Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 3, 1894
Christ Our All in All.
The apostle Paul declares of Jesus Christ that "he was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption; that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." 1 Cor. 1:30, 31, Revised Version.
Our Wisdom.
Wisdom is from the Greek word sophia, defined by Greenfield to mean "knowledge, intelligence, illumination of mind; wisdom as exercised in forming the best plans and in the selection of the best means; wisdom, prudence, discretion." Christ is "the wisdom of God" (1 Cor. 1:24), the One who inspired the prophets of old (Luke 11:49). In him "are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Col. 2:3. He possesses all knowledge; he knows how to use the best means in the best way for the best purpose. And he is all this for the children of men. Man does not know himself. He fails in the use of the best means for the best purposes in the commonest affairs of everyday life. How much more does he not know the way to God! But Christ knows it. He knows all the way, the trials, the conflicts, the difficulties, the besetments, the opposition; and he knows how to use them all—favorable and unfavorable—for the best and greatest good involved. This all-wisdom will be granted to everyone who will connect with Christ. It is pledged for us. God gave it to us in giving Christ. Ask him; he will not upbraid, but will give liberally. Wisdom waits for the humble in God's word. "The testimonies of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple."
Righteousness.
Man is a sinner. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Being a sinner, he is doomed to die; for "the soul that sinneth, it shall die," and "sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." Sin is the transgression of the law. God's law condemns man because he has broken it. It demands perfect righteousness, even the righteousness of God. But "who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one." Even man's best deeds, his "righteousnesses, are as filthy rags." He has not kept the law, he cannot keep it. But Jesus Christ kept it in all its perfection. He "did no sin." And he takes his perfect life of obedience to God's law, and offers it, yea, imputes it, to everyone who will choose him and renounce sin. His righteousness becomes our righteousness; his life of obedience, our life. The law in us as sinners was a law of sin and death, because we transgressed it. In him it was a law of righteousness and life, because he lived it perfectly; and when we come to him by simple faith, he takes the law lived in Christ's life and puts it upon us. This is "the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference." "The law of life in Christ Jesus [God's holy law lived by Christ] hath made us free from the law of sin and death." This is the righteousness which we receive through Christ, and to its genuineness the law bears witness. Rom. 3:21. This is what Jesus desires to be to every one of us—"the Lord Our Righteousness." Will you not let him? In his righteousness is life—eternal life.
Sanctification.
"Sanctification" means a separation, a setting apart. Christ calls us out from the world. He was in the world, yet not of the world, for our sakes, and he says to his disciples, "Ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world." Again, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." Christ separates through his truth. Thus he prays for his disciples: "Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth." "And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." It is God's word which points out sin by showing the better way, which pierces the heart by its wondrous truths, which gives power to renounce sin, which gives the life of Christ's righteousness, which separates the soul from sin and separates it unto God, which sets apart from the world and sets apart to God's service in Christ Jesus. His is the word of truth and power; his is the righteousness; his is the holiness. Sanctified through the truth are those who are Christ's, sanctified by the Spirit, the power in the word, sanctified by Christ Jesus, who of God is made our sanctification. Christians are sanctified, but only in Christ.
Redemption.
"Redemption" means purchase, release, deliverance. Christ is our redemption. He bought us with his own life, and to everyone who acknowledges that purchase price by yielding to him, he will by his own power deliver them from the power of sin and death to eternal life and immortal glory. He delivers us here from the sin of the past; he breaks its yoke from off our neck, opens its prison house, and makes us free; and, if faithful to the end, he will deliver our bodies from the power of mortality and the grave at his soon coming.
Christ Is Our All in All.
Christ is our all. We are nothing; he is everything. We are the naughts, the zeros, the ciphers; he is the digit, the significant figure. But he offers us all if we will but yield to come into right relations to him, if we will but choose him. He then places our nothingness on the right side of his own intrinsic worth and wholeness, and, lo, in him we are multiplied as though we were units! The following figure represents us of ourselves: 0—we are nothing. The following represents Christ to the extent of all infinity of vastness: 1—he is everything. The union of the two makes each one of us, in Christ: 10—ten units from nothing, ten tens, ten millions if need be, for he is infinite. It is all of HIM, that "he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord."
