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Review and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 13.

LESSONS FROM THE CHRIST-LIFE

Review and Herald

Mar 26, 1901

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 26, 1901

LESSONS FROM THE CHRIST-LIFE

By Ellen G. White

MRS. E. G. WHITE
“I CAN of mine own self do nothing,” Christ continued; “as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which He witnesseth of me, is true.”
“Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth.” John had declared, “He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand.” “Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before Him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. He that cometh from above is above all; he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth; He that cometh from heaven is above all. And what He hath seen and heard, that He testifieth; and no man receiveth His testimony. He that hath received His testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.”
Speaking of John to the Pharisees, Christ said, “He was a burning and a shining light; and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.” At first the Jewish teachers were greatly moved by the message of John, but it meant too much to practice his teachings. They rejected him because he pointed out the inconsistencies of their course.
“I have greater witness than that of John,” Christ said; “for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.”
“Ye shall know them by their fruits.” If the Jewish leaders had had no other testimony than the works of Christ, they would have been without excuse. They were not ignorant of the miracles which He wrought, but these works were a testimony against them; therefore they rejected them.
“And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me.” At the baptism the Holy Spirit had descended on Christ, and God’s voice had said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” But the Pharisees heard not the voice; they saw not the Spirit of God as a dove hovering over the Saviour. “Ye have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His shape,” Christ declared.
As at different times during Christ’s work divinity flashed through humanity, and He stood transfigured before the people, the Jewish leaders were deeply impressed. But as they talked it over with one another, their unbelief strengthened, and the evidence that should have convinced them was rejected. The strongest evidence was no evidence to them, while the weakest, most superficial arguments, if against the truth which the Saviour brought, were sound in their estimation. They had started upon a path leading to eternal ruin.
“Ye have not His word abiding in you,” Christ said; “for whom He hath sent, Him ye believe not. Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” They had in their possession the word of God, and they supposed that they knew its teachings. They were indignant that this new teacher should tell them to search the Scriptures.
Christ saw that the Jewish teachers misinterpreted the word of God, and He urged upon them a more diligent study of its precepts. In Him were fast being fulfilled the types and shadows of the Jewish economy. If they searched the Scriptures as they should, they would find that He claimed nothing which was not rightfully His.
Had the Jews searched God’s word as they should, they would have seen that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. But they searched with proud, selfish ambition as a guide, and they found a Messiah of their own imagination. Therefore when the Saviour came, a humble man, bringing to naught by His teaching long-established theories and traditions, presenting truth entirely opposite to their practices, they said, Who is this invader that dares to set aside our authority? Christ did not come as they had expected; therefore they refused to receive Him, and called Him a deceiver and an impostor. Instead of listening to Him that they might learn the truth, they listened with evil intent, that they might find something over which to cavil. And when once they had set their feet in the path of the great leader in rebellion, it was an easy matter for Satan to strengthen them in opposition. Christ’s wonderful works, which God meant to be heaven-sent evidence to them, Satan caused them to interpret against Him. The more marked the way in which God spoke to them by His works of mercy and love, the more confirmed did they become in their resistance. Blinded by prejudice, they refused to acknowledge that Jesus is divine.
“I receive not honor from men,” Christ said. It was not the influence or sanction of the Sanhedrim that Christ desired. He wished not for human honor or approbation. He was invested with power from above. Had He desired honor, how quickly would the heavenly angels have come to His side! How quickly would the Father again have testified to the divinity of His Son! From no human source did Christ crave honor. He could not have been rendered more honorable if the whole school of the rabbis had lent Him their influence.
“I know you,” Christ declared to the Pharisees, “that ye have not the love of God in you.” He spoke to them thus plainly because they could not discern His divinity under the veil of humanity. He was God in human flesh, and He could not but work the works of God. Unbelief, prejudice, and jealousy beat about Him, and if His humanity had not been united with divinity, He would have failed and become discouraged. At times His divinity flashed through humanity, and He stood forth as the Son of God, His veil of flesh too transparent to hide His majesty. But the men who claimed to be the expositors of the prophecies refused to believe that He was the Christ. Satan had control of their minds, and they utterly refused to acknowledge the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth.
Since Christ was treated thus, can we be surprised when those to whom He has given His message are rejected and scorned by men whose resistance of light is even less excusable than was the resistance of the Jews?
Christ did not frame His words to accommodate the pretentious pride of a deceived, self-righteous people. “I know you,” He said, “that ye have not the love of God in you. I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.” Jesus came by the authority of God, bearing His image, seeking His glory, fulfilling His word. His mission bore the divine credentials. But His work failed to convince the hearts that were steeled by prejudice. Yet when others should come, assuming the title of Christ without giving genuine evidence that they were sent by God, speaking on the authority of their own finite judgment, acting for their own glory, they would be received because their theories agreed with cherished ideas and opinions.
“How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?” Christ asked. “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?”
Moses spoke only the words which the Great Teacher, enshrouded in the pillar of cloud, bade him speak. The writings of Moses presented types of the Messiah and promises of His coming. All these would condemn the Jews, because they professed to believe Moses. Had they really believed him, they would have welcomed the One of whom he wrote.
As Christ spoke, the scribes and Pharisees listened to words such as they had never heard before. But instead of receiving the speaker as the long-expected Messiah, they angrily rejected His claims. He questioned their doctrine, and this was regarded by them as a sin never to be forgiven. They were determined to stand by their traditions and commandments. They would teach them just as strenuously as if no counter-influence had been exerted to correct their errors and deceptions.

