SELECTED QUOTATIONS
FROM D. M. PANTONS
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1. BAPTISM AND THE KINGDOM
The
Holy Spirit lets drop a warning and an incentive very valuable to an ear
sensitive enough to hear. For if we become united with him in the
likeness of his death that is, baptism, the ritual photograph we shall be also shall be, at a future date; also,
that is, correspondingly of his resurrection
that is, the First.* The sentence would appear to make
baptism part of the fidelity which wins the Kingdom. So our Lord says, - Except
a man be born again, he cannot see the
* Not all in the likeness
of His resurrection but in the fact: the Lords resurrection has
just been referred to (ver. 4) as out of dead ones; that is, a selective resurrection,
leaving others dead. The if marks the resurrection to be the prize of our calling, not
attained by all believers, but dependant on the holiness called for by God
the contrast to the continuance in sin of the proposal (Govett).
-
D.M. PANTON
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2. GLORY
That
the Lord will come in Person to this our earth: that His risen elect will reign
with Him and judge: that during that blessed reign the power of evil will be bound,
and the glorious prophecies of peace and truth on earth find their
accomplishment this is my firm persuasion, and not mine alone, but that of
multitudes of Christs waiting people, as it was that of His primitive
apostolic Church, before controversy blinded the eyes of the Fathers to the
light of prophecy.
Dr. GRIFFITH THOMAS.
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3. HIS WIFE HATH MADE HERSELF READY
In
Scripture the Church is typified as a virgin.
Paul wrote, I have espoused you to one husband,
that I may present you a chaste virgin to Christ. According to Christs parable, ten virgins
await the Bridegrooms coming. In
Scriptural numerology ten is used to express worldly completion. Each virgin carried a lamp. A lamp implies light. Five were accounted wise because they had
oil. Five were judged foolish because
their lamps were going out. The
Bridegroom tarried right up to the midnight hour and the virgins were wooed to
sleep, or as one version has it, they all nodded. They were not sleeping soundly, but were not
awake, alert and watching (Luke 21: 34-36). Now the foolish had had oil but not enough to
carry them through the long night of strain.
Great grace will be needed to overcome in this hour. Satan is tirelessly seeking to wear out the saints of the Most High. Awakened at the shout of the Bridegrooms
coming the foolish virgins discover themselves unready. They attempt a hurried spiritual
trousseau. But the Bridegroom has come,
and the door is shut.
SARAH FOULKES
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4. THE LAST FIRST
Many are called, our Lord says, but few chosen
(Matt. 22: 14): many called, in Divine
election; but few chosen for distinguished service and rich reward. The word called
seems to make this interpretation certain: the word church
the whole assembly of the saved itself means the
called out, the out-called: the few chosen,
therefore, can only be for reward.
Examples of
D. M. PANTON.
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5. THE PRIZE
One
supreme and final Revelation has a message as challenging and bright with
promise as an earlier section was with the inky blackness of despair. It is the message of the faithful servants,
so called in Matt. 24: 42-47; the overcomers
(Rev. 2 and 3,
7: 14, 12: 11, 21: 7), the undefiled in the way,
here described as the first fruits unto God and to the
Lamb (14: 4, 5). Listen to our Lords words in the
epilogue:- Behold,
I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give to every man according as his
work shall be (22: 12). Chapters 2
and 3 tell us about these rewards. Chapter 14
is the Harvest chapter. It begins with
the privileged first fruits who must be carefully distinguished from the
144,000 sealed Jews in chapter 7. Then follows the main Harvest (vv 15-16), when the wheat and tares are
sifted. Finally comes the Vintage of the
wicked at the time of Armageddon. We
read of throned saints, of the crowned saints, of those who share in the
victory of the Lamb and reign with Him a thousand years (20: 4). The world (mans artificial civilisation deep dyed in
sin) passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that
doeth the will of God abideth forever.
We are called to the heavenly citizenship of Philippians
3: 20-21. To be an overcomer
means being a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
There is a race to run; a prize to be won. Look to yourselves,
writes John in his second epistle, that we lose none
of those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.
SAMUEL F. HURNARD.
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6. A MARTYRS DEATH
When John Huss, the
Bohemian martyr, was brought out to be burnt, they put on his head a triple
crown of paper, with printed devils on it.
On seeing it, he said, My
Lord, Jesus Christ, for my sake, wore a crown of thorns; why should not I then,
for His sake, wear this light crown, be it ever so ignominious? Truly I will do it, and that willingly.
When it was set upon his head, the bishops said, Now, we commend thy soul to the devil.
But I, said Huss, lifting his eyes to heaven, I do commit by spirit, which Thou hast
redeemed. When the faggots were piled to Husss neck,
the Duke of Bavaria was officious enough to desire him to adjure. No, said Huss, I never preached any doctrine of an evil
tendency; and what I taught with my lips I now seal with my blood.
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7. THE OUT-RESURRECTION
In Philippians
3: 11 we have our first
unfolding of the gravity of the words: If by any means I might attain unto the out-resurrection out of the
dead; the stress should be
upon the first clause: if by
any means I might attain. Paul counted all things but loss for Christ,
yea, he had suffered the loss of all things, and suffered them gladly. Then, he had specified his ambition to know
Christ, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His
sufferings, being made conformable to His death all of this is included in
the words, if my any means.
Thus there was no length to which Paul was not ready, willingly, to go,
that he might attain the out-resurrection.
R. E. NEIGHBOUR,
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8. EPISCOPACY
Episcopacy, flowering into apostolic succession, is an invention of the post-apostolic age. Lightfoot,
Turner and Headlam, to name only a few, have shown that there is no evidence
for ordination by a Bishop till the third century, that Episcopacy is an
ecclesiastical creation neither ordained by Christ nor appointed by His
Apostles, and that, in the words of Dr. Headlam, the doctrine of Apostolic
Succession as taught by the Anglo-Catholics was not known in the Church for
four centuries, is not taught by any Anglican formula, and is based on
theological confusion.
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9. RAPTURE
So the pre-tribulationists, who are sure that all believers even
the grossest backsliders will be rapt en
masse into sudden glory before the Tribulation starts, overlook the warning
of the Lord. Watch ye at every season, making
supplication, that ye may prevail to escape all these things He has just described the Great
Tribulation, days of vengeance (ver. 22) that shall come to pass (Luke 21: 36). The Old Testament type, which our Lord stresses
as a warning to His disciples concerning His return, is extraordinarily
illuminating:- Remember
D. M. PANTON.
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10. RABBONI*
[* Written by a reader of Dawn
from the start, now with the Lord in hope of a better
Resurrection:
(Psa. 139: 8b; Heb. 11: 35b.)]
Hail to the Lords Anointed,
Great Davids greater Son,
Who for each helpless sinner
Eternal life has won.
For bitter was the battle
And greater still the shame,
To make us His forever
That we with Him might reign.
For He is our Rabboni,
Our Saviour, Lord, and King,
And we would by His Spirit
His praises ever sing.
All eager for His coming
And working for that Day,
If sleep should overtake us
Yet rise in bright array.
Then lets be up and doing
And never idle stand,
If we would give Him pleasure:
The day is near at hand.
C. S. KINGSTON.
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11. TRIBULATION
The
New Testament is only written and adapted to Christians in a suffering state
not as triumphant, not as having the reigns of government in their hands. From the Sermon on the Mount, to the 4th verse of the 20th chapter of Revelation, every address delivered to Christians contemplated
them as suffering adversity. Till Jesus
appears in the clouds of heaven His cause and people can never gain the
ascendant. Now is the time for fighting the good fight, the time that tries mens
souls, the time for the perseverance of saints, the time for suffering with
Him, that with Him we might reign.
There never has been a genuine follower of Jesus Christ that was not an
afflicted and oppressed man, either in person, property, or character, and
while the dragons head has life in it, it will not, and cannot be
otherwise. All that is wanting for
Christians to be more hated, and to be more slandered and persecuted, is more
similarity to Jesus in character (2 Tim. 3: 12).
Dr. ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
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12. RUNNING FOR THE PRIZE
They
who run for a prize are careful not to carry any superfluous weight, and do not
wear any long and trailing garment that might embarrass their free course, and
even throw them down. Hence our Lord
warns us, in the first of His parables which refer to the kingdom, of the cares of this age, and the deceitfulness of riches, and
the lusts of other things entering in which choke the word, and it becometh
unfruitful (Mark 4: 19). These, then, are the weights which are to be
laid aside. He who is seeking the riches
of the present world is not running the race for the kingdom. The earthly blessings promised by Moses Law
to the obedient Jew would be hindrances in the way of one running the present
race. And Jesus bids the rich young man
to lay them aside, and follow Him, on His way to the millennial kingdom and its
glory (Matt. 19). What will the Lord Jesus say to those
believers, who are seeking, with all their might, to gain wealth? when He has
told us, that, into the millennial kingdom of glory it is impossible [difficult] for the
rich disciple to enter (Luke 6: 20-26). No warrior entangles himself with buying or
selling, or like pursuits, that he may please his general (2 Tim. 2: 4).
Thou, O man of God, flee these things (1 Tim. 6: 11).
While Abraham walked with God in freedom in a tent, Lot was hindered
and entangled by a house within
R. GOVETT. [On Heb. 12: 1.]
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13. WEALTH
A
millionaire lay dying in
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14. REWARD
Christ
as King of kings will reward those who comforted His suffering Body. It is said that Ivan of Russia used sometimes
to disguise himself and go out among his people to find out their true
character. In the suburbs of
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15. POLITICS
It
is generally accepted that the aim of the politician is a healthier state of
society. But the lessons of history,
ones personal experience, and the decidedly unhealthy and dangerous conditions
of the political arena of our own day do nor support that view. The determination to satisfy personal vanity
and the wielding of personal power in the realm of power-politics seem to be
much nearer the truth. The gilded lie
was never so much in evidence as in our own day. Continental political giants have been
stripped naked and exposed as careerists and cowards, vultures living on the
people.
OWEN VOSS.
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16. THE SPIRIT OF MARTYRDOM
We
do well to study the spirit of our brethren who have faced death for Christ,
and who therefore are certain (Rev. 20: 4)
of sharing in the burst of coming Glory.
John Willfinger, of the
Christian and Missionary Alliance tempted by the lure of his father and
mother, brothers and sisters, and the girl he loved and to whom he was engaged
nevertheless refused to hide, and was shot down in 1944 by the Japanese in
Borneo. Just before, he wrote this
letter.
In this letter I inform you of my decision, which is the
most difficult one of all my life. Very
many people came and asked if they might hide me. But when I prayed and sought the will of the
Lord God, I was led to follow a way which was difficult for my flesh, but right for my soul. There are verses from the Bible which lead
me. Concerning the saints and
righteousness the Lord has given me these verses: And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and
prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me:
nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. The good
shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. And he said
unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou
comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus
said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.
If I hide, naturally the saints will be forced to lie and disobey
orders if they hide me. In short, I
would be forced to drag them into sin, whereas my intention upon leaving my
country and my family was only to make mankind righteous, and not to bring them
into sin even though I pray for it with my life. Because of Jesus Christ and His sheep, before
I will do anything whatsoever that is not right, I will surely surrender
myself. May the Saviour be with me as He
has promised, Go ye therefore,
and teach all nations, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the
world. Until now He has been with me, and I know
that He will be with me until the end.
Therefore, this is my decision.
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17 RE-BIRTH
Pandita Ramabai, the noted Christian leader of India,
tells how she followed the religions of her country during her childhood days
and right up until she was married and had grown to womanhood, and of how they
never satisfied. One day she heard about
Christianity, and she said, That is what I want. Christianity will satisfy the longings of my
heart. I will embrace the Christian
religion. Accepting Christianity, she
sailed for
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18. MILLENNIUM
The most striking point in the eschatology of the ante-Nicene age
is the prominent chiliasm, or millenarianism, that is the belief of a visible
reign of Christ in glory on earth with the risen saints for a thousand years,
before the general resurrection and judgment.
It was indeed not the doctrine of the church embodied in any creed or
form of devotion, but a widely current opinion of distinguished teachers, such
as Barnabas, Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Methodius,
and Lactantius.
- SCHAFF.
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19. LOVE
It is the supreme test of life that, while we deeply appreciate
other love, we centre all our love on God.
He created us in order to love him: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy
strength (Mark 12: 30).
And He loves us for ever. When George
Matheson realised that he was going blind, he wrote a letter to his fiancιe
offering to release her from her covenant of love, because of his certain
blindness. To his surprise and deep
regret, she accepted the proffered release.
The young poet-preacher was plunged into a veritable
O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in Thee;
I give Thee back the life I
owe,
That in Thine ocean depths it
flow
May richer, fuller be.
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20. THE LOVE OF GOD
I was converted in November, 1825, but I only came to full
surrender of the heart four years later, in July, 1829. The love of money was gone, the love of place
was gone, the love of position was gone.
God, God, God alone became my portion!
I found my all in Him. I wanted
nothing else. And by the grace of God
this has remained and has made me a happy man, an exceedingly happy man, and it
led me to care only about the things of God.
I ask affectionately, my beloved brethren, have you fully surrendered the
heart to God, or is there this thing or that with which you are taken up
irrespective of God? I can say from my
heart that God is an infinitely loving Being.
Oh! be not satisfied until in your inmost soul you can say: God is an
infinitely loving Being.
GEORGE MULLER.
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21.
Mr.
Samuel F. Hurnard
writes:-
It is evident
from Scripture that the Jews are determined, like their forefather Jacob, to
seize their birthright by hook or by crook.
They, too, will live bitterly to repent their folly. Our Lord told the Jews of His day: I am come in my Fathers Name and ye receive
Me not; if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.
Their leaders will sell their souls for the bauble of power. Daniel tells of a coming prince, probably the
Antichrist, with whom they make a treaty for seven years. But their agreement with hell shall not stand.
The treaty is soon broken, and the great tribulation follows to subdue
the pride and smash the hardness of heart of stubborn Jewry. It is
only when the remnant repent and acknowledge their once crucified Messiah that
He can and will restore the Kingdom, and Israel will dwell in safety and peace
every man under his own vine and fig-tree.
No Peace Conference of the Allied Nations, or other man-made agreement,
can ever fulfil Gods purposes and promises for
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22. SCHISM AND HERESY
Schism is an evil that occurs within the body, a drawing off from
one another when party spirit rises in the assembly. To the Corinthian believers Paul says:- I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better but for
the worse; for I hear that schisms exist among you (1 Cor. 11: 17). The unity which we are to keep Paul
describes:- There is one
body, one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your
calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism the Church is now rent by two baptisms one God and
Father of all (Eph. 4: 4).
But there is a graver sin than schism. Separation in the Body can become
separation from the Body: the one is schism, the other is heresy. Heresy is a sect,
that is, an organized faction, on principle separating from the other members
of the Body; a command concerning such is very remarkable:- A man that is factious (R.V. margin) after
the first and second admonition refuse, avoid (Titus
3: 10) beg thyself off from
(Govett). And grave
is the punishment to be inflicted on the sin of organized faction:- The works of the flesh are manifest factions, divisions, parties (R.V. margin) [heresies]: of the which I
forwarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that they which practice such things shall not inherit the
* There are also damnable
heresies (2 Pet. 2: 1), sects of perdition (R.V. margin);
nominally Christian, but fundamentally non-Christian: such are Christian Sceience, Christadelphianism, Mormonism, etc.
D. M. PANTON.
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23. THE WHITE LIFE
Nature can exquisitely symbolize grace. Only the white life wins the white robe. There is a little creature called the ermine,
whose fur is famed for its perfect whiteness.
This little animal makes it the chief business of its life to keep
itself clean. The instinct for
cleanliness and purity is so strong that it will suffer itself to be captured
and put to death rather than soil its feet or its beautiful coat of fur. Those who hunt the ermine know this, and
after they have found an ermines lair, they smear with slime and filth every
avenue of escape, knowing that it will yield itself to death rather than suffer
defilement. Thou hast a few names which did not defile
their garments: and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He that overcometh shall thus be arrayed in
white garments (Rev. 3: 4).
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24. FORTY WRESTLERS
In the bitter persecution of the Christians during the reign of Marcus Aurelius the Emperor himself
decreed the punishment of forty of the men who had refused to bow down to his
image. Strip to the skin! he commanded. They did
so. Now, go and stand on that frozen lake, he commanded, until you are prepared to abandon your Nazarene-God!
And forty naked men marched out into that howling storm on a winter
night. As they took their places on the
ice they lifted up their voices and sang:-
Christ, forty
wrestlers have come out to wrestle for Thee, to win for Thee the victory; to win from Thee the crown.
After a while those standing by and watching noticed a disturbance
among the men. One man had edged away,
broken into a run, entered the temple and prostrated himself before the image
of the Emperor. The Captain of the
Guard, who had witnessed the bravery of the men and whose heart had been
touched by their teaching, tore off his helmet, threw down his spear, and
disrobing himself, took up the cry as he took the place of the man who had
weakened. As the dawn broke there were
forty corpses on the ice.
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25. TEMPLES
Only the living ultimately matters. Know ye not that ye are a
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26. CHRISTLIKENESS
The Spirit that was in Christ is the Spirit that reproduces Christ
in the believer. Know ye not that the Spirit of God dwelleth
in you? After sentence had been pronounced on John Huss, he knelt and prayed:- May Thy infinite mercy, O my God, pardon this injustice of mine
enemies! Thou knowest the injustice of
mine accusations: how deformed of crimes I have been represented; how I have
been oppressed with worthless witnesses, and a false condemnation. Yet, O my God, let that mercy of Thine, which
no tongue can express, prevail with Thee not to avenge my wrongs.
His priestly garments were taken from him, and upon his head was placed
a paper mitre with three demons and the inscription Heresiarch painted on
it. He was led to the place of execution
and burned at the stake. Just before his
execution he again knelt and sang some psalms and prayed:- Into Thy hand, O Lord, do I commit my spirit! Thou hast redeemed me, O most good and
faithful God!
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27. THE REFORMATION
The Reformation was the greatest revolution in the Church since
the apostles. On what was it based? Here are the words of Luther:- We must make a great difference between
Gods Word and the word of man. A mans word is a little sound, that flies into
the air, and soon vanishes; but the Word of God is greater than heaven and
earth, yea, greater than death and hell, for it forms part of the power of God,
and endures everlastingly; we should, therefore, diligently study Gods Word, and
know and assuredly believe that God Himself speaks to us.
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28.
Those who came out of
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29. WORLDLINESS
The Apocalypse tells us that in the last
days men will be, above all things, world-lovers and God-haters. A famous editor of The New York Herald, Mr. J. G. Bennett, was once seated in a
railway carriage with Judge Black. It is the business of a journalist, said the editor, to find out what the public thinks, feels, and wants, and to give
it to them. Then, Sir,
thundered back the Judge, if
you had lived on the days of our Saviour, like Pontius Pilate you would have
delivered him over to be crucified. To please God is to
offend the world: to please the world is to offend God. The friendship of the world is enmity with God.
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30. SCARS
In the Bible left by J. F. Willfinger of the Christian and Missionary Alliance martyred
in Tarakan, he had written these (among other) sentences:- It is only through labour and prayerful effort, grim energy and
resolute courage, that we move on to better things.
God will not look you
over for medals, degrees or diplomas, but for scars in the battle of life.
It is even so. A Christ-likeness
can come through pain and sorrow that would never have come through joy; and
Christlikeness in character and experience creates Christlikeness in
reward. Joint-heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him,
that we may be also GLORIFIED WITH HIM (Rom. 8: 17).
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31. THRONES
So also is it concerning the Kingdom far
vaster than
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32.
It is extraordinary how Christian
commentators on the present problem of
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33. REPENTANCE
Only by a national repentance can the
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34. WATCHING AND PRAYING
Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy
to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son
of Man (Luke 21: 36).
Much is written regarding who is to escape
the tribulation and who will go through this period; but how clear the Word of
God is. Who will escape? Only those who are accounted worthy. Only those who watch and pray always.
In connection with this Word, we note Rev. 3: 4,
they shall walk with me in
white; for they are worthy. There are the few who have not defiled their
garments. To watch and pray always will
surely keep our garments clean and undefiled.
Clean, separated ones are worthy.
It is impossible to separate cleanness and worthiness. He keepeth his garment without spot or wrinkle this is the overcomer who watches
and prays always only they will escape.
Walking, whiteness, worthiness!
What a wonderful word.
Enoch walked with God; and God took
him. He will take those out of these things who walk with Him in white. Blessed are the undefiled in the way. Who shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart (constant communion). Watching and praying always, and accounted
worthy worthiness by the operation of His love, through the Spirit and our
answering reciprocal love and union with Christ! Perfect fellowship because of perfect
purity. Only as we are found in Him are
we worthy not having our own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is by faith in the operation of God. And
so we walk together, my Lord and I. By
my constant walking and praying He comes nigh, and makes me worthy to escape by
His purifying presence.
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35. PRAYING ALWAYS
In his journal Sir Thomas Browne, a beloved physician, who lived in
36. SILENCE
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Dr.
Wilbur Smith stresses the
iniquitous silence (with which we are all too familiar) on the dark side of
Truth:- I think in orthodox circles today there are some great subjects in the Word of God that are almost never
talked about. Twenty-seven times the
Apostle Paul, e.g., mentions good
works as something to be practised, but you and I can live in
institutions of the reformed faith for forty years and never hear good works
mentioned. That is not rightly dividing the word of truth. I
remember a few years ago looking carefully into the Greek text of 2 Timothy 3 (Pauls terrible delineation of the
character of men at the end of the age), and I was astonished to find that not
in any single book, in our language at least, on the eschatology of Paul, was
there a single page of treatment of this great chapter. I fear in many circles today the New
Testament teaching on sin is almost wholly ignored, and a vital conviction
concerning the wrath of God and a judgment to come is tragically omitted. If we are to teach the Word of God, we should
teach it in its entirety. The Righteous Judge must deal with sin in believers equally with sin in unbelievers.
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37. TRACTS
Some years ago, a brilliant young American
actor was on his way to the theatre in one of our western cities. As he turned the corner, a humble woman,
whose name has never been revealed, handed him a tract. Out of respect to her, he put it in his coat
pocket, never expecting to read it.
When he went to the hotel, he happened to
find the tract and said to himself, I believe Ill see what this is about. He found it so
interesting that he finished it. When he
went to bed, he began to think and found it impossible to sleep. All through the night the Christian message
of that tract kept recurring to his mind.
The next morning, he still could not get
the message out of his mind, and finally he went to consult a minister and told
him about his experience. The minister
began to tell him about Jesus and His way of life so that the actor bowed his
heart and yielded to Him. Five months
later, he gave up the stage and entered a theological seminary to prepare for
the Christian ministry.
That man was George C. Lorimer, who afterwards became the famous pastor of
LEN BROUGHTON.
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38
REWARD
So also no price is too great to pay for the coming glory. When Savonarola
was asked to compromise his message and the Pope offered him the scarlet hat of
a Cardinal, he replied, I
want no red hat but that of martyrdom, coloured with my own blood.
The Reformation that followed under Luther
had the very roots in the blood of Savonarolas martyrdom. But more than that. I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of
Jesus, and they lived, AND REIGNED WITH CHRIST A THOUSAND YEARS
(Rev. 20: 4).
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39. MARANATHA
We have the comfort of knowing that the
entire Church of the days of the Apostles was premillennial to the core. But what of the church of the first
centuries? Dr. Schaff in his History of
the Church, says of premillennial teaching:- This precious hope, through the whole age of persecution, was a
copious foundation of encouragement and comfort under the pains of martyrdom which
sowed in blood the seed of the glorious harvest for the church.
Dr.
Elliott wrote:- All primitive expositors, except Origen and the few who rejected Revelation, were premillennial.
Gusslers work on Church history, says of this
blessed hope that it was so
distinctly and prominently mentioned that we do not hesitate in regarding it as
the general belief of that age.
Chillingworth declared:- It was the doctrine believed and taught by the most eminent fathers
of the age next to the apostles and by none of that age
condemned.
Dr.
Adolf Harnack wrote:- The earlier fathers Irenaeus,
Hippoltus, Tertullian, etc, - believed it because it was part of the tradition
of the early church. It is the same all
through the third and fourth centuries with those Latin theologians who escaped
the influence of Greek speculation. He names a number, all holding the
very details of primitive Christian expectation, just as believed by thousands
to-day who take the Word at its obvious meaning.
So we have the further comfort of knowing
that the early fathers differed little from what is commonly taught by
responsible premillennial teachers. The
Church of the middle ages, it is true, drifted away from these simple truths;
but the leaders of the Reformation called the Church back to the faith of the
Apostles, as have the premillennial leaders of the last hundred years.
* *
* * *
* *
40. THE
There is no charge of intentional misleading,
on the part of those Bible teachers who assume, that the Christian enters into
his final glory at death. Eschatological
teaching would be greatly simplified if we were able to take that for granted. Assuming that to be a final statement of truth,
then it would disqualify several important Christian doctrines. The second advent of our Lord would be one of
them. Why should it be necessary for Him
to come again and receive
you unto Myself, if His
people go to Him in a final sense at death? The New Testament doctrine of the resurrection
of the Christian dead, when the Lord shall so come, would be redundant if we
were able to say of all departed saints that the resurrection is past already.
It would not be the first time in the Christian era that such a
disastrous thing has been taught (2 Tim. 2: 18).
Consider for a moment the evidence of this
mistaken conception, in those well-known lines of Charles Wesley as follows:-
Come, let us join our
friends above, who have received the prize
Let all the
saints terrestrial sing with those to glory gone. Judge for
yourself as to whether the perfect poet was also a perfect theologian, by an
enquiry like this: is the
prize received in the hymn,
the same as the one anticipated by Paul in Phil. 3: 10-14
I press toward the mark, for
the prize of our high calling, of God in Christ Jesus?
If so, then there would be this difference between Paul and Wesley the
former expected it in the out-resurrection from among the dead, which he sought so diligently to
attain, and the latter at the time of his death. It is one thing to sing:- Around the throne of God in heaven, thousands of children stand, but quite another thing to prove it
from the Holy Scriptures.
Like the steam locomotive on its two steel
tracts, so our thoughts must run along the appointed track, if we are to reach
the terminus of truth in safety.
Alignment of truth is imperative, both for the in-working of our
salvation, and the out-working of it in the future; and this is the alignment
we follow. The first advent of Christ
into this world, is the gateway into salvation: His second advent is the
gateway into glory. The former is the
controlling factor of grace, the latter is the governing factor of our
expectations, which is to be consummated by a mighty, collective movement
upward, on the part of all [accounted worthy] saints, and of all dispensations up to that time. It is therefore an axiom of Christian doctrine, that there is an interval of time lying
between the Christians death, and the coming of the Lord to receive him unto
Himself.
JOSEPH ELLISON
* *
* * *
* *
41. THE BIBLE
The Bible is the writing of the living God. Each letter was penned with an Almighty
finger; each word in it dropped from the everlasting lips; each sentence was
directed by the Holy Spirit. Albeit,
that Moses was employed to write his histories with his fiery pen, God guided
that pen. It may be that David touched
his harp, and let sweet Psalms of melody drop from his fingers; but God moved
his hands over the living strings of his golden harp. Solomon sang canticles of love, and gave
forth words of consummate wisdom; but God directed his lips, and made the
preacher eloquent.
If I follow the thundering Naham, when his horses
plough the waters; or Habakkuk, when he sees the tents of Cashan in affliction;
if I read Malachi, when the earth is burning like an oven; if I turn to the
smooth page of John, who tells of love, or the rugged chapters of Peter, who
speaks of fire devouring Gods enemies; if I turn to Jude, who launches forth
anathemas upon the foes of God, everywhere I find God speaking; it is Gods
voice, not mans; the words are Gods words; the words of the Eternal, the
Invisible, the Almighty, the Jehovah of ages.
This Bible is Gods Bible, and when I see it, I seem
to hear a voice springing up from it, saying, I am
the book of God! Man read me! I am Gods writing; study my page, for I was
penned by God; love me, for He is my author, and you will see Him visible and
manifest everywhere.
C. H. SPURGEON.
* *
* * *
* *
42. BRETHREN PRAY FOR US
Pray especially for the ministers of the Gospel, that
they may set forth the love of God to the conversion of many souls. Pray for them that they may not shun to declare the whole counsel of God, so that
they may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Remember their difficulties. To be anxious for souls and yet not
impatient, to be patient and yet not indifferent, to bear the infirmities of
the weak without fostering them, to testify against sin and unfaithfulness and
the low standard of spiritual life, and yet to keep the stream of love free and
full and open to have the mind of a faithful shepherd, a hopeful physician, a
tender nurse, a skilful teacher requires the continual renewal of the Lords
grace. Pray for the mission among Israel and the heathen nations. Christs command is explicit, Gods promise
sure. The Church obeying the Divine
word, and constrained by the love of Christ, cannot but send forth
evangelists. Let us regard the
missionary spirit as the very spirit of Christian prayer; and in all our
thoughts and prayers, and work connected with the missions of the
ADOLPH SAPHIR.
* *
* * *
* *
43. THE FAITH
The bedrock on which we stand the Faith once for all delivered to the saints
(Jude 3) is, according to this word, a
deposit so infallible, so divine, that we have to change nothing. It was once given, once for all, once for
ever; not discovered, or invented, or evolved, but delivered; a written
revelation, bodily deposited, that has survived all error, all corruption, all
apostasy; so as to admit of elucidation, and explanation, but never of
addition, or doubt. New discoveries in
the Faith are always possible; just as telescopes, grown more powerful in the
hands of the astronomers themselves grown more skilful, will disclose new
worlds hitherto invisible; but those worlds were always there. An astronomer can discover a new star, even a
star of the first magnitude, but he cannot create one: so the constellation of
truth, overarching us, is the identical constellation, unaltered and undimmed,
on which the Apostles gazed. Therefore
it is not Roman tradition, or Anglican, or Baptist, [or
Presbyterian,] or Brethren, or Quaker, which we
seek: for all that is good in these traditions is already in the Book, and all
that is evil we do not want. God
has deposited in our hands the full orb of revealed truth once for all.
D. M. PANTON.
* *
* * *
* *
44. THE CHURCH AND THE SECOND COMING
Clement (96 A.D., Bishop of Rome, mentioned in Phil. 4: 3 Let us
every hour expect the
Polycarp (108 A. D.), Bishop of Smyrna, the pupil of John the apostle who leaned upon Jesus
breast He will
rise us from the dead
we shall
reign with Him.
Ignatius (108 A. D.) Bishop of Antioch, whom the historian Eusebius says was the Apostle Peters
successor Consider the times and expect Him.
Papias (116 A. D.), Bishop of Hierapolis, whom Irenaeus said saw and heard John There will be one thousand years
when the reign
of Christ personally will be established on earth.
Justin
Martyr (150 A. D.) I and all others who are orthodox Christians, on all points,
know there will be
a thousand
years in Jerusalem
as Isaiah and Ezekiel
declare.
Irenaeus (175 A. D.), Bishop of Lyons, companion of Polycarp, Johns pupil, commenting of
Jesus promise to drink again of the fruit of the vine in His Fathers Kingdom
argues That this
can only be fulfilled upon our Lords personal
return on earth.
Tertullian (200 A. D.), - We do indeed
confess that a Kingdom is promised on
earth.
Nepos (262 A. D.), Bishop of Egypt, proclaimed the second coming and millennial kingdom. His writings reveal that Dionysius, opposing the second coming, declared that John never
wrote Revelation and that the book could not
be understood. Opponents of second
coming truth have continued this argument until today and still so argue.
Lactantius (300 A. D.) The righteous dead
and reign with them
on earth
for a thousand years.
In 325 A. D., bishops
from all parts of the earth, gathered at Nicea, declared We expect a new heaven and earth
at the appearing of the
great God and our Lord Jesus Christ, and then, as Daniel says, the saints of the Most High shall take the
Kingdom.
Historical
writers bear witness of the early
churchs belief in Jesus return to and
reign upon the earth.
Eusebius admits that the most of the ecclesiastics of his day
believed in Christs coming before
the millennium.
Giesseler, Church
History, vol. 1, p. 166 Millenarianism became the general belief of the time.
Dr. Bonar in Prophetic
Land-Marks writes Millenarianism prevailed universally during the first three centuries.
Luther, commenting on John 10:
19 Let
us not think that the coming of Christ is far off.
Calvin, in the third book of his Institutes, chapter 25 Scripture
uniformally enjoins us to look with expectation for the advent of Christ.
John Knox of
* *
* * *
* *
45. THE TRUE CATHOLICITY
My full persuasion is, that inasmuch as any one
glories either in being of the Church of England,
ANTHONY NORRIS GROVES.
* *
* * *
* *
46. TELEVISION
The peril of televisions influence on youth steadily
increases. Children are passionately
devoted to it; and it is pointed out that in one weeks programmes over the stations
the following list of crimes was noted:- Ninety-one murders, seven hold-ups,
three kidnappings, ten thefts, four burglaries, two cases of arson, two jail
breaks, one murder by explosion, two suicides and one case of blackmail. Cases of assault and battery too numerous
to mention; also cases of attempted murder.
Much of the action takes place in saloons; brawls too numerous to
mention, also drunkenness, crooked judges, crooked sheriffs, crooked juries.
* *
* * *
* *
47.
The announcement of the moving of
[* So
also, all A-Millennialists and Post-Millennialists]
The prophecies picture the Jews in great numbers
returning in unbelief to the land in the latter days. They tell of the miraculous preparation of
the land itself under the blessing of God in order that God might multiply upon
the mountains and valleys men and beasts (Ezek. 36:
4ff35). They tell of the tribulations that shall
descend upon the re-gathering people, in the days of their unbelief (Jer. 30).
They tell of the destroyers that shall attempt to seize the
newly-discovered riches of the country and what God will do to them (Isa. 49: 17-26).
But so long as
Before that,
Thereafter
* *
* * *
* *
48. PRAYER
Our greatest work is prayer. Real prayer in the Holy Ghost is as rare as
it is mighty. It means great suffering
and brings us into fellowship with the Lord in all the burdens which He is ever
bearing for His people before the throne.
Oh, for the goldem pipes to carry the oil from the living trees to the
lamps of God. Oh, for the incense
bearers to ever present to heaven the golden vials which are the prayers of the
saints and bring the great consummation!
In those solemn times we expect to lay upon us unusual burdens of
intercession. Let Him find us responsive
and understanding what the will of the Lord is.
A. B. SIMPSON.
* *
* * *
* *
49. CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST
Oh what happiness it is for a soul to be subdued and
subject! What great riches is it to be
poor! What a mighty honour to be
despised! What a height it is to be
beaten dawn! What a comfort to be
afflicted! What a credit of knowledge it
is to be reputed ignorant! And, finally,
what a happiness of happiness it is to be crucified with Christ! Let others boast in their riches, dignities,
delights, and honours; but to us there is no higher honour than to be denied,
despised and crucified with Christ. But
what a grief is this, that scarce is there one soul which prizes spiritual
pleasures, and is willing to be denied for Christ, embracing His cross with
love. Many are they who are called to
perfection, but few are they who arrive at it; because they are few who embrace
the cross with patience, peace, and resignation.
MICHAEL DE MOLINOS.
* *
* * *
* *
50. SUFFERING
George Matheson, the blind preacher of
* *
* * *
* *
51. THE MARTYR SPIRIT
A little Armenian maid six years old, one of 400,000 orphans
of Christian Armenians deserted and almost starved, was taken by Turkish
officers who told her they would make a Mohammedan of her. She answered emphatically:- I will never be a
Mohammedan. They told her she
would die where she was; but that if she would become a Mohammedan they would
give her a good home. I wont be a Mohammedan, she answered. Growing angry, they took her to a stable
where wild, half-starved dogs were kept, to which Armenian children were
habitually tossed to be devoured. As
they approached the dogs leaped at her feet, and snarled and growled. The little maid, neither hesitating nor
shrinking, said through her tears, I cant, I wont
be a Mohammedan. So they pitched
her in, and locked the door. The next
morning when they came all was silent; and when they opened the door, with her
curly head resting on one shaggy brute, they found Anistiana for that is her name sound asleep, bearing on one arm
the marks where one of the dogs had seized her.
As they lifted her, and she rubbed her sleepy eyes she exclaimed, I wont be a Mohammedan. She was sold, and has finally fallen into the
hands of Christian women.
* *
* * *
* *
52. CONFESSION
When a man like me,
says Martin Luther, comes to know the plague of his own heart, he is not
miserable only, he is absolute misery itself. Do not mistake me,
says John Behmen, the father of
German philosophy, for my heart is sometimes as full
of malice as it can hold. Begone! shouted Philip
Neri to those who spoke his praise, Begone! for I
am good for nothing but to think and do evil. I am made of sin,
sobbed the saintly Bishop Andrews,
till his private prayer-book was all but indecipherable to his literary
executors because of its authors tears.
And St. Teresa, one of the
most cheerful women of her age, used to say:-
I am the wickedest woman in the world.
EDWIN LEWIS.
*
* * *
* * *
53. OUR DEATH AND
BEFORE OUR
RESURRECTION
To me to live is Christ and
to die IS GAIN (Phil. 1: 21).
Friends of that useful and much loved Jewish Christian, the Rev. Joseph S. Flacks, were given a
fine reminder of his faith in the promises of God. They received a post card from him, which he
had caused to be mailed on the very day of his death, in August, 1940, saying:- This is to announce
that I moved out of the old mud house; arrived in Gloryland instantly (2 Cor. 5: 8), in charge
of the angelic escort; absent from the body and
at home with the Lord (Luke 16: 22; Psa.
139: 8b. cf. Luke 16: 25: Now he is comforted HERE N.I.V. - [i.e., in Hades not heaven.
See Luke 23: 43; Matt. 12: 42; 16: 18; Acts
2: 34). I
find as foretold (Psa. 16: 11) in thy presence fullness of joy
[the path of life] pleasures for
evermore! Will look for you on the way UP at the [time of Resurrection, at] the redemption of the body (Rom.
8: 23). Till
then, look up. J. S. FLACKS.
* *
* * *
* *
54. THE ABSENCE OF LOVE
The absence of love even in Christian circles can be
almost incredible. A recent writer
says:- Though Luthers personal life radiated love,
there is little doubt that he positively hated the Pope. Both he and Calvin did much to help in the persecution of witches. Calvin
in particular was exceedingly cruel to these unfortunates he excelled his
contemporaries in his desire to exterminate them and was delighted with the
efforts of those who had maimed one poor man by torture, urging them to proceed
further. He would arrange for the bodies
of his enemies to be quartered and put up in the gates of the city of
* *
* * *
* *
55. SIN
The ruin of this exquisite world through
sin, and all sins unspeakable horror, Coleridge
emphasised. When someone was enlarging
to Coleridge on the tendency for good of some scheme which was expected to
regenerate the world, the poet flung up into the air the down of a thistle
which grew by the roadside, and went on to say, The tendency of that thistle is toward China; but I know,
with assured certainty, that it will never get there nay it is more than
probable that, after sundry eddyings and gyrations up and down, backward and
forward, it will be found somewhere near the place where it grew. Such has ever been the issue of those boasted
schemes of human wisdom which have professed to change the heart of man. Human nature is in this respect like the salt
sea all the rivers that run into it have not changed its saltness. The sun is daily evaporating its waters; but
does not drink up one particle of that saline ingredient. If men will drink of its bitter waters, they
sicken and madden, and die. It is this
thus with that malignant nature which we inherit and propagate; all human means
have failed to purity it, and it stimulates the madness, disease, and death.
* *
* * *
* *
56. LIGHTS OF THE WORLD
If the Christ-life is there it will come out through
the new glory on the face, and the tenderness of the touch, and the new love
for everybody. The very best testimony
that you can ever give to the power of Christ is to live His life aver again,
not in your own effort, but by the propulsion of that same life within
you. For me to
live is to reproduce Christ. Dr. CAMPBELL MORGAN.
A converted infidel gave credit to a timid man who
lived near him. The man was puzzled,
saying:- But I
never talked to you about your soul!
No, said the convert, You said nothing, but you lived me to death. I could laugh off the preaching, but I
coundnt shut out the light of your life!
A Minister with a clean heart, aflame with love, met a
girl who had offered herself for the slum work.
She was giggling and chatting in a way that convinced him that instead
of being filled with the Holy Spirit she was empty. He wanted to speak to her about her soul, but
hardly knew how to begin, so he was silent and prayed in his heart for her. Afterwards she said, I looked at his face, and said to myself, There is a holy man, a man
dead to sin. But I am alive yet. And that sight of his face led her to seek
and find, and now for years she has been a most useful and devoted worker.
* *
* * *
* *
57. DYING LAMPS
Because of abounding iniquity many in whose hearts
once burned the love of Christ have grown cold.
No one can drift into worldly conformity and retain his first love. Every true Christian in this closing
generation is facing temptation, affliction, hatred, betrayal and
martyrdom. The fight is on! If we would be victorious that we might receive the reward of the overcomer
and be included in the rapture of the Bride, we must be persistent in prayer
and maintain the faith Christ will be
looking for when He comes. If we
compromise in the least or let down we
endanger our souls and may miss the rapture.
* *
* * *
* *
58. QUENCHING THE SPIRIT
I bought a lamp identical with the lamps still used in
the East. I placed a wick in it, but no
oil, and I wasted half a box of matches before I satisfied myself, finally,
that it is impossible to light an Eastern lamp, owing to its peculiar construction,
unless a little oil is first poured in.
Thus I had a definite proof that our Lord meant to portray the foolish
virgins as believers, born of the Spirit, possessors of the heavenly Oil, but
not obedient to the command, Be ye filled with the Spirit. The words used by the foolish virgins, our lamps are going out, or literally are being quenched, gave additional proof. For unbelievers cannot quench the Holy Spirit. This same word is used in connection with the
day of the Lord in 1 Thess. 5: 19, Quench not the Spirit.
REGINALD T. NAISH.
* *
* * *
* *
59. BE AS MEN WHO WAIT FOR THEIR LORD
A timely message is the Lords message to the
Laodicean church. Christendom is in the
Laodicean stage. It is Christs last
call to the Church, ere He leaves the mercy seat for the judgment seat. Laodiceanism is a disease of the Church and
not of the world. It is the subtlest sin
of Hell, it is religion; but it is religion that Jesus hates.
It is the surrender of first-love cooling off from
fervency to lukewarmness profession without possession a name to live and
art dead neither hot nor cold in love or works mediocre service
indifferent praying contentment in spiritual barrenness complacency in
idleness grudging in giving reluctance in sacrificing no martyr or
witnessing spirit burdenless, passionless, spiritless, deceived people doomed
to judgment instead of rewards of the faithful, believing themselves rich, in
need of nothing, not knowing they are miserable, poor, blind.
To them Jesus lovingly calls: Be zealous and repent. Buy of me
gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment that thou
mayest be clothed
and anoint thine eyes with
eye-salve that thou mayest see.
Are you ready for His coming? Are
you wise or foolish? Repent and be
zealous. Be filled with the Spirit. Love God supremely. Keep yourselves from idols. Flee Laodicean lukewarmness. Else at His coming He will spue you out of
His mouth, into the awful castigation of the great tribulation.
* *
* * *
* *
60. OBEY HIS WORD
Watch and pray always that ye
may be accounted worthy to escape all these things, that are coming to pass,
and to stand before the Son of Man.
Obey Jesus and you will escape.
Disobey, be prayerless, careless, heedless, at ease, and you will not
escape.
God gives gifts by faith. God gives rewards for faithfulness. Behold I come
quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every man, as his work shall be. Plainly, this is a judgment of rewards,
according to works, to occur at His return.
God rewards only as God can. We
have a race to run and a crown to gain.
The race may be lost. The crown
forfeited. To win Christ, Paul suffered
the loss of all things. Can you win
Christ for less?
* *
* * *
* *
61. WORLD-WIDE PERSECUTION
The time is coming when true believers everywhere shall
be hated because of their identity with the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then shall they
deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my names sake,
said Jesus (Matt. 24: 9). The present growing hostility against true
Christianity foreshadows the time when Anti-Christ forces that are in the world
shall seek to destroy all believers of the one Faith. The Bride of Christ will escape the snare
through Rapture, but foolish virgins left on the earth and others who will
refuse to worship the Beast or his image shall be killed (Matt. 25: 1-12; Rev. 6: 9; 13: 7). As awful as it is to suffer torture and
martyrdom, its wholesome purifying effect upon the soul has long been
recognized. The revival broken out in
parts of the South has been partly attributed to persecution. Even so, in the coming tribulation, many shall be purified and made white and tried (Dan. 11: 33-35; 12: 10) because of
persecution. How much better it would
be, however, for people to purify themselves now that they may be counted
worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and thus be raptured
into the presence of Christ.
* *
* * *
* *
62 ADVENT
How grave, in these earth-shocking days, is silence on the Second Advent. Two ministers, long friends, met one day
after being apart for some time. They
discussed their churches; then began to talk on present-day events. Said one, - I dont
preach on the Lords return at all; my congregation
doesnt like it. I hear you have many against you for preaching it. I told you years ago theres no use setting
people against you. My friend, said the other man, by Gods grace, I preach His whole Word, and thereby deliver my soul; and if the Lord Jesus
comes in my lifetime on one who is left
behind will be able to say (as many will, of some ministers) that I did not
give out the truth and warn them of whats ahead. How about you?
* *
* * *
* *
63. A LUTHERAN MESSAGE
This message, sent by the
As your fellow Christians we
feel constrained to send you a word of compassion and encouragement in your
hour of trial, and to assure you of our constant and earnest prayers on your
behalf for guidance and strength of faith.
Now for a season you are in heaviness (1 Pet. 1: 6), but remember; our Master, Jesus Christ
Himself went the road of the Cross; He suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow in His steps (1 Pet. 2: 21).
Suffering has been a characteristic mark of Christian experience through
the ages. Therefore, when you suffer think not that some strange thing has
happened to you (1 Pet.
4: 12).
May God keep you from succumbing to the temptation of seeking security or help
anywhere else than in Him alone (Psa. 118: 8, 9). May He give you strength to serve Him while it is day, to help save men, and to do good to all. May He give you wisdom and courage to confess Him and to testify of His love
at all times, even while your hearts are filled with grief. May He keep and preserve you in one true faith.
Realize
your responsibilities as members of the Christian Church, and do not leave the
Churchs work to the pastors alone. Train your young people now to become staunch defenders of the faith;
pray God to give you the genuine love of
all men, unselfish devotion to their welfare, and fervent zeal for their
salvation.
* *
* *
* * *
64. AN INNER BEAUTY
A young officer blinded during the war was
rehabilitated in one of our Army hospitals.
During this time he met and later married one of the nurses who took
care of him. He had a tremendous devotion
to her and loved her very dearly. One
day his keen sense of hearing overheard someone in the distance speaking about
himself and his wife and they said, It was fortunate
for her that he was blind since he never
would have married so homely a woman if he had had eyes. He rose to his feet and walked toward the
voices saying, I overheard what you said, and thank God from the depths of my heart for
blindness of eyes which might have kept me from seeing the marvellous worth of
the soul of this woman who is my wife.
She is the most noble character I have ever known, and if the conformation of her features is such
that it might have masked her inward beauty to my soul then I am the great
gainer by having lost my sight.
D. G. BARNHOUSE.
* *
* *
* * *
65. HARDSHIPS AND TRIALS
We are often disheartened with our hardships and
trials, and begin to think it is too hard a thing to be Christians. Nature is so weak and depraved; there is such
a burden in this incessant toil, and self-denial, and watchfulness, and prayer;
the way is so steep, and so narrow, and difficult; we are tempted again and
again to give up. But when we think of
what the dear Lord has done for us, what glories He has set before us, what
victories are to come to us, what princedoms and thrones in the great empire of
eternity await us, and how sure is all if
we only press on for the prize; we have the profoundest reason to rejoice
and give thanks every day that we live that such opportunities have been
vouchsafed to us, were the sufferings even tenfold severer than they are.
JOSEPH A. SEISS.
* *
* * *
* *
66. PRESS TOWARD THE MARK
A young Christian student of a Bible school, learning
the possibility of being left behind when the Lord comes for His saints and
having to go through part of the Great Tribulation became terribly fearful and
depressed. A friend pointed out to him
that his fear was a good sign of his spiritual state, and was God-given and
God-commanded Let us fear lest a promise of being left us of entering into His rest (the Millennium or
Sabbath rest of the people of God, as literal, not spiritual, as the rest of
Canaan which the Israelites missed through unbelief, and to which the writer
was comparing it), any of YOU should come short of it. Dont, said his friend, be depressed in doing or being what God has
enjoined you should do or be, but rather
follow the example of the apostle Paul who, when he found he had, not yet attained to the resurrection from
among the dead and counted himself
not to have apprehended that for which he had been apprehended of Christ Jesus,
far from being fearful and depressed, one
thing he did, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto
those things which are before he pressed toward the mark for the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus The young student saw his mistake, his
depression was lifted, and like Noah of old, who by
faith being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with godly fear
(R.V.) prepared an ark to the saving of his house,
he now with that same godly fear presses on towards the goal.
W. P. CLARK.
* *
* * *
* *
67. BACKSLIDERS
What does this mean?
That the worst backsliders, and one who dies as such, will receive all
the golden prizes and honours, designed for devoted service even to martyrdom,
which our Lord holds out to the Seven Churches; and if these are attained
simple by saving faith and the Lord says that every overcomer will
receive them then every believer must receive them all. Not only does such exposition baffle all
comment, but the solemn warnings of our Lord and the Apostles, addressed beyond
all challenge to believers, are made totally irrelevant to the Church. What will such evangelicals feel when they
discover the truth at the Judgment Seat of Christ?
* *
* * *
* *
68. ONE IN CHRIST
It needs little grace to know where we differ from
other Christians, but this indeed is grace where amid conduct that tries or
grieves us, we give unity of the Spirit the first place, and have faith in the
power of love to maintain the living union amid outward separation. Keep the unity of
the Spirit is Gods command to every believer. It is the New Commandment to love one another
(John 13: 34). Keep the unity of the Spirit in the active
exercise of loving fellowship. The bond
between the members of my body is most living and real, maintained by the
circulation of the blood and the life it carries. In one Spirit we are
all baptized into one body.
Study to know and prize highly in thy brother the
things that will maintain this unity which is not of creed or custom or choice,
but the
unity of the spirit. Study in
all thy thoughts and judgments of other believers to exercise the love that
thinketh no evil. Never think or speak
an unkind word of a child of God. For
the sake of the Father, which is in him, love every believer. Give thyself to the set purpose to love and
labour for Gods children within thy reach, who through ignorance or feebleness
or waywardness are grieving Him. The
work of the Spirit is to build up a habitation for God. Yield thyself to the Spirit in thee to do the
work.
ANDREW MURRAY.
* *
* * *
* *
69. THE AGE OF GOLD
But beyond it all [the
great tribulation] an infinitely golden
vision. A re-born humanity will
introduce a re-born world. A great
British statesman of the nineteenth century, John Bright, expressed it thus:-
It may be but a vision, but I will cherish
it. I see one vast federation stretching
from the frozen north in unbroken line to the glowing south. I see one people and one language, and one
law and one faith, and over all that white continent the home of freedom and a
refuge for the oppressed of every race and every clime. In the exquisite words of the hymn:-
For lo, the time
is hastening on
By prophet-bards foretold,
When with the ever circling years
Comes round the age of gold;
When peace shall over all the earth
Her ancient splendours fling,
And the whole earth send back a song
Which now the angels sing.
The kingdom of this world the Greek is singular
have become
the kingdom the Empire, a vast federated world under one Monarch
of our Lord
and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever (Rev. 11: 15).
The Lord
shall be king over all the earth; and in that day there shall be one Lord and
his name one (Zech. 14: 9).
* *
* * *
* *
70. THE ERROR OF BALAAM
Balaam was a professional enchanter. Of false prophets in the Church, Jude says
they have run greedily after the error of Balaam? He made several, but his chief error lay in
persisting in a course which he knew to be wrong for
reward. Come, curse me Jacob, and come defy
Peter draws attention to this fatal greed of
Balaams. He
loved the wages of unrighteousness.
There is no more pathetic figure in Scripture. How unutterably sad are the words I shall see him, but not now.
I shall behold him, but not nigh (Numbers
24: 17). This man knew the value
and the end of righteousness. He coveted
the lot of the righteous, knowing that the end of that man is peace. Let me die the death
of the righteous, and let my last end be like his (Numbers 23: 10). But he was not prepared to live
the life of the righteous. He loved the
wages of unrighteousness, the present material gain. Balaam hoped to work for one master and drew
his wages from another. Fatal decision,
for God is not mocked; whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.
Many
so-called Christian teachers are running greedily after the error, stifling
conscience to preach a Gospel which will
secure them advancement and preferment, but which they know to be futile and
false. The error of Balaam! The Church is indeed suffering at the hands of professional shepherds, hirelings as the Lord called them. For the love of money is
the root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the
faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows ( 1 Timothy 6: 10).
* *
* * *
* *
71. ONE
The story is told that the aged pastor of a little
Scotch church was asked to resign because there had been no conversions in the
church for a whole year. Aye, said the preacher, Its
been a lean year, but there was one.
One conversion? asked an elder, Who
was that? Wee Bobbie, replied the pastor. They had forgotten a laddie who had not only
been saved but had given himself in full consecration to God. It was wee Bobbie
who, in a missionary meeting when the plate was passed for an offering, asked
the usher to put the plate on the floor, and then stepped into it with his bare
feet, saying, Ill give myself; I have nothing else
to give. This wee Bobbie, we are told, became the world renowned Robert Moffat, who with David Livingstone, gave his life to the
healing of the open sore of the
* *
* * *
* *
72. NERO
The identification of the Man of Sin as the Pope was
thoroughly refuted by that outstanding writer on prophecy, the late Robert Govett, of
The early Christians considered him to be Nero, who alone
fulfils all these conditions; his name in the Hebrew (Caesar Neron) is (as the
last edition of Chamberss Twentieth
Century Dictionary said) the best interpretation
ever given of apocalyptic number.
A. G. TILNEY.
* *
* * *
* *
73. WESLEY AND THE ADVENT
It would be well if the Methodists of today realized
the attitude of their founders to the Second Advent. Samuel
Wesley, John Wesleys father, says, - We believe,
as all Christians of the purest ages did, that the saints will reign with
Christ on earth a thousand years. At the
beginning of the thousand years shall be the first resurrection, wherein
martyrs and holy men shall rise and reign here in spiritual delight. Athenian
Gazette, Vol. 4., 1691.
Wesley himself lived every day, every hour, as though
it were his last. He said:- Perhaps He will
appear as the dayspring from on high, before morning light. Oh, do not set us a time! Expect Him every hour. Now He is nigh, even at the doors. He wrote thus to Dr. Conyers Middleton in 1749. The
doctrine, as you very well know, which Justin
deduced from the prophets and the Apostles, in which he was undoubtedly
followed by the Fathers of the second and third centuries, is this: The souls of them who have been martyred for the witness of
Jesus, and for the Word of God and who have not worshipped the beast, neither
received his mark, shall live and reign with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead shall not live again
until the thousand years are finished. Now to say that they believed this is neither
more or less than to say that they believed the Bible.
So Bishop Coke,
who had charge of all the missionary work of the first Methodism, wrote:- The period of time which yet remains we know is short, who
can tell? We ought to be in constant
expectation of it. At the coming of
Christ to deliver and avenge His people, the faith of His coming will be in a
great measure lost. The doctrine of the
Millennium was greatly believed in the first three and purest ages; the
doctrine lay depressed for ages, but sprang up again at the Reformation.
* *
* * *
* *
74. THE KEY
The key to statesmanship and all human activities is
to be found in the New Testament. Seek ye first the
LORD ELTON.
* *
* * *
* *
75. THE CHURCH
The manifold divisions in the visible Church of our
day have all been brought about by the failure of individual believers to hold
fast to the Head, Christ, from Whom all the members of the One Body, the
Church, are knit together (Col. 2: 19). When we base our unity with other Christians
on the sole ground that we are all members of the One Body and all holding to
the one Head, and refuse to be associated with any more restricted form of
union, then and then only will real spiritual unity be achieved.
While the Scriptures do not recognise any division in
the
In these days when we find Churches called by the
names of countries, or by the name of some special doctrine of the Word of God
which is emphasised by that section of the Church, or by the names of men, it
is well to note that the Word of God connects no other name to the Church than
the name of the locality in which the believers meet together. Churches were named after the town, city or
locality in which the believers lived and never after the district or
country. It was the Church in
The names which we find in Scripture are all inclusive
and not exclusive; names which equally apply to all who are in the true
THE BALANCE OF TRUTH
* *
* * *
* *
76. HEALING
There was one striking case of unanswered prayer. After eating an ice George Muller broke a
blood vessel, and, by strict doctors orders, was told not to stir from the
bed. His helpers naturally asked what
was to be done about Sunday. As usual
there was only one reply, earnest and
combined prayer. On the Sunday
morning he suddenly felt that he was healed, and went to take the usual
service. His doctor was a member of the
congregation, and was horrified to see him in the pulpit and begged him to come
down. All that Mr. Muller could say was
My dear brother, I am healed. The doctor afterwards examined him and could
only pronounce that he was well. Surely,
Mr. Muller thought, the gift of healing
can be restored to the Church. He
started a prayer meeting early on Sunday mornings. Many came week after week. But, before long, members fell off and
finally, on one Sunday, no one came and the pastor was left alone. He stopped the prayer meeting and made a
careful study of the question. He found,
as anyone can, that healing was performed by the apostles and by those on whom
they laid hands, but that, after the early days, there was no satisfactory
evidence that the gifts of healing were continued, and he regretfully came to
the conclusion that it was not Gods will that they should. But, what about his own case? He never had a doubt that he was miraculously cured. Therefore, there must be exceptions to the
general rule, and he remembered the words of our Lord to the blind men: According to your
faith be it unto you (
DEAN CRANAGE.
* *
* * *
* *
77. MARTYRS
The Harlot seated on the Seven Hills is, at the end, drunken with the blood of the martyrs [the blood of the
saints, R.V.] of Jesus (Rev. 17: 6). It has been estimated that the Church of Rome
has been guilty of the death of more than 50,000,000 believers. A typical example has recently occurred. On October 16, a young soldier of the
Marines, D. Jose Morado, died in
Ferrol del Caudillo. On May 12, 1945,
this popular and cheerful young Christian refused
to kneel in adoration of the Host, respectfully alleging that he was an
Evangelical Christian. For this
reason he was barbarously beaten by his colonel and trodden on. The next day he was told off to dig a ditch,
and was not allowed to rest for a moment until he began to bleed at the
mouth. He was taken to the hospital of
the military prison and later his wrecked constitution died.
* *
* * *
* *
78. REWARD THROUGH SUFFERING
It is vital to the Gospel that reward and [our eternal]
salvation are totally sundered. Reward
is a recompense for service rendered; a prize
gained by conduct; a wage paid for labour accomplished. Do good,
our Lord says, and your reward shall be great
(Luke 6: 35). To him that worketh,
says the Apostle, the reward is not reckoned as
of grace, but as of debt (
D. M. PANTON.
* *
* * *
* *
79. WHERE IS HAPPINESS?
Not in Unbelief. Voltaire was an infidel of the most pronounced type. He wrote: I wish I
had never been born.
Not in Pleasure. Lord Byron lived a life of pleasure, if anyone did. He wrote: The worm,
the canker, and the grief are mine alone.
Not in Money. Jay
Gould, the American millionaire, had plenty of that. When dying, he said: I suppose I am the most miserable devil on earth.
Not in Position and Fame. Lord Beaconsfield, who enjoyed more than his share of both, wrote:
Youth is a mistake, manhood a struggle, old age a
regret.
Not in Military Glory. Alexander the Great conquered the known world in his day. Having done so, he wept in his tent, because,
he said: There are no more worlds to conquer.
One and all they confirm Solomons verdict: All is vanity and
vexation of spirit (Eccl. 2: 17).
Where, then, is happiness to
be found?
Jesus said [to
His disciples]: I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you
(John 16: 22).
THE KINGS BUSINESS
* *
* * *
* *
80. ENOCH
The Church of today must be the Enoch of our
world. We Christians must show the
people of our time what the good life really means: it is the reproduction of the
life of Christ by the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Such an example will not be popular, but it will please God, to whom one
day we must render an account. It may
also earn Enochs reward:
translation to Heaven without passing through the [Great
Tribulation and] portal of death. But we
have Enochs testimony to give, namely that Christ will return to this earth to
set up the Golden Age. Two world
wars have sharpened the interest of many people in the truth [of selective rapture, and]
of the Second Coming of Christ; but this interest has been divided into two
schools of thought. One of these is
linked with the name of J. N. Darby,
and holds that the Church will entirely escape the tribulations which precede
the Return of Christ. The other school
of thought is linked with the name of B.
W. Newton, just as brilliant a scholar as Darby, and these friends hold
that the whole Church must endure the tribulation. May it not be that the golden mean of these
two antinomies is the truth? If we exercise the faith of Enoch in a
humble walk with God and a clear testimony to His Word, we may prevail to escape [Luke 21: 36, R.V.]
what is coming upon the world. Watch and pray that
ye may be accounted worthy to escape (Luke 21: 36).
FRANK V. MILDRED.
* *
* * *
* *
81. CHRISTIANITY
Dr. J. W.
Buckham has well summed up the
relation of the
* *
* * *
* *
82. ADVENT
We do well to remind ourselves that the words of Dr. A. B. Simpson. There are two ways
of looking for the Lords Coming. There
is a looking for and there is a looking at it. It is possible to look at it with a keen
intellect and profound interest, and yet have it meaning nothing to us personally. It is possible to know but little of the
theology and exegesis of the subject, and yet have a deep and holy longing for
our Lord to appear. When a wedding is
about to occur, the public are looking at it, but the bride is looking for
it. Oh, that this great theme may not
only be our study but our personal hope, for unto them
that look for Him shall He appear a second time
unto salvation.
* *
* * *
* *
83. TESTIMONY
At a revival meeting one day, a minister turned to
Henry Heinz, the fifty-seven varieties fame.
The minister said, You are a Christian.
Why are you not up and at it?
Heinz went home in anger and went to bed. But he could not sleep. At four oclock in the morning, he prayed
that God would make him a power in His work.
Then he went to sleep. At the
next meeting of bank presidents which he attended shortly afterwards, Mr. Heinz
turned to the man next to him, and spoke to him of Christ. The man looked at Mr. Heinz in amazement, and
said, I have wondered many times why you never spoke to me if you really
believed in Him! From that time on Mr.
Heinz kept busy bringing others to Jesus.
The bank president was the first of two hundred and sixty-seven souls
whom Mr. Heinz won to the Lord Jesus!
* *
* * *
* *
84. OLD AGE
At 73 years of age John Wesleys voice was still
strong enough to be heard by 30,000 people; and he said, - I feel, and grieve, but, by the grace of God, I fret at
nothing. When 80 years of age he
said:- I have this day lived fourscore years. God grant I may never live to be useless.
My body with my charge lay down,
And cease at once to work and live.
At 87 he wrote:- I am now an
old man decayed from head to foot; I have a lingering fever almost every
day. However, blessed be God, I do not
slack my labour; while I can, I would fain do a little for God before I drop
into the dust.
Archbishop
Davidson gave this testimony on his
retirement:- I do think one mends ones ways as the
years run on and that one is tenderer at 80 than he was at 50. I pray God that, if it night be, the example
of an old man who strives with all his soul for gentleness may, despite his own
failures, bear fruit in the lives of those who have happily a long way to
march, and many opportunities to grasp before their 80 comes.
* *
* * *
* *
85. SCAFFOLD
It is the characteristic of our day that in the conflict
on capital punishment both sides totally ignore the only decisive factor the
decree of God. Our Lords legislation for the Church cancels justice for love; but Gods law for the States of the world
the fountain of the law of nations, as Luther
calls it is this:- Whoso sheddeth mans blood not accidental homicide,
or manslaughter, for which the Cities of Refuge were provided under the Law by man shall his blood be shed (Gen. 9: 5).
Justice says an eye for an eye, a tooth for a
tooth, a life for a life.
Nothing less is justice to the victim.
Sections of the Christian Church are now so disloyal to God that they actually urge the State to disobey
Him. On all world-rulers Jewish
under Solomon, Gentile under Nebuchadnezzar lies, unrevoked, the first law
ever given to the entire race:- Whoso sheddeth mans
blood, by man shall his blood be shed (Gen.
9: 6). It
is quite plain to me, says
* *
* * *
* *
86. RETRIBUTION
Preb. Gordon
Calthrop has well summed it up. God says expressly
that the murderer is not to be spared; God demands his life in return for the life
he has taken; God affirms that the offence committed will not be expiated
except by the murderers death: it is useless to heap up statistics, to
accumulate precedents, to construct elaborate arguments, to make tender and
touching appeals God has spoken not to
Noah only, but to the whole human race; not to one generation only, but to the
whole of the successive ages of mankind; and from this authorative decision
there is, and there can be, no possible appeal.
* *
* * *
* *
87. INCARNATION
What was it in Christ so fascinating and sustaining to
the thought of His followers that for Him men and women of all ages and ranks
in life sacrificed all that is dearest to mans heart and nature? Was it only His miracles? Was it His teaching? His Death?
His Resurrection? None of these
things taken separately will account for the power of Christ in History. In the convergence of these; of these
majestic miracles; of that Character, which commands at once our love and our
reverence; of that teaching, so startling, so awful, so searching, so tender;
of that Death of agony, enriched with such a halo of glory; of that deserted
tomb, and the majestic splendour of the Risen One: a deeper truth, underlying
all, justifying all, explaining all, is seen to reveal itself. We discern, as did the first Christians,
beneath and beyond all that meets the eye of sense and the eye of conscience,
the Eternal Person of our Lord Himself.
It is not the miracles, but the Worker; not the character, but the
living Subject; not the teaching, but the Master; not the Death or the
Resurrection, but He who died and rose, upon whom Christian thought, Christian
love, Christian resolution, ultimately rest.
CANNON LIDDON.
* *
* * *
* *
88. TESTING
The extraordinary error of the Pentecostalists and
pregnant warning for us, who may yet see the Divine supernatural is their steady refusal, now for decades, to
put the God-commanded test to a visiting spirit. Prove the spirits, whether they are of God: every spirit which
confesseth not professeth, but confesses in answer to the challenge
put to him that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is
of God (1 John 4: 1). To assume that the miraculous gifts,
including tongues, because coming to true
believers, are therefore the Holy Ghost, is simply to cancel the command of
God. The Churchs apostasy is to spring
from giving heed to seducing spirits
(1 Tim. 4: 1).
* *
* * *
* *
89. APOSTASY
An utterance of The
Methodist Recorder, the organ of the
* *
* * *
* *
90. MILLENNIUM
How exquisitely contrary is the golden Reign of Christ when the fire of wrath will have gone
out of the earth for ever. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the calf and the young
lion and the fatling together; and the suckling child shall play on the hole of
the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the basilisks den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my
holy mountain; for the earth shall be
full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea (Isa. 11: 6).
* *
* * *
* *
91 THE POEM- HYMN
The poem which is given here is the only hymn that
Dickens is known to have written. It appeared
anonymously in the Christmas number of Household Words for 1856. A clergyman wrote to Dickens, who was then
the editor of the publication, thanking him for having thus conveyed to many
readers such sincere and true religious sentiment. Dickens, in answering the note, confessed
that he himself was the author of the hymn, and declared that although the
words were supposed to be spoken by a child, they expressed his own personal
feeling and belief:-
Hear my prayer, O Heavenly Father,
Ere I lay me down to sleep;
Bid Thy angels, pure and holy,
Round my bed their vigil keep.
My sins are heavy,
but Thy mercy
Far outweighs them, every one;
Down before Thy cross I cast them,
Trusting in
Thy help alone.
Keep me through the night of peril,
Underneath its boundless shade;
Take me to
Thy rest I pray Thee,
When my
pilgrimage is made.
None shall measure
out Thy patience
By the span of human thought;
None shall bound the tender mercies
Which Thy holy Son has brought.
Pardon all my past transgressions,
Give me
strength for days to come;
Guide and
guard me with Thy blessing
Till Thy
angels bid me come.
* *
* * *
* *
92. DENIAL OF RESURRECTION
It is astonishing how foremost leaders in the
Churches, unrebuked, are openly abandoning the Christian Faith, a faith which
they are paid to maintain. To connect our Lords resurrection, says Archdeacon R. H. Charles, with such a gross miracle as the empty tomb would make it
impossible for thoughtful people to believe in Christs resurrection and in His
full spiritual life immediately after His death on the Cross. Sir
Wilfred Grenfell said in his Rectorial address at
* *
* * *
* *
93. AFTER THREE DAYS
Against every conceivable theory of a resurrection body which is not the body that was in the grave,
one phrase in the mouth of Christ lies, annihilating in its deadly effect:- AFTER THREE DAYS He shall rise again (Mark 8: 31).
A body
which has no connection with the defunct flesh, a sheath of soul and spirit, must
simply be freed from the corpse in the act of dying: the moment of death is
therefore the moment of resurrection: after three days,
in that case, are words not only
meaningless, but false. But if this
phrase in the Saviours mouth stands for a fact the fact that three days after death resurrection
(whatever it is) occurred all the
phantasmal-body theories are proved phantoms of the brain. After three days the dormant Corpse
arose. That which lies down, rises. Nothing else is Christianity. A filled tomb is a dead Christ and a lost
world. God has redeemed all
of man, or none: redemption cannot be limited to fractions of the human. If Christ hath not
been raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins (1 Cor. 15: 17).
* *
* * *
* *
94. BISHOPS
The spiritual daring of the last days will be one of
their most painful characteristics. It
has been reserved for Cannon T. A. Lacey
to claim for Bishops (Contemporary Review,
May, 1930) what, to do them justice, they have never claimed for themselves
throughout the whole history of the
* *
* * *
* *
95. ADVENT DENIAL
Denial of the Advent presents a truncated Christianity
made violently inconsistent with itself, and in violent collision with facts
around it, by the withdrawal of half its revelations and the substitution of a
wholly imaginary horoscope. For example,
Dr. R. T. Glover says:- The message of Jesus is that things are going to get better
and better. Who is the Jesus of whom Dr.
Glover is speaking? It can hardly be
the Lord Jesus Christ, who foretells a time of tribulation on earth without
parallel in history, or repetition in eternity (Matt.
24: 21); who reveals this entire generation as culminating in a
wickedness sevenfold greater (Matt. 12: 45);
who challenges whether there will be any faith [the
faith] on earth at His return (Luke 18: 8);
and who discloses even the people of God as in deadly peril from the last
miracles of Hell (Matt. 24: 24). Or if Dr. Glover means that our Lord unfolds
a better and better after His Advent, then he
admits the doctrine that he derides.
* *
* * *
* *
96. POLITICAL PACIFICISM
Prophecy reveals that the loud professions of
pacificism with little of the fact will dominate the worlds closing
age. To-day,
says Mr. G. H. Wells, the lip service paid to peace is astounding. Our world abounds in the literature of
pacificism, demanding peace, even though it demands a vague and featureless
peace, and denouncing every sort of armed struggle, conflict and systematic
warfare. At times this once sinful
planet looks like a grove of olive branches.
The books against war must amount to scores of thousands. Never before has the will for peace been so
plainly formulated or found such sustained and enthusiastic expression. It is deeply solemn that the Scripture says:- When they are saying, Peace and safety, THEN sudden destruction cometh (1
Thess. 5: 3).
* *
* * *
* *
97. CATACLYSM
Where, in such a world, is the
* *
* * *
* *
98. THE SET OF THE TIDE
It is possible for men and even leaders of men not
only possible indeed but frequent to call up sinister forces, exercise
oppressive and evil and cruel and unrighteous powers over their fellows: and
yet all the time be convinced that they are on the road to beneficent
reforms. But a Divine hand is dominant, first to set the limit to the evil
hitherto and no further; second, to weave it into that programme which will
culminate in the ultimate end of the reign of evil and the beginning of the
Kingdom of the Son of God.
Similarly it is possible at one and the same time to
resist and combat evil while recognizing that, for the time being, resistance
is useless: the evil must, in order to the fulfilment of the Divine purpose,
run its course and reach its zenith before it be finally overcome. But whether resistance be ineffective or not,
evils must be recognized, exposed,
departed from, abhorred and short of the use of fleshly weapons resisted.
SAMUEL H. WILKINSON
* *
* * *
* *
99. THE
The
* *
* * *
* *
100.
The Prayer Book of the German and Polish Jews has this
petition:- O
our King, Jehovah our God, grant that the House of the Sanctuary may be built
in our days. It will be a built
temple which ignores
* *
* * *
* *
101. TRUTH
Our own clash of opinion and conflict of judgment
(among believers) is part of the Divine scheme of things. For the Gospel on the one hand, is so simple,
so easily intelligible, that it can be perfectly credited by a child or a dying
man: fuller, deeper truth, on the other hand, is purposely difficult to
test (1) our faith; (2) our sincerity; (3) our judgment; (4) our industry; (5)
our perseverance; (6) our openness to all truth; and (7) our willingness
to suffer for truths sake. By how we
handle the truth whether we master it, or shrink it, or whatever degree we
strike between we stand revealed, self-judged, self-catalogued,
self-appraised. For there must be also factions among you, THAT THEY WHICH ARE APPROVED MAY BE MADE MANIFEST (1 Cor. 11: 19).
* *
* * *
* *
102. THE FIRST RESURRECTION
In the Appendix to his small work on the Song of
Songs, entitled
We wish to place on record our solemn
conviction that not all who are Christians, or think themselves to be such,
will attain to that resurrection of which St. Paul speaks in Phillippians 3: 11, or will thus meet the Lord in the
air. Unto those who by lives of
consecration manifest that they are not of this world, but are looking for Him,
he will appear without sin
unto salvation.
