International Tract and Missionary Society · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Feb 4, 1886
General Articles.
By Ellen G. White
Branches of the Living Vine.
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine; ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned."
JESUS was about to take leave of his disciples, and return to the Father. He had been presenting before them the close union with himself by which they could maintain spiritual life when his visible presence was withdrawn; and to impress the thought upon their minds, he gave them this appropriate and striking illustration of his relation to believers. The Jews had always regarded the vine as the most noble of plants, a type of all that was beautiful, excellent, and fruitful. "As a nation," our Lord would seem to say, "you prize the vine. But I am the true Vine. As sinners, you should prize a connection with me above all earthly good. The branch cannot live separated from the vine; no more can you live unless you abide in me."
Our Lord has here given us a rule by which true disciples may be distinguished from those who claim to follow him, but have no vital connection with the Source of life. There is a wide difference between a pretended union with Christ, and a real connection with him by living faith. A profession of religion may place men in the church, but it does not prove them true followers of Christ. The question is, Do they bear fruit to the glory of God? For "by their fruits shall ye know them."
"I am the vine; ye are the branches." Can we conceive of a more intimate relation to Christ than this? The root sends its nourishment through the branch. The communication of life, strength, and fruitfulness from the trunk to the branches is unobstructed and constant. Such is the true believer's relation to Christ. He abides in Christ, and draws his nourishment from him.
This spiritual relation can be established only by the exercise of personal faith. This faith must express on our part supreme preference, perfect reliance, entire consecration. Our will must be wholly yielded to the divine will, our feelings, desires, interests, and honor, identified with the prosperity of Christ's kingdom and the honor of his cause, we constantly receiving grace from him, and Christ accepting gratitude from us.
When this intimacy of connection and communion is formed, our sins are laid upon Christ, his righteousness is imputed to us. He was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. We have access to God through him; we are accepted in the Beloved. Whoever by word or deed injures a believer, thereby wounds Jesus. Whoever gives a cup of cold water to a disciple because he is a child of God, will be regarded by Christ as giving to himself.
The Father is the vine-dresser. The living branches are often subjected to his skillful and merciful pruning-knife, "that they may bring forth more fruit;" but the withered, lifeless branches are severed from the Vine. Their end is to be burned, when the "Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity."
All the followers of Christ have as deep an interest in the lesson of the vine and its branches as had the disciples who listened to his words. In the apostasy man alienated himself from God. Evil is so identified with human nature that no man can overcome in his own strength. But though the separation from God is so wide, Christ has made provision to again connect us with himself. Through this union we receive moral and spiritual power. If we have the spirit of Christ, we shall bring forth the fruits of righteousness,—fruits that will bless our fellow-men and honor and glorify God.
Those who share the suffering and reproach of Christ now, will share his glory hereafter. He "will not be ashamed to call them brethren." His angels will minister to them. To those who have united themselves to him, he declares, "Though a mother may forget her child, yet will not I forget thee. I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. Thou art continually before me."
Oh, what amazing privileges are offered us! Will we put forth earnest efforts to form this alliance with Christ? Will we break off our sins by righteousness, and our iniquities by turning unto the Lord?
A union with Christ by living faith is enduring; every other union must perish. Christ first chose us, paying an infinite price for our redemption; and the true believer chooses Christ as first, and last, and best in everything. But this union costs us something. It is a relation of utter dependence to be entered into by a proud being. All who form this union must feel their need of the atoning blood of Christ. They must have a change of heart. They must submit their own will to the will of God. There will be a struggle with outward and internal obstacles. There must be a painful work of detachment, as well as a work of attachment. Pride, selfishness, vanity, worldliness—sin in all its forms—must be overcome, if we would enter into a union with Christ. The reason why many find the Christian life so deplorably hard, why they are so fickle, so variable, is, they try to attach themselves to Christ without detaching themselves from these cherished idols.
After the union with Christ has been formed, it can be preserved only by earnest prayer and untiring effort. We must resist, we must deny, we must conquer self. It is only through the grace of Christ, by courage, by faith, by watchfulness, that we can hope to gain the victory.
