Earlier text: THE GOLDEN GATEA SUFFICIENT SAVIOUR.
By Mrs. C. H. Goodwin
WELL, I do declare, that person is enough to wear out the patience of a saint, and I, try as I will, can’t help getting provoked at him.” “I just can’t help saying and doing things on the Sabbath that I know to be sin.” “No; I should not have read that story, or spent that time gossiping with my neighbor. I might have spent it studying God’s Word, or helping that poor blind soul with her work.” “Yes; I confess I should not have spent that nickel for candy, nor the money to feed folks on unwholesome food at the party I gave. Then, too, we are commanded to call the poor, the maimed, etc., when we make a feast.” “Yes; I’ve done all that, and a great many worse things, and have said, time and again, ‘God be merciful to me, a sinner.’ It just seems I might as well give up. I’m a disgrace to the name of Christ. I have tried and tried; but I still fail.” These and many more similar expressions are the accusings of a sin-stricken conscience, and the utterances of a discouraged soul. Is the Lord’s ear heavy that He can not hear? Is His arm short that He can not save? What is the matter? Where lies the wrong, where the remedy? Does God hold out nothing but repeated sinning? does He say, “O you can’t do any better, it is no use for you to try. You are ‘as good as such a person is, anyway?’” Shall we try to cover up our sins, and hide behind the text, “The spirit indeed is willing, but ‘the flesh is weak’”? Well, if we do, such texts as these, 2 Peter 2:19; 1:4; Rom. 6:16, still confront us, and we must confess that we are not in harmony with God. Why not take God’s way, “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to ‘be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our ‘Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye ‘should obey it in the lusts thereof.” “I can do all things through ‘Christ which strengtheneth me.” O soul, does God mean that?—“Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar.” “Well, but,” says one, “I confessed my sins, and I believed God ‘forgave them for Jesus’ sake; but I don’t feel any different; and when temptation comes, I am no stronger, but yield.” Don’t you believe now that God forgives you?—“Yes.” Well, then, “shall we con-tinue in sin, that grace may abound? God [not your feelings] for ‘bid.” Rom. 6:1, 2. “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead ‘indeed [not perhaps] unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus ‘Christ our Lord.” Feed upon the Word of God; daily consecrate every part of your body to Him; give up, surrender every plan to His direction. Remember that “whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” And “if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all ‘men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” When tempted to say, I can’t, say, Praise God, “I can do all ‘things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” God, the Creator and Upholder of all things, who takes note of the sparrow’s fall and numbers the hairs of our head, has promised that with every temptation He will make a way of escape. He says, “Blessed are they ‘which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be ‘filled.” “Thou shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall save His ‘people from their sins.” He is a risen Saviour, a long-suffering Saviour, a perfect Saviour, and a soon-coming Saviour. When He comes, he that is filthy will be filthy still, and he that is righteous will be righteous still, and every man shall receive according as his works have been. Now Jesus says, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” Let us no longer make out that the sacrifice of God and Christ is incomplete, by saying, “I can’t; it is no use for me to try.” Read Isa. 43:1–3; 1:17–20. Can anything be more full of love than the tender pleading of God with the creatures of His hand? Let us then, in the words of the psalmist, “praise God” (Ps. 106:1, 2,), and “go forward.” Evidence of God’s Existence
For the right-minded, faithful children of God, no profound argument is needed to prove His existence. No argument could possibly disturb faith. His existence and His goodness are proved by the sunshine that makes the earth cheerful, and by the rain that makes it fertile. It is visible from the happiness of men and women. It is majestically demonstrated in the movements of the vast suns and planets, obeying His laws and fulfilling their destiny, even to the tiniest of His creatures.—Examiner. The Atheist Seeking God Through Nature
THE atheist, seeking God in vain through nature, seems like the shadow denying the existence of the sun because it never strikes upon it.—S. F. Examiner. We have great respect for the Wesleyan Herald of Philadelphia, because we believe it is earnestly striving to inculcate the religion of Christ. But we can not say as much for a series of articles entitled,— “Forty-eight Facts Which Prove That Seventh-day Adventism Is Opposed to Reason, Common Sense, and the Bible.” We clip at random eight of these “facts” (we have not space for more) as samples of all, from the issue of the Herald of October 17:— 34. Christ set apart the first day of the week by His resurrection, and met His followers on that day and the week following, namely, the first day, and after His ascension He and the Father ratified it by the Holy Spirit on Pentecost—the first day of the week. 35. The Christian dispensation is a spiritual one, and to be carried on by the Holy Ghost, who commenced the work on the first day of the week. 36. Christ commanded His apostles and disciples to tarry at Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high: They tarried, and the endowment came on the first day of the week—the Lord’s day. 37. The Christian church was organized, and three thousand converted, on the first day of the week—the Lord’s day. 38. The Christian church was never known to meet for worship on the seventh-day Sabbath, during the lives of the apostles. 