* *
* * *
* *
103. ANTICHRIST AND JUDIASM
Ancient and modern Jewish writers recognize a time of
trouble before the beginning of the Messianic Age, to end with the complete
overthrow of the Gentile world power.
* *
* * *
* *
104. PRAYER FOR
1. Because of Gods command, with special promise of
blessing. Gen. 12: 3; Ps. 122: 6; Isa. 62: 6, 7.
2. Because Israel is still beloved by God for the
fathers sakes. Rom. 11: 28; Jer. 31: 3.
3. Because it is Gods will that
4. Because of the Tribulation testimony out of
5. Because of the great multitude to be saved through
their ministry. Matt. 25: 40;
6. Because no Millennial blessings can come to the
nations apart from
7. Because of
* *
* * *
* *
105. GODS ETERNITY
The noble words in which the Times (Jan. 1, 1931)
greets the new year of all Christians can fundamentally endorse. It says:-
No easy optimism is possible as, on this first
day of 1931, we survey the world with its disorder, with its staggering
difficulties, with its portent of an organized campaign against belief in
God. Yet the fullest candour in
admitting ugly facts should not blind us to the larger view that this world is
merely part of a larger scheme, that it is no more than the training-ground
where, by effort and suffering and failure and yet more effort, we are meant to
fit ourselves for fuller life and larger tasks elsewhere. To those who hold this view the final victory
of good over evil, of love over hate, of life over death, is always
certain. They can endure as seeing Him
who is invisible. They can wait, as many
on the further side of death are waiting for them. Let this or any year bring what it may, they
can look forward. The best is yet to be. Or as Studdert
Kennedy put it:- I believe with all my heart that the failure of the Church
is the failure of the Crucified, which is bound to end in a glorious
resurrection.
* *
* * *
* *
106. THE FUTURE
But How? Here is the watershed that divides the
Churchs outlook by the breadth of whole continents; and the overwhelming predominant view is fraught with untold disaster. For (1) it involves an enormous waste of
Christian energy which, poured into politics and economics, is doomed to
futility because of the rottenness of the human material with which it works;
(2) it produces a complete absence of preparation to meet the Churchs massed
enemies at the end, through a clever diversion of vigilance to the wrong front;
(3) it is a cruel deception of the world, from which it veils the coming
horrors while there is still time to escape them, and lulls into slumber by
faith in a political and social evolution which is non-existent; (4) it forces
an interpretation on the Scriptures, saturated through and through with
Apocalyptic, which is a tissue of fantastic hyperbole; (5) it must rock to its
foundations the faith of myriads who, taught to identify the Christian Faith
with a converted world, will find apparently both overwhelmed by
opposing facts; (6) it sinks the security of a coming crash in the easy
complacency of an age-long evolution; and (7) it is a direct disobedience of
God who commanded us, in Scriptures numberless, to wait, not for a converted world, but for His Son from heaven. If the language of Scripture does not express
a personal return of the Lord Jesus to earth, there is no language that could. Even the world can see portents. Balfour,
said George Wyndham, knows there has been an Ice Age, and thinks there may be
another.
* *
* * *
* *
107. THE ADVENT
Bishop
Handley Moule well stresses both the
fact and the incentive:- The second advent, veritable, personal, as much an actual
event as the first, is, in Archbishop Bensons words, what must happen some
time, and may happen any time. The
august theme is profitable for instruction in righteousness and also for the
revival of hope which not only is in harmony with patient continuance in
well-doing in the work of the Lord, but is the soul of it.
* *
* * *
* *
It is a fact, recorded in Hansard, that in 1916 the
British Government ruled that the publication of the Sermon on the Mount as a
leaflet, without comment, was an indictable offence under the Defence of the
Realm Act. This is a perplexity only to
those who do not understand the nature of our Lords legislation. He legislates solely for a pilgrim people
divorced from the world through which it is passing the salt of the earth,
the light of the world (Matt. 5: 13)
imposing on them, as children of grace, laws under which no State could
conceivably be administrated. The
Magistrate bears the sword (
* *
* * *
* *
109. THE ADVENT AND THE CHURCH
I have not found a respectable or acknowledged creed
in all Christendom, from the beginning until now, that teaches the doctrine of a millennium before Christs coming.
I have not found one single passage in all the Bible that sustains the
doctrine of a millennium before Christs coming. But, on the other hand, I have found a long
and unbroken line of witnesses from the days of the Apostles until now, who testify with one voice that the hope of
a millennium of universal righteousness, liberty, and peace before
Christ comes, is a falsehood and a dream. I have found many eminent divines, who have
blest the church and the world with their piety and wisdom, eagerly looking for
the Saviours advent as the only thing that is to lift the church out of its
present depression and gloom. And beyond
and above all, I have found the Word of God everywhere pointing to the same
great and glorious event as the only
hope of the pious, and as the great
link which alone can connect us with or bring us into the joys and jubilations
of the millennial era. Theorize and
speculate as you please, when the Lord cometh He will find the world as now,
full of vice, unbelief, sensuality and guilt.
We may prefer our vague dreams, and set them up against Gods positive
revelations; but His truth abideth.
J. A. SEISS, D.D.
* *
* * *
* *
110. THE ADVENT
When the teaching of the return of Christ (before the Millennium)
began to spread, it was the privilege of the writer to hear and accept the
truth. It certainly was the message of
the hour. There was, however, a note
lacking. The lacking note was the
imperative demand for holiness of heart and life as a necessary qualification
for this supreme event. Little or nothing was said upon the subject
by these first messengers. The fact of
the return of Christ, imminent and certain, was all the people were prepared
for; and even this was resented by the vast majority of those who heard
it. So unpopular was this message that
it could only be propagated through faith and self-sacrifice. Indeed, we remember instances when those who
preached it were not only ostracised, but shamefully
entreated. Little by little,
however, the truth prevailed, until a few outstanding ministers began to preach
it boldly. Now, for the past twenty-five
or thirty years, the evangelists and Bible teachers who specialize in this
doctrine receive large emoluments and favourable notoriety instead of abuse.
Having been taught this truth from childhood, among
people who knew nothing of sanctification, the writer naturally wondered what
would become of their unsanctities as these saints were caught up. We
cannot help feeling that the preaching of the Second Coming of Christ, as it
was preached fifty years ago, has lost its power of conviction, and has become
largely a matter of entertainment. We
have arrived at this definite conclusion: that it is no longer the message of the hour, and that the preachers who
proclaim the near coming of Christ, and fail at the same time to stress the
necessity of sanctification, are deceiving their hearers, and rocking them
to sleep in the cradle of self-indulgence and sin.
W. T. MACARTHUR.
* *
* * *
* *
111. CRISIS
It is impossible to look upon a more sublime spectacle
than that which rises to the mind of a spiritual observer at the present
crisis. A voice like the archangels
trumpet is crying, Cast up, cast up the highway;
gather out the stones; lift up a standard to the people! Event rolls on after event. As the purposes of God are advancing nearer
to their completion, ten thousand significant events sweep onward in the train. The convergency of all things to the point
becomes more and more rapid. Meaning
begins to appear in events before shrouded in mystery. An omnipotent plan, it is manifest, is in
operation, and the trains laid with Divine wisdom are fast completing.
G. B. CHEEVER,
* *
* * *
* *
112. MONEY
Cleanness on money is an essential of sanctification
strangely overlooked by evangelical groups saying:- if a successful business
man is not a child of the Ghetto, he is usually a grandchild of John Knox. The accumulation of wealth (Matt. 6: 19) is not Christian. The first Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. A. V. Alexander, whose life was
revolutionized by a Baptist pastor whom his wife had asked him to hear in those days I had no religious convictions, but after I
had listened my whole outlook on life was changed says:- I venture to suggest that the Church should say to the
wealthy industrialist as well as to the humble labourer, If you believe that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God, why in heavens name dont you do what He tells
you?
* *
* * *
* *
113. THE LAST DAYS
For we do well to remember that the wealthy disciple, in nearly every case, forfeits the Kingdom (Mark 10: 23; Jas. 2: 5) and to the wealthy worldling
before the Advent the Spirit addresses terrible words:- Your gold and your silver are rusted; and their rust shall
eat your flesh as fire: ye have laid up your treasure in the last days
(Jas. 5: 3).
I have always been an ambitious man,
said D. L. Moody; ambitious to leave no wealth or possessions. Nor did he.
Holding a necklace of agates in his hand, Luther said:- I would readily eat up this to-day for the judgment to come
tomorrow.
* *
* * *
* *
114. WAKING SOULS
A nameless correspondent in the Christian (Jan. 29, 1931)
strikes a note of poignant appeal. What shall a Christian profit if he be very busy in the
service of God, and at last miss His greatest and best? It seems hopeless to look to the Churches for
this, for you never hear it mentioned.
* *
* * *
* *
115. THE KINGDOM
To quote from a former Bishop of Bristol:- The doctrine of the
millennium was generally believed in the three first and purest ages; and this
belief, as the learned Dodwell has
justly observed, was one principle cause of the fortitude of the primitive
Christians: they even coveted martyrdom,
in hopes of being partakers of the privileges and glories of the martyrs in the
first resurrection.
* *
* * *
* *
116. UNEMPLOYMENT A FIRST STEP TO FAMINE
It is slowly dawning on the world that unemployment is
more than a sudden economic problem fallen on all nations; it is a
portent. An economic blizzard is raging
over the earth, and business losses (Mr.
J. M. Keynes goes so far as to say) have been larger than at any time in
the history of the world.
And the
spiritual portent lies in this, that, since
There is one golden promise, though a promise strictly
conditional, upon which, if we are careful to fulfil its most righteous
condition, we may set our feet as on rock.
Dealing with the very problem of food supply, the Lord says:- Seek ye first not second, or third, much less last
or not at all*; secondary things may be sought other than first the Kingdom of God
and His righteousness all
that is godlike in conduct: the righteousness
so frequently mentioned in the Sermon and all these
things the food and the raiment SHALL BE ADDED UNTO YOU (Matt. 6: 33).
He whose overmastering passion is
the Age to Come, and who seeks to conform his conduct to Gods, is assured as
the birds and the lilies of the food and raiment after which the Gentiles seek in their unemployed millions.** Life is too short for anything but Gods
best; and if we take the burden of the Kingdom, God takes the burden of the
bread. So, at the end, our joyous cry
shall be dying Jacobs:- the God which hath fed me all
my life long unto this day! (Gen. 48: 15);
and our assurance will be the Prophets (Hab. 3: 17):-
Although the fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall
fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall
yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no
herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice
in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
*To make a conditional promise into an unconditional
is to make it a falsehood.
**Over five thousand times George Muller went to bed
with no provision for himself, or the orphans under his care, for the
morrow. Did
you sleep? he was asked. Every time, he replied.
D. M. PANTON.
* *
* * *
* *
117. THE MAN WHO WALKED WITH GOD
Enoch, the morning star of the world, is a model for
us to-day of extraordinary value as the great prototype of all rapture. For Enoch was, like ourselves, a Gentile; his
was the age which saw the birth of scientific invention in the world;* he lived
in an epoch of rapidly deepening wickedness, and when the earth was filled with
violence; his feet stood on the brink of a judgment that was to sweep the whole
earth; he was, as the Holy Ghost emphasizes, the seventh
from Adam (Jude 14) that is, a type of all who, after six thousand years
of sin, shall share the Sabbatic Rest; his as ours will be the last was
by a sudden and supernatural removal, through a gateway into heaven that has
only twice been opened since, and then only
to distinguished saints; and his is the only rapture in the Bible enforced
upon us by the Holy Spirit as a model for us.
So also the very setting of his record is luminous with spiritual
light. For we know absolutely nothing of
the physical facts of his life: not a single outstanding event in it is
recorded: out of complete obscurity he rose into heaven. How profoundly suggestive! Hearken, my beloved
brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith
His hidden diamonds to be [R.V.] heirs of the
kingdom which he promised to them that love Him? (James 2: 5).
The Church knows nothing of her brightest stars, for she moves beneath
the range of their heavenly orbits.
*Jabal as founder of commerce, Tubal-Cain of
manufacture, and Jubal of art (Gen. 4: 20-22),
were the dawn of to-days mighty meridian: the early world held in it, even to
the rapt saint, a mirror of our own far vaster age. Enochs removal many decades before the Flood
makes sure (by type) the escape of all the latter-day
Enochs from approaching judgments, by secret rapture like his. He was not found (Heb. 11: 5) thus
his disappearance was known; but that he was sought for on earth reveals that
his removal had been secret.
D. M. PANTON.
* *
* *
* * *
118. FOREIGN MISSIONS
Foreign missions, from having been an agency of
spiritual regeneration, are fast becoming merely a church-supported
philanthropy.* As a philanthropy, it is doomed not only to failure, but to extinction. The emptying treasuries of many mission
boards is tragic testimony to the fact that men and women who might be enlisted
in a world of enterprise that is dynamically religious will simply not give their money to one that seems to them to
constitute chiefly an ecclesiastical rival of State and privately supported
charities. In my opinion the dying
missionary zeal of the Church will not be revived without a revolution as
fundamental as that which led the churches, in the first place, to dare to
proclaim their gospel to the ends of the earth.
The primary business for which missionaries went out to the field, and
for which we gave of our resources to support them, was evangelical. Soon or late, as we know, these peoples,
however backward, may be able to run their own schools and man their own
hospitals. One thing and one thong only we have, uniquely, to give them. That one thing is the transforming gospel of
Jesus Christ.
Dr. HIGH.
* Dr. High visited practically every mission station
on the three Continents.
* *
* * *
* *
119. MISSIONARY DEFICITS
An artist was asked to paint the picture of a decaying
church. To the surprise of many, instead
of putting on the canvas a tottering ruin, the artist painted a stately edifice
of modern grandeur. Through the open
portals could be seen the richly-carved pulpit, the magnificent organ, the
stained glass windows. Within the grand
entrance, guarded on either side by a pillar of the church in spotless garb
and glittering jewellery, was an offering plate of elaborate design, for the
offerings of the fashionable worshippers.
Above the offering-plate, suspended from a nail in the wall, there hung
a square box, very simply painted, and bearing the words Collection for
Foreign Missions. Over its slot
stretched a cobweb.
Many denominations report large increases in church
expenses under local budgets, added to the heaviest building programme ever
achieved. It may be chancelitis or a
rapid expansion of parish houses and recreation facilities. At any rate, the closest competition of
missionary gifts will always exit between the needs of the local church and the
money that can be spared for the gift to Missions.
In addition, the immense increase in local charities
for new buildings, mergers, community chests, often backed by professional
drives, have diverted the proportion of stewardship gifts available for
Missions.
Of course at bottom, it is all a question of raising
the spiritual devotion of our churches. Missionary zeal thrives in spiritual
earnestness it dies in comfortable indifference. It thrives in obedience it perishes in the
atmosphere of modern humanism or of selfishness. Contact with Christ spells missionary loyalty.
BREWER EDDY,
* *
* * *
* *
120. GIFT
1. If I refuse to give anything to
missions this year, I practically cast a ballot in favour of the recall of
every missionary, both in home and foreign fields.
2. If I give less than heretofore, I
favour a reduction of the missionary forces proportionate to my reduced
contribution.
3. If I give the same as formerly, I
favour holding the ground already won, but I disregard any forward movement. My song is, Hold
the Fort! forgetting that the Lord never intended that His army should
take refuge in a fort. All of His soldiers are under marching orders always. They are commanded
to Go!
4. If I advance my offering beyond former years,
then I favour an advance movement in the conquest of new territory for
Christ. Shall I not join this class?
Resolved: I do believe in greatly increasing the
present number of our missionaries, therefore I will increase my former
offerings TO MISSIONARY WORK.
* *
* * *
* *
121. THE APOCALYPTIC BEATITUDES
The Apocalypse is the Book of Judgment, both for the
Church and for the world; and it is deeply instructive to observe that every beatitude in it is granted, not on the
ground of indiscriminate grace, but (as each content and context proves)
exclusively to him who fulfils its conditions conditions of service (1, 4, 6) or suffering (2) or sanctity
(3,
5, 7).
1
Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the
prophecy, and keep the things which are
written therein (Rev. 1: 3).
2
Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord form henceforth* [* Martyrs]: yea, saith the Spirit, that
they may rest from their labours; and their works follow with them (Rev. 14: 13).
3
Blessed is he that watcheth, and
keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame
(Rev. 16: 15).
4
Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19: 9)
5
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection (Rev. 20: 6).
6
Blessed is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this book (Rev. 22: 7).
7
Blessed are they that wash their robes,
that they may have the right to come to the tree of life, and may enter in by
the gates into the city (Rev. 22: 14).
* *
* * *
* *
122. JUDGING THE SAINTS
Set them to judge who are
least esteemed in the Church (1 Cor. 7: 4). According to this rendering the Apostle
recommends litigants in the
It is however arguable than in all these
interpretations the force of the phrase in the Church
is greatly underrated by making it a mere adverbial adjunct of least esteemed
In this context the competence of the judge is quite a
secondary consideration, or rather it is not a consideration at all. The apostle is occupied exclusively with the
anxiety that his readers shall employ a Christian rather than a non-Christian
judge, and keep their quarrels within the four walls of the Church. Rather than employ pagan judges, even of the
highest judical eminence, to adjust their differences, he asks his readers to
employ Christians of no eminence at all, not because of their lack of professional
qualifications, but in spite of it. The
sense is: If you have no eminent judges in the Church, then employ those that
are not eminent, provided only they be members of your society.
WILFRED H. ISAACS, M.A.
* *
* * *
* *
123. THE
Religious freedom and liberty of conscience were
altogether foreign to the ancient Roman world.
The religious element was subordinated to the political, and the State
was the highest idea of ethics the end and realization of supreme good. Hence, defection from the State religion
(then paganism) appeared as a crime against the State, incurring the dangerous
charge of high treason. Roman toleration
reached its limit when the Christians refused to venerate Roma Dea. It meant only the casting of a pinch of
incense upon the pedestal of the emperors statue, yet to the good Christian
this little act was the recognition of another god, and that god a living and
often a very bad man; hence this act became the touchstone of the faith. The better the Roman governor, the less he
could understand a sect which put religion before patriotism. Impact between the State and rapidly
spreading Christianity occurred under Nero. His palace gardens, illuminated by the
burning bodies of Christians, were the dawn of centuries of cruel and ruthless
persecution. Some were crucified, others
were sewn up in skins of wild animals and exposed to be torn in pieces by dogs;
meanwhile the populace cried, Away with the
godless!
EDGAR E. H. KING.
* *
* * *
* *
124. REWARD
Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me
(Rev. 22: 12). There will be rewards enough and to spare; you
will never exhaust them: rewards to be won and possessed and rejoiced in; or
rewards to be missed and lost and mourned for, surely, throughout
eternity. Am I right in thinking that
the thought of these rewards which God prepares for His people is an almost
absent factor from most Christian lives?
Think. Has the thought of Gods
reward attached to faithful witness stirred you up to witness for Him? Has Gods promised reward for souls that are
brought to Him, made you eager to bring souls to Him? Has Gods promised reward made you patient in
trial and under suffering? Has the
promised reward made you bold to confess Him in face of those who denied Him?
HUBERT BROOKE, M. A.
* *
* * *
* *
125. SIGNS
Dr. J. W.
Jowett exactly expresses the angle of
vision with all inspired prophecy
suppressed from which the DAWN
is sometimes censured, as dwelling too insistently on the darker outlook. We could do with a
society, he says, whose one work should be to
watch the dawn and record the signs of advancing day. Its glad and privileged duty would be to
watch for signs of the Kingdom, a society of scouts for observing and recording sunbeams, and the members would
engirdle the earth in quest of good news.
We must let people know that the Kingdom is coming, and we must give
them the proofs. But one fact is
fatal. Prophecy presages the Kingdom by the worlds blackness and not by its
light: therefore only that magazine heralds the dawn which signals the
midnight. But when these
things begin to come to pass events, our Saviour says, too terrible ever to be repeated LOOK UP, AND LIFT
UP YOUR DEADS; because your redemption draweth
nigh (Luke 21: 28).
* *
* * *
* *
126. THE JEW FIRST
Why give the Gospel to the
Jew first? (
Is it not a reason then, why the Gospel should first be preached to the Jew? They are ready to perish. The cloud of indignation and wrath that is
even now gathering above the lost will break first upon the head of the guilty,
unhappy, unbelieving
ROBERT MURRAY MCHANE.
* *
* * *
* *
127. THE PRIZE
OF OUR CALLING* [* edited]
If by any means I might attain to the resurrection from
among the dead (Phil. 3: 11)*
* The expression is peculiar, and may be rendered, the select resurrection [out] from among the dead.
It is evident at a glance, that the resurrection which
the apostle so earnestly sought, was not
the general resurrection. The wicked
shall partake of that, whether they desire it or no. Paul then could not express any doubts of his
attaining to that, or speak of it as an object of hope. It remains then, that it be a peculiar
resurrection: the resurrection of reward, obtained by the just, while the
[bodies of the] wicked remain in their graves [and
their souls in Hades]. Such a resurrection we see in close
connection with the [millennial]
Behold then the new hope, which the knowledge of Jesus as the Messiah set before the
eyes of the enlightened apostle! The
Anointed One is to have companions in the [coming
millennial] glory: Heb.
1: 9; 3: 14. Pauls being already
righteous by faith in the Lords Anointed, entitled
him to be a runner for the prize.
None can be admitted as a candidate for reward, but he who is already
accepted by grace in the Beloved. But
faith had brought Paul to the starting-post, and thenceforward his life was to be a pressing on for the crown.
ROBERT GOVETT
* *
* * *
* *
128. THE CINEMA
As Mr. G. A.
Atkinson, one of the most reliable British film critics, declares:- Talking pictures have stripped women, not only of clothing,
but of morals, decency, truth, fidelity, and every civilized quality or
virtue. Women, according to the film
producer, represent nothing but the most primitive and elemental aspects of
sex. Behind the whole of current film
production there is a terrific assumption that what appeals to women is the
spectacle of the lowest type of woman snaring the lowest type of man. The truth about the talkies is that they
are produced in a non-moral atmosphere which is, in the strictest and most
literal sense, diabolical. The devil is
in full, spiritual control of modern film production. Nearly all the energies of this terrific
engine of propaganda are devoted to anti-Christian ends.
What strikes me about such
films, says Professor Percy
Dearmer,
* *
* * *
* *
129. THE FIRST RESURRECTION
Paul assures us (Phil. 3: 11)
that he was seeking with all his spiritual energy to attain
unto the out-resurrection out of the dead (lit.) That is, he says there is an elect resurrection from among the dead to which
though he had obtained mercy, had been counted
faithful, and had been put into the ministry (1
Tim. 1: 12, 13); though he had received a special and unusual call from
God (Gal. 1: 15, 16); though in his ministry
he had endured unparalleled trials (2 Cor. 11:
23-33); though he had been given divine revelations beyond the ordinary
(2 Cor. 12: 1-5); though his possession of
divine gifts surpassed that of any in the church (1
Cor. 14: 18, 37) he yet was pressing toward that he might attain.
If Paul thus earnestly counted
this resurrection a goal to be attained,
the Christian, whose eyes are earthward, like the man with the muckrake of whom
Bunyan speaks, can surely not be
considered as a possible winner of such a prize.
THE
* *
* * *
* *
130. BE STRONG AND DO (1 Chron. 28: 10)
Be strong and do: to weakness comes the message;
The mighty God is able to perform:
Out of our weakness He His strength providing
Shall make
us able to withstand the storm.
Be
strong and do: the Living God can furnish
In barren wastes the table of His Bread;
And though the hanging clouds of dark depression
About us poise, our
Saviour is not dead!
Be strong and do: around us in His presence;
No bidden
duty from our Risen Lord
Can be
beyond our strength if He provide it;
And we may draw upon His hidden hoard.
Be strong and do: yea, with a Hallelujah,
His gift of
victory is ours to-day;
Until He come, in His own glad assurance,
We too shall
conquer all along the way.
H. H. BROWNLOW.
* *
* * *
* *
131. DECISION
I was brought up in a Presbyterian home, and under the
ministry of Dr. Henry Montgomery, and I never knew a day when I was not anxious about my soul;* but I was kept in the delusion of the devil, that
somehow, somewhere, when I liked, I could be saved;*
and I continued in by sin and in my wandering, feeling that when I felt right,
God must be at my beck and call. One
Monday morning, sitting at my mothers fireside, between half-past eight and a
quarter to nine, cigarette in my mouth, the Lord struck me a blow that was a death
knell to all my delusion. The Word of
the Lord came to me as clearly as if He had uttered it in a human voice the
words of Genesis 6: 3: And the Lord said, My spirit* shall not always strive
with man. I knew I was up
against my destiny that morning; as if God had said to me, Now or never!
I believe that when the books are opened yonder I shall find that May
22, 1899, is a day when I would have crossed the boundary line between Gods
patience and Gods wrath if I had rejected Jesus; but thank God I accepted Him
as my Saviour.
W. P. NICHOLSON, the
Australian Evangelist.
[* FOOTNOTE ON DEEPER TRUTHS FOR REGENERATE
BELIEVERS.
If the salvation of the soul, has to do with the coming of the salvation that is ready
to be revealed in the last time;
a salvation which Peter describes as the goal of your faith (1 Pet. 1:
5, 9); and because the gates of Hades,
at present (i.e., before the resurrection of the dead and the return of our
Lord at the end of the Great Tribulation, 1
Thess. 4: 16) prove stronger than
(N.I.V. margin) Christs Church (Matt. 16: 18):
and if Gods spirit, has reference to the
redeemed having a different spirit, (as
mentioned in Num 14: 24), then the
salvation of the spirit,
on the DAY
of the Lord (1 Cor. 5: 5), must
refer to the realization (by sexually immoral and wicked
believers), of the loss of their inheritance in the
kingdom of God (6: 9).]
* *
* * *
* *
132. CHRISTIANS
It is a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad
world. But I have discovered, in the
midst of it, a quiet and holy people who have learned a great secret. They have found a joy which is a thousand
times better than any of the pleasures of our sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they
care not. They are masters of their
souls. They have overcome the
world. These people, Donatus, are
Christians and I am one of them.
CYPRIAN, Bishop of Carthage in the third century.
* *
* * *
* *
133. CONFESSION
The Apostle lays down (Rom.
10: 9), as an abiding principle, Gods double method of salvation. For with the heart
man believeth into righteousness unto the obtaining of the imputed
righteousness, and also unto the practice of active righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation
unto the obtaining of the only salvation which God gives and which God recognizes. The heart and the mouth are the fountain and
the river; the light and its rays; the root and the flower; the fire and the
flame. Faith and confession are the two
hands that seize the salvation of God.
* *
* * *
* *
134. GOLD ON THE FOUNDATION
Everyone who has obtained a like precious faith with us in the Righteousness
of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ (2
Pet. 1: 1) is an heir of salvation and is on the FOUNDATION which is Jesus Christ (1
Cor. 3: 11). But upon this
foundation every [regenerate] believer is raising a SUPERSTRUCTURE. While all on the foundation are guaranteed
eternal life as a present possession: for He that believeth
hath everlasting life (John 6: 47), nevertheless the superstructure reared upon that becomes to the child of God a thing
of intense importance.
A committee of the Standard Oil Company met to secure
a manager for new business to be developed in
* *
* * *
* *
135. THE VALUE OF TIME
General
Mitchell, the great astronomer, said
to an officer who apologized for being only a few minutes behind time:- Sir, I have been in
the habit of calculating the tenth of a minute. Men who have accomplished great things have
learned the value of time. Large results
can often be achieved in a little while.
Dr. Cuyler says:- The atonement for a
world of perishing sinners was accomplished between the sixth hour and the
ninth hour of darkened
* *
* * *
* *
I36.
OVERCOMERS
The harvest is composed of those for whom Christ has
overcome, the firstfruits are those in whom and through whom He has
overcome, as well as having overcome in them.
The Apostle Paul had no doubt about his place in the
main body, for his testimony is clear, I know Whom I
have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have
committed unto Him against that day (2 Tim.
1: 12). When, however, he was
writing to the Philippians (3.) he told them
that there was one thing he was seeking above all else, the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus,
that he might by any means attain to the out-resurrection from among the
dead. He was sure of having a place in the general harvest, but not sure, as
yet, of being one of the firstfruits as an overcomer.
If Peter, James, John, and Andrew needed the warnings
given them by our Lord to Take heed to watch and pray (Mark 13:
3, 5, 9, 23, 33) and be ye also ready (Matt. 24: 44), it is clear that something more is
wanted of us than faith in Christ for salvation if we would be ripe enough for
the firstfruits. The teaching that everyone who believes is ready for the coming of the
Lord is a deadly narcotic. No wonder
the Church is asleep!
If, on the other hand, we see that, being saved, there
is yet a prize to be won which is worth the counting of all else as refuse,
then we find in it a powerful stimulant to a holy and victorious life in union
with our coming Lord.
A CHAMPION.
* *
* * *
* *
137. OBEDIENCE
Years ago a lady came into my office dressed in
Salvation Army costume. She had one of
those faces that are lit up with the glory from the inside. After we had finished the legal business, I
said to her, Now tell be how you were saved? She said:- Its a
sad story. I was brought up by a father
who was given to drinking. I used to sit
by his side while he drank his spirits, and he would open my little mouth abd
dipping a tiny piece of sugar in the spirit would put it in my mouth. Before I was of age I was a hopeless
drunkard, I lived upon the streets in shame, and I do not suppose there could
have been a more wretched creature on Gods earth. I had delirium tremens; until some dear
sister in Christ pointed me to the Saviour.
I came to Him and He delivered me. She added, It is
like a horrible nightmare from which I have awakened. I can hardly believe that I am the same
person. So I said to her:- You must have had a terribly corrupt mind after that life of
shame; tell be, will you, how you were delivered from it all after you were
reconciled to God? She replied,
I will tell you in a word, I shall never forget how she said that word
prompt obedience. God gave me light, and I walked in it and I was freed.
* *
* * *
* *
138. THE SWORD
Spanish priests have been widely massacred. But if
Christians share in politics and civil strife, and even in civil war, they must
bear the consequences. The Roman
Catholic Universe (Aug. 7, 1936)
says:- Dr.
Montessori, the famous educationist, who has just reached
*
* * *
* * *
139. RAPTURE
No bodily change is needed for existence among clouds
(Ps. 18: 9, 11, 16), or above them, as
aeroplanes prove; nor shall we mount up (like eagles) by our own changed powers,
but are reaped by angels; as was our Lord (Luke 24: 51), the first sheaf. We shall all be changed occurs only at the last trump (1 Cor.
15: 51). Even at very great
heights the temperature (at all events) is not prohibitive. It was long thought,
says Professor Sydney Chapman, F.R.S.,
that the upward decrease of temperature continued to
the top of the atmosphere, but in the early years of the present century this
was found to be untrue. The decrease
usually ceases rather suddenly, at a height which over
* *
* * *
* *
140. WATCHING
Some readers are puzzled by Mr. G. H. Langs deviations from the DAWN in details concerning rapture and resurrection in the July issue. Our own understanding of Scripture remains
what it was; but it is our master-aim,
as it is Mr. Langs, that watchfulness as the preliminary of rapture
should be pressed, urgently and from all angles, on the
D. M. PANTON.
* *
* * *
* *
141. NO BURDEN UNBEARABLE
In the days of the Inquisition, one of the Christians
was confined to a cell in a dungeon, and told that unless he would recant he
would be burned at the stake the following day. Left alone in his cell, his
mind was in a turmoil. Walking the
floor, with one breath he would exclaim, I cant
burn, I cant burn, I can never burn, and with the next breath he would
exclaim, But I cant deny my Lord. After a time he said, I will see if I can bear the burning, and moving the
candle on the table he held his finger in the flame until it was burned to a
crisp. In agony he cried out, Oh, I cant burn! and then, But I cant deny my Lord!
Finally, exhausted, he sank on his cot, and sleep came, but while he
slept God wrought marvellously in his spirit.
When he awoke the sun was beaming through the prison bars. He heard the feet of the approaching soldiers
as they came to take him to his execution.
Rising, he again walked the floor of his cell, shouting, I can burn, I can burn!
By the grace of God, I can burn! and he went to the faggots with
a hymn of praise in his lips.
* *
* * *
* *
142. PRECIOUS FAITH
Christ often takes the crown off His own head and puts
it upon the head of Faith, as in such passages as these:- Thy faith hath saved thee, Thy
faith hath made thee whole, If thou canst
believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And no wonder Christ can crown faith, for
faith speedily puts the crown back again on the head of Christ the King. Faith will pick an argument out of a repulse,
and turn discouragements into encouragements.
Reason, human reason, is faiths great enemy. It will never be well with thee whilst thou
dost allow reason to be ever crossing, ever contradicting Faith; while you rely
more on the evidence given by your five senses than that given by the joint
evangelists. As the body lives by breathing, so the soul lives by believing.
THOMAS BROOKS.
* *
* * *
* *
143. BAPTISM
Of all revealed truths, not one is more clearly
revealed in the Scriptures [than the immersion of believers] not even the
doctrine of justification by faith; and the subject has only become obscured by
men not having been willing to take the Scriptures alone to decide the point.
GEORGE MULLER.
Christian life properly began with baptism, for
baptism was the converts confession before men, the soldiers oath which
enlisted him in the service of Christ.
The rite was very simple, as described by Justin in the second century.
After more or less instruction, the candidate declared his belief in our teachings, and his willingness to live
accordingly. He was then taken
to a place where there was water. Here he made his formal confession, and there
he was baptized by immersion in the name of the Trinity. After this he was taken to the meeting and
received by the brethren. We have
decisive evidence that infant baptism is no direct institution either of the
Lord Himself or of His apostles. There
is no trace of it in the New Testament.
Immersion was the rule.
H. M. GWATKIN, Professor
of Ecclesiastical History,
* *
* * *
* *
144. RITUAL
Scripture knows nothing of rituals which precede the
new, regenerated life which alone Scripture rituals symbolize. I recall an
afternoon in a lecture-room at
* *
* * *
* *
145. CRUSADES
The saints whom the
Papacy executes at the end (Rev. 17: 6) as
distinct from the martyrs of Jesus, obviously
Christians appear to be devout Jews slain in the coming anti-Semitic fury of
the
* *
* * *
* *
146. VIOLENCE
As it came to pass in the days of Noah, even
so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man (Luke 17: 26).
THE
EARTH IS FILLED WITH VIOLENCE, AND BEHOLD, I WILL DESTROY THEM (Gen. 6: 11).
With 1911 began a philosophy of violence which has
penetrated and corroded every sphere of human activity the arts, literature,
and music, no less than the specifically political and economic, or the ethic
of individual or collective conduct. The
War and the post-War developments strengthened and provided richly fertile
fields for their philosophy of violence.
However different may be the form of expression that Bolshevism, Fascism,
or Nazi-ism has taken, they are in their root principles identical that ends
justify means, that force gives a title to right; that power is the supreme and
justifying end of the national State; that the criterion of national morality
is national interest and not the worn-out
superstitions of a rancid nineteenth-century Liberalism law, justice, and
righteousness; that morals for the national State are different in kind from
those obligatory on the individual citizen; and that the State of power (Machtstaat)
has a right through its force to control the souls, minds, and bodies of every
member of that State, and concentrate the sum of this control on the
achievement of national interests.
Covenants, pacts, treaties cannot stand in the way of national power,
for steel is not only stronger than paper, or oaths or pledges, but gives a
superior title.
This philosophy of violence has spread over the whole
world, and its danger and power are not simply in its political or economic
expression, but in the subtle, subversive, and concurrent effect on tens of
millions of individuals and on every form of activity spiritual,
intellectual, imaginative, and moral.
Applied science, particularly through the cinema and the wireless, has
given it an inexhaustible field and a mass-conversion instrument, in operation
day and night, and, above all, in the home.
SIR CHARLES GRANT ROBERTSON, The Times, Sept. 19, 1935.
The possibilities of the future far exceed the
violence which compelled the destruction of humanity bt the Flood. A single aeroplane (says a germ-war expert, Mr. J. J. de Barry) could carry
sufficient botulinus toxin to destroy the entire population of the world.
* *
* * *
* *
147. THE MISTAKE OF MOST COMMENTATORS
He [the apostle Paul] does not, in these words, tell us that he feared the
being cast into hell. Gods
predestination of him as a believer, was his security against that. And in confidence of this, he flings down the
gauntlet to the universe as unable to remove him from the love of Christ: Rom. 8. There,
he was treating of the grace of God flowing forth from eternity. Here, he is discovering to us the
influence of his own actions upon the future recompense of God, distributed on the
principle of justice. It is not now the
question of justification by faith to the ungodly; but reward or loss in
Messiahs kingdom to the saints. He
might, though finally saved, yet be judged unworthy of a lot in the first
resurrection. Or, though a place in that
were granted, he might be accounted undeserving of a crown.
Here lies the mistake of most commentators. It is assumed, that there is no difference
between reward and a bare salvation. It
is taken for granted that the crown is only a
figurative expression for simple salvation.
It is supposed that eternal life and
the
On such assumptions, passages like the above present
very great, or, we may say, insuperable difficulties to the
Christian reader. Not that even
insuperable difficulty is sufficient reason for our rejecting a doctrine made
known by the testimony of God. But a
view of the difference between eternal life and the
* His lest that by any means, of fear, answers to his if my any means, of desire in Phil. 3. The object
of hope is before him in the last, the object
of fear in the present case. Both refer to the future [millennial] kingdom.
ROBERT GOVETT. (From: The Race
and the Crown.)
* *
* * *
* *
148. ENDANGERED LOVE
Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax
cold (Matt. 24: 12). The waning of love; the dying out of the fire
of holy passion for the Lord Himself and for those for whom He gave His life;
the loss of that holy enthusiasm in his service and devotion not that fleshly
enthusiasm that shouts and rejoices when the crowd is coming, or works
zealously when the brass band is playing and the grandstand is filled with
admirers no! no! but that enthusiasm
that works with a quiet, untiring, unassuming earnestness and steadiness when
it must plod on alone unheard and unnoticed except by the Lord that
enthusiasm that is born not out of outward encouragement, nor the applause of
men, nor by what men call success, nor by the unholy desire for praise, but that which is born or an inward urge
implanted by the Holy Ghost, the overflow of the passion of Christ; the
waning of this love, said Jesus, will be one of the ear-marks of the end-time.
The other characteristics of the last days are easily
noticeable, but this loss of love is far more subtle and less easily
detected. We may be thoroughly orthodox
and have a contempt for heresy and heterodoxy and yet be guilty of a loveless
heart. The other features have to do
largely with the world and apostate Christendom, but this one has to do with
the saints of God. This is the blighting
sin which our Lord so strongly condemned in the
The waning of this love, said our Lord, would characterize
the end-time. And why? Because iniquity
shall abound. So profuse will be
the growth of evil, so completely will the spirit of evil pervade every realm
of human activity and relationship, and so subtle will be the injection of evil
into the realm of righteousness, that many of Gods saints will become infected
with this spirit of evil, and subtle and gradual compromise will result in the
waxing cold of the love of the heart of
Christ. This condition is self-evident
do-day. There has been such a subtle
satanic admixture of religion, secularism, worldliness, and sensualism in the
realm of religion, business, commerce, stage and screen, that many a dear
Christian has become entrapped and the strength of love is being sapped from
the heart and life. Even in the realm of
orthodoxy too often a carnal contention for the faith has taken the place of a
passionate personal passion for Christ and His truth. A cold orthodoxy can contend eloquently for
the faith. But it is a heart
passionately in love with Christ that loves souls into His kingdom. To contend for the
faith is a God-given command not to be disobeyed. But to hold forth
the form of sound words in faith and LOVE is its counterpart and
complement.
Look about you and analyze carefully the spiritual
condition today and you stand face to face with this sad ear-mark of the end of
this age. The
love of many shall wax cold is sadly true too generally. How often have I had to bow my head in shame
and confess that my love was waning! Let us ask God for a keen spiritual
discernment that will enable us to understand and detect the slightest waning
of His love in our hearts. Let us wait
upon Him repeatedly for a fresh infilling of the Holy Ghost until the fruit of
the Spirit love will burn and blaze in all its holy passion in our hearts.
E. S. GERIG.
* *
* * *
* *
149. SINS VENOM
A keeper in the Zoological Gardens in 1852 a man
named Gurling drank somewhat
freely, returned later to the Snake House, took a
* *
* * *
* *
150. THE ANTIDOTE
Some time ago a man from south of
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
TIMES,
* *
* * *
* *
151. THE DENIAL
There is not a leading theologian to-day who does not
assert that what we pass on - the
Apocalyptic judgments to fall on both Church and world never came from God at
all: it is pronounced, as the Prophets of Jeremiahs day pronounced his
forecasts, a monstrous theology.
Nothing tests like the truth; it touches us on the
raw; and then one of two things happens either we get rid of the sin, or else
we get rid of the truth. When Jehudi had read three or four leaves, the King [Jehoiakim] cut it with the
penknife, and cast it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all the roll
was consumed Countless millions do this intellectually. A leading religious journal (Christian World, May 14, 1936) says:- The Advent view of prophecy is entirely discredited. The people who tell you that God will show His terrible judgments and that there will be
a fearful cataclysm are at the mercy of an
obsolete conception of what history is.
The cataclysmic view of history has long since been abandoned. For the most part prophecy was not fulfilled
and cannot now be fulfilled. Prophecy
has proved to be an illusion. Thus the whole of the prophecies,
foretelling the judgments coming upon both Church and world, are cast
bodily into the burning brazier.
D. M. PANTON. (From Judgment Prophecies)
* *
* * *
* *
152. THE TESTIMONY OF THE SCRIPTURES
All true faith rests on the testimony of the apostles,
whose word Jesus thus countersigns, as thoroughly to be accepted. The word id His. It is not only their attestation to the facts
of the Lord Jesuss life, but also the deductions therefrom in the way of
doctrine and command. And all we know
now of apostles teaching or of inspired disciples, is found written. The [Old and] New Testament[s] alone is [are] the true foundation of faith. Hence where
the Scriptures are taken away, true faith is not found. Faith, if true, does not rest on the word of
man, but of God. Faith in Gods word
delivered by inspired men is faith in God.
ROBERT GOVETT.
* *
* * *
* *
153. THE CHURCHS DANGER
It is a sore temptation of Gods people throughout the
ages to absorb the sweets of revelation while they eschew the bitters. There is a dangerous parallel today. The Spiritual temple [i.e., the Church, (1 Cor. 3: 16)]
more wonderful even than the Temple of old, is the marvel of the world; its
privileges reach up to Heaven: nevertheless sin in the people of God is the
same as all other sin; and our peril of the Great Tribulation, and our
certainty of a coming Judgment Seat, God explicitly states. But this danger is denied by the two
conceptions that cover nearly all contemporary Christian thought. Either (1) the
The Church would be a holier church if it realized its
danger. It is no imagination even of an
apostle, but an inspired portrait (Rev. 1: 4),
that when our Lord appears to His Churches in order to examine their works I know thy works He confronts them all His
Churches, without any exception with eyes of fire and feet of burning brass;
and it is to the Church of God that
these words are addressed The Lord shall judge his
people. It is a fearful thing to fall into
the hands of the living God (Heb. 10: 30).
D. M. PANTIN. (From, The
Churchs Danger.)
* *
* * *
* *
154. JUDGMENT INEVITABLE
Strange as it may appear, the very imperfection in the
execution of justice seems to be the strongest possible proof that, in the next
world, vengeance will be fulfilled to the utmost. For observe, if we found that every man in
this life received just what he deserved, and every evil work always brought
swift punishment along with it, what should we naturally conclude? There is no future punishment in store: I see
nothing wanting; every man has already received the due reward of his works;
everything is already complete, and, therefore, there is nothing to be done in
the next world. Or if, on the other
hand, there were no punishment visited upon sin at all in the world, we might
be inclined to say, Trush, God hath forgotten;
He never interferes among us; we have no proof of His hatred of sin, or of His
determination to punish it; He has gone away far from us, and has left us to
follow our own wills and imaginations .
So that if sentence were either perfectly executed upon earth, or not
executed at all, we might have some reason for saying that there is a
chance of none in a future world. But
now it is imperfectly executed; just so much done, as to say, You are watched my eye is upon you; I neither slumber nor sleep; and my vengeance slumbereth not. And yet there is so little done, that a man
has to look into eternity for the accomplishment.
WOLFE.
* *
* * *
* *
155. GO YE THEREFORE
Since the world is dead to sin,
go ye therefore;
Since the Cross has power to win,
go ye therefore;
Since the
Devil and his host
madly vaunt and ever boast,
warring to the farthest coast,
go ye therefore.
Timeless issues end its strife;
go ye therefore.
Men are passing, early, late,
passing to eternal fate,
and the season will not wait;
go ye therefore.
Christ has come, the crucified;
go ye therefore.
To the
souls for whom He died
go ye therefore.
All His words, His toil, His pain,
once are given not again;
let them not be given in vain;
go ye therefore.
Yours the power to do the work;
go ye therefore.
Yours the order, do not shrink;
go ye therefore.
Christ your Comrade goes with you,
ever able, ever true;
He will see the journey through;
go ye therefore.
Yours will
be the high reward
go ye therefore.
Yours the well done
of the Lord;
go ye therefore.
Yours the
blessed, sweet renown
of the jewels in your crown,
yours the home in
go ye therefore. GO!
AMOS R. WELLS.
-------
Who are excused from going?
Those who believe that the world is not lost and does
not need a Saviour.
Those who believe that Jesus Christ made a mistake
when He said, Go ye into all the world, and preach the
Gospel to every creature.
Those who believe that the Gospel is not the power of
God, and cannot save the heathen.
Those who wish that missionaries had never come to our
ancestors, and that we ourselves were still heathen.
Those who believe that it is every
man for himself, in this world, and who, with Cain, ask, Am I my brothers keeper?
Those who want no share in the final victory of
Christ.
Those who believe they are not accountable to God for
the money entrusted to them.
Those who are prepared to accept the final sentence: Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye
did it not to me.
HORACE BUSHNELL.
* *
* *
* * *
156. THE CHILDREN OF GOD
If we be children of God, then, as earthly sons
inherit the property of their fathers, so shall we the possessions of our
Heavenly Father. If childrem, then heirs. But the next words intimate two heritages,
one possessed by all; the other, by some alone.
All are heirs of God, but not all joint heirs with Christ. For a condition is inserted which is not
fulfilled in all. Not all suffer with
Christ. Many die as soon as they
believe. Many will not surrender what,
as they see, their duty to him requires.
And Paul in another place speaks of fellowship
with Christ in his sufferings, and even being made like him in his death, if by any means I might attain to the resurrection from among the dead:
Phil. 3: 10, 11. So again, I saw the
souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of
God, and which had not worshipped the Beast, neither his image
and they
lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years: Rev.
20: 4.
Joint suffering is to be recompensed with joint
glorification, and joint reigning. As
saith another passage, If we be dead with him, we
shall also live with him. If we
suffer with him, we shall also reign with him: 2 Tim. 2: 12.
But a little further on in the chapter we are now
considering, glorification is spoken of as the portion of all the predestined sons of God. For whom he did
foreknow, he did also predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son,
that he might be the first-born among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinated, them also
he called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them
he also glorified.
As, then, there is a glorification destined for all the
elect, and a glorification for some, under a condition not
fulfilled in all, it is evident that there are two times of glorification. There is (1) the millennial glory, or the
time of glorification with Jesus as the Christ: Rev.
20: 4. (2) There is also the eternal
glorification after this, designed
for all the elect members of Christ.
May we take heed to
these things, beloved!
ROBERT GOVETT (On Rom. 8: 16, 17.)
* *
* * *
* *
157. THE SHOCK OF PROPHECY
The voice which urges men to flee from the wrath to
come is the voice of Love. On the
Cairngorm Hills in 1917 two climbers nearly perished. With bleeding fingers they dug themselves out
of the hut in which they had sheltered, and staggered silently through wreaths
of snow that sometimes were breast deep.
They succeeded in advancing two miles in three hours. Then my companion,
one of them writes, seized my arm and said, hoarsely,
and thickly, like a drunken man, What about a
snooze? Im done. The temptation was terrible, for rest seemed
like heaven; but it was Death himself who stood near, and I felt his
wings. I struggled with my friend, but
he lay down in spite of me. There was
only one thing to do, and I did it. I
struck him on the face with my iron-shod boot. That blow produced its designed effect: they
staggered at last into the warmth of the nearest cottage. God
sometimes smites us sorely on the face, to rouse us from the sleep of death.
ALEXANDER STEWART,
D.D.
* *
* * *
* *
158. THE HEAVENLY VISION
If I had not been disobedient to my heavenly vision
all these years ago I should perhaps have less heaviness of spirit to-day,
although God had indeed been gracious to me.
I am making a slow pilgrimage to the grave, passing many hours in
silence and solitude, thinking of the days that are gone and what might have
been if - -. I put the question to
myself over and over again, would I not have been a better and happier man as
well as a more faithful servant if I had not failed my Master as I did so
shamefully, so inexcusably? And yet, no
sooner do I say so to myself than I begin to realize, not for the first time by
many, that goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life. God has spared me the worst of my
might-have-beens; for you know as well as I how near my earthly day came to
ending in the blackest of black nights had not the Most High restrained me and
the hand of my Saviour plucked me from the verge of perdition. I remember it well; it seems but
yesterday. Thank God, O I do fervently
thank God, for what I have been saved from, though the going has been hard ever
since the day of my fall from grace.
Perhaps I do ill to dwell in any degree amid the shadows of the
past. Rather ought I to rejoice that
they are lifting from my soul forever.
FROM AN ACTUAL LETTER.
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* *
159. THE LIFE
The story is told of a Christian teacher in a
government school in the Orient. He was employed
with the understanding that during school hours he should not utter a word on
the subject of Christianity. This
contract was faithfully kept. He lived
before his students the Christ life, but never was a word spoken to them about
Jesus. So blameless was his example, so
spotless was his character, so Christ-like was his spirit shown before these
students that without his knowledge forty of the students met in a grove and
signed a covenant to abandon idolatry.
THE WATCHMAN-EXAMINER
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* * *
160. WEALTH
One of
* *
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161. PRAYER THAT PREVAILS
Seek entirely to depend on God for everything. Put yourself and your work into His
hands. When thinking of any new
undertaking, ask, Is it agreeable to the mind of
God? Is it for His glory? If it
is not for His glory, it is not for your good, and you must have nothing to do
with it. Mind that! Having settled that a certain course is for
the glory of God, begin it in His name, and continue it to the end. Undertake it in prayer and faith, and never
give up! Pray, pray, pray! Do not
regard iniquity in your heart. If you
do, the Lord will not hear you. Keep that before you always. Then trust in God. Depend only on God. Wait on Him.
Believe on Him. Expect
great thing from Him. Faint not if the blessing tarries. Pray, pray, pray! And, above all, rely only on the merits of
our ever-adorable Lord and Saviour, that, according to His infinite merits, and
not your own, the prayers you offer and the work you do will be accepted.
GEORGE MULLER.
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* *
162. THE VOICE OF THE REFORMERS
I must confess that no higher hopes, with a prospect
of early fulfilment, can be discerned at the present time. On the contrary, new signs of misfortune are visible in every direction as we look
around us, so that the future seems to hold nothing except the complete
downfall of the Church. But one
thought, none the less, uplifts my heart and gives me new courage. I say to myself: Since God has begun this
wonderful reformation of His Church, He
never meant to awaken empty hopes, which would soon be swept away. Far rather He will protect and establish the
work He has begun, not only in defiance of Satan, but also in spite of the
human malice which sets itself in opposition to His will.
JOHN CALVIN.
If I were to live a hundred years longer, and if by
Gods grace I had subdued not only the former and present tempests and bands of
foes, but also had strength to overcome all that should rise against us in the
future I see clearly, none the less, that no rest will be allowed to our
posterity, because the devil lives and rules.
Therefore, I pray for a peaceful death, and desire to linger on earth no
longer. You, our descendants, must also
pray with all your might, and be diligent in the business of Gods Word. Keep alight the humble lamp of God. Be armed and well equipped, like those who
must expect that at any moment the devil will drive in a pane or a window of
your house, break open the door or the roof, if only he may extinguish that
light! Therefore, watch and be
sober. He sleeps not and takes no rest,
nor will he die until the last day. I
and thou must die, and when we are gone, he will remain just the same that he
has always been, and he cannot cease his assaults. May Christ, our dear Lord, Who has bruised
the serpents head, come and deliver us at last from his attacks. Amen.
MARTIN LUTHER.
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163. THE ADVENT
Whoever neglects the Second Coming has only a
mutilated Gospel, for the Bible teaches us not only the death and sufferings of
Christ, but also His return to reign in
honour and glory. His Second Coming
is mentioned and referred to over three hundred times, yet I was in the church fifteen or sixteen years before I ever heard a
sermon on it.
D. L. MOODY.
* *
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* *
164. WHAT I SAW IN JESUS
The first thing I saw in Jesus was a revelation of
myself. I saw that Jesus is the light,
myself a sinner. The works of darkness
filled my heart; I did not know that I was so wicked until Jesus showed me
myself. After I saw His love and
goodness I earnestly desired Him, but I could not have Him until I forsook my
own will and the love of the world.
At the time of my birth my father and mother were in
the Catholic religion. I was also baptized
in that faith and received the name Augustine.
When I grew up and saw their works I perceived that they had very many
objects of worship, Jesus, Mary, Peter and many like them. They do not give Gods Word to men. And also, I was taught that one can give
money to the father, who is able to grant him
a period of time in which he may commit any sin he likes and he will pray for
him. A religion like that does not save
one. I forsook that forever.
After that I entered Mohammedanism and remained in it
for seven years. I saw in that also that
one could commit any sin he liked, just as long as he was faithful in doing the
salaams five times a day, facing East.
Why? Because there is a stone in
I saw truth
and love in Jesus, which are not in
any other road. What is Gods will? And this is the will
of my Father, that every one that beholdeth the Son, and believeth on him,
should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day (John 6: 10).
I also saw that trouble and persecution were with Jesus on earth. Verily, verily, I
say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and
ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy (John 16: 20).
I saw another thing on the Jesus road which is not in
any other road. If a person says to you,
throw away your coat, but does not give you a
new one, will you not take the old one again?
But if he gives you a new one, you will have no use for the old
one. Praise the Lord because He gives His own a new spirit and helps him
to conquer himself, Satan and the world, and enables him to walk with God. Otherwise
none of us could walk Gods road. But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in
you. But if any man hath not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of his (Rom. 8: 9)
JEAN KHITAN, in the Missionary Review of the World.
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165. CATHOLICISM AND THE ADVENT
Dear Sir,
Having just returned from a tour through
Lectures are being given at the Sorbonne, Paris, by Professor Chasles, a Roman Catholic
archaeologist; and the large hall is filled an hour before the time. The Professor exhorts his audience to bring
their Bibles, so as to verify his statements; and at the close he gives a summary
of his lecture, with all the Scripture texts.
Some of these are before me as I write, and one sheet contains over 40
references to Scripture. He speaks of
the return of the Jews to
It is not perhaps known that the new Catholic version,
the Crampon, is a very good one, and
often word for word like the Legond;
only containing of course the Apocrypha, rejected by Jerome and the Jews. The
cost is 40 francs against the 10 francs of the British and Foreign Bible
Society.
Another instance of God blessing His Word was told
me. A French gentleman of my
acquaintance was travelling in an empty train in
I am, etc.
W. MARRIOTT.
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* *
166. AN ADVANT AT THE DOORS
For yourselves know perfectly
that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. Therefore let us not sleep as do
others; but let us watch and be sober.
This watching takes for granted the suddenness and uncertainty of the
Lords appearing. Scripture does not say
that the Lord must come in my day; but it says, the Lord may come in my day. This may come
is the secret of a watching spirit.
Without it we cannot watch. Our
lamps are always to be trimmed. Why? Not merely because the Bridegroom is to come, but because we know not how soon He may
come. Our loins are always to be girt
up. Why?
Not simply because we know there is to be a coming, but because we know
not when that event is to be. I do not
know how it will be with others, but I feel that when I can say the
coming of the Lord draweth nigh, I have got a weapon in my hand of no
common edge and temper. To be able to
announce that the Lord will come is much; but to be able to say without the
reservation of an interval: The Lord is at hand, is greatly more.
HORATIO BONAR, D.D.
* *
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* *
167. WATCHFULNESS
The abundant entrance is by Peter attached to the fruitful
state: by our Lord to the watchful state: Matt. 24. & 25. Both present the same thing from different points
of view. Peter is an example, both of the fall and of the entrance. 1. He
was one of the three chosen to behold the scene on the Mount of
Transfiguration. 2. He fell through unwatchfulness at the hall of
Caiaphas. His
fall there, and subsequent forgiveness, and future admission to the kingdom, is
a powerful antidote against despair for those believers who are conscious of
having foully fallen. It is intended so to be. Still, the entrance at last is for those counted worthy of that age of glory and of
the first resurrection: Luke 20: 35; 21: 26; 2
Thess. 1: 5; Rev. 3: 4, 11.
ROBERT GOVETT.
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* * *
* *
168. A FEARFUL PRACTICAL URGENCY
Let it be carefully pondered that this is no mere
detail of a disputed prophecy, but a fearful practical urgency for us all; for
all will agree that if rapture turns on fidelity, he who influences others to
believe that escape is safe for an unsanctified life not only makes a most
painful blunder for himself, but, in a moment of intense crisis, does a grave
disservice to the whole church of God.
D. M. PANTON. (From,
A Nearing Crisis in Heaven and Earth.)
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* * *
* *
169. BEWARE OF THE TEACHER OF A SMOOTH, EASY LIFE.
Paul, after affirming that by
the grace of God he was what he was adds, but
I laboured
more abundantly than they all (1 Cor. 15:
10). This is our absolute stand
grace does not make room for tolerating sin, nor for a lackadaisical kind of
Christian life. None may presume! And one who practises those debarring things
of Galatians 5.
God says shall not inherit.* Anyone may teach an easier type of life than
this if he will but he himself shall give account for it to the Judge when he
comes. Beware of the teacher of a
smooth, easy life even under the guise of the
doctrines of grace. (How glibly
and with lost reality, some use that phrase!)
* This shows where a Christian who falls into
immorality, or other shame, ends up. How
many are stranded!
And we would also suggest that the Sermon on the Mount
Matthew 5. to 7.
be read afresh, to catch Christs high standard. What about the righteousness
He will require, the forgiveness, the purity?
Surely there is a need for constant display of Divine love, avoiding the
lamentable so-called Fundamentalist bitterness. Or, His word about, Lay
not up treasures on earth. His
standards are absolutely the mould of those of Paul, and his writings affirm
that only such see God, inherit the Kingdom (Dan.
7: 13, 14, 18). It is all the
same message, whether from the lips of our Lord, or from His Apostles. God forgive our clumsy reading of it, so much
so that we have lowered His required
conditions for entrance upon His glorious reign.
W. F. ROADHOUSE. (From, The
Kingdom.)
* *
* * *
* *
170. SHAKEN AWAKE
That many earnest Christian people are thinking these
thoughts and putting them into their prayers is borne in upon me just now from
what I read and hear. A few hours ago I
was conversing with an old and valued friend who rather startled me by asking
whether I did not deem it possible that the ancient Christian belief in a reign
of antichrist might becoming literally true.
I sat silent, pondering the interrogatory, and my friend continued to
speak somewhat in these terms:- There would seem to be a gathering up and concentration of
the forces of evil in the world to-day, an open and undisguised trial of
strength between the powers of light and the powers of darkness, between Christ
and the Man of Sin, between titanic spiritual realities in the visible and
invisible worlds with humanity as the battleground? The wicked and unscrupulous men of blood who
keep millions upon millions of human beings in chains, wrath, and agony may be
but the puppets and emissaries of what both our Lord and His Apostles spoke of
as the prince of this world and by other titles, a tremendous mighty and
spiritual power contending against God.
Is the present hour a specially critical one in human history whose
outcome will either be a new manifestation of Christ or a fresh start for
civilization upon new and better lines or a period of woe and destruction such
as has never been known since the fall of the Roman empire and attended by an
influx of such miseries as imagination staggers to contemplate? I have a misgiving that my dear old friend is
right and that civilization is at a new parting of the ways: victory in the
balance a set-back for all that the name of Christ stands for, or such a
revival of vital religion as mankind has never known. There will be a final glorious advent, a
complete ending of the present dispensation.
Of course there will be; the Church has never surrendered that
expectation nor can she do so and remain faithful to her divine commission.
R. J. CAMPBELL, D.D.
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* * *
* *
171. THE EARLY CHURCH AND THE SWORD
The Church Fathers are almost a unit in condemning war
for the Christian. Clement of Alexandria in the second century spoke out against
it. Tertullian,
one of the Church Fathers of the same period, declared that when Peter cut off
Malchus ear, Jesus rebuked him, and in rebuking him He forbade the works of
the sword for the disciple. In that same
century we have Ignatius and Polycarp and Justin and many others of the great Christian leaders bearing
testimony to the same effect. In the
third century it is the same: Hippolytus,
Cyprian, Commodus, Gregory
Thaumaturgus spoke out vehemently in their condemnation of war. Indeed Origen,
one of the best known of the Christian Fathers of that century, in making his
famous reply to Celsus, the arch foe
of Christianity, denied one by one the counts in the Indictment of Celsus. However, when Origen came to the charge of
Celsus, that Christians were disloyal to the State in that they would not serve
in the army or take part in war, Origen admitted the charge because he said all
war was wrong for the Christian.
Historically this is the situation. The early Christians from the days of the
first disciples up until the time of
Let us look at some of the early Christian
pacifists. There was the first century
Numidian Christian named Maximillian
who was martyred for refusing to be enrolled as a soldier. Aged twenty-one he told the Roman Governor, I cannot serve as a soldier, I cannot do evil: I am a
Christian. Then there was Marcellus, the centurian. His last words to the judge were, I threw down my arms; for it was not seemly that a Christian
man, who renders service to the Lord Jesus Christ, should render it also by
inflicting earthly injuries.
Later there was Martin who
was bred to the profession of arms, but which he abandoned on becoming a
Christian. To the Emperor he gave the
reason for his conduct: I am a Christian and
therefore I cannot fight,
THE RELIGIOUS DIGEST.
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* *
172. PACIFISM
All we who refuse the sword for the Gospels sake
and Christians with bayonets in their hands nan hardly be described as harmless as doves (Matt.
10: 16) need to keep in mind the wise words of Mr. D. H. D. Wilkinson, an ex-secretary of the C.M.S. He writes: To be a
pacifist and cherish anger in my heart would make me break Christs command of
love just as much as, and perhaps more than, to be a soldier and kill an enemy,
for anger and hatred are murderous sins.
A Christian mans first duty, then,
whether he is a soldier or a conscientious objector, is to banish all hatred
and anger from his heart and to cherish the spirit of love for all. But is it possible to do this if ones
professional business is to be read to try to kill as many other men as
possible at the command of King and country?
Each Christian must decide this for himself. My own answer would be No; but at the same
time I know and respect a great many men whose answer would be the opposite;
and it has been my privilege to know many fine Christian men who have served
and fought in the army and the navy with a perfectly clear conscience, and
have, at the same time, been keen to win others for Christ and His
service. I could not do it.
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* *
173. SOWING TO THE FLESH
The threat of God against evil sowing, is, that such
shall, out of the flesh the field which they
have tilled reap a fruit they will not covet.
They will reap corruption. What means this? It does nor refer to simple death of the body now,
for that is felt by saints whose walk pleases God as truly as by the most
irregular and careless of believers. It
is something in verses 19-21 of the former
chapter. There we are cautioned that the
workers after the flesh should, by Gods ordination, not
inherit the
ROBERT GOVETT.
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* *
174. FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH
Katar Singh, a Tibetan, was sentenced by the Lama of
Tshingham to death by torture for professing his faith in Christ. Sewn up in a heavy wet yak skin, he was
exposed to the heat of the sun. The slow
process of contraction of this death-trap is a most awful means of
torture. At the close of the day the
dying man asked to be allowed to write a parting message. It was as follows:-
I give to Him, Who gave to me my life, my all, His all
to be;
My debt to Him, how can I pay, though I may live to
endless day?
I ask not one, but thousand lives for Him and His own
sacrifice:
Oh, will I then not gladly die for Jesus sake, and
ask not why?
This testimony, uttered in a moment of agony, did not
go unfruitful, for one of the highest officials in the Lamas palace was
gripped by the martyrs cry and confessed Christ that same night.
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* * *
* *
175. THE SHEPHERD
One night, about three oclock, I was awakened by
someone pounding at my door. There was a
man there who was an entire stranger to me.
He said, I have come to ask you to go with me
to pray with a dying girl. When
I suggested that I would come as soon as it was daylight, he said he feared it
would be too late. As I was dressing, he
said, I want to be fair to you and tell you where you
are going. It is no nice place, but a house
of shame. But this girl there seems to
have known you, and asked me to come as she wants you to pray with her. I set his mind at rest on that by telling him
that it didnt matter where she was if she wanted me to pray with her.
He took me down into the low district and into that
house where I found a poor girl yet in her teens. It was very evident that she was soon to meet
her Maker. A little lamp was on the
table by the bedside, and I turned the shade so that the light fell on her face
to see if I could recognize her. But she
sensed what I was doing at once, as she said, I do
not think you know me. But I know you,
and I knew that you would come and pray with me, for I am going to die. The girls here do not believe that I am, but
I know that I am going.
While I was wondering just how I could bring that poor
soul to a living Saviour, she solved the problem by asking me if there was not
a story in the Bible about a sheep that had got out of the fold and gone very
far astray, and of the Shepherd Who had gone after it and brought it back
again? Oh yes,
I said, that is the story of the ninety and nine, and
the one that went astray. Yes, she murmured over and over, the one that went astray. As I knelt to pray by that dying girl, the other
girls knelt too, sobbing by their companions bed. What an audience was there! I have preached to vast congregations but
never was a meeting more hallowed by the presence of the Lord Jesus than
this. When I looked up I shall never
forget the expression on that face. Oh, she cried.
Oh! It
is wonderful. The Good Shepherd has
found me and He is holding me in His heart! I have never heard that expression before,
but over and over again she kept repeating it.
I ventured to go home.
But when I returned later I knew the end had come, as the undertaker was
entering the house as I came up. One of
the girls came out to meet me and her first words were, My! We all wished you
had been here when Mary passed away. She
was so happy. She kept saying, The Shepherd has found me and is holding me to His heart. She actually tried
to clasp her arms around the Unseen, and then with a soft Good-bye to the
girls she was gone.
Some years after, as I was preaching the gospel in a
certain city, a young woman came to me and smilingly said, Dont you recognize me? When I replied that I could not just say for
sure, she said, I am the girl that told you of Marys
passing that morning, and of how happy she was in her new-found joy. But there was something else I wanted to tell
you. Once or twice I have started to
write and tell you the story, but I did not have the courage to finish the
letter. Well, I said, what is it? She replied, Just
this, that the morning when the Good Shepherd brought Mary in on the one
shoulder, I came in on the other.
Dr. W. P. PHILPOTT.
* *
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* *
176. LOVEST THOU ME MORE THAN THESE?
Late in life John
Ruskin fell deeply in love. He wrote
Sesame and Lilies, a book that has widely
influenced young womanhood, to please the girl he loved. That girl, though loving him tenderly,
refused him because of his rejection of definite Christian truth, and it cost
her her life. She sank under it, and
three years after she lay dying. Ruskin
begged to be allowed to see her. She
sent to ask whether he loved God better than he loved her; and on his answering
no, her door was closed against him
forever. Ruskin never recovered from the
blow. But one of his biographers says:-
The work she
might never have done in life was accomplished through the strength of her
sacrifice.
His lost love led him at last to
faith in God and the world to come.
* *
* * *
* *
177. THE OUTLOOK OF THE HOUR
The greatest of all the revelations about the future
condition of the saints is that they are to be identified with Jesus Christ in
His reign that is, those who overcome. Not
all saints are to be elevated to this position; this is for the victorious
saints.
A. T. PIERSON, D.D.
* *
* * *
* *
178. ADVENT
Such a summary of
* *
* * *
* *
179. DANCING
The round dance was started in a house of
prostitution in
* *
* * *
* *
180. SELF
Go down deep enough into yourself if you want to cure
a lofty estimate of yourself. The top
storeys may be beautifully furnished, but there are some ugly things and
rubbish down in the cellar. There is not
one of us but, if we honestly let the dredge down into the depths, miles and
miles down, will bring up a pretty collection of wriggling monstrosities that
never have been in the daylight before, and are ugly enough to be always
shrouded in their native darkness. Down
in us all, if we will go deep enough, and take with us a light bright enough,
we shall discover enough to make anything but humility ridiculous. And the only right place and attitude for a
man who knows himself down to the roots of his being is the publicans when he
stood afar off, and would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, and said,
God be merciful to me a sinner. It will put an end to any undue exaltation of
ourselves if we know ourselves as we are.
Dr. ALEXANDER
MACLAREN.
* *
* * *
* *
181. TROUBLE
Temptations and troubles are the saints portion here,
and this is the royal way to the Kingdom.
Our King led in it, and all His followers
go the same way; and besides the happy end of it, is it not sweet, even for
this, simply, because He went in it?
This is the truth, and, taken altogether, is a most comfortable truth:
the whole brotherhood, all our brethren, go in
it, and our Eldest Brother went first.
ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON.
* *
* * *
* *
182. ADVENT
The Advent holds the only master-key to the world
problem. Mr. F. Bailey, the secretary of the Guild of Prayer for the Return
of our Lord, writes (Gardian, June 21st,
1940):- Those
who do possess this hope of divine intervention are the only happy people in
the world today, because they see beyond
its immediate turmoil the glory of the Kingdom we may expect Christ so soon to
set it up. For, assuming that victory
has been achieved, how is a bankrupt, famine-stricken diseased European
continent to be reconstructed [so soon
after the Great Tribulation events] unless some manifested divine power is available?
* *
* * *
* *
183. MODERN MIRACULOUS GIFTS
Words uttered a decade or two ago take on a wider
fulfilment every year. The day is rapidly approaching it seems, says Evangelist Waehlte, when the man who has no other power than the Word of God
will scarcely get an audience. The
evidence of this is found on every hand.
Let some modern miracle-worker come along and people will flock to him
literally by the thousands. But let some
man of God stand up with no other power than the power of Gods Word and his
audience is often numbered by mere dozens. We have to meet to-day a far subtler and
deadlier Satanic cunning than undisguised demonism. Satan
is most devilish when he is most spiritual, and the dangerous demons are those
that produce mock miracles of goodness.
Satan substitutes ecstasies and raptures, and clever counterfeits of
grace, sometimes with miraculous gifts, for the demoniacs foaming mouth and
the hideous convulsions.
It must never be forgotten that the coming huge
apostasy from the churches is to be a Gnosticism created by contact with
deceiving spirits (1 Tim. 4: 3); and it was
the coveting the miraculous gifts which created the founder of Gnosticism. Give me also this
power (Acts 8: 19). In regarding Simon
Magus as the earliest teacher of Gnostic principles, says Dean Mansel, we
follow the almost unanimous testimony of those Early Fathers who have spoken on
the subject. Seeking miraculous
gifts can be exceedingly dangerous; for it can even get earnest and godly
believers in contact with hypocritical spirits who cleverly pose as the Holy
Ghost.
* *
* * *
* *
184. CHRIST AND ANTICHRIST
Christ is called the Seed of the Woman. Antichrist is the seed of the Serpent.
Christ is the Son of God. Antichrist is the son of Perdition.
Christ is called the Man of Sorrows. Antichrist is the Man of Sin.
Christ is called the Lamb. Antichrist is a Wild Beast.
Christ is the Holy One. Antichrist is the Wicked One.
Christ is the Prince of Peace. Antichrist is the Lawless, Profane Prince.
Christ is called the Glorious Branch. Antichrist is the Abominable Branch.
Christ is called the Good Shepherd. Antichrist is the Idol Shepherd.
Christ has ascended the Throne of the Universe. Antichrist will be cast into the
* *
* * *
* *
185. POWER OVER SATAN
All Hell confronts us: can we conquer? Our Lord answers. I have given you
authority power derived from Himself over
all power the dynamic force of the enemy.
(Luke 10: 19). The Master of all dynamics, the Lord of all
forces, the God of all worlds, has given us power: power over what? All the power of the enemy. Not a sin is unconquerable by the power He
has given us: not a devil can stand up to the power that He has given us: not a
disease need stand stubborn before the power that He has given us: not a
deadness, not a coldness, not an apostasy can withstand the power that He has
given us. And power over whom? The master-magician of all ages; the
profoundest intelligence, the acutest intellect, the most powerful being God
ever made: if we have power over Satan, there is no higher power under Gods,
and Hell is beneath our heel.
* *
* * *
* *
186. OVERCOMERS
1. They overcame him by
the blood of the Lamb. Rev. 12: 11.
During a serious illness Satan entered the bedroom of Martin
Luther. He unrolled, with an air of
triumph, a vast roll which he carried in his arms. He cast it downwards, and the scroll unwound
itself. The sick mans heart quailed
when, fixing his eyes on it, he saw the dreadful record of his own sins. Suddenly a thought flashed into Luthers
mind. You have
forgotten something, he said. What is it? Satan asked. It is all true;
Luther answered; but you have forgotten to write
under it one thing, - The blood of Jesus Christ
cleanseth us from all sin: that instant Satan
disappeared, with a heave roll of lamentation and mourning and woe. Through death
Christ destroyed him that hath the power of death,
even the Devil.
2. They overcame him by
the word of their testimony.
Not argument, but testimony; not eloquence, but testimony; not
scholarship, but testimony; not science, but testimony: simply, This is what Christ has done for my soul. In a great revival in
3 And they loved not
their life even unto death.
Gerlazius, a wealthy citizen
of St. Angela, in
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187. EDUCATIONAL
We once thought that if we were in condition to found
good schools and to bring the boys and girls under the influence of good
education, we could finally put a stop to all unrighteousness and sin. But the fact of it is that education with
reference to this point is a total failure.
