Signs of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 10. (3/11/1897)

Signs of the Times

Mar 11, 1897

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 11, 1897

Union with Christ

Editorial

Union with Christ.—A most instructive lesson was given on this vitally important subject by our Lord to his disciples, as recorded in John 15:1-8. It was enforced by a symbolism so well understood and so applicable that the lesson must have made a strong impression upon the hearts of his disciples. The illustration was before them; they saw it on that night of the betrayal under the full light of the paschal moon, as they wended their sad way from the upper chamber to Gethsemane. This lesson is as important now as then. It is written for “our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”

The Vine with Its Branches is an object familiar to all Jews, common to Palestine, and is used in the Holy Scriptures as a symbol of the union and relation between God and his people. Our Lord uses it for the same purpose—to impress the lesson of the necessity of constant vital union with him—for all time to come. Here is the lesson:—

“I am the True Vine, and my Father is the Husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch can not 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. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.” John 15:1-8.

I Am the True Vine.—There are false vines; vines that bear poisonous, noxious fruit, vines that bear wild grapes, which set on edge the teeth of the eater. But Christ is the True Vine, the only Vine from which comes the true life. His Father, God, is the Husbandman, who by his providence and merciful agencies cares for the Vine. For while a vine is fruitful and useful, it is also helpless. So Jesus Christ in his voluntary humiliation for man, was dependent upon God. “The Son can do nothing of himself,” he himself tells us; and again: “I can of mine own self do nothing.” And yet through that Vine, seemingly helpless, the life of God comes to the branches.

“Ye Are the Branches.”—The branches, our Lord tells us, are his disciples; not alone those to whom he spoke, but his disciples in all ages. They were not always branches of the True Vine. At one time they did not know him. In the eleventh chapter of Romans, men, before they are united to Christ, are likened, in their natural state, to wild olive branches, partaking of that nature, and bearing bitter olives. Through faith they are grafted, contrary to their own nature, into the good olive tree, Christ Jesus, the Root and Stock of the true Israel, and bear the fruit of the tame olive. To use the symbol of our lesson, they are branches of the wild grape-vine, cut off from the parent stem by the pruning shears of God’s truth. They hear his Word. His Word separates them from their source of perverted life, and unites them with the True Vine. Jesus expresses this in the words, “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” That word separated them from the sinful, unfruitful life of the past. It connected them with true life, with the unperverted current, fresh from the throne of God. It cleansed the old nature, it gave a new nature.

Abiding in Christ is as necessary to Christian fruit-bearing as abiding in the vine is necessary to the branch that it may bear fruit. We may tie ever so securely the branch to the vine; but the branch will wither and die; it lacks the essential—life. Many professed Christians are tied-on branches. They have their names on the church books, their names are read once a quarter or once a year, but there is no life, they bear no fruit to God’s glory. We may graft to the vine a scion, or branch, and when the life-blood of the vine begins to flow through the branch, the bark begins to swell, life begins to appear, and we pluck it away. It withers, the vine bleeds in vain. After a little, we graft it in again, but the life is received more slowly, the withered, sick branch is less receptive than at first. A few experiences of this kind, and the branch is dead. This well represents those Christians who are constantly backsliding and repenting, backsliding and repenting, but bringing forth no fruit. God will not cast off. Ever will the loving life stream from the pierced side be opened to give life to the returning child; but he who too long presumes on such wonderful mercy will at last find that he has departed

one too many times. The moral fibers of his being are dead. No more will its life channels expand to receive life from the Living One. O, it is not safe to turn from God, to tear ourselves from his rifted side. The only safe way is to abide, abide in Him, grow, blossom, bear fruit to his glory. He who abides, who receives the life, the Spirit of God, will bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,” blessed fruits for hungry, starving souls on every side.

Pruning.—The faithful, wise husbandman often finds it necessary to prune, or “purge” as in our Common Version. “Every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth [cleanseth, pruneth] it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” Sometimes destroying parasites are preying upon bark or leaf, and it takes strong remedies to cleanse. Sometimes smaller branches will not let the life of the vine flow in and quicken to new life, and the husbandman cuts it off. So it is with some Christians. The world with its trappings, its habits, its principles, its policies, are carried into the Christian life, and but little fruit is borne. Some wish to cling to old associates, others to pleasure, yet others desire to shine in society, and love vain display; but all hinder the fruit-bearing. The husbandman, always merciful, always seeking the good of the vine, lops off an unnecessary branch here, a dead twig there. How cruel it seems! So in Christian life. It seems to the poor worldly heart that the life is taken, but if submissive, the pruning brings God’s life into the soul, and makes the abiding more secure. Fellow-Christian, yield all to him, submit to the pruning whatever it may be, and God will give you more than he will take away, and so shall you bear much fruit.

