By MRS. E. E. KELLOGG, A. M.
Superintendent of the Sanitarium Experimental Kitchen
and Cooking School, and of the Bay View Assembly
Cooking School, Superintendent Mothers' Meet-
ings for the N. W. C. T. U., and Chairman
of the World's Fair Committee on
Food Supplies for Michigan.
A Remarkable Book Brim Full of Information
on Subjects of Interest to Every House-
keeper and Civilized Human Being.
A Thousand Important Questions
Answered Clearly and Simply,
most of which are not an-
swered elsewhere.
This book has long been looked for, and anxiously
waited for, by thousands who have known that it was in prep-
aration. It is not a compilation of the detestable and un-
wholesome mixtures called "recipes," which are the prod-
uct of unskilled and aimless experimentation, but is the re-
sult of carefully directed researches carried on in the light
of the most modern knowledge upon the mixture of food
and the hygiene of dietetics.
This work is the product of many years of patient toil
and experimental inquiry. The large opportunities for in-
vestigation, research, and experience which Mrs. Kellogg
has had in the constant supervision of the cuisine of the
Sanitarium and the Sanitarium Hospital, and the ever in-
creasing necessity for new methods and original recipes to
supply the growing needs of an immense health institution
numbering always from 500 to 700 inmates, have served to
develop an altogether new system of cookery, the outcome
of which is this valuable work
If you are going East, you will find it to your advantage to correspond with the undersigned and obtain full particulars of the "Weekly Overland Excursions," which leave every Wednesday. Experienced managers in charge, whose duties are to look out for the comfort of the passengers, especially ladies and children traveling without an escort. This is the most popular manner of making an overland trip, and no other line offers advantages equal to the "Great Santa Fe Route," the favorite winter route. It is the only line running Pullman palace and tourist sleeping cars through to Chicago every day on the same train. Baggage checked through to destination. Union depot connections in Kansas City, St. Louis, and Chicago. Steamship tickets sold to and from all European points. For full information address W. A. Bissel, G. P. A., 650 Market Street, Chronicle Building, San Francisco, Cal., or J. J. Warner, agent, 972 Broadway, Oakland, Cal.
A HOLIDAY BOOK.
By Editor
Useful as Well as Ornamental.
Most children like picture books, and most people who have children buy picture books for them. But about holiday time many people buy picture books for other people's children.
A nice picture book is a nice present. A good picture book is a good present. An instructive picture book is an instructive present.
All these qualifications are included in the BOUND VOLUME of
OUR LITTLE FRIEND.
There is no use in buying books that teach children folly and nonsense. They learn too much of that incidentally. They get too much without buying it. Let the money be spent for something useful.
Volume II contains over 400 pages, 7x10 inches, and is bound in cloth and also in paper, with a handsome design on first page.
Price, in Cloth...................................$1 00
Price, in Paper................................... 60
These prices include postage. Address
# OUR LITTLE FRIEND,
OAKLAND, CAL.
NOT A CHRISTIAN NATION. Political and Scriptural reasons why the popular claim that this is "a Christian nation" is utterly unfounded and impossible. 8 pp.; $1.00 per hundred. Pacific Press Pub. Co., Oakland, Cal.
AGGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA.
By Rev. G. F. Pentecost, D.D.
BY REV. G. F. PENTECOST, D.D.
THE particular object that carried me to India was that I might preach the gospel—the same gospel, and by the same methods, that, as an evangelist, I had used at home. I had come to know that there were perhaps accessible a million educated, English-speaking Indian gentlemen. There are English colleges over all the land, and the aspiration of every young Indian, especially the Brahmin, is to receive an English education. How sensitive they are on this point I will illustrate! I was told that it would be impossible to hold a student class of Brahmins throughout a whole discourse—that they would slip out by twos and threes, and that, beginning with an audience of five hundred, I would be fortunate if I held fifty to the close. Well, the congregation began to go out as predicted, and I tried my little experiment. "I find," I said, "that some of the gentlemen here do not understand English. I sympathize with them greatly, because I know that it must be very tedious to sit here and listen to an address that they cannot understand. Therefore I will pause, that those who do not understand English may retire." There were probably fifty men on their feet as I said these words, and they sat down as if they had been shot. They would rather sit and listen to me an hour and a half than have it appear that they did not understand English. You could not have pulled them out with a derrick.
