IV. There is also an apparent discrepancy between the whole and part, between the concise and the detailed narratives of the same events. This is closely connected with what we have just discussed as discrepancy arising from diverse points of view—in fact, as will appear from our illustrations, is the same under another phase. Sometimes one writer sketches what another paints—as the second chapter of Genesis fills out a sketch given in two verses of the first; as Mark adds graphic touches and warm colorings to the bare outline of Matthew; as Luke, in the book of Acts, draws out into minute narrative incidents just alluded to in the Pauline epistles. Events are grouped together in single verses or lines of the Psalms and the prophets, which, in the Old Testament narratives, are painted in full historical perspective. Under this head are to be explained most of the diversities in the genealogical tables of Scripture. As these records of lineage furnished the framework for the most cherished hopes of the Hebrew people, they are preserved with exceeding care. The prerogatives and privileges of the priesthood, the fulfillment of the ancient prophecies and of historic promises, and especially the splendid Messianic hopes of the nation, all were guarded and guaranteed by these genealogical catalogues. Yet, where the ancestors of the same individual are several times given, comparison shows that some links in the chain are frequently dropped; it is not necessary in the mind of the author always to unroll it at full length; it is enough to mention several selected ancestors scattered along the line, and thus a man may be styled the son of an ancestor of the third or fourth generation. Ezra, the scribe, who had complete access to all these records, gives his priestly lineage up to Aaron, the founder of the priesthood, and yet omits several generations that are given in the first book of Chronicles. So when Matthew, for mnemonic purposes, as well as to set forth the three great epochs of Hebrew history—its patriarchal childhood, its royal maturity, and its provincial decline—groups the ancestors of the Saviour in three fourteens, or double sevens, headed respectively by Abraham, the patriarch, by David, the royal minstrel, and Jechonias, the exiled monarch, he drops out, for the sake of symmetry, three generations. Yet that these three omitted names were perfectly familiar to him is evident from the fact that they were well-known historic names, the names of kings of Judah, the events of whose reigns were fully recorded in the books of Kings and Chronicles. Every Jew, with the Old Testament in his hand, knew the names of Amaziah, Joash, and Ahaziah; had these been the names of obscure or unknown individuals, the case would have been very different. But no objector at this day doubts that Matthew had the Old Testament history before him, in Hebrew and Greek, substantially the same as we have it to-day. It was not, then, through ignorance that these historic names were omitted, but by design, because their insertion would not agree with the author's plan in the presentation of his subject. Objectors may criticise this plan, that it is not according to classic models; they may object to the Hebrew conception of the object and character of history, and may complain that these records are imperfect and unsatisfactory when judged by the rules of composition that have been drawn from heathen histories. But all this does not prove that these authors are inconsistent with themselves or each other, and does not in the least impeach their reliability when their real stand-point is found. And in this respect no more is demanded for them than for any heathen authors; for no author can be understood and seem to be consistent with himself and with truth, until we fully understand his point of view. In this respect, every author is a law unto himself, and so every school of authors and every literature has its own laws, which are to be candidly and thoroughly studied as facts, before any theory of the subject can properly be constructed. A man has no right to dogmatize about the Hebrew histories who is willfully blind to the principles on which those writers looked at all historical events. Everything is viewed by them in its relation to the divine government and purposes. Events are selected and grouped, set in the foreground or background, according to this plan. Thus, in the passage before us, generations are so selected from Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, to Joseph, the last descendant of Judah's royal line, as to set forth, in three corresponding and symmetrical pictures, the successive phases of Hebrew history till God's purposes concerning that wonderful people ripen into fulfillment. When the long-promised Seed of Abraham, the Branch from the stem of Jesse, the King of all kings, appeared in this royal line, the nation, having fulfilled its mission, sank from human history.
The same law of Hebrew composition is also seen in the Apocalyptic vision of the hundred and forty-four thousand that were sealed of the twelve tribes of Israel. Dan is omitted from the list, probably because of its idolatrous apostasy, and Joseph is inserted instead of Ephraim, his son, who is regarded as joined to his idols. No one will pretend that the author of Revelation was ignorant on so familiar a subject as the names of the tribes.
This habit of compressing a genealogical series, dropping out intermediate links, thus giving part for the whole, when it is not the author's design to spread out the whole family history of an individual, but simply to show the relation to some remote ancestor—as when Ezra is shown to be the son of Aaron by the mention of several intermediate generations, and in like manner Christ is set forth as the son of David, the son of Abraham—this habit of representation should be considered in calculating chronology from genealogical series. Much more time may have elapsed than would be inferred from supposing the series before us to be complete.
