Signs of the Times, Vol. 29, No. 11. (3/18/1903)

Signs of the Times

Mar 18, 1903

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 18, 1903

THE WAYS OF LIFE.

JEHOVAH is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works.” “As for God, His way is perfect.” “In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death.” Surely, the prayer of the psalmist is equally important for us: “Show me Thy ways, O Jehovah; teach me Thy paths.”

THE one thing loved, desired, sought after, in this world, above all things else, is life. Even Satan recognized this truth when he said, “Yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.” How many times the truth of this has been manifested! We do not see it when men and women in the plenitude of health, with physical life-forces to the full, almost forget that they are mortal. But few there are indeed of the human family who would not buy off death for a year, a month, a week, a day, with all that they have in this world. For what are all the riches of this world to any soul without life? Therefore, “what shall man be profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and forfeit his life?”

LIFE is secure only in one place, and that is the way of righteousness is life; righteousness only is life. Things and men may seem to be living that are not righteous; but the living is only seeming. In reality they are dying. The human machine is running contrary to the law of its being, and is doomed to destruction. From the time the infant is born the bones begin to grow brittle, the blood vessels to harden and thicken, and the beginning of the end is at birth. Life is fed from sunshine, plant, and animal, from earth, air, and water. But after man’s best efforts, less than twoscore years marks the average of human life. Life fed only from lower life is doomed to go out into nothingness.

It was not so designed of the Creator. It was His plan that all His rational, moral creatures should receive life direct from Him, the great source of all existence; for “with Him is the Fountain of life.” But it was also a part of the plan—in fact, it could not be otherwise—that the continuance of His life to His creature is conditioned on the continuance of that creature in righteousness.

THE choice rested with the creature, as it does to-day. God sets before all life and death, blessing and cursing, and pleads, “Choose life.” Let the heart, the soul, the mind, the entire being, be yielded to God’s ways, to do what God commands, to refrain from what He prohibits, to choose gladly His ways, whatsoever they may be, wheresoever they lead. To choose them thus is to choose life, and to place one where the great currents of God flow out full and free from the eternal Source of being. To reject God’s ways is to choose death, is to place one’s little will across God’s great currents of life, and be overwhelmed forever by their force. The beautiful brook which meanders through the meadow, giving of its life to plant and herd, is a beneficent thing; but go a little farther down where it breaks from the valley meadow through a narrow gorge, throw a dam across it, turn its waters back over the fertile meadow, and its vegetation dies. The erstwhile brook of life becomes a sea of death. Its ways of righteousness are perverted, and death follows.

GOD has made no arbitrary law, dear reader, that, if you do not do His will, He will visit you with dire punishment; and, if you do His will, He will reward you. There is punishment in not doing, dire and inevitable, but it comes by your transgression of God’s ways, your perversion of the great currents of life. He that sinneth wrongeth his own soul.

YET God, in His goodness, does not leave His creatures in death. He has made visible life-connection between the great Fountain and the sin-burdened earth. Through His Word that He has given, through the person of His Son Jesus Christ, God is pouring out His life to all who will yield the sin and accept of His ways. In other words, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Believing is only

yielding with all the heart to His ways as set forth in His Word. “The words that I speak unto you,” says Jesus, “they are Spirit and they are life.” “He sent His Word and healed them,” is God’s record of His mercy to His people of old. He is the same to-day. His paths are the paths of life. All His ways are pleasantness; and all His paths are peace.

AND God will grant the prayer, “Show me Thy ways, O Jehovah; teach me Thy paths.” He has given the prayer that we may have courage in praying it. In the very same psalm we read: “Good and upright is Jehovah; therefore will He instruct sinners in the way. The meek will He guide in judgment; and the meek will He teach His way.” And those who thus seek God to know His way will find that “all the paths of Jehovah are loving-kindness and truth.” It is a blessed place to walk; for God will walk there with His children, even to the end of the pilgrim path, when the obscured light of life in this sinful world will burst into the glorious effulgence of everlasting day.

The Gospel in Creation, No. 2: From Chaos to Cosmos

By W. A. Sweany

THE GOSPEL IN CREATION. NO. 2.

From Chaos to Cosmos.

