Signs of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 9. (2/27/1901)

Signs of the Times

Feb 27, 1901

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 27, 1901

THE GUERDON OF DISLOYALTY.

By C. M. Snow

THERE is but one sun in the solar system, one center in the universe, and one God who is Lord of all. Disloyalty to that One, and the attempt to be greater than He, threw a covering cherub under chains of darkness, made demons of angels, and evolved sin. Death, the salary for sin, was the guerdon of disloyalty, not for Satan only, but for all who have followed in his ways. Israel united or Israel scattered over the earth furnishes a striking example of this truth.

DISSATISFIED with dependence upon God as their ruler and leader, they cried for a king, and looked to him instead of to God for protection and guidance. God yielded to their cries and gave them a king; and with their king came oppression and long and bloody wars. They did not like to be a peculiar people—God’s example to the world—forsook Him as their king, and patterned after the nations that had long since lost the memory of God.

THE Word is filled with promises that God will not forsake nor forget His children. It is also filled with the record of continual heart wanderings, forsaking and forgetting of Him, on the part of His people. Tho God has, on account of their sins, sometimes turned His face away from Israel, it has only been that He might by that means win them back to Him. “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.” Isa. 54:7, 8.

THE Lord uses the strongest possible illustrations to show His unfailing care for His faithful children. “Can a woman forget her sucking child? . . . yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands.” Isa. 49:15, 16. “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let My right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let My tongue cleave to the roof of My mouth.” Ps. 137:5, 6.

IN the face of God’s repeated declaration of His purpose toward His chosen people, Israel continued to stumble and slip and slide down, down into the slough of worldliness, taking up the customs of the sinful nations around her; or, with the spirit of her worship dead, she piled upon the people the burdens of an endless ritualism. But in spite of the general backsliding, there came from time to time, thru the dark record of her unfaithfulness, flashes of genuine loyalty to God. Now it is Elijah standing for God in the face of the denunciations of Ahab and Jezebel and the revilings of their heathen priests. Now it is a few Hebrew youth refusing the defiled meat which the king of Babylon had ordered for their food. Again we see it in a Daniel praying, in spite of the king’s decree; or in the refusal of the three “Hebrew children” to kneel when all around were worshiping the image of gold set up in the plain of Dura.

BUT Israel herself “forgot God,” and flung imploring arms to the kings of the earth. A corrupt high-priesthood prostituted its holy office to the vilest purposes, even going so far as to bribe heathen kings that they might be secured in the office of high priest, stripping the temple of its golden vessels to pay the bribe, changing their own names to the names of noted heathen, establishing heathen games within the holy city, encouraging laxity in the temple service, and influencing the youth of the nation to emulate the customs of the idolatrous world around them. Then, in zeal for the forsaken religion which had made and kept them a united people, the Maccabees arose to stem the tide of heathenism, and wrought a powerful reformation for a time. But from the time that Judas Maccabee sought an alliance with Rome dates the final decline of Israel’s national cause. Simon, his brother, thinking to strengthen the position of his country, and make its independence secure, sent an embassy to Rome with a shield of gold weighing 1,000 pounds. The Romans at once declared a protectorate over Palestine, recognized Simon Maccabee as prince of Judah, and notified the world that Israel was her charge.

ISRAEL, in appealing to the rulers of the world, had taken herself out from under the protection of God—had left the King of heaven for the king of earth—and the ultimate result of that act was the capture of her city and her sacred temple by Pompey at the head of the cohorts of Rome. And Rome has left in Jerusalem the mark of her sway over the people whom God led out of Egypt. That monument of her presence was the Tower of Antonia, built by Herod, and named in honor of Mark Antony. It was an enlargement of the palace of Baris erected by John Hyrcanus, and its turrets, filled with the armed minions of Rome, rose high above the temple which Israel had dedicated to the service of Jehovah. To add to Israel’s humiliation, Herod placed over the very gate of the temple itself the golden eagle, the emblem of Rome. With a heathen soldiery looking down upon their worship, and the emblem of a heathen ruler spreading its wings over their devotions, Israel must have repented that she had proved disloyal to her God, and had fled for succor to the rulers of Rome. They had become vassals of a heathen people when they might have been kings and priests of the Most High God; slaves when they might have been God’s freemen. Whenever the Jew turned his face toward the temple of his God, he must look into the very portholes of the gaping, mocking Tower of Antonia. This was her guerdon for her disloyalty to God.

