p. 15 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 11. (3/15/1905)

Lessons from the Gospel of John

LESSON 13.—MARCH 26.—REVIEW OF THE QUARTER'S LESSONS.

Golden Text.—"But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name." John 20:31.

LESSON I.—Christ the Light and Life of Men. John 1:1-18. Golden Text: "In Him was life; and the life was the light of men." Verse 4. Christ was the manifestation of God to the world. No sinful person could look upon God the Father, and live. Hence it is said that "no man hath seen God at any time;" so every appearance of God to men at any time has been through the manifestation of the Son. See verse 18 of lesson scripture.

LESSON II.—The Witness of John the Baptist to Jesus. John 1:19-34. Golden Text: "Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Verse 29. Had John declared himself to be the Messiah, he could have secured many followers, and a brief career of honor; but he was wise enough to be faithful to his mission, faithful unto death. Thus he won the commendation of His Master (Luke 7:26-28), which was far better than the brief applause of men.

LESSON III.—Jesus Wins His First Disciples. John 1:35-51. Golden Text: "Thou art the Son of God; Thou art the King of Israel." Verse 49. Man's instrumentality is recognized in this initial work of Christ. Two were instigated to follow Him by the testimony of John the Baptist. On being convinced of His Messiahship, one of these, Andrew, sought his brother Simon. Then Jesus found Philip, who was in turn the means of finding Nathanael. So every one who finds the truth should become its messenger to others.

LESSON IV.—The First Miracle in Cana. John 2:1-11. Golden Text: "Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it." Verse 5. Jesus' mother had no thought of His working a miracle; but she knew His accommodating disposition, and thought He might suggest some way to relieve the embarrassment of the host. But He is always "able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think." Eph. 3:20.

LESSON V.—Jesus and Nicodemus. John 3:1-15. Golden Text: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Verse 16. The whole plan of salvation is based on the love of God. In the very nature of things, sin will produce death (James 1:14, 15), and, because of His love for His creatures, God devised a plan, even at the sacrifice of His willing Son, by which believers in Him should be saved.

LESSON VI.—Jesus at Jacob's Well. John 4:5-14. Golden Text: "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Rev. 22:17. Verse 14 of the lesson says: "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life." This indicates that the disciples of Christ are to be channels through which His blessings are to flow out to others.

LESSON VII.—The Second Miracle in Cana. John 4:43-54. Golden Text: "The same works that I do, bear witness of Me, that the Father hath sent Me." John 5:36. And thus it is that every man is tested by his work. Does your work bear witness that you are God-sent? At last "the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." 1 Cor. 3:13. As Christ could heal the nobleman's son at a distance from His presence, so the true Christian's influence is not confined to his immediate surroundings.

LESSON VIII.—Jesus at the Pool of Bethesda. John 5:1-16. Golden Text: "A great multitude followed Him, because they saw His miracles." John 6:2. Jesus saw all the afflicted people at the pool, but it is noted of this man that "he had been now a long time in that case," and that he had no man to help him into the pool at the opportune moment. Jesus helps when everything else fails.

LESSON IX.—The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes. John 6:1-14. Golden Text: "I am the living Bread which came down from heaven." John 6:51. Two points are especially made prominent in this miracle, namely, the ability of Christ to provide without limit, and that He makes His disciples co-laborers with Him in His work.

LESSON X.—Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles. John 7:37-46. Golden Text: "Never man spake like this Man." Verse 46. The words of Christ were always His defense. Even Satan could do Him no bodily harm until His work was done, and He was ready to voluntarily lay down His life as the culmination of that work. So the Word of the Lord is the Christian's defense, as well as his only offensive weapon. See Eph. 6:13-17.

