1. What did we learn concerning the mystery of God in our last study?
"Which in other generations was not made known unto the sons of men, as it hath now been revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit." Verse 5.
2. In what one respect was it not understood previous to the days of the apostle?
"To wit, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel." Verse 6.
3. According to what was Paul made a minister of the gospel?
"Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of that grace of God which was given me according to the working of His power." Verse 7.
4. What estimate does he put upon himself?
"Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, was this grace given." Verse 8.
5. For what purpose was it given him?
"To preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the dispensation of the mystery." Verses 8, 9.
6. What does he again repeat concerning this mystery?
"Which for ages hath been hid in God who created all things." Verse 9.
7. But what was now God's intent in its fuller revelation?
"To the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God." Verse 10.
8. According to what is this intent?
"According to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." Verse 11.
9. What assurance does this give to Paul, and what does he ask?
"In whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in Him. Wherefore I ask that ye may not faint at my tribulations for you, which are your glory." Verses 12, 13.
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Notes
1. "The Gentiles."—It is a strange thing, in the light of such scriptures as this, that men will contend that God has one plan for the Jew and another for the Gentile, that He makes a difference between the two, that if He has the gospel for one, He has more than the gospel for the other, and that for the Jew He has a higher position in the closing days of the Christian dispensation than He has for the Gentile. There are promises and prophecies in the Old Testament concerning the Jews which are difficult to be understood. There are prophecies of the restoration of Israel which would seem to indicate that the Jews are to be restored again to their own land; but in the light of the clearer later revelation, all these things are plain. All the Old Testament prophecies may be classified under one of three heads: either they were fulfilled in the establishment of the Jews in their own land either before or after the Babylonian captivity; or they were typical prophecies, fulfilled in part to the Jews there, but to be fulfilled in the fullest sense with the true Israel of God under Christ; or they were conditional prophecies in which the Jews never met the conditions, and which, of course, God could not fulfil to them. See Jer. 18:7-10. But when our Lord Jesus Christ came, and was rejected of the Jews, there was a different régime in the carrying out of God's purpose. Not but that His purpose has been always the same, but the nation that was to hold together during all the centuries until the Messiah should appear had accomplished its end, and from that time on it must stand in the same relationship to Him as all other nations; and therefore all who come in from all other nations are of the Israel of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, both Jew and Gentile by faith,—the Gentile a fellow heir and fellow member of the body—the church—and a fellow partaker of all the promises in Christ Jesus. "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Gal. 3:29. "For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel: neither, because they are Abraham's seed, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, it is not the children of the flesh that are children of God; but the children of the promise are reckoned for a seed." Rom. 9:6-8. In the gospel of Jesus Christ, in the fold of God, there is neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all in all.
2. "The working of His power."—It is God's power that the apostle magnifies, and the gift that was bestowed upon him as apostle and as a minister of God's grace was not because of Paul's achievement, but was wholly of God. So every disciple can say, for every child of His has been made a partaker of the grace given through Christ, and behind that grace and in its ministration all the power of God is pledged to His disciple.
3. "Who am less."—Note that the apostle's glory does not extend to himself. He is not saying, with the new-thought disciples of the present day, that "I am," and "I am power," "I am great," and "I am light," and "I am all that God is." Such words are blasphemous. The apostle Paul declared that he was less than the least of all saints, and yet to him God gave this great grace, and he magnifies the grace, and he magnifies the power of God. It would be a denial of God to do otherwise, and it would also be a denial of God to magnify himself.
