Earlier text: The BiblePride and Dress
By Clarence Santee
“What will ye do in the end thereof?” Jer. 5:31, last part. This question, gravely considered, would lead many to make changes in their plans, which without consideration they are anxious to carry into effect. Seventh-day Adventists cannot lay plans as other people. They must all the time reckon with the changes that they know will shortly come to this present world. The values that the world places upon the things that surround them, are far different from those placed upon the same by the Christian. The world must love its own (John 15:19); it has nothing else to love. It must place all its treasure here; it has no other place to bestow it. But the child of God, knowing that these things are about to be destroyed, and that to set the heart upon them, brings only “enmity with God,” places less and still less value upon them, as he sees the end drawing near. He obeys the command of Christ, “According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it.” Lev. 25:16. This was the instruction of the Lord concerning the time to the jubilee, which was a type of the final return of God’s people to the home the Lord has prepared for them. Truly the value of this world will sink out of sight as the day of translation draws near. Through John the Saviour said, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” 1 John 2:15, 16. “The pride of life” is one of the stumbling-blocks in the way of the child of God. Many have fallen here, and their places are forever vacant. “Fashion has been the goddess who has ruled the outside world, and she often insinuates herself into the church. . . . The Holy One of Israel has spoken through his apostle: ‘Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible.’ . . . When a church has been raised up and left uninstructed on these points, the minister has neglected his duty, and will have to give an account to God for the impressions he allowed to prevail.”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. V, pp. 499, 500. Fashion and the love of the world have been active foes to the advancement of God’s people all through their history. John Wesley said, when speaking of the use of money, “Do not waste any part of so precious a talent, merely in gratifying the desire of the eye, by superfluous and expensive apparel, or by needless ornaments. . . . Lay out nothing to gratify the pride of life, to gain the admiration or praise of men.” Adoniram Judson, that grand man in the sight of God, who, with his faithful wife, gave all that life held dear, laying it freely on the altar for the enlightenment of the darkened children of Burma, in a letter addressed to “the Christian women of America,” said:— “DEAR SISTERS: In raising up a church of Christ in this heathen land, and in laboring to elevate the minds of the heathen women to the standard of the gospel, we have always found one chief obstacle in that principle of vanity, that love of dress and display—I beg you will bear with me—which has in every age, in all countries, been the ruling passion of the fair sex, as the love of riches, power, and fame has characterized the other. “That obstacle lately became more formidable through the admission of two or three fashionable females into the church, and the arrival of several missionary sisters, dressed and adorned in that manner which is too prevalent in our beloved native land. On my meeting the church after a year’s absence, I beheld an appalling profusion of ornaments, and saw that the demon vanity was laying waste the female department. . . . “In the meantime, I was called to visit the Karens, a wild people, several days’ journey to the north of Moulmein. Little did I expect to encounter the same enemy, in those ‘wilds, horrid and dark with overshadowing trees.’ But I found that he had been there, and reigned with a peculiar sway, from time immemorial. On one Karen lady, I counted between twelve and fifteen necklaces of many colors, sizes, and materials. Three was the average. Brass belts above the ankles; neat braids of black hair tied below the knees; rings of all sorts on the fingers; bracelets on the wrists and arms; long instruments of some metal, perforating the lower part of the ear, by an immense aperture, and reaching nearly to the shoulders. . . . “The dress of the professed converts was not essentially different from that of their countrywomen. I saw that I was brought into a situation that precluded retreat—that I must earnestly ‘contend for the faith,’ or die. For a few nights I spent some sleepless hours, distressed by this and other subjects which will always press upon the heart of a missionary in a new place. I considered the spirit of the religion of Jesus Christ. I opened to 1 Tim. 2:8, 9, and read these words of the inspired apostle: ‘I will . . . also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array.’ I asked myself, Can I baptize a Karen woman in her present attire?—No. Can I administer the Lord’s Supper to one of the baptized in that attire?—No. Can I refrain from enforcing the prohibition of God’s Word?