Signs of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 24. (6/23/1887)

Signs of the Times

Jun 23, 1887

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 23, 1887

General Articles.

By Ellen G. White

NO CLOAK FOR THEIR SINS.

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.

“And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin; but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.”

HAD the Pharisees, to whom these words were addressed, been really blind or ignorant through want of capacity to learn or opportunity for instruction, they would have been comparatively free from guilt in their determined opposition to Christ. But they had the most favorable opportunity to obtain an understanding of the Scriptures; and they prided themselves on their knowledge and discernment, while they were willfully closing their eyes to the light Christ declared of them: “Ye know not the Scriptures, neither the power of God.” They had stubbornly refused to receive instruction; therefore all the opportunities which they enjoyed, all the wisdom, ability and knowledge of which they proudly boasted, would only increase their condemnation in the day of final Judgment.

God gives us sufficient evidence to enable us to accept the truth understandingly; but he does not propose to remove all occasion for doubt and unbelief. Should he do this, there would no longer be a necessity for the exercise of faith; for we would be able to walk by sight. All who with a teachable spirit study the word of God, may learn therefrom the way of salvation; yet they may not be able to understand every portion of the Sacred Record. The apostle Peter declares that in the epistles of Paul, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, there are “some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable, wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.” Whatever is clearly established by the word of God we should accept, without attempting to meet every doubt which Satan may suggest, or with our finite understanding to fathom the counsels of the infinite One, or to criticise the manifestations of his grace or power.

Those who are continually looking for something to find fault with, something to strengthen unbelief in the word of God, will soon find themselves so completely under the power of doubt and unbelief that nothing will seem sure to them; they will find no solid foundation anywhere. It is a duty to encourage faith and devotion. If we seek in humility to learn the will of God as revealed in his word, and then obey that will as it is made plain to our understanding, we shall become rooted and grounded in the truth. Said Christ: “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine.”

The case of Paul shows how one may be blinded by prejudice while thinking that he is doing God service. Paul was a persevering, earnest persecutor of the church of Christ. Yet he was conscientious in it, fully believing it to be his duty to do all he could to exterminate the alarming doctrine that Jesus was the Prince of Life, the long-expected Messiah. Paul verily believed that faith in Jesus made of none effect the law of God, the religious service of sacrificial offerings, and the rite of circumcision, which had in past ages received the full sanction of God.

But Paul was arrested in his mad yet honest career. Jesus, whose name of all others he most hated and despised, revealed himself to Paul, that he might make this most unpromising instrument a chosen vessel to bear the gospel to the Gentiles. As the miraculous revelation of Christ brings light into the darkened chambers of his mind, he sees his mistaken zeal, and that the One against whom he is arrayed is indeed the Christ, the Redeemer of the world.

Paul learns that Jesus, whom in his blindness he considered an impostor, is indeed the author of all true religion, even from the days of Adam. Christ had been regarded as making of none effect the law of God; but when his eyes were open to discern spiritual truth he saw that Christ came into the world for the express purpose of vindicating his Father’s law. He learned that Christ was the originator and the foundation of the entire Jewish system of sacrifices, and that in his death type met antitype. He saw in the Man of Calvary the vindicator of truth, the fulfiller of prophecy.

In the light of the law, Paul sees himself a sinner. He finds he has been transgressing that very law which he thought he had been keeping so zealously. He repents and dies to sin; he becomes obedient to the claims of God’s law, accepts Christ as his Saviour, is baptized, and preaches Jesus as earnestly and zealously as he once condemned him.

Paul was a learned teacher in Israel, a nation that had been for many generations the true people of God, and the depositaries of his law; but he was blinded by error and prejudice. This is the case with many now. Arguments against the truth, subtle in their influence, affect minds that are not enlightened by the Spirit of God, and have not become fully informed with regard to Bible truth. In many cases, selfishness, dishonesty, and the varied sins that prevail in this degenerate age, blunt the senses so that the truth of God is not discerned. But when, as in Paul’s case, there is honesty of purpose, and a desire to do the will of God, the truth will be accepted when it is made plain to the understanding.