Believers become one in Christ; but one branch cannot be sustained by another. The nourishment must be obtained through vital connection with the vine. We must feel our utter dependence on Christ. We must live by faith on the Son of God. That is the meaning of the injunction, "Abide in me." The life we live in the flesh is not to the will of men, not to please our Lord's enemies, but to serve and honor Him who loved us, and gave himself for us. A mere assent to this union, while the affections are not detached from the world, its pleasures and its dissipations, only emboldens the heart in disobedience.
"Every one who is born of God doth not commit sin." He feels that he is the purchase of the blood of Christ, and bound by the most solemn vows to glorify God. The love of sin and the love of self are subdued in him. He daily asks, "What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?" "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" The true Christian will never complain that the yoke of Christ is galling to the neck. He accounts the service of Jesus as the truest freedom. The law of God is his delight. Instead of seeking to bring down the divine commands to accord with his deficiencies, he is constantly striving to rise to the level of their perfection.
God has made ample provision that we may stand perfect in his grace, wanting in nothing, waiting for the appearing of our Lord. Are you ready? Have you the wedding garment on? That garment will never cover deceit, impurity, corruption, or hypocrisy. The eye of God is upon you. It is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. We may conceal our sins from the eyes of men, but we can hide nothing from the all-searching gaze of our Maker.
We must have an experience for ourselves, if we would be prepared to stand in the day of God. Now, while probation lingers, while mercy's voice is still heard, is the time for us to put away our sins. While moral darkness covers the earth like a funeral pall, the light of God's standard-bearers must shine the more brightly, showing the contrast between the light of Heaven and the darkness of error.
CAN you stand for God though you stand alone,
With your heart at rest and your soul secure;
With your feet on the rock and your eye on the throne,
Can you stand and toil, and stand and endure?
Can you stand for God 'mid the storm's wild wail,
Can you stand when the tempests ride the air;
Can you stand when earthly hopes shall fail,—
Can you stand for God and never despair?
Can you stand for God when your heart grows faint,
When your sad soul looks through the blinding tears?
Can you stand without murmuring or complaint,
Through the tedious days and the toilsome years?
Can you stand for God while the witching smile,
And the siren song, and the world's caress
Unite their charms with the Serpent's guile,—
Can you stand with only God to bless?
Can you stand in the faith though the time be long,
Though the night be dark and the day-star dim;
Can you stand and in His own strength be strong,
Till at last you are found in peace of Him?
Can you stand?—Then stand in the strength of God,
Through the waning years of this world of woe:—
When the golden streets are by pilgrims trod,
You shall stand within and his glory know.
—Sel.
"Judge Not."
By Mark Guy Pearse
It is strange, almost startling, to find this in the forefront of the precepts concerning the life of holiness. It scarcely seems an offense at all, it is surely one of the lightest. Who was ever troubled with anxiety to keep this precept? or who was ever troubled with much grief for having broken it? Yet its position indicates its great importance. Let us earnestly set ourselves to get at the heart of this command.
There are two or three things which it certainly cannot mean. It cannot mean that we are not to discern between good and evil. It does not mean that we are to paint black white because it looks better—that we are to tell lies or think lies and call it charity. It does not mean that we are to baptize foul things with pretty Christian names, and think we have regenerated them.
Nor does this mean that we are not to try to form an estimate of a man's character, or of his actions, when duty calls to it, or when important trusts depend upon the judgment or relationships involving sacred interests. Such judgment is in itself a careful, earnest, righteous act, neither indulging any personal curiosity nor ministering to any evil.
Nor does it mean that we are not to form an estimate of men in their public character, or in relation to their public work, or that we are not to form any opinion of each other's characters, as earnest or indolent, gentle or harsh, weak or strong. Yet here we may be standing on the verge of the forbidden.
One meaning of the command is this: Keep your mind free from needless judgments of others. Remember how mistaken you may be in your impressions. Remember that there are in all men surface currents that have nothing at all to do with the tide. There are in all of us moods and moments by which we should think it most unjust that we should be judged. "Therefore I say unto you, Judge not." You are liable to see wrongly, and liable to interpret wrongly even that which you may rightly see. And you are always blind to the inner self, and blind as to the circumstance. How, then, can you presume to judge any man?
