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Signs of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 51.

THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT

Signs of the Times

Dec 18, 1901

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 18, 1901

THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT.

By E. J. Hibbard

REMEMBER the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Having seen, from a brief consideration of the three preceding commands, that they are simply the fruitage of the Spirit-filled life; and that such a life is found only in Jesus Christ, we know that the keeping of them is only a natural result of the reception of the Gospel. But here we have a command which some of the professed followers of the Master exclude from a place in their Christianity. Has it a place, in fact, in the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
In order correctly to answer this, we will need to refresh our minds in reference to some of the first principles of this Gospel. In the first three verses of Romans 1, it is made plain that the Gospel all centers in Christ. All Christians believe that. And no text in the Bible contains the whole object of the gift of Christ in fewer words than John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” And that this everlasting life is not a gift reserved for the future is clearly seen; for “he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” And again: “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
Now in order to give men this life; or rather, in order that men may receive the life, what must be done for them? You say it is promised to every one that believeth. That is true. Now for the effect produced on the believer: “These words spake Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee; as Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.”
What is that? Are only believers in Christ possessors of eternal life? and are such the only ones who know God? If God be true, this is the exact status of the case. “O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee; but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent Me.” “When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful. . . .” “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” “The world by [its] wisdom knew not God.”
The whole work of redemption, then, can do no more than to acquaint man with God. “Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace.” “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God.”
This same story is told in another way in Hebrews, chapter eight: “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people. And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest.” Why do they not need to be taught, saying, “Know the Lord?”—Because they already know Him. But who are the ones that know Him?—They in whose minds and hearts the law is written. This is the new covenant.
View it from another standpoint: “The anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you.” Only such as have the law written in mind and heart, knowGod; and only they who know God have no need of being taught, saying, “Know the Lord;” and yet they who are anointed “need not that any man teach” them. Truly, then, the anointed ones must be the very same that know the Lord. In fact, the anointing, namely, the gift of the Holy Ghost, is the very thing which writes the holy law upon the tablets of our hearts, and therefore brings to us the knowledge of God, by bringing into our lives the life, the character, of God Himself. “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” “Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous.” Once more: “The fruit of the Spirit is love. . . . Against such there is no law.”
Now the Spirit-filled man needs not that any man teach him; the commandment-filled man needs not that any man teach him; the new-covenant man needs not that any man teach him;—saying, “Know the Lord.” And why?—Because this man knows the Lord. Now what place has the Sabbath of the Lord our God in this Gospel matter? Let Jehovah speak:— “Hallow My Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.” Now, all that Jesus Christ is to men; all that the Gospel is to us; all that the new covenant brings; all there is for us in the Holy Ghost; is that we may know the Lord our God. And the sign that we may know Him is that we “hallow” God’s Sabbaths. Is not the Sabbath, therefore, the sign of all there is in the Gospel for man?
All who have received Christ, know the Lord. The Sabbath, to those who hallow it, is a sign that they know the Lord. Is it not, therefore, the sign that they have received Christ? The work of the new covenant is, that we may know the Lord. Is not the hallowing of God’s holy Sabbath, therefore, the sign that the one so doing has already received the new covenant? But only those who have received the Holy Ghost are acquainted with the Lord. Is not the hallowing of the Sabbath, then, the sign that they have received the Holy Ghost? But none of this is received except “by faith.” Is not the Holy Sabbath, then, the sign of justification by faith?
“We which have believed do enter into rest.” “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His.” What are our works?—The works of the flesh. When is it possible for one to discontinue the works of the flesh?—“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” But who can walk in the Spirit?—“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” Such as live and walk in the Spirit, have ceased to follow the flesh, and have therefore “ceased from their own works, as God did from His.” “For we which have believed do enter into rest, as He said, As I have sworn in My wrath, if they shall [or, they, the unbelieving ones, shall not, Heb. 3:18,] enter into My rest; altho the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all His works.” To be sure, God’s works were righteous, and our works are unrighteous; but we who have entered into His rest, have ceased from our unrighteous works, as God, in creating, ceased from all His righteous works. But how do we know that God ceased from all His works?—From the fact, says the apostle, that He rested on the seventh day from all His works. He could not have rested from all, had not all been finished.
Now are we not in good company? We have ceased all our own works, namely, the works of the flesh; and this we have been enabled to do because we are led of the Spirit. We are led of the Spirit, because we live in the Spirit. But having ceased our own works, we have entered into His rest. This is, of course, rest from sin. We are now through with sin, as God, when He entered into rest, was through with creation. God memorializes His finished work by setting apart each seventh day. We memorialize that, and also our redemption, when we cease from ordinary labor on that same day, and keep it holy. But O, what does it mean?—It is a sign that I have ceased living for myself on all the days. “He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again.”
Are the thousands who profess His name, and who are at the same time in the mad rush for wealth and worldly honor—are these living only unto Him who died for them, and rose again? Have such ceased from their own works, as God did from His? Only those who have ceased living unto themselves can follow the Spirit.
“Moreover also I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.” Then the Sabbath is a sign that we are sanctified. But only those are sanctified who are set apart wholly unto the Lord. “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth.” Says Christ, “I am the way, the truth.” And so we see, the Sabbath of the Lord our God, to those who “keep it holy,” is a sign that the work of redemption has already been wrought in them.
The world knows not the Lord. What business, then, have they in attempting to keep that which is a sign that they do know the Lord? Thank God they do not attempt it. The world has another day than the Sabbath of Jehovah. They make no pretense of hallowing the Sabbath of the Lord our God. If it were the same that God, our Father, has set apart to be a sign of all that He has ever been, of all that He is, and of all He can ever be to us who have received Him, how sad it would be to have those who profess His name engage in the work of compelling all who know Him not, to signify, outwardly, that they know Him. It can not be that such “professors” have themselves a true knowledge of God.
Is not our God the same throughout all the ages? Is it not the same to know Him at one time as at another? Then how appropriate the memorial, which, in every age, stands a living witness to the fact that all who keep it holy are persons who know the Lord. And these are the redeemed of earth. E. J. HIBBARD.

