XXXI. The Beast—Abnormal, Satanic System of Government
In our last was shown the nature of Church-and-State governments, symbolized in the Word of God by cruel wild beasts.
The beast of Rev. 13: 1, 2, is a symbol of this abnormal, monstrous system of government among the nations of earth, corrupting the truth of God, guided and controlled by Satan as far as Higher Power permits, warring against God, His Christ, and His church, until the culmination of righteous indignation sweeps it from the earth at the coming of the Son of Man.
The First Head
The heads represent the seven great and prominent phases of this same system during its existence, through which Satan has especially worked against the truth of God, beginning with Babylon. Retrospectively, the prophecy begins with the empire of Babylon and the captivity of the church of God, represented by the travailing woman of the last chapter. Before her Babylonian captivity, she was practically independent of earthly powers. Her travail and pain, her longing for her King, the Man Child, began about 600 B.C. Satan then began his waiting for the birth of the Man Child, endeavoring to destroy the mother and thus destroy her Seed. This first head was Babylon, and while it existed, the beast was a Babylonian beast; for it is the head, the seat of the intellect, mind, and will, that gives character to the whole. Satan, through Babylon, endeavored to destroy the people of God at their captivity, and doubtless would have followed the proposed burning of the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace by the destruction of all the faithful, had not God interposed. In the light of the prophecy it was the empire of Babylon under satanic control; and therefore the fallen Lucifer is called "the king of Babylon." (See Isa. 14: 4-14.)
The Second and Third Head
Babylon was succeeded by the next great world-power, Medo-Persia. Satan perverted that government to his own ends. Darius was persuaded to put himself in the place of God (Daniel 6), and under him the prophet of God was cast into the den of lions, because he would not submit to the beast-power, the wicked system of satanic government. Later, through Haman, in the reign of Ahasuerus, Satan thought to destroy ALL the people of God, the woman through whom the Man Child should come (see Esther, chapters 3-9); but God again frustrated his purpose.
Medo-Persia was succeeded by Grecia, the third head of the beast. During Grecia's rule the beast was Grecian, even as under the two previous heads it had been successively Babylonian and Medo-Persian. Alexander, the great King, would probably have destroyed Jerusalem if God had not interposed by a dream. (See Josephus' "Antiquities," book 11, chapter 8, sections 4, 5.) Later, through Antiochus Epiphanes, Satan attempted the same thing, and many were slaughtered and the temple profaned; but God again wrought for the daughter of Jerusalem. (See the first six chapters of 1 Esdras, Josephus' "Wars," book 1, chapter 1, sections 1, 2; "Antiquities," book 12, chapter 7, sections 1, 2.)
The Fourth Head
The fourth head of the beast-system of government controlled by Satan, was Pagan Rome (which succeeded Grecia, so far as God's people are concerned, in B.C. 161). Still the dragon was watching and waiting for the Man Child, that he might destroy it. Micah 4: 10; Rev. 12: 1-4. This certainly must refer to Satan, for Pagan Rome did not know that a Man Child was to be born. Satan, however, knew it, and Satan watched for the event, and Satan stirred up Pagan Rome under Herod and Pilate to do his will, and to destroy the Hope of the race. But he failed, as we have seen in previous articles.
The Rise of the Fifth Head
Satan then endeavored to use the same head to persecute the church; but paganism was dying. Its zeal was waxing cold. It could well as subversive of just rules of prophetic exposition. By what rule is Rome entitled to recognition from the beginning any more than Grecia or Persia? Rome did not come into connection with the people of God till B.C. 161, when several of the so-called heads had passed away. Of these forms of government there were but three previous to the breaking up of the empire in the fourth century; namely, monarchial, republican, imperial. The traditional kings were but chiefs of savage tribes, occupying a very small territory. Consuls began with the republic and continued to the fifth century of the Christian era. For a time they "were the supreme executive officers, but had no legislative authority." (Johnson's "New Universal Encyclopedia.") "Decemvirs were ten extraordinary magistrates elected from the Roman patricians to draw up a code of laws." "Their laws were approved by the Senate." During the time they were codifying the laws "they were also invested with supreme authority to govern the State." (Id.) As they did not complete their work the first year, decemvirs were elected the following year, but ruling so tyrannously, and refusing to give up their office at the end of their term, they "were driven from office, and the ordinary magistrates were re-established." (Id.) They were magistrates appointed for a special work for a special time by a republic, and during their work Rome was a republic still. The regular offices were merely suspended.
