SELECTED WRITINGS FROM
THE DAWN MAGAZINE
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CONTENTS
* 1 WHO IS THE ANTICHRIST? + 9 OTHER SHORT WRITINGS
2 THROB + 2
3 VICARIOUS ATONEMENT RIGHT AND WRONG + 2
4 THE SERMON ON THE
5
6 THE BRIDE OF THE LAMB + 3
7 TESTING THE SUPERNATURAL + 3
8 THE COMING WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST + 3
9 THE PAROUSIA OF CHRIST + 2
10 THE POWER OF INFLUENCE + 2
* 11 THE DRAMA OF THE APOCALYPSE + 4
12 THE UNDOING OF THE CURSE + 3
13 THE RETURN OF IDOLATRY + 3
14 THE VIRGINS CONCEPTION + 3
15 THE EDENIC CURSE AND MODERN PROBLEMS + 1
16
17 THE COMING WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST + 1
18 THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD + 2
19 SINGLE SEED + 3
* 20 THE TRUTHFULNESS OF THE APOCALYPSE + 1
21 THE DEMONIC GIFT OF TONGUES +3
22 THE CHALLENGE OF A DEFERRED ADVENT +4
23 THE PRINCIPLES OF
APOCALYPTIC INTERPRETATION + 1
24 SUGGESTIVE STUDIES IN ISAIAH
25 CHRIST AND THE DEMON WORLD
26 THE BODY OF THE FIRST RAPT + 2
27 THE GOSPEL’S LAST HOUR + 1
28 THE POWER OF THE KEYS + 3
29 THE PROGRESS OF THE
TRUTH IN
30 THE MAN WITH THE ANGEL FACE + 1
31 GIANTS OF FAITH + 1
32 CARRYING A CROSS + 2
33 PUNISHMENT IN THE SCRIPTURES +5
34 THE CHRISTIAN AND WEALTH +2
35 THE GOLDEN ALTAR OF INSENCE + 1
36 A SHORTENED COURSE OF INSTRUCTION
FOR A SOLDIER OF JESUS CHRIST + 1
37 THE MIDDLE WALL OF PARTITION + 3
38 BAPTISMAL REGENERATION + 1
* 39 THE IRON AND THE CLAY + 1
40 SERVANTS READY AND UNREADY + 2
41 THE LAND LAWS OF JEHOVAH
42 A BETTER COVENANT + 1
43 THE SEED AND THE SOIL + 4
44 ATHANASIUS
* 45 THE MARK OF THE BEAST + 9
46 THE BEATITUDES
47 LAYING UP TREASURE + 1
*48 THE WORSHIP OF SATAN + 2
49 THE VIRGIN BIRTH + 1
50 CORONATION + 6
51 GLORY OR SHAME + 2
52 TOTALITARIAN MARTYRDOM + 3
53 LITTLE CHILDREN +3
54 THE JUDGMENT OF BELIEVERS
55 FOUNDATION AND SUPERSTRUCTURE + 2
56 NOTES FOR MINISTERS + 3
57 THE DOVE OF GOD
58 THE POTTER AND THE CLAY + 3
59 RETRIBUTION + 3
60 ONESIMUS + 1
61 THE
THE SALVATION OF CHRIST + 1
62 DELUGE DEBRIS + 2
63 FOUR MOUNTAINS + 4
64 THE RACE AND THE CROWN + 2
65 PRAYER FOR THE LORD’S RETURN + 1
66 THE KING OF THE SOUTH + 1
67 ENOCH AND RAPTURE + 1
68 OUR ATTITUDE TO
APPROACHING JUDGMENT + 1
69 THE MIRACLE OF JONAH +2
70 THE COMING OF THE HOLY GHOST+ 1
71 THE POTTER AND THE CLAY (2) + 1
72 COPEC + 1
73 THE MORNING STAR + 2
74 THE PERSONAL CHARACTER
OF THE ADVENT + 3
75 THE SAYINGS ON THE CROSS + 2
76 THE JEW: GOD’S DIAL
77 THE CLUE OF THE AGES
78 LIT TORCHES: READINESS
FOR THE ADVENT + 1
79 THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST
AND HIS UTTERANCES
80 A TRUMPET CALL TO REVIVAL + 2
* *
*
1
WHO IS THE ANTICHRIST? + 9
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
Mussolini
is either a remarkable understudy of the Seventh Emperor yet to come, or he is
the man; and while probability points to his being an understudy, the fact
thrills us to the soul that we cannot exclude the possibility of his being no
less a person than the Seventh Emperor. For in either case Mussolini is
correctly acting the part in its initial stages. His avowed intention is the
revival of the
* It casts a very sinister light on the
modern Jesuit that while the
** M. A. Sarfatt’s Life of Mussolini,
P. 344. 389
SEVEN EMPERORS
It thus becomes of urgent importance that the Church should
know what God has revealed. Antichrist is catalogued among seven emperors,
obviously Roman. “The seven heads are” - regarded territorially - “seven mountains” - the
* Napoleon
approached, if he did not achieve, this sin. Over his throne during a fete in
NERO CAESAR
Now God Himself has provided a single master-clue for the
final identification; an identification which, therefore, He manifestly
desires, and the more so, the nearer the Monster approaches. “Here is wisdom” - not presumption, or speculation, or curiosity, but wisdom:
“he that hath
understanding, let him” -
by the direct permission and encouragement of God - “count the number of the beast;* for it is the
number of a man” - not of a system, or a plurality of men: “and his number” - that is, the number made by his
name - “is six hundred and
sixty and six” (Rev. 13: 18). Bearing in mind that wherever the Holy Ghost names a Caesar,
He includes the patronymic (Luke 2: 1; 3: 1; Acts 11: 28),
the clue reveals the man: NERO CAESAR, in Hebrew, alone among the names of the Five, yields the number. A manuscript variation supplies a confirmation extraordinarily subtle and
convincing. Some ancient authorities read 616. Now ‘N,’ in Greek, stands for 50: the [Holy] Spirit, writing in Greek, gives the
Greek form of the name - Neron; but the Latin
form is Nero, which is 616: doubtless
some Latin copyist, knowing it to be Nero, computed the sum on the Latin form
of the name. Thus the vilest of Caesars must rise [out] from [amongst] the dead, to fulfil the mighty drama that yet awaits him: “and his death-stroke was HEALED” (Rev.
13:
3); for “the beast was, and is not, and is
about to come up out of the abyss (Rev. 17: 8).
* “That is, the number may be
calculated, and is intended to be known” - Dean Alford).
CONFIRMATORY PROOF
Now there are several extremely remarkable confirmations of an
exegesis which may seem to some startling or even grotesque. The majority of
contemporary scholars confirm it. “Reckless criticism alone,” says the leading modern non-Christian
work on Antichrist, “will venture to
deny that the picture of Nero redivivus stands in the foreground of Rev. 13. and 17.”*
Still more remarkably, it was a dominant belief throughout the
* W. Bousset, The Antichrist Legend, p. 184. So many others: as Lucke, Ewald, Bleek, De Wette, Renan, Dean Farrar, Moses Stuart, Govett,
etc. “Certainly,”
says Dr. Swete, “Nero Caesar suits
the context well.” But all (except Govett) reject the
miracle of his resurrection. On which only one word need be
said. Whoever doubts foretold miracle,
whether Satanic or Divine, is hopelessly incapacitated for the coming
crisis: he will simply be shunted on
to a siding, while Satan’s express
thunders past.
A FITTED ANTICHRIST
The choice and plot of Satan now reveals itself in Nero -
proverbially the wickedest man known to history, and extra, ordinarily adapted
for Hell’s substitute Christ.
* That Nero’s was “the mouth of the lion” out of which Paul was so
narrowly delivered, and that Antichrist
is described in the Apocalypse as the possessor of “the mouth of the lion” (Rev.
13:
2),
is another link of identity. It may be only a curious coincidence, but the very
simile of a Wild Beast, and that beast a lion, Mussolini applies to himself as a summary of his ambitions. “I am obsessed by this wild desire - it consumes my whole being. I want to make a mark on my
era, like
a lion with its claw.” He
keeps lions as pets, and one is named Italia.
THE COMING DRAMA
But there is one solution of as difficult an enigma as the
Scripture contains which is almost unknown, and which introduces the ghastly
drama the world is yet to see. The Seventh Emperor, who is probably on the
threshold, will restore, either by heredity* or
military seizure or both, the lost succession of the Roman Emperors: he will
not be the real Antichrist, for he will not have come up as a lost spirit from
the Abyss - the Seventh was never one of the Five, as the Eighth is; but, continuing a short time,**
he so lays the electric wires of world-empire that when the master-hand
arrives, every touch thrills the world. (The removal of the Hinderer - the Holy Spirit and the Hindrance
- the Watchful Saints - while
essential before the Eighth, or real
Antichrist, who immediately introduces the Great Tribulation (2 Thess. 2:
6, 7), is not essential before the
appearance of the Seventh). Then, suddenly and publicly
assassinated, into his freshly murdered body - the ‘wheels
of being’ scarcely stopt - the spirit of Nero, incarnated by the Dragon,
composes “an eighth that is
of the seven” ***; and lo, the False Christ that
enchants the world! It is this visible resurrection of the Seventh Emperor that
enthrals the earth. “His death-stroke
was healed, and the whole world WONDERED after the beast” (Rev.
13:
3).
* It is supposed that Mussolini, though
a blacksmith’s son (cp. Dan. 11: 21), is descended from the proud Bolognese
Mussolini, as Napoleon was a Florentine: both may be Caesars. It is, however, against Mussolini
being the Seventh Emperor that a rumour (which may, nevertheless, be false)
states that he has the mysterious disease which killed Lenin - a wasting
destruction of the brain.
** An identical phrase (Rev. 12: 12)
covers three years and a half.
*** “An eighth: the absence of the article shows that this is not the
eighth in a successive series in which the kings already mentioned form the
first seven” (Principal A.
Plummer, D.D.). This explains the stress laid on reincarnation by
Theosophists and the French Spiritualists.
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THE GOSPEL OF THE
ANTICHRIST
For the deadliest fact in Hell’s masterpiece lies in that
which has ever been Satan’s supreme wisdom - a close imitation of God. There will be a gospel of the
Antichrist. For he is an incarnation: he will be visibly slain, and
visibly resurrected: he thus offers, as the basis of his gospel, a genuine
resurrection, public and beyond dispute: his appearance will be his second
advent on the earth.* So the ‘mark,’ his ritual, will (like
circumcision) be a cutting of the flesh, apparently an imitation (like the
Lord’s Supper) of his own death-wounds, which will thus be, in his gospel, his
sacramental sign. Immortal, he is thus able to murder the two men more
miracle-gifted of God than any mortals have ever been (Rev. 11: 6) - “who is able to war
with him?” (Rev. 13: 4); and as dowered by the Dragon with the full perfection of
Satanic miracle (2 Thess.
2:
9), his empire, in imitation of our
Lord’s, will be the world-dominion of a god-emperor. It is such an “all deceivableness” (2 Thess. 2: 10) as “to lead astray, if possible,
EVEN THE ELECT”
(Matt.
24:
24).
* Alford translates Rev. 17: 8:- “he was, and is not, and shall
come again.
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THE SEVENTH EMPEROR
For Hell appears all agog in its
anticipation of a rapid end. “If a high came once,” exclaims Sir A. Conan Doyle, “may it not come again? We could do with a high Spirit in
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ANTICHRIST
A startling reminder that the word
Antichrist means not only ‘against Christ,’ -
that is, a man posing as Christ - suddenly confronts us. We have received a
pamphlet entitled “The Return of the Christ” by
Alice A. Bailey. This ‘Christ’ who is to
re-appear is to be an embodiment of all the world’s religions. “He has been for two thousand years the supreme head of the
church invisible, the spiritual Hierarchy, composed of disciples of all faiths;
and loves those who return their allegiance to their founders - Buddha,
Mohammed and others. It matters not to Him of what faith a man may call
himself. If men look for Christ who left His disciples centuries ago they will
fail to recognise the Christ who is in process of returning.” All the
world will worship the Beast (Rev. 13: 8).
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CONFESSION OF CHRIST
“Whosoever
shall confess me before men, him will I confess
also before my Father which is in heaven”. What an extraordinary world is this that such a
sentence should ever have been uttered in it. Consider what is implied in these
words. They manifestly imply that it is an opprobrious thing in the estimation
of mankind to give honour to Him Who is the brightness of the Father’s glory
and to acknowledge any connection with Him. They imply that it is necessary to
present the most powerful motives to the mind in order to subdue the feeling of
shame that would naturally arise in the confession of Christ. Is not this a fallen world? Is not the race of mankind an utterly
deprived race? Were it necessary to hold up powerful motives in order to induce
a person to confess his alliance with some arch-villain, one could think better
of man. But the most magnificent rewards are proposed, as an inducement to
those who are acquainted with Christ, to acknowledge their acquaintance; to
those who rely on Him for salvation, to confess Him as their Saviour. - GEORGE
BOWEN.
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IMMINENT
In all our study of prophecy for sixty
years, we have never foreseen this phrase - that the Second Advent will be proclaimed to prepare for Antichrist.
Mrs. Bailey says:- “His advance guard is already here
and the Plan which they must follow is already made and clear. I set no date or
hour. The time is known to the two or three.” This looks as if the
Antichrist is already here, and is known to a select coterie. It is proposed to
circulate 500,000 copies of this pamphlet in
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THE SPIRIT OF ANTICHRIST
When I was an infant, I rebelled
against my nurse; when I was a child, I rebelled against my teachers; when I was
a young man, I rebelled against my father; when I reached mature years, I
rebelled against the State; when I die, if there is a Heaven and a God, I’ll
rebel against Him.
- LOUIS BLANC, who died on
the scaffold.
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THE GREAT REMOVAL
To those of God’s saints in this age
who are counted worthy a complete escape is granted from the disasters,
political, terrestrial and planetary, in which humanity at large is to be involved
at the close of this [evil and apostate] age. The whole of Advent truth will
fall short of practical profit to us unless it stir us to watchfulness and
prayer:-
“Watch ye,
therefore, and pray
always that ye may be accounted worthhy
TO ESCAPE ALL THESE THINGS THAT SHALL COME TO PASS and to stand before the
Son of Man.”
This exhortation, this command, was
uttered by our Lord after His own recital of the programme of catastrophes
which are to overtake the world’s population during the period immediately
antecedent to His public appearance in glory. Thus escape from the awful period
of earth-judgments is possible. It is possible but conditioned:-
“What manner of
persons ought ye to be in holy conversation and godliness?”
What indeed? Can any standard of
consecration be too high, any sacrifice of self too great, any devotion of
service or substance too great, if escape from the Judgments
described is its reward?
- SAMUEL HINDS WILKINSON
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REWARD
Deeply and tragically has the Church
missed the truth of reward, one of the sharpest spurs to action and sacrifice
God ever made. On no one’s lips is the word more frequent than on our Lord’s.
Sadoc, the founder of the Sadducees, started his movement of profound unbelief by denying
the doctrine of reward. But eyes once opened can never miss it again. “Some little time ago,” says Dr. Wilbur Chapman, “I was turning over
the pages of the New Testament, and
looking up the subject of the Christian’s rewards, and I was perfectly amazed
to see how many times the subject was mentioned. I was especially attracted to
the verses which had the word ‘crown’ in them, and I
found that one crown mentioned was the ‘crown of life’; another, the ‘crown that is incorruptible’; another, the ‘crown of righteousness’;
another, the ‘crown of glory’; another,
the ‘crown
of rejoicing.’ I thought it was just a
different way of mentioning the same thing, the idea being power, reward,
glory; but when I began studying the Scriptures I found that that was not true.
If the ‘crown
of life’ was mentioned, it meant one form
of reward, the ‘crown incorruptible’ another form, and the ‘crown of rejoicing’ still another.” Rewards are as infinitely varied as
the services which, by the love of God, they crown; and our Lord Himself
returns crowned with many crowns - the diademed tiara of the perfect approval
of God
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A PRAYER FOR THE NATIONS
Great God, Who, as in days of yore,
Art Prince of Peace and Lord of war,
Come forth! the whole round world
awaits
The opening of Thy mercy-gates.
Betwixt us and our Promised Land
New shapes of danger darkly stand:
‘Tis not enough that war should cease,
Till from ourselves we find release.
Till human wills are made Divine
No sun of righteousness can shine,
Nor any peace on earth begin
Till God has triumph’d o’er man’s sin.
Therefore, Thou King of all, come
down;
Burn up our baseness with Love’s
frown:
Bid men by brothers’ blood set free
Be brothers round one
Or, if we turn not, teach again
The nations in new schools of pain,
Till from some dark, chastising rod
Blossoms at last the Peace of God.
- BISHOP E. A.
BURROUGHS.
* *
* * *
* *
2
THROB +2
By Rev.
SAMUEL H. WILKINSON.
The
manner in which some - much - of God’s work is done would bring a prosperous
business to ruin. A round of duties perfunctorily performed, the holding of
meetings according to schedule, may for long keep up the appearance of honest,
faithful work. The lack of “throb,” that is, of intensity, of zeal, of fire, is not at first
discernible - nor by all. Yet, lacking this impulse, this fire, this holy
energy, such Christian work is moribund as a spiritual force. Its name to live
may be long sustained, supported by the personality, scholarship, character of
its leaders and agents; but when reckoned by the standards of heaven and
eternity it is dead or dying.
Let us learn of worldly wisdom. In
war, hostile attack may be long resisted even where there is little of striking
force; but no decisive victory will ever be gained except there be energy,
initiative, plan and driving impulse. Mediocre minds survey some great business
or undertaking as if it had come to be as a matter of course or of fortune: the
fact however is, that behind and within it there is a story of great effort
against great odds, of struggle, vigilance and tireless industry. Similarly,
useful eminence in any department of science or letters is seldom if ever the
result simply of superlative initial ability; but rather of effort
long-sustained, under a great constraint or impulse.
Throb, God-inspired, God-produced,
God-wrought, is the great need of these solemn days. We need it most of all
ourselves: we long to see it in others. It marks the difference between the
dull, flat prayer and the heart-burden that “lays hold” on God. It marks the difference
between the taking of meetings
according to recognized routine and the making of meetings into instruments of definite blessing by
wise and watchful innovation. “Throb” consecrates the highest type of intellect
and yet empowers the simplest. It makes every form of service for God both holy
burden and delight. It gives direction and purpose, it extinguishes pride,
suppresses fear, cleanses motive, sustains the prayerful and, expectant and
believing attitude. It expands the
horizon, develops individuality, creates initiative and enterprise, and yet
aspires after the humble path of full dependence on God the Holy Spirit. And
its effect, how manifested? The missionary sister pays her call or distributes
her tracts and Gospels with a heart surcharged and ready to overflow. That “throb” will be felt in her every simple word,
in the touch of her hand, seen in her face, discernible in her step. The
missionary brother enters the place of meeting well in advance of time to feel
the temper of his audience: there is something quivering in him: it is not that
all has been carefully prepared beforehand - hymns, passage of Scripture,
speakers, subject: nor that all runs from start to finish without dullness or
delay. It is “throb,” not artificial but spontaneous; not
temperamental but Divine: the heart-throb of fire, love, intensity, desire,
that has made prayer true prayer and yet been made by it: largely indefinable
but wholly effective, it creates an atmosphere of its own; it moves, stirs,
leaves nothing as it found it. Such the effect.
“Throb” indicates the set heart of Psalm 16: 8 in purpose and desire the set face of
Luke 9: 51 in direction; the set hand of Eccles. 9:
10 in
action and whole-strength energy. It indicates the life of God, invisible but potent in effect; the love of God, never supine, but manifold in
its forms of beneficent expression: the light of God, before which confusion and darkness of mind
insensibly give way. Inevitably, therefore, where there is the throb of God in
any human channel, there will be something of vigour of style, voice and
attitude; something of tender-hearted sympathy, of courtesy, consideration,
sacrifice; something again of clear conviction and an accurate and simple use
of language in expressing it.
But however “throb” be defined or described, the vital
thing is to appreciate its urgent necessity; to confess the lack of it where it
has been lacking - and where has it not in greater or lesser degree? - and to
seek at once grace to pass from the contemplation of “throb” as a subject to the experience of it as a fact : for it is not the study but the possession of it that we
need. And the possibility lies before each of us - however poor the past,
however limited we may be in ourselves even now - to begin afresh and
immediately after the reading of this article by an earnest coveting of the
best gifts for our share of God’s work, to enter into that throb of heart-love
to God and to souls that, touching
every single department of home and ministry, shall make all instinct with a
new and fruitful life-power.
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TONGUES
So, in the far more awful identity of the Holy Ghost, here, in
a recent utterance in the ‘Tongues Movement’, [i.e., those in the Church, who speak
in tongues,
but without an Interpreter actively present.] - is a grammatical slip (a kind
of slipshod English by no means uncommon in these inspired utterances) that
betrays all:- “Judgment shall devour the adversaries who hath trodden
underfoot the Son of God.” (The Master’s Voice,
no. 1).The demon, uneasy in his English, mistook ‘hath’
for a plural.
O beloved child of God if you think you have had a ‘pentecost’ never rest again until you apply the God-given test in 1 John 4, and compel the spirit to confess in
the ‘tongue’ that Jesus Christ was God manifest in the flesh. There is no other test
that will answer, and God commands you
to make that test before you believe any
voice from the unseen world that claims to be the Holy Spirit. If you dare to neglect that God-given test, you may open your eyes in horror some day and realize that you have
been honouring and even worshipping a demon who has masqueraded as the blessed
Holy Spirit. - Watch
and Pray
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ARCHBISHOP USHER TO YOUNG PREACHERS
1. Read and study the Scriptures
carefully, wherein is the best learning and only infallible truth. They can
furnish you with the best materials for your sermons; the only rules for faith
and practice; the most powerful motives to persuade and convince the
conscience; and the strongest arguments to confute all errors, heresies, and
schisms. Therefore, be sure, let all your sermons be congruous to them. And it
is expedient that you understand them as well in the originals as in the
translations.
2. Take not hastily up other men’s
opinions without due trial, nor vent your own conceits; but compare them first
with the analogy of faith and rules of holiness recorded in the Scriptures,
which are the proper tests of all opinions and doctrines.
3. Meddle with controversies and
doubtful points as little as may be in your popular preaching, lest you puzzle
your hearers or engage them in wrangling disputations, and so hinder their
conversion, which is the main end of preaching.
4. Insist most on those points which
tend to effect sound belief, sincere love to God, repentance for sin, and that
may persuade to holiness of life. Press these things home to the consciences of
your hearers, as of absolute necessity, leaving no gap for evasions; but bind
them as closely as may be to their duty. And, as you ought to preach sound and
orthodox doctrine, so ought you to deliver God’s message as near as may be in
God’s words; that is, in such as are plain and intelligible, that the meanest
of your auditors may understand. To which end it is necessary to back all the
precepts and doctrines with apt proofs from Holy Scriptures; avoiding all
exotic phrases, scholastic terms, unnecessary quotations of authors, and forced
rhetorical figures; since it is not difficult to make easy things appear hard;
but to render hard things easy is the hardest part of a good orator as well as
preacher.
5. Get your heart sincerely affected
with the things you persuade others to embrace, that so you may preach
experimentally, and your hearers may perceive that you are in good earnest, and
press nothing upon them but what may tend to their advantage, and which you
yourself would enter your own salvation on.
6. Study and consider well the subjects
you intend to preach on, before you come into the pulpit, and the words will
readily offer themselves. Yet think what you are about to say before you speak,
avoiding all uncouth fantastical words or phrases, or nauseous, indecent, or
ridiculous expressions, which will quickly bring your preaching into contempt,
and make your sermons and person the subjects of sport and merriment.
7. Dissemble not the truths of God in
any case, nor comply with the lusts of men, nor give any countenance to sin by
word or deed.
8. But above all, you must never forget
to order your own conversation as becomes the Gospel; that so you may teach by
example, as well as by precept, and that you may appear a good divine
everywhere, as well as in the pulpit for a minister’s life and conversation is
more heeded than his doctrine.
9. Yet, after all this, take heed that
you be not puffed up with spiritual pride of your own virtues, nor with a vain
conceit of your parts and abilities; nor yet be transported with the applause
of men, nor be dejected or discouraged by the scoffs or frowns of the wicked or
profane.
* *
* * *
* *
3
VICARIOUS ATONEMENT
RIGHT AND WRONG +2
In the
golden days of
Now we confront one of the most extraordinary incidents in all
history. The mighty Levitical Priesthood, in the moment of its death-throes,
and in the crisis of its supreme rebellion against God, utters a magnificent
prophecy of Calvary: the Law, which had been throughout one crimson forecast of
atonement by blood, with its expiring breath, and speaking for the last time as
God’s Priesthood through its official head, announces Calvary as a complete
expiation for sin. Urim and Thummim, or a deeper Urim and Thummim beneath the
breastplate, functioned for the last time on the High Priest’s breast.
Now we look at vicarious suffering first from the purely human
point of view. “Caiaphas, being high priest
that year, said unto them” - to the gathered priests, profoundly
anxious lest all Israel, becoming Christian, should acquiesce in Rome’s
supremacy and empire, or at least refuse resistance - “ye know
nothing at all” - you have not thought this thing out: murder was already in his heart - “nor do ye
take account.” -
you have not probed the possibilities of the situation - “that it is
expedient for you that ONE MAN” - One Man, the sole sacrifice for a
nation, the lonely expiation for a world - “should die for the people; and that” - for the sacrifice is vicarious; that is, one or other must
perish - “the whole nation perish not” (John 11:
49). This was the official death-sentence
passed upon our Lord: all later action only registered what here, for the first
time, is stated - that Jesus is being given over officially to Expiation.
Now we look closer at what Caiaphas meant. There is a
vicarious suffering which is wicked. ‘Vicarious’ means ‘in the stead of’; as when the Pope calls himself the ‘Vicar,’ of Christ, he means that he is in the
stead of Christ, to command and absolve.
Caiaphas’s argument is this:- the Nation is in imminent danger; the execution
of Jesus will, as a matter of fact, scotch the peril; patriotism, public
welfare, national loyalty, far-sighted policy demand that the one be sacrificed to the many. It was, with
Caiaphas, simply a question of numbers: justly or unjustly, it is better (he
argues) that one Jew should die than - as happened in God’s judicial
retribution later - several millions. It is expediency violating justice. It is
abominable wickedness - a Moloch-sacrifice - for an innocent man to be
compelled, without his consent and against his will, to sacrifice himself for
others. We shrink in horror as we see, on the overloaded raft, the crew flinging
one of their number, struggling, overboard: we shudder, as the Siberian parent,
with the sleigh flying before the wolves, casts out a shrieking child to save
the rest. Life, the life even of millions, is a trifle compared to the
immutable righteousness that is the bed-rock of the universe: “better that all should perish by a visitation of God, than
that many should be saved by one murder” (F. W. Robertson).
Nevertheless in the words of Caiaphas is so couched the
central truth of all revelation, the profoundest of all truths, that we are far
beyond the realm of mere coincidence, or casual aptness. In Luther’s
translation of Proverbs 16: 1:- “Man indeed
proposeth in his heart, but from the Lord cometh
what the tongue shall speak.” We are face to face with a profound action of the Holy Ghost. “Now this be
said not from himself”:
he was not speaking as Caiaphas, but as the last High Priest that God ever recognized: “but being high priest that year, he PROPESIED” - he functioned as prophet as well as
priest, by the deliberate decision and action of the Spirit of God.* It is a more subtle and wonderful
action of the [Holy] Spirit than in Balaam’s involuntary blessing: for
Balaam knew he was a tool;
but while the [Holy] Spirit spoke such words through Caiaphas as exactly
corresponded with his heart, they also corresponded with the
exact reverse of what Caiaphas meant. The heart meant
murder: the mouth spoke Atonement.
Caiaphas, as all wicked men at last, simply fulfilled, involuntarily, the
purposes of God. As priest he
chose the Lamb for the Day of Atonement; as prophet he foretold - “that Jesus should die for the nation.” A blazing torch can be held aloft by
a blind man’s hand.
* It should never be forgotten that the Holy Spirit can fall on a wicked man,
and a wicked spirit on a holy man:
of the first, Balaam, [King] Saul, and Judas are examples; of the second, countless misled souls among the Montanists, Camisards, Irvingites,
and the Tongues Movement [i.e., Pentecostalism]. Certain possessors of unchallenged Divine miracle whom our Lord
foretells (Matt.
7:
22)
He treats as totally unregenerate:
obviously, therefore, they belong to the former class; and they will doubtless
appear (as Augustine foresaw) during
the Holy Spirit’s illapse upon ‘all
flesh’ (Joel 2: 28), in
the latter-day phase of Pentecost. “Spiritual gifts,” as Lange says on Joel 2: 28, “do not necessarily involve spiritual regeneration.”
For in this utterance of Caiaphas, since it came from the Holy
Ghost, we have the true vicarious sacrifice bearing the imprimatur of God. The
one all-revolutionizing fact, unbelieved by Caiaphas, unknown to Caiaphas, and
completely reversing the moral significance of
Caiaphas, devil-blinded, saw a reluctant
victim, struggling against fate, dragged helpless to a doom which, politically,
would save the nation: God saw a
patient, conscious, self-offered Lamb, before whose eyes Calvary had been from
the first, whose death was the destruction of the Nation, but the Atonement of a new nation
embedded in every nation of the world, and an actual propitiation for the
entire race. And what God saw was the
truth. The death was voluntary, spontaneous, foreseen,
deliberate, intentional: it is the only time the Lord is ever said to have done
anything of Himself (John 5:
31):
with clear head,
unfaltering purpose, and a will perfectly free Jesus chose to go deeper and
deeper into the darkness; until, acting as the High Priest offering the
Sacrifice, He solemnly and deliberately “dismissed His spirit” (Matthew
27:
50).
So Urim and Thummim functioned for the last time, and emptied
its Lights on
-------
OBEDIENCE
A Korean Christian, having learned the Sermon on the Mount by
heart, walked a hundred miles to recite it to his pastor. “Now.” said the minister, when he had recited it, “you must put it into practice.” “Why, pastor,” the man replied, “that is
the way I learned it. At first I tried
to commit it to memory by rote, but it would not stick; then I would learn a
verse, and find a heathen neighbour, and practice that verse on him: then
it stuck.” Only so can we prosper spiritually. “This Book shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe TO
DO according to ALL that is
written therein: for then shalt thou
make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt
have good success” (Joshua 1: 8).
-------
AT LAST
These lines, Written by himself, were
found under the pillow
of a dead Southern soldier, in the
American Civil War.
I lay me down to rest,
With little thought or care
Whether my waking find
Me here or there.
A bowing, burden’d heart
That only asks for rest,
Unquestioning, upon
A loving breast.
My good right hand forgets
Its cunning now;
To march the weary march
I know not how.
I am not eager, bold, or strong -
All that is past:
I’m ready not to do
At last! At last!
My full day’s work is done,
And this is all my part:
I give my patient God
My patient heart;
And grasp His banner still
Though all its blue be dim:
These stripes no less than stars
Lead after Him.
* *
* * *
* *
4
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT
FOR TO-DAY +3
By G.
H. LANG.
The
Sermon on the Mount is for present Christian application. Proofs of this are as
follows:
I. The Discourse is
addressed specifically to “disciples”
(Matthew
4: 25; 5: 1, 2).
For the notion that the Lord spake on the supposition that
those disciples were representative of the Remnant of Israel of the end days
not a line of Scripture can be adduced, and it is decisively negatived by three
considerations.
1. The Word of God shows that the
Remnant will not have believed that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah they await
until they actually see Him. For it is “in that day” in which He “saves the
tents of Judah”
and “seeks to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem,” it is in that day that the Remnant will first mourn concerning Him Whom their nation
pierced, and will first have recourse unto the fountain to be opened in that
same day for sin and for uncleanness (Zechariah 12: 7 - 13: 1). As their sorrow and faith do not arise until they see His
pierced form it is clear that they had not been His disciples during the days
preceding; therefore precepts for disciples of Christ are not addressed to
them.
2. The Lord, when speaking to the
disciples then gathered on the mountain, knew perfectly that in about three
years only these very men and women would for ever lose before God their Jewish
standing, and would form the commencement of that new Society, the Church of
God, the building of which was already in His mind and plan (Matthew 16: 18).
How then could He rightly address them as representing a company of Jews with
which He, on His part, knew they would have nothing to do?.
3. At the time (say twenty to thirty
years after Pentecost) when Matthew sent out this Gospel to be read by the
Christian community, the name “disciple” had an established Christian application and applied
to Christians only. The terms “disciple” and “Christian” were synonymous: “the disciples were called Christians” (Acts
11:
26). Therefore the first readers of this
report of the Discourse would naturally take the well-known term in its then
only meaning, and, in the absence of special direction to the contrary, would
have no reason at all for giving it any other meaning. At what point in their
personal history did the Apostles, addressed by Christ, become entitled to say,
From this hour we are free from. obligation to practise the earliest of the
precepts which the Lord gave us?
If any one professes to be a disciple of Christ, the onus is
upon him to prove that a discourse addressed to disciples is not addressed to
him.
II. All
the conditions of society and of life contemplated in the Discourse apply
throughout this present age.
It is a period of mourning (5: 4); of strife, for “blessed are the peacemakers” (5: 9); of persecution specifically for
Christ’s sake (verses.
10,
11).* It is an age of
corruption, against which the disciple is to act as salt (verse 13); and of darkness, in which he is to be the light (verses 14-16). Adultery and divorce are known (verses 27-32); violence and official oppression
are met (verses 38-42);
there is opportunity and call to show love unto enemies (verses 43-48).
It is an era of poverty, for almsgiving is encouraged (6: 2-4). Prayer is a necessity for daily
matters; the Evil One is at large to attack; the disciple must practise
forgiveness for wrongs received (6: 5-15). Fasting is in vogue (6: 16-18), showing that the Bridegroom is
still absent (Mark 2: 18-20). Moreover, these godly practices are regulated because, in
the time contemplated, they are means by which hypocrites gain a reputation for
sanctity.
* All references are to the Revised
Version.
Further, it is an age in which men lay up treasures on earth,
and so continue earth-bound in heart, and disciples also may fall into this
snare, and (Demas-like) be worshippers of Mammon (6: 19-24). Anxiety as to the necessities of life is possible, and particularly
as to the future; and each day brings with it a sufficiency of evil to be borne
(6: 25-34).
It is a day in which we may misjudge, and be hypocritical (7: 1-5). “Dogs” and “swine” are about (7: 6). Disciples are yet in a narrow way,
and are only a small minority among men (7: 13, 14). There are false prophets, wolves in sheep’s clothing, trees
bringing forth rotten fruit (7: 15-20). There are those who profess discipleship, saying, Lord!
Lord! but who are workers of lawlessness, self-willed (7: 21-23). It is a time in which men are left
free to obey or disobey the words of Christ, as they choose; and His final
valuation of their life-work will be according to such obedience or
disobedience (7: 24-27).
Each and all of these conditions were existing in Christ’s
day; each and all have existed continuously ever since, and will continue to
obtain down to the close of this age, at the Lord’s return to the earth.
Therefore these precepts are needful and suitable throughout this whole age.
Moreover, not one of these conditions will be found in the
Millennial Kingdom, which shows conclusively that the precepts do not apply to
that happy era, when men “shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid” (Ezekiel 34: 28).
III. But as if to put beyond the
possibility of doubt that He was giving instructions for this age, not
for the Kingdom age, Christ bade
disciples to pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth” (6: 10). The Discourse, therefore,
applies to the period whilst the kingdom
has not come and God’s will does not yet rule men on earth.
And a second consideration like unto this is, that during the
era contemplated the reward of disciples for fidelity is yet in heaven,
and not yet received (5: 12), even as Peter long after this wrote concerning “an
inheritance” still
“reserved
in heaven” (1 Peter 1: 4).
And a third similar, and equally conclusive, feature is that
the Discourse regards the judgment of the Lord upon the works of disciples as
still in the future: indeed, it has as a main object the instructing them how
they may so live as that their life-structure shall endure the severe testings
of that judgment. For it is to be much observed that the parable of the houses
built on rock or sand does not at all raise the question of the destruction or
salvation of the builders, but is confined to the enduring or collapsing of
their work, that is, the “house,” the character, the life-business, upon which each had
laboured.
IV. (a) The last evening of His
intercourse with the disciples before He suffered the Lord devoted to
instruction designed to fit them for the mighty task to which they would very
shortly be sent, even the preaching
the gospel to the whole creation.
The most important element in this preparatory instruction
concerned His sending to them the Spirit of truth; and of all the supernatural
aid which the [Holy] Spirit should afford them this was
that which Christ first mentioned, that “He shall teach you all things,
and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you.” (John 14: 26). This necessarily included the Sermon
on the Mount.
(b) After His resurrection the Lord cast
their commission into the well-known triple command that they were (1) to make
disciples: (2) to immerse in water those who were ready to profess
discipleship: (3) to teach these “to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you” (Matthew 28:
18-20). “All things” would have sufficed; “all things
whatsoever” is,
emphatic. By what right would some have us virtually to read these words thus:
“teach them to observe all things whatsoever I
commanded you except the Sermon on the Mount?”
If the Apostles had not taught their converts to observe these commandments
they would not have fulfilled their commission.
(c) But it is conclusive on this point
that the Apostles did in fact teach all Christians to observe all Christ’s
precepts, and that for inculcating the Christian spirit and enforcing Christian
practice they employed largely this very Discourse.
A comparison of the following groups of passages will reveal
this. (1) Matt. 5: 5; 11: 29; Eph. 4: 1, 2; Jas. 1: 21; 3: 13; 1 Pet. 3: 4, 15,
16.
(2) Matt. 5: 11, 12; 1 Pet. 4: 13, 14, 1: 4. (3) Matt. 5: 14; Phil. 2: 15. (4) Matt. 5: 16; 1 Pet. 2: 12. (5) Matt. 5: 34-37; Jas. 5: 12.
(6) Matt. 6: 44-48; Acts. 7: 60; Rom. 12: 20; 1
Cor. 4: 12; 1 Pet. 3: 9. (7) Matt. 6: 25-34; Phil.
4:
5, 6; 1 Pet.
5: 7. (8) Matt. 7: 1, 2; Rom. 14: 4, 10, 13; 1 Cor. 4: 5; Jas. 5: 9; (9) Matt. 7: 15; 1 John. 4: 1; 2 Pet. 2: 1. (10) Matt. 7: 24-27; 1 Cor. 3: 10-15).
Thus it is plain that the Holy Spirit was to remind the
Apostles of all that the Lord
had taught them, and that He did this; and then that they were to teach their
converts to obey all things whatsoever Christ had commanded themselves, and
that they did this.
Two facts are especially noteworthy. First, that the Apostles in discharging this duty quoted so largely
and literally from the words of the Sermon on the Mount. Therefore he who sets
aside the precepts of the Sermon will inevitably disregard the precepts of the
Epistles. Surely here is explanation of laxity as regards the practical
instructions of the latter part of the Epistles, even by some whose minds are
immersed in the doctrinal openings of the same.
Second, It is highly significant that Paul quotes so freely
from Christ, and from this early Discourse in particular. This negatives in the
most direct manner every attempt to divide his epistles from the Gospels. The
theory that his writings are for the Church of God, and that the rest of the New
Testament is “Jewish,” refuses to
square with the fact before us, as well as with the further fact, evidenced by
the above quotations, that Peter, John, James and Paul alike adorn and enforce
their teachings from the one common source, the sayings of their one Lord and
Teacher. So far was Paul from relegating to Jews the utterances of the Lord, or
suggesting that Christians were not under direct obligation to obey His
precepts, that it was with a saying of the Lord’s that he concluded and
emphasized his farewell instructions to the elders of the church at Ephesus,
saying: “Ye ought ... to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He Himself
said” (Acts
20: 35). And what is remarkable is that he
then quotes a sentence not recorded in the Gospels, thus showing that in his
judgment any and every saying authenticated as from Christ ought to be remembered
and obeyed by Christians. At that time there were, of course, many sayings
known on sufficient, first-hand authority to be from Christ. Now our only, but
entirely adequate, record of His words is in the New Testament. Collateral
proof that the above was the attitude of the early Church to the sayings of the
Lord is the fact that it continued to be the attitude of the sub-Apostolic
days. (See Westcott, Canon of N.T., p. 99, 208, note 5).
And we may ask, How otherwise shall we, His disciples, avoid
His reproachful question, “Why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things
which I say?” (Luke 6: 46).
V. This Sermon is in reality a full-length portrait of Christ Himself,
drawn by His own hand: He Himself
was the complete embodiment of the character delineated in the Beatitudes, and Himself practised perfectly the
precepts here enunciated. He, in divine degree, was the salt of the earth;
He, in heavenly splendour, was the light of the world. It is in His own conduct that we may best
learn how to apply the principles of life, and to obey the precepts He laid down.
Peter summarises His life, and very much of this Discourse, in
these words: “Who did no sin, neither was
guile found in His mouth: Who, when He was reviled, reviled
not again: when He suffered threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously.”
The Apostle declares that
in all this Christ was “leaving you an example, that
ye should follow His steps” (1 Peter 2: 21-23).
Whoever follows Christ’s steps will thereby be a practiser of
this Sermon, and whoever refuses obedience to these precepts will not follow
Christ’s steps, nor will be like Him in character or ways.
VI. That a key was intended for a given lock may be
inferred from it fitting accurately and turning easily.
That Christ intended this Discourse for disciples all through this age may be
seen in its perfect adaptation to their needs.
To illustrate. A Christian soldier is liable to be required to
do what Christ forbids, for example, to deceive the enemy by trickery or lying.
He breaks the law of God by obeying, or he violates his oath of obedience,
taken in the name of God, by disobeying, thus becoming liable to military penalties
and to the still more solemn sentence, “Jehovah will not hold him guiltless
who taketh His name in vain” (Exodus 20: 7; Deuteronomy
5: 11). From this dreadful and inevadable
dilemma Christ showed the way of escape by the injunction, “Swear not at
all” (Matthew
5: 33-37).
Or consider how exactly suitable to the Christian are both the
warnings against anxiety and the encouragements to trust in God as Father (chapter 6). What child of God can afford to lose this most precious passage in the
interests of a dispensational theory?
VII. The
class of persons to whom this Discourse applies is clearly discerned from the
place in which it came in the sequence and development of our Lord’s teaching.
His earliest recorded instruction is that a man must be born
from above ere God, and His realm and its life, can be known (John 3.). To the now regenerated believer
Christ adds that not life simply, but life in abundance is available; in such
abundance as that of a perpetually flowing spring, which welling up
within the believer, by the
indwelling [Holy] Spirit, affords increasing satisfaction, of heavenly
quality and degree (John 4.). The next discourse shows that he who
is thus filled with the [Holy] Spirit, and so weaned from resort to worldly streams
of pleasure, will be able to appreciate Jesus as the Son of God, and to
understand much of His relationship with the Father in His co-equality in the
Godhead (John 5.). This one will be an overcomer of the
world, instead of being conquered by it (1 John 5: 4, 5).
This spiritual progress is undeniably that of the class of
believer upon the Son of God contemplated everywhere in the writings of John,
that is, the [regenerate] Christian. Now it is here chronologically that the
Sermon on the Mount belongs. It was to disciples already led to this point that
it was addressed.
The disciple who has been brought as far as this experimentally will feel no
reluctance towards the practising of these commands. For to one daily feeding
upon Christ these precepts will be simple and suitable: he will adopt them
naturally. The Sermon on the Mount is a description in precepts of the
out-working of the indwelling Christ into the practice of the believer.
The desire to set aside the three first Gospels as being
Jewish not Christian, in their application, may be traced to two causes.
(1) The prophetic teachings of our Lord
cannot be fitted into certain schemes of exposition concerning the privileges
of the
Again, if it is to be held that only Paul’s Church Epistles
are addressed directly to the Church of God for its particular instruction, and
that Peter, Jude, James and John wrote their epistles and the Apocalypse to or
concerning “Jewish” believers, then also it is imperative that the three Gospels
also should be “Jewish,” and very particularly that of Matthew.
But if it is the case - as we believe we have before proved -
that the very beginning of Matthew’s Gospel, even this principal,
characteristic and germinal Discourse, certainly is addressed to Christians.
for their obedience, then it will be very hard (that we say not impossible) to
show that the remainder of the Lord’s instructions and parables are not for
Christians.
(2) The second reason for seeking to
avoid the present-day application of the Sermon is that its precepts make
exacting demands not pleasing to the carnal or natural man in a [regenerate] Christian. The Discourse silently
presupposes that a disciple is a person who has resolutely
determined to bear his own cross, go outside the
city, and be crucified with Christ, rather than endure the smile of the world
that scowled on his beloved Lord.
That great saint and disciple, George Muller of
* Capitals and italics are
Mr. Muller’s. See his
“Narrative,” First Part, Ed. 4 (Aso, p. 65,
66).
The rich fruitfulness of Mr. Muller’s life proved that he
inherited the blessing of the doer of the Lord’s words.
We conclude by observing that the commands given are intended
for the practice of the type of person sketched in the Beatitudes. Hence the
futility of setting forth the Discourse as binding upon nations. How can “wild beasts”
(Daniel 7.) behave like “sheep” (Matthew 10: 16)? No unregenerate or un-spiritual heart can
keep these precepts. “A pure heart,” said Tauler, “is
one to which all that is not of God is strange and jarring.” Let us then
give good heed to the exhortation to “cleanse ourselves
from all defilement of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God”
(2
Corinthians 7: 1). So shall we be able to sing with truth and
joy,
“My gracious
Lord, I own Thy right
To every service I can pay,
And count it my supreme
delight
To hear Thy dictates and
obey.”
So shall we build upon the rock, and our work be approved by
the Lord in that day.
-------
A REJECTED CANDIDATE
The Faculty of Konigsberg refused Stephen
Schulz (1724-1776) on his application
for mission work among the Jews; whereupon he wrote them this letter:- “I owe you obedience as fathers. If, therefore, you command
that I decline the call to missionary work among the Jews, I can decline it
with a clear conscience. However, I must say this - should God ask me on the
Day of Judgment -
(1) Have I not given thee
from infancy a desire to shew to the Jews the way of Salvation? I would have to
answer, Yea, Lord.
(2) Have I not proved three years ago, during the
trial trip, that I have given thee ability to labour? I would say, Yea, Lord.
(3) Have I not shown that the harvest among the
Jews is great, but the labourers are few? I would say again, Yea, Lord.
(4) Have I not taught thee on that trial trip that
the way was opened among the Jews for thee, and that in further travels and
with greater experience thou couldest have still better access to them? Again I
would answer, Yea, Lord.
(5) And when at last the Lord should ask me, Why
didst thou not follow the call when it came? I would leave the answer to the
honourable Theological Faculty.”
The Faculty sent Schulz to the Jews. How could they do
otherwise? He became a second Paul in respect of travel and suffering,
compassing thousands of miles. The call, once heard, is the call of God; and, WHEN FORTIFIED BY SUCH CONFIRMATIONS AS
SCRULZ COULD ADDUCE, it is the irresistible summons of the Most High.
-------
GEORGE MULLER
For nine years, from the time I was ten and a half till I was
nineteen and a half, preparing for a clergyman, I was living far from God. For
six years - from the time that I was fourteen till I was twenty years of age -
I never read a single chapter of the Bible - nor one single verse. I read the
Hebrew and the Greek New Testament, and had the Bible in my own language, but I
never read it. I had never in my early life heard the Gospel till I was twenty
three years and five months of age. I had never heard a real true Christian in
my life. No doubt there were many; but I had never herd or seen one. And yet I
was one if a number of students in the University who were preparing to become
clergymen.
About this time I was led to a little prayer meeting which was
held in the house of a tradesman. There were about a dozen of fifteen citizens
in the room; and here I, for the first time, heard of Christ. I entered the
house of this tradesman as dead in trespasses and sins, and as utterly reckless
and careless of divine things as any person in existence. I came away from that
little prayer meeting a happy young man - a happy believer in Christ! There
were at this time twelve hundred and sixty students in the University; but only
three
of them were believers in Christ, and I became a fourth; and I have been
most unspeakably happy ever since, which is now for seventy-one years and five
months. I am now ninety-one years and six months of age, with the prospect of
heaven very near - very near the end of my earthly pilgrimage. Still I am able
to work every day, and all the day long. I preach five or six times a week
besides. But although in my ninety-second year, speaking after the manner of
men, there is a prospect of being taken away, yet I am unspeakably happy!
-------
The sunset burns across the sky,
Upon the air its warning cry
The curfew tolls, from tow’r to tow’r:
O children, ’tis the last, last hour!
The work that centuries might have
done
Must crowd the hour of setting sun;
And through all lands the saving Name
Ye must in fervent haste
proclaim.
-
CLARA THWAITES
* *
* * *
* *
5
By D.
M. PANTON, B.A.*
[* NOTE: All CAPITALS and italics throughout this writing are
by the Author.]
The Lord lays down a parallel (“a
sublime parallelism” (Lange) fraught for both Church and world with
momentous significance. Six times named in the Old Testament, and four times in
the New; expressed in a word - ‘an overthrow without
remedy’ - used of no other judgment in the Bible; dissimilar to the
Flood-judgment, which God is pledged never to repeat:- probably more than any
other catastrophe in the history of the world, Sodom stands forth as a supreme
example of the coming judgment of the world. For our Lord explicitly states
that the circumstances of
SIN AND JUDGMENT
The first outstanding parallel is that the world itself dates
the judgment. There is a limit to sin beyond which judgment is inevitable,
without a moment’s warning, and final. “Now the men of
THE DOOM OF THE WORLD
The second outstanding parallel is the nature of the doom. “
* “Bitumen,” says Canon Tristram, “is found in large masses floating on the surface of the Dead
Sea, especially after earthquakes; and many sulphur springs, on its shores and
in its basin, deposit sulphur largely on the rocks around.” Tacitus, the Roman historian, says:- “Not far from this place are fields that, we are told” -
for tradition preserved the fact - “were formerly
fertile and occupied by large cities, but they were burnt up by thunder and
lightning, and the ruins still remain upon them. It is also related that the
very earth, scorched by heat, has lost all productive power.” So de Sauley, a modern Orientalist, near
the ruins of Kharbet-Gouram, a
continuous mass covering some six thousand yards, and which he believes to be
THE DELIVERANCE OF THE
CHURCH
The third outstanding parallel is God’s studied plan for the
complete deliverance of the family of faith. This is explicitly stated by the
Apostle. “If God delivered righteous
MINISTERING SPIRITS
The fourth outstanding parallel is the descent of God, and the
double agency of Angels for both escape and judgment. “And the Lord
said, I
Will GO DOWN now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the
cry of it” (Genesis 18: 21). In huge and overwhelming catastrophes
(as Archbishop Trench has said) there is nothing hasty, blind or precipitate.
From this earlier ‘parousia’ the heavenly powers
operate. The deliverance of a single family is worthy of an angel’s powers: how
much more will God stir heaven to save myriads! “The reapers,” says our Lord, “are angels”
(Matthew 13:
39); and the Angels who empty bowls of
fire upon the earth (Revelation 16:
1) are the Angels that reap the saints:
so the angels that deliver Lot destroy
THE RESPONSIBILITY TO ESCAPE
The fifth outstanding parallel is the
onus of escape which God casts wholly upon His [redeemed] people. “Escape
for your life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed” (Genesis 19:
17). The escape, for
* “Be set
[by angels]” - Alford.
THE FATE OF THE UNWATCHFUL
The sixth outstanding parallel is the
disaster that overtook one of the family of the saved, a disaster on which our
Lord peculiarly fastens. “REMEMBER
* The apocryphal Book of Wisdom (x. 7)
says:- “Of whose [the cities’] wickedness even to this
day the waste land that smoketh is a testimony; and a standing pillar of salt
is a monument of an unbelieving soul.” Dean Alford adds:- “Josephus relates that it was standing in his time; and the
same is asserted by Fathers of the Church.”
** Leaders in the
THE KINGDOM
The seventh outstanding parallel is the glory of
-------
CHANGED CHARACTER
God
transforms in the moment that He pardons. A phrenologist, lecturing, declared his ability to tell any
man’s nature from his head. A rough-faced, stern-looking man mounted the
platform. After a thorough examination of the subjrct, the lecturer described
him as harsh, cold, and possessed of many disagreeable traits. The audience
laughed derisively, for they knew their neighbour to be kind, genial and
benevolent. They told the professor that he had miserably failed to judge
character by his science. But the man himself was not amused; turning to the
people he said:- “Friends, you have heard portrayed
exactly my nature before Jesus took
possession of me. If there is any change, the honour belongs to Him.”
-------
MARANATHA
So
great the crises hastens. “Oh, remember that as
certain as the historic fact, He died on
-------
PERMANENCE OF CHARACTER
The
sweetly-gifted American poet goes beyond the Scripture in even imagining an
offer of mercy on the other side of the grave; but the frightful truth of the
ultimate rigidity of character, a final fixity of choice, is doubtless one
reason why the other is not made.
Though God be good and free be Heaven,
No force divine can love compel;
And though the song of sins forgiven
May sound through lowest Hell,
The sweet persuasion of His voice
Respects thy sanctity of will:
He giveth day; thou hast thy choice
To walk in darkness still.
No word of doom may shut thee out,
No wind of wrath may downward whirl,
No swords of fire can watch about
The open gates of pearl;
A tenderer light
than moon or sun,
Than song of earth a sweeter hymn,
May shine and sound forever on -
And thou be deaf and dim.
For ever round the Mercy-seat
The guiding lights of love shall burn;
But what if, habit-bound, thy feet
Shall lack the will to turn?
What if thine eye refuse to see,
Thine ear of Heaven’s sweey welcome frail,
And thou a willing captive be,
Thyself thy own dark jail?
-
*
* * *
* * *
6
THE BRIDE OF THE LAMB + 3
By JOSEPH SLADEN
The
events of the last decade of years have shown generally to expositors of
prophetic Scriptures that statements made therein should be taken literally,
where it can be done without producing absurdity - either physical or
metaphysical. Things which were, in time past, physically impossible, are now,
by the rapid progress of scientific knowledge, made literally true.
For example, let us remark on a statement by Sir Isaac Newton,
the great astronomer, who was also a lover of the Word of Prophecy. He stated
that the incident named in Revelation 11: 10 - when the armies of all the nations are to be gathered
against Jerusalem to destroy it - the Beast, ascending out of the bottomless
pit, overcoming and killing the two witness prophets, was physically
impossible. In order to show that Resurrection was not possible, their dead
bodies are left unburied, for the people and kindreds and tongues and nations
to see the bodies of these prophets who had tormented the dwellers on the earth
(verse 10). Gifts are sent from the chief cities of the different
nationalities to
Under present circumstances, the incident related above can no
longer be regarded as physically absurd. So the literal interpretation of the whole of the incidents referred to must
be accepted in its plain meaning.
It can no longer be held that the effects of the Seals and the
Trumpets are figurative of great convulsions of governments and significant of
false doctrine. Most expositors have adopted the figurative view; the only
exceptions known to the writer are Seiss
and Govett. The time is rapidly
approaching when these prophetic words will be literally fulfilled. The
earthquakes and famines and pestilences of the present epoch confirm the
literalness of events recorded under the Seals and Trumpets.
SIGNS OR FIGURES
But there are signs (or figures) used in the Apocalypse which cannot be
taken literally. In such cases, the explanation of the sign is given, e.g., the woman clothed with the sun,
etc., is a figure of
Let us apply these principles to the statements made
concerning the
It is remarkable that the statement about the
In the second notice of the
Twice the notice of the literalness of the
LITERAL AND EMBLEMATICAL
The Bride of the Lamb is the symbol of the
The figure of the Bride of the Lamb is not, then, identical
with the figure of the Bride of Christ. It differs entirely from the figure of
the Bride of Christ, which represents Christ’s elect Church, the Body of which
He is the Head. The Lamb is the mystic name of the Son of God in relation to all the saved in all the dispensations. It is a name of
universal significance, displaying universal sovereignty. John the Baptist
witnessed: “Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world.” In the Apocalypse, after the standing
of the Church has been set aside, and the action of the Throne of Judgment has
commenced in Revelation 4., this mystic name is applied
twenty-eight times to the Son of God and at the close, in the new earth, the
Throne of God and of the Lamb exercises,
throughout the countless ages of eternity, universal sovereignty (Revelation 22:
3).*
* It is
remarkable that the promise to the overcomer in the Church in
That
the Bride of the Lamb is not the Church, is shown by the names of the twelve tribes of the children of
-------
A SELECT RAPTURE
“The possibility of selective rapture,” Says Mr.
Tiarks, in this excellent little paper,* “has very gradually
been forced upon the mind of the writer, becoming
abundantly clear during the past eight or nine years. It was only with the fresh study undertaken for the purpose
of writing this paper that the unpregnable position in Scripture of the truth
became fully realized.” He quotes Bishop
J. C. Ryle on Luke 21: 26:- “It admits of some question whether these words to not point
to the possibility of some believers
being allowed to pass through the great tribulation in the last days, because of their sloth and inconsistency.”
* THE RAPTURE OF THE SAINTS. By Rev. H. C.
Tiarks, 3d. Thynne and Jaevis.
-------
THE BRIDE OF CHRIST: AN INQUIRY
Dear
Sir,
It is submitted that the
1. It is never
so designated.
2. While
more than a dozen Scriptures speak of the Church as the Body of Christ, not one
says it is His bride.
3. Perhaps
the most glorious scene in the whole Bible is that in which the Holy Spirit
describes the marriage of the Lamb, whose bride is the heavenly ity; i.e.,
those saints, as inhabitants thereof, whose white apparel will represent their “righteous acts.”
4. But if the “Marriage of the
Lamb” be so wonderful and
august an event, and the “Bride of the Lamb” so glorious, how can it be otherwise than an
assumption to think that the Church
- [consisting of all
who are Redeemed by the Lord’s precious Blood] - is Christ’s bride, when the Christ - as
Christ - is associated with no
such glorious event, neither is a bride assigned Him in the whole of the New
Testament?
5. The Bride
of the Lamb reigns with her Bridegroom, and is seen after the
marriage in Revelation 19, as the armies of heaven clothed in white linen
descending with their Leader and King on
the white horse to take the Kingdom by force. But as many thousands
of the Chrrch will be disqualified from reigning with
Christ, then the Church as an entity
can be neither the “Bride of the Lamb,” nor a bride of Christ.
6. It seems
that the “wife of
the Lamb” is composed of the
Martyrs, Prophets, and Overcomers, of
all the Dispensations, and so of course would include those of the Church,
but only those.
7. If the
Church were the bride of Christ, then, if Christ be going to marry it (or her)
pre-millennially, whatever were the spiritual condition of any member at death
- short of excommunication sins - would be immaterial to their enjoying, in the
resurrection, the heavenly felicities and raptures of such an occasion!
I append some notes.
The parables of the Marriage Feast, Wedding
Garment, and Ten Virgins have each their teaching, but do not throw light on
the point discussed, I think.
The great passage Ephesians
5: 22-23, to me, shows the great love, and mysterious union, existing between
Christ and His Body, and also what is required by Him to exist between husband
and wife; but it nowhere declares that the Church is His Bride; it says it is His “Body.”
2 Corinthians 11: 2, - “...for I espoused you,” etc.
This is a personal travail of Paul’s in
prayer and wrestling of spirit on behalf of the Corinthians, even as he did for
the Colossians, and those of Laodicea, Colossians 1: 28-29.
2 Corinthians 11: 1. It
was manifestly impossible for Paul or any man to present any Christian or any
Church “a pure
virgin to Christ.” The Holy Spirit
in recording this wonderful love of
Paul’s does not say, nor teach, that the Church of God itself is “esposed” to Christ, nor married to Him. It is the record of
the Holy Ghost of a wonderful, personal, private, and local intercession and
travail; it was mighty and glorious, on the part of a lonely warrior, a giant
of faith.
Romans 8: 1-6. Here marriage is used as a powerful illustration;
indeed, one was needed. But as neither those converted Jews at whom Paul was
thundering, nor
It means that the only heavenly bride which
the Son of God will have will be “the bride of the Lamb.” “THE
SPIRIT AND THE BRIDE SAY, COME.” The bride here I think stands for the “watchful” in
the Church, who long for His coming and as such will “qualify” and
be of course in the company forming the “Bride of the Lamb.”
As the bride in Revelation 22: 17
cannot be the completed company, but only that portion of it in existence at
the time, so, coming immediately after the definition of the Bride of the Lamb,
and description of her as well, the only conclusion possible is that this is
the Bride referred to; and we are confined to applying the term here occurring to those who witness, proclaim, work for, and obey, Christ, as they wait and watch for the ‘coming’ of
verse 20.
I was greatly surprissed and pleased to come
across a footnote in “The Coming Prince,”
p.200. Sir Robert Anderson says:- “In Scripture the Church of this Dispensation is symbolized
by the Body of Christ, never as the Bride. From the close of John the
Baptist’s ministry the Bride is never
mentioned until she appears in the Apocalypse (John
3: 20, Rev. 21: 2-9). The force of the ‘nevertheless’ in Eph. 5: 33, depends on the fact that the Church is
the Body, not the Bride. The earthly relationship
is re-adjusted by a heavenly standard. Man and wife are not one body, but Christ and
His Church are one body, therefore a man is to love his wife, ‘even as himself.’”
I submit there is only one heavenly Bride,
and that “the
Bride of the Lamb”; also that the
idea the Church is the bride of Christ is an assumption and a fallacy.
I am,
etc.,
CHAS. S. UTTING.
-------
THE BREVITY OF OUR
Helen Hunt Jackson wrote these lines on her sick bed:-
Father, I scarcely dare to pray,
So clear I see, now it is done,
That I have wasted half my day,
And left my work but just begun.
So clear I see that things I thought
Were right or harmless were a sin;
So clear I see that I have sought,
Unconscious, selfish aims to win.
So clear I see that I have hurt
The souls I might have help’d to save,
That I have slothful been, inert,
Deaf to the calls Thy leaders gave.
In oudskirts of Thy Kingdom vast,
Father, the humblest spot give me;
Set me the lowliest task Thou hast,
Let me repentant, work for Thee.
But
four days after she wrote these verses she was dead.
*
* * *
* * *
7
TESTING THE SUPERNATURAL +3
The
profound importance of rightly discriminating on the threshold of the
spirit-world Paul (1 Timothy 4:
1-3) has indicated
once for all. Most modern demonisms bear on their forehead the stigmata of
Hell; but not all, and least those which are therefore the most dangerous. For
the spirits who will approach us at the end; the originators of the Apostasy
foretold, “are described,” as Dr. Nevius says, “as seductive in the manner and effect of their approach. Their real character
is concealed. They accommodate themselves to the known belief and disposition of men. A form of demonic activity to which the heathen were
always, and are still, subject, would, in time, show a new outbreak among
people who had become identified with the Christian Faith.”* What adepts at deceptive personation
modern demons can be Professor Lombroso
bears witness:- “incarnaters, who rapidly impersonate
by word and look., etc., one or more deceased persons, one after the other.
Such a medium is Randone, of
* “Demon Possession and Allied Themes,” p. 415.
** “After Death
- What?” p. 125.
Moreover, claims the most daring, and
the loftiest assumptions, are inevitable as the Church is confronted with
demonic approaches under cover of the last shadows. “People
talk of Pentecost,” says Sir A.
Conan Doyle, “as something mystical. I and my wife
have been in an upper room in
* The Daily
Express, Oct. 16, 1922.
The crisis, therefore, is critical and grave. Thus confronted,
it is both useless and dangerous to take refuge in the averted face, or in a
cultivated ignorance; and much more dangerous to accept any “revelation” whatever on its surface claim. “We cannot be sure where these messages come from,” as
even Professor Barrett assures the
Church Congress (1922); “the Apostolic warnings are
well to remember.” Moreover, it is the direct command of God - “PROVE THE SPIRITS” (1 John 4: 1): thus we have no option: no spirit-movement or spirit-action must ever be accepted
without submission to,
and authentication by, the Divine tests. These Tests, therefore, rule the
situation: shorn of miracle, as the Church has been for seventeen or eighteen
centuries, and therefore un-possessed of any present miraculous gift of
“discernings of spirits” (1 Cor. 12: 10) -and, much more, wholly incapable of
discerning unmiraculously we depend absolutely on the applied Word of God,
prescribed for the purpose in an ungifted Church.
“EVERY SPIRIT WHICH CONFESSETH THAT JESUS CHRIST IS COME IN
THE FLESH IS OF GOD: AND EVERY SPIRIT WHICH CONFESSETH NOT JESUS IS NOT OF GOD”
(1 John 4:
2). It would seem that Gnostic demons,
Swedenborgian demons, Irvingite demons, and overwhelmingly so demons in the
Tongues Movement, have made the profession but not the confession: that is, an evil spirit can, of his own accord and when
untested, state a perfectly correct theology; but when confronted with, this
specific challenge by the disciple of Christ, strategy or hate or Divine
embargo compels a self-revelation. “BELOVED, TRY THE SPIRITS.”
Now it is exactly here that the whole
modern supernatural movement collapses. “None of us,”
a prominent adherent Of the Tongues Movement once wrote to me, “could do it [put the test], for
it would be false and ridiculous for us to do so.” Even when there is no
such blank refusal, the Scriptures which technically apply seem never to have
been mastered. A well-known speaker, who has since withdrawn from the Tongues
Movement, when speaking in a Tongues assembly near
* “Showers of Blessing,” No. 11.
** Tested, he may: “during this trying of the spirits [in
*** See Note II. in “Spiritualism: Its Origin and
Character,” “Tests for the Supernatural,”
and “Irvingism. Tongues and the Gifts of the Holy
Ghost” (Thynne & Jarvis). In
But the gravest danger, and a concealed man-trap needing
constant exposure, is the clever elusiveness of spirit-beings who are
past-masters in subtilty. Here is a triumphant application of the test (as he
supposed) by one gifted with “tongues” in
* The Christian Herald, Dec. 5, 1907.
** “Trying the
Spirits,” p. 3 (Sept. 15, 1924).
*** Owing to the extraordinary craft of the foe, and the psychological
complexity of spirit inter-acting with spirit, it is perhaps safest for the “gifted” to be tested by others, rather than to test
the spirit in themselves.
One warning it is vital to add. The withdrawal of a spirit
into the background, while he pushes forward his Christian victim to answer
Scripture questions, is a constant danger. “We all
knelt in prayer,” says Mr. Joseph
Sladen, “and soon the speaker with tongues began
with a beautiful melodious voice under the control of a spirit. I rose, and
demanded of the spirit inspiring the lady - ‘Has Jesus Christ come in the
flesh?’ No answer was given by the spirit. After a short interval the lady
again knelt, and in an impassioned prayer expressed her belief that Jesus
Christ had come in the flesh. Some weeks later she said to me, - ‘The reason
why you had no reply to your question was the spirit had left me when you put the
question.’ Shortly after, I
put the test again. ‘let the spirit get complete control of me,’ she said,
‘before you put the question to the spirit’; and shortly commenced to speak in
a tongue. Again there was no reply to my question. Some days after, she told
me, ‘the
spirit left me before you asked the
question.’” It is obvious that a spirit's. studied avoidance of the test is as
self‑revealing as a negative answer.
How dreadful can be the revelation after a supposed baptism of
the Holy Spirit one of countless cases will show:- “A
sister who had received the gift of tongues by the laying on of hands at the
Conference at Mulheim, when it had been proved that the spirit by which she
spoke was a demon, wished to be set free.* For several hours we prayed with, and for, her. The spirit
which previously
spoken of
* The idea that no believer can experience the on-fall of an
evil, spirit is not only in itself
deeply erroneous, and contrary to actual cases unnumbered, but establishes the error that whatever spirit does actually fall must be the Holy Ghost if only the recipient
is truly converted. Tests would thus
be purely superfluous.
** The Overcomer, Jan., 1910.
How exceedingly solemn is ignorance both on the critical need
and on the exact method of probing beyond phenomena to fact in the
supernatural, the experience of Mr. F.
F. Bosworth, the American evangelist - to cite but one case - will show.
Mr. Bosworth says:- “God graciously gave me this gift
eleven years ago, and nearly every day in prayer and worship I speak in
tongues, and it is one of the sweetest things in my Christian experience. In
every revival I am privileged to conduct, God graciously bestows upon many the
gift of tongues.”** Yet,
throughout, Mr. Bosworth not only records no testing as commanded by Scripture,
but no remotest thought of such a test - its urgency, its gravity, its
decisiveness- seems ever to have crossed his horizon.*** The Church,
unwarned, unalert, moves
blindfold into the dangerous mazes of
fin-de-sicle miracle.
* The Overcomer,
Jan., 1910.
** “Do All Speak
With Tongues?” p. 17. The Pentecostal Movement is stated to embrace more than 1,000,000 members in all lands, with
3,000 ministers and 500 missionaries.
*** That silence is a negative the Test
itself says:- “Every spirit which” not denieth,
but - “confesseth not”: silence is
disclosure, and the moral identification of a crafty foe.
-------
COWARDICE
We were sitting under the shade of an
oak tree comparing notes and conferring with one another as to the best methods
of service, especially un reference to effective preaching. “I always write my
sermons,” said my friend, “and then carefully revise them, so that if anything is
written calculated to offend any of my hearers, I may at once erase it.” This was said by a young clergyman who was
evidently anxious to make his mark as a preacher. Desirous to know that I heard
correctly, I replied, “Do you mean that forcible statements, either of your own
writing or from Scripture concerning sin, and the terrors of the [divine] judgment to come, are
either toned down or avoided?” “Yes,” was the reply; “if I think they will offend anyone, I do so.”
I fear this candid testimony indicates the reason why so many ministers [today]
are powerless amongst their fellows. “The fear of man bringeth a snare” indeed.
- HENRY VARLEY.
-------
TESTING THE SUPERNATURAL
Dear Sir,
Your valuable article on “Testing the
Supernatural” in the May DAWN has interested us deeply. Here in
One case may be of interest. Last autumn, near
A brother who preaches the Gospel in the
Ultimately the test
was put by a worker we know and trust. After putting the test, there was
silence for about half an hour; and then the voice said, “Read 1 Corinthians 13: 13.”
As you say in the article, the “not confessing”
is sufficient proof of the origin of the manifestation. Many Chinese Christians
have been utterly deceived; they well know the supernaturalism of heathenism,
but it has never entered their heads that a demon could manifest himself in a
Christian church, use Scriptural terms, exhort to goodness instead of evil, and
press the reading of the Bible.
I am,
etc.,
MARGARET
E. BARBER.
Pagoda
-------
CRITICISM
But stern facts have to be told. We
used to be told that the old Faith, when once cleansed of incredible assertions
and founded afresh on historic criticism, would be eagerly embraced by the
rising and better wducated generation: now, on the contrary, the outstanding
Modernist in England asserts - apparently without sorrow or alarm - that is is
precisely this process of Criticism which is reducing the churches to
timberyarda, and the youth of our day to hesitant sceptics. Bishop Barnes, preaching at Westminster
Abbey on Sept. 19, [1926] says:- “The triumphs of
scientific method have been combined
with the conclusions of Biblical criticism to make men doubt the truth not
only of the first chapter of Genesis,
but also of many a New Testament
narrative. Slowly at first, but with increasing momentum, the movement has
gone on, until it is difficult to get well-educated youths of
character and ability to enter the ministry. The drift from the Churches
has been widespread.” When doubt - [and compromise with Truth] - speaks from the pulpit, infidelity sits in the pew,
and must sooner or later empty it.
* *
* * *
* *
8
THE COMING WORK OF
THE HOLY GHOST +3
By D.
M. PANTON, B.A.
It is an
inexplicable omission over the whole range of prophetic study that there is an
almost total unawareness of the colossal coming work of the Holy Ghost.
Throughout the Prophets no prediction of the Spirit’s action is more precise,
more positive, more lucid, more comprehensive than Joel’s forecast of a double
Pentecost - the Christian dispensation clasped at both ends, like a jewel, in a
bracelet of miracle. Like the imminent Advent, this coming downpour - whether
after rapture or before - is a star ahead that never wanes; an electric flare in
the blackest midnight that earth will ever see, a revival so sure that prayer
for it is an ease and a delight; an output of the mercy of God second only to
Calvary.
ALL FLESH
The first great fact that God Himself emphasizes is the
universality of the effusion. “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour
out My Spirit” - not distil, but pour forth in great
abundance (Calvin); not in driblets, but in floods; not in isolated prophets,
but in miraculous assemblies: as Paul says, “the Holy Ghost which He poured
out upon us abundantly”(Titus 3:
6)
- “upon ALL
FLESH” (Joel 2: 28) - that is, all without distinction, not all without
exception. Since ‘flesh,’ in Scripture, is the
antithesis, not of race to race, but of mankind to God and to the spirit-world,
what is foretold is a world-wide effusion: “all flesh” - all mankind, as the Hebrew
expression denotes (Prof. J. J. Given, D.D.) - is a description never used in
any smaller application than to the whole of humanity (Campbell Morgan, D.D.).* All races, Jew and Gentile; both sexes, sons and
daughters; all ages, young and old;
all classes, bond and free:- God exhausts Himself (I had almost said) by giving
first His Son, and then His Spirit, to the whole human race.
* “‘All flesh’ is the name for all mankind. The words ‘all flesh’ are in
the Pentateuch, and in one place in
Daniel, used in a yet wider sense, of everything which has life; but, in no one
case, in any narrower sense. It does not
include every individual in the race, but it includes the whole race, and
individuals throughout it.” (Pusey).
Now we know, on the authority of the [Holy] Spirit Himself, that at Pentecost,
and in the miracle-gifted assemblies of the Apostolic Church, this vast
prophecy found an initial fulfilment: “THIS,” says Peter, “IS THAT”
(Acts 2:
16): and so it is applied both by Peter
(here) and Paul (Rom.
10:
13) to the ‘last days’ in the sense (Heb. 1: 2) of the Gospel Age. But the context of Joel, as well as
Peter’s own quotation, makes it certain that both ends of the Christian Age
receive the effusion. “It is not the first coming of
Christ,” says Dean Alford, “which
interpretation would run counter to the whole tenour of the Apostle’s
application of the prophecy:- but clearly, His second coming.” For (1) Joel’s immediately succeeding verse (3: 1) fastens down the date to the Second Advent:- “for behold,
in those days, and in that time” - the epoch of the effusion - “I shall bring
again the captivity of
* Verse 28 of Joel
2, in our Bible, is verse 1 of chapter 3. in the Hebrew Bible.
“The notice as to the time in 3: 1, 2, points back to the ‘afterward’ in 2: 28: ‘in those days,’ namely, the days of the outpouring of the Spirit of God”
(Keil and Delitzsch).
** “When Peter
says, ‘This is that’, he indeed maintains that the prophecy is fulfilled on the
present occasion; yet not that it has here exclusively and in all points
completely received its fulfilment, or that the fulfilment is limited to the
present time” (Lange).
MIRACLE
Now one feature of the effusion -
namely miraculous inspiration - marks it off sharply from all other secret and
age-long activities of the [Holy] Spirit. “Your sons and your daughters [Jews] shall PROPHESY” - the word means, not simply to predict future events, but to
announce the revelations of God (Lange): they had just heard the ‘tongues’ that proved the [Holy] Spirit’s illapse - “your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: and also - as an
unprecedented thing, for there is no instance throughout the Old Testament of
the [Holy] Spirit ever falling on a slave -
“upon the servants and the handmaids [Gentiles]” - ‘my servants
and my handmaidens,’ Peter substitutes, to show that they are mainly, if not altogether, converted Gentiles - “in those days
will I pour out my Spirit” - a repeated prediction, that the tremendous fact may soak
into our minds. Jehovah Himself has given this triple definition of miraculous
seizure:- “If there be a PROPHET
among you, I, the Lord will make myself
known unto him in a vision, I will speak with him in a
dream”
(Num.
12:
6). This is strictly cognate with other
prophecies of restored miracle:- immediate inspiration, without forethought (Mark 13: 2); miracle-gifted overthrowers of
demonic miracle (2 Tim.
3:
9); gigantic judgment-miracles yet to be
(Rev. 11: 6); together with a general in-break of a miraculous
order.*
* So Jas. 5: 7. The habitual failure of
prophecies - except such trivial predictions as are based on supernatural
knowledge of data on which to base inferences - is one of the many proofs,
which it shares with Montanism and Irvingism, that the Tongues
Movement is not what it claims to be
- the Latter Rain. There has
been no ‘wonder’ in these movements which is not
a commonplace of the Spiritualistic séance.
THE OUTPOURING AND THE JUDGMENTS
Both the Prophet and the Apostle so intertwine and interlock
the effusion and the Second Advent judgments as to put beyond all doubt that
Pentecost did not exhaust the prediction,*
and also to reveal, to a limit almost incredible, the mercy of God. “And I will
show wonders in the heavens” - to challenge thought, and rouse fear - “and in the
earth” - to sting
into action - “blood and fire and pillars of smoke:
the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into
blood before” - therefore
this is the series of violent convulsions that precede the Great Tribulation (Rev. 6: 12), not the series that close it (Matt. 24: 29) - “the great and
terrible” - the [Holy] Spirit here changes ‘terrible’ into ‘manifest,’ world-wide; the visible ‘epiphany’ of the Lord - “day of the
Lord come”; “and whosoever shall call on the
name of the Lord,” Joel adds, “shall be delivered.” Great terrors will mingle with mighty salvations: the
terrors create the salvations: in the earlier phases of the last judgments,
judgment and redemption go hand in hand: not until the last section of the
fearful catastrophes does judgment abandon hope of salvation. “When thy
judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of
the world learn righteousness” (Isa. 26: 9). For it is to a world’s wreck, shuddering and foundering, and
as it actually takes its final plunge, that God’s lifeboat draws its closest
and picks up great masses of sinking humanity. In the old world’s last hours,
and up to the very brink of Hell, “mercy rejoiceth against judgment” (Jas.
2:
13).**
* “Peter includes
in his quotation this element of the prophecy, because its realization,
conditioned by the outpouring of the [Holy] Spirit which necessarily preceded it, presented itself likewise as
belonging to the allotted portion of the ‘last days’” (H. A. W. Meyer).
** For two-thirds of the Apocalyptic
judgments are meant to be remedial, for they are punctuated with the refrain - “and they repented not” (Rev. 9: 20, 16: 9 ): it is only during the
final third, from which this refrain disappears, that the judgments, like hell,
become purely punitive.
SALVATION
Finally, the glorious results of this climax of salvation in
the history of the universe is revealed in Joel’s ultimate verse (3: 1), as expounded and expanded by our Lord. “Before Him
shall be gathered all the nations: and He shall separate them” - them (masculine) as individuals,
not as nations (neuter) - “as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the
goats” (Matt.
25:
32); massed nations, in colossal
multitudes, assembled to right and to left. Behold the post-Church work of the
Holy Ghost! The whole world’s population is gathered before the Lord: on his
right, some hundreds of millions, if the separated masses are at all balanced
and commensurate;* saved, for the
judge pronounces them ‘blest,’ and subject-nations of Millennial rule, and regenerate,
because our Lord’s rebuke to Nicodemus (John 3: 10) implies that there has never been, and never will be,
salvation without regeneration; but not saved by the Gospel, and therefore the
fruit of the work of the Holy Ghost after rapture, for they are judged with a highly peculiar
judgment of their own; multitudes, we know, enormous enough to stock the Millennial earth at the
opening of the Kingdom** it is a work
of the Holy Ghost totally unparalleled for any single generation in the history
of the world***.
* How such vast numbers survive
Antichrist’s reign of terror is one of the most difficult problems of the
Apocalypse; but of the fact our Lord’s statement is final proof.
** Besides these, (1) Israel’s 144,000 in
the Wilderness, out of the reach of Antichrist (Rev. 7: 4); (2) The Jewish ‘least brethren’ throughout all lands; the criterion of
Gentile judgment (Matt. 25: 40); (3) such martyrs under Antichrist as are
not, as unrapt Christians, survivors from an earlier age (Rev. 20: 4):- all these are further
fruits of the outpoured [Holy] Spirit, in His last and mightiest work of
world-redemption.
*** One point of surpassing interest - the
exact date of the downpour - does not seem to be revealed. Since rain is used
as an analogy, and the first shower fell at Pentecost, must not the second
shower follow and not precede the reforming of the cloud in the heavenlies? or
(to drop the metaphor) the Holy Ghost is now on earth, and His first descent
was at Pentecost: must not His second descent follow and not precede His
removal with the first rapt (Thess. 2: 7)? Can He be said to ‘descend’ (as a downpour) while He is on the earth? Certain is it
that it is after the judgment Throne is set (Rev. 4: 1), or the removal of the Throne
of Grace, that the Holy Ghost is described as “the
Seven Spirits sent forth into all the earth” (Rev. 5: 6). Yet it is also explicitly
stated (Joel
2: 31)
to be “before
the great and terrible day of the Lord,” or the Great Tribulation, which
is the closing three and a half of a judgment epoch of unknown duration.
-------
THE UNEQUAL YOKE
“Come ye from among them and be ye separate.”
“...but which
of the two - [the taken or the left behind (Rev.
3:
10,
1 Thess 4:
15, R.V.)] - ... “is true
enough to follow and to suffer for his Leader, or
he through cowardly fear, compromises with the
Sovereign’s enemies?”
“Must I be
carried to the skies
On flowery beds of ease,
While others fought tp win
the prize
And sailed through bloody
seas?
Are there no foes for me to
face?
Must I not stem the flood?
Is this vile world a friend
of grace
To help me on to God?”
