WHY DO WE SEND MISSIONARIES TO ROMAN CATHOLIC COUNTRIES?
By William Burt
[From an article by William Burt, D. D., in Christian Advocate, of November 13.]
It seems to us that one of two hypotheses must explain the tolerant attitude toward the Romish Church of to-day:—
1. Ignorance. Our friends do not know Roman Catholicism. Some think that the Roman Catholic Church is simply one of the several Christian denominations, with a ritual of a rather elaborate character. Such have known Romanism only as they have seen it in Protestant countries; but Roman Catholicism should be studied in papal lands, where the priests have power and the full apostasy is realized. Some conclude, because they have known an exceptionally good bishop or priest, that the institution must be good. There will be exceptions to every rule. Some even go so far as to concede that the adoration of Mary, the worship of Mary, the worship of saints, the sacrifice of the mass, and the doctrine of purgatory may not, after all, be incompatible with Christianity.
The question is, Is the Romish Church of to-day Christian? If our answer is in the affirmative , then we may well doubt the propriety of sending missionaries to Roman Catholic countries, and still less to Italy, the seat of the pope who claims to be the successor of St. Peter, the vicegerent of Jesus Christ, and the only infallible oracle of the entire Christian world. If, however, we admit that the Romish Church is Christian, then it will be very difficult for us to conceive how the other churches can be Christian. Between the Romish Church and the different Protestant denominations there is a gulf so wide and deep that it would seem impossible for Christ and His Gospel to be on both sides at the same time.
If Roman Catholicism represents the central idea of Christianity, then we should at once beseech the pope to graciously receive us into his fold and communion. Romanism, however, is pagan in its thought and practise and in its ultimate effect on the human character. It is idolatrous with its images, pictures, shrines, and relics. It is superstitious in its miracles, processions, and pilgrimages, all of pagan origin.
We have taken some of our missionaries from China and India to witness scenes in Rome, the like of which they have declared never to have seen in pagan lands. Romanism does not even retain the Christian ideas.
(a) Its idea of God is not the Christian idea of father, but the pagan idea of blind and inexorable destiny. The visible father of the Roman Catholic Church is the pagan pontifex maximus. The name of God does not inspire love, but fear, because Romanists know Him only as the one who punishes in wrath those who do not conform to the laws of the Roman Catholic Church.
How is it possible, for instance, for an intelligent Italian to believe that God will refuse to admit into Paradise his innocent, unbaptized child, but will freely receive a wicked, old thief who had the time and the money to get extreme unction from a corrupt priest?
(b) The mission of Christ, in the Romish thought, is not that of the one and only perfect Saviour. Without the priest the Roman Catholic Christ does not pardon or save a human soul. Salvation depends upon the authority of the Church or on works approved by the Church. Christ is either a babe in the arms of His mother, on whom He depends, or a corpse on the cross, unable to do anything except by consent of the priests, and that, too, on condition of prompt payment.
(c) The Holy Spirit is no longer free and omnipotent, but is limited by the decisions of conclaves, councils, and synods, and personified in the infallible pope.
Romanism, however, is not only pagan in its conception and practise, but also in its ultimate effect on the individual and national character.
It will be quite sufficient to ask Mexico, South America, Spain, Porto Rico, and the Philippine Islands, What has Roman rule done for any country or people on the face of the globe?
Again, Roman Catholicism is the greatest obstacle in the world to-day to the rapid advancement of the kingdom of God among men, not only because it has usurped that kingdom in its greed for temporal power, but especially because it makes war on the Word of God. Thinking men are being driven into infidelity, while the ignorant are being deceived, and hence both classes are kept away from the Fountain of Life.
The greatest difficulties which the Bible and missionary societies encounter in their holy mission of Christian civilization come from Romish priests, who make the people believe5that the Bible is a diabolical book, and who burn it in their very presence, notwithstanding the fact that here the Jesuits pretend to counsel the people to read the Bible.
