[The following article, by Brother Washington Morse, who has been an Adventist for more than threescore years and ten, and knew William Miller, was written on his ninety-third birthday, June 24, 1909.]
In Acts 17:31 we read that God hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world by that Man Christ Jesus whom He hath ordained; and in Rev. 14:6, 7, we have a message saying, “The hour of His judgment is come.” This message is called “the everlasting Gospel,” a message that reaches to the end of man’s probation.
We turn to Dan. 8:13, 14 and find a timetable 2300 years long, and in Dan. 9:25 we find where the 2300 years commenced. In that verse we are told that it is from the “going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem,” and from that time unto the Messiah the Prince shall be 69 weeks. Each day standing for a year makes 483 years.
Beginning of the Days
In Ezra 7:7 we find the going forth of the commandment was B.C. 457. Here we have a Bible date from which to commence the 2300 years. Now run down this 2300-year line from 457, just 483 years, and you will come to Messiah the Prince at His baptism, when a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased;” and in Luke 3:23 it is said that Christ began to be about thirty years old when He began His ministry.
In Dan. 9:24 we read that seventy weeks are cut off from the 2300 days. In seventy weeks there are 490 days; each day stands for a year, making 490 years. Here Christ was crucified to make an end of sin, make reconciliation for iniquity and bring in everlasting righteousness; and in verse 27 we read that Christ was cut off, crucified right in the middle of this seventieth week. Christ’s ministry was three and one-half years, and three and one-half years more reached to the martyrdom of Stephen. Here ended the seventy weeks, or the 490 days of the 2300 years. Now add the age of Christ, thirty-three and one-half years, to 1810, and it reaches to 1844, October 22. Here is where the time appointed of God ended, when the judgment would commence. And it did commence in heaven at that time.
Proclamation of the Judgment
More than sixty years ago God raised up men all over the world to reckon these prophetic periods; and when we came to compare our reckonings, we were greatly surprised to find that all came out alike in their reckonings. All took the same mode of reckoning, a day for a year. All preached that the judgment would commence at the end of the 2300 days — 1844. Our message then was based on time, the prophetic periods.
The tenth chapter of Revelation more clearly explains our position than does the fourteenth chapter. As was predicted in chapter 10:6, we did proclaim that time should be no longer, and it was true that prophetic time did end just where we proclaimed it would. But we believed it was probationary time. You will see that this angel is clothed with a cloud (verse 1), and it was so. We did not understand that we were to meet with such a disappointment. Neither did we understand the sanctuary subject. It was all sealed up from our view. Verse 4. Neither did we see the third angel’s message. That was reserved for a future work and time. Our work was to show the world the time when the judgment would commence, and now we see that the third message is to be proclaimed while the judgment is in session in heaven, and God will have a corresponding work on earth.
The Living and the Dead
Now we are not under the cloud, but see clearly by the sanctuary subject that the judgment for the last sixty-five years in heaven has been taking up the cases of the sainted dead. As John says in Rev. 20:12: “I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.” Verse 13.
Here we see that men are judged while they are dead. In the first epistle of Peter (4:5, 6), we read that the Gospel was preached to those who are dead that they might be judged according to men in the flesh. In this judgment those who are being judged, both dead and living, are on the earth.
Just as soon as the cases of the righteous dead are taken up, then will our cases with all living saints who are sealed according to Rev. 7:3, come up. Then the blotting-out time will come. See Rev. 3:5, “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels.” Here are truths that when preached in God’s Spirit will command respect. The teaching of fifty years ago in this message is the platform to-day.
The Sabbatic Division of Time
By F. W. Bishop
By F. W. Bishop
TIME is measured duration, and duration is like God, everlasting. If time were not divided into different periods, we would be unable to assign dates to events, and all would be confusion. But God has appointed the times and the seasons, and we should be perfectly intelligent concerning them. Time was divided into periods at the beginning, when God divided the light from the darkness, thus producing the day.
Seven days were marked off arbitrarily into the week by the Sabbath of the seventh day. Outside of this, the real reason for the week, no one can explain the existence of the week, which is, and always has been, in existence among all the nations of the earth. The fact that all have the week shows that it must have begun with the history of the race. And the fact that the week is the same among all nations shows that it must have had a common origin. One hundred and eight languages out of a total of one hundred and sixty which name the days of the week, call the seventh day the “Sabbath,” or by an equivalent name.
