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Signs of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 3.

CONFIRMING THE WORD

Signs of the Times

Jan 16, 1901

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 16, 1901

CONFIRMING THE WORD.

A Lesson of Hope.

IN contrasting Himself with false gods, the Lord by His prophet uses these words: “Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.”
MODERN TYRE.
MODERN TYRE.
ONLY He who has all power, who is from everlasting to everlasting, can declare from ancient times things not yet done. Men oftentimes guess, and some of the guesses come true. Sometimes they argue from present facts what must be in the future. But in most cases their predictions prove false and the results bitterly disappointing.
THIS is not true of the prophecies of the Lord. He does not guess. He does not calculate. He declares what shall be, and He “worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.”
GOD does not ask the doubter to take these declarations without proof. He may in justice demand that men, created and living by His power, shall believe His word; but He is more than reasonable. He wishes to make this truth intensely practical to His children. Hence the accumulated evidence.
AMONG the many proofs that the Lord is God are His declarations concerning cities; and prominent among these cities is that of the ancient “mistress of the seas,” Tyre. The word means a rock, named doubtless from its foundation.
ANCIENT Tyre was a celebrated city of the wealthy kingdom of Phenicia, on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Its site was originally an island, but it grew to the mainland, till its circumference equaled seventeen miles. Herodotus dates its beginning as far back as B.C. 2750. It was a “strong city” in the time of Joshua. It was closely associated with its powerful neighbor, Sidon, twenty-one miles to the north. Its king held friendly relations with Israel in the days of David and Solomon, many Jews dwelling there at the time, as we would judge by the extension of David’s census of his people to that city.
THE Tyrians were noted for artistic skill and commercial enterprise. They furnished the timber for Solomon’s temple and other great buildings in Jerusalem. Carpenters, masons, stone-cutters, and artistic workers in metal and the costliest webs came from Tyre to Jerusalem. A fleet of vessels accompanied one of Solomon’s to the richest countries of earth, bringing back the gold of Ophir, ivory, perfumes, birds of costly plumage, and rare tropical trees. Isaiah calls Tyre “the mart of nations,” “the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honorable of earth.” A century and a half later Ezekiel names her “the merchant of the peoples,” whose builders had perfected her beauty. There were no such richly and well-built ships as those of Tyre, with sails and awnings of finest linen, blue and purple. From all the nations of earth—Persia andLydia and Arvad and Tarshish and Javan and Meshech and Tubal and Dedan and Sheba and Damascus and Arabia, and scores of other places—came men and money and wares, till the prince of Tyre, lifted up in his own conceit, said, “I am a god, I sit in the seat of God.”
It would seem to human understanding that the merchant city of the earth, so necessary in a commercial way to the nations, would endure forever. But God spake otherwise. Tyre’s very exaltation and idolatry were corrupting the kingdoms of earth; and God in His mercy could not have it thus, and He pronounced her doom.
He who knows the end from the beginning did not merely say that Tyre should be destroyed. He tells us in particular what her doom should be. Not less than eleven prophecies speak of her fate, concerning a period of two centuries. Tyre’s fate was not to be that of Damascus, “a ruinous heap,” nor that of the cities of Aroer, a place “for flocks,” nor that of Babylon, an utter desolation, where wild beasts dwell. God declared that Tyre should fall; that “they shall destroy the walls of Tyre, and break down her towers; I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her a bare rock. She shall be a place for the spreading of nets.” “Thou shalt be built no more; for I the Lord have spoken it, saith the Lord God.” Nebuchadnezzar captured it, and Alexander destroyed it. The later and present city was built on the land from the ruins of the old Tyre. Some remains of magnificent ruins, and a few fishers’ huts are found where once stood “the crowning city,” and on the bare rocks and stones the fishermen spread their nets to dry. Men may now read the prophecy of 2,400 years ago in the ruins of that once proud city. Prophecy and fulfilment are the twofold witness to all that Jehovah is God, there is none else.
BUT all these declarations are lessons of encouragement to every doubting, sin-sick soul. Listen again: “Declare ye, and bring it forth; yea, let them take counsel together; who hath showed this from ancient time? who hath declared it of old? have not I the Lord? and there is no God else beside Me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside Me. Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else.”
ALL this is of the greatest encouragement. The same God who so clearly declared Tyre’s doom declares the salvation of every trusting soul. As truly as He took the beautiful “crowning city” and made it, because of its wickedness, an eternal disgrace, so surely will He take the soul that submits to Him, even the soul that Satan has made a ruin and disgrace, and make it “to the praise of the glory of His grace” to all eternity. He has pledged His power to do it. He has pledged His love in the gift of Jesus Christ. He has multiplied evidences without number that His word is sure. Now, dear soul, will you not look unto Him and be saved? This is a lesson, a precious lesson of assurance to us from the history of Tyre.