4. "To preach."—The margin reads, "to bring good tidings unto the Gentiles;" in other words, to carry the gospel. He gives it another term here, "the unsearchable riches of Christ." That is what the gospel brings. There is absolutely no limit to its power, to its blessings. No word of inspiration places a limit upon it. It is able to save to the uttermost, and able to satisfy the hungriest soul. By the term "unsearchable" is not meant that which we can not search, but it means that which by all searching we can not fathom. We may find the riches, and we may enjoy them. So persons do in this world sometimes concerning the riches that perish; but sometimes those with vastly more than a competence, with wealth enough to enable them to live affluently until they die, yet are worrying because they know the limit of their wealth. The Christian need not have that worry; he may be so poor that he feels that he is less than the least, he may be so unworthy that he feels that he is not entitled to a farthing of God's wealth, but if he accept the gospel and have faith in the Master, there is no end to the riches to which faith opens the door, either in this world or in the world to come. It was these unsearchable riches of which the apostle is telling the story, and not only that, but to make all men see, or to bring to light to all men, the dispensation of the mystery.
5. "Which for ages hath been hid in God."—Even in those ages men learned of God, and learned of the exceeding riches of His grace. But when Christ the Son of God died, they saw more than had ever been comprehended before of the great love of God to men; and when He rose from the dead triumphant, there was revealed not only the love but the power. Even now in a sense they are hid in God, but he who by faith in Christ enters into the divine relationship finds there the hiding of His power. In God is he possessed of all the riches, and to all this the creative power of God is pledged.
6. "To the intent."—The Christian is not working out his problem here for himself alone. The apostle opens a far larger view than this. God's character in the universe is at stake, and there are other worlds watching this little world as it passes through the great problem of sin, so in the working out of this problem it is God's purpose that the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might see and know through the church the manifold wisdom of God. God is making experiments in this laboratory of the gospel upon human hearts,—not experiments that are bound nine thousand to one to go wrong, as do the experiments of the human scientist before he succeeds, but experiments every one of which is bound to go right if the subject upon which he is working is submissive. In the experiments of the human the will of the subject is not taken into consideration at all. In the laboratory of the chemist, or in the dissecting room of the vivisectionist, there must be no will to oppose the researches of the scientist; but in God's great laboratory the human will must be taken into account, and even the greatness of God will not step over the circle of freedom which He has drawn around the human. If, however, man will but yield to the eternal purpose, there will be wrought out in him the marvellous working of God triumphant over all sin and over all the effects of sin; for it is His purpose to take of the poor, weakened, wretched, deformed, distorted children of earth, made all they are that is bad by sin, and make them "to the praise of the glory of His grace" through Jesus Christ, and the righteousness of God which He places upon them, and the creative power inwrought in a new being born from above; and that in this work all the heavenly principalities and powers will see the manifold wisdom of God. As another has wonderfully said: "The Lord Jesus is making experiments on human hearts through the exhibition of His mercy and abundant grace. He is effecting transformations so amazing that Satan, with all his triumphant boasting, with all his confederacy of evil united against God and the laws of His government, stands viewing them as a fortress impregnable to his sophistries and delusions. They are to him an incomprehensible mystery. The angels of God, seraphim and cherubim, the powers commissioned to coöperate with human agencies, look on with astonishment and joy that fallen men, once children of wrath, are through the training of Christ developing characters after the divine similitude, to be sons and daughters of God, to act an important part in the occupations and pleasures of heaven."
7. "According to the eternal purpose."—Literally, according to the purpose of the ages; and this purpose of the ages, we are told, was purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. The infinite God foresaw all of the things which would arise, the rebellion which would enter His empire, the steps which would and must be necessary in order to convince men, in spite of every misrepresentation of His character, that God is love; and all these various steps were marked off in the history of this world; the antediluvian age and its climax in rebellion; the purpose of the call of Abraham, and the segregation of the families through which the seed was to come; the calling of a people out from Egypt into the promised land, there, notwithstanding all their rebellion, to be held through all the years till the Son of God was born of a woman; what is commonly called the Christian age, in which the gospel should be preached to all the world and to every nation, with no people or center chosen for the manifestation of God's glory, this to terminate with the judgment, and finally the restoration of all things promised by His holy prophets. Thus we have the antediluvian age, the patriarchal age, the Levitical age, the Christian age, the judgment period of one thousand years, and the eternal age of ages. These were constituted in the beginning, and throughout all this great purpose God has been working out the successive revelations of the mystery. Seemingly every age has ended in defeat of God's plan. Looking at it from the purely human standpoint, it would seem utterly hopeless, but faith in God has grasped the unseen things and triumphed. With this thought in mind we can better understand Heb. 11:3: "By faith we understand that the worlds [literally, ages] have been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen hath not been made out of things which appear." Rotherham renders: "By faith we understand the ages to have been fitted together by declaration of God, to the end that not out of things appearing should that which is seen have come into existence." This is much more a literal translation than our common versions. Upon the original word aion—"age"—from which "ages" comes, he has this to say: "The first thing to note is that the idea of an age is one of comparatively slow growth. The Biblical parent of the Greek aion is the Hebrew olam, and the root conception of olam is concealed duration. . . . The second thing to observe is that duration does not fall into ages until it acquires character, and there is a transition of the times from one character into another. . . . The fourth point of importance is that only as a change of age is supernaturally superinduced can we assume to characterize and begin age as a divine dispensation."