Thus, an event which is just sketched in one narrative, may be fully painted in the parallel narrative, and the contrast may easily be magnified into a discrepancy.
A knowledge of this law of the Hebrew narrative furnishes, moreover, valuable aid in studying the events of the creative work. The events which are assigned to successive days need not have succeeded each other in the strict order of time, but may have lapped upon each other in the way already mentioned, like six slides of a telescope partly drawn out. Thus, the creation of the firmament commenced on the second day; but it was a process running through the second, third, and part of the fourth. The separation of land from water—in other words, the upheaval of the continents—was a process which commenced on the third day, but continued through the remainder of the creative week.
V. There are two other kinds of apparent discrepancy that we will mention, arising from the limitations of the human mind, considered as the recipient of revelation. The first is the discrepancy, or rather contrast, between the subjective and the objective, between things as they really are, and things as they appear. Of the essence of things, we know nothing; it is only by the attributes that come within the reach of our faculties that we can judge of things themselves. By these attributes we can learn enough about different natures to answer all life's practical ends; but it would be very shortsighted to suppose that from this source we can learn enough to satisfy all speculative cravings, or can thus imagine how things appear to beings differently constituted. Human perception is not the gauge of the universe. For aught we know, the rose may show to more highly endowed intelligences, or even to the insects that hover over its petals, a hundred other attributes as pleasing as color and odor, for which human language has no names. Objectively, God, the infinite one, is unknown and unknowable to man; “his ways are not our ways, nor his thoughts our thoughts;” “no man hath seen God at any time.” Yet, subjectively, he reveals himself through these very thoughts and ways of ours in his written word, while the incarnate word makes us see the invisible God. This is a paradox, but it is the paradox, not only of revelation, but of all instruction. The lessons must ever be accommodated to the capacity of the pupil, to be of any advantage whatever. And so there will ever be an antithesis between subjective and objective truth—that is, between truth as it is, and as it is conceived. If we insist on the objective reality, and proudly scorn all subjective aids, our God becomes an inaccessible, icy absolute, the thought of whom freezes every moral impulse into death; but if we allow ourselves to be instructed by God through the same symbolism by which we instruct each other, then can we accept the statements, “They saw the God of Israel,” and, “No man hath seen God at any time,” and feel that there is no contradiction. *
VI. The last kind of discrepancy that we shall mention is that which necessarily arises from progress in revelation. It is the contrast between the sketch and the picture, between the seed and the tree, between the foundations and the temple. The egg would be called dead, most confidently, by him who had never seen the eagle that is folded in the germ; the law is dead to him who has never felt, through the embryonic envelope of precept and ceremony, the quickening of the gospel germ that waits the age-long broodings of the Spirit to bring it into perfect life. Revelation comes in successive stages adapted to advancing man. The patriarchal, Mosaic, prophetic, and Christian revelations are successive stages of the same great process, each intermediate step starting from those which precede, and suggesting those that follow. The lofty ethics and sublime visions of the prophets, both in form and substance, presuppose the Mosaic law and ritual. The psalms of David could never have been sung in a nation that had not been trained for centuries in the statutes of the Pentateuch; the epistle to the Romans requires as its preface, not only the gospel according to the evangelists, but the gospel according to Abraham, Moses, and Isaiah.
As the man sees truths that are hidden from the child, so great doctrines concerning the nature of God and of man, and their mutual relations, of which the race in its childhood had but a shadowy apprehension, are revealed to the mature man. Yet these great truths are outlined in the earliest revelations. The finished picture of the gospel but completes the sketch of the patriarchal age. Those wandering shepherds of Syria, those Egyptian slaves of the age of the Pharaohs, who believed that their ancestor Enoch “walked with God, and was not, because God took him,” had views of immortality far more clear to the intellect and comforting to the heart than Plato taught, a thousand years later, in the groves of the Academy. Yet the splendor that Christ has shed upon immortal life makes the patriarchal faith appear as a twilight gleam. Creation by the divine word, as revealed on the first page of the Scripture, corresponds mysteriously with the profound utterance on the first page of John's gospel: “The word was God;” “all things were made by him.” The Jehovah angel who hears and answers the prayers of the patriarchs, identifying himself with the one only God in whom they so firmly believed, was the Morning Star before the Sun of Righteousness, or rather that Sun himself shining through the mists of the morning. In the blood-sprinkled altars of patriarch and Levite were given the preparatory instructions for the profoundly mysterious lessons of Calvary, which concentrate in one dazzling focus all the manifold rays of revelation.
