Earlier text: THE SIN OF ELILONELINESS is as often within as without. Said the prophet, who looked upon the desolate altars of Israel, “They have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.” Rom. 11: 3. And yet at that very time, notwithstanding all the pressure of the dominant idolatry and the apostate government, God had reserved seven thousand men who had not bowed the knee to Baal, and who, at the peril of their lives, hidden in secret places, were striving to maintain their integrity before God. This man Elijah, in front of the battle, found himself alone, but he did not know of the hosts held in reserve, that were hidden in secret places and that were waiting a favorable moment to openly declare themselves on the side of the God of truth. Many a man to-day deems himself alone, simply because he is short-sighted and cannot see what God is doing in the world around him. He has dreamed that the pillars of the earth rest upon his shoulders, and that if he fails everything is gone. But this is a strange mistake. There may be standing among us men we know nothing of, whose courage and faith will put our doubts and unbelief to shame. When the disciples forsook the Lord and fled, or shrank and trembled at the sight of his cross, the honorable counselor came boldly and begged the body that hung upon the cross, and laid it in his own new tomb. There were only three days and three nights between the darkness of Calvary and the light of resurrection life. The way from crucifixion to triumph is very short. Let us tread the path with firm and steadfast steps, and we shall find that He who has gone before us all our way of tears and sighing, shall never leave us nor forsake us in the time of our extreme trial, but will bring us to be more than conquerors through Him who hath loved us and given Himself for us.—Selected. THERE are many different types of beauty. There is the beauty of youth, which all enjoy for a season; there is the beauty of form and color, which is the most attractive form of beauty; there is the beauty of intellect, which sharpens and refines the most rugged features and redeems them from the charge of plainness; and lastly, there is the highest beauty of all, the beauty of holiness, which comes from close and frequent intercourse with God, and is the reflection of his glory. This is the beauty spoken of in the Acts of the Apostles, when it is said that all that sat in the council looking steadfastly at Stephen, a man full of faith and of power and of the Holy Ghost, “saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.” The beauty of youth is fleeting. Beautiful features are rare, and the most brilliant complexions fade. The beauty of intellect is rarer still; but the beauty of holiness is within the reach of all; all may acquire that if they choose, and this is a beauty that never fades, but daily increases, though the outer man may wither and decay. We see it sometimes illuminating the faces of the poorest and the oldest, even of the deformed and afflicted, as well as of the young, whose natural beauty it heightens and adorns; and whenever we see it, we may be sure that he or she who possesses it is in the habit of holding intercourse with God—a child of prayer, for it is prayer and meditation on holy things which make the face, as it were, “the face of an angel.”—Selected. If you can do good to-day, defer it not till to-morrow. “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.” Humility in the Prayer Meeting
HUMILITY is a very desirable and useful Christian grace, but it never finds expression when you occupy a back seat in the prayer-meeting. THE SPIRIT OF ANTICHRIST. NO. 16.
By W.
