Earlier text: Ministering to the NeedySecond Paper (Concluded). Remarks on this subject last week concluded with an examination of the fourth plague, the vial poured out upon the sun, giving it power to scorch men with great heat. We saw that the first four of the plagues had reference to one another, being from the first progressive and cumulative inflictions, till, in their fever and thirst, with no alleviation at hand, and no protection from the burning rays of the sun, the situation of men became so aggravating that, whether they knew or not that the day of their probation was past, and their doom was sealed, they threw off all restraint, and instead of repenting, as men in their normal state of mind would do under such circumstances, they gave vent to their feelings by laying up for themselves a fresh degree of wrath, and uttered blasphemies against the high and holy name of God. The Fifth Plague.— “And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the Beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.” Rev. 16: 10, 11. A startling fact is brought out by this testimony. It is that the plagues do not at once destroy their victims. Doubtless multitudes whose bodies are weakened by gluttony and intemperance and the indulgences and wrong habits of living for which this age is noted, will wilt down and die at the first touch of the plagues; but there will be some who were smitten with the noisome and grievous sore under the first plague who will still be alive under the fifth, gnawing their tongues for pain, and blaspheming God on account of the sores which came upon them at the first, and which still continue to prey upon them, naturally in a more severe and aggravated form. This vial is poured out upon the seat of the Beast. The Beast is acknowledged by Protestant commentators to be a symbol of the papacy. The seat of the papacy is where its centralized power resides, and from which its authority is exercised and its influence spread abroad. The Scriptures recognize the disadvantage and difficulty of having to contend with such influences. To the Church of Pergamos He who wields the sharp sword with two edges, writes: “I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is.” Rev. 2: 12, 13. The papal system has so long occupied its position in the city of Rome, as its seat, that the idea of now fixing upon any other locality as the “seat” of the Beast would be improbable, if not impossible. And why is this place made the object of this plague? And what is the significance of the darkness of which his kingdom becomes full? His “kingdom” would probably include all those who profess themselves adherents of the papacy wherever they may be. And when we remember that these very persons have the mark of the Beast, and are suffering under the sores of the first plague, we must understand this to be a double infliction upon those who are involved in papal delusions. And what would be more appropriate than that the literal darkness now visited upon them should be designed to rebuke and avenge the spiritual darkness they had so eagerly welcomed from that power which had thought to change the law of God, and exalt the day of the sun in place of the Sabbath of the Lord? Men may not be aware of it, but following the papacy in the change of the Sabbath is in reality sun worship, so roundly denounced by the prophets. It was so in Egypt. The sun was the chief Egyptian divinity; and the veiling of its light by a darkness so dense that it might be felt, and so profound that no man presumed to move out of his place for three days, showed the complete helplessness of their divinity, and was a sweeping rebuke to their idolatry. May not the fifth plague be a rebuke to the idolatry of Christendom, which idolatry has come through the papacy as its chief promoter? The Sixth Plague.— This is described in Rev. 16: 12–14, and results in the drying up of the great river Euphrates, and the issuing forth, from the great false systems of religion in the world, of the spirits of devils, which go forth to the kings of the whole world to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty. Then an exclamation is thrown in: “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame;” or, “Blessed is the one watching and keeping his garments.” When?—Now, when the evidences are so clear, and the indications so strong, that the vials of God’s fury are to be poured upon the earth; for the participles are in the present tense, but are retrospective in meaning. The language would have the same import if the past tense were used: Blessed is he that hath watched and kept his garments. But this work is to be done before probation ends, and the plagues begin to fall. The great river Euphrates symbolizes the nations living on its banks. The “water thereof was dried up.” These nations are so weakened that the kings of the East, located in that quarter, will meet no obstacle in coming up to the battle of the great day. And there are millions of Mohammedans in that section of the globe, who, when the crisis comes in Turkey, will rush to the support of their religion and the head of the Turkish power. The Seventh Plague.— The seventh angel pours out his vial into the air, a medium which envelops the whole globe. Then comes the “Amen” of the angelic host (Rev. 7: 11, 12), with the accompaniment of voices, lightnings, thunderings, and a universal earthquake surpassing anything that has ever shaken the earth, except when Christ shook the earth as He spoke the law of God. Heb. 12: 26. Every island (islands are the tops of submarine mountains) flees away, and the land mountains are leveled. Great Babylon comes in remembrance before God, and receives the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. And upon men great hailstones are cast, every stone about the weight of a talent (or nearly sixty pounds). Rev. 16: 17–21. Thus God dispenses His final judgments by weight and measure. He does nothing blindly or carelessly. All is meted out according to His true memory of what each deserves. There is no partiality nor injustice; and the great and final song of jubilee will end with the refrain: “Just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.” Rev. 15: 3. KNOWING THE TRUTH.
