PAUL, in the fourth chapter of Galatians, teaches in an allegory some very important truths in regard to the two covenants, testaments, or dispensations, the two systems, typical and antitypical, and the two peoples, the literal Israel and the true Israel, or Jews and Gentiles, as they stood as representatives of the Lord and His work, in two special periods of its development in the earth.
The characters he takes to illustrate the truth he has to present are the two sons of Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac. The fact that one, Ishmael, was born of a maid servant, Hagar, and the other, Isaac, of the free-woman, Sarah gave him the opportunity to make the application setting forth the truth he wished to present.
As the apostle has made such a use of this incident, it is worth our while to examine the particulars closely, to understand, if possible, the significance of all the features of the case.
Abraham had been promised a son; and by a unique and unusual arrangement between him and Sarai, who surrendered her maid, Hagar, to Abraham, there was born to him, through this woman, an heir, Ishmael. But this was a contrivance between Abraham and his wife to meet a seeming failure on the part of the Lord; and it did not fulfil the promise, nor meet the situation at all. But time passed on, and when Abraham was a hundred years of age, and Sarai ninety, God interposed to fulfil His promise, and Isaac was born.
Ishmael was thirteen years of age at the birth of Isaac, and he then committed an act of folly which changed his whole situation and subsequent career.
At the feast instituted to celebrate the birth of Isaac, Ishmael made fun of the whole scene; and Sarah saw him. This filled her with unappeasable enmity and anger; and she at once gave directions to Abraham to "cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman," she said, "shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac." The proposition was very grievous to Abraham; for Ishmael was his son also; but at length he consented, and sent them away.
Then the bond of heirship and inheritance, as it pertained to Ishmael, was broken; and Hagar and her son were in bondage indeed, whereas they had been before in a comparatively exalted position; for if Isaac had not appeared upon the scene, Ishmael would have succeeded to the titles and inheritance of his father Abraham.
Now Paul makes the application. At the time Paul wrote, Hagar represented old Jerusalem and the Jews; for thus he says: "For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children." The Jews, the literal seed, corresponded to Ishmael, who was born after the flesh. Christians, believers in Christ, correspond to Isaac, who was born after the Spirit. But, as then, so now, those who were born after the flesh persecuted those who were born after the Spirit. That is, as Ishmael despised the birthday feast, and mocked Isaac, and thus subverted and destroyed his position in the family, so the Jews rejected the Gospel, and finally put to death upon the cross the Lord of life and glory. Then they were rejected from being the people of the Lord, which position they had up to that time held. They were broken off, as unfruitful branches of the true olive tree. The kingdom was taken from them and given to a nation which would bring forth the fruits thereof.
This took away the whole Jewish polity and ritual, all their shadows and typical services, and all that pertained to their position as a religious theocracy.
After Ishmael's rejection, all his offspring, from that time, would, of course, be in a condition of bondage; as Paul says, that covenant now "gendereth to bondage."
So, after the rejection of the Jews, all that system can gender only to bondage. Whoever would bring over any part of the ritual of that people, as essential to the Gospel, thereby repudiates Christ, and joins himself to the bondwoman, who has been cast out. In this case, says the apostle, Christ shall "profit you nothing."
Such is the situation to-day. So we are not to return to any of the services, ceremonies, or observances of that now obsolete and discarded system. To do so would be to show5an utter misapprehension of the principles of the Gospel, and renounce that liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
"In Isaac shall thy seed be called." In the antitypical Isaac, Christ, we must be called, in order to have a valid title to the possessions of Abraham.
There is plain and repeated testimony that everything now centers in Christ. He is the grand pivot on which the dispensations revolve. A few passages of Scripture on this point will suffice; for one statement is as weighty and decisive as it would be if a hundred times repeated.
