The Epistle to the Hebrews has been aptly called an inspired commentary on the Levitical law, showing the typical character of the ritual appertaining to the Mosaic economy. The epistle was obviously written with an immediate view to meeting the needs of converted Jews, by leading them to the right method of interpreting their Scriptures and their ceremonial services, and thereby confirming them in the faith of Christ, and guarding them against the influences tending to draw them away from Christ and back to the old ritual.
From earliest childhood the Jews had been taught that it was impossible to worship God acceptably or to come to Him in prayer, except through the medium of the priestly office, and the consequent offering of sacrifice. It was therefore necessary that they should be taught that Christianity was not a system without a priest, and without an altar, and without a sacrifice, as the teachers of the old faith contended; but that it had the one truly and eternally meritorious Priest, the true altar, and the only true and efficacious Sacrifice. The argument of the epistle lifts the thought of the believer from type to antitype, from shadow to substance, from the temporal to the eternal. It shows that the Gospel scheme required the exercise of priestly functions in the truest and most literal sense—in a sense impossible to any priest but the eternal Son of God, who was “called of God an High Priest after the order of Melchizedek.”
The Holy Spirit first emphasizes the transcendent personal qualification of Jesus the Christ to be the essential and archetypical High Priest. His divinity is asserted in the very beginning of the epistle. By Him were all things not only created, but they are also eternally upheld by the word of His power. He is the effulgence of the Father’s glory, the very impress of the Father’s substance. He is immeasurably superior to the angels, in that the angels were created by Him, and were commanded to worship Him. Addressing the Son, the Father declared, “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Thy kingdom.” It was to the Son—but never to any of the angels—that the Father said, “Sit on My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.”
The Humanity of the Priest.
In the second chapter the humanity of Jesus is asserted with striking distinctness and force. “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same,” and “in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.” It is thus shown that our High Priest is one with God and one with men, preeminently qualified to serve as mediator, advocate, priest, and intercessor.
Having introduced the term High Priest as one of the official designations of Christ, the writer of Hebrews might have proceeded at once to that enunciation of the dignity and superiority of Christ’s High Priesthood, which is the central thought of the epistle. But he was addressing Jews who raised Moses to a pinnacle of almost divine eminence.
Hence it was expedient to pause and show that Christ was superior to Moses as well as to the angels. The superiority of Jesus over Moses is shown by the fact that Jesus is the Son of God, while Moses was but the minister or servant of God. In doing this Moses is not in the least disparaged.
“Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; who was faithful to Him that appointed Him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this Man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who hath builded the house hath more honor than the house. For every house is builded by some man; but He that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; but Christ as a Son over His own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.” Heb. 3:1-6.
The next step in the argument was to show that the Scriptures contemplated a change of the law of the priesthood, and the raising up of a Priest of a different order from that of Aaron, and who should be superior to Aaron. It was essential that Christian Jews should understand this prediction of their own Scriptures; for if the law of the Aaronic priesthood were to continue forever, the attempt to prove to the Jews that Jesus of Nazareth, of the tribe of Judah, was a lawful Priest, would have been futile; for the reply to such an allegation was always ready, in that Jesus was not of the tribe of Levi, and could not therefore be a Priest under the law. But in a Messianic prophecy of their own Scriptures stood the prognostication, clear and unequivocal, that another Priest should arise, not after the order of Aaron, but after the order of Melchizedek, who should be a Priest forever, and by direct appointment from God. If the law restricting the priestly office to the tribe of Levi should never expire, or could never admit of an exception, this prophecy could mean nothing whatever. At this point the following words by S. M. Merrill are especially apposite:—
When this scripture [the prophecy referred to above] was brought to the mind of thoughtful Hebrews, with its evident intention to characterize the Messiah as a priest of God, it must have had a powerful influence in preparing them to receive other statements concerning the typical and temporary character of the Aaronic priesthood—statements which, in the absence of this prophecy, would not have impressed them in the least. It was, therefore, not only important, but extremely judicious and wise, that the assertion of the necessary change of the law of the priesthood be made in connection with this very peculiar Messianic prophecy. It obviated prejudice, and shed light on what was to them a most perplexing obscurity.
