Review and Herald, Vol. 92, No. 48. (9/30/1915)

Review and Herald

Sep 30, 1915

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 30, 1915

His Infinitude

By Worthie Harris Holden

Worthie Harris Holden

With eloquence must I approach my God, Or offer praise in words embossed with gold? Then must I dwell within the outer court And never to His ear my prayer unfold.

Ah, ’tis a solace sweet for such as I To hear the publican’s brief, humble plea, Or list to sinking Peter’s fervent call When seeking for Christ’s hand all tremblingly.

Sometimes with awe I wonder at God’s might,— Infinity is far beyond my ken, Save that His love interprets every mood,— The need that ushers to His presence then.

I am so glad God knows my very thought, That e’en afar He meets the longing soul, And with His word, His touch, or garment’s hem, The Saviour’s power restores the sinner whole.

Soon in effulgent day when face to face I stand redeemed in glory all His own, May I with rapture magnify His grace In language meet, before my Father’s throne.

What America Needs

THE editor of the Wall Street Journal believes that the great need of the United States is not greater railway extension, or Western irrigation, or lower tariff, or a bigger wheat crop, or a merchant marine. He is of the opinion that the great need of the people of this country “is a revival of piety—the kind mother and father used to have—piety that counted it good business to stop for daily family prayer before breakfast, right in the middle of harvest; that quit field work a half hour early Thursday night, so as to get the chores done and go to prayer meeting; that borrowed money to pay the preacher’s salary, and prayed fervently in secret for the salvation of the rich man who looked with scorn on such unbusinesslike behavior.”

He believes that the possession of this personal piety will “clean this country of the filth of graft, and of greed, petty and big; of worship of fine houses and big lands and high office and grand social functions.”

The days of wealth and national prosperity, ease and comfort, were days of danger to Rome, to Greece, and to the great nations of the past. This led to crime in high and low places; it corrupted the home, the foundation of society and the state. The result was national disintegration. Heaven can save nations only as it saves the individuals composing the nation. It is right that we should have laws against crime, and that offenders shall be punished; but society can be regenerated only as the individual members of society are transformed by the grace of God, and changed into new men and new women.

Present Truth Series

By Editor

The Present Truth Series meets a demand long recognized by many of our workers. The following statement, made by Elder B. F. Kneeland, expresses the united opinion of many others who have written to the publishers: “I have enough faith in the Present Truth Series in tent work to send in a second order before the tent is pitched. The first lot you sent is received. This series embodies an idea I have been pleading for during the last eight or ten years, and I believe it will produce results. Our tracts were quite expensive, and our papers presented such a variety of matter without much natural arrangement that they did not give the results for which we aim in a tent effort. The first paper handed out was likely to have a strong article on the Sabbath, or the immortality of the soul, or some other subject which would be hard to understand without preparatory studies to remove false impressions already in the mind. With the Present Truth Series we have something which gives each subject attention so that the reader should be able to reach a conclusion as to the truth of our position, or at least be stimulated to further inquiry, if seeking for truth and still unconvinced.”

Note and Comment

A Bishop Enthroned

IT seems rather strange that one claiming to be a minister of the meek and lowly Jesus should be enthroned, yet on the front page of the Washington Herald of September 10, the enthronement of the Roman Catholic bishop of the diocese of Albany is recorded. When Christ himself was asked to receive a throne in this world, he refused, dismissed the multitude, and went up into a mountain to pray. And they who claim to be his are admonished to walk even as he walked.

Rome’s Challenge to Protestants

ROMAN CATHOLICS never weary of confronting Protestants with the fact that in the Scriptures of Truth there is no authority or foundation for Sunday sacredness, and that its observance rests solely upon the tradition and authority of the Catholic Church, and that if on this basis they observe as holy the first day of the week, they should observe other fast days and church days which come from the same authority. This challenge is repeated in the Catholic Review (Baltimore), August 28. Referring to a sermon by Dr. Hugh Johnston, as reported in the Sun of August 23, the editor of the Catholic Review says:—

We have no difference with Dr. Johnston except on the point that he should on his own arguments labor for the observance of the exact Sabbath of old, which is not the first day of the week, but the seventh. Therefore he should try to get Saturday observed as the Lord’s day to be kept holy.

