International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 1, 1887
General Articles.
By Ellen G. White
"YE CANNOT SERVE GOD AND MAMMON."
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
"No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."
THE interests of God and the interests of mammon have no union or sympathy. The course of one tends exactly opposite to the course of the other. While the world is master of the thoughts, principles, and actions, the Lord cannot be honored. The current of the world sets in against the soul with such force that it is borne along with the tide of its interests and infatuations. Satan, the angel of evil, the archenemy of truth, the father of lies, having successfully carried out his plan of ruining a holy race, follows up his advantage, and strives by every means to hinder the salvation of man and his re-instatement to the favor of God. He keeps the mind preoccupied with the plans and ambitions of the world. Heaven and Christ are crowded out of the thoughts and affections.
Satan presents the same temptations to-day as he presented to Adam and to Jesus, the second Adam, who overcame him and made it possible for man to overcome. He came to our Redeemer in the wilderness and presented to him temptations to gratify the flesh in his sorest need. The very temptation that overwhelmed man in the garden of delight is successfully resisted in a wilderness of desolation.
The indulgence of perverted appetite and passion has held sway over the world since Adam's transgression. God saw that it was impossible for man to overcome in his own strength, with his enfeebled moral powers. He might exercise all the capabilities of his nature, and yet, without divine aid, he could only be conquered; but help has been laid upon One who is mighty to save. Man's efforts and Christ's power will bring him off a conqueror. The moral image of God will be restored in the characters of those who serve him.
The next temptation that assailed Christ was on lust for power. The world is filled with this desire, and the results of its strife show the spirit of the ambition of this world. How many have been swept to ruin in this torrent of pride! Satan presents all the kingdoms of the world, in all their pomp and majesty, to the Son of God; but he repels the tempter with, "It is written." The word of God marks out the course of his children, and rather than disobey the commandments of God, Christ resigned the treasures of the world.
How many to-day see the force and beauty of the truth; but they cannot serve God and mammon, and they hold to the world. The truth requires the sacrifice of the world's honor, their position in business, their daily bread; and they falter and fail. They do not consider the promises of God to those who seek first the kingdom of Heaven. They raise the excuse, "I cannot be different from those around me. What will people say?" "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey?" We must not study how to serve ourselves, but how to do the will of God. Christ left his glory, and clothed his divinity with humanity. He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. For our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich. And yet, after this great manifestation of love on the part of Heaven, we are reluctant to yield our meager treasures, so soon to pass away. The majority of the world sell their souls for a little worldly gain, when Christ has presented to us the eternal riches. Oh, how uncertain are the treasures of earth! A man may be worth his thousands to-day, and to-morrow failures will sweep them all away.
Did not Jesus entreat, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal"?
The eye is clouded by ambition, avarice, and gain without godliness. The people do not see that they are putting their treasure into a bag with holes. It is cankered and moth-eaten. There is no progress heavenward. The gross attractions of earth hold their affections. The soul starves and becomes dwarfed for want of spiritual food, the fresh manna from Heaven. The world has come in between the soul and God.
The duty we owe to God is revealed in his word in unmistakable clearness. Do you intend to obey God? Do you intend to give earnest heed to the Scriptures? Here the obligation of man is declared so explicitly that the day of Judgment will reveal no excuse for not serving God. God's great moral standard of righteousness is to be met. His law requires your heart's supreme affection for your Maker. It requires you to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth," is a positive declaration; but "Lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven," is equally positive. Laying up treasure in Heaven points out the duty of an unselfish use of our means. We are stewards of God's possessions, and shall we prove unfaithful? We shall be called to give an account of our stewardship. It is not ours to use for the gratification of corrupt desires, for selfish indulgences. God has placed his goods in our hands for the purpose of sustaining his cause on earth, for the salvation of the lost, and for his own honor. All Heaven is watching with interest to see what use we are making of God's intrusted talents. If we lay up treasure in Heaven, we shall use the Lord's goods to bless humanity, and all that is so used the Lord will place to our account in the bank that never fails.
Satan's constant aim is to blind the eyes of our understanding to God's claims, through the deceptiveness of riches. If we are conquered, we are conquered for eternity. If we are conquerors, we shall have the crown of glory that fadeth not away.