THE GENERAL CONFERENCE

By Earnest A. Raymond

EARNEST A. RAYMOND
A GENERAL conference of the remnant Church of Christ is but a little way in the future; and who is able to declare it is not the last that will ever be held in a world fast approaching its dissolution? Issues will there be settled for eternity; decisions will there be reached in the lives of individuals and in the progress of the closing work, which can never be recalled. Brethren, one and all, has not God been speaking to us of late? has not the Spirit been impressing unmistakably upon our hearts the necessity of being prepared for a special manifestation of His power? Can there be any doubt that the time has come for God to work, and that He intends to reveal His presence in a manner not seen since Pentecostal times?
“Our God is a consuming fire.” To-day, as in days of old, His Spirit proclaims to the Church: “Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. . . . Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord.”
Those perished quickly from the earth, who, in Israel’s time, when God came near and led the “Church in the wilderness,” were so rash as to offer strange fire before Him. Peter said, “Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God;” and the record of the tragic death of Ananias and Sapphira has been handed down as a striking example of the Spirit’s work in separating the true from the false, a warning till the end of time.
“And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people. . . . And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.” When God, in His Spirit’s power, walks up and down among us, how quickly will the camp be cleansed! Then all who will shall “drink into one Spirit,” and receiving spiritual eyesight, shall joyfully exclaim, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” But till men are willing to allow and hasten the coming of that glad time, they must put their trust in a broken reed, the arm of flesh.
The great questions confronting each of us are, Where stand I? and, How shall I prepare? As Israel’s priest in the ancient times ministered in the sanctuary on the great day of atonement, every one in Israel’s camp bowed himself in repentance and humility of heart before the Lord. In fervent prayer and deep searching of heart, in later times the early Church awaited its baptism with power from on high.
Shall we, the remnant Church, be found wanting at such a time as this? Awaiting the descent of that power by which our God will perform a work in the earth, and “cut it short in righteousness,” can any of us afford to let the oil burn out of our lamps, until, empty, we have no light with which to welcome the return, to usher the entering in?
Let us watch and pray as never before. Let us, by drinking, day by day, come into the Spirit’s unity. Let us yield ourselves to His voice and leading; let every “schism” be healed, every difference with our brethren be harmonized by giving room for divine love to triumph.
Beloved brethren of the laity, as the time approaches for this most solemn and important occasion, shall we allow our representatives to assemble without our earnest, prevailing prayers in their behalf? Prevailing prayer bears with it the life co-operation of the suppliant. If ever those whose gift and work it is to labor in word and doctrine needed our sympathy and help and Heaven’s blessing, it is now.
We stand on Canaan’s border-land. For a little moment, as it were, our chosen men advancescan well the road, obtain a foretaste of the blessings just before,—of Israel’s promised home,—and plan for onward march. Pray God it may be so, and not an ill report of cities walled to heaven, of giants in the way, the sons of Anak there.
No power of earth or all the realms of darkness can stand before the organization of the Captain of the hosts of God. We must learn to stand still if need be, to see the salvation of our God. Let us cease to reckon from a merely human standpoint, but learn to demonstrate this test-problem from the arithmetic of heaven, “If God be for us, who can be against us?”