The year marked by the relation of the earth and the sun was further divided into twelve months (Eze. 32:1), and four seasons (Gen. 8:22). All this was comprehended in the original plan of God when He gave the creative fiat, “Let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.” Gen. 1:14.
The weekly cycle is marked by the Sabbath, and is time’s honor to the Sabbath. It is not the only division of time in the providence of God, however, that does honor to the rest day. When the Israelites went out of Egypt, they traveled sixteen days in the first month, or from the fourteenth to the thirtieth. Ex. 13:3. The second month they were thirty days en route, and three days were occupied in the third month. Ex. 19:1, 2, 15.
In this journey of the Israelites, we have forty-nine days, or a week of Sabbaths; that is, seven Sabbaths in succession, or seven weeks. The Israelites always remembered that journey by counting seven Sabbaths, or forty-nine days. Lev. 23:15. This is the only origin that can even be implied for the Day of Pentecost, which was fifty days from the Passover.
This same period seems to have continued until the time of the crucifixion of Christ. After His resurrection He was seen of His disciples on a number of occasions for a period of forty days, until the time that He ascended, which, including the two days of the crucifixion and burial, make forty-two days. Seven days more bring us to the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out, fifty days from the Passover. Thus Heaven itself set its seal upon the last Sabbatic week in accordance with the instructions given ages before. “Ye shall7count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath . . . seven Sabbaths shall be complete.” Lev. 23:15.
There were also weeks of years. The Israelites were to count forty-nine years, or seven Sabbaths of years. Lev. 25:8. Every seventh year the earth was to rest from cultivation. Lev. 25:1-4. When the seven sevens had expired,—the forty-nine years,—a jubilee was to be proclaimed; all servants were to be set free; all land was to revert to its original owners.
Again there was a division of time in which a thousand years were to stand as one day. 2 Peter 3:8. Following the Biblical chronology as nearly as is possible, we find that the world has stood nearly six thousand years. We do not know exactly when the six thousand years end, but when the date which is known only to God arrives, the work of this earth will cease, and it will enter upon the long period of a thousand years of rest, and this last thousand years is the seventh, or the Sabbath, thousand.
How is the earth made to rest?
When Christ comes He will take away all of His people. 1 Thess. 4:17. They will be with Him one thousand years. Rev. 20:4. All the wicked alive when He comes will be destroyed. 2 Thess. 1:8. They will not be raised until the thousand years are completed. Rev. 20:5. With the righteous in heaven and the wicked all dead, there will be no man on the earth during this long period to till the ground, and hence the earth will keep her Sabbath.
In Hosea we have a reference to three days very difficult to understand unless we take them to mean typical days of one thousand years each. He says that “after two days will He revive us: in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight.” Hosea 6:2. This evidently refers to the resurrection, when all God’s children will be revived, or made alive, and raised up to live in His sight. In the verse preceding he speaks of the division of the nation, which took place under Jeroboam, just as the fourth thousand years was beginning. This fourth day of a thousand years began at some time quite close to the date of the disruption of the Jewish nation. The nation was torn, but God would heal it; it was smitten, but God would bind it up. Hosea 6:1. Three thousand years had already expired in the time of Hosea; three thousand years have nearly expired since then, and now we are brought to the close of the sixth day of a thousand years. After the two thousand years, and in the third thousand years, the resurrection will take place, and Israel will once more be “healed,” or bound up, as promised by Hosea. We are now in the third day, or after the two days, and the reviving or resurrection can not be many years in the future.
Thus the Sabbath is seen in the seventh day. We are reminded of it also in the week of Sabbaths, and in the week of years, and in the week of ages of one thousand years each. Thus the Sabbath and the close of the reign of sin are linked in one golden bond, for we shall keep the seventh age, the Sabbatic thousand years, in the home of the saved. Thus the Sabbath and redemption are joined in holy association. God’s people may toil on in faith in this world of sin for six days of a thousand years, but they shall keep the seventh day of a thousand years at home at rest with the Lord.
Pua, Chile.
Fears
By Gertrude Palmer
FEAR of the future renders vain
Pleasures that come to-day;
And hours of useless care and pain
To fears we often pay.
Fear bids us shrink from duty’s part,
Shows giant foes to face;
A traitor he, if in the heart
He finds abiding-place.
E’en Envy whispers unto Fear
That Fame, discerning worth,
Another’s name shall write more clear
Upon her scroll of earth.
