THE WITNESSING OF GOD: THE BASIS OF OUR CONFIDENCE
By Editor
By the Editor
VI. God’s Word Twice Written in Prophecy and Fulfilment.—No. 2
The great pyramid of Cheops, the Sphinx, and ruins of the temple of Armachis, Gizeh, Egypt
Let us note, in this, two other instances among the many of the twofold witness of prophecy and fulfilment. They are both clear and definite. The first we will consider is that of another very ancient empire which rivaled Babylon in antiquity. Once the glory of kingdoms, the prophecy predicts that it shall be—
“The Basest of Kingdoms”
Egypt has been one of the great and mighty and molding empires of earth. In the days of Ezekiel it was still great. Over and over again backslidden Israel looked to Egypt for hope against the all-conquering, on-coming Babylonians. They felt that the only salvation that they could have from Babylon was in the strength of Egypt. Some of those who fled from Babylon fled to Egypt. To these God’s prophet Ezekiel bore this testimony: “Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster that lieth in the midst of his rivers, that hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.” Because of this overweening pride, God pronounces the doom of Egypt. He declares, “I am against thee, and against thy rivers [or canals, or delta], and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from the tower of Seveneh even unto the border of Ethiopia.” “It shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it any more lift itself up above the nations; and I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations. And it shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel.” Images and idols should be destroyed, and there should “be no more a prince from the land of Egypt.”
There is very much more of detail regarding the doom and punishment of Egypt. The very one that should break its power is told—Nebuchadnezzar. He “caused his army to serve a great service against Tyre,” in the fulfilment of God’s prophecy. God gave him the spoils of Egypt for his prey. How true is the prophecy!
We can imagine that the Israelites and the Egyptians who read it, laughed the prophet Ezekiel to scorn. But the days go by, and the years roll on, and the prophecy is fulfilled, and the army of Nebuchadnezzar comes and strikes the first blow at the authority and power of Egypt. It becomes a dwindling monarchy. In the same connection we are told not only that Egypt would no more rule over the nations, but that strangers themselves should rule in Egypt, that Egypt should become the basest of kingdoms. How true it has been! From that day since, it has never lifted itself up above the nations. Marvelously rich in historic lore, it is of no power among the nations of earth. For many years, not a native Egyptian has served among its rulers. And yet Egypt stands there still, enfeebled and humbled to the very dust, a mighty witness to the truthfulness of the word of God. God gave the prophecies through Ezekiel; in His own time and way those prophecies were written again in the history of Egypt.
Christ’s Prophecy Concerning Jerusalem
We confess that it is a temptation to linger longer, and mention many other prophecies of like import; but we name only one more in this article, and that is Christ’s prophecy concerning Jerusalem, uttered but a little while before His own death upon the cross, given to the nation that rejected Him who came to save them, telling so clearly and so definitely that they could not misunderstand His meaning. It was not, like Babylon, to be covered in oblivion; but so far as that nation was concerned, it would no longer be their center of worship and seat of authority. Read His prediction in Luke, the nineteenth chapter, beginning with the forty-first verse: “And when He drew nigh, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known in this day, even thou, the things which belong unto peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, when thine enemies shall cast up a bank about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall dash thee to the ground,6and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.”
How true it was! “How often,” He declares, “would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” When they declared, in their foolish, stubborn pride, that they would have no king but Cæsar,—when they rejected Him whose life and teaching condemned them for their sins, but invited them to the fullest salvation,—they chose their merited doom. They went on from worse to worse. Many of them followed false christs, and the great mass of them rebelled against the power which they themselves had chosen, that of Rome. In the year 70 the great climax of the national destruction and scattering was completed. When Titus took Jerusalem, thousands and thousands of the Jews were destroyed in the siege; many were led away captive and sold into slavery. Some died by slow starvation, but the words of the Galilean were fulfilled.
