Signs of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 39. (10/8/1912)

Signs of the Times

Oct 8, 1912

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 8, 1912

Question Corner

By Editor

"IF YE WILL INQUIRE, INQUIRE YE."

This Inquirers' Department is conducted for the purpose of helping those who are studying the Bible. The answers are oftentimes only suggestive. They are never to be considered infallible, only as they agree with the infallible Word. The writer who may answer them does not consider that his opinion is infallible. He will simply give the best that he has, and plead with the inquirer to search the Word. Such questions only will be answered as, to the editors, seem to minister to the good of the readers and to the mission of the paper. We can not answer repeatedly in the same volume questions upon the same scripture. The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable. No letters are answered which do not contain the name of the writer. It is well always to enclose stamp for reply.

3878—The Dimbleby Books

By Editor

I have seen a book written by one Dimbleby, and in it he predicted that the world would come to an end about fifteen years ago. Can it be the same Dimbleby whose books you have been procuring for persons desiring them? A. K.

It may be. Dimbleby the author of these books is now deceased, and has been some time. He was a believer in the near coming of the Lord. He never, however, presented that in any such positive way as he did his ideas on chronology. One's scientific and scholarly theories may be altogether different from his religious ideas or conceptions, and in the study of his chronology one ought to be sure that it has its basis in living truth and proved fact before it is accepted.

The Apostles and the Sabbath

The Lord's Day

1. Does the New Testament definitely speak of the "Lord's day"?

"I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day." Rev. 1:10.

2. What day is the Lord's day?

"And He said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath." Mark 2: 27, 28.

"If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Isa. 58:13, 14.

NOTE.—The text quoted from Mark definitely says that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. The Lord's day, without any question, would be that day of which the Son of Man claims to be Lord. The text quoted from Isaiah specifically calls the Sabbath "My holy day."

3. What was the custom of the apostle Paul concerning the Sabbath?

"They came to Thessalonica, where was a synagog of the Jews: and Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures." Acts 17:1, 2.

4. Did he meet with the Gentiles as well as the Jews on the Sabbath day?

"And he reasoned in the synagog every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks." Acts 18:4.

5. Were there other occasions on which the apostle Paul preached to Gentiles as well as Jews on the Sabbath day?

"They came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagog on the Sabbath day, and sat down." Acts 13:14.

6. What is the evidence that there were Gentiles as well as Jews in this congregation?

"And when the Jews were gone out of the synagog, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath." Verse 42.

7. What occurred on the following Sabbath as the result of the request of these Gentiles?

"And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God." Verse 44.

NOTE.—The foregoing scriptures—and others could well be added—should make it perfectly clear to the unbiased mind that neither the apostles, nor the Jews, nor the Gentiles, had any thought, in the days of the primitive Christian church, that there was a change of the Sabbath. The evidence is wholly wanting to support the claim that Christ and the apostles changed the day. On the other hand, we have insuperable evidence that all the Christians of the early church "rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment."

3876—The Right to Keep Sunday

Have I not a right to keep Sunday, according to Rom. 14:5, 6? Am I not justified in keeping Sunday if I keep it unto the Lord, being fully persuaded in my own mind? G. A. J.

We quote all the text which pertains to days from the American Revised Version: "One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let each man be fully assured in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord."

Let it be noted: (1) That this chapter, and the whole epistle for that matter, is addressed to Christians, to whom the apostle had emphatically taught the perpetuity and immutability of the law of which the Sabbath precept is a part. The Jews held the true "form of knowledge and of the truth" in that law, and in this they knew God's will (see chapter 2:17-23); by that law men will be judged (2:12); by that law is the knowledge of sin, and all mankind stand condemned by it (3:19, 20; 4:15; 7:7); that law witnesses to the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ (3:21, 22); faith establishes that law in the heart (3:31); grace saves from its transgression (6:1, 2, 15, 16); the demands of the law are met by those in Christ (8:4); and only the carnal heart is at enmity with its righteous requirements (8:4). Therefore the ones who heeded this epistle were Sabbath-keepers.

2. Chapter 14 can not therefore refer to the Sabbath day, but to the immaterial days, such as the Passover, Day of Atonement, etc. The expression "every day" refers to the six working-days of the week, as in Ex. 16:4, and does not include the Sabbath.

3. Romans 14 has for its specific purpose instructions to Christians that they should not judge one another; that all judgment rests with God, to whom each and all must give account. Verses 10-12.