40. Paul went to the synagogues on the Jewish Sabbath to preach and reason with the people. He chose that day; for had he gone any other day, he would have found the synagogue with no one in it; yet he never went to preach to a Christian society on that day. 41. The history of events that would affect the church until the period when the stone without hands would become a great mountain and fill the earth, was revealed to John on the Isle of Patmos on the Lord’s day, the first day of the week. Revelation 1. Let us briefly consider them. 34. Where is the Bible proof, even one statement, that Christ set apart the first day of the week? If His resurrection as an event did this, why did not His betrayal set apart another day, His crucifixion another, His ascension another? They are equally7logical propositions. He did not meet His followers till the evening after the first day. All the day went by uncelebrated, unkept, unobserved till the evening came, when the apostles gathered to their common abode (Acts 1:13), where Jesus met with them. The day was far spent when He met with the two at Emmaus; they returned eight miles to Jerusalem after that, and it was subsequent to their arrival that Jesus met with them. See Luke 24:13-48. The next meeting was not the eighth day after, but “after ‘eight days’” from the first, which could by no known law of numbers fall on the next first day. John 20:26. The reason why Jesus then met with them was to convince Thomas. The next meeting may have been on a first day; the discouraged disciples had gone fishing. John 21. 35. True; any dispensation of God is spiritual. He is spirit; His “law is spiritual;” and so is all His work. The Spirit of God first began its work for the world on the first day; but still the seventh day was the Sabbath. See Gen. 2:3; Job 26:13; Ps. 33:6; 104:30. The Spirit of God in the New Testament does not counterwork the same Spirit in Genesis and Exodus and the life and example of Jesus Christ. 36. It was not the first day of the week which was honored by the outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost; for it is not even mentioned, but the antitype of Pentecost. Between Christ’s ascension and the Pentecost one first day is passed over in silence, which would not have been if it was the first day He designed to honor. 37. Where is the Bible record that the Christian church was organized on the first day of the week? Was there not a Christian church when Christ chose and ordained His apostles? Matthew 10. Was there not a Christian church in Abel’s day? By whose blood was he saved? Acts 4:12. To this writer of “facts” Jesus Christ is not “the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.” 39. Acts 20:7 is the only record of a meeting of the early Christians on the first day of the week; but the text and context show that that was a special meeting, called because Paul was about to leave them, held on what we would call Saturday night; the light part of that day being spent by Paul in journeying on foot from Troas to Assos. The reason why the meeting is recorded was because, evidently, of the notable miracle wrought. 1 Cor. 16:2 commands that each disciple should “lay by him in store” what money he could give. Surely that is not putting it into a church collection. 40. Paul preached elsewhere from the synagogues. See Acts 16:13. On one occasion he preached to the Jews; the next Sabbath, by request, to the Gentiles. Acts 13:14-50. At Athens he entered into partnership with Jews (Sabbath-keepers) in tent-making, preaching every Sabbath to both Jews and Gentiles, at first in the synagogue, afterward in the house of a Christian believer. Paul tells us that he had “not shunned to declare” “all the counsel of God,” and that he “kept back nothing that was profitable” (Acts 20:27, 20), yet he nowhere tells us of Sunday sacredness or a change of God’s Sabbath. 41. Paragraph numbered 41 is without a shadow of Biblical truth. Rev. 1:10 speaks of the Lord’s day, but does not say what day of the week it is. Do you wish to know, reader? Here is the Word of God:— “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Ex. 20:10. “The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” Mark 2:28. What day is the Lord’s day according to the Bible? Now the one who writes these “Facts” for the Wesleyan Herald prefaces them with this note:— The following forty-eight facts have been compiled from the writings of Revs. C. S. Gitchell, B. T. Roberts, and D. M. Canright, who was formerly a prominent minister among these people, J. S. T. Milligan, and others. We are willing to believe this one fact. If Pastor Sims had honestly sought to compile them from the Word, we believe he would have come to different conclusions. Try it, brother. These men can not stand in the judgment for you. Are not Christ’s teaching and example worth more? GOD'S BLESSINGS DO NOT INDORSE ERROR.
