Signs of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 38. (9/22/1898)

Signs of the Times

Sep 22, 1898

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 22, 1898

SERVING OR BEING SERVED.

By F. D. Starr

SERVING AND BEING SERVED.
“A certain woman named Martha received Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard His word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving.” Luke 10:38-40. — SERVING AND BEING SERVED. “A certain woman named Martha received Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard His word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving.” Luke 10:38-40.

In the tenth chapter of Luke is recorded the beautiful incident of the two sisters, Mary and Martha, entertaining the Saviour as a guest. They differed quite widely in their ideas of how they should best use the opportunity thus afforded them. “Martha was cumbered about much serving.” She objected to the course her sister took in improving the time by listening to the instruction of Jesus, and wished him to cause her sister to help her.

What was this serving that so occupied the heart and hands of the busy sister? The German translation signifies, “Martha was very busy serving Him.” So the busy service of Martha was not for self, but for her Lord. Could anything be more noble? Could anything be better? Ah, but Jesus says, “Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” What was Mary’s part?—It was being served by her Lord. Was that more pleasing to Him than the other course? Would He rather serve somebody than to be served Himself? That is just what He came here for, and what could please Him more than to be allowed to do the very work He came here to do?

Listen: “The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” Mark 10:45. Tired, weary, laboring soul, is the leading characteristic of Christianity, as far as your knowledge and experience go, hard labor in bearing burdens for Christ? How much we have to say about serving the Lord, and, O, the heavy burdens that many seem to bear for Christ! Yes, there is a service for the Master, but if the consciousness of the fact that we are being served constantly and lovingly by our Lord, does not far outweigh all our thoughts of the service we are doing Him, there is something lacking in our experience. Let us talk less about how we are serving Him, and more about how He is serving us.

That was the good part that Mary chose. She was eating of the food that endureth unto eternal life. This would not, like the meat that perisheth, be taken away. But Mary’s service of the Master was proven, by the costly sacrifice that she afterward brought, to be equal to any that her sister Martha could have made. The box of ointment, that represented at least a year’s hard work, broken and poured upon the feet of her Lord, showed plainly that she was willing to serve, but she must be served by the Master, and this delighted both Him and her too. He has said: “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you.” John 15:15. What close and tender relationship!

Christ set us an example that we should do as He has done to us. So when we go forth to mingle among the people, we shall not go to be ministered unto but to minister. Possessing the Spirit of the Master, this will suit us better than to have the people serve us so studiously. This serving others while at the same time being served by the Master, will be better than telling so much about our serving Him, while at the same time we are being served and pampered by the people.

F. D. Starr.

BLESSING OF OBEDIENCE.

By Ellen G. White

“And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength; this is the first commandment.” Christ’s reply was direct and explicit. Supreme love to God is an evidence that the truth is an abiding principle in the mind and heart. The second is like the first, said Christ; for it flows out of it, and is founded upon it: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”

“And the scribe said unto Him, Well, Master, Thou hast said the truth; for there is one God; and there is none other but He; and to love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love His neighbor as himself, is more than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices.” This response from one of the scribes, the plain statement of his convictions, was more than the scribes and Pharisees expected to hear. Truth, that condemned their own traditions and example, had been expressed by Christ and voiced by one of their own number.

When Jesus saw that the scribe had moral courage to speak the truth in the face of the frowning Pharisees, and that “he answered discreetly, He said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask Him any question.”

The law of God, plainly defined by Christ, is

not so many separate precepts, some of which are of great importance, while others are of small importance, and may be belittled and ignored. Our Lord presents the first four and the last six commandments as a divine whole. Under the two heads, love to God and love to our neighbor, a divine unity binds all the precepts together. By these two principles man’s character is tested, and he is shown to be obedient or disobedient.

These two principles are immutable, as eternal as is the throne of God. Those who obey the first, loving God supremely, will pour out the riches of God’s goodness in love and compassion to their fellow-men. This is a faith that works by love, and purifies the soul. This means far more than a mere acknowledgment of the truth, more than ceremonious worship, or the offering of sacrifices. Those who truly obey the law offer to God the whole service required by Him.

In keeping God’s commandments there is great reward, even in this life. Our conscience does not condemn us. Our hearts are not at enmity with God, but at peace with Him. But self-love, self-exaltation, can not in any way be acceptable to God.

