Signs of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 50. (12/10/1902)

Signs of the Times

Dec 10, 1902

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 10, 1902

“THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST.”

The Church of Suffering—Thyatira.

The Pergamum state of the church brought us to the beginning of the sixth century. The Thyatiran state begins at this time as the result of the work of Justinian and others, and stretches on over a weary millennium. The main facts will be brought out in the notes. The text will follow.

Questions on Rev. 2: 18-29.

What is the fourth church addressed by our Lord?

“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira¹ write.” Verse 18.

Who dictates the letter to Thyatira?

“These things saith the Son of God, who hath His eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like unto burnished brass.”² Verse 18.

How does He commend His people in Thyatira?

“I know thy works and thy love and faith and ministry and patience, and that thy last works are more than the first.”³ Verse 19.

For what did He reprove her?

“But I have this against thee, that thou sufferest the woman Jezebel, who calleth herself a prophetess, and she teacheth and seduceth my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols.”⁴ Verse 20.

How had God shown mercy?

“And I gave her time that she should repent; and she willeth not to repent of her fornication.”⁵ Verse 21.

What sure punishment are we told will follow her reprobate course?

“Behold, I cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of her works. And I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He that searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto each one of you according to your works.” Verses 22, 23.

What comfort does He give to those who are true?

“But to you I say, to the rest that are in Thyatira, as many as have not this teaching, who know not the deep things of Satan, as they are wont to say; I cast upon you none other burden.”⁶ Verse 24.

What exhortation does He give?

“Nevertheless that which ye have, hold fast till I come.”⁷ Verse 25.

What promise is given to the overcomer?

“And he that overcometh and he that keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give authority over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a potter are broken to shivers; as I also have received of My Father: and I will give him the morning star.”⁸ Verses 26-28.

Exposition and Comment.

1. Thyatira.—A not very important city of Asia Minor, founded by Seleucus Nicator on the birth of his daughter. The word means “daughter’s city.” It was one of the many Macedonian colonies established in Asia Minor after the overthrow of Persia by Alexander. It was the home of Lydia, a prominent woman in the early church. The principal worship of the city was that of Apollo, under the name of Tyrimnas, the sun-god, answering to the ancient Baal; a priestess of Artemis (Diana) is mentioned in the inscriptions, these constituting the male and female elements of nature-worship, noted for abominable licentiousness and fornication, a fit type of the apostate church of the Dark Ages, from the time of Justinian (about A.D. 500) to the Reformation.

2. “The Son of God.”—Elsewhere in the Revelation, the Son of Man; setting forth His glorious majesty and authority. “His eyes like a flame of fire” (1:14) indicate their piercing power and intensity. All things are open to the glorious Son of God. “His feet . . . like unto burnished brass” (1:15) is readily suggestive of the furnace, the affliction, the refining. He is speaking to a people, part of whom are apostate, part of whom pass through the furnace of temptation, of trial, of persecution. He would show to one class that their sins could not be concealed from Him, and to the other that He was with them in every painful, trying, experience. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities.

3. “Thy last works are more.”—The church, the true people of God, had works, and love and faith and ministry and endurance; and the faith and ministry and endurance increased as the trials progressed. See Rev. 13:10 where the faithful are spoken of as possessing faith and patience, in contradistinction to the remnant, who possess both of these, and, in addition, are said to keep the commandments

of God and the faith of Jesus (14:12).