OUT of the centuries of the past comes the lesson for the present. When the wise ones of the present day are clamoring for a closer relation between religion and the State, let us remember the lesson taught by the monument of Rome in the capital of Judah. When the temptation comes to trust in the arm of flesh, let us remember the heartaches of Israel when bleeding under the heel of her kings or the kings that triumphed over them. When tempted to usher in the kingdom of Christ thru the gateway of politics, let us remember the fate of Israel thru Simon’s embassy to Rome. The church of Christ can not be loyal to God while trusting in the arm of flesh. If we have not the mind of Christ, we are none of His; and the mind of Christ never led Him to look to the powers of earth for help during any portion of His ministry. We can have no better example than His, and following that we can never fail or be disloyal to our Creator and Redeemer.

C. M. SNOW.

Neglect of the New Testament.

By Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones

[Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, in Unity.]

WHATEVER the conventional claim may be, there is no disguising the fact that the New Testament is to-day a much-neglected book. Intelligent, respectable people, who would resent the charge of indifference to the moral and religious interests of themselves, their homes, and of society—indeed, those who claim to be especially interested in religion, church-members boastful of their Christianity—do not read their New Testament as once it was read by representatives of their class. It is the volume that is allowed to remain on the table unopened. It is the last thing the business man talks about, and it is seldom the volume used in common for fireside reading or family worship.

Young men and young women who push their way thru college, boast of their acquaintance with Greek or Latin classics, are alert over their Shakespeare and their Browning, who blush when found guilty of a misquotation in the modern classics, or are found so far behind the times as to be unacquainted with the last sensation in literature, smile over their ignorance of the New Testament, and consider it a good joke if they credit a saying of Isaiah to Paul, or are found in a state of mental confusion over the Pentateuch and the Apocalypse.

CO-OPERATION

By Ellen G. White

WORK out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” The work of salvation is a work of co-partnership, a joint operation. No man can work out his own salvation without the aid of the Holy Spirit. The co-operation of divine and human forces is necessary for the formation of right principles in the character. Man is to make the most strenuous efforts to overcome the tempter, to subdue natural passions; but he is wholly dependent upon God for success in the work of overcoming the propensities that are not in harmony with correct principles. Success depends wholly upon willing obedience to the will and way of God. Character develops in accordance with conformity to the divine plan. But man must work in Christ’s lines. He must be a laborer together with God. He must submit to God’s training, that he may be complete in Christ.

God has originated and proclaimed the principles on which divine and human agencies are to combine in temporal matters as well as all spiritual achievements. They are to be linked together in all human pursuits, in mechanical and agricultural labor, in mercantile and scientific enterprises. In all lines of work it is necessary that there be co-operation between God and man. God has provided facilities with which to enrich and beautify the earth. But the strength and ingenuity of human agencies are required to make the very best use of the material. God has filled the earth with treasure, but the gold and silver are hidden in the earth, and the exercise of man’s powers is required to secure this treasure which God has provided. Man’s energy and tact are to be used in connection with the power of God in bringing the gold and silver from the mines, and trees from the forest. But unless by His miracle-working power God co-operated with man, enabling him to use his physical and mental capabilities, the treasures in our world would be useless.

We can not keep ourselves for one moment. We are kept by the power of God thru faith unto salvation. We are utterly dependent upon God every moment of our lives.

God desires every human being in our world to be a worker together with Him. This is the lesson we are to learn from all useful employment, making homes in the forest, felling trees to build houses, clearing land for cultivation. God has provided the wood and the land, and to man He has given the work of putting them in such shape that they will be a blessing. In this work man is wholly dependent upon God. The fitting of the ships that cross the broad ocean is not alone due to the talent and ingenuity of the human agent. God is the great Architect. Without His co-operation, without the aid of the higher intelligences, how worthless would be the plans of men! God must aid, else every device is worthless.

The human organism is the handiwork of God. The organs employed in all the different functions of the body were made by Him. The Lord gives us food and drink, that the wants of the body may be supplied. He has given the earth different properties adapted to the growth of food for His children. He gives the sunshine and the showers, the early and the latter rain. He forms the clouds and sends the dew. All are His gifts. He has bestowed His blessings upon us liberally. But all these blessings will not restore in us His moral image unless we co-operate with Him, making painstaking effort to know ourselves, to understand how to care for the delicate human machinery. Man must diligently help to keep himself in harmony with nature’s laws. He who co-operates with God in the work of keeping this wonderful machinery in order, who consecrates all his powers to God, seeking intelligently to obey the laws of nature, stands in his God-given manhood, and is recorded in the books of heaven as a man.