All of this, but dimly suggested in the pre-advent days, was clearly manifest in the days of the apostle. The antediluvian age was clearly marked by divine plan and interference. So also was the patriarchal age, and so also the Levitical, by its priesthood, and likewise the Christian age. When the antediluvian age ended, it would seem as tho God's plan were utterly thwarted; and yet faith said that out of the things not seen God would make to appear the things which He had promised. When the patriarchal age ended, the descendants of Abraham to whom the promise came were in sore bondage to the mightiest power that earth knew, and were there a nation of slaves; yet faith said that out of the things not seen God would bring the promises to the fathers. When the Levitical age ended, the very Prince of Life Himself had died upon the cross, and was locked in the stone sepulcher and sealed with a Roman seal; yet faith said, even in the one who died beside Him on the cross, that not out of things appearing should that which is seen have come into existence. From the very death God brought life, and through that death salvation to all His children. So the present age will seem to end in world triumph. Apostasy, which has reared its head in more or less limited success in the past ages, will in the last days sing, "I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow," and shall dare to say, "I am; and there is none beside me." But the very triumph of apostasy is the prelude to its destruction; and then shall appear the Lord Jesus Christ to bring to naught the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. So it will be at the close of the judgment age of the one thousand years. Satan, with all his hosts of wickedness which are raised from the dead, will think that he is able to take the mighty seat of God which has descended upon a desolated earth; but the glory of God will destroy sin and all identified with sin, and the eternal age of the ages which the people of God have seen by faith shall begin its glorious cycles, nevermore to know sin or death.
8. "In whom we have boldness."—We do not wonder, as the apostle surveyed the great eternal purpose of God, that he could have boldness in believing in our Lord Jesus Christ. Surrounding circumstances might be all against him. The weakness of the flesh itself might be paramount. Before him waited the Roman dungeon and the headsman's block. He had himself seen in vision the long desolating power of the Papacy, but beyond all this he saw the glorious triumph of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Truly he had boldness, truly he had faith in Him, and in the light of all this he could earnestly ask that others looking upon him and upon his persecutions might not faint at his tribulations, which were for their glory after all, because through those very things Paul had brought the gospel to them, the gospel which would result, if they held fast, in their eternal salvation.
Servant and Lord
NOT every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven." Matt. 7:21. To call one lord, implies that we are his servant; for "servant" and "lord" are opposite and complementary terms, the one presupposing the other. A lord is one who is served, a ruler, or governor, a provider. A servant is one who serves. His chief duty is to obey. There could be no lord without a servant; there could be no servant without a lord.
Therefore, when we call Jesus, Lord, we say that we are His servants. Our only duty is to do what He commands us. As Lord, He will provide the means and strength; as servants, we are to believe and obey. He commands us to repent and believe (Mark 1:15), and to keep God's commandments, which are His Father's will (Matt. 19:17; Ps. 40:8). Strength will ever be given to do this through faith. 1 John 5:3, 4; Gal. 5:6. Be not deceived; the true test of our relation to Christ and of our faith in Him, is doing, not professing; deeds, not words.