Those who are seeking to know the truth, who are faithful to the light already received, and in the performance of every-day duties, will surely know of the doctrine; for they will be guided into all truth. God does not promise, by the masterly arts of his providence, to irresistibly bring men to the knowledge of his truth, when they do not seek for truth, and have no desire to understand it. The Spirit of God is continually convicting, and souls are deciding for or against obedience to God. But men are allowed freedom of action; the power of choosing is left with them. They may be obedient through the name and grace of the Redeemer, or they may be disobedient, and realize the consequences of their course. Man is himself responsible for receiving or rejecting sacred truth.

Our Saviour admonished his disciples: “Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.” A cunning and vigilant foe attends our steps, and employs his skill in trying to turn us out of the right way. He does not come in a visible form; but by his representatives he is ever on our track, and through them he brings his power to bear upon us when we least suspect his presence. He works in darkness, and controls all who will be deceived by his devices. But the grace of God

is pledged for us, and the path of obedience is the path of safety. “He that walketh uprightly walketh surely.” Walk in the light and “then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy feet shall not stumble.”

“If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world; but if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.” Then let us draw nearer and nearer to the pure light of Heaven, remembering that divine illumination will increase according to our onward movements, qualifying us to meet new responsibilities and emergencies. The path of the just is progressive, from strength to strength, from grace to grace, and from glory to glory.

It was through constant conflict and simple faith that Enoch walked with God. We may all do the same. We may be thoroughly converted and transformed, and be indeed children of God, not only enjoying his favor, but, by our example, leading others in the path of humble obedience and consecration. Real godliness is diffusive and communicative. The psalmist says: “I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart. I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy loving-kindness and thy truth from the great congregation.” This course is just the opposite of that pursued by the blind Pharisees, to whom Jesus said, “Thy sin remaineth.”

Basel, Switzerland.

Christ’s Reward

"Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." Rev. 22:12.

JUST AS GOD LEADS ME.

Just as God leads me I would go; I would not ask to choose my way, Content with what he will bestow, Assured he will not let me stray. So as he leads, my path I make, And step by step I gladly take, A child in him confiding.

Just as God leads I am content, I rest me calmly in his hands; That which he has decreed and sent— That which his will for me commands, I would that he should all fulfill; That I should do his gracious will, In living or in dying.

Just as God leads, I will resign; I trust me to my Father's will; When reason's rays deceptive shine, His counsel would I yet fulfill; That which his love ordained as right, Before he brought me to the light, My all to him resigning. —Selected.

AN EXHORTATION.

By R. F. Cottrell

How easy it is to backslide, but how difficult to return! It is easy to fall in with the spirit of the world, but to get rid of that spirit requires strong and persistent efforts. Without strong faith, these necessary efforts will not be made. What can be done when unbelief has taken the place of faith? How sad a thing it is to let a stubborn, rebellious heart steal away our faith! Without faith, we are powerless.

But there is help in God. We may so seek God that we may obtain the necessary help. We may have a hold from above, a connection with Heaven, that will give us the victory. This must be sought by earnest, agonizing prayer.

Who of us will thus seek the Lord? It seems evident that a crisis is upon us. Eternal interests are at stake. The unalterable decisions of the final Judgment are just before us. We have not been led to our present position by cunningly devised fables, but by the sure word of prophecy. And the fulfillment of the closing line of prophecy relating to the work of the church, assures us that we are far advanced in The Third Angel's Message, the last special call of the gospel, the most solemn and fearful warning ever announced to mankind since the days of Noah.

Now shall we let worldliness and self-will bind us in fetters of unbelief? or shall we humble ourselves and seek God for strength to prepare us for the trial of our faith which is before us? Wisdom says, Crucify self and seek God to-day. My brother, my sister, the promises of God are for us. We may have the promised help. God is not a respecter of persons. Salvation is for you and me, if we will strive for it in the appointed way. The Lord is still gracious. His arm is not shortened that he cannot save. He still bears that love for humanity that brought his Son from Heaven to earth, to be a sacrifice for sins. Shall his love to us be in vain? Shall we willfully reject the calls of his mercy, or carelessly lose our last opportunity to secure eternal life, through love of self and of the world? Forbid it, Heaven!

The cause of God will move on, and some will be prepared for translation, whether I shall be of the number or not. I rejoice in this, that there will be an innumerable host that will have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. The hope of being one of that company is precious. God help us to wash our robes.

