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Review and Herald, Vol. 91, No. 11.

THE WORK AND THE WORKERS

Review and Herald

Mar 12, 1914

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 12, 1914

THE WORK AND THE WORKERS

By Editor

JUST the thing to take along with you this week as you visit your neighbors—the March Life and Health.
THE fifth edition of the February Protestant Magazine is now on the press. Total printed, to date, 60,000. Interest still increasing!
SISTER, why not spend a few hours each week selling Life and Health, and have that washing done by some one who cannot do missionary work?
SUNDAY, March 1, we received orders for over 16,000 copies of our ten-cent magazines, Life and Health, Liberty, the Protestant Magazine, and the Temperance Instructor.
GET out of the rut by visiting your neighbors a few hours each week. Change your viewpoint and get a new perspective of life by mingling with those who need your help. Take along some copies of Life and Health, Liberty, or Protestant, to talk about, and help pay expenses. Send 25 cents for sample copy of each.
MR. D. NICOLA, business manager of the Attleboro (Mass.) Sanitarium, sends his check for $85.00 to pay for 100 yearly subscriptions for both Protestant Magazine and Liberty, and for writing a personal letter for him to each of the 100 clergymen who will receive these magazines at his expense the coming year. Are there others who are ready to duplicate this order?
A METHODIST evangelist from Florida, now visiting Washington, heard Dr. R. H. McKim's eulogy of the Protestant Magazine at the American Federation of Patriotic Societies meeting, February 28. He was so impressed that he visited our office three days later, and carried away 200 copies of the March Protestant with him. He will sell the magazine in connection with his meetings in halls and on the street.
A SPLENDID tribute was paid to the Protestant Magazine by Rev. Randolph H. McKim, D. D., rector of the Church of the Epiphany, Washington, D. C., in his address to the American Federation of Patriotic Societies, Saturday night, February 28, in Pythian Temple, Washington, D. C. In the course of his remarks, “A Heart-to-Heart Talk to Washington Patriots on a ‘Dangerous’ Subject,” he said: “Let us recognize everything that is good and true and fair in our opponents, and let us be careful not to exaggerate. I think the Protestant Magazine is a very good example of the line we ought to pursue. It seems to me that that magazine is edited, not only with an able scholarship, but with ability, sanity, fairness, and justice, in dealing with the Roman Catholic situation.”

WHAT I KNOW ABOUT REARING THE BABY

How Much Is Your Baby Worth? Read Symposium of Seven Articles on “Rearing the Baby,” in This Magazine
How Much Is Your Baby Worth? Read Symposium of Seven Articles on “Rearing the Baby,” in This Magazine
Every husband, wife, and mother should read and pass on to others this great March number of Life and Health. It also contains other vital features, such as “Healthful Cookery,” “Pellagra,” “Deep Breathing,” a “Questions and Answers” department. To introduce this “National Health Magazine,” we will accept “Trial” Subscriptions for four months, at only 25 cents. Or, we will send the magazine to FIVE ADDRESSES FOR SIX MONTHS for only $1.50—regular price, $2.50. Why not order 50 copies for $2.00 or 20 for $1.00, and sell or circulate them in your neighborhood? Address all orders to your tract society, or to Life and Health, Washington, D. C. Sells easily at 10 cents a copy.

A Wider Sphere

By ELIZA H. MORTON

ELIZA H. MORTON
We sometimes ask for greater things, A wider sphere, But God in gentleness replies, “Thy work is here.”
Fill thou that little space with love, Leave all to him. What if his plans thou canst not see, And lights grow dim?
God knows thy strength; thy duty do, Contented be; Thy weakness, too, he knows, and help He’ll give to thee.
The call will come, in his own time, From thy low seat To higher ones. For courts above Thou wilt be meet.
*Portland, Maine.