4. Jezebel of old was the sun-worshiping wife of king Ahab of Israel, daughter of Ethbaal, the king of the Sidonians. See 1 Kings 16:31-33; 18:19; 21:25, 26; 2 Kings 9:22-30. Ahab stood as the representative of the people of God who were espoused to Him; Jezebel as the representative, the teacher, the prophetess of the world in its most abominable religious phase. The union of the two was fornication. Jezebel became therefore a fitting type of the heathen philosophy introduced into the Christian church, developing into the great apostasy of the Dark Ages, and resulting in the Papacy, the union of Church and State, the spiritual fornication, set forth in later chapters under Babylon. These teachings of the apostasy were suffered, tolerated, nay, more, received. Justinian had a principal part in making the bishop of Rome “the head of all the holy churches,” and refers to him as the “head of all bishops, and the true and effective corrector of heretics.” “Croly on the Apocalypse” quotes from the Novellæ of the Justinian Code 131, chapter 2, on ecclesiastical titles and privileges, as follows: “We therefore decree that the most holy pope of the elder Rome is the first of all the priesthood.” This union with the world, this recognition by the State, deepened the apostasy, and gave character to the spiritual fornication and adultery which came in like a flood, and well nigh swept the church of God from the earth. Those who were not seduced by Jezebel’s witchcrafts, were hunted and slain by her and her paramours, even as God’s children of old were hunted and slain by the typical Jezebel.

5. “Gave her time.”—In all this apostasy God ever gave faithful warning. Many times these warning voices were stilled by flatteries; many times they were stifled by dungeon, many times by death in varied forms; but through all the ages God gave warning, tho His witnesses testified in sackcloth. So God gives every sinning soul space to repent, and pleads with every soul to repent, till the heart is no longer repentable. All the punishment, affliction, and suffering which followed were the result of sinning against God. Sometimes the innocent suffered because of the guilty, but in the final punishment each will receive his individual deserts. All the calamities which came on the heels of the apostasies of the Dark Ages, the persecutions which resulted from a seemingly harmless union of Church and State, the fearful blow upon the Papacy, her utter failure to govern as demonstrated in chaotic Europe in the close of the eighteenth century, were designed of God to be a lesson to His people of all times, that all union of His church with the world and temporal power was evil and only evil, and would inevitably work out destruction. But how the church is forgetting it to-day!

6. “The rest in Thyatira.”—God always has His remnant. In the almost universal apostasy of Elijah’s day, there were seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal. So in the antitype God had faithful children scattered in the mountain regions of Europe, in lordly palaces, in convent cells, in humble cottages, who mourned the apostasy but trusted only in Jesus Christ for salvation.

7. “Hold fast.”—It is the constant admonition of the Spirit to the church in evil times. It ought to be the prayer of every tried heart, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Ps. 51:10, margin. “For we are become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end.” “He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.” “Till I come.”—Impossible to express in English, Alford tells us, the indefiniteness of the original. It indicates this, however, that some phases of that true church which resisted the papal errors and apostasy might continue till His coming.

8. “Authority over the nations” is promised to the overcomer, but not the overcomer by carnal weapons, not the overcomer of earthly foes, but the overcomer of sin, the victor over self, over flattery, over all the seductions of the enemy. Many of the overcomers went down into martyrs’ graves. The ashes of some were strewn to the four winds. But in Christ they conquered.

“Who fought the good fight, and who vanquished the demon that tempts us within; Who held to their faith unseduced by the prize that the world holds on high; Who dared for a high cause to suffer, resist, fight, if need be, to die.”

And these who have been persecuted, oppressed, crushed, killed by apostate powers, will in God’s own time have authority over the nations. With Christ will they sit in judgment during the thousand years (1 Cor. 6:1, 2; Rev. 20:4), with Christ they execute judgment at the close of all sin’s reign (Psalm 149). “The Morning Star” is Jesus Christ. Rev. 22:16. It is a reference to the revelation of the power and glory of Christ Jesus just before the dawning of the day of His coming, the special illumination of His Spirit (2 Peter 1:19), the outpouring of the latter rain (Zech. 10:1; Micah 5:7, 8). That time is now. God is willing, waiting, to pour out His Spirit upon His people, and the only thing that hinders is that the church loves ease, loves pleasure, loves the world, loves sin, better than she loves the service of God. For God gives His Spirit for service; and we can not serve two masters. As long as we are serving self and sin and Satan we can not serve Christ, and He will not, He can not, bestow His Spirit upon any soul to make that soul more effective in Satan’s service. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.”