Withered Branches, sad as it may be, are cut off, and burned. So it will be at last with him who does not bear fruit for God. Such a soul is no profit to himself, no profit to others. The end is death. But before that comes, the Husbandman exhausts all his love and power to save. He gives all to win man. He suffers all to save man; but with man rests the decision whether he will be saved.

The Motive of True Fruit-bearing in the Christian life is to glorify God. The vine does not think of itself; it bears for others; it rewards the husbandman’s toil. So the Christian will forget self in his desire to labor for God. “Much fruit” for God’s glory will be his desire. This will demand much prayer. His asking will not be for selfish things. His will is God’s will. The Lord’s good pleasure is his pleasure. To such it is said, “Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” But the asking will be for God—asking, receiving, abiding, fruit-bearing.

But the Condition Is Abiding in Christ.—This we do by constantly yielding to his will, and letting his words abide in us. Read them, ponder them, choose them, eat them, and they will indeed be, as to Jeremiah of old, the joy and rejoicing of the heart that loves God.

The Bond of Union between such believers is Christ Jesus. What bond could be stronger? It is stronger than those united, even as the vine is stronger than the branches. It embraces each and all and unites them with God’s life. It makes them all partakers of that one life; not occasionally, but continually. The great throbbing heart-beats of Infinite Love send the same life-current pulsing through every one in Christ. If we are in him, we need not worry about our brethren; for we will be one with every one who is also in him, partakers of the divine nature, knowing the power of the endless life; but apart from him no effort of ours will bear fruit, no patched-up union will last or be effectual. In him all is life and joy and peace and love. Who would not be an abiding branch of the True Vine?

Heresy and Heretics.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

The word “heretic” occurs but once in the Bible; the word “heresy” occurs four times, once in the singular, and three times in the plural. The full meaning of the word “heresy” is very concisely put by Mr. Gladstone, in his article on “The Place of Heresy and Schism in the Modern Christian Church,” in the current number of the Nineteenth Century. He says of heresy: “It means self-chosen and self-formed opinion. The Gospel is not chosen or formed by us, but fashioned by God, and tendered for our acceptance.”

That is the whole case in a nutshell. God is the only source of truth. Only those are heretics who will not accept the Word of God. He who accepts God’s will as final is not an heretic, altho he may be alone in his belief. Since God, and not the church, is the standard authority, and the source of truth, a man is not necessarily an heretic because he is not in harmony with what is called “the church.” As a general thing it is the majority of “the church” who are “heretics,” that is, choosers of their own ways rather than of God’s, while those who cling closely to the Word of God are the few.

God is no respecter of persons; all are alike before him. Therefore one man has as much right to choose for himself as any other, or as all other men. Therefore heresy is not a term that can properly be applied to a man because of any relation that he sustains to “the church.” Heresy can exist only in relation to God.

This fact was recognized by the apostle Paul when he was accused before Felix. He did not admit that he was an heretic, but said, “After the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers,” and then

showed that he was not an heretic, by adding, “believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets.” Acts 24:14.

As no one on earth has the power to define and set the limits of the truth of God, no one has the authority to declare any other one an heretic. Men have no right to go beyond the inspired instruction, “Preach the Word.” If the church of Christ does this, it may leave the responsibility of choosing for themselves or allowing God to choose for them, to those who hear; and to God may be left the responsibility of deciding who has chosen well. E. J. W.

ELOQUENT, BUT NOT BIBLICAL.

DR. T. DEWITT TALMAGE, in a sermon some time ago, is reported to have said:—

Either the American Sabbath will perish and this nation be handed over to Herods and Hildebrands and Diocletians and Neros of baleful power, and Alcoholism will reign, seated upon a piled-up throne of beer barrels, his mouth foaming with domestic and national curse, and Crime will lift its unhindered knife of assassination and rattle keys of worst burglary, and wave torch of widest conflagration, and our cities be turned into Sodoms, waiting for Almighty tempests of fire and brimstone, and one tidal wave of abomination will surge across the continent, or our sabbaths will take on more sanctity, and the newspapers will become apocalyptic wings of benediction, and penitentiaries will be abandoned for lack of occupants, and holiness and happiness, twin son and daughter of heaven, shall walk through the land, and Christ reign over this nation either in person or by agency so glorious that the whole country will be one clear, resounding echo of heaven. It will be one or the other.

