Signs of the Times, Vol. 21, No. 35. (9/5/1895)

Signs of the Times

Sep 5, 1895

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 5, 1895

“LET IT BE.”

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

“Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice.” Eph. 4:31. How many have read these words, and have thought, “Oh, that it might be so!” And how earnestly they have tried to put away that evil speaking, together with “the root of bitterness” whence it springs, and have failed, because “the tongue can no man tame; it is

an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” James 3:8.

The same trouble has been found with the similar exhortation, “Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.” Col. 4:6. O, yes, if we only could; but how often have we resolved that we would not be betrayed into hasty speech, and have almost immediately been covered with shame because of the foolish things that issued from our mouth “before we thought”!

Again we read the divine exhortation, “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.” “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 2:3, 5. And similar to this is the exhortation, “Let brotherly love continue.” Heb. 13:1. What a blessed state of mind this must be; and what a heaven there would be on earth if such a state of things only existed, even among those who profess the name of Christ! Yet how many who have set this blessed ideal before themselves, find themselves wondering how it is to be attained!

It is the man who is “carnal, sold under sin,” who is obliged to say, “To will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” Rom. 7:18. God is just and kind. He is not a tyrant, and he does not set tasks before his people without showing them the way to perform them. He not only shows the way, but supplies the power; the trouble is with our reading of his commands and exhortations. Let us read one more and see if that does not begin to suggest the way out of the difficulty:—

“Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.” Col. 3:15. Surely we cannot control the peace of God. We cannot manufacture it, and put it within our hearts. No; only God can supply peace, and this he has already done. Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.” John 14:27. “I will hear what God the Lord will speak; for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints.” Ps. 85:8. The fact that only God can put his grace into the heart, and cause it to rule there, should indicate to us that it is he who is to fulfill those other exhortations in us.

Once more we read, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.” Col. 3:16. This, together with the text quoted just before, tells us the whole secret. It is by the word of God that these things are to be done. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” Zech. 4:6. The word of the Lord, which sets before us these desirable attainments of thought and speech, is the agency by which they are supplied.

What can the word of the Lord do?—Read Ps. 33:6, 9: “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.” “For he spake, and it was; he commanded, and it stood fast.” “And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you.” 1 Peter 1:25. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; and the power of God is seen in creation. Rom. 1:16, 19, 20. Therefore the power by which the commands and exhortations of the Holy Spirit are to be fulfilled in us is the power by which the heavens and the earth were made.

Turn then to the simple story of creation. God said, “Let there be light; and there was light.” Gen. 1:3. Again, God said, “Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear; and it was so.” Verse 9. Again, God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth; and it was so.” Verse 11. Once more: “God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth; and it was so.” Verses 14, 15. And thus we read throughout the entire story of creation.

The darkness had no power in itself to bring forth light. The waters could not gather themselves together into one place. The earth could not make a mighty exertion, and send forth the trees laden with fruit. Much less could the sun, moon, and stars create themselves. That which was not, could not bring itself into existence. But at the word of God, saying, “Let it be,” everything came into being. The words, “Let there be” so and so, carried with them the power of being. The thing required was in the words requiring its production.

Now “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before prepared that we should walk in them.” Eph. 2:10, margin. And “it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” Phil. 2:13. We are to remember that the exhortations that we read at first are not the exhortations of a man, but that they are the words of God to us. The same One who in the beginning said, “Let there be light,” and, “Let the earth bring forth grass,” says to us, “Let all bitterness, and wrath, . . . be put away from you.” Just as the first was done, so must the other be accomplished. “For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.” Isa. 61:11. Therefore when we read the exhortations to let certain evil things be put away from us, and to let certain graces appear, we are not to regard them as commands for us to put them away, but as the agency by which the task is to be accomplished.

God’s power to create is as great now as it ever was. He who in the beginning caused the ground to bring forth fruit, and who made a perfect man of the dust of the ground, can take these earthen vessels and make them “to the praise of the glory of his grace.” We are to become so familiar with the fact that God is Creator, that when he says, “Let this be done,” we shall at once and continually respond, “Amen; even so, let it be done, Lord Jesus;” and thus the new heart will be created, from which will proceed thoughts and words acceptable in his sight. E. J. W.

God’s Nature.

By M. C. W.

“God is love.” This is his nature. He will not do, he can not do, what is inconsistent with love. Some things to the limited vision of finite man seem strange, but it will sometime be seen that all of God’s work is wrought in infinite love and wisdom.

What He Does for Us.