“IN ALL POINTS TEMPTED LIKE AS WE ARE.”

By Ellen G. White

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.

(Concluded.)

Then the devil taketh Him up into the holy city, and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto Him, If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down; for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee; and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.”

When Satan quoted the promise, “He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee,” he omitted the words, “to keep thee in all Thy ways;” that is, in all the ways of God’s choosing, Jesus refused to go outside the path of obedience. While manifesting perfect trust in His Father, He would not place Himself unbidden in a position that would necessitate the interposition of His Father to save Him from death. He would not force Providence to come to His rescue, and thus fail of giving man an example of trust and submission.

Jesus declared to Satan, “It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord Thy God.” These words were spoken to the children of Israel when they thirsted in the desert, and demanded that Moses should give them water, exclaiming, “Is the Lord among us, or not?” God had wrought marvelously for them, yet in trouble they doubted Him, and demanded evidence that He was with them. In their unbelief they sought to put Him to the test. And Satan was urging Christ to do the same thing. God had already testified that Jesus was His Son; and now to ask for proof that He was the Son of God would be putting God’s Word to the test,—tempting Him. And the same would be true of asking for that which God had not promised. It would be to manifest distrust, and would be really tempting, or proving, Him. We should not present our petitions to God in order to prove whether He will fulfil His word, but because He will fulfil it; not to prove that He loves us, but because He loves us. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him; for He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.”

“Again, the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto Him, All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me.”

This was Satan’s crowning effort. Into this effort he threw all His beguiling power. It was the charm of the serpent. He exerted the power of his fascination upon Christ, striving to make Him yield His will to him.

In His weakness, Christ laid hold of God. Divinity flashed through humanity. Christ stood revealed as the commander of heaven, and His words were the words of One who has all power. “Get thee hence, Satan,” He said, “for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord Thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.”

Satan had questioned whether Jesus was the Son of God. In his summary dismissal he had proof that he could not gainsay. He had no power to resist the command. Writhing with humiliation and rage, he was forced to withdraw from the presence of the world’s Redeemer. Christ’s victory was as complete as had been the failure of Adam.

Christ knew of the long years of conflict to be waged between man and his subtle foe. He is the refuge of all who, beset by temptation, call upon Him. Temptation and trial will come to us all, but we need never be worsted by the enemy. Our Saviour has conquered in our behalf. Satan is not invincible. Day by day he meets those who are on trial, striving by his wiles to gain the mastery over them. But they have a Helper who was tempted in all points like as they are, and who knows how to succor them. Temptation is not sin; the sin lies in yielding. To the soul that trusts in Jesus, temptation means victory and greater strength.

Christ is ready to pardon all who come to Him confessing their sins. To the tried, struggling soul is spoken the word, “Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me.” Thank God, we have a High Priest who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities; for He was in all points tempted like as we are.

Noble Natures Radiate Sunshine

“THERE are a few noble natures whose very presence radiates sunshine wherever they go; a sunshine which means pity for the poor, sympathy for the suffering, help for the unfortunate, and benignity toward all.”

Conditions of Conquest

By Simms

The conditions of conquest are always easy. We have but to toil a while, endure a while, believe always, and never turn back.—Simms.

AWAKE! AWAKE!

By An English Unknown Writer

“Behold, the Bridegroom Cometh.”

“Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, who took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For the foolish, when they took their lamps, took no oil with them; but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. Now while the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. But at midnight there is a cry, Behold, the bridegroom! Come ye forth to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are going out. But the wise answered, saying, Peradventure there will not be enough for us and you; go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went away to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage feast; and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for ye know not the day nor the hour.” Matt. 25:1–13.

WHAT a difference it would make in the professing church, if this, and similar portions of God’s Word, were really believed. The invasion of England could not give greater surprise, or alarm, than would be the awakening of the slumbering church to the fact that the Lord was really coming; yet such is the case; and the ignorance and sleepy carelessness of the great mass of professors but proves the divine inspiration of this parable.

