Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Nov 15, 1883
The All-Important Lesson
By Mrs. E. G. White
General Articles.
The All-Important Lesson.
BY MRS E. G. WHITE.
DURING the entire day after Christ had cleansed the desecrated courts of the temple, he was healing the sick and relieving the afflicted. Nicodemus had seen with what pitying compassion he had received and ministered unto the poor and the oppressed. With the demeanor of a loving father toward his suffering children, he had wrought cures and removed sorrow. No suppliant was sent unrelieved from his presence. Mothers were made glad by the restoration of their babes to health, and voices of thanksgiving had taken the place of weeping and moans of pain. All day, Jesus had instructed the restless, curious people, reasoning with the scribes, and silencing the caviling of the haughty rulers by the wisdom of his words. Nicodemus, after seeing and hearing these wonderful things, and after searching the prophecies that pointed to Jesus as the looked-for Messiah, dared not disbelieve that he was sent of God.
When night came on, Jesus, pale with the weariness of his long-continued labors, sought for retirement and repose in the Mount of Olives. Here Nicodemus found him and desired a conference. This man was rich and honored of the Jews. He was famous throughout Jerusalem for his wealth, his learning and benevolence, and especially for his liberal offerings to the temple to carry out its sacred services. He was also one of the prominent members of the national council. Yet when he came into the presence of Jesus, a strange agitation and timidity assailed him, which he essayed to conceal beneath an air of composure and dignity.
He endeavored to appear as if it were an act of condescension on the part of a learned ruler, to seek, uninvited, an audience with a young stranger at that unseasonable hour of night. He began with a conciliating address, “Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him.” But instead of acknowledging this complimentary salutation, Jesus bent his calm and searching eye upon the speaker, as if reading his very soul; then, with a sweet and solemn voice, he spoke and revealed the true condition of Nicodemus. “Verily, verily I say unto you, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
The Pharisee was surprised out of his self-possession by these words, the meaning of which he partially comprehended; for he had heard John the Baptist preach repentance and baptism, and also the coming of One who should baptize with the Holy Ghost. Nicodemus had long felt that there was a want of spirituality among the Jews; that bigotry, pride, and worldly ambition guided their actions in a great measure. He had hoped for a better state of things when the Messiah should come. But he was looking for a Saviour who would set up a temporal throne in Jerusalem, and who would gather the Jewish nation under his standard, bringing the Roman power into subjection by force of arms.
This learned dignitary was a strict Pharisee. He had prided himself upon his own good works and exalted piety. He considered his daily life perfect in the sight of God, and was startled to hear Jesus speak of a kingdom too pure for him to see in his present state. His mind misgave him, yet he felt irritated by the close application of the words to his own case, and he answered as if he had understood them in the most literal sense, “How can a man be born when he is old?”
Jesus, with solemn emphasis, repeated, “Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born of the water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” The words of Jesus could no longer be misunderstood. His listener well knew that he referred to water baptism and the grace of God. The power of the Holy Spirit transforms the entire man. This change constitutes the new birth.
Many of the Jews had acknowledged John as a prophet sent of God, and had received baptism at his hands unto repentance; meanwhile he had plainly taught them that his work and mission were to prepare the way for Christ, who was the greater light, and would complete the work which he had begun. Nicodemus had meditated upon these things, and he now felt convinced that he was in the presence of that One foretold by John.
Said Jesus, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.”
Jesus here seeks to impress upon Nicodemus the positive necessity of the influence of the Spirit of God upon the human heart to purify it preparatory to the development of a righteous and symmetrical character. “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” This fountain of the heart being purified, the stream thereof becomes pure.
This new birth looks mysterious to Nicodemus. He asks, “How can these things be?” Jesus, bidding him marvel not, uses the wind as an illustration of his meaning. It is heard among the branches of the trees, and rustling the leaves and flowers, yet it is invisible to the eye, and from whence it comes and whither it goeth, no man knoweth. So is the experience of every one who is born of the Spirit. The mind is an invisible agent of God to produce tangible results. Its influence is powerful, and governs the actions of men. If purified from all evil, it is the motive power of good. The regenerating Spirit of God, taking possession of the mind, transforms the life; wicked thoughts are put away, evil deeds are renounced, love, peace, and humility take the place of anger, envy, and strife. That power which no human eye can see, has created a new being in the image of God.