Two hundred years after this, Julian the apostate came to the throne of Rome. At first professing Christianity, he afterward apostatized; and when he apostatized, he made up his mind that he would prove the words of the Nazarene false, and so proclamation was made for the rebuilding of the Jewish temple and the restoration of Jewish worship. We are told that he made decree to this effect among the Jews, that many came to assist in the rebuilding of that city, that wealthy Jewish ladies began to carry away the rubbish from the ruins of the temple. Gibbon declares that eye-witnesses testified that horrible balls of fire burst from the ruins. Supernatural manifestations drove away those who would rebuild the temple, and the work was discontinued.
Jerusalem stands to-day a mighty witness of the words of the Nazarene and the prophet, in the hands of the Moslem. Where the temple stood, Mohammed is honored by a mosque. The few words of Jesus were mightier than all the subsequent plans and power that have endeavored to make them of none effect. Written in the Word, written again in fulfilled event, a twofold witness which could not in any wise be collusive, they testify to the strength of the evidence upon which the child of God may rest.
There are scores of other prophecies in God’s word. It is God’s witness all along the way; from the time of the first sin in Eden to the last great judgment-day. It tells not only of the things through which the world is passing now, but of the great future which lies before. It is God’s witness of Himself, and in view of this He appeals to the children of men to give heed to the counsel: “Remember this, and show yourselves men; bring it again to mind, O ye transgressors. Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me; declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done; saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure: . . . yea, I have spoken, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed, I will also do it.” Isa. 46:8-11.
Once more we appeal by the words of the apostle, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed.”
[Our next article will be “God’s Word Twice Written in Precept and Character.”]
Reading Without Preconceptions
He is the best student who does not read his thoughts into the book, but lets it reveal its own; who draws from it its sense, and does not import his own into it, nor force upon its words a meaning which he had determined was the right one before he opened its pages.—Hilary of Poitiers.
Knowing Where One Is Going
“ALL the world steps out of the way of the man who knows where he is going.”
Have Any Been Omitted?
ONE day in a large church the communion service was about to be concluded. As the last members served at the altar were about to retire, the minister asked, “Have any been omitted?” A woman kneeling at the board said that it seemed to her, as the minister asked this question, she could see women rise from the countries of the earth—from Persia, Africa, India, and China. They seemed to arise and cry out: “Yes, we have been omitted. No one has ever broken the bread of life to us.” The following poem was written upon this incident:
The feast was spread, the solemn words were spoken.
Humbly my soul drew near to meet her Lord,
To plead His sacrificial body broken,
His blood for me outpoured.
Confessing all my manifold transgressions,
Weeping to cast myself before His throne,
Praying His Spirit to take full possession
And seal me all His own.
On Him I laid each burden I was bearing:
The anxious mind, of strength so oft bereft,
The future dim, the children of my caring,
All on His heart I left.
“How could I live, my Lord,” I cried, “without Thee?
How for a single day this pathway trace,
And feel no loving arms thrown round about me,
No all-sustaining grace?
“O, show me how to thank Thee, praise Thee, love Thee,
For these rich gifts bestowed on sinful me,
The rainbow hope that spans the sky above me,
The promised rest with Thee.”
As if indeed he spoke the answer, fitted
Into my prayer, the pastor’s voice came up:
“Let any rise if they have been omitted
When passed the bread and cup.”
Sudden before my inward, open vision
Millions of faces crowded up to view,
Sad eyes that said: “For us is no provision.
Give us your Saviour, too!”
Sorrowful women’s faces, hungry, yearning,
Wild with despair, or dark with sin and dread,
Worn with long weeping for the unreturning,
Hopeless, uncomforted.
“Save us,” they cry. “Your cup of consolation
Never to our outstretched hands is passed;
We long for the Desire of every nation,
And O, we die so fast!”
“Does He not love us too, this gracious Master?
’Tis from your hand alone we can receive
The beauty of His grace. O, send it faster,
That we may take and live!”
“Master,” I said, as from a dream awakening,
“Is this the service Thou dost show to me?
Dost Thou to me entrust Thy bread for breaking
To those who cry to Thee?”
“Dear Heart of love, canst Thou forgive the blindness
That let Thy child sit selfish and at ease
By the full table of Thy loving-kindness
And take no thought for these?”