The grace of God, which, if received, leads to the practise of right things, is the line of demarcation between God’s children and the multitude that believe not. While one is brought into captivity to Christ, another is brought into captivity and bondage to the prince of darkness. He who has responded to the drawing of Christ is aglow with His love. He shows forth the praises of Him who has called him out of darkness into His marvelous light. He can not help employing his talent of speech to show forth the grace which has been so abundantly bestowed on him. He has enlisted in the army of those who strive to advance the glory of God, and has thus become a channel of light. Willing and obedient, he is one of the number who are called by inspiration, “a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people.”

With the peace and joy of those who thus serve God, there is always seen a godly fear, “lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.” This sanctified fear is entirely proper. It is not a servile, cowardly fear; it is a dread to do anything that Christ will not approve. This fear regulates the Christian experience. Those who feel it sanctify the Lord in their hearts. They regard God with a reverence and love that leads to self-abasement. But their fear is very different from the terror of a slave, who lives in expectation of the lash. This genuine fear leads to firm reliance on God.

MRS. E. G. WHITE.

PERVERSION OF STEWARDSHIP AND GRACE.

By G. T. Wilson

There are people who have been trained in a system of religion which teaches that the church has power to grant a dispensation of favor that will exempt those persons who obtain it, from obedience to the law of God in that particular thing, or from an article of faith in the doctrine of the church in that particular case. Such persons think themselves at liberty to violate the law of God, which others are in duty bound to obey, because the church claims the right to grant them the privilege. A Protestant missionary who had labored in Africa, told me that on a certain occasion he visited a priest who had charge of a mission in one of the African tribes where polygamy was practised by the chiefs. He asked the priest if the chiefs put away all their wives but one when they entered the church. The priest replied, “No, we grant them a special dispensation.” Here we have a practical illustration of the perversion of the stewardship of grace which God has bestowed upon His people. Here is a case where wicked men are permitted to creep into the church, yet retain their wicked practises, thus perverting the grace of God for purposes of impurity, as brought to view in Jude 4.

While most Protestants protest against this doctrine, yet it has paved the way for Satan’s more destructive doctrine that men may be saved by grace while knowingly violating the law of God. This, too, is changing the grace of God into lasciviousness. It is astonishing how professed Protestants have become intoxicated with these false doctrines set forth by Satan himself, until they claim salvation comes by simply believing on Christ without giving up their sinful habits. Thus is fulfilled the language of the Lord through the psalmist: “Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself; but [He says], I will reprove thee. . . . Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.” Ps. 50:21, 22. These false ideas with regard to the dispensation of grace have led professed teachers of the Gospel to make such utterances as these:— “There was a dispensation that was under the law, but since the Gospel dispensation, we are not under the condemnation of the law, but under grace.” “The law is fulfilled in Christ and abolished to the Christian, but it is still binding upon the sinner. It condemns him, but the Christian has nothing to do with it.” To such the Word of God says: “Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil and good.” Lam. 3:37, 38. “Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay.” Men are saved by grace, not by law, but the law reveals to us the character of that righteousness which we have received by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Christ and the apostles did not teach that salvation by grace permitted men to continue their sinful practises. And those who teach such perversion of the grace of God, do not understand the foundation principles of God’s government, or the Gospel of His grace, for “they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.” “Their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of Gaul, their clusters are bitter; their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.” Isa. 29:9; Deut. 32:32, 33.

Listen to the words of the True Vine: “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch can not bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. . . . For without Me ye can do nothing.” John 15:1–5. “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law; for sin is the transgression of the law. And ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin.” 1 John 3:4, 5.

Because the grace of God abounds, “shall we continue in sin?” Notice the inspired answer: “God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” Rom. 6:1, 2. Now let us read what grace teaches: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.” Titus 2:11, 12. We are to look for our Saviour from heaven, “who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.” “And these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works.” Titus 2:14, 15; 3:8. This does not teach that we do good works to be saved, but it does teach, “He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me.” “If a man love Me, he will keep My words.” God does not bless men for the doing, but He says, “This man shall be blessed in his deed,” or (margin) doing. James 1:25. We are first saved by grace from our sins, that we may receive grace to keep from sinning. And when through the weakness of the flesh we are

tempted to give over the struggle for holiness of life, we hear the Lord speaking to us, “My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Cor. 12:9. Instead of leaving us to fall, we are invited to “come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Heb. 4:16. When we feel that the help we have had has not been sufficient to give us the victory, we have the promise, “He giveth more grace.” James 4:6.