God has given man land to be cultivated. But in order that the harvest may be reaped, there must be harmonious action between divine and human agencies. The plow and other implements of labor must be used at the right time. The seed must be sown in its season. Man is not to fail of doing his part. If he is careless and negligent, his unfaithfulness testifies against him. The harvest is proportionate to the energy he has expended.

So it is in spiritual things. We are to be laborers together with God. Man is to work out his own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in him, both to will and to do of His good

pleasure. There is to be co-partnership, a divine relation, between the Son of God and the repentant sinner. We are made sons and daughters of God. “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God.” Christ provides the mercy and grace so abundantly given to all who believe in Him. He fulfils the terms upon which salvation rests. But we must act our part by accepting the blessing in faith. God works and man works. Resistance of temptation must come from man, who must draw his power from God. Thus he becomes a co-partner with Christ.

The infinitely wise and all-powerful God proposes co-operation with his frail, erring creatures, whom He has placed on vantage-ground. On the one side there are infinite wisdom, goodness, compassion, power; on the other, weakness, sinfulness, absolute helplessness, poverty, dependence. We are dependent upon God, not only for life and all its blessings, but for our intrusted talents, and for all the resources required in the work we must do if we accept the invitation to work with God. Man’s intellect, his understanding, his every valuable thought, the opportunities and privileges that are placed within his reach, all come from Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We have nothing of ourselves. Our success in the Christian life depends upon our co-operation with Christ and our submission to His will. It is not a sign of pure, consecrated service for a worker to follow his own way. Every worker is to willingly obey his Leader, to receive and practise every word of God.

We are to be individual toilers. Character can not be bought or sold. It is formed by patient, continuous effort. Much patience is required in the striving for that life which is to come. We may all strive for perfection of character, but all who come into possession of it will earn it step by step, by the cultivation of the virtues which God commends. The Holy Spirit presents before man the agencies provided for his transformation. If he heeds the words, “He that will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me,” He will receive help from a power that is infinite.

Man is given the privilege of working with God in the saving of his own soul. He is to receive Christ as his personal Saviour and believe in Him. Receiving and believing is His part of the contract. This means abiding in Christ, showing in Him at all times and under all circumstances a faith that works by love and purifies the soul from all defilement. Christ is the author of this faith, and He demands that it be constantly exercised. Thus we receive a constant supply of grace.

The apostle Paul declares, “Ye are God’s husbandry; ye are God’s building.” The material for the building is plainly specified in the words: “Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Here we are shown how we may co-operate with God. Man is to work constantly upon the plan of addition, while God works on the plan of multiplication. Thus man grows in spirituality, until he presents to the world, to angels, and to men such perfection of character that in the heavenly courts the words are spoken, “Ye are complete in Him.”

The plan of redemption was arranged in the counsels between the Father and the Son. Then Christ pledged Himself to render an account for man if he proved disloyal. He pledged Himself to make an atonement which would unite every believing soul to God. He who lays his sins upon the substitute and surety, thus becoming a partaker of the divine nature, can unite with the apostle in saying: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.” “That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us thru Christ Jesus.” In His infinite love Christ devised the plan of salvation. This plan He stands ready to fulfil in behalf of all who will co-operate with Him. In their behalf He says to the Father, Do not impute their sins to them, but lay them on Me. Be merciful to their righteousness, and their sins and their iniquities remember no more. They have accepted My merits, and made peace with Me; and they shall make peace with Me. My righteousness is theirs, and for My sake bless them with all spiritual blessings. MRS. E. G. WHITE.

OUR HIGH PRIEST.

By Augusta W. Heald

The death and resurrection of our Lord were indeed indispensable to the great scheme of man’s redemption; yet these alone did not complete the grand work. The divine plan is still going forward in the heavenly courts on high, for Jesus has now become unto us a “high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.” Heb. 8:1, 2.

Having made, once for all, the offering of Himself as the sacrificial Lamb, He now, as our advocate, pleads the merits of His dying blood in the sinner’s behalf. But does not the Father Himself love us? Why, then, the need of this constant intercession?

The great controversy between Christ and Satan is not yet ended, nor will it end while this earth remains. Satan is called “the accuser” of the brethren, “which accused them before our God day and night.” Rev. 12:10. As instance of “the accuser’s” enmity, the prophet Zechariah saw in vision “Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him” (Zech. 3:1, 2)—to be his adversary. Joshua was the representative of God’s people, and as he thus stood before “the angel Jehovah,”—Christ,—Satan, pointing to his filthy garments of sin, attempted to show cause for his condemnation; but Christ, the Advocate, said, “The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee; is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?”