Secondly, Dr. Johnston gives as his third reason the following: “... As Lord of the Sabbath, he claimed the prerogative to modify it, and moved it a day forward in honor of his resurrection. Rev. Dr. Johnston will have a hard time to prove this. We should like to have him so prove it.

First Evangelical Believers in Little Rome

BROTHER IGNACIO KALBERMATTEN, who is laboring in Arequipa, Peru, writes of the work:—

“Last Sabbath we had the privilege of baptizing six new members. The Baptists have been at work in this city about twelve years, but they tell me that they have not yet had the privilege of baptizing any members. They have had severe trials in their work in this fanatical city. We have thus had the privilege of baptizing the first evangelical believers in this town, which is called “Little Rome.”

“The priests make every effort to keep the people from reading evangelical literature, threatening with excommunication those that do not obey their warning. But, thank the Lord, there are a number who are reading our books and periodicals, and they see that they contain something better than what the priests tell them. Although according to the law we have no liberty of worship in this country, yet we are able to work without being molested, but have to be careful how we conduct our work.”

A Church Organized in the Faroe Islands

BROTHER O. J. OLSEN, who is in charge of the work in Iceland, writes of making a visit recently to the Faroe Islands. Last year two colporteurs sold several hundred dollars’ worth of our books in those islands, and this year Brother Olsen was able to organize a church there. Speaking of his trip, he says:—

“It was not a very easy task to get to the Faroes, as the ship which I was on was taken in the Atlantic Ocean by an English man-of-war, and brought into Kirkwall, Scotland, and from there again to Leith. So instead of fifty-two hours we were thirteen days in reaching our destination.”

A Young Woman Accepts the Truth

A YOUNG woman taking treatments at the treatment rooms in Bellingham, Wash., picked up some tracts in the office, and was also given some papers, after a conversation on the war situation. Later she went to Ottawa, and seeing in the newspaper an article by one of our treatment room workers, who is elder of the church, she sought an interview. She accepted the truth fully. About twelve years before this she had read "Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation," which her mother had bought when this young woman was a little girl, but she had forgotten about what she had read.

A Dangerous Message

By C. M. S.

THE message which God puts into the mouth of men is always a message which it is safe to give and safe to heed. The danger lies in not giving it, or in not heeding it when it is given by another.

The idea of universal peace is in the air. It is fighting for its place among the clouds of battle smoke. Numerous peace conferences have been held, and the majority of religious papers look upon this as a hopeful sign of the banishment of war and the rule of amity and righteousness.

While the desire for peace is a righteous desire, and the special blessing of God is pronounced upon the peacemakers, it would be the height of folly for us to pin our faith to the inauguration of a reign of universal peace in this world before the advent of our Lord and the destruction of the wicked.

The cry of “No danger” will not save the lives in a burning house, nor extinguish the hungry flames. It will not save lives on a sinking ship, nor stop the inflowing of the rushing water. No more will the cry of peace and safety now insure the welfare of those deluded by it, or bring about the conditions so ardently hoped for. The only place of safety in this world is under the shadow of the Almighty, and the only abode of peace in this world is in the heart of the one thus sheltered.

As long as the human heart can hate, the human hand will know how to fashion the instruments of hate and how to use them. As long as human hearts are carnal hearts, the people of this world will war upon one another. Legislation cannot change men; law cannot alter desires; international congresses cannot turn sabers into scythes or soldiers into peaceful tillers of the soil. There is nothing in legal enactments to make men hate the terrible business of the battle field or look with sorrow upon the pomp and pageantry of military “glory.”

This world is powerless to “enact” peace, because it possesses no method by which to change the hearts and aspirations of men. It cannot give men the power or inclination to love their enemies, to return good for evil, to pray for those who despitefully use them and persecute them. Only the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ can effect such a transformation in the souls of men. And that agency is not employed in this “peace and safety” movement.