“Is this
merely pious sentiment to be sung on Sunday? And all the week am I to be hand
and glove with the same ‘vile world’ in its corporate concerns, in which God and His
Son have no real place, and are given at the best a recognition which is
infrequent, tardy and formal?” - G. H. LANG
-------
GLORIOUS GRACE
Suddenly deprived of the most precious
gift of sight, George Matheson wrote these immortal words:
Make me a captive Lord,
And then I shall be free;
Force me to render up my sword.
And I shall conqueror be.
I sink in life’s alarms
When by myself I stand;
Imprison me within Thine arms,
And strong shall be my hand.
My heart is weak and poor
Until its master find;
It has no spring of action sure -
It varies with the wind:
It cannot freely move
Till Thou hast wrought its chain;
Enslave it with Thy matchless love
And deathless it shall reign.
My will is not my own
Till Thou hast made it Thine;
If it would reach the monarch’s throne
It must its crown resign:
It only stands unbent
Amid the clashing strife
When on its bosom it has lent,
And found in Thee its life.
In conjunction with the inspired words
of our text, I submit to you these beautiful verses of George Matheson discover
to us the great secret of the power of endurance and really great achievements,
recalled to our minds by these impressive truths from the actual lives lived
upon earth by some of our Lord’s disciples we have shared together.
In view of the facts they bring us to
our knowledge, have you and I anything to complain about? Should we again
complain about anything?
Far bigger trials and sorrows may be
ahead than anything we have yet known - but by this word we shall conquer:
“Lest I
should be over-elated there has been sent to me, like the agony of
imprisonment, Satan’s angel dealing blow after blow, lest I should be
over-elated.
Three times have I besought
the Lord to rid me of him; but his reply has been ‘My grace suffices for you, for power matures in
weakness.’
Most gladly therefore will I boast of my
infirmities rather than complain of them - in order that Christ’s power may
overshadow me.”
O the Glorious GRACE of our Glorious God!
R. L.
LACEY
-------
REST
Rest, what a word is rest,
Only the weary know it,
The weak and the weary, best.
The strong say, “I am tired.”
Then sleep, and start afresh
By the new day inspired.
And fatigue besets us all
When the day’s work is done
And the night shadows fall.
But the words that Jesus spoke,
Fell on the ears of them
Whose spirit had well nigh broke
With the burdens they bore -
The weary and heavy laden
Whose hearts were chafed and sore:
Said the Son of the Blest -
“Come unto me,
all ye
And I will give you rest.”
- W. HOLLIER.
* *
* * *
* *
9
THE PAROUSIA OF CHRIST +2
The
first great act in the coming drama of the Advent is the formation of the
Parousia. It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of the doctrine of the
Parousia; a word which is the cardinal pivot of all Second Advent truth, and
the keystone in the arch of unfulfilled prophecy. In itself, the word ‘parousia’ states merely a stationary presence,* and is a ‘coming’
only when linked with words implying motion: “it is
not merely coming, but actual
personal presence” (F. T. Bassett). It is sometimes (beyond challenge)
used of a static, not a dynamic, proximity:- “even as ye have always obeyed,
not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence”
(Phil.
2:
12). The Transfiguration was not a
descending, but a stationary, parousia (2 Pet.
1:
16). This ‘Parousia
of Christ,’ used
by the Holy Spirit as a technical expression, is His presence in the immediate
neighbourhood of the earth; it is His proximity “in air”; it is the arrival of the Judge when
He “standeth before the doors” (Jas. 5: 9) ere they swing open and the King of Glory issues forth. Its
meaning the Psalmist exquisitely unfolds; - “He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and thick darkness was under His feet. He made darkness His hiding
place, His pavilion round about Him; darkness of waters,
thick clouds of the skies” (Ps. 18: 11). For it is a stage in the Advent.
Christ’s downward motion stops: His people’s upward motion stops: the Lord
silently forms His Royal Court in a pavilion of cloud. The Parousia is thus,
according to the Psalmist, secret - a hiding place; it is stationary - a
pavilion; it is invisible - in thick darkness; and it is the centre of rapture
- “He sent from on high, He took me.” For it is thus that our Lord is to
return. He ascended visibly, and was wrapt from sight in cloud; but He is to “so come in
like manner” (Acts 1: 11), - that is, the process is to be
reversed: He descends invisibly, concealed by clouds, and then bursts forth,
visibly and bodily, as the Sun of righteousness. The interlude is the Parousia.
* Liddell and Scott give its primary and
root meaning as “a being present, a presence”;
and the Revised Version, while translating “coming,”
is careful always to note in the margin that the Greek is Presence. This does
not exclude the meaning it also held in contemporary non-classical Greek of “a royal procession,” or “arrival in state.”
The Parousia serves purposes of vital
import to the Church. It is thither saints are to be rapt, encompassed, as our
Lord was, with clouds; “we that are alive, that are
left, shall together with them be caught up [‘a sudden and irresistible seizure
by a power beyond us’: Dr Eadie] in the clouds to meet
the Lord”; a reunion, not on earth, nor in the
heaven of heavens, but “in the air” (1 Thess.
4:
17): as homing doves flock to their airy dovecotes. “Who are these,” cries the Jewish Prophet (Is. 60: 8), “that fly as a
cloud, and as the doves to their windows?” with the Holy Dove of God (2 Thess. 2: 7) in the midst? For the Parousia is our ark of refuge.* “In the covert of Thy presence Thou shalt hide them from the plottings
of man: Thou shalt keep them secretly
in a pavilion from the strife
of tongues” (Ps. 31: 20). It is the heavenly Tabernacle against which Antichrist,
enraged by the loss of his prey, hurls impotent blasphemies. “And he opened
his mouth for blasphemies against God, to
blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, even them that tabernacle in the heaven” (Rev.
13:
6).
Thus the ‘epiphany’ or manifestation to the Church (1 John 3: 2,; 2 Tim. 4: 8) occurs in the ‘parousia’ the epiphany to the world (2 Thess. 2: 8) is delayed until the ‘apocalypse’ (2 Thess.
1:
7). So the type is exquisitely apt.
Joash, secreted in the Temple for just seven years, is first revealed to the
priests and nobles within the invisible precincts of the Temple, and then
brought forth and shown where every eye could see him (2 Chron. 23: 3, 11). Joash had (as our Lord will have) two, epiphanies.
* Our Lord, however, frequently appears
in the super-heavenlies during the Parousia; and since some of the saved are
rapt to the Throne (Rev. 12: 5), and others are on the Crystal Sea (Rev.
15:
2),
it would appear that neither our Lord nor the saints are exclusively in the
Parousia throughput its duration.
The Parousia is also the judgment court of the Church.
Judgment begins at the House of
God (1 Pet.
4:
17): for
“after a long time the lord of those servants cometh and
maketh a reckoning with them”
(Matt.
25:
19). Within the Parousia are enacted the
Virgins, the Talents, the Pounds here converts are presented by the evangelist (1 Thess. 2: 19) here the disciple’s heart
and life are examined (1 Thess.
3:
13), and blamelessness (1 Thess.
5:
23)
or shame (1 John 2:
28) revealed. For the Household is
examined ‘in camera’; the Bema is set up in the
Throne-room; and the approval of the Judgment Seat is the supreme reward of the
disciple, and an incorruptible motive of holiness. “We
make it our aim to be well-pleasing unto him. For we [disciples] 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” (2 Cor. 5: 10).
The Parousia of Christ runs simultaneously with the Parousia (2 Thess.
2:
9)
of the Antichrist; the heavenly Parousia is the advanced outpost whither God
recalls His ambassadors, on the outbreak of war against the world and the last
judgments of God; and unrecalled ambassadors are in peril from both batteries. “The Lord also
thundered in the heavens, and the Most High
uttered His voice; hailstones and
coals of fire. And He sent out His
arrows and scattered them; yea, lightnings manifold, and discomfited them” (Ps. 18: 13; Rev. 8: 5; 10: 3; 11: 19; 16: 10). But Antediluvian and Sodomic wickedness recur, and remain
obdurate, during the Parousia. At length ripeness of iniquity below, and the
close of the judgment scene above, together produce the break-up of the
Parousia; scattering clouds on a sudden reveal to every eye the triple glory (Luke 9:
26)
burning in the heart of the Pavilion. “For as the lightning cometh
forth from the east, and is seen even unto the west; so shall be the
presence [see Revised Margin throughout] of the Son of Man” (Matt. 24: 27); who shall paralyze Antichrist by the
manifestation, or outburst, of
His Parousia*; and “then shall
the righteous shine forth as the
sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matt. 13: 43). Our Lord’s feet at last alight (Zech. 14: 4) upon Olivet.
* The manifestation of the Parousia - “the [... see
Greek word] parousia of His Presence” (2 Thess. 2: 8) - is decisive proof of its earlier
invisibility, for only that can be manifested which has hitherto been
concealed; and it is directly associated
with the simultaneous “presence” of
the Antichrist (2 Thess. 2: 9), which is also local and continuous. All
prophetic schemes which omit an interlude between the two stages of the Coming
must be erroneous: because no season is left during which iniquity can finally
ripen unchecked; no time whatever is afforded for the prolonged investigation
implied by such parables as that of the Talents; no opportunity is presented
for individual examination of saints in view of the Kingdom; and no escape is provided for the Church from
the Day of Wrath. However the processes of the Church’s judgment may be
quickened by miracle, we can hardly suppose, with the parables of the Pounds
and Talents before us, that it is instantaneous; and if not instantaneous, the
investigation of the servants one after another, however abbreviated, must,
considering the millions involved, cover a very considerable period. The one
Christian rapture already accomplished - our Lord’s was secret, veiled in
clouds, and invisible to the world; and Christ’s [... see Greek word] (1 Thess. 4: 16) is, as the word implies, a shout
heard only by those to whom it is addressed. Even martyrs under Antichrist
appear upon the
So the Presence is to be the lode-star of the Church; for its
Bema is the criterion for all regenerate life and conduct. The exact duration
of the Parousia has not been revealed: as Antichrist cannot be manifested before it
(2 Thess. 2: 6), and he reigns for three and a half years after it has begun (Rev. 13: 5), it must extend for at least that period; but nothing
prevents a far longer sojourn of our Lord in the heavens Dr. Maitland believed it would cover not less than fifty years. “The Presence must last at least four years, and may last forty or fifty” (Govett).*
For while the inception of the Parousia is a loose end which can be hastened by
prayer (Matt.
24:
20) or retarded by
neglect, its close comes after crowding events still utterly unfulfilled, some
of which are definitely timed and measured: e.g., Israel is given to know the
exact date of the Advent at a given moment after the Parousia has begun (Dan.
12:
12). Thus the date of
our Lord’s return turns, for us, on the unknown and unknowable factors of the
moment and duration of the Parousia. Unfulfilled prophecy all lies after rapture begins: nothing stands between us and the summons of God; no premonitions, no warnings, no
signals, no prophecies. ** Again and
again our Lord asserts His coming as a Thief, with the consequent need of our unceasing alertness. “Behold,
I come as a thief. Blessed is he
that watcheth” (Rev. 16: 15). Now a thief-like
approach - for which, in our Lord’s case, there is no reproach, since He takes
only that which is His own - is pregnant with meaning. (“The day cometh - 1 Thess. 5: 2 - not simply in the
night, but in the night as a thief.” - Dr. Eadie.) It
implies a hidden Saviour, ambushed in a secret Parousia, from which He
accomplishes His removals; it implies that the taken goods disappear invisibly,
and are discovered as taken only by having vanished; it implies that,
thief-like, only the costliest goods are
removed; and it implies that constant watchfulness, an unbroken vigil
throughout the night, is the sole preventive of the burglary - for
thus our Lord Himself illustrates
the Advent - since no thief gives
warning of his coming. “But know this, that if the
master of the house had known in what watch the thief was coming, he would have
watched, and would not have suffered his house
to be broken through. Therefore be ye also
ready” (Matt. 24: 43). In the words of Calvin:- “God
intended that the time should be hidden from us, for the express purpose that
we may keep diligent watch without the relaxation of a single hour.”
* The 3½ years of the Witnesses (Rev.
11:
3) precede
the 3½ years of Antichrist (Rev. 13: 5), as their murder removes his last obstacle
to world-worship (Rev. 13: 4); and the emancipated host are an high (Rev.
7:
9)
under the Seals, before the Witnesses appear (Rev. 11: 3) under the Trumpets.
** Paul (2 Tim. 4: 6) and Peter (2 Pet.
1:
14)
both knew of their own decease, and therefore, by inference, of our Lord’s
delay; but both know it by special revelation alone: an experience therefore which has no
bearing on us. “Nor has it been proved that their
deaths must occur before the Lord arrived: for anything that appears, the
saints might have been rapt, while these two Apostles were left behind on the
earth” (Govett).
-------
UNANSWERED YET
Unanswer’d yet? the prayer your lips
have pleaded
In agony of heart these many years?
Does faith begin to fail; is hope
departing
And think you all in vain those
falling tears?
Say not the Father hath not heard your
prayer,
You shall have your desire, sometime,
somewhere.
Unanswer’d yet? Though when you first
presented
This one petition at the Father’s
throne,
It seem’d you could not wait the time
of asking,
So urgent was your heart to make it
known;
Though years have passed since then,
do not despair,
The Lord will answer you sometime,
somewhere.
Unanswer’d yet? Nay, do not say
ungranted,
Perhaps your part is not wholly done,
The work began when first your prayer
was utter’d,
And God will finish what He has begun.
If you will keep the incense burning there,
His [millennial] glory you shall see, sometime,
somewhere.
Unanswer’d yet? Faith cannot be
Unanswer’d,
Her feet were firmly planted on the
Rock;
Amid the wildest storms she stands
undaunted,
Nor quails before the loudest thunder
shock.
She knows Omnipotence has heard her
prayer.
And cries, ‘it shall be done’
sometime, somewhere.
E. B. BROWNING.
-------
THE MARTYRS UNDER THE ALTAR
One word of Christ explains the martyr
heart:- “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee THE
CROWN OF LIFE” (Rev. 2: 10).* “Do you suppose,” asked the prefect Junius Rusticus of a little band of
martyrs, “that
you will ascend up to heaven to receive some recompense there?” “I do not suppose
it,” replied Justin, “I know it.” The tortured,” said Cyprian, himself afterwards a martyr, “stand more firm than the torturers; the torn limbs
overcome the hooks that tear them.” “As a rule,” said the Emperor Diocletian - and none knew
better, for he martyred freely - “the Christians are only too happy to die.” “Why are you so
bent upon death?” an official said to Pionius of Smyrna; “you are so bent
upon death that you make nothing of it.” “We are bent,”
the martyr replied, “not upon death, but upon life.”
* “‘He that
findeth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it’
(Matt. 10: 39): i.e., he that preserves his natural life by apostizing from Me, shall lose his life in another sense,
i.e., his future happiness; but he that loseth his natural life on My
account, shall find another life,
shall attain to the blessedness of the
world [age] to come’” Professor
Moses Stuart. The martyr is assured of the
First Resurrection.
* *
* * *
* *
10
THE POWER OF INFLUENCE +1
God created
us for each other. We act and react on one another; our lives and characters
are plastic, and we leave on each other imprints that will never be erased. The
very air around us is a wireless library containing what every man has said,
and every woman has whispered. In some degree or kind, every man multiplies
himself all the time, and is sending himself across the world, and perpetuating
his photograph down through eternities unknown. It is said that the great fire
of
So Paul states the universal and inevitable law. “None of us” - the Apostle primarily means [regenerate] believers;
but the action and re-action extend to all mankind - “liveth unto
himself” (Romans 14: 7). There are no moral blanks, no neutral
characters: dead or alive, every man is intensely operative, whether he knows
it or not; and every man is all the time increasing holiness or swelling sin. A
Christian merchant was watched by another merchant for a year, the latter
deciding to accept Christ or not according to the result: the result was
favourable, but the Christian merchant said, “When I
heard it, I trembled to think what might have happened.” The very
accidentals of a good man’s life may change other lives for eternity. In 1895
the late Benjamin Glasgow, a godly man well known as an evangelist, felt a
strong desire to send to a friend a copy of Alleine’s Alarm to
Unconverted Sinners. He
bought a copy of the book, placing it in his overcoat pocket. On his way home
to Bayswater in the omnibus he read a few pages of the book and inadvertently
left it upon the seat. About three years later Mr. Glasgow was leading the
noonday prayer meeting in Aldersgate Street Y.M.C.A. After he had opened the
meeting, as chairman, the speaker in the course of his remarks said:- “I wish to record how the Lord met with me. Three years ago I
found in a Bayswater omnibus a book that someone had left on the seat called An
Alarm to Unconverted Sinners. I took it home, read it, and prayed over
it; and by its means the Holy Spirit was pleased to show me my lost condition
as a sinner. I had no peace or rest until I found rest in the atonement of
Jesus.” When the speaker sat down, Mr. Glasgow arose and said:- “My brother, now I know why I lost that book. I was much
vexed and disappointed at the time, but now I see that God intended to make use
of it, not as I had thought, but according to His own eternal Purpose and
Grace.”
So the moral reverse holds good: every hour we continue to
refuse Christ and to live in sin, hardens the lost, encourages Hell, makes sin
bite deeper, like some virulent acid: every hour, by fresh sin, we are
involving others, innocent people, in bitter tears, and (it may be) family
shame. That we damage our own soul is the least part of the hurt; by desert, or
infection, we damage a thousand. “What you learn from
bad habits and in bad society,” says J. B. Gough, the temperance orator
of a past generation, “you will never forget, and it
will be a lasting pang to you. I tell you in all sincerity, not as in the
excitement of speech, but as I would confess and have confessed before God, I
would give my right hand to-night if I could forget that which I have learned
in evil society - if I could tear from my remembrance the scenes which I have
witnessed, the transactions which have taken place before me. You cannot, I
believe, take away the effect of a single impure thought that has lodged and
harboured in the heart. You can pray against it, and by God’s grace you may
conquer it, but it will, through life, cause you bitterness and anguish.”
One of Canada’s best known evangelists, speaking at a great gathering of
preachers in Toronto nearly twenty years ago, in warning them of the danger of
sowing doubts, told the story of a young man whom he had led into unbelief
during his college days when he had imbibed the theories of the Higher
Criticism. The day before this address he had received word of the sudden death
of this old college chum, who through his doubts had abandoned the ministry for
a brilliant career in law. Said the great evangelist:- “Last night was the darkest night of my life. I led him astray, but I was
never able to lead him back. Now it is too late I must be either a light to
illuminate, or a tempest to destroy (Morley Punshon); either a healing
sunlight, or a deadly microbe; reaching out to bounds I shall never know - men
beyond men - until I stand on the eternal shores.”
But Paul reveals a
still more momentous truth - that our influence is not only horizontal but
vertical. “And none DIETH to
himself.” We do
not cut the entail of influence by death: a man’s soul, his character, his
conduct leave an imprint not like a thing stamped in wax but like one forged in
steel: beyond the death-bed our lives never cease their undying influence. In
the tomb of Tutankhamen the dry sand retained human footprints as fresh as when
they were made three thousand years ago. The facts are overwhelming. Two
American family records have been kept, and are known. Dr. Winship says:- “The father of Jonathan Edwards was a minister, and his
mother was the daughter of a clergyman. Among their descendants there were
fourteen presidents of colleges, more than one hundred college professors, more
than one hundred lawyers, thirty judges, sixty physicians, more than a hundred
clergymen, missionaries, and theological professors, and about sixty authors.
There is scarcely any great American industry that has not had one of his
family among its chief promoters. Such is the product of one American Christian
family, reared under the most favourable conditions. The contrast is presented
in the Jukes family, which could not be made to study, and would not work, and
which is said to have cost the State
of
Every impression we make leaves an imprint never to be
effaced, and widens out into a ripple that will reach the limits of the world.
That idle word - flung out in heat or scorn - “Oh,”
we say, “it produced only a momentary, impression”:
no, it did not; it deepened one man’s disgust of godliness; it sharpened the
edge of another’s sarcasm; it may have exerted a slight but determining
influence on an immortal destiny. It is an awful thought - and we have all got
to face it - that though our past is under the Blood, and therefore forgiven,
there are eternal stains on other lives that we have made; that we have helped
others downward to the Land where there is no forgiveness and no hope. It is
related that John Newton, the author
of many of our most beautiful hymns, ran away from home in early boyhood and
became a midshipman, living for years at the pace that kills.* At that time he induced a comrade of
about his own age to assist in the sowing of his wild oats. The two parted
company subsequently and lost sight of each other.
* See
The evil that men do lives on in spite
Of all their tears;
And floods of weeping cannot wash it
white
Through countless years.
Now this unutterably solemn truth, filling us with awe, ought
to fling us on to God, to achieve the maximum of personal potentiality, and to
generate forces that will reach earth’s remotest limit, and eternity’s most
distant shore. Paul says:- “for whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or
whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live, therefore,
or die, WE are THE LORD’S:” aqueducts of Deity, channels of God
moulded and moulders of sanctity and life. So let us do it let every throb of
our heart, every motion of our hand, every thought of our brain, every penny in
our purse, every look, act, prayer, tell for good, and for God; helping, it may
be, dozens, hundreds, thousands of souls for all eternity. We can all have part
in this mighty influence. In the Great War, the Australian cavalry charged down
the slopes of
-------
ISLAM AND THE BOOK
I visited an old sheikh in charge of the Mosque of Omar in
It was my great privilege for a number of years to venture to
carry the Gospel of Jesus into the
-------
LOVE
Love is the filling from one’s own
Another cup:
Love is daily laying down
And taking up;
A choosing of the stony part
Through each new day,
That other feet may tread at ease
The smoother way.
Love is not blind, but looks abroad
Through other eyes;
And asks not ‘Must I give?’ but - ‘May
I sacrifice?’
Love hides its grief, that other
hearts
And lips may sing;
And, burden’d, walks, that other lives
May, buoyant, wing.
Sinner, hast thou a love like this
Within thy soul?
’Twill change thy name to saint, ere
thou
Hast reach’d thy goal.
* *
* * *
* *
11
THE DRAMA OF THE APOCALYPSE +4
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
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1. - THE SANCTUARY
CHAPTER 1
The
structure and proportions of the Apocalypse - that “golden
thread on which can be strung all the pearls of earlier prophecy” - are
exactly defined, and defined once for all, by our Lord Himself. “Write the
things which thou sawest” - that is, the Priest amid the Lampstands; “and the
things which are”
- that is, seven representative churches, embodying the things which dispensationally exist; “and the
things which shall came to pass after these things” - namely, after the Things which Are,
or the Church epoch - that is, the last judgments. Section One is thus an “apocalypse” of our Lord as Priest, in the midst of
that actual, upper Temple, the furniture of which Moses had seen and copied in
the Mount (Heb.
8:
5); and, in exquisite keeping with the
judicial character of the Book throughout, the highly peculiar description of
Christ looks toward imminent judgment. For the priest was always the judge in holy things. The eyes of penetrating flame; the feet
of irresistible brass, aglow as though already tramping through judgment fires;
the voice as the roar of a cataract; the sword flaming from the mouth: it is
little wonder that even the beloved Apostle, overwhelmed with the apocalypse of
the righteous Judge, fell as one dead. It is Christ alone with His Churches: it
is the “last hour” - the hour of the midnight darkness, and the lit lamp: it is
the era of angel-stars bearing gracious Gospel-witness in a world of gloom: it
is the face of the Sun of Righteousness as He stands on the threshold of the
Dawn.
2. - THE CHURCHES
CHAPTERS 2 & 3
Section Two embraces the Letters to the
also a present application - are
supremely a forecast, an apocalypse, of Church judgment.
3. - THE THRONE
CHAPTER 4
Section Three - the Things that shall come to pass after These Things, that is after the
current Age - opens with an apocalypse of a new throne, a throne of judgment.
John, rapt upward - doubtless a hint of - [a yet future and select (Rev. 2: 10)] - rapture impending immediately on the close of the Day of Grace - sees a
Throne being set: it is a throne seething, like an angry volcano, with
lightnings and voices and thunders: it is set in the full panoply of God, and
amid the worship of the hosts of Heaven. This Throne, which henceforth
regulates the entire drama, and out of which pour desolating judgments, creates
and reveals the judicial nature of the Age to Come. For “that day” is an era, not of mercy, but of
justice: its throne is a throne not of grace, but of judgment: for it is “the day of
wrath and revelation [apocalypse] of the righteous JUDGMENT of God: who will
render to every man according to his works” (Rom. 2: 5). Therefore within the sphere of the
Coming Age all judgment falls, and by its triple tribunal it exhausts judgment.
For (1) at the Bema the Lord’s
reckoning with His servants (Matt.
25:
19) inaugurates the processes of
judgment, beginning at the house of God (1 Pet. 4: 17); (2) the Throne of
Messiah’s Glory sifts the nations that are alive on His return (Matt. 25: 31, 32); and the great White Throne (Rev. 20: 11) accomplishes the mighty assize of the dead. Thus the erection
of this judgment Throne is the signal for a prolonged Day of Justice: for the
Throne is seething with suppressed wrath; the Sitter on the Throne is Himself
of fire-colour - for “MY fury,” saith God, “is come up in My face” (Ezek.
38:
18): yet around the Throne is an emerald
bow, for in the midst of wrath God remembers mercy. The Throne is an apocalypse
of imminent judgment.
4. - THE LAMB
CHAPTER 5
Now the action of the Throne begins. Exquisitely accordant
with its judicial character, the cry of a strong angel, flung into the furthest
abysses of the universe, challenges the whole creation - “WHO IS WORTHY?” All judgment is based on an investigation of worthiness; and before the assembled hierarchies, rank over rank, and circle
beyond circle, with nothing human in the vast congregation of God but our Lord
- for the “us” of chapter 5: 9 is a foolish and mischievous copyist’s blunder * - God challenges for Absolute
Perfection: who so good as to receive the empire of all, so wise as to plumb
the unfathomed depths of God, so strong as to handle the last judgments? The
cry comes back from ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands
“WORTHY is
the LAMB that hath been slain!” Jesus then takes the Little Book from off the blazing palm of
Deity; all judgment is at once placed in the hands of the Son; and henceforth
the whole universe, from the heart of the Throne outward, is dealt with on the
ground of worthiness. “Worthy art Thou our Lord and our God” (Rev.
4:
11):
“worthy is the Lamb that hath been slain” (Rev. 5: 12): “they
shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy”
(Rev.
3:
4):
“blood hast Thou given them to drink, for they are worthy” (Rev.
16:
6).
* The Revised Version, acting solely on textual
grounds, dismisses the ‘us’ unconditionally, as
do modern scholars, as Alford, Swete, etc. “Thou didst
purchase us, and they reign” is an
impossible construction, of which no speaker nor writer could be guilty; and as
there is no textual doubt at all of the ‘they.’
it is the ‘us’ which must go. See Govett’s Apocalypse Expounded by Scripture.
5. - THE JUDGMENTS
CHAPTERS 6 TO 18
At last a rebellious world comes into view. The guns of God
are now trained upon the earth: the human globe becomes a besieged and
bombarded city. Partly consecutive, partly overlapping, Seals, Trumpets, and
Bowls empty upon man the wrath of God. The judgments are so gradual that their
start is almost imperceptible: they first blight the food, then touch the body,
then kill the man; first a fourth of the earth is involved, then a third, then
the entire globe: each blow is heavier than the last, and more wounding, in
Jehovah’s awful controversy with the nations. As an overtaxed dam, behind which
has grown a steadily accumulating mass of waters. cracks with a noise like
thunder, and pours a desolation all the more irresistible because so long
delayed - such is the wrath of the Lamb. So also miraculous deliverances out of
the imperilled area begin: resurrections and raptures - obviously more than
one, if for no other reason than that the martyr, under Antichrist must, and
do, reach the heavenlies, whereas the first rapt precede the day of Satan’s
wrath (Rev. 12: 5, 12) - prove the omnipotent grasp of God to deliver. We may drop
one word here on interpretation.* It is the
expositor’s wisdom never to swerve from the bedrock canon of all literary
interpretation - namely, that every document is to be taken literally, unless (1) the context is obviously figurative,
as in a parable or a poem; or (2)
when the literal sense is in itself absurd: as, for an example of the first - “a sower went
forth to sow”;
and, as an example of the second - “I am the door.” But how shall the problem be solved
if conflict of judgment arises as to what is absurd? History (in most cases) will at once demonstrate the meaning
of the prophecy. “The third part of the sea became blood” (Rev. 8: 8): is that absurd?
Let the
* The secret of the symbolism of the
Apocalypse should also be noted. When a person or thing is seen out of its
place, it is seen under a symbol, as a ‘mystery;’
so the Churches, literally on earth, are seen as lampstand’s above. So
throughout.
6 - THE KINGDOM
CHAPTERS 19 & 20
Destructive judgments now rapidly draw to a close:
administrative judgment is at hand. The supreme apocalypse of all - the Son of
Man descending out of the heavens visibly to the whole globe - ushers in at
last the [Millennial]
7 - THE
CHAPTERS 21 & 22
We now come within sight of the
shoreless sea of the Eternal Ages. The - [Messiah’s coming (Ps. 110; cf. Isa. 9: 6-7; 40: 1-5, 10, 11, R.V.] - Kingdom is over (1 Cor. 15: 24): the old heavens and earth have fled away:
in all God’s universe no object remains save one glittering White Throne,
before which the dead stand, both small and great. Books of works - one book of names: books of works, that all condemnation
may be exactly adjusted to guilt; a book of names, for the saved have nothing
in the Book of Life but a name. We stand for ever on the sole merits of our
blessed Lord. The new heavens and the new earth, inherently sinless - the House
that will never know Leprosy - now appear; “Behold, I make all things new.” Outside the
* That the old worlds are not purged, but annihilated, the
Apocalypse makes certain; for the phrase it uses - “there was no place found for them” (Rev. 20: 11) - lodges the extinction not
in a word,
which might be ambiguous or disputable, but in a sentence which can have no meaning but
annihilation. “Not from one place to another, but to
none” (Bengel): the new heaven and new earth (21: 1) take the place of the
old.
EPILOGUE
The Apocalypse is the only book in the Bible given, not
primarily to man at all, but to Christ; it is the only book in the Bible that
is our Lord’s - it describes itself as ‘Jesus Christ’s Apocalypse’ it is the only book in the Bible on
which a specific blessing is guaranteed; it is the only book in the Bible
deliberate alteration of which is stated to involve participation in its
plagues; and it is the only book in the Bible that solves every problem of the
future. “There is nothing in all the Canon of
Scripture which the Lord Jesus more pointedly attests, more solemnly guards, or
more urgently presses” (Seiss).
“BLESSED IS HE THAT KEEPETH THE WORDS OF THE
PROPHECY OF THIS BOOK” (Rev. 22.). It is in our understanding of its facts before they arrive that the
blessing lies. The Apocalypse is a shock to the sleeper; a sting to the carnal;
a tonic to the good; a summons to the dead: by disclosing the things that as a
matter of fact will happen, it places in our hands the master-key to every
modern problem. It illuminates backwards like an electric flare, and by
revealing their issues it tears out the heart of the movements around us, so
that our feet are shepherded for ever in the narrow way. They who reject the
word of prophecy have no ‘lamp shining in a dark place’ (1 Pet.
1:
19). Canon Adderley once asked
-------
LIVING UP TO THE LIGHT
“My beloved
brother,” Mr. George Muller once said to Dr. A. T. Pierson, “the Lord has given you much light on Scripture, and will
hold you correspondingly responsible for its use: obey Him, and walk in the
light, and you will have more; fail to do so, and He will withdraw the light
you have.” Matt. 13: 12.
-------
SLEEP
Father, look upon me now;
Lay thine hand upon my brow;
Soothe the restless throb of pain,
Quiet Thou the weary brain:
Thou who dost Thy children keep,
Holy Father, give me sleep.
Thou hast said that Thou wilt care,
Bending to the silent prayer;
Thou hast said that Thou dost heed
All our weakness, all our need:
List’ning where the mourners weep,
Gracious Father, give me sleep.
Saviour, who didst come to bear
Sin and grief, that we might share
Glory with Thee by and bye,
Thine was once the sufferer’s cry:
Satisfy the craving deep;
Tender Saviour, give me sleep.
Yet if Thou this thing withhold,
Closer in Thine arms enfold;
Thou canst grant me better still,
Teaching me to love Thy will:
Bid the restless tossing cease;
By Thy Spirit give me peace.
Peace, that thro’ His mighty power,
In the silent midnight hour
Quiet trust from spirit-calm
May ascend as temple-psalm;
So that, through the gift denied,
Thou shalt most be glorified.
Lord, I leave it in Thy hand;
Thou the slumber canst command;
Thine the day, and Thine the night,
Thine the love which plans aright:
Only in Thy Presence keep
When I wake, and when I sleep.
-------
PRAYER FOR ENEMIES
There is no such softener of animosity, no such smoother of
resentment, no such allayer of hatred as sincere cordial prayer. And we can
only learn the duty so difficult to human nature, of forgiving those who have
offended us, when we bring ourselves to pray for them to Him whom we ourselves
daily offend. When we pray for those with whom we have worldly intercourse it
smoothes down the swellings of envy, and bids the tumult of anger and ambition
subside.
- HANNAH MORE.
-------
THE AGE TO COME
The yearning of the human heart, its
Paradise-hunger, has again and again foreshadowed the Golden Age which God has
pledged Himself to bring in, and which only His wisdom and power can achieve.
All the full-brain, half-brain races,
led by Justice, Love and Truth;
All the millions one at length with
all the visions of my youth.
All diseases quench’d by Science, no
man halt, or deaf, or blind;
Stronger ever born of weaker, lustier
body, larger mind.
Every tiger madness muzzled, every
serpent passion kill’d,
Every grim ravine a garden, every
blazing desert till’d.
Earth at last a warless world, a
single race, a single tongue -
I have seen her far away - for is not
earth as yet so young?
Robed in universal harvest up to
either pole she smiles,
Universal ocean softly washing all her
warless Isles.
- TENNYSON
* *
* * *
* *
12
THE UNDOING OF THE CURSE + 3
There is no more awful sentence in the Bible than this:- Christ
“became
A CURSE” - an anathema from God - “for us”
(Gal.
3:
13). It is not said that Christ was made ‘the Curse,’ that is, the curse named in Paul’s
context; for that is for a law-breaker, and the Lord never broke the Law: nor
is it exactly the curse named in Moses’ context, for that was for a criminal
undergoing capital punishment, and our Lord was not a criminal: but it was a
curse - named in the next clause by Moses - / or a mode of death. “For he that
is HANGED” - not only he that is a criminal - “is accursed
of God” (Deut.
21:
23). The Law, most remarkably, left this
solitary possibility open by which a perfectly innocent man could come under
the real and actual curse of God. “If thou hang a man on a tree” - probably a cruciform stake - “he that is
hanged is accursed of God” (Deut. 21: 22). By no other conceivable means could the Curse alight on the
sinless Lawful-filler; but by that means, it did. Christ, says Paul, “became a curse for us;
for it is
written, Cursed is everyone” - Paul makes it
stronger than the original - “that hangeth on a tree” (Gal.
3:
13).
Now it is remarkable how various
strands of
So therefore Paul’s full statement
reveals Christ curing the very roots and origins of the world’s evil. “Christ REDEEMED us” - bought us out from under - “the curse of
the law” - all
broken law, both of Eden and Sinai - “having become a curse” - not deserving a curse, nor merely
man-cursed; but judicially made the Curse which had blighted earth: becoming a
curse, not in its pollution or personal guilt, but in its judicial reality and
responsibility* “for” - not Himself as a transgressor, but
- “us”. The vast burden of the revelation thus rests on these two little words - “FOR US.” Why did not the almighty power of God intervene to prevent the awful
curse-blight descending on His sinless Son? or if Christ must die, why did not
God suffer Him to be stoned, in the attempted stoning by the Jews, and so avoid
the Law’s anathema? Because the Curse was to be
transferred from us to Him. Paul has just spoken of the Curse which rests on all
breakers of the Law: the Curse therefore which he names in the later clause is
the same curse - that is,
our curse: there
was, that is to say, to be an exchange of positions; and there was. The adultery of David, the apostasy of Peter, the
religious murders by Paul - what fractures of Law, calling for what anathemas!
- He bore; and the tree was the rod that drew the lightning. The purchase-money
of the buying-out from under curse was the life-obedience and the life-blood of
the Son of God: so “that we might receive the promise of THE SPIRIT through faith” - the Spirit
of life and blessing and God. Thus the mighty rock was lifted out of the bed of
the stream, and a torrent of mercy and grace pours through all lands, and
floods all thirsty lips. We who believe are,
spiritually, delivered from the Curse for ever.
* As He was made sin, not sinful (2 Cor.
5:
21),
so He was made the curse, not inherently accursed.
But this is only the beginning of the story of redemption. As
objective and visible as was the Curse, so objective and visible must be its
removal; and of the
* In so far as woman’s subjection and
travail are penal, and not creative - both are named in 1 Tim. 2: 13, 14 - doubtless to that degree
they will pass; but the serpent's curse, and much more his inspirer's, is left
by Scripture
for ever unlifted.
But it is not until an Eternity dawns still undreamed of in
its glory that the Curse finally and utterly disappears. In the Millennial Age
there is actually fresh curse. “The sinner being an hundred years old” - the Millennial limit of probation,
after which, for the impenitent, comes capital punishment - “shall be accursed”
(Isa.
65:
20); and one clause in Eden’s curse,
inoperative for six thousand years, takes effect only in Millennial days - “and dust
shall be the serpent’s meat” (Isa. 65: 25). Only in the Eternity beyond is a far stronger and more
comprehensive statement than any ever made before:- “And there
shall be NO CURSE ANY MORE” (Rev.
22:
3); for its supreme visible stigma, more
incurable than all else, vanishes - “and death shall be no more” (Rev. 21: 4). Thus the last chapter of the Bible records the complete
undoing of the incalculable disaster recorded in the first three. Man will fall
no more: God will curse no more: there will be no Serpent in that
-------
THE AGE TO COME
The yearning of the human heart, its Paradise-hunger, has
again and again foreshadowed the Golden Age which God has pledged Himself to
bring in, and which only His wisdom and power can achieve.
All the
full-brain, half -brain races, led by justice, Love and Truth;
All the millions one at length with
all the visions of my youth.
All
diseases quench’d by Science, no man halt, or deaf, or blind;
Stronger ever born of weaker, lustier
body, larger mind.
Every tiger madness muzzled, every
serpent passion kill’d,
Every grim ravine a garden, every
blazing desert till’d.
Earth at last a warless world, a
single race, a single tongue -
I have seen her far away - for is not
earth as yet so young?
Robed in universal harvest up to
either pole she smiles,
Universal ocean softly washing all her
warless Isles.
- TENNYSON.
-------
A DATELESS ADVENT
The assurance of the Master’s return, sometime or other, is
absolute and unqualified; the time when, is left indefinite. The most general
precept of duty, then, which could be inculcated on servants or dependants,
whom the absence of their master exempts from present control, but whom the
futurity of his return some time or other, still renders liable to inquiry and
animadversion, - [i.e., “criticism,
censure or reproof.”] - is to be always on the watch; that
is, always be prepared for his arrival; always intent on the business of their
place and station - as the most effectual precaution not to be taken by
surprise, and as the best means of qualifying themselves for their future
account, whenever it may be demanded of them.
- GRESWELL.
* *
* * *
* *
13
THE RETURN OF IDOLATRY + 3
By D.
M. PANTON,
B.A.
No sin
more fearfully rouses the wrath of God than idolatry. Every idol was to be
burnt with fire, and any gold or silver on it might not be touched (Deut 7: 25). No idol was to enter a house, “lest thou be a cursed thing
like it” (Deut. 7: 26). The manufacturer of an idol - who, like the
ROMAN CATHOLIC IDOLATRY
All this lends fearful force to a charge levelled once more
against the Church of Rome by the Dean of St. Paul’s, Dr. lnge says:- “In the Western Catholic Church idolatry reigns almost
unchecked. It is quite impossible to draw any distinction between the devotions paid before images by
Catholics, and the idolatry against which the Jewish prophets fulminated.”
Moreover, “naked fetishism, in the form of adoration
of the consecrated elements, has been allowed to creep in.”
THE ANSWER OF
Father Francis Woodlock, S. J., of
* In the words of the Seventh General
Council, 787A.D., establishing image-worship:- “The honour
paid to the image passes to the prototype; and he who adores the image adores
in it the being or object portrayed.”
THE RESPONSE OF GOD
Now the explicit answer of God, so vital and crucial as to be
embodied in the Decalogue, the fundamental summary of all Law, is contained in
the Second Commandment.
THE WORSHIP OF THE WAFER
But a fact of unutterable solemnity remains. One worship puts
Roman idolatry, not only beyond question, but outside the range of her own
defence. For in the Mass Rome asserts, not that the Wafer is an image of Christ, but that it is
Christ; what she worships (she says) is not the Lord beyond the Bread, but the
Bread which is the Lord: so that
this Roman worship embraces the grossest form of idolatry - namely, the worship
of the stock and stone as God. It is extraordinarily significant that Father Woodlock here puts
up no defence; he offers none, for there is none: all he does is to re-state,
in the argument used by pagan idolaters, that the image has been transmuted
into the god. “There is no fetishism, or idolatry,”
he says, “in the Catholic attitude towards the Blessed
Sacrament, which Catholics believe to be, really and substantially,
Jesus Christ Himself.” That
is, the Image, by transubstantiation, has become the God. No wonder that the
Roman proverb runs - “It is the Mass that matters”:
it is the Mass for which earth will be soaked afresh with the blood of the
martyrs of Jesus (Rev. 17: 6).
MODERNISM AND IDOLATRY
An amazing and profoundly disturbing feature of the discussion
between the Dean and the Jesuit is the idolatrous sympathies, unblushingly
expressed, of the very Modernism which so explicitly charges idolatry on
* By prohibiting painting and sculpture
to Israel (Ex.
20:
4)
God eradicated the very possibility of idolatry; and though,
as not under the Law, this clause is for us inoperative, the second clause -
forbidding the bowing or kneeling before icon or image - is reinforced under
Grace: “wherefore, my
beloved, FLEE
from idolatry” (1 Cor. 10: 14). So effective was the
prohibition to the orthodox Jew that a Jewish genius which produced rich
musicians as Mendelssohn and Beethoven created no sculptor or painter; until,
in recent years, heterodox Judaism has produced an Epstein and a Rothenstein.
** So many-millioned Islam, although the
most fanatical of iconoclasts, nevertheless worships the Kaaba or Black Stone
of Mecca.
The Holy Ghost’s description of Babylon Mystic as “the mother of
the abominations of the earth,” holding “a cup full of
abominations” (Rev. 17: 4, 5) - ‘abominations’ being one of
God’s technical words for idols (Deut.
29: 17; 32: 16; 1 Kings 11: 5; 2 Kings 23: 13) - reveals both the origin and
terminus of Roman idolatry; and Rome’s ultimate return both to her site and
original worship in Chaldea (Zech.
5:
11) is hinted in a current fact almost
incredible. Dr. St. George Mivart, F.R.S., Rome’s foremost modern man of
science, reported in the Nineteenth Century (Jan. 1900), that of his own knowledge
this question was put to the Roman authorities:- “Since
some attributes of the Deity may not unfitly be represented by pagan gods such
as Jupiter, Athene, Aphrodite, and Pan, is it lawful for me, as a Catholic, to
worship God as Jupiter or Athene if I am in truth devoutly moved so to adore
Him?” The answer, given by four separate learned and devout priests, was
this:- “Most certainly it is lawful for you so to do,
provided you find it helps you to advance in virtue and religion. But you must
only do it privately: it would not at present be right for you to carry on a
public worship of that kind.”*
* Dr. Mivart was excommunicated for his
article, and died (I believe) without Roman burial; a fact which enormously enhances
the force of his costly testimony.
-------
IMAGES
It is significant that the first
statue of a human being erected in a free Mohammedan country has been veiled in
-------
THE WORDS OF GOD
The Scriptures are never described as
the thought of God, but as the word of God, and most frequently as the words of God. “You
cannot dissect inspiration into substance and form. As for the thoughts being
inspired, apart from the words which give them expression, you might as well
talk of a tune without notes, or a sum without figures. No such dream can abide
the daylight for a moment. No such theory of inspiration is even intelligible.”
(Dean Burgon).
-------
CHRISTIAN EFFICIENCY
The eyes of God, angels and men, are
upon us, and great is the account we must make to our Lord Jesus Christ, who is
the supreme head of his church, and will at last reward or punish his servants
in this ministry of his Gospel, as he shall find them faithful or negligent. We
must not think to be idle or careless in this office, but must bend our minds
and studies, and employ all our gifts and studies, in this service; and the
doctrine and laws of goodness, that men may act as becomes Christians indeed.
For without faith no man can please God; and without holiness no man can enter
into the Kingdom of heaven.
- ARCHBISHOP USHER
* *
* * *
* *
14
THE VIRGINS CONCEPTION + 3
By Rev. JAMES P. WELLIVER
Director of the Northern Gospel
-------
* Mr. Welliver has spent many years as a missionary in
The
prophet Isaiah told his nation, “A virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
Modernists affirm that what Isaiah meant to say was, “A young married woman
shall conceive and bear a son,”. etc.
Isaiah declared that this was to be a sign which God told King
Ahaz to ask for, giving him liberty to ask any kind of sign he wished, and he
refused to ask, lest he should tempt God. God Himself then chose to give a
sign. The Hebrew word used is the one which commonly refers to mighty wonders
and miraculous works throughout the Old Testament.
Modernists are thus found telling the world that the birth of
a son brought forth by a young married woman is a miracle and wonder of God’s
own proposing!
And they seriously say that “the best
scholars tell us that the word Almah (used here by Isaiah)
sometimes means young married woman.”
Controversy with a certain class of men would not be worth the
time and effort; but there are doubtless thousands who would like to know
whether or not we can take the word of these “best
scholars.” It is proposed here to show that it most assuredly CANNOT.
Perhaps few Christian laymen realize that what is commonly
known as the most exhaustive, and in some respects the greatest of Hebrew
lexicons, is that of Professor William Gesenius.
Nor do they understand that this work is a product of
simon-pure German rationalism, from the
Various translations of this lexicon into English have been
made, among them one by the learned and godly Dr. S. P. Tregelles, who added many cumbersome notes to offset the
repeated and gratuitous effort of Gesenius to do away with the miraculous. The
passage in Isaiah 7: 14 is an outstanding example of this effort, and reveals the
extent of the prejudice which that learned neolist brought to all his
researches, which were conducted strictly from the rationalist’s point of view.
There are five sources of light on the true meaning of this or
any other Hebrew word:-
1. Its use in the Old Testament.
2. Its use in languages closely allied
to Hebrew.
3. The immediate context of the
passage.
4. The Septuagint (Greek) translation
of the Old Testament.
5. The witness of the New Testament.
No finished education in Hebrew is needed to see what
Professor Gesenius has done in his lexicon.
First, He admits that the common Hebrew use of the word is “virgin.”
Second, He admits that the Septuagint
translators, who were learned Hebrews in a day when Hebrew was a living
language, and no Christian controversy existed, translated “Almah” by the Greek word meaning “virgin.” In this he states that they erred,
and his proof will be seen shortly.
Third, He admits that the cognate
languages, Arabic, Chaldee, and Syriac, have the same word meaning “virgin,”
not meaning “a youthful Spouse recently married.”
Fourth, as for the context of the
passage and the testimony of the New Testament, so simple and forceful, he ignores them.
Now what is there left for the learned
doctor to do, since he sidesteps the context of Scripture, and yet admits that
every source of authority and light would make the meaning “virgin”?
He admits that the rendering “virgin” is correct in every
passage except the one in
dispute, Isaiah 7: 14.
This passage alone is the foundation for his statement that Almah is
some times used of “a youthful spouse recently
married.” He has not a vestige of other proof, nor does he attempt to
produce any other fact or argument to back his statement.
Here is his reasoning: Two Arabs, walking along a desert
trail, saw a black object ahead. “Ah, a goat,”
said one. “No, a raven,” said the other. “No, a goat,” insisted the first, and the dispute
waxed hot till the object finally rose up and flew away. “Aha, it flies; it’s a raven,” gleefully exclaimed the
second disputant. “Walu tarit Maazah,”
exclaimed the first; - “Even if it did fly it’s a goat.”
And the Arab’s tale ends as usual with the first man proving his point by
killing his companion in travel.
Professor Gesenius has looked at this object and called it a
goat. “What do you see, Professor?” “A goat.” “And how do you
know it is a goat?” “Because it is black.”
“But how do you know, at this distance, that it is
black?” “Because it is a goat.”
“How do you
relieve the difficulty about Isa. 7: 14, Professor? for it
seems to teach the virgin birth.” “I know that
‘Almah’ sometimes means a ‘Youthful spouse recently married’” “And how do you know that?” “Because
Isaiah
7: 14 proves
it.”
There is not for the professor’s declaration on this passage
one iota of evidence, by his learned confession, except that since he does not
believe it, it is not so. Since a virgin, in the natural order of things,
cannot conceive, and since, according to Gesenius and the Modernists, God could
not bring it to pass, she will not, she shall not conceive.
Isaiah may call this a sign from Jehovah, and Matthew may record the fulfilment
of the prophecy; the usage of the Old Testament may admittedly sustain the
contention of the virgin birth 100 per cent.; the allied languages may speak
with perfect unanimity; the learned “Seventy”
Hebrews who translated the Old Testament into Greek may stand with the rest;
not a voice is raised except in harmony with the translation “virgin”; every avenue has been explored,
every resource exhausted; the case is a sweeping victory for the faith once for
all delivered and for the virgin birth, and the learned Professor of Halle
University calmly admits it all.
But the one conclusive reason why it cannot be is, that the
professor is a neolist; he does not believe in the supernatural, and therefore
it cannot be.
Dr. Tregelles well remarks that to the believer Matthew’s
testimony is sufficient. Yet without
that, pious Jews always held the same interpretation, which they drew from the
context of Isaiah, that the word meant a virgin birth.
Examine this context:
1. God declares that this is to be His
own special “sign to
2. But suppose a “Youthful spouse recently married,” as per Gesenius,
should bring forth a son. That happens about once every two seconds in this
world. The prophet hardly wasted his words by such trifling, we trow.
3. Suppose an
unmarried young woman conceives naturally and brings forth a son. That would be
wickedness. Surely none will seriously claim that as Jehovah’s sign!
4. Perhaps some would suggest the
naming of his son “Immanuel,” which
means “God with
us.” But a majority of
old Hebrew proper names of men had the name of God or Jehovah as part of them.
It would be hard to convince a Jew that that could be God’s sign.
5. But the doing of what is utterly
unknown to nature, the bringing forth of a son by a virgin, who is a virgin and
who remains a
virgin, is and must be a divine work and a divine sign greater than which God never
gave, and
never will give, since that sign included His own
incarnation in human flesh, His own union with human nature.
And, that I may not lack the endorsement of the world’s
greatest authority on the Hebrew tongue and its cognate languages, let me close
with this statement, made privately in writing by Professor Robert Dick Wilson
of
“There is absolutely no evidence in
either Babylonian, Arabic, Aramaic, Syriac or Hebrew, for the use of Almah in the sense of ‘young married woman.’
I have looked up every passage in which it occurs in Hebrew and its equivalent
in the cognate languages, and I have sought in vain for any such usage. Dictionaries
are man-made. Demand the original source from anyone holding that a word means
so-and-so.”
- The King’s
Business.
-------
CHILD ATHEISTS
A circular has reached us from
-------
UNCONSCIOUS IMPRINTS
The Shunamite said to her husband
about Elisha: “Behold, now I perceive,
that this is a holy man of God, which passeth by us continually” (2 Kings 4: 9). Elisha himself was, in his life and spirit, the proof
of his message; if a Christian worker is not so, he has no right to - [be doing his Lord’s] - work; it is
what we are, and not what we say, which does the most for God. We leave behind
us, in every house we enter, some traces; traces
of God, traces of ourselves, or traces of the enemy. Some
Christians cannot enter a house without leaving behind a wonderful
consciousness of God’s nearness; but some leave behind traces of their own
personality - talent, will, energy, etc. Others, even [regenerate] believers, leave a strange, terrible unrest behind them; they have served the enemy by sowing
strife, bitterness, evil speaking, [and disrespect for their neighbours] - etc. O, never let us
never forget that, wherever we go, our message is gauged by what men see in the
messenger.
- Mrs. M. BAXTER.
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THE FEW
“The
long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was a preparing,
wherein few were saved” (1 Peter 3: 20). God waits for the multitudes: He saves few. “Prefer if you please, the
multitude drowned by the Flood; but allow me to
enter the
* *
* * *
* *
15
THE EDENIC CURSE AND
MODERN PROBLEMS +1
By D.
M. PANTON, B.A.
Christianity
is above all things a religion of fact. The deepest roots of our modern
problems and perplexities, their radical causes, were all laid bare in the dawn
of the world; and it is most wonderful to ponder how the first drama of the
human left forever a physical imprint - a visible transcript of the great facts
of the Fall - on a creation that has borne these stigmata ever since. The
sliding serpent, the travailing woman, the ‘sweated’ labourer, the thorny
hedge - that prohibits like spiked steel
- a four-fold curse has stamped on the physical realm a constant proof and revelation
of what happened in the spiritual realm. And so deeply intermixed and vitally
inter-related is the whole creation that all that has life - the human, the
animal, and the vegetable kingdoms, and indirectly the angelic above, and the
mineral below - once infected, plunged together into a common ruin.
THE SERPENT
The first blow of the descending Curse leaves the serpent an
utterly changed creature. There is no other animal which shows so sharp a
contrast between its keen, even cunning intellectual powers - the Saviour says,
“Be wise as serpents” (Matt. 10: 16) - and its creeping, writhing degradation and deformity. “Upon thy belly” - no longer the
noble, erect head of the animal creation, even as its deceiver had once been
the shining chief of the angelic hierarchies - “shalt thou go”;*
and the whole animal world plunged headlong with him - “cursed art thou above all cattle, and above every
beast of the field” (Gen. 3: 14). The serpent spoke, and lo, the first
recorded miracle of Satan: the serpent crawls, and behold the first recorded
miracle of God!** Our very
horror of a snake is an unceasing echo of the Fall. And the sharp, two-edged
sword out of the mouth of Jehovah
glances deeper, dividing asunder Satan and serpent, and serpent and Satan; a single
stroke flashes death and life; and the ruined Angel overhears in the serpent’s
curse a hidden prophecy with a fatal venom for himself. “It [the woman’s seed] shall bruise thy head” - a vital part, with a mortal blow - “and thou
shalt bruise his heel” - the crucified but unannihilated Christ, rising triumphant out of murder
by Satan. “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Prov.
18:
21) - how much more in God’s! in one
short clause is the doom of all the hellish, and the salvation of all the godly.
“Behold
then the goodness and the severity of
God” (Rom.
11:
22): judgment without mercy, and mercy unasked. So the very
crisis of the Fall held, in germ, Paul’s forecast - “The Lord
shall bruise Satan under
your feet” - the
wider seed, yet all included in the single Seed “shortly” (Rom.
16:
20).
* It seems probable that the Tree of
Knowledge was the Vine, which also now creeps and crawls, snake-like, and which
has been responsible for more sin than all other trees put together; for
knowledge and wine, both in themselves good, are abused, among the most
dangerous things of the world.
** “God in His
wisdom thought good so to blur and deface the mask whereby the Devil covered
his vileness, as to make the serpent an everlasting hieroglyph of the wicked spirit’s
execrable baseness, a glass for all future days wherein to behold his villainy”
(Mede).
THE WOMAN
The Lord God now turns to the Woman. The serpent’s gait caught
the blight: the woman’s stigma falls on her motherhood. “Unto the
woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy
sorrow” - thy
travail - “and conception” - in birth-intensity; “in sorrow thou shalt bring forth
children” - in the
bringing forth and the bringing up a mother’s griefs are full; “and thy
desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall
rule over thee” -
a subjection now passed into a servitude. No mere prophecy of woman’s
subordination, and alas, too often tragic degradation down the ages, but an
investiture of man with perpetual supremacy; as first of earth’s transgressors,
the woman now walks first in the train of earth’s mourners. Sorrow grips the
very birth of man; and, in the Woman, the Curse falls on the whole realm of
emotion. The woman’s susceptibility to temptation becomes the woman’s
susceptibility to sorrow. “She must pay the penalty of
her sin before she can rejoice in her child” (Chrysologus). Man thinks,
but woman feels; and it is full of poignant pathos that far the commonest
woman’s name in the Bible - they fairly cluster around the Cross (John 19: 25) - is Mary; and ‘Mary’ is supposed to be derived from ‘Marah,’ bitterness. The ancient classics - with
tragic truth, since the Curse - with one voice affirmed that tears are at the
root of things. Dr. A. B. Davidson, a great Hebrew scholar, was, a friend has
said, “a fervent and almost feminine soul, who took up
the long desolations of the world in the priesthood of a sympathetic
imagination, and whose only refuge was in the Most High.” “Do you ever,” he asked an intimate friend, “without any special reason for grief, fall into
uncontrollable weeping?” Then after a pause he added:- “just the other day I was alone; and there came such a sense
of the mystery, the uncertainty, the loneliness, the pathos of life, that I was
for a long time shaken by sobs which I was unable to control.”
Nevertheless in the travail is the Seed: “the memorial
of the deliverance and of the sin is one” (Bonar).
THE MAN
But the full blast of the Curse now falls on the responsible
head of the race, the bread-winner. “And unto Adam he said, “In the sweat of thy face”
- ‘in it,’ not ‘by it,’
for all are not manual labourers; but all shall eat in sweat of soul - “shalt thou” - for through Adam God is addressing
something unescapable by every human soul - “eat bread, until thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken”: a life of labour, and a doom of
death; through troops of evils to the king of terrors. All economic problems,
all the fret and turmoil of the labour world, all slaveries, class wars, and
fierce revolutions, are rooted here; all infirmaries, hospitals, lazarettoes,
madhouses; all plagues, monstrosities, abortions, physical hideousness:- the
modern world lies bare before the primal Curse. The primitive diet - fruit,
since strictly rationed by a Nature made niggard by the Curse - would,
springing out of world that was simply an orchard, be a lightening of
world-labour almost inconceivable.* But the
internal corruption is worse than the external scarcity. “Daily feeding upon an
accursed soil, we renew our dying frames for a while, but the repair is
never equal to the exhaustion; and while the atoms of matter remain intact,
they refuse to hold together in that organic compact, which serves the spirit’s
use: they part company, and go to do other work in the machinery of creation,
for ‘the dust returns to the
earth as it was.’”** In Adam, henceforth, is nothing but
death. One whole book of the Bible - Ecclesiastes - is a heart-broken comment on
this single utterance of God. We never see a corpse but we see the Curse.
How wonderful that in that doom of
death lay the only hope of a
* A physiological change probably passed
over man - as it certainly did, after the Flood, in the shortening of life -
permitting or compelling a herbal, and afterwards a flesh, diet.
** The Protoplast.
THE EARTH
But the whole creation is so one that the descent of a part -
or the redemption of a part - is the fall, or redemption, of all; and we never
enter a garden, but lo, in the soil itself, the Curse! “Cursed is the ground - your own original material - “for thy sake”; animals fell for Satan’s sake, earth
for man’s , man’s tragedy is not due to his being made of dust, but the dust’s
tragedy is due to man being made of it.* “Thorns also
and thistles shall it bring forth to thee”: sin’s new home must be a barren world with, as its
only spontaneous production, thorns**: the leper
must have a lazaretto. So all earth’s noxious products - the thorn, things
hurtful; the thistle, things worthless - all blight, mildew, rottenness; all
noxious and poisonous swamps; all deserts and wildernesses:- earth’s
desolations spring, not from earth, but from sin. Christ’s cursing of the fig
tree meant more than barrenness - it meant blight; and without the pardon of
the sin, there can be no cure of the blight.
* This forever disproves the ancient and
modern Gnostic’s contention that sin springs from matter, and is inherent in
it: the truth is the reverse - evil flows into matter from spirit, not into
spirit from matter.
** In the unfallen earth, man was to “dress and keep” the garden (Gen. 2: 15),
not to produce it.
FACTS
So the incalculably colossal mistake the world is making, and
largely the Church also, is the ignoring of these basic facts for life. Men,
doubting, or ignoring, or denying, or mocking Genesis, seek to solve earth’s problems
without the remotest reference to the awful words out of the mouth of the Most
High. But the world’s problems lie fathoms deeper than the attempted political,
social, economic, spiritual solutions; and the annihilating proof lies in a
very simple fact. No science, no reform, no legislation, no revolution can
re-erect the snake, remove the travail, assuage the sweat, stop the weed from
springing or revive the corpse: so long as these things are undone, the Curse
clings to the globe, and to mankind, like a robe of Nessus.* Earth’s Problems can alone be attacked, where Christ attacked them, in
the undoing of the Curse. In the words of Dr. Horatius Bonar:- “The first Adam’s connection with earth (being made of dust)
drew on it all evil when he fell; but the Second Adam’s connection with it -
for He also has a body formed out of it - shall undo the evil, cancel the
curse, and perfect earth again.”
* All man-made alleviations of the Curse
- anaesthetics, labour - lightening machinery, chemical manures, etc. - only
reveal a Curse too sore and deep for any to remove save Him who laid it. Man
may check the flow of tears but he cannot choke their fountain.
THE ANTAGONISM
Meanwhile, all present problems are met by the fact that, embedded in the
Curse itself, lies the first conversion, and all later conversions, in the
history of the world. “I will put ENMITY
between thee and the woman.” Eve had been in
open alliance with the Serpent; she had toyed with his temptations, and been
influenced by his reasonings, and acted on his suggestions: now suddenly, by
Divine, sovereign, electing grace, God sunders the alliance for ever, and makes
them enemies, for all eternity. The Curse is the cradle of the Church. For in
it God put a deathless hate of sin into our hearts: He ranged us up against
Hell and all its works: He divorced us from the creeping, crawling, revolting
abominations of Satan. He put an undying struggle into our breasts against the
seed of the Serpent in ourselves:
He put us for ever on the side of holiness and goodness and truth.
-------
At one time Bishop
Gobat, of
* *
* * *
* *
16
“They shall lay thy stones ...
in the midst of the water.” -
Ezekiel 26: 12.
The vast opulence of the City, as it was when Ezekiel wrote,
and before a breath of adversity had touched her, is minutely described by God
Himself. The carrying trade of the world almost in its entirety was in the
hands of the Tyrians, who were the chief of the Phoenicians, who in their turn
are said yo have been the most industrious and active people ever kown; and
Tyre herself was the emporium and depot of the world’s richest and rarest
products. Gold and precious stones from
In the epoch of Nebuchadnezzar Tyre had reached a maturity
which already, in a siege of five years, had withstood the whole might of the
Assyrian Empire. Nebuchadnezzar’s siege is described (Ezek. 26) long before it occurred with
the minuteness and accuracy of an eyewitness. Preliminary engagements first
subdue, by Nebuchadnezzar’s approaching forces, her ‘daughter cities’ on the
mainland (ver.
8). Then forts are constructed and mounds
raised from which the besiegers can batter the beleaguered city. Battering rams
next hammer the walls, and battleaxes assail the defenders from the scaling
troops; and the dust of the galloping cavary mantles the doomed city (ver.
9).
After a siege of thirteen years - Ezekiel had predicted that ‘every head’ would
be ‘made bald’ (Ezek. 27) -
“No traveller,” says Van de
Velde, “can visit this city without being completely
convinced that not one single word which the Lord hath said concerning
In this sample fulfilment for all time we learn one
peculiarity of Divine prophecy. As the birth of the Infant Christ is linked by
the Angels with His ascent of David’s throne, yet two thousand throneless years
have intervened; so, like an oak in an acorn, God packs all Tyre’s doom for two
thousand years into one vivid, apparently solid, prophecy. For God’s judgments
are always graded to the sin, and lingering in departing mercy. Over 200 years
before Nebuchadnezzar’s siege Joel foretold her judgment; then Isaiah in B.C.
712, Ezekiel in 590, and Zechariah in 457. Yet still judgment lingered. Again
and again
Far-call’d, our navies melt away;
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!
Embedded in this prophecy is a deep spiritual truth we need at
all costs not to miss. God says to Ezekiel:- “And thou, son of man” - flesh and blood as fallen as the Tyrian - “take up a lamentation for
* Our Lord’s words on Tyre’s more tolerable doom (Luke 10:
13,
Matt.
11:
22)
- for while the city has been judged, the citizens have yet to appear at the
bar of God - reveal a most carefully graded Hell. For guilt is measured, not so
much by sin, as by light; and a land where Christ is taught has a ladder up to
Heaven, but also a precipice into a deeper Hell. If
OUR ILLUSTRATIONS
We are indebted for our pictures of
[* The 3 photographs shown in The Dawn Magazine Vol. 3.]
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WATCHFUL SHEPHERDS
There are two sorts of persons noted for finding out Christ
more eminently than others, the shepherds before all others, after He was born,
and Mary Magdalen the first of all men and women, as far as we read, after His
resurrection. The Shepherds, were vouchsafed their blessing, because they watched by night, a hard
task if you consider the time of the year; and Mary, was so prosperous because she rose very early in the morning
to seek her Lord. It is hard to say whether ever she slept one wink for
care and grief, since the Passion of our Saviour; and God knows who shall be the first that finds Him at His second coming in
Glory, when He shall come also like
a thief in the night; but whosoever he be, this I am sure of, he must be none of them that sleep in
gluttony, that are heavy with
surfeiting and drunkenness, with
chambering and wantonness; he must watch or be fit to waken
to find the Lord.
- BISHOP HACKET.
* *
* * *
* *
17
THE COMING WORK
OF THE HOLY GHOST + 2
By D.
M. PANTON,
B.A.
It is an
inexplicable omission over the whole range of prophetic study that there is an
almost total unawareness of the colossal coming work of the Holy Ghost.
Throughout the Prophets no prediction of the Spirit’s action is more precise,
more positive, more lucid, more comprehensive than Joel’s forecast of a double
Pentecost - the Christian dispensation clasped at both ends, like a jewel, in a
bracelet of miracle. Like the imminent Advent, this coming downpour- whether
after [selective] rapture or before - is a star ahead that never wanes; an electric flare in
the blackest midnight that earth will ever see; a revival so sure that prayer
for it is an ease and a delight; an output of the mercy of God second only to
Calvary.
ALL FLESH
The first great fact that God Himself emphasizes is the
universality of the effusion. “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I
will pour out My Spirit”
- not distil, but pour
forth in great abundance (Calvin); not in driblets, but in floods not in
isolated prophets, but in miraculous assemblies: as Paul says, “the Holy
Ghost which He poured out upon us abundantly”
(Titus 3:
6)
- “upon ALL
FLESH” (Joel 2: 28) - that is, all without distinction, not all without
exception. Since ‘flesh,’ in Scripture, is the
antithesis, not of race to race, but of mankind to God and to the spirit-world,
what is foretold is a world-wide effusion: “all flesh” - all mankind, as the Hebrew
expression denotes (Prof. J. J. Given, D.D.) - is a description never used in
any smaller application than to the whole of humanity (Campbell Morgan, D.D.).* All races, Jew and Gentile; both sexes, sons and daughters; all ages, young and old; all classes, bond and
free:- God exhausts Himself (I had almost said) by giving first His Son, and
then His Spirit, to the whole human race.
* “ ‘All flesh’ is the name for
all mankind. The words ‘all flesh’ are in the Pentateuch, and in one place in Daniel, used in
a yet wider sense, of everything which has life; but, in no one case, in any
narrower sense. It does not include every individual in the race, but it
includes the whole race, and individuals throughout it” (Pusey).
A FUTURE DOWNPOUR
Now we know, on the authority of the Spirit Himself, that at
Pentecost, and in the miracle-gifted assemblies of the Apostolic Church, this
vast prophecy found an initial fulfilment: “THIS,” says Peter, “IS THAT”
(Acts 2:
16): and so it is applied both by Peter
(here) and Paul (Rom. 10: 13) to the ‘last days’ in the sense (Heb. 1: 2) of the Gospel Age. But the
context of Joel, as well as Peter’s own quotation, makes it certain that both
ends of the Christian Age receive the effusion. “It is
not the first coming of Christ,” says Dean Alford, “which interpretation would run counter to the whole tenour
of the Apostle’s application of the prophecy: - but clearly, His second coming.”
For (1) Joel’s immediately
succeeding verse
(3:
1)
fastens down the date to the Second Advent:- “for behold, in those days, and in that time” - the epoch of the effusion - “I shall bring again the captivity of
* Verse 28 of Joel
2, in our Bible, is verse 1 of chapter 3 in the Hebrew Bible.
The notice as to the time in 3: 1, 2, points back to the ‘afterward’ in 2: 28 ‘in those days,’
namely, the days of the outpouring of the Spirit of God” (Keil and Delitzsch).
** “When Peter
says, ‘This is that’, he indeed maintains that the prophecy is fulfilled on the
present occasion; yet not that it has here exclusively and in all points
completely received its fulfilment, or that the fulfilment is limited to the
present time” (Lange).
MIRACLE
Now one feature of the effusion - namely miraculous
inspiration - marks it off sharply from all other secret and age-long
activities of the [Holy] Spirit.
“Your
sons and your daughters [Jews] shall
PROPHESY” - the word means, not simply to predict future events, but to
announce the revelations of God (Lange): they had just heard the ‘tongues’ that proved the [Holy] Spirit’s illapse - “your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: and also” - as an
unprecedented thing, for there is no instance throughout the Old Testament of
the [Holy] Spirit ever falling on a slave - “upon the
servants and the handmaids [Gentiles]” - ‘my servants and my handmaidens,’ Peter substitutes,
to show that they are mainly, if not altogether, converted Gentiles - “in those days will I pour out my Spirit” - a repeated prediction, that the
tremendous fact may soak into our minds. Jehovah Himself has given this triple
definition of miraculous seizure:- “If there be a PROPHET among you, I, the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, I will speak with him in a dream” (Num.
12:
6). This is strictly cognate with other
prophecies of restored miracle:- immediate inspiration, without forethought (Mark 13: 11); miracle-gifted
overthrowers of demonic miracle (2 Tim. 3: 9); gigantic judgment-miracles yet to be (Rev. 11: 6); together with a general in-break of a miraculous order.*
* So Jas. 5:
7.
The habitual failure of prophecies - except such trivial predictions as are
based on supernatural knowledge of data on which to base inferences - is one of
the many proofs, which it shares with Montanism and Irvingism, that the Tongues
Movement is not what it claims to be
- the Latter Rain. There has been no ‘wonder’ in
these movements which is not a commonplace of the Spiritualistic séance.
THE OUTPOURING AND THE JUDGMENTS
Both the Prophet and the Apostle so intertwine and interlock
the effusion and the Second Advent judgments as to put beyond all doubt that
Pentecost did not exhaust the prediction,*
and also to reveal, to a limit almost incredible, the mercy of God. “And I will
show wonders in the heavens” - to challenge thought, and rouse fear - “and in the earth” -
to sting into action - “blood and fire and pillars of smoke: the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood
before” - therefore this
is the series of violent convulsions that precede
the Great Tribulation (Rev.
6:
12), not the series that close it (Matt. 24: 29) - “the great and terrible” - the [Holy] Spirit here changes ‘terrible’ into ‘manifest,’ world-wide; the visible ‘epiphany’ of the Lord - “day of the Lord come”;
“and whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord,” Joel adds, “shall be
delivered.” Great
terrors will mingle with mighty salvations: the terrors create the salvations: in the earlier phases of the
last judgments, judgment and redemption go hand in hand: not until the last section of the fearful
catastrophes does judgment abandon hope of salvation. “When thy
judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness”
(Isa.
26:
9). For it is to a world’s wreck,
shuddering and foundering, and as it actually takes its final
plunge, that God’s lifeboat draws its closest and
picks up great masses of sinking humanity. In the old world’s last
hours, and up to the very brink of Hell, “mercy rejoiceth against judgment”
(Jas.
2:
13).**
* “Peter
includes in his quotation this element of the prophecy, because its
realization, conditioned by the outpouring of the [Holy] Spirit which necessarily preceded it, presented itself
likewise as belonging to the allotted portion of the ‘last days’” (A. W. Meyer).
** For two-thirds of the Apocalyptic judgments are meant
to be remedial, for they are
punctuated with the refrain - “and they repented
not” (Rev. 9: 20, 16: 9): it is only during the final third, from
which this refrain disappears, that the judgments, like hell, become purely
punitive.
SALVATION
Finally, the glorious results of this climax of salvation in
the history of the universe is revealed in Joel’s ultimate verse (3: 1), as expounded and expanded by our Lord. “Before Him
shall be gathered all the nations: and He shall separate them” - them (masculine) as individuals, not as nations
(neuter) - “as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats”,
(Matt.
25:
32); massed nations, in colossal
multitudes, assembled to right and to left. Behold the post-Church work of the
Holy Ghost! The whole world’s population is gathered before the Lord: on his
right, some hundreds of millions, if the separated masses are at all balanced
and commensurate;* saved, for the
Judge pronounces them ‘blest,’ and
subject-nations of Millennial rule, and regenerate, because our Lord’s rebuke
to Nicodemus (John 3:
10) implies that there has never been,
and never will be, salvation without regeneration; but not saved by the Gospel,
and therefore the fruit of the work of the Holy Ghost after - [the
coming select (Rev. 3: 10; Luke 21: 34-36) and
pre-tribulation] -
rapture, for they are judged with a highly peculiar judgment of their own;
multitudes, we know, enormous enough to stock the Millennial earth at the
opening of the Kingdom*:- it is a work
of the Holy Ghost totally unparalleled for any single generation in the history
of the world**.
* How such vast numbers survive
Antichrist’s reign of terror is one of the most difficult problems of the
Apocalypse; but of the fact our Lord’s statement is final
proof.
** Besides these, (1) Israel’s 144,000 in the Wilderness, out of the reach of
Antichrist (Rev.
7:
4);
(2) The Jewish ‘least brethren’ throughout all lands; the criterion of
Gentile judgment (Matt. 25: 40); (3)
such martyrs under Antichrist as are not, as unrapt Christians, survivors from
an earlier age (Rev.
20:
4):-
all these are further fruits of the outpoured [Holy] Spirit, in His last and mightiest
work of world-redemption.
*** One point of surpassing interest - the exact date of
the downpour - does not seem to be revealed. Since rain is used as an analogy,
and the first shower fell at Pentecost, must not the second shower follow and
not precede the reforming of the cloud in the heavenlies? or (to drop the
metaphor) the Holy Ghost is now on earth, and His first descent was at
Pentecost: must not His second descent follow and not precede His removal with
the first rapt (2
Thess. 2: 7)? Can He be said to ‘descend’ (as a downpour) while He is still on the earth? Certain
is it that it is after the Judgment Throne is set (Rev. 4: 1), or the removal of the Throne
of Grace, that the Holy Ghost is described as “the
Seven Spirits sent forth into all the earth” (Rev. 5: 6). Yet it is also explicitly
stated (Joel
2: 31)
to be “before the great
and terrible day of the Lord,” or the Great Tribulation, which is the
closing three and a half years of a judgment epoch of unknown duration.
-------
A GRAND DUCHESS AND HER ENEMIES
The following poem, says Mr. Maurice Baring, was found in a
copy-book belonging to the late Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, daughter of the Emperor of Russia, in her
handwriting. The book was found at Ekaterinburg, and the poems were published
in the late N. A. Sokoloff’s detailed report, which is entitled “The Murder of the Imperial Family.” There can be
little doubt that the poem was composed by the late Grand Duchess. She was
known to write verse, and the internal evidence, both as regards style and
subject matter, seems conclusive. I have been asked to translate them into
English, and I have attempted a literal translation in prose.
Send us, Lord, endurance,
In the day of darkness and storm.
To bear the persecution of the people,
And the pains of our Tormentors.
Give us strength, God of Justice,
To forgive our brother’s trespass,
And with Thy meekness to bear
The heavy, the bloody Cross.
And in the day of tumult,
When our enemies despoil us,
Help us, Christ, Our Saviour,
To bear the shame and the affront.
Lord of the world, God of the
Universe,
Hear our prayer,
Give peace to our soul
In the dreadful, unbearable hour.
And on the threshold of the grave,
Breathe on the lips of Thy servants
The more than mortal strength
To pray meekly for their enemies.
-------
THE SECRET OF WARMTH
Two brothers were journeying together on a bitterly cold day,
when they suddenly came across a traveller, apparently frozen to death, lying
by the wayside. At once one of the brothers stopped, and began to rub the
stiffened limbs of the poor victim, with such success that not only did the man
recover, but he himself became so warm as to be obliged to strip off his coat.
His brother, who had called him a fool for stopping on such a cold day, left
him behind; but was found some distance further on, himself frozen to death. If
our hearts .are growing cold in the service of Christ, the best way to get warm
is to try to help another soul out of trouble.
- LIYOH-HAN, -a
Chinese Evangelist.
* *
* * *
* *
18
THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD + 2
One of
the most peculiar titles our Lord ever applied to Himself, and one which seems
the most morally unlikely and incorrect, is the Light of the World. He has always been the light of His
saints, and the illumination of His Church; and the age is hastening of which
Isaiah says, - “Arise shine, for thy LIGHT IS COME” (Isa.
60:
1), the Age when “the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the
waters cover the sea”.
But Jesus, in the Gospels, says something much more difficult: “I am” - not, I will be “the light of the world,” and not of
the Church only. So the Apostle John says, “There was the light which lighteth every
man”; a
light, John says (John 1:
9), which came into the world at
JOSEPHUS
For we have concrete proof that the
Lord really and literally is the Light of the World. We start with the first
century: with a priest of the
SPINOZA
We overleap a thousand years, and come to Spinoza; not, like
Josephus, an orthodox Israelite, but an apostate Jew; the father of modern
Pantheism. It has been said that he who really knows what has been written by
Spinoza and Strauss knows all that can be said against Christianity. What then
does Spinoza say? “Jesus Christ,” he says “was the
DIDEROT AND ROUSSEAU
We overleap another half a thousand years and, from the French
Revolution, take two only of the creators of this tremendous epoch. Diderot,
who laid the dragon’s egg of the Terror, said:- “I
know nobody who could write as these Scriptures are written. This is a Satan of
a book. I defy anyone to prepare a tale so simple, so sublime and touching, as
that of the passion of Jesus Christ.” Rousseau says:- “Is it possible that a Book so simple and at once so sublime
should be merely the work of man? Is it possible that the Sacred Personage
whose history it contains should be Himself a mere man? When Plato describes his imaginary just man,
loaded with all the punishments of guilt, yet meriting the highest rewards of
virtue, he describes exactly the character of Jesus Christ, and the resemblance
is so striking that all the Church Fathers perceived it. If the life and death
of Socrates were those of a sage, the life and death of Jesus were those of a
God.” On these men of desperate wickedness, such was the light that
poured from Christ that it would be difficult for a Christian to surpass their
language of eulogy.
NAPOLEON
We pass to one of the greatest minds, and to one of the most
wicked men on the grand scale, of all history. Here is Napoleon on
STRAUSS AND RENAN
Finally, though the list could be
greatly extended, from the nineteenth century we take but two names, again from
the ranks of total rejecters of the Gospel. Strauss, the German author of the
mythical theory of our Lord, who was buried without a syllable of Christian prayer
or song, says:- “Jesus represents within the religious
sphere the highest point, beyond which humanity cannot go - yea, whom it cannot
equal, inasmuch as everyone who hereafter should climb to the same height could
only do so with the help of Jesus who first attained it. He remains the highest
model of religion within our thought, and no perfect piety is possible without
His presence in the heart.” Renan, the apostate French monk, who totally
abandoned the Christian Faith, says:- “Whatever may be
the surprises of the future, Jesus will never be surpassed. His worship will
grow young without ceasing; His legend will call forth tears without end; His
sufferings will melt the noblest hearts: all ages will proclaim that among the
sons of men there is none born greater than Jesus.” Once again, therefore, the standard of moral
right, the model of moral character, the ideal of human life, remains, to these
infidels never uninfidel, Jesus of Nazareth, the LIGHT Of THE WORLD.
FAITH
Such concessions made to the character of Christ, such
appreciations of the Lord, make unbelief simply impossible. For we cannot stop there. It is illogical, it is
mentally impossible, to pause forever at only a partial, a qualified, rejection
of Christ. He was either less than a truthful man, or He was more than a man
altogether: for He says He was more than a man. His enemies being the judges, His character
compels, either discipleship, or deadly enmity. The multitude that acclaimed
Him Elijah of Jeremiah murdered Him. For when the conscience is on the side of
Christ, but the will is not, the will ultimately murders the conscience, and
would (if it could) murder Christ; whereas when the will follows conscience, it
enthrones Christ. Admiration is useless: faith SAVES.
-------
SUNSET
When on my day of life the night is
falling,
And, in the winds from unsunn’d spaces
blow,
I hear far voices out of darkness
calling
My feet to paths unknown.
Thou who hast made my house of life so
pleasant,
Leave not its tenant when its walls
decay;
O Love Divine, O Helper ever present,
Be Thou my strength and stay.
Be hear me when all else
is from Thee drifting,
Earth, sky, home’s pictures, days of
shade and shine,
And kindly faces to my own uplifting
The love which answers mine.
I have but Thee, My Father! let Thy
Spiit
Be with me then to comfort and uphold;
Nor street of shining gold.