This is similar to much of the lurid Church and State preaching, presented as Gospel to the masses, and by them believed, as doubtless by the preacher, to be the teaching of the Bible. But, reader, it is not. The Word of God knows no “American Sabbath,” or “American Sunday,” or “Continental Sunday,” or “Australian Sunday.” The only weekly Sabbath which the Bible knows is the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath of the Lord our God. The judgments of God will never fall upon an individual or a nation for using a day as common that God has not made holy; and he has not made holy the Sunday, American or otherwise. God will destroy sin; but “sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4; Rom. 7:7), and “where no law is, there is no transgression” (Rom. 4:15). As in the Word of God there is no law concerning Sunday sacredness, there is therefore no transgression in treating the day as common.

That the nation is threatened with dangers in other respects, there is no doubt; but the crimes named by Dr. Talmage are not dependent on Sunday-breaking.

If Dr. Talmage and his colaborers desire to promote morality, let them preach the Word of God, the Gospel of Christ. Let them inculcate obedience to God’s commands through faith in the Gospel. Let them obey that law without question, not as interpreted by the creeds, not as they choose, but as God has given it. Just as long as preachers ignore the explicit command of God as expressed in the fourth precept of the Decalogue, just so long will their hearers lightly regard the other precepts of the law. If the instructors of the church of God are “partial in the law” as regards the Sabbath precept, they must expect their hearers to be “partial in the law” as respects other precepts. If the priests interpret one plain command of God’s Word to suit themselves, they should not complain if the people interpret other precepts to suit themselves. God demands of both preacher and flock sincere, whole-hearted, unquestioning obedience.

One more point we wish to mention: Christ will never reign as above stated over this nation or any other as at present constituted, either personally or by proxy. He himself declares, “My kingdom is not of this world.” John 18:36. He reigns now by his Spirit and Word in the hearts of his people. When these are gathered out of all kingdoms and nations, then Christ will come, gather them home to himself, destroy sin and sinners out of the earth, renew its face, and then establish his everlasting reign of peace over a people who are “all righteous.” But he will not do this by any political methods; “the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” Isa. 9:7.

Such preaching as the above may be eloquent, but it is not Biblical. In the judgment day every soul will desire only that which will stand the test of God’s law, the rule of the judgment. Let them accept now; for “every plant, which My heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.”

“THOU SHALT LOVE THY NEIGHBOR.”

By Ellen G. White

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”

The law of God condemns all selfishness, and is at variance with all evil-thinking and evil-speaking. It enjoins upon men and women that kindness, gentleness, and forbearance, that tender guarding of the interests of others, which was revealed in the life of our Saviour. He who takes this law as his standard must carefully heed the words of Christ, “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” By unselfishness of heart and character, by a sincere love for our fellow-men, we may show that we are striving to honor our Maker; but if, finding the last six precepts of the law hard to keep, we transgress them by failing to manifest love for one another, by a lack of kind words and actions, we can not, with any truth, claim to be rendering acceptable service to God.

He who earnestly desires to fulfil the will of God must daily look into the law of God, the great moral looking-glass, that he may see himself as God sees him. But too often Christians neglect to do this. The mirror is not looked into as constantly as it should be, and our defects of character pass unnoticed. The command, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” is disregarded; we fail to respect the rights of our fellow-men. Self, highly estimated, calls for recognition, and we listen to its voice, walking far apart from those we should help, not regarding their wants and woes.

Many apologize for their spiritual weakness, for their outbursts of passion, for the lack of love they show their brethren. They feel a sense of estrangement from God, a realization of their bondage to self and sin; but their desire to do God’s will is based upon their own inclination, not upon the deep, inward conviction of the Holy Spirit. They believe that the law of God is binding; but they do not, with the eager interest of judgment-bound souls, compare their actions with that law. They admit that God should be worshiped and loved supremely, but God is not in all their thoughts. They believe that the precepts which enjoin love to man, should be observed; but they treat their fellow-men with cold indifference, and sometimes with injustice. Thus they walk away from the path of willing obedience. They do not carry the work of repentance far enough. The sense of their wrong should lead them to seek God most earnestly for power to reveal Christ by kindness and forbearance.

