p. 744 | Review and Herald, Vol. 77, No. 47. (11/20/1900)

Protestant Missions and Catholic Influence in the Philippines

A Protestant missionary in the Philippines writes that Protestant missionaries there find themselves in “a somewhat peculiar position.” “There is the church at home urgently anxious for their success, while officials are hesitant as to whether they are not going to ‘complicate matters,’ and on the whole would be rather glad if they kept away, in which they are cordially supported by the Roman Catholic priests. At Iloilo the mission work began very successfully. Then came the priests, who put studying English under the ban of the church, and gave out that the Americans would soon return to their own country, and that then all Protestants would be killed.” He says that the Protestant missionary “is looked upon as an unavoidable nuisance by certain officials, and as a pronounced enemy of the priesthood.”

So reports the Independent. All these “officials” are officials of the United States government. And it is plain to be seen that in their sympathies, in their influence, and in their fear that Protestants will “complicate matters,” they are also officials of the Catholic Church. And it is certain that the Catholic priesthood will leave no stone unturned to make the work of Protestant missionaries “complicate matters,” and so turn to her own account these fears of the officials. It is perfectly plain that in the Philippines there is a union of the United States government and the Catholic Church. And what the next four years shall bring forth, no man can imagine!

PROPHECY OR POLITICS—WHICH?

From 1120 B. C. to 800 B. C. a mighty empire was built up by the kings of Assyria. Many nations were overrun, plundered, and laid under tribute. Thus vast sums of treasure were brought into the coffers of the kings of Assyria and into the hands of the Assyrians, especially in the capital city—Nineveh.

This long-continued flow of wealth carried in its train corresponding luxury. With luxury came love of ease. With luxury and love of ease inevitably came vice. And at last their wickedness became so great that it reached to heaven and deserved vengeance. The Lord sent Jonah to warn them of the coming destruction. “And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”

And in that proud city,—the leading city of the world,—wicked as it was, and though the word came to the king upon the throne, Jonah was not accused of disturbing the peace; he was not put in the lock-up; he was not taken to the station-house—not even to “protect him from the mob;” he was not accused of inciting insurrection; he was not charged with being an enemy of the country.

Instead of any such thing as that, “the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water: but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?”

And nobody has ever charged that in this procedure Jonah was taking part in politics, nor that he was speaking against the government, nor that he was in any way disrespectful to the authorities. And if anybody had ever charged him with any of this, it would have been false; and by it the one making the charge would have shown that he did not know any distinction between religion and politics: and in that he would have shown that he did not know anything in reality of religion, but only politics.

Later, Israel itself became a kingdom, and the leading world-power; and it went in the same course precisely as that which had been taken by Assyria. Again and again God sent to them his messengers the prophets, even “rising up early and sending them.” But, unlike Nineveh, the words were unheeded.

When the iniquity had grown so great that it was about to culminate in the ruin of the nation, one prophet who bore the message of warning was put to death by the king and the people. And when the evil had grown so that the time had actually come when the ruin was to be wrought, and the forces by which that ruin was to be accomplished were around the capital city and actually besieging it, the prophet who was then in the city delivering daily the message of God to the people—that the city was doomed, and the only escape was to surrender to the besieging army—was accused of treason: he was charged with aiding and abetting the enemies of his country, especially doing this by weakening the hands of his own people, through his preaching that the people should not fight, but should surrender. Here is the record:—

“Thus saith the Lord, He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live; for he shall have his life for a prey, and shall live. Thus saith the Lord, This city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army, which shall take it. “Therefore the princes said unto the king, We beseech thee, let this man be put to death: for thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words unto them: for this man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but the hurt. Then Zedekiah the king said, Behold he is in your hand: for the king is not he that can do anything against you.”

“Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the son of Hammelach, that was in the court of the prison: and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire: so Jeremiah sunk in the mire.” Jer. 38: 2–6.

Yet all that Jeremiah had said was the truth: it was the message of God to the people. And in delivering that message he was not guilty of treason: he was not an aider and abetter of the enemy. He was, indeed, in the fullest sense of the word, seeking the welfare of that people, and not their hurt. And all those who listened to his words, and disregarded the pleas and charges of the politicians against him, found it to be well with them; while all those who disregarded the message that he gave, and the warnings that he urged, perished in the ruin that he proclaimed would certainly come upon them as the inevitable consequence of the course the nation was pursuing.