I preached in Calcutta every night for eight weeks to congregations of educated, English-speaking natives, nine-tenths of them Brahmins. I have seen some Brahmins defying all precedent, braving all reproach, stand boldly on their feet in the presence of five hundred of their fellows, asking that the Christian God might have mercy upon them. I have some seventy cards in my possession signed by Brahmins, indicating their desire to be Christians, only they were not yet prepared to make their confession openly. They say, "Be patient with us; we have insuperable difficulties to overcome." You and I do not know what it means to forsake father, and mother, and houses, and lands, and wives, and brothers, and sisters, and not only be hurled out of our own community, but cast into the very mud and mire of society, and to throw back upon those we love best all the reproach of our disgrace. That is what these converts to Christianity have to face. God help them and pity them.
In the city of Lucknow, after preaching for three weeks to the educated Brahmins in that city, I proposed to them that they should hold a series of meetings, and that, if they liked, they might traverse my preaching. They agreed to do so if I would attend. I said I would, and they selected five men eminent for knowledge and for skill in debate. There were one magistrate, two barristers, and a judge, and fifteen hundred natives assembled in the hall to listen. The first speaker was a Brahmin pundit of some reputation, whose task was to overthrow my contention that the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, which they constantly teach as the substance of their faith, was not found in the Brahminical Scriptures, but was a plagiarism from the New Testament. After a discourse of fifteen minutes, the chairman said his texts were irrelevant, and that he had better bring his address to a close. After that one of the barristers arose and made a very ingenious address, in which he extolled a great many of the Christian doctrines which unconsciously they have taken as their own, and repudiated idolatry, which, he said, no true Hindu ever did believe in. It was a mere excrescence upon Hinduism, and not of its essence. He gave us a good Unitarian address on morals. Then followed another speaker, who said he was ashamed of the speaker who had preceded him for so outrageously misrepresenting Hinduism; and he spent his twenty-five minutes in attacking him. The next speaker said in substance that he was sorry he had lived to see the time when, standing on the platform with representative Hindus, there was not one man who appeared to know what Hinduism was.
The five speakers were literally at each other's throats during the whole meeting, until the grave old Brahmin who presided said he thought it was time to close the meeting, and he would ask his friend, Dr. Pentecost, to make the closing address. Well, I stood up and thanked the gentlemen for their addresses, and told them that if I were going to stay another twelve months I would like these five men to go with me as assistant evangelists.
You cannot find one man who is consistent with another in expounding Hinduism today. They have been so permeated with Christianity that they do not know what they believe, and they are held only by two things,—the remnants of a dominant superstition and their social status.—Our Day.
THE INFLUENCE OF CHARACTER.
An influential character is within the reach of everyone. Nothing has given as much force to the Christian religion as the character of Jesus Christ. The most outspoken infidel will admit that he was "a good man," and many of them will quote his words and cite his example in opposition to his professed followers. If the most obscure Christian will but imitate the example of his humble, unselfish Master, and fill his mind with the word of truth, he cannot help wielding an influence for good. Christ could not be hid, even when he sought retirement in uninhabited places. The following from the Evangelical Christian illustrates the power of true Christian character:—
After the expulsion of the Roman Catholic missionaries from Japan, and before Protestant missionaries had begun to preach, the Scriptures entered where missionaries could not go.
After some ships had left the harbor of Yeddo, a Japanese gentleman of rank, a counselor of his Damio, saw a small object floating on the water. He sent an attendant to bring it. When placed in his hands he saw it was a book he could not read. Taking it to the Dutch traders at Kanayawa, he learned that it was a New Testament in English. Upon further inquiry he found that it had been translated into Chinese. He sent to Shanghai and obtained a copy. Then, at the court of his prince, gathering around him some five or six of his companions, he sat down to study it. Desiring further instructions, he found Rev. G. F. Verback, then at Nagasaka, and this first native Bible class was handed over to him.
