MR. HAMLIN GARLAND, the famous author and polished scholar, was deputed, about two years ago, by the American Psychical Society, of Boston, to prosecute an independent, scientific investigation of occult phenomena, especially those peculiar to that momentous movement known as Spiritualism. He entered upon his task with the determination to subject Spiritualistic phenomena to a cold, logical, calculating analysis. He aimed solely at sifting out rigidly tested facts. Knowing that all professional psychics are adepts in trickery, he had recourse to private psychics only, as these, not employing their powers for pay, have little or no incentive to resort to fraud.
“Spirit” Sings with Polish Sitter
Among a multitude of the thrilling experiences to which Mr. Garland attests, the following is notable. To a friend Mr. Garland said:
“I have recently had opportunity to witness a particularly incredible thing—the materialization of a complete human form beside the psychic. . . . The sitting took place in a small private house. The psychic in the case was a young business man who is careful not to advertise his power. . . . The place of the seance was the parlor of his apartment, and his young wife and little daughter were present, . . . and a Polish student whom I will call Jacob. . . . The little girl sat at the window and was under my eye all the time. The wife spent most of the evening at the piano on my right. . . . The light of a far-away street lamp shone in at the window.
“He retired into a little alcove bedroom, which served as a cabinet, and the curtain had hardly fallen between him and our group when the ‘spirit’ voices began. The first one to speak was ‘Evan, the guide.’ . . . Soon ‘Evan’ and other spirits appeared at the opening of the curtain. The wife called them each by name, but I could see only certain curious fluctuating, cloud-like forms, like puffs of fire-lit steam. The effect was that of illuminated vapor. At length came a form that spoke in a deep voice, using a foreign language. Jacob, the young Pole, sprang up in joyous excitement, saying that he had sat many times in this little circle, but that this was the first time that a spirit had spoken to him in his own language. As they conversed together I detected a close similarity of accent and of tone in their speech. It certainly sounded like the Polish language, but I could not rid myself of the impression that the Pole was talking to himself.”
Mr. Garland goes on to say that a little later Jacob returned to his seat, and “the Count,” his spirit visitor, called for the Polish national hymn. Jacob then sang and the phantom sang with him. Both Jacob and the spirit Count continued to sing with distinct voices till the end of the hymn was reached, when the “Count” slowly melted away. Jacob never doubted the identity of the spirit.
The Psychic’s Painful Encounter with an Apparition
Mr. Garland tells us that toward the end of the evening the psychic emerged from the cabinet, and in a dazed way ordered the lamp to be lit. This was done, and at his request the light was turned low. Now, directing his gaze toward the curtain, he called twice in a tone of command, “Come out!” Garland insists that he could distinctly see every person in the house. In response to the psychic’s second cry, Garland saw a form taller than the psychic suddenly appear before the curtain, and stand bowing in silence. He made out clearly all the features of the specter—arms, shape of the head, shoulders, etc. The skeptical, Garland is certain that it could not have been a mechanical device. All this time the psychic had the air of an anxious man undergoing a dangerous ordeal. His right hand was stretched stiffly toward the phantom, his left was held near his heart; his knees trembled, and his body appeared irresistibly drawn toward the cabinet. Watchfully, fearfully, he approached the spirit. A moment later they met—they clung together, and appeared to coalesce; and the psychic fell through the curtain to the floor of the cabinet. “The psychic seemed under an immense strain to keep the apparition exterior to himself. When they met, the psychic’s fall seemed inevitable, a collapse from utter exhaustion.”5
The psychic afterward related that he was undergoing a tremendous strain as he commanded the “spirit” to appear. He had a fierce pain in the center of his forehead, and could not get his breath. His legs seemed to give way, and all his strength and substance seemed to be drawn out of him. As soon as he touched the spirit form it entered into the psychic’s body. For days afterward the psychic suffered from nervous exhaustion.
Materialization of the Psychic’s Deceased Grandfather (?)