Suffice it if - my good and ill
unreckon’d,
And both forgiven through abounding
grace -
I find myself by hands familiar
beckon’d
Unto my fitting place:
Some humble door among Thy many
mansions,
Some shelt’ring shade where sin and
strife cease,
And flows forever through heaven’s
green expansions
The
There, from the music round about me
stealing,
I fain would learn the new and holy
song,
And find at last, beneath Thy trees of
healing,
The life for which I long.
-------
NEITHER MINE NOR THINE
As for each one of us personally, let us not think of
ourselves apart from Christ, nor of Christ apart from us. Let George Herbert’s
prayer be ours:-
“Oh, be mine
still, still make me thine;
Or rather make nor mine nor
thine.”
Let mine melt
into thine. Oh to have joint stock with Christ,
and to trade under one name; to be married to Christ and lose our old name, and
wear His name, and say, “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” As the wife is lost in the husband,
and the stone in the building, and the branch in the vine, and the member in
the head, we would be so amalgamated with Christ, and have such fellowship with
Him, that there shall be no more mine nor thine.
- C. H. SPURGEON.
* *
* * *
* *
19
THE SINGLE SEED + 3
[Mr. Mr. Wormauld’s second question -
the first was dealt with in our last issue - is this:-
“How can Paul
argue as he does (Gal. 3: 15) when there is no
case, in the Word of God,
where the singular form of
‘seed’ is not used?” - [D. M. PANTON].]
Abraham
moves to the plain of Moreh. The Lord appears to Abraham and says:- “To thy seed
will I give this land”: Gen. 12: 7. Here first appears the promise to the seed, and here
Abraham’s self is not named.
Who then is the seed? The Judaists would say:- “The children of
He quotes from a covenant in which God has named together
Abraham and his seed. This is shown by his saying - “And to thy
seed.”
What, then, is the passage to which he refers? At this point
many commentators have stumbled, as if the apostle’s argument were a mere
quibble; seeing that “seed” in the Hebrew is not used in the plural to denote the posterity of any;
and that the word “Seed” in the singular,
generally means many descendants. Now this is true. But the objectors have
omitted to study on this point the covenants with Abraham, or they would have
seen the truth and force of the inspired statement. Let us then look at the
covenant cited.
It is that given in Gen. 13: 14-17. God was well pleased with
Abraham’s conduct in his interview with
In this covenant, then, we have promises to Abraham and his
seed, as Paul says; and we have the very words:- “And to thy seed.” What, then, is the Seed here spoken
of? Is it not Abraham’s numerous heirs? Are they not here Spoken of as “many”? So many as to be incapable of being
numbered? Had we not Paul’s inspired comment, we should have thought that but
one Seed, and that a numerous one, was spoken of. But his argument shows the
mind of God to be more profound in this matter than we should have anticipated.
It is true then, that in “the seed as the dust of the earth” we have Abraham’s plural seed. But
the apostle teaches, that where the word “seed” alone occurs, without additions which
prove it to be plural, there an individual is intended; and that individual is
Christ.
Now, in the passage before us there is such a clause. “To thee will
I give it, and to thy Seed.” Here, says the inspired writer, by
the word “Seed,” one person alone is intended by God.
We establish this more firmly, and show the reasonableness of
Paul’s statement, by bringing into comparison with it, a passage from the
covenant of circumcision, on which the Judaizers rested. “I will
establish my covenant between Me and thee and thy Seed after thee in their
generations:” 17: 7. “I will give unto
thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger.”
To which of the two seeds is the land here promised? To the
single or to the plural seed? Not to the plural; but to the singular. “The land
which thou seest to thee will I give it and to
thy seed.” To the
plural seed the land is not promised, but innumerability. Here, the posterity
like the dust of earth is named for the first time. But the “One Seed” is
thrice named in the covenants up to Genesis 25., and thrice is the land promised to
it: 12: 7; 14: 15; 15: 18.
The plural seed like
the stars are named in Gen. 15., but the is not promised to them.
Opponents of Paul rested their cause on the land’s being
promised to the plural circumcised seed of Gen. 17. That was a promise which depended on their obedience to the covenant. But
Again:- “Thou shalt keep My covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee
in their generations.” Here the seed referred to is not Christ, the individual. The plural
circumcised seed of Abraham’s flesh are the persons intended. Christ is not the
“seed” after Abraham, but before him. “Before
Abraham was born, I am.”
Moreover, Christ is not Abraham’s seed of the earth, but the
One that came down from heaven. The Saviour thus distinguishes between Himself
and
The argument, then, of the apostle, as soon as we bring into
view the history of Abraham, and the covenants with him, becomes quite
reasonable. Abraham had a numerous family:-
1. In fact (1) Ishmael; (2) Isaac; (3)
his sons by Keturah, the sons of the concubines: Gen. 25.
2. In prophecy and promise. He was to
have two posterities: (1) one innumerable as the dust of earth; (2) the other,
innumerable as the stars of the heaven. “Do, then, the
promises belong equally to all Abraham’s numerous family, of fact and of
promise?” No! The terms of the ratified covenant of Genesis 15. point to an individual and that individual is Christ.
Jesus in the mind of God is so pre-eminently “THE SEED” of Abraham, that in His presence the other numerous seeds not
named, save with some mark of discrimination. Thus Matthew’s Gospel begins:- “The book of
the generation of Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham.” “The Seed” then, taken absolutely, is always
Christ. So “the resurrection” in the New Testament, is the blessed, the select one.
And it may be added, in confirmation, that “seed” occasionally means an individual, Eve
called her son’s name Seth, “For God, said she,
hath appointed me another seed, instead of Abel, whom Cain
slew:” Genesis
4: 25; also 3: 15.
-------
AMBASSADORS
Is the ambassador of an earthly
potentate at liberty to decline the duty which he has deliberately undertaken,
and with which he has been instructed, on account of obloquy or even danger
attending the faithful performance of it? or is he at liberty to alter or
modify the terms of his instructions in order to shield himself from reproach
or from peril? Assuredly not. And shall the ambassadors of the King of kings venture to tamper with and
distort the message which they were commissioned to deliver? Shall they presumptuously attempt to amend
the terms on which the Lord of heaven and earth declares that He will treat
with His rebellious subjects? or
shall they leave out of the proclamation whatever it may be unpleasant to these
subjects to hear? - P. HOPE, B.D.
-------
LOVE WINS
In the prison at
-------
Jesus! Jesus! let us ever say it
Softly to ourselves as some sweet
spell;
Jesus! Jesus! troubled spirit, lay it
On
thy heart and it will bake thee well.
Many names are dear, but His is
dearer,
How it grows more dear as life goes
on!
Many friends are near, but He is
nearer,
Always what we want, and all our own.
* *
* *
* * *
20
THE TRUTHFULNESS OF
THE APOCALYPSE + 1
By J. A. SEISS, D.D.
The
first thing we are called on to note is, the absolute truth and certainty of
these Revelations. There is nothing in which the difference of the Scriptures
from all other teachings is more manifest than in the positiveness and
authority with which they deliver themselves on all subjects; even where reason
can tell us nothing, and where the presentations are so marvellous as to
stagger belief. Even where angels would scarce dare to tread, it enters with
perfect freedom, as upon its own home domain, and declares itself with all that
assured certainty which belongs only to omniscience. Even with regard to all
the astounding and seemingly impossible wonders of this Book, the absolute
truth of every jot and tittle is guaranteed with the abounding fulness of the
completest knowledge of everything involved.
Thrice is it repeated, that these presentations are faithful
and true (Rev.
19:
9; 21:
5; 22: 6); and twice is it affirmed that these
showings are all from God. In the opening of the Book it is said, that He “sent His
angel to His servant John” for the purpose of making these revelations, and here, at the
conclusion, we have it repeated that “the Lord the God of the spirits of
the prophets sent His angel to show to His servants what things must come to
pass.” Nay more,
Christ himself adds special personal testimony to the fact “I, Jesus, sent my angel to
testify to you these things.” Thus the very God of all inspiration, and of all inspired men,
reiterates and affirms the highest authority for all that is herein written.
Either, then, this Book is nothing but a base and blasphemous
forgery, unworthy of the slightest respect of men, and specially unworthy of a
place in the Sacred Canon; or it is one of the most directly inspired and
authoritative writings ever given. But a forgery it cannot be. All the Churches
named in its first chapters, from the earliest periods succeeding the time of
its writing, with one accord, accepted and honoured it as from their beloved
Apostolic Father. Papias, Bishop of
Hieropolis, a disciple of
* Dr. South, in one of his sermons,
affirms that none but a madman will meddle with the Revelation; or, if he has wits
at the beginning, before he has done he will be crazy.
In the opening verses the inspired
writer said “Blessed is he who readeth, and
those who hear the words of the prophecy, and
observe the things which are written in it.” But here the Saviour himself, even he
whose nearing Apocalypse these records were given to describe, says, in a voice
uttered from His glorious throne in heaven, “Blessed is he that keepeth the words
of the prophecy of this Book.” Is there another Book in the holy Canon so intense, so
emphatic, so constant, so full from end to end, in its expressions of the good
to be gained and the ill to be avoided by the hearing and learning of its own
particular presentations? It is precisely as if the Saviour knew and foresaw, as
he certainly did, what neglect, prejudice and mis-treatment this Book would
encounter in the later ages of the Church, and how it and the students of it,
and especially the believers in its wonderful descriptions, would be
ridiculed, avoided, and put aside,
[ostracised] as not in the line of proper and
wholesome edification.
Will its critics say that it is too difficult a Book for them
to understand? This would only be adding insult to their unfaithfulness. Dare
we suppose that the merciful Jesus would hang his benedictions so high as to be
beyond the reach of those to whom they are so graciously proposed? Would He
mock us by suspending His offered blessings on terms beyond our power? Yet this
is the charge men bring against their Redeemer when they think to plead the
incomprehensibility of this Book for their neglect and practical rejection of
it. The very propounding of these blessings and rewards is God’s own seal to
the possibility of understanding this Book equally with any other part of
Scripture.
Let men estimate us and our work as they please, we have here
the unmistakable authority of heaven for it, that this Apocalypse is capable of
being understood; that its presentations are among the most momentous in all
the Word of God, and that the highest blessedness of believers is wrapped up
with the learning and keeping of what is pictured to us in it. And if
Christians would rise to the true comfort of their faith, if they would possess
themselves of a right philosophy of God’s purposes and providence, if they
would be guarded against the greatest dangers and most subtle deceptions of the
Old Serpent, if they would really know what Redemption means, and what the
height and glory of their calling is, let them not despise or neglect this
crowning Book of the New Testament, but study its pages, take its statements as
they read, get its stupendous visions into their understandings, treasure its
words in their hearts, and believe and know that it is comprehensible for all
who are really willing to be instructed in these mighty themes. It is in our understanding of them before they come to pass that the
blessedness lies; for when once Christ comes in the scenes
of his Apocalypse, the time to begin
to put ourselves in readiness for it will be past.
-------
UNANSWERED YET
Unanswer’d yet ? the prayer your lips
have pleaded
In agony of heart these many years?
Does faith begin to fail; is hope
departing
And think you all in vain those
falling tears.
Say not the Father hath not heard your
prayer,
You shall have your desire, sometime,
somewhere.
Unanswer'd yet? though when you first
presented
This one petition at the Father’s
throne,
It seem’d you could not wait the time
of asking,
So urgent was your heart to make it
known;
Though years have pass’d since then,
do not despair,
The Lord will answer you sometime,
somewhere.
Unanswer'd yet? nay, do not say
ungranted,
Perhaps your part is not yet wholly
done,
The work began when first your prayer
was utter’d,
And God will finish what He has begun.
If you will keep the incense burning
there,
His glory you shall see, sometime,
somewhere.
Unanswer’d yet? Faith cannot be
unanswer’d,
Her feet were firmly planted on the
Rock;
Amid the wildest storms she stands
undaunted,
Nor quails before the loudest thunder
shock.
She knows Omnipotence has heard her
prayer,
And cries, ‘It
shall be done’ sometime, somewhere.
- E. B. BROWNING.
* *
* * *
* *
21
THE DEMONIC GIFT OF TONGUES + 3
By GEORGE KENNAN
[In view of the deplorable
ignorance of things supernatural among the great body of Christian folk,
it cannot be made too widely known that the gift of ‘tongues,’ a solemn mockery of the golden and
intensely covetable charisma of the Church of the Apostles, is
the most widespread of all Satanic phenomena, in witchcraft, in
pagan oracles, in heathen temples and prophethoods, in
demonic movements like Montanism, in Spiritualism, in
neurotic manias and frenzies, and in demon possession. The
first miracle Satan ever wrought was the gift of tongues (Gen. 3: 1). We append, as an illustration, an extract sent us by Mr. Ralph
C. Norton and taken from Mr. George Kennan’s Tent
Life in Siberia. - [Ed. [D. M. Panton.]].
As I was
sitting alone in the house one morning, drinking tea, I was interrupted by the
sudden entrance of a Russian Cossack named Kolmagorof. He seemed to be
unusually sober and anxious about something, and as soon as he had bowed and
bade me good morning, he turned to our Cossack Vushine, and began in a low
voice to relate to him something which had just occurred, and which seemed to
be of great interest to them both. Owing to my imperfect knowledge of the
language, and the low tone in which the conversation was carried on, I failed
to catch its purport; but it closed with an earnest request from Kolmagorof
that Vushine should give him some article of clothing, which I understood to be
a scarf or tippet. Vushine immediately went to a little closet in one corner of
the room, where he was in the habit of storing his personal effects, dragged
out a large seal-skin bag, and began searching in it for the desired article.
After pulling out three or four pairs of fur boots, a lump of tallow, some
dog-skin stockings, a hatchet, and a bundle of squirrel-skins, he finally
produced and held up in triumph one-half of an old, dirty, moth-eaten woollen
tippet, and handing it to Kolmagorof, he resumed his search for the missing
piece. This also he presently found, in a worse state of preservation, if
possible, than the other. They looked as if they had been discovered in the bag
of some poor rag-picker who had fished them up out of a gutter in the Five
Points. Kolmagorof tied the two pieces together, wrapped them up carefully in
an old newspaper, thanked Vushine for his trouble, and, with an air of great
relief, bowed again to me, and went out. Wondering what use he could
make of such a worn, dirty, dilapidated article of clothing as that which he
had received, I applied to Vushine for a solution of the mystery. “What did he want
that tippet for?” I inquired; it isn’t good for anything. “I know,”
replied Vushine, “it is a miserable old thing; but there is no
other in the village, and his
daughter has got the ‘Anadyrski bol’
(Anadyrsk sickness).” “Anadyrski bol!” I repeated, in astonishment,
never having heard of the disease in question; “what has the ‘Anadyrski bol’ got to do with an old tippet?”
“Why, you see, his daughter has asked for a tippet, and as she has the Anadyrsk sickness, they must get one for her. It don’t make any difference about its being old.”
This struck me as being a very
singular explanation of a very curious performance, and I proceeded to question
Vushine more closely as to the nature of this strange disease, and the manner
in which an old moth-eaten tippet could afford relief. The information which I
gathered was briefly as follows: The “Anadyrski bol,”
so called from its having originated at Anadyrsk, was a peculiar form of
disease, resembling very much the modern spiritual “trance,”
which had long prevailed in North-eastern
-------
SPIRIT TESTS
It is of incalculable significance that the leaders of the
Tongues Movement have always steadily declined to put the commanded challenge
on the enfleshment of the Jehovah Christ to their visiting spirit; and while
willing (they claim) that the test should be put by others, it is never to be put, and never has been put, by themselves. It ought to be obvious that the
person to whom the spirit comes is the person whom God expects to test him. The
Holy Ghost says:- “Believe not every spirit, but PROVE the spirits, whether they are of God: every spirit which confesseth”
- in response to the
‘proof’ thus applied - “that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God” (1 John 4:
1).
It is not profession, but confession, which reveals. In view of our profound ignorance in the
presence of spirits of untold age and unknown subtilty, and of utterly untested
character; in view of the hordes of demons now known to be besetting the Church
and the world; in view of the vast deceptions accomplished in past ages by such
movements as Montanism and Irvingism which, by collapsed prophecies and
ultimate extinction, proved themselves branches of a hydra-headed spiritism;
and in view of the awful claim made - that it is the Holy Ghost:- it is amazing
indeed that devoted [regenerate] Christians, in scores of thousands, can so neglect a
command of God.
REFUSAL TO TEST
But a much graver stage has now been reached. For the first
time (so far as we know) the Johannine test, as one challenge for an
approaching spirit, is denied in toto by a
leading organ of the movement. “We submit,” says Trust
(Nov. and Dec.,1926), “that there is absolutely no ground for the practice of
definitely challenging a spirit with a direct question, ‘Is Jesus Lord?’ or ‘Is Jesus come in the flesh?’” Secret prayer, says the writer - of which the Apostle says
nothing - will be efficacious in drawing the truth from the spirit in a
spontaneous avowal. This is a most remarkable admission that the test has never been put.
EVASION
The human evasion is manifestly a spell cast by an invariable
demonic evasion. “We all knelt in prayer,” says
Joseph Sladen, “and soon the speaker with tongues
began with a beautiful melodious voice under the control of a spirit. I rose,
and demanded of the spirit inspiring the lady - ‘Has Jesus come in the flesh?’ No answer was given by the spirit. After a short interval
the lady again knelt, and in an impassioned prayer expressed her belief that
Jesus Christ had come in the flesh. Some weeks after, she said to me - ‘The reason why you had no
reply to your question was the spirit had left me when you put the question.’ Shortly after, I put the
test again. ‘Do let the spirit get
complete control of me,’ she said, ‘before you put the question
to the spirit’; and shortly commenced to speak in a tongue. Again there was no reply to
my question. Some days after, she told me - ‘The spirit left me before you asked the question,’”
-------
A SAVING CREED
Its pragmatic proof establishes the Christian Faith; for the
creed that saves is the creed that is divine. Here is the
creed of an evangelist - J. Wilbur Chapman, D.D. - which brought
untold thousands to Christ and a holy life, in actual fact and operation.
I believe in God, infinite, eternal,
unchangeable.
I believe the Bible to be the Word of
God.
I believe in the deity of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
I believe in His virgin birth.
I believe in salvation by divine
sacrifice.
I believe in His physical resurrection
from the dead.
I believe in the universality and
heinousness of sin and in salvation by grace.
I believe in the personality and deity
of the Holy Spirit.
I believe in the great commission,
which our Lord has given to His church.
I believe that some day, I know not
when, our Lord is coming back again
to establish His world-wide kingdom on
the earth.
I believe in a heaven of eternal bliss
and in conscious and eternal punishment hereafter.
* *
* * *
* *
22
THE CHALLENGE OF
A DEFERRED ADVENT + 4
That there are scoffers at the Second
Advent within the
* Dr. C. Williams, The
Coming End of the Age, p.
9. A reasoned rejection of the Second Advent has just been issued by
the Christian
World (Sept. 2, 1926); and,
bearing in mind that ‘Greek thought’ is only another name for heathen unbelief,
the Christian World’s historical sketch of how the Church came to reject this truth is
so correct, so illuminating, and so self -condemnatory that we simply reproduce
it without comment. “The idea of the Second Advent
prevailed widely in Christianity till it had been permeated and transformed by
Greek influence. It lingered in the East until the beginning of the third
century, and in the West it had a much stronger sway. But the Greek spirit was
hostile, and in the end fatal to it. We can, with little difficulty, understand
how attractive it would be to the Jew to believe in a millennium at
So the Apostle gives a profound reassurance to the waiting
Christian. “But forget not” - as against their wilful forgetting - “this one
thing, beloved” - as a master-solution of the problem
- “that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Pet. 3: 8); or, as the Psalmist (90: 4) puts it - “a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday.”
Divine activity is such
that it can spread over a thousand years, or concentrate into a single day,
what, in nature, would belong to a day or to a millennium. The twenty-four hours
of
Moreover the Holy Spirit regards it as of vital importance
that we should understand this extraordinary reluctance of God. He says:- “The Lord is
not slack” - tardy, dilatory, delaying until too
late - “concerning His promise” - to right all wrong by the Advent - “as some count
slackness” as some
account it [His delay] slackness. He is slow and lingering, but it is not from slackness - that is, not because He
is powerless, or indifferent, or ignorant, or neglectful, or procrastinating;
nor is it because He has forgotten His promise, or changed His mind, or altered
His purpose; nor is it for the awful reason that Gnostics once gave, and will
yet give again - that He is Himself evil; “but” - here starts to light the still
further solution of the problem - “is LONG-SUFFERING to you-ward.” That is, the delay is to be measured, not by years or
by centuries, but by divine purposes and aeonian
- [i.e., ‘age-lasting’] - plans. The world, misunderstanding the problem, makes a
fearful miscalculation. “The wicked saith in his heart, God bath forgotten; He hideth His face, He will never see it” (Psa. 10: 11.): so they continue eating and
drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until, without a moment’s warning,
the sudden crash of Advent sweeps the world.
Now this long-suffering so
enormously magnifies the character of God, that we
do well to ponder it. With a hatred
of sin out-running our utmost conception, God, omnipresent, yet stands alongside the murderer as he
beats down his victim, and
hears the dying whimper, motionless: He listens to the vilest obscenity, and the most daring blasphemies, and says nothing: He sees ‘little children’ being corrupted in soul and body by men of awful iniquity, when He has but to think a thought and
they would never provoke Him again - yet He never stirs. It
is manifest that a reason of extraordinary force must, so to say, tie the hands
of God - a deterrent from action inconceivably powerful. What is it? It is because every human soul is salvable; and the only hope of the salvation
of any man lies in the self-control of God. It is an astounding revelation. For
the self-repression in the Deity is as extraordinary a revelation of the power
of the Godhead as the universe contains. A volcano curbed requires vaster power
than a volcano in action. God’s wrath is justice at white-heat, and repression
of it is a thing incomparably more powerful than its liberation. Herod unsmitten is a greater
evidence of God’s power than Herod smitten. Longsuffering, in such a world as this, is the greatest
exhibition of power on this side of the annihilation of worlds. Moreover, the
measure of the restraint must be a measure of the peril from which God would
save man. If it is mercy that continues whole nations in outrage and horror,
and a world in wild tumult, what must be the doom beyond, from which starvation
and massacre are a merciful interposition of delay? God must foresee a future of inconceivable horror.
So the Apostle now reveals the heart of the divine reluctance,
and into his answer is crowded all the grace, the love, the sob of God. “Not wishing
that any should perish, but that ALL
should come to repentance.” He who bids all, forbids none. God wills here as the result
of conscious deliberation, but not with irresistible coercion (Lange); exactly
as a monarch wills that all his subjects should be happy - but as subjects, not as criminals. God’s wish (or
will) not only embodied itself in the sublime intervention of the Incarnation,
the Cross, the Ascension, the descent of the Holy Ghost - a desire unexhausted,
and now surviving in all its force, its supreme effort is to achieve repentance
in all. And so He delays, and delays, and delays: for immediate judgment would
mean immediate Hell. So the Apostle says) “account
that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation”: that is, see that you put this
interpretation on God’s strange inactivity: esteem its actual effect to be
salvation; for it is actually the
salvation of all who are being saved. Experience shows that this is true.
Forbearance can be fruitful, when chastisement and threatenings fail: men can
get simply tired of disillusionment, and sorrow, and disappointment, and the
bitterness of sin - and turn to God. God does not prolong the world’s sin in
order to deepen its guilt and consequent doom; but for an exactly opposite
reason - that NONE should perish;
but that all hardness may be melted; that rebellion may be replaced by loyalty;
that hate may give way to love; and - wonderful words! - “that all [earth’s teeming millions] should come to repentance;” and salvation so quench
all evil as to cancel all judgment. Justice inherently compels, and the order
of the universe demands, judgment: yet the Lord moves like the glacier of a
thousand years. Hell is inevitable, but hell is no wish of God; God never laid
on any man the desire or the necessity to sin; no class, or group, or person,
is outside the divine salvation; the decree consigning to hell can never be
operative without a man’s own signature. It is not according to the heart of
God that even one whom He has created, and one for whom Christ died, should be
lost. The one Person in all
the universe who is not responsible for hell is GOD.
So, then, let the very deferred Advent (as it were) soak into
us God’s delaying grace. Our golden opportunity and privilege is to co-operate
with God’s will to save. Mockers account it slackness, disciples account it
salvation; we seize the delay, in order to seize its redemption. “I exhort,” says Paul “that prayers
be made for ALL MEN” (1 Tim.
2:
1). If I am to pray for all men, what
must I assume? I must assume that all men need praying for; that all men can be benefited by my prayers; that the benefits
of Christ’s death, the sole ground of all prayer for sinners, reaches to all
men; and therefore that all men can be saved. As Gordon wrote from
Thus the deferred Advent, as we
confront it to-day, spells but one word - Salvation. Work of incalculable
importance may still remain. Some have not yielded, that have been called; some
have not yet been called, that are now in dens of infamy, or in prison cells,
or in heathen forests; some have not yet been born, whose names, nevertheless,
are in the Lamb’s Book of Life: all of us are spared for golden purposes of
priceless service. The delay is no counsel of despair, but an amazing
revelation of salvation, and in it is the whole reservoir of effective grace.
Yet the pause is only a pause; and “though He hath
leaden feet, He hath iron hands.” For “THE DAY OF THE LORD WILL COME AS A THIEF IN THE NIGHT.”
-------
UNREADINESS
In the Great War, a German warship,
the
-------
HE DELIGHTETH IN MERCY
Dr. Alexander Whyte used to tell of an
incident which occurred at the end of Dr. John Carment’s life. Dr. Whyte had
occasion to call on business at the office of his friend, who was then far over
eighty years of age. After their business was completed, the noble old lawyer
thrust his papers and writing materials on one side, and looking straight
across the cleared desk at his visitor, said with great intensity, ‘Have ye any word for an old sinner?’ Dr. Whyte
described his amazement at the abrupt question, coming from one he revered as a
saint on the very edge of glory. For a moment he was too non-pleased to answer;
but then the words came into his heart which he had given to one and another in
the course of his visiting that afternoon, and he stammered out, He delighteth in mercy - and so took his leave. Next morning
he received a letter from Dr. Carment, telling that he had been passing through
a season of profound inward darkness, but that the four words left with
him by his friend had sent a flood of
light into his spirit. The light never again faded until, a very few days later,
he passed into the perfect day.
-------
DOLLY
Hush, as you enter the room,
Baby’s dead;
Softly enter the gloom,
Here the fever and fret
Silenced our little pet:
Baby’s dead.
Hours of anguish, and then
Baby was dead;
O the watching! - and when
We saw in the eyes so blue
Quiet again, we knew
Baby was dead.
The wee, pink bud is crush’d,
Baby’s dead;
Crowing and coo are hush’d,
Open, the tiny palm,
And the feet, in a chilly calm:
Baby’s dead.
Hush! - tho’ the grief be sore
For baby dead:
He who tenderly bore
Little ones on the earth
Has given a better birth
To baby dead.
-------
PEACE
Sometimes at night I cannot rest,
A scorching fire burns in my breast
And drieth up my bones;
The sick and sad, and lonely ones,
The sinful and oppress’d,
Call to my heart in thunder tones
Of agony suppress’d.
Then out of beneath God’s sky, alone,
Restless and tempest-toss’d I roam,
Pouring out these, my griefs and
fears,
Into the Father’s listening ears;
Flinging my heart against God’s might,
In passionate outburst and tears,
That such things be, and HE so great,
With power to set all wrong things
right.
With patience will the All-Wise wait,
Till passion’s stormiest pain is vent;
Then opens wide His arms, as night
Steals on. And like a small child
spent
With foolish rage, I tiredly creep
Into the
Then turn me to my couch, and sleep.
- MILDRED HILL
* *
* * *
*
23
PRINCIPLES OF APOCALYPTIC
INTERPRETATION + 1
By D. M.
PANTON
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AN APOCALYPSE
The title of the Revelation at once reveals it as literal and
supernatural. For
it is an apocalypse - i.e., an ‘unveiling’ -
Jesus Christ: “a cloud received Him out of their sight,” and the Apocalypse is the gradual
melting of that cloud, first in vision, and then in fact. As a ‘revealing’ of what is behind the breaking veil, it is
a literal transcript of facts and events actually seen by John. So of some
forty symbols in the Book twenty are explained, and thus cease to be symbols:
an average of less than one undeciphered symbol to a chapter does not make a
book symbolic. Literal miracles - resurrection rapture, advent - confessedly close the Book: all earlier alleged miracles are therefore literal also; for it is a coherent and consistent
whole. Moreover this Book is a ‘prophecy’ (Rev. 1: 3); and all prophecies, which God has declared fulfilled,
have been fulfilled literally - the virgin birth, Bethlehem, the call from
Egypt, the entry on a colt, thirty pieces of silver, the parted garments. If
the Apocalypse is supernatural throughout it is literal: if it is literal
throughout, it is supernatural.
A JUNCTION OF DISPENSATIONS
Miracle always appears at the junctions of dispensations. For under identical circumstances God acts
identically: His action, in a recurring crisis, cannot deviate from its
original perfection. So our Lord carefully identifies our closing age with
former miraculous epochs. “As it came to pass in the days of Noah” - with supernatural deliverances, as
Enoch’s and Noah’s, and supernatural judgments, as the Flood - “even so shall
it be also in the days of the Son of man: the
flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise even as it came to pass in the days of
A FULFILMENT OF FORETOLD MIRACLE
Scripture states again and again that miracles will be a
supreme characteristic of the last days. “And it
shall be in the last days, saith God, I will
pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh; and your
sons and your daughters shall prophesy”
- prophets will be abroad in the earth once more: “and I will
show WONDERS in the heaven above, and SIGNS on the
earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour
of smoke” (Acts 2: 17). Direct inspiration will have returned (Mark 13: 11); Legal prophets
will wield miraculous plagues (Rev.
11:
6); “and there shall be great
earthquakes, and in divers places famines and pestilences; and there shall be terrors and GREAT SIGNS from
heaven” (Luke 21:
11). The Apocalpyse is the unfolding of
this miraculous drama.
A COVENANT OF MARVELS
The Covenant of Marvels has never yet ban fulfilled. It runs thus:- “Behold,
I make a covenant: before
all thy people I will do MARVELS,
such as have not been wrought in all the earth” - and therefore greater than the miracles of Moses in Egypt - “nor in any nation: and all the
people among which thou art” - i.e., all
nations, for among all nations is Israel scattered, and the marvels will thus
be world-wide - “shall see the work of the Lord, for it is A TERRIBLE
THING that I do with thee” (Exod. 34: 10).
A CLIMAX OF INIQUITY
Abnormal wickedness always provokes God to abnormal
retribution. Gen. 6: 5; 13: 13; Num. 16: 29, 30; Luke 23: 28-31. As Grace follows the line of least
resistance, and wins the yielding heart, so judgment follows the line of
maximum resistance, and smashes with appalling power. “Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand. Behold,
the day of the Lord cometh, cruel, with wrath and fierce
anger; to make the land a
desolation, and to destroy the sinners out of it: and I will punish the WORLD
for their EVIL.” (Isa.
13:
6). With man’s sin come to the full,
God’s wrath is come to the full also, in miraculous intervention: “Thy wrath came; and the time
to destroy them that destroy the earth” (Rev.
11:
18). It is unique sin which provokes the
unique judgments of the Apocalypse.
A STRUGGLE WITH SATANIC MIRACLE
Satanic miracles abounding at the last
will compel Divine miracle. “There shall arise false Christs, and false prophets and shall show GREAT SIGNS and WONDERS; so as to lead astray if
possible, even the elect” (Matt.
24:
24).
Now “like as
Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses” - i.e., miraculously
- “so do these also withstand the truth: but they shall proceed no further: for their folly
shall be evident unto all men as” - i.e., by the
counterworking of mightier miracle - “theirs also [‘Jannes and Jambres’] came to be” (2 Tim. 3: 8). Boils which Satan cannot cure;
world-wide earthquakes from which Satan cannot deliver; vast resurrections and
raptures which Satan cannot prevent; at last a chain which Satan cannot wrench
from off his own wrists:- the Apocalypse is the record miracles incomparably
mightier than the miracles of Hell.
A VINDICATION OF THE GODHEAD
Miracle will at last be essential to
the vindication of the Godhead. For in the final crisis it will not
only be a clash of rival Christs - for there will be many false Christs:
it will be an awful collision between rival Gods. “He sitteth in
the
-------
WOMEN MINISTERS
It is significant of its origen and
atmosphere that the first public Conference of Women Ministers, in which were
Anglican, Baptist, and Congregational representatives, met last month in All
Souls Unitarian Church, Golders Green. If the profound revelations on manhood
and womanhood through Paul (1 Cor. 11: 3-16; 14: 34-38; 1 Tim.
2: 12-14,
etc.) are a dead letter, the still more awful self-revelation of the Son of God
are also likely to go by the board. It isa gladsome thing to remember that the
best type of womanhood isunvocal, and continues its exquisite work in the quiet
places where no eyes sees her but God.
* *
* * *
* *
24
SUGGESTIVE STUDIES IN ISAIAH
By H.
A. WOOLLEY
Like the
great Book of which it forms a part, Isaiah
is a mine of wealth to all seekers of the Truth. God’s thoughts about things
are therein revealed. God’s purposes and plans for Jew and Gentile are therein
made known. Sin, and the precious sin-Bearer, are set forth repeatedly, and
wonderful forecasts of that which shall be hereafter are given. Full of the
wonders of the Lord, and abounding in God-given revelations, Isaiah is a book to be gone over again and again.
Yet it has not received the attention it so richly deserves.
In common with certain other Old Testament portions it is, methinks, largely
neglected. To many it consists of a single chapter - the 53rd so dearly
beloved by every child of God, yet but one among the many beautiful gems
sparkling from Isaiah’s pages. Some
may tell us of the sixth chapter with its wonderful vision of God,
sin, grace, and opportunity - and there their knowledge ends. Others can point
to isolated verses here and there which have been a source of comfort and
strength to them; whilst not a few preachers will admit they have oft extracted
phrases or verses for use as Gospel [of grace] texts.
To all such the real scope and contents of Isaiah are entirely unknown. And how much they miss! For if properly studied this
book will be a veritable revelation to those who perchance for the first time
are led quietly to ponder it page by page.
Not only will a clearer insight into God’s ways result, and fresh light be thrown on other parts of
Scripture, but valuable spiritual
lessons for individual growth and profit will become apparent to the
prayerful reader ready to receive Divine principles into heart and mind.
Let us then in humble dependence on the Holy Spirit for
guidance and help, look first at the general construction of the book, and then
briefly indicate a few suggestive lines of thought, any or all of which if
carefully followed out cannot fail to produce lasting blessing. Perhaps also
our present study may lead to other little known portions of God’s Word being
explored and more widely opened up.
ANALYSIS
Isaiah falls into two main divisions. One
has judgment for its chief theme -
the other, grace. The latter can be
sub-divided into three smaller sections of nine
chapters each, all of
which end in similar strain. Thus -
I. Chapters 1 to 39 (Judgment).
II. Chapters
40 to 66
(Grace).
(1) 40-48.
(2) 49-57 (The central chapter of this middle
section is the unique “53rd”
(3) 58-66.
Between Isaiah and the Bible a close resemblance exists. Isaiah has 66 chapters - the Bible 66 “books.” Isaiah is in two parts - the Bible is composed of Old and New
Testaments. Thirty-nine books go to make up the Old Testament - the 1st.
Division of Isaiah has 39
chapters. Isaiah’s 2nd. Division has 27 chapters - so the New Testament has 27 books. Again, Isaiah is like unto the Bible in its wide range of vision. We hear the Creator’s
voice, and also the same One proclaiming Himself “the first and the last.” In a
sense far-seeing Isaiah seems to range from Genesis to Revelation. Creation - Redemption -
Regeneration.
We cannot be reminded too often that the Lord Jesus Christ is the key to the Bible.
Hence in all reading the foremost thought should be - how is Christ presented
here in this particular portion?
Our first short study then, is necessarily -
CHRIST IN ISAIAH
Many names are given to the Redeemer in Isaiah, and in keeping with the character of its contents these are almost
invariably linked to
He is the King (chap. 6.), your King (chap. 43.), King of Israel (chap. 44.) and the Mighty One of Jacob in chapter 60. Immanuel (chaps. 7 and 8.) is another name, and chapter 9, verse
6 gives us a
beautiful cluster of names. Then He is called the Mighty One of
But throughout the entire book there runs another name to
which special attention is asked, the writer during recent study having been
greatly struck with its frequent usage, force, and significance. This name is THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL. It occurs in both the “judgment” and “grace” sections. We find it in almost the opening words of the 1st. chapter,
verse 4. Again in chapters 5 (twice mentioned), 10, 12, 17, 29, 30, 31, 37: 40, 41,
and 43 (thrice
mentioned), 14,
47,
48,
49,
54,
55,
60
- some 27 distinct times in all is the Holy One of Israel referred to, to which
might be added the same thought slightly varied in chapter 10: 17 “His Holy One,” “the Holy One of Jacob,” (chap.
19), and the One “whose name is
Holy” (chap.
57) - making a total of thirty references
to the holiness of God, and arresting our attention over and again as our eyes
fasten on this title. The Holy One of Israel, who says both to His earthly
people and to His heavenly saints: “Be ye holy, for I am holy, saith the Lord.”
It is good to ever have in mind the holiness of our Saviour-God, here so
strikingly enforced, and reiterated.
IN THAT DAY
Our second study springs out of another of Isaiah’s oft
repeated phrases. “In that day” occurs in nearly every chapter of the “judgment” section, as might be expected, for
the “day” referred to so frequently is the day of the Lord, a day of darkness,
sorrow, and judgment for the ungodly - a day of happy deliverance for the
faithful remnant. Much will happen “in that day.” Idols will be abolished, and the Lord
alone exalted (see chaps. 2. and 31.). The Branch of the Lord will be
beautiful and glorious (chap. 4.), My Servant exalted (chap. 22.), and the Lord of hosts shall be for a crown of glory (chap. 28.). As to mankind, many are slain (for
it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance - see verse 8 of chapter 34, the key-verse to this subject), but
scattered Israel is gathered, the persecuted remnant in the land are delivered
from their great oppressor (whereupon praise breaks forth as at the Red sea : “Then sang
-” - chapters
12. and 27);
and nations are blest (chaps. 11: 10; 19: 24, 25.). The deaf will hear and the blind see (chap. 29.), and cattle shall feed in large
pastures (chap. 30.). It is a day of terrible judgment, followed by great
blessings. And closely connected with “that day” is
ANTICHRIST IN ISAIAH
And here we must tread softly, for we enter a sphere where we
shall most likely be accused of saying either too much or too little!
Nevertheless, the subject is so important in these “last days,” so essential to a right understanding
of prophecy and those future events with which Isaiah so largely deals, and
withal so full of meaning to those who can accept it, that we cannot refrain
from touching upon this intensely interesting subject.
Two persons are seen at work all through Holy Scripture - God
and Satan. And these are always opposed to one another. God, through Christ, is
ever seeking the true good of mankind, Satan (personally or through others)
ever opposes and tries to thwart God’s plans. Satan is a great imitator. If God
has his Man - the Man Christ Jesus - Satan will yet produce his - the
Antichrist! If God appoints a city (
One is tempted to speak of Nimrod, the beginning of whose
kingdom was Babel; to say something of Nebuchadnezzar (a partial type of
Antichrist) and the great Babylon he built and boasted of; and to speak of
future Babylon (mighty and magnificent in man’s eyes). But we are in [the Book of] Isaiah,
and wishing first to get a grip of what
he says shall not now stray from the
pages of this prophet.
Nor need we. For here we have a surprising array of facts
concerning “things to come,” which if collected and grouped will surely invest Isaiah (and
other prophets) with a new interest and meaning.
Please note in considering the following - and we stress this
point - how fully all is bound up with “the day of the Lord,” “that day,” and the promised future restoration of
(Note - In Isaiah, as
in other parts of Scripture, happenings are not consecutive: there is often a
reversion - in fuller detail - to that which has already been mentioned).
ISAIAH
Chapter 10, introduces the Assyrian (verses 5, 6) - the king of Assyria (verse 12) a haughty monarch of “stout heart” and “high looks,” whose purpose is to destroy and cut
off nations not a few, and who smites after promising protection (verses 7 and 20-23). But the “indignation” shall cease, the oppressor’s yoke be removed and
destroyed. Indeed, Antichrist’s raging thrust at
Chapter 11. presents earth’s Rightful Sovereign
who shall slay the wicked, praise following in chapter 12.
Chapter 13. The burden of
Chapter 14., verse 3 and 4 show the Assyrian to be the king of
Chapter 19., 4 (An earlier event)
Chapter 21.: Evil tidings - “
In chapters 24., verse 21 and 22 and in chapter 27. we have Satan and his host
overthrown, and the kings of the earth punished.
Chapter 28. has a reference to “the covenant
with hell”
(connected with Antichrist) in verses 15 and 18.
Chapter 30. “The
Assyrian” beaten
down through the voice of the Lord verses 27-33.
Chapter 31. verses 8 and 9 speak again of his downfall: his
stronghold is mentioned to which he now goes in fear, his princes being afraid
of the “ensign.” (We believe there is more in the word “ensign” - referred to several times - than
appears on the surface).
Chapter 43. :
Chapter 47. reverts to
Chapter 51. Where is the
fury of the oppressor? (verse 13).
Chapter 57: 9, the false king; and chapter 56. - the end of the transgressors.
Just a fragment of a great whole has been given, but the
reader can follow the line out at leisure, comparing what has been advanced
with other parts of Scripture.
To all who have understanding to discern the times is a final
word added: Watch developments in
And does there not come to us as we peep into the future and
see Satan’s idea of a world without God - with peace and safety (both unstable
yet at first seemingly real), prosperity and pleasure for all - taking shape
before our eyes - does there not come a still small voice asking what manner of
persons we (professed) pilgrims and strangers in a Christ-rejecting scene ought
to be!
THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD in Isaiah would form another
profitable study, chaps. 11., 41., 59., 61., and 63 being looked at in this
connection. For the sake of young believers it might be well to add that “everlasting
burnings and devouring fire” in chapter 33. (verses 14 and 15) refer, we believe, not to hell, but
to our God who is a consuming fire. Also verses 1-6 of chapter 63., allude not to Calvary, but to
Christ’s personal punishment of
And now in closing may I repeat what I have already written?
Like the great Book of which it forms a part, Isaiah is a mine of wealth to all seekers of
the truth. God’s thoughts about things are therein revealed. God’s purposes and
plans for Jew and Gentile are therein made known. Sin, and the precious
sin-Bearer are set forth repeatedly, and wonderful forecasts of that which shall be hereafter are given. Let
us then give to it the attention it so richly deserves!
* *
* * *
* *
25
CHRIST AND THE DEMON WORLD
By J.
L. NEVIUS,
D.D.
It may
seem at first sight that the surprise and astonishment attributed to the Jews,
on seeing our Saviour cast out demons, is inconsistent with their familiarity
with the practice of exorcism, and with the words of our Saviour Himself . “By whom then do your children cast them out?” Matt.
12:
22-29.
If we examine carefully the gospel narrative, the explanation of this seeming
inconsistency will, I think, become apparent. We read in Mark’s gospel (1: 27-28):
“And
they were all amazed, insomuch that they
questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? What new
doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth
he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey
him. And immediately his fame spread abroad
throughout all the region roundabout
Since the casting out of demons seems providentially used as
furnishing so striking an evidence of our Lord’s mission as the Son of God and
the Saviour of the world, why, when the demons were cast out, and openly
testified that Christ was the “Son of God,” “the
Holy One of God.” (Mark. 1: 24-25), did our Saviour rebuke them, saving: “Hold thy peace,” and
on another occasion “straitly charged them that they should not make Him known”
(Mark 3:
12)? This command of our Saviour not to
make him known is almost identical with that made to the twelve about two years
afterwards the reason is probably the same in both cases. It was the special
function of the apostles to witness to the world that Jesus was the Christ, the
Son of God, and this they did after our Saviour’s resurrection repeatedly and persistently,
in the face of persecution and death. Before our Lord’s resurrection, the time
for this public testimony had not come. A certain reserve was necessary. Our
Saviour’s earthly ministry was characterized by a nice balancing between
revealing and concealing. He must reveal himself with sufficient clearness to
furnish a ground for the faith of his followers, but not so clearly as to
overawe his enemies, and prevent the crowning act of his mission on earth, his
suffering on the cross. It was by this nice discrimination between revealing
too little and too much, this holding precisely to the middle course without
diverging to the one side or the other, that he was “straitened” until his baptism of blood should be
accomplished (Luke 12: 50). It is remarkable that this testimony of the demons was
given near the beginning of our Lord’s ministry, showing that they knew his
character at that time better even than the twelve who were daily instructed by
him. It is possible that this testimony to our Saviour may have been purposely
designed by Satan to interfere with Christ’s plan, and defeat the great object
He had in view. In this matter, however, as in all others, the demons were
under divine control. The suppression of .his testimony for the time being, and
its being recorded in the Gospels afterwards, were no doubt alike for our good
and the good of the church universal.
The Mosaic law denounced death against witches or wizards.
This was evidently not because the wizard’s art was a mere pretence or imposture,
but because it was a natural and voluntary intercourse with evil spirits. The
language of Scripture is too plain on this point to be misunderstood. “A man also or
woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a
wizard, shall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones; their blood shall be upon them” (Lev. 20: 27).
“There shall not be found among you an
enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter
with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer” (Deut. 18: 10-11). The demoniac is an object of
compassion as one overpowered and enslaved; “the wizard” is a willing slave of demons, and,
among the demons, and, among the Jews, consciously engaged in the service of
those who were the opposers and enemies of God.
“The great error of our time in
dealing with Spiritualism” as Joseph Cook, of
* *
* * *
* *
26
THE BODY OF THE FIRST RAPT + 2
By D.
M. PANTON.
B.A.
One
sentence photographs for ever the body of the first rapt at the moment of their
arrival in the heavenlies. Their miraculous ascent, as destined supplanters of
the fallen angels, once draws on them, in mid-air, the full fury of Hell: their
guardian and transporting Angels closing round the ascending man hosts, for one
critical moment the hostile angel-squadrons are locked in the Armageddon of
heaven: then, overborne by sheer force as well as outmatched in subtilty, the
Dragon and his hosts are cast headlong to earth. Exactly as Satan disputed (Jude 9) over the corpse of Moses, to prevent arrival at the Mount of
Transfiguration, so Michael again forces deliverance for a myriad corpses, as
also living myriads, to reach the Kingdom. This delivered body of the first
rapt, thus isolated and radiant in Heaven, are the birth out of earth, begotten
from the tomb (cp. Acts. 13: 33, 34) - the Man-child - who are “to rule all
the nations with a rod of iron” (Rev. 12: 5) - a sceptre, that is, which can neither be broken resisted,
governing, disciplining and controlling all the peoples of the Millennial
earth.*
* That the Woman is the Holy Jerusalem, the centre of all
dispensations, see Govett’s Apocalypse. (Thynne & Jarvis,
cloth, 7/6 net). “In the Apocalypse Christ Himself
applies to believers the words here used (12: 5), which are literally true of Himself alone - ‘He that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end to him
will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron’ (Rev. 2: 26) Thus Christ
Himself interprets the vision before us” (Bishop Wordsworth).
THE ACCUSER
The translated host are introduced in
a triumph-song. “And I heard a great voice in heaven” - apparently from the victor angels - “saying, “Now is come
the salvation” - a
miraculous deliverance shot upward - “and the power” - proved in the massed overthrow of
Hell - “and the kingdom of our God” - not ‘the Kingdom of
the world’ (as in 11: 15) for only now the Kingdom arrived in heaven - “and the authority of His Christ” - the spear-head of the Kingdom: “for the accuser
of our
brethren” - for we are brothers of the Angels - “is cast down, which ACCUSED them before our God” -
impleading the law courts of Heaven - “day and night” - in a ceaseless prosecution and
appeal in the council-chambers of God. Satan fastens supremely on the one
vulnerable spot in the Church - her sins: he seduces the believer on earth, and then accuses him in heaven. It is a masterpiece of
wisdom; because, while he knows that he is powerless to shake the Christian’s
foundation, he can, by seducing him into sin, embroil him with God: for none
knows better than Satan two things - (1)
that God compounds sin in no one; and (2)
the tragic frailty of the child of
God. Therefore final salvation is impossible for us until we are above and
beyond the considered charges - true or false - of the Accuser; and until he is
cast out of it, Heaven itself is not Heaven.*
* How secret the pavilion created by the
darkness of the skies - “He made darkness His hiding place, His pavilion round about Him; darkness
of waters, thick clouds of the skies” (Ps. 18: 11);
an airman, entering a cloud, reveals:- “It was like a
huge black wall into which we dived headlong; and I had to switch on the lights
to see the instrument board a foot in front of me” - (Daily News,
April 9th, 1926). So it was “thick darkness where
God was” (Ex, 20: 21) in the Parousia of the clouds on Sinai.
Recent discovery modifies the physiological changes we imagined essential for
life above the highest
THE BLOOD
Now therefore there follows, in a photograph taken in a
heavenly exposure and of extraordinary value, an exact moral delineation of the
souls miraculously removed, and of exactly how they successfully rebutted the
Satanic prosecution. It is a disclosure of the innermost secrets of rapture. “And THEY” - the ‘they’ is emphatic: they alone; they, the Man-child just named as caught up to the Throne of God; they, in contrast to all the undelivered
down below - “OVERCAME him” - that is, they are overcomers: angels wrestled and threw Satan above,
physically; these wrestled and threw Satan below, spiritually (Eph.
6:
12): and their ground of victory, the
inspired reason for their miraculous removal beyond Satan’s reach into the
heavenlies, is a threefold maturity before God. The first ground is the Blood. “They overcame
him by” - because
of, in virtue of, on the ground of - “THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB.” It is not the blood of Christ, but the blood
of the Lam; not the blood of a martyr Messiah,
but the blood of the slaughtered Sacrifice: for
THE TESTIMONY
But a second weapon is revealed as vital to the victory.
Passive acceptance of the Blood of Calvary, though enough for eternal life, is
not, alone, sufficient for translation: the worthiness for which our Lord
commands us to pray (Luke 21:
36) is obviously not His worthiness, which all disciples
already possess, but (as is transparent in the context) a worthiness, by
vigilance and prayer, of the saint himself.* “And” - as a second weapon of overthrow - “ [they
overcame him] by” - because of, in virtue of, on the ground of - “THE WORD OF THEIR TESTIMONY;” not “the testimony of
Jesus” only, for these are overcomers risen and rapt out of all dispensations. “The strict sense of oia with the accusative must again
be kept: it is because they have given a faithful testimony, even unto death, that
they are victorious”
(Alford). The block to Satan, the exposure of his craft, the dissolution of his
plans, his spiritual paralysis - all lie in Scripture loved, lived, preached:
as with our Lord in the Wilderness, “it is written” unmasks and paralyzes every Satanic
imposture and wile. John states the same truth elsewhere:- “I have
written unto you, young men, because the word of God abideth
in you, and ye have OVERCOME
the evil one” (1 John 2: 14). So the second ground for rapture is lip and life
squared to the Word of God. “The Sacrifice of the
Death of Christ,” as Dr. Swete expresses it, “does
not spell victory except for those who suffer with Him (Rom.
8: 17, 2 Tim.
2:
11): thus a
secondary cause of the martyrs’ victory is found in their personal labour and
self-sacrifice.”
* “Prevail to escape” - Revised Version.
THE RENUNCIATION
But a third and final
weapon, the subtilest and most difficult of all to achieve, is also
indispensable for removal in the dawn. It is not necessarily martyrdom, but the
martyr-spirit at heart, a complete abnegation of the world:- “they LOVED NOT
their life even unto death”: did not hold their life too dear to be
given up to death (Seiss); their non-attachment to life was carried to the
extent of being ready to die for their faith (Swete); so little did they value
their present life, that they preferred death to apostasy (Moses Stuart). These
had mastered the things that usually master men. Pope Pius IV., on hearing of
Calvin’s death, exclaimed:- “All the strength of that
proud heretic lay in this - that riches and honour were nothing to him. With a
few such men our Church would soon be mistress of both shores of the ocean.”
Such build on the other side of the grave: they invest their whole wealth for
God: they risk life itself in the cause of Christ. Paul has expressed it once
for all:- “I hold not my life of any account, as dear unto myself, so that I may
accomplish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus”
(Acts 20:
24).
THE UNREMOVED
Suddenly the camera tilts, and, in a moment’s earthly
exposure, it picks up a scene far down below. The Devil, now finding all heaven
impenetrable to him, and maddened by the brevity of his chance, “went away to
make war with THE REST of her seed”
- plural: two separate remainders; a double remnant: namely - they (1) “which keep
the commandments of God” - regenerate Jews and Gentiles - and they which (2) “hold the
testimony of Jesus” - unrapt Christians: not in bodies, or in church states, regularly formed,
as heretofore. but in private families, and some here, and some there (Dr.
Gill). As the Pulpit Commentary says:- “The
members of the Jewish Theocracy were they to whom the commandments of God were specially revealed:
and Christians are they who specially ‘hold the testimony of Jesus.’” * In the words of
Dr. E. C. Craven, editor of Lange’s Apocalypse:- “These are
left on the earth after the removal of the Firstfruits. There is a growing
conviction in my mind that the Firstfruits do
not include all true Christians, but consists of a select portion of these -
the specially faithful. These ‘remnants’ are strongly confirmative of this view.”
For it is impossible to say that all the saved - a gross backslider, for
example - reach the triple standard here revealed, or fulfil the three
conditions named as the grounds of the removal: is impossible to deny that such
believers as combine all three are, on the whole, exceptional: moreover we are
actually shown the undelivered
below; “so,” as Dr. Seiss says, “we are taught, as Ambrose, and Luther, and Kromayer admit,
that other particular resurrections and translations of certain eminent saints
occur at intervals preceding the full completion of the glorified company.”
* Prophetic students who believe in a
universal and simultaneous harvest, with no first-fruits but Christ, confess
the difficulty of this phrase. “It might be a
difficulty to some,” says Mr. William Kelly, “that
a Jewish remnant would have ‘the testimony of
Jesus’”; but the difficulty, he says, is “not
insuperable.” But so far from being ‘Jewish’
- an exposition manifestly invented to grind an axe, for it is the reverse of
the meaning of the words - the phrase is never so used; nor could it be, for
the testimony of Jesus has been entrusted peculiarly to the Church; and John
elsewhere gives it as a definition of himself as a Christian apostle, - “who bare witness of the word of God, and the testimony of
Jesus Christ” (Rev.
1:
2).
It would take very powerful reasons indeed to dispossess it of its obviously
Christian meaning. “The verse includes all the people
of God who will at that time be exposed to malice, whether they be pious Jews,
or Christians who were not found worthy to escape the impending woes”
(G. H. Pember, M.A.). Rev. 14: 12 - a Tribulation verse - lends remarkable
confirmation.
THE SERPENT
So we see the exact point which at this moment we have
apparently reached. With the subtilty of a python, the venom of a rattlesnake,
the crushing power of a boa-constrictor, the invisibility of a fer-de-lance, “the dragon
stood” - all eyes
- before the
woman which was about to be delivered, that when she was delivered he might
devour her child.” For Satan is ignorant of the moment of the First Resurrection: and, as his
empire trembles to its fall, his anxiety grows to white heat; and he plants
himself at the spot of supreme peril. As the moment of the birth out of the
tomb approaches, the Dragon, dyed all over with the hue of murder, watches,
with intensity of alertness, for the first quiver in the sleeping sod, the
first flash upward of an ascending saint; and seeks to block supremely the
ripening of the firstfruits (Mark 4: 29) on which depends the exact moment of the bursting of the
tombs.*
* I have called the Manchild (apparently
identical with the Palm-bearers of Rev. 7: 9) the body of the first rapt; but it is
possible (as Govett thinks) that a prior rapture - indicated by John’s summons
heavenward (Rev.
4:
1)
- occurs at the moment when the throne of judgment replaces the throne of grace.
The Manchild ascends somewhere between the Sixth Seal and the Fourth Trumpet.
-------
SAINTS IN THE HIGH PLACES
In Dan. 7: 18, 22, 25, and 27, the Authorised Version translates, “Saints of the Most High,” whereas it should read, “Saints of the
High Places.”
Daniel could not of course understand who these would be, for the mystery of
the Church was not then revealed; but we can easily recognise those who will
live and reign with the Lord in the heavenly regions, taking the place of “the host of
the High Ones that are on high.”
In verse 25, the reference is specially to that
portion of them which will be upon earth during the great tribulation, but will
suffer martyrdom rather than worship the Beast or his image.
In verse 27, there is also mention of another
class, “the people of the Saints of the High Places;” that is, the people which stand in
close relation to these saints, namely, the Israelites. To the latter “the kingdom
and the dominion and the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given.” That is, they shall become “the Kings of
the Earth upon the Earth,” in the stead of the destroyed Gentile powers (Isa. 14: 21).
In verse 21, the simple expression, the saints,
seems to embrace all the people of God who are upon Earth at the time, the
believers who pass through the tribulation, and the pious Jews. In ver.
22 it includes still more, nothing less
indeed than the completed Millennial Kings and the whole Israelitish people;
for the reference is to the Millennial age, and “the Kingdom” comprehends both the heavenly and the
earthly portions of Christ’s government. - G.
H. PEMBER.
-------
THE GALILEAN AND THE CHURCH
Would
I suffer for one that I love? So wouldst Thou. So wilt Thou.
So shall crown Thee the topmost,
ineffablest, uttermost crown;
And Thy love fill infinitude wholly,
nor leave up nor down
One spot for the creature to stand in!
It is by no breath,
Turn of eye, wave of hand, that
Salvation joins issue with Death
As Thy love is discover’d Almighty,
almighty be proved
Thy Power, that exists with and for it
of being belov’d!
He who did most shall bear most; the
strongest shall stand the most weak!
’Tis the weakness in strength that I
cry for! My flesh that I seek
In the Godhead! I seek and I find it.
O Saul, it shall be
A Face like my face that receives
thee; a man like to me,
Thou shalt love and be loved by, for
ever; a Hand like this hand
Shall throw open the gates of new life
to thee! See the Christ stand!
- ROBERT BROWNING.
* *
* * *
* *
27
THE GOSPEL’S LAST HOUR + 1
By D.
M. PANTON,
B.A.
“The situation,” says Dr.
Mott, “is absolutely unique in the history of the
Christian religion, unique in opportunity, unique in danger, unique in
responsibility, and unique in duty. The Church is confronting a
rapidly-climaxing world-crisis stupendous changes are constituting the greatest
single opportunity which has ever confronted the Christian religion; and
it is an opportunity which will not linger.”
SHEM
An amazing tug is pulling, at the heart of the nations. Out of
the heart of these nations have come, in this century, three letters
representing the three great divisions of mankind, and voicing the cry of the
world to the
* Trusting and Toiling, Nov. 1906.
HAM
We turn to the Hamitic nations, and the voice is from
* Missionary Review of the
World, Dec. 1906.
JAPEETH
We turn to the Japhetic nations, and here is perhaps one of
the most wonderful letters which a body of unbelievers ever addressed to the
* Church
Missionary Intelligencer, Dec., 1906.
COMING STORMS
So the pull of God’s hand is on the heart of the nations but
the hour will not last. In the words of Max Muller:- “We
are on the eve of a storm which will shake the oldest convictions of the world”;
or, as Principal Forsyth has expressed it, - “The
Gospel is fighting for its life inside the Churches, as well as outside.” “The opposition to Christianity,” says Sir W. Robertson Nicol, “will become more manifest, more fierce, and more deadly than
it has ever been.” Over a vast area, once Christian - the 160,000,000 of the Soviet Republics - a recent
decree (Times, Nov. 2th, 1925) on libraries enforces, as law, that “the section on religion must contain solely anti-religious
literature”; and “in the section of natural
science libraries must be purged of books that speak of the wisdom of the
Creator, or the immorality of Darwinism.” We stand on the
brink of a day in which the struggle will be more desperate and terrible than
any that has gone before, because it involves no less
than the destiny of the world, and
the supremacy of God.
THE WAITING NATIONS
Meanwhile there are the waiting nations, and the hour that
will not last. Two African chiefs came to Chalmers and said, “We want Christian
teachers: will you send them?” Chalmers had no one to send, and he said, “I have no one: I cannot send anyone.” Two years
passed away and those two chiefs came to him again. Chalmers himself happened
to be at liberty, and he travelled over the intervening country, and arrived on
a Sunday morning. To his surprise he saw the whole nation on their knees in
perfect silence. Chalmers said to one of
the chiefs, “What are you doing?” “Why,” he said, “we are
praying.” “But,” Chalmers said, “you are not saying anything.” “White man,” the chief answered, “we do not know what to say. For two years every Sunday
morning we have met here; and for four hours we have been on our knees, and we
have been praying like that, but we do not know what to say.” But the tug at the heart of the nations
may soon pass. When birds are migrating in flocks to other lands, and the
instinct is strong upon them - if you catch one and imprison it in a cage, it
will beat its breast against the bars, and fall panting back: but let the migratory
season pass, and you may open the cage, but it will not fly; and you may even
take it and throw it up into the air, but it falls back limply to the ground.
The tug on the little heart is gone. For a soul, for a nation, even for a
world, there comes a time when the tug of the Holy Ghost at the heart may pass
for ever, if they know not the hour of their visitation.
THE LAST CRISIS
Therefore the hour is momentous for us all. “The crisis of the battle,” said Napoleon, “is the moment in which to throw in all your reserves.”
The supreme urgency of
the cisis is for a final proclamation of Christ. An English
sportsman was in the Soudan. He was a Christian; and he was lying in a midday
siesta on the burning sand, when he felt a touch, and he looked round and saw
an old sheik of the desert. They got into conversation. (The Mohammedan has his
tradition that the prophet Jesus, whom they put under Mohammed, is to return
after the coming of the Mahdi.) The old man said to the Englishman:- “Do you know the prophet Jesus?” The Englishman
answered “Yes.” “Well,”
said the old man, “is He coming soon?” The
sportsman answered - “I do not know.” The old
man pressed him further, and said - “Is he coming next
year?” The sportsman said - “God only knows, I
do not; but I know that He is coming again.” “Well,”
said the old man, “I will tell you why I ask you. I
want you to tell me what He is like, that if He should pass me in the desert I
may recognize His face, and be able to welcome Him.”
Solemn hour: thus on the margin
Of that wondrous Day
When the former things have vanish’d,
Old things pass’d away;
Nothing but Himself before us,
Every shadow pass’d:
Sound we loud the word of witness,
For it is the last.
One last
word of solemn warning
To the
world below;
One loud shout, that all may hear us
Hail him, ere we go:
Once more let that name be sounded
With a trumpet tone, -
Here, amid the deep’ning shadows,
Then - before the Throne.
-------
CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZATION
Mr. F. W.
Stevens, a New York banker representing international banking interests at
Peking - “these remarks,” he says, “are the first I have ever made upon a religious subject”
- puts these questions, among others, to the critics of missions:‑
Do you know that the Chinese modern system of education in
Do you know that China was devoid of anything resembling
modern hospitals and trained nurses until they resulted from missionary effort;
and that now there are over 300 mission hospitals in China, nearly 100 of which
are conducted on approximately modern standards with up-to-date equipment and
nursing; and that there are few cities in China having even one such Chinese
hospital which is of non-missionary origin?
Do you know that although leprosy has existed in
Do you know that there was never in
* *
* * *
* *
28
THE POWER OF THE KEYS + 3
The
ever-nearing approach of the Church of Rome wakes back into life the dormant
controversies of centuries; and it is of critical importance that where Roman
teaching seems lodged on
Scripture, but is not, she should be openly and publicly dislodged from what
appears to be a Bible foundation. For if and where she is lodged on Scripture, we agree; we fight what is pagan
in
The Old Testament Priests had no power of absolution they
sacrificed, but they never absolved. In the primitive Church the condemnation
passed on an erring disciple, or a pardon granted him on confession, was a work
of the whole assembled church, expressed by the officer presiding. “Our judgment,” says Tertullian, “cometh with great weight, as
of men well assured that they are under the eye of God; and it is a very grave
forestalling of the judgment to come, if any shall have so offended as to be
put out of the solemn assembly.” But by the fourth century bishops began
to assume this power of excommunication and absolution; and by the sixteenth
century the Council of Trent had lodged the whole, sole power in the Priest.* The earlier form Dominus absolvat te - the Lord grants thee absolution -
gave way to the priest acting judicially as possessor of the Keys, Ego absolvo te - I grant it.
* “To the Apostles, and to their
successors in the priesthood, the power was delivered of remitting and
retaining sins.” Decrees of
The first of our Lord’s three great utterances is addressed
solely to Peter, and, couched in the future tense, is (as the Church has ever
regarded it) the fundamental passage on church discipline. Peter has the moment
before been the mouthpiece of the unborn Church, in the first great saving
confession of Christ: immediately, the Lord conjures up the Church to be; then
that Church as issuing from the grave; and between the two He erects the
Church’s present collective authority to include, or exclude, from the Coming [millennial]
* “Belonging to the Church depends on
forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness being the sign of entrance into the Church.
And since an accepted member may again become unworthy of membership, the power
of the keys has, importance in reference to those already received, including
remission of sin or absolution on the one side, or retention of sin as well as
Church discipline on the other” (Dorner).
The second passage, in which our Lord makes the actual grant
of what he had promised, extends it, explicitly, to the entire Church: word for
word, precisely that which was granted to Peter - the keys - are placed in the
hands of the whole body of disciples. For the Lord had just told them when to
exclude a sinning brother: so now He grants the Divine warrant for doing it,
and His own promised endorsement of the exclusion. “Verily
I say unto you” - for this is one of the truths depending solely on the
word of Christ - “what things soever YE” - the Church, just named, and which,
for obstinacy in sin, has just put a brother back among the Gentiles and the
publicans - “shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven” - the binding coming first, as
excommunication precedes restoration “and what things soever” - what rather than whom: for it is not so much a person that
is bound or loosed, but a sin that is
bound or loosed upon a person: therefore it is not the admission or the exclusion of the unsaved, whose persons are involved - “ye shall
loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven”
(Matt.
18:
18). Here all precedence or exclusiveness
of Peter, or even of all the Apostles combined, disappears and the power of
excluding from the Church on earth, with its ratification by exclusion from the
future [millennial] Kingdom,* is
vested in each, and all, of the Community of Believers. So the dominant
Protestant interpretation - namely, that it is merely the Gospel declaration of pardon and threatening of hell - is obviously untenable: and
our Lord puts ‘binding’ first, for it is only
those already in the Church
over whom we have (1 Cor. 5: 12) any jurisdiction; we bind in discipline that we may yet
loose in love. “An
irrevocable, irredeemable ban is far from being spoken of here: in its
highest exercise of power the Church looses again precisely that which it has bound; it bound only that it may
be able again to loose when this may be possible” (Olshausen). “These keys,” as Augustine says, “not one man, but the entire Church, receives.”
* It is most remarkable that it is from
‘the Kingdom of the Heavens’ - our Lord’s coming Reign over the earth - that
the Church, if acting on Scripture commands, locks out; they are the keys of
the Kingdom:
so Paul, having given the catalogue
of sins excluding from the Church (1 Cor. 5: 11), repeats the same list (but with
additions) as a catalogue of the sins which exclude from the Kingdom (1 Cor.
6:
9,
10).
The third passage, equally comprehensive, gives the deep
underlying safeguard that hedges power so awful; and our Lord again lodges the
power, not in a Peter who dies, or in Apostles who lapse, but in that Divine
Society which never dies, and which will never lapse. In the upper room, filled
with the gathered disciples, including the women (Luke 24: 9-11, 33), Jesus “breathed on them, and
saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:
whose soever sins ye retain” -
ye hold fast, so that they may not pass away from him to whom they
attach - “they are retained” (John 20: 23). The use of the perfect in these two
words, forgiven and retained,
expresses the absolute efficacy of the power; no interval separates the act
from the issue (Westcott). He who has a church sentence against him, and knows
in his heart that it is a sentence both Scriptural and according to fact, can
already be assured exactly of what his sentence will be at - [the time of] - the Lord’s judgment bar. So also in
the loosing: as Paul said to the
* “He absolved him (1 Cor.
2:
10) because the
congregation absolved him; not as a plenipotentiary supernaturally gifted to
convey a mysterious benefit, but as himself an organ and representative of the
Church. The power of absolution, therefore, belonged to the Church, and to the
Apostle through the Church. It was a power belonging to all Christians; to the
Apostle, because he was a Christian, not because he was an Apostle” (F. W.
Robertson)
** It is tragic that the Christian group
which, of all groups, stresses most strongly that the Church is in ‘ruins,’ is the group which most amply exercises the
full powers, and far beyond, of a Church totally unimpaired.
***
“While it is not said, - ‘None are forgiven but those
whom you forgive’ - so, on the other hand, it is not merely the general
statement of forgiveness as applicable to certain descriptions of persons; but
it has a particular application to particular individuals. And so great is the
authority and efficacy that is made over to disciples hereby that it is not
called ‘power to forgive,’ but forgiveness” (Govett).
The power of the Keys placed in our hands is a power from
which we cannot free ourselves, and which we can refuse only through cowardice
and sin. The sainted Robert Murray McCheyne says:- “When
I first entered upon the work of the ministry, I was exceedingly ignorant of
the vast importance of church discipline. I thought that my great, and almost
only, work was to pray and preach. I saw souls to be so precious, and time so
short, that I devoted all my time and care and strength to labour in word and
doctrine. When cases of discipline were brought before me and the elders, I
regarded them with something like abhorrence. It was a duty I shrank from; and
I may truly say it nearly drove me from the work of the ministry altogether. But it pleased God who teaches His
servants in another way than man teaches, to bless some of the cases of
discipline with manifest and undeniable blessing; and from that hour a new
light broke in upon my mind, and I saw that if preaching be an ordinance of
Christ, so is church discipline. I now feel very deeply persuaded that both are
of God: both are Christ’s gift, and neither is to be resigned without sin.”
-------
EARTH’S CENTRE
Scripture rules Science, not science
Scripture. No sound Christian can occupy any other position for if there is an
inspired revelation, it follows as a truism; and if there is no revelation,
there is no Christianity. But it is exceedingly interesting when Science,
unconsciously, or sometimes with a bias all the other way, corroborates
Scripture. Professor Horace Lamb, in his presidential address to the British
Association at
-------
AN ANSWERED PRAYER
Six weeks before his death the Rev. H. F.
Lyte wrote “Abide With Me.” This hymn,
which has been as the breath of heaven to countless souls, was preceded, eight
years earlier, by the prayer which created it:-
I want not vulgar fame -
I seek not to survive in brass or
stone;
Hearts may not kindle when they hear
my name,
Nor tears my value own.
But might I leave behind
Some blessing for my fellows, some fair
trust
To guide, to cheer, to elevate my kind
When I was in the dust.
Might verse of mine inspire
One virtuous aim, one high resolve
impart;
Light in one drooping soul a hallowed
fire
Or bind one broken heart.
Death would be sweeter then,
More calm my slumber ’neath the silent
sod;
Might I thus live to bless my
fellow-men
Or glorify my God.
O Thou! whose touch can lend
Life to the dead, Thy quick’ning grace
supply.
And grant me, swanlike, my last breath
to spend
In song that may not die.
-------
DYING OF LEPROSY
(John Davis, the Indian missionary,
for sixteen years a leper).
Don’t think me unhappy. My little room shines with the glory
of an Invisible Presence, and my heart with the abiding fulness of the joy of
God. Many souls are turning to the Lord in all parts of my field, and naturally
1 looked forward to the time when I also should have the privilege of baptizing
a thousand a year.
I had said, “Lord, let me be Thy
servant, filled with Thy Spirit, giving all my thought, all my energy and my
life to Thee.” And He answered. Instead of letting me serve Him as I had
planned to do, He suddenly took me away from the work forever. As I lay in the
hospital in England, and especially when the first horror of the final outcome
was upon me, I thought sometimes that the Lord had forgotten and forsaken me,
that He had hidden His face from me; but it was not so. The more sorrow that I
have had to bear the easier it has become, and now I am rejoicing in my Saviour
every hour.
You ask how I am. I have lost my eyesight now and my voice; no
feet and ankles, and no arms; but my heart is far from dead.
I have no doubt in these days, and if I had my voice I should
be singing all the day long.
*
* * *
* * *
29
THE PROGRESS OF THE TRUTH
IN
By Rev. A. W. PAYNE
We can justly consider our subject under three points (1) Land, (2) People, (3) Book. The
Promised Land or the Holy Land, the
“For thy waste and thy desolate places,
and the land of
thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the
inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away.
- Isa.
49:
19.
It is JEHOVAH, the Redeemer of Jacob, who will glorify himself in
Any visitor to the
Although man y have denied or doubted
the ability of the Jews to do agricultural or architectural work, one can see
this thing proceeding at a great rate
before our very eyes in the land and city especially in the suburbs of
The chapter that specially deals with the land is Ezekiel 36., and in these days of dispute about Jewish and Arab rights, it is well to
remember that JEHOVAH calls it MY Land (verse 5), the land of Israel (6),
their own land (17) your own land (24)
(the nations call it) His land (20). And when the question of Mandate is
brought up, viz. whose hand shall help in restoring the Jew, Jehovah God claims the mandate when He
declares: “I have lifted up mine
hand, surely the nations that are round
about you they shall bear their shame” (7).
Truly the land may be described, since the British Occupation,
as “brought back from the sword” and it is becoming as “gathered out
of many people”
for Jews from all quarters of the globe continually reach its shores to stay,
unlike the Christian and Moslem pilgrims and tourists who pay passing visits.
It is [to be] also increasingly “a land of unwalled villages, of
those that dwell at rest and safely without walls having neither bars nor gates.”
Ezekiel 38:
8,
11. The desolate places are now inhabited
and the dwellers (Yeshav) in the navel Emek (Plain) of Esdraelon, have
certainly gotten already cattle and goods. Verse 12. Thus the earliest and the latest
books of the Old Testament are being corroborated.
Turning to the people, what wonderful progress they are
making. If the books of Ezra and Nehemiah were written to impress the truth of the Lord’s
faithfulness concerning His prophecy to Jeremiah of a return after 70 years’
captivity we cannot but be thrilled as we see the revival of the Jewish race in
all the three divisions of the Holy Land, Judea, Samaria and Galilee, with more
than a hundred different colonies
and settlements where every form of modem agricultural, educational, artistic,
sanitary development is to be found. The Land of the Hebrews was one of its
earliest titles mentioned by Joseph in prison in
Associated with the return of the Chosen people to the
This leads us to the third point of Progress of Truth in
But there is a word often too little emphasized which is a
turning point - “until,” verse 11. “Then said I,
Lord, how long? And He answered, Until the
cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the
houses without man, and the land be utterly
desolate (desolate with desolation). And the
Lord have removed men far away and there be a great forsaking in the midst of
the land” (11, 13).
How exactly “the land that is desolate,” as it has been described, fitted in
with this Scripture up till only a few years ago! But it is quite a misnomer
to-day, especially in its midst, where the largest Jewish colonization movement
is progressing. What is true of the place is true of the people. One of the
most devoted Hebrew Christian missionaries working in the Holy Land, an aged
brother in the Lord, told us very solemnly, “The face
of the Heavenly Father is turning again towards His ancient people
The number of New Testaments they purchase, their attendance
at classes for Bible Study, the increasing body of Hebrew Christians, their
desire to unite to form an Assembly of their own, all tell of the progress of
the Truth of the Word of God amongst them.
The reports from the London Jews Society in Jerusalem with its
Hospital work, its Boys and Girls School, its Hebrew service in Christ Church,
Mount Zion, and the Christian and Missionary Alliance with Gospel services and
Women’s work, the efforts of the Scotch Missions in Jaffa, Tiberias and Safad,
the witness of the British Jews Society at the Mount Carmel Bible School and
Medical and Evangelical Mission in Haifa, and the adjoining colonies, the
Jerusalem and the East Mission workers in High School and Hospital, the
Norwegian and Danish Society, and the many individual workers all more or less
employing believing Jews, give cause for great gratitude to God.
What encouragement the British and Foreign Bible Society and
Nile Mission Press Colporteurs continually give us as we hear what great things
the Lord hath done.
The movement amongst the Moslems and the Greek and Armenian
Christians towards an evangelical spirit is also most marked, as the workers of
the Church Missionary Society, the C.M.A., and many individual American and
English and European workers could testify.
We are only too well aware that apostasy is also growing apace
in other directions, such as a spirit on the one hand of domineering
priestcraft and of communistic lawlessness on the other, false teachings of
Bahaism, Mormonism, Russellism, Christian Science, with every kind of worldly
pleasure and extravagance, so new to the steady moving listless characteristics
of the ancient Orient under Turkish domination. We see the morning coming and
also the night, the dawn and the deepening darkness struggling, but when the
enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall raise up a standard
against him, the Redeemer shall soon come to
* *
* * *
* *
31
THE MAN WITH THE ANGEL FACE + 1
Stephen’s
death is as golden a sunset as ever made the Alpen-glow a dying splendour. His
swan-song was the first missionary message ever given by the Christian Church:
it was - in its setting aside of the Temple - a bold re-affirmation of our
Lord’s great Gentile word to the Woman by the Well, and it cleared men’s minds
for ever of the thought that Christianity could only reach the nations through
Judaism: it actually opened the door into all the earth by the persecution it
created: it started the conversion of the Apostle of the Gentiles,* who watched the
tragic scene: it is the utterance of a young man, in the dawn of a new era, who scaled the supreme
heights at a bound: it is the first missionary message sealed, at once, with
the first martyr’s blood. With the extraordinary significance that always
attaches to Scripture names, ‘Stephen’ means a
‘Crown’; for already, over the martyr brow,
hovers the shadow of God’s deathless amaranth [i.e., an ‘emblem
of immorality’].
It is largely a truth that what a man is can be read in his
face. The face is a barometer of character: it is the only section of the body
which obviously reflects and registers the soul: as a bird’s claw will be
stamped upon soft rock, and remain, when the rock is hard, indelible for a
thousand years, so the face hardens, into visible destiny, under mobile
character. The face of the babe is blank, because its character is unformed;
but the changes wrought by a lifetime can be, for good or evil, a
transfiguration. The drunkard’s puffy, bloated face ; the sensualist’s
brutishness; the shifty craft which writes ‘hypocrite’
across the eyes:- we all start with infancy’s white, unspotted page, we stamp
it all over, as the years pass, with our own handwriting: Cain himself will be
branded with no clearer mark than we, who carry our signature in our face.
Now suddenly in the frightful uproar of lynch law, in the roar
and the tumult of the first Christian martyrdom, we come upon the man with the
angel-face. “And all that sat in the council, fastening their eyes on him, saw
his face as it had been the face of an angel” (Acts 6:
15). What an angel’s face is like may be
judged from the Resurrection. scene:- “His appearance was as lightning,
and his raiment white as snow” (Matt.
28:
3). Stephen’s face was a most
extraordinary revelation. The whole Council sat with awed but angry gaze on one
face: in that face was the dawn that was going to circle the globe: yet it was
a dying face, for “if a seed
remain, it abideth alone, but if it DIE, it bringeth
forth much fruit.” If an angel came down among the sons of men, knowing all the facts of
another world, and having them always before his eyes, how noble his carriage
would be, how fearless his mien, how shining his countenance, even if his path
was leading straight to martyrdom: he would move as the consecrate of the Lord,
the commissioned of God. “They forget,” said
Samuel Rutherford, when summoned at the end of his life to what was probably
martyrdom, “that I am already dead.” How that
face must have haunted the dreams of the Sanhedrim all down the fevered years!
Now look at the ethical marvel of it. It is possible in the
midst of angry criticism, acute personal danger, profound misunderstanding,
overwhelming obloquy, to have the face of an angel. We have no slightest
conception of the natural beauty,
or ugliness, of Stephen’s face: the negro, the Mongolian, the Indian - each can
be the man with the angel-face. A Hindu trader in
What an epitome of a missionary! Heaven was actually opened,
but only Stephen saw into it: all they saw of Heaven was Stephen’s face. A young lady missionary in
“But for Stephen’s prayers,”
says Augustine, “the Church would never have had its
Paul”; the Church all down the ages is a creation from the light in
somebody else’s face. An old saying says:- “A cloudy
face strikes deeper than an angry blow”: how blessedly true is the
opposite! How profoundly more we are often helped by what people are,
than by what they say; and it is an unconscious glow. Moses
and Stephen kept no mirrors: Moses “wist not that the skin of his face
shone”; and Stephen - had
he had time to think of it - would have been puzzled by the startled stare of
the Council. “Oh for the holy shining of the face! and
oh for the holy ignorance of the shining” (McCheyne).* The shine of Stephen’s was the
unconscious response to “the countenance as the sun
shineth in its strength”: because Christ filled his eyes, he won and
wore the angel-face: all faces are beautiful that look on Christ.
* Nor is this an isolated case. An
unopened letter was found after his death in McCheyne’s desk in which his
correspondent, in Broughty Ferry, told how he had been converted not by
anything McCheyne had said, but ` “by your look, Sir,
as you entered the pulpit.”
The look of one who bears away
Glad tidings from the hills of day.
