We are told that on May 19, 1910, and before and after, a comet is to be seen in the heavens; or that the earth is to pass through the tail of the comet. This will give us another view of the handiwork of the Creator of all things; and many will look for the comet with unabated interest, as many now living have never seen a comet.
But it is an event that occurred May 19, 130 years ago, which we wish to remember just here. You will recall that on one occasion the disciples asked Jesus, “What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?” Inspiration answers thus: “There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars,” “before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.” See Matt. 24: 1-3; Luke 21: 25; Joel 2: 31.
In harmony with these scriptures, let us read the following: “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars of heaven shall fall.” Mark 13: 24, 25.
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven.” Matt. 24: 29. See also Rev. 6:12, 13.
the tail
Note carefully these inspired predictions. The prophet Joel said these signs should occur “before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.” Mark said they would occur “in those days,”—the 1260 years of papal supremacy ending 1798,—but, he continues, “after that tribulation,”—which tribulation ceased in 1776. And Matthew adds that these signs should take place “immediately after the tribulation of those days;” that is, before 1798, and just after 1776. This in brief is the Scripture prediction. Now let us inquire, What are the historical facts in fulfilment of the predictions?
“The 19th of May, 1780, was a REMARKABLY DARK DAY. Candles were lighted in many houses. The birds were silent, and disappeared. The fowls retired to roost. It was the GENERAL OPINION that the day of judgment was at hand. The legislature of Connecticut was in session at Hartford, but being unable to transact business, adjourned.” —Timothy Dwight, in Connecticut Historical Collections.6
“Dark Day, The, May 19, 1780, so called on account of a remarkable darkness on that day, extending over all New England. In some places persons could not see to read common print in the open air for several hours together. . . . The true CAUSE of this remarkable phenomenon IS NOT KNOWN.” —Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, in Explanatory and Pronouncing Vocabulary, article “Dark Day.”
“The darkness of the following evening or night was probably as gross as has ever been observed since the Almighty first gave birth to light. I could not help conceiving at the time that if every luminous body in the universe had been shrouded in impenetrable darkness, or struck out of existence, the darkness could not have been more complete. A sheet of white paper held within a few inches of the eyes was equally invisible with the blackest velvet.” —Mr. Tenney, in “Stone’s History of Beverly, Mass.”
Like testimony by the page could be presented, but the foregoing must suffice. We see, however, that the first two of these inspired predictions were fulfilled on May 19, 1780, to a letter as to both manner and time. But there is in the prediction another clause which we wish to notice: “And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.” Rev. 6:13.
This was literally fulfilled on Nov. 13, 1833, and is still fresh, as it were, in the minds of some now living, so we hardly need to refer to history at all. However, I will notice two or three short extracts. The celebrated astronomer, Professor Olmstead, says:
“Those who were so fortunate as to witness the exhibition of shooting stars on the morning of Nov. 13, 1833, probably saw the greatest display of celestial fireworks that has ever been since the creation of the world, or at least within the annals covered by the pages of history.” —“Facts for the Times,” page 71.
On Nov. 14, 1833, Henry Dana Ward said:
“No philosopher or scholar has told or recorded an event, I suppose, like that of yesterday morning. A prophet 1800 years ago foretold it exactly, if we will be at the trouble of understanding stars falling to mean falling stars, in the only sense in which it is possible to be literally true.” —Journal of Commerce, Nov. 14, 1833.
Once more: “While a mere lad,” said Horace Greeley, “I was wakened in the night to see a pale, frightened face bending over me, and to hear, ‘Get up! get up! the day of judgment has come, I believe, for the stars are all falling.’” —New York Tribune, June 4, 1859.
“But,” says one, “what on earth do all these inspired predictions and their fulfilment have to do with the comet expected on May 19?” Nothing at all, I answer, except that some people seem to be excited and fearful that it will bring the end of the world,—the very thing which the disciples asked about. Now while we do not believe that the comet will bring the end of the world, we do believe that these signs which we have seen fulfilled in the sun, the moon, and the stars do tell us plainly that we are nearing that great day “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.” See 2 Peter 3:10-13.