In the same course of conquest, wealth, luxury, ease, and vice, even to the danger of ruin, Babylon followed. One day a man walked into the broad street of Babylon, and took a position on the bank of the Euphrates, which flowed through the midst of the city. And there, as the vast crowds of the busy and pleasure-loving city passed and repassed, he read, with a loud voice, a long arraignment of Babylon for her pride, her oppression, and her great wickedness; and also the doom of destruction that certainly would come. When he had read the whole account, he tied a stone to the scroll of what he had read, and plunged it into the river, and exclaimed, “Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her.”

And in that proudest and wickedest of cities the man was not arrested nor charged with anarchy nor with any other disturbing practices or mischievous intent.

But, unlike Nineveh, Babylon paid no attention to the warning. In a few years her doom came, in all that the man had read from the book. In the midst of a drunken and lascivious feast the judgment was written, and spoken, “God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. . . . Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. . . . Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.” And before the judgment was spoken, he who interpreted it said to the king,—citing the example of the king’s grandfather, how he was taught “till he knew that the most high God ruleth in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will,—And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this; but hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; . . . and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified: then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was written.”

And instead of that man being punished as a disturber of the peace, or as an inciter to insurrection, or being charged with meddling in politics, he was rewarded with the highest honors a king could possibly bestow.

The Lord Jesus himself came and lived among his own people, and sought to bring them to God. They rejected his counsel, and would not receive his message. He knew that national ruin could be the only result. And he told them so: woes that would reduce them to ruin and bring them even down to hell, he proclaimed against Capernaum, Chorazin, and Bethsaida. He declared that Jerusalem should be compassed with armies; that she should be laid low, even in the dust, and her children within her; and that the temple, which was their pride and their trust, should be so ruined that not one stone would be left on another.

He was charged with high treason. In the condemnation proceedings, his saying that the temple should be ruined was produced against him and perverted, by a false witness, into the charge that he had said that he would destroy the temple. Yet at the time, everybody knew, and ever since everybody has known, that the charge of high treason, or treason of any other kind, was false, as well as every other charge. And these charges of treason, although made by the chief religionists, were in reality made only by the chief politicians; which is to say that their religion was only politics.

His disciples went everywhere, preaching the word of the gospel. Paul reasoned with the people out of the Scriptures, “opening and alleging, that Jesus must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.” And in so doing he told them of the certain ruin of the Roman Empire; of the establishment of ten new kingdoms in its place; then the coming up of another, which would destroy three of the ten, and establish itself “the man of sin,” “the son of perdition,” “the mystery of iniquity;” and that in the time of this one and of the remaining seven of the ten, Christ would come the second time, and the world would end.

And when Christianity had been spread throughout the Roman Empire, the Christians were always expecting the fall of Rome, and were talking of it, and were prepared for it when it came.

It is true that the early Christians and the later Christians in the Roman Empire were charged with undermining the state; and, like Jesus, were condemned and put to death upon the charge of high treason. But everybody knows that all these things that the Christians said were coming on the Roman Empire were true; and that to be faithful to their trust in the world, and to their fellow men, the Christians must say these things.

And God’s word stands to-day with instruction and warning to the nations of to-day, as truly as it ever did to Assyria, Babylon, Judea, and Rome. That word will be spoken to the nations of to-day as really as it ever was to those of old. The United States to-day is a subject of prophecy as really as was Babylon, Judea, or Rome; and in the same way and for the same reasons precisely. The United States is to-day in full career on a course that leads inevitably to ruin, as certainly as ever was Babylon, Judea, or Rome. This is distinctly a matter of prophecy: and it is not politics, but prophecy, to proclaim it as the message of God in the word of God.

Fifteen years ago the very Spirit of Prophecy itself wrote of the apostasy of the United States from every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government. That was prophecy, and not politics, then; and it is prophecy, and not politics, now. For thirteen years it was prophecy, and not politics, to proclaim it; for the last two years it has been, and it now is, prophecy, and not politics, to proclaim that this was and is steadily being done; that now it is prophecy being actually turned into fact.