Italy is the seat and center of the Roman Catholic heirarchy, which is, in turn, the center of all reactionary intrigues, political, religious, and social. Here all the dark schemes are concocted against governments and people, from the false donation of Constantine and the forged letter of St. Peter to King Pepin to the powder plot in Westminster and the trouble with the Philippine Friars. The peace of the world is being constantly disturbed by the intrigues of the Vatican.
Ought we not therefore to establish and maintain missions in Roman Catholic countries? Certainly Wesley would have replied, Yes; because his first purpose was to evangelize a corrupt and spiritually dead church. The Methodists who can excuse the Roman Catholicism of to-day, a thousand times worse than the Anglicanism of Wesley's days, must belong to a degenerate race.
2. If however, the theory of ignorance does not explain the attitude of our friends toward Romanism, perhaps the explanation is to be found in the fact that they believe that missions should be planted and maintained first where they will more probably give the largest numerical returns. How much harm has been done to the cause of Christ in this world by those who have reckoned success by the cold calculation of money spent and numbers enrolled! We all know that mission work among raw pagans gives a larger numerical result than among Roman Catholics. This fact, however, ought to arrest our attention and cause us to study the nature and methods of the Romish Church.
Christ did not promise to reward according to success, as we judge it, but according to faithful service. A little reflection, however, will soon show us that, after all, the success is only relative, success in numbers and not in quality.
There are those, too, who are indulging the hope that in some way the Roman Catholic Church will be reformed through some inherent virtue which she possesses. But this hope was destroyed as far back as the Council of Constance, which, you will remember, was called for the purpose of reforming the church. Historians agree that it was the greatest ecclesiastical assembly ever convened. How did it end? (a) By burning John Huss. (b) The cardinals all agreed that whoever might be elected pope should not close the council until the desired reformation, if not accomplished, should be decided upon. Cardinal Colonna was elected and became Pope Martin V. His first words after his election were, “The council is closed.” This is the reply which the Papacy of to-day gives to those who are looking for an internal reform of the Roman Catholic Church. The door is closed. The Romish Church will never be reformed except through a breach made in her walls by the evangelical forces.
After all, do we do right to make a distinction between Romanists, Jews, and pagans? For us there should be but two classes, those who are in Christ and those who are out of Christ. Wherever in this world we find those who know not Jesus as a personal Saviour, we should evangelize them and point them to the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world.
GOD’S PLAN IN SALVATION.
By G. W. Copley
Martin Luther took issue with the Papacy on the doctrine of righteousness by faith in Christ. The pope’s error was in that he trusted in works or penance instead of in Christ direct for salvation. Hence, the pains and penalties monks and nuns are compelled to endure, and the extortion the laity are obliged to submit to in the purchase of absolution and release from purgatory.
We are justified by faith in the atoning blood of Christ which He shed for all mankind. “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Rom. 5:1. But all have sinned, and are consequently under the sentence of death—the second death. Now, if we have faith in Christ sufficient to move us to repent, and confess our sins, and reform our lives, He will come forward and offer to be our substitute to satisfy the demands of the eternal law.
But “faith, if it hath not works [the works of God], is dead, being alone;” while faith that gives expression by works, the keeping of the law in love to God and man, is eternal life. Therefore, we must obey the law in Christ or we can not be saved. The plan of salvation is simple enough to be plainly understood when we go back and seriously consider first principles. I will sketch it briefly as follows:—
Adam was the single seed from which sprang the whole human race. Adam sinned and fell under the penalty of death. Hence, the entire human race are, like Adam, sinful creatures, and, being such, are subject to death—the6second death. This is the result of one man’s sin. Since sin is the transgression of the law of God, the penalty of which is death, it seems but reasonable that Christ (one Man) who is the only-begotten Son of the Infinite God, Himself an Infinite Being, could, by an infinite sacrifice, satisfy the demands of the violated law for all mankind. So He came to this earth, the theater of sin, and took on Him the form of a man, was tempted in all points as we are, and yet without sin; was crucified for our transgressions; poured out His blood in this sinful earth unto death; was raised from the dead by His Father; and is now at His Father’s right hand, a qualified Priest, Advocate, Judge, and King, for all mankind.