The conversion of the soul through faith in Christ was but dimly comprehended by Nicodemus, who had been accustomed to consider cold formality and rigid services as true religion. The great Teacher explained that his mission upon earth was not to set up a temporal kingdom, emulating the pomp and display of the world, but to establish the reign of peace and love, to bring men to the Father through the mediatorial agency of his Son.
Nicodemus was bewildered. Said Jesus, “If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?”
If Nicodemus could not receive his teachings illustrating the work of grace upon the human heart, as represented by the figure of the wind, how could he comprehend the character of his glorious heavenly kingdom should he explain it to him? Not discerning the nature of Christ’s work on earth, he could not understand his work in Heaven. Jesus referred Nicodemus to the prophecies of David and Ezekiel:—
“And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh; that they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.” “And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence.” “Therefore, I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord God. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit.” “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free Spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee.” “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.”
The learned Nicodemus had read these pointed prophecies with a clouded mind, but now he began to comprehend their true meaning, and to understand that even a man as just and honorable as himself must experience a new birth through Jesus Christ, as the only condition upon which he could be saved, and secure an entrance into the kingdom of God. Jesus spoke positively that unless a man is born again he cannot discern the kingdom which Christ came upon earth to set up. Rigid precision in obeying the law would entitle no man to enter the kingdom of Heaven.
There must be a new birth, a new mind through the operation of the Spirit of God, which purifies the life and ennobles the character. This connection with God fits man for the glorious kingdom of Heaven. No human invention can ever find a remedy for the sinning soul. Only by repentance and humiliation, a submission to the divine requirements, can the work of grace be performed. Iniquity is so offensive in the sight of God, whom the sinner has so long insulted and wronged, that a repentance commensurate with the character of the sins committed often produces an agony of spirit hard to bear.
Nothing less than a practical acceptance and application of divine truth opens the kingdom of God to man. Only a pure and lowly heart, obedient and loving, firm in the faith and service of the Most High, can enter there. Jesus also declares that as “Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should506not perish but have eternal life.”
The serpent in the wilderness was lifted up on a pole before the people, that all who had been stung unto death by the fiery serpent, might look upon this brazen serpent, a symbol of Christ, and be instantly healed. But they must look in faith, or it would be of no avail. Just so must men look upon the Son of man as their Saviour unto eternal life. Man had separated himself from God by sin. Christ brought his divinity to earth, veiled by humanity, in order to rescue man from his lost condition. Human nature is vile, and man's character must be changed before it can harmonize with the pure and holy in God's immortal kingdom. This transformation is the new birth.
If man by faith takes hold of the divine love of God, he becomes a new creature through Christ Jesus. The world is overcome, human nature is subdued, and Satan is vanquished. In this important sermon to Nicodemus, Jesus unfolded before this noble Pharisee the whole plan of salvation, and his mission to the world. In none of his subsequent discourses did the Saviour explain so thoroughly, step by step, the work necessary to be done in the human heart, if it would inherit the kingdom of Heaven. He traced man's salvation directly to the love of the Father, which led him to give his Son unto death that man might be saved.
Our Signs of the Times.
By Editor
Behold, I Come Quickly
“Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Rev. 22:12.
NOTHING BETWEEN.
Nothing between, Lord, nothing between,
Let me thy glory see;
Draw my soul close to thee,
Then speak in love to me,
Nothing between.
Nothing between, Lord, nothing between,
Let not earth's din and noise
Stifle thy still small voice;
In it let me rejoice,
Nothing between.
Nothing between, Lord, nothing between,
Nothing of earthly care,
Nothing of tear or prayer,
No robe that self may wear,
Nothing between.
Nothing between, Lord, nothing between,
Unbelief disappear,
Vanish each doubt and fear,
Fading when thou art near,
Nothing between. —Unknown.
The Spirit of David and the Spirit of Christ.
[The occasion on which the following was written is some time past, but the argument is good for all time.]
In the "Free Parliament," in the first number of the Golden Age, stands an article from the pen of the editor, Theodore Tilton, entitled "The Two Religions."
