A Century of Religious Wars — A Continuous Example of the Working Out of God's Purpose — Fruits of the Reformation
THE troubles which Germany experienced early in the Reformation period were mentioned in the preceding article. The struggle began in the year of Luther's death, 1546, and closed in 1555. The emperor and the princes, especially Maurice, were concerned. In the end, Charles was really defeated. Worn out by his troubles and reverses, and by ill health, he was glad to lay aside the cares of state, and retire for the few remaining days of his life.
It was stated that the treaty of peace was not agreeable to either party; but active trouble did not arise until the end of this long period — 1618-1648. The interval between the death of Luther and the beginning of this war is occupied with events in the Netherlands, France, England, and with the Armada launched against the island empire. The ground to be covered by this article is now clear, and will be treated briefly in this order.
Charles V, the father of Philip II, had carried on extensive persecutions in the Netherlands for some time before his abdication, but the Dutch were determined to maintain the Protestant worship. Philip closely watched the course of affairs in France and Germany. He eagerly forwarded every conspiracy against the English Protestant queen Elizabeth, and finally manned a fleet with the purpose of dethroning her. He resorted, moreover, to incredible cruelty in his attempt to bring back his possessions in the Netherlands to what he regarded as the true faith. "The chief ally of the pope and the Jesuits in their efforts to check Protestantism in the latter half of the sixteenth century was the son of Charles V, Philip II." (Robinson, page 444.)
The Horrible Council of Blood
CHARLES always regretted that he did not burn Luther in 1521; and he urged his son — who needed no such urging — to rid the land of heresy. Volumes are necessary to tell of the cruelties of Philip and his servants in the Netherlands. The duke of Alva, Requesens, and Alexander Farnese are the servants of this cruel master. Count Egmont, Horn, and especially William of Orange are those against whom Philip waged his terrible wars. All these men gave their lives for the cause of their country.
It is difficult for us to picture the cruelties practiced and the extensive destruction visited upon this little country. The siege and sack of the most beautiful cities of Europe; the cold-blooded murders and fiendish tortures; the burnings and hangings; the Council of Blood and the Tenth Penny, bring to our minds a scene too horrible to describe if we could. Even a few hours spent with Motley and other historians is enough for any one.
The long struggle cannot be described here. On July 26, 1581, the Netherlands declared their independence from Spain; but this was not publicly acknowledged by that country until the year 1648. Three years after this last-named event, William of Orange, the soul of the struggle against overwhelming odds, was assassinated. Many attempts had been made before upon his life, all of which were known and encouraged by Philip and servants of the church. His last words were, "Lord have pity on my poor soul, and on this poor people." (Schwill, page 172.)
"As long as he lived, he was the guiding star of the whole nation; and when he died, the little children cried in the streets." (Motley, volume 3, last sentence.) "The man and the country are alike; both are an epic." "The man condemned by Philip rises greater than any king, and his low country broke the chain with which Spain tried to bind her, and assumes a unique position in the history of Europe." (Wylie, book 18, chapter 26.) With this brief survey, and final victory for Protestantism and liberal government in the Netherlands, we now turn to a similar struggle in France.
French Civil Wars over Religion
THE attitude of the king toward the Reformation would, in the very nature of the case, count for much. Francis I was a "product of the worldlier Renaissance." He cared little for the religious quarrels of the day. But when he saw that it involved political matters and trouble with the pope, he became interested, and struck at the movement very definitely. When he was a prisoner of war, in 1525, his mother acted as regent. She found that she could have no support of the clergy if she would not consent to allow persecutions. Francis, after his return, stopped them, but soon took up an active crusade against the Protestants. He also signed an order for a wholesale massacre of the Waldenses in 1545.
