Earlier text: EBAL AND GERIZIMTHE PREACHER FOR THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.
IN a recent sermon on the “Church of the Twentieth Century,” Dr. Joseph Parker, of City Temple, London, said some good things as to what the preacher ought to be. We present below some extracts:— How did men preach in the first century of the Christian era? Did they write sermons and read them to languid or resentful congregations? Did they study the classical use of words, and pride themselves on polished composition and eloquent effusion, to say nothing of mechanical and calculated climax? In reading the New Testament nothing seems to be further from the apostolic method than methods which are accounted timely and popular in our own age. In apostolic5times very great effects suddenly followed the preaching of the Gospel. There was probably not much comment on the classical beauty of the literature of the sermons, nor were many complimentary remarks passed respecting the manner, whether elegant or inelegant, of the preacher himself. We read that when one sermon was delivered, the hearers gnashed with their teeth upon the preacher, and hurled Him out to be stoned. On another occasion we read that whilst the hearers listened, they were pricked in their hearts, and cried out, some with vengeance, and some with a degree of penitence. The Gospel has always in its best preaching been followed by two distinctly contrastive effects. First, it has either been received with gladness, with a great emotion of thankfulness and consciousness of a new life of love in the heart; or it has been resented, denounced, and virulently hated. We have little of the latter effect in our own age. The sermon has lost so much of its point, emphasis, and high color that it is barely tolerated by one section and almost conscientiously avoided by another, even of the church-going public. . . . Nobody could hear the apostle Paul with indifference. When audiences turned away from him, they did not speak about the weather or about local politics, they spoke immediately and emphatically about the discourse to which they had just listened; they stamped with their feet, they gnashed with their teeth, or they openly gave God thanks and rejoiced with a great joy. 1. The preacher for the twentieth century must have a definite, luminous and practical message to his day. He will have no need to puzzle his brains as to the selection of a subject; his topic is assigned to him. He is a man who has taken “holy orders” in the best sense—taken them directly and immediately from the Head of the church. He has to preach the Gospel. He has not merely to preach about the Gospel, but to preach the Gospel in its heart, soul, and essence, and to do this with abiding and beneficent effect he must, so to say, be bathed in the very river of the Gospel. His subjects will flow upon him. He will not be suffering from spiritual dearth or pulpit sterility; he will be, indeed, embarrassed by the riches with which God will intrust all His faithful stewards. The preacher for the twentieth century must be full of the New Testament. If he can repeat it word for word in the original language, so much the better. The preacher ought, at all events, to be able to repeat most of the New Testament, certainly all the utterances of Christ, in his mother tongue. The Word of God should abide in him richly, overflowing with a great redundancy alike of knowledge and emotion. The preacher’s vocation limits him to opportunities of thirty or forty minutes of earnest address to a congregation which will never be identically reconstituted. The preacher should work upon the intelligence and the feeling of his hearers, so that at the close of the discourse they will know definitely what the preacher demands of them by way of oblation and service. We are not called upon to invent a Gospel, but to preach one. We are men under authority. We have had, as it were, direct personal communication with the Master, and all we have to do is to apply His sayings to the age in which we live. 2. The preacher for the twentieth century must be a man who lives in the open air. We have had enough of monastic preaching. Preaching is not a learned profession, an art or a craft only known to those who have been masonically initiated. . . . We must not preach as if we were preaching to dolls or mummies or statues made of clay or carved in stone. . . . The impression made by the preacher should never be, “See how much more I know of religious things than any mere layman can ever know!” That is the worst popery. Popery is never so bad as when it is perpetrated under Protestant patronage and shelter. Blessed is the preacher who can be “familiar, but never vulgar.” Right welcome is the brother-preacher who has a seat at every table, and has an invitation, not written but spiritually understood, to kneel at every bedside, where sickness suffers, and where the river of death is approaching in all the horror of its cold waters. I have sometimes thought that a preacher should rather study to avoid anything even in dress, or in “holy white,” which separates him from the great commonality of the people. We need not go down to them in any sense that vulgarizes ourselves. True gentility is not debased even when it goes out to seek and to save the lost. 3. The preacher for the twentieth century