It would perhaps be unfair to regard it as a formal confession of faith—or unbelief—made by the editor as he takes his seat in the chair of public instruction, but it is, at least, a significant index of the character which his journal will bear, and of the direction in which its influence will be thrown. The writer congratulates us on the steady amelioration of the moral and religious nature of man. He does not believe with Jean Ingelow in one of her recent poems, that
"Still this green world grows worse, the longer that she rolls;"
and in this we fully agree with him, but we do not accept his illustrations of the fact. He finds proof of this moral betterness in the contrast which he imagines he has discovered between the "wrathful imprecations of the Hebrew psalmist and the mild maxims of the sermon on the mount—between David and the ‘Son of David.’” He speaks of the imprecatory passage in the book of Psalms as "fiery maledictions, lighted as by a brand from hell," and declares that the Christian principle of the forgiveness of enemies had not then been discovered in morals. He is willing to admit that the golden rule is of greater antiquity than Christ, and dates back five hundred years before the Christian era, to Confucius, but "it nowhere blossomed," he avers, "on the thorny stem of the Hebraistic faith." In farther illustration of their contradictory spirit, he contrasts the death of David with the death of Christ. David in his dying hour remembered two of his enemies, Joab and Shimei, and the spirit of revenge leaped up within him, "like the flame of an expiring candle." Though "dying in his own palace, lying in a peaceful chamber, surrounded by affectionate weepers, he could not pass out of life in a spirit of charity to all mankind; but beating his heart once more to its old hates, he decreed against two powerless men the pitiless sentence that they should be brought down in hoary age to bloody graves; while on the other hand, the Sufferer of Calvary, hanging on a cross, crowned with thorns, companioned with malefactors, surrounded by torturing persecutors, looking from his enemies to Heaven, exclaimed, 'Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.'"
Now, we admit a progressive revelation in morals as in truth. The rules of holy living are more fully revealed under the New Testament, even as we know more than Abraham, or David, or Daniel knew of the character, the purposes, and the works of God. The morality of the New Testament is more advanced than that of the Old, and the church is a purer and more spiritual body than she was before her Lord visited her on the earth. And as the mercy of God has been chiefly illustrated under the New Testament, so the grace of charity and forgiveness has attained a larger development in the breast of New Testament believers. The ages between the fall of man and the coming of man's Saviour were mainly a dispensation of law, ruled by the idea of justice, and designed to prepare the world for the full revelation of mercy in the sacrificial death of Christ and the wide proclamation of the gospel. Thus the law was a school-master to bring the world to Christ. But to assert that the Christian idea of forgiveness was unknown to the Old Testament saints is to deny that God was then known to be a merciful God.
The writer forgets the voice which Moses heard in Mount Sinai proclaiming the name of the Lord: "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth." He forgets that the New Testament contains no more impressive exhibition of the fatherly character of God than David himself gives us in the 103d Psalm. "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. . . . He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. . . . Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." He forgets that the words of Christ, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," are a quotation from one of the earliest books of the Old Testament (Lev. 19:18, 34), and that the command, "Be ye holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy," lifted the Jewish as well as the Christian conscience up, not only toward the justice, but toward the clemency of God. Lev. 19:2. He forgets that it is the New Testament which declares in words whose severity no Hebrew prophet surpassed, "Our God is a consuming fire;" "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God;" and that David uttered no maledictions more terrible than the words of Jesus: "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?"
Perhaps he means to forestall this argument when he says that not Christ himself was "a Christian, as he meant a Christian to be. He made the standard so high that his own excellence could not reach to the height of it;" and fortifies this declaration by the Saviour's words: "Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is God." His shallow study of the words does not enable him to see that the divine Teacher there addresses one who does not believe in him as God, but who imagines that human teachers can point out, and human hands can accomplish such good deeds as would merit eternal life. The Saviour answers him on the basis of his own assumption as to the mere humanity of Jesus, and with a word which denies the possibility of absolute goodness to any but God, but which neither asserts nor denies his own goodness or his own divinity. His answer does declare, however, that pure goodness is to be ascribed to none but God, and it lends a weighty significance to his other words: "I am the good Shepherd."
The writer thus expressly denies the moral perfection, and, therefore, the divinity of Jesus, and the inspiration of the book of Psalms. Of a very large portion of this book he declares that it is "lighted as with a brand from hell;" not by the Spirit which sat in flaming splendor on the heads of the disciples at Pentecost. It breathes the malice of an unforgiving human heart; not the grace of a merciful God. And this sweeping conclusion is based on the most superficial view of the passages in question. It is characteristic of nearly all rationalistic criticism that it treats the Scriptures with a haste and shallowness born of its preconceived contempt for them. Compare Renan and Strauss, for painstaking, and thorough investigation with Stier and Hengstenberg, and Tholuck and Alfred!