CHRISTIAN ENDEAVORS IN POLITICS.
By Editor
It was four years ago and little more that a minister, writing in the Advance of Jan. 2, 1890, marveled at the judiciousness with which the Endeavor movement had been carried on. He said he knew of no movement which had been managed with so few mistakes. It had rejected the temptations to make it partisan in denominationalism, in politics, in morals, and in evangelism. At that time the movement could not be said to have entered the political field, but that can no longer be said of it. In our recent election the Christian Endeavor Union of Alameda County deliberately set forth its purposes in politics, and entered the field with all the vigor and earnestness, if not with the craft, of the Roman Catholic Church. In a circular issued before the election, under the mottoes, "For Christ and the Church. For882Temperance and Good Government," they say [Italics as we find them]:—
"The time has come when the Christian people and the respectable element generally must unite their forces in the political arena. Our strength has been scattered too long, and as a consequence the forces of evil, which are never divided, have triumphed almost invariably. At the election to be held Tuesday, November 6, there will be five regular tickets in the field, besides a large number of independent candidates. The liquor element and objectionable class of the community will center their votes on their own candidates, leaving the better class to dissipate their strength on a host of nominees for each office. Realizing the danger which threatens our country at this time, the Christian Endeavor Union appointed a committee, consisting of representative men from each party, to select a list of candidates, which the Christian Endeavorers could support as a body. The committee has taken the entire list of candidates, and, after thorough investigation and advising with our leading Christian citizens, we have erased therefrom the names of those who, we have reason to believe, would lend their influence to the liquor element, or who would not be the proper men for Christian people to support. From the remaining list of acceptable nominees we have chosen a straight reform ticket."
This entrance into politics, which they say is for "the first time," has been applauded by the ministers of various churches, and also by the public press, which delights to be flattered. We suppose that the Christian Endeavorers think that it is for Christ and the church, but never was a greater mistake. Jesus said: "Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you; but whosoever shall be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant; even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."
Here is the principle which underlies the work of all true Christian endeavor, and a departure from that principle, to seek to compel men in the name of Christ and his church, merits the rebuke which our Lord gave to the overzealous disciples of old who desired that those who had rejected their Master should be consumed with fire, even as men had been of old. Jesus said: "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of Man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them."
It has been in just such ways as this that religious tyranny has been developed in all times past. Those professing religion, having lost faith in God and his power, have sought by carnal, earthly weapons to effect that which they have not been able to do by spiritual means. This country was faithfully warned of this as long ago as 1831, when a large number of petitions was presented before Congress to endeavor to induce that body to legislate upon religious and moral questions. The prayer of the petitioners was rejected, and the report of the committee which considered the petitions was adopted. That report was one of the most masterful documents ever written in favor of religious liberty. We quote simply two sentences:—
"Extensive religious combinations to effect a political object are, in the opinion of the committee, always dangerous. . . . All religious despotism commences by combination and influence; and when that influence begins to operate upon the political institutions of a country, the civil power soon bends under it; and the catastrophe of other nations furnishes an awful warning of the consequence."
We already have had for some time the combination. The Endeavorers are but another element in it. And the political institutions of the country are bending under its influence. What else than catastrophe lies before the nation, and that, too, from its would-be saviours?
Again, this action of the Christian Endeavor Union is said to be for temperance and good government. In the quotation above they have emphatically said that they have erased the names of those who would lend their influence to the liquor element. They say still further:—
"You who desire to see the cause of temperance and good government succeed may choose whom you will to vote for, but remember that the entire Christian Endeavor vote of this county is going to be cast solid for our nominees, and, that victory over the forces of evil may be assured, we ask you to support our candidates at the coming election."