So in this first martyrdom we get the secret of all martyrdom
and of all radiant service. “Looking up steadfastly into heaven, he SAW JESUS.” He saw God’s Kingdom in its
omnipotence, its vastness, its repose, its sanctity; and he saw the One who had called him, and commissioned him,
standing on the right hand of power. The great Chinese Statesman, Li Hung
Chang, wrote in his diary, as a curious fact for which he could not account:- “This Christianity makes poor and lowly people bold and
unafraid.” Stephen was facing certain death. A London Divine said
recently:- “A medical announcement that in a fortnight
or in three months we should be dead, would throw everyone of us into a cold
sweat of fear. Not the strongest man could face the announcement without almost
complete collapse.” Not so: for look at Stephen. All through he “SAW JESUS.” When confronted with the angry law court, that Face shone -
no passing fancy, but the passion of his life; as the stones began to fly, the
vision still held his gaze; when the film gathered over the darkening eyes, he
saw it still: the moment after, he saw it as none of us have ever seen it -
yet. The death-hour can be the most radiant of the whole life; and if we
co-operate with God, and He sees the need, it will be. Robert Glover, one of
the ancient martyrs, was very gracious, very holy; yet God was pleased, during
his last days in prison, to withdraw Himself from him, and leave him in great
distress of soul. A friend visited him and advised him to continue waiting upon
God. He did so; and the night before his execution he spent much of the time in
prayer; but no comfort came, no Christ. The next day he was led forth to
execution; but the moment he came in sight of the stake, he cried:- “O Austin, He is come! He is come!”
For heaven can be proved by the heaven in the face. In a small
township in the
“Judge Tate’s face!” they all cried in astonishment: “what do you mean?” “Well,”
he said, “I had reason on one occasion to consult the
Judge on a legal matter. I was struck with something in his face - a light, a
peace, very intangible but very real - which caught me tremendously. I went to
see him repeatedly, ostensibly for legal consultation, and without our ever
speaking of religious things, I studied his face as I would any other bit of
evidence. I sifted the thing through: it became irresistible that the thing
which affected his face was his faith in Christ. I had never run across this
fact in my study of Christian evidences; and I wanted to be honest; so I have
gladly accepted Christ.”
And it is an exhaustless shine. An old negro slave was once
addressed by her mistress. “Sybil,” she said, “when I heard you singing on the house-top, I thought you
fanatical; but when I saw your shining face, I saw how different you were to me.”
“Ah, Missis,” the old woman answered, “the light you saw in my face was not mine, but was reflected
from the cross; and there is heaps more for every poor sinner who will come
near enough to catch de rays.” “THE BEAUTY OF THE LORD OUR GOD BE UPON US.” (Ps. 15: 17).
-------
GIVE GOD A CHANCE - BY
PRAYING
There are many things too difficult for you to do. But you do
not hesitate to seek some one more skilful and give him a chance to do for you.
You have a precious gem to re-set. You cannot do it. But you are quick to give
the expert jeweller a chance to do it for you. There is a dangerous mountain
steep to climb. You do not know how to find the pathway. But you give the
mountain guide a chance to lead you in it. There is a deep ford to cross. You
cannot risk it. But you give the hardy ferryman a chance to pilot you across
it.
It is not otherwise with you and God. There are many things
you cannot do. But God says: “If ye ASK I will do.” There are burdens you cannot bear.
Give God a chance through prayer, and,, He will bear them for you. There are
problems too knotty for your solution. Give God a chance by prayer, and He will
solve them for you. There are barriers too high for you to overleap. Ask God.
They are not too high for Him. Somehow when there seems no other chance for us,
prayer gives God a chance. And behold, He does for us what we had forever
despaired of doing ourselves.
- McCONKEY
* *
* * *
* *
32
GIANTS OF FAITH + 1
The Holy
Spirit’s definition of faith is extraordinarily illuminating. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the proving [or, rather, the mental conviction] of things [actual things] not seen” (Heb. 11: 1). Faith is all life squared to the facts which we know are
behind the veil. They are “things not seen as yet” (Heb.
11:
7); but as, above and below - visible
light, and above and below audible sound, there are rays and notes the human
has no senses to perceive, yet rays and notes equally actual, equally real, so
faith acts on God’s statements of the realities in the unseen; and our power in
this world depends on our vision of the other. “I
would rather be among the great believers,” said Dr. Gordon, of
In the very first family earth ever had, we find faith’s
extreme costliness, and the awful sundering power of conviction. “By faith ABEL” - the father of all the martyrs of
the world - “offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice” - because it was a blood-atonement - “than Cain.”
“By faith Abel”: faith in what? All faith (in the Bible) is faith in the Scriptures,
as uttered or inscribed by Prophets, and having God for their Author.
Jehovah had said:- “The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head,
and it shall BRUISE his
heel” (Gen.
3:
15). Abel may, or may not, have known of
Messiah’s heel crushed by hammer and nails on wood: what any ‘believer’
must have seen in the
words was the Fall undone by Messiah suffering the rage of the Serpent in
undoing it. But Faith no sooner appeared
on earth than it cost Eve’s second son his life - conviction of blood-atonement so suddenly isolated him from all
the world, that his own family
murdered him. Faith broke in a dawn of blood, because it had entered
a world deeply infidel.
No sooner is justification and its saving gift portrayed in a
lightning flash, than sanctification and its reward is on the horizon. “By faith ENOCH” - the father of all the watchful of
the world - “was translated.” Abel is the longest dead of any man that ever was, or ever
will be; Enoch has never been dead at all: faith creates both the martyr and
the immortal. Enoch’s faith is never
named in Genesis, only his walk; but -
as the Apostle rightly argues - a God-pleasing walk can come only from constant
faith, acting; for “without faith” he says, “it is
impossible to please God” and what pleased God in Enoch’s walk was its faith. In an age
when evil men and seducers waxed worse and worse, Enoch lived a LIFE of faith and
his reward - for this is what the [Holy] Spirit emphasize ; Enoch (He says) acted on the fact that God
is a Rewarder - was bodily rapture. Please me, the Flesh says to all; please
me, the World says to all; please Me! God says to us all: and lo, the walk of
sanctity ended in a sudden heaven.
We have had the worship of faith; and the walk of faith: now
we come to the activity of faith. “By faith NOAH”
- the father of all the God-fearing souls of the world - “moved by
godly fear, prepared an ark.” The
Next we come to faith travelling to the ends of the earth for God. “By faith ABRAHAM” - the father of all the missionaries
of the world - “when he was called, obeyed to
go out.” No
poverty, no discontent, no persecution drove Abraham from
We now reach as remarkable an example as any on record of
faith in the literal Word of God. “By faith ISAAC” - the father of all the Bible-lovers of the world - “blessed Jacob
and Esau, even concerning things to come.” Two nations contended in Jacob and Esau: the Divine
afflatus through Isaac - against Isaac’s whole
soul - gave the supreme blessing to Jacob; and the moment Isaac saw it, he
cried, “I have blessed him, and
he shall be blessed.” Glorious faith! God had spoken through
his unconscious lips: as immutable, as irrevocable as God Himself - changing
the destinies of nations for thousands of years, and burying a father’s hopes -
Isaac instantly accepts the word of God against himself. No subtler test of faith is in the Church
to-day - a test in which myriads fail - than the Scriptures which warn believers
of coming penalty on sin: passionate faith, with face in the dust, delights
even in utterances that banish hopes and ruin dreams.
We now reach faith in the last moments of our sunset. “By faith JACOB” - the father of all the holy
death-beds of the world - “when he was a-dying, blessed and worshipped.” Could anything be more lovely? Amid
the stern realities of the dying hour, the stumbling old figure, leaning
heavily on the staff still grasped in his pilgrim hands, passes from the world
pronouncing benedictions, and adoring God: so God passes over all the faultful,
faltering life, and gathers the whole blaze on its golden sunset. As Spurgeon
has said:- “Little faith brings the soul to heaven,
but great faith brings heaven to the soul.” And the reverse is true: the
organist of a well known minister once told me:- “My
minister preached on Genesis; and for a
fortnight I was in Hell.” On the deathbed the destructive critic will
find no staff on which to lean. So we pass from faith in dying to faith beyond
the grave. “By faith JOSEPH” - the father of all the Millennarians
of the world - “when his end was nigh, gave commandment concerning his bones.” I do not know any more marvellous
example of belief in resurrection. Joseph might have had the pomp and gold of a
tomb of Tutankhamen; ancient writers say that he was so buried, until the Exodus: instead, he made this
slave-people sware that they would carry his bones across the vast wilderness,
in order that those bones might be in the
We now reach the last of the mighty convictions which, in
God’s sight, make the world’s greatest men. “By faith MOSES” - the father of all the great renunciations of the world - “accounted the
reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of
How tremendous is our summons to faith, and how enormous, all
down the ages, has been the responding dynamic among the sons of men! Jesus
walked up and down the shores of the
I heard
the call ‘Come, follow’;
That was all:
Earth’s joys grew dim -
My soul went after Him;
I rose and follow’d,
That was all:
Will you not follow if you hear His
call?
-------
The Bible is a corridor between two eternities down which
walks the Christ of God; His invisible steps echo through the Old Testament,
but we meet Him face to face in the throne-room of the New; and it is through
that Christ alone, crucified for me, that I have found forgiveness for sins and
life eternal. “The Old Testament is summed up in the
word ‘Christ’; the New Testament is summed up in the word ‘Jesus’; and the
summary of the whole Bible is that Jesus is the Christ” (Bishop
Pollock). “I can never doubt,” says Mr.
Spurgeon, “the doctrine of plenary verbal inspiration;
since I so constantly see, in actual practice, how the very words that God has
been pleased to use - a plural instead of a singular - are blessed to the souls
of men.”
* *
* * *
* *
32
CARRYING A CROSS+ 2
Our Lord
stated one of our most practical truths by coining a wholly new phrase, never
found before in Holy Writ, and never found in classical literature; and a
phrase over which, perhaps most of all, the disciples anxiously brooded. “And He said
unto all, If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, AND TAKE UP
HIS CROSS DAILY” - ‘not a cross of ivory or jet or gold dangling
on the bosom,’ but rough, sharp-edged cross-beams - “and follow Me”
(Luke 9:
23). The anarchists of
* Nevertheless our cross has no remotest
connection with the expiation of
But this truth is conditioned
by a fact of the first importance. Jesus says:- “If any man would come after Me,
let him” - for cross-bearing is entirely the
doing of a man himself - “take up his cross” - a deliberate action of open-eyed
choice - “daily” - for once joining that procession, we
are never to fall out: it is not a great sacrifice made once for all, but a readiness to die for what we believe all the time - “and follow Me.” This reveals that the taking up of a
cross is purely optional. Our cross - for each has a cross peculiar to himself:
“let
him take up his cross” - is not something compulsory, but a thing of choice; it is
not misfortune, or disease, or anything unavoidable that comes to us in the way
of providence: it is something painful which, because Christ commands it or
because Christ experienced it, we deliberately take upon ourselves; with our
eyes wide open we lift the cross-beam, and fall into the procession, knowing that what we carry may cost us
our life. Our obedience must be, in will if not in event, an
obedience unto death.
So a cross lies in each [regenerate] believer’s pathway. None of us needs to manufacture
one: “there is enough wood in every man’s forest to
build all the crosses he will ever have to carry”; and they are always
waiting at our feet. We have a most remarkable example given by our Lord
Himself. Jesus said to the [rich] young
ruler:- “Take up thy cross, and follow
Me” (Mark
10: 21). And what was his cross? “Sell whatsoever
thou hast, and give to the poor.” The Lord supposes that we may flinch
from our cross, may shirk it, may walk round it; for He says elsewhere, “He that doth not
take his cross and follow
after Me is [not lost, but] not worthy of Me”
(Matt.
10:
38). “I shudder,”
Fenelon wrote to a friend, “at the mere shadow of the
cross.” But in the admirable words of Archbishop Tillotson:- “He that cannot take up a resolve to live as a saint, has a
proof within himself that he is never like to die as a martyr.” Said an
old mystic:- “Never run after a cross, and never run
away from one.”
Now it is profitable to ponder why we should take up our cross
cheerfully, buoyantly, courageously, joyously. “Let us therefore go forth unto
Him without the camp, bearing His reproach”
(Heb.
13:
13). For (1) religion must prove its sincerity by its martyrs. John
Witherspoon, in a crisis of American history, said: - “Although
these grey hairs must soon descend into the sepulchre, I would infinitely
rather they should descend thither by the hand of the public executioner than
desert at this crisis the sacred cause of my country”: it was at these
words that the Declaration of Independence was signed, and the United States
was born. The rough, jagged edges of the cross cut into the ‘flesh.’ The humiliating ritual; the doctrine which at once involves unpopularity; the loneliness which only
compromise can avoid; the practise
which at once costs - in purse, in reputation, in health, perhaps life;
the impossible attitude (as the world regards it) into which loyalty to the
Word of God forces us: it is in our cross that the world sees Christ. A company of
unbelievers once followed one of their number to the grave. On the bier was a
cross. Someone reproved them for their inconsistency; but they answered, “No; the cross stands for all that is noblest in manhood.”
Again (2) the Via
Dolorosa is the highway of holiness. “There is no
independence upon earth so strong,” says Bishop Moule, “and so nobly strong, as
that of a Christian who wills wholly to be Christ’s servant. There is a power
and presence in such a life, be it the poorest and the simplest, which in these
days, as in days long gone, can attract more than wonder from those who may
least betray the feeling. For what is it but a breath of the victorious
martyr-spirit, the spirit in which seventeen centuries ago Polycarp stood
invincibly superior before the heathen world and the cruel flame?”
The shadow rend,
And o’er us bend,
O martyrs with your crowns and palms;
Breathe through these throngs
Your battle-songs,
Your scaffold prayers, and dungeon
psalms!
Again (3)
generations yet to come are depending on our fidelity. When we walk on coral
rocks our steps are made sure by the deaths of countless fossil millions: so
to-day we ourselves are treading on the laid-down lives of the noble dead; and
souls not yet born again are depending on our death-in-life as the dust of
their highway to God. A Church-house in
Again (4) the
doctrine of a lifted cross counterbalances the danger of an unbalanced
statement of the doctrines of grace. The Roman Church takes up the cross in order to be saved; we because we are saved:
Again (5) no cross, no crown. The sorrow into which
the cross plunges us is the furnace in which our crown is forged. “Were the felicities of the next world as closely apprehended
as the felicities of this, it were a martyrdom to live” (Sir Thomas
Browne). No sooner had Jesus spoken of His
crucifixion, and then of each disciple following with a cross, than we
read:- “the fashion of His countenance was altered, and his raiment became white and dazzling.” It is a saying
of profound truth - carry
the cross, and you will find it will
carry you. It is the path into the
- [Lord’s promised* millennial] glory.
[* See Psa. 2: 8; 110: 1-3, 4, 6; Cf. Rev. 2: 25, 27; 3: 5, 21, R.V.]
So, in an ever-deepening crisis of the world’s history, let us
shoulder our cross strongly, buoyantly, joyously. A draft was to be taken from
an American regiment when transport was too limited for all to cross the
-------
THE MISSIONARY
Recall the twenty-one years, give me back its shipwrecks, give
me its standings in the face of death, give me it surrounded with savages with
spears and clubs, give it back with spears flying about me, with the club
knocking me to the ground - give it me back, and I will be Your missionary
still.
-
JAMES CHALMERS.
-------
UNBORN MYRIADS
Yet a vast work of the Holy Spirit
still remains. The countless multitudes on the right side of the returned
Christ (Matt.
25:
33)
still await regeneration, in the lurid
borderland between a dying - [evil and apostate] - age and an age unborn, Henty Clay, when once in Alleghany mountains, overlooking
vast territories occupied only by the Indian and buffalo, put his ear to the
ground, “What are you listening for?” his
fellow travellers asked. “I am listening,” he
said, “for the
thump of the on-coming millions.” “And they shall come from the east and the west, and from the north and south, and shall sit down in the
* *
* * *
* *
33
PUNISHMENT IN THE SCRIPTURES + 5
By Rev.
C. S. BARTLETT,
D.D.
The
endlessness and hopelessness of future punishment is distinctly and abundantly
set forth in the Scriptures. God has not kept His children and the world for
eighteen hundred years in a state of false alarm.
Let me premise (1) the proof does not destroy all power of denial. Nothing can. God
and immortality can be denied. So is every supposed teaching of the Scriptures.
A large class of writers, professing to accept the Scriptures, even deny the existence of a soul distinct and
separate from the body, Nor (2)
does it prevent the possibility of casting doubt on the proofs, taken in an
isolated way, or by reason of the derivation and variant use of words. Nothing
can. By the same destructive treatment of language that has been applied to
this subject it can be shown from the Scriptures that there is no God but
heathen “gods,” no heaven but the sky, no
paradise but a park or garden on earth (such was the O.T. use of the word), no
hell but the valley of Hinnom, and (from the origin and frequent use of the
Greek and Hebrew words) no spirit but the wind, or a breath. By such methods
all things are possible. Nor (3) is
the teaching given in philosophical and abstract forms. That is not the Bible
method. It speaks concretely and popularly, yet intelligibly. Indeed, one might
even say with Tayler Lewis, it is “the employment of
necessarily finite language to express an infinite idea strictly transcending
all language.” But the Scriptures speak to fair-minded men.
Let me further premise that this
doctrine does not depend (1) on one passage but on many; (2) nor on one word or set of words.
Some writers have assumed that aionios contains all the proof. An
entire mistake. Dean Farrar adds to this the two words “damnation” and “hell,” as the
whole support of “the popular teachings.” But
we make no account of the former, and incidentally of the latter. Such an
assertion does not command respect, as will be seen. Nor does it depend (3) on “isolated
texts,” as the same writer unadvisedly says. Almost none of them are
isolated, but they are commonly embedded in the scope and context, and, in
repeated instances, constitute a part of the direct end of the whole adjacent
theme. So in the description of the last judgment (Matt. 25.); the case of the rich man (Luke 16.); the warnings of Mark 9: 42-50; of Matt. 10: 26, 39;
18:
21-35; Luke 13: 24-30. These passages and others bear directly on the subject of
retribution, the last-mentioned being an answer to a direct question concerning
being “saved.” Nor (4) does it
depend on any one or few modes of representation, but on many and diverse. The
chief difficulty is to gather them up and present them in their full force as
they lie in their places, and have carried conviction to all classes in all
ages. They are always weightier in their connection than as we present
them. There is a combined consensus in the Scriptures, like that of the church in finding
it there. And there are no conflicting utterances on this point. The testimony is steadily cumulative
and convergent.
1. The Scriptures
teach a probation in this life, and they teach no other. We constantly read
that Christ “came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1: 15; John 3: 17; 12: 26, etc.). The gain of the whole world is followed by loss of the
soul (Matt.
16:
26). After death - [not resurrection] - is the judgment (Heb. 9: 27), and it is for the
things done in the body (2 Cor. 5: 10), Christ will deny before the Father those
that denied Him before men (Matt.
10:
32). Judas went to his own place (Acts 1: 25). The rich man at [after his] death passed to the place of “torment”
(Luke 16:
23). Men can do no more after they “kill the body,” but God, “after He hath
killed, hath power to cast into hell [Gk. ‘Gehenna’]” (Luke 12: 5). Such is the steady strain. There is no text which intimates,
or is claimed as intimating, for the rejector of Christ in this world a second
probation. Not only does the declaration - “He that
loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life shall keep it unto life eternal” [‘aionios’
Greek]* - by its own force
attach the respective destinies hereafter to the different
courses of here, but the
Saviour affirms in so many words (John
12: 25) that this consequence is determined “in this
world.”
[* NOTE: Translate the Greek word aionios “into life
age-lasting”. It cannot be ‘eternal’ in
this context.]
2. The Scriptures offer saving agencies
only for this life, would be much to expect that characters which had finally
resisted all the gracious influences of this life should yield to the same
influences hereafter. But the
Scripture intimates not even such helps. As Christ’s mission was to men in the
flesh, so was that of the Comforter. He “will reprove the world of sin, righteousness, judgment
(John 16:
8).
“The light” is with men “a little while,” and ye must “walk while ye have the light
lest darkness come upon you” (John
12: 35). There is a - [possibility of a regenerate believer] - drawing
back unto perdition [destruction]* (Heb. 10: 39), and a condition of character in which “there remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain
fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation” (10: 26, 27). What can be more hopeless than such a
character left only to Godless companionships?
[* See Heb. 10: 39: “But
we are not of those shrinking back into
destruction; but of Faith to a saving of Life.”
(Greek) See the context of this in verses 34, 35 & 36.]
3. The Scriptures steadily teach the
finality of the doom after this life. It is not only the “end” or strictly consummation
of the world (Matt. 13: 39, 40,
49; 24: 3; 28: 20), but is represented as part of the
settled economy of God’s government. The righteous enter into a kingdom
prepared for them from the foundation of the world, and the wicked into a doom
prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25: 34, 41). The judgment is the, “last judgment”
as the world has agreed to call it. The Saviour’s reiterated injunctions to “walk” and “believe while ye have the
light, lest
darkness come upon you,” were preceded by the declaration, “Yet a little
while is the light with you” (John 12: 35, 36). The apostles steadily assert and assume that under “the preaching
of the cross” men
both “are saved” and “perish” (1 Cor. 1: 13, 23, 24). So uniform is this aspect of finality that a late writer, who
questions endless punishment, is constrained repeatedly to admit that the
Scriptures leave the prospects of the sinner without “one
ray of hope,” and that the silence of Christ’s gospel is “forbidding and full of despair” (“Is Eter. Pun. Endless,” pp. 8: 21, 89, etc.).
4. The offers of salvation here are
made on conditions which exclude hope if
rejected. Every promise carries or implies a menace. Not to believe is “not” even to “see life,” but to have God’s “wrath abiding on him” (John 3: 36). And the menace hinges on the
rejection in this world, the rejection of Christ’s message by His apostles (Matt. 10: 14, 15). The apostles’ preaching was both a “savour of life unto life,” and “of death unto death” (2 Cor. 2: 15). There is not an intimation in the
New Testament that saving faith can be exercised unless in this life.
5. The danger of absolute loss under present means of grace is constantly implied and
asserted. “How shall we
escape if we neglect so great salvation?”
(Heb.
2:
3).
“Let us fear
lest, a promise being left us, any of you should seem to come short of it” (4: 1, 2). This is said of rejecting offers here and some have “entered not in because of unbelief” (verses 2,
6). There is a condition in this world in which “it is impossible to renew them again unto
repentance” (6: 4, 8). We [Christians] are even to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2: 12); to part with hand and eye to escape the quenchless fire (Mark 9: 47)! “The righteous scarcely are saved” (1 Pet.
4:
18). Paul kept his body under lest he should be a castaway (1 Cor. 9: 27).
6. A complete termination of
opportunities to gain Christ’s favour is expressly set forth. At the wedding
feast the door is shut (Matt. 25: 10), shut by the Master (Luke 13: 25-28), and the workers of iniquity
“thrust
out” in despair.
These utterances are expressly directed
to the future issue.
7. There is pronounced an utter exclusion
of certain classes - [of regenerate believers] - from
‘the
8. Christ
asserts actual failure. Some will seek to enter into the kingdom and not be able (Luke 13: 24). This was an answer to a question about being “saved.” Some also will have expected
acceptance who will encounter unqualified rejection (Matt. 7: 22, 23).
9. To die in
one’s sins is to be excluded from
Christ’s presence; such “cannot come”
(John 8:
21). So, to obey not the gospel - [i.e., ‘the good
news’] - before Christ’s
coming (2 Thess.
1:
7,
9)
is to be punished with “everlasting - [Greek ‘aionian’
=
‘age-lasting’ in this context] - destruction.”
10. The doom of the wicked after death is very explicitly
pronounced irreversible, “a great gulf fixed” which “they cannot pass” (Luke 16: 26). This was while other men were still living on earth.
11. Punishment is explicitly declared
never to end. In several forms: unquenchable fire (Matt. 3: 12; Mark 9: 43), with the duplicated
addition (ver.
48) that “their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.” The parallel passage expresses this
corroboratively as “eternal” (Matt. 18: 8) - [“... it is better for
thee to enter LIFE crippled or lame,
than having two Hands or Two Feet, to be cast into the AIONIAN
FIRE.”] - seems to me but an unworthy and futile device to
explain the Saviour’s solemn asseverations by saying that the punishment indeed
goes on but the punished go out.
12. The woe of one man was pronounced so
intolerable that “it were good for that man if he had never been born” (Matt. 26: 24). To dispose of this solemn utterance
of Christ, as does a late writer, by calling it “this
gush (!) of strong indignant feeling,”
is a procedure that may be safely left to its own merits.
13.
In one passage (Jude 6) the “chains” of the lost spirits (whose doom man
is to share) are described by an epithet (... eternal) used elsewhere in the
New Testament only of “the eternal power and Godhead” of Jehovah (Rom.
1:
20).
14. Six passages declare the punishment
to be “for ever” (... Mark. 3: 29; 2 Pet. 2: 17; Jude 13; Rev. 19: 3; 20: 10). Nothing has broken this force. The Greek is the settled,
specific phrase of Plato, Aristotle, Diodorus, Lucian, to signify what we mean
by “for ever,” and the Latin has translated, in xternum. Some inappropriate applications
destroy the legitimate, accepted meaning neither of the one nor the other. It contemplates no end. It was the proper and the
common Attic and Hellenistic phrase for everlastingness, well known - no other so well known and
suitable. Legitimate scholarship can prove no such meaning of this phrase as “for the age,”
or, “for an age.”* Besides, of fifty-seven instances in
the New Testament, thirty-six refer to God and Christ - their functions and
glory, ten to the blessedness of the righteous, and six to the punishment of
the wicked. The force of this fact can never be broken. In one noticeable case (Mark 3:
29) the denial of forgiveness “for ever” is reiterated by pronouncing the “sin” (see the amended text) eternal, and the parallel passage (Matt. 12: 32) specifically
unfolds it, “neither in this world [age], neither in the world [age] to come.” Olshausen well shows (
[* NOTE: The highlighted
statement above is not true! “For whoever may speak a Word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but
he who may speak against
the HOLY SPIRIT, it will in no
wise be forgiven him, neither in this
nor in the coming AGE:” (Matt.
12:
32.)
Now ckeck the context before and after:- “The good Man out of his GOOD Treasure produces
good things; and the EVIL Man out of his BAD Treasure produces EVIL things:” (verse 35) ... “But I say unto you, That for every
pernicious Word which MEN may utter, they shall be Responsible, on the Day of
Judgment: (Verse 36.)]
15. Six or seven times punishment is
pronounced eternal Matt. 18: 8 - [... “cast into the AIONIAN FIRE.”]; 25: 4, 41, 46; Mark 3:
29,
2 Thess.
1:
9;
Jude 7,
and perhaps Heb.
6:
2 - [ “...of the Doctrine of Immersions,
and of the Imposition of Hands, and of the Resurrection of the Dead, and of the aionian Judgment). Fifty-one times
also (of seventy-one) the Greek adjective describes the blessedness of the
righteous, and twice, God and His glory. These facts are sufficiently
significant. The word clearly is used to designate what is eternal [or for the coming “Age”]. It is the Biblical word for that
purpose; its constant and only adjective of the kind, except one other used in
two instances. If ever not strictly applied there or elsewhere, such is the
case in a far greater degree with our strongest English words, eternal and
everlasting. The prevalent settled meaning remains, and even when applied to
things connected with what actually passes away it still carries the force of
irreversible. The high and legitimate meaning of the Latin aetentus was not destroyed by its application to
the destiny of
A recent attempt, not by eminent classical scholars, but by
theological reasoners, to make this word mean vaguely “outside
of time,” spiritual and the like, or, as one writer says, “drop from the phrase the idea of duration,” is an
attempt (1) to deny the settled meaning of the word and (2) to force into it a
meaning drawn wholly from some associated fact or word, a meaning which breaks
down under application and examination. And as to “dropping
the idea of duration,” one may as well talk of dropping the idea of heat
out of fire, for all scholarship agrees that the central notion of it is
on-flow, continuance, duration. (See Cremer and the Lexicons generally.) And in
view of this fact, that duration is in the word, one of the most irrefragable
of testimonies is a passage in which (Matt. 25: 46) - [“...and these
shall go forth to the aionian cutting-off; but the RIGHTEOUS
to aionian
Life.”]) that
duration is pronounced to be the same [duration] for both the punishment of the wicked and the
- [aionian
(age-lasting)] - happiness of the righteous.
Such is an outline of the force and variety of modes in which
this teaching is conveyed. I have not exhausted the argument, but far less than
this would be ample. As an honest man and student, I must receive the doctrine
or deny the authority of the New Testament.*
* In fairness to Conditional Immortalists we append a word sent us by “Decius” on an earlier article by Dr. Bartlett:- “As one who has held life-truth for close on fifty years, I cannot recall
an instance of any of its advocates in the very least degree belittling sin or
the Atonement. Far other has their testimony. Life-truth teachers are not
surpassed even by Dr. Bartlett in the strenuous upholding of the full inspiration
and integrity of the Scriptures.” - ED.
[D. M.
Panton.]
-------
PUNISHMENT
Dr. E Lyttleton, formerly headmaster of
-------
UNSAVING KNOWLEDGE
Knowledge of the way and the treading of the path for oneself, are two wholly sundered
things. Some years
ago I was called to see a dying sailor (says a Christian worker) in the public
ward of a hospital. On arrival I found the man in the next bed trying to make
clear to the fast-sinking mariner the way of salvation. When it was all over I
thanked this man for the help he had given. To my astonishment he replied:- “I am not a
Christian myself, but I know the way; and I
couldn’t see the poor fellow die without telling him what I knew to be true.”
He was a lawyer who had fallen through drink. Knowledge must pass into faith,
or the soul is lost. Sign-posts
reveal, but never reach, their goal.
-------
SIGNAL SAYINGS
1 Abandon every known sin; surrender
every doubtful indulgence; obey promptly every voice of the [Holy] Spirit; openly confess the Lord Jesus
Christ.
2 Whatever else you do or fail to do, force yourself to
form the habit of being alone with God; for the first of all secrets of holy
living and serving is closet prayer.
3 Right giving is a part of right
living. The living is not right when the giving is wrong. The giving is wrong
when we steal ‘God’s portion’ of our income to
hoard, or spend on ourselves.
-------
A PREACHER CONVERTED
An unconverted curate preaching near Felixstowe discovered, on
putting on his surplice, that he had forgotten his sermon at home. He confessed
his embarrassment; and then returned to the lesson for the day (Ps. 8.)
for a text. He read:- “What is man, that Thou are mindful of him?” His reference Bible referred him to Rom 3; and he read, in a tone he
had never used before, - “There is none righteous, no not one: their throat is an
open sepulchre; the poison of asps is under
their lips.” “This,” he added, “is God’s
description of man, not mine: I have never known until today what man is.” Once again he followed the
reference in his Bible; and this referred him back to Ps. 8. - “What is man, that Thou visiteth him?” and to John 3: 16; - “God so loved
the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” He instantly saw,
believed, and then and there preached the gospel.
-------
HIDDEN FRUIT
A man in
* *
* * *
* *
34
THE CHRISTIAN AND WEALTH
+ 2
By D.
M. PANTON
Nothing
is more disturbing or awakening than to observe the fog, the confusion, the elusiveness
with which the
Now “to the disciples” (Luke 16:
1) - not to the covetous Scribes and
Pharisees, who merely overheard it, and were greatly incensed, but to His own -
[regenerate disciples] - of all ages - the Lord presents the appalling brevity of our trust. A
wealthy man’s steward, having wasted his lord’s goods in an extravagant and
luxurious life, receives his dismissal; and shocked by his sudden peril, and
immediately aware of the little span left him in which to provide for his future,
he instantly faces the facts and acts with swift decision. He summons his
lord’s debtors; reduces their debts* - how far, as steward, he had authority to do this is not shown; but that
he exceeded his authority is certain by his description as an “unrighteous steward”
- so as to gain their friendship; and sees the thing through with urgent
dispatch - “Take thy bill quickly”. So our Lord pictures each of us, His
disciples, as rapidly approaching (by death or rapture) the revoking of our
trust : ou.r time is as brief, our need
for making immediate provision as overwhelmingly urgent: the stewardship we
hold from God is fast running out, and our impending bankruptcy, which no
prudence can stave off, calls for rapid and decisive action. Our stewardship is
sharply defined between the cradle and the grave.
*“The amount of the saving in each instance, in all
probability, Much more than could be wanted for the support of another member
of a given family” (Greswell).
Now our Saviour. emphasizes the
approval expressed by the steward’s lord: “his lord commended the unrighteous steward, because he had
done, wisely”. “‘Wisely’ as Archbishop Trench says, “is not
the happiest rendering, since wisdom is never in Scripture dissociated from
moral goodness: ‘prudently’ would best represent the original, and so in
Wieclif’s Version it stood”; warily, shrewdly, circumspectly. It is one
of the startling assumptions of our Lord in this parable, revealing
incidentally the profoundest truths, that the methods of accumulating wealth characteristic of the world -
though not invariably so - are dishonest; the Steward steps into the parable
not only already an unscrupulous man, but a type of all men: yet every fabric
of the splendid instrument thus misused is admirable. The world’s God-given
endowments - foresight, industry, ingenuity, inventiveness, devotion - are,
through sin, made abominable; yet they remain, nevertheless, of priceless
value; and how priceless is seen at once by what replaces them in their absence
- laziness, improvidence, carelessness, sloth. So our Lord says elsewhere:- “Be ye wise as
serpents”;
that is, imitate, not the venom, but the intuition, of the serpent. The
Parable is a composite picture of the business world as we know it, and as it
has always been; a flashlight photograph of commerce, with all its moral lights
and shadows coming out as the blacks and whites in a finished picture.
So our Lord, in His next word, makes the moral distinction
clear, while the parable assumes an overwhelming force. “For the children of
this age” - all worldlings - “are in their generation” - that is, as
moving in an evil atmosphere, actuated by wrong motives, unscrupulous because a
wicked and adulterous generation - “WISER” - more circumspect, more far-seeing, intenser, more
ingenious, more concentrated and devoted on their evil ends - “than the
children of light”, on theirs. An owl sees further than an eagle in the dark (Trench). A
wolf is keener, more astute, more wider awake than a sheep. The highest and
holiest aims, our Lord assumes - and supremely the laying up of a fortune in
the beyond - require no less sagacity, forethought, and travail than the
fortunes of a Rothschild or a Ford: business acumen our Lord warmly commends,
if only it be a razor whetted on the right strop. The two “generations” - the generation of the flesh, and
the generation of the spirit - are opposed in origin, in nature, in aim; yet in
wise ambition the lower excels the higher: one has chosen this world and its
prosperity, the other the Saviour and the Age to Come; yet he who has chosen
the evil prosecutes it with a far intenser devotion than he who has chosen the
good. It is a revelation of extraordinary and startling import: our Lord,
looking down all the ages declares that - habitually, in the mass, tragically -
the world is better served by its servants than God is by His. We have but to
mark the extraordinary absorption of the worldling; his fixed purpose; his
unswerving pertinacity; his economy wherever possible, and lavish investment
wherever it is safe; his sacrifice of present comfort to future wealth - with
the Christian’s too frequent listlessness, doubt, hesitation - the complete
absence of any thought of investing wealth beyond the tomb - to recognise our
Lord’s picture of us all as true to fact.*
* “We have
known many determined to be rich in this world, but have we ever known one so
steadily setting himself to be rich in the next?” (Govett). The present writer can say that he has known one, with absolute certainty - the deceased
author he has just quoted.
So now our Lord lays down the only profound and provident use
of wealth: neither hoarding, nor squandering, but carefully investing beyond
the grave. “And I say unto you” - something closely similar to the steward’s lord: I say it,
with whom the adjudication ultimately rests - “make to yourselves friends” - that is,
personal friends: not barns, nor palaces, nor estates, nor banking-accounts,
but friends - “by
means of” -
literally, out of; draw friends, not coins, out o your purse - “the mammon of
unrighteousness” -
the wealth which, in the world, is attached to evil: “that, when it shall fail” - when the grip passes from the dying grasp - “they” - the beneficiaries under a divine
trust - “may receive you” - it is reception only: heaven is
not purchased, but a welcome into heaven is; for gratitude survives the grave - “into the
eternal tabernacles” : so, obviously, it is
fellow-pilgrims upon whom the wealth is mainly to be conferred, or (it may be)
those who may be won to Christ by the grace-laden gift. We change our currency
when we go abroad: happy are they whose riches here are friends there!
Here is a startling and profound reverse of the parable. For our interest
coincides absolutely with God’s. In giving his entrusted wealth so as to create
friends, the steward defrauded his lord: we, in doing exactly the same thing,
show our wisdom, create deathless friendships, invest the wealth as the owner
of the wealth commands, and delight God. Transmute your gold into love, says
the Saviour, for love leaps the grave: a wise foresight in wealth is identical
with a perfect stewardship Godward: four times fidelity is emphasized, and fidelity is distribution. So we stand awe
before this masterpiece of Divine wisdom: which, through an appeal to self-interest,
produces an unselfishness so powerful as to abandon wealth; clothes the naked,
and feeds the hungry, saint; proves the selfless competence and farsighted
administration of God’s steward; creates a love that survives death; and uses
evil mammon to heighten heaven’s joy.
Finally, our Lord, faced with the prospect of a universal
rejection of this truth, is an extremely instructive model to the Christian
teacher. There is no “hurt”
feeling - He discounts the unbelief before it comes; there is no surprise - He
who knew what was in man, saw the dollar [or pound] which is at the bottom of most men’s souls; there is no anger
- He simply states the facts, and is done; there is no forcing of the truth -
he that hath ears to hear, let him hear; there is no reproach - for this is not
the day of reproach, and the bankrupting loss in that - [coming
millennial] -
day will probably be reproach enough. All that Christ does do is to close with
the clearest warning of the fact, and a challenge. The fact is this. “He that is
faithful in a very little is faithful also in much” - and so the principle applies to the
least possible wealth any of us can hold: the wise master of a homestead would
be the wise master of a kingdom; “and he that is unrighteous in a very
little is unrighteous also in much” - proved incapacity on earth disqualifies for the larger
trust in heaven. And the challenge springs out of the fact. “If therefore
ye have not been faithful” - and the fidelity consists in dispensing the trust with a
view to eternal friendship - “in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?” - of which the Millennial earth forms
a part. Jesus implies that God will not. “And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another’s” - no earthly wealth is yet given us
as an inalienable possession; we are merely tenants at will - “who will commit
to your trust that which is your own?” - the world, forfeited by the Fall, but,
in that day, no longer foreign or loaned, but a wealth as eternal as the Eternal
Tabernacles. The principle - presented, startlingly enough, only negatively, in
view of all our Saviour foresaw - is as practical as it is momentous, and is
the gravest possible: namely, that incompetence in the illusive, transient
wealth forfeits the trust in the genuine and inherent; and that if we use God’s
capital, He expects His dividends - so much so that infidelity in our temporary
trust incapacitates for the eternal - [aionios millennial] - property.
-------
MAMMON
I have not known three score persons, perhaps not half the
number, during three score years, who, as far as I can judge, were not less
holy than they would have been had they been poor. By riches I mean not
thousands of pounds; but any more than I will procure the conveniences of life.
“There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the
sun, namely, riches kept by the owner thereof to his hurt” (Eccles. 5: 13)
JOHN WESLEY
-------
BONDAGE
“Ye desire again to be in servitude from
above” (Gal. 4: 9). The servitude of old-time saints was appointed (Gal. 4: 2, Heb. 11: 15). But redeemed ones now “have not received the Spirit of
servitude again to fear” (Rom. 8: 15). Hence the Galatians wished to put themselves back to another dispensation. “Days and
months, and times, and years” belonged to the period before Christ. But if believers should
wish to re-establish Jewish feasts to-day, they would sin against God. To
re-instate the seventh day, to arrange a Jewish-Christian assembly, to erect
elaborate buildings for worship, to ordain an earthly priesthood, to introduce
musical instruments in worship, to approve of Christians taking part in
warfare, to enter into vows and oaths - all these things are un-dispensational,
and thus against the mind of God.
Some of His people see this as to some matters, but hesitate in others. And
when we pray for an all-round realization of His will, in the Spirit, how we need to pray for
victory over the subtle contrast-error; for some have the swing of the
pendulum, and deny the commands and privileges connected with baptism, deny the
Lord’s Supper and the Lord’s Day, which are graciously given from above, and
fitted for a people viewed in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
- PERCY
W. HEWARD.
* *
* * *
* *
35
THE GOLDEN ALTAR OF
INCENSE +1
In the
Golden Altar of Incense we have something much more than a gorgeous
illustration: we have, expressed in kindergarten form, God’s supreme symbol -
rich, profound, deeply suggestive - of prayer. For there is no doubt that by
the ascending cloud of aromatic odours, fed by fire from the Brazen Altar, the
Holy Spirit signifies worship, and specifically prayer - the fragrance from a
human heart, like the sweet odour that rises from the heart of a rose. “Golden bowls,” we read in the Apocalypse, “full of incense [odours], which” - incense fumes - “are the prayers of the saints” (Rev.
5:
8). So David says:- “Let my prayer be set before Thee as INCENSE, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice” (Ps. 141: 2). So, when the Seraphim worshipped,
crying, Holy, Holy, Holy, odorous smoke - something delicious to Him into whose
face it ascends - filled the whole
Deeply significant is the position of the Altar. The
God-accepted worshipper is exactly portrayed by where he stands: the Altar is
described as “the Altar before the Lord”;
and, in the Apocalypse, as “the Golden Altar, which is before the Throne.” All the priests
officiated before the Golden Altar; as worshippers, as pleaders, as
intercessors: all Christians, when they pray, stand in the immediate presence
of God. The Bronze Altar was behind the worshipper has
passed the Burnt-out
Offering, and left his sin on it in extinguished ash: he now stands immediately
in front of God, perpetually in the presence of the Mercy Seat. The Vail, spiritually removed - for spiritually there is
nothing between us and God - yet physically still separates, for God and our High Priest in the
Holiest, and the whole inner Sanctuary of Heaven, are still screened off. The
worshipper, as it were, said:- “I stand here, and
venture to lay my grains of incense upon the Golden Altar, because He died
yonder upon the Cross, that I might enter the Holy of Holies at last.”
The fires that kindled the incense
had first fed upon the sacrifice on the Brazen
Altar: all our prayer is lit originally by live coals from off
The Altar itself was made of acacia wood - the humanity of
Christ - encased in slabs of solid gold - His Deity: the incense grains, held
in the golden bowl or censer, rested on the gold-covered roof of the Altar: on the God-man alone repose all the
prayers of all the saints. The Golden Altar was one of the few objects defined as “most holy,” as the incense is also: next to the
Ark and the Mercy Seat it seems to have ranked as the most sacred object of
all: everything about it was of gold - golden rings, golden staves, a golden
crown, a censer of gold: it is the extreme value God sets on prayer. The Incense is
variously described as “pure,” “sweet,” “perpetual,” and “most holy.” Moreover the Altar - higher than any
other object in the Tabernacle whose measurements are given, as befits prayer -
had four horns, as symbolic of the power and efficiency and richness and
catholicity of the ministry of prayer: worldwide in its intercession; and so
powerful as to move God.
The Incense is a remarkable revelation of how our prayers
reach God. “There was given unto him [the angel] much incense, that he might add it” - the Greek is
give it: the intercession of Christ, and the imparting of His merit to us, is
sheer gift - “unto the prayers of all the saints upon already resting upon” - already resting upon - “the golden
altar” (Rev.
8:
3). Our prayers have to be, sometimes fumigated, often censored,
and always “censed”: that they rest upon the
Altar shows that they come from saints of God; but before they can reach God, the Lord’s spices must turn them into aromatic smoke.
So clearly has this burnt itself into the mind of the
“The prayer of the upright is His
delight” (Prov. 15: 8). Richly
suggestive is the stored incense. “And thou shalt beat some of it very small” - the rest being stored, always ready
for instant use - “and put of it before the testimony in the tent of meeting” (Ex. 30: 34);
where it lay, latent fragrance, smouldering intercession, until, touched by the
fire, it burst into flame. Prayer is ignited thought, love on fire, devotion in
flames: as a little boy of four exquisitely defined it - “Mummy, when I get on my knees, My HEART thinks.”
Touch the man of God at any point, at any time, and prayer flames forth,
already stored: so it is that, the moment fire is added, the prayer, latent in
the prayer-spirit, bursts out and smokes upward. Morning and evening prayer are
the soul’s dawn and sunset. “Every morning when Aaron dresseth the lamps, he
shall burn it; and when he lighteth the lamps at
even he shall burn it,
a perpetual incense” - always stored, often
flaming - “before the Lord” (Ex. 30: 7).
Divine response is the great goal of
the Golden Altar. The incense-smoke rose, arrow-like, in a straight and direct
column to Heaven: in the case of God’s Tribulation saints, in an agony of need
and of prayer, we read - “and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of
the saints went up before God”
(Rev.
8:
4); and immediate judgment-answers
descend, in hot lightnings and fierce earthquakes. Had it been otherwise, the
smoke would have been blown down and athwart: “as smoke
is driven
away, so drive them away; as wax melteth
before the fire, so let the wicked perish in the
presence of God!” (Ps. 68: 2). So whether in the midnight or at the
noonday; in the closet or in the great assembly; in the tropics or at the
poles; in a palace or in a prison:- all incensed prayer pierces Heaven, and
moves God.
No alien incense could be offered under pain of the death-penalty (Ex. 30: 38): all prayer not fumigated with the merits
of Christ ends in death. The Babylonians used to burn a thousand talents’ worth of frankincense every year at the great
festival of their god Bel; and in the early stages of the Church it was made
the test of a Christian under the
-------
THE GREAT REMOVAL
To those of God’s saints in this age who are counted worthy a
complete escape is to be granted from the disasters, political, terrestrial and
planetary, in which humanity at large is to be involved at the close of this
age. The whole of Advent truth will fall short of practical profit to us unless
it stir us to watchfulness and prayer:-
“Watch ye, therefore, and pray always that ye may he accounted
worthy to escape all these things
that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man.”
This exhortation, this command, was uttered by our Lord after
His own recital of the programme of catastrophes which are to overtake the
world’s population during the period immediately antecedent to His public
appearance in glory. Thus escape from the awful period of earth-judgments is possible. It is possible
but conditioned:-
“What manner of persons ought ye to he
in all holy conversation and
godliness?”
What indeed? Can any standard of consecration be too high, any
present sacrifice of self too great, any devotion of service or substance too
great, if escape from the judgments described is its reward?
- SAMUEL HINDS WILKINSON.
* *
* * *
* *
36
A SHORTENED COURSE OF INSTRUCTION
FOR A SOLDIER OF JESUS CHRIST + 1
By HENRY VOGEL
1. You have only
one weapon, the Word of God.
2. God’s Word
needs no allies.
3. You are to
rely only on the Word of God do not rely on your own wisdom, nor on that of
other people.
4. Do not appeal
to your own feelings of responsibility, but always to a definite text and
command of the Scriptures.
5. Belong
completely to Him who always belongs completely to you.
6. He shares with
no one His power to command.
7. No human
discipline can absolve you from the duty to speak out and acknowledge Him.
8.You cannot
better serve a government which orders you to do what is against God’s command
than by refusing such false obedience and suffering for it.
9. Do not forget
to pray for your rulers
10. Do not forget
that the world hates nothing so much as God’s Word, and needs nothing so much
as God’s Word.
11. Never believe
that a doubter believes in his doubt.
12. In every
defeat be certain of this: that the God who raised from the dead Him who was
crucified has won His victory in defeat.
13.There is no
battle awaiting you in which He has not already been victorious.
14. It does not
follow that you will be vindicated, but only that God will let no blow be a
grief to you which you receive for His sake.
15. You have come
out on Christ’s side do not be surprised then that they treat you like an
outcast.
16. Take note of
the fact that the Christian’s position in the world is with his back to the
wall.
17. If fighting
comes your way that you never dreamed of at the beginning, take it as a good
sign that you are among the outposts.
18. Do not behave
as though you were the only soldier of Jesus Christ; but obey your orders, even
if nobody except you obeys them.
19. Do not ever
think God needs a first rate man like you; you need God.
20. When you are waiting for orders from above do not dig
yourself in too deeply.
21. God’s warfare in the world is not a
war of defence, but a great war of aggression.
22. Do not
confuse the commands of God with the peace offers of the world.
23. Remember that
the respites of inactivity can become times of temptation.
24. Use your rest
periods for the next battle.
25. Keep on the
road and avoid all side tracks.
26. There is a
great future before you - God’s future.
27.
You are on the march towards resurrection and eternal life.
-------
GOSPEL INCIDENTS FOR CHRISTIAN WORKERS
Christ.
All salvation
is embodied for all eternity in one word alone - Christ. A renowned Bishop lay
dying. Friends approached his death-bed, one by one, and asked, “Do you know me?” He only shook his head. His children
came, and said also, “Do you know us?” and
again he shook his head. His wife came last of all, but the wandering mind had
forgotten her too. Then some one lent over, and whispered into his ear, “Do you know Jesus?” The response was instantaneous. “Know Him?” he said; “yes, He
is all my salvation and all my desire.” “This is
life eternal, to know Thee the
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.”
Reprisal . Refusal of Christ is unutterably awful. One day a minister
preached in a penitentiary. He saw a familiar face in the audience. At the
close of the sermon, he went to the convict. The prisoner said, “I remember you very well. We were boys in the same neighbourhood. We went to the
same school. We sat beside each other in the same room. My prospects were as
bright as yours. But at the age of fourteen, you made the choice to become a
Christian and enter God’s service. I refused to come to Christ. I made the
choice to go into the ways of sin. Now you are a happy and honoured minister of
the Gospel. I am a wretched outcast! I have served ten years in this
penitentiary, and am to be a prisoner here for life!”
Substitution. Leland Wang, the Chinese evangelist, tells how
he learned the substitution of Christ. As a boy he had been very naughty and
his mother, with a stick in her hand, called him to her to be punished. But he
ran off, taunting his mother because she could not catch him. She had little
chance of catching her small, lively son. So she stood still and said, “I feel ashamed of myself that I have brought up a boy who is
not willing to be disciplined by his mother when he does wrong, so I must
punish myself,” and she began to whip her bare arm. This so touched Leland’s
heart that he ran back to his mother, threw himself into her arms, and pleaded
with her not to hurt herself but to punish him. But no further punishment was
necessary, for his heart had been softened and he was now ready to do whatever
she asked. Mr. Wang says that, as he grew older, the memory of this incident
helped him to understand the great love of the Lord Jesus Christ who willingly
took our place on the cross.
Jesus. Years ago, when horse-drawn coaches
were common, a lady was travelling in one, with her little girl, about six
years old. At a wayside halt a gentleman got in, and, after some minutes of
silence, gradually began discreetly playing with the child. When he showed
signs of being about to alight, the girlie leaned toward him and sweetly said,
“Gentleman, do you love Jesus?” The man
muttered some reply, bowed to the lady, and disappeared. About five years
later, he met the lady in another town, and, recognising her, apologetically
asked if she were not the same one that he had met before. Upon hearing that
she was, he asked after the girlie, “Ah,” said
the lady, “she went to be with Christ two years later.”
The man expressed his sympathy, whereupon, as they were near their home, the
lady invited him in and showed him Lucy’s little room, with her picture,
favourite books and toys set out. “There,” she
said, “that is all that is left of her.” “No,” replied the visitor, “that
is not all, Madam, for I am left too. The question she so artlessly put to me
as I left the coach was God’s arrow to my heart. I could not forget it, and
soon after, I yielded to God’s claim, won to the Saviour through your sweet
girlie’s question. I am her child in the faith.” The mother’s emotion my
well be imagined.
* *
* * *
* *
37
THE MIDDLE WALL OF PARTITION + 3
The
great Court of the Gentiles, which formed the outermost enclosure of the
The critical distinction dividing off all mankind by God’s own
order, so sundering the race in a cleavage that has become deadly, is a
surgical operation in the flesh. “Wherefore remember, that aforetime ye, the
Gentiles in the flesh, who are called
Uncircumcision, by that which is called
Circumcision, in the flesh, made by hands” (Eph. 3: 11). By this surgical mark it was known which people were God’s:
so vital was it that if an infant was not circumcised, it was destroyed (Gen. 17: 14): it carried the whole Law with it, and the only recognized
worship of Jehovah: as the sole ‘seal’ of the
Covenant (Rom.
4:
11), it erected an impassable barrier
between the Jew and the uncovenanted Gentile.
Now the consequence of an absence of Circumcision was a
fivefold deprivation, for all Gentiles, which, summed up in Paul’s first
clause, deepens in horror to the last. “That ye were at that time (1) separate from Christ” - that is, the Messiah; for Israel, and Israel alone, had the
Messiah, embedded in the promises, to be given on the strength of the
Covenants, a Jew; all the rites, blessings, commonwealth, covenants had a sole
root in Messiah: (2) “alienated
from the commonwealth of Israel” - the only God-governed
country in the world: (3) “and strangers from the covenants of promise” - centring in an incarnate and triumphant Redeemer: and therefore (4) “having no hope” - a night without a star: (5) “and without God in the world” - Christless, homeless, loveless,
hopeless, Godless. We are in origin, merely heathen.
The Apostle now suddenly introduces, like a lightning-flash, one
of his dynamic ‘buts,’ reversing the entire
situation, and introducing a glowing contrast. “But now
IN CHRIST JESUS” - a complete
reversal of ‘without Christ’: of old without the
Messiah, but now in Jesus, that
Messiah recognized and found - “ye that were once far off” - in the outer Court of the Gentiles
- “are made nigh in the blood of Christ”; for an awakened conscience, and a
terrified soul overleaps all barriers of ritual pride or racial, antipathy, to
get at the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness: the blood shed on Jewish
altars was shed for Jews only - the blood of Calvary is a propitiation for the
sins of the whole world: “for He is our peace, who made both [Jew and Gentile] one.” That is to say,
the Crowning sin of both - the blood-shedding of Messiah - one act of uttermost
rebellion, the only joint act of Gentile and Jew ever wrought, is made, by. the
mystery of redeeming love, the welding for ever of the bitterly sundered
sections of the human race, meeting now, not in the Court of the Priests, nor
in the Court of the Gentiles, but in the Court of Heaven.
But now the Apostle reveals the exact reason why the Wall
crashed, and Gentiles; in untold millions, are surging past into the Holiest of
all. “And BRKE down the
middle wall of partition”* - the wall that hedged the enclosure, the spiritual ghetto, the ecclesiastical
preserve - “having abolished in his flesh THE ENMITY” -the mutual hatred that
had sundered the human race for two thousand years, which makes the Jew, in the
eyes of a Gentile, a pariah ram, and a Gentile, in the eyes of a Jew, an
uncircumcised dog - “EVEN THE LAW of
commandments contained in ordinances.” The Law relegated the Gentile to the outer court; the
Law ostracized him by placing Circumcision on the Jew alone; the Law built up
social, political,. religious prejudices which, cemented by racial hate,
hopelessly antagonized: therefore with the Law, the enmity vanishes.** The exhaustion of the Law’s penalty
was the exhaustion of the Law itself;***
and when our Lord died, not only was the Vail rent between God and man, but
also the Wall between man and man collapsed.
* So if Paul really did introduce
Gentiles into the Temple (Acts 21: 28), perhaps in the person of Trophimus the
Ephesian, he had a spiritual right to do so, and he nowhere denies the charge;
but probably the charge was false, for it would have been an act (we judge) as
improper, and unwise as to introduce everyone into the Holy of Holies after the
rending of the Vail at Calvary. Through Titus God Himself at last obliterated
both Vail and Wall. That the wall itself was not actually demolished until some
eight years alter Paul wrote is highly symptomatic of the transitional
inter-blending of dispensations: during which Christian synagogues are named (Jas.
2: 2);
Paul circumcises Timothy (Acts 16: 3); the Sacrifices still cleanse the flesh (Heb.
9:
13)
and Hebrew Chrisstians are still numbered with the Diaspora (1 Pet.
1:
1).
All this passed finally with the fall of the
** Says an old Puritan:- “The foundation of the wall of separation was laid in
Abraham’s time when circumcision was first given, for that began the quarrel;
reared up higher by Moses’ rites; further lengthened and stretched out in all
times of the prophets, throughout all ages, till Christ, who came to break it
down.”
*** “The ‘abolishing’ of which the
Apostle speaks does not consist in setting the Law aside, or suspending it by a
sovereign, executive act. It is a causing it to cease, or rendering it no
longer binding, by satisfying its demands, so that we are judicially free from
it; free, not by the act of a sovereign, but by the sentence of a judge, - not
by mere pardon, but by justification” (C. Hodge, D.D.).
So now we reach the supreme purpose of
all:- “that” - as a magnificent climax - “He might create” - for the Church is as truly a
creation as ever the Universe was, and both are Christ’s personal workmanship -
“in Himself” - for the enmity is removed only for
those Jews and Gentiles that are in Him* - “of the twain ONE NEW
MAN” - not a Jew
made into a Gentile, or a Gentile into a Jew, but a new creation; made out of
old materials, of diverse races and multitudinous peoples, yet possessing a
common spirit, and dead to all old partition walls and the age-long feud of the
human race - “so making peace; and might
reconcile them both in one body” - the Catholic Church, the mystical Body of the Christ - “unto God
through the cross, HAVING SLAIN THE ENMITY THEREBY.” That is, the cross, which slew the
Lord, slew the hate: therefore the creation of two Churches, two bodies, two
communities, with two sets of rites, and under two laws, re-erects the dividing
wall; disrupts the New Man; rekindles the old racial antipathy by bringing it
back into view through the Law; and paralyzes the unifying work of the Cross.
For each local assembly is to be a
miniature of the universal Church - all races, all nations. all classes, in
all degrees of saying faith; and if these are not in the Assembly, it is only
because they are not in the City: all are in the Church universal.** For the Church is not Jew and Gentile
made into one man, but into one new man: it is not that the Gentile is elevated
to the privileges of the Jew, or the Jew depressed to the bankruptcy of the
Gentile, or that the old privileges are shared between the two: but God removes
the separation by merging both into a new creation altogether new, and
incomparably superior, “Let us imagine,” says
Chrysostom, “that there are two statues, one of silver
and one of lead, and then, after both have been melted down, lo, a new statue
of gold! Thus made He the two, one.” For “there can be
neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond
nor free, there can be no male and female:
for ye all are ONE
MAN in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3: 28).
* In the world the hatred deepens all
the time. The modern apostate Jew, entrenched in Masonry, reveals by a Karl
Marx, a Trotsky, a Zinovieff what a world-peril the Jew can become; while the
Anti-Semite parties, a growing power in every State, will ultimately plot to
wipe the Jew off the face of the earth.
** So, as Circumcision sundered the race,
Baptism reunites it: for he who goes down into the water a Jew or a Gentile,
comes up neither; “ye being in time past Gentiles”: and if this
four-thousand-year-old and God-made cleavage is gone, much more all lesser
cleavages - racial, national, social: “where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarism,
Scythian,
bondman, freeman”
(Col.
3:
11).
So a racial prejudice which compels separate negro or other assemblies in a
community dominantly of another race must be deeply offensive to God. For all
the old has been buried in the baptismal grave. “If,”
says Luther, “we give Moses leave to rule over us in
anything, we are bound to obey him in everything; in this respect, therefore,
let him be dead and buried, and let no man know where his grave is.”
-------
CHRIST OURS
Jesus belongs to the sinner. From His infancy in
ADOLPH SAPHIR
-------
THE FIGHT IS ON
In some ways the greatest spiritual conflict of the ages. What
part are we going to take for God and those who have never heard of His
redeeming love in Christ? China appeals to us - the greatest tragedy in the
world to-day - four hundred million people cut adrift from the old moorings,
politically, socially, religiously, swept away from all that has held them
through the ages, thrown into chaos and suffering unspeakable with no master
hand on the helm, threatened with Bolshevism in addition to civil war and
brigandage, famine and flood, and now with this rising tide of anti-Christian
agitation. Christian men and women, it is to us our Master appeals as long ago
- for He is suffering in the sufferings of His people in China - He asks us to
watch with Him one hour.
Mrs. HOWARD TAYLOR.
-------
ECONOMIC BOYCOTT
Economic pressure is, and will
be, one of Hell’s most powerful weapons. “A very
intelligent Russian lady,” Mr. G. H. Lang writes us from
* *
* * *
* *
38
BAPTISMAL REGENERATION + 1
* Early
Organisation of the
Now it is a startling fact, on which, naturally, the
Sacerdotalist strongly relies, that the Scripture regards the baptised as the
saved: it uses the word “baptised” and the word “saved” as two descriptions of one class of people: it carries the
principle so far as actually to identify baptism with salvation. “As many of
you as were baptised into Christ
did put
on Christ” (Gal.
3:
27):
“He saved us through the washing of regeneration [the laver attached to the new birth] and renewing of the Holy
Ghost” (Titus 3:
5):
“which doth now save YOU, EVEN BAPTISM” (1 Pet.
3:
21). So our Lord says: “He that
believeth and is baptised shall
be saved”
(Mark 16:
16).
Now there are two possible explanations, and two only, of this
arresting fact. How is it that the baptised are the saved? The Sacerdotalist
answers, Because baptism regenerates. Rome says:- “The
instrumental cause [of justification] is the
sacrament of baptism, without which justification never befell any man”;
and, “If any one shall say that by the said sacrament,
grace is not conferred through the act performed, but that faith alone suffices for
obtaining grace, let him be accursed.” But another explanation of the
Scripture words is equally possible. If faith precedes baptism, and is an
essential of baptism, then it follows that the baptised are the saved because it is the saved that are
baptised. Put it in another way. All “sterling”
silver (as it is called) is hall-marked: either the stamp of the hall-mark on
the metal makes it sterling
silver; or else it is only sterling silver that is hall-marked: there is no
third explanation possible. Either the act of baptism saves; or else faith in
the person baptised saves: these two explanations of the Scriptures alone hold
the field.
Now the Holy Spirit has put the answer beyond all doubt in the only definition of baptism ever
given by God. “Which also doth now
save you, even baptism, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh” - that is, baptism does involve
water, but it is not a bath, and it is not body-cleansing water which is
essentially the baptism- “but the answer” - the question and reply, the catechism - “of a good
conscience toward God”
(1 Pet.
3:
21). Baptism saves because of what baptism is: that is, baptism consists
of two halves - the water and the Blood; the water on the body, the Blood on
the conscience where there are both, there also are both salvation and baptism;
but
it is the Blood on the heart, not the water in the baptistry, that
saves. The picture which the Holy Spirit here selects to enforce the
truth is extraordinarily decisive; for to what does the “which” refer? - “which doth now save you.” To the saying through water (see verse 21, R.V.) in an ark:
the
The Holy Ghost’s alternative forecast of baptism is equally
decisive. “Our fathers were all baptised [typically] in the cloud and in the sea” (1 Cor. 10: 2): how, then, were they saved? “By faith they passed through the
So the foremost modern ecclesiastical historian, an Anglican
clergyman, confirms this truth as a matter of historical evidence. Professor Gwatkin says:- “Christian life [in the early Church] properly began with baptism, for
baptism was the convert’s confession before men, the soldier’s 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.’ Then he might be directed to fast a short time, in way of
preparation. He was then taken to a place ‘where there was water.’ Here he made
his formal confession, and here he was baptised 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: the whole symbolism of baptism requires
immersion, and so
* Early Church History, Vol. I pp.
248-250. it is significant of much
that the proposed Revisions of the Prayer Book, most of which are Rome-ward,
omit the references to the Flood and the Red Sea in the Baptismal Service - for
indeed these types are pointless and meaningless apart from personal faith and
total immersion.
So the believer in regeneration through water would do well to
ponder our Saviour’s disclosure of the exact pivot on which salvation rests. “Thy faith hath saved thee” (Luke 7:
50): that is, individual faith is vital
to salvation for postponed faith cannot be assumed; and a man may believe by
proxy, but he will be damned in person. Our Lord enforces the purely conferred
nature of salvation by a powerful explanatory word. “When they had nothing
to pay” - no works, no guarantees of conduct, no rituals, no
vows; not a penny in the pound - “He forgave them” (Luke 7: 42):
that is, the remission of spiritual debt, its cancelling, occurs only on
bankruptcy, when there is nothing with which to meet the debt: salvation consists wholly and solely in the frank forgiveness of a bankrupt. So to the thief
on the cross, never baptised, the Lord Jesus says: “To-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23: 43) thus putting beyond doubt once for
all that the essentials of salvation are not lodged in the baptismal act, but
in personal, appropriating faith.
Finally our Lord adjudicates directly on the problem. As the
Wafer (
-------
ROMAN INNOVATIONS
The extraordinary growth of lawlessness in the ecclesiastical
realm will be appreciated when the findings of the Royal Commission on
Ecclesiastical Discipline (1906) are recalled. The report, after mentioning 34
illegal practices which had been deliberately introduced as significant of
doctrines not accepted by the Church of England, enumerate ten of these which
they solemnly condemn as being “clearly inconsistent
with and subversive of the teaching of the Church of England, as declared by
the Articles and set forth in the Prayer-book.” These are as follows:-
(1) The interpolation of prayers and ceremonies belonging to
the Canon of the
(2) The use of the words “Behold,
the Lamb of God,” accompanied by the exhibition
of a consecrated wafer or bread.
(3) Reservation of the Sacrament under conditions which lead
to its adoration.
(4) Mass of the Pre-sanctified.
(5)
(5) Benediction with the Sacrament.
(7) Celebration of the Holy Eucharist with the intent that
there shall be no communicant except the celebrant.
(8) Hymns, prayers, and devotions involving invocation of or
confession to the Blessed Virgin Mary or the Saints.
(9) The observance of the festivals of the Assumption of the
Blessed Virgin Mary and of the Sacred Heart.
(10) The veneration of images and roods.
These practices, far from having been checked, are more common
and more open than they were when the report was published. Four of them (3, 5,
6, 7) are being proclaimed on public occasions as essentials of what their
advocates call the Catholic faith.
* *
* * *
* *
39
THE IRON AND THE CLAY + 1
By D.
M. PANTON,
B.A.
The Holy
Spirit presents the final stage of world-power under the guise of two
substances, iron and clay, incongruously blended: clay - friable, crumbling;
or, if baked, fragile and brittle; and iron - black, brute strength: and this
double, unblending Imperialism and Democracy - for there is no reason to doubt
that the usual interpretation of the symbols is correct* - the [Holy] Spirit depicts as politically the
peculiar characteristic of the End of the Age. In both the root ideas are good.
The root idea of Democracy - the government of the people, by the people, for
the people - seeks, in its ideal, the welfare of all; the root idea of
Autocracy - ‘aristocracy,’ or government by the
‘best,’ the men most fitted to govern - equally
seeks, in its ideal, the welfare of all. Both are now before our eyes
degenerating sharply, extremely, in every land, into forms of
virulent political disease: democracy, crumbling, fraying away like ‘miry clay,’ is becoming Communism or Bolshevism; while
the recoil of Autocracy, hardening into black, brute force, is the Fascism
slowly appearing in every land. Fascism is excess of law, or tyranny; Communism
is defect of law, or anarchy: exactly as iron is excess of cohesion, or
strength; and clay is defect of cohesion, or weakness. The Body Politic is in
the throes of its penultimate convulsions.
* “Whereas thou sawest the iron mingled
with miry clay, they” - the iron kings -
“all mingle themselves with the seed of men” -
the brittle populace (Dan. 2: 43).
COMMUNISM
Now Democracy, acting wisely and very tolerant of the Gospel,
has given the world the most enlightened and prosperous century it has ever
known; and even the Russian Revolution removed what Sir Philip Gibbs has
described as the wealthiest, most pleasure-loving, and most corrupt aristocracy
on earth. But we now confront a fearful breakdown. The ‘dictation of the proletariat’ is, at heart, such a democratic
degeneration into anarchy that under it all law - except its own violent grasp
of power - dissolves and disappears. (1)
It is lawlessness in the judiciary,
juries, deliberately packed, pass judgment - to quote from official Bolshevist
documents - “according to the circumstances of the
case and the dictates of their revolutionary conscience.” (2) It is lawlessness in civic life. In
CLAY
Now this disintegration of law, sinking to the deepest
foundations, assaults with its whole force not only all State law, but all
religious laws. One of the earliest acts of the Soviet (Times, April 23rd 1923) was to
disinter the ashes of Tolstoy and scatter them to the four winds. “The A.B.C. of Communism,” published by the
Communist Party of Great Britain (3rd July, 1925) says:- “It
is the task of the party to impress firmly upon the minds of the workers, even
upon the most backward, that religion has been in the past and still is to-day
one of the most powerful means at the disposal of the oppressors for the
maintenance of inequality, exploitation, and slavish obedience on the part of
the toilers. Many weak-kneed Communists reason as follows:- ‘Religion does not
prevent my being a Communist. I believe both in God and in Communism. My faith
in God does not hinder me from fighting for the cause of the proletarian
revolution’ This train of thought is radically
false. Religion and Communism are incompatible, both theoretically and
practically.” The moral disintegration has degenerated into frightful
blasphemy. “At the Moscow Garrison Club,” says
the Times (Feb.
3rd 1923), “where 3,000 soldiers attended
there took place a monstrous performance described as ‘The Trial of God,’ in
the presence of Trotsky. Communist agents were called up as ‘witnesses for the
defence,’ whilst in the dock were placed images of the Holy Trinity.”
FASCISM
Now exactly as the body reacts violently, even falling into
convulsions, in order to expel some virulent poison, so the body politic has no
option but a violent reaction to save its life. Fascism a recoil which no power
on earth could have prevented, restores - as its name indicates - the Lictors’
Rods with which the Roman magistrates enforced their - iron power “On Mussolini’s central table,” says Mr. Harold
Begbie, “lies a full-sized model of the fasces,
carried by lictors before the Emperors and consuls of ancient Rome - an axe
surrounded by close-banded rods. He laid his hand upon it, and said: ‘A symbol!
Unity by means of authority.’” “In
IRON
The iron grasp is falling on all the Roman lands.
LAWLESS EMPIRE
All lawlessness ends by imposing the fiercest law, and that
invariably its own; and so both the Iron and the Clay aim at world-power in the
spirit of Napoleon, who knew no law but his own:- “Be
strong; win power: all else is delusion.” A 1926 Soviet law decrees that
foreigners outside the Soviet Union are liable to
punishment for any breach of Soviet law which they may commit anywhere in the
world; and an identical clause in the Fascist Decrees, assigning ten years in
gaol [jail] to any foreigner criticizing Fascism on foreign soil, was only
dropped at the last moment in the Senate. Both unconsciously lead to one goal:
Communism aims at Internationalism, and so to a universal State and a universal
religion;* Fascism, with its worship of its own
State, will see that that universal State is Roman. Lenin, in his own words.
enforced “an iron discipline, with absolute submission
to the will of one person. “Have no illusions,”
he says; “only a military discipline of iron can
conquer for us” (Times,
Mar. 18th 1920). So after the last attempt at his assassination,
Signor Mussolini, on horseback before 150,000 people giving him a delirious
welcome, exclaimed:- “Fascism has become the religion
of Italy; let the whole world see this forest of bayonets: the rising faith
must necessarily be intolerant and intransigent; for the opponents of Fascism
there will be, if necessary, cold steel.” It is not sixty years since
nine nations combined to form a united
*
Communism’s war on all religion is no war on its own. One of the chief Soviet
works of the past year was the erection of a huge image of Lenin near the
Finnish Station in
** Though by nature unmingling, it is
remarkable that the Iron and the Clay show
symptoms of merging, so as to make
the one Scarlet Beast. The Italian Federation of Labour, first
coerced, now embraces Fascism (Times,
Feb. 4th. 1927), on the ground that the Syndical Law of Fascism is
largely Socialism.
-------
THE BLOOD OF CHRIST
It is a glad fact never to be forgotten that the great root
truths which belong to the whole family of God will be the indissoluble links
of a joyous eternity. “One memory I have of my boyhood,”
says Dr. Frank Weston, Bishop of Zanzibar, who ‘stampeded’
the Anglo-Catholic Congress in the Albert Hall into sending a telegram to the
Pope - “I was about six - of a Gospel meeting singing,
Hallelujah! ’tis done;
I am saved by the Son;
I am washed in the blood of
the Crucified One.
The words had no particular meaning for me then,
but I remember a great marquee filled with people full of joy. No one there had
brought anything to Jesus, none had come to bargain with Him, to kneel at His
feet with something to give - they had just crowded in and it was all done; they were saved by a free gift.”
* *
* * *
* *
40
SERVANTS READY AND UNREADY + 2
By D.
M. PANTON
Dr. R.
A. Torrey, in language of
admirable lucidity and force, expresses the urgent need of readiness for the
advent; though it is doubtful if the good Doctor (like countless
other [regenerate] Christians) sees the far-reaching implications of his own words. He says:- “ ‘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). According to this passage there is only one way in which we
can be prepared for the coming of the Lord when He appears, that is, through
much prayer. The coming again of Jesus Christ is a subject that is awakening
much interest and much discussion in our day; but it is one thing to be
interested in the Lord’s return, and to talk about it, and quite another thing
to be prepared for it. We live in an atmosphere that has a constant tendency to
unfit us for Christ’s coming. The world tends to draw us down by its
gratifications, and by its cares. There is only one way by which we can rise
triumphant above these things - by constant watching unto prayer, that is, by
sleeplessness unto prayer. ‘Watch’ in this passage is the same strong word used in Eph. 6: 18, and ‘always’ the same strong phrase ‘in
every season.’ The man who spends little time in prayer, who is not steadfast
and constant in prayer, will not be ready for the Lord when He comes. But we
may be ready. How? Pray! Pray! Pray!” *
* How to Pray, p. 25. Put
in our Saviour’s language, and in respect not to preparedness but to removal, it
is not wheat which is
reaped, but ripe wheat; not
stalks, but grain: “when the FRUIT is RIPE, immediately he putteth forth the sickle, because the harvest” - the end of the Age (Matt. 13: 30) - “is come” (Mark 4: 29).
Now a tremendous question, momentous for us all, arises, and
(as ever) is voiced by Peter; for within earshot of our Lord were Apostles,
disciples, and a great multitude: and Peter says - “Lord, speakest thou this parable” - of the burglared house (ver. 39) - “unto us
or even unto all?” (Luke 12: 41), Whose house, Lord, is liable to be broken
through? * Is the unready servant a disciple, or
one of the unbelieving multitude? is he regenerate, or unregenerate: is it a
saved man who is here required to be watchful, or an unsaved?* The Lord, not answering directly,
counters, so as by another question to compel us to answer the question ourselves.
“Who
then” - for this will
answer your question, Peter - “is the faithful and wise STEWARD” - a steward is a specially commissioned servant - “whom his lord” - therefore he is no stranger but an
engaged servant - “shall set over his household?” - the
* “The
essential difficulty which occasioned Peter’s question could only apply to the
last-mentioned and doubtful threatening of verses 39, 40. He deems the
threatening of instant judgment too strong for disciples who had been once made
true believers” (Stier).
** It is difficult to see how the dead could
be told to watch; nor could the
unsaved be told to ‘make ready’ in a context
where there is no summons to faith in Christ, and where genuine discipleship is
assumed as already possessed.
Our Lord, having so countered Peter’s question as to show that
even apostles are embraced in the warning - and the
Holy Spirit, recording it, adds His witness that it is disciples whom
our Lord is addressing (verse 22) - now drops the figure of a steward,
and broadens out the principle to cover all disciples;* and Jesus, knowing that His disciples
needed no convincing that the inconceivably splendid rewards He had named (verse 37) were for themselves if faithful, now discloses that so are the penalties that are
threatened. The Steward’s case He turns into a Church-wide application. “And that servant” - ‘servant’ is
one of the favourite self-descriptions of the Apostles in their Letters (Phil. 1: 1, 2; 2 Pet. 1: 1; Jude 1.) - “which knew his Lord’s will” - this is true only of [regenerate] children of God: the unsaved know
neither God nor His will - “and MADE NOT READY”- who prepared not what was necessary to
receive his Master according to His wishes (Godet) - “nor did according to his will” - did not shape all action by the
known revelations of Christ - “shall be beaten with many stripes; but he that knew not” - for honest
ignorance can extenuate - “shall be beaten” - for, nevertheless, ignorance in a
child of God is culpable - “with few stripes” - for as exactly as reward is graded, so exactly is chastisement. Thus the
Lord embraces in the parable the whole Church; for as the Apostles are included
at one end, so also is the last Steward to be found by the returning Lord at
the other - a proof past denial that the entire Church is swept into
the Lord’s strong and solemn words.
* “Every
believer is a ‘servant of God,’ and must watch for the coming of the Lord. Accordingly,
Jesus so answers the question that in a full and literal sense he applies what
was said to the disciples as the representatives of those called to be
instructors in the Church. In the next place, however, he transfers it to all ‘servants.’”
(Olshausen).
For let us pause for a moment to ponder a singularly
conclusive fact. The principles of righteousness compel an exact and
comprehensive equipoise. The Lord had said (verse 37) - “Blessed
are those servants, whom the Lord when he cometh
shall find watching: verily I say unto you,
that he shall come and serve them”;
- no utterance, it has been said, holds before the faithful so rich and
ravishing a reward (Large); but of the unfaithful steward He says - “He shall cut him asunder, and
appoint his portion with the unfaithful” (R.V.)*
- a mortal mutilation already actually experienced, among the
regenerate, by Ananias and Sapphire, and those deceased through misuse of the
Lord’s Table (1
Cor. 11:
30).
Thus reward and penalty are balanced one against the other in an indivisible
system of recompense: either award is stated as possible for the same steward:
it is wholly impossible to mutilate the justice, accepting one recompense and
rejecting the other: if we deny the penalty, we must abandon the reward; and if
we expect the reward, we must equally acknowledge the peril.** It is a studied antithesis between faithfulness and
unfaithfulness, not between regeneration and unregeneration; and whether we
take the ‘stripes’ as figurative of Tribulation
sorrows, or as literal inflictions at the Judgment Seat, the closely-knit
balanced statement of our Lord makes it certain that it is a punishment which falls strictly within the area of the Church.***
* “...those who
cannot be trusted” (Godet): it is obvious that the here are those who
have been unfaithful (Stier).
Liddell and Scott give its first meaning as - not
to be trusted; not trusty, faithless. ‘Hypocrite’ (Matt.
24: 51) - a man whose creed exceeds his practice -
our Lord both of believers (Matt. 7: 5) and of unbelievers (Matt. 23: 27).
**Anegative
proof is also of great force. If the Steward, together with the evil servants,
in the Pounds and Talents, are unregenerate men, we are confronted with the
inexplicable fact that on the unfaithful regenerate servant our Lord is totally silent: the servant who has failed in
his trust (and the existence of such will hardly be denied) is, in that case,
conspicuously absent from all parable and prophecy: dealing, as He does, with
the judgment of every class, for this class and its judgment the Lord (if we
make this assumption) gives no revelation whatever.
*** “No proper recompense can be
held out, as a motive to the performance of a certain duty, without involving,
over and above, the assurance of a proper punishment, as a dissuasive from its
non-performance”
(Greswell).
Our Lord finally enforces the solemn lesson by revealing its
controlling principle. “And to whomsoever much is given” - so far from the principle applying less to a child of God, or not at all,
penalty is a recoil in inverse ratio - “of him shall much be required” - in fidelity, in watchfulness, in
activity, in sanctity:- “and to whom they commit much” - that is, commissioned servants,
abounding in talents, in opportunities, in influence, in gifts - “of him they
will ask” - in the day of reckoning - “THE MORE”: a principle which works also among the lost; for where
nations have been most gospelled, there also they are most damned (Matt.
10:
15). But it applies not least to the Church.
The greatest prerogatives bring the greatest responsibilities (Lange): Christ
shows that the more highly favoured disciples must be visited with severer
punishment (Calvin): if ye, my servants and stewards, should prove unfaithful,
your punishment shall be all the more severe on account of the graces and gifts
which ye have received (Stier). So the unprepared servant has stripes, few or
many; but the untrustworthy steward, as more responsible, is cut asunder.
For the Lord reveals the inmost heart of the unfaithful
Steward - “that evil servant shall say in his heart”; and what He reveals is not fundamental unbelief - “I will not
have this Man to reign over me” (Luke 19: 14); but Advent unbelief
- “My lord” - a confession of faith - “delayeth his coming.” Moreover, most remarkably, it is an
excommunicating sin (1 Cor. 5: 11) into which he falls - “to be drunken”
(verse 45) - but for which either he is too
powerful, or the Church too corrupt, for action to be taken. “The first cause,” as Greswell says, “of the maladministration of the power entrusted to the servant
in the absence of his master is traced to the forgetfulness of the fact of
responsibility; that is, to the presumptive assurance that the time when any
personal account for his conduct was to be exacted by his master, if it was
ever to arrive, was still distant; and that the immediate liberty or freedom
from restraint might be used with the consciousness of safety and impunity.”
*
* How far a believer, by general holiness, can be ‘making ready’ without accepting the Second Advent at
all - or at least an Advent contingently approximate - is a problem that must
be left to the Lord; neither ‘watching’ nor ‘waiting,’ it is manifestly a most dangerous
experiment, and an experiment being made by a vast
section of the regenerate in all the Churches. Even the evil servant
never denied the Advent: all he said was - “My
Lord delayeth his coming.” How much bolder is the modern Church! “Was
Magnificent beyond dreams is the
alternative vision. “The reward which is proposed in
Scripture to Christians is an elevation to a share of the Kingdom of their
Master” (Greswell): but here it is dazzlingly greater, expressed in an
action which our Lord has already done literally (John 13: 4, 5). “HE SHALL GIRD HIMSFELF, AND MAKE THEM SIT DOWN TO MEAT, AND SHALL COME AND
SERVE THEM.”