Aye, jealous Fear can never see
God gave another more,
And more demands the work shall be
Before life’s day is o’er.
God knows the gifts that should be ours,
He chooses them for all,
And some fear loss of all their powers
If downward once they fall.
Fear laughs at them with scornful eyes,
But failure is not crime;
And those who gain new gifts arise
And climb the heights sublime.
They hear the Master’s great command,
And upward, onward go;
But e’en the bravest, strongest, band
Find Fear the greatest foe.
GERTRUDE PALMER.
Need of Spiritual Discernment
By R.
1. What is said of the natural man?
“The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Cor. 2:14.
2. How were the prophecies given?
“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.
3. Will the same Spirit teach that which is inspired?
“Which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” 1 Cor. 2:13.
4. Is this true of all the Scriptures?
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Tim. 3:16, 17.
5. Are we to use our own judgment in interpreting the Scriptures?
“Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scriptures is of any private interpretation.” 2 Peter 1:20.
6. How do some deal with the Scriptures?
“In which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures unto their own destruction.” 2 Peter 3:16.
7. How should we receive the Scriptures?
“For . . . also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God . . . ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God.” 2 Thess. 2:13.
8. What does it do for him who receives it?
“Which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” Verse 13, last part.
9. How powerful are its effects?
“The word of God is quick [living] and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Heb. 4:12.
10. Why do men not see spiritual things?
“Except a man be born from above, he can not see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3.
11. Has man any desire to see spiritual things?
“Every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be discovered.” John 3:20.
12. How are men kept from seeing the truth?
“The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ . . . should shine unto them.” 2 Cor. 4:4.
13. Can the natural man subject himself to the things of God?
“The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Rom. 8:7.
14. What mind may we have?
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 2:5. R.
The Master's Hand
By Horatius Bonar
In the still air the music lies unheard;
In the rough marble, beauty hides unseen;
To make the music and the beauty needs
A master's touch, the sculptor's chisel keen.
Great Master, touch us with Thy skilled hand;
Let not the music that is in us die!
Great Sculptor, hew and polish us, nor let,
Hidden and lost, Thy form within us lie!
Spare not the stroke! Do with us as Thou wilt!
Let there be naught unfinished, broken, marred;
Complete Thy purpose, that we may become
Thy perfect image, Thou our God and Lord!
— Horatius Bonar.
One Book for All
By John M. McCahan
THERE is one Bible for childhood and youth, maturity and age, poverty and wealth, ignorance and culture. It is a book of revelation and enfoldment, of letter and spirit, command and suggestion, history and literature. Whoever and wherever one may be, the same grand old Book, plain and fathomless, ever new, is easily available and divinely efficacious for comfort and encouragement, inspiration and help. Praise the Lord for this abiding proclamation to each and all of His measureless love and matchless grace.
— Rev. John M. McCahan.
Common Deeds as Well as Miracles
In all of Christ’s life there were a few miracles showing divine power; there were countless revealings of kindness, gentleness, sympathy, thoughtfulness, encouragement, mere common kindnesses, which were as full of God as were His miracles.
This must be as true of His followers as of the Master. One may be a true witness for Christ and yet not be a worker of miracles. Or to bring it into the language of our own time, one may not do great or conspicuous things, and yet may do blessed service for the Master and for men. Many people are hero-worshipers. They admire and magnify the work done by the miracle-workers. The popular preacher wins by his eloquence, and everybody praises him. Crowds flock to hear him. Meanwhile, scores of commonplace preachers toil away in obscurity, not drawing crowds, not winning commendation, never mentioned in the newspapers. Yet they go about seven days in the week giving out their lives in all manner of kindly service to men. Their lives are full of self-denials. They carry benedictions into people’s homes. They pray beside sick-beds and they comfort mourners. They carry their people in their hearts, and are friends to the needy, the poor, the children. They are not eloquent, and no one praises them publicly, yet they may be ten times the blessing in the world that the brilliant orators are. They do no miracles, but they are Christ’s beloved servants, messengers of His love to the world.— Sunday School Times.
Obedience, and Whose?
