God is love. The history of the world, of nations, and of individuals, shows this and this only. "In sparing the life of Cain, the murderer, God gave the world an example of what would be the result of permitting the sinner to live, to continue a course of unbridled iniquity." The evil traits of character transmitted to his descendants, and encouraged and cultivated by his teachings, his influence, and example, brought in a state of affairs that could not be remedied except by blotting out a wretched and sin-cursed race. "In mercy to the world, God blotted out its wicked inhabitants in Noah's time." Eight chosen souls, saved from the general wreck, were made sufficient to start the world once more. It was the family of the only one that was found righteous before the Lord in that generation. This was to be a lesson to all the world for their instruction and benefit. Over and over again in the history of nations has this thing been worked out in one way and another. National existence is continued, national prosperity is promoted by the Great Ruler, so long as there are individuals within the nation who will seek the Lord. Chastisements of one kind and another are brought upon the individuals, as mentioned in the fourth chapter of Amos, that they may return unto the Lord. But when these can no longer avail, when the individuals and the nation will not seek the Lord, then that nation is blotted out and gives place to another.
God's people have ever been the light of the world. This was the case of the few in the patriarchal age who served the Lord. It was the design and was the result of the formation of the kingdom of Israel. Did not Abraham proceed on a missionary journey when he got him out of his country, and from his kindred, and came into the land of Canaan? Did not the twelve patriarchs, with Jacob and Joseph as their heads, shed a light "o'er all the land of Ham" when they "went down into Egypt to sojourn there"? And did not their establishment in Canaan, that great highway of travel between Asia and Africa, between the West and the East, the center of the earth as it then was, did not their establishment here shed a light o'er all the world, teaching them to seek the Lord, and showing them how they might find him? Whence came so many traditions among the heathen corresponding to incidents in the first age of the world, or circumstances in the history of Israel, if it was not that their forefathers obtained light from the vine-clad hills of Judah? But, oh, how sad to trace the apostasy and shame of those whom God called as missionaries! "Thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity." Jer. 30:15. Their own Messiah, he for whom they had fondly looked for over a thousand years, they took and put to death, denying that he was their king. But even then the Lord, in wondrous love, spared yet a little longer "this cherished vine of his own planting." The kingdom was "taken from them and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof," but a great work was done among them in gathering out from this company of murderers of their Lord a few who would really serve him. But when, finally, they not only rejected the message of mercy themselves, but forbade the faithful to "speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway," then indeed "the wrath came upon them to the uttermost," and there was no remedy.
The Israelites were not brought into Canaan until the iniquity of the Amorites was full, but in the fourth generation this had taken place, and no more good could come from that nation; none of them would seek the Lord. The very earth was defiled, and "the land itself vomited out her inhabitants." Lev. 18:25. But even then the Lord said: "I will not drive them out from before thee in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land." Ex. 23:29, 30. And it was the Lord's design that if they continued faithful to him, they should increase so greatly and so rapidly that they would occupy and inherit, not only all that land, but all the earth. He promised to take sickness away from their midst, that none should cast their young, nor be barren in the land, and that they should live to the natural length of human life. Verses 25 and 26. Of course this was to be brought about largely by natural laws, that is, by laws that he has already established in nature. For "everything that is outside of our knowledge of law, is not therefore outside of law." The one is the common, the other the less common, manifestation of God's work. But he gave them such a marvelous code of laws, embracing every need of their minds or bodies, that if they had been followed they would have brought their physical and mental salvation even in this world. The history of this world would then have been vastly different from what it now is—no iron monarchy of Rome to rule the world, no Papacy to wear out the saints of the Most High, and exalt itself above all that is called God or that is worshiped. The number of the subjects of the blessed kingdom would long since have been made up, and the earth itself would have been redeemed from the curse of sin.
GOD NOT RESPONSIBLE.
