Signs of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 5. (1/30/1907)

Signs of the Times

Jan 30, 1907

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jan 30, 1907

Contained in this Issue.

By Editor

KADESH-BARNEA. (A Lesson for Lazy Christians.)

THE CALIFORNIA CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE ON THE SUNDAY AMENDMENT.

QUESTIONS. (Birds in Water, The Letters "U" and "V.")

THE GREAT SALVATION. (Divine Revelation.)

MIRACLES, MARVELS, MYS- TERIES. (The Miraculous Element of the Bible.)

IS IT A CHRISTIAN MEASURE?

THE SUPREMACY OF THE PRE- VIOUSLY WRITTEN WORD.

NOT A CALIFORNIA NEED.

LET IT GO.

CALL AND RESPONSE.

A VISIT TO MOUNTAIN VIEW.

Poetry

Souls Wanted.

A Song in the Tempest.

Ours to Make Them Thine.

Bethel.

Our Home.

WORDS OF CHEER FOR 1907.

By Editor

"I have decided to renew my subscription to the SIGNS OF THE TIMES. I thought of dropping it for a short time, but you speak of making the paper more valuable to its readers. The paper has been very valuable in the past, but as there will be some articles in the SIGNS this year which will be interesting to me, please send it on to my address from the first of the year. Enclosed find P. O. order for $1.50."

"Enclosed find money-order for $2.25 for which please send SIGNS six months to —, also SIGNS one year with two back numbers to —."

"The SIGNS is an excellent paper. I would hardly know how to get along without it."

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"I enclose my renewal and one new name, and hope I shall not miss a paper. If you give the same rates, I will try and get a few more names as soon as I can see my friends."

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We have a few each of the first issues of this new year.

Perhaps you would like to take advantage of our $1.00 rate on four or more new yearly subscriptions and send in at least this number to begin with the very first issue in the year.

Regular subscription price, $1.50.

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Address your tract society, or SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Mountain View, Cal.

COOPERATION CORNER.

By Editor

"Enclosed I send two dollars for Cooperation Corner fund. —"

"I am glad to be able to help in a worthy cause, and send you a money-order for $1.50, with which to furnish back numbers of the SIGNS for the reading-rack in the southern city."

Other donations for this fund will be gladly received and used judiciously. Address, SIGNS OF THE TIMES Mountain View, Cal.

Ready Once More!

By Editor

Our fire consumed every trace of the Signs Leaflets—stock, electrotype plates, drawings, and engravings. Fortunately a duplicate set of electrotype plates had been shipped to Washington, D. C., for use on the Atlantic Coast, and from this another set of plates for our use have been made. These have been received, and we have printed a 50,000 edition, and are ready to fill orders.

This series of Leaflets covers vital phases of Bible truth for this time, and are condensed to the last degree. Each Leaflet has an especially engraved heading, and consists of two well-filled pages of matter. The titles are as follows:

The Sure Word of Prophecy.
Prophetic History of the World.
Second Coming of Christ.
Signs of Our Times.
The Sanctuary.
The 2,300 Days.
The Law of God.
The Sabbath of the Bible.
The First Day in the Bible.
Who Changed the Sabbath?
The Great Threefold Message.
The Seal of God and the Mark of the Beast.
Church and State.
Life and Immortality.
The Great Judgment Day.
The Home of the Saved.

Sold only in full packages of 100 of a kind, or in pound packages containing about 18 of each of the 16 kinds. The prices are as follows:

100, all one kind ....................... $0 15 post-paid 1,000, 100 each of the ten kinds ............ 1 30 " " 1,600, 100 each of the 16 kinds............ 1 95 " " 1 lb., about 18 of each kind ................ 50 " "

Address your Tract Society or the Publishers, PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO., Mountain View, Cal. 1109 E. 12th St., Kansas City, Mo. 285 Salmon St., Portland, Ore. REVIEW & HERALD PUB. CO., Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. Battle Creek, Mich.