will not be so much a revolutionist as a transformer. In a sense, he will be able by the power of heaven to transubstantiate common things so as to invest them with great meanings and solemnities. There are reformers enough. Jesus Christ never attempted to reform society; He regarded it as sick unto death; He regarded it as beyond self-help; He came to seek and to save that which was lost. As the Lord Himself transformed the common bread and wine into symbols of His body and blood, so the preacher who would influence his age profoundly and beneficently must show the possible religious uses of common things. He must be a man gifted in propounding vital definitions and luminous expansions of common words. The age of mean things has gone. The people are now prepared to see the idealism and true poetry of things. The flesh has had but a limited reign; yea, tho we have known Christ Himself after the flesh, yet we know Him no more in that limited and local relation. The preacher of the Gospel of Christ is not a member of a committee at work for the reform of society. He has come with a special mission, and nothing must distract his attention. In Christ’s name and Christ’s power he comes to save the world, and to do nothing else. Whilst he is in the pulpit he has nothing to do with merely local disputes or angry controversies; he has to lay down great principles, which will put an end to all tumults, and to unrighteous and complicated conflicts. The preacher is not to be a clever little sub-committeeman; he has always to stand upon the sublimest heights and to unveil the purpose and the nearness of the kingdom of God. 4. The preacher for the twentieth century is to be a true, in contradistinction to a formal or artificial, priest. I see no reason why we should regard the word priest with prejudice, except in so far as it has been misapplied by men who have had some knavish purpose to accomplish. Jesus Christ Himself is a priest, the Priest, the High Priest. In our degree we should, as preachers, cultivate the priestly element. God has been pleased in His good providence to work through agency, instrumentality, or some kind of mediation. There is one Advocate with God. As we are followers of that Advocate, and as we hold our orders from Him, we, too, should be intercessors, pleaders, holding the people in our hearts, and bearing them up before God in loving, wise, and tender prayer. Our ministers must never forget that there is pastoral prayer as certainly as there is pastoral visitation. The former is infinitely preferable to the latter, as the latter is often perfunctorily carried out. Not a word would I say against pastoral visitation when it is charged with a solemn purpose and realized in a spirit of thoro sympathy with all sickness and infirmity and sense of self-helplessness on the part of the people. We must have no dominion over other men’s faith. We must not hold a secret which the simplest heart cannot share with us. Indeed, that simplest heart, if it fails to equal us in knowledge, may greatly surpass us in love. The strong man holds his strength for the weak. The wise man is the trustee of the uninstructed man. So it is with the truly good Christian preacher. What he holds, he holds for the benefit of all the people, and they are all welcome to look, as it were, into his heart, and see that he is doing nothing by mere skill of hand or cunning of intellect, but that he is faithfully executing the will and realizing the purpose of God. 5. The preacher for the twentieth century must be a contemporary rather than an antiquarian. Some of our people really do not care much about the heresies of the early centuries of the Christian era. . . . I have long held that there is nothing true in time that has not its exposition and defense in eternity. The people who long to go back and search the archives of forgotten centuries should put themselves on a still higher level, and go back, as it were, into the chambers of eternity and listen to the counsels that were held before the foundation of the world. The fault I have to find with many people is not that they are antiquated, but that they are not sufficiently venerable. If they were more venerable, they would be more modern. I would not advise the preacher for the twentieth century to go back to the Puritans; I would strongly advise him to go back to the prophets and to the apostles. Do not let your antiquarianism be too shallow and too obviously wanting in color and moss and proofs of incalculable age. I would rather hear a Biblical preacher than a preacher who founds himself on the methods of the Puritans. The Puritans I hold in high honor; I would on no account, disparage their solid and careful teaching; but if I have to choose between a prophet and a Puritan, I unhesitatingly choose the prophet. Honor the Master by Your Life
By F. T. Elkin
CHRIST has done all things possible for His cause. It is now man's privilege to complete the work and bring honor to its founder. Brother, see to it that your life is not a standing reproach to the Master! F. T. ELKIN. “THE truth can not be burned, drowned, beheaded, or crucified. A lie upon the throne is a lie still, and truth in a dungeon is truth still; and the lie on the throne is on the way to defeat, and the truth in the dungeon is on its way to victory.” THE SPIRIT IN THE NEW BIRTH.
