Earlier text: The Power of LoveAnother Sacrifice—Another Savior
By C. M. S.
“Rome Never Changes”—No. 6
Another Sacrifice—Another Savior
The Roman Church, which claims to be the only and the true church of Jesus Christ, makes the peculiar claim of being founded upon Peter—a human foundation for a divine institution! These two claims, paradoxical and contradictory, ought to arouse a question in the mind of every human being, and a very strong suspicion as to the untruthfulness of the claims which that institution makes for itself. But upon the ground of her own claim in this particular we shall test Rome's assertion that Rome never changes. Peter, after his conversion, after the fulfillment of our Lord's prayer in his behalf that he should be enabled to7strengthen his brethren, after his inducement by the Holy Spirit with power from on high, makes this declaration concerning Jesus Christ:— “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4: 12.
In the face of that declaration made by Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, the whole Roman religious system falls to the ground. There is no question as to the church to which Peter belonged being the true church, and Peter declared the true foundation of that church was Jesus Christ and not himself. The church founded upon Jesus Christ and remaining true to that foundation is the true church. The church that claims to be founded upon Peter is on the wrong foundation, and condemns itself by the very claim as being something different from the true church. Now this church founded upon Peter does a work, institutes a system, and makes claims which directly contradict the above-quoted declaration from Peter, as we shall show. In fact, the whole system is a contradiction of the whole divine plan as outlined in the Word of God, and is actually doing upon earth what the enemy of man did in heaven; that is, establishing a wall of separation between God and his creatures and misrepresenting the character of the Father of all. Lucifer, the fallen light bearer, by his work in heaven succeeded in carrying down with him a multitude so great as to feel itself strong enough to wage war with Michael and all the hosts that remained true to God. The vast number who apostatized with him measured the extent to which he succeeded in separating creatures and Creator. Compare Jude 6 and Rev. 12: 7-9. The victory of Michael and the casting out of that disloyal host from the precincts of heaven restricted Satan's campaign to our earth. He had caused woe in heaven; need we expect to see less than woe upon earth as a result of his activity? When that expulsion from heaven took place, the revelator says:— “I heard a great voice in heaven saying, . . . Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe for the earth and for the sea: because the devil is gone down unto you, having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time.” Rev. 12: 10-12.
When Satan came to this earth, he took up at once the same work that he had been doing in heaven. He had separated a host of angels from their Maker. He would now begin here the erection of a mighty wall between man and his Maker. He scoffed at the restriction placed upon man, contradicted the explicit declaration of God in reference to the result of disobedience, and set up a tempting reward to entice man to disbelieve and disobey God. The plan worked, and man was doubly punished—he lost his sovereignty of the earth and became subject to the usurper. “For of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he also brought into bondage.” 2 Peter 2: 19. A gulf was set between man and God, and Satan was its maker and guardian. Then came the plan of salvation—the Son of God given for the rebellious race. “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.” To perpetuate the gulf which he created between man and God, Satan has sought in every possible way to pervert God's plan of redemption, and to make man believe in and trust in something else, something which has no salvation in it. In short, Satan has put himself between man and God wherever and in whatever way he could do so. The business which Jesus Christ set for himself was to break down that wall of separation which man's disobedience has set up between man and his Maker, to bridge the gulf which the deception of Satan had created, and bring man again into harmony and communion with his Creator, his loving and merciful Father. He has succeeded in accomplishing that work for multitudes. The primitive church, the church to which Peter belonged and which was founded upon the Rock, Christ Jesus, believed in and trusted in that divine plan of redemption, and taught that there was no other way. But that church which today claims to be founded upon Peter has found another way and is working out another plan, in spite of the positive declaration of Peter to the contrary. That is a mighty change, a complete transformation, and refutes beyond any question the claim that Rome never changes. We will see how this reconstructed plan of redemption and salvation works, and some of the details of the operation. In Rome's plan of salvation money plays a very important part. The dead languish in the torments of purgatory for long periods of time, and we are not taught that any considerable number of them ever escape from that place of torment except where money is paid to the priests of the church for the saying of masses. This puts the burden of one person's salvation from the fires of purgatory upon some one besides the one who is enduring it; and although purgatory is supposed to be a place of cleansing of the soul of the departed, his