A PROMINENT ecclesiastic of the Roman Catholic Church was asked by a lady of position in London, “How can I find peace of mind?” Instead of pointing her to Christ as having atoned for our sins on the cross, he bade her dismiss such unwelcome thoughts, and attend places of amusement. One day she followed a crowd into Exeter Hall, expecting to have her mind diverted from serious thoughts about the future by a musical entertainment. She was surprised when she found herself in a great religious meeting. Annoyed at this, she attempted to get out, but in doing so she knocked some umbrellas on the floor, and, somewhat abashed, took her seat. Her attention was soon riveted upon the speaker. He explained our relation to God as under law “condemned already,” and spoke of Christ’s sufferings on the cross as a perfect atoning sacrifice, and of God’s willingness for His sake to pardon us, and by His Holy Spirit to change our hearts and fit us for heaven. She was deeply moved. At the close she asked of some one near her, “Can I speak to the gentleman who has just addressed us?”
Soon after in conversation with her the speaker said, “You will find the truth I have mentioned often repeated in the Bible.”
“But I have no Bible,” she replied.
He quickly handed her his own, saying, “I have pleasure in giving you mine.”
Some time after, this Catholic dignitary, remembering the advice he had given the lady, sent a priest to inquire about her state of mind. Instead of needing help from him, he soon found that she was able to instruct him in the way of life. Before he left, she gave him the Bible that had been presented to her at Exeter Hall, and begged him to read it with prayer, and to trust alone in Him “who bore our sins in His own body on the tree.”
Some time after this she received a note from the priest, asking her to call upon him. As she was about to take her son to college, she neglected to accept the invitation at the time. When she called some weeks after, she was shown into a room where there was a coffin, and in it the body of the priest. Beside it a nun was kneeling in prayer. The lady approached and asked, “Did he leave a message for me?”
“Yes,” was the reply. “He wished me to say if you called that he died in the full faith of the Catholic Church, and that he cursed the day he ever saw you.”
The poor lady turned away greatly distressed, saying to herself, “If I had gone to his bedside when he sent for me, I might have pointed him to Christ, and he might have been saved thru faith in Him; but now, alas, it is too late. I fear that thru my negligence he is lost forever.” This reflection sorely affected her peace of mind, which she sought to restore by foreign travel.
One day a lady in Rome approached her and said, “Do you remember standing by the coffin of Father ——, and the dreadful message there delivered to you?”
“Yes, it has followed me night and day.”
“But it was not a true message. The words he bade me deliver to you were these: ‘Tell her that I bless the day I ever saw her, and that I die in the full faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. Tell her that the Bible she gave me was the means of leading me to trust alone in Him for pardon.’ And then,” added the nun, “he gave me that precious Bible, which has also been the means of leading me to see myself a lost sinner and Christ as my only Saviour. Will you forgive me for telling you that terrible falsehood?”
Dear reader, are you a Christian? If so, may the recital of these facts strengthen your faith in the promise of God, “My Word shall not return unto Me void,” and lead you with more faith and determination to assist in putting the Bible into every sinner’s hand, in the hope to lead him to Christ.
If you are not a Christian, I pray that these striking incidents may lead you to feel your need of Jesus, and that you can never have lasting peace and joy till you come as a lost soul and believe in Him. He has suffered that dreadful death on the cross in your stead, that you might be forgiven and fitted for heaven. Will you confess your sins and believe in Him? “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9. He is as able to save you as He was this lady, this priest, and this nun. May God help you to feel that Christ has really loved you and given Himself for you, “the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” Will you not read with prayer the story of His crucifixion and death till your heart melts in love to Him?
REV. E. PAYSON HAMMOND.
BLOTTING OUT OF SIN.
IN the Sabbath-school lesson, on page 14, will be found a study of the cleansing of the sanctuary, a part of the closing work of the priesthood of Christ for the sins of the world. That work is indeed solemnly important; but the most important phase of it is not the mere blotting out of the sins of God’s people on high. The most important part—the all-essential part to each soul—is the individual relation which you and I sustain to this work.