—“Woman’s Missionary Record.”
A Clean Universe
NOTE.— In our Bible reading last week numerous texts were quoted, giving the promises that God has made that this earth will receive a baptism of fire that will cleanse it from all wickedness, and that it will be renewed to become the eternal home of the redeemed. Peter’s expression of the matter is, “Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13); and John had a vision of the matter in which he said, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away” (Rev. 21:1).
1. What will be the moral condition in this new heaven and new earth?
“They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Isa. 11:9.
“For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Hab. 2:14.
2. What song did John hear the whole universe singing?
“And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshiped Him that liveth forever and ever.” Rev. 5:9-14.
3. The wicked and all wickedness having been destroyed out of the earth, as we have learned in previous Bible studies, how will every citizen of that righteous kingdom relate himself to Christ?
“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil. 2:9-11.
4. Will even the ferocity of wild animals be all gone in that glorious kingdom of the new earth?
“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Isa. 11:6-9.
5. What scripture gives a glimpse of the pleasurable occupations of that time, and also tells of the kindness that will be in the nature even of the brute creation?
“They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of My people, and Mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them. And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, saith the Lord.” Isa. 65:21-25.
6. In whom is the great family of the universe joined?
“For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” Eph. 3:14-19.
“Come, for All Things Are Now Ready”
By M. C. Sollars
By Mrs. M. C. Sollars
With outstretched arms, the Saviour calls,
His sweet voice pleading still:
“Come unto Me, and be ye saved,
Yea, whosoever will.”
“I love thee much, I suffered much,
I gave My life for thee,
Unto the cruel, rabble horde,
Upon the Calv’ry tree.”
“Come, weary, heavy-laden, come!
Why choose the downward road?
Come, lay your heavy burdens down;
I’ll bear the sin-cursed load.”
“My Father’s home is very fair,
A jeweled city bright.
No death, no sin, may enter in
Those mansions of delight.”
“My Father’s house has bread enough,
There’s plenty and to spare;
There’s life and home and happiness,
And freedom from all care.”
“My Father bids His guests to come;
All things are now prepared;
The time to gather home is come,
The Father has declared.”
“And he that heareth, let him say
Unto his brother, Come!
Come to the marriage of the Lamb,
And hear the welcome home.”
Time is not long, can not be long,
When pleadings will be o’er,
Sweet invitations silent all,
Forever, evermore.
Seize the Moment
By Goethe
ARE you in earnest? Seize this very minute.
What you can do, or think you can, begin it.
— Goethe.
The Angel of Reward
By Violet Miriam Beck
By Violet Miriam Beck
There came one night the angel of reward.
He stood with folded hands and lowered wings,
And said: “I bring you message from the Lord,
Who knoweth all His children's sufferings.
“His eyes have watched when thou hast smiled
with cheer,
While tears of pain were pressing ’neath thine
eyes;
He hath beheld thy conquering of fear;
He saw the hidden, loving sacrifice.
“Already hath He blessed thee with His love,
And shown thee tenderness that few have
known;
He gave thee peace the world knows little of,
And calleth thee especially His own.
“He biddeth me to say that through the pain,
Thou art become a blessing unto men.”
China and Christianity.
By T.
DURING recent weeks, Sir Hiram S. Maxim has been communicating through the press some of his views concerning the prospects of Christianity in China. He refers to the fact that the new Chinese republic requested all the numerous religionists in China to pray for the republican government. Then Mr. Maxim says:
“On several occasions I have been requested by high Chinese officials to explain the religions of Europe and America for the use of the Chinese. When Li Hung Chang was in England I prepared, at his request, a scrap-book containing cuttings and quotations from many of the most eminent religious writers and philosophers. When Chang Chih-Tung, viceroy of Hupeh and Hunan, who was, after the death of Li Hung Chang, known as China’s greatest viceroy, wrote ‘China’s Only Hope,’ I was requested by Chinese Minister Loh Fung Lu to review the viceroy’s book. I did so at length, and I find that in many ways the Chinese have taken my advice about our missionaries. The best way to deal with our missionaries, I said, was to let them alone, and by no means attack them or destroy their property. There were many points of resemblance between Christianity and Buddhism.”
