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Signs of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 4.

CHRISTIANITY ITS OWN DEFENSE

Signs of the Times

Jan 24, 1906

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, Cal. · Jan 24, 1906

CHRISTIANITY ITS OWN DEFENSE

[From Macaulay's Essay on Southey's "Colloquies on the Progress and Prosperity of Society."]
THE ark of God was never taken till it was surrounded by the arms of earthly defenders. In captivity its sanctity was sufficient to vindicate it from insult, and to lay the hostile fiend prostrate on the threshold of his own temple. The real security of Christianity is to be found in its benevolent morality, in its exquisite adaptation to the human heart, in the facility with which its scheme accommodates itself to the capacity of every human intellect, in the consolation which it bears to the house of mourning, in the light with which it brightens the great mystery of the grave. To such a system it can bring no addition of dignity or of strength, that it is part and parcel of the common law.
It is not now for the first time left to rely on the force of its own evidences and the attractions of its own beauty. Its sublime theology confounded the Grecian schools in the fair conflict of reason with reason. The bravest and wisest of the Cæsars found their arms and their policy unavailing when opposed to the weapons that were not carnal and the kingdom that was not of this world. The victory which Porphyry and Diocletian failed to gain is not, to all appearance, reserved for any of those who have, in this age, directed their attacks against the last restraint of the powerful, and the last hope of the wretched.
The whole history of Christianity shows that she is in far greater danger of being corrupted by the alliance of power, than of being crushed by its opposition. Those who thrust temporal sovereignty upon her, treat her as their prototype treated her Author. They bow the knee, and spit upon her; they cry "Hail!" and smite her on the cheek; they put a scepter in her hand, but it is a fragile reed; they crown her, but it is with thorns; they cover with purple the wounds which their own hands have inflicted on her; and inscribe magnificent titles over the cross on which they have fixed her to perish in ignominy and pain.

CHURCH FEDERATION SERIES.

By Editor

OUR entire stock of papers containing the reports of the Inter-Church Conference on Federation have been called for. The orders for the series continue to come in.
To meet the demand we have begun with our issue of January 17 (last week), a new series of articles on this great subject. Perhaps this had better be termed a continuation of the reports and articles. A synopsis of the preceding reports will be given, followed by strong articles presenting the significance of the movement.
By continuing the subject in this way, we are able to fill orders on hand with current issues of the paper. We are also able to fill orders which for any reason have been delayed.
The price of the eight papers beginning with the issue of January 17 will be the same as the preceding series, 25 cents.
Address your state tract society, or SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Mountain View, Cal.

SPANISH PUBLICATIONS.

By Editor

We have just secured the following publications in the Spanish language:
TRACTS.
Agony of Christ . . . . . . . $ 00 1/4 Christ Our Righteousness . . . . . . 00 1/2 Benefits of Bible Study . . . . . . 00 1/2 Coming of the Lord . . . . . . 00 1/4 Gift of God to Man . . . . . . 00 1/4 Great Commandment . . . . . . 00 1/4 Is the End Near? . . . . . . 00 1/4 Living by Faith . . . . . . 01 Price of Our Salvation . . . . . . 00 1/4 Temptation . . . . . . 00 1/4 What Must I Do to Be Saved . . . . . . 00 1/2 We Would See Jesus . . . . . . 02 Signs of Our Times . . . . . . 02 Daniel Two . . . . . . 01 1/2
PAMPHLETS.
Captain of Our Salvation . . . . . . 15 Gospel Primer (Board) . . . . . . 25 Gospel Primer (Cloth) . . . . . . 50
Address the publishers of this paper.

"WONDROUS LOVE."

Mr. H. H. Winslow has just printed another edition of his beautiful song "Wondrous Love." Copies may be obtained at 25c. each or $2.00 a dozen by addressing him at 285 Salmon St., Portland, Ore., or Pacific Press Pub. Co., Mountain View, Cal.

