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Review and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 11.

LESSONS FROM THE CHRIST-LIFE

Review and Herald

Mar 12, 1901

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 12, 1901

LESSONS FROM THE CHRIST-LIFE

By Ellen G. White

MRS. E. G. WHITE
“For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.” God has laid the work of judgment upon Christ because He is the Son of man. He was made in all points like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest. He was to become acquainted with the weakness of every human being. He could do this only by taking upon himself human nature. He must be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, that at the judgment of the great day none might question the justice of the decisions made. Our High Priest has been over the ground over which we must pass. He is acquainted with the circumstances of every case. He sees not as man sees, and judges not as man judges. He judges righteously. He has shown His love for men and women by giving His own life to ransom them from the penalty that must fall upon the transgressors of God’s law. He knows the value of human souls. He will not close the door of heaven against any one unless, for the safety of heaven, it is necessary to do so.
Lucifer refused to accept Christ as the Prince of heaven, his Sovereign and Leader. He refused to acknowledge the supremacy of the Son of God. The controversy between the Prince of life and the prince of darkness has been long and fierce. Those who place themselves under Satan’s banner, who refuse, as did the Jews, to yield allegiance to God or to obey His laws, can never be members of the heavenly family. They would make war against the law of Jehovah, calling it, as did Satan, a yoke of bondage.
Ever since his fall, Satan has been the leader of rebellion. Ever since that time he has been leading men and women astray. Christ’s work began with the beginning of transgression. Then the warfare between good and evil was begun. The Scriptures speak plainly of this warfare, carrying us down to the final triumph of Christ over Satan and his adherents. This conflict never ceases.
As soon as there was sin, there was a Saviour. Christ knew what He would have to suffer, yet He became man’s substitute. As soon as Adam sinned, the Son of God presented himself as surety for the human race, with just as much power to avert the doom pronounced upon the guilty, as when He died upon the cross of Calvary.
As our Mediator, Christ works incessantly. Whether men receive or reject Him, He works earnestly for them. He grants them life and light, striving by His Spirit to win them from Satan’s service. And while the Saviour works, Satan also works, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, and with unflagging energy. But victory will never be his.
“For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” Christ was engaged in this warfare in Noah’s day. It was His voice that spoke to the inhabitants of the old world in messages of warning, reproof, and invitation. He gave the people a probation of one hundred and twenty years, in which they might have repented. But they chose the deceptions of Satan, and perished in the waters of the flood.
It was Christ who kept the ark safe amid the roaring, seething billows, because its inmates had faith in His power to preserve them.
When Christ came to the earth in person, Satan’s fiercest warfare was directed against Him. But by causing the Son of God to be crucified, Satan struck a blow at himself. When Christ died on the cross, Satan’s death-knell was sounded. His deceptions were narrowly watched by the inhabitants of the unfallen worlds, as he, in disguise, worked in such a way that he thought he could not possibly be detected. But he was left to follow his own course, to condemn himself by his own deeds. And before the cross of Calvary he stood revealed in his true character. When Christ cried out, “It is finished,” the unfallen worlds were made secure. For them the battle was fought and the victory won. Henceforth Satan had no place in the affections of the universe. The argument he had brought forward, that self-denial was impossible with God, and therefore unjustly required from His created intelligences, was forever answered. Satan’s claims were forever set aside. The heavenly universe was secured in eternal allegiance.
It was because of the issues at stake that the inhabitants of the unfallen worlds watched with such intense interest the struggle between the Prince of life and the prince of darkness. Those who had not sinned needed not the application of Christ’s blood, but they did need to be made secure from Satan’s power. The result of the conflict had a bearing on the future of all the worlds, and every step that Christ took in the path of humiliation was watched by them with the deepest interest.
Christ overcame the enemy for every created intelligence. Thus He has secured the salvation of all who will accept the provision made. None who will accept Him need be vanquished. Around all is thrown the protection of His mediation.
By personal experience Christ is acquainted with the warfare which, since Adam’s fall, has been constantly going on. How appropriate, then, for Him to be the judge. To Jesus, the Son of man, is committed all judgment. There is one mediator between God and men. Only by Him can we enter the kingdom of heaven. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. From His decision there is no appeal. He is the Rock of ages, a rock rent on purpose that every tried, tempted soul may find a sure hiding place.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you,” Christ continued, “He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. . . . The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.”
Christ here referred to those occasions upon which He should raise the dead. But His words have a deeper meaning. Not only was He to give life to those who were physically dead, but to raise to spiritual life those who were dead in trespasses and sins. Hearts palsied by transgression were to be roused by the work of the Holy Spirit.
By nature man has no love for God. It is not natural for him to think of heavenly things. Satan has worked against God and His government, leading men to attribute to God the traits which belong to the power of evil. Christ came to this world to reveal the Father. The human family had sinned against God. The terror of a broken law hung over them; and so low had they sunk, that it seemed impossible to infuse them with spiritual life. But in His work Christ was not to fail nor to be discouraged.
The Saviour saw that man has vast powers and capabilities for good, which can be used in the upbuilding of God’s kingdom. He came to restore to life those dead in sin. His voice is to be heard saying, “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead.” “As the Father hath life in himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in himself.”
To arouse those spiritually dead, to create new tastes, new motives, requires as great an outlay of power as to raise one from physical death.It is indeed giving life to the dead to convert the sinner from the error of his ways; but our Deliverer is able to do this; for He came to destroy the works of the enemy. And will He not accomplish that which He has pledged himself to perform?