Men do not act according to their best knowledge, but they do the things
they love to do. It maters not how high
we may educate the understanding, a man can, in spite of it, be a slave to his
passions. While education of the
intellect may cause its possessor to beware of the grosser sins, it may at the
same time be only a means of making the man more cunning.
DEAN BUTLER,
* *
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* *
188. RESTING WITH GOD
Let us labour therefore to
enter into that rest, lest any fall, in the same example of disobedience:
(Heb. 4: 11)
We are not invited to the rest of verse 10, for that is already being enjoyed
through our High Priests atonement. But
while resting in part, we are also called to work and to fight.
The Lords Day, or the first of a new week, is the
testimony to us of the portion of redemption accomplished. The Son of God has wrought His work, and
brought in a new rest. We no longer keep
the Sabbath or seventh-day rest of the Law in the old creation, but the day of
Jesus passage out from the old creation into the new, in His rising [out] from among the
dead.
We trust to rest as God did, and with God. We shall be like unto God: not through
disobedience, as the devil proposed, but through the Spirits renewing us unto
the likeness of God.
Only those who have accepted the first repose, - that
of the soul in the work of Christ, - can start for the prize of our
calling. Before we attain the rest of
the glory outside us, we must have the rest of conscience within us, which
springs out of Christs accomplished work.
His rest shall be glory (Isa. 11: 10).
Lest we should imagine, that all we have to do is to rest
ourselves in Christs finished work for us, believers are here summoned to
strive after the future rest, of which the Apostle has been speaking. Let us
labour. Paul includes
himself. And to this end he did labour (Col. 1: 29) more abundantly than any.
ROBERT GOVETT.
* *
* * *
* *
189. TREASURE
How do the Christians observe what they profess to
receive as a command of the Most High God?
Not in any degree; no more than if no such command had ever been given
to man. Even the good Christians as they
are accounted by others as well as themselves pay no manner of regard
thereto. It might as well be hid in its
original Greek, for any notice they take of it.
In what Christian city do you find one man of five hundred who makes the
least scruple of laying up just as much treasure as he can of increasing his
goods just as far as he is able to?
JOHN WESLEY.
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190. ARMOUR
In the international storms raging around it, the
M. MUELLER.
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* * *
* *
191. MIRACLE
A further summary of The Guardian, a magazine intensely representative of Anglicanism,
betrays how slight a gulf lies between
* *
* * *
* *
192. LUTHERANISM
So also the gulf between some of the Protestant groups
and
* *
* * *
* *
193. SALVATION - PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE.
The word Salvation is used in different senses in Holy
Scripture: it is well to note some of the distinctions. (1) It refers to the past time: God who saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not
according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace which was
given us in Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 1: 9). (2) It refers to a present time: the Lord is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near
to God through him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them
(Heb. 7: 25). (3) It refers to the future time: Christ shall
appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for Him, unto salvation (Heb.
9: 28).
Salvation then refers to the gift of Eternal Life, and
also
to the coming
JOSEPH SLADEN: [See Salvation in the
* *
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* * *
194. BAPTISM
It is exceedingly remarkable that the Report of the
Convocation of Canterburys committee on Baptism makes the latest,
unchallengeable admission that the baptism of infants, in place of the baptism
of believers, dates no earlier that 250 A.D..
The Guardian (June 21st.
1940) comments thus:- So since 250 A. D. the Catholic
Church has, except in the mission-field, baptized infants. Anabaptists, who spread from Germany to
Holland, England and the U.S.A., in which last country they have converted many
negroes, number something less than 11,000,000*:
if Quakers are added to that number, the addition is small. There are nearly seven hundred million in the
Church militant to-day, all of whom have been baptized in infancy, and the
number of those in the Church at Rest is incalculable. It is therefore foolish to suppose that the
Church will alter its practice, whatever enthusiastic missionaries may say
about the reality of baptism in the mission-field.
* This number is a singular proof of the current
ignorance of facts. Baptists, Plymouth
Brethren, Pentecostals, and the Churches of Christ, all practise believers
immersion; and the Pentecostalists alone number 10,000,000, and the
denomination of Baptists exceeds 12,000,000.
The other two groups, together, must number not a few millions more.
D. M. Panton.
* *
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* *
195. WHY I GO TO CHURCH ON RAINY SUNDAYS
I attend church on rainy Sundays because
1. God has blessed the Lords Day and hallowed it,
making no exceptions for hot or cold or stormy days.
2. I expect my minister to be there. I should be surprised if he were to stay at
home for the weather.
3. If his hands fail through weakness, I shall have
great reason to blame myself, unless I sustain him by my prayers and presence.
4. By staying away I may lose the prayers which may
bring Gods blessing, and the sermon that would have done me great good.
5. My presence is more needful on Sundays when there are
few than on those days when the church is crowded.
6. Whatever station I hold in the church, my example
must influence others. If I stay away,
why may not they?
7. On any important business, rainy weather does not
keep me at home, and church attendance is, in Gods sight, very important.
8. Among the crowds of pleasure-seekers, I see that no
weather keeps the delicate female from the ball, the party, or the concert.
9. Such weather will show me on what foundation by
faith is built; it will prove how much I love Christ. True love rarely fails to keep an
appointment.
10. Those who stay from church because it is too warm
or too cold or too rainy frequently absent themselves on fair Sundays. I must not take a step in that direction.
11. There is a special promise that where two or three
meet together in Gods name, He will be in the midst of them.
12. An avoidable absence from the church is an
infallible evidence od spiritual decay.
Disciples that follow Christ at a distance, and then, like Peter, do not
know Him.
13. I know not how many more Sundays God may give me,
and it would be a poor preparation for my first Sunday in heaven to have
slighted my last Sunday on earth.
FRANCES RIDLEY
HAVERGAL
* *
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* *
196. THE LOSS OF GODS PRESENCE
The loss of Gods presence is always owing to some
hidden sin. Just as pain is ordered in
nature to warn of some hidden evil in the system, defeat is Gods voice telling us there is something wrong. He has given Himself so wholly to His [redeemed] people, He
delights so in being with them, and would so fain reveal in them His love and
power, that He never withdraws Himself unless
they compel Him by sin.
Dr. ANDREW MURRAY.
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* * *
* *
197. I KNOW NOT NOW
I know not
now why doubts and cares
Should dim my faith by hunting fears;
I know not why when needing rest
My heart remains still sore opprest;
I know not now why seeking aid
The answer is so long delayd;
I know not now why burning tears
My heart should harass through the years.
I know not
now why life should be
A school of discipline for me;
I know not now why grief and pain
Should check ones course and should remain:
I know not now why sore distress
The heart should fill with weariness;
I know not now why He should show
On me such marvellous grace below:
All this some day Ill understand
When I have reached the
DORIS GOREHAM.
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198. THE CHURCHS UP-LOOK
Fifty eminent Bible scholars from all parts of
We are agreed that the essentials of divine prophecy
include:- the completion and the gathering of the Church unto our Lord Jesus
Christ; the personal, corporeal, visible return of Christ; the nations moving
toward catastrophic judgments; the re-gathering of Israel into the land of
Palestine, their God-given promise and possession, and their subsequent
regeneration; and the personal rule of Christ over the earth for a thousand
years.
We are assured in our hearts that great Christian
latitude and love should be manifested toward all within the fellowship of the
faith, although they may not see eye to eye with us on the details of the
prophetic programme.
We recognize the increasing and terrific intensity of
the great spiritual warfare in which the Church is engaged, and we call upon
born-again Christians everywhere to judge themselves and to lay aside all
manifestations of a worldly spirit, which hinders their testimony and cripples
their effectiveness. In the realization
that the times call for the utmost in consecration and surrender, we call upon
Gods people for a complete and absolute abandonment of self and resources to
the service of our crucified, living, and soon-coming Lord. We further call upon Gods people, in
repentance, confession, and humility, and pray and work for a mighty revival,
that multitudes may yet be saved before the Lord comes.
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* *
199. MISSING THOMAS
How tenderly the Lord can meet missing Thomas, when, after eight* days, He finds him
again in the assembly of Gods people! A
friend of the writer was once so overwhelmed with doubt the result, as he
confessed afterwards, of sin in his life that one night he deliberately
determined to abandon the Christian Faith.
A day or two after, as the secretary of a Christian Convention, he had
to appear on the platform. A train,
bring the speaker, had broken down; and the chairman turned to him, and said:-
You will speak. Trembling from head to foot, he came to the
edge of the platform, opened his Bible, and burst into tears. All the old love and tenderness flooded back
into his soul, and sobs broke from his hearers as he spoke of the forgiveness
of God. Jesus had met Thomas.
[*
The number Eight, being the number
representing Resurrection or a New Beginning, Thomas may be seen to represent all
those regenerate believers who failed to attain
into the Resurrection of Reward; and therefore
must remain in Hades until the end of the Seventh Millennium After eight days,
that is, after eight thousand years, when those whose names are found in the book of life will inherit eternal life (as distinct
from life in the coming Age) in a new heaven and a new earth. (Phil. 3: 11; Luke 14: 14; 20: 35; Rev. 20: 4-6; 12-15.)
]
* *
* * *
* *
200. NO ONE HAS EVER GONE INTO HEAVEN EXCEPT
THE ONE
WHO CAME FROM HEAVEN THE SON OF
MAN (John
3: 13, N.I.V.).
There is a second reference to Deut. 30: 12, on which the Apostle Paul insists,
as teaching us faith by way of salvation.
There is a third reference to Eph.
4: 9, Now that He ascended, what is it but
that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
But did not Enoch ascend to
heaven? and Elijah? How then could it be
said None
but the Son of Man ever ascended?
We must understand then, that the heaven to which Enoch and Elijah are
gone up, is not the heaven of heavens, the abode of Christ. And we know that there are several heavens. Moreover, neither of them have come down from
heaven.
ROBERT GOVETT.
* *
* * *
* *
201
* *
* * *
* *
202
DICTATOR
Dr. Wilbur
Smith well sums up the international
situation as a preparation for a world dictator. One world sooner or
later must mean one ruler. One world, if
united to enforce peace, must have a police system and a sovereign. If the discovery of atomic [or nuclear] energy and its use in warfare for the destruction of nations
demands one world, as our leading statesmen and philosophers are in a vast
chorus insisting, then we are preparing a stage for the advent of one to rule
the world. The confusion and fears which
made dictators welcome in Russia, Germany and Italy, when deepened and more
universally disturbed through the common use of atomic [and now nuclear] energy, then the
whole world will welcome a supreme ruler who can guarantee to them an enforced
peace a temporary security at last.
That the advent of this atomic [nuclear] age means just this, many
statesmen confess.
* *
* * *
* *
203. ANTICHRIST
A startling reminder that the word Antichrist means not
only against Christ, but in place of Christ that is, a man posing as
Christ suddenly confronts us. We have
received a pamphlet entitled The Return
of Christ, by Alice A Bailey. This Christ who is to re-appear is to be an
embodiment of all the worlds religions.
He has been for two thousand years the head of
the church invisible, the spiritual Hierarchy, composed of disciples of all
faiths; and loves those who retain their allegiance to their founders the
Buddah, Mohammed and others. It matters
not to Him of what faith a man may call himself. If men look for the Christ who left His
disciples centuries ago they will fail to recognize the Christ who is in the
process of returning. All the world will
worship the Beast (Rev. 13: 8).
* *
* * *
* *
204. IMMINENT LIFE
The author of these lines, who had qualified as a
medical missionary but for family reason was compelled to live in
They say I am dying,
That nothing remains to be done but to wait
for the end,
And they speak in hushd tones and tread
softly as though even now
In the presence of Death, the worlds King.
Yet they say I may linger awhile in the
weakness and pain,
That it may be a week, perhaps even a month
Ere the last messenger comes.
Yet what message is this? Death?
End?
Why I died long ago, and I live in the life
of the One,
The Eternal of Days, who hath neither
beginning nor end.
He has died. He has conquerd thee, Death,
And I fear thee no more: for He lives,
And in Him is my life Oh, my Lord,
Let me hear once again Thy dear voice
Saying Be of good cheer; it is I.
And my heart shall rejoice and respond:- Bid me come,
Though the waters be dark and roll high.
Bid me come unto Thee;
And I come Lord; I come unto Thee!
BINFORD SELLWOOD
* *
* * *
* *
205. BECOME AS LITTLE CHILDREN
The first great feature of childhood is pure
affection. In childhood, affection is
spring-water. It just bubbles up most
naturally, and is pure and delicious. In
manhood, affection is too often tap-water.
It has flowed through pipes of expediency, prudence, and calculations,
and has lost its sparkle and limpidity. The Lord wants us to have the pure,
un-calculating love of little children.
He wants us to live so much with Him that to love Him shall be our
highest bliss. The second
characteristic of child-nature is its fine sensitiveness. A childs spirit is like a photographers
sensitive plate, exceedingly impressionable, responding to the daintiest touch
of the softest light. The joys and sorrows
of the world find in children a most ready and sympathetic response. Now this fine sensitiveness is apt to be lost
as childhood is left behind. Our
impressionableness is prone to lose its delicacy. The
grief and happiness of the world do not move us with the same facility as of
old. A third characteristic of
childhood is its open-mindedness.
Childhood is an age of eager questions and not of dogmatic
conclusions. It is a season of keen
receptiveness, of intense love of the sweet light. If we
are healthy, and have the nature of little children, we shall have a hungry
open-mindedness for the truth.
J. H. JOWETT.
*
* * *
* * *
206. THE REPLY OF GRACE
A young Christian girl in
-
GLAD TIDINGS.
* *
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* *
207. MAN AND WOMAN
Exquisitely does the Apostle sum up the entire
relationship of the sexes. Howbeit neither is the woman without the man, nor the man
without the man, in the Lord; the Christian Faith requires both, two
halves of one whole, in which one is chief, joint-heirs of the grace of life (1 Pet. 3: 7): for as the
woman is of the man (in creation), so
also is the man by the woman (in birth); but
all things are of God all their relations and interdependences come
from God as from their true causal fountain and origin (Ellicott). The woman was
dependent upon the man for her creation, but the man is dependent for his very
life upon the woman; they have been redeemed at an equal cost, and may attain an equal blessedness:
God made humanity to be one throbbing whole of sympathy and grace and love.
D. M. PANTON.
* *
* * *
* *
208. COMING SUDDENLY
Suddenly God opened the clouds of heaven and broke up the
fountains of the great deep, and the world that then was, perished in a flood.
Suddenly He came down upon the builders of the
Suddenly He rained fire and brimstone on the wicked cities of
Suddenly the angelic host announced the glad tidings of peace
and good will on earth at the [first] advent of the Saviour (Luke
2: 13: 14).
Suddenly that peace and good will will be taken from the earth
He whom men rejected and
crucified, whom God raised from the dead, and seated at His own right hand,
will come again.
Suddenly! Like lightning flash; as the twinkling of an eye; as the
blast of a trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised, and the living
shall be changed.
J. W. BROWNING.
* *
* * *
* *
209. WATCH THEREFORE
Watch against the leaven of false doctrine. Remember that Satan can transform himself
onto an angel of light. Remember that
bad company is never marked bad, or else it would never pass. Be very jealous for the whole truth as it is
in Jesus. Do not put up with a grain of
error merely for the sake of a pound of truth.
Do not tolerate a little false doctrine one bit more than you would
tolerate a little sin. Watch and pray!
Watch against slothfulness about Bible study and private
prayer. There is nothing so spiritual
but we may at least do it formally. Most
backslidings began in the closet. When a
tree is snapped in two by a high wind, we generally find there had been some
hidden decay. Watch and pray!
Watch against bitterness and uncharitableness toward
others. A little love is more valuable
than many gifts. Be eagle-eyed is seeing
the good that is in your brethren. Let
your memory be a strong box for their graces, but a sieve for their faults. Watch and pray!
Watch against pride and self-conceit. Peter said at first, Though all deny Thee, yet will not I. Presently he fell. Pride is the high road to fall. Watch and
pray.
Watch against the sins of
Watch not least against the sin of Jehu. A man may have great zeal to all appearance
and yet have very bad motives. It is
quite another thing to love the truth. Watch and pray.
Let us watch
for our own selves. As our walk is, so
will be our peace. Above all, let us watch for our Lord Jesus Christs
sake. Let us live as though His glory was concerned in our behaviour. Let us live as though every slip and fall was
a reflection on the honour of our Lord.
Let us live as though every allowed sin was one more thorn in His head
one more nail in His feet.
O, let us exercise godly jealously over thoughts,
words, and actions, over motives, manners and walk! Never, never let us fear being too strict [with ourselves]. Never
never let us think we can watch too much.
BISHOP J. C. RYLE.
* *
* * *
* *
210. A CHURCH TRUTH
Perhaps no words are more frequently on our Lords
lips than these:- Behold, I come quickly; and my
reward is with me, to render to each (disciple) according
as his work is (Rev. 22: 12). To whom is this said? I Jesus have sent
mine angel to testify unto you these things for the Churches. So Paul says:- He that planteth and
he that watereth are one in standing and redemption
but each shall receive his own reward according to his
own labour
(1 Cor. 3: 8). Our Lord singles out a grave act of
discipline, and presents it as symptomatic of His habitual action. I do cast her into
great tribulation
and all the churches shall know that I
am He which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto each
one of you according to your works (Rev. 2: 22).
So Paul balances the double-edged recompense. Servants obey:
knowing
that from the Lord ye shall receive the RECOMPENSE OF THE INHERITANCE: ye serve the Lord Christ. For on the other hand he that doeth wrong shall receive again for the wrong that he
hath done: and there is no respect of persons (Col. 3: 25.)
It is a truth that concerns US.
D. M. PANTON. (From
his tract: REWARD.)
* *
* * *
* *
211. MILLENNIUM
The bitter opposition which true Christians can offer
to our Lords coming Reign on earth is exceedingly painful. Dr.
Davis Smith commented thus for The British
Weekly (April 7, 1910), perhaps the foremost Nonconformist journal. Dr.
Smith says:- Millenarianism, which had a considerable vogue in pietistic
circles a generation ago, but which, I thought, had now gone the common way of
absurdities in a more or less sane world, as a stupid and prosaic perversion of
Jewish apocalyptic. Prophecy-mongering
is an unwholesome farrago of charlatanry, ignorance, and vanity, and I had
thought its day was past. Its record
would be entertaining were it not so deplorable.
* *
* * *
* *
212. TRUTH
On the exact contrary, the early Church were
Millenialists to a man. Dr. Bonar says:- Millenarianism prevailed universally during the first three
centuries. This is now an assured fact
and presupposes that Chiliasm was an article of the Apostolic creed. So Mosheim:-
The prevailing opinion that Christ was to come and
reign a thousand years among men before the final dissolution of the world, had
met no opposition till the time of Origen. It is significant that it was the Church of
Rome that wiped it out. In 373 A.D. the
Council of Rome under Pope Damasus formally denounced Chiliasm (Millennialism).
* *
* * *
* *
213. WORLD CONDITIONS AT THE TIME OF THE RAPTURE.
Seeing the federated nations of
Wm. F. BEIRNES. (From
his tract: World Conditions at the Time
of the Rapture.)
* *
* * *
* *
214. THE VIRGIN BIRTH
We can scarcely do better than append to the foregoing
reflections the following manifesto drawn up by the good Dr. Machen to whom we referred at the beginning.
My profession of faith is simply
that I nothing of a Christ Who is presented to us in a human book containing
errors, but know only a Christ presented in a divine book, the Bible, which is
true from beginning to end. I know
nothing of a Christ Who possibly was and probably was not born of a virgin, but
only a Christ Who was truly conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin
Mary. I know nothing of a Christ Who
possibly did and possibly did not work miracles, but know only a Christ Who said
to the wind and the waves with the sovereign voice of the Maker and Ruler of
all nature, Peace be still. I know nothing of
a Christ Who possibly did and possibly did not die as my Substitute on the
Cross, but know only a Christ Who took upon Himself the just punishment of my
sins and died there in my stead to make me right with the holy God.
*
* * *
* * *
215. OPPOSITION TO THE WORD
OF THE KINGDOM.
They find to their horror that the doctrine is not
fashionable. This is the time to suffer
loss for Christ, but they are not prepared to pay the price, and they are
amongst those who fall away. So once
there is difficulty over the truth they have accepted, they let it go just as
quickly as they received it. They are
like sponges which absorb any liquid without the slightest difficulty, but
immediately you start squeezing the sponge it lets out the liquid even more
quickly. Believers can be without depth
of spiritual knowledge or experience.
They cannot stand the heat of persecution and trial. In that case their spiritual life will soon
wither. These Christians are like
weather-cocks, they agree with the doctrine that is fashionable at the time and
which is accepted by those in whose company they find themselves. If their associates accept the Word of the
Kingdom, then so do they. If the others
do not accept it, then nor do they. They
have never taken heed to the exhortation of the Apostle Paul that we be no more children, tossed
to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight
of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but
speaking the truth in love, many grow up into him in all things, which is the
head, even Christ (Eph. 4: 14, 15). It is always difficulty and hardship that
cause the people to go back. When Jesus
said He was the bread of life which came down from heaven, many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, This is a
hard saying; who can hear it? (John 6: 60). From that time many
of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him (John 6: 66).
How very sad this must have been to the first Sower of the seed
Christ. He gave this parable just before
these people went back! What a warning they had, yet it was
despised.
GORDON CHILVERS (From,
The Seed and the Soil.)
* *
* * *
* *
216. SUFFERING
Nature gives an exquisite illustration that suffering
is the prelude to perfection. Alfred Russell Wallace, seeing an Emperor
Moth beating its wings and struggling wildly to force its passage through the
narrow neck of its cocoon, took a lancet and slit the cocoon. The moth emerged from the cocoon at once, but
its glorious colours never developed.
The soaring wings never expanded.
The moth crept moodily about; drooped perceptibly, and died. The furious struggle with the cocoon was
natures wise way of developing the splendid wings and of sending the vital
fluids pulling through the frame until every particle blushed with their
beauty. The naturalist saved the
creature the struggle, but had unintentionally ruined and slain it in the
process. Whom
the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and
scourgeth every son whom He receiveth (Heb.
12: 6).
PROPHETIC NEWS.
* *
* * *
* *
217. MOTHERS
An old Scotch lady stood in her kitchen weeping. As she wiped her tears on her apron, she said
to her minister, I have done so little for
Jesus. I am so miserable and
unhappy. When I was just a wee girl, the
Lord spoke to my heart. I did so much
want to live for Him, but I have done so little. I wanted to be of some great use in His
service! What have you done? asked the minister. Oh, I have just
tried to serve Him here in the home. I
have washed the dishes, cooked three meals a day, taken care of the children,
mopped the floor, and mended the clothes.
That is all I have done all of my life. Suddenly the minister smiled and asked, Where are your boys?
Oh, you know where Mark is. You
ordained him yourself before he went to
THE GOSPEL HERALD.
* *
* * *
* *
218. THE BIBLE
1
Coleridge said that the Scriptures he had found words for his
inmost thoughts, songs for his joy, utterances for his hidden griefs, and
pleadings for his shame and his feebleness; and then he went on to say, In the Bible there is more that finds me than I have
experienced in all other books put together; the words of the Bible find me at
greater depths of my being.
2
I have worked at the Bible, prayed over the Bible, lived
by the Bible for more than sixty years, and I tell you there is no book like
the Bible. It is a miracle of
literature, a perennial spring of wisdom, a wonder book of surprises, a
revelation of mystery, an infallible guide of conduct, and an unspeakable
source of comfort. Give no heed to
people who discredit it, for they speak without knowledge. It is the Word of God in the inspired speech
of humanity. Read it for yourself. Study it according to its own
directions. Live by its principles. Believe its message. Follow its precepts. No man is uneducated who knows the Bible, and
no one is wise who is ignorant of its teaching.
SAMUEL CHADWICH.
* *
* * *
* *
219. SODOMY
The depth of sin that is now openly approved passes
all imagination. A Joint Committee of
Psychiatry and the Law, appointed by the British Medical Association and its
Magistrates Association, in its Report on The Criminal Law and Social Offenders,
recommends that homosexual practices, if done in private, should not be
punishable at all. Here is open sanction
of Sodomy. In one of the strongest
indictments of sin in the Bible, the Sodomites are described as wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly (Gen. 13: 13), and alone of the cities of the world
it called down on itself fire and brimstone
a prelude of Hell. These doctors and
magistrates little dream of the consequences.
In the day that Lot went out of
* *
* * *
* *
220. TRANSLATION
The truth stated by Scripture that the translation of
Enoch was a reward is obvious to commentators, and is undeniable. John
Angel James, a leading Nonconformist of the nineteenth century, says, Enochs translation was a testimony to the whole world of
Gods approval of his conduct. Dr. Gogue says:- To be translated from earth to heaven is a great
reward. Enoch did that which moved God
to translate him: work must be done before reward can be expected. Gilfillan
says:- One reason why this honour was conferred on
him was to show his transcendent excellence. Calvin
says:- The Scripture shows that this translation was
a proof of the Divine love towards Enoch by connecting it immediately with his
pious and upright life. John Gill, Spurgeons predecessor by a
hundred years, says:- He was a walker with God, and
the course of his conversation was holy and upright; which was the reason of
his translation, a high honour which was bestowed upon him. God translated him; FOR before his translation he hath had
witness borne to him that he had been well-pleasing unto
God (Heb. 11: 5).
* *
* * *
* *
221. THE LORDS WARNING
If anyone asks how this [doctrine
of selective rapture] harmonizes with the
widely-held tenet of the eternal security of the
believer and the doctrine of salvation
by grace I would be far from detracting one whit from the plain face
value of any of Gods precious promises.
But let me say this that if your faith in those promises sets your
soul on fire to serve God, to work and watch and pray, and to do all His good
and gladly, then there is no doubt that you have truly understood, and your
faith in His gracious [conditional] promise is having its intended result and
manifestation. But if yours is a sort of
pleasant fatalism that tends to make you careless and easy going, you have
surely misunderstood something somewhere.
And you surely need the Lords warning.
Let us watch and make supplication always that we may
escape the things that shall come upon the world and be accounted worthy of the [millennial]
R. H. BOLL.
* *
* * *
* *
222. EXCHANGE
A Scotch minister was once preaching in
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
TIMES.
* *
* * *
* *
223. UNITY
The unity of the Church has never been shown by unity
of organisation, uniformity of usages, or by complete unanimity in doctrine,
but by having and seeking to preserve the unity of the Spirit. The true Church is an organism and has
various descriptions, such as living stones in a growing building, Branches in
the Vine, Members of the Body, etc. The
essential Unity of the Church is its Head: All one in
Christ Jesus. There is one
Spirit and one Hope of our calling; one Lord, one faith,
one baptism, one God and Father of all.
There is one Church composed of all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in
sincerity, faith, and truth, and vitally centered in Him.
BROTHER AMITTAL.
* *
* * *
* *
224. PSALM FIFTY-ONE
Just before his death, with his left hand mutilated by
torture, Savanarola wrote a commentary
on the Fifty-First Psalm. Sir Thomas More repeated it on the
scaffold, and Lady Jane Grey recited
it at her execution. Roland Taylor shouted it amid the
flames of martyrdom, and was struck on the mouth for not saying it in
Latin. When Arnold of Rugby understood that he was dying and they asked him
what they should read to him, instantly, he selected the Fifty-First Psalm.
* *
* * *
* *
225. OUR LAST ACT
Three or four years after the Titanic foundered a young
Scotsman arose in a meeting in
The waves bore him away; but
a little later he was washed back along side me. Are you saved now? No, I replied, I cannot
honestly say that I am. Once more he repeated the verse, Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Then losing his hold he sank. And there, alone in the night, and with two
miles of water under me, I believed. I am John Harpers last convert.
* *
* * *
* *
226. SECTS
Perish Sects! I
have consecrated myself to Christ alone.
I seek no advantage for my church nor for myself but for Thee, O Christ
of God, Whom I love and reverence that I should desire Thy glory in whatever
way. Aloof from all party spirit or
strife, I was born, have lived and die, adhering to Christ alone. O that all who call on the name of Christ
were persuaded to be of the same mind and to dismiss all trifles and
contentions as worldly rubbish altogether out of place.
COMENIUS, A.D. 1623.
* *
* * *
* *
227. FOOLISH VIRGINS
When people accept, without a Scriptural
investigation, that there is only one translation of the saints at Christs
second coming, they must teach that the foolish virgins represent mere nominal
Christians never having had an experience.
Every eternal securitist must accept this view for he believes that all
backsliders are included in the rapture of the Bride of Christ, since,
according to their teaching, they cannot be lost.
It should be remembered that you do not trim a lamp
that has not been lighted. Sinners and
nominal Christians do not have lights to shine for Christ. It is
the oil, typifying the Holy Spirit or the supply of Divine grace, that burns
within the lamps. This is entirely
lacking in the lives of the unsaved.
Sinners have no interest in the coming of the Heavenly Bridegroom. There are none taking the way to meet
Him. So there is a vast line of
demarcation between the ungodly, the nominal Christian, the backslidden class,
and the true born-again [obedient] believer.
The latter has received forgiveness of sins, and the light to guide him.
On the other hand, the only difference between the
wise and foolish virgins is shown in the procession by the wise of an extra
vessel of replenishing oil, which the foolish lacked. The foolish had thought the supply of oil in
their lamps sufficient to carry them through, but the wise wanted more grace, a
more abundant supply to assure them an abundant
entrance in, hence had sought and obtained it. Furthermore, the world is not awakened by the
midnight cry as it goes forth. Only the
church, the true believers are awakened.
And see how Jesus points out that those awakened, only part are ready to enter in.
* *
* * *
* *
228. WATCH
All our Lords emphatic warnings in His many Second
Advent parables in Matthew 24 and 25 are exhortations to unsleeping
watchfulness. Christ gave His disciples
no reason to believe their readiness for His coming rested on any experience of
salvation they may have had. Pointed and
plain He made preparation, for the timeless and dateless Advent means
unsleeping vigilance and prayer. All teaching, all preaching, all activity,
religious, secular or otherwise that today silences the Lords grave and solemn
warnings to His own to, Watch ye, therefore, and pray
always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall
come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man, vitiates watchfulness
and makes for dangerous sleep.
* *
* * *
* *
229. PEACE
Thomas a
Kempis gives four steps that lead to
peace and keep peace in the soul. They
are as follows:-
1. Constantly endeavour to do the will of another than
thy own.
2. Constantly chose rather to want less than to have
more.
3. Constantly chose the lowest place, and to be humble
to all.
4. Constantly desire to pray that the will of God may
be perfectly accomplished in thee, and concerning thee.
* *
* * *
* *
230. HUMILITY
Humility, wrote William Law, does
not consist in having a worse opinion of ourselves than we deserve, or in
abasing ourselves lower than we really are. Some feel so sinful and unworthy that they
refrain from doing anything for Christ. Luther in writing to Melancthon, who felt himself too sinful
to serve God, said, You are kept in bondage by a false
humility. That great
soul-winner, George Whitfield,
said:- How often have I been kept from speaking and
acting for God by a sight of my own unworthiness. But now I see the more unworthy I am, the
more fit to work for Jesus, because He will get me more glory in working by
such mean instruments, and the more He has forgiven me, the more I ought to
love and serve Him. It was a
favourite expression of Whitfields that nothing sets
a person so much out of the Devils reach as humility. Those, he
said on one occasion, that have been most humbled,
make the most solid, useful Christians.
It stands to reason, the more a man is emptied of himself, the more room
is there made for the Spirit of God to dwell in him.
* *
* * *
* *
231. THE SECRET OF STRENGTH
An exchange says:-
It is noted that George Muller, though a man
always of delicate constitution physically, began evangelistic tours at the age
of seventy, involving a period of seventeen years, and of travel aggregating
eight times around the world, and he continued to carry much of the
responsibilities of the orphanage besides, until beyond the age of ninety. As a young man his frequent and serious
illness and general debility had apparently disqualified him from all military
duty and many prophesied early death, or hopeless succumbing to disease; yet at
the age of ninety-two he is quoted as saying, I have been able every day and all the day, to
work, and with that case as seventy years ago. He ascribed his marvellous preservation to
three causes: (1) The exercising himself to have always a conscious void of
offence, both toward God and toward men; (2) to the love he felt for the
Scriptures, and the constant recuperative power they exercised upon his whole
being (Prov. 4: 22); and, (3) To the
happiness he felt in God and His work, which relieved him of all anxiety and
needless wear and tear in his labours. -
* *
* * *
* *
232. SUFFERING
Some years ago, there was found in an African mine the
most magnificent diamond in the worlds history. It was presented to the King of England to blaze
in his crown of state. The king sent the
diamond to
* *
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* *
233. ROYALTY
It is sweet to hear lovely Christian words from the
Heir to the Throne, and the mother of its future Monarch. Addressing a Mothers Union in
* *
* * *
* *
234. POVERTY OF SPIRIT
Our Lord began His whole ministry by unveiling the
ideal character: not what a good man does, but what a good man is;
in the Beatitudes He reveals the roots of character, leaving the fruits to come
of themselves; and to this ideal character, and to this ideal character alone, He assigns the coming [millennial]
Our Lord strikes the first note humility in the heavenly character. Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5: 3). Here, at once, is a sharp, profound revolution
in all human thought, something deeply alien to the spirit of the world. Nothing carries a
man through the world, says the infidel David Hume, like a true, genuine, natural
impudence. On the contrary, our Lord Himself is the essence of the
Beatitudes. Learn of me;
for I am meek and lowly in heart
(Matt. 11: 29). It is not poverty of circumstances; it is not
necessarily poverty in gifts, such as intellect, graces, strength of character
the Lord Himself was immeasurably so gifted: it is the absence of self-sufficency, of pride, of worldly ambition:
for of such
is the KINGDOM OF [the] HEAVEN[s]. As Isaiah had put it centuries
before:- To
this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit,
and trembleth at my word (Isa. 66: 2).
D. M. PANTON. (From, The
Beatitude (2).)
* *
* * *
* *
235. PERSECUTION
The last beatitude is the hallmark of the
Kingdom. Blessed
are they that have been persecuted for righteousness
sake: for theirs is the
D. M. PANTON. (From
the same source as above: read it all in The
Beatitudes 2 ).
* *
* * *
* *
236. BUT WHOSOEVER SHALL
SMITE THEE ON THE RIGHT CHEEK, TURN TO HIM ALSO THE OTHER: (Matthew 5: 39).
The Saviour takes the case of Lawless force, employed
by an ungodly man in a personal affront.
It is a kind of offence supposed by the law. After a blow struck, the injured man was to bring
the offender before the judges, and they were to award a like blow. The judical and lawful vengeance inflicted
was to deter others from a like offence.
But the disciple [of
Christ] is not to resist, not to seek the laws
interference, and righting of injury.
Justice still has its appropriate sphere in the world. God maintains it there, or the earth would
scarcely be habitable by His saints.
But, in the church, the new principle of mercy, which God is displaying
towards the lost, and especially toward His sons, is to reign.
This precept of the Saviours seems even to [regenerate] believers
too unguarded and absolute. Where the damage is not great, says Wesley in his Notes, choose rather to suffer it. The law of nature,
says Barnes, and all laws human and divine, have justified self-defence,
when life is in danger. It cannot surely
be the intention to teach, that a father should sit by coolly and see his
family butchered by savages, and not be allowed to defend them.
But, against our view cited our Lords own conduct,
when placed under the circumstances indicated, And
when he had thus spoken, one of the officers which stood by, struck Jesus with
the palm of his hand, saying, Answerest thou the High Priest so? Jesus answered him, If I have spoken evil,
bear witness of the evil; but if well, why smitest thou me? (John 18: 22, 23).
Hereupon, it is alleged, Jesus did not turn the other cheek. It certainly is not said that Jesus did
so. But it is evident, that the Saviours words on that occasion are no
contravention of His precept. He who
might have avenged Himself, resisted not, nor retaliated. But we learn from this instance, the further
truth, that we may make appeal to the conscience of the offender. We may
admonish by quiet words, though not defend ourselves by blows.
But neither, it may
be said, did Paul act out this precept. And the high priest
Ananias commanded them that stood by him (Paul)
to smite him on the mouth. Then said
Paul unto him, God is about to smite thee, thou whited wall: for sittest thou
to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law?
(Acts 23: 2, 3). This, we may admit, was not the perfection of
meekness. But there is neither resistance, nor retaliation here.
ROBERT GOVETT. (From,
The Sermon on the Mount.)
*
* * *
* * *
237. SIN AND SINS
What we call gross sins all Christians endeavour to
avoid; we are enjoined not once to name them, as
becometh saints. And yet, alas,
there are believers who succumb to them.
What we call little sins are not so readily avoided; but let us remember
that little sins are as much sins as big ones, and must be confessed and put
away and either forgiven of judged sin is sin, whatever its size. Be ye angry and sin
not; we are all apt to call it righteous
anger when we get angry. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth,
and grieve not the Holy Spirit. Let all bitterness
and wrath and anger and clamour be put away from you with all malice, and be ye
kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for
Christs sake hath forgiven you (Eph. 4:
26-32). Little sins easily grow
into big sins anger to murder, evil speaking to slander, and so on. The Apostle
James points out the tongue is a little member but it can be a fire, a world of iniquity. He also points out a little fire may kindle a
great matter. A spark from a passing [steam train] engine
may set on fire and destroy acres of growing grain. The little foxes
spoil the vines the little leak in the dam may lead to a great flood,
and so on. An artist chose for his
painting of Christ the purest-faced lad he could find. Years later he chose the vilest faced man he could
find for the face of Judas, and to his astonishment he found they were one and
the same person. So little sins grow to
great sins.
W. P. CLARK.
* *
* * *
* *
238. SCRIPTURE VERSIONS*
[*
Information for the benefit of those who are locked in to a particular
English translation of Holy Scripture. Ed.]
The Old Testament was a Hebrew Book, the New Testament a Jewish Book written originally in Greek not the language of
The Vulgate
Manuscript held at
Mark this! The
Vulgate Manuscript did not even appear in the catalogue of the
Note further that Jerome, in the preface of his
original work, repudiated the apocryphal writings as unreliable tradition,
recognizing only the Hebrew Scriptures as inspired yet
As to the preservation of the Hebrew and Greek
Scriptures through the dark ages, Prof.
Gaussen wrote:- Although the libraries which
possessed ancient copies of the sacred books have been summoned as witnesses;
although the commentaries of the fathers of every country have been examined;
although the Arabic, Syriac, Latin, Armenian, Ethopic and other versions have
been compared although all the manuscripts of all countries of every age from
the 3rd. to the 16th. century have been examined a
thousand times by innumerable critics, who sought with ardour, as the reward
and glory of their secret toil, for some new reading; and although the learned,
not content with the libraries of the West, have visited those of Russia and
extended their researches to the convents of Mt. Athos, of Asiatic Turkey and
of Egypt in quest of new records of the sacred text yet has nothing been
discovered, not even a single reading which can cast doubt upon any of the
passages hitherto received as authentic.
All the variations, with scarcely one exception, leave untouched the
essential meaning of each sentence and relate merely to points of secondary
importance. Such were the numerous
elements that entered into the preservation of Gods word and such was the care
that invariably went into the work of transcribing the Scriptures.
* *
* * *
* *
239. SATAN
Dr. DONALD BARNHOUSE.
* *
* * *
* *
240. A REPRESENTATIVE REMOVAL
The manner of Enochs disappearance must have been
secret, for, since he was not found, he must
have been searched for: his removal was a representative removal, and shows
the secrecy of the coming flight - [i.e., of
watchful saints, able
to escape the Great Tribulation, (Luke 21:
36)]: we are told that every eye shall
see Him [Christ]
descending,
but we are never told that any eye shall see them ascending. God showed in the very dawn of the world that
the body of the redeemed as well as the spirit; that godliness is
extraordinarily profitable; that the ultimate home of His heavenly people is in
a world beyond [i.e., in a new heaven and a new earth:
(Rev. 21: 1)]; and that personal holiness, as well as personal
faith, is to characterize the removed.
By faith Enoch was translated
not only the act of faith, but the life of faith; first saving faith, then
faith step by step as he walked with God; including a passionate faith in the
Second Advent (Jude 14*): And he was not found because God translated him; for before
his translation he hath had witness borne to him that he had been well-pleasing to
God (Heb. 11: 5). What wealth of meaning lies hidden in he was not! He was not any longer a toiling, suffering, sorrowing
servant of God: he was not any more baffled by
Satan, tempted by the world, struggling desperately with the flesh: he was not vexed any more with the filth and savagery
and horror of a devilish world: he was not any
longer sternly battling in the midst of an unbelieving Church and a godless
world: he was not face to face with the agony
of horror-struck multitudes, with faces white with terror, flying up the
mountains.*
· Jude stresses that mockers at Second Advent truth will
abound at the last. Dr. A. E. Garvie, in an address which captured
the assent of the International Congress of Congregationalists in
* *
* * *
* *
241. DID JESUS CHRIST TEACH HIS DEITY?
The answer to the above question is to be found in the
four Gospels, in the words spoken by our Lord Himself. We have this statement in John 10: 30: I and My
Father are one; and that by this He meant more than one in sympathy,
desire, etc., the following texts will show:
1. They are one
in work John 5: 17, 19, 21; 10: 28, 29; 15:
26; 16: 7; 20: 22; Luke 24: 49.
They are one
in possessions John 16: 15; 17: 9, 10; 5: 26.
They are one
in glory Mark
8: 38; Matthew 16: 27; Luke 9: 26; Matthew 25: 31; John 17: 5.
They are one
in essence John
10: 38; 14: 10, 11, 23; 8: 19; 14: 7, 9; 12: 45; 15: 23, 24; 5: 23; Matthew 28:
19.
2. He teaches His
omnipotence Matthew 11: 27; Luke 10: 22; John
16: 15; Matthew 28: 18; John 6: 39; 2: 19; 10: 18.
He teaches
His omniscience John 5: 20; Luke 5: 4; John 21: 6; 1: 48; 4: 18; 6: 70;
21: 18.
He teaches
His eternal existence - John 8: 58; 17:
5, 24.
3. He teaches His
holiness John 7: 18; 8: 46.
He teaches His Deity in what He says:-
(1) As to His words Matthew
24: 35; Mark 13: 31; Luke 6: 63; John 6: 23; 15: 3.
(2) As to what He is Himself John 8: 12; 9: 5; 12: 35; 11: 25; 14: 6, 19; 17: 3.
(3) As to what He does Matthew
9: 2-6; Mark 2: 5, 19; Luke 5: 20, 24; 7: 48; 24: 47; Matthew 11: 28; Luke 24:
36; John 14: 27; 4: 14; 6: 35; Matthew 16: 19.
* *
* * *
* *
242. INFLUENCE
Dr. F. B.
Merer gave this striking testimony of
his experience in dealing with men:- Up to a certain point in my own life I sought to influence
men my mental conceptions, polished sentences, and vivid and striking
metaphors; I found it did not help them.
But when I began to try humbly to realize the Heavenly vision, I laid by
whole being open to the torrent of Gods power, which is always seeking to
reach men, and suddenly to my surprise I found that God was pouring through my
life river after river, and this began to be realized, He that believeth on Me, out of him shall flow rivers of
Living Water.
Oh, how I welcomed that text! I
said Lord,
from to-day I am not going to dam up the water, but I am going to be a channel
through which the royal power of God Himself may reach men and women.
* *
* * *
* *
243. CONSIDER ONE ANOTHER: Hebrews
10: 24.
God bears with and waits patiently for imperfect man,
and is not even repulsed by their resistance.
We ought to imitate this loving patience, this merciful forbearance; it
is only imperfection which is intolerant of what is imperfect.
Overladen as we are with our own faults, which we
leave uncorrected, we are so sensitive and impatient towards those of our
neighbour! Nothing, seemingly, can make
us indulgent, since our own incorrigible frailty does not abate the severity of
our criticism of others.
We can often do more for other men by correcting our
own faults than by trying to correct theirs.
Imperfect as we ourselves are, we only know ourselves partly; and the
same self-love which causes our failings hides them subtly, both from others
and from ourselves. The greater our own
self-love, the more severe critics we shall be.
But the love of God is full of consideration,
forbearance, condescension and tenderness.
It adapts itself, waits, and never moves more than one step at a
time. The less self-love we have, the
more we know how to adapt ourselves to curing our neighbours failings of that
kind; we learn never to lance without putting plenty of healing ointment to the
wound, never to purge the patient without feeding him up, never to risk an
operation save when nature indicates its safety.
ARCHBISHOP FENELON.
* *
* * *
* *
244. TO EACH HIS GIFT
What is in thine hand, Abel? Nothing one wee
lamb, O God, taken from the flock. I
purpose offering it to Thee, a willing sacrifice. And so he did. And the sweet smell of the burning has been
filling the air ever since, and, consequently going up to God as a perpetual
sacrifice of praise, speaks of
What is it thou hast in thy
hand, Moses? Nothing but a staff, O God, with which I tend my flocks. Take it and use it
for Me. And he did; and wrought
miracles on the grandest scale the world has ever known; and in smiting the
Mary, what is that in thine
hand? Nothing
but a pot of sweet smelling ointment, O God, wherewith I would anoint Thine
only One called Jesus. And so
she did; and not only did the perfume fill all the
house where they were, but the Bible-reading world has been fragrant
with the memory of this blessed act of love, which has ever since been spoken
of for a memorial of her.
Poor woman, what is it thou
hast in thy hand? Only two mites, Lord.
It is very little, but then it is all I have, and I would put it into
Thy treasury. And so she did;
and the Lord has already adjudged it one of the wealthiest gifts ever made to
Him.
What is it thou hast in
thine hand, Dorcas? Only a needle, Lord.
Take it, and use it for Me. And so she did; and not only were the
suffering of Joppa warmly clad, but, inspired by her loving life, Dorcas
Societies even now continue their benign mission to the poor throughout the
earth.
* *
* * *
* *
245. EPISCOPACY
Episcopacy, flowering into apostolic
succession, is an invention of the post-apostolic age. Lightfoot,
Turner and Headlam, to name only a few, have shown that there is no evidence of ordination by a Bishop till the third century,
that Episcopacy is an ecclesiastical
creation neither ordained by Christ nor appointed by His Apostles, and
that, in the words of Dr. Headlam, the doctrine of Apostolic Succession as
taught by the Anglo-Catholics was not known in the Church for four centuries,
is not taught by any Anglican formula, and is based on theological confusion.
* *
* * *
* *
246. FREE WILL
The enormous counter-balancing truth remains in full
operation. God
our Saviour, who willeth that all men should be saved here Calvins election to damnation is proved a gross falsification of
God and come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2: 4): not wishing
that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance
(2 Pet. 3: 9). And since God wishes that all should be
saved, all must be salvable by what God has done; and this is exactly the
Gospel. He is
the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also FOR THE WHOLE
WORLD (1 John 2: 2). The unutterably awful fact is that if God had
not chosen some, all including ourselves would have refused to repent, and all would
have been lost.
* *
* * *
* *
247. PURPOSE
Finally, the purpose of election is revealed. He chose us in him
before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blemish
before him in love. He
chose us not because we were holy and without blemish; nor because He foresaw
that we would be holy and without blemish; but He chose us that we should be in order that we should
be so as a consequence of His electing grace holy and without blemish. God chose us that we might express God. I know that God is
love, remarked a high caste Hindu to a missionary when the latter
called to commiserate him on the death of his son. Such a remark from a non-Christian amazed the
visitor. How
do you know that? he asked. Well, I worked for Foy
Sahib at
* *
* * *
* *
248. MOSES CHOICE
Moses, was himself, also, the man of faith. The wonderful providence of God had placed
him high above his enslaved brethren. As
the son of Pharoahs daughter, pleasure,
wealth, and power opened their arms to him.
His brethren even would have exhorted him to keep his high post, that he
might be able thence to succour them.
And many in our own day would have bade him follow
the guidance of Gods providence.
But that would not have been the path of faith. To keep his place as an Egyptian, he must
have become an idolater. He
relinquished, then, the hopes of the flesh, to join himself with the people of God, though he saw that so to choose
would be to choose suffering, reproach, and peril. He took on himself the
reproach of Christ; probably as owning himself one of the
circumcised, who was looking for the promises made to Messiah. The people of God were also the people of the
Christ.
How could he make such a
strange choice? Where was the wisdom,
the sense of such a proceeding?
He was looking away
at the reward. He
surrendered the present, and the seen, in hopes of the future, and the promises
of God to the men of faith. Here,
Christian, thrice within a few verses, the principle of seeking Gods reward is
set before us. (1) Cast not away your confidence; which hath great recompense of
reward (Heb. 10: 35). (2) God becomes the
rewarder of those that diligently seek Him (11: 6). (3)
And, how was Moses honoured, who had respect unto the recompense of
reward? The honour from God was only the
interest;
the principle
is yet to come!
Here, then, was a new appeal of God to the suffering
Hebrew Christians. Even if you could
suffer yourselves from the reproach of Christ, and the various sufferings
entailed on the people of God, do not do so.
Like Moses, refuse to seek the present.
the reproach of the Christ is now
stronger than it was then. The cross
of the Christ has called down scorn and trouble on His people. But the proof that Christians are the people
of God, and one day to be
rewarded, in a dispensation expressly provided for the purpose of reward, is
clearer far than it was then. Do you
admire Moses? Imitate him! Look away from present loss to future reward! That shall more than requite the roughness of
the road! Through many troubles we must enter the
* *
* * *
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249. PAULS SPIRITUAL CIRCUS
Paul, when writing these words [Phil. 3: 11-14], was probably a prisoner on the Palatine Hill at
The Apostle has a spiritual Circus of his own. He too is a charioteer. He presses eagerly onward to the mark. He also
has a prize to gain the palm-branch of
Victory from the hand of Christ.
But, before his conversion, when he was furiously
racing onward in his mad career of persecution, he was suddenly arrested by
Christ; his car was upset; he was flung prostrate on the ground
He was apprehended and laid
hold on by Christ, in order that he himself might
apprehend and lay hold on the prize
which Christ gives. Thenceforth he is a pursuer
in the Christian Circus; he forgets what he has left behind, and he is
constantly stretching himself forward to what is before. The Apostle compares himself to an eager
charioteer hanging over his horses, and urging them on to the goal; and he pursues onward after the mark in order to win the prize
of his heavenly calling.
The Victory in the Circus was determined by the place
gained by the charioteer after going a certain number of heats round the ends
and along the side of the Spina (or low wall which was the
back-bone of the course). In the Roman
Circus the Victor descended from his car at the end of the race, and mounted
the Spina,
and there received his prize.*
WORDSWORTH.
* Now, Phil. 3: 11, and 14, shew that our PRIZE
is the First Resurrection, described in Rev. 20: 4-6; and all the glories
contingent thereon. In 1 Cor. 15: 50, again, the
Apostle clearly is speaking of the inheritors of the Kingdom of God and
the glories attending their resurrection, or rapture; not by any means of every
and any believer: many alas! are wicked, slothful, and worldly Christians who
will be dismissed with shame from the Judgment-seat of Christ, and some be cast
into the outer darkness for the time appointed, where will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth, Matt. 24: 48-51; 25: 30;
1 John 2: 28; Luke 6: 46-49. C. S. UTTING.
* *
* * *
* *
250. THREE ATTACKS
The devil first tries to defeat us doctrinally; but brethren,
when, by the grace of God, the devil cannot defeat us doctrinally, then he
comes through pride. This is where most
men lose out. When by the grace of God
we are doctrinally sound, then the devil makes us proud of that. For myself, I would rather have a brother who
had been overcome by a sin, but had made his way back to God, than a brother
who is so spiritually proud God cannot use him.
If we are doctrinally sound, and not affected by spiritual pride, then
the devil tries to attack us morally, and make us lose our testimony by a moral
failure. Doctrine, spiritual pride,
moral failure Satans three avenues of attack.
F. J. BACH.
* *
* * *
* *
251. MARTYRS
This was the farewell hymn sung at the wedding of Mr.
and Mrs. Marcus Whitman before leaving
Yes, my
All thy scenes I love them well;
Friends, connections, happy country,
Can I bid you all farewell?
Home, thy joys are passing lovely,
Joys no stranger heart can tell;
Happy Home! tis sure I love thee!
Can I, can I say Farewell?
Can I have thee
Far in heathen lands to dwell?
Yes, in deserts let me labour;
On the mountains let me tell
How He died, the blessed Saviour,
To redeem a world from hell.
Let me hasten
Far in heathen lands to dwell.
Later, both were
massacred.
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* * *
* *
252.
Historically the paganism in Catholicism reached it
from
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* *
253. ANTICHRISTS
There seems to be another antichrist on the
horizon. Some 160 years ago, says Mr. A. R. Pittway (Life of Faith, Nov. 7, 1945), there arose
in
* *
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* * *
254. DESPAIR
The Atheist is heading for despair, and we know no
more striking modern case than G. H.
Wells. Mr. Wells has been described
as a prophet of almost uncanny accuracy about the
development of modern civilization.
His latest work is little less than a revelation, rightly entitled Mind At The End Of Its Tether. We quote a few sentences, Our universe is not merely bankrupt; there remains no
dividend at all; it has not simply liquidated; it is going clean out of
existence, leaving not a wrack behind.
The attempt to trace a pattern of any sort is absolutely futile. The end of everything we call life is close
at hand and cannot be evaded. There is
no way out or round or through the impasse.
It is the end. It is a
vivid forecast of the coming pessimism:- men fainting
for fear, and of expectation of the things which are coming on the world
(Luke 21: 25).
* *
* * *
* *
255. ADVENT
The only real optimists are the watchers who see the
dawn in the midnight. Men see not the bright light which is in the clouds (Job. 37: 21), but the watchful Christian does.
* *
* * *
* *
256. DISCLOSE ALL TRUTHS
The ideal of God for every servant of His is a heart
that absorbs His whole truth, and a mind that passes on to others all
the truths that it knows. This divine
ideal is difficult and costly, as every minister knows; but the Holy Spirit is
behind it with infinite power. At
D. M. PANTON. (From
the authors writing: Food For Manhood.)
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* * *
* *
257. LET US PRESS ON
There are times in the lives of us all when we stubble
and fall and are defiled by dirt and cut and gashed and hurt. Yet we are only beaten if we give up and lie
down hopeless and helpless. No matter
how far the fall nor how dreadful the failure there is only one thing to do [if we want to win the Prize
(Phil. 3: 13)]
get up and go on and on and on and never, ever quit!
The start is important, but its the Finish that
wins!
The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews had seen the
races at the great Olympic Games, and still his instructions about the race of life
ring down to us through the mist of the years:
Wherefore, seeing we also are
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every
weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience [perseverance] the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the
author and finisher of our faith.
SAMUEL SCOVILLE.
* *
* * *
* *
258. HEALING
Miraculous healing is not necessarily divine. Spiritualism has healing mediums of
world-wide celebrity: the woman whom Satan bound for eighteen years (Luke 13: 16) he could unbind in a moment, and a
demonic can become sane in an instant (Mark 5: 15)
by the mere departure of the demons. Mr. Jonathan Lindell of
* *
* * *
* *
259. CURES
Mr. Lindell continues:- Other mediums, through the spirits with whom they are in
league, have power to heal all manner of disease, - and they really do! The patient comes to pay his worship and his
fees and then the medium goes into his worship. He chants, trembles, shakes, calls out, goes
into a trance, and then he sends on the spirit to the patient who, in like
manner, gets possessed. When the whole
thing is over the patient gets up perfectly well and goes home! There is one such specialist in our
village. There are half a dozen in
Sukhia. They say that God heals, and
they think that the miracles of the Lord Jesus were nothing special that he
was but a medium of Gods power as theirs are; by God meaning their own temple idol god.
* *
* * *
* *
260. DEAD
I remember once seeing an old man, I suppose he must
have been seventy or eighty years of age; and I asked him how old he was he
looked at me for a time, and faltered in his voice, the tears trickling down
his cheeks; says he, I am two years old. Two years old? Ah, sir,
says he, till a little time ago I lived the life of a
dead man; and I never knew what life was till I met with the life which is hid with Christ in God.
ROWLAND HILL.
*
* * *
* * *
261. THE WAKING
Now comes the crash of Advent, with its earthquake
shock, bursting all locks and betraying all secrets. But at midnight
midnight is the point of junction between two separate days, a division of
epochs there is a cry apparently from the
Lords attendant angels Behold the bridegroom! Come ye forth to meet him. The virgins had come
forth before, from the world: now they come
forth, from the tomb [and from Hades (Matt. 16: 18. cf. Luke 16: 23; Rev. 6: 9-11; Phil. 3: 11)]. As all
arise at once, all are believers: for the rest of
the dead lived not until the thousand years should be finished (Rev. 20: 5): it is the axiom of Scripture that the
wicked and the holy do not rise together.
All the lamps had gone on burning through the night
but now the
foolish virgins discover their disastrous mistake. Our lamps,
they cry, are going out (R.V.): not gone
out, for the virgins do not ask for kindling but for oil. It is the same word as is used (1 Thess. 5: 19) for the quenching of the
Spirit. They had thought that they would
shine forth before the Lord by regenerating grace alone: now shocked
into wisdom, they are wise they are not called foolish after arising too
late: nor an hour, nor a minute, remains for readiness. He is here. In that day no man can protect us from the
revelation of our own works; not because he will not, but because he cannot. And they that were READY went in with him the
Bridegroom to the marriage feast.
* *
* * *
* *
262. PROPHECY
We have the word of prophecy, made more sure,
whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a lamp shining in a dark place
(2 Pet. 1: 19). Our
steadfastness in an unstable age, depends on this. Our preservation from stumbling depends on
this. Our proper insight into the real
condition of the world and the church depends on this: for we cannot rightly
read the signs of the times without this.
We are sure to call good evil, and evil good without this and we are
sure to go wrong in our plans of Christian work whether at home or abroad
without this. The light of prophecy
enables us to see afar off. It makes us
keen-sighted to all that is around us, enabling us to look under the surface of
events and discern their real meaning and bearing and results.
THE PROPHETIC NEWS.
* *
* * *
* *
263. ANXIETY
Be careful for nothing; but
in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be
made known unto God (Phil. 4: 6). Do we do fail to be anxious for nothing, and
to being everything by prayer and supplication before God? We may bring nine difficulties out of ten to
Him, and try to manage the tenth ourselves, and that one little difficulty,
like a small leak that runs the vessel dry, is fatal to the whole. Like a small breach in a city wall, it gives
entrance to the power of the foe. But if we fulfil the conditions, He is
certainly faithful, and instead of our having to keep our hearts and minds
our affections and thoughts we find them kept for us. The peace which we can neither make nor keep
will itself, as a garrison, keep and protect us, and the cares and worries will
strive to enter in vain.
* *
* * *
* *
264. WATCHFULNESS
We are left in no manner of doubt by our Lord as to what
the whole purpose of the parable [of the Ten
Virgins] is, its overwhelming stress and
strain. Watch therefore,
for ye know not the day nor the hour: not, wake to life by conversion;
but, watch, as those already wide awake.
All the Virgins begin prepared, but all do not end prepared; and nothing
is so deadly as the easy doctrine that all will somehow come right, apart from
urgent warning and constant watching.
The sacred oil of sanctity can be got, for keeping a blazing lamp and a
radiant light: but without constant watchfulness, prudent foresight, incessant
guarding against danger and surprise, it will become the dying throb of an
exhausted motor. Every kind and degree of Christian goodness is an energy of
Christian vigilance (Greswell). Keep the oil-stores replenished: keep the
soul brightly burning: grace consumes itself in burning, but He giveth more grace. The wisdom of the child of God consists in
readiness; and readiness can only be maintained by constant grace.
D. M. PANTON.
* *
* * *
* *
265.
It is wonderful how some of the greatest British
leaders have held the truth. Gladstone said:- If I am asked what
is the remedy for the deeper sorrows of the human heart, what a man should
chiefly look to in progress through life as the power that is to sustain him
under trials and enable him manfully to confront his afflictions, I must point
to something which in a well-known hymn is called, The Old, Old Story, told
in an old, old Book, and taught with an old, old teaching, which is the
greatest and best gift ever given to mankind.
My only hope for the world is in
bringing the human mind into contact with Divine Revelation.
* *
* * *
* *
266. RIGHTEOUSNESS
Take heed not to do YOUR righteousness before men, with a
view to be seen by them: otherwise ye have no reward with your Father who is in
heaven.
Critics are in general persuaded that we should read righteousness, instead of alms
in this verse. The weight of evidence is
greatly in its favour.
Thus read, these words are a general principle,
applying to three cases of ALMS, PRAYER, and FASTING.
The righteousness here spoken of is not the imputed
righteousness which is received by faith. It is the righteousness which is to be done
by the person possessed of imputed righteousness. It answers, therefore, nearly to good works.
Thus Jesus says Let your light so shine
before men, that they may see your good works (v.
16). And again Suffer it be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness
(3: 15).
He dispersed abroad, he gave to the poor, his righteousness
remaineth forever (2 Cor. 9: 7-9). Our Lord appears to be now referring to His
previous statement Except YOUR righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and
Pharisees, YE shall in no case ENTER INTO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
ROBERT GOVETT :- (on
The Sermon on the Mount, Matt 6: 1)
* *
* * *
* *
267. SALVATION BY WORKS
One summary of world religions is decisive. Christianity and all other religions are in
deadly antagonism on the way of [eternal] salvation.
The worlds religion is invariably salvation through our own work:
Gods revelation is salvation through the work of Another. Salvation, according to Buddah, resides in eight fundamentals:- right belief, right
aspiration, right speech, right conduct, right means of livelihood, right
endeavour, right memory, and right meditation.
Salvation, according to Mohammed,
resides in belief in God and in himself, coupled with prayer, almsgiving,
washings and fastings:- that is, salvation is what we can do for God, not what
God has done for us. Salvation,
according to Confucius, is not from
God: prayer, he says, is unnecessary, because man is endowed with goodness at
birth, and every blessing that Heaven can give is solely a reward of human
effort.* [* Confucianism and Taouism, p. 78.] Now Gods answer to all this is
frank and decisive. If there had been a law given which could make alive, verily
righteousness would have been of the law (Gal.
3: 21): but if righteousness is through the
law, then
Christ died for nought (Gal. 2: 21).
* *
* * *
* *
268. PACIFICISM
The New Testament records the sermon on the mount as
the law for the Christian; it is a interims-ethic for the period
between the first and second advents of Christ and assumes that the Christian
community will be the little flock which
Christ said it would be. Quite as
decisively the New Testament gives the law for the State in the words of Romans 13: 1-7; that is to say, the State may
rightly use force, and this may mean war.
The conflict between the Christians duty in obedience to the Sermon on
the Mount and his duty was solved by a number of men in the last way by their
engaging in non-combatant duties.
Our Lords teaching in Matthew
13 shows clearly enough that the whole world will NOT be converted to the Christian Faith.: When
the Son of man cometh shall He find faith on the earth? The early Christians had to solve the same
dilemma which confronts us as a minority in a hostile world; some served in the
legions of
FRANK V. MILDRED.
* *
* * *
* *
269. WORLD-WIDE PERSECUTION
The time is coming when the true believers everywhere
shall be hated because of their identity with the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Then
they shall deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: any ye shall be
hated of all nations for my names
sake, said Jesus [to His disciples] (Matt. 24: 9). The present growing hostility against true
Christianity [and our true interpretation of
prophetic scripture] foreshadows the time when
anti-Christ forces that are in the world shall seek to destroy all believers of
the one Faith.
The Bride of Christ will
escape the snare through Rapture, but foolish virgins LEFT on the earth and others who will refuse to worship the Beast
or his image shall be killed (Matt. 25: 1-12; Rev.
6: 9; 13: 7). As awful as it is
to suffer torture and martyrdom, its wholesome purifying effect upon the soul
has long been recognized. The revival
broken out in parts of the South has been directly attributed to
persecution. Even so, in the coming
tribulation, many shall be purified and made white and
tried (Dan. 11: 33-35; 12: 10)
because of persecution. How much better
it would be, however, for people to purify themselves now that THEY MAY BE COUNTED WORTHY TO
ESCAPE ALL THESE THINGS THAT SHALL COME TO
PASS, and thus be raptured into the presence of Christ.
THE MIDNIGHT CRY.
* *
* * *
* *
270.
The writer (J.
C. Van Gelderen) in The Jewish Missionary Magazine quotes the only official
statement ever issued by a Church that all
* *
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* *
271. OUR BEST
Never do less than your best. Napoleon
said,- Nothing is done, if anything is left undone;
and it is this thoroughness which won him his battles. In moments of weariness and depression tears
may fill our eyes because of the poverty of our work for Christ: remember, God
never asks us to do more than our best: no burning Seraph beneath the Throne
can surpass his best. Therefore as God
is watching, as opportunities are flying, as night is coming, whatsoever your
hands find to do, do it with your might..
It will be a joy for all eternity if we can say, - I did my best. When Robert
Chapman, the friend of George Muller, was asked, - Would you not advise young Christians to do something for the Lord? No, was the
reply, I should advise them to do everything for the
Lord.
* *
* * *
* *
272. THE BIBLE
Mr. Moody once said:- I am glad there is a depth in the Bible I know nothing
about; that there is a height there I cannot climb to if I should live to be as
old as Methuselah: I venture to say, if I should live for ages on the earth I
would only have touched its surface. I
pity the man who knows all the Bible, for it is a pretty good sign he doesnt
know himself.
* *
* * *
* *
273. SPEED
The words of Daniel 12: 4
(as Prophetic Monthly said) leaped
millenniums to focus on latter-day running to and fro,
but our translators (1611) could not comprehend the meaning of the Hebrew. Gesenius
later commented: They mean to go hither and thither in
great haste. He caught
the idea of speed. A modern Hebrew
scholar says the original says: running like a shot as well as hither and yon. Not until our day could such words be
understood.
* *
* * *
* *
274. THE REDEMPTION OF THE ANIMAL WORLD
The redemption of the animal world will come as a
result of the reinstatement of man. The
animal creation was subjected to the fall unwillingly and will receive a regeneration in the coming glorious new age. Before the fall animals were not ferocious
but were docile and subject to the tender care of un-fallen man, but after the
fall the nature of Satan was implanted within them. Their present plight is described by
Paul. For the
earnest expectation of the creature
waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the
creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him
who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of
corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until
now. And not only they, but we
ourselves, also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves
groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our
body (Romans 8: 19-23). The present nature of the creature will
undergo a radical change, for Isaiah says,
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard
shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling
together; and a little child shall lead them.
And the cow and the bear shall feed; and their young ones shall lie down
together: and the lion shall eat straw like an ox. And the suckling child shall put his hand on
the crockatrice den. They shall not
hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain (Isa.
11: 6-9).
Wm. F. BEIRNES.
* *
* * *
* *
275. LITERATURE
The spate of non-Christian literature now flooding the
world recalls Luthers words:- The multitude of books is becoming a great evil. There is no measure or limit to the fever of
writing. Everyone must be an author,
some out of vanity to acquire celebrity and rise up a name and others for the
sake of gain. The Bible is now being buried under so many commentaries about it that
the text is nothing regarded. I
could wish that all my books were buried nine ells deep in the ground if so
that people would read the Bible for themselves.
* *
* * *
* *
276. THE BEAUTIFUL LIFE
A life need not to be great to be beautiful. There may be as much beauty in a tiny flower
as in a majestic tree, in a little gem as in a great jewel. A life may be very lovely and yet be
insignificant in the worlds eyes. A
beautiful life is one that fulfils its mission in this world, is that what God made it to be, and does
what God made it to do. Those with
only commonplace gifts are in danger of thinking that they cannot live a
beautiful life, cannot be a blessing in this world. But the smallest life that fills its place
well is far lovelier in Gods sight than the largest and most splendidly
gifted, that yet fails of its divine mission.
Far better
in its place the lowliest bird
Should sing aright to Him the lowliest song,
That that a seraph strayed should take the word
And sing His glory wrong.
BITS OF PASTURE.
* *
* * *
* *
277. I KNOW NOTHING OF
My profession of faith is simply
that I know nothing of a Christ Who is presented to us in a human book
containing errors, but know only a Christ presented in a divine book, the
Bible, which is true from beginning to end.
I know nothing of a Christ Who possibly was and probably was not born of
a virgin, but only a Christ Who was truly conceived by the Holy Ghost and born
of the Virgin Mary. I know nothing of a
Christ Who possibly did and possibly did not work miracles, but know only a
Christ Who said to the wind and the waves with the sovereign voice of the Maker
and Ruler of all nature, Peace, be still. I know nothing of
a Christ Who took upon Himself the just punishment of my sins, and died there
in my stead to make me right with a holy God.
Dr. MACHEN.
* *
* *
* * *
278. SOIL AND FRUIT
With none of these three
kinds of soil - [in The Parable of the Sower] - can the Lord be pleased, for they have brought forth no
fruit. As there was no fruit, there can
be no entrance into the Kingdom.
So, the Devil takes the first seed, the flesh takes the second seed, and the world takes the third seed, leaving only one to delight the heart
of the Lord He that receiveth seed into the good ground
is he that heareth the word -
[of the kingdom] - and understandeth it; which also beareth
fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundred fold, some sixty, and some thirty. They were regenerate like the others but
they were not content with anything less than a life lived wholly for God. In the words of Luke, those on the good ground are they, which in an
honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it (Luke 8: 15). (That is, holds it so that it doesnt run away, D. M. Panton.). There was not a prejudice against the word,
but the willing reception of it for Christs sake. As a result they bring forth a magnificent
yield of the fruit of the Spirit which is, Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance (Gal. 5: 22, 23).
GORDON CHIVERS.
* *
* *
* * *
279. LET US THEREFORE MAKE EVERY
EFFORT TO ENTER THAT REST
Now in Hebrews 4: 9
(margin) this 1,000-year period of Rest is called a sabbatismos, that is, a
sabbath or seventh, with its implication of six preceding days, not
literal days or years, but millenni, completing mans week of toil and
strife and strike, the week of human history, before the Sabbath Day of God. To enter this Rest of Glory not a gift, but
a prize or reward, from which the disobedient, as
One day is with the Lord as 1,000 years with us; the
Day of God is our morrow for which we labour in this vital hour in His
vineyard: and the two Denarii (2 D, as we still say) of the Good Samaritan
represent sustenance and provision for the two millennial days before He comes
again (Luke 10: 35; Deut. 30: 20b; John 1: 4).
We may therefore affirm that Christ will be returning
and reigning with His princely companions overcomers (Isa. 31: 1; Rev. 3: 21) by the end of mans sixth day - [i.e., After two days
two thousand years from His first advent - he will
revive us (Israel); on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his
presence (Hosea 6: 2, N.I.V.).]
A. G. TILNEY.
* *
* * *
* * *
280. COST
When God calls a man,
says Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a fearless
German preacher, He bids him come and die. A few years later Bonhoeffer died in a Nazi
concentration camp.
* *
* * *
* *
281. THE ART OF SELF DEFENCE
Do you think it would be
wrong for me to learn the noble art of self-defence a religiously
inclined young man inquired of his pastor.
Certainly not,
answered the minister. I learned it in youth myself, and I found it of great value
during my life. Indeed, sir, did you learn the Old English system. Solomons system? Yes, you will find it laid down in the first verse
of the fifteenth chapter of Proverbs.
A
soft answer turneth away wrath. It is the best system which I know.
GRACE AND GLORY.
* *
* * *
* *
282. MINISTERIAL HUMILITY
Christian leadership is not the ability to over-rule
mans wills, but the power to influence their hearts and minds and educate
their consciences that matters. Our
object is to get them to aim at the highest in thought and feeling and
conduct. A Christian minister,
therefore, must draw, not drive. To do
so he has to gain and retain the confidence of his people. How can he do this if he is set on his own
way, and put out when opposed? How can
he be worthy of trust if he is self-centered and self-assertive?
Humility means that a man has found his place, first
in relation to God, and then, as a consequence, in relation to men. When ones centre is rightly fixed, the
circumference of life can be firmly drawn; there need be no bulges.
The humble man regards his talents as a gift or a
loan, if you like and uses them for God, in the service of his fellows. Whether they are five, or two, or one, his
concern is to develop and use them to the full.
He does not envy more brilliant men, nor look down on those with less
ability. Humility saves him from envy
and jealously on the one side, and scorn on the other; it saves him too from
mock modesty. Nothing sets a man free like true
humility, for humility means forgetfulness of self.
Think of Peter big, boisterous, blustering and
lovable a born leader and knowing it.
Can you think of anything he needed more than humility? How sure he was of himself he had made the
great sacrifice, his loyalty was beyond question, his courage could be counted
on. Think of him correcting his Master
and calling down the stern rebuke he so richly deserved. Yes, he badly lacked humility. Humility would have saved him from the
temptation which led to his fall. What a
grand recovery he made! In later life,
having painfully learned his lesson and become the Man of Rock, he wrote:- You must all put on the apron of humility to serve one
another (1 Pet. 5: 5: Moffatt). Peter could never forget the Upper Room and
the Master, girded with a towel, washing his feet. The humility of greatness was exemplified
there.
And nothing protects a man like humility. It clothes
the soul in spiritual chain-armour; thus slights, insults, abuse,
misinterpretation, and angry opposition never cut deep enough to embitter the
soul. So the truly humble can combine
sweetness with strength.
Because he is conscious of the working of the Spirit
of God, there is no lazy acquiescence in
things as they are, and no feverish activity to get things changed. Delivered from self-consciousness he does not
seek the limelight, and yet does not shrink from it. If he
has to engage in controversy, he is not out to score over his opponent; he
states the truth as he sees it, fights with a clean weapon, is not depressed by
failure, and does not gloat over success.
If he is criticised he considers
whether the criticism is true; if he is opposed he seeks the reason for the
opposition, and tries to see how far the other man is right.
