BEHOLD, her Seven Hills loom white
Once more as marble-builded Rome.
Her marts teem with a touch of home,
And music fills her halls at night;
Her streets flow populous, and light
Floods every happy, hopeful face;
The wheel of fortune whirls apace,
And old-time fare and dare hold sway.
Farewell the blackened, toppling wall,
The bent steel gird, the somber pall—
Farewell forever, let us pray;
Farewell forever and a day!
How beauteous her lifted brow!
How heartfelt her harmonious song!
How strong her heart! how more than strong
She stands, rewrought, refashioned now!
Her concrete bastions, knit with steel,
Sing symphonies in stately forms,
Make harmonies that mock at storms,
Make music that you can but feel.
And yet, and yet, what ropes of sand,
What wisps of straw in God's right hand—
And yet, my risen city, yet
Your prophets must not now forget:
Must not forget how you laid hold
This whole west world as all your own—
How sat this sea-bank as a throne,
How strewed these very streets with gold,
How laid hard tribute, land and sea,
Heaped silver, gold, incessantly!
The simple Mexicans' broad lands
You coveted, thrust forth both hands,
Then bade Ramona plead her cause
In unknown language, to unknown laws!
You robbed her, robbed her without shame;
Aye, even of her virtuous name!
Nor shall your prophets now forget,
Now that you stand sublimely strong,
How when these vast estates were set
With granaries that burst in song,
You spurned the heathen at your feet
Because he begged to toil to eat;
Because he plead with bended head
For work, for work and barely bread.
Yea, how you laughed his lack of pride,
And lied and laughed and laughed and lied,
And mocked him, in your pride and hate,
Then in his gaunt face banged your Gate!
Nay, not forget, now that you rise
Triumphant, strong as Abram's song,
How that you lied the lie of lies,
And wrought the Nipponese such wrong,
Then sent your convict chief to plead
The President expel them hence.
Ah me, what black, rank insolence!
What rank, black infamy indeed!
Because their ways, their hands, were clean,
You feared the difference between,
Feared they might surely be preferred
Above your howling, convict herd!
Their sober, sane life put to shame
Your noisome, drunken penal band
That howled in Labor's sacred name,
Nor wrought, nor even lifted hand,
Save but to stone and mock and moil
Their betters who but asked to toil.
Yon harvest-fields cried out as when
Your country cries for fighting men,
And yet your hordes, by force and fraud,
Forbade this first, last law of God!
And you—you sat supinely by
And gathered gold, nor reckoned why!
Your great, proud men heaped gold on gold;
They heaped deep cellars with such horde
Of costliest wines, rich, rare, and old,
As never Thebes or Babel stored—
They sat at wine till ghostly dawn. . . .
The ides had come but had not gone;
For lo! the writing on the wall,
And then the surge, the topple, fall—
Then dust, then darkness, then such light
As never yet lit day or night,
And there was neither night nor day,
For night and day were burned away!
Hear me once more, my city, heed!
I may not kiss again your tears,
Nor dare and sing your blazing greed,
For I am stricken well with years;
But do ye as you erst have done,
Despise His daughter, mock His son—
If still the sow her wallow keeps
And wine runs as a rivulet,
My harp hangs where the willow weeps,
Nay, nay, I shall not now forget
The sin, the shame, the feast, the fall,
The red handwriting on the wall.
Then let me not behold once more
Your flowing cellars, mile on mile,
A sea of flame without a shore,
Or even one lone, lifted isle.
Let me not hear it, feel it choke,
A wild beast choking in his chain
The while he tugs and leaps in vain,
And drinks his death of flaming smoke.
Spare me this nightmare, pray you spare
This black three days of black despair!
Spare me this red-black, surging sea
Of leaping, choking agony.
It breaks the chain! up right, left up!
It tops the blackness, dome and spire;
It drinks the rich man's rosy cup—
It leaps, it laughs, a sea of fire!
And now o'er all a breathless pall—
Then flames leap laughing at the sun—
And now they choke, then choking fall!
What, Rome? Rome never dreamed such night,
Or Janus days or days undone
As this wild, drunken, crazed delight
Of red flames and that royal horde—
This revel at the rich man's board.