Topical Tract List

No. of Library Price
Signs of Our Times Without Excuse B. S. L. 46 ½
Truth for the Times " 143 1
Eastern Question " 144 1
Wonders of the 19th Century " 155 2
Topical Bible Studies " 185 1½
Last Day Tokens (pamphlet) " 186 25
Heralds of His Coming A. G. L. 85 1½
Winning of Margaret " 53 1
The Coming of Our Lord " 40 ½
| The Sabbath | Elihu on the Sabbath | B. S. L. | 192 1 | | | From Sabbath to Sunday | " | 95 1½ | | | Who Changed the Sabbath? | " | 187 1 | | | Identical Seventh Day | " | 114 1 | | | New Testament Sabbath | " | 137 1 | | | Rome's Arraignment | " | 150 1 | | | Sunday in the Greek | " | 154 ½ | | | Topical Bible Studies | " | 185 1½ | | | Is Sunday the True Sabbath of God? Reply to Gamble (pamphlet) | " | 177 15 | | | The Lord's Day the Test of the Ages (pamphlet) | " | 134 10 | | | The Seventh or One Seventh | A. G. L. | 39 ½ | | | Historical Facts and Incidents | " | 45 2 | | | Day of the Sabbath | " | 50 1 | | | Is Sunday the Sabbath? | " | 76 ½ | | | Unanswerable Propositions | " | 73 ½ | | | The True Seventh Day | " | 78 1½ |
| The Law of God | Perfection of the Law of God | B. S. L. | 122 1½ | | | Under the Law or Under Grace, Which? | " | 163 1 | | | The Relation of the Law to the Gospel | " | 166 1½ | | | The Divine Law | A. G. L. | 57 ½ | | | Two Questions Answered | " | 74 ½ |
| Nature of Man | Thoughts for the Candid | B. S. L. | 47 ½ | | | Tormented Forever and Ever | " | 111 1 | | | Rich Man and Lazarus | " | 146 1 | | | Immortality of the Soul | " | 70 2 | | | Topical Bible Studies | " | 185 1½ | | | Bible Questions and Answers Concerning Man | " | 76 1 | | | Is Man Immortal? | A. G. L. | 86 1 |
| Millennium | Temporal Millennium | B. S. L. | 121 1½ | | | The Kingdom of Christ | " | 119 1 | | | Christ as Prophet, Priest, and King | " | 127 1 | | | Topical Bible Studies | " | 185 1½ | | | Future Probation | " | 190 2 | | | Winning of Margaret | A. G. L. | 53 1 |
| Prophecy | Waymarks to the Holy City | B. S. L. | 189 1 | | | The Sure Word of Prophecy (pamphlet) | " | 131 10 |
| Faith and Righteousness | Living by Faith | B. S. L. | 75 1 | | | Justified by Faith | " | 104 1 | | | The Full Assurance of Faith | " | 64 1 | | | Righteousness: Where Is It to Be Found? How May It Be Obtained? | " | 133 1 | | | Have Faith in God | A. G. L. | 22 ½ |
| Gospel Invitation | The Gospel Message for To-Day | B. S. L. | 188 1 | | | The Way to Christ | " | 105 1 | | | Some One Cares for Your Soul | A. G. L. | 69 ½ | | | Why Are You Not a Christian? | " | 65 ½ | | | Privilege of Prayer | B. S. L. | 127 1 | | | Prayer, by A. T. Pierson | A. G. L. | 52 1 | | | Choose Ye This Day | " | 14 ½ | | | Jesus Died for You | " | 63 ½ | | | The Two Ways | " | 77 ¼ | | | Come; for All Things Are Now Ready | " | 87 1 |
| Prayer | Privilege of Prayer | B. S. L. | 127 1 | | | Prayer, by A. T. Pierson | A. G. L. | 52 1 | | | There Is Help in God | A. G. L. | 56 ½ |
| Temperance | The Name | " | 72 1 | | | Chat with My Tobacco-Loving Brother | " | 67 ½ | | | Food: Its Mental and Moral Value | " | 68 ½ | | | The Demon's Council | " | 80 ½ | | | It Doesn't Pay | " | 82 1 |
NOTE.—All 1-cent tracts may be obtained at 80 cents per hundred, post-paid; ½-cent tracts at 40 cents per hundred; 1½-cent tracts at $1.20 per hundred; 2-cent tracts at $1.60 per hundred. Pamphlets are net.
Address Your Tract Society, or Pacific Press Publishing Company Mountain View, Cal. 285 Salmon St., Portland, Ore. 1109 E. 12th St., Kansas City, Mo.