Recapitulating now these six causes of discrepancy, and analyzing more closely, they fall naturally into two general classes, resulting (1) from difference in form, while yet there is identity in matter; and (2) from difference in the point of sight. Under the second class, we include five kinds of apparent discrepancy.
That arising from difference in the authors' point of sight.
Difference in the hearer's or reader's points of sight.
Difference between the whole and the part.
Difference between subjective and objective.
Difference arising from progress.
By one or more of these formulae we are confident that any problem of Scripture discrepancy can be solved. Theology, like physical science, changes; but the Bible, like nature, endures. The great gospel facts are constellated in eternal beauty. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but these words shall not pass away.
The Present Burden of the Advent Movement.
With ever-increasing assurance of the correctness of our position, we re-peruse those prophecies which point out the work and position of the people of God in the last days. It is our privilege to understand our mission. John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ at his first advent, and the type of those who go forth proclaiming the second coming, understood his work. It is only thus that a people can concentrate their energies upon the work to be done.
Those engaged in the great Advent movement of 1840–1844, generally understood that they were fulfilling the work symbolized in Rev. 14: 6, 7, by an angel flying through heaven with a special proclamation of the everlasting gospel. They were also satisfied at the time that the second message, verse 8, was likewise meeting a fulfillment in their experience; for they saw that work partially, at least, accomplished. The great disappointment of 1844 shortly ensued, which threw them into doubt and confusion. It was evident that a mistake had somewhere been made, and their views must be modified accordingly. In seeking to recover from the shock of that disappointment, to correct their interpretations of prophecy and ascertain their true position, what would have been more natural than for them to follow right on in that line of prophecy, the first portion of which they had seen so plainly fulfilled in their own history? For there is a third message, as well as a first and second, brought to view in Rev. 14. And this would have shown them a further work to be accomplished, and new truths to be introduced, and urged upon the people. It would have led to an explanation of the great disappointment, by showing them that they were not warranted to look for the end in connection with that message, and would have brought order out of confusion, and strengthened them mightily for their closing work.
But, strange to say, this was not done. Most of them clung tenaciously to the view which was the cause of their disappointment, namely, that the earth is the sanctuary, to be cleansed at the second coming of Christ, but which, upon examination, is found to be without foundation. Clinging to this, they were obliged to surrender, in its stead, the main and most strongly fortified points of the Advent faith. Human speculations took the place of scriptural arguments, and we now hear nothing from that class respecting the first, the second, or the third, message.
We ask the careful attention of the reader, to this point. There is a work to be accomplished under the symbol of a proclamation by a third angel. Rev. 14: 9–13. Immediately following this, the Son of man appears on the white cloud. All must be agreed on this. Then the work of the third message is the last to be accomplished before the second coming of Christ. All must agree in this conclusion also. But all who call themselves Adventists teach that the coming of Christ is at the door. Then we ask them, where, and by whom this work of the third angel is being fulfilled. We ask them to point it out to us. This work is to be done before the Lord comes. A body of people must give to the world a warning against the worship of the beast and his image, and the reception of his mark. They must be able to give an explanation of these terms, that their warning may be intelligible and effectual. According to the position of all Adventists, the present is the time for this work; for this is the last great movement to be made previous to the appearing of the Son of man, which they hold to be just before us. Again we ask, Where shall we look for this work? They do not claim to be doing it; nor can they so claim, unless they can show that a special message may be proclaimed, and yet nothing be said about it. But they cannot consistently teach the immediate coming of the Lord, unless they can point to a fulfillment of this work.
There is, however, a large body of Adventists, who claim to be giving this message. We claim this on reasons which are entirely satisfactory to our own minds. We give an explanation of the beast, his image, his mark, and the commandments of God, which are plain, harmonious, consistent, and so far as we can appreciate the force of argument, impregnable. The message we claim to be giving, the work we profess to be doing, is a fixed fact in prophecy. It is therefore entitled to consideration. And we think we can consistently claim one of two things in reference to our position; namely, that any one who professes to be looking for the soon coming of the Lord, shall either give a better exposition, and point out a more consistent fulfillment of the message than we are able to show, or else accept of ours and take his stand upon it. This subject demands attention, and it will have a hearing.