G. T. WILSON.

Avondale, Cooranbong, N. S. W.

THE MEANING OF SACRIFICE.

From the beginning men have felt, even when they have not comprehended, the necessity of sacrifice. They have misunderstood and distorted its significance; they have even reversed its meaning and interpreted it as an arbitrary requirement of God, who exacted from His creatures that which He was not willing to do for them; they have stained countless altars with blood, and painfully elaborated systems of thought to make the reversal of the divine fact of sacrifice comprehensible and creditable. But in ritual and creed religion has instinctively fastened upon this great idea as central and fundamental in the relations of the human with the divine, and silently, in every age, sacrifice has shown its true nature. A few spirits in every time have discerned that it is not an arbitrary requirement, but the very heart of that divine process of growth which we call life, the beautiful and constant witness of the divine sonship of the race. And in the fulness of time God appeared among men in a human form; not as supreme and sovereign, with angels about Him, and nature breaking into songs of recognition, and men reverent and obedient and worshipful; but acquainted with grief, rejected, bruised, smitten, and crucified; the sublime revelation, which could never have issued from the mind of man, of a suffering God, redeeming the race, not from His own wrath, but from its sins, by the eternal sacrifice.

—The Outlook.

A VESSEL FOR HIS USE.

By Clara L. Richards

O God of my soul, look down from above, With tender compassion, with infinite love! O, purge me from selfishness, folly, and sin; Make me like Jesus; let me souls for Thee win!

My life is too selfish; I want more of Thee, More love for the erring, as Thou hast loved me, More tender compassion for those who may fall, To point them to Jesus, my all and in all.

There are many, yea, many, who in darkness now sit; Their life is all darkness, with Thy love unlit; They know not Thy Word, they know not Thy Son— O, let me, then, Lord, with peace to them run!

In lands far and near, even close by our door, Are those who are dying—from us help implore. They're starving for love such as Christ to us gave. O, make me Thy vessel, and now their souls save!

And at last, my dear Saviour, Redeemer, and Friend, If Thou wilt but use me, and me to souls send, In the time of Thy kingdom, as in each passing day, I will give Thee the glory forever and aye.

Clara L. Richards.

Boulder, Colo.

THE MILLENNIUM.

By G. B. Thompson

For years the doctrine of the millennium, or world’s conversion, has been proclaimed from the pulpit and the press, and under the soothing influence of this siren voice many have been lulled to sleep in the cradle of carnal security, to sleep, perchance, till the end. As the Lord seeks, as in Noah’s time, to arouse His slumbering people by means of a special message, the most thrilling one ever heralded to man since his fall, the dulcet tones of the soul-destroying delusion of a temporal millennium are heard on every hand.

Yet the Scriptures nowhere imply that sin will cease and all the world become converted prior to the coming of Christ. The wheat and the tares are to grow together till the harvest, which is “the end of the world.” Matt. 13:24–41. Evil men and seducers are to “wax worse and worse.” 2 Tim. 3:13. As it was in the days of Noah and Lot, when all the purposes and desires of men were vile, so it is to be when the Son of man is revealed in the clouds of heaven. Luke 17:26–30. The dragon spirit, which has persecuted the saints from the beginning, will make war against the very remnant of the church. Rev. 12:17. The beast, or man of sin, will exalt himself and oppose the work of God until he goes alive into the lake of fire. Rev. 19:20.

Instead of the last days being days of peace, we are told in the Word that they are to be the most warlike and revolutionary since Adam and Eve, because of sin, crossed the threshold of their Eden home for the last time. Violence is to fill the earth. Eze. 7:7–10. And as we read the list of upwards of ten thousand murders in the United States alone last year, and over six thousand suicides, and behold in imagination such a funeral procession go by, with its victims of rage, greed, and lust, followed by the broken-hearted who are left behind, we stand appalled before the awful fact that we have reached the time when violence fills the earth.

