Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 7, 1893
Editorial.
By Editor
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable."—2 Tim. 3:16.
"FOR God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Such is God's love to us.
Note the fact that God's love is not transient passion, but abiding principle. It does not show itself in words alone, but in deeds. True it is that God has said in words from the beginning of the world that he loved man, but he has said it much louder in his wondrous works for the children of men, in the wise and beneficent law which he gave for man's conduct, in his long-suffering and tender mercy to man in sin and rebellion. He loved man, and his love was expressed in the doing.
But in all the early history of man God never said how much he loved man. The tenderest expressions which he could use, which man could understand, were used to show that he loved man; but when Jesus Christ his Son died upon the cross,—the symbol and climax of his sufferings for the race,—God then told man how much he loved him. It took the sacrifice of the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the only-begotten Son of God, to prove God's love. And to-day the death of Christ stands as a pledge of God's love to us; for if God so loved us that he "spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" Rom. 8:32. And so he has; he has given us all things in giving Christ, "for it pleased the Father that in him [Christ] should all fullness dwell." This is God's love—love in principle, love in exercise, love in deed.
"We love Him," says an apostle, "because He first loved us." If God had not loved us we could never have loved him, nor anyone else save self; and self-love pure and simple is hatred of all things else. "Love is of God."
He who has love must obtain it from God. The actuating motive of God is love, for "God is love." He therefore who would have true love must be actuated by the same motive, ruled by the same spirit. So says the Scripture: "Everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God." But it is through the Spirit of God that we are born (John 3:3-5), and it is through the Spirit of God brought into our hearts by faith that the love of God is shed abroad within us (Rom. 5:5), and that love in us will not be fleeting passion but an abiding principle.
If we have the same Spirit which actuated God in giving his Son, which actuated the Son in giving himself, that same Spirit will actuate us in like manner. Love in God is manifest in deed; so it should be in us. "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth." That it is thus manifest is a proof that we are of God; for the apostle continues: "And hereby [that is, by the fact that our love moves us to deeds] we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him." 1 John 3:19, 20. Fruit bearing is the proof of the tree. Deeds are the proof of our love. And this fruit, these deeds, will be in harmony with the righteous requirements of God. Therefore the same apostle gives us the means of proving our love: (1) Everyone that loves God will also love the children of God; (2) that the proof that we love the children of God is the fact that we keep God's commandments; and (3) that the proof of our love to him, the only real expression of our love, is the keeping of God's commandments; "for this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous." 1 John 5:1-3. Reader, have you this love? If not why not?
JUDICIAL BLINDNESS.
THE decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, February 29, 1892, declaring this to be a "Christian nation," was delivered by Justice David J. Brewer. It was in the case of the Trinity Church versus the United States. The Trinity Church was prosecuted under the law "to prohibit the importation of foreigners and aliens under contract to perform labor," because the church had employed a rector in England. The case was tried in the Circuit Court, and Trinity Church was found guilty under the law. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court, and the decision was rendered that the case did not come within the jurisdiction of the law, because it was not the intention of the law to exclude professional men, but only contract manual laborers.
The opinion of the court states that the makers of the law did not intend that it should cover such cases; that the title of the act referred to manual laborers; that the evil the law was designed to remedy showed that it was not designed to touch professional men, and that the circumstances surrounding the appeal to Congress, and the reports of the committee of each house, all concur in showing that the intent of the law was simply to stay the influx of cheap labor; and that, therefore, it did not apply to the employment of a rector by Trinity Church.
EVIL PRINCIPLES.
The above was sufficient, as the decision of the court indicates. Had the decision paused here it would only have added an ordinary item to the rapidly filling chapter of common history now making. But it did not. It passed beyond this to the field of religion and the State; and in his effort to show that the law did not apply to religious matters, and being ignorant of the true principles of religion, Justice Brewer became the agent through which the Christian religion was established by a judge-made law as the religion of this nation. In this part of the decision is cited (1) the commission of Roman Catholic Ferdinand and Isabella to Columbus, which had for its object the establishment of the Catholic religion; (2) the colonial grant to Sir Walter Raleigh, which included the furtherance of the Church of England; (3) the charter of Virginia by James I., of which Justice Brewer says, "In language more or less emphatic is the establishment of the Christian religion declared to be one of the purposes of the grant;" (4) the compact of the pilgrims on the Mayflower, "for the advancement of the Christian faith;" (5) the fundamental orders of Connecticut which contemplated the maintenance of "the purity of the gospel" and "the discipline of the churches;" (6) the constitution of Massachusetts, which invests the Legislature with power "to require" "religious societies to make suitable provision . . . for the support and maintenance of public Protestant teachers of piety, religion, and morality in all cases where such provision shall not be made voluntarily;" (7) the constitution of Delaware of 1776, which required all officers, besides an oath of allegiance, to subscribe to the following declaration: "I, A. B., do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed forevermore; and I do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the610Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration."
