Signs of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 39. (10/6/1909)

Signs of the Times

Oct 6, 1909

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 6, 1909

Our Bible Band

Schedule for the Week Ending October 16

Day	Date	Morning	Evening
Su.	Oct. 10	Isa. 34, 35, 36	Col. 2
Mo.	“ 11	“ 37, 38	“ 3
Tu.	“ 12	“ 39, 40	“ 4
We.	“ 13	“ 41, 42	1 Thess. 1
Th.	“ 14	“ 43, 44	“ 2
Fr.	“ 15	“ 45, 46	“ 3
Sa.	“ 16	“ 47, 48, 49	“ 4

Suggestive Notes

Our Old Testament lessons begin with Isaiah 34 and close with Isaiah 49. These scriptures are wonderfully rich in revelation, in suggestion, in great upspringing spiritual fountains for the devout student. Any notes which might be written upon them would seem tame compared with the scriptures themselves. Chapter 34, it may be remarked, is a declaration of God’s judgments upon Idumea as a type of the world, pointing out the absolute desolation which shall take place under the just judgments of God. Chapter 35 speaks of the restoration.

In chapters 36, 37, 38, and 39, we have a very striking lesson of history during the reign of Hezekiah, when the king of Assyria came up and threatened the land; Hezekiah’s humility; the message of God to him through the prophet; the Lord’s wonderful deliverance from the power of Assyria by His angel, so graphically portrayed in Byron’s poem “The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold.” Then we have the record of Hezekiah’s sickness; of the Lord’s healing; of the great blunder that Hezekiah made when the Lord sent the Babylonians to him for light, and he magnified himself instead of magnifying God. As the result of it his own children went into captivity to Babylon, and Jerusalem was plundered.

Isaiah 40 begins a new departure in a way. The prophecies are more decidedly Messianic. This has led some of the critics to contend that there were two Isaiahs; that the last one was trading on the reputation of the true Isaiah. The criticism is not worthy of consideration. The chapters which follow bear the same stamp as those which have come before. These are chapters of wonderful comfort which God has given to His children; comfort which comes in placing the glory of man in the dust, and exalting God and His truth. The restoration from Babylon through Cyrus is predicted 150 years before he came upon the stage of action; and the deliverance from Babylon is used as a type of the greater deliverance through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our New Testament readings begin with the second chapter of Colossians and close with the fourth chapter of 1 Thessalonians. The second chapter of Colossians is an appeal to walk in the Lord Jesus Christ, taking heed that the philosophy of man shall not pervert the Gospel, and so walking in Him and in the freedom which He gives that the judging of men concerning meats and drinks and holy days shall not turn one aside from the truth which is in Christ Jesus. The soul who dies with Christ, and who is raised to walk in newness of life, should go on in character development, casting off all that is wrong, and putting on the characteristics indicative of a Christian character. The epistle closes with instructions to members of the family, and the mention of certain fellow laborers and persons in whom the apostle is interested.

The city of Salonika, where the deposed Sultan of Turkey, Abdul Hamid, is now in prison, is the modern continuation of ancient Thessalonica, where lived the Thessalonian Christians. In Paul’s time it had a free city government, ruled over by seven politarchs. Acts 17:6, 8. It was then the second commercial city of European Greece, and is now the second city of European Turkey. To the Christians there the apostle Paul sent two letters. The first epistle was written from Corinth, in the year 52 or 53, the first epistle which the apostle wrote to the churches. He commends them for their zeal and faithfulness under the persecutions which they suffered, and constantly appeals to them over the second coming of our Lord and the reward which will be given when Jesus appears. This is especially manifest in the fourth chapter, where the second coming or presence of Christ is described as an event of great glory and power.

Question Corner

[To Our Inquirers.— (1) The name and address of all who ask questions must accompany questions, not necessarily for publication, in token of good faith, and that we may reply by letter if thought best. All communications will be considered confidential if so desired, and no name will be published unless requested. But we have no time to give to anonymous or unsigned epistles or articles. (2) Let the questions be to the point. Do not say, “Explain Josh. 7:1-8,” but state the thing upon which help is desired. (3) Questions can not be answered immediately in this department. Sometimes it will mean a month or more of waiting. We can not reply to the same question frequently. Read answers to other questions; you may find reply to yours. (4) Members of the Bible Band will kindly enclose stamp if answer is desired by letter. Others will please enclose ten cents. This does not begin to meet expenses oftentimes. (5) “Foolish . . . questions avoid.”]

