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Signs of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 40.

The New Heaven and the New Earth
Earlier text: The New Heaven and the New Earth

Science and the Unity of the Scriptures

(Concluded from last week)
A NOTED theologian spoke unimpeachable truth when he said: “For Christians it will be enough to know that our Lord Jesus Christ set the seal of His infallible sanction on the whole of the Old Testament. He found the Hebrew canon as we have it in our hands to-day, and He treated it as an authority which was above discussion. Nay, more, He went out of His way—if we may reverently speak thus—to sanction not a few portions of it which modern skepticism rejects. When He would warn His hearers against the dangers of spiritual relapse, He bids them remember ‘Lot’s wife.’ Luke 17:32. If He would point out how worldly engagements may blind the soul to a coming judgment, He reminds them how men ate, and drank, and married, and were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the Flood came and destroyed them all. Luke 17:27. If He would put His finger on a fact in past Jewish history which, by its admitted reality, would warrant belief in His own coming resurrection, He points to Jonah’s being three days and three nights in the whale’s belly.” Matt. 12:40.
And against those who would hold the view that Christ shared the popular ignorance when He made allusion to these historical things, the preacher continues: “But they will find it difficult to persuade mankind, if He could be mistaken on a matter of such strictly religious importance as the value of the sacred literature of His countrymen, that He can be safely trusted about anything else. The trustworthiness of the Old Testament is, in fact, inseparable from the trustworthiness of our Lord Jesus Christ; and if we believe that He is the true Light of the world, we shall close our ears against suggestions impairing the credit of those Jewish Scriptures which have received the stamp of His divine authority.” (Canon Liddon.)
These are brave, plain, consistent words; and Huxley, by quoting them, shows that he believes it to be the only consistent position for a man to take who claims to believe the Bible at all. But Huxley did not believe the Bible. He puts the two positions thus: “The books of ecclesiastical authority declare that certain events happened in a certain fashion; the books of scientific authority say they did not.” Of course, Huxley believes the books of scientific authority; in fact, he wrote some of them himself.
He believed that a man ought to stand squarely on one or the other of these foundations. He hated the idea that a man could compromise between the two, and fought it with page after page of argument, illustration, irony, and sarcasm.
As an example, he puts one of these compromising logicians under the search-light. The logician has tried to show that there is nothing to prevent our believing that the record, from Abraham downward, is, in substance, in the strict sense historical, but from Abraham upward, consists of stories in the strict sense unhistorical, and that the pre-Abrahamic narratives are mere moral and religious types and parables.
What has Huxley to say regarding such a position? It is very plain reading. Listen. “I confess,” says he, “I soon lose my way when I try to follow those who walk delicately among types and allegories. A certain passion for clearness forces me to ask, bluntly, whether the writer means to say that Jesus did not believe the stories in question, or that He did. When Jesus spoke, as of a matter of fact, that ‘the Flood came and destroyed them all,’ did He believe that the Deluge really took place, or not? . . . I venture to ask, What sort of value, as an illustration of God’s method of dealing with sin, has an account of an event that never happened? If no Flood swept the careless people away, how is the warning of more worth than the cry of ‘Wolf’ when there is no wolf? If Jonah’s three days’ residence in the whale is not an ‘admitted reality,’ how could it ‘warrant belief’ in the coming resurrection? If Lot’s wife was not turned into a pillar of salt, the bidding those who turn back from the narrow path to ‘remember’ it, is, morally, about on a level with telling a naughty child that a bogy is coming to fetch it away.”
And right along this line he wants to know if the story of Adam and Eve is to be regarded as one of these pre-Abrahamic narratives, the historical truth of which is an open question, in face of Christ’s reference to it as being genuine, as related in Matt. 19:4, 5; and then asks, If Christ by this does not claim divine authority for the twenty-fourth verse of the second chapter of Genesis, what is the value of language? And again, he asks, “If one may play fast and loose with the story of the fall as a ‘type’ or ‘allegory,’ what becomes of the foundation of Pauline theology? ‘For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.’ 1 Cor. 15:21, 22.”
I believe with Huxley that the position of these compromising theologians is untenable. But I also believe that Huxley himself has not bettered matters. While he is consistent in not compromising, he is, in my belief, utterly inconsistent in departing a step away from that Word which alone can tell us the real truth of the creation of the world.
But those who leave the Scriptures at one point, open the way to leave them at any point. Nearly the whole Christian world at one time held to the literal record of Genesis, but they have now been led to take steps away from this. Such men as Huxley have the chief credit of it, if credit it can be called. And the logic of it is that they must follow him to the limit.
And it is constantly growing clear that those who took this first step with him away from the literality of Genesis, are in these later days going still farther in departing from the plain statements of the Word.
“Time was—and that not very long ago—when all the relations of Biblical authors concerning the whole world were received with a ready belief; and an unreasoning(?) and uncritical faith accepted with equal satisfaction the narrative of the captivity and the doings of Moses at the court of Pharaoh, the account of the apostolic meeting in the epistle to the Galatians, and that of the fabrication of Eve. We can most of us remember, when, in this country, the whole story of Exodus and even the legend of Jonah were seriously placed before boys as history, and discoursed of in as dogmatic a tone as the tale of Agincourt or the history of the Norman Conquest.
“But all this is now changed. The last century has seen the growth of scientific criticism to its full strength. The whole world of history has been revolutionized, and the mythology which embarrassed earnest Christianity has vanished as an evil mist, the lifting of which has only more fully revealed the lineaments of infallible truth. No longer in contact with fact of any kind, Faith stands now and forever proudly inaccessible to the attacks of the infidel.”
This and countless more like it shows us that he who leaves the literal record of Genesis will not stop at that. Huxley has truly said: “Our age is a day of compromises. The present and the near future seem given over to those happily if curiously constituted people who see as little difficulty in throwing aside any amount of post-Abrahamic Scriptural narrative, as the authors of ‘Lux Mundi’ see in sacrificing the pre-Abrahamic stories; and having distilled away every inconvenient matter of fact in Christian history, continue to pay divine honors to the residue.”—“Science and Hebrew Tradition,” page 237.