On one side of the sheet containing this appeal is their list of acceptable candidates, drawn from five different parties, as follows: Republican, Democratic, Non-partisan, Populist, and Prohibition, besides several independent candidates for different municipal offices. But, although the Christian Endeavor Union are so strongly desirous of temperance candidates, it is a notable fact that the majority of their candidates were drawn from those parties whose interests have always been turned on the side of the saloon element. Among their forty-eight favorite candidates, which they print in bold-faced type, fifteen are from the Republican nominees, three from the Democratic, eleven from the Populist, fourteen from the Non-partisan, and only two from the Prohibition party. Of course it may be said that these men in the old parties are temperance men, but it is notorious that the parties are not temperance parties. To our mind the facts show, on the face of the thing, that what the Christian Endeavorers are after is government control of religion, and that without respect to temperance. In fact, their whole effort for Sunday closing of the saloons has been in favor of Sunday—the religious day—and not for the principles of temperance. There is no greater danger menacing our land to-day than the action that is being taken in political matters by the Christian Endeavorers and the various religious organizations. It means that when this country fully gives itself over to the class who are seeking to rule it, and who are using all the moral influence they possess to obtain it, it is doomed. It is even now too late to hope for freedom from the chains which they have already forged. But we can, however, and will, so far as our influence lies, warn individuals to beware of the seductive thralldom to which they are inviting the world.
WHAT DO WORDS MEAN?
UNDER the heading of “Loyalty to Christ,” Rev. J. M. Foster, in the Christian Statesman, lays down as his first three propositions the following:—
1. The believer’s purpose is to serve Christ.
2. The believer accepts Christ’s will as the perfect rule of life.
3. The believer accepts Christ’s life as his model.
All these are good; but to serve Christ is to do as Christ commands. Jesus says, “Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you.” Christ’s will is the will of his Father. He says, “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” God’s will is his holy law. Ps. 40:7, 8. Christ’s life was the life of the law of God manifested in the flesh. Christ kept his Father’s commandments; he observed them all. He made no discrimination—there was no difference. His life was the exemplification of the whole Decalogue.
By this will of Christ Mr. Foster has reference to the Decalogue, but in the light of what he here says how can he justify what he has said so many other times in regard to the first-day sabbath? Christ never commanded Sunday observance as a part of his service—it is not a part of his will, and it was not kept nor observed in his life. The seventh-day Sabbath was. Christ commanded it. He says, “Keep the commandments.” It is his will; he was one with the Father in giving it, and he himself observed it. What, therefore, is the duty of those who follow him, but to take the life of Christ as their model? But all who thus do must of necessity, if they understand what it means, become seventh-day observers. What does Christ’s service, Christ’s rule of life, Christ’s example, mean? Are they all to be set aside by the traditions of men?
PROTESTANTISM VS. ROMAN CATHOLICISM.
By Editor
The Christian Advocate of November 1 quotes from a paper read by Rev. Walter Elliott, of the Roman Catholic Church, before the Parliament of Religions, on "The Missionary Outlook in the United States." The Signs has twice quoted from the same article, but it gives the following again in order to give point to what the Advocate says. Father Elliott states the matter as follows:—
The collapse of dogmatic Protestantism is our opportunity. Denominations and "creeds" and "schools" and "confessions" are going to pieces before our eyes. Great men built them, and little men can abolish them. The dogmas of older Protestantism are fading out of our people’s minds, or are being thrust out.
Everything shows that this is the case. He concludes:—
There can be little doubt that this republic will be made Catholic if we love its people as God would have us.
Upon this the Advocate remarks:—
Mice have destroyed the nets which chained lions, and insects great buildings. What of Methodists as here described? Every sentence of the foregoing is worthy of study, and should be weighed by Protestants.