CREATION, the wonderful story of which is recorded in the first chapter of the Bible, is an illustration of the infinite power of God (Job 26:7–14), and an assurance of His ability to redeem (Isa. 42:5–7; 43:1–7; 45:17–19). The eternal purpose of God was that this earth with all its contents, in its beautiful original perfection, should be the eternal possession, the everlasting inheritance, of a race of holy, happy, immortal beings. Gen. 1:26–31; 2:7–9, 15–17; Isa. 45:18. Altho the accomplishment of this purpose has been long delayed on account of sin (Genesis 3; Rom. 5:12), it will finally be carried out in all its blessed fulness. For He “who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will” does not change nor alter His plans, nor suffer them to be thwarted. Mal. 3:6; James 1:17; Heb. 13:8; Isa. 45:9, 10. But since the whole creation is so terribly marred by sin, in order to accomplish His purpose, it will be necessary for Him “to make all things new.” Rom. 8:22, 23; Rev. 21:1–5; 2 Peter 3:13; 2 Cor. 5:17. All that was lost in Adam is regained in Christ.

Now, inasmuch as redemption is only recreation, and as God in Christ is the author of both, and as He is unchangeable, it follows that the new creation will be accomplished by the same means, and in the same way as was the old. Therefore as we study the story of creation we shall not only learn how, and by what means God made all things in the beginning, but also how and by what means He “makes all things new.” And this is but the study of the Gospel. Let this be kept in mind as we now study the record of creation in Genesis 1.

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Verse 1. This verse naturally suggests two thoughts,—the Creator and the creation. While it is true that the “secret things belong unto the Lord our God,” and we can not by searching find out the Almighty unto perfection (Job 11:7), it is also true that “those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever.” Deut. 29:29. And God has in His Word revealed something concerning Himself, which it is well for us to understand and remember.

No mortal man has seen, nor can see God the Father, until made like Him, when we “shall see Him as He is.” John 6:46; 1 Tim. 1:17; 6:13–16; 1 John 3:1, 2. But God in the person of the Son has been seen, thus revealing the Father, for they are one. John 1:18; Matt. 11:29; Luke 10:22; 2 Cor. 5:17–19; 1 Tim. 3:16; John 14:6–11. Jacob saw God face to face, wrestled with Him, prevailed and lived. Gen. 32:24–30. Moses saw Him in the burning bush. Ex. 3:1–6. Again, Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders saw the God of Israel in the mount and did eat and drink. Ex. 24:9–11. But that this was God the Son, and not God the Father, is clearly seen by comparing 2 Sam. 23:1–3 with 1 Cor. 10:1–4 wherein we are told that the God of Israel, or the Rock of Israel that followed, or went with them (margin), was Christ. And so it is that the Father can be heard, seen, and known only through the Son. And so let it be remembered that when, in the beginning, the heaven and the earth were brought into existence it was a revelation through Christ of the creative power of God. “Create” means to bring into existence that which did not exist before. In Ps. 33:6–9 David declares that “*By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. . . .

For He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.*”

In this wonderful transaction we learn that God’s word has power in it to produce what it pronounces, to accomplish what it requires. Then let us receive it into our hearts (Col. 3:16), that it may “effectually work” (1 Thess. 2:13), beget in us the new life (1 Peter 1:22–25), and make us clean and pure (John 15:3), and keep us from sinning (Ps. 119:11; 1 John 3:9; Acts 20:32).

Thus far we have only studied the record of the production of the raw material, of which the earth and its contents were to be formed, for verse 2 tells us that after the first creative act “the earth was without form, and void [empty]; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” A chaotic, formless mass of elements shrouded in darkness was the material of which the Lord made the first heaven and earth in all their beautiful perfection. And a perusal of the scriptures that describe the terrible condition of the world as we shall see it, marred and cursed by sin, reveals the fact that the material of which this new creation is to be made is, or will be, in similar condition to that of which the first earth was formed. “Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled; for the Lord hath spoken this word.” Isa. 24:1–6. See Isa. 24:19, 20; Jer. 4:23–27, and compare Gen. 7:6, 11, 12 with Matt. 24:37–39. What a dark, dismal picture of complete chaos and utter confusion! But remembering His triumphant success in bringing the first heaven and earth out of darkness and chaos, we may confidently say with Peter, “Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 2 Peter 3:1–14; Rev. 21:1, 5; Isa. 66:22.

