A REVIEW OF SUNDAY LEGISLATION IN CENTURY NINETEEN. NO. II.
WHAT ROME WILL DO FOR THE UNITED STATES.
POPE LEO XIII. has openly declared "that what Rome has done for other countries she will do for the United States." The present condition of Spain, morally, intellectually, and commercially, presents a fair sample of "what Rome has done for other countries," and consequently should be a fearful warning to the people of this country, of what "she will do for the United States."
Rome has ever been anxious to "do for the United States" that which "Rome has done for other countries." The glorious era of the Declaration of Independence and of the United States Constitution, hailed with joy by every lover of liberty, was an era of "clouds and thick darkness" to her. Rome has had sinister designs against this government and nation ever since that period. But Rome was powerless to carry out her wicked machinations as long as the government abided by the Constitution. Rome knew this, but what could she do?
Professed Protestant Americans persuaded Congress, by means of lies and threats, to reverse the "new order of things," abandon the principles of the Constitution, and legislate in behalf of the so-called "Christian religion." A Sunday law, upon a purely religious basis, was passed for the World's Fair, and thus the barriers of protection were removed, the flood-gates were opened, and Rome has swept in. She has seized and appropriated to her own uses all the historical lines of proof brought forward by these professed Protestant Americans in support of the theory that "this is a Christian nation."
We, as Seventh-day Adventists, have told these professed American Protestants all these years that Rome would do this very thing. They would not believe us. Now that the thing has actually come to pass, and now that Rome is busily engaged in proving to them that if it is "historically true," as they have claimed, that this is a "Christian nation," it is preëminently "historically true" that this is a
CATHOLIC CHRISTIAN NATION,
they grind their teeth in rage. But it is too late; Rome has them fast in her grasp, and, worse than that, the nation, which they and their allies, the Supreme Court, have turned over to her. Again we say, It is too late. The nation is doomed to destruction, sold by her PRIESTS and rulers to the "man of sin." By Rome the great American republic will be ruined. But thank God Rome herself will meet her end in the operation, and her long and disgraceful career will be terminated by Him who is called "Faithful and True," who "in righteousness" doth "judge and make war," and whom "the armies which are in heaven" do follow, and by whom "the beast was taken" and cast alive into a "lake of fire burning with brimstone." Then will be fulfilled the word of the angel who was sent by Jesus Christ to John when he was upon the isle of Patmos: "Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her." Rev. 18: 20. And all the redeemed saints will rejoice, and well they may.
To the prophet Daniel, wrapped in holy vision, the angel said:—
"And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power; and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many; he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; BUT HE SHALL BE BROKEN WITHOUT HAND." Dan. 8: 23-25.
By reading the eighth chapter of Daniel from the first verse down to the twenty-third, it will be clearly seen that these verses must apply to Rome, and to no other power but Rome. It is Rome that is to be "broken without hand." It may be urged that this applies only to the destruction of the Roman Empire, and not to the Roman Catholic Church. Not so; Rome as an empire was destroyed long ago by the barbarian tribes of ancient Germany. Rome as an empire was not "broken without hand." Nevertheless, the principles of Pagan Rome exist in Papal Rome just as truly as they did in the empire. The fundamental principle of ROME from first to last, from start to finish, is SELF-EXALTATION.
It is therefore clear from the above scripture that the Roman Catholic Church will perish "without hand," that is, without the hand of man. It is the hand of God that will destroy her. This is stated in the following words from Holy Writ:—
"After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things. I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened. I beheld then, because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame." Dan. 7: 8-11.245
Now all this was said concerning a power of whom it was also said: "He shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High." This is all true of the Roman Catholic Church; and, moreover, it is preëminently true of her. Other powers have spoken great words against the Most High; but no power has done that wicked thing to an extent that will in any way compare with the degree to which the Roman Catholic Church has done it. Of the Papacy Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, said: "Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." 2 Thess. 2: 4. The temple of God is that place where sins are forgiven. But the Papacy claims the power to forgive sins. It therefore follows that the Papacy does put herself in the place of God, in the temple of God. This is blasphemy if ever there was such a thing in the world.