It may be objected to our view of these messages, that it makes them too unequal in duration; the first being proclaimed but a few years, the second only some six months, and the third already about twenty-six years. Such mistake, in supposing that one message ceases on the introduction of a subsequent one. The first did not cease when the second was introduced; nor the second when the third commenced. The second was only additional to the first, and the third, to the first and second. The second abated no jot or tittle from the importance of the first, but only for the time became the leading message; so of the third with respect to the first and second. The first message commenced a few years before the second, but did not cease when the second was introduced; and the second commenced some months before the third, but still continued though another was added; and since the introduction of the third, it would be proper to say that we have three messages all being fulfilled together; the leading proclamation, the burden of the work, being now the truths contained in the third and last.
The third message is in the order of prophecy, and will certainly be fulfilled. It is a part of that word which can no more fail than the heavens and the earth can pass away. And it will go with a loud voice; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. The time has come for its fulfillment; and God never suffers a false fulfillment in the time that should have been occupied by the true. He does not thus permit error to thwart his plans.
The present burden of the great Advent movement of our time is therefore now found in the third message of Rev. 14: 9–12, with its warning against the last work of Antichristian powers, and its great reform on the commandments of God; and the only people proclaiming it, are the Seventh-day Adventists of America and Europe.
The Wicked Turned into Hell.
By John Nevins Andrews
“The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” Ps. 9:17.
The word hell in this text is from the Hebrew word Sheol, the only word rendered hell in the Old Testament. It is exactly equivalent to the Hades of the New Testament. It signifies the place of the dead, whether they are righteous or wicked. Jacob expected to go down to it. Gen. 42:38. Job prayed to be hid in it. Job 14. Christ was brought out of it by his resurrection. Ps. 16; Acts 2. The righteous triumph over it at the resurrection. 1 Cor. 15. The wicked are silent in it. Ps. 31. The word grave in each of these texts is Sheol or Hades in the original.
Such being the case that Sheol is the common receptacle of all mankind in death, whether they are righteous or wicked, how is it that the wicked are threatened with being turned into Sheol as though it were something peculiar to themselves? Sheol or Hades is not their punishment; for when the time comes of the end of the thousand years for the wicked to be punished in the lake of fire, “Death and hell, i. e. Hades or Sheol, delivered up the dead which were in them.” Rev. 20. Sheol is the invisible world or place of the dead. When this gives them up, they are brought out to view, and are no longer invisible. Death also gives up the dead, so that they are no longer dead men but living ones. Then each man who has lived in sin is to be cast alive into the furnace or lake of fire, where there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. When the wicked are thus destroyed, death and Sheol or Hades both cease forever to have an existence.
Sheol then, is not the place where the wicked are punished; for they come forth out of it in order to meet their just retribution. What then is the idea of the Psalmist that the wicked shall be turned into hell? If we read the connection with care we shall find that the Psalmist is treating of the final deliverance of the righteous. Thus we read:—
“The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth; the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. For the needy shall not always be forgotten; the expectation of the poor shall not perish forever. Arise, O Lord; let not man prevail; let the heathen be judged in thy sight. Verses 16, 18, 19.”
When the righteous are thus delivered and their hope realized, they shall every one come forth from Sheol to immortal life. 1 Cor. 15.
“The rest of the dead,” i. e. the wicked, shall remain in the congregation of the dead for the period of one thousand years. At the same time that the righteous are delivered, all the living wicked are cut off from the face of the earth and turned into Sheol to remain there till the time when death and hell give up the wicked dead.
May it not be true, then, that the Psalmist has reference to the fact that at the very time when the righteous all leave Sheol to receive immortal life, all the living wicked are consigned to this dark receptacle, there to remain with the wicked dead of all previous ages, for the one thousand years?
Certainly it is worthy of notice that the time shall come when not one righteous man shall remain in that dark abode, and at that time every wicked person shall be found therein, to remain till the resurrection of the unjust.
J. N. ANDREWS.
A Presbyterian Minister upon the Second Advent.
CHAPTER III.
If you lack courage and steadfastness, read “Whosoever shall be ashamed . . . of Him will the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” “Behold, I come quickly; hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” Hear the voice from above, ringing out like a military order, “Hold fast till I come!” Read Paul’s triumphant words, when he “was ready to be offered,” and anticipate the “crown of righteousness,” awaiting “all those that love his appearing.”
