p. 612 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 39. (9/29/1898)

UNDER THE LAW OR UNDER GRACE.

By G. T. Wilson

God has not left us in ignorance of the real truth concerning the dispensation of grace. And He has shown what He meant by the expressions under the law [hupo nomon] and under grace. Both the Old and New Testament teach that God has saved men only by His grace from the fall of man to the present time. We read in Ps. 84:11, “The Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.” “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplications.” This is shown also in the benediction that the Lord commanded the priests to make when dismissing the people: “The Lord bless thee, and keep thee; the Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. And they shall put My name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them.” Num. 6:24–27. The psalmist says, “In His favor is life.” Ps. 30:4, 5, 7.

Says the apostle Paul: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness; that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law.” Rom. 3:23–26, 31. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom also we have

access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” “For sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.” “Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.” “Now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.” Rom. 5:1, 2; 6:14, 15, 18, 22.

The expressions “under the law” and “under sin” are identical, and are used to show the condition of those who are living under the condemnation or curse of the law of God, who have not yet found deliverance through the grace of God from the thraldom of sin. That this may appear evident, I will quote a few passages where these terms are found:—

“For we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin.” “But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.” “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.” “God hath concluded them all in unbelief [margin, “shut them all up together”], that He might have mercy upon all.” Rom. 3:9; Gal. 3:22, 23, 10; Rom. 11:32.

The holy law of God shuts up every sinner under its curse, subject to its penalty, death; it stops every mouth, and holds every person under sin who has not believed in Christ. The sinner is held in the prison-house of condemnation until he as a prisoner of hope turns to the Saviour for deliverance. And when he is freed from sin by the Lord’s grace, then the sinner is no longer under sin, but under grace. He is then “the Lord’s freeman.” The law held him a prisoner until he came to Christ and accepted what He had done to free him, then he was at liberty from the service of sin, Satan, to serve God. Christ was treated as tho under the law, that He might “redeem them that were under the law.” “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.” “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.”

It can then be truly said of the follower of Christ: “For sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” “But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.” Rom. 6:14; Gal. 5:18. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Christ became our sacrifice and substitute, “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Rom. 8:1, 4. To such our Lord says, “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” Every such person can say with the psalmist: “I will walk at liberty; for I seek Thy precepts.” “I will delight myself in Thy commandments, which I have loved.” Ps. 119:45, 47. “Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all Thy commandments.” Verse 6. “If ye love Me, keep My commandments.” John 14:15.

G. T. WILSON.

Avondale, Cooranbong, N. S. W.

THE BIBLE.

By Horatius Bonar

My thoughts are here, my God, Expressed in words divine, The utterance of heavenly lips In every sacred line.

Across the ages they Have reached us from afar; Than the bright gold more golden they, Purer than purest star.

More durable they stand Than the eternal hills; Far sweeter and more musical Than music of earth’s rills.

A thousand hammers keen With fiery force and strain, Brought down on it in rage and hate, Have struck this gem in vain.

Against this sea-swept rock Ten thousand storms their will Of foam and rage have wildly spent. It lifts its calm face still.

It standeth and will stand, Without or change or age, The word of majesty and light, The church’s heritage. —Horatius Bonar.

STEPS TOWARD GOD.

By Rev. Andrew Whyte, D.D.

YOUR first step in the direction of God is not taken when you put on your Sabbath clothes and walk demurely into your pew. No; but it is taken when you put humility upon your proud heart, and fill your hot heart full of meekness, resignation, and quietness, and contrition, and a broken, heavenly, holy heart. To hold your peace when you are reproved is a direct and sure step toward God. To be silent when you suffer wrong—God takes at that great moment a great step of His toward you. To let a slight, an insult, a blow, a scoff, a sneer fall on your head like an excellent oil, and on your heart like your true desert—“with that man will I dwell,” says the God of Israel by his prophet.—Rev. Andrew Whyte, D.D.

ARE WE OUT OF SODOM?

By David Paulson

“As it was in the days of Lot; . . . even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.”