Let it be remembered that this parable was spoken before the present state of things had any existence, and yet, no person could now write a more striking description of the present state of that which bears the name of God on earth. True, it was spoken to the Jews; but its instruction to us is no less solemn.

Now, to come to the point at once, what would be the case with the multitudes who profess

the name of Christ, if He should come at this moment? What would mere profession be worth—the lamp without the oil?

It is written, the foolish “took no oil with them.” Yet they took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. How common this is in our day! It is quite enough to belong to some religious society; a name to live, but dead. Perhaps, a beautiful lamp; but no oil, and no light. Is this my reader’s condition? Then, there is not a moment to be lost—no, not a moment; for it is Jesus who says, “Surely, I come quickly.” Rest not day nor night, until you know, with certainty, that you have oil in your vessel.

These are the words of truth, “Therefore be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh.” And again, “The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them.” 1 Thess. 5:2, 3. Yea, is it not the Lord Himself who assures us this awful event will take the world with as great surprise as did the Flood in the days of Noah, and the overthrow of Sodom in the days of Lot? Now, to say the least of it, does not this subject demand a most serious consideration? However men may explain away the Scriptures, the fact is the same; we are evidently approaching this great event—the coming of the Lord.

The very world seems conscious that some great event is at hand. If you have not oil in your vessel, then what a terrible day is at hand. What a test this is! Look at it fully. Test your condition by this great event. Suppose the trumpet sounds, to call the dead and living saints to meet the Lord in the air, in one hour from the time you read these words (and who can say it will not?), how are you ready to meet Christ? Does the thought give you joy? Are you sure you are His—that your sins are pardoned—that He is your Saviour, your Righteousness, your Sanctification, your all? Does your heart long to see Him who has loved you, and given Himself for you? O, what joy, then, to know, in one hour you may see Him, and be like Him! Before God, is this your blessed hope? Or, are you afraid to think of the possibility of this taking place in one hour?

Let me press home the madness of leaving this solemn question in uncertainty. The moment is fast approaching when, the door being shut, it will be utterly in vain to cry, “Lord, Lord, open to us.” How fearful the sound of those words, “I know you not!” Who can conceive the fearful anguish of heart to reflect on a life of self-delusion;—a lost soul to say, I was a professor, a teacher, or a preacher? I often read the parable of the ten virgins. O, fool that I was! little did I think my own case was described in that parable.

O, my readers, let me ask you, point-blank, Are you saved? Have you the blessed assurance that God has for Christ’s sake forgiven your sins? Have you received Christ? Let me once more remind you, it does not matter a straw what profession you make; if you have not Christ, your profession will only aggravate your misery. These are the words of Him whose name you bear, “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him.” O dead, sleeping professor, “Behold He cometh.” What would you think, if you saw a child trying to stop a railway train? Just as soon will human reason and unbelief hinder the coming of the Son of God. “Every eye shall see Him.” The moment is fixed. What a moment for the five wise, and what a moment for the five foolish! What a moment to you and to me! Glorified in the presence of Christ; or cast into outer darkness. Momentous question. O, sleepy world, awake, awake!—An English Unknown Writer.

OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST.

In a preceding discussion we noted that Christ “through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God,” from all eternity; that He is the Lamb (the Sacrifice) of God, slain from the foundation of the world. We can now understand why Christ was declared to be a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. From the ages of eternity down to the cross, Christ was an anticipatory sacrifice, and therefore an anticipatory priest. His blood was shed by the immutable promise of God; and, as “God can not lie,” the prospective death of the Lamb of God was just as potent for the remission of sins, for the cleansing of the human heart, as was His actual death. Christ is, and always has been, the only inherently efficacious priest that the universe of God knows. No sinner was ever actually redeemed through the mediation of any priest except God’s everlasting High Priest. He Himself is His sole offering. His offering alone can atone for sin. He Himself must offer that offering. Hence He alone can be an inherently meritorious priest—a priest in fact.

The Greater Priesthood.