Of these three signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, the Saviour said, “When these things begin to come to pass,”—and they began May 19, 1780,—“then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” Luke 21:28. And in Matthew He says: “When ye shall see all these things, know that it [R.V., He] is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” Matt. 24:33, 34.
Now, dear reader, while we do not look for the end of the world on May 19, 1910, and while the Scriptures teach us plainly that no man knows the day or the hour, we are to know when that day is near, even at the doors; and we may know that years have passed rapidly since the last generation began, and we must be nearing its end. And while we do not expect the coming of the Lord and the end of the world on May 19, 1910, at the appearance of the comet, yet He will come before the present generation shall have all passed away. Let us watch, and be ready to say with all the righteous, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us.” Isa. 25:9.
Cartersville, Ga.
Higher Criticism
By Earle Albert Rowell
By Earle Albert Rowell
I. The Rise of the Movement
While it is well known that there is a movement in the churches called Higher Criticism, or New Theology, many, unaware of its real nature, think that because it is fathered by theologians, believed and taught by ministers, it must be new light; and without examining its history or testing its fruits, have been led by it to the brink of the dismal abyss of skepticism and infidelity.
It is an appalling fact that most of the scholarly volumes on the Bible coming from the presses to-day are the products of Higher Critics. Most of the contributors to the leading theological magazines of Europe and America write from the critical standpoint. This New Theology is the basis of the two greatest Bible dictionaries in the English language, “Hastings’s Bible Dictionary” and the “Encyclopedia Biblica.” The movement is insidious, wide-spread, and its results are alarming. A rapid survey of its history will put the reader in possession of the means by which to judge it. A knowledge of the tree will indicate its fruit.
Do Not Confound
Higher Criticism must not be confounded with Lower or Textual Criticism, which has to do solely with ascertaining the exact text of Scripture, while Higher Criticism devotes itself to considering the “integrity, authenticity, literary form, and reliability” of the Bible. (Briggs, in “Study of Holy Scripture,” page 92.) This sounds innocent enough; but when the results of this method are to destroy its integrity, deny its authority, alter its literary form, and evaporate its reliability, an investigation is seriously demanded.
Richard Simon, a Roman Catholic priest, is called the “father of Higher Criticism.” In 1678 he advanced the new theory that only the ordinances and commands of the books of Moses were written by him, while the history was the product of various other writers. This view was immediately attacked and demolished.
It was nearly a hundred years before Higher Criticism again raised its head from the dust. In 1753 another Roman Catholic, Jean Astruc, by the publication of his “Conjectures,” inaugurated the real movement which for a hundred and fifty years has been growing with accelerating power and permeating influence, until to-day it is the dominant theological conception in the religious world. In these “Conjectures” Astruc called attention to the fact that in Genesis the word for the Creator was sometimes “God” (Elohim) and sometimes “Lord” (Jehovah). For instance, in Gen. 1:1 we read that “God created the heavens and the earth;” and in Gen. 4:9, “The Lord said unto Cain.” Now strange and absurd as it may seem, yet it is a fact that the use of “God” in one place and “Lord” in another was adduced as proof that the accounts in which these words were found were uniformly written by different men at widely different times! This is the beginning and the foundation of that top-heavy structure of Higher Criticism that overshadows everything else in the religious world to-day and is casting its black shadow of doubt across every page of Holy Writ. Thus in the Catholic Church was conceived, born, and nursed the child of doubt, that has been adopted by Protestantism, as many another child of error born of Catholicism, and is eagerly heralded as the child of light.
Human Productions
The next step was taken in 1780, by J. G. Eichhorn, who combined in one work the results of previous critics, claimed in addition to see other differences than in the divine name between the two “sections,” extended the theory over the whole of the Old Testament, laid down the rule now universally accepted by Higher Critics, Bible “writings are to be read as human productions and tested in human ways,” and for the first time gave to the process the name of Higher Criticism.