Science and the Unity of the Scriptures

(Concluded from page 5)
And so it has come about. At the first compromise, only the first chapter of Genesis was to be considered fiction; then the compromising ecclesiasticism undertook to underpin the superstructure at this point, and make the rest, to the eye at least, as firm as ever. But it did not long stay thus. The foundation of the compromising theologians was next shifted forward to the time of Abraham, and there made fast. But now not even this will do. The present body of catering ecclesiastics desire to knock out every historic fact which in any sense embarrasses them before the infidel, and underpin a new structure, independent of all historic facts, that shall defy the critic’s blast.
How different a view we find when we turn away from these compromisers! “Every word of God is pure: He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him. Add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.” Prov. 30: 5, 6. “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” 2 Peter 1: 20, 21. For “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. And so “if any man shall take away from the words of the book, . . . God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” Rev. 22: 19.
Do you not see how it is? Take away the literal record of creation and call it an allegory or a myth, and you not only lose the logical reason for the Sabbath, but you open wide the flood-gates of infidelity that almost certainly shall sweep everything of faith before it. The observer of the seventh day stands for the literal interpretation of Genesis, not merely to give him support for his Sabbath observance, but because he believes it is the only consistent thing he can do so long as he believes the Bible at all.
He believes, however, that the Sabbath is a memorial of God’s supernatural creative work, and therefore a sign of all God’s miraculous or supernatural work. And hence while science, so-called, which is constantly only a reader of the natural, and is forever in ignorance of the supernatural, seeks to deny and invalidate the supernatural work recorded in the first chapter of Genesis, and, with it, all the supernatural religion and facts recorded in all the Scriptures, the Sabbath-keeper continues to keep that which is always the safeguard against all this infidelity—continues to keep that Sabbath which memorializes God’s wonderful creative work; yea, continues to keep holy that seventh-day Sabbath which is forever a sign of a God above nature and greater than nature, who upholds and preserves not only the world, but all His creatures, and who can work according to His own counsels, and none can say Him nay or what doest Thou? R.

What Manner of Persons Ought Ye to Be?

By Mrs. E. G. White

By Mrs. E. G. White
GOD is the Governor of the universe. He has put everything under law. Everything in the natural world is under law, from the tiniest flower of the garden to the mighty cedars of Lebanon. The beasts of the fields obey God's law. The ocean obeys His mandate, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." When God speaks to man, His voice is to be heard, and His word is to be obeyed. Man is an intelligent being, and has a mind by which to understand God's will, and a conscience by which to feel his accountability. He has a heart with which to love the law of God, which is holy and just and good. But God compels no man to do Him honor, and to render obedience to His law. Compulsion is the work of Satan and his agents.