purification does not release him if the money is not paid over either by himself before his death or by others after his death. The revelator, in speaking of the judgment of the dead, says: “They were judged every man according to their works,” “out of the things which were written in the books.” Rev. 20: 11-15. The same truth is stated by Inspiration in these words: “Each man shall bear his own burden.” Gal. 6: 5. Again: “Thou renderest to every man according to his work” (Ps. 62: 12), not according to the amount of money which some one has paid to some one else. The work done for man is also an individual work. It is declared of Christ that “by the grace of God he should taste of death for every man.” Heb. 2: 9. And the acceptance of that work of redemption is an individual matter. “Whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3: 16. There is no money consideration in this, no hint that the time of a soul's entrance to the mansions of the blessed is dependent upon how much money has been paid for the saying of masses. The very last invitation given to man in the Word of God is given upon the basis of individual accountability: “The Spirit and the bride say, Come. . . . And he that is athirst, let him come: he that will, let him take the water of life freely.” Rev. 22: 17. Everlasting life is dependent upon belief, and no one can believe for another. The one who is athirst is bidden to come, and no one can thirst for another. It is he that wills that is given the right to “take the water of life freely;” and no one can will, or desire, for another. Every one must believe in Christ for himself voluntarily, accept him for himself voluntarily; and every man will be rewarded according to his individual record as shown by the books of heaven. It is a work of invitation, not of compulsion. Jesus says: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest;” and he said in sorrow, “Ye will not come unto me, that ye may have life.” John 5: 40. No man has been commissioned of Heaven to force men into the fold, or to punish men for refusal to believe in and accept Jesus as their Saviour. That is the basis upon which Jesus introduced his gospel and carried on his work. He took upon himself humanity, that there might be no barrier between humanity and divinity. The two were united in him—an earnest of his completed work when man would be at one with God, and a pledge of that immediate oneness established between God and all who would come unto him through his Son. It is that great work of reconciliation and reunion which the usurper has set himself to overthrow, and he is accomplishing his purpose in multitudes of individuals. He confines his work to no one line of operation; but by no system is he accomplishing greater results than by that system, which, calling itself religious, seeks, by a perversion of religion, to separate the worshiper from the Father and the Son, who united in redemption's gift for man.8The system which has done that disintegrating work is the Papacy. At every point where humanity and divinity should come into harmonious communion, that system drives a wedge of separation. At every turn from cradle to grave there is always some one or something to interpose between man and man's true Mediator. The priest, the bishop, the archbishop, the cardinal, the Pope, and the Virgin Mary all stand between man and the One who purchased man's redemption with his own blood on the cross of Calvary. Jesus Christ taught his followers to 'pray the Father' in his name; but that system puts a host of the dead ('saints') between the supplicant and the Father. Says the Word: 'As I live, saith the Lord, to me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess to God.' Rom. 14: 11. Again: 'Make confession unto Jehovah, the God of your Fathers, and do his pleasure.' Ezra 10: 11. But that system puts a priest between the sinner and the sin-pardoning Saviour, and demands that the confessions be made to the priest. Paul strikes against the very root of this system of apostasy when he says: 'Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshiping of the angels.' Col. 2: 18. Christ said to Satan, 'Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.' Luke 4: 8. But that system puts between the worshiper and the only proper object of worship the saints, the Virgin Mary, and her husband Joseph, thus robbing God of the worship of his creatures, and robbing the creatures of the direct communion with the loving Father. The rosary, used by all Catholics, is composed of one hundred and sixty-six beads, on which are recited one 'creed,' fifteen 'Our Fathers,' and one hundred and fifty 'Hail Marys,' thus giving ten times as much worship to the Virgin Mary as to the almighty God. The Catholic recites the Angelus three times daily, with three 'Hail Marys' in each recitation, thus addressing her in prayer nine times daily. No similar worship of Christ or of the Father is arranged for. It cannot be successfully maintained that the prayers used do not constitute real worship, for the language employed is precisely the same as that in which the worship of the Almighty is expressed. From the “Raccolta” (English Translation Burns and Oates, 1873), “A collection of prayers especially indulgenced by the popes,” I quote:— Hail Queen, Mother of Mercy, our Life, Sweetness, and Hope, all hail. To thee we cry, banished sons of Eve, to thee we sigh, groaning and weeping in this vale of tears. Turn then, O our Advocate, thy merciful eyes to us, and after this, our exile, show us Jesus, the blessed fruit of thy womb, O merciful, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.
