Earlier text: General ArticlesCHRIST, who was without sin, suffered in our stead the penalty of our sins, that the honor of God's holy law might be vindicated, and that man might be restored to favor. Man is accounted just, or is justified in the sight of God, because Christ died to make atonement for his sins, and because he trusts in Christ as the procuring cause of his release from the punishment which is justly due to the transgressor. Christ paid our debt, and therefore sin can be remitted. "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth." It is not our repentance, our holiness, or our faith, which moves the divine mind for our justification; for, although we are said to be "saved by faith," and to be "justified by faith," yet faith is only the instrument by which God works—faith is only the hand which takes hold of Christ. Justification is a gift. Eternal life is a gift. And Jesus Christ is the efficient and meritorious cause through which these gifts are bestowed. The virtue is in Christ, and it goes out of him for the healing of the sinner, who, by faith, touches even the border of his garment. See Matt. 9: 20, 21. Perhaps the nature of the sinner's justification is as briefly and earnestly set forth in the following passage from the "judicious Hooker," as can be found in the same space in uninspired words:— 'Christ hath merited righteousness for as many as are found in him. In him God findeth us, if we be faithful; for by faith we be incorporated into him. Then, although in ourselves we are altogether sinful and unrighteous, yet even the man which in himself is impious, full of iniquity, full of sin, being found in Christ through faith, and having his sin in hatred through repentance, him God beholdeth with a gracious eye, putteth away his sin by not imputing it, taketh quite away the punishment due thereto by pardoning it, and accepteth him in Jesus Christ as perfectly righteous as if he had fulfilled all that is commanded him in the law; shall I say, more perfectly righteous than if himself had fulfilled the whole law? I must take heed what I say; but the apostle saith, 'God hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.' We are such in the sight of God the Father, as is the very Son of God himself.' But the inquirer after truth is often troubled about the evidences of justification. He wants to know when he passed from condemnation to justification, from death unto life. In looking for this evidence, however, let him bear in mind that the act by which the sinner is justified being God's sentence of pardon, we cannot have the same kind of evidence that at such a moment or hour the change took place, as if we were before a human tribunal and heard with our ears the judge pronounce the sentence of acquittal. In this case we could say, "Then I was pardoned." But we must walk by faith as to the time in which God grants us pardon, and we must judge of the reality of the change by the fruits. Thus "the path of the just," or the justified, is set before us "as the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day." Its beginning may not be marked. A cloud may hide the sun at its rising. But we shall find that where there is a beginning, there is progress. If the sun has risen, there is light and heat. Whom God justifies, them he also sanctifies. If he blots out our sins through the blood of Christ, he also renews our nature by the Holy Ghost, and gives us, at least, a measure of that "peace of God which passeth all understanding." Hence, the righteousness of sanctification, or the indwelling of the Spirit, working in us according to his own will, is the Scripture evidence of the righteousness of justification, or the forgiveness of all our sins, and the accounting us in God's sight as though we had never sinned. Let not the anxious seeker after righteousness, then, perplex himself unduly as to the time when, or the mode in which, God called him and he did not resist the drawings of his love. Let him rather look for the evidence of his justification, through the indwelling of the Spirit, in following after, and reaching unto a larger measure of the righteousness of sanctification. Let him bear in mind that although there is a point of beginning in the Christian life, yet it may not be distinctly and certainly known. If anyone, therefore, as he compares the present with the past, finds that with him "old things have passed away, and all things have become new"—if Christ and his salvation are more precious to him than all worldly good, and if he is willing to take him as the Lord his righteousness—then, although he may not be able to trace all the way in which God has led him, yet may he reasonably hope that he is justified in the sight of God, if by perseverance in well doing, he follow on to know the way of the Lord more perfectly. And may Jesus, "who is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption," fulfill his gracious work in every such soul.—American Tract Society's Tract, No. 647. WHAT IS THE RESULT?