Again, Rome states that the Holy Scriptures derive their infallibility from the Roman Catholic Church. But the Holy Scriptures are the living word of God. They are, if we may be allowed the use of the expression, God incarnate in human language. But in this claim the Papacy puts herself above the word of God, which is the expression of the character of God, which is God himself. And this also is blasphemy if there ever was such a thing on earth.
Add to all of this the blasphemous titles arrogated to herself by the Papacy: "Lord God the Pope," "Another God upon earth," "King of Kings and Lord of Lords," "Viceregent of the Son of God." Such titles as these would be blasphemous even if held by men of good morals and unquestionable piety; but when held by men whose crimes of rape, incest, adultery, murder, and debaucheries of every kind were so great that they cannot with decency be written, what shall we say of them?
It was said of the Papacy that she "shall WEAR OUT the saints of the Most High." The text does not say "persecute" but "wear out." Other powers have persecuted; but she alone has worn out the saints. The Saracens have killed some of the saints; so has the Greek Church; so have other powers; but Rome has worn them out. Never did the Saracens or any other heathen power invent or use such infernal processes of slow torture to "wear out" life as has Rome. No power save Rome ever blew men full of wind by means of bellows till they burst. No power but Rome ever stuck them full of pins from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot. No power save Rome ever used the "Iron Maiden" or the "Spanish Donkey." More than all this, she has worn out whole nations till there was not a man of them left. This is especially true in the case of the Albigenses.
All this is "what Rome has done for other countries," and what she wants to do for the United States.
Again the record says of the Roman Catholic Church, "He will think to change THE TIMES, and the law." Dan. 7: 25, R. V. Not "think to change" a time, or the time, but THE TIMES, that is, the periods of time which by God have been distinguished above all other times. But this weekly recurring period that has been honored and distinguished by the Lord above every other day is the Sabbath, the seventh day, the memorial of creation. Rome has done her best to put another day in the place of the day of God. She has taken the pagan Sunday and sought to put it in the place of the day which the great Creator sanctified and blessed. The Sabbath of the Lord is the memorial of creative power, hence, the memorial of the Creator. Here is what Hislop says of the sun; it is significant in this connection:—
According to the primitive language of mankind, the sun was called "Shemesh," that is, "the servant," that name, no doubt, being divinely given to keep the world in mind of the great truth that, however glorious was the orb of day, it was after all the appointed minister of the bounty of the great unseen Creator to his creatures upon earth. Men knew this, and yet, with the full knowledge of it, they put the servant in the place of the Master, and called the sun Baal—that is, the Lord—and worshiped him accordingly. What a meaning then in the saying of Paul, that "when they knew God, they glorified him not as God; but changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is God over all, blessed forever"!
All of this has Rome done, and done it knowingly, and she glories in it, and declares that Sunday as a day of holy rest, (?) this creation of iniquity, is her distinguishing mark.
And now the crowning blasphemy of it all is that, in the face of this fearful record, she, Rome, Babylon, the mother of harlots, is declaring herself to be "the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers [margin] shall serve and obey him." Dan. 7: 27. More than this, as I shall hereafter show, she is already setting about to prove this thing to all the world.
LET THE MODERN CHURCH HEED.
THE following is taken from the concluding remarks of D'Aubigne on the work of Zwingle in Switzerland—an attempt to advance the cause of Christ by civil power. Let the church, now seeking the same weapons, heed the lesson:—
Thus the Reformation, that had deviated from the right path, was driven back by the very violence of the blow into its primitive course, having no other power than the word of God. An inconceivable infatuation had taken possession of the friends of the Bible. They had forgotten that our warfare is not carnal, and they had appealed to arms and to battle. But God reigns; he punishes the churches and the people who turn aside from his ways. We have thus taken a few stones, and piled them as a monument on the battle field of Cappel, in order to remind the church of the great lesson which this terrible catastrophe teaches. As we bid farewell to this sad scene, we inscribe on these monumental stones on the one side these words from God's Book: "Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. They are brought down and fallen; but we are risen and stand upright." And on the other, this declaration of the Head of the church: "My kingdom is not of this world."