THE CAUSE AND THE CURE.

By Burt Fullmer

THE author, Mr. Gamble, of one of the latest books on the Sunday question, in seeking to account for Sunday desecration, names two principal causes. The first he presents in the form of a tirade against the Seventh-day Adventist Church, whom he charges with being leaders in robbing men of a day of rest. The second cause I shall quote:—
Nor is this all. Multitudes of church-members help to rob the laboring men of their Sabbath. To illustrate: I go to the barbers in some large town and solicit their attendance upon a revival meeting, or solicit them to attend the regular preaching services. . . . I say,—
“We are directed to preach the Gospel to every creature. I recognize that ‘you are a creature. I recognize that you are an intelligent, well-raised, influential man; that you are a very successful man. I’d like very much to have ‘you attend my church, that I may have a chance to preach to you.’”
“To ME? Why, reverend sir, there are enough members belonging to ‘your church who, if I should close up my shop and go to church on the Sabbath, would withhold their patronage from me, to drive me into bankruptcy. ‘It is not possible for me to come to church.’”
This author’s first reason is simply an effort to arouse bitterness and prejudice against those who differ with him. The second, tho not so intended, is an admission of a condition of his own members, over which he, as their representative, may well ponder.
He also suggests two remedies, the first of which is:—
Therefore the one great need of the American laboring man is to have a rest-day guaranteed to him by national law.
Truly a remarkable remedy for a Methodist minister to suggest! A national law to prevent the members of his own church from compelling poor sinners to stay away from hearing the Gospel! His second remedy I also quote:—
I turn now and whisper a word of advice to my members who get shaved before going to church on Sabbath morning. Now that you are to blame for preventing that barber from attending church, and through the church services of becoming a Christian, . . . the first requisite you must have as a means of leading a man to Christ is to be able to live in such a way as to convince him that you are really what you profess to be.
Who does not see that in his second reason and remedy we find the key to his difficulty? The cause is not the work of a sect only the 1-698th part (his figures) as large as the combined Sunday-keeping churches, so much as the weakness of a doctrine that fails to command the respect of even its professed believers.
Neither is the remedy found in national laws; but in the power which, once felt and known, will never be cast aside for the arm of flesh. If Sunday-keeping is right, let its advocates unsheathe its sword—“the Word of God”—and command the respect of all. Let this minister cease to “whisper advice” to his members, while thundering at state-house doors for compelling laws. Let him first train his own members to show “the first requisite,” and not try to raise up a false issue to shield their inconsistencies behind false charges concerning others.
BURT FULLMER.
Iowa City, Ia.