Joshua and his associates were delivered from the midst of idolatrous Babylon, not to be again cast away and consumed, but to be saved with an everlasting salvation. Christ then commanded attending angels to remove from Joshua his filthy garments, and said, “Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.” Zech. 3:4.

Thus does Jesus as our high priest remove the foul stains of sin, and clothe repentant ones in the fair white robes of His own righteousness. He also will enable them to keep their garments undefiled, and will appoint them places in the heavenly courts above, where “they shall walk with” Him “in white;” “for they are worthy.” Rev. 3:4.

Jesus, our High Priest, has met the temptations of the world, the flesh, and Satan in our behalf; He has vanquished all the powers of darkness. Now, at His Father’s right hand, He looks down with compassionate tenderness upon “His brethren,” as He lovingly called them when on earth. He sees them wrestling not only with inward sin, “but against principalities, against powers, . . . against wicked spirits in heavenly places.” Eph. 6:12, margin. He is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities;” for He “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Heb. 4:15. “Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.” Heb. 7:25.

The Gospel preached by Peter on the day of Pentecost makes known the conditions by which all may have a part in the heavenly ministration; for God is no respecter of persons. “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” Acts 2:38.

The ordinance of baptism is a memorial of the death and resurrection of our Saviour. “It is the outward form by which believers show their faith in Christ.” As Jesus died and was buried in the tomb, so is the believer dead to sin, buried beneath the baptismal wave, that, being “planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.” Rom. 6:5.

Thru faith in the Saviour’s cleansing blood, the old sinful nature is left in the watery grave, and they who come forth to “newness of life” are in figure “risen with Christ.” Henceforth they are enjoined to “seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Col. 3:1–3. “Ye are bought with a price” (1 Cor. 6:20), even the precious blood of the Son of God. Says the apostle, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Rom. 12:1.

Now is this a hardship?—Nay, rather, it is a blessed privilege. Jesus died for us, a death of bitterest anguish, but He bids us live for Him, and it is His will that we serve Him joyfully all the days of our allotted existence. And here is presented ample scope for the highest aspirations.

The grandest earthly success is but a failure; there will come to every man an hour when the proudest honors, the richest gains, of earth can afford no further satisfaction.

The relentless destroyer knows no distinction; he cuts down all alike; the king in his royal palace is no more secure than the poorest mendicant; and he who passes from earth leaves all behind. But the lowly follower of the cross, who labors with Christ and holy angels, ever keeping in view the hope of eternal life, is laying up treasures in heaven, where moth can not corrupt or thief destroy.

While the atonement for sin is going on in the sanctuary on high, God’s children on earth are striving thru faith to perfect Christlike characters, and to bring others to the great Source of light and love. Angels also are permitted to assist in this great work; thus all may become co-workers with the Father and Son, “partakers of the heavenly calling.” Heb. 3:1. “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God” (Heb. 4:14), “let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering (for He is faithful that promised)” (chap. 10:23). “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.” Verses 35, 36. “For yet a very little while, He that cometh shall come, and shall not tarry.” Verse 37. R.V.

“Where high the heavenly temple stands, The house of God not made with hands, A great High Priest our nature wears, The Guardian of mankind appears.”

AUGUSTA W. HEALD.

Pride Keeps Sinners from the Saviour

By Thomas Brooks

Sinners, remember this: It is not so much the sense of your unworthiness as your pride that keeps you from a blessed closing with the Saviour.—Thomas Brooks.

“WHAT IS THIS?”

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

When the children of Israel first saw the food which God provided for them, they said, “Man-hoo?” that is, “What is this?” And that question, Anglicized into “manna,” has served as a name for it ever since. People generally think that “manna” is the name of that which the children of Israel ate for forty years, whereas, on the contrary, it is only an indication of ignorance as to what it was. That is the way with many of the “scientific” names that we meet with. In this case, however, there was no excuse for ignorance; for God had told them beforehand that He would send them “bread from heaven;” and we are told that the people ate of “the corn of heaven”—“angels’ food.” If they had called it by its real name, “bread from heaven,” or “heavenly bread,” it would have kept them in much closer touch with heaven, and they might have been saved from much evil. Likewise in these days if men would recognize God’s gifts as coming directly from Him, instead of inventing names which serve only faintly to conceal their own ignorance, and effectually to shut off the view of God, the world would be in a far better condition.

E. J. WAGGONER.

GOD’S THOROUGHNESS.