Two knights met at a point where a monumental shield had been set up in commemoration of some former victory. Halting at a proper distance from each other, allusion was made by one to the brazen shield, which was corrected by the other who saw it to be a shield of iron. When the difference had grown into a dispute, and the dispute had provoked a challenge, and the two knights lay unhorsed and wounded at the foot of the monument, they discovered that the shield was of brass on one side and of iron on the other. With equal rashness the rationalist looks on the Psalms of David and the sermon on the mount, and says, "They contradict each other."
A closer and more sober view perceives that there is an element of justice in the divine character as well as an element of love; that God is a father, and also a judge, and that these aspects of his character, though different, are not contradictory. The one predominates in the Old Testament, the other in the New, but neither to the exclusion of the other.
David was a king, a magistrate. In this office he was set to maintain law, to dispense justice, to detect, arraign, and punish the guilty. Was it wrong for him to pray for success in this work? Yet his success involved the punishment, even by death, of the incorrigible enemies of society. He was the leader of the armies of Israel. Might he not pray for success in battle? Yet victory means death and bereavement to multitudes. These words of David speak of no private quarrel. They breathe no personal hatred. They plead for the cause of Israel and of God, against its violent and implacable assailants. Thus these words pass over into the lips of Christ, earth's present Ruler, of whom David was a type, and who illustrates these prayers by his punishment of sin in men and nations. The spirit of David and the Spirit of Christ are identical. These are the words of Christ. He used these psalms in his devotions. His apostles declare that the Holy Ghost spake before, in these imprecations, concerning Judas. Acts 1:16-20. Whoever is unable to reconcile these utterances with the sermon on the mount should first eliminate such facts as the recent humiliation of France or the overthrow of American slavery from the same Redeemer's government of the world.
"But why pray against the innocent and helpless wives and children of transgressors? Why say, ‘Let his wife be a widow and his children fatherless?’" There are ever some who speak too lightly and flippantly of God's judgments, who forget how terrible and how far-reaching are their effects. In these words the Spirit of God instructs us that, under the existing structure of society, judgment on the fathers involves the suffering of their households. The punishment of national sins involves the misery of unborn generations. Not as an intenser utterance of malice, but in the interest of mercy and compassion, these words are placed in the psalm. They are designed to remind us how fearful are the judgments for which we are warranted to pray, and to act as a restraint on the light and heedless invocation of judicial dispensations.
"Let there be none to extend mercy unto him, neither let there be any to favor his fatherless children." These words do not mean, "Let his children famish for lack of bread which no man will give," but "let there be none to favor them for their father's sake or for the sake of the cause in which their father perished." The citizen who does not desire the time when the children of Jefferson Davis and Robt. E. Lee will be ashamed to tell their ancestry, is not loyal to his country. Mr. Tilton desires it as fervently as any one, and shares to the full the spirit of the psalm which he maligns.
As to Joab and Shimei, they had been guilty of the highest crimes against God and society. Justice, not personal revenge, had ever since demanded their punishment, but David lacked the moral courage, or was scarcely secure enough in his royal seat to inflict it. "I am weak though anointed king, and these sons of Zeruiah be too hard for me. The Lord shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness." Yet David remembered that there was a God who "makes inquisition for blood," and who holds "the land" guilty for blood, shed and unavenged. He knew there was guilt on his throne and his kingdom for the unpunished crimes of these men, and that though vengeance might slumber till he was gone it would not sleep forever. For the safety of Solomon's throne, and because Solomon, coming to the kingdom under happier auspices, was well able to do that from which he had shrunk, he charged him not to evade this righteous responsibility. No gleam of personal bitterness lights up these solemn passages. They recognize a plain and most certain principle of the divine government, a principle which is in full force and receives abundant illustration at the present day.
The presumptuous spirit which condemns the Bible so bitterly on such superficial study of its meaning, deserves to be rebuked by every painstaking scholar, and by every lover of thoroughness and honesty, as mental as well as moral obliquity.—Christian Statesman.
Mortality Swallowed Up of Life.
By Epsilon
THE view taken by most Protestants of the first ten verses of the fifth chapter of 2 Corinthians is, that at death an intelligent soul leaves the lifeless body and takes up its abode with Christ in Heaven. But this view is not consistent with this nor with other portions of Scripture. Paul uses the figure of a house to represent mortality, which is to be swallowed up of life at the resurrection. "So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." 1 Cor. 15:54. That Paul alluded to the two bodies, the mortal and the immortal, is evident from 2 Cor. 5:6, where he says, "whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord." His desire is to be clothed with our house which is from Heaven. Being found naked is a state not to be desired, because it is sleep—unconsciousness.