The gospel is certain, however, to bring about peace and safety; but when that condition obtains in this world, all the elements of discord will have been winnowed out. There will be no need for peace congresses then; and still the inhabitants of that purified land will “delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” The soul truly converted to God may enjoy peace and safety now in the very midst of this world’s alarms. While peace congresses are talking of peace and the great men of this world are spending their millions in peace propagandas, the truly converted man has peace without congresses and without the expenditure of great fortunes to obtain it. While they are longing for it, he has it—a veritable foretaste of heaven. The Christian can have peace and safety even now; but this present world can never have it: it is wrongly constituted. Oratory cannot bring it; congresses cannot bring it; wealth cannot bring it; legislation is powerless to insure it; but the gospel of Christ in the individual soul does bring it—not to nations or states or cities or societies in this present world, but to individual hearts.

This is the generation of the “peace and safety” cry. It is also the generation of war, calamity, and distress unprecedented. The “children of this world” are determined to force peace and safety. In the midst of thunderous artillery and smoke of battle, and shrieks and groans of wounded and dying men, the delusive cry of the “peace and safety” advocates is still heard. They are determined so to arrange matters that another great war can never come. The “parliament of the world” is the will-o’-the-wisp that is leading them on into the quagmire of deception and destruction. They may attain to a semblance of what they desire, and then make the declaration that it has been achieved. But “then sudden destruction cometh upon them; . . . and they shall not escape.”

Giving the “peace and safety” cry will be, so far as eternal consequences are concerned, the most dangerous business in which men can engage. The giver of that message will deceive and ruin his own soul. It is worth while to know what the “peace and safety” cry involves, and where the true peace and safety can be found, now and always.

C. M. S.

Covetousness, Which Is Idolatry

By P. M. W.

THE Scriptures of Truth point out many dangers which will threaten the Christian church in the closing days of earth’s history. Among these, the spirit of covetousness stands prominent. Again and again are the Christian believers warned against permitting the love of money, the cares of life, questions of buying and selling and getting gain, to supplant vital godliness and to take the place in their avocations which should be held by God and his work. The Master likens the days of the coming of the Son of man unto the days of Noah and Lot. He says that in the days before the flood “they did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.” The same condition existed in the days of Lot. He asserts: “Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” Luke 17: 26, 30.

There was no sin in Lot’s day, nor in the days of Noah, in buying or selling, in eating and drinking, in planting and building, in marrying and giving in marriage. It has been necessary ever since the creation of man, for him to partake of food, to provide shelter, and to carry on, in some measure, commerce with his neighbors. Marrying is a divine institution, ordained of God, and it has been right in every age of the church that men and women, under proper conditions, should unite their interests in the marriage relationship. The sin in the days of Noah and Lot did not consist in the doing of these things, but in the doing of them to the exclusion of God—in the spirit of excess that attended them. They bought and sold, not for the sake of proper exchange, but for selfish aggrandizement.

They built houses, not for shelter and protection from the elements, but to minister to their pride. They engaged in marriage, not from motives of pure love, but for the exercise of lust. These conditions are rapidly finding a counterpart in these days, of which they have been set forth as signs.

The greed of gain affects not only men in their private relationships, but nations as well. This greed is probably responsible, more than any other contributing factor, for the great war which is now going forward. The apostle declares, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” This love of unlawful gain is responsible for most of the graft, and theft, and robbery, and stealing, and lying, and cheating, with which the world is filled at the present time. As never before in earth’s history, the sacred relationship of marriage is made one of caprice and sentiment.

Just to the extent that the world around us is filled with the spirit of excess in these matters, just to that extent are Seventh-day Adventists in danger of imbibing the same spirit. The spirit of commercialism, of worldly gain, of love of money, may affect a poor man as well as the man of means. The day laborer may have the same inordinate desire for gain as does the possessor of thousands. The spirit of commercialism and gain may affect even the worker for Christ. Indeed, it is to be deplored that some who were once workers in this cause have succumbed to this spirit and relinquished their divine call to the gospel ministry, and are found today among those who are earnestly seeking after wealth or position.

Let the one to whom God has given the ability to acquire wealth recognize that his ability is an intrusted talent, and that God holds him responsible for its proper and legitimate exercise. He is not to use that talent for his own personal benefit and advantage any more than is the minister to use the talent of preaching for his own glorification. Each is to seek earnestly to serve, in his own sphere and line of work, the glory of God and the interests of the cause of truth. It is for the minister of Christ to preach to God’s glory. It is for the artisan, the mechanic, the shopkeeper, the tradesman, to conduct his business with the same end in view.