We need now to inquire into the significance of Christ being a priest after the order of Melchizedek, rather than after that of Aaron. In the first ten verses of Hebrews 7, is given a series of particulars in which Melchizedek was superior to Abraham, and therefore to Abraham’s posterity, to which Aaron and his descendants belonged. The most of these particulars taken literally are applicable to Jesus alone, and are applicable to Melchizedek only in a secondary and metaphorical sense. Melchizedek was greater than Abraham, and therefore than the priestly tribe of Levi.

I. Because even Abraham gave him tithes.

Because the yet unborn Levi paid him tithes in the person of his ancestor, Abraham.
Because the Aaronic priests died, but Melchizedek stands as a type of an undying priesthood.
Because he who blesses is superior to him who is blessed, and Melchizedek blessed Abraham.
Because Melchizedek was king as well as priest.

These distinguishing characteristics mark the essential superiority of the priesthood of Christ—the antitype of Melchizedek—over that of Aaron. Jesus’ priesthood was also greater than the Aaronic in that it was founded on the oath of God (Ps. 110:4), which was not true of the Levitic priesthood. Again, the Levitical priests were necessarily many, requiring to be constantly replenished to fill up the vacancies made in their ranks by death; but Jesus’ priesthood is untransmissible, because of His endless life; whence “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.” Heb. 7:25. The Levitical priests were sinful; Christ is “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.” Verse 26. They were weak; He almighty. They had to offer daily sacrifices; He offered Himself once for all. They offered sacrifices and served a tabernacle which were but the shadow, the type, the figure of the true, the eternal, the heavenly; He is the Minister “of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.” Heb. 7:27; 8:1, 2; 9:9-11, 23, 24. They ministered the blood of bulls, and goats, etc., which was powerless to take away sins (Heb. 10:4); He ministers His own blood, which is all-potent to purge the sinner’s conscience “from dead works [sin] to serve the living God.” Heb. 9:14. Their dispensation being merely typical and illustrative, is declared to be old, i. e., obsolete, and so passed away when the true, the real, was ushered in by the appearing of the King-Priest Himself. His priesthood, tho eternal, is declared to be ever new, being founded upon better promises, and after the order of an endless life.

Let us never forget that, as priest, Christ offered Himself in sacrifice unto God for the sins of all men; that His offering was made once for all through the eternal Spirit; that it was an all-sufficient oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world; that the offering once made need not and can not be repeated; that when He passed into the heavens the priestly office passed with Him; that “since His ascension there is no priest or priestly office on the earth; and, finally, that all pretended priesthoods and all pretended offerings of Christ in any sacrament or ceremony in the church on earth, are vain deceits and delusive superstitions.”

Yes, the death of Jesus was His own priestly offering. While His slayers were active in His condemnation and crucifixion, He was passive only as to their designs, but active in His priestly function of offering Himself unto God for the sins of mankind. The Son spared not Himself, but yielded Himself unresistingly into the hands of His smiters, and was led as a lamb to the slaughter. “No man taketh it [My life] from Me. . . . I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” This is His own assertion, and is proof positive that He voluntarily—as a free priest—humbled Himself, and became obedient, even to the awful death of the cross. His blood was His life, and His life He laid down as an expiation for our sins.

Our All-sufficient High Priest.

And now, as our only true and all-sufficient high priest, Jesus stands before the throne of the eternal Father, in the true sanctuary in heaven, as an intercessor and advocate. “And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” I John 2:1. He there pleads and ministers His own precious blood in behalf of every penitent sinner. Not that His pleadings and intercessions are always formal, and vocally uttered; but the very fact that He stands there with pierced hands, and feet, and side, our Representative, is the pledge that our prayers are heard and answered. In one of his sermons Dr. Pierson cites a beautiful story in Greek history, which illustrates this thought. Eschylus, a Greek dramatist, had been charged with treason, and was brought for trial before the judges of the State, who sat in a semi-circular row. They were about to say, “Condemn him!” with one voice, when in came a brother of Eschylus, who, on the battle-field of his country, had lost an arm. He instantly saw the jeopardy in which his brother stood; he stepped before the judges, and without a word raised the stump of the arm that had been sacrificed for his country. The judges looked on Eschylus, and then at his brother, and with one voice they cried, “Acquit, acquit!” So likewise our Advocate, as He stands before the Supreme Judge of all hearts,—

“Five bleeding wounds He bears, Received on Calvary, They pour effectual prayers, They strongly plead for me. ‘Forgive him! O, forgive!’ they cry; ‘Nor let that ransomed sinner die.’”