It was not the design of God that the history of this world should be what it has been. But in leaving man free to choose, he left open the possibility of these things taking place. It was not the will of God that the records of this world should be "traced in human misery, tears, and blood," but such was the inevitable result when man chose sin instead of God. But this world's history has been as bright as it could possibly have been since sin was allowed to enter, as bright as God himself could make it and carry out the highest good of all his creatures. The tears, the misery and woe, that we have seen since the banishment from that glad paradise, are but the logical results of thoughts of self, for there was where sin originated. But yet all the results that would have followed this pride of heart and thoughts of self have not been suffered to occur, only enough of them to illustrate the difference between sin and God. This earth's history would have been vastly different if sin had been allowed full course after entering Paradise, for it would have ended in unimaginable misery and anguish and the early extinction of the race. "We cannot know how much we owe to Christ for the peace and protection which we enjoy. It is the restraining power of God that prevents mankind from passing fully under the control of Satan," and of course feeling the weight of the malice and enmity of this author of evil. When God's presence was at last withdrawn from Jerusalem and the Jewish people, they had nothing to restrain their evil passions, nothing to shield them from the vindictive malice of Satan. And the horrors of the siege of Jerusalem show the result. The same thing is finally to take place with the whole world, and human words are feeble to give a picture of that dreadful day. "And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbor, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor." "In the mad strife of their own fierce passions, and by the awful outpouring of God's unmingled wrath, fall the wicked inhabitants of the earth." "And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried," "the whole will be involved in ruin more terrible than that which came upon Jerusalem of old."
GOD'S MERCY TO EGYPT.
Abraham first, and after him Jacob and the twelve patriarchs, were sent down into Egypt to proclaim his name. The children of Ham had lost the knowledge of Jehovah. The evil traits of character, transmitted from father to son, had multiplied and strengthened by indulgence until the nation at large had lost sight of the Eternal. Then these servants of God were sent down there to proclaim his truth—the great plan of redemption. The majesty of the exodus, conducted by the visible manifestation of the Lord, struck terror to the gods of Egypt, and must have led many of that land to seek the Lord. And "it is a noteworthy fact that all symbolical representations of the resurrection of the human body, so common on Egyptian monuments, are never found on tombs of the old empire prior to the settlement of the Hebrews in Egypt."—Buried Cities Recovered, p. 50 . The truth may have been received in the love of it by individuals, but not so by the nation at large. There were judgments and calamities sent upon them to lead them to seek the Lord, but yet they "have not returned unto me, saith the Lord." And as surely as he "hath determined the times before appointed" in which this may be done, just so surely there came a time, and we see it to-day, when the words of inspiration were fulfilled: "I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians; and6they shall fight every one against his brother," "city against city, and kingdom against kingdom;" "and I will give [them] over into the hands of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord." "It shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations;" "and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt." Isa. 19:2, 4; Eze. 29:15; 30:13.
(To be continued.)
CONVERSION.
By Elder William Covert
(Concluded.)
It was the entire surrender to the mind and will of God that gave the apostle Paul such wonderful victories over sin. His greatest conquests were made possible because of the absence of self. The Lord’s message to him was, “My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
When the apostle learned what his condition must be, for the power of God to become effectual through him, he said, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, . . . for when I am weak, then am I strong.” 2 Cor. 12: 9, 10. Saul of Tarsus was nowhere to be found. Paul of himself, such as he once had been, had passed and gone when he wrote his epistle to the churches. He wrote of himself: “I be nothing.” “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” “Neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth.” “Our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed.” Addressing others he wrote, “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Christ Jesus.” Rom. 6: 11.
In all this the Lord is telling man that there must be a complete cutting away from the carnal nature and a transplanting into that which is divine. The penitent sinner is represented as a wild branch desiring to bear tame fruit; that this branch may be enabled to enjoy what it desires, it is cut off from the wild tree, and grafted into a tame one. There it must live, grow, and bear fruit among its branches; but the natural life of the graft is in its new relation reversed, so that its wild nature is no more manifested in its fruits, but in this position it bears fruit like the natural branches of the cultivated tree from whence it draws its life. A similar lesson showing how the nature of Christ through conversion takes possession of the entire being of the believer, is taught in the Saviour’s parable of the vine and its branches. As the vine imparts its own life and nature to all its branches, and its usefulness is manifested in the fruits which are gathered only from the branches, so it is with Christ and those united with him. What Christ desires to be to all, can be seen in the lives of those who truly believe in him. The good deeds manifested through them are the fruits of righteousness, which have their source in the life and power of Christ abiding in their hearts. As the branch can bear fruit only when connected with the vine, so man can be righteous only when Christ works through him.
