Signs of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 44. (11/1/1905)

Signs of the Times

Nov 1, 1905

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Nov 1, 1905

BLESSING IN SERVICE

By George W. Bethune

"He said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not. . . . My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to accomplish His work." John 4:32-34.

Upon the well by Sychar's gate, At burning noon, the Saviour sate, Athirst and hungry from the way His feet had trod since early day. The twelve had gone to seek for food, And left Him in His solitude.

They come, and spread before Him there, With faithful haste, the pilgrim fare, And gently bid Him, "Master, eat!" But God had sent Him better meat, And there is on His lowly brow Nor weariness nor faintness now.

For while they sought the market-place, His words had won a soul to grace; And when He set that sinner free From bonds of guilt and infamy, His heart grew strong with joy divine, More than the strength of bread and wine.

So, Christian, when thy faith grows faint, Amidst the toils that throng the saint, Ask God, that thou mayst peace impart Unto some other human heart; And thou thy Master's joy shall share, E'en while His cross thy shoulders bear. —George W. Bethune.

How the Special "Signs"

By Editor

Are Being Sold

Here is a letter from a brother 'way out in Wyoming. He had already ordered a hundred sets, but after receiving the first number, responded as follows:

I intended to start my colporteur wagon before this. I am now waiting for those special issues of the Third Angel's Message to take along on my trip in the country and to the villages about here. I believe this will be the very best opportunity to get the message before the people that we have had. Please send me 400 sets more of the special issues of the SIGNS, also please send a couple dollars' worth of tracts or Signs Leaflets.

Elder J. Ernest Bond of Arizona orders a quantity of Special SIGNS, and says, "The first copy, which has just been received, is fine."

One of our busy brethren ordered ten sets of the Special SIGNS. On receipt of the first number he wrote us as follows:

Kindly forward to my address at once forty copies of SIGNS Special No. 1, and change my order from ten to fifty sets.

One sister of Southern California ordered a hundred of Special No. 1. Fearing she misunderstood the plan to sell by sets only, we wrote to her before entering her order for Nos. 2, 3 and 4. She thus replies:

Your letter to hand, also the 100 SIGNS No. 1. Will want the other 300 as soon as they are issued. May God help us all to be faithful in the work He has given us to do is my prayer.

Here is another letter from a small society that had already ordered fifty sets:

Please send fifty sets more of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES for the —— Church. We received the first number yesterday and Mr. —— sold eight sets in the afternoon. We are planning for a grand campaign here. We are led to the conclusion that house-to-house work is the only effectual means of reaching the people.

The following is from a letter just received:

I have the 400 current numbers of the SIGNS, and have just sent for 500 sets of the special numbers. Please send them to ——, and have them there by the 23d of October promptly. I can not be delayed, as I am traveling from town to town and will try to sell 10,000 copies before May. I have very good success in selling our literature, and this year I will put in all my time at this work.

That its employees might have an opportunity of taking part in the circulation of this Special Series, the entire plant of the PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO. shut down Wednesday, October 18.

A FEW SUGGESTIONS

In selling the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, or "Watchman," it has been the general experience of our best workers that, generally speaking, it is better to solicit subscriptions for the series than to sell single copies. In fact, many are soliciting subscriptions for three months at 40 cents, or four months at 50 cents, which include the special numbers. A commission of 10 cents on each three months,' and 15 cents on each four months' subscription, is allowed the solicitor, if accompanied by a statement to the effect that the order was secured with this offer in mind. Duplicate order books, enabling solicitor to leave a receipt with each customer, will be furnished at 5 cents each, post-paid.

We would suggest the following Signs of the Times Leaflets to be circulated with these special numbers: "Sure Word of Prophecy," "Signs of Our Times" with SIGNS No. 1; "The Great Judgment Day," "The Sanctuary" with SIGNS No. 2; "The Sabbath of the Bible," "Who Changed the Sabbath?" with SIGNS No. 3; "The Great Threefold Message," "The Home of the Saved" with SIGNS No. 4.