4. So far as man is concerned, one has the right to keep any day or no day. One is not, can not be, justified before God in the observance of a day contrary to God's law. God can not justify transgression of His law. He will justify the ignorant and perfect heart despite the transgression, but not because of it.

5. It would seem that no day would be acceptable "to the Lord" that He Himself had not given. And no one could keep any day acceptable to God who was not fully persuaded in his own mind. There is no coercion in God's service; there must be the willing heart. The thought of the apostle seems to be that in immaterial things there should be liberty. A transgression of God's law would take one out of God's church entirely. Let us not use equivocal expressions to evade the plainest, clearest duty, emphasized by the example of our blessed Lord.

3877 — Faith and Sin

By Editor

Does not Rom. 14:23 mean that it is sin to doubt anything God has said?

Yes. Sin literally is missing the mark. That is the root idea of the word. And the man who lives not by faith, misses God's mark. He may not sin openly, or do anything that is seemingly contrary to common, ordinary morals; but however it may be, if he is disobeying God, he is missing the mark. The one thing which the apostle is endeavoring to emphasize in Romans 14 is that we should not judge one another. We should judge this, however,—that we should put forth every effort to serve God ourselves, and not bring a stumbling-block before our brethren; that what we do ourselves, we should not be condemned in, but that we should by faith, whatever we do, serve God, and "he that doubteth is condemned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith; and whatsoever is not of faith is sin."

3879 — Melchizedek and the King of Egypt

By Editor

I think I have seen it stated somewhere that tablets have been found which were letters written by Melchizedek to the king of Egypt. Do you know if it is so, or am I mistaken?

Some years ago there was said to be such a find, and from that it was contended that Melchizedek used to live in Egypt, because there were letters there which used the name of Melchizedek. But in the first place, the matter was quite uncertain. In the second place, there is nothing to show that it is the Melchizedek of Genesis 14, hence we have nothing there which would in any wise modify the record which is given in the chapter named.

3880—What Was Christ Doing?

By T. A. Z.

What was Christ doing in heaven before coming to this earth?

Before sin entered God's dominion, our Lord was Creator. When we look out upon the starry heavens and try to comprehend the thought that we see only an infinitesimal fraction of the created suns and worlds, it certainly would show that something had been done in the speaking of these into existence. But after sin entered, our Lord took His step down in behalf of the fallen. Read the article, "Christ as Michael the Archangel," in No. 3 of this series. This will clearly show that our Lord was not abiding in heaven, but ministering to the children of earth.

3881—"Eat Ye That Which Is Good"

By Editor

Should we understand that the vegetables mentioned in Num. 11:5 are unwholesome and forbidden?

No. It was the lusting after these things that is to be condemned. Israel were not willing to live upon God's bill of fare. The lesson is that we should not murmur against God, and should not permit our souls to be controlled by all-absorbing lusts.

God's Awful Rebuke of Sin

Schedule for the Week Ending October 19, 1912

Sunday	October 13	Acts 5
Monday	" 14	" 6, 7
Tuesday	" 15	" 8
Wednesday	" 16	" 9
Thursday	" 17	" 10
Friday	" 18	" 11
Sabbath	" 19	" 12; Psalms 108, 110

God's awful rebuke of sin first meets us in this week's lesson; His wonder working in the church after sin was rebuked; then follows the trial before the council, the choosing of the deacons, the witnessing of Stephen in life and word and death. All this God suffered that the disciples might scatter and bear the truth. Philip seems to take the place of Stephen. Saul the persecutor is converted, and becomes Paul the apostle. Peter's eyes are open as his heart has been; the Gentiles come to the light; James bears witness of his faith in his death, and Peter in imprisonment; God hears earnest prayer for the latter; the mad, wicked king dies, his disease a manifestation of his inward depravity.

Our psalms are fitting to our lesson.

EDITORIAL

By Editor

The Sabbath a Worship Day

WHEN we learn from the Bible the real purpose of the Sabbath, it is readily seen that it is preeminently a day for divine worship. And Sabbath keeping brings a joy into this worship that it is impossible to describe. The individual who looks upon the Sabbath as a gloomy day, set apart for dismal duties, has not learned the real purpose of the day, neither has he entered into its joys. The inspired promise reads:

"If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of Jehovah honorable; and shalt honor it, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in Jehovah; and I will make thee to ride upon the high places of the earth; and I will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it." Isa. 58: 13, 14.