The power and nature of Christ come into the soul through abiding faith and manifest themselves through a Christlike life. The expanding of the Christian character from the life of Christ is also likened to the growing of a plant from the soil. The believer is “rooted and built up in him.” From the living words of Christ, sown in the heart, a new life springs into being, which feeds from the source and strengthens for the service and conflicts of life, as it takes on spiritual tissue and muscle. This new creature comes forth to take the place of the old man that has been crucified. The apostle states that the former man was put off because of his deceitful lusts, and the new man “is created in righteousness and true holiness.” The man put away would tell falsehoods, get angry, speak evil of his neighbor, talk of corrupt and impure things, while the new man speaks the truth, loves his neighbor as himself, is tender hearted, forgives all injuries, speaks to edify the hearers, and is filled and sealed with the Spirit of God. See Eph. 4: 22–32.
It is the privilege of the child of God to continually draw life and strength from the Life Giver, and become stronger and happier in the Lord as the days are going by. For the “path of the just is as a shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” As every little rootlet keeps an open mouth in the soil to feed its dependent plant, so should every faculty of the mind be opened to, and draw strength from, the Living Vine, so Christ is received into the mind through faith in the life-giving word. He then scatters the ignorance, dissipates the darkness, creates light, and restores to the mind the wisdom of God. The exhortation is, “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” Rom. 12: 2. The transformation renews the mind so that there is a capacity to prove, and to know what the perfect will of God is.
The new man is “renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him.” Col. 3: 10. The knowledge given is that which is imparted of the knowledge of Christ. It was the wisdom of God which made Christ of quick understanding and unerring judgment in truth and righteousness. Isa. 11: 2–4.
It was this wisdom that qualified the apostles for their labor in the gospel, and gave them such wonderful success in their ministry. The wisdom with which they taught was not the kind of wisdom possessed by the princes of this world, but that wisdom that God ordained for man before this world was created, the kind of wisdom which the Creator knew would be for the glory of man, even before he was given a being. See 1 Cor. 2. This wisdom can be received by man only through the medium of God’s Spirit.
There is much that God wants to make known to his children which cannot be taught through the fleshly senses. The apostle says these things God reveals unto them by his Spirit: “For,” he writes, “the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. . . . Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”
It is not until man lets go of his dependence on his carnal senses, and permits the Spirit of God to mentally endow him, that he can be taught of the Lord, because “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.”
It is essential to man’s own eternal interest that he should take hold of God’s wisdom and strength; because wisdom received not from this source is sin and foolishness. But when he does take hold on the Lord, Christ is made unto him wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.
The life and the light which will then be imparted will be the divine nature. The apostle teaches that this gift of God is for the building up of the body of Christ, till there is seen a full-grown man, who fills the measure of the stature of Christ, one who has grown up in Christ in all things.
The carnal nature cannot live in the mind that is constantly studying God’s word, meditating upon its teachings, and praying in faith for the divine illumination. The character built up through such a mind will be fragrant with kindness, sweetened with meekness, solaced with gladness, and made strong by the power of God. Through the renewed life Christ manifests himself to the sinner, the poor, and the needy. Christ within the believer is still working for the sick and the discouraged as he worked for them when he walked among men eighteen hundred years ago. It is Christ’s heart yearning over the sinner that pushes the gospel worker out into the highways and the hedges to hunt for the lost. It is because Jesus still lives and rules and directs in the lives of his children that men and women can be found who will leave their homes, to labor, to pray, to teach, and to give their lives to save sinners. In doing this they are walking as he walked, and he is by their side at every step, in the heat and in the cold, in the crowded city or upon the mountain top, at the desk or in the closet, whether sick or well, young or old, sorrowing or joyful, Jesus is there. “Lo I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”
Sinner, for you in this way the Saviour is calling. He wants you to lay your heavy burden of self down at his feet, and leave it forever. Would you not prefer to have pardon full and free, instead of the load of guilt which is crushing your soul? Would you not rather have righteousness and joy than to retain your sin and anguish of heart? You are offered a lovely home and endless life without money and without price, if you will forsake vanity and death. You can have an eternal weight of glory if you are willing to part with your shame and your folly. Will you do it? Will you let go all anxiety regarding yourself, and rest wholly resigned in the hands of the Lord forever?