By G.
It is quite common for people to assume that this or that doctrine is right because God has blessed them while believing it; or that such and such habit is right, because they have had the blessing of God while indulging it. But the kind providence and forbearance of God is not necessarily evidence of His approval. “He maketh His sun to shine on the evil ‘and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and ‘on the unjust.” The crowning blessing bestowed on our sinful world was the gift of God’s Son, but this blessing was not because of His approval of the practice of sin. On the contrary, it was because He could not indorse our erring course, and would give us opportunity to form characters that He could approve. He spared Israel in their sinful practises because of his promises to their fathers, and He spared Judah because of His promise to David. He blessed all these, notwithstanding the many things in their lives that sorely grieved Him, because of His own eternal purpose to save all who would turn unto Him and be saved. The evidence of right and wrong on our part is not found in His long-suffering forbearance with our faults and false doctrines; it is found in His law. “Fear ‘God, and keep His commandments; for this is the ‘whole duty of man.’” This is the only rule of action that the Lord approves; and we are directed to His Word as the only source of true doctrine: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be ‘perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.’” “To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not ‘according to this Word, it is because there is no ‘light in them.” But men presume upon the Lord’s forbearance when they assume to be righteous because He is patient with them. “Because sentence ‘against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in ‘them to do evil.’” DURING the sojourn of Israel in Egypt, the plan of salvation was formally worked out. God had sent Joseph to Egypt to preserve life (Gen. 45:5, 7; 50:20). This was true not only in a temporal sense, but in a spiritual sense. Joseph proclaimed the true God, and illustrated the principles of the Gospel in his own life. He was the type of Christ, and manifested the character of Christ. In no other country, in ancient times, was the grace and mercy of God more clearly demonstrated than in Egypt. There, too, was the perversity of the human heart exemplified to a degree never yet exceeded. The Lord said it would be more tolerable for Sodom in the day of judgment than for the cities of Judah that rejected His Word, but He never said it would be more tolerable for Egypt. When all overtures of mercy, even including that of chastisement, had failed, judgment must necessarily follow. The last act that was designed to convince the king of the power and wisdom and mercy of the God of heaven had resulted in a decree that the servants of God should be put to death if they came before the king again. Forbearance could have no further virtue; there was nothing further to do but to let sin have its wages, and deliver the people of God. Then came the directions to Israel how to escape the coming execution of the results of impenitence. They were not to be saved because of their righteousness, but through faith in the way which the Lord provided. They had cried to God in their distress, and He had heard their cry, and now came the final trial of their faith. “Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover. And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin; and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.” Ex. 12:21-23. Here we have an object-lesson, practically illustrating the final rejection of the Gospel by the masses of the world's people, their hostile attitude toward the people of God, and the salvation of those who yield implicit obedience to the Gospel of Christ. Like all of God's designs, every part had a significance, and no part could be disregarded or neglected. For neglect is as fatal to the soul as wilful disobedience. “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” Heb. 2:3. The Lamb represented the Son of God, whose blood was shed for the sin of the world, whose life was given in behalf of all whose lives are forfeited because of sin. But the slaying of the Passover lamb was not enough. That would not save Israel any more than it would save the Egyptians. The blood of the lamb must be sprinkled upon the side posts and lintels of the doors, or there would be no protection in that house against the angel of death. The lamb was to be roasted whole, not a bone broken, as typical of the complete sacrifice of Christ. Sprinkling the blood with hyssop was emblematic of purification. The Lord does not save an impure people. The psalmist says, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” Ps. 51:7. So the people, when they obeyed in detail the directions regarding the Passover, were justified by faith. They were made clean through faith in the blood of the Lamb of God. Their faith, as manifested in their obedience, saved them from the fate of the disobedient Egyptians. The flesh of the lamb was to be eaten. The sacrifice was not enough; it must be partaken of by the individual, and become part of his life. Every one must eat of it; no one can partake of Christ for another. “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.” John 6:53. Eating the flesh of Christ is partaking of His Word. “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.” Ch. 1:14. “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” Ch. 6:63. To drink His blood is to imbibe His life; for “the life of the flesh is in the blood; . . . it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” Lev. 17:11. The one whose life is conformed