The same Father Elliott has been for some months holding revival meetings, or "missions," among Protestants, notably in Ohio, and the Catholic News reports great success and interest at all of these missions. It states that they are largely attended by Protestants, and that many Protestants are converted to the church in this way. There certainly is this manifested in the Catholic Church—it is883consistent. Protestantism has much to say about the Bible, and the Bible alone, but for many of its practices it holds to doctrines of the Catholic Church which have no Bible whatever for their support. This is clearly seen by those who reason consistently, and the only logical conclusion to which they can come is that if these doctrines and practices are right, therefore the Roman Catholic Church must be right, the Reformation was a mistake, and the only proper thing to do is to go back to the bosom of the mother church. Either this holds good or the word of God alone must be accepted by Protestantism.
Question Corner.
By Editor
“If ye will inquire, inquire ye.” “But avoid foolish questions.”
[From time to time we will reply under this head, if deemed advisable, to such candid inquiries as may be sent us. Correspondents wishing a reply to their questions must give their full name and address, not for publication unless they wish, but as an evidence of good faith on their part, and to give us opportunity to reply by letter if deemed best. It is always well to inclose stamp. Let the questions be short and pointed, and such as may be answered in limited space. The questions will be numbered continuously.]
The verse reads as follows: “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” These are the words which our Lord addressed to Peter, but it will be seen by other scriptures that similar words were addressed to all the apostles (John 20:23), and to the church (Matt. 18:18). But these words were addressed to Peter as the leader among the apostles, and to the one whom the Lord had chosen to preach the gospel both to Jews and Gentiles. The giving of the kingdom of heaven would naturally refer to the opening of the great truths of God to the people. This Peter did in being the leading speaker on the day of Pentecost. See Acts 2:14 and onward. Again we have Peter presented to us in the tenth chapter of Acts as preaching to the Gentiles, and even before this we find him preaching the word of God in Samaria. See Acts 8:14–25. In regard to this commission Peter says, “Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.” Acts 15:7. But this commission was shared by the apostle Paul, Paul having the greater part of the burden. See Gal. 2:7, 8. Paul, in speaking of the Jewish brethren, said, “When they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision [that is, the Gentiles] was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter [for he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles].”
In view of these other scriptures the words of our Saviour to Peter would simply indicate that God gave him the privilege of opening the gospel of salvation to both Jews and Gentiles; but that he did not share that alone is expressly shown in the other texts to which we have referred. The loosing and binding refer not to Peter as a person, but to the message which Peter bore. The gospel which he preached, if received, would release men from their sins and be the means of their salvation. If rejected it would leave them in condemnation, and they would still be bound by the cords of their iniquity. Similar expressions are used in regard to Jeremiah: “See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.” Jer. 1:10. The Lord did not mean by this that Jeremiah as a person was to root out and pull down or to build and to plant kingdoms, but according to the word which he should speak should it be done. When he declared the word of God to a nation, and the nation received that word, and turned from their evil ways, God would build and plant that nation, but if the nation rejected that word, God would root up that nation and destroy it. See Jer. 18:7–10. So when the apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, or his church, shall declare God’s word as it is in truth, that word will accomplish just what is declared in it; whatsoever is bound on earth shall be bound by it in heaven, and those who are loosed from their bondage of sin by the power of that word are loosed in heaven. The man is honored because of the message which he bears, not the message by the man.
163. THE LAWS OF GOD.
I would like to have the SIGNS explain Neh. 10:29.
If the 29th verse of Nehemiah 10 be carefully read, it will be seen that all of God’s law includes not only the ceremonial laws which were given through Moses, but the ten commandments as well. It says that the children of Israel, “everyone having knowledge, and having understanding; they clave to their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses the servant of God [that is, embracing all of the so-called law of Moses], and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes.” This certainly would include the ten commandments, and of course the ten commandments include the Sabbath, as indicated in the 31st verse. The ten commandments themselves made no separation between the people of the land and the children of Israel, but the other laws given by Moses did. See Ex. 34:15, 16, and Deut. 7:3. The same distinction between these laws is made in Neh. 9:13, 14. There it is said that God “camest down also upon Mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments; and madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath, and commandest them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant.” Certainly both classes of laws are clearly indicated here, and it was obedience to all of the laws which God gave, not only those which he spoke himself, but which he spoke through Moses, that the children of Israel took oath to obey, as recorded in Neh. 10:29.