The foregoing text asks us to "call the Sabbath a delight" as well as to call it "the holy of Jehovah honorable." We are to find in the Sabbath such delight that we will not do our own ways, nor find our own pleasure, nor speak our own words, for the reason that we have learned the delights of Jehovah, and He is feeding us with the heritage of Father Jacob.

Jacob was the prevailer with God who had his name changed to Israel, and who thus became a type of all the prevailers with God that should follow after. And all the delights of service, and of association, and of blessing, and of promise, are transmitted to the one who has entered into the real joys of Sabbath keeping. To such a one the Sabbath is not merely a day upon which he has chosen to refrain from labor, but it is the one day of the week that has God's special blessing in it. Into its rest, its joys, and its worship, he enters with heart and soul and mind.

The individual who has not found the Sabbath of Jehovah, which contains the blessing and the hallowing and the rest of Jehovah, has not yet learned from actual experience what the abounding joys of Sabbath keeping really are. It is these transcending joys that come into worship through true Sabbath keeping, that will cause a man or a woman to give up any position in the world, and to face any kind of hardships and difficulties, only that they may enter into this sacred and soul-satisfying rest. The joys of it, the satisfied contentment of it, the intelligent bliss of it, can not be described in words. It must be experienced in order to be understood.

The Sabbath calls the mind out in worship toward the greatness of Him who is the Author of the Sabbath. The mind can not worship that which is beneath us, that which is on a lower or a narrower plane than we ourselves. Worship must reach out to the great, to the sublime, to that which is far beyond us. And hence Jehovah calls us to worship Him as Creator, and the Sabbath is the worship day that commemorates creation. If you doubt this, read again the Sabbath commandment, which follows:

Worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Ex. 20: 8-11.

Woven all through this commandment is the thought of creation. God is the mighty Creator. God made the worlds; they did not evolve themselves from whirling dust. The creatures upon the earth and in the sea are His creation; they did not evolve from lower forms of life that had their beginning in some mysterious, unknown way. God is the direct Creator of the human race; God is the Author of humanity, and we are to look upon Him as our Father, and not upon the ape or the chimpanzee of the jungles

of Africa. And because He is the infinite Creator of all things in heaven and in earth, He calls upon us to worship Him. And when we consider the suns and the systems of worlds in the space about us, and when we consider that this little earth upon which we dwell is but a mere speck in the infinite expanse of God's creation, surely He presents Himself before us as an object of worship that is well worthy of our highest adoration. He is not only the Creator, but He is the Infinite One. And that we may have due opportunity to study His great creative powers as manifested in His works of field and forest and sea and sky, He has given us the Sabbath, so that we may devote one whole seventh part of our time to the delights of creation and to the joys of worshiping the Creator.

The exiled prophet of Patmos sends this inspiring message to the generation that will live when the hour of the great judgment is pending:

"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." Rev. 14: 6, 7.

This message calls the human race to "worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." This is a call to worship God as Creator, and that, too, right when the judgment-day is pending. And the fourth commandment, quoted in the foregoing, shows unmistakably that the call to worship Him as the Creator is a call to Sabbath keeping.

Is there not a great need for such a call? We are living in the days when the prophecies make it clear that the end of all things is just before us, and when, in the language of the prophecy just quoted, the "hour of His judgment is come." And in this very time, faith in evolution has taken the place,

not merely in the world, but even in the professed church itself, of faith in the creative acts of Jehovah. The story of Genesis and the force of the fourth commandment are made to bow, in the mind of the great multitude, before the well-nigh universal sentiments of evolution. And against the absurd speculations of the evolutionist, there is proclaimed in the sublimely binding declarations of the fourth of the ten precepts of Jehovah the truth that creation has a Creator; that it did not blindly create itself.

The issue is clear and well defined. It is evolution and infidelity on the one hand; on the other it is the Creator, and faith, and an intelligent Sabbath keeping that recognizes and adores this Creator. And do not overlook the fact that while this issue is balancing in the minds of men, the great judgment-day is pending, and the decisions that men reach will be acted upon very soon by the infinite and just Judge. Neither should we overlook this other fact — that Sabbath keeping as taught by the Bible carries with it the worship of the Creator Himself. It is the worship day of Jehovah, in which His creative power in a special sense is recognized. The Sabbath is the worship day that commemorates the real, living, infinite Father and Creator, as opposed to human speculations that have made a creator out of some unknown “spontaneous generation” through the dreams of evolution.