Pray God for a good report, an onward movement all along the line; but settle first between yourselves and God that you will stand by the Calebs and the Joshuas. Shall we cast stones at them as they return, then weep and wail through the long, long night that follows? Shall we choose a captain to return to Egypt, and be compelled, without sight of the promised land, to wander and die in our wilderness of sin? Instead, let the glad response arise from every heart, “Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.”
Brethren in the ministry, where shall we be found, and what shall be the record and results of this occasion, so far as we are concerned? We approach a crisis, a turning-point in the progress of the deadly malady that consumes the Church. Well indeed has it been said that “Battle Creek is the heart whose pulse-beats are felt around the world.” Shall we not yield ourselves to be healed by the touch of Heaven? Shall we not surrender at last to the Holy Spirit, and walk from this time forth in the strength and vigor of the new creation’s eternal youth?
As we return to our fields of labor, shall matters then go on as before? “Having begun in the Spirit,” shall we then be “made perfect by the flesh”? Having witnessed and experienced at the Conference as never before the wonderful unifying and organizing power of the Spirit, shall we cut short its working in us and through us upon our return to our several Conferences?
We have seen the Spirit’s organization of the early Church. When He vivifies, and works through, the remnant Church, will He operate like some great machine, and His work come forth picked, assorted, packed, a product “cut-and-dried”?
Shall we follow parliamentary rules? Brethren, we may as well face it first as last; it is the old yet eternal question of righteousness, of salvation, by faith.
Are we saved by the law, or by the gospel instead? And yet the gospel is but the demonstration of the law fulfilled, worked out in human life by the power of God.
Is it the outward form that saves,—the letter, the flesh,—or is it the Life, the Spirit, that makes our lives an eternal success? And yet, indeed, the Spirit follows, fulfills the letter, preserves the form, and purifies the flesh. Let righteousness come by faith, and its works accord with, include, and go infinitely beyond all that is “holy, just, and good” in law, parliamentary usage, and every other form that does not take in all the substance of infinite justice, truth, and right.
In all things, brethren, first let the Spirit work His work and bear His fruit. The perfect unity, the wondrous power of giving witness, even the “all things common,” were results, the fruits, and not the causes.
From this time forth let the Spirit live His life in us; let God’s new creation rise in the heart and life of every man, and therefore in all the Church, according to His own plan of organization and upbuilding; “and as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.”

ALABASTER BOXES

If e’er an alabaster box Of tenderness and love you own, I pray you keep it not sealed up Until your friends are dead and gone.
O fill their lives with sweetness now, And speak approving, cheering words While you may thrill the beating heart, And wake sweet music from its chords.
If fragrant flowers you mean to send, To deck their coffins when they die, O send them now, to cheer their homes, Ere to their final rest they fly.
If any friend has laid away An alabaster box for me, And full of fragrant sympathy, To break when I shall cease to be,
I’d rather he would bring it out, In life’s long, weary, troubled hours, And open it, that it may there Refresh and cheer my sinking powers.
O give to me a coffin plain, With ne’er a flower to deck my bed; A funeral with no eulogy, Before a life whence love hath fled.
O let us learn our friends t’ anoint, With love for burial, ere we part; Post-mortem kindness can not cheer, Nor lift the burden from the heart.
Take, then, this lesson to your heart: That sweetest flowers on coffins thrown Can cast no fragrance backward o’er The weary years forever flown. — Selected.