It was a startling announcement which Jesus made to “the ruler of the Jews,” “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born anew [“from above,” margin], he can not see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3, R. V. It ought not to have been startling. “The teacher of Israel” (verse 10) ought to have known this essential truth of salvation, but his spiritual vision was not only blinded by his natural lusts, ambitions, aims, but by centuries of Pharisaic tradition. “The teacher of Israel” ought to have known the origin of Israel. This origin was not in the flesh; it was not in Jacob the supplanter, endeavoring to work out by his own power and craftiness his ambitions and desires, and so by himself inherit the promises of God. Jacob was not Israel. Jacob became Israel by the power of God, by being born again. When the Angel of God’s presence blessed him on that eventful morning by the Ford of Jabbok, He changed the man. He was henceforth no longer the crafty Jacob, “but Israel; for thou hast striven with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” Gen. 32:28. He was no longer a scheming, dishonest “supplanter,” but a prince of God, a prevailer over the flesh and sin. Jacob then saw and knew God’s kingdom. He said, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” Therefore he called the name of the place Peniel, “the face of God.” That is what God came for, to preserve his life. He could not give the Jacob a place in His kingdom and inheritance; and outside of that, battling with Esau, Jacob was sure to die. So when Jacob came to that place where he could see the nothingness of the flesh, and so yield it to God, counting the blessing of God more than aught else, God by His Spirit changed the Jacob to the Israel, the slave to the prince. Jacob was born again, and his name was Israel. And forever after God’s remnant, those who compose the true Israel, must, to be numbered there, be born again, or born from above. The power that accomplishes that is the Spirit. The natural man can not understand its process. He does not even know all the secrets of the birth of the natural child. It was not the process which Christ taught. He did not even seek to teach it. Man could not understand it, if He had taught it. Man can not of himself understand the various forces which he calls cohesion, adhesion, gravitation, etc. The wisest have divided in their opinions respecting these forces; how, then, could man understand that infinite power which could make of him another whose thoughts, purposes, motives, principles, were in almost every respect opposite. Jesus presented the necessity of the great fact. The change must take place; the earthly become heavenly. Man must be born from above. To enter the kingdom of God he must be a child of God, not materially merely, but spiritually a child, in character a child. This is the essential. This being true, the material change follows as truly as plant the seed, as leaf the bud, as fruit the flower. Therefore when the old Pharisee brought forth his objection of unbelief, “How can a man be born when he is old?” Jesus did not seek to tell him. It could not be done. The great Teacher more emphatically states the absolute necessity of the great fact, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” The nature must be changed. “Marvel not,” wonder not as to the how; accept the fact. The earthly inhabit the earth. To see God, to be of His kingdom, one must possess its nature. Such is the teaching of our Lord. The ways of the infinite God, as Nicodemus recognized, were above man. “The Spirit where He willeth doth blow, and His voice thou dost hear, but thou hast not known whence He cometh, and whither he goeth; thus [in his birth, his new life] is every one that is born of the Spirit.” John 3:8 (Young’s translation). Still doubting, Nicodemus asks, “How?” Jesus replied with that which must have been a heart-probe: “Art thou the teacher of Israel, and understandest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and bear witness of that we have seen.” Verses 10, 11. If Nicodemus had really known God’s power, he would not have questioned the fact of the new birth. If he had known the power of the great, overflowing life of God in his own life, he would have understood what was meant by being born from above, born of the Spirit. Reader, we can not fathom God’s secret power; it is like a great deep. Let us accept the great fact. We know our sore need; let us accept of His riches. Let us open the heart to the streams of life. Let the power of God in to control, to recreate. Even as the sunlight takes of the malodorous slime of the stagnant pool and transmutes it into the fragrant, pure white lily, so will the Spirit of God take poor carnal man and make him, to the praise of the glory of God’s grace, an heir of the everlasting kingdom. And the power that so transmutes will keep, if it is given control. Do not question over the how of what you can not know, save by experience; let the mighty Alchemist transmute the great fact of His salvation into living truth in your life and character. “THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED.”