Proceeding with the study of the account of creation we find the Spirit of God introduced as the operating agency. “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Verse 2. “The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.” Job 33:4. “Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they [living creatures] are created; and Thou renewest the face of the earth.” Ps. 104:30. Just so in the work of redemption, the Holy Spirit is the operating agency. Christ, through the eternal Spirit offered Himself to God for us, thus purchasing our redemption. Heb. 9:13, 14. In fact, the entire work of regeneration is accomplished by and through the Holy Spirit. “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one spirit.” 1 Cor. 12:13. “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.”

The First Day.

“And God said, Let there be light; and there was light.” Gen. 1:3. Let it be remembered that until God through His Spirit uttered that mandate, all was shrouded in dense, black darkness, and the entrance of His word into the darkness caused light to shine forth. Now, because of sin, the human heart, mind, and understanding have become darkened (Rom. 1:2; Eph. 4:17, 18), so that “darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the people.” Isa. 60:2. “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Cor. 4:6. And it is the entrance of His Word that giveth this light, by giving understanding to the simple. Ps. 119:130. Just as a light, when carried by a traveler in the darkness, shows him where to step, and where not to step, so His Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path, showing us where to go and where not to go, telling us what to do and what not to do. Ps. 119:105. “For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and the reproofs of instruction are the way of life.” Prov. 6:23. The law of God, which is light, was written in the heart of Christ. Ps. 40:7–10; Heb. 10:5–10. And so the Word of God, which is light, “was made flesh, and dwelt among us,” “full of grace and truth.” John 1:14.

Thus Christ became the Light of the world, and he that followeth Him will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. John 8:12; 12:35, 36. Just so when the Word, or the law of God, is written in our hearts and lived out in our lives by the Spirit of God, we become the light of the world. Jer. 31:31–34; 2 Cor. 4:1, 2; Matt. 5:14. Thus it is that in Christ and in His followers “the life”—“good works,” the Law of God lived out in the flesh—is the light of the world. John 1:4; Matt. 5:16.

“And God saw the light, that it was good.” Verse 4. If we try to imagine what conditions would necessarily prevail if there was no light, we shall more fully realize the importance and value of it; for without it no life, human, animal, or vegetable, could long exist. And were all the righteous, who are the spiritual light of the world, removed, how terribly dark and dreadful would be the condition. Truly, “light is good.”

“And God divided the light from the darkness.” Verse 4. Absolute light and darkness can not exist in the same place at the same time. Where light is there is no darkness, and where absolute darkness is, there is no light. When the light of day appears the darkness of night disappears, and when the light of day disappears with the setting sun, the darkness of night reasserts itself. Carry a light into a dark room and the darkness is driven out; remove the light, and the darkness returns. Just so in the spiritual world. Light (righteousness) has no fellowship nor communion with darkness (sin). 2 Cor. 6:14–18. “Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord; walk as children of light.” Eph. 5:8. “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day; we are not of the night, nor of darkness.” 1 Thess. 5:4–8. No man can serve two masters, nor be the friend of both God and the world at the same time. “Ye can not serve God and mammon.” Matt. 6:24; James 4:4. We are either light or darkness, either for or against Him, for there is no middle ground, no mingling of the two. Matt. 12:30. So it is still true, as it was in the beginning, that “God divides the light from the darkness.”

“And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night.” Verse 5. And in the spiritual realm, as has already been shown, God calls righteousness light (day), and sin darkness (night). Thus was completed the work and the duration of the first day of time; and that it was a day exactly identical in length and composition with the days of the present time is clearly evident to every intelligent, candid mind that will believe the plain, simple, harmonious statements of the Word of God, rather than the contradictory and unreasonable arguments of the theological skeptics and higher critics, who would have us believe that the days of creation week were long, indefinite periods of time. That all the days of creation week were exactly alike is shown by the fact that exactly the same expression is used to describe each of them.