ABEL'S RIGHTEOUSNESS

By H. W. Reed

H. W. REED
(Neenah, Wis.)
THE Lord’s inquiry as to why Cain was wroth, shows that Cain was angry, which is sin. The Lord said, “If thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.”
To sin is to transgress God’s law. And as sin was there, it is proof that the law was there.
Reference is again made to this sinful act of Cain, in the following language: “Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.”
Cain violated the Sixth Commandment by killing his brother. This proves beyond a doubt that the law of God was then in existence.
The record is that Cain slew Abel, because his own works were evil and his brother’s righteous. This does not mean Abel’s own righteousness obtained independently of Christ; for it is written: “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which [faith] he obtained witness that he was righteous.” Abel’s righteousness was the righteousness of faith. His works were the works of faith.
“And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as He hath commanded us.”
The righteous man is one who obeys the law of God, and this perfect law will witness to his works done in Christ, that they are righteous, as were Abel’s.
Not only Cain’s wicked act, but also Abel’s righteous course, unquestionably shows the existence of God’s law.

Doing Our Part for Health

“WHEN we do all we can on our part to have health, then may we expect that the blessed results will follow, and we can ask God in faith to bless our efforts for the preservation of health. He will then answer our prayer, if His name can be glorified thereby; but let all understand that they have a work to do. God will not work in a miraculous manner to preserve the health of persons who are taking a sure course to make themselves sick.”

“THAT THOU MAYEST SEE”

By E. K. Slade

E. K. SLADE
(Ann Arbor, Mich.)
In this time of uncertainty, darkness, and deception, when, if possible, the “very elect” will be deceived, God’s people are to see. “Seeing” and “knowing” must, of necessity, enter more and more into the Christian’s experience, as the darkness and deceptiveness of Satan increase to mystify the way.
To “be vigilant,” because of him who deceives to destroy and devour, must be to see with better than human vision, and know better than with human understanding. Past experiences are sufficient to teach us that human vision is not adequate to guide, with safety, in a time of so great darkness and peril. A blind people in a dark world would be in a deplorable condition, yet that is the condition of all whose eyes are not anointed. They can not even see the darkness because of the blindness, much less the hidden snares and pitfalls of Satan.
How fitting it is that the prayer of faith should ascend from God’s people everywhere, at this time of all times, that all may receive the anointing of the Spirit, the heaven-prepared “eyesalve,” that they may see. Not one step can be taken safely, in this time, without divine guidance.
The enemy of all good will seek to divert and deceive and defeat in every advance move in the cause of God. But the promise, “The Lord shall guide thee continually,” will defeat the devil, and bring triumph to the cause of truth, if we will make it our own, and experience its fulfillment. Otherwise, moves will be made and plans will be laid in which God will have no part.
“It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” So inadequate is the human vision to see aright and to guide safely, that the all-knowing and all-seeing One has promised, “I will guide thee with, mine eye.” The anointing with the “eyesalve” is followed by seeing with the eye of God, even that eye before which “all things are naked and open.” The Spirit which “searcheth all things” is the means of anointing.
When the eyes of the child of God are anointed with the Holy Ghost, then will it be true, as assured in the promise, “Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.” No bird will be caught in that which he sees to be a snare or net. The one who has for his guide the “eyes of the Lord” that “are in every place, beholding the evil and the good,” will be able to detect the hidden evil and the deceptive snare, and to know the way in which he should go. “Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler,” may be the experience of all who are guided by the eye of God.
The assemblages of God’s people, where important issues are pending and momentous moves are to be made, are where Satan, with all his arts and powers and confederations of evil, makes his mightiest endeavors to thwart the purpose of God. It is at such assemblages, also, that God is willing and waiting to manifest himself mightily by the gift of His guiding Spirit. Surely, the prayer of faith, ascending from every home and hearth of the remnant of Israel, will be heard of God, and triumphantly will He lead His people.

Judge Nothing Before the Time

“JUDGE nothing before the time.”

