Just to follow every day
Where God leads;
Just to scatter all the way
Sunny deeds;
Just to go, nor question why
Shadows fall,
Ever looking to the sky
Through them all.
Just to live through every day,
Pure and right;
Keeping from the heart alway
Cares that blight;
Just to stand with purpose strong
When I'm tried,
Learning thus my very all
To confide.
—L. M. C.
THE FAITH OF JESUS
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery [“a thing to be seized upon and held fast”] to be equal with God: but emptied himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.” Phil. 2: 5-7.
“And the Word was made flesh.”
How was it that He was made flesh? How did He partake of human nature?—Exactly as do all of us, all of the children of men. For it is written: “As the children [of the man] are partakers of flesh and blood, He also himself likewise took part of the same.”
Likewise signifies “in the like way,” “thus,” “in the same way.” So He partook of “the same” flesh and blood that men have, in the same way that men partake of it. Men partake of it by birth. So “likewise” did He. Accordingly, it is written, “Unto us a Child is born.”
Accordingly, it is further written: “God sent forth His Son, made of a woman.” Gal. 4: 4. He, being made of a woman in this world, in the nature of things He was made of the only kind of a woman that this world knows.
But why must He be made of a woman? why not of a man?—For the simple reason that to be made of a man would not bring Him close enough to mankind as mankind is, under sin. He was made of a woman in order that He might come, in the very uttermost, to where human nature is in its sinning.
In order to do this He must be made of a woman; because the woman, not the man, was first, and originally, in the transgression. For “Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” 1 Tim. 2: 14.
He was thus made of a woman in order that He might meet the great world of sin at its very fountain head of entrance into this world. To have been made otherwise than of a woman would have been to come short of this, and so would have been only to miss the redemption of men completely from sin.
It was “the Seed of the woman” that was to bruise the serpent’s head; and it was only as “the seed of the woman,” and “made of a woman,” that He could meet the serpent on his own ground, at the very point of the entrance of sin into this world.
To have been made only of the descent of man, would have been to come short of the full breadth of the field of sin; because the woman had sinned, and sin was thus in the world, before the man sinned.
It was the woman who, in this world, was originally in the transgression. It was the woman by whom sin originally entered. Therefore, in the redemption of the children of men from sin, He who would be the Redeemer must go back of the man, to meet the sin that was in the world before the man sinned.
This is why He who came to redeem was “made of a woman.” By being made of a woman, He could trace sin to the very fountain head of its original entry into the world by the woman. And thus, in finding sin in the world, and uprooting it from the world, from its original entrance into the world till the last vestige of it shall be swept from the world, in the very nature of things He must partake of human nature as it is since sin entered.
Otherwise, there was no kind of need whatever that He should be “made of a woman.” If He were not to come into closest contact with sin as it is in the world, as it is in human nature; if He were to be removed one single degree from it as it is in human nature,—then He need not have been “made of a woman.”
But as He was made of a woman—not of a man; as he was made of the one by whom sin entered in its very origin in the world, and not made of the man, who entered into the sin after the sin had entered into the world,—this demonstrates beyond all possibility of fair question that between Christ and sin in this world, and between Christ and human nature as it is under sin in the world, there is no kind of separation, even to the shadow of a single degree. He was made flesh; He was made to be sin. He was made flesh as flesh is, and only as flesh is in this world.
And this must He do to redeem lost mankind. For Him to be separated a single degree, or a shadow of a single degree, in any sense, from the nature of those whom He came to redeem, would be only to miss everything.
Precisely as He must be “made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law;” and must be “made a curse,” to redeem them that are under the curse; and must be made “to be sin,” to redeem them that are “sold under sin,” so He must be made of a woman, to reach sin at its very root in this world, and must be made flesh, to redeem them that are flesh.
And precisely as He was made “under the law,” because they are under the law whom He would redeem; and as He was made a curse, because they are under the curse whom He would redeem; and as He was made sin, because they are sinners, “sold under sin,” whom He would redeem,—so He must be made flesh, and “the same” flesh and blood, because they are flesh and blood whom He would redeem; and must be made of a woman, because sin was in the world first by and in the woman.
Consequently, it is true, without any sort of exception, that “in all things it behoved him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted.” Heb. 2: 17, 18.