Clear the King's Highway

By H. A. ST. JOHN

H. A. ST. JOHN
As a people, we are lukewarm. The message to the Laodiceans is for us, but we have not half heeded it. Indeed, many are entirely disregarding it. The destiny of the church hangs upon this message; hence our individual destiny hangs upon it. To heed it is to be purified and made meet for the Master's use. Jesus is standing at the door of our hearts, knocking, and asking that we open the door and let him come in. If we do not heed this first coming of Jesus to the door, it will be a sad day for us when he shall open the door of the heavens and come in all his glory to reward every man according to his works.
The Lord defines lukewarmness to be wretchedness, misery, poverty, blindness, and nakedness. This is a spiritual condition, hence far worse than a like physical condition. All these dangerous characteristics Jesus will take away if we let him come in, and he will give us in exchange therefor gold tried in the fire, white raiment, and eyesalve. Then we shall be filled with faith, hope, and love. Then we shall arise and shine. Then we shall see the path of the just with clearness. Then we shall have come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty, and a short work will be made in the earth.
The Lord says he will cut his work short in righteousness. If his people let Jesus come in to abide, sup with them and they with him, they will be filled with righteousness, for one of the precious names of Jesus is “The Lord, our righteousness.” Then our lips will be touched as with a coal of fire from the heavenly altar. Then we shall hear the Lord saying, “Who will go for us?” and we shall instantly and gladly respond, “Here am I; send me.” Then the Lord will surely send his children to neighbors, friends, and strangers, both near and afar, with the last message of love and salvation. All will find something to do with cheerfulness and alacrity, either in person, by letters, by contributions, or by the printed page. Every one will be getting ready to hear the “Well done” when Jesus comes. Then the loud cry, so long talked about, will go ringing and singing through all nations of the earth. Then the Lord will very soon finish his work triumphantly. Thus the highway of the coming King will be cleared, and he will surely come in great glory to make up his jewels. O, I want to be among them!
Sanitarium, Cal.

Tears

By VICTOR BRICKEY

VICTOR BRICKEY
TEARS! The very mention of them brings to the memory of every one of us times of heartbreaking sorrow in his own life. Who has not shed tears—hot, blinding tears? O, what recollections come when we mention tears! A great many tears have been shed on this old earth. We hear of wars when the streets of cities literally ran with blood. Did you ever stop to think that the eyes of thousands ran with tears at such times? This old earth is literally soaked with tears. I doubt if there has been as much blood shed as tears.
Tears are usually the result of sorrow; and those who shed them usually need sympathy. There are exceptions, however. Women frequently resort to them as a last weapon in a controversy. In such cases they are usually more effective than all the argument that can be produced.
Then there are tears of joy. These are infrequent. They belong mostly to the saints of God as they in humility contemplate the glorious prospect of soon seeing Jesus face to face.
There is such a thing as a tear of sympathy. We all remember the song,— “We share our mutual woes, Our mutual burdens bear, And often for each flows The sympathizing tear.”
Would to God there were more of them shed! Jeremiah said: “Mine eyes do fail with tears, . . . for the destruction of the daughter of my people.” And again, “Let tears run down like a river day and night.” Again, “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” Well would it be for us if we would shed more tears on account of the misfortunes of others.
We are too prone to grieve over our own misfortunes and hardships, and forget or neglect to sympathize with those who need sympathy. Brethren and sisters, let us resolve by God’s grace to be more sympathetic.
What would have been our condition today if Jesus had not sympathized with us? We read that in the days of his flesh, he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears. Heb. 5: 7. Yes, Jesus shed tears for you and me.
His tears were never for himself. Yet I have no doubt that he shed more tears than any man. The Bible says he shed them when he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying. That means more than ordinary crying. Jesus was a sympathetic man.
It further says that Jesus was heard when he offered up prayers with strong crying and tears. Do you suppose we would receive more answers to prayer if we would mingle more tears with our prayers?
Then there are tears of penitence. I am sure they are never unnoticed by God. But tears do not always gain God’s favor. Esau sought a place of repentance carefully with tears, but was rejected. There are people today who shed tears like Esau—for effect. They may deceive men, but not him who knows the thoughts and intents of the heart.
There is a faithful record kept of the tears of the righteous. Hear the words of David: “Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?” Ps. 56: 8. O brother, you who have known the hardships, the trials, the heartaches, the sorrows of this present evil world; you who sigh and cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof; you who shed hot, blinding tears until you are ashamed; listen to me: God has a faithful recorder by your side. Not a tear escapes his notice. They are written in his book. And the promise is to you, “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy;” “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”
“Thus saith the Lord; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord.” Jer. 31: 16. Men may mock at your tears; but not so with our Jesus. He counts them all, and you shall receive a just reward.
“And Hezekiah wept sore. And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee.” 2 Kings 20: 3-5.
When we see hard-hearted men give way to tears, we may know that angels are near, and God’s Spirit is operating upon the heart. At such times it is good to remember the words of Paul, “Quench not the Spirit.”
However useful they are now, and however well they serve their purpose at present, the time is almost here when there shall be no more tears. God speed the day.
Pueblo, Colo.