THE above is the title of a monograph of 150 pages by Rev. Johns D. Parker, Ph. D., with an introduction by Rev. F. N. Peloubet, D. D. The advertisement of the publishers tells us that—“The faithful study of ten years has been put into this monograph by the author, who for several years has been engaged in a correspondence with leading Greek scholars in regard to the translation of two words in the Greek Testament, whose correct and obvious rendering gives the Christian world the transferred Sabbath. The transfer of the Sabbath at the resurrection, has been held by many distinguished scholars, such as Eusebius, Alcuin, Philip Schaff, F. N. Peloubet, but this monograph makes it public for the first time.” Surely it presents great claims; and yet one can not help querying at the very outset why such scholars should not have discovered “the correct and obvious rendering” of two such important words before this! that with the multitude of translations by first-day observers, they should not have discovered an “obvious” rendering that was so much to their own interest! Of these words, more later. Mr. Parker’s first chapter is entitled, “The Sabbath a Moveable Institution.” To prove this he first makes the statement (lays down as his major premise an unsupported averment) that— “The seventh day, following the first hexahemeron [a period of six days], existed as secular time for ages,” even from the time the earth began to revolve upon its axis until the end of creation, before the Sabbath was instituted. “This seventh segment of time for rest and worship was placed on a secular day, or revolution of the earth, to commemorate the creation of the world. If man should be removed from the earth, the Sabbath would cease to be, as it was made for man, but the seventh day would continue to exist as long as the earth revolved on its axis as a member of the solar system.” Upon which we remark (1) That in all God’s work, unmarred by sin, He is giving expression of His own power and character. The septenary law, the law of sevens, is not an arbitrary law; it is an expression of the perfection of the infinite. Infinite power could work in no other way, or it would be false to the essentials of Deity. 2. It is pure assumption to say that the seventh day following the first six days, “existed as secular time for ages.” The first man knew the earth as it came from the hand of God, under the divine creative power exercised thru six days. This period began with the light upon chaos, and ended at the eve of the Sabbath in cosmos. The rest of God came upon the seventh day of that septenary period. “On the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.” The Creator did not wait for ages; He wrought His work in six days; He rested the seventh. 3. That was God’s rest (or Sabbath) day. It always will be. It would have been if man had never been created. The great fact would ever remain, if man should cease to be. When Christ said the Sabbath was made for man, He did not for a moment imply that it was originated because of man. It is a part of the law of God’s being and of His whole created universe. It was for man in the sense that it was not against him. It was made a helper, a friend, a blessing to man and to every other one of God’s intelligent worshiping creatures. So also Christ Jesus died for man, “gave Himself for us,” but He did it also for every creature in the universe. As if light or color could not exist, because a man was blind; or sound, because the ear could not hear it. We might as well say that there would be no law of God of any kind if man did not exist. That would be the natural, mortal, narrow way of looking at it; but God’s law is as eternal and as universal as His life. It is operative everywhere, and where man appears, his subjection is due to every part of that law adapted to him. 4. The seventh-day period with the Sabbath at its close is a part of God’s law; and therefore “the seventh day [Sabbath] would continue to exist as long as the earth revolved on its axis.” 5. The only week which man knows, the only septenary period with which he is acquainted, or has ever been acquainted, the only seventh day which has ever come before him, is that ordained of God. That first seventh day was God’s rest-day, and will so continue. It can no more be changed than one can change his birthday. The only thing that segregated, separated, or in any way made known the seventh day was God’s rest, blessing, and sanctification confined to and placed upon that day. “And God blessed the SEVENTH DAY, and sanctified it; because that in it He had rested.” Gen. 2:3. All the holiness pertains to the day, the day that was the seventh day before it was given to man. God’s sacred Sabbath can not be separated from the day. 6. In view of these self-evident facts, it is pure fallacy to say, as does Mr. Parker, page 25, “This segment of holy time may also be transferred, or slipped forward a day, as it was at the resurrection, so that the Sabbath day coincides with the first day of the week, as it is under the Christian dispensation.” If that were true, it would make God a liar; for He declares the seventh day to be the Sabbath. This He marked in the beginning, at the exodus, elsewhere and elsewhen; but never has He intimated a change, because such a fact never could change. 7. As the creation and the week came from God, there was no “secular” time. God is spirit, and His works are spiritual, and His “law is spiritual.” His institutions are of the same character with Himself. Secular things came because of sin; but there was no sin when God founded the Sabbath. In fact, the Sabbath is what made the week. Every other day is numbered with that in view. It is first day to or of the Sabbath, second day to the Sabbath, and so on to the Sabbath, the crowning day of the week, the turning day of the week, the controlling day of the week, the day for which all the other days of the septenary cycle are numbered. To the thoughtful, reverent, believing soul, who understands God’s plan, all these are self-evident facts. Mr. Parker’s play on words is well illustrated in the following:— “The Sabbath (Sabbaton) is an Institution, and does not form an integral part of the secular week. God blessed the seventh day (Gen. 2:3), and sanctified it; but as far as we have any record, He never