R. F. COTTRELL.

THE OVERCOMER'S REWARD.

By A. S. Hutchins

"And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." The greatest possible inducements are held out before us to encourage us in the important work of overcoming. "Exceeding great and precious promises" are made to him who shall finally have obtained the victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil. But faith in these promises and in the willingness of God to help us in obtaining victory, must be kept in lively exercise, or we grow weary and faint in the heavenly race, and lose the glorious reward of immortality and eternal life.

Said the compassionate Redeemer, "In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." John 16:33. The life of toil, anxiety, and suffering of the dear Son of God, with the heavy load of sin that he bore for the world in the garden, and his dying agonies upon the cross, enable him to sympathize with every tempted, tried, and suffering soul. "For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." Heb. 4:15, 16. Let our hearts then be encouraged to press on in the way of life, as we reflect upon the unparalleled mercy and love of Jesus toward us, of his sympathy for us and matchless power to save all that come unto him. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." 1 John 2:15, 16.

Eve was deceived through the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. She yielded to the suggestions of Satan, and partook of the forbidden fruit. "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat." Gen. 3:6. Here disobedience to God commenced. Here man rose in rebellion against his Maker. Here the ruinous fall marred the whole works of creation, and man sunk under condemnation, and the sentence of death. "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now." "But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." God can be just and the justifier of him that believeth.

As Jesus entered upon his ministry, Satan met him while in a hungering, suffering condition, with the same kind of temptation with which he beguiled and overthrew Eve, scattering misery and death everywhere. His Satanic hatred to God and to man, filled his revengeful heart with the deepest anxiety to hear the hungering Son of God command the stones to be made bread, or to see him cast himself down from the pinnacle of the temple, or that he might fall down at his feet and worship him, that the plan of salvation might prove a total failure.

But each of these foul flatteries and artful temptations is met with the word of God, "It is written," etc. The Saviour of lost man is victorious. "Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him." Matt. 4:11. "For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted."

"To him," says he, "that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." All Heaven is interested in our overcoming. The Father, the Son, and holy angels beckon us away from this blighted, groaning earth, to unspeakable joy and endless bliss. The Spirit and the bride say Come. The promise to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God, and of the hidden manna, and of receiving the palm, the robe, and the crown of life, shine forth in the word of God, to the overcomer. "He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son." Rev. 21:7.

Ye poor, sorrowing, weary, wayworn pilgrims, bound to Mount Zion, look up, and take fresh courage! Jesus, the blessed Saviour, will quickly come to take his people home. The warfare of life will soon cease, and the victor's song will be sung. Immortality and eternal life are about to be given. Faith will be lost in sight and prayer in praise. O blessed be the Lord forever and ever. Amen.

A. S. HUTCHINS.

PATIENCE.

ONE has said, "Patience is a beautiful grace to look at, but a desperately hard one to live." James says, "Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." So then, "desperately hard" though it may be, it surely is worth the effort, if to gain this grace is to be "perfect and entire, wanting nothing." We are told by the blessed Master, in whom this lovely grace, amid sorest provocation, was so luminous, that we are to hear "the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience." How seldom do we see fruit or flower brought forth in perfection the very day the root or seed is planted! Have patience, then, with yourself, discouraged friend. If the true seed is in the heart, nourish it, and patiently expect the fruit. "For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise."

Oh, that I might be patient! But how can I be, with all the worry and rush and nettling of these days! Ah! these are just the things that cause this charming grace to grow. They are intended for that purpose, though seemingly so adverse. "Knowing that tribulation worketh patience." Tribulation is "squeezing," or "harrowing;" and the little annoyances, the friction that "rubs the wrong way," are the elements in which patience may most thrive. Who ever became patient when everything went well? The most blessedly patient soul I know is one whose daily "squeezing and harrowing" have been exceptional.

Paul tells us to be "gentle unto all, apt to teach, patient." We are more "apt to teach," as a rule, than to be the other thing. "Why cannot those children remember what I tell them?" said a father in an irritated tone. It is well for parents to consider how many times they forget their Father's word to them, and how patient he has been through all the years.

How shall we gain this crowning grace? Not of ourselves alone, but through him who is able to strengthen us "with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness."—N. Y. Christian Advocate.