The above and other documents are cited by Justice Brewer to prove that this is "a religious people," and that therefore "no purpose of action against religion can be imputed to any legislation, State, or nation." But the simple fact is that the Roman Catholic Christian religion was in statute law against the religions of the Church of England and of the Puritans; the Christian religion of England was in statute law against that of the Puritans and Catholics, and the Christian religion of the Puritans was in statute law against all the others. Each of these religions knew liberty only for its own disciples; and it was to a greater or less degree opposed in its purpose, its laws, and in the enactment and enforcement of civil laws, to all other religions. Witness the persecutions instigated and carried on by each and all. Yet with these man-made theocratic declarations Justice Brewer places the Declaration of Independence, which declares the equality of all men in the matter of the "inalienable rights" "of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," and the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which says that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," and then Mr. Brewer affirms:—
There is no dissonance in these declarations. There is a universal language pervading them, all having one meaning; they affirm and reaffirm that this is a religious nation. These are not individual sayings, declarations of private persons; they are organic utterances; they speak the voice of the entire people.
But he who is acquainted with the history of this country knows that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States were designed to forever abolish in this land all class legislation, religious persecution and intolerance, which inhered in the documents cited. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were designed to establish a new order of things under which every soul should be free. But Justice Brewer says that these beacons of our liberty, which expressly declare against all State religions, are in perfect harmony with the intolerant laws of the worst persecutors that the world ever saw. Justice Brewer goes further than this. He cites certain court decisions which have been a disgrace to American jurisprudence, together with the customs common to many of the people, and declares:—
These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation.
The decision first declares that this is a religious people, and then affirms that this religion is Christian. Thus the Supreme Court, which indorsed Justice Brewer’s opinion, did what Congress was forbidden to do by the Constitution,—established the Christian religion, or rather what the majority of people as represented in the government may be pleased to call the Christian religion. And this was contrary to the treaty of Tripoli, signed by Washington, part of the supreme law of the land, which declares that "this government is in no sense founded on the Christian religion."
It may be said that Judge Brewer and the Supreme Court did not design to establish a religion, did not design to lay a foundation for persecution and intolerance. We will grant it, but that does not alter the facts in the case. The court did just those very things, whether it was intended or not; and it was in harmony with the decision of the court that Congress, a few months later, committed itself on the so-called "Christian sabbath," the Sunday, in the Sunday-closing proviso concerning the World’s Fair. The decision of Judge Brewer has caused great rejoicing among National Reformers who believe in a theocracy in America, with themselves as the vicegerents of God. The argument has been advanced with cogency and effect that if "this is a Christian nation," and the Supreme Court has so decided, then the "Christian sabbath," or Sunday, ought to be enforced by law. The result will be widespread persecution.
SENTIMENTS OF PATRIOTISM.
On the Fourth of July Judge David J. Brewer made a patriotic speech on "Individual Liberty," at the Independent’s celebration at Woodstock, Conn. In that address are some words worth reproducing. After saying that the ideal of human liberty as some fancied had not been reached, he among other things remarked:—
One step further must be taken before the ideal of human liberty is realized in this country, and that, if I may thus express it, is the actual and unquestioned independence of each individual.
The proposition that the many may rule the one is carried into the daily life of the nation in a practical way, to the extent that the individual is swallowed up in the mass; and the personal independence of every citizen, in all matters of contract and labor and life, is in danger of being destroyed.
The penalty which the nation pays for all its benefits is the growing disposition to sacrifice the individual to the mass, to make the liberty of the one something which may be ruthlessly trampled into the dust, because of some supposed benefit to the many.
So long as any single man, the humblest and the weakest in the land, may not enter into business or engage in labor such as his means will permit and his inclination determine, just so long is personal liberty an unaccomplished fact.
Through the land the idea is growing that the individual is nothing, and that the organization, and then the State, is everything.
The great Master divided the powers and possibilities of our nature when he dethroned priests and prelates and bade each soul stand face to face alone with its God.