As we contemplate the tremendous, and hitherto unparalleled preparations for war among all nations, and listen to the tread of armed millions training for their work of slaughter, and armed with weapons the most deadly that men can invent; as we see them wheeling their battalions into line, preparing for an inevitable struggle, we can but be convinced that there is an impending conflict so terrible that the battles of the past centuries, where armed legions driven by mortal hate have fought and drenched the earth in blood, pales in comparison. In all this we see the fulfilment of the prediction in the Bible which forewarns us that the nations are to be angry and preparing for war when Jesus comes. Luke 21:25, 26; Rev. 11:18; Joel 3:9–16.

Some, as they listen to the muttering thunders, know they presage a storm. Bishop Newman, of the M. E. Church, a few months ago said:— We are now passing through the most unsettled condition of the world since the crucifixion of Christ. . . . And whatever cause it is that touches the first match to the fuse, no human power can foretell in what countries that fuse may lead to an international explosion.

Another clergyman, Canon Scott Holland, of England, recently said:—

The outlook in Europe never presented so wholly an unchristian spectacle since the days of Constantine. Even in medieval days peace and not war was regarded as the normal condition of men. Now nations are watching one another like wild beasts in a jungle, and Christian Europe has armed itself, in defiance of everything which Christ came to teach. Blood and iron rule; huge camps and seas crowded with horrible ships of war, meet the eye at every turn. Men scramble for land, and the question is, Who will be first in the race? Are we to be swept away in the pagan scramble?

Reader, the times are ominous. A storm is coming, and we will need a hiding-place, that we may not be swept away with the bosom of destruction. We can find it now in the Rock of Ages. If we neglect this, we will seek a refuge soon in the rent chasms of the rocks, and pray for mountains to cover us, as the earth sinks beneath the terrible disorder of sin. Now, while Jesus is standing with outstretched arms to welcome the most sinful of a fallen race, let us flee to Him and be saved.

G. B. THOMPSON.

Newburg, W. Va.

A VIEW OF AMERICA’S FUTURE.

By Henrietta Reams

[A Dream.]

WHILE I was on my knees in prayer not long since, I saw a strange and awful picture, which I will try to describe to the readers of the SIGNS; for I believe it has a meaning of profound interest to every citizen of our republic.

There rose up in my spiritual sight a great and mighty tree. Its growth was almost incredible, and its development most marvelous. It spread west, north, and south till its branches reached from ocean to ocean, and, like the tree of Nebuchadnezzar’s vision, “in it there was meat for all;” and the very sap, from its superabundance of life, seemed to play in delightsome fountains through the branches.

In and among the branches of the tree flitted, strolled, or rode in their gay carriages, the beauty, wealth, wit, and culture of the nation. All the modern luxuries and elegances of life, all the marvelous inventions of the age, were at their command. All the treasures of art were poured out, as it were, into their laps, and the ecstatic whirl of society was like a ceaseless “merry-go-round” of pleasure. I heard the crashing harmonies of grand bands and orchestras, and voices of music in their most exquisite interpretations of the old masters. I heard the thunder of cannon—the pride of her strength—and a cheer like the voice of a great multitude—the rushing of mighty seas—the shout of a nation, when the colors, the emblem of its glory, are displayed.

But now comes the sad and dark part of the picture. I saw at the foot of the tree the toilers, whose labor nourished and prospered the life and growth of the tree. How they delved in cold and heat, till the sweat seemed like great drops of blood falling down to the ground in the very agony of their life-struggle! I saw that when they came to the tree for their share of the fruitage, they were pressed down, and given a few fragments—a mere nothing—for their labor, till their cheeks were hollow with want, and they took to gnawing the bark, that they might get the sap as it flowed up into the tree. O, what a sight! They groaned and howled; they crowded and jostled each other in their mad efforts to secure a place to gnaw. Mothers held their starving little ones high in the air, but they could not reach the fruit. The unearthly cry of that heaving multitude was as the cry of a ravenous wild beast. I shall never, never forget it. O Lord God, just and holy, Thou righteous Judge of this earth, how long, O, how long shall the wicked triumph?

A few wind-falls were let fall among the crowd to pacify them, but it only maddened them.

But soon I saw a change come over the surging throng. They ceased their fruitless struggle, and every brow grew dark. Muttered imprecations and curses were ground out between clenched teeth. All faces gathered blackness, as some fell purpose seemed revolving and forming itself in the chaos of despair. It was like the ominous hush and silence when a terrible storm is brooding and gathering to burst in fury on the earth.