LIVING FOR CHRIST.

By Ellen G. White

There is no part of the being of which Christ is not to be all and in all. He is our life. Personal contact with Him builds the soul up, supplying its ever-recurring needs. He is our sufficiency. The one in whose heart Christ abides is conscious of constant spiritual joy. Our Redeemer is made unto us “wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.”
God is the owner of all that man has, the owner of the riches which the selfish appropriate to their own use. With one motion of His hand He could sweep away everything they possess. Then for real power we must look beyond the honored and wealthy men of the world. Those whose minds reach heavenward find the first cause of all greatness, all honor, all majesty. In comparison with Him, human beings are but the small dust of the balance.
God created man with affections capable of embracing eternal realities. These affections were to be kept pure and holy, free from all earthliness. But human beings have lost eternity out of their reckoning. God, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the One who holds in His keeping the destiny of every soul, is forgotten. Supposing themselves to be mighty in knowledge, men have let themselves down to the lowest level in God's sight.
The mind of man has become earthly. In the place of revealing the impress of divinity, it reveals the impress of humanity. In its chambers are seen the imagery of earth. The debasing practices which prevailed in the days of Noah, placing the inhabitants of that age beyond hope of salvation, are seen to-day.
In vivid language the prophet has described the condition of the world: “Our transgressions are multiplied before Thee, and our sins ‘testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our ‘iniquities, we know them; in transgressing and lying against the ‘Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and ‘revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. ‘And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off; ‘for truth is fallen in the street, and equity can not enter. Yea, truth ‘faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey; and ‘the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment.”
But human beings have not been left to live in hopelessness and despair. “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten ‘Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have ‘everlasting life.” “He saw that there was no man, and wondered ‘that there was no intercessor; therefore His arm brought salvation ‘unto Him, and His righteousness, it sustained Him. For He put on ‘righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon His ‘head; and He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was ‘clad with zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, accordingly He ‘will repay, fury to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; to the ‘islands He will repay recompense. So shall they fear the name of the ‘Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun. When ‘the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up ‘a standard against him. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and ‘unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord.”
These promises will be fulfilled when Christians take the position which God wishes them to fill. It is His desire that they shall demonstrate to the world that human beings can live pure, upright lives. That He might “purify unto Himself a peculiar people,” Christ left the royal courts and clothed His divinity with humanity. He lived out in the world the principles of God's law, showing that His grace has power to redeem men and women and raise them to a plane of moral integrity. Amid the awful confederacy of evil now existing in the world, Christians are to stand firmly and bravely for the Redeemer, protesting by blameless lives against the prevailing apostasy.
Christians are to walk humbly with God; for He is their strength. They are to strive for the mastery over self, remembering that their present and future happiness depends on the ascendancy which the spiritual gains over the temporal in the life. They are to cultivate the patience and forbearance of Christ, keeping the thoughts under the softening influence of the Holy Spirit. They are to make a solemn covenant with God that they will govern their words. “If any man ‘offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle ‘the whole body.”
Christians are to esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of this earth. Coming to the busy world, filled with clamor and confusion, Christ sought to break the spell of earthliness resting on human beings. “What shall it profit a man,” He cried, “if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” He brought to the notice of men the nobler world, which they had lost from sight. He showed them the threshold of eternity, flooded with the glory of God.
Before the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the professing Christian pledges himself to overcome pride, covetousness, unbelief. And as he seeks to fulfil this pledge, he grows in self-distrust, placing entire dependence on God. He realizes what it means to be a child of God. He knows that the cleansing blood of Christ secures for him pardon and peace. In spirituality he grows like the lofty cedar. Daily he holds communion with God, and he is mighty in the knowledge of the Scriptures. His fellowship is with the Father and the Son, and he learns more and still more of the divine will. Filled with a constantly increasing love for God and his fellow-men, he bears a powerful testimony for the Master. MRS. E. G. WHITE.

WHY HE CAME.