To these sentiments we say, Amen and amen. The chief thought in the mind of Mr. Brewer when he uttered them was the labor and socialistic troubles, but every principle is just as true and vastly more important in matters of religion; and we could not help thinking when we read them, What a blessing it would have been if Justice Brewer had put the principles of his patriotic address into his decision, and reserved the folly and wickedness of his decision, if they must needs have utterance, till his Fourth of July speech! Then the subversive principles would have done little harm, and now his patriotic speechifying will do little good; as it is, the Supreme Court decision of February 29, 1892, is a veritable Pandora’s box of evils. It contains that which will ultimately develop into a religious tyranny, the worst of all tyrannies, and will compel many a faithful servant of God to either stultify conscience and submit to the lordship of an ecclesiastical organization dominating our law-making powers, or else to suffer persecution. The faithful, it need not be said, will suffer persecution.
The incipient evils of what is involved in the Supreme Court decision are seen in Tennessee and Maryland to-day, where men have not "personal independence" "in all matters of contract and labor and life," in the most personal of all relations, that of a man’s duty to his family and his God. The commercial and trade combines and boycotts are bad, but the religious combines and boycotts are a thousand-fold worse. Would to God that every true patriot and Christian would shake off indifference and rouse to the peril which is upon us. The noble ship may be scuttled by her ill-instructed friends, but the lifeboat—Christ and his truth—will save all who desire salvation.
The Faith and Labor of Abraham
HE who has faith in God will worship and labor for him. This is true of every child of God. He not only will worship and labor, but he must labor. Here is a feature of Abraham’s life. When he reached the plain of Moreh, he builded an altar to the Lord. When he removed from there to between Bethel and Ai he again builded an altar, and there “he preacheth in the name of Jehovah.” (Young’s translation.) See Gen. 12:7, 8. He evidently pursued this course wherever he went. See also chapter 13:4, where Young renders, “And there doth Abraham preach in the name of Jehovah.” His preaching was not without its results. When he left Haran for Canaan, he took with him, besides his relatives, “the souls that they had gotten in Haran,” who left their idolatrous practices and joined themselves to the pilgrim, the friend of God. Those who are the children of faith will do even as did faithful Abraham.
Pennsylvania Prohibitionists and Religious Legislation
The Pennsylvania Prohibitionists' Platform smacks more of National Reform sentiments than ever before; in fact, it is National Reform. Their platform starts out by "acknowledging Almighty God as the source of all true government and accepting the declaration of the Supreme Court of the United States that this is a Christian nation." They never knew it was a Christian nation before, it is to be presumed. But that is not strange; nobody else did, save a few learned ignoramuses who know not Christ. They admit the woman suffrage plank, suggest that public school funds shall not be used for sectarian purposes, and then declare that
the Sabbath must be preserved and protected as a day of rest by the due enforcement of present laws and the enactment of such other laws as may be necessary for the preservation of the same inviolate.
If this means anything, it means the most rigid regulation of religious observation of the sabbath, by which is meant Sunday. It is the religious term that is used, and it must be preserved "inviolate." None are exempted. Pennsylvania lost all mercy in this respect when the rule of the Quaker passed. There are probably honest Prohibitionists who are yet training with the party but who do not believe in religious legislation, and who, strange to say, do not believe that the party would commit itself to it. How far will the party have to go before these men believe? What more evidence do they need to know that the party is committed soul and body to religious legislation?
THE IMPORTANCE OF CHRIST'S COMING.
There is no one event of any more importance to mankind than the second coming of Christ. No subject is given more prominence in the New Testament. By those who claim to have calculated it, it is said to be referred to directly or indirectly on an average of every twenty-fifth verse throughout the New Testament, and yet how seldom is it preached upon at the present time in the great popular churches. Surely it ought not so to be when the Lord has given it such prominence in his inspired word. It was the comforting thought which he gave his disciples, who were sad at the prospect of his leaving, that he would "come again" and receive them unto himself, that they might be with him. John 14: 1-3. This also was one of the burdens of his wonderful prayer for all his people—that they might be with him where he was. John 17:24. When he ascended and the sorrowing disciples stood gazing up into the ethereal blue at the fast-vanishing cloud of glory, the messengers of God cheered them with these words: "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." Acts 1:9-11.
This was also the comfort offered by the apostle Paul to the Thessalonian brethren. He would not have them to be ignorant of those who were dead, who were asleep in Christ. They need not sorrow without hope:—
"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." 1 Thess. 4:16-18.
Our Saviour also instructs the church who live when his coming is near that they may rejoice; for their redemption is drawing nigh. Luke 21:28.