Continuing, Mr. Maxim says:
“Confucius taught a high moral philosophy, and as it was quite free from supernaturalism, it can not, strictly speaking, be considered as a religion.
“‘The teaching of Confucianism on human duty,’ says Dr. Legge, ‘is wonderful and admirable. On three or four things which Confucius delighted to teach—letters, ethics, devotion of soul, and truthfulness—his utterances are in harmony with both the law and the gospel. A world ordered by them would be a beautiful world.’”
“Buddhism, which dates from 450 B.C., has more adherents than any other religious system in the world, and very closely resembles Christianity, having a similar origin. There are about twenty million Mohammedans in Western China, probably six or seven million Roman Catholics, and perhaps two million Greek Catholics and Protestants, the Protestants being divided into innumerable sects. Over three hundred and fifty millions of the Chinese are Buddhists, if anything.”
One of the leading characteristics among many people in these times is to seek to have it appear that Christianity is on a plane with the teachings of Confucius, and that Buddhism and other Oriental religions have many things in common with the teaching of the Christ of the living God. To the individual who does not know Christianity by an actual experience, this teaching may seem very true; but the individual who knows the Lord Jesus Christ and His power to save, is thoroly alive to the fact that there is no comparison between any of those religions and the gospel that brings salvation and power into the life of the individual.
The trouble is that there are many millions of people who are professing Christianity who know nothing at all about its power to save them from sin. They hold it merely as a religion through which they hope to secure life beyond the tomb. They have not entered into the treasure-house of the gospel. They have not become personally acquainted with the Son of the living God. They know nothing of the soul-stirring joys of salvation. If they did, they never could talk as they do in regard to those old Oriental religions’ being in any sense on a par with Christianity.
If Buddhism has such wonderful principles in it why haven’t the millions of adherents of that religion been elevated thereby? Why are they in the conditions in which they are found? Christianity has had an opportunity to express itself through the Protestant faith that broke the chains of the Dark Ages. And see where the Protestant nations of to-day are as compared with any part of the Oriental world. And these Protestant nations are nothing to what they might have been had more of the people really accepted Christianity as it is actually taught in the divine Book. Even in the Protestant world, there is only here and there an individual, comparatively, who actually accepts the plan of salvation, and receives in his life the uplifting power of the gospel. But when such men do arise, as Luther, or the Wesleys, for instance, see what a power they exert in the world, and how wide-spread and how uplifting is their work. The heathen world has no reforms to offer that have produced such results as are seen in the nations that have been touched by the influence and power of Protestantism. But aside from all of these facts, the individual who actually knows the power of salvation through Christ, has an experience of his own that enables him to know for himself the fallacy of all of the claims that are made concerning these systems of religion that come from the Orient. T.
It Has Always Been So
WHEN the attention of certain individuals is called to the fact that this world is becoming exceedingly corrupt, one of the most ready replies is that “things have always been this way.” If we go into particulars, and say that the wealth of the world is being concentrated into a very few hands, we are told that there has always been this grasping tendency for a few men to control the output of gold. If we speak of the vices that are afflicting society through the white slave traffic, etc., we are told that things have always been so. If we speak of the increase in murder, robberies, divorces, and things of this sort, we are again met with the handy expression that things have always been so.
Those who have studied the prophecies of the Bible know that this tendency to wickedness in this time is a definite fulfilment of the Scriptures; and furthermore, the second coming of Christ at no very distant day is that which is betokened. But perhaps there are not very many people who realize that one of the apostles, nearly two thousand years ago, foretold that the people would be saying in this time that “things have always been so.” His words are:
“This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” 2 Peter 3:1-4.
The apostle desires that we should be mindful of the words which were spoken by the holy prophets, and then he wants us to know “that there shall come in the last days scoffers.” He wants us further to understand that these scoffers will walk “after their own lusts.” And he wishes us still further to see that they will sneer at the thought of the second advent, for in derision they will say, “Where is the promise of His coming?” And when the evidences are presented, then they will tell us that “since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” That is, the things that you are pointing to as evidences of the second coming of Christ “have always been so.” Now isn’t it interesting to know that the apostle Peter could tell these people what they were going to say, two thousand years before they said it?