If from the ashes of the martyrs at Cappel a voice could be heard, it would be these very words of the Bible that these noble confessors would address, after three centuries, to the Christians of our days. That the church has no other king than Jesus Christ; that she ought not to meddle with the policy of the world, derive from it her inspiration, and call for its swords, its prisons, its treasures; that she will conquer by the spiritual powers which God has deposited in her bosom, and above all, by the reign of her adorable Head; that she must not expect upon earth thrones and mortal triumphs, but that her march is like that of her King, from the manger to the cross, and from the cross to the crown—such is the lesson to be read on the blood-stained page that has crept into our simple and evangelical narrative.—Hist. Reformation, Book XVI, chap. 10.
THE POPE ON THE PAST AND PRESENT.
THE Pope, on January 28, was present in St. Peter's and delivered an address, read for him to twelve thousand persons by Monsignor Volpini. The Sun gives a translation of it:—
The present occasion gives us fresh proof of the devotion of the Roman people, to whom we wish all blessings. In view of this, it is easy to understand our bitterness when we think of the trying conditions in Rome, which are aggravated by the general state of the peninsula. Let us hope, however, that the present disasters can be repaired, and order can be restored in those districts which are now troubled.
We cannot on this occasion omit to recall the past, when the prescience of the popes gave Rome, not merely for years, but for centuries, glorious, tranquil prosperity. That prosperity was the outcome of neither chance nor the institutions of man. It was rational, and sure of the morrow. Life was then calm and well ordered. Nothing was wanting for the well-being of the people.
The opposite is true of the present. If we would profit by bitter experience, let us trace the evils to their origin and seek an effectual remedy. The religious ruin, invoked and designed, has brought moral and material ruin. Not only justice, but also political expediency, must demand the return of the nation to the religion of its fathers, with mutual confidence and affection, and without suspicion of the pope, whose preaching of the life eternal renders even mortal life happy and prosperous.
Notwithstanding the pope's alleged infallibility when fulminating doctrine, even a Roman Catholic might criticise this, for it is not doctrine.
The sort of peace they had when the popes ruled was the peace of despotism. The population was divided into three sorts,—first, the hierarchy, including the pope; the cardinals, obsequious toward him, managing him, often unperceived by himself, so that his bulls were their opinions.
Regularly in the descent the hierarchy succumbed to those above, and ruled those below, till the parish priest was reached, who ruled the laity, as the ordinary patrolman in the police force keeps order on his beat. This was the first class—who obeyed under promise of reward, and threat of excommunication if disobedient, the latter meaning eternal damnation if not removed.
The second class consisted of those of wealth and position, who surrounded the hierarchy, shared in its honor, received its countenance, and constituted the stable lay nuclei of churches and institutions of learning and charity. They were also connected with the secular administration, including its civic and military departments. The third class included the common people, whether religious, mere nominalists, or blind devotees.
When any man dared to think for himself, and made it known, he was at first ostracized, then forcibly suppressed, imprisoned, ejected, or executed. There was no crime so great as independence in religion or refusal to pay tithes to the priests.
Peace indeed—the peace of rewarded or enforced silence and nominal acquiescence! All other than this was the peace of the chained and gagged.
It is not necessary to cast into the faces of advocates of the pope's temporal power the atrocities of the medieval period. All this has been seen by many men now living.
The wonder is that the pope does not remember—or thinks the world has forgotten—the history of Italy.6
A systematic and, in large measure, a successful effort is being made to delude American people concerning the aims of the papal hierarchy.