The above indicates clearly that Sodom and its experiences are to be repeated again in this world’s history. It is therefore important to understand clearly Sodom’s fundamental difficulties. The chariot which bore this famous city to its destruction had only four wheels,—pride, fulness of bread, abundance of idleness, and failure to assist the poor and needy. Eze. 16:49. At the first glance none of these sins are very alarming; placed in a category of the crimes of this day, they are very trivial. A man might be infected more or less with any one of them and yet maintain a very good standing in the community and pass as a good, moral man. Yet it is just as important to-day for those who wish to be saved to escape from these as it was for Lot to get out of Sodom. The message to Lot was, “Escape to the mountains,” but he preferred to stay in the suburbs in a little city. The same to-day, when people are urged to get away from these four fundamental sins, they are willing to leave the grosser forms of them, but cling to them in smaller degree, and thus remain in the suburbs, just as Lot did.

Some who may have been rescued from the pride of their appearance or standing in society, may still be proud of their goodness, or even their humility. There are those who have given up fulness of bread to the extent of leaving off some of the more horrible eatables, and yet cling to overeating, the use of flesh foods (although they know the animal creation to be diseased), persist in using tea and coffee because it smothers a tired feeling, and thus as truly stay in the suburbs of fulness of bread as Lot did. They urge the same plea that he did, that if they accept the high and holy principles in reference to this question, they will die. Nevertheless, the only safety is the mountains.

Again, abundance of idleness was the thing Sodom sought for and secured. When the Lord compelled Adam to toil for his daily bread, it was not a curse; it came from the same throne as the promise of eternal life, and was a blessing of the same order.

While there are many who are willing to leave Sodom to the extent of not wishing to be idle all the time, yet there are thousands of people who do the most of their work simply because it is absolutely necessary, not because their hearts are in it, not because they love it; and thus they lose the greatest part of the blessing that would be in it. Many a Christian mother to-day says to her daughter, “Mary, you shall not have to work as I did; you shall have a chance in life.” And so she does the useful work of the house, while her daughter spends her days drumming on the piano, doing crochet work, and reading cheap literature. If the grace of God does not cut short the logical outcome of that sort of teaching, that girl will some day find the cheapest way of making her living, no matter if it is at the price of her own character, in the depths of vice.

The father says, “Johnny, I have worked hard in my early years to gather the little I have; you shall never have to go through such an experience.” And one of the things that gave the father the bone and sinew and standing in the community that he has, his son is deprived of. The boy drills away at books, eats of the tree of knowledge of both good and evil, and his father earns the money. The logical conclusion of that lesson which the father taught that boy, if carried to the fullest extent, would be that some day he will forge another man’s name to a note. The grace of God may cut short such a career, but if it does not, that is certainly a legitimate harvest of such teaching.

Children at the age of five or six will rake leaves on the lawn and do a hundred useful things, and the merry laugh and glowing cheek testify to the pleasure derived therefrom. Watch those children twenty years later, and if asked to do the same work, many of them will look down upon it with scorn; they have now gotten away from ordinary toil, and at the same time have gotten away from its blessings; in other words, have embraced one more part of Sodom.

Last, but not least, of Sodom’s troubles was the failure to “strengthen the hands of the poor and needy.” A person who has pride, even if it is spiritual pride, who is wrong on the diet question, who loves abundance of idleness to such an extent that he actually pictures a heaven before him where he will have nothing to do, will not be in a condition to do much for suffering humanity. There are many who are willing to do something for the poor and needy when they happen to come in their way, or because it would look bad if they did not, or, possibly, for the sake of getting them to believe just as they do; but those who work from no higher standpoint are only in the suburbs of Sodom after all, even on this question. It is only when we come to realize that Christ suffers with every case of need, when we are willing to do good for good’s sake alone, working for neither gain nor reward, that we are really prepared to help the poor and needy. The message to God’s people to-day is, “Get thee up into the high mountain.” Isa. 40:9. That means, Get entirely out of Sodom, not staying in the suburbs, as Lot did; it means accepting a standard so much higher in reference to these things that we will be above the clouds and mist of the corrupt world, up in the mountain-tops, standing in this life just where God’s people are going to stand in the next life,—in the top of Mount Zion. Those who “follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth” in the next life, will have to follow Him whithersoever He went in this life. Those who are then spoken of as being without fault will first have been without fault here.

DAVID PAULSON, M.D.

CUI BONO?

By John Kendrick Bangs

Days of disaster, war, and doom; Filling a glad green earth with gloom, What are ye for, Ye days of war?

What has man done, that o’er his head Clatter and crash these bolts of dread? Why has the sunshine gone from life? Why has sweet peace given way to strife? Why are the fields that once were green Now drenched with blood of heroes seen?

Why has the sea Risen in awful majesty, In anger wild, And swallowed defenceless woman and child?