KADESH-BARNEA.

By Editor

A Lesson for Lazy Christians.

IN the cultivation of the oasis and desert and mountain region before us? — Not at all. Doubtless it would take industry to thrive there; but our lesson is not on the physical cultivation of the soil of this Eastern Arabah, however promising or unpromising the picture. There are plenty of lands nearer home which promise better. What is the lesson then?

DID you ever hear of the nation of Israel? of God's calling them out of the darkness, the idolatry, the bondage of Egypt into a land of liberty, of plenty, of gladness? About thirty-four centuries ago the call was given. "Moses, the man of God," held the high commission to bear it—to Israel as God's invitation, and to Pharaoh as a plea for justice in letting his slaves go. The Israelites responded to the call. Pharaoh was compelled by justice to do what would have proved to him the blessing of salvation had he willingly responded.

JEHOVAH did not call the Hebrews because they were the greatest of peoples, or the wisest, or most learned, or most refined or cultured. It was Jacob and Esau over again. They were a people who longed for God, while the world had rejected Him. They had a desire for the better things, while the other peoples of the world were satisfied with the things of time and sense. Poor and miserable and unpresentable as they were, they were still God's remnant in the earth.

THREE million or more of men, women, and children filed out of Egypt, in charge of the shepherd Moses, led by the strange phenomenon of a pillar—like a cloud by day, like a gleaming fire by night. A poor, motley, ignorant mass were they, just out of the swathing bands of slavery, where hard masters had thought for them. Doubtful, idolatrous, fleshly, they murmured at the scant fare and ill prospects of their desert wanderings. God must teach them ere they were fitted for the Land of Promise.

Kadesh-barnea, on the Southern Border of the Promised Land.

They must learn by the daily manna that Jehovah could supply bread where no grain grew. They must learn that He could furnish abundance of water in desert wastes knowing neither rain nor stream. More than this, they must learn that, above all things else, character was enduring, and the only right character was that taught by the precepts of the Decalogue, and amplified, impressed, and enforced by the object-lessons of the sanctuary and service of God. Two years were spent in the shadow of Sinai, in the vicinity of Horeb "the mount of God," in learning the law of the Most High.

AND then Kadesh-barnea. Where was Kadesh-barnea?—Right on the southern border of the Land of Promise. How far from Horeb was Kadesh-barnea?—"It is eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea." Deut. 1:2. Only eleven days! And then "the land of milk and honey," "of corn and wine," "of olive yards and vineyards," of cities already builded, of provision abundant, of waters an everlasting supply, of homes,—free, happy homes,—the yokes of bondage buried by the Red Sea! Only eleven short days, and the journey of the Wilderness of Sin is over forever, and all God's call and promise is demonstrated.

SURELY, we would call that a lazy family which, supplied with food and water and clothing, and strong and well, would take one year, or even one month to make the eleven days' journey. The Hebrews were not physically lazy. That has never been laid to their charge. Presumably they were at Kadesh-barnea eleven days after the Pillar started out to lead them from Horeb to the goodly land. They reached Kadesh-barnea safely, but they did not cross the border. They had been industrious enough to build a gorgeous center of worship,—the tabernacle,—and to gather their food, and care for their camp, and repel hostile invaders for two years. There were no sick ones among them. Physically, they were in excellent condition, and made good progress. But they had failed, failed in learning the great lesson that true progress in God's school is not the mere ground surface passed over, or the length of journey taken, measured either by years or leagues, but the proximity of character to God's character, the growing likeness to the Master, the pruning away of unholy, fleshly excrescences, the rounding out of strong moral character.