—No, not without betraying the trust I have received from him. “Again I considered that the question concerned not the Karens only, but the whole Christian world; that its decision would involve a train of unknown consequences; that a single step would lead me into a long and perilous way. I considered Moulmein and the other stations;7I considered the state of the public mind at home. But, ‘What is that to thee? follow thou me’ (John 21:22), was the continual response, and weighed more than all. . . . “Soon after I came to this resolution, a Karen woman offered herself for baptism. After the usual examination, I inquired whether she could give up her ornaments for Christ? It was an unexpected blow. I explained the spirit of the gospel. I appealed to her own consciousness of vanity. I read her the apostle’s prohibition. She looked again and again at her handsome necklace,—she wore but one,—and then, with an air of modest decision that would adorn, beyond all outward ornaments, any of my sisters whom I have the honor of addressing, she quietly took it off, saying, ‘I love Christ more than this.’ . . . “At length the evil that I most dreaded came upon me. Some of the Karen men had been to Moulmein, and seen what I wished they had not; and one day, when we were discussing the subject of ornaments, one of the Christians came forward, and declared that at Moulmein he had actually seen one of the great female teachers wearing a string of gold beads around her neck. Lay down this paper, dear reader, and sympathize a moment with your heart-stricken missionary. Was it not a hard case? . . . “On arriving at Moulmein, and partially recovering from a fever which I had contracted in the Karen woods, the first thing I did was to crawl out to the house of the patroness of the gold necklace. To her I related my adventures and described my grief. With what ease, and truth too, could that sister reply, ‘Notwithstanding this necklace, I dress plainer than most ministers’ wives and professors of religion in our native land. This necklace is the only ornament I wear; it was given to me when only a child, by a dear mother whom I expect never to see again [another hard case], and she begged me never to part with it as long as I lived, but to wear it as a memorial of her.’ “O ye Christian mothers, what a lesson you have before you! Can you, dare you, give injunctions to your daughters directly contrary to apostolic commands?” This teacher laid off her necklace of beads, and did all she could to bring a reform among the sisters there. But Mr. Judson tells us that they were continually perplexed with the added helpers that were sent to them from the homeland, as the natives saw them with these ornaments. He says:— “And when they see the gold and jewels pendent from their ears, the beads and chains encircling their necks, the finger ring set with diamonds and rubies, the rich variety of ornamental headdress, . . . they will cast a triumphant, reproachful glance at their old teachers, and spring with fresh avidity to repurchase and resume their long-neglected heathen elegance; the dreaded news will fly up the Dah-gyne, the Laingbwai, and the Salwin; the Karenesses will reload their necks and ears and arms and ankles; and when, after another year’s absence, I return and take my seat before the Burmese or the Karen church, I shall behold the demon of vanity enthroned in the center of the assembly more firmly than ever, grinning defiance to the prohibitions of the apostles, and the exhortations of us who humbly follow their inspired teaching. . . . “Beware of another suggestion made by weak and erring souls, who will tell you that there is more danger of being proud of plain dress and other modes of self-denial than of fashionable attire and self-indulgence. Be not ensnared by this last, most finished, most insidious device of the enemy. Rather believe that he who enables you to make a sacrifice, is able to keep you from being proud of it. . . . The Lord Jesus Christ expects every woman to do her duty. . . . The eye of Christ is upon you. Death is hastening to strip you of your ornaments and to turn your fair forms into corruption and dust. Many of those for whom this letter is designed will be laid in their graves before it can reach their eyes. ‘We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.’ . . . And as you will then wish you had done, do now.” Dear sisters of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, shall the example of the many professing to follow Christ, yet in act denying him, be followed by those whom God has chosen to lead in preparing a people for the coming of the Saviour, to the eternal loss of ourselves, and the ruin of the true spirit in both the near and the far-distant mission stations of earth? The final decision is about to be made,—is being made,—as Judson said. “As you will then wish you had done, do now.” W. S. CHAPMAN
By W. S. Chapman
Rendering to God His Own — No. 2