By Selected
UNLESS a man has something to show for his advantages and opportunities, the less he says about them as his possession, the better. If a man's ancestors were noble and eminent, an added responsibility rests on him to evidence his worthiness in the line of that ancestry. The practical question at issue in such a case, is not whether he has reason to be proud of his ancestors, but whether his ancestors would have reason to be proud of their descendant. If he has merely descended from a superior stock, it would be well for him not to call special attention to the fact of his descent. So again in one's education and training. It is of little use for a young man to say that he "served his time" at a trade, or at a certain business, if his attainments and skill give no proof that his time served him. If a young man says that he has studied five languages under the best teachers, it is only to his added discredit if he can neither read nor speak any one of those five languages fluently or critically. It is of less importance that a student goes through college, than that college goes through a student. What a man can show as a result of his advantages and opportunities is worth a great deal more to him than a long list of advantages and opportunities which might have shown him that which he now has not. He who does well in spite of his lack of helps deserves more credit than he who lacks in spite of helps which he had.—Selected. "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee; he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved." Ps. 55:22. "CHILD of my love, lean hard,
And let me feel the pressure of thy care.
I know thy burden, child; I shaped it,
Poised it in mine own hand, made no proportion
In its weight to thy unaided strength;
For, even as I laid it on, I said,—
'I shall be near, and while she leans on me
This burden shall be mine, not hers; so shall
I keep my child within the circling arms
Of mine own love!' Here lay it down, nor fear
To impose it on a shoulder which upholds
The government of worlds. Yet closer come;
Thou art not near enough; I will embrace thy care,
So I might feel my child reposing on my heart.
Thou lovest me? I know it. Doubt not, then;
But, loving me, lean hard."
—Selected. THE soul that fully confides in God has no will of its own; that is, its will is absorbed in God's will. It cherishes no thought, desire, or purpose; it forms no resolution, speaks no word, performs no action, but what it believes to be in harmony with the revealed will of the divine mind. It is in such a state of freedom from the world, and from the power of its own natural appetites and propensities, that there is nothing within to check the influences of the Holy Spirit, or prevent his full and free operation on the mind and heart. It has no choice or preference of its own, no measures or schemes or projects of its own, apart from the will of Heaven; it seeks and believes for the guidance of infinite wisdom in all things. Even the desire which is according to nature is controlled, or rather, it is swallowed up in the desire of him who is the purifier and sanctifier, and who will shortly be the glorifier of our humanity.—Selected. THE HOPE OF THE CHURCH.
By William Haslam
EACH dispensation has its own particular promises; and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is intimately connected with them all. He is coming as the "seed of the woman" to "bruise the serpent's head," and to deliver the children of Adam, and the earth also, from the curse. He is coming as the "seed of Abraham" to take possession of the land, and as the Son of David for his throne. He is coming as the Son of God to call out from among the dead a people for his name, who shall be with him continually. The coming of the Lord Jesus is the sum and substance of the whole Bible. It is the golden theme which passes through the sacred volume from end to end—from the paradise in Genesis to the Paradise in Revelation. As a river springing from its fountain, flows on with increasing magnitude and power to the ocean, so the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ is progressive, unfolding more and more about him, until it is lost in the fullness of his glory.—Rev. W. Haslam, M. A. POSITIVE MEN.
By Methodist Recorder
MEN of clearly defined views, positive convictions, and unwavering purpose, are the only men who are fit for leadership either in church or State, or anywhere else. A man who preaches doubt can never inspire others with faith; a man who halts and hesitates can never impart courage to his followers; a man who, like a weathercock, changes with every changing wind, cannot gather and hold intelligent followers. It is positive men—men who have positive beliefs—men of determined purpose—men of undeviating aim, that mould the sentiments of others, and lead them to the performance of noble and praiseworthy deeds that elevate society and bless the world. Doubters may impart their doubts to others, but at the same time they impart to them their weakness. Positive faith is an element of power and is essential to success. Doubt is an element of weakness, and insures defeat. The Gospel’s True Philosophy
THE true philosophy of the gospel system is this—to feel that much depends upon ourselves, but, at the same time, entertaining the loftier conviction that all depends upon God. FEARING THE LORD AND SERVING IDOLS.