“I Have No Need of Thee”

By T. E. BOWEN

T. E. BOWEN
We sometimes forget that the different characteristics which go to make up the church membership are needed for the perfecting of the church, individually and as a whole; that the wide diversities of temperaments, gifts, talents, and capabilities found in its individual members, or are a source of strength when bound together by the love and grace of God.
This is beautifully expressed by the apostle Paul: “God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.” This is love, upon the same principle that God built up the body. “For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? . . . If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary.” 1 Cor. 12:14-22.
Naturally we should say, “Cast out the feeble ones; they can be easily spared. But observe that God emphasizes the point that they which seem to be more feeble, are necessary.”
That very brother or sister who to you seems so trying may be the very element God in his wisdom sees you need in the perfecting of your character. Where he may be weak, you may be strong; and, further, there may be weak points in your character where he is strong. Then you need to keep close to that one for the help you may be to him and he to you.
God does not put all his graces into any one individual. The need of the poor brother may be the very thing the Lord sees the man of more means needs to keep him from eternal ruin through selfishness and covetousness. The poor brother has need of the rich brother. The ignorant need the wise, the wise need the ignorant. The strong need the feeble, the feeble the help of the strong. The lesser gifts in the church are needful. The apostle needs the teacher, the helper, the prophet. God placed “helps” in the church because every church needs the helpers. The helper may not be endowed with apostolic or prophetic gifts, but he can be a helper, and receive a helper’s reward. No one can say to any other, “I have no need of thee.” Each is dependent upon the others.
What a world of trouble would be avoided in the church if we all remembered this! How tenderly the weak would be guarded! What thanksgiving would ascend from the cottages of the poor for the timely aid rendered by those in better circumstances, sometimes perhaps in the way of helpful suggestions. Should you like to have all in the church just like yourself?—Hardly. Then why should we not appreciate more than we do the diversity of the gifts placed in the church? Instead of lightly esteeming any, or setting at naught a brother or sister, or criticizing one another, thus doing work for the enemy, shall we not cultivate the spirit of love and seek to help one another?
We find the mighty Son of God by the side of the sick, the sorrowing, the struggling one. “If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.”
We do need one another. We need to put away all the petty jealousies and differences that keep us from those who can help us, and who also need our help. Then there will be no disposition to say in thought or act of any brother or sister by our side on the way to the kingdom, struggling for the mastery over every besetting sin, “I have no need of thee.”