When sorely tried by the temptations and provocations of life, listen to the divine counsel: “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the Lord. For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry.” The righteous in their many afflictions may always solace their hearts by this “blessed hope.” “Let not your heart be troubled . . . I will come again and receive you to myself.”
“Ye now, therefore, have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy, no man taketh from you.” “I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed.” The whole creation is represented, as groaning and anxiously waiting for “the manifestation of the sons of God.”
When we stand looking downward through our tears into an open grave, in which we deposit beloved remains, what can cheer us like the doctrine of “Jesus and the Resurrection?”
We naturally turn to the fifteenth of Corinthians, which reveals the resurrection of the saints “out from among the dead,” to glory and immortality. Paul comforts the Thessalonians by the assurance that “as Jesus died and rose again, even so them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.”
This is, indeed, a blessed hope. We may expect great and glorious things, when Jesus comes. We cannot expect too much. The brightest dreams which Revelation inspires will be more than realized then. And oh, these scenes, surpassing fiction, will burst upon us in all their glory, like the lightning of heaven upon the blackness of midnight.
Death is not the coming of Christ. Death is not that blessed hope. Death is an evil in itself, and an enemy to be destroyed. Even our renewed nature shrinks from the pains, the groans, the dying strife. Death is seldom appealed to as a motive in the New Testament. The New Testament never places death between us and “His appearing.”
Dean Alford says: “We do not read anything of preparation for death. I doubt whether one text can be found in which we are exhorted to make such preparation as such. But the constant and the continual occurring exhortation, is to be prepared for the Lord’s coming.”
Jesus does not say for our comfort, “Ye shall soon die and come to me,” but “I will come again and receive you to myself.” We call death certain, but to the believer it is one of the most uncertain events in the world. Since Christ ascended, no believer has known certainly that he should die, except by special revelation, as in Peter’s case.
Paul says, “We shall not all sleep;” and again, “We, which are alive and remain,” indicating strong expectation that he and others whom he addressed, would escape death, and be thrilled into immortality in the twinkling of an eye! In 2 Cor. 5, he expresses a strong desire that he may not be “unclothed;” that is, divested of this body, but “clothed upon;” that is, put on, as it were, the glorified body over it, that “immortality might be swallowed up of life.” To-day there is no clearly announced event in prophecy to occur before the coming of the Lord. Many of God’s dear people are, not without reason, looking and hoping for this. I confess that I do not want to die and go down into the grave. My heart responds to the words of the sainted Baxter: “Would it not rejoice your heart, if you were sure to see the coming of the Lord, and to see his glorious appearing and return? If you were not to die, but to be changed in the twinkling of an eye, clad in immortality, and caught up to meet the Lord and your loved ones in the air?”
If I were but sure that I should live to see the coming of the King, and be ushered into glory like Enoch and Elijah, it would be one of the chief joys of my life! Delightful prospects, if our career here could but merge at once in the brightness and glory of Immanuel’s presence and Immanuel’s land.
The sacramental table spans the cross and the crown. It revives our memory of a suffering Saviour, and inspires our hope of a glorified and reigning Saviour. The sacramental feast is not a funeral scene, but a forecast of “the marriage supper of the Lamb”—“the feast of fat things” at Jerusalem, when amid triumphal shouts and festal songs, the ransomed ones shall say, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us. We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation!”
When the Great High Priest ministered in the Most Holy place, the little golden bells, depending from his garment, were kept constantly ringing, to assure the waiting worshippers without, that their representative was living and faithful, and to keep them in watchful expectation of his re-appearing. Just so our Great High Priest in the Heavens, is ringing a thousand golden promises in our ears, to keep alive our blessed hope and expectation.
“Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” This is Christ’s farewell promise to his church, and the church’s hearty echo to the promise. “Come, Lord Jesus, and come quickly!” Thus should the church, the mystical bride of Christ, always pray. We have reason to doubt our love for Him, if we do not love his appearing. What comes to us from Heaven in a promise, should be wafted back to Heaven in a prayer. “Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly!”
Caste in Religion.