When William Carey was asked at one time what was his business, he replied that it was to serve God, and he cobbled shoes to pay expenses. This should be the principle actuating every child of God. The Lord has not placed us in this world to lay up for ourselves competences, or to gain for ourselves great names or positions. He has given us a work to do for him. To us has been committed the last warning message to a dying world. Recognizing this responsibility, we must bend every energy of our being, every talent of our minds, to the accomplishment of this work so far as our personal relationship to it is concerned.

This country affords, today, great opportunities for money-making. May we see and find in these the opportunities which God affords us of providing means for the carrying on of his work in the earth. It is only as we enter these avenues with this spirit, that we can keep from being carried away by the spirit of gain, and of covetousness, and of commercialism, which exists in the world around us. P. M. W.

The Prophecy of Daniel 7

By W. A. S.

Part 4. The End of the 1260 Years of Papal Supremacy

As the generation in which the papal power rose to supremacy was a turning point in the history of the world, so, too, was the generation in which the 1260 years of supremacy came to an end.

This measuring line of prophecy does more than run from date to date. It connects two great crises in human history, the events of the first tending to establish the papal rule over men, the events of the second signalizing a breaking of the bands of the papal power.

A Crisis in History

The supremacy came in that time of which Finlay says, “The changes of centuries passed in rapid succession before the eyes of one generation.” The measuring line of 1260 years runs on through the centuries till, lo, its end touches another time of crisis—Europe in the convulsions of the French Revolution—when again the changes, ordinarily of centuries, were to be wrought out before the eyes of men within the space of a few years. Lamartine wrote of that time: “These five years are five centuries for France.”—History of the Girondists, Vol. II, page 120. And the events of these times proclaimed the prophetic period of papal supremacy ended at last.

Thus, in A. D. 533 came the notable decree of the Papacy’s powerful supporter, recognizing its supremacy; and then the decisive stroke by the sword at Rome, in A. D. 538, cleaving the way for the new order of popes—the rulers of state.

Exactly 1260 years later, in 1793, came the notable decree of the Papacy’s once powerful supporter, France—“the eldest son of the church”—aiming to abolish church and religion, followed by a decisive stroke with the sword at Rome, against the Papacy, in 1798.

Events of the French Revolution

Of the decree of 1793, W. H. Hutton says:—

“On Nov. 26, 1793, the convention of which seventeen bishops and some clergy were members, decreed the abolition of all religion.”—Age of Revolution, page 256.

The frenzy of the days of the Terror presented the spectacle of outraged humanity, goaded to desperation by centuries of oppression in the name of religion and divine right, rising up and madly breaking every restraint. Because the Papacy stood for religion, in the minds of the people, they blindly struck at religion itself, and at God, in whose name the papal church had done its cruel work through the centuries.

In the prophecy of Rev. 11:3-13 these events of the wild days of the French Revolution are specifically referred to as coming at the close of the prophetic period of the 1260 years. The prophetic picture was so clear that over a hundred years before the time, Jurieu, an eminent French student of prophecy, wrote that he could “not doubt that ’tis France,” the chief supporter of the Papacy, that would give the shock as of an earthquake to the great spiritual Babylonian city. “This tenth part of the city shall fall, with respect to the Papacy: it shall break with Rome and the Roman religion.”—Accomplishment of the Prophecies, part I, page 205 (London, 1867). And so it did.

Far beyond France the movement reached. Canon Trevor says of the wave of revolt against absolutism that passed over Europe:—

It is worthy of observation that only those nations which eschewed popery were able to withstand the tide. Every throne and every church, without exception, that owned the supremacy of Rome, was prostrated in the dust.—Rome and Its Papal Rulers, page 436.

The decree of the French Convention, in 1793, was followed by the stroke with the sword at Rome, in 1798. The full history is told in fewest words by a Roman Catholic writer, Rev. Joseph Rickaby, of the Jesuit Society:—

When, in 1797, Pope Pius VI fell grievously ill, Napoleon gave orders that in the event of his death no successor should be elected to his office, and that the Papacy should be discontinued.