—✶✶—
"A Physical Necessity"
It is often stated that Sunday laws are necessary for the physical well-being of the people; and by many this supposed fact is eloquently urged as a reason why all should have a stated day of rest, and also why all should be required to rest upon the same day, namely, Sunday. But the force of the argument seems to be weakened somewhat by the well-established fact that, on an average, Jews enjoy better health, and consequently live longer, than any other civilized people. Of course many of them have a stated weekly rest-day, but a very large proportion of them have practically no stated rest; and even those who do conscientiously observe the Sabbath, do it under conditions which the advocates of Sunday laws declare render the necessary mental and physical rest impossible. Now the question arises, If Jews can enjoy good health and long life with no Sabbath, or at best with only a noisy Sabbath,— that is, surrounded with the noise of a workaday world,— why, in order to enjoy good health, must Christians have a law to compel both themselves and everybody else to rest on Sunday?
The Signs of the Times
April 8, 1913
# The Signs of the Times
(217) 9
Our India Letter
By S. A. Wellman
[This letter is direct from the field, written by one qualified to observe, himself an editor. It will be seen that the great problems of India are world problems.—Ed. S. of T.]
THE four months of the cool season in India are usually those in which the most happens to draw the attention, as then the great plains of the country are bearable, and the legislatures, the conferences, the congresses, and the myriad other activities of the land are in full swing. It is also the time when the missionary endeavor is the keenest and the missionaries are itinerating and doing the hardest part of the year's work. And the present season has been an exceptionally busy and interesting one, crowded with happenings tense with meaning both to the country and to the outside world.
Islam and the Balkan War
We had scarcely entered upon the winter before the strife in the Balkans blazed forth, and Mohammedan feeling in India witnessed an answering chord to Moslem fanaticism in Turkey, while only the decree of neutrality by the British government, with a warning note to its peoples, withheld from active assistance, monetarily and by enlistment, some of the Indian Moslems. Even then large sums have been given to the hospital service, and relief and ambulance corps have been sent to Constantinople. In the revolution that recently brought about the rupture of peace negotiations, these same Indians were said to be among those who incited the populace to revolt. Indians are subscribing largely to the bonds of the new government; and five times a day, in the entire empire, the Moslem population pray to Allah for the success of the Turkish arms.
England's part in the peace negotiations, and her taking part in the note of the powers to Turkey, were hotly resented by Indian Mohammedans, who used threats of a withdrawal of their time-honored custom of siding with the British raj if further aggressive action were taken. English papers warned them of the danger of such speech. The "Times of India," in its issue of February 5, 1913, has this to say to the Moslem community:
"It is time that the wise heads among the Moslem community interfered to give the community a lead, for the extravagant language which is now being employed, and its effect on the uninformed, are so mischievous that if a corrective is not applied the consequences must be most prejudicial to the Indian Moslems themselves."
His highness the aga khan, one of the leading Mohammedans of India, felt called upon, because of the feeling which was developing, to undertake just such a task as the "Times of India" had indicated, saying in the course of his public letter to Moslems that they should refrain from urging Turkey on to further sacrifices and suffering, as only those on the ground knew the conditions under which those sacrifices must be made, and were able to judge of the necessities of the situation. Speaking of Turkey as an Asiatic power, he says in the same letter:
Lord and Lady Charles Hardinge and Family
"Turkey as an Asiatic power can live and thrive only if she has the good will, friendship, and support of England. England has everything to gain and nothing to lose by a strong Turkey in Asia. As it is, the route to India has practically fallen, all along the Mediterranean, into the hands of foreign powers; and should Asiatic Turkey, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Anatolia become German, French, and Russian, it would indeed be a serious position for England. . . . There is a great opening for Musulmans in India alike in serving England and Islam. . . . It means the Musulmans must say nothing and act in no way that can weaken English confidence in Islam and in the loyalty of Musulmans in India. England has no territorial ambitions in Asia Minor, in Syria, or Arabia, or Mesopotamia. By our present sacrifices we can establish an influence with the Turkish government which will give weight to our sentiments and representations at Constantinople. In this way we can act as the cement which will unite these two empires into an irresistible whole, preserving at once to Turkey the opportunity of working out her destiny in Asia and safeguarding the road to India."