In the previous article evidence was given that the system of tithing was ordained as a means through which man was to cooperate with the Spirit of God in the eradication of natural selfishness and the acquirement of a character like God’s. It was also shown that God, had it been best, could have supplied the means for the promotion of his work in the earth in any one of many ways other than by tithes and offerings, the sacrifices of man being superfluous as regards any purpose other than his conversion and acquisition of character. It has ever been the effort of Satan to have the system of tithing made to appear in the light of a burden. He has striven to limit the investigation of the purposes of the system to its obligation as a commanded duty. To the unconverted heart a demand for a stipulated amount to be contributed regularly to the cause appears as an arbitrary and unnecessary exercise of power. “Some will pronounce this one of the rigorous laws binding upon the Hebrews. But this was not a burden to the willing heart that loved God. It was only when their selfish natures were strengthened by withholding that men lost sight of eternal considerations, and valued their earthly treasures above souls. There are even more urgent necessities upon the Israel of God in these last days than were upon ancient Israel. There is a great and important work to be accomplished in a very short time. God never designed that the law of the tithing system should be of no account among his people; but, instead of this, he designed that the spirit of sacrifice should widen and deepen for the closing work.”—Testimonies for the Church, Vol. III, p. 396. “The moral law enjoined the observance of the Sabbath, which was not a burden, except when that law was transgressed and they were bound by the penalties involved in breaking it. The tithing system was no burden to those who did not depart from the plan. The system enjoined upon the Hebrews has not been repealed or relaxed by the One who originated it. Instead of being of no force now, it was to be more fully carried out and more extended, as salvation through Christ alone should be more fully brought to light in the Christian age. . . . The gospel, extending and widening, required greater provisions to sustain the warfare after the death of Christ, and this made the law of alms-giving a more urgent necessity than under the Hebrew government. Now God requires, not less, but greater gifts than at any other period of the world.”—Id., p. 392. And because of this the Lord has laid down a principle that is to govern in all decisions concerning tithing. “The principle laid down by Christ is that the gifts and offerings should be in proportion to the light and blessings enjoyed. He has said, ‘For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required.’”—Id. “It is the spirit of covetousness which leads men to keep for gratification of self means that rightfully belong to God, and this spirit is as abhorrent to him now as when through his prophet he sternly rebuked his people, saying, ‘Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me.’ . . . The spirit of liberality is the spirit of heaven. This spirit finds its highest manifestation in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. In our behalf, the Father gave his only begotten Son; and Christ, having given up all that he had, then gave himself, that man might be saved. The cross of Calvary should appeal to the benevolence of every follower of the Saviour. The principle there illustrated is to give, give. On the other hand, the spirit of selfishness is the spirit of Satan. The principle illustrated in the lives of worldlings is to get, get. Thus they hope to secure happiness and ease, but the fruit of their sowing is misery and death. “Not until God ceases to bless his children will they cease to be under bonds to return to him the portion that he8claims. Not only should they render the Lord the portion that belongs to him, but they should bring also to his treasury, as a gratitude offering, a liberal tribute. With joyful hearts they should dedicate to the Creator the first fruits of their bounties,—their choicest possessions, their best and holiest service. Thus they will gain rich blessings. God himself will make their souls like a watered garden, whose waters fail not. And when the last great harvest is gathered in, the sheaves that they are enabled to bring to the Master will be the recompense of their unselfish use of the talents lent them.”—The Acts of the Apostles, pp. 339, 340. If the true purpose of God was understood, then the hearts of the people would be drawn to God in gratitude for his considerate care and the tender love shown in his provision for their safety and salvation. Through his servant God reasons with his people in this way: “It should not be a lamented fact that there are increasing calls to give. God, in his providence, is calling his people out from their limited sphere of action, to enter upon greater enterprises. Unlimited effort is demanded at this time when moral darkness is covering the world. Many of God’s people are in danger of being ensnared by worldliness and covetousness. They should understand that it is his mercy that multiplies the demands for their means. Objects that call benevolence into action must be placed before them, or they cannot pattern after the character of the great Exemplar.”