When the heart loves God supremely, property is no hindrance to advancement in the Christian warfare, because the consecrated man will discern the best investments to make, and will use his wealth to bless the children of God.
The constant employment of the capabilities of man to amass wealth on earth binds the man to earth. He becomes a slave to mammon. His plans and thoughts and722aspirations have no wider circle than his farm or mercantile house, and he is engrossed in heaping up his costly but empty stores; but in order to serve God we must find time for calm reflection and serious thought, else all the powers of the soul will be withdrawn from God. When wealth increases, the idolatrous heart becomes forgetful of God, and grows self-secure and satisfied. Religious duties are neglected. There is an impatience manifested under restraint, and the man becomes self-sufficient. All spiritual things are clouded, for the mind's eye is directed earthward. The worldly tendencies, both by nature and practice, have become more fully developed, and the spiritual faculties are paralyzed. Having eyes man see not; having ears they hear not. The gross, earthly mind cannot see the pure, sublime truths of the gospel, but views everything from a worldling's standpoint. The world comes in between the soul and Heaven. His eyes are blinded by the "god of this world," so that he cannot discern or appreciate the value of eternal things.
Spiritual things are spiritually discerned; and when the eye is evil, the whole body is full of darkness. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever."
The attractions of this world must be eclipsed by the glory of the world to come, and our powers severed from its interests, and devoted to the interests of Heaven. Let us contemplate the eternal consequences of rightly employing our talents of influence and money for the purpose of saving souls. We shall store up treasures in Heaven, and receive the commendation of God, and enter into the joy of our Lord, who shall "see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied." But how few realize this and use their talents for God with the same energy and perseverance that they have manifested in the service of the world!
Oh, let us contemplate the amazing sacrifice that has been made for us! Let us try to appreciate the labor and energy Heaven is expending to reclaim the lost, and bring them back to the Father's house. Motives stronger, and agencies more powerful, could never be brought into operation,—the enjoyment of Heaven, the exceeding rewards for rightdoing, the society of angels, the communion and love of God and his Son, the elevation and extension of all our powers throughout eternal ages; and it hath not "entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." Are these not mighty incentives and encouragements to urge us to give our heart's loving service to our Creator and Redeemer?
And on the other hand the judgments of God pronounced against sin, the inevitable retribution, the degradation of our characters, and the final destruction, are presented in his word to warn us against the service of Satan.
Shall we not regard the great mercy of God? What more could he do? Let us place ourselves in right relation to him who has loved us with amazing love, and avail ourselves of the great privilege of becoming instruments in his hands to use all our powers in his service, that we may co-operate with the ministering angels and be co-laborers with God and Christ.
"THY RIGHTEOUSNESS IS LIKE THE GREAT MOUNTAINS."
By Susan Coolidge
STRONG are the mountains, Lord, but stronger thou!
They rise, a bulwark to the guarded land,
Which foes pass not, nor traitors undermine,
For children's children's safety they shall stand,
And so, O Lord, thou standest unto thine,
A mighty guardian, a defense divine.
Strong are the mountains, Lord, but stronger thou!
Where beats the tempest on the hither side
Beneath their shelter blooms the vine and rose;
So do thy chosen ones in thee abide
Nor fear the storm-wind though it wildly blows,
All undisturbed in their secure repose.
Strong are the mountains, Lord, but stronger thou!
Their far, fair snowy summits fountains are,
Whence fertilizing streams begin their race,
So, from thy might of mercy stream afar
The overbrimming rivers of thy grace
Gladdening the wilderness and desert place.
Strong are the mountains, Lord, but stronger thou!
Immutable they stand from age to age,
Though the world rock and empires shift and pale;
So, though the people war and heathen rage,
The safety of thy promise shall prevail,
Nor ever once thy love and goodness fail.
—Susan Coolidge, in S. S. Times.
PLEADING PRAYER.