The Difference between Divine and Human Law

By Cyrus Simmons

THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. NO. 1.

The Difference between Divine and Human Law.

LAW is a rule of action—a human definition of a human law. The universally accepted, this definition is inadequate to truly define the law of God.
Human laws essay to regulate conduct. They aim to prescribe what is right and forbid what is wrong. The law of God goes farther, and is “a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Heb. 4:12. It witnesses to the righteousness of the thought as well as the act. Love for God and love for man is the Lord’s definition of His own law. Matt. 22:37-40. Love has its being in the heart; it finds its expression in the act. Covetousness is a mental operation. Ex. 20:17. Anger and hatred are a breach of the injunction, “Thou shalt not kill.” Matt. 5:21-24; 1 John 3:15. The precept against adultery can be violated before the overt act is committed. Matt. 5:27, 28.
Crime is the commission of some act that man has defined to be wrong. Sin is a transgression of God’s law. 1 John 3:4. All criminals are not necessarily sinners. Christ was condemned as a malefactor, and was adjudged a criminal; yet He “knew no sin.” John 18:30; 2 Cor. 5:21. Many of His followers have been condemned as criminals when they were morally guiltless. All sinners are not criminals. Hatred, covetousness, jealousy, and pride are infractions of the Decalog, but they are not offenses amenable to criminal statutes.
Law against crime has done all it possibly can do when it regulates civil conduct. Malice aforethought and murderous intent are recognized by the character of acts, or the nature of declarations, or by both. The mind can only be revealed to others by the mediums of communications with which we are familiar. We know nothing of thought before it is spoken or acted. The dream of Nebuchadnezzar in which he saw the metallic image was a mental impression. The magicians, astrologers, sorcerers, and Chaldeans could not tell what the king had dreamed, altho such a revelation was in the line of their false pretensions. When God revealed to Daniel the deep and secret things, Daniel spoke thus: “As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed.” Dan. 2:22, 29. And he told Nebuchadnezzar what his thoughts were, and interpreted the dream. Dan. 2:31-45.
The mind unspoken and unacted is a spiritual field that the devil and all his deceitful followers can not enter. It belongs to the individual. He can reveal it, or he can confine his thoughts to himself. Only God, besides ourselves, knows what we think before we reveal it to others.
Judgment.—In order to be just and righteous in judgment, we should know all the facts and circumstances that make the case. If the facts of any part of a controversy are wanting, our judgment is likely to be wrong. God is denominated “the Lord, the righteous Judge.” 2 Tim. 4:8. We are told by the Saviour to “judge righteous judgment.” John 7:24. But if the State enacts a law which pertains to religion or doctrines of faith, the court, in attempting to construe that law, is likely to be unrighteous in its judgment. No legislative enactment can regulate religious convictions, because no human judge can pass sentence on unrevealed thought, or explore the hidden recesses of mentality.
The State usurps powers never delegated to it when it passes any law restricting liberty of conscience. No good can come from State religions. Such laws eventuate in persecutions. Coercion is unscriptural. Instead of inciting people to piety, it arouses their combative natures, and drives them from devotional thoughts. Besides, if the thought be not correct, the act can not please God. No human law can set up a standard of righteousness for thought. If man could make such a law, it could not be righteously enforced, because no finite mind can judge a breach of law made by thought alone. It is charitable to think that ultra-religionists who lobby and memorialize Legislatures to pass laws to fashion the conscience of others after their own arbitrary molds, honestly believe that they are doing God service. For the Lord says, “The time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.” John 16:2. The Gospel that saves is the power of God. Rom. 1:16. The Lord doesn’t need the State’s power, nor your power, nor my power, to save a single individual.
Sabbath and Sunday.—All the States in the Union, with two exceptions, have what is popularly known as Sunday laws. These laws are legislative enactments which state definitely what day of the week shall be kept holy, or as the Sabbath, and in what manner it shall be kept. To the casual observer these laws are apparently harmless. Those who were instrumental in their enactment were no doubt doing what they thought to be promotive of good. But when we take up the history of the Sabbath, we find it was a day set apart by God in the order of creation; that it is the last unit in the division of time by weekly cycles. The Lord authoritatively states which day of the week is the Sabbath: “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Ex. 20:10. He says that that part of time is His, “My holy day.” Isa. 58:13.
The above quotation shows that the day is not only His, but it is holy. We find from the Scriptures that it takes the presence of God to make anything or anybody holy. Ex. 3:5; Joshua 5:15; 1 Cor. 3:16, 17. The State, however, has designated another day of the week to be kept as the Sabbath. Here is an actual conflict between the law of God and the law of man. Is Sabbath-keeping a matter of religion? Is it a question of faith? If it is, why should the State presume to tell which day is holy, or the Sabbath, or how it should be kept, any more than it should tell what baptism is—whether sprinkling or immersion—or how it should be performed, or prescribe the particular denomination to which we should belong? If it should attempt to legislate on baptism or denominationalism, the very religionists who clamor for Sunday laws would protest against such statutes as restricting their religious liberty. God says, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Ex. 20:8. The day is holy, irrespective of man’s laws or his acts. To keep it holy we should keep the presence of God in that day. Can we do this without faith? Can it be done by the law of the land? The Lord tells us why He wants us to observe the Sabbath: “Forin six days the Lord made heaven and earth.” Ex. 20:11. The Sabbath is a sign of God’s creative power, and a sign that we believe in that power. We can not reason out the story of creation; we can not learn it from science, nor from the crab-like process of evolution. We simply have to take God’s word for it. It is purely a question of faith. “Thru faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God.” Heb. 11:3.
It would be both wrong and impossible for the State to try to enforce the observance of the true Sabbath, the seventh day of the week. People can not be legislated into heaven. The Sabbath has to be accepted and observed by faith; but the observance of the Sabbath can not be acceptable to God unless we keep the very day of the week He told us to keep, as He told us to keep it, and unless we keep by faith the presence of God in that day, and believe that He made the heaven and the earth in six days.
Formal religion is condemnatory. Keeping the seventh day of the week and not keeping God in that day, is not keeping the Sabbath holy. The day must be spiritually kept. The State can not make one do this; nothing but God’s Spirit dwelling in the heart can accomplish this miracle. If this is true of the observance of the God-appointed Sabbath, how can the State, or those who “have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge,” hope to do good by trying to make people keep a wrong day? Rom. 10:2.
CYRUS SIMMONS.