By Geo. W. Rine

NINETEEN hundred years ago, Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, came into the world, was made flesh, went about doing good, tasted death for every man, rose from the dead, and ascended up on high. This, after all, is immeasurably the most momentous fact of history.
Jesus, the Lily of the Valley, the Bright and Morning Star; Jesus, in whom were hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, in whom reposed all power in heaven and in earth; Jesus, the express image of the eternal Father and the brightness of His glory; Jesus, whom all the angels of God delighted to worship—this same Jesus came and paid the wages of my sin, of your sin, and the wages was death. He wore a crown of thorns that you and I might wear a crown of glory, a crown of endless life. He bore the cross that you and I might bear palms of victory—victory over death and hell. He was wounded, bruised, pierced, so that you and I might rejoice and make melody upon the harps of God in mansions of fadeless glory. Yea, He bore the curse upon the tree in order that He might say to you and me, “Come, ye ‘blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the ‘foundation of the world.”
It is the old, old story; yet ever the newest, the freshest, the sweetest, the truest. There are other stories that warm the blood, that stir the heart; but their effect is momentary, fleeting. They may amuse, instruct, beguile, but they can not satisfy. But the story of the cross meets and satisfies all the needs, all the aspirations, all the cravings of the human heart. In Him we are complete; for He is our everlasting portion, and in giving Him the Father has freely given us all things.
Yes, worthy is the Lamb that was slain; for He laid down His life that we might be saved from laying down our lives. He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us. By the sacrifice of Himself He put away sin—my sin, your sin. By His blood He washed away our sins. Jesus is the Lamb of God, God’s sacrifice, God’s propitiation for sin. He is the one and only Sin-destroyer; for, tho holy, harmless, sinless, He paid the penalty of a malefactor, He received the wages of a sinner—He died upon the tree. He came to redeem the lost, not with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with His precious blood. It is as the eternal antidote to sin, as the sinner’s justification, the sinner’s righteousness, as the power of God to save from sin, that our Lord came into the world nineteen centuries ago.
He alone could come on that awful mission; for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we can be saved. Of the people, aye, of the angels, there was none to help; He trod the wine-press alone. And when in the awful throes of the death-agony upon the cross, even the Father’s face must be shut away until the expiring Lamb could say, “It is finished.” There He paid it all, all the debt I owed; and that debt, if unpaid, were endless death to me. O blessed Lamb! Thou didst not only pay that awful debt, but in paying that Thou didst purchase for me—yes, for all the world—endless life in glory. Thou art not only our atoning sacrifice, but our wisdom, our joy, our life—our all and in all. Thou Son of the living God, we cast ourselves at Thy feet to anoint them with our hearts’ holiest affections. We would enshrine Thee in the sacred precincts of our inmost souls. We would magnify Thee in our every-day lives, in the presence of all the children of men. With Thy devoted servant of old we would pray, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord ‘Jesus Christ.”
One of the most blessed and comforting truths connected with our redemption is the fact that the very same One who came and bore the cross for us, is also our Creator. Having made us, He knows each one of us perfectly, just as a watchmaker knows every wheel and pivot in the watch he made. Hence the blessed assurance that “He knowethour frame; He remembereth that we are dust.” Is it not more than half the battle in school government for the teacher to understand thoroughly the distinctive traits and temperament of each pupil? Even so every one of us who has entered the school of Christ has placed Himself under the guardianship and training of a Master who knows perfectly every crotchet, every besetment, every sinful passion, of every single member of His school. This is why He is such a kind, loving, considerate Master. This is why we can yield ourselves to Him with the glad, free abandon of utter trust, with that everlasting quietness and assurance, which the prophet so beautifully sets forth as the effect of righteousness. Isa. 32:17.
Truly our heavenly Father has laid help (for us) upon one who is mighty to save, aye, to save to the uttermost. And this is why He came through the manger, and passed through Gethsemane to the tree on Calvary—to save sinners. “This same Jesus” shall “come again,”—come not to save sinners, but to save saints. He will come again, not to eat with publicans and sinners, but to gather His elect from the four winds and to receive them unto Himself in His Father’s house, that they may sit down with Him there at the Lamb’s supper of life.
GEO. W. RINE.

THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.

JESUS says: “I am the light of the world; he that followeth Me ‘shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” John 8:12. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, the world was full of philosophy and science falsely so-called.

The Grecian and Roman Philosophers.