We May Know and Do

As intelligent creatures, we may know and do the will of God, or we may stubbornly refuse to submit our finite will to the will of the Infinite. This responsibility that is placed upon us should fill us with a sense of awe. The requirement of God to us is, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself." On these two principles hang all the law and the prophets; and it is for our present and eternal interest to have a proper understanding of the far-reaching principles of the law of God. "By the law is the knowledge of sin," and "sin is the transgression of the law." Sinners must know what is sin before they can have a desire to be rid of sin. It is a matter of eternal interest that we do not misconceive this vital question. When appeals are made in the pulpits of our land, and sinners are invited to repent and to be converted, it is the privilege of the sinner to inquire, What is sin? This we must know, for it is at the peril of our souls that we continue in sin. The apostle gives us light on this subject, and says, "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law."
Christ was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him was no sin. But were the law abolished, as some claim, we would have no need of a Saviour to take away sin, for "where no law is, there is no transgression." "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came [home to the conscience], sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which [if obeyed] was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is [a yoke of bondage, against me, and something to be trampled underfoot because it points out my sins?—No;] holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin."

Reckon Ourselves Dead

But tho we are carnal, we are to reckon ourselves "dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. . . . But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. . . . But now being made free from sin, and become servants of God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." "But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." "He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth His Word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him. He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning."
He who obeys the law through the imputed righteousness of Christ, meets every claim that the Bible presents; but he who sets himself above God, and tramples upon His law, and still professes to be a child of God, is working on the enemy's side of the controversy. In our day, even from the pulpits of our land, professed ministers of the gospel are, as were the Pharisees, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. The only safety for the soul at this time is to inquire at every step, What saith the Lord to His servant? "The Word of the Lord endureth forever." The Bible is to be our guide-book; and instead of consulting the wisdom of men, and accepting as divine truth the assertions of finite mortals, we should search the sure word of prophecy. God has spoken, and His Word is reliable, and we must rest our faith upon a "Thus saith the Lord." God would have us study the events that are taking place around us, and compare them with the predictions of His Word, in order that we may understand that we are living in the last days. We want our Bibles, and we want to know what is written therein. The diligent student of prophecy will be rewarded with clear revelations of truth, for Jesus said, "Thy Word is truth."

The Defense for the Righteous

The Lord is at the door, and men's hearts are failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which shall come upon the earth; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. But there is a defense for those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. The prophet declares, "Thy righteousness shall go before thee." Whose righteousness?—The righteousness of Christ. And he continues, "The glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward." "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, tho the earth be removed, and tho the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; tho the waters thereof roar and be troubled, tho the mountains shake with the swelling thereof." "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?"

The Abider

By Llewellyn A. Morrison

By Llewellyn A. Morrison
O, the sweetness And completeness Of the life the Spirit giveth Unto each one who believeth In the Christ, Toward whom He every heart constraineth; He allureth me before Him, To adore Him In the whiteness And the brightness Of the high and holy heaven, where He reigneth.
There is union And communion In His pureness, that impelleth Each true mind, wherein He dwelleth, Into harmony with forces that refine; So I gather in His guiding And providing, Faith's foundation For salvation, Love and hope supremely glorious and divine.
Teacher, Trainer, And Sustainer, He—my spirit's great Campaigner— Maketh me a boundless gainer By the prudence, grace, and favor He bestows. Every good desire He heedeth, And so leadeth, As a lover Watching over, That I live in love's felicitous repose.
He resideth And abideth In my soul. So joy increaseth; Each unholy craving ceaseth; He with me and I by Him work out His will,— Prayer unceasing, conscience tender, That doth render To another, Foe or brother, That which doth love's living law fulfil.
Holy Spirit, Thine the merit Of the knowledge of redemption And each spiritual exemption; Of the wisdom, light, and purity we laud. In Thy leading and protection, Our perfection Is the dower Of Thy power. Thou wilt yet present us faultless before God.

Do Your Best

"Do your best; leave the rest."