"REMEMBER the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope." Lord, I have been hoping on thy word, and I have acted upon that hope; I believe the word to be true, and I have pledged the truth of it. That is a good pleading. A man has given me a bill—not a transaction I ever had anything to do with; but suppose such a thing. Suppose I go and discount it. I say, "My friend, you must honor that bill, because I have received the cash for it. Do not fail to meet it." It is as if we said to our God: "Lord, thou hast caused me to hope upon this promise of thine. I have been raising present comfort upon the credit of it. I felt so sure that it would be fulfilled that I have taken it into the market, and I have been living upon its proceeds by hoping upon it." See how David went and discounted the promissory note; he encouraged himself by it. Turn to the verses which follow my text, and you will see. "This is my comfort in my affliction; for thy word hath quickened me." He had been comforting himself by the promise; and if the promise failed, that comfort would turn out to be a sheer delusion. Will the Lord delude those who trust him? Read the next verse: "The proud have had me greatly in derision; yet have I not declined from thy law." I stuck to thy doctrine, thy precept, thy promise; I declared thy word to be true; wilt thou not keep it, and so vindicate my confident assurance? "I remembered the judgments of old, Lord; and have comforted myself." I have thus derived strength and establishment out of thy promise already. Wilt thou allow the enemy to tell me that I have deceived myself? Wilt thou revoke thy declarations? It cannot be.
This is a most blessed pleading. "Thou hast caused me to hope; therefore, O Lord, remember thy word!" When I read how God kept his promise to his people of old, I said, "He will keep it to me;" and when I remembered how he had kept other promises to me in past times, I said, "He will keep this also." His former dealings have induced us to trust in him. "Lord, thou hast caused me to hope; my hope is of thy creating, nourishing, and perfecting. I am justified in hoping in thee on this occasion, for what thou hast done for me in days gone by. Thou hast caused me to hope. It was thy word, and thy Spirit helped me to go from faith to hope; and now, when the windows of hope are opened, wilt thou not be pleased to send in a messenger of grace and peace?" O needy child of God, go home, and plead in this fashion, and you shall not return empty! Have you come into a position from which there seems to be no escape? Do not ask to escape, but cry, "Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope."
—Selected.
ABOUT LYING.
By Advance
ALL decent people, and some that are not quite decent, have a prejudice against downright and willful lying and liars. And yet not all even of decent people are guiltless of deviations from the truth, that are none the less lying for not being downright or intentional.
It is always to be insisted on that the intent to deceive constitutes a lie. The moral quality of the purpose gives quality to the resulting word or act. But it does not follow that without the consciously-formed intent to lie there is no lying. That depends on the intent not to lie. There is lying where due care is not taken to avoid lying. A man who fires a ball-cartridge out of his window may not intend homicide. But if homicide result, he is held for homicide, because he took no care to avoid it. The man who fires off rash and damaging statements without due care to sift fact from fiction and truth from falsehood, or without the same respect for his neighbor's right to the truth that he has for his own right, may have no positive intent to lie. But so far as his statement is false, he is guilty of lying in proportion to his neglect to guard against lying.
To guard against this careless lying about another, good-will toward him is indispensable, at least the good-will which scrupulously regards his rights. All admit this who are in the habit of making abatements in disparaging stories or criticisms proportionately to the amount of ill-will discoverable in them. The incompatibility of ill-will to another with a true account of him, is so well understood that an unfavorable criticism or damaging story is often buttressed by the protest that there is no ill-will in the matter. Nothing is more certain than the saying of the book of Proverbs, that "deceit is in the heart of them that imagine evil." We can understand no man truly except through the medium of the good-will which feels for another, as for one's self, the wrong of the false construction, the stab of the false report. Good-will, indeed, does not always secure the truth being told in a way that is not one-sided or exaggerated; but beyond question there is nothing that so prevents the bearing of false witness as the bearing of good-will, which shrinks from the invasion of another's rights as from the invasion of one's own.
But the lack of such good-will is not innocent. The falsehood that results from it cannot be innocent. There is no name for guilty falsehood but lying. It may be unconsciously committed, as other sins may be. But it is none the less to be stigmatized by its proper brand as lying.
Tongue cannot exaggerate the mischief of the ceaseless misrepresentation that goes on between people that bear one another scant good-will—rivals in business, envious neighbors, parties in politics, and parties even in theology. . .
If a man who is careless about the truth, or his neighbor's right to the truth, feels hurt to be called a liar for his misrepresentation, he deserves to be hurt. Think of the heart pangs,723the irreparable damage to reputation, to fortune, to friendship, to social usefulness, that are wrought by the reckless fiction-mongers who protest they meant no wrong. . . .