While there is a sanctuary on high in the presence of God, where our great High Priest ministers His own life for His children, there are two objects on earth known as His sanctuary in which we are interested.
One of these is His church, the aggregate of all His believing children. The apostle writes to the believers, “Ye [plural] are God’s husbandry, God’s building.” “Know ye not that ye are a temple [sanctuary, margin] of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” 1 Cor. 3:9, 16. “In whom [Christ] each several building [individual believer], fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple [sanctuary, margin] in the Lord; in whom ye are also builded together for a habitation of God thru the Spirit.” Eph. 2:21, 22, R.V. “The blotting out of sins must take place in the church before their record is blotted out on high.
The individual believer is a temple or sanctuary of God. “Know ye not that your body is a temple [sanctuary, margin] of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.” 1 Cor. 6:19, 20. The one lesson which the sanctuary of old was designed to teach was that the Lord desired to dwell with His people by dwelling with each one of them. “Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.” Ex. 25:8. “Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place [the sanctuary on high], with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” Isa. 57:15.
This is the lesson taught in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt [tabernacled] among us.” John 1:14. Faith appropriates that life, and Christ dwells “in the heart by faith” (Eph. 3:17); “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col. 1:27).
But in order that Christ may abide in us, He must have the privilege of cleansing us from sin. That is the important thing to each individual soul in this day of preparation for the Lord’s coming. Here is a scripture that will help us: “Repent ye therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send the Christ who hath been appointed for you.” Acts 3:19, 20, R.V.
In our natural hearts, all thru the fibers of our flesh, sin has written its perverse and awful record of selfishness, rebellion, and death. This we have inherited to a greater or less extent. Every sinful act, every cherished sinful thought, every selfish habit, has but served to impress more indelibly if possible, and in darker hue, the sinful record. It has broadened its lines, it has deepened the dye. Where, above all where else, does the burdened, awakened soul want sin blotted out? Where, but in his own life, his own affections, his own heart? Where, above all where else, does the poor, thirsty soul long for refreshing?—where, but in the barren, parched, dry soil of his own unsatisfactory life? But the soul who will truly repent by giving up all his sin, who will yield to God every fiber of his being, will find the pardoning love of Jesus Christ. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9.
Then will He dwell with us and in us. His presence, His own endless life, flowing fresh from the great Fountain, will bring refreshing to the desert soul: “the parched land shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water.” The Morning Star will arise in the heart. Christ will be manifest to the world thru every member, and in greater glory thru the whole body; and then the glorious Head, our Lord, shall come, and Christ shall be complete.
This is the phase of this subject in which every soul has a vital, eternal interest. This putting away of sin in the individual heart precedes all other putting away. This blotting out of sins in the individual member precedes all other blotting out of sins. For we may know that when the unholy record is blotted out of our own lives, so quickly and effectually will the record on high be blotted out, and our names shall stand forever free in the temple of God—new names, truly, fully known only to our Lord and us, representing all of the sweetness and fruit of our companionship in earth’s pilgrimage.
This Jesus, the Cleanser of all sin, is, dear soul, whoever you are, “appointed for you.” Will you not let Him do His work?
“THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED.”—NO. 3.
The third chapter of “The Sabbath Transferred,” by Dr. Parker, deals with “Prophecies Foreshadowing the Transfer of the Sabbath.”
These prophecies are Isa. 65:17–19 and Ps. 118:19–29; and this is all Mr. Parker has to present. But what do they teach us?—Absolutely nothing regarding a “transfer” of the Sabbath. In fact, the Sabbath is not mentioned. The first passage refers to the new heavens and the new earth, the eternal home of the redeemed when sin is blotted out. The text reads as follows:—
“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people; and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.”
On this our author thus argues:—
“The (Jewish) Sabbath was the memorial day set apart for the commemoration of the work of creation. The prophet says that this Sabbath day shall cease to be kept, for the old creation ‘shall not be remembered nor come into mind.’ The new heavens and the new earth, spoken of by the prophet, is a spiritual creation. The old creation should fade away in the brighter light of the new creation, as the stars fade out in the light of the rising sun; and the transfer of the Sabbath, the memorial of the work of creation, from Saturday to Sunday, would indicate that this prophecy has been fulfilled.”