If He were not of the same flesh as are those whom He came to redeem, then there is no sort of use of His being made flesh at all. More than this: since the only flesh that there is in this wide world which He came to redeem, is just the poor, lost, human flesh that all mankind have; if this is not the flesh that He was made, then He never really came to the world which needs to be redeemed. For if He came in a human nature different from that which human nature in this world actually is, then even though He were in the world, yet, for any practical purpose in reaching man and helping him, He was as far from him as if He had never come; for, in that case, in His human nature He was just as far from man and just as much of another world as if He had never come into this world.
It is thoroughly understood that in His birth Christ did partake of the nature of Mary. But the carnal mind is not willing to allow that God in His perfection of holiness could endure to come to men where they are in their sinfulness. Therefore endeavor has been made to escape the consequences of this glorious truth, which is the emptying of self, by inventing a theory that the nature of the virgin Mary was different from the nature of the rest of mankind; that her flesh was not exactly such flesh as is that of all mankind. This invention sets up that, by some special means, Mary was made different from the rest of human beings especially in order that Christ might be becomingly born of her.
This invention has culminated in what is known as the Roman Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Many Protestants, if not the vast majority of them, as well as other non-Catholics, think that the Immaculate Conception refers to the conception of Jesus by the virgin Mary. But this is altogether a mistake. It refers not at all to the conception of Jesus by the virgin Mary. But this is altogether a mistake. It refers not at all to the conception of Christ by Mary; but to the conception of Mary herself by her mother.
The official and “infallible” doctrine of the Immaculate Conception as solemnly defined as an article of faith, by Pope Pius IX, speaking ex cathedra, on the 8th of December, 1854, is as follows:—
By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we declare, pronounce, and define, that the doctrine which holds that the most blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instant of HER conception, by a special grace and privilege of Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of mankind, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, has been revealed by God, and, therefore, is to be firmly and steadfastly believed by all the faithful.
Wherefore, if any shall presume, which may God avert, to think in their heart otherwise than has been defined by us, let them know, and moreover understand, that they are condemned by their own judgment, that they have made shipwreck as regards the faith, and have fallen away from the unity of the Church.—“Catholic Belief,” page 214.
This conception is defined by Catholic writers thus:—
The ancient writer, “De Nativitate Christi,” found in St. Cyprian’s works, says: Because (Mary) being “very different from the rest of mankind, human nature, but not sin, communicated itself to her.”
Theodore, patriarch of Jerusalem, said in the second council of Nice, that Mary “is truly the mother of God, and virgin before and after childbirth; and she was created in a condition more sublime and glorious than that of all natures, whether intellectual or corporeal.”—Id., pages 216, 217.
This plainly puts the nature of Mary entirely beyond any real likeness or relationship to mankind or human nature as it is. Having this clearly in mind, let us follow this invention in its next step. Thus it is, as given in the words of Cardinal Gibbons:—
We affirm that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Word of God, who in His divine nature is, from all eternity, begotten of the Father, consubstantial with Him, was in the fullness of time again begotten, by being born of the virgin, thus taking to himself from her maternal womb a human nature of the same substance with hers.
As far as the sublime mystery of the incarnation can be reflected in the natural order, the blessed Virgin, under the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost, by communicating to the Second Person of the adorable Trinity, as mothers do, a true human nature of the same substance with her own, is thereby really and truly His mother.—“Faith of Our Fathers,” pages 198, 199.
Now put these two things together. First, we have the nature of Mary defined as being not only “very different from the rest of mankind,” but “more sublime and glorious than all natures;” thus putting her infinitely beyond any real likeness or relationship to mankind as we really are.
Next, we have Jesus described as taking from her a human nature of the same substance as hers.
From this theory it therefore follows as certainly as two and two make four, that in His human nature the Lord Jesus is “very different” from mankind; indeed, His nature is not human nature at all, but divine.
That is the Roman Catholic doctrine concerning the human nature of Christ. But Catholic faith is not the faith of Christ; it is the faith of Antichrist.
The Catholic doctrine of the human nature of Christ is simply that that nature is not human nature at all, but divine. It is that in His human nature Christ was so far separated from mankind as to be utterly unlike—a nature in which He could have no sort of fellow-feeling with—mankind.
But such is not the faith of Jesus. The faith of Jesus is that “as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also himself likewise took part of the same.”
The faith of Jesus is that God sent “His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.”
The faith of Jesus is that “in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted.”
The faith of Jesus is that He “himself took our41infirmities,” and was touched “with the feeling of our infirmities,” being tempted in all points like as we are. If He was not like we are, He could not possibly be tempted “like as we are.” But He was “in all points tempted like as we are.” Therefore He was “in all points” “like as we are.”