In a subsequent sitting with the same psychic, Mr. Garland says he saw the development of a figure apparently from the floor between him and the curtain of the cabinet. He first noticed something shimmering, fluctuating about a foot above the floor. It was neither steam nor flame. It seemed compounded of luminous vapor and puffing clouds of drapery. “It rose and fell in quivering impulses, expanding and contracting, but continuing to grow until at last it towered toward the height of a tall man, and I could dimly discern, through dark draperies edged with light, a man’s figure. ‘This,’ the young wife said, ‘is Judge White [not the real name, of course], the grandfather of the psychic,’ and she conversed with him, but only for a few moments. He soon dwindled and faded and melted away in the same fashion as he had come.”
Mr. Garland thinks that the question of spirit identity is the final and most elusive part of the problem, and that it may turn out to be the insoluble part of the problem. (Let us not forget that man has had a final solution of the problem vouchsafed to him ever since he has had a revelation from the Author of the human soul.) He holds hypothetically that all the “spirits” he has met are the secondary or etheric personality either of himself or of the psychic. This is the theory of the “fluidic double” as termed by some, or “astral body” as termed by others. He does not affirm or deny the theory of discarnate human spirits. This theory is held tentatively by many of these learned psychic “researchers.”
The following London despatch was published in the newspapers of Sunday, January 31:
“W. T. Stead presided this week at a seance attended by the Duchess of Rutland, Sir Albert Taylor, Lady Warbeck, and other notables. The medium was Mrs. Clarence Thompson, an American. Despite scientific precautions to avoid fraud a spirit draped in white appeared seven times.”
Remarkable Instances of “Spirit” Messages
Mr. W. T. Stead, the famous English journalist and publicist, who is himself a psychic possessing marvelous powers, has been, during the past fifteen years, the recipient of so many thrilling “messages” purporting to come from the spirits of deceased friends, that he confesses himself convinced of the persistence of human personality after death. He has what is called the gift of automatic handwriting. By making his mind passive, he can place his pen on paper and his hand will write messages from either living friends at a distance or from those “who have experienced the change called death.”
One of his many startling experiences he recounts as follows:
“I had two friends who were as devoted to each other as sisters. As is not unusual, they had promised each other that whichever died first would return and show herself to the other in order to afford ocular demonstration of the reality of the world beyond the grave. One of them, whose Christian name was Julia, died in Boston shortly after the pledge was given. Within a few weeks she aroused her friend from her sleep in Chicago and showed herself by her bedside, looking radiantly happy. After remaining silent for a few minutes, she slowly dissolved into a light mist, which remained in the room for half an hour.
“Some months after, the friend in question came to England. She and I were staying at Eastnor Castle, in the west of England, when Julia came back a second time. Her friend had not gone to sleep. She was wide awake, and again she saw Julia as distinct and as real as in life. Again she could not speak, and again the apparition faded away.
“Her friend told me about the second visit, and asked me if I could get a message from Julia. I offered to try, and next morning before breakfast, in my own room, my hand wrote a very sensible message, brief and to the point. I asked for evidence as to the identity of the transmitter. My hand wrote:
“‘Tell her to remember what I said when last we came to Minerva.’ I protested that the message was absurd. My hand persisted, and said that her friend would understand it. I felt so chagrined at the absurdity of the message that for a long time I refused to deliver it. When I did so her friend exclaimed: ‘Did she actually write that? Then it is Julia herself and no mistake.’ ‘How,’ I asked, ‘could you come to Minerva?’ ‘O,’ she replied, ‘of course you don’t know anything about that. Julia shortly before her death had bestowed the pet name of Minerva upon Miss Willard, the founder of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, and had given her a brooch with a cameo of Minerva. She never afterward called her anything but Minerva, and the message which she wrote with your hand was substantially the same which she gave to me the last time when Minerva and I came to bid her good-by on her death-bed.’”