But the Pope recovered. The peace was soon broken; Berthier entered Rome on the tenth of February, 1798, and proclaimed a republic. The aged Pontiff refused to violate his oath by recognizing it, and was hurried from prison to prison into France. Broken with fatigue and sorrows, he died on the nineteenth of August, 1799, in the French fortress of Valence, aged eighty-two years. No wonder that half Europe thought Napoleon’s veto would be obeyed, and that with the Pope the Papacy was dead.—The Modern Papacy, page 1 (Catholic Truth Society, London).

Thus the events of the French Revolution marked the ending of the prophetic period of papal supremacy. A

“deadly wound” had been given the full Papacy. And the blow with the sword grip at Rome was struck in 1798, just 1260 years from the year 538, when the sword of empire struck that decisive blow against the Goths at Rome, and placed in the papal chair the first of the new order of popes, the kingly rulers of state.

Of the condition of the Papacy at this time Canon Trevor says:—

The Papacy was extinct: not a vestige of its existence remained; and among all the Roman Catholic powers not a finger was stirred in its defense. The Eternal City had no longer prince or pontiff; its bishop was a dying captive in foreign lands; and the decree was already announced that no successor would be allowed in his place.—Rome and Its Papal Rulers, page 440.

“No wonder that half Europe,” the Jesuit writer says, “thought Napoleon’s veto would be obeyed, and that with the Pope the Papacy was dead.” But he adds that “since then the Papacy has been lifted to a pinnacle of spiritual power” unreached before.

The stroke dealt the Papacy by the French Revolution was not to be the ending of it, by any means, according to the prophecy. These events proclaimed the ending of the prophetic period of special supremacy. Another prophecy distinctly indicates that following the deadly blow there would come a revival of the Papacy’s influence, just as the Catholic writer describes it. The prophet John, speaking of this same power, says:—

“And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. . . . And they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?” Rev. 13:3, 4.

Still we see the healing process going on, with evidences multiplying that the world is more and more wondering after the papal power.

A New Era of Liberty and Enlightenment

With the ending of the 1260 years of special supremacy a new order was ushered in. The Papacy had stood for absolutism in state as well as church. The power of absolutism was broken. “Absolute monarchy,” Edmund Burke said at the time, “breathed its last without a struggle.” There came the dawn of an era of greater religious liberty and enlightenment that has spread blessings over all lands.

The prophecy had said of the Papacy that the saints and the times and laws of the Most High were to be “given into his hand” for 1260 years. As foretold in Christ’s prophecy (Matt. 24:22), these days of the tribulation of God’s saints were “shortened.” The power of the Reformation weakened the oppressing hand, even before the prophetic period ran out. And when the full 1260 years closed, the world saw the grip of that papal hand yet further broken loose, and God’s providence was at work preparing the way for a world-wide proclamation of his gospel, bearing witness against the perversions of the papal apostasy, and restoring to men the Word and laws of the Most High.

The record of history witnesses that this time prophecy of the 1260 years of special papal supremacy was exactly fulfilled. The Lord speaks in prophecy that men may know that he is the living God. In these time prophecies of his Word, he gives assurance not only that this troubled world has not escaped from the hand of its Maker, but that its times are in his hand also; and that when the time of his divine purpose fully comes, he will surely cut his work short in righteousness, and end the reign of sin on the earth.

As the prophetic period of Dan. 7:25 meets its fulfillment in the history of the Papacy, even so, we shall see, the work of the Roman Church answers to the further specifications regarding the doings of this “little horn” of Daniel’s prophecy.

W. A. S.

Discord in the Federal Council

By C. M. S.

The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, that union of denominations which is to make its power felt in things civil as well as religious, is finding some breakers ahead. Not all the ecclesiastical bodies that have joined the organization are ready yet to abandon some of the principles which will have to be abandoned if the Federal Council is to succeed in its purpose. With some of them there is something more than mere sentiment to the principle of the separation of church and state, and they are making earnest protests, which bid fair to end in something more than protests. We find a very interesting discussion of the matter in the American Lutheran Survey of September 8. We quote the article entire:—