By Ellet Joseph Waggoner
A READER of the Signs asks an answer to the following questions:— "If a person hears 'present truth,' and, feeling anxious about it, goes to the Lord for guidance, and receives the answer in a dream that he is to keep both days [i. e. Sabbath and Sunday], is it sure to be from God?" "Would it be keeping the commandments of God to keep both days?" To both the above questions we can say emphatically, No. For what reason? This:— 1. The Lord has plainly declared that "the seventh day is the Sabbath." That is his "holy day." Six days of the week he has given to man in which to work, but the seventh day he demands shall be devoted to his service. Now when the Lord has declared one thing in his word, he will not reveal something directly contrary by means of a dream. But if it be urged that if the answer by dream is that both days shall be kept, that is not in opposition to the word of God, we answer. 2. To do what God has not required, is to do directly contrary to his word. The truth of this will appear when we consider that in his word God has required everything that is right, everything that is duty. There is not a thing which man ought to do, that is not commanded in the Bible. Then if a person does something which the Bible does not require, he evidently must be doing something that is not right, or that is wrong. We repeat: if the Bible requires everything that is right, there can be nothing right which is not required in the Bible; but everything that is not right is wrong; therefore everything that is not required in the Bible is wrong. The same truth may be stated thus: The fact that a certain thing is required as a duty, shows that something entirely different, and opposed, is not a duty. If God is so careful lest we should do wrong, that he tells us just what he wants us to do, it is evident that if there is something that he does not tell us to do, it is because he does not want us to do it; and to do what the Lord does not want us to do, is just as surely a sin as it is to fail to do what he wants us to do. The man to whom the Lord should sternly ask, "Who hath required this at your hand?" would be as much at a loss for an answer as the one to whom he should say, "Why hast thou not done this?" Now just as surely as the Lord does require the observance of the seventh day of the week, he does not require the observance of the first day of the week. The commandment says, "Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work." While it is doubtless true that this is not an imperative order that every man must work during the whole of the six days, it is a permission to work on any part or the whole of the six days. The six days are given to man; they are termed "the six working days" (Eze. 46:1), in distinction from the Sabbath, which is a rest day. God has laid no more claim to Sunday than he has to Monday or Wednesday; and to do service which the Lord has not commanded, is to follow the commandments of men, "which things have in deed a show of wisdom in will-worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; and not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh." Col. 2:23. More than this, the Sabbath is the great sign by which we are to indicate our allegiance to the true God. Sunday, "the wild solar holiday of all pagan times," has been adopted by the Roman Catholic Church as the badge of its power, and as the sign by which men may indicate their allegiance to the Papacy. As a Catholic writer says, in keeping Sunday Protestants do homage, in spite of themselves, to the Roman Catholic Church. Therefore if a man observes both Sabbath and Sunday, he thereby professes allegiance both to God and to the Pope. But Christ says, "No man can serve two masters." God requires undivided service. Such worship as was rendered by the Assyrians who were placed in Samaria, is not acceptable to God. They "feared the Lord and served their graven images." Such ones need an Elijah to say to them as he did to the Jews who were running after Baal, the sun-god: "If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." 1 Kings 18:21. A few words about going to the Lord for "guidance" in regard to the commandments. We cannot regard it as anything else than an insult to the Lord. When God has plainly revealed his will, it is certainly, to speak plainly, impudent to turn right around and ask him if he means what he says, and if he will not make an exception in the case of the petitioner. Balaam tried that once. The Lord told him not to do a certain thing; but Balaam went to the Lord again and again until at last he actually received permission to go. The end, however, to which Balaam came should serve as a warning to others who feel inclined to ask the Lord to give up his way for theirs. When God has spoken, let man hold his peace. W. THE WORLD WILL NOT BE CONVERTED.
By J.
