Signs of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 4. (1/28/1913)

Signs of the Times

Jan 28, 1913

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jan 28, 1913

Our Bible Band

Schedule for the Week Ending February 1, 1913

Day	Date	Chapters
Sunday	January 26	Genesis 42, 43
Monday	" 27	" 44, 45
Tuesday	" 28	" 46, 47
Wednesday	" 29	" 48, 49, 50
Thursday	" 30	Exodus 1, 2
Friday	" 31	" 3, 4
Sabbath	February 1	Psalms 10, 11, 12

Some of our chapters in Genesis are rather long, but they are always interesting. We complete the story of Joseph, his meeting with his brethren, the fulfilment of his dreams, the taking of his father down into Egypt, the death of the old patriarch, and finally the death of Joseph, Jacob’s blessing upon his sons, and the adoption of the sons of Joseph among the twelve tribes,—all these are of special interest. In the first four chapters of Exodus, we have an account of the Israelites in Egypt, very peaceful and prosperous at first; but when the new Shepherd Kings came into Egypt, they “knew not Joseph,” and they oppressed the children of Israel because they were fruitful and increased. But as it has been demonstrated many times in the world, the more God’s children were persecuted and oppressed, the more they multiplied and grew. Then comes the story of Moses, his birth, his remarkable preservation in God’s providence, his too previous act in endeavoring to deliver the Israelites—feeling that he was sufficient in himself because of his education and position in Egypt—his fleeing to the land of Midian where he took a postgraduate course in the desert—keeping sheep for forty years—and God’s call to him to deliver Israel from Egypt.

Our lesson in Psalms breathes strikingly some of the experiences of David, wrung from his heart, doubtless, when he was oppressed by Saul, and yet breathing trust in God; for while he saw oppression overwhelmingly victorious, yet he could say, “Jehovah is King forever and ever,” and could look forward to the time when the nations were perished out of his land. And while he prayed for help from Jehovah, and when it seemed that “the godly man ceaseth,” he could close his song with, “Thou wilt keep them, O Jehovah, Thou wilt preserve them from this generation forever,” regarding God’s children.

Question Corner

"IF YE WILL INQUIRE, INQUIRE YE."

This Inquirers' Department is conducted for the purpose of helping those who are studying the Bible. The answers are oftentimes only suggestive. They are never to be considered infallible, only as they agree with the infallible Word. The writer who may answer them does not consider that his opinion is infallible. He will simply give the best that he has, and plead with the inquirer to search the Word. Such questions only will be answered as, to the editors, seem to minister to the good of the readers and to the mission of the paper. We can not answer repeatedly in the same volume questions upon the same scripture. 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. No letters are answered which do not contain the name of the writer. It is well always to enclose stamp for reply.

3973 — Origin of the Names of the Days of the Week

Can you give me any light as to when and how the seven days of the week, as we have them now, received their names?

The Bible gives them as first, second, third, and so on. D. W. S.

The names of our present week are purely pagan, altho they have no such meaning as that to those who generally use them now. Sunday was so called because it was dedicated to the sun; Monday, the moon; Tuesday, from the god Tuisco; Wednesday, from the god Woden, one of the deities in the Norwegian mythology; Thursday, from the god Thor—the thunderer—a god of Northern Europe; Friday, from the goddess Frigga, another name for Venus; Saturday was named from Saturn, the father of Jupiter. All these days were dedicated to some one of the gods by various idolatrous nations. When the people of these nations became converted to Christianity, they brought the names of the days along with them. The mere names as such amount to little. The greatest loss in not holding to the Bible numbering of the days, is the regard for the Sabbath, for all the Bible days were numbered in respect to the Sabbath,—one into the Sabbath, second into the Sabbath, third into the Sabbath, and so on until we come to the sixth day, called Sabbath eve, and the seventh day the Sabbath; so that the remembering of “the Sabbath day to keep it holy” would begin with the very first of the week. Almost any good, unabridged dictionary would give these facts under each day.