Is the earthly house the mortal body? Then the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, is the glorified body. But have we each a glorified body now prepared in Heaven? No; but we have the glorified body of Christ, our great high priest, as a pledge of those we shall receive when he comes to redeem us. "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." Col. 3:3, 4. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." 1 John 3:2. Yes; when he shall appear, we shall also appear with him in glory, and he like him, immortal and glorified, inhabiting houses—bodies, "fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." Phil. 3:21. But why should Paul speak of our house from Heaven? Because, "The first man is of the earth, earthly; the second man is the Lord from Heaven." 1 Cor. 15:47.
"To be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord," is too clearly defined to be wrested in favor of separate soul entity, for the Scriptures define but one way of being present with the Lord, and that is by being clothed upon by our house which is from Heaven. "I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." The fifth verse is weighty, because it alludes to our having the earnest (pledge) of the Spirit. But what is the crowning work of the Spirit that is given us? "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken [make alive] your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." Rom. 8:11.
When we consider that our life is hid in Christ, that eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, that Christ is the resurrection and the life, that he who hath the Son hath the life, that the life is in his Son, and many other such statements, we see at once that it is not only natural, but forcible, for Paul to write of our house eternal in the heavens. For he is the second man Adam, the life-giving Spirit, the first-born (chief-born) from the dead, the pattern from which our glorified and immortal bodies will be fashioned, and himself holding the keys of death and of hades.
EPSILON.
SABBATH HYMN.
By Roswell Fenner Cottrell
ELD. R. F. COTTRELL.
JEHOVAH spoke the word, and it was done;
He gave command, and countless worlds up sprung;
Each system moved around its central sun;
Angels beheld, and songs of rapture sung.
He planted earth with trees and herbs and flowers,
To every living creature he gave birth;
He placed the human pair in Eden's bowers,
Gave them dominion over all the earth.
Six days were thus employed as he thought best,
Though all might have been finished in an hour,
But he would consecrate a day of rest,
In which to celebrate his love and power.
Hail, sacred Sabbath! Thus for man designed,
And separated from the working days,
That from earth's labors he might lift his mind,
And duly celebrate his Maker's praise.
All hail the power that spoke the worlds from naught!
All hail the goodness that to man is shown!
All hail the love that man's best good has sought!
Let songs of thanks and praise surround the throne.
Though fallen man has lost his first estate,
And sin has trampled on the day of rest,
New heavens and earth Jehovah will create;
All then will keep the Sabbath and be blest.
Ask and Ye Shall Receive
Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find.
"I Didn't Ask to be Saved."
By Mrs. Annie A. Preston
John Hayne was a young man much given to the use of profane and reckless speeches, and when the village pastor was talking to him about his soul's welfare one day, and asked him if he was not grateful for the offer of salvation, he said:
"No; why should I be? I didn't ask to be saved."
"Well, you will have to ask, or you will not share in the unspeakable blessing," replied the minister, and noticing a look of surprise now stealing over the young man's bold face, he continued: "A young relative of mine was wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg, and for hours was in a state verging upon unconsciousness. After lying a long time on the damp ground, he became aware that there were voices near him, and although he could not move as much as one of his fingers, or his eyelids even, he thought he felt a hand softly placed upon his heart. Then he became aware that a nurse—he knew that it was a woman by her voice—was pleading with the regimental surgeon, who was on the field, to make one more effort to save some poor fellow's life. Presently he realized that he was the object of her solicitude.
"He is so fine looking and so strongly built," said the nurse. "His natural vitality must be great; besides, sir," she continued in a reverent tone, "he may have a wife, or a mother, or a sister praying for his safety now."
"It's no use to spend time over him," said the surgeon gruffly, "but if you wish to stay by him, you can. I can do nothing for him, and must move on. Remember, if you remain, you will run the risk of being left alone here in the night on the field."
"Very well," replied the nurse bravely, "I will take the risk, and shall do all in my power to resuscitate and save this poor fellow, and only immediate attention can avail now." Presently the soldier became conscious that his jaws were being gently forced open, and some powerful stimulant had been given him. It was not long before he revived sufficiently to be carried to the hospital, and in good time he entirely recovered. His life had been saved through the prompt and faithful efforts of that devoted nurse.