Cardinal Gibbons, in speaking of the pope the other day, said: “He has no standing armies to enforce his mandates, like temporal sovereigns. He has no police nor civil magistrates to coerce refractory subjects. He has no prisons in which to confine the violators of the law. He has recourse only to moral sanctions and spiritual penalties for the maintenance of the gospel dispensation. The only weapon that he wields is the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
Compare this very smooth-tongued, ingratiating flatterer’s eulogy with the pope’s own words herewith printed.
The cardinal speaks of the pope’s destitution of temporal power as though it were a virtue. If so, why does his holiness submit to this privation so reluctantly and ungraciously? How is it that these superior advantages had to be forced on the pope by temporal sovereigns who appear to have understood better what is proper for a spiritual leader than the holy father did?
Let Americans understand that underneath the velvet gloves are the same talons; beneath the brilliant vestments is the same lust of domination; under the honeyed accents are the same chords whose vibrations filled the souls of men with terror; under the acquiescence to public sentiment, when the incomplete purpose is prematurely brought to light, is the never-weakening, ever-strengthening will to regain the temporal and spiritual power, which the souls of the Reformers threw off at a risk, and many of them at the sacrifice, of life itself.
The boast of the Roman Church that it never changes is true. To draw a figure from its idea of transubstantiation in the reverse order—its accidents may change; its substance, never.—Christian Advocate.
ONLY WAIT.
By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle
BY MRS. L. D. AVERY-STUTTLE.
ONLY to follow where He leads,
And that is all;
Only to drink the cup He gives,
Though bitterest gall;
Only to say, "Thy will be done,
And thine alone, Almighty One;"
Though bruised and faint, to journey on,
Nor halt, nor fall.
Only this lesson I must learn,—
To quiet wait,
Though nerve and heart and spirit burn
For conflicts great,—
Only to wait, and quiet say,
"If Thou wilt guide my feet to-day,
I will not murmur on the way,
Nor mourn my fate."
I know the great Refiner sits
Beside the flame;
And, oh, his tender love for me
Is e'er the same!
Yes, my Refiner sits beside
The great door of the furnace wide,
And he will never leave my side—
Blest be his name.
THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
By Minard Wood
BY MINARD WOOD.
"SURELY shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength." Isa. 45 : 24.
A worldling glories in the things of the world; but a Christian glories in Christ; yea, he glories more in Christ's cross than the world's crown (Gal. 6:14); Jew and Gentile, publican and Pharisee, outwardly pious and openly profane, are all upon a level in point of justification before God. There is naturally none righteous, no, not one. Rom. 3:10, 23. Who, then, can be saved?—None by his own righteousness; no, not even the most moral man upon earth, if he has nothing better than his morality to recommend him. Rom. 3:20.
Surely shall one say, yea, and many more shall learn from the example to say the same, and not only say it, but stick to it. Say what? —Why, "In the Lord have I righteousness;" for what Jesus my Lord is, in his nature, and by his life,—perfectly righteous,—that I am in him. What I have not in myself I have by faith in him who loved me, and gave himself for me. Titus 2:14. The Lord is righteousness in himself, righteous altogether, and can never act contrary to what is righteous. Ps. 116:5. And we have our righteousness in him. Who is "the LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS" (Jer. 23:6); and if we depend upon Christ for righteousness, we shall be justified by faith in him (Rom. 5:1). Our faith is counted to us for righteousness. Rom. 4:3-8. This righteousness is not according to anything we have done, can, or may do (Titus 3:5), but by grace through faith that we are saved (Eph. 2:8, 9).
Do not cast away the little confidence you have in the Lord; but rather hold fast, resist unbelief, and remember your faith is your victory. 1 John 5:4. It is well to feel our own weakness, but better to know that in the Lord we have strength. "Surely shall one say"—and why not you?—"in the Lord have I righteousness." Let this be your triumph against every accusation. And let this be your victory over every enemy, in Jesus, my Lord, I have strength. Phil. 4:13. Complain no longer, but apply to God, through Christ, for all you need; though unholy and weak in yourself, you can do all things through Christ strengthening you.