By those who believe in a millennium of peace and safety and the conversion of the world, it is argued somewhat as follows: The Bible says that the devil is to be bound a thousand years and shall deceive the nations no more till the thousand years are finished. Therefore, Satan being bound, and unable to deceive anybody, the gospel having no opposition, and having a thousand years to work untrammeled, in the very nature of the case all will accept the blessedness of the gospel, and the world must become converted. That appears very plausible, but is it true? We think not, and that for many reasons which the Scriptures show, some of which we shall give. 1. It is true that the devil is to be bound a thousand years. It is true that he is to have no power to deceive till the thousand years shall be fulfilled. And it is just as certainly true that when the thousand years are expired he does have power to deceive the nations; and that he does deceive them, to that extent that he gathers them to battle against the City of God, and fire comes down out of Heaven and devours them. Let us read the scripture on this. It is in the twentieth chapter of Revelation:— "And I saw an angel come down from Heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled; and after that he must be loosed a little season." "And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and fire came down from God out of Heaven, and devoured them." Rev. 20:1-3, 7-9. That is a straightforward story. It needs no addition. It says plainly that Satan does not deceive the nations for a thousand years, and then that when the thousand years are expired he does deceive them, even the nations that are in the four quarters of the earth, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea, and fire devours them. Now it seems rather incongruous to claim that the world will all be converted during the thousand years, only to be deceived by the devil and devoured by fire as soon as the thousand years are over. It seems hardly reasonable that the Lord would give over to the devil and destruction, the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, when they had all become converted. If it should be claimed that these who are destroyed are only the ones who would not yield to the gospel, and would not be converted, then what becomes of the doctrine of the world's conversion? For the number of the deceived and destroyed is made up of the nations that are in the four quarters of the earth, and the number is as the sand of the sea. At that rate the number of the converted could hardly embrace the world. No; neither this text that speaks directly of the millennium—mille-annum, a thousand years—nor any other in all the Bible gives any hint of the conversion of the world. A thousand years, a millennium of peace and safety on this earth before the end of the world and the destruction of all evil, is a myth. The doctrine of the conversion of the world is a fraud, and the preaching of it a deception and a snare.199 "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you; they make you vain; they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord. They say still unto them that despise me, The Lord hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto everyone that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you." Jer. 23:16, 17. Could this time be better described than it is in these words? Those that despise the Lord are increasing on every hand; those who walk after the imagination of their own heart are multiplying in the church as well as in the world; evil men and seducers are growing worse and more abundant; and when anyone proclaims the word of God, that the Lord cometh to judge them for their evil ways, then a chorus of voices can be heard all around, saying to them that despise the Lord, "The Lord hath said, Ye shall have peace." "Don't be troubled, the Lord is not coming yet. The world is only in its infancy. The gospel has only got a fair start. The world must be converted before the Lord comes," etc., etc. And when the word of the Lord is preached that "destruction cometh," and "fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth," then the same deceptive song is heard, "No evil shall come upon you. For who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord, and hath perceived and heard his word? Who hath marked his word and heard it?" "Don't be disturbed. Nobody can tell whether the coming of the Lord is nigh or not. It may be a thousand years, may be ten thousand years yet. Nobody can tell anything about it." "No evil shall come upon you." This say they, but what saith the Lord? "Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind; it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked. The anger of the Lord shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart; in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly. I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings." Jer. 23:19-22. The wicked, and those that despise the Lord and walk in their own evil way, they will comfort with the hope of the soon-coming millennium of peace and safety, and the conversion of the world; and then as the wickedness increases, those who promise and preach such things will invoke the power of the State to compel the wicked to act as though they were righteous, and so to help bring in the millennium and convert the world. They will comfort the wicked with the promise of a time when they can all be converted and become servants of God, without forsaking the world, or denying themselves, or taking up the cross,—a time in short in which the way to life will be so broad that none can get out of it, and the way to destruction so narrow that no one can get into it. But such a time will never be in this world. Christ said, "Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Matt. 7:13, 14. And he never gave any intimation that the order would ever be reversed, and the way become so broad that the world would find it. But he did say, "Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able." They will seek, but will not strive. They will go in the way to destruction because the way to life is so strait. And, "When once the Master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are. . . . Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity." Luke 13:25-27. When the door of salvation closes there will be "many" working iniquity. Yea, says the Saviour, "Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." Matt. 24:12, 13. And, "The Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith [not all flock to the faith], giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils." 1 Tim. 4:1. "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" Luke 18:8. All these scriptures and all others that we might quote, show that the word of God contemplates no such thing as a millennium of peace and safety, nor the conversion of the world. And they who preach, or promise, or prophesy these things "speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord." "I sent them not, nor commanded them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord." Jer. 23:16, 32. As we said before, so say we now again, if there is any one thing about the preaching of the present day that should be disbelieved, it is the preaching of peace and safety, and the conversion of the world. CREATION AND REDEMPTION.
By w.