But his highness's words have been hotly resented by some Moslems in India, probably a large majority, and a Calcutta public meeting passed a resolution condemning his letter and advice and advocating a stronger policy on the part of Turkey.
In the course of a visit to a local government official recently, the writer was informed that it had become necessary to suppress one Urdu paper of this city, Lucknow, because in its editorials it had advocated the Moslem population rising and massacring the entire European community. It is easy to see, from such incidents, the extent to which Moslem feeling in India has risen in view of the Turkish defeats and reported massacres of Turks in European Turkey. Were it not for the strong hand of the government under which we live, the spirit of Islam would be as manifest here as in other parts of the world. But when religious fanaticism and race animosity are once strongly roused, it is hard to tell to what lengths they might go.
The task of England in the governing of India is not an easy one, and these recurring religious problems are among the thorns in the flesh. One has scarcely disappeared before others crop out in greater intensity.
The Delhi Outrage
It is a trait of character particularly Indian, and yet not confined to this people, which masks their faces while in the back of the mind all sorts of ideas and thoughts are taking possession and driving on to good or evil. Fortunately for India, its outward manifestation is mostly good, and only occasionally do animosity and vengeance crop out. Nevertheless there can not but be at times an unrest in the hearts of the rulers of the country as they see the outcroppings of a spirit of anarchy and disloyalty which is unaccountable and untraceable.
In the latter part of December the viceroy entered Delhi in state, opening the new imperial capitol for official business, the Imperial Legislative Council to meet for the first time with its additional provincial members on the 25th of January succeeding. But in the course of the procession from the railway to the durbar grounds, where the opening ceremony of welcome was to be carried out, a dastardly attempt upon the life of Lord Hardinge was made by parties unknown, from the premises of the Punjab bank. The bomb which was thrown was of Indian manufacture; and the deed undoubtedly was the work of an organized band of anarchists or political assassins who not only work secretly, but successfully avoid detection, for to the present writing no trace of the perpetrators has been found.
Fortunately, the viceroy, who has from the time of his arrival shown his friendship for the Indian people and wisdom in his rule, escaped death, altho seriously injured by fragments of the bomb and of the howdah in which he and Lady Hardinge were sitting. Ten others were injured. Lady Hardinge escaped with only a shock and slight deafness.
11There is a growing feeling, among the well-informed and responsible people of India, that anarchy has become one of the questions which must be met in the future of the land, and that these events of frequent occurrence are not matters of personal grievance only. It is felt that years will be required to outlaw it, if indeed this is ever possible. In the West, anarchy is felt to be the work of the mentally deranged and the uneducated; but here in India it is apparently the educated but dissatisfied, the ambitious of political upheaval, most often of good social position, who are involved. Those who occupied the building on the day of the bomb throwing were people of good standing in the community, and it is thought that they know far more about the affair than they are willing to tell. In fact the government has intimated as much to the people of Delhi.
THE GREAT MOSLEM EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE IN LUCKNOW, INDIA
In his speech of the newly assembled Imperial Legislative Council on the 25th of January, the viceroy, who was sufficiently recovered to read his speech from the throne before retiring to undergo a second operation, seemed to feel the seriousness of the situation which the government faces on account of anarchy, for he says:
"I have one word more to say to the people of India, which I say with a profound sense of the gravity of the import of my words. I need hardly recall to the memory of anybody that the recent incident is not an isolated episode in the history of India, but that during the past few years both Indians and Europeans, loyal servants of the government and of India, have been less fortunate than I have been, and undeserving of the cruel fate meted out to them, have been stricken down by the hand of the assassin. Those deplorable events cast a slur on the fair name of India and the Indian people, to whom I know they are thoroly repellent; and I say to the people of India, not merely as a viceroy intensely jealous of the honor of the country that he has been called upon to govern, but as one of the many millions in India of the fellow subjects of the king-emperor, and one who loves India and the Indian people amongst whom he is living—I say that this slur must be removed and the fair fame of India must be restored to a high and unassailable place.