—Testimonies for the Church, Vol. IX, pp. 254, 255. “Our Redeemer, who knew man’s danger in regard to covetousness, has provided a safeguard against this dreadful evil. He has arranged the plan of salvation so that it begins and ends in benevolence. Christ offered himself, an infinite sacrifice. This, in and of itself, bears directly against covetousness and exalts benevolence. “Constant, self-denying benevolence is God’s remedy for the cankering sins of selfishness and covetousness. God has arranged systematic benevolence to sustain his cause and relieve the necessities of the suffering and needy. He has ordained that giving should become a habit, that it may counteract the dangerous and deceitful sin of covetousness. Continual giving starves covetousness to death. Systematic benevolence is designed in the order of God to tear away treasures from the covetous as fast as they are gained, and to consecrate them to the Lord, to whom they belong. . . . “If riches increase, men, even those professing godliness, set their hearts upon them; and the more they have, the less they give to the treasury of the Lord. Thus riches make men selfish, and hoarding feeds covetousness; and these evils strengthen by active exercise. God knows our danger, and has hedged us about with means to prevent our own ruin. He requires the constant exercise of benevolence, that the force of habit in an opposite direction.”—Id., Vol. III, p. 548. “It is in a crisis that character is revealed. When the earnest voice proclaimed at midnight, ‘Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him,’ and the sleeping virgins were aroused from their slumbers, it was seen who had made preparation for the event. Both parties were taken unawares; but one was prepared for the emergency, and the other was found without preparation. . . . “The ten virgins are watching in the evening of this earth’s history. All claim to be Christian. All have a call, a name, a lamp, and all profess to be doing God’s service. All apparently wait for Christ’s appearing. But five are unready. Five will be found surprised, dismayed, outside the banquet hall. “At the final day, many will claim admission to Christ’s kingdom, saying, ‘We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets.’ ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works.’ But the answer is, ‘I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me.’ In this life they have not entered into fellowship with Christ; therefore they know not the language of heaven, they are strangers to its joy. . . . “Saddest of all words that ever fell on mortal ear are those words of doom, ‘I know you not.’ The fellowship of the Spirit, which you have slighted, could alone make you one with the joyous throng at the marriage feast. In that scene you cannot participate. Its light would fall on blinded eyes, its melody upon deaf ears. Its love and joy could awake no chord of gladness in the world-benumbed heart. You are shut out from heaven by your own unfitness for its companionship.”—Christ’s Object Lessons, pp. 412, 413. God's Love for His Children
By Mrs. D. W. Myers
“BEHOLD, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” I John 3:1. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. How unworthy we are of God's love, and yet how much he loves us! “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Rom. 5:8. “Not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” I John 4:10. In our fallen condition we cannot comprehend the greatness of his love. We feel so unworthy of such care that at times we doubt its reality. God's ways and thoughts are so much higher than ours that we fail to understand them. How much we ought to love him who spared not his only Son! and how much we ought to love the One who gave his life that we might live! O, blessed Saviour, how much thou hast loved us! We should walk humbly before God, realizing that it was our sins which caused his death upon the cruel cross. Nothing that we can do will ever repay the debt of love we owe. All we can do is to offer our lives in consecration to his will, which is our reasonable service, that Christ may work through us to the saving of souls. Knowing that we are Christ's, bought by his blood, how careful, yea, how zealous, we should be of good works, “not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works,” but seeking to “go on unto perfection,” holding “fast the profession of our faith” lest at any time we should become “weary in well-doing,” in all things showing “the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end.” Oh, let us never forget that it was love, the love of God to us, that brought our Saviour from his throne above to die on Calvary's cross! And we love him “because he first loved us.” I John 4:19. Nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. See Rom. 8:38, 39. Brethren and sisters, God loves us; and if the Lord be for us, who can be against us? The Growth of the Cause in Early Years
By George I. Butler
The increase of believers in the third angel's message in its early history was small in its aggregate number, yet in its ratio, or percentage, it was quite large. Any candid, fair investigator can readily see that this is so. The number of laborers was very small. There were few persons of means in those early days. Most of them had given so freely in the first message that they had little left. But they were a liberal, sacrificing people. Because of the great unpopularity of the advent doctrine after the passing of the time, it was impossible for its advocates to get the attention of the masses. This was especially so in the eastern portions of the country, where the advent message had been largely proclaimed. The main efforts, yea, the only efforts for a time, to bring new believers into the third angel's message were made among the advent believers themselves. Consider the actual conditions at the time,—just a little handful of earnest, devout