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Review and Herald, Vol. 77, No. 33.

THE SIN OF PRESUMPTION

Review and Herald

Aug 14, 1900

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 14, 1900

THE SIN OF PRESUMPTION.

By Ellen G. White

MRS. E. G. WHITE.
In his dealings with the human race, God bears long with the impenitent. He uses his appointed agencies to call men to allegiance, and offers them his full pardon if they will repent. But because God is long-suffering, men presume on his mercy. “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” The patience and long-suffering of God, which should soften and subdue the soul, has an altogether different influence upon the careless and sinful. It leads them to cast off restraint, and strengthens them in resistance. They think that the God who has borne so much from them will not heed their perversity. If we lived in a dispensation of immediate retribution, offenses against God would not occur so often. But though delayed, the punishment is none the less certain. There are limits even to the forbearance of God. The boundary of his long-suffering may be reached, and then he will surely punish. And when he does take up the case of the presumptuous sinner, he will not cease till he has made a full end.
Very few realize the sinfulness of sin; they flatter themselves that God is too good to punish the offender. But the cases of Miriam, Aaron, David, and many others show that it is not a safe thing to sin against God in deed, in word, or even in thought. God is a being of infinite love and compassion, but he also declares himself to be a “consuming fire, even a jealous God.”
By sad experience Miriam and Aaron learned that God will not regard with favor those who presume upon his goodness, especially those whom he places in positions of responsibility. The Lord deals with this sin as a grievous matter; for he is always grieved when presumptuous souls dare to speak against his appointed agencies in order to gratify their own unsanctified impulses. Aaron and Miriam thought that Moses had made a mistake in taking for his wife an Ethiopian woman, and they were betrayed into feelings of envy and jealousy. They entertained against him feelings that were wholly uncalled for. Moses was carrying a heavy burden of responsibility, and the Lord had appointed Miriam and Aaron to help him. But instead of doing this, they made his burdens more grievous to bear. “Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses?” they said. “Hath he not spoken also by us?”
“And the Lord heard it.” God was present when the offenders thought him far away, and he answered Aaron and Miriam as if they had arrayed themselves against him. “And the Lord spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out. And the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth. And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall be behold. Wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them; and he departed. And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and, behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow: and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she was leprous.”
Then, with all deference, Aaron spoke to his brother, saying, “Alas, my lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us, wherein we have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned. . . . And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee.” And the Lord heard him. The same Saviour who hundreds of years later said to the leper, “I will, be thou clean,” removed the stroke. But Miriam had been the instigator in this evil work. Her sin was grievous in the sight of God, and he commanded that she be kept out of the camp seven days. God had demonstrated the truth by his Spirit before Aaron and Miriam. He had given them reasoning powers, and had implanted in their hearts the element of faith; but because their wishes had been crossed, they took the side of the enemy. And God signally punished them for their murmurings and complainings.
The case of Uzziah the king reveals how God will punish the sin of presumption. The inspired record states of this king: “Sixteen years old was Uzziah when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and two years in Jerusalem. . . . And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah did. And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper. . . . But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the Lord his God, and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense. And Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him fourscore priests of the Lord, that were valiant men: and they withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto him, It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the Lord, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary: for thou hast trespassed; neither shall it be for thine honor from the Lord God.”
Uzziah was filled with wrath, that he, the king, should be dictated to by the priests, and while “he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord. . . . And Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked upon him, and, behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out from thence; yea, himself hastened also to go out, because the Lord had smitten him. And Uzziah the king was a leper unto the day of his death.”
The Lord has ordained men to certain positions in his church, and he would not have them step out of the places to which he has appointed them. When the Lord gives them a measure of success, they are not to become lifted up, and think themselves qualified to do a work for which they are not fitted, and to which God has not called them.
In Noah’s day God saw his holy law broken and trampled underfoot by a race of evil-doers. He bore patiently with their rebellion; but in the place of being softened by the patience of God, his goodness and long-suffering, the inhabitants of the old world were encouraged to still further resistance. At last the patience of God was exhausted, and he declared that he would punish men for their iniquity. “And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them from the earth. . . . And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and everything that is in the earth shall die.”
When the earth was repeopled, men again lost the fear of God out of their hearts. Satan worked to array them against God. Thus he was seeking to gain full possession of the earth. He misinterpreted the character of God, and charged him with the very attributes that he himself possessed, while he concealed his own character from them. He professed to be their best friend, one who was working so that God’s arbitrary power should not bring them into abject slavery. Through fallen man he renewed his hostilities to God, and triumphed in the very face of Heaven.
Through successive generations iniquity has increased, until we are nearing the time when God shall say, The cup of their iniquity is full. In David’s day the contempt placed upon the law of God led him to exclaim, “It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law.” The disrespect shown to the law did not lessen its value in the sight of the psalmist. Instead, he saw all the more need of standing in its defense; and as he saw it trampled under unholy feet, he exclaimed: “Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.” In this age men have gone to great lengths in arrogance and in blasphemous denunciation of God’s law. They have accepted a false sabbath in the place of the day that God sanctified and gave to man as a memorial of creation. Their disobedience is great, and well may the prayer go forth from unfeigned lips, “It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law.” The boundary line will soon be reached. The crisis will soon come, and then God will interfere. When mercy’s limits are passed, God will work, and show that he is God. The Judge of all the earth will vindicate his honor, and punish the rebellious inhabitants of the earth.