And say you God saw not, cared not?
Nay, better say there is no God,
Or that He slept, or quite forgot
The lowly ways the heathen trod,
What time he begged to toil for bread,
With hollow cheek or bended head.
Nay, better, braver, wiser, say
The patient Christ will bear alway
The wrongs the outraged peon bore
What time you robbed him, ranch and store;
Say that your lies on clean, brown men
Were but a jest; then lie again!
I call one witness, only one,
In proof that God is God, and just:
Yon high-heaved dome, debris and dust,
With torn lips lifted to the sun,
In desolation still, lords all—
The rent and ruined City Hall.
And here throbbed San Francisco's heart,
And here her madness held high mart—
Sold justice, sold black shame, sold hell.
And here, right here, God's high hand fell,
Fell hardest, hottest, first and worst—
Yon huge high Hall, the most accurst!
And rests your rich man without blame?
Were his ears dulled, were his eyes sealed?
And shall your good man bear no shame?
Is his heart stone? Is his sense steeled?
He said, "Go to! What need I fear?
Am I my brother's keeper here?"
He knew this piteous penal crew,
He knew its deeds, its darkness knew;
He knew the right, loved right afore—
But loved his yellow metal more!
And so the seven-headed beast,
And lo, the last Belshazzar's feast.
Life Everlasting
MEN hunger and thirst for life. Scant indeed is the life most men live. It is like trying to quench one's burning thirst from a shallow pool of dirty water in the middle of a field where cattle come down to drink and swine to wallow. What is a life worth which is measured by a few thousand dollars, or a little fading glory, or a flickering spark of worldly and sinful pleasure? Yet this is all some men have and all they hope for. They earnestly desire to live longer, but they are painfully conscious that the life they are now living is too shallow and wretched to last. It must go out, and it ought to go out, because it is not fit to go on. Much as they love life, they shrink from wishing that their life shall be everlasting.
What men need is a life so rich, so sweet, so deep, so beautiful, so full of meaning, that it is fit to endure forever. Jesus has it, and He can give it. "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly," saith the Lord. "Whoso liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." They have eternal life in them. "If any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink." "The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life."—Christian Advocate.
Couldn't Be a Hypocrite
By Clifford M. Loveland
A young student at Yale College was once called upon to take the place of principal of the New Britain, Conn., high school, for a short time.
He was kindly informed by his associate teacher, that it was the custom to open school every morning with prayer. Altho he was not a Christian, he felt that it was his duty, and he complied accordingly.
Finally he said to his associate: "I feel that I am playing the part of a hypocrite. My class at Yale holds its prayer-meeting to-morrow evening, and I have half a mind to go down there."
His associate urged him to go, and offered to open up school the next morning.
This young man went, told his story in a manly way, was converted, and as a result a revival sprang up in which eighty students were led to Christ.
CLIFFORD M. LOVELAND.
O Captain! My Captain!
By Walt Whitman
[Written on the death of Abraham Lincoln, which occurred April 14, 1865.]
O CAPTAIN! my captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weathered every rock, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But, O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
O captain! my captain! rise and hear the bells;
Rise up — for you the flag is flung — for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets, and ribboned wreaths — for you the shores a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck
You've fallen cold and dead.
My captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will.
The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I with mournful tread
Walk the deck my captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
—Walt Whitman.
The Last Day
By Rev. E. Guy Talbott
By Rev. E. Guy Talbott
Text: "What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?" Matt. 24: 3.
Introduction: Universality and Importance of Eschatological Beliefs.
I. The Second Coming of Christ.
II. The End of the World.
III. The Resurrection.
IV. The Judgment.
V. Heaven or Hell?
Universality and Importance of Eschatological Beliefs
It may be objected by some that questions regarding the second advent of Christ, the end of the world, the resurrection, the last judgment, and the future existence of the soul, are purely academic, and barren of practical results. This is not true. Those religions are the most exalted and pure that have strong eschatological hopes and doctrines. Those individuals who have the strongest eschatological beliefs, live the purest and highest moral and religious lives. It is this exalted and complete eschatological hope and doctrine that distinguishes and differentiates Christianity from ethnic and positivist religions.