Pythagoras, the first man who called himself a philosopher, and gave currency to that name, flourished about 500 years B.C. He spent twenty-five years in Egypt in quest of knowledge among the priests of that country. Then, in Croton, Italy, he opened a school which was well attended by Grecian and Roman youth. He taught his pupils to practise all the austerities of the Egyptian priests, to put all their property in one common stock and so have all things in common; he first called the earth “kosmos,” from its order and beauty; he became famous for his skill in geometry, astronomy, and arithmetic. In theology he taught—
that all mankind lived in some pre-existent state, and that for the sins committed by them in that state; some of their souls were sent into human bodies, and others into brutes, to be punished for and purged from their former sins. In order thus to purge themselves in this life, his disciples were to practise long fastings subdue their appetites, and subordinate all desires to the soul.
Such was Pythagorean philosophy; in it we see the seed of penance and self-mortification of the Catholic Church.
Socrates flourished 400 years B.C. He left nothing in writing behind him. He is said to have taught—
that the soul is immortal because immaterial; that there is but one supreme God: that there are demons that superintend the affairs of this world; that men ought not to pursue riches nor worldly honor, but to cultivate their minds and practise virtue.
Plato, a pupil of Socrates, flourished 348 years B.C. He modified the principles of Socrates. He taught—
that the universe was governed by a Being of glorious power and wisdom, possessed of perfect liberty and independence; that there was a certain invincible malignity and corruption in matter insuperable by the power of God; that the human soul is an emanation from God, so necessarily immortal, that evil must necessarily exist from the union of matter and mind in the human being: that demons were an order of beings inferior to the Deity, but superior to men, and that they governed the world, consequently, that they should be worshiped because of their agency in human affairs; that it is neither easy to find the Parent of the universe, nor safe to discover him to the vulgar when found; consequently, in matters of worship his disciples should conform to the laws of their country.
Such was the Platonic philosophy, many principles of which are popular at the present day. Aristotle, a disciple of Plato, flourished 332 years B.C. He taught—
that matter was eternal; that the world, by powers natural to matter has continued from all eternity as we see it; that there exists nothing in the universe distinct from matter: that the present course of things, consisting of the motions of the heavens, and the successive generations and corruptions of animals and vegetables, can neither be interrupted nor destroyed by anything extraneous, but must continue forever. As for the Deity if there were any, it is a nature happy in the contemplation of itself and entirely regardless of human affairs.
Epicurus, the founder of the Epicurean philosophy, flourished 370 years B.C. He taught—
that the world arose from chance; that the gods neither did nor could extend their providential care to human affairs; that the soul was mortal, that pleasure was to be regarded as the ultimate end of man, and that virtue was worthy, neither of esteem nor choice, but with a view to the attainment of pleasure.
Zeno, the founder of the Stoics, flourished 264 years B.C.
The God of the Stoics was a corporeal being, united to matter by a necessary connection, and subject to the determination of an immutable fate. They taught that the soul’s existence was confined to a certain period of time. They looked with contempt upon effeminate vices; simplicity and moderation were carried to the extreme of austerity, and external good and evil were viewed with haughty contempt.
The Cynic philosophy was first taught by Antisthenes, 356 B.C. It was similar in moral discipline to that of the Stoics.
The Academics, who, with the Epicureans, were the most numerous of the Grecian philosophers at the Christian era, despaired of finding truth in such a variety of opinions. They, therefore, taught—
that it was uncertain whether the gods existed or not; whether the soul was mortal or immortal, whether virtue was preferable to vice or vice to virtue.
The Eclectics supposed that many things were unreasonable and absurd in all the systems of philosophy, and therefore formed a new system comprising the most reasonable tenets and doctrines of all sects. The Eclectic philosophy was taught with great success in Alexandria in Egypt when Jesus Christ was born. The Eclectics held Plato in the highest esteem, yet they did not scruple to join with his doctrines whatever they thought conformable to reason in the tenets and opinions of other philosophers.

Oriental Philosophy.

While the Grecians and Romans were much divided about the first principles of science, all philosophers of the Oriental nations deduced their tenets from one fundamental principle. Their “science” supposed—
that the origin of evil, with which the universe abounds, was to be found, not in God—whom they viewed as essentially good and benevolent—but as there was nothing beyond or without the Deity but matter; therefore: matter is the source of all evil, of all vice; that matter was eternal and derived its present form, not from the will of the supreme God, but from the creating power of some inferior intelligence, to whom the world and its inhabitants owed their existence.
(To be continued.)