THE LIGHT.

When darkness thick reigned over all the deep, When mist and chaos over earth did keep Their formless shadows ever veiled in night, God said, “Let there be light!”
When men in sin and shame were weighted down, And groveled like the serpent on the ground, O’er all gross darkness, with its deadly blight, God said, “Let there be light!”
When in the fullness of the glorious day Christ came, the sting of death to take away, The angels gladly sang, o’er Bethlehem’s height, He comes! Behold the Light!
Rejoice! Rejoice, O men of earth, and sing, Hosannas shout for tidings that we bring; No more need you in sadness sit; and, night, Awake! Behold the Light!
— New York Observer.

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The Mystery of Chinese Names.

Leslie’s Weekly.
The mysterious names appearing in the Chinese dispatches become familiar enough when translated, thus: Tung means east; si, west; nan, south; pei, north; while tsin, kin, or king stands for capital or metropolis, as in Peking (northern capital) and Nanking (southern capital). Tien means heaven, so Tien-tsin signifies heavenly metropolis. Ho or kiang means river, so Pei-ho is north river; Si-kiang, west river. Che means seven, so Che-kiang is seven rivers. Shan is mountain; Shan-tung, east mountain; and Shan-si, west mountain. Pai is white; and Pai-shan, white mountain. Hai is sea, and kwan stands for gate; so Hai-kwan (the maritime customs) is gate of the sea; and Shan-hai-kwan, mountain and sea gate. Shang is a city; and Shanghai, city by the sea. Hoang is yellow; Hoang-Ho, Yellow River; and Hoang-Hai, Yellow Sea. Yang means ocean; and Tse, son; hence, the Yang-tse River is son of the ocean, and Tien-tse, son of heaven (the emperor). Ku or kow is a mouth or pass, and Ta, big or great; so Ta-ku means big mouth (of Pei-ho), while Nan-kow stands for south pass (from Mongolia). Hu is a lake; ling, a hill; hsiang, a village; hsien, a tax district. Fu is a prefecture; tai, a governor; tao, a circuit or group of administrative departments; so tao-tai is a governor of a circuit, and fu-tai is a governor of a prefecture. Chao or kiao is a bridge; li, a Chinese mile; pa, eight; and thus Pa-li-kiao is the eight-mile bridge. Cho or chow is a depot, or stopping place; hence Tung-chow, eastern (depot of Peking). Shen is a province, and Shen-si is the western province. Yamen is a police station or official residence, and Hui a secret society or club. Ts’ing means pure or clear, so Ts’ing-kiang is clear river, while Ta-Ts’ing means great pure (name of present dynasty); and Kwo being a kingdom or empire, Ta-Ts’ing Kwo signifies the empire of the great pure (China). Ta-Mei-Ka is the name applied by the Chinese to the United States, and means great America.