Getting into Communication with the Beyond
“Here again there was a slight mistake. Minerva had come to her instead of Julia going to Minerva, but otherwise the message was correct. I then proposed that I should try for more messages. Her friend sat at one end of a long table, I sat at the other. After my hand had written answers to various questions I asked Julia if as another test of her identity she could use my hand to call to her friend’s memory some incident of their mutual lives of which I knew nothing. No sooner said than done. My hand wrote:
“‘Ask her if she can remember when we were going home together when she fell and hurt her spine.’ ‘That fills the bill,’ I remarked as I read out the message, ‘for I never knew you had met with such an accident.’ Looking across the table I saw her friend looked utterly bewildered. ‘But, Julia,’ she replied, ‘I never hurt my spine in my life.’ ‘There,’ said I, addressing my hand reproachfully, ‘a nice mess you have made of it. I only asked you for one out of a thousand little incidents you both must have been through together, and you have gone and written what never happened.’
“Imperturbably my hand wrote: ‘I am quite right. She has forgotten.’ ‘Anybody can say that,’ I replied. ‘Can you bring it back to her memory?’ ‘Yes,’ was the reply. ‘Go ahead,’ I answered. ‘When was it?’ Answer: ‘Seven years ago.’ ‘Where was it?’ ‘At Streator, in Illinois.’ ‘How did it happen?’ ‘She and I were going home from the office one Saturday afternoon. There was snow on the ground. When we came opposite Mrs. Buell’s house she slipped her foot on the curbstone and fell and hurt her back.’
“When I read these messages aloud her friend exclaimed: ‘O, that’s what you mean, Julia? I remember that quite well. I was in bed for two or three days with a bad back, but I never knew it was my spine that was hurt.’”
Mr. Stead Receives a Prophetic Message from “Julia”
Those who refuse to accept the “spirit identity” hypothesis, invoke the hypothesis of telepathy from the unconscious mind of the living to account for almost any message said to be transmitted from the dead. But Mr. Stead contends that there is one class of messages which telepathy from the conscious or unconscious mind of the living, can not account for. He refers to that class of messages which foretell an event or events which have still to happen. It is certainly true that telepathy can not, in the very nature of the thing, forecast the future. The following strange predictive communication from “Julia” to Mr. Stead is here appended, in Mr. Stead’s own narrative:
“Julia, on the very day on which she gave the test messages recorded above, made a prediction, not as a prediction so much as a friendly warning intended to save her friend from making engagements which she would not be able to keep, as at a certain time she would be three thousand miles away from England. My friend laughed the warning to scorn. The prediction was twice repeated, and both times treated with contempt. Engagements were entered into which when the time came had all to be canceled because my friend found it necessary to go to the distant place Julia had named.
“It will be objected that the prophecy in this case may have helped to bring about its own fulfilment. Let us admit that for the sake of argument. The same objection can not be urged against the next item of evidence I am about to produce. Some years ago I had in my employment a lady of remarkable talent, but of a very uncertain temper, and anything but robust health. She became so difficult that one January I was seriously thinking of parting with her, when Julia wrote with my hand: ‘Be very patient with E. M. She is coming over to our side before the end of the year.’ I was rather startled, for there was nothing to make me think that she was likely to die. I took the advice, said nothing about the message, and continued her in my employ. It was, I think, about the 15th or 16th of January when the warning was given.
“It was repeated in February, March, April, May, and June, each time the message being written as a kind of reminder in the body of a longer communication. ‘Remember, E. M. is going to pass over before the end of the year.’ In July E. M. inadvertently swallowed a tack. It lodged in her appendix and she became dangerously ill. The two doctors by whom she was attended did not expect her to recover. When Julia was writing with my hand I remarked, ‘I suppose this is what you foresaw when you predicted E. M. would pass over.’ To my infinite surprise—‘No, she will get better of this, but all the same she will pass over before the year is out.’ E. M. did recover suddenly, to the amazement of the doctors, and was soon doing her usual work. In August, in September, in October6in November, the warning of her approaching death was communicated through my hand. In December E. M. fell ill with influenza. ‘So it was this,’ I remarked to Julia, ‘that you foresaw?’ Again I was destined to be surprised, for Julia wrote: ‘No, she will not come over here naturally, but she will come before the year is out.’ I was alarmed, but I was told I could not prevent it. Christmas came. E. M. was very ill. But the old year passed and she was still alive. Julia replied: ‘I may be a few days out, but what I said is true.’”