blessed Saturday, or any other portion of secular time above any other portion. Blessing the seventh day was equivalent to blessing one day in seven; or, in other words, blessing the Sabbath, and the Sabbath, under the Christian dispensation, is still observed one day in seven. In the Decalog (Ex. 20:11), God also formally blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” True, God did not bless “Saturday;” there was no such day. Saturday is of the same heathen origin as Sunday. The pagan name of the former came from Saturn, of the latter from the sun. The Bible knows absolutely nothing of the secular names of days. It is not a secular book. It is not given by a secular author. But how could God bless and sanctify “one day in seven” without blessing and sanctifying a particular day? As well might a man of seven sons, in making his will, devise and bequeath to one in seven of his sons a double portion, and to each of six an equal portion. We may be sure that each boy would set up the claim that he was one in seven of the testator’s sons. Or if the man should bequeath a double portion to his seventh son, what would we think of the honesty of an attorney who would contend that the seventh son meant the first? God did not bless the Sabbath in the Decalog; that7law simply declares that God blessed it in the beginning. Our author likens the Sabbath to Easter and Thanksgiving, and says:— “Thanksgiving is clearly an Institution, but it does not occur on any calendar day until the President by proclamation places it on some Thursday in November. Easter is also an Institution; but the calendar day on which it is observed is not determined until the moon falls on or about the twenty-first of March. “In a similar way the Sabbath is an Institution, which can be placed by divine authority on a secular day, or be transferred, under divine Providence, from one secular day to another.” But both Thanksgiving and Easter are wholly human ordinances, neither of which pertains to a day. Humanity ordained them and can change them. But the Sabbath rest pertains to a day,—a particular day, of a period which it called into being. That specific day God rested upon, blessed, and sanctified. Why does not Mr. Parker compare it with the Fourth of July, or one’s birthday? Thus much for the first chapter. We will notice others in future issues. WHEN any essential article becomes seriously damaged or destroyed, it is necessary to replace it with a new one. The earth is not an exception to this rule. A clean, pure earth, inhabited by a righteous people, is essential to the eternal purpose of God. In accordance with this purpose, He made the earth “good” in the first place, and made the first man and woman “upright.” His purpose has not yet changed; for altho the first pair fell from their high estate, entailing sin and death upon the race and a curse upon the earth, He still promises an earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, an earth that abideth forever, an earth whose foundations shall not be removed, an earth filled with the glory of the Lord, an earth peopled with the saints of the Most High, and upon which there shall be no more curse. In contrast with this eternal purpose and these infallible promises, let us note some of the things that are said of the present earth, and of its inhabitants. Because of the fall, death passed upon all men, because all have sinned. Rom. 5:12. The earth was cursed three times because of sin; first, because of Adam’s sin, and again because of Cain’s conduct, and a third time by the action of the flood, which greatly marred its beauty and depreciated its fertility. Before the flood, because of sin, “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Gen. 6:5. And that under the present conditions there can be no better state of affairs, is seen by the fact that Satan holds the dominion, being the “prince of this world,” even of the “power of the air.” John 14:30; Eph. 2:2. Job’s testimony is that “the earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covereth the faces of the judges thereof; if not, where, and who is he?” Job 9:24. A further proof is found in the prophecy of Christ, that as it was in the days of Noah, so it would be at His coming again to earth. Matt. 24:37–39. Isaiah prophecies of the present earth, that “the land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled; for the Lord hath spoken this word. The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.” Isa. 24:3–6. He further says: “The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.” Verses 19, 20. Again Isaiah prophecies: “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner; but My salvation shall be forever, and My righteousness shall not be abolished.” Ch. 51:6. “Heaven and the earth shall pass away,” says Christ; “but My words shall not pass away.” Luke 21:33. In view of all these conditions and prophecies and promises, a new earth is a foregone conclusion, an absolute necessity. And this is contemplated in the plan of redemption. When the Lord redeems a man, He makes of him a “new creature.” While in this life he retains the same appearance, but he is a new creature by virtue of having the Spirit of Christ in him. “Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Cor. 5:17. But in the resurrection he comes up with a new, glorified body by virtue of the same Spirit. Rom. 8:11. “Behold, I show you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we [the living] shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” 1 Cor. 15:51–53. This is how the righteous are finally and fully prepared for their everlasting inheritance. The process, from conversion to the full fruition of their hope, is a new creation—the passing of the old and the creation of the new. As with the sinner, so it is with the old sin-cursed, decaying earth: in its present marred and polluted condition it must pass away. It must be renovated and cleansed of every sign that sin ever reigned upon it, and be recreated, or made “very good,” as in the original creation. The terrible consequences of disobedience of the law of God, and of Satanic opposition to all righteousness, will then have been fully demonstrated before all the universe, and the whole drama of wickedness will be closed. The justice and the love of God will have been fully