HISTORY is simply the record of what sin has done. It can only be understood in the light of eternity. The only true history is in the great books of heaven, and it is only as we approach the accuracy of that record, and view it from that standpoint, that we can rightly get out of history what there is in it for us.
The history of this world when completed will have illustrated the full nature of sin. Indeed, this world only stands until this is done and until a sufficient number are saved out of it to people the earth when it is made new, so that when time closes its record will everlastingly declare the awful results of the least departure from the law of God. This is why this experiment of sin was permitted to take place, to show what sin is. The time will come when it will all be in the past,—all this horror and cruelty and woe that have followed as the natural result of the first thought of self cherished in the mind of the covering cherub. Eze. 28:14–19; Isa. 14:12–14. And the record of it will then remain to all eternity, as a most eloquent witness that with the maintenance of God’s government is bound up the happiness of all his creatures.
God has always been love. But the difference between selfishness and love could not well have been displayed without this experiment of sin. God has always been the embodiment of mercy. But mercy could never have been manifested, in other words, could never have been shown to the worlds as one of God’s attributes, if nothing had arisen whereby an offender could be treated better than he deserved. This also is a reason why sin has been permitted to take place. But coming down from these general principles there are some points in the details of this history that teach us truths too often lost sight of, but which are of special importance to the world to-day.
The Bible is a manual on the history of sin that God has given to man for his salvation from sin and from its consequences. It contains a history of sin from the first lifting up of the heart in the covering cherub because of his beauty, down through all the ages, “past the rise and fall of kingdoms, past the setting up and overthrow of empires, on into the eternal state,” when all things earthly are made new, and the great originator of sin “never shall be any more.” And not only so, but this revelation of God’s will contains every principle, or the means for the development of every principle, that has found or will find illustration in the history of sin. When its record is complete, it will then be demonstrated by nations and by individuals that one ray of light from the throne of God is sufficient to save from the lowest depths of degradation and woe, and that if men will not be saved, they will stumble upon the dark mountains beneath the full blaze of gospel light, and go down to perdition, when all heaven is reaching forth to save them. This is the great lesson of the ages, the great lesson of history, and, as we said before, if anyone does not find this on every page of its record, he has not got out of it all there is in it for him.
THE VIEW POINT.
There has been a great deal written concerning the philosophy of history, the verdict of history, and the hand of God in history. Much of this has been grand and good, but, because of looking at the subject from a partial standpoint, it has been but the statement of a half truth. The only correct position from which to view it is the throne of God, to look upon it from outside the limits of time. But the same truths will be found in the minute as in the general view, the same in the history of individuals as of nations, and of the world as a whole.
We in this age of the world have a vast advantage in this respect over those of other times, and yet very many, even from the first, have seen the great outlines of this work. Adam was told (and he and some of his children believed it) of the conflict between good and evil, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head. This is history—the history of this world in a nutshell; it gives promise of the time when sin shall be no more, and when mankind shall be saved by this seed of the woman from sin, its power, and its consequences. To the serious thinkers of the past and present “history is but a panorama of Providence.”
Gibbon, in viewing the fragments of the capitol of Rome, may have acknowledged the intervention of a superior fate. But many have stopped here. Some have gone further and have seen the hand of God at the right time and place bring forth a man to do a certain work. Pitt said, on hearing of the capture of Quebec by Wolfe, “the more a man is versed in the history of nations, the more he sees the hand of an overruling Providence everywhere.” Some have gone further than this again, and have seen that at a certain stage of events God has brought men and circumstances together and has in a great measure regenerated human society. D’Aubigne has grown eloquent on this subject, and has said in the preface to his noted history of the Reformation that “the history of the world must ever be regarded as the open annals of the government of the King of kings.” And again: “This all-powerful hand which is descried through the scattered heaps of the monuments of Romulus, of the sculptured works of Marcus-Aurelius, of the busts of Cicero and of Virgil, of the statues of Cæsar and of Augustus, of the trophies of Trajan, and the horses of Pompey, by a man of admirable genius, but who had not bent the knee before Jesus Christ, shall we not discover this same palm amidst the rubbish of every ruin, and acknowledge it to belong to the arm of our God?”
