Some of Its Prominent Features—Danger in Denying the Devil / Immortality and Sunday a Basis of Unity—Misled / by Wonder-Working Demons
By WALTER E. GILLIS
SPIRITUALISM is in theory communication with the departed dead; in practice it is the intruding of Satan and his fallen host in every department of the household, in every street of our cities, in the churches, in the national councils, in the courts of justice, perplexing, deceiving, seducing, everywhere ruining the souls and bodies of men, women, and children, breaking up families, sowing hatred, emulation, strife, sedition, murder.
THE WORLD SELF-DECEIVED
The condition of the world when Christ comes will be the result of seed sown and cultivated. The Scriptures show clearly that the world as a whole will be self-deceived; that all but a small minority will be led captive by Satan, who as an angel of light will present before them his masterpiece of deception—namely, himself anticipating Christ’s coming, and receiving the adoration and homage due only to God.
How can such a condition ever be brought about?—By the coöperation of the people.
A little reminiscence will aid us in understanding the anomalous position in which the world stands to-day.
A SPLIT WITH ROME
When the Reformation occurred, it did not represent an abrupt return to the primitive truths of the Bible, but a split with Rome, more or less incomplete. The Reformers, a number of bright lights, left their mark upon different nations and generations; and as an inevitable result, the diversified Protestant denominations sprang into existence. With more or less zeal, they served their generation; and when the founders died, these denominations relapsed into a state of institutionalism. In a few decades, persecution ceased, and a growing popularity caused spirituality to wane.
Spirituality rapidly declined, and there grew in its place social conveniences, such as lodges, clubs, and societies that catered to a union and fraternity with the world. Then came a desire for power. Power such as the world can give comes only by confederacy.
A SPIRITISTIC CHURCH
Confederacy presupposes unanimity of purpose and plans. But this was the very thing that did not exist; and it has always been the contention raised by those opposed to Bible prophecy, that the different church bodies are so at variance that a ground of agreement could never be reached. But this is the very end that able and politic minds have been determined would be accomplished. The devil also agreed with them, and spirit manifestations appeared. In a few years, it became a science. Then it became709Christian in name. Behold it to-day a spiritualist church, organized under the laws of the states and having all the paraphernalia of the Christian churches—preachers, elders, deacons, etc.
How was the ground of mutual interests to be brought about?—By each church’s suppressing public discussion of points of difference and contention. But when public discussion ceased, private interest lagged. This gave birth to a generation coming on the stage of action having no decided convictions of Biblical belief, and ready to be blown hither and thither by every wind of doctrine.
BROUGHT ABOUT STEALTHILY
The whole situation has been skillfully brought about by the great enemy of souls, in such a stealthy way that when the final harvesting of the fruit begins, persecutors of the righteous minority will verily believe themselves to be doing God’s service. “Because they received not the love of the truth, . . . God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” 2 Thess. 2: 10-12.
God has not left men to meet the fiends in ignorance. The Bible clearly reveals the workings of the wily foes, and tells of their confederacy, intelligence, and subtlety, their malice against God, and their malicious determination to destroy men and the earth.
DANGEROUS TO DENY THE DEVIL
None are in greater danger from the influence of evil spirits than are those who, notwithstanding the direct and ample testimony of the Scriptures, deny the existence and agency of the devil and his angels. Many give heed to their suggestions while they suppose themselves to be following the dictates of their own wisdom. And it is because Satan can most readily control the minds of those who are unconscious of his influence, that the word of God gives us so many examples of his malignant work, thus placing us on our guard against his assaults. In seeking to cast contempt upon the divine statutes, Satan has perverted the doctrines of the Bible, and errors have thus become incorporated into the faith of thousands who profess to believe the Scriptures. The last great conflict between truth and error is but the final struggle of the longstanding controversy concerning the law of God. Upon this battle, we are now entering,—a battle between the laws of men and the precepts of Jehovah, between the religion of the Bible and the religion of fable and tradition.
A BASIS OF UNITY
Satan and his angels, cloaked with the theology that the soul of man is immortal, have free access to all the peoples of the earth. Using Sunday sacredness to break down the opposition of Protestantism to Romanism, Satan has determined to unite them in one body by sweeping all into the ranks of spiritualism. There, mingling on common ground, all have lost the sense of distinguishing between the holy and the profane. The most sacred truths are discounted, and the holiest ties crucified.