A dictator was "an extraordinary magistrate in the republic of ancient Rome, who was invested with nearly absolute power for a period of six months, and was irresponsible. Dictators were appointed when the republic was in danger, or when an important crisis demanded the prompt decision and vigorous action of a single executive chief." (Id.) It is simply the declaration of martial law, an expedient well known in the republic of the United States of America. Imagine this country to be the size of the District of Columbia; its chief city, Washington, threatened with serious danger. The civil offices would suspend their functions and proclaim martial law to meet the exigency; the military officer takes command instead of the civil. But the dictator had no control over the public treasury; he could not leave the country, nor ride through Rome on horseback, without the consent of the people. Rome was a republic still, and the dictator but one of her extraordinary officers. The triumvirs were consuls and chief men in the republic who transcended their just powers, altho the second triumvirate was officially recognized by the Senate. The Senate was a continuous and constituent part of the Roman government. The triumvirates came in in the transition from the republic to the empire. The President of the United States has supreme executive power; Congress has supreme legislative power; the Supreme Court has supreme judicial power; but these are not three forms of government. While in common parlance they might be spoken of as three heads, they are not heads in the sense of the prophecy of Revelation 127and 13.
even admit Jesus Christ as one of its gods. Its rulers thought too much of ease, and wealth, and luxury to become stirred to any great extent against the religion of Christ. Satan must have a stronger, more virile, more zealous agent for evil. And when began the decay of Pagan Rome, he began to corrupt the religion of Jesus Christ, the mystery of God, into a paganized religion — the "mystery of iniquity." So successful was he in this, so rapidly did apostasy develop, that in A.D. 325 the creed power of men, assisted by a pagan emperor, had established the Roman Catholic Church by law. This took place at the Council of Nice under the pagan Constantine. Satan was enlarging and developing the Papacy as the fifth head of his infernal system of perverted government, his masterpiece of the ages, infused with the perverted life and law of the highest form of religion the world had ever known. It is to this period that the chronology of Rev. 13: 1, 2 belongs. It was at this time that another head was relegated to the past by the master mind of iniquity, and a more powerful took the place of earthly empire, clothed with satanic power, placed on Satan's throne in subverted earthly rule, and receiving authority exceeding that given to any other head.
This greater authority from Satan was manifest in the greater prominence given to the religious element of the monster. Previous to this, under the other heads, with their varying gods and forms of worship and blasphemies, the State had been dominant. The State had controlled religion, more than religion had controlled the State. Given then an honorable ruler, who cared little or nothing for the State religion, and he became a good ruler. But under the fifth head, the Papacy, religion, ecclesiasticism, was dominant. The State must be governed by the Church for her good, and not the Church governed by the State for the State's good. Here is the highest form of Church and State government. In a defense of the Inquisition a Catholic writer says:
Moreover, since all statesmen and public officers were at the same time Catholics, it is most easy to understand that they enacted laws and punishments in keeping with their religious convictions. To put it briefly, in those middle ages, there was the greatest union of Church and State.—James I. Conway, in "Catholic Mirror" of August 29, 1896.
This being the nature of the system, the hunting and persecution of heretics became a logical sequence. The more devoted the devotee of the system, the more persistent in hunting down heretics. Says the same article:
Consequently, it is evident that one who was a heretic then, was by that very fact in opposition to the spirit of the laws and customs of his country — in other words, a disturber of the public peace and an underminer of civil society.
And then, says the same writer, the agencies of the church "diligently sifted out and indicted heretics of every description."
This is the character of the fifth head of the beast, and during the time of the existence of that head the beast became the papal beast. But the days of its persecution, the period of its spiritual domination, were limited. It is thus stated by the prophet:
And there was given to him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and there was given to him authority to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth for blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, even them that dwell in the heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and there was given to him authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation. Rev. 13: 5-7, A.R.V.
Note the following prophetic specifications concerning this power:
1. A mouth speaking great things and blasphemies against God and His name. (Verse 5.) It is therefore a religious power, which blasphemes God.