3974 — Spirits in Prison

Please explain 1 Peter 3:18-20. J. L. L.

The passage reads as follows: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: by which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” The apostle's discourse is concerning the efficacy of the grace of God and of the death of Christ. Let us question the text:

What did Christ do?—He “suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous.”

Why?—“That He might bring us to God.”

What did He do that He might bring us to God?—“Being put to death in the flesh.”

By what was He made alive?—“But made alive, or quickened, by the Spirit.” See also Rom. 8:11,—“The Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead.”

What had He done by the Spirit previous to this?—“By which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison.”

Through whom did He preach?—Through Noah, “a preacher of righteousness.” 2 Peter 2:5; Heb. 11:7.

By what power did all God's prophets bear His message?—“The Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify.” 1 Peter 1:11.

Why did He preach to these spirits shut up in the prison-house of sin (Isa. 42:7; 61:1)?—“Which sometime were disobedient.”

When were they disobedient?—“When once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.”

Summing it all up, therefore, we learn that our Lord who died for us at one particular point of time in the plan of God—“in the fulness of time”—has been a Saviour all the way through the world's history; that He it was in the great testing time preceding the Deluge when the children of earth were in sin; that He preached to them through Noah, preached to them when they needed the preaching, preached when God's long-suffering was manifest, preached, and so saved eight souls in the ark. By this preaching, and by the acceptance of this message, Noah condemned the world and became the heir of God by the righteousness of faith. Heb. 11:7. If the gospel was sufficient to save Noah, then it was sufficient to save all those who had the same message that Noah did, and it is a perversion of the Scriptures to say that more than 2,000 years after, Jesus, in a disembodied spirit, went and preached to certain souls that were in hell. He preached to them through Noah, and preached to them when there was hope of their salvation, while the ark was preparing.

3975 — Definitions of Rome

Give me, please, the thoro definitions of the following terms: Apostolic Rome, Pagan Rome, Papal Rome. What is meant by them? N. E. T.

This would depend to some extent on who defined them. The usual Protestant understanding is as follows: “Apostolic Rome” would be Rome in the days of the apostles; that is, it would simply mean the Christian church at Rome as instructed by the apostle Paul and others. It could not mean any more than that, because after the apostles' days tradition came in and perverted more or less of the teachings of the apostles. We presume that Roman Catholics would call it Apostolic Rome to the present time; but the real test of this is, Is Rome's present teaching in harmony, or has Rome's teaching for many centuries been in harmony, with the teaching of the apostles? “Pagan Rome” is Rome under the pagan religion, or when the pagan religion was the state religion in Rome. This continued until about the fifth century. All of the affairs of state were conducted with reference to the worship of the gods. As to when “Papal Rome” began, there will be more or less difference of opinion. Some would date it from 533, when Justinian's decree made the bishop of Rome “head over all the holy churches, and true and only corrector of heretics.” Of course the Arian Ostrogoths at that time held Rome, and were not driven out until 538; but from that time on, in a general way, until the overthrowing of the Papacy in 1798, the Catholic states of Europe may generally be said to be under Papal Rome. So far as the city itself is concerned, it continued to be Papal Rome until the conquest of the States of the Church by Victor Emmanuel in 1870.

3976 — Sell and Give Alms

We are sometimes told to sell what we have and give alms. Does this mean all we can spare, or also the very roof over our heads? M. E.

We would like to assure our questioner that God does not ask her, or any one else, to do anything of this kind on the human say-so. If we are standing right with Him, if we are in touch with the Infinite, we will feel the promptings of His Spirit, as well as the voice of men. It certainly is right enough for those who have children and a little home, to keep the children and the little home. Sometimes God wants men to give absolutely all and follow Him, as He did the rich young man whom He met here upon the earth. See Matthew 19. He would have this young man become a herald and evangelist for Him, in giving His message to the world. Sometimes He is willing that men shall keep property, in order that they may make very much more for the support of His cause. He deals in different ways with different men, according to their disposition, needs, abilities, gifts, etc. What each one of us ought to do, is to stand responsive to His call; and what He asks us or directs us to do, to do it with simple faith in Him. If we will seek Him, certainly He will not leave us to ourselves.