And now what follows? This prophecy, even the Spirit of Prophecy, says:—

When . . . our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan, and that the end is near.

As the approach of the Roman armies was a sign to the disciples of the impending destruction of Jerusalem, so may this apostasy be a sign to us that the limit of God’s forbearance is reached, that the measure of our nation’s iniquity is full, and that the angel of mercy is about to take her flight, never to return.

And as this was prophecy, and not politics, when, fifteen years ago, it was published, it is prophecy, and not politics, now, to-day, to proclaim it while it is steadily being turned into fact before the eyes of all people.

It is true that now, as in the days of Jeremiah, Jesus, and Paul, and the later Christians of the Roman Empire, the politicians, even among the professed people of God, will charge with “disrespect of authority,” “treason,” “meddling with politics,” etc., etc., those who proclaim that the prophecy is being fulfilled. Nevertheless the truth of God will be spoken, the prophecy will be proclaimed, the message will be given, the people will be warned; and those who listen and heed the warning will escape.

Yet there is a striking contrast between the treatment of the messengers in Nineveh and Babylon, and of those in Judea and Rome and the United States. However, as in the United States is to be found the Image of the Beast, it can not be expected that the messengers and the message of God should be treated differently than they were treated in Rome. The world is not better than it was, nor is it getting better.

THE HASTENING TIME.

By C. S.

We are accustomed to speak of the present time in our experience as “the patient waiting time,” the “tarrying time,” the “shaking time,” etc. May it not also be called the hastening time, the time when true Christians will be hastened in their preparation for the kingdom of heaven, even as Lot was hastened out of Sodom, when its destruction was impending?

Studying the incidents that have been held up before us as illustrating the dangers and duties of the people of God in the last days, among them the one already alluded to, we find what may serve the purpose of illustrating such a period in our experience. Our Lord has declared that as it was in the days of Lot, “even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” Luke 17:30. And we are admonished to “remember Lot’s wife.” Verse 32.

At the time to which our attention is called, when Sodom was about to be destroyed, of Lot and his family we read: “And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.” Gen. 19:15. There is always need of haste in the service of the Lord. But there are often special occasions, and crises, when more prompt and decisive action is necessary than would be imperatively called for under other circumstances.

We take the agencies here brought to view to be literal angels, sent forth to do the Lord’s bidding; and the events to be literal occurrences, recorded for our learning upon whom the ends of the world are come. But without stopping to argue this point, from all the circumstances of the case we can draw lessons concerning the manner in which we should deal with men, in order to arouse and save them:—

1. We must seek them at their homes. So the angels did to Lot: “they turned in unto him, and entered into his house.” Verse 3.

2. We are plainly to state the case to them. Thus did the angels to Lot. They said: “We will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxed great before the face of the Lord; and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it.” Verse 13. They put in an urgent plea in view of the impending danger. They gave the message, through Lot, to his sons-in-law: “Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked, unto his sons-in-law.” Verse 14.

3. In love the angels resorted to violence: “The men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; and they brought him forth, and set him without the city.” Verse 16. Two angels, with four hands, leading four rescued persons from the city of destruction! But we learn from this that to be started in the right way does not insure deliverance, as the sequel shows. Lot’s wife, turning and looking back, in grievous disobedience to the warning urgently sent them, was changed into a pillar of salt, a witness to after-generations of the truthfulness of God’s word.

In these times of peril, corresponding to the days of Lot, how we need to be hastened!

1. In the matter of general obedience we need to be hastened. How many can say, with David: “I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments”? “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for, and hasting unto the coming of the day of God?” 2 Peter 3:11, 12.

2. In coming out from the world. Lot “lingered.” “His wife looked back.” Some of her loved ones, and all her treasures, were there; and they were more to her than the special command of the Lord. And the words are sounding in our ears, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean; and I will receive you.” 2 Cor. 6:17.

But more than this; we have now reached the time when a special prophetic message calling for the complete separation of God’s people from all unlawful entanglements and impure connections is going forth. It was represented to John as a voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Rev. 18:4. To the same effect, the angels said to Lot, “Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.”