Make me worthy to praise thee, O sacred Virgin.
Give me strength against thine enemies.
We fly beneath thy shelter, O holy Mother of God, despise not our petitions in our necessities, and deliver us always from all perils, O glorious and blessed Virgin.
Heart of Mary, Mother of God, . . . in thee let the church find safe shelter; protect it, and be its sweet asylum, its tower of strength. . . . Be thou our help in need, our comfort in trouble, our strength in temptation, our refuge in persecution, our aid in all dangers.
Sweet heart of Mary, be my salvation. Leave me not, my Mother, in my own hands, or I am lost. Let me but cling to thee. Save me, my hope; save me from hell.
There is no intimation in any of this that men are saved from eternal death through the work which Jesus Christ did for man. He who prays to Mary, 'Save me from hell,' is directing his prayer into the grave, where Mary sleeps, instead of up to the throne of God, where Christ, our Advocate, and our only Advocate, pleads the case of those who believe on his name and trust in his power to save. Mary herself owes her salvation to what Jesus Christ did, and not to her own efforts or her own goodness, or to the fact that to her was given the honor of being his mother. It is little less than marvelous that in spite of Peter's own declaration concerning the only way of salvation, there should have grown up around his name this other system which puts Christ as a Saviour in the background, and sets forth Mary as the church's refuge and only hope. There is thus seen to run through the whole system a carefully planned policy to put men out of real contact with Heaven, to cover up the true purpose of the gospel of Jesus, to nullify the plainest teachings of the written Word, and to shut the very gates of heaven to all save the patrons of the priesthood. That system proves itself a continuation on earth of that conspiracy which wrought such fearful ruin in heaven. It creates here the same gulf of separation between man and God that it created in heaven between the angels and God, and thus stamps itself the offspring of the same parent. Take that system as it is today and compare it with the belief of the primitive church, and with the teachings of Peter himself, and we find that it is so much of a change from what the early church was that it is in fact its very antithesis. If the Roman Catholic Church is a continuation of the church to which Peter belonged, there has been a tremendous change. The Huguenot Pastor’s Deliverance
By W. A. S.
IN his “Rise of the Huguenots of France,” Baird says that it was noted as a remarkable circumstance that but two of the Huguenot pastors in Paris perished on the night of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. “It is certain,” he says, “that no lives were more eagerly sought than theirs. But several Protestant pastors had wonderful escape.” Of one experience he says:— In the case of Merlin, chaplain of Admiral Coligny, the divine interposition seemed almost as distinct as that of the prophet Elijah. After reluctantly leaving Coligny, at his earnest request, and clambering over the roof of a neighboring house, he fell through an opening into a garret full of hay. Not daring to show himself, since he knew not whether he would encounter friends or foes, he remained for three days in this retreat, his sole food an egg which a hen laid daily within his reach.—Vol. II, page 477. In a similar way, Brenz, the Reformed pastor, was supplied with food on one occasion while hiding from Catholic persecutors in Germany. On the Home Stretch
By I. H. Evans
We are nearing the close of the present year. Just thirty-one days from this writing and we shall have passed every opportunity for the advancement of the cause of God that 1914 has to offer. It is very encouraging to see how our brethren are working to reach the goal of the Twenty-cent-a-week Fund. Never were a people more loyal and true than Seventh-day Adventists. Presidents of local and union conferences are doing everything they know how to bring into the General Conference treasury the full twenty cents a week per member for mission work. We have still a few days before us. If every church member would undertake to do his full share, if those blessed with means would give in proportion to God's blessings to them and the means that he has placed in their hands, would it not be possible for us to make up the last dollar of the Twenty-cent-a-week Fund before the year closes? Already some union conferences are practically clear; and yet they propose to go right on gathering in funds. The interest our people have taken in the Harvest Ingathering this year is very encouraging. The field has been better organized than ever before. Conference presidents and executive committees have taken a very definite stand in trying to encourage every believer to do his full share. Of course, all have not had equal success. This could not be expected. However, often when results are not large, it is not because of a lack of consecration. Conditions vary in different sections of the country, and what is easy in one place may be very difficult in another. Some interesting reports from our workers have been handed to me by Brother T. E. Bowen. The president of one conference writes:— The