"The atmosphere which breeds the political murderer is more easily created than dispelled. It can only be entirely and forever dispelled by the display and enforcement of public opinion in a determination not to tolerate the perpetration of such crimes, and to treat as enemies of society not only those who commit crimes but also those who offer any incentive to crime. Among such incentives to crime should be included intemperance of political language and methods likely to influence ill-balanced minds and lead them by insidious stages to hideous crimes."
Seditious Literature Bill
Nearly two years ago the government passed a seditious literature bill aiming at the suppression of papers and books which encouraged these crimes, but it has had practically no effect so far as repressing them is concerned. Secretly the work goes on; and where there was once a clue to the perpetrators, there is nothing but the blank features and soft smile of one who may in some way be connected with the crime. Yet as the viceroy has said, the vast majority of the Indian people heartily abhor these methods.
The Mohammedan Educational Conference
The Moslem Educational Conference met in Lucknow in January to plan together the extension of the growing educational work of that sect. For some years there has been on foot a project to make the Moslem college at Aligarh, United Provinces, a university. Government sanction was given to the scheme if the funds could be found; and altho the collections for this purpose were temporarily abandoned in the effort to meet the more important work of assisting Turkey in her extremity, his highness the aga khan, one of the leaders in the educational work of Mohammedans, is confident of their ultimate success.
The outstanding feature of interest to Western peoples in this conference will be the fact that a Christian lady missionary addressed the conference on "Education for Women," and was well received by the delegates. Later a reception was held at Isabella Thoburn College (Methodist), and Bishop J. W. Robinson, of that denomination, welcoming the Moslem delegates, spoke on this wise:
"Another unique feature connected with this gathering is this: Host and guest are engaged in work connected with different religious faiths. We are glad the days of bitter antagonism are past, and that it is our privilege to live in days of toleration. But this gathering to-day—may we not hope?—indicates the beginning of an era when, no longer satisfied with mere toleration, we assume an attitude of active cooperation in the many things on which we agree. While recognizing the fact that we do disagree on some vital points, we have reached the place where we desire to place the emphasis on the things in which we agree and in which we can cooperate for the benefit of the race."
While the greater portion of the bishop's speech is good, there is one feature which stands out as indicative of the strong tendency of modern times toward eliminating what are called the points of divergence and emphasizing the points of contact. Men feel that the various denominations may be united as one, and that the differences are immaterial. So when, on the mission field, there must be met the teachings of other faiths, there is a like tendency to omit the differences, fraternize, and emphasize the points of contact. The letting down of the conscience to forgetfulness of the differences in faith which make the truths we love, opens the flood-gates to greater error, and seas mountain high sweep us to destruction. Mohammedanism is radically different, utterly opposed to Christianity. There are points of contact, it is true—places where the Koran acknowledges the truths of Bible faith and religion; but there are so many fountains of iniquity, so many loopholes of the enemy, in the whole system, that for Christians to go so far as to forget them in an effort at cooperation is, it seems to us, a grave mistake.
At the late Moslem Missionary Conference, held in this same city, Dr. Speer, in his message to the conference, said:
"In his attitude toward other religions, the evangelist must not obscure the points of difference. If there were no points of difference, there would be no need of evangelists; and it is the radical importance of these points of difference that justifies all that the missionary enterprise has cost and is still to cost. . . . I have been more and more led to the conviction that it will rather harm than help our cause to minimize the differences between Christianity and any other religion." ("Lucknow, 1911," pp. 219, 220.)
12This, it seems to us, is the true attitude. With love for the individual Moslem, toward whom the spirit of our Master must at all times be manifest, but with uncompromising hostility toward the gigantic errors of the faith they hold, the true missionary must lead them away from the dim rays of light that now enlighten their lives, into the fulness of the truth. Acknowledging the good, it must never be forgotten that there is something higher, purer, nobler, for them in the Christian faith.