By Gamma Beta

As far as the East is from the West, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.” Ps. 103:12.

We do not all see from the same point of view. We would not all see alike if we did. How different our conceptions of the same fact!

A part of the constellation of Orion, showing the stars easily visible to the naked eye. The constellation is due south from overhead at this time of year, March 1, say about 6 p.m.

“How readest thou” the text at the head of this article? How far is it from the East to the West? Finite men can not know the infinite, but finite man can, may, and will reason; so “let us reason together” as to how far the East is from the West, not that we may find out, but to more fully realize God’s greatness and our littleness.

Is a mountain a large object?—Yes, when compared to a tree, but small when compared to the earth itself, which is, in its turn, insignificant when compared with the same. And even the sun is small when compared to some other suns. Does a man move rapidly when he walks?—Not if his motion is compared with that of a fast train, but very rapidly when compared with the glacier in its stately movement down the mountainside. And so with distance, time, or events, all are great or small by comparison, and so, also, are our conceptions, especially in matters we do not clearly understand.

The fastest thing with which we are generally familiar is an express train, our minds having adopted the speed of “a mile a minute,” or eighty-eight feet per second, as the standard. Place two trains into position and bid them to be off on their journey to annihilate space, one to go to the East and the other to the West: when will they reach their destination?

Again, start two cannon-balls; the modern high-power gun can give them a speed of 2,500 feet a second,—thirty times faster than an express train,—yet who would be bold enough to say they could ever reach the East and the West?

In the constellation of Orion is the bright blue star Rigel. It is one of the fourteen stars that astronomers have rated as of the first magnitude, and is well up to, but not in, the first ranks. Sirius is the bright leader of all the shining hosts of heaven, while Arcturus, Vega, and Capella are the three great luminaries of the Northern hemisphere. Sirius has often been mentioned in the writings of the ancients, while Arcturus is mentioned in Job, but never a word, so far as I know, has ever been written of Rigel, down to the time of Hipparchus, altho Rigel is receding at a very rapid rate, and must have been brighter then than now.

There is something to be learned from this, when we carefully examine the facts. Let us see.

Spectroscopic observations indicate that Rigel is moving from us at an enormous velocity—enormous from even the astronomer’s standpoint, some observers placing the velocity at nearly 400 miles a second; but let us cut this in half, and, for sake of the thought, make it 200 miles per second—more than 400 times faster than our cannon-balls; and yet, after bearing in mind that the star has been flying on its boundless course for these thousands of years, the patriarch Job would probably not notice any less in its brightness if he could see it to-day. Certainly it could not have been greatly brighter when the ancients wrote of Sirius, for Rigel would have been the leader.

Astonishing as this may seem, it is not difficult to understand; it can easily be explained, altho it is entirely beyond our comprehension. Yet the explanation gives us a better conception of the distance from the East to the West, even tho it only proves to us our utter inability to grasp the infinite.

To make the above plain, we will consider one of the laws of light, the one that says, “The intensity of light varies inversely as the square of its distance from its source.” That is, if we double or halve the distance the light will decrease or increase fourfold, and not be one-half or twice as bright as one would easily believe without investigation. We can demonstrate this law in a simple way; if we place a light in the center of a room ten feet high, wide, and long, we will have a certain amount or intensity of light on the walls, ceiling, and floor; the area of each side, the floor, and the ceiling will be 100 square feet, or a total of 600 square feet. Now place the same lamp in the room 20 feet in every dimension; the distance of the lamp will be just twice the distance from the walls, etc., as it was in the room 10 feet each way, but the intensity of the light on the walls will be only one-fourth of what it was in the smaller room, because the area of the walls, floor, and ceiling will now be 400 square feet each, or a total of 2,400 square feet. To put it another way, we will have just the same amount of light, but it will be spread over four times the area.

Next, to understand why the light from Rigel appears nearly the same to-day as it appeared hundreds and even thousands of years ago, I will give another illustration of the same law. Place a lamp one foot from the eye, and we get a certain quantity or intensity of light, no matter how bright or how faint. Now move the lamp away from the eye one foot, doubling the distance, and the intensity will be only a fourth; four feet would reduce it to a sixteenth; eight feet, to a sixty-fourth; one hundred feet, to the one ten-thousandth part, and so on; each time we double the distance the intensity or brightness will decrease four times.

