THE readers of the REVIEW and of the General Conference Bulletin have already learned of the action of the General Conference while in session last spring, recommending that a special fund of three hundred thousand dollars be raised during the present quadrennial period, for small, but greatly needed institutions in mission fields, and homes for our missionaries in regions where it is impossible for them to rent houses.
The time has now arrived, when, according to arrangement, the campaign for raising this fund is to be launched. The action of the General Conference, which will be found on page 288 of the General Conference Bulletin, reads as follows:—
We recommend, That the General Conference Executive Committee at once start what shall be known as the $300,000 fund for institutional work and missionary homes in foreign fields, a certain portion of this money to be raised each year during the succeeding quadrennial term, and to be apportioned approximately on the following basis:—
To specified fields,—
China ............................ $100,000
Japan ................................ 50,000
Korea ................................ 25,000
India ................................ 50,000
Mexico .............................. 15,000
South America ....................... 35,000
Russia ................................ 5,000
Abyssinia ............................ 3,000
Latin Union School ................... 5,000 To be appropriated ............ 12,000
Total ............................... $300,000
At the autumn council of the General Conference Committee held in College View, Neb., last October, the following recommendations were passed relating to the time of the campaign and the distribution of responsibility in raising this fund:—
Whereas, At the late session of the General Conference it was recommended that three hundred thousand dollars be raised to supply institutions already required in foreign fields for the proper development of our work, these institutions to consist of schools, printing plants, and sanitariums; also to erect homes for missionaries where conditions require, and,—
Whereas, There is great need in many lands for immediate use of this fund; therefore,—
We recommend, 1. That the systematic raising of the $300,000 fund be begun early in 1910.
2. That the responsibility of raising this three hundred thousand dollars be assumed by the union and local conferences of North America, apportionment being made on the basis of church and company membership as published in the statistical secretary’s report of membership for 1908; that this membership be adhered to until the fund is raised; and that on this basis the apportionment stand as follows:—
Atlantic Union .............. $24,892.80
Central Union ................. 44,097.60
Columbia Union ................ 31,536.00
Lake Union .................... 61,200.00
Northern Union ............... 28,704.00
North Pacific Union .......... 29,073.60
Pacific Union ................ 36,580.80
Southeastern Union ............ 6,907.20
Southern Union ................ 6,417.60
Southwestern Union ........... 22,056.60
Canadian Union ................ 4,233.60
West Canadian Union ........... 4,027.20
3. That we invite Seventh-day Adventists in all the world to join the North American union conferences in raising this fund.
4. That the making up of this fund be completed by Dec. 31, 1912.
5. That all donations to this fund be paid through the regular channels.
6. That treasurers be instructed to report and forward all receipts on this fund, together with all other funds, monthly,—churches not later than the last day of each month, State treasurers not later than the tenth of each month, union conference treasurers not later than the fifteenth of each month.
7. That in the raising of this fund each union conference is free to pursue such policy as it may elect.
8. That the General Conference treasury department publish monthly a report of all receipts in the REVIEW AND HERALD, by union and local conferences.
9. That the General Conference treasury department report monthly to local conferences all money received on this fund from conference territory not having passed through the regular channels.
10. That we request the Sabbath-school Department to provide from one to two Sabbath-school lessons each quarter on tithes and offerings.
11. That the Signs of the Times be7invited to open its columns in behalf of this fund, as well as in behalf of other missionary enterprises; that it report to the General Conference treasurer monthly, by individuals and conferences, all receipts on this fund, in order that due credit may be given.
These recommendations will appeal to the heart and judgment of every Seventh-day Adventist. They were passed without a dissenting voice or vote by the representative meetings in which they were considered. We are now sending more than one hundred missionaries each year to mission fields. The work of the Lord for this time is rapidly reaching out and extending into all nations. With every extension of the work, additional demands and responsibilities are placed upon us. Some of the facilities which have done so much to make our work efficient and permanent in the United States, in Europe, and in Australia must be provided for other countries, where, in some respects, the needs are even greater.