The present “materializing” epoch of spiritualism is not, as many suppose, a distinctly new departure in inter-world communication. Throughout human history, wherever God’s law was trampled underfoot, spirit communication has been prominent. Rapport with the spirits has always been characterized by atheistic views of the Bible. Just as in the temptations of the Saviour, the Scriptures are made to fight against God. His holy law is characterized as a “yoke of bondage,” when the Saviour Himself said that it “is easy.” Matt. 11: 30; Ps. 40: 6-8.
The prophet Isaiah saw that “it shall come to pass in the last days, that . . . many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” Isa. 2: 2-4.
THE MOVEMENT A FARCE
But the prophet saw that the whole movement was a farce, a “form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” He saw that these people of loud professions were worse than the heathen peoples of the East, and were soothsayers, even as were the peoples of Canaan whom the Lord in old time condemned to annihilation.
And the prophet beheld further (verses 7-9), that these modern nations had become exceedingly wealthy, and delighted in the work of their own hands, even to the point of idolatry. Their spiritual sense had atrophied, and they looked upon God as one like themselves, and offered Him the worship of unrepentant hearts.
They hold peace councils, and build peace palaces, while trampling underfoot the law of peace—the Ten Commandments. When in the history of the world has adultery, bloodshed, thievery, disobedience to parents, coveting and appropriating of the possessions of men and nations, self-worship, and Sabbath desecration been so prominent and unchallenged?
DO NOT SEE THE INCONSISTENCY
But men have refused the Saviour, and the spirits of devils have filled their minds with the soul-destroying sophistries of higher criticism, until they can see no inconsistency in compromising truth for the sake of confederacy. Nor do they see anything to hinder an agreement with the Church of Rome for the accomplishment of their common interest—a union with a church whose opposition to and corruption of the law of God has spanned two millenniums. Yet current literature is impregnated with plans and talks of peace. “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” Isa. 57: 21. “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3: 4.
Boston Photo News Company
King Constantine of Greece, his wife, the sister of Emperor William of Germany, and their five children.
When men refuse to accept Christ as the true sacrifice for sin and their only Mediator before God, they forfeit the benefits of His mediation. As they reject the teachings of His word, God withdraws His Spirit, and leaves them to the deceptions they love.
SATAN PERFORMS WONDERS
As men thus separate themselves from God, Satan, through the agency of spiritualism, will be enabled to perform wonderful miracles. The sick will be healed, supernatural sights will appear in the heavens, and many other undeniable wonders will be performed. And the spirits will declare that they believe the Bible and have respect for the institutions of the church.
The Church of Rome has always boasted of miracles as the sign of the true church, and so has no shield against the deception. Protestantism, having compromised the truth for position, will be alike deluded. Thus the world of moralists and churchmen will be united in a grand movement for the conversion of the world and the millennium.
Satan, having control of all those whom God does not specially protect, plays one against the other for the destruction of all. While appearing to the nations as a great physician who can heal all their maladies, he will bring disease and disaster, filling the world with every conceivable agency of destruction. Then he will persuade his followers that those who serve God are causing the evils—that those who present the claims of the fourth commandment, thus destroying reverence for Sunday, are troublers of the people, and are the cause of these terrible disasters, which are said to be manifestations of the wrath of God.
The miracle-working power manifested through spiritualism will exert its influence against those who choose to obey God rather than men. Communications from the spirits will declare that God has sent them to convince the rejecters of Sunday of their error. Having instigated the making of laws to suit their malign purposes, they will announce that the laws of the land are as the laws of God, and should be obeyed. They will lament the great wickedness in the earth, and will confirm the testimony of the religious teachers who are everywhere proclaiming that it is the result of Sunday desecration.
A personal knowledge of the Scriptures will be the only defense against this great deception. The time is at hand. The inhabitants of the earth are in deadly peril. On every hand is deception and counterfeit. Individual responsibility in things spiritual has long ago disappeared. A revival of that responsibility is the only hope for any soul. “To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.”
THE PRINCE OF TEACHERS
By Ellen G. White
The Prince of Peace Was Also the Greatest Teacher—He Understood and Came Close to Humanity—He Brought to Earth the Stored Up Love of Heaven—Men Saw Creation in a New Light
By the late MRS. E. G. WHITE
“His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of peace.”
In the Teacher sent from God, heaven gave to men its best and greatest. He who had stood in the councils of the Most High, who had dwelt in the innermost sanctuary of the Eternal, was the One chosen to reveal in person to humanity the knowledge of God.