In the quotations of Catholic faith which in this article we have cited, we have presented the faith of Rome as to the human nature of Christ and of Mary. In the second chapter of Hebrews and kindred texts of Scripture, there is presented, and in these studies we have endeavored to reproduce as there presented, the faith of Jesus as to the human nature of Christ.
In former studies in these columns we considered the commandments of God; and in that connection we found that the commandments of Rome have been substituted for the commandments of God. In these latter studies we have considered the faith of Jesus; and in this connection we find that the faith of Rome has been substituted for the faith of Jesus.
But the scripture in God’s last message of mercy to the world, the Third Angel’s Message, calls to all mankind: “There are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”
Which way do you take—the commandments of God or the commandments of Rome? the faith of Jesus or the faith of Rome?
THE EASTERN QUESTION AND THE SIXTH PLAGUE
By B. G. Wilkerson
In studying any one of the plagues, the living issue is always before us. But in none of these does that deep-moving conflict arise to the surface in so recognizable a form as in the sixth plague. We stand as it were before the dreadful specter which silently points to the world's approaching doom.
The first five angels poured out their vials upon transgressors whose guilty acts lay almost hidden from the human eye. But while these punishments were falling, yes, even before the first came, great movements were astir, whose columns would soon join the scenes of the sixth plague. We behold the terrific energy of demon spirits working on in silence; the restless surges of nations are thrown before our eyes. And then, when all the forces have brought forth the finishing condition, the crowning act is executed by the sixth angel. “And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the Beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.”
The record of this plague is different from that of the other plagues. It contains what they do not: it contains two scenes. In the first, John sees the angel pouring out his vial upon the river Euphrates; in the second, he beholds the springing forth and the gathering work of three evil spirits. The fact of these two scenes calls forth an important question.
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Regardless of the order followed in the Scripture, which scene, in point of time, occurs first? If the angel pours out his vial before the evil spirits begin to gather the kings of the East, then, since that has not yet occurred, much must still be done before Christ's coming. But if the kings of the world are mustered into action before the sixth vial is emptied, then we see that warlike movement in plain progress; then we know that the preparation for the sixth plague is proceeding, and that we are rushing into the scheduled hour for the falling of the first plague. The latter understanding is the truth for the reasons:—
1. I have already explained that the warning to keep the garments lest they be lost, reveals probation as still open. But since there is no probation under any of the plagues, the open probation must be before the first; and that therefore for the beginning of the work of the evil spirits we must go back to the time before the first plague.
2. Because the other view would make the sixth plague an unimportant act. It would say that the steps to the disastrous battle of Armageddon were, first, the emptying of the first angel's vial; secondly, the wider work of the evil spirits, since they would gather all kings except those of the East; and, lastly, the great battle. If that were so, then the work of the sixth angel would not be worthy of being called a plague. For then the evil spirits would produce the plague. They would do the finishing work, and become the greater cause of the result. But the seventh chapter of this book presents the angels of God as holding in check the winds of strife. Just as the pressing air seeks an entrance into a vacuum, so do the raging forces of the nation throw themselves against the barrier of God's angels. Let them but remove the restraint, and as air rushes into an opened vacuum, so would the armies rush together. No; first, the assembling work of the evil spirits brings up the nations around the angels' barrier. Then the second scene follows, in which the work of the sixth angel is to drop the bar, and this is not the first, but the last, act in bringing on the plague.
3. It will take time to convert the kings of the world into the kings of the East. The little space of time under the sixth plague will not be sufficient for the evil spirits to bring the powerful monarchs of earth to the shores of the East. For long centuries these nations have done like the Jews worshiping in the temple—they have turned their backs on the East. Westward has been the progress. Long after John wrote the Revelation, there lay to the west a great continent, waiting the coming of man to inhabit its empty plains. Over its broad territories there was to arise a monarch as powerful as any of the ten kings who inherited the Roman Empire. God, through His prophet, had declared that these ten kings would be reigning when Jesus returns. Among them, when Christ comes, will be found the universal supremacy formerly possessed by the empires from Babylon to Rome. These ten kings, with the one to arise on the new continent, could only rightfully be called kings of the West. Before the record of the sixth plague, Inspiration has never informed us that these same powerful chiefs have reversed their policy, and turned toward the East. So we conclude that it is evidently unreasonable to expect that they will be thus persuaded during the little period of the actual time of the sixth plague. Therefore, in order to accomplish this conversion, the evil spirits must begin their work before the drying up of the Euphrates is introduced, and consequently some time before the first plague.