By L. A. S.
The truth is more than a theory. We may know the theory of the truth, without really knowing the truth itself. There are many yet in bondage who know the theory of the truth, but the truth itself makes free the one who has it. It is a very easy matter to rest satisfied with the theory of the truth, allowing it to take the place of that which is essential to our spiritual welfare. This will place us finally in that company who will say, “Lord, open unto us,” and receive the reply, “I never knew you.” Theory is not faith. Christian truths are grasped by faith, and faith means more than a mere assent to or acknowledgement of the truth. Faith takes hold of the reality of things. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” It is in making real to the believer those things which are beyond the reach of the physical senses or of the natural intellect, that faith differs from mere theoretical knowledge. And from this there comes into the life of the believer a power which no theoretical knowledge of the truth could supply. The man of faith does not merely know of the truth, but he realizes the truth. He sees that which cannot be seen. He is assured of things which no worldly wisdom could reveal to his mind. “By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God; . . . for he endured, as seeing Him who is invisible.” Heb. 11: 24–27. No mere theory of the truth, however clear and logical in his mind, could have led Moses to forsake the throne of Egypt and identify himself with a despised race of bondmen, and undertake the work which he accomplished in their deliverance. He did all this not as one looking at a theory of the right, but “as seeing Him” who sits on the throne of righteousness. To Moses, the kingdom of God was as real as the kingdom of Egypt. And when Moses went in before Pharaoh, the presence of the Egyptian monarch was no more real to him than was the presence of the King of heaven, though invisible. In that presence he feared not the wrath of man, nor the difficulties of the way in which he had set out. So it was also with Elijah. His words to Ahab.—“As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand”—revealed his sense of the continual presence of God. He also saw “Him who is invisible.” Many individuals know to-day, by theory, as no doubt many did then, that God “is not far from every one of us,” and that “in Him we live and move and have our being;” but with Elijah reality took the place of theory. When he stood before Ahab, he stood also before the King of kings. The natural eye beheld the earthly monarch, but the eye of faith beheld not less clearly the divine Sovereign, and saw Him not as one busied with the affairs of the universe, but as one before whom he stood alone, whose all-seeing eye was upon him, taking note of the smallest thing pertaining to the life and work of His earthly representative. It is faith that makes real to us the things of God. Our knowledge of His truth must be such as faith, and not mere argument or statements of facts, can supply. By faith we, as did Elias, Moses, and others named among the company of the faithful,—men subject to like passions as ourselves,—must behold Him who is invisible. He is the truth in its reality, and seeing Him, we are looking at no mere theory with its framework of argument, no mere picture or conception of the mind, but at that which is as real as we ourselves and the mundane things that surround us; and even more so, since only those things which cannot now be seen are to endure beyond the end of time. Faith is real; God is real; and the knowledge of God which is by faith is real. And the religion of him who has this knowledge is real Christianity. And nothing less than real Christianity—the real power of godliness—will meet the demands of the present hour. God’s Love and Hatred of Sin
THE measure of God’s love for the sinner is the measure of His hatred of sin. Working Into and Out of God’s Kingdom
No one can work himself into the kingdom of God, but any one can easily work himself out of it. The pathway of faith sometimes runs close beside that of fanaticism; but the two never come together. Following the Pillar of Cloud
If the future looks dark to you, it is because you are not looking at the pillar of cloud that is leading the Israel of God; unless, perchance, you have not yet left the camp of the Egyptians. Pushing With Their Shoulders
No person will be able to ride into heaven by his connection with “the cause.” Those who are riding, instead of pushing with their shoulders to the wheel, will soon be severed from the cause altogether. “CHRISTIAN SCIENCE:” ARE ITS DOCTRINES TRUTH OR ERROR?