The Hebrew converts could now see that only in adhering to Jesus as the Messiah, and having Him as High Priest, could they carry out the instructions of Moses to their ultimate spiritual import. In other words, they were now enabled to apprehend the real meaning and spiritual significance of what Moses wrote. They saw the force of Jesus’ words: “For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me; for he wrote of Me.” Nothing could be clearer to them now than the fact that apart from Christ the Levitic or any other human priesthood could have no significance.
Jesus is revealed as the great High Priest, who has “passed into the heavens.” Heb. 4:14. He fully possessed the two qualifications essential to every high priest. First, by participating with men in their infirmities, by assuming all the limitations and liabilities of sinful flesh, He was tempted in all points as they are, and therefore able to enter into complete sympathy with them, and abundantly succor all that are tempted. Secondly, He was not self-called, but appointed of God. That Christ possesses the latter qualification was proved by a reference to His eternal Sonship (Ps. 2:7), and to the oath and declaration of God, as recorded in Ps. 110:4: “The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”
Inasmuch as both these psalms were universally admitted to be Messianic in character, the Jews could not dispute the cogency of these references. It is thus seen that the Priesthood of Christ is involved in, and implied by, His eternal Sonship. These two estates of our Lord are indissolubly united. The timeless Son of God is the only name in God’s universe whereby we can be saved. Salvation from sin is not possible without the shedding of blood, the yielding up of life. Heb. 9:22. The laying down of life is in its very nature a sacrifice; and where there is a sacrifice of life there is of necessity a priest. And whereas the Son of God voluntarily laid down His life, He was the OFFERER and therefore the Priest; and being alone, He was necessarily a High Priest.
[The next article concludes “Our Great High Priest.”]
A HEATHEN PREACHES THE SABBATH.
Joseph Booth, who was born in Australia, decided, in 1891, to devote his life to mission work, and afterward went to Africa, has recently told his experience in investigating the Sabbath question. While on his way to his field of labor in Africa he came in contact with those who “kept the Sabbath according to the commandment.” At this time his mind was not favorably impressed toward the truth, nor was he afterward when it was again brought to his notice. In course of time, however, God used the heathen for whom he was laboring to bring the truth home to his conscience, and he soon began to keep the Sabbath of the Lord. This experience we give below in his own words:—
I came to Chatyika, the chief of the Manganja tribe. He remembered Livingston very well. I sent to the house of the chief to ask if I could stay there. I asked the people outside if I could speak. I wanted to speak for God. They all believe in Mutunga, the great Supreme Being. But they did not wish to have me speak. They wanted to go on with their beer drinking. They were calling the people together from eleven villages. I thought I must leave something on record; I must be a witness for God, whether welcome or unwelcome. I shut my eyes, put my arms behind me, and began to sing two or three of their hymns. One was, “When He Cometh,” and another was, “Come to Jesus.”
At the close of those two hymns I opened my eyes very cautiously, because I had noticed that the Central Africans will often run away. The women are very modest. If you look at them straightly they will shrink away from you. I began to look at the children, and to sing to them. The songs are so easy for the children, and they soon begin to pick them up. I sang, “Come to Jesus Just Now.” The little children took hold of it nicely. The mothers were standing around, and a great crowd of men behind.
I began to speak before the chief came out, and6he stood in the rear. I thought, “What is that man going to say? He is going to take me to account somehow.” In about twenty minutes I said, “It is not good for me to do all the talking. What have your hearts to say? Is there anything in your hearts that you wish to say?” The chief said, “Yes;” they had listened to my words, and I had not done what I had said to them. I had said I would tell them some words that God spoke, and I had not told them any words but my own. Now would I please tell them, if I knew, any words that God had spoken? Would I tell them? And it was this which took me to the commandments. This was the first time I was led by the natives to speak of the commandments of God.
I then expounded the commandments of God, but did not get past the fourth commandment. Suddenly that man turned upon me, saying, “Ah, now we know for the first time which is the day.” And he put this direct question to me: “Which is the seventh day?” It surprised me. I tried to put him off a little; but he said, “I want to know which is that day, the seventh.”
I could not lie, so I said, “This day on which I am speaking to you is the day on which we white men worship; this is the first day of the week. The day of which this commandment speaks was yesterday, the seventh day.” I thought to make a clean breast of it at the beginning.
“Who Gave Men Power Greater than God?”
He looked back at me so sharply,—“What! you white men choose another day! You white men have more power than God! Who gave you power greater than God?”