to the life of Christ, who receives His Spirit, is drinking of His blood. The bitter herbs to be eaten with the paschal lamb signified, or pointed back to, Israel’s bitter service in Egypt. The bitter herbs also signified a contrition of heart because of sin. The lamb was eaten also with unleavened bread, and on every recurrence of the feast everything of the nature of leaven was to be put away from the dwellings of the people. So all who would receive life from Christ must put away the leaven of sin. “Let us keep the feast, not with ‘old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and ‘wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” 1 Cor. 5:8. Another requirement was that they must be separated from the Egyptians, and, with their families, gather themselves into their own dwellings. Of course those Egyptians who believed the Word of the Lord, and desired to be identified with Israel, were permitted to partake of their shelter and deliverance. As our paschal Lamb, our High Priest, is “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,” so we are exhorted by the apostle Paul: “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.” 2 Cor. 6:17. SO ABRAHAM called the name of the place where God provided the sacrifice, “Jehovah-jireh,”—“The Lord will provide.” It is all expressed in the great name Jehovah, the eternal, self-existent One; but man in his blindness can see it only as God reveals His wonderful goodness in special providences. God had told Abraham that his seed should bless and inherit the earth, but Abraham thought this could only be, as lawyers would term it, constructively. He himself must provide a faithful servant to be his heir, or his wife a handmaid to be the mother of the seed. He could not see that God could provide all that He had promised. Even after Isaac, the child of promise, was born, his faith must be tested. He must be willing to yield even Isaac, with the assurance that God could provide without human planning. He does so. He is willing to give Isaac back to God as a sacrifice, if God desires it. It was enough. He believed God, and God answered his faith by providing a lamb, the type of His own Son. Abraham sees it and acknowledges all in naming the place Jehovah-jireh, the Lord will provide. So, dear soul, the test must come to every child of Abraham. Every one must learn that the great Jehovah is the ample, all-sufficient Provider of all that He has promised. He needs no human circumvention of His plans, no constructive interpretation put upon them, no human aid of civil law, nothing whatever, except the co-operation He Himself commands. And every soul can furnish that—simple submission to God’s will. Then yield it all, dear soul, and rest. Wait upon Jehovah; He will provide. Nay, more, He has provided it all in the gift of His Son. So fully has God provided it that the apostle can only express it by thanksgiving: “I thank my God always concerning ‘you, for the grace of God which was given you in ‘Christ Jesus; that in everything ye were enriched in ‘Him.’” I Cor. 1: 4, 5, R.V. He has opened to us “the exceeding riches of His grace.” Eph. 1: 7; 2: 7. He has given us constant “access by faith” into this great storehouse. Rom. 5: 2. All we need is found in Christ Jesus. When Heaven gave Him, the pledge of all was given. For “He that spared ‘not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, ‘how shall He not with Him also freely give us all ‘things?” Rom. 8: 32. “The Lord will provide;” the Lord has provided. Go and ask; by faith receive, in thankfulness acknowledge the great Provider of all your needs. Thus every place shall bear His name; every place shall be fragrant with His presence, and every place shall be filled with His praise. MINGLING THE SACRED AND PROFANE.
By S.
THERE are among our exchanges a few whose editors seem unable to discern between politics and vital godliness. Such appear to see a political halo around every Christian duty. He who allows the Gospel to shine out in his life is, to them, a “Christian politician,” even tho he has consistently and conscientiously avoided the political machine. By such Martin Luther is branded a politician because he had occasion to reply to the emperor, stating that he was bound to obey the Word of God, and therefore could not retract. John the Baptist is branded a politician because he warned men to flee from sin, and told Herod plainly that he was living in sin. Peter is branded a politician because he told the Jewish authorities that they had slain the Christ. Paul is branded a politician because he preached against the worship of images and the practise of vice. Moses and Aaron are branded politicians because they obeyed the voice of God and demanded of Pharaoh that he let the people go. Elijah is accused of preaching politics because he denounced the work of Ahab and Jezebel and the priests of Baal, as God told him to do. Jonah is accused of preaching politics because he went down to Nineveh at God’s bidding and warned that wicked city. And our Lord Himself is placed in the same category, and His mission to earth similarly misrepresented, because He denounced the sins of the Jewish nation. It is regrettable that in this age of light and knowledge so much darkness still goes out in the guise of Christian teaching. It is all done, of course, in the interests of “Christian patriotism” and the promulgation of religious legislation, and the whole thing is diametrically opposed to the teachings and mission of Christ and His followers. Christ was never in politics, neither were any of His true followers; and they are not now. The performance of a Christian duty does not brand one as a politician, even tho that duty be to carry a warning to the king on his