Paul writes to the Ephesians that Christ has abolished "the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace." He is speaking of Jews and Gentiles; and the law of commandments contained in ordinances was "the middle wall of partition" between these two classes, and consisted of all those Jewish regulations, laws, ceremonies, and festivals which made them so intensely a distinct people from all the nations around them. All these Jewish peculiarities Christ abolished. To go back to any of them is to build again that wall of partition which Christ broke down and took out of the way.
The apostle speaks still more definitely to the Colossians on the same subject. He says, "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross." And as a result of this, he says, "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days" (the seven yearly sabbaths connected with the Jewish yearly festivals, in which were the spring and autumn types); and then comes the decisive utterance, "Which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ."
These typical annual festivals, with the sabbaths and celebrations connected with them, were all shadows. Paul says so. They must therefore have ceased with Christ, must have been abolished, and taken out of the way, being nailed to the cross; for a shadow can not possibly reach beyond the body which casts it.
Again Paul speaks of the same matter, in Heb. 9:10, and shows that these things were imposed, or made binding, on the people of that dispensation, "till the time of reformation," or the time that Christ came in the flesh, when all shadows would be lost in the reality. His language is this: "Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them till the time of reformation. But Christ being come," etc. The things here mentioned, as in the other passages, include everything embraced in and peculiar to the Jewish system. And if we seek to continue their practise, we subvert the Gospel. Heb. 9:10; Gal. 5:2.
But it may be said that some of the types have not yet been fulfilled, and therefore their outward observance must still be kept up. But this certainly can not be claimed after we have entered that great epoch in the divine plan to which they all pointed, and in which they all, in due time and order, will be accomplished, as fast as conditions permit and require.
Of the spring types we have the following: (1) The Passover; (2) the wave-sheaf offering; (3) the Pentecost. In regard to these Paul shows that we are still in the Passover. He says, "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us." 1 Cor. 5:7. The wave-sheaf festival was fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ from the dead, the first-fruits of them that slept 1 Cor. 15:20. And the Pentecost was fulfilled by the outpouring of the Spirit, fifty days from Christ's resurrection, as recorded in the second of Acts. These were among the things nailed to the cross; yet their antitypical effects still continue. We are still feeding upon Christ, our Passover; we are still rejoicing in the wave sheaf, the resurrection of Christ; and we are still having the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Then among the fall types we have the following: (1) The memorial of the blowing of trumpets (Lev. 23:23, 24); (2) the atonement; (3) the feast of ingathering, or the feast of tabernacles (Lev. 23:27, 33-37). These are in process of fulfilment; but they no more require the revival of the typical ceremonies than do the Passover, the wave sheaf, or the Pentecost.
1. The memorial of blowing of trumpets we have in the great proclamation of the second coming of Christ, now going before the world, prophesied of in Revelation 14, and symbolized by three angels flying through the midst of heaven with the everlasting Gospel to proclaim with power in the ears of the people.
2. The prophet fixed the time when the atonement commenced, namely, at the end of the 2,300 days, in 1844. It is still in progress.
3. The feast of ingathering is before us, when the Lord shall send forth His angels, whom He calls the reapers, and shall gather the wheat, His people, into the garner. Everything connected with the types is being fulfilled in the proper order and in the proper manner. But we are not told to go back and repeat the services by which they were typically set forth from 1,800 to 3,000 years ago, and which, as shadows, were lost in the body, which is of Christ, when He died upon the cross.
But are we not told to "remember the law of Moses," and that, too, when the great and terrible day of the Lord is near?—Yes; but that is not saying that we are to turn back to the practise of it; and do we not remember that law, in all our treatment of the subject of the sanctuary, a subject of such vital importance to the church at the present time? How could we make clear and show the force of the great principles brought out in the subject of the sanctuary without a special study of the ministry of the tabernacle of Moses, as set forth in his law of offerings and sacrifices, and all typical services and yearly celebrations? Verily the instruction is timely that we thus remember the law of Moses now. But no part of that law, all of which was a shadow, can be made a living service after we have passed the dividing line where all shadows ceased, when the Seed came, the dispensations changed, and the work of the priests was transferred from earth to heaven, and the work became such that it could go forward in all parts of the world, and not be confined to one nation, or to any particular locality.
