NOW if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ: whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by Man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming.” 1 Cor. 15:12–23.
“Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, tho he were dead, yet shall he live.” John 11:25.
With Our Inquirers
By Editor
“If ye will inquire, inquire ye.”
[All questions to this department will be answered which to the editors will seem to minister to the good of the readers and to the mission of the paper. The same question can not be answered repeatedly in the same volume. The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable. It is well always to enclose a stamp for reply.]
2405.—The Wedding-Garment.
According to Matt. 22: 11, 12 a guest seems to have gotten into the wedding who did not have on the wedding-garment. Does it mean that the counterfeit was such that the servants did not detect it? And whom does this man represent?
H. T. H.
The matter of the wedding can be understood only by a knowledge of Christ’s kingdom. The wedding is the taking of the kingdom, the union of Christ with the kingdom, at the close of His mediatorial work. In Dan. 7: 13, 14 we learn that at the time of the investigative judgment, which began in 1844, the Son went before the Father to receive His kingdom, and there was given to Him the kingdom. That time of the reception of the kingdom, and the closing of Christ’s mediatorial work, extends down from 1844 to the time when He shall come again. During that time, many will profess to believe and will take His name; they will be among His people, among those who have faith in His work. The coming in to view the guests is the judgment work. It is not viewing those who have entered heaven, but those who are in Christ’s church upon the earth. Those who have on the wedding-garment are those who are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ; those who do not have on the wedding-garment are those who profess His name and yet are sinners before Him. The righteousness of Christ does not possess their souls. It is true that these things may not be discerned by the servants of God on earth, but when brought before the judgment-seat of Christ they will be seen.
Will you please explain, “But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken”?
P. H. W.
If you will read the context, you will see that the Lord is talking to a backslidden people, to those who would not hear, and yet He is going to teach His truth to them so plainly that there will be no excuse; and therefore He gives it to them in just the way the text indicates, precept upon precept, line upon line. Over and over again God gives them the lessons of instruction and warning, so that when the time comes that judgment is visited upon them, the Lord will be clear of all charge, and the fault will be on the part of those who are rebellious. And so in verse 14 and onward He appeals to them again, endeavoring to show them that all their agreements and plans by which they thought to stand would prove to be utterly worthless, for justice would be the line and righteousness the plummet, and the refuge of lies would be swept away and the hiding-place would be overthrown.
2407.—The Trinity.
We speak of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost; do we understand that the Holy Ghost, or Spirit, is a personal being as God the Father and Jesus the Son? In Christ’s talk with the disciples, in John 14, He uses the personal pronoun in referring to the Comforter.
J. B. J.
There are various interpretations and differences of opinion in regard to the matter. To the mind of the writer, the Spirit is the life of God, or better, the life of the Godhead, common both to the Father and the Son. It is that which makes Deity everywhere present. In Acts 2 it is spoken of as that which came into the room and filled all who were there. In the thirty-third verse Peter speaks of it as the power which Christ had poured forth.
It is spoken of as a person, because by the Spirit the Father and the Son come personally to us. In John 16: 7 Jesus tells us, “It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.” Jesus was a person located in one place; the Spirit was that which was shed abroad among all His children, but it brought to every one of those children the presence of Christ. So we read again, “He [the Spirit] shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall declare it unto you.”
2408.—Eternal Life and Immortality.
What is the difference between eternal life and immortality?
P.
Eternal life is that which God gives in harmony with His eternal law of right. It is the life of righteousness—“in the way of righteousness is life.” The divine energy by which men live, given thru the Spirit, and always coming from God as eternal life, comes alone thru Jesus Christ, in response to faith. Immortality means deathlessness, incorruptibility, and is indicative of the state or condition applicable only to God now, but which will be bestowed upon those who are His at the resurrection. 1 Tim. 6: 16; 1 Cor. 15: 51-54. God gives us eternal life now by faith in Christ. This is the teaching of John 3: 16, 36; John 6 throuout; and 1 John 5: 11. The Christian has it now by faith; he will hold it absolutely by the ever-living faith throuout the ages to come. He will be given immortality in his physical frame when Jesus Christ comes, as God’s seal of incorruptible character. The word “immortality” in 1 Tim. 6: 16 and 1 Cor. 15: 54 is the same in both English and Greek. The Greek term is athanasia. It comes from thanatos, death, and the negative article a meaning deathlessness. Immortality in Rom. 2: 7 and 2 Tim. 1: 10 comes from aphthasia, meaning incorruptibility, unending existence.