GLEAMS FROM HIS GLORY
Through Christ had been communicated every ray of divine light that had ever reached our fallen world. It was He who had spoken through every one that throughout the ages had declared God’s word to man. Of Him all the excellences manifest in the earth’s greatest and noblest souls were reflections. The purity and beneficence of Joseph, the faith and meekness and long-suffering of Moses, the steadfastness of Elisha, the noble integrity and firmness of Daniel, the ardor and self-sacrifice of Paul, the mental and spiritual power manifest in all these men, and in all others who had ever dwelt on the earth, were but gleams from the shining of His glory. In Him was found the perfect ideal.
To reveal this ideal was the only true standard for attainment; to show what every human being might become; what, through the indwelling of humanity by divinity, all who received Him would become,—for this, Christ came to the world. He came to show how men are to be trained as befits the sons of God; how on earth they are to practice the principles and to live the life of heaven.
GREATEST GIFT FOR GREATEST NEED
God’s greatest gift was bestowed to meet man’s greatest need. Through false teaching, the minds of men had long been turned away from God. In the prevailing systems of education, human philosophy had taken the place of divine revelation. Instead of the heaven-given standard of truth, men had accepted a standard of their own devising. From the Light of life they had turned aside to walk in the sparks of the fire which they had kindled. Having separated from God, their only dependence being the power of humanity, their strength was but weakness. Even the standard set up by themselves they were incapable of reaching. The want of true excellence was supplied by appearance and profession. Semblance took the place of reality.
LOVED DARKNESS RATHER THAN LIGHT
From time to time, teachers arose who pointed men to the Source of truth. Right principles were enunciated, and human lives witnessed to their power. But these efforts made no lasting impression. There was a brief check in the current of evil, but its downward course was not stayed. The reformers were as lights that shone in the darkness; but they could not dispel it. The world “loved darkness rather than light.” John 3: 19.
When Christ came to the earth, humanity seemed to be fast reaching its lowest point. The very foundations of society were undermined. Life had become false and artificial. The worship of God “in Spirit and in truth,” had been supplanted by the glorification of men in an endless round of man-made ceremonies. Throughout the world, all systems of religion were losing their hold on mind and soul. Disgusted with fable and falsehood, seeking to drown thought, men turned to infidelity and materialism. Leaving eternity out of their reckoning, they lived for the present.
PRODUCED UNIVERSAL DISTRUST
As they ceased to recognize the divine, they ceased to regard the human. Truth, honor, integrity, confidence, compassion, were departing from the earth. Relentless greed and absorbing ambition gave birth to universal distrust. The idea of duty, of the obligation of strength to weakness, of human dignity and human rights, was cast aside as a dream or a fable.
As the evil passions and purposes of men banished God from their thoughts, so forgetfulness of Him inclined them more strongly to evil. The heart in love with sin clothed Him with its own attributes, and this conception strengthened the power of sin.
BUT ONE HOPE LEFT
There was but one hope for the human race,—that into this mass of discordant and corrupting elements might be cast a new leaven; that there might be brought to mankind the power of a new life; that the knowledge of God might be restored to the world.
Christ came to restore this knowledge. He came to set aside the false teaching by which those who claimed to know God had misrepresented Him. He came to manifest the nature of His law, to reveal in His own character the beauty of holiness.
BROUGHT THE ACCUMULATED LOVE OF ETERNITY
Christ came to the world with the accumulated love of eternity. Sweeping away the exactions which had encumbered the law of God, He showed that the law is a law of love, an expression of the divine goodness. He showed that in obedience to its principles is involved the happiness of mankind, and with it the stability, the very foundation and framework, of human society.
With the people of that age, the value of all things was determined by outward show. As religion had declined in power it had increased in pomp. The educators of the time sought to command respect by display and ostentation.
To all this the life of Jesus presented a marked contrast. He followed the divine plan of education. The schools of His time, with their magnifying of things small and their belittling of things great, He did not seek. His education was gained directly from the heaven-appointed sources,—from useful work, from the study of the Scriptures and of nature, and from the experiences of life,—God’s lesson books, full of instruction to all who bring to them the willing hand, the seeing eye, and the understanding heart.
MUST UNDERSTAND HUMANITY
He who seeks to transform humanity must himself understand humanity. Only through sympathy, faith, and love can men be reached and uplifted. Here Christ stands revealed as the master teacher; of all that ever dwelt on the earth, He alone has perfect understanding of the human soul.