Finally, consider this: that humility is, in the true
sense, evolutionary: Blessed are the humble,
for they shall inherit the earth
(Matt. 5: 5: Moffatt). That is the prophetic utterance of deep
insight. If it is true it follows that the humble are the real leaders of mankind;
they are in line with the Law of life stated by Jesus Christ. The influence of their example will outshine
and outlast that of all others. Serving one another in Love, they will live
together in Peace; Co-operation will have taken the place of Conflict.
THE CHRISTIAN WORLD.
* *
* * * *
*
283. TEACH US TO PRAY.
Lord, teach us to pray
is perhaps the best prayer any of us can offer, for if we really know how to
pray, the secret will solve every problem and bring relief from every trying
situation. God teaches us to pray by the
very trials that seem too great for us to bear.
Prayer is a real spiritual process, the birth-pangs of a new creation,
the soul travail out of which comes some great and gracious thing born out of
the Holy Ghost. Our best prayers are
often inarticulate, mysterious, and only vaguely understood even by us. We know not what to
pray for as we ought, but the Spirit
himself helpeth our infirmities and maketh intercession for us with groanings
which cannot be uttered.
Often when our heart is crushed with anguish, and our case seems really
lost, we are just ready to emerge into the light of some new and glorious
day. Oftentimes our best prayer is just
to yield ourselves to the burden which is depressing and oppressing us, and cry,
Lord, I do not understand, but I take
all that Thou art asking and pray in blindness and confidence Thy will be done.
A. B. SIMPSON.
* *
* * *
* *
284. DIVORCE.
The Jews pressed the Lord with a probing question. Why then did Moses
command to give a bill of divorcement?
Our Lord answers: Moses, for your hardness of
heart choosing the lesser of two evils, and saving the wife from
possible murder suffered you he never commanded
it to put away your wives: but from the beginning IT WAS NOT SO divorce
never entered into the design of God.
Here is an absolute abrogation of the Law of Moses: here is our Lord
obviously legislating for His new and heavenly people, the Church: here is the
mightier Lawgiver rescinding, even for the whole world, all exceptions and
exemptions of Gods primal law of marriage.
For what is our Lords tremendous new enunciation? I say unto you both believer and unbeliever, both
Church and world, were gathered before Him WHOSOEVER of all men everywhere,
but much more of those within the Church of Christ shall
put away his wife, except for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth
adultery will appear before the bar of God, whatever civil or
ecclesiastical law may have sanctioned the divorce, as ADULTERERS. So the Holy
Spirit also through Paul:- If, while the husband
liveth, she is joined to another man, she shall be called an ADULTERESS (Rom. 7: 3).
Since marriage is a God-created union, what God
hath joined together, only God can dissolve; and on two grounds only
does God dissolve marriage fornication and death; for in both of these the
fleshly union is dissolved, and the marriage ceases. So our Lord makes one exception: Whosoever shall put away his wife, except for fornication,
committeth adultery: other sins may be grave, but they do not destroy
the marriage itself: fornication is not so much a ground of divorce, as it is
divorce itself a dissolution of the marriage tie, a death of the bond, a separation
as complete as the marriage was a union.
D. M. PANTON.
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* * *
* *
285. DIABOLIC INVENTIONS.
The modern wedlock of science and iniquity is
appalling. Two drugs, says Review of
World Affairs (Feb. 1949), are used by the Soviet police.
(1) Actedron:
The prisoner is first given highly salted fish as sole diet for several days
with little or nothing to drink. When
the point of extreme desperation is reached, drink, either water or soup, is
then offered, and the victim is thankful in extreme degrees. The liquid contains Actedron.
This drug affects the nerves. The first day there is a feeling of courage
and resistance. Then follows a splitting
headache and dizziness. Panic is the
next stage. The last and most fearful
stage is a sense of complete voidness of inability to resist suggestions from
others and, eventually, entire moral collapse.
(2) Scopomorphine:
This is a mixture of Scopolamine and morphine.
It reduces the victim to a kind of dream world. The brain is drugged. The processes of the mind become a mixture of
contradictory pictures. All orientation
is lost; all will-power goes.
It would be difficult to imagine inventions more
spiritually and morally diabolic. All
fresh information presses home the prayer:- Watch ye
at every season, making supplication, that ye may prevail to escape all these
things that shall come to pass, and be set [Greek] before the Son of man (Luke
11: 36, R.V.)
* *
* * *
* *
286. THE WARNING.
So then, since
escape is thus conditional on conduct, our Lord drops an exactly
correspondent warning. If thou shalt not watch again it is Second Advent
truth, with a life squared to it, which is the deciding factor I will come (arrive) as a
thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon
(arrive over) thee (Rev.
3: 3): the Parousia will have begun, and the Angel, because unrapt, be
wholly ignorant of the Saviours arrival.
Here is the overthrow of the teaching that all the Church will escape
the Tribulation: the unwatchful child of God is certain to be caught in the whirlpool. God has decreed neither our deliverance nor
our overthrow, for the threat, like the promise, is sharply conditional. If the unwatchfulness ceases, so does the
danger: God appointed us not unto wrath
(1 Thess. 5: 9): only if the salt have lost
its savour, like the dead Sardian Angel, will
it be trodden under the foot of men. For
if
D. M. PANTON.
* *
* * *
* *
287. THE COMMAND.
Thus out of the
promise, and the warning, springs the inevitable command. Watch ye at every
season, praying that - so that, in order that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass upon the earth
- the Great Tribulation is in the immediate context and
to stand (be set) before the Son of man (Luke
21: 36). What is the
worthiness? (1) Not Christs
worthiness, imputed to us on faith: for that we have already; and all believers
have it, whether watchful or not, and to pray for what we already possess is
unbelief. This is a worthiness
towards which, and for which, we have still to pray; and that always, until the
End: watch and pray always. After an address in
*
* * *
* * *
287B.
A SIXTEENTH CENTURY MARTYR
For many years, in fact, forty three, Isaac Homel served as preacher and
shepherd of Protestant flocks in the South of France a zealous teacher of
Gods truth. Homel was cast into the
castle dungeon at Tournon with others and sentenced to the wheel.
Do you know what that meant? It meant being tied with cords to a cart
wheel, with arms and legs spread in a
He went to death with such a resolute air as to
astonish judges and onlookers hands clasped, eyes raised to Heaven, praying
to God in a loud voice.
Along the way he recited Psalm
16; on the scaffold, Psalm 51; at the
end a verse or two from Psalm 50. Before he mounted the scaffold the presiding
judge approached him and offered him pardon if he would but change his
religion. He refused with the same
firmness.
Then he climbed the ladder to the scaffold,
barefoot. He looked about where they
were going to break him, and said, Here is where I
will countersign with blood the truths that I have preached. Raising his voice so that all about the Place
du Gravier might hear him, even those at the top of the buildings around, he
cried out:-
No doubt there are many
honest people here, some even of my own faith, who can witness that I die in
the religion in which I was born and which I believe the sole one bearing
salvation. Forty-three years I have
preached it as the pure and only truth contained in Scripture. I take God to witness, and that with all my
heart, that it is He who has given me to profess and preach the truths of His
Holy Gospel, and that it is He who has been pleased to call me to witness to it
with my blood. True, I have not fulfilled
this holy ministry as I should and as it deserved. Nevertheless I feel at rest in my conscience,
certain that I have never taught anything but the Word of God.
I exhort those of my
brethren who now listen to me never to abandon the faith, either from fear or
for any consideration whatever.
It is that in which himself under the ropes by which they were to be
bound.
The first blow of the bar which fell on him was so
heavy that blood spurted out and the bones of his arm on which it fell were
wholly broken. The poor man cried out: Pity, O God! Wilt
Thou not give me strength to endure?
Yes, Lord, I know Thou wilt.
After that he cried no more, but prayed with great vehemence that God
for the love of Jesus would pardon him.
He was given thirty or forty blows on arms, legs,
belly, neck. They would not kill him
instantly. He cried to the presiding
judge, who was there, Have mercy on my poor family. Then appealing to God: Come now and take my soul.
The time is at hand, he sighed, Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit, and expired.
The head of the martyr was exposed at Chalancon, in a
place no friend could redeem it, however he tried. His body was guarded day and night by troops
at Beauchastel for six weeks. When the
soldiery left, friends came by night and gave it an honourable burial. Even to the smallest bone it had been
broken. The martyr was sixty-two years
of age.
The Sunday School
Times.
*
* * *
* * *
288. GOLDEN.
But beyond lies the Golden Age. Tennyson,
in the lovely imagining of a poet, expresses it thus:-
Earth at last a warless
world, a single race, a single tongue
I have seen her far away for it is not
earth as yet so young?
Every tiger madness muzzled, every serpent
passion killd,
Every grim ravine a garden, every blazing
desert tilld;
Robed in universal harvest up to either
pole she smiles,
Universal ocean softly washing all her
warless isles.
THEN SHALL THE RIGHTEOUS SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN IN THE KINGDOM OF THEIR FATHER
(Matt. 13: 43).
* *
* * *
* *
289. FAITH IN THE FIRE
A flaming fire out of control his beloved church and
the home of practically all his parish people destroyed a little later, the
death of his wife and daughter then his own body struck by a dreaded paralysis
and, on top of that failing eyesight!
Lying upon his bed of torturing pain and
fast-gathering blindness, mourning loss of loved ones, his church, and much of
his property, Pastor Schmolke a
German minister still held on in faith and hope to the Lord he knew and loved
and served.
In the midst of such a desolate scene, his faith
though tried by fire, brought forth the beautiful, touching words of the
following song.
My Jesus, as Thou wilt,
Oh, let Thy will be mine;
Into Thy hand of love
My all I now resign.
Through sorrow or through joy,
Conduct me as Thine own,
And help me still to say,
My Lord, Thy will be done.
My Jesus, as Thou wilt,
Though seen through many a tear,
Let not my star of hope
Grow dim or disappear.
Since Thou so oft has wept
And sorrowed all alone,
If I must weep with Thee,
My Lord Thy will be done.
My Jesus as Thou wilt,
All shall be well with me;
Each changing future scene
I gladly trust to Thee.
Straight to my Home above,
I travel calmly on;
And say in life and death,
My Lord, Thy will be done.
THE GOSPEL HERALD.
*
* * *
* * *
290. LOVE
In the early days of Christianity there lived a
beautiful young Roman girl named Daria. There were many men who paid homage to her
beauty, and made professions of a boundless attachment to her; but their
devotion kindled no answering flame within her breast. And one day she declared that she would never
truly give her heart until she found one who loved her so well as actually to
die for her. Half lightly the words were
spoken, but one day she heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and learned of One who
had loved her with an everlasting love and had died for her. And Daria yielded her heart to this peerless
Lover forever. Her name occupies an
honoured place on the roll of Christian martyrs. And it
is the same appeal that is sounding forth to-day.
THE
* *
* * *
* *
291. BLIND
It is marvellous what a blind evangelist can
achieve. Two poverty-stricked,
illiterate men, one blind and the other at deaths door, came to a mission
hospital in
THE LIFE OF FAITH.
* *
* * *
* *
292. TREASURE
In one of the art galleries of
* *
* * *
* *
293. THE LOST MILLIONS.
If any man see his brother sin a sin which
is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin
not unto death (John 5: 16). To me this is the greatest promise in the
Bible. It is the greatest Hallelujah
shout, not of a pampered, luxury-surrounded, easy-situated, trouble-avoiding,
difficulty-escaping child of God who never knew the burning scourges and
vicissitudes of a contrary fate, but of a battle-scarred warrior of the
Faith. John the Apostle and his brethren
were in the midst of the bitterest persecution that the
From almost every corner of the Roman Empire there
arose to heaven the sobbing, blood-choked cry of those who were sealing their
witness with their lives, yet in the face of all that darkness, destruction,
distress, John could lift his hands to heaven and cry for the ages, If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death,
he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death.
There is the mightiest promise, the mightiest
challenge, the mightiest appeal, the mightiest constraint to intercessory
prayer. It is shocking to notice and to
know that intercession is the terribly missing note in all our Christian
activities. Yet it is more necessary
to-day than it ever was.
I believe in my soul that, Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen
for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession
(Psalm 2: 8) is almost as much of a promise to us
as it is to the Lord Jesus Christ. In His Name, for His sake, by His
authority, through His power, on our faces in intercession, we may claim
this word of God as definitely as did the Apostolic band. By it they wrought righteousness, stopped the
mouths of lions, changed the course of empires.
We need conviction, pungent, burning, urgent, fiery,
driving, impelling, constraining conviction.
It will convict each of us of the needs of a lost world, of men, women,
children, by the multiplied myriad, sin-dead multitudes, goose-stepping on the
road to hell, dancing on to eternal destruction, in a bad, sad, and dead
oblivion of the increasing, blinding, maddening tempo of Satans music.
It will convict us of the killingly tragic coldness of
so heart-breaking many of our people, of their blighting indifference, their
callous concern to the things of God and eternity, their totally compassionless
disregard of the destiny of the lost and perishing about them. Oh brethren, it seems to me that my own poor
heart will burst with the agony of the conviction of the back-slidden condition
of so many of our church members. Judge
ye then what a heart-break they must be to the dear Saviour!
It will convict us of our own inescapable,
unassignable responsibility in all this.
We dare not, we cannot, we must not be priests, Levites, passing the
wounded wayfarer by. We must be
Samaritans stopping to apply the oil and wine of our intercessory oblations to
these souls, these wounds, these bruises, these putrefactions.
We must pay with the coin of our intercessory tears
for the hospitality of Gods grace extended to these perishing sinners, to
these drifting derelicts. We must be the
Elishas stretching our burning selves upon the cold corpses of Satans making
so that the flesh of them by the surging power of God in us may wake to life
everlasting.
HYMAN J. APPELMAN.
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* * *
* *
294. COURAGE
For sheer exploits of courage, Christs first
disciples are unmatched. Ignatius, one of the apostolic leaders,
was cast to the lions in
* *
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* *
295. ADVENT
It is a significant symptom of today that a converted
journalist, Mr. Hugh Redwood, who
has remained in his profession and expounds the Scriptures in one of Londons
chief daily papers, says of the Second Advent:- I
accept absolutely the Bible statement that, although it may seem long in
coming, the day is fixed and will
surely dawn when the whole world will be flooded with the knowledge of the glory* of God. And the more I read
my Bible, side by side with my daily paper, the stronger grows my belief that
the hour of fulfilment is close at hand.
Almost all the signs are present.
We cannot afford to disregard them, and that fact alone is sufficient
warrant for doing everything in our power to give the Bible publicity.
[*
NOTE. Keep in mind: the Transfiguration
of Christ on the mountain top, was a preview, after six
days, (i.e., after six thousand years from the creation of
man) - of the coming Millennial Kingdom of Christ upon this
earth: (Matt. 16: 27-17: 17: 1; cf. 2 Pet. 3: 8; Heb. 4: 8, 9; Rom. 8: 19-24; Rev. 20: 4.).]
* *
* * *
* *
296.
The Jewish Era gives a deeply significant quotation from a Jewish journal The Jews in the News. The miseries that
have plagued us for two thousand years have been marked signs of Gods
disfavour. All the curses that the
prophets foretold would be our lot have come to pass in a most remarkably
accurate manner. However, these great
men of God also point us to the way of our dilemma. We must turn to the words of our holy
prophets and study the current trend of events in the Jewish world in the light
of the Word of God which they delivered unto us, for in no other way can a
satisfactory solution be found to the present spiritual plight of Israel.
Back to the prophets! They were our inspired spiritual giants. They made the greatest contributions to our
spiritual life, not our philosophers, our Talmudic scholars, etc. The call of the prophets was to repentance and it is the crying
need of the hour, for
[*
Keep in mind: when
* *
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297. EVANGELISTS
How marvellously God can use a man! Dr. A. T. Pierson calculated that Moody, in the aggregate, brought claims
of Christ to the attention of one hundred million men and women. Spurgeon,*
in his earlier years, also travelled widely in his homeland, but the unique
feature about his life-work is that 10,000 people assembled to hear him every
week for thirty years in the same building, an achievement
that appears to be without parallel in Christian history. In addition, considerably more than one
hundred million of his weekly sermons were printed and circulated in all parts
of the world. A new sermon of his was
published every week for sixty-three years.
[*
Keep in mind: C. H. Spurgeon once
said: Mr. Govett wrote a hundred years before his
time, and the day will come when his works will be treasured as sifted gold.]
* *
* * *
* *
298. PETER
The Popes claim to be identical with the Apostle
Peter is pure myth; and the Papal claim that Christ founded His Church on Peter
(Matt. 16: 18) is no less a myth. An examination of the patristic evidence
yields the following results: 17 Fathers find in Peter the rock; 44 regard it as the faith he confessed; 16
regard it as Christ himself (Augustines view); 8 regard it as the Church built
up by all the prophets. The
truth is expressed in Eph. 2: 20:- Being built upon
the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the
chief corner stone.
* *
* * *
* *
299. CATHOLICITY
Andrew
Murray has well expressed the true
catholicity. It
needs little grace to know where we differ from other Christians, but this
indeed is grace where amid conduct that tries or grieves us, we give unity of
the Holy Spirit first place, and have faith in the power of love to maintain
the living union amid outward separation.
Keep the unity of the Spirit is Gods command to every believer. It is the new Commandment to love one another
(John 3: 34). Keep the unity of the Spirit in the active
exercise of loving fellowship. Study to
know and prize highly in thy brother the things that will maintain this unity
which is not of creed or custom or choice, but the unity of the spirit.
* *
* * *
* *
300. MOCKERS AT SECOND ADVENT TRUTH.
Jude states that mockers at Second Advent truth will
abound at the last. Dr. A. E. Garvie, in an address which captured
the assent of the International Congress of Congregationalists in
* *
* * *
* *
301. CHURCH ATTENDANCE
I was interviewing candidates for baptism inside the
little mud and wattle Church not far from
But, how did you come to
Firipos school? I asked. On my knees, Buana.
But, I said to Firipo, how far is her fathers home from here? About eight miles,
he replied. Indeed, that crippled woman
had come to her baptism eight miles on her knees! And, moreover, in one place the road passed
over a stream and the covering on the bridge was rough ironstone. This was her third journey this year to
Firipos school, and last year she had made the journey several times. She came for Christian fellowship and instruction, and for
the love of the Word of God, she said. What did the pain and weariness of such a journey matter? Her knees were padded with black cloth, but
even then they were badly swollen and sore.
I was completely overcome as I thought of all that poor woman must have
suffered, and I was humbled, too, and wondered whether I should be prepared for
such a sacrifice as hers in devotion to the Lord Jesus.
A. B. H. RILEY.
* *
* * *
* *
302. LOVE
They asked me for the
secrets of holiness, said the saintly Francis De Sales; for myself, I know no
other secret than to love God with all my heart, and my neighbour as myself. The meek, the just,
the pious, the devout, said William
Penn, are all of one religion, and when their
various liveries are taken off, they shall meet and recognize one another in
the world to come. Do they profess repentance towards God, said George Whitfield, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and holiness of
conversation? If so, they are my
brethren. How far is love, even with strong opinions, said John Wesley, to
be preferred before truth itself without love.
We may die without the knowledge of many truths, and yet be carried into
Abrahams bosom, but if we die without love, what will knowledge avail us? Just as much as it avails the devil and his
angels.
F. W. FARRAR, Dean of
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* *
303. PATIENCE
We are exceedingly glad that Captain E. G. Carre is to continue his editing of Living Links, a magazine that is
extraordinarily alive to the momentous facts of today. In the January issue he quotes some very
helpful words from Dr. Campbell Morgan. The continuity of
evil made respite impossible and the solemn words are written: Jehovah would not pardon. Calamity after calamity fell upon the people,
until completely broken and spoiled they were carried away into captivity. And the historian in these words records the
solemn fact that all these evils came upon
* *
* * *
* *
304. WATCHING AND PRAYING [Read
Luke 21: 36.]
Much is written regarding who is to escape the
tribulation and who will go through this period; but how clear the Word of God
is. Who will escape? Only
those who are accounted worthy. Only those who watch
and pray always. In connection
with this Word we note Rev. 3: 4, They shall walk with me in white; for they are worthy. There are a few who have not defiled their
garments. To watch and pray always will
surely keep our garments clean and undefiled.
Clean, separated ones are worthy. It is impossible to separate cleanness
and worthiness. He keepeth his garment without spot or wrinkle - this is the
overcomer who watches and prays always - only they will escape. Walking, whiteness, worthiness! What a
wonderful Word.
Enoch walked with God; and God took him. He will take those out of these things who
will walk with Him in white. Blessed are
the undefiled in the way. Who shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart
(constant communion). Watching and
praying always, and accounted worthy - worthiness by the operation of His love,
through the Spirit and our answering reciprocal love and union with Christ!
Perfect fellowship - because of perfect purity.
Only as we are found in Him are we worthy - not having our own
righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is by faith in the operation
of God. And so we walk together, my Lord
and I. By my constant watching and
praying He comes nigh, and makes me worthy to escape by His purifying presence.
A. A. RONSHAUSEN..
* * *
* * *
*
305. THE POWER OF PRAYER.
Dr. Torrey, in illustrating the definiteness of prayer, tells
the following:- Up in a little town in
* *
* * *
* *
306. TWO STAGES IN THE ADVENT.
In
1 Thess. 4: 13-18, and 1 Cor. 15: 50-54, it would seem as though there
were but one Coming of the Lord for His Church, but in comparing Matthew 24: 29-31 with verses
40-42, we cannot but see that His Coming, for which we are told daily to
watch, is when one shall be taken and the other left
before
the Great Tribulation. This
is totally distance from the Coming in Matthew 24:
29, 30, immediately after the Great
Tribulation, when the sun shall be darkened,
the moon shall not give her light; the stars shall fall from heaven and the
powers of the heavens shall be shaken.
Christs coming after the three-and-a-half
years of the great tribulation (Matt. 24: 29, 30;
Rev. 11: 2, 3; 12: 6, 15), to gather His elect from the four winds, when
all creation is upheaved, is surely not the same as His uncertain Coming before
those three and a half years; when two men are working quietly in the field,
the one is taken and the other left; two sleeping side by side in one bed, when
all is still, and nothing unusual going on; the one is taken and the other
left?
* *
* * *
* *
307. THE INSPIRATION OF THE ADVENT.
The
Second Advent of our Lord and Saviour has been a dear and delightful doctrine
to me through the greater part of my ministry.
My hope of the worlds salvation lies not in any gradual evangelisation put in a personal return of Christ. I believe this age is waning fast and that any
moment He may appear. This fills me with
hope. This makes my ministry vivid and
intense and glad.
DR. DINSDALE YOUNG.
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* * *
* *
308. TITLES AMONG THE SAINTS.
The title father is especially
forbidden by the Lord, call no man your father upon
earth (Matt. 23: 9), that is, in a
spiritual way. It is good to realise
that this name as a title is renounced by evangelical Christians generally in
obedience to their Lords command, yet many take another title, even that of Reverend, to differentiate themselves from their
brethren. Also is it not strange that a
title should be chosen only once mentioned in Scripture, and which refers to God Himself Holy and reverend
is His Name (Psalm 111: 9, [A.V. & R. V.])? Should not this impress our hearts?
Closely allied to this subject is that of distinctive
dress, and it may also be asked, have those who adopted the title Reverend or wear distinctive dress, any real answer to
those in sacerdotal circles?
It is realised that the above rites enter into
evangelical circles where there has been much blessing, and where the Lord has
been honoured; yet there have been, and are also, gifted and honoured servants
of God who, for the Lords sake, have refused to take or wear unscriptural
distinctions, or to transgress so
important a scriptural principle, and those
who thus humble themselves shall be exalted in that day, in His Kingdom, at the resurrection of the
just.
* *
* *
* * *
309. THE FIRST LAST AND THE LAST FIRST.
Jacob is the embodiment of all the wrestlers who
through the midnight of this dark Age reach the dawn and supremely of racers
who started badly. Through the midnight
at Peniel he wrestles until the dawn, with tears
(Hos. 12: 4), a soul suddenly and for ever awake. The literal in a type is the spiritual in the
antitype: the clenched fist, the taut muscle, the ceaseless vigilance, the unyielding
grip it is not only strength, but concentration; not only concentration, but
intensity; not only intensity, but endurance.
[Eternal]
Salvation is received by resting, not wrestling: the Prize
is won by wrestling, not resting.* It is
holy tenacity of purpose, dogged refusal to be beaten, quick recovery when
knocked out. Gods tremendous
earnestness the wrestling Angel must be matched by an earnestness as
tremendous by all who would be Godlike and God-crowned.**
[* Our heirship with God is unforfeitable; [our] co-heirship
with Christ [in His millennial kingdom] is the birthright [of
firstborn
sons] which, while open to all [who are regenerate],
depends on the midnight wrestle: heirs indeed of God;
but joint-heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him
(Rom. 8: 17). Thus the millennial birthright potentially
belongs to all [regenerate] believers, but actually to those [only] who fulfil the conditions.
** Constancy, persistency,
dogged tenacity is certainly the striking feature of Jacobs character. He served fourteen years for the woman he
loved. In contrast stands Esau, led by
impulse, betrayed by appetite, everything by turns and nothing long
(Marcus Dodds, D.D.). It is the violent
who take the kingdom by force.]
* *
* * *
* *
310. SOULS
Here are Spurgeons
memorable wards:- Even if I were utterly selfish and had no care for anything
but my own happiness, I would choose if I might, under God, to be a soul-winner;
for never did I know perfect, overflowing, unutterable happiness of the purest
and most ennobling order till I first heard of one who had sought and found the
Saviour through my means. No young
mother rejoiced ever as much over her first-born child, no warrior was so
exultant over a hard-won victory.
* *
* * *
* *
311. PERSECUTION
How subtle the enemy of the Christian Faith can be,
methods of persecution reveal.
* *
* * *
* *
312 THE
COMMON TASK.
Many people spend much time and thought in trying to
find out what their duty is. Dr. Russell Conwell describes such
people in a story which he tells as having been given to him by an Arabian
guide.
There lived on the banks of the
That moment El Hafed became poor. All his possessions seemed to lose their
value, as the feeling of discontentment filled his soul. He said, I must
have a mine of diamonds. What is the use
of spending ones life in this way in this narrow sphere? I want a mine and shall have it! That night he could not sleep. Early the next morning he went to the priest,
and asked where he could find those diamonds.
If you want diamonds,
said the priest, go and get them. Wont you please
tell me where I can find them? said El Hafed. Well, if you go and
find high mountains, with a deep river running through them, over white sand,
in this white sand you will find diamonds.
The dissatisfied farmer sold his farm, took the money
and went off in search of diamonds. One
day, broken-hearted and in rags, a hungry pauper, stung with humiliation, and
crushed by bitter disappointment, stood on the shore of the
The man who had purchased El Hafeds farm led his
camel out one day to the stream in the garden to drink. While the camel buried its nose in the water,
the man noticed a white flash of something sparkling at his feet. Out of curiosity, he reached down and picked
up a black stone with a strange eye of light in it, which seemed to reflect all
the colours of the rainbow. He took the
curiosity to the house, and laid it on the mantel, and soon forgot all about
it.
One day the same old priest came to visit El Hafeds
successor. He noticed a flash of light
from the mantel, and sprang toward it in amazement, and exclaimed, Here is a diamond!
Has El Hafed returned? That is not a diamond; it is a stone I found in the garden. But I tell you that
is a diamond, said the priest.
And then the two men went out into the garden, and stirred up the white
sand, and there came into their hands beautiful diamonds, more valuable than
the first. This story is historically true.
It was the discovery of the wonderful mines of
The Arab guide who told the story swung his cap and
said: If El Hafed had remained at home and dug in his
own garden, he could have been the wealthiest man of his time. It is
the daily drudgery, faithfully performed, that we shall discover the
Follow light, and do the right, for man can half
control is doom
Till you find the deathless Angel seated in the vacant
tomb.
* *
* * *
* *
313. MESSIAH
In one of the orthodox synagogues of Brooklyn, during certain
days of repentance and prayer, Jews were seen lying on their faces before God,
crying to Him for protection upon their persecuted brethren, especially in
* *
* * *
* *
314. OUR SAVIOUYR WENT APART TO PRAY.
The vain idea is abroad in our day, as if churches,
buildings consecrated by men, were the best places for prayer. No! the Spirit of God foresaw this mistake,
and dropped a word of correction. I will therefore that the men (Greek) pray everywhere lifting up holy hands
(1 Tim. 2: 8). Let the hands and heart be holy, and they
will consecrate every place. Public
prayer is right in its place. But true
piety cannot long subsist without private devotion.
Jesus lived in the East, where, as a
traveller testified, privacy is a thing almost unknown. The Saviour went apart to pray.
I was much struck with the contrast between the
Saviours directions about prayer and the spirit of Mohammedanism, as
exemplified in the conduct of its followers.
While standing here (at
-
(Christian
Treasury for 1859, p. 498.)
* *
* * *
* *
315. OBEDIENCE
For He MUST reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet (1 Cor. 15: 25).
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing
that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ
(2 Cor. 10: 5).
This obedience does not come automatically that is,
without the full consent and co-operation of the Will, for God does not treat
His people like machines, but looks for their willing, intelligent so-operation
with His working. The members, mind,
will and heart, must be offered up to God, to take sides with Him against all
that He
is against, and for the reign of Christ to become operative. Yield yourselves
unto God
and your members as instruments of
righteousness unto God. Let not
sin therefore reign (Rom. 6: 12, 13). How can we reign with Him, unless He first
reigns in us? It is not likely
that we can subdue rebellion and sin in others, while these things are still
unsubdued in us; and just so much of our being that is not actually brought
under His Rule, is in rebellion against Him, for there is no neutrality in the
spiritual realm. He that is not with Me is against Me.
* *
* * *
* *
316. CHRIST MUST REIGN UNTIL
The enemy that is at the root of our fallen nature,
must be dealt with; and it still exists, even in those who are born again,
until the Holy Spirit succeeds in breaking it down, and subduing all things to
Christ, who MUST REIGN, till all
enemies are under His feet. And
notice, that the setting up of His Throne does not mean that all enemies are
then and there subdued; but His Throne is set up, in order that He may be in a
position to assert His authority and right, to put all things under Him, and
for the subduing of all that resists Him; and He goes on reigning UNTIL that object is reached, and then
it is accomplished.
* *
* * *
* *
317. NOT HAVING RECEIVED THE PROMISES.
All these died according to
faith, not having received the promises
(Heb.
11: 13.) This is an important
passage. The patriarchs end was of the
same quality, and on the same level, as their lives. They did not, when they came to die, abandon
their hopes, nor proclaim themselves deceived, and their God a liar. It has oft been true of the infidel, that at
death he has felt his reasonings and his unbelief cave under him, and has
departed with the curses of despair upon his lips. But it was not so here. The patriarchs trust was in a God Who can
raise the dead, and Who will, in a coming day, perform their hopes.
Not
having received the promises.
Would that all Christians would note these words! It is
because they are not accepted, that so many doubt or disbelieve the millennium and
its glory. They imagine that Abraham must have received the promises; if
not in his own case, yet in his posterity.
And if he did not receive the promises on earth, yet he is
enjoying them now in heaven.
Against this we observe:- (1) That Abraham is in
Hadees, and not in heaven. In Hadees [the rich man] lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off
(Luke 16: 23; Acts 2: 34). (2) That the
promises were made to Abraham AND his seed, not to Abraham in his seed. All the land which thou seest to THEE will I give it, AND to thy seed forever* (Gen. 3: 15).
Now to Abraham AND his seed were the promises made (Gal. 3: 16).
[* But how can it be for ever, if earth is to be
burned up? The for ever of the Old Testament is generally restricted
to earths abiding. While the earth remaineth, is Gods own limit
given to Noah (Gen. 8: 22).]
And Scripture in other places clearly asserts, that
Abraham has never yet received the promises.
And He [God] gave
him [Abraham] none inheritance in
the land; no, not so much as to set his
foot on (Acts 7: 5). Indeed, it is evident at a glance, that not
till Abraham has been raised from the dead, can he inherit the
ROBERT GOVETT.
* *
* * *
* *
318. EXCLUSION FROM THE KINGDOM.
To those who believe in Him
[Christ], but go no further, the Lord does, indeed, give eternal life;
but the fruition of it will not begin until the Last Day, until the thousand
years of the Millennial reign are ended.
Such persons will not, therefore, be permitted to enter the Kingdom of
the Heavens: (G. H. Pember). So Dr.
A. T. Pierson: The greatest of all the
revelations about the future condition of the saints is, that they are to be
identified with Jesus Christ in His reign, - that is, those who overcome. Not all saints are to be elevated to this
position; this is for victorious saints. So Mr.
Robert Govett: The native magnitude of this truth
must speedily redeem it from all obscurity. Those who have the single eye will
perceive its amplitude of evidence, and embrace it, in spite of the solemn awe
of God which it produces, and the depth of our own responsibility which it
discloses.
* *
* * *
* *
319. THE NEED OF DILIGENCE.
God loves all His saints. But He makes a difference in regard to those
who diligently seek Him. Most Christians are careless. They do not diligently seek. And they lack that which is the root of
diligent seeking; they do not believe in God as the Rewarder of diligent
work. They do not so look on the work of
Christ set them to do, as to see the need of diligence on our part. They will not accept the tidings of reward,
and of its coming day. It is said that
Sadduceeism began by Zadok, its founder, denying that the reward of God was to
be sought for, or would be given.
Here [in Hebrews 11:6] this
truth of reward to works is testified, and in many other places. After our reception of the work of Christ for
us, our own work comes into view. Please
to observe, reader, that faith in this truth is a necessary element in pleasing
God. It is displeasing to the Lord,
not to accept and act on this His testimony.
ROBERT GOVETT.
* *
* * *
* *
320. THE CONDITION OF THE CHURCH.
The condition of the Church is extremely
perilous. We are in a perfect landslide
of apostasy from the faith once delivered to the saints. It is not, I think, untrue to say that the
Church is losing ground in every direction.
Nothing is to be gained from hiding the truth or refusing to look at
facts. A challenge is being flung in her
face by the great enemy of God and man.
As you read your Bibles you can see how this evil personality has
challenged God at every step and delayed the fulfilment of His purposes. He challenges the right of God to the obedience of the will of man, and the right of
the Lord Jesus Christ to the Throne of the world. The black tail of the serpent can be seen
throughout the Holy Scriptures in sin and rebellion. To-day it is impossible to be blind to those
facts which prove the controlling power of Satan over men: Gods Day
desecrated; His House forsaken; His Book dishonoured; His Commandments broken;
His Warnings disregarded; His [conditional] Promises scorned; and His Son despised and
rejected.
GORDON WATT.
* *
* * *
* *
321. HOW SHALL A STARVED, NAKED, AND BLIND DISCIPLE
DEFEAT SATAN?
The serious student of the will of Christ can here test
his own state of heart, can see the danger-points in the battle, and against
what wiles of the devil he must contend resolutely, if he means to be a
conqueror. Personal attachment to Christ
is the secret of all attainment and victory (1 Cor.
13). Compromise with the worlds
religion is defeat (1 Cor. 8-11). Low
moral conduct forfeits the birthright (1 Cor.
6: 1-11; Heb. 12: 14). The
lukewarm are nauseous to Him who was eaten up by zeal for Gods house, and He
rejects such from His presence. Self-sufficiency
assures poverty of soul, together with nakedness of character, with its
reproach and blindness.
How shall a starved, naked, and blind disciple defeat
Satan, the strong one fully armed? It is
impossible. His very condition shows
that he has been already robbed, stripped, and blinded, overwhelmed in the
battle. Yet as Samson, long defeated, triumphed in his death, so may the
defeated Laodicean, by great grace, snatch victory at last, if he will give
again full heed to his Lord.
G. H. LANG.
*
* *
* * *
*
322. TACTFUL SILENCE.
One of our modern dangers is the substitution of
social religions and humanitarian clubs for New Testament Christianity. The minister who belongs to outside societies
pays the price. Loyalty to the tenets
and practices of the society may run counter to that of the church and
conscience. Boldness in speaking without
the fear of any face or circumlocution is a New Testament quality, and happy is the man who is not tempted to
tactful silence when principles are involved.* Who has not known the words that were
half-alive and cold because fear had settled upon the spirit? He who is free in spirit is bold with the
courage of the Spirit of God. A lowered
morale is a danger.
RALPH G. TURNBULL.
[* This excellent warning applies equally to authors,
publishers, editors, and writers of articles.
One of the tragedies of to-day is
to watch the silence of Christian periodicals on unpopular truth, even when
they know it is the truth. - Ed.,
Dawn.]
* *
* * *
* *
323. EKANASTASIS*
[* i.e., Out-resurrection.]
We must study the word Ekanastasis
in the light of the other words which surround it. Paul first tells us, If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Then he says, That I
may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Next he says, Reaching
forth unto those things which are before. Again he speaks of pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. All these things had to do with Christs
Second Advent, and with our standing before the judgment seat of Christ. All of them were God-given possibilities for
all saints; all of them are gracious, yet none of them are by grace. That is, these specific things, all lay in
the realm of rewards, they were to be given only to the ones who attained them, who pressed for them, who said, this one thing I do.
Rewards depend on the faith we hold, the deeds we do, the life we live,
the obedience we render.
R. E. NEIGHBOUR, D.D.
* *
* * *
* *
324. FAITH IS THE ASSURANCE OF
THINGS HOPED FOR.
Faith is an internal feeling. It is the same in nature, whether it reposes on
true, or on false, testimony. The
Baalites believed that their god could bring down fire on the altar, as
strongly perhaps ad Elijah did, that Jehovah could. Elijahs faith responded on the true testimony; that of the Baalites on a delusive one. Hence we must not translate it: Faith is the substance of things hoped for. My inward thoughts do not affect the reality
of things outside me. Nor is faith any evidence of what is coming to pass. True faith rests on Gods word, and is
attended with desire of the things promised, and with fear of the things
threatened. Hence, it is closely allied
with hope.
And the object of Christian hope is, Christs coming and kingdom.
Faith and hope have to do with things unseen. The things unseen are partly joyful, partly
terrible. And both the things joyful,
and the things terrible, are designed to keep the Christian in the path of
faith and obedience. [True] Faith [resting on Gods word]
pursues the objects of hope, and
shuns the objects of its fear.
ROBERT GOGETT.
* *
* * *
* *
325. BIBLE ALONE CHRISTIANS
Remember, that the most heretical religions have a
sort of Mishnah, Gemarah, commentary or aid to the Bible. Mohammedans believe the Bible, but they have
the Koran. Mormons believe the Bible,
but they have also the Book of Mormon.
The Rosicrucians believe the Bible, but they have the Wisdom of the Ages.
The Illuminatti believe the Bible, and also the Yogi Wisdom; the Bohaist
believes the Bible, and everything else outside of it. The Christian Scientists believe the Bible,
but they also believe in the Key to Science and
Health.
Let us, as Bible Christians, believe the Holy Scriptures, which
are able to make thee wise unto Salvation - [i.e.,
past,
present
and future
aspects of salvation]
through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of
God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction
in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto
all good works (2 Tim. 3: 15-17).
M. ZEIDMAN, B.D.
* *
* * *
* *
326. BAPTISM
The form of the ritual is placed beyond challenge. Even the great Anglican Bishop, the beloved Dr. Handley Moule, translates the
passage thus:- We
are entombed therefore with Him, by means of our baptism, into His death;
and he adds, - All commentators of note (except
Stuart and Hodge) expressly admit or take it for granted that the ancient
prevalent mode of baptism by immersion and emersion is here implied (Lange).
Therefore the sprinkling of holy water
on an infants brow is not baptism in any sense or form; the infant is neither
spiritually buried nor spiritually risen with Christ; and thus the truth for which the rite stands is
totally destroyed.*
[* The wish to bring the family to Christ, and to
dedicate each infant, is a noble motive; but to confound it with the
ritual of the born again and, still worse, to make it the cause of re-birth is a blunder as obvious as it is
grave. Nor is baptism given as a badge of a sect: we are nowhere told to
refuse fellowship to the un-baptized believer.]
* *
* * *
* *
327. BAPTISM AND THE KINGDOM
The Holy Spirit lets drop a warning and an incentive
very valuable to an ear sensitive enough to hear. For if we
become united with him in the likeness of his death that is, baptism,
the ritual photograph we shall be also shall be. At
a future date; also, that is, correspondingly
of his resurrection that is,
the First.* The sentence would appear to
make baptism part of the fidelity which wins [entrance
into] the [millennial] kingdom. So our
Lord says, Except a man be born again, he cannot see
the
[* Not in the likeness of His resurrection but in
the fact: the Lords resurrection has just been
referred to (verse 4) as out of dead ones; that is, a selective resurrection,
leaving others [in Hades, the place of the] dead. The if marks the [out] resurrection to be the prize of our calling, not attained
by all believers, but dependant on the holiness called for by God the
contrast to the continuance in sin of the proposal (Govett).]
D. M. PANTON.
* *
* * *
* *
328. A STARTLING REVELATION.
Our Lord points the
Apostles to greatness, wealth, and power as the world knows it. Ye know that the
rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise
authority over them (Matt. 20: 25). In itself there is nothing wrong in
the possession of greatness, wealth, power.
Magnificence accompanies power; greatness is robed in splendour; and James and John, full of intense excitement and joy at the near approach (as
they suppose) of the [Millennial] Kingdom, covet for themselves the highest
rank. For God Himself has all power,
incomparable rank, and greatness clothed in Divine majesty; and our Lord will return with a
magnificence which befits almighty authority. So the fundamental principle is established:
the Creators original and eternal intention is the welding together of
goodness and glory, of internal purity and external radiance, of holiness and
power.
So then our Lord lays down a startling revelation [for His disciples]. Whosoever wishes to become great among you,
shall be your servant; and whosoever
wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. The day [2 Pet. 3: 8] rapidly approaches when goodness will be greatness:
goodness can no more remain eternally obscure and rejected than Christ can, the
incarnation of goodness; for glory in the fundamental creation is only the
shining side of goodness. Iniquity now
gains and possesses greatness, now dead-looking, black coal, will one day
blaze with glory.
Finally and for ever has this been revealed in one
supreme case. The
Son of man, being in the form of God, emptied himself, taking the form of a
slave: WHEREFORE that is,
solely on the ground that God has never gone back on His creative design that
the external shall at last correspond exactly with the internal, the outside
loveliness and power exactly express and demonstrate the inside holiness and
grace God highly exalted him, and gave him the name
which is above every name (Phil. 2: 9). Already perfect holiness is wedded to perfect
power and perfect glory, in Christ Jesus, never to be divorced again.
So we reach the amazing revelation, practically
unknown throughout all the Churches. Whosoever would be great among you a
perfectly legitimate ambition shall be your servant, and who
soever would be first among you, shall be slave of all; or as
Paul puts it, Through love be ye servants one to another (Gal. 5: 13).
See here (1) a vast field of service.
Wherever a child of God is, there is my master, whose interests I am to
serve, whose person I am to love, whose advantage I am to put above my own:
wherever in the world there is a child of God there is work for every other
child of God. Again (2) it is a service
which everyone can do. To be a slave requires little ability,
little wealth, little education: one thing only it requires a big heart, a
big love, a big faith. Through love by ye servants one to another. The moment the disciples had disputed for
pre-eminence, our Lord rose and washed their feet. So also (3) it is a service without
limit. Hereby
know we love because he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay
down our lives for the brethren (1
John 3: 16). Finally (4) the
portion of the service will determine the proportion of the glory. Our Lords words are carefully chosen to
reveal this Whosoever would be great among you shall be
your
servant; and whosoever would be FIRST
among you shall be SLAVE of all. As service here, so greatness there [i.e., in the hereafter]: as slavery here the lowest form of service so
primacy there the pinnacle of glory.
D. M. PANTON.
* *
* * *
* *
329. AS THE END DAYS APPROACH.
What constitutes victory or defeat is shown in the
seven Letters.
Saints in
G. H. LANG.
* *
* * *
* *
330. WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVED A CENTURY AGO
Let us imagine that a man who lived a century ago is
suddenly imported into our world. The thing that amazes me most, he says, is that you moderns studiously avoid everything which
savours of beliefs which we used to hold.
Just try to listen to my point of view.
We Christians believed that just before Christ returned there would be a
dreadful period of destruction and unhappiness on earth. We called this time the last days or the day
of the Lord. We believed that before
this period started there would be an apostasy in which a majority of the
nations would depart from the faith and give heed to a fable the fable that
there are no divine interventions in history.
So we believed that men would begin to laugh at the very idea of a
second coming of Christ, but that nevertheless they would keep up an outward
show of religion.
We learned that in time, the
whole world would become a single great kingdom possessing irresistible
might. At the head of this kingdom there
would arise a very wicked man whose true character would not, at first, be
apparent. By uniting the world he would
earn the gratitude of all men, but before long he would announce that he was a
kind of Christ, and would compel men to worship him. We called him the antichrist. But at the climax of the power of this evil
creature, Christ was to return to the earth in actual fact to set up His
Kingdom on earth.
The last days are certainly
upon you. Both antichrist and Christ will
really come as the Bible foretold. You
have got to decide whether you are on Gods side or on the side of the world
that rejected Him, and still rejects Him.
If you turn to Him now He will save you from the consequences of your
evil deeds. In the New Testament you
will even learn of a plan by which you may be delivered from the things that
are coming to pass on earth. You may not
have much longer to decide; dont fool yourselves into thinking that anything
else is more important than this.
Remember, it is Christs promise that if you come to Him, He will not
cast you out.
ROBERT E. D. CLARK,
M.A., Ph.D
* *
* * *
* *
331. ONE ESCAPES ANOTHER ENDURES.
But take heed to yourselves, lest
haply your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of
this life, and that day come on you suddenly as a snare: for so it shall come
upon all them that dwell on the face of all the earth. But watch
ye at every season, making supplication, that ye may prevail to escape all
these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.
This declares distinctly: (1) That escape is possible
from all those things of which Christ had been speaking, that is, from the whole
End-times. (2) That that day of testing
will be universal, and inevadable by any then on earth, which involves the
removal from the earth of any who are to escape it. (3) That there
is a fearful peril of disciples becoming worldly of heart and so being,
enmeshed in that last period. (4)
That hence it is needful to watch and
pray ceaselessly, that so we may prevail over all obstacles and dangers and
thus escape that era.
This most
important and unequivocal statement by our Lord sets aside the opinion that all
Christians will escape irrespective of their moral state, and also negatives
the notion that no escape is possible. There is a door of escape; but as with all
doors, only those who are awake will see
it, and only those who are in earnest will reach it ere the storm bursts. In every place in the New Testament the word
escape has its natural force to flee out of
a place of trouble and be quite clear thereof.*
It never means to endure the trial successfully. In this discourse of the Lord it is in
contrast with the statement, He that endureth to the end (of these
things) the same shall be saved (Matt. 24: 13).
One escapes, another endures.
[*It comes only at Luke
21: 36; Acts 16: 27; 19: 16; Rom. 2: 3; 2 Cor. 11: 33; 1 Thess. 5: 3; Heb. 2:
3; 12: 25. In comparison with Romans 2: 3, see its use in the LXX in the
interpolated passage after Esth. 8: 13; they suppose that they escape the sin-hating vengeance of
the ever-seeing God; also Judg. 6: 11; Job
15: 30; Prov. 10: 19; 12: 13. The
sense is invariably as stated above.]
G. H. LANG. (From Dawn
Vol. 23, No. 2.)
* *
* * *
* *
332. THE STRONGEST INCENTIVE TO MISSIONS.
This hope of Christs imminent, personal, visible return
is the strongest possible incentive to missions. It sounds the note of urgency. Those who are filled with the hope of His
coming are also on fire for world-wide evangelism. Of this fact the cloud of witnesses is
evidence absolute and convincing. Great
church theologians, great pioneer missionaries, and many ardent evangelists are
among them: Dean Alford, Delitzsch, Auberlen, Bishop Ellicott,
Vanoosterzee, Bengel, Godet, Bonar, Bickersteth, Pentecost, Whittle, Lord Radstock, Hammond, Nunhall, Muller, A. T. Pierson, Moody, J. Hudson Taylor, R. E.
Speer, and many others. All of them
held the premillennial view and
held it soberly with their loins girt about and their lights burning.
S. M. ZWEMER, D.D.
* *
* * *
* *
333. FOOD
In February, 1931, a great famine came upon a district
in
-THE GOSPEL HERALD.
* *
* * *
* *
334. FOOD FOR MANHOOD.
Babyhood, or infancy, is nearly always spoken of in
Scripture with tenderness and compassion; but here it is not babyhood, but
babyishness; it is the deformity of arrested growth, not the lovely freshness
of recent regeneration. So then we
arrive at the remarkable Divine principle.
As every human is classified by the food he assimilates, so every
Christian is graded according to the truth he is able to receive. The Hebrew Christians had been converted,
probably, for some thirty years; those in
THE FOODS. Now Look at
the foods. What is milk? The rudiments of the
first principles of the oracles of God: and these first principles are
defined for us, as foundation stones, thus repentance, faith, the baptisms of
water and of the Spirit, resurrection, and judgment. All this is milk: absolutely essential to an
infant, and therefore constantly to be presented in
* *
* * *
* *
335. PROPHECY
The Holy Spirit has expressed, in one vivid phrase,
exactly what prophecy is:- A lamp shining in a dark
place (2 Pet. 1: 19). The world is in profound blackness; the human
race is heading for horrors of which they are totally unaware; and prophecy
the revealing of things to come is a blazing searchlight which uncovers both
the dangers ahead of the path by which we can escape them. Never did the Church so need this lamp. Thousands of Christians suppose prophecy to
be so difficult, so unintelligible, so obscure that it is, they think, itself a
darkness to be avoided: on the contrary, it is a blazing lamp, carrying exactly
the right light for a midnight pilgrimage.
God lit this lamp; and no man ever put out a lamp of God without
plunging himself into dangerous midnight.
All prophecy
culminates in the
So now we arrive at the throbbing heart of
prophecy. Seeing
that these things are thus all to be dissolved that is, basing your
conduct absolutely on these appalling prophecies what
manner of persons ought ye to be? (2 Pet.
3: 11). The approaching
dissolution of the universe God reveals in order to move the very depths of our
soul to practical holiness, that we may become transfigured by what we see
through the telescope of prophecy.
Prophecy, we are told, is gloomy, and
we who preach it are pessimests; we answer
that we would rather be pessimists with Jeremiah and John than optimists with
Demas and Diotrophes.* But it is far
more than that. He that hath this hope PURIFIETH HIMSELF, even as he [Christ] is pure (John 3: 3). The heart that is saturated with prophecy,
and so has become a child of eternity, carries the coming Glory in heart and
life. We have
the more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto
a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the DAY-STAR ARISE IN YOUR HEARTS. Our hearts are to be radiant with the light
of the coming DAY, as moving through
the midnight of the world, we already see and reflect the ADVENT GLORY.
[* If prophecy fails to have its right effect on us,
it is not the fault of prophecy, or of the God who alone gives prophecy: it is
solely the fault either of our ignorance or of our denial of what is
foretold. All the vital impetus imparted
by the tremendous rewards and punishments foretold for [regenerate] believers is lost by a complete ignorance of what
is coming.]
D. M. PANTON.
* *
* * *
* *
336. RUN FOR THE PRIZE.
The vast number of preceding sufferers and martyrs should
encourage us to run as they did, with like hope of the glory. The general idea gathered from the opening of
this chapter [i.e., Heb. ch. 12.] by an
English reader would be, that the departed saints are spectators of the course
of believers now. That is not, I think,
the truth. The Greek word here used with
reference to them relates, I believe, to them as sufferers for the truth
during their past life, and not to their present vision of those militant on
earth.
It is the reward attached to the race that is
set before those that are already saved. After the gift of God eternal life, comes the prize of our calling,
which is, a calling out of earth and into heaven.
Now, they who run for a prize are careful not to carry
any superfluous weight, and do not wear any long and trailing garment that
might embarrass their free course, and even throw them down. Hence the Lord warns us, in the first of His
parables which refer to the kingdom, of the cares of this
age, and the deceitfulness of riches,
and the lusts of other things entering in which choke the word, and it
becometh unfruitful (Mark 4: 19). These, then, are the weights which are to be
laid aside. He who is [a disciple of Christ and is]
seeking the riches of the present world is not running the race for the
kingdom. The earthly blessings promised
by Moses Law to the obedient Jew would be hindrances in the way of one running
the present race. And Jesus bids the
rich young man to lay them aside, and follow Him, on His way to the millennial
kingdom and its glory (Matt. 19). What will the Lord Jesus say to those
believers, who are seeking, with all their might, to gain wealth? when He has
told us, that, into the millennial
kingdom of glory it is impossible for the rich disciple [unwilling to give up his riches when called to do so by Christ] to enter (Luke 6:
20-26). No warrior entangles
himself with buying or selling, or like pursuits, that he may please his
general (2 Tim. 2: 4). Thou, O man of God,
flee these things (1 Tim. 6: 11). While Abraham walked with God in freedom in a
tent,
Lot was hindered and entangled by a house in
ROBERT GOVETT.
* *
* * *
* *
337. CONSIDER HIM.
We are apt to faint at special difficulties, indignities,
and contradictions, which assail us. We
are ready to feel, and to say, that our troubles are sorer and heavier than
those of any others. The remedy for such
a feeling, and the true check of such a speech, is here supplied. Consider the resistance, the gainsaying, by
malice and falsehood, which He, Who was [is] the Wisdom of God, and the Power of God, was called
to undergo. The Sinless One was
contradicted by the sinful sons of men; the Son of God by His creatures and
subjects. He could, by a word, have cut
off the liars and rebels; but He was patient throughout. If, then, He suffered so much, marvel not
that you, Christian, are called also to endure hindrance and contradiction in
the way of duty, and when you are sure you are testifying to Gods truth. A view of what the Divine Saviour suffered
must check complaint in the saved.
Indeed, every affliction that we have met for Christs sake, will be to
our glory.
ROBERT GOVETT.
* *
* * *
* *
338. COUPLETS
In a private book that was left where it could be
easily found after his departure, Mr.
Spurgeon wrote the following couplets.
They ought to come to all readers with particular solemnity now that the
hand that wrote them is still in death.
1. No cross, no crown, no loss no gain; they first
must suffer who would reign.
2. He best can part with his life without a sigh,
whose daily living is to daily die.
3. Youth builds for age, age builds for rest; who
builds for heaven will build the best.
4. Poor they may live but rich they die, whose
treasure is laid up on high.
5. Oh the sweet joy that sentence gives I know that
my Redeemer lives.
6. He cannot, Lord, thy purpose see; But all is well
thats done by Thee.
7. Prepared be to follow Me.
J.
* *
* * *
* *
339. A PROBLEM AND A PROPOSAL.
At this juncture we are witnessing the dawn of a day
wherein the thirst for literature is so widespread and so insatiable that its
like has not been known. And it is but the
dawn; education amongst the hitherto illiterate is making such advances that it
is estimated that the reading public throughout the world will shortly be
increased by a thousand millions. We are
on the threshold of immense literary possibilities and the very intensity of
the thirst will draw forth the springs of supply before long. But what kind of springs? Will the water be pure or polluted? Some will sink in hopeless pessimism and
resign themselves to the latter outlook; but will it not be wiser to seek Gods
guidance that we may be instrumental in tapping
the springs of truth and conducting them through the Press to the people,
so that where sin abounds grace may much more abound, even in the realm of
literature; and by its medium many may be led
to sorrow over sin and both seek and find Salvation [or, in some other
instances, Restoration] in the Saviour?
GEOFFREY WILLIAMS.
* *
* * *
* *
340. THE ANVIL OF GODS WORD.
Last eve I paused beside a blacksmiths door,
And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;
Then looking in, I saw upon the floor
Old hammers worn with beating years of time.
How many anvils have you had,
said I,
To wear and batter all those
hammers so?
Just one, said he,
and then, with twinkling eye,
The anvil wears the hammers
out, you know.
And so, I thought, the Anvil of Gods Word
For ages skeptic blows have beat upon,
Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,
The Anvil is
unharmed, the hammers gone.
* *
* * *
* *
341. DISAPPROVED!
YET ALL WAS POTENTIALLY THEIRS.
When the Christian, like the Greek runner, wrestler,
boxer, after testing is disqualified, that is, misses the Prize (Phil. 3: 10-14)
is adokimos
(Gk.). he is DISAPPROVED. See this important passage in 1 Cor. 9: 24-27; 10: 1-12 R.V. God proved
W. F. ROADHOUSE
* *
* * *
* *
342. INIQUITOUS SILENCE
Dr. Wilbur
Smith stresses the iniquitous silence
(with which we are all too familiar) on the dark side of Truth:- I think in orthodox
circles today there are some great subjects in the Word of God that are almost never talked about. Twenty-seven times the Apostle Paul, e.g.,
mentions good works as something to be practised, but you and I can live
in institutions of the reformed faith for forty years and never hear good works
mentioned. That is not rightly dividing the word of truth. I remember a few
years ago looking carefully into the Greek text of 2 Timothy 3 (Pauls
terrible delineation of the character of men at the end of the age), and I was
astonished to find that not in any single book, in our language at least, on
the eschatology of Paul, was there a single page of treatment of this great chapter. I fear in many circles today the New
Testament teaching on [wilful] sin is almost
wholly ignored, and a vital conviction concerning the wrath of God and a
judgment to come is tragically omitted.
If we are to teach the Word of God, we should teach it in its entirety. The Righteous Judge must deal with sin in [regenerate] believers
equally with sin in unbelievers.
* *
* * *
* *
343. DECLENSION
The Church, as a whole, little realizes what is
happening. Mr. Pitt Bonarjee sums it up:-
A nations fiction is a good thermometer of
its moral health. Of the very many
thousands of novels which like a deluge are poured out from our press, and
which are so eagerly read, of how many can it be said, Here is something essentially
noble, and beautiful, and good? The
Bible, which is the very foundation and at the very core of the nations
greatness, is largely a closed book, and not a few of our preachers proclaim
its fallibility and their own infallibility.
Not a few of our Churches are mere shrines of idolatry and
superstition. Flaming moral passion for righteousness, justice and truth has almost
flickered out even from the hearts of professing Christians. What has become of our Nonconformist
Conscience? The satire of Juvenal,
panem et circenses, which heralded the downfall of
* *
* * *
* *
344. A FALSEHOOD
The gradual conversion of the kingdoms of the world by
the Gospel was declared a falsehood three thousand years ago: Christ will come with smashing power on throned iniquity and democratic unrighteousness:
for it is all Christless. He that falleth on
this stone the individual who rejects Christ [Messiah] shall be broken in
pieces: but on whomsoever it shall fall the rejecting nations it shall scatter him as dust (Matt. 21: 44).
The last stage has arrived: the last opportunities are passing: the last
glory of earthly [Gentile] kingdoms we are beholding today.
D. M. PANTON, B. A.
* *
* * *
* *
345. THE LORDS SUPPER
In the upper room at Jerusalem, the Saviour owns the
old covenant by eating the Passover, and dismissing its further acceptable
celebration till His return in the Kingdom of God (Luke
22: 15-30), while He inaugurates a new rite, to take effect among the Church of the firstborn, while He is away (Matt. 16: 18).
But He recognizes the DAY when apostles, risen [out] from the dead, shall reign over the gathered tribes of
ROBERT GOVETT : (On Hebrews 12: 23.)
* *
* * *
* *
346. THE MILLENNIAL KINGDOM.
To those who believe on Him,
but go no further, the Lord does, indeed, give eternal life; but the fruition of it does not begin until
the Last Day, until the thousand years of the millennial reign are ended. Such persons will not, therefore, be permitted to enter the Kingdom of the Heavens
(G. H. Pember). Into that glorious company of the First Resurrection it is probable that only those who have been partakers of
Christs humiliation and suffering (either personally or throughout the
present aeon) shall be received a
select portion of the redeemed, including the martyrs (Dr. E. R. Craven). In this exclusion
from the Kingdom, which is the dominion of the good made visible at the return
of our Lord, we are not to see the loss of eternal salvation: an entrance into
the Kingdom is rendered possible [in certain cases], but not by any means dose it follow that [eternal] salvation can be thereby prevented (Olshausen). There may be
possible and entire forfeiture of the Kingdom, and only the lowest position of
Eternal Life after it. The native magnitude of this truth must speedily redeem
it from all obscurity. Those who have
the single eye will perceive its amplitude of evidence, and embrace it, in
spite of the solemn awe of God which it produces, and the depth of our own
responsibility which it discloses (Govett). Let us LABOUR
therefore to enter into that rest the sabbatismos, the seventh millennium (Heb. 4: 11): for not every one that saith to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven; but he that DOETH
THE WILL of my Father (Matt. 7: 21.)
D. M. PANTON.
Know ye not that they which
run in a race all run, but one receiveth the prize? EVEN SO RUN, THAT YE MAY ATTAIN (1 Cor. 9: 24).
* *
* * *
* *
347.
The dead in Christ shall rise not descend to meet
the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4: 16)*.
* The actual locality of
Sheol, or Hades, is indicated by such scriptures as these:- Matt. 12: 40; Num. 16: 30-33; 1 Sam. 28: 13, 14; Job 26:
5, 6; Amos 9: 2; Eph. 4: 9; and Ps. 63: 9. So scripture speaks of descending into it (Prov. 1: 12; Isa. 5: 14; Exek. 31: 15, 16), and of rising up out of it (1 Sam. 2: 6; Ps. 30: 3 Prov. 15: 24;
D. M. PANTON.
* *
* * *
* *
348. A TREMENDOUS TRUTH.
There is a tremendous truth of the New Testament, a
truth so vitally important that a correct understanding of the Bible is
impossible without recognizing it: salvation by grace, a free gift to all who trust the merits and
substitutionary work of Christ; rewards are offered by God for the faithful service of the saved. One of these special rewards offered by
Christ to His people is that of reigning
with Him during the [millennial] kingdom.
Only those who suffer with Him will reign with Him. Here is the [conditional] passage which says so: If
we suffer
(with Him), we
shall also reign with Him: if we deny Him, he will also deny
us (2 Tim. 2: 12).
This magnificent reward is spoken of by Paul as The Prize.
Those who attain to a certain spiritual level are to be privileged to
reign with Christ during the Kingdom.
-
The Christian
Victory Magazine.
* *
* * *
* *
349. CROWNS.
Crowns are given for what? In order that we might become rulers in the
Kingdom glory. Christ our Lord is
competent to adjudicate matters of the world.
He is going to associate with Himself co-rulers, statesmen, who are to
regulate things in ages to come in all parts of the world. God does not want hot-house plants to be
rulers over His kingdom. Those who have stood the test are to be
rulers in the kingdom. What kind of
folks did President Hoover select as members of his cabinet? They were picked men. He had had his
eyes on those men, probably, for months and even years, and others were
consulted as to the availability, the competence, of these men. They were tested men. God is looking
out for such men who are to be rulers with Him in the management of kingdom
affairs.
- Christ
Life.
* *
* * *
* *
350. THE REGENERATE BELIEVERS RESPONSIBILITY.
Slowly but surely the truth of the [regenerate]
believers responsibility, with its sequence of tangible rewards favourable or unfavourable,
is permeating the ranks of the truehearted of Gods [redeemed] people, as these
extracts - [ the two quoted above (348
& 349) out of eight ] - all but one written
within the last twelvemonth, prove. That
these sincere and gracious writers may not necessarily agree with each others
contentions is exactly what would happen with a landscape slowly emerging from
a fog, and reported on by observers standing at different angels and with
differently-powered glasses. We have no
doubt at all that the spiritual anemia of the
D. M. PANTON.
* *
* * *
* *
351. ONE TALENT.
Therefore let us seize this truth, and be seized by
it, that one talent can lead straight into the coming Kingdom. If the readiness is there, it is acceptable according as a
man hath, not according as he hath not (2
Cor. 8: 12). I am glad, said Dr.
Talmage, that the chief work of the Church is being done by the men of one talent. The widow, casting in two mites, gave more
than all the wealthy. The one talent can
always be multiplied into two that is, a gain for Christ of a thousand per
cent; it can produce a percentage equal to the highest. The scale on which we work may be vastly
different; but the quality can all be of first class, whatever the scale; and there are men of mean capacities and poor
endowments who will be greatest in the
D. M. PANTON.
* *
* * *
* *
352. A SNARE FOR REGENERATE BELIEVERS.
False
example might lead them (believers)
into a mode of life, which would end in their exclusion from the [millennial]
kingdom. And those examples, too, might
be found, where there was no denial of
the truth, that Jesus was coming to reign.
R. GOVETT.
* *
* * *
* *
353. GOOD WORKS.
Believers are to be careful to maintain good
works. God is not content with your just
attaining to the worlds standard. Not only
keep yourselves from evil, but be positively workers of good.
R. GOVETT.
*
* * *
* * *
354. ABRAHAMS BLESSING.
Who would
share Abrahams blessing
Must Abrahams part pursue;
A stranger and a pilgrim
Like him must journey through.
The foes must be encountered,
The dangers must be passed;
Only a faithful soldier
Receives the
crown at last.
PAUL GEHARDT.
* *
* * *
* *
355. FAITH AND GOOD WORKS.
Faith unites the Christian for justification, and its
work in this respect is complete at once.
In this acceptance works have no place.
All acts before this are sins, and cannot avail to justify. But faith is also an active grace, the spring
of holiness and of good works in the justified.
R. GOVETT.
* *
* * *
* *
356. THREATENINGS.
Be on your guard against the tendency of this
generation, to paste a bit of black paper over all the threatenings of the
Bible.
ALEXANDER MACLAREN,
D.D.
* *
* * *
* *
357. PREPARATION FOR RESURRECTION.
The Holy Spirit prepares us for the coming of the
Lord, and to be among the first fruits at His appearing. There is a remarkable expression in Romans 8: 23, which has a deeper meaning than
appears on the surface Ourselves which have the firstfruits of the Spirit. It means that the Holy Spirit is preparing a first company of holy and consecrated
hearts for the coming of the Lord and the gathering of His saints, and that
these will be followed later by the larger company of all the saved. There is a first resurrection, in which the
blessed and holy shall have part, and for this He is preparing all who are
willing to receive him in His fulness.
Transcendent hour! Unspeakable
privilege! May God enable us to have a part in this blessed hope!
A. B. SIMPSON, D.D.
* *
* * *
* *
358. OVERCOMERS.
The harvest is composed of those FOR whom Christ has overcome, the firstfruits are those IN whom and THROUGH whom He has overcome, as well as having overcome for them.
The Apostle Paul had no doubt about his place in the
main body, for his testimony is clear, I know Whom I have
believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed
unto Him against that day (2 Tim. 1: 12). When, however, he was writing to the
Philippians (3) he told them that there was
one thing he was seeking above all else, the prize
of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus, that he might by any means attain to the out-resurrection from among the dead. He was sure of having a place in the general
harvest, but not sure, as yet, of being one of the firstfruits as an overcomer.
If Peter, James, John, and Andrew needed the warnings
given them by our Lord to Take heed to watch and pray (Mark 13:
3, 5, 9, 23, 33), and be ye also ready
(Matt. 24: 44), it is clear that something
more is wanted of us than faith in Christ for salvation if we would be ripe enough for the firstfruits. The teaching that everyone who believes is ready for the Coming of the Lord
is a deadly narcotic. No wonder the
Church is asleep!
If on the other hand, we see that, being saved, there
is yet a prize to be won which is worth the counting of all else as
refuse, then we find in it a powerful
stimulant to a holy and victorious
life in union with our coming Lord.
A. CHAMPION.
*
* * *
* * *
359. DANGER.
Neither in the days of persecution by the Roman
Empire, nor when Arianism struck at the heart of Christian faith, nor when
Mohammedanism threatened to overwhelm Christendom, has the Church been exposed
to dangers so great and attacks so fierce as those which menace it to-day.
THE BISHOP OF
* *
* * *
* *
360. THE BIBLE.
Mr. Henry
Ford, whose cars thread the world,
puts on record his own experience. All the sense of integrity, honour, and service I have in my
heart I got from hearing the Bible read by a school teacher in the three years
I was privileged to go to a little, old-fashioned grammar school. The teacher read the Bible every morning to
start the day right. I got a great deal
out of that influence. I was brought up
in the church. I belong to the
church. I attend church. I never go to hear a sermon, whether it is by
a teacher in a small church or a large one, but I do not get help.
* *
* * *
* *
361. A DEAD SECT.
I am not afraid that the people called Methodists
should ever cease to exist either in Europe or
JOHN WESLEY.
* *
* * *
* *
362. THE VISION.
Sir James
Simpson, one of
* *
* * *
* *
363. RESURRECTION.
How terribly far many churches have gone in their
apostasy from this vital fact of the Faith can be seen in an unchallenged
statement of Dr. Johnston Ross:- He who can believe
in the resurrection of the flesh can believe anything, for he has crucified and
trampled on his intellect. The flesh is
laid aside for good and all at death.
Our Lords reply exactly fits the proud intellect of the Sadducee:- Ye do err, not
knowing the Scriptures, NOR THE POWER OF GOD (Matt.
22: 29). The God who made man out
of dust can have no difficulty at all in re-making him out of grave-dust: in
the one, moreover, He created a spirit, in the other He
merely restores it. It is only the man who denies creation that stumbles at
resurrection.
* *
* * *
* *
364. RUSSELLISM.
In these last days the believer is wise to regard with
profound distrust every movement that girdles the globe as on visible
wings. Rapidity of transit can be the
work of the Powers of the Air.
Millennial Dawnism, a widespread camouflage of Second Advent truth,
boasts that the works of Judge
Rutherford [in 1932],
its present protagonist published by its organization, the International
Bible Students Association have now reached a circulation of 1000.000.000
copies in 30 languages, within the space of only 10 years, and claims it as a world record.
It is a curious tribute to the anxiety with which Hell watches the
proclamation of the Coming, and seeks to queer the
pitch.
* *
* * *
* *
365. DATES.
This sect which holds that Christ was an archangel before
His birth, a man on earth, and a God since is an admirable warning of the
peril of Advent dates. One of the
studied forecasts of its founder, Mr.
Russell, is this:- The last members of the body or bride of Christ will have been tested and accepted and will have
passed beyond the veil before the close of A.D. 1910. Another runs thus:- The final end of
the kingdoms of this world, and the full establishment of the
* *
* * *
* *
366. CONFUSION
The confounding of the Church and the world, as
expressed (for example) in Hookers
terribly crystalline words One and the self-same
people are the Church and the Commonwealth wrongs both. It has been felt to be shocking that a
*
* * *
* * *
367. THE CHRISTIAN AND POLITICS.
Prayer is a power far greater than any other the
Christian can exert. There has been mush
discussion pro and con as to the Christians non-participation in civil
government. Many still think the vote
to be the Christian citizens exceedingly important political function. But the Christians prayer on behalf of his
country and the governments of the world is little stressed, and no such ado is
made about it as about the trifling power of his vote more than likely
cancelled by some other Christians counter-vote; but in any case a comparatively
small item indeed. I exhort, therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings, be made for
all men; for kings and all that are in high place; that we may lead a tranquil
and quiet life in all godliness and gravity.
This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour (1 Tim. 2: 1).
R. H. BOLL.
2. I am beginning to be stirred up with all the
passion of my soul against the Turk and Mohomet, as I see that intolerable fury
of Satan which is raging haughtily against the bodies and souls of men. I will
pray therefore and weep, nor take any rest until I know that my cry has been heard in heaven.
LUTHER.
3. Is it not strange that when the Church loses her
vision of
* *
* * *
* *
368. THE SPIRIT AND THE CHURCH.
One sentence that Mr.
Gladstone uttered in the course of the discussion has never been forgotten
by me:- It would seem that you Congregationalists rely
almost entirely on the power of the Holy Spirit. May not the secret of our waning power in the
life of the nation to-day be traced to the fact that, perhaps unconsciously, we
have drifted away from that great truth which was writ so large in the ministry
of our churches in their most palmy days that it is not
by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,
says the Lord?
STRANLEY
* *
* * *
* *
369. BE STRONG.
Be strong!
We are not here to play, to dream, to drift,
We have hard work to do, and loads to lift:
Shun not the struggle; face it. is Gods gift
Be strong!
Say not the days are evil whos to blame?
And fold the hands and acquiesce oh, shame!
Stand up, speak out, and bravely, in Gods name.
Be
strong!
It matters not how deep entrenchd the wrong,
How hard the battle goes, the day, how long.
Faint not, fight on!
To-morrow comes the song.
MALTBIE D. BABCOCK.
* *
* * *
* *
370. RESPONSIBILITY.
For only in the double revelation is there the perfect
balance of truth. Justification [by faith] is
instantaneous on a simple act of faith once for all: reward follows on sanctification through a lifetime of service. That a [regenerate] believers sins, if unconfessed and un-abandoned,
will be judged by our Lord on [or before*] His return is clear from 2
Cor. 5: 10:- We must all be made
manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ; that each one may receive the
things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or
bad. Is there a [regenerate] believer
anywhere in the world who denies that bad things
done in the body are sins? but if this is
conceded, the discussion is closed.
Moreover, it is to receive the things done, that is (in the case of evil) their
punitive consequences: as Paul says elsewhere (Col.
3: 25) He that doeth wrong shall RECEIVE AGAIN FOR THE WRONG that he
hath done, and there is no respect of persons: no plea that the
offender is a [regenerate] believer, or a very distinguished [regenerate]
believer, will avail aught.
[*
Note. There must be a judgment before the First Resurrection, to
determine who will have attained that resurrection and an inheritance in the
coming millennial age, when Messiahs glory will be revealed throughout this
earth. Luke 20: 35; Phil. 3: 11; Heb. 11: 35; Rev.
6: 9-11; Heb. 11: 39, 40, etc.]
* *
* * *
* *
371. ASSURANCE.
Nevertheless, as the other half of the perfect orb of
truth, Gods golden statute of limitations
abides forever:- Neither things present NOR
THINGS TO COME shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8: 38). For it is to Romans Eight that we go for
final assurance. To a group of African
evangelists a missionary put the question:-
If bandits seized your all, but left you a
single article, what would you chose?