Eschatological hopes and formulated doctrines of the future are common to all races and peoples. Eschatological beliefs lie near to the heart of all mankind. The ideas of a final judgment, of a future resurrection, of a coming Deliverer, and of future eternal estates of blessedness and of misery, are innate in the human breast. In the records of almost all peoples, we find traces of a past golden age, and hopes of a future restoration of that age. The Greeks in their mythology had this idea of a past and future golden age. Homer describes the Elysium of the happy, and the Hades of the doomed. The Romans had like conceptions. Virgil depicts the coming golden age. Similar ideas were held by the Persians, the Babylonians, and the Scandinavian peoples. The natives of the Hawaiian Islands have legends of a beautiful Edenic place from which they were driven; and they look forward to a future restoration of that state.
The Jews and other Semitic peoples point back to the primitive Garden of Eden as the happy abode of their first parents. In the dark days of Hebrew history, their eschatological hopes were strong. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel voice the expectations of the people.
Christianity has the highest and best developed doctrine of eschatology of any religion. These ideas all center around the Christ and His return to earth. When eternal hopes of the future have been strongest, Christianity has been purest. When the eternal truths of Christianity are subordinated or lost sight of, as is largely the case in the present age, the result is materialistic conceptions and a consequent decadence of true Christianity. Paul says, "If in this life ONLY we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." It will be a sad day for the church of Jesus Christ if these basic beliefs lose their hold upon the popular mind as a result of present-day materialistic conceptions and teachings. What the church of to-day needs to vitalize it and make it a power in the world, is a firm belief in, and a sane teaching of, these five basic Christian eschatological doctrines: 1. The second coming of Christ; 2. The end of the world; 3. The resurrection; 4. The last judgment; 5. Future rewards and punishments.
The Second Coming of Christ
"He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." Rev. 22: 20.
A hunter was forced to seek shelter from the rain in the vestibule of a Negro church in which a service was being held. The Negro preacher had been preaching on the second coming of Christ, and the importance of being ready. He closed the sermon, and began to pray. Finally, when he and the whole congregation were worked up to a high ecstatic state, and "amens" were heard all over the house, the preacher said: "Blow, Gabriel, blow! We're ready. Blow, Gabriel, blow!" Just then the hunter in the vestibule could not resist the temptation to blow his horn and see what would happen. In a second all was confusion in the little church. Men and women rushed from the building in the greatest fear and terror—led by the preacher. They were not so ready for Gabriel's horn as their prayers indicated. Perhaps the same thing would be true of most congregations, white as well as black.
One Sunday evening during the session of the Southern California annual conference in the First Methodist Church of Los Angeles, Dr. Mahood preached a sermon on the second coming of Christ. He had given a dramatic illustration of his text, and the large congregation was in the grip of a tense excitement. All of a sudden Dr. Mahood said: "Jesus is coming! He is coming." He had scarcely said these words when the vast audience rose as one man and rushed from the church. There had been a cry of "fire" out on the street, heard by only a few in the back of the church; yet as the people crowded out of the building, many faces were blanched by fear. You will say the first incident was caused by superstition, and the second by excitement—a mere coincidence. How would it be if Jesus were to come suddenly to each of our churches? How many would be ready to greet Him with joy? If Jesus should come here, now, while I am speaking, how many of you would have joy written on your faces? How many would have fear and horror that you were caught unprepared?
Jesus is coming. His coming is CERTAIN. He said—and this is His last recorded revelation—"SURELY I COME QUICKLY." John said of Him, "Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him." Jesus said to His disciples who were troubled because He had told them that He was going away: "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I WILL COME AGAIN, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." After Jesus had ascended into heaven, while the disciples were steadfastly looking heavenward, angels said to them: "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, SHALL SO COME IN LIKE MANNER as ye have seen Him go into heaven." Paul, in writing to the Thessalonians, said: "For the Lord Himself SHALL DESCEND FROM HEAVEN with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord."
Jesus is coming. His coming will be SUDDEN. We are certain that Jesus is coming. We have His own promise and express statements, and in addition, the witness of the angels, and of the Holy Spirit through the apostles. On the same grounds, we know that
His coming will be sudden and unexpected.