“And the evening and the morning were the first day.” Verses 5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31. They were composed of darkness and light, the first part being dark, the last part light. And, altho man, in his efforts to pervert God’s ways, has agreed that the day shall begin at midnight (with nothing whatever to mark its beginning or end), the fact remains that, according to God’s plan, as revealed in the Bible, every day begins in darkness, or at the setting of the sun. “From even unto even shall ye celebrate your Sabbaths.” Lev. 23:32. The evening begins with the setting of the sun (Deut. 16:6; 23:11; Joshua 8:29; 10:26, 27; Mark 1:32; Matt. 8:16; Luke 4:40), for “the passover must be sacrificed at even, at the going down of the sun.” “And at even when the sun did set, they brought the sick to Christ, and He healed them.”

Notice that all of these texts speak of the same kind of days as are described in Genesis 1,—days beginning with the evening—days composed of evening (darkness) and morning (light).

In the fourth precept of the Decalogue (Ex. 20:8–11), wherein direct reference is made to the transactions of creation week, exactly the same words are used to fix the limit of our time for labor and the period for our rest that are used to express the duration of the Creator’s work and the day of His rest, thus proving that our six days of labor and seventh day of rest are identical with those of creation week. Again: Adam was created early on the sixth day, and thus lived through the greater part of the sixth day, and all of the seventh day of creation week; but he was only nine hundred and thirty-nine years old when he died (Gen. 5:5), which could not be true if the days of creation week were long, indefinite periods or ages. “Let God be true, and every man a liar.” Rom. 3:4. W. A. SWEANY.

CHRIST GIVES REPENTANCE.

By Ellen G. White

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.

Many think that repentance is a work which devolves wholly upon man, but this is an error. The Bible does not teach that man must repent before he comes to Christ. Repentance must precede forgiveness; but the sinner does not repent till he has faith in Christ as his mediator. Christ is the author and finisher of our faith. His love, shining from the cross, speaks eloquently of the sufferings of the only-begotten Son of God for fallen man. This love draws sinners to Him. The transgressor may resist this love; he may refuse to be drawn to Christ; but if he does not resist, he will be led to the foot of the cross, in repentance for the sins that caused the death of the Son of God.

If it were possible for man of himself to repent, Christ’s atoning sacrifice would be in vain. But this is not possible. Repentance comes from Christ just as verily as does pardon. It is a false theory which teaches that repentance is a work which man must do himself, without any special help from Christ. If one step in the way of salvation could be taken without Christ, every step could be taken without Him. But without His help, the sinner can not take the first step in this way. The grace that brings forgiveness brings also contrition and repentance.

It is true that great reformations in outward conduct are made by those who have never expressed faith in Christ, and who may not have even a knowledge of Him. But it is none the less true that it is the influence of His grace that put into their hearts the desire to reform. The change in their life is the result of a blind faith. Ignorantly they worship that which leads them to respect true manhood. If they continue to walk toward the light, increased light will shine upon them, and they will bow in adoration before God, filled with gratitude for the love that led Him to give His only-begotten Son as a sacrifice for the lost race.

The repentance that God accepts is a repentance that needs not to be repented of,—a repentance revealed by a radical change of mind and heart. The heart must be brought into subjection to Christ, and a repentance that brings about such a change can never originate with man. Only from Him who declared, “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me,” can such repentance proceed.

As the sinner yields to the drawing power of Christ’s love, sorrow for sin and a desire to turn from his evil ways fill his heart, and as he seeks help from God, strength from on high is given him. The Saviour says, “Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me.”

Those whom God pardons He first makes penitent. Some will say that this leaves man with nothing to do, with no part in the struggle against sin. This is not so; all the powers with which man has been entrusted must be employed in the effort to do the will of God. Man can never be saved in indulgence. Christ declared, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work;” and those for whom He has given His life are to be co-workers with Him. We must watch and pray, lest we enter into temptation. We must fight against pride, self-exaltation, jealousy, evil-thinking, and evil-speaking. Our earnest effort to overcome the evil in our characters will make manifest the sincerity of our prayers.

We must exercise faith in God. “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.” It is by faith alone that we can claim His promise, saying, “I receive the things I ask for; Thy Word is sure; it can not fail.”