GOD'S law, the Decalogue, demands obedience. The transgression of that law is sin. 1 John 3:4; Rom. 7:7. “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Rom. 3:23. All are therefore condemned by the law, and worthy to die; for “the wages of sin is death.” Rom. 6:23; Eze. 18:4. God’s glory is His goodness, His righteousness. Ex. 33:18, 19; 34:6, 7. Now as God created man for His glory (Isa. 43:7), and as man has sinned and come short of that glory, there must be some means by which he may be brought back to that glory if he is to be saved. That means is the Gospel, “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; . . . for therein [that is, in the Gospel] is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” Rom. 1:16, 17. “Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.” Rom. 3:22.
He, therefore, who believes in Jesus Christ is counted righteous, not with his own righteousness, not with his own law-keeping, but with “the righteousness of God,” with the obedience of Jesus Christ; “for as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One shall the many be made righteous.” Rom. 5:19. To this righteousness the law and the prophets bear witness, showing that the righteousness which God gives by faith is the same that is demanded by the law and taught by the prophets. Rom. 3:21.
From our transgressions of the first commandment—the worship of false gods—we are through faith justified by Christ’s obedience to that commandment. From our transgressions of the sixth commandment—murder and hatred—we are through faith justified by Christ’s obedience to that commandment. From our transgressions of the fourth commandment,—Sabbath-breaking,—we are justified through faith by Christ’s Sabbath-keeping.
Now, if we are justified from idolatry, or murder, or adultery, or profanity, are we free to indulge in those things?—“God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin [“transgression of the law”] live any longer therein [in transgression]?” Rom. 6:1. By so doing we would make Christ the “minister of sin,” building again the things that were destroyed. Gal. 2:17, 18.
Now is not all this just as true of the Sabbath precept as of any other part of the law? Shall Christ’s obedience be accepted or be hoped for as respects one precept and despised as regards another? He would live His own life in us, in each one of His children, over again. Would He live a different life, a different righteousness, than when He was here on earth?—Nay, He would not. He is “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.” He who rejects a part of the obedience of Christ really rejects all. The law is a whole law of the one God and one Saviour. Those who are “partial in the law” do not keep God’s ways. Mal. 2:9.
How Christian Science Misuses Scripture
VERY many instances might be given to show how Christian Science, as it is called, disregards the teachings of the Holy Scriptures. In all these instances it teaches principles absolutely contrary to the express statements of Scripture. In this article, however, we wish to notice only one of these examples. The instance in hand relates to the death of Christ.
The Scriptures plainly teach that Christ died for mankind. They teach this in unmistakable language. They put it forth with emphasis. They never allow the slightest question of the emphatic proposition. But Christian Science does not believe in death, and therefore can not consistently allow the Biblical statements of Christ’s death to pass unchallenged. It would, furthermore, be folly to send forth the teaching that is plainly antagonistic to the Scriptures unless something is done to make them seem to agree.
If the New Testament teaches anything at all, it teaches that the death of Christ was vicarious, and reconciles man to God. But Christian Science denies that Christ ever died. Holding to the fundamental doctrine of Christian Science, that death is an illusion of mortal mind, in order to maintain, or seem to maintain, its claim of being Christian, it is driven to the necessity of seeking to modify the words of the New Testament, which teach the death of Christ.
It is true that the word says, “We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.” But if you were so uninformed of the methods of Christian Science as to quote this text to a Scientist, you would speedily be disarmed, at least in the mind of the Christian Science disciple. This last-named individual would promptly open his copy of “Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures,” and with this marvelous key, which is supposed to unlock every supposed locked text in the Bible, he will show you how fatally you have erred (?) in taking the scripture just as it reads. There in the chapter on “Atonement and Eucharist,” you will find that this so-called key has taken strange liberties with the word of God. You will find that it has presumed to do with the language of the Spirit of God what you would not allow another to do with your own written words, what no government would permit for a moment with any of its important written documents. Thus you would see that the author of “Science and Health” had anticipated the quotation of this scripture against her doctrines, and she has entered into the citadel of truth ahead of you, and broken the point from this spear of the Lord; she has dulled the blade of the Scriptural two-edged sword. She smiles serenely at your inane efforts to break down her impregnable defense.
In the book mentioned you will find the scripture under consideration has been quoted, but instead of its reading, “We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,” you will find that a single word has been inserted into the statement, which in effect revolutionizes it, and as corrected, makes it harmonize with the teachings of Christian Science. As thus quoted it reads, “We were reconciled to God by the [seeming] death of His Son.” To such lengths are they driven in seeking to retain their appellation of Christian!
