Signs of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 53. (11/12/1894)

Signs of the Times

Nov 12, 1894

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 12, 1894

The Teaching Is Wrong

By Editor

Man’s Proper Study.—It is an old heathen legend, “Know thyself,” and Pope has expressed the same sentiment:—

“Know then thyself; presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man.” And Christian papers are advocating the same sentiment at the present time. In fact, it is taught in our schools, in moral and mental philosophy, in psychology, and in various forms, till the whole world believes that “the proper study of mankind is man.”

The Teaching Is Wrong.—It may seem a bold statement to say that such education is radically wrong; but it is wrong, nevertheless. Man will never know himself by the study of himself. The simple fact is that man has been studying himself through millennia of the past, but what has he learned of himself in himself by himself? What does philosophy, unaided by supernatural wisdom, know of man now that it did not know two thousand years ago? It has been learned that man is a creature of complex emotions, passions, appetites, desires, ambitions, purposes. He seems strong and is weak. He conquers men and nations, and is himself conquered by appetite and passion. He sacrifices life even for ambition, patriotism, military glory; he sells honor for the same price. Who knows him? Who can understand him? Just as the problem is about to be solved by wise philosophy, a simple fact upsets all theories.

A Divine Truth.—All of this God has revealed to us. Says his Spirit by the prophet, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” This is what infinite wisdom says of man. “Deceitful above all things” indicates the difficulty of the task man sets himself when he hopes to know man. He has been studying for ages those things less complex than man’s heart, things which know no deceit; he has studied the tiny flower, the blade of grass, the ray of light; but what does he know about them? Who then can know the deceitful heart of man? It is no less deceitful to himself than to others. How many times do men promise certain things, make certain vows, resolve to live a good life, but as often they break promises, vows, and resolutions. And yet they designed to keep them when made. They did not know themselves.

God Alone Knows Man.—It is because man does not know his heart that God reveals to us that he does. After indicating by the question, “Who can know it?” that mortal cannot know it, he continues, “I the Lord search the heart.” Jer. 17:10. The Psalmist says: “O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsetting and mine uprising; thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.” Ps. 139:1-5. It is no wonder that the Psalmist exclaims, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.” And neither can any. The proof that God knows the human heart, the hearts of all, and foretold their very purposes before they were born, is proof of his Deity. Man does not know himself, cannot know himself of himself by studying himself. Neither does he know his fellow-man.

How May Man Learn Himself?—By the revealed will of God, enlightened by his Spirit. God has revealed himself and given his word through Jesus Christ. He is the Word that is God, that was in the beginning with God, through whom all things were made, and by whom all things are revealed, and who lighteth every man that cometh into the world. (See John 1:1-4, 9; 1 Cor. 8:6.) He reveals us to ourselves by his word: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight; but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” Heb. 4:12, 13. Therefore the way, and the only way, to learn ourselves is by the word of God. We are not to look upon ourselves, we are not to look within, we are not to analyze this emotion or that or the other, but to study the word. The Lord says through a chosen servant, “Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.” 2 Tim. 2:7. If we are to know ourselves, we are to learn it from God, who has revealed it in his word.

How Revealed.—The Lord tells us in that word just what kind of beings we are: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” The Revised Version reads “desperately sick.” The disease is sin. Elsewhere the Great Physician gives us a fuller diagnosis: “Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity! . . . The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores; they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.” Isa. 1:4-6. The apostle tells us that all are in this same condition of moral disease: “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Rom. 3:23. The symptoms of the disease are many, and are given in many places, one instance of which will here suffice: “The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like; of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Gal. 5:19-21. And everywhere in his holy word God reveals to man his wretched, hopeless, lost, undone condition. Of course there are many in the prosperity of health and plenty who will not believe it; but he who continues therein finds the end of the leprosy with which he is afflicted,—hopeless death. God desires us to know our condition, not from experience, but by faith in his word.

The Great Physician.—God does not reveal to us our true condition to discourage us. He does not say that we are smitten with the leprosy of sin that he may banish us from his presence. Like the earthly physician, oftentimes, he does not say: “My friend, this is your disease; these are the correct symptoms, but I cannot cure you. I may alleviate your sufferings somewhat by anesthetics, or opiates, but you are doomed to die.” Jesus Christ shows us our condition that we may be alarmed and come to him. He tells of the bruise that he may be permitted to apply the healing balm. He reveals the putrid sore that he may cleanse and heal. He says to the sin-sick, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; . . . and with his stripes we are healed.” Praise God that it is so, that there is One whose skill is so great, whose arm so long, whose power so mighty, that he can take the lowest, the weakest, the vilest, and restore him to “perfect soundness” if he will but let him do it. He who knows our case knows how to heal us and keep us to the end, for what he begins in our souls he will finish in our bodies. Phil. 3:20, 21. Will we come to him?