Another Roman Catholic divine, Dr. Geddes, in 1792 advanced the movement by promulgation of the “fragmentary hypothesis,” which resolved the first six books into an agglomeration of longer and shorter7fragments between which no threads of continuous connection existed, put together in the reign of Solomon. All this, however, was mild compared with what was soon to follow.
With De Wette’s essays in 1805 began the bold unbelief of Higher Criticism proper. He flatly refused to find anything in the books of Moses but legend and poetry—history there was none. He advanced the theory that the date of the discovery of the book of Deuteronomy in the temple in 624 B. C. was also the date of its composition. It was claimed to be a pious fraud perpetrated by the priests to establish their power, and hid by them in the temple to be discovered by one of themselves. That ministers of the Gospel believe and teach such a thing, is an astounding fact.
A Long Stride
While the distinction of the divine names failed after Exodus 6, the lynx-eyed critics claimed to detect other linguistic phenomena which served as well. So Bleek in 1822, Ewald in 1831, and Stahelin in 1835, developed the new theories. In the last-mentioned year a long stride was taken in Higher Criticism. It saw the publication of Vatke’s “Old Testament Theology,” Baur’s “Pastoral Epistles,” and Strauss’s “Life of Jesus.” The violent religious controversy arising from these productions, lasted till 1853, when Hupfeld superceeded the “fragment hypothesis” with the “document hypothesis,” which found three main documents instead of two.
The final stages and finishing touches were now given in rapid succession. The “document hypothesis,” however, soon gave way to the present prevailing theory, the “development hypothesis,” formulated by Reuss, and made public in 1866 by Graf, who took a critical somersault by advancing the theory that Leviticus was written two hundred years after Deuteronomy. Since 1883 Wellhausen has been elaborating this theory, till his views dominate Higher Criticism everywhere.
There were now four sources recognized in the first half of the Old Testament, designated by the capitals J, E, D, and P. But this is by no means all. These four sources were found inadequate to account for all the contents of these books; so the critics found that in the endeavor to make their theory stand upright they must make a further division and subdivision. Hence the original J and E of Astruc dissolved into this nebulous series: J1, J2, J3, J4; E1, E2, E3; P1, P2, P3, P4; D1, D2, D3, etc., or equivalents, all of which are now part of the recognized critical apparatus of Higher Critical books.
A Masterpiece
But the end is not yet. The heights of absurdity might seem to have been reached; but no, the masterpiece of absurdity was yet to come. Having gotten themselves entangled in the critical cogs, it was impossible to stop. So we find Budde in “Judges,” page 14, saying, “J and E throughout are not to me persons, but extensive schools of writers, running their course alongside of each other.” Says Gunkel, “J and E are not individual writers, . . . but rather schools of narrators.”—“Genesis,” page 58. Dr. Cheyne, in his “Founders of Criticism,” page 39, and Dr. Driver, in his “Genesis,” page 16, take the same position. McFadyen says that these schools of writers range “over a considerable period.”—“Messages of Prophecy and Priestly Historians,” page 22. And Dr. Briggs takes a similar position: “There were groups of earlier Ephraimitic (E) and Judaic (J) writers, and they were followed by groups of Deuteronomic (D) and Priestly (P) writers.”—“Study of Holy Scripture,” page 290.
So at last we have arrived by the critical route to the present position of the New Theology, that whole “schools of writers” were continuously engaged for centuries in patching, revising, tessellating, resetting, altering, and embellishing the work of their predecessors.
The theories concerning the New Testament are similar, and the havoc wrought even greater. In the next articles we will briefly consider the processes, tendencies, fruits, and real significance of Higher Criticism; and they will make abundantly clear that, in the words of McIntosh, Higher Criticism “would bury an expired Christianity with an incredible Bible beside a dead Christ in a hopeless grave from which there is no resurrection; and bury along with them the only consolation of a sorrowful humanity amid the desolations of death and the darkness of futurity, without one ray of hope to alleviate the eternal gloom; and would turn mankind backward millenniums, and convert the dawn of a new century into a midnight darkness and a world’s despair.”