The Resurrection at Christ's Coming

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

THE day of the resurrection! My heart leaps for joy as I write the words. And yet I do not half comprehend them.
To think that this sin-sick, care-burdened, commonplace old earth shall soon be the scene of the most transcendent and awe-inspiring miracle that has ever been wrought by Omnipotence in all the eternal ages!
There is no mistake about it.
For six thousand weary years our sobbing world has been the camping ground of the forces of evil. Righteousness and sin have met in deadly conflict, and this weary earth has long been the battle-field. Her bosom is red and reeking with the blood of the martyrs of God, and her mournful cry has reached the heaven of heavens.
Ever since the days of righteous Abel, old earth has been opening her arms to receive her children back to dust, until she has become one mighty graveyard.
And this is not all. As if earth were not large enough for a burial-ground for her unnumbered millions, gray ocean has hidden many of the dead, in his unfathomed caves.
And the time hastens when these sleeping multitudes of earth and sea must all hear the voice of the Archangel and the trump of God, and come forth.

Will the Dead Live Again?

But this subject is too mighty for me to attempt to hazard any opinions of my own upon it. My brain reels as I contemplate it. I close my eyes and try to form a picture of it. I stretch my imagination to its utmost.
It is vain. I only know that it is true—that the dead shall live again.
O, the glory of it! The sublimity of it! The dazzling splendor of it! And best of all, the certainty of it! How do I know?—I know it by the pledged word of Him by whose mighty power this transcendent miracle is to be wrought,—the word of Him who once slept in Joseph's new sepulcher, and who holds the keys of death and the grave: "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation."
There were some who listened to these words mysterious and wonderful, who scoffed at the Mighty One who uttered them. The Sadducee could not comprehend their tremendous import.

Will the Body Be Resurrected?

"What! A resurrection of the body which has been moldering in the grave for centuries? Impossible! We can not understand the philosophy of such reasoning. We can not demonstrate it. Our learning is great, our philosophy profound, hence we believe this to be a delusion—an impossibility."
Thus declared the Sadducees, pompous and learned. These have passed away; but their posterity still survive. And there are enough twentieth century Sadducees to fill the "seat of the scornful" both in the church and in the world.
"But," says one, "I think that the resurrection spoken of in the Bible is simply a spiritual resurrection." "Yes," says another, "if we undertake to give these subjects a material interpretation, we quite spoil the beauty of the thought. The great Russian writer, Count Tolstoy, grasped the idea, we think, in his book 'The Resurrection.' The idea is, that there is something good in each of us, no matter how deeply buried up in sin; and when that good comes to the surface—why, then we may be said to have a resurrection. Do you not agree with me?"
But, my friend, it is of small moment whether I agree or not. Your opinion is as good as mine. But what says inspiration?

Isaiah's View of the Resurrection

The prophet Isaiah's idea of the resurrection seems to me to be intensely materialistic and real. We must hasten to call him to the witness-stand. The prophet-poet scarcely waits to take his position, before bursting forth in rapturous, awe-inspiring strains. The Spirit of the Almighty moves his voice, and makes his lips eloquent. We listen reverently:
"Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead."

The Apostle Paul and the Resurrection

"This seems to be plain enough," you say, "but I much prefer evidence from the New Testament, for I am not a Jew, and—"
Then perhaps it would be best to listen to the testimony of the great apostle to the Gentiles. He is about to suffer martyrdom for the truth of God.
Let us question him:
You are about to die, Paul. Have you any hope of life hereafter?
At once a look of unspeakable triumph lights up the face of the inspired witness.
I am indeed "looking for that blessed hope."
But what is that hope, Paul?
"The glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ."
But, Paul, do you forget that you must very soon meet death—that the cruel ax of the executioner will soon drip with your blood? Now tell us plainly, what has the coming of Christ to do with your reward?
"I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness—"
Yes, Paul. When will it be given you? At death? From the block of the executioner, will you ascend at once to your coronation? With Spirit-anointed ears let us listen to the reply:
"A crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing."
"For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, . . . and so shall we ever be with the Lord."
Then is the coming of Christ and the resurrection from the dead, to be our comfort, Paul, as well as yours?
"Wherefore comfort one another with these words."
But yet, O great apostle, let me ask you again: Do you not attach undue importance to the coming of Christ and the resurrection? May not our loved ones who sleep in Jesus be saved without this? In other words, are they not now already happy and in heaven?
At this question methinks I see the mighty orator of Mars Hill, whose burning eloquence so affected the men of Athens, rise to his feet and exclaim in a voice of earnest conviction:
"If the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. . . . Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished."
But tell me, O man of God, how can the dust live? With what body will those be clothed who have slept for a thousand years?
As if anticipating my question, the impressive answer comes ringing down the ages:
"But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die. . . . God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him. . . . So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption. . . . For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this . . . mortal must put on immortality. . . . Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"
Give me but one more answer, O man of God. We are accustomed to hearing death spoken of as a friend, and "the gate to endless joy." Is this not true?
"The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."
Tell us only once more very plainly, O Paul, what is your hope?
"Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ."
Amen.