3. We need to be hastened in seeking the good of the families and friends of those in danger. The angels set us the example when they said to Lot, “Hast thou here any besides? son-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city.” Gen. 19:12. They desired safety to be secured for all composing, or in any way connected with, the family of Lot.

The words of the angels in speaking of “sons-in-law” (Verse 14) doubtless throw light on the course of Abraham, in being so solicitous for the preservation of the city. He besought the Lord not to destroy the righteous with the wicked, and inquired if he would not spare the city if fifty righteous persons could be found therein; and the Lord promised to spare it for fifty; and Abraham kept on reducing the number till he had brought it down to ten; and the Lord declared that he would not destroy the city if ten righteous persons could be found there. Gen. 18:23–32. Abraham pressed his petition no further. But why did he come down to just ten, and stop there?—The reason, though not stated in exactly so many words, is one which refuses to be set aside. It is that the family of Lot was composed of just ten persons, all of whom he presumed, or at least hoped, would be found righteous; and so the city would be spared. But what reason have we to suppose that there were just ten persons in the family of Lot?—We have this: Lot and his wife and two unmarried daughters, specified in the record, would make four. Then he had more than one son-in-law; for they are spoken of, in verse 14, in the plural, “sons-in-law.” There were, therefore, certainly two. These and their wives would add four more to the family. The angels also spoke of his “sons;” this, being plural, would be at least two. Then we would have the list as follows: Lot, his wife, and two unmarried daughters, would make four; his two sons, and the two married daughters with their husbands, would make six more, or just ten in all.

There must have been some special reason why Abraham was so anxious for the Lord to pledge himself to spare the city if only ten righteous persons could be found there; and as Abraham was such a friend of Lot and his family, and was so solicitous for them, it could hardly have been any other reason than the one here mentioned.

But these ten, alas! were not all righteous; for when Lot went with the warning to his sons-in-law, he seemed to them as one that mocked; and doubtless they tried to offset his words by doing a little mocking on their own account. Thus they showed themselves to be reprobate. It was thus demonstrated that ten righteous persons could not be found in the city; and Sodom was lost.

People in modern Sodom, exposed to its polluting and benumbing influences, have need to be hastened as much as had Lot of old, in quickness of movement in spiritual things. “Escape for thy life” were the words of the angels to him. He had come where his very life was at stake. By settling in Sodom, where the outlook for worldly prosperity was so enticing, he now lost all his worldly property, hazarded his personal safety, lost seven tenths of his family, and fled at last from the place as a fugitive to save his own life. Association with sin does not pay, even in a worldly sense.

Sodom makes perseverance difficult; Lot thanked the Lord for saving his life (verse 19), but he had not enough faith to flee to the mountains, and so he complained, “I can not escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die.” The enemy still tries to harass us with doubts and fears, in the same way. As the old hymn says,—

“The first bold apostate will tempt you to stay, And tell you that lions are found in the way. He means to deceive you, escape for thy life; And look not behind thee—and look not behind thee— remember Lot’s wife.”

Sodom has a sluggish influence. Her iniquity was “pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness.” Eze. 16:49. To be so occupied with worldly things as to have no time to give to religion, is bad; but idle leisure is still worse. It is said that men who have nothing to do, seldom have anything to do with religion. When a certain young man first made an open profession of religion, his father, greatly angered, gave him this advice: “James, you should first get yourself established in a good business; then think of the matter of religion.” “Father,” replied the son, “Jesus Christ advises me differently. He says, ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God.’”

Much of the beauty of obedience lies in its being done at once, and without question. This is the way the will of God is done in heaven. How long did Gabriel delay when commanded to visit the prophet Daniel, in answer to his prayer? The prophet began to pray. At the beginning of his supplication the command went forth; and when but a few words had been uttered, Gabriel was by his side, to impart to him the desired information. See the record, Dan. 9:21–23.

“And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot.” Have we not reached a corresponding period in our experience? Is not modern Sodom just now trembling on the brink of the precipice of its final destruction? And has not the message reached us, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee”? Isa. 60:1. Is there any time, therefore, now to linger? Should not the words now ring with tenfold power in our ears: “Up, get you out of this place; . . . escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain”? “Remember Lot’s wife.” “Escape to the mountain” of God’s love and righteousness, “lest thou be consumed.” C. S.