New Bedford, Mass.
ARE YOU WEANED?
By H. A. St. John
BY ELDER H. A. ST. JOHN.
SAYS David, “Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother; my soul is even as a weaned child.” Ps. 131:2. The Psalmist is here speaking of his moral and spiritual condition, for he says that “his soul is even as a weaned child.” The birth and the weaning of a child are two different events, occurring at different times. The birth is the beginning of its infantile life; the weaning, the end of babyhood and the beginning of childhood, youth, and service. The sinner, when converted, is born again, born of God, a newborn babe in Christ Jesus. By Christ, his father, and the church, his mother, he must be carefully nourished for a time with the sincere milk of the word, for he is a babe. But he should grow thereby, and not remain a babe. Young babes may be a joy and sunshine in a household, but old babes, old enough to be men and women, would certainly be a disappointment and a disgrace. And it is worse than foolish for a mother to wish her darling infant to remain a babe.
The newborn babe takes all its food second hand, or after it has been chewed and digested by the mother, but when weaned it is sustained by the food of its own chewing and digesting. So, likewise, the newborn babe is nourished by the sincere milk of the word administered by the Spirit through the church. But not always should the soul be dependent upon being thus taught, but should grow up and become a teacher. The apostle Paul mentions some who for the time ought to have been teachers, but they were still babes, old babes, who needed to be taught, to be fed, and that, too, with milk.
The unweaned child must needs ever keep near its mother. Likewise the old unweaned Christian babes are ever hanging on the church; they think they cannot live without church privileges and church associations and church instructions, even for a short time. They must ever be fed, but never feed others in return.
Everybody has noticed the universal characteristic of infants to put everything given them into their mouths. Paul tells us that the old babes of whom he wrote did not have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. As the poison would be taken into the mouth by the little child as quickly as food that is good, so these old babes, who were old enough to have learned to discern and reject the evil and accept only the good, were just like unweaned infants. They were carried about by winds of doctrine, listening to, repeating, and thus feeding upon evil reports. Such gossiping, talebearing, faultfinding, accusing Christians need to be weaned and learn that such things are destructive of spiritual growth, health, and development. They need to learn what kinds of food are spiritual, hygienic, contributing to a vigorous Christian manhood and womanhood.
Paul has also stated that these old babes were “dull of hearing.” This is a well-known characteristic of little children. Many important and plain things have often been read and said in the hearing of these old Christian babies, which they never seem to have heard or learned, like the disciples, to whom Jesus stated, and repeated over and over again, the plain story of his tragic death and resurrection the third day, yet when the event came they were no better off than if it had never been told them. They were “dull of hearing.” Jesus says plainly, “If thy brother trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone.” “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” Overcome evil with good, etc., etc. And yet the church contains many who for the time ought to be teachers of these things, but who themselves need to be continually taught, and who are ever acting just as though such instruction had never been given. Truly they are “dull of hearing.”
Again, little children are void of judgment in the use of money. Likewise many old church members, although they have been in the school of Christ for years, are still in the A, B, C class in the study and understanding of their stewardship. They are almost as careless, as prodigal, as injudicious in the use of means as the little child. They are ignorant, or willfully neglectful, of the plainest instructions of God’s word in the matter of tithes and offerings.
Furthermore, the apostle has told us that another characteristic of old babes, who had not grown up, was the retention of an undue measure of carnality, evidenced by a contention over individual preferences. One said, “I am of Paul;” another, “I am of Apollos;” and still another, “I am of Cephas.” Are those who argue, and contend in this day over their preferences, either in the ministry or out of it, any farther advanced in spiritual growth? I am of Christ, should be the one central thought and all-prevailing ambition, which should swallow up every other preference. The bond-woman and her son, types of carnality, were cast out when Isaac was weaned.
