Since the fall of Adam, the truth has not been popular on the earth. His downfall was caused by believing a lie. That lie was, “Thou shalt not surely die.” That falsehood is the fountain-head of all the untruth that has permeated this world from that day to this. From that lie sprang the idea that man has in him an undying nature—that he has an endless existence within himself—and upon this idea hang all the superstitions of heathenism and the deceptions of Spiritualism of every age.
The unpopularity of the truth has been demonstrated in the history of every nation since the world began. And in none has it been more conspicuous than among the professed people of God. It is more conspicuous among them because there is where logically it would not be expected. This was notably illustrated in the unpopularity of Christ among the Jews. Christ was the truth (John 14:6), and the law of God is the truth (Ps. 119:142); but the professed people of God rejected His law (verse 126; Mark 7:8, 9), and condemned Christ to death. And the substitution of the teaching of men for the Word of God is just as common in the church to-day as it was then.
So we need not wonder that the world is more enamored of falsehood than of the truth. The popularity of fiction is evidence of the unpopularity of the truth. A teacher in one of the public schools of this city, in commending a public library book to her pupils, said that it was “founded on fact, with just enough fiction to make it interesting.” Here was a “Christian” teacher intimating to her pupils that the truth is not interesting. And such is the character of the great majority of even the more popular religious story-books.
The New York Christian Advocate, speaking of the writings of Dr. Henry M. Field, says that “his books have been almost as popular as if they had been romance.” Almost as popular as romance is apparently deemed an unusual eminence for truth, and so it is. Not many years before his death, Henry Ward Beecher, one time America’s most popular preacher, was seized with an ambition to add to his reputation for versatility by writing a novel. So he wrote “Norwood,” which had a great sale, not because of its great merit even as a novel, but because it was Beecher’s novel.
But some will ask, How is it that the Bible has such a large circulation? There are various reasons, two of which will suffice: (1) Bible and missionary societies give away hundreds of thousands of copies to people who pay very little attention to them; (2) it is popular, because deemed respectable, to have Bibles in the house, altho otherwise scarcely regarded at all. It is not uncommon to find several copies of the Bible in houses where it receives no other attention. It is the possession of the book that is popular, and not its contents or doctrines.
Furthermore, it is true that the doctrines which are the most plainly stated in the Bible (which is the truth, John 17:17) are not deemed orthodox in the popular churches. For instance: “The dead know not anything,” etc. (Eccl. 9:5, 6); “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ” (Rom. 6:23); “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29; “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments” (Matt. 19:17); “Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5); “We according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13); “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14, 15); “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God” (Ex. 20:8–11); “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal” (2 Cor. 10:4); “Ye have robbed Me . . . in tithes and offerings” (Mal. 3:8; Matt. 23:23); “As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man” (Luke 17:26); “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil” (Matt. 5:17); “Behold, I come quickly” (Rev. 22:12).
These and many more of the plainest utterances of the Scriptures are to-day popularly made void by tradition of the churches. Jeremiah describes the situation in a few words: “A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and My people love to have it so; and what will ye do in the end thereof?” Chap. 5:30, 31. Is it any wonder that the world loves falsehood, when error is so popular even among those who profess to serve God? The prophecy of Isaiah is equally ominous, and should call forth a more faithful study of the Word of God. Hear him: “We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes; we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men. We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves; we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them; in transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity can not enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey; and the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment.” Isa. 59:10–15.
There is but one way out of this bondage of falsehood, which has so extensively leavened both the world and the church, and that is through the truth. Says Christ: “If ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:31, 32.
W. N. G.
SELFISH PIETY.
