Editorial by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 19, 1892

Editorial.

By Editor

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable."—2 Tim. 3:16.

"Not that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy; for by faith ye stand." 2 Cor. 1:24.

MATTERS of religion lie wholly between man and his Maker, because they are matters with which civil government cannot in the very nature of the case deal. Religion has to do with the motive, the conscience, the heart. Government can only deal with outward acts between man and his fellow, not between man and his God.

JESUS, in speaking of the signs of his second coming, said: "And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth." Luke 21:25, 26. All these we see now. Just before lies the next event: "For the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory." Blessed are those whose loins are girded about, whose lights are burning, who are prepared to meet their Lord.

ONE precious promise given by our Lord is, "Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled." There is one thought right here which we wish to notice, and that is, that the truly hungry man does not stop to criticise the dishes on which his food is placed nor the person who brings it, providing ordinary cleanliness is observed. The truly thirsty man is even more eager to satisfy his needs than the hungry man. He will not ask whether the vessel be pewter, tin, or silver; whether it be china, common porcelain, or gold. He will not care whether the dispenser of the precious nectar be German, Scotch, or English. It is the water he wants, and grateful he is to the one who gave it. So those who really hunger and thirst after God's precious truth, his food and drink of righteousness, will not criticise the humble garb, the slowness of speech, nor the sometimes bad grammar or faulty pronunciation of the one who dispenses the word of life. His need is met. The truth and not the preacher will be his theme. How is it, reader?

PROFESSOR WALTHER, of Germany, has recently been making researches as to the number of German Bible translations before Luther. He has found as many as eighteen complete editions of the Bible in German and one in Dutch, and thirty-one editions of portions of the Bible. Besides these, two hundred and two manuscripts. Judging from other data, he thinks that as many as three thousand six hundred manuscripts of the Bible, or parts of the Bible, were in German. Most of these translators worked independently of each other. There was no organized movement to give the Bible to the people; it seemed rather a spontaneous impulse in many quarters. These translations did not originate with the Waldenses, neither did the Catholic Church give them to the world. "In not a single case," says Professor G. Kawerau, "can it be shown that a Roman Catholic ecclesiastic had anything to do with the printing of any one of these translations." It was not profitable for Rome to give the people the light.