But how indefinite and unsatisfactory is all this. It is true it was grand then; it is grand now, and is the truth; but we of the closing hours of time, we who give the last message of love and mercy to a perishing world, we can see more than this, and can get more of the principles that are displayed in the history of this world. This great book of man, and his life on earth, and God’s dealings with him, will ever be the subject of our study through all eternity. And it is but fitting that we should now be studying some of these great truths, even though we find but few of them and comprehend them but dimly. And it is doubly fitting that we who gave the warning against the worship of the beast and his image, and who, on this account, should, above all others, be well acquainted with the records of the past, should get from the storehouse of God’s word whatever there is there on this subject that will help us in making the great truths for this time plain and beautiful to the comprehension of the people.
GOD’S WORD OUR BASIS.
The twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh verses of the seventeenth chapter of Acts give us a grand working basis for the development of some of these principles. God “hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him.” From the beginning there have been the great objects before mentioned that were to be demonstrated here,—“the working out of Satan’s rule in contrast with the government of God; the demonstration to the whole created universe of what God was willing to sacrifice in order to redeem his fallen children; and the gathering out of the nations a people for his name, sufficient in number to people this earth when redeemed and purified from the trace and curse of sin.” And when we can look upon this from the standpoint of eternity, we will see that these results were accomplished in as short a time, and with as little sin and suffering and woe, as possible. This demonstration is to be for the benefit of the created universe, not for a hundred million years, nor for a hundred million times the period of the reign of sin, but to all eternity. And so we say again that the work will be completed as soon as possible consistent with its being done thoroughly and well.
(To be continued.)
A THIRD HOUSE.
By Editor
SOME time ago a Cleveland paper reported Wilbur F. Crafts, when organizing a Sunday League in that city, as saying:—
“Since Elliott F. Shepard died, the cause has greatly lacked for financial aid, but we are going to organize a “third House” in Washington; that will bring the right sort of pressure to bear on Congress.”
It has been evident for a considerable time that the promoters of religious law have been planning to bring, if possible, still greater influences to bear, to attain their ends, than ever before. Their experience with Congress in the World’s Fair Sunday-closing question taught them, as they have not hesitated to say, that they could control congressmen and intimidate them by political means into obedience to their requirements. This, then, is the first result of their councils made public,—the establishment of a “third House” at Washington, similar, of course, to that70which the Roman Catholics have had in successful operation there for several years. So, however successful this may prove to be, it can only be an imitation of that which the Romanists have done before them. No doubt, too, as the specialty of this “third House” will be to seek the national enforcement of a Catholic institution,—Sunday,—it will receive a cordial welcome and hearty proffer of assistance from the already established Roman Catholic lobby.—American Sentinel.
BLASPHEMOUS TITLES AND CLAIMS OF THE PAPACY.
By J. M. Kutz
BY J. M. KUTZ.
THE following are taken from "Cathedra Petri," a standard work of the Catholic Church, giving "The Titles and Prerogatives of St. Peter and of his See and Successors, as described by the Early Fathers, Ecclesiastical Writers, and Councils of the Church," by Charles F. B. Allnatt:—
"Peter, THE ROCK OF THE FAITH," "THE ROCK OF THE CHURCH," "THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH," "THE ROCK OF THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH," "UPON WHOM THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IS BUILT," "AGAINST WHOM THE GATES OF HELL SHALL NOT PREVAIL," "UPON HIM [Peter], AS ON THE EARTH, THE CHURCH WAS FOUNDED."
All this is spoken of Peter; but on page 66 of this book the strong statement is made that "what is said of Peter, the popes claim decidedly for themselves," and so we have on the same page Pope Theodore addressed thus: "O HOLY HEAD! . . . ON THEE, AS A FOUNDATION STONE, have the pillars of the church been fixed;" and on pages 56, 57, "Pope Siricius, A.D. 386," said, "I bear the burdens of all who are heavy laden." Then all through the book we have the following titles and prerogatives applied to Peter and his so-called successors:—
"THE KEEPER OF HEAVEN," "KEEPER OF THE GATE OF HEAVEN," "THE PILLAR OF THE FAITH," "THE PRINCE OF THE WHOLE CHURCH," "THE PRINCE OF PRINCES," "THE SHEPHERD OF THE FLOCK," "THOU ART THE ONE SHEPHERD," "THE SHEPHERD OF SHEPHERDS," "THE HEAD OF THE BODY," "THE HEAD OF THE WHOLE FAITH," "THE HEAD OF ALL THE CHURCHES OF GOD," "MOST HOLY AND BLESSED FATHER," "TO THE MOST HOLY APOSTOLIC LORD, AND MOST BLESSED FATHER OF FATHERS," "To Leo, the Pope, the most blessed Lord." "THE VICAR OF CHRIST," "THE PASTOR OF PASTORS," "THOU ART THE CHIEF OF ALL." "St. Bernard, A. D. 1150, thus addresses Pope Eugenius III.: Who art thou?—THE HIGH PRIEST, THE SUPREME BISHOP. THOU ART THE PRINCE OF THE BISHOPS. THOU ART THE HEIR OF THE APOSTLES. THOU ART ABEL IN PRIMACY, NOAH IN GOVERNMENT, ABRAHAM IN THE PATRIARCHAL RANK; IN ORDER, MELCHISEDECH, IN DIGNITY, AARON, IN AUTHORITY, MOSES; SAMUEL IN THE JUDICIAL OFFICE, PETER IN POWER, CHRIST IN UNCTION. THOU ART HE TO WHOM THE KEYS OF HEAVEN ARE GIVEN, TO WHOM THE SHEEP ARE INTRUSTED. . . . THOU ART THE ONE SHEPHERD."