believers who had studied their Bibles and obtained the clear light on the third angel's message, the sanctuary question, the binding obligation of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment of the decalogue, and a few other points of equal unpopularity; with little means; with little literature and no colporteurs; with not a single church building of their own, and not an organized church among them; and with no interest whatever among the general public to hear what they believed. Could anything look more hopeless than a world-wide propaganda9under such conditions? I have often wondered how, from a human standpoint, these leaders could have indulged in a particle of hope. Yet this feeble little flock had full faith to move out in what they believed was a world-wide message which was to stir the world, and test it, and prepare a people for Christ's second coming. Being conversant with what was going on at that time, and quite skeptical by nature, I wondered with a great wonder at the strong faith these few people had. The history of the work has fully justified the faith of these earliest pioneers. Apparently the work went very slowly at first; yet with all its seeming weakness there has never been a year in its more than seventy years' history but there has been an increase, until now the church has a membership of more than one hundred thousand strong, and its influence is felt in all the world. It was no doubt in the order of God's providence that the work should begin feeble and small in the public eye, its increase almost wholly coming from the old advent believers. These were the stanchest believers in the great advent movement of the past. Large numbers of professed believers had given up quickly their faith in the advent movement. Many who still nominally believed in it had become formal and worldly, thinking little of the Lord's soon coming, and cared mostly for worldly gain. But there were here and there devout, earnest, spiritual Christians, seeking God daily for light, who could not understand for the time being why the disappointment came. Yet as Christians of long experience they knew in their souls that they had been greatly blessed in believing in their Lord's soon coming. The evidences that his coming was near were still in their Bibles the same as before. How could they cast aside their whole religious experience, and go back to the world, or to a formal church that hated this whole religious movement and the very idea that Christ's coming was near? They could not do it. But yet there was the mystery of the great disappointment. But when Father Bates or Elder and Mrs. White or other noble men and women came to them with the third angel's message right there in their Bibles, and explained to them the sanctuary subject, their hearts leaped for joy. The new light was absorbed with great gladness and rejoicing. They now understood that which had been dark just as clearly as the blessed disciples of Christ understood, after Christ's death and resurrection, that he had to die to fulfil the Scriptures. The advent believers were not to expect, as the Jews had believed, that Messiah would become a temporal king and reign over the Jews in this sin-cursed world; but the glorious gospel, the glad tidings of great joy to all nations, was to be preached to gather precious souls for the coming of that more glorious second advent, when Jesus and all the holy angels will appear, to welcome and gather all his people to the glorious reward of eternal life. So these disappointed advent believers held fast the precious doctrine that Christ's second coming was near. But they saw that there was a third angel's message to be proclaimed to all the world, that every vestige of the great apostasy must be discarded, and every ray of light accepted; that the keeping of all of God's commandments, the seventh-day Sabbath included, was taught throughout the Bible. This was a convincing, soul-satisfying reformation, and they held fast the teaching of the Holy Scriptures, returning to the full faith of the apostolic church, and casting aside every false doctrine of the Papacy. There is one scripture especially which was a great comfort to these true disciples after their great disappointment: "Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed." Isa. 66: 5. How wonderfully these words apply to their situation! These devout souls had fully believed that the appearing of their Saviour was near, even at the door. They had rejoiced in this glorious hope, but they had been disappointed in his not coming at the time they expected him. The formal, nominal churches had hated this doctrine, and cast these loving disciples out of their communion, saying, "Let the Lord be glorified." Apparently, the formal believers had triumphed. "But," says the prophet of the Lord, beholding the scene prophetically, "he [Christ] shall appear" to the joy of the true believer, but the nominal professor shall be ashamed. Oh, how terribly ashamed he will be when the Lord appears in his glory! These true believers who clung fast to that precious doctrine formed the nucleus of the early believers in this grand message. It is said of them, "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." They have the truths of the Old and New Testaments. They are looking for, believing in, and longing to see the blessed Saviour. The Antidote