He was made of God the second Adam, a quickening Spirit, with power to raise the dead. All men will not avail themselves of the atonement, His shed blood; but only such as obey the law, through faith in Christ, can be saved. Adam sinned of His own free will. Man must return to God of His own free will, and plead the merits of Christ’s blood for pardon; for God will force no man’s will. The law knows only justice. In the language of Bunyan, “The law alone is terrible as a lion; the law through Christ is gentle as a lamb.”
But Christ has not abolished the law of Ten Commandments, as some teach. He Himself says: “One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Matt. 5:18. And all will not be fulfilled till the redeemed are fully established in the new earth, to say the least.
Justification by faith reveals God’s character as the embodiment of all that is noble, good, just, merciful, glorious. He never uses force as men do to reform or punish criminals. Adam had the perfect exercise of his will in making his decisions. But he, by his decision, brought sin and death upon all mankind. Christ has made it possible for us by our decision to return to God, obtain pardon, be restored to Eden. It is free will, free will, all the way from Eden lost to Eden restored. We are at liberty to obey or reject the law of God; and our reward or punishment will be determined by the way we exercise our own free wills.
G. W. Copley.
Blachly, Ore.
How They Became Convinced
[Believing it would be of interest to our readers, the editor of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES has asked Sabbath-keeping ministers and evangelical workers to tell in a few words the scripture or scriptures, the truths and principles, which constrained them to accept the unpopular truth of the seventh-day Sabbath. These testimonies must not exceed 500 words. Let us hear from all.]
I.
When I was a boy about six or seven years of age, my father and mother drove out a short distance from our home on a certain Sunday, and, on passing a blacksmith shop, they heard the ringing of the blacksmith’s anvil. This seemed very strange, especially to my mother who was reared to keep Sunday for the Sabbath. I well remember, when father and mother returned home, hearing them talking of the matter of the blacksmith working in his shop on Sunday. Mother said she had inquired of some one in that neighborhood why the blacksmith worked on Sunday, and she was told that he observed Saturday for the Sabbath, and worked upon Sunday. Mother said, “And I believe that is right, because the Bible says, ‘The seventh day is the Sabbath,’ and Saturday is the seventh day of the week.” The impression made upon my young mind at that time never left me, and prepared the way for me to accept the true Sabbath and the whole message of truth when I heard it presented by Elders J. H. Waggoner and C. W. Stone in the city of Springfield, Ohio, about twenty-five years ago. I praise the Lord for that early impression, and for thus preparing my heart to accept the truth when I heard it presented by His faithful servants. They are both now sleeping in the tomb; but it has been my blessed privilege, for more than twenty years, to help in proclaiming to the world this precious message.
G. W. ANGLEBARGER.
Denver, Colo.
II.
When about seven years old, as I began to read the Bible, I discovered that it required the observance of the seventh day of the week; this, with the testimony of the table of time in the old family Bible, showing that Saturday was the seventh day, or Sabbath, awakened a query in my mind, and I went to my mother with the question, “Why are we keeping the first day of the week?” The reply was, “O! the Sabbath has been changed.” This quieted my mind; but not long after this, in 1859, Elder Joseph Bates held a three weeks’ meeting in our schoolhouse, and the result was that just one woman embraced the Third Angel’s Message, and that woman was my mother. I was glad, with her, to observe the Sabbath of the Lord. The visits of the messengers were not very frequent in those days, and it was seven years before I again saw a Seventh-day Adventist minister. But for seven years a good sister paid for the Review and Herald for my mother, till I was large enough to earn some money with which to do missionary work; and it was through reading an article in the Review that I was quickened to spiritual life, and thus turned from the road to ruin.
Pullman, Wash.
F. D. STARR.
III.