Thus far we have quoted only those passages which directly state that the Virgin Mary is entitled to more honor than Christ; that to her men must look for salvation, rather than to Christ; and that if they depend upon Christ, and not upon the Virgin Mary, they will surely be lost. We shall now give a few sample quotations showing that this Mariolatry directly fosters and encourages the most outrageous wickedness. On pages 36 and 37 of "The Glories of Mary," we find the following:— "We read in the life of Sister Catherine, an Augustinian nun, that in the place where that servant of God lived, there lived also a woman named Mary, who, in her youth was a sinner, and obstinately persevered in her evil course even to extreme old age. For this, she was banished by her fellow-citizens, forced to live in a cave beyond the limits of the place, and died in a state of loathsome corruption, abandoned by all, and without the sacraments, and on this account was buried in a field like a beast. Now Sister Catherine, who was accustomed to recommend very affectionately to God the souls of those who had departed this life, after learning the miserable death of this poor old woman, did not think of praying for her, as she and everyone else believed her already among the damned. Four years having passed, a soul from purgatory appeared to her, and said: 'Sister Catherine, how unhappy is my fate! You commend to God the souls of all those who die, and for my soul alone you have no pity.' And who are you, said the servant of God, 'I am,' answered she, 'that poor Mary, who died in the cave.' 'How! are you saved?' exclaimed Sister Catherine. 'Yes, I am saved,' she said, 'by the mercy of the Virgin Mary.' And how?! 'When I saw death drawing near, finding myself laden with sins, and abandoned by all, I turned to the mother of God, and said to her, 'Lady, thou art the refuge of the abandoned, behold me at this hour deserted by all; thou art my only hope, thou alone canst help me; have pity on me.' The holy Virgin obtained for me the grace of making an act of contrition, I died and am saved, and my queen has also obtained for me the grace that my pain should be abridged, and that I should, by suffering intensely for a short time, pass through that purification which otherwise would have lasted many years. A few masses only are needed to obtain my release from purgatory. I pray thee cause them to be offered for me, and I promise to pray God and Mary for thee.' Sister Catherine immediately caused those masses to be said for her, and that soul, after a few days, appeared to her again, more brilliant than the sun, and said to her, 'I thank thee, Sister Catherine; behold I am now going to Paradise to sing the mercy of God, and pray for you.'" This is very much in the same line as the preceding quotations. It teaches that people may live profligate lives up to the very moment of death, and then be saved by a single "act of contrition." Thus it tends to cause men to put off repentance, and to rob God of all the service that is his due. But that is not the worst. It is true that Christ is able "to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him," and that it is possible that even in the last hour of life the sinner may heartily repent and find acceptance with God; for one such case is recorded in the New Testament. But the Catholic Church, in the quotation just made, teaches that men may come unrepentant to the last moment of life, and even then be saved without Christ. Christ is utterly ignored even in that extremity. The essential wickedness of such a scheme of religion ought to be apparent to everyone who has any knowledge of divine things. Again, on page 687 we read:— "In the mountains of Trent lived a notorious robber, who when he was admonished by a religious to change his course of life, answered that for him there was no remedy. 'Do not say so,' said the religious; 'do what I tell you; fast on Saturday in honor of Mary, and on that day do no harm to anyone, and she will obtain for you the grace of not dying under the displeasure of God.' The obedient robber followed this advice, and made a vow to continue to do so. That he might not break his oath, he from that time went unarmed on Saturdays. It happened that on a Saturday he was found by the officers of justice, and that he might not break his oath, he allowed himself to be taken without resistance. The judge, when he saw that he was a gray-haired old man, wished to pardon him; but through the grace of compunction which he had received from Mary, he said that he wished to die in punishment of his sins. He also made a public confession of all the sins of his life in that same judgment-hall, weeping so bitterly that all present wept with him. He was beheaded, and buried with little ceremony, in a grave dug near by. But afterwards the mother of God appeared, with four holy virgins, who took the dead body from that place, wrapped it in a rich cloth embroidered with gold, and bore it themselves to the gate of the city. There the blessed Virgin said to the guards: 'Tell