How ineffably glorious is this wondrous truth. The awful eloquence of those “wounds” are all-prevailing for every believing sinner. Infallibly efficacious are their prayers and pleadings. O what a High Priest you and I have! And forget not that God heareth Him ALWAYS. He that through Him cometh to God will not, can not, be cast out. As God looks upon our Advocate, our High Priest, He sees you and me in Him,—that in Him you and I have been crucified,—that in Him we have been raised from the dead—that in Him we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.—And “in Him ye are COMPLETE.”

[The next article in the series is “The One to Whom All Judgment Is Committed.”]

THE UNCHANGEABLE LAW.

What Methodist Authorities Say.

WHILE studying the Sunday-school lesson from the Quarterly issued by the Methodist Episcopal Church, and looking over their other books, this question has frequently impressed me: Why do they not keep the seventh-day Sabbath? I quote from the Senior Berean Lesson Quarterly, third quarter, July to September, 1902, page 103, article 8:—

Remember.— In Eden the command was to keep the seventh day as a day which God had made holy; that law was not abrogated; the Israelites were to remember that original injunction. The Sabbath day.— A day which, in its origin and history, has been and is still the sign between God and man; profaning this day is a breach of the whole moral law. The observance of one day in seven as a holy day in which no work shall be done, is so old that no man can say when men first began to observe it. Art. 10. Thou shalt not do any work.— The only external duty which is clearly and specifically commanded is cessation from all labor; the method of keeping it holy unto the Lord must be determined by the end for which it was set apart, namely, that man should draw near to his God in worship. The purpose of the day is a specifically religious one.

Lesson Applied.

The Lord delivers His people from the bondage of sin, and then guides them by His law; redemption is followed by subjection to the law of God. P. 103.
The Christian Sabbath is a divine institution, and can be abrogated by God alone. P. 104.

From the July, 1902, Sunday-school Journal and Bible Student’s Magazine, edited by Thomas B. Neely, D.D., L.L.D.:—

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.— The word “remember” has the same meaning as our colloquial word “mind.” It does not mean, recall to memory, but rather, keep, respect. Nevertheless the institution of the Sabbath is much older than the Ten Commandments, as verse 11 shows and gives reason for. . . . The words, “Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work,” are as mandatory as the command to rest. No one able to do a man’s work is excusable by God, if it is not done. Both activity and rest are needed, and both should be consecrated to God.

The words, “Thou shalt not do any work,” with the specification of the different classes, led later Jews to lay some cruel and preposterous restrictions on the Sabbath day. Divinely directed, they began by avoiding the gathering of manna, and gradually one feature of active, social life after another was dropped—kindling fires, selling commodities, bearing burdens, collecting wood, treading the wine-press, carrying on traffic. God’s idea of the Sabbath day is beautifully expressed in Isa. 58:13. Another argument for the rest on the seventh day is given in verse 11.

The ancient Babylonians and Assyrians religiously observed one day in seven, and Christ has shown that what is called in modern times natural law as positively requires the Sabbath for man as does the divine law. P. 487.

There is an interesting rabbinical tradition that the language of Jehovah on this occasion divided, and subdivided, and interpreted itself to every individual of all the seventy nations of the earth, so that every man heard the Ten Commandments in his own language as plainly as if spoken to him alone. This, of course, is mere tradition, and yet there is in it a very suggestive truth. In a certain very practical sense every man’s inward, moral self or conscience does at least echo their truth when once spoken. The voice of God in the soul may not be audible, but there is a fundamental truth in Paul’s statement: “These having not the law are a law unto themselves which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.” When God speaks, man may well listen. P. 488.