Eighteen years ago I knew almost nothing of the teachings of the Bible. My father’s family made no profession of religion; and tho a Bible was in the house it was seldom read. So when a minister came to our neighborhood and taught the things of God, we were prepared to hear the truth with no prepossessions to hinder our view.
If it should be asked what line of reasoning or what scripture led to my accepting the Sabbath truth, I could only say that it was the simple language of the Fourth Commandment. Tho we had never professed religion in any way, yet we were always taught sacredly to regard the Ten Commandments; and when the Spirit of God awakened conviction in our hearts, the binding claims of this holy code of precepts could not be ignored. We recognized our duty, and cheerfully took our stand with those who are walking in the way that leads to the city of God. The pathway has grown brighter from then till now; and tho the enemy opposes the onward march of the little flock who keep the commandments (Rev. 14:12; 12:17), yet truth shines the brighter for the conflict; and soon the righteous nation who have kept the truth will enter through the gates to the eternal city. F. M. BURG.
Portland, Ore.
What Makes a Preacher
By Benjamin M. Adams
It takes more filling than a college and seminary can give a man to make a preacher of him.—Benjamin M. Adams.
SALVATION THREEFOLD.
By A. J. Williams
1. Salvation of the Soul—Past.—The sinner's soul is saved through the reception of Jesus Christ as his complete Saviour. “Them that are saved.” 2 Cor. 2:15. “Who hath saved us.” 2 Tim. 1:9. “For by grace are ye saved.” Eph. 2:8; 1 Thess. 1:10; Luke 7:50.
2. Salvation in Our Walk—Present.—The saint's life may be saved now by abiding in Christ, and in fellowship with God. The believer is told to work out his own salvation with fear and trembling. Phil. 2:12, 13. It is ours to work out, by not grieving the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, but allowing Him to work in us and through us day by day, delivering us from temptations within and without, and strengthening us to walk as Christ walked. Phil. 1:19; 1 Cor. 15:32; 2 Cor. 11:23, 27; 1 Cor. 9:22, 27.
3. Salvation of the Body—Future.—At Christ's coming for the saints.—It is ours to be complete then. “Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” Rom. 13:11. This is the Christian's hope, His coming again, bringing this extra grace with Him, and changing these bodies of humiliation, fashioning them like unto the body of His glory. Phil. 3:20, 21; 1 Peter 1:13; Rom. 8:23–25; 1 Thess. 4:13–18; Titus 2:13.
O, praise Him for this threefold complete salvation. O, what an eternity of joy to be forever saved. Dear saint, trust on, and walk with, and work for Jesus.
Shreveport, La. A. J. WILLIAMS.
PROCRASTINATION
“Procrastination,” says Young, “is the thief of time.” It is more than this; it is the robber and despoiler of character.
It is not so much the failure to see the right way, as to act upon the right, that turns men to destruction.
In the goodness of God the first impulse to come to the soul of the normal man is the impulse to approve the right. Man’s better self acknowledges the truth and the right.
But if to do the right, to live the truth, involves a cross, the selfish plea of “putting-off” comes in. The tempter suggests that so much is involved in the matter that we ought to “wait awhile. Business interests will suffer, loss of prestige and social standing will ensue; and perhaps there may be another side. Wait awhile.”
And waiting awhile means the benumbing of conscience, means the loss of resolution, means the loss of inspiration in acting promptly on what we believed to be right; means that the heart has been yielded as a parley-ground to the enemy, and that his representative is received on equal terms with the best good judgment, with a good conscience, with God’s angel. Needless to say, the parley usually ends in the yielding of the principle and the victory of evil.
Archias, the chief governor of Thebes, at a feast received an urgent letter which uncovered a plot to kill him and overthrow the government. “This is no time,” said the pleasure-lover, “to trouble us with business; we shall consider of that to-morrow.” But “to-morrow” he was lying dead, and another was chief governor.
A young man, contrary to his mother’s wishes, entered a saloon “just for a minute.” He tarried; a stabbing affray took place; and he never came out alive.