THE WARNING OF THE SEERS.

By Pauline Fife

What bodes this world-wide thirst For blood; this marshaling Of nations small and great; These calls for men to fling Their lives away for naught? Afar doth justice stand. Storms rage; and thousands fall ’Neath famine’s awful hand.
Down thru the ages come The warning words of seers And prophets, whom the Lord Gave visions of the years Of woe which should precede His coming and the reign Of righteousness and peace, For which the Lamb was slain.
That generation which Shall see the darkened sun, The falling of the stars, And mighty wonders done In heaven and earth, shall see The earth run red with gore, And hear the whole world groan; Then time shall be no more.
But still the mad world’s rush For honor, fame, and gold Goes on. Unheeded is The doom by saints foretold. In drunken sleep men lie— The Gift of God forgot. The day of vengeance dawns— And yet they know it not.
O thou by whom is heard This warning, rouse; prepare Thy soul for that great day. Before thy God lay bare Thy heart, and cleanse thee from All sin, if thou wouldst sing In triumph over death And sin, when comes the King.
Go warn the world. Cry out, “The day of wrath is near, When men shall hide in dens And mountain caves for fear Of Him who sitteth on The throne, before whom none Shall stand save those to whom The Lord shall say, ‘Well done.’”
PAULINE FIFE.

A MIGHTY CONTRAST.