When this change was effected, then the old services became "weak and beggarly elements" and "carnal ordinances," the life lease of which had expired. The bondwoman was cast out. "Be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage," but "stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free." URIAH SMITH.
VAIN REGRETS.
By G. E. Price
Ah, those memories of yore, how they dog all our footsteps,
And over the present their baleful chill cast!
We see their dread shadows and long to escape them,
And crave a nepenthe to banish the past.
The days of our childhood,
'Mid sweet country wildwood,
Are crowded with scenes that time's storms have endeared,
Yet each has some token
Of sacred truth broken,
Some tender green virtue-bud blighted and seared.
"O, go to your graves!" I shriek out in my anguish;
Can pardon not banish your forms from my sight?
Can the hope of o'ercoming not banish your moaning,
Nor scatter your darkness the presence of light?"
But yesterday's choices
Still utter their voices,
And crowd on to-day with the brood time has bred.
They watch and pursue us,
And shoot their darts through us,
Till our bright nascent future is still-born with dread.
Our lost opportunities, sweet possibilities,
Rise up before us like ghosts of the slain.
The pain we have caused may long since have vanished,
The wounds may have healed, but the scars still remain.
And, O, for forgetfulness,
Death with its restfulness,
Ne'er to remember the chances we've lost
Of doing some kindness,
Of guiding some blindness,
Of lighting to safety some bark tempest-tossed!
But let not our hopelessness crush out our usefulness;
Ne'er can discouragement help us in life.
Our path must be upward, our gaze on the summit
Looming grandly above all the world and its strife.
The past when forsaken,
The future o'ertaken,
Our faces must still keep Perfection in sight;
Its virtues unfolding,
Will change us beholding,
And we thus be fitted for heaven and its light.
Marysville, N. B. G. E. PRICE.
WHAT IS IT TO SIN AGAINST THE EVERLASTING COVENANT?
By Stephen Nelson Haskell
AFTER man had sinned and the first bleeding lamb shadowed forth with certainty the blood of Christ, it so entered the heart of God that from that time He ever beheld "in the midst of the throne . . . a Lamb as it had been slain." Nothing had ever stirred heaven like this. It was the blood of God's only Son, "whose goings forth have been of old, from the days of eternity," that had given His life. God and Christ were one. Their nature was not that of angels, "for verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham." "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." See Heb. 2:14-18.
To speak lightly of the blood of Christ is rejecting salvation; it is despising the Father and the Son and their offered mercy. "He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses; of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?" Heb. 10:28, 29.
If these words are carefully considered, the anxious inquiry will be, How can I count this blood an unholy thing and do despite to the Spirit of grace? There are two ways that sin may be committed: First, by attributing to the works of the devil what we know to be the work of Christ. Mark 3:28-30. Second, by tampering with sin until the conscience becomes seared as with a hot iron, not susceptible to the feeling of repugnance of sin, and thus presuming upon the mercy of God. Heb. 12:16, 17.
The earth itself has become so defiled by sin that the final cleansing of the earth by fire is made necessary, because men have broken the everlasting covenant. "The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left." Isa. 24:4-6. The covenant, which has been a covenant of peace to all of God's created intelligences, has been so trampled underfoot that peace has been taken from the earth, save in the hearts of those wherein God reigns.
Any departure from this covenant is out of harmony with God. Christ "is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace; that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby." Eph. 2:14-16.
