxity in Sabbath observance.
Little by little the spirit in which Sunday is regarded in the world has been intruding itself into the practise of some of our members. The edges of the Sabbath are infringed upon. The week’s work is not finished early Friday afternoon. Needful preparations are not completed, and perhaps the whole of Friday evening and a part of Sabbath morning are taken up with affairs which should have been carefully attended to before the Sabbath began.
There is great danger that as in the days of Amos some will be led to say: “When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?”
We preach to the world a message of Sabbath reform. That message needs to be sounded to-day among the churches of Seventh-day Adventists. We need to recognize anew the difference between the sacred and the profane, the holy and the common. We believe it would be an excellent thing if our church elders and our ministers throughout the field would take up the consideration of this question in our churches. A Sabbath service once a year devoted to the consideration of proper Sabbath-keeping would prove most helpful in enabling us to bear in mind continually the Sabbath of the Lord and our relationship to it. Let us hold fast in sincerity and faithfulness to the precious truth which God has committed to us. F. M. W.

The Waiting of the Karens

By William Ambrose Spicer

ONE of the appealing stories of missions is that of the waiting of the Karens, of Burma, for the light that their ancient traditions taught them to look for at the hands of the white foreigners. Darkened as they were in heart, and as the masses of these hill tribes still are, the tribal tradition was nevertheless a means in the hand of Providence to cause many of this people to seek to the missionary for help when Judson and his successors appeared in Burma.
The Baptist Missionary Review prints an oration delivered in the Rangoon Baptist College by a Karen Christian, which retells this story of the waiting Karens and their ancient traditions. These aboriginal hill people had been oppressed and enslaved by the ruling Burmans and Siamese. The student's oration continues the history:—
In the midst of these sufferings they remembered the ancient sayings of the elders, and prayed beneath the bushes, there, though the rains poured upon them, and the mosquitoes, the gnats, the leeches, or the horse-flies bit them. The elders said: “Children and grandchildren, as to the Karen race their God will yet save them.” Hence in their deep affliction they prayed: “If God will save us, may he save us speedily; we can no longer endure these sufferings. Alas! where is God?”
Concerning the white foreigners, the elders charged their posterity thus: “As to the white foreigners, they were the guides of God, so God blessed them, and they sail in ships and cutters and can cross great oceans.” The elders further sang as follows:—
“The sons of God, the foreigners, Obtained the words of God; The white foreigners, the children of God, Obtained the words of God anciently.”
The elders said in relation to God the Almighty thus: “All things in heaven and on earth, O children and grandchildren, are created by God. Never forget God. Pray to him every day and every night.”
As to the gospel and their written language the elders said: “Children and grandchildren, the Karen golden books will yet arrive; the white brethren, the foreigners, will bring them. When they arrive, the Karens will obtain a little happiness.”
Amidst sufferings, they were all the time waiting for the arrival of the white brethren who would bring the golden books. All of a sudden, the rising light of the gospel—the mind-refreshing and soul-reviving light, rising from the west, not from the east—shone down upon these poor suffering Karens, through the parting clouds of danger and distress. The missionaries came with the gospel of grace for the people of Burma. At first the Karens were unnoticed; the fact that there was a race in Burma known as the Karens was unknown to the white foreigners.
But it was not long after the arrival of Dr. Judson that the missionaries discovered the Karens and preached to them the gospel of grace. A short period after the conversion of Ko Tha Byu, the first Karen convert, many Karens became Christians. They received the gospel with great enthusiasm and satisfaction, for they knew that Christ is the Saviour and the true God whom they had been seeking all the time; and they worshiped him with their whole heart and soul.
They told the missionaries the traditions regarding God, the white foreigners, and the golden books to be brought by them. Every one will know what the Karens, a race with such traditions, would ask the missionaries, after having seen them and having obtained from them the gospel of Christ. They asked the missionaries for their golden books, which tradition said would be brought to them. They were quite ignorant of what they asked, but the missionaries knew what was meant by the term “golden books” in the traditions. Dr. Wade had to invent the Karen alphabet, make the Karen books, and teach the Karens. In a short time many learned to read and write their own language. This paved the way for the advancement of the gospel. Tracts and pamphlets on the gospel were printed and distributed among the Karens. The Bible was soon after translated by Dr. Mason; and the translation of many other useful books followed. From this time on the Karens have been rapidly progressing spiritually as well as mentally.
Our own work for the Karens has waited until this last message has won some believers among them beyond any direct effort of ours. The call has come to us insistently from these people. Now, we believe, our Burma Mission has a worker preparing to labor for them. Our missionaries have called attention to the fact that the old Karen traditions led that people to look for a coming to this earth of a divine Lord who once was among men, of whose return the “golden books” were to tell them. The message of the second coming of the Lord Jesus is the message for all peoples; and Providence has wrought not only among the Karens, but among millions of other Asiatic peoples, to awaken an expectancy of the approaching end of this age and the coming of a Messiah, confused and various as their ideas may be. The time for the last message to reach the last peoples unwarned is at hand, and the Lord is preparing the millions to hear the warning cry.
W. A. S.