The New Birth

By W. S. CHAPMAN

W. S. CHAPMAN
The seeker after spiritual knowledge is ever being strongly impressed with a great truth connected with the plan of salvation, that every requirement from man, made a necessity under the plan, is always easy of comprehension and simple in compliance.
This very simplicity acts as a stumblingblock to many learned men who try to reason out salvation through Christ, instead of accepting it as a fact, and so recognizing it as coming from God as an unmerited favor. They fail to grasp the thought that because it is of grace it is, of necessity, wanting in any basis for reasoning, other than that God so loved the world that he could not allow it to perish. As the impelling motive lies upon too high a spiritual plane for human reason to comprehend, even the angels being unable to fathom it, man can only accept what God says about it: it is a subject that cannot be analyzed.
The new birth is, practically, as great an enigma to many writers as it was to Nicodemus. Properly accepted, it becomes one of the most simple of the gospel requirements, because the one most essential, and is therefore within the comprehension even of children. Were it otherwise, no illiterate or heathen person could be saved.
Many precious souls are so troubled and confused over this question, through the discordant theories presented, that discouragement has taken the place of the joy there should be in believing. “Am I converted?” “Am I born again?” “How can I know?” are the queries heard on every hand.
Before one can become an effective collaborer with Christ,—and that is the main object in the call of God to service,—it is absolutely necessary that he die to sin. Rom. 6:4; Col. 2: 12, 13. Baptism is a covenant with God to this end. In answer to faith, the Spirit of God enters the heart and begins the work of transforming the character by a renewal of the mind. Rom. 12: 2; Eph. 4: 20-32.
In answer to the question of Nicodemus, “How can a man be born when he is old?” Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” As a comment on the foregoing, we read in “Spirit of Prophecy” these statements:—
“The words of Jesus could no longer be misunderstood. His listener well knew that he referred to water baptism and the grace of God. The power of the Holy Spirit transforms the entire man. This change constitutes the new birth.”—Vol. II, pages 127, 128.
Have you been baptized? Did you go down into the watery grave intelligently; that is, after confessing your sins, and in full belief that you were being buried with your dear Saviour, and that, dying to sin (Rom. 6: 6), you were to rise to walk in newness of life? Well, then, when you came forth from that grave, you rose a new creature, a new creation, with new aims, objects, and purposes in life: you had been born again. Why not believe it, and have the joy in believing? Don’t let Satan rob you of this precious truth.
Going forward in baptism was an act of faith, and now, having risen a new creature (yet but a babe, remember), your faith must be made perfect in service, you must go on from faith to faith, growing in grace, perfecting holiness. 2 Cor. 7: 1.
“Those who are begotten unto a new life by the Holy Spirit, have become partakers of the divine nature, and in all their habits and practices, they will give evidence of their relationship to Christ.” “The new birth consists in having new motives, new tastes, and tendencies.”—Mrs. E. G. White, in Review and Herald, April 12, 1892.
Has there been any change in you since you were baptized? Do you not hate the things you once loved, and love the things that you once hated? Well, then, are you not a new creation in Christ Jesus?
Sin is a spiritual condition. Spiritual things are spiritually discerned. 1 Cor. 2: 14. Paul did not know that he was a sinner until the Lord made him understand it. Neither can you comprehend the fact that you are sinning only as the Spirit of God enlightens you.
Satan troubles us because of our sins, but it is not he who convicts us of sin. Only the Spirit of God can do that. God reveals our sins to us, not to condemn, but to save, by helping us put away sin. When a knowledge of sin comes to us, Satan tries to make us believe that it is he who presents the picture to our mind, and taunts us with it, hoping to bring discouragement to our souls. When sin is revealed to you, recognize it as a call from God to confession. Go to him and confess it, asking him for wisdom and strength to grow in grace. 1 Peter 2: 1-5; 2 Peter 3: 17, 18. If you fall, acknowledge your fault and begin again. 1 John 1: 9. Never give up nor despair.
The growth of the new creature God likens to a seed planted in the ground. Mark 4: 26-29. Beginning in feebleness and darkness, and by a death to self, the new creature enters upon life as a newborn babe, struggles into the light of the Sun of Righteousness, as the seed stalk reaches up after the light of the sun, and, just as the blade matures, the blossom appears, the ear forms and fills in the plant, so the newborn life, that holy thing created by God, grows into his image. 1 Peter 2: 2.
“The children of God are to grow up to the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus. They are to be faithful in their service to God. They are to learn the trade of being worshipers of God.”—Mrs. E. G. White, in Review and Herald. “The scheme of salvation is a wonderful science, and it is an inestimable privilege and honor to be permitted to be partners with Christ in the wonderful plan of saving the souls of men.”—Home Missionary, December, 1894. Learning even the rudiments of a science is often a life work. Let no one despair, but rejoice in the progress that he makes, praising God and pressing on, believing that what Jesus has begun in him he is able to finish. The exercise of faith gives the Spirit of God the opportunity to work.
St. Petersburg, Fla.