Clearer Vision.—If we accept him, we learn more of self, learn it by contrast. As we study God’s word, it reveals to us Jesus Christ, the revelation of the character of God. As we see his love, his beauty, his loveliness, holiness, righteousness, we realize ever more and more of our own defects of character. Through another prophet the Lord says: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. . . . I will also save you from all your uncleannesses. . . . Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.” Eze. 36:26-31. This is what man sees and will see in the vision clarified by the Spirit of God in the light of the presence of the Lord. Thus it was with Isaiah when he saw the vision of God’s glory. Isa. 6:1-8. Thus it was with Daniel when the Son of God appeared to him. Dan. 10:5-11. But in both cases it brought blessing to the men who had renounced the sin and chosen God. Would we know man? —Learn of God. Would we see ourselves as we are?—Look at Jesus Christ. There is no other way. Should we desire another?—Looking at him is life.

“Side Tracking the Church.”—Under the above heading Rev. William Kincaid, D.D., has an article in the Advance of October 25, in which he points out the ways in which the great adversary is side tracking the church. Among these switches he mentions Second Probation, Higher Criticism, Naturalism, Socialism, Humanitarianism, and the Political Switch. On this last he has the following to say, which we commend to our readers, with the suggestion that all this Sunday-law clamor is but the workings of Satan to shunt the church on the political siding. Has he not accomplished it? Dr. Kincaid says:—

Very recently we have heard the creaking of the political switch. It is some time since Satan has meddled with this, and it has grown more or less rusty from disuse. But lately he has been suggesting to the Christian Endeavor Societies that it is a pity that such numbers, such organization, and such youthful enthusiasm should all be wasted. What could they not accomplish if gathered into a new political party and directed against governmental corruption and in the interests of civil reform! As though the production of Christian manhood in themselves and others, a manhood that is the source and substance of all genuine reformation, both in Church and State, were not the highest and holiest work that could possibly occupy the thought of the members of these societies.

In fact, impatience of the slow, hand-to-hand process of saving men one by one is a switch which is very apt to side track the church. Satan suggests that the work should be planned on a larger and more comprehensive scale. “Strike for the high places, the sources of influence and power,” he says. “Capture the king and the court, Congress and the cabinet.” He would have us repeat the mistake of Rome, or of the middle ages of the church, when whole nations were converted by simply converting their kings. “Have any of the rulers believed in him?” he would make the vital question, whereas our Lord declared that his kingdom is “not of this world,” that it “cometh not with observation,” that we should render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.

JUDGE MAGUIRE AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.

By Editor

THERE is much said at the present time with reference to religious liberty, especially since the A. P. A. became so prominent. Of course it is claimed by the friends of that organization that they are working for religious liberty. The Roman Catholics and their friends claim as strenuously that the A. P. A. is the foe of religious freedom, while they, the Catholics, are the only true conservators of religious liberty. It is stated by one party that our own government grants religious liberty; by the other it is denied.

So far as these two organizations are concerned they both stand on the same principles and are actuated by the same motive. We will leave them out of the question. The great danger which menaces this nation is the ignorance of its people, many of whom really desire religious liberty, and who believe that we now have it. This is preached from pulpit and platform. Many times good things are said, but generally there is that with the good things which virtually nullifies them, or which tends to produce absolute indifference on the part of the hearer. An instance of this is found in the following eloquent words from one of California's representatives to Congress, a learned jurist, the Hon. James Maguire. In a recent speech in San Francisco he said:—

"The civil and religious liberty, of which, as I have said, our common-school system is the greatest conservator, cannot be too clearly apprehended nor too often called to the minds of our fellow-citizens. We are too likely to underestimate the difference between the religious liberty for which this country stands and the mere religious toleration of some of the older countries, from which the founders of our institutions fled in order to enjoy the splendid boon of real liberty to worship God according to their varying beliefs. In this land there is no more sacred right of citizenship than that of being absolutely free in matters of religious thought and worship and teaching. Here citizens of all churches and of all sects are absolutely equal in all the rights of citizenship, and the denial of any right of citizenship merely because of difference in religious belief is a violation of one of the most sacred principles of American liberty. The government of this country is a purely civic organization, professing no religion, but respecting and defending all religions. The Democratic position upon that question has ever been that the State shall never interfere in the affairs of any church, and that no church shall ever interfere in the affairs of State—that in the public service and in the broader domain of citizenship there shall be neither bar nor privilege arising out of any man's religious opinions; that he shall be judged as a citizen and as an officer by the qualities of manhood, of intelligence, of honesty, and of patriotism which his own conduct discloses."