Mistakes of the Federal Council

Most Lutherans have not been able to see their way clear to joining the church union body known as the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. As far as we know, the few who have joined have not been loudly enthusiastic about the union and its work and spirit. It is beginning to appear that others besides Lutherans are unable to overlook the faults of the body in question. The trouble with all the union movements with which we have any acquaintance seems to us to be that their promoters are so desirous of getting results that will show, that they forsake the sphere in which the rule is for the leaven to work quietly, and move out into the field where they do not belong, in order to do things which will attract attention and produce quick impressions. The Lutheran Church Work, speaking of the threatened withdrawal of certain churches from the Federal Council, heads its editorial “Confusing Church and State.” It says:—

“It is evident to all who can see, that if the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in this country is to hold the allegiance of some of the evangelical forces, it must restrict itself to that which is of the church and distinctively religious in its operations. The General Assembly of the Southern Presbyterian Church, at its last meeting, gave notice of its withdrawal from the council a year hence. At the last meeting of the Northern Assembly of the same church, held at Rochester, N. Y., a word of warning was passed. While the General Assembly reaffirmed its sympathy with the purposes of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, it was very careful to warn its representatives in the Federal Council to advocate caution in connection with all subjects which are upon the border line of the jurisdiction of the church and the state, and this the more particularly because of the international complications of the great war. The Southern Presbyterian Church also gave warning concerning some of the actions of the Federal Council. The report which was adopted by the Southern church says:—

“‘While there are many things in the reports of the council which we approve and heartily indorse, there are actions taken which so do violence to the historic Scriptural position of our church that we can do naught else than decline to accept responsibility for them, and enter our protest.’”

“The report goes on to speak at some length and with much strength, and the Federal Council will be wise if it takes heed to the counsel of these two great churches. There has been a tendency for the Federal Council to rush on recklessly along some lines, and to cause the council to become an institution for civil actions rather than a union of the churches for spiritual and evangelization purposes.”

There are two points in the expressed attitude of the Southern Presbyterian Church which very strongly appeal to us.

The one is its clear insight into the fact that when a body of religious organizations calling themselves churches begins to take a hand directly in affairs which are distinctly political, the said body is on the wrong track.

The other is its plain conviction that when a church joins a union like the Federal Council, it makes itself responsible for whatever the said council enacts. “We can do naught else than decline to accept responsibility for them,” says the report. This is a point which is often overlooked. There is a prevalent vogue to the effect that, just so there is some good in the program of an association of men, it is a good man’s duty to join and assist; and this vogue includes the further opinion that, if the association makes itself guilty of errors, it is sufficient for a non-concurring member to protest or to voice his dissent.

We are glad to see the Southern Presbyterian Church taking the correct ground that the churches which belong to the Federal Council cannot absolve themselves of responsibility for its enactments as long as they retain their membership; and that the only honest way to give point to a church’s dissent from

positions taken by a general body to which it has joined itself is to sever its connection unless the abuse complained of be discontinued.

This organization plans to create a force which lawbreakers and lawmakers will respect and heed; it proposes to compel an audience in this country, and to speak with authority in matters civil and religious by putting aside their differences and making their agreement their argument. There is in such a purpose every element of compulsion in conscience, with the force back of it to insure the effectiveness of the compulsion. If the papal power, when it controlled the civil and religious affairs of the people, was fitly represented by the inspired writer by the symbol of a beast, then may this great religious combination, when it is in full flower, be fittingly represented as the “image of the beast.” And thus does the prophet designate it. We are glad that some are seeing whither the movement is tending, and are getting ready to abandon it.

C. M. S.

The Saints’ Reward

By G. B. THOMPSON

THE reward before the redeemed in the kingdom is indeed beyond the power of tongue or pen to portray fully. Then all the pain, tears, wretchedness, and misery of millenniums will be ended. The long, gloomy night of sin, with all its disappointments, sorrows, woe, and remorse will be finished. No more sad memories and fearful farewells! No more din of war, with all its sadness, ruin, and mutilation! No more wearisome days and sorrowful nights in which to watch a loved one suffer pain, and see the life slowly, but surely, ebb away! All gloomy forebodings, anxieties, fears, envies, jealousies, regrets, and heartaches wiped away forever! No more desponding, no more struggling and failing, no cheeks grown pale through sickness, penury, or care! No spirits crushed beneath a load of woe they are unable to endure! No ebbing tide of turbulent waters swelling and heaving about us, threatening to break our anchorage, and strand us on some rocky shore! No more tired bodies and distressed minds! No songs with which are mingled the groans of the suffering! No more aged and gray, who totter feebly on the threshold of the tomb!