The prices of these leaflets are as follows:

	Not post-paid	Post-paid
100 (all one kind)	$0.15	$0.15
1000	1.00	1.30
1600 (1 pkg. each)	1.50	1.95
1 lb. (about 20 of each)	0.42	0.50

No orders filled for broken packages, except in pound lots as above.

The prices of the special SIGNS will be found in the preceding column.

Address your tract society, or ## SIGNS OF THE TIMES Mountain View, Cal.

Terms of Subscription.

By Editor

Per Year, post-paid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1.50 Six Months, 75 cts. Three Months, 40 cts. To Foreign Countries, per year, $1.75.

SPECIAL TERMS.

One new yearly subscription and one renewal, or two new yearly subscriptions, sent at one time, $2.50.
Two new yearly subscriptions and one renewal, or three new yearly subscriptions, sent at one time, $3.25.
Three new yearly subscriptions and one renewal, or four new yearly subscriptions, sent at one time, $4.00.

Sample copies sent on application.

OUR NEXT SPECIAL NUMBER

We give below a reduced facsimile of the cover page that will appear on our next Special Number of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES. The titles of the whole series are as follows:

No. 1.—PROPHECY AND CHRIST'S COMING. No. 2.—THE SANCTUARY—THE GOSPEL IN TYPE AND ANTITYPE. No. 3.—LAW, GOSPEL, AND THE SABBATH. No. 4.—THE CHURCH TRIUMPHANT.

Have you read the preceding numbers? If not, we suggest that you ask the person from whom you received this paper to secure them for you, or send direct to the publishers for the set. The price is 20 cents.

If you have friends to whom you would like to send these papers, the prices are as follows:

| 1 to 4 sets to one or more addresses | Per set | $0.20 | | 5 or more sets to single addresses | " | .15 | | 25 to 500 sets to one address | " | .10 | | 500 and upward | " | .09 |

SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Mountain View, Cal.

THE ROCK OF THE WORD.

The Bible and Its Critics.

EVOLUTION and Evolutionists may come and go, but God's Word abides. The Higher Critics, with capital initials, may exalt themselves, but the Bible still remains God's message of salvation to a lost world.

AND this is the message of God to us: "For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away; but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you." 1 Peter 1:24, 25. These sublime words, except the last sentence, are quoted from one of those parts of the Bible which is just now overgoing the fire of the higher critics, namely, the latter part of Isaiah. It is God's estimate of the "glory of man" as compared with His Word. They suppose themselves above the Word, are, indeed, higher critics; but they are below the Word after all—they are like dogs baying at the moon. It pleases and then wearies the dog, but the moon abides unchanged. Sometimes when a passing cloud hides its face the dog doubtless thinks that he has frightened it away; so it is with some of the higher critics and the Bible. But the obscuration of the Book is simply their own shadow.

AMONG the parts of the Bible thus attacked and criticized is the Pentateuch, or books of Moses. The story of Creation, Eden, and the Fall, is called a myth, a poem, an allegory—anything and everything but truth. Some of the men who make this claim professedly hold to the teaching of Christ and the apostles, not realizing that their rejection of the writings of Moses is logically a rejection of the teachings of Christ and His apostles. All through the writings of Paul we find references to the Pentateuch, not as a history to be questioned, but as the word of the living God to be heeded: "Saith not the law the same also?" (1 Cor. 9:8, 9), "as also saith the law" (1 Cor. 14:34); "the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty" (2 Cor. 11:3); "for Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression" (1 Tim. 2:13, 14); "by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin" (Rom. 5:12). These and other scriptures show that the books of Moses were regarded as God's Word, and the record they give of man's origin and fall were held as facts. In brief, the apostle Paul, in speaking of all the Old Testament scriptures together, says of them: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God [God-breathed], and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." 2 Tim. 3:16.

BUT in the life of our Lord reverence for the Scriptures, and for that part styled the Pentateuch, shines out pre-eminently. When Satan assaulted Christ in his three temptations, he met every attack with a quotation from the writings of Moses. "It is written" was sufficient to meet the power of the enemy, because the word written was God's. The scriptures quoted by Christ are as follows:

"It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

"It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."