In the words of Stier:- “Thus those servants only are blessed, whom their Lord shall find watching in
longing and patience; but they shall be transcendently and inconceivably
honoured by their Lord. With a solemn ‘Verily I
say unto you’ He gives them a promise which we
may compare with the glorious one in Rev. 3: 21, scarcely knowing
which of them is the greater; and concerning which someone has said - Let no
man contemplate it but when clothed in the profoundest humility.”
-------
THE SERVANT THAT FAILED HIS LORD
This poem. which appeared in the British Weekly under the title of “A Dream of Flodden,” carries a poignant appeal to the
disciple who shirks “facing the guns” for
Christ. Unpopularity is one of the safest of all God’s medicines
for saints. Isolation is the penalty of truth.
Was it a sigh of yesterday, or an echo
of long ago?
The dream of an idle moment, or a real
thing pictured so?
I thought
that I was somewhere in the heart of that elder world,
Where
stubborn men were gather’d with their battle flags unfurl’d.
I could see their pennons floating on
moor and moss and glen,
And I saw the legions muster’d that
ne’er return’d again.
They came
from lonely moorlands and far sequester’d towers,
And every hill and valley yielded its
fairest flowers.
From
Liddel and Esk and Yarrow, from Teviot,
They were
gallant hearts who follow’d and a king himself who led;
From Carter Fell and Cheviot to lone
St. Mary’s
They fail’d not at the summons who
knew the black mistake.
And they
rode away to the eastward, and the land was still as night;
And never a man that falter’d, and
never a thought of flight.
Then I
seem’d to lie in the silence, in the grip of an anguish’d throb;
Not a cry
nor a sound of wailing but a deep-drawn stifled sob.
And the
sun went down in crimson till it made the streams run red:
I knew I had stay’d
from
- R. S. CRAIG.
-------
THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF
CHRIST
A reality for each child of God. Every work will be brought
into judgment. The principle of Rev. 22: 12 has no exceptions. This is of the most momentous importance.
And when the Lord Jesus judges, there will be righteousness. The judgment seat
of Christ is quite as exact as the Great White Throne. If there is judgment at
all, there must be consistency. Favouritism before a Judgment seat would be
dishonest. The Lord will not call disobedience obedience, nor overlook an
emptiness. There must be a holy strictness, and, if works are burnt up, there
must be a real loss (1 Cor.
3:
15), and if there has been sowing unto
the flesh, there must be a reaping of corruption (Gal. 6: 8). An unfelt loss is not “suffering loss.” Nevertheless the losses are of a
different character from those of the ungodly. Are not believers often taught
to be too careless about the Judgment Seat of Christ? Assured glory is not to
make us regardless of the solemn alternatives. The weight of glory is precious,
but to “reap corruption” can hardly mean “the joy of the Lord.” And do we not value His joy enough to
be concerned as to this? The believer who puts aside the thought of the
Judgment Seat of Christ is losing much of Divine teaching. The coming of Christ
is rich with glory, but, let it be repeated, things that are bad will not be
called good (2 Cor.
5:
10). If this Scriptural instruction is
applied by the Spirit of God, it will not produce melancholy, but it will tend
to prevent the misuse of prayer, and “lightness”
as to sin. The love of Christ attracts His people to rejoice in His joy (Matt. 25: 21, 23). Let us live for Him with happy expectancy, and seek His
reproving now, that we may have His
approving then.
- PIERCY W. HOWARD.
* *
* * *
* *
41
THE LAND LAWS OF JEHOVAH
Little
understood, hidden away in an obscure book, stated in unfamiliar, almost
obsolete, language, there lies a piece of statesmanship as remarkable as any
the world has ever seen; an enactment that goes to the root of all social
problems and political perplexities; a legislative enactment not human, but
Divine; and a statute without a parallel in the legislation of any nation in
the world. It is the Law of Jubilee. All wealth ultimately depends on the land;
as there will never be any process by which man can live on manufactured foods,
the land remains the basis of all wealth, all monopoly, all subsistence; and of
this single land law of Jehovah, without a counterpart in the history of
jurisprudence, it has been said, “there are no words to express the wonder felt
by the student of social science as he first measures the significance of the
law of jubilee” (T. T. Munger).*
* “There are
perhaps in the whole ancient world no institutions bearing comparison with the
Hebrew year of Jubilee, either in comprehensiveness or in loftiness of
principle” (Kalisch).
Now the fundamental law, on which the whole social and
political legislation of Jehovah was based, was the proprietorship of God: all
the soil was God’s; and all purchasers of land were no more than leasehold
tenants. “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is MINE:
for ye are strangers and sojourners with Me” (Lev.
35:
23). When Joshua assigned the land, it was
allotted, not so much to individuals, as to families or clans who worked the
allotment, but only for the half century for which it was allotted. When land
was sold, no title could be given with the property, nor could the freehold be
parted with; the sole land-owner was Jehovah; the ‘usufruct,’
as lawyers say, - the right to the use of the produce - was all that could pass
from man to man; under Jehovah’s land laws, men were only ‘tenants of God.’ So fundamental was this law, that
every fifty years, by a kind of benevolent and bloodless revolution, the whole
land reverted to Jehovah; all tenancies ceased; and the original tenants, to
whom God had given it by lot, re-entered into possession. It was not
Capitalism, under which the soil is owned by individuals in perpetuity: it was
not Communism, under which all belongs to the people or to the State: it was
the Divine original and unchanging fact - that
the globe is God’s; and that fundamental economic law of the world is this, - “The earth
is the LORD’S, and the fulness” - all the
economic wealth - “thereof; THE WORLD and they that
dwell therein” (Ps. 24: 1). *
* “The
fundamental thought is:- Jehovah is the Lord of the land, with all its
blessings, with its soil and its harvests, with its inheritances and its
dwellings, with its rich and its poor, with its free and its slaves, its roads
and its byeways” (Lange). Ps. 24: 1 was selected and inscribed over the London
Stock Exchange by the Prince Consort.
So every fifty years there was a great and bloodless
revolution before miscarriage and wrong had eaten into society like an
incurable cancer. “Ye shall hallow the FIFTIETH
year” - from the
tenth day of the first month of the first year to the tenth day of the first
month of the forty-ninth year is exactly six hundred ‘lunations,’
or cycles of the moon - “in this year of JUBILEE
ye shall return every man unto his possession.” Purchased land was paid for according
to its proximity to the Jubilee: the price rose or fell according to the
remaining length of the lease: so that, when it reverted to the original owner
in the fiftieth year, the purchaser had lost nothing, for through the yield of
the annual harvests he had recovered all that he had paid for the land. In the
economic sphere, it was like the revolution of the heavenly bodies in the
physical sphere: as the sun varies in sunrise and sunset daily, yet this day
next year it will start afresh exactly where it does to-day - so every fifty
years everybody, add all society generally, started again with a clean sheet.
Under God as the Land-Lord, all members of the community were tenants of God;
and (for He willed that all men should have free bodies and unencumbered
estates, to serve Him), the land was for all, because the land was God’s; and
He meant it for all. “Replenish the earth, and subdue it” (Gen. 1: 28). Moreover. if a man, having become bankrupt, had sold himself
into slavery as an honourable means of paying his debt, at the jubilee he was restored to perfect freedom:
for all human compacts were torn up, became wastepaper, at the blast of the
Jubilee trumpet. Everything breathed a perfect freedom conditioned by
fundamental law. It was the great readjustment. “Just
as all the sins and, uncleannesses of the whole congregation, which had
remained unatoned for and uncleansed in the course of the year, were to be
wiped away by the all-embracing expiation of the yearly recurring day of
atonement and an undisturbed relation to be restored between Jehovah and His
people; so, by the appointment of the year of Jubilee, the disturbance and
confusion of the divinely appointed relations, which had been introduced in the
course of time through the inconstancy of all human or earthly things, were to
be removed by the appointment of the year of Jubilee, and the kingdom brought
back to its original condition” (Keil).
Now the political and economic consequences were necessarily
enormous. This land law made vast accumulations of wealth impossible, and the
land could not accumulate in a few hands: it established a kind of peasant
proprietorship which kept all in work and in food: it prevented the permanent
ruin of families through the misfortune, or incompetence, or profligacy of
individuals: it restored all land periodically, free of all encumbrances and
trammels, to its original tenants. The bedrock fact was that property was made
for man, not man for property. Automatically, the rich could never become too
rich, and the poor could never become too poor. One generation might squander
its possessions, but the next generation did not inherit the ruin. It was a law
instinct with mercy, extraordinarily far-sighted, filling the horizon of the
bankrupt and the unfortunate with undying hope; for it gave every prodigal and
every spendthrift another opportunity to recover *
and it wove into the very textures of the State the promise of that golden day
- the Jubilee of the Ages - when “the earth shall be
full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters
cover the sea” (Is. 11: 9). The Law of Jubilee settled at the outset
economic problems which no other nation has ever solved through ages of
struggle and revolution.*
* Houses in cities, being the product of man’s own hands,
necessary for business purposes in which locality is often of the first
importance, and as not in the original grant, were exempt, as personal property
rather than landed interest; but in the country, where shelter must go with the
land, house property also reverted to its owners at Jubilee. Thus allowance was
made for the growth of cities and of civilization: for if every town house -
shops and business establishments - were periodically swamped in a returning
migration, commerce would be at a standstill; whereas the option given of
buying back the house within a year could effect a change before a business was
established.
Now we are confronted with the fact that these land laws of
Jehovah were all a gigantic failure. After four centuries of obedience, during
which the land enjoyed its sabbaths and therefore its primitive fertility, the
whole land legislation of Jehovah lapsed: the soil, over-driven, and never left
fallow at stated intervals, as Jehovah had commanded, from being one of the
most fertile soils in the world, became capricious and uncertain, and was visited
with famine after famine; until God was compelled to give in judgment what men
refused to provide by obedience. “And you will I scatter among the
nations, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste. Then shall the land enjoy her
sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate; as long as it lieth desolate it shall have rest; even the rest which it had not in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it” (Lev. 26: 33). Barren
Now this is exactly the tragedy which has also happened, on a
gigantic scale, with all mankind, over the whole globe. Men have seized earth,
regardless of its Great Land-Lord, and oblivious or incredulous that they are
mere ‘tenants of God’: consequently a writ of ejectment has gone forth; the execution of that writ
alone lingers. “The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall
gather out of His Kingdom all things that cause stumbling” - all evil institutions - “and them that
do iniquity” - the
incorrigible causers of social miscarriage - “and then shall the righteous
shine forth as the sun” (Matt 13: 41). So that
Christians who endeavour to put the land laws right, or the corn laws, or a
thousand and one other economic laws, are three thousand years behind the time:
the writ of ejectment has gone forth: we await Jubilee. The late Lord
Shaftesbury said:- “I have had more to do with
remedial legislation than most men; but I have observed that while the
legislation has improved, the men have grown worse and worse.” The
So then the Jubilee is the supreme forecast, under the Law, of
the Eternal Ages. The Sabbatic Year forestalled it (Lev. 25: 1-8), as foreshadowing, not a new beginning, but (in the millennial
Kingdom) the concluding millennium of earth’s history: after the Kingdom
closes, rounding off the seven sevens of the old earth - and with nothing (in typology) beyond - the Fiftieth
Year breaks on the shoreless ocean of eternity.* “On the great Day of Atonement,” as Lange says, “after the full accomplishment of propitiation, the trombone
was to sound through all the land to announce the Year of Jubilee as a year of
freedom - the ‘year of liberty’ (Ezek. 46: 17) - the highest
feast of the labourer, and of nature, the redemption of lost inheritances, the
ransom of the enslaved, the year of the restoration of all things.”
Calvary is computed to have fallen in a jubilee year: on it alone is based the
immovable joys of the Holy Year (Lev. 25: 10) that will cease neither in days nor in
holiness. The first blast of the Trumpet will be the knell of all servitude and
the herald of all joy.
* So while the Kingdom (like the
Sabbatic Year) has sacrifices and feasts (Zech. 14: 21), of
Eternity it is recorded (like the Jubilee Year that had no sacrifices or
convocations peculiar to it) - “I saw no temple therein”
(Rev.
21:
22).
Are there thunders moaning in the
distance?
Are there spectres moving in the
darkness?
Trust the Hand of Light will lead His
people
Till the thunders pass, the spectres
vanish,
And the Light is Victor, and the
darkness
Dawns into the Jubilee of the Ages.
-
Tennyson.
* *
* * *
* *
42
THE BETTER COVENANT + 1
By REV. JAMES N.
BRITTON.
“He is the
Mediator of a better covenant ...
established upon better promises.”
Hebrews 8, 6.
THE word
better which occurs twice in our text will be at once recognised, even by
casual readers of this epistle, as one of its great key-words; perhaps its
greatest. The letter opens by declaring the revelation which comes to us in
Christ Jesus to be better than that which comes to the fathers through the prophets. The general principle of progressive
revelation thus implied, Jesus is declared to be in Himself “The
brightness of His glory, and the express image
of His Person.” As
such He is shown to be better than the angels, in that while they are servants,
He is the Son. He is also better than Moses, who was the mediator of the old
covenant, in that He is God’s Son while Moses is at best God’s servant. He
introduces us, also, to a better rest, of which the rest promised to the
fathers is but the prophecy. Then comes the section immediately preceding this,
from which our text is taken, extending from the 5th. chapter to the
8th, and ending in the verse before our text, in which the
priesthood of Christ is compared with that of Aaron on the one hand, and that
strange, almost mystical, one-man priesthood of Melchizedek on the other, and
declared to be better than either.
It is in the firm grip of the thought of the old being supplanted
by the new, of the good as passing before the better that he proceeds to write
of the new covenant: it is the constant assumption of the Writer of this
epistle that to prove betterment is to demonstrate the passing of that than which it is
better. However good in itself, having paved the way for something better, it
as once ceases to be operative. This assumption, which underlies all he has
written up to this point, is here categorically stated. If Jesus is the
mediator of a better covenant, then it follows that the old covenant has ceased
to be operative; “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.” It was not faultless, as it passed to
give place to a better which comes to us in Jesus Christ, God’s Son.
The questions which naturally arise when we face a statement
of this kind are: (1) what exactly
is a covenant? (2) in what sense was
the old faulty? (3), in what sense
is the new better? (4) the old
having given place to a “better,” will it in turn give place to yet another; is the better to
be supplanted by a best, or is it final? Let us find, if we can, an answer to
these questions, even though it can be, in the space at our disposal, little
more than an answer in outline.
1. The word covenant is not in frequent
use among us to-day. Our fathers used to speak much of men of the covenant;
even to-day we sometimes hear God referred to in prayer as a covenant-keeping
God. There is, however, one other use of the word which perhaps throws more light
upon it for us than either of these two. I refer to its use in the marriage ceremony. Therein marriage is always spoken of as “a sacred covenant between these two persons,” and the
contracting parties are always spoken of as having solemnly covenanted with
each other. In marriage all the essential elements of a covenant are present.
For them a covenant is an agreement to which both subscribe, the terms of which
are binding on both. Any failure on the part of
either to keep the terms of the covenant automatically disannuls it.
Let it be proved before the law of the land that either party has broken the
conditions on which any covenant is entered upon, and legal recognition is
given to the fact that the covenant has ceased to hold. A covenant is therefore
always an agreement holding between two or more persons, based upon certain
conditions equally binding upon the covenanting parties. The failure to observe these conditions on the part of any,
automatically disannuls the covenant made.
Now the thought of any such arrangement holding between God
and man at once implies an act of condescending grace on the part of God. Here
the contracting parties are not equal. One is so infinitely greater than the
other, that any agreement, arrangement, covenant, between the two is only
possible by the infinite condescension of One of the contracting parties. When
it is remembered that a covenant is binding
upon all contracting parties, the grace of God is further seen in God’s
willingness to put Himself under voluntary
obligations to man for His sake. God can only be “a
covenant-keeping God” by a deliberate act of condescending grace.
But further, God can
only continue as a covenant-keeping God so long as man on his part continues to
keep the terms of the covenant entered into. A covenant by its essential
nature simply can not be one-sided. No man can
confidently expect God to keep any covenant the terms of which he himself
persistently ignores or fails to keep. Failure on man’s part at once
releases God from all He has promised on His part; not only so, but,
and I write quite reverently, such failure leaves God no option but to accept
that release. He cannot keep the covenant, for with man’s failure the covenant
as such has ceased to be. God may indeed continue to be gracious, but such
grace is uncovenanted. In the consideration of any covenant entered into
between God and man these two factors must always be borne in mind: (a) the condescending Grace of God in
entering into the covenant, and (b)
this power on man’s part, by failure to keep its conditions, to render it null
and void.
II. It is when you see man’s power to
disannul any covenant made by God that you know the direction in which to look
for the failure of what is referred to here as the first covenant. It is “faulty” in the sense that it did not
accomplish its end, and it failed to accomplish its end because man failed to
fulfil its conditions. The whole explanation of its failure is given in one
phrase in the 9th.
verse
of this chapter: “‘They continued not in My covenant, and I regarded them not,’ saith
the Lord.” Dr.
Scofield enumerates eight different covenants into which God with infinite
patience has entered with man, and His unceasing effort to lift him out of his
sin. Every one of them has broken down in precisely the same place: man has rendered them null and void by his
failure to keep their conditions. The covenant here referred to as the
first is not first in order of time, but of importance. It is obviously the
covenant entered into by God with Moses as the representative of
An examination of the conditions laid down for man shew that
this first covenant was not a final one. Under this arrangement sin is
recognized as a persistent fact. The sin of man is assumed in the provision laid down for sacrifices, priests, and purifications. Provided
man tried to keep God’s enactments, and provided when he failed he made use of
the provision God had appointed, God would fulfil His covenant. Now no covenant
between God and man can be regarded as final, the provisions of which
contemplate the continuance of sin. Such an arrangement represents the best that could be done with man at his
then stage of development, but if regarded as final would imply the abandonment
on God’s part of the final conquest of sin. The arrangements made for the
regularly repeated offering for sin, imply the continuance of sin, and that in
turn implies that this is not the final arrangement. At best it could only be a
provisional arrangement, belonging to an upward stage of man’s spiritual
development, and destined to pass as soon as man had outgrown its provisions.
Yet in the end it was not as a fulfilled, outgrown covenant that it passed, but
as a covenant which man had broken. The old was not faultless in itself, yet
accommodating as it was, man failed to keep it, and as such it ceased to be. It
passed because it was essentially provisional, and because man as man failed to
keep its conditions.
III. What then about the new? In what sense
is it better? In the light of man’s past failures, what hope is there of his
keeping this? These are questions one is apt to ask with a sense of sinking at
heart. Man is such an inveterate covenant-breaker that one is afraid.
A close examination of the new covenant in the light of the
old reveals several important directions in which it can claim to be better
For instance, it is final in its arrangements for sin. Here is
no arrangement for repeated sacrifice. So far as sin is concerned, under this
covenant there is one sacrifice for sin
and one only. His is the supreme sacrifice of which all other sacrifice is
but the prefiguration and preparation. It is also final. He died unto sin once,
and only once. He dieth no more. That death fulfilled all past sacrifice, and
rendered futile all further sacrifice. The passover sacrifice that followed so
closely on His death was already an anachronism. To-day He is “alive for
evermore.” Either
Christ settled the sin question once for all, or He never will settle it. Of
the work He came to do to pave the way for the new covenant, Jesus said, “It is finished”; and it is, or He never will finish
it. There is no escaping the note of finality which runs through this epistle. If
it on the one hand shows [our Lord]* Jesus to be “better,” on the other it as persistently shows Jesus as final. He is
God’s last Word, God’s final priest, God’s last sacrifice for sin. Men may hold
the writer to be wrong; they cannot fail to know that the writer believed he
was handling final things. He held, in the words of the parable of Jesus, that,
having sent His Son there was nothing further God could do. There may have been
eight covenants - there never will be in the present order of things a ninth! To play with the enactments of this covenant is to play with destiny.
There is no escape this time if we neglect so great
salvation. Readers of this epistle are familiar with the way in
which the Author **breaks
off again and again to utter words of serious
warning. They are in order, from his point of view, for he is
handling final things. The first may pass; but not this - it is final. The
problem of sacrifice for sin is settled once for all by the death of Jesus, or
so far as this writer is concerned there is no solution.
[* NOTE: The name ‘Jesus’ was a common name, hence the need for what
is added inside blue square brackets. ** The Holy Spirit is the Writer,
through His chosen servants.]
Let us begin by briefly reviewing the ground we have covered.
We have described a covenant as an agreement holding between two or more
persons, based upon conditions equally binding upon each of the contracting
parties. Then we noted that the old covenant which is supplanted by this better
one broke down because man failed to keep its conditions. We then passed on to
discover the directions in which the new covenant was better than the old. The
one fact we noted was that it was better because it was final. The other was
not. Apart altogether from man’s failure it would have passed. It was adjusted
to the stage of spiritual development holding among those with whom it was
made, as in the very nature of the case a covenant must be, and therefore
merely temporary. The old covenant would have given place to the new as a
measure which had fulfilled its purpose, if man had kept its provisions; as it
is, it passed as an agreement cancelled by his failure. To the writer of this
Epistle Jesus is God’s Great “Finality”; He is God’s last word, His last Mediator, His last
High Priest, and His final solution of the sin problem. In Him everything
temporary has passed and the permanent has come.
IV. Bearing well in mind this
outstanding characteristic of finality in the better covenant, we are not
surprised to find that the standard of righteousness demanded under it is much
higher, or ought one to say deeper, than that demanded, or possible, under the
old.
There is no mistaking the significance of the 10th
verse
in this particular. This time the laws are to be put into their mind and
written in their heart. It was not so under the old order. The law was an external thing, written on tables of stone, given
to man for the regulation of his conduct. It told him what to do, and perhaps
more especially what not to do, spoke to him of penalties as detriments, and
rewards as encouragements, and left him to it. “This do” it said, and “thou shalt
live.” Its primary
emphasis is on conduct rather than on character.
That it broke down as a means of salvation we know, but what
we often overlook is that from the first it was never meant to be final. It
never was in the law to produce a type of human righteousness that was wholly
acceptable to God. At its best it stood for an intermediate state, and as such
it had fulfilled its function when it paved the way for that which was to come.
It represents part of the educational process by which God led sinful man up to
that final standard of righteousness which is wholly and finally acceptable to
Him. It was never more than a schoolmaster out of whose hands the pupil was
bound to pass. On the whole the schoolmaster never had a chance. Men generally
gave little heed to the law. It broke down in the majority of cases because its
behests were utterly disregarded. But, and this is the fact to be noted, it
failed to produce that standard of righteousness which we know to be fully
acceptable to God, in those who regarded its dictates and, with amazing
diligence, tried to obey them. This is clear if we, to begin with, closely
examine what is described as the “righteousness of the Pharisees.” It might not be all it ought to be,
yet it cost something to attain to it; and was the direct result of a
deliberate effort to keep the law.
It was the best the tables of law had produced in the realm of
conduct. Probably the mere observance of outward law has never at any time or
in any place produced anything better than Saul of Tarsus or the rich young
man, whom, we are told, “Jesus loved.” Above all, it should be noted that it stood in the estimation
of men trained under the law as the highest form of righteousness attainable:
as the BEST the LAW could produce.
But the pity of it was that the law was never intended to
produce it. The law of God can only produce a sense of righteousness in man
when he is allowed to reduce its meaning to terms which he knows himself
capable of fulfilling. Apart from that “cutting down” of its meaning, the direct action of
God’s law is, not to give man a satisfactory sense of righteousness, but a
profound conviction that it is not in him to be or to do as he ought. When
Jesus took the law, in His Sermon on the Mount, and gave it a meaning which was
so high that it simply left men with the conviction that NO man could possibly be sufficient for these things, He was
putting the law to the primary use for which it was intended. It was never
intended that men should find satisfaction in it, but such a profound sense of
dissatisfaction as would pave the way for the better, deeper thing that was to
come with Christ. In spite of all his observance of the law, man at the heart
was not law abiding. The law could have taught him that, had he looked within,
but by steadily looking without, his external righteousness blinded him to the
fact. So that the law which should have paved the way for Jesus, failed, and
there was no more bitter opponents of Jesus than those who had, through their
observances of it, run to seed in externalism.
Under the new covenant there is to be an end to all
externalism. The law this time is not to be written on tables of stone. It is
to be written in the mind, where men think, and in the heart, where men feel.
It is no longer something for them to do, but something for them to be. It
still spells out a change of conduct, but it proposes to work that change not
by conformity to an outside standard, but from within. Man still keeps the law,
but under the new covenant he keeps it because he himself has been made law
abiding, law loving. He does not attain to righteousness so much as grow into
it. The old clash between what he did in observance of the law and what his unchanged
heart urged him to do, is gone; his duty has become his delight. The old dealt
with the conduct,
but in the long run right conduct alone cannot be satisfactory to God or to
man, so long as behind it there is wrong condition. Sooner or later God must
either abandon the attempt to save man or go to the root of his “wrongness.” That is exactly what He does under
the new covenant. “Out of the heart are the issues of life” and He proposes to write His law on
man’s heart. This inward righteousness is the end at last of all externalism;
the “whited sepulchre” condition is impossible under the new order. The standard set
by the law as interpreted by Jesus has neither been abandoned nor lowered, it
remains, and God now covenants with man to fulfil it in us, from within.
V. There remains now one other respect
in which the new covenant is better than the old, and that is in the conditions
on which God fulfils it.
All covenants, we have decided, are subject to conditions
binding on each of the contracting parties. It brings something like a clutch
of fear to the heart of a thoughtful man to remember that every covenant God
has made with man up to the present one, man has broken. Will he break this?
One thing is certain, the writer of this epistle believes this to be God’s last
covenant, so that if he does break it, he himself is utterly broken apart from
the uncovenanted Grace of God. It is last chance, will he throw it away?
He need not. No covenant between God and man has had easier
conditions. In the old order much depended upon the human agent. Its key-word
was “This do and thou shalt live.” To keep the commandments was a
necessary condition to abiding in the covenant. And man failed in His doing.
This time God keeps the doing in His own hands; “I will put,” - “I will write,” - “I will unto
them a God.” All
the new covenant demands of any man
is that he will permit God to do all He stands ready and pledged to do. The old
demanded acts; the new demands an attitude, nothing more. In the old a man was
urged to fight if he would obtain the victory, in the new he is asked to stand
still and see the salvation of God. What man has so far failed to do, God
proposes this time to do for him. The condition of the first was works; that of
the last is faith. No greater benefits have been offered to man than those
under the new covenant; no easier conditions have been laid down. He has, this
time, entered into a covenant with man which is practically “fool-proof.” He has chosen a way by which the simple
faith of the weakest can succeed where the works of the strongest failed. Here
is a covenant under which the simplest souls can reach up to a type of inward
righteousness undreamt of and unreached by the pick of the nation under the
covenant which it succeeds. It is a covenant prepared for man on the light of
his past failures; it is for failures. Its results are better, its processes
are simpler, its conditions easier, and the chances of failure almost
eliminated. Short of the supreme folly of taking life altogether out oi the
hands of God, God stands pledged in it to the ultimate salvation of man. Short
of destroying personality in man altogether, by the withdrawal of all choice,
it seems to me impossible to imagine a better covenant.
So God says: “This is the
covenant that I will make ... I will put
... I will write.” May we be willing for Him to “do what
seemeth Him good”!
-------
FOOLISH VIRGINS
WHEN
people accept, without a Scriptural investigation, that there is only one
translation of the saints at Christ’s 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 and 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 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 the foolish virgins is
shown in the possession of 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 [regenerate] believers are awakened. And see how
Jesus points out that those awakened, only part are ready to enter in.
Those translated at the first phase of Jesus coming are seen
in Rev. 4 and 5.* The
great harvest of believers [still alive] will be translated “out of the
Great Tribulation” (Rev. 7: 9-17). Another order of believers is translated in the middle of the
seven years (Rev. 12) and still another group just before
the Armageddon battle (Rev. 14: 14-16; 15: 2-3). These saints won the victory during
the three and one-half years reign of the antichrist. The final order of the
First Resurrection - [out
from amongst the dead (Lk. 20: 35 & Phil. 3: 11)] - will be after Armageddon (Rev. 20: 4-6.)
[* See also Luke
21: 34-36. & Rev. 3: 10, R.V.]
Those who believe in a “one event”
translation must wrest plain Scriptures to their own confusion.
- The Midnight Cry.
* *
* * *
* *
43
THE SEED AND THE SOIL +4
By GORDON CHILVERS
BY comparing men’s hearts
with four kinds of soil (Matt.
13:
1-23) our
Lord gave a complete summary of all men’s reaction to His word. He had been preaching to, and
teaching the people of
The sower takes the handful of corn from the bag he carries in
front of him, and with a sweeping movement of the hand allows corn to fall to
the ground. As a result, some falls on the hard ground. This was a foot-path
trodden-down, and hardened by those who passed over it. The seed could not
penetrate this soil, so it lies exposed on the top of the soil, but not for
long. The birds had been watching the sower, and at the earliest moment they
sweep down, and carry away the seed with them. So the result of one sowing had
proved to be fruitless - except to the birds of heaven that devoured the seed.
“Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth”, (verse 5). These stony places were not loose
stones lying together in various parts of the field, but large rocks with just
a thin covering of soil over the top. This ground, then, was only a thin layer
of soil covering a barren rock. “And forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth.” The seed is easily able to send roots
through the thin layer of earth, but there they must stop, for they cannot
penetrate the hard rock. “And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and
because they had no root, they withered away.” They had not gone down deep, so they
could not remain up for long. They had no root, so they could get no moisture,
and soon they showed the effect by being completely withered.
“And some fell among thorns.” The seeds of the thorns were already
in the ground, The seed came up with the thorns, but as the thorns were the
stronger of the two they ousted the seed. Thorns were regularly used in
There was one other kind of soil, and this rejoiced the heart
of both sower and reaper alike. “Others fell upon the good ground, and brought forth fruit, some
an hundred fold, some sixty fold, some thirty fold.” Contrasted with the first, the ground had been broken up by
the plough: contrasted with the second, it was deep, rich earth: contrasted
with the third, it was clean soil, and not filled with thorn seeds. In other
words, it was ideal ground for the seed. It received the same seed from the
same sower as the other ground, but what a difference in the results! While
such a high yield as a hundred fold was indeed high and unusual, it was by no
means unknown. “Then Isaac sowed in that land (that is, the land of the
Philistines), and
received in the same year an hundred fold: and the Lord blessed him” (Gen.
26:
12).
Such was our Lord’s parable. The disciples did not understand
why He should speak to the people in parables. They go to Christ with their
difficulties, and He in response gives them the explanation of the parable. How
thankful we are for the disciples’ question, for it brought forth from Christ
the Divine explanation. “Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.” Our Lord Himself called for the
earnest, careful, and undivided attention of His disciples. “When any one
heareth the word of the kingdom,
and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and
catcheth away that which was sown in his heart.” Christ Himself was the first sower of
the seed. He sowed the seed in
The doctrine is not understood by the first class of hearers,
though Christ’s reign is not more difficult to understand than the reign of any
other monarch. As the word is not understood, the soil is hardened against its
reception, and so the words of Christ make no impression upon the soul. Even
though the soul is regenerate, the heart can be hardened through pride. The
Kingdom is denied as being only an earthly kingdom, and therefore not to be
sought after by Christians. Or, the heart may be hardened through prejudice.
Many of God’s [regenerate] people refuse the Kingdom because they think it to be
Jewish. Although our Lord has bidden his disciples strive that they may enter the Kingdom, they refuse their Lord’s
word and say, “No, it is for Jews only.” Some
go to the other extreme and assert that if Christ is in this kingdom, they will
certainly have a place in it as they are bound to be where Christ is. It is our
Lord Himself who says so distinctly, - “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven(s) (Matt.
5:
20). They say, “Oh
no, we shall all be there.” They then who hear the word of the Kingdom
with such prejudice, refuse it and so make the word of God of none effect by
their tradition. It may be that sin comes between the believer and his Lord. We
cannot close our eyes to the fact that Christians do sin, and [continually] sin
wilfully after they have received the
knowledge of the truth; and to
them Christ Himself shuts the door of the Kingdom. They are blinded to
the higher truths of Scripture and will not seek for any prize. They simply
rest on the fact that they have eternal life and nothing can take it away from
them. Satan, who is the embodiment of all evil, then gladly takes away the seed
that was sown. All sin is headed up to him, and so, by one device or another,
Satan is able to take the seed from the ground. It is a very striking and
solemn thought - the ground retains the seed no longer. It is gone, never to
return. If we refuse the light God has given us, He will give no further light,
and that which we refuse will be taken away. So Paul says to the Hebrew
Christians, “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief
in departing from the living God. But exhort one
another daily while it is called Today; Lest any
of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” Heb. 3:
12,
13.
“But he that received the seed into
stony places, the same is he that heareth the
word, and anon with joy receiveth it.” Our Lord’s birth was to bring joy to
mankind. “Behold, I bring you good
tidings of great joy, which shall be to all
people. For unto you is born this day in the
city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the
Lord” (Luke
2 : 10,
11). There is no message on earth like it.
This Gospel of the Kingdom is
accepted by heart and mind. There is a great desire to participate in the
benefits of this kingdom, but the
enthusiasm does not last. There appear to be prospects for these people,
but they did not count the cost.
They are equally quick in receiving and in letting it slip, “Yet,” our Lord continues, “hath he no
root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation comes” (this word is connected in its root
meaning with the threshing roller - something which crushes exceedingly small).
We remember the words of our Lord to Peter on the very night of his trial, “Simon,
Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat” (Luke 22: 31). That is what disturbs these hearers. “Or
persecution arises because of the word, by and
by he is offended.” There is receptiveness but nothing more, for their acceptance of truth is
short lived.
They found there was opposition from the world, the flesh, and
the Devil, and even (sad to say) from their fellow believers. 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. [Regenerate] 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, may 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 an 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.
“He also that received seed among the
thorns is he that heareth he word; and the cares of this world, and the
deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.” There is a divided heart and so the
fruit was not perfect. The trouble was that the seed could get no sun. When a
believer loses touch with the Sun of Righteousness his Christian life will soon
be clouded, and he will bring forth no fruit to perfection. If any man is to
seek first the
Secondly - ambition. If ambition controls a man’s life there
are many things he will be tempted to do which are not agreeable with the
Christian character. He may be called upon to compromise in certain ways if he
wishes to attain to the highest that this world has to offer. There is too the
possibility of the unequal yoke. There may be attendance at social functions
when it is not popular to be too exact in speech or conduct. There is the
possibility of having to keep on good terms with a senior and this may bring
disastrous effects. Wm. Taylor speaking of ambition says:- “If the office seeks him he may be safe and may keep himself
in the line of spiritual growth; but if he seeks the office with overmastering
ambition let him beware, for if he persist in such a course he will choke out
his Christian life.”
Thirdly, there are riches - the deceitfulness of riches. The
great Puritan preacher Jay says:- “Some years ago when
preaching at
Our Lord looked on a young man and loved him. The young man
had said that he had kept all God’s commandments from his youth up. “Jesus said
unto him - If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and
give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure
in heaven: and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for
he had great possessions” (Matt. 19: 21, 22). The young man can say nothing - his riches completely barred
his road to the Kingdom. Christ then turns to His disciples and says, - “Verily I say
unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter
into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto
you, It is easier for a camel to go through the
eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter
into the
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 received seed into the good
ground is he that heareth the word, 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 doesn’t run away,” D. M. Panton). Here was not a prejudice
against the word, but the willing reception of it for Christ’s 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). There was a difference in the yield
even when the seed fell on good ground (possibly because there were differences
in the gifts dispensed by Christ), but even the last brought forth thirty fold.
This class of hearers fully understood the teaching and its consequences and
give it their whole-hearted allegiance, and it becomes the only ambition of
their life. Their heart is honest. That is, they look the matter straight in
the face and accept God’s word at its face value. They hold fast the truth and practise all they know to be right.
This is the only class to bring forth fruit. Persecution, cares, and losses
come, but still they go on. There are differences in fruit now; there will be
differences in glory in the day to come. There was no defect in the seed, for
it was all the same; nor in the Sower, for He was the same in each case. The difference was in the soil alone,
that is, the hearer. The way may be tedious, but we are pressing on to a goodly
land. Take heed how you hear.
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APOSTASY
An unspeakably awful description is
given by the Apostle Peter (throughout the second chapter of his second
Epistle) of apostasy as it will be in the last days. “Among you
there shall be false teachers, who shall bring
in destructive heresies, denying even the Master
that bought them” (2 Pet. 2: 1). A single example today baffles all imagination. Bishop Oxnam, a president of the Federal
Council of Churches, refers (Evangelical
Christian, Jan., 1949) to the Jehovah of the Old Testament as ‘a dirty bully’. The creed of Antichrist lies ahead.
In the Words of Dr. G. H. Clark, a leading professor of Philosophy:- “From all that can be seen now, humanism and Communistic
hatred of Christianity will be the prevailing philosophy of the coming age.”
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WEE BOBBIE
The story is told of an old Scottish
pastor who was asked to resign because there had been no conversion in the
church for an entire year. “Aye,” said the
preacher, “it’s been a lean year, but there was one!”
“One conversion?” asked the elder.” “And who was that?” “Wee
Bobbie,” replied the pastor. That one lad had not only given his heart
to Christ that year, but he had also given his
life to God for service. It was “wee Bobbie,” who, in a missionary meeting
when the collection plate was passed in for an offering, asked the usher to put
the plate on the floor, and then stepped into it with his bare feet, saying, “I’ll 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 Dark
-------
RETURN
At the Jewish Congress in
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JUDGMENT
It is this coming of Judgment, when
the infinite patience of the Almighty is over, which ought to deeply warn
believers and unbelievers alike. A friend (Mr. Gogerly) of William Carey, the
founder of modern missions, tells of an interview he had with Carey almost
immediately before his death. “I said, ‘My friend, you
evidently are standing on the borders of the eternal world; do not think it
wrong then, if I ask what are your feelings in the immediate prospect of
death?’ The question roused him from his apparent stupor, and opening his
languid eyes, he earnestly replied, ‘As far as my personal salvation is
concerned, I do not have the shadow of a doubt; I know in Whom I have believed,
and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him
against that day; but when I think I am about to appear in the presence of a
Holy God and remember all my sins and manifold imperfections - I tremble.’ He
could say no more. the tears trickled doen his cheeks and after a while he
relapsed into the same state of silence from which I had roused him.”*
[* Read Hebrews 9: 27, R.V.]
* *
* * *
* *
44
ATHANASIUS
By JOHN SHEARER
THE
conversion of
The conflict began at
History has preserved a life-like portrait of the first
Unitarian - his long lanky frame, subject to strange convulsive writhings, the
premonitions of his sudden and horrible death; his face of corpse-like whiteness,
his tangled mass of hair. Yet this ungainly man, now in his sixtieth year, had
a sweet voice and winning manners. He had great ability, solid learning, and
his life was blameless. Many were his devoted friends, and on women especially
he seemed to cast a spell. As in
Athanasius was now barely twenty-five. He was very small in
stature, almost a dwarf, but his bright serene face had an angelic beauty. He
was richly gifted in speech, intensely alive and energetic. His little body was
animated by a spirit of indomitable resolution. As the archdeacon and spokesman
of the old archbishop, he confronted Arius at every critical point.
More than any other man then living, Athanasius understood the
deep significance of
Alexander died shortly after the close of the Great Council,
and the young Athanasius succeeded him.
How seductive, how mighty, is the fallacy of numbers! Again
and again there has been a time in history when all men everywhere and always
have asserted a thing denied by one man only and lo, all men have been utterly
wrong and that one man utterly right! Here is the final test of faith. Will you
hold to your faith if the whole world is against you? Surely what the whole
world believes must be right! Are we not justified in regarding as an intensely
conceited and most obstinate fool, the man who dares to set his view of truth
against that of the whole community, the whole state, the whole world? Now
Athanasius did this very thing. Having secured the royal favour, Arianism set
out to conquer the world, and, for a time, it succeeded. Wealth and high place,
comfort and security, were on its side. The royal frown, poverty, exile and death
were the lot of him who held the Faith, the Faith of Nicaea, the Faith of the
Bible. Alas, that we must record it! - the men who had withstood the Pagan
persecution, who had braved the fires of martyrdom under the Caesars, could not
resist the combined allurement and threat of Arian Emperors! One by one they
yielded, and there came at last a time when the whole world was Arian and
Athanasius stood alone, - alone with God! His Faith firmly rooted in the Word
of God, “like
the tree planted by the rivers of water,” he faced the embattled might of four Emperors. Five times
he was thrust out of his high office and driven into exile, becoming a fugitive
in almost every part of the Empire. Abuse and reproach were heaped upon him. He
was accused of cruel oppression, of sacrilege and murder. A price was placed on
his head and, like David, pursued by the malice of Saul, he was “hunted like a partridge on the mountains.” He had to
hide “in dens
and caves of the earth”
and once even in his father’s tomb. Like David he was in constant peril and,
like him, he was constantly and marvellously preserved. And to the end he
retained the same beautiful serenity and peace of mind that distinguished him at
In the
Though his fellow bishops, his brethren in the ministry,
yielded in the hour of dreadful testing, though “they
all forsook him and fled,” “the common people
heard him gladly,” and there were times when the whole City seemed moved
by the Spirit, when parents entreated their children and children their
parents, to devote their lives to God when every home in Alexandria seemed to
become a Church. He lived to old age, and like the Apostle John, after long and
lonely exile he was permitted to die in peace, in the midst of his brethren.
The mission of Athanasius was not simply for his own time. It
was for all times and perhaps pre-eminently for our own. He has shown us that a
man can stand alone with God in an evil day, that he can stand unmoved like a
rock in mid-ocean, that all the billows of Satanic hate will beat upon him in
vain, if his strength is indeed in God. And he has shown that it is to such a man God commits the
precious deposit of His Truth, to bear it, like a faithful courier, through
the enemy’s country, to hold fast the Faith when all others deny it and pass it
on to the next age. We possess the Faith to-day because, in that long past day
of awful testing, Athanasius stood firm.
-
From The Story of Revival.
* *
* * *
* *
45
THE MARK OF THE BEAST +9
By D.
M. PANTON
IT is of
immense importance to warn our young folk of the tremendous events at our
doors; and none is more stupendous than the Mark of the Beast. Satan’s profound
wisdom is proved by his studied imitation of God; and he knows perfectly well,
from the Apocalypse, that the 144,000 body-guard of the Lamb “have his name,
and the name of his Father, written
on their foreheads” (Rev.
14:
1); and of all the redeemed at last it
is written, - “They shall see his face, and his
name shall be written on their foreheads” (Rev.
22:
4). The names of God confessed on earth
are now the glory of the saints on high: their ownership by God, and the
character of God, are stamped forever on the redeemed. Exactly so, the
Antichrist, equally with the Christ, will have his name stamped on his
worshippers, and they will be the whole world.
A Flesh Mark
It was very startling, some years ago, to confront - for the
first time in modern
A Mark
Now the False Prophet yet to come is to enforce the worship of
the Antichrist with a cutting in the flesh. “He causeth all, the small and
the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and the bond” - wealth cannot buy itself out of the
obligation, nor is anyone too obscure to escape notice - “that there be
given them A MARK” - a tatoo, a brand; a puncturing of
the skin so as to produce an indelible impression - “on their right hand” - this selection of the right hand at once proves it
is a literal mark - “or upon their forehead” (Rev. 13: 16) *
Under the Law one sex of God’s people had to receive a mark in the flesh -
circumcision: all other flesh-cuttings were strictly forbidden. “Ye shall not
make any
cuttings in your flesh for
the dead, NOR PRINT ANY MARKS upon you” (Lev.
19:
28). Upon only one Gentile in the Old
Testament was a mark ever set with the approval of God, and one full of an
awful significance. “The Lord appointed a sign for
Cain, lest any finding him” - it must therefore have been a visible mark, probably
in the forehead - “should smite him” (Gen. 4: 15). The first murderer, the first apostate, God
branded as a forecast and prototype of the murderers and apostates who will
form the Church of the Antichrist, and
meet an identical doom.
* The forehead, as the most conspicuous,
would be used by the enthusiastic; the hand by females, as less detrimental to
beauty. - GOVETT.
Its Significance
What the significance of a tattoo is, history has already
abundantly proved. Slaves were branded by the Romans as we brand cattle, to
show their ownership by their master’s mark burnt into the flesh; and so to
reveal that they were his inalienable property. “You
know slaves,” says a Roman writer (Petronius), “by
their foreheads.” So Roman soldiers also, as devoted body and soul to
the Emperor had branded as stigmata on their hands the name of the Emperor.
This tattooing was done in various ways: by puncturing with needles, or burning
with hot irons, or marking with indelible ink: “the
operation”, we are told, in the East today, “performed
with a hammer and a serrated chisel, causes great swelling and excruciating
pain, and is sometimes the work of years.” Early in the Russian
Revolution a private letter from
A Sacrament
But the history of Paganism reveals a significance still
deeper and more sinister. Stigmata have always been associated with Idolatry.
No Hindu can enter his temple without a mark on his forehead, painted on it by
a Brahmin, called the Tiluk; a scarlet mark and perpendicular, if of Krisha; or
a saffron and horizontal, if of Liva. So, in ancient
Coupons
But the main reason of the Mark is a masterpiece of economic diabolism. It is imposed in order “that no man
should be able to buy or to sell, save he that hath
the mark.” The transactions of commerce are made illegal without
it: it is the voucher for all business transactions: no one is prevented from
entering the shops or markets, but before any deal across the counter can be
accomplished, the hat must be removed, or the palm opened. All food will be
rationed, and will be reserved for worshippers of the Antichrist, publicly and
indelibly self-confessed as such, alone: it makes all secret worship, or secret
refusal to worship, [almost] impossible: as God demands public confession,
so does Antichrist. The two World Wars, by their universal registration and strict
food-rationing, brought us an enormous stride
nearer the goal;* but the economy of
the final system is obvious - no enrolment, no registration cards, no coupons,
no costly organization; simply a cutting in the flesh, self-inflicted, and
therefore the cost of the victim alone.
[*These words were printed in July The Dawn Magazine, 1949! How much closer
today - after what happened world-wide in 2021? The following two paragraphs
are from a tract entitled: “Enabling The Mark
of the Beast”:- (1)“As covid-19 continues to circulate around the world,
it becomes increasingly clear it poses a
threat to more than just global health. Governments all over the world have used the crisis to
expand their power and trample individual liberty. As 2021 nears its
end, governments are increasingly
dividing the world into two camps - the vaccinated and the unvaccinated.”
... (2) “Throughout the world, society is singling out the
unvaccinated for punishment. Those who refuse the COVID vaccines face potential loss of Jobs, healthcare,
freedom of movement, and liberty in general. Those who support
vaccine mandates and vaccine passports want
to ostracize the unvaccinated from society. They seek to apply
maximum pressure to force the unvaccinated into compliance.”
Hell
Now the awful consequence of
accepting the Mark of the Beast is
revealed in the most terrible revelation of Hell given in the whole Bible. “If any man worshippeth the beast and his image and receiveth
a mark on his forehead, or upon his hand, he also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of
God, which
is prepared unmixed in the cup of his anger; and he shall be tormented with fire and
brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of
their torment goeth up for ever and ever; and they have no rest day and night, they that worship
the beast and his image, and whoso receiveth the mark of his name.” (Rev. 14: 9).
*
* The enforcing the Mark on entire humanity by making it a
compulsory food-coupon, without which is certain starvation, seems to make sure
that the Mark will not be stamped on the flesh of those who refuse it. If it
were, it manifestly would not incriminate the victim, nor involve him in
eternal punishment.
Heaven
Could anything make more vitally important the love of God
still wooing all mankind, just before the awful revelation of Fire and
Brimstone? Less than a century ago the South Sea Islanders were ignorant,
idolatrous, immoral, and inhuman. Neighbouring islands were raided and captives
were roasted and eaten. For fourteen years, missionaries laboured at the risk
of their lives and without any visible results. Mr. Hunt, a missionary,
translated the Gospel of John, and, before
printing it, read it to the natives in their own language. After he had read verse 16, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” a Chief stepped out and said, “Would you read that again, Mr. Hunt?” After the
Missionary had read it again, the Chief said, - “Ah,
that may be true of you white folks, but it is not true in these islands; the
gods have no love for us.” Mr. Hunt fixed on the word “whosoever” and showed that poor Chief it meant
him. The old Chief was convinced and said,- “Well,
then, if that is the case, your book shall be my book, and your people shall be
my people, and your heaven shall be my heaven. We, down on the
-------
EMPIRE
We do well to realize that the ideal of world-government - a
total empire of all nations - which is now forcing itself on the great thinkers
of the world, is an inevitable necessity, and we are confronting its blackest
and whitest fulfilment. The revival of the Roman Empire, which covered the
known world, is expressed, in
Daniel’s image of universal power, as Two Legs with Ten Toes (Dan.
2: 41). Mr. Winston Churchill’s words may be a [prophetic] forecast:- “I
see no reason why under the guardianship
of a world organization there should not arise the
-------
DREAMS
John Bright, lifting up his eyes to
this vision of a golden age, used these words:- “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.” The Empire of Antichrist, who will preach ‘peace,’
will be the terrible reality; on which God has already passed sentence, - “When they are
saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh” (1 Thess.
5:
3).
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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 is not earth as yet so young?
Every tiger madness muzzled, every serpent passion kill’d,
Every grim ravine a garden, every blazing desert till’d;
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).
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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 God’s 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 name’s sake but he that endureth to the end, the same shall
be saved.
In the name of Christ, Who suffered death upon the
Cross for us, be strong unto death for
Him. Amen.”
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A JEWISH
BEFORE ANTICHRIST’S
PERSECUTIONS BEGIN
(See 2 Thess. 2: 3-4; Rev.
13: 3-5,
R.V.)
The Jews declare that the temple will be built on its original
site.* This
great 35-acre platform belongs to the Moslems. To them it is no less sacred
than
[* NOTE: There is now Archaeological Evidence
and Scriptural
Writings, which indicate that the ‘original site’
of Solomon’s
-------
Even apart from prophecy, is a
certainty, the rebuilding of the
-------
WATCH
All our Lord’s emphatic warnings in
His Second Advent parables in Matthew 24 and 25 are exhortations to
unsleeping watchfulness. Christ give Hid disciples no reason to believe their readiness of 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
our Lord’s grave and solemn warnings to His own - [regenerate
disciples] - to, “Watch ye, therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things” - [i.e., the Great Tribulation events] - “that shall come to
pass, and to stand before the Son of Man,”
* vitiates watchfulness and makes for dangerous sleep. - The
[* Luke 21:
36, A.V.]
** [Rev. 3: 10, R.V. also adds His exhortation: “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.”
( Gk. inhabited earth.)]
-------
ADVENT
The churches are asleep, and I know of
no better way of awakening them than to
get them to look for thr return of the Lord Jesus Christ. D.
L. MOODY.
-------
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
* *
* * * *
*
46
THE BEATITUDES
By D.
M. PANTON
THERE is no section of the New Testament more intensely
characteristic of Christ - and therefore of God - than the Beatitudes. Nothing
conceivable is more ‘Christian’. The
Beatitudes, said Lord Acton, are the root of the Christian revolution in
ethics: “they were new ideas in the world, the real
revelation of a new morality.”. 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
Poverty of Spirit
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-sufficiency, of pride, of worldly ambition: “for of such is the
Mourning
The second beatitude is divine grief. “Blessed are
they that mourn - for they” - in all the Beatitudes the ‘they’ is emphatic ; they, and no others - “shall be
comforted.” Blessed,
says the world, are they that laugh, and dance, and sing; even though millions
are starving to death a few hundred miles away, and a whole world is rapidly
sinking into Hell. Which is right? A single tear can disclose a
deeply-fountained heart: the spirit of mourning - unknown in Heaven, and
ungranted in Hell - reveals a soul acutely sympathetic with God, as when our
Lord looked on Peter, Peter wept bitterly. It is the noble grief over past sin, present failure,
broken communion, growing iniquity, multiplying backsliders, perishing millions
- it is God’s sorrow which will bring God’s comfort. “The sorrow of the world worketh death”
(2 Cor.
7:
10): the sorrow of the saint worketh
life. As an old writer puts it:- “Here thou drinkest
the water of tears; shortly thou shalt drink the wine of
Meekness
he third beatitude is the beatitude of the obscure. “Blessed are
the meek:
for they
shall inherit the earth”: the landed property, which of all is
the surest. The contrast is as startling as ever: it is just the meek, in a
world of violence and wrong, that are sure to be disinherited, robbed,
despoiled. The French version is, “Happy are les
debonnaires” - the gracious, gracious characters, that attract and win. Meekness is an absence
of ‘antagonism’ in the character: it is not
weakness - on the contrary, it means immense self-control: it can be found in
men of fiery spirit - like Moses, and John the Apostle: it means a willingness to forego claims; to rate low
our own position and dignity; to stand insult and neglect. To such characters of ripened self-control belongs the control of the
coming earth. “Dost thou wish to possess the earth? beware then lest
thou be possessed by it”
(Augustine). “Self-renunciation is the way to world-dominion” (Stier). “For a thousand years
shall joy swallow up the bitter
remembrances of the past” (Govett).
Righteousness
The fourth beatitude is sanctity. “Blessed are
they that hunger and thirst after righteousness”- sheer goodness,
sought for itself alone: “for they shall be filled” - they shall be rewarded in kind. The
Catacombs have a figure marked on many tombs - a stag, drinking at a silver
stream. The ache, the craving in the soul to be good, is a famine planted in
the soul by God: such are out for the highest “with the full force of the
instinct of the sustentation of life”: one day “they shall hunger no more,
neither thirst any more”, for bread of either body or soul. Here it is a sprinkling on the lips,
there a full, long, deep draught: the very dilating of the vessel is a daily
increase of capacity to receive. “They shall be filled”, with righteousness.
Mercy
The fifth beatitude is pitifulness. “Blessed are
the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” So of Onesiphorus Paul says:- “The Lord
grant him to find mercy of the
Lord in that day” (2 Tim. 1: 18). It is most significant that the heart of mercy startlingly
follows the passion for righteousness: so often, the most righteous are the
least merciful! Mercy is not a soft, easy-goingness, that confounds right and
wrong: it is a sensitive perception of sin, combined with a boundless
compassion for the sinner: it is having a man in your power, by just right, and
instead of a blow, it is a kiss. “Mercy rejoiceth against judgment”: its delight is to limit punishment,
not to impose it: it is a great pitifulness, big enough to take in a world. And
on such will break a great shower of pitying mercy at the judgment Seat of
Christ. “So speak ye, and so do,
as men that are to be judged by a law of liberty.
For judgment is without mercy to him that hath shown no mercy: mercy glorieth
against judgment” (Jas. 2: 12).
Purity
The sixth beatitude is purity. “Blessed are the pure
in heart”: not merely the pure in act: “for they
shall see God.” It
was said of Sir Isaac Newton by those who knew him best, that he had the
whitest soul they had ever known. A look of lust, under the new code of Christ,
is an act of adultery. We read of
Peacemaking
The seventh beatitude is the sole beatitude of the eight that
deals with action. “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called” - acknowledged, publicly recognized,
before men and angels, by God - “the sons of God.” To stand up for peace in a world full
of peace-breakers, is hard enough : to make peace requires a tact, a wisdom, a courage, a love that
is no light achievement. Charles Simeon and Robert Hall were once seriously
estranged. After several had failed in making peace, John Owen wrote half a
dozen lines, and left them at the house of each.
How rare that task a prosperous issue
finds,
Which seeks to reconcile discordant
minds!
How many scruples rise to passion’s
touch!
This yields too little, and that asks too much.
Each wishes each with other’s eyes to
see:
And many sinners can’t make two agree;
What mediation, then, the Saviour
show’d,
Who singly reconciled us all to God!
Simultaneously, the two men hurried to each other’s houses;
they met in the street; and looked in each other’s eyes, never to quarrel
again.
Persecution
The last beatitude is the hallmark of the Kingdom. “Blessed are they
that have been persecuted for
righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the
Negative
In the parallel passage in Luke our Lord closes with an inexpressibly
solemn negative of the Beatitudes. “But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. Woe unto you, ye that are full
now! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you, ye that laugh
now! for ye shall mourn and weep. Woe unto you, when all men
shall speak well of you! for in the same manner
did their fathers to the false prophets.” (Luke 6: 24).
-------
NOT MANY WISE
Forty years ago a young man entered a theological seminary to
prepare
* *
* * *
* *
47
LAYING UP TREASURE + 1
By D. M.
PANTON
“As the
fabric of the world totters, let us quickly transfer our treasure to a world
which will know no shock.” Augustine (whom I have paraphrased rather than translated)
had a special reason to say this, for he was Bishop of Hippo, in Africa, and
the barbarian invasions which had devastated
[* NOTE: There growing concern today is the ‘wiping out of all banks’ by the
introduction of a world-wide Digital Currency! This ‘new’ banking system will enable a “One World Bank” to have total control and release,
for whatever purposes they deem viable! There are plans to
place untold multitudes on a ‘universal basic income’!
How easy it will then be to understand how these changes will pave the way for the
Antichrist’s appearance - who will ‘rapidly’
and ‘effectually’ be given ‘authority’
over ‘the whole earth’ (Rev.
13:
3,
R.V.)
The system has been described as
follows- “... When we move into a central bank
digital currency, they’re going to
have complete control over every aspect of our finances: they can dictate where in the economy, where you can spend it: they can say you can only spend it in
essential foods or on rent. They can
fine you at will; they have complete
control over every aspect of your finances. When you link that into the social credits concept, they can sanction you or reward you.
This has already been trialled in, I think, in a providence in
Desire of Wealth
Therefore the Holy Spirit’s warning sinks at once to the very
heart of the sin. “They that desire to be rich” - it is remarkable that the Apostle does not say, “they that inherit riches”; the word (wish, or desire) means a purpose formed after mature
deliberation - “fall into temptation” (1 Tim.
6:
9).
The Holy Spirit unveils to us the consequences of this secret lust. “They that
desire to be rich fall into temptation” - temptation to unjust gain, to doubtful business, to
dangerous speculation, to absorbing
self-centredness; in a word, to profiteering. Not that the
temptation is always yielded to. Paralysed from head to foot, a millionaire to
whom health was the one unpurchasable boon, Sir Jesse Boot, when he gave
£250,000 to a philanthropic scheme, offered it to commemorate “seventy years of a happy life.” Money and misery are
by no means inseparable. Nevertheless the [Holy] Spirit defines the peril still more closely: “and a snare,” a
Satanic trap; that is, a temptation with an entangling power, out of which
it is not easy for the trapped soul to escape (Ellicott). A rich man once said:
“I owned £10,000, and was a happy man. Now, £100,000
owns me. It says, ‘Lie awake at nights and worry.’ It says, ‘Run here,’ and I
run. It says, ‘Trust in me,’ and I trust in riches. I am rich, unhappy, and
hankering after more.” “But,” someone
asked him, “why don’t you give away the £90,000 and be
happy again?” “Ah,” he answered, “did you ever hold the handle of a galvanic battery? The
stronger the current the tighter you hold.” Two gentlemen were riding
past a fine mansion, surrounded by fair and fertile fields. “What is the value of this estate?” asked one. The
other replied, - ‘I don’t know what it is valued at,
but I know what it cost the late possessor: it cost him his soul. Early in
life, he professed faith in God. He started out in a small way as a clerk in a
mercantile business. Then he rose until he became a partner in the firm. As he
rose higher in business, he paid less and less attention to his
soul. The care of this world choked out the Word. He became exceedingly rich in
money, but he was so poor and miserly in his soul that no one would have ever
suspected he had ever been interested in God or the church. At length, he
purchased this large estate. Then he fell sick and died. Just before his death,
he said, ‘My prosperity has been my ruin’.”
Love of Money
Once more the [Holy] Spirit emphasises His warnings. “Which (money) some reaching after” - literally, reaching out hands eagerly to take (Ellicot) - “have been led astray from the faith.” Nothing so hardens a man against all
truth - and especially God’s truth on laying up treasure - as the love of
money. So the sorrowful conclusion ends in sobs:- “and have
pierced themselves through with many sorrows”; pierced themselves about (as a hand
plunged into a hornet’s nest) with many pangs. “Millionaires
who laugh,” said Andrew Carnegie, “are rare.”
Sir Ernest Cassel, who spent vast fortunes for the benefit of mankind, a
multi-millionaire, the friend of kings and emperors, said to one of his
visitors:- “You may have all the money in the world,
and yet be a lonely, sorrowing man. The light has gone out of my life. I live
in this beautiful house, which I have furnished with all the luxury and wonder
of art; but, believe me, I no longer value my millions. I sit here for hours every night
longing for my beloved daughter.” “BE YE FREE FROM THE LOVE OF MONEY; content with such things as ye have; for himself hath said, I will
in no wise fail thee” (Heb. 13: 5).” “With such words before him, one
would think that any Christian man who is laying up money, or is planning to do
so, would at once abandon his project. But how many such cases have been heard
of? I cannot remember one”
(J. P. Gledstone).
Heavenly Treasure
But the marvellous truth, so little realized, is that earthly
treasure can be transmuted, here and now, into heavenly treasure. “Beware,” as Augustine puts it, “1est you be like the men of earth, who, when they awaken in
another world, awake with empty hands because they placed nothing in Christ’s
hands, which were stretched out to them in the hands of His poor and needy.”
The Queen of Sweden sold her jewels to provide her people with hospitals and
orphanages, and when on a visit to a convalescent home of her own providing, tears
of gratitude from a bedridden woman fell on the royal hand, the Queen
exclaimed, “God is
sending me back my jewels!” Does such giving
impoverish here and now? “Hearken, my beloved
brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and HEIRS OF THE
KINGDOM which He hath promised to them that love Him?” (James 2:
5). Lord Erskine, when told of a man who
had just died leaving £200,000, replied:- “That’s a
poor capital to begin the next world with.”
Ready to Distribute
John Wesley, when he was eighty-seven years of age, with all
the wealth of a vast Christian experience behind him, and standing on the
threshold of another world, said:- “One great reason
of the comparative failure of Christianity has been the neglect of the solemn
words, ‘Lay not up
for yourselves treasures upon the earth’” (Matt. 6: 20). “In the last days men shall be lovers of money” (2 Tim. 3: 2). The Holy Spirit has expressed the command thus:- “Charge them
that are rich in this present age, that they be ready
to distribute, willing to communicate (their wealth); laying up in store” - for that is how treasure is sent ahead - “a good
foundation” - a
substantial sum in the heavenly funds - “against the time to come” - the coming season or age - “that they may
lay hold on the life which is life indeed” (1 Tim. 6: 17) - the glory of millennial life. “I make no purse,” said Whitfield, when stopping a
public subscription for himself in
Laying Up Treasure
So we learn the method of laying up treasure in heaven. “Sell that ye
have, and give alms: make for yourselves” - by that very act of giving - “purses” - our modern word for bags which hold
money - “which wax not old, a treasure
in the heavens that faileth not”
(Luke 12:
33). A gift to a pauper is an investment
in heaven. Solomon had already revealed this method of investment a thousand
years earlier:- “He that hath pity on the poor lendeth unto the Lord”
- that is, God takes charge
of the amount - “and his good deed will He pay him again” (Prov. 19: 17). As we see from the widow’s two mites, every farthing is credited, “and there came a poor widow and she cast in two mites, which make a farthing; and
Jesus said, She hath cast in more than they all” (Mark 12:
42). What
we give is measured by what we keep, a
method by which the poor can invest vaster wealth than the rich. “To have our treasure in Heaven is to send our riches to be
stored up there by the hands of the poor and needy” (Bossuet). How
masterly the method! It relieves the hungry and the naked; it enriches the
character of the giver, as only giving can; it proves to the world what grace
can do at the very point - money - where the world is most cynical; and it
pleases and glorifies God. And it also reveals a truth which we need thoroughly
to understand. God does not wish us to lose even His lesser gifts, and
therefore offers to take them into His own keeping in that world to which we
are all rapidly going; in order that, when we arrive, we may find them already
there.
Friends In Heaven
But there is a still richer treasure in Heaven to be obtained
by the use of earthly wealth. “Make to yourselves FRIENDS by means of the mammon (a Syriac 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). When Alexander, the conqueror of the world, lay dying, he
gave orders that at his funeral his hands should be left exposed to public
view, so that all might see that the mightiest of men could carry nothing into
the world beyond. Let us never forget the Italian proverb:- “Our last robe is made without pockets”; so Christ
would have us to use our possessions as to yield this priceless fruit on the
other side of the grave - love in Heaven. “Every one that hath left houses, or
brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or lands” - house property begins the list, and landed property closes
it - “for My name’s sake” - because
Christian principles compelled, or for investment in church or evangelistic or
missionary work - “shall receive” - in the Regeneration just named - “a hundredfold”
(Matt.
19:
29) - that is, a hundred times the
capital invested, or 10,000 per cent.; “and” - as Mark 10: 30 puts it - “in the age to come eternal
life”: that is,
his eternal life will begin Millennially.
So that the world, if it robs us, or keeps us poor because we refuse the tricks of trade and the
dishonesties of wealth, or spoils us
of our goods by persecution and confiscation, is all the time enriching us beyond computation.
-------
MAMMON
Surely Mammon id the great god of
to-day. Covetousness is simply the desire for something more, whether little or
much, and covetousness is idolatry (Eph. 5: 5; Col. 3: 5). Hence all who set themselves deliberately to get more are
idolaters. Now gold and silver which had
been associated with idolatry was especially banned by God, and His people
were especially warned not to covet or to take it (Deut. 7: 25-26). And so Joshua thus exhorted
- G. H. LANG.
* *
* * *
* *
48
THE WORSHIP OF SATAN + 2
By D. M.
PANTON
AN
extraordinary record of our Lord’s encounter with Satan puts beyond all
challenge that Satan is a reality. Our Lord names him, not the writer of the Gospel - Jesus speaks to him
exactly as he does to Peter, or James, or John - Satan is as real, as personal,
as visible as our Lord Himself. And one of his supreme functions appears in
this encounter. All temptation is so skilful, so astute, so strategic, that it
becomes manifest that behind the temptation there must be a tempter; so Matthew (4:
3) says,- “THE TEMPTER came, and said unto him”; because temptation is one of his
supreme functions, temptation is personally planned and superintended, with all
his subsidiary hosts under him. So able, so supreme is he in all such work that
into his hands alone he
committed the temptation of the Son of God.
The Empire of the World
Now the central temptation of the three is the empire of the
world. “The devil taketh him”
- the word ‘taketh’ is the same as that indicating the
bodily rapture of the saints; it is what Spiritualists know, and experience, as
‘spirit levitation,’ the ‘reaping’ by an angel - “unto an exceeding high
mountain, and showeth him” - not in a map, or by geographical
tables, but by television - “all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them”; the Apostle Luke (4: 5) adding, “in a moment of time” - not in successive pageants, but in
one overwhelming picture; from vast China in the cast to an America in the west
not yet discovered for fourteen centuries, from Iceland in the north to burning
Africa in the south
All Authority
Now on this television of the empire of the world Satan founds
his temptation. “To thee will I give all this authority” - this imperial jurisdiction - “and the glory of them” - the world’s applause and profit and
pleasure; “for it hath been delivered unto me” - whether by God’s delegation, or by
man’s sin Satan does not say; “and to whomsoever I will I give it.” Jesus Himself calls him “the prince of this world” (John 12:
31); but most remarkably Satan’s words
unconsciously admit the world is not his by inherent right. “Delivered” to him, he can ‘deliver’ it to another, as he does to Antichrist. Thus our Lord, who
had come to establish His glorious rule over all the earth, is offered it without
Worship
But now the condition of the offer, in its unparalleled
horror, is laid down. “All these things will I give thee, IF THOU WILT FALL
DOWN AND WORSHIP ME.” We need to realize what is actually not far from us at
this moment. That it is actual worship which Satan demanded is clear from our
Lord’s reply:- “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God.” Satan’s power over the world is to end at last in a worship
almost incredible. “And the whole world WORSHIPPED the Dragon”
(Rev.
13:
4). Paul names Satan as “the god of
this world” (2 Cor. 4: 4). It is most significant how world dictators who have sought
world-empire by yielding to Satan’s temptation, have met their doom. Alexander, who mourned that “there were no more worlds to conquer,” died of
drunkenness; Julius Ceasar, who
founded the Roman Empire that ruled over the whole known world, was stabbed
dead by a friend; Napoleon died an
exile in St. Helena; Hitler
committed suicide; Mussolini was
hanged: Stalin’s end we have not yet seen.* The Antichrist himself, who receives the
Empire of the World at the hands of Satan, is cast alive into the
[*
This tract is from The Dawn Magazine, (Feb., 1950 issue.)]
A Prayer to Satan
The worship of Satan is already here. Here is a prayer
actually offered by Professor W. Chancy
in
Scripture
Our Lord’s method of countering Satan is of extraordinary
significance, and can never be exaggerated: it is our model for all time. He
never reasons with Satan; He makes no appeal, no argument, no discussion: He
uses only the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God; throughout He quotes Scripture alone. “He answered and said, IT
IS WRITTEN.” In
every attack, Jesus responded by one defence alone - holy Scripture. This is of
immense significance to us: any line of conduct which is forbidden by a single
word of God - in this case, “Him only shalt thou serve” - comes from Hell; and in every
instance Satan is completely defeated.*
* Satan might have said that He might worship God, but worship
him at the same time: our Lord’s ‘only’ cancels out all other worship for ever.
Worship of God
So our Lord counters the worship of Satan with the worship of
God. “Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan; for it is written, Thou
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him ONLY shalt thou serve”: that is, for no pretext whatever, for no
object however ideal, for no purpose however, golden - even such as out Lord
reigning over the world - must any man swerve from absolute devotion to God,
and to God alone. What light Christ’s words cast on world politics! Our Lord assumes that Satan’s statement is
correct - that he has
world-power in his grasp, and can delegate it to any man of his choice: it
assumes - what Satan asserts - that world-power can now be held only by
Satanic co-operation: it assumes, therefore, that without some sort of
wrong compromise, some deviation from the service of God, world-power is
impossible. It is a prohibition of using worldly means to
attain Divine end - the power of
politics, the power of science, the power of wealth, the power of the atomic bomb. Their use will produce the Kingdom that is coming: “There was given unto him (Antichrist] authority over every tribe
and people and tongue and nation; and all that dwell
on the earth shall worship him” (Rev.
13:
7). As we worship both God the Father and
God the Son, so Satan (whose wisdom always lies in the imitation of God)
contrives that the world worships both
the Dragon and the Man of Sin. Man’s duty is not to reform the world, but
to serve God; and in obeying God he will co-operate in the only reformation the
world will ever know - the glorious reign of our Lord
on [this] earth.
The Son of God
In the first interview, Satan - who never knew that his words
would be reported all down the ages - makes a slip such as the keenest
intellects so often make. “And the tempter came and said unto him, If thou art
the Son of God, command that these stones become
bread” (Matt.
4:
3): not pray, or ask, or conjure, but command. He knew who
Christ was, for the demon said, - “I know thee, who thou art” (Mark 1: 24): here he acknowledges that ‘the Son of God’ is the Creator, who at any moment can
turn stones into bread, for He made both stones and bread: for “without him
was not anything made, that hath been made”
(John 1:
3). The whole devil-world betrayed
themselves for ever. “Demons also came out from many, crying out and saying, THOU ART THE SON OF GOD. And rebuking them, He suffered
them not to speak, because they knew that he was
the Christ” (Luke 4: 41). Satan offers Christ the whole world for a single act of
homage but by this very act he unconsciously betrays his complete knowledge of
who Christ was, and voices the testimony of all Hell that He is the Son of God.
-------
SATANIC MIRACLES
Satanic miracle, even when real,
cannot save. “Can you work miracles?” a young
Brahmin (Commissioner Booth-Tucker tells us) asked: “can
you cast out devils? My father can! I have seen him do it. Therefore our
religion must be greater, as well as older, than yours.” Just then a telegram arrived, summoning him to his father’s
death-bed. He arrived too late, but eagerly questioned his relatives. “Terrible, terrible!” was the reply. “He gathered us round his death-bed, and told us that many
years ago he had promised his soul to the devil on condition that he was given
power to work miracles. The offer was accepted, he said, and they had seen him
use his occult power; and now the Devil had come for the price. He shrieked in
agony that the Devil was in the room, by his bedside; and he expired hopeless
and Godless.” Overpowered with emotion, the young Brahmin student
hurried back to the Salvation Army, and sought and found his Saviour; and after
storms of persecution, he is now living a consecrated life for Christ in an
important Government position.
PERSECUTION
The [obedient and faithful] believer
forfeits friendships and co-operation such as advance worldly interests, and
incurs misunderstanding and direct opposition. He may be deliberately crowded
out of the business by a powerful combination of leaders, or be driven from
employment by a trade union, or be covertly harassed by a secret society with
which he was connected.
Hence he may have to meet poverty, in
which his family will be involved; uncertainty as to to-day’s bread and as to
the morrow; with the breaking up of the home and removing hither and thither;
and other such trials.
What is to support the heart of the
believer under such testings? How are his urgent needs to be met? The entirely
sufficient answer is to be found in these promises of “the Lord God
the ALMIGHTY”: “Come ye out ... be ye separate
... and I will receive you, and will be a FATHER
to you.”
- G. H.
LANG
* *
* * *
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49
THE VIRGIN BIRTH + 1
By W.
J. DALBY,
M.A.
IN the
present day it is frequently alleged - even by professing Christians - that it
is a matter of small moment whether a man believes or does not believe the
doctrine of the Virgin Birth of Jesus of Nazareth: that in either case he can be
an equally good Christian and even have an equal hold on the fact of the
Incarnation. In the light of the Word of God, however, this idea must be
dismissed as a complete and disastrous delusion. Not less deluded is the notion
that in this twentieth century no scholar of the front rank has written in
defence of the Virgin Birth. It was as recently as the year 1930 that there was
published one of the greatest books which have ever appeared on the subject.
This was entitled The Virgin Birth of Christ and
constitutes a masterly defence of the truth of the Incarnation as it is set
forth in the New Testament, showing that the only view which can properly and
reasonably be taken of the Virgin Birth is that of actual history. The author
of this most important and valuable work was the late Professor John Gresham Machen, who at the time of his death in 1937
was probably the leading Presbyterian divine in America and the foremost
Calvinistic theologian of the whole English-speaking world. A scholar of
massive learning, he stood resolutely to the end for the full inspiration and
reliability of the Bible. Had he been a Modernist, his abilities could scarcely
have failed to secure for him wide recognition and high earthly honours.
Let us now consider afresh the matter of our Saviour’s Birth.
Even in quarters in which it is believed - or, at all events, not denied - that
He was virgin-born, the truth seems to receive little serious attention - it is
treated sentimentally rather than dogmatically: but in reality it is of supreme importance. It is not enough that we
should know that One called Jesus of Nazareth entered this world some nineteen
centuries ago: our eternal salvation is
bound up with the mode of His entry. Up to within living memory the fact of
the Virgin Birth was firmly maintained, not only by all Romanists, but also by
the vast majority of Protestants; but in the twentieth century, when
Protestantism has been largely disintegrating into Modernism, it has been widely abandoned; and
where not actually abandoned, it is often put aside as almost trivial. Not a
few people indeed repeat in Divine Service the traditional statements of the
Creeds concerning our Lord’s Birth without any conviction that He was really born of Mary in the supernatural manner
described in the Gospels. This unsatisfactory state of affairs makes it the
more necessary that we should give close heed to the Holy Scriptures, they -
rather than contemporary ecclesiasticism - being our guide to the facts
relating to the career of the Son of God on this earth.
As we devote our attention more closely to the subject we may
admit that the Virgin Birth is a sheer miracle, and one which has seemed to
some particularly difficult of acceptance.
The writer well remembers a doctor’s once saying to him that he found this
doctrine very hard to accept in a medical point of view. Yet one of the ablest
defences of the Virgin Birth to appear in this century was put together - a few
years before the publication of Dr. Machen’s great book - by that eminent
medical specialist, Dr. A. T. Schofield.
The writer himself gladly puts it on record that he has never
felt any difficulty with regard to the Virgin Birth, for it is only reasonable
to suppose that for Him Who made and sustains the universe (as the Bible
teaches) nothing is too hard. God has ordained indeed that life on the earth in
general should come through certain processes of nature; but He Who formed the
first man out of the dust of the ground, and the first woman out of his side,
was well able to introduce His beloved Son into this world as the Second Man from Heaven by means of a virginal birth. Once
God’s omnipotence and sovereignty are really granted no difficulty remains: for
He “worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.” So we come to a right attitude of
approach to our subject - a readiness to be convinced by the testimony given
about it. Let us ask and answer briefly two questions. (1) What does the New Testament say of the general life of Jesus on
earth? (2) What does it say in
particular of His birth
We may reply at once to our first query that the life recorded in the Gospels is altogether
unique. To prove this assertion we have only to recall a few familiar features.
The mighty works or miracles associated with Jesus - His healing of the sick
and raising of the dead and stilling of the storm; the authority with which He
spoke to men and demons; His calm setting aside of the Old Testament (which He
regarded none the less as the inspired Word of God) in the Sermon on the Mount;
His setting forth of Himself as not only the Messiah but also on an equality
with God the Father; the heavenly voices at His Baptism and Transfiguration;
His representation of His Death as the life of the world; the marvellous
circumstances attending the Death, culminating in Resurrection and Ascension:
all these features combine to indicate that in the life of Jesus we are face to
face with a career unparalleled in the history of humanity. They point to One
Who was Man indeed, but Who equally was more than Man: a Person of the Godhead
manifested in human flesh. They postulate the Incarnation: the unique life and
death and resurrection call for a no less unique birth, a birth supernatural.
So we pass to the reply to our second query. The Gospels
affirm that the Birth of Christ was supernatural, and not only so, but that the
birth of His forerunner John the Baptist was supernatural too. The miracle in
the Baptist’s case was, of course, less remarkable - he was granted to
Zacharias and Elizabeth after they had reached a time of life at which in the
normal course of things parentage does not occur. In the case of Christ we read
of Virgin Birth - a human mother but no human father. The history of the
Nativity is given by Matthew and by Luke: they supply different details of the
episode, but each is equally clear as to the central fact. Matthew, the Jew,
naturally wrote from the point of view of Joseph, the man, from whom he
probably obtained his information: Luke, the Gentile, no less naturally wrote
from the point of view of Mary, the woman, from whom he probably obtained his
information - for Joseph died long before Luke appeared on the scene, and among
Luke’s Macedonian fellow countrymen women held a position of importance unknown
among the Jews. Thus we have two independent testimonies to the Virgin Birth:
and as for any suggestion that the narratives might have been invented, no even
plausible reason has been alleged why they should be, for (in spite of
prophecy) it was not anticipated by the Jews that their Messiah would be
virgin-born. Moreover, the narratives of Jesus’ Birth are on such a sublime
level that they defy any attempt to connect them with the coarse stories of the
births of demigods found in heathen mythology. Indeed it is not too much to say
that the corrupt world of nineteen hundred years ago could not - apart from
Divine inspiration and truth - have produced records of the moral and spiritual
calibre of the Gospel accounts of our Lord’s Nativity.
We have seen that the Virgin Birth is
plainly taught in the New Testament. Now let us - for argument’s sake - consider what
would be the consequences if it were not true. The first consequence is so
repulsive that it seems almost irreverent even to name it; but as it is totally
ignored by professing Christians in general it ought to be made clear. Those
who deny the Virgin Birth are accustomed to assume that the story was merely
invented by pious imagination to heighten the wonders of the Christ, the actual
fact being that He was born in the usual way as the Son of Joseph and Mary
under the status of wedlock. The opening chapter of the New Testament, however,
affirms that Joseph knew himself not to be the father of the child: so that the
only alternative left to the orthodox doctrine of the Virgin Birth is a theory
of illegitimacy. It is but a step from the sublime to the sordid.
Secondly, apart from the Virgin Birth
Jesus could not have been the promised Messiah. Prophecy made it needful that
He should of the lineage of David, but not in actual descent in the royal line
through Joseph: yet He had to be legally Joseph’s Son and Heir. From the
genealogy in Matthew
1 we learn that Joseph was descended y from David in the royal line
through King Jechoniah (Jehoiachin): and in view of the prophecy found in Jer.
22:
30, one literally descended from
Jechoniah could not be the Messiah. Yet the Messiah had to be of the seed of
David. We have no hesitation in regarding the genealogy in Luke 2 as that of Mary, tracing
the descent of her father Heli from David in a line in which the name of
Jechoniah does not appear. Her Son therefore (not being Joseph’s) not barred by
prophecy from the Messiahship, though to be fully eligible for it He had to be
legally Joseph’s Son and Heir, and thus the Representative of the royal line.
How could these seeming contradictions be made to meet in harmony in One
Person? God met the requirements of the case in His own wonderful way by
causing His only begotten Son to be born of Mary through the Virgin Birth at a
time when she was already betrothed to Joseph, betrothal according to the
Messaic Law involving a legal status of wedlock. Thus was the whole problem
solved: and it is impossible to see how it could have been solved by any other
means.
In the third place, an entry into the world in the ordinary
course of nature could only produce an ordinary man. Such a one might be
unusually gifted and talented, and he might achieve the fame of an Alexander or
a Caesar or a Bonaparte: yet he would remain a mere man, a partaker of the sin
and corruption which are the common lot of humanity. Being such, he could not
possibly save the world: he could not even save himself. A sinless being was
needed for human redemption - One Who would partake of human nature, without
sin, to represent man to God, and would partake at the same time of Deity, to
give infinite worth to His atoning work. By the Virgin Birth were these
requirements met, the Son of God taking human flesh by being born of an earthly
mother, the absence of an earthly father making it possible for the entail of
sin to be cut, so that Jesus became really Man and “in the
likeness of sinful flesh” without being Himself sinful.