At this point the average person of common sense who has not been befogged by any of the chicanery of the “illusions of mortal mind,” will ask, “Why in the name of reason does this proof-reading of the sacred text make any real change in it?” And, of course, the only sensible answer that can be given is that the word of God is too high above the reach of man to be really changed by any of this foolish toying of words; but in the minds of nearly one hundred thousand persons, whatever Mrs. Eddy interprets the Bible to mean, just that and nothing else it does mean. And so the awful responsibility of changing the scripture to these many—and the others who will yet believe it—rests upon her shoulders, and upon the shoulders of those who helped to further the notion.
If Mrs. Eddy says that this scripture should read “seeming death,” instead of “death,” as Paul gave it through the inspiration of the Spirit, Mrs. Eddy’s authority in the matter far overshadows any authority or rights that the apostle Paul may have in the matter. To them it is clear that Paul was aiming at the truth, but did not quite hit it; his statement must be emended in the new light which comes now through Christian Science. Instead of Christian Science being changed by its author to agree with the Bible, the Bible must be made to agree with Christian Science.
But we wish to say with all candor that between the expression “death” of the apostle Paul and the paraphrasing of it into “seeming death” of Mrs. Eddy, there is a gulf as wide as the poles asunder. Seeming death is no death at all; it is merely an illusion. We know that this makes the statement agree with Christian Science, but does it agree with the facts? Does it at all affect the word of God?
To make the words read as does Mrs. Eddy, is to say that we are reconciled to God by the illusion of death. We are reconciled to God by being befooled and befuddled. We thought it was death; it seemed to be death; and this illusory death reconciles. Was there ever more arrant nonsense? It would seem as tho the enemy of all righteousness must laugh outright at this extreme gullibility in swallowing such arrogant foolishness. Christian Science takes its presumptive pen and proof-reads and corrects Paul’s writings to suit itself; and when it has done its work, behold the man of God is represented to have written the opposite of what he actually said.
Suppose you do an errand for a friend and9then in conformity to the facts write, “I have paid your bill,” how would you like the idea of some one’s intercepting the letter and writing in the word “seemingly” between the “have” and “paid,” making you say, “I have seemingly paid the bill”? Would it mean now what it did before? Would it at all express your thought? Would it be in accordance with the facts? And if the recipient supposed the amended statement was your statement, would it not make you a falsifier to your friend? You would certainly do all in your power to correct the statement, and you would lay the responsibility of the change of language upon the one who dared to make the high-handed amendment.
God will certainly hold every soul responsible, every soul that dares to pervert His word. We will show next week what God has to say of those who change His word or pervert His Gospel.
Not a Type, but Eternal
THE Sabbath of Jehovah is not a type or shadow in the sense that it points out or prefigures something in which it ends or expires. It is eternal. The Passover was a type which ended by limitation at the cross. But the Sabbath of the Lord is a memorial of creation and a sign of our acknowledgment of God as creator and redeemer. Ex. 20: 8-11; Eze. 20: 12, 20. It is an emblem of the rest in Christ Jesus. Heb. 4: 1-11. It can never pass away, because the facts upon which it is founded are eternal, and the reasons why God gave it are eternal. But the yearly sabbaths and feasts, of which not less than seven are noted in Leviticus 23, “beside the Sabbaths of the Lord” (verse 38), “are a shadow of things to come.” Col. 2: 17.
This was emphatically true of the yearly sabbaths, but not at all true of the Sabbath of the Lord. If sin had never entered, the Sabbath would still exist, even as it will throughout all eternity in the earth made new. Isa. 66: 22, 23. What the priests and kings of the people of God in past dispensations were among men, such were the yearly sabbaths among institutions. Priests, kings, and sabbaths were typical. But what God has always been and will be to His people,—Creator and Redeemer,—such has His memorial, His sign, His Sabbath, ever been and will be. It is like its Author—eternal.
Puffed up or Built up—Which?
The plain Anglo-Saxon rendering of the last part of the first verse of the eighth chapter of 1 Corinthians is, “Knowledge puffeth up, but love buildeth up.” There is quite a difference between the two processes, and they represent very well two classes of professed Christians to be found in every church; namely, the puffed-up professor and the built-up Christian.