The Final Battle
By Flora E. Warren
By Flora E. Warren
ON the battle-ground of ages —
Like the roll of distant thunder —
Can be heard the tread of armies, as they gather for the fray;
For the battle of the ages,
Where the long, dark night has settled,
Soon will end, and bring the dawning of a bright and glorious day!
From the hills and from the valleys,
Out of ev’ry tribe and nation;
From the highways and the hedges, and the city’s busy street,
They are gathering for the battle —
Final battle of the ages,
Where the hosts of good and evil shall find vict’ry or defeat.
All the world shall be partakers
In that struggle of the ages,
Which comes stealing swiftly, surely, as a lion for its prey;
But the fight will soon be ended —
War and death are not eternal;
God in heaven watches over, and the Right shall win the day!
Prayer and Spiritual Longing
By W. Tyndale
PRAYER is a moving, a longing, and a desire of the spirit Godward for that which it lacketh as a sick man mourneth and sorroweth in the heart, longing for health.—W. Tyndale.
The Prayer for Wealth and Goodness
“THE Almighty finds it hard to answer the prayer, ‘Make me rich and keep me good.’”
The Loom of Life
It is a fine notion of life to liken it to the loom. God puts on the warp in those circumstances in which we find ourselves, and which we can not change. The woof is wrought by the shuttle of every-day life. It is made of very homely threads sometimes, common duties, unpromising and unwelcome tasks. But whoever tries to do each day’s work in the spirit of patient loyalty to God, is weaving the texture whose other side is fairer than the one he sees.—Great Thoughts.
Elevating Effect of the Bible
By Ryle
CHEMISTRY never silenced a guilty conscience. Mathematics never healed a broken heart. All the sciences in the world never smoothed down a dying pillow. No earthly philosophy ever supplied hope in death. No natural theology ever gave peace in the prospect of meeting a holy God. All these things are of the earth, earthy, and can never raise a man above the earth’s level. They may enable a man to strut and fret his little season here below with a more dignified gait than his fellow mortals; but they can never give him wings, and enable him to soar toward heaven. He that has the largest share of them will find at length that without Bible knowledge he has got no lasting possession. Death will make an end of all his attainments, and after death they will do him no good at all.— Ryle.
Inspiration of the Bible
MR. JOHN WILLIAMS, the martyr of Erromango, gave the following account of the reasons of a few converted South Sea Islanders for their belief in the Bible. They were startled when asked, “Do you believe the Bible to be the Word of God?” having never had a doubt about it. After a moment’s pause, one answered, “Most certainly we do.” It was asked: “Why do you believe it? Can you give any reason for believing the Bible to be the Word of God?” He replied: “Why, look at the power with which it has been attended, in the utter overthrow of all that we have been addicted to from time immemorial. What else could have demolished that system of idolatry which had so long prevailed among us? No human arguments could have induced us to abandon that false system.”
This question being put to another, he replied: “I believe the Bible to be the Word of God, on account of the pure system of religion which it contains. We had a system of religion before; but look how dark and black a system that was compared with the bright system of salvation revealed in the Word of God! Here we learn that we are sinners; and that God gave Jesus Christ to die for us, and by that goodness salvation is given to us. Now, what but the wisdom of God could have produced such a system as this presented to us in the Word of God? And this doctrine leads to purity.”
A third reply to this question was: “When I look at myself I find I have got hinges all over my body. I have hinges to my legs, hinges to my jaws, hinges to my feet. If I want to take hold of anything, there are hinges to my hands to do it with. If my heart thinks, and I want to speak, I have got hinges to my jaws. If I want to walk, I have hinges to my feet. Now here,” continued he, “is wisdom, in adapting my body to the various functions it has to discharge. And I find that the wisdom which made the Bible, exactly fits with this wisdom which has made my body; consequently, I believe the Bible to be the Word of God.”