We have spoken already of modern denial of the Virgin Birth - a
denial which (as we have just shown) means in effect apostasy from Christian Faith. If we now
look back to the age of the Apostles we may make an exceedingly significant
discovery. The first teacher professing to be a Christian who is known to have
denied the Virgin Birth was Cerinthus,
the great Gnostic of Ephesus. The Gnostics in their errors to a large extent
foreshadowed the Modernists in these later times. Cerinthus was a contemporary
of the Apostle John in his old age. It is related by writers of the early
Church that the Apostle was once entering a public building in
Let us now return to the truth itself. We have alluded to the
fact that the Jews were not anticipating that their Messiah would be
virgin-born. Yet that such should be the case the Old Testament foreshadowed.
In the earliest prophecy of the Messiah and Saviour He is called ‘the Seed of
the woman’ - a
phrase unique, in that elsewhere we always read of the seed of the man. It was
an intimation of the mode of Christ’s birth. In Isaiah, moreover, we have Jehovah’s prophecy
of a sign to be granted - a virgin bearing a Son Whose name should be called
Immanuel (God with us). And a little further on we find that well-known verse
in which it is written of Him, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is
given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be
called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The Father of eternity, the
Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:
6). When we turn to the New Testament we
at once meet with the realization of these predictions in the Lord Jesus, and
all is beautifully harmonious and congruous as between prophecy and fulfilment.
But take away the Virgin Birth, and the whole Bible would be reduced to
disorder. As it is, there is entire symmetry in the earthly career of Christ. A
supernatural entrance into the world; a life unique; a Teacher without
parallel; a death utterly undeserved providing a ransom for a whole race
undeserving of it; a [select personal] resurrection swiftly following and culminating in [His] ascension
into Heaven: such are the blessed links in the chain of the Gospel history.
Take away the first link, and the
symmetry is ruined.
We must end with a word upon the purpose of the Incarnation.
The Son of God took human flesh that in it He might die for men. Any tendency
to exalt the Incarnation above the Atonement is to be rejected, for it is
completely to reverse the emphasis of the Bible. The Virgin Birth of Christ is,
as we have seen, plainly asserted therein: but how few are the verses
devoted to setting it forth as compared with those which set forth the
Atonement. The proportions of Scripture are to be preserved. The miraculous
birth was not an end in itself: it was a means to an end. Jesus was to save His
people from their sins, and His blood had to be shed for the life of the world.
So He took human nature to His Godhead that in it He might be capable of death
- that the sinless One might die for sinners, being made sin for them on
We can scarcely do better than append to the foregoing
reflections the following manifesto
drawn up by good Dr. Machen to whom we
referred at the beginning.
“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 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.”
-------
LITERATURE
The longer I live, the more I realise
the power of the Press. One of my shortcomings during the last twenty years is
that I have not given away a sufficient
number of good books. I ought to have set aside a certain sum of money
every year for that purpose.
- BISHOP CHAVASSE
* *
* * *
* *
50
CORONATION + 6
By D.
M. PANTON
ROYALTY
is the highest rank among men, and a crown is the proof of royalty; and it is one of the startling facts of the
Christian faith, which can
revolutionize our conduct, that the crown has to
be won. Far more than most Christians dream, God’s powerful tonics
to holiness will be so acutely needed, as days of peril develop, that we may probably fall without them: so, in dealing with the coronation promised to the faithful, it is
essential to remove a difficulty often felt, but probably rarely expressed,
with which all of us doubtless feel some sympathy. When Scripture presses on
the [regenerate] believer the peril of the lost crown - as our Lord does when He says, “Hold fast
that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown” (Rev. 3: 11) - someone may say, “But I have no
wish for a crown; personal adornment does not appeal to me; to be with my Lord
will be quite sufficient happiness.” Now, apart from the fact that such
sentiment is in immediate and obvious collision with the words of our Lord
Himself, just quoted, it is only when we come to grasp thoroughly what a crown
implies that the whole situation is revolutionized, the Scripture is
vindicated, and God’s tonic acts with full force upon the soul.
A Crown
Therefore it is first of all vital to grasp what exactly a
crown is. A crown is a chaplet wreathed about a brow to signalize that brow
from others, a symbol of rank, a seal of inherited or achieved distinction,
valued quite apart from its own intrinsic worth. Sometimes it is of great
value. The crown of the Sultan of Jahore is worth two millions sterling; the
British crown, originally valued at a quarter of a million, is now enormously
richer by the addition of the Cullinan diamond, far the largest diamond in the
world. He Who builds the very foundations of their palace with
precious stones is not likely to give His kings worthless insignia. On the other
hand, a crown may be of little or no value in itself, like the Iron Crown of
Lombardy, or the oaken crown of
Reward
So we arrive at the cardinal test of coronation. The crown which Christ grants is of
enormous value, not so much for its own beauty or cost, or as a mere
personal adornment, but for the approval
of the Lord which it manifests, and
the consequent rank and power of which it is a symbol. Reward is merely the
tangible expression of the approval of God, and we may no more deny Him the
pleasure of expressing that approval than we need abjure it for ourselves. He who despises a throne despises Him
Who confers the throne. It was one of our Lord’s rebukes of the Pharisees, “The glory that cometh from the only God ye
seek not” (John 5:
44). When the Tsar, returning to the
Winter Palace as a captive, was received by the guard with the republican
salute,- “We greet you, Colonel Romanoff,” the
loss of the actual gem-studded circlet probably never even crossed the Tsar’s
mind, but only the tragedy of a lost
empire: so when our Lord says, - “He that overcometh, and he that keepeth My works unto the end,
to him will I
give authority over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron” (Rev.
2:
26), it is not the symbol (the crown or
sceptre) that is priceless, but the
enormous rank and power for which the symbol stands, and which the Lord confers on the tested and approved servant of God. The crown, like
the throne, is solely for a monarch’s heir: so we are “joint-heirs with Christ, if so be
that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him” (Rom. 8: 17). At a British coronation the Archbishop says to the King, - “Receive the crown of glory, honour, and joy”; but the
crown itself is not the glory or the kingdom, but only the proof and legal
symbol. When the Sultan of Morocco was deposed by the French, he burnt the crimson umbrella and the rest
of the royal insignia as a token of a lost dominion. Thus he who despises a
crown, despises the royalty for which the crown stands; and in all experience,
and in the whole range of the Bible, there is no example of God forcing a gift
(much less a prize) on a man who
despises it. Our crown is as incorruptible as the brow it adorns: “Ye shall” - [if we are judged worthy of it by our
Lord Jesus] - “receive the crown of glory that fadeth not away” (1
Pet. 5:
4).
“Know ye not that they which run in a race all run,
but one receiveth the prize? Now they do it to receive a corruptible
crown, but we an incorruptible. EVEN SO RUN THAT YE MAY ATTAIN”
(1 Cor.
9:
24).
Achievement
Thus second Advent crowns are granted, not on the ground of
birth, but on the ground of achievement. The word the [Holy] SPIRIT
uses for “crown” means a chaplet granted for personal victory: so the Apostle says that a
man is “not crowned, except he STRIVE LAWFULLY” (2 Tim. 2: 5); and so even of our Lord it is said, “We behold
Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned”
(Heb.
2:
9). When Roumania became a kingdom in
1881, King Charles, as there was no crown, said, - “Send
to the arsenal, and melt an iron crown out of the captured cannon, in token that it was won
upon the field of battle, and bought and paid for with our lives”. To despise such a crown comes perilously near despising the character
and achievement for which it stands: as God has made holiness the
passport to the [Christian’s] crown - so that the crown is only
the manifestation of the holiness - to scorn or neglect the one is to scorn or neglect the other. It was only when he had “finished the course,” that Paul was able to say, - “henceforth, there is laid
up for me the crown of righteousness” (2 Tim.
4
: 8).
Costly Crowns
So the costliness of
the crown can reveal its value. The crown worn by King George at his
father’s coronation in 1902 bears a tuft of feathers of the feriwah, 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; as it frequents the
haunts of tigers, its capture involves great danger; and the Prince of Wales’s
crown took twenty years to collect, is worth £10,000, and cost the lives of a dozen
hunters. What a wonderful parable of the martyrs’ crowns! “Be thou faithful unto
death, and I will give thee THE
CROWN of life” (Rev. 2: 10). The value of the crown
lies in the achievement for which it is granted: every virtue, every grace,
every suffering, every heroism goes to the making of the crowns that Christ
will grant. The golden circlet imposed by our Lord will indeed crown a lifetime of
devotion). “I reached the Abbey amid deafening cheers,” Queen Victoria records in her diary. “Then
followed all the various things; and last the crown was placed on my head,
which was, I must own, a most beautiful, impressive moment, the proudest in my life.”
Christ Crowned
The enormous value of coronation centres in Christ. Our
Lord Himself comes back crowned with many crowns : therefore that cannot
be a senseless adornment, or an improper distinction, which clothes the Son of
God; and which God regards as the final seal set upon His Suffering, His character,
and His royalty. Exactly as we approach our Lord in grace, so shall we approach
Him, and so should we aim to approach Him, in glory. For “upon His head
are MANY DIADEMS,” or crowns (Rev. 19: 12); separate crowns, or else a tiara, of which the Papal Tiara
is a counterfeit; a composite crown, tier above tier, consolidated of many
crowns. “And when the chief
Shepherd shall be manifested,
ye shall receive the crown of glory” (1 Pet.
5:
4).
Five Crowns
It is a remarkable comment on our Lord coming crowned with
many crowns that a number of crowns can belong to a single king. Four crowns
are used at the British Coronation of a king and queen - the crowns of St.
Edward and St. Edgitha, and the two crowns of State; the two latter, as the
personal property of the sovereign, may be re-made for each coronation. So
there are at least five crowns, for wholly
different [regenerate beleivers’] services - the
crown of glory, for shepherding the
Church (1 Peter 5:
4); the crown of joy, for evangelism and soul-winning (1 Thess. 2: 19); the crown of life, for martyrs (Rev.
2:
10), and for all believers who successfully pass through fiery ordeal (Jas.
1:
12); the crown of incorruption for the christian athlete (1 Cor. 9:
25); and the crown of righteousness, for lifelong devotion with a view to the
Second Advent (2 Tim. 4: 8) - held out as possible to every
child of God who fulfils the [Lord’s] conditions. If all that this implies were really
believed, - [and determinately sought after,] the revolution in countless Christian
lives would be incalculable - precisely the effect this truth is designed to
produce when accepted ; for it instantly shifts the whole centre of
gravity from this age to the next [millennial age];
and the glory it implies ‘in that day’, coupled
with the fact that all depends strictly upon our running, make no sacrifice too costly, no
pressing up behind our Lord too great; and it makes the entire present a joyful
and inconceivably valuable investment for the future. “They that be
wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness AS THE STARS FOR EVER AND EVER”
(Dan.
12:
3).
Crowns To Cast
There yet remains the apex of all
revelation on the crown. It is the creature’s supreme joy to have a crown which
he can cast at his Creator’s feet; and of the throned heads of the angels we
read, “They cast their crowns before
the throne” (Rev.
4:
10).
Dean Farrar tells us that Queen Victoria
was once speaking with her chaplain - probably himself - on the Second Coming.
“How I wish,” she said, “the Lord would come in my life-time!” “Why, your Majesty?” he asked. “Because,” she replied with quivering lips, “I should so love to lay my crown at His feet.” According
solely to our achievements in sanctified service will be the glory that we
shall cast at His feet in that day: so, therefore,- “holdfast that which thou hast, THAT NO ONE TAKE
THY CROWN" (Rev. 3: 11).
Changed from glory into glory
Till in Heaven we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before Thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise.
-------
NEVER DO LESS THAN YOUR
BEST
“Nothing is done,” said
Napoleon, “if anything is left undone”: thoroughness won him his battles. Scatter-brained
people never arrive anywhere. Tax heart and brain and muscle to the utmost for
God: every little drop counts in the coming Glory, every heart-throb tells in
the struggle now. “Whatever you do, do it from the soul, as
unto the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that from the Lord ye shall receive the recompense of the INHERITANCE:
ye serve the Lord Christ” (Col. 3: 23). Rom. 13: 11. Ezra 7: 23. John 9: 4. Concentrate all time, focus
every energy, on the irreducible ultimate of things:- for the believer, the
Judgment Seat of Christ; for the unbeliever, the Great White Throne, and Him
who sits thereon. The single eye (to cite Robert
Chatman) is the eye that is fixed on the Judgment Seat of
Christ. 2 Cor. 5: 9, 10.
-------
JUDGMENT
It is most remarkable how the perils they sought to avoid by
crucifying Jesus were exactly the perils that fell on
-------
ADVENT
The Second Coming of Christ is mentioned 1519 times in the
Bible and over 300 times in the New Testament. This goes to prove God’s
emphasis on this important doctrine. - JOHN
T. LARSON
-------
The campaign of the Advent
Testimony Movement to bring home the facts to the unsaved and to the [saved] unwatchful has had a remarkable
success. Tens of thousands have heard
about Christ’s return who had never heard of it before; between 200,000 and
a quarter of a million attended the six months’ meetings; over one thousand
professed faith in Christ; and more than one thousand young people volunteered
for missionary service.
-------
READ:
THINK: PRAY
“Sow an act, and reap a habit; sow a
habit, and reap a character; sow a character, and reap a destiny”:
therefore read hard, think hard, pray hard. Habit is tyrannous: make it
tyrannous for good. “Give heed to reading, to
exhortation, to teaching. Be diligent in these things, give
thyself wholly to them; that thy progress may be
manifest unto all” (1 Tim. 4: 13, 15). Phil. 4: 8. Read much in Christian literature, but live within the covers
of the Book. Jas
1: 25.
Read, that you may know the mind of God; think, that you may assimilate it;
pray, that you may fulfil it. 2 Tim 2: 15; 3: 14-17. No backslider can ever be created except
ourside the prayer meeting. Heb. 10: 25, 26. Never plant your foot down without having
a Scripture under it.
-------
NOT MANY WISE
FORTY
years ago a young man entered a theological seminary to prepare for the
ministry. He had received inadequate
preparation,* and was an unusually dull student, besides. The dates of
church history mixed themselves in his mind, and the Greek verb drove him into
helpless failure. Before the year was out the professors had agreed that his
case was hopeless; yet they let him stay on to its end, because they disliked
to dismiss a man so evidently in earnest.
[* Common amongst all those who attend a
seminary (today in
The students scattered for the summer, engaging for the most
part in religious work where opportunity afforded. No church could be found
that would take Fisher; yet he went out
from the seminary, and for a time was lost to sight.*
[* Presumably to study his Bible in private and to ask the Holy
Spirit for some understanding of Unfulfilled Prophecy!]
The summer drew to a close, and the professors were planning for the fall term. It would be
useless, they agreed, to let Fisher come back. His last year, they hoped, had
demonstrated, even to him, the hopelessness of his attempt to gain education.
Still, lest he should return, and incur expense in coming, the professor of
homiletic was instructed to write him that the faculty could not advise him
continuing a course of theological study.
The professor of homiletics went home, liking little his task,
but prepared to do his duty: but at home found a letter from Fisher announcing
that he was about to return. It contained something like this account of his
summer:
“I came to this place where the
families are poor and scattered and godless, and began preaching in the
schoolhouse, where for a long time there had been no worship. I have lived
around among the people, and they have
made me welcome in their homes. I organized a Sunday School and helped
settle an old quarrel, and then the people began to come out.”
“The interest grew, the number of
hearers increased, and now thirty men
and women have repented of their
past lives, have accepted Christ as their Saviour, and are going to organize a little church. They want me to come back every Sunday, and I have promised to do so. I shall
return to the seminary next week, and plod along the best I can. I am afraid I
shall never make much of a minister, but
I want my life to count the most it can
for God.”
“Gentlemen,” asked the
professor of homiletics, the next day, as
he addressed the faculty, “who of us this summer has been honoured of God in leading
thirty souls to Christ and founding a church? We must take him back!”*
[* Presumably to discover what his secret of success in Christian
ministry is and what he was saying, which made such a vast difference in the
lives of those listening to him!]
It would be idle to pretend that he ever became a brilliant
student. It was only by the most constant patience that he was permitted to
stay two years more, passing certain studies which he could never complete. But
they let him stay through. He went out to his chosen toil, in needy fields and small
churches that could pay no high salaries,* and devoted thirty-eight years to ministerial service.
Always poor, never great except in kindness, he did his work; and when his
obituary was read at the seminary’s last reunion, he was spoken of as “One of
the most conspicuously useful of the alumni.”
[* NOTE:
Mr. H. Davis, ‘the Apostle of Wales,’ was
overtaken by a clergyman one Sunday morning while riding to his service. As
they journeyed the latter complained that he was not receiving more than half a
guinea for his ministry that morning. “Well, by friend,”
answered Mr. Davies, “I preach for a crown.” The stranger expostulated: “Sir, you are a disgrace to the cloth.” The evangelist
replied:- “Sir, probably you will hold me in still
greater contempt when I tell you that I am going nine miles to preach, and have
but seven pence for my expenses. But my reward for which I look is a crown of rejoicing (1 Tim. 2: 19) which my Lord and Saviour will place on my head in the presence of an assembled world.”
- The
Gospel Herald.
-------
HUMILITY
“Be clothed with
humility” (1 Peter 5: 5)
“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 on
unworthiness. But now I see the more unworthy I am, the more fit to work for
Jesus, because He will get much 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 Whitfield’s that “nothing
sets a person so much out of the Devil’s 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.”
* *
* * *
* *
51
GLORY OR SHAME +
2
By W.
F. ROADHOUSE
The book from which these extracts are taken is a remarkable
proof that sections of the
SHARING OR FORFEITING
CHRIST’S GLORIOUS REIGN,
By W. F. Roadhouse,
-------
THE Bema
has been said, for a generation or longer, to be but for the adjudication of
Rewards. The usage cited, out of the eleven times the word is employed,
indicates otherwise - and for us, New Testament usage determines its meaning.
For example, Pilate sat on the Bema - did he “reward” Christ, or condemn him? (Matt. 27: 19; John 19: 13). Herod sat upon a Bema, trying both
criminals and good men (Acts 12: 21). Gallio heard accusations against the
Apostle Paul (Acts
18:
12,
16, 17, used twice). Festus “sat on the
Bema” which Paul
said was also “Caesar’s Bema” (Acts 25:
4-19,
used twice). This Bema (translated “judgment seat”)
is to dispense not only happy rewardings but also the opposite. The word itself
means - a step, or foot-room; then a platform, or raised place; then it became
the word for tribune, or place where judgment was administered. It is used but
twice in its ordinary, secular way (as in Acts 7: 5), “not so much as to
set his foot on.”
Thus we have what the New Testament itself yields and settles for us its
meaning. By this we stand.
Paul is ‘stretching forward’ to what (Phil. 3: 11)? “IF BY ANY MEANS” he may “attain unto the out-resurrection
(exanastasis, Gr., found
only here in the New Testament) from the dead.” This
expression, “if by any means” (ei pos, Gr.) is used five times in
the New Testament, always with the possibility of failure in it and once
positive failure (Paul’s shipwreck). Just this uncertainty is what the
expression means. And assuredly his figure, that follows this, clearly
indicates the same, namely, “Stretching forward (the intense Greek runner) to the things which are before, I press on
toward the goal unto THE PRIZE of
the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus.” This is precisely his picture in 1 Cor. 9:
24-27 where Paul says, “Know ye not
that they which run in a race run ALL, but ONE receiveth
the prize.” This
is the prize of “the crown,” which too many, altogether too many, will not receive! “IF BY ANY MEANS” is absolute uncertainty. And the winner of “the prize” must be ever “on the stretch” like the self-disciplined athlete of both ancient
and modern times. Ever seeking to “lay hold of” that for which he had been “laid hold of” by Christ Jesus. There is no other
life than this glorious intense one, if we would share in this “PRIZE OF THE UPWARD CALLING OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS.” There will be non-successful runners
aplenty. “One receiveth the prize. Even
so run that ye may obtain.” The Lord help us all!
Hear the Divine pronouncement - 1 Cor. 6: 9, 10, “the unjust,
of God the
Christ refers to what the Lord bestows upon His “servants” of these days. He “gave ten
pounds” to each of
“ten
servants” to trade
with. Returning from the far country, “having received the kingdom,” he now requires an accounting of
their stewardship. One had “gained by trading” double his bestowment; another had
secured half that increase. To both he gave his commendation, “Well done!” But the third had merely hid his
entrusted gift, leaving it idle (even chiding his lord for hardness); him the
master (note it well) strips of all ministry, designating him a “wicked
servant.” He got
no share, in what is assumed here, in his coming kingdom-rule. The others are
rewarded by authority over ten, or five cities. Note that they were ALL bondslaves (doulos,
Gr.) bought and owned by their master - the third class here, “the citizens,” outsiders, were not his stewards, and
were slain because they refused his right to “reign over them.” How perfectly all this fits into the
whole plan of Divinely-bestowed stewardship. This ever-recurring going to Rome
to be invested there with the Imperial authority to rule a Roman province with
its vivid incidents so familiar to the Palestinians, Jesus used to picture His
disciples’ ministering for Him in His absence until His crowning day had come,
and then the time of bestowal of rulership - rewards in His glorious reign.
Hence the necessary adjudication at His Bema (as that of the Roman governors)
of the awards for days ahead. We shall be excluded from all reigning with Him
because we left our “gift” only unused! “Behold I come quickly: hold
fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy
crown” (Rev.
3:
11).
In Matt. 25: 1-13 the Lord teaches again the possibility of failure to those
who, professing to “watch”, carelessly get into an unprepared condition. Purity of life - “virgins” and the [Holy] Spirit’s fullness - “the oil” - are the essentials for preparedness
here. Let those deny who will what a simple concordance study will show any
seeker (Lev. 8: 10-12; 21: 12; 1 Sam. 10: 1, 6; Rev. 14: 1-5), that “the oil” is ever emblematic of the Holy Ghost
- both of these groups of five had the lamps and “the oil.” ALL were “virgins,” ALL had “oil.” ALL
waited “to go forth to meet the Bridegroom.” The “wise” while waiting professedly, “slumbered and
slept,” but were
safe-guarded by “the oil” in their lamps - the “foolish” were not ready, for they cry, “Our lamps are
going out!” Not
that they were never lit. They were alight before. Manifestly their testimony
had ebbed until it faded out - and now the Bridegroom was at hand! With “going out” lamps it was too late to be “ready” and none was there to help. How true
to experience - from the first days of this century many are to-day sadly
failing; once full of joy of the [Holy] Spirit’s fullness they are to-day outwardly dead and fruitless. They
could truly say “Our lamps are going out!” We believe many “prophecy
students” have lapsed in holy living, in sacrifice, in giving, in prayer
life, and what not. And they will be amongst those for whom “the door was
shut.” For when “the
Bridegroom came ... they that were ready went in
with Him to the wedding feast.” And the foolish shouted, “Lord, Lord
open to us.” But
he answered and said, “Verily I say unto you, I know (oida,
Gr.) you not.” This last phrase presents no difficulty, for this is not
salvation truth, but refers strictly to the subject of SHARING IN “THE KINGDOM” JOYS.
It is absolutely different from the case of the false “teachers” of Matt. 7: 21-23 - deluded ones to whom Jesus says, “I never knew (egnon, Gr.) you: depart from
Me, ye workers of lawlessness.” In Matt. 25: 1 the “virgins” are prospective, potential members of
the reigning personnel of the kingdom-reign. No error nor departure from God’s
truth is in sight - they fail because of unguarded and ill-prepared
watchfulness, and thus are the sorrowful subjects of an exclusion judgment when
the Lord returns. “Watch therefore,” Christ concludes. And He never says this to the unsaved “world”
- why should He?
Far too greatly have we been taught that if but “once in grace”
without further obedience, or loyalty, or keen following of the “way of the
cross,” entitles
us to literally everything that God has for His people. It is our conviction
that so has this been stressed that it lies at the back of the backslidden,
“dry rot” condition of the church - even
within the ranks of much-professing Fundamentalism to-day. Potentially, of
course, literally all is ours - it is not actually, possessively so, until “by faith” and deep renunciation we “begin to possess” our inheritance. No longer any
folding of hands, no longer any easy-living, fully-indulging our pampered
selves - but living after the pattern of the devoted followers of Christ in
other days. No other kind or degree of Christian life will see us through to
God’s highest and best.
“NOW UNTO HIM THAT IS ABLE TO KEEP US FROM FALLING,
AND TO PRESENT
US FAULTLESS BEFORE THE PRESENCE OF HIS GLORY WITH EXCEEDING JOY; TO THE ONLY WISE
GOD OUR SAVIOUR, BE GLORY AND MAJESTY, DOMINION AND POWER, BOTH NOW AND EVER!
AMEN!
A.T.
Pierson, D.D. - “The greatest of all the revelations
about the future conditions 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.”
Dr.
J. Hudson Taylor of China, the
outstanding missionary, said:- “We wish to place on
record our solemn conviction that not all who are Christians, or think
themselves such, will attain to that resurrection of which St. Paul speaks in Philippians 3: 11, or will thus meet
the Lord in the air. Unto those who by lives of consecration manifest that they
are not of the world, but are looking for Him, ‘He will appear without sin unto
salvation’.” - From
R. Govett,
M.A. - “It
is a matter of sad observation that every species and degree of crime is
committed, and has been committed, by believers after their conversion: so that
there may be positive and entire forfeiture of the kingdom, and only the lowest
position in 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 personal responsibility
which it discloses.” Many such testimonies can be adduced from those who
have not been regarded as teachers of the foregoing message. - W.F.R.
-------
NONCONFORMITY AND THE
ADVENT
The Second Advent is the solitary pass
which dominates the entire landscape. Dr. J.
A. Hutton, the new editor of the
British Weekly, has recently expressed his
conviction, in public, of the personal and literal return of our Lord [Jesus Christ] as an approaching fact, and as the sole solution of modern problems. “In these days true followers of Christ have to
endure not open persecution, thought to that it may come, but sneering, mockery, scorn. They may have more of it to endure, and the signs are that they will. We
quoted last week the sayings of a recent writer, ‘There is an awful mystery about the future of
Christianity.’ What seems tolerably certain is that in the coming time there will be
new and fresh difficulties, constant
and augmenting struggles. The battle
will increase, it will not diminish. Christianity will be faced with the pride, the wealth, the intellect of the world.
The languid indifferentism which has replaced the challenge of mortal defiance
will not always continue what it is, will
become more openly disdainful of those who take part in the great war of
Christianity against the wisdom of this world. The Christian will be judged a fool or a hypocrite. In proportion as the strife for commercial
supremacy becomes more fierce, those
who stand aside from it, who believe
that there are nobler ends in life than making money, and that the things of God and the soul are beyond price, will be bitterly jeered at. Nor will the social ostracism which
punishes zealous Christians become less stern. There are about us signs of a corrupting and decaying society. Old checks are being removed, and if we are to trust those who know, - [but refuse to disclose prophetic truths] - the descent is rapid. The
time may soon come when the Christian believer will be openly flouted by the
principalities and powers that rule.
In such a time he will need a strong heart to believe steadily that the things
that are not will bring to nought the things that are.”
-------
CHRIST OURS
Jesus belongs to the sinner. From His infancy in
- ADOLPH SAPHIR.
* *
* *
* * *
52
TOTALITARIAN MARTYRDOM + 3
By HENRY COOK
No story
in the whole of the history of the early Church in
Perpetua has told us a good deal about herself. When thrown
into prison, “I Was terrified,” she says. “Never had I experienced such awful darkness. That dreadful
day! The heat overpowering by reason of the crowd of prisoners; the extortions
of the guard. Above all, I was torn with anxiety for my babe.” Tertius and Poinponius, two deacons of the Church, paid the necessary fees and
had their friends removed to better quarters, and Perpetua was given her baby.
“There I sat suckling my babe who was slowly wasting
away,” she says. “Nevertheless, the prison was
made to me a place where I would rather have been than anywhere else.”
Meantime, the little group was joined by Saturus the priest,
who, had been the means of their conversion and who had now resolved to, share
their fate. They had much fellowship together, and they were greatly heartened
when Perpetua described the visions that came to her. In one of these visions
she saw a ladder set up to heaven. It was surrounded by swords and knives, and
a fierce dragon lay at its foot. Naturally, she shrank back. But Saturus, who
had climbed up first, encouraged her. Putting her foot on the dragon’s head she
went bravely up, and there at the top she found a Shepherd with His sheep
around Him. “Welcome, my child,” He said, and
He gave her a morsel of cheese which gave her great satisfaction. The meaning
of her vision was clear, and Perpetua, with her companions resolved to be
faithful whatever happened.
This was not easy, since there was not only the temptation
created by the prospect of a terrible death, but the far more terrible
temptation that rose out of their natural human affections. Perpetua’s father
visited her in prison. “Daughter,” he said, “have pity on my grey hairs; have compassion on thy father.
Do not give me over to disgrace. Behold thy brothers, thy mother, thy aunt;
behold thy child who cannot live without thee. Do not destroy us all.” “Thus spake my father,” says Perpetua, “kissing my hands and throwing himself at my feet.” We
can picture all this, and we can imagine what it meant for her as “he left, weeping bitterly.”
Then came the trial, and the prisoners were ordered to
sacrifice “for the safety of the Emperor.”
They, of course, refused, and were condemned to be thrown to the beasts on the
birthday of Geta, the son of the Emperor. Perpetua and Saturus had more
visions, and the prisoners sought to get ready by prayer for their martyrdom.
Before the day of the ordeal one of them, Secundulus, died, and Felicitas’s
baby was born. As she lay in her pangs in the crowded prison the gaoler said to
her, “If you cannot endure these pains, what will you
do when you are thrown to the beasts?” “I
suffer now alone,” said she, “but then, there
will be One within me who will suffer for me because I suffer for Him.”
When the day of victory dawned the Christians marched in
procession from the prison to the arena “as if they
were marching to heaven with joyous countenances agitated by gladness rather
than by fear.” Perpetua followed with radiant face and light step, as
became the bride of Christ, “the dear one of God.”
The men suffered first, Revocatus and Saturninus being clawed
to death by a bear, while Saturus was badly wounded by a leopard. The sight of
the streaming blood excited the crowd. “That’s the
bath that brings salvation,” they cried. Saturus, still alive, was
dragged out of the arena, and while waiting for the end, pleaded earnestly with
Pudens, one of the gaolers, to become a Christian, giving him a ring dipped in
his own blood. A Pudens who was afterwards martyred may very well have been this
man.
Perpetua and Felicitas, lightly clad, were taken into the
arena to be tossed by a bull. After the attack Perpetua struggled to her feet
and tried to straighten her hair, “for it did not
become a martyr to suffer with dishevelled locks.” Then she went to
Felicitas, who, weak through her recent illness, was still lying on the ground.
Raising her up, she stood wounded but calm, waiting for what would happen next.
The mob shouted that they should be allowed to retire. But presently, with
Saturus, they were dragged back again to receive their final blow at the hands
of the gladiators. Perpetua, we are told, gallant to the last, guided the sword
to her throat when the uncertain hand of the gladiator seemed unable to reach
it.
No more wonderful story exists. It impressed people then as it
impresses people still by the fact that Christians in the hour of their ordeal
can show a wonderful courage. Perpetua and her friends were drawn from very
different ranks of society, and they possessed very different types of mind,
yet they were all one in their heroism. They are with that great company of men
and women of all ages, inspired by the same faith and sustained by the same
divine power, who were “faithful unto death.”
-
World Christian Digest.
-------
PROPHECY
Prophecy can cost liberty and life. Mr. G. H. Vinall
says:- “In Japan, where I have been working for the
Bible Society for eleven years, Christians have been called upon to suffer for
their faith in the prophetic Scriptures. Questioned by the police along these
lines:- ‘Do you believe that Jesus is coming
again?’ the answer was Yes! ‘Will He reign upon the earth?’
- Yes! ‘ Will He reign over our Emperor?’ Yes! And for those answers they were thrown into prison,
many suffering under third degree examination of their faith.”
-------
THE STATE
The Church in
-------
CONFESSION
Very beautiful is the confession of a devoted convert. During
the Torrey Mission in the Albert Hall a Society Entertainer was converted. Next
day he appeared on the stage, nobly to confess Christ, before he left the
theatrical life for ever. Did it last? A correspondent from Bournemouth wrote
us:- “We have all, as a family, received so much
blessing from Quenton Ashlyn: his wonderful, God-given powers, as he stands with
nothing but God’s Word in his hand, lie in his solemn, faithful, and forcible
application of the Word of Life. He has given up everything for Christ.”
* *
* * *
* *
53
LITTLE CHILDREN
By D.
M. PANTON
OUR Lord
lays down the fundamental fact that childhood can be converted: that He “blessed” little children is absolute proof of
their conversion. “Jesus called them [the little children] unto him, saying, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not” (Luke 18: 16); “and
he took them in his arms, and blessed them,
laying his hands upon them” (Mark 10: 16). So the Apostle John:- “I write unto
you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake”
(1 John 2: 12). Jesus called the children to him; and then pressed them to His heart, as He
blessed them. It has often been pointed out that far the larger number of
conversions occur in early age. One writer puts it thus:- “Some years ago I gathered together the testimony of 1,000 believers
in Christ, at what age they were converted. 128 gave the age of conversion
under 12 years. 392 from 13 to 16 years of age. 322 from 17 to 20 years of age.
118 from 21 to 24 years, and only 40 from 25 to 60 years of age. Thus it would
appear that 52 per cent. of conversions took place before the age of 16 years,
84 per cent. before the age of 20 years, 96 per cent. by the age of 24 years,
and only 4 per cent. after that age. These are momentous figures.”
Little Children
It is lovely to observe that those whom Christ called to Him -
in what has been called the most beautiful scene in the Bible - and who came to
Him at His call, are “little children.”* A
little Chinese boy asked his father that he might be baptized. The father
replied that he was too young, and that he might return to heathenism if he was
baptized so young. The little lad replied:- “Jesus has
promised to carry the lambs in His arms. I am only a little boy; it will be
easier for Jesus to carry me.” This was too much for the father he had
him baptized; and the whole family joined the mission church at
* ‘Babes’
were also brought (Luke 18: 15), but needless to say there is not the
remotest reference to baptism: Jesus speaks of “little
children which believe on me”
(Matt. 18: 6).
The dedication of infants fully fits in with the passage; but the dedication is
fulfilled when (as He says) the little ones ‘come’ unto Him.
Disciples Forbidding
But it is startling to learn who it was that forbid the
parents to bring their little ones to Christ. “They brought unto him little
children, that he should touch them; and the disciples rebuked them” (Mark 10: 13): not the hard, inhuman Pharisees, but hearts in which
the Divine love had been kindled. What the disciples, including even the
apostles, had not realized is that beneath the brightness, and the innocence,
and the laughter of the little children lies a deadly germ which will require
all a Saviour’s grace; a seed in them which holds in it the potency of every
sin. The children are about to launch into life: if they slip from the rock
without Christ, they will plow the ocean without helm and without pilot; and
the horizon bristles with mastheads of wrecks. Even the Antichrist will have
been once ‘a little child.’ As Solomon said long ago:- “Remember now thy creator, in the days of thy youth.” A
little lad only six years old gave as lovely a definition of prayer as any
ever given:- “Whenever we kneel down in Sunday School,
my
heart talks.”
Displeasure
A very grave challenge follows. “When Jesus saw it, he was moved with indignation” (Mark 10: 14). The word is used only three times in the New Testament, and
here only is it ever used of Christ. It is perhaps the only time our Lord is
recorded as severely angry. It is remarkable that children’s love also roused
the anger elsewhere:- “When the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful
things that he did, and the children crying in
the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of
David, they were sore displeased” (Matt. 21: 15). Again, when Mary Magdalene poured the ointment on our Lord’s
feet, “when his disciples saw it, they
had
indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste?” (Matt. 26: 8). How wonderfully this sore
displeasure of Christ proves His welcoming love to the little ones!
Its Value
For the value of child conversion can be so wonderful. There
is deep wisdom, as well as love, in our Lord’s taking them into His arms.
Convert an old man, someone has said, and you convert a unit: convert a child,
and you convert a multitude. If Paul had been converted at eighty, you and I
would have had no Paul. Gypsy Smith
says:- “The great influence in my life leading to my
conversion was my father’s life and example.” What tens of thousands of
conversions followed that father’s bringing his son to Christ! The future is in
the hands of the children. “When to-night you return
home to the cradle-side,” declared Signor
Bottai to the mothers of the
‘The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.’
The Kingdom
On the strength of the blundering ignorance of children by His
disciples, our Lord utters a remarkable warning to us all, a warning addressed
even to apostles. “Except ye turn, and become as little
children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matt.
18:
3).* “Be quite a
child, and you will soon be quite a saint.” As Lange puts it:- “In children there
is confidence instead of suspicion; self-surrender instead of self-distrust;
truth instead of hypocrisy; modesty and humility instead of pride.” Jesus says:- “Whosoever
shall humble himself as this little child, the
same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18: 4). The wicket‑gate into the coming
* Jesus does not say ‘infants’ - for He is not telling us to become
babyish; nor does He say ‘children’ children
(especially modern children) can show grave sins: He says ‘little children’ - perhaps between the ages of three and
seven. The Law of Great Britain says that a child under seven “is incapable of forming a guilty mind in a criminal matter.”
Mothers
Though all of us are
to bring the little ones to Jesus, it is naturally the function of one of us
supremely. Listen to the words of William
Buxton. “Although women may have produced no work
of surpassing power, have written no Iliad, no Hamlet, no Paradise Lost; have
designed no Church of St. Paul’s, composed no Messiah, carved no Apollo
Belvidere, painted no Last Judgment; although they have invented neither
telescopes nor steam engines - they have done something better and greater than
all this: it is at their knees that upright men and women have been trained -
the most excellent productions in the world. It was the patient, gentle
schooling of Monica which turned Augustine from a profligate to a saint: it was
the memory of a mother’s lessons which changed John Newton from a blasphemous
sailor to an earnest minister of God.”
The Child
So our Lord sums up our attitude. “And he took a
little child. and set him in the midst of them; and taking him in his arms, he
said unto them, Whosoever shall receive one of such little ones in my name” - that is, on the ground that the
little one is born of God - “receiveth me; and whosoever receiveth me, receiveth not me, but him that
sent me” (Mark 9: 36). We receive Christ in the little believer. How unutterably
solemn also is the final warning:- “Whoso shall cause one of these little
ones which
believe on me to stumble,
it is profitable for him that a great millstone should
be hanged about his neck, and that he should be
sunk in the depth of the sea. See that ye
despise not one of these little ones” (Matt. 18: 6, 10).
Guardian Angels
Our Lord’s final reason is most wonderful. “See that ye
despise not one of these little ones; for I say
unto you, that in heaven their angels do always
behold the face of my Father which is in heaven” (Matt.
18: 10). God so loves them that not only are
special angels appointed as their guardians - it is possible we all have
guardian angels (Ps. 34: 7; 91: 11; Heb. 1: 14)
- but little believers, who naturally are exposed to countless dangers, have
angels who, unlike other angels, have constant access to God, and so can report
any need at any moment. “They are so precious in the
sight of God that He selects for their protection His most exalted messengers”
(Gerlach).
Soul-Winners
So we now reach the climax of the blessing on the little folk.
Little children can lead others to Christ. One day a man said to Dr. Wilbur Chapman:- “Would you like to shake hands with a redeemed drunkard?”
Dr. Chapman said that he would. Then the man put his hand into Dr. Chapman’s
hand. He said, “Listen to my story: Once I was a big
businessman in this city. I had a lovely home, a wonderful wife, and a dear
little boy. Strong drink became my master. I soon fell low. One day, I was
helplessly lying in the gutter, drunk, when someone came and said, ‘If you want to see your boy alive, hurry home.’ The words aroused me from my drunken stupor. I arose and
quickly went home. I went to the dark room where my sin had forced my wife and
boy to live. We had lost our beautiful home. I found that a truck had passed over
my boy and seriously hurt him. He was dying. My boy took me by the hand, and
pulled me down by his side and said, ‘Father, I
love you. Even though you get drunk, I love you. I will not let you go until
you promise to meet me in Heaven!’ Still
holding my hand, he died. From that day, I have felt him pulling me Heavenward.
I am now a saved man. The Lord Jesus is my precious Saviour. How I thank God
for my little boy who loved me and would not let me go until I promised to meet
him in Heaven.”
-------
CHILDREN
No one knows how much he handles when
he is handling the soul of a child. Many years ago a young lady gathered a
Sunday School group, of whom Bob was the most wretched and unpromising. These
ragged boys received the gift of fresh clothes from the Superintendent. After a
Sunday or two Bob, who was absent, was found by his teacher with his new
clothes in rags and dirt. Given a new suit, the experience was repeated; but he
was promised a third suit if he would attend the class regularly. He did so,
became interested, was converted, joined the church, became a teacher, and
finally studied for the ministry. That dirty, ragged, runaway boy became Robert Morrison, the great missionary
to
-------
PERSECUTION
CHRISTIAN
It is strange how little the
* *
* * *
* *
54
THE JUDGMENT OF BELIEVERS
By D.
M. PANTON
CALVIN
has packed into a sentence the Scripture doctrine of reward:- “There is no inconsistency in saying that God rewards good
works, provided we understand that, nevertheless, men obtain eternal life
gratuitously.” For one passage of Paul states reward with the limpid
clearness of a crystal. “If any [disciple] build on the foundation [of Christ] gold” ingots of gold - “silver” - silver bullion - “precious stones” - marbles, jaspers, alabasters - “wood, hay, stubble” - boards, chopped hay for mortar,
thatch - “each [disciple’s] work shall be made manifest; for the fire itself prove the work of each” - not purge, for the inflammable
perishes; nor punish, for the gold is equally searched; but prove, test,
discriminate the structure for exactly what it is. “If any [disciple’s] work shall abide, he shall
receive a reward”;
that is, all reward is confined to work that survives judgment: “if any [disciple’s] work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss” - a loss the degree and duration of
which is not here defined: “but he himself shall be saved” - for [eternal] salvation is through faith only, independent of works
before or after conversion: “yet so as through fire” (1 Cor.
3:
12) - through burning embers and showers
of falling sparks, as he flees down a corridor of flame. The sprayed fire,
sweeping and searching the entire discipleship, exactly determines what can be
rewarded. “Singed and scorched as by an escape out of
a burning rain” (
Reward
Now it is exceedingly remarkable that in the heart of the
great grace chapter of the Bible, the truth that the Christian’s reward is
exclusively determined by his own fidelity lies deeply embedded. “Working,” as Calvin has said, “is not at all opposed to grace.” “For if,
by the trespass of the one [Adam], death reigned through the
one; much more” - as much more as God loves to reward
His servants more than He loves to reward His enemies - “shall they
that receive” - take constantly, take continuously;
not grace, but - “the abundance of grace” - its superabundance, so that the
superfluity overflows (Godet) - “reign in life” (Rom. 5: 17) - ‘life,’ a limited phrase used in the Gospels (Mark 9: 43, 45, 47) as a synonym for the Millennial Kingdom. So far from reward
undermining grace, it is the abundance of grace which alone entitles to reward: grace confers justification as a free
gift; but only the abundance of grace, deliberately and continuously received,
qualifies for glory with Christ, in the Life that is life indeed. Grace underlines all: in the beautiful words of
Augustine, - “To whom could the righteous Judge give
the crown if the merciful Father had not given grace? and how could these be
paid as things due, were not things not due previously given?” For
Grace, while it grants [eternal] salvation solely on the merits of our
Lord, cannot ignore our conduct after regeneration; and every instinct of our
hearts calls for justice, after the painful controversies that have rent the
Church for two thousand years, before
eternal bliss shall pass an obliterating sponge over the past “in that all-reconciling world where Luther and Zwingle are
well agreed.” And so Paul asserts.
“But thou, why dost thou judge thy brother? or thou again, why dost thou
set at nought thy brother? for we shall all
stand before the Judgment Seat of God: let us
not therefore judge one another any more” (Rom. 14: 10); but, while rightly adhering to all
the truth we know, hand over all judgment to an august and awful Tribunal not
our own.
The Bema
For we now arrive at the central fact of all - the Judgment
Seat. “Wherefore we make it our aim” - the word means to love and seek for
honour (Lange) in what Bengel calls the sole legitimate ambition in the world -
“to
be well-pleasing unto Him; for” - as the foundation of motive in all
holy ambition - “we must” - as a necessary inherent in Divine
justice; for the vindication of God’s holiness, and for the sanctification of
our own highest and holiest instincts - “all”
- no [regenerate] believer is exempt, not even Paul - “be made manifest” - to our own consciences, to all the
world, and above all to the Judge; a complete manifestation of all that has
transpired within us, or in the external life (Lange) - “before the Judgment
Seat of Christ; that each one may
receive” - the
technical word for receiving wages (Dean Alford) - “the things
done in the body”
- therefore thoughts and words as well as deeds, since the brain and the tongue
are tus also involved - “according to the
things that [plural] he hath done” - works exactly regulating reward:
not according to the things that Christ did in His body; nor according to things done out of the body, after death - “whether it [the award] be good or bad” (2 Cor: 5: 9). In the words of Lange:- Paul’s
tireless aim to please Christ “can only be fulfilled
by his being found approved at the tribunal where he and his fellow believers
are shortly to appear; for every action of God’s children during their bodily
life must there be judged according to the law of strict righteousness, and
each believer must be rewarded according to
his good or evil conduct.” And how perfectly this ambition can be
fulfilled in a child of God is seen from Jude’s doxology. “Now unto Him
that is able to keep you from falling, and to
present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding
joy” (Jude 24).
Self-Judgment
Thus it has become obvious that, while it is the golden
possibility of our lives to build all with imperishable metal outlasting even
judgment fires, the collapse of our entire life-work is also no remote
contingency. For even in grace, in this life, judgment can cut off a believer. “For this
cause many among you are weak” - or invalided - “and sickly” - or consumptive - “and not a few
sleep”
(1 Cor.
11:
30): while saving faith delivers for ever
from eternal judgment (John 5: 24), nevertheless the severest sentence
known to human law, even in the day of grace, God is sometimes compelled to
inflict upon His own. “But if we judged ourselves” - so analyzed our own conduct, so dissected
our own actions, as to square all to holiness; for it is possible in some
degree to take the pruning knife out of the hand of the Great Husbandman - “we should not be judged”: self-examination, self-condemnation,
a self-erected judgment seat within can deliver from all condemnation, here or
hereafter. “But when we are judged” - a master-revelation is now made concerning all chastisement now or
before the Bema - “we are chastened of the Lord, that we
may not be condemned with the world.” In the words of Calvin:- “We either avert or mitigate impending punishment if we first
call ourselves to account, and, actuated by a spirit of repentance, deprecate
the anger of God - punishing ourselves instead of waiting till He puts forth
His hand to do it: for believers too would rush on to everlasting destruction,
were they not restrained by temporal punishment.” Thus, so far from the
judgment of believers being such an undermining of grace, or such a forfeiting
of standing and privilege, as to be incredible and impossible, it is precisely one means (as here
explicitly stated by the Holy Ghost) whereby that standing is made sure, safe, irrevocable, and
eternal.
Crowns
“So then each one of us must give account of
himself to God” (Rom. 14: 12).*
The duration and severity of an adverse judgment at the Bema only the
Scriptures can foreshadow, and only the event itself exactly determine. Our
Lord’s approvals or disapprovals tangibly expressed, glorious or penal, can
only be proved seriatim by the Scriptures that reveal each reward with its
attached conditions. Every crown named (for example) is offered conditionally
on some service or suffering; so that our Lord’s exhortation runs, - “Hold fast
that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown” (Rev. 3: 11). So, (1) as
rapture is technically the act that opens the day of the recoil of a believer’s
conduct upon himself, rapture itself is graded and timed according to
sanctification (Luke 21:
36;
Rev.
3: 10); (2) a share in the First Resurrection, as distinct from a temporary
resuscitation for the Berna, is the fruit of a peculiar beatitude and sanctity
(Rev. 20: 4; Phil.
3: 11);
(3) co-heirship with Christ in the
Millennial Reign, as well as rank within it, is contingent upon a believer’s
fidelity, service, and suffering (Eph. 5: 5; Gal. 5: 21) and (4) throughout
the Millennial Age, the age in which justice recoils on all, any penalty
whatsoever, any utmost expression of Divine censure, is possible to a wicked or
slothful servant (Matt. 18: 35; Col. 3: 25). But this judicial era disappears with
the delivery of the kingdom (1 Cor. 15: 24) to the Father. Nothing but a name written by the
Godhead in the Book of Life passes a soul into the
* The fact that the judgment of the
wicked is by itself, separated by a thousand years (Rev. 20: 12), reveals that in 2 Cor.
5:
10,
“it is genuine Christians of whom Paul is speaking;
all whose shortcomings and failures will one day be exposed, and who therefore
make it their aim to avoid such defects” (International
Critical Commentary). Individual
judgment is not possible for believers as such, for in justification no
believer differs from any other; but individual judgment as servants yields a variety of adjudication as
infinite as the service and the sanctification.
Pregnant Truth
It is obvious that this truth of a believer’s judgment, so
abundantly stated in the Scriptures, is of vast practical moment, and, once it
lays its grip upon a soul, simply incalculable in its motive power. For,
contrary to what is sometimes supposed, it greatly reinforces our assurance of
eternal life; because, by disentangling countless conditioned promises of
reward from the simple assurance of eternal life granted on bare faith, it
isolates the unconditioned gift into a radiant light, while withdrawing into
the sphere of reward numerous menacing passages, expressive of extreme
difficulty and doubt, which have ever been the stronghold of Rome. By
reassuring of eternal safety, while yet warning of tremendous Millennial peril,
it frees the soul for an arrow-flight straight to God’s highest and best.* Moreover, of all Scripture truths
none is now needed by the
* For it is a simple fundamental of revelation that, while
eternal life is a gift, reward is a prize; and as surely as the sole way
of obtaining a gift is simply to receive it, so surely no prize is possible
without holy endeavour and unceasing toil (1 Cor. 9: 24-27).
The Cost
But we must count the cost. For “we must through much
tribulation enter into the
* *
* * *
* *
55
FOUNDATION AND SUPERSTRUCTURE + 2
By D. M.
PANTON
LET us begin with a parable. Here, in a library holding on its
shelves all the so-called Christian volumes ever issued, is a brazier of
burning coals. Two patriarchs - one named Time, another named Eternity - are
testing the volumes. One by one they slowly cast them into the fire, and they
are burned. Here is a Breviary, full of prayers in an unknown tongue: it burns
slowly, but it burns. Here is a whole
armful of criticisms on the Scriptures, portly
and erudite. “These,” says Time, as he flings them into the fire, “are the labour of a hundred universities”; but as
they quickly burn away, “Dust and ashes,” says Eternity. Philosophic volumes,
scientific volumes, ecclesiastical volumes, poetical volumes - together with
170,000 volumes on peace, gathered in the Palace of the League of nations in Geneva: Time remarks, with a sigh,
“Here is the brilliance of converted genius”;
but as they all fall away into silent ash, Eternity remarks, - “Love not the
world, neither the things that are in the world.”
At last Eternity takes up
in his hands one Book, and casts that into the burning coals, and lo, all the
room and the faces of Time and Eternity are lit with the white glory of a Book
unconsumed; and it is called, “The Word of God.” The Bible - learned and lived - is
the imperishable book of eternity.
The Foundation
We first observe that it is God who lays the foundation for
the soul. “Behold, I lay in
A Warning
But at once a warning follows. “But let each [disciple] take heed how he buildeth
thereon.” Works do not emerge into sight until
Christ has been laid as the foundation of life: works before faith not only do
not save, but they are sins to be repented of, - “repentance from dead works” (Heb. 6: 1). “But” implies that while there is one foundation, there are many superstructures: “take heed” implies that grave consequences
attach to how a disciple builds after
conversion. Some of Paul’s passages are masterpieces of revelation; clear
as crystal, and flashing with a truth like a gem. Stage by stage he takes us
through the different lives which disciples lead after conversion, and their
consequences. Let us ponder it. Slowly, surely, imperceptibly a house of works
is rising round every disciple’s life: tier over tier, every day adds an arch
or lays a stone: blocks of granite and marble, pillars of solid silver, and
cornices of gold; or else wooden doorways, hay mixed with mud for the walls,
and straw thatching for the roof. And the supreme fact is this:- one set of
materials stands fire; the other feeds fire; and since fire is coming - “let each
disciple take heed how he buildeth thereon.”
A Choice
Therefore we all have a
choice “If any buildeth on the foundation gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble”: that is, every disciple has absolute control over the
material with which he builds. He may build with stubble if he choose; if he
choose also, he may build with gold. Now contending motives sway the choice:
popularity, social prestige, wealth, carnality, on the one hand - love to
Christ, fidelity, a sense of truth, fear, on the other. What is the material
that will stand fire? Material that matches the foundation. What is the foundation? The personal Word of God.
Then what ought the superstructure to be? The written Word of God. There are a thousand voices in the world
to-day: to the wise man there is only one. Every thought, every word, every act, is to be built out of the
quarries of Scripture. “Heaven and earth shall pass
away, but my word shall not pass away”: that is, the Scriptures will survive the fires of judgment,
which will consume the universe. The highest level which a Christian
teacher can reach is to frame a not altogether inadequate setting to the jewels
of revelation; and the highest a Christian disciple can reach is to translate
into actual life the mind of God as revealed in the Word of God. The work of
the teacher is to get the Book into the soul: the work of the disciple is to
get the Book into the life.
An Exposure
Next follows an exposure. “Each [disciple’s] work shall be made manifest: for the day
shall declare it, because it shall be revealed
in fire.” The believer’s life is a palimpsest, the invisible lines of which steal
forth into sight as it nears the fire. Observe, there is no testing of the
foundation: it is, as Isaiah says, “a tried stone,” an already tested Stone: it is the superstructure which the fire searches.
No believer will be tried for his standing, but for his walk; not for his
faith, but for his works; not for his life, but for his living; not for his
foundation, but for his superstructure. And the exposure - at all events
between God and his soul - will be complete. “For we must all be made
manifest before the judgment
seat of Christ; that each one may receive the
things done by means of the body, according to what he hath done” (2 Cor.
5:
10),
“in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ” (Rom.
2:
16).
Suppose this day next
month all the hidden things of our life, all the secret motives of the heart,
all the thoughts in which we most delighted, were to be disclosed to
multitudes:- how watchful, this month, we should be over our hearts, what an
agony of apprehension sin would cause us! It compels us to Whitfield’s words, -
“O could I always live for eternity, preach for
eternity, pray for eternity, and speak for eternity! I want to see only God.”
That Day dominated Paul’s entire vision: “the single
eye,” as Robert Chapman says,
“is the eye that is fastened on the Judgment Scat of
Christ.”
The Test
So the testing follows. - “The fire itself shall prove each [disciple’s] work of what sort it is.” What is the fire? “His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow: and his eyes were as a flame of fire” (Rev. 1: 14). This is also clearly stated by Malachi. “Who may abide
the day of His coming? for He is like a refiner’s fire” (Mal. 3: 2). The fire, you observe, does not cleanse, it tries, and, if
the material be inflammable, it destroys: it is not that Christ purges our
works, but He searches them judicially. We have already seen this definitely
judicial process in actual operation. “These things saith the Son of God,
who hath His
eyes like a flame of fire,” - there is the fire; “I know thy works” - there is the fire playing into the material; “and thy love
and faith and ministry and patience” - there is the fire testing the quality and finding gold;- “and that thy last works are more than the first”
(Rev.
2:
19) - there is the fire testing the
quantity, and finding much pure gold. The fire proves.
Reward
One consequence is reward. “If any [disciple’s] work shall abide which he
built thereon, he shall receive a reward.” If the work abides the fire - reward: for while salvation is attached to the foundation, reward (or loss) is
attached to the superstructure: reward is utterly conditional on
what our own hands have wrought. Again and again our Lord rings this truth in our cars. “Behold,
I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to render to each [disciple] according
as his
work is” (Rev.
22:
12); or, as Paul puts it in this very
passage (verse 8),
“each shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.” One of the
costliest diamonds in
Or it may be loss. “If any [disciple’s] work shall be burned, he
shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as through fire.” The truth could not be presented with
a more crystal clearness. Himself saved - for no disciple can ever be
swept off the mighty foundation of Christ; but his work burned - for it is solemnly possible for a believer to spend his life in a
discipleship which will end in a conflagration. The picture is that of escape
from a burning ruin. As the fire-balls descend upon the
labouriously-constructed house, the inmate within, to his amazement it may be,
suddenly sees a burst of flame, and, running for his life, escapes through a
blazing corridor of fire: “he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire.” It is a sorry thing to have all one’s
life-work fall away into silent ash because of a wrong choice of materials. Oh,
the tremendous importance of building rightly now!
An Appeal
So the appeal is to every child of God for the sacrifice of
absolutely everything, if need be, to the Divine Word; to build with the
adamant of eternity. “Let each [disciple] prove his own work” (Gal. 6:
4). Let us mark well: isolation is the
price of purity; but better be shamed now than shamed then: better discover the
stubble and burn it with our own hands, than meet the exposure of that day. Let
us not suffer ourselves to remain in a position where we are forbidden to do
what God commands, or commanded to do what God forbids. “Whatsoever He
saith unto you, do it.” A
soldier once came to Lord Kitchener to explain why he had not carried out
an order. Lord Kitchener replied:- “Your reasons for
not doing what you were told to do, are the best I ever heard. Now
go and do it.” “He that hath
my commandments, and keepeth them,
he it is that
loveth me”
(John 14:
21). Finally, “that thou
doest, do quickly.” The shadows are falling across a
dying world. A doctor whom I know visited
An Experience
For the sake of our young readers, before whom a dying
dispensation opens with enormous possibilities, perhaps the writer may be
allowed to record his own experience which may give them light. As a young man
God revealed this truth to me so clearly that for all eternity I can never
unsee it again. In the vast cross-currents of university life, in which many a
young man gets swept off his feet for ever, I came out absolutely sure of one
thing, and of one thing only. That was the Word of God. God mercifully revealed to me the tremendous fact that
the Voice of God had been heard in the world, and that that Voice had been
enshrined in a Book. I saw that all Christians were based, whether they
acknowledged it or not, on this Book; that this was the guide, the chart, and the
final account, that lay at the root of the whole Christian faith. What
followed? I resolved that, at all costs, I would spend my life in shaping it to
the Book. Life became a thing of extraordinary value because it could be lived with God, for God, and unto God:
it was possible to please God. What followed
that? An inevitable collision, - not only with the power and influence and
wealth of the world, but with all the tremendous ecclesiastical systems, which
have cleverly, though I believe largely unconsciously, mixed the rubble of
human tradition with the pure gold of Divine Revelation. I saw that I must be willing to stand alone; that isolation is the penalty of purity; and I found that to shape one’s life to the Book, without fear and without compromise, meant the sacrifice of ambition after ambition, and sometimes the most painful divisions
from the hearts you love best. It
meant all that: but it meant also
the transplanting of the heart to a better world. God wants us to be crucified in this world that we may be crowned in
the world to come. This is gold,
silver and precious stones.
We close with the golden goal. “Now unto Him that is able to
keep you from falling, and to present you
faultless before the presence
of His glory with exceeding joy”
(Jude 24). Is that not a possibility that fairly
staggers the soul? But what does it mean now? It means absolute
obedience to every word of God. After an address on this subject in
-------
CONCERN
“Oh,” exclaimed Summerfield,
when on his death-bed, “Oh, If I might be raised
again, how could I preach! I could preach as I have never preached before. - I
have had a look into eternity.” “Faith,”
says Cecil, “is the master-spring of a minister. Hell is before me, and thousands of
souls shut up there in everlasting agonies. Jesus Christ stands forth to save
men from rushing into this bottomless abyss. He sends me to proclaim His
ability and love. I want no fourth idea. Every forth idea is contemptible.
Every forth idea is a grand impertinence!”
-------
THE WILL TO BE SAVED
“He was acquainted with several
modern languages, and read in these the principal works in which Christianity
is assailed - Volney, Gibbon, Voltaire, Diderot, etc. After seven years of the
profoundest infidelity he had his attention drawn to the career of the
apostles, and to the evidence afforded by the extraordinary labours, sufferings
and successes of these twelve men. A Bible, bequeathed to him with a dying
request that he would read it, he received with thankfulness. He read it, and
found much to admire in it; valued it for the comfort that it had bestowed upon
another; but he never for one moment doubted that he was right in his views
regarding it, or suspected that it was really a revelation from God. One night,
just before retiring, he said aloud, in his room, ‘If there is a God that notices the desires of
men,
I only wish that He would make known to me His will, and I shall feel it my highest privilege to do it, at whatever cost.’ Two or three days after he went to a public library, from
which he was accustomed to get books, asked for a book, and receiving one, put
it under his arm, and returned home. He found, to his surprise, that it was Paley’s
Evidences, a very different book from the one he had asked after. He
could not go back the library that day. Before putting it away, however, he
glanced at the first sentence and was arrested by it. He read one page, and
another, and another. To his surprise he found that he was beginning to take a
new view of the evidences, and then shut up the book. He went away for a few
days, and on his return resolved to read the book carefully. When about
half-way through the volume, he offered the prayer, “Help Thou my
unbelief.’ When he had reached the last
sentence his doubts were all removed; he was perfectly convinced of the truth
of the Scriptures.”
He was led on to profess publically his faith in Christ, and
after some years to become a missionary in
* *
* * *
* *
56
NOTES FOR MINISTERS +3
1.
THE HIGHER CRITICISM
IN the
old, old time, when we were very young, the Christian Church had a heaven and a
hell, an immortal soul, a direct revelation from heaven, a book which is called
‘the
Word of God.’ Our
mothers were not literal grammarians, but they were gigantic believers. Our
quaint old pastors were little better than our mothers. They had not a ‘doubt’ to bless themselves with. They read
the Bible, and actually believed it, and they preached it without a stammer. In
those early days we thought ascended ones were for ever with the Lord. We said,
in a sob which was really a song, ‘They shall hunger no more,
neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, or any
heat. The Lamb which is in the midst of the
throne shall feed them, and lead them unto
living fountains of water, and God shall wipe
away all tears from their eyes.’ We had really loved the Bible. It was literally everything to
us. We had given so much - so very much to give up. Some of us have not even
yet given up our faith. Blessed be God, some of us still believe in the whole Bible.
- DR. JOSEPH PARKER.
2.
THE PREACHER’S CRITIC
Every hearer has a perfect right to
his own judgment and to question what he hears; and often a Christian teacher
has no severer critic than himself. Nevertheless every preacher faces a cloud
of unjustified criticism. One writer has thus expressed it:- “If the sermon is doctrinal, it is not practical; if it
contains Scripture quotations, they say they could read them as well at home.
If the sermon is read, they say it is not the preacher’s own: if it is recited,
they say it is got by rote. If it is well composed, they say the style is too
ornate; if it is intended to arouse, they say the language is too violent. If
full of illustrations. it is shallow: if it has no illustrations, it is heavy;
if extempore, it is no more than a babble; if in essay form, it is lifeless. If
it is orthodox, people say it is the old thing over again; if controversial,
they say the preacher is dogmatic; if free from controversial allusions, they
say he is not up to the ideas and spirit of the age. If it is earnest, the preacher
is a raving revivalist: if it is calm, the man’s heart is not in his work. If
simple, he is coveting the applause of the poor: if learned, the poor are
neglected. If he speaks to the heart, the preacher is too personal: if he does
not, he speaks over our heads.” What is our answer to these things? Very
easy, very simple:- “Am I seeking to please men? if I were still pleasing men, I should
not be a servant of Christ” (Gal. 1: 10).
3. CHURCH PRAYER
There was a church in the city of
One Sunday morning, when the minister rose to speak, he was
just as brilliant, and just as gifted as ever, but it soon became evident that
God had transformed his ideas and transformed the man, and Dr. Theodore Cuyler
is authority for the statement that God sent to the city of Hartford the
greatest revival that city ever had, through that minister who was transformed
by the prayers of his members. Oh, if we
would talk less to one another against our ministers, and more to God in their behalf, we would have far better ministers than we have now.
- Herald of His Coming.
4. THE DANGER OF PRIDE
Watch and pray continually against pride. If God casts it out
see that it enter no more. It is fully as dangerous as desire. And you may
slide back into it unawares. If you think you are so taught of God as no longer
to need man’s teaching, pride lieth at the door. Yes, you have need to be
taught by one another, by the weakest preacher, yea, by all men. For God sendeth
whom He will. Always remember, much grace does not imply much light. Not
observing this has led some into many mistakes, and into the appearance at
least of pride. Let there be in you that lowly mind that was in Christ Jesus.
And ‘be ye likewise clothed with humility.’ Let it not only fill but cover you all over. Let modesty and
self-diffidence appear in all your words and actions. As one instance of this, be always ready to own any fault you have
been in, do not seek to evade or
disguise it, and you will thereby not hinder but adorn the gospel.
- JOHN WESLEY.
5. PRAYING THROUGH
The first two weeks in L. proved to be the most trying and
disappointing weeks of my evangelistic life. Splendid congregations came to all
the services. In absolute silence they listened to my preaching, and apparently
unmoved they went away. After two weeks, we had not a single convert. My
friends said:- “Well, we did not have a convert at all
in the last two missions held here.” I groaned in my spirit, and then
came the little word, “This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” I knew how to preach, but did I know
how to pray? I determined to emulate the example of Peter and John, and thus
from noon till one o’clock became my hour of prayer. That first hour of prayer
was rather strange. I had only my own voice to which I could listen for 60
minutes. Yet I stayed here on my knees, and prayed. Full of hope I went to the meeting that night, and the
service was as difficult as ever. I almost wept. The second day I had my hour
of prayer and again hopefully waited for the evening service. When it came it
was heartbreaking. Saturday came, and with it another hour of prayer. On
Saturday night, when the others went to bed, I felt constrained to pray, and I prayed
until I could not pray any more. Midnight came and went, and a deeper midnight
was in my soul. I was in very deed at the end of myself. I had tried all the
preaching and evangelistic methods known to me, and I had prayed as best I knew
how. All had failed. I could do no more ... And then - I shall never forget
this
There was the fine, tall Welshman, a soldier who walked up
before lots of people. He said afterwards: “I have
been to church all my life, but oh, something came to my heart that night I
never had before.” There was another Welshman who but a few months ago
would have been in a suicide’s grave, if it had not been for the mercy God. His
face is still shining with the light of the new life. There was an ex-pugilist
who was clean knocked out by the love of God. There was the great big
Northerner, a man of 40-50, who said in a whisper: “Sir,
we are all sinners, but I feel black and want to be forgiven.” And he
was. There was the Roman Catholic, who said: “I have a
fault to find with religion; when I went to the R.C. school, if I did something
wrong, they caned me severely. Is that religion?” I said: “No, friend, it’s not, but in any case I’m not interested in
religion - it’s a living Christ you need.” That man was saved that same
night. There was the Englishman, a Londoner, who said: “Sir, I was coming back from
More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of.
- The Fundamentalist.
6. SPARSE CONGREGATIONS
One of
- The
7. THE HOLY SPIRIT
I am only a wick. With many of us it takes a long time to learn
this lesson. It is only when the wick is soaked in
oil that it can burn. If you wish for fulness of the [Holy] Spirit in order that your church
should be crowded or people flock to hear you, the Holy Spirit cannot work through you. If people begin to talk
about the wick, there is generally
something wrong with the burning. - D. H. DOHLMAN.
-------
THE BIBLE
Within this awful volume lies
The mystery of mysteries:
Happiest they of human race,
To whom their God has given grace
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray,
To lift the latch, to force the way;
But better had they ne’er been born,
Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.
- SIR WALTER SCOTT
-------
REPETITION
Scripture repeated can go home at
last. Dr. Evans, when a student at Moody Bible Institute, began talking to a
man at the Pacific Garden Mission, about his soul. The man argued: “I do not believe the Bible. I am an atheist.” Evans
repeated one verse, “Except ye repent, ye shall
likewise perish.”
The fellow scoffed, “I told you I dodn’t believe it.”
Again Evans quoted, “Except ye repent, ye shall all
likewise perish.”
The man exasperatingly uttered, “You disgusting
fellow, what is the use of telling me that?” Again Evans repeated the
verse. In anger, the man struck Dr. Evans between the eyes with his fist,
sending the Bible one way and Evans the other. God gave him grace. He got up
and said, “My friend, God loves you, and ‘except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish’.” The next night that
man was in the mission before the meeting began. He confessed: “I could not sleep. All over the wall I read, ‘except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.’
I saw it on my pillow. When I got up I saw, ‘Except
ye repent,’ at the breakfast table; and all
through the day it was before me. I have come back to settle it.”
- The
Gospel Herald.
-------
SCRIPTURE
Would that it may turn many to the
Holy Scriptures! In the words of Sir Charles Mardton, F.S.A. - “It is our imperative duty to turn from the vain outlook and teachings of the present, and study our Bible
in the light of to-day. [i.e., in 2024] There will be found the
cure for human nature, presented, but largely neglected through the ages. There
will be found a greater and more effective power than the atomic bomb - the power of prayer. And there will be
found the Record of Eternal Sacrifice
for sins by our Lord Jesus Christ,
whose Second Coming - [to Rule and Reign (Isa.
43:
19-21; Rom.
8:
18-23,
R.V.)] - must now
be rapidly approaching.”
* *
* * *
* *
57
THE DOVE OF GOD
IT is most wonderful that once, and
once only - in the Bible records - has the Spirit of God been actually seen upon the earth;
and by one man only - the only man who was filled with that Spirit from birth (Luke 1: 15). “John bare
witness, saying I have beheld the Spirit descending as A DOVE out of heaven” (John 1:
32):- a descent in the form of a dove
which all four Gospels - a rare thing - record. That it was the actual form of
a Dove, though invisible to all except Jesus and John, Luke puts beyond doubt:-
“The heaven was opened, and
the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily form, as
a dove”
(Luke 3:
22).
The heavens opened, and out of those heavens, descending upon the Son of man,
came down the Heavenly Bird, the snow-white Dove of the Spirit of God. “The Father shall
give you another comforter, that he may be with you forever; for he abideth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:
17).
Now this descent of the Holy Dove of God not only takes us
back to the very dawn of creation, but it reveals the unchanging character of
the [Holy] Spirit - the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. The Revised Margin puts
it thus:- “The Spirit of God was brooding upon the face of the waters” (Gen.
1:
2);
or, as the Talmud exquisitely
paraphrases it, - “The Spirit of God was borne over
the water as a dove which broods over her young.”
The word in Genesis for ‘brood’ is the same as that used, in Deut. 32: 11, for the eagle ‘fluttering
over her young.” The Holy Spirit, from the
first dawn of creation, was the Holy Dove of God: He brooded, germinating life,
as “the Lord and Giver of life”; and just as He filled the
Now before we deal with this exquisite revelation of the
character of the Holy Ghost, we observe that He is working that character into us,
and that therefore everything we learn of God’s Dove, we learn of our own
ultimate character. The very term ‘dove’ runs through the Bible revelation of
the Christian. The moment Peter made his saving confession, at that moment
Jesus said, - “Blessed art thou, Simon, Bar-jonah” - son of the Dove, child of the Holy Ghost - “for flesh and blood hath not
revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in
heaven” (Matt.
16:
17). In His charge to the twelve apostles
- sample Christians of all ages - our Lord says, - “Behold,
I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves:
be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless” - guileless, defenceless, gentle - “as doves” (Matt. 10: 16). And our ultimate departure from the world, the Holy
Dove returning with us to Heaven, is thus described:- “Who are these
that fly as a cloud, and as the doves” - for doves move
in flocks - “to their windows?” (Is. 60: 8); and the cry that comes, in moments
of pain from many a watchful saint to-day, is the inspired cry, - “Oh that I had
wings like a dove! then would I fly away, and be
at rest” (Ps. 55: 6). What darts more swiftly and surely home than a carrier-pigeon? All therefore that we learn of
the [Holy] Spirit, we learn concerning God’s ideal for us.
Now the dove is the bird of love. Little children love
it. The look of the [Holy] Spirit - as the Song of Solomon reveals - is a look of love: “thine eyes
are as doves: let me see thy countenance, let me hear
thy voice” (Song 1: 15, 2: 14). It is the only bird of the heaven which is domestic: it does not
require to be caged as a prisoner, in order to be kept among men. The Holy
Spirit has alighted amongst us of His own free will: He has alighted at
the impulse of love. The steeple of an old church was to be pulled
down, in order to prepare the way for some modern improvements. Soon everything
was ready and the foreman shouted aloud to the men to pull. As the old steeple
began to tremble, and sway from side to side, a beautiful white dove was
observed to fly round and round, not daring to go in at its accustomed place,
and yet evidently unwilling to depart. She seemed to be aware that a great
calamity was about to happen, while a hundred voices shouted, “See that dove!” “Poor thing!”
the foreman observed, “she must have young ones up in
the steeple.” Again the workmen gave a vigorous tug at the rope, and the
old steeple reeled and tottered. The distress of the poor dove became so great
that everyone felt sorry for her, and not a word was spoken. The bird hovered a
moment on her wings, and at the instant that the creaking timbers began to
topple over, she darted into the steeple and was hid from view. When the
rubbish was cleared away, she was found lying between her young ones - all
three crushed to death. Here was a spectacle of devoted love - love even unto
death. So it is with the Lord. “Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God.”
The Holy Spirit was the
crushed Dove on
The second characteristic of the Dove is gentlenes.
The dove, unlike the eagle or the hawk, is utterly defenceless: it is a shy,
sensitive bird: it is probably the most harmless of all living creatures. It
has no talons, and naturalists tell us it has no gall. It is remarkable how
often the dove is referred to in the Scripture as the bird of gentle, brooding
sorrow, - “I did mourn as a dove” (Is. 38: 14). The [Holy]
Spirit wakes the sweet sorrow of the penitent soul: “they shall be like doves
of the valley, all of them mourning, every one in his iniquity” (Ezek. 7: 16); and the Spirit “helpeth our infirmity with
groaning that cannot be
uttered.” It is God’s indescribable sorrow over a lost world. Fenelon says, - “We must lend an attentive ear, for His voice is soft and
low; and it is heard only by those who hear nothing else,” - the sweet,
low call of the
Lastly, the dove has always been the emblem of purity. It was so pure a bird in the
eye of God, as not only to be classed as ‘clean,’ but the only bird allowed on the altars of God. “If his oblation to
the Lord be a burnt offering of fowls, then he shall offer” - as the only birds
permitted - “his oblation of turtle-doves, or of young
pigeons” (Lev. 1: 14). His mother offered for Jesus two white doves. Both the Dove
and the Lamb were offered on the altar of
Now we see where the Dove rests. The Dove descended upon
the Lamb. Over the young
child stood a star; but over the Lord stood the Dove of God: “upon
whomsoever thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and abiding upon him,
the same is he that baptizeth with the Holy Spirit”
(John 1: 33), - the Christ of God. There is a
Jewish tradition that, as all the world did not know where Noah’s Dove came
from, and Noah himself did not at last know where it went to - “it returned
not again unto him any more” - so the door would at last open, and - “blowing where
it lusteth” - ‘the Spirit of Messiah’ would come forth, and abide
upon the head of Messiah. Certain it is that just as the dove that went forth
from Noah’s
So, finally, the Holy Spirit, abiding on earth since
Pentecost, has, in the Bible, only one recorded prayer, a prayer which prays
for the return of the Lamb. Nothing could more decisively enthrone the truth of
the Second Advent. “The Spirit and the
bride say, COME” (Rev. 22: 17). The prayer, the preaching, the expectation of the Second
Advent has no more massive foundation than this - that it is the one recorded
cry to God of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit knows perfectly all evolution,
all progress, all Gospel advance, all revival; yet He says that there is one
solution, and one only, for world-problems:- “the Spirit and the bride say,
Come.” He is the master of all knowledge, of all solutions of all
problems, and He says there is but one possibility for the world’s salvation: “the Spirit and the bride say, Come.”
None but the Holy Spirit knows
the deep things of God* - the everlasting plans, the profound purposes, the
unrevealed powers of God; yet, knowing all, He says that the one and only hope
for the world is the return of Christ.
* *
* * *
* *
58
THE POTTER AND THE CLAY + 3
By P.
G. THURSTON*
* The writer of this article was in his
nineteenth year. So we can never pass beyond doing something for God.
-------
Heb.
10:
14 “Perfected for ever” - The Vessel in
Christ -
Positional
Perfection.
Heb.
13: 21. “Make you perfect” - Christ in the
Vessel -
Moral Perfection.
Heb.
12: 23. “Made perfect” - The Vessel like
Christ -
Absolute Perfection.
A SHAPELESS lump of clay lay on the Potter’s Wheel. It rejoiced
that it had been taken in hand by one so
skilful and so mighty, to be
fashioned into a vessel of honour. As the wheel began to whirl the clay was
dazed, and as it felt the pressure of the hand it cried out in despair. It
forgot that even the cleverest potter needs a wheel, and that the hand touched
only the mould. At length the wheel stopped, and the great artist was heard
saying, “It is perfect.” The clay was now a
vase, graceful and beautiful in form; and it sighed in satisfied gladness and
said, - “The Master says that I am perfect.”
Having stood it on the shelf for a while, the potter took it
in hand again and gave it to a servant saying, - “take
great care of it, for it is perfect.” The servant took it and covered it
with a rough jar and placed it in an oven. As the heat of the furnace became
intense the vase cried out in agony, “The Master said
that I was perfect, and commanded that I should be taken care of; and yet I am
plunged into this fearful heat.” At last the fire had done its work, and
the vase stood again before the Master. There was no fear now that the touch of
a finger would leave its impress, spoiling his work. He looked at it
critically, and then set it down saying, - “It is
perfect.”
The vase was not, however, yet complete, but now it was
covered with enamel, and put again in the kiln, and it despairingly wondered
when the painful processes were to cease. When it was withdrawn from the oven
it shone with the brilliancy of absolute whiteness. The Master looked and said
- “It is perfect!” Then he took it and began to
colour it, and the vase mourned that its whiteness should be sullied. Again it
was subjected to the fire till the Master’s handiwork was burned into it so
that it could not be erased; and again the potter said, - “It is perfect!” Again the vase rejoiced though with
trembling from many disappointments, hoping that at last its trials were over.
The potter now traced lines and patterns upon it in a dull
dark shade, that seemed to spoil everything that he had done before, and once
more the vase was placed in the kiln, and this time the heat was greater and
the process was continued longer than before. At length it was taken from the
fire and placed before the Master and the dull lines were seen to be gold. The
Lord inspected it with a gracious smile. He was satisfied and He said, “It is finished; it is perfect!”
Then he set it on high in his own palace, and many looked upon
it; and as they did so they gave honour and glory to the Master himself, who
had wrought so good a work.
And is it so? I shall be like Thy Son!
Is this the grace which He for me has
won?
Father of glory ! Thought beyond all
thought,
In glory, to His own blest likeness
brought.
Nor I alone; Thy loved ones all
complete
In glory round Thee with such joy
shall meet
All like Thee: for Thy glory like
Thee, Lord!
Object supreme of all, by all adored!*
-------
THE WEATHER
Can we, dare we, close our eyes to the fact that the
unexampled weather that is visiting us shows the hand of God? Man has dared
assert his superiority to all natural powers: and God has intervened to show
that they are beyond man’s control. Will the nation and its rulers see, and
understand: and will the Church and its leaders accept the challenge to
repentance and renewal and faith? - Ensebes.
-------
NOT NOW
Not now, My child! A little more rough tossing,
A little longer on the billow’s foam,
A few more journeyings in the desert darkness,
And then the sunshine of thy Father’s home!
Not now; for I have wanderers in the distance,
And thou must call them in with patient love:
Not now; for I have sheep upon the moundains,
And thou must follow them where’er they rove.
Not now; for I have loved ones sad and weary,
Wilt thou not cheer them with My words of grace?
Sick ones who need thee in their lonely sorrow,
To carry My sweet messages of peace.
Not now; for wounded hearts are sorely bleeding,
And thou must teach those saddened hearts of Me;
Not now, for orphan’s tears are trickly falling,
They need My Word, and this I geve to thee.
Not now; for many a hungry one is pining;
Thy willing hand must be outstretched and free;
Thy Father hears the mighty cry of anguish,
And gives His messages of love to thee.
Not now; for dungeon walls look stern and gloomy,
And prisoners’ sighs sound strangely on the breeze,
Wrecked lives, that need thy Saviour’s grace and
mercy;
Hast thou no ministry of love for these?
Go with the name of Jesus to the dying,
And speak that Name in all its living power:
Let not thy feeble heart grown chill and weary;
Canst thou not watch with Me one little hour?
One little hour! And then thy Saviour’s presence.
Eternal praises and the victor’ palm:
One little hour! And then the Hallelujah!
Eternity’s long, deep, thanksgiving psalm!
-------
KEEP YOURSELF:
“...FROM EVERY EVIL THING” Deut. 23: 9.