The Japanese noble who had obtained the little English New Testament said to him in effect: "Sir, I cannot tell you my feelings when for the first time in my life I read the account of the character and work of Jesus Christ. I had never seen or heard or read of or dreamed of or imagined such a person. I was filled with admiration, overwhelmed with emotions, and taken captive by the life of Jesus Christ."
This nobleman, so taken captive by the work of God, was, with two of his companions, baptized, and it is thought they were the first Protestant Japanese Christians.
THE SONG OF THE GOSPEL SICKLE.
By Mattie A. Boyce
BY MATTIE A. BOYCE.
"Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest." Matt. 9:38.
Come away to the fields, for the harvest is waiting;
The songs of the reapers are calling away.
Bright and fair in its beauty the ripe grain is bending;
Wait not for to-morrow, but haste ye to-day.
The field is the world, and the grain is the millions
Who tread the broad pathway to death and the grave.
To aid in the work of redemption thy mission,
These perishing souls from destruction to save.
The rich fields are white in the sunlight of heaven;
Then say not, "There's naught that our hands find to do."
Hear the voice of the Saviour, in accents of sorrow,
"The harvest is great but the lab'rers are few."
Spend not the blest moments in idle inaction.
Golden grains are now wasting—oh! gather them in;
Bear with anthems of joy to the feet of the Master
Precious sheaves thou hast saved from the garner of sin.
Then away to the fields, for the harvest is waiting;
The daylight is fading; 'twill quickly be gone.
Man must work till God's angel shall thrust in his sickle,
And the "Lord of the harvest" shall gather us home.
—Selected.
Mission Work in Tierra del Fuego
The South American Journal gives an account of mission work in Tierra del Fuego. The mission was begun forty years ago by Capt. Allen Gardner, who, when a midshipman in the Royal Navy, took a deep interest in the natives of that land, and on his retirement from the navy started an expedition, went out to South America, and perished nobly on the scene of his labors. He was followed by Mr. Despard, a schoolmaster in Bristol, who, with his wife and two little boys named Bridges, whom he took from the workhouse, went out to Tierra del Fuego. The British Government had given an island in the Falkland group, as Captain Gardner had always thought that if they had one of these islands for a mission station they would induce some of the natives to visit them from the mainland, and thus become acquainted with their manners and languages. This plan was followed out by Mr. Despard with great success.
Religious Conditions in Brazil
By Christian at Work
The Southern Presbyterians have six stations in Brazil and twenty-four male and female missionaries. The Southern Methodists have ten ordained missionaries in that country, and ten single ladies. Brazil is practically without a religion. The leading features of the condition of the people are: (1) Lack of a knowledge of religious truth on the part of the best classes, and indifference to religious obligation; (2) the Bible is interdicted; (3) there are no voluntary religious organizations; (4) the religious services of the churches are in a tongue unknown to the people; (5) there is rarely any preaching in the churches, and what there may be is usually about the saints and the festivals; (6) the people of the rural districts are almost wholly destitute of religious advantages of any kind.
Religious Toleration in South America
ALL religions are tolerated in every South American State except Ecuador; from this State all other forms of worship than the Roman Catholic are excluded, but in Bolivia the Roman Catholic religion is the only one which can be publicly practiced. Other forms are tolerated in a limited sense. In most of these republics the Roman Catholic is the religion of the State and people, but in some Church and State are very distinctly separated, as in Brazil.
"OUR ABLE MINISTER."
By Stephen Haskell Lane
EDITOR OF THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES: During the past year I see you have placed my SIGNS on the free list. I appreciate your kindness, but I do not feel just right to read a paper which does me so much good, and have it cost me nothing. Please find inclosed a donation. Surely when we look over the field and number its converts, we can properly style it "Our Able Minister." He is able from the fact that he encourages in the good way by presenting the truth for these last days in a bold, fearless manner, yet in such a way as to not give offense to the most sensitive. If he falls into error by trying to defend a defective position, he repents without going into despair. He is independent without being stubborn. He is always full of faith, and yet does not run into presumption.
He is one of the most successful home missionaries in our denomination. He is such from the fact that he visits thousands of families in their homes wherever the English language is spoken. He is willing to go anywhere he is invited or sent, over sea or land, by ship, train, or stagecoach.