A Tragic End Foretold
“About the 10th of January Julia wrote to me: ‘You are going to see E. M. to-morrow. Bid her farewell. Make all necessary arrangements. You will never see her again on earth.’ I went to see her. She was feverish, coughed badly, and was going to be removed to a nursing hospital where she could receive better attention. All the time I was with her she talked of what she was going to do to carry out her work. When I bade her good-by I wondered if Julia was not mistaken.
“Two days after I received a telegram informing me that E. M. had thrown herself out of a fourth-story window in delirium and had been picked up dead. It was within a day or two of the end of twelve months since the first warning was given.
“This narrative can be proved by the manuscript of the original messages, and by the signed statement of my two secretaries to whom under the seal of secrecy I communicated the warnings of Julia.
“No better substantiated case of prevision recorded in writing, not once, but twelve times, is on record. However you may account for it, telepathy, conscious or unconscious, breaks down here.”
“E. M.” Posthumously Fulfils Her Promises.
“The lady whose initials were E. M., and whose tragic fate I have just described, had promised me that if she died before me she would do four things. She had constantly written automatically with my hand during her life. She promised in the first place that she would use my hand if she could after death to tell me how it fared with her on the other side. In the second place she promised that if she could she would appear to one or more of her friends to whom she could show herself. In the third place she would come to be photographed, and fourthly, she would send me a message through a medium, authenticating the message by countersigning it by making the simple mathematical figure of a cross within a circle.
“E. M. did all four.
“1. She has repeatedly written with my hand, apparently finding it just as easy to use my hand now as she did when still in the body.
“2. She has repeatedly appeared to two friends of mine, one a woman, the other a man. She appeared once in a dining-room full of people, through whom she passed unseen by any but her friend, who declares that she saw her distinctly. On another occasion she appeared in the street in broad daylight, walked for a little distance, and then vanished. I may say that her appearance was so original and peculiar no one could mistake her for anybody else.
“3. She has been photographed at least half a dozen times after her death. All her portraits are plainly recognizable, but none of them are copies of any photograph taken in earth life.
“4. There remains the test of a message accompanied by the sign of a cross within a circle. I did not get this for several months. I had almost given up all hopes when suddenly a medium who was lunching with a friend of mine received it on the first attempt she made in automatic writing. ‘Tell William not to blame me for what I did. I could not help myself,’ was the message. Then came a plainly but roughly drawn circle and inside it the cross. No one knew of our agreement as to the test but myself. I did not know the medium, nor was my friend expecting any message from E. M.
“Is it surprising then that after such experiences I have no more doubt of the possibility of communicating with the so-called dead than I have of being able to send this article to the editor of this newspaper?”
Knights of Old
By Uthai Vincent Wilcox
IN that great metropolis of five continents — London — there is a plain open square, unadorned, and unornamented, save by the four sides of narrow streets and the smooth-worn cobblestones. It is unpretentious, unassuming, and in its way a quiet thorofare.
Front of St. Bartholomew's Church dedicated to the memory of the martyrs.
Memorial martyr tablet on St. Bartholomew's Hospital, near Smithfield market, London
It is bounded on one side by a wholesale meat-market, covering acres of ground, where in the early dawn the heavy trucks and wagons arrive and depart with the meat of all kinds for Greater London. On two sides narrow streets lead into the square, where the pedestrian must take to the road if he chance to meet one on the sidewalk. On the third side are the graystone walls of Saint Bartholomew’s Hospital, where white-capped nurses pass in and out, and the blinds are partly drawn in the wards, that the victims of accident and disease may rest or sleep if possible.