churches seem to be taking hold of the work even better than they did a year ago, and yet I feel that they might take hold still better. I know that some churches have run quite a little ahead of what they did last year. Our workers have done something in this work, that is, nearly all of them. I took the papers and started out. I distributed sixteen of them and received $108.50. We have some good reports, which we shall be able to give you a little later. . . . This year our mission funds are going to run far ahead of what they did last year. I feel confident that our conference will raise its share of the Twenty-cent-a-week Fund. We are all working and praying to that end. The secretary-treasurer of another conference writes as follows:— Last Wednesday I sent a telegram informing you that we had reached our quota for the Ingathering. Of course, the balance to our credit helped us, but we have not given up our efforts on that9account, and are still at it. Surely the Lord is greatly blessing his people. . . . One brother and his wife, elderly people, of our — church, have turned in over $57 so far, and are out for more. Another president of a conference reports:— I am much interested in what you have been writing concerning the Ingathering work. Our conference has been doing something, and we are encouraging the continuance of the good work. About $135 has been reported by twenty-five persons. We have not had very many reports aside from these. Elder — and I were out yesterday, and I received $3.50 from three hours' work. We are going out again today, and I believe that almost any one can get his quota if he will just get at it and stick to it, determined to do something for the Lord. The president of still another conference says:— It is encouraging to see the interest that is being taken by our people in the various sections of the country in this good work. We are thankful indeed for the efforts being put forth in our own conference. All our workers are taking hold of this campaign with enthusiasm, as are also our churches, and we are now receiving returns day by day. . . . I am glad to report to you, however, that, as a conference, we have made our goal thus far on the Twenty-cent-a-week Fund, and had $930 above the mark the first of November. Still the dollars come rolling in, and we are sure of making our full quota, if not running over, by the first of the year. The president of a conference in the cotton belt gives a splendid experience, and yet the receipts reported are not great. But the spirit and the perseverance of the brethren are really what counts in the end. He writes:— It has been rather hard to get our people to work this fall, for the financial situation in the cotton belt is very depressing. Business has been almost at a standstill. . . . I have been working some myself, and I find the work harder this year that I ever found it. My first effort this year was a part of two days. My plan was not to scatter the papers indiscriminately, but to get an offering with almost every paper put out. I used nine papers and received $4.25 donations. . . . I went to a town of about 2,000, twenty-two miles from my home. I began work before 8 A. M., and by 11:15 I had worked the business district and received only sixty-five cents. I saw that I could not ask our people to leave their homes to do such work as that, so thought I would better try some other plan. I started with the residences, but soon decided that if I had any success I must sell the paper outright. Desiring to test the thing out so that I might give counsel, I started in to sell the papers at ten cents a copy. Before noon I sold two copies. At two o'clock I went out again. By three o'clock, I had sold six copies. The next hour I sold three. The next half hour I sold two, making $1.10 in two and one-half hours. My total receipts on this last trip, covering two days (I went by buggy), were $2.50. I think this report is very encouraging from many standpoints. It shows how the president of a strong conference has labored in a cotton belt, where commerce is almost at a standstill, and how he persevered in trying to do his full duty. Surely the blessing of God will follow such persevering efforts. We trust that the remaining days of the year will be improved by all, and that the blessing of God will be with us in still gathering funds for the prosecution of his work. The outlook is encouraging, and we believe that the entire field will make a supreme effort to bring in the full twenty cents a week before the close of 1914. To this end let us all unite in daily prayer, asking God to let his blessing rest upon his people and make it possible for them to reach the goal. I. H. EVANS. News From the Seat of War
By L. R. CONRADI