There
is something more than conscience in this, something more than the imperious
demands of rectitude. The fighting powers in life are concerned, the strength
which is at our disposal when we go out to meet the foe. Every form of sin is
hostile to my strength.I cannot harbour an unclean thing and preserve ny
fighting forces unimpaired. My sin is always on the side of my adversary,
because it lessons my power of defence and aggression. Sin is always a thief,
and it is the sinner who is despoiled. Sin cometh not but for to steal, and to
kill, and to destroy. Its deceptions aretragically pathetic. It is like a
jerry-builder who seeks to destroy my interest ... while all the tine the
drains are leaking and the walls of the house are not able to keep out the
rain. That is the way of sin. It gives me a plaything and assails my life. Always
and everywhere, sin robs me of my strength. “My strength faileth because of my iniquity.”
- J. H. Jowett, D.D.
*
* * *
* * *
59
RETRIBUTION + 3
By
H. S.
GALLIMORE, M.A.
IN the
spiritual world there are no precipices which men walk over by accident. No one
stumbles into hell inadvertently. Hell is a gulf fenced about with warnings.
If, however, despite these warnings - warnings from conscience, the facts of
life, the fate of others, and, most solemn of all, the strivings of the [Holy] Spirit and the admonitions of the
Word - men and women persist in slipping down the declivity and over the brink,
nothing can save them.
Hell is not a doom from which God could save men but won’t; it
is a doom to which there is no alternative. If there had been, would God have
given His Son to die, would Christ have emptied himself and gone to the Cross?
It is inconceivable. When, therefore, a soul trusts to the mercy of God to save
him without timely repentance, the enemy of mankind and his own evil heart are
tricking him into eternal ruin.
Every blessing connotes a corresponding curse; each Gerizim
has an Ebal. The pillar of cloud is bright toward the saved, and dark toward
the lost. On the one hand, there is the peace of God “which passeth all
understanding”; and, on
the other, the miserable gnawings of remorse. The fire of the divine presence,
and the penal flame of hell. The glorious light of heaven and the outer
darkness of separation and banishment. An endless ascent of character and
attainment, and a bottomless pit of declension. These opposites are as
determinate as night and day. The life of obedience is the prelude to the one,
and the life of disobedience the prelude to the other. They stand out in marked
contrast even here.
Throughout the Church’s history, those most convinced of the
existence of hell have been, not the harsh and unfeeling, but the gentle,
loving, and kind. The reason is obvious. Having spiritual discernment, being
under no illusion, they wished to save as many of their fellow-men [and women] as possible. Those who deny the
reality of hell are either the ungodly and profane, or else foolish people who,
like the ostrich burying its head in the sand, simply close their eyes to the
danger.
“Do not
preach severe doctrine,” a churchwarden once urged me; “preach the teaching of Christ, which was love.” “You are mistaken,” I assured him, “Christ’s teaching was the most solemn ever taught; it was
the teaching of the worm that never dies
and the fire that never shall be quenched.” His, one might have
added, was the parable of the rich man in ‘Hades’; which Trench
interpreted as history. “He moves in that unseen
world of spirits,” says Trench, “as one
perfectly familiar with it; speaking without astonishment as of things which He
knows.” Having come from the beyond, Christ understood all about conditions there.*
[* That
is, ‘about conditions’ for everyone now
in ‘Sheol’ / ‘Hades’
- the underworld of the dead, - where our Lord Jesus was (“in the heart of the earth” Matt. 12: 40, R.V) - immediately after
His Death, and therefore, before the time of His Resurrection!
See also Luke
16: 19-31; Acts 2: 22-34; cf. Heb. 9: 27, 28; Rev. 20: 11-15,
R.V.]
Underlying the doctrine of Substitution is an awful revelation
of danger. The sinner or his substitute must die. Without shedding of blood is
no remission of sin. Hence those altars, that universal confession of guilt.
These provisional sacrifices were intended to bring home to the human heart and
conscience the exceeding sinfulness of sin, its fatal consequences, and the
critical position of mankind. Most important of all, they pointed forward to
the perfect Offering, and the redemptive plan which was the only possible way
of escape.
“Thou alone
wast counted worthy
This world’s ransom to
sustain;
That a shipwrecked race for
ever
Might a port of refuge
gain:
With the precious Bood
anointed
Of the Lamb for sinners
slain.”
Through Christ’s Finished Work, salvation becomes effective in
as many as believe. Yet - such is the moral and spiritual atrophy resultant
from the Fall - man is shockingly irresponsive to the claims of divine love.
That was why Wesley, with his knowledge of the human heart, instructed his
preachers not to overstress the love of God when preaching to the unregenerate.
“If you do,” he insisted, “they will perish, and their blood will be on your head.”
It is only where the graver side of the Gospel is faithfully proclaimed that
its healing balm can safely be applied. The heart of stone must first begin to
beat.
In all probability many more souls are saved through the fear
of hell than the hope of heaven. This was indirectly emphasised by Canon
Lyttleton, then headmaster of
How merciful, then, is the doctrine of Retribution! It might
be compared with the lantern on the headland and the bell on the reef. When,
through the murk and rain of a stormy night, the, mariner catches the flash of
the lantern or hears the tolling of the bell, he feels sensations of dread, but
heeds the warning. Practically every sermon recorded in the New Testament was a
call to repentance or an exhortation to flee from the wrath to come. Shall we,
from reluctance to make people uncomfortable or fear of unpopularity, shrink
from declaring the whole counsel of God? Shall we hang out false lights along
the shoreline of eternity?
In the account of the rich man in Hades, our Lord stresses the
means by which salvation is experienced. It is by hearing and believing. If men
believe not the Scriptures, neither would they he persuaded should one rise
from the dead. Nothing, however phenomenal and spectacular, could call them to
repentance. Yet a single salvation promise, personally appropriated and
believed, is sufficient to bring the soul from death unto life.
-------
COMA
- MAJOR ALISTER SMITH
[* How much worse are world-wide
conditions today than during 1947 when the above was written! and how much
closer we are to the time when our Lord Jesus will return to
immediately end it all! “Come Lord Jesus”.
-------
SECRET ORDERS
We are living in a day of Secret Orders. Do you know that four
out of every five American business men are affiliated with at least one secret
society? The time has come when, unless you claim membership with some lodge,
you are regarded as queer - not quite normal. Well - Praise God! we are
peculiar enough to refuse to have anything to do with these “unfruitful works of darkness.” Yet, think of it! the one thousand
fraternal orders of the
Freemasonry, the aristocrat of fraternalism, and a hundred old
established orders can hardly hold their own against a whole galaxy of new
societies. Scores have sprung up in the last ten years. Almost every trade has
its order. Orders exclusively for women, for Writers, for artists and what not.
Religious secret orders abound; Knights of all kinds; Brotherhoods with or
without the hood. The Bible, Mythology, History, Legend, Fairyland, Medievalism,
Orientalism have been ransacked; a most amazing kaleidoscope of titles, ritual
and make-believe is the result. Carnal in character, it is natural that these
sensual institutions should name themselves after animals. We have Elks, Owls,
Moose, Beaver, Deer, Orioles, Serpents, Roosters, Eagles, Bears and Lions, not
to speak of many other wild beasts. They have claimed kinship.
Though many orders are beneficial, protective and insuring,
they all have dangerous aspects and possibilities. As in business the tendency
is amalgamation, so in the world of rampant fraternalism. Who knows whether
great combines of certain orders into one will and purpose may not be the means
whereby Antichrist will subtly rise to Universal Power.
-------
THE GRACE OF GOD
Dr.
Len. Broughten relates this
incident, which occurred during his labours for Christ in a Southern city. A
saloon keeper, the worst in the city, had lost his licence through the
influence of the revival meetings, and he threatened to attack the evangelist
on sight. Mr. Broughten tells the rest in these words:
“One morning, a very cold morning, I stepped into my study at
the church, and as I opened the door, whom should I find sitting before the
fire but this man? I tell you I had some serious thoughts. I said, ‘Good morning,’ and he grunted, “Good morning.’ Said I, ‘Pretty
cold this morning,’ and he answered, ‘It’s hot
in here.’ I was thinking a thousand thoughts a minute.
“I expect you have heard something
about me?” he said. “I heard what you were
going to do to me,” I answered, and he continued, “That’s what I’m here to talk to you about. I was as mad as
ever a man was, but there was something or other that held me down. I intended
to call you out and beat you dead; but something held me down, and I don’t know
what it was. Last night after I went to bed, I felt the presence of my sainted
mother. Do you know my father was a preacher? My mother was the best woman in
the world - now she is in Heaven - and as I lay there on the bed, with her conscious
presence, I heard her say, ‘Son, think of it! Think of it! That you, your
mother’s boy, bearing your father’s name, have gone so low that a minister will
dare go before the city council and make the charge that you are not fit to run
a dive in hell, and, worse than that, the city council believes it, and refuses
to give you a licence.’ It overcame me, and I cried all that night long, and I
have come up to ask you if you think there is any salvation for me. Can you
account for the way this thing has come about?”
“Get down and tell the Lord,”
I said. “Talk to God as you do to me.” He
dropped on his knees and said, “God, I don’t know how
to pray; teach me how to pray. I am a poor sinner.”
After a while I felt his big arm around me, and his hand drop
by my side, and then he pulled me to him, and we broke out in praising God
together. Then he said, - “I have three friends who
have been with me in this business - I want to reach them.” We began
that morning, Monday, and on Wednesday night of that week we baptized in that
church this man and his three friends, the most notorious dive-keepers,
gamblers and blacklegs in our city.
- Assembly Annals.
* *
* * *
* *
60
ONESIMUS
By D.
M. PANTON
NOT the
least value of the little epistle of Philemon is its exquisite indirect presentment
of the Gospel. Philemon - wealthy, loving, wronged, hurt; Paul - a sufferer, a
sympathizer, an intercessor, a surety; Onesimus
- a run-away, a thief, an outcast, a criminal: Philemon represents God;
Paul, Christ; Onesimus, you and me. In all the Bible it is doubtful if we can
find the principle of the Gospel
more beautifully worked out than in this Phrygian story of long ago.
A Runaway Slave
Onesimus had fled from the mountains of
A Go-Between
Now what is the first thing Paul does? “Who I have
sent back to thee in his own person.” The first thing Christ does with a soul is to send it back to God. Sinner or saint,
pure or foul, saved or unsaved, we must get back to God. But notice how they meet. There is not a whisper from Onesimus: no
excuses, no denials, no money, no vows, no promises, no labour, no offer to pay
debts, or make restitution: all Onesimus does is to present Paul’s letter to
his master. He stakes everything on Paul’s influence with Philemon. Onesimus is
silent as the grave. His heart may well have been bursting with emotion: yet
all he does is to point silently to the letter, nothing more. He stakes everything on Paul’s
influence with Philemon.
An Identity
Now how does Paul present Onesimus to Philemon? In a way that
is extremely awkward for Philemon; a way which makes it impossible for him to
refuse Onesimus. “I beseech thee for my child, Onesimus; whom I have sent back to thee in his own person, that is, my very
heart: if then thou countest me a partner,
receive him as myself.” Onesimus comes
back, not as Onesimus, but as a part of Paul. He has become so dear to Paul
that for Philemon to cut off Onesimus is like cutting out Paul’s eye, or
plucking out his heart. What a revelation of Christ’s love to the members of
His body whom He introduces to the Father! “I in them, and Thou in Me, that the world
may know that Thou lovedst them EVEN AS
THOU LOVEDST ME” (John 17: 23). Who is the partner of God? “The man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts” (Zeck.
13:
7). “If then thou countest me as a
partner,” says Paul - and Christ is the partner of God - “receive him as
myself.” Paul and
Onesimus are now so one that Philemon must receive him.
A New Birth
It is a most powerful plea. But we can well imagine Philemon
saying:- “But how can I take back one who has proved
so untrustworthy, so damaging? He may ruin me utterly the second time.”
Our Paul provides against that by a new birth. “My child, whom I have BEGOTTEN
in my bonds; (who)
perhaps was
parted from thee for a season, that thou shouldest have him for ever.” Paul says:- ‘I
am sending you back another man; one born
over again; one recreated in my likeness; one whose body you used to have, but now I give you back
his soul, his love, his life.’ Paul gives back to Philemon more, far
more, than Philemon had ever lost. So it is with the redeemed. Christ first reproduces Himself in me, and then He gives me back to God. Had I never
fallen, I could have served God; but had I never been redeemed, I could never
have shared the likeness of God. God has been made a tremendous gainer by what
Christ has given back to Him in the redeemed. The Greek is comprehensive:- “Have in full,
have exhaustively.” What a philosophy of the Fall and the
Redemption is here! “Perhaps he was parted from thee for a season that thou
shouldest have him for ever: Onesimus, who was aforetime unprofitable to thee, but now is profitable to thee and to me.”
A Paid Debt
But a difficulty - and a most righteous difficulty - could
still remain in Philemon’s mind. “If my slave can rob
me with impunity, and I simply cancel the debt, how can this be right to my other slaves? What becomes of the laws
of my household?” Was it
just to the other slaves merely to wipe a sponge over the past? Paul now meets
this tremendous need. “If he hath wronged thee at all, or oweth thee aught, put that
to mine account: I will REPAY it.” The Law never can forget. Lord Herschell,
the astronomer, when he completed his great telescope, took it to the King,
George III, to explain it. Before he had said a word, the King said, - “Mr. Herschell, before I can speak with you, I have something
to say.” He then turned to an officer of the Court, and said, - “Arrest this man; he
is a deserter from my army.” Herschell, confounded, exclaimed, - “But, your Majesty, it is seventeen years ago, and I had even
forgotten it.” The King replied, - “Mr.
Herschell, the Law never forgets.” Herschell threw himself on the King’s mercy; and George III
replied, - “Now that the Law is vindicated, I can talk
with you about your telescope.” Paul decides that the debt shall be discharged in full; and, since Onesimus is
utterly bankrupt, he becomes surety for everything that Onesimus owed. Paul had
not robbed Philemon: but the liability for the debt passes, by this generous offer of Paul, from Onesimus to him. After this Onesimus was no more in
debt: he neither
promises to pay, nor offers to pay another pays for him. Exactly so it is with
the sinner. “Having blotted the bond of ordinances that was against us,
HE NAILED IT TO
THE CROSS.” Crucifixion
was the full penalty of a runaway slave; and Jesus paid it: as Onesimus had
nothing in his hand except Paul’s bond, which he silently presents to Philemon,
so the sinner comes to God offering nothing, promising nothing, excusing
nothing; but holding up in the face of the Father the Calvary of His Son. The debt is paid. “Ye are not your own, for ye
were bought with a price” (1 Cor. 6: 19). Paul takes the whole liability; Onesimus takes the whole
discharge: Philemon’s righteous household laws are vindicated; and now before
the whole world both are ripe for the perfectly honourable reconciliation.
A Brother Beloved
The last point in the
reconciliation is this. Philemon formerly had the body of a slave; now he has
body, soul, and spirit, as he never had before. And he now had more than that. “No longer as
a slave, but more than a slave” - though, from the point of view of
service, still God’s servant, and so, for ever - “A BROTHER BELOVED.” The startling and tremendous truth is that there is no
being in an the universe so near to God’s heart as the believer; “more than a
servant” - an heir
and a son of God for ever, a brother beloved.
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DEATH
Mr. Charles J. Pietsch (pronounce “Peach”) of
The Gideon Magazine.
* *
* * *
* *
61
THE
THE SALVATION OF CHRIST+ 1
The Ark
constructed by Noah, it should be carefully remembered, was not a ship, and was
not meant to be a ship; it had neither sails, nor oars, nor steering gear, nor
rudder: it was purely a ‘float,’ a magnified
and enclosed raft, made solely for the purpose, by floating, of preserving life
until it, again touched land. At Hoorn, in Holland, a vessel was made on the
model of the Ark, though smaller, which proved so well proportioned for
floating that it could carry a cargo one-third greater than any other shape of
the same cubical content. With a tonnage of 32,000 the
* L. W. King’s Babylon
and Egypt in Relation to Hebrew Tradition, p. 80.
Now we are in no manner of doubt about the spiritual meaning of the
But now, spiritually, what was the
* ‘Gopher,’
the wood of which the Ark was made, and ‘pitch,’
both mean ‘covering,’ or atonement; and gopher
and pitch alone stood between the delivered and wrath. We are not saved by
oars, but by wind (John 3: 8).
But no craft ever had to meet the fury of such storms. The
bolts of heaven were shot, and an avalanche of water fell: the ocean-caverns,
rent by earthquake, surged up in whirling, destroying mountains of water. As
Noah foresaw it all, was it any wonder that his soul was gripped by fear? The
hungry floods, righteously searching for the sinner all over the globe, not
only drowned the cities, but scoured the highest mountains; the loftiest peaks
were no more a refuge than the darkest valleys. Morality cannot save: “ALL HAVE SINNED.” The wrath is even seeking the sin-laden Christ within the
So the Holy Ghost has
used the Deluge as a gigantic forecast of ritual: “which after a
true likeness doth now save you, even baptism.” The Flood not only discloses
salvation, but unfolds baptism. The avalanche from above and the up-surging
floods from beneath swamp the
Only the regenerate were in the water: so the essence of
baptism (says the Apostle) is not in the bath, but in the conscience. “We were buried therefore with Him [Noah in the
Ark] THROUGH BAPTISM into death: that like as Christ was
raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we might walk” - on Ararat - “in newness of life” (Rom. 6: 4).* They were saved
through water (Revised
Version), not by water: so far from the water saving, it drowned all it could
reach: it was their fiercest enemy in
spite of which they were saved by the Ark.
* “In Baptism,
the resurrection of Christ is represented in the return from the water, and our
dying with Him, by immersion; and the figure of baptism like their
Thus the
So to-day there is a similar generation growingly given up to
infidelity and iniquity: there is a deluge of wrath coming: there is an
For the Ark had but one door - Christ, and but one window, and
that heavenward - rapture; all the Seven within - the whole body of the
redeemed - were there solely for Noah’s sake, and not one - except Noah - was declared ‘righteous’;
and the Seven Days between the completion of the Ark and judgment - our
dispensation of mercy - is now nearly over. God does not say, ‘Go in,’ but ‘Come in’ (Gen. 7: 1); for God is in the
-------
THE FATAL LINE
By DR.
ALEXANDER
There is a line by us unseen
That crosses every path -
The hidden boundary between
God’s patience and
His wrath.
To pass that line 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 doom’d
one’s path below
May bloom as
He did not, does not, will not know,
Or feel, that he is doom’d.
He feels, perchance, that all is well,
And every fear is calm’d;
He lives, he dies, he
wakes in Hell -
Not only doom’d
but damm’d
Oh where is that mysterious bourn
By which our path is cross’d,
Beyond which God Himself hath sworn
That he who goes is lost?
* *
* * *
* *
62
DELUGE DEBRIS + 2
The Deluge testimony of geologists wholly sceptical on
Scripture is far more startling than most are aware. For the Flood has left -
as was inevitable, if it was an actual fact - vast mud beds, filled with sea,
as well as fresh-water, shells, and huge boulders, or masses of rock, stranded
in extraordinary equilibrium. “These vast masses of
primitive rocks,” says Professor Forbes, “apparently
without any great wear and tear of travelling, are superficial, naked,
deposited upon the bare rock, which has received no coating of soil since, and
are often placed in positions of such ticklish equilibrium that any
considerable convulsion would have displaced them and “a thousand circumstances
demonstrate that the deposition of these masses has taken place at the very
last period of the earth’s history.” *
Vast beds of mud, called by Sir Charles Lyell, “the inundation mud,” are found
everywhere to-day on the earth’s surface. For example, “one flood,” Burmeister says, “extended
from the centre of the [South American]
Continent to the furthest barrier existing in the sea”: “on the summit of the hills [the trunks of trees] lie flung one upon another in the wildest disorder, forced
upright, in spite of gravitation, and with their tops broken off, or crushed,
as if they had been thrown with great violence, and there heaped up.”
The opening of a slate quarry on Moel Tryfan, in the
* Fuller references, including most of
these, will be found in a book of great value - J. Urquhart’s New Biblical Guide, Vol. II. The italics are mine.
** This disposes of the theory of a
partial and local Flood, which never had real foothold in the text of
Scripture.
Next we find that this wide-spread inundation was both universal, and
yet sharply temporary. Sir Henry Howorth, who characterises it as “certainly one of the most widespread catastrophes which the
world has seen,” has proved that the waters covered Northern Europe to a
depth of at least 1,600 feet; poured over Asia Minor; appeared in India, China,
Africa, Australasia, and the West Indies; and fearfully ravaged North and South
America. Prof. Dana says, - “The deposition of the
older alluvium was a rapid work, much more rapid than has hitherto been
suspected”; Sir Henry Howorth says, - “It
appears quite positive that sandy beds did not lie for a long period beneath
the water after the material was deposited”; and Sir Joseph Prestwich
says,- “However startling may be the conclusion, the
Rubble Drift seems to me only explicable upon the hypothesis of a widespread,
though local and short, submergence.”
A most remarkable proof of this lies in the fact that the sea-shells cease in
the far interior: the inrushing flood deposited these rapidly, and stayed too
briefly to create marine life; it ebbed away in the “hundred and
fifty days” (Gen. 7: 24), during which the
waters rested on the earth.
Finally we get the most wonderful photograph, embedded in
nature’s records, of the drowning world. In
* Most remarkable is it how, as in
entering the
So that on the surface of the earth at this moment lie irresistible
evidences of the truth of the doctrine of the Second Advent of Christ. For the Holy
Ghost rests the Second Advent on the Flood: even as our Lord does - for “as they knew
not until the flood came, and took them all away,
so” - as miraculous, as universal, as fatal - “shall be the
coming of the Son of Man” (Matt. 24: 39); a judgment, for the ungodly, as awful and as overwhelming. Who of the Antediluvian world dreamed
that a uniformity of law unbroken for a millennium and a hall would end in a
sudden,
miraculous, world-wide devastation?
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THE SUMERIAN NARRATIVE OF THE FLOOD
It is not surprising, but very regrettable, that in the
turmoil of the Great War a discovery of immense value has been almost totally
overlooked. Actually discovered in 1912, but not deciphered and published until
1916, the oldest of all deluge documents has been unearthed by the third
Babylonian expedition of the University of Philadelphia; and while the hitherto
oldest flood-narrative, the Chaldean, does not date back earlier than the
seventh century, B.G., the new Sumerian narrative is nearly a millennium and a
half older, or twenty-one centuries
before Christ. The text is in Sumerian, the language of the earliest
known inhabitants of
The site from which the new material has been obtained is the
ancient city of
THE DOOM
The beginning of the text is wanting,
and the earliest lines preserved of the First Column open with the closing
sentences of a speech, probably by the chief of the four creating deities, who
are later on referred to by name. In it there is a reference to a future
destruction of mankind, but the context is broken the lines in question begin:-
“As for my
human race, from [or in] its destruction will I
cause it to be [ ... ],
“ For Nintu
my creatures [ ...] will I [...].”
At that time Nintu [ ... ] like a [
...],
The holy Innanna lament[ed] on account
of her people.
Enki in his own heart [held] counsel;
Anu, Enlil, Enki, and Ninkharsagga [
... ].
The gods of heaven and earth in
[voked] the name of Anu and Enlil.
NOAH
At that time Ziusudu, the king ... priest of yhe god [...]
Made a very great [...]
In humility he prostrates himself, in reverence Daily he
stands in attendance [ ... ] .
A dream, such as had not been before, comes forth ... [...]
By the Name of Heaven, and Earth he conjures [...]
THE WARNING.
For [...] the gods a . ..[ ... ] Ziusudu standing at its side heard [ ... ]:
‘At the wall on my left side take thy stand and [ ... ] ‘At the wall I will speak a word to thee [... ]
(5) '’O my devout one ... [ ... ], ‘By
our hand (?) a flood ... [ ... ] will be [sent]. ‘To destroy the seed of
mankind [ ... ] ‘Is the decision, the word of the assembly [of the gods].
THE FLOOD
The missing portion of the Fourth Column must have described
Ziusudu’s building of his great boat in order to escape the Deluge, for at the
beginning of the Fifth Column we are in the middle of the Deluge itself. The
column begins:-
All the mighty wind-storms together blew.
The flood ... raged.
When for seven days, for seven nights,
The flood had overwhelmed the land,
(5) When the wind-storm had driven the great boat over the
mighty waters,
The Sun-god came forth, shedding light over heaven and earth.
Ziusudu opened the opening of the
great boat;
The light of the hero, the Sun-god, [he] causes to enter into
the interior [?] of the great boat.
Ziusudu, the king,
(10) Bows himself down before the Sun-god;
The king sacrifices an ox, a sheep he
slaughters (?)
Thus we have here a record reaching as near to the Flood
itself as we are to the Reformation; and the actual composition, apart from the
tablet on which it is written, must - say the discoverers - be very much
earlier still.
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BIBLE TESTIMONY
Bible-lovers in their thousands will be gathering at the
’Tis all I
have; around no light appears -
O lead me
on!
With eyes on Thee, tho’ gazing thro’
my tears,
Lead Thou me on!
The good and best might lead me far
astray;
Omniscient Saviour, do Thou
lead the way.
* Fuller details will be found in L. W. King’s Legends of Babylon and Egypt, the Schweich Lectures for 1916, Oxford
University Press.
* *
* * *
* *
63
FOUR MOUNTAINS + 4
Four
mountains - four is the earth-number
- dominate the whole history of the world: Ararat; Sinai;
Now the first mountain, which somehow we seem rarely or never
to ponder, presents a composite picture of extraordinary power. “And the ark
rested upon the
* Moreover, the symbolism of the
The sacred mountain, from which the great Law of God was
delivered for the first time, is equally overwhelming in its extraordinary
spiritual significance. With the suitability of Divine selection, just as
Ararat was set in the midst of the vast tides of retreating judgment, So SINAI is set in a desert, in the midst
of a fruitless and barren humanity; a lofty group of granite mountains,
immovable and majestic as the majesty of God, to dash oneself against which is
destruction. Here at daybreak, in the dawn of the Law, there occurred, on
earth, an actual advent of God. “The mountain burned with fire unto
the heart of heaven” - like a gigantic volcano vomiting flame - “with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness” - the combined fire and midnight of
tremendous storm (Deut.
4:
11);
“because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace”
(Exod. 19: 18). The darkness indicates the
invisibility and unapproachableness of the Holy God even when disclosing
Himself to the lost, in law; and the burning storm is the revelation of Law,
magnificent for the sinless, but appalling for the sinful. “And all the people that were in the camp” - the two millions who stood for
earth’s uncounted tribes scared and guilty - “trembled”
(Exod.
19:
16): even Moses, one of the most faithful
servants God ever had, cried out in terror, “I exceedingly fear and quake”
(Heb.
12:
21). And the fearful danger of Law to us
all - Sinai, in Syriac, means ‘enmity’ - is
vividly emphasized by the Holy Spirit in Hebrews:-
“if
even a beast touch the mountain, it shall be
stoned” (Heb. 12: 20); for even a beast is part of a fallen
creation that cannot touch its God. For what was Sinai? A second chance, based on our own goodness. As a prisoner
in the dock will plead the First Offender’s Act, so mankind is offered, after
Ararat, a fresh opportunity, a new chance to ‘make
good’: but most carefully the offer is so presented as to make it
unmistakably that without perfect holiness there can be nothing but death; a gigantic
experiment to convince humanity, not to convince God; and to prove, by facts
not words, that righteousness from a sinful being is impossible.
The third mountain - far the lowliest of all; so lowly as
never, I believe, to be called in Scripture a mountain at all - is, in the
great crisis, perfectly invisible. “They bring him unto the place
* The first Adam’s grave becomes the cradle, the birth-spot (Acts 13:
33),
of the last Adam sacrificed:- “for since by [a] man came death, by [a] man came also the resurrection of the dead; for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made
alive” (1 Cor. 15: 21).
Thine are these orbs of light and
shade;
Thou madest Life in man and brute;
Thou madest Death; and
lo, thy foot
Is on the skull which thou hast made.
So on the fourth and last mountain
there is the final and inevitable descent of God for triumphant joy. “And his feet
shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives; and the Mount of Olives shall cleave” - as the rocks rent at the Lord’s
dying cry, so the mountain splits at the touch of His returning feet - “in the midst
thereof” - rent in
two from the heart of it outward - “and the Lord my God shall come,
and all the holy ones” - the immense throngs of attendant
angels - “with him” (Zech. 14: 4). OLIVET, a mountain almost unknown and
unnamed in the Old Testament - means Oliveti, the place of oil, the pivot of the Spirit - is, to the Jew, so
barren of sacred associations, that the sacrifice of a red heifer was all that
the medieval Jews ever gave it; but the closing Gospel scenes, when the Lord
wept over the lost on its brow, together with the now imminent opening Advent
scenes - when His returning feet alight on the spot of earth on which His retreating
feet last rested, and when the rending earthquake tears open a rush of living
water which, emptying in the Dead Sea, swallows up death in life - make Olivet
a Christian vision too great for words. It is God come back to claim His earth. “AND THE
LORD SHALL BE KING OVER ALL THE EARTH” (Zech. 14: 9). In the rending of
its huge valley are congregated the living masses of mankind:- “multitudes,
multitudes in the valley of decision! for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of
decision” (Joel.
3:
14). The alternative ‘decision’ is unutterably solemn. If we are in the Christ of
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REVIVAL
Local revival, occurring anywhere,
silences all anti-revival arguments by confronting them with the fact; and revivals, in miniature, what God
might do at any moment on a nation-scale or a world-scale. Within the last few
months*
the three small C.I.M. chapels in Kanchow, Kiangsi, have received more than
1,000 converts including officials and gentry, to the thrill of joy and power
that only a revival knows. So, over
nations, might blow once again the winds from
[* From D. M. Panton’s DAWN Volume III
1926-27.]
SPURIOUS
Mr. Hesketh Pearson, out of his own imagination, wrote the
memoir of a retired diplomatist, and assured his publisher that the author was
Sir Rennell Rodd on whose authorization he was acting. Mr. Pearson asserted
that the book was inspired by Sir Rennell, and the memoir itself purported to
contain his actual words. On the case coming under final investigation Sir
Rennell Rodd denied that he knew either the author or the book, and Mr. Pearson
was able to give no evidence to the contrary. The jury brought in a verdict of
‘not guilty’ of deliberate fraud on the part of Mr. Pearson and the book
already withdrawn by those responsible for its circulation, was consigned to oblivion
without a single voice being raised in its favour, or in defence of its author.
By a process identical
in every detail the advanced Critic says that the major part of the Bible was
composed, and
the revelation of a holy God given to the world.
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THE HOUSE BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD
This poem, while it lacks the
Christian note, has a tender message for the Christian heart. Its author, S. W. Foss, travelling through
There are hermit souls that live
withdrawn
In the peace of their self-content;
There are souls like stars, that dwell
apart
In a fellowless firmament;
There are pioneer souls that blaze
their paths
Where the highways never ran -
But let me live by the side of the
road
And be a friend to man.
Let me live in a house by the side of
the road,
Where the race of men go by -
The men who are good and the men who
are bad
As good and as bad as I;
I would not sit in a scorner’s seat,
or hurl the synic’s ban -
Let me live in the house by the side
of the road
And be a friend to man.
I see from by house by the side of the
road,
By the side of the highway of life
The men who pass with the ardour of
hope,
The men who faint with strife;
But I turn not away from their smiles
and their tears -
Both parts of an infinite plan -
Let me live in a house by the side of
the road,
And be a friend to man.
I know there are brook-gladden’d
meadows ahead,
And mountains of wearisome height;
And the road passes through the long
afternoon,
And stretches away to the night;
But still I rejoice when the
travellers rejoice,
And weep with the strangers that moan,
Nor live in my house by the side of
the road
Like a man who dwells alone.
Let me live in my house by the side of
the road,
Where the race of men go by -
They are good, they are bad, they are
weak, they are strong,
Wise, foolish - so am I:
Then why should I sit in the scorner’s
seat,
Or hurl the cynic’s ban?
Let me live in my house by the side of
the road,
And be a friend to man
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DISSOLUTION
Let us not deceive ourselves. Indefinite duration and gradual decay
are not the destiny of the universe. I will not find its terminus in the
imperceptible crumbling of its materials, or clogging of its wheels. It steals
not calmly and slowly to its end: no mountains sinking under the decrepitude of
years, or weary rivers ceasing to rejoice in their courses, shall lead on the
dissolution of the world. But the Trumpet shall sound, and this goodly frame of
things shall be suddenly rent and crushed by the mighty arm of its Maker. It
shall expire in the throes and agonies of a fierce convulsion: and the same arm
which plucked the elements from their dark slumbers of chaos shall cast them
into the tomb, pushing them aside that they may no longer stand between His
face, and the creatures whom He shall come to judge.
-
Dr. WHEWELL, Master of Trinity.
* *
* * *
* *
64
THE RACE AND THE CROWN + 2
No human effort (it is said) was both so short and so violent as the Greek footrace. Around the
stadium, or course, rose an amphitheatre of white marble, like the terraces of
a palace, seated with ‘a cloud of witnesses,’
tier above tier;* he who ‘acted as herald,’ to use Paul’s phrase (1 Cor. 9: 27), marshalled the lists,
explained the rules, and dismissed the runners by trumpet-blast; all starting ‘scratch,’ the athletes bent forward - “stretching forward to the things that are before” (Phil. 3: 13) - to catch the fullest possible
momentum: then followed the rush, and (in the long race) weary lap after weary
lap; until at last the ‘mark,’ or goal, was in
sight, where the judges sat: then, as the victor burst past the mark, the race
was over, all other runners being ‘disapproved’;
and the winner, crowned with a wreath of pine and banqueted, received the
homage of an entire nation. “Know ye not that they which run in a race all
run, but ONE receiveth the prize?” (1 Cor. 9: 24).
* Wembley - [when this tract was first written] - accommodates 126,000 spectators;
but a stadium in
Now the Holy Ghost, not once but many times, emphasizes this
as the picture of the short, sharp struggle of the Christian race. “So run,” says Paul (1 Cor. 9: 24) to the whole Church of God; for runners do not march, they
race: “so run,” run in such a way that run as the few run, run as only the
winner runs: “in order that ye may
attain” - have the
prize deliberately in view: “it is not enough merely
to run - all run; but as there is only one who is victorious, so you must run, not with the slowness of the many, but with
the energy of the one” (Dean Stanley). We have no option but to seek the highest.
Now the Holy Spirit reveals conditions for success in the
race; and the first is a careful self-preparaticion. “Every man
that striveth in the games” - that enters the lists - “is TEMPERATE in all things” (1 Cor. 9: 25). It is obvious that an untrained
runner has little or no chance against a disciplined athlete; hardened,
schooled, fit. Here are the actual directions from an old Greek book for the
ten months’ training:- “There must be orderly living, on spare food; abstain from
confections; make a point of exercising at the appointed time, in heat and in
cold; nor drink cold water, nor wine at random; give thyself to the training master as to a
physician, and then enter the contests.” The athlete thus trains to
prolong his wind, to harden his biceps, and to produce that which the Greek so
loved - a perfect human: we, to produce a perfect saint - as developed in
spirit and character, as he in muscle and frame. “The
abstinence of the athletes did not relate only to criminal enjoyments, but also
to gratifications in themselves lawful; so the Christian’s self-denial should
bear, not only on guilty pleasures, but on every habit, on every enjoyment,
which, without being vicious, may involve a loss of time or a diminution of
moral force” (Godet). Even the gossamer band of silk in the trousering
above the knee (a runner in cross-country championships has told me) he had to
discard: ‘a weight’ (Heb. 12: 1) can be fatal.
Observance of the rules is a second vital condition of
success. “If a man contend in the games, he is not crowned, except he have contended LAWFULLY”
(2 Tim. 2: 5) - that is, according to the rules of
the running: he may run magnificently; but if lawlessly, he is instantly
disqualified. “You may be making great strides, but
you are running outside the track.” (Augustine). The New Testament is our racing manual: it tells us exactly what to do, and exactly what to avoid: we are not
at liberty to invent our own rules, or construct our own holiness: every rule
is in the Book, and every rule is essential for the prize. “Ye were
running well: who did hinder you that ye should not obey the Truth?” (Gal. 5: 7); that is, swift running is obeying
the Holy Scriptures. We seek the - [coming millennial] - glory; but first, what secures the glory. “I press on toward the goal
unto the prize” (Phil. 3: 14): the mark, or goal, is perfect holiness; the prize is glory,
the crown of holiness (Godet).*
* “If it could be proved, after
the contest, that the victorious combatants had contended unlawfully, or
unfairly, they were deprived of the prize and driven with disgrace from the
games” (Dean Alford).
But self-mastery abides the supreme condition for success. “I therefore
so run, as not uncertainly”; that is, if 1 fulfil the conditions,
I shall not be supplanted (as I might be in a human footrace) by some fleeter
runner; every believer is sure of the prize if only he fulfils the conditions: “so fight I,
as not beating the air”; my fisticuffs are no feints, but I
land every blow; “but I buffet My BODY” - bruise it black and blue, make it
livid, every blow striking home (Ellicott) - “and bring it into bondage” - lead it as a slave (1 Cor. 9, 27).
Here is disclosed our most dangerous enemy, “the flesh with its affections and
lusts”; my blows,
says Paul, are so aimed as to cover my adversary - and that adversary, my own
body - with bruises, and so lead it captive. He discovers, by self-examination,
his besetting sins, and he lands his blows there: we must learn to know our weak
points as well as Satan knows them. I fatigue my body, by the incessant and exhausting labours to which I
condemn it (Dean Stanley). Paul was no ascetic, no monk; but, while a nourished
body is the most effective instrument for God we shall ever have, a pampered
body is a lost race. For the race is no splendid spurt, it is a dogged
drudgery; it is lost by either self-confidence or self-despair: the real failures
in life are those who surrender before the sun goes down. “The only way to keep pace with God is to run at full speed”
(General W.
Booth).
Paul now points out that, as the difficulties are incalculably
greater and more subtle in the spiritual race, so the prizes are incomparably
richer, and the losses more terrible. “Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown” - a garland of olive or bay or
parsley or pine, that hardly faded sooner than the athlete’s glory itself; “but we an incorruptible”;
a never-fading wreath, as Peter calls it (1 Pet. 5: 4). So the extraordinarily potent lesson here revealed is that
self-denial is only pleasure postponed. “This,”
said King Edward to Canon Duckworth in the disrobing room after the Coronation,
“is one of the happiest days, if not the happiest, I
ever spent.” Earthly crowns are not always even transient joys. “The only crown I have ever worn,” said the Austrian
Emperor Charles II., who died since the Great War, “was a crown
of thorns.” No
crown is ever applied to a [regenerate] believer in Scripture except for achievement, never for inheritance -
stephanos never diadema; (diadem is
applied only to Christ, (Rev. 19, 12, and Antichrist, Rev. 13, 1); and it is curious that, exactly as five victor-wreaths were
given in Greece for five totally distinct achievements - leaping, throwing,
racing, boxing and wrestling - so five crowns, and five only, are held forth
for spiritual athleticisms - the crown of joy for soul-winning (1 Thess. 2, 19), the crown of glory for church oversight
(1 Pet. 5, 4), the crown of incorruption for sanctity (1 Cor. 9, 25), the crown of righteousness for
vigilance (2 Tim. 4, 8), and the crown of life for martyrdom (Rev. 2, 10). These will blaze when the sun has
gone out for ever.
Paul closes with one of the supreme warnings of Scripture. “Lest by any
means after that I have acted the herald to others, I myself” - not my works only, but myself - “should be REJECTED [as unworthy of the crown and the
prize (Ellicott)].” As Bishop Ellicott says:- “Not reprobate:
the doctrinal deduction thus becomes, to some extent, modified; still the
serious fact remains that the Apostle had before him the possibility of losing
that which he was daily preaching to others: as yet he counted not himself to
have attained (Phil. 3: 12); that blessed assurance was for the closing period of a
faithful life (2 Tim. 4, 7).” The
runner will never be disowned as a son, but he can be deeply disapproved as a
servant: a backslider may be in the race, but he is not in the running.* Full of years, and laden with
victories, Paul - the Paul who never doubted his salvation after the Damascene
vision, and who has couched the believer’s eternal safety in the most
Calvinistic language in the Bible - has not ceased to dread the flesh, and still
trembles for his crown. The man who misses the approbation of Christ obtains no
other, not even his own; and meanwhile, as we grow older, we find the flesh no less carnal, the world no less subtle,
and the Devil no less Satanic than they always were. “Hold fast that
which thou hast, that no one take thy crown” (Rev. 3, 2): yours already, hypothetically; yours certainly, if
you run to a finish as - [obediently (see Acts 5: 32; 1 John 3: 24, R.V.)] you are running now; but forfeitable, if you slacken to a present
inferior in the race.
* “We cannot
consider ‘receiving the prize’ to imply salvation generally, for this is even possible
where wood, straw, and stubble have been built up; but that it intends the
highest degree of bliss, conditional upon faith and the
advance in sanctification” (Olshausen).
So we summarize some final points. (1) No criminal, no slave, only the freeborn Greek could enter the
lists: so God’s race is only for the re-born: the race starts at the foot of
the Cross, and conversion puts us in the lists. (2) The racer who fouls - or ‘bores’ - a fellow-runner is at once
disqualified. Carpenter, an American at the Olympic Games, cut out the
Englishman Hartell, and instantly lost the race. (3) Unbelief is a strychnine which paralyzes: if we imagine there is no race, it is certain we shall
win no prize. (4) We should never
doubt our [eternal] salvation: we should never assume our prize. When in 1923 Sullivan swam
the Channel on his seventh attempt, he said:- “Every
beating I got made me the more determined to do it, and I have trained hard
year after year for it.” (5)
A trainer of prize-winners may himself lose the prize. (6) The nearer we approach the goal, the lonelier the race. (7) Let us remember the Cloud of
Witnesses. The eyes of God are upon us; the eyes of Christ know our works, and
rejoice in our running; the eyes of the holy angels are watching struggling
Jobs and budding Pauls; the eyes of the malignant Powers are always studying
us; the eyes of the world are never off us; and, at the goal, the whole Church
will know exactly how we ran. What an amphitheatre!
So we cheer each other on as, to panting breast and trembling
limbs, the goal rises on the horizon. Bishop Wordsworth beautifully suggests
that from the Greek word here for ‘prize,’ we
get, through the Latin and Italian, our word ‘Bravo’:
so we love to cheer each drawn, white, dusty face, and together seek the Bravo
of the returning Lord. The last lap used to be called ‘the sob’: no
cross-country winner ever breasts the tape without bleeding feet.
Carry me over the long, last mile,
Man of
“I have finished the stadium,”
Paul cries at last, when the two hundred yards had vanished under his
victorious feet; “henceforth there is
laid up for me THE CROWN” (2 Tim.
4,
8); or, in the dying words of Payson, -
“The battle is fought! the battle is fought! and the
victory is won for ever!”
-------
A LOST RACE
“I know thy works:” not thy standing, nor thy profession, nor
thy denomination, nor thy fellowship; but thine actions, and thine alone. Signor Dorando, the Italian champion, when he ran in
the Marathan at
-------
SIDETRACKING
And old fable says
that swift-footed
* * *
* * *
*
65
PRAYER FOR THE LORD’S
RETURN + 1
1.
- THE HOLY GHOST.
FIRST we
learn what is the mind of the Holy
Ghost. “The Spirit and the Bride say, Come” (Rev. 22: 17). It is (as far as I know) the only
recorded prayer of the Holy Ghost: He Who prays “with groanings which cannot
be uttered” (Rom. 8: 26), when they are uttered, their summary is COME. The
significance of this is extraordinary. The Spirit has a myriad ways of
affecting the world for good, yet His prayer is, Come: He knows perfectly all
evolution, all progress, all revival, all Gospel advance, yet His prayer is,
Come: He knows the inexhaustible resources, the unrevealed powers, the most
secret plans of God, yet His prayer is, Come. The Holy Ghost knows no solution to the problem of the universe except the Second
Advent of Christ; and it is His own supreme prayer; thus
the fuller we are of the Spirit of God, the surer we are to pray His prayer.
2.
- OUR SAVIOUR.
Next we learn the mind of our Lord. He says: “When ye pray, say, Thy Kingdom come” (Matt.
6: 10).
“This, more than ever in these last days, ought to be
the first and last of the Church’s prayers; for all that she desires for
herself, for the world, and for her Lord Himself,
is comprised in this”
(Dr. H. Bonar). We are apt to see men to the exclusion of mankind; when we pray for
the - [coming, promised and millennial (Ps. 2: 8; Isa. 11: 1-5,
R.V.)] - Kingdom, we plead for thirty
generations against one; for God will amputate a single generation - and that,
only after countless pleadings in grace and judgment - to save an entire race.
It is the most practical of all possible prayers, for there is no other way
whereby the world’s political and social salvation can be wrought, and God’s
love for the world at last fulfilled. “There is no
remedy,” as Lord Shaftesbury, who wrought more social amelioration for
his generation than any other man, said, “for all this
mass of misery, but in the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why do we not plead for
it every time we hear the clock strike?” “The Lord Himself,” in the words of Canon Simpson, “would never have bidden us pray, Thy Kingdom come, if those
seasons, which no man knows, were so irrevocably fixed that our efforts could
not hasten, or our sins retard, the wheels of His chariot.” If the
Jewish disciple, by praying that his flight may not be on the Sabbath or in
winter (Matt. 24: 20), can so modify the date of that flight as to change not only
the day of the week but even the season of the year, much more is it in the
power of the Church to “HASTEN the coming of the day of God” (2 Pet. 3: 12, marg.).
3.
- THE APOSTLES.
Next we learn the mind of the Apostles. Jesus says, “Yea, I come quickly.” “Amen,” cries John: I accept the doctrine, I
hold fast the promise, I rejoice in the speed: “Come, Lord Jesus”
(Rev. 22: 20).
It is the last prayer
from an apostle’s lips; it is the last and crowning prayer of the Bible; it is
the last prayer of the last Apostle of the Lamb: the whole canon of inspiration
closes with a direct appeal to Christ to come. “There
may be many years of hard work before the consummation, but the signs are to me
so encouraging that I would not be unbelieving if I saw the wing of the
apocalyptic angel spread for its last triumphant flight in this day’s sunset. O
you dead Churches, wake up! O Christ, descend! Scarred temple, take
the crown! Bruised hand, take the sceptre! Wounded
foot, step on the throne! Thine is the Kingdom!” (Dr. Talmage). It is John’s last prayer, and happy shall we
be if, falling asleep, it is the last prayer upon our lips also.
4.
- THE CHURCH.
Next we learn the mind of the
(Dr. Seiss).
* “This word to
the hearer will remain in full force even after the watchful of the Church or
the whole Church are borne away. Jesus’ coming is, to
5. - OURSELVES.
Next we learn our own need. All holy and Scriptural desire is
legitimate fuel for prayer; and it is our peril so to be concerned with the
doctrine of the Advent that we forget the prayer. In twenty-four volumes of the “Quarterly Journal of Phrophecy” (1894 to
1873) there is not a single
article on prayer for the Coming. Is it nothing to us that our Lord wishes to come back?
Why is He coming quickly if it is not the speed of desire? “Many Christians do not realise that the Lord is waiting
until He is invited by His own to return: we may need to be urged; He does not”
(
* 1 John 3: 3.
Be it also remembered that the rapture, the first act of God’s response, may precipitate
life in the very souls unsaved on whose behalf our anxiety might make us
hesitate to pray the prayer.
6.
- OUR HEARTS.
Next we learn the language of the
fully-sanctified heart. A whole book of the Bible is reserved as an embodiment
of the heart-cry for each other of the Bride
and the Bridegroom. The waiting
Bride suddenly cries: “The voice of my Beloved! behold,
He cometh, leaping upon
the mountains, like a gazelle, or a young hart” (Song of Songs, 2: 8) - the, two loveliest and swiftest creatures of the
mountains. And He replies “Arise [resurrection], my love, my fair one, and come away [rapture]. For
lo, the winter is past, and the time of the singing of birds is come: O my dove [see Is. 60: 8], that art in the
clefts of the rock, in the covert of the steep
place” - on the
precipitous summit of the Parousia. And then she cries back in words that end
the Song: “Make haste,
my Beloved, and be
Thou like to a gazelle or a young hart” - for swiftness - “upon the mountains of spices.” In the words of McCheyne: “The day of eternity is breaking in the east. Oh, brethren,
do you know what it is to long for Himself - to cry, Make haste, my Beloved?” As a friend once wrote me:- “I always feel when one sings Miss Havergal’s beautiful hymn
- ‘Thou art coming, O my Saviour,’ that I want to prostrate myself on the earth
and weep for sheer joy!”
7.
- THE CREATION.
Finally, we learn the unconscious mind of the world. “The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain,” waiting “for the revealing of the sons of God” (Rom. 8: 19). “Can you say, ‘More than they that wait for the morning, my soul waiteth for
Thee?’ Does your heart leap when you think that
the Christ, ever present, is drawing near to us? All the signs of the times,
intellectual and social the rottenness of much of our life; the abounding
luxury, the hideous vice that flaunts unblamed or unabashed before us all these things cry out to
Him,
whose ear is not deaf - even if our voice does not join in the cry - and
beseech Him to come” (Dr. Alexander Maclaren). For all the [present] creation needs can
be met only by the Advent. “In this prayer is
summed up all that the Christian heart can desire - the destruction of the
power of Satan; the deliverance of the creature from the bondage of corruption;
the banishment of sin and sorrow from the individual heart and from the world;
the restoration of all things; the establishment of the kingdom of
righteousness; the beholding by Jesus in fulness of the travail of His soul,
the bestowment upon Him in completeness of His promised reward. Let each member
of the Church militant unite with the Apostle in the longing cry - “Amen; Come, Lord Jesus” (Dr. E. R. Craven). Bishop J. C. Ryle
says:- “Come, Lord Jesus, should be our daily prayer.”
Shall we not make a compact together that, so long as breath lasts, we will,
without a single day’s intermission, pray, “EVEN SO, COME, LORD JESUS”?
-------
THE BRAHMO SOMAJ
How deep can be the soul-hungering for
Christ! Among the papers of the late P. C. Mazumdar, the great Brahmo Somaj
leader, a Unitarian organization, this prayer was found:-
“Lord Jesus,
come to me. Come as Thou didst promise to Thy sorrowing faithful when the earth
darkened around them. Come to me, Lord Jesus, in Thy silent suffering and sweet
resignation whilst I am so lonely in my pain among all men. I need Thy patient
faith, Thy uncomplaining love, Thy perfect confidence in the Father’s care and
love. I need Thy strength, Thy peace. Come and make a dwelling with me on the
approaching desertion. Come to comfort me with Thy graciousness, to make me Thy
own and like Thee. Lord Jesus, my whole soul reaches out to Thee in my need. I
have no rest, give me rest. I search Thee not as the centre of a theology or a
church. I know Thou lovest me. I know not what Thou art. But I love Thee. I
know not what Thou wert. I know Thou has redeemed me. At Thy side I am God’s
son, God’s image, God’s redeemed. Let me possess the treasure of Thy humanity,
now in the insignificance and poverty of my soul let me possess Thee and be at
repose.”
* *
* * *
* *
66
THE KING OF THE SOUTH +1
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
THE
murder of the Sirdar has turned the
gaze of the whole world on to a crucial battleground in the drama of the end.
For Daniel, in one of the most complex, vivid, and detailed prophecies in the
whole range of Scripture, unique in its fulness,*
portrays two giant Empires interlocked in deadly and continuous conflict in the
near East; one a huge power of the North, the other a no less gigantic power of
the South; and the pivot around which the conflict rages is Palestine (Dan. 11: 40, 41). Three facts make it certain that the current view that these
powers are Alexander’s successors is wholly untenable: for (1) the Angel explicitly informs Daniel
that his prophecies are “what shall befall IN THE LATTER DAYS; for the vision is yet for many days” (Dan.
10:
14);
(2) our Lord twice (Matt. 24: 15-21) quotes and applies the passage (Dan. 11: 31) to Antichrist; and (3)
the events actually culminate in the First Resurrection - “at that time [Israel’s tribulation shall come,
and] many that
sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake” (Dan. 12: 1, 2). These giant Empires of the North and the South are thus at
death-grips on the eve of the breaking of the graves, and the descent of the
Lord.
* “The manner in which the transactions
between the two kingdoms are described with regard to their changeful course is
too exact, and covers a too extended succession of reigns and events, to find
even a remote parallel in any other part of the prophetic literature of the Old
Testament canon” (Lange)
THE SOUTH
The term Negeb, or South - meaning arid or dry or desert -
originally the southern belt of
* Far mightier than the Kingdom of the Ptolemies is the Empire
of the South, as the Angel explicitly states. “The king
of the south shall be strong above him [Alexander], and his dominion shall be a GREAT dominion” (Dan.
11:
5).
This excludes the Diadochi. The breaking of the Anti-christ “without hand” (Dan. 8: 25) by the descending Lord, and in
Now the remarkable events of modern
days seem to be illuminating as intricate and obscure, yet as extraordinarily
detailed, a prophecy as any the Bible contains. For of the group of the States
which constituted the South under Alexander’s successors - namely, Egypt,
Palestine, Cyprus, and part of Syria - Cyprus is annexed to Britain; Palestine
is held under her mandate; and Egypt is subject to her military dominion.
* A subtle and impressive confirmation
is embedded in the passage; for
The pivot around which the conflict rages being Palestine, the
fulcrum on which the Southern Kingdom rests, and strategically must rest, is
Egypt, the oldest surviving nation in the world, and a nation that has sprung
back into a prosperity the Pharoahs never knew. Lord Cromer and Sir John Aird,
putting ten thousand labourers and eight hundred stone-cutters to work, built
the Assouan dam, the biggest wall ever constructed by human hands, with a
storage of 1,200,000,000 cubic metres of water; as at this moment 25,000 workmen are erecting the Samnar Dam in
the Sudan, to block 10,000,000,000 gallons daily flow of the Blue Nile, at a
cost of £12,500,000.
* It is remarkable that the Septuagint,
in Dan. 11: 5,
reads:- “And he [the King of the South] shall strengthen the
A MILITARY BASE
For the Great War has revealed the critical value of
AN UNERUPTED VOLCANO
Meanwhile
For
Happily, beyond the black belt of
deepening iniquity, and beyond the tempestuous darkness of coming judgment,
there lies - in the fair Millennial day-spring - a reconciled North and South
moving in blessing about the eternal pivot of the
-------
AFTERWARD
Had all my years been sinless, could I
know
What my Lord means by His ‘made white as snow’?
If all my days were tearless, could I
say,
‘In His fair
land He wipes all tears away’?
If I were never weary, could I keep
close to my heart -
‘He gives His
loved ones sleep’?
Were no graves mine, might I not come
to deem
The life eternal but a baseless dream?
My sorrow, yea, my tears, my
weariness,
Even my graves shall be His way to
bless:
I call them ills; yet that can surely
be
Nothing but good that brings my Lord
to me.
* *
* * *
* *
67
ENOCH AND RAPTURE. + 1
By W.
MAUDE.
THREE
texts, the only ones relating to him, clearly bring before us three special
aspects of Enoch’s saintly character, namely; (1) His faith - “by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death” (Heb.
11: 5). (2)
His walk - “Enoch walked with God: and he was not, for God took
him” (Gen. 5: 24). (3) His testimony - “Enoch prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh”
(Jude 14). And these several points are all
closely connected. Enoch’s faith was the root alike of his holy walk and his
fearless testimony. For “without faith it is impossible”
either to “please God” or to serve Him: for “he that
cometh to God must believe that he is, and that
he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Heb. 11: 6). “And this,” says the disciple whom Jesus loved, “is the
victory that overcometh the world, even our
faith” (1
John 5: 4). Gloriously, as we may see, did Enoch’s faith overcome the
world. It overcame the love of the world, and thus resulted in his walking with
God. For “whosoever will be a friend of the world, is the enemy of God” (James 4: 4). And, moreover, it overcame the fear of the world, else assuredly
the world had never heard his prophecy of coming judgment. Surely it required
strong faith to deliver such a testimony as his to an ungodly and deriding
generation; but this was the victory which in Enoch’s case, as in so many
others, overcame the fear of the world as well as the love of it, even his
faith.
Now Enoch is a type of the living and waiting saints at the
close of this dispensation in the wonderful circumstance of his translation;
and there are three lines of thought suggested by the translation of Enoch
which I desire briefly to take up as developing its typical significance.
(1) The character of the man was as
peculiar as his destiny. It may perhaps be deemed fanciful, yet I cannot help
regarding the reserve with which Enoch is spoken of in Scripture, the utter
lack of detail regarding his life and the remarkable events contained therein,
as intended to suggest the idea that, as a rule, those who shall be deemed worthy to
escape the great tribulation to come upon the world, and to have part in
the first [Pre-tribulation] translation, will not be men and women occupying a prominent position before the world - not the leaders of
religious parties and champions of
religious sects - not those whose names are most highly honoured and whose services are most widely known; but rather such
as faithfully discharging what may be called home duties, “wearing the white flower of a blameless life” in days of abounding iniquity and deepening
apostasy, loving the Lord Jesus Christ with a pure heart fervently, and, as
the very evidence of it, loving also His appearing, shall possess a special
meetness, though seen perhaps only by the eye of heaven, to be taken by God
even as Enoch was taken, because they have walked with Him in this life even as
Enoch walked.
Be this as it may, it is at
least certain that without some special readiness none shall attain to this
very special reward. In this instance, as in every other, the eternal law
shall be found to hold good, that “whatsoever a man soweth that shall he
also reap.” And as
it was not without a previous testimony that he pleased God that Enoch was
translated that he should not see death, even so shall it be at the [near] end of this dispensation. As one
writer has pertinently asked, “Have we any ground from
Scripture to expect that any of God’s children, now or hereafter, shall be
caught up to meet the Lord in the air - without their having been previously and pre-eminently sanctified by the Spirit
of the Lord in order to render them meet for such an exalted honour?”
“In all ages,” he observes, “it has been universally acknowledged, that no higher honour
was ever publicly bestowed on any man on earth than that which was bestowed on
Enoch, the seventh from Adam, and on Elijah, both of whom were translated without
dying; and that bestowed on the apostle Paul, who was caught up to the third
heaven, and afterwards returned to earth. Now,
this exalted honour was evidently given to illustrate and exemplify the unalterable principle of the divine
government - which honours
remarkably those who are specially honouring God, as it is written, ‘Them that honour me, I will honour.’ For surely God never yet
bestowed distinguished honour on any one who was not, at the time of that
bestowment, singularly honouring the Lord.
What then, for example, is the revealed character and history of
the seventh from Adam, who was caught up to heaven without seeing death? We
read that previously ‘Enoch walked with God’ for three hundred
years; and that in this most holy state God took him. And, again,
that ‘before his translation he had this testimony,’ as the special reason for
that most singular honour - that ‘he pleased God.’ Now, we are surely warranted to conclude that Enoch was the ordained prototype or pattern of
those blessed ones who shall be caught up to meet him in the air.
If Enoch, Elijah and Paul were then the
distinguished patterns of those who shall thus be honoured when Christ shall
come again in glory, let the question be now faithfully answered. Is there such
a vivid resemblance between these ancient, most holy saints, and the members of
the Church of God generally at this day, that we may reasonably expect the
speedy, bestowment on them of a similar - yea, even a still greater honour? If
not - if it be lamentably the reverse - if multitudes of the members of
Christian Churches at the present day resemble the Laodiceans of old, neither
cold nor hot; if the love of many has indeed ‘waxed cold,’ can we possibly imagine, with our Lord’s awful and most
threatening denunciations of the ‘Laodicean’ church before us, that the Righteous
Judge, who will reward every man according
to his works, and who bestowed the highest distinction on Enoch and Elijah
which he ever vouchsafed to any in this world, as a special mark of his approbation
of their illustrious, persevering holiness, breasting, as they did, a flood of
ungodliness - can we conceive that He will actually bestow the same wondrous honour on those who are manifestly dishonouring Him by their spiritual poverty,
sleep, slothfulness, selfishness, and nakedness?” (
2. Enoch alone was translated, though
others in a state of salvation were living at the time. That fearful process of
moral and social corruption which came to the full at the era of the deluge, “when few,
that is eight persons, were
saved by water,”
although it had in fact attained an advanced stage even at the time of Enoch’s
translation, was by no means so universal as at the later period; and we may
therefore reasonably conclude that the number of the children of God then
living must have been considerably larger. Indeed, “by
applying the elementary rules of arithmetic to data contained in the fifth
chapter of Genesis, it will be
found that when Enoch was translated, all the patriarchs therein mentioned were
alive, with the exception of Adam and Noah, the former of whom died fifty-seven
years before, and the latter was not born till sixty-nine years after that
event.” We are, then, clearly warranted in asserting that though Enoch
was the only individual then living who was deemed worthy of the signal
honour of translation, he was by no means the only individual then living
in a state of grace. And as it was in Enoch’s day, even so shall it be in the
day of that coming [Pre-tribulation] rapture of Christ's waiting saints, of
which his translation was so significant a type. In fact I have no doubt that Dr. Seiss is quite correct when he
says, “I have no idea that a very large portion of
mankind, or even of the professing Church, will be thus taken. The first
translation, if I may so speak, will embrace
only the select few, who ‘watch and pray always,’ that they ‘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). ‘In that night there shall be
two in one bed; the one
shall be taken, and the
other shall be left. Two shall
be grinding together; the one
shall be taken, and the
other left.’” (Luke 17: 34, 36). The idea is that the great body of
the Church even will be “left.” And this assumption of the saints to immortality, which may occur any of
these passing days or nights, and certainly is to be devoutly awaited as very
near, is the first signal act by which the great period of the consummation is
to be introduced.
One word more and I may conclude. In the three bright aspects
of Enoch’s character, presented to us in Scripture, and to which I briefly
referred at the commencement of these remarks - his faith, his walk, his testimony; we surely have indicated to us the
three great wants of the Church in these last days, and the three special
graces, in our personal possession of which we may recognize the divine
earnests of our meetness to participate, should we be alive and remain unto the
coming of the Lord, in that promised, glorious exemption from the common lot of
fallen humanity, of which Enoch’s translation was so beautiful a type. Not without Enoch’s FAITH, let us rest assured, shall we be
deemed worthy of an Enoch-like
translation. Not without Enoch’s
WALK shall we be found in the position
of those wise and ready virgins who
go in with the Bridegroom to the wedding. Not without a word of TESTIMONY, similar
to Enoch’s, concerning the coming of
the King and Judge, shall the
precious promise to the
There comes a moaning and a sighing,
There comes the death-clod’s heavy
fall,
A thousand agonies of dying -
But I shall be above them all.
-------
BELIEVING AND BELOVED
“While carried in a chair on an
itinerating tour,” says the writer of these lines, a lady missionary of
twenty years experience in
Let poets
speak of ‘East and West,’
Of
‘sundering seas’ and ‘lives enisled’:
Our hands
have stretched across the gulf,
We’ve gazed on men who’ve stood the
test -
Brethren - believing and beloved.
We’ve travell’d far from home and
kind,
‘Mid crowds who gave no countersign:
Then sudden at a word have flash’d,
From stranger’s face, the looks that
bind -
Brethren - believing and beloved.
This bond knows nought of clime or
race;
Ignores the barriers learning makes;
Cancels the rules of class and caste;
And binds together, saved by grace,
Brethren - believing and beloved.
They welcomed me, the unknown guest,
With looks so kind and ways so fair,
So glad I’d reach’d their far-off home
-
I felt the kinship, and was blest
Of Brethren - believing and beloved.
How happy when there dawns the day
Wherein we meet, not now to part,
With comrades of the fleeting hours:
How through our hearts will peal the
chime -
Brethren - beholding and beloved.
E. J. HARRISON,
* *
* * *
* *
68
OUR ATTITUDE TO APPROACHING
JUDGMENT + 1
By D.
M. PANTON, B.A.
THE
narrative of Jonah is ablaze with light for us who stand on the threshold of
the last judgments. Judgment truth had grasped Jonah with a grip of iron: he
was God’s ambassador to announce doom, and he knew it: he was all alive to the
awful justice of God, the frightful iniquity of sin, and the appalling
collision between the two which will wreck a universe. Cowardice had been
buried in the disgorging whale: with his life in his hand, through those
immense crowds - probably not less than a million, for 120,000 infants are
named - and through its enormous areas - Nineveh was ninety miles in
circumference - a strange, wild figure, clothed in rough skins, and himself
risen, literally, from the Gates of the Grave, marched, announcing doom. It is
an overwhelming fact that we, to-day, through all the cities of the continents,
have been commissioned of God, in mercy to mankind and at the peril of
popularity, reputation, and even life, to announce the worse doom, not of a
single city, but of an entire world.
PROPHECY NEGATIVING
ITSELF
Now the whole narrative of Jonah is throughout a revelation
concerning the preaching of judgment unparalleled in the Bible. The critical
truth it states is this:- Prophecy of evil is delivered to defeat itself;
destruction is foretold that it may never fall; Hell is disclosed in order that
no man may ever enter it: if judgment were all, the supreme weapon would be
silence. A sand-glass of forty days:- had God wanted the destruction of
THE PROPHET’S ANGER
Now comes our peril, so acute, yet so concealed in apparent
goodness, that a whole Book of the Bible is reserved for its disclosure.
Jonah’s mission had been successful beyond all conceivable dreams: he had
reached the heart of wickedness, and cured it: he had postponed
This man-trap at our feet, like the leaf-covered pit that
ensnares elephants, deadly yet concealed, is so critically dangerous that, to
expose its peril, let us express it in the light the most favourable possible
for Jonah. Jonah might have expressed it thus:- the prophecy God gave me was
absolute - no condition, no mitigation, no possibility of postponement or
annulment, was attached: there was no summons to repentance - it was a pure
announcement of doom: God’s Word, therefore, is utterly pledged; and if Nineveh
is undestroyed, the Divine honour is impugned, God’s prophet is stultified, and
Nineveh itself will never believe God’s Word again. Moreover, it is right
that it should be fulfilled: does not Nahum describe
THE PITY OF GOD
Now follows the incomparably valuable lesson of how God
Himself deals with the situation. It has been said that Leviticus is a fifth
Gospel: I am not sure that the Book of Jonah is not a sixth. Puncture the Book in any
vein, and it bleeds mercy. The mariners are saved from the storm; Jonah is
delivered from Sheol; vast
OUR ADVENT VIGIL
So now we arrive at the exact mind of
God, and the critical embassage vital to the tremendous modern need. It is a
combination rare and lovely and solemn beyond expression. It is a prophet so
gripped and grasped by the terrors of judgment, created by the frightful
wickedness of sin, that the vast crowds are met without fear, and without
flight: irremediable, and possibly instantaneous, destruction, proclaimed
without condition, without mitigation, without end - on all unrepentant sin: no
Heaven without Hell, no salvation without damnation, no escape without Blood.
But - behind it all, a heart that is a sob over Hell, and that flings wide the
Gates of Heaven; an election of grace beyond our dreams; a Work of the Holy
Ghost yet to be beyond precedent, beyond imagination; a God that willeth not
the death of one sinner. No city
stands more for the entire world - merchants multiplied above the stars of
heaven, kings as locusts, field-marshals as grasshoppers (Nahum 3: 16) - than does Nineveh; and,
most remarkably, within a few years of Jonah and this Old Testament Pentecost,
Joel poured forth his amazing forecast of the Holy Ghost’s descent in the days
of vast judgments. So, therefore, every intensest activity in every direction of
truth is the divine vigil with which to confront impending judgment; and it is our very success, our own activity, which will falsify some of our darkest forecasts. We
preach hell to people heaven.
For there’s
grace enough for thousands
Of new
worlds as great as this;
There is
room for fresh creations
In that
upper room of bliss.
-------
WHY I CHANGED MY VIEW.
By REV. CHAS. E. SCOTT, D.D.,
American Presbyterian
[In view of Dr. James Black’s strictures on Second Advent
truth in the
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, interestingly
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 out 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
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 the 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 puts it, should be taking place; in which men of set
purpose are rejecting the deity of Christ and redemption through His redeeming
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 characterised by just what He
stated would be its earmarks - wars and internal 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.
* *
* * *
* *
69
THE MIRACLE OF JONAH + 2
That the
Book of Jonah is no allegory, no parable, is as certain as anything in
literature can be. For (1) the book
is obviously meant by its author to be a straightforward historical narrative.
(2) The People of God - the only
people guided by [divinely] inspired
prophets - so regarded it for a thousand
years. (3) No writer in the
sacred Canon ever introduces prodigious miracles, or miracles at all, into a
parable. (4) The psalm uttered by
Jonah from the depths of the seas would be totally out of place in an allegory,
and is only consistent with a plain narrative of historical fact. (5) Nor would any Jew, composing a
fiction, select a well-known Prophet - at that time the greatest in
For generations Rationalism countered the miracle by pointing
to the gullet of a whale - a few inches across - as proving the miracle
fabulously grotesque. For decades this passed as Science. Even as lately as
1867 a warm defender of the miracle, Dr. Alexander Raleigh, says: “That a whale could not swallow a man, without miraculous expansion of its
narrow throat, is certain.” Yet what are the facts? It is true of the
Greenland Whale, but it is not true of
the Spermaceti Whale found in the Mediterranean, and it was in the
In view of the fact that Ketos, the
word used both by the. Septuagint and by our Lord, meant originally a
sea-monster, and only later a whale, the narrative of a leviathan, neither
whale nor mammal, caught off
The miracle consisted in the preservation of Jonah; “God prepared a great fish” (Jonah 1:
17) - not by exceptional creation, but by
supernatural adjustment.
But the whole heart of the miracle is its spiritual import;
and it is finally corroborative of its truth, and of a value beyond all price,
that we have our Lord’s own profound and detailed exposition. “If it could be shown,” says Dean Farrar, “that Jesus intended to stamp the story as literally true,
every Christian would at once, and as a matter of course, accept it.”
Now our Lord evidently considered the miracle of the greatest importance; and in answer to the challenge for “a sign
from heaven” - a direct, open, vivid miracle from God
- He says that the miracle of Jonah was such. He says:- “Jonah became” - for he was not originally such - “a sign” - a ‘sign’ is a miracle viewed as evidence, something supernatural to authenticate a
truth - “unto the Ninevites” (Luke 11:
30)
- that is, an embodied miracle because of what he had passed through. “And the people of Nineveh believed God” (Jonah
3: 5): the moral marvel of an entire city
prostrate before God because of one man come up out of Death, not only was as
prodigious in the moral sphere as the disgorged Prophet in the physical, but foreshadowed a Messiah disgorged by Death, and believed on far and wide among the great Gentile cities of the
world.
So our Lord proceeds:- “Jonah” - not his corpse - “WAS three days and three nights in the belly of the whale” (Matt. 12: 40); whether in swoon, or conscious, or
actually dead, is not stated; but his prayer implies consciousness. The
fact of the miracle could not be stated in words, simpler or plainer: Jesus
assumes and endorses it. For He who multiplied fish, for the mouths of thousands, could equally prepare
a fish, for one man’s lodgement - incomparably the lesser miracle: He
who could shut the lion’s mouth, while He opened, could also restrain, a
whale’s devouring maw: He who located a
coin inside a fish down in the glimmering depths, could manifestly
find, and deliver, an entombed prophet in the
heart of the seas. All the miracles of the Jehovah-Christ are woven
of one tissue, and utter one revelation.
For the very prodigiousness of the miracle which, down all the
ages, has been its stumbling block, ought to have been its principal clue. For
God works in cycles, and history is again and again a forecast of prophecy -
the past is the future in little; and a type bulks large in proportion to the
importance of the antitype. The Florentines said of Dante:- “There goes the man who has walked in Hell”:- much
more must the Ninevites have said of Jonah, still dripping, as it were, from
his plunge to the roots of the mountains - “There goes
the man who has re-crossed the bourne - [i.e., “a boundry, or limit or goal”] - from which no traveller
returns.” So our Lord’s comment is the unveiling of the heart of God in
the miracle. “As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the
whale” - and so
became an accepted marvel to the whole family of Semitic peoples, possibly to
all nations - “so
shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt. 12: 40). Jonah’s was the huge moon
of the Old Testament’s most startling miracle cast by its far vaster and
unrisen sun, the supremest miracle of all the ages.
So the three days and three nights exactly delimit the
parallel; and reveal God’s design in a miracle not so great in quality - the preservation
of the Youths in fire was an intenser
miracle - as huge in its panorama; for it pictured the Lord’s marvellous underworld experience for the
redemption of the race. A storm raised by the wrath of God, and
threatening all on board with instant destruction; both outcast, both flung, as
the reason of the wrath, to the raging tempest; the storm centring on One - Christ made sin, and
sacrificed for all on board; a great peace following at once on a great
sacrifice; drowned in the depths - “all Thy waves and Thy billows,” cried both in identical words (Ps. 52: 7) in the Hebrew, “have gone over
me” -
wrath-billows for sin; swallowed by death, and actually in Sheol - “out of the belly of Sheol,” Jonah says, “cried I”; * resident in Hades for three days and three nights - the three greatest days of the prophet’s life, in which he got his power to
revolutionize vast Nineveh, as the
Lord, the world; emerging, at last, perfectly
delivered - wrath-free, sin-free,
death-free; both embodied miracles from the grave; each no longer now “a minister of the Circumcision,” but moving over the [whole] world for salvation among surging, sobbing, praying multitudes of the Gentiles. So was this enormous miracle none
too huge to shadow forth the transcendent experiences of the Son of God
in the salvation of the world.
* 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.
-------
A MODERN JONAH
Dear Sir, - That a man can exist as Jonah did, though
unconscious, and for less time, experience has proved. M. de Parville, editor
of the Journal des Debats, and himself a man of science, reports a case which he himself thoroughly sifted. A
harpooned whale, mad with pain, and in his death-agonies, upset a boat from the
English whaler “Star of the East” off the
Criticisms, however, challenging the veracity of the narrative
will be found in the Expoistory Times
for June and August, 1906.
I am, etc.,
WATCHMAN.
-------
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, unremember’d, lost -
So thinks man: but all the cost
God has counted to display
Life abundant one glad day.
Art thou buried? God’s pure seed
Doth thy heart in silence bleed?
Change thy sighing into song,
Thus alone can harvests come.
* *
* * *
* *
70
THE COMING OF THE HOLY GHOST + 1
IT is a
stupendous conception that in the last two thousand years iniquity has grown so
awful, and the world-situation so critical, that a Person of the Godhead has
had to be locally resident on the earth, to hold the world for God. When our
Lord left the earth, the Holy Ghost came, and when the Holy Ghost leaves with
the rapt, the Lord will return. In the shock of the events about us, and with -
dare I use the words? - a restiveness of the Spirit, expressed in sudden gusts
of revival which possibly portend the immense movements of the Holy Ghost that
are yet to come, and not knowing the cataclysms immediately ahead, it is vital
that we should get back to our stupendous truths and bedrock facts.
Power fell in the Upper Room (Acts 1: 8). A whole world to be evangelized; an
entire
So in the person of the Holy Ghost there descended into the
Church, and abides in it, an enormous reservoir of life; and the descent of the
[Holy] Spirit was marked by a burst of
conversion never exceeded in the history of the world. “There were
added unto them in that day about THREE THOUSAND souls” (Acts 2: 41). The Rabbis hold that Pentecost fell
on the day on which the Law was given at Sinai: if so, the designed contrast of the Law
and the Gospel is wonderful; for when the Law was founded, three thousand souls
were slain in one day (Ex. 32: 28); when Grace was founded, three thousand were made alive in one day.
Moses tells what we ought to do, and it ends in death: Jesus sends the Spirit
to do it, in us and through us, and it ends in life. Why does such enormous
power reside in the Church for life? Because the Holy Ghost is God. No coming of a spirit could give life: none but Deity
can regenerate - the Father quickeneth (John 5: 21), the Son quickeneth (John 5: 21), the Spirit quickeneth (John 6: 63): so the Psalm, foretelling the miraculous gifts and orders
conferred by the ascended Christ, adds “that the Lord God might dwell among them” (Ps. 16). Until the Holy Ghost arrived, we read
of no tortured consciences, no broken hearts, no sobbing multitudes. God has in
Himself mighty reservoirs of conversion and when God came into the Church, in
its very first day, the Church multiplied twenty-five fold. John Elias, preaching at Pwllheli, in
Wales, a district in low spiritual ebb, chose as his text “Let God arise
and let His enemies be scattered”; and his words rushed from him like flames of fire, and 2,500 SOULS were added to the churches
around as a consequence of that one sermon. But the
number of Pentecost was not reached. The local church is the universal Church
in miniature; and those three thousand, drawn “from every nation under heaven,” foreshadowed the Church of all ages
in whose midst is an enormous reservoir of 1
A second inexhaustible reservoir of
power resident in the Church in the person of the Holy Ghost is the power for
sanctity: the descent of the [Holy] Spirit was marked by a collective sanctity
without precedent and without repetition in the history of the world. “As many as
were possessors of houses or lands sold them, and distribution was made
unto each, as anyone had need” (Acts 4: 34). An entire Church, some five thousand
souls, voluntarily abandons its whole property for love’s sake; a Jewish Church, to whom,
of all races, this triumph of grace was most miraculous; “a company,” as Calvin says, “of
angels rather than men.” The burst of love was so warm, the urge of the [Holy] Spirit so mighty, the heaven in the
heart so complete, that “not one” - in all these
thousands - “said that aught of the things that he possessed was his own, but sold them, and laid the
prices at the apostles’ feet.” Nor is it only love, the first fruit of the Spirit: joy is named again and, again, even at prison doors (Acts 5: 41). So it was in the Indian Revival: -
“From 10 a.m. until midnight” - except for
meals - “twelve solid hours the church was crowded:
scores of men were almost beside themselves with spiritual ecstasy. It was a sight never to be forgotten to see such a vast assembly beside
themselves with joy” So we might run down the whole gamut of
the fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, meekness, temperance (Gal. 5: 22):
the reservoir of potential sanctity lodged in the Church has never been
fathomed, and never even known.
Not only was the arrival of the Holy Ghost
marked by a burst of conversion without a parallel, and a degree of
collective sanctity never equalled before or since: it also introduced a
reservoir of fearful disciplinary power; and the [Holy] Spirit acted with a severity as
appalling as any in the whole history of the Church. “Ananias fell
down and gave up the ghost: Sapphira fell
down immediately at his feet and gave up the ghost” (Acts 5: 5, 10). The [Holy] Spirit’s
action becomes deeply more significant when we compare it with judgments on
unbelievers. Simon the Magician and Elymas the Sorcerer, as unsaved and
therefore less responsible, escape with a far lighter doom: in the very heart
of the Church’s dawn, God, locally present, so judged the secrets of the
assembly as to inflict an instant death-penalty on
leading members of the
So the Holy Ghost has descended into
the Church never to be dislodged: His coming, like the Second Advent, was, and
will be again (Joel
2: 28),* secret, yet instantly apparent;
expected, yet utterly dateless: and as the Lord’s sign is a Star, for He is the
Light of the world; so the [Holy] Spirit’s
sign is a Tongue, for He is the transmitter of God’s whole mind in every
language of earth. “When the waves of the last
agony of a submerging world break, yet once more, and louder than ever, goes
forth the call of a vast and infinite compassion.”
* All arguments that would destroy the possibility of
revival before the Parousia, would, in 1500 A.D., have proved
the huge, awakening of the Reformation equally impossible.
-------
CHERITH
Beloved, should the brook run dry
And should no visible supply
Gladden thine eyes, then
wait to see
God work a miracle for thee:
Thou canst not want, for God has said
He will supply His own with bread.
His word is sure. Creative power
Will work for thee from hour to hour,
And thou, with all Faith’s Host, shalt
prove
God’s Hand of power, God’s Heart of
love.
* *
* * *
* *
71
THE POTTER AND THE CLAY
(2) + 1
THERE is
nothing human that is older than the potter’s art; and pottery, shaped on the
potter’s wheel, has been, in all literature and all ages, a chosen symbol of
the Creator’s shaping of the plastic clay of which we
are actually made. The modern process is equally suggestive. In
one factory alone in North
Staffordshire eight mills are employed for merely reducing hard flint stones to
the finest powder, afterwards churned with water into a fluid mass; and out of
this moist, plastic clay - apt symbol of our hard heart when first it is in the
Potter’s hand for moulding - an immense variety of vessels is fashioned of
every beauty and for every use. First dried by steam - for if subjected
to the furnace heat at once, the earthenware would crack and break - the vessel
is afterwards put into the fierce heat of the oven,
after which, and only after which, it is able to take the ornamental patterns
of the original design. A single dinner plate, with colours inlaid by adversity
- for the scorching heat of a kiln has to supplement the oven, in order to “fix” the colours - will pass through ten or twelve
hands; until at last, the process complete, in the showroom are ranged all the
triumphs of the potter's art. “Arise, and go down to the
potter’s house, and learn,” says Jehovah (Jer. 18: 1): it is a chosen symbol of God.
First we behold the Potter, with the clay
in his hand, and the hidden design
in his heart - even as Palissy used to dream: “the potter wrought his work on
the wheels” (Jer. 18:
3). Our life is no blind whirring of
wheels: it is no random shaping by accident, or by chance: the turn of the
wheel lifts us up in joy, or it dashes us down in sorrow - but as the clay in
the potter’s hand, so are ye in Mine hand (Jer. 18: 6). There is a Divine ideal for every man, an
archetype, an unwrought design, in the mind of the Potter - like the unhewn
angel Michael Angelo ever saw in the marble: every human life is created to be
a vessel filled with sanctity and beauty, meet for the Master’s use: and, above
all, no mother, leaning over the cradle of her little child, ever had more tender or lovely dreams than God has
over the soul newly born at the foot
of the Cross: from the first moment of conversion, the lovely curves begin to
form. As a medieval sculptor exclaimed, as he surveyed the unhewn
marble, - “What a god-like beauty thou hidest!”