The former is like a balloon, the latter like a house. The former is developed from the top, the latter rises from a low but secure foundation. (Highest types are referred to.) The balloon Christian makes the greatest show at first, the built-up Christian endures. The balloon Christian is puffed up with conceit, arrogance, vanity, pride, self-sufficiency, popularity, all of which are based on a very superficial knowledge, which seems to be something when it is not. He (or she) imagines that he knows it all, is superior to his brethren in great attainments, and really did the Lord and the church a favor by uniting with it. “Knowledge puffeth up.”
The second class is built up. They do not begin in the air, but low down. They have “digged deep” (Luke 6:48), and have laid the foundation on the Rock Christ Jesus (1 Cor. 3:11). The word of God’s grace (Acts 20:32) furnishes the material by which their character grows, or is built up, each particle added to the building being cemented by the Spirit of life to that already built, so that the whole becomes one living rock structure. And thus it grows day by day, year by year, not always showing great beauty in its rugged outlines, but, nevertheless, continually growing more and more beautiful as it nears the perfection of the pattern after which it was designed by the great Master Architect.
In its highest type the balloon Christian is attractive to the multitude as his gorgeous colors and mammoth outline are swayed to and fro by the various winds of doctrine, but he is a poor shelter and a risky refuge. He may lift a few for a little while, but he always brings them down at great risk, often with certain destruction. Punctured by the least accident or trial, he collapses. He may be patched up and inflated again and again, but his texture grows weaker each time; till, finally, he collapses by his own weight, and perhaps destroys others in his fall. Many such Christians are of toy-balloon size, never much noticed, never depended upon, always expected to burst or be blown away. Some are mammoth affairs and draw large crowds, but all are of the same character; they are merely “puffed up.”
A house does not attract particular attention from curiosity seekers. In a gala summer day it is forgotten. But it is useful to shelter and protect, a “hiding-place from the wind,” “a covert from the tempest,” a refuge from the storm. It is depended upon in storm and wind, in cold and heat. And such a character is lasting, enduring, permanent, if built upon Christ Jesus and in His way.
Fellow Christian, are you a balloon Christian, or a house Christian? Are you puffed up, or built up? Are you feeding on human knowledge, conceit, or pride, or on the word and love of God? It will make a vast difference in the great judgment-day. Examine yourselves now, whether ye be in the faith.
The Gospel in Names
GOD preaches the Gospel often in wonderful ways. Even the names of the great antediluvian patriarchs tell the story of salvation for man. Note how this is. Using the Hebrew meanings of these names, we have the following: “(Adam) Man in God’s image (Seth) substituted (Enos) man in misery (Cainan) lamenting. (Mahalaleel) The blessed God (Jared) will come down (Enoch) teaching. (Methuselah) His death will bring (Lamech) to the weary (Noah) rest.” This is the exact order of the names as they occur and the meaning of each in its order. It told to men in a chain of providence the hope of redemption. The Spirit of God directed each godly parent in turn to name his child in such manner as to add the appropriate part to the wonderful sentence God was dictating through the years. As the Bible was given part by part through the ages until the great story was completed, so here in simpler form the names of holy men were so arranged as to tell God’s plan of redemption.
In Adversity and Prosperity
LIKE causes produce like effects. When Joseph was taken into Egypt he was not alone. The Mighty One was with him, because he had resigned himself into God’s hands to follow Him exactly in all His ways. We first find him as a slave, but merit will out. “The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man. And his master saw that the Lord was with him . . . and all that he had he put into his hand.” We next find him as a prisoner in the Egyptian jail. “But the Lord was with Joseph, and . . . the keeper of the prison looked not to anything that was under his hand; because the Lord was with him, and that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper.” We next find him before the king. “And Pharaoh said, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is? Forasmuch as God hath showed thee all this, . . . thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled. . . . See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.”
The same thing in each instance produced precisely the same effects appropriate to the existing conditions. Unswerving allegiance to right brings the right kind of prosperity. It was never intended in the providence of God that we should all be rulers in the palace of earthly kings, but the advancement is as certain in the way that seems good to God if the conditions of the heart and life are the same. Like causes produce like effects. The prosperity God gives will be apparent to others. Confidence will be acquired as a heritage, and eventually God will bestow honor and glory.
Four Emblems of the Christian
THE Christian is emblemized by four forms of vegetation. He is a tree by the water, representing growth through the reception of truth. He is to grow as the lily, showing the blossoming of His life into beauty. He is a well-pruned vine, typifying fruit-bearing under severe trial and correction. And He is to flourish as the palm-tree, and this is the token of his final triumph.