For want of space we cannot consider all the characteristics of stunted, dwarfed, old, or unweaned babes in Christ, but there is one other, made prominent by the apostle, which we will briefly notice in conclusion. He says they are “unskillful in the word of righteousness.” An unskillful physician is one who fails either to correctly diagnose the sick man’s case, or fails to apply the proper remedies. He may fail in both these important particulars. To be unskillful in the word of righteousness would certainly be to be unable247to rightly divide the word of the Lord so as to expose to the sinner his fatal malady, and to lead him to the great Physician for healing.
The professed church of Christ is filled with members who say that they cannot teach, talk, or pray with a sinner; they do not know how. Personally they are not in any sense engaged in leading souls to Christ. They do not know how, nor are they at all disposed to learn how. They are contented to remain feeble, sickly, dwarfed, unweaned babes. They do not realize that it is imperative that they grow up to the perfect stature of men and women in Christ Jesus, and that there will be no starless crowns in heaven. Oh, that these babes would grow up and become nursing fathers and mothers in Israel!
THE CHURCH THEN AND NOW.
By Elder J. P. Henderson
BY ELDER J. P. HENDERSON.
MANY theologians attempt to prove, and many people are led to believe, that the church of Jesus Christ had no existence previous to his incarnation. With such the idea becomes prevalent that we as Gentiles have no part with the Jewish economy; that the Old Testament, with all its adherents, existed separately, as having no place with the New. These ideas are further advanced as the claims of the fourth commandment are brought to bear. The popular mind is led to believe that the Jews were greatly inferior to the Christians, and that the latter will have preëminence in the future life. Thus caste is introduced into the household of God, in which one race of people are to become subservient to another.
Such theology, however, has no place in the mind of God. The church of Jesus Christ is one church, and while the change of dispensation from the old to the new may have brought out some additional features, the church had a prior existence just the same.
From Stephen's testimony (Acts 7:38) we learn that "this is He, that was in the church in the wilderness," etc.—a positive affirmation that Christ had a church at that time, and that he was in that church. This, too, leads to the thought of what constitutes the church of God and its membership. Here again we have answer that it is those who are "builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit." Eph. 2:22.
In this same connection the Gentiles are spoken of as "no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God." Verse 19. This implies that the Israelites were the household of God before the "middle wall of partition" was "broken down" (verse 14), and only admits the Gentiles as partakers of the blessing which previously came only through the house of Israel.
The Gentiles were the "outcast" and "uncircumcised," and at that time were "without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." Eph. 2:12. In a figure, the Gentiles are admitted only as partakers with the Israelites of the promises of God, and every article of nourishment they receive is drawn from the breasts of Israel.
The Gentiles are represented also as a "wild olive tree" (Rom. 11:17), and can only partake of the "root and fatness of the tame olive tree" by being grafted in.
This grafting, too, is said to be "contrary to nature." Verse 24. Nature allows the scion to bear the fruit of the tree from which it is taken, while it may be receiving nourishment from another, but, "contrary to nature," causes the ingrafted branch to lose its identity, as it not only partakes of the "root and fatness of the tame olive tree," but must bear the same fruit.
Where is boasting, then? "Thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear; for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee." Rom. 11:18-21.
It is plainly to be understood in the above scriptures that the Gentiles are only an adopted people, and have nothing of themselves. Like adopted children in a family, they lose their previous identity, and become in custom and habit partakers of whatever pertains to the family into which they are adopted.
But the family of Israel sprang from Abraham. It was this lineage that especially distinguished them as a separate and distinct people. And the fact that all the promises of God were given in and through Abraham made his literal descendants feel that they and they only were his heirs. "He received the sign of circumcision, . . . that he might be the father of all them that believe" (Rom. 4:11), and it was "to Abraham and his seed" that the promise was made (Gal. 3:16); hence there can be no legal inheritance except to those who in some proper way become members of that family. As the promises were made to his Seed, "which is Christ" (verse 16, last part), it follows that "if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Gal. 3:29).
