The Gospel Revealed in Earliest Times
By N. B. MATHES
The Bible is sometimes divided into two parts, called the law and the gospel, and these correspond with the familiar terms Old Testament and New Testament. Some are inclined to attach little importance to the Old Testament, while emphasizing the New. A notary public in a Southern town, a man of some prominence in his county, once said to me, “The Old Testament is good old history, but that is all there is in it.” A prominent citizen of the same town, a deacon in his church, declared on oath that his denomination did not look upon the Old Testament as a part of the Bible. Let us hope that he was mistaken. Some one brought a question which had to do with the teachings of the Old Testament to a minister of the gospel, and his answer was, “O, we have nothing1238to do with the Old Testament; that is a dead letter now!” It is true that we are not required to keep the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament, but the spirit of those laws is as binding now as it ever was, and the moral requirements of the Old Testament are as noble and elevating as anything we find in the New Testament. So let us see if there’s nothing in the Old Testament except some “good old history.” And let us go right back to the beginning. In the first three chapters of Genesis we have the creation of the world, the institution of the Sabbath, the creation of man, life in the garden, the creation of woman, marriage and home, the fall, and the expulsion from the garden of Eden. It was not very long from the creation of man to his expulsion from the garden; for Adam was only one hundred and thirty years old when Seth, his third son, was born. But before Seth’s birth there was ample time for many important events to happen. And in this time, in all probability, a system of religious worship was instituted, of course under divine direction. This we infer from the fact that God clothed Adam and Eve with the skins of animals. And what animals?—Very likely animals that had been slain for sacrifice, for the flesh of animals was not used for food at that time. Moreover, God had already 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,” a passage universally accepted as the first recorded gospel promise. That is, Christ in making redemption would overpower the devil, and finally destroy him. If we would be accepted of God, we must come to him in the right way. And there is only one right way; namely, through Christ. We are plainly told that the children of Israel drank of the spiritual Rock, Christ, in the wilderness, some fifteen hundred years before he was born. We are also told that Abel was accepted when he offered a lamb,—he must have looked through his offering to the Lamb of Calvary,—while Cain was rejected when he brought a fruit offering, in which there was no blood. Now it is plain that man needed the true religion as soon as he fell, as truly as he has ever needed it since. And it stands to reason that the Almighty revealed that religion to him just as soon as he needed it. Again, we find that since man needed special time in which to attend to religious matters, a special time had already been set apart for this purpose, even before the fall. And of course he needed a Sabbath much more after the fall than he did before. He was not physically weak nor wedded to sinful habits, as he became afterward; but still the Sabbath was an absolute necessity, and God gave it to him, and doubtless instructed him how to use it properly. Marriage, also, was instituted before the fall. And this ministered to the physical, social, and spiritual nature of man. It is not good for any human being to live an entire life alone. It takes two imperfect beings to make one complete being. Marriage is a religious duty and privilege. Marriage is not only important for the orderly propagation of the race, but an absolute necessity to meet the threefold needs of man. The home is the religious headquarters. It is the radiating center of the highest activities of the human soul. And the home began in earliest times. Again, we find the threefold needs of man supplied in the labor he was required to do in order to make a living. Before the fall, such toil as we are accustomed to perform would have been little less than abject slavery for this godlike creature, man. But after the fall, it became a privilege and an honor. And we are told that if a man will not work, neither shall he be allowed to eat. So much for the advantages of those early times. In the fourth chapter of Genesis we find the first shepherd, the first farmer, the first son, the first daughter, the first grandson, the first city, the first gypsy, the first musician, the first artificer, the first murderer, the first polygamist, and the second murderer; and in the fifth chapter we find the first man who ever left this world without dying. Surely this is “good old history.” But is it nothing more than history? The descendants of Cain made great progress in the arts and sciences, and built a city or cities. Their civilization may have been as splendid as that of Greece or Rome. But they forgot God and lived for this present world; and it is not surprising that a family which started with a murderer, Cain, should also end with a murderer, Lamech. Nor is it surprising that God, who looks upon the heart rather than upon outward appearance, should have wiped away such a godless civilization by the flood of waters. Here is a lesson for parents. They have it very largely in their power to determine the character of their descendants. Very likely Seth and his descendants did not make so much material progress, but they called upon the name of the Lord, they called themselves by the name of the Lord, they soon became known as the ‘people of God, and because they feared God the human race was preserved at the time of the flood. Moreover, the longevity of Cain and his family is not even mentioned. But the longevity of Seth’s family is particularly referred to. It was as true then as now that the wicked “shall not live out half their days.” This rule always holds good, with few exceptions. No man can reasonably expect to attain great age unless he lives right. And the only way to live right is to “fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” Look at Lamech, among Cain’s descendants, the seventh in line from Adam—the polygamist and murderer! Then look at Enoch, among Seth’s descendants also the seventh in line from Adam—the prophet or preacher for about three hundred years, whose name we find in the list of heroes of the faith in the book of Hebrews, a man who had the testimony while he lived that he pleased God; for he walked with God. What is it to walk with God? To live in the daily practise of vice is to walk in vice. To live in the daily practise of virtue is to walk in virtue. So one who communes with and faithfully serves God day by day walks with God. Enoch found companionship with God, and one day walked so far with God that he did not get back. And this one case of translation makes heaven real. It makes the spiritual body a reality; likewise the transfiguration of Christ, when Moses and Elias returned to earth. And no doubt there will be many of God’s people alive when the Lord comes again, and they will be translated just as Enoch was, without dying. The first man failed, miserably, pitiably, and every revelation made to him afterward, and all the providences of God, were calculated to impress upon his mind the thought of his weakness and failure. But in Christ, the coming Redeemer, he might become a grand success, and finally be exalted even above the highest angels and archangels. Is it true that there is nothing in the Old Testament but “good old history”? We find it full of the very marrow of the gospel. Of course the gospel in history is easier to understand than the gospel in prophecy. It is easier to understand things that have already taken place than to understand things that are yet to be. Here we have the advantage. But it is about the only advantage we have over the people of ancient times, save the fact that we live in the dispensation of the Spirit and have easier access to the Bible. And it might be well for us to note this fact, and occasionally endeavor to look at the gospel from the standpoint of ancient times. “The word of God, which liveth and abideth forever,” includes not only the New Testament, but also the entire Old Testament. Paul declares in his letter to the Galatians that the Scripture actually preached unto Abraham. Now there is no preaching in the Scriptural sense except gospel preaching. What was the gospel preached to Abraham? “In thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed.” Here is the text of one of the grandest sermons ever preached. For the “seed” of Abraham was the Christ, through whom alone all nations could be blessed.