the bishop from me to give an honorable burial, to such a church, to this dead person, for he was my faithful servant.' And this was done." By such stories as this, Catholicism identifies itself with paganism, which taught its devotees to depend on charms and incantations, and also with Spiritualism, the great feature of which is that man is his own saviour. All three systems are alike in that they exalt man to the level of God. This, as has before been shown, necessarily follows wherever the doctrine of man's natural immortality is held, because that very doctrine claims for man the attribute of Deity. Similar to the above quotation, is the following, found on page 689:— "In the country of Normandy, a certain robber was beheaded, and his head was thrown into a trench, but afterwards it was heard, crying: 'Mary, give me confession.' A certain priest went to him and heard his confession; and questioning him as to his practices of devotion, the robber answered that he had no other than fasting one day of the week in honor of the holy Virgin, and that for this our Lady had obtained the grace to be delivered from hell by that confession." Surely that was an easy way of getting saved, considering the amount that a person is allowed to eat during a Catholic "fast." But the worst of all is the following, found on pages 301 and 302, with which we will end these extracts:— "Father Charles Bovius relates that in Domans, in France, lived a married man who had held a criminal connection with another woman. Now the wife being unable to endure this, continually besought God to punish the guilty parties, and one day in particular, went to an altar of the blessed Virgin, which was in a certain church, to implore vengeance upon the woman who had alienated her husband from her, and this very woman went also every day to the same altar to repeat a Hail Mary. One night the divine mother appeared in a dream to the wife, who, on seeing her, began her accustomed petition: 'Justice, mother of God, justice.' But the blessed lady answered: 'Justice! do you seek justice from me? Go and find others to execute justice for you. It belongs not to me to do it for you. Be it known to you,' she added, 'that this very sinner offers every day a devotion in my honor, and that I cannot allow any sinner who does this to suffer and be punished for his sins.'" It is impossible to conceive of anything that could be written under the pretense of being religious, that would tend more directly to lead people to the commission of crime, than this does. In this instance which, like all the rest, is of course fictitious, we have the case of a woman living in open sin, yet the Virgin Mary, who is set forth as the only hope of sinners, severely rebukes the one who has been so grossly wronged, saying that the guilty woman shall not be punished, because she, every day, repeats a form of prayer. Thus the Catholic Church teaches that no matter how wicked a person may be, he is safe if he only remembers, in the midst of his debauchery, to "say a prayer" to the Virgin Mary. Is it not rightly named the "MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH"? Surely Paul could not have given a more accurate description of it than by calling it "that wicked." The apostle John says that antichrist is he that denieth that Jesus is come in the flesh. It has been shown that Spiritualism is antichrist, because it openly and emphatically denies the divine mission and character of Christ. Catholicism is no less antichrist, because, although it makes much of the name and the image of Christ, it sets another above him in the plan of salvation. And both of these systems of error arise from the pagan notion that the soul of man is a part of God, and therefore cannot by any possibility die, which idea was first promulgated by Satan, the arch-enemy of Christ. Therefore we say, as before, that the spirit of antichrist is the doctrine of the natural immortality of the soul. The only difference between paganism and Christianity is Christ. Take Christ out of Christianity, and all of its professors would soon sink into paganism. There is no power in man to elevate himself; this can be done only by some power outside of himself, and that power is the Saviour. But the salvation which Christ brings is not simply a present uplifting, but "an everlasting salvation." He came to give eternal life to as many as should believe on him. The sum of all the blessings which Christ has to bestow is comprised in the gift of eternal life. Now when people, no matter what their profession, teach that men are not dependent on Christ for life, they virtually deny him entirely. And when Christ is set aside, immorality must come in. There cannot by any possibility be any righteousness in this world except "the righteousness which is by the faith of Jesus Christ." And since the doctrine of man's natural immortality takes away the incentive to believe in Christ, the Life-giver, we once more emphatically repeat that that doctrine is the very spirit of antichrist. W. MORE CATHOLIC PROTESTANTS.