There are two ways of parentage recognized by law; one is in actual birthright, the other by adoption, and in no other way can the Gentiles be heirs of the Abrahamic blessings than by the latter. Having received the spirit of adoption, "we cry, Abba, Father." "And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." Rom. 8:15, 17.
All the above prove the prior existence of the church, as the church is the body of Christ, of which he himself is given to be its head. Eph. 1:22; Col. 1:18. So it only remains to be proved that he was the head of the "church in the wilderness," and that all constituting his body were partakers with him by faith, or, in other words, that they constituted the same as now, a building, with whom "ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." Eph. 2:22.
The word "also" implies that they were previously builded, and had been, and were at that time, a habitation of God through the Spirit, so that in no way could the Gentiles have preëminence.
By turning to 1 Cor. 10:1-4 we find that they "did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ." The prophets of those days had the Spirit of Christ, which "testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." 1 Peter 1:11.
But space forbids us in this short article to bring forth the evidence that their hearts were purified by faith, even as ours, and that it was through faith and not works that righteousness was imputed to them. See Hebrews, the eleventh chapter. It is also by faith that we become the children of Abraham and are blessed with him. Gal. 3:7, 9. So that, while in preëminence the Jews have the first rank, we are thankful that there is no distinction, "for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Gal. 3:27, 28.
Waverly, Iowa.
The Evil of Social Impurity
SOCIAL impurity in its various forms is the worm at the root of modern civilization. Unless Christians see and rally against this tide of iniquity, blight and decay will fall upon us as a people. There is the greatest need of exposing the devil in his various sly and slimy methods. Every Christian should set himself against all iniquity. "Ye that love the Lord hate evil." —Vanguard.
TRUE GIVING.
THAT only he who loves truly gives is a great but oft unrecognized truth. The following from the Sunday School Times on that point is worthy of consideration, and should lead every reader to ask the questions, "Why do I give? What is my motive?"
Certainly all giving which is after the fashion of God's must be the outflowing of a loving heart. God so loved the world that he gave his Son. That supreme act of giving furnishes the light in which to interpret every other gift of God and to order every gift of man. Our Maker is the greatest of givers. He opens his hand and supplies the needs of every living thing. He pours out his life into the whole universe in gifts to enrich and strengthen and cheer all sentient existence. And all that comes from him is the outflow of his love. The outstretched hand discloses the loving heart. In no act of his can the two be dissevered.
So all true and rightful giving is the expression of love in the giver:—
Gifts of one who loved me!
'Twas high time they came,
When he ceased to love me,
Time they stopped for shame!
Yes, for they shame the recipient. Much of what has passed as Christian charity in the relief of the needy and the dependent classes has been so destitute of this divine mark of love that the very word has lost its old meaning. Once it meant love in the highest and most unselfish shape. Now it is fallen from this high estate, until "cold as charity" has become a proverb, and the revisers have had to seek another word for Paul's magnificent outburst in 1 Corinthians 13. What a story of heartless and loveless giving is summed up in that piece of verbal history,—giving not as to a brother in need, with a brother's claim on our hearts, but to rid our consciences of the sense of obligation, and perhaps to acquire a little merit towards God for our own souls.
The poor club exercised her Christian gifts
Of knitting stockings, stitching petticoats,
Because we are of one flesh, after all,
And need one flannel—with the proper sense
Of difference in the quality.
The hearts of the givers have grown the harder and the colder for such giving, which has been itself a peril, as hiding from us how far we are from Him who "so loved that He gave."
And the hearts of the recipients have been harmed no less. A gift from a brother, given in the brotherly spirit, can harm no one. It lowers no self-respect and weakens no motive of self-exertion. But the heartless, unloving gift demoralizes. It is such gifts that have created the greedy army of professional beggars, who live at the expense of society, and not by honest work.