The massacre at Vassy, in 1562, was an act of malice for which no excuse can be given. The duke Guise, with a company of soldiers, in passing through this little town, found a number of Huguenots worshiping in a barn. A few short quotations will be given, in order that the reader may understand the true cause and nature of the trouble. "His retainers first insulted them, and then attacked them, killing about forty, and wounding many more." (Myers, "Modern Age," page 164. Schwill says sixty were killed, and about two hundred wounded. Robinson agrees with Myers as to how the trouble started; also Hausser, the German historian.) Although unarmed, they tried to defend themselves. This was on Sunday, March 1, 1562; and thus began the civil wars in France over religion, which were seven or eight in number.
Preparing for the French Revolution
THE Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 1572, is an event so well known that there is no necessity for telling of it at length. Suffice it to say that the queen mother finally succeeded in persuading her son Charles IX to sign the infamous decree for this midnight murder. It almost chills the blood to think of that deliberate attempt to murder a people whose crime was, that in matters involving religion, they maintained the right to differ with the established order of the church.
Persecutions in the Seventeenth Century
To the Huguenots quite full privileges were given by the Protestant king Henry IV (1589-1610). But in 1685, Louis XIV revoked all these privileges; and the horrors of the persecutions that followed are beyond the power of pen to portray. Children under seven were to be taken from their parents and brought up as Catholics. Soldiers were quartered in the homes, and by every inhuman device known, tormented the inmates until some professed the Catholic faith. All the pastors were to leave the country, but the members of their congregations could not. They were burned, hung up by the hair and feet, and made to lie on hot coals, or kept awake for weeks until bereft of their reason. In face of this, the chancellor, when affixing the seal to the decree, said, "Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, since mine eyes have seen Thy salvation." (Wylie, book 22, chapter 5.) Madame de Sévigné, a liberal-minded Catholic, said, "Never has a king done . . . aught so memorable." (Id.) In a word, France, was preparing for the greatest and most terrible upheaval of history—374the French Revolution — which came in just one hundred and four years after Louis revoked the edict made by Henry IV. France refused absolutely to receive the seeds of the Reformation. On November 7, 1793, an attempt was made to abolish Christianity. It was determined not to rest until "the king of heaven as well as the kings of the earth had been dethroned." (Myers, "Modern Age," page 382.)
The Attempt to Restore Catholicism in England
PHILIP II, the Spanish king before mentioned, married Mary, queen of England (1553-1558). He hoped to bring England back, in some way, into the papal fold. The Reformation in England began first as a result of the work of the Humanists. After the break of Henry VIII with the pope, he had himself recognized as the head of the church in England, which came to be called the Church of England, or the Anglican Church. During the latter part of his reign, and during that of Edward VI, his successor, many reforms were introduced into the church. As Mary was a Catholic, it was hoped that this union with Philip would help to restore the supremacy of Catholicism in England.
But this scheme failed, because Elizabeth succeeded to the throne, and her reign of forty-five years settled the question as far as the national policy was concerned. A number of attempts were made to take the life of Elizabeth, but all of them failed.
It is necessary, at this point, to mention Mary queen of Scots, who was for many years a prisoner in England. The plots to assassinate Elizabeth involved placing Mary on the throne, as she was a Catholic; and these intrigues did not cease until Mary was beheaded in 1587.
In the year following, a fleet of one hundred twenty ships was prepared and sent over the English Channel; but adverse winds, the better and swifter ships of the English, and their "fire ships," destroyed sixty-six of the fleet. The "Invincible (?) Armada" returned to Spain some weeks later. Thus was ended all danger of invasion from the country which devised and put into operation the Inquisition. From that time, Spain sank until she was no more recognized as a European power of the first rank. The revolt of the South American colonies in the early nineteenth century, and our war of 1898, left her hardly a bit of territory outside of Spain proper.