"HIS STAR."

By Editor

THUS opens a record of earnest searching: "When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is He that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him."
THIS is not Christmas time; and, if it were, it would matter not. Even though Christ were born on December 25 (which He was not), the wise men did not then find Him. The visit of the shepherds and the visit of the wise men are not identical, neither are they synchronous. They are two entirely different events, separated by weeks of time.
THE shepherds found the newborn babe in a manger; the wise men found Him in a house. After the shepherds' visit the poverty of Joseph's family was in no wise alleviated, for their offering was of the poorest sort (Luke 2:24); but after the visit of the magi the family had sufficient means to journey to Egypt and return. The shepherds were simple, devoted watchers of their flocks in the fields of Bethlehem; the magi were men of years and wisdom from lands farther east. The shepherds came in humble adoration, with the angels' song ringing in their ears; the magi came with worshiping faith, the light of the star shining in the heart.
THEY did not have the light—these wise men—that the doctors and scribes of the Jews had. Who they were, we do not know. The names of tradition or romance are only speculations. The language, the inquiry, the setting, the section from which they came, seem to carry us back to Balaam, the apostate prophet of the east, who once knew God, and who predicted Christ's coming to Balak of Moab:
"I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not nigh; There shall come forth a Star out of Jacob, And a Scepter shall rise out of Israel." Num. 24:17.
It also carries the mind of the Bible student to the patriarch Job and his friends, dwellers in the land of Uz, south and east of Jerusalem. But more likely they came from among the Persian magi, descendants or disciples of those who learned of the true God in the days of Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus, and who then may have become acquainted with the Hebrew Scriptures. Let this suffice, they discerned some light, and they followed it to the Central Light, and saw and worshiped.
WHENCE came they?—From the east. They did not look to the east to find the star; from the east they came. The mere direction may not in the lesson have meaning, but the east and the eastward attitude are meaningful words all through religious history, and in the Scriptures. The most ancient form of idolatry was morning sun-worship, the worship of the most manifest power in nature. Traces of it, or the actualities of it, abound all over the earth. It was one of the great sins of Israel. The ancient tabernacle and temple were placed with the door toward the east, so that the soul who came to worship, as well as the priest, stood with faces ever toward the presence of God in the holy of holies at the west. When the prophet of God was shown by symbol and vision the iniquities of Israel, that which, above all things else, revealed their awful degradation is thus described: "Thou shalt again see yet greater abominations than these. And he brought me into the inner court of Jehovah's house; and behold, at the door of the temple of Jehovah, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of Jehovah, and their faces toward the east; and they were worshiping the sun toward the east." And in Christian lands to-day there are those who follow the old heathen custom with altar eastward, toward which priest and people turn in worship. All such attitudes are of the old idolatries, and not of divine direction.
THE wise men came from the east with faith in a Fact. The Child was born, King of God's people, and they came to do Him homage, however lowly His earthly station. Faith made the Fact a living Truth in their lives, leading to devotion, consecration, and meekness—a willingness to be guided of God, as their subsequent action shows. They were seeking no favors of earthly monarchs, they were willing to be misunderstood of Herod, and their conduct counted as mockery, that they might obey and be guided of God. To the truly wise, God gives knowledge. They carried back into the east light from the west, light westward streaming over the dark places of earth. The old apostasies are in the East. Hinduism, Buddhism, Brahminism, Pantheism, which have enslaved millions, are of the East, and not of God. Their subtle philosophies, like the blasting "east wind" of Scripture, everywhere spoken against, are designed of the great deceiver to blast and blight, deceive and wither, the human soul. And it is one of the saddest of all sad things that professed teachers of Christ, the Light of the World, should, in the sophistries of the teaching of comparative religions, in learned disquisition, in religious congresses, seek to make peace with the devil over the decadent religions of the Orient, and to seek to prove that their withering blight, because, forsooth, they contain a few primitive truths amid the mass of their perversions, is one with Christianity. Well said the prophet of God's attitude toward these teachers, and the reason therefor: "Thou hast forsaken Thy people, . . . because they are filled with customs from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners." Read Isa. 2:1-11.
CHRISTIANITY is a life, the life of God sent down from heaven to a dying world. It centers in a living Christ, the King of the Jews, who died that man might live; who lives that man may eternally, righteously live. It is notto be compared, it can not be compared, with dry, dead forms of mixed fact and falsehood. "They are dead, they can not rise." Christ lives; His star still shines refulgent. It may, it will, lead to lowly places, down into the valley of Humility, but it leads to righteousness and life. Come out of the east with its fables, its deceptions, its self-salvation, its death, to the worship of the King.