EXPULSIONS OF THE JESUITS.
By Rocky Mountain American
THE following list of countries from which the Jesuits have been banished will be of interest to many of our readers:—
From Saragossa in 1555, La Palintine 1558, Vienna 1566, Avignon 1570, Antwerp, Portugal, and Sagovia 1578, England 1579, England again 1581, England again 1586, Japan 1587, Hungary and Transylvania 1588, Bordeaux 1589, the whole of France 1594, Holland 1596, the city of Tournon and Berne 1597, England 1602, England again 1604, Denmark, Thorn, and Venice 1606, Venice again 1612, the kingdom of Amura in Japan 1613, Bohemia 1618, Moravia 1619, Naples and the Netherlands 1622, China and India 1623, Malta 1634, Russia 1723, Savoy 1729, Paraguay 1733,87Portugal 1759, France again 1764, Spain and the two Sicilies 1767, the Duchy of Parma and Malta 1768, from all Christendom by the Bull of Clement XIV., in 1768.
During their suppression (from 1773 till 1814), the Jesuits assumed various names and characters, such as "Adorers of Jesus," "Redemptorists," "Brothers of the Christian Doctrine," "Brothers of the Congregation of the Holy Virgin," "Fathers of Faith," etc. In this period they were expelled as follows: From Russia in 1776, France 1804, one of the Swiss Cantons (Grison) about 1804, Naples 1810, France again 1806.
After the restoration of the Jesuits by papal edict in 1814 expulsions have been issued against them in nearly every nation in Europe.—Rocky Mountain American.
THE GLORY OF GOD.
By T. E. Bowen
BY T. E. BOWEN.
INASMUCH as all who are permitted to pass the pearly portals will be glorified beings, made capable of living in the gloriously bright presence of an eternal God, it may not be out of place to study carefully of what this glory consists, as revealed to us in God's Holy word.
Keeping the thought before us, as we study this subject, that, precisely as the Father sent Christ into the world, so Jesus has sent us, it is plain that as we study Christ and what he was while here and what went to make him glorious, we are virtually studying our duty. Most professed Christians make the fatal mistake of supposing that the life of Jesus here in the flesh was a life infinitely beyond and above their grasp, even despairing of ever attaining to such living. Let us see if God makes such excuses for us. "He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also to walk, even as He walked." 1 John 2:6. "As the Father hath loved me, so I have loved you; continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments [the same ten words which he spoke himself from Sinai], ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments [the same code of love], and abide in his love." John 15:9, 10. "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." Eph. 1:4. By these texts we learn that it is as Christ was related to his Father, so he enjoins and expects of us to be united to him. This is by love, and this love is shown by our keeping the same commandments which he kept, through the same mighty power working in us as was in him, viz., the Holy Spirit.
Now let us turn to the glory of Christ. Satan's work in this world has been to misrepresent and pervert the love and goodness of God the Father, and heap contempt upon his Son. He has known, ever since he knew anything in the downward way, that this was surely accomplished by disregarding, and teaching others to disregard, God's eternal and holy law. This is his work, and that in which he glories. Christ's work being to save the lost, he began by honoring and exalting this holy law—he magnified it. This was, therefore, the work in which he delighted and which was his glory. All heaven was interested in this holy work of restoration, for there God's law is loved and most highly esteemed.
Into the strongholds of Satan, God's Son steadily marched, trusting in the power of his mighty Father to sustain him. The dumb spake, the lame leaped, rejoicing, devils were rebuked and cast out, and the dead were restored to life. Against this rescue work Satan raged and charged with all his hellish power, but calmly he was met with, "It is written." My Father's will is written, and I know it, therefore I shall do his works, and perform his miracles, trusting alone in his power. Against such reasoning, and such living, Satan could not stand. This going about doing good was Christ's glory. It was real glory, too, although invisible to human eyesight. This fact must be thoroughly impressed upon our minds. To show that God's goodness and his loving-kindness to us poor rebels are his glory, one text will suffice, although many can be cited. And Moses said, "I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And he [the Lord] said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy." Ex. 33:18, 19.