LESSON XI.—The Slavery of Sin. John 8:31-40. Golden Text: "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin." Verse 34. Men were made sinners through a lie concocted by Satan, namely, "Ye shall not surely die." Gen. 3:4. No one phase of error has so enslaved the minds of men as this doctrine of man's inherent immortality. And as falsehood has enslaved the race, only the truth can set men free. Christ is the truth, and "if the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." He makes men free through His Word, which is truth (John 17:17).

LESSON XII.—Healing of the Man Born Blind. John 9:1-11. Golden Text: "I am the Light of the world." Verse 5. Of all the blind men whom Christ had healed, this was the only one of whom it is said that he was born blind. The fact was well attested, and, as no other objection could be made, Christ was persecuted because He had healed the man on the Sabbath day. The last argument of truth's opponents is persecution.

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THE CHINESE.

PUT them in rank, joining hands, and they will girdle the globe ten times at the equator with living, beating human hearts. Make them an army and let them move at the rate of 1,000 a day, week after week and month after month, and they will not pass you in 1,000 years. Constitute them pilgrims, and let 2,000 go past every day and every night, under the sunlight and under the solemn stars, and you must hear the ceaseless tramp, tramp of the weary, pressing, throbbing throng for 500 long years.

Just to get some idea of the population of that country, take your Bible in your hand and turn over the pages. Count the chapters—it would take a long time; count the verses, count the words—an endless task. Go further, count all the letters in the Bible from the first chapter of Genesis to the last of Revelation, every single letter, without missing one.

Have you got then the number of the people in that one land alone? Far from it. You must do it again; you must do it ten times, twenty times, forty times, eighty times, one hundred times before you reach the sum of the population of China. The letters of 113 Bibles are not enough to represent the souls in that land, and nearly all of them in heathen darkness!—Selected.

A MISAPPLIED PETITION.

Not long since the choir in one of the fashionable churches of the South rendered a long and difficult anthem—one with many frills and furbelows. The good minister sat patiently through it, but when the anthem was finished he arose and, to the amusement of both congregation and choir, began his prayer in deeply-earnest tones, saying, "O Lord, we thank Thee that we are still alive!"—Lippincott's.

Sabbath School Lesson Quarterly

By Editor

The Sabbath-school lessons have been discontinued. The Lesson Quarterly may be obtained, containing three months' lessons and notes, for five cents. Address, Pacific Press, Mountain View, Cal. The Sunday-school lessons will continue.

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The Sabbath and Liberty

"Follow Me," is the standing command of the Master. At the late convention in Spokane, Wash., the Northwest Sabbath Association resolved, "That we thankfully acknowledge Jesus, the Son of Man, as the Lord of the Sabbath day," etc. Now the only acceptable way to acknowledge Jesus is to obey Him, and follow His example (John 14:15; 15:10). And the Sabbath day of which Jesus said He was Lord is the seventh day—that He blessed and sanctified (Gen. 2:2, 3; Mark 2:27, 28). The Sabbath Association also resolved, "That we regard the civic sabbath as the strongest pillar in the temple of liberty, and a bulwark of protection for labor against the oppression of greed and avarice." If the man-made, civic sabbath is the "strongest pillar in the temple of liberty," it is no wonder that liberty is being driven from her seat, and oppression and tyranny are crowding in, while the temple itself is tottering before the onslaught of imperial sway and its ever-increasing burdens. If this civic sabbath is being depended upon as "a bulwark of protection for labor against the oppression of greed and avarice," it is no wonder that greed and avarice hold such high position in the management of our country's affairs—political, financial, and industrial. Evidently the temple of liberty is having very poor protection, for some reason or other; and, if a human sabbath is its strongest pillar, that certainly accounts for it.

Profession vs. Practise.

A contributor to the Christian Statesman (National Reform organ) cites the following "Christian Citizenship Pledge" as defining the National Reform movement:

We, citizens of the United States whose names are underwritten, acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as the Ruler of nations, and His law as the supreme standard of right and wrong; and we pledge ourselves to Him and to one another to study the laws of His kingdom; to obey His will as citizens in all things so far as known to us; and to use our influence and power, as citizens, to secure the acknowledgment of His authority and obedience to His will in all things by our nation and our government.