3977 — Three Marys

Please explain Matt. 27:56; Mark 15:40; 16:1. Are there three Marys mentioned in Mark 16:1, 2? After Christ, how many children had Mary? P. T. O.

Matt. 27:56 reads, “Among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's children.” Mark 15:40 reads, “There were also women looking on afar off; among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome.” Mark 16:1,—“Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome.” In Matt. 27:56 there are three women mentioned,—Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's children. Putting that with Mark 15:40, we would conclude that the mother of Zebedee's children was named Salome, and this is in perfect harmony with Mark 16:1. There were, then, including the mother of our Lord, three Marys. Regarding Mary's children, see answer elsewhere, entitled “Children of Mary.”

3978 — Three Days and Three Nights

Kindly explain Matt. 12:40. Compare with John 19:42, 20:1,—“three days and three nights.” R. S. E.

The term “day and night” was one used by the Jews and found in Scripture, simply expressing a day. In round terms, it would be in three days and three nights. The term “the heart of the earth” occurs here only. Some contend that it means the grave, but there is nothing that would indicate that this is the case. Rather, would it not mean the powers of darkness, those absolutely controlling in the earth? This was the great Roman power. So when they came to arrest Jesus, He said, “This is your hour, and the power of darkness.” Luke 22:53. And just before this He said, “Now is the judgment [crisis] of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out” (John 12:31); and just before this, He prayed, “Father, save Me from this hour; but for this cause came I unto this hour.” John 12:27. With that hour began the three days of suffering and affliction and death and burial, to His resurrection. His arrest came, as generally understood. The three days included the whole of the sixth day, the whole of the seventh day, and the first part of the first day. For His disciples said, in speaking of His sufferings, “To-day is the third day since these things were done.” Luke 24:21. That shows that they understood these days in that common, broad sense. Compare with verse 7. This will explain John 19:42; 20:1. Jesus was buried on Friday, slept in the grave over the Sabbath, and was raised the first day of the week; and this first day of the week was the third day, as the disciples of that time understood it.

Self-Denial

MANY are almost tempted to think at times that the Christianity of the present time is altogether different in its requirements than Christianity in the days of our Saviour. Such judge from what they see rather than from what ought to be. In no one feature is there perhaps a more marked difference than in the matter of self-denial. “If any man will come after Me,” says our Lord and Pattern, “let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” Matt. 16:24. “Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself,” is recorded in Mark 8:34. See also Luke 9:23, where the cross is a “daily” matter.

This is the alphabet of God's gospel, the primary school—open to all of every clime and land. Many untutored in the written Word have been led by God's works in nature to the worship of the Creator.

These injunctions were heeded by the early Christians. Peter could say, “Lo, we have left all, and followed Thee.” No greater example of self-denial apart from the life of our Lord can be produced than that of the apostle Paul. The same spirit imbued the twelve and many others. Life, with all that the term means, was laid and bound on the altar of Christ.

The plan of salvation itself was laid in self-denial. The Son of the infinite God laid aside His glory with the Father, made Himself of no reputation, took upon Him the form of a servant, became poor that we might be made rich, and finally gave His life for sinful, rebellious man. Phil. 2:1-8; 2 Cor. 8:9. Never once in His earth-life did He minister to the desires of the flesh, nor even to its needs when urgent duty called in another direction. He denied Himself. And He says, “Follow Me.” His apostle, who possessed so much of the spirit of self-denial, says, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 2:5.