THE following extract represents a view of these great events which is exceedingly common:— “The work of creation cost but a word. ‘He spake and it was done, he commanded and it stood fast.’ The work of redemption cost infinitely more than creation. It cost the death of Christ. As the work of redemption is grander than that of creation, so the Lord’s day, which commemorates its completion, is higher, holier, grander than the Jewish Sabbath, that commemorates the completion of creation.” We never read such a statement without a feeling of sadness at the thought that it represents the limited ideas of the work of God, which are entertained by the great majority of people. Such statements do not indicate that the ones making them have exalted ideas of the work of redemption, but that their ideas of the work of creation are extremely narrow. It is the height of presumption for anybody to compare creation and redemption; for both are infinite, and far beyond human comprehension. Suppose you take a person who is unacquainted with geography, and place him in an elevated position on the Isthmus of Panama, where he can view at the same time the two oceans, the Atlantic and the Pacific. Now ask him which is the larger; if he expresses an opinion, it will be only a conjecture based on no foundation whatever; for he cannot see any difference. His eye can take in just as much of one as of the other, and for aught that his observation teaches to the contrary, they both stretch away into infinite space. Stand at the base of two mountains, whose peaks towering up into the sky, are lost in the clouds. Now tell, if you can, which is the higher. You say that you cannot, because you cannot see to the top of either one; and even if you could, your eye could not measure the difference between them, if there should be any. So it is with creation and redemption. Both works are the product of infinite power combined with infinite love, and could have been accomplished by nothing less. But if nothing but infinite power and infinite love could create or redeem the world, certainly nothing less than infinite wisdom can comprehend either one, much less grasp both in one thought, so as to compare them. “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” Heb. 11:3. Does that text say that we understand creation? Not at all; it says that we understand that the worlds were formed out of nothing, by the word of God. How do we understand this? Through faith; we know it simply because we believe the word of God, which declares it. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth” “for he spake, and it was; he commanded, and it stood fast.” Ps. 33:6, 9. Here we have the statement of the fact which we understand only by faith. God spoke, and the worlds came into existence. How easily it was done! says one. Easily done? Yes, easily done by infinite power; but who can conceive of power that could by a word cause that to exist, which previously had no existence? Because God so easily accomplished the work of creation, are we therefore to esteem it a light thing? Far from it. Says the psalmist: “Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.” Why? “For he spake, and it was; he commanded and it stood fast.” The power of God as manifested in creation is a most stupendous thing, calling for wonder and awe. Let the one who thinks that the work of creation was a comparatively small affair, try to create something. Let him attempt to make a grain of sand. Let him attempt to make something out of nothing. Attempt! How can he attempt? What would be the first step? All the power of all the created intelligences in the universe is not equal to the creation of the smallest atom of matter. All the combined intelligence of man and angels cannot approach to the shadow of an imagination of how such a thing could be done. Yet God did it with a word. Does that statement depreciate the work of creation? Not by any means. It simply shows the inconceivable power of God. The Sabbath was given to man in order that he might contemplate the power of God, and so be led to greater reverence for him. But someone may say that it would become monotonous to meditate week after week upon one thing. Not unless the man is in one of the classes mentioned in Ps. 92:6. The creation of God, like himself, is infinite; and as man by searching cannot find out God, so as to know the Almighty to perfection (Job 11:7), so no man can ever fathom God’s creation. Only when we rightly understand the object of the Sabbath, can we appreciate the psalm for the Sabbath day:— “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High; to show forth thy loving-kindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night, upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound. For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work; I will triumph in the works of thy hands. O Lord, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep. A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.” Ps. 92:1-6. It would be folly to attempt to convey to anyone, by words, any sense of the greatness of the work of creation. All that we can do is to tell the reader to meditate upon it. But let no one think that the work of creation was simply a manifestation of power. In the creation, God’s love is also manifested. Was it not unselfish love that caused God to create beings in his own image, capable of the highest pleasures, and setting before them an eternity of life, in which their mental and spiritual natures could continually develop, so as to make them capable of still higher enjoyment? Those who fail to see the love of God in creation, should remember that the great work of redemption is only for the purpose of bringing man to the enjoyment of that for which he was created. We are not comparing redemption with creation, for that is impossible; but we are showing that in the creation God manifested love as well as power. But if it is admitted that the love of God combined with his power, in creation, it must be admitted that the creation