The Thirty Years' War, lasting from 1618 to 1648, probably has had no equal until the present one. It was begun by some Bohemian insurgents' tossing two royal governors out of a window into a ditch about a hundred feet below. This trouble soon spread into the Palatinate. Europe began to be alarmed at the success of the arms of the Catholic party. When Christian IV of Denmark attempted to help the German Protestants, the promised aid of England and Holland failed to materialize. In a battle fought in 1626, he was defeated and pursued into his own territory. He was glad to promise that he would remain at home. This is what is known as the Danish period.
Hausser speaks of the Swedish period, the time of Gustavus Adolphus, as the second period of this war, because success came to the cause of the Protestants. The young Swedish monarch gained victory after victory. But in the terrible battle of Lützen (1632), he was killed; and the struggle then degenerated into "fighting as a profession." In spite of this, much permanent good was accomplished by the help rendered to the German Protestants.
France would have entered the war before had she not been busy at home, reducing the power of the nobles, and in conflict with the Huguenots. She helped the Swedes during the previous period, but soon became an active independent factor. This was not for the purpose of helping the Protestants, because France was intensely Catholic, but solely for the acquisition of territory and prestige in European affairs. This period brought the long struggle to a close. The following statements will give the reader some idea of the havoc wrought by this terrible series of conflicts:
Civilization Broken Down
"A FRENCH historian has declared the fact that Germany did not become an out-and-out wilderness, one of the most extraordinary examples of endurance which humanity has furnished."—Schwill, "Modern Europe," page 213.
"In some regions the population was reduced by one half, in others to a third or even less, of what it was at the opening of the conflict. . . . The people were fearfully barbarized by privation and suffering, by the atrocities of the soldiers of all the various nations. Until the end of the eighteenth century, Germany was too exhausted and impoverished to make any considerable contribution to the culture of Europe."—Robinson, pages 473, 474.
"The simple fact is that the material edifice of civilization, together with most of the moral and intellectual savings of an ancient society, had been destroyed, and what was left was barbarism. . . . The generation which survived the war had grown up without school, almost without pastors and churches." —Schwill, page 226.
The principle of toleration was hardly worked out or recognized. But a beginning375was made; and by the next one hundred and fifty years, this idea had reached Europe, and in turn the United States, which, by our Declaration of Independence, constitution, and the French Revolution, became a possession of mankind.
More than a Religious Revolt
BEFORE any endeavor to answer questions which may arise, one statement will help to clear the situation in at least a general way. "Just as the medieval church was by no means an exclusively religious institution, so the Protestant revolt was by no means simply a religious change, but a social and political one as well. It was not merely a change of religious belief, for the church permeated every occupation and dominated every social interest. . . . Education, acts in the home, the guild, books, . . . sat in government assemblies, acted as rulers' minister." "The conflicts which the attempt to overthrow this institution, or rather social order, brought about, were necessarily terrific. . . . Nation rose against nation, kingdom against kingdom. Households were divided among themselves." (Robinson, pages 370, 371. See Walker, chapter 1; Schwill, chapter 2.)
Pope Adrian VI, though a legate, fully confessed, at a German diet, the corruption of the popes. He also said that the German revolt was a divine judgment called down by the wickedness of men, especially priests and prelates. (See Robinson, page 410.) One devout writer of the times said that young men were considered quite good enough to be priests to whom one would not intrust the care of a cow. (Id., page 385.)
From Wycliffe to the present, the period is full of God's special providences. In fact, the whole Reformation is one great example of the working out of God's purpose. We are inheritors of the freedom and liberties which were at least partially worked out at this time. Just as Scholasticism had to give way to a better system of education — Humanism and later reforms — so Catholicism was forced to relinquish her hold on Europe because of Protestantism. Likewise in the political world, republicanism has to a large extent conquered absolutism. These are the three great movements of the late medieval and all of modern history.
Large parts of Germany, Scandinavian countries, Switzerland, Holland, and England championed the new faith; or to put it in another way, northern Europe declared for the gospel as found in the Bible, while the Romance nations and southern Germany rallied to the help of the church. The period fairly pulsates with events of tremendous magnitude.
