Signs of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 23. (4/9/1894)

Signs of the Times

Apr 9, 1894

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 9, 1894

Not of Self.

By Editor

He who is truly righteous will not boast of his righteousness, for it is not his own. He is good only in the "borrowed goodness" of God. He who is truly holy will not boast of his holiness; for if he is truly holy, it is only because of Christ's wholeness. "And ye are complete in Him," are the words of the apostle. We are complete in no other. In God's great goodness and mercy alone will we boast. The holier the man the more humble will he be of his own attainments.

Not for Us but God.

It is not for us to call ourselves righteous or saints. That belongs to God. We come to him by faith, sinners. He calls us righteous, and we are so. His word makes us clean. John 15:3. He calls "things that be not as though they were;" and he calls the sinner a "saint," albeit he is not a saint, and he becomes holy. The infinite power of God's word makes him so. The person thus cleansed will not, however, call himself a saint and boast of his holiness. That will he leave with God. He will esteem it the highest honor to be called a "servant of the Lord Jesus Christ," and the most blessed occupation will be to do Christ's service.

Romanism and the Public Schools of San Francisco.

Myers' General History has been introduced as a text-book in the public schools of San Francisco. A general protest against its use came from the Roman Catholics, because, as they claimed, it misrepresented Roman Catholicism, favored the Reformation, and was therefore sectarian, and should not, therefore, be used. This has been discussed pro and con before the Board of Education, and at this writing the question of its continued use is still pending, with the chances in favor of Rome; for every history which tells the plain, unvarnished facts Rome will consider Protestant and sectarian, and Rome will win in San Francisco. Here is an evidence of her power. Rome's remonstrance against the history has been quite fully published. Rev. J. Q. A. Henry, pastor of the First Baptist Church of the city, has stepped into the arena to champion the Protestant side, and to show the effect of Rome's hand in our public schools. A notice of his meeting was taken to the Chronicle and Call of that city, but neither of them would publish it as a paid advertisement, although some of the notices they have advertised are unmentionable. Mr. Henry applied to the city council to obtain permission to advertise it in the street by a transparency, but the council would not grant it, although they grant permission for other things religious, irreligious, and unreligious. Rome sways the scepter. That all the world shall worship the beast is declared by the prophet of God, and His word cannot fail.

Come as You Are.

Christ invites all to come, irrespective of race or condition. All who will come to him as they are, to receive him as he is and for what he wants to be to them, will find him a present, living Saviour, a mighty healer, a personal friend. One great trouble is that we do not come to Christ as we are. We rather come as we want to be, or as he only can make us. It is with a half apology for our sins, or an excuse for transgression, or with false sympathy for ourselves in sin, or with a feeling that we are not as bad as someone else. Come as you are, poor, and wretched, and miserable, and blind, and naked, all sick with sin, and doomed by the incurable disease to certain death, unless divine power interposes. We may not feel that we are all this, but the Great Physician has so diagnosed our case, and it is wise to believe him. God has said that our condition is just what is stated above, and we see it in others whether we realize it in ourselves or not. But in Christ is healing and help and life. Come just as you are, as he has described you to be, and find in him just what he longs to be to everyone.

A NEW PHASE OF SPIRITUALISM.

The Spirit of Truth, formerly The Kingdom of Heaven, edited by Thomas Cook as "the medium who shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, shall he speak," introduces a new revelation to the world. It says editorially that the question— Is there a Messiah coming? is soon to become the all-absorbing question of all nations professing to believe in Jesus the Christ. The very spiritual elements surrounding this earth are becoming surcharged with this thought and its results, the establishing of the kingdom of God on earth, which will be the full answer to the question.

This new dispensation or establishing of the kingdom of Christ upon earth shows the drift of modern Spiritualism. It no longer reveals itself to the world in the gross infidelity of the past, but professes to be not only Christian, but that which is truly Christian; and its talk of the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth sounds very much like that which is sought for and predicted by modern National Reformers. They are not looking for Christ to come in Christ's own way, as he himself has declared in his word, but in their way; and this new dispensation is ushered in by this Spirit of Truth of March, 1894.

The coming of this new dispensation, says this paper, predicted in 1852 as being then "nigh at hand," is now by the great Spirit Congress of All Nations announced, and invitations have been sent to all parts of the spirit world to assist in this work and jubilee; and already a vast concourse, ten thousand times more than can ever be heard through this channel, have responded, and are here, at this our first seance, to encourage with their voice and presence this great, grand, and glorious heavenly cause.