Altho the chance visitor would notice little of interest, nevertheless he treads on historic ground. It was here in Smithfield Square that the Knights of Saint John challenged all comers to friendly or deadly combat. It was a tournament ground and a battle-field, where the earth trembled with the charges of friends and foes. The surrounding country echoed with the clash of steel, and the impact and grinding of the coats of mail. Here might was right. The steadiest arm, the surest aim, and an unswerving determined steed, together with faultless armor, won the laurel wreath and the praise of the fair.
But pause, this is also hallowed ground. The dust is mingled with the ashes of holy men of old. Look! On yonder hospital walls is a small, unpretentious tablet, enclosed by iron bars, which marks a spot whose influence has been potent the wide world over. That monument commemorates greater knights than those in mail, tho they fought not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. They contended not with sword, spear, or steed, yet theirs was a challenge to all the powers of darkness. Their victories were not heralded as glorious, they bore not the laurel wreath; for they “were despised and re-rejected of men,”—“they died for their faith, that was all.”
The tablet reads, as we stand before its fiery tipped rods,—
“Blessed Are the Dead Which Die in the Lord.
The Noble Army of Martyrs Praise Thee.
Within a Few Feet of This Spot,
JOHN ROGERS,
JOHN BRADFORD,
JOHN PHILPOT,
And Other
Servants of God,
Suffered Death by Fire for the Faith of
Christ,
In the Years
1555, 1556, 1557.”
Near this place is erected a church to the memory of said martyrs.
It was this square, near the historic Thames, where those satanic and diabolical tortures were enacted that were the fruit7of the “Holy Inquisition.” Yet how true that,
“Truth crushed to earth shall rise again,
The eternal years of God are hers.”
For altho, the exponents of faith perished, their deeds and the great unalterable truths remained.
As their ashes were blown by the merciless wind into the Thames and thence carried into the great ocean that washes the shores of many lands, so likewise the principles and truths by them taught, and for which they lived and died, were carried and promulgated to the uttermost ends of the earth.
What an example for us! What an inspiration to beholders! It was with hushed voice and softened step that the writer left that sacred spot, and with a renewed determination to stand firmly with those who seek to hold aloft the blood-stained banner of the Cross as Knight-errants of the Kingdom which is to come; for we know that nothing can be done against the truth but that will ultimately be for the truth.
Uthai Vincent Wilcox.
The Law of God—Its Holiness and Comprehensiveness
By H.
1. How many lawgivers are there?
“One only is the Lawgiver and Judge, even He who is able to save and to destroy.” James 4:12.
2. What does God Himself declare His character to be?
“For I, Jehovah, change not; therefore ye, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.” Mal. 3:6.
3. What is said of all His works?
“The works of Jehovah are great,
Sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.
His work is honor and majesty.”
“The works of His hands are truth and justice.” Ps. 111:2, 3, 7.
4. How is the law of God described?
“The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring the soul:
The testimony of Jehovah is sure, making wise the simple.
The precepts of Jehovah are right, rejoicing the heart:
The commandment of Jehovah is pure, enlightening the eyes.” Ps. 19:7, 8.
5. What attributes does Paul give the law?
“The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.” Rom. 7:12.
6. What terms does James use to describe it?
“The perfect law, the law of liberty;” “the royal law.” James 1:25; 2:12, 8.
7. How did God’s law appear to the psalmist?
“I have seen the end of all perfection;
But Thy commandment is exceeding broad.”
Ps. 119:96.
8. In a word, what may the law be said to be?
“Let my tongue sing of Thy word;
For all Thy commandments are righteousness.” Ps. 119:172.
9. How may man become righteous?
Through Christ and the Gospel. Rom. 1:16, 17; 3:21, 22. Then that righteousness will be proved by obedience.
“He that doeth righteousness [keeps the commandments] is righteous, even as He [Christ] is righteous.” 1 John 3:7.
“Sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4.