Shall We Be Stirred?

By MRS. MILDRED GIBBS-HOPKINS

MRS. MILDRED GIBBS-HOPKINS
A LATE number of the Wide World Magazine tells of the recent discovery in a mound near Peshawar, India, of a crystal reliquary in which there were a few fragments that archeologists declare are the charred bones of the prophet Buddha. The magazine further states that the finding of these fragments of bone has deeply stirred the followers of Buddha, from the Himalayas to Japan.
When I read this, I did some serious thinking. The Christ whose followers we are is not dead. We have a “risen Christ, a living Saviour, not in the tomb where once he lay;” and should not we, as a people, be daily stirred by his wonderful works for his people? If the finding of the bones of Buddha, who has been dead since the fifth century before Christ, could so deeply stir his followers all over the earth, what can rightly be said of our duty to be constantly awake and stirring, when we have daily, not dead bones, but living manifestations of the love and care of our Lord.
In Nehemiah’s time great things were accomplished because the people had a mind to work. Neh. 4: 6. We are told in John 9:4 that “the night cometh, when no man can work.” The work is truly great, but the Lord has said he will cut it short in righteousness, and we may expect him to do exactly as he says.
May we all as individuals be stirred to do the work the Lord would have us do. Then shall we see great things accomplished, as in the days of Nehemiah, and the Lord will give us great blessings. How thankful we should be that we put our trust, not in dead bones, but in an ever-present, ever-living Saviour.
Fort Duchesne, Utah.

Losing Your Life

By H. A. VAUDERMAN

H. A. VAUDERMAN
“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.” Mark 8: 35.
As we think of these words today, do they apply to us? Are we really losing our lives for His sake and the gospel's? Is it because of our unwillingness to make a living sacrifice that the fullness of the latter rain does not come into our own lives and the lives of others around us?
The average life of service of the gospel minister in America one hundred years ago was only eight years. Those men gave themselves as living sacrifices. Day after day they labored early and late.
As they worked, the fire burned within, and their zeal increased. It was a strenuous life, but they were true to the Saviour's direction; they were giving their lives for his sake. They gave themselves willingly, and were consumed on the altar of service. They soon laid down their work to await the resurrection morning. How few we find like them today!
Christ said: “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.” O that we could feel such a fire in our bones! May God give us men today who are willing to lose their lives here in America for his sake and the gospel's.
We are just now in the crisis of our great work. We wait the fulfilling of the promise of the latter rain in order to finish the work quickly. God is calling for volunteers. Let us who feel the burning in our souls, hear this call, and speak out quickly, “Here am I; send me.” Then let us become sober, and plead earnestly with God for the promised blessing. He will give us faith and grace to keep our life on the altar; and as we feel our life burning, we shall rejoice that it is being spent as he directed. Souls will be saved, and many a worker filled with a zeal that comes from seeing another's life on the altar. Then this great gospel message will go quickly, and the grand work will be accomplished in a short time because of the willing sacrifice. “A short work will the Lord make upon the earth.”
One of the great characteristics of this latter-day service will be a complete sinking of our lives into Christ's while we labor. We shall be hid with Christ in God. Self will not be in evidence. In order to keep us humble, much of our influence will not be seen. “Moses wist not that his face shone.” Our life will be hidden behind the mighty power of God. “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
Brethren, let us fast and pray, let us be desperately in earnest about losing our lives in prayer and service for his sake and the gospel's. Then the mighty power of the Holy Spirit will come upon us in showers of the latter rain, blessing for service.
College View, Nebr.