IT is only the spiritually industrious which make progress. The lazy are ever lagging. The trees of the heart remain unpruned, and the principal thing upon the tree is leaves. The soil of the heart is untilled, and it soon becomes grown over with weeds. The eyes of the traveler are not kept upon the goal,—the perfect standard of God,—and therefore the feet wander out of the way. Ease calls to rest, and the westering sun finds the pilgrim, not only no further on his way, but discouraged and complaining. Instead of betaking himself to prayer, he complains. Instead of searching his own heart, he finds fault with the shortness of the way. Instead of fixing his eyes upon God's promise of the good land before, he looks back and longs for the flesh-pots of Egypt. Even while his feet journey onward in the path of life with God's people, his heart is in Egypt and his soul is starving. If admitted to the goodly land, he would still long for the leeks and onions and garlic and flesh-pots of slavery.

EVEN so did Israel. They reached Kadesh-barnea. That God's word might be confirmed to them, twelve spies were sent forward to search the land and report. The spies went and returned. They confirmed all that God had said of the goodly land, but ten of them declared that they could not conquer the people. That is, the God who had overthrown mighty Egypt, had opened the Red Sea, had shaken the earth by His glorious presence, had supplied daily food and drink by miraculous power, this God had suddenly become weak, and could not save His people in Palestine!! The miracle-lined and wonder-paved road from Egypt was suddenly to sink in a black morass, and the people left to perish! So ten of the twelve spies thought. So the mass of the people believed. And therefore they could not enter. God could not uproot even the vile Canaanites for a people so spiritually lazy, so slothfully unbelieving, that their hearts could not keep pace with the physical journeying of the women and children. The journey to be taken by their feet, the lapse of time ere they entered Canaan, must now be measured not by days or leagues, but by heart-progress in character-building. So God turned them back to their wilderness wandering; and while it took but eleven days from Sinai to Canaan's borders, it took thirty-eight long years to cross that border.

WHAT a heart struggle it must have been for "the man of God" to turn back into the wilderness! Little wonder that in his impatience he committed the sin that he did in bringing the water from the rock to the rebellious people. What a heart struggle it must have been for the two faithful spies, Caleb and Joshua, to turn back to the desert again after having tasted the fruits of the Land of Promise! But they conquered, having "wholly followed" God from the beginning, they followed in all the devious windings of the wilderness wanderings till once again they crossed the border of the swelling Jordan into the goodly land. But they had this to cheer them—they knew the way would end in the Promised Land. They were God's remnant, they were of His remnant, and He was mindful. What a sadder thing still it must have been for the great mass of those strong men to turn back to the desert, and there wander and die, wander and die, till all of them had fallen by the way! O, if the heart had but kept pace with the feet, what a different ending there might have been.

"Of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these, 'It might have been.'"

JEHOVAH led His remnant who were loyal and true, in the days of Elijah. Only seven thousand, unknown to men, but known to God. He led His remnant in the days of the apostles, among whom were "not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble." Yet were they truly God's remnant, and He was leading them. Even so in the last days God will have His remnant, gathered out from all lands and peoples and conditions, gathered to His one standard of character, His holy law, His one means of salvation, faith in Christ Jesus. As of old, they will have nothing to recommend them in the learning or wisdom of the world, in its wealth or power, in number and influence, yet are they still the remnant of God, bound for the Holy Land of God's immutable promise.

They are a motley crowd of all tongues and educations, yet God is leading. There are and will be those who keep step with the feet, but the heart is still in Egypt or Babylon or Edom. They gather the spiritual manna, but do not appropriate it; for they still long for "the leeks and onions and garlic" and "flesh-pots" of Egypt. They have turned back the congregation of God into the desert wanderings, and are prolonging the journey to Canaan's bright shore; yet that congregation is still God's remnant, and will ever be as long as they follow His truth, His Pillar, wherever it may lead. To the remnant of the latter day, has God given the warning of the former day. Lust not "after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters as were some of them." "Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us make trial of the Lord, as some of them made trial, and perished by the serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them murmured, and perished by the destroyer. Now these things happened unto them by way of example; and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come." See 1 Cor. 10:1-11. Do rapid work spiritually. Expect great things of God. Take the eleven days' journey and enter the land. Learn daily the lesson of Kadesh-barnea. God is able to give you victory. Are you willing?