Training-schools are especially needed in such countries as Russia, China, Japan, Korea, India, Africa, and South America, where many who accept the truth may be trained for efficient work in their respective fields. Literature, which in the providence of God has been a great pioneering agent in the opening up of foreign missions, must be provided in the native languages and dialects, and we must provide small mission printing plants in many of these fields, in which native helpers can be employed in the production of literature in their own languages.
There was a universal demand from our missionaries who attended the last General Conference that mission training-schools and publishing facilities be provided for their respective fields, so that the work may develop solidly upon an educational, permanent basis.
In many heathen lands, also, where suffering and ignorance abound on every side, there is a crying demand for small sanitariums, treatment-rooms, and dispensaries, where missionary physicians and nurses may care for the sick and suffering, and, while ministering to their physical needs, teach them, as did the Great Physician, the healing for sin provided in the gospel.
In such countries as India, China, Korea, and parts of Africa, homes are needed for our missionaries. In the large cities of these countries the price of rent on a suitable house is very high, often amounting to more than the wages paid to our workers. This condition forces the workers to seek homes in unsanitary places, where they are exposed to fatal diseases, and are surrounded by filth and crime. In other places they are sometimes forced to live in native dwellings without floors, where they suffer from exposure, vermin, and disease.
These unfavorable conditions, under which many of our missionaries live, are doubtless responsible for many of the deaths, and for the return of many of our missionaries, who, after a few years of service, come home broken down in health. It has been poor economy to leave our workers thus unprovided for, when a comfortable little cottage could be built for five hundred to a thousand dollars—a far less sum than is required to bring the workers home and send others to fill their places, not to say anything of the loss of time in beginning over again by the new workers, who must learn the native language.
When this question was being discussed at the General Conference, one delegate said, “I believe it is cheaper to build a cottage on the hillside than to dig a grave in the valley.”
The time has now come for action. At the union conferences already held, this matter has received earnest consideration, and well-matured plans have been developed for a united, enthusiastic campaign for the raising of this fund. Let every believer, every church, and every conference rally to accomplish the work. Let us be strong and of a good courage, for we are abundantly able to possess the land.
In the providence of God, the doors of all nations have been thrown open, and stand ajar ready for our coming. “On to the finishing of the work,” must be our watchword; for “this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Let us advance unitedly in the good work, until this blessed fruition of the Christian’s hope is realized. A. G. DANIELLS.
Note and Comment
Not of Peace
THEWashington Post’s survey of the international situation indicates that the dominant note at the opening of 1910 is not of peace. The persistent talk of trouble between England and Germany threatens to precipitate trouble. Germany is prepared to concentrate half a million men at half a day’s notice, and two million in a fortnight. It is added:—
It is one of the dire elements of the situation that a European war at the present time could not possibly be fought out between those two nations without involving other nations, and so widely spread and intricate is this web of international alliance that it might easily throw practically the entire world into turmoil.
Of the Asiatic situation it is said:—
The vast Indian empire, with its population of three hundred million, is slowly drifting toward a great crisis. The awakening of the far East has been one of the historical phenomena of the last two decades. Japan was the first to assert herself, China has since been rapidly forging to the front, and now India, the last of the great nations of the East, stimulated by the success of Japanese arms over one of the supposedly great armies of Europe, is beginning to plan her own future independence.
Bible Finance
“MOREOVER, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God which hath been given in the churches of Macedonia; how that in much proof of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.
“For according to their power, I bear witness, yea and beyond their power, they gave of their own accord, beseeching us with much entreaty in regard of this grace and the fellowship in the ministering to the saints: and this, not as we had hoped, but first they gave their own selves to the Lord. . . .
“But as ye abound in everything, in faith, and utterance, . . . see that ye abound in this grace also. . . .
“For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might become rich.” 2 Cor. 8: 1-9.
Rome and the French Schools
THERE has been no lessening of the hostility on the part of the Catholic Church in France toward the government. The church is not permitted to supervise the preparation of the text-books, and is therefore waging war against the schools. A press report from the city of Nantes says:—
The Catholic clergy of the city of Nantes have refused absolution to children in the public schools who are using certain text-books upon which the church has placed its ban because of offensive statements printed therein relating to religious matters. M. Doumergue, minister of public instruction, says this is a declaration of war. In one city it is reported that mothers made a bonfire of their daughters’ text-books which were on the list interdicted by the church.