The Double Lesson

By The Bishop of Ripon

“Your way is dark,” the angel said; “Because you downward gaze; Look up; the sun is overhead, Look up and learn to praise.” I looked; I learned. Who looks above Will find in heaven both light and love.
“Why upward gaze?” the angel said; “Have you not learned to know The light of God shines overhead That men may work below?” I learned. Who only looks above May miss below the work of love.
And thus I learned the lessons twain; The heart whose treasure is above Will gladly turn to earth again Because the heaven is love. Yea, Love that framed the starry height Came down to earth, and gave it light.
— The Bishop of Ripon.

THE HOLY GHOST

Selected
JESUS was a great comforter. He was ever ready to comfort His disciples in their temptations, sorrows, disappointments, and hardships.
He knew what it means to be surrounded with dark clouds, to be buffeted with fierce temptations, to be foot-sore and weary on the journey of life.
He knew how lonely and discouraged they would be when He left them, and how utterly powerless human flesh would be to stand the awful attacks of the combined hosts of the world and the devil, and He resolved to make preparation for their comfort and safety by having an all-powerful One take His place. Hence He said: “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever.”
This glorious Comforter is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father sends in the name of Jesus.
That prayer has been offered and answered, and the Holy Ghost has come. Glory to God!
This suggests:—
1. His presence. Jesus declared to His disciples: “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you.”
There are many professed Christians who have no conscious knowledge of the presence of the Holy Ghost. They live without Him. Their lives are gloomy and barren and joyless. They are living under the old dispensation instead of the new. Their great need is to have some one tell them in a practical and impressive manner that the Holy Ghost has come. “Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?”
2. His teaching. “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
How desirable and important that we should have the teaching of the Holy Spirit. There are errors to be guarded against, truths to be revealed, and intricate pathways in life to be opened up. What an utter failure we shall make of it if we go forth blindly, led by mere human wisdom. This accounts for the sad choice of companionships, which brings heart-sorrow and sadness through life; of opportunities and privileges of usefulness neglected and blasted; and of utter darkness in regard to spiritual vision. But when the Holy Ghost has right of way in you, “He shall teach you all things.”
The “all things” is modified by the words “whatsoever I have said unto you.” Hence His teaching relates to truth—the Holy Ghost does not teach anything additional to, or out of harmony with, the words of Jesus. This does not mean that we shall not have, or any more require, pastors, teachers, or evangelists, whom God has set in the churches to spread the knowledge of His will; but in those inner and spiritual experiences, which are wrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit, we shall not require any man to teach us. It necessarily follows that “the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him.”
3. His abiding. “He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world can not receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” He comes not to dwell near us as a neighbor or a friend, but to enter the same household, to be one of the family, to share its prosperity or adversity, its successes or reverses. He not only comes to dwell in the household, but to dwell in the heart. Yea, abide in the heart forever. But to have His permanent abiding, we must let Him furnish and manage the heart-home to suit himself. He will purify it until no stain nor dross of sin can be found within its sacred precincts. He will beautify it until it becomes a thing of admiration to saints and angels. He will comfort it until no reverses, adversities, temptation, or sorrow can disturb or destroy its peace. He will keep it so that no enemy can destroy its eternal safety, and with His own presence. He will be its glory and its eternal light forever and ever. O friend, let the Holy Comforter come in and take up His abode as an abiding guest.
4. His working. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”
The disciples did all the works that Jesus did. They healed the sick; they cast out devils; they raised the dead. Christ’s statements were literally fulfilled in their works, but these healings, the demon dethroning, and life from the dead were not greater works than those of Jesus; neither was their aggregate greater. The greater works are put in contrast with those, and are not literal, but spiritual. The saving of souls on the day of Pentecost, and subsequent spiritual results, are evidences of this. These greater works were wrought through believers by the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost came because Jesus went to the right hand of the Father.
The same spiritual results are possible to-day through the anointing of the same Holy Ghost, which Jesus has promised to those who believe on Him. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”