The foregoing scriptures reveal something of the importance of the second coming of Christ in the great scheme of redemption. What matters his death alone unless there be a resurrection? True, he purchased us by his death—by his precious blood; but what would that avail were it not for the resurrection? We would have a dead Christ, and the preaching of the gospel would be vain, and faith therein would be vain. 1 Cor. 15:12-17. But this resurrection is dependent upon Christ's coming. By his voice at his coming (parousia) the dead are raised. 1 Thess. 4:15, 16; 1 Cor. 15:51-55. Until that time, death holds the sleeping saints in its strong embrace; and were it not for that coming, they would utterly perish forever. Verse 18.
It is through the resurrection that the people of God of all past ages live. Jesus promised that he would raise them up at the last day and give them everlasting life. John 6:40, 54. His coming is, therefore, life and not death to his people; and inasmuch as he makes that resurrection depend upon his second coming, that coming is necessary in order that the people of God may live eternally with him. The time of reward is, therefore, not at death, or between death and the resurrection, but at the resurrection when Christ comes (Matt. 16:27), which coming has already been preceded by an investigative judgment to determine who are worthy of life and immortality. Rev. 22:11, 12; Luke 20:35. The righteous living are changed, made like Christ, and the dead are raised immortal. Phil. 3:21; 1 Cor. 15:51-53; 1 John 3:1-3.
At the second coming of Christ his foes will be destroyed. That brightness and presence which prove joy and life to his people, will be despair and destruction to those who have rejected him. Their cry will be to hide them from the face of Him who sits upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. Rev. 6:15-17. Says the apostle:—
"And to you who are troubled [by the wicked] rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence [face] of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe . . . in that day." 2 Thess. 1:7-10.
And in another place, in speaking of the wicked who survive the seven last plagues, it is said, "And the remnant were slain with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth." Rev. 19:21.
At the second advent, the kingdom of Christ will be set up, and he will begin his eternal reign. He sends back this promise to his people: "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." Rev. 3:21. Jesus now reigns on his Father's throne a kingly priest. Heb. 8:1; Zech. 6:12, 13. He will there reign till his people are redeemed from sin, and the judgment of God has condemned forever those who have rejected the great salvation. He then comes to execute judgment and begin his eternal reign. This is shown by the words of the apostle Paul: "I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word." 2 Tim. 4:1, 2. The judgment, the appearing, and the kingdom are associated together.
Christ is now in a far "country" (Luke 19:10); but when he receives his kingdom (Dan. 7:13, 14), and returns, it will be to enter upon his reign. In the words of Christ himself, "When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory." Matt. 25:31. With his risen and immortalized saints he will ascend to the New Jerusalem, the capital city, the abode of Paradise once lost, and there begin his reign of judgment of one thousand years. Rev. 20:4-6. Then will Jerusalem, which is above, "the mother of us all" (Gal. 4:26), which has been desolate and mourning for her children (Isaiah 54), be comforted as they come home from every land, led by their Redeemer and King. At the end of the millennium the holy city will descend, the earth will be renewed, and Christ and his people will reign forever and ever. See Zech. 14:1-11; Rev. 20:7-15; 2 Peter 3:12, 13; Rev. 21:1-7; Dan. 7:27.
It was to Christ's second coming to reward his people and take his kingdom that the dying, penitent thief looked forward. His request was not, Lord, remember me when thou goest to heaven, to thy Father's house; but it was, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." Luke 23:42. This will be at his second coming, as we have shown, when he will reward every man. Matt. 25:31; 16:27; Rev. 22:11, 12. Will the faith of the thief be rewarded? Can the Man Jesus, dying at his side, forsaken by men, over whom the very heavens seem black with wrath,—can this Man fulfill this request? It was wonderful faith on the part of the malefactor to believe when all had forsaken. It was a wonderful answer which Jesus gave, solemnly asseverated before the scoffing multitude.
Looking upon the dying criminal, doubtless with a look of infinite pity and encouragement which thrilled his entire being and made his last moments the most joyous of his life, the dying Jesus answers: "Verily I say unto thee to-day"—I who am dying as thou art, I, seemingly so weak, but the heir of infinite power—I say unto thee to-day, when to all outward appearance I can do nothing, to-day, when even my own nation have rejected me and crucified me, when one of my own disciples betrayed me for a few pieces of silver, when another disciple denied me, when all forsook me and fled—to-day, when Heaven seems against me, and I am perishing as thou—even to-day, in this the hour of the powers of darkness, I declare "shalt thou be with me in Paradise," in the city of God, the capital of my kingdom.
Truly that coming of the Redeemer of the world is the blessed hope. In it and around it all the interests of the redeemed center and revolve. Let no follower of Christ be ashamed to herald to the world, "Christ is coming, coming to reign."
"The Lord is coming, let this be
The herald note of jubilee."
The nearness of his coming will be considered in our next.