In all this work Jesus stood precisely upon the same footing with man. That is, he took the same position it was the privilege of man to occupy, but which man did not reach; on account of his love of sin. No man could have become a redeemer, because he had sinned, and had never had bestowed upon him creative power, but all could have lived holy lives. Christ occupied man's privileged place, and because of this became our perfect Redeemer. "For we have not a High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Heb. 4:15.
This resisting of Satan, this eternal advance of the Son of God into the kingdom of Satan until he completely spoiled it, was the way, and the only way (after he had laid aside his heavenly glory and identified his interests with ours) that Jesus could glorify his Father, and his Father be glorified in his Son. Let us follow him along through his work, with this thought before us. At his baptism the Father said, "Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Remember God is no respecter of persons, and this would not have been said had not Jesus up to that time "well pleased" (glorified) his Father. Again, on the holy mount of transfiguration, the same voice speaks again, near the close of his public ministry, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." Jesus plainly said that he spoke not his own words, neither performed any miracle in his own power, but that it was the Father working through him. The Spirit was poured out without measure to him, and he clearly infers in one place that all the devils were cast out by the Spirit of God; therefore the Spirit of God working through him was God in him doing the works. This laying down of himself (see Phil. 2:5-8), thus permitting his Father to work in and through him, was "well pleasing" to the Father, for twice he plainly said so. This was the glorifying of the Father by the Son.
At the close of his work among the people, when he had finished going "about doing good," in his last recorded prayer to that Father are these words: "I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." John 17:4. By these words we learn that the doing faithfully, unto the finishing, of the work his Father intrusted into his hand, is identical with glorifying that name on earth. One means the other. They are the same. God has united them, and man cannot separate them.
Let us gather up the points: First, we are sent into the world by Christ, precisely as he was sent here by his Father, to do the same work, until that work be finished. Secondly, he glorified his Father by repulsing Satan on his own ground, with, "It is written." Thirdly, this lifetime work was the first work to be done in the glorifying of that Father in heaven, after Christ's heavenly glory had been laid aside. Fourthly, this glory consisted in Christ's spoiling the kingdom of sin, yet not being defiled with it.
Therefore we learn that Christ expects of us to live as he lived and to work as he worked. And to thus live is bringing glory to the name of Jesus, and is that which constitutes our glory now. Hence none need hope for the "exceeding and eternal weight of glory" who do not attach importance to the doing of the commandments and work now which Christ has intrusted to us here in the world. None need ever expect to hear the glorious sentence from Christ's lips, "Well done, good and faithful servant," unless he has faithfully served him—under persecution, if need be, in this world of sin. None need expect to walk with him in shining light and glory who now shun the cross, shun the hard, soldierly toil along the way. It is enough for the servant to be as his Master, and this was the path the glorious Son of God walked as he left us an example of how we could get to our Father's house. Increased glory follows. That we shall hope to study later.
Newbury, West Virginia.
WORLDLY CONFORMITY.
OUR [American Baptist] “down grade” is along the lines of worldly conformity. That pure, earnest, simple piety that characterized our fathers is not as popular as it once was. Christians resort to the theater, patronize races, neglect public worship, indulge in card playing, as if these things were not at all inconsistent with devout life. And these things are only symptoms. They bespeak the condition of the system. As blotches on the face or pains about the body are symptoms of more desperate disease, so these worldly pleasures are symptoms of disease in the Christian life of the church. “A game of cards will not harm anybody,” we are told. Nor will a blotch on the face, if that is all. What does the blotch indicate? It may be the telltale sign which shows something within that will kill. The card-playing, theater-going, dancing, mirth-seeking of Christians may be the signs of a consumption the end of which is death to piety. It is so easy to say, “It is no harm.” It is so easy to ask, “What injury can it do?” We deceive ourselves by ignoring the fact that the symptoms cover and conceal the real disease.