SOW BESIDE ALL WATERS

By D. A. Ball

D. A. BALL (Ellicottville, N. Y.)
“In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.”
It was my privilege to make the acquaintance of an ex-senator in New York some time ago; and in our conversation, I asked him if he knew anything about our people, and he related to me an experience that he had had.
He said he had business that called him to the Pacific Coast, and being alone, he took along a box of cigars, thinking he would enjoy the trip as best he could. After he had reached Chicago, Bishop Peck and Elder James White and his wife were on the train, bound for the same destination; and just as he got thoroughly engaged with his cigar, Elder White preached a temperance sermon, which made a lasting impression on his mind. The words spoken bore fruit, and the senator has been clear of the cigarette habit for a number of years. And now he speaks of Elder White with great respect, notwithstanding at the time he turned it off with a joke.
I know we are sometimes afraid that we shall cast pearls before swine, but would it not be better to risk throwing a peck of pearls before swine than to withhold a handful of food from one hungry soul?

GIVE THE CHINESE THEIR DUE

By Dr. O. T. Logan

Dr. O. T. Logan, Missionary, in Cumberland Presbyterian
The secular, and too often the religious, press seems only too willing to give the Chinese a kick, but alas! how seldom we see them praised! I desire with tongue and pen to protest against this unfair treatment. The American mob does not represent Americans, neither does the Chinese mob represent the Chinese. No people on earth is more peace-loving than the Chinese. Among the heathen Chinese, as well as among the “heathen” Americans, I have many warm friends, and I am duty bound to tell the good qualities of both.
The atrocities committed and permitted by the governor of Shansi have been heralded to the ends of the world, while the kindnesses shown the fleeing missionaries by the governor of Shansi, in the face of an edict to slay, are almost unknown. This man—not a Christian—lost his position, and perhaps his life, for our brethren, and yet we esteem him not. A recent letter from my friend, Dr. F. A. Keller, of eastern Hunan, relates how the son of an official risked his life to save him. Letters from missionaries tell us how Chinese mothers in different places along the way nursed and kept alive the babe of a fleeing mother, who could no longer nourish it. The one thing that impresses me most in reading accounts of the escapes of missionaries is the aid given them by heathen Chinese.
Some would desert these, and lose the glory of seeking out others like them. Are you, reader, among that class? Give the Chinese their due. The gospel is their due. Dr. Tinnon well says it was given us as a trust, not as a luxury. If the heathen are cruel, it is because they are Christless; and so long as they are Christless, we share their guilt, unless we have delivered our souls by giving them Christ. Thousands have been, and millions can be, transformed, not by might, but by the mighty One. Who will help?