A SOLEMN QUESTION.
If your probation should close this hour, would it be well with your soul? If you were told that in an hour your case would be forever decided, would it arouse consternation in your breast? Would you want to take back those hasty, impatient words that you spoke this morning? Would you tremble to think of the Judge finding you committing the act which you did last night, or are even now contemplating? If so, then you are in a dangerous condition, for you know not but this may be your last hour. There will come a last hour for you, and you have no warrant that it will be different from the present4How necessary, then, that we ever live in the light of God’s countenance! What a blessing to the world such a life would be! “Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing.”
WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD.
By Eliza H. Morton
BY ELIZA H. MORTON.
SAD, oh, how sad that life must be
Anchored to earth;
Sad, though the lips and heart may seem
Careless with mirth!
Sad, for a grave athwart each path
Darkens the way.
Life is so short,—the morning bright,
Then evening gray.
Sad, just to live a fleeting hour
Suffering pain.
Loving? Perchance, with a wounded heart
Never again.
Sad as a lark with broken wing,
Mother bird flown,
So is the soul without its God,
Homesick, alone.
THE OPERATIONS OF THE SPIRIT.
By Elder J. O. Corliss
BY ELDER J. O. CORLISS.
THE bestowal of the Spirit upon man is to bring him in touch with heavenly influences, and so make him an ambassador of heaven—a representative of its divine government. This could not be without his having the counsel of God, and being clothed with the authority of his government. There was no other way for the accomplishment of this but for man to be in direct communication with God. This is accomplished by receiving constant supplies of divine power, which are the credentials of his authority. The glory of any government is the attitude maintained toward it by its subjects, especially by those who represent it in another land. The government of heaven being wholly spiritual, its representatives must also be spiritual in order to properly represent its reign; otherwise they might well be considered imposters.
This seems to be the idea set forth by the great apostle. “I give you to understand,” he says, “that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed; and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” 1 Cor. 12: 3. The reason for this is plain to be seen. The Spirit is the representative of Christ, and if that Spirit dwells in a person, and through him speaks of Christ, it could not be possible to curse him, whose Spirit it is; for that would be a house divided against itself. Again, it would be impossible for a person, by the power of his carnal mind, which is the mind of Satan, to say that Christ is Lord; for then he would give the lie to the mind he possessed, and so antagonize the one who ruled in him, and whom his very acts testified was his Lord. This again would divide the house, to its total overthrow. The mind of Satan does not acknowledge Christ as Lord; hence when one does testify to that, it is because he has received the mind of Christ, and that can never be obtained except through the Spirit of Christ.
The Spirit of Christ is not, however, confined to one form of operation. Its manifestations are various, but always for the profit of the church. While the gifts may be diverse from one another, and their methods of ministering different, it is the same Lord operating in them all, through the power of his own Spirit. The gifts of the Spirit and their uses are dwelt upon at length in 1 Cor. 12. Commencing with verse 8 we read: “To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles [Gr. dunamis, power]; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues; but all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.”
Again in verse 28 we read: “And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles [power], then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.”
It will be noticed that this last quotation simply shows the special work which the various gifts, before mentioned, will accomplish. It will be further noticed that this work, to be done by special endowment, is the thing that God set in the church, to become a part of its very life. To deprive the church of any part of this, is to take away so much of its power of life. With all these gone, the church may exist in name and form, but without vitality. The Spirit of God is the source of all life in the church, and when that has its abiding place in the church, its operations must be seen and felt there, as described in the chapter under consideration.
These gifts are not to be exercised, however, according to the desire of the members of the church. God bestows and operates them as he wills, that he may be glorified thereby rather than those through whom they operate. One might suppose his natural qualifications would specially adapt him to become the channel of certain spiritual manifestations. When this is the case, that person would be the last choice of the Lord for such a work; for God does not see as man does. He looks at the heart, while man looks at outward appearances; and the very fact that one should judge himself worthy of certain special supernatural endowments would prove that his heart was lifted up with pride in his own accomplishments.
Right in this connection there is another point worthy of consideration. It will be noticed that in the enumeration of the gifts, there are some of what would now be considered natural acquirements, classed with, and in fact made a part of, the miraculous endowments of the Spirit. Here the working of miracles and the gifts of healing are placed in the same list with administrative and executive ability. These are all considered as gifts of the Spirit, which are necessary to the church. And so they are. Christ is the embodiment of all wisdom and knowledge. Everything is in him. No one can have anything that he did not receive, not even a desire to do right. 1 Cor. 4: 7. So while men do not always acknowledge the source of what they have, it is nevertheless true that everything comes from Him.