When Whitfield came to America, he found a worldly conformity that alarmed him. He knew that it was but the symptom of rottenness of Christian life. He felt sure that it would breed death in the end. What came out of it?—Why, the Unitarian apostasy, which carried the churches of the old orthodox faith of New England over to a denial of Christ, a rejection of the atonement, and a sacrifice of the cardinal doctrines of the gospel. The worldliness of a hundred years ago88was planted in the hollow, half-way covenant, and it ripened into Unitarianism, which threatened to blight the religious life of the whole continent.
There are some things that always ripen into harvest. Thistles will reproduce themselves, and one thistle bunch will plant a whole field. Worldliness is of the thistle tribe. It grows rank and luxuriant. It will overgrow a family and overrun a whole church. It is as hard to fight, and as difficult to exterminate, as a crop of thistles.
The revival most needed is in the church—a revival of spirituality, Christian life and non-conformity to the world, a reformation that will make men honest, truthful, reliable, and God fearing. Revivals that add nothing to the strength or spirituality of the church are open to grave suspicion.—Christian Inquirer.
“THE SIGN OF JONAH.”
By I. S. Kimball
BY ELDER I. S. KIMBALL.
No CHRISTIAN, indeed, seeks to evade or abate one jot from the record given of Jonah, because it is a part of the Scriptures, which he believes God has inspired, and put into his hand as a perfect instrument, to accomplish his salvation. But, further, he knows that Christ accepted the record, holding it as verity; consequently, if Christ were inspired, so is the book of Jonah inspiration.
But the deep significance of the book is seen in the fact that Christ speaks of his death as but a fulfillment of “the sign of the prophet Jonas,” which was already given to the Jewish people. If it were a sign in Christ’s day, so it was from the first, by the determinate wisdom of the Holy Spirit.
Let us turn back to the book and view the sign. There we see Jonas called to proclaim the destruction of the great city Nineveh, which is elsewhere in the Scripture made a type of the world, for she nearly or quite filled the world, even as Rome did later on. The Assyrian power was very great. Notice the prophecies of Isaiah and Nahum concerning it.
The decree of destruction went forth against her; God called Jonas, who “feared the Lord with great fear,” and knew him to be a “gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness,” to proclaim her downfall and ruin. The mysterious cup trembled in his hand; he would fain have himself excused. He fled from the presence of the Lord, passed out from the troubled waters, was delivered into the hands of men, and consigned to the grave for three days and nights, through the miraculous power of the Eternal One.
Now the similitude, as far as the imperfect man Jonah could be made to figure the perfect Man Christ, is seen in the last hours of Christ’s life, when his mind and desire were to be relieved of the terrible cup, when he was also delivered into the hands of men, and died almost in despair, feeling that God had “forsaken him.” Thus had Jonah felt when the fish swallowed him up.
But to Jonah was given a resurrection. And he mightily proclaimed the warning and convinced the city of sin in a way scarcely paralleled in all the world, for which cause there was repentance and turning unto God throughout all that great city. Even the king rose up from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. He decreed that neither man nor beast eat or drink, that all be covered with sackcloth, and mightily cry unto God, and that every man should turn from his evil way and the violence of his hand. Thus the city was spared. Such repentance was seen among the Gentiles after the resurrection of Christ, which has averted the doom and terrible judgment decreed against the world. But as Nineveh, later on, became altogether corrupt, the burden of her destruction was given to the prophets, and the vengeful day finally took her away from being a city, and gave her an eternal downfall. So the day of vengeance hastens to come upon this world, and the burden of the prophets to-day is her destruction.
Jonas wanted to see the end of Nineveh then and there, at the time when he gave the warning, for perhaps he thought the kingdom would be restored to Israel once and forever.
So the disciples wished for the restoration of the kingdom at the time of Christ’s resurrection, but the repentance of the Gentiles delays, for a little, the fulfillment of the cherished hope of Israel.
Jonah seems to have been as ardent and impulsive as Peter, working the mighty works of God according to his word, yet discerning but dimly the fullness of God’s plan. His work and life could not, in all respects, be made a type of the Redeemer’s.
“CONSCIENCE.”
By C. A. Watkins
BY C. A. WATKINS.