Jehovah through His Word is calling the world to take its stand on this momentous issue. Where will you stand when the Judge arises from His throne to issue the decree that He has already foretold?

“He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the Tree of Life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Rev. 22: 11-14.

Incarnation of What?

By W.

GOD designed that man’s body should be the dwelling-place of His Spirit. The body, the flesh, of every man is rightfully the temple of God. In the holiness of primitive man, God was incarnate. He dwelt in the flesh. He was manifest in the highest form that earth knew, in earth’s highest creature, man.

This indwelling of God in the flesh was the one essential thing. That lost, all was lost. And when man permitted Satan to enter, he by that very thing bade God depart. Sin can not reign where the presence of the Infinite is cherished; but Infinite Love will not stay where the enemy of all good is admitted on equal terms.

When man yielded to the temptations of the deceiver, sin became incarnate, or enfleshed. Satan through sin took the place that belonged to God. The mind submitted to sin, became carnal; and the will yielded to sin, became enslaved.

This was the battle Satan won in the stronghold of this world. Winning it, he became “the god of this world,” “the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience.”

The world must be won back in the very field where it was lost, in the temple of God in man. God must come again into the flesh to reign. Holiness must become incarnate. It was here that our Lord Jesus Christ won His victory. He took upon Himself our nature, was “made of the seed of David according to the flesh,” was partaker of flesh and blood even as the children of men, was in all points tempted as we are; and in sinful flesh He won and held, every moment of His life, the glorious victory. He was “God manifest in the flesh.” He rescued the body of the flesh, the temple of God, from the power of sin.

The hope of every child of earth lies in this victory and in no other. He must, in the strength of Christ’s presence, in “the power of an endless life” which Christ alone can give, win and hold the same victory. He can do this — every soul can do this — by accepting Jesus Christ. And “as many as received Him, to them gave He power [right, authority] to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” John 1: 12. This is the privilege of every soul — to receive the Son of the living God, to let Him reign in the flesh of each as He did in the flesh of Jesus of Nazareth.

O soul, accept Him, hold Him, by living faith. Be yourself the incarnation of our blessed Lord, not the incarnation of sin. Let Christ dwell in you, the hope of glory. W.

Science and the Unity of the Scriptures

By R.

SOME of our readers will be ready to accuse us of prejudice, and their accusation will take something of this form:

“It is very easy to see why you stand for the literal days of Genesis and the doctrines of a special creation.”

“Why so?” I ask, willing to aid the argument.

“Because you are an observer of the seventh day, and therefore must hold to the literal interpretation of the Scriptures to uphold your view of a definite Sabbath day. If you admit that the days are not necessarily literal twenty-four-hour days, you thereby give up your principal reason for a definite Sabbath.”

“You are perfectly right,” I answer. “It is the very point I have been endeavoring to make; namely, that according to the account in Genesis and the fourth commandment of the Decalogue, a special creation and the Sabbath are absolutely linked together. If we let the Sabbath go, we let go with it the special creation of God. For the special creation of the world by the word of God means its creation in six literal days of time. And the Sabbath as the seventh literal day is the climax and memorial of all the others and of what was made in them.”

Furthermore, if we let the special creation of God go, and assume the idea of modern science, that the world was created during the lapse of untold ages, in which the numbers six and seven have no recognized standing whatever, we have no logical ground for observing the seventh day as a memorial of the same. Under such circumstances there is no fitness whatever in the sign. It is as incongruous as a blacksmith’s sign over the door of a fancy grocery store. The two could not go together.

But I believe that the Word means what it says. The Word says that the Sabbath is to be observed because God created the heaven and the earth in six days and rested the seventh. I am to follow His example. Now, if He did not do this, but created the world in the long lapse of centuries, and has not rested from that work even yet—for modern science declares that “creation is a continuous process, and the work is still going on, and will for indefinite time, even to the attainment of perfection”—then I am told to do something for a reason which does not exist, and am consequently commanded to commemorate a lie.

It may be charged against the Sabbath observer that he is prejudiced; that he argues as he does in order to hold for Sabbath observance; and that, if he interprets the first of Genesis in other than a literal way, it would be to his own logical undoing.