2. It should continue forty and two months. (Verse 5.) The same period is elsewhere called "a time, times, and a half," "a thousand two hundred and threescore days." (See Dan. 7: 25; Rev. 11: 2, 3; 12: 6, 14.) As short-lived beasts are used to symbolize long existing dynasties, kingdoms, or systems of government, so, to be consistent, short periods of time are used to symbolize longer periods. A year is a "time." (See Dan. 4: 16; 11: 13, margin.) According to the Bible mode of reckoning time there are thirty days in a month (compare Gen. 7: 11; 8: 4, 3), and twelve months in a year, making 360 days in a year. A "time," one year; "times," the dual number, two years; and a "half time," three and one half years; equal to forty-two months, 1,260 days. This, according to symbolic time, "a day for a year" (Eze. 4: 6), symbolizes a period of spiritual domination for this head of 1,260 years.
3. It is a power which works against the very truth of God, God's name, or character, His dwelling-place, and His angels. (Verse 6.)
4. It makes war with the saints, and overcomes them, killing them with the sword. (Verses 7, 10.)
5. He had power over all nations, tongues, etc.
6. All those who are not Christ's will yield to his worship.
7. He will finally receive a death stroke, and by violence his power shall be taken away. Verses 10, 3.
8. Yet shall the death stroke be healed, and the beast in that form shall live again. Still other specifications are given of the same power in Dan. 7: 8, 20-26. There is but one power or system to which these specifications in toto apply, DURING THIS PERIOD, and that is to that system of Church-and-State government known as the Papacy. These we will consider in our next.
1. And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
2. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion; and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
3. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed; and all the world wondered after the beast.
4. And they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
5. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
6. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
Meets Every Need
“A FEW years ago, a young African addressed Mr. Johnson, a missionary, in language like this: ‘Massa, them words you talk last night strike very much. When you preach, you read the fifteenth and sixteenth verses of the forty-fourth chapter of Isaiah, and explain them. You show me how our country people stand. Me say: “Ah, who tell massa all this? he never been in my country.” You say, “Do not your country people live in that fashion?” I say, Yes, that true; God knows all things; He put them things in the Bible. Massa, I so sure that the Bible is God’s Word, for man can not put the things in there, because he no see it. That time I live with a man that make greegree. He take me into the bush, and teach me to make greegree too. He show me a tree: he say that greegree. He take country ax, and cut some of that tree. He make a god; and he take the leaves, and that which was left, and give me to carry home. When he come home he made a fire, and all the people come and sit round the fire. Then they cook and eat. When they done eat, the man take the leaves of the greegree tree, and burn them in the fire; and then all the people stand round the fire, and clap their hands, and cry “Aha! aha!” Massa, when you read this verse, I can’t tell you what I feel. You then begin to talk about the text, “He feedeth on ashes,” and I was struck again; for when they done cry “Aha! aha!” they take the ashes, and make medicine: “they give to the people when they be sick.” You been see some greegree which look like dirt; that is the same ashes. They carry that round them neck, and they eat it sometimes. You see, massa, our countrymen feed upon ashes. For true, the Bible God’s Word.’”
Not All the Blessings To-Day
ONE cold morning in February we stood looking out upon a world encased in an icy armor which sparkled with unrivaled beauty in the sunshine. “Beautiful?” said one. “Yes, it is very beautiful, but it will all be gone before noon.” The little restless maiden, quiet for once as she looked upon the glory, looked up and brightly said: “Never mind, There’ll be something else beautiful to-morrow.” In that childish speech lies one of the deep secrets of a happy life.—Record of Christian Work.
Trust in God
By Elsie J. Klostermeyer
By Elsie J. Klostermeyer
When our hearts are worn and weary,
fainting 'neath injustice' load;
And our eyes, impatient, see not why the
righteous feel the rod
Of oppression, hard and galling, while the
wicked sit in state—
"Cheeks standing out with fatness," and
their greed insatiate
Grinding down the poor and needy, keeping
back the lawful hire—
Why, since there's a God in heaven, does He
not manifest His ire?
And they spare not to address Him, calling
Him "Lord, Lord, our God!"
And they yield Him costly offerings, drip-
ping with the poor's life-blood.