But even granting that these conditions of vice and criminality have existed to a greater or less extent all through the world’s history, we ought to recognize this fact,—that all the historians are agreed in telling us that whenever any nation has become submerged in vices and crimes and idle luxuries, that nation has gone down. Such was the history of Babylon, of the Medes and Persians, of the Phenicians, of Greece and Rome, of Egypt, Assyria, and all the rest of the countries that are nothing more than a memory in the records of time. The prophecy makes it perfectly clear where the world is going. But if we would disregard the prophecy, and take the simple philosophy of history itself, we ought to be able to read the future that lies before this world.
“Legalism”
WHEN we preach the necessity of obedience to the commandments of God, there are many who charge us with being legalists, notwithstanding the fact that we preach “the faith of Jesus” at the same time as of equal importance. Those who repudiate the Sabbath of the Lord, seem to have a terrible horror of anything like legalism. But here an anomaly presents itself. The same people who would not dare keep the Sabbath, lest they should be called legalists, are very zealous in their efforts to have laws enacted to enforce the observance of Sunday. Law, law, law, is their main theme. “We must have a law,” say they, “in order to check this Sunday desecration.”
Is not this legalism? If not, what is it? It seems, from their actions, as tho the only law to be shunned is the law of God. After all, this is but natural, for that is the law which brands the Sunday as a base counterfeit. No wonder Sunday devotees wish to throw the law of God into the shade; but when they actually have a law requiring Sunday observance, their fear of legalism will be gone. The innocent, the obedient to God, will be given reason to fear it then.
Resist Flattery and Faultfinding
By Ellen G. White
Be not satisfied with superficial knowledge. Be not elated by flattery nor depressed by faultfinding. Satan will tempt you to pursue such a course that you may be admired and flattered; but you should turn away from his devices. You are servants of the living God.— E. G. W.
The Modern Dance and Morals.
By Editor
The National Association of Hosiery and Underwear Manufacturers recently had a meeting, and one of their speakers affirmed that the modern dance among the laboring girls is doing more to demoralize them than the much talked of low wages. He affirmed furthermore that the laboring girls are drawn into this dancing craze through their wealthier and more influential sisters. He said: “The girls feel free to practise what their richer sisters practise at the gathering places of the elect. The investigations do not touch the society rich who set these bad examples.”
Without much question, this speaker gave the foregoing utterances in order to shield his associates in that line of manufacture, which employs many women, from the odium of paying them such low wages. The girls and women who labor should have a proper wage from the large amounts that they enable the manufacturer to earn; but that question being settled in a right way, the fact still remains that there is a great deal of truth to his statement that the modern dance which is pervading society is doubtless doing its full share in the demoralization of women. In seeking to make reforms that would correct these evils, we must not content ourselves with pointing out one cause only, but we should seek for all of the causes. The women should receive proper wages, and we should do everything in our power to instruct people in regard to the demoralization of the modern dance, to say nothing of much of the modern forms of dress, and everything else that is tending to produce these vices. If men and women would recognize the enormity of these evils, and what they signify, they might raise a voice of protest against them that would have some effect. But when the majority of mankind are stupefied by the dream that regardless of all this evil the world is getting better and better, what can we hope for in the way of reforms? There are only a very few, comparatively, that are aroused to the real dangers that are threatening the world.
It would be well for our religious periodicals, and every other publication, for that matter, that can be led to join in the good work, together with the ministers in every pulpit, to denounce continuously the miserable cartoons and jokes that are making light of the marriage relation. We have called attention several times to the pernicious work of the cartoons that are found in so many of the great daily papers which are making a joke of the infidelity of husbands and wives. These cartoons and jokes are educating young men and women to believe that there is nothing very serious in breaking the matrimonial vows. It is a sorry comment on the condition of the public mind that there should be so much of a demand for such things.