When God would express in words His character, it was expressing the righteousness of Christ, and He expressed it in the form of the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are the righteousness of Christ, and are synonymous with God. Christ is "the Lord our Righteousness." Jer. 23:6. "All Thy commandments are righteousness," Ps. 119:6172. "It shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God." Deut. 6:25. "Hearken unto Me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is My law." Isa. 51:7. "O that thou hadst hearkened to My commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea." Isa. 48:18. By comparing Rom. 10:4-9 with Deut. 9:10-14 it will be seen that the Ten Commandments taught by Moses are synonymous with the righteousness of Christ in the Gospel; and, also, the expressions Moses used taught the resurrection. The law of God is the righteousness of Christ; to seek God's righteousness is to seek Christ; to seek Christ is to seek the law, as it was shown in the humanity of Christ; for in Him all the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth bodily. To be saved is to receive the law through Christ; to receive it out of Christ it only brings condemnation, but in Christ it becomes righteousness, salvation, and peace.
To take hold of God's covenant is to take hold of God's character as revealed in Christ and accept His blood as the price paid for the pardon of our sins and a pledge that He will perfect us by His grace. It brings to us "the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference." "The righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets."
Thus the law, the prophets, and Christ bear the same testimony. This is the object of the Scriptures, to reveal Christ as the One who through His own blood has purchased for us the privilege of entering into the everlasting covenant. Then all things are ours, and we are Christ's, and Christ is God's.
S. N. HASKELL.
Trusting God and Doing Our Duty
By Dean Stanley
TRUSTING in God and doing our duty, these are words which bind us together. If you or I can feel that those who know us best can say of us that we are trusting in God and doing our duty, it is enough to teach us that this is a ground of communion which neither the difference of external rites nor the difference of seas or continents can ever efface.—Dean Stanley.
TONIC FOR DOUBTERS.
A PASTOR was staying once in a country village where he was to visit a dying woman. He went to her and found her a Christian, ready and willing to die, but for one thing. She was anxious about her little children, and she begged the minister to pray that they might be provided for when she was gone.
Together the mother and minister prayed for that one thing, tho they knew not how their prayer could be answered in that little village, where none were rich enough to take upon themselves the expense of caring for three orphans. The woman died, and at her funeral the minister spoke of his visit and of her dying prayer.
Among those at the funeral were two strangers—a man and his wife, who were passing through the village—and by chance—as they supposed—they happened to enter the church at that hour. They were wealthy and childless, and their hearts were touched by the sight of the lonely little orphans. They took them to their hearts and home; and so that mother's prayer was answered.
A yet more striking instance of answered prayer was one that came to a poor woman in India. She had become a Christian, accepting God with simple and absolute faith.
Some time after her conversion her child fell sick—so sick that its recovery was very doubtful. Ice was needed for the little sufferer, but none was to be had.
"I'm going to ask God to send us ice," the mother said to the missionary.
"O, but you can't expect that He will do that," was the quick reply of the missionary.
"Why not?" asked the woman. "He has all power, and He loves us. I shall ask Him, and I believe He will send it."
She did ask Him with a faith which never faltered, and God honored her faith. That very day there was a heavy thunder-storm, and the woman, running out, with a glad heart gathered a great bowlful of hailstones. So was answered the prayer of this mother also.—Christian Endeavor World.
OVERCOMERS.
By Cyrus Simmons
THE mastery of self is the object of a Christian life. "He that ruleth his spirit [is better] than he that taketh a city." Prov. 16:32. When we are out of Christ we are out of balance. Only the power of God in us can establish a moral equipoise. Freedom from impure thoughts, from imperfect characters, from unrighteous acts, is what the Gospel promises. "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." John 8:36. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." 2 Cor. 3:17.
Many are as veritably in bondage as the Israelites were when under Pharaoh. If their moral depravity is not recognized, "they willingly are ignorant" (2 Peter 3:5) of the master they serve, and, evidently, take "pleasure in unrighteousness" (2 Thess. 2:12).
The same unwillingness was manifested by the Jews when Christ told them that "the truth shall make you free." They indignantly answered, "We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man; how sayest Thou, Ye shall be made free?" John 8:32, 33.