We are too much in a hurry to speak before we understand, before we know, but especially and oftenest before we have laid the necessary preparation for speaking truly in the foundation of a good-will, which is as scrupulous toward our neighbor's right as toward our own. It is in speaking of a friend that we speak nearest to the truth. When friendship goes out falsehood comes in, first in the false construction and next in the false report, which fills the mouth with the husks that the swine eat. This may not be consciously purposed as lying. But as the result of an unfriendly neglect to avoid invasion from our neighbor's right to truth, it does all the damage and incurs all the responsibility of a lie.
—Advance.
CHRISTIAN CONVERSATION.
It is startling to think what Christian conversation might be, of what it ought to be, and then of what it is. Why should such power for good be wasted, or far worse than wasted? Why should our Christian development be retarded by the misuse of the marvelous gift of speech? It were far better that one were born dumb than that, having a tongue, one should use it to scatter evil and sorrow, or to sow the seeds of bitterness and pain. Our Lord said we must give account of every idle word; and if for the idle words, how much more for the words that stain and injure, or fall as a destructive blight into other hearts and lives!
When we give ourselves to Christ, we ought to give him our tongues; when we are regenerated, our tongues ought to be regenerated. It was not without significance that, when the Holy Ghost came down on the day of Pentecost, the manifestation was in "tongues like as of fire." One of the first results, too, of this heavenly baptism, was that the disciples spake with other tongues. It is not a mere fanciful interpretation that sees in all this an intimation that true conversion transforms the speech, and that a Christian should speak with a new, a Christian tongue.—Congregational Magazine.
The Lord Is God
"Know ye that the Lord he is God; it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture."
A BAD SPIRIT.
ONE of the standing complaints against men who labor to reform the abuses which prevail in church or State is, "They have a bad spirit."
If they only had a good spirit it would make a difference, but they have "such a bad spirit!"
Now one great difficulty in this cause is, the Lord has to use such instruments as he can find. Some people who have such "a good spirit," and who complain of the bad spirit which others have, never think of correcting anything themselves; they will allow men to lie, misrepresent, delude, and deceive people, and say nothing about it, being either too blind to see, or too timid to speak; and hence, as these people have "a good spirit," say nothing, and allow things to go to ruin and perdition, other people, who are not quite so smooth-spoken, are called to stand out and tell the truth and shame the devil; and then they have to be reproved and abused because they "have a bad spirit."
Why do not the people who have such "a good spirit" take hold of matters which they see and admit are wrong and faulty? Why do they not reprove sin and rebuke iniquity, and bear witness for the truth, and do it in "a good spirit"? The fact that they refuse to do these things with "a good spirit" leaves them to be attended to by other people whom they say have "a bad spirit." The truth is, you cannot make a plowshare out of putty, and a good hammer must have a steel face.
But what is a bad spirit? Did John have a bad spirit when he looked on the most pious people in the land, as they came marching down from Jerusalem to be baptized, and called them a race of snakes, and asked them how they could escape the damnation of hell? Did Christ have a bad spirit when, speaking of the religious leaders of his own time, he pronounced his woe upon them as scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites? Did Elijah have a bad spirit when he derided the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel? Did Paul have a bad spirit when he withstood Peter to the face for his dissimulation, and said to Elymas, the sorcerer, "O full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord"?
This matter of a good or a bad spirit is important. People are liable to be mistaken about their spirit; the apostles themselves were mistaken, and our Saviour said to them, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of." There is a spirit of truth which goes with truth, tells the truth, and sanctions truth, even if it is rough truth, and which abhors all error; and there is the spirit of error which cares little for truth, but sometimes goes with very smooth words. The apostles said, "Let no man deceive you with vain words." It is possible that Christians may be deceived with "vain words," and the apostle Paul speaks of some who "with good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple."—Armory.
NATIONAL REFORM—A NEW HYPOTHESIS.