The Journal of Confederacy

By C. M. S.

Not since the invention of movable types has a publication appeared that has marked such a distinct epoch in the history of the Christian church as the publication known as the Constructive Quarterly, the first number of which has recently appeared. The purpose of its being is to bring together all the forces of the professed Christian church for the accomplishment of certain definite objects; to cement Christendom into one strong, energized, moving force, which shall be so controlled and directed as to bring about in social and civic affairs such conditions as the great religious leaders believe ought to obtain.
The journal in question is more than a mere publication. It is a symptom and a sign. It indicates a condition existing in the great church body, and it is a sign of the mighty drift of the professed Protestant church away from the moorings of evangelical Christianity and toward the turbulent sea of doubt, skepticism, avowed unbelief—and the final domination of the Vatican.
Such a journal was made necessary by that development known as the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, and the particular bent of the journal that would speak for that movement was plainly indicated in the councils of that movement when it was declared that “united Protestantism is not to be construed as a demonstration against the Roman Catholic Church;” and when, in the Chicago meeting of the Federal Council, the word Protestant was thrown out with applause from a committee report, and the hope for the “fellowship of Catholic unity” was earnestly expressed.
The Constructive Quarterly is contributed to by influential leaders of both the Catholic and the professed Protestant church. A perusal of their contributions will reveal this striking fact. “Protestant” writers plead and argue for union. Catholic writers labor zealously to show forth the glories of their religion and their organization. They expound their belief and present the interests of their church, its sacrifices, its worth, its continuity and unchangeableness, the great value of the encyclicals of the popes and of such decrees as the Ne temere decree of Pope Pius X. Such works of the popes are declared to be constructive in the truest sense.
It is worthy of note in this connection that the whole Federal Council movement is now under the dominance of the exponents of the higher criticism. Prof. Shailer Matthews, the new president, is one of the most pronounced higher critics in America. He makes his position in this matter very clear in his article in the Constructive Quarterly, on “The Awakening of American Protestantism.” It is a most striking coincidence that the higher criticism, which originated in the Catholic Church, should now be the guiding star of this new movement which is now leading the professed Protestant churches in their apologetic procession back to the Roman Church.
It is made very plain in this first issue of the new quarterly that the advocates of a confederated Christendom do not expect unity of belief, creedal conformity, and the merging of all sects into one spiritual body; but rather a unity in the accomplishment of certain specified objects. The editor of the Quarterly expresses this idea and purpose thus:—
Von Moltke’s motto “March apart, strike together!” was the key to all his strategy. . . . Must the forces of Christianity always strike separately against the enemies of humanity? Is it not possible to lay the foundations for a greater unity by combining against the foes that threaten the very citadels of the home and society? When once the Christian churches mean to understand, and devote their life to understanding, one another in Christ and his church, they will strike together with a scope and a power that no military symbol could ever express. A united Christianity would be incomparably greater than all its parts.
It will be noted that the purpose of this combination is to “strike,” and to “strike together” and with such force as even a military symbol is powerless to express. The name of Christianity and the organizations of religious activity are to be used to compel men and states to do the bidding of the church, to enact legislation under ecclesiastical compulsion which will change the complexion of the world socially and religiously. This is that religious combination to effect a political purpose against which the Congress of the United States warned the people of the United States in 1829 and 1830.