If the Lord knew from the beginning to the end, why did it repent the Lord that He had made man, as in Gen. 6: 6?
No. 704.
In order to make man understand, the Lord uses the language of men. He does not change His mind, for it is His mind always to do good unto His children; but when man does turn from the way of God, we can understand how the great heart of Him who loves righteousness, and loves even the sinner and longs to save him, sorrows on account of it. And so as man turned from God and went into the sin that is described in the 6th chapter of Genesis, God grieved for His disobedient children, grieved so much that, looking at it from a human standpoint, it would seem that it were better that man had not been made; and yet out of all the sin and trouble which Satan has brought, God would still save His children. The conditions upon which God treats men and nations are set forth in Jer. 18: 7-10.
In the verses previous the apostle tells us that there can be no other foundation than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ, and then he tells us of two classes of builders; one class builds on that foundation, gold, silver, costly stones, materials that will endure; another class builds wood, hay, and stubble. In the great testing to come which is by fire the building of the former will stand, and that of the latter will perish. Using this to illustrate the work of the ministry, one obtains converts which will endure; another, those who are not truly grounded in the faith, and in times of temptation fall away. Read the parable of the sower in Matthew 13. The day which shall declare every man’s work will be the judgment day; and it may be true that a man has labored honestly and faithfully and yet insufficiently, and while much of his work shall perish yet he himself shall be saved.
Had the apostles in themselves power to forgive sins and is this power still extended to God’s ministers?
F. N. W.
It will be noticed that what is said in John 20: 23 to the disciples is used of the church in Matt. 18: 18. The same thought is expressed in Matt. 16: 19 to Peter, “Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” The authority of the ministers of Jesus Christ rests not in their profession or in the order to which they belong, or in the fact that some one has ordained them, but in their living connection with God, and in the message which they bear. Before the promise given in John 20: 23 Jesus said to the apostles, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” His commission to them was, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel.” His commission, thru the apostles, to the Gentiles, to all Christian ministers, is, “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom; preach the word.” John the Baptist gives us the very core of true ministry in his reply to the scribes and Pharisees who came to him and asked him if he were Elijah, and if he were that prophet, and if he were the Messiah, and receiving no satisfactory answer as to who he was and what lineage and commission he had to present, he replied, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said Isaiah the prophet.” The power of the servant of God lies in his message; therefore whosoever believes that message, his sins are remitted; whosoever rejects that message, his sins are retained. And so Jesus said of Himself that He personally came not into the world to condemn the world, but that the world thru Him might be saved. He tells us what condemns, “If any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My words, hath One that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken of Myself; but the Father which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.” John 12: 47-49. It is the word which makes the messenger; it is the word which saves or condemns, and this has always been true.
An excellent illustration of this is given by Jeremiah, when the Lord says, “I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.” Jer. 1: 10. How this is done is told us in chapter 18: 7-10. If a nation heeds His message, God turns away the evil from them; if the nation will not heed His message, they will be destroyed.
As to the keys of the kingdom of heaven, Peter tells the apostles, in Acts 15, that “God made choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the Gospel, and believe. And God, who knoweth the heart, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Spirit, even as He did unto us.” Peter opened the Gospel first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles, on the day of Pentecost to the Jews, later on to the Gentiles. At the same time the apostle Paul tells us that he himself was not a whit behind the very chiefest of the apostles. See also 1 Cor. 15: 10; 11: 22, 23; 12: 11. It is Peter himself who tells us that the Foundation-stone is Christ Jesus, and that he and others are living stones built on that Foundation. 1 Peter 2: 2-9. And Paul tells us that “other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus.” 1 Cor. 3: 11.
Christ the Teacher and Healer
By Mrs. E. G. White
By Mrs. E. G. White
Saved to Serve.