By Rev. J. B. Galloway
NEW to many who neglect future history as revealed in the prophetic word, and who make no proper distinction between the church, the world, and the kingdom. There is a class of scriptures which seems to be entirely and studiously overlooked by those who are at the front in the discussion of this subject; and hence they are continually setting before the church and the world a false hope. If these scriptures were received in the fullness of their teaching, a new face would be given to the whole subject, and these apostles of reform would then go forth in the spirit and power of Jonah and John the Baptist to the rebel nations of to-day.
The controversy seems to bring on the question: "What is Christ's present relation to the kingdoms of the world? Is he now de facto King of nations, or is what he said true, 'My kingdom is not of this world'—i. e., not of the present order of things—which, in another place, is called 'the present evil world'?"
Now, there are many Christians just simple enough to believe this particular scripture, and, consequently, that this world will be evil as long as it lasts, or until "the dispensation of the fullness of times." "Earth's foundations are all gone out, of course;" and so they will remain until government shall revert to Him whose right it is. This evidently has not taken place. But this is just the point in the controversy.
Does Christ not say, "All power is given unto me in Heaven and in earth"? Yes; but this does not prove that he has entered upon this all-power. David was anointed king long before he took the throne, and he is a very vivid type of the Christ. From eternity Christ was Prophet, Priest, and King, yet he did not literally exercise the office of a prophet until he was made flesh and dwelt among us; and later still he exercised literally the office of priest when he entered into Heaven itself with his own blood, where he ever liveth to make intercession for us. But never yet has he literally exercised the kingly office, although born to this end.
We meet still another objection: "Does he not rule and defend the church, restrain and conquer all his and her enemies?" Yes; but this does not necessarily imply kingship. The father of a family does all this, according to his measure, and yet he is not king in any correct sense. But this is the very way in which Christ exercises authority over the church. "He is the head of the body, the church." "We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones."
It is a far closer relationship Christ sustains to the church than that of king; he is absolutely one with it. The church is part of the government; so that when he judges and reigns, she shall judge and reign with him. Now, his present relation to the state or Gentile supremacy must also be settled by the infallible word.
1. It is absolutely certain that he will reign. All the kingdoms of the world are to become one kingdom in his hand; and this, when it takes place, will be a literal fulfillment of ancient prophecies. Daniel, in vision, saw one like the Son of man come to the Ancient of Days and receive the dominion. He also saw him begin the exercise of his authority over Gentile powers, under the figure of the little stone. Isaiah (9:6) sings of him as though the first and only child ever born to Israel, and he says "the government shall be upon his shoulder;" not a government, as Britain or America, but the government—all government—shall be upon his shoulder. Just as surely as God hath spoken, and as Christ hath literally exercised the offices of prophet and priest, so surely will he, without a rival, exercise the office of king.
2. Both Scripture and the present state of the world agree in declaring that Christ has not yet entered upon his kingly office. Nothing can be plainer than that his kingly prerogatives over the nations are held in abeyance.724
(1) As to Scripture teaching: "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." Ps. 110:1. This is the position which Christ now occupies and will occupy until he receives the kingdom. I am aware that National Reformers will claim that the work of subduing enemies is gradual—has been and is now going on by means of the gospel. We do not deny that the gospel is a subduing and restraining power in the world; but Scripture reveals another method God has of reaching enemies, viz., the judicial or punitive; and, clearly, this is the method referred to here, and also in the second psalm; and many other places. To speak of those who are brought under the saving power of the gospel as being made the footstool of Christ, or being broken with a rod of iron, is utterly repugnant to all Scripture and to those who have known the manner of the Father's love. The gospel does not make men bite the dust, but "lifts the beggar from the dunghill and sets him among princes." With this agrees also Rev. 3:21: "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." Not till he takes his own throne will he exercise the kingly office. And we are not left in doubt as to what and where his own throne is: "And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David." Luke 1:32. This of course is yet future, and agrees well with 1 Tim. 6:15: "Which in his times he shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords." When man's day of shameful failure has come to an end, then the Lord's day of glorious triumph will begin.
It will require no argument then to convince men that Jesus reigns. He will show it, for it will be the time of his manifestation. For this time of his glorious appearing every believer ought to be waiting, even as also "the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God." Rom. 8:19, Revised Version. There can, therefore, be no complete or permanent national reform until his times.
The only hope for distressed nations is the dethronement of Satan by the Lord from Heaven in flaming fire. When he who has gone into the far country receives the kingdom the proclamation will follow, as thunder follows lightning: "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ."