Cruelty to Neighbors

By Mrs. Huntington Smith

MANY light sleepers are disturbed at night, and sometimes kept awake for hours when in great need of sleep, by the barking of dogs in the neighborhood, even blocks away. No one has a right to inflict such discomfort on his neighbor, nor on his dog. In some cases it is more than discomfort, it is positive injury where sleep is made impossible at night and can not be made up by day.—Mrs. Huntington Smith.

The Bible’s Sublimity and Morality

By Sir William Jones

I HAVE carefully and regularly perused the Holy Scriptures, and am of opinion that the volume contains more sublimity, purer morality, more important history, and finer strains of eloquence, than can be collected from all other books, in whatever language they may have been written.—Sir William Jones.

“Departing and Being with Christ”

By W. H. Littlejohn

(Concluded from last week)
THE Holy Scriptures are a unit. From Genesis to Revelation there is a complete harmony in the utterances of the sacred writers on all points of doctrine. He, therefore, who furnishes an interpretation of any given passage which conflicts with the teachings of other portions of the Word must be wrong in his exegesis. Applying this principle to Phil. 1: 23, 24, those who hold to the view that Paul in that passage expressed a desire to die in order that, through death, he might be brought immediately into the presence of Christ, are confronted by the fact that such an interpretation would bring the great apostle into conflict, not only with his own declarations, but also with the utterances of all the sacred writers who have spoken with regard to the condition of man in death. To prove that this is the case, a little space will be devoted to texts bearing upon this question.
The majority of those who advocate the idea that the apostle Paul employs the word “depart” in Phil. 1: 23, 24 in the sense of death, do not claim that Paul passed through any experience, at the time of his demise, at variance with that common to all Christians, but they insist that all believers go through the gate of death to enter immediately into the presence of Christ. Hence if it can be shown that the condition of death is not one of glorification, but rather one in which the soul has no perception of spiritual things, being entirely unconscious, that exegesis of Phil. 1: 23, 24 which represents Paul as desiring to die in order that he might be united immediately with his Lord will prove wholly unsatisfactory. Let us turn therefore to the law and to the testimony on this point.

The Dead Sleep

“Thou [Moses] shalt sleep with thy fathers.” Deut. 31:16. “So David slept with his fathers, and was buried.” 1 Kings 2:10. “And many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves.” Matt. 27: 52, 53. “I go, that I may awake him [Lazarus] out of sleep.” John 11:11. “Fallen asleep in Christ.” 1 Cor. 15:18. “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.” 1 Cor. 15:51. See also Acts 7:60; 1 Cor. 15:6, 20; 1 Thess. 4:13; 5:10; Job 14:12.

The Dead Do Not Think

“His [the dead man’s] sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not.” Job 14:21. “In death there is no remembrance of Thee [God].” Ps. 6:5. “In the land of forgetfulness [the grave].” Ps. 88:12. “The dead praise not the Lord.” Ps. 115:17. “His [man’s] breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” Ps. 146:4. “The living know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything.” Eccl. 9:5. “There is no . . . wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.” Eccl. 9:10.

Paul’s Conception of Death

It will hardly be urged that the great apostle to the Gentiles, at the time that he wrote his epistle to the Philippians, had just been converted to a new theory respecting the future of the saints. Neither will it be insisted that his view of death and its desirability at the time in question differed in any way from that which he had held from the commencement of his Christian experience. If Paul, when writing to the brethren at Philippi, looked upon death as the gateway to the heavenly world and therefore greatly to be desired, we shall find him giving expression to this same thought in other portions of his epistles. What are the facts in the case? Let the following quotations decide:
“For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.” 2 Tim. 4: 6-8.
Comment on this passage would seem to be superfluous. The great apostle was very far from believing that he would either go to heaven or receive his reward at death. “Henceforth,” he writes, “there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.” The “henceforth” of this connection commenced to run from the time the apostle was martyred. Then and there it was to become an assured fact that he was to wear a heavenly crown at some time in the future; but it is distinctly taught that the time in question was not the one at which he was to receive his crown. “Henceforth,” he declares, “there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.” To lay up a crown for a person is not to place it upon his head, but to reserve it securely for bestowment at some future time. If you would know when the time of that bestowment will be reached, listen once more to the great apostle, who certainly understood that about which he was talking: “Which [crown] the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.” Verse 8.
The expression “at that day” can not refer to the day of Paul’s death, for several reasons:
  1. It was at the time of Paul’s death that this crown was to be laid up—a very different thing from presenting it to him.
  2. The phrase “at that day” is frequently applied in the New Testament, as it is here, to the day of Christ’s advent. The following citations are in point:
“But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day [the day of the Lord] should overtake you as a thief.” 1 Thess. 5:4. “For that day [the day of Christ] shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.” 2 Thess. 2:3. “For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” 2 Tim. 1:12. “The Lord grant unto him [Onesiphorus] that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day: and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well.” 2 Tim. 1:18.
The apostle was not to receive his crown until all those who love the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ receive their crowns (2 Tim. 4:8)—an event which did not take place on the day when Paul was offered.