"It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve."

The first of these is from Deut. 8:3; the second, Deut. 6:16; the third, Deut. 10:20. This is Christ's testimony in example to the writings of Moses.

BUT Christ bears direct testimony to the importance of belief in those writings. He not only shows by His references to the Inspired records, by the quotations He used, but He said in so many words, that rejection of what Moses said means rejection of what He said. Thus He spoke to the rabbis of His time:

"How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father; there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me; for he wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My words?" John 5:44-47. These words are as applicable now as then; for he who believes not in the creative power of God as especially recorded in the books of Moses, will not believe in the word of Christ to regenerate, recreate, cleanse, sanctify, and fit us for the kingdom of God. The power that does the one is the power that performs the other. The Spirit that was in the one is the Spirit that is in the other. He who does not believe the one will not, can not, believe the other.

Relation of Faith to It.—We are not saying by this that if a man believes the record of Genesis he will necessarily believe Christ; for he may, like the demons, "believe and tremble." He may believe, that is, give mere nominal assent to the facts, and it may profit him nothing. What God demands is faith, the soul's grasp of God's creative power, applied now to his own soul in the chaotic condition of sin. He who thus believes, who submits himself to God that God may work in him, who gives up all that he may obtain Christ, his Creator and Redeemer, will have the chaotic darkness of his soul changed to the cosmic beauty of the light of righteousness by the same power that brought light out of darkness in the beginning. "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." 2 Cor. 4:6.

Do Not Be Afraid.—The Christian, the regenerate child of God, need not fear. The Old Book still stands. He has not only all the internal and outward evidences of the Word itself, but he has added evidence in the regenerating power of Christ in his own character. That power has changed the carnal heart of hatred to God's law, and made of it a heart which delights in His statutes. Evolutionists and higher critics may come and go; man in his glory may blossom as the flower, but like the flower he will perish, while "the Word of the Lord endureth forever." The meteoric radiance of Bible critics will go out in darkness as oft before, but the light from the throne of God will shine on till the last soul is gathered into the heavenly garner. God desires that we shall abide with the Word; therefore "love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but HE THAT DOETH THE WILL OF GOD ABIDETH FOREVER." 1 John 2:15-17.

MERCY IN JUDGMENT.

By G.

THAT “the mercy of the Lord endureth forever” is shown in the fact that even His judgment is according to the Gospel. Rom. 2:12, 16. “There is no respect of persons with God” (verse 11); therefore His judgment is just. The final death of the wicked is entirely their own fault; they have chosen to follow in the way of sin, and it is only just that they receive the “wages of sin,” which is death. Rom. 6:23.

To work for one master and expect pay from another whose interests are in a different line, would be unreasonable. To demand of one man pay for work performed for a different person, would be an unjust demand. To give part of the children’s inheritance to the children of another in no way related, and whose effort has been to destroy the inheritance, would not be justice to the rightful heirs. To admit unrepentant sinners into the everlasting kingdom, to mar the joy and harmony of those who by patient endurance and well-tried faith have overcome sin in the flesh, would not be justice. To submit Christ to the ordeal of humiliation, even to death on the cross, that sinners might be saved through faith in His atonement, and then save sinners who reject the terms, and deny the atonement, would not be justice.

Faith in the God-appointed atonement for sin is the only means by which God can be just and yet be the justifier of sinners. Rom. 3:23-26. The Gospel provides a means of salvation for all (John 3:16), and is a witness to all the world (Matt. 24:14); therefore it comes into the judgment.

“There’s a wideness in God’s mercy Like the wideness of the sea; There’s a kindness in His justice That is more than liberty.”

VICTORY OR DEFEAT.

IT would please our Maker to write “Victory” after the life-work of every soul upon the earth. He Himself says that He “has no pleasure in the death of him that dieth.” Life is God’s purpose for us over all the agencies and all the ways that lead to death. His desire is expressed in these words: “Turn yourselves, and live ye.” Turning from our own ways to God’s way, puts us in the channel of life; puts us in the ray of hope. And that done, the powers of heaven are then enlisted in our behalf. Self dies, hope revives, and the purpose of God is accomplished.