I was confounded. I said I had not come to talk about this thing. I had told him the truth, that white men gave the first day to the worship of God; and he could do what he liked. I had read to him the law of God, and he had asked which was the day, and I had said that it was the seventh day.
But he would not let me escape that way; he inquired who gave us more power than God had. And I escaped in the usual fashion, by saying that it was not good for us to go on talking about this thing. I felt that I was getting into a trap. The Lord says, “My word . . . shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” It seemed to me that God was raising up this man as a witness against me.
I had a native with me who soon afterward began to do the will of God. And some of the men who were there in 1893, soon after began preaching. These natives had heard the words of that chief, and about a fortnight afterward, when I got back to where I was settled, they said, “We have been talking about the words of Chatyika, and we think he is right; and if you will let us, we want to begin to keep the seventh day.” And so the young men, about fourteen of them, began to keep the seventh day, and left me stranded, a first-day keeper.
Personal Experience with the Sabbath Truth.
I am ashamed that I was so dull in regard to the Sabbath. First there came the call at Cape Town; next there came the warning through Brother James—well, practically it was all one, because it came from the Adventist society. My reason for rejecting Brother James’ teaching was that I could not take it all in, and he would not be satisfied with anything less than all. So I said, “It must all go.” When I came to the natives, and the same Sabbath truth came again so forcibly, from a man who had been a heathen, who was a heathen when he met me, when the Word of God came to him—when it came to me in that way I was somewhat startled. This seemed like the voice of God speaking to me; and when the native young men began to keep the seventh day, I felt very strange.
After these natives began the observance of the Sabbath, they said to me, “Are we annoying you? Does it hurt you that we keep the seventh day, and you keep the first day?” I said, “No; I have not come here to put you in bondage. If the Word of God says to you, Keep the seventh day; keep it, and you will have peace with God. As for myself, I am not quite clear.” They said, “It is better for us all to do one thing.” Some of the natives made trouble. They said of these natives who were keeping the Sabbath, “You do not work on the seventh day;” and of me they said, “You stop all work on the first day; you do not keep the seventh day.”
Does God Give Two Days?
“Does He give you two days? Is that the way He does?” Of those natives who were keeping the Sabbath they said, “Now you are becoming teachers. Do you know better than the white man? Who is right?” And so these natives came and asked me if it was right to keep that day. “It makes us trouble. Do you want us to keep the seventh day, or do you want us to keep the first day? Do you want us to do as you do?” I replied: “I want you to do what your heart says is right. I do not want to have to answer to God for your sins. Never mind what those people say. The fear or favor of man is deceitful. Perhaps by and by I shall keep the seventh day; but I need a little more knowledge and light. When I have examined the subject thoroughly, then it may be that I shall be with you. I will either be with you or against you then; but now I can only say to you, I keep the first day because my fathers did, and because my people do; and you keep the seventh day because the Word of God says you should.” I found no rest till I decided to obey God.
Mr. Booth is now in Africa preaching the truth of the Gospel.
THE LIFE IS THE TEST.
By William Archer Butler
To examine its evidence is not to try Christianity; to admire its martyrs is not to try Christianity; to compare and estimate its teachers is not to try Christianity; to attend its rites and services with more than Mohammedan punctuality, is not to try or know Christianity. But for one day to have lived in the pure atmosphere of faith and love to God, of tenderness to man; to have beheld earth annihilated and heaven opened to the prophetic gaze of hope; to have seen even more revealed behind the complicated troubles of this strange, mysterious life, the unchanging smile of an eternal Friend, and everything that is difficult to reason solved by that reposing trust which is higher and better than reason—to have known and felt this, I will not say for a life, but for a single blessed hour, that, indeed, is to have made experiment of Christianity.—William Archer Butler.
How They Became Convinced
(Believing it would be of interest to our readers, the editor of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES has asked Sabbath-keeping ministers and evangelical workers to tell in a few words the scripture or scriptures, the truths and principles, which constrained them to accept the unpopular truth of the seventh-day Sabbath. These testimonies must not exceed 500 words. Let us hear from all.)
XXVIII.