To be an overcomer we must first see the necessity of overcoming. "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood." Eph. 6:12. Therefore, the chances of self-deception are great. It is easy to see others' imperfections; but it is difficult to impartially look within ourselves and become conscious of our own. Our individual hearts are the battle-fields whereon are fought the controversies between Christ and Satan. The record of each day's conflict is one of victory or of vanquishment.
How to Overcome.
We should understand our enemy before we can be able to recognize his deception, and to know how to overcome. He appears to us protean shaped. He can impersonate different characters (1 Sam. 28:11-16), and assume various forms (Gen. 3:1-5). He is the greatest actor that ever played upon the stage of this fallen world. "He is a liar, and the father of it." John 8:44. He and his exiled associates endeavor to act a lie in such a way that it will have the appearance of truth. "As the ministers of righteousness" they come. 2 Cor. 11:15.
Our adversaries are not deluded mortals, disguised under a holy mask, advocating that which is contrary to the teachings of God; but they are the "wicked spirits" that have taken possession of these individuals. For these erring ones we should pray; the spirits that actuate and deceive them we should be able to rebuke with the Word of God. Acts 16:16-18. "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood," but against "wicked spirits in heavenly places." Eph. 6:12, margin.
The adversary, also, can have access to your heart and to mine. We can say with Paul, "We are not ignorant of his devices." Against deception we are warned. Satan would make us believe that wrong is right. For our weaknesses he apologizes; for our defects of character he makes excuses, and, thereby, tries to lower the standard of righteousness. There is only one that has overcome the world, and that one is Christ. We have no other refuge but in Him. It will not do to underestimate the foe with which we come in daily contact. We can not meet this enemy alone. We must "put on the whole armor of God, that ye [we] may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." Eph. 6:11. That armor capapie, from head to foot, is Christ. "They overcame him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony." Rev. 12:11. The blood is the life—God's life. The Word of God is life. "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." John 6:63. "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." 1 John 5:4.7
We overcome, then, by the Word of God, through faith. Christ gave us the example in His temptation in the wilderness. To every perverted quotation of the Scripture that Satan made, Christ answered, "It is written," and rightly applied the Word of God.
When to Overcome.
Our victories are necessary as long as temptation lasts. Therefore, they should be ever present. It is not safe to rely upon past conquests. We need to be converted every day. Paul says, "I die daily," or day by day. To the Galatians he says, "I am crucified with Christ." Gal. 2:20. We are enjoined to take up our cross daily. "To him that overcometh"—the other form of the verb is overcomes. The tense is present; the victory is active and continual.
The Reward.
"To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne." Rev. 3:21. "Unto our God kings and priests." Rev. 5:10. Overcomers are "heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." Rom. 8:17. "Heirs according to the promise." Gal. 3:29. Heirs of what?—The new earth. "Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." 2 Peter 3:13. "Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He hath promised to them that love Him?" James 2:5. The multimillionaires, "who have heaped treasures together for the last days" (James 5:1-3), are paupers when compared with the rich inheritance of an humble child of God.
CYRUS SIMMONS.
CHRISTIAN NATIONS.
By Frances Bartlett
[By Frances Bartlett, in Boston Evening Transcript.]
Look ye forth, ye Christian nations, o'er the old earth's lands afar,
From the south sky to the north sky, once ablaze with Bethlehem's star,
From the east sea to the west sea—war and threatenings of war,
And the Cross high over all!
Ye have wept the blinded heathen bowing down to wood and stone;
Ye have thanked the God who made ye that His truth was to ye shown;
Ye have builded altars to Him, over blood-stained shrines downthrown,
With the Cross high over all!
In the place of Him who suffered, for the world's sin to atone,
Ye have made of gold an idol, reared for it a golden throne;
Ye shall see its feet are molded of rude clay—when all is known,
For the Cross is over all!
For the voice that on Golgotha naught but love and pity spake,
Tho a brow and hands were bleeding, and a heart with anguish brake;
Hark! the thunder of your cannon, 'neath whose wrath your brothers quake;
And the Cross high over all!