"A PREACHER DRUNK."

By Obediah Oldschool

THE secular papers take a special interest in the preachers. In a leading daily last week there was a half column of telegraphic special under the head, in bold face, "A Preacher Drunk." The facts were as follows: A young minister who had been intemperate before his conversion and call to the ministry, was persuaded to take a glass of wine by one who pretended to be his friend. The old appetite revived, and he was led on step by step until he was found in a saloon dead drunk. The men who plotted his ruin summoned the reporters to see him in his degradation. It was a big item and the enterprising caterers for those who read the daily papers telegraphed it all over the country. A preacher drunk! Why it was as good as a cyclone. They worked it up in their best style, and expected it to make a sensation. And it did.

I have a neighbor who gets his religion from the Sunday newspapers, and, of course, has a buzzard's appetite for carrion. He came to me with that paragraph marked, and said, "See here, Oldschool, you believe in preachers and I don't. Tell me what you think of that!" I read it and replied: "I think the editor and reporter have paid the Christian ministry a high and deserved compliment in that dispatch."

"Why so? A compliment to the cloth to report that one of them was drunk last night in a saloon?"

"Yes, and I can make you see it if you will listen to me. Do you know how many preachers there are in the United States?"

"No; but I reckon there's lots of them, for it's an easy way of getting a living."

"I am not sure of that. People are mighty particular nowadays. A preacher has got to be smart or they won't hear him. A man who has brains enough to get a living by preaching in these times could get rich in any other profession. But as you can't answer my question I shall have to answer it myself. According to the census of 1880 there are over 75,000; and now, mark you, when one of these 75,000 falls it is considered so remarkable that it is telegraphed all over the land. The Bible says the ministers are but men. It speaks of them as 'earthen vessels.' And the great wonder is that among so many so few turn out badly. So you see the publication of this case 3,000 miles from where it occurred shows how rare and remarkable it is. They don't have commonplace and every-day occurrences telegraphed across the continent. And now let me ask you another question: Suppose, when you open your daily paper to-morrow you find a dispatch at the head of a column from Danbury, N. J., or Dover, Del., with the heading, 'A Lawyer Drunk,' and that in the dispatch all the details are given of A. B., a promising young lawyer, who became intoxicated, and was found in a low groggery dead drunk, what would you think in that case?"

"I would think that the editor was a fool."

"Why so?"

"Because there are lots of lawyers all over the country who get drunk every day. The finding of a lawyer in a whisky shop is hardly an item of local news, much less an item to be wired across the continent."

"Well, how is it with doctors and merchants? Suppose the paper should have a dispatch of a quarter of a column whenever any of them got drunk anywhere in the United States?"

"Why, bless you, no paper would be big enough to hold all the dispatches. We could send half a dozen from this one town every day."

"Yes, and don't you see the result of your own admissions? The fall of Christian ministers is regarded by telegraph operators as a first-class item, like an earthquake, a cyclone, or a million-dollar conflagration. It is a thing so rare, so unexpected, so out of the usual course of things, that it must be sent flashing around the world. You don't believe in ministers, but you do believe in rumsellers. You don't go to church to hear our preacher, but you spend your Sundays in Tom O'Flanagan's saloon. You think, of course, that Tom is a better man than Rev. Dr. Abell, or you would not prefer his society. Now suppose you read in your daily paper that Jim McGrady over in some town on the Atlantic Coast was found drunk this morning behind his own bar; would you come to me and say, 'Read that?'"

"Why, no, of course not."

"Well, why not?"

"Because that's a thing that happens every day in hundreds of places. It wouldn't be news. A man who handles edged tools will cut his own fingers once in a while, no matter how careful he is. And besides it's no great matter if a fellow does get a little too much now and then."

"No, not a great matter, as it seems, for your chosen companions—the model men whose society you cultivate—but a very great matter for one preacher out of 75,000, and he evidently led astray by a rumseller. Some heartless saloonist, knowing that this young preacher had once been dissipated, and that the appetite for strong drink might be revived, watched for him as a spider watches for a fly, and enticed him into his den on purpose to destroy him. You know that nearly all the bar-tenders will do such things and glory in them, and yet you admire them and patronize them. But when they succeed in bringing a preacher, one out of 75,000, down to their level and yours, you denounce the whole ministry as a nuisance and a fraud. It is to cater to such buzzard appetites as yours that the daily papers have these scandals telegraphed. But they don't realize that in so doing they are paying the highest possible compliment to the general purity of the Christian ministry."—Obediah Oldschool, in the Interior.