2949.—Punctuation in the Scriptures

What can you say of the punctuation of the Scriptures? Is it inspired? If not, please give examples; some texts, for instance, where it is wrong. A. L. M.

The original Scriptures were written without any points or separation in any way, as for instance: “INTHEBEGINNINGWASTHEWORD”. First came the separation into words, then into sentences, then into parts of sentences. Different points came in at different times. The earliest mark indicated on the papyri of Alexandria, Egypt, is used to indicate a new paragraph. A slight space is left in the line; also a large initial was sometimes used.

The oldest manuscripts show no punctuation at all, and the later uncials, that is, the manuscripts in capital letters, show great variety and no recognized system. Not until the seventh century do we find the equivalent to a comma, the semicolon with its modern value, and a full stop. Punctuation as a system dates from about the time of Aldus Manutius, a learned printer of Venice, about the year 1500.

No one claims any inspiration for the punctuation of the Scriptures. Take, for instance, Rev. 22:1, 2. How much better it would be if we had a comma after “Lamb,” the closing word of the first verse, and a period or semicolon after “it,” in the second verse; so that the passage would read instead of as it does now: “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the midst of the street of it. On either side of the river, was there the Tree of Life.” The present punctuation makes a contradiction in the text.

We have another instance of this in Luke 23:43, which makes Jesus say that the thief would be with Him in Paradise on the day that He spoke the words, when the real thought of the text is that Jesus said it that day; in other words, the adverbial phrase “to-day” modifies “say” rather than “shall be,” so that Jesus said to him: “Verily I say unto thee to-day, shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.” This gives force to the text. Upon that day when to all human vision, or in all human probability, Jesus could do nothing, could help no one, could save no one, the thief had faith to believe on Him; and Jesus, with fullest confidence in His Father and in His divine mission, could assert, “I say unto thee to-day,” your prayer will be answered. Letting the punctuation stand as it is, it makes the passage in Luke 23:43 a direct contradiction to John 20:17, where Jesus tells Mary, after His crucifixion: “Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended to My Father.” Now, the dwelling-place of the Father is in Paradise, the third heaven. See 2 Cor. 12:2, 4. Read in the same connection also Rev. 2:7 and 22:1, 2. If Jesus did not ascend to Paradise that day, as John 20:17 clearly indicates, He certainly could not have meant that the thief would be that day in Paradise. It is all perfect harmony, however, in the transposition of the comma, making the adverbial phrase modify the assertion of our Saviour.

2950.—The Unpardonable Sin

What is the unpardonable sin? D. A.

The sin referred to by our inquirer is recorded in Matthew 12 and Mark 3. All sins will be forgiven, but the sin against the Holy Ghost will never be forgiven. As applied to that time and circumstance, it was attributing to satanic working, the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus cast out demons by the Spirit of God. His enemies said He cast out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons. They attributed the working of the Spirit of God to the working of satanic agency. Therefore, the words of the Master concerning the unpardonable sin. Note Mark 3:30: “Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.” The reason why it is unpardonable is because the soul that commits it rejects the only power by which the sin can be taken from him. It is not because God is not merciful. It is because the soul rejects God’s remedy. See answer to Question 2929 in the Signs of September 8.

2951.—“This Life”

What is meant by “this life” in Acts 5:20? INQUIRER.

The passage in question reads as follows: “Go ye, and stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this Life.” We quote from the American Revised Version. The words are those of the angel who released the apostles from prison and reminded them of their commission. The natural man, the sinful man, has natural, or soulical life—the life that is received from parents and is fed by what one eats and drinks, by the air he breathes, and by the sunshine. It is the life common to all animate creatures upon this earth. It is given to each family or kind according to the law of his being, and perpetuates the kind according to that law. But that life is distinct from the spiritual life which Christ came to give. Our Lord assures us, in that wonderful Gospel of John which deals so largely with the new life, that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life,” a life which, unbelieving, they do not possess. He tells us further, “He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; but he that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

In the sixth chapter the same great lesson is taught, that spiritual life comes by believing; in other words, comes by placing one’s life in perfect harmony with God’s great law of life. That opens the channel between the soul and God. The same thing is taught in the tenth chapter: “I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.”