And then counsel is hidden by words without knowledge in likening the “transfer” at the resurrection to geological changes. The simple fact is, there was no change or transfer at the resurrection. There is no more reason in saying that the Sabbath was included in the “former” things which should not come into mind than the sun or the moon or the day or the night is included. The “former” relates to the “former troubles,” spoken of in the verse previous. Certainly the condition of things foretold by the prophet does not exist now; it did not exist even in the early church. It was far future, the glorious consummation to be, in John’s day. Rev. 21:1–7.
Neither does Ps. 118:19–29 mention any Sabbath day. Once only is the term day used, and that has no reference to any day of the week, but the day of triumph by Jesus Christ. “The Stone which the builders refused is become the head Stone of the corner. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Verses 22–24. When Christ was betrayed into the hands of His enemies, He said, “This is your hour, and the power of darkness.” Luke 22:53. When He was locked in the stone sepulcher by the Roman seal, it was seemingly Satan’s day of triumph. But when He was demonstrated to be “the Son of God with power,” according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead (Rom. 1:4), it was the day of Christ’s triumph,—the day of the salvation of the church. It is not a twenty-four-hour day in which to rejoice, but one great long lifetime day, the glorious Gospel-day of Christ’s triumph, the gladness of which is as appropriate on the fourth day of the week as the first. Is Mr. Parker glad only on Sunday? Are the fruits of Christ’s triumph operative only on that day?—Nay; he who knows the power of Christ’s resurrection is glad every day of the week.
“After Eight Days.”
“On the day of the resurrection, Christ appeared five times to His disciples and to the holy women. On the next Saturday, the Jewish day for the observance of the Sabbath under the law, He did not appear to any one, but ‘after eight days,’ on the Lord’s day, He appeared to His disciples in the upper room, Thomas being with them. The first risen Saviour ceased to observe the Sabbath7day, to meet with His disciples, and give them an opportunity to come into His immediate and sensible presence to worship Him, and meet them on the Lord’s day, if the Sabbath had not been transferred at the resurrection from Saturday to Sunday?”
We hope our readers will study the Sacred Record. They will find, (1) That there is no intimation of the change or “transfer” of the Sabbath; (2) That there is no evidence that Sunday was made a holy day, or is to be so regarded; (3) That the disciples remained in doubt and unbelief throughout the day; (4) That those who went to Emmaus regarded the day as purely secular; (5) That the meeting of Jesus with the disciples had no likeness of a religious meeting, but simply to show that He was risen; (6) That while the first four instances occurred in that first day of the week, and while it was still that day when the disciples came together, it was not till the close of that day that Jesus met with them; and then He upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe in His resurrection. Strange indeed, that they were met to celebrate an occasion in which they did not believe.
The next meeting was “after eight days from that time,”—after eight days from Sunday night. Count it honestly, reader, and see when the next meeting would fall. One day would certainly be, to be liberal, as late as Monday night; two days would be Tuesday night; three days, Wednesday night; four days, Thursday night; five days, Friday night (Sabbath evening); six days, Saturday night (evening after the Sabbath); seven days, Sunday night; eight days, Monday night; and after eight days would be when, reader? At the most liberal interpretation Christ’s second meeting was as late as the next Monday week at evening. Why did He meet with them then?—Simply because they were all at home—Thomas among them. It was to convince Thomas before all, so that he could have confirming evidence that Jesus met with them on that occasion. The third meeting with the chosen ones was a fishing occasion by the Sea of Galilee, recorded in John 21. This may have been on a Sunday; it is still quite a day for fishing by even professed Sunday observers. It was certainly not the Sabbath.
To the question of Mr. Parker in the above quotation, we would say that Christ ever regarded the Sabbath, and we have no reason to believe that His moral conduct and regard for the law of God was any different after His death than it was before.