Note.— As the law is righteous,—“righteousness,”—it covers all righteous life and action; it is the standard of right living. Being the standard of right living, it condemns all unrighteousness in life and action. As the measure of righteousness, condemning sin, it is all-inclusive of goodness, purity, truth, honor; it is “exceeding broad,” perfect—the reflect of the character of God, who changes not. H.
The Coming of the Redeemer
By Geo. A. Snyder
By Geo. A. Snyder
I. The Promise of the Seed
When God said to the serpent: “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15), He was revealing thus early to fallen humanity His eternal purpose concerning the redemption of man’s lost estate through the incarnation and sufferings of Christ. Notice the language carefully. It is “her seed,”—born of woman—that is to bruise the serpent’s head. The final triumph, the bruising of the serpent’s head, is to be accomplished only through the bruising of the woman’s seed. The seed of the woman is referred to by a personal pronoun in the singular number. It is not their heel, but “his heel” that is to be bruised by the serpent. So Christ was born of woman, and “bruised for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53), “that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.” Heb. 2:14.
The promise of the seed was later reiterated to Noah and Abraham. In Gen. 13:14-16 Abraham was promised an earthly inheritance and a numberless posterity for himself and his seed after him. In Rom. 4:13 Paul says that the promise to Abraham embraced the whole world, and in Gal. 3:16 we read: “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” This makes it evident that everything promised to Abraham through his seed is to be fulfilled only through Christ. In Acts 7:5 Stephen declares that Abraham never received enough of the promised inheritance to set his foot on, and in Heb. 11:8-13 we learn that he never expected to see the promise fulfilled literally in his natural lifetime, but that he embraced it afar off by faith.
Christ the Promised Seed
In due season the Seed through whom the promises were made was born of woman in the direct lineage of Abraham; but, lo, Christ says of Himself: “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head.” Luke 9:58. And again, just before His crucifixion, He says: “My kingdom is not of this world.” John 18:36. The Jews, and even Christ’s own disciples were much disappointed that He did not seek to establish a temporal sovereignty as a fulfilment of the promise made through Abraham’s seed. They did not seem to grasp the full import of the original promise made to our foreparents in Eden. Christ did fulfil as much of the promise as was then due. He was born of woman, “and took upon Him the form of a servant, . . . and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Phil. 2:7, 8. He was fulfilling that part of the promise which said that the seed of the woman should be bruised.
That part of the promise which says that the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head is yet to be fulfilled; and this triumphant phase of the promise is just as sure to be fulfilled as that the other has been fulfilled. That same precious Jesus whose weary body was bruised on the cross will yet see the travail of His soul and be satisfied when all those who have accepted His cross shall also with Him wear the victor’s crown. That numberless posterity promised to Abraham through the Seed will be made up of all those who through the succeeding ages have grasped by faith the blessed truth that “He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” Isa. 53:5.
Heirs with Christ
All those who accept of salvation through the bruising of the Seed are counted with Him as the seed of Abraham. “If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Gal. 3:29. It is a great mistake to suppose that the seed of Abraham are made up solely of his fleshly posterity, for “they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.” Rom. 9:8. And again: “The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.” Gal. 3:8, 9. It is only through faith in the Seed that we shall be counted worthy of being among the sheaves at reaping time.
The Seed was sown in Gethsemane, on Calvary, and in Joseph’s tomb. The first fruit of the harvest appeared when Christ came forth from the tomb, and all the sheaves will be gathered when all the dead in Christ arise. The tares will be destroyed when the Seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head in the final eradication of evil from the universe.
(Continued on next page.)
For Whom Is There Hope?
FOR every soul who truly desires God’s pardon, God’s fellowship, God’s righteousness, there is hope.
There are many who desire pardon for sin, who desire to have the shame removed, and the pangs of conscience relieved. They do not wish to reap the logical fruit of their sin; and yet they do not want the righteousness of God after all. They do not care to be filled with the Spirit of God. There are certain things in their possession, in their life, in their habits, which they do not wish to relinquish. Based on such desires there can be no sure hope.