What God does for his creatures is in love. It was in love they were created and given life, with all its opportunities. It was in love that man was given his Eden home, free from sin. It was in love for the race and the universe that sin was made death—its own destruction—and righteousness was made life perpetual. It was in love to the race that God gave his Son—that the Son gave himself to redeem man from sin. All this—moved by love—God did generously, freely, willingly; for love can do in no other way.

Free Choice.

It was in love that God gave man the power of choice. It is the desire of God that every intelligent, reasonable, responsible creature should enjoy the greatest possible happiness to all eternity. This could be possible only by allowing these creatures to choose for themselves in such a way that they would be satisfied and happy in their choice. For this reason man was created with a free will, or power of choice. He was, therefore, created with power to sin. He could not otherwise be a free moral agent. To make him incapable of doing wrong would be to make him a mere machine, an automaton.—To give him no choice, to compel him to do right, and yet give him his present disposition, would be to him misery instead of happiness. The free mind naturally revolts against oppression or force in matters of morals. It recognizes the right of choosing its own way. And it is a right which is God given, that every man may choose any religion, or reject any or all religions.

The Willing and Faithful.

God is love, and therefore he will not compel men to serve him. In the nature of the case he can not compel men to do service acceptable to him; for the only service acceptable to God is willing service; willing service is the service of love, and love can not be compelled. Therefore to coerce man to love would on the part of God be a denial of his nature, and God can not lie. Man must willingly choose God. The willing and the obedient shall eat the good of the land. Isa. 1: 19. Man must choose God’s way as best, because he believes it to be best. Man can never know the love of God only by doing his will, and he can never know God’s will save by experience through faith. But by believing God he would be drawn from self toward infinite love, knowledge, and glory, and would prove in his own life “what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Rom. 12: 2. This will all come to man through faith and willingness. In fact, willingness toward God is submitting to do the will of God, and submission is faith. It was in infinite wisdom as well as love that God laid this plan.

God’s Plan Life.

Not only is it true now, but it has always been true, that “without faith it is impossible to please Him.” Heb. 11: 6. But this is not arbitrary on God’s part. It is not for the purpose of pleasing him as a selfish man is pleased when he is honored. God is pleased when man has faith, because it means salvation to the man. For it is not only true now, but it has always been true, that “the just shall live by faith.” Rom. 1: 17. Nor does this mean that God will give life as a reward or price or gift to man if man will believe; it means that in the very nature of things faith gives life. For faith is not only believing God in the common sense of belief; it is more. It is submitting to God’s will; it is receiving Christ into our life; it is the acceptance of his word and love as the light and rule and inspiration of our life. But his words are spirit and life. John 6: 63. His will is the eternal righteousness of himself. When, therefore, we submit to that will, when we receive the life-giving word in our heart, it imparts life. God “worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Eph. 1: 11), and if we have placed ourselves by willing submission into his righteous will, it will work out in us righteousness and life, even as it did in Christ Jesus.

A Reciprocal Relation.

The relation between the man and God is reciprocal. God does not desire man’s service unless it is willing service; nor does he desire to reign over man if man is unwilling. Of course God desires that man shall serve him, but he requires the only true service,—willing, loving service. The principle, however, is a divine one, that all governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.” That is what the kingdom of God will be. The redeemed to all eternity will be those who have willingly, gladly crowned Jesus King of kings and Lord of lords, in their heart and life. He will be their King to all eternity, because they have chosen him and his reign of love. He has chosen them as true and faithful. When Israel would not have him longer for their King, he gave them their own choice, but warned them of the dangers. 1 Sam. 8: 4–9. When a carnal people desired him as king, because of the loaves and fishes, and not because of his character, he refused. John 6: 15. The time of his kingdom had not come; his subjects were not ready.

Rejecting His Rule.

“But does it not mean punishment and death to reject his rule?”—It does, but this is not arbitrary. God does not punish because he delights so to do. Death does not come to the sinner as the result of an arbitrary act or sentence of God. God’s character and government include all goodness, righteousness, blessing, and life. All outside of this character, all perversion of his law, is evil, sin, cursing, and death. We may say, as did the Jews, “We will not have this Man to reign over us,” and he will give us our choice, while he weeps over our own folly, as he did theirs; for he knows that in rejecting him we reject all righteousness and life. For your own soul’s sake, reader, Infinite Love pleads with you to accept his yoke. For his sake will you not do it? M. C. W.

CARRYING THE LIGHT.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

Who has not seen a little child attempt to grasp a handful of sunshine? It would close its hand in the sunlight, and would manifest great surprise when it found, on opening its hand in the shade, that the sunshine had escaped. We are amused at the simplicity of the child, unmindful of the fact that we ourselves often manifest less wisdom in a similar case of far more importance.