One of the notable articles of the Quarterly is entitled “Union Among Christians,” and is written by Mr. Wilfrid Ward (a Catholic), the editor of the Dublin Review. This influential Catholic writer would not have the different Protestant sects abandon their beliefs and sectarian distinctions. To do so, he fears, would cause them to lose their esprit de corps, and become “flabby” Christians. He would have them maintain their distinctive names and beliefs, and, by so doing, maintain that esprit de corps which would make their work effective when they become a part of organized Christendom bent upon accomplishing definite political or sociological ends. A hint as to how they might be used and under what direction is given in the writer’s reference to the members of a certain metaphysical society founded in 1869, some of whose members “maintained that the Christian faith had in every age its special foe, and that the same militant spirit which made St. Dominic organize his ‘hounds of the Lord’ against the Albigenses should in later times inspire the united Christian phalanx against the agnosticism of the Huxleys and the Tyndalls.”
This is a dark hint of what is in the heart of the Roman Church against those who refuse to pay her homage and render unquestioning obedience in our generation. What Rome did to the peace-loving and gospel-practising Albigenses has stained many pages of history. When Rome is able to “inspire the united Christian phalanx” with that spirit which will lead them to practise upon “infidels” and “heretics” the inhuman cruelties which her “hounds of the Lord” practised upon the Albigenses, the way will be indeed open for that decree of death which the revelator declares will be pronounced against all who will not worship the beast or his image or receive his mark in hand or forehead.
And the writer plainly shows that Rome has no idea of bending in any degree in order to effect a union with Protestantism. Whatever bending is done will be done by professed Protestantism. He says:—
The Catholic Church no doubt claims to be the one indefectible guardian of the Christian revelation. Her exclusiveness is largely based on this claim. . . . Her creed and ritual and organization is a complete and living whole. Once you begin to tamper with it and to suggest that only those parts of her creed should be insisted on which she shares with other Christians, you threaten the vitality of the living organism and the individuality on which its power largely depends.
What is the inference then? Rome can not go to Protestantism. She can not yield up any of her creed or ritual or organization. To do so would “threaten the vitality of the living organism.” Then Protestantism must come to Rome if there is to be any union whatever. The editor of the Western Watchman (Catholic) makes this clear in his issue of April 10. To quote:—
The essence of Catholic faith is obedience to the teaching Church. A truce is a loss of time unless it leads to peace; and peace, with the Catholic Church, postulates absolute submission.
It is a terrible price to pay for unity, especially when it is made so plain that the price includes the body and the soul of those who enter into the transaction. Will Protestantism pay it? She is already preparing to draw her check for the amount specified.
The writer from whose article we have quoted in the Quarterly makes this significant statement:—
The zeal of Alva [the merciless emissary of Catholic Spain who destroyed the lives of so many Protestants in the Netherlands] is fed by the bonfires with which he burns the heretic.
That writer expects to see a similar result when Protestants and Catholics are making common cause against those whom they consider the enemies of the faith. He says:—
If the attention and energy of all Christians are concentrated on the crusade against these movements which threaten all religious belief and principle, the force and heat of religious zeal will gradually be transferred more and more to this common crusade.
As Pilate and Herod became friends again over their disposition of Jesus, so will these federated forces lose their mutual enmity in their intolerance toward all who do not believe as they believe and worship as they worship.
C. M. S.