IS THE PRICE SUFFICIENT?

MEN ask, "Why does God permit these things that are filling the earth with sorrow?"
If men could but realize that God is with us in every sorrow that has ever been felt in all the history of the world,—has actually suffered with those that suffered,—they would be less ready to accuse God of responsibility therefor. Those things that have caused you sorrow for a few short years have caused Him deeper sorrow for thousands of years. "In all their affliction He was afflicted," says the sacred writer. "I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth," says Jehovah concerning His own attitude toward man. He "is long-suffering to you-ward, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." The declaration that He is "long-suffering," covers it all. It means that through all the ages of sin, and sorrow, and death, God has suffered with His people. The word also indicates that in His patience in that suffering He is teaching us the grace of patience in the sorrows and the afflictions that come to us.
While the goodness and mercy and patience of God are manifest in that fact, it is doubly manifest in this other fact that at the same time He was willingly carrying our griefs and sorrows as well as His own. "Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows." And while He who was to bear our sins upon the cross was already carrying our afflictions, and bearing their marks upon Him, the very men for whom He was suffering looked down upon Him as the smitten object of God's displeasure. Not only that, but while He was suffering for them, they refused to turn upon Him a look of sympathy. "As one from whom men hide their face He was despised."
Under this crushing burden Jesus Christ went up upon Calvary's cross that you and I "might not perish, but have everlasting life." The wounds He received were the wounds we merited. His bruisings were the price that should have been paid by us—and He paid it. He was chastised that we might have peace. He suffered that our sufferings might cease. His wounds were received that ours might be healed; His death welcomed by Him that our life might be assured to us who believe on His name.
All this has been done for just such people as we are—for us. God counts it sufficient, and will count as His jewel every soul that will accept the conditions, and place his case in God's hands on the basis of what He has done for him. Many will do this; for it is written, "He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied." He will "justify many." Their sins may have been written in red; but there is no color that can withstand the washing of the blood that was poured out on Calvary. They may have been so filled with sin that their character is fitly represented by the color of scarlet. But there is no color that can put a permanent dye upon any soul that will submit to the cleansing of the blood of Jesus Christ.
God declares it sufficient for you. Are you willing to take His word for it? He declares that price sufficient to purchase for you eternal life. Are you willing to accept eternal life in place of an eternal cessation of being? Do you say, "I will not receive it through the sufferings of an innocent person, but rather through my own purchasing power?" Your own purchasing power had long ago been exercised, and you made your purchase—and it was death. Jesus Christ has made a purchase for you—and that is life. Are you going to stick to your own purchase with all it involves, and go down into eternal night, when you can cast the worse than worthless thing aside and have in its place the richest gift in the storehouse of God's treasures? Call the price sufficient, as God does, and accept the gift of His measureless love.
S.