4. Another reason that the work of the evil spirits must be regarded as preceding the drying up of the Euphrates is the fact that it must necessarily take time for the evil spirits to secure a hearing. When Satan, the chief himself, devised this plan, he well knew that the acceptance of manifestations from the spirit world had largely disappeared from among men, especially from among the kingdoms of the West. For there Christianity held its gracious sway. To present ancient sorcery, even in a new dress, would require time. Men must be tempted to grieve away the Spirit of God, which enlightens and protects against such snares. The Bible must be neglected, and God's law disregarded. These departures must occur before the whispering communications of demons would be received. But when people, statesmen, even kings, had been won over, then, with free sway, the evil spirits could bring the kings to Eastern alignment, there to take the field upon the removal of the barring Euphrates by the sixth angel.
The battle of Armageddon has not yet occurred, but the work of these evil spirits is before our eyes. Too much can not be said upon that great delusion, Spiritualism. Starting barely half a century ago, Spiritualism has made gigantic conquests. Teaching its hearers belief in manifestations from those who have died, it has opened a door for the entrance of evil spirits. Quietly yet surely it has invaded nearly all the churches of Protestantism; it has completed its former half acceptance by Catholicism, while it was gladly welcomed by its old relatives, the religions of heathendom. It has secured the ears of kings, has strengthened the perplexed souls of statesmen, and has led the common people to accept, in their trials, its offered comforts. To-day its work is about finished. Evil spirits have now gained access to the command of untold millions. Not much more time is needed to make all nations ready for the outpouring of the sixth vial.
Therefore the proofs given show clearly that the scene in which John saw the evil spirits gathering the nations occurs before the actual act of the sixth angel. These very proofs show also that the gathering of the nations is now going on. A closer examination of the record will reveal more definitely who these nations are. The German version, agreeing better in this case with the Greek, translated, reads: “For they are the spirits of devils, who work signs, and proceed forth to the kings over the whole circle of the world.” The idea is conveyed a trifle better by the marginal reading of the Revised Version: “The kings of the whole inhabited earth.” In the day when John wrote, the emperors of Rome were the kings of the whole inhabited earth. But in the next chapter the aged apostle saw that power hurled from his regal chair; and the Roman domain parceled out to ten kings. These ten kings were to continue until “in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom.” Dan. 2:44. No other kingdom arises strong enough to displace the ten until it is done by the glorious personal reign of Christ's kingdom.
Then surely it is these ten kings whose forces are led to the East by the miracle-working demons. These kings are presented in another form by the ten horns upon the head of the first Beast in chapter 13. But another power, another kingdom, arises. This is the second Beast of the same chapter. In the days of the apostle there lay, further westward, an unknown continent, containing territories larger than those over which Rome ever ruled. In this continent has arisen a nation, the young republic of the West. All statesmen agree in equaling the power of this new nation to any one of the ten kingdoms carved out of the ruins of imperial Rome. Is it possible that God would present the history of the ten kings, and leave unnoticed this great new power?—No; on the contrary, He has made prominent in its career two facts relating to the present issue: First, that it is the second Beast of Revelation 13, and therefore it shares the world-power with the ten kings; and secondly, that it takes great part in the gathering of the nations.
One feature alone is sufficient to pin down the American Republic as this second Beast. In coming up, that animal, the prophet saw, “had two horns like a lamb.” The reference to the lamb is sure. Though worldly nations, in the Scriptures, have been likened to different beasts, God has never spoiled the figure of the Lamb. That is Christ. Before this text there goes this statement: “Whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb”—the Lamb here we know means Christ. After comes a similar, in Rev. 14:1: “And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the Mount Zion,” evidently42Christ. So set in between these two statements where Christ is the Lamb, to say that the Beast, when coming up, “had two horns like a lamb” can only mean that it is a nation which arose having a government like Christianity. Now we know that the United States is the only nation that had such a Christian beginning, and otherwise could answer to the prophecy.
But the prominent part it plays in the gathering of the kings: It is the false prophet, the last of the three beasts, from whose mouth come forth the three evil spirits; because in Rev. 19:20 it says: “And the Beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the Beast.” The power that wrought these miracles to deceive is none other than the second Beast of chapter 13. His early Christian advantages had availed him nothing. These God-given opportunities are used to deceive the people, and to seduce them back into papal darkness. And when the departure from Christianity is complete, this favored nation becomes a black region, from whose depths issue forth the dark demons to fill the earth with fatal strife. The evidences of this work are before us. Those who witnessed the Spanish-American war, then saw the American Republic become complicated in the circle of world-ruling monarchs; and by taking possession of the Philippines, she became a king of the East, and so enters China and abides as one of the most prominent of these. Let no one doubt that prophecy has little left of earthly history to be fulfilled.