By G. B. Thompson

In Mal. 3:16, 17 the Lord, speaking of His people, those who fear Him, speak of His goodness, and think upon His name, says, “And they shall be Mine, . . . in that day when I make up My jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.” The Lord speaks of them as “jewels,” something of value, an ornament, an object highly prized, which He will spare and shield as a father loves and cares for a son. How precious it is to be objects of such real worth in the eyes of the Most High that He can speak of us as “jewels”! It will pay to be a Christian.
Continuing, the Lord speaks of the wicked, who live for the temporal, fleeting things of this life: “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” Chap. 4:1. Behold, what a mighty contrast! The righteous, “jewels,” the wicked, “stubble,” something dry and dead, that which remains after the harvest is past, and the grain has been gathered into the garner, fit only to be “burned up,” root and branch.
A comparison equally striking is found in Matt. 3:12: “Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” The godly are “wheat;” the ungodly are “chaff.” The Saviour, at His second advent, gathers the wheat into the heavenly garner, while the unnumbered millions of the wicked are left for the all-consuming, unquenchable fire of the last day.
The same figure is used in Dan. 2:35, where all the nations of earth are represented as being carried away “like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors” at the second advent of the King of kings, to make way for the establishment of His everlasting kingdom. How utterly worthless at last will that person be who is found without God!
Another thought in this connection may be proper. If the doctrine of the eternal torment of the lost is true, then inspiration certainly chose a poor comparison to convey the thought. They are compared to stubble and chaff, some things combustible and easy to be destroyed. Another writer compares them to “stubble fully dry.” Nahum 1:10. The flame once kindled by the breath of the Almighty, this “stubble fully dry” will burst into fire “unquenchable” indeed. No power can quench it; all will be consumed, root and branch, reduced to “ashes.” Mal. 4:3. Then the entire universe will be free from sin. Every voice which is not in harmony with the voice of God will have been stilled in the realms of the second death, and one united chorus of praise will ascend to God thru all eternity. Rev. 5:13.
By this means the original plan of God concerning this earth will be carried out. He made the earth to be inhabited, not by sinners, but by a loyal race, such as Adam was when he came from the hand of God in holy Eden, at the dawn of creation. Sin for a time has been permitted to intrude its hideous form and mar the workmanship of the celestial Architect, but the original plan will prevail; for God has not changed. A way has been provided, thru Jesus Christ, whereby the original dominion given to Adam in the beginning will be restored to himself and his posterity. The stubble, the chaff, the tares, all briars and thorns, will be burned up, and the paradise restored will be given over to the jewels of the Lord.
Reader, are you one of those jewels? If not, I exhort you, ere the sun makes another circuit in the heavens, to give yourself to Him. He stands with extended arms to receive every prodigal son.
Rome, N. Y. G. B. THOMPSON.

GLIMPSES OF THE GREAT CONTROVERSY.

By F. R. Richards

Satan and His Devices Overthrown.