Holding up the New Testament, they replied This
Book. And
which portion of it, he asked again, if they
gave you the choice? John Three, most replied; but one said:- No, Romans Eight;
for here is recorded what God has done
for us in Christ, and that no monsters, which have slain their thousands, can ever separate us from His love.
* *
* * *
* *
372. CHRISTIAN ACCOUNTABILITY.
Remember that it
was to professing Christians that the words were written:- It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of
the living God. While a
genuine Christian who becomes a backslider will not be
judicially condemned for ever, there
will [if repentance and restoration are not
forthcoming*] be a very serious measure of
personal, practical condemnation when such an one stands before the
judgment-seat of Christ to be dealt with according to works since conversion.
[*
One of the greatest and most encouraging texts found throughout all of
Scripture (addressed to backsliders), is found in Rev.
3: 19-21: As many as I love, I rebuke and
chasten. Therefore be zealous and REPENT.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and
dine with him, and he with Me. To him
who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame
and sat down with My Father on His throne.]
W. H. FRIFFITH THOMAS,
D.D.
* *
* * *
* *
373. THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD
As we look to the Lord Jesus we reflect His light, and
gain continuous manifestation, even as the Moon looks to the Sun, and the arc
light to the great dynamo. A high-caste
Hindu in
W. P. CLARK.
* *
* * *
* *
374. TOO LATE.
A bright boy
heard and was deeply impressed by the text, My son, give Me thine heart. Satan whispered, Time enough yet, and he
put it off. Ten years later a brilliant collegian heard the same
text under the circumstances which seemed to make that the time of his
salvation. Again the tempter whispered
successfully, Time enough yet. Twenty
years later a statesman listened to
the same text from the lips of an aged bishop, and felt it was a message to
him. This time the tempter said, Visit
foreign countries before you decide.
A traveller in
* *
* * *
* *
375. LOVES PERSISTENCE.
On a cloudless January night, late arrived in
BISHOP HANDLEY MOULE.
* *
* * *
* *
376. LOVES WAKEFULNESS.
Everyone who does not believe in Jesus as his Saviour
is spiritually dead. Everyone who does believe
in Him has eternal life and is spiritually alive. The difference between these
two classes of people is as great as the difference between Heaven and
Hell. But among those who are
spiritually alive there are again two great classes. Some are alive and awake to good works. Some are alive, but asleep in sin and
indolence. There is a great difference
in essence between a spiritually dead man and a man spiritually alive who is
asleep, but for all practical purposes there is not so much difference. Not only a dead man, but also a sleeping man
is worthless, as far as working is concerned.
Oh, for the sleeping Christians, hundreds of thousands
of them! They are Christians and
children of God by faith in Jesus Christ, but you will not be able to distinguish
and tell the difference between them and those who are not Christians at
all. And what a task to wake them
up! A few hundred yards from our house
in
O. W. LINNEMEIER.
* *
* * *
* *
377. LOVES PARDON.
A man once came to Dr. R. A. Torrey in
* *
* * *
* *
378. CONQUERING DEATH.
A friend said to Philip
Jenks just before he expired:- How hard it is to die! Oh, no, no, no!
he replied, Easy dying! Blessed dying! Glorious dying! I have experienced more happiness two hours
today, while dying, than in my whole life.
I have long desired that I might glorify God in my death; but oh, I
never thought that such a poor worm as I could come to such a glorious death. Penry,
about to be led to the gallows, exclaimed:- If my
blood were an ocean sea, and every drop if it were a life unto me, I would give them all up, by the help of God
to maintain my confession. For Polycrap, Augustine, Huss, Jerome of Prague, Bernard, Luther, Melancthon, Xavier, (also the dearest friend the writer ever had), even the Son
of God Himself, all prayed the proto-martyrs prayer:- Receive my spirit!
* *
* * *
* *
379. THE MARTYR SPIRIT.
Jane Welsh, the daughter of John Knox, when assured by the prison
officials that her husband John Welsh,
would be freed if only he would renounce the Protestant Faith, replied,
gathering up her apron in her hands:- No, your Lordships; I would rather catch his head in this
apron than that he or I should renounce my Saviour. Wishart
said before his execution:- Consider and behold my
visage, ye shall not see me change my colour, addressing a few faithful
followers who were present. His dying
exhortation was so solemn that even the men who had charge of his execution
were moved. The chief executioner fell on his knees before the bound martyr,
saying:- Sir,
I pray you forgive me, for I am not guilty of your death. Wishart told him to climb over the pile of
wood which surrounded him. Then he
kissed the executioner, saying:- Do thy office, this is the token that I forgive thee.
*
* * *
* * *
380. DEATH WITHOUT CHRIST.
A great Atheist was burnt to death in
*
* * *
* * *
381. FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH.
Their
names are names of kings
Of heavenly line;
The bliss of earthly things
They did resign.
Chieftains
they were, who warrd
With sword and shield:
Victors for God the Lord
On foughten field.
A city of
great name
Is built for them,
Of glorious golden fame,
So doth
the life of pain
In glory close:
Lord God, may
we attain
Their grand
repose.
* *
* * *
* *
382. A REFERENCE.
Dr. James H.
Gray, the principle of the Moody Bible
Institute, Chicago, in a very gracious letter writes to us on the attitude of Mr. Moody and Dr. Pierson on rapture:- These men were intimately known to me, and I was in their
company oft and on quite constantly during the latter years of their lives, and
if they had changed their views, it seems almost incredible to me that it
should not have been known to us.
On such a point especially as it relates to Mr. Moody we feel that Dr. Grays testimony is decisive. In a clash of evidence this holds the
field. But the important point for us
(as we would all agree) is not what beloved leaders have held (helpful though
that is) such as Moody and Pierson and Scofield; or Tregelles
and Muller and Baron; or Seiss and Pember and Govett: but what saith the Scripture? We are in days of profound challenge, and every doctrine that cannot prove itself by
Holy Writ must go the board, whatever the names with which it has been
established.
* *
* * *
* *
383. THE KINGDOM.
Much (we hope most) of the opposition felt for a
believers possible exclusion from the
* *
* * *
* *
384. EXCLUSION.
So Lange, summarizing the Churchs outlook for
nineteen centuries on Christs co-kings in the Millennium, divides that outlook
into three:- Some
hold that they are all the saints; others, that they are only the martyrs;
others still, that they are the specially faithful, including the martyrs. And the last great orthodox work on the
Apocalypse by Dr. Swete, Regius Professor of Divinity at
* *
* * *
* *
385. INQUIRY.
Is it not wise for every disciple of Christ to look
into this question? The gratuitous and
the easy must ever be the popular, while that which costs, repels. But much is at stake, and its effort on life
is singularly convincing. An apt illustration
comes to hand at the moment. A
correspondent in China (we would give his name, if we had time to get his
permission) writes:- As I was sure when first I studied the question of the
Coming of the Lord that I was not
mistaken in believing it, so I am sure now that I am not led astray over the
question of the Kingdom. It has made a
great difference to my spiritual life, and in my outlook on life, and if I find
myself in the Kingdom, as I hope and pray, I want to tell you now that you have
a large part in helping me to get there.
These facts I can never unsee. I
have translated the DAWNS articles freely into Chinese; and now for the first
time I feel that I understand the Book of Revelation, and I read it constantly
with joy.
* *
* *
* * *
386. DENIAL OF THE LITERAL REIGN.
What disaster has been wrought by the
* *
* * *
* *
387. INTERCESSION.
A Protestant pastor was driven by persecution from the
Canton de Vaud, in Switzerland; and years after one of his bitterest
persecutors, having been converted, travelled all the way to his new home to
tell him so; and was unutterably astonished when the pastor said:- I am not at
all surprised, for I have prayed for you all these seven
years.
* *
* * *
* *
388. DEATH.
Entombed with Christ. Macarius, a distinguished teacher of
* *
* *
* * *
389. BURIAL.
Forgetting the things behind. I often
wonder what we would think if some day we opened our morning paper and
discovered a glowing tribute to a system of forgetting. We would probably suppose that it was
something in the nature of a jest. Why, we would say, that is
the very thing we want to avoid. We are
always forgetting. It is fatally
easy. It is a hindrance and a snare to
us. And we would make up our
minds to have nothing to do with the system of forgetting. Yet it may be said with certainty that to
learn to forget is one of the supreme lessons of life. Many of the most sombre and tragic facts of
experience, many of the most heart-breaking divisions, many of the things that
shatter happiness and maim usefulness, would be overcome if only men practised
the art of forgetting. One may say,
indeed, that this is a divine art.
B. C. DUGAN, M.A.
* *
* * *
* *
390. THE FIRST RESURRECTION.
The Spirit slips in a warning and an incentive for an
ear sensitive enough to hear it. For if we have become united with Him
if we have become His fellow-plants in the
likeness of His death that is, in baptism, the ritual photograph, the
baptismal plunge (Bishop Moule) we shall be also we shall be correspondingly, on a
future date, fellow-plants, fellow-partakers of His
resurrection the First:* that is, if the ritual burial and
resurrection has its corresponding spiritual reality, and if the spiritual reality
has its corresponding ritual, ours shall be the First Resurrection, of which
Christ is already the Firstfruits. Seeds
sown together, spring together. The if marks the resurrection to be the prize
of our calling, not attained by all [regenerate]
believers, but dependant on the holiness called for by God the contrast
to the continuance in sin of the proposal
ROBERT GOVETT.
* So Pauls passion for himself (Phil. 3: 11) is an identical emergence
from the
mass of the unrisen: and our Lord warns Nicodemus (John
3: 5), that birth out of water,
as well as conception by the Spirit,
is a condition for entrance into the
Kingdom.
* *
* * *
* *
391. THE DISABLEMENT OF SATAN.
This the key to world progress is the disablement of
Satan; and the Saviour foreshadows the great triumph when, a demon having been
expelled, He says:- If I by the finger of God cast out demons, then
the Kingdom of God is come upon you (Luke
11: 20). The fatal obstacle to
the Kingdom (as He immediately adds) is the Strong Spirit, armed with invisible
legions, who holds the palace the world undisturbed, unmolested; therefore
only by a personal encounter between Himself and Satan, a death-grapple, and a
shackling of the Usurper, can the Lord Jesus divide
his spoils (Luke 11: 2) overthrow
the world-dominion; in the day when Christ shall
divide the spoil with the strong (Isa. 53:
12) the fellows of the Christ (Heb. 1: 9) who
enter the world-rule by overcoming strength. And I saw an angel
having a great chain in his hand, and he bound Satan (Rev. 20: 1); and immediately the
* *
* * *
* *
392. PRAYERS FOR RULERS.
Let me remind you of the importance of the command not to speak evil of dignitaries, but
on the contrary, to pray for those in
authority. The rulers of this land
have often a difficult path; it is not easy for them to take our part against
their own people. We do well to pray
that they may have courage and wisdom to act firmly and justly. Such prayers should be public as well as
private. Much may depend on their
finding that Christianity promotes
loyalty to the powers that be, and the giving of honour to those to whom it is
due.
* *
* * *
* *
393. THE AGE TO COME.
1. The truly perfected Christians, the eschatological
Christians, the approved ones of the end-time, with all the martyrs, are,
through the first resurrection, not only exempted from the judgment, but also
called to share in its administration. Those not pre-eminently animated by the
principle of the life of Christ, not led toward the first resurrection, are,
therefore, a whole aeon deeper under the power of death.
J. P. LANGE, D.D.
2. These share with Christ in His judging and
shepherdising of the nations; but it is
only to those who have overcome, and been crowned by the great Judge of all as
victors to the Manchild born into immortality and caught up to God and
His throne that their power over the nations thus to rule or shepherdise is
given.
J. A. SEISS, D.D.
3. Is it not
worth some inconvenience to avert our loss of Millennial glories? Is it not worth a struggle, worth many
labours and pains, and much endurance of neglect and the slight of the world,
if we may so become priests of God and of Christ and reign with Him? To some these words (Heb.
4: 11) may, perhaps, seem little more than vague sentiment. But they are not to be so regarded: we shall
find them a stern and inexorable truth when we stand before the Judgment Seat
of Christ.
G. H. PEMBER.
4. Of this I am satisfied, that the next coming of
Christ will be a coming, not to final judgment, but a coming to usher in the Millennium. I utterly despair of the universal prevalence
of Christianity as the result of a missionary process. I look for its conclusive establishment
through a widening passage of desolations and judgments, with the demolition of
our civil and ecclesiastical structures.
Overturn, Overturn, Overturn, is the
watchword of our coming Lord. I desire
to cherish a more habitual and practical faith than heretofore in the coming
which even the first Christians were called to hope for with all earnestness,
even though many centuries were to lapse ere the hope could be realized; and
how much more we who are so much nearer this great fulfilment than at the time
when we believed!
Dr. CHALMERS,
Edinburgh, 1850.
5. If I am to
judge the world then, God would not have me meddling with the world now. This was the very argument that the Apostle Paul
used (1 Cor. 6: 1, 2) when blaming the
Corinthian believers because they went before the judgment seat of men. It is beneath the Christian calling. Of course, I do not mean by this in any way
to slight the powers that be. A
Christian ought to be ready any day and in all things to show them
respect. He can afford to be the
humblest man in the world, because he is the highest one. He has got a better exaltation that will
shine most when this world has come to nothing.
WILLIAM KELLY.
6. Can it be a low or carnal thing for Christ to reign
on the earth? Does it become them who are spiritual to despise that dominion as mean
and carnal which God the Father promised to confer on His beloved Son, as the
meet reward of His matchless humiliation and obedience? Can that be unworthy of the esteem of His
spouse which is not below the dignity of Christ Himself? It
constitutes an important part of that gracious reward which shall be conferred
on the faithful soldiers of Jesus, after they overcome. The saints shall reign with various different
degrees of authority, in proportion to their religious attainments and
sufferings while in the body. The cross is the way to the crown. Those who suffer with Jesus shall reign with
Him.
Exells Biblical
Illustrator.
* *
* * *
* *
394. TRUTHFULNESS.
If a man adopts a calling which entails lying, such as
that of a spy, he cannot expect to escape the guilt that attaches to a
liar. If a physician is afraid to tell
his patient the truth lest he should endanger his patients life, it is, as a
Scotch author declares, because he fears to put his trust in Gods
R. H. CHARLES, D.D.
* * *
* * *
*
395. DISARMAMENT.
Disarmament experts are kindly doctors for ever
blundering through a wrong diagnosis.
The powred is in the heart before it is in the gun, and it remains in
the heart after the gun is empty. The
* *
* * *
* *
396. I COME QUICKLY.
This announcement of the coming of the Lord, the
ever-recurring key-note of this Book (Rev. 22: 7,
12, 20), is sometimes used as a word of fear for those who are abusing
the Masters absence, wasting His goods, and ill-treating their
fellow-servants; careless and secure as those for whom no day of reckoning
should ever arrive (Matt. 24: 48-51; 2 Thess. 1: 7,
9; 1 Pet. 4: 5; cf. Jas. 5: 9; Rev. 2: 5, 16);* but sometimes as a word of infinite comfort for those
with difficulty and painfulness holding their ground; He that should bring the
long contest at once to an end; who should at once turn the scale, and for ever,
in favour of righteousness and truth, is even at the door (Jas. 5: 8; Phil. 4: 5; 2 Thess. 1: 20; Heb. 10: 37; 2
Pet. 3: 14).
ARCHBISHOP TRENCH.
* Thus the current prophetical view that the Advent is
a crisis of pure joy to all believers, irrespective of their attitude or
conduct, is quite untrue. But the most
crucial disproof the Archbishop has overlooked.
To the Sardian Angel, unwatchful, back-slidden, the Lord Himself makes
His arrival a direct threat, and therefore one that cannot be denied as a church
threat. If thou
shalt not watch, I will come as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I
will come upon [arrive over] thee (Rev. 3: 3):
the Parousia will have begun, and the un-rapt Angel will not even know it. D.
M. PANTON.
* *
* *
* * *
397. THE KEY OF DAVID.
In Isaiah 55.,
where Jesus is addressing Himself to all that would listen, whether Jew or
Gentile, He promises, I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Now the promise of the eternal throne to David
and to his Son could only be accomplished in resurrection (Luke 1: 32; Jer. 30: 9; Exek. 34: 23, 24). Therefore the apostle Paul, in his sermon at
But the opening of Hades is in order to the
ROBERT GOVETT.
* *
* * *
* *
398. HE THAT SHUTTETH AND NONE OPENETH.
Lord, open to us; and he
shall answer, Depart from me, all ye
workers of iniquity (Luke 13: 25). A little boy was sent away from the table for
some misdemeanour and told to stand outside the dining-room door for five
minutes as a punishment. He obeyed with
tears streaming down his cheeks. When
the time of his punishment expired, his little sister was sent to bring him
back. The father held out his arms, and
the boy ran to them. As he was enfolded
in his fathers embrace he said:- I am sorry I was
naughty. The father kissed him,
and wiped away the tears, and then told him about the text in the Bible; And the door was shut. The boy thought he never would
forget the picture of the naughty ones who were shut out of heaven, but he
did. Years passed, he became an
engineer, and was in a mine, when a fearful explosion occurred. He ordered all the one hundred and twenty men
who were with him to remain behind a closed iron door, as it would keep out the
fire-damp and poisonous gasses until they were rescued. Whilst the long hours passed, the memory of
the shut door came to him, and with it a knowledge of the safety of those who
were shut in with Christ. In that mine
he gave himself at last to Christ, and told the men what he was doing, and
why. Not a few followed his example.
* *
* * *
* *
399.MAY HE WAKE US UP!
One formula John ever uses to describe the Overcomers,
And they overcame him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony,
and they loved not their lives unto the death a three-fold qualification.
And these overcomers were already, in some degree, taken up into the
heavenly place of regency. Together with
their Great Overcomer, the First-born out of the dead
(1: 5), these firstfruits
were already caught up unto God and His throne. Those not barred by disqualifications that
each of the Apostles and our Lord Jesus clearly point out (as Gal. 5: 19-21, etc.), will have position and
rulership in that coming Kingdom, - those who suffer with Him (2 Tim. 2: 12;
Rom. 8: 17); those who are counted worthy
(Luke 21: 36); those who are approved (1 Cor.
9: 27, Gr.); those who are faithful
stewards (Matt. 25: 21, 30). All these qualifications are experimental and
personal and the whole subject needs a revised study by Gods faithful
servants and teachers. May He
wake us up!
* *
* * *
* *
400.THE KINGDOM.
We must through much tribulation enter into the
kingdom of heaven. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution. If thou art in the
way to the kingdom, my life for thine thou wilt come at the cross shortly (the
Lord grant that thou dost not shrink at it, so as to turn thee back
again). If any
man will come after me, saith Christ, let him
deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. The cross it stands and hath stood from the
beginning as a way-mark to the kingdom of heaven.
JOHN BUNYAN.
* *
* * *
* *
401. DECEPTION.
The disaster wrought by a spiritist
movement with genuine Christians in it, and (it may be) preaching the Gospel
with genuine conversions, few believers realize. Miss
Ruth Paxson, a well-known worker in
* *
* * *
* *
402. DEMONIC
MIRACLES.
One sure proof of the supernatural in such groups as
Irvingism or the Tongues Movement is not Divine is the total absence of working of miracles (1
Cor. 12: 10); for the supernatural in them is almost totally confined to
the trivial tongues which have abounded in
demonisms all down the ages. But there
are two miraculous powers which our Lord foretold (Mark
16: 18) for His disciples while miraculous gifts remained the handling
of serpents and the drinking of poisons which have been reproduced for
centuries in the East, as effectively as Jannes and Jambres countered the
lesser miracles of Moses and Aaron. But
the recent [following]
example shows how dangerously the demonic miracle can collapse.
In December
last year [i.e., in 1931] Narasingha,
an Indian yogi, gave a demonstration at the Physics Theatre of the Presidency
College of Calcutta University. Dr. Neogy, the Professor of Chemistry
there, had met him at Madhupore, where he saw him lick five or six drops of
aqua regia, chew and swallow bits of glass, and stuff glowing charcoal into his
mouth, keeping it there until it ceased to glow. The demonstration in
Then there came the final triumph and tragedy. Narasingha went to
* *
* * *
* *
403. THE SHACKLING OF THE USURPER.
The key to world-progress is the disablement of Satan;
and the Saviour foreshadows the great triumph when, a demon having been
expelled, He says:- If I by the finger of God cast out demons, then
is the Kingdom of God come upon you (Luke
11: 20). The fatal obstacle to
the Kingdom (as He immediately adds) is the Strong Spirit, armed with invisible
legions, who holds his place the world undisturbed, unmolested: therefore only by a personal encounter between
Himself and Satan, a death-grapple, and a shackling of the Usurper, can the
Lord Jesus divide the spoils (Luke 11: 2) overthrow his world-dominion; in the
day when Christ shall divide the spoil with the strong
(Isa. 53: 12) the fellows of the Christ (Heb. 1: 9)
who enter on world-rule by overcoming
strength. And
I saw an angel having a great chain in his hand, and he bound Satan (Rev. 20: 1); and immediately the
* Presumably all
other evil spirits are incarcerated with Satan in the Abyss. In that day I will cause the unclean
spirit to pass out of the land [earth] (Zech. 13: 2).
It was to the Abyss that they even then expected to be sent (Luke 8: 31) when they encountered our Lord at the
first Advent. How increasingly invisible
spirits are pushing men into crime is evident on the confession of criminals
themselves. I
tried for days, says Paul
Gorguloff, the murderer of the French
President, M. Doumer, to ward off the evil spirit
which constantly urged me on to murder.
Silvester Matuska, the
Hungarian who wrecked a train near
* *
* * *
* *
404. ALL THINGS WORKONG TOGETHER.
Thro long
days did Anguish
And sad nights did Pain
Forge my shield, ENDURANCE,
Bright and free of stain!
Doubt,
in misty caverns,
Mid dark horrors sought
Till my peerless jewel,
FAITH, to me she brought.
Sorrow, that I wearied
Should remain so long
Wreathed my starry glory,
The bright crown of SONG.
Strife, that rackd my spirit
Without hope or rest,
Left the blossoming flower,
PATIENCE, in my breast.
* *
* *
* * *
405. THE PRIZE.
Some one I love went home to-day,
Went home to God.
I cannot say
how I can live the years until
I see her face again, how fill
the empty days.
I only know,
yes, know, that some day I shall go
to her, and hear her voice again,
and touch her hand.
Ah, Love!
Till then,
my chart upon this lonely sea,
those last faint words she spoke to me!
Dear, keep the home
together, and
the boys in school. Sacred
command,
my task until the prize is won, -
Her smile, her words, Belovd,
well done!
Some One I love went home one day,
went home to God.
He did not say
how long He would be gone, nor when
He would be coming back again.*
I only know that He has gone
to make a place for me. Some dawn
or evening light Hell come for me!
Till then there is a task that He
has set for me, His last command, - **
to preach the Word!
O heart and hand,
to be consecrated to His cause,
spend strength and purse and store, nor purse
until that wonderous prize
is won, -
His tender words, Belovd
well done!
MARTHA S.
NICHOLSON.
[* Acts 1: 7. ** Acts 1: 3.]
* *
* * *
* *
406. OPTIMISM.
I am an optimist and proclaiming optimism. Were I a pessimist, I should now be declaring
that the Image seen by Daniels sovereign never could be destroyed; and that it
would go on trampling beneath its feet of iron and clay the best hopes of
humanity. But I have no such doleful
message to deliver. My song is that of
the lark; I herald the day, not the night; but
I dare not hide from myself the fact that night precedes the day. The Stone which the
builders rejected, aye, The Stone cut out of
the mountain, shall finally end all these evils, and fill the whole earth.
J. G. LORIMER,
* *
* * *
* *
407. JOY.
The costliest services of Christ can be the fullest of
joy. An English Judge said in the Great
War:- The only
happy people I have seen during the war are the Conscientious Objectors in-prison;
and one of these men said to the writer, - Apart from
being away from home, these three months have been the happiest of my life. I feel so full of
joy, another wrote to me, that I can hardly
write properly. Moreover, it is
possible to account it, when we cannot feel it, all
joy altogether joy when we fall into diverse testings, for through
them we become PERFECT
AND ENTIRE, wanting in nothing (Jas. 1:
2.)
* *
* * *
* *
408. THE BELIEVERS TEKEL.
The following appears behind the Bench in an
* *
* * *
* *
409. PERSEVERANCE.
I once heard a woman give this testimony. She had prayed forty years for the conversion
of her husband and God seemingly had not heard her prayer. She was going on a journey and before she
started she went down on her knees and said, O God,
save my husband, Ive been praying for
forty years, isnt that long enough? Its
as long as the children of
* *
* * *
* *
410. THE STONE, THE CHURCH AND THE KINGDOM.
If the Stone is the mystical Kingdom, the Church, the
Dream is false, for the First Advent smites the Image before the Empire of
Rome, as an empire existed. The whole
conception of the Church smashing the great world-powers is grotesque and
deeply anti-Scriptural; but no imagery could more exactly define the Second
Advent than the rush of the Stone through the air, crashing downwards, and
shattering the Image at Armageddon.
Cromwells Ironsides and the fifth monarchy
men regenerate souls whose aim was this very Fifth or Divine Empire
attempted what must always be a failure out of the hands of Christ. The complete reversal, by events, of the conversion of the world theory supposed to be in the
Dream for the Stone fills the whole earth
will be an earthquake shock for a faith tragically built on an exegesis
transparently false. *
D. M. PANTON.
[* But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide
with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the
rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the
wicked: (Isa. 11: 4).]
* *
* *
* * *
411. THE BREAD AND WINE.
Certainly if the Sacrament could speak, thus would it
speak:- I am a creature as St. Ambrose teacheth you: I am a
fragment or piece of bread as S. Cyril
teacheth you: I am a thing un-sensible and void of life as Epiphanius teacheth you: I am a corporate food and pass into your
bodies and increase in substance of your flesh as other meats do, as Origenes and Irenaeus have taught you: I mould and putrifie and am subject to
corruption, as your eyes and senses may easily teach you: I am a Sacrament of
Christ, I am not Christ: I am a creature of God, I am not God. Ye do wrong unto me, ye do wrong unto God,
the worms of the earth and the birds of the air will condemn your folly: give
not this honour unto me, give godly honour unto God. If the Sacrament could speak, this would it
speak: and bring a dumb and lifeless thing and not able to speak yet thus it
speaketh.
God open the eyes and hearts of all men that they may
see and discern the Almighty and Everlasting God from corruptible creature that
is no God. Amen.
BISHOP JEWEL.
* *
* * *
* *
412. THE OIL OF THE SPIRIT.
No sooner has the Judgment Flood spent its fury, and
Noah (Christ) in the
Olive oil alone was used for the
* *
* * *
* *
413. REGENERATION.
The collapse of the Millennial Age is as powerful a
proof as could be conceived that nothing short of the radical change which
Christ defines as another birth, and such a new birth absolutely universal, can
produce a perfect world, and that nothing else (political or social or
economic) is worth a godly mans effort now.
For man will be tried under the most perfect government imaginable, the
government of the Son of Man; he will be tried with the best of surroundings, a
perfect earth and a perfect society; towards the close of the millennial reign,
with hundreds of years of perfect government and environment behind him, he
will be perfectly born; and yet with all these things perfect government,
perfect surroundings, perfect heredity, perfect prosperity, justice, peace,
health and wealth all around him, he will leap, at the devils call, into a
state of rebellion against God. For men
to inherit Gods eternal kingdom they must not only have been restrained
outwardly from bad habits, but they must have become inwardly right; and this
no government not even the government of the Son of Man can secure. During the millennial reign men will be held
under restraint, but only those who intelligently, consciously and voluntarily
accept the Lord Jesus Christ will be regenerated. And that the condemnation of the others, who
have only suddenly yielded to the force of circumstances, may be clear in the
eyes of all Gods creatures, the devil will be let loose that what is in man
may be revealed. The letting loose of
Satan will corrupt none in whose heart the Spirit of God has sway; but it will
give the opportunity to those who are still inwardly bad and unreconciled to
God to prove by outward action what they are.
And so these two things, the reign of Christ and the outbreak of evil,
will be the final proof that man needs to be born again, and that God is justified
in all His dealings with men. Until
Satan, his legions, and all the obstinately unregenerate are segregated in
Hell, the universe is hopelessly charged with dynamite.
* *
* * *
* *
414. CLOTHES.
The Rector of Shanklin
recently startled his parishioners by spacing this prominently in his church
porch:- A woman
shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a
womans garment; for whosoever doeth these things is an abomination unto the Lord thy
God (Deut. 22: 5).
* *
* * *
* *
415. GNOSTIC
We did not know that our October issue was to receive
startling confirmation so soon. A
Commission for Foreign Missions Inquiry in
D. M. PANTON.
* *
* * *
* *
416. FALSE GODS.
What a lie false deities are against the supreme
majesty of God! Their number is a lie
against His unity; their corporeal nature is a lie against His pure, invisible
spirituality; their confined and local residence a lie against His omnipresence
and infinity; their limited and subdivided departments of operation a lie
against His universal proprietorship and dominion; their follies and weaknesses
a lie against His infinite wisdom; their defects, vices, and crimes a lie against
His unsullied purity and perfection. Idolatry, says De
Quincey, is not an evil, and one utterly
beyond the power of social institutions to redress; but, in fact, it is the fountain of all other evil that
seriously menaces the destiny of the human race. A young married couple of
* *
* * *
* *
417. THE CRY OF THE JEW.
(Written by a Jew)
There is
no face in pity bent
When by the way I fall,
No anxious, loving Shepherd comes
In answer to by call;
There are no tender eyes to seek,
No gentle arms to hold,
No nail-pierced hands to take me up
And bring me to the fold.
And when
on naked, bleeding feet
To
And stagger, crushd, beneath the Cross
Theres none to heed or know;
Theres none to lift the cruel weight,
Theres none to even share
O Thou Who climbd the Hill before
Look down and help me bear.
* *
* * *
* *
418. MARANATHA.
For the past thirty years or so the discernment of the
eschatological character of the Gospel of Jesus has more and more come to the
front in international Christian theology.
I regard this as one of the greatest steps forward that theological
enquiry has ever achieved. We, to-day, must lay the strongest possible
stress upon the eschatological character of that Gospel which it is the
practical business of the Church to proclaim. Namely, that we must daily focus our minds
upon the fact that the
ADOLF DEISMANN, D.D., at the
* *
* * *
* *
419. OUR RECREATIONS.
Not everyone is interested in the same type of
amusement and all do not have the same opportunity. Taste and good judgment are needed. It is important therefore that we in choosing
amusements consider the following factors:-
1. Is it in harmony with the law of God and the Spirit
of Christ? Does it tend to obscure ones
vision of God?
2. Is it a true recreation building up physical,
mental and spiritual strength?
3. Is it using only a justifiable amount of time, strength
or money not an extravagance?
4. Is it interfering with prior claims of greater
importance in business or in service to God and man?
5. Is it helpful, not injurious or dangerous, to
others who may participate or witness the sport or diversion? (
6. Is it in harmony with the high life purpose and
does it help to attain a worth-while goal?
It is important that a Christian
keep the goal in sight. Steer, do not
drift.
7. Is it one in which I can participate to the glory of
God? A mans recreation what he does when he is off duty is a test of his true character.
DELAVAN L. PIERSON.
* *
* * *
* *
420. IN CLOUDS.
The change in a moment
(1 Cor. 15: 51) is constantly identified
with rapture; but the passage says nothing concerning rapture, and other
Scriptures do not identify the two, the change
here named taking place, not at the removal, but at
the last trump.* Enoch and
Elijah are not yet changed, though both have
been rapt.
Jesus was risen, but not glorified, when Mary mistook Him for the
gardener. The pavilion
of cloud (Ps. 18: 11, 16) must be
somewhere within the cloud-area, not above it; and the Son of Man, throughout
the time of reaping, is on a white (therefore illuminated)
cloud (Rev. 14: 14).
* All will be changed together, but all are not rapt
together. But the passage is susceptible
of another and perhaps more probable meaning:- each in
his own order, or company. The
Last Trump may be the Trumpet (not its blasts) which ushers in and controls (1 Thess. 4: 16) the entire judgment epoch. The ev
sometimes signifies during the time that, while.
* *
* * *
* *
421. KINDNESS.
It is well to bear in mind that the Holy Spirit can
and would produce in us an attitude of constant kindness. I one knew two
pastors, says W. P. White, one a
Fundamentalist, and one a Modernist who severely criticized his brother
minister. By an accident the Modernists
wife was horribly burned; and the Fundamentalist immediately raised £200 among
his business friends for special medical treatment. Within half an hour the husband knocked at
his study door. With tears rolling down
his cheeks he said, - May I join your Monday
night Bible class, my brother? I want to
study your theology. To-day that man is preaching the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, a thorough-going Fundamentalist and pre-millennialist. Love won him.
* *
* * *
* *
422. FLIGHT.
When these things begin to
come to pass, our Lord says of certain symptoms of the Advent, LOOK UP, and lift up your heads (Luke 21: 28).
For our only avenue of escape is into the skies. Who are these,
exclaims a wondering Jewish Prophet (Isa. 60: 8),
that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows? At night (as the Morning Star has reminded
us) as Dr. Horatius Bonar retired to
rest, his last action ere he laid down to sleep was to draw aside the curtain
and, looking up into the starry heavens, say:-
Perhaps to-night, Lord? In the morning, as he rose, his first
movement was to raise the blind, and looking out upon the grey dawn, remark:- Perhaps to-day, Lord?
* *
* * *
* *
423. I COME QUICKLY.
This announcement of the speedy coming of the Lord,
the ever-recurring key-note of this Book (Rev. 22:
7, 20), is sometimes used as a word of fear for those who are abusing
the Masters absence, wasting His goods, and ill-treating their
fellow-servants; careless and secure of those whom no day of reckoning should
ever arrive (Matt. 24: 48-51; 2 Thess. 1: 7-9; 1
Pet. 4: 5; cf. Jas. 5: 9; Rev. 2: 5, 16);* but sometimes as a word of
infinite comfort for those with difficulty and painfulness holding their
ground; He that should bring the long contest at once to an end; who should at
once turn the scale, and for ever, in favour of righteousness and truth, is
even at the door (Jas. 5: 8; Phil. 4: 5; 2 Thess.
1: 20; Heb. 10: 37; 2 Pet. 3: 14).
ARCHBISHOP TRENCH.
* Thus the current prophetical view that the Advent is
a crisis of pure joy to all believers, irrespective of their attitude or
conduct, is quite untrue. But the most
crucial disproof the Archbishop has overlooked.
To the Sardian Angel, unwatchful, back-slidden, the Lord Himself makes
His arrival a direct threat, and therefore one that cannot be denied as a church
threat. If thou
shalt not watch, I will come as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I
will come upon [See Greek: arrive over] thee
(Rev. 3: 3): the Parousia will have begun,
and the un-rapt Angel will not even know it. D. M. PANTON.
*
* * *
* * *
424. ASSURANCE.
Do not tell anybody they are saved. I never do.
I leave that for the Holy Ghost to do.
I tell them how to get saved. I
try to help them to the way of faith. I
will bring them up as close as ever I can to the blessed broken body of their
Lord, and I will try to show them how willing He is to receive them; and I know
that when really they do receive Him, the
Spirit of God will tell them quickly enough that they are saved. He will not want any assistance about
that. I have proved it in hundreds of
cases. Nobody knows the soul but God. Nobody can see the secret windings of the
depraved heart but God. Nobody can tell
when a soul is whole-hearted but God, and as soon as He sees it, He will tell
that soul it is saved.
CATHARINE BOOTH.
* *
* * *
* *
425. THE
I deemd
my Soul too small to shelter Thee
Yet opend wide the door:
Then, at Thy coming, Lo! Thou hast a key
To outer, unknown rooms unguessd, by me,
Dwelling so humbly poor.
Thy Servants come with Thee. (I blushd for shame
That they should see how bare
My flesh was!): Pain and Patience in Thy name
To beautyify it, richly laden, came
And made a Palace there.
Abashd, I
mournd I could not offer more
Than this poor heart to Thee;
But all submission watchd Thee ope each door
The while they heapd Thy treasures on the floor,
The gifts Thou gavest me.
Transformd and marvellous my Dwelling now;
(Not mine though shared with Thee):
To me Thou dost, all graciously, allow
Thy royal fare: so Host, not Guest, art Thou
Henceforth eternally.
NINA DE SEVIN.
* *
* * *
* *
426. REGENERATION.
This is a battle that must be fought to the
death. Where there is no regenerating truth, there is no regeneration. Theosophists and Spiritualists speak of their
radiant joy; I have
known of people, says Dr. Basil
Atkinson, who never knew joy and peace until they
became Christian Scientists; the Mormon boldly claims regeneration; the Christadelphian declares that he
is the only converted man; but
since none of these accepts the sole truth which regenerates (1 John 5: 1), whatever their experience may be, it
is not Christianity, and therefore what they experience is not the Divine life. The Hindu profligate becomes the flogged and
spiked guru; for there can be life changing without life.
* *
* * *
* *
427. SEEDS OF TRUTH IN A BED OF ERROR.
Seeds of truth even in a bed of error the Holy Ghost
can make grow. When I was a boy (says a
Moslem, now an earnest Christian and a college professor) of thirteen years and
onward until nineteen years I was much interested in the Christian
religion. I read my Christian books of
controversial character, among them the Mizan-ul-Haqq
(Balance of Truth), and the Asmar-i-Shirin
(Sweet First Faith) and the Minar-ul-Haqq
(The Pillar of Truth). By-and-by my
father came to know of my interest in these Christian books and one day he
discovered my library, and after becoming acquainted with their teaching he
became furiously angry with me. Seizing
the books he consigned them to the flames and threatened to disinherit me if he
ever heard of my having anything to do with such books or with the Christian
religion.
Bereft of my books, I began to study the Koran. I made a point to learn what the Koran taught
in regard to Jesus. I made special notes
on the following points:-
1. The miraculous birth of Jesus and the good news
given by the angels.
2. The miracles of Jesus, especially his cleansing the
lepers, raising the dead, giving sight to one born blind, etc. Of Mohammed
none of these things were said: he wrought no miracles.
3. The perfectly pure and holy character of the Mother
of Jesus, greatly emphasized in the Koran.
This also was said that He was of a pious family.
4. The fact that Jesus was called The Word of God and The
Spirit of God.
5. That Jesus is beloved both in this world and in
that which is to come; and one who was counted worthy to enter into the Divine
Presence.
6. That God gave to Jesus a Book (the Gospel) and
wisdom.
7. That Jesus claimed to have brought a sign from God.
8. That Jesus is a type of the Resurrection.
This much is said for Jesus, but not one of these
things is said of Mohammed.
When I became a young man I was fond of antagonizing
the Christian preachers, arguing against their religion; and when I worsted
them in arguments I was very proud of having done so. Nevertheless, when I recalled the testimony
of the Koran to Jesus claims, already mentioned above, and also the things I
had read in the Bible, and especially Jesus words, I
am the Way, I felt convicted of sin.
Then I began to question whether Jesus ever said the things I had read
in the Gospel according to John. I then
began to pray earnestly that God might show me the truth. At last one night I awoke about two or three
oclock; I arose from my bed, performed the ceremonial rites of purifying
myself and sat on my prayer carpet, and recited my prayer. I cried out as in the agony of death, Almighty God, reveal to me the thing which I desire to know. Then I fell asleep upon the prayer
carpet. I then saw a light shining and
then a person stood by clad in a long white robe. Embracing me he said, What you have read in the Gospel about Jesus is true, and
Christ has sent me to comfort your heart and lead you to believe. I replied, Amanna o Sadaqua (I believe and I
accept). I then awoke full of joy, and
from that day I set myself to seek Him whom I now believed to be the Truth and
Life. From the time when I accepted
Christ as my Lord and Saviour, my heart has been filled with peace and comfort,
because I had received from Him forgiveness.
* *
* * *
* *
428. 1 THESSALONIANS 5: 14.
It is truly a Christlike work to interest oneself in
souls for which others regard labour lost.
Rude persons, who will submit to no order, need earnest correction,
reproofs, challenges; faint-hearted ones, the class opposite to the rude,
despondent, failing often, doing their part imperfectly, need help and support;
every man needs patience, because every man has something about him that others
find troublesome and repugnant.
HEUBNER.
* *
* * *
* *
429. LIGHTNING.
For as the lightning cometh
Terrible, swift, and bright,
Cleaving the heavens asunder
And searing earth with its light,
Out of the storm-cloud leaping
Like a fiery sword-bladess flash,
To the sound of the mighty waters
And the sevenfold thunders crash,
A vision of flaming glory
That every eye shall see
Lo, as the lightening cometh
So shall His coming be.
* *
* * *
* *
430. PRAYER.
On Dec. 31, 1932, we closed a period of forty years in
which it was our privilege to pray at least three times daily for the second
coming of the Lord Jesus and for the spiritual and national restoration of
Israel. We had for years pleaded these
before God, but on Jan. 1, 1893, we began to pray for them three times a
day. And this precious custom we kept up
through these many years except during two or three seasons of illness when for
awhile even prayer was impossible. This
made both events exceedingly vivid to the mind and heart. It brought us through the years a great
blessing.
THOMAS M. CHALMERS.
* *
* * *
* *
431. GRACE IN PAIN.
I never think of the problem of suffering without my
mind wandering over to Melbourne where there lives in a place designated Thanksgiving Corner, a little lady a
most wonderful lady who for more than sixty years has never known a day free
from pain, and who for over thirty years has never been off her bed, on which
she is propped up day and night. Few if
any have suffered as much as she has.
Hers is prolonged, acute, continuous suffering. The mysterious disease which attacked her in
the right hand in 1870 has baffled the skill of the wisest. At first a ceaseless irritation rendered rest
impossible. Then followed agonizing pain
which would have made death welcome. In
1875 all the finger nails on her right hand and two on the left were extracted,
and ultimately the right hand was amputated.
About this time she was converted through a letter sent by her Sunday
School Teacher and in a while she was able to take up a measure of Christian
work, but was compelled to resign owing to an illness which brought her nigh to
death. It was only a miracle of Divine
power that kept her alive. The disease
spread, and her right arm had to be removed, and six months afterwards the left
leg was amputated below the knee. In
1889 the left arm had to be removed from the shoulder. During the nineties life was repeatedly
despaired of. In 1896 the right leg was
taken off. Thus she was left without
arms and only the left leg without the foot.
Through all these afflictions Miss
Higgens has displayed astonishing courage and infinite patience and
grace. No light afflictions hers but
perpetual pain, permanent incapacity, constant sleeplessness and restlessness
and indescribable suffering; yet she has named her home Gladwish, and her little room Thanksgiving
Corner. By a device which she
invented she is able to write what is almost equal to copper-plate in writing,
and from her bed of anguish and suffering she sends messages of cheer to all
parts of the world. When I once stood by
her much sorely depleted body, knowing something of the pain she was enduring
and seeing her radiant face which reflected the restfulness of her heart, I
could but bite my lips and suppress the tears; for here if anywhere on this
earth, was the last word in glorying in tribulation and a massive disregard for
the sufferings for this present time. Miss
Higgens knows her Lord as Saviour,
Friend and Comforter. Listen to her
language. One
way to keep sunny and cheerful is to try and count our mercies and blessings
and forget our own trials. I often try to count my mercies and
blessings for one day, but I cannot do it, as they are innumerable. Truly, God is love. I ask every day that I may be kept calm and
not worry about anything and that I may not show by my face how much I am
suffering. Firmly believing that my
request will be granted I then try to look at things in a practical way. My good doctor is doing all in his power to
relieve my pain and conquer my complaint.
It is my duty to do all in my
power to help him by being patient and grateful.
If this smiling little lady whose suffering is so
intense can say my blessings are innumerable,
what base ingratitude belongs to some of us!
JOSEPH W. KEMP.
* *
* * *
* *
432. IN STANDING
GODS PEOPLE ARE WITHOUT A FLAW.
So Paul, after pausing for a moment on the last
plateau of justification, scales the crowning peak of assurance. Who shall lay
anything to the charge of Gods elect?* it is
Christ Jesus not we that died. If any would lodge a valid accusation against
Gods elect, he must establish a flaw in Christs atonement, or in Christs
resurrection, or in Christs ascension, or in Christs intercession: he must
prove a flaw in Christ: for it is in Christ that the justification, freeing us
from all flaw, has been pronounced once for all by God. So therefore the swan-song of the un-risen
redeemed pours from apostolic lips. For I am persuaded it is safe to make our own a
persuasion of the man who wrote half the New Testament that neither death not life, nor angels nor principalities
nor powers not all the forces of Hell acting on the mind of God to
wean us from Him nor things present such
as my worst transgressions nor things to come
not even the Judgment Seat with its awful possibilities nor height nor depth not all the infinities that
stretch between God and my soul nor any other
creation** - worlds beyond worlds, in any fresh universe that God may
ever make shall be able no,
not if all these put forth their combined power to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord.
*Thus in standing Gods people are without a
flaw. In reply to Balaks attempted
curse on
D. M. PANTON.
** The translation creature
hardly suits the [Greek] word
which signifies different,
and not merely other, as the word
would do (Godet).]
* *
* *
* * *
433. SATAN.
On a starrd night Prince Lucifer uprose.
Tired of his dark dominion swung the fiend
Above the rolling ball in cloud part screend
While sinners huggd their spectre of repose.
Poor prey to his hot fit of pride were those.
And now upon his western wing he leand,
Now his huge bulk oer Africs sands careend,
Now the black planet shadowd Artic snows.
Soaring through wider zones that prickd his scars
With memory of the old revolt from Awe,
He reachd a middle height, and at the stars,
Which are the brain of heaven, he lookd, and sank.
Around the ancient track marchd, rank on rank,
The army of unalterable law.
GEORGE MEREDITH.
* *
* * *
* *
434. WATCH AND PRAY
It is of high significance that our Lord ends His
prophetical office, immediately before His last suffering, with such an
eschatological discourse (Luke 21: 5-36), which
may be considered as the type of a fitting and edifying treatment of future
things for all preachers. It lies in the
nature of the case that Christian
eschatology, the more the course of time advances, must become less and less an
unimportant appendix, and more and more a locus
primaries of doctrine.
The Lord Jesus, above all, delivers this teaching not
for the satisfaction of an idle curiosity, but uses it directly for the
admonition, for the consolation, and for the sanctification of His own. It admits of no doubt that had the impending
end of the history of the world been always written of and spoken of in this
way, much less offence would have been taken, and also much less offence would
have been given.
He warns them that their hearts be not burdened as by
a spirit of deep sleep; for the great day was to be, even for them, the servants of the Lord, an unexpected one, requiring an unremitting watch. The tertium
comparationis (ver. 34) lies as well in
the unexpectedness as in the ruinousness of such snares as are commonly used
for ravening beasts. As a
condition
of standing before the Son of man the escaping
of all tribulations is named: to be
accounted worthy,* sensu
forensic, digni habiti atque declarati a Deo. This [Greek
word
]
is not only the beginning, but also the substance, of the highest
happiness. It is God alone that can make
us worthy and ready for the enjoyment of His everlasting glory.
J. P. LANGE, D.D.
[* The word occurs in the same sense in Acts 5: 41.
Justin Martyr records an
alleged saying of our Lord:- In that in which I shall
find you, therein will I judge you. D. M. PANTON.]
* *
* * *
* *
435. THREATENED BRANCHES.
It is not
enough to avoid self-exaltation: there should be a positive fear. The future
passive (Rom. 11: 22) abruptly closes the
sentence, like the stroke of an axe cutting down a proud branch. It is but too clear to anyone who has eyes to
see that our Gentile Christendom has now
reached the point here foreseen by
GODET.
* *
* * *
* *
436. HEBREW SIN.
In an old volume there is a conversation between a
Christian and a venerable Jewish rabbi.
The Christian askes why the Jews, if they are Gods people, have
suffered so greatly throughout the many centuries of their history. The rabbi replies that whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and that
R. H. BOLL.
* *
* * *
* *
437. CHRISTIANITY.
Only in days when the Cross is received with courage,
the Scripture searched with honesty, and the pastor heard in faith, can the
pure Word of God and the bright Sword of the Spirit be recognized in the heart
and hand of Christianity.
JOHN RUSKIN.
* *
* * *
* *
438. DRY-ROT
It is a true word of Dr. Pusey that Christianity has no foe to fear except from within. Frank, said
Dr. J. R. Stranton, of Calvary
Baptist Church, New York, on his death-bed, I am
through, and I want to sound this note of warning my departure is at hand
but Frank, I want to tell you it is not
the powers on the outside, but the power of wickedness, the worldliness in the
inside, that has broken my heart and life it is the burdens and conflicts on
the inside that have caused my anguish of soul.
* *
* * *
* *
439. PRAYER.
Think for a moment.
Here is a great Cadillac car. A
tiny girl, who weighs less than one hundred pounds, can drive that car with the
same speed and momentum with which a prize-fighter, who weighs two hundred
pounds, might drive it. The power is not
in the tiny foot of the girl, or in the heavy tread of the prize-fighter. The power is in the engine, and that power is
released when the connection is formed. So it is in prayer. It is
not a question of my power, but of Gods power, and my connection with His
infinite resources. The humblest
Christian has at his disposal in prayer the infinite power of God.
S. M. GLASGOW.
* *
* * *
* *
440. HE COMETH, AND THE EARTH REJOICES.
Blessed are those servants and only those
whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching.
I quote words that have already appeared in the DAWN:-
The point of the vigil is such as to make the loss of
a thousand worlds as dust in the balance.
He cometh
inquisition, approval, promotion: He maketh
them sit down rest, glory, enthronement; He serves them the King of
kings girding Himself once again with a towel, at the side of His watchful
child. This is a verse beyond all human
comment. Then build all life upon this fact, for to build on aught else is
faithlessness to Him, and folly for eternity.
Hark, what a sound, and too divine for hearing,
Stirs on the earth and trembles in the air!
Is it the thunder of the Lords appearing;
Is it the music of His peoples prayer?
Surely He cometh, and a thousand voices
Shout to the saints, and to the deaf and dumb:
Surely He cometh, and the earth rejoices
Glad in His coming who hath sworn, I come.
*
* * *
* * *
441. PRAYERS POWER.
If we could do what we would with a pint of water, if
we could play with its electrons and hydrogen atoms at will, we could produce
enough energy to drive a thousand horse-power engine for a hundred miles. Such is the power that resides in the
infinitely small. And though man is
infinitely small in comparison with the infinitely large, he can wield
prodigious power, he can move the arm that moves the
universe. Gods power seems
almost more marvellous in the infinitely small than in the infinitely
great. When I consider the heavens, what
am I that Thou art mindful of me? What
am I? I am the object of the greatest
marvel in all the universe the infinite love which found expression on
WORLD DOMINION.
* *
* * *
* *
442. DRIFTING.
Lifes ocean is full of currents, any one of which will
sweep us past the harbour mouth even when we seem nearest to it, and carry us
far out to sea. It is the drift that
ruins men: the drift of the religious world; the drift of old habits and
associations; the drift of ones own evil nature; the drift of the pressure of
temptation. The drift is to change; to
greater breadth of thought, sympathy and action; to creed less elaborate and
minute; to laws of conduct less exacting and severe, to enlarged freedom
everywhere. The writer (Heb. 2: 1) is contemplating a drift which very
slowly, but very certainly, reflects the silent action of unseen and
unrecognized forces which are at work within and around the drifting soul, and
the ultimate effect of which may be an utter loss of all which once he most
valued, and an abandonment to influences which once he regarded with hatred and
dread. A vessel which has been torn from
its moorings, and is being carried far out to sea by the strong currents which
are bearing it whithersoever they will, may be engulfed in some hidden
quicksand, dashed to pieces on some hidden rock, carried thousands of miles
away and stranded on a distant shore.
Whilst the tide runs that way (and
that may be for years) our safety is unsuspected even by ourselves; but let
a change come, and slowly we slip away, and at length on some distant coast
others come across the fragment of a wreck that bears our name.
*
* * *
* * *
443. DRIFTING BACK.
Some evangelists were visiting
* *
* * *
* *
444. HOMEWARD BOUND
One ship drives East,
And one drives West,
With the self-same winds that blow;
Tis the set of the sail
And not the gale
That determines the way they go.
Like the
winds of the sea
Are the winds that blow
As we journey along through life;
Tis the set
of the soul
That
determines the goal
And not the
storms and strife.
*
* * *
* * *
445. AN IMMOVABLE PILLAR.
This passage is but one of many which set forth the
pre-eminence of the victorious saints of the present dispensation, in the future
aeon of blessedness and glory. They are
the firstfruits
(Jas. 1: 18; Rev. 14:4); the bride
(Rev. 21: 9); kings in the Kingdom then
to be established (Rev. 2: 26; 3: 22); priests
in the holy congregation (Rev. 1: 6; 5: 10; 20: 6);
pillars
in the heavenly
The word of Christ, as the Philadelphians knew it, was
not a word calling them to easy and luxurious and applauded entrance into the
Kingdom, but to much tribulation first,
with the Kingdom and the glory of it afterwards. A PLUMMER, D.D.
* *
* * *
* *
446. RENOUNCING PARENTS.
Mr. Nathan, a converted Jew, said that when he found Christ he
hurried home to tell his father. But his
father was horrified and said:- Get out of my house,
and never darken that door again until you retract those words. He then wrote to his mother, telling her of
the joy that had come to his heart, and received this reply:- You are no longer a son of mine. I have cast you out of my heart with a curse. He met his sister on the street, and she
turned her face from him. His brother
reported him dead. Then, said Nathan:- I
prayed and said, O, my Father, Ill have to give it all up! Father has driven me from his house; mother
has cast me out of her heart; sister turns her face from me, and brother
reports me dead. Then this promise
flashed through my mind, - When thy father and thy mother forsake thee, the
Lord will take thee up. And I clung to that promise for dear life, until I saw
my father, mother, and sister converted to my Saviour, and I expect to see my
brother a follower of the meek and lowly Jesus.
* *
* * *
* *
447. HADES.
However dim Scripture may be in its portrayal of the
intermediate state, it is at least
explicit in negativing the current conceptions of Hades, both Roman and
Protestant. Nothing short of a betrayal of the original Christian position has been
the abandonment, through sheer unbelief, of the clauses in the Creed on Hades
and the Ascension: if these clauses are merely figurative and pictorial
(the Modernist legitimately retorts) so can be the clauses on the Virgin Birth
and the Resurrection. Thus also the modern obliteration of the doctrine of
Hades has dislocated, and to a large degree nullified, the doctrine of the
Resurrection of the Dead, which, when an intermediate world is eliminated, is
made so unnecessary as to slip out of belief. The elimination of a single truth is a hurt
done to all revelation. Mr. Govett sets the state after death on its Scriptural foundations.
THYNNE AND JARVIS.
*
* * *
* * *
448. REGENERATION.
The doctrine of the environment (as Dr. Campbell Morgan has said) received
its death-blow in the Garden of Eden. In
the spiritual campaign at
* *
* * *
* *
449. GUIDANCE.
Lead us, O Father, in the paths of peace;
Without Thy guiding hand we go astray,
All doubts appal, and sorrows still increase;
Lead us, through Christ, the true and living way.
Lead us, O Father, in the paths of truth;
Unhelpd by Thee, in errors maze we grope,
While passion stains, and folly dims our youth,
And age comes on uncheerd by faith and hope.
Lead us, O Father, in paths of right;
Blindly we stumble when we walk alone;
Involved in shadows of a darksome night,
Only with Thee we journey safely on.
Lead us, O Father, to Thy heavenly rest,
However rough and steep the path may be,
Through joy or sorrow, as Thou deemest best,
Until ourlives are peaceful in Thee.
W. H. BURLEIGH.
* *
* * *
* *
450. THE MILLENNIUM.
The hope of the visible coming of Christ and of the
Millennium appears so early that it may be questioned whether it ought not to
be regarded as an essential part of the Christian religion: it is inseparably
connected with the Gospel itself.
HARNACK.
* *
* * *
* *
451. CHILIASM.
It is a decisive proof of its truth that the two
epochs of the Church in which Millennarianism has most flourished are the two
purest epochs (since the Apostles) that the Church has ever known. In all the works of
the first two centuries, says Dr.
Giesler, millenarianism is so prominent that we
cannot hesitate to consider it as universal. Justin,
writing at the time of Papias, says
that it was the general faith of all orthodox Christians, and that only the
Gnostics did not share it (Hagenbach). Origen,
at the end of the third century a spiritist and a Universalist was the
first to attack what men who had seen the Apostles universally affirmed.
* *
* * *
* *
452. MODERN MILLENNARIANISM.
The Reformation restored the truth. That the Thousand
Years were to be reckoned from the birth of Christ, says Hengstenberg, a hostile but faithful
witness, was the view which, through the authority of
Augustine, was the prevailing one during the whole of the Middle Ages; but
since Bengel, Chiliasm (the
doctrine of our Lords reign on earth for 1,000 years)
obtained an almost universal diffusion throughout the Church. Since the Reformation Dr. Whitby (two centuries ago) he himself calling it a new hypothesis was the first to deny the
Millennial Reign, and to preach the worlds conversion by the Church; and Dr.
Whitby died an Arian, having abandoned belief in any millennium whatsoever.
*
* * *
* * *
453. THE
The Second Advent is still the official creed of the Greek
Church. Its Larger Catechism says: Will Jesus Christ soon come to judgment? We know not.
Therefore we should live so as to be always ready. Are there not, however, revealed to us some
signs of the nearer approach of Christs coming? In the word of God certain signs are
revealed, as the decrease of faith and love among men, the abounding of
iniquity and calamities, the preaching of the Gospel to all nations, and the
coming of Antichrist.
*
* * *
* * *
454. THE ROMAN CHURCH.
The Church of Rome, which rose on the ruins of
Millennial truth, and the temporal power of which is its supplanting
counterfeit, naturally burkes it, as the Universe
(July 12, 1929) has said. The Church [of
* *
* * *
* *
455. MODERNISM AND THE ADVENT.
It is well to realize the shifts to which doubters are
reduced. In
regard to our Lords eschatology, says Dr. W. B. Selbie (Christian
World, July 25, 1929), it seems quite obvious
that much of the language which is put into His mouth is rather that of the
Evangelists than of the Master Himself, though there can be very little doubt
that He did often speak in eschatological terms. That is, we escape pronouncing our Lord
guilty of a blend of fact and fiction only by convicting Apostles and Prophets
of forgery. The Dean of
* *
* * *
* *
456. THE ALTERNATIVE.
The only alternative possible to a Christian is embodied
in a manifesto issued during the general election by Mr. A. D. Belden, Dr. Herbert Gray, Dr. W. E. Orchard, and Mr. Rhondda Williams:- As Christians, we
believe in the regeneration of Society as well as the regeneration of
individuals, and Labour seems to us to be the only party that hares this ideal
with us. But Church leaders who
are thus pledging the Churches to the whole impossible task of the social and
political regeneration of the world forget that the world, with roused
expectations, will press for the redemption of the pledge, and the Church,
facing at last an exasperated humanity, will find herself in a worse plight
than when, in her unworldliness, she was merely an object of contempt. In a symposium of Labour leaders throughout
the world, Mr. M. J. Mawser says:- Once the Churchs social creed is announced, little is done
to make it effective. If the workers had
the same faith in the Church that they have in the Bible, there would not be
half enough churches in the country to hold them. In organized labours efforts to have human
legislation enacted, may I ask where the Church was?
* *
* * *
* *
457. THE KINGDOM.
All other religions have their Golden Age in the past:
God lodges His in the future. For indeed
mans Age began with gold, but it ends in mire (Dan.
2: 32). It is unfortunate that
the
The grace of God is free even to the vilest sinners; but the thrones of the Millennial Age are won by sacrifice, service, and
victorious achievement.
A.B. SIMPSON, D.D.
* *
* *
* * *
458. In the last day, the
great day of the feast
(John 7: 37-39.)
The last day of Tabernacles - the eighth, was
typically the great day. On that day
they left their booths to go into their houses.
So, after the millennium, the temporary glory shall be succeeded by the
entry on the new heavens and earth; and the eternal the great day
begins. Then, too, all servile
labour ends. Work shall be done,
but that of priests and kings.
It was said that during the seven days of the feast, a
priest, after the sacrifice, went to the well of Siloam, drew water thence in a
golden pitcher, and with a joyous procession brought it to the temple; standing
on the altar, and pouring it, mixed with wine on the altar. This they said, represented Moses striking
the rock; and some of the Rabbis said, that it referred to the giving of the
gifts of the Spirit in the days of Messiah.
Isaiah 12: 3 was the passage whereby
they sought to justify the ceremony.
This ceremony was not repeated on the eighth day. Jesus, then, fills up the gap Himself. He was the true Shiloh sent to them by God:
and now He presents Himself as about to be, in resurrection, the fulfiller of
that act of grace and power which Moses had of old shown to
ROBERT GOVETT.
* *
* * *
* *
459. THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES.
With the feast of
tabernacles all field-labour [earthly toil: the field is the world] ceased, and the period of rest [the Sabbatismos] began. Everyone saw
himself recompensed for the labours of the year, his cares were gone, the whole
fulness of the divine blessing was in the hands of all (Bahr).
This is decisive proof that it is our immemorial tribulation out of
which the vast assemblage emerges; for the Feast of Tabernacles was
deliberately designed to recall to
[* The whole chapter is stamped with
selectiveness. The day of recompense
having dawned, the faithful of Israel (a selection only) are kept through the
Tribulation, while the faithful of the Church (a selection only) are kept from
the Tribulation; in exact accordance with the promise to the Advent watcher Because thou didst keep the word of my patience, I also will
keep thee from the hour of trial, that hour which is to come upon the whole
world, to try them that dwell upon the earth (Rev.
3: 10).]
*
* * *
* * *
460. THE DANGER OF AN EXASPERATED SPIRIT.
Moses and Aaron had lost the race that Joshua and
Caleb won.*
[* Actually, Moses lost
Therefore Jehovah Himself finally lays bare the
profound principle underlying the judgment of His people. Because ye believed
not in me, TO SANCTIFY ME in the
eyes of the children of
*
* * *
* * *
461. GODS OATH EXCLUDED THE DISOBEDIENT GENERATION.
At Kadesh, once again, Miriam one of the murmurers
of old (Num. 12: 1) is excluded by death,
and Moses and Aaron by oath (Deut. 4: 21). Kadesh, this
very age of ours of imminent danger, is the epoch which also
embraces the Judgment Seat of Christ. Let us therefore give diligence
to enter into that rest, that none [of us] fall
after the same example of disobedience (Heb. 4: 11).*
[* Moses and Aaron among His
priests:
thou wast a God that forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance of
their doings (Ps. 99: 6, 8). It is sad to see how otherwise godly
evangelicals can soften, if not
obliterate, the sorely needed and most blessed judical warnings of God. It was better for
Moses, says C. H. Mackintosh,
to see the
* *
* * *
* *
462. APOSTATE CHURCHES.
That many of the Churches are moving in the outer
rings of infidelity they themselves, before long, will put beyond doubt or
denial. Traditional
Christianity, says Mr. Rhondda
Williams from the Chair of the Congregational Union, has already ceased to be the religion of a good many of
our churches and of a still larger number of our ministers. The Creeds are for the greater part
impossible of belief. Mr. Hugh Edwards, M.P., reporting this
address, says:- The fervid and long-continued
outburst of applause which marked its conclusion demonstrated to the point of
proof that it had captivated the Assembly.
To those of us who could recall the storm of protest which the Rev. R. J. Campbell evoked by his
address to the London Board of Congregational ministers, on somewhat similar
lines, just twenty years ago, the striking contrast between the reception of
the one address and that of the other was significant in the highest degree;
for the acclamation very conclusively
demonstrated that the centre of gravity, as regards the doctrinal tenets of no
small section of the Assembly, has undergone a striking change.
* *
* * *
* *
463. DEPRAVITY.
Total depravity (which Mr. Rhondda Williams derides)
does not mean that a man is as bad as he can be, but that he has a germ of evil
in every part of him; that is not a wart, but a blood-poisoning, which, if it
enters the sin blood anywhere, enters it everywhere. Lord Rosebery
once, as his little grand-daughter, to whom he was devotedly attached, entered
the room exclaimed:- And the Church calls her a child of wrath! Yet he would have felt no moral shock if a
doctor, examining an all but invisible spick on the tiny arm, had said:- This child is a leper. Death, spiritual or physical, need be no more
than a puncture. If the
* *
* * *
* *
464. FEAR.
Our brethren who say that every believer will escape
the Great Tribulation, and our other brethren who say that every believer will
experience the Great Tribulation, both unwittingly jettison overboard the
priceless dynamic of fear, which therefore is sadly lacking in every all Second
Advent literature. No plot of ground is
so carefully avoided as one in which lies an unexploded time-bomb, if it
is known to be there. Scripture
commands fear. If
ye call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to
each mans work, pass the time of your sojourning in fear (1 Pet. 1: 71).
For there is a [future] salvation an
escape from the perils of coming judgment which is within our own grasp and dependant on our own efforts:
work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2: 12).
So our Lord, though He constantly said, Fear not
anything on earth including martyrdom, commands fear with awful emphasis. I will warn you He is addressing
disciples (verse 1) whom ye shall
fear: Fear Him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; YEA, I SAY UNTO YOU FEAR HIM (Luke 12: 5).
* *
* * *
* *
465. DEMONS.
It is extraordinary how the evil spirits, off their
guard, and never dreaming that their unintentional witness to Christ would be
recorded in the Book of God for ever, gave their startled testimony as to Who
He was. Thou
Jesus of Nazareth, I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God
(Luke 4: 34); and
the unclean spirits, whensoever they beheld him, fell down before him, and cried,
saying, Thou are the Son of God (Mark
3: 11). But our Lord refused all
testimony from such sources. He suffered them not to speak, because they knew that he
was the Christ [Messiah] (Luke 4: 41). Had our Lords claims been imaginary or fraudulent,
they would have overwhelmed Him at once with the fact, and wiped out His
career: on the contrary, Hell says that He is the Christ. The demons betrayed their knowledge of
Christ. Sir William Crookes, one of the most experienced Spiritualists of
the nineteenth century, gave up all active work with mediums before his death
because, he said, he could be no party to the
enormous moral deterioration which resulted in so many.
* *
* * *
* *
466. DYNAMIC.
Our hope if the Lord delays His coming lies in a
growing dynamic among the watchful. We
do well to remember the word of Defoe
(1701):- The
whole ecclesiastical history, from the first century of the Christian Church,
is full of instances to confirm this: that the
prosperity of the
* *
* * *
* *
467. MODERNISM.
Nothing so reveals Modernism as the comment of the
Atheist.
The American Association
for the Advancement of Atheism issued its fifth annual report. The report says:- The
spread of Atheism was never faster. It
is not measured by the growth of Atheist groups, but by the decline of
religious belief as a controlling factor in the lives of men. The drift of the age steadily gaining
momentum, is away from religion. This
loss of faith causes consternation among the Orthodox who are powerless to
arrest the movement. The Reconcilers
the Liberals and Modernists, are heroically saving the ship of Christianity by
throwing her cargo overboard. With what
zeal the Fosdicks, the Matthews, and the whole crew of rescuers toss out,
first, the Garden of Eden and the Flood, followed by the Virgin Birth,
Atonement, and the Resurrection, and then they gain a great victory by getting
rid of Hell and Heaven and the Devil and God, though with much ado they keep
the name of the last. They may save the
vessel of Ecclesiasticism, but how long will men sail the seas in an empty
ship? They will go ashore and enjoy life
with the Atheists. We welcome the aid of
the Modernists, and pledge them our fullest co-operation in ridding the world
of Fundamentalism of any serious acceptance of Christian theology.
* *
* * *
* *
468. EVOLUTION.
Evolution is deeply and vitally associated with Modernism. They date together. Fifty years after the appearance of Darwins Origin of Species in 1859, the President
of the Royal Society said:- It burst upon the mind of the whole intelligent
world with a suddenness and overwhelming force for which the strongest material
metaphors are poor and inadequate, in a way, to which history furnishes no
parallel, the opinions of mankind may be said to have changed in a day.
* *
* * *
* *
469. UNBELIEF.
In the words of Newman
Watts:- The evolutionary view of the origin of
the universe has affected the entire fabric of Christian theology. It has taken the life-blood from the message
of the Evangel. It has robbed the
Christian pulpit of 99 per cent. of its power.
Coupled with this last menace has been the general acceptance of German
destructive criticism of the Bible.
Popularised in this country by Canon
Driver, Rev. R. F. Horton and others, and taught in nearly all theological colleges over a period of sixty
or more years, this rationalistic view of the Bible has contributed more,
perhaps, than any other influence toward the paganisation of the people of the
Protestant countries of the world.
* *
* * *
* *
470. INSPIRATION.
Only verbal inspiration can give both their
death-wounds. It is the original words
written by prophets and apostles that are infallible, and far more than most
realise we have those actual words.
Professor Robert Dick Wilson,
a final authority says:- You can be absolutely
certain that we have the text substantially of the Old Testament that Christ
and the apostles had and that was in existence from the beginning. Concerning the New Testament, Wescott and Hort have said:- If comparative
trivialities such as changes of order, the insertion or omission of the article
with proper names, and the like, are set aside, the words in our opinion still
subject to doubt can hardly amount to more than a thousandth part of the whole
New Testament. If, in several thousand
versions, in different lands and languages, in different centuries, only one
word in a thousand differs, our possession of the original is a mathematical
certainty.
* *
* * *
* *
471. LOOKING.
Christ, on His return, will be seen at first only by
those looking. Unto
them that look for him shall he appear the second time (Heb. 9: 28).
It is an extraordinary statement that our Lord appears to them that look
for Him if, as a matter of fact, He appears equally to them who do not look
for His return: it is meaningless. Dr. W. L. Pettingill records a telling
incident. Asked by George E. Guille what was his attitude on the Lords Second Coming,
Pastor William Anderson, of
*
* * *
* * *
472. SOJOURNERS.
So therefore there begins to dawn on us the Churchs
right attitude to the State in every country of the world, and in every age
until the Kingdoms of this world become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of His
Christ. We
all believers are ambassadors. Every [regenerate] believer is an ambassador representing the Royalty
of another world, sent purposely into every nation: God sent His Son, who came
as an Ambassador, but now sends us in His place. We are ambassadors
therefore on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us. When the Church passes on the instructions
she has received, it is the King of Heavens voice the world hears, and it is
with Him they have to deal through His ambassador. It is the function
of the ambassador to deliver a message without being empowered to do anything
more than to explain or enforce it (
For an ambassador brings with him written
instructions, none of which originate with him, and every sentence of which he
is responsible to pass on. So our Lord,
when leaving the world to ascend the [Fathers] Throne, commissioned the ambassadors who were to
represent Him and gave them explicit instructions. Go ye, and make
disciples of all the nations, teaching them to observe ALL THINGS
WHATSOEVER I COMMAND YOU; and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end
of the age (Matt. 28: 19). A kings majesty and power is always behind
his ambassador: with us is the King of kings, and we are legatees of Heaven.
* *
* * *
* *
473. THE MILLENNIAL
In chapter 37 the
prophet Ezekiel predicts
Moreover, I will make a
covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and
I will place them and multiply them and will set my sanctuary in the midst of
them for ever. Yea, My covenant shall be
with them and I will be their God and they shall be My people, and the nations shall know that I, Jehovah,
sanctify
That the building of the
Son of man, behold with thine
eyes, and hear with thine ears and set thy heart upon all that I shall show
thee, for in order that it might be shown thee art thou brought hither. Declare thus to the house of
The shape and size and all the particulars of the
building and its furniture were shown him and he was commanded to give all the details
of them to his people, that realizing Gods gracious purpose with them they may
be ashamed of their iniquities: (43: 10, 11.)
E. BENDOR SAMUEL.
* *
* * *
* *
473B.
Not many months ago in an Oxfordshire village, an old
saint lay dying. For over eighty years
she had been on pilgrimage to
R. MOFFAT GAUTREY.
* *
* * *
* *
474. THE
Walking down a narrow alley in
That wall of titanic hewn stones is all that is left
visible of the foundation platform on which the Temple stood, the Temple to
which in Jesus day at the Feast of Passover over a million worshippers came
from all round the Mediterranean world, the Temple that was to them the pulsing
heart that sent the life-blood through the widespread limbs of the nation;
indeed, that made the Hebrew people a nation.
That Temple was utterly destroyed over eighteen
centuries ago; but at this moment some of those men whom I saw on that day are
praying there to God to restore the Temple, and are beating their foreheads
against the stones now known all over the earth as the Wailing Wall.
PROFESSOR BASIL
MATTHEWS.
* *
* * *
* *
475. HUMILITY.
I am kept humble very much by one consideration, viz., that when I shall see fully what
Christ is, I shall be so ashamed of the poor service I have rendered to Him that
I shall never be able to forgive myself for not having served Him better.
ANDREW BONAR.
* *
* * *
* *
476. WORSHIP.
We rapidly approach the day of the God-Emperor. There is in
* *
* * *
* *
477. RE-CREATION OF THE DEAD.
When Charles
Simeon, one of the noblest evangelicals of the nineteenth centurys dawn,
lay dying, he turned to those beside his bed and asked, with a beautiful smile,
Do you know what comforts me just now? They begged him to tell them. I find infinite
consolation, he replied, in the fact that in
the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth! How, they asked, could that thought bring him
solace in the Valley of the Shadow? Why, he answered with another characteristic smile,
if He can bring all the wonder of the worlds out of
nothing, He may yet make something out of me! In dying, Mr. Simeon was thinking of the
glorious transformation of the life to come changed from glory into glory.
For Christ raised Himself when dead, the
utterly unique peak of resurrection power.