By Annie M. Toohey
THERE is a common phase of piety which is to be generally deplored. It is a selfish, supercritical form of religion, to be universally encountered in every creed. It is a moral and social iconoclast, and works more havoc in an unobtrusive way than the insidious breath of a pestilence. This pitiable form of piety is manifested in the self-styled Christian who is continuously striving to personally pose as a spotless saint by throwing a merciless searchlight upon the secret faults of others. This detective Christian is truly one of the most dangerous elements of modern society. Upon the fields of his alleged missionary work often lie more lost souls as a result of cruel exposures than in veritable haunts of vice. Such heartless zealots take ghoulish pride in openly and scathingly moralizing with poor helpless sinners, instead of dealing with them as Christ did, gently and forgivingly, and with tender persuasiveness. Let the Christian world rid itself of these boisterous shamers of unfortunate humanity, and replace them by gentle missionaries, with pitying voices, humane hearts, and tender hands.—Annie M. Toohey, in Christian Work.
THE DIVINE REVEALED THROUGH THE HUMAN.
Hume once said that when he thought of his mother he believed in immortality. There are many to whom God seems afar off; they do not doubt Him, but they can not lay hold of Him as a companion in the hour of need. To such natures it is a blessed providence when some human soul becomes a translator and revealer of that divine Helper who has not yet become a divine Father in the thought and feeling of a weak and sinning child. Human love becomes in this way the prelude to the divine love; for we hold fast to the mother or wife whom we love; we long to gain and hold her confidence; we do the things that please her, and we leave undone the things that distress her. We square our life by her life, out of pure love for her. A beautiful human soul always suggests God, as the shining in the still waters at night makes us instantly aware that a star is above us. We do not need to look at it; we know that it is there. Whoever in this confused world has the supreme blessedness of living close to a beautiful human soul, can not look into the pure depths of that soul, day after day, without a constant vision of God.—The Outlook.
GETTING ACQUAINTED FOR JESUS’ SAKE.
ONE of the first steps toward helping people spiritually is becoming acquainted with them. Just as a man needing a certain line of goods naturally turns first to the brand which he has seen oftenest advertised, so people in need of spiritual counsel will think first of their Christian acquaintances whose attitude is most open to inviting them. We may not see at a moment how a nod, a smile, a pleasant greeting, or a few moments’ chat with those who would otherwise be strangers, can help Christ’s cause; but these repeated expressions of good-will are so many advertisements of the source whence spiritual help may be obtained, and the time is sure to come, sooner or later, when the cultivation of acquaintance will prove a means of leading to Christ.—S. S. Times.
Three Lessons for a Happy Life
“THE three lessons that are all the better for knowing: That cheerfulness can change misfortune into love and friends; that in ordering one’s self aright, one helps others to do the same; and that the power of finding beauty in the humblest things, makes home happy and life lovely.”
The Danger of Small Sins
“It is often less dangerous to commit grave offenses than small ones, for the reason that we are more keenly alive to the enormity of a great sin and more zealous in correcting it.”
“IT IS EXPEDIENT FOR YOU.”
By T.
“NEVERTHELESS I tell you the truth: It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.” These are the assuring and strengthening words of the Master as found in John 16:7. The Lord had been telling His disciples that He was about to return to the Father’s throne. “Sorrow had filled their hearts” because they thought that they were soon to be separated from the Saviour. Everything looked dark and dreary before them. Then came the words, “It is expedient for you that I go away.”
It was no doubt hard for the disciples then, the same as with many to-day, to believe that it was “expedient” for the Lord to go away. They wanted Him to stay right with them there. They hoped soon to join in proclaiming Him a temporal king, and brilliant ideas of a glorious kingdom irresistible in power had no doubt filled their minds. But such was not the plan of the Master. His kingdom was not to rise in the track of the warrior, whose every battle is “with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood,” but it was to be made up from subjects who learn to be too kind to kill and too righteous to commit any other wrong.
So the Lord says, “It is expedient for you that I go away.” But you ask, “Why is it expedient?” The answer is at once given by the Saviour Himself: “For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.” Then, whether we understand it or not, it is our privilege to believe that it is better for us to have the ministrations of the “Comforter” for the time being than to have Jesus here in person. Often have we thought and talked and dreamed about what it would have been to have had the privilege of seeing and talking personally with the Redeemer here upon earth. This certainly would have been an exalted privilege. But if we believe the Master’s own word, He has something better for us still. “It is expedient for you that I go away; for . . . if I depart, I will send Him [the Comforter] unto you.”