While the daily newspapers are read with the greatest interest because of the news which each day brings from this terrible war which affects the whole world, God’s people have a still deeper interest in the question of how this war may affect the cause of God itself. The last few days have brought us some very encouraging news from our workers in the different parts of the field, who have personally been at or near the battle field. They have also brought us the sad news from those who suffer more or less from the ravages of the war. But with them all, amid the terrible thunder of the guns and the dreadful slaughter of contending arms, joyful news has reached our ears of souls brought to the knowledge of God’s truth. Elder H. F. Schuberth has lately been put in the East German Union, visiting his different conferences, and has visited East Prussia to the Russian border. He sends us the good report that during the third quarter not less than 264 believers were added in his union. Of these, 28 were in East Prussia and 4 in eastern Galicia. In spite of the war, over $18,000 tithe and $3,000 offerings has come in from the 6,975 members of that union. In East Prussia, Elder Schuberth had to visit some places with a boat, some on foot or with team, and some he could not reach at all. A good sister from that field gives us the following experience: On August 24, the first Cossacks came into their little town, destroyed the railway, and threatened the inhabitants; but nobody was hurt. A few days later this sister, with two other families, fled by team. She had six children with her; her seventh son had been carried away by the Cossacks. But the Russians overtook them, and they had to return to their old home. They met thousands of Russian soldiers on the road. Later a battle was fought in their neighborhood; they had to give up all their provisions. The men had to hide themselves, only the poor people remaining in the place. On the tenth of September, the Russians had to leave. Many of the villages and farms were set on fire, but in the midst of the battle, our sister and those with her sought God, and he kept them and protected them, though they lost most of their belongings. Elder Oblaender, the president of the West German Union, recently visited Belgium. He had great difficulty in securing the necessary permission, but found our people, on the whole, of good courage. At Brussels he found Brother Klingbeil at home, and had a meeting with our people and the workers there. Brother Klingbeil had been to Antwerp, where he found our people of good courage. Thus far they have not suffered any loss of their property. They cannot conduct any public efforts, but they have their regular Sabbath meetings. About $250 tithe has come in during the last quarter, and Brother Oblaender provided our workers there with the necessary means. Hundreds of people stand about in the streets, talking politics, but they do but little. The Belgian police in Brussels still maintain order. Last quarter that union conference had 204 additions, but as some conferences lost, the net gain is small. The tithe was about $18,000 and the offerings about $4,500. In the Central European Union, God has also signally blessed the work. Over 160 believers were received during the third quarter. Of these, 64 were in Austria, 32 in German Switzerland, and 70 in southern Germany. The president of the South German Conference has lately spent eight days in Alsace. He had two good meetings in Kolmar, and four in Mulhausen. This city was twice under French control, once for two days, the other time for ten days. For hours the city was shelled, and most of our people spent their time in the cellars. The worst time they had was when there was no government at all, and the mob ruled the situation. In Metz, where we had a church of 21 members, all had to leave on account of martial law. All our people in this field are of good courage, and they have been benefited by this experience. When the brother told them how our people prayed for them everywhere, many of our dear people wept. This brother reports that in his conference about 60 of his members have been enrolled in the army. In the Danube Union the Lord has also been blessing his work, and above all in Roumania. Last quarter 79 new members were added there, bringing the membership in Roumania up to 594; in the whole union 172 were added. Several of the directors of the mission fields and a number of the workers have been called to military service, and yet God’s work is advancing. We have already10more than 200 members in Bukharest alone. From Brother Boettcher we learn that in spite of all the troubles in his field, where traveling is very difficult, he was able to receive 25 new members into the church. One of their Russian-German brethren, who was made a prisoner of war, is now in a military camp, with about ten thousand other men. He seems to be the right-hand man of the German officer in charge of the camp, and has excellent opportunity to circulate the truth. We have sent him literature in several languages, and we hope and pray that thousands may thus learn of the present truth who otherwise could not receive it. Thus, as Daniel, when a captive, let his light shine in dark Babylon, so some of our brethren can be light bearers in captivity. We have also some good news, as well as bad, from our mission fields. One of our workers from Bulgaria, who works near the Dardanelles, called at our office recently, and told us of the good work in that field. Four have been baptized in Bulgaria. This brother has been freed from the military service, and is now returning to his field with new courage, trying to hold up the standard of truth. Brother Staubert, who just before the outbreak of the war had gone into the interior of Persia, to Kasbin, to