By Editor
THE editor of the New York Evangelist, Dr. Field, is a defender of Catholicism. He thinks that the disposition to stand aloof from Catholics is "most mischievous to the church and country." He says: "The late President Hitchcock often said to us, when we discussed the dangers to society from socialists and communists, that we might yet come to look upon the Roman Catholic Church as the most conservative power in the country, if, by its influence over the Irish, it should keep them from running into the excesses by which so many of the French and Germans were carried away. It is conservative also in preserving the name of Christendom against the great flood of infidelity which is sweeping over the land. Here is a tremendous power exercised by the Roman Catholic Church over millions of our countrymen, and it is the height of folly and fanaticism to alienate it from us by standing always in an attitude of antagonism. Protestants as we are by inheritance and by conviction, yet we cannot deny that Roman Catholics may be good citizens, and useful members of society, and that many of them are humble and devout Christians—a fact which it is a sin against Christ not to recognize." And an Episcopalian clergyman of Central New York writes thus to Dr. Field:— "I do want to thank you for what you say about the treatment of Roman Catholics. How vastly better than infidelity is that church, and what a check it is to the same! Surely God is in it." Thus the evidence increases, to show that Protestantism is getting to be simply a name, with no meaning whatever. Such men as we have just quoted from have no right to the name "Protestant," since they have ceased to protest. Two questions are sufficient to prove this: 1. Was the Reformation a mistake—was the Catholic Church all right, and Luther and his fellow-reformers all wrong? 2. Has the Catholic Church changed one item in principle since that time? Both these questions must be answered in the negative. Then those who apologize for the Papacy now, would have opposed Luther and his work if they had lived in his day. If those who oppose Catholicism to-day are bigots, then Wickliffe, and Huss, and Jerome, and Luther, and Melancthon, and Zwingle, and others like them, were also bigots. Is the professed Protestant world ready to take this position concerning these men? We do not antagonize Catholics as individuals, but Catholicism as a system. But these men from whom we have quoted, seem to think that to deny215that Catholicism is a part of the Christian church, is to deny that any Catholics may be good citizens, or that there may be persons within its pale who, to the best of their knowledge, are followers of Christ. There are thousands of honest people in that anti-christian church, many of whom we have faith to believe will yet have their eyes opened to its true character, and will leave it. Just so there are many honest infidels who will yet accept the gospel. The same thing may also be said of many heathen. But because there are infidels and heathen who honestly desire to do right, and who do as nearly right as they know how, shall we laud infidelity and paganism? The fact is, and we have abundant evidence to prove it, that there is not in the whole world a more potent factor in the manufacture of infidels than the Roman Catholic Church. Not only so, but by its teachings it opens the flood-gates of vice and immorality, and almost puts a premium on licentiousness. Yet it hoodwinks sleepy Protestants by making much of the image of Jesus Christ, and by a profession of regard for the marriage relation. While we have not an unkind feeling for any Catholic in the world, we are glad to be known, as the Catholic Sentinel puts it, as "a foe to the Catholic Church and the Jesuits." w. THE CALL OF ABRAHAM.
By W.
HAVING learned that this earth was designed to be Adam's kingdom, and that he forfeited it, and that Christ has bought the title to it, and will one day call his own to share it with him, we shall now trace the chain of evidence from paradise lost to paradise restored. When God pronounced the curse upon our first parents, and upon the earth, he also made known the way of escape from that curse. Christ, the deliverer, was immediately promised. To Satan, the Lord said: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Gen. 3:15. These words contain the promise of the Messiah, who, although he should be allowed to be bruised by Satan, should thereby gain the right to destroy Satan and all his works. Time passed, and Satan seemed to get a still firmer hold upon the earth, for "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." "And God looked upon the earth, and behold it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth." Gen. 6:5, 12. In all the earth there was but one family who acknowledged and served God; all the rest of mankind were totally given up to the service of the devil. "And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth." Gen. 6:13. So the earth, with all its inhabitants, was destroyed by the flood. Noah and his family alone were saved; and when they came out of the ark, God said to them, as he had said to Adam and Eve, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." Gen. 9:1. He did not, as to our first parents, give them dominion over all the earth, for it was impossible; but in order that men might not be exterminated by the beasts, that had become savage by passing under the dominion of Satan, he said: "And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, and upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered." Gen. 9:2. Thus did God interpose to limit Satan's power, giving men a chance for life, that they might prepare for the complete possession of the earth when it should be restored. But as men began again to multiply upon the earth, they again forsook the Lord, and gave themselves fully over to the service of Satan. Soon after the flood, we find them so filled with rebellious pride that they began to build a city and a tower, thinking that thereby they could protect themselves against any judgments that God might bring upon them. Gen. 2:1-9. This impious attempt was brought to nothing, and the people were scattered abroad upon the face of all the earth, yet they did not forsake the service of Satan. Within about