Then have we appreciated the gift of the “Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost”? We have talked of our love of Jesus, but have we loved Him enough so that we have learned to court the divine influence of the Comforter? The Bible shows us plainly that the Saviour and His Father are offering us one of the choicest gifts of heaven when they confer upon us the Holy Spirit. Have we thought upon this? Have we realized it? Have we opened our minds and hearts to receive this heavenly guest that Jesus says “the Father will send in My name”?
When the Comforter is come, the Master says, “He shall glorify Me; for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you.” John 16:14. While Jesus was here in person, He could only be in one place at a time. When at Jerusalem, the sinner, the sick, the lame, and the blind who were off at Capernaum, did not have the privilege of His personal attentions. They could not hear His voice speaking pardon, and health, and life. They could not touch the hem of His garment, and receive the virtue that healed of every malady. But when the Comforter comes, “He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you.”
So, then, the Holy Spirit does not come with something different, but He is God’s agency by which He brings to each one the personal influence and the personal attention of Jesus the Saviour. When the Master was here on earth, the crowds thronged about Him to hear the “gracious words that He spake,” and to enjoy the benefits of His power so kindly exercised upon all. The Lord revealed Himself to us in person so that we might know Him as He is. Words, merely, could not convey to us the surpassing character and inestimable worth of our Saviour, so He came to earth and actually lived the divine life before men. He lived among men; He became the Son of man. He did it all so that we might have a perfect object lesson of what He really is. And by thus seeing Him in the perfect light of His perfect life, how can we keep from loving Him, and rendering Him our heart’s every affection?
But “it is expedient for you that I go away” and “send Him [the Comforter] unto you;” “for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you.” When Jesus was here, He made manifest what was His. He showed to all the world the character of the benefits He has to offer a fallen world. He freely gives pardon from sin, and along with it the healing of every aching disease, and the perfect peace of His own heavenly life. It takes the Bible to tell the story. Read therein and feast on the words of life.
Above everything else, keep in mind the important truth that the Comforter is sent into the world in the name of Jesus, to do the work of the Master for each one who will receive Him. “And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world can not receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him; but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” John 14:16, 17.
Receive the Comforter. He is a heavenly guest, and He will show you the things of Jesus. The Lord will no longer seem far off, but nigh at hand. The Bible will not appear dry and uninteresting, but under the influence of the Holy Ghost every word of the divine Book will be a shining, strengthening, comforting gem of life and power. The Comforter has been sent to you. Have you chosen Him as your intimate and abiding guest? T.
“When Ye See All These Things.”
In replying to a question of His disciples, on the Mount of Olives, as to what should be the sign of His coming and the end of the world, our Lord gave several signs, which occur in close proximity to the end, and declared, “When ye shall see all these things, know that He is near, even at the doors.” This instruction to His disciples is found in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21. In the three chapters we will find these various signs. All are either fulfilled or fulfilling. The Gospel of the kingdom is rapidly going to all nations; not that it will convert them, but as a witness of what God will do if they will accept Him. The darkening of the sun and moon and the falling of the stars have occurred. The false christs and false prophets have arisen and are still arising. There is fear, perplexity, and distress among the nations. Tumult and storm sweep earth and sea. The love of many of God’s people has waxed cold. We may see all these things if we will; the Son of man is near, even at the doors. Why deny it? Why not believe the Word?
“THE LORD’S DAY.”
What Dr. A. Simpson Has to Say.
In the Christian and Missionary Alliance of February 23, 1898, is a sermon by the Rev. A. B. Simpson on “The Lord’s Day,” based on 1 Cor. 16:2 and Rev. 1:10, in which he endeavors “to trace the true scriptural doctrine of the Sabbath through the various dispensations.” We present a few striking utterances from this sermon:—
The Sabbath is a primeval institution as old as creation. Its supreme authority does not rest upon the Mosaic law, but it has come down itself from Eden, and is as old as the human race, the institution of marriage, and the first promise of redemption. It was given for man, and not for any single race of men. . . . It is essential in considering this subject that we always recognize the earlier institution of the Sabbath, because this at once lifts the character and claims of the day above all questions connected with Jewish law. Even the fourth commandment, which reinstated the Sabbath, distinctly recognizes its prior existence by using the words, “Remember the Sabbath day.” . . .