What is man’s sin That he requires such discipline?

Days of disaster, doom, and war, What are ye for?

—John Kendrick Bangs, in Harper’s Weekly.

EVOLUTION VERSUS CREATION.

A New York paper is sent us which devotes two pages, illustrated, to show how man “evolved” from a fish. This is set forth by the German scientist, Ernst Haeckel, and Professor Packard. And Prof. C. A. Briggs is quoted on the same pages as saying: “I am not prepared to admit that the acceptance of the theory of evolution will interfere with the doctrine of Christian life.” He declares that while he is “hospitable to evolution and the theory of higher development from the animal kingdom,” he believes that there is “yet much to be proven.” He does not know “when the Creator perfected the so-called development through evolution,” and he has “not been enlightened by science. But Professor Haeckel tells when. His closing sentence is, “A thousand million years may have been consumed in this evolution of man.” A wonderful hope for the race!

Not once, but many times, we see man made in God’s image devolute through sin to a plane below the level of brute beasts, but nowhere in all history do we find the brute becoming man. Abnormalities have been brought in as proof, but the evidence has died with the monstrosity.

It is a strange thing that those weak in faith choose ever the harder side. While they can not accept the story of creation of the Bible, they open the doors of mind and heart in unstinted hospitality and lavish credulity to the most incredible hypotheses of “science.” No one ever knew of a fish becoming man, or even an ape becoming a human; but some scientist concludes that during a period of a thousand million years this has been accomplished, and forthwith it is accepted with gusto.

What is there strange about the near approach of the different species of animals to each other? Would it not be reasonable to suppose that when God has created myriad forms of animal life, ranging from the lowest forms of the protozoa to the horse or the elephant, and even to man, many of these subsisting on the same food, in similar conditions and environments,—would it not be reasonable that in many respects there would be a similarity? And would it not be a wonderful thing—if the evolution theory were true—that for thousands of years these various species have bred and multiplied and are still distinct?

What does it all mean?—Simply this: God’s Word is true. The creatures were created of God; and all the evolution which has taken place has been devolution, perversion, on account of sin. The only advance moves which have been made in the uplifting of the race is in consequence of increase of knowledge of the Most High.

What does the acceptance of the hypothesis of evolution mean to the church?—It means the loss of faith, the loss of power, and the destruction of souls. It does not affect the truth. It is still true that “by the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.” “For He spake, and it was; He commanded, and it stood fast.” It is still true that He upholdeth all things by “the word of His power.” It is still true, the record of Genesis I, that in six literal days the Lord made the heavens and the earth pertaining to this world.

But does it affect Christian faith to believe otherwise?—It affects it in this way: He who yields his faith in the record of God’s creative power, will yield it in God’s redeeming power. He who questions the record which says, “Let there be light; and light was,” will also question the power of God to speak light into his own darkened mind, or the darkened minds of those for whom he labors. He will look upon the drunkard, the thief, the beggar, the vile sinner, the heathen, as hopeless cases. He will declare, “There is no hope of this generation; let us educate, refine, civilize, and perhaps in generations there may be a change worthy of effort.”

Much of reform work to-day is projected along these lines. Faith in the creative power of God is waning. Not believing that God can speak a world into being or a man into being, many do not believe that God can speak from the chaos of sin to the cosmos of righteousness the poor sinful soul who comes to Him. Hence they do not invite Him to come, and souls die in unbelief.

O reader, there is power in God! He created man in the beginning. He creates him now in Christ Jesus. The loathsome leper came to “God manifest in the flesh,” timid with many Pharisaical rebuffs, yet fearfully, hopefully asking, “Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.” And He replied, as He stretched out the hand ever filled with infinite blessing for all, “I will; be thou clean.” The creative power of God vitalized his dying frame, and immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Sinner, you may be corrupt all through and through. There may be no soundness in soul or body from sole to crown. Evolution, and all other worldly isms, at the best hold before you the mockery of hope deferred, but the mighty Creator-Redeemer says in tones of infinite love and pathos and power, “Come now, and let

us reason together; tho your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; tho they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” He will touch you; He will speak the word, “Be thou clean,” to you, and you will be clean. “Can He? Will He?”—Yea, He will; we know it.

“If weak thy faith, why choose the harder side?”

THE SPIRIT AND BODY OF CHRIST.