SKETCHES FROM THE
By C. C. Crisler
LIFE of BENGEL
The Early Prophetic Expositor Who Labored to Make Plain to the Common People the Prophecies of Revelation
By C. C. CRISLER
HALF a century after the death of Mr. Joseph Mede, the Cambridge professor who gave the best years of his life to the exposition of the Apocalypse, God in His providence raised up on the continent of Europe another instrumentality through whom He wrought mightily in preparing the way for the proclamation of the advent message throughout the world.
Struggled with Doubt
JOHN ALBERT BENGEL was born in a village near Stuttgart, Germany, in 1687. He early became a diligent student, giving much time to mathematics and metaphysics. After taking his literary degree in the university of Tübingen, he devoted himself to the study of theology, to which the grave and religious tone of his mind, deepened and strengthened by early training and discipline, naturally inclined him.
"Like other young men of thoughtful character, he had to struggle with doubts and difficulties of a religious nature; and he alludes, with much feeling, to the 'many arrows which pierced his poor heart, and made his youth hard to bear.'" ("Encyclopædia Britannica," ninth edition, article "Bengel.") But a careful study of the Scriptures gave to him a firm faith which ever afterward served as an anchor to the soul.
At the age of twenty-one, Bengel became junior divinity tutor at the university of Tübingen, where he continued to make progress in sacred learning. Five years later, having been invited to become head tutor of a newly established theological seminary at Denkendorf, he spent several months in an extended tour, at government expense, to various theological seminaries in Germany, Catholic as well as Protestant, that he might the better be fitted to head the new seminary.
A Providential Awakening
IT was during this tour that Bengel's attention was particularly drawn to the importance of the prophetic portions of Scripture. While at Halle, he heard some of Dr. Anton's lectures on the Apocalypse, and afterward secured a copy of the complete course. Professor Lang, also of that university, drew Bengel's attention for the first time to Vitringa's "Anacrisis ad Apocalypsios," or "An Impartial Examination of the Different Opinions of Writers upon the Interpretation of the Apocalypse." Vitringa was at that time still living, and occupied the chair of theology and sacred history in the university of Amsterdam. His work on the Apocalypse, published early in the eighteenth century, had been inspired at least in part by the earlier work of Mr. Joseph Mede, from whose exposition Vitringa quotes.
Bengel, in the enthusiasm of early manhood, had several conversations with the little group of teachers and others in the university of Halle who believed that the time of the ushering in of God's kingdom was approaching.
"These conversations," says one of his biographers, "suggested to his inquiring mind a train of ideas which formed the germ of his important system of apocalyptic exposition." (J. C. F. Burk, "A Memoir of the Life and Writings of John Albert Bengel;" translated from the German by R. F. Walker; London, 1842.)
An Earnest Teacher of Truth
UPON his return to the newly established seminary, Bengel threw himself heartily into his life work as a teacher of young men preparing for the ministry, and as a pastor and author. "For twenty-eight years—from 1713 to 1741—he discharged his important duties as head of the school at Denkendorf with distinguished ability and success, devoting all his energies to the religious and intellectual improvement of his students. It is impossible to read the extracts from his diary and correspondence, which have been preserved, without being struck with the spirit of fervent piety, combined with sagacity and good sense, which characterized his management of the institution." ("Encyclopædia Britannica," article "Bengel.")
Bengel was a prolific writer, not because of a craving for notoriety or fame, but because, as a teacher of youth and as a minister of divine truth, he felt his accountability before God as a wise and faithful minister. He realized that souls were in peril, either through ignorance, or by reason of the undue influence of false teachers; and so he felt impelled by the Holy Spirit to bear plain testimony in defense of truth. He also regarded it as his duty to give to the world the best of that which he had learned in his study of the sacred text. The fruits of his extensive researches and ripe scholarship in the fields of prophetic interpretation and of textual criticism, have been benefiting the world for well-nigh two centuries, and are still proving an inspiration to thousands. "His 'Gnomon,' upon the whole of the New Testament, and his German translation of the Greek Testament, with its annotations, comprise his general researches; and those which we might term special are found in his chronological and apocalyptic writings, and in his several defenses of them." (Burk, page 251.)