It is the policy of the Catholic Church to permit no instruction to be given to the people which it does not itself prepare. For that reason the text-books used in American public schools are as displeasing to the leaders of the Catholic Church as are those now being condemned in France, and when that church feels herself strong enough, she will take the same course here that she is now taking there.
The elimination from the great magazines of the advertisements of books displeasing to Rome, and the revision of such books as Myer’s General History at the insistence of that church, are certain indications of such a course.
In Earth's Last Moments
By T. C. Hege
T. C. HEGE
It is no dream, but is intensely real,—
This preparation I must make to meet
my God
Still in a world where wounds are slow
to heal,
And we so heedless are of mercy's rod.
But will this road ne'er end? Another
day—
And like so many others shall it be?—
It may, though it may not. Some day
must see
Woe's end; e'en now the earth groans
mightily.
Time speedeth on, adds lightning to her
flight;
Soon earth will reach her goal of darkest night.
Now, just before all pain and woe subside,
God says, In me a little moment hide,
From lust of flesh and eye and pride of life,
And noise and clangor of unholy strife.
Then short will be my work in righteousness,
And what the curse had smitten I will bless.
Again the ceaseless days will come and go,
But not in darkness, death, and sin,
and strife,
Soul longing, and a hope no goal doth know.
All will be joy, and life, eternal life.
This change for all the blest is soon to come;
But brother, sister, O with anxious thought
Press great petitions home! Ignore despair.
Cry, cry to God for help to lift the light
That all who breathe may in that glory share.
Fayetteville, N. C.
At the Iowa and Kansas Camp-Meetings
By W. C. WHITE
W. C. WHITE
At Nevada, Iowa, from Aug. 19-24, 1909, Mrs. White and her helpers were entertained at the home of Brother and Sister J. M. Whitney. The camp-meeting here was located in a beautiful grove near the new sanitarium, and was one of the largest ever held by the Iowa Conference. Over fifteen hundred were encamped on the ground.
On Sabbath morning, August 21, Mrs. White spoke to a large congregation, reading part of the sixth chapter of Matthew, and drawing from these scriptures lessons of self-denial, trust, and co-operation. She said:—
“The riches of this world will never advance us in the knowledge of God or in a Christian experience. The Saviour bids us seek for the true riches that are laid up in store for the righteous. To one who came to him saying, ‘I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest,’ Christ replied, ‘Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.’ Christ owned nothing in this world, and yet the world was his. Let us study his holy, self-denying example.
“We have no time to spend on the vanities and follies of this world. There is a world to be saved, and we should carefully consider the example we give to those around us, conforming our lives to the life of him who became a child of humanity that he might give a perfect example to every human being. From a study of his life and labors and his struggles with temptation, we are to learn how to become partakers of the divine nature, and overcome the corruption that is in the world through lust. Nowhere shall we find anything that will help our spiritual life as will a study of the life of Christ. And as we seek to walk in his footsteps, there will come to us a supply of divine grace such as sustained him under every circumstance.
“There are many who profess to be followers of Christ who do not have an eye single to his glory. They have their own ideas and standards, and they keep these before them instead of the standard of the Word of God. What we need is pure and undefiled religion. We need to plead for the righteousness that comes to the truly converted soul who accepts the life of the Redeemer as his example. Let us not think that we can pass through this world doing just as we please, and yet be accepted by God as followers of his Son. The gates of the city of God will never be thrown open to those who have not lifted the cross and followed after Christ in self-denial and self-sacrifice.
“We are to present to the world a life of overcoming,—overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. But in order to do this, we must seek the Lord daily that our natural temperaments and desires may be brought under the converting power of the Holy Spirit, and into harmony with the life of Christ. When you submit to these conditions, you will realize Christ’s power and sufficiency. Denying self, and walking humbly with God, you will experience the truth of the words of the Saviour, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.’ ‘He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.’