We must be willing to realize our need. Those who feel that they are sinful and poor and wretched are the very ones to whom the invitation of mercy is extended. Jesus says, “I came not to call the righteous,”—those who are clothed with the garments of their own righteousness,—“but sinners to repentance.” Those who are rich and honorable in their own estimation do not hunger and thirst after righteousness. They feel no need; therefore they do not ask for and receive the blessing of God.

Without the help of the Saviour, fallen man could never keep the law of God. But how glorious is the truth of the atonement? What a firm foundation have the saints of the Most High on which to place their hope of salvation! Not one of God’s promises can fail. Through the righteousness of Christ the condemned sinner may be purified and made white. The Redeemer has carried the world’s burden of guilt and woe, and He is able to strengthen His children for the conflicts that day by day they will meet in the path to heaven.

TO MAKE KNOWN LOVE.

God is love; but what is love? We can give no satisfactory definition of life, light, or love—all three of which words are used to define God. We can only know what life, light, and love do—their essence we may not comprehend. We know what the love of God has done. “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son.” “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us.” In this we see how Christ came to destroy—to loosen, until free from—the works of the devil. Satan’s lie in the Garden of Eden, declaring that God was a hard, unkind, and unloving Being, was shown to be untrue. “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us.” Believing in this manifested love, we have been freed from our hard thoughts of God, and have returned to His bosom, looking up into His face, crying, “Abba, Father.”—Selected.

A GOOD REPORT.

By H. A. St. John

“THE elders obtained a good report.” Heb. 11:2. This inspired statement means much. If the Lord says of a student in the school of Christ that he has obtained a good report, it is complimentary in the highest degree. Thus the Lord said of the elders of Israel, and He does not leave us to wonder or imagine how they obtained such a report, but explicitly informs us that they obtained it through faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God, but with it we may please Him, even to the degree of obtaining a good report when our life-work in probation is ended. All such will hear the “well done,” at last, and enter into the joy of their Lord.

In speaking of the world in relation to this matter of faith, we sometimes divide them into four classes, viz.: Believers, half-believers, make-believers, and unbelievers. Unbelievers are entirely destitute of true faith in God or His Word, the faith faculty being in a state of paralysis. The make-believers are only hypocritical pretenders, destitute of real, living faith, and hence must properly be numbered as one class of unbelievers. The half-believers are numerous. They have some faith, but it is sadly mixed, and hence adulterated with doubts and fears. The half-believer has many ups and downs.

He tries to keep his conduct on the side of faith, while, at the same time, doubts harass his mind. He is double-minded, and hence unstable in all his ways. His service to God being so half-hearted, it brings him but little return of blessing or comfort. The Lord mercifully regards him as one of his children for a time, but if he does not come up to the standard of a full, whole-hearted believer, the time will come when the Lord will spew the lukewarm professor out of His mouth.

Very many of the remnant Laodicean church are in this fearful and dangerous condition. They are only half-believers, hence their love is fractional, and they are lukewarm. Unlike Abraham, they are constantly staggering at the promises of God. Faith and love, the gold tried in the fire, are within their reach, but they stagger on with their ups and downs, and sometime many of them, we fear, will go down to rise no more.

Believers are full of faith and love. Believers believe all that God says, they believe with all the heart, and believe all the time. Being rich in faith, their service to God every day and all the time is rendered in spirit and in truth, and brings them rich returns of peace, comfort, joy, and illumination. And while all things work together for their good, they are working together with God for the good of all people, and when their work is done, they will have a good report, and enter into the eternal joys of their Lord. Faith and love are inseparably united in the heart filled with the Spirit, but in the world to come, when faith is lost in fruition, love is enlarged by fruition. Lord, increase our faith, until the things hoped for, but not seen, shall be both possessed and seen. Let us all be resolved that we will have a good report through faith, when our great Teacher comes to promote us to the school above.

H. A. ST. JOHN.

THE DEAD MAN’S KEY.

A STORY is told of an English minister, who, being called to pray by the bedside of a dying man, sought to take him by the hand in token of their agreement in offering united prayer.