By George I. Butler
Mrs. Eddy’s Views of Good and Evil Angels Examined.
It is well known that Mrs. Eddy and all Christian Scientists, her disciples, deny the existence of Satan as a personal being, and of all evil spirits called devils in the Scriptures. They also deny the reality of the heavenly angels, of whom the Bible has so much to say. In her glossary, she gives her definition of “devil:” “Evil; a lie; error; neither corporeality nor mind; the opposite of truth,” etc. See “Science and Health,” page 575. Her definition of “angels:” “God’s thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions; pure and perfect,” etc. See “Science and Health,” page 572. “Angels are not etherealized human beings evolving animal qualities in their wings; but they are celestial visitants flying on spiritual, not material, pinions. They are pure thoughts from God,” etc. (Italics mine.) “My angels are exalted thoughts.” “Angels are God’s impartations to man,—not messengers or persons, but messages of the true idea of divinity flowing into humanity. These upward soarings never lead mortals to self and sin. . . . They will tarry with us, and we shall be found entertaining ‘angels unawares.’”—Id., pages 194, 195. “The beliefs of the human mind rob and enslave it, and then impute this result to another illusive personification named Satan.”—Id., page 81. “Illusive” is from “illusion,” the meaning of which Webster gives as follows: “An unreal image presented to the bodily or mental vision; a deceptive appearance; a false show.” “Personification: a figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstract idea is represented as animated, or endowed with personality.” An “illusive personification,” then, is really a deception that does not really exist. Such, she says, Satan is; that is, no such being has an existence. “The supposition that corporeal beings are spirits, or that there are good and evil spirits, is a mistake.”—Id., page 236. “In the phrase, ‘Deliver us from evil,’ the original properly reads, Deliver us from the evil one. . . . Christian Science teaches us that the evil one, or one evil, is but another name for material sensation.”—Id., pages 321, 322. “The demon or evil replied that his name was Legion. Thereupon Jesus cast out the evil.”—Id. This last extract is an illustration of Mrs. Eddy’s way of quoting from the Scriptures. In quite a number of instances, when professedly quoting Bible statements of Christ’s casting out demons, or devils, she leaves off the first letter of the word devils, and quotes it as casting out “evils.” In either case she makes a terrible botch in the statement of her own doctrines; for over and over she tells us there is no such thing as evil or devil. These are wholly illusions, which have no real existence. How, then, could God or Christ cast out something that did not exist? These puerile, foolish, nonsensical statements from Mrs. Eddy’s own language will pretty well illustrate her views of good and evil angels. She tells us there are no such beings in existence. For the sake of poor souls who have become confused by her inconsistent, contradictory mysticisms, we will now let the Good Book speak for itself on these subjects. Heavenly angels existed before this world was created, hence that foolish belief, somewhat prevalent, that angels are spirits of dead men is utterly untrue. God said to Job: “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding . . . when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” Job 38: 4–7. Mrs. Eddy’s kind of angels—“good thoughts”—must have been rather noisy “thoughts” when they got to shouting for joy. How can sane people fail to see that those “sons of God” were real heavenly beings? Let us see how many there are of them: “And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the living creatures [R. V.] and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands” (Rev. 5:11); that is, one hundred millions, and thousands of thousands besides. Mrs. Eddy’s “good thoughts” were quite plentiful thereabouts. Moreover, these all had voices, and all praised the Lamb with united voices, saying, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.” How could any sensible person, with any acquaintance with the Bible, or any reverence for it, claim that these angels of God were merely “good thoughts”? In the days of good King Hezekiah, king of Judah, and Isaiah the prophet, proud Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up and took nearly all the fenced cities of Judah, and was about to lay siege to Jerusalem itself. He sent a blasphemous message by one of his generals to Jerusalem, seeking to frighten the king to surrender. But he would not. The people were much alarmed. In the anguish of his heart, the king rent his clothes and went into the house of God. The Lord sent a comforting message to the king by the prophet Isaiah. He told Hezekiah: “Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.” The Lord sent an angel: “And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.” 