Add to all this the following: "Infallible Pope," "Most Powerful Word," "Chief Pastor and Teacher and Physician of Souls," taken from Monsignor Capel's pamphlet (who was private chaplain to Pope Pius IX.), entitled "The Pope, the Vicar of Christ, the Head of the Church." And this from "Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation" (pages 138, 139): "Vicegerent of the Son of God," "Our Lord God the Pope," "Another God upon earth," "King of Kings and Lord of Lords," "The Lion of the Tribe of Judah, The Promised Saviour."
And this from "The Two Republics," page 568: "The Living Christ," "The Voice of God."
Who, after reading all this, can doubt that the Papacy is the "little horn" of Daniel 7, which spake "great words against the Most High," and who in the following blasphemous words has thought to change God's law and set aside his Holy Sabbath day:—
"The Bible says, Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day. The Catholic Church says, NO! By my divine power I abolish the Sabbath day, and command you to keep holy the first day of the week. And lo! the entire civilized world bows down in reverent obedience to the command of the holy Catholic Church. [Italics mine.]"—Father T. Enright, Css. R. of Redemptorist College, Kansas City, Mo., in American Sentinel, June 1, 1893.
Dear reader, whom do you obey? Whose day do you keep holy? Whose sign or mark do you have? The seventh day is God's sign, or mark of his power in creation. See Ex. 31:17; Eze. 20:20. The first day is the sign or mark of a rival power, i.e., the Papacy, "the man of sin." Again I ask, Whom do you worship or obey? Please read Rev. 14:9-12 and 15:1-3.
Harrisburg, Pa.
CONVERSION.
By William Covert
BY ELDER WILLIAM COVERT.
THE sad result that has come to man through transgression, is such that unless there is accomplished for him an entire change of nature, he can never meet the purpose for which his creation was intended. Although the Lord made man upright, and sent him forth in life in a state of innocence, he did not long retain that happy condition. By yielding to temptation his nature was soon found to be "only evil continually," and his purposes and desires were so wholly perverted that not a man in the world possessed moral strength of himself to obey the law of God, even if he had desired so to do.
The evil one gained such complete control of man's fleshly nature that he was thereby incapacitated to obey God's law, which was in its nature spiritual. The exercising of the mind through the carnal senses so strengthened these tendencies, directing them in evil, that the apostle wrote, "The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Rom. 8:7.
As the carnal mind cannot be subject to the law of God, it is useless to expect anything
good to come from it, and he that is laboring to so model the unregenerate mind as to cause it to yield the fruits of righteousness, will meet with constant disappointment.
The mind which is of itself enmity against God, cannot possibly be made to love God; therefore Satan has made it to be the embodiment of all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, having filled it up with envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, causing it to hate God, boast of its own achievements, invent evil things, lose the knowledge of that which is for the best good of man, and to live without mercy, love, or natural affection. Rom. 1:28-31.
Although God's word teaches that these evils are all generated and fostered in the fleshly mind, yet the heart that gives them the free use of its soil, will be most likely to disown their presence; because the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and yet ignorant of its own desperate condition. See Jer. 17: 9.
Not only does sin leave the sinner in ignorance as to his own condition, but it renders his nature incapable of being taught or of exercising judgment in divine things. The apostle says that because men did not like to retain God in their knowledge, they were given over to a mind that was void of judgment, that they might do those things that are not convenient. Rom. 1:28.