From day to day we meet men and women whose hopes seem to have fallen in upon one another like the walls of a ruined house. The bright eyes of faith and hope no longer beam out of the windows of the soul. Its casements are barred, and only dissolution and hopeless despair stare out at the passer-by. Every ruin has its history; and the history of the ruined life is written on the soul.

There are storms on every sea; there are shoals or rocks or quicksands on every shore. The depths of the sea are peopled with the ghosts of ships which could not ride the waves when the staggering blows of the hurricane came down upon the sea. Upon the shoals, or among the rocks, or deep down in the springy depths of the quicksands, the wreck of many a noble bark lies buried for all time.

And so it is with men. Buoyant with hope, they have sped for some cherished goal, trusting in their own powers; but they met a stronger power, and went down. The waters that might have been the pathway of their progress have closed over them forever. The hopes that lie confined in the mighty deep are more in number than the waves that beat their white arms against the cold, gray cliffs; and the souls that have gone down beneath the waves of disappointed hope are as many as the cries that go up to the gods of wealth to-day from the sea of unrequited toil.

There is no purpose of our Maker that can not be fulfilled in us to-day. We have only to let Him take the helm, and He will steer our bark out of every storm that rages around us. “Without Me,” said He “ye can do nothing.” But men to-day are saying in their hearts and by their acts, “I can do all things through my own self;” and when the storm comes down, the source of their power, the fountain of their dependence, is shaken and shattered, storm-tossed, engulfed; and with that gone, their all is gone. Like the ships upon the sea, their only dependence is in themselves, and the storm is stronger than the ship.

There is a better source of strength and protection than self, a source which no storm can shake, no power of earth destroy, and it is open to every voyager upon the sea of life. “Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness.” Isa. 41:10.

There is no necessity for the wrecks that strew the shores of the sea of life. There has been ample provision made for the safe voyage of every soul that has set out upon that sea. God can not save the soul that flees from His power and His protection, and binds its hopes to the flimsy fabric of its own protection. Such a soul must go down; for the powers that wrestle for its ruin are greater than the powers to which it looks for succor.

There is a chart and compass for every voyager, and a light to dispel every fog, and shine through the darkest night that shuts its curtains down upon the sea. That chart and compass are found in the Word of God, the Bible. But in the confidence of self men have chosen to trust to the will-o’-the-wisp of their own reason, have set their course into the fog-bank of doubt, and so crashed upon the rocks of eternal ruin. These are the saddest wrecks that strew the sea of life to-day, and they outnumber a hundred to one the wrecks that stud the bottom of the sea.

The shipwrecks of the sea are sad events. But how much more sorrowful than the wreck of a ship, how much more terrible, is that life, loaded with a perfect wealth of possibilities, that lies mangled upon the rocks of unbelief, or lies loaded with the seaweed of miscarried purposes on the shore of life’s sea—all because unbelief was at the helm and self upon the bridge, and God and His great purpose were shut out of the mind and heart.

The wrecked ship lies in its cold bed at the bottom of the sea; but the life wreck, like a floating derelict, moves about among us hopeless, purposeless, drifting with the ebb and flow of the tides of doubt, a menace to other voyagers, and a sad, sad monument to the folly of unbelief.

There is hope for every voyager upon life’s sea; but that hope is not in self. God must be the pilot; God the protector; God the helper and refuge in every stress of trial; the comforter in every sorrow; the power that wafts the vessel onward and homeward; and His Word the light to dispel every cloud of gloom and every fog that would enshroud the ship. He will do all that for you; His Word will be all that to you. Take Him, then, for all that He has promised to be, and let His purpose be wrought out in your life, and your destiny be wrought out in His hand.

There can be no sad wreck in such a life; but the light of God’s blessing will shine out through the windows of the soul, and His glorious purpose concerning man will be worked out before the world in you.

WHAT SHALL WE EXPECT?

By Editor

Does the Passing Time Predict Destruction or Regeneration?