Many professed Christians believe these injunctions, and endeavor to obey them in their own strength. They deny self, and count it works of merit. This is not what the Bible demands. This is not the way the self-denial is to take place. We are not told to deny ourselves of anything which would make us purer, better, more capable of God’s blessing, or of better service to our fellow men. We are to deny “ungodliness and worldly lusts,” to crush out every high thing which exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bring every thought to the obedience of Christ. Titus 2:12; 2 Cor. 10:5.

It costs suffering of the flesh thus to deny self; but we do not have to do it in our own strength. If we did it by our power, we could then boast, and call self-denial a work of merit. But it is the grace and power of God that teaches this. “Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.” Titus 2:12. We are to deny what is opposed to soberness, righteousness, godliness, in the strength of the grace of Christ.

He who has tasted of this grace should be grateful; and he who is grateful, who has been called a son of God, will for Christ’s sake deny himself, and find it easy. One who knew so much of that grace said, “The love of Christ constraineth us.” There is no other way.

Jesus Christ the Way

It is by the love and power of God that the sinner is lifted from the pit and slough of sin, and “created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” Eph. 2:10. These good works have been wrought out in Christ, who overcame all that we might overcome, who was made like man, tempted as man, and overcame for us that we might overcome in Him. And in Christ is in the way from which man departed. “Out of the way” of righteousness, the sinner has departed; but in Christ he finds that righteousness in all its fulness, and finding that righteousness he also finds the peace. Rom. 5:1.

It is because of this that Jesus, in speaking of the blessed eternal home to come, and how it may be reached, says, “I am the Way.” John 14:6. Says Paul, “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him.” Col. 2:6. In Him we are to walk. His perfections include all fulness. In all the breadth and depth and height of the way of righteousness, Christ fills all. We are to develop a character in that fulness. Our deed may come short of the fulness, but faith lays hold of the fulness, and the fulness completes the deed.

Christ is not the Way for a little while,

He is the Way all the way. From the first step heavenward till our feet stand on the celestial shore, no more to wander on the barren deserts of sin, or to press the sometimes weary way of earthly pilgrimage, Christ is the Way. He is with us in the sore heart-breaking repentance, in the humble confession of sin, in the pruning of superfluous growths, in the persecutions, the trials, in the blessed joys of glad companionship — everywhere, at all times, Christ is there. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the whole alphabet of our earthly education for the better world. He is the Beginner and Finisher of our faith. He is Saviour, Master, Friend, Father. It is all summed up in the words, “I am the Way.” Reader, will you not walk in this way?

Character-Forming

Acts spring from thoughts, acts repeated make habits; and habits form character. It will be seen, therefore, that one act does not form a character, unless, indeed, which is rarely the case, that act involves enough of the powers and will of the individual so as to give him a permanent stamp or mold. “Character” means, literally, a mark or figure clearly defined or cut. So people who are yielding, vacillating, easily turned this way or that by various influences, are said to be of no character.

Character-forming is like shaping the rough marble into the graceful monument or the beautiful statue. The statue is there already in the sculptor’s mind. His ideal is clean-cut and beautiful. But shaping the stone to that ideal, requires constant, well-directed labor. The chisel makes but little impression with one blow from the mallet. Two makes a little more; but again and again and again is the blow repeated, till the necessary material is removed, and the perfect shape appears, to be planed and polished by careful, patient toil.

So it is in the Christian life. God’s truth has cut us out rough stones from the great quarry of the world. He accepts us in the Beloved, as fitted for certain places in that great heavenly temple, on the conditions that we can stand the character-forming. One temptation resisted does not form the habit of resisting that temptation, unless it is specially aggravated; two do not form the habit; but as we withstand again and again, the victory is won, the character is formed, and the temptation is no longer a temptation. So the covetous man, by constantly exercising liberality through the grace of Christ, forever overcomes his covetousness, and forms a liberal character. It is just as true in every other direction. The great builder is our Lord Jesus Christ (Zech. 6: 12, 13); the agents are His Word and Spirit. Therefore we “commend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.”