They became useless for good through their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. With only a foolish, darkened mind, and that tending downward, Satan's victory seemed complete over them. Rom. 1:21; Eph. 4:17.
The great danger therefore to the sinner lies in the fact that his sensibilities are deadened by his own transgressions till he cannot see that he is in the very jaws of death, and being devoured by the gnawings of that which he calls pleasure. In this insensible condition sin is committed with all greediness. Yet even in this dead state, let not one sinner think that his case is beyond reach. It is his privilege still to choose the service of God, and believe his promises. When this is done he is in a condition to hope for all that is good. The Lord calls upon the sinner, saying, "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: 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."
The thoughts of the unrighteous man, which he is here advised to forsake, are the products of the carnal mind. As that mind cannot be subject to the law of God, the only way of relief is to forsake it, that it may perish. Having forsaken his own mind, the Lord comes in with thoughts as much higher than those which have been refused, as heaven is higher than the earth. Isa. 55:6-9.
A constant choosing of the Lord will work an entire change of the whole being. The Lord's thoughts in the mind bring in wisdom where once there was foolishness, and righteousness where sin had previously been enthroned.
This change is what is commonly called conversion. The Saviour said, "Except ye be converted [Revised Version, "except ye turn"], and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 18:3. To start in life anew as a little child would require of an adult to be utterly emptied71of himself, and to count all that he has ever claimed to know as nothing, and worthless.
The kind of reckoning for the sinner to make of what he may have thought he had been in the past, is well expressed in the following statement: "What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." Phil. 3:7, 8. It is to let go all hold of your own works, your own wisdom, your own way, and learn that all of this is only counted against you. All is but sin which is intervening between yourself and the kingdom of God. Do not permit it to remain in the way, but forsake it immediately and forever, together with all that ever grew out of it.
The heart of the sinner has become so hardened by transgression that it stoutly resists the influence of the Spirit of God. For this reason, the Lord has found that in this there must be wrought a complete reconstruction; therefore he says, "I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and I will give them an heart of flesh; that they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them." Eze. 11:19, 20.
Another has said, "They made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his Spirit by the former prophets." Zech. 7:12.
Thus the natural heart was not only void of righteousness but it was utterly opposed to it. With such a heart as this view presents, there can be no obedience to God hoped for. Neither can a heart of a nature so unimpressible be made to live and feel. It must therefore be removed and a new heart placed within, which will take on life and tenderness, a heart that can be moved and controlled by the Spirit of God. David asked for the kind of heart that every sinner needs, when in his prayer he said, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." Ps. 51:10.
Such a prayer as the Psalmist here offered, proved that he was taught what had to be done for him before he could be a happy, free man. His request was that he might be purged of sin, and made clean through and through. When this was accomplished in him, he said that he should be whiter than snow. Snow is the whitest substance known in the material world, but the heart, purged and cleansed from sin by the Spirit of God and the blood of Jesus Christ, is whiter than snow.
But the change necessary to bring about this glorious condition cannot be accomplished until there is an unconditional surrender of self, a consecration so complete that the Lord is permitted to take the full possession of the whole being, and do with the life in every purpose just what he pleases. Sinner, are you willing to let him do this?
(Concluded next week.)
GOD IS LOVE.
By B. G. Kingsley
BY B. G. KINGSLEY.
[A deaf mute boy once made a cross with a scroll on which were the words, "God is Love." Flowers and leaves surrounded the cross. He presented it to his teacher with a smiling face, pointing to the flowers.]
Poor child of silence, on whose youthful shoulders
The heavy cross of dumbness has been laid,
Say, do you know the meaning of the letters
That on the scroll your docile hand has made?
Say, have you learned that truth so often questioned
That trials come direct from heaven above—
That on each cross, from His who bore our sorrow,
Is written in golden letters—God is Love?
No answer; but the smile of sunny brightness
That lights your face, as, with a joyous air,
You show the flowers that, round the dark wood
circling,
Make of the heavy wood an object fair,
Speaks to my heart in language more convincing
Than words could do, that God indeed is Love,
Who not alone the burden keeps from pressing,
But makes it bright with blessings from above.
THE ROMAN CURIA, OR COLLEGE OF CARDINALS.