THE PERFECTION OF THE DECALOGUE.

By Talbot W. Chambers, D. D.

WE read in the nineteenth psalm, “The law of Jehovah is perfect,” and this is exactly and literally true. It is therefore an exception to what generally obtains in this world. All men acquiesce in the couplet of Pope,—

“Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, Thinks what ne’er was, nor is, nor e’er shall be,”

Which simply reiterates what was said two thousand years before in Holy Writ, “I have seen an end of all perfection.” But as the same writer proceeds immediately to say, “Thy commandment is exceeding broad.” Incompleteness belongs to all the works of man, but the work of God is, like himself, perfect, and that not in the sense conveyed in the well-known verse of the poet-laureate,—

“Faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly null,”

But in the higher sense of being in substance, form, expression, and tone, exactly adapted to its purpose. This has been denied, not only by avowed enemies of our holy religion, but even by some who minister acceptably at its altar. The subject, therefore, is worthy of consideration. The purpose of the ten commandments was to reveal a rule of duty for men, and this we insist was accomplished in a way that leaves nothing to desire. The truth may be shown—

By the nature of the law itself.

Its contents are just what they ought to be. They enjoin only what is right; they forbid only what is wrong. They err neither in excess nor in defect. No error or incongruity can be detected from beginning to end. The ground that is covered takes in all the relations and interests of man; the recognition, the worship, the reverence, and the proportion of time he owes to God; all relative duties arising from the family, the household, and the State; the regard due to the life, the domestic circle, the property, and the good name of one’s neighbor; and then the whole winds up with a precept that shows that thought as well as speech and act is included in the obligation. No modern theory of practical ethics discloses any duty which is not contained in the Sinaitic summary. That summary is suited to all lands, all races, all times, all states of society. It contains nothing that is sectional, or national, or fortuitous, or temporary. The fifth commandment may seem an exception, because the promise attached to it mentions “the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee,” whence some have rashly inferred that the whole decalogue was simply a Jewish statute and destitute of universal significance and applicability. But the impropriety of this inference is shown by the language of the apostle Paul in the opening of the sixth chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians. Writing to a Gentile church nearly all whose members were of heathen origin (cf. 2:11-13; 4:17-19), he enforces the duty of children to their parents by citing this precept, altering [interpreting, rather] the last clause so that it reads, “and thou mayest live long upon the earth.” It is clear, therefore, that the code is addressed to man as man everywhere and always. It lays hold on Jew and Greek, barbarian and Scythian, male and female, bond and free, high and low, all nations, all classes without exception; for whatever other differences obtain, all stand upon the same footing as rational, responsible beings, and alike need some authoritative directory of conduct.

But, while the code is thus comprehensive and far-reaching, it is also succinct and brief, as a manual always should be. It resolves human duty into its constituent elements, and then sums up these elements into a decade of precepts whose force is not to be mistaken. Obedience to parents, the very earliest of earthly obligations, stands for the whole series of relative duties. And rightly, for the good child will naturally be the good husband, and master, and citizen. Nor is it conceivable that one relation should be defined and cared for, while others, equally natural and permanent and general, should be neglected. In like manner when the code takes up the rights of man in society, the leading overt act of gross transgression is selected and specified, because the prohibition of it means the prohibition of all lesser forms of the same sin. And the last precept lays particular stress upon the heart, out of which are the issues of life. Thus there is provided a vade mecum of the most satisfactory kind. A little summary having no more parts than can be counted on the fingers of both hands contains the whole substance of the moral law.