Not long since the writer was laboring in a field in which the truth has of late gained a foothold. While visiting a family I was accompanied by "Our Able Minister," and left him in the parlor. The good lady of the house became acquainted with him, and, on my return, said with much earnestness, "The truth is presented in just the right manner, and for what can his visits be secured for one year?" When told, the $1.50 was paid without hesitation, and now his visits are being made regularly, which are enjoyed by the family and appreciated by others.
Not long ago one of his converts addressed the writer, stating that she had a little means which she desired to put into the cause to aid the work in the State of New York. When she received a reply, some money was sent on. It came every few months, until the writer was anxious to know how she became interested in the truth. She replied that when a young girl she heard some sermons in relation to the second coming of Christ, and afterwards saw a few copies of a First-day Adventist paper. She saw no more of the papers for several years, and after a time united with a popular church, of which she is now a member. Some six years since she was impressed to obtain, if possible, the paper just referred to. She wrote a letter to the paper, but, not knowing where to address it, kept the letter, hoping to find some advertisement of the paper. While thus waiting, some missionary worker in one of the Western States caused "Our Able Minister" to make her a visit. She was so pleased that she drank eagerly of the truths he taught, and is now fully converted to the same, and, although she has never heard or seen any other minister of the same faith, or even a member of the denomination, her means, to the amount of several scores of dollars, has been sent to aid the work in New York, and institutions in other States, also the cause in foreign fields, and distributing tracts and papers in her own local field.
This minister, reader, makes his headquarters at Oakland, Cal. He makes many thousands of visits from there each week. He works faithfully, and yet, sad to say, he is not always able to pay his expenses at headquarters. Will you not, reader, aid him? You can do so by ordering him to visit your own home. He will visit you for $1.50 a year. Will you not only order his visits for your own edification, but for the benefit of others?
S. H. LANE.
FIELD NOTES.
By Editor
ELDER W. S. HYATT reports baptizing three persons at Poplar Bluff, Missouri.
DURING the month of November canvassers for our works in the various fields sold books to the value of $44,170.
IN Minnesota the brethren are holding institutes for the special instruction of Tract Society librarians. So says the Missouri Workers' Record.
ELDER B. J. CADY, one of the missionaries assigned to the Pitcairn, preached in the Oakland church on Sabbath, the 7th inst., from Matt. 11: 28, 29.
PROF. W. W. PRESCOTT, of Battle Creek (Mich.) College, began a series of Bible meetings in the Independent Congregational Church of that city on the 1st inst.
AS FAR as heard from, the returns show an unusually large holiday donation to foreign missions. This is as it should be, for the work ought to be greatly magnified.
SISTER SARAH L. POTTS, of Montesano, Wash., says she has all the literature she can use in missionary work for a while. Those who have been sending to her address will please take notice.
ELDER J. M. COLE and wife arrived in this city last week, from Seattle, Wash., ready to join the Pitcairn's missionary company. He preached in San Francisco Sunday evening, the 8th inst.
BROTHER N. P. DIXON recommends that lady canvassers in Missouri labor in the country, with horse and buggy for conveyance. He cites the success of sisters in Kansas to sustain the proposition.
CANVASSING agents of the Southern Division of the Australian field sold books to the value of $2,275 during the month of October last. The Echo Publishing Co. adds to the report these encouraging words: "We are glad to see the sale of the good book 'Patriarchs and Prophets' increasing, and believe it will be much appreciated. There is abundant evidence of the hand of God in our work, and there is good reason to feel of good courage and to press on, realizing the truth of the words of Paul, 'If God be for us, who can be against us?'"
ELDER L. C. CHADWICK, who has been traveling extensively during the past two years, writes to the Home Missionary: "I was impressed with the immensity of South America as a field for our books. I hope that within a few months we may have 'Patriarchs and Prophets' in the six leading languages of the country."
THE holiday number of the Youth's Instructor is a most valuable number. The cover design is elegant, yet not gaudy. The accompanying lithograph view of the World's Fair buildings at Chicago is one of the best we have seen. As a handsome and instructive youth's paper, the Instructor has no equal in its class. Eight pages; $1.00 a year; address, Battle Creek, Mich.