I lay down my life that I may take it
again. I have power to lay it down, and I
have power to take it again (John
10: 17, 18). When Dr. Dale, of
*
* * *
* * *
478. WIPED OUT IN THE DEPRESSION.
A devoted Christian business man told me that his
total fortune of about three million dollars had been wiped out in the
depression when so many banks in
Dr. R. C. McQUILKIN.
* *
* * *
* *
479. A PRAYER.
I have prayed this prayer frequently:- Good Lord, let me live as long as possible; as long as I can
be a blessing and bring glory to Thy Name; as long as I can build up more than
in my awkwardness I knock down. But
when, through infirmities, or old age, I am no longer an asset to Thee; when I
grieve rather than gladden; when I scold rather than soften; in short, when I
am in the way rather than in demand, please, Lord, kiss my life away quickly
and take me to Thyself, I ask in Jesus Name.
Amen.
E. E. SHALAMER.
* *
* * *
* *
480. RUSSELLISM.
Studied camouflage of Advent truth is to be expected
from Hell. What is known in
* *
* * *
* *
481. FRAUD.
It is very awful to learn its foundation in
fraud. Russell (says The Missionary
Review of the World) claimed to be such a thorough Greek scholar that he
could catch the finest shading of Greek words: but when handed a Greek
Testament, in a court trial in
*
* * *
* * *
482.
Judge
Rutherford foretold the Millennium
for 1925, and on its failure to appear he launched a campaign against the
[* Studies in
the Scriptures: the Atonement, p. 92.]
* *
* * *
* *
483.
It is good to know that the first modern united
Church, the
* *
* * *
* *
484. HITLER AND THE JEW.
Hitler, [who once controlled] half the race 8,000,000 Jews embodies one world-plan of the end. He [said] (Times,
Feb, 25, 1941):- By this war, not Aryan mankind but the
Jew will be exterminated. Only after the
extermination of the parasites will the world know a long period of
collaboration between nations, and therefore a period of true peace. The Jew, however he may reject
[*
Support whole-heartedly today (as of primary importance), all those regenerate
souls who are seeking to carry the Gospel message to Jews scattered throughout
the world. Ed.]
* *
* * *
* *
485. WAR.
It is a sombre tragedy that nearly all the evangelical
magazines on both sides of the Atlantic (so far as we know) are acting as Peter
acted, and bless the sword in the hand of a disciple of Christ; and exactly for
Peters reason that the enemy they are bayoneting is an enemy of
Christ, and that they are therefore fully justified. But our
Lord Himself, who at any moment might have had twelve legions of angels,
turned the other cheek, and He bids us to do so also. Resist not him
that
is evil therefore not the wickedest man on earth;
machine-gunning even the Antichrist is forbidden to the child of God (Rev. 13: 10): but
whosoever smiteth thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also (Matt. 5: 39).
Through the Apostles the Holy
Spirit gives the same command:- If thine enemy
hunger, feed him (Rom. 12: 20). Universal war can only be universal judgment,
and
the Church is going in the judgment.
* *
* * *
* *
486. PERSECUTION.
This sheds wonderful light on the parallel and
age-ling persecutions, sometimes emanating from true children of God. For what has Marshal Antonescu done? He
has published a decree withdrawing from the flourishing Baptist churches of
* *
* * *
* *
487. MYSTERY.
Mr. A. B.
Simpson gives a most refreshing word:
Behold I show you a
mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. This does not
merely refer to the resurrection, for that is not a mystery, but a revelation. Job referred to it. Then when Jesus sought to comfort His
disciples, He said (John 14: 3), If I go and prepare a
place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there
ye may be also. Surely this is something other than death and
resurrection. Yes it referred to the hope
of the Church [to be realized during the Messianic Age], which is [at] the appearing
of the Lord Jesus.
*
* * *
* * *
488. HOPE.
Mr. Simpson also says: Ours is
pre-eminently a religion of hope, and that hope is the appearing of Jesus
Christ, not in spirit, but personally.
As the Apostle says (1 Thess. 4: 14), If we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with
Him, for the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the
voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and* the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then* we which are alive and remain will be
caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
At His appearing this translation will take place suddenly.
To
the believer, this will be an occasion of great joy, but to the carnal believer
who is engrossed in the world of business, of pleasure, and the many interests
which relegate Christ to a remote corner of his life, it will not be such a
supreme delight, but a [shocking]
surprise. Let us not forget that each
believer belongs to Christ; he shall never perish; but if he has failed in character, in testimony, or in service, he will
forfeit much of the reward. He will
be [eternally] saved, but his works are of no
consequence. A saved soul, but a lost life.
[*
Take note that the text does not include the word all
in these places. It is not, all the dead in Christ, for that would not be our hope at this
time! Since the rest of the dead did not come to
life until the thousand years are over: (Rev.
20: 5, N.I.V.. cf. verse 13): nor is
it the hope of the those alive today, if all are
to be rapt before the Great Tribulation commences: (Luke 21: 36; Rev. 3: 10.)]
* *
* * *
* *
489. SPIRITUALISM.
This testimony of an ex-Spiritualist is valuable. I was a
spiritualist medium, dabbling in trance control, clairvoyance, psychometry,
etc., and after having a nervous and mental breakdown as a result, but who now
like the Gadarene of old through the loving mercy of God, can also say, clothed in his right mind (Luke 8: 35). I would very lovingly say to any who hanker
after such things to give this cursed dabbling with so-called psychic phenomena
as wide a birth as possible. It is
reeking of the pit and surely another evidence that our dear Lords return must
be very near, or to use the language of the poet,
I can almost hear His footfalls at the threshold of the door,
And my heart is ever yearning to be with
Him evermore
(Thomas McGregor).
And when they shall say unto you, seek unto him that have familiar
spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? For the living to the
dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word,
it is because there is no light in them (Isaiah 8: 19).
* *
* * *
* *
490. MARY.
What does the Eastern church stand for? One prominent, contemporary theologian, Father Bulgakov, writes: Christianity without the veneration of Our Lady is another
religion. He builds the whole of his theology on the experience of Mary worship. We Russian Orthodox
are tolerant of differences of opinion about Our Lady, so long as we are united
in the cult of Mary. They are not tolerant, but persecutors, of
those who reject the cult of Mary.
* *
* * *
* *
491. THE ROCK.
Upon this rock I will build
my Church are words on which the Roman Church builds its claim. The celebrated Roman authority, Father John Launoy, together with Du Pin, Calmet, and Maldonat,
freely admits the variety of interpretations.
Launoy goves (1) seventeen
quotations from the Fathers to prove Peter is spoken of as the Rock; (2)
eight passages to prove the church is built on all the apostles;
(3) forty-five passages, that the faith Peter confessed is the Rock;
and (4) sixteen passages, that Christ is the Rock on which the church is
built.
* *
* * *
* *
492. VEGETARIANISM.
Seducing
spirits are to forbid various foods (1 Tim. 4: 3).
Psychic News, the worlds greatest Spiritualist organ,
says: In our view, there is no real valid
argument for eating animal foods; on the contrary, there are considerable arguments
against such a practice. In the
development and practice of psychic gifts, mediums who are vegetarians maintain
that they derive great benefit. From all
angels this is a subject we highly comment to all Spiritualists. Those who believe that animals, like humans
survive the grave can nurture their belief in the knowledge that they will not
be haunted by the animals they have sent to an inglorious death and then
barbarically ate. There is every reason
to believe that mediums and those who sit in circle derive benefits which aid
their psychic work if they exclude meat from their diets.
* *
* * *
* *
493. WITCHCRAFT.
Psychic News also admits (Dec. 11, 1954) that witchcraft is a forecast of
Spiritualism. Tradition
and theology were flouted. What was
required was proof, not words. By
suppressing the so-called witches and wizards, the churches had destroyed all
chance of producing proof and, as a consequence, science went ahead while
religion fell more and more into ill-repute with serious and courageous
thinkers. It was at this point that a
new spiritual invasion was ventured upon and modern Spiritualism born.
* *
* * *
* *
494. THE WAY TO BE HAPPY.
Let us see and with the conviction that we cannot do
without it that all selfishness be extirpated, pride banished, unbelief
driven from the mind, every idol dethroned, and everything hostile to holiness
and opposed to the Divine will be crucified; that holiness
to the Lord may be engraven on the heart, and evermore characterise our
whole conduct. This is what we ought to
strive after; this is the way to be happy; this is what our Saviour loves
entire surrender of the heart. May He enable us by His Spirit to persevere
till we attain it. All comes from Him,
the disposition we ask as well as the blessing itself.
DAVID LIVINGSTONE.
* *
* * *
* *
495. DEATHBED.
Charles IX of
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
TIMES.
*
* * *
* * *
496. GOD IS LOVE.
Many people have misunderstood that part of Gods
nature. Because God is love does not
mean that everything is sweet, beautiful, and happy, and that Gods love could not
possibly allow punishment for sins.
Gods holiness demands that all sin be punished, but Gods love provided
a plan of redemption and salvation for sinful man. Gods love provided the Cross of Jesus Christ
by which man can have forgiveness and cleansing. It was the love of God that sent Jesus Christ
to the Cross. Who can describe or
measure the love of God? This Bible is a
revelation of the fact that God is love.
When we preach righteousness, it is righteousness founded in love. When we preach atonement, it is atonement
committed by love and given by love, provided by love, finished by love,
necessitated because of love. When we
preach the resurrection of Christ, we are preaching the miracle of love. When we preach the return of Christ, we are preaching
the fulfilment of love. God loves you
with an everlasting love. Were it not
for the love of God, none of us would ever have a chance in the future life. But thanks be unto God, He is love! God commendeth His
love toward us in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us.
DR. BILLY GRAHAM.
* *
* * *
* *
497. WATCHING FOR THE ADVENT.
It is the divine cure for heart trouble: I go to prepare a place for
you; and I will come again and receive you
unto Myself; that where I am there ye may be also (John 14: 1-3).
It is the prescription for permanent joy: And ye now therefore have
sorrow, but I will see you again, and
your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man taketh from you (John 16: 22).
It is the incentive to remember Him each Lords day, for as often as ye eat this
bread and drink this cup, ye do show the
Lords death, till He come (1 Cor. 11:
26).
It holds out the bright prospect of absolute
conformity to Christ; our conversation (our citizenship) is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the
Lord Jesus Christ (Phil. 3: 20, 21).
It is our deliverance from divine wrath poured out on
this world:
we wait for His Son from heaven, Whom He raised from the
dead, even Jesus, the Deliverer from the
wrath to come (1 Thess. 1: 10).
It is a source of deepest comfort, we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in
the clouds (1 Thess 4: 16-18).
It teaches the believer to live a Christ-honouring
life, for
the grace of God that bringeth salvation
hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly,
righteously and godly in this present world.
Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great
God and our Saviour Jesus Christ (Titus
2: 11-13).
It introduces pure, holy living, but we know that, when He
shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And every
man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, as He is pure (1 John 3: 2-3).
Perhaps today.
Even so, Come Lord Jesus! Amen!
THE PROPHETIC DIGEST.
*
* * *
* * *
498. MARTYRS.
The first English Reformation martyr, John Rogers, who was the first to translate
the Bible (Authorized Version) into English, was burnt alive at
* *
* * *
* *
499. WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID.
Our first concern is not to be successful
in winning souls, but to be faithful to Gods truth. Matthew B. Riddle.
Every Christian of every age and calling is
appointed as an ambassador for Christ James
H. Brooks.
The nearer a soul is to me, the greater the
responsibility for it. Theodore
L. Cuyler.
I know that it is only in so far as I keep
close fellowship with my risen Saviour, that I can in any way be fit for
winning souls. Alexander M. Mackay.
Souls have to be won; and this requires a
winning way a kind of winsomeness in those who seek them. James Stalker.
This is a lost world. We belong to a Lifesaving Service, and it is
our business to help seek and save the lost.
Howard
W. Pope.
If we have been forgiven, and know it; then
we, and not angels, are commissioned to minister this same salvation unto men Paget Wilkes.
We do not need to be preaching in public to
carry Christ to others. The workshop,
the warehouse, the college, and at home will yield us hearers, if our hearts are
set on winning men to Christ. Alexander
MacLaren.
God often sends the impulse to go and see
some very wicked and apparently incorrigible man. That impulse should not be defeated by
unbelief in Gods power to change such a heart.- The Pilgrim Teacher.
No man has ever been a winner of souls who
did not know and believe in the Devil.
Men are taken captive by him at his will. If we first know that the victory on
If we have no concern for the unsaved, and
are making no effort in their behalf, we have sin in our own lives. I care not who you are minister,
missionary, Bible teacher, or Christian worker of any kind no amount of
religious activities of other kinds can exempt us from the charge of having in
our heart some sort of sin that is keeping us from this duty. It may be fear, some kind of shame, or just
plain neglect. But we know that he who knoweth to do good, and
doeth it not, to him it is sin. Charles M. Alexander.
I do not believe in the Christianity of him
who would keep salvation to himself, who would make no effort to save others. Thomas Guthrie.
Our task is not to bring the whole world to
Christ; our task is unquestionably to bring Christ to all the world. The theology of missions, like the theology
of redemption, is Christocentric; that is to say, we take our stand at the
cross and move out to the uttermost parts of the earth, instead of grasping the
uttermost parts of the earth to move them to Christ. The tide of the worlds desire is not toward
Christ, but the tide of Christs desire
is toward the world; as it is written:
Who will have
all men to be saved. And shall we not move most strongly by going with the tide
instead of going against it? A. J. Gordon.
Ye shall receive power, after the Holy Ghost is come upon you,
said Jesus to His disciples after giving them the
Great Commission to go out and bring men to Himself. The
supreme condition of soul-winning power is the same today. R. A.
Torrey.
Professor
Tholuck was remarkably successful in
turning wayward youths into right paths.
He gives the following account of the growth of his passion for Christ:-
From the age of seventeen I have always asked myself,
What is the chief end of mans life?
Just then God brought me into contact with a venerable saint who lived in fellowship with Christ, and
Christ alone. Everyone out of Christ I look upon as a fortress which I must storm and
win. Quoted by Henry M. Tyndall.
* *
* * *
* *
500. RESURRECTION BODIES.
It will not be necessary for the earth to be disturbed
at the time of the first resurrection, for a glorified body cannot be bound by
natural law. Jesus entered the upper
room where the doors were securely locked and He vanished in the same manner.
While the rapture [before
the Great Tribulation, (Luke 21: 34-36; Rev. 3: 10)] of raised and glorified saints will be invisible to
those left behind, yet it will be
the most dramatic event of all time.
Amid the rumblings of a global earthquake and the twinkling of an eye
the [left (1
Thess. 4: 15)] saints will be
translated. There will be a flash
too quick to register the event by the human eye, but multitudes will
think of the glories that those
saints are experiencing in the other world.
THE MIDNIGHT CRY.
* *
* * *
* *
501.ADVENT.
The Methodist Challenge writes on the subject of apostasy and says:- I cannot recall a single Methodist preacher who did not
preach the second coming of Jesus, when I was a boy. Today [i.e., 1954] Methodist ministers
who still preach it are scarce indeed and usually found among the supplies. Few university and college men preach
it. Occasionally, an old soldier, near the border line of superannuation,
still clings to this doctrine. Even those who preach it are very mild about it
and quickly qualify their position.
* *
* * *
* *
502. YOUTH.
Youth today (says Herald of His Coming) deserves much
prayerful sympathy. If ever there was a
lost generation of young people, ours is that
generation! Our boys snatched by war
from home and happiness, their lives shattered by the thousands, many dying,
many hopelessly mutilated, death coming in the dew pearled mid-morning of life. In the tyrannical march of events this
generation of young people all over the world were literally born to die, as the sheep that are led to the
slaughter, tortured, massacred and brain-washed in Korea and China, deluded and
demoralized and soul-stifled at home! The
Evil One has piled sorrow upon sorrow, and tragedy upon tragedy, and this
generation has been the victim of the lowest moral attack inflicted upon the
human race in modern times an attack aided by false religion and gross
spiritual indifference.
* *
* * *
* *
503. PASSOVER.
Trusting and Toiling gives a lovely parallel between the Passover and
* *
* * *
* *
504. WRATH.
The Jews who crucified the Messiah are a terrible
example of wrath. During the persecution
of the Jews in
* *
* * *
* *
505. REWARD.
Gods reward awaits our giving. Charge them that are
rich in this present age, that they be ready to distribute, willing to
communicate [their wealth]; laying up in store a
good foundation the investment of a substantial sum against the time to come, that they lay hold on the life
which is life indeed (1 Tim. 6: 19)
the glory of the Millennial Life; or, as Mark puts it, - in the age to come [the Millennium] eternal life.
As Augustine says:- Beware lest ye be like the
man of earth, who when they awaken in another world, awake with empty hands,
because they placed nothing in Christs hands, which were stretched out to them
in the hands of His poor and needy.
Or as our Lord puts it:- Make to yourselves
friends by means of the mammon [ a Syrian or Aramaic word meaning
money] of unrighteousness earthly wealth
that when ye shall fail in death they the friends you have so made may receive you into the eternal tabernacles (Luke 16: 9).
* *
* * *
* *
506. THE JUDGES WITNESS TO CHRIST.
A Canadian judge, Justice
A. C. Saunders, in
I have been wondering if I would be able to brace
myself for the awful ordeal and duty of condemning my fellow-man to death. The retribution for your crime is settled by
the laws of the realm, and on me is reposed the duty of carrying it into
effect.
May I remind you that you will appear before another
Judge, the great Judge of all the world.
Before you pass into His Presence, may I in all sincerity urge you to
prepare for that great day. Is that
future life for you to be utter misery, eternal separation from God and all
goodness; or will you now take the opportunity still left to you to receive
from the hand of your loving Father forgiveness and eternal peace?
The way is through repentance of your sins, confession
of them, and embracing Christs forgiveness assured you through His blood. I beseech you to accept the friendship of
God, that you may walk with Him through all eternity, and not continue to be
the prey of the devil.
On the
Cross, the same Judge before whom you will stand received one such penitent,
and assured him of eternal bliss. In prayer and sincere penitence speak to that Judge, while you have time,
so that you too may enter into life, and not pass into eternal death.
I admonish you with all the earnestness and with all
the sincerity at my command, to make the very best use of your time and
opportunities in trying to make your peace with God, before the close of your
life here on earth.
* *
* * *
* *
507. A BRAND.
The author of the noble hymn The
God of Abram praise was Thomas Olivers,
a Welshman. During his wild youth he
chanced to go to
* *
* * *
* *
508. APOSTATE CHURCHES.
That many of the Churches are moving in the outer
rings of infidelity they themselves, before long, will put beyond doubt and
denial. Traditional
Christianity, says Mr. Rhondda
Williams from the Chair of the Congregational Union, has already ceased to be the religion of a good many of our
churches and of a still larger number of our ministers. The Creeds are for the greater part
impossible of belief. Mr. Hugh Edwards, M.P., reporting this
address, says:- The fervid and long-continued
outburst of applause which marked its conclusion demonstrated to the point of
proof that it had captivated the Assembly.
To those of us who could recall the storm of protest which the Rev. R. J. Campbell evoked by his
address to the London Board of Congregational Ministers, on somewhat similar
lines, just twenty years ago, the striking contrast between the reception of
the one address and that of the other was significant in the highest degree;
for the acclamation very conclusively demonstrated that the centre of gravity,
as regards the doctrinal tenets of no small section of the Assembly, has
undergone a striking change.
* *
* * *
* *
509. DEPRAVITY.
Total depravity (which Mr. Rhondda Williams derides)
does not mean that a man is as bad as he can be, but that he has a germ of evil
in every part of him; that is not a wart, but a blood-poisoning, which, if it
enters the sin blood anywhere, enters it everywhere. Lord
Rosebery once, as his little grand-daughter, to whom he was devotedly
attached, entered the room exclaimed:- And the Church
calls her a child of wrath! Yet
he would have felt no moral shock if a doctor, examining an all but invisible
speck on the tiny arm, had said:- This child is a
leper. Death, spiritual or
physical, need be no more than a puncture.
If the
* *
* * *
* *
510. DUTY.
Stern
Lawgiver! Yet thou dost wear
The Godheads most benignant grace;
Nor know we any thing so fair
As is the smile upon thy face:
Flowers laugh before thee on their beds,
And fragrance in thy footing treads;
Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong;
And the most ancient heavens, through thee, are fresh
and strong.
WORDSWORTH.
* *
* * *
* *
511. LET YOUR WOMEN KEEP SILENCE IN THE CHURCHES.
A difficulty has here suggested itself to the mind of
some. The apostle, in [1 Cor.] chapter 11, had
directed women not to pray or prophecy, unless with covered heads. He here forbids them to speak in the public
assemblies. It has been thought that
these rules contradict one another, unless we imagine that the prohibition
against their speaking, here delivered, refers only to their utterance of uninspired
sentiments; but that if they prophesied under the power of the Holy
Ghost, no barrier is interposed. This is
a mistake. The speaking of which the
apostle treats throughout the present chapter is inspired speaking, and the
subject immediately preceding is prophecy.
If we say that the women might and should pray and
prophesy in private, with covered head even the very appearance of discord
between the two passages is taken away.
Such was the prophesy of Mary and Elizabeth.
The fallacy, then, lies is supposing that Paul is
giving, in chapter 11., directions for public
prayer and prophecy only, when indeed he is dealing with the question
of prayer and prophecy in every place. Does not this prove very distinctly, that
Christian females have overlooked, or misapprehended, the Spirits precept,
when, in closet prayer, or in family worship, they kneel with
uncovered heads? Had public
prayer only been in question in chapter 11.,
must not the words have run thus? Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray [IN
PUBLIC] uncovered? But in
reality it stands thus: Is it comely that a woman pray
UNTO GOD uncovered? That is, the rule is founded, not on her
relation to the man alone, or the question whether he be present or not, but on
her position before God: and this, of course, supposes, that at all times she
should be covered in prayer.
If any doubt should rest on our mind, it should be
satisfied, methinks, by the word that follows.
It is a shame for women to speak in the
church. This forbids every kind
of public utterance. Similarly: 1 Tim. 2: 8-12.
Is not the whole question very simply adjusted by observing
that there were two faults in the women of the Corinthian church? first, with
regard to the manner of their prophesying; secondly, with regard to the place. The Spirit then meets these two distinct
faults, in two distinct connexions: in chapter 11.
forbidding the uncovered head; in ch. 14.,
prohibiting their prophesying in the assembly.
Is there any opposition here?
This law, the apostle adds, was not one now first
introduced by the gospel: long ago, ever since the fall, the females position
had been one of subjection, according to the Lords sentence then
delivered. The law of Moses takes the
same ground, in the case of a maids, and of a wifes vow: Num. 30.
Now prophecy supposes teaching, and this puts the woman out of her
place. It appears also that prophecy is
not necessarily public speaking, and thus again differs from the idea
entertained by some, of its meaning simply preaching.
ROBERT GOVETT.
* *
* * *
* *
512. IF THEY WISH TO LEARN ANY THING,
LET
THEM INQUIRE OF THEIR OWN HUSBANDS AT HOME.
Any kind of speech therefore is forbidden. Even inquiry as to the meaning of what is
delivered. For this might have been
expected, as carrying with it no appearance of teaching, but as being
manifestly the taking of the disciples place.
This being forbid, all speech on their part is foreclosed. It was an overstepping of the dictates of
nature, that would bring disgrace on Christianity if permitted. Thus four reasons are assigned for womans
silence. 1. Nature. 2. The Old Testament. 3. The custom of the saints. 4. The world not to be offended. Inspiration did not touch the females
womanhood, and consequent subjection.
Their gifts (like tongues) were intended for privacy, or for meetings
among themselves.
* *
* * *
* *
513. OUR WHOLE BURNT OFFERING.
When I looked into his face and saw him brush back his
hair from his brow, heard him speak of the trials and conflicts and the
victories, I said:- General Booth, tell me what has
been the secret of your success?
He hesitated a second, and I saw the tears come into his eyes and steal
down his cheeks, and then he said:- I will tell you
the secret. God has had all there was of me
to have. There have been men
with greater opportunities; but from the day I got the poor of
WILBUR CHAPMAN, D.D.
* *
* *
* * *
514. DIVINE ABSOLUTION.
A Spanish woman was once condemned to death for the
murder of her child. The priest heard
her confessions, and absolved her; but at the end of it all her remorse and
despair were pitiful to see. The priest
arranged for a second confession, lest there should be any sins she had
forgotten, and again he gave her absolution; but her agony and remorse were
just the same. Is
there nothing more you can do for me? she cried; oh, how dare I meet God with my sins! Moved by compassion, the priest said:- Well, there is one thing more; it is written in the Bible, the blood of Jesus Christ, Gods Son, cleanses from all sin. Is that true?
she cried, how do you know it is? It is true,
replied the priest, for the Word of God says so, and
that must be true. In a moment
the womans face was changed completely.
Oh, she cried, why didnt you tell me that before? Her tears of anguish became tears of
joy. Next day she went to the execution
with perfect composure; while her
father-confessor was so astonished at the effect of that single verse, that he
began studying the doctrines of grace, and ultimately joined the Spanish
Reformers.
* *
* * *
* *
515. DYING TRIUMPH.
Mr. Guthrie, an eminent minister in
ARVINE.
* *
* * *
* *
516. ON EAGLES WINGS.
One day, when I came to a little thicket on the cliff
where I used to lie and watch the nest through my glass, I found that one eagle
was gone. The other stood on the edge of
the nest, looking down fearfully into the abyss, whither, no doubt, his bolder
nest-mate had flown, and calling disconsolately from time to time. Presently the mother eagle came swiftly up
from the valley, and there was food in her talons. She came to the edge of the nest, hovered
over it a moment, so as to give the hungry eaglet a sight and smell of food,
then went slowly down to the valley, taking the food with her, telling the
little one in her own way to come and he should have it. He called after her loudly from the edge of
the nest, and spread his wings a dozen times to follow. But the plunge was too awful. The meaning of the little comedy was plain
enough. She was trying to teach him to fly, telling him that his wings were
grown, and the time was come to use them.
Suddenly, as if discouraged, she rose well above him. I held my breath, for I knew what was
coming. The little fellow stood on the
edge of the nest, looking down at the plunge which he dared not take. There was a sharp cry from behind, which made
him alert, tense as a watch-spring. The
next instant the mother-eagle had swooped, striking the nest at his feet,
sending his support of twigs and himself with them out into the air together.
He was afloat now, afloat on the blue air in spite of
himself, and flapped lustily for
life. Over him, under him, beside him,
hovered the mother on tireless wings, calling softly that she was there. But the awful fear of the depths and the
lance tops of the spruces was upon the little one; his flapping grew more wild;
he fell faster and faster. Suddenly
more in flight, it seemed to me, than because he had spent his strength he
lost his balance and tipped head downward in the air. It was
all over now, it seemed; he folded his wings to be dashed in pieces among the
trees. Then like a flash the
mother-eagle shot under him, his despairing feet touched her broad shoulders,
between her wings. He righted himself, rested an instant, found his head; then she dropped
like a shot from under him, leaving him to come down on his own wings
it
was all the work of an instant before I lost them among the trees far
below. And when I found them again with
the glass, the eaglet was in the top of
a great pine, and the mother was feeding him.
And then, standing
there alone in the great wilderness, it flashed upon me for the first time
just what the wise old prophet meant; though he wrote long ago, in a distant
land, and another than Cloud Wings had
taught her little ones, all unconscious of the kindly eyes that watched out of
the thicket: - As the eagle stirreth up her nest,
fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth
them on her wings so the Lord.
WILLIAM J. LONG
*
* * *
* * *
517. THE EAGLE.
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringd with the azure world he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
- TENNYSON.
* *
* * *
* *
518. PARENTAL TRAINING.
I once saw a very fine and interesting sight above one
of the crags of Ben Weevis. Two parent
eagles were teaching their offspring the manoeuvres of flight. They began by rising from the top of a
mountain in the eye of the sun (it was about midday, and bright for this
climate). They at first made small
circles, and the young birds imitated them; they paused on their wings waiting
till they had made their first flight, and then they took a second and larger
gyration [movement in circles], always rising toward the sun, and enlarging their
circle of flight, so as to make a gradually ascending spiral. The young ones still slowly followed,
apparently flying better as they mounted; and they continued, always rising,
till they became mere points in the air, and the young ones were lost, and
afterwards their parents, to my aching sight.
SIR HUMPHRY DAVY.
* *
* * *
* *
519. THE CHURCH.
The church, incorporated by the Holy Spirit for a
special purpose, is a specialistic society.
It is transcendently the most sacred and important institution in the
world, endowed with infinite privileges
and charged with infinite obligations.
The world is dependent on the church for intercession. Gospel preaching and the chief means [and way of] of
salvation. God has lodged in the church
the promise and potency of nearly all possible moral and spiritual good.
Articles of incorporation by the Holy Spirit, clearly
defines and limits the corporate work of the church. She is not
a political society to govern nations, a confederacy or nexus of clubs and
societies, a house of merchandise, or a bureau of amusements, but a
Christ-witnessing, light-bearing, missionary propaganda. She is
an assembly of God called out of the world into brotherhood, sonship and
heirship, and sent on a rescue mission to a lost world.
Whenever she
broadens out into mans institutional idea, her spiritual power and glory depart,
and she moves over upon the broad way to keep house with the world. The holy
ministry and holy church have always been most blessed of God and most useful
to mankind, when most separated,
consecrated and concentrated.
E. P. MARVIN.
* *
* *
* * *
520. THE RESURRECTION.
Unless we believe as literally in the Resurrection [of our Lord Jesus Christ]
as we do in the Passion and the Death, we are not Christians at all.
BISHOP WESTCOTT.
* *
* * *
* *
521. THE CATHEDRALS.
Fundamental denial of the Christian Faith in the great
cathedrals is sadly ceasing to be rare.
We cannot, says Canon R. H. Charles in Westminster Abbey (Times, July1, 1929), conceive our Lord as
condemned to an imperfect and mutilated personality, even for a moment, when He
gave up the Spirit: Christ had no
further relation with His physical body after his death on the Cross. How far such infidelity is enthroned in the
pulpit Mr. Egerton Swann (Times, Julu 15, 1929) shows. Article IV states
that Christ ascended into Heaven with
flesh and bones. Does Canon Douglas himself believe
this? I never met a clergyman who did. This test would be fatal not only to the
views of Dr. Barnes, but quite
equally to those of all the intellectual leaders of Anglo-Catholicism. The
* *
* * *
* *
522. AT LAST.
Not silent
just passd out of
Earthly hearing
To sing heavens sweet new song;
Not lonely dearly loved and
Dearly loving,
Amid the white-robed throng.
Oh no, not
dead, but past all fear
Of dying,
And with all suffering oer:
Say not that I am dead when
Jesus calls me
To live for evermore.
* *
* * *
* *
523. SUNSET.
Make haste about cultivating a Christ-like
character. The harvest is great; the
toil is heavy; the sun is drawing to the west; the reckoning is at hand. There is no time to lose: set about it as you
have never done before, and say, This one thing I do.
ALEXANDER MACLAREN,
D.D.
* *
* * *
* *
524.
Daniels Babylonian Empire resumes the thread broken
off with the tower-erection and
AUBERLEN.
* *
* * *
* *
525. ONE HOUR.
Quod vobis, omnibus dico,
VIGILATE
Could ye not watch with me
one hour? Ah no!
Sleep lies too heavy on the tired eyes
Of Christs disciples.
Had the trumpet clanged
Gird up your loins for
battle, till the foe
Be backward driven! be sure they had not slept.
Men weary, waiting, now as heretofore.
Yet Christs command, bequeathed, rings clear to-day
Across the vast division of the years;
And still that meek reproach, once spoken beneath
The gathering shadows of
Comes strangely home: Could
ye not watch one hour?
E. H. BLAKENEY, M.A.
* *
* * *
* *
526. THE EPHAH.
The worlds common symbol for commerce, in general, I
have found to be an ornamented coin, weight, measure, or bowl of the scales,
bearing a representation of the power that authorizes it, and a figure of a
woman on each side, - one surrounded with the implements of navigation looking
to the sea, and the other surrounded with the implements of trade, husbandry
and transportation looking toward the land, - the two mutually supporting what
is between them, whilst above are the wings of some vigorous bird to indicate
the far-reaching flights of trade. It
has been evolved in the course of ages, and the whole modern world, so far as I
know, has set the seal of its approval upon it as the accepted emblem of
commerce.
J. A. SEISS, D.D.
* *
* * *
* *
527. BURIED FOUNDATIONS.
Shred, said a
professor to a young missionary, are you not afraid
to go to central
* *
* * *
* *
528. THE CRY OF A LOST SOUL.
O somewhere, somewhere, God unknown,
Exist and be!
I am dying; I am all alone;
I must have Thee!
God! God! My sense, my soul, my all
Dies in the cry:
Sawst thou the faint star flame and fall?
Ah! it was I.
* *
* * *
* *
529. WISE WORDS FROM ARCHBISHOP SECKER.
1. Sanctified
persons do much good, and make but little noise. 2. They bring up the bottom of their life to the
top of their light. 3. They prefer the
duty they owe to God to the danger they fear from men. 4. They seek the public good of others above
the private good of themselves. 5. They
have the most beautiful conversations among the blackest persons. 6. They chose the worst sorrow rather than
commit the least sin. 7. They become the
fathers of all in charity, and the servants of all in humility. 8. They keep their hearts the lowest, when
God raises their estates the highest. 9.
They seek to be better inwardly in their substance, than outwardly in
appearance. 10. They are grieved more at
the distress of the church, than affected by their own happiness. 11. They render the greatest good for the
greatest evil. 12. They take those
reproofs best which they need most. 13.
They take up duty in point of performance, and lay it down in point of
independence. 14. They take up their
contentment in Gods appointment. 15.
They are more in love with the employment of holiness than with the enjoyment
of happiness. 16. They are more employed
in searching their own hearts than in censuring other mens states. 17. They set out for God at the beginning,
and hold out with Him to the end.
18. They take all the shame of
their sins to themselves, and give all the glory of their services to
Christ. 19. They value the heavenly
reversion above an earthly possession.
20. This world is very large in our hopes, but very
small in our hands. 21. The water
without the ship may toss it, but it is the water within the ship that sinks
it. 22. A harp sounds sweetly, yet it
hears not its own melody. 23. If the sun
is eclipsed one day, it attracts more spectators than if it shone a whole year. 24. John the Baptist was a burning and shining light. To shine is not enough, a firebrand will do
so. Light without heat does but little
good; the heart without light does much harm.
Give me those Christians who are burning lamps, as well as shining
lights. 25. Believers resemble the moon,
which emerges from her eclipse by keeping her motion; and ceases not to shine
because the dogs bark at her. 26. We
should never land in triumph at the haven of rest, if we were not tossed upon
the sea of trouble. If Joseph had not been
* *
* * *
* *
530. THE EAGLES EYE.
Why cannot God be seen by
mortal eye? asked the Emperor
Trajan. You
say, said he to Rabbi Joshua,
that your God
is everywhere. I should like to see him. He is indeed
everywhere, said the rabbi; but no mortal eye
can behold his glory. The
emperor insisted. Well, said Joshua, suppose
we go first and look at one of His ambassadors, and so saying he bade
the emperor look at the dazzling sun. Art thou unable then to look at one of His creatures? How therefore, couldst thou hope to look upon
the Creator Himself and live?
* *
* * *
* *
531. LEAD US.
Lead us brother, where the light is;
Cast no shadow on our way:
Know we too well where the night is
Lead us to
the open day!
Not to grope, or guess thy mission;
Not to falter in thy speech;
Thine the supra-sensual vision,
Thine the more than mental reach!
We, who fare through toil and sorrow,
Come with hearts of sin and care;
We would know about the morrow
Is there satisfaction there?
Lead us,
brother, bravely daring
Thou thyself
the narrow road;
Our diurnal
trials sharing
Show us how
to trust thy God!
* *
* * *
* *
532. GRACE TO DO.
We know the path wherein our feet should pass,
Across our hearts are written Thy decrees;
Yet now, O Lord, be
merciful to bless with steel, to strike the blow.
Grant us the will to fashion as we feel,
Grand us the strength to labour as we know,
Grant us the purpose, ribbd and edged with steel, to strike the blow.
Knowledge we ask not knowledge Thou hast lent,
But, Lord, the will there lies our bitter
need;
Give us to
build, above the deep intent,
The deed,
the deed!
* *
* * *
* *
533. OUR RESURRECTION BODY.
In the identity of the seed and the plant lies a truth
of awful significance. Wheat, in the
tomb, does not become barley, or barley change into wheat: there is no change, no second
chance, in the grave: wheat comes up wheat, tares come up tares: what
the seed falls, that it springs: yet how enormously different! All the winter the bulb lies dead, an
unsightly root, hidden in the earth: but they that
sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake (Dan.
12: 2), and all that are in the tombs shall
come forth (John 5: 28, 29) in the
case of the saints, lilies spring out of the black earth, with a whiteness with
which no fuller on earth can whiten.*
* Paul used the word kokkos
grain or berry. The grain is not the
vital part of the seed (the sperma) but the mere carrier of
that; while in the process of germination (as the activity of the dormant
powers of the germ are stimulated by atmospheric oxygen) the bulk of the kokkos
undergoes decomposition (it perishes) in the presence of warmth and moisture,
for its material to be used in the metabolism of the infant plant, from the
moment that it begins to send out its ascending and descending shoots, and
until these nascent organs acquire the functional power of assimilation of food
material from the air and the soil (A. Irving).
For (in 1 Cor. 15: 42)
it is sown for the corpse is a
seed entrusted to the earth to grow, exactly as a seed is; we sow,
we do not bury in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
it is sown in dishonour physical dishonour, not mortal it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness
too weak even to resist the worm it is raised in power
of a material that will never waste, and never wear: it is sown a natural body an animal body it is raised a SPIRITUAL
body as truly a body, but not as animal a body: for there are heavenly bodies bodies
made for heaven like our Lords,
and there are earthly bodies bodies made
for the earth life. So, for the heavenly
life, since this flesh cannot
inherit the
D. M. PANTON.
[*
How unscriptural and erroneous it must surely be, by those who assume we ascend
into the presence of God in heaven immediately after Death; and
therefore before the time of Resurrection!! Resurrection occurs only when our Lord Jesus Christ returns: We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe
that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him
[at] the
coming of the Lord
For the Lord
himself will come down from heaven
and
the
dead in Christ will rise first: (1 Thess. 4:14-16, N.I.V.) Christ did not ascend into heaven before
the time of His Resurrection; and neither can we! (John 20: 17; Rev. 6; 9-11. cf. Heb. 11: 39, 40; Rev. 20: 4-6; Luke
20: 35, etc.) Ed.]
* *
* * *
* *
534. HINDUISM AND CHRISTIANITY.
During twenty years of my life in
J. N. FARQUHAR, M.A.,
D.Ltt.
* *
* * *
* *
535. THEY LOVED NOT THEIR LIFE
From
gaol the pastor at
The Church of England
Newspaper, Dec. 4, 1936.
* *
* *
* * *
536. THE CHURCH I FOUND
As
I would not subscribe to a human creed that contained error, or any tenet or
article of faith contrary in my judgment to the Word of God - so neither would
I subscribe to any mans creed even if that creed contained to the dot all I
now believe, and all I understand the Bible to teach. I can accept no human creed, good or bad. The moment a Christian bows to a human
creed he ceases to be a simple follower of Christ. An alien authority has intruded between him
and his Lord; and his claim to be a
member of the
R. H. BOLL
* *
* * *
* *
537. THE AGED AT WORK
Pyengyang has an Old Mens
Association, formed six years ago.
There are now over 100 members, 60. 70, even 90 years of age. They may be seen every afternoon at two o
clock, and they call it the Old Peoples House of
Prayer.
Some months ago Mr.
Chang Shup, 81-year-old chairman of the association, said to Prof. M. W. Oh: We cannot forget Mr.
R. J. Thomas, his preaching and his martyrdom, and want to do something in
his memory. We prayed for a long time
about this. Eventually God told us to
build a preaching boat to be called Martyr Thomas to preach the Gospel
to boatmen on the
Korea Mission Field.
* *
* * *
* *
538. GRACE TO DO
We know the path wherein our feet should pass,
Across our hearts are written Thy decrees;
Yet now, O Lord, be
merciful to bless with steel, to strike the blow.
Grant us the
will to fashion as we feel,
Grant us the
strength to labour as we know,
Grant us the purpose,
ribb'd and edged with steel, to strike the blow.
Knowledge we ask not - knowledge Thou hast lent,
But, Lord, the will - there lies our bitter need;
Give us to build,
above the deep intent,
The deed, the deed!
*
* * *
* * *
539. ELIMATED SIN
Sin,
which is that which dissolves the human frame, is absent from the body that
comes up out of the grave. A man working
for Faraday, the great French chemist, accidentally knocked a splendid silver
cup into some fluid and was astonished to see the silver rapidly
disappear. The workmen gathered round
and were greatly dismayed, deploring the loss of such handsome workmanship. When the chemist was informed he poured a
small quantity of fluid into the basin, and gradually the silver dropped to the
bottom. Carefully pouring off the
liquid, he took the silver and sent it to be remade at the silversmiths who
had designed the cup. In a few days the
cup was even more beautiful than at first, cleansed in the acid, and remade
faultless.
*
* * *
* * *
540. THE
The apprehension of the rebuilding of the temple is
even in the Arab mind. The mentality of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Professor Einstein has just said, may be gauged from a recent statement he gave to an
interviewer accusing me, of all men, of having demanded the rebuilding of the
* *
* * *
* *
541. ADVENT
This is the time when all our service should take hold
of the coming of the Lord! It is not a
normal routine, but we are working under the pressure of an approaching crisis,
looking unto the hastening toward the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ! Let the watchword, Unto the coming of the
Lord, be as a kind of inscription on everything that comes into daily life,
regulating our friendships, affections, service, and all our thoughts of the
future.
- Dr. A. B. SIMPSON.
* *
* *
* * *
542 NEVER
TOO OLD.
It is not good for the race* to believe that a mans best days are over at sixty. It tends to break down mans energy and
prevent him from utilising the best that is within him: the best that has come from
years of experience and work.
[* See 1 Cor. 9: 24; Heb.
12: 1, 2.]
Dr. W. F.
Johnson, of
- The Friends
Witness.
* *
* * *
* *
543
FOURSCORE YEARS
Labour and sorrow, the psalmist said,
Was the gift of the fourscore years;
And he almost envied the sleeping dead,
Escaped from the vale of tears.
But the psalmists heart was overwrought,
And his harp was out of tune,
For the fourscore years to me have brought
Sweet restful days like June.
And so I sing of the beautiful years,
Each one with a goodness crownd;
And better by far my foolish fears
Were its months and its seasons found.
So now
with my fourscore years I wait
Till I hear a higher call,
And I pass within through the pearly gate
To the heaven [kingdom*] that crowns
them all.
[*Note. After death comes burial of the body; and the soul descends into the heart of the earth
(Matt. 12: 40; Acts 2: 27); after first resurrection
(Rev. 20: 5, 6), we will be like the angels (Luke 20:
35), in the millennial
-
ELIZABETH JANE LONG.
* *
* * *
* *
544. THE REDEMPTION OF THE ANIMAL WORLD.
The redemption of the animal world will come as a
result of the reinstatement of man. The
animal creation was subjected to the fall unwillingly and will receive a
regeneration in the coming glorious new age.
Before the fall animals were not ferocious but were docile and subject
to the tender care of un-fallen man, but after the fall the nature of Satan was
implanted within them. Their present
plight is described by Paul. For the earnest expectation of the creature [lit. Gk.,
the anxious watching of the creation] waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature [Gk. creation] was made subject to
vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in
hope, because the creature [Gk., creation] itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of
corruption into the glorious liberty [Gk., the
freedom of the glory] of the children of
God. For we know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain together [Gk., groans
together and travails together] until
now. And not
only they [so], but
we ourselves, also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves
groan within ourselves, waiting for the
adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body (Rom. 8: 19-23, A.V.)* See also Isaiah 11: 6-9.
-
WM. F. BEIRNES.
* *
* * *
* *
545. BECOMING AS LITTLE CHILDREN. Matt. 18: 3.
For our Lord bodily
presents our model. He called to him a little child old enough to
be called, but young enough to be lifted (Mark 10:
16) and set him in the midst of them
(Matt. 18: 2): there if our Lord had
never spoken another word is the greatest: forever among us for all time, is
a mute, living symbol of the enthroned in the Kingdom of God. For of such,
He says, is the kingdom of heaven [Lit. Gk. the kingdom of the
heavens] (Matt.
19: 14). The only record we have
of Christ embracing anyone is His embrace of a little child; and the child our model rests, happy and contented,
in the Everlasting Arms.
So we ponder a little child. A little child is perfectly simple, without
being a simpleton: it is wide awake, and constantly learning through every
sense: it is extraordinarily open to the truth, and extraordinarily sincere: it
responds wonderfully to affection: its purity is crystalline: it is exceedingly
quick to forgive: it has not the faintest trace of worldly ambition: the
thought never enters its head to doubt its fathers word: it has an awe of God,
and its conscience is singularly tender.
Our Lord does not set a sinless seraph in our midst, or a blazing angel:
winsome as childhood is, and tenderly beautiful, it has its waywardness, its
tempers, its foolishness: nevertheless such are the Kingdom saints. God wants the manlike intellect, the
childlike heart, the godlike character and conduct.
The Lord closes with the practical. The Apostles had been grasping for glory on the wrong side of the grave; so He
says:- Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as
this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven [lit. Gk. the kingdom of the
heavens.] (Matt.
18: 4). Satan lost the highest of
all created thrones through pride: we can win the highest thrones through
humility. A child is humble; we must become
humble; and this attainment, as superior to a childs as holiness is superior
to innocence, is within our grasp. Whosoever shall humble himself: self-emptied
because God-filled: it is possible not only to become great in the
D. M. PANTON.
* *
* * *
* *
546. WELL DONE GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT.
Just as the twelve apostles to whom it was the
Fathers good pleasure to give the kingdom continued with their Master in His temptations, and were appointed
to eat and drink at His table in His Kingdom and sit on thrones judging the
twelve tribes of Israel (Luke 12: 31, 32; 22: 28-30),
so to trusty and reliable devoted
Christians the Lord will say, Well done, thou good
and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make
thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord (Matt. 25: 21: 24: 45-47). His proven servant the overcomer He will make ruler over all His goods, ruler over
His household, to give them meat in
due season, as was the case with Joseph and David and Daniel.
* *
* * *
* *
547. THE WORLDS CONVERSION
It is plain that individual conversion (as recorded throughout
the Churchs history) is powerless to overtake the conversion of the
world. Henry Martin said he would believe in the resurrection of the dead
when one Barhmin was converted, yet to-day there are thousands of converted
Barhmins.
What an Indian poet
wrote is true of vaster millions to-day than when he wrote it a thousand years
ago:-
The sound of a sob in the darkness,
A child crieth after his Father
My spirit within me is burning,
Consumed with a passionate yearning
O unknown, far-away Father,
No voice answers out of the darkness.
*
* * *
* * *
548. THE BLESSED HOPE.
The Blessed Hope of our Lords return was, no doubt,
the foremost of all motives, hopes and incentives which moved early disciples to
zeal and activity in missions; and to revive this hope to make it practically
the mighty motor to us that it was to them, is to provide a new impulse and
impetus in the work of a worlds evangelization. Hope is the one impulse that never loses its
youth, and, above all, this hope. On the contrary, so soon as we lose sight of
the Advents imminence and say:- My Lord delayeth His coming, we are tempted to
indolence, self-indulgence, and controversy on minor matters. When disciples felt the time to be short and
the duty to be urgent, they were all at it and always at it; self-denial was an
easy yoke and petty jealousies were scorned as trifles. So soon and so long as that hope was dim, and
Christs coming [and Kingdom Age] was pushed into the far-off future, the Church
began leisurely working, then flippantly playing at missions, as though vast
circles of time lay before us in which to witness to the world. Revive this hope of the Lords Coming and
it begets hourly watching, ceaseless praying, tireless toiling, patient
waiting.
The Scriptures warrant no expectation of the worlds
conversion in this [evil] age of witness; so far as we look for such result we work
on the wrong basis, and will either be disappointed or deceived in the
outcome. The soldier who misconceives
the object of a campaign, may falsely construe all the movements of the
army. If he thinks the whole force of
the foe is to be captured, the seizure of a few leading strongholds seems only
next to absolute defeat. But, if he
knows that this is exactly according to orders from headquarters, and that the
plan of his great commander is thus carried out, seizing and holding certain
strategic points, and waiting for him to arrive with reinforcements, what would
otherwise have seemed defeat, now becomes success.
A. T. PIERSON, D.D. [From Missions and the Advent.]
* *
* * *
* *
549. DECEIVED REGENERATE BELIEVERS.
Responsibility!
Merciful Saviour, look
upon thy ministers! What will the deceived
people say to them, and to them, when the story of Peace, Peace, is interrupted by the
uprising of the Man of Sin, and the imperious demand that all shall worship
him, and deny the Father and the Son? Sir, you
deceived me? You taught me to laugh at
the millenarian doctrine. You said that
Christ would not come until the end of the world; that the Gospel would convert
the nations, and that the idea of a personal Antichrist was a dream, and an
absurdity. You deceived me; and now I
must either worship this blasphemer or die! Can one imagine such a speech as this without
horror?
WILLIAM LEASK, D.D. [From
Warning
the
* *
* * *
* *
550. THEY PROVOKED HIS SPIRIT.
Now we see the danger.
Jehovah had been rightly consulted: the dangerous Shekinah fires had
shown themselves in the heavens in response: Gods mercy was to be unlocked
from the rock. Moses and Aaron approach
the rock. Before the vast assemblage
Moses cries:- Hear
now, ye rebels; shall we bring you forth water out of this rock? The comment of the Psalm
(106: 32) lodges the sin in the
exasperated utterance rather than in the double blow, his passionate action
being only a symptom: it went ill with Moses for their
sakes [on their account]; and he spake
unadvisedly with his lips. God had prospered a greater miracle a
fountain gushing from the rock without a gash: Moses curtly
disobeys, striking the rock much as he might have desired to strike the
people. They provoked
his spirit,
says the Psalmist: once he approached them as rebellious (Deut. 9: 24) without offence; but now, in passion,
he loses all command of himself, and by that fearful word ye rebels plumbs the depths of denunciation and
excommunicates, in one sweeping sarcasm, the entire People of God.
The sentence of God falls like lightening. And the Lord said
unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye
believed not in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of
* *
* * *
* *
551.
GRACE TO DO.
We know the path wherein our feet
should pass,
Across our hearts are written Thy decrees;
Yet now, O Lord, be merciful to bless with steel, to
strike the blow.
Grant us the will to fashion as we feel,
Grant us the strength to labour as we know,
Grant us the purpose, ribbd and edged with
steel, to strike the blow.
Knowledge we ask not knowledge Thou hast lent,
But, Lord, the will there lies our bitter need;
Give us to build, above the deep intent
The deed, the deed!
* *
* * *
* *
552.
RESURRECTION
With what body do they come? for the
dead are coming again. We are
already in the bodies that will stand before the Great White Throne: though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my
flesh shall I SEE GOD
(Job. 19: 26). The whole Gospel
shows, says Justin Martyr, that there is
salvation for the flesh.
Thirty years afterwards, when the body of Livingstone was brought before the heart of
Father, said an African chief to Dr. Moffat, I love you much, but the
words of a resurrection are too great for me.
The dead shall not rise.
Why not? asked Dr. Moffat. I have slain my thousands, was the answer, shall they rise?
You missionaries will never know all the good
you have accomplished in
* *
* * *
* *
553.
BODIES FOR
JUDGMENT.
Were the risen body a totally new creation the
continuity of our personality would be destroyed, a great gulf would be fixed
between our existence in this world and our existence in the next; the whole
past history would be obliterated; and the bodies in which we should stand
before the throne of judgment would be new and strange ones, in which we never
sinned or repented, suffered or rejoiced, and on which it would be unjust,
therefore, that glory should be conferred or punishment inflicted.
-
HUGH MACMILLAN,
D.D.
* *
* * *
* *
554.
THE CRITICAL TRUTH.
If the resurrection goes, the supernatural goes; if
the resurrection remains, the door is open for the miraculous. We hear all round about us today, in all
sorts of voices, the declaration that all miracle is impossible. There
is one fact that stands on its own appropriate evidence, evidence which I
venture to say is irrefragable, viz., the historical fact of the resurrection
of Jesus Christ, which shatters all such contention. The fact is the key of the position. Like some great fortress, standing at the
mouth of the pass into the fertile country, as long as it holds out, the storm
of war is rolled back in broken foam from its firm battlements; if it yields,
all is surrendered. Round the alleged
fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ turns the whole controversy, and more
and more it will be manifest that any
theory of the relations between God and man which is not able to find a place
for the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ [out] from [amongst] the dead [in Hades] is unable to hold the field.* All sorts of preposterous theories to account
for the belief in it upon natural grounds spring up, generation after
generation, and generation after generation are swept away into the dust-bin of
forgotten absurdities, and the old message stands, Jesus
Christ is risen [out] from
the dead! [Lit. Greek.]
[*Note. Christs
resurrection out of the dead was a selective
resurrection, the meaning of which the apostles were, debating
what is the out of dead to rise (Lit. Gk., [Mark 9: 9]) That is, all
the remaining dead were, and presently are left in the death state;
their disembodied souls now in Hades, - the place of all the dead until
the time of resurrection, when both body and soul will
be reunited (Acts 2: 31, 34; John 3:
13; 2 Tim. 2: 18, etc.): and
this was Pauls burning ambition - for a similar, and future, select
resurrection
of saints: Becoming conformed unto his
[Christs] death a martyrs or
overcomers death, no doubt, (Acts 20: 24; Rev. 3: 21) - and therefore to be amongst a select
company of resurrected saints who will be: Counted
worthy age of that to obtain and
of the
resurrection out of [the] dead (Lit. Gk., (Luke 20:
35) - when Messiah returns to establish His Millennial Kingdom
here. The apostle Paul sought to attain unto (Phil.
3: 10, 11), so as to enter
that Kingdom (Matt. 5: 20), and therefore, to win the Prize
(Phil. 3: 14. cf. 1 Cor. 9: 24; Col. 2: 18.). [See also, Rev. 20: 4-6; Luke 14: 14; 20: 35; Heb. 11: 35b],
etc.).
Therefore, any theory or suggestion that all saints
will rise
out from the dead (or will enter via
rapture
before
the Great Tribulation commences without being able to escape, [Luke 21: 36.
cf.
Rev. 3: 10] that age
without being count worthy by Christ, on the
basis of their own standard of personal righteousness: Except your righteousness exceeds.
[Matt. 5: 20]) - is unable to hold the field.
We dare not neglect or gloss over any conditions, laid
down by our Saviour, for
entrance into His
- ALEXANDER
MACLAREN, D.D.
* *
* * *
* *
555.
THE THRONE OF GOD
For he that overcometh,
Jesus promises, I will give to him to sit down with me
in my
throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne (Rev. 2: 21): two distinct thrones; the Lord being now
seated on His Fathers, but then on His own: while the Throne of
Eternity beyond, is the joint throne of God and the Lamb.*
* Since no man
can share the present Throne of God, and equally no man can share the eternal
Throne of God and the Lamb, the Throne to which Christ invites fellow-occupants,
and which He makes dependant on overcoming grace, can only be the Millennial.
D. M. PANTON. [From:
The Reign of Christ on Earth.]
* *
* * *
* *
556.
DENYING THE
MILLENNIUM
It is of the utmost gravity that far the major portion
of the truly regenerate are this denying the [Millennial] Kingdom as revealed in the Scriptures. The believer who shares in a measure of the worlds
unbelief must share in an exactly commensurate measure of the worlds judgment. All [the
accountable generation] of
D. M. PANTON. [From: The reign of Christ on Earth.]
* *
* * *
* *
557.
FLESH AND BONES.
Nothing would have impressed
upon Jews more forcibly the transfiguration of Christs body than the verbal
omission of the element of blood, which was for them the symbol and seat of
corruptible life (Westcott). So believers are united, not to His flesh and
blood, but to His flesh and bones (Eph. 5: 30). This is the key to the text on which the
Modernist supremely rests. Flesh and
bones [reunited after death] for that is resurrection can enter the
D. M. PANTON. [From: Our
Resurrection Body.]
*
* * *
* * *
558.
OMINIS VANITAS.
The boast of Heraldry, the pomp of Power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth eer gave
Await alike th inevitable hour:-
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
Nor you, ye Proud, impute to these the fault,
If memory oer their tomb no trophies rise,
Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault
The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.
Can
storied urn or animated bust
Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?
Can Honours voice provoke the silent dust,
Or Flattry soothe the dull cold ear of Death?
Perhaps in
this neglected spot is laid
Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;
Hands, that the rod of empire might have swayed,
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre:
But knowledge to their eyes her ample page,
Rich with the spoils of time, did neer unroll;
Chill Penury repressed their noble rage,
And froze the genial current of the soul.
Full many a gem, of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
For from
the madding crowds ignoble strife
Their sober wishes never learned to stray;
Along the cool sequestered vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.
Their names, their years, spelt by th unlettered
Muse,
The place of Fame and elegy supply;
And many a holy text around she strews,
That teach the rustic moralist to die.
For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey,
This pleasing, anxious being eer resigned,
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,
Nor cast one longing, lingring look behind?
On some fond breast the parting soul relies,
Some pious drops the closing eye requires;
Evn from the tomb the voice of Nature cries,
Evn in our ashes live their wonted fires.
-
GRAYS ELEGY.
* *
* * *
* *
559.
HINDUISM AND
CHRISTIANITY.
During twenty years of my life in
J. N. FARQUHAR, M.A.,
D.Litt.
* *
* * *
* *
560.
RESURRECTION.
I once saw on the surface of the water a tiny creature
half fish, half snake not an inch long, writhing as in a mortal agony. I was stretching out my hand to remove it,
lest it should sink and die and pollute the fair waters, when lo, in the
twinkling of an eye, its skin split from end to end, and there sprang out a
delicate fly. Balancing itself for an
instant on its discarded skin, it preened its gossamer wings, and then flew out
to an opened window, and I learned that on sea and on land, God has stamped the
mystery of the resurrection.
-
SAMUEL COX, D.D.
* *
* * *
* *
561.
RESURRECTION (2)
An egg laid by the butterfly hatches, not a miniature
adult, but a lava which differs from the adult, not only in the absence of
wings, but in the shape of the body, the structure of the mount parts, the
length of the antennae, the mode of life, and the internal structure. In this case, the caterpillar when full-fed
becomes a passive pupa, and within the pupa case the organs of the body break down
and are reconstructed to form those of the adult, or imago This is complete metamorphosis, defined
chiefly by the fact that a period of complete quiescence intervenes between the
larval and adult life. It is
extraordinarily illuminating. The
caterpillar, our earth-tethered life;
the chrysalis, the rest [of the soul] in
Hades; the resurrected butterfly,
the heavenly body. So also is the resurrection of the dead. A blind martyr and a lame martyr were
executed at
No new forms can supply the place of my dead, and
there would be no relief to my insupportable sorrow unless I knew that the precious dust committed to the earth is
not all dust, that I shall see again the very forms that I loved, wonderfully
changed and transfigured indeed, translucent with spiritual glory, but still
wearing the same form and features that were so similar to me on earth.
-
HUGH MACMILLAN,
D.D.
*
* * *
* * *
562.
HARVEST
In
-
W. J. BRYAN.
* *
* * *
* *
563.
LITTLE CHILDREN
OF THE KING * See No. 545.
Quiet, Lord, my forward heart,
Make me teachable and mild,
Upright, simple, free from art,
Make me as a weaned child:
From distrust and envy free,
Pleased with all that pleases Thee.
What Thou
shalt to-day provide
Let me as a child receive;
What to-morrow may betide
Calmly to Thy wisdom leave:
Tis enough that Thou wilt care,
Why should I the burden bear?
As a
little child relies
On a care beyond its own;
Knows hes neither strong nor wise
Fears to stir a step alone
Let me thus with Thee abide,
As My Father, Guard, and Guide.
Thus preserved from Satans wiles,
Safe from dangers, free from fears,
May I live upon Thy smiles,
Till the Promised hour appears
When the sons of God shall prove
All their Fathers boundless love.
-
JOHN NEWTON.
* *
* *
* * *
564.
SCRIPTURE JESTS
Nothing is more easy than to create a laugh by a
grotesque association of some frivolity with the grave and solemn words of Holy
Scripture. But surely this is profanity
of the worst kind. By this book the
religious life of men is quickened and sustained. It contains the highest revelations of
Himself which God has made to man. It
directly addresses the conscience and heart and all the noblest faculties of
our nature, exalting our idea of duty, consoling us in sorrow, redeeming us
from sin and despair, and inspiring us with the hope of immortal blessedness
and glory. Listening to its words,
millions have heard the very voice of God.
It is associated with the sanctity of many generations of saints. Such a book cannot be fit material for the
manufacture of jests. For my own part, I
should be disposed to say that a man who deliberately and consciously uses the
words of Christ, of Apostles, and of Prophets, for mere purposes of merriment,
might have chalked a caricature on the wall of the Holy of holies or scrawled a
witticism in the sepulchre of Josephs garden.
-
R. W. DALE, D.D.
* *
* * *
* *
565.
AN EPITAPH.
The all-embracing catholicity of the
Here lieth
the body of
SCIPIO
AFRICANUS,
Negro servant to ye right Honourable
Charles William, Earl of
Died ye 21 December, 1720. Age 18 Years.
I who was born a pagan and a slave,
Now sweetly sleep a Christian in my grave.
What tho my hue was dark, my Saviours sight
Shall change this darkness into radiant light:
Such grace to me my lord on earth has given
To recommend me to my Lord in heaven;
Whose
glorious second coming here I wait,
With saints
and angels Him to celebrate.
* *
* * *
* *
566.
SAFELY ABIDING.
[ A Posy of Thoughts. By Doris
Goreham.
Miss Goreham has given us another
volume of her poems. Charmingly printed,
it is again of real help by reason of its deep, heart-whole devotion to our
Lord. We know no author whose verses are
so absorbed in tender prayer and praise.
We quote on of the poems. D. M.
PANTON.]
Saviour, in Thy love abiding,
Fearing naught by day or night,
In Thy promise simply resting,
Knowing Thou wilt lead aright;
Safe and happy, cleansed and pardoned,
Wholly, Lord, for ever Thine,
Closer draw me never leave me,
All in Thee I now resign.
Keep me in the path of duty,
Thine is
such a rich reward,
Fearless help me face the conflict
In the armour of the Lord.
Powers of
darkness would deter me,
Turn me back,
my way impede,
In Thy love, O Lord, abiding,
Ever for me intercede.
Keep me daily, hourly, trusting,
May my life more fragrant be,
When the mists of doubt encompass,
With Thy
might, Lord, strengthen me.
Soon lifes
trials will be over,
Soon lifes cares for ever cease,
No more sorrow, no more sadness,
Only then Thy perfect peace.
Ever watching for Thy coming,*
Ever prayerful would I be,
Waiting for
Thy glorious Advent,*
Waiting,
Lord, Thy face to see.
Keep me in Thy peace, Lord Jesus,
Hold me to Thy heart of love,
And when earthly cares are over,
Grant Thy
promised rest* above.
[*
Note. Gods promised rest above - (relative to His coming
and glorious Advent) - is a Sabbath-rest for the people of God: and that
rest is not a heavenly or eternal rest, but a
future
seventh day rest which we are to make
every effort to enter
so that
no one will fall by following their [Israels] example
of disobedience, (Hebrews 4: 9-11. cf.
Psalm 95: 11).]
*
* * *
* * *
567. THE CALL.
Hudson
Taylor said that he had known more
than a hundred instances of Chinese accepting Christ at their first hearing of
the Gospel. He addressed a company of
Buddhists one night in Ningpo. When he
had finished, one of them rose and said:- All my life
I have tried Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism in vain. But I do find light and peace in what I have
heard to-night. Henceforth I follow
Jesus. From that night until his
happy and triumphant death twenty years later this man was a devoted servant of
Christ. But the day after his entrance
on the Christian life he asked Dr. Taylor:- How long
have you in
* *
* * *
* *
568. SANCTIFY YOURSELVES.
We are now
nearer than the Church has ever been to
the breaking of the tombs, and the emergence of saints; and if the problems
that cluster round that enormous event were always acute and urgent, ten times
more acute and urgent are they now.
Since the Wilderness is symbolic of our pilgrimage, and Canaan of the
Holy Land [during the millennium], the passage of Jordan is a kindergarten of
resurrection and rapture; and after three days the Lord rose after three days the Ark
(always a symbol of the Incarnate Christ) crossed Jordan; such of Israel as did
enter the Land where to follow at a commanded distance of about two thousand cubits the [this]
dispensations two thousand years
and the urgent direction of Joshua [Jesus], is SANCTIFY
yourselves, for to-morrow the Lord will do wonders among you (Joshua 3: 5) the era of miracle returns.
The
command comes home with tremendous force, SANCTIFY
YOURSELVES.
D. M. PANTON. [From: The Resurrection From Among the Dead.]
* *
* * *
* *
569. SELECT
RESURRECTION.
Paul defines so exactly what he means as to place the
truth, finally, beyond all doubt. If by any means, he says, I
may attain unto the out-resurrection, that which is from among the dead:
an out-resurrection, not out of the earth (Lange),
but out from among dead ones: that is, as the context suggests, the first resurrection
(Ellicott). It was exactly this which puzzled the first
disciples when Christ foretold His rising out of (ek) the dead, for like Martha
(John 11: 24) they had never conceived of
any emergence from the grave except the general rising of the mass of mankind:-
questioning among themselves what the rising again
from the dead should mean (Mark 9: 10). The first resurrection
is of necessity a resurrection from among the dead (Govett); it is a prior emergence from
the tombs: it necessitates a later resurrection of those left; and the rest of the dead LIVED NOT until the thousand years
should be finished (Rev. 20: 5). Thus all difficulty attending Pauls
uncertainty vanished the moment we realize that the
[out-resurrection]
is one of the golden prizes for
which God summons us [Christians] to compete.
As Dr. J. Hutchisan says:- The allusion is undoubtedly not to the general resurrection
of the dead. All must attain unto
that. No striving is needed
thereto. It stands fast in the decrees
of heaven, and none can fall short of it or frustrate it. What is referred to here is that which is attained after danger and
toil, and attained as a blissful reward.
It is what is elsewhere called a better resurrection (Heb. 11: 35); the resurrection of the just (Luke 14: 14; Acts 4: 2); the first resurrection (Rev. 20: 5). It is the resurrection par eminence,
* *
* *
* * *
570. A PRIZE.
So we reach a revelation of extraordinary importance
for every one of us, - [who
are regenerate Christians] - strangely
overlooked, or even denied, in our evangelical and prophetical theology. The doctrine here
[in 559] taught is that the blessedness of the saints at the
resurrection is so great that we should be content to use any means and run any
hazards to attain it (T.
Manton, D.D.). Pauls eagerness to
emphasize his own uncertainty is almost passionate. Not that I have
already attained attained, that is, the title to the first
resurrection [*Jus ad resurrectionem beatam (Grotius).]; for no one would imagine that he had attained it in
the Roman prison or am already made perfect:
brethren, I count not myself whatever others may think of me,
or of themselves to have apprehended.* If these words of Paul meant that he, and
with him all believers, are sure of the [out] resurrection of which he speaks, then words are
chosen to conceal their meaning, and to express the opposite of what they say:
on the contrary, Paul, guided by the [Holy] Spirit, solves the problem for us all by lodging it
exclusively in himself; for it needs no arguing that if not Paul, then none of
us. Paul the aged, Paul the Apostle,
Paul (we had almost said) the matchless not only thought he had not
attained, but says by inspiration that he had not I
am not already made perfect: not until the executioners block was
actually in sight, on which he was to be poured out as
a drink offering (2 Tim. 4: 6), did he know, as a martyr, his crown secure. Therefore, until then, all converges on a
resolve of passionate intensity, in which, for all saints, and for all time, the
Apostle blazes the trail. ONE THING I DO, FORGETTING THE THINGS WHICH ARE BEHIND, AND
STRETCHING FORWARD TO THE THINGS WHICH ARE BEFORE, I PRESS ON TOWARD THE GOAL UNTO THE PRIZE OF THE HIGH CALLING OF
GOD IN CHRIST JESUS.**
[* I, emphatic: he evidently alludes to some whom he wishes to
warn by his example (Alford). So Bishop
Wordsworth:- The divine Apostle himself, even at
this late period of his Apostolic career, does not feel absolutely confident
that he himself will attain to the glory of the Resurrection of the Just; and
he disavows the notion of being supposed to have
already apprehended. Cf. 1 Cor.
9: 27.
It was not until on the eve of his martyrdom for Christ that he could
exclaim, as he then did, Henceforth there is
laid up for me the Crown. For
homiletical purposes - [i.e., for the purposes of a simple, practical, and scriptural
interpretation of the passage, rather than by working out a doctrine in detail,] - Dr. J. Lyth puts it thus:- The
[out-resurrection] is distinguished from the resurrection of the wicked (1) by its glory (Dan. 12: 2); (2) its precedence (1 Cor. 15: 23); (3) its results (John 5: 29). It is an object of Christian ambition
requiring (1) faith, (2) consecration, (3) effort. It will amply repay every sacrifice of
(1) self-gratification, (2) earthly advantage, (3) life.
** The call heavenward (Lightfoot); the up-call; come up hither!
(Rev. 4: 1) out of an empty tomb. John when thus called, had fallen as one dead, and had been set back upon his feet by
the voice of the Son of God. Believers who deny that there is any such
conditional sanctity have a startling disillusionment ahead; nor is it harsh to
believe that many prophetical teachers have a grave report to give to their
Lord for a denial so dogmatic in its certitude as to mislead countless saints. False confidence is a sweet-smelling flower
which holds the worm of an unguarded walk.]
* *
* * *
* *
571. THE GRACE OF TEARS.
1.
Remember,
said Paul, in addressing the elders of the Ephesian church, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn
everyone night and day with tears. Oh, those tears! which seem to contain a
whole body of Christian theology, Christian morality, and Christian
experience. Next to the tears of his
great Master, shed over
2.
A traveller anxious to see where M Cheyne had preached, and worked, went to the Scotch city and
found the church. He told the old sexton
he had come a long way and wanted to see where MCheynes had preached. The sexton said, Come
on, and that old grey-haired Scotchman led the way into MCheynes
study. He said, Sit down in that chair.
The traveller hesitated a moment and then sat down. On the table in front of him was an open
Bible. He said, Drop your head in the Bible and cry like a child. That is the way our minister got ready to preach. He said, Come on
with me. He took him up into a
Scotch pulpit before the open Bible. Now, he said, stand there
and drop your head in your hands over the Bible and begin to weep. He said, That is
the way our minister preached.
With a deathless conviction that breaks up the
fountains of the deep and wets my face with tears, I shall continue to stand in
the shadow of the Cross and hold the Book to my heart and preach the glorious
gospel of the Son of God and believe in its everlasting triumph. Dr. COURTLAND MEYERS.
* *
* * *
* *
572. THE
The
*
* * *
* * *
573. NO SIMPLE CREED.
I felt that I must either go back to the orthodoxy of
my childhood, or else quit the Christian religion. My Modernism had blown up. My champions in theology have yielded too
much ground; and they have yielded ground that could not be yielded without
conceding failure. I do not find that
the Gospel accounts of Jesus acts and words are so simple;
nor can I see how a simple creed can be
extracted from them. I came across the
following:- He
that hath seen Me hat seen the Father. Is that simple? Again, Glorify thou Me with Thine own self with the glory that I had
with Thee before the world was.
Is such a statement the foundation of a simple creed? Please look at this familiar word, The Word was with
God and the Word was God. If
these are words from which a simple creedal statement can be extracted, then
this writer can only hope that he is never to be called upon to solve anything
that is deep or intricate. I find
hundreds of other passages about God and the Holy Spirit, many of them from the
lips of Jesus, and none of which makes it possible for me any longer to talk
about the simple creed of Jesus.
- ARNO C.
* *
* * *
* *
574. POLITICS.
That a
fallen world requires something far more radical than the most radical
politics, sometimes realized too late, is a fact more commonly never realized
at all. Speaking at the Browning Hall Settlement
shortly before his death, Mr. Keir
Hardie, M.P., a chief creator of the Labour Party, said:- If I had my time over again, with the experience of the last
thirty-five years, I would throw over my home and every personal interest, and
would go out to proclaim to the people the Gospel of Christ.
* *
* * *
* *
575, A FALSE BAPTISM.
On account of the worldliness and Modernism pervading the
churches, many of Gods true children are being driven out of them, to seek
spiritual help and fellowship elsewhere.
Such an one, with a real soul-hunger for the deeper things of God and
for full consecration, was invited into a meeting where the real Gospel was
proclaimed, and conversions were taking place.
An atmosphere of love and sanctity pervaded the meetings, and there she
yielded to the invitation to surrender herself to God without reserve, that she
might receive the pentecostal baptism. But in order to receive this blessing, it was
insisted that she must literally drop herself,
let
go her will and self-control, that she might be governed and swayed
entirely and only by the Spirit, with this
result. Suddenly she was violently
shaken by an unseen power, which she was assured was the Holy Spirit. This shaking of the limbs continued at
intervals, especially during the night. Then
the fingers began to move, apart from her own volition, pointing to certain
verses of Scripture in her open Bible, which she accepted as indicating Gods
will for her. Before long, her whole
body was swayed and controlled by this unseen power, utterly apart from her own
will or control, and she became strangely excited and unnatural. A spirit had
indeed taken possession of her, but what spirit? Thank God, at last this child of God
discovered that she had opened herself to a deceiving spirit, and through
receiving the message of deliverance through the victory of Christ at Calvary,
she has been set free; but this is only one instance among many brought to
ones notice, and in some cases there has been a complete breakdown, both
physically and mentally.*
- E. M. LEATHERS. [* From the
Overcomer.]