By GEO. D. BALLOU
An antidote is a remedy given to counteract the effect of a poison. In this article I want to speak of God’s antidote for the poison of sin. Sin came into the world through doubt, which led to loss of confidence in God. Man lost confidence in God’s way and his provisions for his creatures, and set out to find a way of his own choosing. Sin is defined in 1 John 3:4 as “the transgression of the law;” that is, going or walking over the law. God’s law is expressive of God’s way. When man transgresses, he is having his own way. So sinning is simply having one’s own way. The plan of salvation was laid and the gospel provisions were ordained to restore man’s confidence in his Creator. He in whom this confidence is restored, will forsake his own way, and make lasting choice of God’s way instead. Man has a way of his own in dealing with his sinful fellow creatures, and God’s law and human laws have been ordained to keep him from doing wrong to his fellows. The language of law is, “Thou shalt not.” The law was made for the “lawless and disobedient”—for those who have set out to have their own ways irrespective of their fellow creatures. Read carefully 1. Tim. 1:9, 10. The law is for the restraint of those who have a disposition to go wrong. But God has revealed something in the gospel that will take this disposition out of the man who yields his will to the drawings of God’s Holy Spirit. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation, because in it is revealed the righteousness of God. See Rom. 1:16, 17. Then that which gives the gospel its power to save is the revelation of God’s righteousness. God’s righteousness is nothing less than his right course of conduct toward all his creatures, especially to the lost ones in this world. The moving power in God’s behavior toward the lost ones is love, which is nothing less than a desire to do good to others. John 3:16. But love to the erring and wicked becomes mercy for past wrongs and grace for future needs. The first manifestation of the divine character toward fallen man was loving, pitying mercy for those who had become enemies of God. As revealed in the Word of God, the leading attributes of the divine character of righteousness are, (1) hatred for sin, (2) mercy toward the sinner, (3) sacrifice on his behalf, (4) forgiveness for sins, (5) patience with the unrepentant, and (6) confidence in the outcome of his work. See Isaiah 55. Every reader can recall scripture to confirm these points. And permeating and tempering all these attributes is God’s infinite justice. Men naturally love sin, and to them God reveals his way of dealing with sinners through these attributes of his righteousness, to turn them from sin and lead them to hate it as he does. As we have seen, the first attribute manifested toward a lost race was love—mercy, compassion. As we become acquainted with the life of God as seen in Jesus, we will learn to love our enemies. If we fail to gain this experience, we shall not make a step of progress in the way of life. We may have theories about God and creation and his promises and plans, but here is the vital point of preparation—to become acquainted with him so that our lives may become harmonious with his through the revelations he has made of himself in Jesus Christ through his Word. To obey these injunctions is the hardest thing mortal man ever attempted to do, and no man can ever learn to love his enemies but by yielding to the blessed influence of the Holy Spirit. But this10is what makes lost men children of God, and nothing else will. Sin cannot be forgiven us and we become justified until we have learned these first lessons of mercy and begun to put them in practice. We pray, or say, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,” and Jesus says, “If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Matt. 6:14, 15. We do not receive the imputed righteousness of faith for past transgression until we have begun to adopt the conduct of God in dealing with our fellows. “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” Mercy for past transgressions and grace for future temptations are not our heritage until we have taken the spirit of mercy into our own souls. “When ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” Mark 11:25. If the sinner ever finds Christ and his salvation, it will be through this channel of mercy that flows freely through all who yield to the Holy Spirit. This spirit of mercy will lead men to make sacrifices for the salvation of sinners, as Christ gave himself. He who has not enough of the spirit of Christ to enable him to sacrifice for the lost, will receive very scant supplies of grace in return for his professions. No amount of theory or knowledge will be of any avail without this true charity. Doctrine alone will not save. As the skeleton of a building needs the outward and inward finish to make it of any value, so the “doctrine of God” needs the adorning of Christian conduct to make it of any value to the possessor or to any one else. See Titus 2:10-15. This spirit of merciful love has in it every other Christian grace. The faith of Jesus to the extent of full confidence in the outcome of God’s work cannot abide in a heart that has not had the experiences of mercy. Now, here appears the antidote. He who loves his