The manifest preparation for the sixth plague is a settled fact. We could only wish that God's people were as surely prepared. The appointed hour for the falling of the first plague is almost here. When that occurs, in rapid succession the vial angels will deliver their punishments upon a guilty world. When the sixth is reached, the river Euphrates will be dried up, and the nations will consume one another in disastrous conflict.
What is the river Euphrates? It can not be a literal river; for John saw that its “waters were dried up.” Now these can not be literal waters, as the plague of the third angel had turned the rivers into blood. Then they must be symbolical waters. The use of waters as a symbol is explained in Rev. 17:15: “The waters which thou sawest . . . are people, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” Furnished with this Bible interpretation, one can readily see that the waters of the Euphrates would be the peoples and nations filling the territories of that river. A glance on the map will fix the attention upon the Turk as occupying those territories now. But not much longer will he be tenant of those lands. The decree of God has gone forth. The Turk, with all others who bar the path, will be wiped away before the invading hosts as they draw toward the plains of Armageddon. And as surely as Cyrus dried up the literal waters of this river, that through its territory he might march under the city's walls to overthrow Babylon, so surely will the sixth angel dry up the symbolical Euphrates, that the kings of the East may meet to consume one another in the battle of that great day of God. And thus will modern Babylon, the mother of iniquity, be destroyed. May present events deliver this sure warning to all who are now within Babylon: “Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city.”
B. G. WILKERSON.
New York State Federation of Churches
That New York State Federation of Churches is actively pushing its work. The executive board met in Syracuse, December 11. “The morning session was taken up with a discussion of the general work of the federation, and plans were perfected for the establishing of local federations throughout the State. It was stated that at Schenectady a local federation had been effected. The counties of Broome and Tioga have had a federation for a year and a half.
“The clergymen present at to-day’s meeting said the work of the Federation of Churches and Christian Workers is meeting with hearty co-operation throughout the State, and the outlook for the prosecution of the plans of the new association in the opening of the new century are exceedingly encouraging.”
In the evening a meeting was held for the purpose of forming a city federation.
THE CROP THAT NEVER FAILS
By Uriah Smith
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” Gal. 6:7, 8. Couched in these words is a tremendous truth, an overwhelming lesson. Who can measure the length to which the import of the text might be extended, and the area which it might be expanded to cover? Where is there any end to it? These lines are not intended as an attempt to bring out any new thoughts on this much-treated theme, but only to offer a few timely reflections on a subject of unsurpassed importance.
But does not the apostle contradict the great volume of facts patent to our eyes in the world around us? for he says that God is not mocked; but is not God mocked always and everywhere?—From the standpoint of human appearances, Yes; but here is the declaration, “God is not mocked.” Then what is mocked? for there is mockery in the world. John Trapp says, “They that would mock God, mock themselves much more.” This reveals the whole secret. By taking a course which, from one point of view, seems like mocking God, we are only mocking ourselves. We mock our own souls, our own eternal interests, the hope and glory of the heavenly world.
True, there is no being to whom so much mockery is offered as to God. Men walk on His earth, sustained by His power, supported by His bounty, and yet deny His existence; others acknowledge His existence, but by their lives defy His power. Men come to His house of prayer, and there, amid the rising accents of supplication and praise, and the descending message of His word, think of their farms or merchandise, or follow in fancy their worldly desires. They go hence, and not a word of that which they have asked is remembered with a view to its answer. Many conceive the soul-paralyzing notion that there will be no rewards or punishments hereafter. They imagine that bare profession will suffice to save them. Some flatter themselves that they will somehow escape in the crowd; or they rely on their acceptance of a supposed orthodox creed, or a spurious conversion, or a presumptuous faith, or a little almsgiving, or a few outward acts of religion. Is not all this mocking God?
But is He to be trifled with, by supposing that He will be satisfied with any such service as this? “God is not mocked.” And the apostle prefaces this with the warning, “Be not deceived.” God dwells in light unapproachable, far above any danger of pollution or insult from us, the creatures of His will. In all these things we are to consider that God is not the subject of any effectual mockery on our part; but we are mocking ourselves, and tampering with our own best and dearest interests. We are not deceiving God, but exposing ourselves to shame and everlasting contempt.