THE LION OF THE TRIBE OF JUDAH

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

III

MRS. L. D. AVERY-STUTTLE
Once more I heard that mocking word: “Oh, yes; thy Christ hath power, I know; But can He cleanse a heart of sin, And make it clean and white as snow? I know the worlds were framed by Him, I’ve seen the mighty seraphim Bow low before Him day and night, Make known His power and own His might. The hosts of hell have often heard And felt the power of His word, And often, e’en their lawful prey This MAN hath snatched and borne away. Death can not hold Him, this I know; But can He wash as white as snow A human heart all black as night, And make its crimson sin-spots white?”
Then quick before my startled gaze, The while I stood in deep amaze, A human soul, deformed with sin, All black and hideous within, Before my trembling spirit stood, Devoid of light, devoid of good.
It seemed that in that fearful hour, To me was granted wondrous power, And I could see each hidden sin Which lurked that guilty soul within. There shameless lust took root and slept, And crime his reckless orgies kept, Idolatry, and murder, too, With bloody hands of crimson hue, And every vile and nameless sin, Like raging demons, lurked within.
I looked, and from the cross of Christ There fell one drop of blood, when, lo! It touched that soul all black with sin, And made it whiter than the snow. And o’er those plague-spots vile and dread, The righteousness of Christ was spread, “O miracle of grace!” I cried, “All praise to Christ the Crucified!”
And then from earth and sea and sky I heard ten thousand voices cry, Till from creation’s farthest bound The word went echoing round and round: “Again the hosts of hell have failed, AND JUDAH’S LION HATH PREVAILED.”

CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE OF SACRIFICE

By V. H. Lucas

V. H. LUCAS (Atlanta, Ga.)
“For even Christ pleased not himself.” Rom. 15:3
These are marvelous words. They express a world of meaning. They reveal a perfect life. They were spoken of the lowly Nazarene.
Christ lived not for himself. He sought not for the high places of this world. He condescended to men of low estate. He went about doing good, mindful of the temporal needs of the sick and the poor.
He came into the world to save the whole man—body, soul, and spirit. He cared for the physical man, having a mission to the bodies of men. He opened the eyes of the blind; unstopped the ears of the deaf, and made the lame to leap for joy. He looked not upon His own needs, but, in His inconceivable glory, in His equality with God the Father, He looked upon the needs of others. With a great heart of sympathy, He beheld man's ruin, his utter helplessness, his need of a Saviour. He showed the dignity of honest human labor by His own willing service at the carpenter's bench. He even scorned not the company of publicans and sinners, and thereby gave a glory to work which had no glory hitherto.
In His choosing, He took the post of a servant—“Not my will, but thine, be done,” He prayed. His humility was complete. He sought to redeem fallen man at any cost, and it culminated in His own death—the cruel, lingering, shameful death on the cross, reserved for the vilest of criminals.
When differences arise between individuals, there is a proneness of each to become bitter and overbearing, and to thrust his own convictions and preferences upon the other; in the words of the text the great apostle teaches that the true remedy for this fault is to be found in self-denial and self-sacrifice, and the true inspiration for unselfishness is to be seen in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ—the sublimest example of self-denial and self-sacrifice the world has ever known. By the child of faith this cross is to be borne all along the pathway of life. To the Roman, and the pagan in general, the word “humility” spoke only meanness; but the Saviour shed a halo of glory around it, and gave it a new meaning, so that now it suggests to the Christian the deepest piety.
In viewing how Christ “pleased not himself,” it is necessary to consider for a moment His original glory. Christ was not merely in fashion as God,—that is, in the appearance of God, or resembling God,—He was the very nature and substance of God. He possessed all power and dominion. Yet high as He was exalted, He emptied himself and took upon himself the form of a manservant. His humility was so great that the most abject slavery on earth would not compare with it. He lived a human life, and died a human death: God himself in humanity suffering the wrath of sin.
The word of God teaches us that we should empty ourselves of all pride, vainglory, self-pleasing; that we should deny ourselves, seeking the needs of others, and in humbleness of mind esteeming others better than ourselves; for our Lord has made self-sacrifice our duty. He not only gives a sublime example of what self-sacrifice is, He enjoins it upon all. He not only shows us how to live, but He commands us so to live.
Pleasing self is natural, even when to do so is injurious to ourselves and displeasing to God. Nothing so separates souls as self-pleasing. Among the followers of Christ, competition, be it ever so generous, can not be tolerated in these closing hours of time, except it be competition for the lowest place and the severest service. That restless battle for the mastery, that unfortunate strife for the chief place among our fellows and in the world's market, and even in our work for the Lord himself, is ever and always prejudicial to the Spirit of Christ, who “pleased not himself.”
The worker for God must not put himself first, nor regard his own interest as the all-important thing to be sought; but rather become generously engrossed in the welfare and interest of others for whom his Lord died, if he would find inward joy and peace in his labors of love.
Paul says: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live.” It is an evil day indeed for the people of God when in the last message of warning are to be found those who are self-pleasing, envious of one another, wrapped up in their own advancement, instead of being filled with a love for their fellow beings who have no life in Christ, and who are perishing in their sins.
We live in a world that must be warned, and this warning work has been intrusted to us who are God's servants. The true people of God stand in this hour face to face with great problems. There are mutterings of discontent, there are threatenings of upheaval, in all the earth; evil is enthroned in high places; war and wickedness are on every hand; intemperance is mowing down great squadrons, and vice and corruption are surging in the hedges and highways. To fulfill the commission of Christ, we must be as He is in the world. In prophecy, parable, and prayer, in the clear, positive utterances of Christ, the world—the whole world—is embraced in the warning commission. From out the ruins of the fall, prophecy, scanning the coming ages, proclaims ultimate and complete victory through an incarnate Redeemer. Thus was given the keynote of prophecy, and the resounding prophetic harmonies, to which the true Church has marched through all the ages, have never fallen below this pitch. The Abrahamic promise rose from the individual to the nation, and from the chosen nation to all the families of the earth. The dying Jacob, through prophetic vision, looking past the waving scepter of Judah, saw the gathering of the people of God. In the parable of the leaven we read: “The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.” The Master taught His disciples to pray: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”
Through His servants Christ operates on this sinking world. “As my Father has sent me, even so send I you.” Our mission is to warn this dying world of its rapid dissolution and impending doom, that out of its sinking multitudes a people may be gathered, from every kindred and tongue and nation, for Christ and eternity. How many professors of Christ there are whose one aim is to be saved themselves, to get to heaven. They love to sing the songs of salvation, and talk of the golden harps and the glittering crowns. They seem to expect to recline on the banks of the river of life, under the shade of the tree of life, and rest forever. What will they rest from? What have they ever done? Working with Christ for the salvation of our fellow beings who are perishing in their sins, is better than trying to get to heaven. The man who is not trying with Christ to save his brother is not saved himself.
Several years ago during a heavy storm off the coast of Spain, a dismantled merchant ship was observed by a British frigate, drifting before the gale. Every eye and glass on the frigate was fixed upon the helpless ship. A canvas shelter on the deck, almost level with the sea, suggested that there might yet be life on board. Instantly the order sounded to put the ship about, and a boat, manned by gallant men at the risk of their lives, put off over the mountain billows after the drifting wreck. Reaching it, they cry aloud, and from the canvas screen creeps out what proves to be the body of a man, so shriveled and wasted as to be easily lifted on board. In tender pity the rough sailors rub the chilled and wasted form. About to pull away, the saved man moves and moans and whispers, and as they listen they catch the muttered words, “There is another man.” The saved would save his fellow man, though himself almost in the throes of death.
To do the work of God and live out the self-sacrificing life of Christ, in saving those around us, is the supreme mission of the disciple. Getting to heaven is easy when the time comes to go. Elijah had no trouble in getting to heaven. The Lord provided the chariot and the horseman. Elijah's trouble was with Ahab and Jezebel. To do God's will requires faith, courage, and self-denial. “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” Our whole life is to be religious. In every walk we are to follow in the steps of Him who in His life glorified our common pathway, by pleasing not himself.
In the labor of these remnant hours of time the follower of Christ must be no echo, no creature of public sentiment, but a man who makes and molds Christian sentiment by his connection with Christ. He must know peoples, and manners, and customs—but more, he must know God, and know his fellow men by a conscious fellowship with Christ. He must revere the teachings of the word of God, and love the man who lives next door, even him who is cursed with sin. He will be alive to the value of the souls of men, whether clad in robes or rags. He will have a genuine love for humanity, and, like Paul, he can say: “I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren.” He will see God in everything. To Christ God was everything. To His followers this is so also.
“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork.” So also the earth: the mountains, flinging from their gleaming crests the dawn; the sea, sleeping in delicious calm, or chafed by tempests, plunging in wild grandeur on the echoing shores; the lily of the valley, blossoming in quiet beauty,—all these declare the perfection of God. All these things speak for God to hearts of faith. But the world's eyes are blind. Their ears are heavy. Their hearts are hard. Their understanding is darkened. God must speak by a plainer word in these last days. He must speak “unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds.” That form, divinely fair, moving through the walks of men as a man, giving sight to the blind, feeding the hungry, and all the time speaking words of truth, is the example for our following.
The great Captain of our salvation has led the way. He has gone out before us. His heart oflove and humility has gone into the highways and hedges, wherever humanity sins, suffers, and dies. The disciple is not above his Lord. “Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.”
The sacrifice, the toil, the patient waiting, the victories of the disciple of Christ in these solemn hours of closing probation, will be recounted with joy, and hearts will thrill and be profoundly moved when the welcome “Well done” is accorded to the worker for lost souls! But to be successful in this winning work we must be men and women of action. The man of God to-day is a man of faith—the faith of Jesus; he has a sweep of vision that takes in the world that now is, and the world which is to come. Sin, death, the doom of the impenitent sinner, are terrible and awful verities—the dark background he must portray to the world of to-day; but in the foreground is Christ, salvation, eternal life, and glory, shedding their inspiring light. He is in touch, and has fellowship, with the One who, beginning at Moses and all the prophets, expounded unto the disciples the things concerning himself. He believes that though heaven and earth pass away, God's word will not pass away.
Shall we not all search our own hearts and lives to see if the Spirit of the Lord be in us or no? If with any one it be not so, in vain for him did Christ refuse to please himself; in vain was the costly ransom paid; in vain was that body broken and that blood poured out on the cross; in vain is the sacrifice unto death made for us. Unless we possess this Spirit, we must not think that we are among the sheep which Jesus will truly know as His own when He comes to gather them into the eternal fold. “Be ye holy; for I am holy.”