2 Kings 19:35. That one “angel of the Lord” must have been a very powerful “thought,” according to Mrs. Eddy’s definition of the word “angel.” A “thought” that could kill one hundred and eighty-five thousand soldiers in one night is rather a dangerous thing to be running around loose in this world. What ridiculous conceptions and mystifications of truth the great enemy can put into the minds of those doing his work, to befog the unwary and unsuspecting! But what a grand and glorious avenue of light this simple statement of Holy Writ opens to the believer’s mind, proclaiming the wonderful agencies of divine power, which are designed to protect the Lord’s people and to carry out His grand designs. Just think of hundreds of millions of such angels as this, all waiting but to know and do His pleasure. Here was proud, wicked Sennacherib, the oppressing tyrant, filled with supercilious, lofty conceptions of his own greatness, with hundreds of thousands of mighty warriors to do his behests, pouring into little Judah, swarming into its cities of defense, who had captured almost everything but Jerusalem, the capital itself, where the temple of the Most High was situated. He sends his ambassadors to demand its surrender, who blasphemously announce their ability to conquer it in spite of all the God of Israel could do. Sennacherib and his host, suddenly called to go forth to meet the opposing Egyptian army, start on their way, expecting soon to return and finish the conquest of Judah, and carry its people into captivity. The great God chooses to give him and all like him a little lesson of what divinity can do when God sees best. He sends but one of His hundreds of millions of heavenly angels. The sleeping host of mighty warriors, fondly dreaming, perchance, of scenes of lust, carnage, and rapine soon to be theirs, when they awake, melts away by the loss of one hundred and eighty-five thousand of its bravest veterans, by the touch of God’s power. When the survivors arise, there lie cold in death this vast90host of soldiers. Proud, supercilious Sennacherib sneaks back to Assyria with his decimated ranks, there to be killed by his own sons. This object lesson ought never to be lost by earth’s proud and lofty oppressors. That God lives and reigns to-day. Soon the Son of God will come to earth with all the angels with Him, to gather His elect from the four winds of heaven, to the holy city of our God above. How little, how insignificant, how perfectly foolish, Mrs. Eddy’s conceptions appear in the light of such Scriptures! “But to which of the angels said He at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” Heb. 1: 13, 14. Hundreds of millions of mighty angels, God’s ministers in the great plan of human redemption,—these God has in His wisdom not permitted us to behold with our natural sight, as the sight would so affect us as to take away from us our free moral agency, even as it did John on one occasion, who was about to fall down and worship the angel. But he said to John, “See thou do it not: worship God.” Rev. 19: 10. God and Christ are the only proper objects of worship. So glorious was this being in John’s eyes that he was about to worship him. God knows man’s weakness. So these heavenly visitants are seen only on special occasions when such a view will accomplish great good. An interesting instance is mentioned in connection with the life of Elisha the prophet. War existed between Syria and Israel. When the Syrians prepared an expedition into the country of Israel, the prophet Elisha informed the king of it, and the Syrians made an utter failure in their efforts time and again. The king of Syria was perplexed, and suspected treachery on the part of his own servants because all his efforts miscarried. Finally one of his servants told him that Elisha the prophet told the king of Israel the words of the king of Syria even in his bed chamber, so he sent servants to spy out where the prophet lived. Then he sent a great host up there in the night, and surrounded the city with horses and chariots. When the servant of Elisha discovered this fact, he was greatly alarmed, and cried, “Alas, my master! how shall we do? . . . And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.” See the whole narrative in 2 Kings 6: 8–23. According to Mrs. Eddy there must have been a good many powerful “thoughts” flying about there. At any rate, God’s servant was protected from all danger by the ministration of holy angels. Angels met Abraham, communed with him, yea, even ate of the food his hospitality had prepared. Genesis 18, whole chapter, especially verse 8. Two of these holy messengers came to save Lot and his family from the destruction of the Sodomites: Gen. 19: 1–16. At a great crisis in Jacob’s life one wrestled with him all night, and greatly blessed the stricken patriarch. Gen. 32: 24–30; Hosea 12: 3, 4. On many occasions angels appeared in connection with Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and their establishment in the land of Canaan. The angel Gabriel communed with the prophet Daniel (Dan. 9: 20–22), and with the virgin Mary, announcing that to her was given the great honor of becoming the mother of our divine Lord: “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” Luke 1: 26–35; Matt. 1: 25. This divine announcement is quite different from Mrs. Eddy’s miserable insinuation that the child born of Mary was only human in its origin, though after its birth the “Christ” spirit, or principle, was connected with it. We plainly discern in these scriptures the wonderful mission of the angels of God, and the utter nonsense of Mrs. Eddy’s “thoughts” theory. These blessed angels, who have been spiritual ministers unto all the heirs of salvation, will form a most interesting portion of that great “family” of God in heaven (Eph. 3: 15), when all the saints of God are gathered home. There we shall learn of them their many interesting experiences while we were earthly pilgrims, and they were our heavenly helpers in gaining victories over sin. What a blessed home that will be! THE SALE OF “CHRIST’S OBJECT LESSONS” BY THE STUDENTS OF EMMANUEL MISSIONARY COLLEGE.