UNITY

By Wm. Covert

WM. COVERT.
Jesus prayed that his disciples might be one, even as he and the Father are one.
When this prayer is fulfilled, the gospel cause will speedily triumph.
That which, more than anything else, now stands in the way of this is selfishness — a desire for preference and first place or advantage in things.
Such a spirit manifested by a person who calls himself a brother does more to retard the work of truth than does the opposition of an avowed enemy.
Christ’s prayer for believers is that they may be one in him, that the world may believe. To-day the world’s people fail to believe in Christ because those who profess to be his followers fail to reveal him. Many non-professors are looking to see a manifestation of Christ in the life of those who claim to follow him; but too often they hear and see that which they know to be unkind and even bitter, and therefore turn away discouraged.
In one of his many entreaties for unity, Paul said: “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” 1 Cor. 1 : 10. The Corinthian church was divided into factions with reference to the ministry, giving preference to different men according to the estimation that carnal minds placed upon them. This condition of things greatly hindered the church in its work, besides saddening the hearts of those ministers who were striving to save sinners, rather than to build up themselves.
As the apostle proceeded with his epistle, he showed that men, as to power and success, are nothing, but that the Lord is everything, even being all in all. No increase can result from any man’s labor only as God gives it; and no laborer can accomplish anything except as he becomes an instrument in the Lord’s hands.
All are to let the mind of Christ dwell and work in them, and so be perfectly joined together in one mind and one judgment. Instead of an unpleasant, critical spirit, they are to be so filled with the heavenly spirit and power that nothing can resist their work and influence for the right.
Christ gave the following promises to those who will labor in the right spirit: “For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.” Luke 21 : 15. In the case of Stephen, it was said: “And they [the adversaries] were not able to withstand the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.” Acts 6 : 10. If men to-day will be emptied of self and filled with the Spirit, as Stephen was, they will be moved by the same power that was manifested through him.
The same ability will also be shown in their teaching of Christ, or in defending the truth. Also their wisdom in the cause will be as marked, and their success as great, as that of this earnest martyr.
But this unity can never exist until the mind of Christ only, moves and dwells in the hearts of all believers. The Lord can be known only through one mind, and his will can be wrought only by one power.
Unity will prevail when the love that moved Jesus to leave heaven, and impelled him in his mission of salvation, dwells in all hearts. The unity that shall leaven all things is that which dwelt in the infinite bosom, and called into being the universe. The eye that can behold this unity has that singleness of vision which fills the whole body with light. The tongue that can tell it is one touched with the living coal from off heaven’s flaming altar. The faith that believes it is the faith that abides in the mind of Christ our Saviour, and passes into action through the faculties of his children. The joy that responds to this theme of glory is that which emanates from the throne where righteousness reigns supreme, and judgment and justice preside together.
Unity is not manufactured by efforts, nor produced from resolutions, but is a child born from above, whose kindred inhabit heaven. Its goings forth have been of old, and its continuation will be to everlasting. Those who shall live eternally must come into this unity. Division must cease. Strife must end with all who will be ready for translation; for translated ones are going to a place where there are no divided minds.
Is it not high time for God’s people to gather together? The great day of the Lord is fast approaching, and it behoves every one to seek the Lord that he may be hid in the time of the coming storm.
Of course there can be no compromises made with error; but every one can well afford to surrender his selfishness and bickering, get rid of his folly, and become one with the Lord and his people.

“MY PEACE I GIVE.”

By Asa Smith

ASA SMITH.
(Battle Creek, Mich.)
I COULD not see; temptations thronged, Dark clouds had blotted from above The sunshine bright. — Oh, how I longed For human sympathy and love
I seized my pen, intent to tell My troubles to an earthly friend. The Saviour whispered: “ ’Tis not well To take your sorrows to a friend
“Who has no power to give you peace, Nor from your heart has strength to roll Its load of care. My peace I give; Come, rest with me, O weary soul!”
I looked to him: the load was gone, And in my heart was sunshine bright. And now I say, “His will be done;” I’m his, he’s mine, and all is light.
When trials come, let me but see, Beyond the clouds, thy face, dear Lord, And hear thy voice, and I shall be Upheld, supported, by thy word.
If I may know, whate’er the way, That thou art ever near my side, I’ll praise thy name, and calmly say, “Dear Saviour, I am satisfied.”