THE POWER OF EDUCATION.

By G.

THERE is no greater medium of power in this world than education. It may be a power for good or a power for evil. Education from the standpoint of truth—of which God's Word is the central expression—inclines men to righteousness. Education in adverse lines opens the way for an inflood of error, and a consequent increase of corruption in the world. The adversary of truth finds his greatest success in imitation of truth, starting here and there a slight deviation from the main line, and diverging farther and farther until absolute contradiction is reached.
This principle of divergence from the Word has so far permeated the world's educational systems and institutions that the wisdom of man is fast superseding true wisdom in the realm of popular education. Educated corruption may have a more glittering exterior than the more uncouth corruption of the aboriginal classes, but it has a greater influence for evil because of its greater fascination.
The great city of Babylon won and maintained distinction because it was not only rich, but was the world's recognized educational center. But its scientific teaching was so impregnated with the errors of idolatry and lasciviousness that its very name became the synonym of all that is vile and corrupt. So the false ideals permeating popular education to-day—evolution, self-salvation, state religion, inherent immortality, higher criticism of the Word, etc.—are building up a spiritual Babylon that is fast corrupting all nations.
It is not crude barbarism that is to corrupt the whole world, but that which purports to be "the church" of God. Through "science falsely so called," through political religion, through her mercantile spirit, through substitution of human tradition for the Word of God, this universal "Babylon" gains sufficient influence to become "the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird."
The true education is that which gives one a knowledge of God, and a knowledge of His works as portrayed by Himself in His own Word. Christ, our Redeemer, says, "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me." And another inspired counsel is, "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom." Such education does not prepare men for expert villainy; it does not imbue them with a desire to dominate their fellow men; it leads them to follow Christ in the spirit of humility and self-denial. "The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy."

A GREAT LITERAL PROPHECY.

This Generation.

II. From the Destruction of Jerusalem to the Second Coming of Christ. Verse 15-28.

"When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies; then know that her desolation is at hand." [Thus reads Luke.] "When therefore ye see the abomination of desolation [reads Matthew and Mark], which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, standing where it ought not (let him that readeth understand); then let them that are in Judea flee unto the mountains; let him that is on the housetop not go down to take out the things that are in his house; and let him that is in the field not return back to take his cloak. And let them that are in the midst of her [Jerusalem] depart out; and let not them that are in the country enter therein. . . . For there shall be great distress upon the land, and wrath unto this people. For these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on a Sabbath."
WE learn from this scripture that the Lord, through Daniel, had forewarned concerning the very power which destroyed Jerusalem. Dan. 9:27. When the Jews rejected Christ, they rejected their King, and chose Caesar. They said, "Away with this Man;" "we have no king but Caesar." They put man in the place of God; and tho they afterwards fought Rome, it was still, on their part, man in the place of God. It was the abomination of desolation standing in the place of God, and showing that the judgment of Jerusalem could not long delay. The sign of that judgment came to Jerusalem when the Roman army surrounded that city in A.D. 70, and opportunity was given the disciples and those who believed our Lord's words to flee from the fated city. The details of that awful destruction, and the flight of God's children, we need not now consider.
Jesus enjoined them to pray for two things, that the flight be neither in the winter nor on the Sabbath day. He would not have them subjected to the hardships of winter in their flight from the city, nor would He have them violate conscience and His law by profaning the Sabbath.

A Type of the Final Destruction.

The destruction of Jerusalem was a type of the last destruction upon an impenitent church and nation. They fell by the edge of the sword, and were led captives into all nations, and Jerusalem was given up to be trodden down of the Gentiles. As the Jewish people then rejected God's means of salvation, putting man in the place of God, so the great apostasy in the Christian church has done the same thing, and will to a still greater extent in the closing days of the Christian era exalt theman of sin, the mystery of iniquity. Then as the children of God were forced to flee from Jerusalem, with no thought of preservation of earthly possessions, so, in the very last destructions and calamities, the children of God will again flee from the doomed cities as did Lot out of Sodom. The very language used in Matthew relative to fleeing from Jerusalem is used in Luke 17:22-37 in regard to the coming of Christ. And the time draweth near.