* *
* * *
* *
576. NEGLECTED TRUTH
Like
all the great preachers of the Word of God, Christ fought many of His battles
over
neglected truth; and if He were standing in some pulpit today, He might
stress other conditional aspects of entrance into His Kingdom, which are
currently being ignored or even denied by multitudes of modern-day teachers:
and consequently, it is a fact that large and important areas of the Word of
God are comparatively unknown to many of the Lords people.
While
Christs words, - Ye enter not in yourselves,
were directed to Scribes and Pharisees, who Shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, (Matt. 23: 13); they apply also to hypocritical
religious leaders today who undermine divine prophecies, and deny Gods
conditions for entrance, (Matt. 7: 21).
We
may also add that if entrance into Messiahs Millennial Kingdom is exclusively
by the new birth, or as some today have defined it as, the rule of God in the heart, it is not surprising that Pauls
recorded warnings to the churches during his day, appears to have no
significance or cause for concern to the majority of regenerate believers in
the
To
interpret the above texts as a present kingdom of saints would make Paul contradict
what he had previously written; and since, according to Scripture, the kingdom
of which we speak is to be established at the second coming of Christ, and it
is to be delivered up to the Father at its end,
the period of this kingdom is not eternal, and must be located sometime in
the future between two general resurrections of the dead, as indicated clearly
in Revelation chapter twenty.
*
* * *
* * *
577.THE MAKING OF AN APOSTATE.
It was some distress to me that I could never look
back to an hour of conversion; when others
gave their experience, and spoke of the sudden change they had felt, I used to
be sadly conscious that no such change had occurred in me.
There is in life no other pain so horrible as
doubt, so keen in its torture, so crushing in its weight. I did not yet dream of denial, yet I would no
longer kneel.
I shook off once for all
the Inspiration of the Scriptures, Eternal Punishment, and Vicarious Atonement,
with all their pain and horror and darkness; and felt, with joy and relief
inexpressible, that they were delusions.
When eternal punishment and substitutionary atonement had gone, there
seemed no reason sufficient remaining to account for so tremendous a miracle as
the Incarnation of Deity.
I could no longer attend the Holy Communion, for in that service, full
of recognition of Jesus as Deity and of His atoning sacrifice, I could no
longer take part without hypocrisy. With
pain and trembling I rose and a feeling of deadly sickness nearly overcame me
as I made my exit. I stood no longer a
Christian.
Belief in a God began
slowly to melt away. I had given up the
use of prayer as a blasphemous absurdity.
I gloried in the name of Atheist: Atheist
is one of the grandest titles a man can wear; it is the Order of Merit of the
worlds heroes.
I added Spiritualism to my
studies, and Theosophy stepped in as a final evolution of my Atheism.
* *
* * *
* *
578.RIGHT IS RIGHT.
For right is right, since God is God;
And right the day must win:
To doubt would be disloyalty,
To falter would be sin.
F. W. FABER.
* *
* * *
* *
579.SCANDAL.
No more subtle praise of an institution could be
imagined than the scandal which immediately attaches to any sin in it. To a young infidel scoffing at Christianity
because of the misconduct of its professors Dr. Mason said:- Did you ever know an uproar to be made because an infidel
went astray from the paths of morality?
The infidel admitted that he had not.
Then dont you see, said Dr. Mason, that by expecting the professors of Christianity to be holy,
you admit it to be a holy religion, and thus pay it the highest compliment in
your power? The young man was
silent. There is no conceivable answer.
* *
* * *
* *
580. THE MILLENNIAL THRONE SHARED ON CERTAIN
CONDITIONS.
The millennial
throne of Christ is to be shared with others on certain conditions, by the gift of Christ Himself. I will give to
him to sit with Me. Paul refers to this heirship in his unfolding
of the work of the Holy Spirit in Rom. 8.
Joint-heirs with Christ ... if so be that we suffer with Him (Rom. 8: 17).
This is foreshadowed in Daniel 7: 22-27,
where it says, the time came that the saints possessed
the kingdom. The fact that Christs coming throne is to be shared by overcomers, who are
appointed by the Father to be joint-heirs with
Him, who was appointed heir of all things, is
therefore quite clear.
Glimpses are to be
found, too, into the future time when the Christ, and those who are to share
the throne with Him, will reign. Paul said: Know
ye not that the saints shall judge the
world? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? (1Cor. 6: 2,3). What angels? Certainly
not the unfallen ones. The explanation will be found in 2 Peter 2: 4. The angels which kept not their first estate ... judged. These fallen angels - Satan and his hierarchy
of evil powers - are to be judged by those who reign with Christ on His
throne. In brief, they who are overcomers
- those who overcome the world and Satan
now will be the judges of the fallen hosts of evil, when these
overcoming ones are glorified together with
Christ upon His throne.
The obtaining of the
prize of this high calling of sharing the
Throne with Christ was the incentive which urged Paul on to count all things
loss to obtain it, and to be willing to
be made conformable to the death of Christ as the primary means for reaching
such an end (see Phil. 3: 10-14); for
each believer who reaches the prize of the throne, goes by way of the Cross in the path of the Ascended Lord.
-
J. PENN-LEWIS.
* *
* * *
* *
581.THE RED HEIFER
It is blessedly clear that the Heifer stood, first of all, for
The Red Heifer, a postscript to atonement, by its very nature as a
cleansing ordinance added after conversion and baptism, stands
forth as a supplementary covering for post-baptismal sin. For it was a wilderness ordinance to be applied whenever sin occurred,
throughout their pilgrim journey, among the people of God, who all shared in
the Heifer as a contribution from and for the whole people.
On the other hand, since the ash is
stored outside the Camp, exactly where even an excommunicated believer
is it is immediately accessible, and
there can be instant pardon. If [a vital condition] we [believers,
even including an Apostle] confess [here is application for the ash] our sins [our transgressions after conversion], he is faithful and righteous to forgive us
our sins [namely, the sins
confessed], and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness (1 John 1: 19).
So the merit of our
Saviours person is applied by the Spirit to the penitent whose sin was in the
fire that searched the Ash, and Jesus is the propitiation for our sins, as well as for
the sins of the whole world; and the Holy Ash, burnt once for all, is forever stored
among Gods people, alongside the rushing River perpetually accessible
throughout the pilgrim journey, and charged with the whole power of Calvary to purify and restore. ...
So therefore the summoning of a believers un-abandoned,
un-cleansed sin before the judgment Seat of Christ stands forth
unchallengeable. The Pardon must be obtained on
the third day with a view to the seventh: The same shall purify himself therewith on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall
be clean. The third is the
resurrection day of Jesus. Him
God raised up the third day, that
through His name every one that believeth on Him shall receive remission of sins (Acts. 10: 40);
covering in its limitless possibilities of abundant pardon all the days until
the seventh: the seventh is the day ushered in by the Judgment Seat of Christ;
there remaineth therefore a sabbath rest ‑ a seventh millennium for the people of God (Heb. 4: 9).
D. M. PANTON.
*
* * *
* * *
582.A SABBATH REST FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD.
The
designed type as deliberate and elaborate as any in the Bible solves the
problem of exclusion with extraordinary clearness. For Paul labours to make clear that the
ninety-fifth Psalm names a Rest which, since it has never yet occurred, is
therefore open to us: for David, though himself enthroned and a rest (2 Sam. 7: 1), wrote of Gods rest as still future; a fact which at once
dissociates it from both the Divine rest after creation three thousand years
earlier, and from Israels rest in Canaan five hundred years before David
wrote. There remaineth therefore a SABBATH-REST a word used
nowhere else in the Bible, nor ever in classical literature, but coined by the
Holy Ghost to express a toil completed for the
people of God (Heb. 4: 9). So the
Rest is the Millennial Reign. For it is the sabbath rest, or seventh
millennium, following on six thousand years of redemption toil; it is Gods
rest in the old earths closing dispensation, foreshadowed by every Sabbath
under the Law: it is not the Eternal Rest, for it is merely a concluding
section, a closing seventh: it is, as Paul has just said, THE AGE [not the Ages] TO COME, whereof we speak [of which we are speaking] (Heb. 2: 5).
Thus Canaan is the type of
the
D. M. PANTON.
* *
* * *
* *
583.THE OATH OF EXCLUSION.
Now
we arrive at once at a question enormously emphasized by the Holy Ghost:
against whom went forth the oath of exclusion?
For who, when they heard [the
actual voice of God] did provoke? not
Egyptians, nor the Seven Tribes of Canaan, nor Moab nor Amalek, none of whom
were ever shut up to Jehovah, severed from all the world in a desert as the
sole people of God: nay, did not all they that
came out of Egypt Israel, under Passover blood and through
Red Sea baptism. And with whom was He displeased forty years?
Was it not with them that sinned as only believers can sin; that is,
against privilege and light whose carcasses fell in
the wilderness? The carcasses
were the proof of the oath: they so pampered the body, that mere bodies they
became, reaping corruption. And to whom sware He that they should
not enter into His rest against whom went forth Gods oath of
exclusion but to them that were disobedient?
a justified but an unsanctified people.
In the words of Bishop Westcott:- The warning is
necessary; Christians have need of anxious care: for who were they who so
provoked God? even those whom He had already brought from bondage.
D. M. PANTON.
* *
* * *
* *
584. THE SIN WHICH PROVOKED THE OATH.
But
what exactly was the sin which provoked the oath? We
see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief (Heb. 3: 19).
But unbelief in what?
-
D. M. PANTON.
* *
* * *
* *
585. A UNIVERSAL OFFER
So
this prize of our high calling is open to every runner in the race. Coronation is possible to all: no sex is
excluded, nor age, nor race, nor class, nor temperament. And it is possible for a believer to win all the
crowns, if only he will be set over a
D. M. PANTON.
* *
* * *
* *
586. A LOST CROWN
Our
Lords negative warning therefore demands our whole soul. I come quickly: hold
fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown (Rev. 3: 12); or as Paul puts it: Let no man rob
you of your prize (Col. 2: 18). The crown may be won today, and lost
tomorrow. No one warns of the lost crown
more than Christ. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord -
however truly and vitally he may say it - shall enter
into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will - he who fulfils
the conditions of the crown - of my Father which is in
heaven (Matt. 7: 21); and in the
judgment He will say, Take ye away therefore the
talent from him and give it unto him that hath ten talents; for unto every one
that hath - he who has used his gifts - shall
be given, and he shall have abundance - even multiple crowns; but from him that hath not - who buried his talent -
even that which he hath shall be taken away (Matt. 25: 28).
As an old writer puts it: The history of Christs Church is one long tale of gifts
forfeited and privileges transferred.
The crown is not lost, but with a little alteration is made to fit
anothers brow. There is no empty space
either in the arena of conflict below or in the palace of victory above.
D. M. PANTON.
* *
* * *
* *
587. HOLD FAST
So
we close on our Lords golden counsel. HOLD FAST THAT
WHICH THOU HAST. The promise
to the Philadelphian Angel immediately preceding is extraordinary apt for us
probably on the threshold of the Advent.
Because thou hast kept the word of my patience,
I also will keep thee from the hour of trial, that hour which is to come upon
the whole world. The Angels
squared life to the Advent had already won the crown: see to it, says the
Saviour that the first does not become the last. Our crown can be costly, but it will be
infinitely worth the cost. The crown
worn by the Prince of Wales at his fathers coronation in 1902 bears a tuft of
feathers from the Periwan, the rarest species of the birds of Paradise. The bird has to be caught and plucked alive,
for the feathers lose their lustre immediately after death; it frequents and
haunts of the tigers, involving great danger; and the Prince of Waless crown
took twenty years to collect, and cost the lives of a dozen hunters. All that you have already achieved grip for
your very life.
* *
* * *
* *
588. VISION OF THE KING
Dr. Wilbur Chapman writes: I was sitting one day beside an old English soldier who had
been in the Crimean service, and while we were talking he put his hand in his
pocket. He told me about one of his
friends who was in the same battle. A
cannon-ball came and took off his leg, but, springing up, he balanced himself
on one leg, ready to fight to the death.
Then came another ball and took off his second leg. They carried him into hospital, but he did
not die. When the day came for us to get our medals,
he said, they took us into the presence of the
Queen. Other people gave me my medal,
but when her Majesty saw my friend carried in on the stretcher, with his face
so thin, and both his legs gone, she took his medal in her hands and pinned it
on his breast, and as she bent over him her tears dropped on his upturned
face. He opened his eyes, and she said,
My brave soldier! My brave soldier! Do you know, sir,
said he, that to the end of his days my friend
never mentioned his reward or his medal, but when we old soldiers would get
together, he would say, I saw the Queen!
I saw the Queen! That is the reward. Oh to
see Him, just to see Him! See that YE receive a full reward. The Lord help you. Amen.
* *
* * *
* *
589. CLOSED DOORS.
They essayed [attempted] to go into
-
G. O. MATHESON. [From: Watch and Pray.]
* *
* * *
* *
590. THE DURATION OF THE PAROUSIA.
The second coming, like the first, is complex and
distributive, extending through a variety of successive and diverse scenes,
stages, events, and manifestations, requiring as many, if not still more
years. Just what length of time will intervene between the first and sudden
catching away of the watching and ready saints, and the final overthrow of
J. A. SEISS, D.D.
* *
* * *
* *
591. AFTERWARDS.
Light after darkness, gain after loss,
Strength after weakness, crown after cross;
Sweet after bitter, hope after fears,
Home after wandering, praise after tears.
Sheaves after sowing, sun after rain,
Sight after mystery, peace after pain;
Joy after sorrow, calm after blast,
Rest after weariness, sweet rest at last.
Near after distant, gleam after gloom,
Love after loneliness, life after tomb;
After long agony, rapture of bliss
Right was the pathway leading to this.
FRANCES R. HAVERGAL.
* *
* * *
* *
592. SALVATION IN THE KINGDOM.
The Lords teaching about the entrance into the
JOSEPH SLADEN. [From: Salvation in the
*
* * *
* * *
593. PEACE, PEACE!
Responsibility! Merciful Saviour, look upon
Thy ministers! What will the deceived
people say of them, and to them, when the story of Peace,
peace, is interrupted by the uprising of the Man of Sin, and the
imperious demand that all shall worship him, and deny the Father and the
Son? Sir, you
deceived me! You taught me to laugh at the millenarian
doctrine. You said that Christ would not
come until the end of the world; that the Gospel would convert the nations, and
that the idea of a personal Antichrist was a dream, and an absurdity. You
deceived me; and now I must either worship this blasphemer or die! Can one, imagine such a speech as this
without horror?
WILLIAM LEASK, D.D. [From: Warning the
* *
* * *
* *
594. GODS PROMISE OF THE LAND TO ABRAHAM.
While Abraham is dead, he is divided, and neither part of him is
receiving the fulfilment of Gods promise of possessing the land. Abraham dead is not on the earth, where the
promise is to be enjoyed. Nor can he
return to earth, till that which death has severed, life shall reunite. But then
his body and soul will be re-knit; and that in resurrection.
While Abraham sleeps in death the promises are unfulfilled. But as truly as Christ - the Singular Seed of
Abraham - has been raised [out] from among the
dead, so shall Abraham himself be. This
good pleasure of the Lord was first exhibited on Jesus, the Righteous. It shall by and bye be displayed in Abraham,
the justified by the righteousness of Christ.
When Christ descends to take the kingdom as Son of Abraham, Son of
David, He shall fulfil the covenant to the other seeds of Abraham; both the
heavenly seed, and the earthly.
Then shall Israel, the plural seed of Abrahams flesh enjoy the
land of promise; and it shall stretch from Nile to Euphrates, embracing even
the desert in which they wandered - then a desert no longer, but watered,
verdant, and inhabited: Isaiah
35. Then shall the heavenly seed of Abraham,
children of his faith, raised from the dead, shine forth as the sun in the
kingdom of their Father. Then shall Abraham enjoy, not the earthly
heritage alone, but shall receive also the better country, the heavenly
From this of course it follows, that Jesus is not coming to burn
up the earth as soon as He descends from heaven. While the Gospel of Gods grace and patience
lasts, Jesus does not leave the heaven.
And till He rises up, the resurrection of the righteous tarries. The Gospel, then, will never fulfil to
Abraham the promise of the land. The
Gospel is Christ waiting, His people falling asleep, and resurrection
tarrying. It is only when the new age of reward according to works has arrived,
that the covenant with Abraham, to be fulfilled to him in a new life, takes
effect. The millennial
* *
* * *
* *
595. THE PROMISE FULFILLED - OUR HOPE.
We see, then, that a new and better age is before us. It is to come in by resurrection - the better
resurrection. The manifestation of Gods
favour will be on those who partake this kingdom of the thousand years. As yet it is God the patient, waiting for
the filling up of the worlds iniquity.
As yet it is His peoples suffering at the hands of
the wicked. As yet Christ is seated at
the right hand of God, waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. He is already in heaven, crowned - because of
His suffering of death - with glory and honour.
But we see not yet the promise fulfilled, that all things shall be set
under His feet. That is nigh at hand. And to us it is set forth as our hope - that
we may enter into the joy of our Lord.
The Father and the Son have been working hitherto, since the Fall
introduced trouble into Gods creation-rest.
But all is moving on to the rest of God in His better sabbath of
redemption. Into this sabbath-rest of
the seventh thousand year - shall enter those who have worked with God and His
Christ, and suffered for them. Let us seek this rest! Let us labour to enter it! Let us desire and strive for the prize, which
the Righteous Judge shall give in that day!
Let us keep from unrighteousness! Into the resurrection of the righteous, and
the kingdom of the saints, the unrighteous shall not enter: 1 Cor. 6: 9-11.
We are sons of God by grace, let is seek to do the works of our
Father! Let us labour to-day in His
vineyard! He is not the God of grace
alone: He becomes also the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him: 11:
6.
ROBERT GOVETT.
*
* * *
* * *
596. RACING FOR THE PRIZE.
Paul
several times compares the believer to a racer, seeking a crown at the Grecian
games. Know ye
not that they which run in a race, run all, but one receiveth the prize. So run, that ye may obtain. Now every one that wrestleth is temperate in
all things. Now they do it to obtain a
corruptible crown: but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly: so
fight I, not as one that beateth the air; but I keep under my body, and bring
it into subjection, lest that by any means after having acted the herald to others, I
myself should become rejected: (Greek.) 1 Cor. 9: 24-27. The
most diligent in exercises of training in that day might still lose the prize,
because one by nature fleeter of foot had entered the lists. But so it would not be in the future award of
Christ. The prize was sure to all who
observe the laws of the games.
Notice here, that wherever the prize is
spoken of, it is viewed in connection with the danger of the loss of the
kingdom. Paul was herald of the kingdom, and taught
others to pursue after it. Sad were it
then, if he should be refused an entrance.
But he persevered nobly, and at the close of his career, in his last
Epistle he says - I have fought the good fight: I have finished
the course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me the crown
of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day;
and not to me only, but unto all them also that have loved his appearing:
2 Tim. 4: 7, 8.
The
kingdom is set before believers as the prize at which they are to aim. Paul, giving up his own righteousness for
that of Christ, desired to have fellowship
with Christ in His sufferings, being made conformable
to His death, If by any means I may attain unto the [select] resurrection from [among] the
dead. (Greek.) Not as though I had already attained, either
were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for
which also I was apprehended by Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I
do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching toward those things
which are before, I press toward the mark [goal]
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus: Phil. 3: 10-14.
ROBERT GOVETT.
* *
* * *
* *
597. CHRISTS RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT TO COME.
Paul does not in 1
Cor. 4, affirm that every
teacher shall be found faithful, and so receive praise; though to an English
ear it might seem so. At the close of
chapter three, he says, that all things belonged to the Christian, whether
Paul, Apollos, or Peter. There were
indeed those who sought to weigh and measure the respective fidelity of these
servants of Christ, and teachers of His truth.
But for that Paul cared next to nothing.
He durst not abide even his own judgment of himself; Christs judgment was
the great thing, and that would be asserted at his coming. But judgment now on the subject of
ministerial faithfulness is out of place, and premature. The elements on which it is to be calculated
are only very partially known. Wait
therefore till Christ come, for the true decision on this point; for to Him all
the elements of a right judgment are present; and then shall each have his* [* Force of the article. The (due) praise.] praise of God. He is referring to the names he had just
mentioned; names especially tossed from tongue to tongue in that day. And so he proceeds to state:- omitting
Peters name for sufficient reasons. Now these things, brethren, I have in a
figure transferred to myself and Apollos, for your sakes: that ye might learn in us not to think of
men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for (the) one against (the) other. (Greek.)
ROBERT GOVETT.
* *
* * *
* *
598.
Passing
the chapel where she had been baptized she exclaimed joyfully, there I heard the words of the Saviour! She was led on past the residence of the
Prime Minister and the Queens Palace, for about a mile, to the brow of a hill
at the very northern extremity of the city, which overlooks a great panorama of
villages, rich fields, and, in the far distance, mountain ranges. The spot where the execution took place was
bare, exposed, and deserted, the haunt of wild dogs, a place shunned and
feared. On reaching it she asked leave
to kneel down and pray. Her request was
granted, she calmly knelt and committed her spirit into the hands of her Lord,
praying too for those who despitefully used her; and in that attitude of prayer
she was speared to death, the executioners, three or four in number, standing
behind and by the side of her and striking her through the ribs to the heart.
Just
before her martyrdom she wrote a brave letter to one of the missionaries who
had taught her, in which she said: This is what I beg
most earnestly from God - that I may have the strength to follow the words of
Jesus which say: If any one would come after
Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. Therefore I do not
count my life as a thing worth mentioning that
I may finish my course, that is, the
service which I have received from the Lord Jesus. Dont you missionaries think that your hard
work here in
* *
* * *
* *
599. THE SERF
Ye
rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you!
Bowd by the weight of centuries he leans
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,
The emptiness of ages in his face,
And on his back the burden of the world.
O masters, lords and rulers in all lands,
How will the future reckon with this man?
How answer this brute question in this hour
When whirlwinds of rebellion shake the world?
How will it be with kingdoms and with kings -
With those who shaped him to the thing he is -
When this dumb Terror shall reply to God
After the silence of the centuries?
-
EDWIN MARKHAM.
* *
* * *
* *
600. MARTYRDOM
Torn from loved ones, precious, dear,
Thrust in prisons dark and drear,
Tried and tempted, yet they stand,
Victors of the Promised Land.
In their awful loneliness,
In their pain and deep distress,
Flood with light the gloomy cell,
Whisper to them, - All is
well.
Make them strong amidst their foes,
Give them sight, beyond their foes,
Glimpses of the
Where, Lord, Thou art throned above.
Hettie K. Payne.
*
* * *
* * *
601. WORK ABROAD
In
1929 ten missionaries in
*
* * *
* * *
602. WHEN YOU MEET WITH THE CROSS.
There
are few, when they come at the cross, cry, Welcome
cross, as some of the Martyrs did to the stake they were burned at;
therefore, if you meet with the cross in thy journey, in what manner soever it
be, be not daunted, and say, Alas, what shall I do
now! But rather take courage, knowing that by the cross is
the way to the Kingdom.
Bunyan. (Acts 14: 22.)
* *
* * *
* *
603. THE EARTH IN THE AGE TO COME.
It cannot be too strongly emphasized that this - [i.e.,
Gods unfulfilled prophecies concerning the millennial kingdom of Christ] - is no
description of heaven; or of the Holy City hovering over the earth; or of the
new earth in the eternal ages: it is this earth exactly as we know it,
transformed by the Most High; the world at last become the Kingdom of God, as
foretold by all the prophets. Thus we
hold in our hands, for earths missed millions, a concrete Utopia to which
Communism is a mirage, and which even the conversion of entire humanity by the
Church (if that were possible) could not rival; and it may actually be here in
a few years. I
the Lord have spoken it, AND WILL DO IT
(Ezek. 22: 14).
D. M. PANTON.
* *
* * *
* *
604. NO PRIZE FOR HIM WHO STOPS HALF-WAY.
The racer must keep to the rules of the course, and
confine himself within the limits of the stadium. Speed will stand him in no stead without
this; and though he may reach the goal, he will not receive the prize. And it is so with the Christian racer. He is not at liberty to chose his ground, to
invent a short road, or to seek an easy road there: he must keep in the way of
Gods commandments. We are to be
temperate in all things in our enjoyments, our griefs, our most lawful and
permitted affections. There is no prize
for him who stops half-way.
D.MOORE, M.A.
* *
* * *
* *
605. SEEK FIRST HIS KINGDOM AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS [Matt. 6: 33].
Win this, and all else lost is but a trifle. Lose this, and all else won will not make
amends. Pursue after this as the prize
of your calling. Flee untruth and
deceit: cleave to truth and uprightness.
Do good unto all, specially to those of the household of faith. If Jesus thought so highly of this as to
promise it to the apostles as His chief boon, surely you also should think of
it as highly. If He Himself was
comforted upon His way of sorrow, by gleams from this glory, how much more
should you be! The more of the Spirit of God you have here, the more you will covet a
place and glory there.
ROBERT GOVETT. [From, Seek
Ye First.]
* *
* * *
* *
606. SUFFERING FOR CHRIST.
Suffering for Christ, and for the truths sake, is a condition of entrance into the
D. M. PANTON. [From, Suffering
and Glory.]
* *
* * *
* *
607. YEA, I HAVE LOVED THEE
WITH AN EVERLASTING LOVE.
I am Love,
and through the furnace
I am walking by thy side;
In the midst of provocation
From the Tempter I will hide.
When the
dreams of earthly passion
Come about thee to assail,
I am with thee to deliver,
Let not faith and courage fail.
Well I
know that not for glory
Nor for might thou prayest Me;
And the Love thou ever seekest
Ever present is with thee.
I will
show thee not the glory
Round about My Kingly Throne,
But the light of joy and gladness
Which the Father gives His own.
Shrink not
from the gaze of pity
Angels pause to give to thee,
For my blood-bought child is dearer,
Nearer than the angels be.
Yea, I
love thee, and will hide thee
In the shadow of My hand;
Do my will, and in the doing
Know thy Lord can understand.
Anon.
* *
* * *
* *
608. TEMPTATION.
Not to be tempted of the Devil is the greatest
temptation out of Hell. The Devils war
is better than the Devils peace. It is
terrible to be carried to Hell without any noise of feet. The wheels of Satans chariot are sometimes
oiled with carnal rest, and then they go without rattling or noise.
DR. GUTHRIE.
* *
* * *
* *
609. CURRENT TEACHING.
The constant emphasis in current teaching is that our
Lord comes for His Church: the inspired
statement is that He shall appear to them that wait for
Him. That the majority of
believers are not waiting for the Second Advent is a truism impossible of
denial, for they themselves are the first to assert it. Govetts translation is remarkable:- He shall be seen by those who are expecting him to save them. Ultimately every eye will see Him, but His
first appearance is to the watchful, rapt at the opening of the Parousia in the
heavens.
D. M. PANTON. [From.
The Three Appearances of Christ.]
* *
* * *
* *
610. THE AGE OF GOLD.
For lo,
the days are hastning on
By prophet-bards foretold,
When with the ever-circling years
Comes round the Age of Gold;
When peace shall over all the earth
Her ancient splendours fling,
And the whole world send back the song
Which now the angels sing.
*
* * *
* * *
611. SIMPLE OBEDIENCE.
The path of each believer is just the kindest and best
that love and wisdom could devise, when sitting in counsel upon it before the
world was.
I every day see more and more, how Gods glory is to
be found only in simple obedience.
Love makes drudgery divine; the question is not, what must
I do, but what may I do?
LADY POWERSCOURT.
* *
* * *
* *
612. HOLINESS AND THE ADVENT.
The return of Christ has been a powerful incentive to
holiness all down the Christian ages. Clement of
* *
* * *
* *
613. PLAN NOT.
He will silently plan for thee (Zeph. 3: 17)
Plan not, for all thy plans will fail,
And God looks calmly on;
He holds the helm; and, so, come storm or gale,
His Sun has shone.
Thou needst not have a fear; He plans:
Wilt thou His way to see.
Tis thine to pray; the issue is with Him
Who plans for thee.
Fear not, thy fears dishonour Him,
Who hitherto hath led:
Hath He not through thy pilgrimage,
With manna ever fed?
LOUISE F. E. ABRAHAM.
* *
* * *
* *
614. HARD SAYINGS.
The rejection of hard sayings in Scripture can lead
to apostasy. Here is a letter written by
two Japanese Christians of thirty-six years standing to a Japanese journal:- A generation ago we were taught by the early missionaries to
believe the Bible to be verbally inspired from Genesis to Revelation: we now
hold it to be full of errors. We reject
the greater part of Pauls teaching: we no longer believe in the Virgin Birth,
or Everlasting Punishment for unbelievers, nor that God can forgive us only
through the mediation and suffering of Christ:- this, a mere Paulinism, is no
longer tenable. Many who, thirty or
forty years ago, became Christians, have ceased to be Christians for these
reasons, and there are more who have left the Church than now belong to it. The death of the Church lies in the
extinction of the Book. In the startling
words of Professor T. H. Huxley on
the Higher Criticism:- If Satan had wished to devise
the best means of discrediting Revelation, he could not have done better.
* *
* * *
* *
615. THE ADVENT.
During forty years of watching prophetical literature,
apart from Sir Robert Anderson we
have never known a writer to affirm, in so many words, that no soul can be
regenerate who rejects the Second Advent; yet this is only the logical but
actual attitude of many who shrink from its utterance. For example, a writer in an excellent
contemporary, in order to prove that none are left at [the
first (Luke 21: 34-36)] rapture except unbelievers, says:- There is escape for those who watch and pray always, that
is, for the genuine believer: the saved
one who is walking in the light will not cease to watch.
* *
* * *
* *
616. WATCHING.
Surely such writers are aware that apart from
backsliders in tens of thousands, who are not walking in the light countless godly Churchmen, Lutherans,
Baptists, Presbyterians, etc., are even now working with unfaltering faith for
the conversion of the world, many totally denying any bodily return of Christ. If these can be described as men looking for their lord, when he shall return (Luke 12: 36), words have ceased to express their
meaning: clearly, it is the forcing of a Scripture to square with a theory in
this case, that no genuine believer can suffer the penalties foretold (Luke 12: 46) for unwatchfulness. But the Lord Jesus Himself says:- If thou the presiding officer of a church whom He
leaves in full charge of that church shalt not watch a true believer, therefore, can
be among the unwatchful I will come as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I
will come as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon
[arrive over] thee
(Rev. 3: 3).
If the Lord speaks truth, His return, for the unwatchful disciple, is a
threat, not a promise.
D. M. PANTON.
* *
* * *
* *
617. ACCOUNTED WORTHY.
A warning on anxiety is timely for us all to-day. In one case our Lord
used the word accounted worthy in connection with the living who should watch and pray to
escape the great tribulation. In the
other case He used it in connection with those dead who should take part in the
out-resurrection from among the dead (Luke 20:
35).
In Luke 21: 36
Christ warns His hidden ones of two ways in which Satan will seek to hinder
their being accounted worthy to escape the great tribulation. One is through weights, concerning which the only remedy is to utterly rely upon Christ
to lay them aside, even in the thought realm. And the other is through anxious cares. The remedy given for the latter being
twofold; first In nothing be
anxious, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let
your requests be made known unto God
*
* * *
* * *
618. ONE HOUR.
Quod vobis dico, omnibus dico, VIGILATE.
Could ye not watch with me one hour? Ah, no!
Sleep lies too heavy on the
tired eyes
Of Christs disciples. Had
the trumpet clanged
Gird
up your loins for battle, till the foe
Be backward
driven! be
sure they had not slept.
Men weary, waiting, now as
heretofore.
Yet Christs command,
bequeathed, rings clear to-day
Across the vast division of
the years;
And still that meek reproach,
once spoken beneath
The gathering shadows of
Comes strangely home: Could ye not watch one hour?
‑
E. H. BLAKENEY, M.A.
* *
* * *
* *
619.
THE EPHAH.
The worlds common symbol for commerce, in general,
I have found to be an ornamented coin, weight, measure, or bowl of the scales,
bearing a representation of the power that authorizes it, and a figure of a
woman on each side, - one surrounded with the implements of navigation looking
to the sea, and the other surrounded with the implements of trade, husbandry
and transportation looking toward the land, - the two mutually supporting what
is between them, whilst above are the wings of some vigorous bird to indicate
the far-reaching flights, of trade. It
has been evolved in the course of ages, and the whole modem world, so far as I
know, has set the seal of its approval upon it as the accepted emblem of
commerce.
-
J. A. SEISS, D.D.
* *
* * *
* *
620.
RAPTURE.
A friend writes us:-
How well I remember dear Samuel H. Wilkinsons remark at Lansdowne Hall. He explained, with an honesty which was a
marked feature of his make-up, how during his fathers days he had not accepted
Selective Rapture teaching, and felt rather proud of himself that he was not
numbered amongst them. But now he had
come to accept these views, and he felt ashamed of his previous sneaking pride! Then he said something like this: Whichever view is
correct, I want to set my life in such a way that I shall be ready when He
comes.
Any opposition to doctrine because it is unpleasing to the flesh, is a
most dangerous thing.
* *
* * *
* *
621.
FAITH FOR
TRANSLATION.
The faith for translation is far from being merely the
faith for salvation; it is ranked by the Holy Spirit among the great
achievements of the world. By faith
Enoch was translated.
-
The
* *
* * *
* *
622.
THE KINGDOM.
Our earthen vessels break;
The world itself grows old;
But Christ our precious dust will take
And freshly mould:
Hell give
these bodies vile
A fashion
like His own;
Hell bid
the whole creation smile,
And hush its
groan.
To Him our
weakness clings
Through tribulation sore,
And seeks the covert of His wings
Till all be oer;
And when weve
run the race,
And fought
the faithful fight,
Well see
Him face to face
With saints
in light.
* *
* * *
* *
623.
FAITHFUL UNTO
DEATH.
Katar Singh, a Tibetan, was sentenced by the Lama of Tshingham,
to death by torture for professing his faith in Christ. Sewn up in a heavy wet yak skin, he was
exposed to the heat of the sun. The slow
process of contraction of this death-trap is a most awful means of
torture. At the close of the day the
dying man asked to be allowed to write a parting message. It was as follows:-
I give to Him, Who gave to me my life, my all, His all
to be;
My debt to Him, how can I pay, though I may live to
endless day?
I ask not one, but thousand lives for Him and His
sacrifice:
Oh, will I then not gladly die for Jesus sake, and
ask not why?
This testimony, uttered in a moment of agony, did not
go unfruitful, for one of the highest officials in the Lamas palace was
gripped by the martyrs cry and confessed Christ that same night.
* *
* * *
* *
624.
BE STRONG.
Be Strong: for the days are darkening,
Impenetrable gloom fast gathering,
Night cometh on;
Light almost gone.
Be Strong: though the darkness oerwhelm thee,
Through it press on;
On to the end of the wearisome journey,
Where Jesus has gone.
Be Strong: the earths filled with violence,
With hatred and Sin;
Pray that in
all things ye may be found worthy
The Kingdom
to win.
Be Strong: keep thine eyes fixed on Jesus,
Hell bear thee along;
The battle is raging the Lord God is with us,
Our Hope and our Song!
HETTIE K. PAYNE.
* *
* * *
* *
625.
THE DISCERNING
MIRROR.
[Genesis 16: 3. James. 1: 24.]
1. Is God saying to me, You
are not in love with me now; I remember the time you were?
2. Why do I resist the suggestion that I need to go
deeper with God?
3. Have I an inner conflict against another soul?
against myself?
4. Am I thankful for the heartbreaks, the
disillusionments and tribulation that forces me to the only refuge, God?
5. What is the great sin
in me that blocks the Holy Spirit from getting all my life?
6. Do I know enough of the guidance of the Holy Spirit
not to proceed when doubt makes a conflict?
7. What do other peoples criticisms do to me?
8. When I leave a group of people, do I leave an
impression of myself, or of Jesus?
9. Have I forgotten how to be sorry?
10. Do I discern the faults and fail to see the fibres
of strength and great promise in people?
11. What do I want most, life or God?
12. Do I chafe, not understanding that conflict,
contact, and change are necessary for spiritual growth?
13. Have I known joy and growth through the mastery of
my dislikes and frictions?
14. Can I receive an affront of smarting rebuke in
silence?
15. Do I realize that I gain the strength of the
temptation I resist?
16. Am I more concerned with putting across my own
holiness or the power of God?
17. Can I stand in the light of First Corinthians 13 or do I have to shuffle?
18. Have I a disposition that is never lustful,
spiteful or evil?
19. Where do I find my reality, in God or in people?
20. Does my intercession take hold until my friends
soul gets into contact with the life of God?
21. Is my will bowed in sad submission, or lifted up
in glad humility within the will of God?
22. Do my friends call me stubborn while I think
myself determined?
23. Is my idea of the Church that of a witness for
Christ, or of a group who hold the same opinions and prejudices?
24. Am I aware that self can raise up within myself a
host of competitors with calls that seem as
good as Gods still small voice?
25. Am I seeking tags of honour and office?
26. Has my bitter trial left me face to face with God,
not with myself?
27. Am I one man in a thousand who is able to maintain
my spiritual life in a controversy?
28. Am I ready to have God stamp out of me my personal
ambitions?
29. Do I have a sympathetic capacity of understanding
peoples hearts?
30. Am I so bound up that I refuse to yield to the
power of love?
31. Have I allowed the sense of failure to corrupt my
next step for God?
32. Do I have attachments that could not stand the
scrutiny of God?
33. Am I making life hard for anybody?
-
THE GOSPEL
HERALD.
* *
* * *
* *
626.
THE MILLENNIAL
KINGDOM A REWARD.
Our Lord sets the final seal on this truth. He that overcometh, I will
give to him to sit down with me in
my throne manifestly the Millennial Throne EVEN AS that is, on identical
grounds, for identical reasons I also
I correspondingly with my brethren overcame, and
sat down with my Father in his throne (Rev.
3: 21). Here entrance into the
coming Reign for both Christ Himself and all who will share His [Millennial] Throne is
based four-square, not on grace or gift, but on so running the race as to win the prize.
D. M. PANTON. [From: The
Kingdom a Reward.]
* *
* * *
* *
627.
ADVENT.
I have long felt it one of the greatest shortcomings
of the
BISHOP J. C. Ryle.
* *
* * *
* *
628.
WARFARE.
I saw prevailing
throughout the Christian world a licence in making war of which even savage
nations would have been ashamed; recourse being had to arms for slight reasons
or none; and when arms were once taken up, all reverence for divine and human
law was thrown away, just as if men were thenceforth authorized to commit all
crimes without restraint.
- GROTIUS.
* *
* * *
* *
629.
THE PREPARING
BRIDE.
The Bible teaches two great facts. First, that near to the end of time [i.e., near the end of this evil age] certain forces will swiftly head up world affairs
into what the Lord called the tribulation.
Second, that a class of believers will escape the tribulation by flight
into the air to Him. One is recorded in Rev. 3: 10: Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will
keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to
try them that dwell upon the earth.
The other is Luke 21: 34-36: And take heed to
yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overshadowed with surfeiting, and
drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall
it come upon all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch
ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be counted worthy to escape
all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son
of Man.
Whatever the Song of
Solomon teaches, there is a beautiful picture of a blessed event in the second chapter.
My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up my love, my fair one, and come
away. If the earth is to be
troubled as it never has been since there was a nation (Dan. 12: 1) during the absence of the bride [of
Christ], what a blessing, what a privilege and what
a comfort to the queen-bride of the King of Glory! To be delivered from the terrible tribulation
of the world undergoing a just judgment for its sins should be a great cause
for gratitude on the part of the faithful.
See Isaiah 26: 20: Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy
doors about thee: hide thyself as it
were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of His place
to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall
disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.
The American
Baptist.
* *
* * *
* *
630.
THE FIRST
RESURRECTION LITERAL.
The spiritualizing, allegorizing, and idealizing,
expositors seek to evade the doctrine of the pre-millennial Advent of Christ,
by teaching that the First Resurrection. (Rev. 20: 5), is not a literal Resurrection of the
Body, but means something else. In like manner, they seek also to evade
the fact that the sublime scene of the Diademed Warrior on the White Horse, (Rev. 19: 11-16), is not that of the Second
Advent itself, but means something else. Thus, the literal Resurrection denied here, the literal Second Advent
is denied also. But if the First Resurrection is literal here, it must be coincident
with the literal Second Coming of Christ.
* *
* * *
* *
631.
THE RAPTURE.
There are some Bible scholars, and among them names that
are held in universal esteem, who say it is only the Virgins that are qualified
to go in; that there is a just suspicion in Luke
21: 36 that those Christians who do not watch will not escape all these
things. In view of this bare but awful
possibility, there is but one position habitual expectation.
-
J. MacNeil.
* *
* * *
* *
632.
THAT BLESSED
HOPE.
My hope of the worlds salvation lies not in any gradual
evangelization of the world, but in the personal return of our dear Lord and
Saviour. I believe that this world is
waning fast, and that at any moment He may appear. This makes me an optimist. This thrills me with hope. This makes my ministry (in ideal) vivid and
intense and glad. If this glorious hope
was a real expectation to all His people, it would put an end to mere ethical
essays in the pulpit. Nothing recovers
evangelical fervour and rekindles missionary passion and gives yearning for entire
sanctification like the realization of the fact that He
comes - that He may come at any moment.
DINSDALE T. YOUNG.
* *
* * *
* *
633.
CHRISTIAN
RESPONSIBILITY.
Slowly but surely the truth of the believers responsibility,
with its sequence of tangible awards favourable or unfavourable, is permeating
the ranks of the truehearted of Gods people, as these extracts, all but one
written within the last twelvemonth, prove.
That these sincere and gracious writers may not necessarily agree with
each others contentions is exactly what would happen with a landscape emerging
from a fog, and reported on by observers standing at different angles and with
differently-powered glasses. We have no
doubt at all that the spiritual anaemia
of the
D. M. PANTON.
* *
* * *
* *
634.
ONE IS TAKEN.
Boldly The Trump of God blares its brief warning;
Saints that have long slept spring up from the clay,
Past is deaths reign, and the glorious Morning
Star now announceth the nearness of day.
Rapt from the housetop, the field, or from slumbers,
Sunderd from dearest ones close alongside,
Clouds of the watchful saints rise in the number
Into His Presence they enter with singing;
Him Whom they loved when unseen, now they see;
Prostrate they fall, whilst His praises outringing
Fill every heart with Divine ecstasy;
Never again to be severd asunder
Him through eternitys Ages to know
As their souls Bridegroom; with increasing wonder
Into His Likeness Supernal to grow.
Blessed
partakers in this consummation!
Throughout lifes race they did eager contend,
Aye pressing on in the hope
of salvation,
On toward the Mark for the Prize at the end.
Lord! grant us grace, through Thy Spirit of Power,
Constant to dwell in Thee through lifes short day.
With fear and trembling,
until its last hour,
Steadfastly watching in prayer, that we may
Truly prevail to escape the dread sadness
Taking the dwellers on earth as a thief,
And, in that time of redemption and gladness,
Stand in His Presence with
joy
not with grief.
The
* *
* * *
* *
635.
PRAYER.
It is not the arithmetic of our prayers; that is, how
many. It is not the rhetoric of our
prayers; how eloquent. It is not the
geometry of our prayers; how long. It is
not the music of our prayers; how sweet.
It is not the logic of our prayers; how argumentative. It is not the method of our prayers; how
orderly. But how fervent and how believing
are our prayers?
-
BISHOP HALL.
* *
* * *
* *
636.
THE JEW.
Who taught
you tender Bible tales
Of honey-lands of milk and wine?
Of happy, peaceful
Of
Who gave
your patient Christ? I say
Who gave your Christian creed?
Yea, Yea,
Who gave your very God to you?
The Jew! the Jew! the hated Jew!
C. H. MILLER.
* *
* * *
* *
637.
MESSIAH.
Every orthodox Jew repeats daily the thirteen articles
of faith which include this statement:- I believe in the coming of the Messiah. Though He tarry, yet will I wait for Him.
* *
* * *
* *
638.
CHRIST SAVES.
In view of the real faith that is approaching, but faith
in a spurious Christ, it is vital to make clear that it is not faith
that saves: it is only Christ that saves. Here is a great locomotive, moving royally to
the head of a heavy laden train, with steam up, and a pregnant power equal to
drawing twice as many trucks; yet the whole train is motionless. Why?
Because the couplings are not attached.
As soon as those giant hands are clasped, and the iron bar slewed round,
making the trucks and engine one, the train moves. These couplings are faith: the moment
approaching hands are laid on Christ, salvation is achieved. But look again. Here is another colossal engine, empty of
steam and fire: the couplings are now clasped yet the train is
motionless. Why? Because it is not the couplings, but the engine,
which draws; nor is it any engine, but that engine only
which holds the power: so I may have faith, and yet be lost, because
the faith is attached to the wrong engine. Faith, in itself, is totally without saving
power; it draws all its merit from the Christ on Whom it is fastened.
* *
* * *
* *
639.
BECOME AS LITTLE
CHILDREN.
The apostles inquire of Jesus, Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? There had been a strife among them which of
them should be the greatest. Jesus
replies, Except ye turn* (Greek) and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the
kingdom of heaven: Matt. 18: 3. Is not that clear and startling! That to apostles! You are inquiring
which of you will get the chief place in the kingdom? I tell you, you will not enter it at all,
unless you put away from you these ambitious jostlings, these bitter strifes
with one another! Here,
methinks, is the exclusion [from the millennial kingdom] which I teach.
ROBERT GOVETT.
* *
* * *
* *
640.
THE CROWN.
Mr. H.
Davies, sometimes called the Apostle of Wales, was overtaken by a clergyman
on horseback one Sunday morning, who, in conversation, complained that he would
not give more than half a guinea for his engagement. O Sir,
exclaimed Mr. Davies, I preach for only a crown! Do you?
said the stranger; then you are a disgrace to the
cloth. To this rude remark he
replied meekly:- Perhaps I shall be held in still
greater disgrace when I tell you that I am going nine miles from here to
preach, and have but seven pence in my pocket for my expenses; but I look for that Crown which my Lord and
Saviour will grant before an assembled world.
*
* * *
* * *
641.
VERY REMARKABLE
THE EXPRESSION.
Very remarkable too the expression Ye are about to die.
This word constantly expresses the future era of the kingdom. The future
habitable earth of which we are speaking: (Greek) Heb. 2: 5.
Powers of the future age: 6: 5. High priest of the future good things: 9: 11; 10: 1, 27; 11: 8; 13: 14; Jas. 2: 12,
etc. And still more closely connected
with our text, is For I reckon that the sufferings
of this present season are not worthy to be compared with the glory
which is about to be revealed unto us: Rom.
8: 18. (Greek.) And then the
apostle goes on to speak of the day of the revelation of the sons of God at the
redemption of the body.
ROBERT GOVETT.
*
* * *
* * *
642.
THE OVERCOMER.
He that overcometh. It is there in this one or that who has not
allowed the pressure of the world to prevail, who has not let the salt of a
consecrated personality lose its savour, or the light of a steady witness to
Christ grow dim, who has used the God-given talents, be they ten or five, or
even if there were only one, as God would have them used that the answer to
the message of the risen Christ is given.
It is he who has met the buffetings of the stream, and yet has not let
the stream carry him away; he who, with whatever slips and stumbles, has yet
remained faithful in the very little; he
who may seem to himself sometimes to have lost much, yet has never lost heart
it is he who overcomes, who is a victor.
CANON J. K. MOZLEY,
D.D.
* *
* * *
* *
643.
TO HIM THAT
OVERCOMETH WILL I GRANT.
Our Lords own promise is, To
him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne. It will hardly be denied that all Christians
are not overcomers. Even the Apostle Paul had to run, fight, and
buffet his body lest that by any means after being a herald he himself should
be rejected disqualified for the Prize; and so, forgetting
those things that are behind, he pressed
towards the mark for the Prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. If the chief Apostle was in danger of losing
his Crown, how much more we! A gift once
received from God is certain, and so eternal life: not so a prize as the
W. P. CLARKE. [From:
The Responsibility of the Believer.]
* *
* * *
* *
644.
CALEB.
Others saw the Giants, Caleb saw the Lord;
They were sore disheartend, he believed Gods Word:
If we are half-hearted, we shall lose Gods best;
They who follow wholly are the wholly best.
* *
* * *
* *
645.
THE REACTION.
Abject defeatism now appears as the reaction of the
People of God. If we refuse to put a truth into action, there is immediate danger of
its slipping from our grasp; and much more truth with it: and we may even end
by bitterly opposing it. Without
actually becoming apostates by going back into
* *
* * *
* *
646. CHILDREN AND SATAN-WORSHIP
A Sunday School
teacher in
The teacher who found this out called a meeting of
the other teachers, and related what he had seen. Enquiries were made, and it was found that
many of their scholars went to this place, and these were quite aware that they
were being taught to worship the devil.
One girl of fourteen, who was spoken to by the teacher, said, quite
seriously, Oh, Miss, the devils very kind, hell
give me whatever I want. It was
discovered that this was only one of a considerable number of similar Sunday schools in
‑H. D. BROWN.* [* Late Secretary of the Christian Colportage Association.]
* *
* * *
* *
647. AFTER FIVE YEARS
As we enter on our sixth year, we would place on
record our deep, happy indebtedness to Mr.
Frank Tweedale, of
* *
* *
* * *
648. OVERCOMING
Are we overcoming? Is each of us (like a nation involved in war)
concentrating on victory, at all costs?
This promise to the overcomer is the promise
of the ascended, victorious, crowned, and almighty Saviour to men whom He would
have imitate and reproduce the life which He lived while upon the earth. Many fail where one succeeds. The higher we rise in any sphere of life the smaller
do the classes become. The promise
affords glorious encouragement in the blessed assurance that it is possible in
this life-battle to overcome (T.
McCullagh, D.D.). In the words of Dr. Horatius Bonar:- A throne not merely salvation, or life, but higher than
these - glory, honour, dominion, and
power. From being the lowest here they
are made the highest hereafter. It
is Christs throne. He has a seat on the Fathers throne as the reward of His
victory, so we [may be judged worthy to] have a seat on His as the reward of ours.
Many of the humblest and obscurest saints will shine out the brightest
stars in the coming Kingdom.*
[* From: Saints Ruling the World.]
* *
* * *
* *
649. THE HAPPIEST MAN IN THE WORLD
John Edwin Davis, a
missionary in
Soon afterward he followed his family to
Later, in 1910,
By HERBERT F.
LAFLAMME
‑The Religious Digest.
* *
* * *
* *
650. THE OVERCOMER
He that overcometh.
It is there in this one or that who has not allowed the pressure of the world
to prevail, who has not let the salt of a consecrated personality lose its
savour, or the light of a steady witness to Christ grow dim, who has used the
God-given talents, be they ten or five, or even if there were only one, as God
would have them used that the answer to the message of the risen Christ is
given. It is he who has met the
buffetings of the stream, and yet has not let the stream carry him away; he
who, with whatsoever slips and stumbles, has yet remained faithful in the very
little; he who may seem to himself sometimes to have lost much, yet has never
lost heart it is he who overcomes, who is a victor.
-
Canon J. K.
Mosley, D.D.
* *
* * *
* *
651. PRAYER FOR
One warm stimulus to prayer for the beloved land of
our sojourn is the British Governments statement (May 18th, 1940) on
reprisals:- His Majestys Government have made it
clear that it is no part of their policy to bomb non-military objectives, no
matter what the policy of the German Government may be. In spite of wanton and repeated attacks by
the German Air Force on undefended towns in
* *
* * *
* *
652. THY KINGDOM COME
Thy kingdom come. It is the only prayer (so
far as we know) that God ever commanded Christ to pray:- Ask of me, and I will give thee the uttermost parts of the earth for
thy possession (Ps. 2: 8). At this very moment we are probably entering
the greatest war of all history, in which the whole world may yet be involved:
never was there a moment more urgent for prayer invoking Christs universal
dominion. The fundamental denial of
Scripture eschatology in the Churches requires what is, as a fact, almost
universal - the change of the coming of the
Kingdom into the extension of the Kingdom:
but the
Kingdom has not come. It is very beautiful to observe that we
do not pray for the Church to be taken to the Kingdom, but for the Kingdom to
be brought to the world: it is not love of the world, but love for
the world, that is to make us to pray the Bibles last prayer,- Even so come, Lord Jesus (Rev.
22: 20).
* *
* * *
* *
653. FORGIVE US
AS WE FORGIVE OTHERS
The second human petition - the only one that is dependent
on a condition, and the only one which our Lord explains and enforces - is most
gravely challenging. Forgive us our debts, as we forgive - as we have forgiven, in the Revised Version them that
trespass against us; or,
still more emphatic in Luke (11: 4), for we ourselves also forgive every one that is indebted to us. Our pre-conversion sins were forgiven on the
ground of Calvary alone, with no condition as to our attitude to others; known
sin after conversion, confessed and abandoned, is instantly forgiven (1 John 1: 9); but our remaining sins, either
unknown or unabandoned - and the Lord assumes sin in us all: the saint must
confess sin as well as the sinner - actually depend for pardon on our
forgiveness of others. Ours is to be
what was the master-prayer of
* *
* * *
* *
654. A MINISTERS DREAM
One night (it is said) the able, zealous minister of
a crowded church fell asleep in his chair, and dreamed that a stranger came in
carrying a pair of scales, a crucible, and a hammer. How is your zeal?
he asked. In the dream it seemed to
become a physical quantity that could be handled; so he put his hand into his
bosom, and gave it to the visitor, who took it gravely and silently, and put it
in the scales. Then he heard him
mutter:- Weight in mass 100 lbs.
Next, it was melted in the crucible, and poured out
to cool. Presently, the stranger gave it
a few taps with his hammer, and instantly the different layers, into which it had
formed, fell apart, and these were weighed separately, and the results noted on
a sheet of paper. Then, with a grave,
sad look, but in perfect silence, the visitor handed him this sheet, and left
the room. He read:- Analysis of the zeal of Junius, candidate for the Crown of
Glory: Zeal in bulk, 100 Ibs. This is
made up of Personal Ambition so many
parts; Bigotry, so many parts; Love of Praise, Love of Authority, and Pride
of Denomination, so many; Love to
God, 4 parts; and Love to Man, 3
parts. TOTAL of Pure Zeal - 7
parts out of 100.
He was attempting to dispute the accuracy of the
record when he was startled by a deep sigh coming from the Visitor, who had
lingered just outside the door. With
that, a sudden mist of tears made the paper illegible. The record was true!
*
* * *
* * *
655. HOLINESS AND THE ADVENT
The return of Christ has been a powerful incentive
to holiness all down the Christian ages.
Clement of
So also even in later ages. The Sacramentary
of Gelasius (A.D. 492) is full of collects on the subject, of which the
following are a few examples:- Stir up, 0 Lord, Thy
power, and come, and stir up our heart to prepare Thy ways. Make us watchful
and heedful in awaiting the Coming of Thy Son, Christ our Lord; that, when He
shall come and knock, He may find us not sleeping in sins, but awake, and
rejoicing in His praises. We beseech Thee, 0 Lord our God, to gird up the loins of our
mind by Thy Divine power; that, at the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, we may
be found worthy of the banquet of eternal life. Grant, we beseech
Thee, Almighty God, this grace unto Thy people, to wait with all vigilance for
the Coming of Thy only begotten Son; that, as He, the Author of our salvation,
taught us, we may prepare our souls like blazing lamps to meet Him.
The Mozarabic
Sacramentary, of the seventh century, contains the following prayers:- 0 Christ, our God, Who wilt come to judge the world in the
Manhood which Thou hast assumed, we pray Thee to sanctify us wholly, that in
the Day of Thy Coming, our whole spirit, soul, and body may so revive to a
fresh life in Thee, that we may live and reign with Thee for ever. Be Thou to us, 0 Lord, a crown of glory in
the Day when Thou shalt come to
judge the world. The Gallican Sacramentary, of the eighth
century, prays:-
0
Lord God, Father Almighty, purify the secrets of our hearts, and mercifully wash
out all the stains of sin; and grant, 0 Lord, that, being cleansed from our
crimes by the benediction of Thy tenderness, we may without any terror await
the fearful and terrible Coming of Jesus Christ our Lord.
* *
* * *
* *
656. JESUS OUR JUDGE
There are five things in
this Judge that make His wrath most dreadful.
(1) He is such a judge as the power of the most powerful cannot daunt. (2)
He is such a judge as the wealth of the
wealthiest cannot bribe. (3) He is such a judge as the wit and subtlety of the wisest and most
subtle cannot delude. (4) He is such a judge as there is no appealing from His sentence. And (5)
He is such a judge as there is no
repealing of His sentence. What He sets down shall stand for ever.
‑JOSEPH CARYI.
* *
* * *
* *
657. CHRISTIAN REVENGE
I want to see my mother,
sobbed the child as the undertaker screwed down the coffin lid. You cannot; get
away with you! Only let me see mother once, only once, sobbed the
little orphan. Quickly the cruel man
struck the boy away, so that he reeled with the blow. The boy turned and, raising his little hand
defiantly, cried through his tears, When Im a man,
Ill kill you for that!
The court was crowded. Does anyone appear
as counsel for the prisoner? A
young man stepped firmly to the front to plead for the erring and
friendless. He was a stranger, but from
his first sentence there was silence. The power of his language convinced, and
the man who could not find a friend was acquitted. May God reward you,
sir; I cannot, murmured the man.
I want no thanks, replied the
stranger, but I do want to refresh your memory! Twenty years ago you struck a broken-hearted
boy away from his mothers coffin. I was
that boy. Have you saved me, then, to take my life? No! go, and
remember the tears of a friendless child.
*
* * *
* * *
658. STEWARDSHIP
So Paul first of all lays down the one abiding fundamental
of all stewardship:- It is required in stewards that a
man be found - as he must ultimately be examined FAITHFUL:
that is, faithful to whatever the trust which has been committed to him: as a
steward, he is not the proprietor, but a trustee, and so must sooner or later
give in his report. This is the position
of us all. Health, opportunity,
competence, influence, means, witness, conduct - all we have we hold in trust
from God, who gave it, and who requires faithful trusteeship. And the stewardship
is all summed up in one concrete heart of the Christian commission: we are
stewards of the mysteries of God - that is, of
a body of truth which the human mind never invented, secrets of eternity now
disclosed by God and entrusted to us; and all believers are the stewards - less
so than ministers in teaching the mysteries of God, but equally so in living them.* By the Word of God we are to mould our lives, and by it we shall be
judged; and it is required in stewards that a man be found FAITHFUL.
[* It is obvious that those entrusted with the
mysteries of God in the sense of expounding them have a graver responsibility
than ordinary believers. Be not many teachers, my brethren, knowing that we
[teachers] shall receive heavier judgment (Jas. 3: 1).]
- D. M. PANTON [From: My Judge.]
*
* * *
* * *
659. LET THEM SAY WHAT THEY
WILL.
Paul must have known every stage in the judgment of
the Church. To the Galatian Christians
he says:- Ye would have plucked out your eyes and
given them to me (Gal. 4: 15): yet
in the last Epistle he ever wrote he says,- All in
Asia - therefore including even the Galatians turned away from me (2 Tim. 1: 15).
It is incredible that the offence was anything personal in Paul; manifestly it was doctrinal: he was
accused of mishandling the mysteries of God. Chaos is coming - if it has not already come
- in the Church to-day, and whatever our
body of doctrine, it will be sharply censured. But the
judgment of our stewardship is not in the hands of the Church. Let them say what
they will, said a good man now gone to his rest; they cannot hurt me; I live too near the Great White Throne for
that. Who is blind, but
my servant? or deaf, as my messenger
that I send? who is blind as he that is at peace with me, and blind as the Lords servant? (Isa. 42: 19).
* *
* * *
* *
660. CERTAIN CONDITIONS.
On certain
conditions being fulfilled, stressed by our Lord again and again, where the soul is watchful, ready, faithful - it turns entirely on an attitude of
mind and heart - should the Lord appear during the lifetime of those saints, they will be translated, the rest
will be left, and get ready through the trial through which they must pass; and
at last the whole company of believing people will be gathered, when the
seventh angel begins to sound, and the mystery of God
is finished, and the kingdoms of
this world become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ, when Jesus comes in
visible power and glory, and His appearance is made manifest.
A. J. ATTWOOD. [From:
The
Solution of the Problem of Rapture.]
* *
* * *
* *
661. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE BELIEVER.
Yes! no word in human
vocabulary is dearer, and we can hardly over-emphasize the wonderful fact that
we are saved by Grace alone through faith
- free, unmerited grace with no works of our own, and that we shall never
perish; but it is possible to emphasize Grace to the exclusion of Gods infinite
justice, and to attribute to Him an easy generosity which would gloss over the
unconfessed and un-forgiven sins of His own people, and so deprive believers of
all responsibility for their walk and life and character. In view of such statements from the lips of
our Lord Himself the Son of man shall come in His
Glory and then shall he render
to every man according to his deeds, and, Behold,
I come quickly, and my reward is with me to render to each man according as his
work is - it can hardly be denied that reward is according to our works, and will be awarded at the Coming of our
Lord.
- D. M. PANTON. [From
a tract of the same title.]
* *
* * *
* *
662. OBEY, OBEY, OBEY: JOHN
14: 21.
The Scripture sets before you a most difficult
standard: The Church expects that you will fulfil it. Refuse to be conquered: My grace is sufficient for thee is true always, everywhere,
and in everything. The higher our ideal,
the more men will flog us with it if we fail: yet life gone is gone forever,
and any ideal short of the highest is folly.
God is able to produce in us that which He commands. 2 Cor. 9: 8. Our Lord has told us the secret. Luke 11: 9. Make it a life-aim to sell your life as
dearly as possible against the Foe. Seek
His approval whose praise outweighs a thousand worlds.
Let no man
think that sudden in a minute
All is accomplished and the work is done:
Though with thine earliest dawn thou shouldest begin
it,
Scarce were
it ended with thy setting sun.*
[* From:
Counsels For Young Workers.]
* *
* * *
* *
663. THE HOLY SPIRIT*
Is there no peril that by this constant unseating of
the Spirit He may be finally driven from His sanctuary, repeating as He retires
the solemn lament of the Saviour: Behold, your house is left unto you desolate? That
He may, and sometimes does, finally withdraw from His temple, there can be no
question. Do we not know of churches
once fervently Evangelical which are now lying under the doom of destruction by
the Spirit? The writer thinks, with all
charity, that he has seen such; churches upon which the Lords sentence has
gone forth, Thou
hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. The body may still remain indeed, the creeds
and the Confessions may continue intact, and
the forms of worship may even be multiplied and vastly enriched as the years go on.
But these outward forms are only memorials of a departed glory, like the
death-mask which preserves the mould of features which have long since crumbled
to dust.
[*
See also Acts 5: 32.]
Dr. A. J. GORDON.
*
* * *
* * *
664. DENOMINATIONALISM
Said a Cabinet Minister in the Education debates of
1902:- The old denominational barriers are growing
shadowy and unreal; the real division that is coming is between those who
believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and those who do not.
*
* *
* * *
*
665. EXAMPLE OR SUBSTITUTE?
At the close of a preaching service in
* *
* * *
* *
666. REVIVAL
As Paul Rader
has said, it is either revival or revolution or rapture. So our daily prayer to God should be, not
only to block revolution, and to speed rapture, but to create revival; for
there may be profound reasons in the Divine Mind for the postponement of
rapture. I
cannot see anywhere in Scripture, says Dr. Griffith Thomas, that revival of the
true Church is contrary to the will of God. There is no such
teaching in Scripture, says Dr.
R. A. Torrey, as that revival is contrary to
Gods will. We recall nothing in the Epistles, says Dr. James M. Gray, justifying the conclusion that the experiences of the early
Church (Acts
2: 41-47; 4: 31-33; 11: 22-24, etc.) may not be repeated to-day. In the remarkable words of a secular paper (The
Pittsburg Leader, Oct. 31, 1919):- Human
management of the affairs of the universe is failing. Without Divine intervention, the world and
its people will plunge into chaos. There
appears to be no man or men big enough to stay the rising tide of
disaster. God alone can save. IN
PRAYER ALONE EXISTS HOPE.
* *
* * *
* *
667. PRAYER FOR REVIVAL
So we pray for revival. For
How else
can the testimony of the Church be effectually preserved? (Acts 1: 8; 4: 33.)
2. How else can the evangelization of
the world be fully accomplished? (Acts 1: 8; 12: 24.)
3. How else can multitudes of sinners
be soundly converted? (Acts 2: 41; 4: 4.)
4. How else can Spirit-filled men and consecrated
money for earths great harvest fields be adequately provided? (Acts 4: 31-35; 13: 2-4.)
5. How else can hypocrisy and
infidelity in the Church be completely routed? (Acts
5: 1-11; 6: 10.)
6. How else can
7. How else can the sensitive impulses
of the Head of the body be unerringly transmitted to the members of the body? (Acts 22: 14; 27: 23, 24.)
Can you think of a single Scriptural reason for NOT praying for revival of the body of
Christ? Reader, if you are a member of
Christs body and walking with Him, HOW
ELSE CAN YOU HAVE PEACE except by ardently praying and constantly striving
for that which is according to the will of the Head?
* *
* * *
* *
668. A CHANGE OF NATURE
God does not expect you to
live His life without first giving you His nature. These were the words that startled a godless
and mocking young soldier in
* *
* * *
* *
669. THE SECOND ADVENT
Our Lords principle that a tree is known by its fruit
is true of doctrines, as well as of men.
The idea of the Millennium, says Dr. David Smith, is nothing more than an old Jewish fancy. It was a mere allegory; and while its
perversion was excusable in the ignorance of the Middle Ages, it is deplorable
that at this late day of grace the radiant vision should be so abused by coarse
and stupid obscurantists. Yet
this old Jewish fancy has created the
greatest Sunday Schools in the modern world.
Here is the list.
Church of
the Open Door,
First
Christian,
East Calvary
M. E. (
First
Presbyterian,
First
Christian,
Bethany
Presbyterian,
All these churches are not only foursquare on the Word
of God, but poor, pessimistic, premillennial schools,
soul-savers, not star-gazers. As
* *
* * *
* *
670. THE DISCIPLINE OF SORROW
[In an old legend a blind girl, Dara, was touched by St. Bride, and in a moment she saw the
surpassing loveliness of the world.
Heavens very soul of joy in all earthly sorrow is in these exquisite
lines. Ed. [i.e., D. M. Panton.]
Yet she said, My sister,
Blind me once again,
Lest His pleasure in me
Groweth less plain.
Stars
and dawn and sunset
Keep
till
Here His grace sufficeth
For my sightless eyes.
Oh, she said, my sister,
Night is beautiful,
Where His face is shining
Who was mockd as fool.
More than star or meteor,
More than moon or sun
Is the thorn-crownd forehead
Of the Holy One.
* * *
* * *
*
671. THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE GLORY OF GOD
For so is expressed the glory of God. We have this
treasure the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in EARTHEN VESSELS, that the exceeding
greatness of the power the shaping of the amorphous clay may be of God, and not from ourselves (2 Cor. 4: 7).
A frail body, a fallible judgment, an imperfect testimony, a sin-spoiled
character, a harassed life: nevertheless a dying hand
may sign a deed of incalculable value (Cecil).
* *
* * *
* *
672. UNBELIEF IN THE CHURCHES
The deep undermining of faith inside the churches is
now visible to other eyes than those which, sharpened by sorrow, watch for the dawn
beyond the coming crash. Every one will agree, says a correspondent in the British Weekly, that to-day there are vast multitudes to whom the records of the
resurrection of Christ bring no certainty.
We might even put it stronger than that.
They leave a great many people in despair. Is the testimony available sufficient to
support the stupendous fact? I believe
the number who feel the answer to this must be in the negative is very great
greater than, perhaps, we have any conception of. They are to be found in all our
Churches. They are to be found, a great
host of them, outside of our Churches.
For an immense number of people in the world Easter is the saddest day of
all the year. On that day old things are
recited from which the life has fled. We
have to face the facts. If the Church is
bold enough to face the truth it must be ready for a schism that will try the
bravest. With the substructure of the
Resurrection the whole of Christianity collapses; and the schism contemplated is apostasy.
* *
* * *
* *
673. THE CONDITION OF ENTHRONEMENT WITH CHRIST
The condition
of enthronement with Christ [during the Messianic Era] is expressed in His own words sent to the Church by His Apostle: Unto
him that OVERCOMETH will I grant to
sit with Me in My Throne. So we
labour toward making believers overcomers. We
seek to teach them to war in order that they may reign. We strive to cause them to overcome in order
to share Christs Throne; for he that has been grit by the panoply of God,
and has wielded the sword, shall be honoured to stretch out the sceptre of the
Most High.
-
EVAN ROBERTS.
* *
* * *
* *
674. THE SECOND
ADVENT
If it were not for the
heavenward look, exclaims Dr.
Alexander Maclaren, how could we bear the sight
of earth? So far from the
doctrine of the Lords return cutting the nerve of missionary effort, or
paralyzing service, it will yet prove the sole solvent of despair. Dr.
Duncan Main, of Hang-Chow, one of the sagest and ripest of missionaries,
says:- We do not know anything which so certainly
sanctifies life to its highest service in the mission field as this great
truth, steadfastly believed and maintained by Gods servants, while they are
journeying through this heathen land, not toward darkness but the
sunrising. When through the cloudy
mistics, moral mists and half-lights of earth the promise of the glorious
appearing [i.e., appearing of the glory R.V.]
is discerned, it determines not only the direction of the
journey but also its character. It
settles the question of our real affinities.
It corrects and brightens our outlook on the things seen. It forbids pessimism and long-faced
Christianity. It smiles at fear and
inspires an unquestioning and dauntless courage, and puts stiffening into the
backbone. It reveals every difficulty to
be but an opportunity of new discovery.
It chases all gloom and care from the heart and all weariness from the
feet. It keeps the first love alive, and
fans the smoking flax into a flame. It
puts a new song into willing lips and makes all life tuneful and joyful. It transforms every curse of mourning into a
horn of anointing oil. It makes even the
lame man leap as a hart, and replaces the tiredness of exhausted nature with
boyant energy.
* *
* * *
* *
675. MORE THAN CONQUERORS
I ask
Thee, Lord, not for smooth paths, and free
From lifes rough turns made easy for my feet,
For such I know from what I know of Thee
Would not be meet.
Thy
journey through this world
Was not a rosied way, the briar and thorn
Were always there for Thee, and gibes were hurld
To bruise their tender heart. I am not born
To have an easier path to Thy abode,
Than that Thy love didst face for me
For debts I owed.
Nay, Lord,
my Saviour, give me eyes to see
The blood-staind pathway Thou hast blazed for me,
And as I gaze, fit Thou my laggard feet
Into Thy footprints, thereby making sweet
With fellowship of Thy own presence all the way,
A glory-path to blissful Realms of Day.
Thus following Thee along lifes rugged road,
My burdens on Thy shoulder, I shall own
That Thou who bearest all my heavenly load,
Hath lifted me to triumphs of Thy Throne,
And maybe ere I reach Thy Heavenly Home
Thy voice may challenge me, Behold
I come!
- H. H. BROWNLOW.
* *
* * *
* *
676. I NEED THEE
O LORD
With eager
knife that oft has sliced
At Gentile gloss of Jewish fable,
Before the crowd you lay the Christ
Upon the Lecture Table.
From
bondage to the old beliefs
You say our rescue must begin
But I want refuge from my griefs,
And saving from my sin.
The
strong, the easy, and the glad
Hang, blandly listening, on your word,
But I am sick, and I am sad,
And I need Thee, O Lord.
- DEAN VAUGHAN.
* *
* * *
* *
677. SIDETRACKING
And old fable says that swift-footed
* *
* * *
* *
678. A LOST RACE
I know thy works: not thy standing, nor
thy profession, not thy denomination, nor thy fellowship; but thine actions,
and thine alone. Signor Dorando, the Italian champion,
when he ran in the Marathon at
* *
* * *
* *
679. FREEMASONRY
Mr. Rudyard Kipling has just disclosed afresh (Times, Jan. 16, 1925) the brotherhood of hostile and
fratricidal creeds which constitutes Freemasonry, and which bars it from all
Scriptural Christianity.
* *
* * *
* *
680. MODERN RATIONALISM
The temptation of this age is to try to find a middle
path between faith and unbelief; to say there is much
to be said on both sides; to shrink from avowing a steadfast adherence
to that which must be old because it is eternal, and which must
be unchangeable because it is truth; to pick something out of
revelation which, it thinks, will not be gainsaid, and to relegate all else to
be matter of opinion. I know not whether
the open blasphemy of the 18th Century is more offensive than the
cold-blooded patronizing ways of the 19th. Rebellion against God is not so degrading,
nor so deceiving, as a condescending acknowledgment of His Being, while it
denies His rights over us. Be
not then imposed upon by smooth words.
It is an age of counterfeits. The
teaching of the times will praise Jesus as (God forgive it!) in fact an
enlightened Jew, a benefactor to mankind; and it will ask you, in exchange, to
consent not to say that He is God. It
will say, in its sense, that the Bible contains the Word of God, and will
ask you to give up your belief that it is the Word of God. It will say, in its sense, that the prophets
spake by the Holy Ghost (i.e., as all
that is good and true is spoken by inspiration by the Spirit of God) and will
ask you, in exchange, to drop the words, or at least the meaning of the
doctrine, that God the Holy Ghost spake by the prophets. It will descant on the love of God, if you
will surrender your belief in His awful Holiness and Justice.
- DR. PUSEY, 1864.