Editorial

By Editor

“Go to Church Sunday”

THIS has been the watchword which many church communities have been endeavoring to sound during the last few months. The movement has become quite widespread throughout the country. The need of increasing church attendance has been very evident. From every section has come up the cry of a growing indifference in religious things on the part of a great majority of people. “It has not been uncommon,” says a writer in the North American, “for an edifice capable of seating ten hundred or fifteen hundred persons, to have less than one hundred worshipers at a regular Sunday service.” No doubt this effort to rally the indifferent to the importance of attendance in religious service has accomplished some good.
Surely this is a consistent way to secure better Sunday observance on the part of those who regard the first day of the week as the Lord’s day. We can never object to any effort based on moral suasion. We accord to our Sunday-keeping friends the same right to proclaim their views and to persuade men and women of the justice of their claims with respect to the first day of the week that we claim for ourselves regarding the seventh day. But there are those who will not be persuaded. Some will persist still in remaining away from church on Sunday, following the bent of their own minds in work or play. As long as they do not do on Sunday what would be uncivil to do on any other day of the week, it is not the province of their fellows to abridge in any manner their rights and liberties. And under no circumstances would it be right to require of them attendance at religious service.
The minister of Christ should do his duty, proclaiming to the best of his knowledge the word and counsel of God, but to every one of his fellows should be accorded the right to think and do as he pleases, as long as the course chosen does not abridge the rights or liberties of others. The province of the church is to persuade, to beseech, to exhort, but when it has recourse to legal enactment and human force, it transcends its prerogatives and undertakes a work never assigned it by its rightful Lord.

The Tragedy of Death

By Francis M. Wilcox

WHAT a terrible tragedy is death! How cruel and remorseless its withering, blighting touch! Upon all alike it falls. The prince and the peasant, the master and the servant, the rich and the poor, the powerful and the weak, the learned and the illiterate, the tender babe, the strong man, the aged and infirm,—all alike fall before its ruthless onslaughts.
Medical science, human skill and genius, environment, climatic conditions, are powerless to stay its ravages. The possession of youth and beauty, of riches and influence, of position and popularity, of knowledge and wisdom, or all of these together, with the addition of every other temporal advantage and earthly blessing, cannot secure a release from its claims.
Death destroys human hopes and ambitions. It dethrones kings and depopulates kingdoms. It shapes the course of empires, and molds in a large measure all human history. Famine and fever, plague and pestilence, do its bidding. In palace and hovel, in camp and field, on ocean’s broad expanse and in earth’s quiet resting places, it does its ever-ghastly work of destruction.
We are daily reminded of its presence and of its power. The populous cities of the dead marking the gateway to every town and hamlet, the freshly made mounds, the open sepulchers, the passing funeral trains, the tearful eyes and heaving breasts, are silent and solemn witnesses that we live in a land where death reigns.
How we long for the tyrant’s power to be broken! Thank God, deliverance is promised, and ere long the promise will be fulfilled. From his high and holy habitation the compassionate Redeemer looked upon this dark and death-doomed world. He heard the cries and saw the tears of its sin-cursed inhabitants. He resolved by the sacrifice of himself to purchase their redemption. He could do this only by partaking of their nature, fighting in human flesh their battles, going with them into the very stronghold of death itself, and there conquering the cruel tyrant. This he did. “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.”
By the power of conquest, by his right as a victor, when Christ arose from the dead he brought away the keys of death’s prison house. To his children “who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage,” he declares: “Fear not; . . . I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.”
“The sting of death is sin.” That sting will be removed. Death and hell [the grave] shall be cast into the lake of fire. And in that glad day shall the righteous sing: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” And God himself shall dwell with his children, and be their God. “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” “And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.” “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”
Dear reader, have you lost some loved one, a kind father or mother, a loving husband or wife, an idolized son or daughter, an affectionate brother or sister? “Hope thou in God.” Your loving Saviour holds the key to the prison house of death. Soon he will open wide the portals of the tomb. His voice of power will penetrate to the lowest depths of earth and sea as he bids his sleeping children arise.
And it will be now but a little while. Soon “he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” Let us look beyond the tomb’s dark night to the resurrection day. There we shall meet in glad and never-ending reunion the loved who now are sleeping in the tomb.
“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” The tragedy of death shall give place to the blessed, joyous scenes of eternal glory in the kingdom of our God. F. M. W.

This World or a Better One?

By C. M. S.