THE open-air meeting in this city, on the 7th inst., was unusually well attended and the audience evinced marked attention. Elders J. H. Durland and M. C. Wilcox spoke on the work of the two-horned beast of Revelation 13, and the principles of true religious liberty were expounded, to the evident gratification of many who probably never would have heard the truth anywhere else.
ONE of our brethren in Australia, who owns a fruit garden, has been informed that he must cease Sunday labor in his garden or be prosecuted. There is an English statute about three hundred years old, which is of course operative in the colonies, and may be brought out at any time the enemies of religious liberty may choose to have it enforced. The penalty is $50 fine, or imprisonment. All of a man's property, even to household effects, may be attached to satisfy judgment.
ELDER H. F. GRAF writes to the Minnesota Worker, concerning meetings held at Napoleon, in that State: "On Sabbath morning the power of God rested upon the meeting. Confessions were made very freely, and before dark five dear souls were buried with Christ in baptism. After dark a lady very much diseased and sick, who had feared the cold water, came forward and asked to be baptized. She was buried, sick as she was, in the watery grave, but was raised from it sound and healed. She says as soon as her feet touched the water she was made whole. The same evening four more gave their hearts to God. These I baptized on Sunday morning, and with them a Baptist united with the little flock."
A KIND WORD.
Do you know a heart that hungers
For a word of love and cheer?
There are many such about us;
It may be that one is near.
Look around you; if you find it,
Speak the word that's needed so,
And your own heart may be strengthened
By the help that you bestow.
It may be that someone falters
On the brink of sin and wrong,
And a word from you might save him—
Help to make the tempted strong.
Look about you, O my brother,
What a sin is yours and mine
If we see that help is needed
And we give no friendly sign.
Never think kind words are wasted;
Bread on waters cast are they,
And it may be we shall find them
Coming back to us some day,
Coming back when sorely needed,
In a time of sore distress.
So, my friend, let's give them freely;
Gift and giver God will bless.
—Selected.
The Atonement
THE ATONEMENT. Part I, “An Atonement Consistent with Reason.” Part II, “An Atonement as Revealed in the Bible.” Pacific Press Pub. Co., Oakland, Cal. Cloth, $1.00.
International S. S. Lessons.
By Editor
"So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading." —Neh. 8:8
Lesson V.—Sunday, January 29, 1893.
THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD.
[NOTE.—The questions which follow are merely suggestive for the student on the leading points of the lesson; it is presumed that the thorough student will think of many more as he studies the subject. References, where verses alone are given, always refer to the lesson scripture printed above. All other references are given in book, chapter, and verse. The text printed is that of the Revised Version, not because it is especially preferred, but because it is not found in every family, as is the common version.]
1. And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep. 2. And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have seen, and behold, a candlestick all of gold, with its bowl upon the top of it, and its seven lamps thereon; there are seven pipes to each of the lamps, which are upon the top thereof. 3. And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof. 4. And I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord? 5. Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. 6. Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. 7. Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain; and he shall bring forth the headstone with shoutings of Grace, grace, unto it. 8. Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 9. The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you. 10. For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel, even these seven, which are the eyes of the Lord; they run to and fro through the whole earth.
Golden Text.—"Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." Zech. 4:6.
NOTE.—The time and place of this vision was the same as the last, probably in March, 519 B. C., in Jerusalem.
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.
1. What evidently were the circumstances which called out this vision of the prophet? Note 1. 2. Who came to the prophet again? Verse 1. See also chapter 1:12, 19. Note 2. 3. What did the angel show him? Verses 2, 3. Note 3. 4. When the prophet asked for an explanation, what did the angel say? Verses 4-6. Note 4. 5. What would the mountain of difficulties amount to before the word of God? Verse 7. 6. By what did he show that the work would prosper under the hands of Zerubbabel? Verse 7. Note 5. 7. What further assurance did the Lord give as to the work Zerubbabel was engaged in? Verses 8, 9. 8. What reproof does the Lord imply? Verse 10, first clause. Note 6. 9. Who would be with Zerubbabel in this work? Verse 10. Note 7. 10. With what assurances may we always go forth to the work of the Lord?
"And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you; and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Matt. 28:18-20. See also Jer. 1:18, 19; Acts 18:9, 10.
