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THE CITY OF TRUTH

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 29, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 44.

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THE CITY OF TRUTH.

By E. K. Slade

ELDER E. K. SLADE.
(Detroit, Mich.)
He who truly prays, “Thy kingdom come,” will love and live the principles upon which the kingdom of God is founded, just as far as he can know them. By his own choice every soul lives either for the kingdom of man or the kingdom of God, the kingdom of bondage or the kingdom of freedom. This testing privilege of choosing between the two kingdoms, was, in a special way, granted to the Jewish people when Christ, the true King, was before Pilate; and that event still serves as an important lesson to all who have the choice to make.
Christ, the King of kings, came to our earth to represent the one true kingdom, the kingdom of God. In answer to Pilate’s question, “Art thou a king?” He said, “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.” As a true ambassador He came in the interest of His own country. He came to represent, to a rebellious people, the virtues of the kingdom of heaven. In doing this He lived the life of God, whose life is the law of the kingdom. Therefore He could say, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”
The Father is a “God of truth.” He is “abundant in goodness and truth,” and “keepeth truth forever.” For Him to live is to keep truth, for that is His nature. Christ, in order to represent Him and His kingdom, must keep truth, or live truth, thus bearing witness unto the truth by His life. He could rightfully say, I am the truth, and stand forth holding up His life as the standard of the universe, which rebellious man might either love or loathe.
The Jewish people were in bondage to sin; their nation and city were in bondage to a heathen power. They rejected the King of the universe, who would have made them free, by saying, “We will not have this man to reign over us.” In declaring, “We have no king but Cæsar,” they chose the one they professed to hate, to rule over them, accepting “Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children,” as their portion. They chose to be bound in the kingdoms of earth, rather than to be born into the kingdom of God. Had they received and known the truth, which they rejected, it would have made them free, in that they would have been “translated . . . into the kingdom of His dear Son.” They might have been children of the metropolis of the heavenly Canaan, the Jerusalem which is above, which John saw coming down from God out of heaven. She is free, and the mother of all that are free. Her children are all made free by the truth, Christ the king, enthroned in the heart.
Every child of God will live the truth as did Christ, and thus be a representative of the kingdom of heaven. He will be an ambassador in a foreign country, looking for a city to come. But to live the truth, he must have it as his nature, or written in his heart, as worded by the psalmist: “Thou desirest truth in the inward parts.” Only those who have the truth, the law of God, or His character, in their heart, will be able to “lift up a standard for the people.”
This standard is not a flag of silk and symbols, nor of stars and stripes, but it is a life. It is a life of love and loyalty to the law of Him who has “prepared His throne in the heavens; and His kingdom ruleth over all.” Such a life is the banner mentioned in the following words: “Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth.” It is by this means that God is gathering His loyal subjects from the countries into which they have been scattered. He is calling them out by the truth, and by it He is making them free, that they may dwell in the free city, where bondage and force will never again be known.
“Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country; and I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.” Zech. 8:7, 8. Ezekiel speaks of the same city in the following language: “And the name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord is there.” The presence of God in the city is declared by John as follows: “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.”
The truth will be the law and character of the city, and its subjects will all be law abiding. “Thus saith the Lord: I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth.” Zech. 8:3. Only they that keep the commandments, the truth (Ps. 119:151), will be permitted to enter its gates. “In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.”
Every subject of the kingdom of God, of whom it may be said, “The kingdom of God is within you,” will hold the standard high; he will unfurl the banner of truth to the nations of the earth in such a way as clearly to display the desirableness of the kingdom to which he belongs, the law of which is the rule of his life. Such lives will, as did the life of Christ, furnish an answer to Pilate’s question, “What is truth?” They will represent and recommend the kingdom of God, and the free city of truth.