WE were recently impressed with the force of a common proverb in listening to an earnest woman speaker on reform work. That proverb is, "The wish is father to the thought." She talked truly, bravely, and eloquently of the increasing evil of intemperance and impurity and their results in sin and crime, patent, obvious facts they are to the candid observer. She talked of the prostitution of marriage to base lust, of the increase of divorces, of the sad, constant records of marital troubles in high life and low. Alongside of these she might have marshalled the dishonesty, the fraud, the grafting, the embezzlement, the trickery, the robbery, in high life and low life, in private life and public life. The newspapers have been gorged with the revelations of these pits of overwhelming, widespread corruption. The public, always curious to know evil, has been satiated with the news till it is indifferent, and no revelation of wickedness, crime, or corruption could seemingly now move it. The great papers endeavor to make it the sensation of the week; it is hardly that of a day.

And this indifference to the amazing moral corruption is one of the saddest signs of the times.

Yet the speaker above referred to thought there was a good time coming. Parents would be spiritually regenerated, and they would generate godly children. Somehow, some way, by some means, the world is to be converted. "Why, there were never so many hospitals, never so many lectures on purity and temperance, never so much money spent for the betterment and uplifting of humanity; surely all this will tell for the world's regeneration."

This is the thought, the dream, of those who wish it so, but who depend on their desire for evidence, and not on the Word of God. Sad disappointment will come when the world reaps in the seven last plagues and the battle of Armageddon her awful harvest of sin's sowing. Then it shall be to those who have solaced themselves with the fantasy of a world's conversion "as when a hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty; or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite."

There is a mighty Saviour, but He can not regenerate the world when it substitutes for His creative power a theistic and atheistic evolution. He would point out the sin and quicken dead conscience if the world and a worldly church would recognize the standard of the holy law; but God declares that instead of standing "in the ways" and asking for "the old paths," that they may find "the good way," "they have not harkened unto My words; and as for My law, they have rejected it."

The high profession, the much profession, the works of charity, the display of benevolences, were all manifest in Christ's time as never before perhaps in the Jewish nation; but that generation put to death the Son of God and died in their sins. We are paralleling that time to-day.

The prophets declare that wickedness and the beast power will be overwhelming, alive and rampant, when Christ comes, and the spirit of war will possess the earth. Isaiah 59; Micah 7:1-4; Dan. 7:20, 21; Jer. 25:15-33; Joel 2:1; 3:9-14.

Paul declares that "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived;" that all the sins of heathendom will be prevalent among professors of Christianity; that just previous to Christ's coming Satan will work "with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness;" that there will be the cry of peace and safety when "sudden destruction" is impending, and much more. See 2 Tim. 3:13, 1-5; 2 Thess. 2:8-10; 1 Thess. 5:3, et al.

Jesus declares that many will go in the broad road to destruction, while few will pursue the narrow path to life; that the wheat and tares—the righteous and wicked—will grow together till "the harvest,"—"the end of the world,"—and then the wheat will be garnered in and the tares burned; that when He comes faith will be almost wanting; that many false christs and false prophets will be deceiving many, and much more of the same import. Matt. 7:13, 14; 13:24-30, 37-43; Luke 18:8; Matt. 24:24; 25:31-46.

"Be not deceived." "The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the straw to the wheat? saith Jehovah." Jer. 23:28.

It is better to know of the coming evil, that we may hide in the Rock of Ages.

Question Corner

By Editor

1731.—Remedy for Tobacco.

By reading your paper I can read my Bible better than ever before. A question: Is there any known remedy to break any one from using tobacco? and is it a sin to use it? If so, I would be glad to be convinced of the fact, for I am a slave to it. W.

The last question, "Is it a sin?" the brother has himself already answered, when he says, "I am a slave to it." God calls man to liberty. Even the slave, if he respond to God's call, "is the Lord's freedman." 1 Cor. 7:22. He calls us to one service—His own. He has bought us with a price, even His own precious blood, and, therefore, we are Christ's bondservants. But where has Christ told us to use tobacco. Think of these things: (1) Tobacco is a filthy habit, as its most inveterate users will admit. But God exhorts us to "cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." 2 Cor. 7:1.