THE Gospel invitation is not to be narrowed down and presented only to a select few, who, we suppose, will do us honor if they accept it. The message is to be given to all. When God blesses His children, it is not alone for their own sake, but for the world's sake. As He bestows His gifts on us, it is that we may multiply them by imparting.
LIVING WATER.
The Samaritan woman who talked with Jesus at Jacob's well had no sooner found the Saviour than she brought others to Him. She proved herself a more effective missionary than His own disciples. The disciples saw nothing in Samaria to indicate that it was an encouraging field. Their thoughts were fixed upon a great work to be done in the future. They did not see that right around them was a harvest to be gathered. But thru the woman whom they despised a whole cityful were brought to hear Jesus. She carried the light at once to her countrymen.
This woman represents the working of a practical faith in Christ. Every true disciple is born into the kingdom of God as a missionary. No sooner does he come to know the Saviour than he desires to make others acquainted with Him. The saving and sanctifying truth can not be shut up in his heart. He who drinks of the living water becomes a fountain of life. The receiver becomes a giver. The grace of Christ in the soul is like a spring in the desert, welling up to refresh all, and making those who are ready to perish eager to drink of the water of life. In doing this work a greater blessing is received than if we work merely to benefit ourselves. It is in working to spread the good news of salvation that we are brought near to the Saviour.
Of those who receive His grace the Lord says:
“I will make them and the places round about My hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in its season; there shall be showers of blessing.”
“On the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water.”
Those who receive are to impart to others. From every direction are coming calls for help. God calls upon men to minister gladly to their fellow men. Immortal crowns are to be won; the kingdom of heaven is to be gained; the world, perishing in ignorance, is to be enlightened.
“Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal.”
All may find something to do. None need feel that there is no place where they can labor for Christ. The Saviour identifies Himself with every child of humanity. That we might become members of the heavenly family, He became a member of the earthly family. He is the Son of Man, and thus a brother to every son and daughter of Adam. His followers are not to feel themselves detached from the perishing world around them. They are a part of the great web of humanity, and heaven looks upon them as brothers to sinners as well as to saints.
Millions upon millions of human beings, in sickness and ignorance and sin, have never so much as heard of Christ’s love for them. Were our condition and theirs to be reversed, what would we desire them to do for us? All this, so far as lies in our power, we are to do for them. Christ’s rule of life by which every one of us must stand or fall in the judgment is, “Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.”
By all that has given us advantage over another,—be it education and refinement, nobility of character, Christian training, religious experience,—we are in debt to those less favored; and, so far as lies in our power, we are to minister unto them. If we are strong, we are to stay up the hands of the weak.
Angels of glory that do always behold the face of the Father in heaven, have joy in ministering to His little ones. Angels are ever present where they are most needed, with those who have the hardest battles with self to fight, and whose surroundings are the most discouraging. Weak and trembling souls who have many objectionable traits of character, are their special charge. That which selfish hearts would regard as humiliating service, ministering to those who are wretched and in every way inferior in character, is the work of the pure, sinless beings from the courts above.
Jesus did not consider heaven a place to4be desired while we were lost. He left the heavenly courts for a life of reproach and insult, and a death of shame. He who was rich in heaven’s priceless treasure became poor, that thru His poverty we might be rich. We are to follow in the path He trod.
He who becomes a child of God should henceforth look upon himself as a link in the chain let down to save the world, one with Christ in His plan of mercy, going forth with Him to seek and save the lost.
A Twofold Expression of the Law.
By T. H. Starbuck
By T. H. Starbuck.
IN the plan of redemption God has promulgated His law to the world in a twofold sense,—in the living oracles from Sinai, engraven upon stone, and in the life and teachings of Christ. The principles of divine love, solemnly enjoined from Sinai in Ten Commandments, were practically exemplified in the life of "the Son of His love" on earth. The plan of redemption is God's moral government administered in a manner to suit the exigencies of the case. The mediatorial death of Christ was in strict harmony with the principles of the law. If this were not true, the law itself would condemn the sacrifice which God has made to save the lost. But the gift of His Son being in harmony with the claims of the law, He can be just in saving those who believe on Jesus. Rom. 3: 26.