Certain ones, who seemed to be leaders, stood up above the multitude, and thus harangued the people: “The time is come. We will not gnaw bark, nor suck sap. We will eat fruit, which is rightfully ours. Down with the cut-throats! They have bled us at every vein. They bathe in the oil and the wine of our labors, while we starve for bread. We need no longer hope for redress at their hands. Have we not tried to elect men who would care for the rights of the laborer? But their money bought them, or if they failed to buy them, they were defeated. Hope no more. We have eaten bitter bread and drank gall from their hands. It has curdled in our veins, and vengeance alone will sweeten that cup, or satisfy our thirst. Now is the time. The power lies in our hand. Give them their reward. Follow me.”

Then such a yell rose from that crowd as I never heard from human throats. It was the yell of a hungry, wounded, infuriated beast. And, look, they are climbing the tree. They have made a ladder of the dead bodies of fallen comrades, and the leaders mount up over them. The mob follows. See, they tear down the branches. They scatter and trample, snatching and eating as they go. They scatter firebrands. Bombs are bursting on every side. The capital rocks and goes down in a terrific explosion. Their trail is marked, like the wake of Samson’s foxes, with conflagration, devastation, and ruin; and the cries of terror and wo on every side are commingled in one continuous, awful shriek.

Look, look! The whole structure goes up in mighty conflagration. Wo, wo, to the republic! Her rich and proud ones are slain in every street. Her dainty and delicate women are ravished in every mansion, and their little ones are dashed against the stones of them.

O rich and fair republic, glorious in beauty,

high in worldly honor, and secure in the pride of thy power, did not the Lord God tell thee that thy pains should come upon thee “as pains upon a woman in travail”? Were you not warned that that hungry thing, gnawing and tearing at thy vitals, would turn and “bite thee”? Thou hast brewed thy hands in thy brother’s blood, and the avenger hath found thee.

And yet I will mourn for thy beauty departed, O glorious republic! Liberty, purity, equality, and fraternity were thy corner-stones. And when they were laid in the heat and smoke of a great Revolution, a world beheld and cheered and wondered. Wonderful was thy growth and development from thine almost inexhaustible resources. “Thou wert perfect in all thy ways until iniquity was found in thee.”

The great Physician desired to heal thee, and sent His servants with messages of warning and love, but ye cast them out and drove them from thy face, and set a “mark” on all thy worshipers, that ye might separate His servants unto persecution and death. But God hath fulfilled His word in thee, and thy light hath gone out in the darkness of death. Yet I will mourn for thee over the ashes of thy ruin and humiliation, because ye believed not God, and “knewest not the time of thy visitation.”

HENRIETTA REAMS.

Milton, Oregon.

WHAT IS FAME?

What is fame? ’Tis the sun-gleam on the mountain, Spreading brightly ere it flies; ’Tis the bubble on the fountain, Rising lightly ere it dies; Or, if here and there a hero Be remembered through the years, Yet to him the gain is zero— Death has stilled his hopes and fears.

Yet what dangers men will dare If but only in the air May be heard some eager mention of their name, Tho they hear it not themselves, ’tis much the same.

—Anon.

SOUL REST, THE SEAL OF GOD.

By E. W. Whitney

“And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God; and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed; and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.” Rev. 7 : 1–4.

As “servants of our God” who expect to receive the “seal of the living God,” it is reasonable, indeed, it is essential, that we understand from His Word just what constitutes such a mark of distinction as that mentioned in the text quoted. It certainly must have an important significance.

A seal implies authority, power, legal exactness, completeness. From the text it appears that but a comparatively small number (144,000) receive it, but they are a remarkable company. From the first verses of Revelation 14 we learn that they are not “defiled with women” (symbols of worldly churches); they “follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth” (live as Christ lived); they are “redeemed from among men” (translated without seeing death); as “first- [fully developed] fruits unto God and the Lamb;” and “in their mouth was found no guile; for they are without fault before the throne of God,” where they sing a song of experience which none others in the universe can sing—the “Song of Moses and the Lamb.”