“My brethren and sisters, there is a world to be saved. What are you doing to co-operate with Christ, to represent9leads his followers to believe that he will be conqueror, because of the large numbers who are uniting with him. While such conditions prevail in the world, we are not to shut ourselves in our homes, and think that assent to truth is all that is required of us. Christ gave himself a sacrifice for the sins of the world. The gift of God in Jesus Christ should awaken in the heart of every believer the spirit of self-sacrifice, leading us to deny ourselves of anything that will further the cause of God in the earth.
“If you have the riches of the grace of Christ in your heart, you will not keep them to yourselves while the salvation of souls depends upon a knowledge of the way of salvation that you can give. These may not come to you and tell you their heart-longings; but many are hungry, unsatisfied; and Christ died that they might have the riches of his grace. What are you going to do that these souls may share the blessings that you enjoy? You are called to be laborers together with God. You may never be called to the desk to preach, but you have a work to do,—the most blessed work that mortals can do. You may co-operate with the Holy Spirit of God in convincing men of sin and revealing to them the righteousness of Christ.
“I see before me many who occupy humble positions in life, who, perhaps, do not understand all that God requires of them. You are to devote yourselves to the service of God. ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.’ You are to let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Simplicity is of the highest value in the sight of heaven. Learn to labor according to Christ’s methods.
“My brethren and sisters, present the truths of the third angel’s message to your neighbors and friends who do not understand them, and who see nothing to interest them in the Word of God. You can tell them of the hope of immortality. You can pray with them and for them. Some of you can gather your neighbors’ children together and tell them the stories of the Bible, explaining their meaning in simple language. Let the Word speak for itself, and let your works be of such a character that they will not exert an influence contrary to the faith you profess. If you will come into this position of consecration to the work of God, he will multiply your influence for good.”
Mrs. White’s words to the German believers were full of hope and courage. Elder F. W. Spies read from the book of Acts the record of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and Mrs. White said:—
“I have a deep interest that all our people in all languages shall receive a large measure of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are living in the last days, and there is a large work to be done among the people of all languages. Therefore every soul who believes the truth for this time, whatever his country or speech, should have an intelligent knowledge of the truths of the third angel’s message, that he may be able to do an intelligent work for God. The Lord will open the understanding of all who will come into right relation to him.
“The scripture that our brother has read to you shows that a mighty power is at work in our world, and that Heaven will co-operate with those who will do the work of the Lord. It is the one Lord, the one faith, the one baptism. Let us draw in even cords. Let us keep our hearts humble, and draw close to the Great Teacher. If we have the truth in the heart, we shall feel that it is a positive necessity that we seek to enlighten others. If we will do as the disciples did before the day of Pentecost,—pray and believe, and come into harmony with one another and with the Word,—the Lord will work with us, opening the understanding and the hearts of those whom we seek to reach, and bringing them to a knowledge of the truth for this time. This work will be acknowledged in the courts of heaven.
“My brethren and sisters, have courage in God; have faith in Christ. Put on the robe of Christ’s righteousness, and let the light of heaven come into heart and mind. The Lord says, Go forward. Do not shut up yourselves to yourselves, but labor and sacrifice that others may know the preciousness of a living Saviour. You are God’s children. Learn of him as little children, that he may work in you and through you. Through your instrumentality the grace of God may come into many hearts.”
Sanitarium, Cal.
Intolerance Not Christlike
By John N. Quinn
JOHN N. QUINN
ONE of the saddest features which confronts us in the study of the history of Christianity is the spirit of intolerance so frequently manifested by the professed followers of Jesus Christ toward those who differ with them. A few instances in Christ’s life are indicative of his attitude toward those who refused to believe in or follow him.
Scribes and Pharisees brought Christ a woman against whom the evidence of guilt was so clear it could not be controverted. John 8: 4. “Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?” Apparently ignoring their question, he stooped down and wrote with his finger in the sand—not the woman’s condemnation, but the sins of her accusers. When the oldest, perhaps a gray-haired libertine, saw the record of his life in the sand, saw that Christ knew he had much to do with the woman’s downfall, with a convicted conscience he went out; and so on down to the youngest. They were all equally guilty with the woman. When Christ arose, he was alone with her—guilt in the presence of matchless purity. “Woman, . . . hath no man condemned thee?” “No man, Lord.” “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” And she went forth from his presence with her sins forgiven, a transformed woman, the peace of God in her heart, and her womanly heritage of purity again sovereign in her life.