SAVING GRACE

The King's Messenger
SAVED by grace through faith, “and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.”
Many of God’s children make a good start on the path of salvation. By believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and venturing upon His finished work on the cross, they are justified by faith, and have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And if they would continue their walk by faith, they would rapidly advance into all the fullness of God by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Having begun in the Spirit, many are foolish enough to try to make themselves perfect by the flesh, and they are thus taught by their teachers to do and strive and struggle instead of believe God. We receive the “promise of the Spirit through faith.” Gal. 3:14. He is given to lead us into all truth, for He is the “Spirit of truth,” not the spirit of error. Now, we can not receive the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error at the same time. When the Spirit of truth comes in, He comes to lead us into all truth, not error. He comes to guide and instruct, to comfort, to mother the children. In a life of sanctification and holiness, God seeks a believing faith that will not doubt God. We are sanctified by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, we repeat it: We are sanctified by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ—simple, childlike faith.
The struggle and worry and effort to be good that one sees in some of His consecrated ones is not of faith, and whatsoever is not of faith is sin, S-I-N, sin. By faith we receive Christ as our sanctification (1 Cor. 1:30), or sanctifier; by faith we know that He sanctifies and keeps. He went away, but not to leave us comfortless or orphans. He sent us another Comforter, that He may abide with us forever. He comes to magnify Jesus, to reveal Jesus, to manifest the Christ in us.
We must let Him have full possession of spirit, soul, and body; let Him run His own business, His own house. “Whose house are we if”—if, this is the condition—“if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.” Heb. 3:6. We are kept by the power of God through faith, not worry, nor works; for faith rests in God, and “he that is entered into His rest [God’s rest], he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His.” Heb. 4:10.
When we cease to do the keeping by our own human powers, then He keeps us from all sin (unbelief), and works in us to will and to do of His own good pleasure. We work out in our lives of simple, childlike obedience what He works in by His Spirit, who writes His laws, His will, for us on our hearts. That is where He writes His new covenant. The first tables of the law, were broken; the second were kept—because, placed in the will, under the mercy seat, they were kept in unbroken covenant-keeping with God.
We are kept by trusting His power to keep us, not by efforts of our own. “Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” He wants to have all the care and responsibility of our lives, “He careth for you;” the government of your life shall be upon His shoulders, not yours. O beloved! let Him have all the care; let Him do His own housekeeping, and you the obedient child that just lives with Him, and runs His errands as He may require of you.
Abraham, the father of all the faithful, is a grand type. He believed God. As he believed and obeyed, his faith grew and developed till he could pass without wavering through the greatest test of all—the offering up of the beloved Isaac. When the command came, “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, . . . and offer him there for a burnt offering,” he did not hesitate, nor look around to see if Satan, as an angel of light, had come to deceive or lead him astray. He did not consult Sarah, nor go to the minister to see what he thought about it. He conferred not with flesh and blood, or he would have failed God. But he rose up early in the morning, and did what he was told, in the mighty, supernatural faith of God. Oh, for the same childlike simplicity of trust and obedience! People say, How do you know the voice of the Lord? And I say, How do you know the voice of your father or mother or your dearest friend?—By living with them and being acquainted with them.
Live in daily, secret communion with God, and you will know His voice. Yield all to God, without one reservation of any kind, and you will know the leadings of the Holy Ghost. Come into the conditions of discipleship, and you will know what it is to be led continually by the Holy Spirit. Read Isa. 58: 1-11, and see there the conditions of continual filling and guidance. Bring in all the offerings, and the outpouring of the Spirit will come upon you.
If we know God as our most real, intimate friend, we shall know His voice, because we are used to hearing Him speak to us. To know Him is eternal life, and this life is in His Son. “He that hath the Son hath life”—the life of God revealed in His mortal flesh by the Spirit that raised Jesus from among the dead.

Health Is Valued Most When Sought

“HEALTH is valued most when sought.”

WELCOME, LITTLE ROBIN

By Stephen V. R. Ford

Welcome, little robin, Messenger of spring! Notes of cheer and gladness To my heart you bring. Frosts in March await you, But you seem to say: “All my songs are fragrant With the breath of May.”
Wakeful little robin! First to greet the light While the world is sleeping In the arms of night; Oft your chirping wakes me, And you seem to say: “Rouse thee from thy slumber; Greet the newborn day!”
Cheerful little robin, From all sorrow free! Not a strain of sadness Mars your melody. Sweet the psalm you teach me, For you seem to say: “Tune thy heart to gladness; Scatter grief away.”
Trustful little robin, Free from anxious care, Since the feathered songsters In God’s bounty share. Listening to your warbling, This you seem to say: “God, who cares for robins, Guards thee day by day.”
— Stephen V. R. Ford, in Christian Advocate.