throne. To do as Christ did, to obey Christ, is Christianity, not politics. Real Christianity and the business of politics are just as far apart as the real Christ and the political boss of a wicked city. When men come to realize that Christianity is the greatest thing—the greatest business—in the world, they will cease striving to array it in the sin-soaked toga of politics. As Christ warned the people against the results of their evil course, so He has commissioned every one of His followers to warn the people of the time in which they live. That is a part of the business of Christians; but it is not politics. It is dishonoring Christ to claim that it is; it is belittling to Christians; and it doesn’t help politics in the least. The minister who goes down into the mire of politics doesn’t help the mire any, nor add any luster to the work in which he was formerly engaged. One of the exchanges above referred to asks, “Was Luther wrong?” Certainly Luther was not wrong in declaring, even to the emperor, that he would not recant. But he who claims that in so doing Luther was doing politics, is wrong, and doesn’t know Luther nor the spirit and power of the Gospel which he preached. Neither was John the Baptist wrong, and neither were Jonah, Peter, Moses, and Paul wrong in proclaiming the messages which God gave them to deliver; but he is wrong who declares that in performing God’s work as they did they were doing the work of a politician. Satan did politics in heaven when he sought to pervert the angels to the kind of government he invented, and he has been “doing politics” ever since. He perverted a multitude of the angels, and they fell with him. He is “doing politics” now in the church, as everywhere else, and there will be multitudes from there who will go with him into “Christian politics,” and go down with him in his final fall, which, happily, is not a great way off. It is the Christian’s business to warn men to-day against the deception, and there is no politics in that warning message either. He who is Christ’s will walk as Christ walked, give the message and do the work committed to him, and leave the business of politics to those who will not do the work of God. S. 1189. Misquoting Scripture. A FRIEND writes that “the SIGNS is accustomed to misquote ‘Scripture;’” that the printing of LORD in small capitals as representing “Jehovah” is not accidental; it is a part of the translation, but the SIGNS pays no attention to it. We have not thought this necessary, because (1) It is not customary; (2) People can look it up in their Bibles if they desire particularly to know; (3) The name is not so printed in the New Testament. Compare Isa. 40:3 with Matt. 3:3. In Isa. 40:3 it is “LORD;” in Matt. 3:3 it is “Lord.” The SIGNS sometimes quotes from the common version, sometimes from the Revised; sometimes it mixes the two, or brings in others; but in all it is the Scripture. If a doctrinal point is involved; if there is particular reason for giving the version, we always aim so to do. 1190. “Whatsoever Is Sold in the Shambles.” 1 Cor. 10:25: “Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, ‘asking no question for conscience sake,’” has no reference whatsoever to the kind or quality of food one should eat, whether clean or unclean. All that is told elsewhere. The question is as to the connection of the food with idols. The Christian knows that the idol is nothing, and the food offered in market is not affected by being offered to an idol; therefore ask no questions about it. But if some one else is troubled in conscience, do not eat of it for his sake. See verses 26–29. In Rom. 14:13–15, and in fact the whole chapter, the instruction is that we should not judge or condemn our brethren, nor should we put a stumbling-block in their way. To us they may eat and drink wrong, and we may condemn them, but God will save them despite our judgment. Verse 4. Important as food is, there are things more important. The Bible is not a book of exact prohibitions and directions as regards every little detail of life. It is a book of principles. God has plainly declared what is the best food. Experience and education and common observation also teach us. He desires us to receive the Lord Jesus Christ, let Him dwell in the heart, and then, in all things guided by His Word, His Spirit, His providence, eat and drink and do all else to His glory. 1 Cor. 10:31. We are sure that there is blessing in a diet of fruits and grains, and that health, endurance, intellectual vigor, and spirituality are thereby promoted, but we do not propose to sit in judgment upon those who do not so see. We will endeavor to teach them the better way, and leave them with God. Our correspondent will have to be more explicit. What is the special point or points he desires explained? We could write much more than this department will permit, and then perhaps not touch the point at all. Ask just what is wanted; for our answers must be brief. 