Many spasmodic efforts to reform are made, but those who make these efforts do not crucify self. They do not give themselves entirely into the hands of Christ, seeking for divine power to do his will. They are not willing to be molded after the divine similitude. In a general way they acknowledge their imperfections, but the particular sins are not given up. “We have done the things we ought not to have done,” they say, “and have left undone the things we ought to have done.” But their acts of selfishness, so offensive to God, are not seen in the light of his law. Full contrition is not expressed for the victories that self has gained.

The enemy is willing that these spasmodic efforts should be made; for those who make them engage in no decided warfare against evil. A soothing plaster, as it were, is placed over their minds, and in self-sufficiency they make a fresh start to do the will of God.

But a general conviction of sin is not reformative. We may have a vague, disagreeable sense of imperfection, but this will avail us nothing unless we make a decided effort to obtain the victory over sin. If we wish to cooperate with Christ, to overcome as he overcame, we must, in his strength, make the most determined resistance against self and selfishness.

Genuine reforms of character are not common. This is an obstacle in the way of spiritual advancement. What work shall be instituted to purify and cleanse self of its moral defilement? What shall be done to awaken those who confess their wrong, and yet never forsake their own way? A man who has professed Christ sees his old selfish nature rising, and gaining strength with each wrong action. His besetting sins bind him with fetters of iron, and he sees himself under the condemnation of the law. What shall he do? Whatever his calling or profession, whatever his rank or station in life, that man must realize in himself the truth of the words spoken to Nicodemus: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye must be born again.” “Except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God.”

There are many, too many, who claim to be servants of God, but who have no experimental knowledge of him. Their acknowledgement of Christ is misleading, because they have not faith to believe that he will give them power to overcome their sins. They do not receive him as their personal Saviour, and their characters reveal hereditary and cultivated defects. Their conduct is not brought into harmony with the law of God, but is influenced by their own inclinations. Selfishness binds them hand and foot. God looks with sorrow upon their bondage. If they would submit to his guidance, the light of his holy Word would flash upon their minds through the Holy Spirit’s power, convicting them of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment,—of sin, especially because they have claimed to do God’s will, and yet have neglected it. If they receive Christ as their personal Saviour, their sins will be forgiven; for God’s Word declares, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Of Christ it is written, “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”

A theory of truth may be taught and accepted, but this is of no avail to save unless the divine power of God is revealed in the life by unselfish actions and kindly words. Are you converted? Is Christ revealed in your daily life? No theory of truth will save you; no partial confessions will avail. With your whole heart you must serve God.

“Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love,” writes Paul, “in honor preferring one another.” “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ be in you, except ye be reprobate.” “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” “If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”

If men and women will critically examine their conduct, measuring it by the law of Jehovah, they will be enabled to see that sin is not limited to those things which the world condemns, but that selfishness and oppression, even in the smallest degree, are sins against God. They will see that by yielding to their inclinations, and refraining from obedience, they are depriving themselves of the richest blessings God can give.

“A new commandment I give unto you,” said Christ, “that ye love one another. As I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” He who fulfils his duty to his neighbor must of necessity love God supremely; but he who has little love for those who are in darkness, who are in great need of the revelation of the love of Jesus, is marked in the courts of heaven as a defaulter. He is weighed in the balances, and found wanting.

Love to God must be brought into our daily life. Then, and then only, can we show true love for our fellow-men. When this is done, when Christ is enthroned in our hearts, we manifest by our daily life, by our conversation, by our unselfish interest in one another, by our deep love for souls, that we are doers of the Word of God. The reality of our conversation is marked by a deep earnest piety, which purifies the soul, and works unceasingly for the good of others.

“Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God.” “Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” “The end of all things is at hand; be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. And above all things, have fervent charity among yourselves; for charity shall cover a multitude of sins.”

MRS. E. G. WHITE.

Question Corner

“Enquire, and make search, and ask diligently.”

No. 502. Rebaptism.

IS IT wrong for one who has been baptized in some other denomination, to be rebaptized when he joins the Seventh-day Adventist Church? INQUIRER.