MAN'S RELATION TO GOD.

By Wm. Covert

I WILL say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back; bring My sons from far, and My daughters from the ends of the earth, even every one that is called by My name; for I have created them for My glory.” Isa. 43:6, 7.
The faculties of man were intended to serve as mediums through which the divine glory could manifest itself. His mental nature was designed to be a channel through which the divine Mind could communicate its wisdom and manifest its love. The electric lamp hanging over the street is put in position to serve as a medium of light. Yet it is only the dispensing agent where the glory of the electric plant delivers some particles of its brightness to drive away the darkness.
So the faculties of man in touch with the power of God reflect the light of God. Man’s mind receives thoughts from the Lord, and dispenses them to those who are taught. Through man’s services the Lord bestows the bounties of heaven upon His creatures. God’s love is constantly seeking ways by which it can lavish its bounties upon whatever is prepared to receive them.
Love desires to be utilized, and so it searches for companionship among the sons and daughters of Adam. The conduct of the Infinite One in this respect finds its counterpart in the charities of Christian philanthropists. These take the poor and needy into their homes to teach them lessons of love and trust. God does the same with all whom He calls to dwell with Him. “God also is faithful, by whom ye ‘were called unto the fellowship of His Son.”
The above Scriptural statement is illustrated in the story of a Christian evangelist. Speaking of that which had taken place in his own home, he said there was a poor, untaught, and homeless boy, living in sin, called to abide as a member of his family. The boy was expected to associate with a natural-born son in the home. Being called to this sonship, the boy was required to cast off his soiled garments, and being washed, to put on clothes new and clean. This done, he was invited to the table to eat—neither as a beggar nor a stranger, but as a son in his father’s house.
Tho the benefactor was doing well the part of a father, it was difficult for the boy to feel that he was a son. He hesitated in receiving kindnesses, and thought he should constantly refer to what his condition had previously been. He would apologize and say, “Mr., you do too ‘much for one like me.” It was very difficult for him to realize that he could be anything else than a tramp or beggar.
Tho frequently told that he was a son, yet his tendency was toaccept all kindnesses as tho he were receiving charity. A long time was required to make him understand how the family could enjoy the blessings they were showering upon him. To himself he seemed a sorrowful outcast, begging for even a crust of bread.
But the secret was that Christ, through the warm hearts of this family, was manifesting His own tenderness toward a poor child. It was Jesus working to reclaim a wanderer. Christ was bestowing His love on one in need.
The history of John Müller, of Bristol, England, is an illustration of how Christ by His Spirit works through men, caring for the needy. This man, with no visible income, trusting only to God, who hears prayer, for a period of about sixty-five years bestowed charities upon orphan children. Counting the whole period, more than one hundred and twenty thousand children were under his care. He was enabled to build five orphanages on Ashby Down, at a cost of about $570,000. The aggregate sum of the gifts sent to him for all purposes exceeded $7,000,000. It came in sums ranging from one half cent up to $60,000. It was sent him exactly as it was needed. If he had at his table two thousand orphans, they were fed and clothed; if the number was but thirty, there was but little left. The Lord knew all the time how many were to be cared for, and so He gave the supply to meet the demand. The gifts came from all parts of the earth—from men in every grade of life, and most frequently from persons unknown to Mr. Müller. Times might be bad, and panics abroad, yet the stream of donations failed not. In all this the Lord’s life was drawn out to those who were trusting in Him to be sustained, and He never failed them.

The Lesson.

The above pictures of benevolence and love fitly illustrate the manner of God’s dealings with man. He connects the poor, the helpless, and the untaught with His own household, and brings them to fellowship with Jesus His Son. The first and principal consideration is that of saving those taken into this close relationship. Then there is a blessing, too, which comes to the benefactor who helps the needy. The heart of him who bestows gifts upon the helpless, is kept tender, and his life is expanded in the ratio that he lives through the lives of others. Love has a way of increasing itself by giving.
A peculiar quality of Christian philanthropy enables it to enlarge its resources by giving things away. Through this principle the Saviour has, by dying, multiplied His life. His soul, being poured out unto death, became the seed of life to those in the grave. The believer in touch with that life, tho he go into death, will spring forth as seed that is sown in fertile soil. Thus every soul that is redeemed is an increase to the joy of the Redeemer. Wm. COVERT.
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