An infidel, never having made a profession of religion, in the gold mines of Colorado, when in April, 1893, an infidel friend of mine, while packing his trunk, tossed me a tiny Bible, saying, “I'll make you a present of that, Connerly.” I first opened the book in July, but soon threw it aside, “the Kingdom of God” (Matt. 6:33) stamped upon my mind. In September I prayed my first prayer something like this: “God, (if there is a God), if you have a kingdom and its better than anything I know of here, if you'll show it to me I'll seek it and serve You.”
From this time on I began to study the little Bible with ever increasing interest, while my love for gambling and other sports grew correspondingly less. The first thing that convinced me that God was working in my life was that I began to hate my evil habits, and obtain power to overcome them. Luke 2:24 greatly impressed me. I said, “This is reasonable; if God has a kingdom, He must have a law, and here is a reference to it, ‘The law of the Lord.’” I earnestly desired to find that law, but the Bible was not a reference Bible, I knew of no person among all my miner friends who could enlighten me, and the little Bible and the almanac completed my library. I stumbled on, hoping to find the law of the kingdom of God, and in December my search was rewarded by finding the Ten Commandments. I studied them all during the months of December and January, and saw wondrous light and beauty in them. I believed of course that the Sabbath referred to in the commandments meant Sunday, but while considering it I said, “Sunday is not the seventh, but the first day of the week,” and reference to my almanac convinced me that this was true. I finally decided that I would commence to serve the Lord, and serve Him according to His law. I gave up my work, a good paying business it was too, and went down into the valley in search of a Christian minister who would baptize me, and explain the seeming inconsistency regarding the Sabbath of the Lord. I first found an old Methodist minister who told me that Saturday was the Sabbath, but that the people could not be gotten together on that day, so he preached to them on Sunday and observed that in the place of the Sabbath. I would not allow him to baptize me for I said, “I am going to be a law-abiding citizen of God's kingdom,” and I kept the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath, and determined to do so whether anybody else would or not. This was in April, 1894, and in May I went to Denver where I met for the first time others who were observing the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath of the Lord, and here I was baptized. From that time until now I have found peace and joy and comfort in obeying God.
B. E. CONNERLY.
Buffalo, N. Y.
XXIX.
A FRIEND asked me one day why I did not keep the Sabbath. I replied that I was keeping the Lord's day, and dismissed the subject. I was troubled at my answer for I had a suspicion that the Lord's day was the Sabbath. At my first opportunity I took my Bible to see if there was a difference, but found my suspicion confirmed; that our Lord created all things, (Heb. 1:2; Col. 1:13-17; John 1:3, 14) the Sabbath included, and declared Himself its Lord (Mark 2:27). I also found that the Spirit of Christ spoke through the prophets (1 Peter 1:10, 11), and therefore Christ by the Holy Spirit in Isaiah calls the Sabbath, “My holy day,” His “delight,” “the holy of the Lord,” and “honorable.” He also tells us that in keeping it we honor Him (Christ), as He there tells us to do. The Lord impressed me with the truth that “whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever; nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it.” Eccl. 3:14. I was impressed that this applied to the sacredness with which God invested the seventh day at its creation, irrespective of whether any man ever so regarded it. In the Gospel narrative I found a uniform consistency in the life of Jesus with the Scripture teaching respecting the Sabbath. The same was true of His disciples, and I concluded that if He and they were here on earth to-day, they would observe the day they did when here 1900 years ago; for do they not all say, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever”? “I am the Lord, I change not”? I asked the Lord to forgive my sin, and by His grace I do to this day “remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy.”
C. T. SHAFFER.
Washington, D. C.
HARMONY WITH CHRIST.
By Francis Paget
In proportion as the perfect obedience of the life of Christ comes, through humility and prayer and thought, to be the constant aim of all our efforts; in proportion as we try, God helping us, to think and speak and act as He did, and through all the means of grace to sanctify Him in our hearts; we shall, with growing hope, and with a wonder that is ever lost in gratitude, know that even our lives are not without the earnest of their rest in an eternal harmony; that through them there is sounding more and more the echo of a faultless music; and that He who loves that concord, He who alone can ever make us what He bids us be, will silence in us every harsh and jarring note; that our service, too, may blend with the consenting praise of all His saints and angels. —Francis Paget.
BOGUS REFORMS.