What He taught, He lived. “I have given you an example,” He said to His disciples; “that ye should do as I have done.” “I have kept My Father’s commandment.” John 13: 15; 15: 10. Thus in His life Christ’s words had perfect illustration and support. And more than this: what He taught, He was. His words were the expression, not only of His own life experience, but of His own character. Not only did He teach the truth, but He was the truth. It was this that gave His teaching power.
HIS VERY PRESENCE A REBUKE, YET HE DREW MEN
Christ was a faithful reprover. Never lived there another who so hated evil; never another whose denunciation of it was so fearless. To all things untrue and base His very presence was a rebuke. In the light of His purity, men saw themselves unclean, their life’s aims mean and false. Yet He drew them. He who had created man, understood the value of humanity. Evil He denounced as the foe of those whom He was seeking to bless and to save. In every human being, however fallen, He beheld a son of God, one who might be restored to the privilege of his divine relationship.
“God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.” John 3: 17. Looking upon men in their suffering and degradation, Christ perceived ground for hope where appeared only despair and ruin. Wherever there existed a sense of need, there He saw opportunity for uplifting. Souls tempted, defeated, feeling themselves lost, ready to perish, He met, not with denunciation, but with blessing.
GREETING TO THE HUMAN FAMILY
The beatitudes were His greeting to the whole human family. Looking upon the vast throng gathered to listen to the Sermon on the Mount, He seemed for the moment to have forgotten that He was not in heaven, and He used the familiar salutation of the world of light. From His lips flowed blessings as the gushing forth of a long sealed fountain.71
HE OPENED POSSIBILITIES TO THE DESPAIRING
In every human being He discerned infinite possibilities. He saw men as they might be, transfigured by His grace,—in “the beauty of the Lord our God.” Looking upon them with hope, He inspired hope. Meeting them with confidence, He inspired trust. Revealing in Himself man’s true ideal, He awakened, for its attainment, both desire and faith. In His presence, souls despised and fallen realized that they still were men, and they longed to prove themselves worthy of His regard. In many a heart that seemed dead to all things holy, were awakened new impulses. To many a despairing one, there opened the possibility of a new life.
Christ bound men to His heart by the ties of love and devotion; and by the same ties, He bound them to their fellow men. With Him, love was life, and life was service. “Freely ye have received,” He said, “freely give.” Matt. 10: 8.
MIGHT HAVE OPENED THE SCIENCES
“Never man spake like this Man,” would have been true of Christ had He taught only in the realm of the physical and the intellectual, or in matters of theory and speculation solely. He might have unlocked mysteries that have required centuries of toil and study to penetrate. He might have made suggestions in scientific lines that, till the close of time, would have afforded food for thought and stimulus for invention. But He did not do this. He said nothing to gratify curiosity or to stimulate selfish ambition. He did not deal in abstract theories, but in that which is essential to the development of character; that which will enlarge man’s capacity for knowing God, and increase his power to do good. He spoke of those truths that relate to the conduct of life, and that unite man with eternity.
Instead of directing the people to study men’s theories about God, His word, or His works, He taught them to behold Him as manifested in His works, in His word, and by His providences. He brought their minds in contact with the mind of the Infinite.
POWERFULLY KINDLED ASPIRATION
The people “were astonished at His teaching”; “for His word was with power.” Never before spoke one who had such power to awaken thought, to kindle aspiration, to arouse every capability of body, mind, and soul.
Christ’s teaching, like His sympathies, embraced the world. Never can there be a circumstance of life, a crisis in human experience, which has not been anticipated in His teaching, and for which its principles have not a lesson. The Prince of teachers, His words will be found a guide to His coworkers till the end of time.
SAW CREATION IN A NEW LIGHT
From His lips, the word of God came home to men’s hearts with new power and new meaning. His teaching caused the things of creation to stand out in new light. Upon the face of nature once more rested gleams of that brightness which sin had banished. In all the facts and experiences of life were revealed a divine lesson and the possibility of divine companionship. Again God dwelt on earth; human hearts became conscious of His presence; the world was encompassed with His love. Heaven came down to men. In Christ their hearts acknowledged Him who had opened to them the science of eternity,—“Immanuel, God with us.”
Weave in the Blessings
By Worthie Harris Holden
By WORTHIE HARRIS HOLDEN
*My loom was idle while I vainly pondered
How to procure the tapestries I sought
For an adornment meet within the temple,
When some good angel answered to my thought:*
*“Use thou the warp by God Himself appointed,—
Thy heartfelt praise continual to Him,
Weave in thy blessings and abundant mercies.