The Sabbath of creation stands, notwithstanding all that may have been supplemented for the Jewish people and the Mosaic dispensation at Sinai. This lifts this sacred day to a lofty height, and a universal scope that can not be claimed for any of the older institutions of the Mosaic system. This blessed memorial of the crowning of creation comes down to us with the sweetness, the beneficence, the liberty and love of unfallen Eden and heaven’s first smile over a new-born world.
We next recognize the Sabbath as a Mosaic institution. It was taken up by the great Lawgiver, and re-enacted for God’s peculiar people with all the awful sanctions of that fiery law. . . . For a time they [the shadows of Sinai] gathered around it, but they have passed away, and it [the Sabbath] stands out in the clear sunlight of its ancient institution and its yet higher Christian significance.
Note, reader, that all these refer to the Sabbath ordained of God in the beginning; the day on which He rested, which He blessed, which He set apart, namely, the seventh day. The Lord’s Sabbath was the Lord’s rest day. “The Sabbath of creation stands.”
There is no need of elaborate argument to sustain the above statements; the evidence from the Word is full and abundant. God has said it; we have His Word. But now comes the labored part of the sermon:—
We now come to the third stage of the observance of the Sabbath, namely, the Sabbath as once more re-enacted under the New Testament dispensation. Now it is well to notice that God had already been preparing the minds and hearts of His people for a very radical change with the incoming of the new covenant. He told them He was not going to deal with them according to the covenant that He made455with their fathers, but He was to enter upon the covenant of grace in which love, forgiveness, and liberty were to take the place of constraint, bondage, and selfish effort.
But has not God through all the past granted “love, forgiveness, and liberty” to all who trusted Him? Did not Moses and Elijah and David and Isaiah and Daniel know God’s “love and forgiveness and liberty”? God’s law was not bondage to them.
Mr. S. continues:—
When the Lord Jesus appeared, we find Him at once facing the Sabbath question, and we notice two distinct attitudes which He takes from the beginning. The first is a positive recognition of the Sabbath as one of the institutions which He assumed and incorporated into His kingdom and took under His direction and authority. “The Son of man,” He says, “is Lord also of the Sabbath.” Mark 2:28. In the parallel passage in Matt. 12:1–8 He assumes still more authoritative direction of this day. . . . The Lord Jesus Christ thus distinctly recognizes the Sabbath, but, on the other hand, He as distinctly set His face against the severe Jewish conception of it, and from the very beginning insisted upon the new construction of its meaning and a new charter of liberty and beneficence in its observance. . . . He most distinctly laid down the law that true Sabbath observance always carried along with it a spirit of thoughtful love which would not hesitate to perform any work of real necessity of mercy.
But this implies no change in the day. Mr. Simpson endeavors to lay a foundation for a change of the Sabbath in the following:—
While He recognized the Sabbath as an institution of Christianity, He also recognized His right to change it, and set it free from all that was peculiar to the transitory system of Judaism that had incrusted around it. Not in any sudden or formal propaganda of a new Sabbath law did He startle and shock even His disciples, but gently He allowed a new character and significance of the day to grow up out of incidents and events, as He allowed almost all the important acts and ordinances of His kingdom to develop out of the circumstances that gave them birth. The Gospel did not start out as a rigid system of theology, laying down cardinal principles and enacting written laws like the Mosaic economy, but it grew out of living facts, so that every institution and ordinance of Christianity has behind it an incident rather than a proclamation. Even the Lord’s supper grew out of the farewell meeting of Christ with His disciples.
No, sir; Jesus Christ did not “startle and shock even His disciples” with any idea whatever of any change of the Sabbath. On the contrary, He tells them, “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one title of the law to fail,” and “till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” He ever enjoined obedience to the law of God; He ever kept the law as our surety and example; He ever taught, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me.” Yes, indeed, “a new character and significance of the day” did grow out of His life, but not another day, nor the hint of another day is uttered.