The perfection of the decalogue may be argued from its manifest reasonableness. If there be no God, then religion does not exist, and it is folly to talk of sacred precepts; but if there be a God, the maker of heaven and earth, and sole ruler of the children of men, the one in whom we live and move and have our being, then the duties prescribed in the first table are due unto him. Nothing less can meet his exalted claims. Every feeling of propriety and gratitude summons us to render to him love, honor, reverence, worship, and obedience. And so with the other part of the “ten words.” If men be a race, if they

have sprung from a common ancestor, if they are of one blood, if they are linked together, not casually or temporarily, but by a bond of nature, then beyond question they owe to each other all that the second table enjoins. They are members one of another, and as such must be governed invariably by the law of love. There is nothing arbitrary or capricious in any precept. All spring from a common source, and are self-commended by their bearing upon human welfare. And as far as the decalogue is obeyed in its spirit, just so far is earth made to resemble Heaven.

But the decalogue is no exception to the rule that in this world nothing human or divine escapes criticism, and accordingly fault has been found with it, and sometimes even by those who are within the Christian pale. People have tried to identify it with the moral character of the people to whom it was first given, just as if it were a natural development of the human faculties instead of being a descent from above just as really as the “great sheet let down from heaven by four corners,” which Peter saw at Jappa. Its constant claim is that it came to man, not from him. It expresses, therefore, not the moral ideas which he has attained, but those which are held by his Maker and by him put into the form of statute.

The inward and spiritual character of the morality here enjoined is made abundantly plain by the closing precept, which casts its piercing light upon all that precedes. It does not annex any additional province of obligation, but affirms that the law covers every movement of the mind, as well as the actions of the body, and brings the whole man, inner and outer, under the sway of duty. It was this tenth commandment that wrought a spiritual revolution in the soul of the great apostle (Rom. 7:7), and led him to the true experimental knowledge of his natural condition and character. Nor was this due to any strained application of the words, but rather to the strict and natural interpretation of their meaning. Moreover, when the rich young ruler came to our Lord with the weighty question, “What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” the plain categorical answer was, “If thou wouldest enter into life keep the commandments.” Now it is impossible to explain or justify this answer save on the principle that the commandments comprehended all human duty. It is true that the subsequent words of the Saviour show that he intended to convince the amiable ruler of his self-ignorance, and bring him to a proper sense of sin; but this fact in no way lessens the intrinsic force of his declaration as to the weight and significance of the decalogue.

The Rev. Dr. Dykes, in his “The Law of the Ten Words,” speaks of this code as being of a “juvenile or primary character,” and says that its “requirements are concrete, and expressed in a negative or prohibitory form,” and insists upon the fact “that the sanction of the decalogue was fear,” as if there could be a law without such a sanction. Yet he claims for it “an admirable breadth and massiveness,” and says that “it succeeds in sweeping the whole field of duty,” which is just what this paper insists upon. His book closes with a chapter upon the “uses and defects of the law,” which is very unhappily named, for it is not shown that there are any defects in the law; nay, the exact contrary is stated, viz., that it is a pure transcript of the divine holiness. It did not restore spiritual life to fallen men, but the reason of this lay not in any shortcomings in the Ten Words, but in the hopelessly injured condition of man himself. It follows, then, that however inefficacious the law is as a means of saving men, it is absolutely without spot as a rule of duty.

How, indeed, could it be otherwise, since it is simply an expression of the nature of God in the form of moral requirement, and a necessary expression of that nature in view of the existence of moral beings? Law, according to Julius Müller, is simply rectitude embodied in the form of command.

Again, it has sometimes been objected to the completeness of the decalogue that there are many things binding upon us which, without a further revelation of the will of God, we should never have known to be obligatory. The great duty of men under the gospel is faith; as our Lord said, “This is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” And the whole Scripture is filled with exhortations of every kind to repent; yet there is not a word of this in the ten commandments. The answer is that no law makes provision for its own violation save in the way of penalty. When it declares clearly and sufficiently what is duty, and annexes an appropriate sanction, its function is ended. If a remedial system be introduced, that is an act of sovereignty which carries with it its own conditions, but in no respect interferes with or derogates from the original statute. The law which the sinner has broken holds its primeval character, and it is still true that perfect compliance with its enactments is perfect compliance with the will of God, and needs no supplement of any kind or from any source.