For instance, we have learned that the word of God is light. We perhaps believe that if we only have that word we shall have light; and so we make attempts to seize and hold it. When the word is spoken with great clearness, people often jot down the thoughts in their notebooks, and make a special note of the text of Scripture that was referred to, in the hope of carrying the light away with them. But when they have gone to their homes, and have opened their books, they are surprised to find that the light does not shine forth. They thought to show the light to their friends, but it has fled even as the sunshine from the hands of the little child. This time we are not amused, for the case is too serious for amusement.

In each case the desire was most laudable. To “catch the sunshine” is one of the most necessary things. To wish to carry it to others is a blessed thought. The child does catch and carry the sunshine, but in a different manner from what it thinks. Living in the bright sunlight, it takes up the life-giving rays in its blood, and they are manifested in rosy cheeks, sparkling eyes, sturdy limbs, and a cheerful spirit. It carries the sunshine in its life, and carries it to others, too, because “a merry heart doeth good like a medicine.” The difference between a child who lives in the sunshine and one who lives altogether in the shade is manifest to every one who sees them. The child of the shade can not by an occasional run into the sunlight gather up a supply of sunshine in its hands and pockets to distribute to others. There is no other way of carrying sunshine than in the blood.

Even so it is with the light of the word of God. We can not carry it in our hands, nor in our pockets, nor even in our mouths. Light is life, and there is no way of carrying it except in life. “But of the heart are the issues of life;” and we are told, “These words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart.” Deut. 6:6. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” Col. 3:16. When the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness are received and absorbed into the life, there will be no difficulty in carrying them to others.

Of Christ it is said, “In him was life; and the

life was the light of men.” John 1:4. The life of Christ is the only true light, for he says, “I am the light of the world.” John 8:12. Since there is no light except in the life of Christ, it is most evident that no man can carry that light except by having the life itself. So Jesus say, “He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” We may “walk in the light as he is in the light,” and not only so, but we ourselves may be lights. Indeed, we are expected to be lights. “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord; walk as children of light.” Eph. 5:8. Also, “Do all things without murmurings and disputings; that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.” Phil. 2:14, 15.

The sun shines without an effort because it is light. Christ shines because he is light itself. His life is light and his word is life. Therefore whoever receives that word into his heart and life, will shine with the same light, and with no more conscious effort than the sun itself makes. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” E. J. W.

HUNGERING FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

By Ellen G. White

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.

(Concluded.)

Those who yield to the temptations of Satan have a hungering and thirsting for the pleasures of the world. They crave earthly excitement, and many have their minds so thoroughly occupied with amusements, with feverish desires for earthly pleasure, with ambitions that are tainted and corrupted, that they drop into their graves not having an experimental knowledge of God. They listen to the great deceiver as he lays out his plans to them line upon line and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, until they devote their whole life to doing the service of the great apostate. They hunger and thirst for selfish indulgences until all their powers are perverted. But “blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled.”

How carefully should every soul for whom Christ has died, watch and pray lest the moral taste should become perverted, lest by feeding the thoughts upon earthly, common things they come at last to desire nothing better! It is necessary that we follow out the command of Christ, and search the Scriptures; for in them “ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me.” That which Jesus accomplished for the people when he was upon the earth, he accomplished by opening the Scriptures to their understanding. Those who followed him became familiar with the Old Testament Scriptures, and thus fed upon the bread of life, and found strength to walk in the way of God’s commandments. Those who continually feed upon the word of God will not turn aside, as did Adam and Eve, and disobey God’s law. The word of God will give them grace and strength to work out the righteousness of Christ through the abundance of grace given unto them. The life of Christ was in fulfillment of the prophecies of the Holy Scriptures. He was himself the living word. “The words

that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

We ourselves may corrupt and pervert the moral taste so that there will be no hungering and thirsting after righteousness. If ever there was one who could live upon the earth and have no necessity for the written word, it was the Author of the word of God. Christ had the Spirit without measure, yet he used the Scriptures to prove the certainty and necessity of his sufferings, death, and resurrection. While in the wilderness of temptation he met and conquered Satan with the word of God, defeating his temptations by, “It is written.” In his conflict with the Pharisees he continually presented the Scriptures, and revealed to them their true meaning. He said to them, “How readest thou?” The life of God was manifested in the flesh, and was the living word, and the life of God was manifested in human speech. The human agent who becomes familiar with the Scriptures and who is a doer of the word, will find that the word is interwoven with the life of the soul; for he will have a personal experience in the things of God. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Obedience is doing the word of Christ. The word of God is a channel of communication with the living God. He who feeds upon the word will become fruitful in all good works. He who labors together with God will be the discoverer of rich mines of truth which he must work to find the hidden treasure. When surrounded with temptations, the Holy Spirit will bring to his mind the very words with which to meet the temptation at the very moment when they are most needed, and he can use them effectually with commanding power. The apostle says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