But the Sabbath, God’s Sabbath, like every part of His law and Gospel, grew out of living, existing facts; the creative and regenerating power of God.
There is no parallel between Sunday and the Lord’s supper, as intimated by Mr. Simpson. Our Lord in specific words declares of the observance of the Lord’s supper, “This do;” but nowhere does He say thus of Sunday. The weakness of this argument is evidently felt by Mr. S., for he makes desperate efforts to obtain a law. He says:—
But, further, we know that our Lord gave to His disciples a great many commandments which have not come to us in categorical form. [When? and where? and what?] The apostle John and other apostles tell us that during the forty days He spoke to them in detail all things concerning the kingdom of God, and commanded them to teach the church to observe these things. John also tells us that if all the things which He said were written, the world would not contain the books that should be written. Doubtless, therefore, in these intervening days He gave them specific directions about the Sabbath as well as the government of the church, and many other things respecting which we have no specific word from His lips.
That is, Mr. Simpson would have us believe that during Christ’s life He ever taught and observed the Sabbath day of Jehovah, taught that the law of God is obligatory in every jot and tittle, and then after His resurrection He taught that the Sabbath of the Creator and Sanctifier (see Eze. 20:12, 20) was abrogated, and a new day, which had naught of a Sabbath character about it, took the place of the Sabbath, and yet Christ left us not one word recorded about it. He gave instruction concerning baptism and feet washing and the Lord’s supper, but no word concerning Sunday observance! Well, He did give no word, and for good reason: Jesus knew no Sunday sacredness before or after His crucifixion, and taught none.
But Mr. S. asks, “Does not love take the hint?” Surely it ought; Jesus says, “If ye love Me, keep My commandments;” and, “Ye are My friends if ye do whatsoever I command you.” There is life in His words to faith.
Mr. S. refers to the usual texts where the term “the first day of the week” is used, but the Sacred Record shows concerning every one of these instances that the day was not regarded as a Sabbath. But, more than this, Mr. S. says:—
Furthermore, it is a fact that the first day Adam ever spent on earth was really the Sabbath. He was created just at the end of the sixth day.
But Adam did quite a day’s work on that same sixth day. He viewed all the animals, noted their character, named them accordingly, found among them no helpmeet for himself; after this God put him to sleep, woman was created, and then God gave to them both their dominion and charge, all on the sixth day. So much for that; but the question is not, “What was Adam’s first day?” but, “What is God’s Sabbath day?”
And then Mr. Simpson overthrows all he says by endeavoring to show by a round-world argument “that the whole question of numerical days is impossible. It is the principle of one day in seven that God requires.” That controversy we will let Mr. Simpson settle with the all-wise God, who gave a definite-day Sabbath for the people on this earth; but what we wish to know is, What is he laboring so hard for to build up a Sunday-sabbath, and to demolish the true Lord’s day structure built by Christ? Is not Sunday as much one day in seven as is the Sabbath? And is it not just as difficult to keep it on a round world?
It is unto such inconsistencies that error leads good men.
The Sabbath is not a matter of Judaism; it is not a matter of Seventh-day Baptistism; it is not a matter of Seventh-day Adventism. All these may pass away; but the Sabbath stands.
The Sabbath is an institution of the great God of heaven, a memorial of creation, a sign of redemption, a mark of His authority, involving the very integrity of His Word. When Mr. Simpson comes to know the Sabbath as it is, the pure, genuine gold coin of Christ’s minting, the emblem of rest in Christ from sin, and of eternal rest from strife, he will wonder and weep that he could substitute for it a base counterfeit of sun-worship, born of the worst paganism, and cherished by the unholy apostasy of the Christian church.
Question Corner
“Enquire and make search and ask diligently.”