Many are the devices Satan has invented to take the place of the Gospel; but miserable subterfuges are they all, calculated to allure man away from his only succor, until he becomes so hopelessly entangled in the mazes of sin and error that no avenue of escape is discernible, and a deplorable fate is certain.
What proportion of mankind have lost or are losing their bearings, eternity alone will reveal; but lest we waste precious time and energy building wide but false and perishing hopes, we are thus admonished and warned: “Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Matt. 7:13, 14.
From this text it appears evident that a vast proportion of the race, having been deceived, and led into the ranks of the enemy of all truth and righteousness, march under the delusive banners of error, superstition, and spiritual darkness to sure defeat; for overwhelming subjection is the merited punishment laid up in store “against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” 2 Peter 3:7. But as to the possibilities in the great controversy; a glance forward with the prophet John to the final scenes of the conflict, leaves us in no doubt as to the issue. The Lord, having by the power and consuming “brightness of His coming” (2 Thess. 2:8) destroyed the wicked at His second advent, when the righteous are caught up to meet Him in the air (1 Thess. 4:16, 17), and the earth is cleansed, now sets a seal upon “the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan;”for the removal of the righteous, the death of the wicked, and the chaotic desolation of the earth, bind the arch-deceiver in a chain of circumstances which effectually stops his work of deception, “that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled.” See Rev. 20:1-10. This is the first resurrection, at the beginning of the thousand years. During this time those translated, with the righteous saints then raised, shall reign as judges over the wicked dead, weighing their recorded deeds; and at the second resurrection, marking the termination of the millennium, the wicked shall arise, to be confronted by the waiting verdict which their lawful judges have thus rendered.
Here, according to the portrayal of John’s heavenly vision, truth and harmony emerge from the deceptive clouds of mystery and conjecture; here the arch-deceiver’s disguise is forever thrown off, and all the hideous deformities of Satanic intrigue and deceit are presented before the universe as the graduating object-lesson of sin and its results.
And now, after Satan’s thousand years of enforced idleness, the chain of circumstances by which he was bound is removed, and he is “loosed” for “a little season.” Resuming his old occupation, he loses no time, but hastens to deceive the now living wicked. Gathering the false prophets, he inspires them with his own jealous, rebellious, and covetous spirit, and they are thus led to hope to conquer and possess the city of God; for we learn that “the holy city, New Jerusalem,” had been seen “coming down from God out of heaven.” On the jasper walls of the loved city will be seen the glorified forms of the happy redeemed who have come “out of great tribulation.” As they fill the air with harmonious strains of blended voice and harp, in songs of joy and praise to Him who bought them with His precious blood, they might well excite the envy of liars, murderers, thieves, and robbers.
Gathering the hosts of the wicked, Gog and Magog, from the four quarters of the earth, Satan leads them to encompass the camp of the saints about, perhaps expecting an easy victory because of their great numbers, for they are “as the sands of the sea.” But alas for the once covering cherub! his devastating career is finished; his reaping-time has come; he must now reap the harvest of the wicked seeds he has sown. Here envy, selfishness, jealousy, malice, and lying intrigue must be hurled back upon him who is their author, to be, with him and his, forever annihilated from the universe of God in the consuming flames of perdition. Here, then, is the lake of fire and brimstone pictured by John, “which is the second death.” The destruction here wrought out is so effectual as to render the wicked as “tho they had not been.” As a dream of a night vision, so shall “all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion.” They shall “be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.” “Suddenly” as small dust and chaff shall they pass away. “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch;” even according to the example and fate of Sodom and Gomorrah shall every element of rebellion against God suffer “the vengeance of eternal fire.” See Rev. 21:8; Isa. 29:5-9; Mal. 4:1; Jude 7.
The events here described, rightly understood, reflect no hint of arbitrary power or retaliation on the part of the Creator. They are simply closing acts, whose inevitable results terminate the blood-stained career of him who by usurpation sought to exalt his “throne above the stars of God” “in the sides of the North,” and above God, the legitimate Ruler of the universe. F. R. RICHARDS.

“ROBES MADE WHITE.”

By T. E. Bowen

JOHN, the beloved apostle, was by his divine Lord shown in holy vision many things concerning the trials and experiences the church was to pass thru on earth, and then, for its encouragement and cheer, he was given glimpses of the glories that await the faithful after the scenes of the “present evil world” are passed away.
Here is a description of one of these beautiful scenes, which is to become a reality: “And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, These which are arrayed in the white robes, who are they, and whence came they? And I say unto him, My lord, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which come out of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He that sitteth on the throne shall spread His tabernacle over them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun strike upon them, nor any heat; for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall be their shepherd, and shall guide them unto fountains of waters of life; and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
This company surely came from the earth; “these are they which come out of the great tribulation.”
They were sinners, but thru living faith in the life and death of the Son of God, were accounted righteous by Heaven. Jesus led them on earth by the pitfalls, thru fiery trials, safely thru the wild scenes of the end, and, according to His promise, came for them, that where He is there they “may [eternally] be also.”
In this picture their trials are over. Purified thru obedience to God’s Word on earth, they now share in the pleasures at His right hand forevermore. No more sighs, no more tears, no more hard toil in climes where the sun poured down its heated rays; now they are tenderly cared for by Jesus, the great Shepherd. They have experienced the awful consequences of breaking the law of God, so “holy,” so “just,” and so “good” (which is sin), and shudder at the thought of the awful possibilities of eternal separation from heaven, a fate from which Jesus has rescued them; and thus eternally they are prepared to witness to the justice, love, and mercy of God, in obliterating from His universe the dark blot of sin.
Reader, would you not like a place in this happy company? Are there any joys of earth to be compared with being covered with the “tabernacle” of the glorious King of heaven? You may be there. It is not a question of the enormity of your sins, but of a willingness on your part to come to Christ now and be washed. O, delay not, but come while mercy is offered! T. E. BOWEN.
Rome, N. Y.