The same principle applies to the laws of God’s government, which can not be set aside. The laws of nature are inexorable, and they can not be trifled with except to our own hurt. A man may try to interfere with the law of gravitation, and he may make a mock of it; but the result is that he will be crushed by it. It is so in providence. Evil results follow social wrongs. Sin must be punished. The word of God is exceedingly clear upon this point. To alter these laws would disarrange the universe; and every infraction of them must be settled with. Think of the great God watching every kind of a hypocrite, as he tries to deceive his fellow men by sham and empty show. He thinks the secret is known only to himself. But does he ever think of One whose eyes run to and fro in the earth, discerning both the evil and the good? Does he think how men would abhor such a character as his own, if they only knew, and then forget how God, who does know every secret thing, must regard him? And could he once open his eyes on the glory of the Lord, and take in the fact that there is one immortal Witness against him, who sees all, and knows all, and remembers all, could he do less than humble himself in dust and ashes before the King, ere He comes in to see the guests?
The reason for all these results is given in the text: “For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Those who till the literal soil of earth are often uncertain whether they will have a crop or not; whether some calamity may not sweep away the fruitage of their toil, or storm or drought may not blight the labor of the husbandman, or a short season prevent the maturing of the fruit of the earth. But this harvest of which the apostle speaks is subject to no such contingency. The crop never fails; and the harvest will be just what we have sown.
We are intrusted with the formation of our own characters. Such as we make ourselves, that we must remain. “He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.” We do not need to irrigate this field nor to enrich the soil to secure this crop. Neither drought nor flood will prevent the harvest. The planets are not more surely fixed in their orbits, nor the earth more sure to revolve on its axis, than it is sure that what we sow that we shall also reap. If we sow good seed, we shall get good seed; if we sow evil seed, the produce will be evil. No arbitrary interference will relieve us of the dire results; and we shall have no one to blame but ourselves, who did the sowing. Nature and providence have no forgiveness; Revelation forgives, but only on conditions.
It can be of no possible use to us, here or hereafter, to mock God by attempting to practice deception upon ourselves. We must take God as He reveals himself to us in His word. Christ was full of mercy; His mission was one of love. But nowhere else in the Bible can we find more terrific representations of the hopeless misery of the wicked, in the future life, than those ascribed to Christ, in the first three Gospels. There is a form of modern infidelity that is most dangerous because so attractive. It is that which, while pretending to exalt the beneficence and love of the Deity, degrades them into a reckless infinitude of mercy, and blind obliteration of the work of sin. This is one phase of Universalism; and the scheme is based chiefly on the manifold appearances of God’s kindness in the works of creation. Such kindness is indeed always and everywhere visible, but not alone. Wrath and threatening are invariably mingled with the love. And in the utmost solitudes of nature, the existence of a place of retribution seems to be as legibly declared as the existence of heaven. We may look at the evil appearances, and try to escape their teaching by reasonings about the good that is wrought out of all evil. But it is vain sophistry. The good succeeds to the evil, as the day succeeds to the night; but so also the evil to the good.
Ruskin says, “Gerizim and Ebal, birth and death, light and darkness, heaven and hell, divide the existence of man and his futurity.”
But there is a good side to this question—the sowing to the Spirit, and reaping everlasting life—as well as an evil side—the sowing to the flesh, and reaping corruption. While they who sow to the flesh reap corruption, which is decay, loss, and death, they who sow to the Spirit reap life everlasting. And this incomprehensible and eternal good is just as sure to those who sow for it as the corruption is sure to those who sow to the flesh.
It is not an open question, then, whether we shall sow to-day or not, but the question is whether we shall sow good seed or evil. We are sowing every day; there is no avoiding that; but the question is, What is the seed we are sowing? and what shall the harvest be? To the sowers to the Spirit, the eternal life is just as sure as the corruption is to the sowers to the flesh.43
This is our sowing time. Every day we are casting in the seed. The harvest is to be in eternity. We shall reap in kind as we sow. There is no cessation. As long as probation continues, our life record is going upon the books above. The crop never fails. The harvest is sure to follow. There is to be no evasion, and no deception. God is not mocked into holding us in any other light than that which shows our true colors. Sow to the Spirit, and reap life everlasting. Study what it is to sow to the Spirit. Bring forth His fruits here, and then you shall see and share in His eternal fruits in the kingdom of heaven. U. S.