Another replied, “I believe it to be the Word of God, on account of the prophecies which it contains, and the fulfilment of them.”
The New Testament Scriptures
1. In our last Bible reading we learned that the Old Testament Scriptures were inspired, as shown by claim, by record, by testimony of Christ and His apostles; of what did Jesus assure His apostles?
“The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall TEACH YOU ALL THINGS, and bring ALL THINGS TO YOUR REMEMBRANCE, WHATSOEVER I HAVE SAID UNTO YOU.” John 14:26.
“When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will GUIDE YOU INTO ALL TRUTH: . . . and He will SHOW you THINGS TO COME.” John 16:13.
2. What did the apostle Paul say of his own writings?
“I certify you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached of me is NOT AFTER MAN. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST.” Gal. 1:11, 12.
“Which things also we speak, NOT in the words which MAN’S wisdom teacheth, but WHICH THE HOLY SPIRIT TEACHETH.” 1 Cor. 2:13.
3. With what does Peter class Paul’s writings?
“As our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; as also in all his epistles, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also THE OTHER SCRIPTURES, unto their own destruction.” 2 Peter 3:15, 16.
NOTE.—Either Paul was a base deceiver, was himself wofully deceived, or his writings came as he declares. Peter classes them with “the other Scriptures,” on the same basis.
4. To what evidence did Paul appeal as to the fruits of his message?
“Forasmuch as YE are manifestly declared to be the EPISTLE of CHRIST ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart.” 2 Cor. 3:3.
“For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how YE TURNED TO GOD from idols to serve the living and true God.” 1 Thess. 1:9.
“For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, which EFFECTUALLY WORKETH also in you that believe.” 1 Thess. 2:13.
NOTE.—One of the mightiest evidences of the truth and inspiration of the New Testament, and in fact of “the other Scriptures,” is the fruit borne, the results which followed. The New Testament Scriptures saved and regenerated souls. They turned men to the living God from dumb idols. They revolutionized the world. They are the same to-day.
The Busy Man
A THOUGHTFUL business man will recognize his PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY to a higher power. That power may be his family name, posterity, or the great public; better than all if it be the great personal God. One of America's greatest minds, Daniel Webster, said that the greatest, most awful thought which ever came to him was MAN'S PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY TO GOD.
The principle of personal responsibility is recognized by every true business man in his recognition of the ordinary elements of trade, of buy and sell, of loan and pledge, of debtor and creditor, of employer and employed. If the business man hires men or women to do his work, he holds them personally responsible to do his work, to earn their wage; and he demands that they and he shall each hold himself responsible to do his duty.
The OBSERVING merchant will clearly perceive that the one who renders him the best service, the man upon whom he can depend, is the one who above all others recognizes his responsibility to God, and this not as a part of a superstitious creed, or a religion of inheritance, but of an inborn, vital, God-given principle which permeates everything below it.
In the light of true business principles the thoughtful, candid, honest business man will sooner or later come to recognize as his highest motive-molding power, his personal responsibility to God.
Why?
To God he owes his existence, his health, his mind, his powers of execution, mentally and physically. All the blessings which come by environment, home, friends, country, community, all come from the Giver of all. The light of the sun, the glory of the nightly heavens, the rain, the dew, the air we breathe, all the great common blessings we enjoy, which we could not dispense with, are all gifts from Him, from His creative power.
But more: When man had forfeited them all to his lust, his sin, and death fell upon the race as the legitimate fruitage of man's sowing, God bought back, by a price which staggered the universe in its stupendous infinity, man's lost estate, patrimony, and inheritance; and He did it through Jesus Christ, “that He might be just, and the justifier of him that believes.”