833. G. M. S.—2 Sam. 12:7, 8 simply shows that God gave David all power in the kingdom, so that as king he could have taken other wives, Saul’s wives, according to the custom of those times, permitted of God because of hardness of men’s hearts, instead of robbing a poor man and then causing his death. It does not show that God approved polygamy. 1 Kings 15:5 mentions one lapse of duty, yet the numbering of Israel was wrong. See 2 Samuel 24. In his great sin toward Uriah David’s heart was turned aside; but elsewise his heart was to do right, tho he made many mistakes. God’s idea of marriage is one of each sex. “The twain [not the three or four or more] shall be one flesh.” “In the beginning God made them,” not male and females, plural, but “male and female,” singular. God’s wish respecting the king was that he should not “multiply wives to himself.” See Deut. 17:14–20. If David and Solomon had heeded these lessons, we would not have seen the sad strife among David’s sons, and Solomon would not have been turned to idols by his many wives.
834. W. H. G.—The battle of Armageddon will be fought under the sixth and seventh plagues, just before Christ comes. Rev. 16:12–20; Rev. 19:19–21. It is called Armageddon from Mount Megiddo, in Palestine. See article in Missions department. This will be in a way typical of the great battle at the end of the thousand years. Rev. 20:9.
835. H. W.—Isa. 11:5–9; 35:5–10; 65:17–25 are the strongest figurative descriptions of the abundance of peace which will exist in the new earth, but this does not necessarily imply that the details of Isaiah 11, for instance, will all be literally fulfilled. But if all these now wild, ferocious, and venomous beasts and reptiles were there, they would not harm even the little child; for man, the king, is again at peace with God, and all is peace in the creatures below him.
836. H. W.—Isa. 35:9 refers to ravenous beasts, to beasts with the nature which they now possess. When man is restored, all creatures below him will be changed in nature and disposition. Isa. 65:20 refers not to the new earth, but to the wicked who die previous to that new-earth state. After the thousand years there will be a period of time when Satan holds sway over the wicked. This period, it seems evident to us, is the hundred years of Isa. 65:20. At the end of that time begins the ultimate purification of the earth. From that time, when sin is forever blotted out, “there shall be no more curse.”
PLEASE explain 1 Tim. 2:11, 12. Is it right for a woman to teach in the church? P. I.
It all depends on the who, the how, and the why. If there are no men to teach, or capable of teaching, and the Lord has laid a burden upon a woman, let her teach. In all ordinary affairs of the church, the text expresses the rule. Where there are men to teach, let not women put themselves forward or usurp authority over the men. Learning, waiting, serving in all modesty, is a greater power for good in women than all the assumption of authority which they can put on. Deborah taught; Anna prophesied; Philip’s four daughters prophesied; Priscilla instructed Apollos. See 1 Cor. 11:6.
IN 1876.
Under the title “Is the Poor Man My Brother,” and in the year 1876, Christian Voices contained the following:—
“As our country advances in wealth, civilization, and refinement, the chasm is widening between the rich and poor, the cultured and the ignorant, and the Christianity of the times has felt the influence.
“The church of to-day is fashionable and entertaining, so that it meets the tastes and wants of the upper class. We do not object to this if the other class is not thereby neglected.
“We have been too much absorbed in memorializing the triumphs of Christianity in costly churches, and public and charitable institutions, and not enough interested in the great multitude of the ignorant and the unsaved. We have been wise, doubtless, in multiplying our colleges and improving our church architecture, but there is a danger of our running mad on this subject.
“In some of our churches there is very little sympathy for the poor man. He is not wanted in the rich man's pew. His rough clothing is an annoyance, if not an offense, to broadcloth and silk. His presence detracts from the service, and they can't half worship God, who is the common Father. They don't realize that the poor man by their side is their brother.
“St. James’ Epistle is of questionable authenticity to these church autocrats, and his assertion that those who have respect to persons of ‘gay clothing’ have not the faith of Christ, is an effete gospel.
“The devil in satin and jeweled with diamonds would be invited in with Christian courtesy, while a saint in threadbare garments and with haggard and careworn face would be only tolerated by Christian charity.