Religious Liberty and Legislation

The great question of religious legislation ought to be entirely apart from the question of which day is the Sabbath. The Sunday people, if they are true Protestants, ought to contend that Sunday should in no wise be made a matter of legislation. The Sabbath-keeper should take the same stand. No intelligent, true Protestant can take any other position. No true disciple of religious liberty can take any other stand. Religious liberty is the right of the other man to think for himself.

THE CALIFORNIA CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE AND THE PROPOSED SUNDAY LAW.

By Editor

THE California Christian Advocate of January 10, referring to the California Special SIGNS OF THE TIMES, on the proposed Sunday-law amendment to the Constitution, has the following editorial, which we print in all its courteousness:

"Against the Sabbath.

"Our friends, the Seventh-day Adventists, are circulating a counter petition against the proposed amendment to the constitution providing for a day of rest in California. The SIGNS OF THE TIMES, the official organ of that denomination, objects to the movement because the 'measure is religious,' and proves its contention by saying, 'This is evidenced by the proposed exemption of persons who conscientiously believe that the seventh day of the week should be observed as the Sabbath, and who actually refrain from opening their places of business on that day.' It is evident that the Seventh-day Adventists do not want any civil Sabbath. That paper goes on to argue at great length that such a law would interfere with religious liberty. It contends that the Constitution of California grants life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to all people, that everybody 'is free and independent' to run saloons, run horses, to run rabbits, to run anything their fancy may want to run, and nobody can interfere with their personal liberty. This is a fair specimen of its entire special edition, gotten out to head off the amendment: 'Man has the right to work seven days in the week if he wishes, . . . providing he doesn't interfere with the rights of others. But the rights of others need no Sunday law to guard them.' The whole plan is to fill the air with dust and furnish an excuse to the Legislature for no action, based upon the fact that the religious elements of the State were not agreed among themselves. This has been successful in all previous attempts to procure from the Legislature a recognition of one day in seven as a day of rest. These are the same people who appeared in 1899 at Sacramento and tried to defeat the amendment providing for the exemption of church buildings and church lots from taxation. When they came before the Judiciary Committee they showed up their real weakness. The way to corner all this bluster about 'personal liberty' etc., is for the friends of this measure to get a hearing before the Judiciary Committee and let the Seventh-day Adventists state their case. The Adventists can make the most out of nothing in arousing the cranky contingency of the community, and at the same time, they make the weakest appeal to men of intelligence and judicial temperament. The hope of the Adventists in this case is that they will be able to appeal to all the evil contingency of society and turn it to their own purpose. They do not want to encourage evil, but they would rather join with the evil element in society than to seem to sacrifice the distinctive argument for the seventh day. Of course they think the first thing to do is to break down all legal supports of the Christian Sunday. So strongly is this mixed into their feelings and thinking that they can not see any moral good which ignores their contention. Their working principle is essentially fanatical. There is no chance to appeal to reason. No one can break thru the defense of fanaticism. Given that Saturday is the Lord's Sabbath, and nothing which contravenes that presumption can influence the mind possessed by it. The weakness of their contention shows up in the midst of a thoughtful and judicial atmosphere. The plea they made thru their best representative in 1899 broke down in a broad smile, and he retired in great confusion and shook the dust off his feet at the Judiciary Committee of the Assembly, and was never seen afterward. There was not enough in what he said to make a farce.

It was simply a childish whimper. The friends of this measure should go carefully forward and let the Adventists do their worst."

We note briefly some of the statements and observations of our contemporary, some of which are new, some of which are true, and some of which are neither new nor true.

1. The measure is religious, altho its framers have attempted to disguise the fact. The same class pushing the Sunday measure were behind the Sunday Bill in 1899. At that time they threw off all disguise, and evidently honestly presented just what they wanted. The preamble of that bill thus reads:

"An Act to Prevent Sabbath Desecration, and to Secure a Weekly Rest Day. "Whereas, 'Christianity is the common law of the land;' and as the people of the State generally regard the Christian Sabbath, or the first day of the week, as sacred to religious worship, and because the best interests of the State are conserved by Christian morality, which is inseparably connected with the proper observance of the Sabbath."