Therefore by creative power and love, by redemptive love and deed, you, my business brother, owe all you have to God, even the “power to get wealth” (Deut. 8:18); all come from Him. “He is thy life, and the length of thy days;” it is therefore a fundamental business principle to recognize as primary our obligation to God.
The recognition of that fundamental fact will make a GODLY business man.
Time for Eternal Things
The busy man wants time. He plans for time. Surely, if he is wise, there will come into his plan, as a constituent, controlling element in it, the things of eternal import. He will give thought to that. He will take time for that. He will make it his business.
The Book You Want
By John Sheldon
YOU will want a book which contains not man's thoughts, but God's; not a book that may amuse you, but a book that can save you; not even a book that can instruct you, but a book on which you can venture an eternity; not only a book which can give relief to your spirit, but redemption to your soul; a book which contains salvation, and conveys it to you; one which shall at once be the Saviour's book and the sinner's.—John Sheldon.
A Testimony
WE believe that the Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired, and is a perfect treasure of heavenly instruction; that it has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture of error for its matter; that it reveals the principles by which God will judge us, and therefore is, and shall remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and opinions should be tried.—Baptist Church Manual.
Is Death the Second Coming of Christ?
On the headstones which mark the resting-place of many a Christian sleeper, placed there by loving hands and sorrowing hearts, is the inscription, “Be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh.”
Now that is Scripture, spoken by our Lord, and recorded in the Gospels. See Matt. 24:44. It certainly has its application somewhere, and both text and context show that it is to some phase at least of Christ’s coming.
1. It is utterly incongruous and unjust to represent death as the second coming of our Lord; for He is our everlasting Friend, while death is an enemy, “the last enemy that shall be destroyed.” 1 Cor. 15:26. And the Destroyer of death and of him that brought death, is our Lord, who “abolished death,” and “brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.” 2 Tim. 1:10; Heb. 2:14. Certainly it is unjust to the Destroyer of death to identify Him with His enemy.
2. Death is the result of sin; for “by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Rom. 5:12. “And sin, when it is full-grown, bringeth forth death.” James 1:15. Jesus Christ can not be the Saviour from sin, and yet be the result of sin.
3. When Jesus was here upon the earth, His coming never meant death, but life. When He went to the house of Jairus, it was to give life to the little daughter. When He entered the little city of Nain, it was not as a death messenger, but to give life to the widow’s son. “Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died,” said each of the sorrowing sisters of Lazarus, as Jesus entered Bethany; but He declared, “I am the Resurrection, and the Life.” His coming was life to Lazarus; but death to Lazarus was not Christ’s coming.
Death Is Not Christ’s Coming
No! Christ’s coming is not death nor at death. The Scriptures do not say, When Christ, who is our death shall appear, but, “When Christ, who is our Life, shall appear, then shall ye [whose life is hidden with Christ] also appear with Him in glory.” Col. 3:3, 4. He comes as the Lifegiver; for “He is our Life.” When He calls, the graves open and yield their captives, and all the hallowed resting-places of the ages give up their dead to the words of life. For that coming when the Saviour shall become the Judge, “be ye also ready.”
Conviction of Sin
WHAT are the Lord’s agencies in convicting of sin?—His Spirit, His law. It is true that conscience convicts, but a good conscience is instructed and regulated by God’s standard of righteousness, and made impressible by His Holy Spirit. It is true that men are convicted by preaching, by words spoken by other men. But true conviction is produced through the agency of God’s truth; and God’s moral truth is but the drawing out of His wonderful law.
The convicting power is the Spirit; the convicting agency which the Spirit uses is the law. Therefore we read: “And when He [the Spirit] is come, He will convince the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on Me.” John 16:9, margin. “By the law is the knowledge of sin.” Rom. 3:20. “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.” Rom. 7:7.
The law condemns because the heart and life are contrary to the law. The law, to the convicted sinner, is like the terrors of quaking, burning Sinai. It holds over the head of the sinner the sword of justice. The Spirit presses home that law upon the heart, till the convicted man cries out in agony over his uncleanness. Spirit and law lead to deep and pungent conviction and repentance.