Sin had been written in the sand, to be erased later by the wash of the waves or the blowing of the wind, teaching a lesson of hope to all who are in sin, and also that sin is not to remain forever in God’s universe. Should the cause of the downfall of many a poor outcast in our time be written by the same finger, perhaps many a man now honored by society or even by the church, would be unable to face the record, but would be compelled to turn from it with a convicted conscience, as did the scribes and Pharisees in Christ’s time. Had the spirit of intolerance prevailed, the woman would have perished; instead the spirit of him who is the Author of liberty triumphed, and the woman was saved for time and for eternity. Let us hope her accusers went out to repent and reform.
As Jesus traveled toward Jerusalem, he entered a village of the Samaritans, between whom and the Jews there existed bitter rivalry and hatred. When the Samaritans saw that his face was turned toward Jerusalem, they refused to receive him. This incensed James and John, who suggested the infliction of the death penalty, and that by fire. But Jesus turned and rebuked both them and the spirit which would crush the conscience. “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” Luke 9: 51-56.
How different would be the record of Christianity had all its adherents imbibed this spirit—no word censuring those who rejected him, no desire to persecute or destroy any! He recognized and taught the eternal truth that to God alone is man responsible for his faith or his religion. “If any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: . . . the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.”
In the closing hours of Christ’s life occurred an incident which again revealed the spirit of the Nazarene, and again rebuked physical force in matters religious. Judas had betrayed Jesus; Roman soldiers laid hands on him, taking him prisoner. Enraged at this insult to his Master, Peter seized a sword, and with it smote off a man’s ear—defending religion with a sword of steel. Instantly Christ restored the severed member, saying to Peter, “Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” Matt. 26: 52. Christ recognized but two swords (Luke 22: 38), one the sword of the Spirit, the other the sword of state; and by his command to Peter he forever prohibited the church from using the sword of the state in the defense of Christianity, much less to propagate it and punish those who refuse to accept it. Matt. 22: 21.
The power of love, of gentleness, of persuasion, of entreaty, of evidence, of demonstration, is the armament of the true follower of Jesus Christ; and when these are set aside, and pains and penalties10ostracism and the boycott, substituted, then verily Christ is crucified afresh in the house of his friends. “Truth crushed to earth will rise again;” and in its added glory, bigotry, intolerance, and persecution will wither and perish forever. “Love . . . taketh not account of evil;” “love suffereth long, and is kind.”
Takoma Park, D. C.
“The Way Is Too Hard”
By J. M. HOPKINS
J. M. HOPKINS
How often these words are spoken by those who have known and once loved the truth, but because of the hardness of the way have turned their back upon the Lord, and joined the ranks of his enemies.
The truth is, when one becomes a child of God, when through grace one has become a “new creature” in Christ Jesus, has “put on the new man,” has risen in baptism to “walk in newness of life,” the whole life is changed. In every one in whom this blessed experience has become a fact, a heart and life reality, then that person’s whole aim, his whole ambition and effort, will be to advance the interests of Christ’s kingdom in the hearts of men. Christ’s interests will be his interests; Christ’s cause will be his cause. In everything they will be identical.
Then as Christ suffered; as Christ bore hardness, and pain, and toil, and everything that the foe could invent to bear upon and against him to thwart the plan of human redemption; as Christ endured all this even from the time when Herod sought to destroy him in his infancy until the day of his crucifixion; even as he suffered, so will his followers be willing to suffer. Nothing, not even death, should ever turn one from principle, from the right, from Christ and obedience.
Paul exhorts Timothy to “endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” His own life was one of toil, of imprisonment, of betrayal by false brethren, of stripes. But he says: “None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.” Acts 20:24. Even so he finished his course.
That was a noble spirit, a spirit of undying devotion to a noble cause. It was even the spirit and mind of Christ. And this alone will succeed in this warfare. It matters not how hard the fight may go; it is a fight for God, a fight for truth, for one’s highest, noblest, present and eternal interests. What is or can life be worth apart from these considerations?