We do not know that we have any other explanation to give than is contained right in the text itself. It would seem that God has a special regard for the children of those who are truly and wholly his. That is, the parent proves a bond between the grace of the Lord and the child. It is the duty of the believing wife and the believing husband to believe not only for themselves but to believe for their children. It would seem from many scriptures that God not only desires, but wills, if the parent rightly connects himself with the Lord, to give him his children, or, in other words, make the parent the means of saving them. So the Lord tells us, in Deut. 29:29: “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” Again, in Deut. 30:19 we read: “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.” See also Gen. 18:19. But these promises of the Lord will not be fulfilled to a mere nominal professor, or one who has no burden for his or her children. Those who expect to be saved in the kingdom of God, and to see their children there, must carry out the instruction that God has given in his word, in regard to the training of children. The words of God must be laid up in his own heart, and in the love of God he must teach them constantly to his children. See Deut. 6:4–9. It is in this way that the believing husband or believing wife may be a means of saving the children.
The whole chapter has reference to the city of ancient Tyre. The first part of the chapter tells us that she shall be ashamed, that God will bring down her glory unto contempt, and says: “Thou shalt no more rejoice, O thou oppressed daughter of Zidon.” This shame upon Tyre came through Babylon, as indicated in the 13th verse, and in other prophecies. Then in the 15th verse we are told that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, that is, that during that time she shall be counted a city of no importance, according to the days of one king or kingdom. This seems to indicate the duration of the Babylonian (Continued on page 396.)
The Road Back to Rome.
By Editor
The Christian Advocate of November 1 makes note of another Roman convert from the Episcopal Church, converted by Rev. Walter Elliott, the Paulist preacher. He was the son of a Baptist deacon, but entered Rome by the way of the Episcopal High Church. The Advocate truly says:—
The logic of Protestant Episcopal High Churchism is Romanism. A steady procession is going into that church from the Episcopal Church. That body is very much inclined to boast of its accessions from other Protestant denominations, but has little to say of the additions to Roman Catholicism from it.
And we may add that just as long as the other Protestant churches continue to hold to Roman Catholic dogmas and institutions, adding to them year by year, they will prove stepping-stones to the High Church. Among these Sunday is most prominent, and, having adopted Sunday, they are fast adding all the other rags of popery to their continually increasing papal vestments. The simplicity of old times is sadly lacking in our Protestant churches.
The Church’s Responsibility to the Poor
The Independent in a recent number lauds the work of General Booth and the Salvation Army, and says that Protestants "are more than willing to turn over this great responsibility to the Salvation Army, and in our generous assignment of this particular field, which we do not want to cultivate, to them, we are quite ready to acknowledge that their methods are better than ours, more likely to reach the miserable beings that infest contaminated districts." Upon this the Christian Advocate (Methodist) remarks that if the Independent speaks truly and represents the spirit of the churches in what we have quoted above, "it bodes no good to Christianity. Woe to the church if it is willing to turn over its responsibility to an outside organization."
God’s Loving-Kindness in Affliction
By George Washington Bethune
We shall not only see the hand of God, but the hand of our loving heavenly Father, full of mercy and loving-kindness, in all that befalls us, whether affliction or otherwise; and therefore we should believe it to be best for us, because it is his will.—G. W. Bethune.
Serving God Through Manual Labor
It is possible to serve God and our fellow-men with manual labor. Jacob dug a well, and it proved a blessing to his descendants for thousands of years.
Inviting God to Abide
By Selected
God stays in no man’s heart as an intruder. If he is to abide, he must be an invited guest.—Selected.
GOD'S WORD OUR ASSURANCE.