look up a new location, had for some reason to return by a rather circuitous route. He came via Bagdad to Constantinople, and on this long trip caught the malaria. He is called to military service. This leaves his wife alone at Tabriz, Persia, and we hope and pray that she may be preserved and be able to join Brother and Sister Oster at Maragha. From the British Victoria Nyanza field, East Africa, we learn that the Germans have invaded that field, and have had possession of part of it for some time. It is likely that our mission station at Kisi, which was just being erected, has been damaged, probably Karunga station also. Gendia station is being used as a hospital. Our workers had to leave their stations and gather at their headquarters. This certainly will be quite a blow to our work, and will delay its development. But all these lessons, if rightly learned, will only bring our workers nearer to God, while they bend all their energies to the work of soul saving. From Abyssinia, we hear the good news that on September 10 two young men were baptized there. At present we print 140,000 copies each fortnight of the Herold der Wahrheit, and are printing 500,000 of the extra number, also 30,000 of our mission paper Der Adventbote. We learn that our sanitariums are improving their patronage slowly. One doctor and his wife are hard at work in a hospital here, where they have, besides 30 to 40 regular patients, over 100 wounded. Our Swedish school at Nyhyttan has opened with 50 students. At Friedensau a second teacher and several of the students had to enter service; still about 120 remain. We surely appreciate the many prayers which ascend to God in our behalf in all parts of the wide harvest field, and we know that God is answering them from the very fact that in spite of this terrible war, his cause advances triumphantly. The Destiny of the Wicked
By G. B. Thompson
WHAT is the destiny of the finally impenitent? This question is worthy of careful and candid study. Thoughtful men have asked throughout the centuries, “What is this mysterious doom of death which overshadows all?” Man scarcely arrives at his maturity before his strength wanes, and he is compelled to submit to the inexorable power of death. With millions of others of his fellow creatures, he lies down in the dust, and the portals of the tomb close about him. All who live are but a handful to those who sleep. Unaided by divine revelation, man stands dumb before the question of what lies in the future. From beyond the curtain which divides the present from the future, through the millenniums of sin since Adam lost Eden, none have ever returned with tidings of what lies hidden there. Our question concerns the unnumbered host of the lost. Through all the centuries since the fall of man, millions have spurned the offers of mercy, refused life, rejected its Author, and died in their sins. What doom awaits all these? What will it mean to be lost? What will be the end of sin and sinners? Will sin be destroyed? or will the curse forever remain? Will the sinner exist eternally, or finally be destroyed? These queries have to do with the eternal destiny of the greater part of the human family, for “broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat,” while the way to eternal life is said to be “narrow,” and “few there be that find it.” Matt. 7: 13, 14. Before each of us is a destiny; we cannot escape it; we must meet it. Eternity stretches before us. Righteousness has its reward; so has sin. What awaits the lost in the great beyond? This interesting and stupendous question cannot be solved by human speculation. Groping in the uncertain twilight of scientific conjecture, men have reached some very strange and erroneous conclusions. During all the centuries some have arisen to tell us that there is no future life beyond the tomb; that death is an eternal sleep. Others have taught that sin has its own punishment in this life, and in the future all will be saved; that the Scriptures promise universal salvation; that all men, whether believing or unbelieving, will finally enjoy the felicity of endless happiness. The modern orthodox belief, based on the unscriptural assumption that man possesses inherent immortality, teaches that the wicked will never die; that through endless ages they will live and be tortured in the perpetual fire of God’s vengeance, preserved by his power to suffer unspeakable misery in the avenging flames of his indignation. The horrors of this orthodox belief have been expressed by the poet in the following language: — “Infinite years in torment shall I spend,
And never, never, never have an end.
Ah! Must I live in torturing despair
As many years as atoms in the air?
When these are past, as many millions more
As grains of sand that bound the ebbing shore?
When these run out, as many more behind
As leaf of forest shaken by the wind?
When these are spent, as many more to flow
As blades of grass on hills and dales that grow?
When these run out, as many on the march
As starry lamps that gild the spangled arch?
When these are gone, as many millions more
As every moment in the age before?
When all these doleful years are spent in pain,
And multiplied by myriads yet again,
I must in that fierce gulf in misery lie,
And madly writhe in all eternity.”