Of the love wherewith He loved ye, ye have forged a sword of flame,
And ye smite all souls who thwart ye with the vengeance of the same;
And ye do it (God forgive ye!), for the honor of His name,
And the Cross high over all!
Do ye think the lengthening centuries have made null Love's grave commands?
Do ye think the tramp of armies drowns the voice of His commands?
Or your cannons' crash the weeping that is rising from the lands,
With the Cross high over all?
Nay, His golden scales are poised, and within your hearts are laid;
And your creeds are blown, like dust wreaths; by your deeds your lives are weighed.
Heed ye, lest ye be found wanting, spite of all the prayers ye've prayed,
With the Cross high over all!
Toward His judgment-seat eternal tread ye all life's sacred way;
Who the conquerors, who the conquered, He alone can truly say:By the love ye bear your brothers shall He judge ye all, one day,
With the Cross high over all!
A CHEAT OF THE SOUL.
"The Public Shaved To-morrow for Nothing."
THESE were the words the astonished passers-by read, one Monday morning, over the sign of an enterprising barber who strove to drive his trade in an already well barber-stocked neighborhood of a large city.
People stopped to look, to wonder what it could mean, scoffingly at first, then, as they still lingered, they began to wish it might be true, and speculated together on such a possibility. What an opportunity, and so short—TO-MORROW!
Soon expectant customers, of the class who are ever on the alert for "wonderful bargains," dropped in to inquire at what hour they would be served on the coming day.
"Any time you please," was the invariable reply, given with the greatest suavity. A more obliging tradesman was surely never seen.
Tuesday morning arrived. In flocked the unshaven, chuckling to themselves over their good fortune and the simplicity of the barber.
"Well, gentlemen," said he, bowing affably to them all, "to what may I ascribe the favor of your patronage?"
"Why, we are here consistent with your promise; yesterday we read over your door, 'The public shaved to-morrow for nothing.'"
"Truly," responded he. "And to-day you read the same. Payment I must have NOW; TO-MORROW you shall be served for nothing."
Crestfallen, they perceived that they had been the dupes of their own covetousness and folly.
Dost thou, O deluded man, deride these who were thus ensnared? At thyself thou laughest, for thou art the subject of
A SIMILAR BUT MORE SERIOUS DECEPTION.
Applaudest thou the barber? Thou dost virtually extol one whose name is Satan, who lures thee on with hope of gain and heaven TO-MORROW, but fills his greed to-day with thy store of time and strength, yea, and all that thou hast that is worth the taking.
What charm there is in that word "TO-MORROW"! What resolves for doing better, what fond hopes of some mysterious change taking place, what delusive expectation that it will be easier to be saved then, does that phantom day foster! God's time, NOW, is bartered for Satan's TO-MORROW, and you think you have made a great bargain, until in the hour of need you resort in vain to your ready promiser, to be met with the mocking cry, "TO-MORROW."
God asserts that "now is the day of salvation." Satan lyingly whispers, "Plenty of time to-morrow." And your poor silly heart, fond of the pleasures of sin, eagerly leaps at the bait, and, after skilful playing by the cunning angler, you will find yourself hopelessly entangled in the landing-net of your adversary.
"Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth."—Anon.
WHO WROTE THE PENTATEUCH?
By Abbie C. Morrow
[By Abbie C. Morrow, in Word and Work.]
HIGHER CRITICS say, "The Pentateuch was written by unknown authors." God says, "Moses wrote this law." Deut. 31:9, 22, 24-26.
In explorations made in Egypt in 1891, extensive correspondence was discovered, written one hundred and fifty years before the time of Moses. This is God's answer in our day to the argument of the critics that writing was not known at the time of Moses.
When Joshua discomfited Amalek, the Lord commanded Moses, "Write this for a memorial in a book." Ex. 17:13, 14. Of all that the Lord spake to Moses in the mount He commanded, "Write thou these words." Ex. 34:27, 28.