By G
THE idea of some “reformers” that crime committed on one day is worse than the same crime committed on other days is not only a fallacy, but it is a compromise with the crime itself. Referring to the schemes concocted by certain noted politicians in New York and Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Ledger scores them, not because their plots and schemes are in themselves wicked, but because they do the work on Sunday! Now it would not be fair to infer that the Ledger indorses all their nefarious politics, but it does virtually say that corrupt political methods are worse when devised on Sunday than when worked out on other days. All this is on a par with the so-called temperance reform that lays the stress on Sunday intemperance rather than on the broad principle of temperance in all things and at all times. A mere Sunday crusade never yet worked a diminution of evil in any line. To emphasize the wickedness of any wrong act because it is committed on any certain day, is to whitewash the evil of it on other days. Reforms of that kind never reform. G.
MAKE A NOTE OF IT.
By G.
There are to-day, throughout the United States, an army of defeated candidates for office. This is as was expected. Everybody knew that election day would develop from one to four defeated candidates for every office, with rare exceptions, throughout the States. And these are in addition to thousands who sought party nominations and failed. There were candidates for office who would have been much surprised had they been successful. All knew that only one could succeed to any one position. Yet they entered the race, practically gambling on the possibilities of working out success through the medium of fickle, wavering, uncertain humanity.
Even such are all the vain expectations based on the transitory things of earth. There is but one election in which all may succeed, and that is the “election of grace.” The position to be obtained is far greater than any place to be gained through the favor of man. It is a position to which each one who starts in the race has before him the privilege of making his own calling and election sure, regardless of the action of the majority. The candidate for such election may confidently say, “Tho an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: tho war should rise against me, even then will I be confident. One thing have I asked of the Lord, [not sought of man], that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.”
The candidate who chooses to “serve the Lord with gladness,” who chooses for his Manager the only One who can carry him through, who chooses for his guide the infallible Word of God, whose walk is in the path of “the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus,” need have no fear of defeat. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” The candidate who takes up the line of campaign marked out by the great Overcomer, who “went about doing good” by faith in His Father’s Word, need not fail nor be discouraged. He who exercises “the faith that works by love,” will surely come off conqueror through Him that loved us. “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”
Let all defeated candidates for worldly office make a note of this. Let all who are devoting their energies to success in this world’s affair make a note of it. And let all who are seeking the heavenly kingdom through human means make a note of it, for they, too, are in danger of defeat. The Master says, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” G.
The Righteousness of God
All the righteousness there is in this world is relative. All the goodness there is in this world is relative. In other words, there is no righteousness; there is no goodness. Both psalmist and apostle told the truth when they said: “There is none righteous, no, not one.” “There is none that doeth good, no, not so much as one.” Rom. 3:10, 12. And hence follows: “All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.” Verse 23.
Righteousness is perfect harmony with a straight line, an undeviating standard. But in all humanity some imperfection is found. Jesus said: “None is good save One, even God.” Men not having the perfect standard among themselves compare themselves among themselves, measure men by imperfect standards, and so count them righteous. That is, A is as good or better than B. C is better than D. The same method creeps into the church of Christ. Truly, as the apostle declares, those who so do “are without understanding.” 2 Cor. 10:12. The only standard of righteousness is God’s eternal, unchangeable law of righteousness. The only perfect Example is the Son of God, who walked the earth in human form and flesh.
The righteousness of God is the righteousness He requires of us who never did righteousness. The goodness He requires of us who never did goodness is His goodness. We can not work it out. We can not develop it. There is no inner secret mine within ourselves whence it may be brought forth. How may it be obtained? It is not so hard as it would seem; it is not so hard for the unrighteous. It is ours by the free gift of God. “But now apart from the law a righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe; for there is no distinction.” Rom. 3:21, 22.
It is all by faith; and faith is yielding all to God, giving all to the complete harmony of His will; yielding all to its great, infinite depths, and heights, and breadths. We do not know it. We can not, with sin-dimmed vision, see the breadths and heights of the vast reaches of righteousness. Our sin-dulled ears can not hear all God’s harmony of sound. But we can see some, hear some; and by faith, by choice, by purpose, we can yield to all. And when we do that, whoever we are, God clothes us with the righteousness wrought out in the character of Christ Jesus, and regards us as tho we had never sinned. “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin.” Rom. 4:8. The most sinful may come and obtain it. The least sinful, the “comparatively righteous,” must get it in the same way. All before God are wanting. All in Christ Jesus may be made complete. Col. 2:9. And all He asks of us is that we shall yield by faith. To Him only is the praise. There is no boasting in birth or breeding, in race or color, in works or penance; all is of His wondrous mercy; He is “Jehovah our righteousness.”