A year for every mote that dances in the sunbeam, a year for every grain of sand, a year for every leaf of the forest and for every blade of grass, a year for every star in the firmament, a year for every tick of the watch since time began its flight, then this infinite multiplicand multiplied by a myriad! Then when all these years of torture are past, an eternity of unspeakable suffering still stretches before lost souls in which to curse and blaspheme God! Talk about a gloomy doctrine! Behold it here! While the quotation above is only poetry, these words of the poet are true provided man by nature has an immortal, indestructible soul, and the lost are conscious in death, and enter on their reward in the lake of fire when this life ends. Such teaching clothes the God of love and tender compassion with the most awful attributes, and distorts and misrepresents the teaching of his Word.
G. B. Thompson.
(To be continued) “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold.” Psalm of Victory
By H. MAYER
SING, all ye saints, and shout aloud in gladness.
Down this drear world let mighty echoes ring.
Let not a single note of doubt or sadness
Herald the coming of the King. O, waiting ones, put on your rich apparel;
The wedding robe the Master did prepare;
And fill your lamps with oil from off the altar,
And go with joy to greet the Lord and Heir. He comes to take his own blood-bought possession.
The earth is cleft beneath his conquering tread;
And at his call the dead rise up to greet him,
And place the crown of victory on his head. Be not thou downcast, O my soul, disquiet!
Let not thy tongue just now refuse to sing;
But “wash thee,” and put on the linen raiment
Provided for the marriage by the King. Interesting Items From the European Bible Headquarters
By T. E. BOWEN
THE war has not put the British and Foreign Bible Society out of business, but, on the contrary, has increased the Bible output by multiplying opportunities for the society to do a greater work. “To cynical persons,” the society says in its November journal, “it may appear a very futile business to scatter the gospel of peace broadcast in the furrows of the battle field. Nevertheless, faithful Christians know that love, and love alone, is omnipotent and shall win the final victory.” The following instance is then cited in proof of how eventually the word of God will win:— “One of the society’s colporteurs in Morocco has described how he once found himself at Azimoor, where the people were in an excited and warlike state, as their neighbors of the Dukalla tribe had begun to raid them. So the common talk at Azimoor was all about fighting. Some said to him, ‘Bring us kortass [cartridges], and we will buy them; what do we want with kutoob [books]?’ He replied, ‘No, buy my kutoob and believe their message; then you will say, “Bring us more kutoob: what do we want with kortass?”’ Yes; the Book will conquer the cartridge at last. We shall overcome evil with good, if we have faith to oppose it with sheer and simple goodness, and with nothing else at all.” During the Belgium siege good experiences came to the Bible society worker there. From a report from this colporteur, the society says:— “Our veteran Belgian colporteur, J. C. Van Belleghem, has been residing at Antwerp with his wife and four children during the whole of September. Following out the instructions of our committee, he has distributed no fewer than 2,000 copies of the Scriptures—Gospels, Testaments, and occasionally Bibles—among the Belgian soldiers who are quartered in and around Antwerp.” Van Belleghem records a few instances of how these gifts have been welcomed. At Beveran Waes, where he had been reading and talking to artillerymen in the barracks, one of their officers said, “Tell the Bible society that we thank it with all our hearts for so kindly thinking of us in such a way at this time of difficulty.” Soldiers belonging to the transport corps said, “Ah, now we shall be able to read; for we are tired, and it is the gospel that you are giving us.” A Belgian artilleryman took up a Gospel and said, “I know your work, for by its means and as the result of a Gospel which I one day purchased, my life has been transformed, and I have attached myself to Jesus Christ and his service.” The bombardment of the cathedral at Rheims brings up incidents connected with the Catholic Bible—the “Douay Version,” as it is sometimes called:— “The bombardment of Rheims recalls to our memories not only the heroic figure of Joan of Arc, but also the celebrated Rheims version of the New Testament in English. Early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth an English priest named William Allen—afterwards Cardinal Allen—established an English Roman Catholic college in connection with the newly founded University of Douai. The college was temporarily removed from Douai to Rheims in 1578, and continued there until 1593. It was during this period of residence at Rheims that an English version of the New Testament was prepared and published. The chief translator was Gregory Martin, sometime Fellow of St. John’s College, Oxford, working under the supervision of William Allen. The book was printed in 1582, under the shadow of Rheims’s cathedral. When the Old Testament in this version was subsequently published, in 1609-10, the college had returned to Douai. This accounts for the fact that the completed translation of this English Bible for Roman Catholics came to be known as the Douai [now spelled Douay]—or more correctly, the Rheims-Douai—Version.”