The Great Tribulation.

Following the destruction of Jerusalem began the tribulations of the church of Christ; first through Pagan Rome, which did not always distinguish between Jew and Christian, because both worshiped one God; and secondly, during the Dark Ages of papal spiritual domination, when it seemed at times as tho true faith would be blotted from the earth. The days of this persecution and tribulation are thus spoken of in Daniel 7:25: "And he [the little horn] shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High; and he shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time." "Time" signifies a year; "times," the dual number, two years, a total of three and one-half years; elsewhere called, 1,260 days, forty and two months. See Rev. 12:6, 14; 13:5; 11:2, 3. A day in prophecy signifies a year. The 1,260 days signify so many years. They began when the last of the Arian powers to oppose the assumptions of the Roman bishop was suppressed, and the pope of Rome, as decreed by Justinian, became the "head of all the holy churches," and "true and only corrector of heretics." That was in 538; they ended in 1798, when the pope was taken prisoner by France, and the recognition of Rome's spiritual domination was broken.
Thousands and tens of thousands perished during that time. It was the "great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world which God created, until now, no, nor ever shall be." This "tribulation" is not to be confounded with the "trouble" of Dan. 12:1. The "tribulation" was to come upon God's children, the "pressing," to bring out the wine and sweet perfume of sacrifice. The "trouble" comes upon the wicked, from which the children of God escape.
The tribulation of the days, for the elect's sake, should be shortened. God would not allow His faithful witnesses to be swept from the earth. In Europe, the great center of world-action, the Reformation had affected statesmen and rulers. In 1776 Maria Theresa, empress of Austria, promulgated a decree of toleration that all sects should be tolerated in her realm. The same year the American colonies declared themselves free and independent states, and opened an avenue to a haven of liberty for the oppressed of all lands. The days began in 538, by the carrying out of Justinian's decree. The persecution ended by decree and proclamation in 1776. The days ended in 1798. A space of twenty-two years intervened between the ending of the persecution and the ending of the days.

Signs of His Coming.

The end of that prophetic period—the first long prophetic period of Daniel to close—brought the world to "the time of the end" (Dan. 11:35; 12:4), a period during which the seal should be lifted from the prophecy, when many should run to and fro and knowledge should be increased. Men then began in earnest to search the prophetic Word of God. But then also, in order to deceive the searchers and confuse the masses, Satan began to send forth his minions. And so the Master said he would do. Listen:
"Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or Here; believe it not. For there shall arise false christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told you beforehand. If therefore they shall say unto you, Behold, He is in the desert; go not forth. Behold, He is in the secret chambers; believe not. For as the lightning cometh forth from the east, and is seen even unto the west; so shall be the coming of the Son of Man."
How literally did our Lord foretell these delusions; how faithfully has He warned His people against their deceptions! The deceivers would come; they have come in these latter days by tens and scores, all over the world. The Spirit of God is arousing longing and expectancy in the hearts of men in all lands; Satan has been stirring up false christs and false prophets in all lands to delude, disappoint, dishearten, and utterly disgust the world in regard to one of the most glorious doctrines of the whole Bible—the second coming of Christ.
Two notable deceptions have arisen in this country, among a score of lesser, like Dowie, Sanford, Teed, Schweinfurth, and others. The first of these is Mormonism, and their cry has been, "Behold, He is in the desert." Into the desert of the great West they went and planted the pseudo-Zion. The very name they gave their chief organ was a demonstration of our Lord's words—the Deseret News, still published at Salt Lake City. In many lands their missionaries have gone; earnestly have they preached; miracles have been wrought to support the messages borne; and thousands upon thousands have been deceived, deluded, and led into the Mormon desert, barren of all true spirituality, a mighty blot upon Western civilization.
The second of these delusions is Spiritism, whether manifested in so-called Modern Spiritualism, with its rappings, seances, etc., or in "Christian Science," or any of the other isms based on the doctrine of the natural, inherent immortality of man, and depending, to a greater or less extent, on signs and wonders to support its claims. Both of these sects claim that the second coming of Christ is manifest in them. We are told that He appears in the secret cabinet chamber; that He is manifest in the wonderful light given to the world, that He is revealed to us anew as dwelling in our own hearts, tho we knew it not; and millions are thereby deceived. Death, the enemy, is made to appear a friend, and the literal, personal, visible coming of Christ is made of no account, or a thing of ridicule.
By the Living Oracles of God we know that the Son of God once came as a Babe in Bethlehem, as a "Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief," as a Sacrifice for sinful man, the climax and cumulated evidence of God's eternal, outpoured love; and by the same evidence we know that He is coming again as King, coming personally, literally, visibly, coming in glory transcendent, flooding the heavens and earth with the unwonted splendor of the regal coming of Jehovah of hosts. Not in secret will He come, not locally will He appear, but as manifestly, as vividly, as clearly, as the lightning flash athwart from the east even unto the west, so shall the coming [the parousia, the personal presence] of the Son of Man be." Even so will He come; be not deceived.