We learn from Ps. 40:7, 8 and John 5:30 with chapter 15:10, that God's will is His law, and that His will is also the will of Christ. Furthermore we learn from the Word of God and the example of Christ and His apostles that "the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord." But the National Reform movement, while making a pretense of "obedience to His will in all things," is pre-eminently engaged in the work of enforcing the observance of another day as the Sabbath. Thus, instead of acknowledging Christ's authority in this matter, these professed reformers are using their utmost endeavor to have "our nation and our government" install a sabbath directly antagonistic to the Sabbath of the Lord, as expressly appointed by Him in the beginning (Gen. 2:2, 3), and embodied in His law (Ex. 20:8-11), which can not be altered (Matt. 5:17, 18; Luke 16:17).

CONTAINED IN THIS NUMBER.

Poetry.

Keeping Faith, LLEWELLYN A. MORRISON . . . . . 1 I Am Satisfied to Know That Jesus Knows . . . . . 9 I Wonder What I Would Do? . . . . . 12 "Tell Him So" . . . . . 14

Editorial.—The Good Tidings—A Strong Influence for Evil —"Never Man Spake Like This Man"—Life and Law— Essentials . . . . . 3-5

Question Corner.—Nos. 1630-1632 . . . . . 5

Outlook.—European Letter, JEAN VUILLEUMIER—Church Lands in the Philippines—The Corrupting Power of Money—The War in the Orient . . . . . 6, 7

General.

The Successive Ages, GEO. MCCREADY PRICE . . . . . 8 Courage in the Lord, MRS. E. G. WHITE . . . . . 9 Apostasy and Sabbath Reform, L. A. PHIPPENY . . . . . 10 Christian Development under God's Last Warning Mes- sage, B. FRANKLIN RICHARDS . . . . . 10 I'm Too Busy . . . . . 11 How They Became Convinced (A Sabbath Symposium) . 11

Missions.—A Nickel for the Lord in the Missionary Col- lection—If—The Empress Dowager's Gift to Missions— Presbyterian Schism in Brazil . . . . . 12, 13

The Home.—Jones' Alphabet—Philanthropy Needs Courage . . . . . 14, 15

International Sunday-School Lesson.—Review of the Quarter's Lessons . . . . . 15

Publishers. . . . . . 2

Feeding on the Word of God

The Christian can grow only by feeding on the Word of God. Reading that Word is necessary, but reading alone will not give strength or growth. It must be appropriated by faith, brought into the life in times of trial and temptation. It must be made a rule of duty, joyful duty, for it is the expression of a loving Father's will. It should be studied for this very purpose, that we may find the way to do it, and then do the same.

Slavery and Liberty

Slavery and Liberty.—The most degrading and universal slavery is the slavery of sin, and the most blessed liberty is freedom from that condition. We are not to blame for being in bondage, for we are born there; but we are guilty if we remain in the bondage of sin when the Lord has made such gracious provision for our release. While he who commits sin is the slave of sin, it is just as true that if the Son of God make us free, we are free indeed. John 8:34, 36. That freedom is for all who will accept it.

Is Man Immortal?

By Editor

Is Man Immortal? is a question that affects the stability of much that passes for orthodox religion. All the structure of Spiritism, all the fallacies of Christian Science falsely so-called, all the dogmatism of Roman Catholicism, and as much of so-called Protestantism as was inherited from Rome, together with all of heathen mythological tradition, are based on the delusive theory that man is naturally endowed with an immortal soul. Notwithstanding the entire harmony of the Scriptures that man is mortal, that God "only hath immortality;" that it is obtainable only through Jesus Christ, by seeking for it through "patient continuance in well doing," and that it is bestowed at the coming of Christ in glory, the majority of men tenaciously cling to the Satanic falsehood that deceived our mother Eve in the Garden of Eden. The truth on the subject is aptly and briefly told in a tract, entitled, "Is Man Immortal?" recently issued from this office. It is Apples of Gold Library, No. 86, January, 1905. 16 pages; price, 1 cent, or 70 cents per 100. Order from any of our publishing houses or tract societies.