Prophecy—Its Exact Fulfilment

THE prophet Isaiah tells us in his 42d chapter and 9th verse, “Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.” God would have us learn from this, by the things which He has declared, and which have come to pass, that the things which He has declared, but which have not yet come to pass, will just as truly be fulfilled as were the former.

In these days of skepticism, it is well for us to recall some of the prophecies which God has given in ages past, the fulfilment of which have been manifest to the world for centuries. Let us take one uttered by the prophet Isaiah himself. It is found in his 13th chapter.

It is a prophecy concerning a city that had not yet reached the height of its glory.

It did not reach the height of its power and influence until more than one hundred years after this prophecy was uttered.

There was nothing in the history of the cities of the world at that time by which one could predict such particulars as Isaiah uttered concerning this city. He could in a general way have said that Babylon would go down, that it would come to nothing. But God through the prophet not only tells us that Babylon would come to nothing, but He tells us how utter that ruin would be, and what the character of the ruin would be in ages after. This is the prophecy. After saying that God would stir up the Medes against the Chaldeans, more than one hundred years before this occurred, he speaks thus of the city:

“And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation; neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall shepherds make their flocks to lie down there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and ostriches shall dwell there, and wild goats shall dance there. And wolves shall cry in their castles, and jackals in the pleasant palaces; and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.”

What a fearful picture of desolation it is, how particularly and clearly it is traced.

In B.C. 538, the Medo-Persian army conquered Babylon, entered “the two-leaved gates,” and thus fulfilled another prophecy; and the doom of Babylon was pronounced.

From that time the city began to go down. It existed in a dying way for a few centuries, but for many more centuries its very site was forgotten.

Not until the archeologists, in their excavations in recent years, was it known just where Babylon stood; but delving in the mysteries of the past, men have found the old records, the very bricks in the wall of the city, stamped with the name of the great builder, Nebuchadnezzar, the king who saw Babylon reach the height of its glory, the king who said in his pride, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?” Dan. 4: 30.

God’s Word could not fail, and in all the prophecies which He has given concerning the other wicked cities of the world, and the nations which deny Him, His Word will be just as literally fulfilled. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.”

All that God has said regarding the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, concerning the destruction of this sinful world, concerning, too, the glorious and blessed reward of His children and of that coming city whose Builder and Maker is God, shall not fail.

Men may anchor their hopes in that Word. Rejecting it, they may become a part of the great Babylon of the world, and go down with it. Accepting it, they will find that “He that doeth the will of God abideth forever.”

In the city of God there is hope. “What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of His people shall trust in it.” Isa. 14: 32.

Whose Plant Is It?

SAYS our Saviour, “Every plant, which My heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.” Matt. 15: 13. And these words were spoken in connection with the law of God and the motives which actuate men. There was an outward show of devotion in that tradition by which the self-righteous Pharisees made void one of the commandments of God. And in that devotion to tradition, which seemed to the superficial and worldly to honor God, they were accounted very pious. Their hearts were selfish, and the words of Jesus offended them. But the Teacher does not modify or apologize. He can give His life for them, but He can not compromise God’s truth. Their tradition was not planted by God; it will be rooted up.

And His words are just as applicable to any other like tradition. Will our readers weigh the words of Jesus and their bearing

on the Sabbath question, now so much agitated? Here is the seventh-day Sabbath, originating and supported by positive acts, and injunctions, and precepts in the Word of God. Here is the Sunday-sabbath which has not one single precept of the Bible for its support, not one single evidence that God regards it as sacred. Which of the two will you choose? Jesus says, “Every plant, which My heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.”

Unlimited Mercy

Greatness of sin will not exhaust the abundant mercy of God. This is well illustrated by the parable recorded in Matt. 18: 23-35. The unforgiving servant had been freely forgiven by his king a sum which in round numbers may be stated as $10,000,000 (ten million dollars); but this servant would not forgive his fellow servant a sum equal to fifteen dollars. Now the former sum represents the sinner’s debt to God, the latter sum the sinner’s offense against a fellow sinner.