HERE is our Lord’s promise for His church for all time: “If ye love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world can not receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him; but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” John 14 : 15–17.

1. Note the condition,—obedience, a heart submitted to do the whole will of God.

2. Note the promise,—“I will pray the Father.”

3. Note the result, the fruition,—He, the Father, shall give you another Comforter, that He, the Father, may abide with you forever. For the Spirit of truth, the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, brings with it to every soul and in every soul the presence of God the Father, and Jesus Christ our Lord.

A little further on Jesus presents this truth in these words: “If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My Father will love him, and We [the Father and the Son] will come unto Him, and make Our abode with Him.” Verse 23. The Spirit is a comforter in that it brings to every child of God the presence of Father and Son, bringing them as near to living faith as tho they were bodily, personally present.

The Spirit testifies of Jesus. It dwelt in Him while He was here upon the earth. It enabled Him to do all He did do in mighty miracles and triumphant victories; and it is therefore also the Spirit of Christ. It witnesses of Christ; it is the manifestation of Christ to the believer. Of that Comforter Jesus said: “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth; for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak; and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me; for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you.” John 16 : 13, 14.

This is the Spirit of Christ; for Christ did not testify of Himself, but of the Father; and those who have Christ’s Spirit will not testify of themselves, but of Christ.

Those who are bound to Christ by this living union of His Spirit, compose His church. This church is well illustrated by the body, while the head is Christ. For the Father “hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the Head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.” Eph. 1 : 22, 23. “And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church.” Col. 1 : 17, 18.

Not only so, but as the head is connected by means of the brain and nerves with every member of the body, so Christ is “the Head of every man.” 1 Cor. 11 : 3. He is the great Director, the “Leader,” the “Commander to the people.” To Him is the church to look; from Him the body is to be supplied, and is to execute in and through its various members and functions the will of the Head.

What a blessed truth is this! How it transcends all human councils, and diets, and popes! Christ and His Word! His Word, open to every soul who will come in faith and humility, with a heart to know and do His will! He Himself, accessible to every one who comes in His name! His Spirit, giving power and life to His entire church, witnessing for Him before the world!

Christ our Head liveth ever. He gives not away to some poor fallible man calling himself infallible. His children need never to apologize for the acts of their Head. They need never feel that He will fail, and then wait and tremble and doubt as to whom schemes and craft and intrigue shall put in His place. Christ is risen. Christ liveth ever. Christ is the Head of the church. Christ is the “Leader” and the “Commander to the people.” Christ “is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him.” Christ’s blessed Spirit of life, the Comforter, brings His presence and fulness to every heart, and fits for holy service every soul which will yield to its baptism by putting away all of sin and self. Therefore, reader, that you may know Christ, “receive ye the Holy Ghost.”

“THE WILD BEASTS OF SOCIETY.”

By Editor

This is what a prominent daily paper of the West calls the Anarchists, and demands their extirpation. But it may be well to question whether the social system of the world is not responsible for the production of these “wild beasts.” We have no sympathy with anarchy or violence. We believe in law-abiding faithfulness to all civil governments, even under oppression, when the laws of that government do not contravene conscience by intervening between the soul and God. But when one man can pile up a fortune of millions and hundreds of millions in a few years, while many others famish and die, whether he is responsible or not, he is arousing discontent and hatred on the part of those who are poor and needy, of which the world is supplying millions. Nothing turns the nature of the human into that of the wild beast like hunger and want; and if the present systems continue, “the wild beasts of society may be shot down,” but will multiply more rapidly than the “extirpation” goes on. The violence used in suppressing nihilism and anarchy has never lessened its disciples. God has given instruction and warning concerning these very things. These warnings are recorded in James 5, in Habakkuk 1 and 2, and in Amos 8. The last scripture referred to is a picture of the ten-tribe kingdom, before it fell. It is typical of these days of evil. The effeminate, hard-hearted, gain-getting, and pleasure-loving people are represented by a basket of summer fruit, signifying, “The end is come.” Those who are oppressed will rise up in wrath against their oppressors who “swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail,” “making the ephah small, and the shekel great [lessening the price of produce by appreciating the value of the coin], and dealing falsely with balances of deceit.” “Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein?” “And the songs of the palace shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord God; the dead bodies shall be many; in every place shall they cast them forth with silence.” See Amos 8:1–8, R.V.