A Well-Defined Boundary.
The fact should be emphasized, however, that there is a well-defined boundary beyond which neither justice nor mercy can go. That boundary marks the distinction between loyalty and disloyalty to God on the part of the sinner. If he repents and becomes loyal to God, there is a principle of mercy in the law that forgives; and God can be just (in harmony with His law) in justifying the repentant, and the law itself witnesses to the correctness of the transaction. But if the sinner persists in his disloyalty, the principle of justice in the law condemns, for the wages of sin is death, and God can be just in the condemnation of such, and the law witnesses to the justice of the transaction.
The law itself inspires the repentant sinner with hope, for it proclaims its Author to be merciful,—"showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments." Second commandment. God is compassionate, and His law could not be perfect without responding to that trait in His character. A law without the element of mercy in it could but imperfectly represent the perfection of its merciful Author. The Decalogue is given in a form adapted to our condition in this life. It appeals to those who are transgressors of it. While it contains the universal principles of morality, it addresses sinful men, not sinless angels, or beings of some far-away world; and, tho it pierces the sinner's heart, it indicates that God will show mercy to such as are inclined to obedience.
Why Keep the Seventh Day of the Week
as the Sabbath of the Lord?
By D. H. Kress, M. D.
By D. H. Kress, M. D.
WE keep the seventh day because it is the day upon which the Creator rested after completing His creative works; the day which He afterward blessed and set apart for man to observe as a memorial of creation.
The Scripture record is, "And He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made." Gen. 2: 2, 3.
The reason why this special day and no other has been blessed and set apart for man to keep is "because that in it He had rested from all His work." The Sabbath is needed to keep man from idolatry; to keep him from worshiping any other being aside from the Creator of the heavens and the earth. Since the fall the Sabbath stands not merely as a memorial of creation, but also of redemption.
The Reason Given.
This is why the Lord spake unto Moses saying, "Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between Me and you thruout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." Ex. 31: 13.
It is for this reason that a knowledge of the true Sabbath was given to Israel when they were redeemed from the house of bondage. The Sabbath has always been, and will always remain, God's holy day, not man's.
"Thou camest down also upon Mount Sinai, . . . and madest known unto them Thy holy Sabbath." Neh. 9: 13, 14. It is not, then, a Jewish Sabbath. It was God's holy Sabbath that was made known to the children of Israel when they were redeemed from the house of bondage—and it was this holy day, the only holy day of the seven, they were commanded to keep holy.
At Sinai, to the people who had witnessed His power in redeeming them from bondage, the words were spoken, "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." These words were addressed not only to that people; but to every one that is brought out of the house of bondage and receives the knowledge of the true God, are the words spoken, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." "Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between Me and you, . . . that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you."
The Sabbath of the Lord was not made for the Jew, as some affirm. "The Sabbath was made for man." It was made known to the Jews when they were, and because they were, redeemed from the house of bondage, and needed to constantly remember their Creator and have faith in Him and in His5power to create in them clean hearts.
From the foregoing scriptures we see that to the Jews was made known the true Sabbath of the Lord, the day upon which God rested, the day which He blessed and sanctified at the beginning.
Not a Long, Indefinite Period.
The Sabbath of the Lord is not a long period of time, it was the seventh day of the creative week, and has continued to be the seventh day of every week since creation. No other day can ever take the place of God's rest day or become the Sabbath of the Lord. To every one for all time the command is, "Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work."
Without doing violence to this scripture, we may read it as follows: Six days shalt thou labor, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest. The seventh day completes the weekly cycle of time and is therefore of equal length with each of the six days preceding it. The Sabbath of the Lord should be kept, not because we are tired and in need of rest, for God needed no rest because of weariness when He had labored six days in creation and was refreshed on that day, but we are to keep the day because "in six days the Lord made heaven and earth the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day." Ex. 20: 8-11.
A Connected Line of Observance.