There is certainly no disguising the fact that the measure upon which the California Legislature is importuned to act is religious in intent and purpose.

2. There is no such thing as a "civil Sabbath." That is not the thing demanded. They would not consent for a moment that Wednesday or Thursday should be substituted for Sunday, or that to each man should be secured a weekly day of rest sometime during the week. The rest day must be the religious day. The Sabbath in its origin and history is wholly religious. The chief apostle of Sunday legislation (W. F. Crafts) declares: "A weekly day of rest has never been permanently secured in any land except on the basis of religious obligation." But when the religious obligation is recognized, there is no need of civil legislation. If Sunday legislation is not religious legislation for a mistaken religious purpose, there never was any. It is not the non dies that is wanted; it is the positive religious legislation. And note that the Advocate does not attempt to reply to the averment that the Sunday law "would interfere with religious liberty." It knows that it would. It believes in religious liberty—for Sunday-keepers.

3. The SIGNS OF THE TIMES believes that so far as the civil law is concerned, it has no right to make criminal on one day what is not criminal six days. The law already protects men from disturbance in worship, whoever they are. This is proper. It will do it on Sunday or Wednesday or Saturday. It does not do this for the worship's sake, but for the man's sake. Some men prefer to work rather than worship, or to worship by working. They have the right seven days in the week, and the law ought to protect them in it. Some prefer to spend the day in pleasure. If that pleasure is allowable by the State six days, the State has no right to say that it shall not be allowed on the seventh day, whenever that day comes.

We do not believe in saloons or horse-races or theaters. We believe it would be infinitely better for the human race if such institutions did not exist. Some of them ought not to exist at all. But if they are civilly right one day in the week, they are civilly right all days. But we have no right to demand that our opinion should become law for those who may not agree with us. Just as truly as the man Methodist has his rights, the man Catholic or Jew or Unitarian or no religionist has his rights, common and equal to all.

Are Sunday-law advocates alone in the right? If they are, ought not they to be willing to defend that right by argument, reason, and persuasion, and so let right prevail in the convictions of men, rather than seek to compel men to yield feigned respect or sullen, resentful acquiescence? Granting that Sunday is divinely holy, is it Christian to compel its observance? Jesus the Christ said: "If any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world." Has the Advocate another commission than this? The attitude of the Advocate is the same as that of all the religious persecutors of the past.

4. Who is filling the air with dust? Who is putting forward "civil Sunday laws," and laws for the poor working men, and "temperance" laws, and "health" and "hygiene" laws, when the whole category are all in the interests of a religious day? We are trying to clear the atmosphere. Let the whole matter stand on its merits for what it is. Let the nature and genesis and history of Sunday laws and all religious legislation be set before the people and the Legislature for just what they are. Let the advocates of these measures tell us just what they want, that the people may know. Then such laws would by honest, Christian, fair-minded American men be forever repudiated.

5. Our contemporary is grievously mistaken when it says: "These are the same people who appeared in 1899 at Sacramento, and tried to defeat the amendment providing for the exemption of church buildings and church lots from taxation. When they came before the Judiciary Committee they showed up their real weakness," etc., etc. Seventh-day Adventists had no representative before the Judiciary Committee in 1899, nor did they enter public protest before any committees of the Legislature to protest against the measure named. They sent no one there. They had no representative stationed there who then appeared. The Advocate says that "he was never seen afterward." We never saw him before nor afterward. There were, however, two representatives of this paper before the Committee on Education and Public Morals, in 1899, when the Sunday Bill of that year was considered. Both of them made a few remarks, and were assured by the chairman of the committee that the committee was in accord with them. The Advocate knows what became of that measure. It died in the house of its friends. So much for the Advocate's veracity or knowledge.