(2) The state of the world in the past and present gives an emphatic denial to the idea that Jesus is reigning. He is waiting and we are waiting with him, and this is "the patience of Christ." Saul is still on the throne, although our David has been anointed. There is not a Government on earth that believes or acknowledges that Jesus is King; there exists no such thing as a Christian nation. The most that can be said of the best of them is, Christianized civilization. What would be thought of the Czar, the Queen, or the President whose subjects neither acknowledged nor obeyed them? Such an one would be branded as an imbecile, and the reins snatched from his hand. It is irreverent to think of Christ, whose name is "Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace," as the present executive in such maladministration as blackens the world to-day. Satan is the ruler of the darkness of this world (and will be until he is chained and sealed in the pit); and Gentile government always has been, and is to-day, part of this darkness because Christ is not in it.
Now if Christ, as is claimed, has really entered upon his kingly office, why find fault with his constitutions and his administration of them? Only infidels find fault with his work as Prophet and as Priest; and, on the same principle, only infidels can find fault with his kingly work, for all must be alike holy, just, and good.
The truth is that God hath ordained the powers that be, and is dealing with them in grace because of the presence of the church, and until it is fully gathered. Rom. 11: 25; Acts 15:14. We are, therefore, forced to the conclusion that Christ has not yet taken the reins into his own mighty hands, but is still the Prince of the kings of the earth, awaiting his own times.—Rev. J. B. Galloway.
LIFE'S ANSWER.
I KNOW not if the dark or bright
Shall be my lot,
If that wherein my hopes delight
Be best or not.
It may be mine to drag for years
Toil's heavy chain,
Or day and night my meat be tears,
On bed of pain.
Dear faces may surround my hearth
With smiles and glee,
Or I may dwell alone, and mirth
Be strange to me.
My bark is wafted to the strand
By breath divine;
And on the helm there rests a hand
Other than mine.
One who has known in storms to sail
I have on board;
Above the raving of the gale
I hear my Lord.
He holds me when the billows smite,
I shall not fall;
If sharp 'tis short, if long 'tis light;
He tempers all.
Safe to the land! safe to the land!
The end is this,
And then with him go hand in hand
Far into bliss.
—Selected.
ONE'S BEST IS ENOUGH.
By Congregationalist
SOMETIMES the lesson is hard to be learned, that all which God asks of anyone is to do one's very best. We look back on a given experience, whether it has been happy or sorrowful, and although we are conscious of having made our utmost endeavors, we seem to see how what we felt obliged to leave undone might have been done, or how what we did do might have been done more skillfully and usefully. There is no pain keener than that which conscientious persons often feel because of the revelations which the present thus occasionally makes concerning the past, and the bitterest element of it is the fact that these bitter things really might have been accomplished.
But there is no need of remorse, or even of regret. Whether it actually were possible or not to act and succeed, as it now appears to have been, makes no difference. If we did all with the light which we then possessed revealed to us as involved in our duty, and if what we did was done honestly in the best way open to us, then we did all which we could have done, and may rest in peace. God's best and our best usually are two quite different things, and it is only the latter for doing which he holds us responsible. To allow ourselves to become morbid and miserable for not having attained an impossible ideal of conduct is a sin.
Nevertheless two facts must be accepted unquestionably. We may not be happy or even content unless we truly have done our very best. Nothing other or less than this, as a sensitive and enlightened conscience decides, can be accepted as a substitute. Nobody must delude himself into playing the hypocrite. Furthermore, our best must grow better continually. We must welcome and use the new light, the fresh knowledge which comes to us, raising our standard steadily, and using every success, whether complete or partial, as a stepping-stone to something better.—Congregationalist.
TAKING UP THE CROSS.
WE take up our cross when we mortify the deeds of the flesh for the sake of the spirit (Col. 3:5), or when we gladly suffer the loss of all things that we may be found in Christ (Phil. 3:8–10), or share his sufferings and self-sacrifices that we may minister to his suffering ones. Matt. 25:35, 36. All self-denials for Jesus' sake are a taking up the cross. The cross is the symbol of death, and the spirit of taking up the cross implies the willingness to suffer for Jesus even unto death. But often many small self-denials, a continual enduring of little crosses, are more difficult to bear than martyrdom, and are as real a sacrifice of the life to Jesus. Each one must take up his own cross, the one the good Father lays upon him. He must take it up voluntarily. He must bear it after Christ, in Christ's spirit, in his way, in doing his work. Every person needs a cross to make him better in this world and fit him for Heaven. No true life is lived without some cross.—Selected.