Many a young man and young woman say, “Yes, I believe in Christianity, and I mean to be a Christian sometime. But not to-day.” But
“That far distant sometime kept ever in view,
Always fades from our touch as the diamonds in dew.”
To many a heart it never comes. The conscience grows less tender and the heart more susceptible to the deceptions of pleasure and prosperity.
“We mean to do it, some day, some day
We mean to slacken the fevered rush
That is wearing our very souls away,
And grant to our goaded hearts a hush
That is holy enough to let them hear
The footsteps of angels drawing near.
“We mean to do it, ah! I never doubt.
When the burden of daytime toil is o’er,
We will sit and muse when the stars come out,
As the patriarch sat at the open door,
To list, with heavenward gazing eye,
For footsteps of angels passing by.
“The day that we dreamed of comes at length
When tired of every mocking guest,
When broken in spirit and shorn of strength,
We drop ourselves at the door of rest,
And wait and watch while the day wanes on,
But the angels we meant to call are gone.”
Dear soul, your time to decide for God is to-day. You may wail with the old ruler, “O call back yesterday, bid time return,” but it will not, howsoever bitter your cry. Wait not for a more convenient season. When the duty presents itself, do it. When opportunity comes, grasp it. When God calls, answer. Use the moments.
“Time is eternity;
Pregnant with all eternity can give.”
Use it for God. Put not off till to-morrow what you should do to-day.
“Procrastination is the thief of time;
Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercy of a moment leaves
The vast concerns of an eternal scene.”
God’s mercy of a moment is sufficient; but to him who continually despises the moments, the merciful moment passes unknown, unseen. “Behold now is the acceptable time.” “To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.”
KNOWLEDGE
By G.
1. Knowledge is taught of God.
“He that chastiseth the nations, shall not He correct, even He that teacheth man knowledge?” Ps. 94:10, R. V.
2. He teaches through His Word.
“Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” Rom. 15:4.
In Christ “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Col. 2:3.
3. Knowledge is of great value.7
“Wise men lay up knowledge; but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction.” Prov. 10:14.
“Receive My instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. Ch. 8:10.
“I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus My Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ; . . . that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection.” Phil. 3:8–10.
4. Knowledge brings salvation.
“This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.” John 17:3.
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to Me; seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.” Hosea 4:6.
5. There is no excuse for lack of knowledge.
“A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not; but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth.” Prov. 14:6.
“A good understanding have all they that do His commandments.” Ps. 111:10.
6. Knowledge is good for the weak.
“A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength.” Prov. 24:5.
Therefore, “as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2); “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).
7. An encouraging promise is near to fulfilment:—
“They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Isa. 11:9; Hab. 2:14. G.
POSSIBILITIES
By Edison Driver
SCIENTISTS tell us that there is ten times more power in a pound of coal than the best engines of modern times can get out of it. Years ago only one-thirtieth or even less of the coal’s energy could be harnessed and made to do useful work. But inventors have studied diligently to save this great waste, putting each heat-wave in the place where it can do the most work and the most useful work, so at last getting one-tenth instead of one-thirtieth of the power from the fuel.
Not satisfied with this, they are looking forward to the time when the entire force of the coal can be used to turn machinery. The possibility is there; it requires patience and brains to work it out.
And now, while they are working out their problem, let us not lose sight of ours. Undreamed-of possibilities lie wrapped up in our bodies and brains. Shall they yield for us only the “one-thirtieth”? EDISON DRIVER.
Goodness and Sin in All Men
By Joaquin Miller
In men whom men condemn as ill,
I find so much of goodness still;
In men whom men pronounce divine,
I find so much of sin and blot.
I hesitate to draw the line
Between the two where God has not.
— Joaquin Miller.
NO GROUND FOR DISCOURAGEMENT.