In the first verse of this chapter this seal with which the 144,000 are sealed is called the “Father’s name.” The Father’s name is His character (Ex. 34 : 5–7), which is described as “merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.” But this character of God as here presented we can never know, so as to reproduce it in our lives, only by seeing it revealed in a life of flesh like our own. So Christ, the Son of God, knowing and possessing His Father’s character, “was made flesh, and dwelt among us, . . . full

of grace and truth” (John 1 : 14), in order that we might behold, understand, and possess the same character; or, in other words, possess the “Father’s name.” Christ not only came in “flesh,” but in the “likeness of sinful flesh” (Rom. 8 : 3), and was “tempted in all points like as we are” (Heb. 4 : 15), to enable us to know that it is possible for us with our sinful flesh to possess and reveal the character of God. His work while thus in the world was simply and only to manifest the name of God; for He says, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. . . . I have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world.” John 17 : 4, 5.

What Christ was, and what He did in order to manifest His Father’s name, constitute, then, the “seal of God,” for “Him hath God the Father sealed.” John 6 : 27. Therefore, just what He was, and what He did in the “likeness of sinful flesh,” is just what those who are “sealed” will be and do even in their sinful flesh in order to receive the “seal of God.” They must reflect perfectly the character of God as it was manifested in Christ’s life. By beholding the glory (the character) of the Lord, “they are changed into the same image” (2 Cor. 3 : 18); they “see Him as He is” (in character), and become “like Him” (1 John 3 : 2). As Paul expresses it, by “the knowledge of the Son of God,” they are made perfect, even “unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” Eph. 4 : 13. In harmony with this, another has said:—

Not one of us will ever receive the seal of God while our characters have one spot or stain upon them. It is left with us to remedy the defects in our characters, to cleanse the soul temple of every defilement. Then the latter rain will fall upon us as the early rain fell upon the disciples on the day of Pentecost. . . . Those who are uniting with the world, are receiving the worldly mold, and preparing for the mark of the beast. Those who are distrustful of self, who are humbling themselves before God and purifying their souls by obeying the truth—these are receiving the heavenly mold, and preparing for the seal of God in their foreheads. When the decree goes forth, and the stamp is impressed, their character will remain pure and spotless for eternity.

The Rest of God.

Now what is the most prominent characteristic in Christ’s life to which He Himself calls our attention, in order that we be like Him and so receive the “seal of God”? Answer may be given in one word, “rest.” This may not at first thought appear; but a little reflection will make it clear. He says, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” He does not offer those who come to Him that which He does not Himself experience and possess. He offers that which He manifests in His own life. He offers that of which sinful flesh is utterly destitute and absolutely helpless without Christ to obtain. Notice that this rest is not cessation from labor; for He says in giving the rest, “Take My yoke,” the most expressive emblem of labor. In other words, He says: You are weary and can not labor effectually, so come to Me and learn My rest, that your labor may be efficient because restful; for “My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” It is not physical rest, but soul rest; “learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” In this sense it is more a cessation from worry and anxious care, through faith in God, than from work; for He says even of His own Sabbath-keeping, that it was doing His Father’s work: “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” John 5 : 17. But He did not work at His own work in any sense. “I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me,” “and to finish His work.”

Indeed, this idea of soul restfulness connected with arduous labor is the prominent one running all through His precept and example. It is expressed in the Sermon on the Mount in these words: “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. . . . But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

This experience comes only through the exercise of a perfect faith, even “the faith of Jesus.” So the true rest of God (His seal) can only be bestowed through perfect faith—a faith perfected by love—which is ceasing from our “own works,” and letting God work in us “both to will and to do.” Thus we enter “His rest,” we have His character, His name, His seal. He works in us and we rest.

The physical rest enjoined by the fourth commandment as an elementary principle, when accepted and practised as the acknowledgment and worship of the true God, the Creator of heaven and earth, constitutes the sign of sanctification. Ex. 31 : 13. But the spiritual rest which the elementary principle embraces, can only be comprehended through Christ, can only be learned from His life and example (which was in itself and as a whole, true Sabbath-keeping), and can only be enjoyed by those who have His faith. When Sabbath-keeping develops into such rest, it then becomes the seal of sanctification in contrast with the mere sign of it.

The one mark which distinguishes the 144,000 from every other class of beings in the universe is the “seal of God.” They have, by putting away unbelief, and studying Christ, seen Him, and God through Him, in this life as no other people ever have done. Unbelief is the only thing which stands in the way of its reception. “Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.” Heb. 4 : 11.

E. W. WHITNEY.

Boulder, Colo.

Continue reading: CAUSES OF CHRIST'S REJECTION