But for every soul who desires to be forever free from sin, who longs to be made like Christ, there is all hope. It matters not what he has done, how deeply he has sinned, the Lord will receive him. Hear what the Lord says to all:
“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; tho your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; tho they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land.” Isa. 1:18, 19.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.
“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of ALL ACCEPTATION, that Christ Jesus came into the world to SAVE SINNERS; of whom I am CHIEF.” 1 Tim. 1:15.
In the light of these assurances (and there are many more), who then may not be saved?
“But What about the Backslider?”
Yes, there is hope for the backslider. Hear the Lord:
“With the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is PLENTEOUS redemption.” Ps. 130:7.
“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and He WILL HAVE MERCY upon him; and to our God, for He will ABUNDANTLY pardon [“He will MULTIPLY to pardon,” margin].” Isa. 55:7.
“He DELIGHTETH in mercy. He will TURN AGAIN, He will have compassion upon us; He will SUBDUE OUR INIQUITIES.” Micah 7:18, 19.
Man’s idea of great mercy is to forgive a brother “seven times,” but God says man ought to forgive “seventy times seven,” evidently an unlimited number of times. Matt. 18:21, 22. Our Lord is infinitely more merciful than man.
“Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. . . . Whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.” Matt. 12:31, 32.
“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame.” Heb. 6:4-6.
“For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses; of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith He was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” Heb. 10:26-29.
The Holy Ghost, or Spirit of God, is the power of God. It is that by which God operates. By it He created the earth, and garnished the heavens. By it every miracle has been wrought. By it man is changed from sin to righteousness. The Spirit of God and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ are God’s means for saving men,—“through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:2); “through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2 Thess. 2:13).
To express the matter in a few words: He who rejects God’s means of salvation, leaves himself without hope. He who sees as did the Jews the most marked manifestations of the Spirit of God, who heard such teaching as the world never before heard, and then right in the face of it all says that Jesus wrought His miracles by the prince of devils, puts himself where God can not save him. Having rejected the mightiest evidence, nothing else will move him. Having known in himself the mighty9power of God and the deep experience indicated in Heb. 6:4, 5, if he choose in the light of that the things of the world and Satan, by what means can he be renewed? He has turned from God’s means; there is nothing left by which he can be reached. He counts the blood or life of Christ as common with sin; and he slights the Spirit of grace as of no account. He who would save all by His gracious gifts, is rejected. It is as tho a life-boat should rescue a drowning man, and he should deliberately plunge from the boat. The life-line is thrown him, but he will not grasp it. He who perishes without hope perishes of choice.
“The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy.” Ps. 147:11. If you have desire for the holiness to be found in Christ, God is drawing you. John 6:44. Follow on. “Him that cometh to Me,” says Jesus, “I will in no wise cast out.” Verse 37. The trouble is not that God will fail, but man will harden his heart against God. Hope in His mercy, and keep the heart tender by obeying His will through faith. Hope in God, dear souls, and it may be true in your case: “They that stumbled are girded in strength.”
Christ the Pilot
The position of the church in this present world may be likened to the boat full of disciples in the night storm, with the Master praying for them on the mountain-top, and finally coming to their rescue, walking on the sea, and piloting them quickly to the other shore. Often since the Master ascended on high, has the struggling church seemed to be forsaken and alone, but Jesus is on the mount praying for her. She has passed through many a dark watch, and soon He will come to her rescue. Above the crash of the elements when the world is going to wreck will be heard the voice of the Master speaking peace to His storm-tossed children. The church, like her Master, must be bruised and buffeted by the storms of Satanic wrath on the dark waters of this world, if she would share with Him in the victory in the world to come. The bruising of the Seed of the woman precedes the fulfilment of the promise that He shall bruise the serpent’s head.
[The topic of the next paper in this series is “The First Advent of Our Lord.”—Editor.]