We have but two faults to find with the foregoing:—

1. It is not true as respects this government. It was once measurably true. But in 1892 this government in its three branches committed itself to religious interference in the matter of the Sunday sabbath. In doing this they discriminated in favor of those who regard Sunday as holy, and against those who do not. In the King case, of Tennessee, the Circuit Court of the United States, speaking through Judge Hammond, in 1891, justified persecution for religion's sake; and from the action of the Supreme Court in its decision in the Trinity Church case, rendered Feb. 29, 1892, we have no reason to believe that Judge Hammond's decision would have been reversed.

2. The second fault we have to find is with the following sentence:—

"The government of this country is a purely civic organization, professing no religion, but respecting and defending all religions."

This may have been spoken of "religionists." If so we would have no criticism to offer. We take it as we find it in the Oakland Times. A civic government has no business whatsoever with any religion. It cannot in the very nature of the case defend all religions. How would it have defended the idolatry of the East and Mohammedanism at the same time during their bloody wars? How could it, in the nature of the case, when a majority of its subjects were Christian, defend the religion of the Chinese or the fetishism of the negro?

Civil government has no business to interfere with any religion. It has no business to stand for or against any religion. It is the business of civil government to protect its subjects, no matter what religion he professes. If nine hundred and ninety-nine are Christians and one is a Jew, the Jew is as much entitled to all the protection of the government as are the nine hundred and ninety-nine; but not because he is a Jew, but because he is a man, entitled to equal rights and privileges. If the Jew were a thousand and the Christian were one, the principle is the same. If the one thousand Jews wish to observe the seventh day, they may, but they have no right to compel the Christian to observe it, nor has the government the right to aid them. The Christian has the right to work on that day if he chooses, so as not to interfere with the worship of the Jew. But he has no right to demand that the Jews shall rest or refrain from labor on the first day because he does. They have a perfect right to do just as they please, providing their actions are not uncivil or criminal. The Christian should be willing to accede the right of the Jew to labor on the first day, even as he demands of the Jew the right to labor on the seventh day. The many have no more right to disturb the one than the one the many; neither have the many the right to dictate to the one his religious duty to God or his fellow-man any more than has the one to dictate to the many. Religious liberty means absolute equality, not of religions, but men. The religions are matters of which the government, as a government, should know nothing. Religion is a matter solely between man and his God, and concerns only him and whomsoever of his fellows man may voluntarily unite with apart from all governmental control, interference, or privileges.

But, as Judge Maguire says, the matter of civil and religious liberty "cannot be too clearly apprehended, nor too often called to the minds of our fellow-citizens." The best place to learn the truest principles is in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

"HEAR YE HIM."

By Editor

ONE correspondent writes us as follows:—

When Christ rose from the dead, he said to us to remember the first day of the week, and the people began to do so. At the time Christ was baptized there was a voice from heaven (was it not the voice of God?) which said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." There God turned his authority over to Jesus. We are to obey Jesus.

Here are three points which we wish to consider for the benefit of our candid correspondent and others: (1) What Christ said about the first day; (2) "hear ye him;" (3) the authority Christ had.

1. When did Christ say, "Remember the first day of the week"? More than this, when did he even name in any way the first day of the week? It is not recorded in the word of God that he ever mentioned it. Matthew wrote from seven to thirty years after the crucifixion; Mark, about thirty years after; Luke, about thirty-three years after; John, sixty-six years after; and Paul, twenty-six years after. These men all wrote by inspiration. The Spirit of God spoke through them. Yet every one of them called the first day of the week by that term alone, and called the day just before it "the Sabbath." Our Lord never observed the first day as a holy day, nor did he teach others to do it; neither did his apostles so teach.

2. "Hear ye Him." Yes, hear Jesus, the Son of God. He says: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. [The heaven and earth are not yet passed; every tittle of the law, therefore, remains.] Whosoever therefore shall break one of the least of these commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least ["in no esteem," Campbell, McKnight] in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 5:17-19.

"Hear ye Him:" "Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 7:21. The will of God is his holy law. See Ps. 40:7, 8.

"Hear ye Him:" "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." Matt. 19:17.

"Hear ye Him:" "If any man will do His [the Father's] will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." John 7:17.

"Hear ye Him:" "Blessed are they that do His [the Father's] commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." Rev. 22:14.