There is absolutely no ground for discouragement to the man who believes God. He may be a crimson-dyed sinner; yet there stands the blessed, encouraging invitation: “Come on now, and let us plead together, saith Jehovah: tho your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; tho they be red as crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye shall be willing and obedient, ye shall feed on the good of the land.” Isa. 1:18, 19 (Lowth’s translation). We can not plead before that court; our sins have taken away all heart to plead, besides we have absolutely no standing there; surely our case is a dark one. But there comes One, strong, mighty, pure, sinless, with pierced feet and hands, and He stoops down to our side, and with cheering voice pleads, “Come on now, and let us plead together.” He identifies Himself with us. He puts His righteousness for our sin, His strength for our weakness, His fulness for our emptiness; His standing at court He risks—but never to lose—in our behalf. Surely there is no ground for discouragement here, when on the word of the Advocate the Judge will speak us clean.
But we have sinned many times. We have slighted His mercy. We have repented and sinned again and again, till our best thoughts reek with sin. Still there is hope. Hear Him: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto Jehovah, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” Isa. 55:7.
Yes, we believe this, believe that He will forgive all the past, but what hope is there for the future? Will not all the sins come trooping back and bring us into still sorer captivity? Nay, but our God has made promises to meet this objection by which Satan would discourage us. Listen to His prophet: “Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger forever, because He delighteth in loving-kindness. He will again have compassion upon us; He will tread our iniquities under foot; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” Micah 7:18, 19. Surely “there is nothing too hard for Jehovah.” In Him the sinner can trust to the utmost.
“But troubles untold and innumerable come upon us when we serve Him,” says one. Yes, that is true. So they came upon the Master. Is the servant better than his Lord? What if all evils come? If all friends forsake us, we have Him left. Is He not better than all? If we lose all earthly riches, we have left “the exceeding riches of His grace,” the fulness of which eternity can never reveal. If we lose life, it is “hid with Christ in God” to be restored eternally when the Life-giver comes.
O soul, believing, trusting, hoping in God, whoever you are, be not discouraged. Say with the apostle in view of all these assurances: “For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” There is nothing which can separate us from God and hope but sin loved and cherished. That will separate eternally. But sin given up, and God is ours and we are His forever and forever. “Be of good courage.”
THE SCRIPTURE APPEAL IS PERSONAL.
By G.
The Scriptures were not given merely to teach history, or philosophy, or science, although they contain all these. They are mainly “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” They are designed “to make you wise unto salvation.” “You” stands for any individual who is willing to profit by the teaching of the Scriptures. But to receive any benefit from the Word of God, the individual must accept it as a personal appeal, as the will of God concerning him personally. He must receive it for the purpose of becoming “thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”
The Scriptures record many failures on the part of men who were professed servants of God, and whom God recognized as His servants. But these records were not written as subjects of gossip, or to subject the persons mentioned to the criticism of unbelievers or of pharisaical professors. They are lessons for those who were to come afterward; lessons of warning to show us how to avoid like mistakes. The people of God of one age are too prone to condemn those of former ages who lived under fewer privileges and dimmer light. The tendency is to condemn those of the past, and thus justify ourselves. But the Scriptures teach us, when we read or hear of the faults of others, to examine our own hearts to see if there be anything of the same kind in us.
When the Spirit tells of the sad failure of the Israelites, we are not to be content with condemning them, but immediately we are referred to ourselves: “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To-day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”
When the apostle tells us that Israel failed to enter into rest because of unbelief, the lesson is at once applied: “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.” Then we are told how only we may be benefited by the Gospel. “For unto us was the Gospel preached, as well as unto them; but the Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.”
Men are prone to condemn the antediluvian people for their wickedness, but the Lord tells us that the last generation will be just as they were. Skeptics point to the failures of noted servants of God as evidence of the failure of religion to make men better. They point to the Lord’s chastisements of the race as cruelty on His part. Thus they fail to learn from the Scriptures the lessons designed to be taught. The Lord might in justice cut men off in their sins, but He is “long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.” Why does He do this?—He does it in mercy, to turn the wayward ones to repentance. “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”
Men are willingly ignorant of the teaching of the Scriptures, and the facts of history they contain, and thus bring condemnation upon themselves. “There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” They might as well deny the creation altogether, as many of them do, for they refuse to believe other facts equally authentic. “For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the Word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water; whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished; but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same Word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” So men who are willingly ignorant of the facts of the past, as recorded in the Scriptures, will consequently be ignorant of the coming judgment until it overtakes them “as a thief in the night.”