So states the spirit messenger which brings this news to the editor of the Spirit of Truth. This spirit signs himself "Robert Dale Owen," and then follow messages from "Charles Dickens," "Monroe Woods," "Louis XVI., king of France," "John Cook," "Pope Pious IX.," "Jennie Smith," "Bonaparte," "Adoniram Judson," "Shakespeare," "John C. Bundy," "Warren Chase," and "Patrick Henry." There is a good deal of the characteristic of our late Parliament of Religions manifested in this wondrous gathering of spirits. In closing this symposium, the spirit Robt. Dale Owen says:—

It is doubtless well to call attention to the non-sectarian character of this great universal unity movement. It is not intended as a Spiritualists' movement by Spiritualists and for Spiritualists alone by any means, but is intended to embrace and enfold in its loving arms even its most bitter enemies, as well as the whole of the entire human race, of every clime or complexion. It does not come as a champion or advocate of any cult, creed, or particular ism, but embraces and appeals to the love of humanity in them all. As a divine order, therefore, we do not essentially come to contend for any plan or proposition, but rather to appeal to and plead with humanity to let their love of God and humanity rise up and predominate over their lower self or animal selfishness. We shall not even argue with anyone that we are spirits or angels, once dwellers with you in bodily form on earth, or that spirits can and do return and communicate; for we regard that as much of a settled question as that the world does move.

He who reads God's word will see the drift of all this. The tendencies toward evil which we see in the material world among the nations of earth are but the reflex influence of the world of spirits, over which Satan himself presides. God has forewarned us of all these things. He has told us that evil spirits and

lying spirits will come to us. He has said of man that he shall surely die, but the first falsehood of Satan has been believed instead of the word of God, and now Satan's demon messengers come to mankind in the guise of the spirits of the dead, claiming to bring messages of peace and love from the kingdom of light. But he who knows God's word knows that the messages are false and the messengers are the messengers of darkness. "To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."

OBSERVING TIMES.

THE apostle Paul wrote to the church at Galatia: "Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain." Gal. 4:10, 11. In this very observance the apostle saw evidences of backsliding from God and serious cause of alarm. These outward actions showed that the heart was no longer perfect toward God. What were these times observed by these Galatians?

1. They evidently were not Jewish festivals which God had appointed, but the observance of which had expired by limitation; for these the apostle had elsewhere intimated were to a great extent a matter of indifference. This is stated in Rom. 14:5, 6: "One man esteemeth one day above another; another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it." This seems to refer to practices connected with the eating of herbs and meats. Brother was not to judge brother. The same principle is expressed in Col. 2:16, 17: "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day [feast day], or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days; which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ." This pertains to the same observances, which expired as obligatory at the cross, when the shadow reached the substance. The sabbaths were yearly sabbaths, of which there were several. See Leviticus 23. Would the apostle condemn and regard as dangerous in Gal. 4:10 what he places so little stress upon in the other scriptures?

2. The observance of the Galatians did not pertain to the weekly Sabbath of the Bible. God gave that for all people and all time. It was "made for man." It was embodied in the holy and immutable law of God. Ex. 20:1-17. That law Jesus said he did not come to change, and declared that it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the law to fail. See Matt. 5:17-20; Luke 16:17. The apostle Paul declares that faith in Christ not only does not abolish God's law, but establishes it in the heart. Rom. 3:31. Neither can the expression "every day" of Rom. 14:5 be said to necessarily include the Sabbath, for precisely the same expression is used in Ex. 16:4, where only six days of the week are intended. Certainly the apostle would not be afraid of that religion which led to a faithful observance of just what God had commanded. "Ye are my friends," said Christ, "if ye do whatsoever I have commanded you."

3. What these observances of the Galatians were we may learn from the verses preceding those we quoted at the beginning of this article. Says the apostle: "Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?" Gal. 4:8, 9.

The Galatians, or at least many of them, were converted idolators. They were saved from the "service" of "them which were no gods," but in their backslidden condition they had turned again to the bondage from which the power of Christ had delivered them. In other words, they had gone back to the observance of the times of the heathen, which God had before forbidden: "Neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times." Lev. 19:26. It is said of Manasseh, the wicked king of Judah, that among other things which he did when he forsook the God of his fathers was that he "observed times." These times were the days dedicated to the feasts and worship of their gods. It was therefore no wonder that the apostle feared for them.