Three times in the last chapter of the book of Revelation Jesus says, "I come QUICKLY"—suddenly. Again He says, "Behold, I come AS A THIEF"—unexpected. He compares His coming to swift lightning: "For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." He also says it will be like the destruction of Sodom: "Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed." It will be like Noah's Flood: "But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were before the Flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the Flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." Paul compares the suddenness of Christ's coming to a thief: "For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh AS A THIEF IN THE NIGHT. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then SUDDEN destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape."
From these passages we are led to believe that the last great day—the day when Jesus shall appear—will be just like other days; everything will be going along in the accustomed order. But, O, what a change when Jesus comes! "There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Then men will pray for the rocks and the mountains to fall on them and hide them from the face of the Son of God, whom they reviled and persecuted and crucified. "Therefore be ye also ready: FOR IN SUCH AN HOUR AS YE THINK NOT the Son of Man cometh."
The Imminence of His Coming
Jesus is coming. He is coming SOON. For the same reasons that we believe in the certainty and suddenness of Christ's coming, do we believe in the imminence of His coming. We can not know the exact time. Jesus told His disciples regarding the time of His coming, "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only." We know with Paul and Peter that "the day of the Lord will come AS A THIEF IN THE NIGHT;" and we know that it is the will of the Master that we should be prepared, whether the coming be "at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning." We know that this is His will; for He has commanded us, "WATCH therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh."
However, Jesus has given us some signs that are to precede His coming. Every child of God should be able to read these signs. Many of them are given in the 24th chapter of Matthew, and in the 21st chapter of Luke. These chapters are little understood, and are constantly misinterpreted. God surely meant them to be understood and followed.
A few years ago, Dr. Arthur T. Pierson wrote an article with this heading: "Reasons for the Belief that Christ May Come within the Next Twenty Years." He said: "Seven signs hinted at in the Word of God may be selected as prominent: (1) A widespread witness to Christ, with (2) A widespread decline in godliness; (3) A marked movement among the Jews, with (4) The fulness of the Gentiles; (5) A singularly unresting state of society, with (6) A daring development of iniquity, and (7) A confident sense of false security. These seven indications must be8studied in the light of seven conspicuous passages of Scripture, such as Matthew 24, Luke 21, Romans 11, 2 Thessalonians 2, 2 Peter 3, 2 Timothy 3, and Jude."
The signs suggested here are most striking when carefully studied; and we find that an increasing number of devout scholars, as well as multitudes of humbler folk, are anxiously awaiting the return of the Lord, assured that “THE END IS AT HAND,” even as He said.
It is interesting and instructive to make a comparison of the seven parables in the 13th chapter of Matthew with the letters to the seven churches in the 2nd and 3d chapters of Revelation. There is an apparent chronological correspondence between the parables and the letters. Especially is this noticeable with the two last,—the parable of the drag-net and the letter to the church of the Laodiceans. The drag-net certainly refers to world-wide evangelization. The Laodicean church is a self-conceited, worldly church. Dr. Pierson says: “When in history did these two conditions ever meet as they do now? On the one hand a wealthy, self-satisfied, lukewarm Christianity, and on the other a casting of the Gospel net into the world sea, and gathering of every kind of fish! For the first time in this Gospel age, ecclesiastical degeneracy and evangelistic activity curiously blending—fulfilling before our eyes our Lord’s paradox—world-wide witness side by side with love waxing cold!” The last state of Christ’s Gospel work is thus seen to be world-wide evangelism; the last state of the CHURCH is deep-seated apathy and lukewarmness.
Dr. Pierson gives the following methods of computation used by various devout scholars to show the imminence of Christ’s parousia: 1. The times of the Gentiles; 2. The sabbatic system; 3. The millennial standard; 4. The historical method; 5. The antichrist period; 6. World witness; 7. Laodicean lukewarmness; 8. Development of anarchism; . . . 10. The Spirit’s withdrawal.
