Search the Scriptures by F. D. Starr

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · May 22, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 21.

Search the Scriptures

By F. D. Starr

Second John.

THIS epistle is "short and sweet." Of its sweetness we take only a taste. David says: "How sweet are Thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" 2 John 8 is a sweet morsel of this kind. "Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward." To begin a work and not be able to finish is a sad experience. How unwise to expend all in a line of work, in some enterprise, and then lose all. Thru Christian diligence and earnestness this may be avoided and "we receive a full reward." Happy thought!

Third John.

This epistle is very familiar to those who are interested in the subject of health, for perhaps there is in the entire Bible no more pointed declaration on this subject than is found in verse 2: "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." Health, then, is not second in importance to any other blessing. This is a matter too much overlooked by professors of religion today. Christianity includes the proper care of the body as well as of the spirit, and those who are preparing to meet their Lord in peace will seek for a physical as well as a spiritual preparation, that the "whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Thess. 5:23. In Isaiah 58 we are told how that health shall spring forth speedily as a result of benevolence, and obedience to God's commandments, especially the command concerning the Sabbath. The Sabbath was given to man to be a spiritual and physical benefit. The subject of health is a vast one indeed, and if the timely message concerning it, found in this book, may but awaken an interest in this vital question, the reader will be abundantly rewarded for the attention given it.

The restoration of health, healing of the body, was inseparably connected with the forgiveness of sins in the work of our Lord when He was upon earth. The matter of diet has much to do with our health. "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." This will go far toward insuring health. F. D. STARR.