More emphatically than elsewhere, perhaps, the same wonderful truth is taught in 1 John 5:11-13: “And the witness is this, that God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath the life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life. These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.”

This was the life which the angel bade the disciples proclaim to a dying world. It is the life which the great world is needing now. Man of himself has not that life; he is doomed to die. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die;” but God offers to every one who will yield to Him, the great boon of eternal life, an absolute necessity now for overcoming sin and forming character. It is a life which will tunnel the grave and bestow unmeasured existence upon its possessor in the eternal beyond.

2952.—Big Trees

Where are the big trees 470 and 480 feet high, mentioned in the SIGNS OF THE TIMES of September 8? L. C. B.

They are in Australia, which you will rightly recall is the home of the eucalypts, of which there are many species.

Importance of the Scriptures

By L. A. Reed

By L. A. Reed

This is not a fancy picture. In days of old Bibles were few, and oftentimes chained in the church. Now the book is ubiquitous, but its truth is often held down in unrighteousness. Rom. 1:18.

HERE is a strong tendency on the part of many at the present time to do away with the Bible as an authority in matters of morals and religion. In its stead they would set up man's reason and his ideas. This leaves no fixed standard, but mere approximations to right and wrong, varying with the age and the individual; each man becomes a law unto himself. The whole thing is an inconsistent process, unlike anything we do in other lines of thought and endeavor.

Necessities of Standards

In the mere matter of building a house, we have standards by which to square it and set it firm and true; with compass and plumb-line the structure is set square with the four great cardinal points of direction, and true with the great down pull of gravity. Our land is measured and marked in accordance with fixed and acknowledged standards.

A navigator sailing the great broad seas, must know at times exactly where he is; otherwise he may be carried out of his course by wind or tide, and be wrecked on reefs or rocks. Great fixed standards are needed by which to make such measurements. Thus he is able to sail for hundreds of miles across the trackless waste, and hit an island only a few miles in width.

For the closest calculations, an exact standard of time is imperative. For this purpose, every government of note keeps absolutely accurate time, by employing the finest piece of clockwork possible to devise, and by standardizing its correctness through observations made of the sun, moon, and stars. The navigator has a standardized clock called a chronometer, and he takes his course for weeks, changes his time of reckoning daily, and comes into the destined port at length exactly on time.

And thus in every line of human activity; standards are necessary at every hand. Consequently there are standards of weight, standards of money, standards of pronunciation and punctuation, of spelling and writing; there are standards in education; standards in music; standards in art; standards in every line of human activity until we come to the sphere of religion. And altho' morality is of infinite importance, and therefore more important than all things else, we are to have in it no exact or fixed standard!

If it is important for a man to know that his house stands properly facing the street, and that it is located on his own lot and not partly on another's, then it is also important for him to know which way his soul is facing, and to know exactly where he is in the government of God. If it is a matter of great importance for a man to know that his house stands exactly plumb with the force of gravity in order that it may exactly balance on its foundations and follow the lines of symmetry, then it is also of even greater importance to him to know that his life is built plumb with the great law of eternal uprightness, stands immovable as the mountains, and has the symmetry of the god-like character. If the navigator can not sail the seas without the compass and the sextant, the first to tell him direction and the second to tell him position, then by as much or more he can not, simply can not go through life and reach the blessed haven trusting to luck and a guess; he must have the Word for his position, and the Spirit operating in and through the Word for his direction.

Where Most Needed

If we need standards anywhere in this world, we need them in the realm of the soul. Buildings are not so important as character. The direction of ships is not so important as the destiny of souls. To know that your landmarks agree with the government surveys, is not so important as to know that your life agrees with the great law of the government of God. Above all things, we must have a standard in the realm of the spiritual.

And the Bible confessedly is that standard. Take away this Word, and absolutely there is no fixed standard left; there is no plumb-line for the soul, no measuring-rod for true attainment, no compass for direction, no sextant, true as the sun, to tell our whereabouts; in a dismal fog, drifting with wind and tide, driven with wind and storm, the ship of life moves, going no one knows whither, lost no one knows where.

How important, then, are the Holy Scriptures, because they set for us an absolute standard of right and wrong. “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isa. 8:20. Thus and thus only can we know the truth of any doctrine.