PRAY TO BE HEALED OF THE CAUSE AS WELL AS OF THE EFFECT

By David Paulson; W. S. Sadler

DAVID PAULSON AND W. S. SADLER
Causes may be wrong, but effects are always right. Our sowing may be either right or wrong; but the reaping, being in God’s hands, is always for the best. Prayer for the sick, like all rational treatments, should be directed toward the removing and healing of the cause of the sickness. Prayer should not only be offered for the removal of the present visible effects, but also for the removal of the disposition to do those things which have made it necessary for God to speak to us in the language of disease.
To illustrate: When a person has a long-continued fever, he soon loses his appetite. This is a wise provision of nature; for his system is in no condition to digest and assimilate food. What folly, then, it would be to pray to have the appetite restored. This would be asking God to work against himself; for it was He who took away the appetite, and thus saved the patient from inflicting further injury upon himself. Fever is nature at work burning up the rubbish which has been introduced into the system, and has there accumulated in larger quantities than the eliminative organs can dispose of, thus necessitating the kindling of these fires within the body.
The proper thing for us to do, in both our praying and working, is to co-operate with the divine intelligence, by assisting nature in her efforts to rid the system of this poison. “But,” asks one, “why do anything? Why not let the fever go on and burn it all up, if it is God at work?” This is the answer: If all the rubbish is left to be burned up, in many cases the fires of the fever may burn so long and so furiously as to consume the man himself. We should (1) cease to take poison and rubbish into the system; (2) stimulate the elimination of poisons through the natural eliminative organs; and (3), by the intelligent use of water internally and externally, and other rational remedies and remedial agents, seek to rid the system of a portion of these waste products, and thus enable the dross-consuming fires to subside at an earlier date than they would if they were allowed to run their course. By thus removing a portion of the poison within the system, we are co-operating with God, who by the fever is endeavoring to destroy and burn it up. We should not only pray to be healed of the effects of our transgression; but the prayer of genuine faith is a supplication so flavored with the spirit of obedience that it will ever be directed toward the removal of the disposition to transgress the laws of God, which transgression is the cause of the various afflictions from which the sufferer seeks deliverance.

HEALING FAITH IS ACCOMPANIED BY WORKS OF OBEDIENCE

There is no healing that is divine without a reform in those habits of transgression which have separated man from the divine Healer. The true faith that brings true healing is the faith that gives birth to the spirit of true obedience. That so-called faith, however enthusiastic or demonstrative it may be, that is unaccompanied by the spirit of conscientious obedience, is a faith that can only deceive and disappoint those who think they have thereby obtained divine healing. Says the Lord to these victims of deceptive healing, which promises peace when there is no peace: “Ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein.” Jer. 6:16. But the disobedient answer: “We will not walk therein.” It is of this class, who claim to be healed, and yet refuse to walk in the paths of obedience; it is of those who commit abominations in the full blaze of heaven’s enlightenment, and yet do not blush, that the Lord has said: “They shall fall among them that fall.” All so-called divine healing, notwithstanding the signs and wonders and boastful claims, that ignores the necessity of removing the cause of disease and of reforming the wrong habits of the man, is not divine. These persons will look for permanent health, but will not find it. Sooner or later they must wake up to the sad realization that they have been deceived, that their much-boasted divine healing was a deception. Read Jer. 8:15: “We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble.” Those who look for, and profess to have found, a healing that heals without the co-operation of man’s obedience to the laws of health will find, instead of health, a time of trouble.