We may remark in passing, that we should be only too glad to have a representative before the Judiciary Committee, or any other committee to which the Sunday amendment proposition may be referred. We will agree beforehand to present before that committee no other principles than those uttered, approved, and endorsed by such men as Jefferson, Madison, Washington, the Presbytery of Hanover, Va., the Baptists from time immemorial, the Congress of the United States in 1829 and 1831, U. S. Grant, the Supreme Court of California, and many others.

6. All the readers will bear us witness that we made no appeal in our Special for the seventh day; we did not discuss the day of the Sabbath at all. We would as strenuously oppose any legislation to promote, protect, or support the seventh-day Sabbath. We do not believe that God's institutions need such support. It looks to us an insult to God to offer it. It would be like the weakest cripple a lazar house ever saw offering to carry home an able-bodied, strong-limbed, perfectly sound, well man. Sunday now has no "legal support" in California. If it is of Christ, it does not need it. If its devotees believe that it is of Christ, they ought not to ask it. Why do they not seek legal support for baptism and the Lord's supper? They ought to be observed.

7. And finally, dear Advocate, why not discuss the question on its merits. How does it help the question to talk of "fanaticism" and dust-throwing and "bluster"? Is the Old Book of any worth?—Use it. Is the Decalogue superseded by tradition?—Show it. Is Christ's example and teaching worthless? Is the old Protestant doctrine of the non-interference of the civil magistrate in religious matters a dead letter? On what grounds does our contemporary stand?

1989.—Birds in Water.

By Editor

In your Question Department, 1953, you say: “Many have been studying for years and years how birds lighter than the same bulk of water can sink in water and remain so for hours, and how they can rise to great heights and maintain a long flight for days even.” Do you mean to say birds can live under water for hours, and then come up, rise to great heights, etc.?

No; we mean that there are birds which will submerge their whole body, their head only visible above the water, and so remain for hours. The bodies of these birds are much lighter than the water they displace. How do they do it? Other birds, like geese and ducks, will rise with no apparent effort and take long flights far above the earth for many hundreds of miles. What makes it possible?

1990.—The Letters “U” and “V.”

Please tell me thru the columns of your paper where I can substantiate the fact that the letter “V” was used interchangeably with “U,” and that “V” had with the Romans a numerical value of five.

“The International Encyclopedia” under the letter “U” says: “Originally U was the uncial and cursive [writing] form, and V the capital form. The two were differentiated about the fifteenth century a.d., when V was limited to represent the consonant sound. Before the fifteenth century, small v and u were used interchangeably.” In such case, of course, both had the same value as V now has, namely, five, as they were the same letter.

THE GREAT SALVATION

By Geo. W. Reaser

By GEO. W. REASER.

DIVINE REVELATION.

"It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

THE great theme of all the Scriptures is salvation. Were it not for the revealing of this, God's one purpose toward the children of men, they need not, and would not have been written. Consider the infinite pains taken to make the plan of salvation successful. It required the preparation and preservation, by the Creator, of the most wonderful Book that the world has ever known.

"Hast thou ever heard Of such a Book? The Author, God Himself; The subject, God and man; salvation, life And death—eternal life, eternal death— Dread words! whose meaning has no end, no bounds. Most wondrous Book; bright candle of the Lord; Star of eternity; the only star By which the barque of man could navigate The sea of life, and gain the coast of bliss." —Pollock.

What hopelessness, what blackness of despair would be the lot of mankind were it not for the revelation of the plan of salvation, as found in the Bible. The future would be a blank, the tomb without a ray of light, the termination of life an uncertain leap in the dark, were it not for this light of life. The darkness in which the world is enshrouded—the gloom of sin spread over the face of the whole earth—would inevitably result in the blackness of the night of eternal death, were it not for the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, as revealed in the Bible, which banishes darkness and lights up the tomb.

Purity of Teaching.

"The Bible presents a religion of purity and holiness far above man, while it gives to every one who desires that purity with his whole heart the power to reach it. The teaching of the word of God calls man ever onward and upward."