By Ellen G. White
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
THE word of God is the foundation of our faith, and therefore it is by the word of God that we may obtain evidence of our standing before God. We are not to make our feelings a test by which to discern whether we are in or out of favor with God, whether they be what we consider encouraging or not. As soon as one begins to contemplate his feelings, he is on dangerous ground. If he feels joyous, he is confident he is in a favorable condition, but when a change comes, as it will, for circumstances will be so arranged that feelings of depression will make the heart sad, then he will be naturally led to doubt that God has accepted him. It is not wisdom to look at the emotions, and try to test your spirituality by your feelings. Do not study yourself; look away from self to Jesus. While you acknowledge yourself as a sinner, yet you may appropriate Christ as your sin-pardoning Redeemer. Jesus came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Satan will not be slow in presenting to the repentant soul suggestions and difficulties to weaken faith and destroy courage. He has manifold temptations that he can send trooping into the mind, one in succession of another; but the Christian must not study his emotions, and give way to his feelings, or he will soon entertain the evil guest, doubt, and become entangled in the perplexities of despair. Expel the suggestions of the enemy by contemplating the matchless depths of your Saviour's love.
Do not exalt your feelings, and be swayed by them, whether they be good, bad, sad, or joyful. The apostle says, "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn; and the day star arise in your hearts." It is the word of God that is to be your assurance. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." The soul's supply of nutrition is in Jesus Christ. A legal religion will always be a troublesome guest, and it is a deception to imagine that there is such a thing as natural religion that is acceptable to God. The religion of Christ teaches its possessor self-distrust, but at the same time enables him to grasp the hand of Christ firmly, and still more firmly, as temptations press upon the soul.
There is a warfare in which every soul must engage who would have the crown of life. Inch by inch the overcomer must fight the good fight of faith, using the weapons of God's word. He must meet the foe with, "It is written." He must keep the armory well supplied with, "It is written." In this way he must meet the advances of the enemy, and educate and train the soul for the still more severe attacks of the foe. Truth, the word of God, faith and righteousness, and the hope of salvation, must be the armor of the successful warrior, and his eyes must be anointed to be keen and sensitive to detect the devices of the enemy. "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." If God had not made provision by which you might be thoroughly equipped for your warfare with the powers of darkness, then these commands and promises would be but mockery to you, and would tantalize your soul; but our God is true. We may depend upon him under all circumstances. The word of God cannot fail, and in it we are to find our assurance.
By the word of God we are to overcome every temptation of the enemy. Satan may present every attraction, bring to our notice every deceiving, alluring bribe, in seeking to eclipse the brightness of Jesus from our view, and to obliterate from our minds his plainest requirements, but we are to meet his deceptions with the word of God. "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints."
When the enemy begins to draw away the mind from Jesus, to shut away his mercy, his love, his all-sufficiency, do not devote precious time to the consideration of your feelings, but flee to the word. In the Scriptures Christ is presented as the One by whom God made the worlds. He is the light of the world, and, as the seeker for light studies the word, he finds heavenly illumination. Christ, the all-absorbing theme, is revealed to his soul, and he sees the requirements of God to be of a Christlike character. He studies the conditions on which redemption may be his, sees the divinity of his Saviour, the value of his atonement, the efficacy of the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost; and Christ becomes all and in all to his soul. He sees in the Scriptures that which the casual reader does not see, a significance and value beyond computation. He comes with a teachable spirit to the word, and is instructed by both the Old and New Testaments.5Christ opens the mind to comprehend the meaning of the sacred word, and the Holy Spirit conveys its true significance to the soul, which before had not been seen or appreciated. The searcher for truth feels as did the disciples when Christ overtook them on their journey to Emmaus. They told him their pitiful story, and he reproved them for their unbelief and slowness of heart. "And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." When their eyes were opened, and they realized that it was Christ himself who had been talking with them, they said one to another, "Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?"