By Arthur G. Daniells
When the plan for selling sixty thousand copies of “Christ’s Object Lessons” in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana before the first of April, was placed before the faculty and students of Emmanuel Missionary College, a silent, general, and deep conviction settled upon them that they ought, without delay, to join our brethren and sisters in this good work. Without being asked by any one to go out and sell the book, and without counseling with one another regarding it, and with a dread of doing that kind of work, many, both among teachers and students, felt that a personal responsibility rested upon them to sell their share of the books. As soon as this became apparent, a joint meeting of the church officers and the college faculty was called, to consider the matter. This council resulted in a unanimous decision that an immediate effort ought to be made by the church and the school to sell at least four copies for every Sabbath-keeper in Berrien Springs. When this was agreed upon, all the church-members and students were called together to hear the report of the committee. After giving it careful consideration, it was voted to instruct the church officers to order five hundred books, the quota for the one hundred and twenty-five Sabbath-keepers in that place. At the same time a committee was appointed to lay plans for organizing the campaign. In a day or two the books arrived from the office, and the committee on organization reported. All the church-members and students were arranged in companies under leaders, and different sections of country were assigned to them to be worked. Tuesday night the school closed for two days, and Wednesday morning all started out to accomplish their task. The results of their efforts will be reported when their work is done. It was truly inspiring to witness the personal responsibility each one felt in this matter, and to see the determination with which every one entered upon the work. The evening they came together to make their final arrangements, there was a howling storm that would seem sufficient to chill the ardor of the strongest heart; but no one seemed affected by this. Every one planned with the greatest deliberation and courage to start out the next morning, storm or no storm. After receiving instructions from the leaders, all engaged in an earnest season of prayer for the blessing of the Lord to rest upon them as they moved out in obedience to their great Leader. In giving this report I must not omit to state that the personal interest manifested by every teacher in the school had much to do with filling the hearts of the students with courage and zeal in this movement. Timid girls who had never done any canvassing, and others who had tried it, but had failed, and had felt a great antipathy against it, were nerved for action by the courageous attitude of their teachers. No one was forced to take hold of the work; in fact, no one was urged to do so. Personal responsibility was pointed out, and every one was left to make his own choice in the matter. Another point worthy of notice was the willingness of some students to sell more than their quota, in order to help a few who, on account of their health or the duties of the house, were unable to go out. There was a general expression that the entire quota of the church and the school should be sold, even if some had to sell many times their number. The privilege of being present to witness all this was very precious to me. I never appreciated more fully the worth of humble, consecrated, courageous teachers. I said to myself that if Seventh-day Adventists could have men and women like the teachers of Emmanuel Missionary College as leaders, it would not be long until everywhere we should see them moving out courageously to perform mighty deeds for God. We await reports from Emmanuel Missionary College with deep interest. In the meantime, let me earnestly request all our brethren and sisters to respond to the call of duty in the “Christ’s Object Lessons” campaign, as our missionary school has done. They are expecting great things from you; and, inasmuch as this great campaign in these four States is in behalf of the school they are attending, they felt that it was becoming to move out in advance of the opening of the campaign, and do just as much as any other one is asked to do. And, brethren, besides working for the means with which to erect suitable buildings, pray earnestly for the blessing of the Lord to rest upon the teachers and students of Emmanuel Missionary College. [Designed for the consideration of such questions as will be of interest and profit to the general reader. All correspondents should give their names and correct post-office address, that queries not replied to here may be answered by mail.] 855.—Baptism of Fire, and Let the Dead Bury Their Dead.