Instead of all this terrible catalogue of suffering and woe, there will be pleasures and joys forevermore. There will be no more curse. On every hand will be seen the tranquillity and calm of heavenly peace. The rest in the haven from the storms and tempest of sin’s restless ocean will be ours eternally. A voice, sweeter than any that ever fell on mortal ear, will be heard saying, “Your conflicts” “are ended.” We can lay our crowns at Jesus’ feet, and lean our heads upon his bosom. The pearly gates will be opened, and the redeemed ushered into the transcendent glory that illuminates the city of God. There will be no night there. The saints, snatched as brands from the burning, will be kings and priests unto him who sits upon the throne high and lifted up. Their trials and temptations past, they will wear crowns that will flash in the everlasting light and glory of heaven, and robes white and spotless, washed in the crimson blood of him who hung on Calvary’s cross for a lost race. By faith in Christ they are triumphant, and wave on Mt. Zion palms of victory. They will stand before the throne of Jehovah, and with immortal voices sing anthems, the exceeding richness and melody of which surpass any choir on earth. In the raptures and ecstasy of divine love they will stand on the banks of the river of life and meditate on the glories which are eternally theirs.

And this glad day draws near. Soon, if faithful, we shall enter upon the reward, and receive the inheritance looked forward to by the children of God in all ages. This glorious promise should cause our hearts to throb with joy, and renew in us a firmer determination to be numbered among the blood-bought throng which no man can number, who through all the ages to come will praise and adore their Creator. G. B. THOMPSON.

A Special Training

By L. L. Caviness

“STUDY to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.” 2 Tim. 2:15. This passage is often quoted; yet few sense the responsibility which is placed upon each one to whom God has given a work to do, to prepare himself fully for that very work. All are exhorted to study. While Paul especially addresses his epistle to Timothy, a young worker, the advice given applies equally to the older members of God’s household. Neither youthful enthusiasm nor the general experience of mature age can take the place of definite training for work to be done. Even consecration cannot take the place of this training.

Our study should be along the line of the work God has given us to do. This is an age of specialization. The man in demand is the one who knows everything about something, not something about everything. We are past the time when a graduate from college was thought to be qualified to teach every subject in the curriculum. It is coming to be recognized that because a man is a successful minister is no proof that he will be a good teacher; or because one speaks a foreign language with fluency, he will necessarily make a successful teacher of that language.

With our many denominational academies and colleges, and with the correspondence school for those who cannot attend our institutional schools, there is no excuse for any one if he fails to get the necessary preparation for a definite work for God. Numerous reading courses are also being offered for various classes of workers. As more enroll in them each year, we may expect to see the efficiency of our denominational work increase.

“Study to show thyself approved.” The purpose of the study is that we may be approved workmen. We should master the details of the work intrusted to us. The minister should make no statement without Scriptural proof of his position. He should from his own personal study of the Bible gather the meat with which to feed the flock in due season. The teacher will master the subject which he is to teach, and will go farther in his study than he expects the student to go. While doing thorough work, he will strive to draw out and train the student, rather than merely drill on the lesson. The editor will strive to make all that he says accurate and clear. He will endeavor to yield himself so entirely to God that his readers may receive the very message that God would send to their hearts.

We must wait until we have received our message, and not run without our tidings, as did Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok. Ahimaaz was a young man, for Joab calls him “my son.” He was a man of personality, for David recognized his manner of running. He was known to King David as “a good man.” He was a strong man physically, for he outran Cushi, even though he started last. He knew that David’s army had won a victory; but he did not have the message. When King David asked Ahimaaz a definite question, he could only answer, “I saw a great tumult, but knew not what it was.” So at David’s command, he must stand aside while Cushi delivered the message which Joab had sent.

Doubtless Ahimaaz was ashamed when he was commanded to stand aside. If we do work which is not our best, we should be ashamed. The man who is not ashamed of poor work is failing to realize his God-given responsibilities. Let us, then, study to show ourselves approved unto God, workmen who need not be ashamed. L. L. CAVINESS.

Continue reading: Avoid Extremes