By Lord Robert Montague
CONSIDER the character of the Roman Curia, to which the Romish bishops all over the world have sworn implicit obedience, just as the priests also have sworn entire submission to their bishops. The Curia is a cabinet of long standing, great practice, experience, and knowledge of affairs. It never goes out by the action of an adverse majority in a representative chamber. It never suffers change, except as one member or another drops off by old age and death. Like the Russian cabinet, it comprises all the best intellects of Europe and the New World. It combines the astuteness of the Italian, the solidity of the Englishman, the inventive genius of the American, the clear subtlety of the Frenchman, the dogged perseverance and persistence of the German, the duplicity of the Oriental, and the falsehood of all. All those varied intellects have been carefully trained for their work, and been experienced in diplomacy, while from the intimate reports derived from priestly confessors all over the world, the best and most detailed knowledge of the characters and intentions of statesmen and the passions of people, are ready to their hand. The Vatican is the center of all the intelligence and information of the world; and every bishop has periodically to visit Rome, in order that his inmost soul may be probed, and his continual reports may be tested. Such is the cabinet with which Protestant statesmen hope on equal terms to cope.
The Church of Rome is, in fact, not a body of theological doctrine or belief, but a huge and intricate system of government. It is an empire; it is an absolute monarchy, with its college of cardinals, or privy councillors—a monarchy which rules, not only by means of force, and which governs, not only the bodies and outward actions of its subjects, but which rules the conscience by means of spiritual terrors, and insures the most abject obedience by means of superstitious feelings. As a study of the Syllabus of December 8, 1864, will show, the papal government is a conspiracy of the subtlest and best-informed minds against the fortunes and liabilities of mankind. It has agents in every land and every nation; for every priest, every monk, every nun, every member of a religious confraternity, is an agent of that government. And every one of these—the whole body, indeed, of the Romanists—move as one army, in accordance with the orders from the Vatican.
By all the allurements of sense, by the feigned terrors of the unseen world, by artifices nicely calculated, on an intimate acquaintance with each man's idiosyncrasies, tendencies, antecedents, and present frame of mind, by the power acquired through the knowledge of some secret crime, by enticing young persons of mark to commit themselves in perpetrating some disgraceful act, so that their fair name and fame, their honor and their liberties, are placed in the hands of the agents of Rome, by memories of the past and poignant stings of remorse, by offers of preferment, office, glory, and fame, with assurances of safety and secrecy in exchange for services rendered clandestinely to Rome,—by all these means, and many others, the Vatican is ever increasing in every land its body of adherents, who must implicitly obey, while they hate her. Nor can honor, or patriotism, or even family affection, intervene. Conscience is goaded, and oaths compel them to discard the laws and the welfare of their nation, with the love of kindred, the entreaties of a wife, the paternal instincts of a father for his children, in order to submit to and obey the mandates of the pope.
The system of the Church of Rome is a wonderful mechanism. Its center is the pope. Yet it is independent of the pope. Many a pope has been a dotard; very many have been debauchees. Yet the machine works on, irrespectively of his idiosyncrasies. It is the cabinet, the privy council, the college of cardinals, that governs. That body never dies. One old man and another falls away, like a sere and yellow leaf, but the tree remains; the traditions and the knowledge of centuries are still there. The records of the past are added to the daily experience of the present; and that experience is being ever gathered in every corner of the earth, wherever there is a priest or a missioner. From every race, from every land, from every people, nay, from every family, there stretches a telegraphic wire of secret intelligence to the central station of the Vatican. There the intelligence is used by free minds, who are destitute of family, without all the affections which are natural to man, without a country or a home, without patriotism, without restraint of obligations, oaths, moral principles, or divine laws, because the word of the pope is supposed to tear those holy fetters away as gossamer webs, and priestly absolution is held to wash out even the slightest taint of sin. That is right which is done to advance the power of the pope. That is true which the pope may please to assert, ex cathedra. That which favors the interest of the church is good. Even crime is commendable if it be done for the church.