But we are ready to charge and maintain that if the literal interpretation of Genesis is thrown out, not only will the Sabbath have to go, but every other thing that, with the matter of a special creation, touches on the miraculous. This is not only what follows logically, but it has followed literally in the case of all who have undertaken it.

For example, a man of intelligence and learning many years ago set out to break down the truth of the first chapter of Genesis. He had no idea, when he set out on this excursion, just where his steps would lead; but it is very plain to-day, that this path he took led him away from the landmarks of the Scriptures.

He tells us that he set out on a journey with the single purpose of exploring a certain province of natural knowledge. Straying, as he says, not a hair’s breadth from this path, he found, whatever route he took, a tall and formidable looking fence barring his way. He calls it a thorny barrier with a prohibitory notice board with words written thereon: “No Thorofare. By order. Moses.”

Thus picturesquely does he describe to us the fact that the Word hindered his exploration in the realm of science. Whichever way he went, he found it denying what seemed to him to be true. Did he regard this Word? Did he respect this fence?—Not he!

He tells us that the fence turned out to be, in his estimation, a mere heap of dry sticks and brushwood, and one might walk through it with impunity—and this he did.

But he did not stop here. He went on, as we feel clear to say, from bad to worse. Grown bold by his trespassing on forbidden fields, he tells us that it was no responsibility of his, if he found the Gospels with their miraculous stories, of which the Gadarene is a typical example, blocking his way, as heretofore the book of Genesis had done. And then he proceeds to do all violence against the Gospels that he previously had done against the record of creation.

I am well aware that many will think this case of Huxley’s an extreme one, and that it by no means follows that because he took such a plunge through his efforts against the idea of a special creation, others will do the same. But on this head I am ready again to charge

and maintain that if one takes his first step, all the rest logically and consistently follows, and it is the only logical and consistent thing that can follow.

Huxley felt that he had been consistent, and that those who took a few of his first steps and did not take the rest were plainly inconsistent. Once go against the literal words of the Scripture because science controverts their truth, and you must logically go against the literal interpretation of all the Scriptures when science controverts their truth.

Huxley himself said that his utmost ingenuity did not enable him to discover a flaw in the argument “that the demonstration of the falsity of the Hebrew records, especially in regard to those narratives which are assumed to be true in the New Testament, would be fatal to Christian theology.” (“Science and Hebrew Tradition,” page 207.)

He says: “I am fairly at a loss to comprehend how any one, for a moment, can doubt that Christian theology must stand or fall with the historical trustworthiness of the Jewish Scriptures. The very conception of the Messiah, or Christ, is inextricably interwoven with Jewish history; the identification of Jesus of Nazareth with that Messiah rests upon the interpretation of passages of the Hebrew Scriptures which have no evidential value unless they possess the historical character assigned to them. If the covenant with Abraham was not made; if circumcision and sacrifice were not ordained by Jahveh; if the ‘ten words’ were not written by God’s hand on the stone table; if Abraham is more or less a mythical hero, such as Theseus; the story of the Deluge a fiction; that of the fall a legend; and that of the creation the dream of a seer; if all these definite and detailed narratives of apparently real events have no more value as history than have the stories of the regal period of Rome,—what is to be said about the Messianic doctrine, which is so much less clearly enunciated? And what about the authority of the writers of the books of the New Testament, who, on this theory, have not merely accepted flimsy fiction for solid truths, but have built the very foundations of Christian dogma upon legendary quicksands?”

Do you see the direction that his logic leads him? Do you hesitate to follow where he leads? There is only one safe way. Do not take even the first step with him.

(Concluded next week)

Is It Knowledge or Love?

By W.

SAYS the great apostle, “Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.” 1 Cor. 8:1. To put it in simple Anglo-Saxon, “Knowledge puffeth up, but love buildeth up.” Many possess knowledge who know not love.

Knowledge is a mere accumulation of cold, dead, empty facts, mere shells or forms, having no other power of themselves but to inflate the mind that contains them.

The difference between knowledge and love is the difference between a soap-bubble and a pearl. The one may shine for a few seconds with all the beautiful, blending, changing, coruscating colors of the rainbow, but the next moment it is gone; but the beautiful pearl, built up by a yielded life, little by little, shines as beautifully, and abides. Who would not prefer the pearl to the bubble?