The free forgiveness of the king of the vast sum shows the unlimited extent of God’s mercy and forgiveness, while the refusal to forgive fifteen dollars shows man’s measure of mercy. There is no comparison between the two; for the fact that the king forgave the vast amount freely showed that his mercy was practically unlimited, while on the other hand there is no reason to believe that the servant would not have shown the same unmerciful spirit if the amount had been one dollar instead of fifteen. Truly does the Lord say: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon [“multiply to pardon”]. For My thoughts [of mercy] are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isa. 55: 7-9.

Studies in Ephesians

(NOTE.— We study at this time a few more clauses in this marvelous sentence of Paul's, beginning with verse 3 and closing with verse 14. Each clause, almost each phrase, has a volume of suggestion in itself.)

Questioning the Text

1. What do we have in the Beloved?

“In whom we have our redemption.” Verse 7. Note 1.

2. Through what do we have redemption?

“Through His blood.” Verse 7. Note 2.

3. What does this mean to those who accept His redemption?

“The forgiveness of our trespasses.” Verse 7. Note 3.

4. According to what does He grant forgiveness?

“According to the riches of His grace.” Verse 7. Note 4.

5. How has He made this grace abound toward us?

“Which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence.” Verse 8. Note 5.

Notes

1. “In whom we have our redemption.”—Man can not buy himself. No combination of men can buy another back from the sin into which men have fallen. It is not a matter of purchase. Sin is a disease, a deadly disease,—mortal, fatal, always so, so far as the human heart is concerned. It was the contemplation of this which led the prophet to exclaim, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is desperately sick.” Jer. 17:9, R.V. The American Revised puts it, “and it is exceedingly corrupt;” the Common Version, “and desperately wicked.” Paul very gently puts it, in Rom. 3:23, as coming “short of the glory of God.” But in the 7th chapter of Romans, he likens it to a body of death, which the poor, sinful soul must be weighted with until he himself is overcome with it, and which led him to exclaim, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Rom. 7:24. Truly the psalmist sang, in speaking of mortals, “None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him.” But God in His mercy gave His only-beloved Son, and that Son in love gave Himself. The price paid was an infinite one: He died to redeem us. In Him we have our redemption, slaves bought back from the bondage of sin; and all, irrespective of age, or race, or tribe, or nation, or sex, belong to Him by purchase.

2. “Through His blood.”—The blood stands for the life. Lev. 17:11. The life of the flesh is the blood. Jesus was “the Word made flesh.” We can not understand, we need not understand all the mysteries of it; faith can grasp the great fact. “When the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that He might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” Gal. 4:4. “He poured out His soul unto death;” and in the last expiring agonies of the cross Heaven itself seemed shut out from Him, as He bore the penalty of even the impenitent. Had it not been for the perfect, righteous character, free from every stain of sin, the Son of God would not have come back from the grave. It had no power over Him (Acts 2:24), because there was no sin upon Him of His own; yet He bore our sins, for God “made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Cor. 5:21.

3. “The forgiveness of our trespasses.”—What a blessed thing it is to one who hates sin! How even the hardened heart at times, wooed by the blessed Spirit of God, longs to be free from sin. He looks back over a dark past; he sees where he has wronged others, more than all else, wronged his own soul. Sometimes his crime haunts him. He goes over it again in his dreams. If he believes God, he knows that sometime it will face him in the judgment; it has eaten out the very moral fiber of his life. Truly, it is a body of death which drags down to destruction. But there is forgiveness, and forgiveness of our trespasses means that the trespasses are forgiven,—taken away, so that God looks upon us as sinless in His sight. The righteousness of God in Christ Jesus is imputed to us for our sinfulness; it is changing the old, filthy garment of our own failures for that woven in the loom of heaven by Christ Jesus our Lord. Read the graphic picture told in Isaiah 61: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.” Verse 10. See also verse 3.