Coleridge, the poet and philosopher, said that there are two kinds of strong persons, who must always prevail over men that vary in their aims, and sometimes move in one direction and sometimes in another. He is strong who acts always in accordance with the will of God, and allows no consideration, no passion, and no interest, to make him deviate from the path of resolute and simple justice; and he, too, is strong who puts before himself one end, to which he constantly aims, without swerving to one side or the other, allowing no considerations of right and wrong, no soft or benevolent feeling, no passion, no natural affection, to intervene or deter. Forte nihil difficile. The latter succeeds in this world, the former lives for eternity. Hence the success, for centuries, of the Vatican. Emperors have resisted it, and fallen. Ministers have framed their policies to curb the pretensions of the pope, and have been overcome. The devices of premiers are weak in opposition to the intrigues of the Curia. The advance of the Papacy has always been as the advance of the plague, irresistible, unsparing, remorseless, and deadly. Its myriads of secret agents overmatch armies and dispose of their generals. Its purposes are fathomless as the sea and silent as the grave. Its action is in every State; setting nation to hamper nation, and exciting one statesman against another, breaking up, dividing, crumbling its enemies, while its own party is always united, conspiring everywhere towards one object. Ever victorious, it will triumph until the great hour for the doom of the harlot which sits upon the nations of the earth, has struck, until the warning voice has been heard through the world: 'Come out of8her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. . . . For she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire; for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.'—Lord Robert Montague.
The Path of Duty
“The path of duty lies in what is near, and men seek for it in what is remote. The work of duty lies in what is easy, and men seek for it in what is difficult.”
Lost Hours
By Horace Mann
Lost yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward offered for they are gone forever.—Horace Mann.
ZACCHEUS, COME DOWN.
By H. A. St. John
BY ELDER H. A. ST. JOHN.
ZACCHEUS was a rich tax collector who lived near Jericho in the days of Christ. That he was a Jew is indicated both by his name and the fact that Jesus calls him a son of Abraham. As Jesus was passing through Jericho on his way to Jerusalem the last time before his passion, Zaccheus was seized with an ardent desire to see him. Obviously it was simply curiosity that actuated him, for we do not learn that he had any requests to make, nor did he even intend to make himself known to Jesus.
Being small of stature, his ingenuity suggested that the best way to get a good view of the strange prophet would be for him to climb a tree by the wayside. We can almost see him now quickly scaling a sycamore tree and seating himself on a low bough projecting over the roadside, anxiously awaiting the coming throng that tread upon the footsteps of Jesus. Secluded among the foliage, Zaccheus no doubt imagines that he will have a superb view of the Prophet of Nazareth and perhaps not be observed by anyone. With almost breathless silence he waits, but he does not wait long. He hears the slow, measured tread of the multitude, and sees the mighty throng approaching. He has not made a mistake in the situation selected, for they will pass under the tree. As the multitude come nearer, Zaccheus is able very soon to fix his eyes upon the great Teacher, for he is the center of attraction in that vast tide of humanity. Jesus has now come under the sycamore tree, and with absorbing interest Zaccheus gazes upon him. But imagine his delight when Jesus stops right there, thus enabling him to get a longer view.
But this is not all. Jesus looks up, and sees the little man of wealth perched among the branches of the tree over his head. Zaccheus is almost discomfited by this searching gaze, and greater still is his astonishment when Jesus speaks, and with thrilling distinctness calls, "Zaccheus, make haste, and come down; for to-day I must abide at thy house." Luke 19 : 5. What a stirring utterance! Never had Zaccheus listened to such a command as that. The very first word of this command revealed the prophet. No word in the native tongue was more familiar to this little man than his own name, for he had heard it from babyhood, with all varieties of tones and kinds of emphasis, and yet when Jesus said, "Zaccheus," we conceive that the sound of his own name produced a vibration of every chord in his being. And as he hastily descended from the tree, it was obviously with the conviction fastened upon his soul that Jesus was indeed a holy prophet, "for he knows I have got a house, yea, he even knows my name."
Zaccheus gladly led the way of his self-introduced and self-invited Guest to his house, and it proved to be the beginning of a new era in his life. He became a changed man, a son of Abraham indeed. He not only welcomed Jesus to his house, but also to his heart. He was converted, pocketbook and all. When a soul is truly converted to Jesus by Jesus, that conversion includes the entire person and all that pertains to the person. It was indeed a happy day for Zaccheus when Jesus came to abide with him. But a like happy day has come to many a sinner, both rich and poor, since.
Every sinner is called by name, as was Zaccheus. When they listen and hear the call, they will hear the sweet voice of Jesus saying, "Make haste and come down." Come down from your lofty pride and self-sufficiency. Come down from the dizzy and dangerous heights of sin, selfishness, and self-importance. Come down into the valley of humiliation and repentance, and there you will find Jesus, without whom you are nothing and can do nothing. Let all who are lifted up in their own estimation, who are puffed up in sin, self-conceit, and Satan, come down from that delusive elevation to the meek and lowly Jesus, and then they may, with Jesus as a constant, abiding Friend, Comforter, Teacher, Companion, Protector, and Guide, at once begin to ascend upon a safe and shining pathway, which will end only in the perfection of purity and bliss in a land of immortal and perpetual delight.