But what did Jeremiah see? “Behold,
the potter wrought his work on the wheels, and the vessel that he made of the clay was marred” - the Septuagint
Version has “fell”: it is a spiritual fall - “in the hand of the
potter.” The figure is a profound revelation of God and the human soul:
it is a startling disclosure both of the omnipotence, and of the self-imposed
limitations, of Deity. “Hath not the potter a right over the clay?” (Rom. 9: 21) authority, not brute force; authority
to shape its destiny according to the contents of the vessel: “as the clay
in the potter’s hand, so are ye in Mine.” Here lies the clay - a dead, heavy, amorphous mass, with no
life, no secret of evolution in it, no power to shape
itself: our cradle, our sex, our capacities, our class, our physique, our
death-hour - the Potter is absolute with the clay. But,
lo, the clay is MARRED in the hand of the Potter;
not out of the hand: the
Angel refuses to spring from the marble. It never falls out of the hand of the
Potter: it is marred in it. All creation is Divine self-limitation: the Potter
can only work within the limits of clay: a flaw, a rebellious and intractable
mingling of impurities, a hard resistance to the moulding wheel, and lo, the
vessel is marred! God has left it to each of us to decide whether we shall be a
vessel unto honour, or a vessel unto dishonour. So Paul says:-
“If
a man purge himself from these” - these what? cowardice; want of faith; a controversial
spirit; wrong handling of Scripture; ungodliness; error on resurrection;
retention of old sins - “he shall be a vessel UNTO
HONOUR” (2. Tim. 2: 21). “If I am not becoming better,”
Oliver Cromwell wrote in his Bible, “I shall soon
cease being good” - a marred vessel. Were we mere clay, fatalism would be our right theology - God, we could say, will shape
us to perfection whatever we do, and whatever we are, exactly as stars revolve,
or trees grow: but no; we can break down in the hands of the Potter. If the lump of clay gets at all out of plumb, if it deviates to the
right or left, it flies off at a tangent, and smashes: at all costs we must keep central - in the will of God, in
the truth of God, in the obedience of God; or else our “eccentricity” - the loss
of touch with the central Christ - will fly off into a shattered discipleship.
But now once again there
bursts on our ears the music no human organ ever made. “And when the vessel was marred in the hand of
the potter, he made it again another
vessel.” Behold
our patient God! He need never have moulded the ugly, shapeless mass at all;
much more might He now discard the spoiled, twisted jar to the rubbish heap;
but that is not God. Our life may be a marred and broken thing, but God can
re-make it into a fresh form of Divine beauty: the whole Bible is alive with
the truth that men, all men, can escape from evil, from all evil; and that God is eager and
longing to co-operate in the escape. He can reshape the most
unshapely into the very image of Jehovah; He can twist the stubborn clay
by toil, by agony, by tears until it is conformed to the image of His Son. But the re-making
is a painful process. The clay has to be crushed back
into mud again; and the Potter has to knead it on his bench, until it is
plastic enough to take a fresh shape. In the English Potteries
they enamel a vessel with black; then put it into an oven; and the scorching
heat turns the black to gold: it is the only way they can make the gold. “It doth not yet
appear what we shall be”; but by touch of hand and push of foot and splash of colour, the dizzy
whirl of the flying wheels will have one day shaped the solid base, and cut the
dainty rim, and mould the exquisite curves, and “fixed” the glowing colours - like unto the
Son of God.
But God uses this picture for a word of
tremendous warning to the unsaved. There are limits both to the will and to the
power of the Potter. Some clays are very pure, and rich, and
pliable; almost white, so that they can be made into the finest porcelain:
others are too soft - “fat” is the technical
term - to be used as they are; others have, such an excess of iron in them,
that they can be used only for coloured earthenware; other clay, again, will
form, but will twist or crack in the firing. “Cannot I do
with you as this potter?” saith the Lord. Yes, is the answer, but only as the potter can: “as in the potter’s hand, so in
Mine.” So long as
the clay is plastic, it will take any shape: let it
once be “fired,” and it is plastic, shapeable
clay no more: its mould can now never be altered. It is possible for a heart and a life to grow so hard that it can
only be destroyed: “and
he shall break it as a potter’s vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing: so that there shall not be found among the pieces thereof a
sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take
water withal out of the cistern” (Isa. 30: 14).
We must be moulded into the holy will
of the Potter, or else all that can be done, for the world’s sake, is an irremediable
smashing - shattered fragments that can never be gathered again - “everlasting
destruction from the presence of the Lord.” How wisely the greatest sculptor of
all time - the highest kind of the potter’s art - Michael Angelo, wrote in his
diary:- “I die in the faith
of Jesus Christ, and in the firm hope of a better life.”
A world of pathos, an unfathomable mystery, lies in one word:
“ANOTHER VESSEL.” What is this second vessel? Is the twisted clay to
be made into a more beautiful vase, brighter, purer, holier, more wonderful
because of the crushing and the shaping, moulded to a lovelier form, and a
finer use; or is it God’s vessel still, but never again to be what it once
might have been? Must the bird with the broken pinion never fly as high again?
If God alters our circumstances, or re-shapes our life, is it because we have
failed Him in the old sphere; or is it because he wants a heavenlier mould for
a rarer use? Only God knows. Yet
grace still lasts, and common clay can yet be changed
into Sevres china. When God cannot make of us what He would, He patiently makes
of us what He can: it is part of the Potter’s craft to re-make with loving
fingers the broken and the marred. God turns the oyster’s wound into a pearl.
So this is our prayer:- “We
are the clay, and Thou our potter” (Isa.
64:
8).
Miss Winifred A. Cook voices the cry of the clay.
Here in Thy Hands I lay
My worthless, broken clay;
Re-mould to Thy design,
And in Thy way.
Alas, such clay as mine
Can even Thy fires refine,
Thy furnace re-create,
And render Thine?
Yet place upon Thy wheel
My yielded clay,
and steel
My will to bear Thy stroke,
Receive Thy seal.
Then breathe therein and fill
My vessel frail, until
Only Thy life appear,
Thy mind, Thy will.
O Loveliness inwrought,
O Wonder past all thought,
That Thou should’st glorify
A thing of naught.
Shapely and set in gold,
Fashion’d by Love untold,
Nothing shall henceforth mar
This heavenly mould!
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-soiled character, a harassed life: nevertheless “a dying hand may sign
a deed of incalculable value” (Cecil).
-------
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. Heaven’s very soul of joy in all earthly sorrow is in these
exquisite lines. [D.M.P.]
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 mock’d
as fool.
More than star or meteor,
More than moon or sun
Is the
thorn-crown’d forehead
Of the Holy One.’
* *
* *
* * *
72
COPEC + 1
By D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
THE
nation-wide Conferences on Christian Politics, Economics and Citizenship - the initials of which
have given a new word to the language - are part of a wide and profound
movement among the Churches for the Christianizing of all politics and all
economics, born of a deep and very natural impatience with the world’s unending
miscarriage. “The basis of Copec,” its
Commission Report says, “is the conviction that the
Christian Faith gives the vision and the power essential for solving the
problems of to-day - the constitution of society, the conduct of industry,
national and international politics, in fact all human relationships.”
The Federal Council of the Evangelical Free Churches gives it the warmest
support (Times, Sept. 24), nor is the
Anglican Communion, as a whole,* less enthusiastic: it is the most highly
organized, the most widely supported, and probably the best-spirited effort to
reform the world ever made.
THE FUNDAMENTAL CHRISTIAN
AIM
Now the first comment of the Scriptural student, sympathetic
yet critical, is the invariable futility - a futility historical, because
inherent - of all reform approached without regeneration. The failure is
invariable and inevitable* because Christianity
attempts the deeper thing, and wrecks upon the human will: the purpose of the
Church in the world is not to dress the skin, but to lance the tumour; and the
world invariably refuses the knife. It is curious how the world itself sees
this. The Times (April 14, 1924),
commenting on the Birmingham Conference, says:- “The
hope of Christians, who are Christians indeed, for mankind is not centred in
the State, but in the redemption of man’s whole nature, and that by means
wholly beyond the scope of human policy.” Copec’s
attempt to regenerate society before it has regenerated man is doomed to
failure because the explosive vices will always wreck the most perfect
institutions.** All minor
arguments, therefore, though extremely powerful in themselves - such as that
the Church possesses neither the power nor the experience, neither the wealth
nor the authority, for municipal or national or international administration,
and therefore is bound to be ineffective if she attempts it; or that exactly in
proportion as she devotes strength to the social, she withdraws it from the
spiritual - may go by the board: the fact is, the cure is in the heart, or
there is no cure at all. “The doctrine of
environment,” as Dr. Campbell Morgan has said, “received
its death-blow in the Garden of Eden.”
* No catalogue would be more instructive
- though alas, through want of records, it will never be made - than a list of
the Communistic and co-operative experiments, not based on a humanity re-born
of God, which, from the days of Robert Owen downwards - and indeed backward
through all the ages - have strewn history with their wreckage. Incomparably
the vastest, the Russian Communism, has proved the crowning fiasco.
**The
world acknowledges it has no power to change the man. Anatole
CHRISTIANITY AT STAKE
Now this inevitable futility of Copec - so exceedingly earnest
and profoundly conscientious as it so often is - opens up a sudden and very
grave vista. For its failure, after promises so lavish and so golden, will
profoundly confirm the world in its unbelief. No Christian of the nineteenth
century did more for Christianizing English legislation than the late Lord Shaftsbury;
yet the summary of his experience is this:- “I have been identified with a great number of humanizing
influences and activities during the past half century. I have seen humanity
improved, and the classes drawn together. But the more I see them being
improved in that way, the farther they are getting away from God.” That is, mankind
may advance in non-essentials, while it retrogrades in essentials; and the downgrade in essentials will involve the non-essentials also in
ultimate ruin. If Christianity goes by the board, civilization also
(its by-product) will go bankrupt. So here lies the bottom tragedy. The
ultimate tragedy lies, not so much in the collapse of an effort often painfully
conscientious, but rather in the conviction that will be created in vast multitudes,
a conviction inevitable and appalling, that because it fails, Christianity is false. Nor will there be any
escape from the dreadful conclusion. For if Copec’s premises are correct - that Christ came so that “all we mean by ‘Church’ may leaven and vitalize all that we
mean by ‘State,’” so, reforming politics and economics by permeating the
world with His teaching - Christianity’s final failure to effect this can only
prove its fundamental falsehood. And it makes the
thoughtful shudder that Copec says so. “The acid test of Christianity for this generation,”
says one of its exponents, Mr. Tom Sykes, “is its
readiness and competence to right the wrong, and to establish a just and
righteous order of life.”
But an incomparably graver indictment
lies in the dilution of Christianity without which it is impossible to get the
co-operation of worldly forces for the world’s self-reform. It is extraordinarily
significant that in Copec’s fundamental book - “The
Nature of God and His Purpose for the World” - the Blessed
Trinity is not once named; we hear much of Jesus of
Nazareth, but not a word of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity; and the Holy
Spirit, referred to once, is mentioned only casually. Here arises a new aspect
of the social problem which, while wholly vital to the
Christian revelation, seems never to rise above the horizon of Copec at all. The enormous fundamental of the world-problem
is
OUR LORD’S GUIDANCE
But on this whole problem of the
Christianization of the State and of industry we are not left without the
direct guidance of our Lord Himself. For the Saviour has put one jewel of revelation
as a deliberate stumbling-block in the path of the
Christian world-reformer. Answering an injured property-holder, who appealed to
Him for arbitration - of all intervention in politics, surely the most innocent
- Jesus says: “Man” for He is addressing unregenerate
humanity - “who made me a judge or a divider over you?”
(Luke 12:
14). Labour makes exactly this appeal to
the Church: it thinks it has found in Christ a redresser of wrongs; a champion
of the oppressed; an arbitrator between classes and nations;
a referee in lawsuits. So here is a critical test put to our Lord Himself. His
startling response exactly embodies the spiritual Christian’s attitude, manifestly
shaped since by the Holy Ghost, for two thousand years. Our Lord declines to
intervene: He expresses no judgment on the merits of the dispute: He takes no
sides in class wars, national wars, industrial wars: He is neither
on the side of wealth nor poverty, tyranny nor anarchy, capitalism nor
labour. Why? Because the supreme way, nay, the only way, to aid the world to-day
is to bring home to it the Gospel of the Grace of God: so creating, out of the
world itself, a Church which is the reservoir of intercession, the dam of
judgment, the world’s regulating light, the ark of the lost. As Christ was in
the world, so are we. He who will assess the conduct of the entire Church of
God; who will adjudicate between the massed nations on Mount Olivet; who will
decide the eternal destiny of all mankind on the Great White Throne:- He says, in this dispensation of all-encompassing
grace, - “Who made me a judge or a divider over you?” Startlingly clear is it that for the
Church, or the individual disciple, to act now as magistrate or arbitrator over
the godless - exactly the international claim made by the Papacy - or to attempt
to change the world by any means but
regeneration, is to depart
altogether from the precepts and practise of Christ.*
* The profound oversight of dispensational truth, and of the
mutually exclusive orbits of Church and State throughout the day of Grace, is
revealed in Copec’s resolution on War:- “All war is contrary to the spirit and teaching of Jesus
Christ.” This is but half the truth: the disciple is to sheathe the sword (Matt. 26: 52), the State is to use it (
THE SECOND ADVENT
It is extraordinary that, just when the very fabric of the
world is tottering, and, warned by preliminary [divine] judgments,
we stand on the edge of untold catastrophe, men should
be so blind as to think to mop back the ocean of judgment with the Copec broom.
“After what
I see the last dark, bloody sunset,
I see the dread Avenger’s form;
I hear the Armageddon’s onset -
But I shall be above the storm.
There comes a moaning and a sighing,
There comes the death-clod’s heavy
fall,
A thousand agonies of dying -
But I shall be above them all.
-------
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, “I’ve
been in heaven seven years.”
When Rutherford was imprisoned at
- C. S. UTTING.
* *
* * *
* *
73
THE MORNING STAR +3
By G. H.
LANG.
A COMMONLY held interpretation of this beautiful figure is thus
stated by William Kelly (Lectures on the Revelation, 56, ed. 1884): -
“The sun, when it rises, summons man
to his busy toil, but the morning star shines for those only who sleep not as
do others - for those who watch as children of the light and of the day. We
shall be with Christ doubtless when the day of glory
dawns upon the world; but the morning
star is before the day, and Christ not only says, ‘I am ... the bright and morning star,’ but ‘I will give ... the morning star.’ He will come and receive His heavenly ones before they appear
with Him in glory. May we be true to Him in the refusal of present ease, and
honour, and power! May we follow Him, taking up our cross and denying ourselves
daily! He will not forget us in His day, and He will give us ere it comes the morning star.” The meaning here intended is
that the Lord will appear to His Church sometime before the rise of Antichrist
and will remove them by a secret rapture (the “Morning Star” coming of Christ), and some years
later (not less than seven) will return to the earth to deliver Israel (the “Sun of
Righteousness” coming).
Even if this view were correct the
promise will not mean the resurrection and rapture of all believers, for it is given to
overcomers only, and the Seven Letters are swift witnesses that not every believer is overcoming, else
there would be no reproofs of waning
love, of fornication, lifelessness of profession, and of lukewarmness, on the part of the Lord’s servants (2: 20), nor would there be urgent calls to repentance and solemn
warnings of chastisements for those He loves (3: 19), but who are cold and defiled.
But the meaning attached to the figure
employed is unwarranted. The promise does not
read, as it is above taken, “I will give him to
see the morning star”; but simply, “I will give him the morning star.”
In the same sentence it has been said to the same overcomer: “to him will I give
authority over the nations”; and this will not bear the insertion, “I will give him to
see authority over the
nations.”
The true meaning is easily discerned by attention to the
prophetic passage which pictures the Messiah by the
figure of the star.
In Numbers 24: 17, the prophet exclaims:-
I see Him, but not now:
I behold Him, but not nigh:
There shall come forth a star out of Jacob,
And a sceptre shall rise out of
And shall smite through the corners of
And break down all the sons of
tumult.
And
Seir also shall be a possession, His enemies;
While
And out of Jacob shall One have
dominion,
And shall destroy the remnant
from the city.
Here the coining of Messiah out of Jacob as a star is
connected with His rising out of
These promises of and to Himself the Lord graciously passes on
to His faithful followers: “Howbeit that
which ye have, hold fast till I come. And he that overcometh, and
he that keepeth My works unto the end, to
him will I give authority over the nations: and
he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as
the vessels of the potter are broken to shivers;
as I also have received of My Father: and
I will give him the morning star” (Rev. 2: 25-28).
Therefore Rev. 2: 27-28 refers, as does Numbers 24: 17, to Christ as the King of Israel rising to destroy His
and their foes, the star being a figure of a heavenly ruler. Whilst
This order of events is clearly seen in Malachi 4., for verse 1 describes the burning up of the
wicked; and then the sun arises for them with “healing in his wings.” It is also found
in Joel 2: 18-27, which first details the destruction of the armies of the
Beast and then the blessing of the land and people. So that the rising sun is
not a picture of the actual advent, but of what Messiah becomes to Israel after
the destruction of the wicked.
In the only two places in the New Testament where the figure is employed it is introduced in the same connection and
order as has been observed in the Old Testament passages. Rev. 2: 27 speaks first of the rod of judgment and the breaking of the nations therewith, and
mention of the morning star follows. So in Rev. 22: 16, the Lord first mentions that He is the “Root and the Offspring of
David,” that is,
He is
Thus the true meaning of the promise,
“I will give him the morning star,” is not that some saints will see Him coming
for them some considerable time before His public advent, though even then, as
has been remarked, it would apply only to some, the watching ones, and not to
all; but the force of the promise has been well expressed by Trench (Commentary on the Epistles to the Seven Churches,
155).
“A comparison
with that other passage in this Book referred to already (22: 16), conclusively proves that
when Christ promises that He will give to his faithful ones the morning star,
He promises that He will give to them Himself, that He will impart to them his
own glory and a share in his own
royal dominion (cf. 3: 21); for the star, as
there has been already occasion to observe, is evermore the symbol of royalty (Matt. 2: 2), being therefore linked with the
sceptre (Num. 24: 17). All the glory of the world shall end in being the glory of
the Church, if only this [continue to] abide faithful to its Lord.”
And this application of the figure of the
morning star to the commencement of the Parousia at the close of the reign of
Antichrist, and for his imminent overthrow, is entirely consistent with the
Lord’s own warnings that only the watchful of His people will be taken at that
instant, and the rest will be left. It is “to them that expect Him”
(Heb. 9: 28)
“that He will appear” as the Morning Star
and it is surely significant that the promise of the gift of the morning star
to the overcomer should be quickly followed by the warning to the defiled and
unwatchful that “in no wise* shalt thou know what hour I will
come upon thee” (Rev. 3: 3). “That
grand ancient proverb, which ascribed to the avenging deities feet shod with
wool, ‘Dii laneos habent pedes,’ awfully expressed the sense which the
heathen had of this noiseless approach of the divine judgments, of justice (..., as one called her of old),** oftentimes so near at the
very moment when thought most remote” (Trench, Ibid., 166).
*“ou me gives great
precision and certainty to the (warning) there is no chance (ou) that he should know (me)” (Alford, Rev.
3:
3;
2:
11).
** Opisthopous Dike, that is, justice that follows on
foot=that tracks down. Compare Paul’s remark, “Some
men’s sins are evident, going before unto
judgment; and some men also they follow
after” (1. Tim. 5: 24).
And so B. W. Newton, I find, taught: “There appears to be a considerable interval between the
appearance of the Lord in destructive glory, and the period when He will be
‘inaugurated’ on Zion, and introduce the peaceful glory of the millennium ...
there will ... intervene a period betwixt the destruction of Antichrist and his
hosts, and the inauguration of Christ’s glory on Zion - in which interval
Israel’s conflict with Gog and Magog and other enemies, will occur. Christ’s glory when He
first appears to take His saints, and to deliver
-------
CORRESPONDENCE
[ON ‘SHEOL’ / ‘HADES’]
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 don’t know,”
he replied with dismay. “Where do you think the Christian’s spirit goes at
death?” I asked. “Why, up to heaven, of course.” “Where do you suppose our Lord’s Spirit
went at His decease?” I enquired. “Why, straight up to His Father in the glory.”
That the believer died and goes to heaven at once seems to be the popular idea
amongst - [the vast majority of regenerate] - 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” [John 3: 13.]; again, after His ascension, it
was written, “David
ascended not into the heavens.” [Acts 2: 34.] But further, we read, our Lord and
the Thief the same day entered the same place, viz., ‘
“If I make my bed in Sheol (=Hades=
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
- [“...the redemption of our BODY” (Rom. 8: 23)] - we can leave the tomb [/ or
‘grave’] enter heaven, and be “forever with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4: 15-18).
Yours, etc.,
-------
DIVINE SEVERITY
CREATOR of my soul’s unrest,
Disturber of my meagre joys,
Whose arrows have laid bare my breast,
And robb’d me of my equipoise;
Draw closer still, and overthrow
My every step that errs from Thee,
And smite with blow that follows blow,
Till Thou hast quite dismember’d me.
And I - like him at Penuel -
Crippl’d of my own strength, arise;
Not Jacob now, but
Stripp’d of all meanness and disguise.
Then shall I know that Thou art God,
Dispenser of all chastening grace,
When Thou shalt spare nor sword, nor
rod,
To draw me to Thy close embrace.
Past finding out are all Thy ways;
And lo, Thy works are very great;
Thy Spirit quickeneth and slays,
Destroys - that it may re-create.
Destroy then! Leave in me no trace,
Of that which
severeth from Thee,
Until I see Thee face to face
In Thy Divine Severity!
WILFRED A. COOK.
-------
“He maketh
the rebel a priest and a King;
He hath brought us, and
taught us this new song to sing:
Uno Him Who hath loved us
and washed us from sin,
Unto Him be
the glory forever. Amen.”
Rev. A. T. PIERSON, D.D.
* *
* * *
* *
74
THE PERSONAL CHARACTER
OF THE ADVENT + 2
“For many
deceivers are gone forth into the world,
even they that
confess not that Jesus Christ cometh in the Flesh”
(2 John
7.)
BY THEODORE ROBERTS
Here the Revised Version has corrected the Old translation,
which, reading as it does “is come,” adds nothing to the test propounded in John’s first
Epistle. The tenses of the Greek word are quite different, being the perfect
and continuing past in the First Epistle (4: 2, 3), and the present used for a future here. The Greek word and
tense here are the same as that translated “He that shall come” in Heb. 10: 37, and “cometh” in Rev. 1: 7. Thus the test in the Second Epistle
“Jesus
Christ cometh in the flesh” declares that His Second Advent will be
as real and personal as the First.
The First Epistle had given its warning against those false
prophets who made no more of the First Coming than a theophany, like the
angelic appearances of the Old Testament, and had insisted upon the confession
of “Jesus Christ come in the flesh” - that is to say, an acknowledgment that He had really become Man. Later in
this Epistle our Lord is spoken of as having “come by water and blood” ([1 John] 5: 6), that is to say, He has passed
through death, of which the ‘blood and water’
that flowed from His side (as John relates in his Gospel) were the witnesses.
In this case the tense of the verb “come” is the aorist, denoting an event past
and over. Later still in the same Epistle we find the phrase “the Son of God is come” ([1 John] 5: 20), used to describe our Lord’s present
position ‘with the Father’ (see [1 John] 2: 1).
So that we can set out the four instances as follows:
1. Jesus Christ is come in the flesh - His birth and permanent humanity.
2. Jesus Christ
came by water and blood - His death.
3. The Son of God is come - His present Resurrection state.
4. Jesus Christ
cometh in the flesh - His future return
in bodily form.
The importance of this last statement found
in the Second Epistle is shown by the warning against the deceivers who do not
confess it. It would appear that they had once belonged to the Christian
community and had now “gone forth (R.V.) into the world,” which is always
regarded in John’s Epistles as something lying outside the believing circle.
Just as the false Idumean King and all Jerusalem with him were
troubled at the inquiry of the astronomers from the East about the birth of the
true King of the Jews, so the politicians and diplomatists of to-day would be
troubled, if they thought the King of Kings was immediately to appear in bodily
form. We read in Rev. 6: 15-17 how the fear of His coming will drive
the rulers of men and their subjects to hide themselves in advance from His
anticipated appearance.
So far from His coming being expected at the
present time, we have the Dean of St. Paul’s in the Edinburgh Review of
January, 1925, writing that “Millenarianism, in its
original shape of a belief in the approaching end of the world is quite dead,
except among persons of very low intellectual cultivation.” He also says
in the same article: “The
whole spirit of the age ... combined to shatter
the old Evangelical party. Its surviving supporters are either old people, or
those who have isolated themselves from all currents of modern thought.”
Alas, there are those going forth from so-called Christian colleges [today in 20: 24], who flatter the men of to-day with smooth speeches, predicting that the reign of peace will be brought about by human means with nothing more than possibly some undefined
spiritual Coming to consummate it. Little do they seem to heed the warning of Scripture - “When they shall say Peace and safety;
then sudden destruction cometh upon them” (1 Thess. 5: 3). The Apostle John does not hesitate to
describe the men of his day who so spoke, as deceivers and anti-christs, making
the confession of our Lord’s personal return the supreme test,* and allowing of no compromise with
these false teachers, as the succeeding warning against entertaining such
persons on their travels proves, “If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine,
receive him not into your house, neither bid him God-speed” (2 John 10).
* So Millennial Dawnists stoutly maintain a Second Advent, but deny the return in flesh, and so deny the
Empty Tomb, and so the whole Christian Faith. This, of course, does not apply to
orthodox post-Millennialists, who
affirm the return in flesh, but postpone
it. - Ed. [D.M.P.]
This “doctrine of Christ” as it is here called, appears to
teach not merely the personal character of the Second Advent but also to assume
the permanence of the Incarnation, for the same phrase “In the flesh” is used by the Apostle John to describe both Advents. This proves that having once assumed
humanity at His First Coming into this world, our Lord remains a true Man while
He is absent from it, and will “so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into
heaven” (Acts
1: 11), as the angels told the disciples on
Ascension Day. This was in accordance with the prophecy of Zechariah (14: 4) that “His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives,” and a reference to the preceding
verse shows that the One Whose feet are thus spoken of and Who is thus clearly “in the flesh,” is no other than Jehovah Himself. As E. L.
Bevir puts it:-
“His bright
return is surely near,
All shall confess Him yet!
The Lord in splendour shall
appear
By way of Olivet.”
So the treatise addressed “To the Hebrews” declares that “the world (the inhabited earth) to come” is to be subjected to the Son of Man ([Heb.] 2: 5-7) in accordance with the prophetic word
of Psalm 8.
There are many differences of opinion amongst God’s [regenerate] people with regard to the details of
the Second Advent, but such differences are not vital and therefore need not
cause any division of feeling. What is vital and can admit of no enfeebling
explanation is the personal [bodily] character of the Coming. As the earliest of the Christian
inspired writings tells us, “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven”
(1 Thess. 4: 16). Any itinerant preacher who will
not confess this is branded by the Apostle John as a deceiver and an antichrist.
It is confirmatory of this to notice
that, while the Apostle Paul in the last of his pre-captivity epistles spoke of
our [future] salvation as being “nearer than when we first believed” (Rom.
13:
11), when he next takes up his inspired
pen four years later in his Roman prison he
passes from the grace of salvation to the Person Who is [coming] to bring it,
saying “We look for the Saviour, the
Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3: 20). This new note he retains to the end,
speaking in his farewell letter to his beloved disciple Timothy of himself as
among those “that love His appearing” (2 Tim. 4: 8).
This growing emphasis of the Apostle on the personal element
in his expectation accords with the way our blessed Lord presents Himself as
the Hope of His disciples’ hearts. For even when at the supper table on the night of the betrayal He tells them
of the place He was about to
prepare for them in the Father’s House, he adds “I will come again and
receive you unto Myself” (John 14: 3). So it is the
personal presentation - [yet future, “...I come again and
will receive you unto
myself...”] - of Himself as the
Root and Offspring of David, the bright
and morning Star (Rev. 22: 16) that provokes the response of the succeeding verse “The Spirit and the Bride say, Come.” We need to lay
this to heart, for there is an attractive power about a Person that no
combination of circumstances can approach. As Sir Edward Denny writes:-
Bride of the Lamb, awake! awake!
Why sleep
for sorrow now?
The hope of glory, Christ, is thine,
A child of glory thou.
Then weep no more - ’tis all thine own
-
His crown, His joy divine;
And, sweeter far than all beside,
He, He Himself is thine.
-------
THE SECOND ADVENT
“If it were not for the inward look,” exclaims Alexander Maclaren, “how could we bear the sight of earth?” So far from the doctrine of the
Lord’s return cutting the nerve of missionary effort, or paralyzing service, it
will yet prove the sole solvent of despair. Dr. Duncam 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 God’s servants, while they were
journeying through this heathen land, not toward darkness but sunrising. When
through the cloudy mistics, moral mists and half-lights of earth the promise of
the glorious appearing is discerned, it determines not only our direction of the journey but also its
character. It settles the question of our real affinities. It connects 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 the 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 and exhausted nature with buoyant energy.”
-------
This tragic plaint, cut by Dr. Robert Speer from a Midras journal and written by a Hindu, is
the heart-cry of the whole sad, tired, disillusioned
world:-
Weary are we of empty creeds,
Of deafening calls to fruitless deeds;
Weary of priests
who cannot pray,
Or guides who show no man the way;
Weary of rights wise men condemn,
Of worship linked with lust and shame;
Weary of custom blind enthroned,
Of conscience trampled, God disowned;
Weary of men in sections cleft,
Hindu life of love bereft;
Women debased, no more a queen,
Nor knowing what she once hath been;
Weary of babbling about birth,
And of mockery men call mirth;
Weary of life not understood,
A
Weary of Kali Yuga years,
Freighted with chaos, darkness, fears,
Life is an ill, the world is wide,
And we are weary: Who shall guide?
The Christian’s cry, even when equally sorely pressed, how
different! As voiced by Mr. Samuel H.
Wilkinson in lines written in 1944:-
Weak as my will, weak is my word;
Hope is there none for me,
Save in the strength Thou doest afford
To those that trust in Thee.
All, all has failed, that I call mine,
And all is failing still:
No strength I trust but Strength Divin
To hold me in Thy will.
My soul when lifted up, is nigh
O danger and to fall,
I dare not strive, I will not cry,
I need Thee: that is all.
Thou art my Saviour, tender, strong,
Thy face O Lord I seek.
For by Thy strength I’m
borne along
Tho’weakest of the weak.
“As we enter into intercession may there come a realization that back
of this spiritual destitution around us, there are Satanic forces of evil (Eph. 6: 10-18), which no human weapons can withstand. Satan’s
power, however, was broken forever by the Blood of Calvary, and the
* *
* * *
* *
75
THE SAYINGS ON THE CROSS + 2
IT is
natural that we should observe closely the words of the dying. When men are
leaving the world, and are aware of it, their words take on an added weight:
for earth is vanishing; thoughts are finally disentangled
from worldly things; whatever sincerity is in the man will be most sincere
then: we listen to a soul almost in the other world. Lord William Russell, on
the scaffold, took his watch from his pocket, and gave it to Dr. Burnett with
the remark, - “I have no further use for this. My thoughts
are in eternity.” The
seven savings on the Cross - seven is the number of revelation: none of the
Evangelists report all; each reports some - are an epitome of the heart of the
dying Christ. They are strikingly grouped. Three are before the Darkness, - handling
His enemies in grace, re-assuring the dying thief, comforting His mother: then
comes the lonely cry in the midnight
of His soul: lastly, three after the
Darkness, concerning Himself alone - His thirst, His finished work, His
commended Spirit. On a cross there is not much time
for speaking: seven short, sharp, pregnant utterances lay bare the heart of the
dying Christ.
1
It would appear that while the nails were being driven in, our
Lord first spoke; for Luke (23:
34) says, - “And when they crucified Him, Jesus said, Father forgive
them; for they know not what they do.” Several Latin writers say that the
frenzied victims, in the moment of the affixing on the cross, would shriek and curse and spit at the executioners. Startling as ever
is the fact, and old as the history of Christ, that this Man, as in life so in
death, never says, - Father forgive Me. In the moment of the fresh, quivering agony, the Lord uttered what
has been the martyrs’ model prayer for two millenniums: in the moment when a
word from Him could have annihilated three thousand - as actually happened from
Sinai - or when He might at least have left them to accomplish their doom, He begins the saving of two thousand years
and He begins it on the Cross. “Father, forgive them”: and what was the Father’s reply? The dying thief, then the
Roman Guard (Matt.
27:
54);
then, within a few days, eight thousand of His enemies; then forty years’
respite for the whole of
2
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
3
The third saying addresses the little loved group standing,
overwhelmed, around the Cross, and strikes the tenderest human note of all:- “When Jesus saw
His mother” - with
a sword, as foretold, through her heart - “He saith, Woman, behold Thy son!”
(John 19: 26). Whom should a dying son think of but
his mother? and as all her sons were still in the camp of the Enemy, He had no
choice but to find her a new son and a new home; and He holds death at bay
until He has made provision for His mother. Here is the death-blow
of another error. If, as
4
We now arrive at a sudden break - a sharp change - as a loud
cry, revealing still unexhausted energies, peals through the darkness. For as
the darkness descended, the Offering was bared before God; and in the exact
moment at which the Paschal Lamb was slain for the sin it bore, the Wrath fell,
and there went up the awful, desolate cry,- “My God,
my God, why hast Thou
forsaken Me?” It was Jesus taking the place of the lost soul. An astronomer says of an eclipse in
When the darkness had gone, with the relaxing tension of a
sacrifice finally offered the Lord yielded to the only physical cry of all:- “Jesus, knowing that all things are now finished,
saith, I thirst”
(John 19:
28).
“I am forsaken” was the agony of a tormented spirit: “I thirst” is the anguish of a tortured body. It
is said that no death exceeds in distress the death by
thirst: this cry is the cry of the battlefield, in
which all other agony is swallowed up. Again we behold
the deathblow of an error. Angels do not thirst; a phantom, an apparition, does
not thirst; God - [the ‘Father’; God ‘the Holy Spirit’] - does not thirst: it is [God,
‘the only
begotten Son’] - “the Man
Christ Jesus,” in Whom all our physical agony met, as He “tasted death for every man.” He thirsted, that we might never cry - “I am
tormented in this flame.”
6
The sixth cry is the triumphant shout of the victorious
Christ. “When Jesus had received the vinegar” - possibly as a final stimulant
for dying utterance - “He said, It is finished”
(John 19:
30). It is the one cry in all literature which
summarizes the work of
7
The seventh utterance is our Lord’s farewell to earth. “When Jesus
had cried with a loud voice, He said, Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said this, He gave
up the ghost - [i.e., His animating ‘spirit’] (Luke 23: 46, [R.V.]). Jesus died in the light. The “My God” has disappeared, and the “Father” has come back: no trace of anxiety or
struggle remains: it is the sigh of a perfect
repose. Here is the deathblow of another error. ‘Jesus,’ says Christian Science, ‘was alive in the
tomb, while the disciples thought Him dead’:
on the contrary, “dismissing” His spirit as the High Priest sacrificing the Lamb, the Lord,
dying exactly as a man dies, “gave up the ghost.” Whatever He intended to do had been
done; whatever the sacrifice had been offered for, that had been accomplished:
the Son restores [surrendered] His ‘spirit’* to
the Father, because for whatever purpose God had become incarnate, that purpose
Incarnate Godhead had accomplished for ever.
[* NOTE: At the precise time of Death, - (our ‘spirit’
returns
to God Luke
23: 46;
cf.
Luke 8:
55,
- “...and her spirit
returned [after death] and she rose up immediately...”): when our ‘body’ and ‘soul’ are separated! Our ‘body’ immediately decomposes and returns to ‘dust’ (with the only
exception of our Lord’s sinless
‘body’). The precise time which our
Lord’s body lay in Joseph’s tomb, was the precise time of His sojourn in the
underworld of the dead as a disembodied ‘soul’ - (like that of His disciples. See Acts 2:
27,
34;
Luke 16:
22,
23;
John 3:
13;
2 Tim. 2: 18; cf. 1 Sam. 28: 7-19, R.V.). Only
after
‘three days and nights’ was His select
Resurrection ‘from the dead.’ That is, all
that Death had separated - His ‘spirit’, ‘body’ and ‘soul’ - was then reunited: and He then showed
Himself, and conversed with His chosen disciples during His post-Resurrection
ministry. (See Luke
24: 1-50. cf.
Acts 1:
1-9,
R.V.).]
A company of
-------
HAST THOU SEEN THE CRUCIFIED?
By NARAYAN VAMAN TILAK,
the Indian Poet.
Hast thou ever seen the Lord, Christ
the Crucified?
Hast thou seen those wounded hands?
Hast thou seen His side ?
Hast thou seen the cruel thorns woven
for His crown?
Hast thou, hast thou seen His blood,
dropping, dropping down?
Hast thou seen who that one is who has
hurt Him so?
Hast thou seen the sinner, cause of
all His woe?
Hast thou seen how He, to save,
suffers thus and dies?
Hast thou seen on whom
He looks with His loving eyes?
Hast thou ever, ever seen love that
was like this?
Hast thou given up thy life wholly to
be His?
-------
INTERCESSION
A tender and profound word comes to us
from William Law on love springing
out of prayer for one 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 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.”
* *
* * *
* *
76
THE JEW: GOD’S DIAL.
By D. M.
PANTON, B.A.
THE last
Zionist Congress, in
THE JEW’S SURVIVAL
The Jew to-day is the purest-blooded people, and the proudest-descended
race, in the world: it is a marvel of history that exactly as no race has been
able to assimilate the Jew, so no race, universally dispersed as he is, has
ever survived but the Jew:
what he was when Tyre fell, or the Temple went up in smoke and fire, that he is
to-day. His
features bear a portrait three thousand years old. “
THE JEW’S VIRILITY
One of the wonders of to-day is the virility of the Jew. The Jewish Chronicle estimates that at the beginning of the
sixteenth century, the Jews numbered about a million; at the commencement of
the nineteenth century, five millions; half a century later, seven millions;
now, [in 1925 / 25]
- some fifteen millions: and- a perfect replica of Israel in Egypt - the land
of Israel’s chief martyrdom (Russia) is the land of her swiftest increase.
Have we realized
THE JEW’S BIGOTRY
The Jew’s bigotry remains one of the granite facts of the
world. Spinoza, one of the founders of modern infidelity, began by apostasy
from the Law; and his excommunication is but a sample of that which awaits every
soul that leaves Moses. “The day of excommunication at
length arrived,” says Prof. J. K. Hosmer, “and
a vast concourse assembled to witness the awful ceremony. It began by the
silent and solemn lighting of a quantity of black wax candies, and by opening
the tabernacle wherein were deposited the books of the Law of Moses. Then came the final anathema. ‘With the
judgment of the angels and of the saints, we excommunicate, cut off, curse and
anathematize Baruch de Espinoza, with the consent of the elders and all this
holy congregation, in the presence of the holy books: by the six hundred and
thirteen precepts which are written therein, with the anathema wherewith Joshua
cursed Jericho, with the curse which Elisha laid upon the children, and with
all the curses which are written in the law. Cursed be he by day and
cursed be he by night. Cursed be he in sleeping, and cursed be he in waking,
cursed in going out and cursed in coming in. The Lord shall not pardon him, the wrath and the fury of the Lord shall henceforth be
kindled against him and shall lay upon him all the curses written in the Book
of the Law. The Lord shall destroy his name under the sun, and cut him off for
his undoing from all the tribes of
It is an indisputable fact that a painful proportion of
Bolshevist Commissars are Jews. Disraeli said that in his day Jews were at the
head of all the secret societies of
THE JEW’S TRAVAIL
To-day’s agony of the Jew is almost incredible. The entire
Jewish population of the Russian Western War Zone - some million and a half - were
evacuated into the interior of
THE JEWS RETURN
It is manifest that the granite Jew is being reserved for a
gigantic destiny which slowly unfolds before our eyes:
for the Jew is God’s dial; and when he is in the Land, the Dawn will be in the
sky. Dr. Herzl told a friend that it was the despair created in his soul by
universal Anti-Semitism, in which Zionism was born. The gates of
THE JEW’S CONVERSION
But it is on one golden spot in Jewry
that God’s eye now supremely rests. Rabinowitz, the noted Jewish Christian
lawyer, visiting
* *
* * *
* *
77
THE CLUE OF THE AGES + 1
By the Rev. R. L.
LACEY:
As a lamp despised in the
thought of him that is at ease
(Job 12: 5).
1
OWEN WISTER did America and England alike a
conspicuous service when he wrote and published “A STRAIGHT DEAL, OR THE ANCIENT GRUDGE,”
calculated, as it surely is, to break down ancient barriers of prejudice, and
to cement a most natural and serviceable friendship between two great
countries.
On the religious plane, another book has
lately been published, which is calculated to do an even greater service
than Owen Wister’s has achieved on the political plane. I refer to CHRISTABEL PANKHURST’S “THE LORD COMETH OR
THE WORLD CRISIS EXPLAINED.”
It, too, is a Straight Deal, helps to remove a very ancient
Grudge, and does not exaggerate in claiming - a big claim, surely - to explain
the World-Crisis in which we are living to-day. This clear,
sane, living exposition of the Prophecies of Holy Scripture (as related more
especially to our Lord’s approaching Second Advent) is made more impressive by
its testimony, “flashes of spiritual insight that are
beyond the power of flesh and blood to reveal,” and irresistible
appeals; and Christabel Pankhurst, pleader for God and Advent Testimony Truth,
is discovered as even more effective than Christabel Pankhurst, ruthless and
fiery political agitator.
“The events that are transpiring
around us to-day,” writes Dr. Meyer, “are exactly such
as our Master’s words taught us to expect, as preparing His pathway; and new
voices, from unexpected quarters, are crying Ecce Venit; amongst which we greet that of
Christabel Panklitirst, to whom this Message has been entrusted and who,
turning from all other methods of world-renewal, bids us lift up our heads and
rejoice, because the Redeemer
draweth nigh.”
I am not sure that Dr. Meyer himself has ever compressed more truth into a few sentences than in
the brief “FOREWORD”
he contributes to this volume. They merit the widest publicity press, platform
and pulpit can give them. “The truth of the Lord’s
Second Advent,” he writes, “is held
theoretically by all Evangelical Christians; but, as that Advent is relegated
to some far away and distant future, it is inoperant as a factor in the life
and outlook of the professing Church. Far otherwise was it with the Church of
the Apostolic Age. The Hope of our Lord’s Return was held
with tenacious faith as an immediate prospect. It inspired the martyr in the
arena, the friends that gathered around the departing saint, and the little groups
that stole out with all secrecy to gather around the Table of loving memory and
anticipation. They did not place their hope of world-betterment
on political or social reorganisation, but on His Advent Who said, ‘Behold
I make all things new,’ and though centuries intervene between His
spoken promise and the present hour, the lapse of time is of no account in
those eternal estimates, in which a thousand years are as one day, and one day
as a thousand years. We believe, therefore, that God is not slack concerning
His promise; and that there is no reason why the gleam of the Advent may not
break in on the world in its present condition of unpreparedness. ‘In such an hour as ye think
not, the Son of Man cometh.’”
2
With impressive simplicity, her book tells the story of
Christabel Pankhurst’s Conversion, the literary firstfruits of which is this
beautiful writing of which I am now speaking.
Let her tell her own story.
“This faith, that Jesus will soon
come again, first dawned upon me in 1918,” she writes. “When the acute danger of the earlier months of that year was
over, with the Allied Armies on the way to Victory, one could review the
experience of the War and, in the light of it, envisage the future. Like so
many others, I had lived in an atmosphere of illusion, thinking that once
certain obstacles were removed, especially the disfranchisement of women, it would be full steam ahead for the ideal social and
international order. I had even thought that after its tragic interruption by
the War, the march of progress would, if the Allies were victorious,
proceed according to pre-War programme. But when,
in 1918, I really faced the facts, I saw that the War was not ‘a War to end
War,’ but was, despite our coming
Victory, a beginning of sorrows. Considering the issues, the events and
currents and cross-currents of the War, and relating it, also, to the history
of times past, and having regard to the way things go and ever have gone, even
in times of peace, this is what I realised as I never had realised it before.
It is not laws, nor institutions, nor any national or international machinery, that are at fault, but human nature itself. Dark, dark was the future as I looked into a vista of new warfare,
with intervals of strain, of stress, of international intrigue, of horrible
preparations and inventions for slaughter - times of so-called peace, that
would be hardly less terrible, and no less demoralising, than actual War - not
to speak of all sorts of accompanying economic troubles, and social and
political decadence. Just then, by what seemed a chance discovery in a
bookshop, I came across writings on Prophecy, which pointed out that in the
Bible there are oracles foretelling and diagnosing the world’s ills, and
promising that they shall be cured. Until that day, I had taken the prophecies
of the Bible no more seriously than a great many other
people (often professing Christians) still do take them. I had simply ignored
them, never thinking that they had any bearing whatever upon World-problems of
our time. But now I eagerly followed up the clue which
this bookshop discovery had given me. What did I read? That God foreknew, and
has foretold in the Bible, the evils of this Age, and their gathering and
darkening as the Age draws to its close - above all, that He has promised the
Return of Jesus Christ, to Whom He has reserved the Imperial Sceptre of the
World. Thus, World-power will cease to be the cause of
fratricidal human strife, for it will be exercised in divine wisdom and
love by the Son of God. ‘AH! THAT IS THE SOLUTION!’
My heart stirred to it. My practical political eye saw that this Divine
Programme is absolutely the only one that can solve the international, social,
political or moral problems of the world. The only trouble was,
that it seemed too good to be true. As yet, I believed
not for very joy. The mourning disciples could not for joy believe they saw
their risen Lord, and I, for the same cause, feared to believe that ‘this same Jesus’ will really
come to break the vicious circle of history, put an end to human failure, and
begin an entirely new dispensation. I can apply to myself the reproach earned
by the disciples - ‘O fools, and slow of heart
to believe all that the prophets have spoken concerning Him.’
“It is just this reproach, too, most of us have so
richly merited, alas, and thus been deprived of the incentive, the comfort, the
light GOD’S GOLDEN LAMP OF PROPHECY
was intended to supply. ‘he Lamp is necessary, for
without it the light would have no protection and no point in which it could be
discerned in the full glow of its power.’ Yet is it ‘AS A LAMP DESPISED IN THE THOUGHT OF HIM
THAT IS AT EASE.’
“But now I eagerly followed up the
clue this bookshop discovery had given me.” And
she had her reward! Follow up the clue, reader, for it is THE CLUE OF THE AGES.*
* In the good providence of God the
writer of this article “came across writings on prophecy” also a few years ago,
to which he feels as deeply indebted as Miss Pankliurst
to her “chance discovery in a bookshop.” I have sometimes wondered if it is the
same book to which we both owe so much. My own little
book consists of Eight Lectures on Prophecy, contributed by two deeply-versed authors on their respective subjects. The
peculiar value of the volume consists in its profoundly instructive, scholarly,
faithful and Scriptural expositions of the prophetic Scriptures of the Old and
New Testaments alike, and Scripture-lovers will find it so satisfying because
so Scriptural.
Scarcely less instructive than her satisfying and Scriptural
treatment of her main thesis, is this gifted writer’s view of the destructive
critics of the Holy Scriptures and their would-be exposures of almost every
work of Holy Writ - exposures, however, which “expose”
nothing more effectually than the unbelief of the critics.
I like this upon Daniel. “Yes! Daniel the prophet. I well know that critics
have tried to discredit Daniel; but as his prophetic claim has been
authenticated by the Son of God, and as his
prophecies have, through the centuries, been steadily turning into history, I
consider these mistaken critical contentions unworthy the waste of one drop of
ink in reply. Daniel comes as scatheless from the ‘critics’ den’ as he came
from the lions’ den.”
For myself the study of the Scriptures for many years (but
never more profitably than to-day) has always kept me much too up-to-date for
such “Modernism” as we are
now being menaced with. So I was not surprised
to read in this authoress’s Introduction: “Throughout
this book I have ignored destructive criticism of the Bible, because that criticism
is now old-fashioned, superannuated, based on an exploded materialism which
could no longer claim to be scientific, had no foundation in historic fact, was
wholly unphilosophical, and was false to real experience of life. The
originators of destructive criticism, in its different varieties, allowed
themselves to be misled by imperfect human knowledge -
misapplied- instead of relying upon revelation concerning truths outside the
bounds of human discovery.
“The Bible rings true, and never
truer than in these critical days. It has the note of authority. Without its
revelation concerning the future into which we are even now entering, humanity
would be sailing without chart or compass into a totally unknown, rock-strewn
sea. There
is literally no other guide. All other books dealing with future
developments prove vague, speculative, and baseless generalities.”
One word more from our authoress’s
impressive witness to Advent Testimony Truth - and a word of Holy Scripture - and
I have done.
“There is a question I would ask
those people who, in spite of His own promise, and in spite of the signs of
these times, still deny that the Son of Man will return with power and great
glory to establish His Kingdom upon the Earth. The question is this. Do you WANT this Man to reign over the World?
If you do not, there is no more to be said. If you do
want Him to reign, then begin to search the Scriptures which
testify of Him. Pray for understanding, for the wisdom of God, which makes foolish the poor wisdom of this world.”
Reader, I entreat, “Do not cast from
you your confident Hope, for it will receive a VAST REWARD. For you stand in need of patient endurance so that, as
the result of having done the Will of God, you may receive the promised
blessing. For there is still but a short time, and then THE COMING ONE WILL COME AND WILL NOT DELAY” (
[On Miss Pankhurst’s conversion a
friend of the Editor wrote as follows:- “I was associated with her father, the late Dr. Pankhurst, a
great barrister, who was the legal adviser for the City of
-------
DYING INTO LIFE
(Galatians 2: 19, 20)
Oh, gladsome change! Oh, rich exchange!
What wealthy loss is this!
I lose my worthless all, to gain
Eternal life and bliss.
I give up naught when all is gone,
I get all God can give;
For I in Christ am
made complete,
And He in me doth live.
For death in Him is saving death
And freedom from the past;
And life in Him is saving life,
True liberty at last:
For He and I are join’d in one,
I live, and yet not I;
I lose myself and sins, but gain
Himself, the Lord Most High.
To cease from self - its useless toil,
Its futile struggling o’er:
To rest in Christ- through Him to gain
The victory more and more:
To bury self in His dark tomb,
And worship it no more:
To make my heart His Sacred throne,
And Him alone adore.
G. H. LANG.
* *
* * *
* *
78
LIT TORCHES: READINESS
FOR THE ADVENT.
THE virgin character is one of God's chosen symbols for the
regenerate soul. " 1 espoused you," says Paul‑you, all the
Corinthian Christians‑" to one husband, that
I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ " (11. Cor. Xi. 2). In the
Ten Virgins‑virgins in Christ's sight, not merely virgins before the
world (Stier)‑this truth is strongly reinforced
by the figure of lit lamps.* " The spirit
of man is ill C LAMP of the Lord
" (Prov. XX. 27): oil is the unfailing figure of the Spirit of God: so all
ten virgins are souls burning with the flame of spiritual life; lamps actually
kindled; God's lights in the world; like John, " a burning and a shining
lamp " (John v. 35). " The Virgins," as
Greswell says, " are all who agree in the common
character of Christians, and in the common circumstance of being subjected to
an economy of probation on Christian principles."
Moreover, all are bridesmaids, and so
all are presumably clothed, as invited guests, with the wedding garment‑the
imputed righteousness of Christ: the parable belongs to bridesmaids alone. All Ten‑torches in hand‑thought
that the Advent was immediately at hand and eagerly responded to its call.
But it is the' responsibility side of tl~e Virgin character, as the number ten‑Ten
Commandments, Ten Plagues, Ten Servants, etc.‑always indicates: virgins
divided, not into " good " and " bad
". much less into " saved " and " lost ", but into
" wise "‑prudent, farseeing, rightly regardful of their own
interests‑and " foolish "‑imprudent, improvident,,
spiritually thriftless. So identical are they in basic character that the same reuard is Proposed and suggested to all‑the inaugural Banquet of Messiah's coming
Kingdom. the reward of their faith ‑and
obedience which is proposed to any, is proposed to all, and if attainable by
any is attainable by all " (Greswell).
So then we find that the suprerne‑
qualitv emphasized, which severs the Virgins into two groups, and which makes
· Outdoor lamps,
or torches. " It was the custom to bring the bride in the night‑time
; there were about ten stags ; and upon the top of each was a brazen dish,
containing rags, oil, and pitch " (Rabbi Solonno), which was fed with oil
from another vessel.
the startling distinction of destiny, is
READINESS. " The
foolish, when they took their lamps, took no
oil with them : i
but the wise took oil in their vessels
"‑the cans or flasks
they carried with the torches, for
replenishing the oil
" with their lamps " (Matt. xxv. 3). The wise and foolish
virgins are identical in nine points, they
differ only in one.
All were virgins‑regenerate; all
ten lamps were lit‑by
the indwelling Spirit; all expected the
Bridegroom‑at the
Second Advent; all go forth to meet
Him‑‑outside the
camp; all fell asleep‑in death; all
hear the midnight cry
‑the Advent shout; all rise
together‑in resurrection; all
trim their lamps‑anxious to appear
shining before their
Lord; and all appear, for separating
judgment, before the
Bridegroom. The solitary difference between them
lies in
the absence of a supply of additional oil : it is not a difference
between those who have some oil and those who
have no
oil; but between those who have some and
those who have
more. " The supply
of oil laid up in these vessels, being
necessarily something distinct from the stock
contained in
the lamps, if that was to be called the ordinary supply, this
must be called the extraordinary " (Greswell).* So far from
the foolish being unlit lamps,
unregenerate souls, it is the
very forefront of their offence that their
self‑security rests on
their being
lit lamps‑they are confident that the flame of
regeneration, the indwelling of the Spirit, is
amply sufficient
preparation for the Advent; while they are
ignorant, or
sceptical, of the fact that " a common
belonging to the
Church looking for Christ's Parousia,
and therefore a
common waiting and hoping for the day of the
Lord, does
not exclude a perilous distinction of
folly and wisdom among
individual disciples as regards the manner in
which one
class and the other make ready for the
Lord's coming
(Goebel). The lamp possessed by all, is an invitation to the
Wedding Festival :
the mistake the Foolish make is to regard
it as a passport. The prudent virgin, on the contrary
corresponding to the faithful servant who trades
with the
talents‑makes ready, consciously and deliberately,
by an
experience of sanctity unknown to the foolish,
and achieved
'altogether
subsequently to the kindling of the torch. " This
exhortation," says Calvin, " is to
confirm believers in per
severance. Christ says that believers need to
have incessant
We have a curiously apt
parallel in petrol and the motor; for additional
spirit is reserved and carried in a spare can or separate compartment of the
tank, to use when the machine, through exhaustion of the spirit in it, begins
~o die down.
supplies of courage, to support
the flame which is kindled in their
hearts; otherwise their zeal will fail ere they have completed the journey."
Now one great event befalls them all. " Now while the Bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered
"‑fell sick, passed into coma‑" and slept "‑died.
That the sleep is innocent is obvious, because it befalls the wise equally with
the foolish, and is nowhere rebuked; and thus nearly all the ancient
interpreters expound it : had it been spiritual sleep,
the conferring on the wise virgins of supreme reward would have been utterly
impossible. It is thus extraordinarily significant, and pregnant with warning,
that two believersmanifestly such, with shining lamps*‑can fall asleep
exactly alike, otherwise indistinguishable, both supposing themselves perfectly
prepared for the Advent; yet one is ready for the Lord, and one not‑and nothing but the event will
reveal which is which. The very delay is designed as the discriminating test : as years and decades pass we are proving ourselves wise or foolish. For here (in this context) is
the whole
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 watershed of severed
epochs‑" there is a cry "‑apparently from the Lord's 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. As all arise at once,
all are believers : for " the rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years
should he finished " (Rev. xx. 5)
it is an axiom of Scripture that the
wicked and the holy do not rise together. All the lamps had gone on burning
through the night; all have saving grace that survives death
: but now the foolish virgins discover their disastrous mistake. " Our lamps," they cry, " are going out "; not gone out, for (as
Archbishop Trench points out) they ask,
Whether we translate
(with A.V.) ‑‑‑are gone out," or (with R.V.)
are going out," both equally imply
that all are possessed of the Spirit, and all are ignited from Christ. " If you deny that the torches of the foolish. had any oil, 1 deny it equally to the torches of the wise
" (Govett).
not for kindling, but for oil. It is the same word as is used ~1. Thess. v. ig) for the, quenching of the, Sp~rit. They had
thought that they would shine be£oTe‑ the Lord by regenerating grar‑‑‑
alone.. now, shocked ~nto w~sdom, they are, wisethey
are not called foolish after arising‑too late . not
an hour, not a minute, remains for readiness. VIF is iiFPF,. 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." For now, though at last appearing with the oil‑as
we
may reasonably suppose; for they would
hardly repeat their mistake of appearing a second time without it : therefore now as fully equipped as the rest‑they
have lost the Banquet. " Afterward came also the other virgins, saying,
Lord, Lord "‑these are hearts that feel acutely their separation
from Christ‑" open to us
" ; for nothing but the Lord's own utterance will convince many believers
of our coming judgment, and of our peril of exclusion from countless rewards,
and not merely (as here) from the KingdGm's inaugural banquet. The foolish hope now to get as afavour what they had forfeited as
a right. " But He answered and said, Verily 1 say unto you, I know you not ": you are strangers
to Me, because you were not ready to receive Me (Goebel).* Our Lord is most
careful not to say what He said to empty professors,‑" 1 NEVER knew
you; depart from Me, ye that woTk
iniquity " (Matt. Vii. 23): nor could He say it;
for had He come earlier in the first shining of their lamps, they were ready. He says, instead, 1 do not Tecognize you, as guests; I know you not
in the capacity for which I invited you : as you have
not paid due honour to either the Bride or the Bridegroom, 1 cannot rank you
with those who have. They were Bridesmaids, but they had fallen out of the
procession. It was curiously illustrated a few months ago when a young lady,
asked why she passed a young man of her acquaintance ~vithout notice, said :‑" 1 have unknown him." The force of the pungent words has proved too
clear to be missed. " We
must observe that in
* It does not seem to me honourable to
accept the honey on the Lord's table, and to refuse
His garlic. But the Greek lifts some measure of the
severity. " It does not mean, ' I know nothing of you,' but, according to
the well known use of et'8Evat with the accusative of
the person‑' 1 know you not,' namely, as bridesmaids and sharers in the
feast," (Goebel). Another word (y ty v(~o. KO) means knowledge of character; as in Matt. vii. 23,
John v. 42, x. 14, 27, 1. Cor. vili. 3, 11. Tim. ii, ig : this word (On.) means Persotial intimacy; Matt. xxvi. 72, 74 ;
John i. 33.
have not the terrible addition, Depart the present case we
from Me. The sentence of exclusion from
Christ's presence h dooms souls to the is not equivalent to that of ver. 41,
whic
everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his
angels. These five virgins had received the grace of God, and
used it well for a time, and only failed at the last for lack of care
and watchfulness. It is not improbable that the exclusion refers to the
deprivation of participation in Messiah's future kin~‑dom, whatever that
may be, according to the vision in Rev. xx..* These
virgins represent believers divided into two sections; evidently they are all
supposed to hold the true faith, and to be pure and undefiled followers of the
Lord, to be waiting for His coming, and to love His appearing; but some fail
for lack of grace or of perseverance."
Finally, we are left in no manner of doubt by our Lord Himself as to what
the whole purport and purpose of His parable is, its overwhelming stress
and strain. ".1,1'atch THEREFORE, for ye know not "‑ye apostles and
disciples, wholly and solely concerned : no dead soul can ever be told to
" watch "‑" the day nor the hour not wake to life by
conversion; but, watch as those already wide awake. All the Virgins begin ready, but all
do not end ready; and nothing
is so deadly as the easy doctrine that all will somehow come right, apart from
urgent warning and constant watchfulness. In Goebel's admirable summary of the Parable :‑" No one is to suppose, because he
belongs to the
Parousia, seeing that on the speedy
coming of the Lord in the moment least expected, this want of self‑preparation
will
be revealed, and, because then incapable
of remedy, will
irretrevably exclude from the blessedness of God's
king
dom." The sacred oil of sanctity can
be got, for keeping a
blazing lamp and a radiant life : but without sleepless
vigilance, prudent foresight, incessant
guarding against
danger and surprise, it will become the
dying throb of a
d degree of Christian
famished motor.* " Every kind an
This inference errs by excess. That
for much graver offences " the
Lord will then receive into the
kingdom of glory only those who are ready
to receive and stand before Him, but
will exclude all the unprepared
(Goebel), other Scriptures in
abundance assert; but here, for the mere
negation of additional oil, no more is
threatened than exclusion from the brief scene of joy, the festival of
indescribable honour, pourtrayed as a Marriage Feast.
Pulpit Commentary.
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 " (Jas. iv. 6). ' The
" wisdom " of the child of God consists in readiness; and readiness can only be
main~ tained by constant grace. In a Southern Army Camp, an officer, training
an awkward squad who would invariably put the wrong foot foremost, at last
cried in exasperation," Men! take your eyes off
your feet; look up, and your feet will follow your eyes." Absorb Christ, and our walk will follow our
gaze into the Glory.
Mr. Govett, in his
two valuable pamphlets on the Parable, makes out a strong case for supposing
that the additional oil is the miraculous supply (Gal. iii. 5) of the Holy
Ghost, long lost: if so, the Marriage Feastcorresponding to a coronation
banquet confined to the privy council and the peers and statesmen of the realm‑will
be shared only by apostles, prophets, and the miracle‑gifted and
inspired. The principle of the Parable, however, in
any case is certain; and to it I have confined myself :‑namely,
that readiness, and not regeneration only, is essential for approval at the
Advent.
SATISFIED.
Not with my life‑work, finish'd,
past, Shall I be " satisfied " at last : Not with the gifts I brought
my Lord, Nor with my knowledge of His Word: Not with the witness these lips
gave Unto the One Who died to save: Not with my service, or my love, Shall 1 be
" satisfied " above.
Faulty and weak is my poor best,
Needing cleansing with all the rest. Only from Christ come grace and power, Sure sufficiency every hour. He is my glory and my song, He,
Who has led me all along; And in the Light no cloud candim 1 shall be " satisfied " with Him.
79
THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST AND
HIS UTTERANCES
By Rev. E. L. LANGSTON.
“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.”
(St. Matthew 24: 35; St. Mark 13: 31; St. Luke 21: 33)
-------
1. - AN EPOCH MAKING STATEMENT.
THESE
words bring us face to face with an irresistible alternative, and one whose
issues cannot be avoided.
He Who said these words “Heaven and
earth shall pass away, but My words shall not
pass away,” must
be either Divine or demented; either an irresponsible fanatic, or Very God of
Very God. There can be no middle ground upon which we can
take our stand concerning this matter.
In the light of this statement, the authority of the words of
Jesus Christ of Nazareth cannot be called into
question. Everybody must decide one way or other, either that He was God, or
else He was insane.
Surely, it is an amazing sign of the times, that scholarly and
apparently earnest Christian men doubt the authority and trustworthiness of our
Lord’s utterances. Yet, alas, we are faced with the fact to-day,
that many of our leading theologians, scholars and preachers, call into
question the absolute authority and accuracy of the words of our Lord.
It is therefore essential for us to investigate the whole
question, and in so doing, we shall find that as a result
of a close study of our Lord’s own testimony both to Himself and to His
utterances, that the matter is settled once and for all.
Let us for a moment try by imagination to transfer ourselves
in thought to the days in which our Lord lived.
Here was a poor man of the most despised nation on the earth,
the son of a humble Jewish carpenter of the most despised village in that
country, and apparently only an illiterate peasant, speaking to a few fisher
folk and others upon the
In this remarkable forecasting of
events, He Himself said that Jerusalem should be under the heel and domination
of the Gentile nations, until a certain time when “the
times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled,” when the city of Jerusalem
should be freed from Gentile power; and that when that came to pass it would be
one of the great signs of His return again to this earth; not this time as a poor
carpenter’s son, the apparently illiterate peasant, but triumphantly in the
clouds of heaven with hosts of angels, “with power and great glory,” and that
He would judge and reign over the nations of this earth.
Try and place yourself in the midst
of that little group on the
Think of the important meaning attached to this remarkable
statement! He bade His disciples look at the sun, moon and stars, and then on
the earth with all their apparent stability, and He
boldly said to them that though heaven and earth should pass away, His words
would still abide unaltered, unchanged, and unchangeable. Surely
“Never man spake like
this Man!”
This statement carries with it the impression of its own
truthfulness, and we are constrained to see in this Jesus of Nazareth, none
other than Deity Incarnate. Here in the form of man is the Creator of the
heavens and the earth, Whose words are more sure than His own creation. Yes, “Heaven and earth shall
pass away, but My words shall not pass away.”
2. - WHAT IS IMPLIED BY
THIS STATEMENT?
1. The conscious knowledge of the
speaker Himself of all the difficulties and contingencies
which in the future should arise to hinder the fulfilment of these His
words.
Undoubtedly He could and did both foreknow, and
foresee, all the eventualities that would seek to hinder the fulfilment of His
words. This Man of Nazareth was therefore superhuman, and supernatural, in His
knowledge and foresight. None other than God Himself could thus forecast, and
foretell the happenings of the future.
2. In the second place, this statement “Heaven and
earth shall pass away, but My
words shall not pass away,” implies that the Speaker Himself had at His command, power
and wisdom sufficient to meet and control any combination of opposing forces.
Take for example the predictions in St. Matthew 24: 14, with regard to the preaching of the
Gospel of the Kingdom, as a witness to all nations. As we look back upon the
history of the past nineteen centuries, what tremendous forces have been and
still are arrayed against this divine programme.
Empires, governments, kings, princes, public opinion, have done all they could
devise to prevent the preaching of the Gospel.
False systems of religion down the ages have tended to silence
those who have sought to preach the Gospel. Yet to-day, as never previously,
the Gospel is being preached as a witness to the nations.
Men may plot and plan, and all the powers of hell with all the unseen demons of
darkness may do what they may, yet He Who was the lowly Jesus of Nazareth has
at His disposal wisdom and might, greater and stronger than any seen or unseen
opposing forces.
“Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but MY words
shall not pass away.”
3. This statement implies the conscious
unchangeableness of His purpose.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words, under no conceivable contingency, will - either be
modified or altered. There is only one Person who could thus speak, and that is
our unchangeable God.
4. What reference has this statement to
the doctrines our Lord taught?
There is nothing ambiguous, vague or hazy about what our Lord
taught when He was here upon earth. He did not mince His
words. He told men that they were slaves of sin, and in consequence they were lost spiritually. That no man could
either see or enter the
It is just here, in this enlightened democratic century, that
many theologians wish to cross swords with the Lord Jesus. They say they cannot
accept the same religious teaching that was promulgated
in the first century. Those that believe in the ipsissima verba of Christ, they
say, must recognize that there is such a thing as “progressive
revelation”; that men therefore know more to-day than either our Saviour
or His disciples did.
Modern scholars may say what they like but they cannot get away from what the Saviour said, when He was here upon
earth, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but MY words shall
not pass away.”
5. Let us apply this statement to the warnings of our Lord. He gave us warnings many
- “He that believeth not the Son,
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.”
Surely this refers to our Lord’s utterances,
as well as to His claims! That we are not wrong in thus interpreting this
verse, we find as the result of a close study of the following passages -
Look again at another remarkable statement of our Lord’s; in
This is a tremendous position for any man to take up; but in
our Lord’s High Priestly prayer, St. John 17., verse 8, He says, “For I have
given unto them the words which Thou gavest Me.” Language cannot be plainer; He
Himself substantiated this very clearly in
Man may ignore these statements - many do; men may cavil at
them - many do! Men may prove to their own satisfaction that these words do not
mean what some people think they do; yet over and against their ignoring, their
cavilling, their discarding, their explaining away, stands this tremendously
solemn statement, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.”
6. Let us apply this statement to the promises of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
“Come unto Me
all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest.”
“Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out.”
“I will give unto My
sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish.”
“I will not leave thee nor forsake
thee.”
These and hundreds of other promises, our Lord assures us are
in the eternal purposes of God for those who believe and accept Him. “Heaven and
earth shall pass away, but MY words shall not pass away.”
7.
Let us apply this
statement to His Predictions. What are predictions but promises and warnings?
Our Lord predicted that there would
come false prophets, or teachers, and as a result of their false teaching “iniquity should
abound” and the love
of many wax cold, there would be “distress amongst nations,” perplexity, men’s hearts failing them
for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth. He
foretold that at the very period when He should come the second time His own professed
[and regenerate] servants should slumber and sleep, and
not be ready for His coming.
He clearly indicated that the professing Church in the last
days would comprise two distinct classes of people, “the
wise and the foolish,” “the wheat and the tares,”
the professing and the possessing
Christian, and that there would come a great separation day, when He would come
as lightning from heaven suddenly, unexpectedly and unannounced. In St. Luke 13:
25 He very solemnly predicted the fate
of those who would not be ready, the unprepared, the professor who was not a
possessor - [of ‘the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 5: 32; cf. 1 John 3:
24,
R.V.)]
“When once the Master of the house is
risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door,
saying, Lord,
Lord, open unto us; and He shall answer and say unto you, I know you not, whence ye are.
Then shall ye begin to say, we have eaten and drunk in Thy presence.”
That is to say, We have knelt at the
Lord’s table, we have partaken of the Lord’s supper or Holy Communion. “Thou hast taught in our streets,” yes, we have
attended the House of God, we have heard Thy word expounded, but He shall say,
“I tell you I know you not whence ye
are; depart from Me all
ye workers of iniquity.”
What bitter disappointment there will be that day amongst the
so-called Christians of Christendom who are not ready for His coming. These words may seem hard to understand, but let us
never forget that He Who spoke them said,
“Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but My words shall not pass away.”
In the light therefore, of our study
of our Lord’s statement, and His testimony both to Himself and to His words and
to His utterances, let us take all the more heed to what He said, and to what
He promised, what He warned, and what He predicted, for this we know, “God manifest
in the flesh” in
the form of the lowly Jesus of Nazareth, said,
“HEAVEN AND EARTH SHALL PASS AWAY, BUT MY WORDS SHALL
-------
[NOTE: After
reading the above writing, and learning more of our Lord and Saviour Jesus the
Christ, - and what He expects from His REDEEMED
and REGENERATE people. Therefore, we do not hesitate to quote, once again, “THE FATAL LINE”
by Dr. ALEXANDER: keeping in mind
that our
WORKS - after receiving initial SALVATION (by faith alone, as a “the free gift of God” Rom.
6:
24,
R.V.) we will be REWARDED (by the
nature of our WORKS afterwards, in one way or another,) by our RIGHTEOUS JUDGE after Death: for it
is written - “... it is appointed unto men once to die,
and after this cometh judgment”! (Heb. 9: 28b.,
R.V.)
See also Col. 3: 22-25, R.V., - “Servants,
OBEY* in all things them that are your masters according to the flesh; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of
heart, FEARING the LORD: whatsoever YE do,
work heartily,” {Gk. ‘from the soul’} “as unto the LORD, and
not unto men; knowing that from the LORD ye shall
receive the recompense” {or reward} “of the INHERITANCE: ye serve the LORD
CHRIST. For he that DOETH WRONG shall
receive AGAIN the wrong that he hath
done: AND
THERE IS NO RESPECT OF
PERSONS.” * All CAPITALS in bold are mine.]
-------
There is a line by us unseen
That crosses every path -
The hidden boundary between
God’s patience and His wrath
To pass that line 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 the forehead God has set
Indelibly a mark,
(Unseen by man, for man as yet,
Is blind and in the dark).
Indeed, the doom of one’s path below
May bloom as
He did not, does not, will not know.
Or feel, that he is doom’d.
He feels, perchance, that all is well,
And every fear is calm’d;
He lives, he dies, he wakes in Hell - *
Not only doom’d
but damn’d.
Oh, where is that mysterious bourn
By which our path is cross’d,
Beyond which God Himself hath sworn
That he who goes is lost.
-------
[* Keep
in mind: Throughout the King James 1611 translation, the use of the word “Hell” is not correct and therefore very misleading!
See The Revised Version, the American Standard Version 1901, or any Greek Interlinear. ]
* *
* * *
* *
80
A TRUMPET-CALL TO REVIVAL + 2
By THE CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALS ASSOCIATION.
THE Sixth Annual Convention of the World’s
Christian Fundamentals Association, assembled in
First of all, we desire to re-affirm in most
unequivocal language our abiding and unshaken faith in great periodical
revivals as God’s usual method of calling a sinning and sorrowing world to
righteousness and peace.
In both the Old and New Testaments we find again and again the record of mighty
spiritual awakenings which came down from above. In times of idolatry,
distress, confusion, war, and wickedness, the voice of Prophet in the Old Testament,
and Apostle in the New, was always present to summon the people back to the God
of their fathers. In subsequent history we know that
periodical revivals have been God’s plan through the generations. In the
Sixteenth Century there was a great spiritual
awakening led by the Reformers. In the Seventeenth Century
there was another awakening, known as the Puritan movement. In the Eighteenth
Century in the days of darkness and Deism, there was another great spiritual
awakening, led by the Wesleys. In the Nineteenth Century
there was a mighty turning to God in the
In each and every one of these revivals the times were characterized
by political chaos, corruption in priestcraft, lawlessness on every hand,
broken-down home life, worldliness in the church, grossest immorality in
society, and the darkness of skepticism.
In the second place, in this day of multiplied voices, each
proclaiming a new gospel which is not the true Gospel,
we feel the necessity of restating and declaring the character of revival that
is needed. It is a revival that comes from above rather than
from below; a revival that comes in the name and authority of Him Who “cometh from above and Who is
above all”; a revival that holds forth the Word of light to shine
in the midst of a “crooked
and perverse generation” and, as David prayed, “according to Thy Word,”
the whole Bible as supernaturally inspired, the final and complete revelation
of God’s will to man concerning man;s redemption; a revival that again, in New
Testament fashion, relies absolutely on the Holy
Spirit to “convict
men of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment,” to quicken the souls that are
dead in trespasses and sins, and to make men new creatures in Christ Jesus; a
revival that uses heaven - anointed men rather than human-appointed machines; a
revival that proclaims Jesus the Christ as “the only name given
under heaven whereby we must be saved”; a revival that sets forth His atonement on the cross for our sins
and His resurrection from the grave for our justification; a revival that calls
men to repentance for their sins and confession of Christ, the Lord, as their
Saviour; and a revival that will quicken the conscience and cause and compel
men to “bring forth fruits meet for repentance”
Third, It is our conviction that the
revival that is needed is one that will [restore,
awaken, educate, and] magnify the local church as Christ’s one institution, which is the pillar
and ground of the truth, and that gives the called and anointed ministry of God
its rightful place and leadership as ambassadors of Christ, who stand between
the living and the dead.
Fourth, The necessity for a revival
is self-evident. Men of all classes, creeds, sects, and races fully realize
there must come a great spiritual awakening or civilization is utterly broken
down. As stated by an editor of one of the leading
Fifth, There are many happy results
of a heaven-sent revival. First of all, the lost are
saved. This was the one mission of Christ the Lord to the earth, Who said, “For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save
that which was lost.” We believe and declare most emphatically that if men are
made over inside they will change their environment on the outside; that
if men are born from above, regenerated within by the Holy Spirit, the old
things of dishonesty, impurity and wickedness are passed away and all things
are made new.
Sixth, A revival is needed also to
quicken and strengthen the faith of the ministry. We believe that God has
ordained that the world shall be saved by “the
foolishness of preaching,” that it is his plan to call, separate, anoint, and send forth
ministers to a lost world.
Seventh, Who is there among us whose
heart does not break and bleed over the flood-tide of worldliness that is
sweeping through [the regenerate members of] our
churches? Iniquity abounds, and only the blindest can deny that we are in
perilous times when men are “lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural
affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent,
fierce, despisers of
those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.”
Eighth, A revival is the only hope of
saving the youth of the land to faith in a personal God and in His Holy Word.
It is with the deepest sorrow that we are compelled to admit that too often we
find skepticism dethroning sincere and personal faith in the things of Christ,
heaven, and immortality. On every hand parents have
been made to weep bitter tears over the fearful departure from the true faith
by their sons and daughters who have been swept into the maelstrom of modern
infidelity.
Ninth, All loyal citizens, as well as all true Christians,
regardless of racial, political, or religious differences, are alarmed at the
rapid increase of divorce. A noted authority on sociology in one of our leading
American universities said recently, “At the present
rate of increase of divorce the next generation will witness the disappearance
almost entirely of the sanctity of marriage.” Of all institutions
none is more sacred than the home, and it is the first of all institutions, for
He has declared in His Holy Word, “Therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they twain shall be
one flesh.”
Tenth, That we are in a time of lawlessness and
increase in crime none can deny. Confidence in authority and law has been
undermined. The public conscience needs to be quickened.
Men in high as well as low estate are guilty of the most shocking acts of
dishonesty, graft, and crime. The whole nation, regardless of political
parties, has been compelled to bow its head in shame and humiliation over these
startling revelations. The only effective cure for dishonesty, for graft, for
crime, for lawlessness, is not any particular theory of
government, not any particular school of thought or philosophy, but
history shows the only effective cure has come from above by the operation of the Holy Spirit on the consciences of men. In
times of great spiritual awakening God, in fulfilment of His purpose and
according to the multitude of His tender mercies, sends “the times of
refreshment from the presence of the Lord.”
Eleventh, On the question of preventing war, parliaments,
congresses, cabinets, chancelleries the world around are still meeting,
debating, and burdened statesmen of all schools and classes are searching by
what manner of means they may avert another and more terrible war than that
just past. If
Twelfth, There is nothing new that we
can add to the Scriptural requirements for a revival. In the old days the Word
of God said, “If” - [a conditional promise, which God
expects His redeemed people to OBEY] - “My people, which are called by My name, shall
humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven,
and will forgive
their sin, and will heal their land.”
THEREFORE: We
call upon God’s people everywhere, ministers, and laymen, in city and in
country, of all denominations to join with us in deepest heart contrition,
confession, and turning to Almighty God, and make the prayer of the prophet of
old the cry of the hour: “O Lord, revive Thy
work in the midst of the years, in the midst of
the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.”
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DRIFT
1. Condemnation.
“The General Assembly of the Northern Presbyterian Church of
America, in relation to the First Presbyterian Church of New York City, expresses its profound sorrow that DOCTRINES CONTRARY TO THE STANDARDS OF THE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PROCLAIMED IN
SAID PULPIT, have been the cause of controversy and division in our Church,
and therefore would direct the Presbytery of New York to take such action as will require the teaching and preaching in the
First Presbyterian Church of New York to conform to the system of doctrines taught in the
Confession of Faith.”
2.
Truth.
The General Assembly
enacts that -
1. It is an
essential doctrine of the Word of God and our standards that the Holy Spirit did so inspire, guide, and move the writers of Holy Scripture as to KEEP THEM FROM ERROR.
2. It is an essential doctrine of the Word of God
and our standards that our Lord Jesus Christ was BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY.
3. It is an
essential doctrine of the Word of God and our standards that Christ offered up
Himself as a sacrifice to SATISFY DIVINE JUSTICE AND TO
RECONCILE US TO GOD.
4. It is an
essential doctrine of the Word of God and of our standards concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, that on the third day he ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD
WITH THE SAME BODY WITH WHICH HE SUFFERED, and with which also He [afterwards] ascended into heaven, and there sitteth at the right
hand of His Father, making intercession.
5. It is an
essential doctrine of the Word of God as the supreme standard of our faith that
our Lord Jesus showed His power and love by WORKING MIGHTY MIRACLIES. TO
NONE OF THESE DOCTRINES
3.
Conclusion.
The General Assembly’s conclusion:-
“We do not
mean that the First Presbyterian Church of New York must of necessity be deprived of the services of Dr. Fosdick, which they so
much desire.”
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REVIVAL IN A CHURCH
What a revival can mean to Christians is seen in the Chinese awakening. “All
through that wonderful Tuesday evening meeting,” says Mr. Graham Lee, “Elder Chu sat and looked like a man who has received his death
sentence. Suddenly I found him sitting beside me on the platform, and then by
heart gave a bound of joy, for I knew he had surrendered and that God’s Spirit
was now able to cleanse him. He began in a broken voice, and could hardly
articulate, so moved was he. He confessed
to adultery, and the misuse of funds, and as he told of it
he was in a most fearful agony I have
ever seen expressed by any mortal being. He was trembling from head to foot, and I was afraid he would fall, so I
put my arm about him to hold him up. In
fearful distress of mind he cried out - ‘Was there ever such a terrible sinner as I
am?’ and then he beat the pulpit with
his hands with all his strength. At last he sank to the floor, and writhed and writhed in agony, crying for forgiveness. He looked as
though he would die if he did not get
relief. As soon as Mr, Chu broke
down, the whole audience broke out
in weeping, and they wept and wailed, and it seemed as if they could not stop.” It is a striking forecast of that ‘weeping and gnashing of teeth’ that may yet be coming for
believers (Matt. 24: 51). As Mr. Goforth says:- “They were in all the
agonies of judgment.”
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THE END