The same difference is well illustrated in a gorgeous silk inflated balloon and a substantial house. The one is puffed up, the other is built up from the foundation rock. The former may permit a man or two to soar in peril for a little while; the other, tho not as beautiful outwardly perhaps, forms a safe, comfortable, and abiding habitation. The one is a plaything of storm and tempest, invariably driven to destruction if cast loose; the other is a shelter in the time of storm, a refuge from cold and heat. Which do you prefer, the balloon or the house?

It is not so difficult to obtain knowledge of the empty facts of the Christian religion. Many of the scholars of India are more than a match for the puffed up missionaries they meet. One often meets with an infidel who has gathered many facts of Holy Writ; and it may safely be said that the devil is an extraordinary living (or dying) encyclopedia of facts concerning the work of God in the salvation of men.

But mere facts will not save. To depend upon them for food is to feed upon ashes, out of which the life has been burned. To depend upon them for shelter in storm and tempest is to trust in a hot-air balloon. To cherish them as marvels of value and beauty is soap-bubble fancy.

It is love only that abides; love only that stands the storm and stress and trial of life.

Love has cast off self, yielded all to Christ, and in sweetest devotion accepted His way as best. It is born of the love of God, which spared not the eternal Son, but gave Him a ransom for all. It responds to that love by yielding all. The psalmist expresses it thus: “O how love I Thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” The Spirit of Christ in David declares, “I delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea, Thy law is within My heart.” The same Spirit of life in John declared, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous.”

Love has knowledge. It does not merely know about God, but it knows God. It is like a knowing of the father, not of the man. There are boys that know of the educated, refined man across the way, with his large estate, immense wealth, great fertile fields, fruitful orchards, and large benevolence, of which they have been in varying degrees partakers; but there are other boys who know the man as a father, who have access to the inner circle of his affections, who have partaken of the great warmth of his love, who know the tenderness of his severity, the sweetness of his reproof, the wisdom of his counsel, the strength of his love. The first boys mentioned may know the statistics of the man’s estate, the amount of his wealth, the figures of his public benevolences; the latter class may not know any of these facts, they may have never inquired, but they know what is infinitely better, the great wealth of heart love and nobility and sweetness of his manhood and fatherhood even to the extent of his ability and life.

Love, the love born of God, is built on the foundation Rock, Christ Jesus. It is the principle, the expression, the fulness, of His life. Love “beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth.” It is of God, eternal, immortal, and to it the knowledge of eternity will be imparted. Reader, is it knowledge or love?

The Peace of God

By w.

walking in that peace, the eternal harmony of heaven grows more ravishing and entrancing, the peace deeper and more abundant. This is “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding.” w.

About Hell

By T.

About Hell.—A preacher over in Oklahoma, according to articles that he is furnishing for one of our religious exchanges, has become very much burdened over teaching the world the ancient theory of hell-fire and brimstone. He thinks that he finds the basis for his doctrine in the Bible. But the Bible does not teach, nor has it ever taught, that there is an eternally burning lake of fire and brimstone in which the wicked will writhe forever. The injustice of such a thing ought to appeal to any reasonable mind; and the individual who has thought that the Bible taught this doctrine, should give a great sigh of relief when he finds that this is not true. The God of the Bible is not a tyrant who takes pleasure in tormenting people.

The Bible does plainly say that the wicked shall be totally burned up, but nowhere does it say that they will burn forever and ever. One of the clear Bible texts upon the subject is the following: “For, behold, the day cometh, it burneth as a furnace; and all the proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith Jehovah of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear My name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings; and ye shall go forth, and gambol as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make, saith Jehovah of hosts.” Mal. 4:1-3.

Now notice that this text says that the wicked shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up, so that it leaves them neither root nor branch; and furthermore, “they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of Hosts.” The wicked man has shown himself utterly unworthy to possess eternal life, and therefore God does the most merciful thing; that is, totally destroys him.

The doctrine of eternal torment is an outgrowth of that other unscriptural doctrine of the natural immortality of the soul, and has been made to do great service among religious teachers who sought to play upon the terrors of individuals until they could drive them into the church. The writer calls to mind more than one infidel who has been won to the Christ of the Bible on finding that the God of the Bible is not the author of the doctrine of the eternally burning lake of fire and brimstone. If this brother-pastor will only study his Bible anew, and with unprejudiced mind, he will find that he is performing a thankless task, even tho he thinks he is doing God service. T.

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