four hundred years after the flood, the people of the earth were once more sunken in idolatry and superstition. At that time the Lord came to Abraham, one of the descendants of Shem, and said to him:— "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee; and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing, and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." Gen. 12:1-3. The Lord saw in Abraham a willingness to serve him, although all his people were idolaters (Josh. 24:2); and he separated him from them, so that he might not become contaminated by them, but might become the father of a people who should be fitted to inherit the earth. If we closely examine this promise, we shall find that it comprehends a great deal. "In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed" means nothing less than the possession of the whole earth by the descendants of Abraham. But this will appear more clearly as we pass on. In Gen. 13:14-17, we find the promise renewed more in detail in these words:— "And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward; for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth; so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee." Here we have strong proof that the promise to Abraham included nothing less than the whole earth, for his seed were to be multiplied as the dust of the earth. The length and the breadth of the land was to be theirs. At that time Abraham had no child, and in all human probability could never have one. "And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face; and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee." Gen. 17:1-5. Again, when God was about to destroy Sodom, he said:— "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him." Gen. 18:17-19. This gives us to understand that the promise was made to Abraham with so much positiveness, because the Lord knew that he would keep his commandments, and that he would command his children and his household after him to do likewise. From this also we may learn that the promise to his seed was only to those who should serve the Lord. Once more we find the promise renewed, when Abraham had showed his faith in God by proceeding to offer up his only son, through whom the promise was to be fulfilled. The Lord then called to Abraham, and said:— "By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice." Gen. 22:16-18. In the expression "thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies," we have the promise of conquest. Bear this in mind, while we consider a few other points. In Gal. 3:15-17, we have a scripture that has an intimate connection with the subject under consideration. It reads thus:— "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; . . . that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed no man disannuleth, or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law . . . cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect." From the above scripture we learn that the seed to whom the promise was made, is Christ,—the same that was promised at the time of the fall. Now in connection with the promise to Abraham, that his seed should possess the gate of his enemies, read the following words of God the Father to his Son Jesus Christ:— "Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee, Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." Ps. 2:7-9. When this shall have been accomplished, then "the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace;" for the meek are they who have come to Christ and have learned of him, yielding themselves to him to be his servants; and Paul says: "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Gal. 3:29. From this, together with the statement that "they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed" (Gal. 3:7, 8), we may conclude, even at this stage of our study, that the promise to Abraham, and to his seed, was nothing less than the promise of the earth to all who, through faith in Christ, should gain the victory over sin. And this is further confirmed by Paul's statement that "the promise that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." Rom. 4:13. But we shall come to this point again, as we proceed in this investigation. In the twenty-sixth chapter of Genesis we find the promise once more repeated, this time to Isaac, Abraham was dead, and there was a famine in the land, and the Lord appeared to Isaac, and said:— "Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I swore unto Abraham thy father; and I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because that Abraham obeyed my voice; and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws." Gen. 26:2-5. Notice here that God made the very same promise to Isaac that he had made to Abraham; and he also said that he would perform the oath that he swore unto Abraham. He gave no hint of any delay having occurred in the fulfillment of the promise to8Abraham, but spoke of it as something that he would do just as he had promised. Yet Abraham was at that time dead. Therefore we must conclude that the Lord never designed to fulfill the promise in Abraham's life-time; and we shall find that Abraham did not expect that it would be then fulfilled. Passing on, we come to the time when Jacob had his dream of the ladder which reached from earth to Heaven, upon which the angels of God were ascending and descending. "And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac; the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth; and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south; and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Gen. 28:13, 14. Now it is certain that neither Abraham, Isaac, nor Jacob, ever had any share in the inheritance promised to them. When Stephen was before the Jewish Sanhedrim, on trial for his life, he referred to God's call for Abraham to go into the land of Canaan, and said, "And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on; yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child." Acts 7:5. And this Stephen used as a part of his argument that the promise to Israel was yet to be fulfilled. As proof of Stephen's statement that Abraham had no inheritance in the land, we cite the fact that when Sarah his wife died, he had to buy a place in which to bury her.
W.