The Unity of the Scriptures.

"Its different parts were written all the way from 1500 B.C. to 98 A.D.. They were written by men in every phase of life, by the lowly herdsman, Amos; the priest, Ezekiel; the warrior and man of God, Moses; the royal psalmist, David; the wisest of men, Solomon; the prime minister and prophet, Daniel; the fisherman, Peter; the physician, Luke; the learned Jew, Saul of Tarsus; the beloved John; and many others. It was written by the lonely waters of Euphrates, in Persia's royal city, in Jerusalem the city of the great King, among the mountains and vales of the Holy Land, in the tents of the Idumean emirs, on rock-ribbed and ocean-bound Patmos—written by all these, in all these various places, at all these different times, under different circumstances and influences, yet the same unity, the same Spirit, pervades the whole. It is not alone many books; it is one. It addresses men as they are everywhere; it reveals the same disease, sin; it shows the only remedy, the blood of Jesus."

Its Impartiality.

"Had it been the work of priests, or the work of kings, or the work of any in high position, it would have glossed, and excused, and palliated, and utterly hidden their sins and crimes. But it does nothing of this. It reproves faithfully and fearlessly prophet and priest, king and noble, prince and peasant, soldier and citizen. The very ones reproved often record their own fall and reproof. Is it David the great king, or Solomon the wisest, or Moses the man of God, the reproof of God is given with even more sternness than to the humble in station. It espouses the cause of the poor, the meek, the defenseless; it knows no caste, differing in these respects from all other religions in the world, and proclaiming loudly that 'God is no respecter of persons.'"

"Its Comprehensiveness

is likewise proof of its divinity. It takes in every phase of human life—all the woes, the infirmities, the vicissitudes, the dangers, the weaknesses, the needs. It is adapted to all minds, to all grades, to all classes and conditions. There is counsel, warning, encouragement, instruction, condemnation, and approval for each one according to his needs. There is balm for every bruise, healing for every hurt, cleansing for every stain, the great storehouse for all blessings. No other book can show such unity in connection with such many-sidedness and comprehensiveness. All that would minister to men's curiosity, God has omitted. But in that which He has given, He has stored and piled such mighty and far-reaching truths that an eternity of study upon them would not exhaust their meaning, their fulness, their richness, their power. . . . Men have endeavored to write books and creeds and evolve religions thru all the past, but not one book, not the excellencies of them all, can compare in number and fulness with the excellencies of the 'Book of Books.'"

"The Bible is a Book which has been refuted, demolished, overthrown, and exploded more times than any other book. Every little while somebody starts up and upsets this Book; and it is like upsetting a solid cube of granite. It is just as big one way as the other; and when you have upset it, it is right side up, and when you overturn it again, it is right side up still."

"They overthrew the Bible a century ago, in Voltaire's time—entirely demolished the whole thing. 'In less than a hundred years,' said Voltaire, 'Christianity will have been swept from existence, and will have passed into history.' Infidelity ran riot thru France, red-handed and impious. A century has passed away. Voltaire has 'passed into history,' and not very respectable history either; but his old printing-press, it is said, has since been used to print the word of God; and the very house where he lived is packed with Bibles, a depot for the Geneva Bible Society."

"Thomas Paine demolished the Bible, and finished it off finally; but, after he had crawled despairingly into a drunkard's grave in 1809, the Book took such a leap that since that time more than twenty times as many Bibles have been made and scattered thru the world as ever were made before since the creation of man."

"This Book outlives its foes. If you could gather all the books written against it, you could build a pyramid higher than the loftiest spire. Now and then a man goes to work to refute the Bible; and every time it is done it has to be done over again the next day or the next year. And then, after its enemies have done their worst, some of its professed friends torture and twist and mystify and misrepresent it."

[This article will continue in our next, presenting the "Power and Life of the Scripture."]

Continue reading: MIRACLES, MARVELS, AND MYSTERIES. IV