The church of to-day is trending in the same direction. For the observance of Christmas, Lent, Good Friday, Easter, and Sunday there is absolutely no authority in the Scriptures. They are wholly of men. They may be traced back to pagan and idolatrous customs. This is especially true of Christmas, Easter, and Sunday. And yet the great Protestant churches of Christendom, whose boast has been "the Bible and the Bible alone," is not only continuing to observe Sunday, in the face of constantly increasing light, when to do it makes void a command of God, but in the observance of the other feasts they are coming to outdo Rome. Ornate services, appeals to the senses, are the order of the day. As the living, constant witness, designed of God to abide forever in the church, is silenced by sin and selfishness, human devices are invented to attempt to fill up the vacancy. God's witnesses to the power of the resurrection are the lives of regenerated human beings, not on Sundays, not on dress-parade days, but on every day, in all the transactions of life. Every attempt to improve upon God's plan has resulted in failure, and weakness to the church; and to keep up these observances the church has been compelled to use force and appeal to the civil power. Oh, that our brethren in all these denominations might turn from tradition to God's holy word, from "the weak and beggarly elements" of paganism and sin, whereby the light of God is obscured, to the truth as it is in Christ Jesus.

"LOVERS OF PLEASURES."

By Editor

THE following manly protest we clip from a recent number of the New York Observer; it illustrates the tendency in the church, and shows that there are those who protest against these things, if they do also "sigh and cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof":—

As though jealous of the notice bestowed upon the unmitigated toughs who posed as heroes in the South, a Protestant church (save the mark!) recently posted conspicuously large bills, a verbatim copy of which is given below, names only being omitted for the sake of members of the denomination who would be horrified at such proceedings. A copy of this "bill" is sent to the editor of the Observer for proof:—

GOOD GRACIOUS MERCY!

HAS SHE CAUGHT THE VILLAIN?

THAT SHREWD LADY DETECTIVE FROM THE WEST.

THE W. H. AND T. CO. will give a GRAND DRAMATIC EXPOSITION, at —— HALL, cor. —— and —— Sts., WEDNESDAY EVENING, JAN. 24th, 1894, for the benefit of SAINT PAUL'S —— CHURCH. To our many Friends, Do Come out and see the Two Middle Weight Pugilists, who will wonderfully amuse you in a Friendly and Scientific Four Round Contest for Points Only. GENERAL ADMISSION - - - 15 CENTS. General Committee.

And to this precious mixture of bad English, poorer taste, and worse morals, posted in the name of a great and respected denomination, which cannot be blamed for the occurrence, are affixed the names of seven women and nine men, including the pastor!

Now, I submit, such a prostitution of the holy names of church and pastor is a scandal to the cause of Christ, and deserves a disclaimer from all who love his church. An organization which stoops to such reprehensible methods of raising funds, simply masquerades in Christ's name, and is upon a lower moral level than the Duval Athletic Club, which is in such work "for revenue only," and is acknowledged to be a company of sports.

"MODERN RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION."

By Editor

Under the above heading the Times of this city recently had the following editorial:—

An inoffensive citizen, a Seventh-day Adventist, was recently convicted of a misdemeanor and punished by a Maryland Court for the atrocious offense of husking corn in a barn on Sunday. Some two or three years ago a man was sent to jail in Tennessee for plowing on Sunday. In both Maryland and Tennessee games of baseball and football are played on Sunday, admission being charged to the grounds, and candy, popcorn, and peanuts peddled in the throngs who assemble to see the sport. These "amusements," which are conducted as a business, are not molested by the authorities, but a quiet citizen, who believes that Saturday is the real Sabbath, cannot husk corn in his own barn or plow his field on Sunday without incurring the penalties of the criminal law.

That religious bigotry prompted both these prosecutions is quite evident, for both the men arrested and punished were Seventh-day Adventists. It was not claimed that they were lawless or disorderly persons. On the contrary, they were industrious, law-abiding citizens, who provided for their families, paid their taxes and debts, attended to their own affairs, and never meddled with the concerns of their neighbors. Yet these men were picked out for prosecution for violating Sunday laws, and the instigators and promoters of the prosecutions were church-goers, members of other religious sects. It was hatred of the Seventh-day Adventist faith, and not the breaking of the sabbath, that actuated these pious prosecutions. The people who inspired them were not moved to prosecute those who participated in godless sports or sold candy and peanuts on the Lord's day. They wanted to visit their pious reprobation of the Seventh-day Adventist heresy. In other words, the prosecution was persecution, and the inspiration was bigotry and intolerance.