The sick man withheld his hand, keeping it under the bedclothes, and the minister prayed without it. Presently the man died, and then as his hand was uncovered, the mystery was explained—he was holding in his hand, with the grasp of death, a key—the key of his safe where his money was kept.

The Lewiston Journal tells of a man in Durham, Maine, who was very penurious and a very determined man. He died at an advanced age. On his death-bed he kept his right hand closely clutched. As he drew his last breath he tightened his hold. Everybody there knew what he held in that hand. It was the key to the chest in which he kept his gold.

As his nerveless hand unclosed, the key dropped from it, and clattered against the bedside. As if to hold it even after he was dead, the miser had tied the key about his wrist by a strong cord, which he grasped as long as life remained.

He could not take his gold with him, but he kept the key. They buried him, as he was, with the key to his money-chest tied about his wrist.

“And what became of the gold?” “Oh, the heirs have taken care of that just the same! They split open the chest with an ax and divided the gold, and let the miser keep the key about his wrist.” He is mouldering in the grave, and the key is resting beside him. We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out of it.

“What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”—Selected.

THE NATURE OF MAN.

By L. D. Santee

The question, What is man? is, in many minds, still unanswered; and yet God has made it plain.

Let us briefly consider our own natures in the light of Scripture, leaving out prejudice and believing just what God says. And now to our subject, What is man? Of what does he consist? What relation do the parts sustain to each other?

Let us notice 1 Thess. 5:23, where the entire man is comprehended. “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Then man is composed of three parts, “spirit and soul and body.” Now by reading Heb. 4:12 we learn that the Word of God makes a distinction between soul and spirit, or, in other words, teaches that they are different, the one from the other, and when one is spoken of it does not mean the other.

Now to understand what those parts are, let us go back to the account of man's creation. “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Gen. 2:7.

It is easy to understand what “man” is. It is the visible part, the tangible, material form made in the image of God. It is just as really man, when separated from the other elements as when united to them. Just as really man when dead as when living, so we read in Isa. 26:19: “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise.”

The account continues, “and breathed into his nostrils the breath [Heb. ruach, spirit] of life.” This introduces another part of the person. Now to know what the “spirit of life” is, we shall briefly consult a few of the leading authorities on this subject. While several definitions are given, we shall use the one that is the most natural, and in harmony with the Word of God.

Grim's Greek Lexicon says, “Pneuma—the vital principle by which the body is animated.” Ewing's Lexicon gives the following definition of pneuma: “Spirit, the principle of animal life.” McClintock and Strong give the following as the third definition: “The vital principle which resides in and animates the body.”

Cremer's Lexicon: “We are led to regard the spirit as the principle of life.” In harmony with this is James 2:26: “The body without the spirit is dead.” It is now easy to understand that the spirit is the vitality, or animal life, that vivifies the body; that causes the heart to throb; the lungs to inflate; and the brain to quiver, producing thought. We now have a living body, performing all its functions. What is the result of this combination of life and matter?—“Man became a living soul.”

Laing's Greek and English Lexicon gives “mind” as one of the meanings of “soul.” Gile's Lexicon defines the word psyche as “soul, disposition, genius, mind.” Ewing's Greek Lexicon has it, “soul, as distinguished from the body and spirit (1 Thess. 5:23). The mind, disposition, particularly as denoting the affections.”

We could increase the list of authorities, but this is sufficient. We have now the whole man, body and soul and spirit, or as defined, it is body, life, and intelligence; and we attach these meanings to the words in our ordinary talk. We say, “That is a spirited horse.” We mean full of life. Again, “He is a liberal-souled man.” We mean that he has a benevolent mind. This is in harmony with the teaching of the Bible (Eze. 18:4). “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” In Matt. 26:38 the Saviour said: “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.”

After examining the foregoing, it is clear to us that the complete man is the visible part made of dust, the spirit, which vivifies it, and the intelligence, and we have in a wondrous combination, “spirit and soul and body.”

The next question that would naturally arise is, How does death affect each of these parts? Eccl. 12:7 tells us: “Then shall the dust return [go back] to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” Death, then, is a separation of life and matter, of body and spirit, and at the resurrection they are again united. “The Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet.” Rev. 11:11.