vindicated and appreciated, and never again will there be a dissenting voice from His absolute rule. All will realize that His “yoke is easy” and “His burden is light,” and that “His commandments are not grievous.” “And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.” Rev. 5:13. The purpose of God was hindered but not defeated by sin. Satan, who rebelled and made war, and was cast out of heaven (Rev. 12:7–10), obtained by deceit the dominion of earth for a time. He was allowed to run a short race, that his true character might be revealed to all the universe. But his time is short (verse 12), and his utter overthrow is assured by the unfailing Word. The time is set; this even his angels know. Matt. 8:28, 29; Mark 1:23, 24. Then the second Adam will take the dominion which the first Adam lost. Micah 4:8. This was the declaration of God to the serpent in Eden (Gen. 3:15), and it was repeated to the church at Rome by Paul (Rom. 16:20). The few thousand years necessary to allow Satan’s character to be fully exposed, and to gather a faithful people to populate the new earth—out of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people on this sin-stricken earth—is a very short period in the eternity of God’s great plan. Thru the sure word of prophecy the Lord has said: “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.” Not only is the earth new, but the inhabitants are a new creation, and the Jerusalem capital is new, created in heaven and brought down bodily. This is the house of “many mansions” which Jesus told His disciples He was going away to prepare. Peter tells us very plainly that the world before the flood, “being overflowed with water, perished.” The people all perished but faithful Noah and his family, and the earth never appeared again in its former condition. Then he adds: “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same Word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” Passing on, he tells when and how: It will be “in the day of the Lord,” and the “heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. . . . Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” See 2 Peter 3:5–13. Peter also reminds us that “there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming?” Verses 3, 4. They will be scoffing at this very doctrine, which is so essential to the work of the Gospel. But his solemn advice to the church, in view of God’s plain instruction on the subject, is: “Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless. And account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation.” Verses 14, 15. “I TELL YOU OF THEM.”
By T.
BEHOLD, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.” Isa. 42:9. The foregoing is the Word of the Lord, and it is both true and encouraging. The Lord declares “new things.” And the most wonderful part of it is that our heavenly Father can say in truth, “Before they spring forth I tell you of them.” This infinite foreknowledge is not seen alone in the field of prophecy. While it is true that the Lord has foretold the history of the world in advance, it is also true that He has foreseen every perplexity, and need, and sin, and failure of mankind, and has caused a Book to be written that meets every case. The man who is well-nigh sinking in despair may turn to God’s great Book, and find principles set forth, and unfailing promises given, that will fill his soul with an unconquerable courage. And it makes no difference what is the nature of the trouble, or what the varied temperaments and dispositions that are called to pass thru these afflictions; the Lord foresaw it all, and caused promises to be set as gems in His Word to meet the peculiarities of each. And thus does the Lord show how much He has thought about us. He has gone into the details of each life so as to discover every difficulty that would arise, and then framed power-laden promises to meet them. How wonderful this is! And how it should fill our souls with confidence in the Lord! It is not alone in the great affairs that go to make up the history of the nations that the Lord has exercised His foreknowledge, but in every one of the individual trials that we each have to meet, He has made it strikingly manifest that “before they spring forth I tell you of them.” The individual who has a living experience in the truth of the Lord finds indescribable delight in his personal knowledge of these divine facts. The one who does not have this personal experience, and who is naturally inclined to quibble, may wish to argue the matter. But it is not a matter for argument; it is a matter of fact and experience. We do not argue with men to convince them that there is a moon; we simply point them to the orb of night when she is shining in her strength, and tell them to behold her. If a man should desire to argue with us against the reality of the moon’s being in the heavens, we would consider the matter too ridiculous for serious consideration. A fact is a fact, and the only thing we can do is to accept it. It is a waste of time and also a manifest weakness to indulge in arguments about the authenticity of established facts. Professing Christians should spend their time in learning the truths of God’s Word, and as they do this they will be gaining experiences day by day that will enable them to affirm these truths so clearly that they will carry a conviction that can not be made by mere argument. It is said of Christ, “He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” Matt. 7:29. When the Master taught, He told them what He knew to be true; consequently He could speak with “authority.” He is our Example in all things. We should learn His methods of presenting the Gospel. As we learn more and more of the breadth and fulness of the Lord’s foreknowledge; as we see more and more how fully this applies to every detail of our lives; as we read God’s promises, our minds filled with amazement at the thought of their being so framed thousands of years ago that they apply accurately to our cases just now, how ardently can we say, “Sing unto the Lord a new song, and His praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof. Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit; let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory unto the Lord, and declare His praise in the islands.” Isa. 42:10-12. T.