The Lord's Return — No. 3

By F. M. W.

“Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.” Heb. 10: 35-39.
For what reason does Christ return to earth the second time? The answer is obvious, and has already been indicated in previous articles. He comes to take his children home.
He came the first time, nineteen hundred years ago, as the great sacrificial offering for the sins of the human family. “He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin.” He became a partaker of flesh and blood; lived on this earth as a man; suffered death on the cross; came forth from the grave in glorious resurrection; ascended to the right hand of the Majesty on high, where he reigns a priest on his Father's throne, in order that he might redeem man from his fallen and lost condition. Nothing short of infinite love could have prompted this humiliation of the Majesty of heaven, and this sacrifice of the life of the Son of God.
Christ now is seated on his throne of grace. To that throne we are invited to come boldly “that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Christ now is engaged in the work of gathering out from among the nations of earth those who love righteousness,—the men and women who will constitute the subjects of his everlasting kingdom. When this ministry of grace has been completed, he will lay aside his priestly robes, and will return to earth to establish his kingdom of glory. Says the apostle Paul:—
“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word.” 2 Tim. 4: 1, 2.
The Lord himself bears similar testimony to the time when he will begin his sovereign reign:—
“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.
At this time, according to the word of the Lord,—
“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 righteous of all ages will constitute the subjects of this heavenly kingdom. These righteous ones will be made up of two classes:—
1. Those who during the long years have been asleep in the Lord Jesus.
2. The righteous living at the time of his second advent.
This is clearly stated by the apostle Paul in 1 Thess. 4: 16, 17:—
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
What a scene is here brought to view! The power of the grave is broken. The Lord of life and glory loosens its relentless grasp. The ages of the past give up their countless dead. The sea restores that which it has swallowed up. Many have gone down as the result of wasting sickness and disease; they will be raised to the inheritance of eternal youth. Some have been despised and forsaken, and their memories held in contempt by earth's inhabitants; they come forth honored and glorified. The martyrs of earth, who have sealed their testimony with their blood, now reap the fruit of their righteous doing. Those who have stood in defense of truth now witness its triumph over error. Conditions are now reversed,—death in this world, life in the world to come; pain here, pleasure there; poverty the lot of earth, eternal riches the reward of heaven; sorrow and sickness and distress on this earth, fulness of joy and pleasures forevermore in Eden restored. From the grave the saints come forth crying, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”
The earth itself shall share in this glorious restoration. Cursed as the result of man's transgression, bearing thorns and thistles, it groans now under the burden of sin. The apostle says, “The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now,” waiting for the redemption which comes through Christ Jesus. The effects of the curse shall be removed. The desert shall be made to blossom as the rose. The earth shall be adorned with the glory of Lebanon, with the beauty of its Eden state. Isaiah 35. Thus purified, it will constitute the territory over which Christ shall rule, and “the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” The dwelling-place of sin will be sought in vain. The purifying fires of God, which restore the earth to its vernal beauty, shall purge away the sin and dross and forever destroy Satan and all his evil host. Then from one end of God's universe to the other will go up a shout of thanksgiving and rejoicing that the harmony of heaven has again been restored; that in the heart of every intelligence Christ is once more enthroned as Lord of lords and King of kings:—
“And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.” Rev. 5: 13.
These, dear reader, are the great events which wait upon the coming of the Lord,—events which will all take place in that period known as “the day of the Lord.” This is the glorious heritage which Christ is coming to bestow upon his children. Is it worth the effort of a few short years of service here? There is no comparison. By our lives we are demonstrating to the universe our acceptance of the heavenly call. In the few short years we live here we are demonstrating to heaven and the unfallen worlds the manner in which we should use eternity if that were bestowed upon us. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man,” the things which God is preparing for his people. We can grasp them by faith now, but sometime, if we permit the operation of the work of grace in our hearts, we shall see them as they are. How cheap will heaven then appear, so far as the price we have paid in effort and toil. How light will then be counted the afflictions which now seem so severe! how short the days and years which now drag on so wearily! We need to view this life not from the standpoint of time, but from the standpoint of eternity. Viewed thus, its experiences sink into insignificance before the glories of the eternal state.
F. M. W.

Church Unity

ONE of the most remarkable and most vigorous developments of our time is the movement for the union of Christendom under one directorship or control. That the real aim of the one who is the prime mover in that development is not truly Christian is plain from the present character of that movement itself. It is not a movement toward the Word of God, except in the way of assault upon that Word. It is not a move for the greater demonstration of Christlikeness in individual hearts. It is not a movement for the conversion of individuals from lives of sin and the creation of clean hearts within them through the operation of the Holy Spirit upon their consciences. It is a movement to develop physical force for the purpose of accomplishing political and sociological ends; to force lawmakers into line with the demands of a united ecclesiastical combination. It forsakes the teachings of the divine Word in reference to the great facts of creation, the prophecies, and the miracles of the Bible, and pins its faith to evolution and geology as the only solution of the problem of creation and life. In fact, what the leaders of this movement expect to accomplish is regarded by them as but another step in the process of evolution. Occasionally there is a clergyman loyal enough to God's Word to protest against the whole program, but there are not many of these. The pastor of the Old South Church, Boston, is one such. In a series of sermons recently preached upon the theme of church unity, this pastor, Dr. George A. Gordon, took direct issue with the program of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. He declared that such a union was in no sense desirable; that diversity of belief was not the cause of the lack of power manifest in the church of to-day. In reference to a united Christendom Dr. Gordon said: “The church was united once, the holy Catholic Church throughout the world, and what was it?—An ineffable tyrant, denying freedom over its whole broad domain, and crushing the intellect and the spirit into a dead uniformity. . . . Your one holy Catholic Protestant American Church would give me much uneasiness if it should come into existence to-morrow.” But the way the churches are moving toward such a combination ought to give every liberty-loving Christian uneasiness now. When that combination is effected toward which the churches are now working, the tyrannous conditions of the days of old will come again.
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