This was well understood by inspired writers. Read the dying prayer of Stephen (Acts 7:59, 60): “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep. Jesus, in His agony on the cross, cried, “Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit; and having said thus, He gave up the ghost.” Luke 23:46.

Man, when the spirit has returned to God, is spoken of as being asleep. Jesus said, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth.” Of Stephen it is said, “He fell asleep.” In 1 Cor. 15:6 we read, “Some are fallen asleep.” Again, verse 16–18: “For if the dead rise not, . . . then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” So we say with the divine warrant of all the unnumbered dead, when life has left them, they are asleep.

In the resurrection, when the spirit of life from God enters into them, they awaken. “I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness.” Ps. 17:15.

With the understanding that death is a sleep it is easy to comprehend the condition of the mind. Our nightly slumbers are to us periods of unconsciousness. So with that longer sleep that shall be broken by the voice of the Son of God.

Here is what God says of the condition of the mind between death and the resurrection (Ps. 146:4): “His breath (ruach, spirit) goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” “The dead know not anything. . . . Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished.” Eccl. 9:5, 6.

The body of the dead is asleep. The spirit is not extinct, but separated from the body, and in the keeping of God. All thought is suspended till the reunion of life and matter shall awaken all the forces of life to activity.

The definitions given above are not absolute or complete. Sometimes the word soul or spirit is translated from a different word in the original, and sometimes one of the parts is named, when the whole person is meant. But when the parts of man are spoken of, as in 1 Thess. 5:23, I believe that the definitions that we have given are in harmony with the whole trend of the Scriptures.

L. D. SANTEE.

THE SINGER'S MESSAGE.

By Hope Onslow

A stranger, I passed with the church-going throngs, And entered a temple with them for an hour; I would hear a new sermon, a prayer, a few songs; But hoped not for comfort, revealing, nor power. I would pass through the hour tho' nothing might sway, Or I might staunch some hunger of heart, maybe pray.

The silence fell softly, the light was subdued, The spell of the Spirit divine seemed to move. I bowed my cold heart in a reverent mood And knew how I hungered for heaven's sweet love. “The Lord's in His temple, O bow heart and head, Let earth be in silence,” the minister said.

The pure prayer that followed probed into my soul, As lights pierce the shadows, and laid my need bare,— The misunderstanding, the weakness, the dole, The keen disappointments, the thorn I must wear. And close to the pain which my self-pity made The Man of all sorrows He lifted, who loved.

“O Jesus,” my heart cried, “if only again Thy face I might see in the midst of earth's hate, If only once more Thou wast here among men, And I could but find Thee, O how could I wait? I would run, I would fall at Thy feet, and I know Thy love would flow through me, and heal all my woe.”

“For Thou art not man—Thou art God—Thou art Love, Thou knowest the wounds in the children of men,— Aye, the children, the little ones, pleading above Because there's no refuge below. O, again The weary would seek Thee, and press for the hem Of Thy robe as of old, when Thou comfortest them.”

Just then came a note of magical depth, Deep, sweet, like an angel's; I lifted my face And saw the sweet singer whose strange eyes had wept, But whose face was alight with a heaven-like grace, As if the deep need of my heart she did ken. She sang, “Christ is coming, is coming again.”

The church seemed to fade from my view, and above The heavens were opened to heaven's white arch, And King of the hosts was the Christ-face of love And His armies had gathered about Him to march. And swift through my heart poured His love to console, He knew, O He knew and had solaced my soul.

The sweet song was over, the sermon was given, But whether I heard it or not, let it be. I know that the hour seemed radiant with heaven Because of the singer's sweet message to me. Because with fresh joy, it had come to my ken That Jesus, my Bridegroom, was coming again.

What mattered the sorrow or joy of the years? For life or for death there was hope in my breast. The message already had changed all my tears Into rivers of gladness, and life was made blest. With all the new vision of love, I lost pain In the joy that my Saviour was coming again.

What a message was mine to be given abroad! And sin-sick and weary were waiting to hear As again and again I rejoiced before God And sang in the message that faith had made dear. Life found its lost channel of love to all men In singing this comfort, “Christ cometh again.”

HOPE ONSLOW.

Continue reading: THE POPE'S BLESSING