What do we hope to accomplish by longing to have the whole world converted to Jesus, by believing in his pardoning love, when we do not ourselves believe in his love or find rest in his grace? How can we possibly lead others to a full assurance, to simple, childlike faith in our heavenly Father, when we are measuring and judging our love to him by our feelings? We cannot be lifted up in thought, or know what it is to be the sons and daughters of God, unless we trust implicitly to the word of God; for Satan will ever be on the ground to dispute our claims. We must educate the soul to trust in God's word with unwavering confidence. Let gratitude and thankfulness flow out of the heart, and cease to hurt the heart of Christ by doubting his love, which has been assured to us by most astounding evidences; for he so loved us as to give his own life for us, that we should not perish, but have everlasting life.
TIME AND ITS STORY.
By George E. Price
BY GEO. E. PRICE.
(Continued.)
IX.
HISTORY REPEATED.—GOD'S LAW MADE VOID.
We wonder at the Israelites of old,
That they so oft should disobey their God,
Who wrought such wondrous deeds to prove his love;
But, oh, how soon, when Christ our Lord was gone,
His children wandered from their early love!
How soon were they with all the heathen mixed,
From whom to separate them he had died!
The pagan superstitions thick and fast
Came crowding in where God was wont to dwell.
The holidays that pagans had observed
Were sacred made by change of name, or by
Ascribing to that day some great event
In man's redemption, which to celebrate
Was then observed as an high festival
Little distinctive from the heathen mode.
Thus came the Christmas and the Easter tide,
And thus, too, came the Sunday, wearing still
Its character and name, as when the priests
Of Baal shouted in their sacred groves,
Only they said it was to celebrate
Our Saviour's resurrection from the dead—
That Sun of Righteousness which then arose
And shed o'er all the world his glorious light.
And this "wild solar holiday" retained
The same pretentions that it did at first,
Till, waking from her long night of debauch,
Still drunken with the wine her mother made,
The church endeavored to maintain the claims
Of all the bastard children that she held
And wished to father off upon her God.
'Tis true the claims of some were so absurd
That forthwith they were cast aside as false;
But some, more dearly clasped, she still retained,
Because of memories clustering round their birth,
In spite of all her God and Saviour said,
She claimed that God's word plainly gave this day
The place that long before the Sabbath held;
THAT was commanded in his holy word,
But she strove hard to show that law transferred,
To show herself consistent this to hold,
While claiming to reject all man-made laws.
But this she ne'er could make the world believe,
Who take for pleasure what she sacred calls.
Assimilating to the world's gay life,
A worldly wisdom she imbibes from thence—
That which is foolishness with God, which makes
On worldly things her every thought to dwell.
So near alike why not each other love?
So it would seem; the church, in favor grown,
Finds not that hatred which the Master found,
And told her to expect; for now men see
The road to honor and to good esteem
Is only made by walking with the church,
Who goes wherever pleasure leads the way.
Replenished from the East with power and wealth
Of baptised worldlings showered in her lap,
She builds a temple grand on some gay street,
And chooses one who can attract and please
And preach smooth things to suit their itching ears.
The latest fashions and the gayest dress
Are surest seen here on a Sunday morn,
As they come here to praise and worship God.
Church fairs and festivals and grand bazaars,
These all conduce to gather in the means
Which love for Christ is feeble to supply.
O solemn mockery! Can the Spirit dwell
Where worldlings feel at home, or where the church
Will practice low, disreputable sports
To gain the worldling's favor or his purse?
But how is this, with Bibles in their hands?
Why do they not the good Book search and see?
Oh, 'tis the same old story! Sick at heart
It makes the lover of his brother man,
When fables, creeds, and theories false are loved,
Instead of God's eternal word of truth.
The wine of Babylon has made all drunk,
And blind made every eye by prejudice.
Do these things not go now as erst in Rome?
Do we not live her life a second time?
With light that dwelt within them turned to night,
How great the darkness that enshrouds the soul
Of those who once did know the world to come,
And were partakers of the Holy Ghost,
But who have turned from this to temporal things!
Forsaken of the Lord, so near the world,
How wildly does the church seek to lay hold
Upon the civil arm, to use its power
To force respect where her attraction fails!
Thus ever is the history of the church.
(To be continued.)