It has been said that while the Ten Words deal well and fully with our duty to our neighbor, they omit the consideration of our duty towards ourselves; and the Bishop of Carlisle, in a sermon before the University of Oxford, said that the criticism might be a true one. Is it so? Nay, on the contrary, is it not clear that men are so closely interlinked together in the whole circle of their relations and interests, that he who performs his duty to his Maker and to his fellows must needs perform whatever obligations he owes to himself? The latter may be comprehended in self-support, self-defense, self-control, and self-culture. Yet every one of these, besides being involved in the nature of man as a moral and responsible being, is necessarily secured by the discharge of his duty as laid down in the decalogue. If he does not support himself, then he takes that support wrongfully from others. If he does not control himself, how can he avoid sin against others? If he does not train his own body, mind, and heart, how can he perform properly his part in society? The objection is purely fanciful. Duties to one’s self are most surely fulfilled when they are considered as parts of what a man owes to other beings, and there is no need of their being put in a distinct category.—Talbot W. Chambers, D. D., in Old Testament Student.

A PRAYERLESS CHRISTIAN.

“A PRAYERLESS Christian!” These words are contradictory. I do not understand what they mean. I can as easily conceive of a perfect harp without strings, or a flowing fountain without water, or a sun without light, or a living man without a soul, as a Christian without prayer. Doubtless many professed Christians live without prayer.

A Christian without a closet! and who does not pray to his heavenly Father, who seeth in secret! A Christian parent without a family altar! Oh, do not dream of such a thing; speak not such contradictions! Why, a prayerless parent robs his children of a pious example—robs his own soul of the mercies of God, and robs his divine Master of the homage of his heart and the obedience of his life. And can a robber be a Christian?

“But do not real Christians sometimes neglect prayer for a season?” I fear they do. This is the reason of the weakness of their faith—the dullness of their religious feelings—the irregularity of their lives. This neglect of prayer among real Christians is the cause of so many “backsliding in heart,” and falling frequently into scandalous sins. I must think that David was neglecting prayer when he indulged in that horrible course of sin which stained his religious character. Peter neglected to “watch and pray,” and fell into the “snare of the devil.” To attempt to live at all without prayer, is awfully dangerous. A desire to live without prayer, is a convincing evidence that you are either now backsliding, or are not a Christian. In such a desire is the entering in of the enemy. Harbor not the desire, then, for one moment; but seek to know what it is to “continue instant in prayer.”—Selected.

PROTESTANTISM IN SPAIN.

A PARAGRAPH is floating around promiscuously in our exchanges which states that although the first Protestant chapel was opened in Madrid as recently as 1869, there are now sixty Protestant communities in Spain, scarcely a large town without a regularly organized church, fourteen thousand openly professed Protestants, and from twenty-six thousand to thirty thousand persons who are Protestant at heart—though exactly how those hearts came to be read we are unable to say—and that at least eight thousand children are found in Protestant Sunday-schools.

It is an easy matter to trace to their source these statements, honestly made but greatly exaggerated. As the truth gains nothing, in the end, by claiming more than it can substantiate, it may be well to dispute any delusion which these claims may have created. There probably are in Spain about sixty Protestant congregations, such as they are. Some of them are about, or quite, as small as they can be, and have “a name to live.”

How many Spaniards have proclaimed a divorce between themselves and the Church of Rome and are so far Protestants, cannot be easily ascertained. While the number of such people greatly exceeds thirty thousand, there is no such number that can safely be called Protestants in our meaning of the word. Just now they are simply “unbelievers.” The present number of Spaniards who have really become Protestants by an open profession of adherence to some one of the Protestant confessions, or forms of worship, instead of being fourteen thousand does not really exceed five thousand, and even from this reduced number must be deducted a very considerable number who, after a profession of faith in Christ and an abjuration of Romanism, have failed to give satisfactory evidence of a change of heart and of life.

A similar deduction must be made from the eight thousand Spanish children said to be found in Protestant Sunday-schools. The number of such children certainly does not exceed five thousand; it is probably considerably less.—Interior.

Peace Amid Human Injustice

Do not get vexed at what people say to you. Let them speak while you endeavor to do the will of God. You will never succeed in pleasing men, and it would not be worth the trouble if you could. A little silence, and great peace of soul with communion of the Spirit will compensate you for all the injustice of men. We must love our fellow-men without depending on their fellowship, and seek to win their love by kind words and deeds, leaving our lives, our reputations, and our characters with Him who careth for us.—Selected.

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