If a man sets himself up as a scientist and a teacher of science, his utterances are at once tested by the great accepted standards of science; if he speaks not in accord with them, he is decried. The great standards of science are the facts of nature: if he speaks not in accord with these, there is no light in his teachings. So when one comes as a teacher of religion or morals, he is to be tested at once by the great Book of God; if he speaks not in accordance with the Book, there is error in his teaching.

Untested Beliefs

And yet, with all the warnings in God's Word against false teaching, it is more than passing strange that so many persons are ready, so ready, to commit the keeping of their souls to the clergy. There are countless thousands to-day who do not know why they hold their present points of doctrine, save that they were so instructed by their religious teachers. They have never carefully tested these doctrines by a close study of the Scriptures. Ministers are not infallible; and the best that any of them should hope to do, is to point souls to the Word. If they fail in this, they fail in everything. They must speak in accordance with the Word, or there is no light in them.

“Preach the Word,” is the admonition of the Lord through the apostle Paul. No minister has any right or authority to offer to any soul anything but a “Thus saith the Lord.” And every person should demand of those who seek to guide him religiously, a plain declaration of duty from the sacred Scriptures. If they speak not according to the Word of God, there is no light in them.

Suppose you wish to take up the study of Latin or algebra, how soon you would question the ability or integrity of your

teacher if you often found him at variance with the text-book! Just as certainly should you question the ability or integrity of the man who teaches at variance with the divine Text-book.

Remember what the Saviour said: “In vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Matt. 15:9. It was the Jewish explanations of the Scriptures to which He referred. They had made the Bible of none effect through their traditions. Matt. 15:6. So it is false teaching and interpretation that is doing away with the real Word of God to-day.

Ignorance and Knowledge

The Jews had a wealth of Scripture knowledge, but it was misinterpreted and misunderstood. So to-day there are millions of Bibles; they are dropping from the presses every day by the thousands; but even so there is as deep, dark ignorance of its real teachings with many to-day, as there was in the awful Dark Ages when the Bible all but disappeared from the world.

Study your Bible with prayer. It was inspired by the Holy Spirit and it is promised as a guide to lead you into all the truth. Follow its guidance, tho it rebuke cherished sins and lead in ways that are new and strange. Know whereof it speaks. You can not afford to make mistakes. To be wrong in the affairs of this life may mean the loss of money or property or even life; but to be wrong in this matter of character is the loss of the soul itself. “What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

Are the Scriptures Inspired?

By Francis M. Wilcox

By Francis M. Wilcox

The question as to the precise position to be accorded the Scriptures in the literature of the world, and in the realm of Christian faith, has been a vexed problem, to a greater or less degree, in all ages of the Christian era. Nor is the question at the present time one in which there is concurrence of opinion and judgment, even among the Christian students of the church. Positions which a decade ago were regarded as impregnable, are now assailed as ingenious fabrications, designed to deceive the unwary and unsuspecting devotee of Scriptural inspiration. While the claims of archeological research would often tend to strengthen primitive faith in the sacred Scriptures, the higher criticism of the present century demands a revision of old beliefs and fixed notions regarding the Sacred Writings. There are not a few, however, whose faith still holds the Bible to be the Word of God.

In this connection, the following remarks by Prof. J. H. Murphy, in the introduction to his commentary on the book of Genesis, is to the point:

“If the Scriptures are not the Word of God, then the writers of these Scriptures, who directly and indirectly affirm their divine origin, are false witnesses; and if they have proved unworthy of credit in this fundamental point, they can be of no authority on other equally important matters. But neither before examination, nor after an examination of eighteen centuries, have we the slightest reason for doubting the veracity of these men, and their unanimous evidence is in favor of the divine authorship of the Bible. All that we have learned of the contents of these books accords with their claim to be the Word of God. The constant harmony of their statements, when fairly interpreted with one another, with general history, and with physical and metaphysical truth, affords an incontestable proof of their divine origin. The statements of other early writers, have invariably come into conflict with historical or scientific truth.