God in heaven, is their vileness still a thing
unknown to Thee?
That the hypocrite devoureth men more
righteous far than he?
Then an answer came from heaven: "Write
the vision, make it plain;
At the end 'twill speak and lie not. It is
for an appointed time.
For the soul in self uplifted yet may turn,
if mercy's given,
From his vile and loathsome meanness, to
the righteousness of heaven.
Wait, my child, a little longer—for the
just shall live by faith.
Patient be; thy crown's beside Me. Thou
hast yet not suffered death."
God is in His holy temple. Silence let the
whole world keep.
Wait in faith, tho yet the wicked see no
cause why they should weep.
While God waits, O, let us hasten, warn,
reprove, rebuke, with prayer;
It may be our own oppressors may of God's
wrath yet beware.
Righteousness by Faith
By O. E. Jones
I count all things but loss, . . . that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Phil. 3:8, 9.
GOD gave His Son to die, and Christ laid down His life, to make it possible for us to be made righteous, that we might not perish, but have eternal life, with all its attendant blessings. In 2 Cor. 5:21 we read:
For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
He (the Father) made Him (the Son) to be sin for us. Our sins, with the full penalty, were by imputation placed to Christ's account. In Isa. 53:6 we read:
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Note the marginal reading, "hath made the iniquity of us all to meet on Him." In taking our sins upon Himself, Christ came under the law as a condemning rule, as we read in Galatians:
When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
His suffering on the cross was for our sins, as it is written:
Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18.
We recall the Saviour's agony in Gethsemane as He prayed, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me." Christ bore the penalty (curse) of the broken law of God in our stead. In Gal. 3:13 we read:
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.
He hath made Him to be sin for us, . . . that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
We have no righteousness of our own to commend us to God, for we read, "All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." Isa. 64:6. Our only hope, then, is in the imputed righteousness of Christ. This is beautifully set forth in the following scripture:
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law [a perfect standard] and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference. Rom. 3:20-22.
"The righteousness of God [imputed] unto all and [imparted] upon all them that believe." Note also verses 24 to 26:
Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood; to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
(To believe in Jesus and to believe merely in a historical fact that such a one lived are widely different propositions.)
For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works. Rom. 4:3-6.
Of ancient Israel we read:
But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. . . . For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. Rom. 9:31, 32; 10:3.
"They sought it [righteousness] not by faith." Blessed indeed is the man or woman to whom God imputes righteousness without works.
Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Rom. 4:7, 8.
Not only is righteousness placed (imputed) to the account of every believer, but by faith Christ dwells in the heart (Eph. 3:17) and imparts righteousness. As we read again:
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Phil. 2:13.
And with the apostle we can say:
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me. Gal. 2:20.
Christ living in me, the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God — living faith abounding in fruits of righteousness (faith without works is dead, James 2:26), that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us. Rom. 8:4.
We love to read of Noah, Abraham, Daniel, the three Hebrew children, and others, men and women strong in faith. By faith we may be clothed with the righteousness of Christ, a righteousness woven in the loom of heaven, without one thread of human invention in it. We may stand faultless before the throne of God, ascribing all praise to Him who has redeemed us by His own blood.
Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy, and for Thy truth's sake. Ps. 115:1.
O. E. JONES.
Our Bible Reading
The Sabbath a Definite Day
1. What is the record of the institution of the Sabbath?
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made. Gen. 2: 1-3.
Note the definite character of this record. First, "The heavens and the earth were finished." Second, "On the seventh day God ended His work." Third, "He rested on the seventh day from all His work." Fourth, "God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it;" that is, set it apart for a sacred use. Thus do we have three distinct references to the definite seventh day in the institution of the Sabbath. A thing that is so definitely and so repeatedly spoken of as belonging to "the seventh day," is not left to the chance of falling on "just any day" and on "no day in particular."
2. When the Sabbath commandment was given, was it also definite in making a particular day the Sabbath day?
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. Ex. 20: 8-11.