It has sometimes been asked, “Does the law of the Sabbath belong properly to the moral code?” It was certainly lifted out of the category of the mere ceremonial by the circumstances connected with the supply of manna. P. 489.

These commandments [in both tables] offer life to him who keeps them, but death to him who fails. Every Christian is bound by each regulation of the moral law. We can not earn heaven by keeping the commandments, neither can we break them without penalty and remorse. The law marks a path for us to walk in, but it can not help a sin-paralyzed soul to make progress in it. . . . The sacred ceremonies of the Jews were all intended for law breakers, not for law keepers. The law is an organic whole, and must either be kept in its entirety or broken in its entirety. . . . He who keeps one law and breaks another has still broken the law. But the law is not therefore a failure. It was not intended to make men pure, but to challenge men to purity; to show our unfitness to come to God, except by the help of a sinless High Priest. Thus the law became a schoolmaster to bring men to Christ. Moses showed his wisdom in his choice of a name for it. He called it the testimony. It was God’s testimony of the sinfulness and wickedness of the human race. P. 490.

The blasting away of rock in the subway tunnel in New York was followed by wreck and ruin. The people fled in terror from their houses where they had long lived in security, while walls fell, and what seemed solid earth slipped into uncertain depths. The rock gone, the foundations were destroyed; what was left was a spongy substance, which the pressure of a child’s hand could crumble, liable to fall at any time. The Ten Commandments are the solid rock of eternal truth. Blasted away by indifference, by disregard of divine authority, by selfishness, by sin of any kind, the very foundations of character fall, and the soul is morally wrecked. “Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, is like a wise man who built his house upon a rock. . . .” The residents on Park Avenue would have been very glad to have the old-fashioned rock underneath their property left solid and unbroken; and so will we be glad at the last to find ourselves secure upon the righteousness of the ten words of the moral law. But must we keep the whole ten to the very letter? If we keep them in the spirit, is not that enough? Well, I do not think we can keep them in the spirit without the letter, altho we can keep them in the letter without the spirit. The God who spoke them with His own voice, and wrote them with His own hand upon tables of stone in the midst of awful displays of majesty and power, made no mistake in the expression of what He wished to say. He wrote the Ten Commandments for all time, all people, all governments, all individuals, and He wrote them in language so simple it does not have to be explained, even to a little child.

Moses tells us in Deuteronomy how every one of these commandments came from the very heart of God for our good. They are not arbitrary commands laid down by a high authority without reason. They are based upon fundamental principles upon which our prosperity and our happiness depend; and when God gave them to Moses for the people, He showed how greatly He loves us and longs to have us be and do the very best possible, when He said, “O that there were such a heart in them that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them and

with their children forever.” You see God speaks of a heart to keep His commandments.

That is all He cares for. Just to keep them with our lips, or in the outward observance of them, is not true obedience. He wants us to love Him so truly that He will be the first in our hearts; and when we do love Him above everybody and everything else, it is just as natural and easy to keep all the commands which follow the first as it is to be obedient to father and mother because we love them; and kind to brothers and sisters for the same reason. “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” P. 493.

(Concluded next week.)

GOD'S LOVE IS SWEET.

By Benj. Phillips

God's love is sweet, His boundless grace Is given me, and tho the race For fame and wealth has brought me grief, And tho I rove from place to place, With weary heart and tired pace, I still do bide in stern belief.

Yea, I am struggling day by day. And shall not hearken to retreat, Tho pain nigh bears my strength away— God's love is sweet.

I feel His touch from that low breeze Which sings among the vernal trees; And tidings glad it seems to bring, Grim Sorrow's boldness to defeat— Thus free I'll chant while struggling, “God's love is sweet.”

Seiad, Cal. BENJ. PHILLIPS.

Continue reading: The Prophecy of Zechariah