Not of Self by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 9, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 23.

Not of Self.

By Editor

He who is truly righteous will not boast of his righteousness, for it is not his own. He is good only in the "borrowed goodness" of God. He who is truly holy will not boast of his holiness; for if he is truly holy, it is only because of Christ's wholeness. "And ye are complete in Him," are the words of the apostle. We are complete in no other. In God's great goodness and mercy alone will we boast. The holier the man the more humble will he be of his own attainments.

Not for Us but God.

It is not for us to call ourselves righteous or saints. That belongs to God. We come to him by faith, sinners. He calls us righteous, and we are so. His word makes us clean. John 15:3. He calls "things that be not as though they were;" and he calls the sinner a "saint," albeit he is not a saint, and he becomes holy. The infinite power of God's word makes him so. The person thus cleansed will not, however, call himself a saint and boast of his holiness. That will he leave with God. He will esteem it the highest honor to be called a "servant of the Lord Jesus Christ," and the most blessed occupation will be to do Christ's service.

Romanism and the Public Schools of San Francisco.

Myers' General History has been introduced as a text-book in the public schools of San Francisco. A general protest against its use came from the Roman Catholics, because, as they claimed, it misrepresented Roman Catholicism, favored the Reformation, and was therefore sectarian, and should not, therefore, be used. This has been discussed pro and con before the Board of Education, and at this writing the question of its continued use is still pending, with the chances in favor of Rome; for every history which tells the plain, unvarnished facts Rome will consider Protestant and sectarian, and Rome will win in San Francisco. Here is an evidence of her power. Rome's remonstrance against the history has been quite fully published. Rev. J. Q. A. Henry, pastor of the First Baptist Church of the city, has stepped into the arena to champion the Protestant side, and to show the effect of Rome's hand in our public schools. A notice of his meeting was taken to the Chronicle and Call of that city, but neither of them would publish it as a paid advertisement, although some of the notices they have advertised are unmentionable. Mr. Henry applied to the city council to obtain permission to advertise it in the street by a transparency, but the council would not grant it, although they grant permission for other things religious, irreligious, and unreligious. Rome sways the scepter. That all the world shall worship the beast is declared by the prophet of God, and His word cannot fail.

Come as You Are.

Christ invites all to come, irrespective of race or condition. All who will come to him as they are, to receive him as he is and for what he wants to be to them, will find him a present, living Saviour, a mighty healer, a personal friend. One great trouble is that we do not come to Christ as we are. We rather come as we want to be, or as he only can make us. It is with a half apology for our sins, or an excuse for transgression, or with false sympathy for ourselves in sin, or with a feeling that we are not as bad as someone else. Come as you are, poor, and wretched, and miserable, and blind, and naked, all sick with sin, and doomed by the incurable disease to certain death, unless divine power interposes. We may not feel that we are all this, but the Great Physician has so diagnosed our case, and it is wise to believe him. God has said that our condition is just what is stated above, and we see it in others whether we realize it in ourselves or not. But in Christ is healing and help and life. Come just as you are, as he has described you to be, and find in him just what he longs to be to everyone.