European Royal Houses’ Origins

No ROYAL house in Europe, except those of Germany and Italy, originated in the country that it rules. The Guelphs in England came from Hanover, and earlier from Bavaria. The emperor of Russia, the king of Denmark, and the king of Greece have their origin in Holstein. The Hapsburgs are really Lorrainers, but the first Hapsburgs came from Switzerland. The king of the Belgians is from Saxe-Coburg, so is the king of Portugal; the queen of Holland from the middle Rhine. The king of Spain springs from the French Bourbons, and the king of Sweden from the French lawyer’s clerk Bernadotte. The king of Italy has lost his native Savoy to France, and the kaiser himself is an imported king of Prussia, as the Hohenzollerns came from Nürnberg, and earlier from Swabia.—New York Sun.

THE SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK.

By A. T. Jones

A. T. JONES.
It has also been said, already, that these lessons “are too tedious—ask a question, and then answer the question by perhaps one or two words in a verse, and over and over so, before you get through a single verse. Why, to get the lessons the way that the lesson pamphlet requires, we should have to go over it fifty times a day!” Well, suppose you should. Is it a dreadful thing, a toilsome, burdensome thing, to drink in eternal life “fifty times a day”? “Oh, well, it does not seem like that to me.” No, of course not! That is why it is so tedious. There is nothing tedious, there is nothing toilsome, there is nothing monotonous at all, in drinking in eternal life by the word of God, even in the book of Galatians, “fifty times a day.” And in the book of Galatians you have the eternal life which comes by the word of God in a way that an angel could not better. And in receiving this eternal life, there is nothing monotonous, there is nothing wearisome, in any sense whatever. It is simply joy, joy, joy—“joy unspeakable and full of glory.” [Voice: “Good!”]
Then, if to me it is a task, if it is a weariness, if it becomes so monotonous as to grow dull; and I can not stand it to go over that thing fifty times a day, to get the Sabbath-school lesson, so that other persons who do not know it may have it,—then it is not eternal life at all to me: I have not yet found the fountain; I am not drinking at the fountain. I am away off on the dry mountains: I am away in the desert, where that lost sheep is.
However, that is not particularly against me, if I will only listen to the call of the Shepherd, and become a found sheep. It is nothing against a man that he is a lost sheep; for the Lord has sent Jesus to seek and to save us. But it becomes a terrible thing for a man to stay lost, when Jesus has come to save, and when that man is actually in a position where he is required to read over and over every day the lesson of salvation.
I call your attention to these things, not for the things themselves, but for illustration. These statements that the lessons are “very dry” and “so tedious,” when the lessons are simply the very words of Scripture itself—this illustrates exactly the evil which the book of Galatians is given to correct. It illustrates exactly the condition of things that is considered and refuted, and annihilated by the book of Galatians. The book of Galatians was written to meet just such a condition of things as that—a condition of things in which a people professing to be Christians were not Christians—a condition of things in which a people professing to be in the way of God knew not the way of God. It was a condition in which all was only formalism: their profession was a form; what they did was a form; all their service to God was a form; it was formalism and ceremonialism altogether. That is how it is that there came “some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.”
What is the gospel of Christ?—It is God’s free salvation to every soul in the wide world. It is the power of God to lift a man up from deadness in trespasses and sins, and make him a partaker of that salvation, to hold him in the way of that salvation, and to work out the righteousness of God through him. This is what the people in Galatia had received in receiving the gospel, concerning which it is said that if even an angel should preach any other, he would be under the curse.
But here were those who had gone down to Galatia, and had confused—yes, had even “bewitched”—the people, and would have perverted the pure gospel that the Galatians had first heard and received by the Holy Spirit.
These troublers of the Galatian Christians were “Pharisees which believed.” Remember they were “Pharisees which believed.” They had come from among the Pharisees into the church of Christ. They professed to believe in Jesus, professed to have received the gospel, professed to be Christians. But they were Pharisees before; and they were still Pharisees, after they professed to be Christians. They were formalists before, when they were only Pharisees; and now, when they became “Pharisees which believed,” they were still only formalists: even their belief was only a form. And these were opposed to the gospel. Indeed, it was such a “dry thing” that they could not be content until they had followed Paul everywhere that he went, turning the people away from this gospel that he preached, which was “so dry.” And in perverting the gospel of Christ, they were presenting “another gospel,” another way of salvation. Therefore the Word says: “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel.”
“Another gospel”! What is the gospel?—It is “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth,” “for therein is the righteousness of God revealed.” What I wish to impress upon you just now is not particularly that the gospel is “the power of God,” but WHY it is the power of God. Why is the gospel the power of God unto salvation?—The reason is given in Rom. 1:16, 17. In the sixteenth verse the statement is made that the gospel “is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” The reason is given in the seventeenth verse; and that reason is that “therein is the righteousness of God revealed.”
That is to say, the power of the gospel lies in the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel. The power that comes by the gospel to the sinner,—that power that changes his life; that puts in him the new way, and holds him in that way,—that power comes to him in the righteousness of God. And the gospel is the power of God because the righteousness of God revealed therein imparts that power. So the power of God in the gospel lies in the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel; and that righteousness is revealed only to faith, and “from faith to faith.”
Well, here come those “Pharisees which believed,” preaching “another gospel.” These who professed the true gospel become confused, and turn aside unto this “other gospel.” Another what?—“Another gospel;” another way of salvation; another power unto salvation. And this other power unto salvation must derive from some sort of righteousness whatever power it may have. But what other power can there be to work salvation, than the power of God?—None but my own. So far as my salvation is concerned, there is nobody but God and me. And in this God is dealing with me, and I must deal with God, just as if there was nobody in the universe but God and me. And the true gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Another gospel would be another power unto salvation; and that could be only my own power—the power of self.
Further: since the true gospel derives its power from the righteousness of God therein revealed, “another gospel” must derive whatever power it may have, from some sort of righteousness. It can not derive its power from the righteousness of God, because it is “another gospel.” Being “another gospel,” it must derive its power from another righteousness. And as in this there is no other power than my own, so in this there is no other righteousness than my own. Therefore the only righteousness that could possibly be revealed in this “other gospel” would be self-righteousness. But self-righteousness is sin. Whosoever has self-righteousness is under the curse. Consequently “another gospel” is indeed “not another,” because it is no gospel at all. It is no gospel at all, because it is no power at all: it is wholly impotency, and is simply the way of perdition.
Such was the question among the Galatians—a question as to whether the true gospel is the one in which the righteousness of God is revealed, or one in which self-righteousness is revealed. That is the question that called forth the book of Galatians. The book of Galatians was written especially to show the utter fallacy, the utter destructiveness to all who might receive it, of anything claiming to be the gospel that does not reveal the righteousness of God which is by faith.
(To be continued.)