Nay, we have abundant evidence to believe that it is just the same. Here are two scriptures: “As He is, so are we in this world.” 1 John 4:17. We are here to represent Him; and “he that saith that he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.” 1 John 2:6. But He kept the Ten Commandments and the seventh-day Sabbath. If we are intelligently-instructed followers of Christ; if Christ lives in us the same life He lived on earth, will not we do the same?—Most assuredly. Faith does not make void the law; it establishes it in our heart.
More next week.
A STUDY IN FAITH
What Faith Is.
To every individual soul in this world who desires to obtain righteousness and peace, maintain life, and achieve eternal victory over sin and death, faith is the one essential element; for “without faith it is impossible to please God.” Heb. 11:6. This is not an arbitrary ruling with God; it is essentially so in the very nature of the case. Here are two important scriptures:—
“And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” 1 John 5:4.
What is faith?—The following is in part a definition: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the proving of things not seen.” Heb. 11:1, R.V. The margin reads: “Now faith is the giving ‘substance’ to things hoped for.”
This is the forward aspect of faith. It is taking the promises of God, which before faith is exercised are always future in their fulfilment, and counting them true now. For instance, here is a promise, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” To the convicted sinner that is future in its fulfilment. He only hopes it may be true sometime. But faith yields the sin to God, acknowledges it, and appropriates the promise, and thus gives substance to it now. The forgiveness and cleansing are no longer hoped for, but are present living facts in the experience of the soul.
Faith is taking God at His word. It is not mere belief or assent that a thing is true. The demons believe, and tremble. God declares it. Our belief in Him says it is true. What He declares is to us a fact. But any collection of facts will not save. We may be perfect encyclopedias regarding Bible facts, and still be slaves to sin, still be in despair, still be forever lost.
Faith is not feeling. Feelings of joy and rest come as the fruit of faith; but they are not faith. Faith is the most glorious in its exercise when feeling is absent or opposite.
Faith is complete submission to God; to let God do with us as He will; to do whatever God would have us do. Does God say wait?—Faith waits, tho the multitude moves on in irresistible impulse. Does God go forward?—Faith goes forward, even tho a Red Sea awaits.
Faith admits Christ as King, His Word as law, His life as example, His Spirit as power. Christ is all in all; self is nothing.
To faith fact becomes truth, living, glowing; a part of one's life and being. The fact is to belief a thing without; to faith the truth is a power within.
Faith is dependent on the Word of God. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” Rom. 10:17. We may believe men, but true Bible faith lays hold on the Word in Christ Jesus, giving substance to all its mighty realities. The apostle remembered the work of faith of the Thessalonians; but they, when they received his message, received it not as the word of men, but as it was in truth, the Word of God; and it worked effectually in them. See 1 Thess. 1:3; 2:13. So is faith to every one who exercises it.
The power is not in the faith, but faith appropriates the power. The power is not in the trolley that reaches up from the cars to the live wire overhead. The power is in the wire. The trolley forms a channel for that power to operate upon and within the car. So faith is the trolley that reaches up and forms the open channel for God’s life to come into every fiber of the being thru its open channel. Let it reach up, friends. Open the soul to God’s life. Let Him live in us. Have faith in God. Let it give substance to His Word.
A BIBLE FACT.
By T.
In a recent editorial on the Sabbath question we stated that—
“Any candid mind that will take the Bible, the Word of the living God, as a guide, can arrive at no other conclusion than that the seventh day, commonly called Saturday, is the Sabbath. It is simply a matter of fact that no other weekly Sabbath is anywhere presented in the Word of the Lord.”
One who has been reading the SIGNS for a short time dissents from the foregoing utterance. He says, “Our seven-day week was devised by the Egyptian astronomers ages before the birth of Abraham. They named the days of the week after the seven then known planets, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon.”