NOTES.
1. WHEN this vision was given, Zerubbabel and his people were building the temple under the most discouraging circumstances. The opposition they had met from the people of the land, their own fewness of numbers and poverty of means, the fact that many had left the house of the Lord and sought their own selfish ends, that some had mingled with the heathen of the land, that God had withheld dew and rain and hoped-for harvest,—all these loomed up as a great mountain before many, and led them doubtless to lose faith in their leaders, as difficulties led their fathers to lose faith in Moses. The prophet, besides former reproofs and encouragements, now encourages them to confidence in their leaders. This will be seen as we consider the prophecy.
2. The angel.—Evidently the angel Gabriel. He it was who communicated to Daniel (Dan. 9:21), and Zacharias (Luke 1:19); and was evidently the special messenger of God to the prophets (see Rev. 1:1).
3. A candlestick, etc.—The candlestick shown the prophet differed from the golden candlestick of the sanctuary. Compare with Ex. 25:31-40. In our lesson there was one bowl in the top of the candlestick, with the seven lamps around it, each lamp fed by a single pipe from the bowl, the bowl being fed by the two olive trees, by two pipes. The olive trees give forth, not berries from which oil is pressed, but the oil itself. The seven lamps are typical of the seven Spirits of God. Rev. 4:5. The bowl that supplies them is typical of Christ, who is said to have the seven Spirits of God. Rev. 3:1. It therefore represents just what the Stone with seven eyes of the previous chapter symbolized, the seven Spirits of God, affording light, life, and power to the people of God amid the surrounding darkness and discouragement. The candlestick represents the church. Rev. 1:20. The church is to be the light of the world (Matt. 5:14-16; Phil. 2:15); but the church has no light or power in herself; it must all come from Christ. The business of the church is to hold forth the light of the Spirit of God, even as the candlestick supported the lamps. The Spirits or Spirit of God enlightens the world by means of the truth of God, inspired by the Spirit. The two olive trees would therefore fitly symbolize the word of God through the Old and New Testaments. See "Thoughts on Revelation," chapter 11.
4. This is the word of the Lord.—That is the explanation which the angel gave of the vision. Just the same as the lamps were fed from the bowl by means of the two olive trees, so the church is enlightened and fed by the Spirit of God through his word, which is spirit and life to the receiver (John 6:63), and above all earthly power. "Not by might [margin "army"], nor by [human] power, but by my Spirit [speaking through God's word], saith the Lord of hosts." Nothing is too hard for God; mountains of difficulties would become a plain before the word of Him who spake worlds into existence.
5. Bring forth the headstone.—The crown of the beautiful temple, upon which God's grace should be specially invoked.
6. The day of small things.—Such has always seemed to be the beginning of the work of God among men. Look at Noah, at Abraham, at Moses, at Elijah, at Zerubbabel, at Jesus and his twelve disciples, at the Reformation,—all began small. Even so will God's work be in these days. But in the eyes of God his work is never small, and it will ever as surely triumph as it did in the time of our lesson.
7. These seven which are the eyes of the Lord.—God, the One whose eyes see everything, whose power controls everything, was with Zerubbabel. The work would be finished to perfection, indicated by the plummet, or plumb line, and God would honor his servants.
Lesson V.—Sabbath, January 28, 1893.
POWER OF GOD'S WORD.—CONTINUED.
[For any modification in these lessons, and for the notes, the editor is responsible. For other notes and suggestions the student is referred to the lesson pamphlet, and to the S. S. Worker.]
Lesson Scriptures and Suggestive Questions.
I. Eph. 4:20-21: "But ye did not so learn Christ; if so be that ye heard him, and were taught in him, even as truth is in Jesus; that ye put away, as concerning your former manner of life, the old man, which waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit; and that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, which after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth."
1. Whom had "the faithful in Christ Jesus" learned? 2. How had they been taught the truth? Note 1. 3. What were they to put away? 4. How were they to be renewed? 5. What were they to put on? 6. What contrast is drawn between "the old man" and "the new man"?
