Raised to the Kingdom for Such a Time as This
By David Paulson
There are many who respect present truth only because their parents loved it. They can not satisfy themselves that this truth is developing a people, who, generally speaking, are better neighbors or sweeter Christians or more refined than are many other professed Christians. So they entirely overlook the significance of the special truths that are kept alive in these earthen vessels. Fifteen hundred years after Moses died, it was said of him that he chose to suffer affliction with the people of God. Heb. 11:25. But on close inspection we find many of his people with the grave-clothes of Egyptian habits still clinging to them. They were so saturated with a murmuring and complaining spirit that when God himself set a table for them in the wilderness, they did not even have enough ordinary table manners to keep from complaining and finding fault with the food that he provided for them. Then why were the children of Israel, in spite of all these shortcomings, called “the people of God”?—It was because5they kept alive in the earth in their generation some vital truths which the other nations did not possess. But, sad to say, while they kept these truths alive, these same truths did not get a chance to keep the children of Israel alive. One by one their carcasses fell in the wilderness, and their bones lay there bleaching in the Arabian sun. Only two of their number permitted those great and special truths that they were keeping alive in the earth to do enough for them to keep them alive so they could pass into the earthly Canaan. No doubt millions of interesting and thrilling experiences have occurred during the ages, which are not even hinted at in the divine record, but this account of the children of Israel was left on record especially for the benefit of those who would be living at “the end of the world” (1 Cor. 10, 11, Syriac Version), or, in other words, the last generation. At this time some special truths are again due this old world, and it is God’s purpose again to raise up a people like the children of Israel, whose mission it is to keep these truths alive in the earth; and lest we should receive no greater benefit than did the church in the wilderness, this full account of their experience was written for our admonition, that we might not “fall after the same example of unbelief.” This is a vital question: Does this present truth contain some active spiritual antitoxins which can neutralize the virulent moral toxins that are abroad in the land to-day? The poison of diphtheria is so intense that one part of it will kill ten million parts of human flesh; but as soon as the child becomes infected, its blood begins to make an antitoxin to neutralize the diphtheria poison and save the child’s life. One of the most important discoveries in modern agriculture is the principle that for every destructive bug that the farmer has to contend with, somewhere there is a good bug which will destroy the bad bug. A few years ago a certain insect nearly destroyed the orange crop of California. Millions of dollars was spent in spraying the fruit and endeavoring to exterminate the pest, but all in vain. The fruit crop seemed doomed. Then a good bug was imported from Australia, whose mission seemed to be to eat up the insect that was destroying the orange crop. It multiplied so rapidly that in a few years it saved the crops. This is only an illustration in the physical realm of something that is even more true in the spiritual realm. The devil has never taken God by surprise. Even before sin came into the world, the remedy for it was provided. There are abroad in the world to-day certain pestilential errors that are demoralizing the mental, moral, and physical welfare of the present generation. Is it not reasonable that God should commit to some people certain truths that are genuine antitoxins for these various erroneous ideas, habits, and practises? The Antitoxin for Spiritualism
During the last few years Spiritualism has literally become epidemic, one reason being that it has recently become scientific. As is well known, scientists reject what they can not weigh, measure, photograph, or otherwise demonstrate by well-recognized laws. In the estimation of scientific men, Spiritualism has been simply sleight-of-hand performances which could not bear scientific investigation. A few years ago a fakir in India astonished multitudes by holding a rope over a bare paving-stone, making a few passes with his other hand, and directly all in the audience saw a snake crawling up the rope. But a wide-awake American in the crowd took a kodak photo of the performance, and when the picture was developed, nothing was seen but the rope. In other words, the rope was real, while the snake was simply in the eyes of the hypnotized audience. I have frequently had patients suffering with delirium tremens who insisted most energetically that they could see snakes crawling up their bed posts. But I could not see them, nor would the photographic camera have seen them. They existed only in the disordered brain of the patient. Scientific investigators have likewise maintained that spiritualistic manifestations were simply hypnotic tricks imposed on those who were present. But now the powers of darkness have come out distinctly into the open. Photographs have been taken of tables suspended in mid-air without any known support. A perfectly visible hand, entirely detached from any visible human body, has not only been felt, but has been photographed, and a number of other severe tests have been successfully applied. Spiritualism is also being turned to enormous commercial advantages. Recently an enterprising promoter of a tooth-paste company in Germany secured the unqualified indorsement of Martin Luther’s “spirit,” and as a consequence in a few weeks sold one hundred ten thousand dollars’ worth of stock. In the recent political struggle in England a spiritualistic medium secured from Gladstone’s “spirit” his advice to voters in the coming election. It is asserted that many of our leading business men in this country do not make any important financial investment without consulting spiritualistic mediums. Who has the antitoxin for this satanic delusion?—Not the average scientific man; he is believing it, for it meets his tests: not the average Christian in the churches about us, for he believes that his dead relatives have simply stepped behind the veil, that the spirits of leading departed Christian workers are hovering over their assemblies, adding by their presence a benediction to the occasion. To one who believes all this, it is not a large stretch of faith to have these very spirits become visible. No, it is only those Christian people who can read from their Bibles clearly and decisively the words, “The dead know not anything.” They, and they only, have the antidote for this spiritualistic poison. But it is not enough to be able in a negative way to deny Spiritualism. There is in the human heart a craving for the supernatural. If God does not get a chance to satisfy this craving, the devil will. It is for us to have such a daily, personal contact with the divine as to be able to show by a transformed life that the kingdom of God within us is a mightier force for good than the kingdom of darkness can possibly be for evil in the hearts and lives of any of its subjects. And that means that while multitudes are turning toward familiar spirits and unto wizards that peep and that mutter, we should be seeking unto our God (Isa. 8:19), and thus becoming Spirit-filled men and women through whom Christ can operate to his glory.