1192. Grieving the Spirit. Do you think if we had grieved the Spirit away for the last time that we would still be troubled and desire to be a Christian? We do not. The desire to be a Christian is awakened by the Spirit of the Lord. Of course there are desires to escape sin’s punishments and consequences, desire for selfish peace and ease, desire to be rid of the prickings of conscience, all of which may be without true repentance. But every desire to do right, to be just what God wishes us to be, to unite with Christ Jesus in all He asks, is born of God, and He will answer, and fill the heart which responds to His call. There is absolutely no limit to God’s mercy. The reason why certain sins can not be forgiven is that the soul thus sinning has rejected God’s mercy, light, and goodness to that extent that they can affect him no more. Jesus Christ came to save the lost. We are lost without Him. We are lost without His Spirit. We may tell that Spirit to go away forever, yet will its sweet voice come again and again, till we hear it no longer. If our desire to become Christ’s is strong enough to lead us to choose Him in preference to all else, there is hope and life. If it is not, there is no hope, as long as we so treat Him. Read Micah 7:18, 19; Isa. 1:18; 1 John 1:9; Eze. 33:11; Isa. 55:7, margin. The representation of a false god. It is the shaping of a human conception of the Deity. It comes from eidolon, an image. Idol-worship is the worship of sense,—what we see, and feel, and hear. The passage is the plain reproof of Jesus to the Jews. Men worship God in vain if they obey men’s commandments instead of His. They counted their numerous trivial requirements about the washing of pots and cups of more importance than what God required. And then He gives a strong illustration of how they made void in their own teaching and lives and influence God’s law. God enjoined upon them, as others, the duty to honor father and mother. Of course that included their care in helpless old age. To get rid of this the Jew would dedicate nominally his property to God, calling it “Corban,”—“given to God;” and when his parents needed help, he would say that he had no means; it was all given to God. Yet he used it for himself as before. Thus, by a tradition which God never gave, men made void a command He had given. The principle is equally true now. 1195. Born of Water and the Spirit. Please tell us through the SIGNS OF THE TIMES what Jesus meant to teach when He said a man must be born of water and of the Spirit to enter the kingdom of God. John 3:5.
H. E. T. Water baptism as a sign of the renunciation of the world and the reception of the Spirit of God, with its regenerating, life-giving power from above. For extended instruction on John 3:1–17 read “Desire of Ages,” chapter 17. THE GOLDEN RULE AND THE MONROE DOCTRINE.
By Editor
In a recent speech before the New York Chamber of Commerce a high government official, in responding to the toast, “Our Diplomacy,” said:— The briefest expression of our rule of conduct is, perhaps, the Monroe Doctrine and the Golden Rule. With this simple chart we can hardly go far wrong. The vital point in the Monroe Doctrine, as set forth by President Monroe in his annual message, Dec. 2, 1823, is as follows:— We owe it to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those [European] powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the governments who have declared their independence and maintained it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power in any other light than as a manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States. The Golden Rule, as given by Jesus in Matt. 7:12, thus reads:— “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” A chart constructed on two diverse rules is not only confusing but misleading; and attempts to follow it will certainly lead far wrong. The Monroe Doctrine and the doctrine of the Golden Rule are not in harmony. For instance, according to the Monroe Doctrine, the United States would resent any forcible interference, or control in any other manner, by any European power as respects any government in the western hemisphere. But suppose that Brazil desired a German protectorate, Venezuela a British, Argentina a French, what would the United States do? If she would do by Brazil and Venezuela and Argentina as she would be done by under similar circumstances, she would not interfere with their projects; she consistently could not. But according to the Monroe Doctrine, she would interfere, and say as well to Brazil, Venezuela, and Argentina as to Germany, Britain, and France, that such a thing could not be. Again: the Filipinos desired to attempt the experiment of self-government, a God-given right, a formerly American right. They fought for it for many years. It was in the power of this government to allow them to make the attempt. The Golden Rule demanded that it should be done. According to the Monroe Doctrine, Japan or China could have said that America must not extend her system in the Eastern Hemisphere. The Golden Rule would have demanded acquiescence. But nothing of the sort was done in either case. We are not noting this to criticize the government. This paper is not in politics. We note these things to show to our readers that the oil of politics and diplomacy and the water of life do not mix well. All this talk of Christian governments, and Christian politics, and Christian diplomacy is of the same character. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, divine Christianity, can not be made a matter of diplomacy or statute law or politics. All such talk is deceiving to the people. It sets Christianity in a wrong light. It degrades it and covers it with the slime of the putrid pool of politics. It turns principles into policy, life and power into dead forms, truth into a lie. The Monroe Doctrine and all other political doctrines or systems are one thing, quite necessary oftentimes for the government of a sinful world without faith. Christianity is quite another thing, and can be possessed only by faith on the part of the individual receiving it. The system of Troy weight is right and proper for the use designed; but use it for avoirdupois, and confusion results. Human measures may limit a house or an army or a nation’s acts, but they can not limit the life of God in a tree or soul. The Golden Rule is of the government of God; the Monroe Doctrine is of the government of man. They are as different in nature as oil and water, and will not blend.