Sunday laws should go no farther than preventing disorder and compelling decorum in deference to the religious feelings of the great body of our citizens, but when they become agencies for the punishment as criminals of men who peacefully plow their fields and husk their corn, they take on the intolerant inspiration that kindled the fires of Smithfield and turned the rack and thumbscrew of the Spanish Inquisition.

Purposely noisy pursuits followed ostentatiously on Sunday in the vicinity of public worship, or in such a way as to offend the propriety and religious sentiments of other sects, should be punished, either as disorderly conduct or as disturbances of the peace. But in the name of Him who came teaching charity and toleration for all, as well as for the spirit of civil liberty and religious freedom, it is to be hoped that there will be no prosecutions prompted by fanaticism and directed in the spirit of persecution.

LOOK NOT TO SELF BUT TO CHRIST.

By Mrs. E. G. White

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.

It is in looking upon our sinful condition, and talking and mourning over our wretchedness, that distress becomes more keen, and pain accumulates. Let the sinner arise in the strength of Jesus, for he has no strength of his own, and let him assert his liberty. Let him believe that the Lord has spoken truth, and trust in him, whatever may be the feelings of the heart. Let the sinner say, I will look away from my own misery, from the wound of the serpent, to the uplifted Saviour, who has said, "Him that cometh to me, I will in nowise cast out." Look upon Jesus. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."

Let no one make his feelings his idol, and bow his soul down to worship and serve his sensations. "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." It is your privilege to believe that Christ has borne your sins; for God hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. You are under the shelter of the sure refuge, under the cover of the atoning blood of the acceptable sacrifice.

All legalism, all the sorrow and woe by which you may encompass yourself, will not give you one moment of relief. You cannot rightly estimate sin. You must accept God's estimate, and it is heavy indeed. If you bore the guilt of your sin, it would crush you; but the sinless One has taken your place, and, though undeserving, he has borne your guilt. By accepting the provision God has made, you may stand free before God in the merit and virtue of your Substitute. You will then have a proper estimate of sin, and the godly sorrow of true repentance will take the place of hopeless discouragement and grief, for you will turn from sin with grief and abhorrence.

Jesus says, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Do not think for an instant that any human being has a more loving heart, and a more tender compassion for you, than he who died on Calvary to save you. Do not turn from the divine to the human. The human messenger may bid you hope, on the ground that God's word bids you hope. Your Heavenly Father invites you to come to him as a little child to a loving parent, and say, Thou hast said: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?"

Christ is the friend of sinners. When the scribes and the Pharisees accused him of eating with publicans and sinners, Jesus said, "I come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." If you feel yourself to be the greatest of sinners, then Christ is just what you need; for he is the greatest of Saviours. Lift up your head, and look away from yourself, away from the poisoned wound of the serpent, to the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world. What will all your groaning and the torturing of your soul avail? You may entertain thoughts that condemn you, but in them there is no salvation. Put away your thoughts, and receive the thoughts of God, through which your mind may be elevated, your soul purified and uplifted. The Lord says: "For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer." Why will you carry your burden of sin, when Christ has come to be your burden bearer? Roll your sins at the foot of the cross. Unload! unload! He takes away the sins of the world. "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins."

You have been pronounced a sinner, and Christ has announced himself a Saviour. Accept the remedy God has provided for you in a sin-pardoning Saviour. How would you have felt had you been in the camp of Israel and seen the people groaning and shrieking in distress because of their swollen and painful wounds, when the brazen serpent was uplifted, and when by one look they might be healed? Would you not have exclaimed: "Why do they not look at the uplifted serpent? How strange it is that they do not perform the one simple act by which they might receive healing!" But is it not as inconsistent for you to refuse to look at the crucified Saviour? —Heed the invitation: "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."

Why should the repenting sinner forsake his thoughts? It is because they are not in accordance with truth. He is tempted to believe that because of his sins God has given him up to the will of his enemy, and that there is no pardon for so great a sinner as he. But all these thoughts are dishonoring to God, because man is God's possession, both by creation and redemption. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him [as his personal Saviour, and accepts him as the only provision whereby he can be saved] should not perish, but have everlasting life." You are one of the whosoever may believe. But while you cherish unbelief, and permit feeling to govern you, your case will look hopeless to yourself. Forsake these unbelieving thoughts. God says: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

"God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Poor, doubting, discouraged soul, I would address you as one of that world for whom God gave his Son. He loves you, and will save you if you will but receive the gift of his only-begotten Son. Moses prayed that God would show him his glory, "and the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty." This is the character of the God in whom you are to put your trust. "God is love." Repeat this sentence whenever temptation presses upon you. Remember that he is just and merciful, true and gracious, and will by no means clear the guilty. God can be just, and yet be the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. He will accept you just as you are; for there is no hope of your becoming better until you come to Jesus for pardon and sanctification. Mourning and weeping will not purify you. You may mourn your life away in unbelief, and in bitterness of soul, but the power to cleanse the vilest sinner is vested wholly in him who can save unto the uttermost.