was the result of infinite love as well as of infinite power; for God, being infinite, must love to an infinite degree. The Sabbath,—the seventh day,—was instituted as a memorial of creation. This is necessarily admitted in the claim that Sunday should be kept instead of Saturday because redemption is greater than creation. Now the man who says that the Sabbath ought no longer to be kept, thereby says that God’s power and love should be no longer remembered. And that is equivalent to saying that God himself ought no longer to be remembered! And that is still further equivalent to saying that the work of redemption ought not to be considered; for God is Redeemer as well as Creator. In other words, no one can speak slightingly of the Sabbath as the memorial of creation, without disparaging the work of creation; but he who has narrow views of the love and power of God in creation, necessarily has narrow views of God himself; and he who has narrow views of God, cannot place a high estimate upon the work of redemption. And now we can better understand these words: “Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifieth them.” Eze. 20:12. Of the greatness of redemption it is not necessary to speak here particularly. They who affect to compare creation and redemption, profess to adore the infinite love and power manifested in the gospel; although, as we have shown, they can have exalted ideas of this only in proportion as they entertain exalted views of God’s love and power in creation. Enough to say that the redemption of man is accomplished at an infinite cost. Says Paul: “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.” Eph. 3:8. And Peter says that even the angels desire (but in vain) to comprehend the love of God as manifested in the gospel. Should not so great a work as this be commemorated? Should not men have something to keep the great work of redemption in mind? Most assuredly, but not at the expense of the memorial of creation. The idea that men cannot show their appreciation of the plan of salvation without despising the work of God in the creation, is as monstrous as the idea that is sometimes advanced, that men cannot worship Christ without turning away from their allegiance to God! On this matter of recognizing the work of redemption, by some act, we have the following points to offer:— 1. The work of redemption, instead of having been completed at the resurrection, is not yet completed. Redemption is complete only when all the effects of the curse have been obliterated. When redemption is completed, there will be no further work to be done for man. That is the crowning act in the great plan of salvation. Christ is made unto us, “wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” Redemption is the last of all. It includes not only salvation from sin, but from death and the possibility of it. It includes also the renovation of the earth. Read a few texts:— Eph. 1:13, 14: “In whom [i.e., in Christ] ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” Here we see that the Spirit is given to those who believe, not because they are redeemed, but only as a pledge of their future redemption. Now read a still more direct statement concerning those who have this witnessing Spirit.200Rom. 8:22, 23: “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” What this redemption of the body is, Paul shows in Phil. 3:20, 21:— “For our citizenship is in Heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” Then it is utterly impossible to commemorate completed redemption, because we are yet waiting for redemption. 2. The work of redemption must be kept in mind, but by appropriate ceremonies. There is not an intimation in the entire Bible, that God would have us keep Sunday or any other day in commemoration of the work of redemption either partial or complete. When people do what the Bible does not tell them to do, they always make mistakes. In Eph. 1:7 and Col. 1:14 we are told that we have redemption through the blood of Christ. But his blood was shed upon Friday; must we therefore conclude that we must keep Friday? By no means. After giving the manner of celebrating the Lord’s Supper, Paul says: “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till he come.” 1 Cor. 11:26. There is a divinely appointed ordinance by which we can commemorate so much of the work of redemption as has been completed. But is there nothing as a memorial of the glorious resurrection of Christ? Indeed there is. Says Paul: “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Rom. 6:3, 4. In baptism we have a memorial both of the death and the resurrection of Christ. “Oh, but,” says one, “that is only a single act; we want a constantly recurring memorial of the resurrection.” We submit that the Lord knows what we want, far better than we do; but it is a mistake to say that the remembrance of the resurrection lies only at the beginning of the Christian life. Read again: “That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk [every day] in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also [all our lives] in the likeness of his resurrection.” So the whole Christian life, if it is indeed a Christian life, is a constant likeness of the resurrection of Christ. We have only touched upon this great theme, but we have indicated the proper lines for thought upon it. We find that we do not have to belittle one part of God’s work, in order to rightly appreciate another part. On the contrary, we cannot properly appreciate one part of his work without exalting every other part, for all are related. Both creation and redemption are to be ever kept in mind. By the Lord’s Supper we show the Lord’s death till he come to redeem us; and then we will “sing the song of Moses the servant of God [Ex. 15:1-19], and the song of the Lamb” (Rev. 15:2, 3)—celebrating redemption completed. And then will creation itself be commemorated as it should be, for then will men properly appreciate the love and power of God; therefore “it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.” Isa. 66:23.