To this statement from one of our readers we reply that we said the Bible, the Word of God, must be taken as our guide in studying this Sabbath question. We are perfectly well aware that there are numerous things connected with the Sabbath, and the weekly cycle, of which the Sabbath is the crowning part. Our friend presents one of these theories; but his theory is wholly overthrown by the Bible. It is true that the heathen worshipers of the planets named the days of the week after the heavenly bodies which they particularly adored; but in giving these names to the days of the week, they did not originate the week. The week was already an established measure of time, and all that these heathen did with it was to give to its days the names that corresponded with their worship of the stars.
While these facts are true in regard to naming the days of the week, it is also true that the Lord had nothing to do with it. And it is furthermore true that the Father in heaven instituted the week in the very beginning. For we read in the story of creation, as recorded in the first chapter of Genesis, what the Lord did on the first day, and what He did on the second day, and what He did on the third day, and so on up to His resting on and blessing the seventh day, and so completing the weekly period. Thus does the Bible make it perfectly plain that the week began with the very first seven days of time, and therefore the week originated with God, and not with the Egyptians. This is the plain Bible history of the origin of the week, and Bible history is absolute truth.
If men desire to delve into theories, they may find many notions that different ones have advanced, and some of these theories may seem plausible. But the question with us is, Do these theories harmonize with the Bible? It is by the Word of God that we are to be judged in that great day, and mere human notions of things will not stand in that time. The Bible makes truth very plain, and if we stick to the Word of God, we shall have no trouble in finding it. T.
“GOD, THE CREATOR OF ALL THINGS.”
By G.
THE caption of this article is also the title of the Sunday-school lesson in this paper. This subject brings to view the power and dignity of the Lord Jesus Christ in a marked manner. The fact that He was the active agent in the creation is not generally recognized, nor is it appreciated as it should be by those who concede to Him the honor. Christ had a glory with the Father before the world was. John 17:5. He was the Father’s Counselor. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.” John 1:1-3. This Word was Christ, as is shown in verse 14, which says, “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.” Also in verse 10 we read, “He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not.”
We have further direct testimony on this point in Colossians 1. Here Paul says that Christ is the “image of the invisible God; the first-born of every creature; for by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him and for Him.” Verses 15, 16. But that is not all of His power and dignity; “He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church; who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things He might have the pre-eminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell.” Verses 17-19.
Christ having been the Creator of all things, it was He that made the Sabbath day; He that rested upon it, and then blessed and sanctified it. And this is how it comes that “the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” Mark 2:28. This thought also adds force to the injunction in Deut. 5:15: “Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence thru a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day.”
Now this reason for keeping the Sabbath day does not supersede the reason given in the blessing and sanctifying of the day, and in the commandment to keep it holy, namely, because the Creator had rested on that day. It rather gives emphasis to that reason, and adds to the obligation to observe the day. The deliverance from Egypt was typical of the redemption from sin thru Jesus Christ our Saviour. So the Sabbath day that Christ made as a memorial of creation and the Creator’s rest, is also a memorial of redemption, for which provision was made “before the foundation of the world.” Eph. 1:4; 1 Peter 1:18-20; Rev. 13:8.
But what is redemption? It is simply a re-creation, a making over again. “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature” [margin, “there is a new creation”]. 2 Cor. 5:17, R.V. “We ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” Rom. 8:23. Now “there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.” 1 Cor. 15:44. “Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.” Verse 46. Then the redeemed body will be a new creation. From the deliverance from Egypt to the entrance into the promised land, there was worked out in type the plan of salvation. Therefore the observance of the Sabbath day in commemoration of the deliverance from Egypt was really in memory of the new creation, as well as of the creation of the heavens and the earth in the beginning.
The earth also is to be redeemed, and we will note how that is to be accomplished. Peter says that the present earth is to be destroyed by fire, and the Creator says, by the prophet Isaiah, “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth.” Isa. 65:17. The proof is positive that redemption is a creation; hence it is proper that a Sabbath memorial of the one should be a memorial of the other, the Creator and the Redeemer being one and the same. And inasmuch as Christ, who personally brought Israel out of Egypt, did not then choose another Sabbath day for the celebration of redemption, why should men assume to do so now without any authority from Him? It is pertinent to note that the Sabbath of the Lord, as a memorial of creation, is a “perpetual” institution. It is a sign between God and the children of Israel forever. See Ex. 31:13-17. All of God’s people are Israel. “If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Gal. 3:29. Every person in the new earth will be there by virtue of being Abraham’s seed thru faith in Jesus Christ. “He is not a Jew which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter.” Rom. 2:28, 29. “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” Phil. 3:3.