But there is another meaning to these words, a far more solemn and earnest one. It is in relation to ourselves that the words have their fullest force. What we are to guard against is the judging which comes from a notion of our own moral superiority.
I have kneeled in the inner chamber of the divine presence, and have called God Father. I have been admitted to high and holy privilege, and advanced to the honor of this relationship, a child of God. And now, as I come forth to mingle with others, myself, my feelings, my thoughts, my ways, become the standard by which I begin to measure everybody else. I put on the robes of my dignity, and climb up into the judgment-seat of my exalted virtue, and look down upon the less favored humanity at the bar and pass judgment upon him.
It is this against which the word is spoken, "Judge not." This self-righteousness, this notion of being better than other people, see how earnestly and solemnly Christ guards us against it. There is in the Master's words a touch of that fiery indignation with which he ever rebuked the Pharisee. And no wonder; for this is the very essence of Pharisaism—that hopeless darkness which Christ himself could not illumine, for which there was nothing but the most terrible denunciation. This is the spirit which is condemned, the presumption, the self-confidence, the spiritual conceit, in which lies the peril of the most hopeless damnation. For is it not a law that holds good in every sphere, that the higher and more complex the organization, the greater is the corruption, if it becomes corrupt? There is a corruption possible to an egg which is impossible to a stone. It takes an angel to make a devil. Pharisaism is the corruption of a great religious privilege and light and knowledge. Therefore saith the Lord, "Thou hypocrite!" because he is so keen at seeing the mote in his brother's eye, but is blind to the beam in his own; that is to say, that the fault which he may condemn in another is little beside this Pharisaism, this self-righteousness. Nothing can be more destructive of all that is Christlike within us; nothing is more hopeless as a soil in which to grow holiness. "Blessed are the poor in spirit," the mourner, the meek, the pure in heart; but here is a swelling conceit, here is a man who triumphs in his own superiority.—M. G. Pearce.
"This Grace Also."
By Independent
THERE is something suggestive in the grouping of sins and graces by the apostle. When he makes up a list of sins to be shunned as utterly out of the question with the Christian, he puts together the following: "Fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness [which is idolatry], let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting," etc. On the other hand, when he groups some graces he does it thus: "Therefore, as ye abound in everything, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also." Now notice that covetousness, or the love of money, either the greed after its possession or the parsimonious withholding of it from use, is classed with the worst sins, and specially pointed out as a sin not "once to be named among you, as becometh saints;" he classes the generous giving of money for Christ with the highest graces, one to be "abounded in" and which he says is a "test of sincerity;" "to prove the sincerity of your love," and concludes by that mighty argument and motive word: "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye, through his poverty, might be rich."
Now what are the facts as to these two passions; viz., "covetousness" and "liberality"? Is it not so that covetousness is not only "named," or made visible, among us, but it is not seriously rebuked, and so far as we have ever known, has never been made a matter of discipline? A man would fall under the ban of the church's discipline, who was an idolater, or a fornicator, or a liar, or a thief, much more if he were an habitual thief; but is it not true that covetousness, "which we are not to allow even once to be named among us, as becometh saints," is an habitual and conspicuous characteristic of many church members? Covetousness is not only a sin positive in itself, but it is a sin that cuts the throat of one of the chiefest graces, namely, beneficence. A covetous man cannot be a liberal giver; he cannot by any possible means abound in the grace of giving.