"Now, what if I should tell you," continued the pastor, as he earnestly looked into the face of the young man who had just made the coarse and flippant speech, but who was all attention now, "what if I should tell you that that soldier was ashamed of the noble young woman who risked so much to save his life, that he subsequently went about bragging that he had never asked her to save him, that he had not the least acquaintance with her, that he refused to acknowledge even that she had been of any service to him, and never mentioned her name, except in a slighting, reviling way?"
"I should say that he was a mean, contemptible ingrate," replied John Hayne, impulsively. "He was not fit to live; his life was not worth saving."
"Very well," said the pastor, but this nurse only by a little temporary sacrifice of comfort on her part, at the same time being in the pay of the Government, was the means of prolonging the soldier's paltry life for a few brief years in this world of care and sorrow. Jesus Christ, the divine Lord, suffered on the cross and died for you, to redeem you from sin, and now offers to make you an heir of eternal life. And yet I have never known you to speak of him, or of those who love and try to follow him, with common respect even."
"My dear sir," replied John Hayne, "I have never looked at this thing in that light before. Of course an ungrateful person is the meanest person living. I promise as much as this now: I will never use the Lord's name lightly again."
The pastor did not press the subject any further at that time. He had set the young man to thinking. Not long afterwards John Hayne was converted, and he says that little lesson on ingratitude brought him to a saving knowledge of Christ.—Mrs. Annie A. Preston.
Love of God, Barrier Against Sin
He who has his heart full of the love of God, loathes to sin; thus he overcomes sin. This is the only effectual barrier against sin, the love of God in the heart.
"The Survival of the Fittest."
By William Nelson Glenn
THIS is a prominent plank in the platform of the evolutionists, who claim science as their god and guide in all things. According to religious fashion in these days of "progression," we have been examining the Bible in the light of this theory, and find that the inspired word agrees with science, and therefore must be true. With this point settled, we confidently refer to the sacred pages to learn what it teaches in regard to fitness for survival. Some examples in the past will serve as illustrations.
Just after Adam's first act of disobedience, the Lord told Satan (the original opposer of God and his word) that the seed of the woman (Christ) should bruise his head. Gen. 3:15. This is a plain declaration as to who should survive the contest.
A good practical illustration is found in the effect of the deluge in the days of Noah. Here the entire population of the earth was destroyed, excepting only Noah and his family. They proved to be the "fittest" on this occasion; and why? The answer is in Gen. 7:1: "And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation."
Another instance is found in the case of Sodom. The people had again become so reckless in their disregard of the true God that he determined to cut them off. Only one man in all the cities of the plain believed the word of the Lord, and he alone, with two daughters, survived.
We pass on to the captivity of Israel in Egypt. God would deliver his people, and through his servant Moses demanded of the king that he should let them go. Pharaoh replied in characteristic infidel jargon: "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." Ex. 5:2. And his spiritualist coadjutors backed him in his obstinacy. But Israel fled, pursued by the Egyptian army. The Lord's people were delivered through the Red Sea, and they survived, while Pharaoh and his host were destroyed.
We will now follow this same people, who were permitted to win victory after victory as long as they remained true to the God of Heaven, on their journey to Canaan. Of all the company from twenty years old and upward, only two remained faithful in all things. These survived, and entered the promised land, while those who had rejected the counsel of God through his servants were left to perish in the wilderness.
Many more instances of a like nature might be cited, but these are enough to show that in every instance where the issue between God and his opponents has come to a crisis, his representatives have survived. We will now carry the test into the future, and note the prospect of the two classes on the basis of this scientific discovery.
A striking contrast is found in Ps. 1. After a plain statement of the case, the conclusion is drawn thus: "Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the Judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish." In Ps. 37 is a full exposition of the doctrine, verse 9 containing a specimen conclusion: "For evil-doers shall be cut off; but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth."
Jesus gave his disciples this commission: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." Mark 16:15, 16. This is his test of fitness for survival. And the apostle John wrote: "He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." 1 John 5:12. This is the general tenor of the Scriptures, and on this point it is not necessary to quote further. Seeing, then, that a future existence depends upon a "survival of the fittest," and that the test lies in obedience to the divine will, what prospect have they who deny the God of the Bible, and the Redeemer he has provided? "If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" 1 Pet. 4:18. W. N. GLENN.