4. “According to the riches of His grace.”—How good it is that God does not work according to our poor, mean conceptions of His goodness! He does not forgive us as men forgive. He does not say, I will forgive you if you will never sin again. He freely forgives. Even tho He knows that we may sin the next day, yet He freely forgives. He knows, whether we see the sin in our heart or not; but He sees, He knows, that we may fall to-morrow. We do not know it, and the tender, penitent heart does not feel that it will; but God knows it, knows that we are children, knows that He can not teach us so that we could appreciate that we would stumble again. But He forgives, and forgives us in order that we may know that there is no being in all the universe that welcomes us back from the fall, who is so ready to reach out the divine helping hand and lift us up, as is He. The permanent turning away of mortals from God is not because God will not forgive; it is because the human heart becomes so saturated with sin that it will not return to God. Praise God, He forgives “according to the riches of His grace,” so that inspired prayer left us through the psalmist after he had committed his awful sin, opens with such words of encouragement to the sinner: “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy loving-kindness: according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.” It is the prayer for the sinner to plead. God has left it on record, and every prayer that He has left on record His Spirit waits to “make good” to the one who will appropriate it by faith; so He grants us forgiveness “according to the riches of His grace,” the eternal riches in Christ Jesus. And then He looks upon us as tho we had never sinned.

5. “Made to abound.”—Always to abound, all that is necessary; and yet He gives it in “wisdom and prudence;” But the wisdom and prudence is such that there is never a lack. When men try to draw the line of prudence, sometimes it makes them niggardly and stingy; not so with God. The grace abounds above the sin, for “where sin did abound, grace did super-abound.” See Rom. 5:20. “Mercy glorieth over judgment.” He does not give us too much, however. There are some whom Satan would encourage to be very great; they want not only forgiveness of sins, but they want recognition as great men in God’s cause. So far as the development of workers is concerned, God tests men in all wisdom and prudence. There is always-abounding grace for the forgiveness of sins; there is always prudent grace in the development of our own soul for service. Let us be willing to leave it all with Him,—grace for forgiveness of sin, grace for victory over sin, and all the grace that we need to serve Him where He chooses.

The Prophetic Word

1. Of what has God assured His children concerning His revelation?

“The secret things belong unto Jehovah our God; but the things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” Deut. 29: 29.

2. Of what has He assured us concerning the judgments and troubles which should come upon the earth?

“Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and shall not the Lord do somewhat? Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets.” Amos 3: 6, 7, margin.

3. What is one of the striking evidences which He gives of His Godhead?

“Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.” Isa. 46: 9, 10.

4. For what purpose did He bring His prophet before the great king of Babylon?

“But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and He hath made known to the King Nebuchadnezzar WHAT SHALL BE IN THE LATTER DAYS.” Dan. 2: 28.

5. Referring to the destruction of Jerusalem and the prophecy concerning it, what encouragement did Jesus give us?

“When therefore ye see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (LET HIM THAT READETH UNDERSTAND).” Matt. 24: 15.

6. Of what has God assured us concerning a book that deals wholly with prophecy?

“Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written therein: for the time is at hand.” Rev. 1: 3.

7. What comfort has God given to His children who are passing through the darkness of this world?

“And we have the WORD OF PROPHECY made more sure; whereunto ye DO WELL THAT YE TAKE HEED, as unto a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts.” 2 Peter 1:19.

NOTE.—If our readers will study the verses preceding this last scripture, they will find Peter stating that he, with others, saw Christ’s transfiguration in glory, and heard God’s voice owning Him as a beloved Son, and that this vision on the mount of transfiguration was a prophecy in type of the second coming of our Lord. But Peter had something better than that, more sure than the evidences of one’s senses,— he had the great prophetic Word of God; and God’s children have that prophetic Word for these days; and it sheds marvelous light on all of the world’s dark problems.

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