God does not ask you to feel that Jesus is your Saviour, but to believe that he died for you, and that his blood now cleanseth you from all sin. You have been bitten by the serpent, and as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness that the dying might look and live, so Christ was lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Saving faith is simplicity itself. You must cry no more; you must cease to hang down your head as a bulrush. Look to the uplifted Saviour, and, however grievous may have been your sins, believe he saves you. All the remedies and medicines of the world would have failed to cure one soul who had been bitten by the venomous serpent; but God had provided a remedy that cannot fail. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Be not among the number to whom the Saviour said, "Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life." Oh, how he longed to save them; for while we were yet sinners (not waiting for us to make ourselves good), Christ died for us.

Believe now that God loves you; for he hath declared it, and when Satan tries to fasten the burden of sin and horror upon you, take your Bible, and read, "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." You cannot repulse the enemy by relating your fearful doubts, by telling him that you are horrified by the thought that you are lost. All this is music in his ears. He wants to make you as miserable as he is himself, but you can answer him by proclaiming the promise that you believe in the Son, and therefore shall not perish. As you turn your eyes away to the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, the controversy with the enemy will be ended for that season. You can repulse him by declaring that "Christ was wounded for my transgressions. He was bruised for my iniquities. The chastisement of my peace was upon him, and with his stripes I am healed."

Take the word of Jesus Christ as more sure and valuable than any word that can come from the human agent. Thank God with your whole heart and soul and voice that you are barricaded with the rich promises of his infallible word, so that the wicked one shall not touch you. God will give you the Holy Spirit, even though it may seem to you that it is too good to be true. "What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"

The Case Against Sunday Laws

The greater part of the above is literally true, but there is connected with this righteous protest the very principles which make the protest necessary. These are found in the last paragraph. Admit the right of a Sunday law, and all the evils which follow are admitted with it. "Disorder," "noisy pursuits" "in the vicinity of public worship" are forbidden in all communities; and in no State is better order preserved in this respect than in California, which has no Sunday law.

As to the matter of "deference to the religious feelings of the great body of our citizens," we have just simply this to say: The "feelings" of the majority are no more sacred than the feelings of the minority. They are entitled to the same respect which the feelings of the minority are, and no more. Every man should be treated civilly on all days; but civility does not demand a Sunday law. The "propriety and religious sentiments" of arrogant and popular religious bodies, as all history demonstrates, are easily offended. The Jews were offended because Christ's disciples rubbed out some wheat in their hands on the Sabbath day, or because he healed the sick. The "religious sentiments" of the Roman Catholic priests were offended because Anne Askewe would not confess to transubstantiation. The "religious sentiments" of some of the people of Gainesville, Ga., were offended because two men worked in a quiet way on a Sunday in a church on the opposite side of the town—work which they could neither hear nor see, only as they went to spy it out. It is the old, old story. They watched Christ to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath day, that they might have whereof to accuse him. Sunday laws of all kinds have a purely religious basis, and, if logically followed, will inevitably lead to persecution, and the people of conviction will be the persecuted.

The American Protective Association

By Editor

The Harbinger (Disciple) of March 31 has the following:—

"Father" Gleason wishes us to understand that the American Protective Association is the "ghost of Know-nothingism," and that it will quickly pass away. The "father" is not well posted. And the trouble with Know-nothingism was that it came before the hands of the Jesuits were so clearly seen as now, and before their arrogance, intolerance, and persecuting spirit were fully known. The association, being the child of necessity, will be very likely to live long enough to vanquish those who attempt to stifle free speech and overthrow American institutions.

And why were not the "arrogance, intolerance, and persecuting spirit" of the Jesuits, and, for the matter of that, the Papacy, fully known? Why did God permit an object lesson of the working out of its principles for 1260 years? What was the Reformation but a recoil, a protest against these very principles? What have the Jesuits done of late years that they did not do a hundred times worse during those 1260 years? And God has foretold it all in his word. But the A. P. A. will not succeed, because it has adopted the armor of Goliath in order to fight him. Rome is mistress of her own weapons, and her enemies will so find it when too late.