Yea, hear Christ, and everywhere you will find him exalting, honoring, magnifying the holy law of God, the ten commandments. He magnified it in his teaching; he honored it in his blameless life and in his death upon the cross, showing that the transgression of the holy law could not be excused. Yes, hear Him; and if you do what you hear, you will be obedient to all the commandments of God.

3. Hear Him also in regard to his teaching and authority:—

"My doctrine is not mine, but His [the Father's] that sent me. If any man will do His will [God's will is his law, Ps. 40:7, 8], he shall know of the doctrine." John 7:16, 17.

"For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak." John 12:49.

"He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself; but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." John 14:9, 10.

The first of the above texts under the third division (John 7:16, 17) was written before the transfiguration, the last two afterward, yet all tell the same story. In fact, the Father and Son are one. John 10:30. He who would endeavor to set the law of one against the teaching of the other, whether he knows it or not, is seeking to destroy all government, and to bring anarchy and chaos into the government of God.

A PERPETUAL MEMORIAL.

By Ellen G. White

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.

THE law of God is immutable in its character, for "it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than for one tittle of the law to fail." The law of God is a revelation of the divine will, a transcript of the divine character, and must forever endure. Not one command has been annulled; not a jot or a tittle of the law has been changed. The Psalmist says, "Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven." "All his commandments are sure. They stand fast forever and ever." In the very bosom of the Decalogue is the fourth commandment, as it was proclaimed:—

"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 manservant, nor thy maidservant, 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."

The claim so often put forth that Christ changed the Sabbath is disproved by his own words. In the sermon on the mount he said: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Both by precept and example the Saviour taught the sacred obligations of the Sabbath commandment. Throughout his ministry upon earth no small share of his teaching was directed toward instructing men as to what was lawful to do upon the Sabbath day. He set aside the traditions of men, and because he did not concede to the perverted customs of the Jews, by which they heaped exactions upon the people in regard to the

Sabbath, he was accused of Sabbath breaking. But this was a false charge, for he declared that the works of mercy and necessity which he had done were lawful works and in harmony with Sabbath keeping. In their ignorance and superstition the Jews had condemned the guiltless. Are there not others who have followed this course and have charged Christ with Sabbath breaking, with violation of the law of God?

Jesus said at the close of his earthly ministry, "I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." Neither the Saviour nor his followers ever broke the law of the Sabbath. Had the Jews been able to sustain their charge against Christ as a Sabbath breaker, as they tried to do, they would have had no need of bringing false witnesses in order that they might secure his condemnation and death. But because no fault could be found with him, in order to secure his death it was necessary that men should perjure their souls by testifying to a lie.

Christ not only honored the Sabbath throughout his life upon the earth, but he provided that its sacred claims should be remembered and honored after his death and resurrection. When warning his disciples of the destruction of Jerusalem, which did not take place until forty years after his ascension, he said, "But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day; for then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time." In accordance with his instruction, the followers of Christ were enabled to depart from the besieged city, and escape to the mountains, not taking their flight either in the winter, nor upon the Sabbath day. After the death of Christ the disciples "rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment." After the ascension of Christ, Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles, preached to both Jews and Gentiles "on the Sabbath day."

Then how can we account for the observance of the first day of the week by the majority of professed Christians, when the Bible presents no authority for this change either in the precepts or in the example of Christ or his followers? We can account for it in the fact that the world has followed the traditions of men instead of a "Thus saith the Lord." This has been the work that Satan has always sought to accomplish,—lead men away from the commandments of God to the veneration and obedience of the traditions of the world. Through human instrumentalities he has cast contempt upon the Sabbath of Jehovah, and has stigmatized it as "the old Jewish Sabbath." Thousands have thoughtlessly echoed this reproach, as though it were something to which was attached great weight of argument; but they have lost sight of the fact that the Jewish people were especially chosen of God as the guardians of his truth, the keepers of his law, the depositary of his sacred oracles. They received the lively oracles to give unto us. The Old and New Testaments both came through the Jews to us. Every promise in the Bible, every ray of light which has shone upon us from the word of God, has come through the Jewish nation.