These scriptures show who are the children of Israel, between whom and the Creator the Sabbath of the Lord is a “perpetual covenant.” It is perpetual because it will be transferred to the new earth, where Christ will “reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end.” See Luke 1:30-33. The perpetuity of Israel and the Sabbath memorial is also set forth in more ancient prophecy: “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the Lord.” Isa. 66:22, 23.
Note that the newly created inhabitants of the new earth, are “flesh,” albeit their bodies are spiritual. The resurrection body of Christ was a spiritual body, altho He had “flesh and bones” (Luke 24:39), and went up to heaven in that form. And when He comes again, and the dead in Christ are raised to life, and the living righteous are changed to immortality, they will be like Him. 1 Cor. 15:51-53; 1 Thess. 4:15-18; 1 John 3:2.
God worked thru Christ in creation as well as in redemption, or re-creation. Jesus says, “I and My Father are one.” Again He says, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” They were together in the creation work; they were together on Mount Sinai, when the immutable law was rehearsed; they were together in the sacrifice for sinners. God gave His Son, and Christ gave Himself. And they were together in the earthly ministry of Christ; for “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself,” and in Christ dwelt “all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” Christ expressed astonishment that Philip had been so long time with Him and had not seen the Father. John 14:8, 9. In God and in Christ is all creative and redemptive, or re-creative, power. He that honoreth the Father, honoreth the Son, so “let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.” G.
THE HIGH COURT OF NATIONS.
By S.
A writer declares, in the Union Signal of May 9, that there is no great advance movement of to-day which “Christians and reformers can so heartily indorse as the great movement for international peace and arbitration.” Now, the Christian is for peace, as between man and man, nation and nation, always and everywhere. The true Christian’s voice is never heard clamoring for war anywhere or under any conditions—except war against sin, and that not with carnal weapons. I repeat that the Christian has no desire for anything but peace and righteousness, love and kindness; and yet the Christian, the one who believes the Bible, has nothing to hope for from the “peace and safety” movement of the present day. That Book tells him that wars and rumors of wars, discord, strife, deception, lack of natural affection, disasters, distress of nations with perplexity, are to continue up to the time that Christ shall appear in the clouds of heaven. So, then, tho the Christian desires peace, desires to see the last relic of war obliterated from the earth, he knows that it can not be until after Christ has come and given the sin-cursed earth, with all its wickedness, over to the purifying flames of that great day.
Speaking of the International Court of Arbitration established at The Hague, this writer says that the crystallization of this peace idea “seems to presage at once the dawn of the new era prophesied of old, when swords shall be beaten into plowshares, and spears into pruning-hooks, when men shall learn war no more, and the Prince of Peace shall rule in righteousness over a redeemed world.” This would be a happy dream if it were so; but it is not. It is another sample of a hasty reading of an important scripture, and putting into it a meaning which is not there. The Lord has not declared that the nations shall learn war no more. The Lord has not declared that they shall beat their swords into plowshares, nor that they shall beat their spears into pruning-hooks. Some one has declared it; but it was not God. In fact, the declaration itself is a sign that we are in the last days of this earth’s history. The scripture referred to is the second chapter of Isaiah. The second verse declares that it applies “in the last days.” Verse 3 states that “many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,” etc.; and in verse 4 these same “many people” are declaring, on their own authority, what they think is going to occur. They say that the Lord shall rebuke many people, and that those people shall “beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks;” that “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
All this is what the people are declaring. They were to declare it “in the last days,” according to verse 2. They are declaring it now. Therefore we are “in the last days,” but the most deplorable part of the blindness is that they are taking what they themselves are saying, which the Lord Himself has not said, and are declaring it to be the Word of God specified for our instruction. God has told us that “in the last days” the people would be saying these things. Now these people take God’s prediction concerning them, and declare it to be what the Lord is saying, when the Lord has not said it. How must Satan gloat over such a perversion of the Word of God?