Men and women, both in and out of the church, are fast departing from the counsel of God as given in the lessons of inspired record, and the only remedy for present day evils is a return to the sacred Word. There never can be a genuine reformation excepting by a return to “the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”
Probationary time, the day of preparation, is fast passing. Unbelievers will soon learn when it is too late the truth of which they have been willingly ignorant. But the gracious invitation is still held out: “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”
G.
“THE NATION WHOSE GOD IS THE LORD.”
By G.
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance.” Ps. 33:12. This is one of the texts of Scripture often used in support of State religion. The National Reformers have quoted it many times to sustain their plea for a formal recognition of God in the Federal Constitution.
But the use of such a scripture for such a purpose is sheer perversion of the Word of God. The Lord never pronounces blessing upon a merely formal religion, or upon a profession in which there is no heart. Therefore this text could not apply to any government on account of a perfunctory acknowledgment of God in its fundamental law, nor on account of a formal recognition of any religious institution. And, inasmuch as human governments can be religious only in the most formal manner, it is clear that such a declaration of the Lord could not have reference to any human government at all.
The only nation “whose God is the Lord,” in the light of the scripture to which we allude, is composed of “the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance.” These are not, nor ever will be in this world, confined to any one government; nor will any human government ever be all composed of such a people. The people whom the Lord chooses for His inheritance are taken out of “every nation, kindred, tongue and people.” They are gathered by the proclamation of the “everlasting Gospel,” and not by the decrees of human governments.
The promise was made to Abraham that he should be “heir of the world” (Rom. 4:13), and the spiritual seed—they that are Christ’s—are to be heirs with him “according to the promise.” Their characteristic is not formal profession, but keeping “the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” in deed and in truth. They are subjects of Him whose “kingdom is not of this world;” and of them He says, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”
Another proof that “the nation whose God is the Lord” is not, and can not be, any nation of this world, is the fact that spiritual “Babylon” (Rome restored to universal sway through the aid of apostate Protestantism) is to make all nations drunk with her false doctrines—principal among which is State religion, the State governed by the church, national profession of Christianity. This evil, of which all nations will eventually partake until they are in a condition of drunkenness, is described by the prophet John as “the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” And this terrible condition of all nations is brought about in the name of Christianity. So that a national profession of Christianity is no mark of a “nation whose God is the Lord.”
Still another testimony is given in the prophecy of Daniel. The nations of earth were shown to Nebuchadnezzar in a dream of a great image; and a stone cut out without hands fell upon and crushed the whole structure out of existence, and filled the whole earth in its stead. This stone, as interpreted by the prophet, stood for the kingdom of God. Is it fair to suppose that the coming of Christ would utterly annihilate any nation whose God is the Lord?—No; blessing is the portion of such a nation.
The “nation whose God is the Lord,” composed of “the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance,” is as yet the spiritual kingdom of Christ. And “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.” Then there will be a grand, general division. The subjects of His spiritual kingdom, the “nation whose God is the Lord,” will be set on His right hand, and He will say to them, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” All other nations are subjected to everlasting destruction. The prophet saw that “no place was found for them.”
Reader, let no man deceive you. No matter how many religious laws the nations of earth may place upon their statute books, it ought to be plain to even a casual observer that the Lord is not the God of any of them. They are all worshiping the gods of mammon and self-aggrandizement. Just now they are making great sacrifices to the god of war and trade, and the commandment of God, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” is the farthest from the thought of any nation. It is time now to be seeking citizenship in “the nation whose God is the Lord.” Perilous times are abroad, because the commandments of God are neglected and formal service is substituted. But through it all the subjects of the blessed nation can say, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” G.