“THE PRAYER OF FAITH SHALL SAVE THE SICK”

“Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.” James 5:14, 15.
The prayer of presumption is not the prayer of faith, and we have no promise that presumption’s prayer will save the sick. “Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:12. The prayer that has power to save the sick is the prayer of faith. Those who can pray the prayer of faith are the ones who have the faith of Jesus. And those who have the faith of Jesus, the Scriptures declare, “keep the commandments of God.” Therefore, the prayer that has power to save the sick is a prayer of obedience as well as of faith.
The one who has the faith of Jesus—who keeps the commandments of God—is controlled by that mind which was also in Christ Jesus; and therefore his requests of the eternal Father would be only those which the mind of the Son within him had recognized as right and consistent for the Father to grant. The prayer of genuine faith has in it saving power; because it is but the expression of what the Saviour himself knows to be both right and possible for the Father to do. The prayer that will save the sick is the prayer that comes from a mind and heart in tune with the mind of Christ,—a mind that pleased the Father in all things, and offended not in one point.

THE PRAYERS OF RIGHTEOUS MEN AVAIL ONLY AS THEY INSPIRE OBEDIENCE

To-day the world is sowing broadcast for physical suffering, mental sorrow, and moral anguish. Messengers of God in the earth are seeking to disseminate rays of light and truth, obedience to which would bring health and healing to body and soul. But the world passes on, wedded to its sins, hardly blushing at its disobedience. And now, would it be reasonable to expect that holy men of God can step in and simply by their prayers save earth’s guilty inhabitants from reaping the harvest for which they are so persistently sowing? “If I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out my fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast: though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness. For thus saith the Lord God: How much more when I send my four sore judgmentsupon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast?” Eze. 14:19–21.
Here the Lord tells us that even Noah, Daniel, and Job, if they were here, could not by their prayers divert the consequences of persistent disobedience. And yet, while it is true that the prayers of the righteous can not be made a scapegoat, as it were, to bear the sins of the wicked, we must not forget that the Scriptures say that “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” James 5:16. Prayer does not accomplish the purpose of changing the mind of God (Mal. 3:6); but it may be a most powerful factor in changing the will of man, in changing his disposition from one of disobedience to one of obedience. Repentance of physical sin or moral transgression removes the cause; but the removal of the effect is in the hands of God, and will take place in such a manner and at such a time as the infinite One recognizes will be for the honor and glory of His name, the best good of the individual, and the accomplishment of God’s eternal purpose.

THE ABIDING COMFORTER

The King's Messenger
“He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” John 14:17.
Beloved, for you has that loving prayer of the Lord Jesus been answered? “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth, . . ., for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”
Has He indeed come in to abide in our hearts, to take entire charge of our life? It is the abiding, indwelling presence of the Comforter that makes all the difference in our lives; for He makes God real to us in everything. God's promise is that when He comes in to abide, He will teach us all things. He will bring all things to our remembrance that Jesus has said to us. John 14:26. He will testify of Jesus. Verse 26. He will guide us into all truth. He will show us things to come. He will glorify Jesus; for He shall take of His, and shall show it unto us. John 16:13, 14. If not, let us ask and receive this gentle Teacher, this loving Guide, who will so gladly and entirely take charge of our yielded lives. So shall we be “taught of God,” “led of the Spirit,” “kept by the power of God”—God himself working in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. We shall be no more alone; for to each loving, longing heart that simply asks the Father, that prayer of Jesus will be answered, and the Comforter will come in to abide.
Beloved, let us believe God, let us ask and receive now this abiding Comforter, and let us thank God that He has, for Jesus' sake, come in to abide in our hearts now and for evermore.
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