But if the Lord did not say that, what did He say concerning these times? We have a record of what the Lord Himself has said concerning what should take place in the last days when He would be preparing to judge the nations, and here it is:—“Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles: Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears; let the weak say, I am strong. . . . Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great.” Joel 3:9-13.
Now put together these two declarations. The people are to say in the last days that the nations shall beat their implements of war into implements of peace, and that they shall not any more take up arms against one another. The Lord says that they shall prepare war; that they shall wake up their mighty men; that they shall gather their men of war together; that they shall beat their implements of peace into implements of war; that this spirit of preparing for war shall not be confined to the great civilized nations, but that the heathen, or the uncivilized, in all parts of the world, will be imbued with the same spirit; and He further declares that the work of preparation for war is really the preparation for the great harvest of the world. Whom shall we believe? Men (and women) are declaring one thing; God is declaring an opposite thing. Now, which is true? Is it peace, or is it war? There is no escaping the alternative. It is one or the other, and which is it? The proposition, simmered down, is simply this: Is God’s Word true, or is it not? If it is true, then the international arbitration tribunals can never bring peace to this present world.
The nations are doing now just what the Lord said they would do. They are straining every nerve to “prepare war” and gather together their men of war. The laborer is compelled now, not only to earn his bread by the sweat of his face, but in the sweat of his face to pour the fruits of his toil into the coffers of the war-mad nations. They are preparing for war, and not for peace.
But what does the Lord say of those who shall be crying peace and safety in these times?—“When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them; . . . and they shall not escape.” 1 Thess. 5:3. It is a dreadful thing to be proclaiming a message which the Lord declares is not true. It is a dreadful thing to be doing that, when the Lord declares that they who do it “shall not escape” destruction. There will be no peace in this world until Christ reigns over it in righteousness, reigns over it in person. He will not do that until it has been purified by fire, and all the wickedness and the wicked burned out of it. See Malachi 4 and 2 Peter 3: 10-13. Let us, then, not be deceived by the cry of “peace and safety,” nor join in the deception by proclaiming it ourselves.
S.
LOTTERY BY ANOTHER NAME.
By S.
“Some of the newspapers have adopted a scheme for increasing circulation which has all the earmarks of the old Louisiana lottery. These papers announce enormous prizes to be given as a reward to those who guess nearest to the population of a city or state, or the vote to be cast at some future date. As there is no possible means of determining either the population or the vote, the game is as purely one of chance as a guess on a wheel of fortune or on the drawing of a lottery. Only those are allowed to guess who send the subscription price of the paper with the guess, and sometimes the subscribers are encouraged to guess a large number of times. The whole system is demoralizing; it encourages the get-something-for-nothing idea which lies at the foundation of all gambling, whether at the card table or on the stock exchange. A lottery can not run unless it takes in more than it pays out, therefore the chances are always against the man who patronizes it. If he keeps investing, the probability is that he will put in more than he takes out; and if he wins a prize early, he is apt to waste the money, because it came to him so easily.
“It is not probable that the post-office department will long tolerate these guessing contests; but while they are permitted, they will exert a baleful influence upon the morals of the country.”—The Commoner.
We have seen from time to time, and in multitudes of ways, unmistakable indications of the increase of the gambling spirit among men and women. Deplorable as the fact is, it is a fact, nevertheless, which must be admitted by all who read. The people are filled with the spirit of getting rich quick, with less and less regard as to how the riches are gathered up; and unscrupulous men are multiplying methods by which to pander to this propensity and in the doing of it gather wealth for themselves. Fast and furious is the pace set by the great deceiver in these days, and he is strewing his path with victims on the right hand and on the left. The Christian can not afford to tamper with the deadfalls of the enemy, even tho he find them built up in the church in the form of grabbags, raffles, and other games of chance. We are in the most serious period of this earth’s history, and the Master’s business does not lie along any of these lines.