IS THE COMMUNITY MADE FRAGRANT BY YOUR PRESENCE?

By David Paulson

DAVID PAULSON.
Have you not occasionally, in walking through the fields, spied an unknown flower whose appearance was perhaps so unattractive and commonplace that you would have passed it by with scarcely any notice, had it not been for a sweet fragrance, which fairly captivated you?
Paul thanked the Lord that he makes “manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place.” 2 Cor. 2:14. The word “savor” here is the same word in the original that is translated “odor” in John 12:3, where Mary broke the box of ointment, and the house was filled with the odor. Although the alabaster box was hidden from their eyes, its fragrance appealed to them in a most gratifying way.
In the same manner, the Lord proposes to make his gospel fragrant in the community where we reside, on account of our living there. Just as the odor of some foods will fairly make the mouth water for the food itself, so every famishing soul who comes within the sphere of our influence will have begotten in his soul a longing for heaven.

The Problem with Actual Facts

ONE of our exchanges very sensibly remarks that “when a man speaks of ‘actual facts,’ we suspect his mental processes; for he evidently thinks that there can be facts that are not actual. To speak of a round circle, or of a two-wheeled bicycle, is not simple tautology: it is inaccurate thinking. The fault is not in the tongue, but in the brain.”

SOWING FOR PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL HEALTH

By David Paulson; W. S. Sadler

David Paulson ✠ W. S. Sadler

STRUCTURE BUILDERS, OR THE PROTEIDS.

(Continued.)