But the Spirit does not cease its work in the condemnation of the sinner. Through conviction of sin by the law, it leads the sinner to Christ. That is the end, or object, of the Spirit’s use of the law in condemning the sinner. It convinces of sin because the one convinced did not believe on Christ. John 16:9. The Spirit then convicts of sin through the law, that the sinner may believe in Christ. “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” Gal. 3:24.
But the law has a part in our justification; for we are justified by the imputed righteousness of God in Christ wrought out in Christ’s character. By His life of obedience to the law we are made righteous. Rom. 5:19. “Christ,” therefore, “is the end [or object] of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” Rom. 10:4. Christ places upon us the righteousness that is in the law, but which sinful man could not get from the law; and it is for this reason that the Spirit by the law leads us to Christ, in whom we may obtain righteousness and be brought into harmony with the law, our accuser. Then our accuser becomes a blessed witness of our acceptance with God. It witnesses that the righteousness of God through faith, gotten through Christ’s obedience (Rom. 5:19), is in harmony with the law He obeyed (Rom. 3:24), and which it is our duty to obey. James 2:12.
God and Christ are one. God’s law and God’s Spirit are of one. And he who is in harmony with any one is in blessed and assured harmony with all.
The Glory of the Night
Did not the sun go down we would not see the stars, we would not know the beauty by which the heavens are garnished. Men would not have told us of the glory and greatness of the countless suns and systems of shining orbs. It is so in spiritual life. We are now in earth’s long, dark night of sin. Sometimes the night is more deeply darkened by great cloud masses of sin and fogs of unbelief, and we long for the breaking of the morning, when “the Sun of Righteousness shall rise with healing in His beams.” Yet in the darkest night we know that beyond the clouds are the stars, and we thank God for their bright, clear shining from the black dome above—stars lighted of God, “burning and shining” lights along the way. Because of His goodness we have “songs in the night,” and because of the clear, shining stars the songs are multiplied.
Why Choose the Harder Side?—And now
Prof. Paul Haupt tells us that Moses was not an Israelite, that Jewish monotheism came from Egypt, that the Israelites were not in Egypt, that the sublime scenes of Sinai were a volcanic eruption; etc., etc. It would be easier to believe there was no Moses, no Israel. The mental acrobatics and contortions and writhings of the “Higher Critics” are marvelous. Their deductions, if true, would be truly miraculous. It is so much easier to the honestly doubtful mind to believe the Bible.
THE last five chapters in Kings and the first sixteen in Proverbs constitute our lesson for the week. The books of Kings close with the wicked and weak reigns of the kings of Judah. There is one bright chapter in that history, however, and that is the reformation conducted under the good king Josiah supported by his godly priests and counselors. Connect chapter 23 with the 13th chapter of 1 Kings. Note how Josiah fulfilled the prophecy of the man of God to Jeroboam. Hundreds of years they had waited for the fulfilment of that prophecy, but at last it came just as the Lord declared it would.
THE chronological place of the book of Proverbs belongs to a great extent to the time of Solomon; but it seemed best to close Kings in our reading so that we might get the connected history, and then take up the book of Proverbs, which is wholly a series of practical sayings and instruction, pertaining not at all to the historical part, but to the practical part of life. Most of them were probably written and brought together in the days of Solomon himself; some of those in the latter part of the book are said to have been copied out by the scribes in the days of Hezekiah, and there seem also to be wise sayings from others.
ONE needs to read the book of Proverbs more slowly than he does the historical matter. It is worth while to stop and think over some of the deep philosophy that is revealed in these eminent sayings. There are some passages that it is not well to read in a promiscuous assembly of men and women, such as the last part of chapter 5, some parts of chapter 7, and the last of chapter 9; and yet the instructions given therein ought to take hold upon the human heart of both men and women, and warn them against the sins that are there condemned.