Sinner, to Jesus come down while you may;
To you he is calling; make no delay.
He never again may pass that way.
If a welcome guest, he will always stay,
And guide you safe through to an endless day.
THE MOST WONDERFUL AND MOST AWFUL THINGS.
By William Penniman
BY WM. PENNIMAN.
A GREAT preacher remarked that the two most wonderful things in the universe were, first, that God has offered salvation free to all who will accept of it and comply with the conditions, and the second is that all will not accept of it and comply with the conditions.
It is, in many respects, wonderful that the Jews rejected Christ, and would not believe him when they saw the wonderful miracles which he performed. They even carried their stubborn unbelief so far that they wished to put Lazarus to death, whom Christ had raised from the dead. It is remarkably wonderful in regard to the willful unbelief of that age as respects both Jews and Gentiles. This was what caused Christ to say at one time that he could not do many mighty works, because of their unbelief. It is wonderful that "many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him." John 6:66.
In this enlightened age it is wonderful that so many will reject the Third Angel's Message,—the last message of mercy now going to the world,—and it is yet more wonderful that some who profess to believe it are hiding their talents, not only physically, mentally, and morally, but also financially, instead of devoting them all to the advancement of the truths of this message.
It seems that the masses have become so perfectly hardened that the most solemn and awful things will not move them. The terrible and appalling calamities and accidents which are happening all around us have but little effect upon the people to cause them to repent, but fall upon their eyes and ears like an idle tale. In "Great Controversy," page 561, we read:—
"Marvelous beyond expression is the blindness of the people of this generation. Thousands reject the word of God as unworthy of belief, and with eager confidence receive the deceptions of Satan. . . . They manifest as much assurance as if, indeed, they had made a covenant with death and an agreement with hell,—as if they had erected an impassable, impenetrable barrier between themselves and the vengeance of God. Nothing can arouse their fears.
These careless ones, who are so negligent in heeding the warning which God is giving them now, will blaspheme on the journey out of the seventh plague, when the great hailstones of a talent's weight fall upon them from heaven. Rev. 16:21."
We now come more particularly to the most awful thing: "A celebrated preacher of the seventeenth century, in a sermon to a crowded audience, described the terrors of the last judgment with such eloquence, pathos, and force of action that some of his audience not only burst into tears, but sent forth piercing cries, as if the Judge himself had been present and was about to pass upon them their final sentence. In the height of this excitement the preacher called upon them to dry their tears and cease their cries, as he was about to add something still more awful and astonishing than anything he had yet brought before them. Silence being obtained, he, with an agitated countenance and solemn voice, addressed them thus:—
" 'In one-quarter of an hour from this time the emotions which you have just now exhibited will be stifled; the remembrance of the fearful truths which excited them will vanish; you will return to your carnal occupations and sinful pleasures with your usual avidity, and you will treat all you have heard as a tale that is told.' "
Carrying Beauty Within
THOUGH we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.—Proverb.
Idleness Steals Tomorrow
By Crowquill
Do NOT allow idleness to deceive you; for while you give him to-day, he steals to-morrow from you.—Crowquill.
EARNESTNESS.
By Editor
The reason people don't get deeper and more settled experiences is because they don't get in earnest. They don't search after God as for hid treasures. They don't hunger and thirst and pant after God as the hart panteth after the water brooks. One man, in telling his experience after going without water for several days, said that every pore in his body seemed to be a gaping mouth, and all were crying for water. When we get to thirsting after God in this way, nothing that God may ask will seem hard, and we will go right through and get a clear experience, one that will stand every test. Get in earnest.
Because a person feels touched by the Spirit occasionally is no sign that he is in a state of salvation. He may have enjoyed a good experience once, but by becoming indifferent, he may lose the witness of his acceptance with God. He then takes these occasional touches and meltings of the Spirit as evidence that he is right with God. How deceiving! We must have a personal, conclusive, definite evidence that we are accepted of God. This is brought by the witness of the Spirit constantly to our hearts. Are you saved? How do you know it?—The Firebrand.