This is a question which can not be answered dogmatically, and which must be naturally left with the individual himself. Baptism is the outward symbol of putting on Christ. It is the marriage ceremony between Christ and the believer. “As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Gal. 3:27. Now it would seem that if one had been baptized who understood the nature of baptism, who truly believed and accepted all that Christ had for him, and had so lived during his Christian experience, rebaptism would not be necessary. But it may have been true that his conception of Christ was such at the time of his baptism that later years revealed to him that at that time he did not really know Christ at all. He had no just conception of his truth or his duty. Such an one as he understands more of the truth of God, more of what it means to believe in Christ, may feel it his duty to publicly show again that he has united with Christ, but as to whether he does this or not is a matter for his own conscience to decide. When he who has been baptized has backslidden from the Lord, and turned away from him to serve himself and the world, it seems very proper and fitting indeed that if he return to the Lord, he be baptized again. We have a record in Acts 19: 2-5 of a rebaptism of disciples who were evidently sincere and faithful all through their experience. They were first baptized under John’s baptism, but John baptized in the name of Christ who was to come. The baptism of John was the baptism which our Lord himself received, at which time he said, “Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.” However, later new truth came to them, new light, new conceptions of God and Christ and the Holy Spirit, and they were baptized again. Eph. 4:5 might seem to some to be opposed to this idea, but that is not the thought in the text. The thought in the text is that there are not many kinds or forms of baptism, but only one baptism, even as there is but one God. So it is truly with the believer who may have believed once and may have been baptized. That was the one baptism to him, but if he became entirely backslidden, and had turned away from God, and his baptism had become of no effect, if he believes again he would be received as one who never had believed, and his baptism would be counted as such. All such questions as these must be decided by the individual himself. Let him earnestly seek God, and decide for his glory.

No. 503. How Much in the Promise? Gen. 13:14, 15.

IN Gen. 13:14, 15 do we understand that the promise to Abraham refers to the new earth? If so, how could it be said in Acts 7:17 that the promise which God had made to Abraham was drawing nigh, nearly four thousand years ago? F. H. S.

The promise in Gen. 13:14-17, had a special reference to the promised land, which was also typical of the new earth. This promise was confirmed and enlarged in Gen. 22:17, 18. In Rom. 4:13 we are expressly told that Abraham was to be the heir of the world, and these promises of God to him include it in type. The later promise in Gen. 22:17, 18 included it in fact, for the promise contemplates that all that is or would be opposed to the true seed of Abraham should be submitted to him, and that Christ should rule wherever the opposition of sin had manifested itself. The promise in Acts 7:17 would seem to have more direct reference to Gen. 15:13-21, where God made a covenant with Abraham to give him the land of Canaan. The promise there recorded drew nigh at the time of the Exodus from Egypt, as indicated in Acts. Altho it is doubtless true that if Israel had fully accepted the Lord when he delivered them from Egypt, he would have wrought much greater things for them; they would have entered into a rest, which, as it was, they never knew.

No. 504. The Salvation of Children.

WHEN Christ comes to this earth to gather his people, the 144,000 who are sealed, what will become of little children, and will the little infant children of heathen nations who have lived in different ages of the world’s history, be saved? S.

Only those will be condemned and lost who have sinned against God. All who have not sinned will be saved by the virtue of Christ. “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” 1 Cor. 15:22. As the children have no sins of their own for which to suffer, the conclusion is that those who are innocent will be saved. The Lord does not reveal to us his truth to satisfy our curiosity. The Word of God does not come to children who can not understand it. The Lord does not tell us how he deals with those who are outside of conscious sinning and the conscious reception of his Gospel. To do that would be pandering to mere curiosity. The Word of God is addressed to those who are responsible. All those who are not responsible we can leave safely with that God who is infinite in love and wisdom, and who delights not even in the death of the sinner.

No. 505. Sodom and Gomorrah.

AS Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire and brimstone from God out of heaven, will there be a resurrection of the wicked from those cities to suffer the second death? S.

We see no reason why there will not be. That was simply the first death, which they died in sin. It was a temporal judgment upon those cities because of great wickedness. Every one who was in the cities might have fled from the cities, had they heeded the warnings which God gave, but they chose the city and its sin, and perished with it. The case of each one as an individual will come before the Lord in the judgment, and each will there be rewarded according to his work. This is shown by the words of the Lord when he tells us “it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah” in the day of judgment than for other cities which he named.

Hiding from God.