Love Not Money nor the World

“LOVE not money nor the world; use them, only, and they will serve you; but if you love them, you will serve them, which will debase your spirit, as well as offend the Lord.”

J. WALKER

By J. Walker

OUR God is a jealous God, He wants the “whole man.” And why not? Has He not created us for His own pleasure, and that only to be realized in the existence of a holy race, happy in their willingness to honor their Maker?

J. WALKER

Rising Coffee Consumption in the United States

THE consumption per capita of coffee in the United States has been steadily increasing. It is now forty per cent greater, according to the treasury figures, than it was ten years ago.—New York Sun.

WRESTLING AGAINST TEMPTATION

By I. E. Kimball

I. E. KIMBALL
WORDS can not express the importance of wrestling for victory and salvation. The injunctions to this will be remembered by all who read the Bible. But just why the Lord requires it, and wherein good comes to us, is not understood by many Christians. Indeed, we have now reached a time when many seem utterly unable to wrestle in any way. A weak, effeminate spirit is in them, and they seem unable to contend with the evils of this life.
Even the worldly man must wrestle to find standing room in this world; but how much more the Christian, who realizes that legions of wicked spirits surround him constantly, poisoning his spiritual atmosphere with unbelief, error, and the polluted wisdom of this world, seeking wholly to hedge up his way and thwart his endeavor. These spirits are real, spiritual powers, seeking constantly to destroy our life or our usefulness, and to hold us back from the kingdom of God. Every moment life is at stake, and their efforts are unceasingly put forth to destroy our influence, and curtail our efforts for good. This may be mystical to some; but it is terribly real to others. In a thousand ways they are hindered, and much of their effort is seemingly neutralized.
Jacob wrestled against death all the night long, and obtained a priceless victory; but that experience was intended of God not merely for Jacob’s sake, but to teach us; to give us an example of wrestling against the enemy all night long—the night of this world’s lamentable ignorance and woe. Wrestling for a day, or earnest prayer for a little season, followed by carelessness, amounts to nothing. But Jacob’s victory is a sign and pledge of what God will do for every earnest, whole-hearted Christian warrior.
Christ’s temptation is recorded for our sakes, so we may draw the most consoling instruction from it; for he who tempted Christ is our tempter. The particular points in Christ’s temptation are the particular ones wherein we are tried.
I have many times wondered about Christ’s long fast, and how He gained the victory for us on the point of appetite. It was indeed a personal test to Him. But Christ’s great heart of love went out for all humanity, and He was fighting that death struggle for us, forgetful of himself. To be sure, He left us an example, to walk in His steps. He gave the key to victory. But I might fast forty days, as did Dr. Tanner, and then give myself to gluttony. Surely in this I should gain nothing. But I think I now see clearly the wonderful grace purchased for us in that long fast in the wilderness of Judea. Satan causes the millions of to-day to doubt God’s grace, thinking they live by bread only. Many times our messengers in all parts of the field find men unwilling to obey the word of God, not knowing whence their bread will come if they do; and many who begin to keep the Sabbath give up in despair, and begin again to work on that day, thinking they will starve if they do not.
This was the very point on which ancient Israel in the wilderness failed. When hunger was allowed to come to them, they murmured, and in heart turned back to Egypt. “He suffered thee to hunger,” says the record, “and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.” This was the lesson, and this Christ fully demonstrated in His temptation, showing to all men that when it is a question of where their bread shall come from, if they obey God’s word the Lord will surely open the door of hope to them.
“The captive exile shall speedily be loosed; and he shall not die and go down into the pit, neither shall his bread fail.” Isa. 51:14, R. V. Christ’s temptation was far more severe than ours can ever be. We may be fully assured that our God will provide a table in the wilderness for those who will not depart from His word when all means of support is cut off because of their faithfulness. Herein is wrestling, but sure victory and salvation. Glory to the God of Israel, and let His saints praise Him forever!