But let us look at this grace in relation to character. As we abound in other graces, we are especially exhorted to abound in this grace also, as though the apostle considered it not only essential to the sincerity of our love, but to the symmetrical development of our whole character. Indeed, the absence of an abundant liberality is a spiritual deformity. We have in our lives seen men with one short arm, either a birth deformity or one occasioned by disease or accident. We have in our mind one gentleman who in every respect is a fine specimen of physical humanity, except that he has a little puny right arm. It hangs only about a foot from his shoulder, and is wee and shriveled. The little hand that is found in place at the end of it is scarcely larger than a baby's, and is of almost no use to him. It is a source of intense mortification to him. People always look at it as something terribly sad. The whole symmetry of the man is gone; he is a deformity. But we know a score of professing Christians who seem, to the outward eye, to abound in other graces, especially "in speech," "and faith" (that is, orthodoxy), whose benevolence is repressed by a hand; wee, shriveled, and paralyzed. They are spiritual deformities. Nay, more, as God estimates them, they are idolaters masquerading in the profession of Christianity. It is a serious matter, and one which should attract the attention of the church.
We have often known Christians to say in tones of distress: "I am greatly troubled because I find I have so little faith, so little love; the joys of salvation are dried up in me. I do not love to read my Bible; and I find prayer a difficult and distasteful exercise. I fear I am not a Christian; for if I were, why should I be so destitute of these graces, and of a disposition to worship God? What can I do to increase faith and love? How can I learn to read my Bible with delight, and how come into the enjoyment of prayer?" These are common complaints, and every pastor has had frequent experience with such cases. It may be that some of our readers have been troubled in this way themselves. But in all our observation we have never yet known any Christian to come to his pastor distressed because he did not love to give of his substance to the Lord.
We have never yet heard any one say in tones of distress and anxiety: "I have so little disposition to give to the Lord and his cause. I do not love to do it; and when I do, I have to force myself, for I have no delight in so doing. I fear I cannot be a Christian, and be devoid of this grace. What can I do to increase the love of giving? How can I learn not only to give, but to abound in giving, and at the same time take delight in doing it?" We wonder how many of our readers have known of such a case. And yet why not? If the absence of faith and love and prayer and a spirit of worship, should cause anxiety and distress of mind, why should not the absence of the abounding of this grace also cause distress of mind, and create a doubt as to the sincerity of one's profession of discipleship? Who can answer?
This is a very grave and serious matter, and it becomes every Christian to look to it lest he be deceiving himself. God is not mocked. A covetous man shall no more enter into Heaven than a liar, a drunkard, an idolater, or an adulterer. A man can no more be a Christian without liberality, than he can without faith, or love, or prayer. And note that we are exhorted to abound in it. If faith is worth having, it is worth having abundantly; so of the gift of testimony or the exercise of love. And surely there is as much need for this grace as there is for faith and prayer. The first grace developed in the early church was this of abundant beneficence; for all the disciples came with one accord and laid all their possessions down at the apostles' feet, to be used for the poor. We do not believe that this was an authoritative example, but a manifestation of that grace for our learning. We do not believe that God struck down Ananias and Sapphira, or caused the execution of Achan, as an authoritative example of how he would deal with every covetous professor in all ages; but certainly they are striking and significant examples, and we do well to study them.—Independent.
Watch for the Day of the Lord
WE are repeatedly admonished in the Scriptures, to watch in reference to the coming of the day of the Lord; but it is greatly to be feared, nay, it is positively certain, that, to those that walk in the path of blind tradition, that day will come as a thief. Before they are aware and ere they begin to watch, that day of recompense will have begun. But to those that watch, that day will not come as a thief. The pathway of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day; but the way of the wicked is as darkness, they know not at what they stumble.—Sel.
Afflictions Working for Good.
"It is good for me that I have been afflicted," said the psalmist, "that I might learn thy statutes." "Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept thy word." Ps. 119:67, 71. David is not the only one, however, that God has had to lay on his back that he might be made to look upward. When in health, strength, and prosperity, even Christians are in danger of becoming too much like Bunyan's "man with the muck-rake," who would not look up, but persisted in raking to himself "the straws, the small sticks and dust of the floor," while "there stood one over his head with a celestial crown in his hand," which he proffered him for his rake.
The following extract from the preface to a recently published edition of a book written by Professor M. Hegard, of Copenhagen, who was regarded aforetime as a skeptic, is given in one of our British exchanges as something "worthy of careful attention." It is not only "another testimony to the worthlessness of all confidences in anything less than the word of God," but a good illustration of the psalmist's words, and of how lessons are learned under the rod.