In Matt. 3:11, John says, speaking of Christ, “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.” 1. What does he mean by baptizing with fire? 2. Also Luke 9:60: “Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead.” What are we taught by this? E. C. M., Wadena, Iowa. ANSWER.—1. We understand that the last clause of Matt. 3:12 explains what the baptism of fire is: “He shall burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” What is meant by being baptized with the Holy Ghost, it is not difficult to understand. It is to receive the Holy Spirit, till we are led by it, taught by it, and controlled by it. Paul says, “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” Rom. 8:15, 16. All who do not receive this Spirit which God says He will pour out upon all flesh (Acts 2:16, 17) so freely that this dispensation is called “the ministration [or dispensation] of the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:8),—all who will not accept of this Spirit are reckoned as chaff, or foul seed sown among the wheat (Matt. 13:24, 25); but when the time comes for the Son of man to send forth His angels, and gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, then all the chaff and all the tares will be cast into a furnace of fire, where the fire will envelop them, baptize them, and consume them. All who are not thus baptized with the Holy Ghost will, in this manner, be baptized with fire. But will Christ do it, as Matt. 3:11 says?—Yes; for He executes the judgment; He breaks the nations with a rod of iron, and dashes them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. Ps. 2:8, 9. The angels go forth at His direction to gather out and consume the tares. 2. Christ’s words, “Let the dead bury their dead,” do not, we imagine, teach us that we should treat our dead friends with any neglect or disregard, or manifest toward them any lack of affection. There are many expressions in the Bible that are to be understood in a comparative sense. Thus we read in Luke 14:26: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” This cannot mean that one is to exercise that malevolent and hateful disposition now understood by “hate,” against which we are so often warned in the Bible, toward his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, in order to be a disciple of Christ; but we are to take these statements in a comparative sense. There are different degrees of love, and when we reduce it to a low enough degree, it is called “hate;” that is, to “love less” than something else. Now Christ and His cause are to have the supreme place in the affections of every one who claims to be His disciple. So this simply means that one who would be a follower of Christ must love His father, mother, wife, and children less than he loves Christ, so that in a confliction of interests, when one calls in one direction, and the others call in a different way, the decision would be for Christ every time. The same principle holds in the text under consideration (Luke 9:60), and this is indicated in the last clause of the text: “But go thou and preach the kingdom of God.” If some supposed duty to a dying friend should interfere with the duty to preach the kingdom of God, this latter call has the first preference. There are those who have no interest in religious or spiritual things. They are called “dead,” in a spiritual sense. Eph. 2:1. They could comply with all the duties necessary to show proper attention to, and regard for, the dead, or attend to any other necessary duty, and at the same time neglect no demand that religious duties have upon them. Let such attend to the burial of the dead. 856.—Outpouring of the Spirit.
1. How many days after the ascension of Christ was it before the disciples received the Holy Ghost? 2. What day of the week was the day of Pentecost? E. C. M., Wadena, Iowa. ANS.—After His resurrection, Christ was seen of the disciples forty days. Acts 1:3. Pentecost was fifty days after the resurrection. The resurrection was on the first day of the week. Mark 16:9. The fiftieth day from this event would be the first day of the week. The Scriptures do not name the day of the week; but they emphasize the arrival of the antitype of the day of Pentecost: “When the day of Pentecost was fully come.” Acts 2:1. The day of the week was of no account, and had no significance. 857.—Sins in the Most Holy.