DECEPTIVE MIRACLES AND LYING WONDERS

By David Paulson; W. S. Sadler

DAVID PAULSON AND W. S. SADLER
The preceding article was devoted to a consideration of the signs, that follow those who believe. Likewise, there are signs that to human appearance closely resemble the genuine manifestations, only they follow those who do not believe, and by these many will be deceived. Elijah the prophet brought down fire from heaven, and this led many to believe, who had hitherto neither recognized him as a prophet nor his message as the words of truth.
To-day there are vast multitudes who know not truth by its flavor; who have not within their hearts the Spirit of truth to tell them what truth is. It is for the purpose of deceiving this class, that Satan will in these last days, perhaps under similar circumstances, bring down fire from heaven in the sight of men. “And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.” Rev. 13:13. And every son and daughter of Adam who has not previously learned to recognize truth by its flavor will be deceived by these colossal demonstrations of Satan’s ingenuity and deceptive skill. See verse 14: “And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the Beast.”
One important distinction between the signs attending those who believe, indicated in Mark 16:17, 18, and the signs attending those who do not believe, is that the true signs follow those who believe, instead of going before. Like their Master, those who believe never advertise their miracles. Genuine miracles are wrought as a result of the truth with which their lives are permeated. They are the natural result of the presence in their lives of the mighty working power of the Master Miracle-Worker. But in this same time there will be another company that will prophesy in the name of Christ, will cast out devils in that name, and will perform a long series of wonderful works. On every hand, and in every public gathering, these miraculous demonstrations will be pointed to as undeniable evidence that they are true followers of Christ. But notwithstanding all these things which they have wrought, and which in the final day they reiterate in the presence of Christ, and which even then He does not deny,—yet, after all this, Christ’s last words to these truth-disobeying miracle-workers are, “I never knew you;” or, as another translation states it, “I never approved of you.” Matt. 7:22, 23.
Already we are beginning to see greater enthusiasm manifested in securing the healing of a man’s afflictions than in securing from him genuine and heartfelt repentance of the cause that produced his affliction. Magicians before Pharaoh were able to imitate many of the miracles which God worked through Moses and Aaron. However, they could not undo any of those which Moses was the instrument of working. In the closing hours of earth’s history, our adversary, the devil, will work “with all power and signs and lying wonders,” in his last great effort to deceive and destroy those who obey not the truth. It is regarded as a remarkable experience to have the evil spirit of an irritable and contentious disposition cast out of us at some great religious gathering; but as long as the fiery, irritating, and stimulating foods, which are so largely responsible for this condition of the nervous system, are persistently indulged in, instead of being cast out of the house, so long the apparent casting out of this evil disposition will prove to be anything but permanent; and eventually Christ will declare, “I never approved of it;” for He does not propose to annul the law that says, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
The law of sowing and reaping runs throughout the universe of God. In all His doings it is honored, and we can no more expect its abolition than we can the annulling of the Second Commandment. The true test of truth is not the outward signs and miracles that accompany it, but is its real and abiding effect upon the life and character of its possessors.

IMAGINARY HEALING OF IMAGINARY DISEASES

A large percentage of the ills from which mankind are suffering have their origin and existence in the mind. They are not organic diseases. Mental depression and moral despair are the mother of many derangements, which those who suffer therefrom suppose to be diseases of a very serious nature. Through channels of disobedience to natural and spiritual law, Satan has, in many instances, gained either partial or complete control of the human mind. He holds his thumb, as it were, upon the mind of such an unfortunate one. Thus the imagination is held captive by the enemy. Every thought is more or less influenced and controlled by the arch-deceiver. Now, if Satan knows that he can accomplish more mischief upon either the individual or in the world at large by removing this depressing influence, and releasing the captive imagination, he will not be slow to do it. And so the columns of the newspapers and the telegraph wires will flash abroad the news of “another remarkable healing,” another instance of the prayer-prevailing power of some supposed divine healer. Disease that exists in the mind may be removed instantaneously by simply getting the patient to believe he is well. His disease existed only in the imagination, and disappears when he ceases to imagine himself sick.
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