WEBSTER says that conscience is a sense of right or wrong. Perhaps there is no one thing that bars the mind from the truth of God, or is made so many times an excuse in this present day, as conscience. We hear people say: “I can’t observe the seventh day. My conscience will not let me.” But hold a moment. What do we mean by this term “conscience?”—“Sense of right or wrong,” knowledge, education, training, is all there is to it. All consciences are not right; some are evil. See Heb. 10:22. Are we sure ours is not of that kind? There is a standard by which we can test it, found in Isa. 8:20: “To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Now is your conscience agreeable to this? or is it filled with dead works, or dross and tin? See Heb. 9:14; Isa. 1:25. If so, they must be purged away by the blood of Christ. Heb. 9:14: “How much more shall the blood of Christ . . . purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
Paul had borne this test; his conscience had been purged from all sin; and he was thus void of offense to both God and man. Acts 24:16. A pure conscience will serve God. God’s law, his precepts and commandments, will find acceptance, instead of the traditions of men. “Now ye are clean through the word,” says Jesus. John 15:3. His word becomes a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway. When Paul was preaching at Ephesus, there were many whose consciences were against Christ, they having been taught by books in their possession. But the Holy Ghost was upon Paul, and many were made to believe, and came and burned their books. Thus the word of God prevailed. Acts 19:17, 18. The word, when once in possession of our hearts, puts therein new principles, new purposes, new desires, and a new conscience. All may be cleansed by the blood of Christ from all our dross or tin, or dead works.
Our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, but God will remove such offensive apparel, and give instead the garment of his salvation, the robe of his righteousness, the mind of our Lord and Saviour. Then, and not till then, can we say, “For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world.” 2 Cor. 1:12.
Question Corner.
By Editor
“If ye will inquire, inquire ye.” “But avoid foolish questions.”
125. HEART OF THE EARTH.
I read in Matt. 12:38-40 Christ’s own words that he would be in the heart of earth three days and three nights. How could he be in the grave three days and three nights, beginning Friday at 3 P.M., and rising on Sunday, the first day of the week?
Who said that Christ would be in the grave three days and three nights? Jesus said: “As Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Now (1) no one has ever been able to prove, nor can he prove, that Jonas was in the belly of the great fish just seventy-two hours; it cannot be proved that these were not parts of three days, including one whole one and two parts, according as the Jews reckoned. (2) No one has ever been able to prove, nor can he prove, that “the heart of the earth” means “the grave.” It is a mere opinion, that is all. It may mean the powers of earth, including the time when Christ was delivered to the powers of earth. See John 12:27; Luke 22:53. It would be well to take Christ’s words just as they are in this case.
126. SPRINKLING—CLEANSING.
Will you please explain to me the following, Eze. 36:25?
The text is as follows: “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.” The language used is drawn from the ancient manner of purifying, by sprinkling the person or thing to be purified with water. See Lev. 14:2-7. It is used by the prophet as emblematical of the cleansing power of the grace of Christ through his word. The priest pronounced clean by his ceremony of sprinkling the man whom God had made clean. Christ cleansed the leper with his word, “Be thou clean.” Matt. 8:3. He said to the sinful disciples, “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” John 15:3. See also Eph. 5:26, “the washing of water by the word.” The power which did the cleansing was the Spirit of Christ, but his words are spirit and life. John 6:63. See Heb. 10:22, where the same term, “sprinkling,” is applied to the cleansing of the heart. Eze. 36:25 simply means that God would cleanse his people. It has no reference whatever to any ordinance.
The text is as follows: “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days.” The simple statement of the apostle is that we should not be judged—no one had any right to judge us in respect to those things which had expired by limitation. “In meat, or in drink,” having reference, doubtless, to the various foods connected with the sacrifices. See Heb. 9:10. “Holy day,” the regular yearly feast days of the Jews, now met in Christ. “New moon,” the monthly festival held by the Jews. “Sabbath days,” the yearly sabbaths, of which there were several named in Leviticus 23, “besides the Sabbaths of the Lord.” Verse 38. That the sabbaths of Col. 2:16 do not refer to the weekly Sabbath is shown by the next verse, “which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” All the yearly sabbaths point to Christ, but the weekly Sabbath was a memorial of God’s mighty power manifested in creation and redemption. The yearly sabbaths ended by limitation when the shadow reached the substance, Christ; the weekly Sabbath is eternal.