How did the sins of the children of Israel get into the most holy place of the sanctuary, so that it had to be cleansed on the tenth day of the seventh month? H. N., Blair, Neb. ANS.—The general means by which the sins of the people were borne away from themselves and lodged in the sanctuary was by the blood of the victim offered, and the ministration of the priest. The daily service that went on through the year preceding the day of atonement in the seventh month, we presume is well understood. The penitent selected his offering, and brought it to the priest at the door of the tabernacle or sanctuary. In the presence of the priest he laid his hands on the head of his victim, confessing over it his sin, then declaring that he offered that victim as his propitiation, a substitute for himself, who had sinned and was deserving of death. He then plunged the sacrificial knife into that innocent living victim—a victim innocent except for the imputed guilt of the sinner, which by this process was considered as transferred from the sinner to his offering. The priest caught the blood in a basin, and sprinkled it about the altar at the door of the sanctuary, or bore it into the holy place, and sprinkled it before the veil suspended between the two apartments of the building. On the day of atonement the work became general in form, with individual application. Two goats were brought before the priest, and by lot devoted to their respective purposes. The goat upon which the lot fell for the Lord was slain, and his blood borne into the most holy place, and ministered on behalf of all the people. The service had to do with all the people; for all were to come up around the sanctuary on that day, and afflict their souls, and whosoever would not afflict his soul was to be cut-off from among his people. Lev. 23:27, 28. The ministrations of this day, then, in a certain sense, called up all the sins of all the people for the preceding year. Paul doubtless refers to this when he says: “But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.” Heb. 10:3. The daily ministration was the means by which sins were borne into the sanctuary; the day of atonement reversed the process, and shows us the means by which, after there was remembrance made of them every year, they were borne out. The apostle Paul says that into the second apartment of the sanctuary, or most holy place, “went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people.” Heb. 9:7. The priest released from the sanctuary the sins which had been accumulating the91through the year, by sprinkling the blood of the general offering, on the day of atonement, upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat seven times (the perfect number) to show how thorough and complete is the work of forgiveness. The sins having thus been released from the sanctuary, by satisfaction having been made by the blood, to the law, the priest, bearing the sins upon him, came out to the door of the sanctuary; the live goat was brought, and the high priest, putting his hands upon its head, confessed over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat (Lev. 16:21), which was then sent away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness, thus bearing all their iniquities into a land not inhabited, or, margin, a “land of separation,” where the goat and all the sins upon him perished together. This ceremony was a figure showing how our sins, if we are overcomers, will be laid on the head of the antitypical scapegoat, the devil, who, when he perishes in the lake of fire, will take our sins with him, and we shall be troubled with the guilt of them no more forever. “All members have not the same office.” I could not do the work the reapers did,
Nor bind the golden sheaves that thickly fell;
But I could follow by my Master's side,
And watch the marred face I love so well.
Right in my path lay many a ripened ear,
Which I would stoop and gather joyfully;
I do not know the Master placed them there—
“Handful of purpose” that He left for me. I could not cast the heavy fisher net,
I had not strength nor wisdom for the task;
So on the sun-lit sands, with spray-drops wet,
I sat, and earnest prayers rose thick and fast.
I pleaded for the Master's blessing where
My brethren toiled upon the wide-world sea;
Or ever that I knew, His smile so fair
Came shedding all its radiance on me. I could not join the glorious soldier band,
I never heard the ringing battle cry;
The work allotted by the Master's hand
Kept me at home, while others went to die.
And yet, when victory crowned the struggle long,
And spoils were homeward brought, both rich
and rare,
He let me help to chant the triumph song,
And bade me in the gold and jewels share. O Master dear! the tiniest work for thee
Finds recompense beyond our highest thought;
And feeble hands that work but tremblingly,
The richest colors in the fabric wrought.
We are content to take what thou shalt give,
To work or suffer as thy choice shall be:
Forsaking what thy wisdom bids us leave,
Glad in the thought that we are pleasing thee!
—Selected.