Ever since the Sabbath of the Lord was made known to the Jews at Sinai, they have kept the seventh day of the week, in form, at least. When Christ came, He also kept it. Luke 4: 16. All of Christ's followers kept it, not only while He was with them, but after His crucifixion. The women rested after Christ was crucified and was resting in the tomb. Joseph begged His body and took it down from the cross and laid it in a new sepulcher. Luke 23: 50 to 24: 1. "And that day was the preparation [day, or Friday], and the Sabbath drew on. And the women . . . prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment."
"Now upon the first day of the week," we are told, "they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared." From this scripture, which was written under divine inspiration many years after the crucifixion of Christ, we see that the Sabbath which Christ's followers kept "according to the commandment" in Ex. 20: 8-11, is placed between Friday, the sixth day of the week, and Sunday, the first day of the week. The Sabbath which was kept by the followers of Christ after His crucifixion must therefore have been Saturday, the seventh day of the week. But the fact that they rested the seventh day of the week did not make this day the Sabbath. They rested on this day because it was the Sabbath according to the commandment. Should they, or all of the Christian world at that time and ever since, have rested on Friday, the sixth day of the week, or Sunday, the first day of the week, the seventh day would still have remained the Sabbath according to the commandment, the day upon which God rested, the day which He blessed and hallowed at the beginning.
It is true the majority of the Christian churches are to-day keeping the first day of the week, supposing that they are keeping the Sabbath of the Lord. But this does not make the first day of the week the seventh day of the week or the Sabbath of the Lord.
How has the change from the seventh to the first day been brought about?—It was brought about gradually, and in this way: The first day of the week has been a heathen festival for ages, dedicated to the worship of the sun—it is known therefore as "the venerable day of the sun." Thru Constantine, who was a devoted worshiper of the sun, this day, with other relics of idolatry, was brought into the Christian church. This brought about the great apostasy which resulted in the Dark Ages. The Reformation was successful in gradually stripping the church of her heathen images, etc., but the venerable day of the sun is still left in these churches, and we believe God is now calling upon all to fear and worship Him.
Those who fear and worship God will have the same sign to distinguish them from the world that the children of Israel had to distinguish them from the nations about them. The completed reformation will develop a people who "keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14: 12.
In speaking of the remnant, or the last church, the prophetic declaration is, "The dragon [Satan] was wroth with the woman [the church], and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Rev. 12: 17. The fact that the remnant church keeps the commandments of God is one of the two features which distinguish her as God's remnant church.
The Resurrection of Christ.
By Thomas Guthrie
It is as the prelude of our own resurrection that Christ's is to us the object of the greatest satisfaction and joy. In these cast-off grave-clothes, in that linen shroud and napkin, there is more to draw our eyes and fix our interest and move our admiration, than in the jeweled robes or royal purple of the greatest monarch of earth. That empty tomb, roughly hewn in the rock, is a greater sight than Egypt's mighty pyramids, or the costliest sepulchers that have received the ashes of the proudest kings. How full of meaning is its very emptiness! What good news to us in Mary's disappointment! What joys flow to us in these women's tears! Thanks be to God, they could not find Him. He is not there. No, Mary, they have not taken away your Lord; no robber has rifled that sacred tomb. See, the dew lies sparkling on the grass, nor feet have brushed it but those of One who has left the grave. He is risen; and, as the first-fruits of them that sleep, as the first ripe sheaf that was offered to the Lord, His resurrection is the pledge and promise of a coming harvest. Henceforth the grave holds but a lease of the saints. Because He rose, we shall rise also.—Thomas Guthrie, D. D.*
An Age of Deception.
By J. A. Seiss
IF ever there was a time when the devil was loose, active, and potent in human affairs, that time is now, in the days in which we live. The devil's dominion is the enthronement of error, falsehood, deception, lies, and moral rottenness; and when was this dominion ever more potent than in these years of the existing generation?
The devil bound! And yet the people who claim to be the most enlightened and occupy the very top waves of modern progress, do not hesitate to give out that it is with them a matter of serious doubt whether there is a God, a Providence, a soul to live after this life, anything eternal but matter, any Lord but nature, any retribution but what natural laws administer in this world, any principles of morality but expediency, and scout all idea of a personal incarnation of the Deity, of atonement by divine sacrifice, of justification by faith in the merits of a Substitute, of any coming again of Christ as King to judge the world and reign in righteousness.