Thy woof shall never fail, nor sight be dim.”*
*Now I amazed behold the wondrous beauty
Of threads of gold and red and royal blue
That blend into a marvel cloth of glory,
Entwining threads of varied size and hue.*
*Of weaving thus I cannot lag nor weary—
Each day anew His measure runneth o’er.
He loadeth it from morning until evening;
For heaven holds for all, abundant store.*
Christians Holding Pagan Doctrine
By W. A. Gosmer
Propagated from Earliest Times—It Is Not Taught in the Bible—God Is the Only Source of Immortality—Then Can Man Possess an Immortal Soul?
By W. A. GOSMER
This is the first of five articles by Professor Gosmer on the relation of man to the question of immortality. His article next week will consider the terms “soul” and “spirit” as used in the Bible; the creation of man, and his relation to immortality at that time; will touch upon a vision of the resurrection given to one of the ancient prophets; and present an important testimony of Luther on the subject of the immortality of the soul. EDITOR.
THE doctrine of an immortal soul, of a separate, conscious, immaterial existence apart from the body, is almost coeval with the world itself. Even before the fall of man, it was enunciated in Eden by that one who reassuringly said to the woman, “Ye shall not surely die.” Those words, spoken with a sinister motive, had effect. They were destined to exert an influence upon humanity to the end of time.
History had scarcely shed its first faint ray of light upon the world, when the doctrine of the immortal soul as a separate, immaterial entity was already found filling a large place in the rites and practices of the ancients. Says one well-known historian: “The first need of the soul was the possession of the old body, upon the preservation of which the existence or at least the welfare of the soul was thought to depend. Hence the anxious care with which the Egyptians sought to preserve the body against decay.” It was thought that at some future time, the soul would return to the body. This idea explains the great pains taken by the Egyptians to embalm the dead.
It is a true saying, that error is a hardy plant, and flourishes in every soil; and there is not to-day upon the face of the globe a nation where this theory regarding the soul, in some phase, has not been received either in whole or in part. And, strange as it may seem, this ancient superstition has found credence among the most enlightened nations of earth. Scholars, statesmen, philosophers, and even multitudes of Bible students in Christian lands, have embraced this belief.
CHRISTIANS HOLDING PAGAN DOCTRINE
How passing strange that the vast majority of the Christian world, even in this enlightened day, should so ardently cleave to a theory which is held in common by the hordes of pagan fetish worshipers of the Dark Continent, and by the millions of devotees of heathenism in its subtler forms in India and China!
We may therefore pertinently inquire: Is the doctrine Christian? If so, how came the ancient Chinese empire in possession of it ages before a herald of Christianity had set foot upon those benighted shores?
A PAGAN SUPERSTITION INGRAFTED
As soon as we investigate, we find that in the early centuries of our era, the teaching was foisted upon Christendom by men who were themselves only half converted from paganism, but who posed as teachers in the church. And as the Bible does not set forth any such theory, nor in any way sanction it, we are forced to the conclusion that it is a pagan superstition, ingrafted upon the theology of the Christian world. Such it can be shown to be.
The light shining from God’s word dispels the darkness and the mist of ages. This Word is the detector of error, and the vindicator of truth. We therefore take for granted that God’s revelation is the supreme test, and that all true doctrine finds its origin and counterpart in the Scriptures.
IMMORTALITY NOT INHERENT
Armed with this thought, we take the unequivocal position, that nowhere in all revelation is inherent immortality, or deathlessness, attributed to man; that there is not so much as one text to prove it, either in the original, or in any accepted translation. But, contrariwise, the whole tenor of Scripture shows conclusively that man is altogether mortal, and that the divine edict, “Thou shalt surely die,” has never been revoked.
Surely, that dread sentence was not a call to immortality. It was a forecast of oblivion; for “dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”712Rom. 5:12. The vision of Paradise had faded, and man was lost. In place of the glad immortality with which Jehovah would have crowned the Eden pair had they stood the test, a life of sorrow confronted them, and death at last.
THE SOURCE OF IMMORTALITY
But man was not to be abandoned to his fate. The mighty Redeemer Himself had covenanted to undertake his cause; and “In Him was life.” John 1:4. Thus was fulfilled the grace and the purpose of God, “which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began”; for He “brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” 2 Tim. 1:9, 10. Hence it is true, glorious and triumphant, that “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Rom. 6:23. And “he that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” 1 John 5:12.