We know with absolute CERTAINTY that Jesus is coming, and that He will come SUDDENLY. We have all the assurance that reasonable men should require that He is coming SOON. What is the Christian’s duty in view of these facts? God’s Word tells us: WATCH and BE READY. “Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. WATCH therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have WATCHED, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore BE YE ALSO READY: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh.”
Thinking of the second advent, Paul prayed this prayer: “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless UNTO THE COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.”
“He which testifieth these things saith, SURELY I COME QUICKLY. Amen. EVEN SO, COME, LORD JESUS.”
“In nothing be anxious,” “Surely,” says some father or mother, “that verse is not for me. Why, there is everything in my family to cause anxiety. It is my duty to be anxious.”
Let us consider this. Parents are responsible for the work coming from their hands. They should have wisdom and firmness to do their work faithfully and in the right spirit. They are to train their children for usefulness by developing their God-given talents. If you neglect this work, which is so far-reaching in its results, because for the present it is far more agreeable for you to do so, and your children grow up morally deformed, their feet in the broad road to death, can God pronounce your work well done?
Have you thoughtfully and prayerfully considered your duty to the children you have taken the responsibility of bringing into the world? Have you thought whether these children are receiving from you an education and discipline that will lead them to honor their Creator in the days of their youth? Every time you allow them to trample on your authority, and their will to control yours, you are fostering a defect which will be carried with them into all their experience should they become religiously inclined, and will teach them to disregard and trample upon divine authority.
The question to be settled by you is, “Am I raising a family of children to strengthen the influence and swell the ranks of the powers of darkness, or am I bringing up children for Christ?”
If you have failed in this, you must first get right with God; second, go to your children, and get right with them; third, by living faith daily, bind your children upon the altar of the Lord. Then Jesus will be at hand, close by.
When you take God at His Word, you will stop fretting. Instead of being racked with anxiety all the time, you will pray, pray, PRAY; and the peace of God shall fill your soul even tho the tears are streaming down your cheeks. You will find that God is teaching you, as well as your children, a lesson.
But you say you are sure you have done your part, and yet your child is impatient of control. No doubt you have talked to that child until he is sick and tired of hearing you. You have fretted, you have cried, you have gone around with a long face, and you have prayed — O, how have you prayed! — and then gone right on fretting, and your child goes on in the same old way. Surely God made a mistake when He said, “Rejoice always,” and when He said, “In nothing be anxious.”
Now, dear father or mother, did God make a mistake in giving us those verses? Does He want you to worry? Does He want you to be gloomy or impatient? Does He want you to be a poor representative of the Christian religion? No; but He does want you to learn to trust Him. He does want you to pour out your troubles to Him. He does want you to bind your children upon the altar and leave them there. He does want you to spend more time upon your knees. He wants you to say, “For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” Say it over and over and over again, until you do know it; and then with a prayer in your heart and a song on your lips go about your work, God will do His part if you will give Him a chance. He wants you to cast this care upon Him; and just as sure as you commit your children to Him, just so sure He will keep them; for He has promised, and He will not go back on His Word.
Our Bible Reading
The Word of God
1. Christ Jesus sets His stamp of approval upon the Scriptures of the Old Testament.
“Is it not written in your law? . . . And the Scripture can not be broken.” John 10: 34, 35.
2. When He met the power of the devil’s temptations it was ever with the Word.
“It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Matt. 4: 4.
“It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” Verse 10.
3. Those Scriptures, tho given through men, were inspired of God.
“Thou hast known the Holy Scriptures. . . . All Scripture is given by inspiration of God [God-breathed].” 2 Tim. 3:15, 16.
“No prophecy ever came by the will of man; but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit.” 2 Peter 1: 21.
4. God gave that Word as a guide in the night of sin, as a light in the moral darkness of this world.
“Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Ps. 119:105.
5. There is power in God’s Word to heal and keep.
“He sendeth His Word, and healeth them, and delivereth them from their destructions.” Ps. 107: 20.
“By the word of Thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.” Ps. 17: 4.
6. The Scriptures are all-sufficient in themselves.
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God [God-breathed], and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, THOROLY FURNISHED unto ALL GOOD WORKS.” 2 Tim. 3:16, 17.
7. It testifies of Christ Jesus.
“Search the Scriptures; for . . . they are they which testify of Me.” John 5: 39.