II. Col. 3:8-11: "But now put ye also away all these; anger, wrath, malice, railing, shameful speaking out of your mouth; lie not one to another; seeing that ye have put off the old man with his doings, and have put on the new man, which is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of Him that created him; where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman; but Christ is all, and in all."
1. What evil habits, here mentioned, are to be discarded? Note 2. 2. What reason is given for this exhortation? 3. What description is given of "the new man"? 4. Is any distinction of race or condition recognized after this change? 5. Who is all and in all?
III. Ps. 51:6-10: "Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me."
1. Where does God desire truth? 2. Under what figure did David ask for cleansing? Note 3. 3. From whom does he seek comfort? 4. What request does he make concerning his sins and his iniquities? 5. How can he have a clean heart, a right spirit?
NOTES.
1. Taught in Him.—Those who accept Christ are not left outside to learn of him; they are by their acceptance brought into the body of Christ, and are therefore taught in Jesus, as the Revised Version has it, "even as truth is in Jesus." Jesus is truth personified (John 14:6); all truth came through him (1 Cor. 8:6); in him is all fullness (Col. 1:19); and as the truth makes us free (John 8:32), and we are begotten anew by the word of God's truth (James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:23), so, as we hear his word, we hear him, and as we are taught in that word we are taught in him. Put away.—Not simply to put off as a cloak, but to put away, to relinquish, to renounce forever, the same as in verse 25, "putting away lying." The old man.—The old corrupt body of sin, the sinful lusts and passions, with all the habits which came from them, All are to be renounced. Which waxeth corrupt.—Not simply which is corrupt, but which grows more and more corrupt. That is the nature of sin, even as of leaven, to which sin is likened. The only way to do is to put it all away. The least seed will grow; the least lust cherished will bear the baleful fruit of sin, and opens the heart for a legion more. See 1 Cor. 5:6-8. Renewed in the spirit of your mind.—Rom. 12:1, 2 is a good comment on this expression. Sin begins in the heart, the mind, the affections (Jer. 17:9; Mark 7:21-23), and so when God changes the man, he changes the heart, renews the mind, the very spirit or motive power of the mind. Elsewhere the putting away of the old man is represented by the death of the old man—the controlling power of sin, the acceptance of the death of Christ for the sins of the individual, and the acceptance of Christ's life as the new life. Rom. 6:3-12. That life is to us a new heart and a new spirit, dominant over the power of sin, by the exceeding greater power of the new man in Christ Jesus. Created.—Regeneration is recreation. Only he who can create can redeem and regenerate; and as the Sabbath is a memorial of God's creative power and glory, so it is also a sign of that redeeming and sanctifying power which creates us anew in the "righteousness [of God, Rom. 3:22] and holiness of truth." There are many who claim "holiness" and "sanctification" outside of the truth of God's word, but the holiness which God gives is the "holiness of truth."
2. Put ye also away all these.—Not only the more grievous sins mentioned in the previous verses, but what the world would call little sins, and the very ones into which humanity is most likely to fall; put away all these, because they belong to the old man, the old manner of life. The new man, renewed by the power of the truth of God's word in Christ Jesus, demands all our service, even as Jesus bought all. When there cannot be.—This is very strong. In Christ all are one, all must be one, for God is one.
3. With hyssop.—See Lev. 14:2-7. It implies not a cleansing process, but a judicial sentence of cleanliness. It is God's authoritative pardon that is wanted, the word of God. So Jesus said to the leper, "Be thou clean," and "immediately," with the word, "his leprosy was cleansed." Matt. 8:2, 3. And again he says to his disciples, "Now are ye clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." John 15:3.175The same living word which cleansed the leper physically cleansed the disciples spiritually. So David desired to be cleansed. A right spirit.—Margin, a "steadfast" spirit. An unregenerate man often seems to run well for a season, but he who is born of God and who feeds upon God is steadfast, abiding in God as the word abides in him. John 15:5-7. The steady shining of the star is better than the momentary flash of the meteor.
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS
1. Why was it impossible for an angel to redeem the world? 2. What institution reminds us of God's creative power? 3. Is it surprising that one who "exalteth himself above all that is called God" should attempt to establish a rival institution? 4. To whom does the Sabbath mean the most? 5. How may the Sabbath be a constant encouragement to us in Christian experience?