Christ was the leader of the Hebrews as they marched from Egypt to Canaan. In union with the Father, Christ proclaimed the law amid the thunders of Sinai to the Jews, and when he appeared on earth as a man among men, he came as a descendant of Abraham. Shall we use the same argument concerning the Bible and Christ, and reject them as Jewish, as is done in rejecting the Sabbath of the Lord our God? The Sabbath institution is as closely identified with the Jews as is the Bible, and there is the same reason for the rejection of one as of the other. But the Sabbath is not Jewish in its origin. It was instituted in Eden before there were such a people known as the Jews. The Sabbath was made for all mankind, and was instituted in Eden before the fall of man. The Creator called it "my holy day." Christ announced himself as "the Lord of the Sabbath." Beginning with creation, it is as old as the human race, and having been made for man it will exist as long as man shall exist. Hallowed by the Creator's rest and blessing, the Sabbath was kept by Adam in his innocence in holy Eden, by Adam fallen, yet repentant, when he was driven from his happy estate. It was kept by all the patriarchs from Abel to Noah, to Abraham, to Jacob. When the chosen people were in bondage in Egypt, many, in the midst of the prevailing idolatry, lost their knowledge of God's law; but when the Lord delivered Israel, he proclaimed his law in awful grandeur to the assembled multitude, that they might know his will, and fear and obey him forever.

From that day to this the knowledge of God's law has been preserved in the earth, and the Sabbath of the fourth commandment has been kept. Christ has given no hint that the seventh-day Sabbath has ever been or ever could be changed, and no apostolic example for the change from the seventh to the first day of the week can be cited. The custom of observing the first day of the week instead of the seventh day of divine appointment has no authority save that of tradition, popular custom, and the command of the Church of Rome. The Church of Rome has been the agent by which Satan has made this breach in the law of God, and turned the professed Christian world away from the precepts of Jehovah. Through his insinuation men made the claim that because Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week, therefore the first day of the week should be celebrated as the Christian sabbath, but the Scriptures give no authority for this manner of reasoning. The prince of evil well knew that could he set aside the true foundation for Sabbath observance, he could make the fourth commandment of no significance in the minds of men. Thus, under the pretense of honoring Christ, Satan succeeds in tearing down God's great memorial, turning the minds of men away from their Creator in a false zeal for a spurious institution. He led the Jews to have a false zeal for the Sabbath, and then induced them to reject Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath.

(Concluded next week.)

A PRAYER.

By Nina R. Allen

BY NINA R. ALLEN.

Lord, teach us how to pray. Oh, do thou lead the way! So rough the path sometimes, so dim and steep, So steep and dim, where fall the shadows deep, With perils fraught, when darkling fogs obscure, Or will-o-wisps to deadly marsh allure, When pales the cloudless splendor of the noon, Or blackness robs the sky of guiding moon, Then teach us how to pray, And lead us into day.

Teach us for what to pray. Lord, do not let us stray Afar from thee. Teach us to choose life's gold, Not dross, to know that pain and grief enfold A blessing and a peace, steadfast and sweet; Make blind eyes see; give strength to stumbling feet.

Within the ashes of a dead self lies A nobler self. To thee our dead past cries. Teach us for what to pray, To rise above our clay.

—New York Observer.

The Deifying of "Science."

By Editor

There is a great deal of it at the present time. Contradictory as are its deductions and its advocates, Babylonic as is its condition in the minds of many, it demolishes the Bible and dethrones its Author. An incidental inference of this kind is furnished in an editorial in the Examiner of October 29. In speaking of the new diphtheria cure, it says:—

The conquest of another disease is an event to be hailed with satisfaction by the world. It is another step toward the day when all sickness will be under the control of science.

The next thing claimed for "science" will be the abolition of death. But disease and death will not be abolished till sin is no more, and that will not be till it is destroyed by the brightness of the glory of Christ's presence. There is true science,—knowledge,—and there is also "science falsely so called." The sum of all knowledge is to know God and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent. This is given in God's word and is eternal life, because it is righteousness. All science apart from that, either in possession or exercise, is worthless.

NOT CHEATED.

By J. D. Pegg

A GENTLEMAN was showing me a piece of land which he had purchased, and telling me what it cost. I said: "You paid too much. It is not worth what you gave for it." He then showed me its real resources, and pictured what it would be when certain improvements were made and the resources developed. "Ah," I said, "you intend to make it worth what you gave for it!"

Christ bought us, sinful though we be, and gave an infinite price for us. Looking at the rough, undeveloped substance as we are, we say: "Surely a bad bargain. He paid more than he will ever get out of us." But he, looking on into the future, when all the universe will glisten and sparkle with the glory of Christ, can see the glory of himself in us, and can feel the thrill of love which only redeemed souls can give, and can hear the hum of melody of which now no trace appears. He intends to exalt us until we will be worth to him and to the universe all he ever gave for us. Brother, are not you glad?—J. D. Pegg.

Continue reading: WHAT HAS BECOME OF THE JESUITS?