"The experiences and sufferings of my life have shattered the foundation on which I formerly thought to build. Filled with a sincere faith in the excellence of science, I believed I had found in it a sure refuge for all eventualities. This illusion has vanished. When the tempest came, and my heart was plunged in sorrow, the cables of science snapped like threads. Then I seized upon the succor which many others had laid hold of before me; I sought and found peace in the faith of God. Since then, while I have not abandoned science, I have assigned it a different place in my life." —Sel.
Work, for the Night Cometh.
By E. M. Levy
VERY stirring are these words of Jesus: "I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is day; the night cometh, when no man can work." They reveal the great principle which governed his entire life on earth. He was no day-dreamer, no sickly sentimentalist. This sad and wicked world pressed too heavily on his heart to allow of any other thought than that of constant devotion to his great work. The mid-day meal must be postponed; the hours of sleep must be employed in prayer and tears; every consideration of personal care and comfort must give place to ceaseless activities in doing good to man and in accomplishing the divine will. He had no leisure. He allowed himself no vacation. Persecutions, humiliations, rebuffs, sufferings, could not diminish the ardor of his sacred, all-consuming zeal. He went about doing good. All the love that was in his soul, all the thoughts of his mind, all the vigor of his body, and all the out-gushing of his spirit, was not for himself. It was his meat and drink to do God's will. So fully was this true that at last, when drawing to the closing scene in his wonderful life, he boldly asserts: "I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do."
In this our Lord and Master is our pattern. As he set his Father's business before him as the great object of his life, so likewise must we, his disciples, seek to conform ourselves to his blessed example. Religion is something more than a mere profession, something more than a mere sentiment. Religion does not consist in attendance on experience meetings, or in the singing of hymns, or in raptures. These things, good in themselves, are, nevertheless, worthless, unless accompanied by a life of self-denial and consecration to the service of God.
Work for God is our business here. To seek to advance the cause of Christ, to reclaim the lost, to build up the church in holiness of life, is the responsibility devolving upon every one that calls himself a Christian. And that we may do this in the right spirit let us appropriate the words of Christ: "I must do the works of Him that sent me while it is day; the night cometh, when no man can work."
The call is solemn here, because it speaks of a time when we must cease to labor. "The night cometh." "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do," says the wise king, "do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." "Whither thou goest." Time is speeding on. How fast the years come and go. We stand in speechless wonder at the rapid march of time. "The night cometh, when no man can work." How soon that night will come we do not know. The changes that we witness in ourselves, and the changes that we see in others, tell us that time is short. The rolling years admonish us that the Lord is at hand. Eternity cries louder and louder that the night is coming. The Master of the vineyard is waiting for us. It may be high noon or the eleventh hour of life with us. He bids us go work for him, and when the evening shall come he will give us what is just. Think of that day, reader, when "he shall come, and his reward shall be with him."—E. M. Levy, D. D., in Christian Standard.
Tests of True Conversion.
By Roswell F. Cottrell
THE question which Wesley used to ask on hearing of the conversion of wealthy individuals; viz., "Is his purse converted?" is generally a pretty good test of genuine conversion in this money-loving, covetous age. But there are individuals of a liberal turn of mind naturally, who were always ready to "go their share" with their comrades before conversion, and who would despise the thought of being meaner in the service of God than they were in the service of Satan. These, if money could purchase them a place in the kingdom of Heaven, would certainly enter in. It is easier for them to give money than to give up the pride of their hearts and "walk humbly with God." If missionaries are to be sent out to enlighten and save men, they are ready to aid with their means. If meeting-houses are to be built, they will do their part in preparing a place for others to worship in. And in this respect they put one in mind of Noah's carpenters. They helped build the ark, but did not get on board.
There are three grand points of obedience which the Lord requires: 1. To do justly; 2. To love mercy; 3. To walk humbly with God. Micah 6:8. These are good tests of true conversion. The first requires honesty in deal; the second, liberality; and the third, the humble devotion of the heart to God, and obedience to all the institutions of religion. Some are lacking in one of these, and some in another; but it takes the whole to make a Christian. If we lack one, we shall be found wanting when weighed in the balances.