"Bengel's chief principle of interpretation, briefly stated, is to read nothing into the Scriptures, but draw everything from them, and suffer nothing to remain hidden that is really in them. His 'Gnomon' exerted considerable influence on exegesis in Germany, and John Wesley translated most of its notes and incorporated them into his 'Annotatory Notes upon the New Testament' (London, 1755). In 1740 appeared Bengel's 'Erklaerte Offenbarung Johannis,' often reprinted (Eng. transl. by John Robertson, London, 1757); in 1741 his 'Ordo Temporum,' and in 1745 his 'Cyclus sive de anno magno consideratio.' In these chronological works he endeavored to fix the 'number of the beast' and the date of the 'millennium,' which he placed in the year 1836. In 1741 he was made prelate of Herbrechtingen; in 1749 member of consistory and prelate of Alpirspach, with residence at Stuttgart; and two years later Tübingen honored him with the doctorate." (Dr. A. Hauck, in "The New Schaff-Herzog Religious Encyclopedia," volume 2, page 53.)
Making Plain the Scriptures of Truth
THE burden that Bengel bore closest to his heart was that of making plain to the common people, as well as to the learned world, the prophecies of Revelation; and his principal works were prepared with this object in mind. His "Exposition of the Revelation of St. John" was followed by "Sixty Practical Addresses on the Apocalypse," a development of his Sunday evening prayer meeting lectures at Herbrechtingen. In these "Addresses," he avoided largely the details of historical and prophetic chronology, and sought rather to make the book of Revelation intensely interesting as a help to practical piety. This collection of "Addresses" was translated into the English language, and obtained a good circulation in Great Britain, largely under the patronage of John Wesley, one of the founders of the Methodist Church. In later editions of his works, however, his comments on the Apocalypse have been largely suppressed by those who have attempted to edit his works by the faith-destroying methods of modern criticism.
The leaders of the advent movement in Germany and Scandinavia received great help from the works of Bengel. New editions of his expositions appeared; and these, with the writings of Hengstenberg, of the university of Berlin, and of Leonard Heinrich Kelber, led many in Europe to proclaim with mighty power the message, "Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His Judgment is come." Rev. 14:7.
Open Ears
By Eliza H. Morton
IN the days of Christ, there were those who, having ears, heard not; and to-day there are many who refuse to listen to the plain, unvarnished word of God. They prefer to be lulled to sleep with pleasant songs, fables, and the changing topics of the day, proclaimed from popular pulpits.
David said, "Mine ears hast Thou opened [margin, "digged"]." In the ancient days, the Hebrew law was that the ear of the servant should be bored if, when liberty was offered him, he should say, "I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free." Those ear scars ever after identified that servant; and thus should every servant of the Most High be marked,—marked by the scars of surrender. The ears thus sanctified will eagerly listen to God's message for to-day. ELIZA H. MORTON.
The Bible: Faith, Doctrine, and Morals
By Daniel Webster
THE Bible is a book of faith, and a book of doctrine, and a book of morals, and a book of religion, of especial revelation from God.—Daniel Webster.
What Are the Spirits?
By Rufus A. Underwood
Are They Ghosts, or Real Beings?
THE word "spirit" has a wide range of meaning, but in no instance in the Bible is the term applied to man as possessing an entity with inherent immortality, or a never dying attribute, prior to the resurrection of the dead.
This word is often used to show the temper or character of a person's mind. The following text will illustrate this: "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." Ps. 51: 10.
Of the prophet Daniel it is said, "Forasmuch as an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and showing of hard sentences, and dissolving of doubts, were found in the same Daniel." Dan. 5: 12. "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Matt. 26: 41. "What an excellent spirit such and such an individual possesses!" we say, when referring to the amiability or character of the individual.