“Would Christ know His church if He were to come to earth? If He should come as the despised Nazarene and humble carpenter, He might not find a welcome in some of our modern churches. He would at least prefer to lodge in the manger; to be the guest of sinners; to go home with such men as Zaccheus, or preach to the common people, who have ever heard him gladly.
“Tell me, are such churches the church of Christ? Have they the creed and spirit of the Master? They may be beautiful edifices, have fashionable audiences, elegant music, and eloquent preaching, but not much of Christ or of His Spirit, which is Christianity.”
The foregoing was true and very applicable in 1876, but how much more so to-day! The church as a mass has drifted so far away from Christ that it no longer recognizes His methods of helping the poor and unfortunate. This is a most palpable truth, and yet how many church-members refuse to acknowledge it!
NO PERSONAL ENMITY.
By T.
SPEAKING of the naval battle at Santiago de Cuba on July 5, an editor of a leading daily says:—
“The surrender of Cervera was a touching incident. When he came aboard an American ship, he came as a prisoner, wounded in body and spirit. An American officer met him with extended hand, and said, ‘I congratulate you, sir, on having made as gallant a fight as ever man made at sea.’ Here was chivalry. Between these men no personal enmity existed.”
No “personal enmity,” yet cruel, barbarous war forces them to stand up and madly shoot at each other with the desperate purpose of killing if possible. And some try to make themselves believe that such work is the Christianity of the Christ. Leave the thought of the battle-field and its artificial glory out of mind, and carefully study Jesus just as He is, and you will find no such cruelty in Him. “For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” Luke 9: 56.
War is the very essence of cruelty. Christianity is all gentleness and positive goodness and kindness. These facts should not become obscured by the misleading influence of any plausible sophistry. While this present evil world continues, nations will continue to resort to the sword, but Christians should keep aloof from it. They have a nobler and more important work.
T.
TO ITS UNKNOWN END.
By T.
In a recent Independent Elizabeth Stuart Phelps said, “Think as we may, believe what we will, about the justification of this war, it must be fought now fiercely to its unknown end.”
It is well, indeed, to speak of this war with Spain as having an “unknown end.” Of course there can be no doubt but that Spain will be under the necessity of suing for peace before a great while. Her navy is practically destroyed, and her land forces will not be able to hold out for a great while against the superior forces of the United States.
But peace with Spain does not signify the end of this war. There is an “unknown end” still beyond. Germany has made it very manifest that she will have something to say about the settlement of the Philippines; Russia is uneasy over the situation; and France has showed a decided unfriendliness to this country all through the present war. No one seemed to dream of what was coming when the war broke out, but we find the United States is thereby suddenly plunged into the political wrangles of all the Eastern world. The great American republic is now a party to the Far Eastern Question, and the indications are strong that she will remain such till the end of time. And, truly, it is an “unknown” quantity, the complications and quarrels that she will necessarily be thrown into.
God will no doubt bring good out of it by opening up the nations of the East to the Gospel light; and everything goes to show that the Gospel will be carried very quickly to these benighted lands. The Bible is now translated into over 250 languages and dialects, and millions of copies every year are being sent to India, China, Japan, and the other oriental heathen peoples. Great preparation has been made by the agencies of the divine Father to do a vast work at once. And we have the unqualified promise that when “this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, . . . then shall the end come.” Matt. 24:14.
So then it is quite possible that the influence of the United States in the Far East, for a short time at least, may be used of God as a powerful factor in opening the way for “this Gospel of the kingdom” to be proclaimed there mightily. And it is very clear, also, as we have already pointed out in these columns, that by the United States being thrown into the Old World troubles, the last one of the great nations of earth has marched into the international battle-field. And there is no statesman that dares to conjecture what the “unknown end” will be. The Word of God alone throws light upon the situation. It tells us plainly that this world-wide marshalling of armies is the skirmish lines of the battle of that last “great day.”
The time is almost here when the Son of man will come in the clouds of heaven. He has told us that we may not know the “hour,” but He has given us signs by which we may “know” when “He is near, even at the doors.” These signs of His coming are filling the world to-day. Have you seen them?