SUGGESTIONS ON REVELATION 12.

By Stephen N. Haskell

The Accuser of Our Brethren Cast Down.

The twelfth chapter of Revelation relates to the past, the present, and the future. It brings to view the originator of sin, its effect in heaven and on the earth, and the final conflict with the remnant, which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. It takes up the condition of the church, and its relation to those governments that most fully illustrate Satan and his work. The experience of the church during the twelve hundred and sixty years, in which time the “mystery of iniquity,” “the man of sin,” was fully developed, is here recorded.

“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” Rev. 12: 7–9.

Here Satan is referred to. He was once the “day star,” or the one who received the greatest light and intelligence from God; and from the “day star” light extended to others. “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning (‘day star,’ margin)? how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.” Isa. 14: 12–14.

The sin of Satan was jealousy because Christ, instead of himself, was consulted by God; and every

jealous feeling that has ever been in the mind of man is a direct instigation of Satan. He desired to be first in heaven. With him it was “rule or ruin.” This has been the character of his work ever since. The prophet Ezekiel said of him: “Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering. . . . Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. . . . I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.” Eze. 28: 12–16.

The Saviour said to the Jews: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” John 8: 44. Satan is the author of all sin. He is the father of all evil. It originated with him; and when a lie is spoken, it simply reveals the author of the lie, who is the father of it. His sin originated in heaven; but he was cast out of heaven, and his angels were cast out with him.

Another casting down of Satan took place at the death of Christ: “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” Rev. 12: 10–12.

There were no brethren in heaven when he was cast out of the city of God, but it was at the gate of heaven that he accused our brethren day and night before the angels of God. After his second casting down, he could no longer await the angels as they came from the heavenly courts, and before them accuse Christ’s brethren of being clothed with the garments of blackness and the defilement of sin. From henceforth his work was restricted. Before all the universe he revealed himself as a murderer when he took the life of the Son of God. All his disguise was now torn away. His administration was laid open before the unfallen angels and before the heavenly universe. He had shed the blood of the sinless Son of God. From the beginning of this controversy, he had declared that the law of God could not be obeyed, that justice was inconsistent with mercy, and that it was impossible that he who had broken the law of God should be pardoned. In proof of this, he presented the fact that all men had sinned, and come short of the glory of God. But when Christ took upon himself our nature, and met Satan upon every point that humanity meets him, and overcame with strength which he had received from God, and not by his own infinite power, it was demonstrated that the law of God could be kept through the merits and strength of Christ; for Christ kept it for man.

Heaven, therefore, and those that dwelt in it, rejoiced when Christ died; for it was then that the words, “It is finished,” rang through the unfallen worlds, with a shout of praise and glory because Christ had come off victor, and Satan had gained no advantage over him in his life among men. Another shout of praise and victory went through the worlds when he came forth from the tomb, a conqueror. Satan, the usurper of Adam’s dominion, had no more place at the council where he had gone to accuse Christ as being partial toward Job in placing a hedge about him. He had gone there as a representative of this world; but now the second casting down was from this council; and Christ, the last Adam, takes his place to plead in our behalf. Satan’s war becomes a war of spite, to wrest from Christ every soul possible, because of the hatred he has for the Son of God; for when Satan saw that he was cast out of this council, the last hope of permanently establishing his kingdom upon this earth was gone. His hatred toward Christ, as well as his determined work of destroying souls, has increased as his time is shortened, and will finally culminate in his attempt to exterminate the remnant. During the time, times, and half a time, or twelve hundred and sixty years of the reign of the papacy, the woman, or the church, was protected by the nations of the earth from the face of the serpent.

S. N. H.

RULERS

By John Norton Loughborough

“Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.” Heb. 13: 17.

It is evident, not only from the connection in which this language is found, but also from the words of the text, that the rulers here spoken of are rulers in the church. Civil rulers have to do with temporal affairs and men's bodies; but the rulers here mentioned are engaged in carefully caring for the souls of those whom they rule. These same rulers are thus mentioned in the former part of this chapter: “Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.” Heb. 13: 7, 8. It seems that these rulers were those who taught them the word of God, and that submitting to the ruling was obeying that word.