The apostle pictures the same oppression of the poor, the defrauding of wages; and the terrible result will be manifest in enmity against the rich: “Go to now, ye rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver are rusted; and their rust shall be a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye have laid up your treasure in the last days.” See James 5:1–6, R.V.

It is thus doing on the part of some of the great landed proprietors, some of the great corporations, some of the great barons of coal fields, oil fields, and treasure mines, that makes despairing, workless, hungry men lay it to all who are rich. Knowing not God, they lose hope in everything, and grinding oppression and want make them beasts, if you please, “the wild beasts of society,” held in check now by law, but waiting only the favorable opportunity to break the bonds that bind them and rise up against the tyrant that “makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them,” that counts his employees as parts of a great machine, worth only what can be gotten out of them in cent per cent. It is thus that God by His prophet speaks of such a one: “Wo to him that increaseth that which is not his! how long? and that ladeth himself with pledges! Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them? Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall spoil thee.” See Hab. 1:13 to 2:11.

This is but a part of the solemn warning which God has given the selfishly rich in His Word. Let them go on, and they will but multiply “the wild beasts of society,” which will bite and devour them. But there is a remedy for the rich. Here it is, an infallible one:—

“Charge them that are rich in this present world, that they be not high-minded, nor have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, that they be ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on the life which is life indeed.” 1 Tim. 6:17–19, R.V.

Would He have the poor and oppressed rise up in vengeance?—Nay, not at all. They but reap more misery in so doing. He says to them: “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. . . . Stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord is at hand.” James 5:7, 8. “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

Question Corner

“Enquire and make search and ask diligently.”

[From time to time we will reply under this head, if deemed advisable, to such candid inquiries as may be sent us. Correspondents wishing a reply to their questions must give their full name and address, not for publication unless they wish, but as an evidence of good faith on their part, and to give us opportunity to reply by letter if deemed best. It is always well to inclose stamp. Let the questions be short and pointed, and such as may be answered in limited space. The questions will be numbered continuously.]

864. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Was “the tree of knowledge of good and evil” which the Lord placed in Eden figurative? If not, why? H. W.

If it was, why? Why should that tree be considered figurative more than the tree of life? or the other trees “pleasant to the sight and good for food”? or the garden in which the trees grew? or Eden, in which the garden was planted? Why should we believe it to be anything else than a literal tree? God could test man over that as well as He could the water from the rock, or the manna from the skies. Being used as a test, it naturally became symbolical of other tests which followed. In that sense alone is it figurative.

865. Mortal or Immortal?

Was Adam immortal? If not, he must have been mortal.

Why so? What is it to be immortal?—It is to be deathless, incorruptible, that which can not be corrupted, and therefore can not die. To be mortal is to be subject to death, corruptible. Man is now mortal and corruptible. If Adam had been immortal, he would not have sinned and died. He was not mortal, for God did not create a dying man. Adam was therefore neither mortal nor immortal, but a candidate for immortality, possessing eternal life. His flesh was pure, healthy, holy, uncorrupted, having the eternal life of God flowing through it unhindered. Had man always lived in harmony with the law of God’s life, he would have developed an incorruptible character, a character that no temptation could corrupt. Then God would have placed upon him the stamp of immortality. His flesh would have been made incorruptible, deathless. God’s gift of immortality is God’s stamp of an incorruptible character.

866. Israel in Egypt.

Why is it said in a lesson note of some time ago, that from the time that Jacob went into Egypt until the children of Israel left there were 215 years? Gen. 15:13. W. H. S.

The 400 years of Gen. 15:13 includes the sojourn in Canaan, a land in which Abraham and his children were strangers. See Heb. 11:9. Paul tells us that from the time the first promise was made to Abraham to the speaking of the law on Mt. Sinai was 430 years. Gal. 3:17. The only difficulty is Ex. 12:40. But the reading of the Samaritan and Alexandrian Septuagint makes this plain: “Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, and of their fathers, which they sojourned in the land of Canaan and the land of Egypt, was 430 years.” Half of this was spent in Canaan, half in Egypt.

867. Why Should Women Teach?

Why are women allowed to teach, in view of 1 Tim. 2:12 and 1 Cor. 14:34? A preacher says, “Because all are made new and reformed.” Is it true? C. R.