We look abroad upon society in general, and what do we see?—Reverence, that great balance-wheel in the economics of life, scarcely exists any more; oaths are nothing; good faith is as scarce as grapes after the vintage; and all moral bonds are trampled down without compunction under the heels of greed and lust and deified selfishness. Falsities and treacheries confront us unblushingly at every point. People not only make falsehoods, speak falsehoods, print falsehoods, and believe falsehoods, but they eat them, and live them, and drink them, and make them one of the great elements of their being. One-half, at least, of all the eye can see, or the ear hear, or the hands touch, or the tongue taste is bogus, counterfeit, pinchbeck, shoddy, or some hash or other of untruth. A man can not move or open his eyes without encountering falsehood and lies.
In business, in politics, in social life, in professions, and even in what passes for religion, such untruthfulness reigns that he who would be true scarcely knows any more whom to trust, what to believe, how to move, or by what means to keep his footing, amid the ever-increasing flood of unreality and deception.
And yet the devil is bound! Do I color the picture too deeply? Look, consider and see for yourselves. Is not the world full of people, many of them your neighbors and personal acquaintances, some of them under your own roofs, in your own homes—people with their apostles, male and female on the rostrum everywhere with applauding crowds around them—people to whom the church is a lie; the ministers of the Gospel a fraud; the sacraments absurdity; prayer a weak delusion; the Bible a dull record of superannuated beliefs; special providence an impossibility; a personal God or devil a superstitious conceit; moral accountability to a future judgment a thing to be laughed at; society, marriage, and the body of our laws mere faulty conventionalities; government a mere device of the ambitious and self-seeking; immortality a mere fiction; and even life itself something of an impertinent imposition or a mere freak of mother nature.
A broader philosophy, a more compliant church, a more active humanity disdaining theological dogmas and positive creeds, a larger liberality to take every one for a child of God who refrains from denouncing the devilish atheisms and heresies of the times—these are the flags he hangs out for the rallying of his unsuspecting dupes. And see how he induces men and women to usurp ministerial functions without ministerial responsibilities, and gives them power on the plea of breaking down denominationalism and making better saints without any church at all; how he prostitutes the pulpits to entertaining sensationalisms, defying all sense and sacred decency, or narrows them down to sweet platitudes which serve to bury the true Gospel from those whom it was meant to save—and how he stirs up the ministers of place and influence to say and make believe that all this attention to sacred prophecy is nothing but a stupid craze, that the holy writers never meant what they said, and that all these ill-bodings touching the destiny of this present world are but the croakings of birds who love to fly in storms! And yet he is bound! O ye people, on your way to the nearing judgment of the great day, "be not deceived; God is not mocked." You may be sincere, but that is not enough. Eve thought she was innocent and safe when she took the devil's recommendation of the forbidden fruit; but her trustful confidence did not excuse her.
The existence of a devil is not a myth, but an awful reality, and to his doings and destiny we have other relations than that of mere spectators. His dread power over those who will not have Christ as their Saviour is not a nightmare fancy, or the dream of disordered mental digestion, but a thing of living fact. And these solemn and momentous revelations are Jehovah's finger-boards set up in mercy along the path of human life, to point out the places of danger and the way of safety. To despise, neglect, or disregard them is not a characteristic of wisdom. To refuse to note and heed them is to try the insane experiment of seeing how near you can graze the brink of perdition, and yet win the credit of not tumbling in. Can you be wiser than God who made you? Then mark the signals He has given and follow them implicitly.—J. A. Seiss, D.D.
Invitation.
By Max Hill
THE Man whose touch brought healing life and balm,
Whose word brought to the darkened soul a calm,
Brought those who slept in death the pulsing life,
Brought quietude where lawlessness and strife
Had reigned; the Man whose wondrous, matchless love
Brought Him to earth from untold power above
To live, to toil, to suffer here below
That Man the endless joys of heaven might know;—
He bids me tell you pardon waits for you,
His love and power grasped create anew.