The foregoing texts show, (1) that Christ, through the gospel, puts immortality within the reach of man; and (2) that eternal life is the gift of God through Christ; and (3) that apart from the Son of God, there is no enduring life, no everlasting existence. From these considerations, it is clear that immortality is conditional, and that it is not inherent in man.
WHY SEEK IT IF WE HAVE IT?
Furthermore, the Scripture is consistent with itself, for it speaks specifically of “mortal man.” Job 4:17. It states clearly that “this mortal must put on immortality.” 1 Cor. 15:53. Only a mortal being can put on immortality, or have any need of doing so.
Writing to the Romans, Paul speaks of those “who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality.” Rom. 2:7. Why should we seek for that which we already possess, if so be that we have immortality? It is unmistakably evident that those who are obedient to God, will at last receive the heavenly gift.
GOD “ONLY HATH IMMORTALITY”
Searching farther, we find that immortality is an attribute of God Himself. Says the inspired apostle, “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever.” 1 Tim. 1:17.
Moreover, it is an attribute of God alone; for the eternal Word declares that God “only hath immortality.” 1 Tim. 6:16.
Thus it is seen that God is the one immortal being; and poor mortal man should ponder long before claiming for himself that which is an attribute belonging to God.
IF IMMORTAL, THEN CONSCIOUS IN DEATH
If man be immortal, he must then be conscious in death. And if conscious, he must know, and feel, and think, and love, and praise, as he does in life, else there is no force whatever in the theory of life separate from the body. But opposed to this view are the words of inspiration: “The dead know not anything. . . . Their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished.” Eccl. 9:5, 6.
Were the soul in heaven, could it possibly refrain from praise in an atmosphere surcharged with glory and adoration? In the presence of Him who gave His life for man, and in whose sight the angels rest not day nor night, but ever cry, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts,” would not the soul be lost in adoration, love, and praise? Surely, so it must seem. Yet the Scriptures plainly state that “the dead praise not the Lord.” Ps. 115:17. And, indeed, so far from praising Him, the dead have even forgotten that God exists; for “in death there is no remembrance of Thee.” Ps. 6:5.
Neither do the dead know the passing of time and events, or the estate of those who on earth are left behind; for “Thou destroyest the hope of man. Thou prevaileth forever against him, and he passeth: Thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away. His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.” Job 14:19-21.
DEAD ARE ASLEEP
The dead are said to be asleep, for “David slept with his fathers.” 1 Kings 2:10. There is no consciousness in sleep; consequently the dead are not harassed by the ill fortune, poverty, or crimes, of their living relatives. What a wise and merciful provision is this! It needs no comment.
Now, the theory of conscious existence apart from the body teaches that the soul cannot die; that after death, it lives on and on, either in the abodes of everlasting bliss, or in the shadows of eternal condemnation, torment, and despair. But divine revelation overthrows this doctrine, for it plainly tells us that “the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Ezek. 18:20. Could an immortal soul die?
J. W. H
By J. W. H.
O, would some power the giftie gie us
To hear ourselves as others hear us!
J. W. H
A Memory of Eden
By S. J. Townsend
By S. J. TOWNSEND
Come thou apart and rest thee, O my soul,
From life's hard toil and turmoil, and its care!
Lift thou thy vision heavenward to faith's goal,
And find sweet solace there.
The home thy Master Builder doth prepare—
The joy, the grandeur, and the glad new song—
With rapturous contemplation, O my soul,
To share them thou shalt long!
A memory of lost Eden, O my soul,
Of one who, made so beautifully fair,
By disobedience broke life's golden bowl,
That moment of despair,
When yielding to the tempter's subtle snare
Brought death to man, and heritage of woe.
Lift up thy voice in weeping, O my soul,
For them of long ago!
The sign of Jehovah, O my soul,
These hallowed hours His rest commemorate!
Take with thee words, and praise Him whose control
Bounds all He doth create;
Who hath redeemed with love compassionate,
And giveth grace and comfort for life's way.
Lift up thy voice in singing, O my soul!
Rejoice, be glad to-day!
A memory of lost Eden, O my soul,
Yet earnest of that home thou soon shalt see;
The golden chain which anchors to life's goal
That Eden lost to thee,
The Paradise of God, from sin made free;
Each Sabbath day a link love-forged and strong,
When morning stars together, O my soul,
Chanted creation's song!