“But still further, these books communicate to us matters concerning God, the origin and the future destiny of man, which are of vital importance in themselves, and yet are absolutely beyond the reach of human intuition, observation, or deduction. It is impossible, therefore, for mere human beings, apart from divine instruction and authority, to attest these things at all. Hence, these books, if they were not traceable ultimately to a divine Author, would absolutely fail us in the very points that are essential to be known; namely, the origin of our being, the relation in which we stand to God, and the way to eternal happiness, on which neither science nor history affords us any light. But they yield a clear, definite, and consistent light and help, meeting the very askings and longings of our souls on these momentous topics. The wonderful way in which they convince the reason, probe the conscience, and apply a healing balm to the wounded spirit, is in itself an independent attestation to their divine origin.”

Inexhaustible Stores of Beauty

It is worth while opening the windows of your being to the unmatched beauties of God's world and God's Word, just to win the larger ability to lead men into the ever-extending life with God Himself. Nowhere else can you find such streams interpreting to you the “living water” in its purity, its sweetness, and its inexhaustible sources; nowhere such varied beauty and delicacy as runs riot in their natural parks and gardens; nowhere else such satisfying fellowship, for he who stands alone, where rocky cliffs rise high above and canyons yawn beneath, be it in sunshine or in shadow, or under the glitter of the innumerable stars, has a fellowship that neither city nor town can give him. It is a conscious comradeship with God, such as came to Jacob, pillowed upon stone; or to the shepherd psalmist tending the sheep; or to the chosen three on the Mountain of Transfiguration. It brings messages to the inquiring soul, like the divine Voice from the burning bush.—New York Observer.

Is the Bible the Word of God?

By Parke P. Flournoy

It is a momentous question; for if it is not the Word of God, the Christian church, and the Jewish church before it, have been deceived during all their history. The Jewish people always supposed that they were favored above all other nations in the fact that, as Paul expresses it, “unto them were committed the oracles of God,” and the Christian church has rejoiced from the first in the possession of these “oracles of God,” and in the fact that it has not only the oracles which Israel had, but also the words of the Lord Jesus, to whom the Old Testament bears witness, and the words of those who could testify of Christ’s wonderful life on earth, of His resurrection from the dead and His ascension into glory.— Rev. Parke P. Flournoy.

God's Word

“This Book unfolds Jehovah’s mind, This Voice salutes in accent kind, This Friend will all your need supply, This Fountain sends forth streams of joy, This Good Physician gives us health, This Mine affords us boundless wealth, This Sun renews and warms the soul, This Sword both wounds and makes us whole, This Letter shows our sins forgiven, This Guide conducts us safe to heaven, This Charter has been sealed with blood, This Volume is the Word of God.”

The Bible Test

(From “Ad Fidem,” by E. F. Burr, D.D.)

The Bible plainly teaches, profusely and throughout, that God will be found of those who seek Him; that they who do His will shall know of the doctrine of Jesus, whether it be of God; that He now commands all men everywhere to repent without postponement; that divine power has given to penitents all things that pertain to life and godliness through the power of Him who has called them to glory and virtue. You see how unreservedly the Bible puts itself in our hands.

Am I somewhat timid in saying this—lest some one should take advice, and seek relief by this experimental method, and then decide against the Bible and its fundamental teachings? Do not think it. I am just as brave in giving this method to you as the Bible is in giving it to me. It boldly stakes itself upon it. There is not a quaver of misgiving in its stately voice as it deliberately faces all horizons, and says in all tongues, Try it! It knows what the result will be. And I know. Faithfully tried, this method will not only answer the main religious questions for doubters, but will answer them as the Bible answers them. They will find a personal God. They will find a written revelation from Him. They will find in man an undone race, and in Jesus of Nazareth a divine Saviour. They will find repentance and faith linking sinners to the redeeming cross—a repentance and faith whose source is divine as well as human. I promise you that they will. I promise them speedy faith in all these things; not faith at its very ripest and royalest, perhaps, especially at the beginning; but genuine faith, faith sufficient for practical guidance, a faith so strong that one can reasonably base on it the conduct of a lifetime and the destinies of an eternity.

Obedience the Test

OBEDIENCE is one of the prime factors in the Christian religion. Practical obedience is the chief evidence of real piety. Man’s character is to be determined by his conduct. There can be no plainer principle than this: “The tree is known by its fruits.” If a man says he desires and delights above all else to serve God, let him test the reality of his desire by the touchstone of cheerful and obedient service.—Detroit News Tribune.

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