The charge the Lord made anciently against those shepherds of Israel who should have tenderly cared for his flock, was this: “Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.” Eze. 34: 3, 4.

It appears also that in the days of the apostles some such rulers sought to oppress the church. The beloved apostle John makes mention of such a one in the person of “Diotrephes, who loveth to have the pre-eminence among them, receiveth us not, . . . prating against us with malicious words; and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.” 3 John 9, 10.

To guard against such ruling in the church, the apostle Peter wrote to the ruling elders in his time: “Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.” 1 Peter 5: 2, 3.

Of that class of faithful rulers Paul spoke on this wise: “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine. For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The laborer is worthy of his reward. Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.” 1 Tim. 5: 17–19.

In this same epistle the apostle, speaking of the qualifications of a bishop (the same office as a ruling elder at that time), says, “One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity (for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?).” 1 Tim. 3: 4, 5.

One very essential feature in proper family ruling is set forth in the case of Abraham, of whom the Lord said: “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.” Gen. 18: 19. In the case of Eli, who failed in his government, the Lord said: “I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.” 1 Sam. 3: 13. Of David's fourth son, Adonijah, who exalted himself against his father to reign, it is said, “And his father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou done so?” 1 Kings 1: 6.

The course to be pursued by the one chosen to lead, or govern, a church is set forth in these words: “And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.” 2 Tim. 2: 24, 25.

We should always bear in mind the word of the Lord by Solomon: “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.” Prov. 15: 1. Also, “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.” Prov. 16: 32.

A church ruler with grace to pursue such a course will not pharisaically “bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders” (Matt. 23: 4), saying, “Do this,” and “Go here;” but rather, being himself an example of what should be done, will lead the flock with the persuasive “Come on.” For such a course, he has the example of Christ: “When he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” John 10: 4, 27.

The proper ruling of the Lord's people is stated by the Spirit, through David, in these words: “He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain.” 2 Sam. 23: 3, 4. That portion of David's reign thus characterized led him to say: “Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: . . . and thy gentleness hath made me great.” Ps. 18: 35.

In the Testimonies the Lord has set before us the evils of a wrong course of ruling, and also the right course to rule, or govern: “The worst of it is that often those who ought to understand why such action is out of place, drink in the spirit of the accuser, go to the polluted fountain of suspicion and distrust, and turning from the course justice marks out, are guided by some one's hearsay of another's action or character. . . . Are we to take reports, hearsay, as if they were verity and truth? Are we not to rebuke the talebearer who would make a condemned brother's course appear as bad as possible? No one can do the work of reproving and counseling in the way that Christ would have it done, whose heart is not filled with peace and love.”—Review and Herald, Oct. 24, 1893.

“Those who lead out for others to follow must be sure that they are not leading the people to a low standard, by their own want of the power of true godliness. Jesus will not excuse, in those who should be patterns of piety, a cold, loveless religion. He wants you to cultivate a great deal more love and humility. Pray much, and believe much, and frame your conversation so that you will lead the minds of others to devotion, to spirituality,—away from criticism, away from severity,—and to love and respect one another; to true courtesy. Express affection. Express sympathy, and draw close to the bleeding side of Jesus.”—Unpublished Testimony, July 6, 1886.

If the rulers in the church have hearts filled with such a spirit, their counsels, like that of John, will ever be of the nature of his loving words, “Little children, love one another.”

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.

The Trilby Social

The following from the New York Times, October 31, tells its own story, and it is a far-reaching one:— The parents of three girls of the congregation of the New Durham First Baptist church would not let their daughters show their feet, so the Trilbys wore shoes at the Trilby social Monday night, much to the disappointment of the audience.

A curtain was suspended, and showing below it were many pairs of daintily booted feet, each bearing a number. These were sold for fifty cents a pair, and the owners of the feet became the partners of the buyers. Three pairs of feet were not sacrificed on the bargain counter, but were put up at auction, and there was lively bidding.

Some of the young women would not show their feet, and they were condemned to eat refreshments alone.

Continue reading: NEWS AND NOTES