Test it by the Word of God and see whether it is true. Certainly there were women who prophesied and taught. 2 Chron. 34:22–28; Acts 21:9; 18:24–26. The Lord said there should be. Acts 2:17. Paul recognized this truth, and gave direction concerning the appearance in public while prophesying and praying. 1 Cor. 11:4–6. We conclude that 1 Tim. 2:12 refers to arbitrary authority and assumption unbecoming a woman, and that 1 Cor. 14:34 refers to Corinthian women who brought disorder in the Corinthian church, as shown by the context, and therefore Paul wrote them, “Let your women keep silence in the churches.” If the Lord bids a sister speak, let her speak to His glory. If we stood just where Paul did, and had the Spirit as he did, we would probably see some things in an altogether different light. Let us leave the little things and take heed to ourselves. Luke 21:34.

How Peace Comes.

Peace comes by surrender. The only true, lasting peace is the eternal peace of God, bought by Jesus Christ. The rebel is each soul in this world; “for all have sinned.” God is not at war with us. “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” God can not come into harmony with the carnal, selfish mind; He would cease to be God and Goodness should He do this. It is contrary to His very nature, and would be the greatest evil which could occur in the universe. The only surrender which can be made is on the part of the transgressor. And, reader, whenever you submit to God, surrender yourself to Him, there is peace. He wants you to be reconciled. He gave His Son that you might be. It awaits only your surrender of the thing which would destroy you, and your acceptance of the best terms ever offered to rebel. He asks you to give up your all; but in its place He gives you His all. Do you not want this peace? Would you not exchange your sins for His spotless righteousness, woven in the loom of heaven’s atmosphere? Will you not exchange your strife for His rest? That is what His peace means. “And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever.” It seems as tho all the world would accept the blessed boon.

Getting Egypt Out of Israel

“It took only forty-eight hours to get Israel out of Egypt, but it took forty years to get Egypt out of Israel.”

To the Fashionable World

To the fashionable world the news comes from Paris, says a New York paper, that evening gowns will be “startlingly decollette” this season, “lower than ever before,” “excessively and startlingly low,” and the question is, Will women of sense have the courage to resist fashion successfully? As one paper puts it:—

“To confine the bodice by a fragile string of pearls or a bit of velvet ribbon across the shoulders; to dispense with the makeshift sleeve and keep the bodice on by sheer force of cohesion or by ‘force of will,’ to reveal to the public gaze a wealth of charms that should be held sacred to family eyes—these are the tasks set before fashionable American women, if they would follow the examples of their English and French sisters. Will they brave the vulgar gaze, or the frown of Fashion? One of these courses is inevitable, and both are painful to gently-reared American women.”

These fashions are growing worse. A dress worn some years ago by a famous beauty was considered so shocking as to call forth unsparing condemnation from society leaders. The Empress Eugenie on the occasion of its appearance went home in a flood of tears. But we are told that the famous beauty in question “would have blushed at sight of one of the gowns worn at the grand opera in London last season,” lower by at least three inches than her own.

No greater tyrant ever existed than Fashion; yet how many willing slaves are toiling, moiling, sickening, dying, at her behest! How many more long for liberty, but have not the courage to make a declaration of independence! How many there are who will expose themselves in “society” doings of various sorts that would consider it immodest thus to appear at their own family breakfast table! “Wherewithal shall we be clothed?” is an anxious question for Gentiles, but should not be for Christians; for Christ sets free His own from all bondage of soul or mind.

CAUSE OF SUNDAY-CYCLING DESECRATION.

In the following from The Christian Advocate, Dr. Buckley well suggests that the real cause of backsliding does not lie in the special form of sin or temptation most prominent, or which lead people away, but in the real condition of heart which the temptation finds when it presents itself:—

“Does not the power of the bicycle to demoralize the sabbath, as it has done, show that the church had, to a great extent, lost its influence before the fascinating wheel had come upon the scene? If its discipline had been what it should have been; if its means of grace had been fervent, its Sabbath-school instruction truly practical, serious, and spiritual; if its ministry had had the grasp upon the community which they should have had, and which at a not remote period they did have; and if Christian parents had exerted in their families the influence which they might have done, would not the church have stood as a solid rampart against this wave of sabbath desecration? and would not departures from the true sanctity of the Lord’s day, in spirit and letter, have been comparatively few?”

While the above terms refer to Sunday, not the Sabbath, the principle holds good. The only way for the church to withstand evil or to overcome evil is to fortify herself from within, in God’s way. If the great popular church had done this, she long since would have been brought to see the true Sabbath of the Lord, and have found joy and strength in observing it in Christ Jesus.

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