RECONCILIATION
By G.
ALL devotees of false religion are actuated by the idea that their gods must be propitiated in some way. The heathen imagine that their gods are domineering and autocratic in disposition, and easily provoked; therefore they must be reconciled by offerings or penances of various kinds. Their idea of a god is that it must have the same disposition that they themselves have. When the natural man has the power, he lords it over his fellows. This disposition increases as the degree of his control increases, until he reaches the position of absolute monarch, whose will is law, and before whom all must bow in subservience. See 1 Sam. 8: 10-18.
So the heathen, the natural man, imbibes the notion that a god is simply a great aristocratic, selfish boss, seeking his own pleasure with no regard for the welfare of his subjects. His ideal god is just such a one as he would be if he had the power. And, strange to say, this same idea has an extensive hold among professing Christians concerning the true God. Hence come all the many efforts to enforce “Christian” doctrines and institutions upon the people by civil law. Hence come all the ambitions of many professed Gospel ministers to dominate politics and control the State. Hence comes all the disposition to lord it over God’s heritage, and to establish an aristocratic caste in the church.
But the true God is not like the gods that men have set up, because He is not like men themselves. His ways and thoughts are as high above those of man as heaven is higher than earth. It is not necessary to try to reconcile Him to man; for He has not been unreconciled. It was man who departed from God, and not God from man. Man chose to follow the great rebel leader, Satan, and God has made every possible sacrifice to reconcile the truant, and bring him back to the way of life. All the gods that men set up under the direction of Satan, and all the false theories concerning the Gospel of salvation that have been imposed upon the professed followers of Christ, only lead to death.
Satan is conducting the ministry of estrangement from God, while Christ is leading out in the covenant of reconciliation, which He sealed with His own blood. Here is the testimony of a recognized ambassador: “All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as tho God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” 2 Cor. 5: 18-20.
G.
Question Corner
1291.—Grace or Caress.
Does not the word caress express the meaning of the Greek word charis in many places where it occurs better than either grace or favor? Sometimes no other word but “grace” would do, except “loving-kindness,” which I think would be a good rendering in any case. J. B.
In neither the classical nor Biblical Greek lexicons is any such meaning as “caress” given to the Greek word charis. It is defined to mean, “pleasing show, charm, beauty, gracefulness, kindly bearing, graciousness, benefit, favor, free gift, grace, kindness, loving-kindness,” etc., etc. The Hebrew word rendered “grace,” means “to bend or stoop in kindness to an inferior.” Our English word “caress” comes from the Latin carus, meaning dear. It is but an outward expression of an inward feeling, and is a much weaker word than grace. Grace might be expressed in caressing, and so also might unholy lust.
What did Paul mean by saying he was a Pharisee? Acts 23:6.
The word “Pharisee” comes from the Hebrew word parash, meaning to separate. “They were so called because of their attempt to separate themselves from all other classes, as the particularly favored ones of heaven, the especially chosen of God.”—“Practical Lessons from the Experience of Israel,” by Gilbert. Paul belonged to that sect. Acts 26:5. Many evidently did this from good motive at first, but in general it degenerated into mere form. But they held much more truth than the Sadducees, the infidel higher critics of that day. It was to call their attention to what they held of truth and so to Christ, that Paul declared himself to be a Pharisee. That is, he had been brought up in that sect, and with them believed in the resurrection of the dead.
1293.—Whom God Will Not Destroy.
I have recently heard the idea advanced that so long as a man was truly in search of the truth God would not destroy him, and consequently that in St. Pierre there could not have been any, except perhaps Christians and those who had utterly rejected Christ, and could have no further hope of salvation. Has that any foundation in Scripture? C. W. S.
We do not know anything about the character of the people in St. Pierre. Their cases are in the hands of the Judge who will do absolutely right. This we do know, for God declares it, that no soul earnestly seeking to know God’s will that he may do it, will be rejected of the Master: “for the eyes of Jehovah run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.” 2 Chron. 16:9. It is not a matter of great or little light; it is wholly a matter of purpose.