OUR HELPER.

By Frances M. Boyce

Having Been Tempted, He Is Able to Succor.

[By Frances M. Boyce, in Prophetic News.]
IN every emotion, in every event of life, the human heart craves sympathy. But most of all is this longing experienced and this need realized in times of sorrow and of temptation. And at such seasons, nothing but the real thing can satisfy the soul. We may have those around us who are intimately acquainted with our trials and difficulties; others, maybe, who have not only knowledge, but an understanding of our position, a realization of the heaviness of our cross, and the peculiarities of our circumstances; others may go farther, and have intense pity for us in our trouble or perplexity. But none of these will bring the needed comfort to the stricken heart; for none of these contain the true elements of sympathy.
Sympathy is something more than knowledge, more than realization, more even than pity. Pity feels for the sufferer; sympathy feels with the sufferer. Pity sits beyond the pale of the fierce furnace of temptation, and says condescendingly: “It is a hard trial for you. Accept my condolences. If I could help you, I should be only too pleased.” Sympathy goes right down and stands shoulder to shoulder with the tried or tempted one, saying: “This is our trial; let us face it together. I have been thru the fire; I’ve experienced it all; I know what you are suffering, for I have suffered before you, and now I suffer with you.” We may ignore the hand of pity stretched down to us, but we can not resist the arm of sympathy thrown around us. Alas! that the grace of sympathy, of feeling with, is so rarely found amongst us, tho all humanity yearns for it. Yet none need be without this comfort, for there is one Friend, who in every grief, every difficulty, every temptation, offers us, urges us to accept, not cold condolences, not tepid pity, but warm, tender, heartfelt sympathy. No harassed, stricken, tempted soul need fall into sin, nor drift into bitterness, nor sink into despair for want of sympathy and succor,

For Every Craving of Mind and Heart

and soul—aye, and of body, too—will be met by the sympathizing, succoring Saviour. The Word of God, sure and certain and unchanging, affirms it. It says:—
“We have not an high priest which can not be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace; that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Heb. 4:15, 16. “In all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren; . . . for in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted.” Heb. 2:17, 18.
In these verses we have:—
1. Two important facts for our comfort.
2. Two important conclusions for our stimulation.
First fact: Christ, made like us, in our nature, with its attendant weaknesses, was tempted in all points as we are, and suffered in such temptation.
Second fact: Christ having experienced the feeling of our infirmities in His own life, having suffered from the same temptations as we, is able to succor us as He could not otherwise have done.
It is wonderful how much actual comfort most of us derive from the mere discovery that some fellow-creature has been thru, or is going thru, a similar experience to our own. Even tho we may not be acquainted with, may never even see, that other one, we yet feel less alone than before, and our lot seems a little less hard, a little more bearable. It is the consolation that comes from fellowship which makes us feel thus. And God, who created human need, that He might make provision for that need, has, thru the gift of His Son incarnate, supplied the longed-for fellowship. In days gone by, men and women seemed to take it for granted that their spiritual advisers were made of different clay to themselves, and apparently were content that it should be so. But times have changed, and to those who offer counsel and warning, or who preach patience and integrity, the spirit of the age to-day answers back: “Stand aside; keep away; you know nothing about it. You may have your own peculiar temptations and sorrows, but you have never experienced the fierceness and bitterness of mine. Stand in my place, struggle as I am struggling, suffer as I suffer, and if you come thru stainless and scatheless, I will listen to what you say. But, till then, do not presume to dictate, do not pretend to advise, do not attempt to console. I will have none of it.” Thank God for the goodly number of Christ’s servants who, having graduated in