Some will take part in social worship and the institutions of the gospel, while their crooked walk and deal with their neighbors is a stumbling-block to sinners. Some of the more noble will deal uprightly, and even be merciful to the poor, and are too public-spirited to be stingy anywhere; but humble worship and obedience of faith are too much for their pride. Happy are they who combine the three, who to honesty add liberality, and to liberality humility; who are just and merciful, and take no praise to themselves on that account, but acknowledge humbly before God that they are unprofitable servants, and by contrition and humble obedience to the gospel seek to be saved by grace.
R. F. C.
A Wonderful Book.
By William Miller
O, MAY the Bible be to us a rock, a pillar, a compass, a chart, a statute, a directory, a polar star, a traveler's guide, a pilgrim's companion, a shield of faith, a ground of hope, a history, a chronology, an armory, a store-house, a mirror, a toilet, a closet, a prayer-book, an epistle, a love-letter, a friend, a force, a revenue, a treasury, a bank, a fountain, a cistern, a garden, a lodge, a field, a haven, a sun, a moon, a star, a door, a window, a light, a lamp, a luminary, a morning, a noon, an evening, an hour-glass, a days-man, a servant, an handmaid.
It is food, meat, drink, raiment, shelter, warmth, heat, a feast, fruit, pictures, wine, milk, honey, bread, butter, oil, refreshment, rest, strength, stability, wisdom, life, eyes, ears, hands, feet, breath. It is a help to hearing, seeing, feeling, tasting, smelling, understanding, forgiving, loving, hoping, enjoying, adoring, and saving. It teaches salvation, justification, sanctification, redemption, and glorification. It declares condemnation, destruction, and desolation.
It tells us what we were, are, and shall be; begins with the beginning, carries through the intermediate, and ends only with the end. It is past, present, and to come. It discovers the first great cause, the cause of all effects, and the effects of all causes. It speaks of life, death, and judgment; body, soul, and spirit; Heaven, earth, and hell. It makes use of all nature as figures, to sum up the value of the gospel, and it declares itself to be the WORD OF GOD.—Wm. Miller.
For the Hope of the Promise.
By H. Clay Trumbull
"I STAND here to be judged for the hope of the promise made of God." The man, even in our day, who really believes that God will do as he has promised, will be counted fanatical, if not foolish, by many of his Christian friends. They all value the promise; but only now and then one is ready to rest down on it as sure of fulfillment in his particular case. If a man trusts God to provide for himself and his family in material things, and to guide him in all his business affairs, he is said by some to lack business prudence. If he trusts God to avenge him when he is wronged, or to preserve his good name when he is falsely accused, he is spoken of as wanting in courage or spirit. If, when he is bereaved or afflicted, he receives it all as the loving chastisement of a Father's hand, and refuses to shut himself up to grief and repinings, he is possibly looked at as destitute of fine feelings, and as cold-hearted if not unnatural. If he gets his view of the promised return of our Lord from the Bible, rather than from the commentaries or the newspapers, he may be numbered among visionary theorists. Any Christian who accepts God's promise as sure, and acknowledges it as fulfilled to himself in his need, must expect to be accused for this hope's sake, even by some who profess to serve God day and night in hope of that same promise.—H. Clay Trumbull.
Prayer in Everything
IN everything, not in one or two, not in great things only, but in even the smallest things that tire and perplex you, "let your request be made known unto God." This is our encouragement. We are to come with expectation, praying for help. We are to come also with "supplication," that is, with earnest prayer, prostrating ourselves before the mercy-throne. We are to remember how much we possess, although there be so much that we want; how much we are to bless God for, while there are so many burdens which we beg him to remove. Even in our deepest sorrows we have abundant cause to pray with thanksgiving.—Sel.
Sanctification and the Sense of Sin
By Christian Advocate
From a multitude of scriptures, and from the whole course of the life of sanctification in the church, this deduction has been drawn—the more sanctification, the more sense of sin.—Christian Advocate.