8. By that Word Christ cleanses and sanctifies the believer.
“Already ye are clean because of the Word which I have spoken unto you.” John 15: 3.
“Sanctify them in the truth; Thy Word is truth.” John 17:17.
9. God is particular concerning that Word.
“Ye shall not add unto the Word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish from it, that ye may keep the commandments of Jehovah your God.” Deut. 4: 2.
The Golden Shore
By John Francis Olmsted
By John Francis Olmsted
THE sands of time are nearly run;
The day is drawing near
When Christ the Lord, with glory great,
Will come with reapers here
To gather all the sheaves of earth,
And garner golden grain;
But wicked tares will surely burn,
Till none shall e'er remain.
Then let us press with courage on,
The day is nearly o'er;
For soon, if we are faithful here,
We'll sight the golden shore!
Assertion or Proof?
By Editor
THE assertion of fallible man is one thing; the Word of the living God is quite another. Men may say that the Bible teaches this, and the Scriptures teach that; but that is not proof. For instance, some good friend sends us an article clipped from the Baptist Flag, and asks us to read it. The title of the article is "The Sabbath a Divine Institution," a title which expresses a great fact. The writer, however, comes to strange conclusions: First he has the creation Sabbath kept by no one for 2,500 years; and then when God concludes to give man a Sabbath, He gives not the one He took pains to make, but quite another day. We quote a typical paragraph:
"When God gave the Jews their Sabbath, and made it binding on them to keep, He CHANGED ITS FORM entirely, and this made the second form of the Sabbath. The first form was a MEMORIAL OF GOD resting from His labors, and SANCTIFYING one seventh of time. The Sabbath given to the Jews was a memorial of their sad bondage in Egypt, and they were required to keep it in THAT LIGHT, and NO OTHER. It was NEVER GIVEN to a Gentile, and no Gentile was required to keep it, and if he had kept it, he would have made a dunce out of himself, just like the Gentiles are now doing." (Capitals ours.)
Now this is all assertion. The Bible facts are:
1. God made the Sabbath at the Creation of man. Gen. 2:2, 3. He "sanctified" or set it apart, because that in it He "had rested." He rested on a definite day. He set apart a definite day. The learned Lange truly observes that the term "sanctified" implies a command concerning the day.
2. It was "made for man," the race (Mark 2:27); not the Jew-man nor the Gentile-man, but the primal head of the race, and hence for all his children, Jew or Gentile, Greek or Roman.
3. The Sabbath of the Decalogue (Ex. 20:8-11) is the Sabbath of creation, based on the same foundation facts. Compare Gen. 2:2, 3 with the fourth commandment. The deliverance from Egypt was only an additional reason for obedience (compare Deut. 5:15; 15:15; Lev. 19:35-37), just as God's deliverance from the Egypt of sin ought to be an additional reason for loyalty to God on the part of every Christian.
4. The gentleman's elegant use of epithet is hardly in place in the light of such scriptures as Deut. 4:5-8 and Isa. 56:1-7. The latter text pronounces great blessings upon the eunuchs and the strangers (Gentiles) who will keep God's Sabbaths. Apart from becoming Israel by faith, there is not a promise in God's Word to Gentiles as such. See Eph. 2:12-20. Jesus says, "Salvation is of the Jews," and Paul echoes again and again the same thought.
5. God knew the creation Sabbath, the Sabbath of the Decalogue, the Sabbath at the first advent, and He by inspiration identified them all as one. Gen. 2:2, 3; Ex. 20:8-11; Matt. 28:1. That Sabbath was always the seventh day of the seven, always the day just before the "first day of the week."
6. To make the first day of the month Abib the first day of the week is purely arbitrary interpretation, for which there is not a scintilla of evidence. God identifies His Sabbath from Genesis to Revelation. Yet this man would involve God in a mistake of hundreds of years through the blunder of the priests, and no one discover it till to-day!
7. This writer quotes Col. 2:16, "Let no man judge you," etc., but the text was evidently forgotten when he called him who does not see as he does a "dunce." He mixes with strange confusion, yet characteristic of error, the holy, weekly, eternal Sabbath of Jehovah, and the yearly sabbaths which passed away at the cross.