RHEUMATISM AND BRIGHT'S DISEASE.

When uric acid and similar poisons are allowed to accumulate in the system, either from wrong habits of eating or from lack of physical exercise, the various tissue cells will become so anaesthetized, or chloroformed, that they will not recognize nor utilize the digested proteids that are brought to them by the circulation of the blood, and so they will gradually accumulate in the system, and must be carried off by the kidneys in the form of albumen. Such a patient is then said to be in the first stages of Bright's disease. If this condition is allowed to continue, it will be only a question of time when there will be a real structural change in the kidneys, and a practically incurable condition will be produced. Or perhaps before it has reached such a stage, nature will try to relieve the blood of a portion of this accumulation by depositing some of it as waste products in the various joints of the body; and, as a result, the person thus afflicted may suffer with a severe attack of rheumatism, which, after all, is a protective process by which nature tries to save from serious injury the vital tissues of the body.

SPIRITUAL LESSONS SUGGESTED BY BRIGHT'S DISEASE.

In our spiritual experience we can get into that condition where the Bible doctrines, the great fundamental truths of the Bible, which are the spiritual structure builders of the soul, are received into the moral being only to be passed on to others in the same form in which they were received,—without having become a real part of our Christian experience. In other words, just as in Bright's disease the proteid elements are eliminated without having first become a part of the body, so doctrines may be learned simply as a theory, and as such given to others; but just as Bright's disease results in rapid emaciation physically, so those who fail to make Bible truths and doctrines a part of their real experience have nothing to look forward to but leanness of soul.
As scientific authorities affirm, the proteids are not only pre-eminently the physical structure builders, but they also to a certain extent are converted into bodily heat and energy; and so with the Bible doctrines; while they are pre-eminently the great moral structure builders, they, too, may be made to furnish the growing Christian experience with a certain amount of spiritual fervor and moral energy. Bible truths and doctrines, unmixed with faith, become a source of stumbling and offense to the soul, just as the physical proteids taken into the stomach would only serve to produce disease if they were unacted upon by the physical digestive agents. Faith, being the great spiritual digestive agent, must be mingled with all our spiritual food in order to enable us properly to extract from it the real nourishment there is in it for us. By faith we must be able to receive not only the doctrines, but all things in divine revelation, so as to secure from them the real life of God.
A weakness of many well-meant efforts to reach souls, is the tendency to deal with them on an argumentative plane, seeking to prove everything by cold intellectual arguments. But instead let the fires of the soul be kindled, and its tissues cleansed. The spiritual food should be carefully examined to see if it is well proportioned,—if it contains the proper proportions of promise, precept, and prayer, as well as the strong meat of spiritual tissue builders. But, above all, see that faith is thoroughly mixed with every truth and doctrine that enters the soul, and this will serve as a sure safeguard against its being given out to others as a formal truth. Having become a part of you, it will be a thing given to others through your life, as a result of your life, instead of being brought to them merely as a theory, as a deduction or conclusion of the mind. Theory is but an ingenious apology for the absence of practice.

WHAT IS SPIRITUAL RHEUMATISM?

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine [“hear thy teaching,” Rotherham].” 2 Tim. 4:3. The world to-day is looking for things that are diseased and dying. Human appetite has become so perverted that it delights to feast upon the carcasses of dead animals, and along with this more or less diseased food the consumer must take into his system the many poisonous waste products that have accumulated in the animal's body, and this but serves to excite and stimulate the mind and body. And so in the spiritual world, the time has come when even many professed Christians will not endure sound, wholesome, living, moral food. Plain, vital, unadulterated truth, fresh from the word of God, does not serve to satisfy their perverted moral appetites; and just as their physical systems clamor for diseased meat, so they clamor for diseased spiritual meat,—diseased doctrines. Much of the food eaten to-day is diseased, and the greater part of the so-called Bible teaching received by the souls of many professed Christians is highly diseased. It is sick: yes, “sick nigh unto death.”
One of the danger signals of the harmfulness of error and perverted truth might properly be termed “spiritual rheumatism.” Error received on any particular point, or in any particular phase of our Christian experience, soon indicates its presence by symptoms of spiritual lameness and moral weakness. The soul loses its freedom of movement, and when it seeks to engage in spiritual activity, finds the same to be a most painful proceeding, even as the rheumatic finds pain, and only pain, when he is forced to move the ailing member. And as the rheumatic avoids physical activity, just so the man who has imbibed error from without, or who has perverted truth within, carefully avoids occasions of spiritual activity and Christian work. Spiritual exercises, from public worship down to those of private devotion, become more and more painful, unattractive,and undesirable to such a one, whose being has become saturated and permeated with the moral poisons of erroneous principles and perverted truth. Many professed Christians who for many years have had much light and great truth, go hobbling along on moral crutches, as it were, weak and lame in their spiritual joints, owing to the accumulation of moral poison in the soul.