When It Will Succeed

By Editor

When It Will Succeed.—Enforced Sunday observance has been sought in this country through various pretexts and schemes: (1) As a religious measure, (2) through an educational scheme; (3) as a sanitary measure; (4) as a temperance proposition; (5) as an auxiliary to the interests of the laboring class in the conflict with capital; (6) as a means of squelching the truth concerning the true Sabbath of the Lord. The latter has been an underlying purpose on the part of the adversary all through. While none of these pretexts or purposes have fully succeeded, they have all, in connection with politics, had a certain degree of effect.

But when will success crown the effort? Answer—When it comes to the front as a full-fledged political scheme, backed by a united Romanism and apostate Protestantism; and the time is not far ahead. How was the Sunday institution first launched into the realm of law?—As a political measure, pure and simple. How did it get into the Christian Church? As a political scheme to curry favor with the state. How did it become an element of persecution?—First, as a political means of continuing said favor of the state, and, second, as a political measure by which the state catered to the victorious political church.

So, as of yore, Sunday's full victory must come as a political institution, with a religious pretense behind it. And so says the prophecy: “And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth [the United States]; and he had two horns like a lamb [at first], and he [afterward] spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast [Rome] before him [or in his presence], and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.” Rev. 13:11, 12. Study the whole chapter, and see “Marvel of Nations,” published at this office. 324 pp.; cloth, $1.25; cloth gilt, $1.50.

Steam Trams Proposed in Palestine

Another western improvement is proposed in Palestine, the construction of steam trams to run between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. It is certain, however, that the trams will be a great convenience, and they will hardly be more ugly or more unoriental than the wretched ramshackle wooden vehicles, drawn by miserable horses, often ill-used, in which people who are not well-to-do tourists make the journey if they do not care to ride on donkey-back or trudge on their own feet. And the Jerusalem station of the Jaffa-Jerusalem railway has been a conspicuous object on the Zion side of the city for eleven years now.

God’s Love for Humanity

"That the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me." This is one clause of our Saviour's prayer to the Father, just before His betrayal. What a precious truth it teaches! That God loves us just as He loves His only-begotten Son. Is it difficult to believe this? We have only to remember that "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." If He had loved us less than He loved the Son, He would not have given the Son for our redemption. Why did He so love us? He answers: "I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine Own sake." And what will His love accomplish for us? Again He says: "I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir."

Why Christ Could Not Change the Sabbath.

By Editor

In the article, "The Sabbath and Sunday" (page 10 of last week) is the important statement that "Jesus did not institute a change of the Sabbath before His death, and could not after His resurrection." Some will ask, "Why could He not change the Sabbath after His resurrection?" We say that some will ask this question, because many now say that He did so change the day. But there is a reason why He could not do so. The Sabbath is part of the law of God, a jot or tittle of which can not be destroyed (Matt. 5: 17, 18; Luke 16: 17). This law is inseparably connected with the new covenant (Jer. 31: 31-33; Heb. 8: 8-11), and is established by faith (Rom. 3: 31). Now the new covenant, or testament, and all that is done under it, was ratified at the death of Christ. So if, before His death, He did not make any change in the law which was to be enforced by the covenant that was confirmed by His death, He could not make any change afterward: "Tho it be but a man's covenant [margin, 'testament'], yet if it be confirmed, no man disannuleth, or addeth thereto." Gal. 3: 15. Is God's covenant less sacred than a man's testament? Has He less regard for His covenant than men have?—No, indeed; for He emphatically says, "My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips." Ps. 89: 34; also 111: 5-10.