FAITH and hope and trust and loyal obedience,—these are the heritage as well as the privilege of the true Christian, and there is a blessing in them each and all.
While men and women of the world delve and toil and worry and strive for that which they cannot take with them when the last summons comes, the Christian uses this life as an opportunity for entrance upon the grander one in which he can enjoy all there is that is good, and be free from every interference of unrighteousness. He whose hope of enjoyment is bounded by the cradle and the grave and beset on all sides by the forces of selfishness, has no anchor that can hold when human courage quails and human strength gives out.
We cannot build for this life only and build safely. We cannot turn our attention and our energies upon our own desires if we expect one day to let our eyes rest in pleasure upon “the King in his beauty.” Paul says, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” We cannot stop with this life and be Christians. The Christian’s hope lays hold on eternity. The Christian’s work must be a work for eternity.
Speaking of that great hope around which cluster the prophecies and warnings and encouragements of the whole Bible, the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews declares, “Which we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and entering into that which is within the veil.” Heb. 6:19. Christ is within the veil; he holds the anchor. As long as the child of God clings to that anchorage, he cannot drift. There is no power on earth that can sweep him away; there is no power in heaven that will.
But apart from that anchorage, there is no power to save man from eternal ruin. Outside heaven’s purpose for man, there is no power that cares to do so. And because that is so, and men are drifting away from that true anchorage, we find an ever-increasing proportion of the human family losing hope, trust, and courage, and launching themselves into eternity with no preparation to meet God. Year by year the number of self-destructions increases—a sure indication that with each year an ever-increasing number are losing their anchorage and their courage.
The causes for this are manifold. The increase of skepticism, outside the church and inside the church, fostered by the destructive criticism of the Bible at the hands of an unconverted ministry, is doing perhaps as much as any other one thing to bring about this sad condition in the world. When a great portion of humanity lose faith in the Word of God, there is nothing but human power to encourage or guide, or even restrain. Their interest in even the things of this temporal life begins to loosen and unwind like the strands of a frayed rope. Every tremor of wavering in the pulpits of the land is increased and intensified in the great aggregate audience that listens. One note of doubt in the pulpit can make more skeptics than all the rest of the sermon can make converts. If he whose business it is to proclaim the word doubts it, he has lost every leverage he might have employed to bring souls to the feet of the Saviour.
But the land is filled today with these discords of doubt emanating from the pulpits of spiritual advisers. The hired choir has done its work of disintegration in the church; but the result of its work is completely lost in the maelstrom of ruin created by a doubting pulpit. From every seed of infidelity scattered by such hands there spring up a hundred tares to choke out the aspirations of the soul, destroy trust in God, and ruin respect for divine law. With that gone, there is no power but the human to restrain the hand, and more and more frequently is that power found to be utterly insufficient.
The world is losing hope because it is coming to have nothing but this life to hope in; because it has seen man’s only sure anchor disparaged; because it has seen the Word of God belittled by those who were paid to expound it. But this confederacy of ruin should not surprise the child of God. We have been forewarned by that very Word that in the last days scoffers would arise; that seducing spirits and doctrines of devils would be abroad; that genuine faith would be scarce in the earth; and that sin would abound on every hand. Men have placed their hopes in the accomplishment of some great purpose, and when the storm of disappointment came, their bark dragged anchor, and they lost their souls. Many indeed have seen their brightest hopes fade and wither and become the plaything of the winds of misfortune, and in that stress of spirit they have carried their case to judgment in their own hand, and with no advocate at the bar. Truly the world is losing its grip on God.
At such a time, how the Christian should labor to place before the world the only hope worthy the name! “Hope thou in God.” The hope of the Christian is real. It spans the gulf between death and the resurrection. It bridges the strait between Paradise lost and Paradise restored. The Golden Gate toward which the Christian looks is the pearly gate of the city of God. Inside of that is life everlasting, the fruition of hope long deferred, the companionship of the Christ who bought us with his blood. In spite of the fact that the world is losing hope, the true Christian may now look up and lift up his head, knowing that his redemption draweth nigh.
C. M. S.
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