Common Things: Recognizing God in Daily Gifts
“Common Things.”—How many go on day after day and year after year receiving the light of the sun, breathing the air of heaven, and never think of recognizing God in them. These things are regarded as only “natural;” the sun shines because it is natural for it to do so; the air is here as a regular thing; the grain and the fruits grow because that is their nature; and these all are but common things. Common to Heaven.—“Common things!” If it were possible for one who goes on day after day receiving these things from God without recognizing them continually and praising God for them,—if it were possible for such an one to get to heaven, he would think it a common thing to see the glory of God day by day, and would regard the water of life as a common thing. If a man sees the glory of God in his works here, and takes it as a common thing, he would regard the glory seen in the works of God in heaven just the same; for it is the same glory and the same power, only there it will be revealed in fuller measure than the eye of mortal man can endure. Common Paganism.—A man may profess to be a Christian, may belong to the church, and may use the name of God in his prayers every day,—taking his name in vain,—but if he does not recognize God as a present, living Saviour, who in the gifts of food and drink, and air and sunshine, and everything, is simply giving us his own life and salvation, that man is simply in paganism. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, “for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” Rom. 1: 16, 17. And the power of God is seen in the things that he has made, in the sunlight, air, food, and drink, and all things. The righteousness of God is revealed in them. It was the failure to recognize the power and righteousness of God in the things that are created, that made men base heathen. See Rom. 1: 18–28. Breathing in the Gospel.—“The just shall live by faith.” But men live by breathing, whether just or unjust. When God made man, he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. The ungodly man has all his life been using that breath—not recognizing God in it—to speak his own words, and even to blaspheme. He has been making the Lord to serve with his sins (Isa. 43: 24), by perverting the breath of the life of God. But when that unjust man takes the breath by which he lives as being indeed the very breath of the life of God, and lives in the recognition of it, then he is living by faith. And faith justifies. “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Such a recognition of the life of God implies a constant yielding to God to direct the life to his own glory. God has multiplied the means of grace, so that in all the things that he has made men may see him, and believe on him unto salvation. E. J. W. The War Spirit.—Even a careless reader must be struck by the attention and space given to articles on war, war preparations, war vessels of various kinds, various kinds of shooting machines, from the mere pistol to the heaviest ordnance, armor plate, coast defenses, naval stations, standing armies, and the training of the youth, and even the boys of the land, in militia companies, in public and private schools, by various societies, and even by church organizations. Brain and time and money are expended liberally in the invention and improving of implements of war by nations that for many years have known only peace. Some of these very nations have thrown away what was once considered the perfection of rifles, and have wholly equipped large armies with later and more perfect death-dealing instruments. No invention is worth more than one which will do effective service in slaughtering men, bombarding cities, sinking ships, unless it be some discovery which will withstand all these destructive engines. “Prepare War.”—Reader, did you ever stop to think that all this talk and preparation for war, this war spirit, was a matter of prophecy in God’s holy word? Well, it is, and it is pointed out by the prophets as one of the characteristic signs of these last days. If you will turn to the prophet Joel, you will find the prediction plainly set forth. In the second chapter is God’s warning to the inhabitants of the world that the day of the Lord is coming. Verses 28 to 32 refer to the outpouring of the Spirit in the last days and some of the special signs which would precede the coming of the day of the Lord. The third chapter continues the theme, speaks of that time when the voice of God shall shake the heaven and the earth (verses 14–16), and declares that this is “the harvest” (verse 13), which is “the end of the world” (Matt. 13: 39). But just before the harvest is reaped by the coming of Christ (Rev. 14: 14, 15), the prophet declares what the condition of the earth will be:— “Proclaim ye this among the gentiles: Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up; beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about; thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.” Verses 9–12. The culmination of all this will be the great battle of the day of the Lord, foretold in Jer. 25: 15–33; Rev. 16: 13, 14. Then will be seen the ingathering of the fruits of the carnal heart which have refused the reconciliation purchased by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Cry of the False Prophet.—And yet, in the face of all the war preparations, in the face of the testimony of Holy Writ, there are many people telling us that unity and peace are just before us, that war will soon be no more, that the glad jubilee of earth will soon be celebrated. Glad would we be were this true. It is all in the Gospel of peace and good will, but men will not have it so, and the preparations for war demonstrate the truth of God’s prophecy before quoted. Furthermore, God has in his word expressly twice told us that this false cry of peace and safety would go forth to the world while the great battle of Armageddon was impending. Instead of using the glory of the Gospel of Christ, which by its own intrinsic merit it has won among the religions of earth, to exalt him and save souls, men use it to exalt themselves and build up their own schemes of human ambition and tradition. Of the2glory of the religion of Christ, the prophet says:— “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.” Isa. 2: 2. Because of its effect on the nations, a greater part of which is superficial (not, however, on account of the Gospel), many, taking the wish for a fact, contrary to Scripture, are led to believe in the conversion of the world. Thus the prophet predicts their work:— “And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.” Verses 3–5. Note that it is not the Lord which predicts this period of peace. The Lord says that “many people” shall say all this, and call to the world to enjoy the jubilant time predicted, thereby deceiving them. Because of this false cry by the professed people of God, the prophet declares:— “Therefore Thou hast forsaken Thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east [“more than the east,” margin], and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers.” Verse 6. See following verses and also Micah 4. What then shall we conclude?—That the preparations for war which we see on every side are just what God declared would come; that we may look for no better state of things in this present age; that the peace and safety cry is a false cry, that tends only to deceive the uninstructed, and that the only peace to be found in this world of unrest is in Jesus Christ. When he shall come, and the earth shall be cleansed from sin, the eternal reign of peace will begin, but not before. May you, reader, “be not deceived;” may you have the peace of Christ now, and a home in his eternal kingdom of peace hereafter.