One of the revolutionary patriots said, “Give me liberty, or give me death.” The truly patriotic soldier of the cross will say: “Give me Jesus, give me loyalty to the commandments of God, give me consecration and fidelity to the cause of Christ and humanity, or give me death.” This is the spirit and the meaning of the third angel’s message, the last message that will ever go to a fallen world. And what a poor, beggarly exchange one makes when he forsakes these and accepts this poor old sin-cursed world and the devil in its stead.
I have heard men say they couldn’t make a living and keep the Sabbath. Well, I have been connected with this movement for more than thirty years, and I never knew a man who gave up present truth to get along any better for so doing. And I have known quite a number who have made a fearful mistake, both financially and spiritually, by making this change. And even though property might be accumulated in this way, what is that in lieu of honor and manhood! Jesus said: “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” A man who believes and knows that ere long all earthly interests and considerations will forever pass away, and who barters away principle, truth, salvation, and eternal life for a few acres of the surface of this old world, or for a few dollars in money—what an unwise, what a foolish transaction!
The fact is that neither pain or gain should receive a moment’s consideration when placed in the balance opposite truth and eternal life.
In Rom. 8:35-39 Paul thus states the truth upon this subject: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? as it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Again: in the closing part of the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, Paul makes quite extended mention of what the ancient people of God suffered for the truth’s sake, and in chapter 12:4 he says, “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.”
Of the martyrs whom John in prophetic vision saw, he wrote, “They loved not their lives unto the death.” Rev. 12:11. Noble testimony! Shall it be ours? or shall we weakly and faintly falter and surrender?—No, never! In the strength of Israel’s God let us stand firmly and loyally for truth, for principle, for Christ and humanity.
Hewitt, Minn.
When God Calls
By Mrs. Ruth Scott
MRS. RUTH SCOTT
THE calling of God gives courage. The fact that God had called Paul to the ministry, the fact that Paul knew that God had called him, gave the apostle courage to endure all things for the sake of God, who had called him to a definite work.
Now, God has called a people to proclaim the last great message to all the world, telling of the soon return of the Saviour. The fact that they know God has called them to tell this to the world, and to warn all men of the judgments to come, spurs them on and gives them courage to endure anything and everything11that the willing in heart may know the truth and be ready when the Lord shall come.
I will never forget how God called me to come out from the world and unite with his people. He saw me mingling with the world, as one of the world, and in that call of his mercy he revealed to me the beautiful truth of the third angel's message, not only making it plain to me, but creating in my heart a love for the truth and for his people. I can never praise God enough for this mercy shown me, and I desire to be the means of helping others.
Perrysburg, Ohio.
What Will Be the Home of the Saved?
By Chas. P. Whitford
CHAS. P. WHITFORD
WOULD you like an answer to the above question? The only way to get a correct answer is to turn to the Bible.
The thoughts of God are conveyed to us in words; therefore, if we are instructed by the Lord, it will be necessary for us to do what he tells us to do in 2 Tim. 2:7: “Consider what I say; and cause the Lord give thee understanding in all things.”
Let us turn to the Bible, then, and find what the Lord says concerning the future home of the saved. Jesus says: “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” Matt. 5:5.
The psalmist says: “Those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.” Ps. 37:9. “The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever.” Ps. 37:29.
Truth is plain, simple, straightforward, and easy to be understood. Error is intricate, tortuous, winding, and hard to be understood. Do not the preceding scriptures make clear the future home of the saved?
But, says one, will not the wicked inherit the earth? Listen: “For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.” Ps. 37:10.
This scripture tells us there will be no place for the wicked. Since there will be no place for the wicked, what will become of them? Listen again: “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, . . . it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” Mal. 4:1.
The Bible tells us that “the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it. But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.” Prov. 2:21, 22.
In the beginning, the earth was given to man for his home, but man sold himself and his dominion to Satan. Ps. 115:16; Isa. 52:3.
“The Son of man is come to seek and save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10.
When sin and sinners are no more, Christ will give back the lost home to his people. “Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.” Ps. 37:34.
My dear friends, may it be our happy experience to dwell on the earth when it shall be occupied by all the redeemed.