* *
* * *
* *
681 THE
ADVENT
Dr. Chalmers believed in no gradual or ethereal Millennium. When once the bell rang before his lecture to
his students was finished, he exclaimed:- Depend upon
it, the Millennium will come in one day
with a hammer smash. Mr. Thomas Waugh thus summarizes
admirably:- All through the New Testament nearly
every exhortation to purity of walk, to fidelity in stewardship, and to
sincerity in toil, is bound up with, and
is based upon, the Lords Coming. So
far from tending to cut the nerve of effort, this hope - [of being accounted worthy of reigning with
Christ in the age to come]
- is the grand incentive to holy walk and watchfulness and to
enthusiasm in holy toil. So far from meaning only a little morbid
comfort, or unnecessary luxury of contemplation, this is one of the most urgently practical truths in the Word of God. When understood and yielded to, there are no
powers that influence our present so mightily as the powers of the age to come.
Led my such masters in church history as Neander and Harnack,
nearly all students of this subject agree that the premillennial coming of our Lord was the hope of the Christian
Church almost to the close of the third century. It is significant, too, to find that this
hope was the brightest and clearest when the worship and life of the church
were the purest, and only began to wane when she neared her great relapse.
* *
* * *
* *
682. WHY I CHANGED MY VIEW
[
This frank and temperate statement from a
distinguished Presbyterian missionary will be read with interest. Ed.
(i.e.,
D. M. Panton.)]
I greatly regret that all my life long I never heard
any reverent, measured, scholarly presentation of the subject of the
premillennial coming of Christ. With
some chagrin I acknowledge that I never had looked into the matter from the
Biblical standpoint previous to the war; but, increasingly enough, through my
historical studies pursued in graduate work at Princeton, Pennsylvania and
Munich Universities, and privately since then, I have been gradually coming to
feel that the present dispensation is not the kind that God can approve of,
because it is not in any real sense carrying our His law.
The history of governments and races, both prominent
and humble; the rule of might which has everywhere prevailed; the shameful,
opportunist, sub-rosa diplomacy in the dealings of nations with each other; the
unjust conditions generally obtaining in the world, together with the inability
to solve the most burning of social questions like the white slave and drink [and
drug]
traffics all these, with many other vital considerations, have gradually been
strengthening my mind and faith to take hold of the statements of Christ in the
twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew.
Not the least of considerations contributing to the
change of my eschatological views has been the well-nigh universal unbiblical teaching of the Scripture, perverting the very
fundamentals, by the professed and specially trained teachers of religion in colleges
and universities of the most civilized nations. It certainly cannot be pleasing to God or
characteristic of the reign of Christ that everywhere this apostasy, of falling away, as Paul calls it, should be taking
place; in which men of set purpose are rejecting the deity of Christ and
redemption through His atoning blood.
In the twenty fourth chapter of Matthew, Christ
answers the questions: What shall be the end of this
age and the sign of thy coming?
And this age, as Christ describes
it, under the dominion of Satan, has certainly been characterized by just what
He stated would be its earmarks wars and international conflicts, famines,
pestilences, persecutions, false Christs and leaders without knowledge of the
Scriptures. A careful student of
world history, aside from the revelation of the Holy Spirit, would be forced,
out of the unvarying experiences of that history (which is the apotheosis of
ambition, fraud and force), to believe that there is no hope that this age will
prepare itself for the coming of Christ, though the doctrine of general
preparation for Him previous to His appearing is so commonly preached. It is like a man trying to lift himself by
his bootstraps.
The fainting in faith of a number of dear friends over
the outbreak of this war started me on the study of the prophecies as to the course of this world.
Then it began to dawn on me that the only key that would unlock Scripture and
Scripture eschatology, and the key that presented the least difficulties of my
mind and that made plainer than any other the manner of the fulfilment of the
prophecies was the viewpoint and attitude toward Scripture which is implied in
the word premillenarian. As I now see it, the only plan whereby this
world can become a good world, the only way
for a just rule on the earth and for righteousness to prevail, is for Christ to come and reign, literally
reign, as the prophecies assert. The
New Testament makes plain that before that reign can take place the times of the Gentiles must come to an end, as a thief, as lightening
(Matthew 24) in catastrophe,
cataclysmically.
-
REV. CHAS. E.
SCOTT, D.D.
* *
* * *
* *
683. BURIED
Buried? Yes, but it is seed
From which Continents may feed;
Millions yet
may bless the day
When that
seed was laid away.
Buried!
hidden! Out of sight!
Dwelling in the deepest night;
Losing, underneath the sod,
Everything,
except its God.
Buried, unrememberd, lost
So thinks man: but all the cost
God has
counted to display
Life
abundant one glad day.
Art thou
buried? Gods pure seed
Doth thy heart in silence bleed?
Change thy sighing into song,
Thus alone can harvests come.
-
*
* * *
* * *
684. DANGERS THAT CONFRONT THE COMING CENTURY
I consider that the chief dangers that confront the
coming century [the twentieth] will be:-
Religion without the Holy Ghost.
Christianity
without Christ,
Forgiveness without
Regeneration,
Morality without God, and
Heaven without Hell.
-
GENERAL BOOTH.
* *
* * *
* *
685. THE SAYINGS ON THE CROSS
As the first saying prays for others pardon, so the
second grants it:- This day, He says to the dying thief, shalt thou be with
Me in
- D. M. PANTON, [Read
the complete writing entitled: The sayings on the Cross.]
*
* * *
* * *
686. The Power of Grace
A Christian man was once tortured by the
thumb-screws. A friend made the remark,
I cannot understand how it was you did not shriek out
in the agony. He replied:- I was nearly swooning, with joy! Dr. J.
H. Jowett once visited a man who was dying of cancer. As he saw the pale face and wasted form, he
was completely overcome. With deep
emotion he said, My friend, you will soon be in
heaven. The dying man could not
speak, but he wrote on a piece of paper, Ive been in heaven
seven years.
When
Rutherford was imprisoned at
C. S. UTTING.
* *
* * *
* *
687. OBEDIENCE
Faithful hearts may well grow weary of learned
disquisitions on the Sermon on the Mount, from the Roman Catholic to the
Plymouth Brother, all written to show why we are not to obey it exactly as
it stands. For the invariable conclusion
is that the Christian believer may lay up treasure; he may
take oaths; he may slay the enemy on the battlefield whom he is commanded to
love; he may refuse the beggar as often as he chooses: the fasting is spiritual, the non-resistance ideal; and the whole Sermon is pre-Pentecostal or the
dispensation of the Acts or Millennial. Even those who refuse oaths sometimes amass
ample fortunes. How will these commentators report
to the Preacher of the Sermon when they meet Him face to face? Actual, practical obedience is our only
safety and our only sanctity. Why call ye me Lord, Lord, AND DO NOT THE THINGS THAT I SAY? (Luke
6: 46).
* *
* * *
* *
688. THE TEACHER
Lord, who
am I to teach the way
To little children day by day,
So prone myself to go astray?
I teach
them knowledge,
but I know
How faint they flicker and how low
The candles of my knowledge glow.
I teach them power to will and do,
But only now to learn anew
My own great weakness through and through.
I teach
them love
for all mankind
And all Gods creatures, but I find
My love comes lagging far behind.
Lord, if their guide I still must be,
Oh let the little children see
A teacher
leaning hard on Thee.
*
* * *
* * *
689. INTERPRETATION
Hookers rule for the interpretation of Scripture is
irreplaceable, and remains unsurpassed:-
I hold it a most infallible rule in
expositions of the Sacred Scriptures that, where
the literal construction will stand, the furthest from the letter is commonly
the worst. There is nothing more
dangerous than the licentious and deluding art which changeth the meaning of
words, making anything of what it listeth, and bringing in the end all truth to
nothing.
* *
* * *
* *
690. THE FISH AND THE PROPHET
It is possible that the Fish, with the Prophet,
entered Sheol. The False Prophet emerges
from Hades by way of the sea (Rev. 13: 1);
and as infernal animals come out of Sheol (Rev. 9:
3), so it must be possible for earthly animals to enter it. Korah and his company went down alive
into Sheol (Num. 16: 33). That Jonah actually died, his spirit entering
Sheol while his corpse remained in the Whale, seems negatived by typology: a type
of resurrection could hardly be resurrection.
* *
* * *
* *
691. THE FATAL LINE
There is a
line by us unseen
That crosses every path
The hidden boundary between
Gods patience and His wrath.
To pass that limit is to die
To die as if by stealth;
It does not quench the beaming eye,
Nor pale the glow of health.
The conscience may be still at ease,
The spirits light and gay;
That which is pleasing still may please,
And care be thrust away.
But on
that forehead God has set
Indelibly a mark,
(Unseen by man, for man as yet,
Is blind and in the dark).
Indeed,
the doomd ones path below
May bloom as
He did not, does not, will not know,
Of feel that he is doomd.
He feels, perchance, that all is well,
And every fear is calmd;
He lives, he dies, he wakes in Hell *
Not only doomd but damnd.
[* Note. Hell is Hades a
place in the inderworld. Ed.]
Oh where
is that mysterious bourn
By which our path is crossd,
Beyond which God Himself hath sworn
That he who goes is lost?
By Dr. Alexander.
*
* * *
* * *
692 CORRESPONDENCE HADES/SHEOL
Dear Sir,
A Christian man, much used years ago as a soul-winner,
recently stopped me on the road for a brief chat, during which he solemnly
remarked, Do you know, they are teaching in this city
that when a Christian dies, the spirit keeps down here somewhere? Really! Where do
they teach the spirit rests; in the coffin with the body? I dont know,
he replied with dismay. Where do you think the Christians spirit goes at death?
I asked. Why,
up to heaven of course. Where do you suppose our Lords Spirit went at His decease?
I enquired. Why,
straight up to His Father in glory.
That the believer died and goes to heaven at once seems to be the
popular idea amongst Christians. At the
death of Mr. Spurgeon, e.g., a
telegram was sent out to the effect that, Mr.
Spurgeon entered heaven at five
minutes past eleven on Sunday evening.
But, sir, do the Scriptures warrant this? Our Lord to the Jews declared, No man hath ascended into heaven; again, after His
ascension, it was written, David ascended not into the
heavens. But further, we read,
our Lord and the Thief the same day entered the same place, viz.,
The unwarranted assumption that Paradise was emptied, when
our Lord led captivity captive in respect of Himself, is one of the traditions
of the Mediaeval Church where errors grew like grass.
Surely the promise, I will
come again and receive you unto myself, or as the French Version beautifully
renders it, I will come again and take you with Me,
must be fulfilled before we can leave the tomb, enter heaven, and be forever with the Lord (1
Thessalonians 4: 15-18).
Yours, etc.,
CHAS. S. UTTING.
* *
* * *
* *
693. CORRESPONDENCE EMOTION IN SERVICE
Dear Sir,
The conversation with Hudson Taylor in your September
issue rightly emphasizes aspects of truth; but may not the
somewhat unbalanced presentation encourage some to regard coldness as maturity? Emotion without faith and obedience is
deadly, and this is the usual danger today: hence a rocky-ground hearing with natural
joy, and failure to count the cost as
our Lord so earnestly sets it forth in Luke 14:
25-35.
But if we have tasted that He is gracious, we would
grow up unto Him in all things. He Himself
was ever perfect, and He beheld the city and wept over it: He was moved with
compassion. Paul wrote to the saints
with tears; and spoke with weeping of the enemies of the cross of Christ, nor
did he become unemotional at
Granted that the joy of a child and of an adult may
have different aspects, and the joy of a mature believer is expressed in some
ways differently from that of a young believer, and with a fuller view of encouragements and discouragements, and a quiet
calm; granted it is likewise with sorrow also: yet nevertheless, do we not
need to be humbled that we are not more like Christ in the intense emotion
which the Song of Songs portrays, and in the depth of feeling when reproach
broke His heart?
The evil of an evil world would pain us more; if we
become used to it, are we not failing, in
measure, to walk in the Spirit Who emphasizes intercession with groanings which
cannot be uttered? In so writing, I feel
my own coming short and while praying Come, Lord Jesus,
long to be more prepared daily by an
all-round growth, and to illustrate the precious words as sorrowful, yet
always rejoicing.
I am, etc.,
PERCY W. HEWARD.
*
* * *
* * *
694. BUNYANS
VIEW OF THE
The revolution in the outlook of the Churches stands
out vividly when we compare their present attempt to build the
*
* * *
* * *
695. THE GRTEAT TRIBULATION
It is curious how a fatal flaw in an argument - often
an extremely simple flaw - can be completely overlooked. Prophetic interpreters who maintain that all
believers must of necessity pass through the Great Tribulation stress as they
must that our Lords promise (Rev. 3: 10)
to keep the Philadelphian Angel out of the hour of
trial means that he would be kept through
the hour - in a moral exemption, or else in a physical preservation through the
storm, or both. But Christs statement
is absolute, not hypothetical: I will keep thee from the
hour; not, I will keep thee from the hour, if it should come in thy
lifetime: thus the Lord could not have meant through, as the Angel is dead, and by no means
whatsoever can he ever pass through the Tribulation. Nor is the promise either a passage through
or an exemption from the Tribulation, but from its hour: that is, the Lord
is pledged that when the Hour strikes, dead or alive, the Angel will not be
there. That he is exempt proves that not
all believers enter the Tribulation; that he is exempted individually, solely on
the ground of a kept word, proves that not all
believers escape. The death of the Angel
is the death of the gloss put upon the text.
*
* * *
* *
*
696. TOO MANY
The people are too many! (Judges 7.) What if after all there are too many instead
of too few? What if the churches will
need to be emptier before they are fuller?
What if there is something in us that is not utterly crushed? God cannot work yet, we are not in
fettle. We are not weak enough, broken
enough for Him to take us and glorify Himself in a great deliverance and
victory. Too
many! We are far too smug, sleek
and self-contained, but there is no cheating God. He will not allow you and me to come
parading, to have our names on communion rolls if we are not going to be
genuine. We must begin on the basis of absolute truth, cutting off all our pride
and self-sufficiency, and putting on holiness. Then He will restore the joy of His
salvation.
- JOHN MacNEILL.
*
* * *
* * *
697. AN OFFENDED SOUL
I was pressed, says
a Christian teacher, to preach a particular
sermon; and for a whole year I would not, because
I feared to give pain to one whom I loved.
But there came a week when I could no longer forbear. As I preached I
seemed to be conscious of two things: the soul that was listening opposite, and
the extraordinary power of the word of Christ.
More than a year later, to my surprise, that soul wrote me that that sermon had made more difference in
her earthly life than any single event before or since, and as far as she knew
would make still more difference in the life to come.
*
* * *
* *
698. WHAT CHRISTIAN SAW
Christian saw the picture of a very grave person hung
up against the wall, and this was the fashion of it; it had eyes lifted up to
heaven, the best book in his hand, the law
of truth written on his lips, the world behind his back, he stood
and pleaded with men and a gold crown hung over his head.
-
BUNYAN.
*
* * *
* * *
699. ISLAMIC ADVENT
Dr. A. E.
Richardson writes:- The Mohammedans of North Africa say that Christ is coming
back for the purpose of drawing all men to His banner. This will (they declare) take Him 42 months
to accomplish. But in
*
* * *
* * *
700. BEARING ARMS
Dr.
Martzinkovski, a Russian Christian,
who was imprisoned for refusal to bear arms and liberated on the ground that he
must be insane, gives the certificate of release granted to a friend of his
who, for the same offence, had been confined for six months in a lunatic asylum:-
He is suffering from a mental trouble, mania
religiosa, which takes the form (1) of illusion, to the effect that he has some
sort of mystical communications with the Deity [to the question Who suggested to
you that you refuse to bear arms? he answered, God]; (2) of painful emotion at the sight of arms; and (3) of
utter indifference to his own fate.
* *
* * *
* *
701. THAT BLESSED HOPE
My hope in the
worlds salvation lies not in any gradual evangelization of the world, but
in the personal return of our dear Lord
and Saviour. I believe that this
world is waning fast
This makes me
an optimist.
Nothing recovers
evangelical fervour and rekindles missionary passion and gives yearning for
entire sanctification like the realization of the fact that He comes.
* * *
* * *
*
702. THE SECOND COMING
The watch of faith and prayer He set,
We kept it then, we keep it yet.
At midnight, crow of cock, or noon,
He cometh sure, He cometh soon.
He comes to chasten, not destroy,
To purge the earth from sins alloy.
At last, at last shall all confess
His mercy as His righteousness.
The [worthy]* dead shall live, the sick be whole,
The scarlet sin be white as wool;
No discord mar below, above,
The music of eternal love.
[* Luke 20: 35]
Sound,
welcome trump, the last alarm!
Lord God of hosts, make bare Thine arm,
Fruitful this day our long desire,
Make sweet and clean the world with fire!
*
* * *
* * *
703. NOBLER WORK TO DO
If mid
the gathering storms of doubt
Our hearts grow faint and cold,
The strength we cannot live without
Thy love will not withhold.
Our prayers accept; our sins forgive;
Our youthful zeal renew:
Shape for us holier lives to live,
And nobler work to do.
O. W. HOLMES.
*
* * *
* * *
704. MINISTERIAL
DRESS
1.
During the first four or five centuries of the Christian era, the clergy and
the laity dressed alike.
2.
In A.D. 428 Pope Coelestine I reprimanded certain Bishops in
3.
After the fall of
4.
In A.D. 600 Pope Gregory I finally prohibited the wearrig of the newer apparel
by any Church official, the custom of special clerical costume thus becoming
universal, at least throughout the papal jurisdiction.
-
WALTER B. K.
RIDGE.
* *
* * *
* *
705. COURAGE
That
is the noblest life which plucks victory out of defeat. An epitaph in Stanton Harold Church, in
Leicestshire, reads thus:- In the year 1653 when all things sacred were throughout the
nation either demolished or profaned, Sir
Robert Shirley, Barronet, founded this church, whose singular praise is to
have done the best things in the worst times and hoped them in most calamitous.
*
* * *
* * *
706. SPIRITUALISM
I have seen too much evil and sorrow and wreck of good
minds on the road to Endor, to take one step along that perilous track.
RUDYARD KIPLING.
* *
* * *
* *
707. THE DIVINE
The complete absence of all reference to God among the
nations is more ominous still. Bishop Linton says:- I have carefully read through the whole of the speeches in
Parliament. In none of them, either on
the side of the Government or the Opposition, is there even one hint that God might have a different, a vital,
permanent, lasting solution to the situation which, as they themselves tell us,
inspires our statesmen with only disgust and shame. The Scripture abides:- The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget
God (Psa. 9: 17).
* *
* * *
* *
708. CONVICTION
Conviction remains the very sword of God, and our
opportunity is magnificent. The one
thing a decaying Church can never possess, nor simulate, nor buy, is
conviction; and burning, wholehearted, consistent conviction moves the
world. One man
with a belief, said John Stewart
Mill, is as strong as ninety-nine with only an
interest, Of
* *
* * *
* *
709. APOSTASY
MENTIONED IN A BOOK REVIEW.
The deplorable thing about this book [The Israel Promises by Samuel H. Wilkinson] is that it ever had to be written. Mr.
Philip Mauro, denying the wonderful outburst of prophetic light in the
nineteenth century, is set on restoring the prophetic outlook of four centuries
ago, with a present Millennium, an historical Apocalypse, no literal Reign of Christ on
earth, an
* *
* * *
* *
710. INTO JOY
Out of the fear that God will not listen,
Out of the doubt that no answer may come,
Into the joy of His promise foretelling
It shall be done.
Out of the heartaches, failures, and trials,
Out of all murmurs, impatience, and blame,
Into the rest and peace of relying
On that dear Name!
Out of the maze at the whys and the wherefores,
Why this or that can happen to be,
Joyfully sailing on Loves boundless ocean
Into the calm of Eternity.
DORIS GOREHAM.
* *
* * *
* *
711. IN
MEMORIAM.
We would add one little wreath to the grave of the Rev. Thomas M. Chalmers, founder of the
New York Jewish Evangelization Society.
His sympathy with the DAWN was penetrating and exceptional, and his
reproduction of our articles on the other side of the
* *
* * *
* *
712. OUR OUTLOOK
Speaking from the pulpit a year after the commencement
of the illness from which he ultimately died, Dr. W. B. Hinson said:- I remember a year
ago when a man in this city said, You have got
to go to your death. I walked out to where I live, five miles out
of this city, and I looked across at that mountain that I love, and I looked at
the river in which I rejoice, and I looked at the stately trees that are always
Gods own poetry to my soul. Then in the
evening I looked up into the great sky where God was lighting His lamps, and I
said, I may not see you many more times, but Mountain, I shall be alive when
you are gone; and River, I shall be alive when you cease running toward the
sea; and Stars, I shall be alive when you have fallen from your sockets in the
great down-pulling of the material universe!
*
* * *
* * *
713. LOVE MUST BE FED
Remember that Love
must be fed
It withers
and dies in the cold
Possess it and hold it fast,
For Love is more precious than gold.
Love keeps the
heart in its Lord
Love is the heavenly ray;
Love will
continue the song
When the music has died away.
‑DORIS
GOREHAM.
* *
* * *
* *
714. SEARCH THE
SCRIPTURES
The
marvels of the insect world which the French scientist, Jean Henri Fabre, reveals are stranger than a fairy tale. But their chief worth perhaps is the example
and lesson of the truth-seeker. If a man
should go about searching the Scriptures with the same patience and labour;
with the like passion for fact and truth; with just such an open heart and single
eye; with the same careful and thorough examination and accurate observation;
with that same honesty and fairness, just as free from prejudice and
party-blindness as that humble scientist exemplified in the ascertaining of the
truths of nature - surely the Word of God would yield up its wealth to such a
one. Read after Fabre, and bow your
head. Follow his assiduous labours, his
prodigious toil, his steadfast perseverance; his unwillingness to be content
with guesses and appearances (for he must dig down to the bottom at all costs,
and get into the heart of things) - see his sacrifice of time, of comfort, of
sleep, of means (meagre as they often were) in order to attain his purpose; his
watching, waiting, hoping, yearning, wondering; his refusal to accept failure,
his loyal devotion to his task, his unshaken continuance to the end of his
quest, and see what endeavours a true man is capable of! How much more is Gods Word worthy of such
earnest searchings!
‑R.
H. BOLL.
*
* * *
* * *
715. JOY
As a
G.
*
* * *
* * *
716. THE CHURCH AND WAR
I
am disillusioned as to the relation of the Church to war. Twelve years ago, I felt that there was
nothing for the Church to do except to support the war programme
unquestioningly. Today, I am convinced
that the Church must disentangle itself from the whole business of war. Granted that the causes for which individual
men were fighting (or thought they were fighting) were high and holy, I see
that they were all involved in what was at bottom a sordid economic struggle
and that, in any case, the war method is always an unchristian way of attaining
even the worthiest end. I am no longer
willing to live in the moral fog that comes from trying to reconcile war and
the Christian Gospel. If we must have
war, far better to say frankly that we have declared a temporary moratorium on
Christianity than to pretend that warfare and the spirit of Christ can ever be really
harmonized. I have, therefore, come
slowly but clearly to the conclusion that the church, in its official capacity,
should never again give its sanction to war, or attempt to make any war appear
as holy.
‑DR.
SAMUEL MCCREA CAVERT, General Secretary
Federal Council of Churches of
* *
* * *
* *
717. SPIRIT-TESTING
A missionary writes:- About December, 1935, a young man, about 18 or 20 - a
student - was taken ill; and while unconscious spoke a good deal of English, also
another language supposed to be German, though I question if anyone present was
qualified to judge. He said, among other
things Why do you make so much of my birth
and not of my death? speaking as if in the
person of Christ. A Chinese pastor who
visited him became suspicious, and decided to test the spirit. He asked if he acknowledged Jesus as
Lord. After a pause - I think the
question was repeated, but I am not sure - the answer came,- I acknowledge Him
as Saviour-Lord. For some reason, not clearly repeated to me,
the pastor was convinced of the presence of an evil spirit and commanded him to
depart, which he did. I understand that the young man, when he came to
himself, had no recollection of any of his words. He had made no profession of personal belief
in Christ. Our peril is
obvious. All deceit of unrighteousness - that is, every kind of subtle deception - is that against which we
are to be perpetually on our guard.
It is very beautiful to note the doctrinal
significance which lies behind the tests. A spirit is required to confess that
Christ has come in the flesh; an inspired man to confess that Jesus is Lord -
that is, Jehovah: because the supreme difficulty felt by the spirit-world is
how God could become man; and the supreme difficulty of the human world is how
a man can be God. The Incarnation for
ever sunders Heaven and Hell.
*
* * *
* * *
718. AMPUTATION
The
earth-shocks of the Day of God are at hand which will start the last
fires. In the
*
* * *
* * *
719. OUT FROM AND INTO
Out of the realm of the glory light
Into the far-away land of night,
Out from the bliss of worshipful song
Into the pain of hatred and wrong,
Out from the holy rapture above
Into the grief of rejected love,
Out from the life at the Fathers side
Into the death of the Crucified,
Out of high honour and into shame
The Master willingly, gladly came;
And now since He may not suffer anew,
As the Father sent Him so sendeth He you
H.
W. FROST.
* *
* * *
* *
720. INTERCESSION
A
tender and profound word comes to us from William
Law on love springing out of prayer for one whom we may never have loved
before. There
is nothing, he says, that makes us love a man
so much as praying for him; and when you can once do this sincerely for any man
you have fitted your soul for the performance of everything that is kind and
civil towards him. This will fill your
heart with a generosity and tenderness that will give you a better and sweeter
behaviour than anything that is called fine breeding and good manners. By considering yourself as an advocate with
God for your neighbours and acquaintance you would never find it hard to be at
peace with them yourself. It would be
easy to you to bear with and forgive those for whom you particularly implored
the divine mercy and forgiveness.
In the words of the Coptic
Liturgy:- O God of love, Who hast given a new
commandment, through Thine only-begotten Son, that we should love one another,
even as Thou didst love us, the unworthy and the wandering, and gavest Thy
beloved Son for our life and salvation; we pray Thee, Lord, give to us Thy
servants, in all time of our life on the earth, a mind forgetful of past
ill-will, a pure conscience and sincere thoughts, and a heart to love our
brethren.
*
* * *
* * *
721. AN INEVITABLE ADVENT
The
world has never been even remotely near conversion. Professor J. du Plessis thus sums up the facts in the Expository Times:‑- Modern
missions are now about a century and a half old. For the toil and expenditure
of these hundred and fifty years there is, statistically speaking, not much to
show. In
And
now the splendid burst of Christian activity which characterized the nineteenth
century is passing. So far from gaining new converts to our Lord the
Archbishops Committee reports, organized
Christianity is found to be shrinking.
A single example will suffice. In
1926 the American Methodist Episcopal Church had 83 missionaries in
*
* * *
* * *
722. TOWARD THE DAWN
My feet are torn
With the rough climbing of the upward way,
Yet my soul lingers not, for surely Day
And its glad glories bids me not to stay,
Een though my feet can boast of many a thorn;
The Call comes urgently - each step newborn -
Away! Away! TOWARD THE DAWN.
My hands grow sore,
Missing some other grip to aid me on,
And I wish mutely that the night were gone
Since former fellowships of Earth that shone
Have left me: yet the urge grows more
A Voice I hear - I am not left forlorn -
Light gleams ahead! TOWARD THE DAWN.
My heart is faint: As up I climb, though tears the
stones bedew,
I do believe the prospect lies in view,
For what GOD promises must aye be true:
And burnt are all my goods through Earths distraint,
Heat but enriches the ungatherd corn:
I struggle on, TOWARD THE DAWN.
My spirit sings!
The mists are melting now, the clouds recede,
Love-songs are healing wounds that used to bleed;
Methinks I soon on Heavenly Bread shall feed,
And to my faltering steps are given wings;
Now am I of my speechless grievings shorn,
He comes! I rise TOWARD THE DAWN.
By H. H. BROWNLOW
*
* * *
* * *
723. CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH
Who
are to engage in this sacred toll of controversy? The Faith once for
all delivered - not to apostles or prophets, for how then could the
truth have been expounded in ages which had neither? not to universities, or
schools of theology; not even to evangelists or pastors or teachers: but to the
saints. The saving Faith has been committed to the
saved; the saints of every age are responsible to pass it on intact to the
saints of every succeeding age; and all the saints are responsible for all the
truth, and its transmission, pure, whole, and undefiled. Every saint is responsible to contend
earnestly for all of the Faith that he knows: we are set for the defence of the gospel (Phil. 1. 16), as well as for its
dissemination. Lift the enforced
controversies out of the life of Christ, and how much of each Gospel
remains? With what giant strokes Paul
lays about him, felling fearful errors: be ye imitators of
me, even as I also am of Christ (1 Cor. 11: 1). To-day, as Dr. Campbell Morgan has said, there is a tolerance abroad which is high treason. There is a passion saturating the air for a
comprehension which sacrifices the very heart of the Christian religion, and
the very core of the Gospel of the Nazarene.
*
* * *
* * *
724. THE FRUIT OF
CONTROVERSY
Without
controversy no truth was ever yet established, or, when established, preserved;
and it can be most rich in its outcome.
We quote Mr. A. G. Knott
again:- The outcome of true controversy always
results in revolutions taking place in mens thought and actions. Many a person has been compelled under the
imperious demands of truth, mediated to them through controversy, to change
their values and re-orientate their whole personal and social living. Controversy has constrained men to alter their
faith, choose the way of poverty, offer their lives to holy causes, re-think
their Christian beliefs, change their whole attitude to money and re-interpret
their personal relationships to one another.
Further, in controversy many have heard the voice of God as they have
heard His voice nowhere else. Their
weaknesses have been exposed, their insincerities have been shown to them,
their faith has been tested as to what stuff it was made of, their spirit has
been deepened and they have been led out into a larger place where His will has been seen and
felt.
From
Controversy
by D. M. Panton.
*
* * *
* * *
725. GERMAN
PERSECUTION
A
trustworthy correspondent of intimate knowledge writes the Universe (July 20, 1934) from
* *
* * *
* *
726. LOVERS OF PLEASURE
That
men are to be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God is foretold, and
already experienced, as the sure symptom of a dying age. No instances of
dancing, says Dr. Eadie, are found upon record in the Bible in which the two sexes
united in the exercise, either as an act of worship or amusement. Lawlessness breeds illimitable pleasure. At one period
there were more theatres in one of the Volga
districts than in the whole of
*
* * *
* * *
727. MESSIANIC
There
is one element of great peril. Ya Sitt, have you seen Him?
Whom do you mean? I inquired. Jesus. No, only with the
eye of faith. No, no, not that way.
With these eyes, these eyes I have seen Him! And he is not alone in his belief that Jesus
visits these hidden believers in bodily presence. One of them told me He was present at one of
their meetings when every one of the seventeen present testified to having seen
the Christ. Dont
you think, said a grave, long-robed official, as he walked the deck of
a steamer on which I was travelling, a seemingly devout Moslem who in reality
was an ardent adorer of our Lord, that He is coming
soon? I believe He is, because we need
Him so. Alleged secret, local
appearances of our Lord are He Himself warns us (Matt.
24: 26) fraught with acute peril: secrecy can be the fruitful ground
of illusion, and a nursery of antichrists.
*
* * *
* * *
728. BOOK REVIEW - Light
from Old Times
Light from old Times, now in its fifth edition beautifully got up, and a
marvel of cheapness is a most valuable summary of leading English
Reformers. This issue could not be more
timely: it is startling to remember, at
a moment when the Mass is apparently to be legalized in the Church of England
which, as the good Bishop [Ryle] says, was in great
measure the work of the Reformers that six of those here commemorated were burnt alive because they would not
believe in the Sacrifice of the Mass.
Of Bishop Ryle we can say what was said of
*
* * *
* * *
729. LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF DAWN MAGAZINE
Dear
Sir,
I am
very glad you are bringing out a magazine on the subject of the Lords Return,
and prophetic truth in relation to it, and also preparation in heart and life
needed in view of it. We are living in
the most solemn and momentous period of the worlds history; and the events
which are occurring testify to the truth of prophecy in a startling manner;
that we are rapidly drawing near to the end of this dispensation, and that the
coming of the Lord for His saints is imminent.
How necessary then that every believer should be awake to this; the Bride must make herself ready; we must be a people prepared of the Lord, cleansing ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, that our
hearts may be established unblameable in holiness
at His Coming. Weaned from this world,
we must remember
I
am,
JOHN
WARREN.
* *
* * *
* *
730. THE HOLY SPIRIT
Is
there no peril that by this constant unseating of the Spirit He may be finally
driven from His sanctuary, repeating as He retires the solemn lament of the
Saviour: Behold, your house is left unto you desolate? That He may, and sometimes does, finally
withdraw from His temple, there can be no question. Do we not know of churches once fervently
Evangelical which are now living under the doom of destruction by the Spirit? The writer thinks, with all charity, that he
has seen such; churches upon which the Lords sentence has gone forth, Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. The body may still remain indeed, the creeds
and Confessions may continue intact, and the
forms of worship may even be multiplied and vastly enriched
as the years go on. But these outward
forms are only memorials of the deeper glory, like the death-mask which
preserves the mould of features which have long since crumbled to dust.
Dr.
A. J. GORDON.
*
* * *
* *
*
731. RAPTURE
The days may yet grow darker
The nights more weary grow
And Jesus may still tarry,
But this one thing I know
The Lord will still grow dearer
And fellowship will be
The closer and the sweeter
Between my Lord and me.
Tis our dear Lord we wait for,
Our Hope! Our joy! Our Friend!
Himself we long to welcome
And just beyond the bend
Hidden, perchance to meet us
Before the day is done,
The waiting will be over
And heaven will have begun.
* *
* * *
* *
732. KNOWLEDGE OF GODS GLORY
All
knowledge that begins not and ends not with the glory of God is but a giddy, but
a vertiginous circle, but an elaborate and exquisite ignorance.
-
JOHN DONNE.
* *
* * *
* *
733. LOOKING
Looking up to Jesus on the
emerald throne,
Faith shall pierce the heavens where the
King is gone.
May
it not be that Stephen looked up through the North, where scientists have only
lately ascertained there is an empty space, without stars or heavenly bodies
of any kind, a discovery anticipated by Job
(ch. 26: 7) millenniums ago when he said, God stretcheth out the North over the empty space?
Would
you know millennial bliss? Then, like Abraham of old, look for the city which hath the foundations whose builder and maker
is God and confess that you are a stranger and
pilgrim on the earth. Finally,
would you anticipate the Eternal state? then, look for and earnestly
desire the coming of the Day of God; and look for new heavens and a new earth wherein
dwelleth righteousness.
Looking unto Jesus, never need we yield,
Over all the armour, faith, the
battle-shield.
* *
* * *
* *
734. A SPECTULAR RECOMPENSE
The
small town of
* *
* * *
* *
735.
ADVENT
I have long felt it one of the greatest shortcomings
of the
- BISHOP J. C.
RYLE.
* *
* * *
* *
736. WARFARE
I saw
prevailing throughout the Christian world a licence in making war of which even
savage nations would have been ashamed; recourse being had to arms for slight
reasons or none; and when arms were once taken up, all reverence for divine and
human law was thrown away, just as if men were thenceforth authorized to commit
all crimes without restraint.
- GROTIUS.
* *
* * *
* *
737.
CHILDREN AND THE ADVENT
That little children
can watch for their Lord is proved by these verses of a missionarys little
daughter, aged eight. D. M. PANTON.
He may come in the morning,
He may come in the evening,
He may come in the night,
Or praps in mid-day light:
Oh ye people, watch and pray,
For He may come any day!
Do not linger, do not stay‑
Just go quickly on your way,
Christ the Lord is coming soon,
Far beyond the sun and moon:
Oh ye people, watch and pray,
For He may come any day!
‑ MYRTLE G. POWLEY.
* *
* * *
* *
738.
HEALTH
Physical
limits are Gods limits, and should not be transgressed. One habit of Isaac Watts, the author of some
of the most wonderful hymns in our language, was that of studying far into the
night, and his continual vigils wrought havoc on a frail constitution. If a dim winking light broke at midnight the
darkness of Newington Green, it was certain evidence that
* *
* * *
* *
739. THE COMMISSION
ON DOCTRINE
It
is as astounding a portent as the age has yet produced that the Commission on
Doctrine appointed by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, after careful
study over a period of fifteen years, reports that it is impossible to state,
in fundamental terms, that the Christian Faith is at present the belief of the
Church of England. The Times
(Jan. 15, 1938) puts it thus:- Whether the
Virgin Birth of our Lord is fact or myth, whether or not His tomb was empty on
Easter Day, whether the Gospel miracles should be taken as history or imagery
are among the questions which the commission, owing to the conflict of opinion
among its members, found itself unable to answer. That is to say, while
a large proportion of its members personally accept the Virgin Birth and the
Empty Tomb,* and the Apostles Creed remains in the Prayer Book, the Commission
leaves the simple fundamentals of the Christian Faith an open question, while
it unanimously affirms that Christian fellowship exists without them. In other words, Modernism sits at the table,
and Apostasy stands on the door-step.
One of our readers writes, not without reason: The
awful thing is that there is so little outcry.
Surely it is the most dreadful thing that has happened in this century.
*
While the Commission says that a majority of
its members accept the Empty Tomb, it says that many
accept the Virgin Birth, a distinction which presumably means that the latter
are a minority of the Commission.
* *
* * *
* *
740. TROUBLE
Temptations and troubles are the saints portion here, and this
is the royal way to the Kingdom. Our
King led in it, and all His followers go in the same way; and besides the happy
end of it, is it not sweet, even for this, simply, because He went in it? This is the truth, and, taken altogether, is
a most comfortable truth: the whole brotherhood, all our brethren, go in it,
and our Eldest Brother went first.
ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON.
* *
* * *
* *
741.GOLD
Gold has cost the Jew his life, and it may cost us ours. A European worker writes:- Last year I
Baptized a Jewish millionaire on the Continent.
Tears of joy ran down his cheek on that occasion. In
* *
* * *
* *
742. SELF
Go down deep enough into yourself if you want to cure
a lofty estimate of yourself. The top
storeys may be beautifully furnished, but there are some ugly things and
rubbish down in the cellar. There is not
one of us but, if we honestly let the dredge down into the depths, miles and
miles down, will bring up a pretty collection of wriggling monstrosities that
never have been in the daylight before, and are ugly enough to be always
shrouded in their native darkness. Down
in us all, if we will go deep enough, and take with us a light bright enough,
we shall discover enough to make anything but humility ridiculous. And the
only right place and attitude for a man who knows himself down to the roots of
his being is the publicans when he stood afar off, and would not so much
as lift up his eyes to heaven, and said, God be merciful to me a sinner. It
will put an end to any undue exaltation of ourselves if we know ourselves as we are.
DR. ALEXANDER MACLAREN.
* *
* * *
* *
743. HADES THE PLACE OF THE DEAD
Notwithstanding the amount of distinct revelation, the
whole subject of Hades is obscured to the reader of the English Version of the
Bible by the erroneous rendering of the
Hebrew term Sheol and its Greek equivalent Hades. These
words which in the original Scriptures have a fixed and definite meaning,
indicating a place in the Unseen World distinct from both Heaven and Hell
(regarded as the place of final punishment), are constantly rendered by
either grave of Hell. By this mistranslation an idea
proper to the Word of God is completely blotted out from the English Version;
and, not only so, but the texts which present that idea are distributed amongst
those which set forth two entirely distinct ideas thus obscuring the
teachings of Scripture concerning both the grave and Hell.
The New Testament idea of Hades as distinct from the
grave may be most clearly perceived in the declaration concerning Dives in Luke 16: 23; and in the didactic teaching of the
Apostle Peter (Acts 2: 27-31) concerning the
soul of Jesus between His death and His resurrection. The Apostle, manifestly, spoke of both the
body and soul of our Lord (compare verse 27
and 31, asserting that the former did not
see corruption (although it was placed in a sepulchre) and that the latter was not left in Hades implying, of
course, that it went to Hades [in the heart of the earth]. Unless we adopt the conclusion that the soul
sleeps with the dead body in the tomb in
the face of manifest implications of the Apostle and the whole tenor of the
Word of God Hades must be distinct from the tomb.
The hypothesis that Jesus contemplated Lazarus as [immediately after his death being] in Hades not only gives force and consistency to
the whole narrative, but is directly in accordance with the natural
interpretation of the brief and scattered teachings of the Old Testament concerning the abode of the righteous dead.
That the ungodly are in Hades all admit, but they are not yet in [the lake of fire] their place of final and everlasting punishment.
PHILIP SCHAFF,
* *
* * *
* *
744. ANTI-GOD
The attack of the Faith grows. We have news from all
parts of the world, writes the International
Christian Crusade, of a more intensive (albeit
more subtle undercover) drive against Christianity. A writer to the Times, Dec. 12, 1939)
says:- Even writers of fifty years ago usually took
it for granted the Europe was, and would remain, a Christian Continent; they
thought that, though Christian dogmas might become obsolete, yet of course
Christian standards of morality would continue to influence public life and
conduct; preach Christian ethics, they said, and leave your dogmas alone, not
perceiving in their blindness that the two are indissolubly united. We see the result today even in
*
* * *
* * *
745. BANISHING GOD
A
correspondent who has returned from a tour of the northern capitals, on the
Cunard liner
At 7.30 p.m. on Saturday, August 11, the following message was posted:‑
DIVINE SERVICE 10 AM. SUNDAY.
Later that evening we picked up a pilot and several Soviet
officers, and at 9.45 p.m. the following notice was posted:‑
OWING TO THE ARRIVAL ON
BOARD OF SOVIET AUTHORITIES IT HAS BEEN NECESSARY TO CANCEL DIVINE SERVICE.
‑ The National Review, Oct., 1934.
*
* * *
* * *
746. LOVE
Love has a hem to its garments
That reaches down to the dust;
It touches the stains of the streets and the lanes,
And because it can, it must.
*
* * *
* * *
747. THE GIFT AND THE PRIZE
The Victory in the Circus was determined by the place gained
by the charioteer after going a certain number of heats round the ends and
along the side of the Spina (or low wall which was the back-bone of the
course). In the Roman Circus the Victor
descended from his car at the end of the race, and mounted the Spina, and there received his prize.
(See Wordsworth).
Now,
Phil. 3: 11, and 14,
shew that our PRIZE is the First
Resurrection, described in Rev. 20: 4-6; and all the glories contingent
thereon. In 1
Cor. 15: 50, again, the Apostle clearly is speaking of the inheritors
of the Kingdon of God and the
glories attending their resurrection, or rapture; not by any means of every and
any believer: many alas! are wicked, slothful, and worldly Christians who will be
dismissed with shame from the judgment-seat of Christ, and some be cast into
the outer darkness for the time appointed, where will be weeping and gnashing
of teeth, Matt. 24: 48-51, 25: 30; 1 Jno. 2: 28;
Luke 6: 46-49.
But
those who reign with Christ in His Millennial
glory will be the blessed and holy that participate in this first and
special resurrection. Other glories,
rewards, and honours are mentioned in the promises to the Overcomer recorded in
the letters to the seven Churches in Rev. 2
and 3, also in Matt.
25 : 21, 23, etc., etc. No less
than five different crowns are offered to faithful servants of the Lord Jesus
at His return.
* *
* * *
* *
748. Scripture
The universality of the Bible proves its utter uniqueness. It has been translated into more than one
thousand languages and dialects. There
are only two other books in existence, aside from the Bible, that have been
translated into one hundred languages: The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas Kempis, and Pilgrims Progress, by John Bunyan, both of which embody the truth of the Holy Scriptures.
Immortal
The immortality of the Bible is proved by
history. Heaven
and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away (Matt. 24: 35).
In the words of Dr. John Cumming:-
The empire of Caesar is gone; the legions of Rome are
mouldering in the dust; the avalanches that Napoleon hurled upon Europe have
melted away; the pride of the Pharoahs has fallen; the pyramids they raised to
be their tombs are sinking every day in the desert sands; Tyre is the rock for
bleaching fishermens nets; Sidon has scarcely left a wreck behind; but the
Word of God still survives. All things
that threatened to extinguish it have only aided it; and it only proves every
day how transient the noblest monument that man can build, how enduring is the
least Word God has spoken. Tradition has
dug for it a grave; intolerance has lighted for it many a faggot; many a Judas
has betrayed it with a kiss; many a Demas has forsaken it, but the Word of God
still endures. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away; but
the word of the Lord endureth for ever (1 Pet. 1 : 24).
*
* * *
* * *
749. SIN
There are seven simple facts that everyone ought to
know about sin: First, sin earns wages.
Second, sin pays wages. Third,
sin insists on paying. You may be
willing to let the account go, but sin insists on paying. Fourth, sin pays its wages in kind. Sin against the body, pays wages in the
body. Fifth, sin pays in
instalments. Sixth, sin pays in full,
unless the Blood of Jesus washes away the sin.
Seventh, sin pays its own bills.
Sin has bound up in itself all the terrible consequences that come. The logical result of sin is death, death to
the body, death to the mind, death to the soul!
‑S. D. GORDON.
*
* * *
* * *
750. COST
In a railway accident, a man, preserved by the mercy of
God, succoured to the best of his ability the wounded and dying. He came to where the engine-driver was pinned
down beneath the wreck of his engine.
Seeing the mans lips moving he bent down to listen, and to his surprise
heard the driver say, I know whom I have believed, and
am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him
against that day. The unhurt
passenger, a man of great wealth, cried out, 0h, my
man, I would give my life, and all that I possess to have a faith like yours.
Ah, sir, was the feeble response of the dying
believer, it just costs that.
‑ GORDON WATT.
*
* * *
* * *
751. ESCHATOLOGY
Current
technical developments in armaments ought to dispose the modern mind to a more
sober reconsideration of the New Testament picture of the end of the world and
of Final Judgment. This picture has
always been somewhat unflattering to the modern mans estimate of human nature,
which, of course, is part of the offence (offensiveness) of Christianity to our
era. New Testament Christianity has
never lent any encouragement to the gilded hopes of an earthly paradise
achieved by creating human power. This
is partly why Christian Liberalism tried to rationalize the New Testament
doctrine of the
This
version of New Testament eschatology was given a semblance of plausibility by
the course of modern history and the triumph of science. Orthodox theology had a difficult time in
defending the truth of the New Testament vision of The End in face of the accumulating
triumph of man over nature and apparently over human nature as well. The gigantic expansion in wealth-production
and the consequent increase in material consumption made the New Testament
appear faintly ridiculous. But that is
all finished. It is beginning to dawn
upon our generation that control over nature does not necessarily carry with it
control over human nature. It is the
confusion of these two that has intensified the terrible social contradiction
of our age.
- The Record.
*
* * *
* *
752. Corrected
by Regeneration, and the Imputation
of Adams guilt
Met by the Imputation of Christs righteousness.
Now
let us take an important passage in 2 Peter 1: 1. The Apostle writes to those who have obtained
like precious faith with us, through the righteousness
of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Can the righteousness here named be the absolute and essential
righteousness of God, which we speak of as a Divine attribute? Surely not! Truly God justifies righteously;
He is just and the justifier of him that believeth in
Jesus, but how can He justify righteously if not by substitution and
imputation? So Righteousness
of God in Romans 3.
Now
who is the Divine Person spoken of as
through whom we are justified? Are
there two persons? God and our Saviour, or is one only in view? The expression of
God and our Saviour Jesus Christ is similarly phrased to Titus 2: 13, The
appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. In that passage we are not thought of as
looking for the appearing of two Gods, but God manifest in the flesh. It could be rendered even; that is, The great God even our Saviour Jesus Christ. So in the Peter passage, the righteousness in
which we are saved having obtained like precious faith, is of God even our Saviour Jesus Christ. In other words, we cannot be saved without
the whole obedience of His whole life imputed to us.
The
Apostle says in Phil. 3: 8-9:- That I may win Christ and be found in Him, not having mine own
righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith; and in 1 Cor. 1: 30: Christ
Jesus Who of God is made unto us righteousness; and 2 Cor. 5: 21: He hath
made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him.
- The Sovereign Grace Advent Testimony.
*
* * *
* * *
753. HEALING
AND CURSES.
Miraculous healing is not necessarily divine. Spiritualism has healing mediums of
world-wide celebrity: the woman whom Satan bound for eighteen years (Luke 13: 16) he could unbind in a moment, and a
demoniac can become sane in an instant (Mark 5: 15)
by the mere departure of the demons. Mr. Jonathan Lindell of
Cures
Mr. Lindell continues:- Other mediums,
through the spirits with whom they are in league, have power to heal all manner
of disease, and they really do! The
patient comes to pay his worship and his fees and then the medium goes into his worship. He chants, trembles, shakes, calls out, goes
into a trance, and then he sends on the spirit to the patient who, in like
manner, gets possessed. When the whole
thing is over the patient gets up perfectly well and goes home! There is one such specialist in our
village. There are half a dozen in
Sukhia. They say that God heals, and
they think that the miracles of the Lord Jesus were nothing special - that he
was but a medium of Gods power as theirs are; by God meaning their own
temple idol god.
*
* * *
* * *
754. SANCTITY THROUGH SUFFERING
I
was painfully conscious that I was not living all that I was trying to teach
the Chinese. Some months later I passed
through a time of great trial and sorrow: the death of a beloved child, the
sending home of three others, and the most trying time in China through which
our beloved Mission had ever passed, bringing innumerable difficulties and perplexities. But it was also a time of deepened spiritual
joy and rest, and of experience that my Saviour is sufficient for every
emergency. In
Just
at this crisis my dear wife had an attack of cholera from which she rallied
with difficulty; and a little one was born and lived only a fortnight. But again the Living Water proved sufficient
for her and for me. The very evening
after the funeral of the babe, my precious wife had an attack of syncope, from
which she did not fully recover, and early the next morning she, too, was
taken. Then I understood why the Lord
had made this passage so real to me.
An
illness of some weeks followed, and oh! how lonesome were the weary hours when
confined to my bed; how I missed my dear wife and the little pattering
footsteps of the children, far away in
Lord Jesus, make Thyself to me
A living, bright reality;
More present to faiths vision keen
Than any earthly object seen;
More dear, more intimately nigh
Than een the sweetest human tie.
-
*
* * *
* *
755. A PRAYER
My soul, ask what thou wilt,
Thou canst not be too bold.
Since His own blood for thee He spilt,
What else can He withhold?
Beyond thine utmost wants
His power and love can bless;
To trusting souls He loves to grant
More than they can express.
* *
* * *
* *
756. PRAYER
1
Was
there ever a time when we needed prayer warriors more than we do in this day
and age? They are always indispensable,
but looking at things as they are today, it appears to us that there was never
a time when they were needed more than right in the time and age in which we
are now living.
- The
2
Few
men there are who pray. Preachers there
are who say prayers on regular or state occasions; but who stirs himself up to
take hold of God? Who prays as Jacob prayed - till he is crowned as a
prevailing, princely intercessor? Who
prays as Elijah prayed - till all the locked-up forces of nature are unsealed
and a famine-stricken land blooms as the
Where are the Christly
leaders who can teach the modern saint to pray and put them at it? Where are the apostolic leaders who can put
Gods people to praying? Let them come
to the front and do the work and it will be the greatest work which can be done. More praying will not come as a matter of
course. Nothing but a specific effort from a praying leadership will
avail. The chief ones must lead in the
apostolic effort to radiate the vital importance of prayer in the heart and
life of the Church. None but praying
leaders can have praying followers.
Praying apostles beget praying saints.
A praying pulpit begets praying pews.
* *
* * *
* *
757. THE EXHORTATION
When, in the fourth century, the Roman Emperor
Diocletian issued a decree to imprison all priests and to eradicate the
Christian Faith from the earth, Bishop
Nicolas, of
Brethren in Christ!
The day is near that may be our greatest glory or our blackest
shame. The time has come for threshing
the harvest. By Gods grace, we may now
discover what in ourselves is chaff, and what is good wheat. The chaff shall be burnt and utterly destroyed. The corn shall be the living seed of a new
church.
Pray for grace to stand firm in this terrible storm. Pray for grace to suffer afflictions. You shall be scourged with rods, burnt with
fire, tormented beyond the fear of death.
Brother shall deliver up brother to death, and the father his child
and children shall rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to
death. And ye shall be hated of all men
for His names sake: but he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.
*
* * *
* * *
758. REFUGEES
There are something like ten million refugees in
But
amid these horrible experiences one is suddenly confronted by testimonies of
unbroken faith, by deeds of noblest humanity, which are far beyond our normal
Christian experience as the temptations which they meet are beyond those which
we are called upon to face. Heights and
depths are reached here, unimaginable for our normal church life, but which
bring us face to face with the standards of the Bible itself.
Some
time ago I met some Christians who had lived for three years under Russian rule
in
The
really anti-Christian, the really terrible thing, is that men could thus act
towards other men - this is the awful abyss opening before our society, and
which threatens to engulf us all. Every
attempt to solve our problem on a national scale is culpable since it ignores
its religious root. So far from being a
national problem, it is a phenomenon of a decaying, soulless culture, returning
to nomadism.
-
PROFESSOR HANS
IWAND.
* *
* * *
* *
759. THE KINGDOM
The
Lord is now selecting and training the kings and rulers for the coming new age
in His great plan of redemption. Unto him that hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his
own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father (Rev. 1: 5, 6).
And we shall reign on the earth (Rev. 5: 10). A warless world to last 1,000 years will some
day be a reality, but only those who have parted company with sin and the world
will ever have any place in that greatly to be desired New Order.
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first
resurrection on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests
of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
-
W. F. BEIRNFS.
*
* * *
* * *
760. THE TRUE
CATHOLICITY
My
full persuasion is, that inasmuch as any one glories either in being of the
Church of England,
‑ANTHONY
NORRIS GROVES.
*
* * *
* * *
761. PRAYER
Our
greatest work is prayer. Real prayer in
the Holy Ghost is as rare as it is mighty.
It means great suffering and brings us into fellowship with the Lord in
all the burdens which He is ever bearing for His people before the throne. Such prayer is an actual force. Oh, for the golden pipes to carry the oil
from the living trees to the lamps of God.
Oh, for the incense bearers to ever present to heaven the golden vials
which are the prayers of the saints and bring the great consummation! In these solemn times we expect to lay upon
us unusual burdens of intercession. Let
Him find us responsive and understanding what the will of the Lord is.
‑
A. B. SIMPSON.
*
* * *
* * *
762. THE LOS ANGELES
REVIVAL
The
mammoth canvas cathedral which seated six thousand people was enlarged to seat
nine thousand, and even that wasnt big enough to hold the crowds. Police
estimated one throng at more than fifteen thousand people, with thousands of
others turned away. During those eight
weeks more than 350,000 attended the seventy-two meetings.
Best
of all, about six thousand made decisions for Jesus Christ. Three thousand of those decisions were for
salvation. The other three thousand
found Christians making themselves right with God, a sure sign of revival in
itself.
And
not only the entire greater
Among
the converts of the campaign was Stuart
Hamblen, well-known radio artist in
‑Tabernacle Bulletin.
*
* * *
* * *
763. APPROACHING TRIBULATION
Authentic records show
that since 1910 we have witnessed the two most devastating earthquakes, the
most extensive famine, and the most
fatal pestilence the world has ever known.
The Chinese earthquake of 1920 devastated an area of 15,000 square
miles, and killed 1,000,000 people; the Japanese earthquake of 1923, took the
lives of 200,000 people. Multiplied
millions upon millions have died of pestilence and starvation in the aftermath
of two great world wars. Since the days
of Christs birth until now earthquakes have increased in intensity, frequency
and destructive power and gone to divers places over the whole earth. Dr. T. A. Jaggar, an authority on volcanoes,
earthquakes, tidal waves, etc., says:- Every city is only 40 miles above hot
water. This hot stuff is ready to make
ruptures if the moon should pull the trigger.
In the 13th century there were 115 earthquakes; in 14th
137; in 15th 174; in 16th 253; in 17th 378; in
18th 640; in 19th 2,119.
*
* * *
* * *
764. THE DOME ON THE ROCK
Mohammedans
as the scene of Mohammeds ascent to heaven, and by the Jews as that of the
proposed sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham.
On this rock the Crusaders set up an altar. The building stands on a platform about
twelve feet in height, and is approached from four sides by flights of broad
steps, surmounted at the landing by graceful arcades.
It
is probable that the passing of the Dome of the Rock out of the hands of the
Moslems will be one of the marks of the ending of the
times of the Gentiles. (See Luke 21: 24).
*
* * *
* * *
765. WAR
When
I went to my first American pastorate, a good many years ago now, in a Western
city, I think I never felt such a discouraging situation. It was a wealthy, fashionable church, but
without spiritual tone. I found the
churches of the city were torn and separated by the dreadful war which had just
closed a little before. My church was
the only one in the city out of scores, that had not been divided by the war
into North and South. Through a former pastor who had a wide influence they
kept together. But they were at swords
points. There were ministers in town who
had not spoken to each other for ten years, and it was generally said there
would be no revival there until there had been two or three funerals.
Just
at that time God poured out His Spirit upon my own heart. It was then that I received
for the first time the new light of the indwelling Christ and the baptism of
the Holy Ghost, and it became a fire in my bones, and so possessed me that
nights long I waited before God, crying to Him for a great revival. There never seemed any place on earth so
difficult to have a revival. After a
little while God let me get into some of these pulpits by exchange. He led me to beseech them to pray for the
coming of the Holy Ghost, and before long I had the great joy of seeing all the
pastors of that city united for a whole week long, beseeching God to heal their
grievances and to send them a mighty revival.
Before
a month had passed, my dear friend, Major
Whittle, with Mr. Bliss, had
come to us and begun a mighty movement for the salvation of souls, and the
largest halls were required for the crowds.
Before the next Easter five or six thousand souls in that city had been
led to the Lord Jesus Christ, and I had the peculiar joy of gathering perhaps
the largest harvest into my own congregation, because God had permitted us from
the beginning to be in the heart of it.
- DR. A. B. SIMPSON.
*
* * *
* * *
766.
They are the tribes
of sorrow and for ages have been fed
On brackish
desert-wells of hate and exiles bitter bread.
They builded up fair
cities with no threshold of their own,
They gave their sigh
to
And have they not had
tears enough, this people shrunk with chains?
Must there be more Assyrias, must there be other
‑
Edwin Markham.
*
* * *
* * *
767. PERSECUTION
What a change to-day!
A man of no more than middle age, surveying the events of his own
lifetime, can view a persecution of the Church, on a scale far greater than the
persecutions of the
- G. W. BUTTERWORTH, D.D.
*
* * *
* * *
768. DELAY
A parable is told that Satan one time asked his
helpers to propose ways and means to break up a revival meeting. One said, I will tell the people that there
is no God; no devil, no heaven and no hell.
Said Satan, No one would believe you.
Another said, I would tell them that the Bible is a good Book, but only
partly true. I would tell them that
there is a God and a Heaven, but that there is no devil and no hell. I would tell them that no matter how they
live, they will be eternally happy.
Satan said, Only a few would believe that. Finally, one said, I would
tell them the Bible is all true, and that they must make a choice between God
and Satan, between Heaven and hell; but there is no need for hurry about making
the choice. Said Satan, You have the system.
Go, and tell the people!
*
* * *
* * *
769. INVITATION
Mr. Moody was finishing a series of sermons on Christ
in October, 1871. This particular night
the text was, What shall I do with Jesus? The fire bells were ringing, but this was no
cause for great excitement in
* *
* * *
* *
770. BEHIND THE IRON
CURTAIN
This
letter was written by the wife of a Christian martyr who has been in solitary
confinement for more than a year and was brought to a colleague of Dr. Conrad
Hoffman:- We often feel that we shall not be able to
bear it much longer. But as the diver
who breathes the air from above, so the children of God endeavour to keep in
touch with the Higher World. ... With joy we realize that our work continues; workers
understand each other very well. Amidst
tribulations, our hearts can praise the Lord.
In our congregation all goes on; only shoulders are stooping lower,
faces are paler. We cannot find work if
we are not members of the party; suffering, need, tears; all seems so gloomy. But the Sun of Righteousness shines from
above, and scatters the shadows of despondency and death. We often have the impression that He sends
His angels as He did to Elijah long ago, and with new power we are able to
continue along our hard road.
‑
The Evangelical Christian.
*
* * *
* * *
771. THE LAST PRAYER
MEETING
And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief
captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid
themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the
mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth
on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb : for the great day of His wrath
is come; and who shall be able to stand? (Rev.
6: 15-17).
Geologists
inform us that there are a vast number of caves, holes, caverns in the hills
and mountains over the earth. These will
be multiplied by the earthquakes that will take place over the earth in the
Great Tribulation, for God is going to shake the whole earth. Thousands go annually to the famous
- E. E.
WORDSWORTH.
*
* * *
* * *
772. BAPTISM
The ceremony of infant sprinkling is so much at
variance with the teaching of the New Testament that a committee of clergy is
meeting to consider what is called responsible baptism. A very prominent
Anglo-Catholic leader, Dr. Kenneth Kirk,
Bishop of Oxford, is so concerned about this question that he wrote as follows
in his Diocesan magazine of September, 1946:- Is it
not possible that instead of being baptised in infancy a child might at that
stage be admitted as a catechumen, or learner; and then after a period of
instruction and when years of discretion are reached, be baptised and confirmed
and admitted to Communion? Would this in
any way help our difficulty?
First,
we must say quite bluntly that infant sprinkling is not in the new
Testament. As Dr. A. Plummer (an Anglican scholar) writes:- Not only is there no
mention of the baptism of infants, but there is no text from which such baptism
can be securely inferred. In like
manner, we have the testimony of a Methodist scholar, Prof. Norman Snaith, who wrote as follows in The Methodist Recorder of 17 June, 1948:- Most
communities, other than the Baptists, are confused over the whole matter, and
those that are not confused are wrong.
The modern difficulties in interpretation are caused by the transference
of the rite to infancy. Another
witness is Father S. J. Hunter, a
Jesuit, who writes:- There is no trace in Scripture
of Christian baptism being administered to any one who was not capable of
asking for it.
Secondly,
we find in Church history that infant sprinkling was a gradual change from
Christian baptism. The oldest non-canonical Christian document is The Didachee,
or The Teaching, to be dated about 120 A.D., in the first six chapters of which
is an explanation of the
Thirdly,
infant sprinkling is no substitute for Christian baptism. We are saved by faith in Christ, as our
Saviour and Lord: Ye are all sons of God by faith.
So Dr.
Sanday, an Anglican scholar, writing on Romans
6, puts it this way:- It (i.e.,
baptism) expresses symbolically a series of acts
corresponding to the redeeming acts of Christ: Immersion = death; Submersion =
burial, the ratification of death; Emergence = resurrection.
Repent and be baptised every
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts
2: 38).
FRANK
V. MILDRED
*
* * *
* * *
773. LET NO MAN TAKE THY CROWN.
I
remember having read at the time of the pagan persecution, about twelve men,
Christians, who were under sentence of death, and the jailor of the prison had
a strange dream just before the execution was to take place. He saw an
extraordinarily fine-looking man coming into the prison, and he had twelve
crowns with him, and he went and tried the crowns on the head of the first
prisoner, and the second, and right on to the eleventh, and the crown fitted
the head of everyone. At last he came to
the twelfth and the crown did not fit him at all, and he told the jailor to
come over and he put the crown on his head and it fitted him perfectly and he
left it there in his dream. The next day
the prisoners were taken away to be burned but when it came to the twelfth man
he recanted and cursed Christ and when the jailor saw that he said, That is not what Christ deserves. He was asked, And
would you recant? No, he said, and took that mans place at the stake
and got the Crown which awaited him. And
so ought you, and so ought I to see that we would not lose the crown.
-
NEIL CAMERON.
*
* * *
* * *
774.
At a time when the fate of
636
- Wrested from
1099
- Crusaders captured
1244
-
1516
- Sultan of
1917
- Balfour Declaration, November 2.
1919
- Supreme Allied Council approved declaration as basis of British mandate. At same time gave 1,000,000 square miles as free territory to
Arabs.
1921
- Arab delegation to Peace Conference lays claim to
* * *
* * *
775. THE GREAT TRIBULATION
A letter from Czechoslovakia brought secretly to Review of World Affairs
is a striking forecast of the Great Tribulation.
There is no law to protect one. Those who are not Communists are outlaws. One is liable to arrest at any moment. Imprisonment means being buried alive. Methods are used which make a man a wreck,
having nothing in common with a human being.
They do exactly as they please with one.
The worst of all is that one never knows who is ones enemy. A dishonest charwoman whom you once dismissed
is now in a position to have you arrested.
The lowest instincts of former subordinates are stirred up. Did you read Kravchenkos I Chose Freedom? I read it some
months ago and could not believe what he wrote.
Two weeks of Communist Government have taught me that he is right. You cant imagine what the propaganda is like
in our country. You are almost driven out of your mind by the shameless lying.
One can do nothing but cry.
For me, personally, the worst thing is to see the young people whom I
thought very intelligent and self-respecting caught by such enormous lies. The young people are shaken in their faith
and one can do nothing to help them. No
one knows the extent to which fear has caused them to degenerate. There have
already been cases of pupils denouncing their teachers. Fear is the power; fear grips us by the
throat; fear takes possession of our hearts and nerves. And this is exactly what the Communists
want. They want to drive us mad with
fear. They do everything possible to
make us fear; fear for our lives; fear for our children and friends; fear for
our very existence. Very few escape from
the iron grip of fear. I struggled very
hard not to succumb and I have only one prayer: Save me from fear and hatred.
So
our Lord:- Brother shall deliver up brother to death,
and the father his child; and children shall rise up against parents and cause
them to be put to death (Matt. 10: 21).
* *
* * *
* *
776 APOSTASY
Sometime back we quoted a foremost Christian journal
which gave the address of the Baptist Chapel in which Mr. Bevin (the Foreign
Secretary) was a prominent member as a young man, and gave Gospel
addresses. It is an appalling sign of
the times that Review of World Affairs (Jan.
1949) describes Mr. Bevin as he is now:- In religion he is an agnostic. He simply thinks that there is nothing beyond
this planet; and the religious conviction that life on this planet is a mysterious
process or pilgrimage, involving a great deal of character building for vast
and supreme purposes beyond our present grasp, is absolute nonsense to him.
* *
* * *
* *
777. LIARS
This age is the age of lies,
said Lenin; and he lived it. So do his successors all over the world. A Christian missionary in
* *
* * *
* *
778. OVERCOMERS
It is tragic how many evangelicals abhor
responsibility truth. A striking example
has just been given (Life of Faith, Dec.
15, 1948) by Dr. Basil Atkinson. He says, commenting on the fruit promised to
the overcomer (Rev. 2: 7): The idea has sometimes been mooted that an overcomer is a
special kind of Christian. This is not
so. The New Testament knows of no
special kind of Christian, though we all know people who believe that such
cliques exist today, yet only if they suppose themselves to belong to
them! An overcomer is another name for a
believer. He will be freely given the fruit
of the tree - that is to say, he will enjoy the gift of everlasting life.
* *
* * *
* *
779. BACKSLIDERS
What does this mean?
That the worst backsliders, and one who dies as such, will receive all
the golden prizes and honours, designed for devoted service even to martyrdom,
which our Lord holds out to the Seven Churches; and if these are attained
simply by saving faith - and the Lord says that every overcomer will receive
them - then every believer must
receive them all. Not only does such exposition baffle all
comment, but the solemn warnings of our Lord and the Apostles, addressed beyond
all challenge to believers, are made totally irrelevant to the Church. What will such evangelicals feel when they
discover the truth at the Judgment Seat of Christ?
* *
* * *
* *
780. GIVING
Devoted giving can increase past all imagination. Hattie
Wiatt, a little girl (says The
Christian Herald) came to a small
Sunday school and asked to be taken in, but it was explained there was not room
for her. In less than two years she fell
ill, and slipped away on her own little last pilgrimage, and no one guessed her
strange little secret until beneath her pillow was found a torn pocketbook with
fifty-seven pennies in it, wrapped in a scrap of paper on which was written, To help build the little Temple bigger, so that more
children can go to Sunday school.
For two years she had saved her pennies for the cause which was nearest
her heart. The pastor told the incident
to his congregation, and the people began making donations for the
enlargement. The papers told it far and
wide, and within five years those fifty-seven pennies had grown to be $250,000,
and today in Philadelphia can be seen a great church, the Baptist Temple,
seating 3,300, a Temple College with accommodations for more than 1,400
students, a Temple Hospital and a Temple Sunday school so large that all who
wish may come and be comfortable. She
was only a little girl, but who can estimate the result of her unselfishness,
and her fifty-seven pennies?
* *
* * *
*
781. LOVE
Love
never goes out of fashion. It is never
cast aside like an antiquated robe. It
is fit and beautiful in every time and season.
It adds some light to the light of childhood. It adorns lifes prime. It beautifies old age. We may take it with us through the valley of the shadow, and we may wear it on the
resurrection morning. Love never faileth.
-
J. H. JOWETT.
*
* * *
* *
782. CONVERSATION
A
number of years ago a man and his wife were followed home from their meeting by
a nurse from the hospital near by. She
could not get away from her duties long enough to attend the meetings, but she
said to herself, I will walk home behind them, and
maybe I shall get something for my soul.
And
she did. All unconscious that a hungry
heart was feeding upon their words, these people talked out of their clean
hearts about Jesus, and His love, and His Word, and His uttermost salvation;
and as a result the nurse was so filled with desire to glorify God and save
souls that she left her work, became a missionary, and is now in the Far
East. This strange
story came to the man and his wife from
‑
COMMISSIONER BRENGLE.
*
* * *
* *
783. HARDSHIPS AND
TRIALS
We
are often disheartened with our hardships and trials, and begin to think it is
too hard a thing to be Christians. Nature
is so weak and depraved; there is such a burden in this incessant toil, and
self-denial, and watchfulness, and prayer; the way is so steep, and so narrow,
and difficult; we are tempted again and again to give up. But when we think of what the dear Lord has
done for us, what glories He has set before us, what victories are to come to
us, what princedoms and thrones in the great empire of eternity await us, and
how sure is all if we only press on for the prize; we have the profoundest
reason to rejoice and give thanks every day that we live that such
opportunities have been vouchsafed to us, were the sufferings even tenfold
severer than they are.
-
JOSEPH A. SEISS.
*
* * *
* * *
784. PRESS TOWARD THE
MARK
A young
Christian student of a Bible school, learning of the possibility of being left
behind when the Lord comes for His saints and having to go through part of the
Great Tribulation (part only, for every member of the Church must appear before
the Bema or Judgment Seat of Christ, which ends with the Tribulation) became
terribly fearful and depressed. A friend
pointed out to him that his fear was a good sign of his spiritual state, and
was God-given and God-commanded Let us fear lest a promise being left us of
entering into His rest (the Millennium or Sabbath rest of the people of
God, as literal, not spiritual, as the rest of Canaan which the Israelites
missed through unbelief, and to which the writer was comparing it), any of ye should come short of it. Dont, said
his friend, be depressed in doing or being what God
has enjoined you should do or be, but rather follow the example of the apostle
Paul who, when he found he had not yet attained
to the resurrection from among the dead and counted himself not to have apprehended that for which he had
been apprehended of Christ Jesus, far from being fearful and depressed, one
thing he did, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto
those things which are before he pressed toward the mark for the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus. The young student saw his
mistake, his depression was lifted, and like Noah of old, who by faith being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved
with godly fear (R.V.) prepared an ark to the
saving of his house, he now with that same godly fear presses on
towards the goal.
-
W. P.
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785. REVIVAL
Even
journals of the world are conscious of the need of revival. The
Globe, of
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786. MARTYRS
A
brilliant Chinese student was offered a fine position with the government. When Bishop
Wilson S. Lewis asked the young man why he refused the splendid offer and
volunteered to preach the gospel for a mere pittance, he said: During the Boxer uprising I lived in an inland village where
there was a temple for devil worship. The
Christians were led by the soldiers to that temple and ordered to renounce
their religion and bow before the devil image or they would be executed. I saw one hundred and sixty-three of my
townsmen walk by the devil god with heads erect, when a little bow would have
saved their lives - then out to a great beam over which they placed their heads
for the swift stroke of the executioners sword that sent their heads rolling
in the dust. My father was one of that number. It was the
unshaken integrity of their faith that thrilled me and gave me a longing for
the new life. I must go back and tell my
fellow townsmen of Christ.
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787. TRUTH
The truth of the Bible is so minutely accurate that it
itself can convert. A young married
couple of
- Missionary
Tidings.
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788. TESTIMONY
At a revival meeting one day, a minister turned to Henry Heinz, of the fifty-seven varieties fame. The minister said, You
are a Christian. Why are you not up and
at it? Heinz went home in anger
and went to bed. But he could not
sleep. At four oclock in the morning,
he prayed that God would make him a power in His work. Then he went to sleep. At the next meeting of bank presidents which
he attended shortly afterwards, Mr. Heinz turned to the man next to him, and
spoke to him of Christ. The man looked
at Mr. Heinz in amazement, and said, I have wondered
many times why you never spoke to me if you really believed in Him! From that time on Mr. Heinz kept busy
bringing others to Jesus. The bank
president was the first of two hundred and sixty-seven souls whom Mr. Heinz won
to the Lord Jesus!
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789. APOSTASY
It is extraordinarily impressive that an article
appears in The Church of England Newspaper (Oct. 29, 1948) doubtless disapproved
by the magazine which warmly advocates a reunion of all Churches based on the
abandonment of the Three Creeds, to be replaced by this Creed:-
I believe in God the
Almighty, Maker of all things, Whose creature I am,
and from Whom no secrets are hid.
I believe in Jesus Christ and in the power
of Christianity to overcome Darkness and Death.
And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the
Spirit of Goodness and Truth, without which all Life in meaningless. Amen.
It is portentous that the one vital truth of all
Christianity that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, incarnate Godhead is carefully
dropped in a deliberate planning of Apostasy inside the Church.
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790. THE KEY
The key to statesmanship and all human activities is
to be found in the New Testament. Seek ye first the
- LORD ELTON.
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791.
TO
BE CONTINUED (D.V.)