Not In Conflict

Thus we have seen that 2 Tim. 4: 6-8 is not in conflict with our exegesis of Phil. 1: 23, since it simply furnishes an instance in which the noun analusis was applied in a figurative sense to the death of Paul, while at the same time it presents abundant proof that Paul did not expect to go to Christ at death; as, otherwise, he would not have stated distinctly that he was not to receive his crown before the day of Christ, when all who love the appearing of the latter would receive their crowns along with him.
“For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.” 2 Cor. 5:4. No candid person will deny that the apostle is here speaking of death. To be unclothed in the sense of this passage is to experience a dissolution of the body common to all who enter the grave. The apostle teaches distinctly that such an experience is not what he or the saints desired. They longed for something better; namely, to be “clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.” But why should not the saints desire to be unclothed, or die, provided they go to heaven at death, even tho their final and complete glorification should not take place until the resurrection of the dead? Assuredly the delight of the heavenly home, the privilege of standing in the presence of God and enjoying the society of Christ, would be sufficient to nerve the devout soul to brave all the terrors which are supposed to surround death. Heaven in the unclothed state, were the soul conscious in that condition, were infinitely to be preferred to anything which this world could offer. The only satisfactory explanation, therefore, which can be given to the passage before us is found in the conception that Paul and his fellow Christians dreaded death because it involved not only the surrender of life, but also the absolute unconsciousness of the souls of its victims. This being true, the view of Phil. 1: 23, 24 which attributes to Paul a desire to die in order that he might be with Christ, must be unsound.

Your Friend

By Lilla Warren

By Lilla Warren
“A friend loveth at all times.” Prov. 17:17.
Who is it tells you of your sin, And helps the better way to win, Altho you are not near of kin? Your friend.
Who also sees your points of good— E’en when you think they never could— And brings you joy? (for be they would) Your friend.
Who—when all others will forsake, Because you’ve made a great mistake— Will stand close by and your part take? Your friend.
Who loves you, even when you’re wrong, With love that e’en as death is strong, And prays for you both oft and long? Your friend.
Who gave a friend to love like this? (And greater love we find is His.) Ah, well we know, my friend, it is Our Friend.

Our Bible Reading

Was God’s Law to Be Changed?

1. What does the prophet Isaiah say would be the attitude of Christ toward His Father’s law?
"The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake; He will magnify the law, and make it honorable." Isa. 42: 21.
2. What did He say in regard to destroying His Father’s law?
"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." Matt. 5: 17.
3. How much of the law did He uphold?
"For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Verse 18.
4. How were people to be regarded who would break one of these commandments?
"Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Verse 19.
5. What great principle did Christ say was the foundation of God’s commandments?
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Matt. 22: 37-39.
6. How much of the law does Christ say hangs on these two great commandments?
"On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Verse 40.
7. What does one of the apostles of Christ say in regard to making void the law of God for either Jew or Gentile?
"Is He the God of the Jews only? is He not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law." Rom. 3: 29-31.
NOTE.—The texts in the foregoing reading are a part only of the expressions the Lord uses to show the perpetual obligation of His law and its changeless condition. In the Master’s great Sermon on the Mount, from which the quotations of Matthew 5 are taken, it is explicitly stated that not a single jot or tittle should pass from the law till all be fulfilled. These texts, it would seem, must have been placed in the Bible for the direct and express purpose of fortifying the mind against some attempt that would be made to change God’s law. The texts which show that such a change would be attempted will be given in our Bible reading next week.
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