NOTE.—The commandment prescribes six days of labor to come first, with the Sabbath to follow, and not to precede the days of work. We are commanded to "remember the Sabbath day." "The" Sabbath day is a definite day. It could not, according to the terms of the commandment, be "just any day" and no day in particular. The commandment makes it definite which day is "the Sabbath day," by saying explicitly that "the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." The "seventh day" is a particular day. It can not be "just any day." It has to be definite, and one certain day of the week; and no other day besides that one particular day will answer the definite specifications of the commandment. God "rested the seventh day." That was a particular day on which He rested. It could not have been otherwise than a special day. It could not be that He rested on "just any day" and no day in particular. And the day on which He rested He says Himself was the "seventh day," and "wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." If any one will give proper attention to the record of the institution of the Sabbath, and will properly study the Sabbath commandment itself, he will have no difficulty in seeing that God's rest day is definite, and that it falls on a particular day of the week, and that He accepts no other day as the Sabbath.
They Will Come Again
By Mrs. M. C. Sollars
By Mrs. M. C. Sollars
Spring-times come and spring-times go,
Summer-time and winter snow;
Summer-time and birds depart,
And come again to cheer the heart.
Seasons come and seasons go,
Roses bloom and lilies grow;
Forms once loved no more I see —
They are sleeping silently.
While the seasons always bring
Back the daisies in the spring,
Yet they never bring to me
What my longing eyes would see.
Yet there is a morning fair —
And that morning time is near —
When the saved in Christ shall rise
To the joys of Paradise.
We shall know as we are known,
To our hearts receive our own,
And our happiness shall be
Perfect through eternity.
Ballard, Washington.
The Law and the Spirit
It is not, inquiring reader, the Law against the Spirit; it is not the Law or the Spirit; it is the Law and the Spirit.
The Law to which we refer is the Law of God, the Spirit is the Spirit of God. Surely there should be no antagonism between the Law of God and the Spirit of God.
Yet we frequently hear professed followers of the Master and the Book argue against the observance of God's commandments, especially the fourth precept of His Law, the statute of God which defines the Sabbath day to be the seventh day, and enjoins God's children to keep it holy. It declares to us that the Creator made it holy and set it apart for man.
Christ the Lord by His Spirit inspired the utterances of the prophets. He testified through them. 1 Peter 1:9-11. Thus He witnessed through the Gospel prophet: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord." Isa. 58:13, 14.
Does the eternal Spirit which inspired the words above quoted teach men now that it matters not whether they observe the Sabbath or do not observe it? It is not to be believed. Twice at least in the New Testament it is intimated of the Psalms that the words are "as the Holy Spirit saith." Acts 1:19, 20; Heb. 3:7. That Spirit said prophetically of Christ, one thousand years before He came, "Lo, I am come; . . . I delight to do Thy will, O My God; yea, Thy Law is within My heart." Ps. 40:7, 8. When Jesus came in fulfilment of that prophecy by the Spirit, God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit. Luke 4:18; Acts 10:38. Spirit-filled, He bore testimony to the truth of the prophecy: "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to accomplish His work." John 4:34. "I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love." John 15:10.
The Spirit of God led our Lord to obey God's Law; that Spirit wrote that Law on the tables of His heart. The Spirit of God and the Law of God and the Son of God were all in perfect harmony.
Once more: God gave His Spirit to convince of sin. John 16:8. "Sin is the transgression of the Law." 1 John 3:4. "Nay, I had not known sin, but by the Law." Rom. 7:7. Is it possible that God's Spirit convicts John Smith to-day of sin, but to-morrow, when he is converted, tells him, "You should or may transgress God's Law, which points out sin"? It is preposterous.
"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." Heb. 13:8. The Spirit of Christ inspired the prophets. 1 Peter 1:10, 11. His Spirit therefore inspired the above quoted utterance of Isaiah regarding the Sabbath. In the yesterday of His first advent our Lord affirmed the Sabbath. He further said, "Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil." Isa. 56:2.
And this same blessing He extends to the stranger — the foreigner, the Gentile: "Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of My covenant." Verse 6.
In the to-day of His first advent He confirmed all that in His teaching and life. That in His special manifestations is this generation's yesterday. Is He not the same to-day? He is the same. The eternal Law has not changed. The teaching of the eternal Spirit is the same. That spirit, therefore, which teaches men to transgress that Law, is not the Spirit of Christ, but the spirit of evil. But to that soul who yields to the Holy Spirit's conviction of sin, who submits to God's authority, that Spirit will write God's Law in the heart forevermore.