By John Harvey Waggoner
The American Encyclopedia says: “We speak of the spirit or the prerogatives and usurpations of caste, to express particularly that unnatural constitution of society, which makes distinction dependent on the accidents of birth or fortune.” It also says, “It prevails principally in the East, where it has existed from the earliest times, and has become blended with the political condition of the people, because it favors despotism, which is the prevailing form of government.” Among the Hindoos and some other nations, it is carried to such an extent that members of the different castes may not eat with each other, or worship in the same temples. Thus by the spirit of caste their religion becomes a despotism of the worst form.
From the very nature of the Christian religion it is utterly impossible that it should become blended with the spirit of caste. We do not say that professors of Christianity do not have this spirit; we are well aware that they do; but the religion of such is a religion of their own heart; not Christianity itself, but a perversion of Christianity, destitute of the elements of genuine benevolence and humanity, which were so wondrously displayed in the teachings and actions of him whom the Christian professes to follow.
The teachings of the Saviour and of his gospel are sufficiently indicated by the following scriptures: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly of heart.” Matt. 11: 29. “When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call205the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind.” Luke 14: 12, 13.
“If there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool, are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts? Hearken my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats? Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called? If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well. But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.” Jas. 2: 2-9. “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good; that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come.” 1 Tim. 6: 17-19. “Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted; but the rich, in that he is made low; because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.” Jas. 1: 9, 10.
With these agree that remarkable description of the fast that God has chosen: “Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday.” Isa. 58: 7, 9, 10.
The acts of the Saviour were always in harmony with these scriptures. He was often found preaching to the poor, and comforting the lowly and afflicted; but seldom with the rich, and there, always giving some faithful admonition. He himself had not where to lay his head; he became poor for our sakes; he took upon him the form of a servant; his life was eminently a pattern of humility; a pattern, too, to be followed, if we would be exalted in his heavenly kingdom.
Such being the spirit of the gospel, there is no surer evidence of a fallen state of the professed Christian church than to find there the spirit of caste—the spirit of self-exaltation. But this spirit, unfortunately for the interests of religion and morality, prevails to a very great extent in the Protestant churches. The wealth, the pride, and popularity of these churches, have become a proverb. It is neither disgraceful nor hurtful to be rich if riches are used for the glory of God; if the possessor feels his responsibility in the sight of God and is humble; if, as the Scripture says, he rejoices that he is made low—made on a level before God with the poorest of earth. But when riches are a man's glory; when they feed his pride, and puff him up to look with disdain upon the poor, and especially the poor Christian, then they are an abomination in the sight of Heaven, and a burdensome stone to their possessor, ready to sink him in the gulf of perdition. It is to such that the apostle speaks when he says, “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.” Jas. 5: 1. Such are “the rich men,” that will call on the mountains and rocks to fall on them and hide them from the presence of their Judge. The description given by a popular writer, of a fashionable church, is no caricature; it is true to the life, wherein the wealthy devotees of mammon are preached into an easy, quiet frame of mind by a high-salaried minister, leading their hopes on to an “upper-ten Heaven.” Certainly a Heaven of the lowly poor can have no attractions for them.
A reliable friend related to the writer a fact which transpired in the neighborhood of his own residence in the state of New York. A Baptist church was composed of all classes, including the richest and poorest in the community. Though the Baptists claim to be republican in their church arrangements, it was trying to the feelings of the wealthy to be obliged to sit in the next pew to a poor brother who was not able to clothe himself and family up to a fashionable standard. What was to be done? After much consultation the following plan was devised and acted upon. At the covenant meeting a motion was made to disband the church; the united influence of the wealthy carried it immediately. They then proceeded to organize a new Baptist church, admitting only the rich and fashionable part of the former congregation! We have no doubt that they would feel highly insulted if one were to intimate that that was not a Christian church.
But what is this to us? may be asked. Where such things pass for Christianity, and we have all been reared amid such influences and surroundings; while we are men of like passions, and human nature is everywhere the same, we cannot be beyond danger even in this matter. And with the increase of numbers our danger daily increases in this respect. The love of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the cares of this life, are subjects of special warnings for the last days. If we think that because we claim a knowledge of the present truth, and profess to be looking for the Lord, we are therefore beyond the power of temptation, we are self-deceived—wofully blinded by the enemy. Whoever it may be, rich or poor, learned or ignorant, high or low, that is exalted by the mere “accident of birth or fortune,” to lift himself up above the poorest of earth, such an one needs converting—needs to learn what is the spirit of Christ. Let such heed the words of the apostle: “If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” Let us all study to know this spirit, to follow Jesus in his humility and lowliness of mind, that we may be exalted in his own time.