God never hides from man when man is in trouble. When Adam sinned, it was not God who hid from Adam, but Adam tried to hide from God. Of course, the attempt was vain, but sin-blinded Adam could not see it. God saw it and knew it all. Adam hid himself, but God sought him. The sheep flees from the wise shepherd, the shepherd follows that he may save the sheep. Thus it was with the first sinner; thus it has been with every sinner since. It is man ever trying to hide his sins by self-justification or hypocrisy or hiding; it is God in tender love ever seeking the sinner to save him, to take away his sins, to set him in the right path. Even so, sinner, it is with us. We may think ourselves hidden from God, but he knows all about us, and he is “not far from every one of us.” Acts 17:27. If we love the sin more than God, we will hide with the sin, and turn from God. With the sin will we at last be destroyed; for “the end of those things is death.” But if we turn to God, show him our sins, he will look upon them, and the glory of his presence will consume the sin. Then we may hide in God.

THE SWEETEST LIVES.

By Mrs. Browning

The sweetest lives are those to duty wed; Whose deeds, both great and small, Are close-knit strands of an unbroken thread, Where love ennobles all. The world may sound no trumpets, ring no bells; The book of life the shining record tells.

Thy love shall chant its own beatitudes After its own life-workings. A child’s kiss Set on thy sighing lips shall make thee glad; A poor man served by thee shall make thee rich; A sick man helped by thee shall make thee strong; Thou shalt be helped thyself by every sense Of service which thou renderest.

—Mrs. Browning.

PEACE

By J. E. Evans

“Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace; thereby good shall come unto thee.” Job 22:21. To be acquainted with God is to be at peace with him; and to be unacquainted with him is to be a stranger to the one thing necessary to bring about a peaceful condition. “There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked.” Isa. 48:22. “The Lord will bless his people with peace.” Ps. 29:11. The blessing of peace is the knowledge of sins forgiven; and to all who are willing to acknowledge their sins he says: “Only acknowledge thine iniquity.” “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins, and their iniquities will I remember no more.” Why, then, should any one be deprived of that peace of mind assured to all who will believe? This was decreed in the councils of God and his Son at the beginning. Zech. 6:13.

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” Jer. 29:11. We must expect what God has promised his children. This is faith. A peaceful life is not enjoyed by any who trust alone in that which is human or temporal. We are rescued from the power of sin, and the consequent unrest, by a confiding trust in Him who is the author and unfailing source of all peace. “Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.” Isa. 27:5. Christ is the “Prince of Peace.” It is in him that “righteousness and peace have kissed each other,” and there alone can we find the peace thus expressed; “for he is our peace.” Eph. 2:14. All whose minds are stayed upon him are kept in perfect peace. “My peace I leave with you.” But we are so slow to learn the things which belong to our peace.

Conditions of Peace.

The enjoyment of peace, like all the promises of God, is realized only in Christ. He is our righteousness, “and the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.” “For thus saith the Lord God, . . . In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness, and in confidence shall be your strength.” Isa. 30:15. “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Rom. 5:1.

Another requisite to the enjoyment of peace is thus given: “O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea.” Isa. 48:18. “Great peace have they which love thy law; and nothing shall offend them.” Ps. 119:165. “But glory, honor, and peace, to every man that worketh good.” Rom. 2:10. Cheerful obedience to the law of God must be rendered by all who desire the peace of God to rule in their hearts; yet our own good deeds alone can never bring about peace of mind. The blessing of peace is experienced as a result of a condition, not merited by our good works, but such works are the natural fruit of a will thus surrendered, and a mind thus committed.

The Counterfeit.

By carefully studying the Word of God and the popular religion of to-day, it will be observed that the work of the Spirit of God is counterfeited. The character of the false is detected by a knowledge of the true, and none need, therefore, be deceived. The cry of “peace and safety” is a signal of danger. 1 Thess. 5:3. Peace is a blessing experienced individually, independent of surrounding circumstances, and can not be expected to reign on the earth until the lives of all are thus adorned. Jesus said, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword.” Matt. 10:34.

By our outward conformity to the world and the traditions of men, a semblance of peace is preserved; but such is of this world, and never can satisfy the longings of the soul which is reaching out after God. It is false, and, to all who hope in it, never can bring anything but disappointment and ruin. The Word of God has warned us against such peace, and has given us a description of its nature and workings in the papal system which so long ruled the world. “He shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many. He shall also stand up against the Prince of princes.” Dan. 8:25. This is a man-made peace, and is not the “work of righteousness.” The

song of the angels at the birth of the Saviour was, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men in whom he is well pleased.” Luke 2:13, R. V.

J. E. EVANS.

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