Are There Spirit Bodies?
BUT apart from this and other uses of the word, the Bible clearly shows that "there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." These spiritual bodies are called "spirits." I will give several texts of Scripture which are so clear that no question can be raised as to their meaning, and what constitutes a spirit in the general acceptation of that term.
First, God the Father is called a Spirit. "God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." This text illustrates how the word "spirit" may be used with two meanings in the same verse. The statement that "God is a Spirit" has a different meaning from the statement that "they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."
Second, Christ is called a "quickening spirit," and is set forth as an example of a spiritual body after His resurrection. "And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. . . . The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven." 1 Cor. 15: 45, 47.
Are Angels Spirits?
THIRD, the Holy Ghost, the third person of the Godhead, is many times called, in the Bible, a Comforter, and also a spirit. "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, 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." "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. . . . I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are Mine: therefore said I, that He shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto you." John 14: 26; 16: 7-15.
Fourth, angels also are called spirits. "And of the angels He saith, Who maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire. . . . But to which of the angels said He at any time, Sit on My right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" Heb. 1: 7, 13, 14.
Fifth, the redeemed become spiritual beings after they receive the gift of immortality at the resurrection. They will each possess a spiritual body. In speaking of the body at death, Paul said: "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. . . . As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. . . . Behold, I show you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." 1 Cor. 15: 44-54.
Then will be fulfilled the statement of the apostle John, when he said: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." 1 John 3: 2.
Are Spirits Merely Ghosts?
LOOKING forward to the time when all the faithful of the past will receive the gift of immortality at the coming of Christ, and also the faithful who will be alive will be changed to immortality, the apostle Paul speaks in no uncertain manner of the events that are to take place when this spiritual body is received. He refers to the loyal line of the faithful servants of God who have suffered and died in honor of His name. "And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." Heb. 11: 39, 40.
The redeemed will ultimately unite in forming one vast family. All will have spiritual bodies, and will be clothed with immortality. These spiritual beings, like their Lord after His resurrection, will be capable of being seen and handled, and of going away from this earth to other worlds, and returning to the earth. The Bible does not deal in myths, phantoms, or ghosts, when speaking of real spiritual beings.
Is the Devil a Spirit?
SATAN, or Lucifer, and the fallen angels, are also called spirits; yet they are real, intelligent beings. "And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." Eph. 2: 1, 2. Fallen angels are called unclean spirits, devils, etc. "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." Rev. 16: 14.
The purpose of Christ's advent to this world as the Son of man, was to redeem man, and to destroy the devil, and all who cherish sin, including the fallen angels. "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." Heb. 2: 14.
The prophet Ezekiel gives a graphic description of Lucifer as he once was in his purity, and also his final destruction, thus: "Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. . . . Thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. . . . And I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more." Ezek. 28: 12-19.
Reaping the Wages of Sin
THIS is a description of none other than Lucifer, the son of the morning, who was once an exalted angel, but was cast out of heaven because of his sin. He, and all those who follow in sin, will reap the wages of sin, which is eternal death. The lake of fire was not prepared for man, but for the devil and his angels, as the following statement of Christ clearly shows: "Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Matt. 25: 41. It is sad to know that some will choose sin, and hence will share the fate of Satan and his angels. "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power. . . . And the devil that deceived them [the wicked] was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone. . . . And another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell [the grave] delivered up the dead which were in them. . . . And death and hell [the grave] were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."
The Power of Prayer
By D. H. K.
PRAYER connects the finite with the infinite. It allies man's weakness with God's strength. It moves the arm of the Omnipotent. Should we call upon God to-day as did Jehoshaphat, and believe that God hears our prayer and undertakes our battles, that faith would lead us to give ourselves and our all to the Lord, and the work would be cut short in righteousness. D. H. K.