Let us imagine, now, that the lamp is placed at the distance of the moon, or 240,000 miles away, and still remains visible, could our observer detect an increase or decrease if the lamp were moved to or from him one foot?—Certainly not; and even a mile would be only the one two hundred and forty thousandth of the whole distance, an insignificant part, yet great enough, if it is the first mile, to increase or decrease the intensity twenty-five millions of times.

It is easy now to see how great and incomprehensible must the distance be to Rigel; for, altho the star is traveling from us hundreds of miles a second for every tick of the clock, the distance is comparatively but little greater now than it was in the time of Job, and the difference can be safely ignored.

We have a still more speedy traveler, however, than Rigel, beside which the star would appear to be at rest. I refer to light, the swiftest motion known to astronomers, which speeds on its way 186,000 miles a second, a thousand times the velocity of Rigel at the rate we have imagined the star to be leaving us.

Suppose we could harness two rays of light and start them to the East and the West; in a single second they would be separated by a distance equal to sixteen times the circumference of the earth, while in a whole minute they would be a score of millions of miles apart. When would they reach their journey’s end? Could they have started in the days of Job, or even “in the beginning,” at what stage of their journey would they now be? It would not be true to say they had accomplished at least a part of their journey, no matter when they started, for the distance in either direction is infinite, and nothing less than an infinity of time can end their journey; and the time that has elapsed since “the beginning” to the present is finite (tho not comprehensible), and is an infinitesimal part of infinity.

If our transgressions are removed from us “as far as the East is from the West,” how completely are we forgiven, how perfect our pardon! The Lord’s ways are not our ways (praise the Lord), but His pardon is worthy of even Him; for He removes us from our sins “as far as the East is from the West.” GAMMA BETA.

TRUE WITNESS-BEARING FOR CHRIST.

A WITNESS is one who, having knowledge of anything, gives his testimony about it. That which renders him a witness is the fact of his actual knowledge. He is called upon to tell what he knows, not what he thinks or suspects. In a court he makes oath to this fact of knowledge, and swears to tell “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” In regard to Christ, witness-bearing is similar. It is testifying to what we know of Him. It is the statement of what His love actually has meant to us, what His care has done for us, what His example has aided us to be and to do.

Naturally such testimony is different in the case of different persons. It is based upon a wide variety of experiences. To one Christ’s presence, by His Spirit, has been primarily an aid in overcoming temptation. To another it has been a comfort in distress. To others it has been an enlightenment of the moral and spiritual judgment, or an impulse to this or that form of Christian service, or a less definite, yet not less real, inspiration towards holier thought and life. Each of us must bear witness to what Christ has been to him.

Yet all these and all other experiences of Christ’s presence and help have a common factor. They all mean, and are based upon, some real union of spirit and purpose between Him and ourselves. They all involve some actual, unmistakable knowledge of Him and intercourse with Him, not merely as a possibility but also as a realized experience. This is what gives sincerity and credibility to our witness-bearing. It is the same assurance as that of the man to whom Jesus had given sight: “Whether He be a sinner or no, I know not; one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.”

It is this substantial basis of fact behind our testimony which secures it acceptance. This is the reason why the philosophizing of the cultured sometimes, no matter how logical, reasonable, or eloquent, fails to have the persuasive power of the simple testimony of some comparatively uneducated person. Confining himself to what he knows about Jesus, and to what Jesus has done for him, he touches the hearts and convinces the judgments of others by the very fact that he appeals directly to that human nature which is common to us all.

Witness-bearing may be by speech or by action or by both. But it always must be based upon personal knowledge in order to be of use.—Congregationalist.

HE THOUGHT THEY WOULD BE GLAD.

By T. E. Bowen

ONE day when returning home on the train, I met a young man who was going to visit friends living near the same city where I was to leave the train. He had not seen them for a long time, and the evening was a cold and stormy one in November. Altho he would have to hire a livery team, and go several miles into the country, facing the storm, he was repaid for it all by the continual thought of how happy they all would be to have him come. He pictured the scene over and over again of their surprise and joy at having him arouse them in the night to greet him.

After bidding the young man good-by, and expressing the hope that he would have a pleasant visit with his friends, I came on to my home, musing on the incident. I thought about the happiness and joy it was possible even now to give the Saviour, as He must be looking forward with pleasure to the time when He can come and take unto Himself His earthly friends. But, sad to relate, many of His professed friends do not seem to be very joyful in the news of His soon coming. This reveals the fact that something is wrong in the heart. Some sin is cherished, which makes the coming of the Lord an unwelcome event. Some will be glad and rejoice, thus causing great joy to the King of glory when He comes. Will this be you, dear reader? T. E. BOWEN.

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