Question Corner.

By Editor

"If ye will inquire, inquire ye." "But avoid foolish questions."

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

137. THE LEVITICAL AND MELCHISEDEC PRIESTHOOD.

WHAT was the real object of the Levitical priesthood? Why couldn't the Melchisedec priesthood continue? I find in "Bible Readings," page 176, we have the Melchisedec priesthood before and after the Levitical priesthood. Was it in order that the plan of salvation could be more fully made known, and that Christ was to come down to this earth and leave his priesthood in heaven? If there had not been a Levitical priesthood on this earth would it have been possible for Christ to come to this earth as he did? Where did the children of God in the Melchisedec priesthood have the law of God written—in their hearts, just the same as after Christ?

The object of the Levitical priesthood was to a great extent the same as that of all priesthoods. "For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins; who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity." Heb. 5:1, 2.

After man sinned, the righteous patriarch of the family combined in himself the offices of priest and king, and sometimes of prophet. Noah was the ruler and priest of his family. Abraham was of his, Jacob of his. Melchisedec's age entitled him to precedence over Abraham. When Israel died, whose sons were each to become the heads of tribes, these offices were divided. Judah became the ruler, Levi the priest. The priesthood, its ceremonies, its ritual, became more full, complete, and elaborate than the patriarchal priesthood. But, like the patriarchal priesthood, it was typical of the priesthood of Christ, and its sanctuary of the heavenly sanctuary. The sacrifices which they offered—the blood of bulls and goats—could not take away sins, could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience (Heb. 9:9; 10:4); for the priests were themselves doomed to death and liable to sin.

The Levitical priesthood was, however, but a partial type of Christ's priesthood. Christ was both king and priest, and no one succeeded him in his priesthood. But in the Levitical priesthood the priests were many, not being suffered to continue, by reason of death (Heb. 7:23), and the rulership at that time was in Judah. Therefore, while in making offerings for the people each high priest typified Christ, he was far from being a perfect type. Christ was not, therefore, a priest after the order of Aaron, or Levi. But in Melchisedec we have a perfect type of Christ. We have no account of his genealogy, his beginning of days or end of life. We know of no one who preceded him in his priesthood or succeeded him. He was king of peace, because he was king of righteousness. In all this he was a type of Christ, who is "our peace" (Eph. 2:14), "the Lord our righteousness" (Jer. 23:6), a priest-king upon his Father's throne (Zech. 6:12, 13; Rev. 3:21); and his priesthood does not pass to another (Heb. 7:24, margin).

It has been God's design, and that design has been carried out wherever there has been living faith, to write his law in the hearts of all in all dispensations. Because his law was on tables of stone during the Levitical dispensation, it does not argue that it was not in the hearts of his people. "Thy word have I hid in mine heart," says the Psalmist, "that I might not sin against thee."

Just what would have been, or what would not have been, if things had been thus or so, we do not know. All God's plans are the best and wisest for the time and place and circumstances. All the types of the past looked forward to the better time. Heb. 9:9, 10; 11:39, 40. We can afford to trust God, knowing that he always does the very best he can consistent with the free will of ignorant and perverse humanity.

WANTED, MEN OF PRINCIPLE AND COURAGE.

By John M'Carthy

BY JOHN M'CARTHY.

Men of principle and courage Are the men we need to-day, They who will their firm convictions E'er acknowledge and obey. They who stand when all oppose them, They who truth will e'er befriend, Are the men our world is needing, Rights and virtues to defend.

Men of principle and courage, Men who'll dare to stand alone, Men who make great sacrifices To uphold the view they own, Men who, conscientious ever, Waver not from side to side, Are the jewels of a nation, Rarely found, but dearly prized.

Men of principle and courage, Who for liberty will stand, Not alone for toleration, But for freedom pure and grand, Who will fight life's hottest battles, Not with sword, or carnal power, But with truth—God's only weapon— To dispel dark error's hour.

Men of principle and courage, Who will never compromise With the foes of their convictions, Who above themselves will rise, Self forgetting in the conflict, Striving not for worldly gain, But who try to raise the nation To a higher, nobler plane.

Men of principle and courage Number few within our land, Yet their presence much is needed— For them now there's much demand. Shall we now augment their number, Though 'gainst odds we e'er may fight, To uphold the views of conscience, To stand firmly for the right?

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