III. Signs Specific and Definite, which Precede His Coming.

(To be continued.)

Question Corner

By Editor

1765.—The “Signs of the Times” and Other Works.

One correspondent asks us how we reconcile a statement in the SIGNS with a certain book. A lady asks the same question.
We would like to say to these inquirers and all others that we never attempt to reconcile the SIGNS OF THE TIMES with anything else on the face of the earth, except the Word of God. Sometimes we make mistakes in our attempt to do this or in explaining the Word, but it shall be our one aim and endeavor to teach that Word faithfully under all circumstances and at all times. If we do not agree with other books, this brings us no anxiety whatsoever if we know that we agree with the Eternal Word.

1766.—The Beginning of the Jewish Year.

September 30 last was the Jewish new year and was 5666. How would you harmonize that with Ex. 12:2 which makes the month Abib the first of the year? Abib, I understand, would come in April.
The Jews had two different years, one a sacred year, the other a civil year. Their civil year began in the spring at Abib; their religious year with the autumn. It is the religious year which is now kept. The number of the year does not correspond with other systems of chronology, in fact there are no two systems which correspond with each other. There is no more reason why we should depend on their system than on that of Archbishop Usher.

1767.—Seeing God. Job 19:26.

Please explain Job 19:26.
That passage reads as follows: “And tho after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.” That, with the connection, shows that Job believed in the resurrection at the last day, and that then he would in his resurrected body see the Lord. The marginal reading is a good one, “After I shall awake, tho this body be destroyed, yet out of my flesh shall I see God.” And there is a splendid thought in the next verse, “Whom I shall see for myself and mine eyes shall behold, and not a stranger.” He would know God then, his trusted Friend here.

1768.—The Ark of God.

At what date was the ark of God taken away from the temple, by whom and to what place?
It is supposed to have been taken about the time of the captivity of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. We have no definite history as to who took it away or anything of the kind. One of the Apocryphal books, 2 Mac. 2:4-8 reads as follows:
“And it was contained in the writing, that the prophet [Jeremiah], being warned of God, commanded that the tabernacle and the ark should follow with him, when he went forth into the mountain where Moses went up and beheld the heritage of God. And Jeremiah came and found a chamber in the rock, and there he brought in the tabernacle, and the ark, and the altar of incense; and he made fast the door. And some of those that followed with him came there that they might mark the way, and they could not find it. But when Jeremiah perceived it, he blamed them, saying, “Yea, and the place shall be unknown until God gather the people again together, and mercy come; and then shall the Lord disclose these things, and the glory of the Lord shall be seen, and the cloud.”
But there are few indeed who consider this authentic. Still it may all be true.
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