2. "Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own; for ye were bought with a price; glorify God therefore in your body." 1 Cor. 6:19, 20. But physicians—the best of them—tell us that some of the worst forms of disease of heart and eye and brain come from the use of tobacco; it poisons the one who uses it, and his breath and exhalations poison his wife and children who are closely associated with him. Of course, this defaces, defiles, mars, destroys, the temple of God; but God says: "If any man destroyeth the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, and such are ye." 1 Cor. 3:16, 17. Is it right to indulge in any habit which will destroy God's temple? and if not right, is it not sin? 1 John 5:17.

3. Tobacco is a narcotic, benumbing all the finer sensibilities of soul and body. Is it glorifying God to use it? 1 Cor. 10:31: "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." Is it to God's glory to defile His temple? to destroy His temple? to unfit ourselves for His service?

4. Then think of the expense to you every year. How will you give an account to God of how you have used this means? Much more might be said.

As to the first question: "Is there a remedy?"—There is. Some men are strong enough or the habit weak enough, so they can quit themselves. Some have been helped to break the habit by drugs. But these are uncertain cures. There is one infallible remedy, Jesus Christ. If He can not save you from tobacco, He can not save you at all. But He can save. He was anointed "to proclaim release to the captives," "to set at liberty them that are bruised." Luke 4:18. "Thou shalt call His name JESUS [Saviour]; for He shall save His people from their sins." Matt. 1:21. First of all in His name and for His sake quit it, short off; whatever suffering it may cost, whatever nerve torture, quit it. Even tho you think you will die, quit it. Be willing to die. Then ask by faith, simple, childlike faith, for Him, the tender, loving, mighty Saviour, to help you, to give you the victory. Tell Him that if He wants you to fight for it and suffer the temptation, that you are willing to fight if He will give you strength, and then believe that He does give power. Praise Him for it. If the temptation comes hard, pray. Bring Him in all His glory and power before you, as He is. If you could see Him looking upon you with your natural eyes, you would not yield. Know that He is doing it, and stand in the strength of His presence. If you have no strength, ask Him to take away the appetite, the desire. He has done it in many cases.

Then co-operate with Him. Do not work too hard, yet keep busy. Take hot baths, and sweat the tobacco out of your system. Drink plenty of water. Eat good, nourishing food. Get all the sleep you can. Do not use strong condiments, such as pepper, etc. All strong, stimulating foods increase the demand for the tobacco poison. Keep away from all associations which would lead you down. Put away tobacco and pipe forever. Enlist in the war to win if you die; you will never die with Him. Thousands have conquered who were slaves, and they would not go back to its bondage for worlds. You can conquer in Him.

1732.—What is the Bride of Christ?

Please explain through your paper Rev. 21:2 in connection with Rev. 19:7, 8. It is claimed that the literal city is to be the Bride of Christ, and that the marriage is going on now. Also Gal. 4:22-31, especially verse 26. A SUBSCRIBER.

But does not the Word say that the city is the bride? What did the angel say to John?—"Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the wife of the Lamb." Rev. 21:9. What did he show John?—"And he . . . showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God." Verse 10. "I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband." Verse 2. What is a part of her adornment?—"Fine linen, bright and pure; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints." Rev. 19:8. The greatest adornment of a person is his character. 1 Peter 3:3, 4; Isa. 61:10. The greatest glory of a mother is her children with beautiful characters. And so the greatest glory of Jerusalem will be her redeemed children. Again, Jerusalem, as the capital city of the new earth, stands for the everlasting kingdom of Christ. Compare Isa. 54:1-5 with Gal. 4:22-31. Christ is the Husband and everlasting Father (Isa. 9:6); New Jerusalem and the new earth our rightful mother. The people of God are the children, the guests. This figure includes all blessings. It is also true that in other scriptures the church is likened to the bride (Jer. 3:14; 31:32; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:23-27); and likewise the individual believer is so likened (Rom. 7:4; Gal. 3:27).

Continue reading: MOSQUITOES AND YELLOW FEVER