POPE LEO'S INCOME.
A foreign diplomatist accredited to Rome gives the following account of the Pope's revenue and of the way in which it is spent. It is derived from three sources: 1. The interest of an enormous sum left by Pio Nono to the pontifical treasury, and invested in the English public funds. This interest amounts to about 3,000,000 lire, or about £125,000. Leo XIII. is a great speculator, and subscribes to the Italian loans in order to sell when the value rises, and invest the profits in the English consolidated fund. 2. The proceeds of Peter's pence. This branch of the revenue has suffered greatly in recent years, but, nevertheless, the average amounts to about 2,000,000 lire, or about £83,000. These two sums, which represent £208,000 per annum, constitute the ordinary income of his holiness. It is distributed by the chamberlain among the cardinals residing in Rome—about £1,050 per annum for each cardinal—among the prelates of the Papal court, the secretaries, the nuncios, the guards of the Pontiff's body, etc. 3. The extraordinary part of the Papal revenue is derived from the receipts of the apostolic chancery. The items include the sums received for titles of nobility, Papal decorations, benedictions in the article of death, privileges of the altar, private chapels, dispensations, ecclesiastical titles, and many other things. This department yields about 2,500,000 lire, or £104,000 per annum. The whole annual income of Leo XIII., therefore, reaches the enormous sum of about £300,000.—Pall Mall Gazette.
THE DEITY OF CHRIST.
THE divinity of Christ is a truth of revealed religion, and must be proved mainly from the word of God. It is in the Bible a good deal as the blood is in the body; cut into it at almost any point and it appears.
The only alternative is to believe the doctrine or reject the Bible. Reject the Bible, and where are you? Wandering cheerless and alone along the frigid shores of atheism, without God and without hope in the world.
Of course those who profess to believe the Bible and the Christian system, while denying the deity of Jesus Christ, can only do so by ingeniously explaining away the testimony of Scripture, and occupying an inconsistent and illogical position. No rational objections are of any force in such a case as this; for it is confessedly not a truth of the reason, but of the revealed will of God. Nor is there any contradiction of the human reason in the testimony of Scripture, however far, in some points, it may transcend our rational powers.
The perfect human nature of Jesus Christ is not now in dispute, but the divine nature in union with the human in Christ Jesus. The God man is the point in question. The direct proof of this doctrine, from the inspired word of God, is now in order. If Jesus Christ existed before he was born of the virgin, it settles the question that he was not a mere man, as modern Socinians and Unitarians hold.
The question of his pre-existence was settled by the testimony of Christ himself, when he said to the Jews, “Before Abraham was, I am.” John 8:58. In John 6:38 he says, “I came down from Heaven.” Of course, then, he existed there before he came down. In John 16:28 he says, “I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world;” that is, he existed with the Father before his advent in the world. The apostle John teaches the same doctrine. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the word.” Now “the beginning” was not only before the human birth of Jesus, but before the creation. Gen. 1:1. And that by the Logos, or Word, John here means Jesus Christ, is settled by the fourteenth verse, in which he says, “The word was made flesh,” etc. Assuredly, therefore, the Bible teaches the pre-existence of Christ and settles it that he was not a mere man.
A man he undoubtedly was, but he was far more. And therefore, as might be expected, he claims divine honors for himself; and the Scriptures elsewhere render him the homage of divine worship. In John 5:23 he says “that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him.” Paul writes (1 Cor. 1:2), “Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, . . . with all that in every place call upon the name of [that is, invoke or worship] Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.” In Acts 7:59 we learn that “they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” In Heb. 1:6 the apostle says, referring to Ps. 97:7, “Let all the angels of God worship him,” viz., the Son, whom he had just before said was the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person. And Paul says (Phil. 2:10, 11), “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” It is the duty of Christians everywhere, therefore, to worship Christ as God.—Occident.