The entire article is a series of rash, unbiblical statements. We wonder that it finds place in a Baptist paper. It is entirely wanting in proof. It is not even the best of assertion.
The Obedience of Faith
WRITING of the Sabbath commandment, a religious paper says:
"Blind obedience to Bible commands is apt to get people into trouble. Thoughtful, intelligent obedience is surely far more pleasing to God."
That is, it is "blind obedience" to obey God's law as He has given it; it is "thoughtful, intelligent obedience" to ignore His commandment, and substitute a day which He has not enjoined. Is it, Christian? Is human wisdom to be preferred to implicit faith in God? Nadab and Abihu in their wisdom thought that blind obedience was foolishness, and the result is recorded in Lev. 10:1-11. Naaman thought in his wisdom that it was blind obedience to dip in Jordan, while worldly wisdom dictated a better way. See 2 Kings 5. But the "blind obedience" was necessary. When Abraham was called of God, "he went out not knowing whither he went." When the word came to Israel by the Red Sea, "Go forward," blind obedience led to certainty. Only be sure of one thing, reader: Does God command it? Knowing that, we can trust Him and obey.
"Nothing before, nothing behind,
The steps of faith
Fall on the seeming void, and find
The rock beneath."
The Holy Spirit—The Decalogue
IT is passing strange, isn't it, that men should ever seek to set the Spirit and the law in antagonism to each other? Yet they do. Just as tho God could be against Himself! Think of it.
The Spirit is the Spirit of God. God is the Author of life. His Spirit is "the Spirit of life." The law is the law of God. And God is one. His Spirit is not against His law, but is in His law. His law is not against His Spirit, but it is "the law of the Spirit of life." Why should one be set against the other?
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance;" and the apostle adds, "Against such there is no law." Gal. 5:22, 23. That is, there is no law to condemn these fruits. Just previous to this, Paul had said, "If ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law." Verse 18. Why?—Because there is harmony with the law, and the life bears the fruit against which the law brings no charge. For if the law is not against the fruit of the Spirit, it is certainly in harmony with it; and if the law is in harmony with the fruit of the Spirit, it is therefore in harmony with the Spirit which bears the fruit.
He who is "not under the law" is therefore possessed of the life of the Spirit which writes the law within. We must conclude, then, that those led by the Spirit are not under the condemnation of the law, because they bear the fruits which the law approves.
Cherish them both—the law and the Spirit of God. Pray that God by His Spirit may engraft that law within your heart. So shall you delight yourself in its depths, its beauty, its power, its fulness. "Great peace have they that love Thy law, and they have no stumbling-block."
David’s Triumph and Solomon’s Accession
A TRIUMPHANT psalm of David is recorded in chapter 22 of 2 Samuel, reminding us very strongly of the 18th Psalm. David's two sins, against Uriah the Hittite, and in the numbering of Israel, are told without any shading or partiality. God is as impartial in recording the deeds of the great as of the small. The last of our week's reading brings to the throne Solomon the wise son of David.
The Stories and Triumphs of David
The stories and triumphs of David in warfare are recorded; his bringing of the ark up to Jerusalem; God's awful lesson regarding holiness in connection with it; David's plan to build a temple; the evils that came from his multiple marriages in the jealousy and wickedness of his sons,—are all told with a graphic force and with such living interest that the characters stand out before us as actual moving pictures, exciting our sympathy on the one hand, or our regret or detestation on the other. Very sad is David's experience with Absalom, as is also the jealousy that existed on the part of Joab, by which he developed and manifested the regrettable weakness which led at last to his death.
David Becomes King Over Israel
Our lesson begins with the 8th chapter of 2 Samuel and closes with the 2nd chapter of 1 Kings. The record itself is very clear, wholly of narrative form. It tells of the war that continued between Israel and Judah. The friends of Saul were minded to do just what the world around them were doing, continue in the throne a son of the king who had died; but God wished to show that He Himself would select the rulers of His people, and while the war continued for some years between the son of Saul and David, yet at the end David triumphs and becomes the beloved king over all the tribes of Israel.