Our hungering and thirsting after righteousness will be in proportion to the food upon which we feed the soul. We shall hunger and thirst after righteousness more and more as we separate from the world, its customs, its practices, and conform our lives to the standard of righteousness. Jesus clothed his divinity with humanity that through faith humanity might lay hold upon divinity, and through hungering and thirsting after righteousness, come into close union with the divine. The privileges of the human agent are very great. We cannot be satisfied without God, neither is the Lord satisfied without the love which he has purchased at an infinite price. God has given us Christ, and with him all heaven, in order that he might reclaim our lost race, and attach us to himself, that we also might be filled with all the fullness of God.

“Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled.” The words of God are wellsprings of the water of life. When we receive the word, obeying it in sincerity, it has power to reproduce itself and to multiply itself in the minds of men. Christ declared, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.” The words which he spoke from the pillar of cloud in the wilderness were the same as he spoke in his sermon on the mount. Through his human life he lived by faith, exercising a continual dependence upon the word. “The word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.”

Would you become assimilated to the divine image? Would you be one who is hungering and thirsting after righteousness? Would you drink of the water which Christ shall give you, which shall be in you a well of water springing up into everlasting life? Would you bear fruit to the glory of God? Would you refresh others? Then with heart hungering for the bread of life, the word of God, search the Scriptures, and live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Your soul’s sanctification and righteousness will result from faith in the word of God, which leads to obedience of its commands. Let the word of God be to you as the voice of God instructing you, and saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” Christ prayed, “Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth.”

Christ found himself in fashion as a man, that he might represent to man in human life and character that which was expressed in his holy word. He was one with the Father; his life corresponded with the life of God, and his character was like unto that which was represented in the standard of righteousness, the ten moral precepts. Righteousness is living the law of God as Christ lived it; it is the health, the activity of every spiritual energy in the service of God. It is the uplifting of the soul to God in prayer, the turning of the soul to God, even as the flower turns to the light. There is health and heaven for the soul in abiding under the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness; for thus shall we be uplifted from the low, dark cares of the earth, which bring depression and gloom, to dwell in the light that is above and beyond them. Righteousness is the possession of increasing usefulness. It is the hiding of the soul in Christ with God. It is experiencing fellowship with God. It is exemplifying to the world the fact that God has vindicated his word to the world, and has fulfilled his promise in saying, “We will come and make our abode with him.” Righteousness prepares the human agent for the mansions which Christ has gone to prepare for those who love him.

It is the opposite of righteousness, the transgression of the law of God, to seek so earnestly and persistently for temporal advantages as to exclude things of eternal interest. How languid, how feeble are the efforts of the professed people of God to attain unto the likeness of Christ in character! How few seem to realize that life eternal depends upon our course of action in probationary time! But those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will purify their souls through obeying the truth. It is by beholding that we become changed into the likeness of Christ. By looking unto Jesus, by talking with Jesus, by fashioning the life after Christ’s example, they become meet for the inheritance of the saints in light, for our taste is perfected for the purity of heaven.

Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness become fitted for ministering upon the earth. We have no need for those who are weak and unchristlike in character. We are to look unto Jesus and live. “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled.” By beholding the perfection of Christ, hunger and thirst for righteousness are to be created in the heart. The Lord alone can give us the bread and water of life, that we may be filled. This fullness is the glory which Christ declares he has given to his disciples,—the character which is to fashion them after the divine similitude. Those who experience soul hunger are to be blessed with satisfaction. Their earnest, prayerful struggles will not be in vain; for there is no failure with God. For all our imperfections there is forgiveness with God. We are to believe that a rich satisfaction awaits us. He who is truth says that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled. It is for us to comply with the condition upon which the promise is to be fulfilled. We are to come to God with a contrite spirit, and as soon as we seek him in earnest he will fill us.

Christ is standing at the door, knocking, and inviting us to accept his presence. He says, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” With Christ abiding in the soul, the human agent becomes a partaker of the divine nature, and is a coworker with Jesus Christ. He manifests ardor and earnestness, and possesses that perseverance, so that, like his Master, he will not fail nor be discouraged. Let all turn away from the heart cravings for selfish gratification; let all empty the soul of self-love, selfish desires and ambitions, and Christ will supply the vacuum; he will reign in the heart that is emptied of self, and from his divine presence will flow forth living streams to revive and refresh the souls of those who are ready to perish. “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled.”