In Leviticus fifty-six times it is said, or implied, that the law was given through Moses. Lev. 26:46; 27:34. Every chapter but one from the eleventh to the twenty-seventh begins, "And the Lord spake unto Moses."
The command concerning wine was given to Aaron that he might teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord had spoken to them "by the hand of Moses." Lev. 10:11.
In Numbers we have the numbering of the tribes, the order of their march, the work of the priests and Levites, and the halting and encamping of Israel during the forty years. "And Moses wrote their goings out." Num. 33:2.
Joshua was promised prosperity if he would do all the law which Moses commanded. Joshua 1:7, 8.
During the time of the judges the nations were kept "to prove Israel, . . . whether they would hearken unto the commandments of the Lord, which He commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses." Judges 3:4.
Afterward we read that "Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law of the Lord given by the hand of Moses." 2 Chron. 34:14, margin.
Twice in his wonderful prayer does Daniel refer to "the law of Moses." Dan. 9:11, 13.
Ezra read to the people before the watergate from "the book of the law of Moses." Neh. 8:1.
Almost the last words of the Old Testament are, "Remember ye the law of Moses." Mal. 4:4.
The Pharisees, quoting from Deut. 24:1, ascribe its authorship to Moses. Matt. 19:7.
Stephen ended his brief biography of Moses with the assertion, "This is that Moses" which prophesied of Jesus, and quoted Deut. 18:15, 18; Acts 7:37.
Paul testified concerning Jesus "out of the law of Moses." Acts 28:23.
Jesus declared, "Moses wrote of Me." John 5:46. In His answer to the Sadducees concerning the resurrection, He asked, "Have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him?" Mark 12:26; Ex. 3:6. And in the memorable walk to Emmaus, "Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." Luke 24:27, 44. And the first prophecy of Jesus, the Redeemer, is in Gen. 3:15.
Shall we stand with the "Higher Critics," and deny God's Word, and throw away our whole Bible as unworthy of trust, or stand with the true men of all ages, and acknowledge Moses as the author of the Pentateuch?
What about the last chapter of Deuteronomy, and such parentheses as Num. 12:3? These may have been added by Joshua. Does an author necessarily write the preface, or introduction, or appendix, or notes in his book? Bunyan's life is given in "Pilgrim's Progress," but no one denies the authorship of the book because that has been added.
Then God could have inspired Moses to write a prophetic history of his own death and burial. Let us always remember in dealing with apparent difficulties that if our Bible "had no depths beyond man's plummet it could not be a revelation of God," and rejoice that He who inspired the Book has promised to teach us "all things." John 14:26; 1 John 2:20, 27.
BLESSED, holy Sabbath morning,
Day of all the week the best,
Emblem of the rest that's promised
In the mansions of the blest.
Day on which the great Creator,
When creation's work was done,
Rested from His finished labor,
Father, Son, and Spirit, one.
May the day be spent in service,
Seeking help for days to come;
Faith be strengthened, hope be brightened,
As we journey to our home.
Then, when all the holy Sabbaths
Of our earth life here are o'er,
May we meet in that blest harbor
Over on the heavenly shore.
There we'll rest from all our labors,
In that land so bright and fair,
Nevermore be sad or weary,
Nevermore to know a care.
O, the joy that will be given
When before God's throne we fall,
Praising Him who died to save us,
Crowning Jesus Lord of all!
Paton, Iowa. G. F. RIDER.
A WARNING FROM THE SCAFFOLD.
POOR Freeman Cochran, on the gallows at Bethany, Mo., said just the other day, "Whenever you turn up a glass of whisky, look in the bottom and you will see the shadow of this rope."
The editor of the Prison Missionary can truthfully say, Look again, and you will see the cause of our serving fifteen years in the Oregon State Penitentiary.—Oregon Penitentiary Prison Missionary.