TREATMENT FOR SPIRITUAL RHEUMATISM.

Let the fires of God burn in the soul. “Quench not the Spirit.” Give over all to the purifying, refining, and cleansing process of the Spirit of God within. Make diligent effort to discover every source of pollution from without. Let there be a moral house cleaning. Consecrate the whole being, every part of it, to the practice of truth eternal. Submit the soul as a burnt offering to God. Consecrate body, soul, and spirit to the work of receiving and living out truth. Sincere, firm decision, coupled with the divine power of an infinite God, will suffice to cleanse the moral being from every source of defilement, and to present it free from all spiritual disease, as a fit temple in which God may dwell, and work to his own name's honor and glory.

THE PEPSIN FAD, OR THE DELUSION OF DIGESTIVE SUBSTITUTES.

It has been erroneously supposed that all digestive disturbances are more or less due to a deficiency of pepsin. Careful observations, made in thousands of cases where the contents of the stomach have been chemically analyzed, have, however, demonstrated that digestive disorders are more frequently due to a deficiency of hydrochloric acid, or to an excess of the same, or to a failure of proper starch digestion. Yet in spite of this fact, the stomachs of pigs are annually robbed of tons and tons of pepsin, to be taken into human stomachs.
It is a widespread error that man may go on in wrong dietetic habits, and so wear out and squander his normal digestive fluids, and then in some way atone for this physical transgression by merely adding, to his daily food, pepsin or some other artificial digestive agent. And striking as well as costly advertisements proclaiming that if certain digestive tablets are eaten, then the fortunate user may eat whatever he likes, are to be seen displayed in almost any drug-store window as well as in the advertising columns of the daily papers and popular magazines. It is true that these do sometimes afford temporary aid; but their use is deceptive, in that they often lead the victims of digestive trouble to suppose they are being cured, when in reality they are being carried onward to a point in their disease where even the most rational remedies and the most careful reform may perhaps be of little or no avail to them. In other words, they have apparently sinned away their days of dietetic grace, deluded by the idea that in some way they were deceiving nature, while all the time she was keeping an unerring account with them.

SPIRITUAL SUBSTITUTION—A LESSON DRAWN FROM DIGESTIVE SUBSTITUTION.

The colossal mistake of believing that pepsin, extracted from the stomach of an inferior animal, can digest food in the human stomach, has a most striking parallel in the religious world to-day. It is a small matter with many professed Christians whether or not their truth comes straight from heaven in the divine channel and in the divine order. That which God designed they should do for themselves in digesting, understanding, appreciating, and appropriating the divine principles found in the Bible, they, like those who are willing to have artificial pepsin digest their proteids, are quite willing to avoid; and then to supply the lack by having the Bible, and the way of truth in general, interpreted, explained, and perverted, by almost anyone who, like the pepsin vender, will be audacious enough to claim the power to do this work for them.
The entire philosophy of spiritual substitution, as well as physical, is wrong. This is illustrated in the erroneous teachings of the mass; in their dependence upon either the righteousness or the prayers of others for spiritual and physical salvation; and even in their dependence upon a minister to select, masticate, and digest that spiritual food which God has arranged that the soul must extract and appropriate for itself. The great policy of the archdeceiver is not always to lead man to ignore his need of moral food, but rather to lay careful plans not only to contaminate his moral food supply, but to pervert even the channel through which it should be communicated to, and appropriated by, the soul.
Copyrighted, 1900, by David Paulson and W. S. Sadler.

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