CARNIVALS

By Milton Charles Wilcox

CARNIVALS are among the fads of the day, even as they were in the days of Rome’s dissolution. Nations, cities, and associations have their carnivals of pleasure. Many things occur at these great and gay gatherings not set down in the program. Satan has his carnivals, full of startling and unexpected surprises. Among those on the program at present is the carnival of crime, stretched out into mad and weary months and years. Religious journals and secular newspapers notice the continually increasing criminality everywhere manifest. Cities are filled with great dens of crime. Some of them seem to be at the mercy of the footpad and garroter. Wife-beating is common, wife-killing is commoner. Horrible murders of every description are becoming more and more frequent. Defalcations by men bearing important private and public responsibilities, men thought to be above reproach, are of everyday occurrence. “Criminal lawyers,” yes, criminal in themselves, labor for days and weeks to “prove” innocent a man whom they know to be guilty. Jurors can not be depended upon, for they are generally the most ignorant, the very ones who can be manipulated by the wily lawyer. And even in the most sacred place—the church—and in the highest earthly positions—the councils of states and nations—crime and wickedness of almost every sort are condoned or whitewashed.

There is no sadder evidence of all this than the vast number of youthful criminals, and those in training for criminals, which our cities are furnishing. Such refined cruelty to birds, brutes, insects, to each other, such ripe wickedness, such mature viciousness, the world never saw when compared with the light on moral questions now shining on the world. Worse than all else, many of these youthful profligates are sons and daughters of religious parents. Men and women will weep profusely over a bit of wretched sentiment in tale or on stage, sympathy will sometimes stir up a community over some praiseworthy or penalty-worthy deed, but conscience and moral conviction and steady faithfulness are sadly wanting.

This is not a picture. It is not a play. It is the devil’s carnival now going on. But it is too sad to be expressed in words. Shall we say, Christians, “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die?” or shall we by living faith grasp the power of God in Jesus Christ, and save every soul we can, by his means, in his way? Truly it is a time for weeping, and fasting, and pleading with God for his power. There is nothing but discouragement in the world. There is all encouragement in Christ Jesus. Lift Him up. Point the sin-maddened world and the pleasure-loving self-loving church to Him. M. C. W.

Question Corner

“If ye will inquire, inquire ye.” “But avoid foolish questions.”

No. 235. Lost Time.

PLEASE explain Joshua 10:12, 13 and Isa. 38:8. How much time was lost, and how is it accounted for? L. W. H.

The passages read as follows:—

“Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.” Joshua 10:12, 13.

“Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.” Isa. 38:8.

We do not see as the text needs an explanation. It simply states a historical fact in the customary language of common people. If God wished to stop the sun and moon in their courses, or the earth on its axis, he has the power, and this is what he did. In the second instance the Lord brought the shadow backward. He might have done this by the refraction of the light, or by the stopping of the earth, probably the former. In either case it was a miracle.

“How much time was lost” in the miracle with Joshua?—Not any. Joshua gained about a day. The great miracle did not affect chronology at all. It made that day longer, that is all. The whole time is called in the next verse “a day.” If it were Monday, it made a longer Monday. The next day was Tuesday, just as much as though the miracle never occurred. The day stopped and waited, no more and no less. It does not need accounting for in any way.

No. 236. Cain’s Wife.

WHERE did Cain get his wife? He went to the land of Nod; but how came she there when not a woman was then living but Eve? G. B. S.

How does our querist know that “not a woman was then living but Eve”? Gen. 4:1-24 gives an account of Cain’s life and posterity from his birth to the sixth generation. This must have been nearly to the time of the flood. The record then goes back and records the birth of Seth (verse 25), and other sons and daughters (chap. 5:1-4). The reasonable supposition is that Cain’s wife was one of the daughters of Adam or Seth. The events of the Bible are not always in chronological order.

I SHALL SEE HIM.

I HAVE not seen His face, And yet I know He is, and that His love Fills earth, and is the joy of heaven above.

I have not seen His face, Yet all around me, every day and hour, I see His handiwork, and feel His love and power.

I have not seen His face, And yet I know Him, and hear His voice Of music, bidding all my heart rejoice.

I have not seen His face, And yet He doth my very being thrill With rapture, as He whispers, “Peace, be still.”

But I shall see His face When earth and darkness shall have passed away, And I have reached the land of endless day.

Yes, I shall see His face, My Light, my Love, my Master, and my King, And of His goodness evermore I’ll sing.

—The Treasury.

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