enemies, and sacrifices to save fallen men, and forgives those who have wronged him, will have no desire to kill, steal, bear false witness, commit adultery, or covet. He cannot help being an honor to his father and mother. He has already accepted God’s way of dealing with sinners, which is the chiefest of all the difficult things man has to do. He will not have other gods before the Lord, nor take God’s name in vain, for he has made God supreme in his life. None but such as he can keep the Sabbath, for no other is living the sanctified life, the life set apart to right uses. This is that work of re-creation of which the Sabbath is a sign. Eze. 20:12. No man can keep God’s Sabbath day holy in whom the spirit of mercy is not uppermost. How could one have a holy rest when thoughts of hatred and bitterness were lingering in his mind? It is plainly to be seen that the introduction of the tender mercies of our God into the human soul will supplant and drive out the disposition to engage in sin. The life that is generated in us by the spirit of mercy, the Spirit of God, is the very righteousness of God himself, which we have received by believing that God’s way of dealing with sin and sinners is better than our own way. When we have thus received this life of mercy, we actually become possessed of the very righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ. This is the life eternal which Jesus says a man will have who hears his words and believes on him that sent him. John 5:24. Conditions on Which Prayers Are Answered
By O. A. Johnson
ONE of the greatest privileges and blessings that fallen man may enjoy in this life is communing with God in prayer. To know that our Father in heaven invites us to come unto him and make our wants known to him, and to know that he will listen to sincere petitions arising from the heart, and will always, in due time, answer every prayer that is sent up to him in harmony with his will, is a real comfort and blessing. But as there are conditions on which God will hear and answer prayer, it is our duty to consider what these conditions are, in order that our prayers may not be in vain:— 1. When “thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” Deut. 4:29. If we wish the Lord to regard our prayers, we must seek him honestly and sincerely with all our heart; then we shall be sure to find him. Jer. 29:13. 2. Our petitions must be in harmony with his revealed will. “This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.” 1 John 5:14. It naturally follows that if we ask anything contrary to his revealed will, he will not hear us. 3. Our petitions must ever be in harmony with his holy law; for “he that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.” Prov. 28:9. If we will not hear nor regard God’s holy law, then he will not pay attention to our petitions. 4. It therefore follows that we must keep the commandments of God if we wish our prayers to be acceptable before him. “Whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.” 1 John 3:22. 5. Since our sins separate us from God (Isa. 59:2), we must confess and forsake them, in order to find mercy. “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” Prov. 28:13. 6. Since Jesus is our mediator, our high priest in the sanctuary above, our petitions to the Father must be in his name, in order to be heard and answered. “If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.” John 14:14. “That whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.” John 15:16. There is no authority in the Bible for asking anything of God in the name of the Virgin Mary, or of any saint, however good he may have been; “for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12. 7. Faith, implicit faith, in the promises of God must be exercised in order that prayer may be answered. “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” Mark 11:24. “Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.” James 1:6, 7. 8. Our aim must ever be to live in harmony with the Word of God in all things in order that our prayers may be heard. “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” John 15:7. 9. God has promised to forgive our sins and remember them no more, and every true believer rejoices at the thought that all his sins are not only pardoned, but forgotten. Jer. 31:34. In like manner must we forgive those who trespass against us, or our prayers for forgiveness will never be heard. “If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Matt. 6:14, 15. 10. When our sins are pardoned and we are cleansed from all unrighteousness, then follows a regenerate mind, tender and full of compassion and love. But should bitter feeling of any kind ever arise in the heart, that would hinder our prayers. “Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.” 1 Peter 3:7. “This have ye done again, covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand. Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.” Mal. 2:13, 14. 11. Any known iniquity, and unkind feeling, envy, jealousy, hatred, or strife harbored in the heart will always hinder our prayers. “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” Ps. 66:18. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” Ps. 51:17. O God, teach us all how to pray, how to believe, and how to receive the rich and precious blessings so freely promised us.