The School of Toil and Trial and Temptation,

have earned the right to offer help and comfort and guidance; but between the greater number of clergy and Christian workers, and the toiling, tempted, sinning masses, there is a great gulf fixed, and they turn from, rather than to, the professed representatives of God. Under such conditions does not the Word come with greater force, with more concentrated sweetness: “We have not an high priest which can not be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin”? Christ Himself was not satisfied only to suffer for man; He also suffered with man. He might have come to earth and died for our sins on the cross without living here thirty-three years previously; but it behoved or pleased Him “to be made like unto” us, and then to live a life of temptation like ours, that every soul, in every age, under every circumstance, might have the consolation of knowing that there was at least one who had fellowship in all points.
Robbed of their particular surroundings, their local coloring, temptations are the same in every clime and century. They are alike in essence whether they come to prince or peasant, to learned or ignorant, to city merchant or secluded invalid, to clergy or laity, to old or young. We need to distinguish between the setting of the temptation, as it might be termed, which is varied in almost every case, and the temptation itself; and to look for the primary constituents which compose that temptation, which are generally few and simple. Being clear on these points, we can now more easily understand that the temptations of this one life, or even the one recorded temptation of that life, may be found to contain the elements of every other temptation in all other lives, and thus we grasp the meaning of the assertion that our Lord was “in all points” tempted as we are.
“He suffered being tempted.” Satan times his assault for such an hour as we are least prepared to oppose, and most ready to give in to the enemy. But not only does Satan attack us at the time when we are weakest, he also levels his guns at the place where we are weakest. Christ had fasted forty days and nights, and, being human, was at the end of that time very hungry. Knowing this, the devil assails Him on this very point, by reminding Him that by the exercise of His divine power, He might be independent of the limitations of His humanity and His circumstances, and make bread out of the stones. We are not likely to be tempted to make stones into bread; such a suggestion to us could have no effect; but, going down to the root-principle of this first temptation, we see that it was really a suggestion to distrust God’s love and care, an intimation that God had failed Him, and He had better provide for His own needs by His own efforts and in His own way. How many a false step in modern days, in social, in domestic, and in business life, arises from yielding to the temptation to distrust God, to take our lives into our own hands, and do what seems most expedient for our personal interests, regardless of Christian principles. Christ’s answer to this was, as ours must be, that God’s power is sufficient to sustain, and in His own time and way He will do so.
The second temptation was more subtle, a temptation to presumption, to spiritual pride, to make a wrong use of God’s promises. And when Satan can not tempt us to ignore God, he will tempt us to misunderstand His designs and misappropriate His Word; if he can not force us into open and flagrant sin, he will try to allure us into the opposite pitfall,—pride of our virtues and our position as children of God. Satan assails us first in our weaknesses; if we come safely thru this test, he next assails us in our strength, and makes our strong points a very means of falling. Christ’s answer to this allurement is that we must not tempt God, or presume upon His grace, His power, or His love.
Then comes the fiercest temptation of all. Satan knew Christ’s mission, and God’s design, that He had come to win the world for God, and that the way to that result was thru the shame and agony of death on the cross; he knew also that, tho Christ’s Spirit was willing, His flesh was weak and shrank from the cup of suffering before Him. Therefore he offers to show Him another way by which the same end may be accomplished, but without pain and ignominy and death; how He may found His kingdom by force and gain outward success at once. He may spare Himself all this suffering and yet realize His desire or ambition; the only condition is to acknowledge Himself a vassal of the devil. He showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and then, as it were, said, “All these shall be yours, easily, immediately, if you’ll just say, ‘Please, Satan.’” Do we not, we who are believers, know something of the temptation to ambition; to do God’s work in Satan’s way,

To Choose an Easier Path

than God appears to have mapped out for us? At such times we shall only keep from yielding by using, as Christ did, the sword of the Spirit, and bidding Satan depart. Wrong action never furthers a good cause. If there appears no way open to you but a wrong way, be sure, if you look up to Him, God will show you another and the right way. Do not swerve from your allegiance to Him. Do not dally with the devil’s offer. It is there where we fall. Christ’s reply was prompt, decisive, and uncompromising. It contained two important doctrines: (1) Thou shalt not tempt; (2) thou shalt worship. If we walk according to these rules, we shall not go wrong.
Continue reading: A MESSAGE FROM CHRIST